Today’s workout was done about 20 hours fasted. Gear used: Vibram Five Fingers (KSO); GymBoss timer.

Jog to the Lake Claire park approximately a quarter mile away.

Tabata Sprints (What these are)

Followed up with a mishmash of:

Ten dips on a couple parallel bars on the playground.
Two-armed climb up the support beams of the swing set (Swing set has three bars going from the top to the ground, I climbed up two of these whereby I ratcheted myself up to the top)
A few attempts at handstands
Repeat once.

Finished up with about five pull-ups and then a couple of holds off the playground’s pull-up bar doing a front tuck lever.

Workout thoughts: Not sure if it’s just being out of a workout routine or if it was the 20 hour fast, but the Tabata sprints were absolutely brutal. The first two sprints (there are eight total - 20 seconds sprint, 10 seconds rest) were pretty solid sprints. It deterioriated rapidly from there. I also apparently need a longer park to sprint for 20 seconds.

Will have to do that more.

It was also somewhat awkward working out in a public park. I like the variability that is forced on you by working out in a park with a plaground, but you start feeling a bit out of place when dogwalkers and others come to the park and you’re there doing an intense workout.

Ah whatever.

Went ahead and broke the fast with a half avocado and some homemade yogurt. Dinner is burgundy beef with mushrooms, onions, parsley and a salad. The beef has been on the slow cooker since around 2:00 pm. Mmm …

Thirty-one hours fasted, I did:

5x5 70 lb. kettlebell push-press, superset with
5x5 70 lb. dumbbell row
Rest 1.5 min (All of these were single-arm)

Rest 5 minutes.

5x5 2x53 lb. kettlebell front squat, alternating with
5x5 2x53 lb. kettlebell swing
Rest as needed between each single set.

Started getting completely gassed and felt a bit like I was going to puke after the first two sets of the lower-body exercises. I attribute this to:

- first intense workout since 4/11/09
- being fasted 31 hours and first long-fasted workout in awhile

I forgot how intense alternating double-kb front squats with double kb-swings was. I am beat!

Total time: 40 minutes

Warmup:

Two rounds of:
20 push-ups
20 35 lb. kettlebell swings
60 jumping jacks

5 minutes

Workout:

6,4x5 2x53 lb. kettlebell military press, superset with
4x8, 7 2x53 lb. kettlebell row
rest 1 minute between each set

5x5 2x53 lb. kettlebell lunge (reps/side), superset with
5x8 2x53 lb. kettlebell swing
rest 1 minute between each set

5x5 2x53 lb. kettlebell windmill
rest 1 minute between each double-set

Total time: 54 minutes

Workout completed on an empty stomach (about 13 hours fasted). Press was off for some reason – ended up doing about one push press (instead of strict military) for four of the five sets.

Really didn’t want to workout today but of course I am glad I did. Particularly since I’m off to my two brothers’ (one in-law) 30^th b-day celebration.

Here’s my made-up Monday “Krazy Kettlebell Cardio Circuit” (The “KKCC” for short):

60 jumping jacks
20 alternating 35 lb. kettlebell swings
20 split squats
20 Figure-8 uppercuts, 35 lb. kettlebell
60 second plank
20 air squats
20 swing and press, 35 lb. kettlebell
20 70 lb. kettlebell swings
Rest 1 minute

Three rounds.

Time: 25:15

For a count of 240 reps/seconds per round, 60 of which are swings and 40 of which are kettlebell drills, this is a majorly tough cardio circuit.

I did it 21 hours fasted, too. Whoo! I am beat and ready for a shower (and some carnitas!).

Did a repeat of a workout I did two weeks ago:

Did the C8B300 in 16:48. Rested two minutes. Then did 100 70 lb. (2 pood) kettlebell swings. Total time was 26:29 (So the 100 kb swings took a shade under 8 minutes).

All rest periods the same (i.e. two minutes between the cardio circuit and the kettlebell swings).

This week’s times:

C8B300 in 16:29
KB Swings in 7:53
Total time: 26:22

So 19 seconds faster on the circuit and 12 seconds slower on the swings.

You win some, you lose some. Hey, I was 20 hours fasted this time around.

First off, some workout comic relief:

Okay as soon as you’re done laughing, read on.

About eighteen hours fasted, I did a glycogen depletion workout:

10 40 lb. dumbbell press
10 40 lb. dumbbell row
10 40 lb. dumbbell front squat
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

10 15 lb. db lateral raise
10 20 lb. db hammer curl
10 40 lb. db overhead bench tricep extension (so both hands on one db)
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

This took 25 minutes.

Rest two minutes.

10 35 lb. db press
10 35 lb. db row
8 35 lb. db front squat
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

In case you didn’t notice, dropped 5 lbs for the second round here, same for below.

10 10 lb. db lateral raise
10 15 lb. db hammer curl
10 40 lb. db overhead bench tricep extension (kept this weight the same!)
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

My upper body feels destroyed. I definitely could have done some more leg exercises, but I’m so wiped at this point, I’d be a bit afraid to try for fear of passing out! That’s a rough feeling, but it’s also good to feel like you really pushed yourself. I originally wanted to cut the entire workout plan in half – and that was only about halfway through the first half of the press/row/squat first round! So I’m glad I persevered.

Now I just need a toddler to really take my workout to the next level!

Forty-two hours fasted, just did some alternate-arm 35 lb. kettlebell Tabata thrusters.

So 8 sets of 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest alternating arms with a single 35 lb. kettlebell. Managed 11 reps for all 8 sets. Amazing to get completely wasted on breath in a mere four minutes, but Tabata intervals will do that to you!

I fasted today, so dieting was the prerogative over exercise. I’m thinking that I need to cut exercising volume back and focus more on diet as my goals are weight-loss at this point (getting leaner). Scaling back to high-intensity exercise (like Tabata or the occasional cardio-circuit) mixed with weight lifting (maybe 2x week) should be plenty of exercise so long as my diet is on target. What I’ve found over the past couple of weeks is that the combo of dieting and a lot of exercise seems to really make me hungry. It’s not that I haven’t made progress – I have – its just that the progress in no way correlates to the volume of effort I’ve put in. Thus, I’m thinking if I scale volume back, my appetite will likely scale back as well, and I can just focus my energy on keeping the diet in check.

On that front, I’m going to switch to full-day fasts whereby I go to sleep one night, eat nothing the next day, and break the fast the following day whenever it makes sense (probably lunch at the earliest). This will make for 36+ hour fasts. Why the length?

Couple thoughts:

1) My current 30 hour fast seemed to have diminishing returns. I think this is most likely due to my amazing ability to overeat once I break the fast (or leading up to the fast). Thus, I undo a lot of the work. Maybe this is less likely to occur if I actually go a full day (as the earth turns) without eating. Why? Well, I can then prolong the fast to noon or later (dinner) which reduces the eating window I have to compensate for the fast.

2) There’s something much simpler about skipping a full day of eating rather than the – eat lunch, skip dinner and the following day’s breakfast/lunch. It’s the same number of meals, sure, but going a full day without eating is just cleaner and less to think about. It also seems easier for me for some reason.

All that said, I did Tabata Thrusters with the 35 lb. kettlebell alternating arms at each 30 second interval. Breakdown was sorta slow:

11 / 11 / 10 / 10 / 9 / 9 / 9 / 9

Will fast until lunch tomorrow, which will make for about a 38 hour fast.

About 42 hours fasted (a long fast), I did Tabata Thrusters (8 sets of 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest) using a single 35 lb. kettlebell, alternating arms at each set. Managed 11 reps for all eight sets!

After maybe 10 or 15 minutes of “rest,” I took my new 2007 Felt F80 road bike (grabbed off eBay on the cheap) and took her out on a maiden five mile voyage. I was a bit nervous at first as a few SUVs seemed to pass me a bit too closely, but I soon found a huge empty parking lot wherein I could test higher speeds, turns, etc. Did about 5.3 miles in 22 minutes.

Overall, been a great fast and I feel very good right now. A 40+ hour fast (basically, eating your last meal at night one day and not eating until dinner two days later) seems a bit long, but I’ve had a good experience with it. It may be some sort of fasting sweet spot for me.

About 26 hours fasted, I did one hour of low intensity (about 120 bpm heartrate on average) stationary biking while watching the first episode of season three of Dexter.

Dexter aside, it was pretty boring, but I bet you could have guessed as much. Goal today was to take advantage of fasted-state free fatty acid oxidation while minimizing protein catabolism, thus the low-intensity cardio. Who knows if it was actually worth it (probably not).

On another note, I bought a road bike off eBay that should be arriving by UPS this evening. It’s a brand new Felt F80 (circa 2006/7 model). Woot!

Too bad 1) I almost certainly don’t have all the tools to assemble it 2) it’s 28 degrees outside here in Atlanta and it’s probably going to stay cold for the next couple weeks. At least I can look at it!