Training 1-4

So I purchased some sweatpants and vitamins early on yesterday morning, and as such I started out the day wearing just those, and taking just those. It's AMAZINGLY easy to stretch in these kind of pants, and it almost feels like you're not wearing any pants at all - they are pretty much weightless. Take that as you will...anyway.

Pumped up the tires. Started the Giant Bombcast, and I'm off. So after doing more research on cardio activities, I stumbled upon something called "interval training," which is combining high intensity cardiovascular activity with some medium-to-low intensity stuff. For instance, you could sprint down the street to a set destination and it would take about a minute, you would then take two minutes to walk it off and recover. So I took this same concept into bicycling. I would stand up on my bike and sprint for a minute or so, then sit down for a couple minutes and cool off a bit. This combined with the fact that I went to 12 Mile Road and back, made this an exceptionally taxing day of exercise (in which it took an hour total), but was exciting nonetheless. I've now hit my goal of doing intense activity for an hour, although I think that this was a special occasion, and due to how I felt afterwards, I probably won't be able to maintain that on a day-to-day basis. I'll probably drop back down to 45 minutes or so tomorrow, it being my last day of the training week.

So as I said earlier, I've been doing my research on fitness (cardiovascular activity in particular, since that is the primary source of weight loss, along with proper diet), and it is because of this that the following week of training, I won't be riding a bike. Not to say that I won't be returning to it in the future -- because it's definitely a killing machine for my heart and things -- but there is the concept of diminishing returns. Varied cardiovascular exercise will quicker tone my body and help me lose weight, so I might try some mixed things next week. Remember all that is required for cardio is to get your heart rate up and your blood circulating - There is NO best exercise. This is a good philosophy to take, and if anyone is interested in losing weight as I am, I suggest that you do something that you can enjoy while still working your body, whether it be DDR, Running around the house dancing like a maniac, aerobics, a treadmill, or free running. Just do it.

So after an hour or two of rest, I went outside and practiced a couple cat leaps on the edge of the kitchen window, and also did some standard leaps over things, like the central air conditioning unit. The funniest part was that there is a junction of fencing that is half mine and half my neighbors, and I was jumping from this patch of grass and simultaneously vaulting over the fence as I was running up the brick wall to the guy's house. Well after a couple of these he came out and gave me some sort of verbal warning, but he asked too nice so I couldn't say anything snarky in response. Regardless, what a jerk. It's not like I'm trampling your precious flowers or something. I've realized that these sort of movements I'm doing out there for fun, are quite possibly a better source of cardio than what I've been doing in general. My heartrate is usually through-the-roof intense, from all the climbing and jumping. Now if only I could keep that up for 45 minutes or so...

So after another brief session in front of my computer, I glance at my front porch and realize that I have a nice handrail going all the way around it. This handrail is the perfect height for my practicing, despite the 5 1/2 foot drop on the other end, so I give it a go. The lazy vault as they call it is clearly the easiest to achieve, and I can also do that combined with a tac or tic tac. Next I tried a 360 vault, and got it on my first shot, I then did it another 20 times so I could practice the landing and the takeoff afterwards. Then I just started hurdling the rail completely, without the use of my hands. If only there were more rails of this height randomly spread throughout the city, then I'd be having a bit of fun. So with any luck, I should be able to get over my fear for the dash and monkey vaults. The dash vault as it stands I almost do anyway, when I jump over the rail completely, all I really need to do is put my hands down. The monkey vault however, that'll take a lot of fearlessness. I thought about trying out a sit turn or a palm spin, but I didn't want to overdo it, and I didn't know really where to begin with them.

Diet for Today
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x1 Chewy Bar
x2 PB&J
x1 Salad
x1 Lean Cusine
x1 Glass of Milk
x1 Gatorade
Water