Day 77 - Feeling Better

I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I sat down with a bag of chips and watched Footy Classified, and then got to bed about 10. We had the windows open and the fan on level 2, but it was still bloody hot. Next thing I know, Junko's waking me up and it's 7:10, and I usually leave for work at 7:20. Wow. I haven't slept that long for ages. So I decided to ride my motorbike to work, which I do every now and then, and had a quick breakfast, a quick wrestle with Will, and I headed to work.
I really have to do more riding. I've done about 2 and a half thousand k's since I bought my bike, but they are all just around the hills near my house, on a Sunday afternoon or something. I haven't actually gone for a ride with a goal in mind, or a destination. It's a good looking bike, a Honda CB400SS, and it goes okay, but I can see the appeal of having more power. I think I'll go for a couple of big rides during the Summer holidays. Maybe to a hot spring or something. Hey Stevie, do you remember when you, me, and Kouki went to the hot spring, and we saw that guy with all the tattoos? Can I just say how rare and amazing that is, to see a guy like that, so obviously Yakuza? I wish we had talked to him a little, see if he was a good guy or something. I was also thinking of climbing Mount Fuji sometime in the Summer, but it sounds like it kind of sucks. Eight hours of walking up a steep hill with a bunch of other people. I'll do it with Will when he's a little older. I hope I don't get altitude sickness.
I haven't come close to coming off my bike yet (touch wood). The closest I have come was when I was out in the hills and rice paddies and I was going round a bend and there was this old Yoda woman crossing the road pulling a cart. I wasn't going fast so there was no chance of me hitting her, but I am amazed that she has lived so long doing that. I told my mother-in-law about it and she said the people who live in those areas consider the roads to be theirs and don't really pay much attention to traffic. We are talking beautiful black tarmac roads with clear white lines and an 80 km speed limit, not crumbly country lanes. Old people here are amazing. I think after years of worrying what other people think of them and never being sure that they are doing things properly, there comes a time in every Japanese person's life, especially the men, when they think, "Ah, fuck it," and they just start doing whatever they want. You can do anything here, and no one will stop you. It must be quite a revelation when that realization comes. The old guys start walking around in their underwear, yelling at convenience store shop assistants, spitting, pissing, whatever. It is kind of inspirational. There's an old guy who lives a couple of doors down who's taken to tossing his rubbish on the roof of the house over the road. He is not happy about something they did last year, something to do with parking or something. I asked Junko why the guy who lives in this house the old guy is throwing rubbish on (we know him, his daughter goes to Kinder with Will) doesn't just beat the crap out of this old man, and she says it's because the old man is crazy. That explains why he's throwing the rubbish, but not why our friend shouldn't beat the crap out of him, in my opinion. I give the old guy the evil eye every time I see him, a look which says "I know your game, buddy. You've got everyone running scared. But fuck with me, and I will retaliate." I think he understands.

Day 76

I got up early again this morning and did Kenpo Cardio Plus followed by Ab Ripper X. I'm not a big fan of this workout. It's very fast, and my form gets sloppy and I just want it to be over. I do it because it's quick - 40 minutes. With Ab Ripper X on the end of it, that makes it about an hour. Ab Ripper X was fine. I was actually looking forward to it this morning because it meant that Kenpo was done. While I was doing Pfiffer scissors, I remembered that when I started I could barely do ten of them. Now I could do about 30 or 40 if I really had to, though I always only do the required 25. The improvements are really pleasing. It doesn't feel any easier though, it's just that I can do more.
Anyway, the Kenpo this morning was pretty bad. The intensity was really down, and I was probably wasting my time. I sweated buckets, drank about 700 ml while I was doing it, and I just had no energy. I need a good night's sleep tonight, and a good X stretch tomorrow and then I need to grow a pair for the last week of intense workouts. Then I have one more week of recovery and then that will be it. Done. It's hard to believe that I started this blog nearly six months ago, when I had no idea what P90X had in store for me. And then to think that I started P90 last September! I can't wait to get the before and after shots side my side. Nearly a year of workouts! I must have done a couple of hundred workouts down in that garage since then. It's weird, because I kind of owe my life to a company and a trainer in America who has no idea who I am. I certainly owe a way of life to them that means I will live longer and better. I said in my first blog that I was waking up at nights thinking that I was going to get lung cancer. That doesn't happen anymore. I still might get it, but I can only do what I can do now to prevent that from happening. I don't really beat myself up about smoking because I was like a fish on a hook. One wrong decision when I was young and it took 15 years to get off them. A lot of people don't, and a lot of people die from them. That's what they are designed to do - hook young people and keep them hooked for life until it kills them. I'm sure the tobacco companies wished their product didn't kill them, but it does. That's why they have to get more young people hooked. I thought it was tough, or grown-up, for a while, then that didn't matter. Then I knew they sucked and I hated them, but that didn't matter either. My mother asked me to stop smoking the last time I saw her alive, and I was smoking at her funeral. What a disgusting drug. I'm so glad I have managed to get rid of that dark shadow in my life and be free of them.
But like I said, two weeks to go, and I have run out of petrol. I think what I'll do is buy a pack of chips, sit down and watch Footy Classified, and go to bed.

Day 75

The alarm went off at 5:15 and I got up and did Legs & Back. No questions asked. Strange when you consider the attitude I went to bed with last night, which was "doubtful" that I would get up and do it. But I did, and it's done now. Except for Ab Ripper X, which I will do this evening before my bath. I don't like to do it "cold", but doing Legs & Back is much easier knowing that I don't have to do Ab Ripper X right afterwards. Did a total of 68 pull-ups this morning, all with proper form. I did 210 push-ups during Chest & Back last week, a big improvement from the weeks before, so the numbers are increasing. Everything's up about 5-10%. It's good to see the progress, because I feel like it's all getting a little silly now. It's just too damn hot to be doing this, though with only a week to go of Phase three then a week of Recovery, I can't stop now.
So back at work now. How do you know it's Monday morning? Stinking hot, a crowded sardine train, a politician at the station with a loudspeaker at headache-inducing volume, a chorei about the benefits of bananas, which was interrupted by an announcement from the Personnel section telling us to wear a seatbelt when we drive. It's funny the way Japan can just intrude into my life when I'm not really thinking about it. I've got no work to do though, which is nice.

Day 74

I'm really doing it tough now. Only a couple of weeks to go. Some of the workouts this week have been great, the best since I started. Numbers are up, and I'm looking and feeling strong. But I'm also talking myself out of others, too. Plyo on Friday sucked big time. I know it's going to be a sweatfest, and I dread it. I forgot to put my sneakers out in the sun afterwards to dry them out because they were squelchy from sweat, and they're still wet (Sunday night). So I just couldn't get up for it, and then after twenty minutes I had a chest pain, like a one-pulse stab, which kind of knocked me back. God knows what is was. But exercising in this humidity is taking it's toll. I took a little break then eased back into it, and actually the last twenty minutes I kicked ass. I haven't felt it again, so it was probably just a blip. Yesterday was Arms & Shoulders, which I crushed, and today was Yoga, another sweatfest. I really did not want to do it, but I did. But tomorrow is the big one. Legs & Back. At this stage, 11:00 on a Sunday night, I don't think I'll be getting up in the morning to do it. But if I don't, I'll have to do it after work or not at all. And in the current mindset I'm in, missing a workout with only two weeks to go would just about be the end of it, I reckon. So this is the big hump I've been expecting for months, to be honest, but never came until now. I'll just have to get up and do it, and bring it!

Day 68

Today was the dreaded Legs & Back. It actually wasn't so bad today. A workman-like effort. No negative thoughts, no wishing it was over, just doing it and getting it done. My knees are giving me no trouble, though my right knee crunches considerably when it's under pressure, but it doesn't hurt. I've got Ab Ripper X tonight. Yoga on Sunday was awesome. I was really looking forward to it. The amount of sweat I generated made my Yoga mat all squishy and slippery. It's gross, and really hard to concentrate on downward dog when my hands are slipping all the time. Yoga is so hard. I bought a recovery drink that has a little bit of creatine in it. That should help a little with the results, and I'm not eating any junk. I had a donut over the weekend and that was it. Now I can have the recovery drink after my workout, and save the protein shake, which I love, for TV watching in the evening. There's a new workout that's coming out by the same company that made P90X. It's called Insanity. I downloaded the preview disk and it is insanity. It's only forty minutes long, but you really have to wonder where all this is going. This is real masochistic stuff. There are a lot of angry-looking women with six pack abs grunting in this video. "They have to come up with a new word for 'insanity,'" says one guy. "This is too crazy." What is more crazy that insanity? Psychopathic?
I don't know if I should try it. I probably will.
I just started watching Breaking Bad because Stevie said it was good. I like it. I gave up on Battlestar Galactica. Half way through the third season and I just can't be bothered any more. Half way through the third season of Babylon 5 and I was getting goose-bumps and giggling it was that good. Still the best, in my opinion. BTW it is amazing how similar On The Couch, Footy Classified, and One Week at a Time are. And I have to say, Footy Classified is my favourite. I didn't like it last year. I thought it was too confrontational, too in-house. I think this year the difference is Grant Thomas. You can see why he's unemployable, but he's a funny bugger.
Well, we won't be going to Okinawa. Plane's full. That's one thing about living in a country with 120 million people. Any idea you have, you can bet that ten thousand other people have had exactly the same idea, and most of them had it a day before you did. Even if you felt like going and sucking farts out of a dead donkey's ass, you can guarantee there'd be a queue. It gives me the shits. Going out for lunch on a Sunday turns into a wait-fest, and of course if I object in the slightest to having to wait 30 minutes to eat eel or octopus brains or whatever, I am a child. I guess in America they have the room to accommodate everyone. Here, everything is the same size as Australia, except there are six times as many people. I am never alone. It's weird. There is always someone around. I walk out of my house at 6 in the morning or get home from somewhere at midnight and there will be an old guy shuffling along or someone on their bike. It was strange when I went home last year and stayed at mum's while she was in hospital. I would walk the dog for half an hour and not see a soul. The streets were deserted like a virus had hit and everyone was dead. A car would drive by every now and then but that was it. But I have to say I kind of miss being around people when I am not here.
Wow. Just watched the first half of the Saints Geelong match during lunch. So that's what footy looks like. I especially like it when the player takes a mark and does what the commentators have dubbed a 'play-on,' meaning he doesn't just stand there and wait until there are no options. And the players are remarkably self-disciplined. I haven't seen anyone punch an opposition player in the head yet. Mind you, it's still early. The good ones usually wait until a critical moment with three minutes to go in the final quarter, don't they. I haven't bothered watching the Swans game yet. I wasn't really planning to anyway, and then dad sent me a text on Sunday afternoon saying "Bad luck. If we had kicked straight..." WTF dad! He sent me another mail immediately afterwards, but I haven't opened it. I know it contains the result to the Saints Geelong match. I don't know how many times I've told him not to call or text me before I see the game (which is usually by Tuesday) but if he's anything he is excitable, my dad. That reminds me, last week I was downloading Swans Adelaide and some noob wrote in the comments "Me and me mate are 5 for 5 in the tipping!" I typed back "I hope you and your mate are geniuses and tipped the Swans to beat Adelaide in Adelaide, you asshole." This upset him. "You don't know me. You don't know who I tipped" etc. Have I told you just how hard it is to see a game without knowing the result before I see it? Probably.
We had a fun weekend. But on Saturday Will was constipated all day. He's got a thing about doing pooz. I guess it's just a stage. He doesn't like going to the toilet, and we get upset when he pooz in his pants, so he's out of options. He just holds it in until he feels crook and then it hurts when it comes out and *sigh* just do a shit in the toilet and let's get on with our lives! It started in the morning when we went to Mister Donuts. We get to the train station and it's "Daddy, I'm sleepy." It's ten in the morning. I know this is code for "I need to do pooz." So he's sooky all day, and by the evening he cannot function as a human being. So we put him in the bath, and then dry him off and put a nappy on him, and out it comes. "It's like elephant pooz, daddy," he said which made me laugh. It was a fair size. We clean him up, and bang! He's like a new man, playing and singing and dancing. I think even Joseph, who can't really form thoughts yet, thought, "What a freak." So we are all exhausted after about twelve hours of his wining and moaning, and he wants to play play dough and jump on the bed and have a banana shake and all sorts of things.
He's nearly four and he still has to wear nappies. He doesn't wear them to bed anymore, and we haven't wet the bed yet (touch wood) but he won't do pooz in the toilet. I heard that children are wearing nappies later and later in life because the nappies nowadays are so good that the baby doesn't mind wearing them and changing nappies is much easier for the parents than soaking shit-ridden pants. When nappies were just cotton towels, everybody thought they sucked and the baby was out of them at 18 months. That's amazing. And now, when I go to a chemist or supermarket here, I'm amazed at the amount of adult nappies that are for sale. One reason for that, of course, is that the average age here is 87, but another is because they are so comfortable. When do you decide that you need to start wearing nappies again?
I tell you, the gap is narrowing.
P.S. I just had a look at the mail dad sent me. The one I had already read. It actually says, "Bad luck Dave. kick straight and it would have been different." I think Dave is David, his brother, who barracks for North. I didn't read it carefully yesterday because I turned it off as soon as I realised what it was. I hate North. They just seem illegitimate, like they don't belong. '96 was bullshit, too. So there you go. We win. I might watch it now. So a careless mistake by dad, but I won't tell him because he'll feel really bad. It just occurred to me that the next message he sent was probably to me to say sorry. Should I check? Should I take that chance? I've still got two and a half quarters of the most anticipated home and away match to go. Ok. I love my dad, and I'll trust him. A son has to trust his dad. Here we go.
"Sorry jim. sent a u a txt by mistake meant to send it to david-my brother."
There you go. I feel really good now.

Second Week of Phase 3

I did Back & Biceps today, followed by Ab Ripper X. Every day I am pushing myself harder than I did the day before, and even though I'm wrecked I feel really good about doing this. You would think these workouts get easier as you go along, but they don't. The end is in sight, and I'm really looking forward to taking a break. I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do when I finish P90X, because the thought of being slack and undoing all of the hard work I've done, especially in the last three months, is really scary. But I can't keep this up. Well, I can, but not in Summer. It's only starting to get hot now, and I can feel the effect of the humidity on my exercises. It's strength-sapping. I think I'll do some kind of maintenance workouts until it cools down, and then get stuck into it again in Autumn.
We are thinking of going to Okinawa for a few days at the end of August. Junko has a friend who used to go there all the time with her husband until they had three boys, so she has giving a lot of advice about where to go. I don't like going to a place and only having a photo and the word of someone with a vested interest to guide me. I'm thinking that Okinawa is a place that could really suck (and by that I mean it could be like here except with a few thousand American Marines walking around) or it could be beautiful and like here except everyone is a little more relaxed.
It's a shame to hear about Jim Stynes. Cancer is just the shittiest thing around, isn't it?
Anyway, got to go and play with Will.

TGIW

This week has gone so quickly. Recovery week went so slowly and I was really looking looking forward to this week and now it is done already. Recovery week just seemed like one whole week of doing downward dog. And then bang! I did Kenpo Cardio + last night and now the week is done. I did Kenpo Cardio + last night instead of Kenpo X because it's shorter. It's much more intense, though not as much of a workout as Kenpo X. It seems a little rushed, and it's so easy to lose form. I've only got four weeks to go, so I'm not going to make a habit of this. It's just that last night I didn't get started till late and it was really humid and I didn't want to do an hour workout so I did a 45 minute one. Today I've got X Stretch which I really need, and then tomorrow it begins again with Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, then Ab Ripper X. Holy shit. I must BRING IT!
Just got word yesterday that the 3 day working week will continue until at least the end of August. Awesome. September too, I hope. It's just so nice only working 3 days a week. I think 4 days work a week is perfect - I don't really have enough to do at home to fill up four days - but I no complain. There is a new saying in the translating department; "Thank God it's Wednesday."
Thanks for reading.

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