BBS

Eating: for some reason I just had some cookies

Drinking: semi-wild baozhong - delicious

Listening:  Gamelan of Central Java 4

 

pulldown 130# 16

overhead press 60# 14

leg press 280# 10

seated row 80# 14

chest press 100# 12

 

hot / cold shower

 

Not a bad workout.  Four hours of sleep left me feeling a little tired, and I had a rough morning and a heavy lunch.  The exercises in general felt better as I went on.  I got a really nice burn out of the seated row, for once, although it was mainly in my arms so it's possible that I'm doing something wrong there.  The lack of upward progress is a little annoying.  I can rationalize it though, as I recall reading somewhere that one should "master the weight" before moving up, so that's what I'm saying to myself that I'm doing.

 

For once, the cold water at the gym was really fucking cold, and it woke me up completely. 

 

I'm going to get out on the scooter and do some laps tonight.  Each lap is .4 miles and has a 45-foot elevation gain.  Macho. 

 

 

Fasting

I (uncharacteristically) fasted for YK and (even more uncharacteristically) had a really easy time with it.  In the past, I've found fasting to be an unbearable hell, with every single second spent thinking about food.  Not this time.  I prepped by eating a bacon double cheeseburger, a bowl of chili and a huge milkshake (made with Vermont ice cream, how was I going to pass that up?) around 2 pm and then a package of prosciutto and a banana (going primal at Duke's sucks) around 5:30.  I then didn't eat until around 8 the next day.  Sure, I was hungry as hell when I actually sat down to eat, and I did take a nap, but otherwise I felt great.  I meditated for about half an hour and scooted (?) a mile and a half, and actually considered going for a little run, although I ran out of time.  The bottom line: it felt good.  This morning, I had planned to take it a step further, not eating until lunch (so like 18 hrs without food) and working out on an empty stomach.  Unfortunately, I was in the office until 2 AM, so I was so dazed when I got in this morning that I wasn't able to motivate to the gym before people started giving me stuff to do. 

 

The funny thing is that I don't really remember why fasting is supposed to be good for you.  At this point it just feels liberating to not be tied to food intake. 

Successful TM Tabata

Eating:  smorgasbord from Duke's

Drinking:  2002 Fu Cha Ju Ailuo (?) cooked

Listening:  How to be Clear

 

5 chinups

Tabata 9:22 pace, 15 incline

5 pullups

 

hot shower, cold shower

 

Close to barfing, but not as close to death as the last one, which I note en passant was over two months ago.  I am working very late (again) and really felt like taking a shower.  I was away from my desk for a grand total of 45 minutes, and that included buying food and watching part of Top Gun at the gym.  ANOTHER GOOD DECISION. 

BBS

Eating: had some cheese and some foul-ass turkey potstickers

Drinking:  the XZH 8582 stuff.  It's good and I'm thinking about buying some.

Listening:  some Satie, something really peppy. 

 

seated row 80# 18

chest press 100# 14

pulldown 130# 9

overhead press 60# 8

leg press 260# 16

 

On the balance, this was not a good one.  Work has really been getting on my nerves lately and I just don't feel that awesome in general.  Not that I'm depressed, just not a lot of energy.  The SR and CP went well, but I think I should have taken a little break at that point, because I totally flailed on the PD and OHP.  At that point I recognized my former minion AK and we had a chat, so I hit the LP rested and did better than expected.  Definitely got some glucose out there, and I will be going up to 280 next week. 

 

I continue to look for entertaining stuff to do in my free time.  I got one of those little 3-wheel scooters for the Monster, because I want her to be able to ski someday, and ended up getting a grownup version for myself too.  It arrived yesterday and I took it for a spin around the block.  I look fucking stupid riding around on it, but I see the thing as a skateboard with training wheels.  As a little kid I always wanted to be able to skateboard, but under the old-model A Feng life approach that meant that I spent lots of time reading skate magazines and almost no time trying to stand up on a skateboard.  Maybe not that much has changed, but I had fun blasting down the hill last night and I look forward to another round tonight, so perhaps someday I'll be able to get around the park on a skateboard without breaking my wrist. 

Quick Trip to the Gym

Facing a long night at the office, and annoyed at myself for not having exercised enough this weekend (although I did do 7 miles with the Monster on the bike!), I ducked out for a short workout and a long shower.

 

6 x (3 pullups, 6 pushups, 5 overhead squats)

5 stepups per side with 60# weight

 

I don't know why I stopped at 6 - felt like I could have done twenty.  Maybe even more if I took breaks.  Got back to the office (where I am still) feeling like a million bucks. 

BBS

eating: nothing yet; had a bunch of sandwiches for lunch because that's what was free

drinking: YSLLC samples

listening: Gamelan of Central Java 9

 

pulldown 130# 16

overhead press 60# 12

leg press 240# 19

seated row 80# 13

chest press 100# 12

 

This was an excellent experience.  Absolutely raged out on the pulldown and the leg press.  Others were all a good effort too.  Could have done better on the seated row but fatigue was setting in at that point. 

 

This is a good example of a totally rested BBS workout.  I have been too busy lately to get anything else in.  Kind of a shame but what can you do.  I am not complaining.

BBS

Eating: just had a Chop't cobb, with spinach, and just olive oil for the dressing - give myself a gold star

Drinking: 1994 Menghai 8582

Listening: We Are Wolves

 

seated row 80# 16

chest press 100# 10

leg press 240# 14

pulldown 120# 15

overhead press 50# 15

 

That was a five-star workout.  I don't know if I've ever had a better BBS session.  I went up on every exercise, and kept it totally smooth and under control.  On the leg press and pulldown in particular I really felt like I gave it everything I had. 

 

Weights up on pulldown and OH press next time. 

 

Warmed up with very light free weights, cooled down with hot/cold shower, nice and long.

 

I've also been thinking a lot about the bigger picture.  I have been keeping this journal / blog for a full year (as of four days ago).  As far as experiments go, it has been incredibly successful.  I have never felt better in my life.  The blog has been a real encouragement to keep exercising, and to keep exploring different ways to exercise and be healthy.  It's amazing to think that a year ago I had never heard of Mark Sisson, didn't have five fingers, didn't know what HIT was, etc. etc.  It hasn't turned into a real blog, but I think that's fine.  I am cooking one up for translation and tea anyway. 

Sick Circuits

Sick as in unhealthy, not as in awesome, therefore a lighter workout.

 

5 x (3 pullups, 5 front squats, 5 OH presses, 5 OH squats, 4 pushups, 5 deadlifts)

 

Used a 20# bar for everything.  Kept my heels on the ground througout.  Fun.  Starting to feel better. 

Invalid BBS

pulldown 120# 14 (last week's 190 was a typo, should have been 130)

overhead press 50# 15

leg press 220# 14

seated row 80# 12

chest press 100# 8

 

steam (longer than usual), hot shower

 

The idea here was to take it easy on my sick ass, knock down each weight by 10#, and do maybe 15 or more easy reps of each, still until failure but more from exhaustion than from inability to push farther.  Well, I should have dropped the weights more.  In terms of effort, it was probably 90% of last week, and in some cases (probably leg press and seated row) it actually felt harder.  Being sick really (to put it Victorianly) seems to have sapped my strength. 

 

This experiment did, however, make me think that there could be space in my routine for a different kind of exercise to failure - many reps, or very slow reps, of maybe half the weight that I am capable of cranking out 10 normal-speed reps.  Slow, of course, would be much in the original spirit of Body By Science, but I also like the idea of doing 25 reps and then collapsing - kind of like German volume training, maybe. 

Running b/w Sick as a Dog

Just ran 1.5 miles in the Five Fingers.  Felt great.  A little tightness / spazziness in the left ankle but nothing to complain about. 

I have also just missed two days of work thanks to my friend Mr. Flu.  I think it's probably six months to the day since I was laid out for 48 hours in BC, so I guess I was due.  The first signs were on Friday, when I couldn't tolerate the cold portion of my shower, but I didn't pay them any mind and went out normally.  Actually, it's a bit misleading to say normally, because I don't really go out at all since I became a father.  We went over to HS's, had some weed and some cigarettes, and lots of beer and Italian food.  I woke up feeling very achy which I attributed to the pushups etc on Friday.  Saturday afternoon WJ and co had a roof party, and I spent lots of time outside in the kind of shitty windy weather drinking beer and eating gross hotdogs, with the buns.  Now that I think about it, that was some of the worst food I've ever had at a BBQ.  By that time the sour taste in my mouth was kicking in.  That should, in the future, be the signal that it's time to cancel all plans, take a 20-minute hot shower, and drink 100 cups of ginger tea.  But no - I smoked more weed and had some more beer (HS came over).  Despite gargling with GSE and rinsing out my nose, I slept like shit Saturday night (cold sweats, couldn't breathe).  This gave me a lot of sympathy for people who are trapped in the medical system, as well as the epiphany that 19th century invalid literature - for instance, the Magic Mountain - makes sense as descriptions of altered states of consciousness.  Sunday was a wash, but I have been feeling progressively better since then.  Some lessons:

• Drink your vinegar (I have not been drinking vinegar lately)
  
• Listen to the signs
• Listen to the Wife