Pushing Play

The last month or so has been a bit better as far as my physical routine.

I have to admit that I have not been doing P90X as much as before. Simply do not have the time. I am now working evenings and I find it incredibly difficult to make time for work outs when I have income related activities that need to get done.

The bright side is that I have picked up geo-caching as a side hobby! This hobby allows me to be outdoors a lot. I hike trails, walk for hours on end and use a lot of core and leg strength in balancing and getting around the foresty brush of my national and neighbourhood parks. It’s been a nice addition to my “in-shape” routine and doubly so because I can do it with the kids in tow. If I want, I can make it more challenging by carrying them for a set amount of time either on my back, (working my back and abs) or on my arms (working my arms and core).

I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my workouts the last year or so. Where as before it was about wanting to get back into normal shape, now it’s about STAYING in shape and finding the motivation to keep working out even on the days I find it hard. It’s not as easy as before. It’s no longer about the quality of my life. It’s now about maintaining a lifestyle.

It’s a tough, daily battle.

Fortunately, basketball is a mere week away from starting up again … so that should help out even more.

After a mandatory 6 week layoff, I find myself completely out of shape and dying to get back into something resembling physical activity.

My hosuehold has been battling a bed bug infestation that has taken well over 2 months and a half to sort itself out. I’m not going to talk about that at all, save for the qualifier that every single possession in my house had to be piled in the middle of each room in order to be treated (sprayed). That put a major dent in my workout plans because …. well it just was the way it was. Honestly, you’ll never know what that’s like til you go through it.

So now I am down to 7 days to being declared free of that infestation which means that I am gearing up again to work out once more as my house has been in the process of being cleaned over the last few weeks in preparation.

So 6 weeks. That’s how long I was away. It certainly feels like it. In the time I’ve been away, I’ve kind of watched my diet as best as I could. But the nature of life dictated that I eat a lot of fast foods. That sucked …. a lot. But I did it knowing that I would get back into P90X and get rid of all that garbage … only … I don’t want to restart …

lol.

The whole process of starting is so painful and I simply don’t feel like I am ever going to get a REAL chance at finishing a P90X cycle because every time I start, it seems like SOMETHING comes up that forces me to stop everything. ~sigh~ I’ve been pretty frustrated recently.

I decided last night to start up. But not at full speed. I am making a conscious effort to strengthen the core slightly before this massive undertaking again. I’m going to do Ab-Ripper every second day until July. Once July hits, I’m on P90X full speed ahead.

So last night I started my warm up period with ARX only. It was good. Every exercises was done to the full rep total as expected. Only I burnt out in the end and was only able to do 25 Mason Twists. I’ve read this book before and so I am not concerned by it cuz I know that in a week or 2 I’ll be back to normal.

In any case, I woke up this morning with surprisingly very little pain and was like “Maybe I’ll do ARX again tonight!” … yeah … it didn’t happen. The muscles got more tense and tight and sore as the day wore on and they feel like they did Ab Ripper X for the first time right now (1:00am). So that idea went out the window, lol.

Bright side? It’s no different than normal, so I’ll just fight through the pain tomorrow like I normally do.

Bottom line, I am hoping I can maintain a rhythm once again …..

Sometimes I just don’t understand why things happen …..

I had to stop my P90X routine over the last week or so – and for the foreseeable future as we have had an infestation of bed bugs. We found out 2 Fridays ago and had to hustle in order to prep our house for the inevitable exterminator visit. Only, after the exterminator visit, things went from hard to complex as we have to make life altering changes to our lifestyle for the next 6 weeks minimum and until the bugs are gone. Not to mention the fact that our house looks like it was ransacked by a Tornado. We are also having car issues that require the purchase of a new(er) car – for which we have no money. And to top it all off, we had some racist neighbour issues and an accident that will impact our insurance – all in the same week!

So now, my workout (and videogame) space is completely and utterly filled with furniture that has been fumigated and cannot be moved until every last bug has been eradicated. I just feel so stressed out because the ONE thing I could control (my health and workout) has been cock-blocked and now I have no way to release any stress! All progress that I have made thus far appears to have been stopped cold in its tracks for the next month and a half!

And it’s not just general life that has been affected, it’s also my social life and work! My new work-at-home job has been put on hold until I can consistently access the PC and some of my friends are acting like ignorant fucktards acting like we’re the harbringers of death to their family, asking why we’re hanging out with them when we have this infestation and just asking stupid questions based on ignorance and making things more uncomfortable than they already are. I mean, great. I understand your concerns, but stop making things more complicated than they already are! Ostracizing and shaming us is not even one ounce of helpful right now …

I just can’t handle that …

I mean, sometimes, I just wanna pack it in when shit like this happens. I can understand one or two bad things happening in a short amount of time, but four MAJOR life issues in the span of 7 days?

FML, man. FML.

So tonight I played in yet another 2 hour game of basketball at our team gym.

Having stretched myself silly over the last 24 hours, I was feeling good heading into that one. I ate great today and made sure I got plenty of liquids including plenty of Protein Shakes.I had only a mild discomfort in my arches and decided that I was good to go.

That extra due diligence paid off by allowing me to play at a relatively high level for a large portion of the evening. As the night wore on, my braces got uncomfortable and I started to experience a stiff back, ankle and hamstrings, but it was much better than last week, overall.

In the aftermath of it all, I have already stretched, taken a hot shower and taken my protein shake, and I feel much more limber than I usually do after 2 days of BBall back to back.

Progess!

It’s good to be back …….

For starters, as a recap, I was laid off in August. It was BS office politics, but whatever. It happened.

Since then I laid low and just tried to get my mind right. When my knee and ankle went down, I retreated and went back to my roots. Family and time in my man-cave. No videogames. Just computer work. Contracts here and there and just trying to keep afloat of life, which seems to be moving much too fast now.

Since my post on December 3rd, a lot has happened. I now design webpages for a living whenever I can get a contract. And I went back to school. Yup, took an Intro to Web Design course at my local college. It’s been a blast learning HTML. It feels weird just even typing that. And I’ve been thinking that maybe I chose the wrong career. Still trying to sort that one out.

The bright side is that I can now customize my WordPress templates even more! Speaking of which, expect an update soon enough.

I also took Guitar lessons. Yeah, the rap boy knows how to play Nirvana now. Feels weird typing that too. lol.

But the biggest news is that my ankle and knee finally got better. It took forever. But since the end of January, the pains that I felt have gone away. I can now play normally and at full strength.

The one downside? I got fat again.

All the P90X work I did just simply went down the crapper. My leg strength is gone. My abs are a thing of the past. My weight is hovering between 225 and 230lbs …. and it sounds weird to say this but I am actually happy about all this.

I feel like I have grown a bit – metaphorically speaking.

So as my last guitar lesson comes around this Wednesday and as my college course comes to a close next week, I am left with only my basketball season which is also over in about 2-3 weeks, depending on how we do in our Div 2 playoffs. So what does that mean?

I’m gonna have a whole lot of time (theoretically) and nothing to do with it.

Enter P90X. After seeing myself wither away, and with the upcoming tournaments in Brandon (coming up in about a month) and the 3 on 3 just around the corner, I think I am finally REALLY ready to recommit to P90X again.

I’m definitely gonna have more time to blog now that all my activities are coming to a close, so why not put that time to better use, you know? After all, I can’t let my little blog fall back into obscurity after I worked so hard to get it noticed.

So since my upgrade and since my p0roclamation that I was “back” from my ankle fracture, it became readily apparent that I was, in fact, NOT back. At least not at 100%.

After a few days of normal physical activity – that is to say, basketball and P90X related things – my ankle began to hurt once again. Specifically around the fracture spot. The first time, I dismissed it. The second time, I worried a bit. The third time it hurt, I decided to sit out a few more weeks and so here I am.

Life has gone into overdrive what with Christmas coming right away and with responsibilities I have to keep and so my weight has gone back up to 220 and my abs are almost gone. I’m not GROSSLY overweight, but I am definitely over what my ideal sports target weight is. I’m 6′-4″ and I need to weigh between 205 and 210 to be able to play with the big guys inside yet retain my mobility and agility.

In any case I’ve decided that I will, in fact, sit out another 3 weeks for my ankle to properly heal. That puts me at somewhere between 10 and 11 weeks.

Wow.

I guess It’s okay though … As long as I come back 100% healthy and pain free, it’s okay ………. really, it just lights a larger fire under my butt and makes me want the offseason more so that I can get back to a full P90X routine.

I have been down over the last few days with my PC having gone to the doctor’s. Thanks, Paul!

But now she’s back and better than ever!

You can’t SEE it, but this computer is ready to kick some ass and take no prisoners!

As I take it for a joyride, I can’t help but be amazed at how much faster, quieter, more accessible it is … and now hopefully I will be able to surf the web and post to my blog with a bit more confidence.