It's been a funny 3 years. In 2020 I was in best shape of my life, I was super strict diet, intermittent fasting and working out like I was 20 again. I felt great, looked great, and was probably the leanest and strongest I had been since I was in college. I thought it would never end, but like all things life happens.
2021 was a rough year between some minor injuries to do old age, vacations, and very chaotic work environment I got off track from working out and lost my momentum. Once it was lost I managed to maintain a small amount of physical activity here and there and not good too bad. That is until the winter came in November when I got sick with covid, and I never really got back on track.
Don't get me wrong I'm not blaming my old age for this, I earned every single pound that I gained from all the potato chips, peanut butter m&ms, nutty bars, pizza, ice cream, and everything else it's delicious in this world that's bad for you. I ate like a fat bastard so it's no surprise that I started to look like one. Well everyone has their own opinion and tell him each other cells, I know that the weight and gained is small compared to some but it has a tremendous impact on how I feel day to day. So it's time to get it gone
I'm going with writing this post just to have some sort of accountability to work continue to post a workouts, and if I don't work out then I'll have to post that Wall of shame of me being a lazy sloth and having to do the truffle shuffle.
I'm choosing to start on the slower side of the workout plan, I want to increase the number of days I work out in a row or in a week versus having killer sessions that may really hinder my ability to work out much for a couple of days. I should have started sooner, but I had to wait till after the holiday weekend where I knew I wouldn't be around to have much time.
Probably honestly isn't even a workout to start the week, but I wanted to do something so I went out at 7:30 at night and walked for an hour just to say I did something. Logged about 3 miles called it a night.
First run in a very long time, and let's just say it sucked. My legs hurt, my ankles hurt, I couldn't get it any sort of rhythm and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. It also didn't help that it was tremendously hot and humid when I went out since I went out at 4:00 p.m. and not smart enough to go out at 6:00 a.m. when it's nice and cool.
Resting, I could have done something but I just decided to take it easy since my legs are sore to do before and not to give myself shin splints before I even get out of roll.
I'm still leery of overdoing it at my age and getting an overuse injury since it's been so long. I just went for another 1 hour walk about 3 mi just to keep things moving and to get some activity.
For another job this time, also managed to have my watch work for the entire time. As you can see I managed to drop 30 seconds off my overall run for two and a half miles and my Pace was at 9:36.
It wasn't going to be a resting, I said I was going to work out all day long but we had some company that was stopping by and I didn't known time which made it hard to head off to the gym and go for a run only to find out they were 30 minutes out. It was also a rainy day which meant it was hard to get outside for much of anything. When it did stop we took out the bikes and went for a ride on a trailer we've been meaning to go on for a long time. Well not exactly a big workout, it was nice to get out and do something.
My goal is to get back to my standard three and a half mile run they used to do. When I can crank up to three and a half mile runs at 8 and 1/2 minute miles come out consider adding distance up to 5 mi. 5 Mile runs for the longest runs I did during the covid year, and I'm not sure if I need to get back to that length but I actually didn't mind it when I was running that often. Muscle a little Leary burning on the road that much of my age and my weight to considering that it beats a living crap out of my legs and knees
Today was the first day back into the gym. It's a long time since I've gotten to see my Russian Mistresses aka the kettlebells. Let's just say I have a love hate relationship with them, I love working out with them, I think they're the greatest tool to get a high intensity cardio and muscular workout in a short period of time. The hate comes from the fact that they absolutely destroy me, make me sore for days, and making gasping for breath.
Since I'm just easing back into this I decided to go pretty light I only picked four exercises after a slight warm up. Below are the weights and reps I did. I did supersets, so I would do a set of 20 swings followed directly by a set of eight windmills for each arm. Before resting, after the two sets of that I moved on to doing a set of snatch for each arm with eight reps, follow directly by a set of single arm squats with the kettlebells.
This is a reference to 20 kg cowbell is about 44 lb. I struggled to go any lighter for a lot of exercises because I feel like I'm able to muscle the kettlebell around without using rubber form. I try to use the weights that I can still use good form, well being heavy enough to make sure I can't cheat.
Speed Jump rope 5min
Swings 26kg 220
Windmill 20kg 28 each arm
Snatch 20kg 28 each arm
Squats 20kg 210 each arm
Cool down lateral x 10 min
Overall I'm okay with my progress so far. It's not great, it's not awful, but I'm certainly trying to move towards it consistent weekly workout of 5 plus days. And I definitely want walking to be considered part of my daily activity, or to only be counted on my two rest days where I walk for a few miles. I know I need to really get on top of this before the cold winter comes and I'm locked inside my house for a few months.
