Goal + Action = Reality

WSMC1

Well-known member
from U.S.
Posts: 84
"Back again…let’s all keep this going!"
Ouch indeed! Get well soon TN! :pose:
Our oldest grandson (6 now) this past week crashed over his own feet running…now has a cast on the right arm and his left arm diagnosed with that bruised bone.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @mavie @WSMC1 (have you just equated me to a six year old!) and @NancyTree I think I'm making up for a relatively damage-free childhood!

Programmes:
:v: Back and Core Day 27
:v: Vitality Day 22

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 16

Workouts:
:v: Battle Mage
:v: Tendons and Core

:v: Treadmill walk. 30 minutes, 2.6k, about 5.3kph on average but I varied the speed as I walked.
:v: Upside down push-ups - 3 x 10
:v: Foam rolling - quads and calves. See, I was good today!
 
Last edited:

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Back and Core Day 28
:v: Vitality Day 23

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 17

Workouts:
:v: No wrong answers
:v: Iron Bar Advanced Note to self: move head to side when doing knee-ins so you don't knee yourself in the jaw (again!)

:v: Bent-over scapular shrugs 3 x 10
:v: Step-ups x 10 es. Just for something different, decided to do a lateral step-up onto the balance beam. It comes just below my knee so it's a pretty decent height for that sort of thing to start with. I was a bit lazy though and I didn't bother to take my foot off the beam until I'd done the whole set. :LOL:

:v: Exercise bike. Just over 26 minutes, just over 12k, at a speed of just under 28kph. Really sweating, though. The temperatures are starting to creep up, going for about 24°C on Thursday, but it was still cool today and the sweat dried quickly and cold. Looking forward to when I can have the fan on to dry that sweat. :toohot:

And continuing on with the "something different" theme, here is the first song I "danced" to on the bike today (probably contributing to the sweat!) - like on the treadmill, it's really difficult to play the air guitar on the bike, but it's cool to dance. :boss:
 
Last edited:

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Back and Core Day 29
:v: Vitality Day 24

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 18

Workout:
:v: Tempered Steel I'm having fun doing these upperbody workouts, avoiding all those with push-ups. :)

:v: Tricep kick-backs 3 x 10
:v: Taekwondo training. Shortly after I began, my calf started to feel a bit funny again and I was Not Happy. So I skipped much of the warm-ups as they generally involved jumping. Some I adapted on the spot (standing out so I wasn't with my group), so pre-squats became just squats, and skater hops were slower and without the hopping. Others I couldn't do at all, so just walked on the spot. Fortunately all that didn't take long today. Into joint warm-up and stretching. Then the coach decided to have us practice our kicks on the floor. I've practiced side kicks on the floor before in Poomsae, but never the others so this was something new. We sat on the floor, one leg across in a kind of half-butterfly, the other pulled up the the chest. Then we straightened that leg fully into a kick, trying to keep the thigh in the same position all the time. For that, I had little difficulty in keeping the thigh pretty close to my chest. Then we did turning kick, lying on a hip. That wasn't particularly exciting. On to side kick. I'd done this many times before, and lots of reps and sets, so when all we had to do was 10 on each side, once, it seemed to me a bit of an anticlimax. Of course, the rest of the class, not having suffered such torments before, were complaining about their poor hips. :LOL: We moved on to some drills. We started with ball kick up the line. Then we did side kick as high as we could go, not worrying about technique, just aiming for the head. Then we put them together in a funky way. After we'd done a couple of laps of that, she changed it again, and I'll explain it here so I can remember and drill this because it was fun:
L leg back, L ball kick, land forward. Rotate 180°. Back side kick with R (front leg), land back. Ball kick with R, land forward. Rotate, repeat but now R is back.
I was reciting "ball kick, turn, back kick, turn, ball kick, turn, ball kick, turn...." Once we had got it, we were supposed to do it as fast as we could. I was just focussing on getting it! After that, we partnered up for alternating turning kick to paddles, the mid-section turning kick which I found Hard but that's a sparring thing. Cut kick through two paddles. After that, as a finisher, the coach had us do single leg kick-outs, then diver push-ups. No idea how many - at least 10. I was pleased that my elbow didn't complain at all about these, possibly because of the release at the bottom. I find these ones much easier than regular push-ups.

I'd had to go out unexpectedly this morning which screwed up my other training. What I did do was getting closer to my Taekwondo training than I liked so I didn't do as much as I had intended. Ah well, these things happen. :cool:
 
Last edited:

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Back and Core Day 30
:v: Vitality Day 25

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 19

Workout:
:v: Captain On Deck I made a list of all the level 1 and 2 upperbody workouts that focus on the shoulders, and I've got enough to last me about two months. :) They are fun.

:v: Rehab Run Programme. After a few minutes of walking to warm up, moved on to 30s run (at 6kph) and then 60s walk (which I dropped back to 4.7kph so there was an obvious difference between the walking and the running) x 10, and then finished with another few minutes of walking. I really enjoyed this today, making the running part run and part butt-kicks to get those hamstring involved too.
:v: Upside down push-ups - 3 x 12

And just because I thought it would be a nice finisher after Back and Core - and because I dumped all my badges except consecutive days when I moved across here to the Hive 2.0 - I did a 5-min plank just to get that badge back. By the fourth minute, my shoulder were saying very unpleasant things to me but the back and core didn't care, could have carried on forever. But those shoulders! Sheer determination kept me going, though they were shaking like jelly! Perhaps I should have waited a little longer after the other workouts... Didn't matter - discipline got me through. :nod:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
It is an interesting idea, it blocks me a bit the fact that many of the programs I have tried I would not do them again :eyes:
I know what you mean. It would be a test of my courage to do a couple again! But I just liked the idea of starting afresh, and if I don't collect all the same badges, so be it. :cool:
 

Fremen

Well-known member
Shaman from Italy
Posts: 3,183
"“Keep an eye on the staircases. They like to change.” Percy Weasley, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone."
I know what you mean. It would be a test of my courage to do a couple again! But I just liked the idea of starting afresh, and if I don't collect all the same badges, so be it. :cool:
A new beginning is what we all had to do by completely changing the forum and starting from scratch, I like the idea of regaining every badge :)
I just have to make peace with the fact that I won't do certain things again just for a badge :LOL:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Hey, maybe that's a sign of growth! You know you've reached a new milestone when shiny badges don't motivate you anymore and you have a more focused view on what you need or want to do.
Oh no! Shiny badges always motivate! But sometimes the body just says "you've got to be joking. I've done this once before - never again!"
 

Fremen

Well-known member
Shaman from Italy
Posts: 3,183
"“Keep an eye on the staircases. They like to change.” Percy Weasley, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone."
Hey, maybe that's a sign of growth! You know you've reached a new milestone when shiny badges don't motivate you anymore and you have a more focused view on what you need or want to do.
I like this version, it tastes like a wise man :LOL:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Montserrat @Anek @NancyTree @CODawn @Sif_Shepard @Haleth @lofivelcro @Lallafa

Programmes:
:v: Vitality Day 26
:v: Total Abs Day 1 I remember that one of the two remaining Core programmes was definitely not a favourite. I'm hoping it's the one I haven't chosen! :LOL:

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 20
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 1
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 1

Really, choosing to do a couple more challenges is not my fault! It was the lure of Challenge badges... :lovable: But actually, I hadn't really considered the Challenges when I formulated my programme, and there are several that found fit in quite nicely with my aims. Agility was one, and Destress, but I can't do too many at once, so I'll leave them for next time.

:v: Walk. Depending on which GPS I go by, it was either 6.2k or 6.8k in just under 1½ hours (taking it easy before training!). I read this article about the difference between walking and hiking, and apparently I've actually been hiking. Who knew? It seems to be if you go along rough tracks and there is elevation, you're hiking. You're also likely to be walking slower, so my usual pace of about 13'/k is okay then. And I always say I've just been for a walk. :)
20221020_103753.jpg
It was a bit windy so most of my macros shots were blurred, except for these forget-me-nots. I think these are very sweet little flowers.
20221020_211244.jpg
Apparently, walking on something like this (and a photo always makes the route appear a lot flatter than it actually is!) makes it a hike.
20221020_211122.jpg
I went out this morning because it was supposed to rain today. It didn't.


:v: Taekwondo training. Today, training was a mix of sparring and poomsae drills. Two laps of a poomsae drill, then two laps of a sparring drill. So the poomsae drills were things like long stance and opposite hand punch, and graduated to a bit more complex such as: horse stance with inner block, extend to long stance with o/h punch, then back to L-stance with s/h inner block. This was the sort of thing I'd drilled in poomsae class so it wasn't a challenge for me - I rather loved doing it again. The sparring things, though, did not go well for me. I started the first one, but it was a lot of bouncing and, while not quite jumping, there was enough of that sort of movement to make my plantaris flare up. I had to stand out from the sparring drills, except when we were partnered and I could be a target. We went through patterns 1-3 as part of the poomsae drills - perhaps the coach couldn't think of other poomsae drills; he's only a trainee and he's a sparrer.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Vitality Day 27
:v: Total Abs Day 2 I still don't like up-and-down planks, but I do enjoy body saw.

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 21
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 2
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 3

Workout:
:v: Armageddon With Vitality warming them up, I decided that I had to do something else with the arms. I like this one. Actually, I seem to like most of these shoulder/arm focussed workouts. :LOL:

:v: FitOn programme - Booty Call. 20 minutes with Kenta. I quite liked this programme. 4 circuits, done twice, with a new-to-me exercise which I reckon is just great. A real glute worker! The frog pump (I love the comment in this article about not making eye contact! :worry:). So going to keep this on my To-Do list!

:v: Treadmill walk. I had contemplated going on the exercise bike, but it's quite humid today (the rain only started around 7pm!) and I had sweated enough earlier with Kenta, so I decided a nice gentle walk was just the ticket. 2.12k in 28 minutes.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Vitality Day 28
:v: Total Abs Day 3. Did all the flutter kicks at one go. After all, it's only 120 right now.

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 22
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 3
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 3 I couldn't help but do those bridges as frog pumps! :LOL:

:v: Rowing machine. We had a lovely thunder storm late last night, and it's still been raining on and off all day, and beautifully grey, so I thought it was appropriate to row my boat. :) 30 minutes, and just to make things a little interesting, a few times I did 30s sprints.

Bit of a lazy day today. I blame the weather. Rain always makes me feel so cosy and relaxed. That and I realised this morning that I'd made a silly and careless mistake in my story and spent a fair bit of time researching something that I later realised hadn't needed to be researched to that depth. Ah well, it was ... interesting.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Vitality Day 29
:v: Total Abs Day 4

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 23
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 4
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 4

:v: Exercise bike. It was still grey and rainy today so I was tempted to go on the rower again, but shortly before I did, there appeared a break in the clouds and even a spot of sunlight so I decided to go on the bike instead. The sun actually decided not to show for long, and it clouded over again and there was more rain later, but it was too late by then - I had made my final decision. But as it was humid and therefore sweaty-making weather, I decided not to go so hard as usual. 31 minutes and 14k, so that was about 27kph, and I was absolutely dripping. I really hate high humidity!
 

WSMC1

Well-known member
from U.S.
Posts: 84
"Back again…let’s all keep this going!"
”High humidity“ is a huge dislike here for wife and I, we will always prefer the “dry heat”. When I was a young child I never really understood why Grandmother (on dad’s side) liked a place called Palm Springs in CA. “Dry heat” was still sooooo hot lol

Riding in all conditions is strengthening in many ways, good going @TopNotch :u:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Vitality Day 30
:v: Total Abs Day 5

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 24
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 5
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 5

:v: Physio Rehab Run Programme. Today was the same as previously, but with an additional bit added. So, after a warm-up walk, I ran for 30s at 6kph, walked for 45s x 10, then I ran for 20s at 9kph and walked for 30s x 10, and finished with a cool-down walk - all up about 30 minutes. The calf started to feel it towards the end of the first lot, but not badly and it didn't worsen. And the Physio did say no excessive soreness. I was very pleased with how it went, not only as far as the calf, but also at how effortless the running seemed. I know it was only for 20 seconds at a go, but it felt good. :) I was sweaty (gosh, still overcast here, and it rained a bit again in the early evening) but not breathless. All good. Looking forward to re-commencing my 5k programme when I get the go-ahead.

I have been forgetting to write in my physio exercises but after the running, I made sure to do my calf raises and heel drops 2 x 15.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Haleth @Montserrat @Sif_Shepard @Anek @Fremen @NancyTree @lofivelcro @WSMC1 @Froud Though it seems a bit of a cheat to badge such an easy programme, but I used it as a warm-up and it's not meant to be a Challenge. And now they have badges too... :plot:

Prpgrammes:
:v: Foundation Day 1. It was hard to choose the next one. I thought about Square One, but decided this time I'd do one that was a bit closer to my level and perhaps save other level 1 programmes for when I have something heavier going on - like perhaps more running, or Mastery next year...
:v: Total Abs Day 6 Good news - it seems that this is not the programme I didn't really like! :LOL: Plank day.

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 25
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 6
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 6

Workout:
:v: Upperbody Mobility

:v: 5BX programme. I just happened to be reading stuff and it was reported that Helen Mirrim looked so good at 72 because she often does the XBX programme. I've got that as a little book, so I dusted (quite literally!) it off. My goodness! Must confess that what the women are to do is - well, perhaps that's as strong and fit as they wanted women back in the 60's. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go, but I won't spend so many days as recommended. I'll do just one day until I can't complete the exercises in the allotted time. Five exercises to be completed in 11 minutes, and at the very first level, that had 2 knee push-ups completed in one minute! Okay, it does get more challenging and in Chart 1, it goes up to 13 knee push-ups, but in the next chart, it expects you to be able to do 9 full push-ups in one minute - a big jump if you can only just do 13 knee push-ups! I think the clapping push-ups in Chart 5 might have to wait... I won't do the fifth exercise as it is written but shall swap it for my usual cardio or Taekwondo training, so I'll have 5 minutes to do the four exercises. See if I remember to do this every day!

:v: Taekwondo training. Brief warm-up. Straight into kicks - instep, turning and side; push, down, and hook; axe, inswing and outswing. Then we moved on to patterns. Went through pattern 1 three times, pattern 2 the same, pattern 3 about 4 or 5 times, then we were challenged by the white belt patterns. The teens don't have to do it, and we adults did it a l-o-n-g time ago! It's all long stance and mid-section punches, so it doesn't take long to refresh the memory. But the coach wasn't happy with our long stances so we drilled the pattern with our hands on our hips, focussing on our long stances three times before we did the whole pattern again.

Spent much of the day waiting. The electrician was supposed to come between 11 and 1 and I just knew that if I started doing my exercises, he'd knock on the door. I should have done my exercises! He finally arrived at 2:36!! I started my workouts at about 1:45 and was easily done before he arrived. So, Thursday night after training, I had a very quick very tepid shower, and since then I've had to boil the kettle to fill the sink. Tonight, a hot shower!! The electrical booster to the solar hot water system had to die just when we were having an extended period of cloud and rain! Anyway, all fixed now. :applause:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @CODawn and @Julian4077

Programmes:
:v: Foundation Day 2
:v: Total Abs Day 7

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 26
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 7
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 7

:v: Walk. I'd signed up to a 50k walk challenge and due to the wet weather this month, I haven't made much a dent into it. Last night, I had a hankering for rye bread with liverwurst and pickled cucumbers but I had no rye bread, so I decided this morning to go to the shops. And I would walk there. Shortly before I left, there was a brief sprinkle of rain but then it cleared up and off I went. I could have taken the more direct route, following the road, but instead I went through a green space. My shoes and socks got wet. I had to walk on the slippery greenery because the tracks were either flooded or muddy but that is fine by me - much preferable to paved footpaths! Just before the shopping centre is a large park, with some little playgrounds, a skate park, and a few scattered exercise stations (the only ones around in this neck of the woods and there are, I think, seven exercises in total you can do). I wiped the rain off as best I could and did 10 quick leg raises on the captain's chair (much easier than on the pull-up bar!) and then the rain started to sprinkle again but only lightly. Did my shopping (protein powder, carrots, spinach, rye bread, wholewheat sourdough) and hefting that now 5kg backpack on my back, headed back home. Most of the route was the same except towards the end. The whole route was about 7.6km, but it took me almost two hours because of the shopping. So now I only have about 16km to go. Phew! I certainly earned my lunch!

:v: XBX - Chart 1, D. I was curious today how long it would take me to do that small number of the four exercises. I know that doing more will, of course, take longer, but right now, at just the second level, it took me about 40 seconds.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Foundation Day 3
:v: Total Abs Day 8

Challenge:
:v: Daily Kicks Day 27
:v: Touch Your Toes Day 8
:v: Glutes of Steel Day 8

Workouts:
:v: Forearms and Triceps
:v: Herald

:v: XBX Chart 1 Level D+

:v: Had to go to the physio this morning and after that, another quick trot around the park I went through yesterday. So another 2 x 10 leg lifts in the captain's chair. The walk was disappointingly short - not even 2k, but then this is a training day so I should probably not do too much before that.

:v: 2 x 10 barbell overhead presses. The physio reckons this is the best exercise for the triceps. My right elbow was shaking towards the end of the second set, so this is obviously something that's good for me to do!
:v: 2 x 15 calf raises/heel dips, followed by a lower then a quick bounce up and hold for a moment, then do it again and again. Feel the burn, said the physio. After about 50 of these, much to the Lad's amusement, I'd had enough - and my calves were burning! :onfire:
Anyway, this is about the extent of adult "play" equipment! Captain's chair rear left.
20221027_222821.jpg

And, aaww, how cute!
20221027_223035.jpg

I love the smooth trunks rising from the scrappy bark.
20221027_223207.jpg

See - I said it's been wet!
20221027_223109.jpg

:v: Taekwondo training. Yikes. After a quick few laps of running and a joint warm-up, we did 30 of each of the following (but I've forgotten some because there were way more), with a 30-second rest between: pre-squats; diver squats; sit-ups; opposite hand/opposite foot switches; push-ups; 180° knee tuck switches; wide scissors; jumping jacks. Phew! Then we did 30 alternating instep kicks, then another 20, then 10. On to turning kicks. Unfortunately, though, as they were alternating, they required a bit of a jump/ballistic movement, and the physio (after I told him what I had experienced) said that my calf just wasn't up to that yet, and it let me know so I had to slow down and do kicks with only one leg. Then we did cut kick. Partnered up, and did cut kick to the waist. I had to lower my waist for my partner and she still managed to kick me a couple of times in the thigh! Back side kick and then back swing kick, again which I could do only with one leg - my right because it wasn't up to moving in support. The physio said, "Just be patient. Hah! Easy for me to say that!" Indeed! :expecting:
 
Top