Why I took September and most of October off from working out.

Why I took September and most of October off from working out.

On September 3, Monday, I left for the United States.  My plan during my stay in the US was to mostly play Pickle-Ball as often as possible, I was looking at 6 days a week per my plan and expectations.  However, all did not go according to plan.  I arrived at my home in the US about 7 hours late because of a delayed flight due to weather, I almost didn't make it out of Chicago.  But I did and the transport service drove me home.  As I pulled into my driveway, the first glaring thing I noticed was the ambulance with lights flashing.  I paid the driver and ran into the house.  Apparently, my father had fallen in the bathroom and was in need of medical attention.  To make a long story short, my father was taken to the hospital and stayed overnight.  My mother stayed with him in his room.  I started to suffer from jet lag right away so I stayed at home and slept in till the late morning.  In the early evening, I finally made my way to the hospital at the request of my mom.  I arrived in my father's room around 6:30pm...  15 minutes later my father passed away.  This totally caught me and my whole family off guard.  Needless to say, I was in no mood to do much of anything.  The events of the following two weeks until the Memorial Service on September 15 is all sort of a blur.  But I actually did get in one session of Pickle-Ball with my mom and brother at their courts the next Sunday.

 At my father's memorial service.

September 17 - Pickle-Ball - 2020 kcals

Heading back to Japan.

On September 18, I made my way back to Japan.  Again, I was knocked out by jet lag and add to that the stress and grief of losing my father, I really was not feeling any type of motivation to do anything.  I started back to work that next Monday in sort of a haze.  Just going through the motions of teaching and working.  Again, it is all sort of a blur.  I did get in one session of Pickle-Ball.

October 1 - Pickle-Ball - 1137 kcals

And then I tried to keep the workouts going so on Friday, just to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise, I did...

October 2 - X3 Yoga - 382 kcals

I was out of shape and desperately needed to get back into tennis because I had another tennis tournament to play in that next Sunday.  I did get in a practice on Wednesday, and that was it.

October 3 - Tennis - 1523 kcals

October 7 - Tennis Tournament - 3986 kcals

I actually didn't play that badly.  My partner and I (This is only the second time to play with the partner I played with back in August.  Since we did so badly in August, I wanted some redemption, so I asked him to pair up again for this tournament.)  We lost our first match 3-6, but we won our next match 6-1, but we missed out on getting into the main draw on game count because we were tied with another team.  Then we lost our first match in the consolation round.  But I sort of threw that match at the end because both my calves were on the verge of cramping.  The score was 6-6, and we were in a tie-breaker.  With the tie-breaker score at 5-3, when I lunged for the shot to go to 6-3, I felt the pain strike in both calves.  We only needed one more point to win.   I didn't say anything until the game was over, but we eventually fell behind 6-7 and on my serve, I double-faulted twice.  I just couldn't move.  I couldn't have played in the next match anyway, so it was better for us to lose this one.  Not doing much exercise for a month really took its toll on me.  The next week and a half was just tennis.

October 10 - Tennis - 1772 kcals

October 14 - Tennis - 2028 kcals

October 17 - Tennis - 1688 kcals

But the itch to do weights started to come back, but I wasn't really feeling physically up to lifting at my present max, so I went with a nice short workout...

October 18 - Body Beast: Lucky 7's + ChaLEAN Extreme: Extreme Core Circuit - 915 kcal

Lucky 7's was a tough workout.  I didn't lift really heavy weights, but for the last two or three pyramids, I had to go down in weight just a bit.  But at the end, it felt good to get back to resistance training.   But with all that has been going on in my head, I still didn't feel totally like myself and I decided to shift gears and go a slightly different route with my workouts for a little while... outside of the regular tennis and Pickle-Ball sessions when I do them.  The following is a list of tennis dates which is regularly on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.

October 21 - Tennis - 1983 kcals

October 24 - Tennis - 1566 kcals

October 28 - Tennis - 1205 kcals

October 31 - Tennis - 1783 kcals

The much lower calorie count on the 28th was due to the fact that I missed the first hour of the usual three-hour session because I had to make a quick appearance at a work function.  But I was able to play well and still get a good burn.  There was no Pickle-Ball this month except for the 1st because of two reasons, 1. my playing partner was under the weather a bit on some days, but mostly because of, 2. his mother was sick so he went back to the UK for a week or so, then as he was leaving his home, his mother passed away so he was back for only a week before he went back again.  He comes back this week but I doubt he will be ready to play for a couple of weeks.  The travel he has done will be brutal for him so I'm not going to push him to play.  I won't say anything until he approaches the subject first.

In between those tennis sessions, I did two alternative workouts using Shaun T's  T25 program, and back to Abs focus.

October 26 - T25: Alpha-Cardio + ChaLEAN Extreme: Extreme Core Circuit

October 29 - T25: Alpha-Lower Focus + ChaLEAN Extreme: Extreme Core Circuit + Upper Body Weights

During Alpha-Cardio, I was dying at the end of the Run Progression but kept on going with modification when it came to the Jacks Progression.  I had to modify with the In & Outs and a little with the doubles.  I had to take a break at 9 minutes, then a minute later just before the first Burnout.  Then I took a break again before the second Burnout.  But the breaks were not because I was dead tired, but rather because of the pain in my arches or my calves from all the jumping to move my feet around.  For my Abs, Extreme Core Circuit is great because it's on the balance ball.  On the 18th, I used the regular 2kg dumbbells.  Today, I went with no dumbbells.  And I still got an excellent burn in my core.  So that is the way I did them on the 29th as well.  The Lower Focus was brutal and I really burned out my calves that day.  More pain in my arches and calves.  But I added some upper body work day.  For each move, I did a lightweight and one athlete helper per ski run. But again, it felt good to be pushing some good weights.

This ends my Off-From-Workout days.  I'm going to try to be on it with regular workouts this month.  Today is October 31, 2018, and I'm going to do my best to maintain a workout schedule.  I really want to get back to be in a show.  From November 1, tomorrow, I'm back to individual workout entries.  See you in November.