New Personal Fitness Goals

New Personal Fitness Goals to be accomplished by the end of 2010

Ironman - I may not be able to qualify for next year's World Championship, but I sure as hell will do my best. If I don't qualify via Honu, I'll sign up for a full Ironman Distance Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bicycle, 26.2 mile run) somewhere else in the world. I want to finish in 12 hours or less, but finishing is most important for my first IM.

300 - I want to be able to do the prestigious 300 Workout in under 18 minutes. What is the 300 Workout?

1. Pullups - 25 reps
2. Deadlifts with 135lbs - 50 reps
3. Pushups - 50 reps
4. 24-inch Box jumps - 50 reps
5. Floor wipers - 50 reps
6. Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 36lbs Kettlebell - 50 reps
7. Pullups - 25 reps

All exercises are done without scheduled rest between moves.

Toe Be-Gone, Yoga, Insanity 1.5

Warm-up ride to the pool and an easy 600m swim. My left side baby toe kicked the wall at the end of the 200m warmup. 75% chance it's broken, but on the bright-side: my right side big toe has healed since I finally kept off it by not running for a while (P90x and Insanity don't count :P ). That little bugger's almost a useless toe anyway. But I can hardly run correctly without the big toe. I need to incorporate fins in my next swim so I can re-learn to force my feet flat. Breathing's getting easier again. I think I can handle 1000m non-stop. 1 week to bring it back up to 1600m. Just a little concerned. I think I could do it under pressure, but my form would get all whack.

Rode up to Yoga class. Forgot my loose clothes and mat so I had boardshorts, an undershirt, and had to bike to Pono's for my workout mat. Trout made a make-shift carrying strap and off I went. Still made it just about on time. Sat down and was already dripping profusely with sweat. This class focused on back extension and it's natural curve. Years of slouching especially disagreed with the wide-legged sit.

Rachelle really got my butt off the ground doing bridge. I could barely get the top of my head off the ground until she pulled my hips up. I forced my pose to lessen the resistance on her hands. I think that's what she wanted me to do. Don't think I got anywhere near the stance in the pic, but it sure as hell felt like it! It's really difficult to push the elbows toward each other while keeping your hands below your shoulders.

Had trouble sleeping with the throbbing toe pain, but I was too exhausted to not sleep.

Insanity 1.5 - Pure Cardio. When Shaun-T says he's nervous about today's workout, embrace it. 15 minutes of non-stop Pure Cardio, after that brutal 3-stage warmup. You know you're doing a badass workout when these fitness freak demonstrators take breaks in between. At one moment it appeared that only a third of them were on-stage. If they were only acting winded, I was sold on it. It helped me feel powerful. Being able to keep pace while they were taking breaks. 5 days in and I'm already feeling massive improvements in the depth and explosiveness of my squats (frog jumps, power squats, power jacks, etc). I just wonder how the hell am I supposed to do Cardio Abs after this mofo.

But I'm grinning. You know why? Next week is HELL WEEK. Check out my Google Calendar if you're curious. I haven't added the noon workouts yet, but they're gonna be 1 hour of either swim, bike and/or run.

5 O'Clock Shadow, Insanity 1.4

Rode my bike home to Pepeekeo yesterday (roughly 10 miles from work, slightly uphill) in 40 min. Waited a little at 2 stoplights. Other than that, it was just me producing a slow 16.6mph. Along the way, I noticed a shadowy character keeping me company. He had no voice, but managed to help me correct my posture.

Insanity 1.4 - Cardio Max Recovery

. This video was easier and tougher at the same time. It's like a mind-f**k. There's no intense cardio warmup. It feels like you're gonna be doing easy stretches and deep breathing for 45 mins. About 10-15mins(?) in, we get into some good deep, burning stretches, then another 15 mins we get into an awesome slow-twitch workout. I do feel relaxed, and believe my HR was around 130-160. I'm really interested in my HR, and should've been monitoring from 1.1. Next week, I suppose. Cousin Mark still has my Polar HRM, so I'll use my secondary strap and download an iPhone app to monitor it.

Insanity 1.3

This just keeps getting better and better. Today's Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance was freakin sweet!

The moves were soo intense that I actually voluntarily sat and involuntarily lay down on the precious 30 second breaks of the last circuits. Mastered the 1-2-3's (Heisman with the tap-taps in the middle). The floor towel is 5 feet away. I have only enough time to wipe the sweat off the floor and throw it back (running now), OR drink water and wipe sweat off me.

Did I mention how much I freakin love Insanity?

Didn't have time to really check the movements of the moving push-ups but I know we're moving side to side. My version is a close hands pushup, move hand out, wide hands pushup, close hands pushup, reverse direction. You can get in a crapload of pushups and do it with sincere intensity.

My squats need a ton of work. This video series will make me crush my first Lavaman Keauhou Triathlon.

New eye candy in this video, but I could only enjoy it in the warmup. Everything until 15 minutes after the workout was a complete blur.

Sooo hungry right now. Chris Kua, my saviour went to pick up breakfast cause I rode my bicycle in and couldn't sneak in an egg. Will I ever tire of omelettes? Nahh...

Swimming for Recovery?

My back was beginning to bug me again by late morning. I was also running on E. Checked on Eric, and his energy was low also. Good.

Had a choice at noon between a nap or the pool.

Something about the water that heals. Jessica was right about being able to swim everyday.

Felt I had to refine my stroke because I was exhausted before even starting. Stretched out, glided though my fingertips and tried a slow rhythm. Took me 60 strokes across the 50 (quite a bit there buddy). But I felt relaxed. My back didn't bother me.

It's been 5 hours since the swim and it's only beginning to bother me a little now.

Pain, Delivered | Insanity 1.2

Pain, Delivered - After Insanity 1.1 Fitness Test, I felt empty. I missed the aftermath in pain from P90x's strength workout. I do believe emphasis was specifically placed on muscular pain. Oh snap, that's what I got. Yesterday's yoga class was focused on neck and back. We did some moves on the ground; pulling the neck using our palms, neck/shoulder stand, neck bridge, etc. Rachelle had us hold bridge until my ass, lower back and quadriceps were on fire. Then we lay on our backs for a minute to rest.

Next move was downward dog. I thought that was in awkward transition. I couldn't picture how to fluidly move into it, so I did a "B-boy Flare" into plank. Rachelle giggled cause nobody knew how to do a reverse tuck-roll into downward dog. Her demo wasn't the most graceful move, but I wanted to try it. First attempt was horrible. My mind was on mastering the transition instead of the downward dog stretch. On the 3rd or 4th attempt, my toes almost touching the ground, a sharp pain comes from the left shoulder blade. I have to push hard to continue rolling backwards, then drop to my knees. Downward dog is gonna be a little tough now. But I suck it up and push through the next 30 minutes.

Rachelle had one of the more flexible girls demonstrate child's pose to downward dog, while keeping the head on the mat. Ow? My head is nowhere near the mat in downward dog. I get elevation sickness, it's soo high.

Sleep was tough. Got about 5 hours max. There was no comfortable position to ease the back pain. At the second snooze... rarely gets to that point... I was about to call Eric to cancel, and rest for another hour. Then I thought about how I'd hear it from everyone about dropping out after the 1st day of Insanity. I hopped out of bed... okay, I crawled out... but my mind was thinking hop. Got my shot of NO-X and slowly but eagerly got to Pono's 15 minutes late.

Insanity 1.2 Cardio Plyo Circuit was INSANE! Then we got to the stretches and I smirked at Eric... "Yeah, that WAS the warmup" From then on, all you would hear out of me was deep breathing, an occasional hysterical laugh, and some bitching through my teeth.

When Shaun-T tells you to remember to breath during those double-tap Heisman's at 3x speed, I laughed and exlaimed "I don't have time to breath, asshole!"

Exercises that truly kicked my ass: Power Squats (1-3rd revolutions), the plank ski kicks (kick legs left-in-right-in, etc) (1-3rd revs), Plank In-Out Kicks (1-3rd revs), Suicides (3rd rev, 3rd rep). The other moves kicked my ass normally.

Water breaks are the shit. Post-workout, I downed the recovery drink and we agreed that was most our bodies have ever craved the fuel. And that was after drinking a full pint of water during the workout and 12 oz prior.

Today changed my doubts about Shaun-T's motivational abilities. He really pushes you, maximizing your potential.

Eye-Candy. These are the hottest workout women I've ever seen on a video. And they fuckin push it hard! If the eye-candy ain't motivation enough, somebody better check your pulse.

We're sticking to our plan for of going through the series once, then Insanity: TTh; P90x MWF. I'll do the Insanity alone at home after work... but that's our dirty little secret.

2nd and 4th meals (snacks)

Snacks. Chips, cookies, crackers, candy bars. Yummy. Sweet. Trans fats. Processed. High GI.

Reset. Need a new list.

• Cheese (sharp cheddar)
  
• Beef Jerky
  
• Eggs
  
• Pork Skins
  
• Tuna
  
• Yogurt
  
• Celery
  
• Carots
  
• Peanut Butter
  
• Pickles? Maybe
  
• Almonds
  
• What else would make a great snack?
  

I'm used to eating oatmeal as 2nd breakfast. It's low GI, but still a bunch of carbs. I've been replacing with eggs. I need to avoid carbs so my body begins burning dietary and bodyfat for fuel (hopefully more of the latter).

2nd lunch will be picked from the list.

Usually have a protein shake and/or low-carb yogurt right before sleep.

Also did some reading about NO-Xplode's creatine content. It's said to only have 1g per serving. Gonna go for some monohydrate form to stack with NO-X.

Brick on N.O., Insanity Day 1

Sunday Brick with Adam, Jeremy and Brian (bike only) - Warmed up, stretched out with a 400m open water swim at Richardson's then headed to HPP for the 2pm brick. Sun was in/out of the clouds, ~80F, Humidity in the mid 70's. 1.5 scoops NO-X, 30 min pre 40k ride, and 1.5 scoops NO-X at transition to 10k run. Stomach wasn't bothered much on the run. This might just work. I've been going no/low carb up until Sunday morning with 2 pre-race organic pop-tarts.

Quads cramped a bit at 9k, downhill portion of the run. Walked for a few seconds and decided to push through. Loosened and lengthened my stride. The P90x back and core workouts helped me improve and maintain my posture throughout the run. It was easier to focus on gently pulling my shoulders down and back. The second half of the run was finished strong. I waited too long to take my gel on the ride, and my stomach gave me noise about it.

Had trouble sleeping. Propped my feet up and wore my compression socks to sleep and into Insanity.

Insanity Day 1 - Fitness Test (what I now will call Confidence Test :)

Exercise	Mike	Eric
Switchkicks	110	110
Squat Jump?	55	55
Power Knees R	75	86
Power Jumps	50	41
Globe Jumps	14	5
Suicide Jumps	23	16
Push-Up Jacks	45	31
Low-Plank Obliques	60	32
Power Knees L	70	N/A

I noticed the vid skipped the opposite side Power Knees, so I RW to finish up. Was a bit tougher to do the other side at the end of the test.

Quite a workout for 30 min. Gotta loooove the quick warmup! Shaun-T gets right into it. Eric's a beast at strength, but cardio is my game. We're planning on pairing Insanity and P90x on the short Insanity days. I have to credit P90x for our ability to keep pace with the demonstrators' results. It's gonna be tough to improve upon our scores. We'll see if Insanity can deliver as expected.

Looking through the discs was hilarious. Cardio this, cardio that, cardio cardio. This is gonna kick our asses. We hope.


Got a fresh pair of compression socks at work, and trying to give my legs a rest (AFTER standing around with a 130min tech support call in the garage). They're not bothering me as much as last night, but they deserve a break.

Gonna shoot for 600m in the pool within the next 30min, then Yoga class after work.

Back to no/low carbs until Sunday for a double-brick (Jeremy's crazed idea).

Bare Naked... Feet, Yoga Class, NO-X Schedule, Carbless

Yesterday's mid-day run was... yes, planned. You may have guessed that I purposely "forgot" my running shoes. I've been wanting to run shoeless for a while now (probably since Waimanu). The only thing I really worry about is glass on the road/sidewalk. So I used the Teva Proton 3 water shoes I bought for the Waimanu hike.



As you can see, they're barely even shoes. Neoprene (wetsuit material) inner, with a thin rubber sole. It still gave me a ton of "feel" for the hot pavement/cement. Nice 30 minute run from the Kawamoto pool along the bay and back. My calves and hamstrings felt fairly tight last night and this morning. P90x X-Stretch this morning felt really good. I put emphasis on the downward dog and single-leg hamstring stretches. The low-squat was a meanie.




I highly recommend doing this at least once. Even if it's a quick run around the ballpark or playground on the grass. You get a better feel of your body. Give your heels a rest. Even though mine barely touch the ground anway, it forces me to stay off them for start to the very end. Just be prepared to patch up your feet a bit afterwards... haha mines were hash anyway, so wtf!

Monday was my first Yoga class. Held by Yogi, Rachelle of the http://www.balancingmonkey.com/ in Hilo. It's a beginner class. Some of the P90x YogaX moves are advanced, so I had little trouble following along. She helped me with my form though. I had trouble with fold and flat back. I wasn't aware that my back had something against being flat. I think I've got the hang of it now... err... straight of it.




So, NO-Xplode has a 6-12 week cycle, and 4 week minimum off-cycle. Going with the max 12 week cycle, I'll have until the beginning of October to decide which other pre-training chemical formula to subject myself to while off of the nitric oxide supplement.




Been doing fairly well this first of 4 weeks of my Carbless diet. I flopped a little today, on accident of course! That chicken long-rice was worth it. I took my NO-X right after to help flush the carbs. Oh yeah the rest was good too (lau lau, poi, lomi salmon, chicken long rice, small poke, haupia for $10 from Wiki-Wiki kitchen next to Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo. Big tubs of poke from Suisan)

P90x Round 2 Day 93 Chest and Back Evaluation

Exercise	Before			After
	Weight	S1R	S2R	Weight	S1R	S2R
Standard Push-Ups	160#?	30	20	170#	25	25
Wide-Arm Pull-Ups	Bands	0	15	170#	12	12
Military Push-Ups	160#	15	15	170#	22	20
Reverse-Grip Chin-Ups	Bands	0	25	170#	12	12
Wide-Fly Push-Ups	160#	20	15	170#	20	20
Close-Grip Overhand Pull-Ups	Bands	0	20	170#	12	12
Decline Push-Ups	160#	15	10	170#	15	15
Heavy Pants	Bands	20	15	30#	15	20
Diamond Push-Ups	160#	10	9.5	170#	15	15
Lawnmowers	Bands	20	20	30#	20	20
Dive-Bomber Push-Ups	160#	8	5	170#	10	8.5
Back-Flys	Bands	20	20	30	20	22
Total Push-Ups	160#	98	74.5	170#	107	103.5
		172.5			210.5
Total Pull-Ups				170#	36	36
					72

S1R = Set 1 Reps
S2R = Set 2 Reps
Bands = Purple or Green Bands (don't recall)

P90x Round 1 - Day 1

I wasn't impressed with the difference in quantity for push-ups, but I bet my quality has drastically improved. My core is a lot stronger, and my body is a plank with EVERY repetition. I'm also more explosive on contraction of the muscle and slow/steady on expansion.

The weight and numbers speak for the back workouts.

I haven't been 100% on the 90 days, but have been off and on. My focus was on slowtwitch and cardio before I began the program. I have been neglecting long-distance and time cardio workouts. My nutritional guidelines have also become more of a distraction to me enjoying bad food.

I've got 4 weeks until Lavaman Keauhou Olympic Triathlon. I've began my no-carb diet on Friday and paid for it over the weekend with headaches. I think my body has adjusted and I feel lighter already this morning. The machine is burning again.

Eric got in Insanity and it looks fun. He's still sick, so we'll start it next Monday. He'll attempt some P90x tomorrow morning.

I've got Yoga class this afternoon with Mommy for some afer-hours Community College Course. I told her Yoga isn't a walk-in-the-park, but it's an excellent start at getting fit! Twice a week, should be a nice addition to my afternoon program. I'll have to reintroduce noon runs... maybe tomorrow. Okay definitely tomorrow. Bike on Wednesday, noon or afternoon.

Gotta commit!

Mauna Loa Hike & Sea-to-Stars Mauna Kea Bike Climb

Haven't posted anything in a while. Doesn't mean I haven't been up to much, just tired of writing.

2 adventures happened since last post. Both were up mountains.


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I've never been up Mauna Loa, so I signed up for a backpack trip with the Sierra Club July 25-26. We hiked from 6,000ft elevation for 6mi to 10,000ft where we stayed at the Red Hill Cabin. It took us over half a day to get up there with breaks every hour. I pounded my PB&J sammiches every hour, which gave me tons of energy. I felt lightheaded around 9k ft, but no headaches. The sun was intense, and I burned easily. When we got to the cabin, my legs were good, but I felt dizzy. We ate dinner and I lay down on one of the top bunks to relieve some neck and upper-back strain. 15 minutes later I felt nauseous. I sat up for a while until it had to come out... twice. So I decided to sleep outside. Sherryl and Cheryl were nice enough to lend me an extra sleeping bag and jacket to keep warm. The fresh air was a huge help though. Took an aspirin and slept good after that. Turns out, as Diane pointed out, elevation decreases the body's ability to digest food. So I shouldn't have ate enough for 3. Next morning, I felt like a champ! After at least 8 hours of rest, I was ready to go. I signed out early and ran down. I made it until 8,500ft where the path was only navigable at a slow pace. Plus I owed Sherryl a sammich. So I lay down and waited for the group. That was a good 1 hour nap :) We all joined up at Lava Cafe for burgers and monster taco salads. Made great friends on this trip (Cheryl & Dave, Alina, Sherryl, Rodney, John and Diane) and hope to see them again on the next hike.

Yeah, I don't feel very descriptive today.


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This past weekend, I went up the other mountain. This time on 2 wheels. We started from the singing bridge in downtown Hilo and rode up 9,000ft for 34mi to Hale Pohaku on Mauna Kea. It was 5 hours and 45 minutes of hell. My legs were burning for the first and last 2k ft. They managed to go numb in between. My taint is still sore. I took 5min breaks every hour to gain back feeling in my crotch, so Jr should still be good to go. I gave my bike a break and walked her up a mile or so on the Mauna Kea Access Road, which isn't hilly... there's no level areas. I'm just glad I finished. Not bad for managing to stay off my bike since Honu (2.5 months ago). I'm breaking 4hrs next year. Bree Wee congratulated me on my finish and took a pic with me too! She's got such a great personality and am glad I met her.