TickingHeart’s Blah Blah Blahg

I look at my appointments with the cardiologist as if it were the judging in a fitness competition.  Over the 2 years it has been a roller coaster, and while there have been steady climbs, there have been steep drop-offs too.  About a year ago, it looked like even with the new valve things were still getting worse; my heart was getting weaker.  "It is possible," the doc told me, "that you had another underlying condition that we didn’t see until we replaced your valve."  That was NOT what I thought I was going to hear.  It hit me very hard.  I was even sent to talk to another doc about having a defibrolator implanted in my chest because I was at risk of "sudden death."

I didn’t share a lot of this with you guys because I just can’t deal with receiving sympathy.

So today’s visit was one year later, and it was VERY positive. The doc was smiling (that’s important), and very interested in my running a mile in under ten minutes.  He even put it in my charts along with biking and weight training.  My valve is crisp (the ticking), my heart beating feels normal, and my blood pressure and pulse were great! My prognosis is VERY GOOD.   ( Prognosis -The likelihood of recovery from a disease)

In today’s competition, I feel like I did really well, thank God.  That has just re-energized my love of working hard to get my body in the best shape possible.  I think I’m going back up that hill today! 

My legs completely gave up during my workouts over the weekend.  On my 16 mile ride Saturday, I started out with plenty of power and speed, but when I got to the second really challenging hill of my ride about 8 miles in… I finally just couldn’t do it anymore and stopped to rest.  Normally I can make it up that hill, but on the ride home from there, I even found myself wondering if I could make it back home.  My upper legs were fried all the way around.  On the bright side, that was probably an awesome workout.  

While I was resting at the top of that hill, I heard this sound as if someone was struggling.. It was a throaty, involuntary grunting noise, kind of like the sound you hear pro tennis player make when they hit the ball.  Then I looked over and there was this guy running up the hill…  clearly struggling, but he just kept going and kept going, making that strange noise the whole way up as if he was using every last once of strength that he had.  I kind of thought he was going to fall over at the top, but he just kept going.  He was really inspiring, leaving me asking myself whether I am really giving it everything I have.  I am going to think of him next time I ride up that hill, which I am planning to do Saturday.  (It is REALLY bugging me that the hill beat me.)

So I gave my legs a break today and focused on chest and arms. It was a really good workout, even with the limited amount of weight that I have at home.  Just to squeeze a little more out of the bench presses, I had a rolled up towel between my shoulder blades, and with each press, I kept going squeezing my chest and liffting my shoulders off of the bench.  That really made a difference!  

Also, instead of regular flys, I did them one side at a time, leaving my core (and legs) to deal with the imbalance while my chest still got a strong workout.  

EXERCISE Set #1 Set #2 Set #3
One-Arm Flat Bench Dmb Flys 8×50# 8×50# 8×50#
Barbell Curls 9×90# 8×90# 8×90#
Bench Press 10×90# 10×90# 10×90#
Decl Bench Press 10×90# 10×90# 10×90#
Incline DB Bench Press 10×50# 10×50# 10×50#
DB Curls Alternating 10×50# 10×50# 10×50#

CONTINUED:

At lunch , I did:
Pull-ups  1 set of 10
Decline Sit-Ups - 3 sets of 20
Lateral DB Raises - 3 sets 8×50# 8×50# 8×50#
DB Shrugs - 3 sets 10×50# 10×50# 10×50#

That was me this morning.  I decided that I would try something different this morning, so I did 100 yard sprints up and down the street at 5:20 AM.  I started jogging to one end and sprinting to the other.. then I walked fast to one end and ran almost as fast as I could back.  I did that for a little over 20 mins. with a flashlight in one hand and my phone in the other.  I know I looked like some kind of crazy person, IF anyone on my street was awake to see it.

That was a workout!  I could really tell that I had worked my heart harder than I do when I run a mile, and it was fun going fast.  I could also feel how everything from my glutes down was involved in the sprinting, which was cool.

Just did the Crossfit WOD.. Progressive 90# Clean & Jerks.. 1 rep first minute..  2 reps second minute.. and so on.. I got to through the 4th minute and then did one to grow on.

Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day, but I had to squeak out some squats for Crossfit, light though they were.  I did 5-5-5-5-5 90# squats and tried to get as much out of them as I could.  I also started to run a mile with my daughter, which turned into a long walk capped off with a 100 yard sprint.  Then after I got back in the house I realized that she had just had the chickenpox booster the day before.  Had to apologize for trying to push her to run after that. (What an awful dad!!!)

Today I did:
Set1 Set2 Set3
Flat Bench Dmb Flys - 10 Reps 50# 50# 50#
Bent Over Rows Rows - 10 Reps 50# 50# 50#
Dmb Lateral Raises - 10 Reps 50# 50# 50#
Barbell Curls - 10 Reps 90# 90# 90#
Overhead Tri Extentions - 10 Reps 50# 50# 50#
Squats - 10 Reps 90# 90# 90#
Straight Leg Deadlift - 10 Reps 90# 90# 90#
Standing Calf Raises - 20 Reps 90# 90# 90#

To Be Continued…

Unless I decide to workout some more at lunch, I am done for the day. I ran another sadly slow 9:55 mile.. (I hate running), and did the Crossfit WOD for yesterday today.  Maybe I will ride my bike at lunch.  We’ll see.  One thing is certain, I need to step it up.

Oh, by the way, yesterday I did the 400 meter runs and squats that Crossfit has Rx’ed for Friday.  After one run and 20 squats, I gave up and hit the sofa to watch a movie.  Then an BodySpace buddy of mine told me that I was wimping out and said, "Do it!!!!!!!!"  So after a short nap and a bad movie, I did it completely!  I was in fact, wimping out!  I checked my heart rate the whole way through and it was right on, so I wasn’t overdoing it.. I was wimping out!!  Grrrr. I am a sneaky bastard, tricking myself into thinking I need to rest!    Thanks hsfmwaa!  Everyone make it a great day!

Wow.  I did not hit the bed until midnight last night, and I was up and in the shower by 6.  You know, out hanging with rock stars and partying… at a mall.  I didn’t get a workout in this morning, so I am not high on endorphins today.  It is always funny to me to go bad and read blogs that I have written right after a workout.  They usually sound like the lunatic rantings of an insane mind… which is not far from what they are.

Anywho, the exercise is, so use a tired phrase, "all good."  It makes you feel like you are on top of the world, clears your head for the day, makes you live longer and better, and makes you look great, even nekkid!  The more I workout, the more I catch myself checking out my own butt in the mirror… ..uh… that don’t make me gay er nothin’, right?

Oh one more really cool thing to report… my 11-year-old daughter who has been a little on the sedentary side of late, has a fitness class (with a fitness facility that ROCKS), and she is actually getting into better shape!  She was complaining that her abs hurt really bad when she gets up or laughs, and I told her that was completely normal, and a really good thing.  "The  muscle pain you don’t want is a really sharp pain that feels like a knife is sticking you, because that could be an injury."  To that, my daughter who has a flare for the dramatic, responded, "It feels like a million knives in my stomach muscles!"  I dismissed that with, "Well that’s good.  If it ever feels like just one knife, let me know." To that she crossed her arms. sighed heavily, and I just got a false angry, "You’re mean!"  That just made me smile.  Ain’t kids great!

Okay, I have a full day of excitement to get through today, including a concert with that band that is on my latest bike ride video.  Whoo hoooo!  I am gonna sleep REAL good tonight, and then I am up early tomorrow to do today’s Crossfit WOD.

It is Friday, [stupid pointless rambling and lyrics edited out here]

Okay, I just need to get that out.  So I woke up at 5:00 AM with a spirit of competition burning in my gut.  I had been challenged.  The bar was raised.  My pride was at stake.  a certain young lady had thrown down the gauntlet, and now I had to at least match her physical ability.  Could I do it.  Would I have the eye of the tiger and rise up to the challenge of my rival?

By 5:15, I was pounding the pavement.  I could feel my glutes and hams pulling me through each stride while the opposite quads and calves pushed through to finish each step.  A surprised herd of deer retreated into the darkness as I ran down a pitch dark piece of the cart path and into a cul de sac to begin the up hill second half of my one mile run.  As I rounded the curve and the run got steeper, I realized that the run was not as difficult as it had been, and I started to wonder if I would have the juice to get to the top of the hill and sprint down my street to my mailbox.  

As I turned onto my street I stopped for about 2 breathes, planning to rest for a few seconds and then sprint, but  the challenge popped back into my mind, and how smug she would be if I failed to measure up.  The relentless teasing and physical abuse that I might suffer if I could not at least match he abilities…  I kept running, picking up the pace right through to the mailbox.  Gasping for air, I checked my time… Yes.  I had made it, almost matching her time in the one mile run.  

I got back into the house.. hit the shower, got dressed, and at 6:00 AM, there she was, my 11-year old daughter.  She had run a mile in 9:54 the day before to pass her 6th grade fitness test, and my mile was about 9:45.  I proudly announced that I ran the mile in under 10 minutes, and got a sleepy-eyed smile and a thumbs up as she staggered to the bathroom.  Yes.  It has been a good day. 

Obviously, I need to work on my running!!  Today, I am cranking out the CrossFit WOD at lunch.  Woo hoo!

In closing, I would just like to say, I’m not internationally known, but I’m known to rock the microphone.

Make it a GREAT weekend.

Howdy folks!  Mr. Perky here!

Well I got up at 5:00 AM to get back into the early risers club, and I did some curls, flyes, bench presses (3×10 of each) and crunches (3 x 30). At that point I realized that I was so sore, there wasn’t much point in doing any more.  I’ll do my job tomorrow.  No running today though.  My glutes, hams, and quads are killin’ me! 

I don’t know if everyone has milestones that kind of remind them of how far the have come, but I run into one every now and then.  

–First, I will go ahead and apologize now if you are tired of hearing me talk about recovering from heart surgery. Ha ha!  It’s a MUCH bigger deal to me than it is to most people, so I talk about it ad nauseum (sp?).–

That said, I was doing my version of the Crossfit WOD, which for me was running 200 yards, doing 7 to 10 pullups, and then repeating that 4 times.  It was kind of funny because I have to have my garage door closed to do pullups, so I did my first round of pullups, opened the garage door and ran.. closed the door and did pullups, opened the door and ran, etc.  I know there were neighbors wondering if I was losing my mind, or if I had short term memory problems and had forgotten that I had just run!  But, I digress…

It was actually one of those neighbors that was my milestone.  One of our next door neightbors is a German woman, 60ish? who lives alone and is in pretty good shape.  when I came home from the hospital, I was a sickly looking dude, pale as a sheet, probably still kind of puffy, and when I went on my walks, which I had to do 3 to 5 times a day, I looked like an old man, always worried that I was going to push myself too far, or end up on too steep of a hill (the nurses had been clear about NOT walking uphill, but I really didn’t have a lot of choice in my neighborhood.)  I was a sad sight.  But I would always see my neighbor out walking or doing yard work, and she would always ask how I was doing and tell me I looked better, which I needed to hear.  That was almost 2 years ago.

So on my 3rd trip out of the garage, earbuds in playing Chris Brown, I looked up and there she was walking towards me, and through the music in my ears, I could hear her saying, "Alright!! You are doing great!!  Great job!!"  I waved and thanked her, and for the rest of that run and the one after that I was thinking about how I was not even physically able to do a run like that 2 years ago, and how I was RUNNING in the same footsteps as I had slowly walked about a year and nine months ago, AND how cool it was to have a neighbor that cheers for you when you run past them during a workout.  (To be completely honest, I get a little choked up just thinking about it…)

Hope you had a great workout too!

I gave Crossfit a shot again today.  Whew.  I did about half of the rx, and was at the point at which I just couldn’t finish.  I’m gonna keep on with it doing as much as I can each day until I can do the whole rx every time.

Posted some new progress pix too.

Yesterday afternoon I practiced my trumpet playing with my daughter to help her with a song she is learning.  That was so much fun because those muscles around my mouth (embouchure) were about the only ones that weren’t worn out from my attempt at the filthy 50.  Brought me back to my band geek days!

Hope you had a great workout today!