Joel Hainley » 30-Day-Challenge

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Recap

joelhainley — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:24:50 +0000

Well it’s over. I missed a few days here and there, but I was able to do more days than I didn’t so that works out.

My goals for this challenge were pretty modest, try to exercise every day, lose some weight, lose some inches and generally just get a higher level of exercise integrated into my everyday life. So I exercised most days of the challenge and I lost about 10lbs. I also lost a couple of inches off the waist and I look forward to getting a workout in when I get up in the morning. So all around I’d say it was a success.

The one thing that was pretty difficult was trying to get through this challenge during the holidays, my holiday schedule tends to be pretty fluid so I had a tough time getting away from my committments for a workout. However, all in all I think it worked out well and it certainly set a good precedent for exercise and nutrition in 2009.

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 28

joelhainley — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:48:46 +0000

Slowly closing in on the final days of this challenge. I have to laugh because when I started this I dreaded the weight training days. Now I look forward to them. I’m not sure what it is about weights that I find so fun, but for the most part I really have a good time when I’m working out with them.

Weight training day:

crunches (25×4)
bench press (15×3)
dumbbell rows (15×3)
military press (15×3)
curls (15×3, 10×1)
leglifts (10×2, 15×2)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 27

joelhainley — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:26:09 +0000

Just a simple bike workout today. The ab workout yesterday had me sore today, so apparently I found some new muscles. Looking forward to seeing how the ab workout tomorrow will go.

Cardio day:

Bike ride – (30m23s/428kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 26

joelhainley — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:24:43 +0000

For most of this challenge I have been doing my leg lifts just lying on the ground and lifting my legs up from the ground and then up to vertical and then back down to just above the ground. Until today. Today I started going my leg lifts while hanging off of my pullup bar, and became drastically more difficult. I was only able to pump out 10 at a time, and they definitely used different muscles than the other method, or they used previously used muscles in a new way. So at the end of today I’m in a bit of pain due to the new leg lifts even though they are drastically reduced number of repetitions from the previous method.

Weight Training Day:

leg lifts (10 x 4) – ouch..
crunches (25 x 4)
bench press – (15×3)
curls – (15×3)
military press (15×3)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Days 21-25

joelhainley — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:40:58 +0000

Boy oh boy the holidays played havoc on my challenge. I didn’t do anything of any consequence the 21st through the 24th. Yesterday after Christmas dinner I went for a short walk but it was pretty cold and I forgot my hat, so I turned back after a mile for a total of two miles.

Hopefully I can finish up the month with consistent exercise. Here’s to hoping!

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Days 19 & 20

joelhainley — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:06:43 +0000

I missed my exercise on Friday. No explaining it away. It just didn’t happen. Saturday was the day I had scheduled to take off this week so I’ve had two days in a row off. I’ll be back at it again on Sunday. I now feel lousy on the days I don’t exercise so the point of the challenge, “Making exercise a habit” is being realized.

I had a talk with my cousin last night and she seems to think we should run a marathon next December. She has been running on her lunchtimes at the office with a bunch of coworkers and she’s running about 5 miles a day. So she has a bit of a headstart on me. We’ll see how the next few months of my training go before I commit to something that ambitious though.

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 18

joelhainley — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:27:50 +0000

Well I’m over halfway throug this challenge, actually I’m 3/5 of the way through, and it’s all going along quite well at this point. I’m slowly starting to add a few things to my weight training days to give it some variety now that all of the really painful soreness that I get when I begin to workout is gone. Hopefully all of this effort has a useful impact on my mountain biking next year. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Weight training day:

curls – (15×3)
military press – (15×3)
bench press- (15×3)
dumbbell rows – (15×3)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 17

joelhainley — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:07:00 +0000

Cardio day:

3-mile run (38m43s/693kcal)
crunches (25×4)
leglifts (25×4)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 16

joelhainley — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:29:46 +0000

The rest that I took last weekend seems to have paid off. I had a great workout last night, and think I finally have a handle on how to get the pullups up to snuff.

Weight training :

Curls – (15×3)
Hammer curls – (12×2)
Military Press- (15×3)
Dumbbell rows – (15×3)
Bench Press – (15×3)
Pullups- (5×1) With some assistance from my legs on a stool, it’s not my full weight yet, but it’s getting closer!

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 15

joelhainley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:33:14 +0000

It was nice to get out for a walk today. I ended up working most of Saturday and all of Sunday (9am to 1:30am). So I took the dog but the hill for a brisk four mile walk in the rain. It only rained for about 20 minutes and then the sun came out. Good walk for sure.

Later I went for a bike ride on the fixed-gear which has no odomotor or heart-rate monitor or cadence monitor or anything else. It was a great workout though because everywhere I had to go had hills in the way.

Tomorrow’s schedule..back to the weights, I can’t wait.

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Days 13 & 14

joelhainley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:29:11 +0000

Sunday was supposed to be a scheduled day off. Unfortunately, I took Saturday off too. I think I should have taken last Sunday off instead of going for the 5 mile hike. My body was protesting loudly by Saturday morning when it was time for my run. So I opted to give it two days of rest in a row to let some of the pain go away and try to get my wind back.

In the future, I think it’s probably useful to remember that a scheduled day off is as important to your training as the days that you are actively doing something. And to quote Lawrence Block, “Our reach exceeds our grasp” so I need to temper my ambitions with a healthy does of reality.

Looking forward to getting back into it on Monday though.

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 11

joelhainley — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:14:37 +0000

Today I got up late and go busy with work and some other things so I wasn’t able to get out for a run. So I opted to just do my cardio on the bicycle in the evening. I worked up a good sweat but it wasn’t as intense as last week’s workouts on the bike. Not sure what’s going on, it’s possible that I’m a little burned out. I’m looking forward to taking sunday off and heading out to sf for SHDH.

Cardio Day:

Bicycle Ride – (30m2s/360kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 10

joelhainley — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Here we are 33.333333…….% of the way through this thing and I’m still managing to keep after it. Who woulda thunk eh? Anyways not a lot to report. I opted to take a day or two off from my ab workout, but have been continuing with the rest of the workout as scheduled.

Weight training day:

bench press – (15×3)
dumbbell row – (15×3)
military press – (15×3)
curls – (15×3)
pullups – (.25 x 5)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 9

joelhainley — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:48:44 +0000

It was cold in Clayton today where i did my run. I didn’t have a course marked out for 3 miles. So I just ran with the gps in and around clayton until I had my 3 miles done. There are a few walking paths within clayton that head from downtown out towards Mt. Diablo State Park. I thought about running in the park but I’m gonna take the dog for a walk up that way in a couple of hours and figured I’d run somewhere that I wasn’t intending to return to in 3 hours.

Cardio Day:

crunches – (25×4)
leglifts – (25×4)
3-mile run (36m58s/581kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 8

joelhainley — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:09:53 +0000

Weight training day :

crunches – (25×5)
leglifts – (25×4)
bench press – (15×3)
military press – (15×3)
curls – (15×3)
dumbbell rows – (15×3)
pullups – still trying to get that first one, but i’m getting closer…how embarrassing.

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 7

joelhainley — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:04:39 +0000

Today is the one day a week when my schedule calls for a day off. You’re supposed to give your body time to recover from the abuse you bestow upon it. At least that’s what all the “experts” tell me as they grab another box of milk duds out of the freezer. So in an effort to prove the “dud heads” wrong I decided that Sunday’s should be activity days. Either a long bike ride, or a hike, or something.

I wanted to get out for a hike today so I headed off to Briones Regional Park and started to go on my regular route. Much to my surprise there were maps in the map box. ( Nowhere, except at Morgan Territory Regional Park, do I ever see maps in the map box ). So with some inspiration from the newly acquired map I found a new trail to hike. It ended up being a bit more work than I was expecting it to be and it could probably be considered a workout. However, it was just nice to get outdoors for a few hours and see some new trails.

Activity Day:

4.9 mile hike (1417ft total ascent) – (2h34m5s/935kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 6

joelhainley — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:58:21 +0000

This morning was a rough morning. I just could not get myself out of bed and my day started. I did my core workout and then looked out the window to see very thick fog outside. I really didn’t wanna go run in the fog, but that’s what the schedule calls for. I laced up the shoes and got running and it was damned cold at first. After running about a mile and a half I was finally warm and starting to enjoy the run. It always seems to happen that way, the beginnings of a workout sometimes seem like work and by the end I’m happy that i’m doing it.

Cardio Day :

crunches : (20×4)
leg-lifts : (20×4)
3-mile run (37m36s/598kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 5

joelhainley — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:22:30 +0000

My inability to do pull-ups has been well documented over the last few days. I try to do my pull-ups from a “hanging with straightened arms” position but it hasn’t been a success yet. Today I tried it again and failed. In the wake of another defeat I decided to do them backwards. I got myself into the “up” position and then slowly lowered myself then pushed myself back to the “up” position and slowly lowered myself again. My hope is that this will help me build the strength I need to go the other direction, time will tell.

Weight Training Day

crunches – (30×4)
leglifts – (20×4)
bench press – (15×3)
miliary press – (15×3)
curls – (15×3)
pull-ups (.25 x 1)
Bicycle Ride (30m2s/359kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 4

joelhainley — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:18:42 +0000

I’m still getting used to exercising with a heart rate monitor(HRM) but I think it was a good purchase because I find myself drifting off during the running and the bicycling after a while and the HRM starts beeping at me when I’m not pushing myself enough. The downside of using an HRM is that instead of it getting easier the more you exercise you simply keep pushing yourselt harder to keep yourself within your target range.

Cardio Day

crunches : (25 x 4)
leglifts : (20×4)
3-mile run : (35m27s/588kcal)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 3

joelhainley — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:14:47 +0000

Pretty easy getting going this morning. I’m not too sore so this morning I bumped up the reps on the leg lifts and bumped up the weight on the bench and military presses. Tomorrow is another 3 mile run, kinda looking forward to it for some strange reason.

Weight Training Day

crunches – (25 x 4)
leglifts – (20×4)
bench press – (15 x 3)
military press – (15×3)
curls – (15×3)
pull-up – (.25 x 1) : Still haven’t done a complete pull-up
Bicycle Ride (37m56s/600kcal) :

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 2

joelhainley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:06:50 +0000

The house was cold this morning, always difficult to get the day started when the house is cold. I felt like a slug when I got up, and definitely didn’t feel much like going running. It doesn’t bode well for the success of this 30 day challenge if I’m already starting to whine on the second day. I spent some time explaining things to myself and finally convinced me that it was indeed ok to go exercise and that there was a nice warm cup of coffee at the end of it.

So finally I got up and did my body-core (trunk, whatever ) workout which right now consists of just crunches and leglifts, but which I intend to expand into some other activities once I’ve acclimated to this new schedule. Put on my running shoes and grabbed the dogs leash and headed out with the dog for a glorious run in the fog, with running shorts and a t-shirt on.

Cardio Day

crunches – 25 x 4
leg lifts – 15 x 4
3-mile run (38m50s/593kcals)
Bicycle Ride (30m30s/459kcals)

30-Day Exercise Challenge – Day 1

joelhainley — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:26:23 +0000

30-Day challenges are a bunch of fun, you learn a lot about yourself, get a chance to work on your self-discipline and it gives you something to write about on your blog. Which is useful because I don’t update this enough. Anyways, in the spirit of some of the other challenges I’ve read over the years. Such as the “quit watching tv for 30 days” challenge ( i never did that one ), “eating on $1 a day” challenge and several others.

So the plan is simple. 30 days of exercise beginning on December 01 and going through the end of the year. This isn’t a huge challenge for me from enjoying/doing the exercise. It’s more a matter of forcing myself to take the time to do the exercise. In that regard I tend to sometimes find work more interesting than getting out there and exercising. So I’ll try to write up some stuff each day about what’s going on with this challenge maybe it’ll be inspirational for others, or something.

Weight Training Day

Crunches ( 25 x 4 )
Leg lifts ( 15 x 4 )
Bench Press ( 15 x 3 )
Curls ( 15 x 2, 12 x 1 )
Military Press ( 15 x 3 )
Pull-ups ( .25 x 1 ) – Apparently I can’t do a pull-up
35 minutes on the bicycle at a recovery pace