Saturday, November 23, 2013

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!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

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.


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

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.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

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. 

Monday, November 11, 2013

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.

Monday, November 4, 2013

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.

Friday, November 1, 2013

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.