I do my cardio in the mornings and lift weights in the late afternoons. I have found this to be a very effective pattern. I usually do both the lifting and cardio four days a week, Su, M, W, Th. But I take an "extra" day off about once a month to aid recovery. I prefer to walk for my cardio as it is a safe yet effective method of cardio. It also gives me an "excuse" to get outside for a little while and enjoy the benefits of sunshine and the other beauties of God's creation. But I was also hit a heavy bag in my home gym for variety once or twice a week, depending on the weather. Mixing things up like this helps prevent overtraining and boredom and enables different muscle groups to be worked in each cardio workout.

I walk near my home, sometimes going to the right and sometimes to the left. The latter path is more hilly, so those walks are yellowed. I had been walking more often to the right, since I prefer that path as it has less traffic and shade. But at the end of September I began walking more to the left to even them up. My goal distance for each path is determined by how far I can walk without having to cross a highway, which should take about 30 minutes at my current pace. After that, I will gradually increase my pace. If I walk elsewhere, those walks will be indicated in the Comments.

The duration and distance of the walking is measured using the exercise timer and pedometer on my Samsung Galaxy S5 smart phone. I was using the pedometer's conversion to miles, but it did not seem very accurate, and in mid-November Samsung updated the S Health ap. Along with duration, it now records distance (in miles), so I switched to the miles reading in it and began calculating my average mph. The first and last couple of minutes are being done at a slow pace for a warm-up and cool-down, respectively. This of course lowers the average mph for the entire walk, so my "cruising" speed is a little higher than the indicted mph.

I use the S5 when I am wearing pants or cut offs with a pocket to put it in. If I am wearing a sweat suit, I use an old-fashioned watch and a clip-on pedometer. The step count on the pedometer differs slightly from the S5, so they are indicated by an asterisk. The conversion to miles is way off on the pedometer, so I'm not bothering to indicate it. I should get a new pedometer.

20 minutes was going to be my my goal time on the heavy bag. After that, I was going to just gradually increase the intensity. But I can only hit the bag so hard and fast, so after a few weeks of doing 20 minutes, I started to gradually increase the time up to 24 minutes. That will give me a full 20 minutes of hitting the bag at a high intensity, as the first and last couple of minutes are being done at a low intensity for a warm-up and cool-down, respectively. But I will stop at 24 minutes, as more than that would be too much and might affect my bench press training. There's no way to indicate my intensity on the heavy bag, so only the time is given.

But at the end of November I felt overtrained and took a week off of lifting and cardio. When I started up again, I cut back on both and will gradually increase back up. That is what I will do now on; back-off on both lifting and cardio at the end of each of my lifting routines, about every 12 weeks, and then gradually increase back up.