Sept 11 to 17

I got up early this morning, too

Another week of things settling in - I got a chance to live the week that I am going to be reliving over and over again until Christmas. To some, that sounds like an incredible drag but at least I know what I will be doing three Tuesdays from now. That sounds like something I can exploit to my own advantage.

Speaking of exploiting something to my own advantage, my gym offers Wednesday night yoga classes and I finally made one this week. 60 minutes of basic flow and gentle stretch. My hamstrings were okay with the session, too. I found it a nice and welcome way to interrupt the negative crap going on the rest of the week. Bringing my wife along was a nice bonus. She enjoyed it as well.

Otherwise, this was the day, every day of this week:

Up early doing the morning session - see last week for details on that. 

Afternoons was a 20-minute session some days on a yoga mat. Just stretching and mobility. Nothing at all to this session, so far.

Evenings were swimming or that one night of yoga at my club. 

Nice and busy; my head, body heart and lungs really do like this stuff. I did close all my rings all seven days, too.

Sept 5 to 10

 

This young one was watching me this week.

A good week - closed my rings every day ... all the rings, all the days. A good return to work and lots of fitness and lots of things moving forward.

Need to work on the diet next, but at least I can use the schedule that I have to keep to my advantage. 

Bought a pair of 20 lb dumbbells for the morning routine I'm keeping at the moment. Got the afternoon session planned and ready to go. Almost. Need a few things to clear up - not the least of which is the weather to stop being so muggy and let the regular adult weather come back and run the room. 

Morning sessions continue to evolve and look like this:

10 minutes mobility - 90/90 stretches, downward dogs to planks, to low planks, to high planks to downward dogs to one leg up, lots of stretching and mobility

10 minutes of ab work - rounds of swimmers leg kicking, BJJ leg pummeling, hollow holds, dead bugs, ab flares and big ball rollouts with 20 lb standing rows and flys.

10 minutes of shoulders and back - rounds of 20 lb standing lateral raises, then into 10 meels and then reverse meels, then to banded lat pulls and lat chest pulls, tricep extensions, banded bicep curls and overhead presses. 

Swimming sessions in the afternoons/evenings have been awesome - some were short ones, just to finish off the rings, and some were longer on days I was lazy. I look forward to my afternoon HIIT sessions to make the evening swimming sessions just for fun and extra cardio.

Got my side hustle set up until Christmas and things are settling down nicely after the transitional nature of last week. Should be awesome. 

Aug 28 to Sept 4

 

This was  ... this is an odd week ... always. a cross between holiday and work. A cross between the country and the city. At least I completed my rings most days and everyone is "ready" for next week.

Morning sessions continue, as do afternoon swims with one or two hikes/walks to complete the circles on my Apple watch. I am really trying to get myself set up for success next week by waking up early, but today, after getting up at 5:50 a.m., I ended up sleeping for four hours after finishing my am session by 7 a.m.

Four hours. Unreal.

But there's of the week was nice and boring. Getting my family to come along for the pool workouts is also awesome. 

Aug 20 to 27

 

I think I see what Emily Dickenson thought about trees

So I was at my house for most of this time, making it relatively easy to get things like my morning yoga/mobility training done daily. It was also not a huge thing to close my rings most days - swims in the evenings are going nicely. I'm starting to get back to a regular Sept - June routine again, so I'm back to getting up before 6 a.m.

No, that was not a typo. 

The nice thing today, for example, I got up at 6 a.m., did my 35-minute session and then got to take my middle child out for breakfast. After breakfast, I went back and had a nap. Yeah, the holidays are awesome. 

The morning sessions are always evolving, so this is what my morning session is looking like today:

First ten minutes - yoga poses, hip mobility focus. Downward dog, to one leg up pose. dolphin pose, pigeon pose, world's greatest stretch, one-leg standing, etc etc etc. Lots of hip mobility.

Next ten minutes - abs and core. Dead bugs, swimming legs on the back, BJJ leg pummeling, seated leg extensions, hip thrusters, squats, triangle pose. Ab rollouts from the knee, back on the ball, rotations, standing dumbbell ITY poses. 

Last ten or so minutes - arms and back. Dumbbell lateral raises, dumbbell meels, standing banded pullovers and pulldowns, tricep extensions, Bicep curls, overhead presses.

By the end of that, I'm sweaty and my heart rate is decent. I do like the look of my shoulders and abs - just need to carve the fat off of them to really show them off. I am teasing, of course. I'm not really interested in cutting down to 68 kilos anymore. I'm happy to be in smaller pants, don't get me wrong, but I'm really more focused on mobility rather than powerlifting or bodybuilding. 

Today was a good day in that I'm away in the woods, but I was able to get my morning session done and then got an afternoon session done as well to close my rings. I just made sure I was ready to go with my equipment in one bag and just kept going and going. 

Aug 14 to 19

 

Be jealous. It was awesome.

Monday and Tuesday I got not very much training done - we were away in the RV and I'm not quite able to work, train and do everything in the RV yet. I did get a pleasant enough hike done on Tuesday, but that took some doing and scheduling. I was home Wednesday and got a nice swim in after a meeting ending at 9:15 pm to close all my rings.

This is the tough thing to write: I finally felt clean after that swim, even though it was a public pool used all day by a camp-sized population of children. 

Friday was date night and I went to see Barbie. Nice film, but took up my training time. Shrug. Whatever. I had to make sure I am keeping myself married. 

"It is from here I will plot the destruction of the Jedi."

Morning sessions in the RV were like this:

10 minutes hip-opening stretches - baby pose, downward dog, 90/90 stretch pigeon stretch, air squats, runners stretch, etc etc ... like a flow from one thing to the next. I also got a chance to use the light clubs for a bit of a warm-up of the shoulders. 

10 minutes ab work - swimming kicks, BJJ leg pummeling, dead bugs, "hollow ab" holds and some prone ITY stretches for the back and shoulders. 

10 minutes band work - used the rear bumper of the RV for chest pulls, shoulder pulls, and tricep pulls. Then went back to the mat for band bicep curls and overhead presses. 

When I got to the afternoons/evenings while in the RV, I had had enough of moving and just didn't want to do it. I was sweaty and gross and just wanted to vacate on my vacation. 

Progress on the office setup and view. 

Aug 7 to 13

 

There was water this week.

Seriously, not a bad week in the end - lots of exercise and activity, just failing miserably at the rest of it. Of course, the rest of it was the majority, but ...well, whatever. 

Rings closed four out of seven days, but I did get a kayak session out of it, as well as a daytime swim. During that swim, I did try out the butterfly stroke. It was very bad - but ya know Rome wasn't built in a day. My morning sessions really do continue to help me in every aspect of my life, except for my sleeping these days.

However, I can't be disappointed with the results right now - I'm plodding along, to be sure, but at least I'm not stuck in my house climbing the walls these days. I can get out and work out. Train. Hike. Swim. Wiggle my toes. 

Lots of water. 

Am I missing the limitless cardio I used to have? Yes, of course. 

Am I doing something about that? I can say "Yes, I am."

I'm also combining that desire for limitless cardio with my need for adventure. Recently it came to my attention that my extended family and I are ... on a limited engagement section of our lives. Awesome. Great - I'm going to let you celebrate any way you want. Go for it. 

Make sure you don't call me what you are at the down if you don't call me at the up. When I get to further down, I'll make sure to not make the same call.

Anyway, I'm off for more adventures in the van and I'm hoping that I can learn how to combine workouts and travel. Oh and meal prep, too. 

July 31 to Aug 6

 

The view from online work this week.

What a time to be alive. Got the project done on Monday and closed my rings. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was away in the RV and got some stretching done, but only a little.

RV parks are odd places and I'm sure they are an acquired taste. I did enjoy the slow walks, but needed a bit more from myself in terms of food prep and keeping my stuff together. I did have to work online and I did notice that it went more smoothly than last time, but I need to get better prepared for that. 

I got home and made it back to some good habits and some bad habits. Good habits were around training - went right back to swimming at the end of the day to close my rings. Again, my front crawl is getting decent, my breaststroke is good and I even got the butterfly kick to work ... sort of. Morning sessions are also getting done without much struggle. Need to make both a little longer, but I'm just glad they are still fun and helpful.  

Bad habits are all around sleep - not getting enough and just being dumb about it. Not sure why, perhaps because I'm on vacation, but I need to clean this up and work on better sleep. 

 

met this guy at training one night