Getting Pumped Up

So I’ve been having a hard time motivating lately, which makes the 52DC all that more attractive. Last night I spontaneously won Capitals tickets and ended up at Verizon Center. That negated the workout I had planned, but no matter at least I could try to eat something healthy. Brenn and I decided to go for the “Acela Club” chefs table buffet. This basically consisted of several stations of gourmet food. It actually looked pretty good, lots of veggies, some salmon. So I thought, well this is a good way to spend 35 bucks.

Our tickets were on club level, meaning the restuarant we were in was for the VIP’s and rich. So low and behold I sit down to eat my fantastically healthy meal and the free beer girls come by with the new Budweiser ale… Before I could say anything my wife was grabbing beers off of the tray. Doh! Oh well, whats another day of drinks???

I looked in the mirror this morning and eyed the pooch that’s developing. I don’t want to be that guy with the small beer pooch know what I mean? That should be motivation enough. Anyhow, definitely getting a workout in tonight, probably HIIT. Since I’ve been resting the legs recently hopefully I will feel pretty fresh and those nagging injuries wont rear their ugly heads.

Cheers, -Kevin

Getting It All Out

Well I sure went nuts this weekend, better to do it now than during the challenge I suppose.

The  US Mens National Team was in town to face Cuba at RFK Stadium, so it was lots of tailgating and drinking as you can imagine. The next day the Wife went to the Skins game with some of her friends so I camped out with my brother at his friends place, more drinking and more crappy food.

Now I am feeling rather bloated and stuck at work on Columbus day in a city that’s 99% Government workers. Basically, everyone is at home BUT US!

Oh well, back on the CE’s today gearing up for Wednesday.

Cheers, - Kevin

Missed the Gym this morning…

I can’t figure out if I really have an injury or not. I went out around 6:00 this morning to go into my regular HIIT routine. As I am running, warming up, within the first few minutes my lower shins, right on the inside, began to ache. What is that? I don’t want to say shin splints because I usually associate that with soreness in the tibialis anterior, even though the technical term for shin splints is medial tibial syndrome. My muscles aren’t sore, its just an aching feeling. My verdict is, my new shoes suck.

I’ve just started running with the Mizuno Wave Elixir 3’s, found them in the performance section at City Sports. I strayed away from my New Balances that were recommended to me by my local running shop, Pacers, because I needed something lighter and faster to sprint in during my HIIT training. The NB’s were bulky, and more for distance running, but they offered lots of stability for a big guy like me (6′6″ 205). The Mizunos are super light, but I think I may be damaging myself by wearing them. What a waste of 89 dollars. Why is it so hard to find a light shoe with the support I need?

In any case, I think my solution is to start sprinting on grass with my soccer cleats, and warm up on my way to the field in my NB’s.

So back to what happened this morning. So I get in a few minutes, and just decided I couldn’t grit through the pain, packed it up after about 5 minutes, NO SPRINTING UGH!! What a pain in the ass. My Wife and I are also hanging up shelves tonight in the bedroom so I think my workout time is shot there, oh well, better get these “off days” out before the 52 Day Challenge starts up next week.

I’ve had some other issues as well. For one, my heel nags me on occasion. I think I may have a minor case of plantar fasciatus which causes my heel to burn sometimes when I stand on it. Very minor, minor enough to deal with on a daily basis.

Also, one night this week I couldn’t sleep because my calves were constantly twitching. It was strange, they were right at the point where they felt like they were going to cramp but they wouldn’t, they would just twitch. It was very uncomfortable, to the point where I had to get up and eat a banana/chug some water. After a while I finally got to sleep, but it wasn’t fun at all. I started to think maybe over-training a bit, but I haven’t really adjusted my activity level too high in the past few weeks.

All of it really comes back to the Mizunos. Pre Mizuno - no cramping, no twitching calves, no shin ache / post Mizuno - extended twitching, and shin ache. I think I’ve found my issue.

Anyhow, as I said before, better to get this sorted out now before the 52DC starts up into full swing, looks like I’ll be putting in some work this weekend.

Cheers everyone! - Kevin

Opening Words

Hi Everyone,

 This is my first go around with the 52 day challenge and I am excited to get it started! I am in a pretty solid routine right now, working out 6 days a week with yoga on the off day to stay active. Typically I am running different types of HIIT sessions for my cardio days. And on my lifting days I will following full body routines from Coach Dos’ Men’s Health Power Training book. Here’s an example of what my week will typically look like:

Monday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM Weight Training RX’ed from Dos’ book.

Tuesday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM HIIT Training 8 intervals 45 second sprints effort level 9 with 60 seconds of recovery. This followed by about 15-20 mins of running with variant levels of speed.

 Wednesday: AM Off / PM Yoga.

Thursday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM Weight Training RX’es from Dos’ book.

Friday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM HIIT Training 8 intervals 30 second sprints effort level 10 followed by 45 second rest interval. This followed by about 15-20 mins of running at variant levels of speed.

Saturday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM Weight Training as RX’ed from Dos’ book.

Sunday: AM Body-weight Squats, Push Ups, Lunges / PM HIIT Training 8 intervals of 2 minutes sprints at level 7 effort with 2 minutes at level 3. This usually followed by 20-25 mins of cardio at variant levels of speed.

 So this is what I am looking like as far as my workout plan goes. As for nutrition, typically my day look like this:

AM - Breakfast 7:00 - Shredded wheat with soy milk, 2-3 eggs scrambled

Snack 10:30 - Fage Greek yogurt 2% w/honey, protein shake mixed with water

Lunch 12:30/1:00 - Seitan, Brown Rice, 2 Apples

Snack 4:00 - 2 pieces of Babybel light cheese, protein shake mixed with water, handful of almonds

PWO 7:00 - protein shake mixed with soy milk added creatine

Dinner 8:00 - Green Beans, Tofu, whole wheat cous cous

 Also taking fish oil, multi-v, and green tea supplements.

Again this is just a typical day, obviously my foods variate a lot throughout the week but that is the general gist of it. I am trying to cut weight and get down into the 185-195 range for my height 6′6 that is pretty decent. I am hovering around 205 right now and am ready to step it up!

Hello world!

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