Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Elastigirl]

After I posted this it occurred to me that I am only familiar with Northwoods black bears - the peace-loving, granola-eating, hippy member of the bear family. I don't know which bears reside in the PNW, but they're bound to be more dangerous. So if you see a grizzly, kodiak, brown, polar, panda, or koala bear on your hikes, don't try to take a selfie.

VanRiper State Park is underneath a swarm of mosquitoes and SlothBoy looks like a puffer fish when he's bit, so we're moving on. I'll do seven minutes of Burpees for the mini. I don't know about anything else.

We have mainly black bears too. To my knowledge we don't have any polar, panda or koala bears.  There are supposedly, a few grizzlies, but sightings are very rare.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I lied again, no Burpees. Our campground is wet dirt and I didn't want to get up and down on it. I did do NG pulls at the playground. I'm back up to doubles with extra hang time at the top.

Driving day. It was raining at Painted Rock National Shore so we kept moving after a stop to do laundry and get groceries.

It was still raining at Mackinaw Island and the kids were asleep so we kept moving. Kind of a bummer, those were both places I wanted to stop at.

Tonight we've stopped in one of the nicer county parks we've ever camped in, but it's wet. Tomorrow we move on to Tawas Point. After that? Who knows.

I'll have to do my Burpees tomorrow or be declared dead in the mini [emoji43]

[KB Girl]

Sounds like quite the trip  

The picture of you with the bike is great, you look happy!

[Shello]

What a bummer with all that rain.  Hopefully a reprieve is on its way.  But that bike trail looked like fun.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

Sounds like quite the trip

The picture of you with the bike is great, you look happy!

Thanks. After that I decided that I should devote my life to riding real mountain bike trails, but my body took days to recover.

[Sloth the Enduring]

What a bummer with all that rain. Hopefully a reprieve is on its way. But that bike trail looked like fun.

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Michigan. I'm tapping this on the beach bundled up as the kids dodge ice floes in Lake Huron.

[Shello]

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Michigan. I'm tapping this on the beach bundled up as the kids dodge ice floes in Lake Huron.

 

maybe next year you should drive south for your summer vacation.... 

[Sloth the Enduring]

maybe next year you should drive south for your summer vacation....

Minnesota is a hard state to road trip from. With the exception of the Great Lakes and theBad Lands of South Dakota, there isn't much within 1000 miles besides prairie. Before we had kids we alternated in between the beach and the mountains every summer. The goal was always >800 miles the first day. The kids would axe murder us after 800 miles in a car.

I've been doing pulls every day on the various playgrounds.

6/21/14 Happy Solstice Sunday

Some incidental biking. I should be getting more miles in, but I'm lazy.

10X10 one arm KB swings

4X1/1 get ups

4X5/5 clean & press

Some extra cleans.

7 minutes of Burpees = 47. These felt really hard, but the heart rate monitor says they weren't.

I did these on the beach. I felt really self conscious about it. Not because it's exercising in a public venue (ElastiGirl's example helped fix that), but because the average weight on the beach had to be 350#. I didn't want to be all, "hey look at me I'm skinny and I'm working out." Finally I got over myself and just did it. Likewise, my ketleballing is right in the middle of an exposed campground.

My bike got a flat. I had a spare tube, but I went to 4 different places in town that sell bike stuff (mostly marinas with sporting goods) to get a new spare and no one had my size (26X2.0 presta). The nearest actual bike shop is at least an hour away.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Light show on Lake Huron tonight. After a stormy day, the clouds finally moved out over the Lake. When the kids finally got to sleep I stepped out and looked at the sky.

The moon, Venus, and Jupiter were bright enough to cast shadows. I could see lightening on the horizon. I walked my KB to the beach (1/2 mile) to watch. There were lightening storms edge to edge on the horizon. After a while a small swarm of fire flies came and danced in the surf. Walking back to the campground I noticed a faint glimmer of the Northern Lights.

It was pretty spectacular. I'm not good at sitting and admiring. Instead I did swings and admiring.

11X10/10 one arm swings. (220 total).

Lots of walking, 10,000 miles perhaps.

Incidental biking.

No stretchy stuff; I'm going to regret the lapse when I get back home.

[KB Girl]

How heavy is your kb? That's a lot of swings

[Sloth the Enduring]

How heavy is your kb? That's a lot of swings

Aren't you the mistress of Long Cycle? The bell is a mere 16kg;I only brought my pressing bell. I did 10L/10R/rest until 120 bpm (est.). The whole thing took 13 minutes. I focused on the plank position at the top and today my abs are a bit sore.

6/23/15 Tuesday - so far

18 mile easy bike ride on the road. A kayak shop had inner tubes and a few spare parts. They used to sell bikes until WalMart came to town.

6 mile hike at an easy kid's pace. No critters except leopard frogs and froglets. We did see deer and coyote tracks.

[Sloth the Enduring]

6/23/15 - Tuesday

I planned on getting a KB workout in too, but my shoulders feel jacked up. Instead a big dose of stretchy stretchy, pull aparts, and KB ribbons.

There should be another Northern Lights show tonight, but I think I need to get some sleep.

[Elastigirl]

What are KB ribbons?

[KB Girl]

Aren't you the mistress of Long Cycle? The bell is a mere 16kg;I only brought my pressing bell. I did 10L/10R/rest until 120 bpm (est.). The whole thing took 13 minutes. I focused on the plank position at the top and today my abs are a bit sore.

Yes, longcycle, not swings. Swings are hard x) I'm sure I don't do more than 40 or so in a week. More than 60 or so in a row would make my back hurt like a b*tch! 

[Sloth the Enduring]

What are KB ribbons?

I don't know the real name, TML calls them Halos, but I think of Halos as something different.

Do these slowly. Start with the bell upside down at one hip. Raise it to the opposite shoulder, go behind your head, let the bell dangle between your scapula giving a good stretch, back over the other shoulder and down to the other hip.

I call them ribbons because the path they trace is like an awareness ribbon. They do wonders for my shoulders.

I think my shoulders are in rough shape because I've been sleeping in such cramped quarters. Curled up tightly like a Hermit Crab in a too small shell. (I'm ready to be home.)

[Sloth the Enduring]

Yes, longcycle, not swings. Swings are hard x) I'm sure I don't do more than 40 or so in a week. More than 60 or so in a row would make my back hurt like a b*tch!

Swings are easy, anything overhead is hard. Really 10 minutes of anything with a KB is going to make something ache.

[Sloth the Enduring]

6/24/15 Wednesday

Driving day. Our luck continues; perfect weather, tomorrow while we're trying to enjoy the outdoors it will be cloudy and cool with a solid chance of rain.

We're at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. We're in a rustic campsite and man do I need a shower. Tomorrow I may fill up the Rubbermaid bin and take a bath.

Driving in we went past the Dune Climb area. This giant dune was full of people running up and down it. As soon as we set up camp we went there and spent a good hour climbing on it and running around. I said I was going to sprint up it until I puked. I didn't quite make it, maybe if it was a little hotter.

That spot in between the green is me trying to run.

HR data cause I'm a nerd like that. I ran to the top of the dune four times, it took about four efforts to make it all the way up. I didn't track the first four efforts. I don't get it, at 175 bpm it felt like my heart was going to explode out my throat, but in a bike race I can hold that pace for an hour. The big dip in the middle is when I tripped. I rolled over and lay there gasping for a while.

Mrs Sloth: I thought you were dead.

Me: Then why didn't you check on me?

Mrs: I sent a text.

---

Mrs: Are you going to kill yourself to prove how strong you are and not be able to move tomorrow?

Me: I told you that when we drove up.

The kids understood; they ran with me. SlothGirl is getting fast.

After.

Except for driving across the state. It was a good day.

Oh, I also did press ladders when we got back to camp. Ladders of 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 @ 16 kg. I'm going back some to work back up. I'll do ladders as prescribed in ETK for a while. Which I finally finished reading after a couple of years.

[Elastigirl]

I don't know the real name, TML calls them Halos, but I think of Halos as something different.

Do these slowly. Start with the bell upside down at one hip. Raise it to the opposite shoulder, go behind your head, let the bell dangle between your scapula giving a good stretch, back over the other shoulder and down to the other hip.

I call them ribbons because the path they trace is like an awareness ribbon. They do wonders for my shoulders.

I think my shoulders are in rough shape because I've been sleeping in such cramped quarters. Curled up tightly like a Hermit Crab in a too small shell. (I'm ready to be home.)

I'll try those, I do halos. They are really more just around your head. When you said they are awareness ribbons, I had a good picture of what I was supposed to do. Nothing makes you appreciate your own bed like camping, or lousy hotel bed.

 

On your next post, running sand dunes is fun ,though the dunes I ran up were much shorter. Your wife made me laugh with her texting you to see if you were dead comment.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I'll try those, I do halos. They are really more just around your head. When you said they are awareness ribbons, I had a good picture of what I was supposed to do. Nothing makes you appreciate your own bed like camping, or lousy hotel bed.

On your next post, running sand dunes is fun ,though the dunes I ran up were much shorter. Your wife made me laugh with her texting you to see if you were dead comment.

Running the dunes was a great time. I seriously underestimated how difficult it would be.

I think I need a new emergency contact.

6/25/15 Thursday

Coldish again. We did the museum, ranger talks, historical reenactment, scenic drive and other stuff like that. It was a busy day. Lots of miles walked, but no hiking. I got 14 miles of incidental biking in and 8X10/10 KB swings.

One of the ranger talks was about black bear encounters. Nothing she said dissuaded me from seeking out a bear selfie.

[Shello]

One of the ranger talks was about black bear encounters. Nothing she said dissuaded me from seeking out a bear selfie.

 

Sounds like a great vacation so far except for all the driving.  

 

Do you mean to say that getting a mandatory bear selfie was not part of her talk?  Clearly she was not qualified for a ranger talk.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

Sounds like a great vacation so far except for all the driving.

Do you mean to say that getting a mandatory bear selfie was not part of her talk? Clearly she was not qualified for a ranger talk.

Her advice for your basic black bear encounter was to stop, keep facing the bear, and wait for it amble off. She said you might as well take a picture while you waited. I overslept this morning and lost my trail time. [emoji17]

[Sloth the Enduring]

6/26/15 Friday

KB day swings & presses

Drove for mearly five hours to go two hours worth. That made me done with this vacation. Made it to Wilderness State Park which seems really nice, but we just stayed the night.

6/27/15 Saturday

15 miles of trail riding. It was super nice. No bear, just a single bear scat and some coyote tracks (no people tracks + big = prolly not dogs). The trail was out of use, I had to climb up a wall and ford a river to finish, it felt very rangerish.

Right now we are in a state park near the Wisconsin border. After Michigan 70* feels tropical, seriously. We are camped in the middle of five big RVs that are here for a family reunion. They are obnoxious Packer fans referring to us as "Vikes" in "their" campsite. The matriarch came over and helpfully told us how easy it would be to move campsites. After I finish looking at my phone I'm going to do shirtless Kettlebells next to their cornhole game. Just squats and swings though. Maybe I'll do some frog stretches, my groin is feeling pretty tight [emoji78]

Edit: rear wheel is Hella bent. From this mornings minor crash? I've spent my workout time trying to true it. Still plan on KBs by the cornhole tournament.

[Sloth the Enduring]

6/27/15 Still Saturday

My wheel is trashed. It's lived a long, hard life. It's time has come. When I get back home I'm going to cut out the spokes and donate the hub to a nonprofit bike shop. It's nice enough that they ought to be able to resell it for a few bucks. I also bent something in the crank/bottom bracket area. I don't have the tools to tell what, but something goes clunk when I ride now. This morning's minor crash was hard on the bike (there was a small log blocking the trail on a downhill, I hopped it but the rear wheel got knocked offline and I slid into a tree).

I did 100 swings shirtless, but by then the Packers fans were at the fire drinking their Busch beer and telling lies. They lost their chance to admire my dad bod.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Double Post. You'll have to wait for my return to civilization for a whimsical gif.

[Fonzico]

Packers fans are the worst! (Disclaimer: I do not follow football of any variety) But seriously, they sound like snot bags (I want to say something ruder, but we'll keep it pg).

Sounds like this has been quite the vacation so far! You might need some time to recover once you return.