Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Conducted an Army Physical Fitness Test with the BYU cadets at 5:30am. This consists of doing as many push-ups as you can in 2 minutes followed by as many sit-ups as you can in 2 minutes and then a 2 mile run. During push-ups your arms must come to about 90 degrees (basically even with the shoulder blades) when going down and the elbows must fully extend when going up. You cannot rest by touching your knees to the ground during the 2 minutes, you can stop but must stay in the push-up position only. During sit-ups you cannot stop in the down position, you can stop in the up position but cannot use your elbows or hands to hold yourself up in any way. On sit-ups you must come all the way up until the shoulders are past the lower spin, basically until your elbows are at the edge of your knees. You must also keep your fingers interlocked behind your head at all times. Someone holds your feet during the sit-ups. After sit-ups you get about a 10 minute rest to stretch out and warm-up before running the 2 mile run. You are then scored by your age. A maximum score is 300 points but there is an extended scale that will score beyond 300 but only if you get 100 points in each event first.

I did 83 push-ups, 101 sit-ups and ran the 2 miles in 11:01 on the BYU indoor track. When you enter that score in the APFT claculator it comes out to a 360 which is one of my higher scores over my 15 year career. It is also one of the top 7 scores out of about 200 cadets in the program. I like to give the cadets a hard time about being beat by an old man. If you want to do your own test and see how you would score you can get your score from the following on-line calculator.

APFT Calculator

Before the 2 mile I ran a mile easy warm-up and then ran even 5:30 splits during the 2 mile run. I actually felt ok except for my shins were pretty tight from the sit-ups. I felt like I could at least maintain that pace for a 5K which would give me a shot at sub 17:00 on a flat course or the track. Afterwards I went for a 10 mile run with Sasha. Ended up with 13.2 miles with an average pace of 6:59. Felt much better than I did on saturday.

Easy 10 mile run with Sasha this morning. Legs are a little tired from yesterday. Did 8x100 strides towards the end of the run. May run or bike more later today depending on the weather. 

Nothing exciting today just the usual 4:45am run. I ran 14.04 miles total at an average of 7:05. Legs were dead today. The quads and IT were fatigued and the legs just did not want to go faster than 7:00 pace. ran 10 outside and last 4 on the indoor track at BYU. Sasha wanted to do a tempo but I was not up for it so he took off for a 5 mile tempo on his own. Only did 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups as I am still a bit sore from the APFT on Monday.

After today's run I feel like there should be a category above for very easy miles. I really needed a true easy run and today I did just that. I did the normal run with Sasha but we just chatted and ran at about 7:30-8:00 pace the entire time. This was a good true rest day for me. I need to force myself to do this every once in awhile as I have a tendency to gradually pick runs up to 7:00 pace or faster on a daily basis and it adds up after awhile. It felt good to not feel tired by the end of the 10 miles.

13.5 miles at a steady pace and last three miles at about 6:10 pace. Felt ok for 4:30 in the morning. Not much else to talk about.

Was up in Logan this morning and got up at 4:15 and ran 13 miles with one of cadets that is on BYU Track Team. I forgot my GPS so just ran by feel and estimated distance. We started at what felt like 7:20-30 pace and gradually picked it up. By the end I thinkg we were at about 6:30-40 pace at least. This was an easy run for him and he guessed about the same paces I did throughout the run. It was very cold in Logan official temperature when we were running was -9.4'F!!! I'm starting to be thankful for Provo weather considering it was 15'F this morning in Provo. 

After running we went downhill skiing at Beaver Mountain. It was a perfect day with awesome fresh snow and about 9 inches of powder. I have not skiied in over 10 years and was a little concerned but things came back to me quickly. My goal was to not get injured and I managed to come away with no crashes and no injuries that I can speak of right now. I stuck to blue courses most of the day but towards end of the day went on a off course powder run that turned into black diamond material. I was in a little over my head but managed to make it out unscathed except for some very tired quads. I forgot how much of a workout downhill skiing can be. The quads really get worked pretty hard and I am beat after driving back at the end of the day to Provo. A very long, tiring day but fun.