RedPill's Guerilla Cardio journal

[RedPill]

I didn't want to have to do this. Really didn't. I'm so busy with work these days that it's gonna be hard to stick to the plan. But that's exactly why I'm starting this journal - to hold myself accountable. Hopefully some others might consider joining it.

My plan is to start doing guerilla cardio as many mornings as possible. It won't be every day, but as many as possible. I have three reasons for this:

1. Getting myself well-conditioned anaerobically. There are many benefits to this.
2. Losing excess body fat.
3. Waking the fvck up first thing in the morning without tons of coffee.

This past week, I found a local high school track that will be perfect for running. When I went to it Thursday morning for the first time, the only people there were these two runners from Africa. Those guys were in seriously good shape! It was a little embarassing doing a couple segmented windsprints around the track and looking like I was gonna puke while they were running up and down the stadium bleachers while barely being winded.

Monday I plan to do my first post of results in this journal. It's not going to be pretty, I can assure you. The backup plan, if it rains, or the track is off-limits, is to try to do anaerobic work on an eliptical machine I have in my basement.

If anything else this will be a good learning experience, and I'll be able to let you guys know how using guerilla cardio works out for me.

RedPill

 

[RedPill]

From Monday:

Went to the track at 7:30. It was completely empty. The kids at the high school were all going to class, and looked miserable to be going still in June. I coudn't help but notice how skanky some of the girls dress now compared to when I was in high school. Last week I ran "trial runs" of guerilla cardio in different environments before deciding that the track offered me the most convenient environment to do guerilla cardio. I also realized last week how woefully out of shape I was anaerobically. From my first sprints at the track I figured out distances and pacing to be able to do it without the stopwatch, which was more of a hinderance than anything else.

The run:

I did squats and SL deadlifts at the gym on Sunday so my legs were already feeling punished. After warming up by jogging two laps, I sprinted for six 20-second segments, with 10 seconds of rest between. The sprints ended up taking me around the track for 2 full laps. The 5th and 6th segments my legs felt like lead. There was some major lung burn going! It took a good 5 min of walking around aimlessly before I could catch my breath enough to drive home safely. The feeling of sickness was not as strong as last week, but it was there. I was still out of breath when I got home, but it was at least under control.

It should be noted that my bodyfat is around 15% according to alvatore's guide in another thread. I'll keep you guys posted on how quickly my bodyfat level seems to be going down. You guys outta try this, if for any other reason, for the getting in shape aspect. Already, since last week, even though I'm not nearly where I want to be in terms of the segments and intensity that I do, I can already tell there's been a marked increase in my physical condition. I feel more alive, alert, and seem to be needing less sleep.

All questions/feedback is appreciated.

 

[raidou]

i tried g.cardio and felt like i would die on the spot when i finished. Much harder than i originally thought, anyway. Taking the stopwatch on my first session became a hinderance just like u said lol. I've only done two sessions so i havent noticed any changes yet.

 

[RedPill]

Tuesday:

No GC. It's not gonna happen everyday. I own a business. Had an 8 am meeting across town. More likely I'm going to alternate between days of cardio and days of lifting, as the two-a-days are too huge of a time commitment. Lifted last night.

Wednesday:

It was raining this morning, and I had nothing scheduled for the late afternoon, so I did my cardio then. There was this yuppie couple at the track with their little kids, playing as if it was a park. The husband and wife were both on cell phones, and they lost track of where the kids were. I wanted to yell at them to get the hell off my training grounds! Of course it is a public facility, so just had to deal with it. Actually, it was a blessing in disguise. To avoid the kids on the track, I decided to run on the turf (the football field in the middle). It's a new stadium, and the turf is the nice astroturf used in dome stadiums now, with the rubber pellets in it.

I'm starting to think now that doing GC exactly as its described isn't necessarily what's important. It's HIIT, but the difference is it insists that you use sprinting as your activity. What I did this afternoon was go goal post to goal post as my intervals - 120 yards. Two hours before I had drank a 1500 calorie shake, and that, combined with already having spent a lot of energy at work, led to a non-optimal performance. I ran 5 intervals, before the puke feeling hit. After the first two, these were longer than 20 second intervals, so I'm not disappointed that I only did 5. Would've gone past the point of puking if that family wasn't there. Still, it was a great workout. One thing I'm noticing is that each time I recover faster. I'm going to keep doing the turf intervals.

 

[Stud]

how's this going redpill?

 

[RedPill]

I've continued doing the cardio, althought not nearly as regularly as I've wanted. It's going in streaks. My business has kept me really busy the last couple weeks, which makes it difficult to keep this journal updated. I haven't lost much bodyfat, but that has to do more with unclean eating than the cardio. Without the GC, I know I would have gained quite a bit of fat. The largest benefit though, without a doubt, is that my performance in the gym lifting has improved significantly. The exertion headaches and puke feeling I used to get doing heavy squats and deads are gone now.

For the record I'm 5'9" 164 lbs. With bodyfat staying constant at around 15-17% that's up from 130 lbs when I started lifting in April of 2005. Just like anything else this is a numbers game. And speaking of, no cardio again today closing on a deal in an hour followed by meetings all afternoon. Maybe I'll make it up to the track if I don't get home too late. Hey if I'm not getting lean at least I'm making money! I expect though that soon I'll be back to doing GC more regularly (daily again) and when I do, I'll try to update this thread at least once or twice a week.

 

[RedPill]

I doubt anyone's really reading this, but here's an update, probably the last one.

I'm abandoning guerilla cardio, for the foreseeable future. I've enjoyed this experiment, but it's more a matter of time efficiency. I'm getting so busy with my work, that I don't have the luxury right now of waking up, getting in the car, going to the track, parking, walking out onto the field, etc. I've got a high quality eliptical trainer right here in my basement that's a 15 second walk from my bed, and when it's done, it's another 15 second walk to the shower. I plan to do interval training on it as my morning cardio.

Time management decision, simple as that.

Although this didn't last long, and reading my first post in this thread I kind of knew this would happen, the positive thing here is that it got me in the habit of getting up early and getting my metabolism fired up. This has been my best month this year in terms of gaining lean mass.