1/1/2010 – Happy New Year!

Well 2009 didn’t go quite the way I had expected workout wise. I’ve had pretty much a 6 month break from workouts and I have to say I’ve enjoyed it hugely, but now I’m back to it.

A – repeat twice

• 10x Left handed Clean & Press @ 20kg kettlebell
• 10x Close grip pushups
• 10x Right handed Clean & Press @ 20kg kettlebell
• 10x Dumbell flies @ 20lbs each hand
• 10x Pullovers @ 20kg kettlebell

B – repeat thrice (three times)

• 20x two-handed swings @ 20kg kettlebell
• 10x regular pushups
• 10x left-handed swings @ 20kg kettlebell
• 5x pistol squats on the left
• 10x right-handed swings @ 20kg kettlebell
• 5x pistol squats on the right

Part A done in one continuous workout, then a 3 minute rest, then part B done in one continuous workout.

Tomorrow, a job me thinks.

3/6/09 – No workout :(

I have to say, I’m shocked. My last workout was Saturday and I’m still sore, which is a bit alarming considering it’s now Wednesday!! I suspect that maybe my restricted eating as stopping me from recovering as fast as I otherwise would. Today I’m going to eat a fair bit more (cookie jar here I come!) in an effort to get those mucsles rebuilding a bit quicker, and tomorrow it will be back to normal.

In other news, last night I started learning a new pattern in Gumdo which is quite exciting. The pattern itself is MUCH more fun than the one before it, so I’m looking forward to learning more of it!

In yet more news, tonight is the first lesson of Gumdo for dad’s school, which I’ll be helping out with for a while until I’m feeling confident enough to start my own class. Annoyingly we don’t have quite enough Gumdo specific wooden swords – only 4 when we need 6. I was hoping both dad and my proper swords would have arrived in time but sadly not! So dad is going to pick up some bokken’s today which are used by Japanese arts. Only real difference is they’re a bit heavier and thicker, so shouldn’t be too big an issue…

Quick update

Just a real quick update – I’m about to head out to dinner so I don’t have long to post.

We ended up doing our black belt grading today instead of tomorrow. Everyone agreed we’d probably be too exhausted to do well tomorrow, and after the grading I must agree!

The grading was seriously intense – probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, both physically and mentally. I’ll probably explain why tomorrow or some other time.

Anyway, I and everyone else passed which is awesome, so we’re now all certified black belts!

Off to celebrate I go.

Videos at last!

Well here are the promised Gumdo videos.

Watch them quick, because I’ll be removing them shortly. I only recorded these so my dad had something as a reference, and I really shouldn’t have… None the less, here’s the two patterns I would have done for my last grading, had I done it.

The speed is way down, and the technique a little floppy. Also the patterns aren’t very impressive in shorts compared to the proper uniform But it gives you an idea of what I’ve been working on the last few weeks!

Yay it’s Friday!!

Well believe it or not, it’s Friday and I STILL haven’t gotten a workout in. It’s been bucketing down every day this week except today, and I assumed it would be today so I didn’t bring any of my Gumdo gear, so I couldn’t do a workout today anyway.
I do have a couple of videos of myself in action though, so I’ll have to post that up soon.

Good news on the diet front though, I’ve been eating clean since Tuesday, aside from the pizza last night and muffin this morning. It occurred to me yesterday that when ever we’re planning to eat something not-so-healthy for dinner, I just write the whole day off and eat crap from start to finish, so I’m trying really hard to not do that lately.

Tomorrow there’s a 2 hour Gumdo seminar on. I’ve got no idea what we’ll be doing there, but it’ll be a good solid workout either way! More details to come tomorrow!

Today’s report: There is nothing to report.

It’s raining today, and I wasn’t game to go out and practice in the rain. I did think about it, but I don’t have a towel at work, so I couldn’t have a shower afterwards. To hell with that!
Didn’t get to video those patterns yesterday either, seeing as it was raining when I got home! Isn’t Australia awesome.

In other news, I had kangaroo for lunch today. I’m pretty certain Australia is the only country that makes a habit of eating our coat-of-arms Megan and I decided that chicken is a bit too expensive to be eating for lunch daily, so she picked me up some kangaroo steaks. A week’s worth of lunch for $5 – not too bad at all. Plus on top of being super cheap, it’s also super lean. Tough though….

Nearly there!

Megan and I popped in to check out the house today, and it’s looking awsome. The painting is probably half done, and everything looks SOO much better for it. The previous owners had given everything a quick coat of paint, but the paint was obviously very cheap, and only 1 coat which just made it look and feel horrible.

Only one more day of painting, and then on Friday the new carpets go in, and then we’re moving in on Saturday so I can’t wait! Plus once we’re in I might hopefully be able to squeeze a workout in!

In other news, Gumdo has been great this week. I’ve got a good grasp on the two new patterns and can skip through them pretty quickly with strong techniques (to my liking anyway) – can’t wait to learn the next patterns!

Lastly, a few snaps of the house as it stood on Sunday night after ripping out the carpets and pulling down all the ugly blinds!

Yawn.

No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth!
Megan and I picked up the keys to our new house on Friday at lunch time, and we’ve been going almost non-stop since!
So far we’ve pulled up all the carpets, cleaned the kitchen up (something which hasn’t been done since 1982 I think), removed about 200 yards of cabling from a few random holes in the wall, replaced all the cheap door knobs and what not, and just some general tidying.
Needless to say, there hasn’t been any time at all for a workout, and I have to admit the diet has been shit to match. Fish and chips for lunch yesterday, pizza for dinner (the delivered kind, not even home made), KFC for lunch today. Honestly I think we worked hard enough all weekend to burn it all off though!
The diet will be crap for the rest of the week I suspect, and very little time to work out. We should be settled in to the new house by this time next week though, so that’s exciting!
Ok, that’ll do for tonight. Just about bed time I think.

Need more caffeine!

Well guys I honestly don’t think I can handle a workout tonight. I’ve got a terrible headache as a result of caffeine withdrawal, and there’s heaps to get done tonight including looking after my poor sick girlfriend who’s stuck at home today.

Might continue my rest week through to Thursday, which will at least give me time to adjust to the energy levels of my new diet, which to be honest have been fine so far, but it’s only day 1…

Of course the rest won’t be a complete rest, I still have Gumdo

5/1/2009 – Medicine ball fever

Yes, I did do a workout last night but I was a bit distracted by personal matters and didn’t get a chance to post!

• Medicine ball throws – 200m x 6

It was a blistering 37* C (99* F) yesterday which made doing anything pretty hard work but let me just say, throwing a 10kg (22lbs) ball up around an oval and running after it is just about the hardest damned interval workout I can think off.

No progress pictures today because I forgot to charge the camera batteries, but I’ll post some up tonight post-workout.