8 PICKLE-BALL Days, 1 P90X routine, 2 Splits + TCF. For September 1 - September 11, 2016.

8 PICKLE-BALL Days, 1 P90X routine, 2 Splits + TCF. For September 1 - September 11, 2016.

I have been MIA this past couple weeks because I have been in the US on a business trip and for my exercise, I've been playing a lot of Pickle-Ball.  Almost everyday the second week starting on the 4th of September which was a Sunday, I played everyday except Wednesday because that is the day my sister came to town and I picked her up and we went out to a lot places and didn't get home until late. But I picked up again on Thursday, and this time I got my sister into it and we played for a relatively short time, but there were only 4 people so we played the entire time with no breaks. Friday also, we played a lot and and I burned a lot of calories.  On Saturday, which is normally my off day, no Pickle-Ball, but we did do a lot of yoga.  That is the reason why my sister came to visit while I am in town, to do yoga with me.  We call it "SY16" which stands for "Sibling Yoga 2016".  This year, is actually the third year for us to do this event.  I will post pics of it later.  But we were doing a lot of stretch poses, balance poses, strength poses, and it really brought on a good sweat.

Then on Sunday, which was our last day in town together, we played Pickle-Ball in the morning for over three hours and then went shopping.  I had a lot of stuff to get to bring back to Japan so we were out a long time.  For dinner, I had Pho for the first time at a Vietnamese Restaurant. It was nice.  I liked the Vietnamese sandwich (I forget the name, something like "Beng In" or something like that) though a little more.  Then when we got back, I was packing all my bags and weighing them.  So that was a good amount of lifting just under 50 pound bags.

Since I was essentially doing the same thing everyday, when it came to writing about it, I figured I'd be writing the same thing everyday.  Plus, I wasn't really liking the idea of writing the entries on my iPad so after the first few times, I figured I'd just put the whole week into one post at the end.

I left the US on Monday morning.  My flight from Chicago was delayed over an hour so when I arrived in Tokyo, it was impossible for me to make my connecting flight, so the airline put me up for the night with two meals.  Sweet deal!  When I got home, I was dead, but happy to see my wife and daughter.  I've been home for a couple days now and the Jet Lag has been pretty odd.  Nothing like I've experienced in the past.  Usually, I'd be waking up in the middle of the night, unable to get back to sleep.  This time, for the past couple of nights, I have gone to bed around 9pm and pretty much slept through the night.  I did wake up a couple of time to do some "business" but I was able to get right back to sleep.  One big difference is the fact that I have been a bit dizzy all day.  That is different. If I move my head too fast, I feel sick and start to lose my balance. For that reason, I have not been able to workout since coming home.  I'm going to take it easy through Saturday and then hopefully start back up my regular workouts on Sunday.

So I'll just give the totals for the full time I worked out and played Pickle-Ball in the US.  my first workout was on September 1, Thursday, and I played Pickle-Ball for a total of 8 times before leaving on September 12.  I only did one regular workout on on the 2nd, which was P90X's Core Synergistics + Splits + TCF.  Then, I did Splits and TCF one other day after Pickle-Ball. That was on Friday, September 9.

Total Time for 9 Workouts was 27 hours and 2 minutes.
Total Calories Torched was 13,411kcals.

I had brought my workout shoes and routines to do for my workouts, but those plans changed drastically with the Pickle-Ball Fad sweeping my family.  I loved playing Pickle-Ball, but I'm anxious to get back to my regular workouts.  I'm scheduled to be started on Week 6 of Combat, but I may not go back to that.  I may go back to my regular hybrid which alternates Resistance and Cardio.  So I may use the Combat for the cardio portion of my hybrid until I'm through the whole 9 week schedule.  It is under consideration at the moment.

One more off day, then it's back to the grind.  Unless this dizzyness persists. Here's hoping. Have a great weekend!

9-04-16 HY: Pickleball + Splits + TCF.

9-04-16 HY: Pickleball + Splits + TCF.

Today was an odd day. We were planning to NOT play Pickleball today. My parents and I were planning to go out to eat in the evening. That would have been our first "eating out together" since I came back. But, to make a long story short, our lines got crossed, and we ended up eating at home which gave us time for some Pickleball!

I started off again, as Cut-Throat. As before, I was running around like crazy. We all shout and howl in delight as awesome shots are made and attempted. We were only planning to play for an hour, but at the end of the fourth 2-on-1 game, another member of the club came. A guy several years younger than I, so we ended up playing close to 90 minutes.  We split up into two teams, my mom and I vs. the young whipper snappers.  Well, to make a long story shout, us oldies showed them young whipper snappers a thing or two about Pickleball! But the games were actually quite competitive. Serve changing hands several times with no score.  We had a great time! I was so sweaty, I couldn't just go into ,y splits right then, so I showered, and then did the Splits and Flow before I went to bed.

Splits were good. A lot less painful from soreness or muscle strain today. But enough pain from the stretch.  Good push session today.  Flow was also good, as normal.

In the end, after the Pickleball, I torched 1400+kcals.  Can't wait for tomorrow, Labor Day, because we're having a Pickleball party.

9-02-16 HY: P90X - Core Synergistics + Splits + TCF.

9-02-16 HY: P90X - Core Synergistics + Splits + TCF.

So sad! No Pickleball today. So I decided to go Old School and do some good P90X body weight resistance training.

I was afraid I might have lost some strength, and actually, I was still feeling the affects of that last Body Beast workout I did on Sunday, but I was happy to discover that I was still able to pump out the push ups and keep up with Tony and crew.  I kind of gassed out at 11 reps on the "Jail House" or was it "Cell Block" push ups. I usually am able to do a few more but just couldn't do it today.  I don't have any weights here, so I did all the weighted moves without them. Instead, I focused on keeping the flex throughout the move. The "Lunge-hands above the head" and back move was good, but the "Lunge-Elbows Back-Kick Back-Straighten Up-Curl-Press-Down-Reverse Curl" move was extremely brutal. When I do that move with weights I'm focusing on form with weights. But today, I had to focus on putting tension in every muscle I wanted to hit.  I was really exhausted after that move like never before. It was hard keeping up with Tony on that "Locomotives/Standing Crunch" move because I got a little dizzy turning my head from side to side.  I was planning to do an ab routine, but my core was already quite tired and burned out after this routine, so I decided not to do one.

Ah, the splits. This is the longest break from them I've taken since I started this Splits Journey almost two years ago with Dr. Cheng in Tai Cheng. The initial leg swings, especially on my left were very painful, so I had to back off a lot. Everything else went normally in the preliminary ballistic moves.  Needless to say, I was pretty tight, but to my surprise and delight, after the first round, I was back, or close to getting back to my low point. My frame of reference is gone because I don't have my lines or my smooth floor I can slide on, but it felt good and painful. I was worried I might have lost a lot of openness in my legs and hip flexes, but it seems that everything is fine. Flow was also fine. Being in a unfamiliar surroundings is always a challenge, but I nailed all my Flows, cleanly and smoothly.

In the end, I torch 1100+kcals.  I was happy to get back to a regular workout to finish off my busy week.

9-01-16 Pickleball + Jojjing.

9-01-16 Pickleball  + Jogging.

Jet lag hit me like a load of bricks today.  It hit me pretty hard yesterday too, but since yesterday was a rest day, when I got sleepy, I took a long nap. Today, I had to start work so no nap. I really had to fight to stay awake. I was shouting and slapping my face on the drive home. Yeah, that was a bit tenuous, but thankfully, I made it back safely.

Today wasn't a normal Pickleball day, but my mom called around and was able to find a friend to play with us. So, we ended up plating "Cut-Throat" aka "2-on-1". At the outset, I wasn't feeling particularly energetic, and in the first few minutes, I didn't think I would last the whole hour, but once we got into it and some really good points were played and the adrenaline started flowing, I was pumped and ready to get into it.  You might think it wasn't very competitive, me against a couple of senior citizens, but this was more me learning and getting a better feel for the game than actual competition. So I held back on killing the ball and focused on just getting everything back with good accuracy and control. Plus, they are actually pretty good, so they really pushed me. Their experience really came through on a lot of points.  We ended up playing six games. The first three were all pretty one sided. But from the third game, I was still energetic, but I was feeling gassed and a lot of unforced errors started creeping in. The score of that third game was really close.  I had to fight my way back from like an eight point deficit. I found just enough energy to tie-and-pass when I was 11-13 down.  Those close games are a lot more fun than the blow outs.  We all had a great time.

By the end of the hour, I had burned just under 800kcals. I really wanted to top 1000, so I ran along side my dad as he rode his bike. My dad had a stroke over ten years ago so riding his bike is something he does to stay active.  He rides for about half an hour, and goes for about a mile and a half at a good pace for his condition. So today a jogged along.  I normally hate jogging, but this was just some quality time with my dad.

In the end, I torched over 1150kcals. I love burning calories this way!

Now, I'm sure you have noticed that I have not done the splits of Flow for about four days. The reason for that is that I seem to have had a slight left lower glute pull. Putting weight on my left side has been rather painful since the long flight.  The seats were extremely uncomfortable and lacked sufficient cushion. At one point mid-flight, I tried to adjust my butt in the seat and a pain shot into my left glute. That is when I knew I had to get up and stretch.  I normally don't get up too much, but it seems that I will have to change that and get up to stretch more often during long flights.

8-31-16 Pickleball.

8-31-16 Pickleball.

 Today I scheduled as a rest day because I knew I would be jetlagged and I wouldn't be able to think very much today so yeah today is my rest day.   When I say rest day I mean resting from work not working out because today I did a very fun and new and rigorous workout.   Today's workout came in the form of a new sport that is a sweeping the nation called Pickleball.  Basically, if I were to describe it in one phrase, I would say Pickleball is a hybrid of tennis/paddleball/table tennis.  The big characteristics are that the racket is like an greatly oversized ping pong paddle with no rubber, and the ball is basically a whiffle ball.  Not a big bounce, and not a lot of spin can be put on the ball. The lines are a lot like badminton. The rules regarding the lines is like any game with lines, but there are a couple rules that handcuffed me several times.  But overall, I had a lot of fun and burned a bunch of calories.  I played about 10 sets with and against several different teams. I lost some and won some.

In the end, after almost three and a half hours of play, I torch 1535kcals. Hugely fun way to burn calories.

Here are a few shots of my session:

8-30-16 Powerwalking, part 2

8-30-16 Powerwalking, part 2

 Today upon waking up I felt a little bit more ready for the trip since I had to leave early as I said in yesterday's entry.   Today was the big day today I was flying from Tokyo all the way to my home airport of the South Bend.   In today's journey I would be walking through three airports Narita international airport in Tokyo Chicago O'Hare and then the South Bend regional airport and I definitely laughed a lot more today I am walking up and down terminals walking around looking for food and throughout all that walking I try to keep the pace I tried the powerwalking the extended stride the more powerful pushoff on the back foot and I really wanted to keep  pushing my pace as fast as I could I'm need to get my heart rate up.   I really wish I had my heart rate monitor on but dumb unfortunately I had packed it away and my heart rate are my am my pedometer was dead and I forgot to change the battery so I didn't bring it.   But by my estimates I definitely walked more than twice as much as I did yesterday and I did a lot more extra walking since I had a lot more waiting time.   So to keep the sweating down I would walk up and down my terminal from the beginning, all the way to the end and back a couple times.   By my estimates walking from the top of the terminal all the way to the end and back is probably around 800m to 1km in distance.  So in total I think I walked over 10 km today.   Oh and just so you know only the first time I walked on the moving sidewalks the rest of the times I went around on the normal carpet.

 On the plane I couldn't really walk around or do pace walking so instead of that I got up a couple times to stretch to do some yoga moves nothing too big but a few poses like a triangle of forward bend and things all these stretches that I've done on different programs that I would loosen my body up on the plane because the flight was extremely long and the seats were very uncomfortable.

 But I made it to my destination and I'm very happy about that but I was very tired and sleepy because I stayed up and watched a few movies on the plane.   So I'm hoping that I  can get over my jet lag quickly and I can start doing regular workouts on every day from tomorrow hopefully.

8-29-16 Powerwalking.

8-29-16 Power Walking.

 Today was a world wind day.   I was scheduled to leave for the United States tomorrow but because of a typhoon I decided to go today.   There was a chance that the typhoon would delay my flight and I might miss connecting flights if I left tomorrow so leaving today was the best option to be safe.   I was thinking I could do a quick workout before I left but as things got busy I found that there was no way I  would be able to do a workout of any kind.   But as it turns out walking through airports carrying bags trying to get to terminals and walking through terminal is two gates that was a lot of walking today.

 So instead of doing a regular work out I was forced to do powerwalking.  I've heard the term powerwalking before but  what I consider to be powerwalking might be a little different from what the general definition is.   For me powerwalking basically is walking as fast as you can but with a longer stride and with a more powerful pushoff from the back foot to hear propelling yourself forward a lot faster.   Today I had to walk through two airports and I found that my gate was basically at the end of the terminal so I had to walk fast and I had to walk long to get to my gate and since I had a long waiting time I decided just to go walking up and down the terminal.   You know I walked about an hour and I would estimate close to 5 km.   I was a little worried about all the walking today because I don't like to sweat when I can't take a shower right away.   I did sweat but I bought a little tool that would help alleviate some of the discomfort and that helped a lot.  It helped me feel a lot better and I'm sure it helped my neighbors with regards to what could have been an unpleasant aroma.   I also did a lot of just sitting around and waiting and actually that might have been something that made me even more tired than the walking

 It was a good day and it was a very busy day having to change my schedule like that I wasn't mentally prepared but eventually I had to come to grips with my decision to go early.  It was a good day except for the fact that I wasn't able to say goodbye to my daughter face-to-face because she had left for school before I woke up.