Let The Countdown Begin!

Good morning Gym Rats and Happy Friday! It’s a beautiful day here in Portland; although I’m a little put-off as I realized this morning that the first official day of Summer is only one month away and Spring has barely arrived. I recall that this time last year Mugsy and I were going on nightly outdoor runs and coming home to cranked-up A/C! Oh well, running isn’t part of my routine these days anyway. Although I’m sure Mugsy would appreciate the additional cardio, as I drove along the Back Cove path yesterday and lunchtime and saw all the suffering, sweating, cramping runners chugging along I certainly did not wish to switch places!

Week #2 of my new workout plan is almost complete and it’s been just as satisfying as it was last week, causing a serious burn after every workout! It’s officially been 1 month “off plan” and this weekend I will begin my new diet in preparation for the next potential competition 8 weeks out. Time sure does fly! Someone jokingly asked me yesterday; “so can you relax now?” and I was like “uhhh I’ve been relaxing for the past month so you missed out buddy!” hahaha I’m excited to get back to a more structured schedule and see how much (if any) progress I can make toward my glute and shoulder-building goals. I feel like I’ve put on some muscle over the past month but only shredding back up will show the real results!  

Tonight I plan to only do 30 minutes on the stair-stepper and call it good. Friday is supposed to be my core training day and Sunday my cardio-only day but I have found that Friday, being the last day of the work week and the 5^th scheduled day in a row of weight training, is my most physically exhausted day of the week and therefore the best day to skip the weights. Plus, my weekend morning workouts are always the best so I’ll probably get in a better core burn on Sunday than I would today.

I wish I had some exciting fitness news to share with you all but honestly things have been rather low-key (borderline boring) this week. I did get my schedule for the next round of maXtreme photo shoots though (starting in June) so it looks like my weekends are quickly filling up this Summer. Even if I wasn’t planning to compete again this year, knowing I have the shoots coming up is motivation enough to follow a rigid nutrition and workout plan! This weekend is supposed to revert back to chilly temperatures so I plan to re-paint two of my upstairs rooms. I’m honestly not all that excited about it but once you get going it’s not so bad and it’s both time-consuming and a decent arm workout. Well, I guess that’s all for today’s entry. Keep up the good work this weekend Gym Rats and don’t forget to follow me both @PortlandGymRat and @FitFierceFun !