PaulG Preps For The Storm

[PaulG]

It’s awfully hard to write something decent, especially when you kinda-sorta checked out of the last challenge in the final week.

At some point I’ll do a full write-up of the old challenge — I need to keep myself accountable — but let’s do the quick version here: I got sucked into my job, didn’t keep track of anything, and didn’t hit a single goal.

Now… the HOLIDAYS are here.

 

 

A cold snap’s hit the Pacific Northwest, rain is starting to roll through, and I can feel people starting to hunker down. Covid in the States is still very much on the rise, and the news is talking about impending food shortages.

Although I didn’t spend the last month so well, I think this next challenge will be somewhat of an opportunity: if I can get important stuff like medical appointments out of the way now, and re-establish some healthy habits, I’ll be in a much better position when the winter REALLY hits.

I could pick lots of goals this challenge, including all the ones from last challenge, which I didn’t really take seriously enough. However, I’ve always held that biting off more than you can chew is worse than not biting at all, so I’m going to stick (officially) to the basics for this challenge: strength, mobility, healthy eating, and not allowing my brain to collapse in on itself.

 

GOAL TIME.

 

1. Strength: 3x6 weighted pistol squats +20lbs. First, a confession: I’ve missed a little over a week of workouts, ever since 10/18. First I slacked off because of a little lower back soreness, then just a general tiredness. And then, halfway through last week, I was suddenly hit with shoulder problems again. I don’t know what happened this time, because I already hadn’t worked out in a few days… maybe I just slept on it funny. But for the past four days or so it’s been fairly painful, especially in pulling motions and the lower half of wall slides. The pec minor especially feels very sore and weak. On Thursday and Sunday I performed mini-workouts that were basically just warmups, a few pushups to test the shoulder, and then my usual shoulder PT… on Sunday I knocked the weights for PT back down to 4 lbs. I’m not sure how serious this new shoulder issue is, but it has me nervous and jumping at small twinges.

 

But you know what? My legs still work fine, and I will not stop working out long-term just because of this issue. And my pistols have been quite close to weighted work for a while. Last challenge I set a pullup goal, and then didn’t work it very hard… this time I will commit to a leg-based goal I can push for.

 

2. Mobility: Continue mobility/light skill days 2x/week. Two days a week of mobility work on my off-days worked great… during the one week last challenge that I actually did it. I’m going to recommit to this one.

 

3. Diet: Log food every day. Another little confession: I’ve logged my food intake faithfully in MFP nearly every day since April of this year, but three weeks ago I slid right off the back of the wagon. I think logging food is a good habit in general, especially if you have ambitious body comp goals (which I do). But it’s tough to keep plugging away at that log every day unless you have the built-in reward system of watching your body change over time, and most of the last six months I’ve been maintaining my weight rather than gaining or losing.

 

Now, the shoulder may throw a wrench in this ultimately… but I’ve been thinking it’s probably time for a brief cut (my waist slid upward half an inch or so), and then I would like to start consciously bulking. That means the diet needs to be on point. So I will re-establish this habit now, before the holidays tempts me into taking up a pastry-baking hobby or something.

 

4. Life/Recovery: Accumulate at least 50.75 hours of sleep per week. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Particularly over the last three weeks, which have been characterized by lots of work, and sleep that’s been too short and poor in quality. My back issues and general malaise were really beginning to show in my workouts, and I think a mounting sleep debt is one of the root causes. So I’ve modeled this goal to keep me focused on the most important thing, which is to make sure that I’m not accumulating sleep debt over time. I know that 7.25 hours of sleep per night is about the least I can get without starting to feel run-down, so that will be a minimum baseline.

 

5. Life/Mental Health: Maintain a steady break schedule during work hours: don’t leave my desk except on breaks. I can already tell this one will be the hardest. I had a lot of competing ideas for this goal — checking in with people socially more regularly, setting up a schedule for writing, getting the guitar repaired (@WhiteGhost’s challenge has me wanting to start practicing again) — but right now what I need is the basics. My work has become difficult to get through every day, and everyone in my company stays late constantly. It’s become difficult to be productive during the workday, and tempting to stay late, and my work life and personal life is starting to bleed together.

 

It took a long time for me to hit this particular wall, I know a lot of people hit it earlier when they started working from home… but disappointingly I’m not immune, and I need to sort it out. My new break system is going to be 50 minutes of work, followed by 5-10 minutes of timed breaks. When I’m working, I don’t leave the desk, and I don’t let myself get sucked into little household tasks that often start to distract me.

 

 

Now, bonus goals...

 

I usually have a few of these up my sleeve, and this challenge is no exception.

 

BONUS GOAL 1: Get my check-ups. Last challenge I set out to get my yearly medical appointments squeezed in before winter, and by the end of the challenge I'd barely scheduled them. This is my opportunity to redeem myself. Before the end of the challenge I intend to have crossed off my annual physical, flu shot, yearly dental cleaning, and vision check-up.

 

BONUS GOAL 2: Repair the guitar. I've been meaning to do this for ages, but I keep putting it off. My acoustic guitar, which has been with me since I was 14, developed a crack in its neck a couple years ago; since then it's laid in my closet, unstrung and unplayed. Recently I've been thinking wistfully about playing music again though. I keep getting an itch to buy a keyboard and finally learn piano properly... but the least I can do is pay someone a hundred bucks to get my guitar in fighting shape again, so I have something to noodle around on over the winter.

 

BONUS GOAL 3: Make the most of apple season. Last challenge I started a very small, 1-gallon batch of cider from a box of King David apples, using a recipe from the excellent book Modern Cider by Emma Christensen. They're still fermenting -- now in a jug with an airlock, instead of a bucket. The cider is due to go into bottles at the end of November, and I need to make sure it happens, so it's ready to drink around Christmas.

 

ALL RIGHT! There we go. Better late than never! Wish me luck!

[PaulG]

Brief catch-up time, since we're already two days into this challenge:

 

Sunday, 10/25

Mobility Day: None so far

Food Log: ✅

Sleep Hours: 7 hours, 10 minutes.

Work Break Minutes: No work today.

 

Monday, 10/26

Mobility Day:   ✅ 1/1 for Week 1 so far. Halfway through the day, my left knee started aching a lot, so I thought leg work was a bad idea. I did some light shoulder work, though: wall slides, overhead shrugs and a little self-massage in the right pec minor, which has been extremely tight and sore with these new shoulder issues.

Food Log: ✅

Sleep Hours: 6 hours, 30 minutes. That's 13.58 hours out of what should be 14.5 so far. Gotta catch up.

Work Break Minutes: Today was my first day. I timed my breaks, but in all honesty I didn't track the exact break times. I was more productive Monday than I was most of last week, but need to tighten down a little.

 

Tuesday's not yet over, so I'll catch up on that tomorrow. But here's a peek at Tuesday night's dinner. Char siu pork is always delicious, but it's especially so when you make it yourself...

 

[WhiteGhost]

Here for this as always

 

I see there is no goal far making super complicated foods this time...  

 

ETA: that Cha Siu Pork look fantastic

[raptron]

Ooooomg, I love cha siu pork. That looks phenom.

 

And oh nooo, I'm so sorry that your work life and stress has taken such a ramp up right now. I would not be surprised if that is tying into the lower sleep is tying into the fatigue is tying into the workout blahs and body aches... Everything tends to be annoyingly connected in such ways. Good luck setting some firmer boundaries and I hope the work crunch is a temporary state. I feel like NO ONE needs the added stress right now. 

[dancezwithkittehz]

Hang in there friend. I think we all had a big slump at the end of last challenge! Life is stressful right now even without adding additional specific work stressors on top of things! I hope your work break goals and sleepy sleepness help! I have faith you will figure out the things! Following as always! ❤️ 

 

Also OMFG WANT that char siu! It looks perfeeeect! Your thread is always such food inspo!

[DoubleTrouble]

Hi!

I like how you don't let your shoulder stop you from working on other stuff.

I tried making char siu once. I had no idea what I was doing so I put the sauce on before putting it in the oven. It melted off and burnt

[PaulG]

16 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

ETA: that Cha Siu Pork look fantastic

 

9 hours ago, raptron said:

Ooooomg, I love cha siu pork. That looks phenom.

 

6 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

Also OMFG WANT that char siu! It looks perfeeeect! Your thread is always such food inspo!

 

☺️ Thanks y'all!

 

I agree, char siu MIGHT be the best thing in the world. I made the sauce out of the beef lushui I did months ago. I’m really happy that it came out as red as it did, given there’s no red food coloring in the sauce.

 

1 hour ago, DoubleTrouble said:

I tried making char siu once. I had no idea what I was doing so I put the sauce on before putting it in the oven. It melted off and burnt

 

No, that totally makes sense, it's easy for that to happen when you're working with saucy roasted stuff. If it doesn't all slough off, half the time for me the sauce burns. I followed this recipe and it's the only reason it turned out okay. When I threw it in the oven, it had been marinating in its sauce for a long time; but I also mixed a little more sauce with some honey and basted the mixture over the pork regularly while it cooked. Some sauce did drip into the pan and burn, but keeping the coats of glaze thin mostly kept it attached to the pork.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was feeling the slump at the end of last challenge. And I think you're right, @raptron; it's a bit of a vicious cycle. I think the root is really my workload, though; as my work life has bled into my personal life, I've had less time and mental energy, which tempts me to stay up later since I got so little time to myself, which makes me more tired and less productive at work...

 

16 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I see there is no goal far making super complicated foods this time...

 

It's funny you mention that. I've been feeling like all the new recipes I've tried has consumed a lot of time in my off-hours, and I should probably be using that time for the things that have been on the backburner. So I decided to go back to my old meal plan system, at least for now. I wrote up a meal plan for the next two weeks and forgot to post it:

 

Spoiler

Sunday:
Qingjiao Rousi

 

Monday:
Char Siu Pork

 

Tuesday:
Char Siu w/ Noodles?

 

Wednesday:
Pasta w/ Italian Sausage, Gai Lan
 
Thursday:
Prolly More Pasta
 
Friday:
Zigong Small-Fried Chicken w/ Pickled Chiles

 

Saturday:
Shio Koji Pork Chops OR Khao Tom
 
Sunday:
Leftovers!

 

Monday:
Probably More Leftovers

 

Tuesday:
Rabbit in Bean Sauce (New Recipe, probably doing this with chicken thigh instead of rabbit)

 

Wednesday:
Noodle Soup - Boat Noodles?
 
Thursday:
Noodle Soup Leftovers
 
Friday:
Phat Wun Sen (Not yet sure which one I'll do, the Hainanese version looks interesting)

 

Saturday:
Tacos Al Pastor w/ Pineapple
 
Sunday:
Leftovers!

 

Of course, I'm already a day behind; on Monday I got lazy, picked up some salmon at the store, and made myself a poke bowl.*

 

I still have plenty of room for an occasional blowout cooking project, like the tacos al pastor. In fact, I've got a whole list of more complicated "project" meals that I can draw from. The idea is mainly to plan them out, so I don't get tempted to start doing three or four in a single week or something.

 

*The recipe called for chili garlic sauce, which I don't own, so I smashed together some fresh garlic and a home-pickled chile, fried it, and used that. I kept the salmon raw, but I fried the skin until crunchy and crumbled that into the rice bowl, which I thought was a nice touch.

 

Tuesday, 10/27

Mobility Day: Workout Day!

Food Log: ✅Done

Sleep Hours: 7 hours, even

Work Break Minutes: not tracking appropriately! But I did leave my desk only a couple of times during the morning, and only took one break in the afternoon.

 

- Ran out on my lunch break and finally got a flu shot and tetanus booster. The tetanus shot was probably long overdue, I've been meaning to get that ever since I restarted parkour. I got both in my left arm, which has been complaining about it ever since.
- My right shoulder was feeling much better Tuesday. The soreness in the actual shoulder joint was almost entirely gone, resolved to a little tightness/soreness in the pec minor.

 

Workout Log 10/27/20

Warmup

BW Squats: 10^a-e, 12^a-e, 12^a-e

- The left knee has been aching since Monday for some reason. I'm not too worried about it, but I decided to keep things light for today.

Decline Pushups: 8^a-e, 8^a-e, 8^a-e

Wide Ring Rows: 9^a-x, 9^a-e, 9^a-x

Tuck L-Sit: 15s^a-e, 17s^a-e, 16s^a-x

Stool Dips: 1^b-e

- Did one rep and decided NOPE, my shoulder was barely hanging on to a good position, I don't want to overstress it.

High IR (3lbs): 14/14^b-6, 14/10^a-7
Standing Scaption Raise (3lbs): 16/16^a-5, 16/16^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (3lbs): 16/16^a-5, 14/14^a-8
Sidelying Ext Rotation (3lbs): 14/14^a-6, 14/14^a-7

Cooldown

 

- It's a little bit of a drag how much my shoulder seems to have backslid over the last week, and I'm still not sure what happened. This workout was half-volume and a step or two down in intensity, but it seemed to push my shoulder to its limit. By the time I was done, I could tell I would feel it the next day. (And I was right, it's a little more tender as of Wednesday, though still feeling better than it was a couple days ago.) I am trying to stay positive because it seems to be recovering pretty fast.

[PaulG]

Quick additional update to share an old video I took during parkour class two weeks ago. It's a quick number to track my WALL CLIMB-UP TECHNIQUE.

 

 

Yes, it's a vertical video. Yes, that makes me a nightmare of a human being. It's a vertical movement, dangit!

 

That day, I was doing great at climb-ups from a cat position on a low (head height) wall. But when my coach asked me to switch to a higher wall and do the full wall run/climb-up combo, we immediately saw some issues with my form. This is the first pass I took at it. I felt a little more comfortable with it after about ten minutes of drilling, but I probably should have looked at the video more closely during class. It's hard for me to focus on picking apart form videos while my adrenaline's up. And it was definitely up -- this was the highest wall I'd climbed in a while.

 

Spoiler

Lesson plan for future practice:

 

- There could be more arm drive as I run into the movement. My lack of running technique is losing me some power.

- Even at the time, I'd thought my first step on the wall was landing too low. I was right. A little more power left on the table.

- I have a fear issue with landing both feet on the wall at the top-out. (I turned every rep into a vault .)

- Rather than getting into a good cat position, my feet are scrabbling on the wall as my hands make it to the top, preventing me from pulling properly as I start the climb-up. There's supposed to be a big pull and knee drive. Need to concentrate on hitting either a cat position or a one-foot cat.

- May be related to the foot-scrabbling issues, but I noticed I am subtly pulling more with the right arm than the left: my left elbow is flipping up early, making it sort of a one-armed muscle-up. Need to pull equally with both.

 

I should probably be doing this more with the drills I practice, to help me clean up my technique. A lot of this parkour stuff I haven't practiced in years, and I could use the perspective.

 

Finally, Wednesday night's dinner was GOING to be pasta in marinara sauce, with Italian sausage and gai lan. (Ground the sausage myself!) But by the time I buckled down this evening, I couldn't be arsed to open a can of tomatoes and crowd the fridge with leftovers. So I made a tarted-up aglio e olio sauce instead. Still just as good!

 

[Vidd]

I'm with you on prepping for the storm. Last challenge was really iffy for me too but we've still got time to get situated before winter comes I only got some of my appointments done but what I am ashamed to admit is I had follow-up appointments I still need to make that I've put off again so, I'm kind of in a similar boat as far as getting those knocked out. 

 

I like all these goals especially the sleep one with a number to shoot for. Any time I focus on getting lots of sleep it's like that movie Limitless where everything just starts clicking.

 

Anyway I'm following along Good luck on the pistols too. A 20lb pistol would be super impressive to pull off, especially for 6 reps.

[@mu]

On 10/28/2020 at 5:45 AM, PaulG said:

4. Life/Recovery: Accumulate at least 50.75 hours of sleep per week. I

 

Good reminder to myself. I need more recovery time these days.

 

I have no xp on wall climbing but it looked great to me!

[raptron]

16 hours ago, PaulG said:

And I think you're right, @raptron; it's a bit of a vicious cycle. I think the root is really my workload, though; as my work life has bled into my personal life, I've had less time and mental energy, which tempts me to stay up later since I got so little time to myself, which makes me more tired and less productive at work...

Oh, I was 100% blaming it on work, and the cyclical nature makes it extra tough.

 

16 hours ago, PaulG said:

- Ran out on my lunch break and finally got a flu shot and tetanus booster. The tetanus shot was probably long overdue, I've been meaning to get that ever since I restarted parkour. I got both in my left arm, which has been complaining about it ever since.

Oooh, yeah, the tetanus one is achey as heck.

11 hours ago, PaulG said:

That day, I was doing great at climb-ups from a cat position on a low (head height) wall. But when my coach asked me to switch to a higher wall and do the full wall run/climb-up combo, we immediately saw some issues with my form. This is the first pass I took at it. I felt a little more comfortable with it after about ten minutes of drilling, but I probably should have looked at the video more closely during class. It's hard for me to focus on picking apart form videos while my adrenaline's up. And it was definitely up -- this was the highest wall I'd climbed in a while.

Nice! That sounds like a productive practice. I'm surprised you didn't take another video after drilling to see the changes! 

11 hours ago, PaulG said:

So I made a tarted-up aglio e olio sauce instead. Still just as good!

Yum.

[PaulG]

13 hours ago, @mu said:

 

Good reminder to myself. I need more recovery time these days.

 

I have no xp on wall climbing but it looked great to me!

 

Thanks!

 

I had gotten so used to getting plenty of sleep during quarantine, and not needing to think about it. It's funny, March-May was a weird and stressful experience for many of us, but in some ways it was also life on Easy Mode.

 

13 hours ago, Vidd said:

I'm with you on prepping for the storm. Last challenge was really iffy for me too but we've still got time to get situated before winter comes I only got some of my appointments done but what I am ashamed to admit is I had follow-up appointments I still need to make that I've put off again so, I'm kind of in a similar boat as far as getting those knocked out. 

 

Good to know I'm not alone! I still haven't scheduled the vision appointment. I just know they're going to try and push a new pair of glasses on me, or I'm going to ask them about contacts (for parkour) and get sucked in...

 

13 hours ago, Vidd said:

I like all these goals especially the sleep one with a number to shoot for. Any time I focus on getting lots of sleep it's like that movie Limitless where everything just starts clicking.

 

Anyway I'm following along Good luck on the pistols too. A 20lb pistol would be super impressive to pull off, especially for 6 reps.

 

We will see, still need to pull the trigger on a weight vest and then I can start really working toward it.

 

2 hours ago, raptron said:

Oooh, yeah, the tetanus one is achey as heck.

 

Glad it's not just me!

 

2 hours ago, raptron said:

Nice! That sounds like a productive practice. I'm surprised you didn't take another video after drilling to see the changes! 

 

... Oops 😳 That would have been a good idea.

 

 

Wednesday, 10/28

Mobility Day: Nope. Still at 1/2 for Week 1.

Food Log: ✅ DONE. But I realized I forgot to record my weight on Tuesday, and forgot to record my waist on Wednesday… so the record-keeping isn’t perfect, I guess.

Sleep Hours: 8 hours, 30 minutes thanks to a 2.5-hour nap. That puts me at 29.08/29 hours so far, slightly ahead of the curve. Still, in theory, it would be better to be getting more sleep outside of naps… even though naps are SO NICE.

Work Break Minutes: 35 minutes total breaks. I had a very productive day, knocking out three-quarters of the stuff I’ve been behind on for the last two weeks.

 

- Shoulder pretty tender after Tuesday's workout. But better than it was Monday! So... progress, I guess?

- Poking through my fridge, I was suddenly reminded: I found makrut limes! A special variety of Thai lime, the leaves are easy (-ish) to find in the US. However, the fruits themselves are rarely grown in the US and almost never imported from SE Asia, making them almost impossible to find. Which is a shame, because although the leaves taste close to the fruit, they aren't quite the same; and the fruit's rind is a very common ingredient in curry pastes.

 

Anywho, I was barreling through my local Japanese grocery last Saturday, grabbing citrus on my way to my dad's for dinner, and found a huge bin of them, in perfect condition and for only $6 a pound. I instantly bought three, even though I had no plan for them... and then I threw them in the fridge and forgot they existed.

 

Now I still have no plan for them. I COULD make a couple batches of homemade curry pastes, which would last through the winter kept in the freezer... I also know of a couple of very tasty old-school Thai curries that use makrut lime juice for some of their sour seasoning component, like kaeng the-pho. Whatever I do with them, I should probably use them within a few more days, because I have a feeling I won't be able to get many more of these limes before they run out or the season is over. Any ideas, folks?

[Mike Wazowski]

Woop for sleep!!

 

Also, your thread consistently helps me check whether or not I am, in fact, hungry, based only on the pictures of delish food!

[WhiteGhost]

On 10/29/2020 at 12:30 PM, PaulG said:

track my WALL CLIMB-UP TECHNIQUE.

Your technique in this video is quite similar to my own.  I always struggle with the knee drive movement so the only way I can get up is to rely on momentum from the initial jump to get me past the cat hang.  I suspect if you combine a higher initial step on the wall with a good cat hang knee drive, you could easily get up a wall much higher than this one.

 

As for the feet landing on the wall thing, is it a concern about the landing or about getting both feet over the lip of the wall.  I have poor compression so I get scared trying to hop up with both feet at the same time and end up lifting one hand up to compensate (which it looks like you may be doing as well?)

 

10 hours ago, PaulG said:

I COULD make a couple batches of homemade curry pastes, which would last through the winter kept in the freezer

This one gets my vote

[raptron]

18 hours ago, PaulG said:

Good to know I'm not alone! I still haven't scheduled the vision appointment. I just know they're going to try and push a new pair of glasses on me, or I'm going to ask them about contacts (for parkour) and get sucked in...

... Is this not why one goes to the eye doctor? 😝

 

18 hours ago, PaulG said:

Now I still have no plan for them. I COULD make a couple batches of homemade curry pastes, which would last through the winter kept in the freezer... I also know of a couple of very tasty old-school Thai curries that use makrut lime juice for some of their sour seasoning component, like kaeng the-pho. Whatever I do with them, I should probably use them within a few more days, because I have a feeling I won't be able to get many more of these limes before they run out or the season is over. Any ideas, folks?

Curry paaaaaste seems like the best idea, IMO, for easy dinners in the dark days ahead. 

[PaulG]

On 10/29/2020 at 1:33 PM, Mike Wazowski said:

Woop for sleep!!

 

Also, your thread consistently helps me check whether or not I am, in fact, hungry, based only on the pictures of delish food!

 

I will endeavor to be a hunger barometer for us all

 

21 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Your technique in this video is quite similar to my own.  I always struggle with the knee drive movement so the only way I can get up is to rely on momentum from the initial jump to get me past the cat hang.  I suspect if you combine a higher initial step on the wall with a good cat hang knee drive, you could easily get up a wall much higher than this one.

 

As for the feet landing on the wall thing, is it a concern about the landing or about getting both feet over the lip of the wall.  I have poor compression so I get scared trying to hop up with both feet at the same time and end up lifting one hand up to compensate (which it looks like you may be doing as well?)

 

I'm glad I'm not alone in this technique struggle! It's encouraging that you think those tweaks will help. I'm dying to practice some more once my shoulder calms down again.

 

Re: the landing footwork issue, I'm actually quite physically capable of doing it -- all those primal squats were good for something I guess. Just a few minutes before that video was taken, I'd been climbing up to a two-foot precision on a lower wall every time, so I know I have the mobility for it. I think I was having a fear issue due to the height of the wall -- I was afraid of falling backwards off a wall that high, and vaulting removed that risk. Weirdly, I didn't realize I was even having that response at the time.

 

12 hours ago, raptron said:

... Is this not why one goes to the eye doctor? 😝

 

Hah, good point 😓 I think it's mainly the potential expense of new glasses or contacts. Even though I'm lucky enough to have decent insurance, the lack of certainty around medical expenses tends to freak me out. Rationally, I'm perfectly capable of saying no to sales pitches I can't afford, so I really can't let this be a reason to put it off. Even though it puts my teeth on edge.

 

21 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

This one gets my vote

 

12 hours ago, raptron said:

Curry paaaaaste seems like the best idea, IMO, for easy dinners in the dark days ahead.

 

I'm inclined to agree! Must think about what kinds of curry pastes I should stock up on. Good old-fashioned green curry? Maybe some more curry paste for that herb sausage? Hmmm....

 

Thursday, 10/29

 

Mobility Day: Workout day yo

Food Log: ✅ DONE. Once again, forgot to track that waist. Dammit.

Sleep Hours: 5 hours, 30 minutes. TANKED. I looked up and realized it was 12:15 AM. Then I committed the sin of deciding the day was shot, so I may as well stay up another few minutes, right? WRONG.

Work Break Minutes: Had the day off!

 

- Dinner was nothing special; I made a grilled cheese, opened it up, and threw in a quarter-pound of ham and some kimchi. When I inevitably got hungry again, I heated up a little leftover char siu, and sautéed a handful of jiucai for a veggie side.

- Left arm was still a little sore from those dang vaccines! It’s better than tetanus, I guess.

- Before I started my workout Thursday, I went out for a quick walk in the park… which turned into about 10 minutes of rail balance in the park… which turned into another 15 minutes of drills with a chest-height railing overlooking the lake. I practiced tacs from the arm of a park bench to precisions on the railing, and tac'ing into a turn vault on the railing. All tons of fun, of course. By the end, my left quad was a little sore, and it resolved into some knee soreness by the time I walked home. Decided to cut leg work for the day.

- Oh, but on the bright side! During my rail balance, I started to drill running along the rail. The best I was able to manage was a light jog, but I managed to run for a few steps at a time before I had to stop and rebalance. My average was 3 steps or so, but my personal best so far is 5.

 

Workout Log 10/29/20
- Going In: Tired from all those parkour drills, and unable to bend my left leg without some soreness. Not cool!

Warmup

Decline Pushups: 10^a-e, 10^a-e, 10^a-e

Wide Ring Rows: 10^a-e, 11^a-e, 12^a-y
- After being particularly worried about rows, given my shoulder's tenderness in a pulling motion… the shoulder felt rock-solid. So much so that in my last set I went clear to failure, and didn't have any form issues at all.

High IR (3lbs): 17/17^b-7, 16/16^a-8
Standing Scaption Raise (3lbs): 18/18^a-5, 18/18^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (3lbs): 16/16^a-5, 16/16^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (3lbs): 15/15^a-6, 16/16^a-6

Cooldown

- Updated my workout tracking program -- which is just an Excel spreadsheet where I enter all my exercises into a table, and it concatenates them into Bbcode formatting that I can post easily to the forum. Now I can put my random workout commentary/notes into the program too instead of adding them later! This is giving me an outsized sense of nerd-pride.

 

- The shoulder actually felt pretty solid after the workout! And as of Friday, although I'm quite tired, the shoulder has felt really good all day.

[DoubleTrouble]

10 hours ago, PaulG said:

During my rail balance, I started to drill running along the rail.

 

Ooh I've always thought how awesome it would be to run on rails but never actually practiced it. It's so cool that you're doing it! How do you place your feet?

[PaulG]

8 hours ago, DoubleTrouble said:

 

Ooh I've always thought how awesome it would be to run on rails but never actually practiced it. It's so cool that you're doing it! How do you place your feet?

 

I know some people like to run duckfooted on rails, but so far I've been improving nicely at just running with my foot straight on the rail, just like I walk. My main cue is to put the rail between my big toe and next-biggest toe (pointer toe?), and that's always kept me pretty stable, to the point that I rarely need to use my arms to keep my balance.

 

(And if anyone hasn't tried rail balancing and is curious as to how to get started, my coach recently made a video on it for my gym org:)

 

 

Friday, 10/30

Mobility Day: uhhh no. Still at 1/2 for Week 1.

Food Log: ✅ DONE. I seem to be snacking less, and as a result my calorie intake has been trending downward since the start of the challenge.

Work Break Minutes: 40 minutes total breaks.

Sleep Hours: 8 hours, 45 minutes. Whooo!

 

- The lack of sleep from Thursday night took its toll. I went grocery shopping after work, and then realized as I was driving home that my ears were plugged and my eyes felt like they were bugging out of my head... usually I'd think I was getting sick, but it's probably the sleep deprivation, + phantom symptoms from my vaccines earlier in the week. I had planned to make a nice tomato/italian sausage/broccoli rabe pasta, but instead I picked up a sandwich on the way home and passed out early.

 

[Mike Wazowski]

Oof, the sleep deprivation feelings are real - I've definitely felt that type of crummy before and it's no fun. Hope you were able to get some nice recovery sleep over the weekend!

[DoubleTrouble]

On 10/31/2020 at 10:05 PM, PaulG said:

I know some people like to run duckfooted on rails, but so far I've been improving nicely at just running with my foot straight on the rail, just like I walk. My main cue is to put the rail between my big toe and next-biggest toe (pointer toe?), and that's always kept me pretty stable, to the point that I rarely need to use my arms to keep my balance.

 

Thanks! Also does that mean there is a ring toe? Should I be insulted if someone points their middle toe at me?

The "falling into a bridge" videos on that channel are interesting too, I should add that to my list of stuff for the back handspring

[raptron]

My nurse got me real good with the flu shot this year -- the sore arm is no joke, haha.

 

Hope you caught up with your sleep this weekend.

[WhiteGhost]

On 11/1/2020 at 10:05 AM, PaulG said:

And if anyone hasn't tried rail balancing and is curious as to how to get started

Thanks for sharing that, lots of good stuff to work on in there.

[PaulG]

On 11/2/2020 at 8:39 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

Oof, the sleep deprivation feelings are real - I've definitely felt that type of crummy before and it's no fun. Hope you were able to get some nice recovery sleep over the weekend!

 

Thanks! You win some, you lose some. I still haven't tallied it all up (Nov 3rd, we all have a few other things competing for our attention) but I think I missed my weekly goal by a couple hours. Still, frankly, I had a feeling sleep would be a crap parade this week, so I'll call it a tentative win.

 

On 11/2/2020 at 9:33 AM, DoubleTrouble said:

 

Thanks! Also does that mean there is a ring toe? Should I be insulted if someone points their middle toe at me?

The "falling into a bridge" videos on that channel are interesting too, I should add that to my list of stuff for the back handspring

 

Respectively: no problem, yes, and if someone does you need to flip them DOUBLE MIDDLE TOES.

 

I haven't looked at that handspring video yet, but I should!

 

On 11/2/2020 at 5:16 PM, raptron said:

My nurse got me real good with the flu shot this year -- the sore arm is no joke, haha.

 

Hope you caught up with your sleep this weekend.

 

Dang sore arms. It finally disappeared sometime over the weekend.

 

15 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Thanks for sharing that, lots of good stuff to work on in there.

 

Happy to help!

 

This is a little out of order because I've missed a couple days of updates. Normally I'd get up to date in one shot, but I feel like I need to get a thing or two off my chest right this moment. So I'm just gonna throw up my Saturday workout log and then get into it.

 

Workout Log 10/31/20
- Going In: Feeling pretty rested, even a little antsy since I haven't gone outside yet today. Maybe a walk after the workout.

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 5/5^b-e, 6/6^a-e, 4/4^a-e

Decline Pushups: 12^a-e, 12^a-x, 15^a-x

Wide Ring Rows: 12^a-x, 5/5^a-x, 14^a-x
- Antsy and very tempted to do archer rows instead, but I'm resisting the impulse for the sake of shoulder health.

FG Ring Pullups: 4^b-e, 4^e-e, 4^a-e

L-Sits: 10s^c-x, 12s^b-e, 13s^b-x
- This hands-back L-sit is TOUGH on the wrists sometimes.

Stool Dips: 3^b-e, 3^b-e

High IR (3lbs): 17/17^b-7, 16/16^a-8

Standing Scaption Raise (3lbs): 30/30^a-6, 18/18^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (3lbs): 18/18^a-5, 18/18^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (3lbs): 16/16^a-6, 16/14^a-6

Compression Work: 4x10s

Cooldown

 

Saturday, 10/31

Mobility Day: Workout day. I did some stretching and mobility after my workout, but this goal was really meant to spread my mobility work over more days of the week than just my workouts, so I’ll give myself half a point. I’m officially 1.5/2 days for Week 1.

Food Log: ❌ NOT done. Halloween happened, I hung out with a friend and made a 1.5 gallon batch of eggnog (we’re aging it until Thanksgiving), and we grilled steak that I didn’t properly weigh, and had a few too many drinks for me to track very well. So this day’s a write-off.

Work Break Minutes: N/A, it was the freakin weekend.

Sleep Hours: I didn’t get to bed until after 8 AM, so I ultimately clocked 4 hours, 30 minutes.

 

- Class on Sunday was technically canceled, but I sent a message to my fellow students on Saturday letting them know I’d be there and what I’d be working on. I knew if I didn’t commit publicly, I would wake up at 11 AM on Sunday with a post-Halloween hangover and throw in the towel.

 

 

As we all know, it’s Election Day in the US. My thread has mostly been me talking about the previous day, but I have some things on my mind today that I want to lay down (maybe then I’ll be able to sleep tonight).

 

- I read in some other folks’ threads about the terror attack in Vienna, Austria. My heart goes out to the families of those killed, injured, and everyone in Vienna right now who’s living through the aftermath of that tragedy. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never known someone who had to live through such an act of terror, domestic or foreign; but living as I do in the US, the aftermath of these tragedies has become a depressing fact of life. The only other thoughts I have are that anyone who has seen this news, and is wondering what happens next, I would gently encourage to look at the history of terror and the white supremacy movement in the US, particularly the works of Kathleen Belew, whose work is my main lens for this at the moment. My read of the news coming out of Vienna seems to follow the playbook that is usually run in this country following such an attack: for example, the change in our tone and response when we go from labeling a tragedy a “shooting” (domestic terror, but always implied it’s a lone, mentally ill gunman) to a “terror attack” (foreign terror, in which the organization behind the gunman is highlighted). This undercurrent running through US politics —  militarizing against foreign terror threats while ignoring domestic terror, ignoring things like the white power movement — is a huge part, I think, of why we see so many violent tragedies in my home country.

I hope we can at least serve as a cautionary tale. And hey, given lots of us are stressing ourselves out doom scrolling anyway… we may as well read something that gives us some real knowledge to go with the stress.

 

- Watching Election Night, I’m worried — not because I want to see a clear result tonight (that won’t happen), but because I see a lot of people getting tired, and hopeful that Trump will not contest the results. We already know he will — he has, without fail, only conceded defeat after it’s beyond clear that he’s lost. And as the incumbent, he has many tools at his disposal to try and fight the electoral process. Although I understand the fatigue many of us are feeling, I hope we remain present and attentive over the next several weeks. If Trump indeed loses -- which is not a sure thing, whatever 538 is trying to tell us -- I think we’re about to see the worst fight of the last four years, and we need to remain engaged for it more than ever.

[@mu]

Just sharing anxiety with you on your elections guys... I can't help it.

 

16 minutes ago, PaulG said:

for example, the change in our tone and response when we go from labeling a tragedy a “shooting” (domestic terror, but always implied it’s a lone, mentally ill gunman) to a “terror attack” (foreign terror, in which the organization behind the gunman is highlighted).

 

Same here. Also typical is blaming Islam in terrorist attacks (and asking a whole community to apologize for it), while white supremacists are just lone crazies out of their mind. And when the police hits a black person or an Arab, or demonstrators, it's just a misc news item you know.

Ha pfff.

 

[Mad Hatter]

12 hours ago, PaulG said:

I hope we can at least serve as a cautionary tale. And hey, given lots of us are stressing ourselves out doom scrolling anyway… we may as well read something that gives us some real knowledge to go with the stress.

You say this like terrorism in Europe is a new thing.

 

12 hours ago, PaulG said:

This undercurrent running through US politics —  militarizing against foreign terror threats while ignoring domestic terror, ignoring things like the white power movement — is a huge part, I think, of why we see so many violent tragedies in my home country.

Well it is much easier to blame foreign, brown people than voters... Plus gotta use that military for something! Putting a terrorist label is a nifty justification for pretty much anything...

 

11 hours ago, @mu said:

Also typical is blaming Islam in terrorist attacks (and asking a whole community to apologize for it)

Not disagreeing at all, but what would you call these organizations to get rid of the Islam label, when the organizations are religious in nature? Is there an alternative name? 

Another question is why should they not write about the organization if there is one behind it. Surely that's relevant? It's not like it only applies to islamic organizations (for lack of a better term) but the IRA, ETA etc...