My excuses:

Well, EJ is here, which distracts one from a routine somewhat (as any guest would), but mostly we've been dealing with Leo issues. Those are over now so I'm getting back into the struggle.

Here's what I did yesterday, Dec. 29:

4 rounds of:

500 meter row
15 pull-ups
30 lb. dumbell thrusters

32 minutes



This morning:

Back squats: 95lb x 5/105lb x 3/115lb x1/125lb x 1/130lb x 1
Overhead press: 65lb x 5/75lb x 3/95lb x 1/115lb x 1
Deadlift: 135lb x 5/165lb x 3/175lb x 1/180lb x 1/185lb x 1

This workout included 25 squats with various weights - from 15 to 45 lbs as a warm-up.

So there!

Back in the USA, not sure what day it is!! Jet lag is MY excuse. WHAT IS YOURS???

Today I ate lots of wonderful food prepared by an excellent cook (Judith) and enjoyed the excellent company of several pseudo relatives and had a really nice Christmas. In my Christmas cracker I had a gold paper crown, two bad riddles and a folding checkers game. In a few days I will begin working off all the wonderful food and drink.

What we were supposed to do today:
3 rounds of:
Run 400 Meters
30X Wall Balls (see photo)
15X Box jumps (jumping on and off a 24 inch box)

What I actually did:
2 rounds run 400 meters (walked about half of it)
2 rounds of 30X wall balls
2 rounds of 30X lunges (box jumps did not happen

More dumbell curls and push-ups today, but nothing interesting enough to mention at length.

(Also, see the comment I left responding to your comment in my last post.)

OK. I did it. The first set of all three went fine, but I scaled back to knee push-ups for the last two sets.

Probably a mistake doing this at 10:00 PM, but I was too disgusted with myself for doing nothing for six days.

Wow... Five days and no posts... Shame on us.

Have neither of us done ANYTHING in five days???

Well, I haven't left the house in two days, so I'm about to attempt three sets of 15 push-ups, alternated with three sets of 15 shoulder presses (per arm) with a 35 pound dumbell AND three sets of 10 air squats.

There.

Now I've said it.

Now I have to do it...

I'll report back on my progess.

I, too, think that no flavor means no nutrients. I've found generally, the bigger and prettier the berry, the worse the flavor. For example - those beautiful looking, huge strawberries from California that taste like damp cardboard.

I walked today for about half an hour...it was an effort at that. I am hungry at the wrong time and sleepy at worse times. Jet lag. I stretched then iced for about an hour afterwards and still hurt! I am seeing a foot doctor on Monday to start the process (again) of being able to move and walk painfree. Figured I'd start from the ground up.

Tomorrow I will be sitting all day in a dentist's chair. Lucky me!

I am corresponding with the "older" woman (she's 63) who is looking for hiking partners on the AT in 2008. She plans to start doing some day hikes in the VA area in Feb and March of that year, (near where she lives) then skipping over that area later, thus extending her calendar. That is something I hadn't thought of and is a great idea. It makes it that much more possible!

Technically this post applies to Monday, but I'm posting it late.

Here's what I did:

50 dumbell curls (25 per arm, 35 pound dumbell)
50 overhead thrusters (25 per arm, 35 pound dumbell)
22 minutes stationary bike, with high-intensity intervals (pedal at brisk pace with moderate resistance for 3 minutes, then increase resistance 50 percent and pedal as fast as you can for one minute. Reduce to 70 percent of maximun output for 3 minutes - repeat 3 times and cool-down for several minutes.)
Ran 400 meters
Did lots of stretching

The high-intensity interval stuff is suppposed to increase endurance and VO2 maximum faster than steadily paced aerobic exercise. Endurance is where I fall short more than anywhere else, fitness-wise. I have pretty decent all-around strength, but I get winded pretty quickly.

High-intensity interval training is also supposed to increase standing metabolic rate faster than "traditional" aerobic training, and generally takes less time than a regular aerobic workout -- of course, less time does not mean it's easier...

Here's a brief, but good article about it: HIIT

I bought some gorgeous blueberries from Costco. Fat, ripe and juicy-looking. Unfortunatly, they have little to no flavor. What a bummer. When they have no flavor, it makes you feel like they have no nutrients. Blaah.

No exercise today other than running round, round, up, down, here, there and everywhere getting ready to leave in the morning.

However, I did e-mail the 63 yr old woman looking for thru' hiking partners in 2008. As I wrote to her I realized I have been thinking I would try to get back on the AT in 2008. I have decided to remove the "try" and make it a definite committment, or it won't happen. Now what I need is the courage to tell people this so it becomes really, really real.

So I told EJ.

Yeah, the bicycle stuff and the pilates are good for you too, and I fugure you will soon start feeling the benefits from that kind of exersise, too -- not so much after doing it, but what you can do later, over all, without struggle.

Here's what we did in CrossFit class today:

30 over head snatches (lifting a dumbell from the ground, to overhead.)
24 overhead squats (holding said dumbell straight up overhead, and doing full squats)
18 over head push-press (holding dumbell at shoulder, and pushing it up)

All exercises were performed with a 20 pound dumbell, and broken up so that we did half each set one one side, and half on the other. The routine was timed -- AND I KICKED EVERYBODY'S BUTT! Including the twenty-something, long-distance-running couple, and the black-belt martial arts instructor who owns the studio where we have the class.

And I beat them by A LOT.

I finished in 4:58, followed (not closely) by martial-arts-guy and a guy around my age. David and Katie (the young-uns) did not finish, because the instructor stopped the routine at ten minutes.

I think my thighs are back to trashed (hopefully not as badly as last week) but I feel great.

So, there I was.....

So, there I was, unable to come up with even the lamest excuse to get out of exercising today. So I spent about an hour pumping on the excercise bike, doing some Pilates and doing stretches.

It is actually the stretches that make me feel the best when all is said and done. The other stuff may be better for me but it's after a good stretching session that I can get up and say, "Wow, nothing hurts right now."

And I really, really, really want a doggie. A small one so I don't have to pick up big poop.

Lameness Aussi

It was lameness by which I also was attacked....

I did, however, have a good checkup - BP 120/70 as usual. I am still finishing off the chinese take out from yesterday, so I have no idea what my calories have been for the last two days.

I also wrestled with many, many problems getting my quilt loaded onto the frame, putting the machine assembly back together and getting a recalcitrant sewing maching to function properly - all with no show of temper whatsoever. That must count for something!

Wish me luck for a walk in the park tomorrow, or, if nasty weather, some Pilates in the family room.

Lameness

No exercise today. I stayed up all night finishing a project for a class, hence the last posting being so late (or early, depending how you look at it).

Anyway, the paper is turned in, and I only have one more Arabic class and one more assignment for my magazine writing class before I'm done.

Yay!

Photos

The only luck I've had uploading photos has been to use Photoshop to make them lower quality, and hence, smaller files. It's quite easy and fast to do if you have P.S. — just go to "save for web," in the "file" menu, and use the controls there to reduce quality and/or size.

It seems like files more than 10K in size don't like to upload. Still, not too bad for a free blog.

Photos

I've been trying to upload photos, but it's not working for some reason.

Walked, or more accurately, strolled for a half hour or so in the park. A very poofy squirrel came for me, obviously hoping my pocket was full of goodies, but, alas, I was unprepared to feed the masses.

Calorie count for the day is 1315. Tomorrow I have a class, so may not get to exercise - lame excuse? Time is passing so quickly - I leave for Fla on Monday With all the travelling I do, I dread getting on the next plane, settling in at the next place. I never want to leave where I am, but I never want to come back once I've settled in somewhere else.

There is NEVER enough time.....

Today's Exercise

Today's workout:

Row 500 meters
50 Pull-ups (weight assisted)
Run 400 meters
50 Dips (weigt assisted)
Row 500 meters

Completed in 32 minutes.

Towards the end of the dips part, I started to feel a bit nauseous and my upper body felt like gelatine, but by the time I got home I was ravenous.

I ate a tin of smoked oysters that I had actually brought with me to Washington for us to share, and forgot about.

You were with me in spirit as I ate them.

First Day

Sheesh! Lame excuse for not exercizing....It used to go the other way 'round - you were too busy cavorting around to get your assignments done!

Very cool chicken pic, by the way.

Today started badly, aches and pains, much groaning on the long way downstairs for my first cuppa, but I resolved to do something good for myself in spite of it all. (I don't want to get called names by a fellow blogger). So, after an hour with a Pilates DVD I actually felt great! Was it the Pilates, the stretching I did do, the stretching I didn't do, the "vitamin I" I took with my other vitamins first thing, or a combination of all of the above?

And I still feel well, long after the vit. i should have worn off, so...draw your own conclusions.

Since I am also trying to loose weight, I will include my calorie count for the day: 809 plus dinner which will be homemade turkey soup. Not so easy to quantify, but likely to be in the neighborhood of 250 Kcal.

First Post

My quads are still killing me from this one, but stretches seem to be helping.

I probably won't get any excersise today, as I still have several major homework assignments I want to make progress on. I will however, eat a fresh Braeburn apple to keep the doctor away for today...

Just a thought: I heard James Taylor's "How Sweet it is to be Loved by You," on the radio today. Talk about passive voice...