Training 1-5

Wow, I'm spent.

It's not that I did another 60-minute marathon. It's not that I rode that bike faster than ever before. It's not even the fatigue of a hard week's worth of work coming to an end...I just pushed myself a bit harder than I thought I would.

So with no podcasts to listen to, I started up some electrically-inspiring music, courtesy of OmTheory, and departed on my bicycle. I only spent 30-minutes on the bike this time, but I'll get to that in a moment. This is maybe the first day of training that I've had a pretty good smile on my face for a good length of time. The things were just working in my body and while it was incredibly tiring, I couldn't help but make a goofy face, throw my arms up in my air, and ride. It's like something you'd see out of a motivational montage of some sort. Whenever I was feeling any amount of stress or pain, I'd immediately crank a smile, start doing some over-exaggerated arm movements, and press on. It was nice fighting through the pain today. I did ride harder than ever before, because I knew I'd only be doing it for a half-hour, and I rode sporadically throughout the surrounding city.

So of course I need to hit that 40-45 minute benchmark of cardio, so when I arrive back at home, without hesitation I run up to my porch and do a 360 vault right over the rail. I hop back over the rail and do another vault. Than another. I would keep doing these for a couple minutes, then I'd walk down the driveway, sprint back, and do a couple more. Sprint down the driveway, walk back. A couple more. This only lasted like 12 minutes, but it was such a horribly intense 12 minutes, clearly another level beyond what I'd been pushing myself to achieve on the bicycle. I got worn out eventually and walked to the end of the block, then walked back. My heart rate settled just a tad by then, but then I did another 12 vaults in a row. A crazy end to a crazy session.

In hindsight, in the future I'll probably start out doing the free running things, THEN hop on the bike when I get fatigued, since clearly the former is the more labor-intensive exercise. The bicycle will help me regain my bearings, and keep my heart rate going at a steadier pace than the walk I took towards the end. But man, I feel good. I feel like a bowl of jello as well, something weak and without structure, but still somehow good. Will I do cardio a 6th day of the week? This remains to be seen. My original plan was to take Friday and Saturday's completely off. But I mean what can more cardio do but help? I might go 6 days a week.

So anyways, I went outside about four hours later, and started randomly jogging around my back yard. I then turned this into interval training for 25 minutes or so, I'd jog for a minute, then walk for a minute, run for a minute, walk for a minute and a half. This was extremely effective, or at least it seemed to feel that way. If I can work this up to about 45 minutes, this can be an effective substitute for my usual cardio.

Diet for today - 196
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x1 Chewy Bar
x1 Salad
x1 Ham Sandwich
x1 Carrot
x1 Smart Ones
x2 Gatorade
x1 Glass of Milk
Water
Vitamin