Beards, Barbells, and Beer

April 4, 2020

End of week 3 of Covid-19 quarantine. Obviously I haven't been to the gym in over a month now. The gym officially closed a few weeks ago and halted payments so at least I'm saving money. I'm working from home but my 3.5 year old and 11 month old twins are at home (and my wife of course) so the house is pretty hectic. I get maybe 2-3 hours of work done each day.

The twins have decided they hate napping in bed so my wife and I each take them for a walk. I started doing this last week and broke 100,000 steps in the week for the first time ever with ~110,000. This week I did it again with ~116,000 steps. Toronto has said you can go outside for exercise for the time being so I'm taking full advantage of that. The streets and paths are pretty quiet so it's easy to maintain distance.

I've been eating pretty shitty because we did a bunch of baking with our son to keep him busy. If we can actually clean up our diet I think I can probably drop some weight with all of the walking. My weight is around 214 lb which is up a few lb since February but basically where I started the year.

I thought about using my free weights after the kids go to bed but really I need that time to get work done. Doing 20 hours/week when I'm supposed to do 35-40 means I have to make the time count. I'll just have to be content with the walking and wait until I get back in the gym and hopefully enjoy noob gains. I'm still hoping we are back to work by the summer so I can train for the Tough Mudder in September but then I read stuff that says we might be re-locked down in the fall soo who knows.
 
July 9, 2020

Anybody here anymore? We recently purchased a jogging stroller with big wheels so we can take the twins to the parks, conservation areas etc near our new neighborhood. Since we have it I thought I'd add some jogging into my daily walks with the twins. Did some 30:60 jogging intervals Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Felt good at first but quickly tired because I have no idea about pacing yet and also it was too fucking hot, even in the mid-morning.

I was talking to a friend and we are going to try to do the Spartan Sprint this October. They are currently offering registartion for $1 and if the race goes ahead then you pay the rest two weeks before. Obviously with covid-19 there is a real chance it will be cancelled. I won't be able to go to the gym (because its at work and I'll be working from home for probably the rest of the year) so I'm going to jog more with the girls. I'm also going to figure out a path that takes me through various parks in my neighborhood so I can do chins and dips on the equpiment there. My plan would be to walk there, do a set of chins and dips (or push-ups) and then walk to the next park. I think I can string together 4 or 5 parks so that would be mean 8-10 sets (one set in each direction). And then other days I'd just jog to Starbucks :)

I'm also sitting around 210-215 lb right now and being under 200 would really help for all of the clmibing obstacles.
 
July 10, 2020
Jogging intervals. Don't have my phone on me but I think it was about 7.5 km over 1:20. Did jogging intervals for about 50 minutes. Had an odd pain in my foot when I started doing an interval so just walked the rest of the time.

July 11, 2020
It was raining today so no walk.

July 12, 2020
Took the entire family to Rattlesnake Point for a walk. I haven't been there since before my son was born so I wasn't sure what was the best walking path. Wasn't tong, walked about 1. 5km total.

July 13, 2020
Jogging intervals. 9.5 km total, did 30 intervals so about 45 minutes total. Total time was 1:15.
 
July 14, 2020
Walked about 7km, stopped 6 times to do 3 chins, so 18 total. Watch out! Did push-ups throughout the day, I believe 6 sets of 5.

My left shoulder is a bit achy so I should do some light rotator cuff stuff to keep it healthy.

July 15, 2020
Jogged 9.1km doing 30:60 intervals again. Did 40 intervals with walking for warm-up and cooldown. It was probably only 36 or 37 intervals because I know I missed a couple waiting for red lights to change and one while picking up my iced peach green tea from Starbucks.
 
Did a run on Fri July 17 then we headed up to my parents house/cottage from the 18-21. The morning of the 20th I took the twins for a run and most of it was on a compacted sand road by the beach which felt glorious on my knees and hips. It was also cooler and breezy compared to the city.

July 22 - Started jogging but felt like shit so only did about 30 minutes, rest was walking

July 24 - good run, just over 9k
July 27 - Tired today so was only about 8k
July 29 - still kinda tired but did about 9.5k
July 31 - ended up breaking 10k because I had to take a detour near my house.

Aug 3 - Did 10.15k at 8'42 pace. I felt surprisingly tired halfway through and when I checked my Fitbit it was because I was pushing the pace . Best run in the last few weeks and it corresponds with me getting a bit more sleep (which means averaging 6 hours over the last 3 nights, ugh)

Weight still sitting at 213. In between run days I'm usually still doing a 6-7k walk, doing chins at the parks I pass by
 
Aug 4 - walked about 7k
Aug 5 - ran 10.5k avg pace 8'18, best split was 7'07. This was a tough run. I did a new route to a Starbucks that just opened north of me. It's all uphill to it and was pretty windy. Of course that meant the jog home was mostly downhill but by then I was tired.
Aug 6 - walked 7.4k. no chins today
Aug 7 - ran 10.4k. avg pace 8'48, best split 7'08.

I've increased the length of my jog intervals so it's now 40 second jog, 60 seconds rest. Next week will go to 45 second jog.

Weight this morning was 209 so I'm down 3-4 lb in August.
 
Still trying to job 3 times/week and walk the other days. The biggest change since my last post is that on Monday Aug 10 I started Intermittent Fasting. My wife has blood sugar issues (borderline type 2 diabetes) and it really helps her so I figured I would get on board to help with my own weight loss. And it's been good so far. Skipping breakfast isn't too bad, I usually have a coffee first thing in the morning and then stop on my walk/jog for another coffee and I'm good until lunch. Most importantly I'm down to about 202 lb. In fact on Wednesday and again today after my run I was 199. Obviously I sweated out a few lb because I'm back to 203-204 by bedtime but it's still nice to see under 200 on the scale again.

I took some "before" pictures and I'm looking a bit slimmer. Also my resting heart rate is down to the low 50s. So lots of good signs.

The bad news is that the Spartan Race that we registered for in October has been cancelled. They couldn't get approval from the Ontario government so they had to cancel. We now have a full credit for a race in 2021 so hopefully we'll be able to do the race in June 2021, which would be at the same course we did in 2018 so at least we can try to beat our first time.

For work, I'll be working from home until at least January so still won't have any real gym time until then. That said, if my twins graduate to one nap/day I'll probably stop taking them out and instead have them nap at home and go out for a jog or use my block weights in the basement. My wife and I will probably alternate who gets to go out and who has to stay home while they sleep :)
 
Since my last post I celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary and then turned 40 a week later. Woot.

I have continued with the Intermittent Fasting and weighed exactly 200.0 lb on my birthday. Seemed fitting. I'm now down to 198ish. late august/early september is usually a tough time for weight because of multiples birthdays and our wedding anniversary so the fact that I've lost weight is awesome.

I was continuing my runs up until this week. My son has started school (JK) and the twins have just moved to one nap/day. The hope is that it becomes a long one (our son did 2-3 hour naps!) so I won't be taking them for walks/runs as often. So I haven't been out this week. Work has been busy but I'm thinking I'll try just running by myself. What a concept! I'm also thinking I can do some quick workouts in the basement but soon we will be starting some basement renovations. Maybe I can put our adjustable dumbbells in my "office".

In Spartan news, they asked recently if people were interested in a Winter race but no other details are available. I think it would be a good challenge. There is a winter race at a ski resort near me (at least there was before covid) but it's an easy 5k fun-run. An actual challenging Spartan race would be cool. BUt who knows what the future brings because covid cases continue to increase here in Ontario. We are currently back to levels seen during the heavy lockdown in May so we might be headed for another lockdown. They started restricting gathering sizes which doesn't bode well for a race!
 
Haven't gone for a run since my last post. I took the girls for a walk last week because they were fighting their nap and got bad blisters from a new pair of shoes. My wife bought them at a Geox sale at the International Center so I didn't have a chance to try them on because if I had I would have said not to buy them. Very uncomfortable and obviously they rub really badly.

This last month has also been really stressful as my son had to do virtual school from home due to a covid exposure in his class (everyone is fine) and my twins needed to go to the hospital for blood work (again everything is fine but their pediatrician is being thorough because they are quite large). And also our basement renovations was delayed and is now dragging on. It should have been done last week but they didn't work while my son was home (being cautious, reasonably) and then I honestly think they were being too optimiistic about getting all of the fiddly things done at the end. The painters are here today and tomorrow and hopefully the finishing touches will be done this week so we can organize the house a bit before Xmas.

Anyway because of all of that my weight is back up to 205. Being sedentary and stress-eating for the loss. However my twins will be starting daycare at the end of January going 3 days/week so hopefully that will allow me to have a bit of time for myself. I mean technically I should be working during the day but I'm still working from home so can sneak out during the day and catch up at night if needed.
 
Hello log, it's been a while.

My weight is back up to 212 lb, same that I was at last Summer before I lost some weight. It's been a stressful few months and I stress eat with the best of them.

Our house is slowly getting more organized after our basement renovation was completed just before Xmas so I now have my weights accessible. Also my twins are going to daycare three days/week so that frees up some time. So today I did weights for the first time in ages.

Thurs Feb 18, 2021

- 5 minute warm-up: jumping jacks, arm circles, hip circles, walking with high knees etc
- 20 minute circuit: shoulder press x10, squats x10, DB rows x10

Shoulder press: 10 lb, 15 lb
Squats: bodyweight
DB rows, 10 lb, 15 lb

Took about 45-60 seconds between rounds and did 5 rounds.

- 5 minute stretch/abs: Did 3x10 sit-ups and some hips and shoulder stretches.

Finished with some rear delt flies and skiers with 3 lb DBs for shoulder health.

Everything was light but I worked up a sweat and I'm sure I'll still be sore tomorrow. My left shoulder and wrist have been sore lately so I'm hoping being active will help with that. Especially doing the light shoulder/delt stuff
 
Wed Feb 24, 2021

- 5 minutes warmup
- 20 minute circuit
DB Shoulder press x10 with 15 lb
Squats x10 with 15 lb
DB rows x10 with 20 lb
Brief rest

Did 1 round with the base weight (10 lb and bodyweight squats) and 6 with listed weights

- 5 minutes core: Tried farmers walls with two 30 lb DBs but it was awkward walking through doorways so I had to twist slightly. Did them until my hands started to feel week so roughly 2 minutes followed by 1:30. Did last minute with 50 lb (i.e the heaviest my Powerblocks go).

Finished with some light stretching

Today it made it up to 7 degrees and some of the snow melted. Maybe a jog isn't too far in the future
 
Friday Feb 26, 2021

I got started a bit late today and didn't think I had time for the circuit I've been doing so instead after I did a 5 minutes warm-up I set an interval timer for 10 intervals - 25 seconds on, 35 seconds rest - and did burpees. For the first 7 rounds I got 5 burpees and 4 burpees in the last 3. So 47 total. Not too bad for my first burpees in years.

After that did I did 3 sets of 10 rear felt flies and 10 rows with 10 lb DBs. Then some hip stretches and a quick shower before heading out to get my son from school.

It is now Saturday night and my chest is super sore from those 47 burpees, lol.

I have also decided that I will try doing Couch to 5k to improve my cardio once the weather gets nice enough, so hopefully April. I don't think my cardio will take too long to come back but I don't want to go too hard, too fast because I think my ankles, knees, and back might not like it if I increase the volume too quickly. So Couch to 5k should provide a good progression.

Oh and I'm officially registered for the Spartan Sprint in June, Covid willing of course
 
Tues March 2 ,2021

Started warming up and then my wife needed me to help her with her website. By the time I was done the twins had woken up so I went up to the room and burpee intervals. 25 seconds on, 30 seconds rest x 10 rounds. Managed 5 burpees each interval so 50 total.
 
Wed Mar 3, 2021

Started Couch to 5k today.

5 minutes walking then 8 intervals of 60 seconds run, 90 seconds walk (20 minutes total). Then walked about 5 minutes back to the park near my house and did 10 chins.

I thought this would be super easy my legs had a good burn going by the end. Definitely a good idea to do this rather than try to jump straight into running 5k. Hopefully the weather holds and I can do a couple runs/week
 
Fri March 5, 2021

Week 1, day 2 of C25k. I didn't realize each week was just the same run 3 times but that's how it works. So same run as Wednesday except I paced it better so I ended closer to home. Wednesday I ran about 4k and today was just over 3.

It was also about 10 degrees colder today so the run felt harder but my pace was about the same (just over 5 min/km when running, about 8:30 overall).
 
Ya its pretty simple and seems like it will help me ease back into running. If I stay consistent I can finished by the beginning of May and then spend May/June running some hills and doing a bit more weights. For the Spartan Sprint I'm mostly concerned with my conditioning since it's the same skil hill as before I will die if my cardio isn't up to par. There's only a few challenge that require strength and I'm not really concerned about them.

The biggest challenge is whether or not the race will get cancelled due to covid again. They aren't offering refunds so we'd get another credit for a free race in 2022.

Monday Mar 8, 2021

C25k week 2, day 1- 90 seconds run, 120 seconds walk. I was charging my FitBit and forgot to put it on but a run mapping site says my route was about 3.3km. Stopped at the park at the end and did 6 sets of 2 chin-ups. It was warmer and less windy today so it was a very pleasant jog.
 
Wed Mar 10, 2021

C25k Week 2, day 2 - High pace was 4'54/km. Covered 3.73km. Forgot to turn my Fitbit at first so run was probably but farther.

Did 4 sets of 3 chins and then 2 more (14 total)

Fri Mar 12, 2021

C25k Week 2, Day 3 - Suuuuuuper windy today so high pace was a bit slower 5'13/km. I covered 3.94km which is more than Wednesday probably because I started my Fitbit right as I left home this time.

Did 9 sets of 2 chins (18 total). I decided I'd follow some of the Armstrong program with it's idea of work sets. So today was set of 2 which were easy so next week I'll do sets of 3.

Weight is still around 213-215lb but I'm slowly cleaning up my diet. My wife constantly being stressed and wanting junk food isn't helping :/
 
Mon Mar 15, 2021

C25k Week 3, Day 1 - 90 seconds run, 90 seconds walk, 3 minutes run, 3 minute walk, repeated twice.

This one is slightly shorter than the first two weeks but now with a 50/50 split between walking and running. Anyway, covered 3.9 km with a high pace of 5:18. I smoked weed last night for the first time in about 2 months and am feeling it today. The twins haven't been sleeping too well lately so combine that with a mild weed hangover and I was slow today.

For chins did a ladder 1/2/3/4/4/4/3/3 (24 total). The idea is that I failed at 5 reps so do 3 more sets after that trying to hit 4 reps. Chins are feeling more natural now and my shoulders and elbows are less creaky.

Wed Mar 17, 2021

C25k Week 3, Day 2 - The girls have been up a bunch of times at night the last few nights so I was really dragging my ass this morning. Covered 3.81 km with a high pace of 5:30.

For chins the goal was 3 work sets (currently at 3 reps) for each of wide grip, narrow grip, and regular underhand chin grip. Did 3/3/3, 3/3/3, 3/2/2 (25 total). I've also been doing some push-ups randomly throughout the day to balance out the chins. Probably 20-25/day in sets of 5.

Weight is around 213 most mornings so maybe down slightly.
 
Fri March 19, 2021

C25k Week 3, day 3 - Covered 4km with a high pace of 5:13, so a bit faster today. Weight was 210 this morning so things are starting to move.

However I had pizza for dinner last night and then some chips and M&M's after the kids went to sleep so I probably put on some bloat. Smoked a bit of weed again last night and feel like shit so I'm probably just not going to bother until my sleep is better. Not only do I feel like shit in the morning but I don't enjoy the high because I feel so tired and get the munchies, neither of which is conducive to feeling better in the long term.

Also did chins after my run (brackets were warm-up sets)

(1/2) / 8 sets of 3/2

Goal was 9 sets of 3 but was one short! I will stick to work sets of 3 next week.

I'm not feeling too confident that the Spartan Race will happen in June. With all of the talk of a 3rd wave because of variants I think the odds are going down every day. They'll probably cancel and give us another set of codes for free races. There is one up north in October so maybe by then the vaccines will have things more under control ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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