Day 62 (Saturday, posting late)

I don't know what happened Friday. I got off work at a decent time, for a Friday. I guess I got really engrossed with a tv series I was waching on netflixs. Eventually, I noticed it was "6:30 am" . I thought to myself, "If I start Yoga X now, I won't be going to sleep until at least 8 am" (this being bad because I needed to be waking up at 12:30 am the next day). So, I decided I would go to sleep now. Immediantly at 6:30 am. It did not happen.. I still went to sleep at 8 am.. but with no workout. I let myself geta nice 8 hours of sleep. I got a haircut, got grocceries, and then promptly started Yoga X.

Yoga X- Yoga X went well. I think I performed even better in the start since I had my camera on me. Eventualy the batteries ran out. Since 50% of my subscribers (1 of 2) mentioned the main thing they like at my blog is the pictures.. I'll try to incorporate more pictures in the mix. The picture to side is me doing "Crane". I held it for about 55 seconds. This is also the first time I've seen what I look like doing crane. I guess I really need to get my knees in to my armpits more.. and from there focus on getting my feet up to my butt. From now on.. it's form over time.
This lady explains it well, and also explains the "Crow".. witch really yoga people (not us P90X'ers) typically work with before they do Crane.

So, before I started my next workout in the evening I waited for my brother to go to sleep. It was planned that we would all leave at 12:30 am. I mentioned to him the time at 2:50 am, but he insisted on staying up later (he was even going to sleep around midnight the previous nights). He would end up getting somewhere around 6 hours of sleep that night.

Legs and Back- I really put alot of effort in and was sweating not to long into it. I could feel the effort I put in my legs. My reps on pullups increased.. that suprised me considering how tired I was. I felt really good finishing it.

I started Ab Ripper X (first 5 minutes), but decided it would be better to just get some sleep. I ended up getting a little under 6 hours of sleep. No to terrible. I'll do Kenpo X tomorrow and be caught up for the next week (or so I thought..) .

Birthday Challenge (Intro Post)

Inspired by the (partially abandoned) site http://www.birthdaychallenge.com/, and more specifically by this guy. I will do my own Birthday Challenge, following the same theme of using my age(that I will be) for the various things I'll try complete. I'll start the challenge on September 21st at 4pm, finishing on October 21st 4pm (this is 30 Days from my birth time). The challenges will be a mix of (hopefully) 30 things with 30 (or the numbers 3 and 0) in the activity. This challenges will be inspired by personal weakness that I need to improve, things I want to get better at, things I want to do or am good at, and potentially suggestions made by other people.


The List (so far):

1. Read 30 Chapters of published fiction (perferably from 30 different books
2. Write 30,000 characters worth of text for my book
3. Learn 30 new words and near the end of the Birthday Challenge test myself on words
4. For 30 Days make a post tracking my progress that includes a picture or video
5. Play 30 notes on the guitar for 30 Days
6. Develop and Deploy 3 games.
7. Program a game with 30 maps/levels/stages
8. Create 30 good quality sprites
9. On my motorcycle travel a distance of at least 30 miles from my home
10. Workout for at least 30 minutes for 30 Days (consecutively)
11. Cook meals that use a total of 30 diffrent ingredients
12. Read 30 words worth of text in front of a group of at least 30 people
13. Do a combination of meeting 30 girls (w/ romantic intentions) and going on 30 Dates
14. Make 30 phone calls to 30 different people (work calls do not count)
15. Donate 30 hours of my time to help someone else
16. Donate to 30 diffrent charities a total of $300
17. Give 30 Piggyback rides (consecutively)
18. Jump kid(s) 30 times (consecutively) at least half the child's height
19. Within 30 minutes do 30 Pullups.
20. Do 30 Pushups (consecutively)
21. Experience 30 new tastes
22. Within 1 day travel 30 miles on my bicycle
23. Run 30 Miles
24. Complete a competative 5k (3.10 miles) earning a 3rd (or better) place medal
25. Make 30 improvements (cleaning/fixing) to where I am living at (My room doesn't count)
26. Manipulate 30,000 lbs of weight (ie. 5 curls of 15lbs per arm would be 150 lbs manipulated)
27. Be in bed (or floor in my case) by 7:00 am for 30 days (consecutively)
28. Do 30 acts of kindness (Does not cout towards Time and Money Donation Tasks) (Rejected acts still count)
29. ((Some sort of test of will on the last day))
30. Help someone I know (ie. my brother) in completing their own Birthday Challenge

If you would like to suggest something, please leave a comment. More entries to follow realted to this.

Day 60

Arms and Shoulders- All of my weights increased by 5 pounds. Which really doesn't seem like a huge improvement in a 42 day period, but it's fine. My real goal with strength is to just be stronger enough to support myself with (climbing, handstands, ropes, pull-ups). Having huge muscles would just slow me down. Still, with a goal weight of 150 that gives me an extra 3-4 lbs of muscles to add on. If one arm could lift a quarter of my overall weight, I think that would be a good goal to achieve 37.5 lbs... and really a max weight limit for any routine (unless maybe I'm stilll under 150 lbs body weight and all of my other muscles are up to par).

During one of the exercises I tweaked a muscle in my right shoulder. I'm not sure which exercise caused it. It gave me minor pain throughout the night as I'm someone who sleeps on their side. It's really not that bad. I only seem to feel it when I bring my elbow back or straighten my arm across my chest.

Exercises I could improve on... The "In/Out Shoulder Flys", during the out part I struggled with 10 lbs. "Upright Rows" allways seem a little off with me, in the video they have their elbows way up. "Couching Cohen Curls", I use the wall.. but it still seems like I'm offsetting some of the weight with my back. In this exercise I really need to stay with what I have a try to get good form and isolate the bicep muscles. Overall this tells me, I could do with improving my shoulder muscles more then my triceps and biceps.

Ab Ripper X- It went good today. I saw a video of someone showing how to do "Leg Lifts", they interesting thing is they have the person place their hands under their butt. For the P90X's variants of "Leg Lifts", "Fifer Scissors" they instruct placing the hands off to the side. It doesn't seem like a big diffrence, but for myself I quickly learned (ie. first day of P90x) placing the hands under the butt is easier. I would assume P90X's version is harder and provides ore of a workout, but maybe it's just unnecessarily harder.

Cereal

Rasin Bran (Kelloggs vs Post)- First off the noticeable diffrences. With Kelloggs you seem to get more raisins the pack more sugar on them. With Post you get lighter flakes, maybe they make their flakes more sugary instead of their raisins. I'll also note that the Post boxs says on the front "25% less sodium then Kellogg's Raisin Bran", even thought the facts on each box say the same amount of 250 mg. They both have 1 gram of fat, Post shows .5 of that gram is Polyunsaturated, while Kellogg's keeps it all hidden. Kellogg's has 2 less grams of sugar, 1 extra gram of protein, and 10 mg of extra Potassium. Post as an extra gram of Dietary Fiber and beats Kellogg's in the micronutrient catagory (with Vitamin A, Iron, Folic Acid, Magnisium, Zinc, and Copper). I would have to call Post the winner here (for me), but realistically I'll be buying whichever that brand cost less when I go to the store.

Grape Nuts- This is the second time I've bought it, thinking.. "I think I'm healthy enough that I can start eatiing this cereal" OR "I think my taste buds are bland enough that I can eat this cereal". The only cereal that could be worse then Grape Nuts would probably by gneric brand Grape Nuts. The box even shows aleternative ways to eat it on the back, and the recommened way to eat it on the side (microwave with milk (to be fair I haven't even tried this way yet)). I've found that it works well if it soaks and I have a layer of raisin bran on top. The bland taste is removed and you get a nice little crunch after you eat through the Raisin Bran. It basicly provides the same nutritents as Rasin Bran, but the half serving. Plus for half a cup you get 90% Iron and 50% Folic Acid (the percentages being Daily Value on side of box, not my personal daily values).

Day 59

Rest Day.

Day 58

Plyometerics- I wore myself out tonight. By the end of it, I was drenched in sweat. Time to sleep.

Day 57

Chest and Back- It's back people. ".. and when Round 2 comes around you got to bring it". A 42 day gap inbetween the last time I was assigned to do this routine. Everything improved since the the last time I did this routine.

I was doing 5lbs on the "Back Flys".. which is wayyy to light this time around. I did 15lbs this time, but I'll definately need to increase it some more.

For "Heavy Pants" and "Lawnmowers".. your sort of in a lunge, I was lifting 30 and 35 this time (up from 20 and 20). I didn't relize the force I was putting on my legs, until I started Ab Ripper X.. 20 minutes later. I might hold off on increasing more, until my legs feel like they can take it more.

I felt good doing the pushups, and just slightly improved my reps with the pull ups... but then again I have to keep in mind I wasn't going as low then as I am now (which of course makes it harder).


Ab Ripper X- For "Fifer Scissors" everyone has their heads on the ground. I've been laying with my upper back off the ground.. where I feel like my abs are working hard, my legs are solid, and it's easier to breath. Today, I started laying back. I maybe had shoulders 2 inches off the ground.. it's sort of like getting the best of both worlds. It's harder to breath.. but I think that maybe it wokring just bit harder though.

Day 56

Stretch X- I've only done Stretch X a couple of other times. Basically, an hour of stretching. No real sweating in this routine. I appreciate the "Wrist-Forearm Flexor Stretch". For whatever reason they never do this any other workout, but its something that I set gymnasts do.. that would help your wrist with pushups (without pushup bars) and that "Crane" position in the Yoga X.

Tomorrow begins the Final Phase of P90X, which will last 5 weeks.

Day 55

Yoga X- Everything went well. I held crane for about 50 seconds. It allways feel good to finish Yoga.

Day 54

Core Synergistics- I did this yesterday. It went well, I think. I could improve with the Plank / Chatarunga Run and Chataranga Iso. Everything is else is I'm happy with for now.

Day 53, This Blog

P90X- Yesterday (this morning) I again misused my time. I decided I needed to get to sleep, and toke my Rest Day. Which means I'll be doing todays workout Stretch X, Sunday (Monday Morning).

This Blog- The orginal pupose of this blog was to maintain a daily update on my progress with P90X, doing this it helps keeps my accountable for working out daily (aside from the scheduled "Rest Day"). Additionally it tracks my progress, provides feedback to what I'm doing (via comments), and gives me extra purpose to explore ways I can improve in either the workouts or with my nutrition.

When I finish P90X, I don't want to stop with the entries or my own development. So, this blog will be a bit more of a general blog, but will keep the theme of "My Development".. in respects to whatever I want to get from myself.. physically, mentally, creatively, etc. . I have something setup for my next challenge after I complete P90X. I would also like to start another round of P90X at the beginning of next year; unless, something else comes up.

Day 52

GameDev- I got off work earlier then normal tonight. I got a little burst of insperation to do some programming, but couldn't get into it. I just want sure how to proceed. For example I have a World class and a Player class. I want to implent a system where single screen Pseudo-Maps are created.. so when the player moves into a new map.. things can get askwed a bit. So the player would have the impression they knew where they were(single screen maps), but reality would be off a bit(askwed placement of maps). My problem was how to go about it in a Object-Oriented matter and which information/routines should be handled in which classes. At one point I thought maybe I should just write the thing in a good old procedural basic language.. then refer to that for writing it in C++. Seems like it would take a while, but it might end up making better code in the C++ version.. and then I could release the basic version for the competetion's deadline.

After my brief programming session, I got distracted with an oldder tv series I've seen before. The theme for the programming competetion is "Wilderness Survival". At one point I thought it would be neat to interput prison life as just that.. living in a chaotic unfamiliar enviroment. So I was drawing some inspiration from the TV series "Prision Break".

Kenpo X- So.. I started late due to the above mentioned reason. I felt like I had to put more effort in (starting late). I did good though.

Day 51

Core Synergistics- I'm glad to be doing this again. Apperantly I didn't record anything in my log for this routine a month ago, aside from my blog entries. I do remember not being able to do the chatarunga run, which I was able to briefly do this time around. I walked away feeling good, no really soreness compared to last time's blog entry. Maybe, for next time I could push myself to achive a bit more.

Nutrition- I have made an entry in a while. Everything is similar to what it was. I now have been eating Walnuts more so then Almonds. They both rank as the top two healthiest nuts in many random websites. Walnuts are a little cheaper though, even though they don't taste as good. On the other hand, when I'm eating Almonds the little bits sometimes get caught in my throat and make me cough.. this only seems happens at work for some reason (maybe my throat isn't as lubricated?).

Day 50

Yoga X- It was good. I'm definately noticing improved flexability in some areas.

Day 48

Kenpo X- I enjoyed myself. I kept my energy up and brought some intensity to my movements. Heart Rate 130s and 140s.

Tomrrow I'll start the last week of Phase 2.

Day 47

I wasted alot of time yesterday. So.. I'm doubling up today. Doing Legs and Back this morning (5pm) and Kenpo X in the evening (4am).

Legs and Back- It went well. Not much progression in the pull-ups, but I'm still doing like 6 to 10.. and getting really deep. It's kind of suprising how warm your muscles get. After doing the "Calf Rasies" w/ 15 pounds weight in each hand they felt as warm as the pavement outside.

Ab Ripper X- Not so great tonight. I tried to remind myself that this will be my last chance for Round 2 to do Ab Ripper X, but I was to tired.

Day 46

Yoga X- Feeling good today. No major improvements. Crane 35 secs.

More then half way finished with P90X.

Day 45

Back and Bicep- I did okay. I increase my weight for some of the weight type stuff. I got less reps then last week with my pull-ups. I don't like people watching me workout, unless their also involved. Unfortunetly for me, 2 times a week I'll be doing pull-ups.. witch in turn means that I need my door to be open so I can attach the pull-up bar to the door frame. This results in my procrastinating when I start.

Rant-

Ab Ripper X- It was fine.

Day 44

Plyometerics- Completed. Heart Rate 135-150.

UP Movie Series- It's a documentary that takes gathers a group diverse 7 year olds born in the UK in the 1960's. Every 7 years a new documentary is created showing what changes have taken place in the groups lives. Though a bit repetative, watching them back to back... It's neat to see what happens to the individual people throughout their lifetime. It make you reflect on your own life. You can see how they their current person relates to who they were, as a seven year old child. The catch line they drive in begininng of the series is "Give me a child until the age of seven and I will give you the man". If someone were to watch it, I would recommend spacing the videos apart.

Day 43

2 Days ago was last weeks Rest Day and yesterday was this week's Rest Day (I wasn't mentally there Monday night (Tuesday morning)).

Chest, Shoulder, and Tricep- I was a bit tired going into it today.My biggest imporvments were adding 8 reps to the Floor Flys and increasing my In/Out Shoulder Fly weight while mainting a good form. My Pushups didn't seem as good today, though I did do 10 of the Clap Pushups.

Ab Ripper X- I had Great "V-Up Roll-ups" tonight, strong consistant movements. I had to take a mini-break to finish the last two in good quality.

I should really focus on getting a good amount on sleep, so I could bring that much more energy for my next workout. Since I've started working out, I haven't been tired coming home from work at all.. so that's great. No worries about me mindlessly riding my motorcycle off the road or such.