Aim to misbehave

[UltanBoyd]

So I guess i should track thoughts just because it seems like a good way of acknowledging failures and more importantly successes.

 

Lets start with tonight. Tonight's aim was to shoot a whole load of arrows. Objective complete! I was shooting for 2.5hrs at a very fast pace. At the start there was only one old boy shooting and he was saying things like "Oh carry on shooting without me!" I with shoulder's struggling was glad of the breaks!

 

I am unable to shoot my beautiful bow, Nimue. She's far too powerful for me (42lb limbs, 48lb on fingers, extremely recurved limbs to give a high stack mid-draw which I always felt gave me more feedback to work with!)

 

Luckily I used to collect one piece recurve bows. I only realise tonight that the one I've been using is the most powerful of the one-pieces I own. Nominally 40lb, mathematically about 46lb on fingers though probably less. Anyway after the dumbel rows on Tuesday I think the shoulders (nominally that whole mid back section) was quite sore. I definitely had issue with shoulder collapse on my left shoulder and the occasional issue with drawing fully and properly with the right arm. Still I reckon somewhere around 8 dozen arrows in. I was shooting short distances but casual scoring was giving me around the 44/54 mark. Infuriatingly so actually. The first was made up 1x9 and 5x7 points. Any time I hit more 9s I'd hit something into the 5s. Arghhh!

 

One of the old geezers there kept trying to help me with form but even after 5 years I could hear half of what he was saying was rubbish. He did say something interesting though. I tend to take quite a zen moment to shoot. I face outwards, half-squat, push with the bow hand, take slack on the string hand, begin the draw, stand up, turn head , anchor, come to full draw aim and shoot. Why don't I just breathe, aim, draw, anchor, shoot?

 

I guess we get stuck in rhythm and you can see the best rhythms in the better archers.

 

Still loadsa arrows and some good grouping! Need to try and work the week to not mean doing mon/tues training and shooting Thurs though. That's not allowing me to shoot my best. Some thought on timetabling here.

 

Diet wise my Paleo by stealth tactics have struggled but then I expected them to. My heart's just not into paleo right now. I work in an office, the mrs digs holes with mattocks all day (archaeologist). To go paleo would deprive her of the calories she needs or mean I have to cook a seperate meal. Ain't nobody got time for that. She's already had her low blood sugar brought up at work when they offered free health screenings and she went to one at break (instead of eating break!) So at the moment I'm just rocking the lowered calorie intake. I'm bbqing at the weekend for the mother in laws 60th. Not gonna be good! I also think the two nights a week at the gym, the one night working and the next shooting is starting to annoy my other half. I think I need to tell her how much it means to me to loose some of this excess weight and gain some strength, suppleness and get back into the archery game! 

[UltanBoyd]

Weekend wasn't awful foodwise but did have a few beers saturday night. I had a wee chat with the other half and she acknowledged the portion control is an issue and while my problem not hers she'll try to help with that. Between my compulsion to finish what's on my plate and her's to make sure everyone is well fed it's difficult.

 

Tonight is night three of Deadlift Technique. I just can't seem to get it right. I want to get it down so I can start working a program. I might try a different person's coaching than normal. See if it sinks in. Then again along with coaching there and every video on the tinternet I'm still not on target to learn proper technique. I want 25 (5x5) good deadlifts tonight at a low, low weight to get on with it. I have moved deads to earlier in the week because I think deads and rows meant my shoulders were tired by shooting on Thursday. I'm going to be shooting this Thursday so we'll see what difference.
 

Still last week

 

Squat: Up 20kg to 80kg. Technique appears good. 

Deadlift: Technique awful. Remaining at 50kg. Aim to get a technique and not kiss the bar this time.

Dumbell Rows: 12kg 5x10. Want to move to less reps, much more weight. Even on set 5 it was easy until the last pull. Try for 5x5 on each arm. Maybe 18-20kg.

Pull Ups - 10 assisted (41kg) followed by 5 chinups on same assistance after 2 minute break. Should I be moving towards 5 of each at a lesser assist or 10 of each before moving on? 41kg means I'm doing 60% of body weight. Which for someone with weedy arms that has grown around the middle of late is not too bad a thing! Could I do one at 30%?

 

At an early stage should I look to increase mass and worry about stamina afterwards? Gain strength while it's still easy and hope the shooting gives enough repeatition to the muscles which I desperatly need the stamina for at the moment?

[UltanBoyd]

Monday, dead technique felt and according to my gym buddy looked much better. Kept weight at 50kgs though. 5x5. Rows with 12lb again 5x5. Bicep curls (gym buddy was doing them, felt like joining in) as many as I could manage at weights 12lb, 10lb, 6lb and 20 at 2lb. Maybe three times before starting at 16lb. It was fun, seriously messed up my assisted pull ups and chin ups after though. Got 5 of each twice with 41kg assist.

 

Tuesday was squat day and it was a little poor. I think I got 5/5/3/4 at 60kg and 4 at 50kg. Just crapped out on sets 3 and 4. Calf raises, Leg press and 10 mins on an eliptical. That's getting a lot easier as I'm going faster. I'm keeping 10 mins and trying to up time but after 3 weeks I'm seeing a marked improvement. I don't look at the timer and go WOW only three minutes gone. I think wow, it's been 3 mins already! Oh planks are getting much longer.

I found the roller. WOW I love those things. My quads last week were solid. This week a bit of stiffness this morning, probably could do with my own roller to sort them the second night.

 

Still archery tonight. Bit of a twinge in the draw arm bicep. Should make sure I'm drawing correctly I hope!

[UltanBoyd]

Well I had some iffy arrows but I didn't do too badly. 8 dozen down. Scored for the first time. I'm beating the lowest classification scores for the round I shot by 205 to 145. So go me! Met another barebow archer there. He started last year and he's very good. Not a lot of effort and he could be as good as I was. I think I found my muse! Competition! haha.

[UltanBoyd]

Went to the gym on a weekend for the first time yesterday and it was awesome. There was no one there. Every piece of equipment straight on! Even the squat racks! No music though which was odd. Even when I tried to put some on in the weights room. They have Rob Zombie on the jukebox but I couldn't get it to work. Plus having hardly anyone there meant the air conditioning was frosty. It was the first time going without my gym buddy but seeing as I had the time, was bored, felt itchy for not doing anything active and I'm essentially sebacean if I take a step outside (34C yesterday. eugh!) it seemed a good idea. It's odd, the work out is better for a gym buddy. I think I was more willing to push myself with a buddy in the squat racks. Yesterday I purposely loaded a little light and was a little bothered by the end of the set despite having all the safety bars on and the like. However after coming back from the gym I think I've worked out why my squat appears to have decreased. I think I've gone from a good position to quite a high position with the bar.

 

Went shooting this morning. The round I shot is suitable only for second class classification. I beat the recurve on my target (she suggested when I was only two points ahead of her that I was her one to beat. I pulled 27 points ahead by the close) and I'd achieved the second class score for the six dozen round at 3 and a half dozen! I couldn't have shot many more arrows though. The heat was oppressive in an open field. Eugh! 

[UltanBoyd]

Weights on!.This week is test of test of strength week. 4x5 and then bust the weights up (on certain things I feel happy with. Boom

 

Deadlift: 4x5x50kg 1x2x90kg as a maximum. Close to bodyweight. Boo-yah!

Military Press: 30Kg sets 5/5/4/3/1 so didn't max this one

Bent Over Rows: 30kg 5x5

Assisted pull ups: 2x5x41kg then rising to eventually hit 27kg assist. Hit two out. Could go lower to bust one out.

Assisted Dips: 2x5x41kg

Did some other wee bits. Triceps on the cables at 10.2kg I think should have made note and some cable bicep thing my gym buddy was doing and they looked interesting. He does them rather than dumbells because of his wrists. I have the compulsion on the drawing arm to turn my wrist as it comes down. Didn't/couldn't with this but weights not in same small increments on the machine. Meh preferred the pump from the dumbells.

[UltanBoyd]

Thinking about goals for the 6 week challenge and it's got me thinking why am I bothering with any of this? Why spend moy moy moolah on a gym? Why deny myself all the foods (at least the doughnuts and the like in the office)? 

 

1. Loose waist. Medical advise is that people above a 38" waist are more susceptable to diabetes. There's quite the family history of it and so I need to lower my risk. As well as feel better about my weight. I have a 42" waist currently and most shops seem to only stock up to 40". I want to be 36" and maintain that.

 

2. Get back into my shooting. It's the reason for the strength training. When I left I shot 200 arrows a week to maintain strength let alone work on form. That can't happen again. Strength training to maintain strength shooting to improve technique and stamina. My protege shoots internationally. I love this sport. It works stabilising muscles to hold you, works all the shoulder muscles to draw and clears the mind. Then you walk 1.18 miles in a york to collect arrows assuming they all hit.

 

3. Monkey bars. I was at best able to do one or two monkey bars from the momentum of the first swing. I want to do a length, turn around and come back without feet touching the ground. Sounds daft, is daft. Still want to do it.

 

4. Be that little bit fitter so I can run around with the nieces and nephews and one day my children!

[UltanBoyd]

I found this and it seems to be improving my squat. I can't remember who posted it up but I like it. Need to get a few more of these in of a week. My body weights look a lot better after a session from what I can see, my balance sat for 5 seconds in the well seems a lot better and the strain on my left hip seems a lot less. 

 

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/01/episode-363-pre-squat-hip-opener-mob-rx/

[UltanBoyd]

Missing the challenge log

 

Last night, squatting 4x5x50kg and 1x5x60kg. Knee seeming better, weight seems heavy though.

 

New PR on bench. 60KG(132lb). Yeah wack those big boy plates on! Am I right in thinking Americans believe 45lb to be a plate when we have equivalent of 55lb plates over here?

 

Anyway back up my list here

 

DL:135kg

Squat: 90kg

Bench: 60kg

OHP: 1RM unknown, largest weight done for reps 40kg

-----------

For reps:

DB Row 22kg

DB Tricep Extension 14kg

RDL 50kg

 

Hit legs so hard last night I could barely stand up between sets. 4 second ups and 4 second downs on the seated calf raise pumped my calfs to hugeness. But proper killed them. That Mertzer has a point. You can definitely get swole on machines. Shame they're boring as hell (excepting the calf donkey)

[UltanBoyd]

So long time no goal.

I'm slipping. Slowly. Granted I've come massive strides in the 6 months. I'm a comfortable 38" waist now. Nah forget that I'm 38 with a belt. So I'm getting there. I've snuck under 15 stone a long way back and my life has changed massively.

1. No Gym Buddy. First the new job then he moved to London. Which yay! He was only meant to live with us 3 to 6 weeks ended up being 11 months. But boo I lost my gym buddy and a great source of motivation.

2. I work a 5 week shift cycle. It's just hard to put 6 weeks into context when I live in month and 5 week blocks already.
3. I work nights and weekends. Yay gym is pretty much empty when I go. Boo trying to get there on nights!

 

So alot of changes so I need to work out how i work it now.

1. Walk for 20 mins 5 times a week. Too many night shifts I spend the day sat wasting time to go back to bed to go to work to come home zonked and go to bed. So now i have to walk. Not much but eh!

2. Gym once a week. Boourns I hear you say. True. However baby steps. Nights + gym is not easy but then the day of my first nights it would have been fine to go and I just didn't. No excuses I just didn't. Was in my gym shorts ready from 0700 til I went to bed at 1500. Nothing. That has to stop. Once per week.

3. Tracking. I have to track what I eat. I'm craving sugar, eating too many cakes from the tea trolley and eating too much quick and easy food because I get busy round midnight and like something hot and hearty to eat. I found I could eat more at night, I think being awake longer means more energy is used. I dunno.

Life Goal. So my job didn't turn out quite how I expected. It was supposed to be a sideways move to learn the basics followed by an immediate promotion to release others to move on. Instead one of the people doing the sideways job has decided to have his third try to learn the promotion job. A change in management meant I wasn't really considered whilst getting the basics and thus until he's trianed I'm stuck in a fairly mind numbing job and as it'll take like a year I'll loose out on about £12000. I'm not happy. In fact I'm Frellin' angry. So I'm going to change it. I think I can be training in 3 months if I get someone in to relieve me. I also think I can get one of the better jobs at the promoted level out of it. I just have to coordinate my manager, my team manager, the environment coordinator and the HR rep into working out that my plan is the best way. It starts with speaking with each of the 4 of them.

[cavemom]

It's so nice to see you back!  I think starting with smaller goals is the way to go. Good luck with your job situation. 

[UltanBoyd]

Yeah I think so. I also think running the week from 00:00 Wednesday rather than Monday in my mind will help things with the gym goal.

Got my walking done the past two nights. Okay it's been at 0330 in the morning twice round the work grounds but it's moving. Food I haven't logged but getting better sleep the last few days (like 8 hours rather than 3 to 5) has made a great difference. Not getting up until not far off teatime has missed that guilty extra meal at lunch and the sugary snacks. Calories around the 2300 mark but I think that will lessen not on nights.

[cavemom]

Nice job getting the walking in.  Working nights is hard.  I've been there.  It's really hard to get enough sleep, and I remember getting the munchies in the middle of the night, too.