Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Sloth the Enduring]

Tl;dr stuff, workout was garbage, more stuff.

 

Dang, thanks for sharing that video. i've never heard of cyclocross before. Do you have any mountain biking videos like that? And isn't it hard to get back into the swing of things? I did almost nothing between the challenges (again) and found myself struggling to do my routines again.

Are you using the Scratch in conjunction with the robotics you teach or is this a separate project your doing? Which ever way it is your students are lucky to have a guy like you around.

And if you ever do make any obstacles for training please take pictures and share. The obstacle barriers from the video looked like something that is doable but maybe not helpful in mountain bike racing. As always inspiring and educational.

 

I couldn't find a good introduction to mountain biking video.  The spectrum of what is mountain biking is pretty wide and dependent on where you ride.  What I mostly do is lollygag through the woods, even when I race cross country the courses aren't hardcore.  I'll stick a couple of videos at the end of this post of the two races I've committed to this summer, it gives an idea of what I mean when I say mountain biking.

 

Getting back in the swing of things is killer for me.  The hardest part is the schedule change.  Mine shifts about four hours when we have a long break.  Man, I don't know how you are able to work third shift, all the switching back and forth of schedules would absolutely wreck me.  I'm struggling right now too as it is.

 

I do Lego Robotics with a third grade group after school and I am starting Scratch with a sixth grade enrichment group during the school day.  

 

The enrichment classes are designed to give the performing arts students time to focus on their art.  However, there are a group of students who aren't in the arts.  These tend to be the neediest students who are at our school because they move around a lot.  Since we have a large bussing area and a revolving administration who don't know how to tell the district, "No, we're full," eventually they end up with us and they are finally able to settle into a school.  

 

Typically the classroom teachers teach a remediation class during enrichment time, the better ones are able to disguise it so it is enjoyable.  I have always done something totally different, it's not that the students don't need remediation, but they've had it for years and it hasn't helped much.  I try to give them something that they are missing, in the past I've done something hands on because this is a group who's only experience with how the world works is through a video game screen.  I've tried hand-on science, arts and crafts, woodworking, but haven't been very successful.  They've enjoyed it but it hasn't helped them to problem solve and to just think.  Living in front of a video game screen makes you very good at reacting, but it makes you a poor thinker.  I'm still trying to figure out how to counteract that, at least a little.

 

Thanks for saying that, but I feel merely adequate as a teacher.  I know what it'd take to make me exceptional and I can't afford to make those sacrifices.

 

Well I just fell down this rabbit hole for an hour. What a fun toy.

 

I thought so, they will too.  The question is can I make this into something that they are able to use as a learning tool?  I'll admit that I don't know how the real world works, but I'm hoping this opens up a crack into a possible profession for them.  I don't have the pretense that a quarter or two of using a drag and drop language taught by a yahoo who doesn't know anything will lead to a coding job.  But I do know that they will have opportunities in high school and they won't take them.  But the first time you do something is the hardest and if they feel like they've done some real coding before and it was fun and they felt successful, maybe some of them will take those opportunities.

 

Back on topic

1/7/15 Wednesday

Today it was so cold the Tauntauns couldn't survive a trip outside, so school was cancelled.  I slept in a bit, still felt weak and tired all day.  I couldn't do a chin up again.  I decided to try working out at night after I put the kids down.  

 

Workout was garbage, some get ups, clean & presses, rotational lunges, inverted rows, KB swings.  I was slow and sloppy.  I shut it down about halfway through.

 

I ate a ton today.  The only official garbage was two cans of soda pop.

 

Back off topic

We've been fostering a dog, Frankie, for a while now, might be close to three months, it was supposed to be for three days.  He was obviously abused badly.  He has some issues because of that.  He is not what you would call a good dog, but he has potential.  My wife had a hard time having him around even though he adored her.  She came close to sending him back a few times, but he seemed so happy to be with us that we couldn't send him back after the hard life he's had.  Anyway, he finally has a home, a nice family who seem willing to put the time into him that he needs are going to pick him up tomorrow.  He was a useless mutt who never really liked me much, but I'm going to miss him.

 

We're going to take a couple weeks off from fostering, which will give me a chance to shampoo the carpets, and reevaluate fostering.  

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JATx9ouYcKE

Mt. Borah Epic May 30.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ZorwwZibg

Wausau24 August 1.

[The Most Loathed]

I thought so, they will too.  The question is can I make this into something that they are able to use as a learning tool?  I'll admit that I don't know how the real world works, but I'm hoping this opens up a crack into a possible profession for them.  I don't have the pretense that a quarter or two of using a drag and drop language taught by a yahoo who doesn't know anything will lead to a coding job.  But I do know that they will have opportunities in high school and they won't take them.  But the first time you do something is the hardest and if they feel like they've done some real coding before and it was fun and they felt successful, maybe some of them will take those opportunities.

 

I started a longer reply then realized, you know your business, you don't need feedback from me. So I'll go with this, this class will probably help your students more professionally, intellectually and personally than the vast majority of their subjects. Learning how to code is good but learning how to think and construct decisions is better. Nice work.

[Shello]

At the very least it's one more opportunity for the kids to try something new and discover something they love. 

[Elastigirl]

I think that class sounds great too. My friend's son used Scratch to start off with, now he is taking more advanced classes. He is a smart kid, but has trouble sticking with stuff. But that program was simple enough that he felt successful and then was ready to  try more things. And funny thing is my son is a computer programmer. I homeschooled him, and  I knew nothing about computer programming. But I wanted him to learn more about the computer than that you can use it to play cool games. So I let him work through something similar to Scratch, and that did light the spark for him to later go into programming.

[Bearlee]

Glad to hear Frankie finally found a home. Have you heard any more about the first dog that went? Still find it funny that the wife was going to take the dog back and came home with two.

Those videos are crazy. Are you going to be part of a team for the Wausau24? Hope you have fun preparing for and doing them.

That inspirational and educational comment was more for me than a commentary about your teaching. Though I will say that I would have loved to have had a teacher that seems as concerned as you are when I was going to school.

[marymama08]

I would have to say that you are more than just adequate. You may not have a movie made about you and how you saved an entire school from being shut down. But I bet there are many children who have benefited a great deal from the care and concern you put into your work. An adequate teacher only teaches what must be taught and then they go home.

As a homeschool mom, I think my kids had the best teacher ever and I should have a movie made about me. Pretty much because I am just that vain    

[Elastigirl]

I would have to say that you are more than just adequate. You may not have a movie made about you and how you saved an entire school from being shut down. But I bet there are many children who have benefited a great deal from the care and concern you put into your work. An adequate teacher only teaches what must be taught and then they go home.

As a homeschool mom, I think my kids had the best teacher ever and I should have a movie made about me. Pretty much because I am just that vain    

Sounds like a good plan. We can all three get together and make movies about how awesome we are/were as teachers. Because I want a movie about me too.

 

edited to add: And I want to be wearing a cool superhero outfit in my movie too

[Elastigirl]

Are you still doing the Chinese Food Pull-ups? How's that going? And weren't you working on pistol squats too?

[Sloth the Enduring]

I started a longer reply then realized, you know your business, you don't need feedback from me. So I'll go with this, this class will probably help your students more professionally, intellectually and personally than the vast majority of their subjects. Learning how to code is good but learning how to think and construct decisions is better. Nice work.

 

Me?  I don't know what the Hell I'm doing.  Every year I realize know less and less about how to get students to learn.  After 17 years I can teach skills reasonably well, but still can't get them to think for themselves.  Thanks for the feedback.

 

At the very least it's one more opportunity for the kids to try something new and discover something they love. 

 

I agree.  If there is anything my students need it's new opportunities.

 

I think that class sounds great too. My friend's son used Scratch to start off with, now he is taking more advanced classes. He is a smart kid, but has trouble sticking with stuff. But that program was simple enough that he felt successful and then was ready to  try more things. And funny thing is my son is a computer programmer. I homeschooled him, and  I knew nothing about computer programming. But I wanted him to learn more about the computer than that you can use it to play cool games. So I let him work through something similar to Scratch, and that did light the spark for him to later go into programming.

 

Good to know.  Hopefully it'll spark my students too.

 

Glad to hear Frankie finally found a home. Have you heard any more about the first dog that went? Still find it funny that the wife was going to take the dog back and came home with two.

Those videos are crazy. Are you going to be part of a team for the Wausau24? Hope you have fun preparing for and doing them.

 

Frankie's family seems very nice, they frequent the local fish & cider cafe, so I might see him again while I'm stalking TML.  Scruffy just disappeared, I would have liked to have found out what happened to him.  He was a good dog.

 

I love that race.  They used to hold the National Championships there, so I've been passed by some very fast professional racers.  This year we're doing it as a 2 man 12 hour team.  If we can get a couple more riders to commit we'll do the 4 man 24 hour race we have until July 15 to modify our entry.  The problem is that everyone is gung ho to do it until it's time to commit then it's, "Sorry man, I've got a family thing that weekend." 

 

I would have to say that you are more than just adequate. You may not have a movie made about you and how you saved an entire school from being shut down. But I bet there are many children who have benefited a great deal from the care and concern you put into your work. An adequate teacher only teaches what must be taught and then they go home.

As a homeschool mom, I think my kids had the best teacher ever and I should have a movie made about me. Pretty much because I am just that vain     

 

Ahh, thanks.  I wasn't trolling for compliments though.  I know where I'm deficient, but it would take a lot of my resources to level up.  For instance, the students would do better if their feedback on their work was more immediate, but it takes me a week to work through a stack of lab reports.

 

Sounds like a good plan. We can all three get together and make movies about how awesome we are/were as teachers. Because I want a movie about me too. 

 

edited to add: And I want to be wearing a cool superhero outfit in my movie too

 

Sadly I think the Mrs. Incredible outfit is copywrited.  

 

My coteacher just told me that they should make a movie about everything I do, but it might have been sarcasm, at the time I was leaning against the counter surveying our class.

 

Back on Topic

 

Are you still doing the Chinese Food Pull-ups? How's that going? And weren't you working on pistol squats too?

 

I stopped doing pull ups when we were all sick forever, when I came back I had lost all my gains.  I plan to start over tomorrow.  

 

The pistols never really worked out.  I don't know if it was a mobility issue, balance or strength.  My guess is flexibility and balance.  Convict Conditioning suggests lots and lots of close squats until something magically clicks.  I got bored of that approach.  I don't know if I'll try again, if I do I'll probably try a different progression.

 

I've been feeling like junk since break ended; I would WAG my strength at 80%.  I couldn't figure out why, then it occurred to me that I'm over-tired (schedule shift and poor sleeping lately).  I've never had it affect me physically before, but I've only learned how to sleep a couple of years ago and my kids have only learned to sleep a year ago, so this is the first period in my life when I haven't been chronically over-tired.  

 

Working out after the kids go to bed was a fail, I'm too tired to be strong and I get wound up and can't sleep.

 

I tried working out after work yesterday.  I have to get the kids going on something independently first and hope for no interruptions.  Yesterday, just I was finishing building a Lego hangar for Dusty CropHopper with the boy, the school social worker called asking for help changing a tire (hazard of living one block from school) at first I was like, "Fuck her, she has never once in ten years helped me (professionally) when I asked her,"  but I thought better of it and trudged over and changed a tire.  It was actually for a teacher that I don't know.  It ate into my workout time.  I ended up putting a couple of ciders into a water bottle and taking the kids to a kids concert and ate tacos and nachos instead of working out.  It kind of ticked me off to miss training again.

 

New plan.  If I don't otherwise train, then 100 swings.  That way I'll keep in the habit and at least be doing something to keep active. Also back to morning workouts.

 

1/8/15 Thursday No Training; shoveled snow.

1/9/15 Friday No Training; drank cider and ate nachos.

1/10/15 Saturday - 

Mobility + Core

 

KB Swing 10 @ 16kg

KB Clean & Press 5/5 @ 16kg

Reverse Lunge 8/8 @ 16kg

One Arm Row 5/5 @ 16kg

Done in a circuit.  7 rounds, no rest (mostly).  I tried to do this without putting the bell down for 42 minutes (length of a washer cycle), but was interrupted by the kids appx. once per round.  I lasted ~ 30 minutes before press gave out.  This felt more like cardio than strength training, but I felt great when I was done.  If I do this again I'll do swing X 12, C&P X 4, Lunge X 8, Row X 6 or 7 to even out the effort or maybe swap C&P for a TGU.  I'd also have an official brief rest between rounds - I got out of breath and had to slow down.

[The Most Loathed]

nice circuit.

well done on helping the unknown teacher. 

[Shello]

 

1/8/15 Thursday No Training; shoveled snow.

1/9/15 Friday No Training; drank cider and ate nachos.

1/10/15 Saturday - 

 

 

Thursday - shoveling should count.  

Friday - I wished that counted!  

[Elastigirl]

Thursday - shoveling should count.  

Friday - I wished that counted!  

My son is skinny and he eats nachos all the time=therefore nachos must count as training  

 

Sloth: I forget whether you were upping your pistol squats numbers or working on doing them. If you are just trying to up your reps this may not help, but this site had some ideas for progressions;http://neatstrength.com/pistol-squat-progression/#more-99

 

What I am doing is just using a bench/coffee table to sit back on.The plan is to keep going lower and lower. I figured that would make it easier to track my progress and keep working on it. Your Iron Maiden Challenge goal inspired me.I am no where close to those goals, but I thought working on them would give me some specific benchmarks to follow. Maybe I will make it to the Iron Maiden Light or something like that.  

 

I think the 100 swings plan is great. Swings are a good mix of conditioning and strength, so just getting them in is a win.

[marymama08]

Now I want nachos 

[Sloth the Enduring]

well done on helping the unknown teacher. 

 

Thanks, I would have felt guilty for years if I left her, even if it was the jack ass social worker, in the cold for hours waiting for the tow truck to show up.  She promised me a beer, so that was nice.

 

Friday - I wished that counted!  

 

That would make life easier.

 

My son is skinny and he eats nachos all the time=therefore nachos must count as training  

 

Sloth: I forget whether you were upping your pistol squats numbers or working on doing them. If you are just trying to up your reps this may not help, but this site had some ideas for progressions;http://neatstrength.com/pistol-squat-progression/#more-99

 

What I am doing is just using a bench/coffee table to sit back on.The plan is to keep going lower and lower. I figured that would make it easier to track my progress and keep working on it. Your Iron Maiden Challenge goal inspired me.I am no where close to those goals, but I thought working on them would give me some specific benchmarks to follow. Maybe I will make it to the Iron Maiden Light or something like that.  

 

When I was really skinny, I ate nachos all the time, maybe I will eat them more often.

 

I was just trying to do pistols.  I can do them in a doorway, but not many and not without balancing myself.  I think the Iron Maiden benchmarks are a good aspiration, I'm unofficially still working on them.  I'm focusing more on the press right now.  I'm planning on using pistol practice as my summer leg exercise as an accessory to biking.

 

Now I want nachos 

 Nachos are good.

 

Not much to report.

 

Sunday 1/11/15

Overslept, spent the afternoon at my nephew's birthday.  Did 100 swings before bed.

 

Monday 1/12/15

Overslept, did 100 swings before bed.

 

Tuesday 1/13/15

Overslept.  My back had been feeling really solid; I was considering adding in one arm swings again.  While I was innocently sorting the mail, SlothGirl climbed a stool and jumped on my back, crumpling us to the floor.  We're all about roughhousing, but I wasn't prepared and my core wasn't braced and my back is messed up again.  I did 3 sets of 25 Roman chair extensions.

 

Wednesday 1/14/15

Overslept.  Back is still questionable, but improved - I'm pretty sure this will be a short lived episode.  I have an hour in between Robot class and getting SlothGirl from dance.  I'll do something active in that hour, I'm not sure what.

 

Junkfood Confessional

At my nephew's I ate enough pizza, cake, ice cream and soda to feel sick.  Since then I haven't eaten any sweets, but I'm still eating more carbs than I was before Christmas break, but calories must have stabilized because weight has stabilized at a 5# gain and 1% increase in bf%.

[The Most Loathed]

d'oh. sorry to hear the back isn't cooperating.

[Bearlee]

Are you still on that four hour time shift or trying to recover from it? Things should start to get back to normal for you. I really hate having long breaks because it really throws off my rhythm. I'm quite surprised at how quickly I recovered from the long holiday break. I'm so glad to get back to my normal routine that I've been kicking a lot of ass (well more than I've been doing lately). You may have to force yourself to do you routine a couple of times, but then you'll remember it and it won't seem like such a chore anymore. As far as working 3rd shift for me, I've been doing it for 19years so it's become my normal.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Thanks TML. I'm not too worried about it. 2 steps forward 1 back is still progress. There's been lots of signs that I'm getting healthy and strong lately.

BearLee - I'm back to my regular schedule mostly, still too lazy on the mornings though. Usually I try to maintain my schedule through the breaks, but this one was draining and I said fuck it. I'm glad you're kicking ass.

1/15/15 Thursday

Back is still a bit wonky. I did some Roman chair and some Shovelglove, both of which work magic on my back. I'll do that again before dinner. I expect to be back to normal workouts tomorrow.

[Shello]

Thanks, I would have felt guilty for years if I left her, even if it was the jack ass social worker, in the cold for hours waiting for the tow truck to show up.  She promised me a beer, so that was nice.

 

 

That would make life easier.

 

 

When I was really skinny, I ate nachos all the time, maybe I will eat them more often.

 

I was just trying to do pistols.  I can do them in a doorway, but not many and not without balancing myself.  I think the Iron Maiden benchmarks are a good aspiration, I'm unofficially still working on them.  I'm focusing more on the press right now.  I'm planning on using pistol practice as my summer leg exercise as an accessory to biking.

 

 Nachos are good.

 

Not much to report.

 

Sunday 1/11/15

Overslept, spent the afternoon at my nephew's birthday.  Did 100 swings before bed.

 

Monday 1/12/15

Overslept, did 100 swings before bed.

 

Tuesday 1/13/15

Overslept.  My back had been feeling really solid; I was considering adding in one arm swings again.  While I was innocently sorting the mail, SlothGirl climbed a stool and jumped on my back, crumpling us to the floor.  We're all about roughhousing, but I wasn't prepared and my core wasn't braced and my back is messed up again.  I did 3 sets of 25 Roman chair extensions.

 

Wednesday 1/14/15

Overslept.  Back is still questionable, but improved - I'm pretty sure this will be a short lived episode.  I have an hour in between Robot class and getting SlothGirl from dance.  I'll do something active in that hour, I'm not sure what.

 

Junkfood Confessional

At my nephew's I ate enough pizza, cake, ice cream and soda to feel sick.  Since then I haven't eaten any sweets, but I'm still eating more carbs than I was before Christmas break, but calories must have stabilized because weight has stabilized at a 5# gain and 1% increase in bf%.

 

Pizza is my kryptonite.  I have trouble eating it at all without eating so much I feel sick.  At least it serves as a reminder that it makes you feel sick to eat junk like that.  Now it can be back to business.

 

SlothGirl is quite the little acrobatic.  if it weren't for the agony it caused on your back I sounds like quite an amusing scene.

 

Thanks TML. I'm not too worried about it. 2 steps forward 1 back is still progress. There's been lots of signs that I'm getting healthy and strong lately.

BearLee - I'm back to my regular schedule mostly, still too lazy on the mornings though. Usually I try to maintain my schedule through the breaks, but this one was draining and I said fuck it. I'm glad you're kicking ass.

1/15/15 Thursday

Back is still a bit wonky. I did some Roman chair and some Shovelglove, both of which work magic on my back. I'll do that again before dinner. I expect to be back to normal workouts tomorrow.

 

How is your back now?  "back" to normal?

[Sloth the Enduring]

Pizza is my kryptonite.  I have trouble eating it at all without eating so much I feel sick.  At least it serves as a reminder that it makes you feel sick to eat junk like that.  Now it can be back to business.

 

SlothGirl is quite the little acrobatic.  if it weren't for the agony it caused on your back I sounds like quite an amusing scene.

 

 

How is your back now?  "back" to normal?

 

I used to love pizza, but it's made me sick often enough (lactose issues) that I now get queasy just thinking about it.  Ice cream and filled gooey doughnuts are my Kryptonite.

 

SlothGirl is awesome, but she needs a stop sign in her head.  I've renamed the basement the ninja training room (I stole that from someone's thread, I forget who).  Today in circus class she did the German wheel.

 

(Not SlothGirl, but that's what she did.)

 

Back is good, not 100% but good.  I've decided that I need to build more stability through strength, so I finally ordered the trap bar I've been wanting.

 

1/16/15 Friday

Overslept - Did 100 swings before dinner.  Ate nachos and drank smuggled cider again, but we were too late, despite our attempt to get there early, to see the music show.  Today I was down 2.5# and 0.5% bf.  Nachos for the win!!!

 

1/17/15 Saturday

Didn't oversleep!!! But the kids underslept.  But I did something even better than training, I rode my bike!!!  16.6 slow miles along the river, through campus and through downtown in 89 minutes.  All of my winter gear is a couple of decades old.  My tights are a bright, shimmery blue from just after the neon spandex era.  I wore them not because they are fabulous, which they are, but because they are the right thickness for 36 deg.  At a stoplight downtown a nicely dressed gentleman going into a gay bar stopped, smiled, said Hello and started talking to me.  That was flattering.  Blue lame (lamay?) must be a good color on me.

 

Mrs. Sloth took the kids to the raptor center so I could have time to ride.  This is why I can't be a real bike racer.  I can't regularly sacrifice family time for riding.  The raptor center must be cool, they've been gone for hours.

 

PVP With Myself

I hate the brakes on my cyclocross bike.  They sort of slow me down, but they don't stop me.  Today I almost slid under a giant SUV because of them.  If I strength train 3+ X/week from now until spring break I will buy myself a nice set that will actually stop me, modulate nicely, be quiet, easy to set up and light weight.  If I don't I will buy a cheap ass set that will actually stop me, but won't modulate well, squeak in the wet, be a pain in the ass to adjust, and weigh slightly less than a boat anchor.

 

Unofficial Unilateral PVP with BearLee 

Since he only seems to be motivated to work out by the possibility of taunting me, I am starting a PVP with BearLee (I haven't told him yet).  If he strength trains (however he interprets that) more times than me from Monday 1/19/15 until whenever it is that I start Spring Break, then I will send him, at my expense, a small box of Viking food oddments from the local If It's Not Norwegian It's Crap Store Ingebretsen's.  If I strength train more times than him, then I will find my original taunting post to him from before we knew each other, the one that inexplicably made him start to follow my posts, and repost it in bold accompanied by a topical, whimsical meme or gif.  Actually, I probably won't, I kind of hate searching for stuff online.

[Elastigirl]

Awesome day-except for the almost sliding under the SUV.Perhaps it is time for new brakes? Remember your motto-no more ER visits.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Awesome day-except for the almost sliding under the SUV.Perhaps it is time for new brakes? Remember your motto-no more ER visits.

 

Way past time.  In the old days, back when I bought my bike, the thinking on CX brakes was you didn't want them to work too well.  They should just slow you enough that you can jump off and start running without losing too much momentum.  Which doesn't really work when you take the bike on the road.  This isn't my normal winter bike, I only drag it out when it's above freezing and sloppy out.  The brakes can wait until I can get good ones.

 

1/18/15 Sunday

I woke up planning on going on another bike ride, but it was still dark out I haven't dug out or charged my lights so I waited and wasted time on the internet.  I got an email from the Red Cross that they needed platelet donors and that's it's been a year since my last donation so I did that instead of riding.  I did a short leg day instead of biking.

 

Training

Zercher squat w/75# sandbag, narrow stance (5+5) reps

2h KB Swing @24kg (10+10) reps

Rotational Lunge @ 50# sandbag 10/10 reps

 

Circuit, 3 rounds.  Broke up my reps because my lungs felt like they were going to burst (weird).  Leg day has to end when lunges become grinds or bad things happen so I only did 3 rounds. I followed up with 4X10 KB swings to hit a pleasing total.  Yesterday when I rode my quads were the weak link (usually it's calves) so I figure more narrow stance squats are in order.

 

I also did cleans because TML's biceps are huge, also I wanted good veins for the needle stick.

12kg X 10

16kg X 10

20kg X 10.

 

Platelet Donation

I forgot the first rule about platelet donation - don't go on a Sunday, they'll have a football game on the big screen and they'll talk to you about and you'll have to pretend you know something about football.  It takes about 2 hours plus the administrative stuff, I watched "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (BBC version) on a portable DVD player.  Which I enjoyed, I hadn't seen it in 30 years.  

 

My blood pressure was about the highest it's ever been 138/96 - last year it was 118/82 also my heart rate was 68, about 10 beats above normal.  There are a couple of mitigating circumstances, it was taken about 45 minutes after I finished working out and the nurse was attractive.   I ought to monitor my BP again for a while.

[Bearlee]

Unofficial Unilateral PVP with BearLee 

Since he only seems to be motivated to work out by the possibility of taunting me, I am starting a PVP with BearLee (I haven't told him yet).  If he strength trains (however he interprets that) more times than me from Monday 1/19/15 until whenever it is that I start Spring Break, then I will send him, at my expense, a small box of Viking food oddments from the local If It's Not Norwegian It's Crap Store Ingebretsen's.  If I strength train more times than him, then I will find my original taunting post to him from before we knew each other, the one that inexplicably made him start to follow my posts, and repost it in bold accompanied by a topical, whimsical meme or gif.  Actually, I probably won't, I kind of hate searching for stuff online.

 

Should I start making my shopping list now? Past two days the kid made me do 3 circuits of my strength routine each day and did 30 minutes of yoga today. So my kid may even be getting more exercise in than you . But I think your kid has been getting more in than me also with her circus classes and German wheels.

 

Also need to know when spring break is so I know how long I'll be kicking your butt . Can I add an order of bacon doughnuts from YoYo doughnut also?

[Sloth the Enduring]

My Butt Hurts 

I rode my bike again; reconditioning your butt to riding again is a pain in the ass.  I went through St. Paul on my mountain bike.  16.9 miles in 84 minutes; lots of room to gain speed.  Hopefully the conditions will be right for an off road ride next weekend.

 

My Arms are Shaky

After the ride I hit the KBs to balance out what I did yesterday.

Get Ups 5 X 1/1 @ 16kg.

Clean & Press 3,5,7,8,6,4 @ 16kg  Big back arch on 8th, so I didn't do planned 9th.

Chin Ups 6 X 1.  So weak...

Cleans 2 X 10/10 @ 20kg.

Right now my arms are kind of shaky.  

 

My Abs Quivered

I also did mobility, before and after ride, and core.  Core was 3 sets of hollow holds until I felt them in my back.  I love when you do these and your whole body starts shaking.  I don't know, but I assume that's my deep core getting in the act and freaking out 'cause it's not used to doing anything.

 

Should I start making my shopping list now? Past two days the kid made me do 3 circuits of my strength routine each day and did 30 minutes of yoga today.

 

Also need to know when spring break is so I know how long I'll be kicking your butt . Can I add an order of bacon doughnuts from YoYo doughnut also?

 

When I taught little kids I used to tell them, "You get what you get and you don't have a fit."  I'm glad you're finally working out, now you have to maintain it all the way through March 25.  Ooh, Yo Yo Doughnuts, I forgot about those.  No.

[Elastigirl]

Stupid BP stuff, I hate dealing with that. My good news/ bad news is that going no sugar does seems to have a strong correlation with lowering mine. Sadly, you may have to cut back on the nachos. Great that you have had time for bike riding, that should help all the things.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Stupid BP stuff, I hate dealing with that. My good news/ bad news is that going no sugar does seems to have a strong correlation with lowering mine. Sadly, you may have to cut back on the nachos. Great that you have had time for bike riding, that should help all the things.

 

The Blood Pressure Post

The people in my dad's family have terrible genetics as far as heart health goes; high blood pressure, highish cholesterol, and a high platelet count.  They tend to have massive heart attacks and die at or before the age of 60.  I've only met my cousins a few times and only know them through Facebook, but I would put money on my having the lowest BP of all of us.  My cousin had a massive debilitating stroke in her mid 40's, as far as I know she was a nonsmoker.  To balance that out the folks in my mom's family tend to live into their 90's.

 

My BP has been around 140/90 since college.  Last year it was probably the lowest it has ever been running at 125/85 or better.  I eat pretty low salt, Mrs. Sloth cooks from ingredients and we don't go out to eat much, although on my own I'll gorge on garbage.  Except for the occasional nachos, I don't eat fried starches (so no salty fries or chips).  The correlation between salt and BP seems weak, but, like ElastiGirl, there does seem to be a correlation between sugar and BP for me.  I have never tried to increase potassium and that would probably be a good idea.

 

Cardio has never had an affect on my BP.  Even when I was biking 200 miles/week my BP was 140/90.  However KBs, sandbags and sledgehammering have a strong correlation with a lower BP.  I assume that is because those are a lot like HIIT which strengthens the heart differently than steady state cardio does.

 

1/20/15 - Tuesday

Cardio day.  Hams a bit sore, but mostly I just didn't feel like pulling the tire.  I need another little dog to get me outside again.

Get Ups - 5 x 1/1 @ Pinky (12kg) form practice.

2H Swings @ 24 kg 10 X 10