Days 25 and 26 - I don't know how you road warriors do it

Yesterday
I saw Patrick's email about the indulgence meal and as I mentioned in the previous post I think I basically already had mine in the form of the wedding dinner... so that's a little disappointing, but it seems fair since it was way outside of the diet, and timed with the indulgence I hope it works out OK. The meal itself was: 1) heavily salted and steamed veggies that I skipped since I had already loaded up on raw veggies beforehand 2) a massive helping of roast beef with a very sweet bell pepper sauce, 3) a chicken breast stuffed with spinach and something creamy, and 4) mashed potatoes with bacon bits... I ate the chicken, and the mashed potatoes and had a little taste of the roast beef. So I think that's done it for me (and then some). I also had a boatload of coffee to stay up and energetic so I could apply all my moves on the dance floor to everyone's dread. The next day I felt pretty horrible though. My stomach was aching and that didn't seem to go away until midday. But I really ended up dragging ass all day. Can't decide whether it was the coffee or the wedding dinner that did me in... maybe both.


Had lunch with one of Kim's friends at Panera and I got a caesar salad with no dressing and extra tomatoes and onion, and a side of whole wheat bread. I picked the majority of the parmesan cheese out so I think I was OK on this meal. Also picked up a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread to round ouf the carbs as well as to put aside for our early morning departure.


We actually headed into Detroit for a Tigers game (baseball) later in the day and Subway came to rescue once again. Grilled chicken on lettuce with tomatoes, onions, and avocado. Not the freshest ingredients by a country mile but I think it worked in a pinch (although with 20/20 weighing out the meals today I think I shortchanged myself in the protein department and way overate the vegetables). 


Workout
We had to squeeze the workout in just before dinner in order to eat and get to the game in time, but despite the food tribulations and not sleeping great, the workout was surprisingly strong again... energy-wise. Some of the exercises were kind of disastrous. Still, I am wondering if being at a significantly lower altitude is really helping in the endurance department. 

1. Jump ropes: these really went great again... was able to accomplish larger lots of 200 at a time and not much tripping to speak of.
2. Floorjump: I said the workout felt strong, but form for some of these new exercises was awful. If I recall correctly the last set was almost impossible.
3. Pull-down: good, clean burn from the third set right through the end
4. Push-ups: I am really happy with the fact that I can do these, maintain form and still get a good burn in the last two sets.
5. Tricep dips: last set was excruciating so I must be doing something right
6. Chicken wing: well, whattya know, the first shoulder exercise that doesn't completely fry me. The last set was difficult and there was definitely a burn, but of all the shoulder exercises this one was the easiest thus far
7. V-sits: Once I got home and checked my PCP email I saw that I wasn't alone in my v-sit woes. The last set was a complete train wreck. I was so shot I couldn't keep the form at all through the last 5 reps. For a few of them I ended up doing a Nosferatu where my legs just crashed to the floor and my torso shot up. Its almost beside the point since I was so awful at this, but should we be floating our feet at the beginning of the exercise?

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Today
We had also kept some hard boiled eggs packed in ice and stored in the hotel ice bucket so we were all set in the morning when we had to set out at 4:15 for the airport. Chomped through a few slices of the whole wheat bread. I guessed at 2 slices but when we got home I found out it should have been closer to 4 slices. Might account again for the weird energy swings. Unfortunately didn't get the morning veggies since we didn't have any and there weren't any decent options at the airport in the morning.


Definitely feeling it when we are off schedule both in terms of sleeping and the food. Kim and I were out of sorts for most of the day. Still got the meals and snacks in, but we ended up napping for almost 2 hours before lunch to catch up...


Still, Kim made me some coffee and that seemed to help so we could do our now-standard Sunday ritual of salsa, chicken and veggie grilling for the week, grocery shopping, lawn mowing, and working in the garden. Speaking of which the tomato plants are enormous but have yet to bear any fruit and the arugula should be set to be harvested this week. Looking forward to digging into that. Kim had also planted some cilantro which seems to making some headway, so we may end up being self-sufficient just in time for PCP to end!


Workout
As mentioned, we were out of sorts and pretty low on energy throughout the day so getting motivated to workout was difficult and due to the flight schedule we weren't able to workout in the morning and had to do it in the afternoon which wasn't ideal either.

1. Jump rope: kind of disappointing given the past two days as I fell back to smaller lots of 100 and 150. Not sure if it was the lack of sleep or the altitude or the meals being slightly off, but whatever it was, it wasn't as good. Still, form is good and I'm really tripping far less.
2. Creep: I really shouldn't have complained so much about lunges. These new leg exercises are really really tough. As with the floorjumps I was almost totally shot on the last set which was kind of a mess in the sense that I had to stop to catch my breath before finishing them out. I sort of want to blame doing them to quickly after finishing the jump ropes but given that the burn was mostly in my quads that excuse probably won't fly.
3. Pull-up: I've decided to start these on the door mounted bar and do as many there before transitioning to under the table for the remainder. Still stuck at about 2.5 before having to revert to the incline pull-ups. Were quite difficult today.
4. Standing Ovation: nice and clean... good pinch and hold with the hands together and can really feel it in my chest.
5. One arm curl: quite difficult. Much harder to keep my elbow in place than it was with the previous bicep exercises.
6. Shoulder press: the last set is seriously nigh on impossible. Last two to three reps in particular are a real strain and I need to be careful I don't hurt myself on these. I can see straining my neck pretty badly here if I'm not careful.
7. Plank: I might be imagining it, but these seemed more difficult than last time... Again, no burn to speak of, but shaking like crazy. Also, I realized part of the way through that I was holding my breath so that probably sapped me a bit.

Overall, the travelling wasn't too too bad. I think the fact that it occurred just as we were entering an extremely low energy phase was tough as we were perpetually exhausted. Definite respect to the PCPers that are constantly travelling for work and are able to keep up!