Day 23 (AM) - Weights & Arc Trainer (15 min)

I did my normal 2 rounds on the machines today with the exception of skipping the squat machine because I woke up this morning with a tinge of pain in my right knee.  Kind of odd because I went to bed last night with no issues.  So I did my upper-body machine workouts and then did a quick 15-minute hill climb on the Arc Trainer.  Not a huge calorie burn today, but any day I show up and workout is a win.

Day 22 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance (1/2)

I got home and put in the time doing P90X2.  I was feeling a bit drained because I've been cutting back on calories in hopes of shedding some of the fat before the Spartan Sprint in early May.  My body has been used to lots of fuel, so it's been a bit of an adjustment.  I did well on calories today.  I kept it to 2000 and hit 160 grams of protein.  The workout went well.  Alternating between chin-up moves and pushup moves is a really good upper-body workout.  Tomorrow after work I'll do the second half.  Ab Ripper has to be one of the most condensed 15-minute workouts ever created.  By the end my muscles are good and fatigued and I've worked up a dripping sweat. 

Day 22 (AM) - Arc Trainer (45 Min)

I played some basketball on Saturday, but it really wasn't much of a workout, so I'm not counting that as a workout day.  It's Monday and I'm back to doing some workouts.  I've also decided that From now until the end of April I'm going to be in "Cutting" mode to drop some weight before the Spartan Sprint in early May.  So, I'm limiting my calories to 2000-2200 and making sure to take in 150 grams of protein per day.  I tried to hit 2000 yesterday, but ended up coming in closer to 2200 by the time we were done with our Sunday dinner.  This morning on the ArcTrainer I burned 625 calories by doing my normal 45 minute workout that was alternative levels 7-7-10-7-7-10...  I didn't have too hard of a time with it today.  It went by pretty quickly.  Last week I only got in 2 days of P90X2 after work.  From here on in I need to get 4-5 days of a workout after work if I'm going to be prepared for the race.  It's crunch time.

Day 21 (AM) - Weights and ArcTrainer

I spent some time with the weights in the gym this morning and then did a quick 15 minute workout on the ArcTrainer doing the strength workout called "Burst".  My legs are a bit sore from the run yesterday, so I was okay with keeping the workout mostly focused on upper body today.

Day 20 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance (1/2)

Tonight I did Ab Ripper and then did the second half of Chest + Back + Balance. It's good that I got this done tonight because I've been having trouble getting the second round of Ab Ripper in over the last couple of weeks.

Day 20 (AM) - 5K treadmill run

Yesterday was a rest day for me, so I didn't do any working out.  I needed the break.  Today I got into the gym and decided to do a 5K run because I didn't have the time to put into a 5 mile run.  I was trying to beat my pace from last time and i thought I was doing okay, but realized too late that I had ramped up the speed too slowly.  I did the last .3 mile at pretty much a sprint, but still came in at just over 29 minutes.  Next time I'll have to be a bit more thoughtful about my speed.  Still, it was a good workout and nothing to complain about.

Day 19 (AM) - Weights & ArcTrainer

This morning I did two rounds on the normal weight machines and then did 30 minutes on the ArcTrainer, but instead of doing my normal level 7, I bumped it up to level 8 for the entire 30 minutes.  That was a good workout.

Day 18 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance (1/2)

I got home and did Ab Ripper and then did the first half of Chest + Back + Balance.  previously I had just been doing about 15 minutes at this, but tonight I got in the entire first half of the workout which took more like 45 minutes.

Day 18 (AM) - ArcTrainer (45 Min)

I didn't do a lot of working out over the weekend.  This week I'm committed to getting my workouts in every day.  I started off the day with 45 minutes on the ArcTrainer where I did two rotations at level 7 and then 1 at level 10 and alternated that way for the 45 minutes.  It resulted in a calorie burn of just over 600 calories.  That felt good to get the week kicked off with that workout.

Day 17 (AM) - 90 minutes of basketball

I enjoy the chance to play basketball on Saturday mornings with friends from church.  For a bunch of old guys we actually have some pretty good games too and it's good exercise. 

Day 16 - 5K treadmill run

I ended up doing my workout during lunch break today, so I didn't have as much time as usual.  I ended up doing my treadmill run, but focused on speed instead of distance.  I ended up doing the 5K in a time of 27:50. Not bad.

Day 15 (AM) - Weights and ArcTrainer (15 minutes)

Today I did mostly weight training in the gym.  At the end I did 15 minutes of the Hill Climb routine on the ArcTrainer.  I was able to increase the weight on a number of the machines today, so doing the extra training at night with P90X2 is helping.

Day 14 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance

I got home from work tonight and got myself changed and got my workout done.  Ab Ripper is definitely getting easier to handle now that I'm doing it twice/week.  I also did better on the pullups and pushups tonight, but that may be because I took my time and did it while catching up on a recorded TV show.  No rushing involved.  Tomorrow it's back to the gym in the AM.

Day 14 (AM) - 45 minutes on ArcTrainer

Work has been nuts and has been consuming all of my time and energy lately.  I finally had the energy to get out of bed this morning (and that was after some internal debate happened).  I hit the ArcTrainer and did 45 minutes of hill climb alternating between level 7 and level 10.  Total burn was 650 calories.

Day 13 (AM) - Weights and ArcTrainer

This morning I decided to spend more time on the weights than on the cardio, so I did three sets of the normal weights routine instead of 2 and then did the last 15 minutes on the ArcTrainer.  To change things up a bit I decided to do a strength training program on the ArcTrainer called Burst, where it's 30 seconds at a lower include with mid-level resistance and then 15 seconds with steep incline and high resistance.  I was amazed at how quickly that got me into a full-on dripping sweat.  I'll need to include that in my routine more often.

Day 12 (PM) - X2 Chest + Back + Balance

I got home from work tonight and did my 30 minutes of the second half of this X2 workout.  I've been feeling some tendonitis in my left elbow, so I decided to wear some extra compression bands on my left arm.  That seemed to help some, but was pretty limiting on my mobility for pull-ups.  I'm doing well with my eating today.  The cafeteria served a "power" lunch for grilled chicken breast Quinoa, Greens and beets.  I'm not a huge fan of beets, but it beats a burger :-)

Day 12 (AM) - Weights and ArcTrainer (30 minutes)

I was feeling a bit of pain in my left elbow tendon, so I opted to skip the P90X2 workout last night.  I did some weights this morning and then did 30 minutes on the ArcTrainer.  I do the Hill Climb routine on it and it's pretty effective at working up a sweat in 30 minutes.

Day 11 (AM) - 5 mile treadmill run

I got in a good run on the treadmill this morning.  It's been quite a while since I've been able to run 5 miles, so I'm pretty excited about that.  Now I need to work on the time.  My goal is to get this down to 45 minutes or better.  I suspect my legs may be a bit sore tomorrow.

Day 10 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance

I was thinking about skipping tonight because I had to run my wife's car in for an appt. tonight and by the time I got home I wasn't feeling it.  But, I rested for 5 minutes then got after it.  I figure the muscle aren't going to return without some effort.  I did Ab Ripper and was okay on that (no big change there), but I did better with the chin-ups and pushups tonight.  I just need to keep going and get in these evening workouts.  They're definitely helping.  Eating was not great again today.  My weakness were those blasted Girl-scout cookies at work.

Day 10 (AM) - Gym weights and ArcTrainer (30 minutes)

This weekend was daylight savings time, so I lost an hour and it made it all that much harder to wake up at 5AM this morning, but I dragged my butt out of bed and got into the gym.  It was a typical workout for a Monday with weights and Arc Trainer.  Nothing special, but the key is to make sure to get it done.  I was well over my calories yesterday, so I need to re-focus on eating right.

Day 9 (PM) - X2 Ab Ripper & Chest + Back + Balance

I did Ab Ripper and it didn't require as much modification to the workout this time.  Doing it twice a week is starting to help.  I did the second half of Chest+Back+Balance and also had an easier time of it than I did last week.  All encouraging signs.

Day 9 (AM) - Basketball

I got up this morning and played some basketball with a group at church.  We play at 7 AM and usually play for about 90 minutes.  It was fun, but not an overly strenuous workout.  Still, it works some muscles that some of the other exercises don't hit as much, so it's still valuable.  I started up again playing on Saturdays about 6 weeks ago and I definitely felt the pain more than I do now, so it's helping some. 

Day 8 (AM) - ArcTrainer (30 minutes)

Short workout this morning.  Lately work has been keeping me late, so I'm also having trouble getting in my second workout of the day.  I keep trying to do what I can.  I have to make sure to get in a second round of Ab ripper this weekend.

Day 7 (AM) - Leg workout and ArcTrainer

I'm a bit late posting this, but I got a good workout in on Wednesday morning working mostly on legs with the different machines.  I then did my normal ArcTrainer workout for 30 minutes.

Day 6 (AM) - 4.5 miles on treadmill

I'm now up to 4.5 miles on the treadmill.  I alternated my speed throughout the distance to allow me some time to recover throughout the run.

1 mi - 10-minute pace
1.5 mi - 9-minute pace
.5 mi - 10-minute pace
1 mi - 9-minute pace
.5 mi - 10-minute pace

At the end I still had plenty in the tank, so next time I run I will probably try for 5 miles.  After that my goal will be to improve my times before moving up to a longer distance.

Day 5 (PM) - P90X2 Ab Ripper & 15 minutes of Chest+Back+Balance

I got home tonight and started with Ab Ripper.  Good news is that it seemed a bit easier this week.  Chin-ups and pull-ups are still hard (especially moves like core-crunch chin-up).  I used to be able to do 8-10 of these and now I struggle to do 6.  Oh well, I'll get back to form soon if I can keep this up.  I did okay at eating today except for eating a few too many dark chocolate peanut M&M's.  It was a stressful weekend at work because of long nights to finish a project, so eating over the weekend was not good.  I need to do better with my eating habits.

Day 5 (AM) - Gym weights and ArcTrainer (30 minutes)

This was my normal Monday routine in the gym.  I started with 10 chin-ups and then did two rounds of bench press, fly machine, overhead press, Lat pull and squat machine.  All of this only took about 15-20 minutes to complete.  I then shifted to the ArcTrainer and did 30 minutes of the hill climb workout on level 7 which increases the levels from a starting point of 4 up to level 12 in 1-minutes increments.  I keep my heart rate above 150 for most of the workout.