Fitness Journal December 9-14.

I want to keep a record of my journey with physical health, but I've been lax about it (writing not exercising) for the past few days. So here goes a quick update.

Friday Dec 9: Nothing, Nada, Rest Day.

Saturday Dec. 10: 20miles on the road around East Cobb: Sandy Plains area to Mar Lanta, to Loch Highland (pretty lake), Wesley Chapel, to Highbourn Dr. (including Sweat Mountain) and so on. Then 22 miles on the rollers in the house while watching Bones on Hulu. (it got really cold outside). Average Speed: outside, slow (16ish). Inside, Fast (22+ (no wind or hills)). I felt really great after all this riding, really enjoying the endorphin high for the rest of the weekend.

Sunday Dec 11: I did a wonderful mountain bike ride at Rope Mill Park, a new trail opened up in Woodstock Georgia, quite near to Blankets Creek where I've been riding for years.  It was a very cold day, so I was quite bundled up at first but slowly removed layers as the ride went on because you always have to. The trails were fast and rolling, a little tacky in places with mud, but overall it was just a terrific adrenaline rush: tight switchbacks through dense trees, short steep climbs and roller coaster descents. I only fell once on a patch of slippery pine straw, but it wasn't too bad, I got right up and kept riding. If you ever get a chance, get out there and try it, and let me know cause I'd like to meet you there. (Average Speed: 11mph (woo hoo that's fast on a MTB!), HR 143, Time 1hr. Distance 11miles.)

Monday morning Dec 12: 60 push ups, 36 pull ups, 60 sit ups, 30 burpees. I try to do this workout every Mon. Wed. Fri. morning to have some kind of fitness in my upper body and core.

Tuesday Dec. 13: at the YMCA. I ran for about 25 minutes, 3miles, 4x100 yard sprints on the soccer field. Then went inside and rode the Expresso Bike for 15miles. First lap on a trail called Oddysey was 22:19 (2nd place on the leader boards!), average speed 20mph. The second lap was considerably slower, but it was still raining sweat! A great hard workout. The Expresso bike is a computer simulation riding game where you can enjoy scenery, hills and turns, and even compete with other riders via the internet. It tracks every detail of your ride including Wattage, heart-rate, speed and cadence. Odyssey is a pretty humorous setting from Greek Mythology, complete with cyclops, giant minotaurs strolling by and pegasus flying all over the place. At one point you ride past a virtual coastline where the kraken is fighting a giant cyclops. Really funny and distracting!

Wednesday Dec. 14: Same round of basic calisthenics. Dawn and I did this Bodyrock.tv workout tonight as well. We did the workout that required no equipment, because we don't have a sandbag or anything, the bonus abs workout. 7 minutes total. short but intense.

My numbers were:
push up 2x with squat jump to bench 7
star jumps 23
surfer kick out push up 9
cross leg push ups 17
bicycle crunches 23
bench tucks 37
sit up and dumbell press 12