One Day Hiking Next Day Kettlebells

Yesterday afternoon my spouse, my youngest son and I drove up to Devil's Fork State Park on the shores of Lake Jocassee. We took a short 2.5 mile hike along the Bear Cove Trail. While it was a short hike there were a lot of hills to climb and descend. I think one of the climbs was at least a quarter mile long. But about half way through the 2.5 mile loop we had a great view of the lake.

We took our stuff to swim but we got started late in the day. After we got back to our starting point we ate a very late lunch. Once we were done no one was jazzed to swim so we just headed back to Greenville.

Today I slept in again. I've slept in every day of this long weekend. BTW, I was happy with my weight yesterday it had dropped all the way down to 249.4 pounds. This morning I was all the way back up to 253.0 pounds. It's got to be fluctuations in fluid retention. I've just got to keep putting in the work.

Warm up walk 0.59 miles in 11:00 for an average of 3.2 mph.

Warm up calisthenic circuits 5 reps per exercise,  (per side or direction if a unilateral type exercise) 12:17 minutes.

• Prying Goblet Squat w/ 25# kettlebell
• Lying Hip Extension
• Halo  w/ 15# kettlebell
• Flying Dog

The Practice

• Kettlebell Swings 5x10x35# Two Handed
• Kettlebell Swings 5x11,12,13,14,15x35# Two Handed
• Kettlebell Swings 5x15x35# Two Handed
• Turkish Get Ups 10x1x25# (per side)

Did Tracy Reifkind's full Workout #2. I felt good doing those sets every minute on the minute (EMOM). The fifteen reps were just enough. A good challenge but not too much. I'm going to stick with this for at least two more sessions before moving back up to Workout #3. I'll ladder up to the full 20 reps just as I did with the 15 reps the past couple of weeks.

Only took about a 1.5 minute rest after finishing the swings before starting the Turkish Get Ups. I was determined to shave a little time off of these. Still took me 20 minutes but I did manage to shave a bit off. Last time my total kettlebell times was 36:38, today was 36:07 so I did move a little more quickly through the get ups. I don't feel like I'm resting excessively but it sure would be nice to get the time for them down to 15 minutes. IIRC, Simple and Sinister calls for 10x10 swings followed by 10x1 (per side) get ups in 30 minutes with a 1 minute break between swings and get ups.

Thanks to Tim Ferriss Triple H and HalfSizeMe Heather

Sunday we went on a long, long (for me) hike in the mountains. It was fun but it took a lot out of me and made me very sore in the feet and calves, and to a lesser extent in my low back and hip flexors. This hike was in lieu of my scheduled kettlebell training. I was too sore for kettlebells on Monday but did do some exercise.

I'm on call this week and wouldn't you know it, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning I was paged and up for 2 or 3 hours. I slept in after that, but not enough. I went into the office in the afternoon and worked later than normal. When I got home around 1900 hours I changed into my workout clothes and stretched out on my bed for a few minutes listening to an inspirational weight loss oriented podcast, Half Size Me, by Heather Robertson. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes listening to it.

I woke up feeling somewhat more refreshed but kinda' not wanting to train. I rewound the episode of Half Size Me to the point where I fell asleep and started listening again. I also thought about an interview with Triple H, of WWE fame, by Tim Ferriss in which Triple H talked about how he never missed a day of training even when traveling and currently trains at 2200 hours after a full day's work as an executive for WWE. I decided to at least go for a walk and before I knew it I was feeling even better and got down to my kettlebell training.

Warm Up Walk 0.60 miles in 14:05 for average speed of 2.5 mph.

FMS Corrective Exercises and Calisthenic Circuits 30:13 minutes.

• Prying Goblet Squat w/ 25# kettlebell
• Lying Hip Extension
• Halo (each direction) w/ 15# kettlebell
• Flying Dog (5 reps per side)

The Practice

• Kettlebell Swings 5x10x35# Two Handed
• Kettlebell Swings 5x11, 12, 13, 14, 15x35# Two Handed
• Kettlebell Swings 5x16, 17, 18, 19, 19x35# Two Handed
• Kettlebell Swings 5x19x35# Two Handed
• Turkish Get Ups 7x1x25# (per side)

So, my kettlebell training took 48:37 minutes. That's 10 minutes longer than last time. I did 299 reps of swings with the same weight as opposed to 292, and one more set of get ups. All as planned. However, I think I took a much longer break between swings and get ups, on the order of 4 or 5 minutes versus 2.5. I think I'll chalk that up to residual tiredness from the on call work and the long weekend hike.

Overall it was a good training session. I focused more on getting the hip hinge better and could absolutely feel more of a good ache in my hamstrings and glutes when I finished. The higher volume or reps, still every minute on the minute, combined with the additional 5 minutes required for the 4th group of 5 sets really had my heart racing, lungs pumping and sweat pouring.

I occasionally got a little wobbly on the turkish get ups. I think that was due to the accumulated fatigue and the fact that I'm really trying to focus on proper hand, arm and shoulder position on the hand/arm holding the kettlebell. Getting better every time! Also, I ended the day w/ 9246 steps.

Raven Cliff Falls Hike

We decided to go on a family hike last week and picked Sunday, yesterday. We drove up to Caesar's Head to hike to Raven Cliff Falls. There are a couple of ways to go. We did the shorter route about 10 years ago when my youngest son was a toddler and I carried him a good portion of the hike in one of those baby carrier backpacks.

Anyway this time decided to go the longer route. The wife and I let the kids (22, 16 and 12) go on ahead at their pace and we went at ours. We just asked them to wait for us at the first forking of the trail so we could really decide which way to go, short or long. They waited, not too long, and we decided to go long.

Well, I thought they were going to wait for us again at the next fork, but they didn't. My wife and I ended up going on the fork the kids had not taken and descended a good ways into the valley to the Suspension Bridge over the falls. It was quite a climb back out for us as we have not been doing any hiking. We eventually got back to together at the fork where we had chosen different paths and then headed back to the car.

Round trip was over 8 miles, nearly 9, and it took us about 4.5 hours. By the way, every site I visit has different mileage numbers for the hike! That 4.5 hours was with stopping to take pictures, stopping for a snack and just looking at the beautiful scenery and wildlife.

I walked 26,987 steps or 10.01 miles yesterday! Walking trails, up and down the sides of mountains, is a lot different than walking in the neighborhood. But I should add that without the walking I've been doing and the kettlebell training I would not have been able to hike 8 or 9 miles! I also wear Vibram Five Fingers almost all of the time including yesterday when I wore my Speed XCs. The muscles in my feet and calves were ACHING today. But it was well worth it.