R2 Day 14 - Rest

No workout today. Busy at work, busy when I got home, then a lesson with Nori, but I got home feeling a little empty and hopeless. Nothing achieved.

R2 Day 13 - Kenpo X, ARX

Kenpo X flew by again. I was really able to maintain the intensity the whole way through. ARX just flat out hurt. It destroyed me.
My equipment is starting to feel the pain. My yoga mat is slowly disintegrating. I've been using it just about every day and now when I use is I get covered with little bits of rubber. Time to turf it, I think. I think this is what is causing the skin on the sole of my big toe to split every time I do Yoga or stretching. Which sucks. My set up is pretty good, with my fan, TV, dumbbells, pull up bar, crappy CD player that I bought years ago, but it's still kind of all over the place. I would like to fix the space up a little. It definitely needs a clean. My pull up bar is starting to suck, too. I'm going to have to spend some yen to fix it up, which I might do on the weekend. There are two problems with it. Basically it's like a towel rack, but the bar turns inside the brackets. It's a pretty snug fit though. I can't get a layer of tape in through the brackets. It gets all wrapped and and ripped at the edges of them. So I want to somehow stop the bar from turning. Maybe I night try hammering some wooden wedges in between the bar and the brackets just to jam it in place. That might work. Second problem is a little easier. The tape I used for grip is just normal insulation tape and it sucks. If I can get the bar to stop turning, I'll definitely get some tennis racquet handle tape or something like that. But with the bar turning, I can't use any energy in a lateral direction, if you know what I mean. Everything has to be straight up or down, or the bar turns. It might be helping my form, I don't know.

R2 Day 12 - Legs & Back

It's funny but I'm not finding this workout as daunting as I did last time. Maybe because I'm taking a few breaks here and there. Chair pose is an absolute killer. It's funny how a move that involves not moving can make you out of breath. I did 68 pull ups tonight. I forgot to bring my schedule home from work, but I'm sure it's more than I did last week, and probably near where I finished last round. The first set of pull ups gave me that bloody ache in the back of my neck again, but it was fine after that. I have to learn how to relax my neck when I'm doing them, though it gets really hard to do during the last few pull ups. My right ankle is aching, and the skin on my right toe has split, but these are small things. Other than that, feeling fine. No sweaty left side last night either.

R2 Day 11 - Yoga, ARX

Yoga today was much better than last week. Real strong. Faded away at the end a little, but next week should be even better. Ab Ripper X hurt, as usual. My headache or strained muscle in my head or whatever it is is good today, no problems. Another weird thing is happening though. I will wake up in the middle of the night, and my left collar will be wet with sweat. This has happened every night for the last week. I'm guessing that I'm sleeping on my left side, and the new blanket that I bought a couple of weeks ago is too thick and I sweat. Tonight I'll be sure to be on my right side when I fall asleep and see what happens. Really odd. Also Junko says I'm talking to myself in my sleep, which I do sometimes. I have to take care not to run myself down. 8 hours sleep a night and all that.
I am a little annoyed at myself, actually. I have been doing a little studying, very little, but looking at one of my textbooks this afternoon, and seeing the amount of shit that I don't know and need to memorize, I don't think I will pass the level 2 test. I probably could if I devoted every single spare waking moment to it, but I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do that. So what I've decided to do is to make a realistic study schedule with the aim of passing the test in July. I will still take the test in December, but I am not expecting to pass. I will be studying, but not enough to assure a pass. I'd say the chances are 50/50. I'll get in in July, and I'll get an experience of what the test is like (the last time I took it was in '02 or something) in December. And hey, if I do happen to pass, I'll forget July and spend a year of consistent, planned study and get my level 1 in December '10. I should have done all this months ago, but hey. Nothing will change the fact that I have better things to do than study. Or that I can think of better things to do than study. I just have to do it.

R2 Day 10 - Shoulders & Arms

I like this workout. It's fast, hard, and the results are right there. Bang! Arm pump! Halfway through and it feels like my arms are pumped up with blood and the skin is being stretched. I suppose that's what's happening. Recently I've been getting a weird feeling in the back of my neck and behind my right eye when I'm straining. I'm probably pulling a muscle deep down in my neck. I do feel a little out of line in the upper back/neck area, so maybe another trip to the chiropractor's is in order. Get my back cracked.
I took Will to a park today. There was a festival there, and lots to see and do. I'll put some photos up later in the week. Spiderman was on TV tonight, so he went and got the Spiderman costume I bought him and looked at it. Didn't put it on, though. I think he was just trying to get his head around it.

R2 Day 9 - Plyo, ARX

I did ARX in the morning and then followed it up with Plyo a half hour later. Big day. Plyo is such a grind. I can't wait until I'm back in the shape I was two months ago when I could just power through this and other workouts. I'm over the initial soreness now, but I'm feeling pretty tired and I'm getting crabbier as the days go on. I'm hoping for a solid eight hours tonight. The diet is suffering a little becuase of this too, I think. Whenever I get a little run down I start to get a bit lazy with my eating. The main meals are fine; porridge, salad sandwiches, slop on rice, but in between is where the problems are. It doesn't help when Nori, the guy I 'teach' English to every week, brings me a cake he bought from the best bakery in the best department store in Nagoya, Takashimaya. Best cake I've ever had. Never been much of a cake guy, but this was the shit. Anyway, after Plyo I went to the bathhouse and got cleaned up and had a good soak in a hot bath. Felt awesome.

R2 Day 8 - Chest & Back

This one made me feel sick again. Pushups and pullups, pushups and pullups. Numbers where a little higher than last week. The second round is so tough. At least I managed to do 7 diamond pushups yesterday when last week I couldn't do any!