Swami

Swum today for the first time in a year or two. i love swimming. There's just something about sumo-ing around in a Speedo...

Lessee: 200 m warmup, 400 m of laps. Did the first 200 in 100m sets, but my shoulder kept trying to relocate itself to a different part of the pool, so i backed down to 50s for the second 400. Gunna hafta rehab that rotator cuff before i can go long. Cooled down with 200 of the usual. Felt mighty good to be in water again.

Oh, and yester'sNacht i did chest/pushers again. i think this setup will work out better for climbing at the beginning of the week. Actually pushed 85s on DB bench for a bunch of reps. It's weird having a chest again. On Incline DBs, on the last rep of my last set i was using the force to get my elbow to lock out, and my shoulder just decided it'd had all it wanted and tried to fail. After some discussion with it, we parted company, and i locked out with my humerus sitting directly on my rib cage. That might have been a mistake, but i locked out. So while i might be doomed to shoulder arthritis, i shan't have arthritis of the morale. Ooo, and i actually broke out the Inzer leather for squats. i was plenty glad to have it too, cuz my low back was unhappy after deads on thurs.

The rest o' the week

Lessee here... wed. i managed to get in a fairly good workout. The hard back workout on sat. was a bad idea, and screwed with the climbings, but wed. went ok-ish. However, i resolved to not do that again. went in for the back work on thurs. (yesterday) this time. i was pleasantly surprised that it went so well after climbing the day before. Main thing is i switched up the heavy work from rows to pullups this time. i wanna experiment to see if i heal better and still make progress like this. Thus:

Pullups:
BW x 21
+25 x 8
+50 x 3
+60 x 3
+70 x 2
+80 x2
+90 x 1 (almost got a second one here)
+100 (didn't lock this all the way out...close though)

Straight Leg Deads:
Pretty much the same as last week

Wide Grip Rows:
3 sets fairly light. The wide grip is much harder, and m' biceps were fried.

Rest of the workout was similar to sat's.

Steph snagged us a family membership at the pool. i'm hoping to get to start swimming long again. Went out yesterday and purchased a shiny new Speedo. Nothing like hanging it out in public in a banana hammock to wake a body up in the morning.

Prophetic

went in to climb a bit today. Actually, i went in to buy some new Kletterkicks, and inadvertantly climbed some stuff. As predicted i put down one sad day of climbing. Back work on sat. had me torn down for today. But that's ok. i gotta fine tune ye olde schedule, but as long as i'm getting a few stellar workouts in then there's some progress. Went in to REI yesterday cuz i was shopping for La Sportiva's fairly new Miura velcros. Tres sexy, but the closest they had to my size was a solid half size too small. So today i went to the gym to see if they happened to have it. They didn't have the velcro version in my size, but they did have the lace up Miura for $89.95 instead of $140. Couldn't say no to that. Sick shoe. i'll recommend it. If you need a pair of shoes, lemme know and i'll snag you pair. The Miura's one of Sportiva's bestest shoes and this is $50 off. Although i'm pretty sure Glenn's climbing shoes have that same new-leather fragrance as my Inzer lifting belt.

Yesterweek

200 lbs.

Well. After mon's. mediocrity i ended up having a fairly successful week of working out. Wed. i snagged a couple of v3s at ye olde klettergym. Ended up doing two sessions same day. And i blew a hole in the toe o' me shoe, so's i hafta go buy a new pair (as i don't think they'll hold up to a second resole). i wanted to get some back work in same day, so's i'd have time to heal for mon. (tomorrow), but it would'a been a lousy go at it. Instead, i went in thurs. for a pusher session. Bumped the squats up another 50 lbs. so i'm finally over 200 on squats again. Had a mighty fine chest workout with DB bench and DB incline. Went ahead and did hanging leg raises (cuz i'm wanting to start working abs twice a week). And i finished up with one-arm cable triceps presses. These felt kinda cool, and they involve the shoulder, T. major and subscap more than two-handed presses.

Then yesterday i tore my back down proper. i'm gonna try alternating heavy pullup weeks with heavy row weeks. i'll write m' weights down so's i can remember 'em.

Pullups x 10 warmup

Narrow Grip Cable Rows:
10 x 195
8 x 210
6 x 225
4 x 240
4 x 255
3 x 270
2 x 285
1 x 300

These felt good. The last one at 300 i didn't get all the way to my sternum, but i plan to correct that.

Straight Leg Deads:
14 x 95
10 x 145
8 x 165
10 x 185
8 x 205
6 x 225
4 x 245

This was the heaviest i've gone with straight leggers, and my back is unscrupulous about reminding thereof. It's the good kind of pain.

Wide Grip Cable Pulldowns:
3 x 10 x 180

i like these things. i lean back at about 45ish deg. and pull the bar down as far as can past my sternum. Works a vector of lat it's hard to get at with pullups.

Bentover B-bell Rows:
3 x 10 x 135

Experimental. Did these with a supine grip. i wanted to keep the movement as close to a climbing "low lockoff" as possible, but i couldn't get quite the same r.o.m. with a supine grip as prone. Had to use a wider grip to get a similar elbow height. This was a very fine movement. Mucho like-o. i do think i should'a done 'em before the deads though.

Lateral Delt Flys and Reverse Delt Flys (on the pec deck):
Some weight for a bunch of reps. Rehab.

Rarely do i leave the gym, pump a fist skyward Rocky-style, and thank God that i woke up that morning; but this was one of those days. Didn't feel quite so much like a fat old guy. i don't have much hope for a good climb sesh tomorrow, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice. Out.

Failure to Rage

Just got back from a relaxing [read: slothful] weekend in Red River, NM; home to a higher density of Texans than most comparably-sized Texas villages. Before we left on thurs., i did an irongym workout. Kept it real skeletal cuz we were trying to get away same day, but it was decent notwithstanding. Bumped up m' weights in nearly everything, including a 50lb. jump in squats, for which i paid during the remainder of the week. The depressing bit was that i weighed in at 202, which meant that (as suspected) i gained about 4lbs. over the 4th weekend. Haven't weighed since.

First thing i did at RR was go to the visitor center and ask for some climbing. The chick ran off a mini guide for me. Turns out there're maybe four or five bolted routes within a 30sec. drive of town. Problem was the 15 min. 45 deg. scree approach. Annie and i scouted it immediately, and i thought it was maybe doable, but it was dumping rain. Next day i hauled my wee family up this approach, and all the while Steph (when i accidentally made eye contact) was giving me the nuclear brow. Anyhow, i ended up with the baby in the snugli, Aeon on my shoulders, and my rope bag and gear on m' back grunting up this quasi-trail/erosion-diarrhea-rut and we got up to the base of the rock and it was immediately apparent that i'd be inviting my own death or the death of one of my children were i to climb. Annie would'a just kept climbing till i made her stop (and i'm not terribly sure she wouldn't'a sent the 5.7 at the base of which i yelled her down.) The belay stance was this craggy 40 deg. number, Steph would'a had to belay with the baby on, and Aeon was running amok. At some length, and fuming, i let it go and we hiked/glissaded back to the car. O for a babysitter! At any rate, the result was that i got four nearly-unadulterated days of forearm tendon-knitting.

Climbed today. Forearms are approaching 90%. Felt fat as before, though. i have been sticking with my rule from last posting, and i haven't felt like i've overeaten since; only i haven't done much of anything active at all. i gotta start running.

Domino Effect

i'm trying to think of when i've felt more like hammered crap (without a proper clinical diagnosis) than i have today. Haven't actually slept in just over a month now. Yesterday, in an act of desparation, we went to Sam's Club and picked up one of those slow-return foam mattress toppers. Don't remember sleeping quite that badly in a while. Went to the climbing gym for maybe the most pathetic workout i've laid down in a while. Hands still haven't healed from whenever. Anyhow, tomorrow we're supposed to go to Red River (the n.m. one) for the weekend for some r&r. Hopefully that'll help. i get this sleepy and worn down, and i get a li'l psychotic, and things start falling apart. In an effort that nearly cost me my soul, i managed not to have a dip yesterday evening, or today. i've even managed to eat fairly well the last coupl'a days. i'm just too tired to move. i'm hoping i'll have the juice to go work out at the irongym tomorrow before we leave.

Oh, i thought of a kind of plan. Might be corny, but it might just work. You wanna lose yer saturated midriff, and i wanna lose mine; and i'd guess one of the biggest mutual problems we have is a lack of accountability and perspective. So i'll propose we play a game of HORSE. i'll lay down a rule/mantra/commitment and stick with it, and if you can hang, you can add on. Umm, some rules maybe: no starving (obviously), and no giant, sweeping commitments that you can't really stick with. You can modify/qualify liberally, but say so. You can take or leave a rule, but you gotta explain yerself. That'll do. The point is i could use some accountability here, but i don't want someone telling what to do if they ain't gonna do it themselves.

#1) No high fat foods (i.e. cheese or meat) after 18:00. If it's unavoidable, i'll eat half of what i think i want. Supper's when i usually overeat, cuz i can chill. More fiber here, and more low fat protein.

Paying the Piper

"...led rats through the streets/ Dance like a marionette/ Swayin' to the symphony..."

Anyhow. Keeps going through m' head for some reason. All said and done, not a particularly healthy weekend on the physical front (unless you're given to considering the psychical front a subset of the physical, in which case i could rightly say that everything came out just fruity in the wash.) Hard to pinpoint if the poisonous bit was that we started drinking at 11 a.m., or if it was that we continued until 1:00 the following morning, or if it was just that i ended up eating so damn much bacon. At any rate, i didn't have especially high expectations for this afternoon's climbsession, and i nevertheless still managed to vault right under the bar. i'm pretty confident this is a solid three extra pounds of blubber i'm gripping here, and my hands (strangely) still haven't healed from last week's climbing. i've heard one has to sleep in order to heal, so it is to the lack thereof that i'll attribute my shortcomings; not to flipping that wussy li'l tractor tire and the farmer's walk.

Right then. i'm looking forward to getting those video copies for the Highlands gig, so don't forget eh. And it'd be mighty fine if you guys could nail down some sort of date to come up here, 'cuz i could shore 'nuff use some motivation to lay off the poisons and drop some weight.

And, again, i'm favorably impressed with the spread there G. Makes me wanna invest in windmills.

Nastrovya.

Supa' Tweak

Had me one of the best days of climbing yesterday i've had in a while. Climbed a li'l bit on mon. & tues., but took the rest of the week off till yesterday evening. Every 6 weeks or so, the gym puts on an informal bouldering comp for members, and they put up a plethora of new routes for it. i'm anxious to see how i ranked, and what some of the ratings will turn out to be; but i flashed nearly everything i tried. There were a few routes i got shut down on, but it was totally 'cuz i tried 'em too late. You could climb all the routes you want, but you could only tally up yer top ten point-value routes, so i didn't try many high-value routes, cuz i didn't want to fry on 'em before i had ten to count. But i'm pretty confident i got a nice big handful of 3s, and nothing under 2. Couldn't tell if any of 'em were 4, but i doubt it. Did see a bunch of skinnies getting spit off'a my flashes, but it could just be that they were females in men's clothing. At any rate, it gave me warm fuzzies. Couldn't help but think i'd'a clumb even better if i'd been wearing a kilt.

Went in to the irongym today for chest, abs, and "legs." It's becoming a natural split to save hard back work and shoulders for after wednesday's climbing. Here's today:

DB Bench:
60s x 10
65s x 8
75s x 7
75s x 5

Squats:
135 x 10 x 3

Still keeping these real light and rehabilitative.

Incline DB Bench:
60s x 8
65s x 8 x 2

ish.

Straight Leg Deads:
95 x 14
115 x 12
135 x 10
185 x 8 x 2

i do these on a 6" high platform and use 25lb. plates or smaller so as to get full r.o.m. That last set evoked flashes of an ibuprofen bottle at the bottom of each rep, but they felt good. No sproings.

Straight Leg Lifts:
15 x 4

Pec Deck:
What difference does it make? i just do 'em cuz i get to flex in front of a mirror.

Soon i wanna start integrating more ab work: get kind'a jiggy with the open chain stuff. Thought of some nice shoulder work i wanna try. Thought about hucking hammers at things, and that made the incline bench and squats take on a happier aura.

Detox

i climbed on mon. for a horrible bad day of it. Depressing. Then i went back on tues. to rectify the situation. i failed to rectify it. i haven't slept in two or three weeks now, and i think that has something to do with it. i think you're right, G: booze is poison. For a good long while there i was holding myself to a "one drink per day" policy. For the last two weeks i've been sticking more or less strictly to a "mildly hammered" policy. i stayed up 'til 5:00 this morning thinking about normal forces on an inclined plane. That's irritating. Tomorrow i have a climbing comp. i must sleep tonight. And i need to lose 10 lbs. before tomorrow, so i'm gonna go running today. Oh, and i looked up the site you posted on the highlands games. That looks like good clean fun. Where would one find a caber to practice with though. And i need one of those hammers. And some tassled socks.

sat. 21 jun.

weighed in at 198.

Went to ye olde irongym yestern. was a li'l pressed for time, so i kept it skeletal, but i wanna scribble down the progressions so i can remember 'em. It's starting to feel like i can do real workouts again, and they're complex enough that i really need to break 'em down into at least two parts. i've been working back, legs, chest, abs, and everything else on the same day. Mostly it's because i never know how many times i'll actually manage to get into the gym in a week, and i want to make sure to get everything in. i've been getting in fairly faithfully two times a week for the last three weeks or so. i think, though, that i could get in more if i broke it into smaller parts and knew a workout wouldn't take two hours. This has always been my nuclear blowapart point: trying to juggle hard gym workouts and really any other form of hard training and running. The running's fallen out for the last coupl'a weeks, but it's mostly 'cuz we're out of pocket with Katja in the hospital.

Bench:
3x3x375
Got those raw, then i put some hydraulic jacks under my elbows for the rest.

DB Bench:
10x60s
8x 65s
2x5x75s

Pullups:
bwx18
+25x8
+35x6
2x+45x4

On a whim i did squats:
2x135

The adductors scream now if i make any unexpected movements with m' legs.

Incline DB Bench:
i think i did:
10x50s
2x8x55s

Cable Rows:
8x210
6x225
2x4x240

Form felt perfect on these.

Didn't have time for the rest of the workout. Usually do Dips, Hanging Leg Raises, Straight Leg Deads, DB Shrugs, Pec Deck, and Shoulder Flys/Flexion. i wanna incorporate more ab work, more lat work, posterior delt work, and sagittal shoulder extension work. And i think some tricep iso would be helpful. i've tried to keep the iso work to a minimum, but i'm starting to find some weak links. Don't know if i'll keep the squats up, but i sure do like doing 'em. Gotta go visit m' baby. Peace.

Like Arby's "Cheddar"

Found out yesterday just where meltdown lies. Went climbing, but there was really no point. Fell off'a most everything, including some climbs i've done real tired. Won't go back 'til at least mon. Maybe tues. Got a comp one week from today, and wanna be strong for it, so i'll probably put in one day this next week before then. i'll go ahead and commit myself to the other gym tomorrow. And also probably to finishing off this liter-and-a-half o' vin. my joints are creaking. Oh here's a movie recommend: The Bucket List is pretty good. Katja should be outta the pen on tues, GOD allowing. Please keep praying for her.

toozdae

Wint climin saterdae but it wasunt much off a werkout to brag about. Wint bak yesterdae and a frind wuz ther and he sed he braut his gear and wud i like too do sum roped roots. So we leapfrogged and i'd leed a cupple and heed leed a cupple and so forth. Started on a 5.8 and never got abuv 5.9 but my hands wer waisted smolduring rooned crispy things. Good times. If we can keep it up i mite start gitting sum endurince. It was one of those nice werkouts win i cudnt rilly steer my car rite win i left. Thin i wint bak after class and bouldered sum. Mostly just added too the endurince werkout but i did make sum progress on a project v4. Todae will probublee be a non-werkout dae unless i can find the energy too run. Tumorow will make five werkout daes with only wun rest day between. Theres a comp cumin up in too fridaes and so aisle pae sum lip servis too tapering next weak. Thatll look sumthing lik tryng not too get to fat wile i du nuthing with my hands.

Just finished Orwells "1984" last nite. Spooky buk. ill recomind it.

Samstag

It's sat. and i'm presently sleepwriting. Wanted to mark down that i got another irongym workout in on thurs. Was gonna write down the specifics just so i'd have a benchmark to look back on and laugh at later, but i don't think my brain is up to the task. Anyhow, it was a good one. was at 196lbs. thurs., which was an eight lb. loss in a week. Guess i was retaining water; bloated or something. Strange hormones circulating 'round here. i want to climb today. m' hands do not, but who cares what they want. Katja's supposed to get a lumbar puncture today, so please pray for her. i'm led to believe it's for her own good. Bleh. i think i've a sinus infection.

Today

Mum and Da' were here for the weekend, and then Katja was sequestered to the NICU for a positive viral culture, for which crime she's forced to undergo 14 days of i.v. acyclovir in an isolation room, so i'm guessing i'd be weighing in at about 250. (All in my biceps, of course.) i did get a climb session in yesterday between classes, and sent a v4 project. i'm sorta hoping to get in to the iron gym today, and blow out some more rage. i hope you guys are well, and i'm still seriously looking forward to that road trip if yous can figure out yer schedules. i could use about a hundred feet of air under m' shoes about now. Peace out.

Ketchup II

There. Got a decent iron workout in. In fact, i'm having some trouble moving now. Weighed in at 204. That's unacceptable (although i feel pretty happy about snagging a v4 at over 200lbs). Haven't been over 200 in a long while. That's what happens when i start lifting. Hopefully some fat loss shall ensue.

Ketchup

Gotta say i'm pretty sore from all that pushing. Heckuva workout, that.

ALLLrighty, now. Lessee here: i did lift on sat. And not a bad session of it either. Sun. we slouched about at a barbeque. Mon. we had a baby. Tues. we brought 'er home, and proceeded to do nothing else whatever. Wed. i had class all flippin' day long, but i did manage to squish a climbing workout in, and had an excellent run at it after having most of a week to heal the tendons. Got one of m' v4 projects, and almost snagged a second. At least got a new high point on it. Today i went into algebra class and had an exam i'd managed to know nothing of theretofore. Steph had possibly the easiest delivery any woman has ever had since before the fall of Eve, and that has contributed greatly to my being able to carry on with life in a semi-normal fashion. i'm gonna try to go lift again today. we'll see. It's funny, but the most exhausting thing about having a baby (aside from her waking up ever so often through the night emanating an amplified cat fight from her larynx) are the people who either call every 30 mins. to make sure all is well, or else insist on doing lots of favors to relieve the stress. The problem is that you have to wait on 'em to do their favor before you can get on with what you'd really rather be doing. The kids were delivered back unto us today at about 16:00 after a two day hiatus, and Aeon was asleep. He was soaked with pee to his ankles, and was still wearing his pullup from last night. "Hey, thanks for watching 'em."

i'm an ass. i can admit that-- an antisocial ingrate. And i deserve to have no friends.

Oh yeah... i do have no friends. Mystery solved. Hope you guys are well, and i'll second that notion that you should come up here to meet my Katja. She's mighty cute.

The week in review

i'll recap just so's i can remember on which day i did which workout. Wed. i went in for a quick climb sesh before physics lab. Got nothing to speak of, but ten minutes before lab started i roped another guy into working a project with me, and he got me into one of his so i was a half-hour late for lab. It was so nice working with another human on a project that i didn't really care. And it was a good thing: they'd only gotten about one page into the lab when i showed up for it. (Non-calc based physics, it turns out, does not attract the brightest stars in the firmament.) Anyhow, i went back as soon as lab was out (speaking of giving one's tendons plenty of time to heal), and while i didn't get the finish holds i wanted, the collective 50 or 60 tries on sundry v4s ended up being a hardcore workout. Then i went back on Thurs. for a semi-short session. Yesterday (fri.) i did my first hour-long run in a while. Felt superb.

Nerd note: The first half of the run (the out) is nearly totally uphill (so the back, of course, is all downhill), and with the monitor i kept my HR nearly constant both ways. You'd think that at a given HR i'd be doing a relatively constant amount of work (i.e., wattage would be somewhat similar) or else i'd be doing more work for less speed going uphill, so that at a constant HR over a fixed distance it'd take way less time to get back than to get out. Interestingly, it took me about one minute longer to get out than back-- and remember that's in an hour-long run. All i can figure is that i'm an outta-shape cow, and for the same HR on the way back (downhill) my legs were torched; else i'm a hellish good hill climber, and'm breaking some thermodynamic laws. i'm going with the first theory in spite of my ego. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if that gap widens when i get in better shape.

Oh, and i'll go ahead and commit myself to hitting the weights today, just to be held accountable. Nastrovya.

Mondayless Monday

Fairly productive day today. That is because i like buying new toys. Went to the irongym today, and got some new protein. i am beyond weak: i am feeble. Ok, really it's mostly my triceps/the-whole-front-of-my-body that's feeble, but who notices the other parts? All that to say that dips didn't go so well today. i just can't find my rhythm in there. Went running yesterday-- 45 mins. or so with the spiffy new Cardiosport. i do like HR monitors. They're nice slave drivers. Got stopped at a red light, and this hottie turned the corner in front of me, and my instinct said, "Pass. Smoke. A girl is ahead of you." But my monitor settled the matter, 'cuz i was climbing outta my zone. i could'a beat her though. i just know it. So anyhow, i think the run leeched some of my hit-points, 'cuz i was sorta draggin' knuckle in the gym. Kinda' kept the session skeletal, but i did up the amperage on a few workouts. Then i went to Home Despot and snagged a Dremel tool. Beautiful piece o' machinery, that. i'm off to christen it even now.

Oh, and i just finished Ron Paul's book, The Revolution: A Manifesto. If you haven't read it yet, Amazon it and read. Everyone in America should be required to read it. You won't think of America the same way afterwards. Peace.

...and more...

Had an hour 'twixt classes yesterday, so i went in for a second day in a row, making for a dense climbing week so far. Didn't tag my proj, but i did stick everything up to the final crux consistently: maybe 5 outta 6 times instead of the 1 outta 4 times as on tues. That was nice. Turns out the final move is just bloody hard, and a wee bit scary to boot. Starts from under an overhang-- hands on a big undercling flake, right foot on a bad jib, left foot smeared on the wall. Lunge up with the right to a full hand span pinch, then stab leftward with a foot to a horrible cabinet-knob sized sloper. Then you wrench your body in close to that pinch whilst dropping the left knee and tensioning between those feet so you can let go with the left hand and reach for a teensy side-pull crimp. Then you reach through and upward right for a terrible sloped pinch, establish feet under, then shoot way out again with the left foot to torque into another full knee drop so as to let go of the crimp to reach for manky pinch. If you get that, then somehow you uncoil from the dropknee without barndooring off, and dyno for the finish jug on the roof. Problem is you're crazy off-balance, contorted, and have a solid eight feet of air 'neath your shoes. i skate off of one or the other of the feet every time i get to that point trying to reverse the knee drop without losing contact.

It's a brilliant route. It's one of those routes that's obviously fun to watch someone do. Every time i've worked on it someone's appeared from out of nowhere to gimme a "C'mon! Get that!" Yesterday these two kids were watching when i dropped and one of 'em said, "Is that hard? That looks hard." It really isn't all that hard, of course (since it's within my feeble reach), but it looks cool. At any rate, i didn't tag it, but i think all i need is a clear, strong day.

Did get a hard 3 that i couldn't get a few weeks before, so that was a good sign.

Also got my new Cardiosport Graph X HR monitor in today, so now i have new motivation to take my puffy arse out running. Can't have my brother outrunning me.

more

Classes started up again on mon., so i'm trying to find my groove. Did sneak a climbsesh in today. i've been working a v4 project for a few days of it now. It's the kind of 4 that's not so much pumpy as it is just gruesome form-dependent. For example, my dumb foot pops off the starting hold probably 4 outta 5 tries, which doesn't give me that much time on it for a proper pump. And then i've delaminated several times from this weird coiled-up, drop-knee position going for the second to last hold. Very frustrating. i'm sure it'll fall if i can just make it in to the gym with my head on and clear for once. So i didn't get it today, but it was still a good workout. After i gave the proj a few burns, i did a fast circuit of a 3 and as many 2s and 1s and 0s as i could squish in, as fast as i could do 'em before i was Cajun-style blackened. Haven't made it in to the irongym yet this week. Too many scheduling conflicts so far. Still don't have a baby on the outside yet, but she's looking to bust free any minute. And Annie graduated kindergarten tonight.