Day 77 jumprope in a blizzard and pull ups

Hello all!

The snow continues! Even as I write this its coming down. It was an interesting experience jumproping in a snow storm. It was a besutiful sight, but an unpleasant feeling all the same.
My exams roll on I'm afraid though, and its English up next, a big 'un!

I had a full workout today, as I did day 77's jumprope instead a full workout yesterday because I was tired and mainly, the fact that Barcelona and Real Madrid were battling out the biggest game in world soccer last night, Barca stuffing Madrid five nil! It was a great game, my inspiration, Cristiano Ronaldo, didn't have a great evening (playing for Madrid).

So, pull ups, pull ups, pull ups...why are you so damn tough! I've been slowly weening myself off the easier incline pull ups to make the step up to a full 6 sets pull ups. And today, I did it! However, instead of doing 6 sets with 8 reps, I did 10 sets of 5 reps. For the simple reason that five is my maximum. The kung sits are a true killer, and taking the pro-tip for the day on board for the sit ups made it doubly difficult, but 10 times more satisfying to complete!

Well, the inclement weather is due to continue into next week, and with exams coming up, not to mention a visit from fellow PCPer Nicole with her veteran PCPer husband, its going to be an interseting and hopefully good twelfth week of PCP life!

Talk to you tomorrow!

day 76 snow, oh and more and more...!

It has been an unprecedented snow fall this year. Usually we wouldn't see snow at all until January and certainly not this much! Its been great fun, my exams have been disrupted which is great. I've been doing my jumprope in the snow and its been a right laugh and a half!

Ok, serious stuff...indulgence numero tres! Flapjacks! Absolutely stunning, what a treat!

The hand shot is just to show size, they aren't massive, but god dammit they're good! My mum estimates around 250-300 calories per cake. I made up the rest with cheesy potatoes and juicy gravy on my roast! delicious!

I hope everyone is having a good time and had a great indulgence. One last note, team cookie monster is behind Alex. heres to his full recovery!

I'll be back tomorrow!

Day 75 much to discuss!

First and foremost, I mentioned yesterday We had a piddly amount of snow. Ah, today we got A LOT! About half a foot. Ok, thats not much by North American standards, but with more snow forecasted for the next few night, we can possibly hope for a full foot?? One of the best things about snow is not snowmen, not snowball fights but the fact that our exams start tomorrow. There is almost zero chance of getting to the school tomorrow, the road outside our house is steep and covered with snow and ice, and I think the school have sussed it, they've moved the exams back by 2 hours and are considering scrapping school tomorrow all together, lets hope!

The snow also presented a major challenge, I've done my jumprope outside throughout this project and the snow threatened that fact this afternoon. But never fear, a boiled kettle of water and a half an hours scraping and brushing did the job! I would say I had a better workout doing that than anything else! However, by the end the small amounts of water that I was jumping on turned to ice, and I nearly fell on my arse, but thankfully I survived! One final snlw related note, We live on a very steep hill and the chances of any vehicles other than a tank getting up it. So, I probably should have warned the 15 or so motorists who were stupid enough to be driving, not to go up the hill?? No, much funnier to watch them slide back down!

Anywho, indulgence #3! I haven't had it yet, buts on the way. I'm having flapjacks (golden syrup, sugar, butter, oats) for desert and a full sunday roast for dinner, butter on the potatoes! I estimate 350-500 calories in the flapjacks, and the other 500 will be made up by buttery cheesy potatoes and some lovely gravy! I can't wait, I'm going to savour every mouthful, and tackle the next two weeks HARD!

Anywho, I'll have indulgence photos up later on, and body shots up on flickr too!

See you tomorrow, hopefully with mlre tales of snlw and no exams!

Day 74: part two

Wow, that was tough. Two workouts in the one day is UNBELIEVABLY difficult. I felt confident of achieving two in one day, and I did manage it...just. The jumprope was great today. I'll stop short of saying I've mastered it, but in 38 minutes today I only tripped 9 times. I estimate that in 38 minutes I'd jump 3,700 jumps or so, would I be right? So I'm aiming for a trip free jump rope session before this project is out. The pro-tip for the creeps was too right, absolutely sickening in the fourth and fifth set. The shoulder raises still present a massive challenge, I've decided to split the six sets up into two lots three on that one, simply because I'm cooked after three sets and I do my abs in between (I do the same thing with the DaVincis).

Anywho, today was a tough day and I'll feel it tomorrow alright! Pictures will be coming tomorrow night, and I'm hoping to show off some good results for this week following today and tomorrows work after a slow start to the week.

See you then!

Day 74: part one

A lot has happened over the last few days. Friday from a PCP perspective, terrible, everything else, GREAT! I was all set to go home yesterday evening when a friend invited me to his place along a with another mate, it was a great night of playstation, snooker and movie watching in the cinema (yes, all of this was in his HOUSE!). They are two friends I've made from my new school so it was an opportunity not to be missed. However, I didn't get home until 10:30. Which meant I had to have dinner at there house, so it was first PCP-food failure. Peas (which I ate a lot of and of course are PCP friendly) with chicken bites (a bit like chicken nuggets) and chips (fries). I have to say I felt a bit greasy and queasy after the chips, but I wasn't going to make a fuss as a visitor in someones home. On top of that, upon my return home, I promptly fell asleep on the couch! So, woke up at 12:15, no chance of a workout. But a good day in any case.

So, day 74 is going to be my first 2 workout day, thats why this post is entitled "part one". I've taken care of day 73 exercises late this morning, and have ear-marked early evening for todays workout. I felt ultra-motivated after missing out yesterday, and I'm gunning for my second workout in around 3 hours time! As for the exercises themselves, all went well, the
kung-fu sits are a killer! But I managed to go to failure (ie: two at the end of the last
set!). The elevated tricep dips are also tough, but I manged an extra eight at the end of the sixth set.

Amazingly, today the 27th of November 2010 IN IRELAND! There was SNOW! Its a great thing to awaken to on a saturday morning, a sheet of snowcovering the lawn. Although an inch of snow is not a lot (especially for Nicole in Canada) but for Ireland, its pretty great. On top that, a very impressive lightening storm started at around six this morning and persisted for around three hours. So, skipping was in the snow and was very entertaining to say the least!

I'll be back later on with blog post two for day 74, and all the workout two info, see you then!

Day 72 feeling a little better

Home from school for the second day running doesn't bode well for PCP exercises OR my exams. I didn't anticipate any workout today, but I picked myself up and did a make-shift session. I knew I would have no chance of finishing a full workout, so I looked at yesterdays exercise (which I missed) and todays. I combined the two with fewer sets to work my whole body, but no extremes. I did 3 sets by 8 reps of pistol squat per leg, 30 elevated press ups, 3 by 15 rep shoulder raises, same for thumbs up curl, some one arm curls and 90 sit -ups, 28 chest dips and 40 V-sits for the abs. Aswell of course as 6 min by 3 set jumprope. So it was pretty intense and I felt relieved after missing out yesterday. Although I still feel fairly rough, but I'm on the road to recovery (I hope!)

Anyway, not a fun week ahead, exams ALL next week and a hard week of PCPing ahead. However being sick over the last couple of days has given me a boost to really kick on and push myself harder than ever of the next two and a half weeks. I had an interesting piece of news yesterday, my brother was speaking to a friend of ours (now head boy in my school) about the project. He is fitness conscious and a member of the senior rugby team, he said he'd like to get his "beach-body" going for his summer vacation in 2011 after his final school exams in june. So, the first person to express a real, genuine interest and actual express a desire to do the PCP. It was a nice piece of encouragement, and it actually made me feel proud of my achievement so far, to know that others close to me are attracted by the project.

A funny story tofinish up today with, a dad of one of my brothers friend (who shall remain nameless) was finished a workout in his personal gym (well, if you can afford it...) proceeded to eat an entire packet of biscuits! Upon questioning from my brother, he said "well I deserve it, I had a workout". Thats sums up a lot of peoples attitude, if I workout, I can eat whatever I want. Well, all I can say is, good luck!

Anywho, I hope everyone health-wise is in better form than I am, and as PCP

Day 71 crap

Thats what today has been. I have something that resembles a cold, but it feels so much more dibilitating. I felt it pretty bad last night, however I managed the 5mins by three sets with the rope. Today on the other hand was a different story. No school, no workout which is fair enough. Even if I had tried to do it, I really don't think I'd have stood a chance. My mum was having none of my attempts to persuade her to allow me do my jumps and since she has just begun to recover from a virus herself, I don't blame her.

So I certainly haven't started week 11 well at all, and it remains to be seen how I get on tomorrow, I still feel pretty rough. So I took Patrick's advice to eat half my carb allocation for the day.

Anyway, I got some well needed study done at home and I feel marginally better, see you tomorrow.