Tough Month!
Missed ALL my monthly quota. It's not about chalking up more and more each time but these numbers has been a way to keep myself as a form of check-and-balance from month to month.
Still. about to kick myself until I realized Aug had more full gym sessions with weights which of course on the daily Excel tracking log does not include what's done at the gym. Plus I had to train for Spartan Sprint in the first half of Aug...which included a number of exercises that aren't in my "Daily Salad" menu.
Cardio work meant running has an impact as that eats up more time. Even though mileage hasn't been really high. But since putting back more into runs in Apr has meant an improvement up till this point. Finally, consistent with my usual 6km route at ~6min/km pace while able to hold average heart rate at ~HR130.
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| Went from previous ~7:00-7:06 min to ~5:50-6:00min/km now |
The other milestone achieved this month is in my "no training" Quarterly 2.4km Run.
Although it's been 20 years since last called up by the Army to do a physical fitness test, I have used this as my benchmark to see where my cardio fitness level is since tracking it for the last 2 years
As usual I don't train specifically for this in particular-- again the overall improvement from usual run sessions has carried over as seen in the latest timing. To score the full 50 points-- I have to shave off another 28s to reach 10m30s or less.
One way to push myself mentally is to keep in mind that once upon a time my best PR for 2.4km was 8m15s back as an Airborne trooper. But that was at 20 yr old. Realistically, now with all the other trainings to keep up-- at 53 and beyond, I can only optimistically go for a sub 10 min and hopefully keep that for as long in the coming years.
....Another reason, especially for the drop in Pullups and LSitChinUps (LsCU) numbers this month is deliberate reduction of volume to let the shoulder and elbow tendinitis have better recovery.
Been living with the annoying pains for frigging months now. Had been patiently tempering not to have too much explosive moves which meant I hardly do any muscle-up training too. Only practicing slow hi-pullups whenever i find a suitable bar outside. Else, its, sticking to normal chin-over-bar but strict (or as best possible) whenever pulling, be it outside or home.
The mantra remains- for every rep of every exercise- Keep to as strict a form as possible, including even the simplest things like normal push ups --- which has morph to Pause(bottom)-Push-Squeeze(top) Reps only by now.
Make Reps Count. Don't Count Reps
Day by day, been honing the mind further. Ego is not the issue. The biggest problem revolves around my workout/ training is TIME.
On days when I knew its going to be busy, I'll try to pack in more micro-doses.
Eg getting up in my office chair after every hour and do 30 diamond pushups. 3x of that means I have already clocked 90 pushups for the day. Ok, some would argue 30 isn't exactly micro but what's the point of just 5 or 10 right? Of course it wouldn't do jack off for hypertrophy either-- but it keeps things there. Maintenance!
And engage in 2-3 mins of shoulder mobility exercises few times a day with my bands and rope that is always near or on my desk to keep the joints oiled up and fluid. Then there is always the pullup bar in office for a few reps or a one minute dead hang to stretch those cranky shoulders out.
The remainder of 2023 will be one big experiment as more work traveling is scheduled. Time to put all my "tetris" blocks of short programs in different combo when that happens to maintain the daily workout commitment.
As I have learned, hotels may have gyms but the best gym and or time to do anything is still body weight exercises because these can be done anywhere.