After the Storm

Although hurricane Sandy or cyclone, whatever it's technical name is, has still not completely passed yet, it's more or less done. It's still rainy and a little windy out there, but not too bad. Luckily we did not lose power at my house. The lights flickered a few times, but never went out. I got antsy this late morning and went for a run around the neighborhood to see what damages occurred. I broke out my track pants, rain jacket, and hat for the rain. My development wasn't bad at all. A few downed tree limbs, a lot of water moving around, but nothing major. Zim did see some fallen trees and downed powerlines around us on his way to work this morning though. I ran to the dog park/trailhead and was amazed that it wasn't washed away. The path was still runnable as far as I could see. It started to rain a bit harder so I made my way back. Ran over 3 and 1/4 miles in around 32 minutes. Still wanted to get more of a workout in, so I decided on upper body strength. I did the P90X shoulders, biceps, triceps workout. Kicked my butt since I was still pretty sore from yesterday.

Monday the weather started out rainy and altogether crappy, but it was better than I expected it to be. The hurricane's eye was supposed to make landfall around 5-7pm. No one really knew. Most places were closed, and I didn't want to be "that" person to show up to my gym, so I decided to do Insanity: Max Interval Circuit. (By the way, if you did go to your gym, awesome! I just didn't want to make someone have to stay at their job for my benefit. I would have went around 11:30am) Anyways...it's been over a month that I've done Max Interval Circuit. TOUGH! Those full body drills KILLED me! But in that good way. Nothing like being on your hands and knees, panting, feeling spent, with sweat pouring off of you. After Insanity, I finished with about 10-15 minutes of ab work. I showered up and braved the conditions to make it into work. It wasn't that bad. Luckily I got out early before it started to really pour and the winds started whipping.

Sunday I took the day off and more or less finished preparing everything for the hurricane. Fun, fun.  I watched Chelsea get cheated out of a 2-2 draw due to bad refereeing. That's what happens when you play Man United. Chelsea gets 2 red cards, Torres's was just ridiculous, and they get an offsides goal. Sooo frustrating. I hate losing, but if it's fair, it's fair. This was just disgusting.

Saturday, I wasn't sure what Sandy was going to bring so I went for a 4 and 1/2 miles plus run on the trail. Had a decent pace too. Ran it under 38 minutes. I think everyone and their mother's were out getting their last runs in. There were a ton of bikes. And a ton of bikers who don't understand sharing the trail. Is it that hard to move to the side if you're stopped? There was a group of about 12 bikers that literally took up the whole trail other than maybe a foot and a half. Ridiculous. I did have a really good run though. Ran with my Brooks ASRs, think my other Brooks are about done. Time to get a new pair soon!

Happy trails! Hope everyone is safe and their home's didn't get damaged or flooded.

Friday Woo-Hoo!!

Yay the weekend's here! And hurricane Sandy is right behind it. It looks like we might get hammered Monday. I hope it just goes out to sea. Guess we'll have a better idea in a few days.

Workouts. Thursday I did legs and abs with my dad. My legs were pretty shot from Wednesday's run. Today, Zim and I did this workout of the day:

20 body squats
15 push-ups
20 legs up crunches
10 shoulder presses (15 pound weights)
20 twist crunches
10 shoulder flys/curl-up-hammer down

Repeat X 2

Finish with 100 mason twists

DONE!!!

Playlist: Ratatat: Classics

Wednesday Bang Up

I woke up a bit sore from the past couple days. Plus migraines decided to visit me again today on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon. My thermometer in my car read 75 degrees at 1:30 today. After work I decided to go for a run. Ran 6.25 miles in 53 minutes plus. Man my legs are feelin' it now! Afterwards I did about 15 minutes of abs. Wish I could sleep in past 8am tomorrow but I'm training my father in the AM. Gonna be an early night for me tonight!

Playlist: TalkSport and Fiona Apple

Yup, It's Tuesday

I've never been a fan of Tuesdays. It's like Monday again, but more boring. No weekend talk, just groan "Is it Friday yet?". Here's my week thus far.

Sunday I had to work, so I took the day off from a workout to rest up. I got home, grabbed some food with Zim, drank beer, and watched football. Not too bad.

Monday late morning I started my first workout of the week. I started with a 4 mile run. It's still been real nice and warm out. And my migraines haven't lifted. Oh well. It was a beautiful morning for a run, so I took advantage of it. After I can home to do a P90X chest and back workout.  Still not using a chair for the pull-ups and not using any knees for push-ups. Love the push-ups. Standard, military, wide-front, diamond, and my least favorite...dive bombers. Thoses suckers are a bitch. I finished with a 10-15 minute ab workout with Zim.

Today, Tuesday I went to train my father in the late morning. We did shoulders, biceps, triceps, and a few back moves mixed in. I lifted with him, but was only using 10 pounds. I didn't want to over do it with my arms. Felt good though. I came home and wanted to do some cardio, so I boxed. 5 minutes jump rope, 1 round shadow boxing, 5 on the heavy bag, and I ended with two, 2 minute drills. I started with jumping jacks (15 sec), heels up (15), mountain climbers (15), heismans (15), next football thinking skills (30) and ended with 20 burpees. It actually took like 2 and 1/2 minutes.

I showered up and watched Chelsea FC play Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar is a tough Ukrainian squad and playing at their stadium is even tougher. The Blues were more or less dominated my them. Chelsea had a few opportunies they didn't finish, but Shakhtar deserved those needed 3 points. Going to be a tough week for the boys, Man United on Sunday and United again for the Capital One Cup.

Another Week Wrap-Up

Was another beautiful and warm week in October. Almost the end of and we're still seeing temperatures in the 70s. Crazy! As nice as the weather's been, the flux of temperature has triggered my seasonal migraines. Not fun. I'll just step outside for a minute, and I can already feel my head starting to hurt. Oh well, I just have to deal with it.

Soo...getting back to my workouts this week. Tuesday, I just did straight cardio. Ran a nice 5 miles plus on the trails. My head didn't bother me too bad afterwards. Wednesday, I ab libbed the legs part of the P90X legs and back disk, and then finished with a 2 mile run. Thursday, Zim and I did biceps and back. I upped my weights this time too. I moved from 15 pounds to 18 pounds. Felt good! I'm still not using a chair on the pull-ups as well.  I feel like I get so much more out of pull-ups now. Friday, Zim and I did 5 rounds of 20 burpees, 25 medicine ball squats, 15 push-ups, 20 lunges, and 8-10 shoulder fly/upward row/shoulder presses. TOUGH workout. My shoulders are still a bit sore even today. The whole workout took us about 45 minutes. Saturday, Zim and I ran in Valley Forge Park for a nice 3 and 1/2 mile run. The weather was beautiful out, but my headaches were not so beautiful.

I also had my first week in training my father. It went well. He did great! I'll be training him twice a week now. Hope he sticks with it!

Workout Stuffies

Sorry that I haven't update in over a week. I been busy as heck, but I'm still getting my workout in about 6 times a week.

I have been able to do 2 chin-up on my own and now only use the assistance cables. No more chair for me. Quite happy about that.

After a normal gym/elliptical workout, I did upper body strength training. I finished with abs. Later after work I went to my father's house to start him on a training program. We started with shoulder, bicep, triceps after an extended warm-up. My dad's 66, and has heart issues. He did great! And I got another workout in too!! I'm going to be training him twice a week. Happy he's trying to get back in shape.

Playlist: Ladytron: Velocifero

Wrapping up the Week

Tuesday - An elliptical and leg workout day at the gym. It was a pretty rainy, crappy day out, so I decided to stay inside.

Wednesday - Zim and I did the P90X back and bicep. It's been awhile since I did this. I did find out that I can do a couple of chin-ups with no assistance. I haven't been using a chair anymore either. I've been using the elastic assistant band, which is giving me a much better workout. I went for about a 2 mile run afterwards. Pretty tough.

Thursday- Man, I woke up sore. Upping my weights yesterday sure made a difference. After I got my Jeep back from getting work done on it, I went for a 4 and 1/2 mile run in the gross and soupy air. It was humid out. The last mile was the toughest. My body was still banged up from the upper body training but I pushed through. I finished with about 5 minutes of ab work.

Friday - I was going to take off, but decided to work out with Zim. We did back and legs P90X workout. A bit tough to get through be we did it, and finished off with about 10 minutes of abs.

Saturday - Again I was gonna to take the day off, but woke up around 7, and decided to join Zim and Novia on a 8am run. We did a slower paced 4 mile run, while passing a 10 pound sandbag off to someone after every mile. I took mile 2. Good workout!

After my run I came home to see Chelsea FC beat Norwich 4-1, and take another 3 points to stay on top of the table. Nice win boys! Later this afternoon Zim and I will do some Oktoberfest tailgating in Chester before the Union v Revolution match tonight. Good times!!!

Wild in the Streets, Runnin' Runnin'

I woke up to a beautiful sunny Monday morning. A perfect morning for a run. I ran about 5 and 1/4 miles in Valley Forge Park. It took a little less than 45 minutes. Also my first long run without music. My IPhone wasn't ITunes updated and decided not to work for me. It was actually quite pleasant running without music. Think I kept a better pace and felt more in tune with my body.

After I got home I did about 15-20 minutes of push-ups and pull-ups. Military, wide-front, and decline push-ups. Reverse grip, chin-ups, wide-front, and switch grip pull-ups.

DONE.