Post Christmas Post

The workout I did today was a somewhat convoluted pull up workout I found on youtube.  It was difficult in some parts and easy in others.  The end was deceivingly difficult though.  Jumping reverse grip pull ups for 60 seconds.  Maybe it's because I'm not used to them but the those things just crush you by the end.  I think that's the idea.  A jumping pull up means you start out standing with your hands on the bar and jump up to having your chin over the bar.  This seems like all you are doing is hopping up and down but it absolutely crushes your arms.  I've been doing pulls up quite a bit lately.  I plan to benchmark my dead hang pulls on the first of every month starting on January 1.  I've been doing my pull up workouts with some ankle weights attached.  I'm hoping to break 10 pull ups this go round.  I'd be thrilled with 12. 

I'm not a big fan of Christmas.  I'm not how I got that way.  I know I wasn't always this way but I have been for quite a while.  I'm sure it centers around all the spending and pressure to spend more and more.  It feels like the country's economy would literally collapse if there was no Christmas.  I think I may not be far off from the truth on that.  I think Christmas is probably most enjoyable for really rich people and really poor people.  Maybe not though.  Rich people probably have a hard time buying presents for their loved ones because they probably buy everything they want right away anyway.  Poor people I bet have a better time because the pressure is off of them to go spending tons of money since though don't have any to spend.  So all they have is to spend time with each other.  That doesn't sound too bad.

I took the entire Christmas week off.  The highlight for me was taking Derek to hike up to the Hollywood sign.  It isn't a very long hike.  Maybe 1.5 miles, but it is an incline the entire way.  We went in the morning.  The crowds hadn't gotten there yet and the weather was perfect.  Unfortunately, I think Derek aggravated his knee injury.  I hope he gets better soon.

Quiche Day

400's
4 sets of
400 meter run
50 airsquats

Time= 12:31

This workout was rather disappointing because I felt like I had for sure set a new PR on this one.  I ran the first 400 about 10 seconds faster than I've ever done it.  I was bouncing off the bottom of my airsquats the entire way through.  Yet, I still missed my PR time by 30 seconds.  I can use the excuse of last week being pretty rough with working so many hours and being sick, but I really felt good today.  In the end, it was a good workout so I'll live to fight another day.

This morning I decided to experiment with making a breakfast quiche.  I did some research on it last night and discovered that a quiche is basically a miniature cheese pie.  I didn't have any premade biscuit dough so I had to make it myself from bisquick.  I usually don't make them that way because they often come out so flat.  Well, this time I actually wanted them to be flat because they were more of a crust than a biscuit.  So I made myself a really thin biscuit crust and put a bunch of 4 inch circles into a muffin tin.  Next I fried up some breakfast sausage and mixed it with some raw eggs and a lot of cheese.  Then I poured that into then crust forms and baked at 400 for 10 minutes.  Usually when I experiment like that it doesn't go over well with the little ones.  Derek will pretty much eat anything so he liked it.  However, I was able to get a stamp of approval from Sydney so that was awesome.  Dylan was in another one of his typical morning moods so I'm not sure if his rejection counts.  I think we'll be seeing the breakfast quiches again.  Next time I'll make one without cheese so Michelle can have one.

These were the pretty ones.

The not so pretty ones.  I may have used a bit too much batter on these ones.

Cheat Day

5 sets

max pull ups
20 hand release pushups
10 tricep pressdowns
40 4 count flutter kicks

Lots of people at work are on some kind of diet.  Yesterday appeared to be a cheat day for the entire company.  That meant we all went down to a place called the Shack and had burgers and beer.  To top off that bad diet day for me I had 3 slices of pizza for dinner.  Since the last few days have been pretty much a bust as far as training goes I decided last night I would have a good hard workout this morning to make up for it.  I was going to do that 10 set pull up monster workout I did 2 weeks ago.  Half way through I was starting to run late and I had to come into work today so I used that as an excuse to cut it in half.  The truth is I had nothing in the tank.  Turns out burgers and pizza may not be the best thing for fitness nutrition.  Who knew!

Magic Salt

2 mile warm up

Like I said, now that I'm on 12's my schedule is all screwed up.  Today I barely had time for the my 2 mile warm up.  The way I'm treating is that I'm shifting my rest days to the middle of the week instead of on the weekend.  You gotta have rest days too.

A long time ago I heard an interview talking about how Himalayan Sea Salt is better for you.  I saw it at Costco so I bought some and have been using it ever since.  A few months back I noticed I was starting to get low so I went to Costco and bought another bottle.  Since then it seems like my original bottle is magical.  It never runs out.  There has been a centimeter of salt left in it for weeks and I use it every single day.

Back in the Trenches

3 sets

25 bicycle crunches
20 ab rollers
30 reverse crunches
max pull ups

Today was a very abbreviated workout due to the fact that I have been told to get to work at 9:00 instead of 9:30.  A seemingly minor change but it throws my whole schedule off.   I would like to note that I did PR in the 400 workout on Monday with a time of 12:06.  That felt really good.

New project, back on 12 hour days already.  No place I'd rather be.

pull up goal

4 sets

max pull ups
20 hand release pushups
10 tricep pressdowns
40 flutter kicks

I'm going to set a goal for myself to be able to do 20 dead hang pull ups by the end of 2014.  I used to hate pull ups but that was when I was doing reverse grip pull ups.  Front grip (real) pull ups are probably twice as hard.  I absolutely stink at these things.  It's a real eye opener since I've been doing sort of a crossfit style routine now for about a year.  I thought I was in pretty good shape.  Then I jump on the bar and am able to do a grand total of 5.  That's not very impressive.  Well, now I don't have any excuses.

I have a few other goals I'd like to hit in the same amount of time.

1.  I want to play video games about half as much.  I don't think it's a terrible hobby.  However, when done in excess it has a habit of screwing up my sleep cycle which is becoming more and more important as I get older.

2.  I want to get a personal creative project completed.  Right now it's looking like it is going to be some kind of children's book.  Something simple, not too ambitious. 

Victory!

10 sets
max pull ups
20 hand release pushups
10 tricep pressdowns
40 4 count flutter kicks

Well I finally did it.  The pull up bar is up and fully operational.  I swear it was like the universe was conspiring to keep this thing from being built.  I must have gone to Home Depot 6 times this weekend for extra drill bits, a level, extra cement, a corded drill, and paint.  One time we went and got what we needed only to discover that I forgot my wallet so we had to go home and come back.  When you see this in person you will immediately notice that it seems like one post is drastically tilted over.  All I can say is that I leveled it when I put it in the ground but that I did it when the sun was going down so I didn't look at it from 10 feet away where it was obvious to see.  That being said, the bar itself is perfectly level to the ground which in the end is all that matters.

I felt like I ate a little too much yesterday so I took it upon myself to do a really difficult workout this morning.  I found this one on military.com.  I felt it appropriate since today is veterans day.  This workout took a full hour to complete when the warm up is included.  That is a lot longer than my typical routines.  This one is designed specifically with improving your total number of pullups.  My max pull ups during this workout were as follows:

5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2

It is possible that I overdid it just a tad with this one.  We'll see tomorrow morning.

Writing on the Wall

4 sets
13 diamond pushups (4 -count)
10 pressdowns at weight of 10
12 hand release pushups
45 second rest between each set

I felt really strong this morning.  I have tryed to get away from workouts that focus on chest or arms or legs in the past.  I think if I went to a real crossfit gym that would happen.  workouts would pretty much hit my entire body every day.  However, I am seeing definite strength gains by having a more focused approach.  I guess if it's working stick with it right. 

I keep saying to myself that I need to get a dry erase board for my garage so I can write things down.  I don't ever seem to remember when I'm at home depot.

My pull up bar almost got put up this weekend.  I had my battery all charged up and ready on Saturday but I found that the drill bit I had was slightly too small.  I found this out after drilling all the way through the 4x6 of course.  So I went back to home depot and got a slightly bigger bit.  Drilled yet another hole and discovered that that one was too small as well.  So I went back yet again and got the proper size bit.  At this point the juice in my battery was near dead and I only had enough power to get maybe half way through one 4x6.  At least now I know I have everything I need.  Well, I'm pretty sure I don't have enough concrete but definitely enough for one hole.  At least I hope so.  This thing is turning out to be a bit more complicated than I thought it would be.  I suppose that is something that comes with inexperience.

Enders Game ended up making about 28 million this weekend.  The consensus around the office is that this is not a great number but not a bad one either.  If it had done over 40 I think it would be cause for some celebration.  I wonder how the higher ups are reading those numbers.  I try not to be too pessimistic about life because I don't think it solves anything to be worrying all the time.  However, I can't ignore the fact that things have obviously slowed down at work.  We used to have jobs booked up 3 or 4 at a time.  An entire year might go by and I would have maybe a week or two of downtime.  Now it seems like I've been on downtime more than working on actual jobs.  I don't think that is true but it sure feels that way.  Now with Ender's now really exploding at the box office as so many of us hoped it would I am left feeling that the company I work for is in decline.  There is no way to sugarcoat or ignore the writing on the wall.  I'm not saying we're going out of business.  Just that things are bad.  They've been bad and they don't appear to be getting better.  I need to start forming a real contingency plan.

Opening Night

Benchmark Workout
3 sets
13 dive bombers
20 burpees
50 air squats

time 10:50

I think that might be a new PR for this workout.  I think this new routine I'm doing is working well.  It doesn't seem quite as difficult in the heart rate department but I am definitely feeling stronger and my workout times reflect that.

Today is the opening day for Ender's Game.  It's safe to say that there are a few hundred people at this company who will be watching those box office numbers closely this weekend.  I have no idea what the repercussions will be if the film does poorly or if it does well.  All I am hoping for is for the company I work for to be financially secure.

This is birthday weekend and Derek wants to go out to play airsoft.  If I'm being honest I have to say that I didn't have the greatest time paintballing last year.  Some of those bruises took weeks to go away.  The field wasn't that great though and airsoft is supposed to be a lot less painful.

This weekend might just be the weekend that I finally put up the pull up bar.  We'll see if I can do it.

Write it Down

3 sets
20 bicycle crunches 4 count
20 ab rollers
10 medicine ball russian twists
30 reverse crunches
50/50/50 calf raises

I was feeling really wore out today so I decided to do an ab day.  Ab days are usually relatively easy.  I did the 400 workout a few days ago and got a time of 12:40.  When I was doing it I noticed that I didn't feel as worn out as I usually do.  That workout is really hard.  For some reason when I was done I was really disappointed because I thought I had done it in a really bad time.  I thought my previous best was around 11:30.  I kept thinking that all day until I went back and checked some of my previous postings where I wrote down my run time for this workout.  Then I remembered that for the longest time I could not break 13 minutes.  Turns out 12:40 is now my new personal best.  This is great because I really felt good after doing it this time.  This is one of those workouts I am almost scared of because it gases me so much.

Speaking of workouts I'm scared of.  I did one yesterday that is probably at the top of that list.  100 dumbbell hang cleans to squat thrusters and every minute doing 5 burpees.  This workout is terrible because if you decide to stop and rest it makes it even harder because the 60 seconds goes by and you haven't done as many clean/thrusters as you could have so you wind up doing even more burpees.  I did it though.  Good times.

Something I've been wanting to do for a long time is to get a big white board in my garage so I can actually write down all my times for different workouts.  That way I'm not guessing if a workout had a good time or not.

Penalties Killing Football

4 sets 40 seconds rest between
15 diamond pushups (4-count)
15 press downs
15 regular pushups (4-count)

This workout was hard in that I couldn't do it the whole way through without pausing (going unbroken).  However, I was left without the familiar feeling of being completely exhausted.  I probably could have just added more sets but I was running out of time.  I think I'm going to do that box jump/lunge workout tomorrow.

I was watching the Denver game briefly yesterday when some player got a penalty for taking his helmet off during a play.  At that point I came to the realization that I'm starting to not like actually watching football games.  I like fantasy football but the games themselves have turned into something different over the years.  There are just too many rules.  If the refs can call a penalty on every single play if they wanted to, I think there is a problem.  This made me appreciate baseball a little more.  Baseball is one sport where the outcome is almost never decided by some ref.  Sure there is balls and strikes, but those are much more clear cut.  A strike has been a strike for the last 100 years and they aren't coming up with new penalties and rules for baseball every single year.

Blisters

3 sets
shoulder workout
10 dumbbell side raises
10 dumbbell front raises
10 dumbbell shoulder presses
10 burpees
no rest

This week I have thrown the normal training I do out the window and am just experimenting with different kinds of workouts.  I haven't done one like this that focuses on the shoulders so I thought I'd do it.  It was somewhat challenging but didn't really hit me as hard as I would like.  I could just add sets, but I think I need to do something that engages more of the body like a pushup style workout.

I finally got my pullup bar project off the ground last weekend.  I don't have the wood yet but I was able to dig 2 3.5 foot holes in the ground.  That ground was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I couldn't use the shovel further than a few inches before I had to start chiseling away at it with a heavy bar.  I couldn't have done it without that heavy pry bar.  I don't even know what it's really called.  I also couldn't have done it without Derek.  He helped a lot.  I wish I had gloves on though.  Got some annoying blisters to show for my effort.

So it looks like this debt ceiling/government shutdown thing is coming to a close.  Every time I read something about how the government is sinking further into debt I feel like I should be buying ammo.

I read an interesting tidbit on some financial blog the other day.  Over time prices in general should go down because deflation is the natural order of things.  We develop new technology and methods to make the production of things cheaper.  Thus prices should go down.  So why doesn't that happen?

Tabata

Yesterday's workout:

Tabata 4 exercises
burpees
roman chair situps
hand release pushups
air squats

Today's workout:
3 sets
20 dive bombers
15 rows
followed by
pulldowns to failure
pressdowns to failure
20 dumbbell shoulder presses with light weight

Dan the crossfit guy told me about Tabata workouts a few weeks ago.  What Tabata is is 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest.  That is one set then you do 8 sets.  This is a sneaky workout because it seems really easy early on, but will make you cry by the time it's over.  He told me that when somebody asks you what your tabata pushup number is it means the set where you did the least amount.  I think I need a second opinion on this one though because when I did the pushups the first time the sets went something like 15, 15, 12, 10, 9, 6, 6, 6.  So my tabata number was 6 for pushups.  However, when I did this yesterday I did it with the intention of increasing that tabata number.  I was easily able to do sets of 9 and at the end of it I wasn't nearly as tired as the first time I did it.  I think the tabata number should just be the total number of reps you did.

The sweet potato thing is working really well.  Think I have a winner there.

Sweet Potato Wednesday

3 sets
30 hand release pushups
15 rows at weight of 12

followed by lat pull downs to failure and press downs to failure

I usually eat a bowl or at least half a bowl of oatmeal in the morning as I'm getting the kid's breakfast and lunches made.  Today, I decided to steam myself a sweat potato instead.  To be honest, I think there was a big difference.  I had tons of energy and I did this workout completely unbroken.  That means I didn't have to pause to rest at any point.  I'm going to try the sweat potato thing again tomorrow with a harder workout.  Unfortunately, I did leave the burner on too long and I burnt the crap out of my sauce pan that I was steaming the potatoes in.  Hopefully it isn't ruined.

I have been wanting some real weather like a good rain storm for a long time.  A man can only handle so much sunshine.  Today I thought I was going to finally get it.  Looks like it only rained for about 15 minutes intermittently.  I don't think you can really even call this a storm.  More like a smattering of moisture.

This year is easily my worst year ever in fantasy football.  CJ Spiller is leading the charge with an average performance at best.  I'm still having fun setting my lineups ever week though. 

Run Day

4 mile run

I have been feeling really run down ever since that tough workout on Sunday.  Today I woke up not even knowing what kind of workout I was going to do.  I did what I normally do and got on the treadmill for my 5 minute walking warmup.  By the end of it I still didn't know what I was going to do.  Everything was sore.  Legs, Back, everything.  So I decided to just run.  Turns out that was a great choice.  By the end of 4 miles all my soreness was gone.  I am really looking forward to getting back after a hard workout tomorrow.

This whole debt ceiling/obamacare standoff business that is going on right now in Washington is frustrating to watch.  I can't speak intelligently on the the debt ceiling or Obamacare so I won't comment on them.  However, from 2500 miles away it sure seems like we need some adults to step into the room and get this resolved. 

I'm going to make a huge assumption and say that most Americans don't want to be bothered by 99% of what goes on in Washington.  They don't want to spend time reading about the details of legislation.  If this were a monarchy or dictatorship we wouldn't have to worry about any of these things because it wouldn't matter.  But we live in a Republic and so we have the option of caring.  I think some people believe our government is made up of people we elect to do what we want.  That is ridiculous.  Go up to the average person on the street and ask them what they want to do with health care or the debt ceiling.  999 times out of 1000 they won't have the first clue about those issues.  Myself included.  No, who elect is people to take care of these issues for us so that we can worry about all the things in our lives like paying the mortgage and staying employed.  We elect those people to learn about these issues of the day, to intelligently craft solutions to those issues and be adults about it.  Instead what it appears we have is a bunch of teenagers jockeying for some nationwide popularity contest.  If we asked most people what they would want if given the choice between a popular leader or a leader that does the right thing.  I think most of use would choose the latter.  Just do what you have to do with a clear conscience.  It should be that simple.

Lung Burn

I actually didn't do much of a workout today.  I did my typical 2 mile warm up, but by the time it was over I didn't have much time left for a real workout.  Yesterday was interesting.  I did a pretty tough workout.  It took about 12 minutes.  When it was over I had a feeling in my lungs like I had just breathed in a lot of really hot air.  Almost like my lungs were sunburned.  Shortly afterward I developed a bit of a cough.  I did some googling on the subject and quickly came to the conclusion that I had experienced exercise induced asthma.  The symptoms went away by the end of the day.

Dan was Right

400's
4 sets of
400 meter run
50 airsquats

time=12:54

This workout has had me stumped for the last month or so.  I couldn't seem to make any improvement on my time.  Last week I asked Dan the crossfit guy at work about what he thought I should do.  He suggested doing a warm up that hits my lungs a little more since I wasn't doing my full running warm up like I normally do.  I figured why run 2 miles when the workout itself was running.  Just didn't make sense.  So today I ran 1 mile at a sub 8 minute mile pace.  Consequently I got my best time ever.  30 seconds faster than the last time I did this.  Guess Dan was right.

Taking the Next Step

3 sets:
20 dive bomber pushups
15 rows
45 second rest

lat pull downs at 10 to failure
press downs at 8 to failure

As luck would have it a guy that started working here is a hard core crossfitter.  I already got him to evaluate me doing an air squat.  I constantly find myself wanting to ask him stuff but we have to get work done so I can't do that.  I do try to catch him out in the hall from time to time and bounce ideas off him.  I heard that we are getting a shower put in here as well.  That opens up the possibility of doing some kind of workout at lunch which is great.  I feel like my training is about to evolve again.  I am going to get that pull up bar in the back yard and I plan to get myself an olympic bar with some bumper plates soon.

I just stumbled onto this guy John Newman on youtube.  Check it out.

Sore

3 sets of:

30 hands of the deck pushups
15 rows

curls to failure
press downs to failure


I've been doing this workout 3 times a week for about 2-3 weeks now.  It's starting to get a little old.  I need to figure out a way to spice this up.

I am really sore today.  I started out the week sore.  It got a little better on Wednesday but I think that 400 workout amped it back up.  I think I might have to grab two rest days this weekend to fully recover.

Run Day

The 400's
4 sets of:
400 meter run
50 air squats

time 13:07

This workout is really hard, but I always look forward to it.  I haven't been able to break 13 minutes.  That being said, I don't do a lot of sprinting.  Actually this is the only workout I do that involves running fast.  One of my personal goals is to run 3 miles in 18 minutes.  This would be a perfect score in the Marine Corps PFT.  The last time I ran a 3 mile fast was on a treadmill and I did it in about 21:30.  I want to do a workout that involves running a sub 7 minute mile multiple times.  Basically a mile repeat workout.  Zoe has started to venture out of the garage when I do this running workout so now I have to lock her in the house when I do it.  I saw a police patrol car doing a slow lap around the neighborhood this morning.  Michelle saw some cop cars around yesterday as well.  I wonder what the situation is with that.

I like Water

3 sets:

20 4 count bicycle crunches
20 ab rollers
30 reverse crunches
10 side raises
10 front raises

This was yesterday's workout.  I was feeling really sore so I went with an easier routine.  This one is really easy to do and doesn't tax the major muscle groups much.

It might seem like I know a lot about fitness or staying in shape.  I suppose I'm more in shape than the average person who spends 8-12 hours a day at a desk.  However, I don't for a second claim to be some kind of expert on  fitness or more importantly technique.  What I mean by that is that there is a proper form to doing any kind of movement.  Anything from pushups to crunches to air squats has a proper technique.  Although, I don't think I'm miles off the mark.  I am sure if I went to a real crossfit gym I would get corrected.  That being said, there is one thing I'm pretty sure I'm doing right.  That is hydration.  This is something I didn't take seriously in high school.  In the Marines they used to force us to drink water repeatedly on hot days.  Now I drink something like 10 glasses of water every day at work.  It means I'm going to the bathroom a lot but I know for sure I am hydrated.  I know I'm not supposed to be peeing completely clear.  I typically shoot for a light yellow coloration and keep it that way throughout the day.  I even drink 2 big glasses of water right before going to bed.  This is important since I workout early in the morning. 

Pickles

3 sets:

30 hands of the deck pushups with feet elevated about 6 inches
15 rows at weight of 12

curls to failure
press downs to failure

I used a brick to elevate my legs just slightly today for the pushups.  Seemed like it added about 10% more difficulty which is what I was looking for.  The one thing I don't think I've ever talked about is my warm up.  You always have to warm up.  I think warming up is like flossing.  Nobody does it until they have a problem and learn you really do have to do it.  I can still remember the time I got a piece of steak caught in between two of my back molars.  It got wedged into the gum line and irritated or infected the area.  That was probably the worst pain I've ever felt.  Mainly because it would not stop.  I was taking 2 Tylenol ever 4 hours on the button.  Anyways, warm up:

walk 5 minutes at a brisk pace
get off the treadmill and do some leg swinging movements to get the hip joint loosened up.
run 2 miles

on particularly hard days I don't run 2 miles I either run only 1 mile or do a 100-50-50-100-50-50-100 jump rope thing.  That's 100 both legs, 50 on one leg, etc.

I had an incredibly active/productive Sunday.  We made a ton of cookies for my coworkers.  I did this because somebody else in my office has been doing it and I don't want her to be the only one making goodies.  Of course this backfired today when I brought them in and she already had a tray of cookies on the table.  She gave me a dirty look and said "I got Mondays" and walked away.  Whatever, the cookies were great.  I also weedwacked and mowed the lawn, did another workout, washed my car, did some freelance work, did a 30 minute Zumba video with Michelle, went bike riding with the kiddoes for about 20 minutes, and joined in the clothes putting away party.  By the time about 9pm rolled around I was totaled.  Today, I am legitimately sore.  I think tomorrow might be an easy day.

I also discovered that I have a lot of pickles, and that pickles do in fact expire.  Although I'm not sure how considering they are in a jar of vinegar.

CJ Spillproof

4 sets:
30 off the deck pushups
15 rows at 12 (it's the number on the plate, I don't know how much weight it actually is)
curls to failure
press downs to failure
20 dumbbell push presses with low weight

Added a set today.  This used to be a 3 set workout.  I've been feeling like it's been getting too easy so I through that in.  I could only make it to 25 pushups on that 4th set.  I think I want to go back to 3 sets but with a harder push up.  One push up that I can not do at all is clapping pushups.  I don't know if it's a coordination thing or what but I just can't do it.  Maybe I'm too fat......:(

Today I am going to tell you something about myself that nobody knows.  Absolutely nobody.  It's nothing earth shattering like that I am spying for the Chinese or something.  No not spying just making visual effects for.  Did you hear that NSA bots?  I just make pretty pictures, no spying.  Move along.  Ok so my big reveal is..........that I like to pronounce people's names wrong or come up with nicknames for them.  I especially do this for athletes in fantasy football.  Here are a few of my favorites:

CJ Spiller = CJ Spillproof
Doug Martin = Dougy Martlin or Dougy Martles
Tom Brady = Tommy B or Tommy Brosef
Arron Rodgers = A Rodg
Adrian Peterson = still Adrian Peterson but I always say it with my best Harry Caray impression.
Mark Sanchez = Mark Sanchez
MJD = MJDizzle
If I can't come up with something I can always just add the word "scribbles" on the end of anybody's name.
Julio Jonescribbles
Lamar Millscribbles

ok so I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this.  Here's the thing I think makes me unique when it comes to this.  I find it absolutely hilarious whenever I say one of their names.  It's like my own personal private joke that never stops being funny.  This seems stupid doesn't it.  I agree.  When I write it out like this it's actually kind of embarrassing.  Now you see why I haven't come clean about this dark secret.   Happy Friday everybody!

Not Injured

Hard Day Workout

3 sets
13 diver bombers
20 burpees
50 air squats

no rest


This is a tough workout but not as hard on the legs as some other ones.  Still doing all those air squats will let you know if you are injured or not.  I did them no problem.  Even bested my old PR on this workout by 10 seconds:  11:25.

The director for the project I'm working on right now came in to the office today.  He hung out at my desk while he helped me place trees in a scene we were working on.  It's always nice to get direct input like that.  Takes a lot of the guess work out.  Weird thing was I was sweating profusely the entire time.  I could feel drips going down my back the whole time.  I wasn't nervous at all.  I think maybe it was having multiple people standing really close to me for that long.  Maybe it was just hotter in my immediate area.




The kids started school this week.  It's great to be back on a schedule were I am forced to get up earlier.  Also nice to actually see my family in the morning for a change.

Injured or Stronger?

3 sets of
30 hands off the deck pushups
15 rows at weight of 12

followed by curls to failure and press downs to failure

This is the same workout I've been doing for the last few weeks every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The way I am judging my progress is by how far I can get in the last set before I have to stop or slow down.  Right now I can get to the 3rd set around 27 reps before I have to slow down.  I might have to start mixing this workout up with different more difficult pushups like dive bombers.

My legs still feel really weird.  I'm not sure if I'm sore from a workout or injured.  I can do every kind of stretch I can think of and it doesn't seem to make anything hurt.  I just feel really stiff.  I plan on doing another leg workout tomorrow I'll be sure to pay attention if my legs start protesting too much.  Nothing throws a wrench in training gains like an injury.  The whole reason I spend almost 20 minutes warming up is to avoid injury.  Heck I warm up to warm up.

Not Sure What Happened There

Sunday:
100 hang clean to squat thruster
every 60 seconds do 5 burpees

This weekend I made a few dumb decisions.  Saturday was fairly relaxing.  However for some reason I didn't feel like eating that much.  It's not that I was trying to starve myself.  I just didn't feel like eating.  So my entire day's diet consisted of a bowl of chili for lunch and a bowl of clam chowder for dinner.  I'm not much of a calorie counter but I'd bet I didn't clear much more than 1000 calories all day.  Why did I do that?  I don't know, but it was a bad decision.  Not going to do that again.  It may have been because I didn't do any exercise that day.  On Sunday I woke up and tried to do the above workout which sounds simple on paper but is really hard when done correctly.  It's a lot harder if you practically starve yourself the day before like I did.  This leads me into my second dumb decision of the weekend.  I decided to do this workout right before my fantasy football draft.  When I say right before I mean about 20 minutes before.  This should have been plenty of time if I had eaten a reasonable amount of food the day before.  Instead I made a little over half way through the workout gasping for breath then running up to log in to my fantasy football draft with about 60 seconds to spare.  All while dripping sweat all over my desk.  It was pretty gross.  Well, I guess there are dumber things one could do.  Live and learn.

Good Friday

3 sets:
30 hands of the deck pushups
15 rows

curls with low weight to failure
press downs with low weight to failure

This workout is starting to get boring.  I need to find a way to mix up these strength wods.

Things have been.....off for the last few days.  I can't say why but it has.  It's like the laws of physics and nature have been knocked out of wack or something.  Well today they suddenly jumped back into place.  Today was a pretty good day.  Probably the best part about it was that I found out I don't have to come in to work this weekend.  Of course, I'll still have to work on freelance at home but still that's a big relief.

I might try to put up that pull up bar this weekend.  I bet digging the two 3.5 foot deep holes for the posts is going to be a lot more work than it sounds.

5 year plan

3 sets:
20 4 count bicycle crunches
20 ab rollers
30 butt raises
150 calf raises

This was an ab day workout I used to do a long time ago.  It was pretty hard back then.  It seems to be a lot easier now.  I need to do something a lot harder on Saturday.  Not the 50's though.  That workout is real punishment.

You ever hear about people having a 5 year plan?  I can't tell you what or where I want to be in 5 years.  I don't know what it is but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I don't want to be where I'm at now.  In fact, I would go so far as to say I don't want to be here in 2 years.  Call it a midlife crisis or maybe just getting bored.  I have this constant thought in my head that I need to be looking for something else to do.  I guess I'm just waiting for the right catalyst.

The Motherload

3 sets
30 hands up pushups
15 rows

followed by:
tricep press downs at light weight to failure (around 45 reps)
curls with light weight to faulure


I think this strength based workout is already working.  I already feel like the pushups are getting easier.

I've always loved listening to old time radio shows like Dragnet, Gunsmoke, or Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.  Unfortunately, I rarely seem to catch them on XM radio.  I recently discovered that there are lots of episodes on youtube but only a fraction of how many were actually made.  Then I found the motherload.  A website dedicated to archiving all of these old radio shows.  I mean every single episode.  I could listen to these all day every day and not get through all of them for weeks.

http://archive.org/details/OTRR_Gunsmoke_Singles

Today kind of sucked.  It was just one of those days where nothing went right.  Well at least I got a good workout in.  I'm sure tomorrow will go better.

LA Driver

30 box jumps
30 walking lunges

3 sets no rest

That's another workout that looks really easy on paper.  I think it will probably get a lot easier if I do it 10 times.  Right now both of the exercises are a real problem for me.  I've been walking around all day like somebody punched me in both legs.  Feelin great!

I got moved to a standing desk at work.  It sure feels better after a leg workout to be standing instead of sitting.  Still takes some getting used to to stand for 10 hours during the day.  The $15 standing matte I got at Home Depot was money well spent.

LA Driver

If LA driver sees more than 1.5 car length between you and the person in front of you he/she will swerve around you in as violent a fashion as possible.

If LA driver is driving slow in the fast lane and basically pinning you in with 30 car lengths in front of him and you try to go around him.  He will speed up when you try to pass him.

Syria Now?

30 hands off the ground pushups
10 lat pull downs

45 second wait

3 sets


What the hell is going on in Syria?  Please tell me we aren't going to get ourselves mixed up in yet another war in the middle east.  Enough already!

New Program

OK so last week was a bit chaotic since I decided to attempt to work in some strength based workouts.  It's been a while since I've tried to do that.  I think I got a good grasp on what I want to do now.  This week should be a lot better.  This Saturday I decided to try hard day out to end the week on a good hard metcon workout.  I have a workout that I do on what used to be "hard day" which consisted of 3 sets of 13 dive bombers, 20 burpees, and 50 air squats.  Funny how when you write stuff like that down on paper it really doesn't sound that hard.  Well trust me, it's freakin hard if you try to do it all out.  On Saturday I bested my previous best time by 1 minute 5 seconds.  That is a significant bump and I'm pretty proud of it.  So I think the way next week is going to go is as follows:

Monday: Strength workout
Tuesday: Leg/running workout
Wednesday: Strength workout
Thursday: metcon
Friday: Strength workout
Saturday: metcon

Sounds like a plan.  Now if I could only get my diet in order.


Effort:

Strength Week?

 5 sets of 10 reps on a weight I couldn't finish by set 5 on the lat pull down machine.

finished off with 20 burpees.

too easy, didn't feel like much of a workout.  Think I'll have to do something hard tomorrow.

I saw an interview on youtube yesterday with a competitor in the crossfit games.  In it he said you shouldn't do so many metcons if you want to be competitive in crossfit.  The first thing I had to do was find out what a metcon is.  Metcon is the short term for metabolic conditioning.  Ever since I discovered crossfit I assumed this was the primary type of workout crossfitters did.  Apparently I was mistaken.  After some more digging on some crossfit forums I found out that it is indeed more of a mix.  Crossfit really appears to be a mix of different kinds of exercises.  The current theory is that you simply can not get strong by doing metcon workouts only.  I think what they meant to say is that you can't maximize your strength gains by doing metcons.  I agree with that.  However, my goals in working out are mental just as much as they are physical.  When it comes to building mental toughness there isn't a better workout than a metcon for building that.  So this week I decided to switch things up and do more of a strength thing.  This was hard.  To be honest I don't think I was doing it right.  Strength focused workouts are pretty much the polar opposite of metcons.  I think what I was doing was half way between the two. 

I really need to get that pullup bar put up.

Happy Wednesday

Today's workout:

The 400's

4 rounds of

400 meter run
50 air squats

time:13:05

This workout was really hard the first time I did it.  This is the 3rd or 4th time I've done it and it is getting easier pretty fast.  This is one of those workouts that is as hard as you want to make it.  All I have to do is try to run it faster.  I could also throw in some walking lunges.  I really need to get that pull up bar made in the backyard.  I sure do hate pull ups.

Derek got lost on a practice run with his classmates today.  Didn't like hearing about that.  He'll be running with my running backpack and his phone from now on.  Going to have to change his nickname from waffles to the wanderer. 

Dylan Learns to Ride

Last weekend I was determined to teach Dylan how to ride a bike.  Michelle just got a new bike so I could foresee a summer filled with bike outings.  On Sunday I got his bike down off the wall and promptly removed the training wheels.  If you ever want to find out how out of shape you are just try following a 7 year old up and down the street while keeping your hands in position in case he falls.  I actually thought I was in pretty good shape but after going up and down the block twice I was gasping.  Luckily I had Derek there so we started alternating.  The entire time he only fell once.  He actually didn't fall he ran into a trashcan and stopped.  So after going up and down the street with him for maybe 15 minutes I decided to let him go on his first solo ride.  He started off slow but eventually got going.  Then about half way down the street he looked like he was losing control.  His legs went out and his feet dragged on the ground to help him stop.  He quickly stopped and put the bike down gently.  Then he walked back about 15 feet and picked something up.  I ran down the street to see what happened.  His pedal had come off of his bike.  Talk about bad timing.  I was very proud of him for how he reacted however.  He simply stopped and went back to get the pedal.  He did not fall.  Now Sydney and Dylan love riding their bikes.   I can't wait to take them to the beach.

Coffee Downer

I think I'm going to stop drinking coffee.  At the very least I'm going to only going to drink it in emergency situations.  What I have been finding is that I drink coffee every day at work, but when I don't drink it on the weekends I feel like crap.  I don't want to have to depend on drinking coffee every day just to be normal.  I am on day 4 of the coffee purge now.  Day 1 was rough, and unfortunately it happened to be mother's day.  It's getting easier but I do think about drinking coffee every day and every time I yawn and every time I walk through the front door of my office.  My goal is to actually have energy to do stuff on the weekends.

free at last?

Well it's been 4 long months of ups and downs.  Mostly downs.  I have finally delivered the last of 58 shots that I did in their entirety for a freelance project.  So how do I feel about it?  Relief, elation, mission accomplished, sad, happy?  No not really any of those things.  Maybe some of that will come later.  Right now I just feel nothing.  It is as if I came to the end of a 100 mile run and simply stopped running, got into my car, and drove to work.  When I look back over my career I can easily call out the worst places I've worked.  There are really only two that come to mind.  Curiously, they are on paper what you would expect to be the best places to work.  One was in Irvine, the other San Clemente.  Both beautiful places that I would have loved to move to.  This project just put my house as the single worst place I've ever worked.  This project was a soul crushing experience that tested me far beyond my limits.  I never want to do something like that again.  The next project will likely start in a month or so.

Got some exercise this morning.  It's been a long time since I've been able to do that.  Weeks.  Amazing how fast fitness gets lost at my advanced age.  It'll be fun getting it back.  I truly treasure the 30-60 minutes I have in the morning when I have the house all to myself before going to work.  It is the only time I can call my own.

Bad Vans

I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer wear Vans shoes.  At least not without some kind of arch support.  After working at a stand up desk for almost 2 months my back feels great but my left foot is killing me.  At first I thought it was because I was standing on a flat hard floor for 10 hours a day.  Then I got an anti-fatigue mat which helped a little but the pain in my foot was still there.  Eventually I figured out that it was the shoes.  Ideally I would wear running shoes every day.  There is nothing more comfortable than that.  Well wearing no shoes would be the best but I'm not going to be "that guy" in the office.  I also don't want to wear my running shoes because I know I'll reduce their life by about 75% if I do.  Time to go to the shoe store.

Delivery Day

Today is delivery day.  Once again the long road of a hard earned commercials masterpiece has led to the end of the line.  This was an interesting project as most of them are.  We tried things a little differently this time with me being a one man show for about 2 weeks prior to anybody else coming on.  This allowed me to lay the ground work for the lookdev and lighting team.  I basically did a lot of the tedious grunt work that is no fun at all.  Everything seemed to be moving along extremely well until the final 2 weeks when my bosses decided that we needed to go to 12 hour days 7 days a week.  This was a surprise but they were correct in their change of pace.  We ended up needing just about all that time to finish on time.  When this is all over I'm going to have to figure out what went wrong in the schedule to cause this.

Since our schedule change I have not exercised at all.  This morning I finally got myself on my treadmill and ran 3 miles.  It felt great.  I am definitely getting back on that wagon.  Derek is starting to get interested in the crossfit thing.  I look forward to doing that with him.

Another thing that I have put on the backburner since things got crazy at work is the freelance project I am doing at home.  I am planning on taking 2 days off prior to a 3 day holiday weekend to get caught up on that.

Show Em You're a Tiger

The new year has brought with it the goal/sentence of having to sell of our house due to financial pressure.  I for one am embracing this new adventure.  Our plan is to move in July but in order to get to that point without going broke I have found some freelance work to generate a little extra income.  I have never done freelance from home using the software that I currently use at work and it has proven to be difficult.  The software we use at work is simply not supposed to be used by a one man show like myself.  There is a lot of secret coding stuff that has to be done behind the scenes to get everything working right.  Even now after working on my setup for about a month I have determined that I will have to get the pirated version of the software I bought to get it to work right.  It has been a learning experience however and will help a us a lot in the end.

Derek has been struggling in math lately and we have all been doing our best to help him out.  He retook a test that he failed yesterday and we are eager to find out how he did.  Next week is his semester final so he definitely still has some studying to do.  He has been working really hard these last few weeks and I am proud of him.  I am also really hoping that his hard work has paid off.  Life is not fair after all.

The project I am on right now is the most secretive project I've ever worked on.  They have us locked in a secure room on nobody else can even see our job on the server.  It's caused lots of headaches to be honest.  Other than the security thing this project is going incredibly smoothly.  I feel like I am jinxing myself for writing that but it really is going well.  I attribute this to two main things.  First my entire team is in the same room so we can all talk to each other face to face instead of over email.  We used to say in electronics school that communication is the key to success in battle.  Indeed it is.  Second, there are no weak links in my team.  I have been on other projects that have had one or two guys that couldn't carry their weight and the effects can be devastating since our teams are so small.  This team is making me look really good.