Jan 22- 27

 

Just the first one, the rest kind of blows. Until the last one. 

This week started off pretty well but ended stupidly.

Let me explain. I finished my rings four times Monday to Friday - Wednesday was the "I have to be a dad and husband" day, so I did not finish them that day. I did however stay married and stay in the lives of my children. Also important. 

I earned the January Challenge on the Apple Watch by doing 19 swimming workouts in a month. Neat, but not really why I'm doing these sessions. I also had a Dr. appointment on Tuesday after school. Blood Pressure was 120/80, HR was 81. That's why I'm doing these sessions. 

I did get the first three a day done on Friday, expecting to do the same for the rest of the weekend. Nope. The RV smashed me in the head Saturday at noon and I ended up having to get checked out by another medical professional. Nothing jarred loose, nothing too deeply cut, but it was a skull injury so it bled like stupid. 

May or may not have been me

Mah, whatever. I did get my morning routine done ahead of time and I took it easy the rest of the day. It is clotted up quite nicely at the moment and is good. I'll get a thing that goes on the head and get a swim done after some work Sunday.

I did also get some HIIT workouts done this week, as promised. They were a bit of fun - the DVDs are cheap from Value Village at the moment and are really helping with getting in there to get the work done. 

Friday's workout was for almost 40 minutes ... four rounds of

3 - 5 min Airdyne bike

2 min kettlebell swings - single and double-handed

90 seconds battle ropes - so cool when the car isn't home and I can use the space

20 step-ups on the 20 cm step. 

Jan 15-21

 

The Last Samurai was on the screen this week.

This is a day late, but not without good news. I mean ... I didn't finish off the rings every day. Friday, for example, I missed the standing ring by six minutes.

Eye roll. Yeah, I trained that day for 105 minutes and got 1500+ on the Move circle, but Standing I missed. Yeah, whatever.

In any case, the good news is that I had three days of three workouts a day during this time - Friday, Saturday and Sunday I had a morning routine, an afternoon HIIT workout and then ended the day with a swim. Good days for the heart and for the family - my wife came with me on Sunday night to bear witness to the greyness in the hot tub. Sadly, it was pretty gross. We got our swim done and got ourselves home. 

The HIIT workouts in the garage were a nice addition to the week. About 30 minutes long and they looked like this:

Rounds to get to 30 minutes:

3-5 minutes air bike

90 seconds 12-kilo kettlebell swings

20 step-ups on 12-inch step

80 seconds battle ropes

Not a bad workout, to be frank. Nothing exciting, but real steps towards the limitless cardio I crave for a return to rugby. 

Jan 8 - 14

 

I'll be honest - not a good week. I got through it and had a few things go seriously just wrong, but I didn't react as I should have until much later.

 Monday and Tuesday were wonderfully perfect: morning routine and evening in the pools. Then the pool called and told me that it would be closed for a few days.

What should I have done? Gone to the gym and done HIIT workouts. I should have gone into my own gym and done HIIT workouts. What DID I do? Took a zero-day. Then another. Friday at least I got two out of my three rings closed, but not the Move ring. Meh, whatever. At least Saturday I got things back in gear and got a HIIT done and THEN a swim. 

Sunday is going well so far - I'm doing this post early so there is a lot of time I can mess things up. 

Jan 1-7

 

Got it on the first try.

Woot! Welcome to 2024

...and so we start off this year with a bit of a bang - closed the rings ... almost all of the rings, every day this week. I missed one day of standing. Standing. Shrug. I wasn't annoyed until I saw the "Ring in the New Year" challenge on my Fitness app. 

Seven days in a row with all three rings completed. Need to have stood up for twelve minutes on Friday. 

Shrug

I'll get that done. It was chilling at home, getting to the pool at the end of the day kind of week. Pleasantly boring. I did a couple of HIIT workouts - and my body just bounced right back the next day.

Drove the eldest back to school in Ottawa today - back and forth ... about a twelve-hour drive there and back. I still have today's rings closed. Machine.

Here was tonight's swim:

100 m Breaststroke

300 m Freestyle

100 m kickboard

250 m freestyle - I miscounted... sadly. 

50 m breaststroke.

950 m in 32 minutes. Sniffle. At least I got the rings closed.