End of week 3

Who's got two thumbs and has totally been slacking off?  This guy!

Seriously, though, the last two weeks has kind of sucked.  I've been out of town for work Monday thru Friday which means missing Tuesday/Wed/Thursday for sure at Farrell's. I made it to the 5:30 kickboxing on the Friday of week 2 which was very good but wound up missing Saturday because of my uncle's funeral down in Faribault.  Week 3 started off with co-coach Tim kicking with me Monday morning which was great... he really chased me around the bag... my flight Friday got in later than the week before and Sarah had to work Friday night so I didn't get to kick Friday, but I did get in for strength training yesterday.  John was there which was great but oh my god am I in pain.  I realized yesterday that it had been two weeks since I did strength training really... I mean, I did alternate workouts three times while traveling (not enough) but that's nothing compared to a real Farrell's session.  I banded up quite a bit on any chest or tricep exercises now that I have the techniques down.  Well, not ANY chest exercise, just the one simulating incline press.  What destroyed me was the lunge sets... right side forward and back is one, three sets of 12 and then left side same thing... essentially 144 lunges.  I did maybe half of them total, my quads almost gave out on me completely.  Between that and the donkey kicks and hip raises that inevitably follow... well, I tried to go without ibuprofen today but I couldn't take it anymore.

Tomorrow starts a glorious week 4... and Sarah will be there!  She signed up for FIT at my location, planning for 6AM classes so I'll bring the boys with me and we'll trade them off on mornings when Em is in school... otherwise I'll maybe go to afternoon class, we'll see.  But since Em will be home tomorrow (they don't have school Monday), Sarah and I are both doing the 7AM class so that should be fun.  :-)   I'm just excited to be HOME for a whole week... (I'm taking a 4-day weekend next weekend)... and excited for a full week of Farrell's again.

Week 2, Day 1

Yesterday sucked, I felt so blah all day.  I mean, it was nice to sleep 'in' till 7:30, was nice to not have to be going anywhere and just hanging out at home with the kids.   Actually now that I think about it, I felt more energetic than I had pre-Farrell's, I just think that by the end of the day I felt sore from not working out... if that makes any sense.  I did a lot of sitting and reading and playing with the boys.  Beautiful weather... I guess I mowed the lawn, so that wasn't just sitting around.  Maybe I didn't feel blah all day, just the end of the day... and that might just have come from dreading having to leave town for work.  I don't like that, I miss my family.

Anyway, I was looking forward to the workout this morning and it was good.  Justin had us do three new things, hook punches, low side kicks and pyramids.  It was interesting learning the technique for for hooks, to not swing with the shoulder... gets a good tug in the abs.  And pyramids... it's funny because Sarah's mentioned them many times before and it never really sank in... but since we were doing roundhouses and lunges... and I suck at lunches... it was pretty bad.  By the time we were working down on the left side, I was doing maybe two lunges... instead of the 6-5-4-3-2-1.

(for those who don't know... pyramids work like this:  you do one roundhouse and one lunge... then you do two roundhouses and two lunges... you do that up until you do 6 of each, then you work your way 'down' on the left side from 6 to 1.)

Low kicks were fun, I enjoyed the jab-cross-low kick combos.  I kind of knocked the bag nearly into my workout partner on one of them, though... a FIT lady who I probably outweigh by 180 pounds.  She was a good partner, though.

Oh, another different thing we did was a jab-roundhouse combo where you have to shift your feet between.  My footwork is awful, I'm about as agile as a mammoth.

When we did jab burnouts, I kicked it up a notch at the end... felt good, I suppose I should be doing that the whole time, though.  Of course, I go from that right into a plank... with arms like rubber.  Planking went better than last week, though, both the regular planks and the side planks.

Randy sold me a red figure-8 band to use in workouts while I'm traveling this week and next week, so that's cool.  I'll be back for the 5:30 class on Friday.  I really hate that this travel is happening while I'm working the program because I can't spend extra time at home this morning or Friday afternoon to make up for lost family time during the week, I won't be home until 7 Friday night... I miss them already.

End of week 1

I made it through 'Friday fun day' yesterday... good kickboxing, first time I did roundhouses for power, felt great to kick the bag as hard as I could.  My right hip is kind of acting up so I was trying not to push what hurt... I really don't want to torque something that puts me out of commission at all.  There was another guy there so I had a partner on the bag which was good.  My core strength is better, I was able to plank better while 'resting' than I could Wednesday which is good.  Still failing, though... which ironically is also good.

Taking a step back, Thursday wound up being my cheat day.  The guy at Famous Daves (where I was at for work) bought me lunch... and they talked me into the bread pudding.  It's delicious... far too delicious.  I also went and weighed myself yesterday morning and was up 4 pounds.  Ironically, the white board at the gym advised us not to weigh ourselves and that the scale was the enemy... I need to stay away from it... focus on what I'm doing in the gym and the food regimen and not worry about my weight.

This morning (Saturday) was cool, the gym was full (only two classes on Saturday, I think) and Justin changed the music up, so we started out with AC/DC, had some Guns N Roses and similar tunes while working on strength.  Funny, at one point after doing squats and then burning out a focused quads exercise he said 'one more and we're done with legs'... then he paused and said 'well, done with quads anyway'.  DICK.  (not really)  Then donkey kicks and glutes... we finished with abductor and adductor (probably spelled wrong) workouts... I couldn't even use a yellow band for the last ones, lying on your side and lifting your straight leg up.  Apparently my legs are plenty heavy by themselves to make that a hard burn.  I could hardly walk to put the bands away when we were done... again, which is good.

My favorite exercise this morning was hammer curls... because we were lying flat on our backs doing curls with bands for resistance... all I could think was 'this feels so good to be lying flat on my back'.  I'm trying to focus on keeping my core flexed as much as possible, stuff I learned in physical therapy for when I blew my back out a couple of years ago... my lower back and abs really need the attention.  Those and my shoulders are my weakest areas... so far anyway, I'm sure they'll find some muscle group next week that I've never used.

All in all, it's been a good week.  Next week I have to travel for work which sucks big time, but I'll make the Monday morning class and I'll go to the 5:30 class Friday after getting back from Montreal.

Day 4

Yesterday was super busy, I didn't get a chance to post an update.

There weren't many people in class yesterday morning... I was the only guy and there was an even number of women so I worked the bag by myself.  Tim was there from the 6AM class and we talked some nutrition... he recommended chocolate almond milk... which we don't have at County Market.  <shrug>   The workout was good... Jillian was running it... I didn't exhaust myself in the jumping jacks this time which is already an improvement over Monday.  I tried to get my roundhouse form better which worked my hips more... they're still sore today.  My core continues to not be up to the challenge yet... we were doing oblique planks between bag exercises which were pretty bad, I failed every time.  But of course, we're supposed to be working to failure anyway.  I can't decide if it's easier or harder with no partner... you don't have to worry about coordinating hitting the bag but at the same time, you can't 'hide' either.

I talked with Randy after class about the 10K challenge, nutrition, bands, etc... I might buy a figure eight band to travel with next week and the week after (I'll be traveling for work the next two weeks).

We had a health screening here at work yesterday so I was going to know my weight anyway so I weighed myself in the morning yesterday... I was 5 pounds down from Saturday.  Now... different scale, though... so maybe some factor there.  The scale at work was 11 pounds less than Saturday which was way off, but when i got home I weighed myself at home again and I was 2 pounds down from that morning... and it's not like I'm fasting or not drinking water.  After the busy day yesterday (more than 4 hours in the car), I had a bit more for dinner than I 'should' have... but still when I weighed myself this morning, I was another pound down from where I was last night.  So I'm 8 pounds down from Saturday... which is pretty great.

This morning, though, I was not eager to get out the door.  I wanted to sleep... very, very badly.  And I'm really sore.  Not as bad as post-marathon or anything, but pretty sore.  Jillian was running the upper body strength training... I've started dropping bands when I can't do it anymore so I can keep doing the exercise.  It's so weird, some thing are super easy and then the next thing is super hard, all because the disproportionate muscle development I've built up by just doing a couple of different exercises for years.  My core is still terrible.  My abs hurt all day yesterday and didn't feel much better this morning, so the abs stuff was really not good this morning.  I got the form as best as I could and when I couldn't anymore, I tried to hold something that at least kept putting some work into that muscle group.

I was kind of shocked to look in the mirror and see ripples in my triceps during one of the exercises... cool.

Tomorrow is, according to Sarah, the worst day of any week.  Friday kickboxing is the most intense workout of the week.  Looking forward to it.  ;-)

Day 2

Some jerk laid out a bunch of donuts and pastries about ten feet from my desk.  I just had an apple but the craving/habit is yelling at me to have a donut and coffee... have two!  Argh.

Anyway, strength training with Randy this morning was good.  I'm not sure why I was thinking it would be easier than kickboxing... in some ways it was, but the muscle isolation and the resulting burn is pretty intense.  We were concentrating on form today so using light bands, I did wind up banding up to a green for a later triceps exercise since my triceps are pretty developed already.  I have a hard time just getting my body into the right position for some of the exercises just from my bulk.  Lunges were extremely difficult for me to balance and do, especially with my bum left big toe.  If I had martial arts shoes that would help a lot I think.  Jillian helped with my lunge form when class was done which was good, but then of course I do two of them and my quads are on fire and quitting on me anyway.

Overall, good day 2.  :-)

Yesterday afternoon was rough... I'm still in the 'South Beach' food mindset so what I had for snacks and lunch yesterday was lo/no carb... and yesterday afternoon I was absolutely wiped out.  Today I brought in bananas and apples and a sandwich and I'm hoping they help me out more, also hoping bumping up my carb intake will make tomorrow morning's kickboxing go better.  The irony is that if I'm feeling better, I should just work harder so I still go to failure anyway.  It's an interesting mindset.

I don't think I was more than level 8 today, maybe 9 yesterday.

We have health screenings here at work tomorrow so I guess I'll be getting a weight update before the 1-week point as was my plan.

Week 1, Day 1

I survived the first day... for some reason I feel like it wasn't as bad as the kickstart class.  It can't be because I was better prepared for it... well, I suppose it could be, but if my testing two days ago and half an hour on the treadmill five days ago is that much of an effect, I should ramp up awfully fast.  To be fair, Justin said many times to 'enjoy it while it lasts'... like giving us a break towards the end to stretch.  Wednesday I expect to be much worse for multiple reasons.

I paired up with Brad, who's about my height but much lighter... he says that he cycles and plays soccer (he has the hair for it).  We have nothing resembling rhythm yet hitting the bag.  Also, I am still clumsy and don't do very well with the knee-kick to roundhouse combo.

But let's back up to the start... and how I felt like tapping out just doing jumping jacks in the warm-ups.  I thought I felt good and matched Justin's pace with the jumping jacks and my tank was empty in like 15 seconds.  I can make excuses like my arms are heavier than Justin's but whatever, I'm out of shape and have terrible stamina.  Also my calves got beat down from all of the bouncing on the balls of my feet.

The planking between bag exercises I just about flat-out couldn't do... my core is just beaten down, I think partly because the sit-ups to failure test on Saturday thrashed me.  Whatever, I need to consume 240 grams of protein today so that should help in my recovery.  I need to get a case of Brawndo (j/k) or low/no sugar sports drinks to help with my hydration and keeping my electrolytes up.

I decided to weigh myself once a week through this, because I want an idea as to what kind of a curves/plateaus in my weight loss I go through, rather than just seeing where I'm at in 10 weeks.

Orientation done

Orientation was yesterday which was good.  My weight was about what I expected, what I didn't expect was my body fat percentage was less than I figured.  I have less fat available to lose than I'd thought so I suppose that's good, but my goal of getting down to 270 pounds is less likely, since I have less fat to lose.  We'll see.  

I was overly optimistic about my mile run, after doing half an hour on the treadmill on Thursday... I never achieved anything resembling a 'groove', much less 'runner's high'.  

My situps/minute score was pretty bad, I thought... but that's to be expected considering how little I work my abs.  My pushups was better (actually did more pushups than situps) but again that's to be expected since I bench press at the gym with some regularity.  

My coach's name is John, he's the guy that won the prize from the April class and also the guy that when I saw his before/after pics online I thought that my chances at the big prize are pretty slim.  He's also competitive, he was telling us who we have to beat.  That's good, though.  

The nutrition seminar was not surprising... Sarah had already talked to me about it from her 10-wk challenge and I'd read quite a bit of her book already.  

It's ironic that I feel more sore than I have in quite a while and that's just from testing and orientation.  Tomorrow morning should be fun and I'm already looking forward to Wednesday morning being a really fun wakeup.  

Nervous

Tomorrow's my orientation day.

I ran yesterday at the gym.  About half an hour of alternating walking 3.5 mph and running 6mph.  I got cocky and threw in some jab/cross action while jogging.  Pretty stupid, would have been really easy to lose my balance and fall, but... felt like doing more.  I'm nervous about not being 'ready' but at the same time this is it before 10 weeks of hard work and caring more about what I eat again.  I feel sore just from that running... and I've got shinsplints on my right leg.  That's a bad sign, maybe... I really don't want to get hurt and screw up this 10 weeks.

Anyway. I'm excited and nervous.  It's dumb because tomorrow isn't even a real workout.  I hope I don't blow out my knee in the mile run.