I finished Week 7 this morning with Kenpo. Wednesday was tough with Legs and Back in the morning, then I went for a long-ish bike ride with some guys from work (20 miles in 1:17 or so), then I still had to do Ab Ripper X when I got home. My legs were hurting pretty good yesterday, and I was more tired than I’ve been in a while, so I moved my rest day from Friday to Thursday, and did Kenpo this morning.

Tomorrow will begin the Recovery Week of Phase 2, which is the same as the recovery week from Phase 1. I think Kenpo and Core Synergistics are the only things I’ll actually by the book. For Yoga, I plan to go for an easy run, stretch real good, and then do the Runner’s Yoga DVD. I’ll do a run and good stretch for the Stretch day, too. I didn’t get much out of the stretch DVD the one time I did it, so I think I’ll do my own stretching from now on.

Saturday was Chest, Shoulders and Triceps which is pretty good. I kept up my streak of completing the entire Ab Ripper program, didn’t even need to rest during the Fifer Scissors this time, either! I do still need to work on getting my legs higher and straighter during those, though.

Yesterday’s Plyo was replaced with a run since we weren’t at home and I didn’t have the Plyo DVD with me. I probably burned just as many calories, if not more, running for 30 minutes than Plyo would have. But as weird as it might sound, I dis kind of miss Plyo. It’s such a great, hard workout, that I almost feel like I cheated myself by not doing it.

Back and Biceps was good, but I still feel like I need heavier weights for most of the curls. I’m not feeling the burn at the end of 15 reps quite anymore. I’ll probably just deal with it for now, since we don’t have room to store any more weights, and I’ve only got 4 more active weeks left of this thing.

This morning was tight on time again, so I’ll do Ab Ripper after work. I’ll probably try an easy run beforehand to warm up and tire myself out a little bit. I’m still deciding what to do about Yoga tomorrow. I might do Plyo instead since I couldn’t do it yesterday, or I’ll try to get to the gym to run and then do the Runner’s Yoga when I get home.

We finally finished the 7 pound cake last night, so the diet will be better for a week or so, but my birthday is next week, so we’ll have a cake again. This one won’t be as big, though.

Today was the final day of Week 6. Nothing was too out of the ordinary for this week, except my schedule got messed up a bit, so I ended up making Sunday Yoga day, but didn’t do Yoga (long story), and moved Plyo to Tuesday. I ran after work Monday, and hope to run tomorrow morning or afternoon, as well.

Monday morning, since I was running late, I skipped Ab Ripper, and moved it until the afternoon after I ran. For the first time, I was able to complete all 349 reps, and my abs could feel it the next day or two. Yesterday after Legs and Back, I did mostly everything, but skipped the leg climbers due to time constraints, and I feel like I get very little from them compared to how long they take.

Diet’s been about the same, not terrible, but could be better. I eat pretty well for breakfast and lunch, but then we have like 3 pounds of cake left so I have a giant slice of cake after dinner which throws everything off. The cake should be gone soon, and I hope to keep running more, so it should get better.

I finished Kenpo this morning, which effectively gets me through the first week of Phase 2. I’ll be getting to work early tomorrow, so while I’d like to run in the morning, it’s not feasible, so it will be a rest day. Saturday starts Week 6, with Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. I won’t have access to dumbbells, so it will be all bands. We’ll see how that goes.

Today is my wife’s birthday, so we’ll be eating cake tonight, and then leftovers for a while after as well. So it could be another week of not-so-great food. Someday soon I’ll start eating better, I promise…

Today was the last active day of Week 3, with Kenpo. It was a decent workout, but I still don’t feel like I’m getting as much cardio as I would if I had just gone for a run. Which is why I’ll be going for a run tomorrow morning, since I know I’ll need the calorie burn before my sister’s wedding this weekend.

Next week starts the “Recovery” week of Phase I, with two days of Yoga, Two days of stretching, a Kenpo workout, and two “Core Synergistics” workouts. I’ve heard some scary things about that workout, so I’m kind of looking forward to it. It’s supposedly harder than Plyo, so I should get a nice burn out of it.

Yesterday was Yoga, with Legs and Back today. Yoga was better again than last time, I definitely felt like I got a good workout holding the poses and stretching. However, it’s still my least favorite so far. Something about how long it is, and the stillness and repetitiveness of all the poses, especially at the beginning, just makes it seem boring to me.

Legs and Back was good this morning, I’m already starting to feel my glutes and quads. I moved back another six inches or so for the pullups with the bands, and it definitely made a difference. I’m currently using the blue and green, and might try adding the red as well to see if I can maybe do fewer than 20 reps and still feel a burn. Right now, 20 is about all I have time for, and I’m not really struggling as much as I’d like to by the end. I’ve got a couple of weeks before I get back to them, since Saturday starts my first recovery week.

Tomorrow is Kenpo, and Friday is Rest/Stretch. We’ve got my sister’s wedding rehearsal Friday afternoon, so I’ll take the opportunity of being off work to get in a good run Friday morning, and spend some good time stretching.

Today was Shoulders and Arms, plus Ab Ripper. I think I made it through Ab Ripper the best so far, and I’m starting to almost make it through all of the Fifer Scissors, but my leg is still not very straight yet. I might need to switch to bands when we come back and do this workout again, since the smaller weights are getting to be too light for some of the Tricep stuff, and the bigger weights might be too much.

I figured out a better way to make my Protein shake also. No matter how much I shook it before, it would always have some clumps left in it. On Saturday, I mixed the shake, and left it in the fridge while I showered. When I came back and shook it again, all of the clumps were gone. So today I started making the shake before the workout, putting it in the fridge and then shaking it up again after the workout.

Yesterday started Week 2 with Chest and Back w/ Ab Ripper again. This will be the last time I’ll to these workouts until Week 9. I’m kind of curious to see what the Phase II workouts are like. Yesterday was a busy day with a doctor’s appointment in the morning, and some other activities for our 3rd anniversary, including a not very healthy dinner. Tony would not have been happy.

Today was Plyo, but I didn’t get around to it until 4:30 this afternoon. I was hoping it would be getting easier, but it really hasn’t. But maybe I’m doing everything with more intensity so it feel as hard as the first time.

I’m hoping to get into my running schedule tomorrow with easy runs Monday and Wednesdays after work, and either a long run or some speed work on Fridays.

Today was a rest/stretch day. I had hoped to run a bit and get in a stretch, but ended up just resting. We’ve got a lot planned this weekend, so I’m going to save my energy for that, and hopefully get a more regular running schedule started next week.

Tomorrow starts Week 3 with Chest and Back – more pushups and pullups. I can’t wait…

I didn’t have time to post yesterday, so I’m combining the past 2 days. Yesterday was Legs and Back plus Ab Ripper, and it went pretty well. I was pressed for time again but still managed to get everything in. I’ve changed the bands I use for pullups, and I can tell I’m getting better resistance now, I might need to ad another band or sit further back, though, since I’m not really going to failure with 20 reps, it’s just all I’ve got time for. I was finally able to complete all 50 of the Mason Twists at the end of Ab Ripper, and I’m starting to be able to do more of the Fifer Scissors, too. So I know there’s some gains being made already.

Today was Kenpo, and I felt better doing it than last week. I think getting the moves coordinated to a point where where I can do them without spending 5 minutes figuring out what I’m doing wrong helps. I was definitely able to up the intensity to the point where my heart rate was up, and I was sweating a lot. I also cut the breaks a bit short to keep my heart rate higher, since it drops so quickly.

I think I may run when I get home tonight, depending on how I feel. If I don’t tonight, I will tomorrow since it’s the rest/stretch day and a run will let me get a good stretch in as well as keep up my running ability.