Weekly Totals and Review, Dec. 20th Through 26th.

Oh man!  This week SUCKED!  Bad diet, bad timing, all that crap... But it's ok, there's always next week.  Let' dig up this bag of bones and see what we have:

Rarely seen workout move - "The Nutcracker"

Tuesday morning - Shovelglove for 15 minutes.

This is one of my favorite core workouts. Get as heavy a sledge hammer as you can handle and then do all kinds of full motion movements for about 15 minutes. I set a timer for 15 and then just go to town on it. This is the kind of stuff that puts on muscle and burns off fat. Love it. More info at www.shovelglove.com

Tuesday morning - 45 minute bike ride on rollers, 14 miles.

Was ramping up fine and then quickly noticed that my legs were still sore from the awesome workouts over the weekend. I hit LT much earlier than usual at around 140 bpm. I capped out at around 155, took a short break, and then hit it hard again to drive the pain home. Got off the bike and did shovelglove.com for the rest of the hour.

Tuesday Afternoon - Sledgehammer Workout, 15 minutes

Got home from work and set the timer for 15 minutes and cranked on the 16 lb. sledgehammer. Also did some pull ups and push ups. I'm going to try to make this a weekday ritual because it has such awesome effects on core strength and muscle tone. I've lost as much fat as I can with just aerobic training; it's hammer time.

Tuesday Evening - 1 hour run, 7.23 miles Had an allergy shot go funky earlier today and was on a medication, so that wasn't ideal. Legs were still a little blown from last weekend as well. This was an escalation until failure workout and I hit failure a little earlier than I wanted, but the mileage was awesome. I'll take 7.23 miles in an hour any day. Wednesday Morning - 30 minute bike ride on rollers, 7.62 miles. Was a little sleepy (possibly from yesterday's asthma meds), so I got started a little late on the bike. I didn't even want to get on, but I've learned that just getting on is the only real problem. Do that, and you're set. Started feeling good after a while and finished strong, but still need a little more recovery to get back to peak form. Thursday Morning - 15 minutes with sledgehammer I gotta make sure I keep doing this! My abs are super sore from the past few sledgehammer workouts and so are a lot of my other muscles. I'm trying to make this a habit by creating a ritual around it - Putting on some heavy metal music on the iPod, starting out with some simple curls to get going, and then I'm into it. I also do everything possible on one leg and it makes the core work at least twice as hard. Thursday Morning - Roller ride, 30 minutes, 6 miles. I'm fed up with trying to edit this entry and it not saving, so I'm at the point where I don't even want to describe it anymore.  It was a bike ride.  Yay.  Let's move on dot org. Thursday PM - Sledgehammer, 15 minutes. Not much time for anything else, so did the sledgehammer workout again. It's getting to be a little much, but it's good stuff. Christmas eve morning, 15 minutes hammertime. Tying this into a morning ritual habit. Had the genius idea of ritualizing new ideas to make them a true habit. Listen to music you dig, drink a tea, bust a hammer. Christmas eve noon - 1:30 run, 9.61 miles Nice run around the 'hood and out on a dirt road. Took Roxy with me the first half hour. Running after doing the sledgehammer makes you feel like a badass. Pretty funny. Ate a piece of Ezekiel bread during the run. Nice. Friday PM - 1.5 hours on rollers, 27 miles. Nice bike ride on rollers, just staying in zone 2. Noticed that I burned well over 2000 calories today working out. That's why I put on fat when I don't work out! Christmas morning - Hammertime for 15 minutes. Not much opportunity to workout with all the family here, so did this real quick. Relatives pretty impressed with how much you can do with a simple hammer and standing on one leg. Definitely got some converts today. Christmas Day - 1:15 run, 7.36 miles. Made the excuse that I needed to go run the dog and got the hell out of the house. It was stupid cold and windy, but still got it done. Family is fun, but not everything is great in concentration. Whew! Sunday Morning - 1:15 run, 8.55 miles. Another running escape. I love being a runner and having that excuse to exit the scene. Diet is slowly crumbling away with all this mayhem and needed some time alone to just... be alone! LOL. Another crazy windy/cold day. I'd rather be on the treadmill but I think people are playing Yahtzee on it. TOTALS:  Total hours - 9:55 Duration Running 5:00 hours Cycling 3:15 hours Circuit training 1:10 hours Overal thoughts: I thought I'd be able to do better this week since we're in town, but nope. Failed.  I'm going to have to go into "Monk Mode" next year to eat better and get more done.