Category: Work Out

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I’m not doing any New Years Resolutions in 2021

I will be attempting to do Monthly goals that will hopefully be more manageable and achievable. The short sprints rather than the usual year-long marathon goals.

Januarys goal will be completing some fitness activity for every day this month

I found a beginner stretching YouTube video that is less than 20 min. I will try and complete as much stretching as I can this month. Stacking the stretching with my strength and cardio days should give me a good battle plan to accomplish this months goal.

Goals I’m thinking about performing:

Month being Sober

Month of Meditation

Month with out Caffeine

Month of reduced phone usage

Month Of leaning to play Chess (Yea I watched Queens Gambit)

Month of Learning to play Poker

any suggestions? please post below

I will be trying to write a monthly post as a follow up combined with a pre post to the upcoming month goal.

Happy New Years!!

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2 Runs In a Row

Big moves in the running world for me. I felt strong enough to run two days in a row.

On the first day, I extended my new quartine route with a couple more turns and a more scenic route while avoiding the lakefront path. As you can see in from the Wahoo screenshot, I ran on the west side of the Lake Shore Drive to appease the closings Mayor Lightfoot, unfortunately, had to put in place.

The first run was just under 3.5 miles, and the second run was the same route and in the same clockwise fashion. If this route sticks, I will alternate it both clockwise and counter-clockwise when needed.

Two runs in a row is monumental for me. I cannot remember a time outside, maybe college than I ran two days in a row. So I’m pumped and going to try and mix this into the training schedule and get some more miles in peer week.

1st Run 3/31/2020: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Average Mile Pace 163 bpm

March 31st 2020 Run: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Pace
March 31st, 2020 Run: 3.47 Miles 9:49 Pace

2nd Run 4/1/2020: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Average Mile Pace 163 bpm

April 1st 2020 Run: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Pace
April 1st, 2020 Run: 3.63 Miles 10:05 Pace

Both of the runs felt very similar, and no noticeable difference between the two. Looking forward to furthering progress

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2nd Run Back 3/21/2020

3.45 Mile Run @ 11:32 Mile pace

I took a few days off to help let my body have a fighting chance to recover from the first run in forever. The working strategy is to give myself ample rest in between runs in the first couple weeks to stave off any shin splits and overtraining. Overworking is a common issue in beginners that are too excited and try to train at full speed without building up the necessary fitness level to match their workout regime.
Knowing not to hit the ground running (excuse my pun), I will be diligent and not overdo it and push my pace. Persistence will be the key to success here.

Onto the run, 3.45 Miles with an 11:32 average.

The first third and last third was heavy on the walk-run ratios, but the middle third was a steady run with no stoppage or noticeable slowdowns.
Overall this was an excellent follow-up run with an increase in pace with more distance ran vs. walked.

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1st Run In Forever 03/17/2020

Distance 3.68 Miles AV Pace 12:34/Mi

With not having to commute to work, it seemed like a good time to start running again/exercising, reading back through my work out logs it has been just over a year since I last attempted to raise my heart rate in the name of health.

There have been many times I have had to restart a workout regime. The usual fears were there, shin splints, being way to sore the next few days, don’t have the right shoes, it’s too cold outside. After two days of being stuck inside and the cabin fever driving me crazy, going out for a run with all those “scary” excuses was an easy decision to get my butt off the couch and hit the lakefront for an easy peasy jog.

I got super lucky as the day I decided to go jogging was one of the best weather days of the year so far, the sun was out, and the temperature almost hit 52 degrees—shorts and Quarter-zip with a beanie and light gloves at the start of the run.

Run Breakdown: Distance 3.68 Miles – Avg Pace 12:34/mi

  • The first half mile was pretty easy as I was not trying to break any speed records my spirt.
  • Second half mile, I started to feel my abs working.
  • 2nd mile I began to switch between jogging and walking
  • 3rd mile had more prolonged bouts of walking – I was feeling out of breath, and my running form was to deteriorating fast  
  • Last half mile 50/50 run-walk with faster pace on the running trying to get home and get some dinner

This 1st run was lackluster performance-wise, but I was proud that I got out there and got the first one out of the wat. On to the next run!

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Weekly Post 11/25/2019

Highlights:

  • Went to the gym
  • Bears win!
  • Thanksgiving leftovers

Lowlights:

  • So much traveling

Goals for next week   Go to the gym again

I made it up to the gym for the first time in a long time. I found my old condo gym routine that hits the whole body with all of the weight machines at my home gym. It’s a basic 3×10 protocol with roughly 15 exercises that I can finish in almost 35 minutes with little rest. I need to make a concerted effort to make it the gym though. I don’t find the lifting and exercising to be that difficult. It seems that my brain doesn’t like getting healthier or put it at the top of the priorities list as I think it should be. There is time in the later evenings with my work and family schedule, but in the past working out late and taking a shower has made it difficult to fall asleep. To be fair back then I was getting an ample amount of sleep compared to now maybe this time will be different?

The Bears beat the New York Giants, but it wasn’t pretty we are still struggling and it this was a game we should have decidedly won but, we were so very close to losing I was on the edge of my seat for the entire game. This season is running of games and the Bears still is playing like trash. There are glimpses of hope but they are sporadic and we never seem to capitalize off them or put 2 good drives together. I’m hoping the Bears offense will start clicking so I can enjoy watching the games rather than biting my nails for 4 hours straight.

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family in downtown Chicago. Easily my favorite food of the Thanksgiving meal can only happen the day after Thanksgiving. The stuffing sandwich has been my go-to post-turkey day lunch for about the last 18 years. My Grandma whipped it up for me one year when she stayed over for the holiday weekend. It is a real game-changer combined with most of the food groups. Two toasted slices of white bread both have cranberry sauce spread like jam. Stuffing that was reheated in a frying pan giving it some crunchiness. Ham slices that are also hot, I mainly eat ham in Thanksgiving rather than turkey. That is the gist of the sandwich the hard part of the sandwich is cooking the stuffing into a patty and not burning them since you are working with leftover and you won’t have any more stuffing until next year. If you get that stuffing just right with the right ratio of ham this is my favorite sandwich of all time.

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Weekly Post 9/16/2019

Highlights:

  • 2 Workouts
  • Meditated
  • New Camera Lens
  • Finished another book

Lowlights:

  • Pretty sore for my workouts
  • Still, haven’t hit the golf course

Goals for next week:

  • Stick with the morning smoothies
  • 3 Workouts
  • 2 Meditation sessions

It was a pretty productive week. especially in the health department. For some reason, I have found it very hard to find time for a 15-minute meditation session. I was able to get one session this week and I’m pretty proud of that. I’ve read that most of the benefits come from being disciplined and staying consistent to earn all that meditation can bring. I need to make a better concise effort to work this into my weekly schedule. The harder part for me was finding a place that is pretty quiet and is isolated from all the foot traffic at work or even go outside and stay a good distance from the roads. It might be a little scary sitting in a park all alone with my eyes closed. It might be a little easy for something to happen to me, so I will try and stay inside, for the time being, I also snuck in 2 work out this week as well, I will be focusing more on my diet rather than burning calories to see if I can achieve my goals faster.

I was able to finally was able to pull the trigger on a real deal lens for my Sony A7II camera. I had been using the kit lens and achieving some good results with it. After taking some online courses and learning the mechanics of the lens and how wildly advanced my camera is compared to my amateur skills. I started to do some of the course homework shoots. shooting in manual mode at night or taking a fast aperture sorts picture. I found that I was pushing the kit lens to its limit and missing out on some nice shoots sue to the lens that came stock with my camera. This was a large investment for me but, it will help take better pictures and this lens with stay in my arsenal of camera gear even if I upgrade my camera body.

Finished up another audio book making it 8 books in total this year. Extreme Ownership was very intriguing to me and was jam-packed with a lot of actionable ideas that I have already begun to bring into my work and personal life. Each chapter was broken down into 3 parts. First was a battlefield story from Iraq. Middle being what the leadership principle is how it helped win the battle and the last being the application to the work environment. I plan on reading the rest of Jacko Wilik’s books due to how fast and to the pint he got. Always a fan of efficiency, Next on the list is the book that was adapted to the movie Field of Dreams.

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Weekly Post 8/19/2019

Highlights

  • Actually went for a run
  • Visit with an Old Friend

Lowlights

  • Still working like a crazy man

The weather was pretty nice this week and suddenly had the urge to go for a run. only went for a little under 2 miles. It was nice to get outside and do something active. I performed a lot better than I expected so I should keep try and keep up jogging especially now that the temperature isn’t in the high 90s anymore. We’ll see if I can stick with it. My heart Montier also just kinda gave out in the middle of my run so that was a big bummer as I like to look back and evaluate my effort and to see if I’ve made any progress on the fitness side of things.
Had a great time on catching up with a long-time friend on a Sunday BBQ. keeping up with high school friends that move away after college can be tough some times but we always try and sneak in some hang out time with golf trips or other excursions but mostly it always comes down to sneaking in a few hours during the holidays in between family parties. It always feels a bit rushed but, not this visit. We had almost 4 hours to catch up and watch some golf on the couch for what felt like the whole afternoon. We already started to plan our next golf trip. time to break out the golf trip spreadsheet and get planning.
Just feels like I’m putting in a billion hours of work every week and its starting to wear on me. Especially getting up early to go for work cuts into the time I would like to be with my family. Before the kid, my mindest would be to just work as many hours as possible but now that mental math of how much it’s it worth to spend time with family or make another hour pay is a real struggle sometimes

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Weekly Post 7/15/2019

High Lights:

  • Downloaded a Stretching App
  • League Night
  • Biked Home From Work
  • Graduation Party In the Burbs

Low Lights:

  • My diet

Its time for me to start eating better.  Ive have been ona fast food and take out diet for the past 6 weeks.  Going to subscribe to one of those pre packaged meals services.  avoiding the the trips to the grocery store and and trying to manage the quantity of food needed is the main advantage of these meal servies.  Havibg all of the ingredients measured and ready to go like a cooking show will allow for a faster perp to table time.  Faster cook times will also help gain a couple moinutes of sleep each night with should pay divideds all around. 

My car also got a nail in the driver side rear tire which was a bummer but Costoco was able to plug for less than $20 dollars #Lovethatplace  This causeed me to Divvy(bike) the 4 miles home form work one day it was also the hoyest day of the year so far so I promblty counted that a workout first one also in 6 weeks.  I’m going to trying a bike more to and from work to get some light cardio in to get some fitness back in my life.  On this same note I downalaed a strecthing app to help meet one of my new yeers resoultions goals. If work settles down just a bit i shuld be ablke to carve out 15 minutes in the office to strech it out.

I also noticed that if I bring my own breafast I am not craving a mocha so the Mocah coutn for this week is down. Two thumbs up..we’ll see if it lasts lol.

Capped the week of with a rainy Sunday evening in the burbs to celebrate the gradulation of Highscool. Always fun to head out to the burns and walk barefoot in the grass without fear of stepping in grass and dogpoo. A few beers and some good tacos and old friends really hit the spot. 

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Weekly Post 5/28/2019 Memorial Weekend

Highlights:

  • 4 Workouts in one week
  • Big weekend for grilling

Low Lights:

  • No golf 🙁

The workout streak is still on fire and I was even able to squeeze a 4 round in. This weeks format was exercise Monday, Tuesday rest Wednesday and work out again Thursday, Friday.

MDW is for sure in my top holidays of the year. I have a lot of good quality memories around this powerful Monday and long weekend. Traditionally my family has grilled on Sundays. Though I didn’t get to spend this Sunday with my family I was able to spend it with some close friends and their 3-month-old baby. To celebrate We picked put some Prime Ribeyes from Marianos. Quick side note Marianos has some great meat if you have one near and are into grilling they are a must to check out.

My body definitely feels the 4 workouts I completed this week, but I was able to do it and my body did not fall apart lol. Hopefully, I will be able to keep this up and build some stamina and get my cardio back up the level of my younger years. I can say that all this Olympic lifting has helped my CNS fatigue I encounter playing 18 holes of golf. If I can stay sharper deeper into the round maybe I will avoid those dreaded blow out holes that usually happen around the 11th or 14th hole.

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Weekly Post 5/20/2019

Highlights:

  • A solid round of golf
  • 3 workout is a week streak continues

Lowlight:

  • This Weather

I’m really happy that I’ve been able to keep up with all these  3 a week work out schedules.  I do seem to be front-loading my workouts in the beginning of the week which left me sore, so sore that I feel it is smart move to not hit the gym and rest up towards the end of the week.  My schedule has opened up on Thursday evenings but if go Monday- Tuesday rest Wednesday then hit it at the remaining of the work week.

This will increase my workouts from 3 to 4 a week.  I wonder if I will be able to handle that extra volume,  but I am eager to try it out.  I have a plan I will try it out for one week where I will push my self to get that 4th in and see how I feel on the next week and if I can’t make it to all 4 so be it I will regroup and wait a week to try it again.

This will mean that my diet will also have to improve as the Mcdonalds it still pretty prevalent and so are other similar types of restaurants.  I have already started pre-cooking breakfast consisting of 2 eggs and 2 bacon pieces which have helped me fix binge eating at lunch.  Maybe I can move to meal prepping some lunches as well to help curve the need to go out for lunch every day.

It is nice to get out of work for that 45 minutes or so and relax and let the mind rest before that afternoon stacked of work slaps me in the face as soon as I walk into the office. So I assume slow progress on bringing lunch to the office until I can find a way to escape for lunch but not eat out.

Onto the Thursday golf round.

My friend was able to snag a great deal on a 9:30 am tee time.  It was little hairy having skipped out on work but hey the weather was nice and I like to golf so #treatyourself We played Portside at Harborside and I was determined to figure out how to swing my new driver. This one of my favorite parts about Playing at Harborside is that you feel like you can use your diver 16 times a round.

My buddy noticed that my Driver swing was all out of whack, I was way off balance. I was falling forward after my seeing unable to hold a pose. This is the first time I have experienced this type to a fault in my swing. After some video of my swing, I wasn’t able to see any major faults as to why my body was falling forward after my follow through.  He gave me a cue just to “be an athlete and swing the club” for whatever reason that helped me a ton.

I think just trying to be concise of where my weight was and when the shift happened with my new flexible shaft.  It looked like my arms were coming way to low and adjusting my center of gravity forward causing me to fall forward because I was trying to chase the swing rather than use the flex to my advantage.

It took 5 or 6 holes for me to realize this and then a couple more to get my arms back on a nice swing plane but once I did it felt very comfortable now its time to get to the range and practice, practice, practice to get that muscle memory locked in.  If I can get off the tee better my golf game should improve by at least 3 to 5 strokes.

My long iron game is definitely the strongest part of my game so that is why I believe this new driver will make such a difference to my scorecard.

Have a great week!