Super tired this morning. I could have gone to sleep on time but a certain someone couldn’t sleep last night.

Still woke up at 5am. Did back/biceps weights for an hour. Didn’t feel a pump. Wasn’t for a lack of trying. A little disappointed about that.

My left bicep is both larger and weaker than the right. I can do like 3 more reps on the right side but that side is a 1/4 inch smaller. I don’t understand that.

The bicep is my favorite part to flex but it doesn’t seem to get the best workouts. I need to find a better bicep routine. Today I tried a preacher curl with 40 lb barbell. I like the isolation but it just seems to tire the muscle and not pump it. I think concentration curls are better. Maybe I’ll do those and some cables curls next time.

As for the lack of pump, I read that nitric oxide supplements help with getting this blood flowing. I’m a little cautious however of adding another supplement. Already doing protein powder and glutamine. Hard to say what affect those are having or not. I am following the directions. I’ll think about it some more.

Tonight is the 2 hour ride. Got a late start. But I did it. Here are some pics.

Street cleaner

I have started to think seriously about biking to work on hard days instead of these after work hard day rides. I could bring supplies on easy days, and bike on hard days.

This weekend I’m hanging out with friends and I think the Saturday workout isn’t happening. Just gotta watch the party diet then.

My sleep has not been coming as easily these days. Maybe I’m getting older – ha, yeah, just maybe. This happens to old people, I hear. Maybe I’m mixing up my waking alarm enough to disrupt my internal clock. Definitely I was exhausted from a killer 3 hour workout yesterday evening. It was like my arms were throbbing through the night.

At least today is an “easy day” in my new plan. I was in bed, sleeping or not, until around 7am. This will be good to get more sleep. Fitness blogger Jay says I need my sleep, and I agree totally.

Tonight is a 40 minute “easy day” bike ride.

Had to stop at a couple places on my way home after work, but eventually got home and biked the route. Set out as the sun was going down. The sky stayed light enough to see the whole way.

It was warmer today. Still wore a jacket. Not looking forward to hot weather again. The rainy season is too short.

Tomorrow is Wednesday “hard day.” Waking at 5am for morning weights.

Another thing about these breaks is I am more aggressive with the weights. I actually ached after the yesterday’s session. That’s a very good thing. And better repair time could show more progress with less work. We’ll see. Slow progress.

I should start counting calories again. I’ve cut out some food, might be running low or high. Dunno. A little insecure about not knowing how much I’m consuming.

Couldn’t fall asleep last night until around 12:30am, so a 4am wake up would have played out badly. So I modified to wake at 6:30am and skipped the morning gym.

So now what. Well, it is now a question of what to do after work, since my before work plan is screwed. The plan says do the long bike ride tonight, but since I missed the gym, and muscle is more important to me right now, I opted for a gym visit.

The gym was packed of course. Time change workouters and the usual eveningers. But I navigated through them and got an awesome pump.

After an hour at the gym, it was about 6:30pm. Time for a bike ride. Long one? Sure! Great long ride ensued until 8 something.

So that means despite a messed up morning, I got it all done anyway by the end of the day. Woot.

How about tomorrow? Should I modify that as well and create a domino effect, or get back on track? I think I’ll go back to the schedule: early to bed, wake at 6:30am, easy bike ride at night.

The moral is: the next day starts at bedtime the night before.

Good night.

Went on a bike ride today with a former bandmate from Sonic I hadn’t seen in years. We had a great time. Afterwards I started sifting through some old pics.

These are me. Eyeliner and leather, bitches… Fun times.

See em all over on Flickr.

Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity

Fitness training: 5 elements of a rounded routine

• Low on sleep: need more.
• Low on muscle gain: need more. Seems it could be happening faster.
• Ongoing waistline fat: saw a little progress in the last couple weeks, but it’s mostly stagnated.

My workout routine has been a daily one. Rest on Sundays. This has limited my sleep and perhaps slowed my muscle progress.

I am still big on not being fat – at all. I want to see the muscle fibers through my skin. The best thing I’ve done lately is starting the 2 hour bike rides at night. I feel like this has the best fat attacking potential of my activities. I read a little tonight about fat burning supplements, but they sound like a bad idea for me. So cardio it is.

Diet is a major factor in fat maintenance of course. However my diet is below weight gain levels, and is very healthy (with the exception of a some greasy food last night). It should be in a place to support muscles with all the protein, but not high enough to get new fat. Even burn a little fat?

That all said, I will start alternating things instead of doing the same thing every day.

Here is what I will start doing this week:

• Hard days – Mon/Wed/Fri. Morning weights (up at 4am), evening 2 hour rides.
• Easy days – Tue/Thu/Sat. Morning sleep (up at 6am or 7am), evening 40 minute rides. This should let me sleep longer more often than not and give my muscle time to repair and hopefully grow.
• Even less carbs, even more protein. Only cereal on “hard day” nights. I like cereal at night, and after a long ride it is simply awesome, but it won’t be justifiable on “easy days.” Just protein on “easy day” nights. Also, 2 slices of toast per day instead of 3, have protein drink instead. Increase carbs if lightheadedness occurs.

So my Mon/Wed/Fri are going to be attack days. The other days will be repair days. There will be ongoing daily cardio but with alternating intensity.

Mixing it up in the name of ongoing progress. Gotta keep freaking that body out to see progress.

Sound good?

Got insufficient sleep each night this week. Earlier waking for gym. Later nights for longer biking. My quest to burn all fat and build muscle is relentless.

I really want to do all these things but being tired from lack of sleep is the price to pay. It’s all fun and games until my immune system is weakened by exhaustion and I get sick. Trying to stop short of that if possible. Hence trying to sleep in on weekends.

Tried to catch up on sleep last night. Slept almost 9 hours. Wanted to sleep longer. Tonight should be able to catch up a little as well. Was considering a nap but it’s already afternoon and I have too much left to do.

Last night

Last night we went to the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest and watched old pal Jameson perform. Great show of course.

Afterwards we were hungry and tempted by the fast food across the street. The Hut. We split a pastrami sandwich and part of a bag of onion rings. A grease feast. I was hoping it would pass nicely through my system, but it is more likely to cling to my waistline with the rest of the fat. Oh well. A good reminder that fast food is disgusting.

Today is Saturday

I am cleaning up my desk, after months of neglect. Receipts and crap piled almost to block part of my screens. It could use it. Had to break from all this work and exercise to do it eventually.

Here is the pile after significant progress.

There’s always an excuse to not exercise however, and I need to keep that in mind. It is easiest to do other stuff. But, as I say, I have never regretted a workout, regardless of how it starts. So I’m keeping this in mind and plan to bike today and tomorrow. Should bike to the gym a little later.

Have a good one!

CNN – Google adds bike routes to online maps

For now the local bike friendly routes are enough challenge. Good to know it’s there anyway. Maybe it will help people who actually need to get places on a bike and their existing routes are shady.

maps.google.com/biking

Speaking of workouts. The bike ride needed to get longer, so that I could at least burn 500 cals each time. 500 is an arbitrary number symbolizing a respectable workout to me. Yesterday I thought I had a nice long one but was disappointed by the calorie tally. Well today I biked even further, the route I was considering last night, in fact. It took 1.75 hours. I figure if last night’s 1 hour burned 300, tonight’s 1.75 hours must be a little over 500. I didn’t measure it, was concerned with simply finishing, didn’t want any extra weight or considerations. Some day I’ll measure it (with my GoWearFit).

This super long 1.75 hour route, especially for a weekday night, was thrilling. New scenery – expect future pics. New streets to learn. I stayed on the sidewalks. Helped me to get acquainted with things. Not to mention it’s rush hour and there are cars galore racing to get home. Everybody wins when I stay out of their way as much as possible.

Could I take this route every night? Sure why not. There is still fat to burn.

Here’s the favorite. It’s shaped like a dog. Burns 250 cals in 40 mins. Not enough.

Here’s a new route I took today. Shaped like uh.. 300 cals in 1 hour. Hmm. Well. I need to double this. Maybe tomorrow.

First: no guilt. Sleeping in made me feel guilty. The whole world was up and cranking except for me. Sure I had sufficient sleep and they didn’t, and I was really productive in the evenings, but it just didn’t ever sit totally well with me. Especially at the start of the day. I was in this pattern for years. Waking early completely eliminates this guilt.

Second: I am more active, thus more healthy. The hard part is physically getting out of bed. It helps to remind myself that my health isn’t free. I have to work at it. It also helps that I look forward to feeling pumped up and happy with my appearance. Waking early affords me a daily workout before work.

The bad news is that my favorite bike route, which takes 40 minutes, only burns 250 calories. That makes the stationary bike more efficient, burning around 450 cals in 45 minutes. Plus it’s fat zone burning.

Real biking has a more random heart rate, going up and down hills. As such, the burn keeps going even after the workout and might actually get to 350 calories total.

It’s a hit worth taking in my opinion. The air and scenery is quite refreshing. Maybe I’ll find a longer route. No way I’m stationary biking instead of real biking. Fresh air or stanky old gym? Hmm. Yeah, no contest.

Somebody knows me.