Week 12, Day 4

5:13am
YogaX this morning! (that's considerably more enthusiasm than I actually feel btw)

Week 12, Day 3

5:09am
Hi there. Last Back and Biceps workout for a while...

Week 12, Day 1

5:25am
I'm up. A little late, but up.

Week 11, Day 5

5:10am
I'm up! I almost rolled over and went back to sleep - it was a close thing. Legs and Back this morning, I predict whaa whaa-ing about sore glutes for the weekend.

7:00am
Weighed in at 182.6 today. FYI, YogaX will hurt you if you don't respect it.

Week 11, Day 4

5:10am
Hey, I'm 2 for 2! This morning is an hour and a half of YogaX - good times.

6:15am
That was ugly. I think after I've finished the initial 13 weeks I'm going to continue to do the Plyo/Yoga/Kenpo/StretchX workouts until it's time to kick off another full bore P90 Schedule. I think I have done myself a serious disservice by neglecting them. 184 pounds this morning.

Week 11, Day 3

5:05am
Hey, look at that, I'm up! Going to do 11pm to 5am as a sleep schedule for a while and see how that works out. I've lost track of what 'day' of P90 this is, so will use the week/day nomenclature for the rest of the 13 weeks.

8:00am
I'm pleased with the results from this morning's workout, held my own despite the time away. Mr. Scale says I'm up to 186.2 - Ouch. I'm telling myself at least some of that is muscle gain, but I am also aware that rest is decadence and over indulgence. No worries, back to the grindstone.

Rumors of my Death greatly exagerated.

Thanksgiving has not been good to my fitness efforts. Disastrous would not be too strong of a word. The good news is I'm back and I'm fired up.
-Wes

Day 63 - Sorry

Sorry for the lack of updates, let me review..

Have yet to miss a strength training workout however Kenpo and Yoga have been sorely neglected. Bought some new running shoes on Saturday and Sunday got a mile in before the knee started talking to me. Good news is that there was no lingering pain - going to have to take it very slow. Have a cold and have felt pretty run down for the last few days. Motivation is low, don't like spending so much time inside.

Day 57 - That familar feeling

Am sore, real sore. Failed miserably at getting up at 4:30 and then again at 5:30. Being up to deal with kid 1 at 1am, letting aging dog out at 1:45 (back in at 2!), putting kid 2 back to bed at 3am may have had something to do with it. Will try again tonight. Planning on P90 Plyo at lunch time.
Have a great day.

Did half the Plyo workout to see how knee did. Feels okay so far much to my relief.

Day 56 - I'm BAAAaaacck!

Slept 6.5 hours last night, got up and started Phase 3 of P90X. Good workout. I intended to sleep 5.5 and grab a half hour nap at lunch but household disturbances led to some pretty cruddy rest - I reset the alarm and gave myself a little more sleep. Will skip the nap.

The knee is still not right, it's fine with the brace on. Weighed in at 175.4 today.

Reacquainted myself with AbRipperX this afternoon. I've clearly let that slide and will be paying for it tomorrow. For desert I rode 5 miles in 15 minutes on the recumbent stationary bike. I'm pretty tired, still have 2.5 hours before I can go to bed.

Day 50 - Motivation, where art thou?

Weighed in at 178 this morning. This week is the second recovery week and that's good as I'm not doing so great. Knee is still pretty hosed, still wearing the brace on it for most of the day. Will try a bike ride at lunch. Time is running out.

4:00pm
Did 11 miles in 44 minutes on the road bike at lunch. Wore the brace and knee feels okay so far. Good day at work, I'm getting fired up again.

Day 46

Weighed in at 173.8 today, going to pass on legs/back today and hope the knee heals.

Day 45 - This isn't good.

Went for 5 mile run, ran with knee brace, only made it 2 before I had to walk. This does not bode well for the half marathon scheduled in 10 days.

Day 44

7:51am
Weighed in at 174.2 this morning, went for a 9 mile bike ride in the dark. An orange cat and I scared the spit out each other. Good times.
Time to get ready to go to work, have a great day!

Day 42

Didn't exercise in the morning today, was still wasted from the run. RICE'd the knee all day long any by the end of work felt 100% better. Working from home certainly has its advantages. Did Chest/Tri/Shoulders for the third time, definitely getting stronger.

Reminder for Wes: Even if you don't feel like working out, do it anyway - sometimes it's hard to remember how good the end of the workout feels when you're looking at the beginning of it. Like the saying goes: 80% of success is showing up.

RICE: Rest,Ice,Compression,Elevation - Good stuff for leg injuries.

Day 41- Uh oh.

10:00am
The run went pretty well, a wrong turn added enough to the 12.66 mile route that I feel comfortable calling it a half marathon. Had to walk part of it, muscles (tendons) around my left knee started feeling funny around mile 7, by 11-12 it was bad enough to need to stop and stretch a couple of times, last mile it hurt to walk. Got done in two hours and twenty minutes, last time I ran this far I did it in two hours and six minutes. That was 15 years ago.
Now I need to find some anti-inflammatory medicine and a cold pack.
Weighed in at 175.2 today.

Day 40 - What happened to day 39?

I gotta tell you, that back/legs workout has mauled my glutes again. Was planning big bike ride this morning but decided to let it slide. Will do P90X Kempo workout later and see if that helps. Big run tomorrow, I'm planning to do 12 miles with Rico and the guys prepping for the Nov Marathon. They'll continue after the first loop onto another 10 mile loop. Should be fun. Weighed in at 175 this morning. Hoping to start dropping again soon, been here for a while now.

Day 38

5:22am
I'm up.

6:24am
Well that wasn't my best workout ever. There's a reason the resistance workouts are not scheduled on back to back days. Weighed in at 174.6 today.

Day 37

5:14am
I'm up. Think I'll start with P90X.

6:36am
Back and Biceps workout went pretty well, went up 5lbs on just about everythng. Ran out gas about half way through AbRipper though. Do better next time.

7:01am
Weighed in at 174.8 this morning. Let the day begin!

Day 36 - BACK TO WORK!

6:46am
Showered, shaved and inspection ready. Weighed in at 177.8, to say I enjoyed my last two days of 'vacation' would be appropriate. However, today is a new day and I start it with a renewed purpose and dedication. Will hold off any further polyphasic experiments for a while until I see how a typical day working at home is going to flow. P90x has suffered, but not greviously. Yesterday's Chest/Shoulders/Triceps workout will be done today and Plyo will replace yoga on Thursday. Tomorrow will be Back and Biceps and Friday I'm back to the regular schedule with no workouts missed for the remaining weeks. I will also be running T/Th/Sa with Saturday being a fairly big run. Cycling M/W/F.
Check the Fitness Log link to monitor my calorie/nutrition intake. Yep, I'm back in the saddle there too.
Off to work, have a great day.
-Wes

8:15pm
Well day 1 back at work was interesting. Definitely going to take some getting used to. Wife took Kid 1 and Kid 2 out for most of the morning and I found myself to be hyper productive during that time. Got a little more challenging in the afternoon when I could hear Kid 2 having a meltdown upstairs while I was on a conference call, but I'm sure we'll figure it all out before long. Picked up a telephone with a headset and mute button for now.

Lunch plan blew up and did not get chest/sholders/tricep workout in today. Will tackle back/biceps in the early AM tomorrow and get Plyo in at lunch, then do C/S/T on Thurs AM and get a run in at Thurs-lunch.

Sleep plan for now is 11pm to 5am, workout from 6-7am, then shower/shave and get the day rolling.

Day 34 - Distance run

10:20am
Ran 10 miles with Rico this morning, he's prepping for the marathon in Nov (I'm doing the half) and the 10 was part of 21-22 that he was planning on doing today. Got it done in 96 minutes, not great, but not bad. Weighed in at 172 today. Legs and glutes are wicked sore right now.

Day 33 - 5K run for Autism

10:45am
Just got back from the 5K run in Raleigh for Autism. Rico and I both took our sons in jog strollers and we hit it pretty hard. Official time will come in later but I think we did it in about 25 minutes. Was fun listening to people's comments at being passed by two guys with strollers.

The P90x workouts are definitely making me a stronger runner. Plyo and the legs&back plus working cardio nearly everyday has made a real difference, Rico made mention of it today.

Weight was 174.6 this morning. Did Legs and Back at 5:30 this morn - good workout!

1:00pm
Took the kayak out to the little lake in the pond. It's a two seater, so Wife and Son doubled up in the front while I paddled. Was pretty awesome, first time it's been in the water in probably 7 years. Good times.

Day 32 - Sometimes I get distract... BUNNIES!

8:29am
Sorry, something shiny got my attention this morning. Anyway, weighed in at 173.2 today. Hope you have(had) a great day!

Day 31 - Vacation is making me lazy

7:37am
Didn't get up at 4:30 as planned. Being in vacation mode is not helping my discipline any. Looking forward to getting to work on the 16th and getting my life back into some sort of schedule again. The singing in my back and biceps is complementing that from my chest and triceps. Looking forward to yoga today, may do a 3-5 mile run as well. Hoping to ride out with Rico today and pick up the packets for the Autism Ribbon Run on Saturday. After that run it will be time to buckle down and get some serious miles done in the 3 weeks before the half marathon. Weight today is 175.

9:05am
Ran 5 miles in 42:50. Yay for me.

Day 30 - wow, 30 days...

2:09am
Found it hard to roll out this morning. Weight is 174.8. Thinking that for a while I'm going to try 11pm-4:30am with a nap around 1:30pm. Will write about this later, but I feel like the 4 hour schedule might be better utilized on a temporary basis. Will try this new plan for a while and let you know.
-Wes

6:40pm
Did Back and Biceps today for the first time. Definitely took my mind off how sore my chest and triceps are. My wife had to leave the room I was working out in, it was too intense for her.
LOL.
Personally I think she probably has some natural aversion to watching a grown man nearly poop his pants.

Good workout. Good workout.

Day 29 - Whaa?

6:40am
May have to murder the dog. Crying and carrying on to go out at 1am. Oh well, atleast I found out what happens when the 3 hour core sleep from 11-2 gets severely interrupted. I remember the alarm going off at 2am but then nothing until the alarm went off again at 6:30. I Feel pretty zombified and stupid right now and wow, I'm pretty dang sore in the upper body from yesterday's workout.
Going to go make some coffee. Have a day!

1:15pm
Sooooore, wow, chest and tri's are sore. BTW, weight was 174 again this morning.

Day 28 - Back in the saddle

2:07am
Good morning! Today we start Phase II of P90x. Should be fun.

2:48pm
Yep, Phase II is a challenge. Started today with Chest/Shoulders/Tri workout. This is actually a little more like what I'm used to doing (chest/tri on same day) although this is much more intense than anything I've done before. 24 moves, quick pace. I'm loving it.

I'm going to have to give a daily schedule serious thought. I believe a fair portion of what I'll be doing for the new job will end up being outside normal 1st shift hours and on an ad-hoc basis as well. I think I'm talking myself into moving the P90X workouts back to somewhere in the 2-5am range so I can be fairly certain nothing conflicts. That should work out... Throw some alternating runs/bike rides in around early afternoon for now since we're heading into shorter days...

Hmm, where'd I put that spreadsheet...

Day 27

Will be working on the 'home office' today, should be fun. Weight is 173.4.

Not as hardcore as I thought I was.

First off, let me apologize for the lack of content and updates here. Way back on day 10, at 4pm in the afternoon, I was laid off from the job I had held for 6.5 years. It was quite a shock. The last two weeks have been crazy-busy and emotional and I'll admit that the polyphasic and P90X experiments have taken a hit, my heart hasn't been in them as much as it should have been. It was hard to be excited about having 19 hours of awake time in a day when I wasn't working. This last week of P90X has been a recovery week (yoga/core/stretching etc) and I slacked off. Did do some decent running and cycling, but I was planning to supplement P90X with those activities, not replace.

So anyway, my bad.

A few days ago an opportunity that wasn't even on the radar as possibility presented itself. After some loving cultivation, it grew from a part time subcontractor position to a much broader (and challenging and fulfilling) full time, salaried gig with benefits. As of Oct 16th, I am employed again! Yay! Double-Yay!

Today I am re-affirming my goals and dedication to the projects already underway. For better or worse, you are in for more content and I am also adding an Experiment...

To adjust from a traditional, 'go to the office for 8-10 hours a day' job, to working full time from home.

Put on your seat belts ya'll, it might be a bumpy ride.
-Wes

Day 25

2:34am
Hi there.

Day 24

3:13am
I'm up! Weight is 173.4, keep your fingers crossed for today may be a big day.

Day 23 - That's better

2:09am
Actually woke up about at 1:57am. Feeling pretty good this morning, better than yesterday.

9:09am
Feeling mighty today. Did a 10 mile run in 96 minutes and weighed in at 171.4 lbs. Thinking today will be a good day.

Day 22 - What happens when..

6:57am
I wasn't feeling very good yesterday so I decided to see what happens if I got a full night's sleep. Went to bed about 10:30pm and got up at 6:30. My body is very stiff, my neck and lower back hurt. I'm pretty fuzzy still, half an hour after getting up. I don't like it, going back to polyphasic.
Weight is 173.6 lbs.

Day 21 - How YOU doin?

2:53am
I'm fine, in case you're wondering. Had two glasses of wine last night, was harder to get out of bed at 2, which became 2:15, then 2:30 before finally dragging out. I don't recommend drinking on this sleep schedule, you're either going to sleep it off and trash the schedule, or be awake for the sobering up. I don't see any need to repeat the experiment. Weight is 172.2 today. Have great day!

7:57am
Went for another 4am bike ride today, little chilly, but warms up fast. This is Week 4 of P90X and is a recovery week. Hour and half of yoga today. Good times.

3:38pm
Need to practice this technique to get back in the groove for hitting the floor at 2am.

Day 20

2:26am
I'm up, feeling fine.

Day 19

2:54am
Took some doing, but I'm up. Got a group run in four and a half hours, that'll be fun. Weight is 173.4 this morning.

8:30pm
Was a good run, about 7 miles in a hour - good group to run with and I hope we do it again next week. Unfortunately I somehow forgot that Friday had been P90 Legs and Back workout and following that with a run has led to a condition that I'm calling "my butt has been beaten with a nail studded baseball bat". My glutes HURT.

Oh well. Builds character.

New Challenge! Mother in law is in town for a few days. Historically this has meant respectable amounts of wine would find out what it's like to be drunk. My plan is hang tough, fight the good fight, soldier on past temptation and abstain.
You've heard about a battleplan as soon as the first shot is fired (poured)?
Tune in later, gentle reader, and we'll see how it all shakes out.

Day 18 - I rebooted?!?

6:11am
I just woke up. No recollection of the alarm going off at 2am although I'm fairly certain I set it. Guess I'll need to find redundant alarm solutions again. Very weird. So yeah, 7 hours of sleep. I wouldn't say I feel better for having it right now.
I'll take my normal naps at noon and in the evening and start again tonight.
Weight is up a little, 174.0 lbs.

Day 17 - Bright eyed? Bushy tailed?

2:15am
Not so much, but I'll get better.

7:00am
Went for a nice run this morning, 58 minutes worth. Will map out how far later. Weight is 172.2 today. Making progress.

5:00pm
Been a wild day, very positive, very exciting. Hope yours was awesome too. BTW, run this morning was 6 miles - a decent baseline. Looks like the 5K won't be any problem in October and I should be able to do 13 in Nov keeping to my T/TH/SA schedule.
Good times.

Day 16 - Opps

4:01am
Sorry for the late update, got distracted by something shiny. Took the mountain bike out on the greenways, was a pretty cool ride. We've got a full moon, almost didn't need the flashlight.
Weight is 173.6 today.

4:16pm
Did the Shoulders and Arms workout today, man that's a good workout! Looking at the calendar, I need to get busy to make sure I have a decent showing for the Autism Ribbon Run in a couple of weeks. Think I'll run T/TH/SA with SA being a distance run. That should map well with the 13 mile half marathon planned in Nov too.

Day 15

2:18am
Hiya. Weight is 174.4 this morning.

Day 14 - Say Something Clever Here

2:16am
I'm up! Weight is 175. I backfilled the fitday.com info with the scale readings since I started this experiment. The graph is all over the place and highlights the fact that while weighing yourself everyday is fine, you can't assign too much importance to that point in time reading. Instead, keep an eye on the trend. I use the Mark I calibrated eyeball and standard issue memory to assess where I am, but there are plenty of tools to make pretty graphs and visuals for you. BTW, I highly recommend reading The Hacker's Diet by John Walker. It's unlike any other 'self help' you'll read. Incidentally, you may have heard of Mr. Walker, he founded Autodesk in 1982. You can read more about Autodesk history here.

And now you know.

12:48pm
Almost time for a nap, but a quick note first. I notice I haven't mentioned it recently but the 3 hour core nap from 11pm to 2am plus a morning, noon, evening 20-30 minute nap is still working just great. The schedule is very flexible, as long as I get a nap within an hour and a half on either side of 6am/noon/6pm then I seem to be able to bounce right back up again. I've even missed a nap with no lingering effects. However my experience is that being interrupted in the middle of a nap is far worse than skipping it all together. The one time that happened was not fun at all.

I see by the empty bottle of Courvoisier that we are out of time, so you stay cool and I'll catch you later.

4:11pm
Did the 3rd week P90 Chest and Back routine today and I'm dang proud of the results. The workouts are still heart breakers, but at least I'm able to crank out more reps of everything. The weekly pictures are showing a lot more definition too. I guess an hour a day of fairly intense workout will do that...

Oh, and I was just kidding about the Courvoisier.

Day 13 Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems.

2:29 am
Here we go. Weight is 175 this morning. Will run some miles with Rico around 7am, need to stretch pretty good, legs still sore from Friday's workout.

10:53am
Yep a good run was just the thing, was beautiful outside, cool and clear. Haven't measured but assuming a slow 10 minute mile we did 7 miles, feeling great. Hey look, tomorrow is Two Weeks on this schedule! Perhaps time for a review post - stay tuned!

10:53pm
Bedtime, back in 3 hours. Don't think I ate nearly enough today, just wasn't that hungry, drank a lot of green tea.

Day 12

Hello. Weight is 176 this morning. Legs are... sore.

Day 11

3:23am
Running a little late. Weight is 176.4.

4:15pm
Doing fine, just finished Legs and Back, good workout, making progress.

9:50pm
Life got a little more complicated on me yesterday. Still Polyphasic, still exercising, still beer-less. Yay for me.

Day 10 - Wouldn't be fun if it was EASY!

Double digit day! Woot! Going to try the Yoga X workout again, some coffee and gratefruit first however. This is the longest workout at 90 minutes. Weighed in at 179.4 today, wishing I'd gotten a body fat test done at the beginning. Oh well.

New feature time here at Wesproject! In an attempt to keep this as honest as possible, I will now record my diet and exercise over at fitday.com. To keep me motor-vated, I will provide you with the link to follow along.

I would have liked to use dietpower but it doesn't allow data sharing. www.Fitday.com is free and will get the job done - I recommend you check it out too if you want a solid tracking package. Also, www.calorieking.com is an excellent reference for finding the number of calories in a given food item (check out McDonald's sausage and egg biscuit, ouch!) and I'll be using it to supplant fitday's food database.

4:00am
Yoga X time, lets see if I can do the whole 90 minutes.

5:48am
Well, that was a heck of a thing. More practice is needed, but I feel good. Should be a very refreshing nap.

Day 9 - Neat!

Mornin! Seems like every time we have hummus and grilled chicken with pita bread I eat too much. It's good though. Anyway, Mr. Scale says 178.8 today.

Maybe he's just kidding.

So today is the Shoulders & Arms workout. I'm Planning to ride the bike to work and back today and do Ab Ripper X this evening. Fairly active day scheduled.

Side note, was kind of hard getting the feet out of the bed this morning, awake now, but man it was warm and comfortable. Gotta keep the eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize. Good news though, I'm only really sore when I move now (vs breathing), so I've that going for me.

I don't think I drank enough water yesterday, will tank up in a few.

I recommend this link for pain tolerance training. I got through it twice. Your mileage may vary.

6:41am
Excellent workout, feeling it now after the nap. Spent most of the 'morning' trying out three free, online, personal finance management products. Basically a Money or Quicken like product that isn't tied to just one computer.

Mint
Wesabe
Clearcheckbook

I'm still undecided, will weigh the pros and cons with you later. Please use the comments if there's one you like better!

UPDATE: The above are too limited for what I wanted to do however this one rocks!
Yodlee
I was able to set up all accounts including bank, credit cards,retirement funds and 401K, student loans and mortgage. Information updates automatically and best of all... FREE!

4:00pm
Good day today. I know I've been saying that a lot and frankly I thought this blog would have a lot more misery and challenge to it. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll get to find out how the sleep and workout schedule survives a vacation. Vacations are for me generally periods of decadence and high living, it may be too much for my focus and self discipline. See, there's your drama right there. Stay tuned.

9:44pm
Q) So what happens if you only get half of one of the 20 minute naps?
A) Nothing good brother, nothing good.

Day 8 - You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

2:16 am
I'm up, weight is down again, 177 this morning. Plyometrics workout today. Was hard to get up this morning, but once out of bed I feel like its getting easier to become alert.

3:30ish
I've been zoning this morning, just killing time looking at the interwebs. Need to make a little bit better use of this hard earned time, maybe make a little plan the night before. More on that later.

5:50am
Alright! Plyo felt a lot better this time, man what a sweat. Now for some water, a little clean up and a nice nap. Later!

7:00pm
Good day today, after all the leg work yesterday and Plyometrics this morning I decided to take it easy today. All the naps went like clockwork and I found it very easy to wake up and jump right back to work, didn't feel fuzzy at all. Maybe I'm getting more acclimated.

Day 7 - **#**

2:11am
I'm up. Yay. Weight 178.6 lbs. It's 58 degrees outside.

5:53am
Cup of Coffee on startup seems to be a winner. Did Chest and Back again, some substantial increases from this time last week, I am pleased to say. Didn't walk this morning, but am cycling to work.
I feel mighty.

1:00pm
Cranked the bike ride in this morning, the mighty feeling has persisted through lunch, ran somewhere around 6 miles at lunch, felt awesome throughout. Hungry now though, time to raid the provisions.

9:30pm
Good ride home and had time to knock out ab ripper before dinner. Busy day, may be a challenge to make it to 11.

Why polyphasic?

Because there wasn't enough time in the conventional day. Life had become get up, go to work, come home, be daddy, go to sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. The weekends were family, household shopping and chores, and occasionally a get together with the neighbors. The times I snuck away or diverted my attention to things that interested me I felt like I was neglecting my duties and family. And I was.
Eventually, for entertainment, relaxation, whatever, I compromised and began multitasking the evenings with beer. Not blacking out, puking, raving quantities mind you, but more than is healthy and definitely more than someone trying to get in shape needs.

The Everyman sleep schedule seemed a rather elegant solution. Attend:
*I now have 4 completely uncontested hours, in one massive clump, to do whatever the heck I want to do every single day. 28 hours a week!
*When I get home in the evening I go directly into Daddy mode and stay there, the family can have my 100% unfettered attention for homework, puzzles, boardgames, whatever.
*My going to bed time has been pushed back a full hour, the kids are asleep and the house is quiet. Wife and I have found this a wonderful time to reconnect.
*Since quality sleep is paramount to the whole experiment being a success, I can't jeopardize it with alcohol. Frankly those 4 golden hours and the rest of the happy byproducts are much more important to me than a 4 beer buzz.

So what did I do in my first 28 hours of me time?
*A fair amount of nothing in particular, watching the sun rise, walking the dog (wow, was she confused at 4am), navel gazing.
*Couple of hours of video gaming
*Walked 10+ miles, hopefully get back to running soon, been giving my calves a break.
*Spent 7 hours on P90x (probably the best use of time)
*Couple of hours of Spanish training.

All in all I'm astoundingly pleased with the last week. Looking forward to whatever comes next.
-Wes

Day 7 - Wut?

Sunday 16Sept2007

2:05am
I need to work on putting my feet on the ground as soon as the alarm goes off (the first time). Weight today is 178. Ate a lot of party foods yesterday and it shows. Oh well, do better today.

7:51am
Had my first oversleep, was supposed to get up at 6:30, woke up at 7:40. Feel kind of zombied right now. Coooffffeeeeeeee...

2:44pm
Lunch nap went like clockwork, went food shopping, chillin' with the family.

5:25pm
So I'm somewhere in the middle of the last nap, sleeping hard, dreaming about who-knows-what, when I'm rocked by a massive explosion - scared the heck out of me but I didn't open my eyes. There wasn't any follow up screaming indicative of a all out air assault, so I assumed I dreamed it.
After I got up I found the remains of one of the balloons the kids had brought back from the grocery store. The ceiling fan had eated it.

10:20pm
A great day, weather was perfect, finally cooling off. We all got a lot of outside time this weekend, kids went to sleep easy tonight. I'm looking forward to next week, feeling good!

Day 6 - Nothing to it but to do it

2:04am
Oh Hi! Kinda rough getting moving this morning. Weight is 176.2 lbs. Kenpo workout this morning, but not for a few more hours.

5:33am
Since it's Saturday and I'm not pressed for time, I decided to put off the workout until after the 6am nap. I'm also noticing that my glutes are really sore from the Legs and Back workout yesterday. Just thought you'd like to know.

7:51am
Well the Kenpo workout is a lot of fun and I worked up a mighty sweat. Would have been more intense but that both kids decided a Saturday morning is THE time to get up at 6:35. So it was a high intensity punching and kicking routine slightly tempered to minimize the number of times any given child was launched across the room.

BTW, did you ever think vinegar was so versatile? More tips in the comments.

9:49pm
Had a really good day today, my worries about keeping the nap schedule over the weekend turned out to be unfounded. It wasn't hard to accommodate the lunch and dinner naps even with what turned out to be the most social day we've had in a while.

I'm very pleased at how well these experiments are going.

Day 5 - An adventure is defined by its hardships

2:06am
Okay, I'm up. Went to bed a half hour early last night to see if that would make any difference since the previous two naps were less than optimal. I don't think it did. All I'm sure of right this minute is that I need to get out of this chair if I'm going to stay awake today. Back later.
Oh and weight is 176.6 lbs today. That's about where it was a week ago.

3:27am
Quick update, had a 2 mile walk, a grapefruit, 3 cups of water and am working on a single cup of coffee.
I. Feel. Magnificent.

5:32am
Just finished Legs & Back, not a bad showing for the first time through it. I'm still feeling really, really good. Ab Ripper this evening, got it on the schedule this time.
Time for some more water and then cool down for the 6am nap.

7:16pm
Had a good day, moved the evening nap up to 4:45 to try and get it knocked out before the family needs me and before the kids have the chance to come check on dad every 5 minutes. The nap was good, but I'm yawning pretty hard right now, I guess from the time change. Need to perk up, got another round of Ab Ripper X tonight.

8:10pm
Ab Ripper X = ouch.

Day 4 - Persistant optimism is a force multiplier

2:26am
I'm up, ISP is down. More later when I can get back online.

Sent from Blackberry

3:25am
AAAAaaand, we're back! Feeling pretty good this morning now that I'm moving. Was hard to wake up, 2 out of 3 alarms went off before I finally kicked my feet off the bed. Need to do better than that. Weight is 178.6 lbs. Going to see how well Spanish training works at this time of day, come back later, I'll let you know.

5:11am
Well, I don't recommend trying to concentrate for more than 30 minutes at this stage of the experiment. I was getting the answers correct, but by the end my eyes really wanted to close for a nap. Sitting still in general does not seem to be too good an idea. Got 30 minutes into the 90 minute P90 Yoga routine before turning it off. I'm sure it will help my over all soreness and it felt good, but the calming/soothing/stretching/relaxing was not helping me stay awake and alert this morning. I'm sure it'll be better next week when I've adapted more.
*****
It's occurred to me that I didn't do Ab ripper X yesterday like I was supposed to... I've got time now before the 6am nap so I better turn to.

8:50pm
Well it's been a pretty rough day, spent it at one of the remote offices, did get to close my eyes around noon, but it wasn't for the full nap. That made the 2.5 hour drive back a little challenging but it wasn't until the evening nap was interrupted twice that things got hairy. Once again I find that eating will give you a reprieve when you feel like letting the eyes close and I wonder how long that can be sustained. I am going to try to stay busy and see if I can hang in there until 11.

In case you're interested

Morning before work:
*One red grapefruit
*10 oz 1% milk, 2oz whey protein, 1/2 cup quick oats and 1/4 cup blueberries as a breakfast shake
*3-6 cups water
*Multivitamin

Morning at work:
*8oz coffee (black)
*One apple + One banana
*2 hardboiled eggs + 2 hardboiled egg whites only

Lunch:
*2 cans drained tuna fish with spicy brown mustard
*1/2 cup cottage cheese + 10 baby carrots
*3 cups water

Mid afternoon snack:
*One apple + One banana
*Hot green tea from bag

Dinner:
Grilled or baked fish,chicken, pork chop, or lean beef
Regular or Sweet Potato
Vegetable
3 cups water or Arizona diet green tea
Oreo cookie or some Hershey's dark chocolate

I use dietpower and a food scale to keep an eye on calories eaten and burned. Its a good tool and fast to use. I'm not religious about it or anything, but it helps illuminate trends. Also
one of these is very handy for making eggs at work.

Day 3 - That which must be endured, can be endured.

2:10am
I'm up, pretty groggy. Will update after getting something to eat and maybe going for a walk. Weight today is 180.2 lbs.

K, went for the walk first and observed a couple of things. I was weaving fairly noticeably and the hills seemed a lot harder than normal. My legs feel pretty rough. I'm pretty sure the Plyometrics workout is mostly responsible for that. Also at the 1 mile turn around, a hunger pang hit me like a truck. Soldiered on to the house and had a grapefruit and water, feel fairly human now. Thinking about some black coffee... Hmm, maybe some green tea instead, don't want to mess up the 6am nap.

6:28am
Alright, woke up from the morning nap about a minute before the alarm went off! Was worried about the Green Tea keeping me from napping, but it seems to have worked out okay. Today was P90X Shoulders & Arms and I feel pretty good about my performance for it. I definitely want to keep moving in the 2am to 6am hours, really seems to make a difference on my alertness levels.
I am HUNGRY!

9:39pm
Still rolling, noon and 7pm nap went pretty well, the MP3s definitely help cut the background noise and get me into nap mode. I'm kind of tired now and my eyeballs feel a little too big but other than that I feel okay. I am looking forward to 11 for bedtime but don't see any problem getting there.

I'm setting up my Spanish training cd's now too, want to use some of this freed up time to learn to speak a second language, mostly to talk dirty to my wife: "hola mi esposa, mi pingüino es muy grande y roja"

Tomorrow will be interesting, I'm going to one of the remote offices and will be performing a fairly major hardware swap during the lunch hour. Not sure where or when I'll get the noon(ish) nap. Guess I'll have to burn that bridge when I get to it.

Day 2 - If its worth doing, its worth overdoing.

2:15am:
I'm up. I actually feel sort of rested, am sore from yesterday's workout but yeah.. not bad right now. This morning weight is 180.6 lbs. Going for a walk.
*****
Two mile walk at 2 in the morning was very cool - maybe I'll dig out the telescope some time and see what I can see. Feeling good.

6:30am;
Up from the 6:00am nap, did the Plyometrics workout at 5 this morning, feel a little odd now but expect to shake it off after I get moving. Sun's coming up.

8:00am;
This is weird, rode the bike in to work, and I am feeling GREAT right now!

12:36pm;
Shaking off the 12 o'clock nap, have had a great morning, and feel quite good now. Used one of the Polynap MP3s found here which made a huge difference in being able to shutdown for twenty minutes or so.
Now for some food, I'm starving!

10:27pm;
Still rolling. I am looking forward to going to sleep. The 7pm nap was hard to recover from, I think having dinner then trying to nap is suboptimal. Will play around with that nap and see what happens.

I'm surprised at how well exercise is working with the reduced amount of sleep and how good I felt today. Hope it isn't just a fluke.

Back tomorrow!

Day 1 - Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

7am Note:
Got up at 5am, figured out where I was, and jumped into P90X. In a word? Wowch. This morning was Chest and Back, lots of varied chin ups and push ups with some dumbbell back exercises. Wasn't pretty, but I finished. Took a 20 minute nap (sort of) then hit the shower. No biking today, have to travel for work. That's just as well as my butt is still sore from the big bike ride. Oh, and weighed in at 181.8 this morn.
Stay tuned, more later.

12:30pm:
Just woke up from 12:00 nap, was a little rough with office noise. Need to find something to listen to or some earplugs. Actually got some dreaming sleep though, I am encouraged. Now for some lunch!

9:40pm:
Just finished the Ab Ripper X workout. Best thing I can say about that is at least there's plenty of room for improvement. Tried out a nap at 7:00, that didn't go too well - will have to do something about the family racket or maybe go crash in the car. DietPower says I've eaten about 2050 calories today, I expect I'm going to need more with less sleep. Since it would disrupt the sleep I am going to get, I'm doing without beer or other alcohol while I'm polyphasing. I wonder what I'll end up missing more, sleep or a cold one...

10:35pm:
Well here we go, going to go get ready for bed then read for a few minutes and get some sleep. If all goes well, I'll catch you at 2am. Good night!

Schedule

Bear in mind, it's a work in progress:
Daily Plan

MS 150 Bike Ride

Did the 100 Mile bike ride in New Bern NC yesterday, went well although I underestimated the ride. I figured if I could do 77 miles with big elevation changes here at home, that 100 miles of flat coastal riding shouldn't be too much harder. With the wind and some fairly newbie mistakes regarding riding with a group (1800 other riders!) I ended up making it harder than it needed to be. The event itself was just awesome, the volunteers and logistics were great and it was clearly well thought out and executed.

So yeah, 100 miles. Seems sort of surreal today. Some of the team is still there for Day Two, I believe they're planning to do another 70.

For me today is a day of rest with the family and maybe some grocery shopping and final preparations for tomorrow's kickoff. I'm really looking forward to getting started.

BTW, have been sleeping 11pm to 5am for the last week except for last night. Let myself have an extra 2 as a reward for finishing the bike ride. :)

Not long now

I'm 6 days out from starting the P90x challenge along with a 4-4.5 hour a day polymetric sleeping routine. I'm getting my resources ready (including this blog) and am getting pretty fired up about it. I'll post details as they firm up. The general consensus is that there's no way I'll pull it off, perhaps I'll see if anyone wants to place any bets.