Waldo's Log

[Waldo]

I was real tempted to do a "getting back in the groove" challenge this time, but I decided not to.

Either way I'm trying to ramp back up into my routine, while also balancing what is still nonstop projects around the house during my free time. Skipped running this past weekend because I'm in the midst of refinishing some bedside tables, one was halfway through the finishing stage and the other was getting there, had some veneer work to do. Wanted to have the finishes dry (final on one, initial on the other) so that they could go back in our room at the end of the weekend. Wife painted our room Sat. Also had to hang pictures, strip/repaint a supply grill (that is an awesome original), and rewire a switch in there once she was done.

Skipped running, but I did accomplish what I wanted to. Doing a Danish oil -> gel stain to spot fix color (plus darken new face veneer) -> shellac finish, which is time consuming. First one finished looks amazing, second one only has the oil finish on it curing (going to give it a week), but its looking even better than the first.

Anyway, I promised pictures of my basement workout/game/office room (man cave-ish):

Camera doesn't really do it justice. There is more than enough space to open the door when playing hockey. I hung my rings in the area between the closet and the bench, in front of the treadmill.

Pullup bar is hanging in the door at the end of the hall. You can see the ceiling tile I removed in order to have more clearance for handstand pushups.

I hate the ceiling and am going to replace it eventually (somewhat soon, moderate priority), but the floors are real nice, wood look tile, and walls are livable. Needs some paint (esp the stairs, a green I think).

and in the back basement bedroom, a home for my Star Wars collection, with room to grow:

[Disil]

Holy shit!

[Shortgorilla]

Wow.  What an amazing man space.  I am dripping jealousy.

[Waldo]

Forgot to mention...

On the other side of the stairs there is a door into my shop, which is about half the size of the main room. That still needs a lot of work, but at least my tools finally have a home. Also back there is the room for the house mechanicals and our bomb shelter (for real, typical for the home style to have one), which is a storage area nowadays.

I do need to find a fallout shelter sign for the door back to the shop. Would fit the décor perfect, plus it is the literal truth.

[El Exorcisto]

If you can't find a fallout shelter sign, creep on hospitals that are doing construction. There are radiation warning signs all over, and any of the workers could easily snag one for you instead of throwing it in the dumpster.

[Waldo]

If you can't find a fallout shelter sign, creep on hospitals that are doing construction. There are radiation warning signs all over, and any of the workers could easily snag one for you instead of throwing it in the dumpster.

Huh. That's good to know.

I'll eventually get one. There is a huge store here that specializes in midcentury modern "antiques" (furniture/decor) that is relatively affordable (its right by Manuels Tavern for all you ATLers), they are going to contact me when they next get a fallout shelter sign in stock. Could be a few weeks or it could be a few months, but they'll have one eventually, its something they regularly come across/stock.

[Hermione Gainser]

That's awesome!

[0gravity]

Hey Waldo,

 

Congrats on the awesome house. Will be following your log to see what you come up with next! Hoping to learn a thing or two about bodyweight training

[cn3wton]

Your workouts and progress are inspiring. Will be stopping by to try to learn something!

 

Congrats on the 3 year mark!

[Waldo]

Been a long time since I updated this thing. I've been far too busy lately; furniture refinishing and building my shop have eaten most of my free time.

I need to figure out how many calories general woodworking burns because it is a lot (not a high per minute burn, but hours and hours of work adds up to a lot). I'm not adding anything to MFP for it. I'm supposed to be bulking based on my cal intake, but at best am maintaining though more likely is that I'm slowly losing. I have to be averaging at least 300 cal a day from that to overcome my surplus. Must have a burn in-line with Yoga. Workouts have been kinda sucky (too many skipped days spent working on other things, at least I'm not skipping to be lazy), but then again, given the physical results from my calorie intake, if anything I'm working harder than ever, just not on exercise for exercise's sake.

Interestingly, I've pretty much maintained my weight in a fairly tight 5 lb band pretty much since just after the New Year, slowly getting leaner, though at this point it is at an incredibly slow rate, which is to be expected with my training history.

A rant on an entirely unrelated note, I just need a place to vent....

I've done a fair bit of reading about remodeling and decor and whatnot as of late, plus watching good ol HGTV (my new house is and will be a work in progress for a long time).

One thing that really bugs me is trends and things becoming "dated". This isn't to say that it doesn't occur, because it definitely does, but it is not a universal axiom. It is a universal axiom in the contemporary ecletic taste that is pervasive nowadays, where architecture and decor is a hodgepodge of various styles and trends.

A house with a distinct style will always look good when the architecture and decor match, things will never truly become dated aside for old technology that just isn't as good anymore. This also has the caveat that the style has to make sense in the surroundings, and isn't just an overly harmonious but still eclectic design (your farmhouse decorated in country sheek is eclectic nonsense in an urban setting). Adding eclectic design to a well fit homogenous style is an awful mix (sadly there is far too much of this in my house).

A modern house (which mine is) plays well with modern from all eras and will always play well with modern (note NOT post-modern, there is a difference). Modern (Modern, not contemporary, again, there is a difference). A lot of people with a house like mine will go all-in on midcentury modern and discard modern from other eras. Modern design will always play well with modern design, it is a harmonious aesthetic. Midcentury modern (50's-60's) works just fine with 70's modern and 00's-'10's modern (modernism was pretty much dead in the 80's-90's, especially at the residential level). The thing with midcentury modern is that the language of modernism was much more developed during that time as it was a far more dominant style than it was during the 70's and is in the 00's-10's (though it is rising to dominance again it seems). Adding modern furnishings, remodeling with a modern aestheic, etc.... in a modern house will NEVER become dated. Any my modern house is absolutely not out of place in its inner ring suburban environment (different story for outer ring, where modernism would stick out like a sore thumb).

The same also applies to other distinct styles. A farmhouse (as in on a legit farm...) decorated like a farmhouse can use farmhouse decor from any era and never become dated. A lodge house on a rural lake with lodge type design and decor will also never become dated. Knotty pine may be "out" in an ecletic "open concept" colonial, but it fits lodge style design perfectly and will never be out of style in that setting.

Victorian (and steampunk for all the fun loving types) will always work in a victorian home in an urban setting. Unlike Modern though, victorian is very era specific and isn't part of the design language of other eras.

It just bugs me that it is nearly treated as an axiom that things become dated (or even worse, the belief that eclectic use of flavor of the day "timeless" designs somehow won't become dated (really fast I might add), lol). This really is a concept for the eclectic palette only.

Unfortunately someone with eclectic taste once owned my house. At least they had the good sense to leave the original flying saucer heaters/lights/vents in the redone bathrooms. Though the granite topped shaker style vanities are so out of place and hideous; I suppose they were high end in the early 00's, but a simple modern style Ikea vanity would look 100x better and at least fit the house.

I figured out that they put oak hardwoods to match the rest of the house over the parquet in the kitchen-dining area (the original parquet is still in the entry), hopefully they arean't nailed. Parquet was a short lived fad in the 80's-90s, clearly someone was trying to cover up that apparently dated feature, not realizing that the house doesn't have the cheap crap tiles from that era, they are instead the legit individual board parquet that the fad tried to emulate, that were a high end flooring option that isn't done anymore because it is flat out too expensive to do (plus the entry parquet is stained some god awful 00's stain, obscuring what appears to be some fairly epic looking natural wood that would really pop with an oil). In was trying to see what the hardwoods were over (I didn't think the parquet ran that whole length) through a hold drilled in the floor in a corner for cable (arrrrghhhh...), at which point I discovered that my floors are a good 3" of solid wood between subfloor, parquet, and standard hardwoods. As cool as terrazzo is (and high end) in MCM homes, original parquet is just as much.

One of the reasons for this rant is that I want to install some (*gasp*) wood paneling in the house. One wall in the living room was originally wood paneling that has been painted over (though it was the cheap crap paneling, so painting was probably the best choice). I'm probably going to do some of the ridiculously awesome modern fastener free stuff you see nowadays in high end modern spaces (on the cheap mind you, veneer work is my woodworking specialty). This wall was originally intended to be a paneled accent wall, of course this screams dated to the vast majority of people. But paneling truly can be mind blowingly cool when done well (http://www.houzz.com/photos/326413/Shari-Misturak-contemporary-living-room-miami or a more chill variation http://www.houzz.com/photos/2235934/Modern-Home-Kimberly-Demmy-Design-contemporary-bedroom-los-angeles). And despite being a '10's modern thing, it will fit right in in a midcentury modern house, accenting the architecture, never becoming dated looking.

[Leimanu]

Wow, you have put sooooooo much thought into this, the house is bound to turn out amazing.  And in the end, everyone's opinion is different.  Back to good ole HGTV, a couple complained that the kitchen looked dated when it remodeled about 10 years ago.  In truth, it looked fine.  I hate stainless steel and think it looks cold and sanitary and like an industrial kitchen, but other people will have nothing but stainless steel.  I wonder if, in 10 years, people will hate open concept and want to go back to little boxes

 

I'm surprised about the market in Atlanta.  I thought it was booming (according to HGTV shows.  Love that Property Virgins)

[Waldo]

Hi all

Long time no post.

First off, I'm doing fine and haven't fallen off the wagon completely. More than anything I'm in maintain mode, and for now, that's a ok. Though I am cutting at the moment, getting rid of all the holiday weight gain. I've adopted the policy that I'm going to stay in the 200-205 lb band. Go above it and its time to cut below it. When not cutting I'm holding a small surplus.

In the future I do plan on working a bit more aggressively on progress. I've reached the point where easy progress is long gone, moderately difficult progress is long gone, and I've slogged well into tough progress. Simply put the amount of effort required for even a tiny bit of progress is fairly extreme, my mind asked the very valid question, is the ruthless constant pursuit of progress even worth it? What do I hope to gain? I'm mentally and physically extremely happy with where I stand now.

I do sort of half ass my workouts, and have skipped a few when busy with other things. But at the same time, I'm doing enough to maintain the progress I've made to this point, with minimal dropoff. I'd like to get away from half assing my workouts, but I have to figure out how. My internet time has become extremely limited, and this is a good thing, however I tend to get too engrossed in the 'net between sets. I need to figure something out.

That said, I'm happy with my drift away from the net. I'm spending more time being productive around the house and more time with my wife. Both of them are a good thing. My new routine makes time for a little shop/handyman time every day. I'm losing the urge to escape to the computer after dinner at night; instead I spend time just hanging out and cuddling with the wife in front of the TV. She still has her nights where she watches things I don't care for (homey don't watch downton abbey), and I go do my thing, but most nights we spend the evening together. It really helps that we have a fantastic family/cuddling couch in front of the TV at the new house (a huge issue at the old house, I was never comfortable in the old living room).

Right now I really couldn't be happier.

I'm thinking though that after I'm done with this cut, I'm going to step up the effort and try to make a bit of progress during a small surplus bulk, to really have me in prime shape for pool season. Not that I'm not now, I'm not in BBer shape, but am lean and muscular enough (without going too far on each) to be incredibly confident in my appearance.

[Rooks]

That said, I'm happy with my drift away from the net. I'm spending more time being productive around the house and more time with my wife. Both of them are a good thing. My new routine makes time for a little shop/handyman time every day. I'm losing the urge to escape to the computer after dinner at night; instead I spend time just hanging out and cuddling with the wife in front of the TV. She still has her nights where she watches things I don't care for (homey don't watch downton abbey), and I go do my thing, but most nights we spend the evening together. It really helps that we have a fantastic family/cuddling couch in front of the TV at the new house (a huge issue at the old house, I was never comfortable in the old living room).

 

Haha... I literally just looked at your profile page yesterday as I hadn't seen any posts from you in awhile.  Glad to hear things are going well. 

Very much approve of the paragraph above and need to start finding my way to get closer to your mindset. I'm finding that my "want to get done" list just keeps getting longer and longer and yet I get engrossed in nightly sessions of the book of faces, the twit-monster, and random phone games that suck up plenty of time.

 

Unrelated to fitness, how's the house coming together?  Still finding fun projects to keep you busy, I'd assume?

[Waldo]

Haha... I literally just looked at your profile page yesterday as I hadn't seen any posts from you in awhile.  Glad to hear things are going well. 

Very much approve of the paragraph above and need to start finding my way to get closer to your mindset. I'm finding that my "want to get done" list just keeps getting longer and longer and yet I get engrossed in nightly sessions of the book of faces, the twit-monster, and random phone games that suck up plenty of time.

 

Unrelated to fitness, how's the house coming together?  Still finding fun projects to keep you busy, I'd assume?

Much like the TV and video games, the internet has a way of gobbling up a horrendous amount of otherwise useful time.

I've picked off all the low hanging fruit in the house at this point.

I have years of projects to satisfy me though. Working on some furniture at the moment, I'm making a shoe bench for the back door. Sort of of a modern thing, it has a cabinet of cubbies floating under the bench, the cubbies will be painted and faced with a natural maple face frame on both sides. The bench is made from laminated baltic birch ply strips with the end strips being solid walnut (top & sides each like a cutting board). All the lines are rectangular.

We scored an awesome vintage mcm drexel china cabinet a couple weeks ago when out antiquing.

I love having a shop where I can actually get something done, I spend a lot of my free time in there. Usually I spend my time between sets in the shop until I'm done with the task I want to accomplish in there for the evening (my workout area is just outside the door to the shop).

The shop:

[0gravity]

Beautiful shop! Looks like a labor of love

[Waldo]

I've been posting a lot about fertility related stuff as of late, it has really been on my mind. I figured it might be worth it to condense my thoughts into one place.

A little background, the wife and I have been trying to have kids since ~2008. We have 1, he's almost 4. The first year of trying was sort of haphazard, we didn't really try all that hard, assuming (incorrectly) unprotected sex will quickly lead to babies. After a year of that we started getting much more serious about it. After 6-9 unsuccessful months of that we went to a fertility doc.

At first at the fertility doc we went through lots of tests (we're normal apparently, yay), and started with the basic treatment (low-moderate dose of fertility drugs). 1 year of the basic still produced nothing, so we went forward with an IUI. IUI #1 was successful and we had a little one.

After he'd reached about a year, we got real serious about #2. We tried for a year the good ol fashioned way before going to the doc again. This time we moved on to IUI's a little quicker, and did 6 of them, all unsuccessful. We have the initial IVF orientation next week, this month is our last shot at getting pregrant without a massive cash outlay.

*****************

All along, we've both gotten better and better about doing everything right. It still isn't working, but who knows what would have happened if we were doing what we do now at the outset. Here are a few things I (we) picked up along the way.

- Men should get a sperm test really quick if unsuccessful at conceiving. It is simple, relatively cheap (well covered by insurance), and can rule out (or ID) male sperm production as the culprit. This is huge, because it totally alters your approach. No way around it, we f-ed this up.

If you send any time on fertility message boards (or other assorted online reading), there is a common refrain that you need to wait at least 48 hours between sex sessions in order to save up or else the male is shooting blanks. This is the single worst piece of advice you can take if the problem is not low counts for the male; sperm production for normal males is sort of like a logarithmic growth curve. Production is highest the first 24 hrs after pulling the trigger, then it starts to tail off with very little production after 48 hrs, especially if you are doing all that you can to aid production (more on that later).

When we got real serious about it, before going to the doc, she started using ovulation testers. Because you don't get a lot of warning when it occurs, we couldn't have sex when we were in the window because of the 48 hour rule. So we came to only trying once each month, at the exact perfect moment. It even continued for a while after we started seeing the doc until I brought up the subject with the doc. Fertility docs don't exactly explain HOW to correctly have sex for conception, or what the best approach is for your situation. But when asked, the doc explained that we should be having more sex, not less, and that the lead up time before ovulation is important because of how long sperm can live (~5 days), plus the fact that ovulation is NOT the ideal time. 12 hours before ovulation is the ideal time.

For a while I had to ban my wife from using ovulation testers, AKA no sex tests, because the only thing they accomplished was having less sex during the fertility window. She finally saw the light though, how nonsensical this is, and since we started trying for #2, they were only used when we were doing IUI's, and then the only decision making they impacted was timing the IUI.

So in other words, men should go get a test early on if you are having issues, so that you can avoid the rut we got in from becoming ingrained.

- It goes without saying that you both should be healthy and fit. Taking this one step further, avoid excessively large deficits prior to ovulation each month. This also means that you want to avoid too much or too little body fat. As mean become excessively lean, sperm production tails off. Like most things physically for men, the ideal band is about 10-15% body fat; a lot lower than most men, but at the same time, its nowhere near extremely lean. For females, their ideal band is around 20-25% body fat. Their reproductive system is very complex, but just like men it works best when in the ideal body fat range.

For kiddo #1, we both messed this one up (we were both fat n lazy). By the time we started trying for #2, I was already in the ideal area (we started a few months after I joined here). It took her about a year to get close to that ideal area, but we are both there now and have been for 2 years.

Sperm production is but one part of the body. Just like everything else, it works better when you are in a surplus or at maintenance. Big deficits negatively impact sperm production. A surplus positively impacts sperm production.

- Hack thyself. Here is a secret about men that most men don't know, and very, very few women do. Man CAN consciously control sperm production. Sperm production increases in response to arousal. One piece of wisdom you sometimes see is that lots of foreplay is good for conceiving, because the man produces more sperm due to the extended arousal (yes this is scientifically proven).

This can absolutely be taken 1 step further. Men are rather easy creatures to arouse, most are fully capable of getting themselves aroused quickly. And there are lots of "tools" to aid with this task. The key is that you absolutely cannot have an orgasm, you basically have to be in a constant state of foreplay, mentally. Along with sperm though the other "stuff" also increases production. Get good at it at your nuts can be so full that they hurt in less than 24 hours.

Does it work? Absolutely. I experimented with this when doing IUIs (you get a count), and figured out that I could double my sperm production by doing this. 31 hours after previous sex, with no extra arousal I have counts in the 19-22M range. With tons of arousal in between the highest I got was 45M. In 31 hrs! Most guys don't have counts that high period. (Low count is <10M, very low is under 7M, 15M-30M is normal, 30M-50M is above average, 60M+ is da fuq, I've been tested as high as 75M, but a lot longer than 31 hrs (3+ days)).

Obviously this takes a lot of practice to do well. But consider, if you have sex 5 days straight during the peak window, doing nothing extra you might get 25+4*15 = 85M total sperm in those 5 days. Work on boosting it, doubling the output and you produce 170M in those 5 days. Needless to say, your chances are a wee bit better.

And explain this to your wife. If she wants to help, you lucky dog. If not, at least she understands what you are up to.

- The female orgasm aids in conception (it sort of sucks the sperm into where it needs to go). When having conception sex, unless she has an orgasm immediately before or simulataneous with you, your job isn't finished until she has one.

- We try to go every day during the peak window (there are apps that help ID it). The more you can keep it fun, the easier this is to do. Preplan breaks if you need them. Do not give in to both feeling you aren't in the mood when the time comes. If you do you tend to be real good early in the window (the least valuable time), with little to no sex later, during the most valuable time. Unless you both have lots of get up and go, sex every day for a week, monthly is pretty tough to do. Figure out ways to do it; figuring out some "low effort" sex that you both enjoy is key to that. Avoid zombie sex at all costs, it just makes it less appealing tomorrow/next month/etc..

- In addition to sperm count, there is a concept called motility, basically how active they are. Young sperm is active sperm, it gets lazy after a while. By one week there is a pretty big difference. The best approach is to never have sperm older than 3 days when trying to conceive. Know when the window opens each month and be prepared.

- Keep positive. Keep extra extra positive. Chances are shes not and she's going to need to to get a lot of positivity from you.

**********

Anyway, my (our) long journey with this is finally coming to a close. This month is our last old fashioned way attempt. The next cycle after that we're doing an IVF (which is dramatically different, unlike an IUI where you continue with conception sex as normal). If IVF #1 doesn't work we're going to try a couple more, sure there will probably be some off months in there where we try the old fashioned way. But if IVF #1 works, its over (or even better, if the old fashioned way works this month). We're both old enough and agree, after kiddo #2, we're never going to stop trying for #3, but we're not going to make any special effort to do so.

So there is is, the wisdom from 6 years of trying to conceive.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Hey Waldo. I'm glad you're still around. I don't think I've ever read your log before, but this post is a doozy. Like all your posts it's packed with great information. I wish we knew all of that when we were TTC. Good luck with everything.

Your shop looks great, I wish mine was that spacious and organized.

[Rooks]

Related to your topic, the 4-Hour Body had a great chapter about this.  Essentially the gist was he was able to significantly increase his sperm count in very little time (can't remember the exact time frame) by simply not carrying his cell near his crotch.  Whenever it was near his crotch, he put it into airplane mode.  His general findings seemed to be that just by not having the phone near the zone, you could in essence greatly increase sperm count. 

 

Chapter title was "Happy Endings and Doubling Sperm Count".

[Waldo]

Unrelated to fitness, how's the house coming together?  Still finding fun projects to keep you busy, I'd assume?

Here's an example of one of the more "done" rooms, the dining/dinette:

Shot from in the kitchen. The china cabinet we found a couple weeks ago is one of the centerpieces. Still want to find something for the corner, perhaps a plant with a light above it (way too dim for a plant to survive otherwise). I might refinish that door, it just doesn't match anything, a medium walnut dye/stain would do wonders.

We painted, redid the lighting, and curtains, added the china cabinet (and a lot of stuff in it), and the row of counter chairs (which we refinished). Art and table we already had.

You can see our Tardis in the background

[Waldo]

Been a while since I came 'round. A couple updates and some thoughts.

- On the TTC front, we are now full bore into the IVF. I didn't realize that the cycle before an IVF was a no-go, in order to prep for the IVF, so when I made that post above about TTC the old fashioned way, my time with that had already ended, there was not one more month left. One month from right now I'm either going to be on top of the world or seriously depressed.

- My exercise/fitness has been largely in a holding pattern. I've really dialed it back. I'm sort of lazy cutting at the moment, slowly but surely getting a little leaner, still working on the extra from the holidays. I want to stay in the 200-205 lb band, I was a few pounds heavy after the holidays, I want to keep lazy cutting until I hit the low end of the band. I don't skip workouts unless I'm traveling for work (which has actually been quite frequent as of late), but I'm not really putting in a whole lot of effort either.

[JPrev]

It feels like you're about to walk into the sunset on us.

[Disil]

I'm happy with where I'm at, and maintaining that is good enough.

As you should be, since you achieved a lot. I can also imagine that simply maintaining is a lot easier than striving for those little bits of progress that take a lot of effort in relation to what you get out of it. One thing I've got to say though is that I'd still appreciate the hell out of you being somewhat active in these forums. As it so happened I just did a search for new posts from you, like I do maybe once a week, because whatever you say always has weight and seems trustworthy and reliable. The same goes for strengthunbound.com.  Still, I can absolutely understand you using your time in a more productive and fulfilling manner and if JPrev's on the money with his guess then I can only wish you all the best and thank you for your time and insights.

[Waldo]

It feels like you're about to walk into the sunset on us.

Nah.

This sort of thing is still a subject I like to chat about. I can help a lot of people.

But as far as pushing myself, IDK, where I'm at is pretty easy to maintain (200-205 is definitely a sweet spot for my body).

I just don't have the motivation to spend 3+ months working my tail off to add 2-3 seconds of hold time to my half layout front lever, or 1 rep on my peak pistol set. To add 1/4" on my chest. For half the effort I can maintain where I am just fine.

[Waldo]

Well this past week has sucked.

Must have picked up the flu last weekend at a birthday party for one of kiddo's friends. Hasn't been the pukey kind, but I've had a fever since Tuesday that just won't go away. At least medicine has been able to control it the last few days, the first few it did little but make it slightly lower.

I almost never get sick, and this one has been especially brutal. Fortunately its just me, kiddo and the wife were spared.

I've basically been useless, laying around on the couch all day, napping often. Carbs are about the only thing my body wants to eat.

Unfortunately though I haven't really lost any fat, at least not as measured by the scale. Not sure why, fevers are surprisingly effective calorie sinks.

On the bright side, I've managed to find the time to watch all of the original Star Wars trilogy.

[Waldo]

Got a few bits of news.

Our IVF cycle is well underway. Today was a major date, the egg retrieval. I had to do my thing the last 2 days. Either Sat or Mon the best 1-2 will be returned, then we wait. Wife is a walking pharmacy that has been pretty rough on her.

I recently caught the geneology bug a little bit and have been researching my family history (in America mostly); it started when we decided to make a wall of old family photos in our guest room, and I was checking to see if I could find anything online (and if I could maybe ID some people in old photos that I'm not sure of). Most of the history I found is pretty ho hum, immigrating in the late 1800's/early 1900's, however the purely male line, where my name comes from, I'm the 12th generation born in N. America. My great, great (x a lot) grandfather was one of the first settlers of New York City (immigrated in 1654) and fairly important back then. Crazy, I had no idea, I knew of nothing prior to the early 1900's and assumed that all relatives were immigrants around that time (typical of the areas in the Midwest my families are from).

It occurred to me last week that the hill that my house is near the bottom of is an ideal hill for hill sprints. Monday I decided to do that for a leg workout instead of the typical weighted pistol workout I've been. Hill out front has about a 4-5% gradient, and carries that from about my mailbox to 200m uphill. I prefer to do 100m sprints, so I had to pace it off after each run and figure out what ~100m is. I only did 4 sprints, of them the first was real fast jogging, and I really only tried moderately hard on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th I sprinted but took it easy. My body isn't ready to go true full bore by any means, so it'll be a few weeks before I work up to it, have to play it safe with sprinting to prevent injury. I do enjoy doing hill sprints, its pretty awesome that I can sit down in the grass in my front yard between runs. Now that it is warming up, this will be my go to Monday leg workout. Even taking it easy, I'm sore as heck today from it.

In case anyone is interested, I'm still following the same general workout schedule that I've been following for years: Mon-Legs, Tue-Upper Body Dynamic, Wed-Run+Muscle-Up Training, Thur-Legs, Fri-Static Upper Body, Sat-Run, Sun-Rest/Little Stuff/Yoga