Wednesday and Thursday Sept 28 and 29

Wednesday was a throwback day.

I lost the opportunity this week to get a cool session in at an outside gym. Meh, the problems with being a married father. I was needed at home. By 8pm, though, I was able to sneak into my garage and get this session done five times:

A TBW pic from years ago ... 

10 deadlifts
15 Push ups
20 Kb Swings
20 lunges
20 weighted step ups
20 triceps extensions

It's a workout I did years ago. Years ago. Still a nice quiet session.

After I got that done, I got a 20-minute walk in, too. A little chilly out, but worth the effort.

Thursday was a rest day. I did get a walk in, though. Simple pleasures for sore legs.

Monday and Tuesday Sept 27

Monday was basically a "rest"day. I did get the usual morning stretching and rolling in. I'm really liking that recovery type work. I keep catching my ankle on stuff. Not twisting it, but rolling in on something, missing a step on a set of stairs or having something land on it. Weird, unlucky stuff.

At least my knees, hips, and feet have stopped waking me up in the night.

Tuesday was another photocopy of a day. Stretching and rolling in the morning. I had help in the form of my son jumping on me both days. I had a nice protein shake followed by a coffee or two for breakfast. They seem to be doing the trick. Lunch has been a constant thing: I'm avoiding going anywhere near the cafeteria. I bring celery, carrots and tuna for lunch. I eat that quietly and alone, getting work done in my office. After I feel full, I'll go run errands and I'll be able to resist the lure of the cafeteria.

So, stretching and rolling in the morning, on my feet most of the day, then tonight was a quick kettlebell session:


20 H2H KB
20 kb cleans
20 KB clean and presses
20 kb snatches
20 step ups with 20 lb dumb bells
20 bicep curls

I used the 12 and 16 kilo bell, and then also reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out the 20 kilo bell and the 50 lb Kb, too.

I do need to get pushups back into this plain Jane session. And BW squats, too. I do plan on a bit of a shifting inside my garage gym in the next few days in order to help me get some deadlifts into a session, too.

In any case, after my kettlebell session, I got a nice walk in with my wife. I'm enjoying those walks, even though I'm usually just listening to my wife share her day. After we finished, I went for a nice steam room experience and a shave. I did check my weight at the club and at home on my Bluetooth enabled device. 261

It's time to book my float at Zee Float!

Saturday and Sunday Sept 25

Saturday was a rugby day. Well, at least it was for a few of the guys at my club. Some played Rugby Union at home, some played Rugby League down at Lamport Stadium. Some even played both Saturday and Sunday, as the Old Boys at my club played an All Comers game.

Me? I took Saturday and got a massage. Later on, took my son for a swim and did some extra recovery. There was just no time for me to get a set of something done for myself other than that massage.

Sunday ... was a return to Wrestling. Seems a rugby/wrestling buddy has got himself an MMA fight in November. I'm pretty sure I won't travel to see it, but I can at least help him train for it. So, I got a chance to be a part of the training session in a local park. I di a bit of boxing, learning how to react to a thrown jab.

There was a fair amount of drilling of that one skill. But I kept screwing it up anyways. Ah, man. We took a break and then did a shark tank with the guy with the fight in the middle. Two minutes of boxing, two minutes of MMA, two minutes of wrestling then two minutes of boxing.

Still, it was good to wrestle again.

Thursday and Friday Sept 23

Thursday night

Thursday I had a quick session in my garage gym, followed by a nice walk with my wife. Both were very helpful for legs and mental health.

Friday was this session in a high school gym. I used the 30lb bell for the first round, the 40 lb bell for the second round and the 50 lb bell for the last two rounds.

Needless to say, I had to clean up a sweat pool of goo after I was done:

20 kb h2h
20 kb cleans
20 kb clean and press
20 kb snatches
20 DB bicep curls

It was a good day.

After the day was done, we got a date night in the pool and hot tub at the club. Man, we were in the pool for about a half hour and about the same length of time in the hot tub. We sat in the water and were able to watch the Jays beat the Yankees. Hashtag awesome.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Sept 21

Monday normally was a day that I get a really good session in. I'm sorry to say I had to not train. I had to be a dad. I still got a decent stretching and rolling session done in the early morning. I also got a walk in before bed.

Tuesday ... well, ditto. Stretching in the morning, walking at night.

Wednesday was my good session. Lots of band and kettlebell work. Also sleds.

Did not use the HR monitor. Will be sore the next day.

Saturday and Sunday Sept 18

Yeah, I like weekends when I have nothing to do but chase my son around the house ... well, sort of. I'm told I'm going to miss these days some day. But not today.

He didn't sleep well Friday night, or Saturday night for that matter. Up at midnight and stayed up until about 2am. Cranky McKranerpants the next day.

Saturday I did get a heavy bag session in my garage done. So cool to have my own music running while watching my heart rate on a computer screen go at the same time. At least the guess work about whether I'm training hard enough is gone. I know how hard the session is while I'm doing it. Pretty cool. After this session, I checked weight and I was 266.

I had a chance to eat well on Saturday and hang out with my family. My youngest didn't like the rain, so he stayed inside.

Sunday was a nice early rise ... in fact, I watched the sunrise with my son today. He wasn't too impressed, but at least he was out of the house so that everyone else could sleep in a little.

I did get a kettlebell session in today, but literally as I put the weights down from my last set, I was told to take my youngest out of the house for a few hours. I got this done for five rounds:

20 hand to hand kb swings
20 kb cleans
20 kb clean and presses
20 kb snatches
20 step ups
20 bicep curls

At the end of this session, I did also test my heart rate recovery and I got from 168 to 109 in about 90 seconds. It was just after I wrote the results up on the walls of my garage that I left for a shower then out for a few hours. Nothing too exciting to report. The nice thing was that ankle and hamstrings are still recovering nicely.

Wed, Thurs and Friday Sept 16

Wednesday was a rest day - I did get a fix on my nutrition and got to roll and stretch in the early morning before work.

I also got a walk in later on after all the things were done during the day.  After the walk, went for a hot tub/ steam room session to try to get my ankles, hips, and knees to stop aching.

Thursday I got to stretch and roll, then to work. Ate strictly to the diet and then right from picking up my son from school, took him for a swim. It was a pretty good day ... until I got to my Physiotherapy session and then it was awesome. I went for a walk with my wife, too.

Friday was determined to be a date night. I did get a rolling and stretching session in before work and continued to eat well while at work. After work, it was a busy time for family and then, after the youngest was asleep it was off for a walk. After the walk, I got to take my wife out on a date.

We spent the better part of an hour in a hot tub at the club. I'm telling you the legs felt incredible after that session. Hot water just seems to melt away adhesions and sore spots. It was ... awesome.

Best. Date. Ever.

Monday and Tuesday Sept 13

Monday is my awesome day. I did manage to start the week off right with a rolling session in my garage gym before work.

The training session I had later on in the day was just what I needed:

I had time for a decent warm up,  then deadlifts, ropes, kettlebell circuits and  some other lifts. I should have had my heart rate monitor on, but I didn't. Ah well. Later on, I got a walk in with my wife.

I also got in a hot tub session with some steam room time, too. That really did help soreness and the like.

Tuesday I got the rolling and stretching done in the early morning with an evening walk with my wife. My ankle was bugging me a bit.

Still planning on a longer run or at least a walk this week in order to start to take it back to the next level with my fitness.

Saturday and Sunday Sept 11

I pause on days like this.

Yeah, fifteen years ago. Like yesterday. A single event that had a profound impact on my life.

Saturday I got a boxing session done ... still not sure I should be calling it a "boxing" session, as I'm not really sure what I'm doing, other than working up a sweat. I was at home for this one and had my son in the garage with me for "help" ... yeah, that's what we'll call it.

In any case, it was 7 rounds of this:

1:40 throwing punches at a stand-up bag
1:40 of kettlebell snatches

after that was done, I did three rounds of step ups and seated knee tucks to take the session to just over a half hour.

I was pretty stoked after this session; the garage door was open and the heat was pretty decent at that time of day. I checked weight after and I was 267.

Sunday I was all ready to start my training session and I was called away to be a dad for the day. I did end up going for a swim and two walks with my family. It seems that I'm just going to have to get my workouts done earlier in the day on the weekends from now on.

I did decide that on what a reward should be when I get to 20 or 25 pounds of weight loss. I'm going to book myself a session at a new floating place called Zee Float in Hamilton.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Sept 9

Yeah, starting a new schedule is killer to my fitness.

At least I'm getting some stretching and walking in the evenings done.

Meh, I'm healing and recovering from the rugby season.

I also did evening recovery sessions at my club each of these nights, too.

Thursday I had a physio session and it was very helpful.

Friday I spent about an hour in the evening working on getting my legs back in gear. It all seems to be working.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday September 6

Sunday and Monday were stretching in the morning, then water stretch in the afternoon days. I'm walking with my wife in the evenings, too.

I mean, I'm trying to help my body recover from the rugby season. I'm good with just trying to get through these days without complicating things.

Tuesday I went to a new job. I had a lot of coffee during the day and didn't eat very much. I got home and ate like an idiot.

After I got the youngest down for his sleep, I got this done for six rounds:

1:50 hitting a heavy bag
1:50 dumb bell swings (used either a 25 or a 35 lb)

I should have gone a bit longer, but I chose to cut it short so that I could go for a walk with my wife before it got too dark. I got comfortable after that and had a decent quiet evening.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday Sept 3

Thursday was a rugby day. Last game of the regular season and I was selected to play first team rugby. Not a big deal as most of the other props are either away or injured. Regardless, I played another season of up and down with the first team and second team at prop.

Really, I'm not too happy with this season, but at least I got out there and stayed playing this summer. I really do need to prepare for the rugby season from now onwards. I didn't think about what shape I was in this past spring. I wasn't ready to play come May and I certainly paid the price.

My body is really sore. Ankles and knees are just not happy at all. My stomach is not liking it when I eat crap and act stupid. I need to fix a number of issues with my head space and my legs.

I had intended to transfer clubs and keep playing until Halloween this year. But, I'm just going to forget that noise and focus on that which needs solving around me this fall. Work and daycare and fitness and health are all on the list of items which need my attention.

I did an icing day on Friday and Saturday. Also got stretching, both on land and in water, done too.

Stretching in the water let me focus on that which is truly hurting. I'm pretty sure I can continue to stretch and roll muscles but it is the joints that need to heal these days.

Saturday I got signed up for the same club that I joined for the summer - which means I have access to a pretty good gym for the winter. No kettlebells, regretfully, but I can manage. At least I can get into a hot tub until 10:30pm most days. Which may mean nothing to my readers, but at least I can melt my mental health back with hot water rather than cold beer.

nowhatimsayin?

Tuesday and Wednesday August 31

Tuesday I had to use my time more wisely. I got a nice sweet 30-minute session in on the heavy bag:

Eight rounds of punching and kettlebells. I tried to stay away from too many twists on my ankle, and for the most part was pretty solid. I tweaked it a little in the pool later, though.

Ice all around, man.

It was after this workout I checked my weight - 271.4. I'm still a fat pig, and a steady daily screaming at my reflection in the mirror usually helps me stay away from carbs. Also, my stomach hurts less when I don't eat crappy food all day.

Wednesday was a day I tried to put out as many fires as I could. Daycare isn't helping ... that is trying to find day care, even emergency day care in the last few minutes before school starts next week is a drag.

I took it off and got to bed early. No naps as I was too stressed to close my eyes.

Sunday and Monday Aug 29

Sunday was a rest day - ice on the ankle and stretching on a mat and in a pool.

Monday I got a good cardio session done - a 40-minute session of bodyweight and kettlebells.

Man I like my Polar HR monitor

It was a decent warm up and I liked the kettlebells. My ankle liked the fact that I didn't have to move or twist at all. It's amazing what you can do for cardio of your injured.

The highlight for me was the kettlebell ladder I did - 12 two handed swings, 11 push ups, 12 kb swings then 10 push ups .... 12 swings, 1 push up .... glory!

Later on did a stretching session in the hot tub, too. Perhaps not the best for the ankle, but everything else really thought that was a great idea.

Friday and Saturday Aug 27

This should be a happy time of year - things should be going right and I should be winding down vacation time and winding up work time.

Ain't happening - there are so many things up in the air at the moment.

Friday was a rest and stretching day. I rested, I stretched but things are just not stretched and rested.

Saturday was the last home game of the year. It was disappointing, to say the least. I wasn't starting, which is fine. This has not been a good season for me. I got on and promptly got someone stomping and twisting on my ankle. Scrums were ok - I firmed up the tight head spot, replacing one of the two loose head props we had on for the first half.

You really can't play an entire season at loose head or lock and then try to play a tight head position against quality opposition out of the blue. In any case, I lasted about 30 minutes before the hobbling around the pitch got to be too much.

I spent Saturday night on my couch with ice all over me - ankles, knees and hips.