markc7's new training log

[hsorlando]

Happy Belated Birthday!!!!!!

[markc7]

Happy Belated Birthday!!!!!!

Thanks!

No workout for me today, but I did spend much of the day walking around Toronto. I probably walked for three or four hours. That counts for something, right?

[pamela]

I probably walked for three or four hours. That counts for something, right?

Well, I guess.

[Lena01]

It's great to follow your running blog. I hope to be running very soon. I wish you the best with those trainings!

Btw was it you walking by Bloor and Spadina just at the corner of Fresh monday afternoon or did I cross with a lookalike?

[markc7]

That was probably me! Damn, I wish I had seen you. I had been planning to go to Fresh again, but decided to eat at Urban Herbivore instead.

I'm back in Ottawa now, and am planning to do a quick gym workout sometime today.

[markc7]

Some pictures from my birthday weekend.

Here's me at Fresh on Bloor on Saturday. I ate the "Power Bowl" with tofu steaks, avocado, sprouts, rice, tomato, nuts, etc


It was my nephew's birthday a couple days before mine, so he got a cupcake with a candle to blow out as well.


My friend Johnny from high school was there as well.

[markc7]

Not the most impressive workout this evening. I ate couscous and veggies for supper, then waited about 1.5 hours before doing a workout. I guess I was still digesting, because after a hard 15 minute bike ride I felt a bit upset to my stomach. I did a couple pullups, dips, and some ab exercises, but wasn't really feeling it so I cut the workout short. Meh. tomorrow I'll eat better and hopefully will get some better work done.

[Andreafrancis]

That was probably me! Damn, I wish I had seen you. I had been planning to go to Fresh again, but decided to eat at Urban Herbivore instead.

Good eye Lena! Wow! Mark if you ever are back in Toronto again we should work out! or eat at a vegan restaurant. I drove through Ottawa last weekend.

[markc7]

OK, enough of this goofing around in the gym, it's time to get into some kind of actual workout plan. I'm going to start doing a three way split: Chest/triceps, back/biceps/core, legs/shoulders. On each of these days I'll start with one of the three big lifts (bench, deadlifts, squats), on which I'll do 5x5's. The rest of the exercises for each day, I haven't decided what they'll be or what reps/sets combination to do. I'll work that out as I go along.

So, can you guess which of the three days I decided to start on? Back and biceps, of course! My numbers are embarrassingly low, though I hope they are not shamefully low.

5x5x185 Deadlifts (I need gloves!)
4x8x95 bent over bb rows
3x5 medium/close pullups (ok, this one is shameful)
3x10 incline crunches
3x10x35 back extensions
2x5x65+2x5x45 reverse BB curls
2x5x65+2x5x55 BB curl
2x90s plank (I'm actually fairly pleased with these, it's been a long time since I held a plank this long)

You might be wondering where all the running is in this log. Well, my blisters still haven't healed from my run on the 6th, so I'm waiting a couple more days before I do any running. But I hope to do a run this weekend, and then a very long run sometime during the coming week.

[markc7]

I did a chest and tricep workout today. I have to be careful on some of these, as well as some of the delt exercises, because both of my shoulders have been injured in the past and they sometimes act up.

Smith bench press - I prefer DB press, and I'll probably do those instead from now on. Not sure why I used the smith today.
tricep pushdown
decline db press
dips - I feel so weak when I do these after having done pushdowns.
machine fly - my shoulder doesn't like these
straight arm pulldown - or these
reverse grip 1-arm tricep pushdowns - I love doing these, especially in big drop sets.

I might go for a run tonight or tomorrow morning.

[markc7]

On Saturday I did a quick 8km run. I didn't feel like I was going too fast, but ended up doing the run in around 40 minutes, which is a fairly decent pace. Everything felt good, so I decided to do a kinda long run this morning. I ended up doing 21km. It was lightly raining throughout the whole run, which made the whole run cool and comfortable. I ran along the parkway for about 8km, then decided to continue along the former route of our local half marathon. This is a route that I could run in my sleep, and I really enjoy it. There weren't too many people around because of the rain, but it was nice to just kinda zone out to my music.

[markc7]

Legs and shoulders today. I love working my legs. Mostly because I think they are my best feature, and there are a couple exercises that I do pretty well (although I'm going to be patient and take my time getting the weight of my squat back to where it was in the fall). I didn't quite get in all the leg exercises I had wanted to, since I had a limited time for my workout.

Shoulders I don't like working out very much, because and consequently they are my weakest muscle group. I know that I'm never going to have really strong shoulders or be able to do certain exercises, but I'm going to work harder from now on to be consistent and not avoid shoulder workouts.

I'm not posting the weights on all of these, because many of them are still shamefully low.

Scapular dips 3x15
shrugs 3x8
rear delt fly 3x8
squats 8x135 (warm up) + 5x5x185
calf press 3x8x180
front db raise 3x8
1-leg hamstring curl 3x8
lateral db raise 3x8
upright row 4x8

[markc7]

As I said in the last post, it's been quite some time since i last did squats. Consequently, my back was a bit sore today from the workout yesterday. I wanted to go for a run, but wasn't sure if I would be able to because of my back. It wasn't really bad or anything, just uncomfortable enough that I didn't want it to throw off my stride. Anyways, I had kind of a lousy day at work, went home early and had a short nap, then got up and felt like trying a run. I decided to do 8km, but ended up doing a little bit more, maybe 10km total. I took it nice and easy, but still managed to run a pretty good pace. All things being equal, I'm planning to go to the gym to do biceps, back and abs tomorrow.

[markc7]

From The Onion, here are the top reasons that people are not going to the gym.

[markc7]

Back and biceps and abs today in the gym. I started with deadlifts, 5x5x185. Still a very light weight, but with my back still getting used to squats and deadlifts again, I figured it was better to play it safe. But I know that pretty soon I'll be able to start moving up the weight again. Also did: underhand bent over rows , back extensions, incline crunches, lat pulldown, preacher curl, reverse grip bb curl, bb curl. And i finished with two planks, held for 2 min and 1 min, with only a very short break in between. Not a bad workout, all things considered.