Day 19: Weak

Shitty workout today.  Cardio was the same situation as yesterday - almost at 2.5 but not quite.  It was pretty bad actually; partly due to people calling me, and partly due to my own disillusionment with cardio and lack of motivation I took a bunch of short breaks.  Don't get me wrong: they WERE short, but still.  I feel like my cardio just hasn't really improved too much over the past little bit - I'm still struggling to push through the half hour somewhat.  I feel like part of this is due to me running a bit more intensely over the past few days and challenging myself, but I just haven't felt any actual improvement.  Worse, I'm just plain getting BORED.  It's not like it's not challenging enough, because it is, but I just get bored running for a half hour straight, and after doing that for 6 days a week, it can get pretty taxing.

Which is why I think it's time to start some High Intensity Interval Training.  For those who don't know, Interval Training is basically when you do a certain amount of time running at your hardest/fastest ("Work"), followed by an (usually longer) amount of time at a normal pace ("Rest") - you alternate this Work/Rest "set" a number of times (usually from 6-12, depending on your level of fitness).  It's a shorter, more interesting cardio workout, and it's supposed to do wonders for your cardio skills and fat burning.  You're not supposed to do it every day though, so I think I'm going to alternate doing it and regular cardio each workout day.

Through my research, it seems like a good ratio for a beginner is 3:1.  This means that I'm going to do 30 seconds of Work, followed by 90 seconds of Rest.  Some videos have shown the Rest phase being like everyday walking, while the Work phase is a light jog.  This seems a little bit TOO easy, so to start I'm going to do a minimum of 6 sets alternating between 90 seconds of light jogging and 30 of sprinting.  I'm also going to be warming up and cooling down before and after the cardio session.  Obviously these numbers are subject to change once I actually start doing it.

Weightwork was....pretty bad too.  I had a slight ache in my back on the right side (probably from lifting so much at work yesterday - need to remember good form!) which made my shoulder workouts pretty uncomfortable.  It wasn't a big thing, just a weird annoyance.  I tried upping my weight for TVOs (from 7.5 to 10) and lowering my reps (from 10 to 8), but it just didn't work; I either have to go back to 7.5 or lower my reps to 6 (which I think is what I need to do).  Everything else was okay though - in particular, my back exercises were actually feeling good for once!  I feel like I've got the form down a lot better.  A friend of mine suggested a rather brilliant idea to me the other day: he said to go to the park and use the monkey bars as a pull-up bar.  DOI!  Why didn't I think of that?  I didn't get a chance to do it today, but hopefully I will for my next back workout.

Okay, so, Ottawa tomorrow.  I may do some short updates just stating what I did to keep myself from completely slacking off. Realistically, it'll probably just be crunches and push-ups.  Well, actually, my ab workout can remain the same, which is nice.  So, yeah, check back tomorrow (probably - if not, Monday) for an On The Road post.

-Daniel