Cardio and Day 1 revisited

I think one of the reasons that I'm actually getting addicted to these workouts is that we hardly ever do the same thing.. Love it!!! Even on Cardio day (Wednesday) Ben finds a way to change things just a little to make it more interesting... just more proof that Ben knows what the hell he's doing!!!!

The cardio stations were: bike, firehose slam, high knees and renegade rows (no weight). We still did 30:60, but instead of rotating to the next station during the rest time, we stayed at the same station and did 5 rounds at each one. This definately made things more interesting. I did the rene rows first and by the time the 5th round came around, my shoulders and arms were killing me!!! I was glad to be able to switch to the next station. The firehose slam is also a good one for shoulder/arm killing.. by the end of 5 straight rounds of that you're ready to move on!! Tomorrow is cardio day again and I'm interested to see what we'll be doing.. =)

Today, we did a little revisit to our day 1 workout. The exercises were: Push ups, Squat Press, Rows, Kettlebell Swings. You start where ever you want, and do 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest. Do as many reps as you can in the 30 seconds. Write down your reps. Then do it again. Write down your reps. One last time, and... write down your reps. Total them up. Ben had us use the heavier weights we moved up to this week. So for the squat presses, we used 20lb DB in each hand and kettlebell swings we used the 44lb bell. I think on the first day we were using 10lb DBs for the presses and 25lb bells for the swings.. Just proves how much stronger we've all gotten. For even more proof, Ben told us to bury our 1st day numbers. We all busted it and got it done!!!

For the push ups, on the first day I did 18 total, modified push ups. Today, I did 14 total STANDARD push ups. That's right... on the toes!! Even though I didn't beat my first day score, I'm still very proud that I did that many standard push ups! I couldn't even do 1 before we started and now I can do 14?! Shut UP!! =)

I beat my squat press # by 8 which I am very happy about. Even with sore knees, I cranked it out with heavier weights!! =)

I believe I beat my rows # by like 10.. yeeee haw! Get ready for the gun show!!!

And the swings.... I beat those by like 20!!! After the first 30 seconds, I wrote my # down and flipped back to the day 1 # I had written down and laughed! I had almost beaten my total from the first day in the first round!! OMG!! And with a much heavier weight!

Then, after that you take the total #s that you got for each exercise and do them all again. This time in the quickest time possible. On day 1 I finished in 7:59.... today I finished in 8:08. I'm not upset by that at all. All of the exercises were done with heavier weights and a lot more reps. So I did at least twice as much work in almost the same amount of time...

As promised, here is what went down with the stir fry...... Can I just say O-M-G it was so freakin good!!!!!!!!!!! The couscous was very good and the mix of the onion spice (a premixed VT made blend) with the veggies (that I don't normally eat btw) and the beef was SO good!! num num numnumnum!!! Even Mike liked it!!! I put his beef & veggies over rice, but he gobbled it up like it was going out of style!! That will definately be in my menu once a week!!!

The next thing that I'm going to try is garbonzo beans (chick peas). I like hummus, so I'm told that I should like the beans. I'm thinking so. Just have to gather my courage to try it. But I will!!!

Tonight I went for a 3 mile walk. I'm very proud to say that I busted it and walked at a very fast pace (felt that way to me). There was a couple times where my legs were just buuurning, and I had to push myself to keep going, to keep the same pace. It didn't help that the battery on my ipod died about 1/2 way through the walk (note to self: plug in ipod for about 1/2 hour before embarking on walk!). That was a real bummer because I picked songs that had a good fast beat and kept my pace to that beat. But, I finished it in 55 minutes... 15 minutes faster than my best time. Whoooo hoooo! I'm hoping to do this for like a week and then push myself to cut another 10 minutes (at least) off it.. By the 2nd week in May I'm hoping to be running!! That's the plan. Keep pushing myself to walk faster and then finally start running. I forget if I've mentioned it yet, but there's a local charity run on May 23rd that the other Moosers, Ben, some others from BBC and I are going to run in. It's a 1/2 marathon, so 13 miles. We are doing it as a team so it is a relay. There are 3 legs that are 3 miles and the last leg is 4.1 miles. I'm wicked nervous/scared to be trying to run in this thing. I've never run in my life (except for HS) so I don't know... but I'm doing it.. !! I'm very happy to say that my work is going to sponsor me and donate $25 towards the cause (THANK YOU!!!).. So look for me to be wearing an NGJ t-shirt on the run... oh and it'll be a LARGE.. that's right.. I'm going to be wearing a LARGE!! Hell yeah!! Count on it!!

~L-dawg