Saturday, October 25, 2008

Week In Review...

Monday
Bike 1:55:00
32.1 Miles

Tuesday
Elliptical 9:33
1 Mile
Bike 69 Min
20.2 Miles

Wednesday
REST

Thursday
Bike 41 Min
10.4 Miles
Elliptical 41 min
3.7 Miles

Friday
Elliptical 21 min
2 Miles
Bike 65 Min
17.5 Miles

No strength training this week but will pick back after I get back from PA. I did get two decent grip training sessions in this week as well. I'm now able to close the #2 (195lb) Captains of Crush gripper.

Today I will get some mileage in on the stationary bike and a short elliptical session. Tomorrow morning early I leave for PA to my grandfathers funeral. I should be back by Tuesday evening and I'm going to hit the workouts head on.

It's going to be a difficult day emotionally on Monday but also a time to celebrates his long wonderful life, wow, 94 years. What an amazing man he was. My grandfather loved to eat ice cream, he would eat it right out of the carton. He also loved to drink coffee, nothing better to him then I nice hot cup of coffee, well, except maybe that ice cream!:) He will be missed very much. We love you Poppop!

Jason

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Everett Chantelau...

At 5am this morning my grandfather passed away. I'm having a hard time with this but I celebrate his life and that he is now back with my grandmother who passed away back in 2001.

What an amazing man.

Poppop, I am so proud to be your grandson and only hope to model my values and beliefs after yours. You have taught me so many things about life and faith and I will cherish them always. I will miss your smile, I will miss your laugh, I will miss your stories,....I love you.
Everett A. Chantelau
June 28, 1914 - October 23, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Progress, Progress!

My workouts have been very consistent so far this month. My running is still limited because of this stubborn heel problem but it is getting better. I've been really hitting the weights hard and I'm seeing some good progress. I do have some good goals to hit before the end of this year and here they are...

Weight Loss - 30pounds
Running - Run a 5k and a 10k race
Grip Training - close the #2 & #2.5
Bench Press - 245


The 30 pound weight loss is a bit aggressive but we'll see how it shakes out. Hopefully my heel will hold up and the doc doesn't tell me something I don't want to hear. I did have a great lifting session this afternoon...

Bench Press
135x10
155x10
165x10
185x10 PR
205x6
215x3

Weighted Crunches (Machine)
50x10
70x10
90x10
110x10
130x10
150x10

LatPulldown
85x10
100x10
120x10
140x6

Hammer Curls
30's x 10
35's x 10
45's x 10
50's x 10

Plate Pinching
Right - Two 10's x 10, Two 10's and a 5 plate x 10
Left - Two 10's x 10, Two 10's and a 5 plate x 10

Seated Bicep Curl
25 x 10
35 x 10
45 x 10
55 x 10

Incline Press Machine
98 x 10
118 x 10
148 x 10
188 x 8

Moving closer to my goal of benching 245 before the end of the year. I need to do a one rep max to see where I'm at. I think I'm probably at 225-230 right now, so 20 more pounds in two and half months. The consistent grip training has been a huge help to me in the gym. I'm now crushing just under 200 pounds with the right hand and about 175 or so with the left. I did get 3 new grippers for my birthday and one of those was the #2.5 from Captains of Crush a 240 pound gripper. All I have to say is wow what a nasty little gripper and it feels alot harder then 240 pounds. I've also added some plate pinching to my workouts, all you do is just grab a couple of plates, flip them around so the smooth side is out, here is a good example of plate pinching.



I'm also going to incorporate some blob training. Here is an example of blob training...



Blob and plate pinching are tools that will help forearm and hand strength and get me to my ultimate goal of closing the #3 Captains of Crush gripper and certifying.

***********Non-fitness realted news************
My grandfather is now being moved from the hospital back to his nursing home where he will get hospice care just to make him comfortable. He can no longer swallow anything and does not want any tubes with any kind of nutrition period. So now its just a matter of time, a matter that only God is in control of.

" Beware of six enemies of progress- sleep, torpor, fear, mourn, laziness and procrastination. If you win over them, you will be the king of your own wishes."

Monday, September 29, 2008

Building Strength...

Today has been an ok day. On the fitness front I finally got over to the gym around 3pm for my Chest/Biceps/Core workout.

BENCH PRESS
135x10
155x10
165x10
185x6
205x4
215x2
185x4

INCLINE PRESS
98x10
128x10
148x10
168x10
188x8
208x4

Weighted Crunches
20x10
30x10
40x10
50x10

Hammer Curls
30's x 10
40's x 10
45's x 10
50's x 10

Straightbar Curls
40x10
50x10
60x10
70x10

I wanted to do more exercises both for the chest and biceps but felt like this was a good start to the change in routine. I was doing a three day full body but starting this week I'm back to a 4 day split routine.

Monday - Chest/Biceps
Tuesday - Quads/Calves
Wednesday - Shoulders/Triceps
Thursday - Back/Hamstring

I will work my core every other day and change up the exercises frequently. I love split programs far better then full body routines and I'm glad to finally be back to my 4 day split. Today's workout felt great and I'm looking forward to my Quads/Calves workout tomorrow, I love the pump I get from my quads. My diet has been spot on all day with the total calories coming in just above 2200. Diet is the thing I struggle with most of the time, I have an addiction to food. It is a daily battle for me to stay away from the junk food. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose those battles but I fight hard to stay on track every day. I'm trying to keep my calories right around 2000-2300 a day and so far so good over the last couple of days.

I've been working hard at this self employed thing. Running your own business is a very challenging process but also a very rewarding one. I've already had my ups and downs over the last few months but overall not bad. Hopefully I can continue the growth in an upward fashion over the next couple of months, so far its looking pretty good. All I can do is work really hard, and give it all I got and let the chips fall where they may.

Tomorrow will bring early morning fasted cardio and my quads and calves workout tomorrow afternoon. Have a great Tuesday.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Missing In Blogland...

Wow, it has been a while since I updated here. Things are going well on the fitness front. I've been hitting the weights pretty hard over the last few weeks and have been back and forth running and elliptical training. I've had some problems with my left heel and have been trying to keep the runs limited until it gets back to 100%.

This week I'm going to switch my strength training up a little bit from a 3 day full body to a 4 day split routine. I'm still trying to tweak it a little bit but it will be very similar to the 4 day split I did last summer. My grip training is going really well and I turned a corner with the Captain's of Crush #1 gripper.

CoC #1 (140lb)
Right - 10,8,7,5,4,4,2 (40)
Left - 8,6,5,4,2,2,1 (28)

CoC Trainer (100lb)
Right - 20
Left - 15

Looking forward to getting the #1.5 and the #2 (195). The #2 shows exceptional hand strength if you can crush that one and that is my goal before the end of the year. If I can get that done then in January I start to train solely to crush the #3 and certify.

In non-fitness news my 94 year old grandfather (Poppop) was found slumped over in his room at his nursing home late last week and was taken to the hospital. His kidneys are failing and he also had some infection and fluid in his lungs. Although I've not had the opportunity to spend much time over the last several years with him being so far away he has never strayed very far from my thoughts.

My Poppop is a very special person to me and an amazing man.

Poppop, I am so proud to be your grandson and only hope to model my values and beliefs after yours. You have taught me so many things about life and faith and I will cherish them always. I will miss your smile, I will miss your laugh, I will miss your stories,....I love you.

Jason The Running Man

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

On a Roll...

Day 63

Cardio
65 Minute
Elliptical
5.7 Miles

Workout started a little rough, had a terrible headache. This month I'm trying to detox from caffeine and its proving harder then when I quit smoking. About 30 minutes in the headache was almost gone and I was able to finish the workout strong.

Tomorrow will bring on lifting, grip training and my first run back out on the road tomorrow night. I'm excited about the run and I know its going to be difficult but I'm excited anyway. It feels like its been 10 years since my last run. I think it was Feb. of this year...long time. No expectations other then to just get my running legs back slowly.

My company has now officially earned money, I pick up my first check from a customer tomorrow, hopefully the first of many. I need to run down to the bank tomorrow and open an account and get all setup with my quickbooks. I have a meeting on Sunday with another client to take on some online content managment for them so I hope I can earn their business. Things are starting to come together.

Gracie starts school in a few weeks and she seems very excited to get back to her friends from last year. Hopefully it will be a much smoother first day then last year, that was terrible. I can't believe she's going to be 6 this Jan. Time just seems to fly on by lately.

Well, time to get ready for bed. I've been up crazy hours of the night working on this business of mine but hopefully by the start of next week I can get into a regular type schedule. Have a fabulous Thursday morning....

"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Epic Workouts...

Day 61

Cardio
Bike
50 Min
13.7 Miles
25 second transition
Elliptical
65 Min
5.4 Miles
Total Mileage: 19.1

Grip Training
CoC - Trainer (100lb)
Right - 8,6,4,2
Left - 8,6,4,2
3 Minute Rest
CoC - #1 (140lb)
Right - 10,6,6,4,2
Left - 9,6,4,4,2

Workouts felt great I was beat after the cardio yesterday. The last 2 miles on the elliptical were some tough miles. I got my #1 CoC gripper yesterday and it is a stout little gripper but was still able to crush with the above reps. The next step is the #1.5 and then the #2 (195lb). I'm going to look at getting a few grippers in the next purchase and start doing some heavy negatives. My goal is to crush the #3 consistently and get certified by Ironmind.

Day 62

Workout
Bench Press
115 x 10
135 x 10
165 x 8
185 x 6
205 x 2 - Probably could get 4 reps here with a spotter
185 x 4
135 x 15

Incline Bench press
100 x 10
110 x 10
120 x 10
140 x 8
150 x 8
160 x 8
170 x 6
190 x 6

Lat Pulldown
85 x 10
100 x 10
120 x 8
135 x 4

Shoulder Press
100 x 10
120 x 10
140 x 10
160 x 8

DB Front Raise
40 x 10
44 x 10

DB Hammer Curls
70 x 10
80 x 10
90 x 10
110 x 10

Weighted Crunches
4 sets of 10 @ 45lbs

What a great workout today. My energy and intensity were very high. I was beat after this one but I look forward to moving more weight as the month goes on.

Before heading over to the gym I had to make a service call at a clients location. Just a memory upgraded is needed. On the way out of the gym I got another call from a possible client and it looks I’m going to pick up a decent contract doing some online content management development. My little business is starting to pick up. I got another class from my old company which means I’ll be doing two classes in August. Hopefully the work will continue to come pouring in.

Have a great night…

"You rarely see positive results from people who do nothing but complain." Kanye West