I decided to make this entry a five-day entry instead of 3-day entry, in part because I've been pretty busy the past few days. The photos posted are from day 19, since at the time, I was expecting to do another 3-day post, for which 19 would be the midpoint. Here's what I did in the gym in the past few days:
Wednesday:
Started with light stretches, led by my ever gymnastic girlfriend.
Then I did treadmill. Time: 57 minutes (64 counting cooldown). Speed: Started at 3.5mph and accelerated to 7.1mph at the end. Distance: 6.24 miles.
Thursday:
I wasn't feeling terribly great, but that's no excuse to skimp on a thirty-day challenge. I hit the gym anyway, but I did a light lift day.
Squats: 115 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets. A big downgrade, both in weight and in sets, because of how I was feeling.
Leg press: 100 lbs, 10 reps, 1 set. Followed by 100 lbs, 15 reps, 3 sets. With leg presses, I made progress despite feeling bad. This is in part because the weight here was already well below what I'm capable of, just because I recently started on this machine. No worries; in time, with progressive training, they'll align themselves with exactly what I'm capable of.
After squats and leg presses I headed home-- a very light lift day for me!
Friday:
Still feeling a little under, I did a light run day. I jumped on the treadmill and ran for 43 minutes, plus 5 minutes cooldown to make 48 total. Speed maxed out at 6.6mph and the total distance was 4.59 miles. Compared to the runs I've been posting lately, this seems pretty mediocre, but 4 and a half miles is still considerably more than most people run in a day, and even while not feeling like running at all, I still beat the run I did on day 2. It really shows how effective the thirty day workout challenge is!
Saturday:
I was feeling better, but unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the time, and when I got to the gym, the girl checking university IDs at the front pointed out they were closing in 20 minutes. Argh :P But I did what I could in those twenty minutes.
Saturday was an upper body day. Recall from my previous upper body lift, I was feeling topped out on bench press, like I'd hit a plateau. So on Saturday, I kicked benchpress out of the schedule and replaced it with narrow-grip bench and wide-grip bench. Actually, I think I tend to do bench presses a little wide-grip by default, so my "wide-grip" bench was actually "really wide-grip". I did 90lbs, 10 reps, 4 sets, half of them narrow, half of them wide. This switch-up should let me push past the bench plateau.
After the benchpress variations, I did a bunch of rows: 90 lbs, 15 reps, 3 sets. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything else, or I would've hit dumbbell bench with a vengeance. Next time...
Sunday:
A treadmill day, I jumped right on the 'mill and started running. This time I did something unusual, I took a short break in the middle, at the 20 minute mark (at which point I'd run 1.62 miles). After a five minute break (in the bathroom), I jumped back on and resumed where I'd left off. The total time came to 59 minutes, plus six more minutes of cooldown for a total of 65. Max speed was 7.2mph, and total distance came to 6.16 miles. The attentive reader no doubt notices the distance was actually slightly less than it was Wednesday, despite a longer total time and higher max speed. This happens occasionally, it's because I don't run at constant speed but accelerate from a low base speed; the way I accelerate affects the total distance.
Diet Observations
My diet has been becoming healthier and healthier over the past months, with little effort on my own behalf. There are three factors involved. First, my girlfriend is always cooking me Japanese food, with is as healthy as it is delicious. Second, my tastes have been gradually changing to favor healthier stuff, especially fruits and vegetables; I can actually eat eggplant now, and when I was a kid that stuff was intolerable. Thirdly, I've been making some attempt to be more consciously aware of what I eat. Not explicitly to control it, just to simply be aware of it. Amazingly, that's really all it takes, because when I eat garbage, I just can't be consciously aware it and not be disgusted.
Case in point. This evening, my girlfriend and I went out and tried a new restaurant that recently opened up near us. "Five Guys: Burgers And Fries". It's been a really long time since I had hamburgers-- technically I ate a couple double-doubles at Inn-and-Out Burger during the Las Vegas trip, but Inn-n-Out doesn't really count, since it's some kind of alien technology of pure goodness. Besides that, I can't even remember the last time I had a patty between two buns. Tonight, it tasted great, but after the meal, I felt woozy. I still feel a little woozy, even after washing it down with a frozen margarita. Like there's a film of grease on my tongue which I can't quite scrape off with my teeth. And this place was a sort of higher-class burger place-- I shudder to even think about eating at a McDonalds or Wendys.
An Unexpected Benefit of Weightlifting
One side effect of all the weight training I've been up to, is that I can very easily lift my girlfriend up. It's a lot of fun sweeping her off her feet (literally) and tossing her around like my little ragdoll. And she likes it so much, she can't stop laughing :) Just one more reason to hit that iron if you aren't already...
NEXT: Days 23-27
Wednesday:
Started with light stretches, led by my ever gymnastic girlfriend.
Then I did treadmill. Time: 57 minutes (64 counting cooldown). Speed: Started at 3.5mph and accelerated to 7.1mph at the end. Distance: 6.24 miles.
Thursday:
I wasn't feeling terribly great, but that's no excuse to skimp on a thirty-day challenge. I hit the gym anyway, but I did a light lift day.
Squats: 115 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets. A big downgrade, both in weight and in sets, because of how I was feeling.
Leg press: 100 lbs, 10 reps, 1 set. Followed by 100 lbs, 15 reps, 3 sets. With leg presses, I made progress despite feeling bad. This is in part because the weight here was already well below what I'm capable of, just because I recently started on this machine. No worries; in time, with progressive training, they'll align themselves with exactly what I'm capable of.
After squats and leg presses I headed home-- a very light lift day for me!
Friday:
Still feeling a little under, I did a light run day. I jumped on the treadmill and ran for 43 minutes, plus 5 minutes cooldown to make 48 total. Speed maxed out at 6.6mph and the total distance was 4.59 miles. Compared to the runs I've been posting lately, this seems pretty mediocre, but 4 and a half miles is still considerably more than most people run in a day, and even while not feeling like running at all, I still beat the run I did on day 2. It really shows how effective the thirty day workout challenge is!
Saturday:
I was feeling better, but unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the time, and when I got to the gym, the girl checking university IDs at the front pointed out they were closing in 20 minutes. Argh :P But I did what I could in those twenty minutes.
Saturday was an upper body day. Recall from my previous upper body lift, I was feeling topped out on bench press, like I'd hit a plateau. So on Saturday, I kicked benchpress out of the schedule and replaced it with narrow-grip bench and wide-grip bench. Actually, I think I tend to do bench presses a little wide-grip by default, so my "wide-grip" bench was actually "really wide-grip". I did 90lbs, 10 reps, 4 sets, half of them narrow, half of them wide. This switch-up should let me push past the bench plateau.
After the benchpress variations, I did a bunch of rows: 90 lbs, 15 reps, 3 sets. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything else, or I would've hit dumbbell bench with a vengeance. Next time...
Sunday:
A treadmill day, I jumped right on the 'mill and started running. This time I did something unusual, I took a short break in the middle, at the 20 minute mark (at which point I'd run 1.62 miles). After a five minute break (in the bathroom), I jumped back on and resumed where I'd left off. The total time came to 59 minutes, plus six more minutes of cooldown for a total of 65. Max speed was 7.2mph, and total distance came to 6.16 miles. The attentive reader no doubt notices the distance was actually slightly less than it was Wednesday, despite a longer total time and higher max speed. This happens occasionally, it's because I don't run at constant speed but accelerate from a low base speed; the way I accelerate affects the total distance.Diet Observations
My diet has been becoming healthier and healthier over the past months, with little effort on my own behalf. There are three factors involved. First, my girlfriend is always cooking me Japanese food, with is as healthy as it is delicious. Second, my tastes have been gradually changing to favor healthier stuff, especially fruits and vegetables; I can actually eat eggplant now, and when I was a kid that stuff was intolerable. Thirdly, I've been making some attempt to be more consciously aware of what I eat. Not explicitly to control it, just to simply be aware of it. Amazingly, that's really all it takes, because when I eat garbage, I just can't be consciously aware it and not be disgusted.
Case in point. This evening, my girlfriend and I went out and tried a new restaurant that recently opened up near us. "Five Guys: Burgers And Fries". It's been a really long time since I had hamburgers-- technically I ate a couple double-doubles at Inn-and-Out Burger during the Las Vegas trip, but Inn-n-Out doesn't really count, since it's some kind of alien technology of pure goodness. Besides that, I can't even remember the last time I had a patty between two buns. Tonight, it tasted great, but after the meal, I felt woozy. I still feel a little woozy, even after washing it down with a frozen margarita. Like there's a film of grease on my tongue which I can't quite scrape off with my teeth. And this place was a sort of higher-class burger place-- I shudder to even think about eating at a McDonalds or Wendys.
An Unexpected Benefit of Weightlifting
One side effect of all the weight training I've been up to, is that I can very easily lift my girlfriend up. It's a lot of fun sweeping her off her feet (literally) and tossing her around like my little ragdoll. And she likes it so much, she can't stop laughing :) Just one more reason to hit that iron if you aren't already...
NEXT: Days 23-27
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