Time:

5:20 am to 6:00 am, 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm

Conditions:

Indoor (morning)

64 degrees (evening)

Training Maxim:

No hurry. No pause.

Training Performed

• 20 minutes of constant pedaling. After 10 minutes, I increased the bike’s tension from level 3 to level 4.
• 15 minutes of core training ( 40 sit-ups*, 40 push-ups, 20 leg raises (each leg), 30 second planks x 3).
• 45 minutes of interval training (walking, jogging, 10 walking hill shuttles*)

* I completed 10 additional sit-ups and 10 walking hill shuttles to celebrate 10 days of consecutive training.

First Thing I Listened To This Morning:

“Because I know if I have any life left anymore it’s because I’m willing to fight and die for that inch.”~ Al Pacino’s locker room speech in Any Given Sunday

Accomplishment:

As planned in the core workout, my goal was to complete 40 controlled sit-ups. However, I stayed on the floor to complete 10 more– to celebrate 10 consecutive days of training.

Takeaways:

As mentioned above, today was the 10th consecutive day of training. I’ve learned that drafting a workout plan for the next day’s training session is critical. A training plan, no matter how simple, allows you to focus on the exercises instead of wasting valuable training time thinking about what exercise to do next. This “thinking time” interrupts and distracts the flow of the training session.

As I develop the next day’s training session, I visualize myself doing the exercises. Visualizing increases comfort and familiarity with the exercise so that I can execute the exercise freely and properly the next day. Furthermore,  if I’m uncertain about the execution of an exercise, the night before, I can research the exercise’s movements.

A training plan is like a grocery list. If an exercise is on the list, you’re obligated to get it–done.

Quote I’m Thinking about Today:

“The man turns back to the mirror. His eyes are deep blue like the child’s.  Below his soft chest,  beats the heart of a child–boundless and wild. A heart that yearns to play outside again. To run, jump, tackle, and swing. To sweat, to bleed, to get dirty again. A heart that is much younger then the body that holds it.”

“The Man with the Hole in His Brain” is work of creative nonfiction. It’s an ambitious literary attempt to tell my story and further explain why I’m training to run again.