Days 63 thru 60…. another weekend, another 20 hours on the house!

After my “day off” for donating blood, which I wrote about in my last segment, I’ve had a super busy few days.  Friday mornings typical (ok, anything but typical) routine of p90x started the day off, and after work that night I began the long weekend of house projects.  Although no official “workout” took place this weekend, I am sure I expended more energy in two days than in a week’s worth of p90x workouts.  10+ hours of manual labor in a day will do that, I promise.  Our great friends, the Henleys, joined us on Saturday, and Aaron helped me hang 6 new doors inside the house.  (couldn’t have done it with you, Aaron!)  Thanks to the generous gift cards for my 30th birthday, we were able to buy the doors, hinges, and cool hinge cutting tool.  (Thanks Matt, Kathleen & Jonas, Dennis & Kyla!)

I also painted and hung our guest and baby room closet doors, seriously cleaned and organized the shed and garage (again).  Our city garbage is amazing, as I watched them take a TON of junk from our house this morning.  Yep, Monday morning rambling going on now… time to get to work.

Tonight is the weekly hoops action, so that will be my workout today.  Peace out.

-B

Day 65… and the Big Red Bus.

Day 65, really?  Am I almost one third done with this thing?  I feel like I haven’t even started.  Probably because of all the missed days?  Oh well, on to forward progress, as usual.  Day 65 was a run day… (enter into my brain 80′s songs about Funday and U2′s Sunday, bloody Sunday)… what is wrong with me?  Anyways, what would have been Day 64 turned out to be a day off of sorts.  I donated blood today on the Big Red Bus outside my office.  This was my first time on the Bus, but I doubt my last.  The people working the Bus are super friendly, fun, and seem to love what they do.  And they give you free cookies and ice cream.  How do you beat that?  Oh, yeah, by giving you free golf and Improv tickets.  That’s how.  And another thing, by telling me I can’t workout today.  Thanks, Lisa Banks.  You’re the best!  (at least as far as know based on this first round)

-B

Days 67 & 66… Bob Vila meets Bob Cousy?

Haha!  So, I just made myself laugh with the title of this little post.  I’m hardly either of those Bobs, as pertains to their professions.  But, my next two days of hard workouts can be related to each specifically, so what the heck.  This past Saturday I spent the day Bob Vila-ing it up, with several house projects and working from 8:00am until almost 9:00pm that night.  So, while I didn’t get an official “workout” in, I’m considering it a day in the books.  Here’s a list of things I worked on:

• Dismantled this nice lady’s kitchen, procuring her cabinets for our use at 57 Willow
• Built a closet organizer on my side of the master closets (amazing space saver and neatly organized now)
• Cleaned out the garage
• Worked on organizing my shed

And by now you’re eagerly anticipating the Bob Cousy part of this post.  Admit it.  Wait, I’m forgetting who my readership consists of.  Do you know who Bob Cousy even is?  He’s an old-school professional basketball player (read about him here).  Yesterday, I made many attempts to play like Bob Cousy, getting my Monday basketball fix playing with the usual crew of friends and the group of younger, faster, more athletic teenagers that are usually at the courts.  I will add here that these youngsters typically bicker, fight, swear when playing a game by themselves (and they speak Creole, so many time we have no idea what they’re fighting about!).  But, throw in some 30 year-old married, Christian dudes in the mix and they tend to mellow a bit.  (probably because they run faster, jump higher, and shoot better than us)

Tonight, I’ll be for a run, as I’m a bit too sore to face Tony.

-B

Days 69 & 68… hitting my stride?

So, two more days in the books with two more workouts.  A run one night, followed the next morning (today) by P90X Core Synergistics.  This is one crazy workout, combining a bunch of core exercises from the other DVDs.  Pectorals, abs, hips/pelvis, and upper quads/hamstrings all got a workout this morning.  I didn’t make it through all 50 minutes, because at about the 40 minute mark Jonas announced his waking presence in the house.    So, I skipped the last 10 to make him some breakfast!

-B

Days 71 & 70… long birthday weekend takes its toll.

So, you have probably guessed it.  My 30th birthday weekend put a damper on my workout schedule.  Yes, I know, you’re saying to yourself, “Another one???”.  Yep.  I admit it.  Again.  But, let’s look forward.  I’m working on my 30th birthday blog, to share with you all the details of the fun weekend Dawn put together for celebrating.  In the mean time, I resumed my workout schedule yesterday with a 2 mile run at 9:30pm.  This morning, I successfully woke up and worked out with Tony and his friends, doing the Cardio X workout.  It’s amazing how working out in the morning gives you a boost of energy for the day.  I always feel better throughout the day when I workout first thing in the morning.  And I know this simple little truth, yet it somehow doesn’t always motivate me to wake up and workout.  Weird. 

See you tomorrow, Tony.

-B

Day 72… Everyone was Kung-fu fighting!

Another successful attempt at waking up with Tony and his friends.  Yes!  Perhaps this morning routine will stick afterall.  For today’s workout, I got to enjoy all the punching, kicking and karate chopping I could handle with P90X’s Kenpo X.  This workout uses a combination of karate and other martial art moves to focus on cardio and flexibility, which, are both sorely lacking with this 3-days-from-being-30 dude.  Tomorrow will be a big test of my discipline, as it will be my first Saturday morning workout of this adventure.  Hopefully I can report a positive result come Monday.  Wishing you a good weekend!

-B

Day 73… Good morning, Tony!

Ah, it finally happened.  I finally answered the call of the alarm clock this morning, and joined Tony and his friends for a nice workout.  I’m hoping this becomes my regular schedule for several reasons.  First of all, it is the best time schedule-wise for us as a family.  Dawn needs a bit more sleep (usually, and now more than normal because of the baby), and so I have extra time alone in the house, either later in the evening or early in the morning.  The morning workouts will allow me time with my wife in the evenings!  Bonus!

Anyways, today’s workout was P90X Plyometrics, followed by Ab Ripper X.  I’m not going to lie to you, dear readers.  This was BRUTAL.  I was already sore after the warmup, which I partially attribute to it being the first morning workout.  Hopefully my body adjusts to that soon.

Until the alarm goes off tomorrow,

-B

And we’re back… Day 74, here I come.

After several days of QT with my younger brother, who isn’t quite as young anymore, I’m back to hit the ground running.  So, for the first day back, I’m going to go for a run tonight.  Yippee.  See, I’m excited.  Can’t you tell?  Actually, it’s true, I’m ready to get into better shape and ready to get moving on this workout thing. Bring it, Tony.

-B

Day 75… P90X Cardio

After Day 76′s calf incident, I wasn’t sure how this workout would go.  Thankfully, my calf muscle wasn’t feeling too bad, so I was able to get in some cardio work with Tony and his friends.  They seem a strange bunch though, in case you were wondering.

My younger brother, Keith, flies into town tomorrow night (Wednesday) for a few days of fun.  I’m not sure how the progress on my workouts will go, considering I rarely get to see the dude.  If I miss any, I will be tacking the days onto the total, so while I may miss a couple of workouts, I’ll still get to 90 days.  I hope you understand, dear Reader. 

-B

10 things I love about Tequesta!

Rarely do great ideas pop into my head as I’m working out.  Usually I’m thinking about things I’d rather be doing, or I’m simply wallowing in the terribleness of the workout.  Yep, workouts tend to create negativity inside my mind, mostly because I hate it (but I love it).  Anyways, Monday night was quite the exception.  While I was running through our quiet, little neighborhood, my thoughts went to all the many reason why I love where we live.  Dawn and I bought our house in October, and have spent the months between then and now remodeling and refinishing our little slice of the “American Dream”.  Granted, it’s 9 months later and we’re still not done with the renovations, I still can’t help but celebrate the things about our new place.  So, here’s my top 10 things (in no particular order) I love about our town:

1. The small town feel – there’s a festival for every holiday, waving neighbors, etc.

2. The family feel – free kids movie nights, great park w/ playground, lots of families around, etc.

3. The safety factor – I can run at 10pm without feeling the least bit vulnerable, street lights abound, neighbors watch out for each other, etc.

4. The neighbor factor - we have great neighbors, period.  They’ve lent us tools, watched Jonas for us, and even mowed our lawn (Thanks, Riley!).

5. The location - we’re 5 minutes from church (big reason we bought here), 2 minutes from Publix, a walk from Constitution Park, on a quiet street, and close to some of our best friends (although, unfortunately further away from others)

6. Our street number, 57 – hey, it was my favorite condiment growing up (Heinz 57 sauce), so I kind of like this little coincidence (and yes, now I’m reaching for 10 things)

7. the Landscape factor – this has more to do with our old neighborhood, by comparison.  More folks take care of their yards (except our south neighbors, of course) and the city does a great job of landscaping the public portions of Tequesta

8. Our Waste collector services – These guys take ANYTHING!  As you can imagine, we’ve had plenty of stuff to get rid of, and these guys pick it up with no problems.  A misbehaving dryer, old screen doors, Jonas’ broken pool, etc. all find their way off of our property on garbage day.

9. Car Insurance! – for obvious reasons.  The drop in our bill was significant enough to make this list.  And since we’re still paying PB county property taxes, this is all the more helpful.

10. Our First Home – hey, it’s our first home owned and therefore has a significant place in our hearts.