It's another Friday! I love another session of filling up the vitamin dispenser. That said, however, this morning's workout was all out of rhythm. It started late and once I was working the incline treadmill for a bit, my other foot began aching—not the one that I've been carefully bringing along in these workouts. I got on the bike, tried the treadmill, but had to go back to the bike. I couldn't the intensity I wanted. In the last 20 minutes, even on the bike, I couldn't prevent the ache, so I stopped things early. It was still 70 or 80 minutes of cardio, but I just wanted more out of it. I may have to reevaluate my program to account for its accumulative effects. I miss being twentysomething and could just roll out one workout after another.

...but I don't know if it's an age thing or its the fat that I'm in the process of shredding.

I'm dealing with the counterpunch of the poison ivy I wrangled with on Sunday.—arms, legs, ankles. It's been 13 years since I've been hit so hard (and that was from an ultimate frisbee game out in Shelby Forest in a grooms party. This time was just a jump into the bushes in my front yard with a weed wacker.

This morning was another good round of cardio. I slogged out of bed this morning, so I chose to warmup on the bike for 5 minutes before I hopped atop the incline treadmill. Somewhere around the halfway mark as I felt a little ache in my foot, I came off the treadmill and cranked up the bike to match the same intensity for 10 minutes. After that, I finished the movie on the treadmill. As the credits rolled, I still had 8 minutes or so before 6am, so churned hard on the bike to the end.

In reference to my last post, I'm still considering how I should fire things up for weeks 2-6. I wouldn't be opposed to waking up a half-hour earlier to 3:30AM to start cardio earlier, though it would eat into my 8-hour allotment for sleep. I'd also like to add opportunities for cardio during the day and into the evening. Since my intermittent fasting shuts eating down by 2:30pm, workouts are a great meal replacement.

But for now, one of my larger challenges is further developing my legs conditioning, The biggest factor that shuts me down—or at just redirects me, is "something's amiss" aches. I'm hoping those will subside as my bodyweight continues to plummet.

I feel like I'm having some real success in approaching my workouts this way. While I do enjoy having resistance training in my regimen, there is far too many rest stops with that sort of thing, and again, the research gives a nod to cardio for fat loss. There will come a time for it, and I look forward to it. I'm already visualizing my time on a power tower. I hope to build a rockin' bodyweight program.

In the meantime, I gotta tear down this effigy that took years to build of a guy who drove through Nacho Nights.

Today's cardio was the middle-of-the-road for me. Unlike yesterday's dunk into sweat workout, today was more of a mild drench. As my legs are still recovering from the nonstop incline treadmill from yesterday, today, I would do 30 minutes treadmill, jump on the bike for 10, repeat. I need to make a movie queue; I'm running into the same problem I had in the First Expedition with a delayed start due to setup.

As far as the film goes, Mission: Impossible came out as I was graduating high school. It was fun to see the old tech. I loved Prague, of course, and the movie included my favorite city in the world, London...well, I love Memphis for the richness of memories—but I watched Mission: Impossible, not The Firm.

I've been seeing this first week of the Second Expedition like the first week of the First Expedition. You see, during my very first week, I chose not to introduce any workouts and wait for the 2nd week. In that way, I could foster motivation during my nutrition change. I feared that if I did too much in the beginning, the whole process might implode.

I've been considering that with this second six weeks. Oh, not foregoing working out—that's nonsense, I'm already in rhythm. Rather, it's the spirit of it. I would like to add more cardio into my day, though I don't even know what it'll look like.

Still, even in this first week, my workouts have been more intense overall than the ones from the First Expedition—at least afterward I'm more exhausted.

June 25th, I'm coming.