So… I wrote this last week and it didn’t publish. Let’s add wishes for a happy Easter and see what happens this time?

I need to be working toward something or I get sloppy, lazy, etc. I have no way of knowing what Murph 2020 will look like, but I’m going to be ready.

In case you didn’t click over, the Murph is Memorial Day tradition that honors a fallen hero. His go-to workout was run a mile, 300 squats, 200 push-ups, 100 pull-ups and another mile to finish it out. Sounds simple enough, but it’s brutal, especially when it’s hot and humid and you are looking to best your time from the previous year.

I first did the Murph two years ago. I had to cheat – er, use modifications – on both push-ups and pull-ups, and my goal last year was to do an “honest” (my term) Murph, meaning no modifications. My elbow/shoulder mobility issue reared its head and by Memorial Day, both push-ups and pull-ups weren’t an option so… I didn’t participate.

This year, I’m prepared for the squats and push-ups, but pull-ups still elude me, so guess what I’m working on during this can’t go to the gym era? I still can’t do more than a couple in a row, and even then, I’m not sure my gym teacher would count them; I can’t risk neck strain to get my chin over the bar, and it doesn’t happen often organically. Luckily, Memorial Day is still 7 weeks away.

The pull-up bar lives over the doorway, and I use it at least three times each week, but my real training plan is Sunday is Baby Murph Day. I run a mile (or today, given a grumpy right foot unrelated to running, I jumped rope for 10 minutes), and then do 10 sets of body weight squats, push-ups and pull-ups, with the quantities of each exercise increasing each week, and then do 15 minutes of some sort of cardio to finish out to equal the final mile which is frankly, as grueling as the pull-ups.

Gretchen loves the runs/jumping rope on the deck, but finds the rest boring. She is quite spry for a “senior” dog; I don’t think she knows she’s supposed to be slowing down and I hope it stays that way. We had to have a serious discussion yesterday when she wanted to wrangle a nest of baby black snakes too close to the house. The front yard is now off-limits because girlfriend can’t turn off her hunting instincts.

I am still working a modified schedule, and we are quite well otherwise. How are you and yours?