Wednesday, September 1: After a week of being sick I was anxious for a big cardio session tonight and with the DMZ half marathon fast approaching I decided on a long and slow evening jog. I left home around 8:40 p.m. and headed towards campus and twenty minutes later while jogging on campus I had to stop because of a pain in my right calf. Doh! I hope I haven’t seriously hurt it! I walked home and it felt OK walking on it. Then when I got home I was hungry for more cardio so I hopped on my exercise bike for 10 kilometers at just under 15 minutes:
Thursday, September 2: Thankfully my calf felt much better today so it’s definitely not the serious strain I had feared. It still felt a little stiff, but when I tried walking on the treadmill at the gym it felt almost as good as new. I took it easy though reducing the speed while increasing the incline to ensure I still got a decent cardio workout from the 3 kilometers I walked. The steeper incline also gave my thighs more to do which felt good. It was also my first back workout in while and it was a workout I sorely needed. I exercised my traps, lats (lightly) upper back, lower back, biceps, thighs, hamstrings, and sides:
Friday, September 3: A super fast 20 kilometers on my exercise bike today left me absolutely drenched in sweat and my heart racing:
Sunday, September 5: I arrived at the gym at 3:10 thinking it was staying open until 7, but was shocked to learn it closes at 4! I didn’t have much time so I raced through a chest, shoulders, and triceps workout – my first in a while – and then jumped on the treadmill for a solid and sweaty 3 kilometers.
Tuesday, September 7: Here then is my 200th post-cardio workout photo! Twenty kilometers on my exercise bike watching the starship Enterprise (Next Generation) do their usual space things:
Wednesday, September 8: Four kilometers on the treadmill up a steeper incline than usual:
Saturday and Sunday, September 11 & 12: A fair bit of walking around in Incheon and Seoul catching up with Davids Neale and Vasella. I was supposed to run in the DMZ half marathon on Sunday, but my right calf muscle still doesn’t feel 100% and it needs to be 100% to attempt a half marathon!
Monday, September 13: An hour in the gym today for a 30-minute 3-kilometer cardio session on the treadmill (my calf felt fine), and then a back, traps, biceps, and lower back workout. It’s been a while since I’ve exercised those muscles and it felt great to be back in the swing of things:
Tuesday, September 14: A rare evening gym session tonight from 8:55 p.m. until 9:25 p.m. A nice short sharp good old-fashioned chest, shoulders, and triceps workout.
Wednesday, September 15: Four kilometers on the treadmill and thankfully my calf muscle felt fine:
Thursday, September 16: A 25-minute legs and lower abs workout in the afternoon. I don’t work my legs enough (I’ve always hated doing squats), but today I worked them pretty hard.
Saturday, September 18: Thirty minutes in the gym this morning focusing on traps, lats, upper back, lower back, biceps and forearms.
Sunday, September 19: Back in the pool for the first time in almost a month. It felt wonderful being in the water with my SwiMP3 again. Listening to my favorite music underwater makes all the difference! I swam 26 laps of the 50 meter pool behind HomePlus in Yongsan. Then I went to my gym for a 30-minute intense chest, shoulders, and triceps workout:
Monday, September 20: Three kilometers on the treadmill followed by a mammoth legs session. Walking will be difficult tomorrow…
Thursday, September 23: I walked about 8 kilometers outside from home to Igok station and then around downtown a while doing some shopping.
Friday, September 24: Back in the gym for 3 kilometers on the treadmill and a solid weights session: back, traps, biceps, forearms, lower back, thighs, hamstrings, calves, sides and abs. Getting tired just typing what I did…
Saturday, Sept 25: Just under an hour in the gym earlier today: 3 kilometers on the treadmill and a solid chest, shoulders, and triceps workout.
Sunday, Sept 26: A 1.5 kilometer swim in the morning followed by a downtown shopping spree that netted a new motorbike helmet and a tub of protein:
Tuesday, September 28: I did well to make it to the gym after a long day today and an even longer day yesterday (13 hours). At the gym I worked my back, traps. lats (my injured lat muscle is almost back to normal), biceps, a light leg workout (I’m saving my legs for a possible 2-3 hour slow jog tomorrow evening.. maybe), sides, lower abs, lower back and 3 very steep kilometers on the treadmill:
Wednesday, September 29: Something completely different tonight: 26 slow laps (10.4 km) of Keimyung University’s athletic track – with the festival going on a few hundred meters away! It was my first time jogging since injuring my right calf a few weeks back. Phew, it felt fine. The first 25 laps were at a slow pace and I sped up for the final lap to test my calf further. It’s all systems go for next week’s Hi Seoul half marathon!
That ends this month’s fitness campaign. I’ll be very busy the next couple of months, but hope I can continue exercising as regularly. Only time and my site – which is a year old this week – will tell…
