1-20-16 HY: Tennis.

1-20-16 HY: Tennis.

Yes, you see that right. Only tennis today. But it was a great session on so many levels. First, the bad. It was FREEZING in the gym where we play. I am assuming that the construction of the gym makes it act like a refrigerator in the winter and a sauna in the summer. It was so cold, I couldn't feel my left hand for most of the time. Because of that, it took a little longer to get warmed up. But because of a late cancellation of an appointment, I was able to get to the gym early and start warming up early. The way we play, we really push each other hard. There are times when I hit an awesome shot, but he hits an even more awesome shot that I never thought would happen. Then it happens the other way around. Today, our rallies seems to be a lot longer as well. In the past, we would hit right around 6-8 shots, but today, we were up into the teens on several rallies. And that is not just dinking the ball, we were a "SLUG-FEST 2016". It was so awesome!

However, I had a revelation. Today, and last week, I realized something. My endurance level and stamina level had gone down drastically since we played in December. I was extremely winded very early on, and needed to recover more often. I'd usually get right back into it, but so far this year, I've had to slow down the pace of play. I usually wouldn't get that winded until the last 15-20 minutes. I realized what the problem was. It was that since I started Block 2 of Body Beast, I was so into the resistance training that I let the cardio go. Basically, Body Beast is 5 days of resistance training and only one day of cardio. That is according to the schedule. But during the first three weeks, I was going slower on the schedule and adding a couple cardio days and a yoga day so instead of doing 5 resistance days, I was doing only 2 or 3, a yoga day, and then 2 or 3 cardio days. Block two was very focused on specific body parts so I went with the schedule from the beginning of my winter vacation since I couldn't play tennis. I really felt the consequences of that decision today.

So, from today, I am going back to that alternating schedule and adding cardio and yoga to my weekly workout schedule. I hope to get my stamina and endurance up soon, while not sacrificing any strength.

I was planning to do the Splits and Flow when I got home, but for some reason, I was just non-stop little things around the house and with family the whole evening and by the time everything stopped, it was past midnight. So I went without Splits and Flow today. I think I'll trying doing them twice tomorrow, once in the morning and then in the late afternoon with my regular workout.

In the end, I torched 900+kcals! Burned lots of calories. More than usual in that time. Showing my declining fitness level.