March 12- 21

 

The movie is still in the DVD player today

Yeah, I was busy on Sunday when I usually post these. Saturday I was at the Outdoorsman Show and met up with a TikTokker I follow. Sunday I was at an RV show nearby ...both were pretty cool. I'm hoping that I can get the RV out soon and start being a cool RV-fit dad. I did close all of my rings all of these days - some were just closed and other days they were closed by 2 pm.

I did have a decent holiday with my wife and children - we fed birds and looked at RVs. We even got a chance to do some work in a pool with a kayak. Pics to come. 

My workouts were boring, however, but I got them done. Still, with a focus on cardiovascular fitness, I did the same workout these days.

Early morning was mobility - lots of stretching and working with a stability ball, self-massage and range of motion movement. Some yoga, but basically just stretching and mobility. I can get a 30-minute session in before the day starts and I won't be making this any longer any time soon. 

The afternoon session was this:

3 minutes fan bike arms only

2 minutes kettlebell swings, cleans and presses

1-minute step-ups on a 30 cm step

1-minute battle ropes

This isn't a bad workout, it's just boring. I would like to add some bicep curls in there in order to work on the guns, but that is about it for the time being. I'm glad I had a movie playing when I do these workouts, though. I'll be going through my DVD collection for sure.

The snow is currently melting and it was nice and sunny today, although just a smidgen too chilly to workout outside. I think hiking with the Adventure Van will be on the menu soon though. 

Tonight was a swim session and I got this done in about 30 minutes:

775 m swim: 

100 m breaststroke

200 m freestyle

100 m breaststroke

200 m mix - kickboard, free and arms only free

175 m warm down, breaststroke and kickboard

I enjoy the swimming sessions, I really do. A great way to get myself ready for any time spent on the water this summer. Should be awesome.

March 5-11

 

IYKYK

Not a bad week,  at least in terms of training here. I missed closing my rings on Friday - but I needed a rest day. I had to train at home the other days, as the weather prevented me from leaving the house.

Honestly, that was annoying, but I got it done. 

Lots of activity at work - lots of steps- I had to carry this here and lift that over there. Meh, it was fine. Got my step count up for the day. 

Not swimming was the annoying part. 

Solo drills are cheaper and less people-ish

I did pick up a new-to-me heavy bag for solo BJJ training - it will be ideal for passing the guard and just making myself move around like a wrestler a bit more. I've got my eye out for an elliptical trainer, too. I didn't think I'd miss having one as much as I do. 

Anyway, training this week looked like this:

Early am yoga/stretching session - 30 minutes of mobility using bands, exercise balls and a yoga mat to get ready for the day. 

Pm session was usually five to seven rounds of:

2 minutes of arms-only fan bike

3 minutes kettlebell swings or cleans and presses

1-minute step ups

1-minute battle ropes

The morning routine is just so helpful - my hips and my knees have stopped hurting. I had a shoulder injury from swimming in January and it disappeared. Even my feet have come back to look like feet and not puffy. Generally, my body is more elastic than it's been in a while. Funny how just movement does that. I don't get more than a half hour to get this done at the moment, but I know that someday I will. I'll have to start working with a professional if I want this to get better and more helpful. 

Feb 27-March4

 

To be fair, it wasn't really at all that much higher ground. I'd attack, too. 

I made the choice to make this week easier than last week. I made deliberate choices and had to stick by them and it worked out for me. Sort of.

I did my weekly fitness test with the Polar HRM and it gave me a lower reading than last week. Then I ran it again and it lowered my fitness level again. It's like it doesn't quite know what to read of me.

That's not to say everything is that thing's fault. Workouts in the afternoons were shorter, but only because I wanted to get my rings done and then had to run off to be a dad. 35-minute workouts that get my rings closed are way better than no workout and no rings closed. It also snowed this Friday and I didn't get a chance for a second swim in my week. 

I also injured my foot and am on Advil to reduce the swelling and pain management. I still got my workouts done. I also broke my elliptical this week too. Not sure what's wrong with it, but it was messed up by Saturday afternoon. The Advil may have also affected the HRM result. Whateverrrrrr.

So with the elliptical out of commission, I did this workout yesterday for five rounds:

3 minutes fan bike

2 minutes 16-kilo bell swings

8-10 bent-over rows to overhead presses with a 16-kilo sandbag

1.5-minute battle ropes

I'll admit, I like the elliptical - it does make my heart rate soar. I like this workout, but it's always more sweat with the elliptical. 

Speaking of sweat, man I need to wash my workout clothes. Eeesh!

Feb 20-27

 

I did my Vision Board check-in earlier today - I did pretty well this week - got every day done except for Friday. I still need to work on my diet. I'm trying to out-train a bad diet at the moment. I know how that goes, but at least my cardio is getting better.

What am I doing stupidly on Friday? Anyway, did a long HIIT session on Saturday before my side hustle and it was all good. All the other days were smooth as silk and as tasty as milk. Shrug

I did get to the pool only once this week - there was a snowstorm that messed up driving on Thursday. Whatever, man. I took care of it with a nice training session inside. All good.

The indoor session looked like this:

4 minutes on the elliptical as a warm-up

90-second 16-kilo kb swings 

70 count of battle ropes

10 step-ups, banded overhead presses.

2 minutes seated arms only fan bike

30-second rest, then repeat. 

I got to 40-45 minutes most days by doing that six or seven times. Yeah, boring, but at least it is warmer than running outside.

I have also been doing ok with the Polar Heart Rate monitor. I've been using it with the second screen - see the video above. It's allowed me to make sure I'm working at a demanding enough level for my fitness. As you can see, I'm only working on cardio at the moment. Although mobility in the mornings just after I wake up has been working wonderfully. I usually get that done before the side of me that complains all the time has time to start. I have to tell you, it has been really helpful.

Feb 13 to 19

 

I knew this pain

I keep starting journal entries off with "Yeah, today"... it's rut-inducing, I have to say. I thought this was going to be an easy week, as it was a short one - but it was difficult despite its brevity. If I was a grade-giving person, I'd have to go with a C or a C+ for this week. Just not good, and mostly complete but not quite.

It started off ok - got to Wednesday without any real difficulty. Had to do a long swim one day to finish the rings, but nothing spectacular. And then ... ugh. Thursday and Friday were messed up. A really long workout to close the rings one day and then just not do anything but mobility on Friday. Saturday was a sleep fest until I had to get to my side hustle and that wasn't just uncool, it was stupid. Shrug. I closed two of three rings, but meh, whatever.

I'll have to get back to good habits and keep showing up. Just keep showing up and things will keep going in the right direction. After Saturday I was feeling more rested, I have to admit. I mean, how could I not be more rested - I slept most of the day away. 

I did see Episode Five The Last of Us somewhere and seeing that huge guy come up out of the hole in the ground with lots of sound effects - I knew that pain. Grunts and groans and yelling. Yeah, I saw myself there.

While swimming, I thought about getting back into hiking outside. I did get to that this week as well, but I wasn't alone and had to take frequent breaks. I was doing okay, but my partner needed to rest. Whatever, the next day the temperature dropped and I just went back inside my garage gym. 

Feb 6 to 12

 

Good movie on this week. Fat for the win!

Yeah, this wasn't a great week, but in the final few minutes made a comeback. I should have been working out in the afternoons this week, instead I got work done or did nothing. Kinda dumb.

I'm really enjoying the morning yoga/stretching sessions. On Sunday I got that done and then made it down to the beach for sunrise. I cannot tell you what that meant to me- I will simply use the word "epic" and leave it at that. 

I continued with the EMOM workout - the shoulder is still being spicey and off. I did get swimming at least twice this week - closing all of my rings every day.

On Saturday before work I did a 50 minute workout that finished the rings, then I got a chance to do some walking to clear the lactic acid. That helped a lot before sitting for five hours.

On Sunday, got this done seven times:

5 min elliptical

2 minutes kb swings - 

2 minutes airbike

Yeah, it's boring, but it works. I move on to next week knowing that I at least sticks are moving. 

Jan 30-Feb 5

 

An interesting week - kind of boring, kind of exciting. It's a busy week for some, and because I can organize my time well, I'm able to have a few moments here and there for myself. Of course, it helps that I've set my life up so that no one at work expects anything from me - and I deliver on that.

I swam on Tuesday night and my rotator cuff was a little spicey on Wednesday. I started to work on it right away in the morning sessions and took Wednesday off of afternoon training. Thursday was cool. I finished every other day's rings off quite nicely.

A workout I played with was this:

15 EMOM:

10 kettlebell swings

5 banded overhead presses

leg swings

then a few minutes of yoga/mobility 

It doesn't seem like much, does it? Yeah, I got a decent low-impact workout from that. On some rounds, I did banded bicep curls but mostly did leg swings to try and keep my hips working. Overhead presses worked as my rotator cuff really wasn't stressed.

I did go for one more swim this week, on Friday night. I did a float first then got into the pool after. It was the first time I'd done a workout after a float. Wasn't too bad - took away all the relaxing aspects of the float, too. My back liked the float and the nice easy swim was helpful too. Opened up my shoulders, too. 

I did get the in-garage workouts up to over 40 minutes this week. Those were just a matter of suffering for a bit longer than I have been. I know that my younger self is just rolling his eyes at that 40 minutes. But that kid is thirty years ago with legs that needed to run. Whatever. 

I also got the paddleboard pumped up with a new-to-me pump and was used as a platform onto which I stepped up during the garage gym workouts.  I need a pic of that, to be frank. 

I'll keep showing up - I'll be happy when the summer comes, I'm merely content at the moment.