Throughout my Beast training, I’ve repeatedly said that strength days are my favorite.  I don’t dislike cardio routines (at least some of them), but there’s nothing like a good day of push-ups & pull-ups.  And I absolutely LOVE my Saturday workouts.  It’s usually the only day in which I’m wide awake, have had time to pre-fuel my body, and don’t have the time constraint of getting ready for work or church.  Having been on the road for most of the last 2 weeks and running a huge sleep deficit, I took full advantage of my Saturday morning.  I wasn’t 100% out of bed until 9:30.  I was up 2 times earlier, but exhaustion and a cute, sleepy little 6 year old girl kept driving me back.  I only had 3 items on my agenda today: workout, mow the yard, and movie night with my girls, so I really wasn’t too concerned about it.  After a long, slow, drawn out breakfast of egg whites and protein waffles, I piddled around for 30 minutes before finally beginning my workout at 11:30 a.m. 

P90X  shoulders and arms was on the docket.  I love it!  1 hour of alternating shoulder, bicep, & tricep exercises.  Strength days are also core days, so another 15 minutes of crunches, twists, oblique work, hanging crunches, etc.  That would normally be the end, but this is BEAST training!!!  I had to take a 3 minute break to play Angry Bird with my daughter…her idea, not mine.  Then it was 50 Jeffees (a set of 30 and a set of 20) and a very brief water break. 

 I have a great piece of property for hill runs because I have a wooded hillside behind me house.  However, due to all my travel and the fact that I can’t find the wrench that will allow me to rethread my weedeater, the hillside was overgrown with weeds.  Part of the workout for today was to take the push mower and clear off the hill.  I won’t dwell on it, but it was hottt!  Too hot to be lugging a mower up and down a very steep hill with bugs and grass and dirt sticking all over me.  It was harder than you might think to mow down a hillside.  Simultaneously keeping traction and control of the mower was a mini-workout in itself.  Once I made it to the bottom of the hill I went ahead and mowed the path that the deer use when they cross my property.  Getting the mower back up the hill was significantly more difficult than taking it down.  I started pushing it, but quickly realized that was nearly impossible.  After a couple of minutes of slipping, sliding, and struggling I was at the top and dripping with sweat.  When I walked into the house to get a drink my wife asked me if I had run through the sprinkler…and she was asking that in jest.  I drank some water and stood in front of the fan for a minute before going back outside and grabbing my gnarly log.  I carried it down to the bottom of the hill and then sprinted (at first and then the sprint turned into a slow jog) back up the 400 to 500 feet.  I put the log down and was d-o-n-e, DONE!  Right at 2 hours.