Daryl Week 1/Disappointment

Well we are one week in and I've now had to momentarily drop out. I had surgery on my thumb on Thursday and this ruled out any possibility of physical activity for a two week period, this will be a significant hindrance to the Shape-Up routine, especially since it is mainly predicated on consistency. I hope I will have no further complications and will be able to rejoin the group on October 5, it will be interesting to see how people have improved in that amount of time.

The three days I were able to attend were good and heavily cardio based. I am a person looking to build muscle and doubt that this routine will help with that. But it should at the very least give me a much stronger core and help with endurance. The first day was a testing day, so we could watch our improvement over the weeks. There was a 1.3 mile run which I was able to finish in 9:48; not terrible but I would say a good goal for me would be to run 3.1 miles in under 19:00 minutes, something I have not done since high school. But a good starting point. We also did a push up and sit up test. These tests see how many you can get in over a one minute time period, I was gassed by the 0:45 second mark on both, so there is definite room for improvement here as well. Finally they weighed us. I came in at 175. I would actually like to weigh around 180, but there is a definite need to reproportion the weight. My legs hurt from the run for the next day, I need to get in better shape.

Day two we went to Sparky's Yard and did some cross training and weights. A lot of it focused on stretching and I realized that while I have been a fairly active person, I concentrate very little on stretching. After this day I couldn't tell if I was sore from the work out or the stretching. We also did some lifting today. Dumbell bent and upright rows as well as shoulder press and bench press. My first set I was a little more ambitious than I should have been. Zack (the trainer) said to grab a weight we thought we could lift 20 times, so I did - not realizing we would be lifting this weight for nearly a minute and a half. This was the first of the excersises I was unable to complete in the Shape up, but there have been more since. I dropped down to a more reasonable weight the next time and things were still very challenging.

Cardio Day. Run as many laps as you can for half an hour. By the way laps include not just the SRC track, but a little jaunt over to WP Carey's fourth floor. I was proud that I never stopped to walk and at the very end of the work out Zack came to run the last quarter mile with me, he's faster than I am. You know how horses get to running to fast and just have to pull up and lay on the ground? That is how I felt when I had finished the end of that run. Then we stretched out and that was the day. Challenging for sure. I also find I don't get into work until 8:15, but well we finish on time I always continue to sweat for the next 20 minutes after the workout, gross I know, and need to cool down before I am able to shower. I am already feeling more confident about my endurance, but we will see how much worse things get after two weeks of no physical activity.

Daryl