Training 1-2

I had to force myself to go to bed last night, so I could get back on a normal sleeping schedule -- I ended up not getting much sleep at all however. While laying there helplessly, attempting to slip into dream-land, I had a familiar experience. It was as if it was Christmas eve, and my Mom had put me to bed for the evening, with the promise of all the presents and festivities the following day. I was so antsy and restless, anticipating that very morning - that I just couldn't fall into sleep. It happened this night as well, for different, and perhaps slightly unusual reasons.

I couldn't sleep because I was pumped about working out that next morning. I know this may be hard for some to grasp, and even I don't completely understand it -- but something about the discipline and dedication that it takes to get into shape, and the promise of that if I continue on my current course, motivated me. I couldn't wait to hop on my bike and see how far I could push myself. It's definitely a different pain than any other I've felt, this one pleasantly surprising. So, needless to say, I ended up getting just a couple hours of sleep, and I'm sure this will come back to bite me in the ass later this afternoon, but so be it -- I had to get used to waking up around this time.

So after rolling around a bit and flipping over my pillow numerous times to no avail, I glance over at my alarm clock as it is fastly approaching 5 am. I get up despite my better judgement, and choose some comfortable clothing to begin my journey. I do some simple stretches and jump around a bit to get those joints working, then I go check my garage for a foot pump. I couldn't find one, but figured the bike tires were full enough. I set up my iPod for EGM Live, and I'm rolling.

Today my philosophy is to ride 20 minutes in one direction, so that I am forced to ride back the same distance, to prevent me from bailing out of the cardiovascular activity too soon. This worked out pretty well, using the same sprinting for short periods of time, then squatting back down, continuously pedaling the whole time technique I applied yesterday. I rode to 11 Mile Road, which takes me a little over 19 minutes, and feeling pretty accomplished, I make my way back. While the fatigue started to set in fairly short after that, I pushed through. I would frequently check my pulse by placing my fingers against my neck, and if the pulse wasn't intense or fast enough, I would adjust accordingly, by pushing even harder. I didn't set foot on solid ground the entire ride, meaning I was constantly moving forward from beginning to end. When I made my way back into the confines of my own property, I could definitely see this becoming a trend, as this kind of thing is such a rush. Upon planting the kickstand into the cold concrete of my garage, I wisely walked up and down my driveway for 10 minutes or so, to properly "cool down." This one was definitely a success.

In the future, maybe monthly -- I'm going to attempt to push myself further and further on the bike, but still elapse the same amount of time. Which means at some point I should be able to ride to 12 Mile Road in 20 minutes, and not 11 Mile. This way I will constantly be pushing myself to achieve more.

On a side note, I chose to start my training very early for a couple reasons. I'm slightly paranoid, and as a result, tend to think everyone watches me and judges me based on how ridiculous I may look, so at 5 am it's safe to say that there aren't many people out and about, or even on their doorsteps for that matter. It's also much cooler and refreshing to ride so early, and it will become especially important once those hot summer days kick in. Bonus - not much traffic to worry about.

So afterwards I took a long nap, so I could be up for the Wings game and Monday Night Raw later tonight. Upon waking up, I went outside and practiced some vaults over the hood of the car. I never could completely clear it, maybe due to my fear of clipping my toes on the edge of the car, so I'd always and up lifting one of my two hands (usually my left) from the surface, and hitting my ass on the end of the car. I'm pretty sure if I can overcome my fear and pull my knees into my chest while running at it, I can clear it no problem. For the time being, I was doing some sort of half dash vault, half monkey vault, and it was fun nonetheless.

After getting inside and taking a breather, I started on my exercises. I worked mostly upperbody, and some core. I did three sets of pushups, the first totaled 25, in normal shoulder-width stance, the second totalled 15, and was with my hands together in the "DDP logo", and the third was for 10, back in the standard stance. This came up to a total of 50 pushups, and I'm fairly happy about that. After that, I did two sets of 50 crunches, and I was spent.

Overall, a pretty amazing day for my training, a definite confidence booster that I can stick to this. I'll have to work out a scheudle when fatigue starts to kick in, when I get more familiar with what I can and can't handle, day in and day out. For now I'm figuring five days of the intense cardio a week, Sunday-Thursday at the moment. Friday and Saturday will be more relaxing days, to let every part of my body rest up for the next week. One thing to note, my ass is pretty sore from that bike seat, I may have to take a day off from it just because of that. But I'm sure I can push through the pain a couple more days. I'm off to prepare for the Hockey game, peace out.

Diet for Today
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x2 Bowl of Cereal
x1 Chewy Bar
x1 Lean Cusine
x1 Glass of V8
x2 Gatorade
Water