Dufisthenics

So I am back from our nearly two week Western Road trip.  My picture posing move of the trip was the elbow planche which I did in various scenic locations.  I had hoped to do a lot more pull ups for my 1000 pull up challenge but only managed to throw in 10 while we were on the Barr Trail.

Exercise-wise I did no other weight/resistance training during the trip.  Our only tangible exercise was walking around and the two hikes we did.  One was two miles up Barr Trail which eventually leads to the 14,000 ft+ Pike’s Peak summit.

The other was in Durango, hiking up the side of Smelter Mountain.  That climb got progressively more steep and dangerous as we neared the top.  I was disappointed when we failed to reach  the summit after the wash we were ascending met up with a pure vertical corner of rock that was approximately 30-40 feet high.  If my life depended on it I could have probably made the final climb but with absolutely no safety gear and my unwillingness to put Cindy at risk we decided to slowly make our way back down.  Both hikes were made more difficult because of the elevation.  Both Cindy and I were sucking wind much faster than we expected.

This past weekend I tried to get my body back in the swing of things by running 5K on Saturday and biking 13 miles on Sunday.  I didn’t feel particularly good doing either.

I already knew I was going to struggle going to the gym.  My strength seems to drop off rapidly, even after a relatively short couple week break.  I decided to superset between reps of 185 pounds on the bench press and pull ups.  I just could not believe how poor my endurance was.

It’s like I have no lactic acid tolerance, my recovery between exercises is terrible when supersetting or doing a circuit.  Of course I have been complaining about this for quite awhile and for the same amount of time I have suggested that getting my weight back down between 175 and 180 pounds would probably help.

Cindy and others have told me that my current weight of 185ish pounds looks better on me.  That may be the case but I personally feel better weighing less.  Call it my inner anorexic talking but the bottom line is 10 pounds less I was doing things with body weight training and endurance conditioning that I can’t remotely consider doing at the moment.  I need to stop talking about making that number drop and do more to make it happen.

Not being able to do what I could before makes me feel mentally weak.  I don’t enjoy that sensation.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

18 pull ups

Barbell bench press 135lbs x 10

10 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 8

10 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 6

8 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 5

8 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 5

8 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 5

8 pull ups

Barbell bench press 185lbs x 5

8 pull ups