QuirkyDM going Quazy

[QuirkyDM]

Ah, time for a weekly update. I purposely left this one for today knowing the milestone I would hit. In fact, I was a little excited going to bed last night. I mean, it is deadlift day, and who doesn't love that? But besides that, I managed to snag a major goal.

 

Barefoot running: 5K!!!

 

Yeah! No burning feet, no blisters, no problem. Still I am going slow ... so slow. It took me 40 minutes to do that run this morning, almost twice as long as my 5K PR in shoes last year. But that's not the point. I've learnt so much about running mechanics and I've managed to build up all new muscles and work on form and running style so much. It's worth it. Everything is amplified in barefoot running, so when you have poor form or don't adjust properly for hills, you notice that much more.

 

But I've also decided it's time to kick this up a little bit. I've been going the slow, easy route now for months. And I think it's safe to say that I've taken my deadlifts and running slow enough and eased into it enough that I can start to increase the intensity without hurting myself. Which is the new plan for those exercises.

 

Deadlift: 2x / week, 5x5. Once per week is an easy set. Once per week is the hard set and adding 10lbs/week to the hard set until I hit a wall. Then I'll deload, reset my easy and hard lift weights based on my new numbers and start over.

 

Running: My barefoot pace is at 8min/km right now. I'm going to stay at 5km distance and increase that by 10sec/km every week until I hit a wall or the snow hits. If I can run 5K faster, then when I do decide to pick up the distance, it won't take as long to run.

 

I looked briefly into the idea of barefoot running in the snow. I guess it's a real thing and lots of people are doing it. And then I looked at the pictures of some people who did it wrong and what their feet look like afterwards. *shudder* It turns out I do have a limit on crazy. That's a relief ... at least it is for Quirky Wife.

 

I've also decided to back off anything that has an effect on my shoulders- planks, push ups, pull ups, L-sits. My previous poor pull up form is still healing and it seems to be going well right until I decide to push it again. So I'm waiting until it's 100% better and then get back to those exercises. It should only be a few weeks- I've been to physio enough with them, I know how to manage them.

 

barefoot running: 5.0 km, 8min/km

slack -line: one foot balance, 1 minute each side, 4 steps in

deadlift: 5x5, 125lbs., 85 lbs. easy

[QuirkyDM]

Gym equipment at home, FTW! Excellent investment.

That's what I think. It's just soooo easy to walk into the garage in the morning and do my deadlifts. No willpower required, no fuss, no muss.

 

 

Yay deadlifts! Based on your previous posts, I think this will be fun for the whole family (not sure if the kids are old enough yet, but I'm positive they'll be deadlifting eventually)  :-)

 

Glad you had a good vacation. I'm impressed by your one-arm one-leg planks!

Yeah, the kids will be back in crossfit this fall, so as they get good enough to start doing some lifts and their form is perfected by their coaches, they can join in with me. My wife is showing more and more interest now since it's so easy to access. She's always liked doing weights, but our previous attempts have either been gung-ho (ie. Body for Life when you work out to exhaustion every day) or just too hard to access. (ie. going to a gym) This should be great for everyone- and if it's just me, it's still great!

[Xena]

 

I looked briefly into the idea of barefoot running in the snow. I guess it's a real thing and lots of people are doing it. And then I looked at the pictures of some people who did it wrong and what their feet look like afterwards. *shudder* It turns out I do have a limit on crazy. That's a relief ... at least it is for Quirky Wife.

 

A limit on the Quazy :-)

 

I think you will have fun pushing your limits a bit, and you have a very sensible plan for doing it. Bring it on!

[QuirkyDM]

A limit on the Quazy :-)

 

I think you will have fun pushing your limits a bit, and you have a very sensible plan for doing it. Bring it on!

Now the problem may be letting my limits push back on me ...

 

On Monday, I went out and pushed my pace a little harder than my first 5k run. The goal was to increase the pace by 3s/km every run, so around 10s/km each week. What happened after kilometer 3 was that I had cut off a lot of time from that. and I thought, "That's OK, instead of 3s/km every run, just do 10s/km increase once per week." And I slowed my pace just a bit and then totaled my splits afterward and it came in at 7:37min/km. (20s/km faster than before)

 

Alright, a little too fast. And my feet were worn a little bit more than normal, which meant my form had suffered. This morning, it was time to fix that. The goal was to go at a nice pace and hit a 7:47 pace. I didn't need to push it too fast. I didn't want to go too slow off the start because then I would have to make it all up at the end, which wasn't the point. I put just a slight spring in my step and went off.

 

The first km came in at 7:15. WTF?! Well, time to just run and not worry about time, then. I can slow down a bit and even out the pace.

 

Kilometer 2 is 7:10. Sonnuva ... I'm totally screwing this run up. Just relax and run and make sure my form is good, I don't need to push the pace.

 

Kilometer 3 is 7:20. I guess that's slower? At this point, I could just walk the rest of the route and hit my 7:47 goal. My feet feel fine, but I want to make sure, so I gear right down and take it easy.

 

Kilometer 4 comes in at 7:13. Seriously, WTF?! Whatever. There's no point paying attention to numbers anymore. Once the running gods get involved, laws of physics, mathematics and pure common sense are thrown out. Though this is the first time they've ever decided to weigh in on my side. My legs don't respect the fact that I'm supposed to take it easy. Still, I take the run to a nice leisurely trot.

 

Kilometer 5, run into my driveway. 7:18. I'm just a little shocked. I really have no idea what happened. That was not the plan and with the idea of slowing down this run, it's a complete failure. But ... I think I'm OK with that.

[Xena]

Sounds like you are doing your best to be careful. And some days running just feels good :-)

[QuirkyDM]

OK, it didn't take long for this to get pushed down in priority. But there was some very good reasons for it. Exercise is still on the list, so at the very least, there's a status update in the works.

 

Deadlift- 5x5 @ 165lbs. I'm pretty happy with this as I'm only 30 lbs away from my previous max and I hope to get there and keep going.

Pull ups: 5x5, 1:18 between sets. Still decreasing sets and everything is working well there. The goal is still to hit 25 in one set.

Running: Is all over the place. One day I ran 5K in sub 25, a few weeks later getting under 28 was a chore. I'm still figuring it out.

Planks: one leg raised, 20 seconds per side.

Leg lifts: Hanging, bent leg, 3x6

 

I needed to change my workout regime. Exercising for less time frequently was too much of a time stress to fit it all in since if you miss a day, it throws the schedule off for the rest of the sessions. Instead I do 2 major workouts a week and one light one. These are much easier to schedule, they have some flexibility on when in the week they can fall, and I can always miss the light workout if things get really stressed and still get a lot of great exercise.

 

Not only that, but as much as I love being an early riser, spending time in bed with my wife in the morning is also a very pleasant way to start your day, which happens more often since I don't get up every day to exercise.

 

I was reading some exercise programs by Pavel Tsatsouline and they are working for me. All sets are 5x5. Once a week, you lift one exercise with high weight, and then 3-4 days later, you do the same exercise with a low weight. On your heavy days, you keep increasing the weight. (or the reps if you can't reach your 5x5) For deadlift, I lift light at 85 lbs., and then at heavy I add 10 lbs./week.

 

Pavel only says do one exercise per day, but to maximize my workouts, I make one day per week my heavy pull day (pull ups and deadlift) and do the light push (squats and eventually presses when my shoulder is 100%) as my warm ups. One day per week is the reverse- heavy push with light pull as warmups. And for both of them, I do a 5-10K run before hand and ab work after. My light workout per week is just a run with some ab work.

 

The heavy days take over an hour to complete, but that's not a big deal since it's only 2 mornings per week, and one is on the weekend. And I have to say that I feel like I have accomplished something pretty kick ass after such a long workout. The other workout I can do practically anytime: morning, lunch, nighttime, whatever. So with two major workouts, I get all the exercise I want, I'm continually increasing and I get more free time. The third run is because I like running and want to keep that improving, too.

 

Ok, all good for now. I have a few more bits of awesomeness to put up here, but I'll spread these out a little bit so I don't go a month between posts again.

[QuirkyDM]

Running, running, running.

 

First, my kids are running. They joined run club again this year. My daughter, as always, has made it her passion and after having a rough summer with her ankles, she's back into it full time. Both my kids made the cross country team and ran great. My daughter got 11th in her division and so got to run in the city meet which was extra exciting.

 

In addition, my daughter is really putting the emphasis on increasing her distance with the idea of running a marathon some day. I'm introducing her to long runs now and we'll hit 7km this weekend and slowly increase it over the next few months, despite the cold weather. This works great for me as I want to start running a little longer as well. And there's my son, who has an all too familiar addiction to minecraft, computers and iPads. (he reminds me of me at that age ... and many, many years following that age) After he made the cross country team, he said, "Now I can run with you sometime" and the next morning , he did! We ran 2.5 km, with him giving up his precious technology time to do it. It was a huge running win with the kids.

 

At the end of the running club, my daughter and I are doing a 5K race, so I've actually made it my goal right now to train for that race, even though it's only 1 month away. 5K isn't hard, but a month isn't very long to train specifically to attack that race. But it will be fun for us, regardless. Especially since my daughter has a good chance of beating me.

 

Exciting for me is that I used my gift cards from my birthday and bought myself a GPS watch! It's so much easier than carrying my iPhone around and using RunKeeper. And it's giving me way better feedback. Most notably, I am taking too many steps per minute and it's slowing me down. I ran into this same problem a few years ago and now after all my barefoot running, I'm overdosing on the small step size. I need to increase the step size and slow my cadence down a bit. I'm pretty sure that will help me stay close to my 5:00min/km pace. I hope anyway.

[sylph]

Hey, you're alive!

 

So much running! what are you, a scout or something?

 

GPS watch = fun. I love gadgets/data, especially when they give you useful feeback.

(and happy birthday?)

[Xena]

Great to hear things are going so well. Sounds like a really good balance between spending time with your family and maximizing the exercise you can do.

[QuirkyDM]

Hey, you're alive!

 

So much running! what are you, a scout or something?

 

GPS watch = fun. I love gadgets/data, especially when they give you useful feeback.

(and happy birthday?)

Yeah, I'm alive. I'm just lurking. And watching.

 

I maybe should be a scout/assassin. With a little warrior on the side. Which is why I'm pretty much smack in the middle of ranger. (oh yeah, b-day was in September, and that's like, sooo last month)

 

 

Great to hear things are going so well. Sounds like a really good balance between spending time with your family and maximizing the exercise you can do.

The balance has been working great. And I also rediscovered running at lunch, so I can get some extra running in when I want while still keeping the pease. Which can also screw me up, though ... more on that below.

 

--------------------------------------------

First, I read Rurik's latest battle log entry talking about all the online tests he did recently. His insight was about how he didn't like the results as they didn't match his self image and then had to come to terms with it. My takeaway was "I've got to do me some online quizzes!" So I did the Being Human test on Reebok, the Pottermore sorting quiz and the Mtg guild test.

 

No surprises for the Mtg test- I got Azorious Senate, which is the law makers, play by the rule kind of guys and blue/white mana. Nailed me. And while I don't play much Magic anymore, I've always specialized in blue.

 

The Sorting test - not what I expected. Gryffindor. By a large margin. And hey, they're great and all, but I really saw them as ranking 3rd after Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff on my list. But maybe Gryffindor is a little about doing crazy, stupid stuff and that comes off as brave, who knows.

 

And then the Being Human test. I'm a Resolute.

THE RESOLUTE’S APPROACH TO FITNESS

Without some sort of physical activity to satisfy their need for a good challenge, Resolutes would become restless. The best way to get the thrill they hunger for is to release their inner action-hero, which means combining fitness with a little bit of adventure and some spirited competition. Extreme physical challenges, like Crossfit, GoRuck Events and Spartan Races – where Resolutes can get gritty, muddy and maybe even licked by flames – may appeal to these go-getters. And if sea-level obstacles aren’t hitting their adventure quotas, Resolutes might consider conquering more substantial heights by summiting some epic mountain peaks.

 

 

OK, that one nailed me. Which just goes to prove once again that the internet is always right.

 

 

OK, I am a ranger, honest. I've been lots of ranger-y things. But I'm still focusing on running right now. Especially since to hit my OCR goals for next year, I really need to get back into prime running form and then some.

 

First, I went online looking at running form and found a great video on 5K running form.

 

The big takeaway, was that when you run fast enough and are working hard, you have to put your leg in front of your body and then have it hit the ground as you pass over it. You still hit with a midfoot strike, but you're working on speed and not lasting through endless miles, like a slower never bring your feet in front of your hips marathon/ultramarathon running form. This made so much sense to me and I tried it out yesterday. Boom, took 30 seconds off my pace. Yeah!

 

Now for pushing myself a little extra yesterday. My kids had their last day of running club yesterday, which was running the beep test to see if/how they improved. After I finish my hard 5K run yesterday, my wife phones and tells me that the running coach offered to let me and another parent run the beep test, too. That's cool, because I've never done it before. But I wish she would have told me before my run because my legs were toasted after my first run.

 

And to add to that, my parents are visiting and I went out for lunch with them yesterday. Which is one reason I ran earlier so that I could eat "recovery food".   Sweet potato fries, bacon cheeseburger and a beer. All good for the tired muscles.

 

And soooo not good for a prerun meal, even after two hours. Ah well, I just figurd it would let the kids feel that much better when they beat me. (and I'm pretty sure they did ) When I got to 11.1, I thought the beer/burger combo in my stomach had taken close to all it was going to. But next time, I'll get some advanced warning and be ready for it. My daughter and I can have a nice friendly competition then about who will get farther without me full of excuses.

 

[AgentsSka]

Running kids!  Yessssss.....

 

Exciting for me is that I used my gift cards from my birthday and bought myself a GPS watch! It's so much easier than carrying my iPhone around and using RunKeeper. And it's giving me way better feedback. Most notably, I am taking too many steps per minute and it's slowing me down. I ran into this same problem a few years ago and now after all my barefoot running, I'm overdosing on the small step size. I need to increase the step size and slow my cadence down a bit. I'm pretty sure that will help me stay close to my 5:00min/km pace. I hope anyway.

 

What did you get, what did you get?

[sylph]

Ooh... I'd not seen that be more human quiz before. I got "Brain Buff" which doesn't surprise me much, but is kind of boring:

 

THE BRAIN BUFF’S APPROACH TO FITNESS

The Brain Buff’s relentless pursuit for self-improvement spills over to their physical being as well. To keep mind or body idle would be a sin in their eyes. Moreover, they likely recognize that the mind and body are inextricably linked. Plato may have been channeling his inner Brain Buff when he philosophized, “To succeed in life, man was given two means: educational and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection.†Now, if we can only get Brain Buffs to help spread this philosophy, the world will be one step closer to perfection, too.

[QuirkyDM]

What did you get, what did you get?

I got a Garmin Forerunner 220. For the price, it seemed like the best bang for the buck. It comes with a chest strap HR instead of using a wrist monitor, but I've never used Hr for training yet, so I didn't think that was a necessity. Ilooked at the Polar M400, but there were some test reviews that showed its location accuracy was pretty bad.

I really like the Bluetooth so I can sync using Bluetooth and all my runs are automatically logged. But my favorite feature is the ability to create my own workouts and the upload those into the watch, again with Bluetooth. Each interval can have different goals (distance, time, calories, heart rate, button press) and each one can set different intensities. (pace, cadence, heart rate) So many great options and I can set up my runs to do exactly what I want.

 

 

 

Ooh... I'd not seen that be more human quiz before. I got "Brain Buff" which doesn't surprise me much, but is kind of boring:

 

THE BRAIN BUFF’S APPROACH TO FITNESS

The Brain Buff’s relentless pursuit for self-improvement spills over to their physical being as well. To keep mind or body idle would be a sin in their eyes. Moreover, they likely recognize that the mind and body are inextricably linked. Plato may have been channeling his inner Brain Buff when he philosophized, “To succeed in life, man was given two means: educational and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection.†Now, if we can only get Brain Buffs to help spread this philosophy, the world will be one step closer to perfection, too.

 

If I retake the test and change a few of my iffy answers, I get this, too. Which also totally makes sense considering how much time I spend researching running form, fitness, IF and whatever fancy catches my eye that day. But i'm gonna stick with The Resolute as my default for now. At the least, it will push me to become that kind of crazy push the limit guy, which is what I like to see myself as.

 

 

Speaking of which, I've decide to do a Ranger challenge again this go around. Rurik is one of the new ranger guild leaders and the man is hard core and inspiring. I've been following for a few challenges and like what I see. It also lets me put a little more pressure on myself, even though my goals are pretty much what I was planning on doing anyway. But once you go out there and say what you're going to do, you have that drive to follow through.

 

What I'm really looking forward to doing again is the PVP, acountabilibuddies and mini-challenges. Those are the events that usually make me go out and try something different, learn something new or just generally get me to do something unexpected and non-routine. All part of the OCR mindset in my opinion and I'm ready to get back into that frame of mind. (eift: PS. the challenge link is in my sig)

 

I don't know if this means I'll go back and forth between this and the challenge- maybe keeping this one for anything not challenge related. Not sure, I'll figure it out. But here's one example. A few weeks ago I got this at work:

 

An adjustable standing desk. And I like it. Besides the fitness benefits, one of the things I've noticed is my productivity has increased. It's pretty much impossible to relax and veg out when you're standing around. It gets you into a frame of mind to push forward and focus, like when you stand up when you're talking on the phone to someone. My neighbour in the next cubicle is complaining about noise a lot more now. My keyboard and head are a lot higher now, so I think sound travels over the cubicle walls a lot easier than it used to. I'm not sure how we can resolve that- maybe a higher cubicle wall? good fences make good neighours, right? i don't rally want to give up my standing desk when I just got it.

[sylph]

Challenge log + battle log maintenance is always a trick. Some folks do both. Some essentially close down their BL when a challenge is going, some do some super-complex interlinking of posts that feels like a lot of work.

 

Whatever works for you, in short.

[AgentsSka]

Ummm.....

 

Imma just gonna leave this here...

 

OCR World Championships - Blue Mountain Resort, Ontario

[QuirkyDM]

Oh you're just going to leave that here, are you? Well, let's take a look inside ...

 

 

Wow. That's only 5.5 hours away from here. I went to Georgian Bay for my summer vacation this year and drove right by there. That's close.

 

Now ... now there's that pesky qualifying thing. I was going to use the winter to get into competitive (for me, anyway) shape to see about another trip to Vermont, but this adds a whole new level on to it. Hmmm, there's actually a lot of these races that I do besides Spartan, so between them all, I might be able to squeak into a qualifying spot on one of them. I mean if I do ALL the races, the law of averages should come in somewhere and help me out, right?

[sylph]

Or you will keel over and die.

 

You know, either way, really.

[AgentsSka]

Oh you're just going to leave that here, are you? Well, let's take a look inside ...

 

 

Wow. That's only 5.5 hours away from here. I went to Georgian Bay for my summer vacation this year and drove right by there. That's close.

 

Now ... now there's that pesky qualifying thing. I was going to use the winter to get into competitive (for me, anyway) shape to see about another trip to Vermont, but this adds a whole new level on to it. Hmmm, there's actually a lot of these races that I do besides Spartan, so between them all, I might be able to squeak into a qualifying spot on one of them. I mean if I do ALL the races, the law of averages should come in somewhere and help me out, right?

 

Holy shit.  I think I've already qualified and didn't even realize it.

 

Nope.  If the start date for qualifying was 9/20/15, rather than 10/9/15... I would have qualified.... Son of a....

[QuirkyDM]

Holy shit.  I think I've already qualified and didn't even realize it.

THE QUALIFICATION WINDOW HAS ONLY BEEN OPEN FOR 2 WEEKS!

 

Seriously? Man, I need to start following you more closely so I know what I'm shooting for.

[AgentsSka]

THE QUALIFICATION WINDOW HAS ONLY BEEN OPEN FOR 2 WEEKS!

 

Seriously? Man, I need to start following you more closely so I know what I'm shooting for.

 

Ha.  You must have posted as I was editing...

[Xena]

Yay!! I stopped focusing after I read you were probably going to do a challenge next time around. Awesome!

 

And you right. Rurik is a beast...and really good at supporting others on the forum.

[QuirkyDM]

Alright, time to dust this off. Long and rambling and getting set up for future weeks of shorter, more useful posts.

 

Where I've been:

I did a few challenges and then Christmas hit and everything went off the rails. That was crazy busy and my exercise went out the window. My shoulder was getting pretty bad and I realized I needed to put more effort into its rehab.

 

Where I'm at:

I was reading an article about Connor McGregor in Sports Illustrated while waiting for my kids at the dentist. One of the quotes that stuck with me was that everything Connor does is to push him toward becoming the UFC champion. His diet. His exercise regime. His twitter posts. His trash talk. It's all focused on one goal.

 

Now for us mere mortals, or normal folks, I'm not going to focus my entire life on one goal to the exclusion of all else. But, I can focus my health and exercise efforts towards one goal. I mean, it's so simple, but not necessarily easy or worthless. The challenge forums have been trying to push this idea of a few, simple goals since forever, but the pressure and idea to do all the things is so great. But counter-productive.

 

For now, that goal is to fix my shoulder. All my decisions shall be based on that and every decision that does not affect my shoulder is a don't care decision.

- Do physio or not? Obviously, this is always a yes.

- Lift weights? Yes as this helps strengthen my back and shoulders.

- Go for a run? Only if I really want to. It won't affect my shoulder either way.

- Eat that doughnut? Affects my shoulder not at all- go ahead!

- Have a drink with supper? Have I done my exercise and/or physio yet? If yes, then go ahead. If not, then no alcohol- I still have exercise to do tonight.

- Stay up late watching movie? No. Lack of sleep kills my willpower and makes it so I don't do my exercise and physio. The only exceptions are if a) I don't plan on doing exercise/physio tomorrow or I have so much spare time tomorrow that I won't need that much willpower to get my physio/exercise done.

 

And so on. And over the past few weeks, the shoulder is progressing really well. Which means I need to try harder than ever because this is the point where it's easy to start taking it easy since everything seems to be healing, and it's when things regress if I don't keep pushing.

 

Where I'm going:

Right here, on the battle log. Challenges are good, and in some ways, the focus on a single goal seems to fit right in. But it's so narrowly focused, it's not of interest to anyone else. The multiple times a week posting won't be of much use when I'm really just grinding away right now. I also like challenges to open me up to new activities through the mini challenges and following other threads. But that will make me lose focus, so I'm not jumping back on there yet. I'll instead do 1/week posts here where I'll hopefully have something more interesting to say.

 

I'm also reading Steve's Level Up Your Life book. There is obviously some reuse from his blog posts, but there is some that's not. Or at the very least, it's organized and focused in a way that puts the ideas forth in a much better way. So I'm enjoying it and it is making me think about changing how I set up my goals in the future and how I will tackle the challenges when I pop back in.

 

End of post. Until next week.

[sylph]

I like the sound of this approach. Seems like an excellent way to keep focused--especially if you have some visual reminders around (on the computer screen, by the door, whatever) that keep the one goal foremost in your mind. 

[QuirkyDM]

On 3/18/2016 at 11:47 AM, sylph said:

I like the sound of this approach. Seems like an excellent way to keep focused--especially if you have some visual reminders around (on the computer screen, by the door, whatever) that keep the one goal foremost in your mind. 

Thanks. Now that I've started thinking this way, I'm like "Why haven't I been doing this all along?" The shoulder is still healing, but I find it so easy to tweak it, but over time, the recovery gets faster and the overall feeling is better. But my pullups and bench press are almost back to where I was two years ago and there's no real issue there. And that feels good. I'm really enjoying having my own weights in the basement and even more now that I bought a bench off kijiji. The only thing missing now is a power rack and lifting pad - which are in my sights for the future.

 

This weekend the kids and I are going to an OCR gym on Saturday. 2 hours of playing around on obstacles and having fun. I'll need my shoulder working awesome for this and it will be a pretty good test of where I'm at. I can't wait! And then after that, I might settle into seeing if the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight can live up to the endless hype they've tried to build up over this movie. I'm hopeful, but honestly expecting to be disappointed. I honestly just want the fight to be fun to watch and not have a half assed or contrived ending. If you're going to put the fight out there, then let them go at it and do it right to the very end.

 

[QuirkyDM]

 

I'll instead do 1/week posts here where I'll hopefully have something more interesting to say.

 

...

 

End of post. Until next week.

Well, damn. I'm a big fat liar. Pants on hire, I died after crossing my heart, liar. I did not get on here at all. Lots of excuses. Some good. some bad. Mostly just excuses, though.

 

Like I said before, I'm grinding away, so there's nothing really exciting to talk about. Except all the grinding is paying off and you don't get to know that for sure unless you actually keep track. Which I am on my own Google Spreadsheet, but that's only numbers. Some words are good, too, so for future me who may come back and read this someday, this is what's going on. And hey, if anyone else gets anything out of it, too. All the better.

 

Physio:

  Still mostly good. The shoulder is better and better, but far from perfect. I doubt I'll be playing any beach volleyball this year.  The constant shoulder work was giving me tendonitis on my wrist, so I've backed off most of my exercises. And if those exercises are at a weight where my wrist can't handle those weights, they probably aren't helping me out as much anymore. Besides not spending over half an hour a day doing physio, (yay!) I don't see any real decline in my shoulder health.

 

Weights: (4 times/week)

Workout 1:

  25 Squats

  Deadlift: 5x5@205 - Adding 5 lbs per week.

 

Workout 2 and 4:

  Shoulder Press: 5x5@62.5, adding 5 lbs per week

  Rows: 5x5@82.5, adding 5 lbs per week

  Bench Press: 5x5@105, adding 5 lbs per week

  Pull ups: 5x5@12.5, adding 2.5 lbs per week. Though my last set was 3x5 + 2x4, so I'm going to do weighted pull ups once per week with long rests and non-weighted pull ups the other day.

 

Workout 3:

  Deadlift: 5x5@135

  Renegade Pistol Squats: 3x4, adding one rep to all sets per week

 

 

Running:

 Um, just barely. I ran twice last week, but now my goal is 3-4 times per week. (every other day if I can hack it) Forget time and ntervals and sprints and all that stuff. Just run over and over and over again because I like it and for now, that will get me all the improvement I need.

 

Other Stuff:

French: I am still plugging away at DuoLingo. I should be finished in about 2 months. And then I'll actually have to put it into use and learn. I still can't understand when my daughter speaks to me. I foresee a lot of French Tv in my future. There must be some good French translated Anime out there.

 

Spartan Training: This weekend, I go to the OCR Academy for a 90 minute Spartan training session. I went there a few weeks ago (and I should post pictures to prove it) and it was awesome. My cardio is not up to this, though at least I feel prepared from a strength point of view.

 

Middle Splits: I work on these most days, especially when sitting watching TV. I'm in no rush to finish this, but they are getting closer and closer to full splits.

 

 

Put all together, it adds up and it's been slowly increasing over and over. At the beginning of March, my bench was 50, shoulder press was 12.5, rows were 25 and  I was working my way up to 3x5 on pullups. And I wasn't even sure I would be able to do them with my shoulder the way it was. The grind works. And while physio has been a grind, lifting weights is fun. I go to the basement, spend 30 minutes to an hour exercising and having Full Metal Alchemist playing in the background. (it used to be Sword Art Online, but that's all done)