Day 12: Revenge of the Leprechaun

The Email: 


Boss, 
The set up for tomorrow is a run. I want you to run for 34 minutes getting as far as you can just don't stop moving. Here is the Sully spin. Set your timer for 1 minute. Every time it goes off stop your run and bust out either 5 Burpees or 5 pushups (alternate each minute). Immediately start running again, even if its a shuffle. This will allow you to get the best aerobic & anaerobic combination for this cardio session. 

As for your Callus and the "iron cross"... Man the f*ck up. Put pine tar on it, sand, spit or duct tape... You wear gloves and I'll drive the 95 minutes to punch you in the throat with my good arm. 

Kill it bud

Geoff Sullivan

The Equipment: 

Who the hell thinks of these workouts?!?!?!? To reiterate: 

Hey Chris,

I know you hate running and have a complex about exercising by yourself in public, so run really far and every minute stop where you are and do one of two of the most RIDICULOUS looking exercises where you stand.

And don't come back until you die (That's what Kill it means, FYI)

~Sully

Yesterday I had a gathering of sorts with the family and allowed my nephew to sleep over. Long story short, no one slept much last night and I ended up sleeping through my alarm this morning forcing my workout into the evening, which probably benefited me. I mean, doing this exercise along a main road at 7 am? It's like going to the beach dressed like this:

No mankini for me, thank you. Leaving the house, I quickly realized that my first part of the run was almost 1 minute from start of the street to the end. Rather than spend a third of my time calculating one minute, then doing the pushup/burpee, averaging in the depreciation factor for fatigue, carry the one, divide by Pi, fillout the 1040 EZ forms and mail it, I'd just go back and forth until I crashed or hit the 34 minute mark (How he got 34 minutes is beyond me. I thought it was his Yatzee score at the time of his writing it, but high score is 5 6's for 30 plus 50 bonus points for Yahtzee)

Each leg of my run was the one I was going to finish and call it a night. Each time I finished said leg, I pictured Cady in her chair ahead of me and I pushed onward for her. 

I finished 35 minutes, 2.44 miles and an ungodly amount of Burpees and pushups. I'll post the picture of times and pace in the morning. My laptop is being fickle tonight.

What I did learn with this exercise:

1. Lemonade no matter how long before this kind of workout, is not staying in your belly for long. Around the 10 minute mark it made an appearance in the back of my throat and used my dipthong as a speedbag for a short while.

2. Eminem is an angry man. Moreover, its been a very long time since I've been in college and the drug references in all those types of songs are leaving me mystified. But hate the world Slim Shady, hate the world.

3. I can finish every exercise I asked to do, with the right mindset. Well, maybe not the ones I have to do to fail...

4. 1 person seeing me do these exercises at night time is ten times scarier than 10 people seeing me during the day. Especially when its a woman walking a large dog and carrying a dark pepper spray looking object.

So now its off to eat, banana and watermelon for dinner tonight. 

I'm off, Awaiting tomorrow's bloodbath...

Day 11: Sundays are reserved for family

The Email: 
Tabata is on tap for tomorrow.
Take 2 minutes rest between each.
The exercises are Swing plank, Burpees, Iron Cross, pushups, Jumping Jacks and air squats in that order.

GS

The Equipment:


































So some unexpected twists and turns on Saturday postponed my workout until today. I'm actually amazed I was able to get this far into my program without changing days or missing a workout.

The air was finally cool and breathable this morning when I headed out to my routine. A light mist was still falling which I falling and most of the equipment was wet, which I didn't mind until I had to do the iron crosses (Sully, we need a game plan for the hands for that exercise. The callus ripped open again.) I got through the first half of my workout before I noticed wifey and baby Cami sitting on the front steps, and decided to finish the pushups, jumping jacks and air squats inside with the kids. I figured they could both help me demonstrate just how I look when I do these exercises as sometimes I feel the descriptions don't give it justice.

Jumping Jacks AFTER 4 minutes each of Swing Planks, Burpees, Iron Crosses, and pushups:

(Turn down your speakers a lot lest you blow out your ear drums. You have been warned)

Notice the excitement of still being able to feel my arms. and the extension of my legs from together to 2 inches apart. That is a fine representation of how I did them. Next is the Air Squats:

(Again, the music overdub is ridiculously loud, so please keep your speakers low.)

On this one, notice my inability to keep my legs at a 90 degree angle and the flailing of the arms to keep my balance long enough to run away.

A big thanks to my children for their eerily accurate representation of my efforts. Now, its off to move their swingset into the back yard so they can once again play and be more tolerable come the evening hours.

Until tomorrow, play hard.

Day 10: The lovers, the dreamers and me

A quick prelude:

The Email:

Sponge bob (I think he meant to address me, Sponge Bob lives underwater),

Set timer to 36 minutes.

Get through as many rounds as possible in that time. Increase 1 rep each round (same format as day 1)

Exercises:

Hanging leg raises

Swings "balance pushups"

Bench jumps

Burpees

Sprint to end of your walkway and back

Let's track how far you get. My expectation is that you get through the round of 10 - if not Sprint ladder penalty

Geoff Sullivan

 The Equipment:

I don't even WANT to know what a sprint ladder penalty is, let alone do one, so I left this morning pumped to get through this workout in the time set. Another day of humidity to battle against and I quickly felt the need to dig down deep to complete this. I blazed through the first 4 reps in 6 minutes, took a quick break and jumped into the next round as fast as possible until the humidity threw up on me and made me weigh double my normal weight. I absolutely wanted to quit after round 7 but fear of doing more than this took over and pushed me through round 8. Finished that in 27 minutes and needed 12 more to get through round 9 and 10, finishing in 39:48, over the time, but pushing beyond the time limit to do more.

So, its Friday, one more workout to close out the week and I thus far have completed the following:

Hanging leg raises-55

Swings "balance pushups"-55

Bench jumps-175

Burpees- Too many 175
Regular pushups- 120
Thrusters-120 (this was a fun exercise. Get in a pushup stance then knee yourself in the chest as many times as necessary)
100 yard sprints- 28 (probably closer to 15 sprints and 13 spasmodic saunters, like an epileptic seizure while moving 100 yards)
Chinups- 20
Planks- 4 minutes
Iron Crosses- 4 minutes
Miles run 3.6

Looking through this, I never would have thought to even have enough time in my day to pronounce each exercise, let alone complete them. I like recapping the week, makes me feel accomplished and the week worthwhile. I've lost 3 pounds this week alone and even though the belly is still there and quite pronounced, it no longer feels like a 100 lb kettle bell attached to my sternum. AND my "moobs" are starting to lift and separate, another sign that the program is working. I now know that it is only a matter of time before this figure is a thing of the past:

Day 9 Flight of the Leprechaun

The email: The email never came yesterday, instead I called Sully and the conversation that took place thereafter...well: (this is a bit abbreviated as the whole conversation, including the several minutes I lost my breath from laughing, would take forever to transcribe)

Chris: Hey Sully, what's the good word?
Sully: Not much buddy. I'm actually just leaving the hospital. I got hit by a truck today.
Chris: ...WHAT??? Like a truck that was moving?
Sully: Yeah, I was riding my bike, came to an intersection and an F-350 friggin T-boned me.
Chris: Holy S**T! are you ok?Anything broken?
Sully: Amazingly, no, I walked away with a s**t ton of bruises and my arm is in a sling because my shoulder is so bruised it hurts to hold it up.

(more conversation on the true details of what happened, explicitly detailed by one Geoff Sullivan and dubbed over laughing and gasping for breath by one Christopher Mark)


Now, many may know and many may not, but in addition to Geoff being accident prone, he has a knack for making his tragedies some of the most hilarious stories I have ever heard. At one point, he told me one of the ladies described his accident as such:

"he hit the truck like a champ, and proceeded to RAINBOW across the intersection". A little bit of pee came out at that part of the talk because all I could picture was a leprechaun tumbling through the air over the truck.


After a great and long conversation about the accident, a firm understanding that my friend was ok, and plenty of fodder for today's post, we got to the grit.

Today's exercise: run the F**king 1.8 mile loop AGAIN and then do 8-100 yard sprints.


The equipment:

(too soon?)







Running today was probably the easiest for me yet. After all, I had great motivation to go off of. Each time I stopped to take a rest, I thought about Geoff and how lucky he was and how his physical nature is probably the only reason he is alive right now. That was enough to push me through most of my walks, or shorten them when they were necessary. Today was also a good day because my legs didn't slow me up and I was able to push my lungs allowing them to finally feel a good burn on this course and hopefully build my stamina. I finished in 18 minutes, beating my 20 minute goal. The timer below shows more time but I couldn't stop the stupid run keeper timer because my hands had so much sweat, my touchscreen thought 400 fingers were touching it all at once, had an orgasm and froze up on me. Took me 30 seconds at least AND 4 wipes on different parts of my clothing to finally get the phone to respond properly.










I appreciate all that I have accomplished in just a short time on this program, and will continue to do this for as long as I can; its now a lifestyle for me. We should all realize that strength and stamina have greater benefits that resistance to diabetes or high blood pressure. Physical fitness save my friends life and if for nothing else, this is now why I will push myself on the physical front every day. who knows, tomorrow I may be the one with the accident:


(This isn't me BTW, I don't drink soda)