Got back to my pushup program a few days late.  Not gonna lie, the extra rest probably helped a lot.  I felt really strong on this workout.  The rest interval was . . . 90 seconds? . . . I think.  My memory is not the best but that sounds right.

I knocked out all reps of all sets without any significant problems.  In fact I was feeling so good that on the final 40(+) set I actually did 50 reps.  Pretty happy with that.  We’ll see how strong I feel in the next two weeks of the program when things ramp up and the rest breaks go down.

This post should have some great pics and even some videos of a downhill mountain biking trip that Erin and I did over this past weekend when we did a long weekend trip to Chiang Mai.

Unfortunately I am having some technical difficulties (i.e. I can’t find my camera download cable) so instead I’m just going to put in this quick place holder post and move on.

But be on the lookout for a fun post about this fun (for me) and terrifying (for Erin) biking experience.

NOTE: And yes, I realize I am almost a month overdue posting my long promised Lumpini Park sightseeing run post.  I’ll get to that soon.  I promise.  Really.

Today was supposed to be a bike ride on the trainer.  Long story short, that didn’t happen.

But I did go down to the fitness center and run through a four station machine weight circuit.  It wasn’t exactly a Crossfit workout.

File today under “at least I didn’t do nothing”.  No sarcasm, I’m gonna call that a win.

Rin ran run.

I also found out why Sunday’s pushup workout was so ridiculously easy.  I did indeed do “week 4, day 1” . . . of level one.  Yeah.  So today I did week 4, day 1, level 3.  More challenging.  Still much easier that than last few days of the program before the test but not nearly as pointless as Sunday.

Back in the pool for tonight’s workout.  First time in a long time.

Still no idea what there are.  But man are they colorful.  I PROMISE one day I’ll look up what they mean and then use the information for good.  Someday.  And no CCR lyrics, I’m really going to do this eventually.

I also dropped into the fitness center before my swim and did a quick, short, low intensity circuit of the weight machines.  Pull-downs, shoulder presses, leg presses and weighted crunches.  Nothing excited and nothing sexy but it was a good warm-up, it reminded my muscles they do something other than hold my clothes off my bones and it’s the first step in a gradual return to strength training.  Which is something I’ve put aside and am really missing.

I hadn’t worked out in almost a week when I did this run.  I was hungry and under hydrated for the day and I had a headache.  But enough is enough and I made myself go out and do something.  It was just an easy set of pushups and a slow 3-miler but it was better than nothing, made me feel better and got me back on track.

For the pushups I’m back down to week 4 (which is where the app recommends you restart once you complete the final test day).  Week 4 day 1 turned out to be a ridiculously easy workout but I’m going to go with it.  I’ll work my way back up through the end of week 6 and do another max effort test.  The goal is to be up to 100 reps by then.

Also, as a note, the final set on this day was really only 16 reps, but the last set always says XX(+).  Which means if you can do more you should.  On the first trip through the program I never did any more.  Either by choice (in a week like this) or by muscle failure (in weeks 5 and 6).  But this time I’ll push harder and do what I can at the end.  The app lets you click on the set display and adjust the number so that it records what you actually do instead of just what’s programmed.  It’s a neat feature and I didn’t know was there until this workout.

Pushup max effort test.  94 reps.

This time I actually pushed record on the video camera (so to speak).  I know the form isn’t 100%.  I wasn’t trying for form, I was trying for reps.  First, let’s do 100 pushups.  Then we’ll concentrate on doing 100 pushups without stopping.  THEN we’ll concentrate on doing 100 pushups without stopping with perfect form.

I’m happy with my progress.  I need to get my workout (and overall life) rhythm back together.  The 100 pushups program resets to the beginning of week 4 if you want to keep working so that’s what I’m going to do.  Starting tomorrow.

[Yawn] . . .

But at least I went out and got sweaty.

I was really excited for today’s workout.  I’m actually really excited whenever I get a chance to be in and workout in Bangkok because I love to run in Lumpini Park  Which is where I ran today.  The hotel was just about a mile north of Lumpini so I ran down there, did a couple laps through the park and then back to the hotel.

I took a ton of pictures of the park while I was running (which makes my pace for this run actually pretty impressive) but I’ll put them into a separate post where I talk a little more about the park, the pictures, sightseeing and people watching.

I tried to make myself ride the exercise bike at the hotel fitness center.  Really, I did.  But after twenty minutes I was ready to gouge my eyes out so I bailed.  Meaning that the pushups I started my workout with were the only workout I really did on Monday.

This one was tough.  I gave myself a total of 2-minutes extra rest during the sets and I still had to break the final set of 60 into three chunks.  Ouch.  274 pushups total in this workout and it’s the last one in the scheduled program.  Next up, max effort test.  Gonna be interesting.