Category: DVD Days P90X to Tapout XT

Everything I think about the workouts. Including some weights, reps and sets etc. Detailed as much as I can remember or is relevant.

R7D65 – Throwaway Entry 1

 

I’m just tired of vegans.

I don’t often do recipe type stuff on here but I couldn’t resist the morning glory muffin recipe I found over at paleocomfortfoods.com.

Last night I tried to get a short stint of work done while the gym girls did a modified version of ARX. It was a welcome break from the WOD type workouts they have been doing and I think they deserved a bit of a break.

Today I need to get back on schedule, I have chest and back to get done, with a healthy dose of ARX thrown in for good measure.

In the mean time… It appears I am not the only one who realizes that people nowadays are endowed with a false sense of self worth and self importance.

 

 

 

 

 

R7D62/4 – My Ironic Life

No, Alanis, it's not ironic

As if to poke me in the eye with the sharp stick of irony, my life took great pleasure in denying my right to work out this weekend. We had to drive to Penetang for the family reunion, that meant staying in the retirement home again which, in fact, is better in some ways than a hotel, means there is no gym, no pool and nowhere to work out. Not only that, our weekends always seem to consist of staying in the townhouse eating cold cuts and talking about the relatives. I slept in a little on Saturday in order to catch up with the sleep I had missed last week. That meant no workout on Saturday, by the time we got home on Sunday I was exhausted from driving but attempted a short Back and Biceps workout. It’s amazing how drained I still was regardless of the great sleep I got on Saturday night on the Ditex Sapphire Millenium mattress in the old folks home. At the end of last week I could tell I was overtrained / under-rested because my heartbeat was just not getting into my usual zone, I was pushing as hard as I could but I couldn’t get over about 140bpm. Sunday’s workout wasn’t much better even though it was a P90X workout, my bpm should have been better. Now I am locked into 2 out of 3 days off coaching HOWEVER since I feel the girls are maybe not pushing quite as hard as I would like I may join in tonight and make it a bit of a fitness test / you vs. the coach deal. That would get me a short and not too stressful workout and allow me to fill the voids that are causing my Firstbeat Coach to be disappointed in me!

This title got me thinking, do you suppose that Alanis knew that her song contained no irony and therefore was the very epitome of the thing about which she was singing? I think not, that would give her too much credit, not that she is not talented, she’s just not that talented. It is ironic that the whole song contains nothing but coincidence, bad timing and life being a pain in the ass however and I find that amusing when seemingly oblivious to the irony of the intention, she warbles on about rain on her wedding day and lottery winners kicking the bucket. Irony, its funny that it’s the hardest thing to nail down. But I digress.

I stole this little nugget from paleofitmd today:

These are some of my CrossFit PRs

Baseline: 3:58
Fran: 7:18 (totally lame)
Jackie: 7:25
Back Squat: 235#
Strict Press: 115#
Deadlift: 315#
CrossFit Total 655#
Max Pushups: 40
Max Unbroken Muscles Ups: 5
Max Overhead Squat: 125#
Max Clean and Jerk: 160#
2K Row: 7:35

I probably should apologize to him for nicking his stuff but I need a little something to concentrate on and getting these numbers for myself is something I would like to do. Also, I think that his site may be a good read, certainly his “start here” page states some of the reasons I am frustrated with the medical profession.

So here are the descriptions of what those numbers mean:

Fran:
21 Thrusters 95lbs
21 Pull Ups
15 Thrusters 95lbs
15 Pull Ups
9 Thrusters 95lbs
9 Pull Ups

Jackie:
1000 meter row
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
30 pull-ups

Back Squat – The basic regular squat we all love to hate
Strict Press – Shoulder press, from standing, front of shoulder (I prefer back of shoulder, but my body is weird).
Deadlift – I’m going to assume everyone knows this. Lift the bar from the floor until you are upright. Keep back discs intact!
Crossfit Total – Simply add the totals from the previous 3 lifts (with each attempted 3 times for max)
Max Pushups – Unbroken push ups, no rest, full range of motion
Max Unbroken Muscles Ups – Again, no stopping to max
Max Overhead Squat – 1 rep max for overhead squat, just regular squat with arms extended overhead
Max Clean and Jerk – Probably the most misrepresented, misunderstood and challenging lift of all.
2K Row – Get on a rowing machine and go until your lungs explode!

By the way, in the thruster video, that’s my cousin (by marriage) Davey Havok singing the soundtrack. Google AFI, go see them in concert or go to itunes and download their CDs!

 

 

R7D54-59 – Weekend Away, Injuries And Reviews

Let’s start at the beginning.

Friday was Max Recovery since I had made a discovery that I had never actually done an Insanity recovery workout. It wasn’t too tough, although less of a challenge than I expected and the next day I was sore which tells me that I am not stretching enough during my regular workouts. Saturday we headed out to Niagara Falls and the weekend looked like this:

Friday – Max recovery
Saturday – RKC in the room
Sunday – Off
Monday – RKC on the deck (injury?)
Tuesday – Chest and Back

The workout on Saturday was brief but tough, it was only 30 minutes but I did 34543 ladder with some swings and some snatches thrown in to make up for the lack of chinups. Saturday night we went out to the Casino after a Keg dinner that was tasty but pricey. Sunday was spent on the jet boat tour and in the casino with an amazing dinner at Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouse  to follow. We all ate way too much but the food was pretty spectacular. Each time a guy came around with a huge spear of meat it was simply impossible to say no. After 90 minutes of hedonistic meat gorging we wandered back to the hotel and I for one passed out in a meat coma. Monday we drove back to Toronto and spent the day relaxing without the baby which was really odd and tough to get used to. I did a RKC workout on the deck that looked like this:

With 45lb KB

3 rungs with chinups
10 wallball shots
4 rungs with chinups
20 swings
5 rungs with chinups
10 wallball shots
4 rungs with chinups
20 swings
3 rungs with chinups with 70lb KB
20 swings with 70lb KB

At the time I felt pretty good, I had a pretty high workload I thought and I felt fine. In fact, according to Firstbeat, it was the toughest workout I have done with the exception of the day I ran almost 5k in 40 degree heat just to see if my new foot pod worked. The next day however I was very sore, in fact, my body was out of alignment like it is when I have a nerve impingement which made me think that maybe I was going to need another week off. I decided I should work out anyway, taking it easy during my Chest and Back workout and to my relief, my post workout stretch proved tight but also a huge relief. By the end of the day my back was fine and I was back on track.

So what of the reviews?

The Keg – Niagara Falls, Ontario

It’s lobster summer which usually means an attempt to cover their insanely overpriced meals by adding lobster and giving them fancy names. However, nothing, even lobster, is going to soothe the sting of paying $45 for a plate of middle of the road restaurant food. The restaurant was packed, but we were seated quickly and our waitress was very attentive, friendly and happy to get 50% of our order right. Actually to be fair, she did put in the order correctly we can only assume that the kitchen messed up the thing. 2 of our 4 dinners were correct, but Nicole got a salad with no dressing (although she had asked for balsamic dressing which THEY DON’T HAVE!)  and another of our party got a baked potato with her sides nowhere to be found. The problem wasn’t only with the order being wrong, but also with the fact it took 10 minutes to get put right. As I rightly predicted, the manager apologized and offered to pay for desserts for the whole table which we gladly accepted. As far as the food goes, I had ordered the scallops wrapped in bacon followed by the steak topped with lobster seafood mix. Both dishes were acceptable, there was a total of 2 tiny claws of lobster on my lobster dish which was a total rip off but all in all the taste was good.

For dessert I had the cheesecake but in retrospect I wish I’d had the creme brulee. I don’t know about you, but for me the Keg gives me the same feeling every time, the food is good, just good enough that you don’t wan’t to complain about the price but once you leave you realize you just got ripped off. I’m not saying the quality is bad, it’s not, but the prices are all about 20% too high.

 Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours Niagara Falls Ontario

This was an amazing outing. About 45 mintues of the best laughs and thrills you can get while getting completely drenched in river water. Make sure that you plan on a warm day because even with the water being 80 degrees it was still chilly for some. The boat is a massive 3 engined 1500 HP beast that can do 360 degree turns and run level 5 rapids like they are nothing. We learned a bit about the area, the falls and the rapids themselves but the highlight is running downstream through the rapids as the boat scoops thousands of gallons of water over you. It was a great adventure, something I would recommend to anyone going to Niagara. It’ s only $60 per person so it’ s well worth the price, just remember a change of clothes!

Copacabana Brazilian Steak House Niagara Falls Ontario (Website down)

There are plenty of bad reviews for this place but we decided to go anyway since the lure of the place is too strong for a meat freak like me. The only real complaint I had is that the idiot woman who seated us complained that we couldn’t have the table instead of the booth since “everything” was reserved. Obviously she was not thrilled to have to work, didn’t care about us or the way she treated us and was basically your typical asshole twenty something stick insect who thinks the world owes her something because she thinks she is hot. Anyway, the place was pretty fun, loud and filled with good looking waiters and waitresses obviously catering to a younger crowd. The process is that you get some sides from the buffet area and wait for the meat guys to come around and cut meat off their giant skewers onto your plate. There are 17 different kinds of meat on offer and I think we tried them all. As long as you don’t expect a quiet restaurant to chat with friends and you don’t mind a fast paced and energetic vibe you should enjoy yourself here. The meat itself was, for the most part, very good. They have encrusted meats, cheese stuffed meats and good quality steaks on offer. The meat was, I have to admit, salty but not to the degree that it was offputting. The cheese stuffed prime rib was fantastic and I had at least 3 servings of bacon wrapped sirloin! I would definitely recommend that you go at least once, it’s very much like being on vacation in a tropical island, it’s loud, the wait staff are sometimes forgetful but always happy and the place itself is like a tiny getaway. I think we would try the one in Toronto to compare experiences but next time I will have to remember to 24 hour fast before hand. It did take me 2 days to get over the amount I ate, but that is a sign that we all had a great time!

Doubletree Hilton Niagara Falls Ontario

We have stayed here before and obviously since we returned we liked it enough! The room this time was a little bizarre and since we had 4 of us in one room utilizing the pull out couch for 2 of us it was a great experience. For the other 2 however, they were sleeping on a pullout that was barely a double and filled the extra room completely. There was only a single bathroom for all of us and the main room had fixed curtains that blocked the corner windows which I found bizarre. Last time was better, I have to admit, but this time was cheaper overall. I think for the future though it would be worth getting separate rooms. We had breakfast in the hotel on Sunday and once again the buffet was well stocked, had an omelette maker at their own station and the food was good quality, hot and well prepared.

 

 

R7D52 – Supposed To Be Resting. 2 Days To Crossfit Games 2011

I hesitate to call myself a crossfitter, since although I can functionally do all the exercises, I don’t attend a crossfit box and due to lingering weaknesses from my past avoid some of the Olympic lifts like the plague. It would not be appropriate to claim myself as a crossfitter because I think a great deal of what makes someone a crossfit athlete is their participation in the culture of crossfit, their integration into their location’s family of athletes and that feeling of camaraderie that they get from relying on and sharing with other like minded people. It’s really exactly the opposite of everything a big box gym is about, the crossfit athlete is the antithesis of the gym rat. Anyway, my interest in crossfit has led me to integrate it into my workouts from time to time and to inflict crossfit pain on my kids at gym and in doing so my interest in this year’s crossfit games is at a high. I am even thinking of adding some crossfit type olympic lifts into my next “round” as long as the summer holds out long enough for me to clean the garage or get a bar to keep out on the deck.

Last night even though I scheduled a day off I joined in with the girls at gym and did 100 pullups. I just feel lazy taking 2 days off out of 3 at the start of the week, plus rest week and I have never had a normal relationship. In fact, I have never done Max Recovery or Cardio X as a workout, I always had something else to do. This week I’m committed to getting enough done so if I have to take 3 days off this weekend firstbeat won’t downgrade me when I get back for being a bum. Hard to reconcile that with rest week so maybe I will give Max Recovery or Cardio X a shot today instead of Cardio Recovery that I have scheduled. Either way, it’s workouts today and Friday and hopefully Saturday morning. We’ll see.

I may even try the Full Monty P90X Yoga…

..and by the way, did you hear about Tony Horton’s injury? Check this out…

 

R7D50/1 – Round 7 SuperHybrid Rest Week 2

Surprise! When I took a look at my schedule I realized it was time for rest week again since I am already done 7 weeks of my superhybrid. I have to admit though I was so put off by the I:A that I have not done a single Insanity:Asylum workout since I started this new round. I promise I will, I have to suck it up and stick with it next week to at least get an idea of what doing all 3 of the workouts simultaneously is like. Also, I need to make sure I don’t go too easy this week, I want to make sure that I exercise every day and don’t get lazy like I feel I did last rest week. Especially since I will be going away for the long weekend to Niagara Falls and probably will only be able to take the kettlebell to do some RKC while I am there.

Last rest week was a dogs dinner as indicated by this excerpt:

The plan, as it was, looked like this:

3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches
Core Synergistics
3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches
Cardio Recovery
Core Synergistics
Cardio Core and Balance
Yoga X

I think the revised plan will look like:

Monday: Off, coaching
Tuesday: Hills and Sprints
Wednesday: WOD with gymnastics girls
Thursday: Cardio Recovery
Friday: Core Synergistics
Saturday: RKC
Sunday: RKC

In reality, the week looked like this:

Monday: OFF
Tuesday: Hills running
Wednesday: Part of ARX
Thursday: OFF and went to North Bay for Camping Trip
Friday: 5 RKC Ladders 34543
Saturday: 100 pullups, 100 box jumps (24″), 100 Push Ups
Sunday: OFF 5 hour drive home

The following week I was off work sick for 3 days with a 40 degree fever and then did the Warrior Dash on the weekend.

Rest week, then, as it has been in the past, is often an unwelcome break from the schedule and a pathetic excuse to get out of doing much of anything. So I am resolving right now to work the schedule as promised:

3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches – Skipped! Actually scheduled rest according to my new Firstbeat Coach.
Core Synergistics – Done!
3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches – Probably will do Crossfit or shceduled rest.
Cardio Recovery
Core Synergistics
Cardio Core and Balance
Yoga X – Probably will do Tony Fountain of Youth, I can take my patriot box with me to Niagara and do yoga in the room.

R7D47-9 – Picking Up The Pace (and a shocking statistic)

It’s funny how a little thing like a new heart rate monitor can affect your whole attitude and approach to your workouts. At some time we are all guilty of getting in a rut and forgetting that topping up your motivation is as important as topping your salad with avocado. Also, rewards play a really big part in the improvement process and I am not including taking days off or having a “cheat” meal as a reward. I am talking about something outside your usual activity, something tangible, something you can look at and which will remind you of how far you have come. For me, my new Suunto T6D is a constant reminder of what I have achieved. I have been thinking about a reward for myself ever since I hit the 60lbs mark and until a couple of weeks ago was at a loss, and not only that, I fell into the trap of thinking that I didn’t need a reward, I was fine without it, after all, I know what I have done. That’s just wrong. The whole reason for having a reward system is so that you can learn to accept the rewards of your hard work, psychologically if you don’t reward yourself you are actually subconsciously telling yourself that there is no reward for hard work.

Back to the point. The small device has caused me to stick steadfastly to my schedule this week. Not only because I am fascinated with my movescount.com results or my firstbeat analysis but also because I feel good about doing what I need to and even better about getting rewarded for it. So to end off the week I took Friday off, my legs and back were sore and I was feeling a bit tired, and knowing I would be working out all weekend and taking Monday off it seemed like it would be OK. Saturday for some bizarre reason I decided instead of doing Pure Cardio like I was supposed to I thought I would go for a run despite it being over 40 with the humidex. In reality I wanted to check out the GPS and the foot pod on my new watch so off I went. It wasn’t far, I think my total distance was only 3.6km and total time was 37 minutes with warm up and down and so on. But I was in my vibrams and the ground was so hot my feet were on fire, not to mention that I did the hills that I had done before Warrior Dash as a change which was easier since they have actually mowed that area since I did it last. I was happy with the run, and couldn’t wait to see my route all mapped out on Google Earth. It wasn’t until I had spent several minutes on the Suunto site and various forums that I discovered that although the watch uses GPS to log distance and speed, it doesn’t actually map your route. Apparently the points data is in the watch or the pod somewhere they just don’t choose to use it. I find that puzzling and a little annoying to be honest. I am happy that the reason I got the watch was for fitness not for distance or GPS enabled tracking. I don’t recall reading anywhere in the literature that you can’t map with the Suunto GPS unit. It almost seems ridiculous in fact that you can’t. I wonder if in the future they will be coming out with an updated GPS unit you can download from or add that functionality to the watch. Anyway, I was disappointed on 2 fronts, the foot pod didn’t seem to work either but that could be a dead battery. I am glad I got this used for cheap, if I had paid for the runners pack I would be packing it up and returning it! But, to be honest, I am really not interested in the GPS function or the foot pod. I got the watch for the thing it is best at, running the HR monitor.

Sunday I paid for the run. My back was sore, my legs ached and it took a good couple of hours until I felt anywhere like exercising. However, I sucked it up and decided to do the Back and Biceps workout I had skipped on Friday. I modified it a bit and took my 35lb dbs outside and did a circuit of 3 pullup types and 3 curl types.

10-7-5-3-5

Wide front pullups
double bicep curl
Reverse grip pullup (or deadlift grip)
French curl (or Hammer)
Narrow grip pullups
Single arm bicep concentration curls

The total came out to 95 reps for back, 95 for biceps.

My Shocking statistics…

In putting together my statistics today I added my latest body composition numbers and I was shocked to look back at where I started. At my heaviest back in 2008 (on my 1st wedding anniversary!) I was for all intents and purposes 295lbs at a whopping 30% fat. That meant I was approximately 200lbs of person and 100lbs of fat.

If I wasn’t disgusted enough at myself before I sure am now!

My latest numbers are a little more encouraging but still a little off base. I am down to approximately 18% fat at around 235lbs which means I am 195lbs of man and 44lbs of stored energy 😉 Given those stats and knowing I should be about 12-15% fat, I should be aiming at a goal weight of around about 218lbs-224lbs. Just knowing that I am only about 15 lbs away from my goal weight is mindblowing! But realizing that I have lost around 56lbs of fat and only around 5lbs of lean mass is an incredible statistic. It shows that I am doing things right and not just becoming a smaller fatter person like so many people do.

For those who believe the numbers for the “average” male are lower, I grant, being 10% would be great but being 215lbs is just not realistic of a goal for me to set at this point. I have my mind set on being 225lbs by the end of the year and I think that may be a challenge to reach especially given that I am currently struggling with a plateau of 235lbs. But it is only the end of July, there is a lot of life left in this year and a lot of workouts to be done!

 

 

R7D46 – Crossfit Wear, Insanity Plyo and Other Updates

 

<– You don’t need to qualify to wear this… and what’s he smiling about? He obviously didn’t just finish Chelsea or death by pullups.

I read on Fitbomb this morning that Reebok have come out with a line of Crossfit wear which is “specifically designed” for the crossfit athlete. I suppose they are assuming that Crossfit athletes are so wound up in their own self importance that they will miss the fact that it’s just rebranded Reebok stock with the Reebok Crossfit “Delta” stamped on it. I’m going to guess that it will be a feeding frenzy and just as you now see every fat out of shape loser wearing MMA clothing, pretty soon everyone will have something with Crossfit and Elite written on the front and back. I suppose it is inevitable, and it means two things, one that Crossfit is now mainstream (don’t read that as negative) and also that Crossfit has officially jumped the shark. The second part may be the saving grace for the community since very often there is a public uprising of support and acceptance that attracts all the wrong people to an activity, and I think we can agree that has happened. Once the market is saturated with shoes, shirts and tote bags the same people who made it artificially popular will sense the shark and move on to something else. What you are left with is an increased awareness and acceptance of the activity without the dross. So for those of you who think I was being cruel to  your beloved sport, please believe that this is the best thing that could happen to Crossfit. In 6 months, probably a couple of months after the Crossfit Games the excitement will die down, something else will come along to distract the ADD generation and they will leave Crossfit to the rightful guardians. After all, what is worse that proudly wearing your new Crossfit duds after crushing the morning Murph only to see some fat pasty loser eating a slice of pizza wearing the very same shirt you consider a badge of honour.

last night was Insanity Plyo, according to my Firstbeat Athlete coach I was supposed to go a little easy, but since we just met, I am going to have to do what I am used to for a while until he gets a chance to get up to speed. It’s interesting to see the effort level of each of the different workouts to see if my perception of the effort is accurate. So far the big surprise has been the RKC workout which has kicked all the other butts in the room. Last night came in at a 50 minute 3.2 TE (TE stands for Training Effect and is a measure of the amount of effort, basically) and for the moment at least my efforts seem to far outweigh the coach recommendations. Of course, this may change as time goes along, I am not sure how the coach determines what you should be doing other than it analyses the R-R data of your heartbeat (which I don’t fully understand) to see if you are over or undertraining. I think after a couple of weeks of my regular workouts I should be able to see if the coach and I are on the same page! So far the efforts look like this:

Chest Shoulders and Triceps 3.0 @ 44 min
RKC Variety workout 3.5 @ 28 min
Insanity Plyometric Circuit 3.2 @ 50 min

In other news, it’s been 3 weeks of standing at my desk and I am slowly getting used to it. I move around a lot more than I used to and although my legs and feet are tired at the end of the day, by the time I get home I am fine to work out. I have also noticed that running shoes don’t help at all and in fact wearing crocs or my VFFs are best for being on my feet all day.

R-R Data seems to be something that lots of people want but not many people understand. Here is a basic summary I found from a forum contributor:

R-R data at rest is used to measure heart rate variability (HRV). Search kubioshrv in the forums for how to perform the analysis. It’s helpful for estimating overall training/heart fatigue and how much rest is needed before starting the next training schedule.

R-R data during stepped exercise is used to determine that point at which your heart goes from “idle” mode (bouncing around a lot) to “workout” mode (consistent rhythm). That point versus your level of exercise can be used to determine your fitness level and is used by some watches to create personalized workout zones (OwnZone).

R-R data during a run at a consistent pace and compared over laps can give you information on HR rise and heart fatigue during a long race.

R-R data at rest for seniors with heart conditions can be used to estimate life expectancy.

The KubiosHRV that is mentioned is a software designed to gain some understanding of heart rhythms and biomechanical measurements of heart health, load and therefore fitness. It’s pretty difficult to find any simple and concise information as to what the R-R data is and how it is measured and used. That’s why most software that comes with HR monitors takes that data and converts it into easy to understand numbers or acronyms like EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) to give a simple indicator of what the R-R is telling you. Simply put, your heartbeat, specifically the time between each individual beat can tell you not only how hard you are working, but also if you are fatigued, if you should be resting more or even if you should be changing the workout schedule to optimize your Training Effect.

I also managed to get the GPS module and the foot pod for the T6D but I have yet to try them out. Not being a big runner, it may be some time before I get those parts working for me!

..and finally I missed my 2 year anniversary! My first post was back in June of 2009 and I have now been here for 2 years and a month. Thanks for reading! Wish me a happy anniversary!!

R7D44 – C,S&T and Suunto T6D

Another boiler of a day today, especially given I am indoors but right next to the walkout basement french doors and doing wallball shots out on the deck in the evening sun. I am enjoying this workout I have to admit, like Tony says it’s good old fashioned weight training. The good news is that I managed to scam buy a Suunto T6D from a sucker coworker to replace my old and fading Polar F11 HR monitor. In effect I got the T6D for the price of a T3C which considering the differences is an amazing deal. The great thing about the Suunto watches is that they have so many functions and gather so much data it’s just mind boggling and for a stat monkey like me that’s awesome. It was pretty easy to set up, even without software to assist and I was up and running in no time. Today’s workout was a great way to start, to see if I am indeed working as hard and as smart as I think I am. Once I get more familiar with how it works and what it means I will post more information but for now my workout last night was a 44 minute, 3.0 TE event. All I know is that I was very hot, very tired and scrapped ARX in favour of laying on the floor in a pool of sweat. Apparently the T6D will be able to tell me if I am overtraining or, I suspect, underachieving. Wednesday will be a day off, I think it may be too hot to do proper conditioning at gymnastics too but if not I may just do a quick 15 minutes with them like I did Monday. I’m pretty excited about my new toy, I just hope it doesn’t turn on me and tell me I am in fact just a lazy ass!

R7D38-42 – Pure Cardio. Pure Hell Part 3 (and the worlds worst excuse).

I just realized that through the evolution of my workouts from my first days with Tony to my divorcing ShaunT, albeit temporarily, I have stuck to one notion when it comes to the Pure Cardio workout. After typing the entry heading I thought it looked familiar so I went back and checked. I already have 2 entries entitled Pure Cardio, Pure Hell. I guess that speaks volumes about how I feel about this particular workout. You want to know what the problem is? It’s the fact that you get so used to doing 30 second stints that when you are confronted with the notion of doing 15 full minutes it is a touch overwhelming. Possibly also because you forget (at least I do) that it’s 60 second intervals until the workout is already started and there is no getting out of it. I hate the bait and switch!

Getting through the workout however is a great feeling of accomplishment and leaves you knowing for sure that your choice to get to work that day was the right one!

To end the week, I managed to finish back and biceps for the first time, yet again confirming that once you take some time away from P90X it can be just as good as it was the first time around! I thoroughly enjoyed the workout even though I voluntarily cut it short, realizing that there really isn’t enough you can do to your biceps in an hour that you can’t get done in about half that time. I do still enjoy the workout, regardless of whether I choose to modify it a little or not. The weekend was not good to me, I was supposed to do something, anything, but didn’t quite make it. I am thrown off my game by not having a heart rate monitor at the moment and I used that as possibly the worst excuse in the world not to work out.

Speaking of which, I am hoping to get my hands on a Suunto T6D for the price of a T3D tomorrow. If not, I will have to order the T3D online and pay the ridiculous shipping. Too bad my local MEC store doesn’t have stock, as I found on the weekend after driving to Barrie. If anyone has experience with the Suunto T6D please let me know your feelings. My plan is to use it in conjunction with the Firstbeat software to give me a much better idea of my fitness and if I am working hard enough to meet my fitness goals.