Drizzle-Izzle

Minor rain this AM allowed for outdoor running! 4 solitary miles on a day when few other New Yorkers saw it fit to run. Bah I say, BAH!

NRWL Continues

More of Workout A. Up to 70lb incline bench with bells. Though, much of the rest of the exercising is left to be desired. Ah well. Realized that if I don't get my work out in before 8 AM, the gym is unappetizingly full. Guess I know what that means. Workout B tomorrow @ early o'clock. Want to work.

Today!

Skipped the PM workout last night in favor of getting up at 6 today....

NRLW 4A2:

Don't remember all the details, but suffice it to say my lat pulldown is up to 100#! Given, I had to do my 2 sets of 8 as 4 sets of 4, but HUZZAH anyway!!

Limber

AM: MONSTER, MONSTER CORE WORKOUT
        10 x 3 ab-wheel rollouts with THREE SECOND HOLDS at the top of the movement. Beastly. Followed by half an hour of IT band stretching and massaging.

PM: Yoga class. Finally able to do shoulder stands!

Yesterday and today

Yesterday: Yoga. Man, I really need to go to these classes more often.

Now: Off to Pilates

Later: Break Thru Fitness, or possibly a run.

3/28/11

30 minutes of speedwork in the VFF to start the day. Surprising how not-writhing-in-pain I am after some serious velocity this morning.

PM:
Hour long acupuncture treatment for the IT band.

15k

9am: Stretch class. REALLY awesome that I discovered this.

11:15am: 15k start. Unofficially finished in 1:21.22, or 8:45 miles. HOLLA!!! Unexpectedly got to run the whole thing with my friend and WW leader, Melanie, who is awesome. YAY!

3/27/11

Last week, I went to an acupuncturist who told me "Yeah, this IT band is going to need a lot of work." My girlfriend who's studying acupuncture was horrified the first time she tried to massage it because instincts told her that a tendon should never feel like that.

So here's my new routine that I'm going to put in as a workout.

Start with a blisteirngly hot shower. Next, forget foam rollers. Not sturdy enough. I use a softball. Roll on each side for 5-10 minutes each. Try not to cry like a little girl. Next, 3 stretches. Standing cross-legged forward fold, cross-legged fetus pose and then pigeon pose.

Let's see how this goes.

PM EDITS:
6 3minute rounds, 30 seconds plank between each round.

Rounds 1 - 3: Deadlift @135 lbs. Continuous lifting.
Rounds 4 - 5: K-bell swing @ 45 lbs.
Round 6: K-bell clean and presses @ 45 lbs. alternating sides.

Fast 20 minute workout. Tons of fun.

Overtime work out time

Worked for 10 hours today which with last night's late night, killed any formal opportunity to work out.

Hell with that wussy crap.

3x3 L-hold pullups on the door jamb of my office. Slow up, slow down, work that core.

PM EDIT:
Because I'm truly a complete idiot, I left my keys at work so I ended up walking 2 hours to my parent's place last night. 32 degree temperature. I'm definitely logging this as a workout. FML.

NRLW 4A2

I've decided plank is a question of mind over matter. I cannot convince myself to hold it longer than 90 seconds, though I feel quite sure my muscles could do it if I demanded it of them. I wish I had someone else to hold the watch and time me, because I think looking at it all the time makes it worse. Sigh.

Hungover run!!!

4 miles. Felt good for the last half mile or so, but overall I feel so much better. Gearing up for Sunday's 15k!!!

Friday run

5 miles in the Vibrams today. Tweaked the ankle with 100 meters to go. Something is up with my form but I can't figure out what. Will continue to explore.

Thursdaily

2 minute rounds, 30 second rests
Round 1: leg raises
Round 2: tick-tocks
Round 3: side plank left
Round 4: side plank right
Round 5: forearm plank

Wish my core was recovered enough to do roll-outs, still sore from earlier this week. Perhaps tomorrow.

NRLW 4B1

Deadlift: 3x8 @ 110 (book calls for "wide grip deadlift from a box" but my gym lacks boxes)
Bulgarian Split squat: 2x8 @ 25, 1x8@ 35
U/H Lat Pulldown: 3x8 @ 85
Reverse lunge with fwd reach: 2x8 @ 20, 1x8 @ 25 (per hand)
DB Prone Cuban Snatch: 3x8 @ 10
Prone Cobra: 105s, 120s.
Ab series: Swiss ball crunch, reverse crunch, lateral flexion

Tonight I'll be doing an enhanced version of my Wednesday Night Liver Workout!!

5 miles

A beautiful morning for running! Had a blast.

Stan - what's foot conditioning?

More lifting

Another session of Workout B. I need a better gym. Classes, olympic bars, and barbells, plus not having to fight for the deadlift/squat rack like I'm running around Walmart the day after thanksgiving. That would be helpful.

But anyway, onto Job Fair and then back here for more upper body work and then...more job searching. I wonder what my life will be like when I don't spend my free time looking for work.

3/22/11

30 minutes of foot conditioning

EVENING EDIT: Yoga at Golden Bridge Yoga. Coming back to yoga after a 6 month layoff... Yeah, you can imagine.

Kickboxing!

HUUUUGE class today, but fortunately the instructor didn't dumb it down too much. Lovely!

Can't believe I'm not first today

Core Conditioning
5x8 ab-wheel rollouts with TWO second hold at the top of the movement

Then 2 minute rounds of
1) leg-raises
2) leg-raise numbers
3) side plank

Evening: 30 minutes swim

Tone Up Trim Down

What was I THINKING doing weights two days in a row? Well, I guess I was thinking that my bootcamp instructor has a new pair of classes at 6:45 on Mondays called Tone Up/Trim Down. Essentially 30 mins of upper body and 30 mins of lower body. I'll note that Sam (the instructor) is considerably less energized at 6:45 AM than PM.

Most fun exercise was single legged squats over a bench so you can be SURE you went down far enough. Walking down stairs hurts for the first time in months. WOOHOO!!!!

Stretch and Muscles

Found out my gym has a stretch class! It was great! Relaxing, the teacher is pretty funny, and I felt quite loose after. Then hit up NRLW 4A1:

Front Squat/Push Press: 3x8 @ 55
Step Up: 3x8 @ 40
DB 1-leg rows: 2x8 @ 20, 1x8 @ 25
Static Rear-foot elevated lunges: 3x8@50
Pushups 3 x 8
Plank: 75, 90, 75 (I seem unable to break 90s here... Must find willpower!)
Horizontal Wood Chop 3x8 @ plate 5 (50#? no clue)

Rest Day

AM: Did yoga by myself for 30 mins. Holy cow, the hips. Pigeon pose is called "the magic pose" for good reason indeed. I was surprised by how much I remembered even after being out of practice for about half a year. I really look forward to going back to my old teacher.

Because it didn't hurt enough before.

Yesterday: half hour run to keep the form fresh.
Today: full loop through the park in my brand spanking new Vibram Five Fingers. First time out with them. Fascinating sensation. Pretty much hobbled for the rest of the day. Calves and hams are barking at me. Perhaps a 10k was too much to experiment with? Felt great on the run itself though.
Tonight: half hour walk to walk off the aching feet

Even hour run!

6.4 miles on a very unorthodox route through the park. My buddy Heidi was bored with the standard park drive loop, so we went a bit on the bridle path, and some on normal pedestrian walkways. Passed the Zoo, the Alice in Wonderland sculpture, the duck pond and other attractive sites. Was nice to have some new scenery!

Odd-hour run

After unexpectedly taking Thursday off due to being in lab for 12 hours, my running buddies decided early AM was not for them. So we ran at 10am today. SO BEAUTIFUL OUT OMG!!!! I barely noticed 5 miles which included Harlem Hill. Awesome.

ETA:
And in the evening, bootcamp! Moved up to 10# for the first 30 tricep extensions and managed 36 squat thrusts in 60 seconds. woohoo!

Running as a means of transport

Last night I ran to the bar to meet people for Pub Night. This is the second time this week I used running as a mode of transportation, instead of running in a circle and going back home, and have thus saved myself $4.50. I see a lot more of this in my future.

March's Madness

Check out my latest facebook post. What if we were all to attempt one million of something before the end of April and count it as our challenge? No scoring on this one. And maybe we can all do it for charity?

Running one million feet = 189 miles. or 6 30ish mile weeks which is about 8 miles a day, or 2 4 mile runs a day.
Running one million yards = 568 miles or 6 100ish mile weeks.
Doing a million pushups.
Deadlifting a million pounds.
Doing a million situps.
etc.

Let me know your thoughts weaklings!

Deadlift Disappointment

1 hour and 1 minute and 2 seconds?
Disappointing.

300 Deadlifts @ 185 lbs, 82.2% of total bodyweight.

I will rank myself dead last in this event. Sometime this week I will tabulate the scores and the winner shall choose our next trial.

My oh my

Relentless and Break Thru back to back. HUZZAH! That was hard. 2 hours and 15 mins of near-constant activity.

I also finally stopped to introduce myself to my instructor, Sam. He said he was glad I did, and felt bad that he'd been so rude as to not introduce himself (but we know their names, they're on the class schedule!). We talked workouts and food and crazy mud races, and it was generally enjoyable. I told him I'd bring a list of the mud races I'm aware of. This man has biceps the size of my head and he was all "I'd really have to train for that..." Muhahahaha. Yeah right. He could do it tomorrow, hungover. But he said he'd really want to do his best, and for that, there'd be training. I highly admire someone who's that dedicated. And I'm glad to benefit from his enthusiasm and excitement about workouts!

Also contacted the gym to see about a body composition analysis, which they say they could do for $50. Dunno how steep or not that is, but I might go for it.

Leg work

NRWL Workout A #3 and B #2 done. I am getting used to flipping different weights depending on what rep level I'm working on. The 5 sets of 5 seem to still be the easiest, which means I may be a bit too fool-hardy when it comes to the weights I am using on my sets of 10 or 15 reps.

Also 2 mile run and 2 mile walk today. So, my legs freaking fail. Which is a good thing. Tomorrow, more upper body nonsense.

Morning Run

30 minutes trying out new form again. Better today. Not as winded. Still not completely comfortable with it. Will continue to work.

Deadlifts have been moved to tonight as I forgot my ID at home yesterday. To make up for it, I will throw in a bonus set of pull-ups at the end of the test.

Night Run

So yesterday was Pi Day, and in honor of that I sought pie. I ran from 97th and park to 25th and broadway in my quest, and found the store was out of any pies that were worth the calories. C'est la vie. Still got in a good 4.5 miles, though!

In other news, a friend and I are doing this race: http://www.rebelrace.com/event.php?id=35 15k mud race with obstacles, we're signing up for the 3pm start wave. Who here is tough enough to join us? There is also talk of camping out Saturday night for the bonfire/party.

In final news, I have achieved my goal weight! Now time to boost the protein intake and build the serious muscles!

bailey's total fitness

Last day of free trial week so lets max it out!

1.5 hours at the gym.

chest machine, then leg machines, rest rinse and repeat

3/13/11

Morning core:

Playing around with my new gym timer.

5 rounds of 2 minutes, 1 minute rests
Round 1: Plank
Round 2: Ab-wheel rollouts
Round 3: Spider-man pushups
Round 4: Extended arm pushups alternating with downward dog pushups
Round 5: Plank again

Was doing well until I hit Round 3 where everything fell apart. My core actually doesn't feel a workout at all. It barely even woke up today. The main difficulty comes in 2 minutes of ab-wheel rollouts. If you can handle them, your shoulders won't. I just realized that this is 10 minutes of deltoid emphasizing stress.

Maybe that should be the March challenge. Maybe 10 minutes of pushups...

And I'm looking to test on Monday night.

My Run

Stan, I see your 10k, and raise you a 10 miler. (J/k, glad to see you getting back in training!) Also waiting to see how badly you whipped us all in the February challenge... (Who's leading and therefore gets to pick the March challenge, btw?)

Officially my longest run ever! (10.4)

I was thinking about what my reaction would have been if you'd told me a year ago that I'd be running 10.4 miles for fun on a Saturday and training for a Tough Mudder and a half marathon. I'm not sure a-year-ago-me would have believed you. I sometimes stop and barely believe it myself.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack

Took 3 days to rest (and grieve) after my membership expired, but enough of that! There's training to be done!

Did my usual 10k route this morning trying to perfect my running form and I'm still amazed at how tiring (and fast!) injury free running feels. While I went faster when I actually ran, I ran less because of how quickly I was getting gassed. Took me an hour to finish a route, I used to do in 45 minutes. I'm not worried though as I know that when my conditioning improves, I'll better my 45 minute mark by a whole hell of a lot.

------
EDIT

Make that 2 hours of walking around looking for alternately my girlfriend and then my Kilimanjaro buddy.

The journey continues.

Another pair of Workout A & B's for Hypertrophy I

A: Dumbell inc bench: 3/15/27-25-25

Cable Seated Row: 3/15/40-50-50

Dumb Shoulder Press: 3/15/40-40-40

Wide Grip Lat Pull: 3/15/5-5-6

Barb. closed grip bench: 3/10/65-65-65

High Pull: 3/10/40-40-40

Double Crunch: 3/20

B: Reverse Crunch: 3/15

Squat: 3/15 60-60-60 (started really low)

Bulgarian split-squat 3/15/25x2

Step-Up 3/15/27.5x2

Something Else that I can't remember right now and I can't find the book.

So yea, there's all of that and there will continue to be it on (hopefully) consecutive days. I am trying to figure out how to get used to the hurt when going into gym for new hurt. The leg stuff is definitely a 2 day burn, while my upper is kind of a 1.

Bootcamp

Well booted, as usual.

Forgot to mention that I discovered last night I am once again capable of swimming a full 25yds under water. Pretty proud of that :)

I am still here!

I am still alive! Don't Worry!

Today I did ab ripper x from p90x then went to the gym for about an hour alternating chest machines to ab machines. Then when I was driving home and I had to make wide turns I had a hard time cuz my chesticles were all like trembling and stiff and I was like dahhh I am gonna die.

The End

RainRun!

Ok, really drizzle, but it's the first time I've ventured out in any kind of non-frozen precipitation. 4 miles and at a pretty good clip, too!

SWIMMING!

I finally got back to the pool! Sad part is that the chlorine/ozone (it's partially disinfected by ozone...) short circuit my heart rate monitor, so I have no way of knowing how many calories it burns. DOOM!

And of course my "warmup" for swimming was Total Body Workout. It felt EXTRA awesome today, and my instructor even commented on it. Huzzah!

Running (it feels like this is always my title)

5 miles in the park, including the dreaded Harlem Hill (which BLISSFULLY will not be included in the 15k at the end of the month!)

Also, Nota Bene: Squat thrusts on a medicine ball are HARD!!!!

Wanting more ow, but to get away from the crowds.

Hypertrophy Stage I - Workout A & B.

I suppose I need to start remembering to post immediately after work outs. The gym is getting tougher and more frustratin to get bench time for my work outs during times that aren't 7 AM. This may be both a good and bad thing. Pushing, if I do everything I am supposed to, i'll have 4 workouts for the week under my belt for probably only the 2nd time this year. Sad I know.

Not "Goodbye"

but "see you later." Last day of membership at Five Points Academy. The last week I've been doing my farewell tour, giving each instructor my absolute best effort in class. Tonight was Steve's Kettlebell class and Emily's conditioning class.

My best Turkish get-ups.
My best jump rope.
My best attempt to do 2 minutes of double-clap pushups.
More situps.
MORE situps.

I'll be back there in November and I hope to return even stronger than when I left.

Tuesday

Pilates in the AM - done!

Break Thru Fitness in the PM - scheduled!

Monday 3/7/11

Instead of taking Coach Fury's Kettlebell class (and God knows, I've had enough Kettlebells the last 2 months) I took Sergio's Abs class. I'm calling it the Abdominal Abbatoir.

45 minutes of crunching and curling movements.

I think I'm going to add 100 situps to every workout I do from now on. What we do daily defines our strengths, but it also defines our weaknesses. I am going to grind this weakness into a nub.

Lifting

NRLW 3B4 today - stage 3 is done. A little disappointed that I did the lat pulldown at 70# the whole time, but the jump to 85 is a LOT, and this machine has no 5# additional plate that fits it. Someone suggested I try chaining a 5# weight to the stack, which I may do next time.

Tonight - either kickboxing or bra shopping, either of which counts as a workout in my book.

Sunday Recap

First of all...

HOLY SMOKES!

9am: Coogan's Salsa and Blues 5k
12pm: Kettlebells
1pm: TRX Suspension Training
2pm: Ultimate Sandbags

Craziest part? I held back *A LOT* on the 5k and it was a very hilly course. Yet, I still managed to beat my previous best pace by 6 seconds per mile. I picked out a random woman in the beginning to be my target for the race and kept it slow trying to keep her within arms reach. 1 mile, 2 miles... I was getting frustrated. Was she really this slow? Keep it cool, Stan. Wait for your chance to go. So I just kept her pace. Sucks for me that I didn't preview the course map. Before I knew it, we only had 3 blocks to go and at that point, I fist pumped and turned on the after-burners. Didn't feel tired, tight or sore at all after the race as I was thinking more about the marathon day ahead of me.

2011 has never looked more promising!

WOW it's beautiful out!

9 sunny miles with a good breeze. Days like today were MADE for running.

Light Saturday

AM: 10 am Conditioning class with Emily. Though I can jump rope on the slow rope, I haven't been able to transition to the standard yet. Sweated like a pig in a sauna in class today.
PM: Hour long walk to enjoy the weather.

Bootcamp

Bootcamp tonight. I couldn't decide if it felt harder or easier than usual. My heart rate monitor said easier. My body... she might disagree, or she might just be SUPER PISSED at me from lifting last night and running this morning.

Insert Title Here

Ran 4.6 this morning. It's a beautiful day!!!

Morning Core 3/3/11

Ab-wheel rollout pyramids: 5,6,7,8,7,6,5
Spider pushups: 10, 12, 10

Nice and easy day to recover.

FINALLY I CAN POST

Don't know what was up with my internet settings at home this week as it kept on giving me error messages whenever I tried opening up a new blog post.

My workouts this week:

Monday: Kettlebells with Coach Fury. Upgraded to the maximum bell in the gym, the BEAST. 106.5 lbs. of mean, nasty badassery. Swings for time, deadlifts for time, etc. Unbelievable. I left the gym skipping on clouds.

Tuesday AM: 20 minute walk because I hate sleeping in.
Tuesday PM: Double-class! Kettlebells with Steve. Since I did kettlebells the day before, I dropped to the 88 lb. weight. Lots of overhead and single-handed work. Even some double-kettlebell swings. Got a chance to work alongside Coach Bill and it was inspirational. I love the fact that I have the opportunity to train alongside amateur fighters and coaches. Afterwards, I took Emily's conditioning class. Ridiculous core work alongside jump rope. Arms were giving out on me trying to jump rope.

Wednesday: Rest day. No workouts.

Thursday AM: 20 minute walk. Assault lethargy from the first moment you wake up.
Thursday PM: Double class again! Kettlebells with Emily doing long (2 minute) intervals. Trying my best to maintain form throughout the class was an incredible challenge. But the real treat was yet to come. First time taking a class with Sergio. My college friend Dave had been telling me about Sergio's classes ever since I started at Five Points. I've been anxious to take his class and man, oh man, I was not disappointed. Start off with sandbags, kettlebells and agility jumps. 5 straight minutes of sandbags, kettlebells and agility jumps. Move onto 5 minutes of burpees. Go to 5 minutes of battle ropes. Congratulations, you're 1/3 of the way through the class. 15 minutes of jump rope. Finish off with 100 consecutive situps. If you stop, the whole class resets their situp count. When you're done, 100 pushups. 100 jumping jacks. Hit the shower, rookie and be less pathetic less time.

I will do February's test after my membership at 5 points is over this coming Tuesday. Until then, I want to soak up every last class I can.

Train hard.

NRLW 3A4

Done! I won't have to do another bodyweight matrix until Phase 5!!!

Also, note to self: There is a REASON you drag yourself out of bed at 6:15 to lift. It is because the gym is a NIGHTMARE in the evening.

Note to boys at the gym: Try not to smell so bad. I'm sure I don't smell like a rose, but really, that's foul.

Runnin!

4 miles in the park. And since yesterday's pancakes were aborted due to the chef having other obligations, we had them for breakfast today!! Pancakes make great recovery food, especially when served with bacon!!!

National Pancake day!

Morning pilates. Need to make a stronger effort to get to this class each week, rather than the Thursday evening version, cuz this one is so much more intense (in that it is not an "intro" class). Also, being ass-early in the AM means fewer people go, so I get more personal attention. Tonight: Relentless! and PANCAKES!!!!!!!!!

Shaky Start so, re-do

Didn't get the consistency I wanted last week starting Hypertrophy, so I re-started this morning.

Dumbell Bench: 5/5 20x2 (2 sets), 22.5x2 (1set), 25x2 (2sets)

Cable Seated Press: 5/5 60lbs

Shoulder Press: 5/5 20x2

Wide Grip Lat PullDown: 5/5 60lbs (getting easier, will probably add 10 next week)

Barbell Bench: 5/5 105lbs

High Pull: 5/5 20x2 lbs (still shaky on form with this one)

Double Crunch: 3/20 reps

Got my first compliments on body change this weekend. Felt weird, but insanely motivating.