I got up at 6 a.m. and hit the gym. It was amazingly crowded for a Saturday at 6 a.m. I could not believe it. The only cardio machine available was a Nautilus TreadClimber. My gym has four of these rather odd machines and I have only used them twice before. I honestly hate them. I reluctantly climbed on and started my workout. I decided to go with the built in interval program because these things are a pain to change as you walk. I set it for 15 intervals of 1 minute at 4.0 mph (the max) and 1 minute at 3.0 mph. At around 6 minutes into the workout one of the gym employees is standing in front of me and shows me a “This machine is out of service” sign.
“This machine is working perfectly,” I state.
“It is making a strange noise that indicates it is broken,” states the employee.
“I've been on this for 6 minutes and have not heard one sound, so what are you talking about?” I complain.
“I'm sorry, but the machine is broken,” blandly states the employee.
I step off. To my right a lady was busily completing a workout on her TreadClimber. She looks right at me and says “Hang on, I'm done” and proceeds to slow down the machine and step off. Amazing! As she got off she explained that she really had 5 more minutes to go, but she heard the employee, thought he was crazy and decided to give up the machine for me. I thought that was very nice.
I then continued on my way with my workout on the new TreadClimber. What is interesting about these machines is how they handle the pre-programmed workout. Remember, when I first got on the machine I selected their interval workout. I was asked to give the machine the maximum speed I wanted (4.0 mph, which just happens to be the fastest the thing can go) and how long I wanted to be at that speed per interval (1 minute) and then the minimum speed (3.0 mph) and how long I wanted to be at that minimum speed per interval (1 minute). It then asks how many intervals you want and I had selected 15 for a 30 minute workout. Well this machine gets to 15 minutes and suddenly the 3.0 mph interval switches to 4.0 mph. Now I'm heading towards 4.0 mph for another 14 minutes straight. Not my idea of interval training. The only difference between the fast and slow intervals was the depth of the treads (if you've never seen one of these things, they have two tracks that rock up and down as you walk).
I got down to just 7 minutes left and I was exhausted. I was ready to stop the machine and call it a day. I then decided to continue on. With 5 minutes left I was so tempted to end the workout. But guess what? I thought about having to tell this story on this blog. I thought about adding that line: I give up. Well, I didn't give up. I completed the workout and then went on to do a core training workout and a chin up training as well to complete my workout for the day.
My Accountability Log:
| Mission 1: Day 4 of 40 | Accountability | ||
| Meal/Training Plan: Real-time accountability | Each task completed? | ||
| Day 63: December 29, 2007 | Yes or No | ||
| 6:00 a.m. | Meal 1: Protein shake with oatmeal with 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 6:00 a.m. | Supplements: Animal Pak, Glucosamine Chondroiten, calcium, chromium, glutamine | Yes | |
| 6:15 a.m. | Workout: Weight training, HIIT cardio (30 minutes), core training, chin up training with 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 7:00 a.m. | Supplements: Protein shake with glutamine and 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 9:00 a.m. | Meal 2: Chicken breast (6 oz) and large salad with 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 12:00 p.m. | Meal 3: Tuna (6 oz) with large salad and 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 3:00 p.m. | Meal 4: Turkey breast with large salad and 3 glasses of water | No | Late |
| 6:00 p.m. | Meal 5: Lean beef with large salad and 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| 8:30 p.m. | Supplements: Protein shake with glutamine, calcium and 3 glasses of water | Yes | |
| Accountability Areas: | Points | Possible | |
| Meal 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Meal 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Meal 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Meal 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| Meal 5 | 1 | 1 | |
| Training | 1 | 1 | |
| Post Workout Nutrition | 1 | 1 | |
| Water | 1 | 1 | |
| Pre-sleep nutrition | 1 | 1 | |
| Accountability | 1 | 1 | |
| Daily Totals: | 9 | 10 | |
| Mission Totals: | 38 | 40 | |
| Workout Log: | |||
| HIIT Cardio | 30 minutes | ||
| Chin up challenge | (110) 5 x 5 | ||
| Core training: Leg lifts, ball side reaches, crunches | 3 sets |
I was about 30 minutes late with my 4th meal or I'd have had another perfect 10.
It is times like during my morning workout where I wanted to quit that this blog becomes extremely important. The accountability measures that I'm taking here are what keep me honest and moving ahead. I'm grateful for the discipline I've developed over the past 65 days.
I have made two small decisions that will change my plan a little. I am moving my Sunday workout this week to Monday because: (1) I am still feeling my 250 pound squat workout and can't do squats again with my legs feeling this way; and (2) it will fit the week better (Monday, Wednesday and Friday workouts, skipping the Tuesday holiday for weight training). My second decision that changes my plan is that at the end of this week of Metabolic Surge I'm going to do another 5 days of low carb cycle. Basically I'm going to restart the round. I will finish my 5 straignt low carb days tomorrow (Sunday) and then go on the high protein day Monday and the all fruit day on Tuesday and then on Wednesday I will start back on another cycle of 5 low carb days. Otherwise my plan stands as listed previously Tomorrow I will publish my next week's plan in the morning when I post my stats.
Until tomorrow…
