30 Days of Hell page 3

[KerryK]

It does explain things, thanks, I think I understand a bit more. All this is so interesting. Thanks again for explaining.

[primalrob]

fun but hard WOD today...pure metcon:

10 burpees
10 push ups
20 lunges per leg
1/4 mile interval run

i did five rounds, then had to quit to pick up Miles at daycare before they closed. that's ok, five rounds was enough. i did this one with a friend on a soccer field. doing all the body weight stuff in the middle of a field was great. it was hot, and i'm pretty sure i swallowed some grass, but it was fun too. it was actually the 1/4 mile interval run that did me in. i definitely took 'interval' to mean fast, so i really kept the pace up. by the end of round three my friend and i were both ready to puke. the two minute rests between rounds were hardly enough to recover.
i timed my last round at 4:26 from first burpee to the finish line, and that was definitely my slowest, so i feel pretty good about the amount of work i put in.

i found some pretty awesome brats (extra hot) at my local grocery store, with pretty primal ingredients. so that's going to be my dinner with a pile of spinach.

[primalrob]

pretty simple day today. i couldn't do the assigned WOD because it required a gym, or at least a bunch of equipment i'm not interested in having. so, i click on a few random WOD's and every one i tried said go for a long run. balls. so, i did a 5-miler...but mixed in a little walking so i wouldn't hate it.

funny thing, i've gotten so used to wearing barefoot shoes that i sort of like when i don't notice i'm wearing anything. my work shoes are teva water shoes that are just a bit big, my vibrams feel like socks, and i tend not to tighten my trail gloves very much. my run today was mostly off road, so i put on the trail gloves. about 3 miles in i noticed my form was crappy, my legs were getting tired, and my feet didn't feel like they were landing right. my shoes were too loose. so i tightened up the laces and the last two miles were like a whole new run. let's hear it for moments of obvious revelation.

didn't eat the brats i wanted for dinner last night, so that's on tonight's menu. not sure what i'm having with them, but it will probably be more spinach, and maybe some cucumber to help put out the fire they make in my mouth.

i have to proctor an exam tomorrow night, so no working out since i'll be doing a 12 hour work shift. i wonder if the people taking the exam would mind me hauling my exercise bike in for a nice long ride while they trip over math problems they'll never face again after college.

[primalrob]

kind of a neat WOD today. the assigned WOD was to do a push up power 1/2 hour, where you do a specific number of push ups every minute for a half hour. so, 4 push ups for 30 minutes ends up being 120 total. you bang out your reps, then rest for the remainder of the minute. basically, it's a grease the groove kind of workout.

i decided to make it a bit harder, so i threw in some pull ups too. 3 reps of pull ups per set, and 5 reps of push ups...so, 90 and 150 in total. i picked numbers that i knew i could handle, and it came out pretty easy. at first, i thought i should have picked higher numbers, but the last ten minutes or so had me breathing pretty hard. if i were going again, i'd probably choose 4 and 7 for reps, and i'd probably go even higher if only doing one exercise. this is a great way to rack up some serious numbers while still maintaining form.
i was going to top it off with a quick run, but decided to take Miles out for a good walk instead.

today is my wife's birthday, so we're going out to eat. it's her choice, and i'll go wherever she wants, but i'm going to push for the chinese/japanese place down the street that has pretty good sashimi and decent seaweed salad. i'm pretty sure i can keep her away from pizza or chinese buffet...but she's been pretty stressed and might want comfort food.


on an awesomely positive note, i'm noticing some pretty good results from this whole thing so far. the last week of june i had really let loose food wise, and packed on a little pudge. that's all gone, and i think i might be at or close to my lowest body fat percentage yet. this, of course, is all based on how my clothes fit and the mirror test...but at this rate i should be in great shape by the end of the month.

[primalrob]

damn today was a killer. for whatever reason, i've been exhausted all afternoon, and feeling kind of weak. maybe i didn't eat enough last night, or should have broke my fast before my workout, but i was beat and didn't want to exercise. i banged out 100 jumping jacks after a quick nap, and that got me a little more motivated before jumping into this WOD:

5-15 pull-ups, 10-30 burpees, 5-15 burpee pull-ups
(repeat 3 times)
then, 1-3 mile run
cool down: stretch

it's 95 degrees and humid out. never has such a short workout made me want to die like that. my sets were:
8, 10, 5
7, 10, 5
7, 10, 5
i was hot, breathing hard, sweating like crazy, and pretty sore from yesterday. clearly, i wasn't going to hit any good numbers. also, i suck at burpee pull-ups, and i believe it for two reasons. 1, i suck at and hate burpees (which probably means i should do them more often) and, 2, they're horrible to do on a power tower. my power tower is a single unit with a pull up bar, dip bars that fold up, and push up bars. doing a burpee in that space is super hard because of the push up bars. also, the bar is too low to jump up to, meaning my pull up was half over with my jump.

a two mile run to finish it off was...hot hot hot. i just about jumped into the nearby river to cool off. keeping my pace down to keep from overheating was probably the hardest part.

i need food. so do my animals.

[primalrob]

yesterday's workout was pretty good. here's the WOD:

Start with a 3-4 mile run. Let the first mile be your warm up, then gradually ramp up your intensity till you are finishing at race pace.

Immediately, break into the following strength routine:
50-200 body weight squats
20-100 push-ups
4 minute plank
50-200 lunges
10-50 burpees
50-100 crunches
optional: Run 3-4 more miles.

Cool down with a good stretch.

it was so hot outside it actually hurt, so i skipped the run and hopped on the exercise bike for the length of one White Collar episode, then jumped right into the body weight exercises. i stuck to the lower recommended rep amounts, and did two rounds. i was going to go for a third, but had to clean up for some friends that were coming over.

i broke my fast with some sardines, a couple eggs and a good amount of pepperoni. but my dinner was what made me happy. i threw a ton of spices into the burgers i made, plus put them with some avocado and delicious pickles, and my mouth was overjoyed. i wish i had written down what went in them. i also grilled up a couple of fake burgers for my vegan friend, but she mostly had oreos for dinner.


my wife and i are looking for a new apartment...a little bit closer to my new job, but not too far from her work/school. it'll just be a year or two until she gets her masters, then we can look for something more permanent. but, it's so agonizing trying to find a place. there is a massive expanse of trees and apartmentless homes between my job and hers, and the few places we can find either don't allow dogs, don't allow dogs that are Miles' size (medium), or have naive breed restrictions (he's part pit bull, and 100% awesome). i really want to buy a huge place, fence it, and only rent it to people who have dogs that don't fit on an average lap.
regardless, the apartment hunt is starting to stress me out a bit, for no good reason. i'm looking at two places today, and somehow squeezing in a workout. today's is a hard one, and it's going to be super hot out. maybe i'll show up to the second showing drenched with sweat. i can lay down on the floor and mark my territory.

[primalrob]

got it a quick workout in between apartment viewings today. i was sweating like a madman at the second showing. want to know why? here was the WOD:

30 burpees
30 bicycle kicks
30 push-ups
30 jumping lunges
30 tuck jumps
10 pull-ups
30-50 crunches

i pulled it off quickly on a high school football field. it was astroturf, and hot. i came into that showing soaked (even after i blasted the AC in my car and changed back into work clothes) and partially covered in fake grass and dirt. pretty nice apartment though, and the landlord was great. we actually swapped some adventure stories. i've got a few more to check out, but that might be the winner. though, anything with free heat and hot water in New England is a possible winner. shit gets cold here.

dinner was steak and roasted asparagus again. that is not meant to sound gloomy; it was crazy good. i'm a little surprised that i'm not getting bored with my fast breaking food. every weekday i end my fast with sardines and hard boiled eggs, and they are so satisfying. may be time for a change up though...i go grocery shopping tomorrow.

[primalrob]

today's WOD required a gym, so i opted out. i planned a great workout where i run at an easy pace for an hour, and every ten minutes drop and do 20 burpees. i was expecting rain, but it hasn't come yet. so, instead i did burpee ladders to 10 with minimal rest. ladders are ascending and descending reps to a number (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1), so i hit 100 total. finished in under 20 minutes...one of the best sprint workouts i've done in months.

this no dairy thing is getting to me. i want cheese. i really want ice cream. i can always do without nuts, but i want my ice cream. we take ice cream very seriously here in NH; we eat more per person than anywhere else in the country (we're also pretty high up there with beer). so, i'm thinking...maybe i should try to make up some coconut milk ice cream just as a treat. i've seen it before, but it's waaayyyyyy expensive. and tasty. anyone have a good recipe for it?

[torena]

Paleo Parents did one that I'm sure you can swap some ingredients out of: Grilled Peach and Ginger Ice Cream | Paleo Parents

I'm really digging seeing these posts. When is the 30 days up?

[primalrob]

Paleo Parents did one that I'm sure you can swap some ingredients out of: Grilled Peach and Ginger Ice Cream | Paleo Parents

I'm really digging seeing these posts. When is the 30 days up?

that looks yummy. i may have to pick up some coconut milk and experiment with that a bit...and see what i can do without a food processor.

i'm glad you like the posts. 30 days is the end of the month. i'll be the one buying all the cheese.