Mr. Saturday night Special..

Lots going on this weekend.
Let's start with friday.
the workout:
5 reps of man-makers @ 35 lb dum-bells each minute until you can't complete 5 in under a minute.
This one was brutal. It starts out ok. Most folks can do 5 reps in 30-40 seconds when you're fresh.. but once that "not so fresh feeling" kicks in..
Paul: 14 sets
Me: 10 sets
Joe: less.

Then we went out to dinner, and then I went to the store and made a couple dishes for the wife to bring to a memorial service for a friend's son that was the next day.

Saturday I went to class, and sparred of and on for about 2 hours.
My knowledge of jiu-jitsu far exceeds my abilities at this point. It's kind of annoying to see things, but be unable to be able to execute but it's part of the journey.

Later that afternoon one of my friends asked me to go with him to a gun range. His brother is into sport shooting, and has gotten my friend interested in buying a handgun. My friend wanted to go rent a couple handguns and try them out. Makes sense, if I were spending a few hundred bucks on something, I'd want to test drive a few myself, and apparently they'll only rent you a gun if you can prove you already own one, or if you bring a friend (apparently this cuts down on the people who want to rent a gun and buy only one bullet). What the hell says I. I've been around guns.. about as long as I've been around. In the hills of southeast Missouri, everyone owns at least a shotgun, but this was my first time around a handgun. I was surprised at how easy it was to operate. I wasn't and still am not a fan of the handgun, and I don't really see why anyone outside of law enforcement would want one (note: I did not say they should be illegal, that is a whole different issue I just don't see the appeal)Personally, I think they are not the best tool for the "home defense" job:

They have a low muzzle velocity and high caliber, which means that their shells penetrate things quite readily. Things like walls, ceilings, or the bad guy. This is not a good thing if you are trying to shoot the bad guy in your house and little Johnny/Aunt Esther/Fido happen to be sleeping in the other room on the other side of said bad guy.

It can be difficult (especially for the untrained) to determine if they're loaded. Most people know that you have to make sure that there is no round in the pipe AND remove the magazine to ensure that a handgun isn't loaded, but not everyone knows exactly how to do that particularly untrained kids.

which leads me to number three: handguns are cool and easy to operate. Which means that if the owner of the weapon does make a mistake and leaves it unlocked and ammo in a location where a kid knows where it is, bad things could happen.

In my opinion an old school double barrel shotgun and shells filled with bird shot are a better choice: powerful enough to incapacitate but the shot dissipates quickly, it's easy to tell if it's loaded and most have to be cocked before firing, and finally it's heavy, cumbersome and not very cool. In my opinion it's a better weapon, and far safer to have around.

Saturday night was dinner with some friends at a local brew pub.
The food was good, but a bit spendy.

Sunday was weird.. mixed emotions.
The wife and I decided to hop on our bikes and go for a spin. I got down the hill and realized that my back tire was a little soggy. No worries, there is a bike shop near by and I went over to get a fill up (still in trial and tweak mode I didn't have any of my usual "oh shit" gear with me: pump, flat kit.. bupkis) We're not going too far, so it should be fine. The guy at the shop fills my tire, and I feel like a total poser. I have a nice bike, and I am clearly not doing it justice.
Oh well, so I'm a poser.
We head up the trail. I am in the lead and having an aweful time finding the right cadance. The wife is behind me. I realize that I have no idea how far we are going she said "Lets go to ." and I said "sure" without thinking much about it. I am alternating between thinking I am going too fast for her, too fast for myself to make it the whole long way, realizing I have no idea how far that is, and thinking that I will be struck down for hubris for thinking that the wife who is in the middle of training for the biggest if not one of themost prestegious regattas in the world can't keep up with my sorry butt. Needless to say, I am rolling like a headcase. I pull over and ramble for a while trying to explain all of this.. I fail. I simplify: "I have no idea where we are going and I'm being a headcase, will you take the lead for a while?" Sure says the wife, and off we go. We tool along for a while, I finally turn my brain off and just spin. Actual fun is actually being had.. when Psssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht. I flat. I stop the wife. We discuss for a while, and I walk the trail for about a half mile till I get to a grocery. I sit and drink some coffee while the wife goes home and comes with the car to pick me up. Epic fail on my part.
The wife shows up with a change of clothes and I load up the bike and we head to a huge local asian market down town.
We have lunch.
We pick up some oysters, coffee beverages, fish sauce, and some other random stuff.
Then head home. What very well could have been a crappy day, if I'd let it, was pretty great.
Hope you had a good sunday too.
Mahalo.

can't sleep..

Slept in too much this morning.. I'm going to be tired tomorrow.
Oh well. It was good while it lasted.
Hope you're cozy and sleeping away.
This weekend was full of guns, bikes, and boiled peanuts.
More on that at a more decent hour.
Mahalo.

Summer turns to fall, I feel it in my bones.

I have put a lot of years, and miles on my bones over grassy fields all over this country. I have engendered and endured enough collisions over the years to put a couple dozen cars in the junk yard. It was fun, I don't regret a second of it, but it does become a factor in my training at times. Last night was one of those times, got the work in I needed, but kept it brief.

Deads, max bar speed:
worked up to 5x1 @ 405

Pull-ups:
20 total reps @ bw

Face pulls:
2x15

Feeling a little less stiff today.
Mahalo.

Play some Skynyrd, Mahayn!

Last night, did a bunch of arm bars, triangles, oma platas. It was a lot of volume for the time alloted.
I'm all for ingraining technique, but practice makes permanent, and only perfect practice makes perfect. Still, I got better. My knee is pissed at me for all of the triangles though.

I've been listening to an album a friend gave me.
Skynyrd is prominently featured.

Forgot my shoes, so I lifted barefoot.

Well sometimes it happens.
Lifting at the boathouse is nice because I can play loud "my momma don't love me" music, and do things like lift barefoot. It's simple basic and dirty, but it limits some of the stuff I can do. So.. I still got plenty of work in.

Romanian DL:
worked up to
5x4 @ 325

Chins:
5 @ bw
3x3 @ +20
2x5 @ bw

Bench (done "bottoms up" from a power rack)
Once nice thing about the boathouse power rack is that the rails sit juuuuuust high enough over the bench that you can shimmy under the bar. That allows you.. or me.. to bench from a dead stop. Which is much harder.
worked up to 225
3 singles and 1 double

Rows:
5x8 @ MM band pulled tight.

Done and done.
Mahalo.

Report back to me when it makes sense.

Went to see "Burn after Reading" on saturday. It's an old school Cohen brothers flick: dark, grisly, witty and funny. I recommend it to all but the faint of heart.

Friday fun:
We acquired a new toy: 50 ft of 7/8" nylon rope.
workout was:
Sled drag: 90lbs+tire
two handed rope work (*see below)
x2
Sled drag: 90lbs+tire
Whip-smash
x2
hand over hand drags @ tire+135
x3

*


Saturday:
Jitz: worked some passes to knee on belly. Good stuff that works into my game.
Then rolled with a few folks. The night before's training kicked my butt, so I had to take a few breaks. I was cramping pretty bad. I need to watch my water intake.

Afternoon training:
Worked with the wife on her bench technique. She pressed a PR of 150.
Then I did some intervals:
5x 30 sec on 1 min off on the erg
10 minutes of 1 min on 1 off on the hand bike.
on: 180 watts
off: 60 watts

Mahalo.

*Beep Beep Beep...

Woke up in the middle of the night last night to a loud beeping noise coming from the kitchen. I went to see what it was, but it'd stopped, so I shuffled back to bed only to be interrupted a few minutes later by the same noise. This time I sussed it out: the kitchen thermometer I'd been using for dinner some how got reset to go off when it reached 71 degrees. Not anywhere near conscious enough enough to figure out how to reset it the damn thing, I chucked it in the fridge and went back to bed.

Last night's workout:
Good mornings:
worked up to 2 @ 295
3x3 @ 275.
These are getting better. I'm becoming more able to keep my arch, and am slowly rebuilding the stability of my bum SI joint.

Pull-ups:
5x5 @ bw various grips

Bent rows:
worked up to 4 @ 185
then wide grip bent rows (index finger on power ring)
5x5 @ 135

Mahalo.

RIP '08.

It's been a crazy up and down season for the Redbirds. but it's time to call it. They're done.
Up until 2/3 of the way throught the regular season the Cards had the third best record in the league, and were in third place in their division, brutal.
Too much overacheving for too long has drained much of the scrap out of the guys and they've dipped to 4th place.
They should finish well over .500, which is not bad for a rebuilding year.
We'll be back in the hunt next year.

Clocked in.

After Monday's sluggishness, I kept the volume low last night, and just got some work in.
Clocked in.

Squats: high box:
worked up to a double at 345

chins:
5 sets of AMAP

1A DB rows:
4x4 @ 105

bench:
worked up to a triple at 225
Clocked out.

Clocked in?

Attitude Adjustment..

I had a bad attitude last night at jitz. I was moving pretty poorly and my mind wasn't in the right place. So I bailed after the first class. I got enough work in, somedays you just gotta know when to say when.

Recipe sunday.

For this weekend’s update, I figured I’d include a couple recipes to keep things interesting.
Friday:
Pull-ups x10
Get-ups x5/5
Man-Makers x10
Kb snatch 10/10
Done all together, break up sets any way you see fit, do in any order. For time. All kb work done with the 44, man-makers done with 2x 35lb dumbbells.
2x second set must be done faster than the first.
This was good work, two sets all out 4-5 minutes of work each.

Saturday:
Jitz, learned a take-down that really didn’t make sense to me, there seemed to be a pretty obvious counter to it. Rolled 3x or so, lots of movement.
Then went to the gym. Kept it short, but got in the work that I missed on Thursday:
Deads (for speed):
Worked up to 405+chains.
Did singles till the bar speed stalled (6 sets)

Chest supported rows:
4x5 @ 160

Sunday, started off with some Turkey sausage that I made. I don’t know why more people don’t make their own sausage patties. It’s far cheaper, you can control the quality of the meat that you use (which is huge if you know what kind of crap is used in prepared sausage); there are no preservatives or crazy chemicals (assuming you don’t put any in yourself). Knowing your source of your food is huge. If you ingest animal protein get to know your purveyor, if you eat seafood, this is even more key.

Basic breakfast patties:
1.25 lbs of lean pork/dark poultry meat
1 Tsp fennel seeds
4-5 leaves of sage chopped fine
1 tsp cayenne
1 large pinch of salt
1 small pinch of sugar
Several grinds of black pepper.
Mix, leave in a bowel in the fridge overnight. Cook a small piece and taste to test the seasoning, and adjust as needed.
Obviously this is very basic, you could add some cooked apple or onion, if you like things hot you can add more cayenne, or any other spices you like. It’s personal and customizable. Go nuts.

From there we went to Ikea, and REI picked up some new slip covers for our living room (needed thanks to the cat) and hung out with Paul for a bit.
I put the furniture together, and then cooked dinner:

Pumpkin shrimp curry:
This is a lazy man’s curry in that I use red curry paste. If you have a recipe for red curry that you like have at it. Also if you want to roast your own pumpkin and mash it, that would actually be better, but it will also take about an hour and a half.
3 carrots (rough chop)
1 red onion (sliced thin)
2-3 bell peppers (sliced thin)
Garlic 4-8 cloves minced
1-2 chilis (to taste, minced or sliced)
1 thumb sized knob of ginger (minced)
2 lbs of shrimp (de-veined)
1-2 Tsp Red Chili paste
1 can coconut milk
1 can cooked pumpkin.
2 Tsp vegetable oil (something with a high smoke point)
Optional
1 tomato diced
1 pinch fresh thai basil

Get your mis en place together. Once you get rolling there won’t be time to cut anything else up.
I usually do this in a wok, but if you don’t have one a big pot or saucier will work. Crank the heat up to high and let the pan warm up.
Splash in the oil and follow immediately with the carrots. Stir to keep from sticking and burning. Once they get a little color, add the onions and bell peppers with a pinch of salt. Keep tossing until they start to turn clear, add the hot peppers, garlic, and ginger, toss for about a minute. If your shrimp are raw add in now, if pre-cooked wait till just before service. Add the pumpkin and stir for just a minute till it gets incorporated and turns slightly darker. Add the coconut milk and the chili paste, and turn the heat down to low. Stir occasionally until the carrots are cooked but firm. Serve in a soup bowel with tomato and basil.

For Dessert:
Ice cream with spicy peach compote.
1 small bear of honey
1 pinch salt
1 tsp cayenne
½ tsp nutmeg
3-4 peaches
1-2 scoops of vanilla ice cream per diner.

Put all of the honey salt and spices in a sauce pan on med-high. Stir occasionally until the honey starts to bubble. Slowly turn the heat down till the honey just simmers for 10-15 minutes or until the honey turns from golden to deep brown. Add the peaches and stir for 1-2 minutes. Refrigerate and scoop over vanilla ice cream.

No Gi and no lifting.

Wednesday night was a rarity: No Gi training at Ballard BJJ. We are almost exclusively a gi school. I love training and rolling no gi, so I was at class till almost 9 p.m. Three hours of jitz, I was toast.
Thursday still sore and tired from the night before, being at work till nearly 7 pm, and a general feeling of "wrong-ness" that seems to happen every September 11, culminated in me and the couch spending a lot of quality time together. I'll make it up on the weekend, no worries.
Have a good weekend.
Mahalo.

Eating fudge banana swirl..

Just you and me punk rock girl.
I love that song, it was playing during my workout last night.
Deadlifts:
worked up.
405
425
455
475 (miss)
455
405
405

pull ups:
bw-4
bw+25:
3, 3, 3, 2
all done dead hang

floor press:
worked up to 245

bent rows:
5 x5 @ 185

Done.



bonus track:

Temptation and Tabata

A couple of guys approched me at the 50th anniversary galla talking about getting a boat together for one of the biggest races in the world next year. Needless to say I was tempted. So I am going to include some ergometer intervals in my daytime workouts.. just in case.
today short and simple
tabata protocol.
All 'work' over 100m.

UFC 88 thoughts and a busy weekend.

First things first:
Friday workout:
sprint 50m
kb swing 10/10 @ 44
sprint 50m
3x slosh pipe two hands any-how.
x5
2:1 rest:work

then 2x slosh pipe over head holds for time (clock starts at lockout):
3:01
3:33
Killed the current friday fun record by more than double, feelin pretty good.

Friday night the wife had to go to a boat dedication. I skipped it and grabbed some grub with the kids.
Saturday I went to class, and worked a couple sweeps I already 'knew' but didn't really know well enough to actually work. Then a couple hard sparring sessions. My hamstring cramped (probably from the sprints the night before) So I rolled hard, but took lots of rest in between.
Saturday night was the 50th anniversery of my rowing club. It was fun, but the food was dubious. The wife and I snuck off to get some grub, and by the time we came back the party was over.
Sunday, I watched UFC 88:
Quick hits:

Dong Hyun Kim and Matt Brown both looked good. If Brown is decent, Kim could be scary good if he gets his striking together.

Martin Kampmann needs to cut some weight and get down to 170. He's too small to compete at 185. Nate Marquardt handled him, and with that much of a size difference there wasn't much he could do about it.

Dan Henderson is no slouch. The heel hook he defended was scary.

Rousimar Palhares needs to work on his stand-up, but his ground game is unbelieveable.

Matt Hamill needs to train at a different camp. He appears to have hit a plateau with his tactics and striking skills. He needs to go to Xtreme Couture, Team Punishment or even Down to Greg Jackson's camp to move up to that next level.

Chris Leben vs. Count Bisping.. THAT's a headliner?

Speaking of the Natural, his fight with Brock Lesner is going to be interesting. Randy has beaten everyone the punters have thought would clean his proverbial clock, but at the same time Lesner is unlike anyone else in MMA. His speed, quickness and power negate everyone (thus far) take down defense. If the Natrual can stay off his back, it should be an interesting fight.

Chuck needs to learn to avoid that traveling right hook. It's the same punch that rampage beat him with, and Rashad Evens put it to good use.

Speaking of Evans, just admit you're a boring fighter, and quit dancing around and showboating. I did not tune in to the UFC to watch dancing, I do not find it entertaining. If I did, I'd be watching the "Dancing with the stars" PPV event, not the UFC.

All in all a good weekend.
Mahalo.

'Cause I'm T.N.T.

I'm dine-O-mite!

Trained at the boathouse last night so that I could take my time and get some squatting done, and not have to worry about some schmoe wanting to use the rack. Bonus benefit: squatting barefoot. Not so bonus is the women's crew was training there before me their cd started off solid (see the title) but quickly went to pot from there.
I haven't squatted anything close to heavy since my back injury a few months back, so I was pretty careful.
15" box
5x3 @ 275
2x2 @ 295
I could have gone much heavier, but like I said I was being careful, and having been sick most of this week, I just wanted to get in, get the reps done, and get out safely.

bent rows:
worked up by 5s to 5@ 185.
Done.
In and out. Still on the recovery path.
My back feels good today, my hips are a little sore, but feeling good.
tonight's friday fun workout is going on a field trip to the local college track!

Gonna make you sweat till ya bleed.

Is that dope enough?

Feeling much better.
Just did some light supersets last night:

Pull throughs 10/pull-ups 5
x3

bent rows 10/ohp 8 @ 135
x3

push-ups and dips
100 total reps.

I'm feeling pretty good today.
tonight I'm going to get some heavyish squats, and lots of rows.
Mahalo.

Feeling better, but not quite Better.

No workout for 3 days. lots of sleep.
I'm going to go to the gym and work up a sweat. This flu has kicked my butt.

You don't think I'm funny anymore..

Man, woman or child.. I have been busy.
I'll try to catch you up.

Thursday:
We went out to a local park to see Willie Nelson. Marymoor is a cool venue, the crowd was diverse and interesting. The opening band was remarkably forgettable. He was a young man from Bellingham, Wa, but for some reason he felt the need to affect a southern accent.. badly. He played fair music, over sang like crazy, and did the 'potty dance' the whole time he was on stage. Willie was fantastic. His band was super tight and allowed Willie to move in and out like a trick rider on a throughbred. He played all of his hits, and a couple new songs. I was surprised at the chops the old guy had on the guitar.
The crowd was diverse, and incredibly white. I was glad to see more than a couple of true cowboys from eastern washington, and more than a few hippies (both young and old). I was exceedingly unimpressed with all of the yuppies playing dress-up. Yes, he does play cowboy songs, but that doesn't mean you should run to Target to get one of those crappy psudo-cowboy hats with the wire rim. Yes, he is known fore wearing red bandannas.. no you should not do likewise. The other remarkable thing about the crowd was the overwhelming cloud of oppressive canibus smoke that was NOT hanging over the ampitheatre. There were a few folks partaking, particularly a 50+ year old guy with a flat-top and a handle bar mostache who was very obviously there with his grown kids. But I had heard tales of dense clouds of smoke, and it just wasn't the case at this show.
The other folks that stood out were the obvously well heeled middle-aged couple who were sitting in front of us. They were getting crocked on $10 beers, and generally keeping to themselves. That is until the guy kept yelling "Georgia!" in full on frat dude voice during Georgia on my mind, for no apparent reason. His female compainion got up to dance to a song later in the concert, got juuust to vertical and toppled over like a tree being felled. She was too drunk to even react. She just flopped over. I almost pulled something laughing.
So loads of fun was had, and getting home wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.

Friday:
Was a little bleary-eyed at work from being up all night, but got through work without too much strife.
The workout was this:
Squats:
worked up to 20 @ 225
Cement bouy anchor carrys: 10
cement bouy anchor throws for distance: 6
Done and done.

Saturday:
Had a couple good rolls at class. I got kicked in the beak.. hard. It's all puffy and blue even today.
Went to the gym later did 10x a minute on a minute off on the hand bike and the erg, then some ab/core work.
The wife and I hung out at home. I made my first run at making paella. It was 'OK.' I learned a couple of things. Next time will be good.

Sunday:
The wife went to her step-sister's baby shower. I stayed at home. I wasn't feeling great. We went to see Tropic Thunder. It was juvanile, silly, stupid and VERY funny.
Not for kids or the faint of heart. The script is good, the acting is great, but Ben Stiller as a director has all the subtilty of a 9 lb hammer.

Today:
I have been sick as a dog all day. I feel aweful. All I have eaten is a bowl of oatmeal and some green tea. I'm dizzy, sweaty and cold. I hate feeling like this. I think.. I hope I'm on the mend.