I lost, that Runnin' feeling!

I started out my day with a challenge from my brother; as many push ups as I can in 10 minutes. I started with a set of 50, and I couldn't do more than 30 in a set after that, and after the 30 I couldn't do more than 20. I floundered my way through for 265 push ups. I'm going to try it again with a better pace next time.
Then my friend Brian and I met up at the High School track and he ran a mile time trial. I ran the first two laps, but lactic acid already started building up in my legs, so I stopped, then ran the fourth lap to pace him through it. I was so upset that I dropped out that I went to Vollrath and ran the half mile loop there 3 times. No idea what my times were, but I was tired. Ummmm, yeah, that is it... have a good day!

Hiatus

I swear I've been working out. I just didn't get on a computer.
Saturday morning, my cousin Andrew was visiting, so I asked him to join us for our morning workout. He accepted. After about a half mile warm up, I started the cycle, then Liam followed, then Andrew, then Mark.
1- 75 jump ropes or double jumping jacks.
2-wall sits until the jumper is done
3-35 push ups
4- 40 abs
5- 10 alternating lunge step ups, each leg
6- 30 kettle bell swings
7-25 dips
8-myotatic crunch
9-15 pull ups with knee raise
10-20 35lbs DB squat press
11-25 push ups with twist (at raised height, twist your hips and bring your knee to the opposite elbow)
12- 20 inverted push ups. These were hard to do in the barn, but we tried a variation I found where you put your feet on a chair, and make your body into a scissor while doing them. I did not like it. I'm going straight and using a wall next time.
Sunday and Monday just had tinkering type workouts as I had no time to fit in any other actual workouts.
Tuesday night, we did sprints at Vollrath again. We were joined by some youth from the church, and Jason again. There were 7 of us.
1-Alternating sprint jogs 160-175 yards (5 sprints per lap) while you were waiting your turn, you did push ups, squats, burpees, abs, whatever you wanted, and switched any time the next person started their sprints. 4 laps each.
2- High knees sprint drill. There were 8 cones set up around the person, each about 5 yards away. At command, you sprinted to a cone, then sprinted back, then did high knees. 6 reps. The 'rest' period was running up and down the hills.
3-Line drills. Cones were placed 10,15, and 20 yards. We split into two groups, and the first person sprint to the first cone, stop, back pedal through the beginning. Person two is doing goblet squats (with either 40lbs KB or 35 lbs DB) drops the weight and sprints. Person three was doing push up[s, switches to squats. Person one is now doing push ups. Second run was to the second cone, and third to the third.
4-Shuttle. Same thing essentially, but we side shuffled to the cone, then turned and sprint through. The second rep was shuttle the other way, still to the first cone. Then the second, then third.
5-Sprint relay. Adults vs teens. Mark, Jason and I were one team, and Liam led the other team. I set up two cones per team 30 yards apart, and Mark ran to Jason (at cone 2) and handed off a football to him. He sprinted through to me, then I to Mark, etc. First team to get 12 reps wins.
After I got home, I decided I wanted a run was in order, so I ran a 5k.
That is basically what I have done this weekend... oh, and ate like crap. I haven't mentioned my diet recently. When I do it, it works. If I don't it really doesn't work out well for me. I can drop to 175 pretty easily, but graduation parties really kicked my plan in the teeth, and we ran out of eggs. I will attest to the importance of a high protein breakfast immediately upon waking up. Two days of absolute crap did less to lose my ab definition than 2 days of normal eating but without a good breakfast. Use cheat day effectively, avoid most carbs (keep it under 75grams daily), and DO NOT DRINK CALORIES!!!

try and keep up... AND DON'T PUKE!!!

Turns out that Mark had to put his son to bed, so we tried to go hyper speed, but too much deliberation led to too much delay, but Mark, Patrick, Liam and I tried our best.
1- 10 of the push up-burpee-clean and press combination called Gavin's/Myotatic crunch/135lbs Dead lift/jump rope
2- 5 reps of 4 point jumps (an agility drill of sorts)/25lbs weighted push ups/seated russian twists/75lbs clean and press
3- push ups to failure/air squats/hold 5lbs weights straight out to the side/rest. We did set on repeat until we hit 300 team reps, and we did the second and third time through with the weight on our back. (I did 52 reps, 20, 18)
Then, we parted; Mark to his children, and the rest of us hit Festival foods for some quick noms, then home.

It wasn't supposed to be this wet!

Today I ran. I did some other things; drag curls, cat vomit, pull ups and some bench press, but the running was the main event. I ran to Maywood through Evergreen park, via the Quarry disc golf course, by traversing Eisner. I will admit it took longer than I had expected. I ran for nearly an hour and a half, about 12 miles or so if my calculations are correct. I did have to take a break; Maywood was a much muckier place than I had assumed  it would be. I ended up slipping and falling to the ground, splashed and covered with muck and mud, sandy grime. My socks got soaked and within a mile or so of exiting the puddles, I had developed quite the blister on my right foot. So I had to remove my sock, and then commenced to run back home. It was quite the ordeal, but one I look forward to repeating in the future. I felt wonderful to leave behind so much and just run, to feel the wind on my face and the heat surround me, cocoon about me. I developed a slight sunburn, adding to this weekends burn from football practice, but nothing too bad. I feel, apart from the soreness, so much better already for the run.

SPARTANS!!!

I did it. This morning, Mark and I gathered at his barn. We stretched. We warmed up. We got psyched. Then we set to work. We threw ourselves into the daunting task of completing the 300 workout used for the popular movie 300; 25 pull ups, 50 dead lift of 135lbs, 50 push ups, 50 2ft box jumps, 50 floor wipers with 135lbs, 50 clean and press with 36lbs weight, and 25 pull ups just to kill you at the end, and all with a 20 minute time limit. We modified it slightly (we only had 133.8lbs, or so on the bar, our 'box' was a stump measuring 22 inches (if you jumped form the correct angle), and our 36lbs kettle bell was a 35 lbs dumbbell. Tough tit!
Any, Mark had me go first, and I shot out of the gate. I did the 25 pull ups in two sets (20, 5) then did the dead lift as fast as I could (25, 15, 10) pausing to stretch my hammies because they were tightening up fiercely. I pumped out my push ups without pause, then headed out to the stump, where It took a number of sets with some brief pauses betwixt to finish, but I was on pace to smash the time as I headed to the floor wipers and got the weight up at 7:39. I started to lift my toes to the left weights, then down, then to the right, and immediately I could feel the lactic acid building in my static shoulder and arms. The twist in the core thrust the weight side to side, and in my weakened state it nearly toppled me time and again. We realized a spotter was necessary. Mark placed himself in ready position to seize the weight when a drop was immanent. I was able to struggle through them in about as much time as it took me to do the previous 175 reps. I grabbed the DB and pumped out ten reps on my right arm, put it down, sucked air, then did ten left, sucked air, then ten right, ten left, five, five. All that remained was the 25 pull ups from Hades own cesspit. I did 12, and dropped. I did 6, then dropped. I did 3, dropped. 2, and dropped, then, with Mark pushing me on, I threw my body up to the bar to do my final two reps, and finished with a time of 18:29. The only actor from the movie to complete the test did it in 18:11. Craig Ballantine, a contributor form Men's Health magazine, was able to complete it in 19:07. He said "I don't plan on that any time soon, or, really, ever again." Boss.
Then it was Mark's turn. He was slower on the push ups and pull ups than me, but he pumped out the DL faster, and was consistent on the stump jumps. He got down for the wipers at about 7:20, ahead of me. He worked through at 5 reps, break, 5 reps, break, until he started rep 41, where he pumped them out all the way to 50. 6 minutes to go. He was going to break my time! But then, something terrible happened; he paused, he huffed, and he puffed, and he went behind the barn to toss his cookies. That is the first time in about 20 years that a workout has caused him to throw up.
Mission accomplished.

easy on the knees, now!

I decided to do my workout before work today, but I did not need to run due to last nights running workout.  I warmed up with 15 pull ups, then benched 225 on a normal bench in my basement 3 times, then hopped in my car. I arrived at Planet Fitness and seized a bench where I did 225 4 times, then 265 3 times. I grabbed a 50lbs DB, did 5 side lunge squats in each direction, then 295 once, dropped it to 285 and did it once, then 245 3 times, then 185 25 times. Satisfied with my benching, I grabbed a 60lbs ez bar and did 60 curl/rows, hopped over to do 12 myotatic crunches, then did 20 curl rows again before running out of time and having to call it a workout. Short, sweet, and simple. Boom, baby!

The gods give their pleasure

As I arrived at Vollrath for our bi weekly hill workout, I could see off in the distance, hazy at best in the fast fading light, a light caramel stain on the green grass of the disc golf course. I paused and looked more intently, but the cones in my eyes were losing their ability to see the detailed color in this darkening world, so I looked just off to the side, allowing the blur to fall where my rods could activate. Standing there, still as a statue, was deer. With the shape confirmed, I turned to look directly at the animal 200 meters away. After a short time, it turned and slowly and gracefully sauntered away. Artemis, the Greek godess of all things wild, of the hills and the forests, gave me her blessing!
Mark was a touch late, and he brought Jason and Liam with him. Patrick was with an old friend, I guess, and Dylan had already done a long run, so it was just us. We warmed up with a light jog, some static stretching, and then 3 runs up the hill at about 80% speed. As we headed down to the base of the hill, there was a flash of lightning. Thor was giving us his approval as well.
1- 3 sprints straight up hill.
2- Fast feet until command, then sprint uphill/pushups, sprint on command/mountain climbers, sprint on command.
3- lateral jump left, sprint on command/lateral jump right, sprint on command/broad jump, sprint on command.
4- 3 backpedal, sprint at the first cone
5- resisted sprints. Partner pulls back with a resistance band as you drive uphill focusing on good form, when they release it you sprint through to the top of the hill. 2 times each resisting and sprinting
We the moved to the flat ground.
6- 2 35 yard sprints
7- 2 8 yard post routes, with 'run after catch' (turning and sprinting up field)
8- 4 8 yard square routes with 'run after catch'
9- 2 back pedal, turn and run lateral on command, back pedal on command, lateral on command, back pedal on command, sprint through on command.
10- The cycle! The pacer ran from the base of Vollrath's stairs to the flag pole, then turned and ran back./run up and down the hills/air squats/pushups.
To wrap up, we did 3 relay sprints, straight up hill. Then we called it a night, and went our separate ways.

just like riding a bike

I decided that since Monday is my pseudo off day (Sunday is the only day I am always off) that I would try something semi challenging, but go easy with it, so I went back to the stationary bike. I did 4 reps of bike sprints. I bike 1:30 at 85-92rpm, the I pedal as fast as I can for 30 seconds (125-133rpm). I did it four times. This workout is like the team sprints we do at Mark's driveway, or the hill sprints, or the route running I did at Vollrath Park last week, as well as the cross training circuit lifting we do. It falls into the category of "Tabata" training. This training is the concept that by doing high level anaerobic activities continually, it will increase your aerobic levels faster than doing standard and common place aerobic training. Anyone that has run distance in high school knows that they will do 400 meter, 800 meter, and even mile repeats. Every now and then, they will do 200 repeats. But most runs are simply long slow runs. According to studies by Japanese scientists, these bike sprints 3 times a week increased aerobic capacity by a greater amount over a two week study than a control group that ran 75 minutes a day over the same period of time. Ergo, I will do my bike sprints and wind sprints and hill sprints.

So many calories!

Our computer decided it hated us, so it slowly broke down over the course of 2 years. The sound card fried, it would randomly reboot itself, it would freeze up if you tried to type a word with more than 6 letters, and then it came to the conclusion that internet was overrated, so it didn’t allow it. Cool, computer, cool. You suck, you’re done now. Because of this, I have not been able to post my workouts, so here comes a longer than normal post.

Friday, May 3^rd

I did a random assortment of bench pressing and other arm workouts, but I went fairly willy nilly around PF, so I don’t rightly remember what I did. There was some bench, some tricep extension, some 3 phase curls, and an ab workout or two.

Saturday, May 4^th (May the 4^th be with you!)

I sought inspiration for this workout from the web (thank goodness for work computers) and I came upon a 15 minute workout from Huffington Post that was supposed to be ‘intense’

Set 1- Front plank (60 seconds)/side plank (30 seconds each side)/squat hold (60 seconds)/lunge holds (30 seconds each leg)

We then got a 1 minute rest. Liam, Mark and I solved all the world’s financial problems during this period.

Set 2- 30 seconds high knees, 10 seconds rest, 30 seconds jumping jacks, 10 seconds rest. Repeat 4 times.

The monotony and lack of challenge that this set gave us caused us to forget our solutions for the economic quandary of the world. We decided a change of pace was in order.

Set 3- A football drill. We started with me as the ‘receiver’, Mark as the ‘quarterback’ and Liam as the ‘defender.’ At Mark’s call, I tried to run forward, but Liam opposed me with a ‘tackle pad’ or ‘kick boxing pad’ of sorts (it is really a LARPing shield, but don’t tell anyone). The ‘receiver’ pushed against the shield, then pushed it aside and ran the route, including sprinting through, then he would quickly jog to the throwing position as the defender had switched to receiver and thrower to defender. GO!!! We each got in 10 sprints. We were now breathing a little harder than before.

Set 4- Pushups with a twist… actually it was with a jump. Each pushup was down and when you got to the apex of the pushup you would throw your hands off the ground and ‘jump’ up, landing with your feet where your hands were. Drop back down, repeat. 15 reps/10 seconds rest/15 squat jumps/10 seconds rest. Repeat once.

Set 5- We went back to the cycle. Gavin-10 pull ups, Mark on pushups as fast as you can, Liam on squat jumps as fast as you can. 3 sets.

We finished with max pushups on a decline, and then max pull ups. Ces Viola! (forgive the lack of accent marks)

Monday, May 6^th

I started with running a couple routes. I would set up, get comfy, then do a 10 yard square route, including turning up field ‘after the catch.’ My follow through would take me to the second station; a 10 yard post route (and follow through). It would take me to the quick slant route (and follow through) which took me to the 8 yard hook route. That was one set. I did a total of 4 sets in 5 minutes. Then things got fun

Set 1- 10lbs DB Renegade Rows which is a walking pushup with a DB row included. I went 10 yards.

Set 2- 4 broad jumps with 10lbs DBs. This was kinda fun, to feel the resistance when trying to swing your arms forward, but then to feel it carry you when your arms reached their peak… I think I’m jumping wrong, though.

Set 3-15 yards of walking lunges with core rotation. The first 7.5 yards I would rotate away from my forward leg, and the second 7.5 I rotated toward it.

Set 4-Side walking pushups. Simple; diamond pushups, widen your arms to wide pushup, do it. Bring the trailing arm into diamond formation, do it. 5 yards leading with each arm.

Set 5- 8 yards walking squats with 10lbs DB lateral raises. Essentially, sidestep just wide enough to allow the  DBs to fit between your knees, squat rise, pause, then so a forward DB raise, rotate your shoulders so the weights are pointing straight right and left, lower, pause, raise, rotate to forward, lower, repeat the whole process.

After this was over, I went through the running of routes again, but acting as a defensive back, so I back pedaled to the break (the cone where you turn), then I turned and sprinted through as well. I went through twice.

At this point, I decided to head to Planet Fitness, CAUSE I CAN!!! I wanted to use a bench press, but they were all taken, so I used free weights instead. They were all done with Super sets, so no break between the exercises. They were performed with 50lbs DBS, except for the curls which used a 60lbs EZ barbell

Set 1-5 DB flys/10 DB bench press/15 bent over rows/10 EZ bar curls/10 seated shoulder shrugs/drink

Set 2-Same lifts but 4/8/12/8/8/drink

Set 3 same but 3/6/9/6/6 then immediately 2/4/9/4/4 then immediately 1/2/6/4/4

Fun times. I drove home, then decided it was a beautiful day, so I went for a 4 mile run, and got plastered but bugs in the process.

Tuesday, May 7^th

This was a fun one. Liam was home sick, and Mark had decided to cancel Thursdays for our workouts, so we are going to try and make the two a weeks more intense. Well, Tuesday fit the bill.

Set 1- 4 yards Renegade Rows forward, then backwards. 10lbs DBs/40lbs KB swings

Set 2- 4 yards Walking Squat 10bs DB raises, 4 yards back/ 55lbs DL

Set 3- 35lbs DB Clean and Press, 15 each arm/We simply held the 55lbs barbell overhead

Set 4- 4 yards side walking pushups, 4 yards back/feed bag squat press

Set 5- 20 55lbs barbell upright row/alternating lunge jumps

Set 6- Bicep burnout. We used the 10lbs DBs and did the 3 point curls 10 times while our partner did a clean and press variation, then we switched. We did 2 sets of each of these, but it wasn’t burning us out, so we switched the clean and press to 55lbs barbell curls, max out. We did 2 more sets.

Set 7- Back to running in the driveway. I ran first, at half way Mark ran, when I got back, I did air squats until Mark came back. I told him the number I did, then he did air squats while I rested. Once he matched my air squats, I ran to the half way while he rested. The runs went as follows

1-standard run, there and back

2- standard run there, side shuffle to the left 10 yards, turn and run

3- standard run there, side shuffle right 10 yards, turn and run

4-see 1

5- see 2

6- see 3

7- see 1 or 4

8- see 2 or 5

9- see 3 or 6

10- see 1, 4, or 7

Set 8- Time to max out pushups. We used the stump to make them decline pushups again, and Mark decided we would get not rest period. As soon as you can’t do one, you’re done and it’s your partner’s turn. However many more I did than him, he had to do that many (minus five), and any more than that number, I had to do.

1-30/48

2-27/27, at which point we said screw the rules, one more set

3- 13/13

That was the night. We gave the workout a difficulty of 4 to 4.5 out of five. The running was bad, but we couldn’t get to full speed because of fatigue, so next time we will run first, lift second. That will REALLY suck.

Wednesday, May 8^th

I ran to PF (22minutes even) where and ambulance and fire truck had arrived. Something went down in the ladies room, I guess. Once I got in, I…

Set 1- claimed a bench and did 225 (5 narrow, 5 wide)/15 dips/12 myotatic crunch/ drink

Set 2- 225 (5 narrow, 5 wide)/25 ab crunches on one of those machine sin the stretching room

Set 3- 225 (5 narrow, 5 wide) At this point, I weighed 174.4lbs.

I was short on time, so that was all I did, but then I ran home after work (22:41).

Friday, May 10th

Just 75 or so pull ups. Taking it rather easy.

Saturday, May 11th

We invited a new member to join Liam, Mark and me at the barn; Patrick. He was a right chipper chap, and did rather well for himself as well. We did was a variation of "Spartacus 2.0" this morning, a workout developed for the toning of the bodies of the actors in the Starz series 'Spartacus.' Each set of exercises was 40 on, 20 seconds off.

Set 1- DB Hand Pull/Reverse Lunge with twist/Single Arm DB Swing/Feed Bag Squat Press/Single Arm Single Leg underhand DB Row

Set 2- See Set 1.

2 minute rest

Set 3- DB Chop/Plank Walkup to Pushup/Rotational DB Straight Leg DL/Burpees/Squat Jump

Set 4- see set 2

Set 5- One of the four would do 6 sets of 3 pull ups and 6 pushups while the rest of the group would do a fartlek run around Marks yard. We each ended up doing about 6 to 10 sprints and ran about a mile total.

Set 6-Max Pushups: Mark 49, Liam 50, Patrick 68, Gavin 76.

We then went in for breakfast at which point Pat almost threw up. We did well, my lads!

I needed to shower for work, so I headed over to Planet Fitness where I did

Set 1- 225(5 narrow, 7 wide)/ 7 Squat press w/ 45lbs DBs/20 3 phase 15lbs DB curls/ 225 (5 narrow 6 wide). 

That is the end of my last week and some. Eat right, work out, live long!