Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2880
Kanji Review
Intuflow (RPT 8, RPE 3, RPD 2)
Well, just as I thought would happen, by the time I get a chance to do my reps, I was exhausted. So I only did 60, and I won't get to make 3000 until later this week. It also occurs to me that in my OKRs, I didn't say anything about the knife stuff. So my concentration for Q2 knife work is drawing on the move. I'll start tomorrow with walking the hourglass and drawing. I should probably get out the sword and work my Atienza targeting chains too, because I'm sure they're rusty.
Intuflow went very well. I went deep into the movements. Even my 4CBD felt pretty good, although that's still the only place with significant discomfort. I'm sure I'll get these hip flexors un-knotted eventually. I got Mrs Chops to do all of the spinal movements, for the second day this week, which she needs. I keep trying to talk her into doing the rest of it, but the video is long (lots of excellent explanations), and she's trying to fit this in after the kids go to bed and her Billy's Boot Camp workout, and before her own bath. There's just not a lot of time for working out in the evenings. Still, I'll keep pestering her. Once you've seen the video and heard the explanations a few times, it only takes 15 minutes to run through the routine. Maybe I'll try getting her to add one new movement per day.
2009-03-31
Quick follow-up
For record keeping purposes, last night's Intuflow was RPT 6, RPE 3, RPD 1. As usual, I felt pretty good about RPT on most of the movements, with trouble on the 4CBD (although I kept the legs lower, as I have been doing, and it seems to be helping) . I also felt like my Shoulder-Elbow-Wrist arm waves were a little off, so I'll try to pay more attention to my form there tonight.
Since I'm just shy of 3000 reps for the month, I'm considering cranking out 180 knife reps tonight. Of course, that's easy to say right now. We'll see how I feel once the boys have gone to bed tonight.
You'll have to scroll down, but I also added the hundred pushups/two hundred situps badges to the sidebar. :)
Since I'm just shy of 3000 reps for the month, I'm considering cranking out 180 knife reps tonight. Of course, that's easy to say right now. We'll see how I feel once the boys have gone to bed tonight.
You'll have to scroll down, but I also added the hundred pushups/two hundred situps badges to the sidebar. :)
2009-03-30
Done and Done
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2820
100 Pushups
Be Breathed
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Intuflow
Yep, I hit my 100 today. I had to stop for a breather at 75, and the form went to crap after that, but I hit 100, dammit. I suppose I'll add the neat little gif badges to the sidebar shortly.
For Be Breathed, I found a neat tutorial that gives you a progression to follow in order to get to Butterfly. I did 10 reps of 3 of the movements, then 10 reps of the basic crunch, and 10 more of the crunching situp. I think I might need to do more slower reps of the last two exercises, though. My big ole gut gets in the way of full lumbar spinal articulation, so I'm not getting the full movement. I think that if I take it slower and concentrate on the contraction, I can get better articulation. So, overall, RPE 6, RPT 5 (although a little higher on the initial exercises), and RPD 2. Not too shabby.
Added some new Kanji to the mix today. And I started lesson 5 again for Swedish. I like lesson 5. It makes me feel like I'm starting to get somewhere with the language, but this is probably mostly an illusion.
No RPE/RPT/RPD for Intuflow because I haven't done it yet. I wanted to crank this post out while I was thinking about it.
100 Pushups
Be Breathed
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Intuflow
Yep, I hit my 100 today. I had to stop for a breather at 75, and the form went to crap after that, but I hit 100, dammit. I suppose I'll add the neat little gif badges to the sidebar shortly.
For Be Breathed, I found a neat tutorial that gives you a progression to follow in order to get to Butterfly. I did 10 reps of 3 of the movements, then 10 reps of the basic crunch, and 10 more of the crunching situp. I think I might need to do more slower reps of the last two exercises, though. My big ole gut gets in the way of full lumbar spinal articulation, so I'm not getting the full movement. I think that if I take it slower and concentrate on the contraction, I can get better articulation. So, overall, RPE 6, RPT 5 (although a little higher on the initial exercises), and RPD 2. Not too shabby.
Added some new Kanji to the mix today. And I started lesson 5 again for Swedish. I like lesson 5. It makes me feel like I'm starting to get somewhere with the language, but this is probably mostly an illusion.
No RPE/RPT/RPD for Intuflow because I haven't done it yet. I wanted to crank this post out while I was thinking about it.
2009-03-27
Potential Failure on the Horizon
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
This week has finally caught up with me. I tried to make myself do pushups, but the sad fact is that I'm burning out on them. I honestly don't even care if I make my 100 pushups goal on Monday. I'm glad that I've already figured out where I'm going to take my workouts, or this might have been enough to derail me for a while. So on the 1st of April, I'm moving on to my planned 4x7, regardless of my 100 pushups status. If I don't make it, maybe I'll revisit the goal sometime in the future, but I'll probably not be going back to the 100 pushups routine itself. Maybe that'll be the impetus to give RMAX more money, for their Forward Pressure program.
I do, however, feel pretty good about today's Swedish lessons. I was able to concentrate a little more than I have been this week. I also moved on to lesson 5, which seems to have more useful material, which is cool.
Another bright spot is that I've finally talked Mrs Chops into trying Intuflow. She's got a history of back problems, so this should help her quite a bit.
Swedish in the car
This week has finally caught up with me. I tried to make myself do pushups, but the sad fact is that I'm burning out on them. I honestly don't even care if I make my 100 pushups goal on Monday. I'm glad that I've already figured out where I'm going to take my workouts, or this might have been enough to derail me for a while. So on the 1st of April, I'm moving on to my planned 4x7, regardless of my 100 pushups status. If I don't make it, maybe I'll revisit the goal sometime in the future, but I'll probably not be going back to the 100 pushups routine itself. Maybe that'll be the impetus to give RMAX more money, for their Forward Pressure program.
I do, however, feel pretty good about today's Swedish lessons. I was able to concentrate a little more than I have been this week. I also moved on to lesson 5, which seems to have more useful material, which is cool.
Another bright spot is that I've finally talked Mrs Chops into trying Intuflow. She's got a history of back problems, so this should help her quite a bit.
2009-03-26
It's important to have a goal
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2760
Kanji Review
Swedish in the Car
Feeling very sleepy today. Again. I came very close to skipping today's reps. The good news is that I listened to Swedish both to and from work. And I found two new Swedish podcasts to listen to when I don't want to listen to lessons. The bad news is that it's my third time through the same lesson, and it's just not sticking. I'm going to have to try to pay more attention next time through.
So it's almost the end of the quarter, so I figure it's time to reveal next quarter's goals. I've put them in the format we use at work, which I kind of like.
2009Q2 Fitness OKR's.
Objective: Improve pulling strength and compensate for last quarter's emphasis on pushing strength (P1)
* Key Result: Do 20 consecutive pullups
Objective: Improve level of General Physical Preparedness and cardio work capacity in order to participate in beginner level Parkour workouts (P0)
* Key Result: FlowFit level 2, 20 cycles in 20 minutes
* Run one mile in 7:30
* Achieve RPT 6, RPD < 3 for 4 Corner Balance Drill (Beginner level version)
Objective: Maintain gains made in Q1 (P2)
* Perform the first three movements of "Be Breathed" for 10 reps each
* Work up to five sets of five reps for the first two movements of "Beyond Pushups"
Hmmm...now that I look at it, it doesn't look like much. Maybe I should make it tougher. The original idea was just to hit the 20 pullups mark. Then, I remembered that a while back, I got interested in parkour, but I was too much of a lazy fatty to do anything with it. Well, now I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has a strong parkour community, and I'm actually getting in shape. The locals have introductory beginner's classes for free in various Bay Area locations a few times a month, so I'm aiming to be fit enough to participate in some of these at the end of this quarter.
Kanji Review
Swedish in the Car
Feeling very sleepy today. Again. I came very close to skipping today's reps. The good news is that I listened to Swedish both to and from work. And I found two new Swedish podcasts to listen to when I don't want to listen to lessons. The bad news is that it's my third time through the same lesson, and it's just not sticking. I'm going to have to try to pay more attention next time through.
So it's almost the end of the quarter, so I figure it's time to reveal next quarter's goals. I've put them in the format we use at work, which I kind of like.
2009Q2 Fitness OKR's.
Objective: Improve pulling strength and compensate for last quarter's emphasis on pushing strength (P1)
* Key Result: Do 20 consecutive pullups
Objective: Improve level of General Physical Preparedness and cardio work capacity in order to participate in beginner level Parkour workouts (P0)
* Key Result: FlowFit level 2, 20 cycles in 20 minutes
* Run one mile in 7:30
* Achieve RPT 6, RPD < 3 for 4 Corner Balance Drill (Beginner level version)
Objective: Maintain gains made in Q1 (P2)
* Perform the first three movements of "Be Breathed" for 10 reps each
* Work up to five sets of five reps for the first two movements of "Beyond Pushups"
Hmmm...now that I look at it, it doesn't look like much. Maybe I should make it tougher. The original idea was just to hit the 20 pullups mark. Then, I remembered that a while back, I got interested in parkour, but I was too much of a lazy fatty to do anything with it. Well, now I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has a strong parkour community, and I'm actually getting in shape. The locals have introductory beginner's classes for free in various Bay Area locations a few times a month, so I'm aiming to be fit enough to participate in some of these at the end of this quarter.
2009-03-25
Not quite ready for the final
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2700
Pushups 6-2
Intuflow (RPT 6, RPE 3, RPD 3)
Be Breathed
Kanji Review
No Swedish again today. Just too tired to concentrate on it. And I'm writing "Kanji Review" in good faith, I'm hoping to do some after I finish writing this.
Today's Intuflow wasn't spectacular. I kept slipping out of mindfulness and into auto pilot. Consequently, I pushed a little too hard on the 4CBD. It wasn't too bad, though. For Be Breathed, I did 15 reps of the basic crunch (RPT 9, RPE 3, RPD 1), then 15 of the situp (7, 4, 1), then somewhere less than 10 of attempting to do the butterfly (2, 6, 2). I also did another 5-6 reps of half-assed butterfly attempts after Intuflow (2, 7, 2).
I did pretty good for the first seven sets of pushups, keeping strict with the 45 seconds of rest between sets. The last set had a min of 45, and I had to drop to my knees after 18 or 19. I hit failure a couple of times before I hit 45, but I also pressed on to get 56 before I had a double failure.
Pushups 6-2
Intuflow (RPT 6, RPE 3, RPD 3)
Be Breathed
Kanji Review
No Swedish again today. Just too tired to concentrate on it. And I'm writing "Kanji Review" in good faith, I'm hoping to do some after I finish writing this.
Today's Intuflow wasn't spectacular. I kept slipping out of mindfulness and into auto pilot. Consequently, I pushed a little too hard on the 4CBD. It wasn't too bad, though. For Be Breathed, I did 15 reps of the basic crunch (RPT 9, RPE 3, RPD 1), then 15 of the situp (7, 4, 1), then somewhere less than 10 of attempting to do the butterfly (2, 6, 2). I also did another 5-6 reps of half-assed butterfly attempts after Intuflow (2, 7, 2).
I did pretty good for the first seven sets of pushups, keeping strict with the 45 seconds of rest between sets. The last set had a min of 45, and I had to drop to my knees after 18 or 19. I hit failure a couple of times before I hit 45, but I also pressed on to get 56 before I had a double failure.
Almost forgot
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2640
Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 2, RPD 2)
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
I only did Swedish on the way to work. I was too brain-fried on the way home for it. And I've got a huge backlog of Kanji review from skipping it for five days, so I didn't get all the way through it.
Intuflow went well. My form was really good on most parts, but not so great on others. I took it nice and slow, and for quite a few of the movements, I upped the reps to 5 instead of 3. The shoulder circles felt awesome. For the 4CBD, I kept the legs lower than usual to ease off the discomfort, which is what I should have been doing since the beginning. That seemed to help. Also, for some reason I was feeling very tight in the thoracic spine, and I couldn't seem to work it out.
Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 2, RPD 2)
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
I only did Swedish on the way to work. I was too brain-fried on the way home for it. And I've got a huge backlog of Kanji review from skipping it for five days, so I didn't get all the way through it.
Intuflow went well. My form was really good on most parts, but not so great on others. I took it nice and slow, and for quite a few of the movements, I upped the reps to 5 instead of 3. The shoulder circles felt awesome. For the 4CBD, I kept the legs lower than usual to ease off the discomfort, which is what I should have been doing since the beginning. That seemed to help. Also, for some reason I was feeling very tight in the thoracic spine, and I couldn't seem to work it out.
2009-03-23
Better living through chemistry
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2580
Pushups 6-1
Be Breathed
Intuflow (RPT 9, RPE 2, RPD 2)
Wow, what a hellish weekend. Munchkin #2 was apparently still mad at Mrs. Chops and I for letting the doc take out pieces of this throat, so in retaliation, he didn't let us sleep. Personally, this morning I was still at single digit hours of sleep for the weekend. Mrs. Chops was even worse off. I pounded somewhere near a case of various caffeinated sodas at work today before taking M2 in for his post-op checkup. The good news is that everything is healing up as well as can be expected. The nurse practitioner said that if he's cranky, we can dope him up more. Yay for pharmaceuticals.
In light of all of this, I was sorely tempted to skip another workout (Friday was the first time I skipped reps in a month). But I walked into the living room after putting the kids to bed to find Mrs. Chops working out along with Billy Blanks. And I realized that even though she had less rest than me, she hadn't missed a single workout all weekend. So I sucked it up and did the work.
Day 6-1 of pushups was much easier than last week, even though I only got two days in last week. Still, I only got 23 on the max set (min is 40) before I had to drop to my knees and do "girl" pushups. I hit muscle failure at 30 and again at 38. I managed to get to 40 on the next try and stopped there. I did do another max set later in the evening, and only managed 13. I'm going to get my 100 pushups next week, I can feel it.
Instead of situps, I started on the RMAX Be Breathed workout. I've had this video for a long time, and have done it a little every now and again. I started with about 20 reps of the basic crunch type exercise, then did about 15 reps of a very half-assed "butterfly". It turns out that I'm too fat to lift my legs over my head without some momentum. Which is fine, since I can't really relax into the final butterfly position anyway with this big ole gut in the way. So I'm going to concentrate on this movement for the time being. If anybody is curious about it, I can give a more detailed description of the exercises involved in Be Breathed. Just ask.
Finally IntuFlow was awesome today. I don't know if it's the exhaustion or what, but I felt like I was able to really relax into the movements. My form felt like it was really on today. The only minor hiccup is the 4CBD, which I've mentioned before as being difficult for me. My legs are very big, so they're heavy to hold out in the air like that. And I've historically had tight hips, so when I stick my foot out to the side, I can feel my hip flexors knotting up. It's annoying, but it's pretty mild, and the only discomfort I had during the whole session.
And no, no Kanji or Swedish today. I needed Opeth to wake me up on my morning drive, and I had a hard enough time concentrating on the road without trying to repeat phrases. On the other hand, maybe it would have made for some nice subliminal programming.
Pushups 6-1
Be Breathed
Intuflow (RPT 9, RPE 2, RPD 2)
Wow, what a hellish weekend. Munchkin #2 was apparently still mad at Mrs. Chops and I for letting the doc take out pieces of this throat, so in retaliation, he didn't let us sleep. Personally, this morning I was still at single digit hours of sleep for the weekend. Mrs. Chops was even worse off. I pounded somewhere near a case of various caffeinated sodas at work today before taking M2 in for his post-op checkup. The good news is that everything is healing up as well as can be expected. The nurse practitioner said that if he's cranky, we can dope him up more. Yay for pharmaceuticals.
In light of all of this, I was sorely tempted to skip another workout (Friday was the first time I skipped reps in a month). But I walked into the living room after putting the kids to bed to find Mrs. Chops working out along with Billy Blanks. And I realized that even though she had less rest than me, she hadn't missed a single workout all weekend. So I sucked it up and did the work.
Day 6-1 of pushups was much easier than last week, even though I only got two days in last week. Still, I only got 23 on the max set (min is 40) before I had to drop to my knees and do "girl" pushups. I hit muscle failure at 30 and again at 38. I managed to get to 40 on the next try and stopped there. I did do another max set later in the evening, and only managed 13. I'm going to get my 100 pushups next week, I can feel it.
Instead of situps, I started on the RMAX Be Breathed workout. I've had this video for a long time, and have done it a little every now and again. I started with about 20 reps of the basic crunch type exercise, then did about 15 reps of a very half-assed "butterfly". It turns out that I'm too fat to lift my legs over my head without some momentum. Which is fine, since I can't really relax into the final butterfly position anyway with this big ole gut in the way. So I'm going to concentrate on this movement for the time being. If anybody is curious about it, I can give a more detailed description of the exercises involved in Be Breathed. Just ask.
Finally IntuFlow was awesome today. I don't know if it's the exhaustion or what, but I felt like I was able to really relax into the movements. My form felt like it was really on today. The only minor hiccup is the 4CBD, which I've mentioned before as being difficult for me. My legs are very big, so they're heavy to hold out in the air like that. And I've historically had tight hips, so when I stick my foot out to the side, I can feel my hip flexors knotting up. It's annoying, but it's pretty mild, and the only discomfort I had during the whole session.
And no, no Kanji or Swedish today. I needed Opeth to wake me up on my morning drive, and I had a hard enough time concentrating on the road without trying to repeat phrases. On the other hand, maybe it would have made for some nice subliminal programming.
2009-03-19
Motivation-ectomy
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2520
Kanji Review
Today, I had to take my three year old to the hospital for a tonsillectomy, adenectomy, and bilateral myringotomy. In plain English, that's "Tonsils removed", "Adenoids partially removed", and "Tubes put in each ear". The high point of the day was watching him get high before they knocked him out. He was not too happy once he woke up though. He didn't stop being completely cranky until shortly before bed time. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
Thanks to spending most of the day at the hospital (Lucille Packard is an awesome children's hospital, by the way), I didn't really feel very motivated today. I did my 60 reps, but I'm just going to skip out on Intuflow today. I also didn't have a chance for any Swedish, since I normally listen to it on my commute to work. I'm going to maybe eat a plate of nachos and go to sleep. Yes, I know how healthy that isn't. Bite me.
Kanji Review
Today, I had to take my three year old to the hospital for a tonsillectomy, adenectomy, and bilateral myringotomy. In plain English, that's "Tonsils removed", "Adenoids partially removed", and "Tubes put in each ear". The high point of the day was watching him get high before they knocked him out. He was not too happy once he woke up though. He didn't stop being completely cranky until shortly before bed time. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
Thanks to spending most of the day at the hospital (Lucille Packard is an awesome children's hospital, by the way), I didn't really feel very motivated today. I did my 60 reps, but I'm just going to skip out on Intuflow today. I also didn't have a chance for any Swedish, since I normally listen to it on my commute to work. I'm going to maybe eat a plate of nachos and go to sleep. Yes, I know how healthy that isn't. Bite me.
2009-03-18
So, uh, it's not a big deal, but...
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2460
Kanji Review
200 Situps
100 Pushups
Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 4, RPD 2)
Swedish in the car
Yep, I was feeling a bit froggy today, so I did a warm up set of 33 situps, then the next set I just went for 200. And I got it. I had to stop and take a breath a couple of times, but none of those breaks were longer than five seconds. I'm going to do it again on Friday, hopefully with less breathing breaks, but my natural situp cadence makes it difficult to get a good inhale.
After that, I kind of felt I had to go for the 100 pushups as well. Those didn't go as smoothly. I had to stop for a breather three or four times, and on each of these I had to put my knees down. I think that means that I didn't actually do 100 consecutive pushups, so I'll damn sure be doing this again on Friday (and quite likely Monday next week as well). I did additional sets of pushups before and after my Intuflow session.
Speaking of Intuflow, I watched it today and made myself a list of the movements, so I'd have a cheat sheet. Turns out I missed more than I'd thought yesterday. I did the real whole thing today. RPT was pretty good, except for the Four Corner Balance Drill (hereafter referred to as 4CBD). I'm horrible at the 4CBD, always have been. My form was bad, and it knotted up my hip flexors. I guess I'm going to have to try to do the 4CBD everyday, so that it's not so sucky.
I think I'm done drafting up my Q2 fitness goals. I'll be unveiling them here in the next week or so, and scoring this quarter's goals. I've also decided to give myself some incentives this quarter. If I stick to the 4x7 for two cycles, then I'll buy myself the Bodyweight Revolution ebook by Coaches Murdock and Steer. I would require all three 4x7 cycles, but I want to read through the book before coming up with Q3's workout plans. Also, if I stick with my fitness plans through November, I'll buy myself the RMAX Tacfit program as a Christmas present. Looks like I've got a long year ahead of me. I hope I can count on your support to get me there.
Kanji Review
200 Situps
100 Pushups
Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 4, RPD 2)
Swedish in the car
Yep, I was feeling a bit froggy today, so I did a warm up set of 33 situps, then the next set I just went for 200. And I got it. I had to stop and take a breath a couple of times, but none of those breaks were longer than five seconds. I'm going to do it again on Friday, hopefully with less breathing breaks, but my natural situp cadence makes it difficult to get a good inhale.
After that, I kind of felt I had to go for the 100 pushups as well. Those didn't go as smoothly. I had to stop for a breather three or four times, and on each of these I had to put my knees down. I think that means that I didn't actually do 100 consecutive pushups, so I'll damn sure be doing this again on Friday (and quite likely Monday next week as well). I did additional sets of pushups before and after my Intuflow session.
Speaking of Intuflow, I watched it today and made myself a list of the movements, so I'd have a cheat sheet. Turns out I missed more than I'd thought yesterday. I did the real whole thing today. RPT was pretty good, except for the Four Corner Balance Drill (hereafter referred to as 4CBD). I'm horrible at the 4CBD, always have been. My form was bad, and it knotted up my hip flexors. I guess I'm going to have to try to do the 4CBD everyday, so that it's not so sucky.
I think I'm done drafting up my Q2 fitness goals. I'll be unveiling them here in the next week or so, and scoring this quarter's goals. I've also decided to give myself some incentives this quarter. If I stick to the 4x7 for two cycles, then I'll buy myself the Bodyweight Revolution ebook by Coaches Murdock and Steer. I would require all three 4x7 cycles, but I want to read through the book before coming up with Q3's workout plans. Also, if I stick with my fitness plans through November, I'll buy myself the RMAX Tacfit program as a Christmas present. Looks like I've got a long year ahead of me. I hope I can count on your support to get me there.
2009-03-17
The lull
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2400
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Intuflow beginner level, RPE 3, RPT 7, RPD 1
You might notice that there's no /WW after the Intuflow. I did a full, real Intuflow session, I think. I may have forgot one or two movements, but other than that, I did the whole thing.
Also, knife stuff done with my new training knife. It actually opens a bit smoother than my real knife, probably because it doesn't have 2400 draws on it. Makes me think that maybe it's time to clean and oil the bearing on my daily carry.
Tired. Going to bed.
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Intuflow beginner level, RPE 3, RPT 7, RPD 1
You might notice that there's no /WW after the Intuflow. I did a full, real Intuflow session, I think. I may have forgot one or two movements, but other than that, I did the whole thing.
Also, knife stuff done with my new training knife. It actually opens a bit smoother than my real knife, probably because it doesn't have 2400 draws on it. Makes me think that maybe it's time to clean and oil the bearing on my daily carry.
Tired. Going to bed.
2009-03-16
Almost test time
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2340
Pushups 6-1
Situps 6-1
Kanji Review
Intuflow/WW
No Swedish today, I just wasn't in the mood. I hope to get back in the mood tomorrow, since I might be having lunch with a Swede at work sometime this week. He's agreed to help me out with some grammar.
For pushups, I skipped out on the last set, the max set. Today was back to five sets, and they were long. I had planned on doing extra failure sets after situps, like last week, but I think I'm just going to take it easy today. No need to push myself too hard. My body's telling me to ease up a little, so I am. Today.
The max set for situps was nuts. I did 160 situps. This is after doing a total of 252 in the first four sets. I don't think I'll have a problem hitting the goal next week for situps. Which is good. Doing a lot of high-rep sets for situps is actually getting boring.
Knife stuff is knife stuff. I haven't talked about it much lately, at least not since discovering Ray Floro. I've been practicing drawing up in his ready stance. Today I did that, and then some draw and jab, then some Southnarc style draw and jab as well.
Pushups 6-1
Situps 6-1
Kanji Review
Intuflow/WW
No Swedish today, I just wasn't in the mood. I hope to get back in the mood tomorrow, since I might be having lunch with a Swede at work sometime this week. He's agreed to help me out with some grammar.
For pushups, I skipped out on the last set, the max set. Today was back to five sets, and they were long. I had planned on doing extra failure sets after situps, like last week, but I think I'm just going to take it easy today. No need to push myself too hard. My body's telling me to ease up a little, so I am. Today.
The max set for situps was nuts. I did 160 situps. This is after doing a total of 252 in the first four sets. I don't think I'll have a problem hitting the goal next week for situps. Which is good. Doing a lot of high-rep sets for situps is actually getting boring.
Knife stuff is knife stuff. I haven't talked about it much lately, at least not since discovering Ray Floro. I've been practicing drawing up in his ready stance. Today I did that, and then some draw and jab, then some Southnarc style draw and jab as well.
2009-03-13
I need a weekend, badly
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2280
Pushups 5-3
Situps 5-3
Intuflow/WW
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
I actually did better on pushups today during the last few sets than I did on Wednesday, despite there being slightly more reps in each set, so I think my overkill extra failure sets helped. In that light, I did them again tonight. Sadly, I didn't get as many reps on them this time. I might do another before I go to bed. It's a good hurt, really. Of course, it was really difficult to do the knife work after this. Okay, bed time.
Pushups 5-3
Situps 5-3
Intuflow/WW
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
I actually did better on pushups today during the last few sets than I did on Wednesday, despite there being slightly more reps in each set, so I think my overkill extra failure sets helped. In that light, I did them again tonight. Sadly, I didn't get as many reps on them this time. I might do another before I go to bed. It's a good hurt, really. Of course, it was really difficult to do the knife work after this. Okay, bed time.
2009-03-12
The Great Outdoors
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2220
Kanji Review
Intuflow/WW
No Swedish today. I just wasn't in the mood. I did find a native Swedish speaker at work who's willing to have lunch with me and explain some grammar weirdness, so that's good.
For something different, today I did my knife reps outside. My four year old was out in the back yard playing, so I hung a tennis ball from a tree with some para cord and practiced draw and jab. My accuracy kind of sucks, actually. I also did some shadow boxing in between reps, hitting the ball with both fist and knife. That's the sort of thing I should really be using the trainer for, now that I have one. Maybe next time.
Most importantly, welcome back on the wagon, remad. Telling myself that I have to make a blog entry has been a big motivator on several occasions, so maybe more frequent posting would help. Hint hint.
Kanji Review
Intuflow/WW
No Swedish today. I just wasn't in the mood. I did find a native Swedish speaker at work who's willing to have lunch with me and explain some grammar weirdness, so that's good.
For something different, today I did my knife reps outside. My four year old was out in the back yard playing, so I hung a tennis ball from a tree with some para cord and practiced draw and jab. My accuracy kind of sucks, actually. I also did some shadow boxing in between reps, hitting the ball with both fist and knife. That's the sort of thing I should really be using the trainer for, now that I have one. Maybe next time.
Most importantly, welcome back on the wagon, remad. Telling myself that I have to make a blog entry has been a big motivator on several occasions, so maybe more frequent posting would help. Hint hint.
Just to break up the chops show
I did my 55 reps tonight. I'm still way behind schedule. I think I need to start doing them every night with no nights off for a few weeks to get back on schedule.
I'm still completely failing at my secondary goals. I'm going to restart the workout schedule tomorrow.
I'm still completely failing at my secondary goals. I'm going to restart the workout schedule tomorrow.
2009-03-11
Why aren't I in bed yet?
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2160
Pushups 5-2
Situps 5-2
Intuflow/WW
Swedish in the car
Kanji Review
For the pushups and situps, today marked the shift from five set routines to eight set routines, with less rest in between sets. It started out pretty easy, since each set had much fewer reps in it, but it started to hurt quite a bit by the fifth set. For the last set of pushups, I only managed half of the minimum. So I did another max set after situps, where I managed to get 65 pushups. Then I did another set after Intuflow, which got me 30 pushups. Then I did knife draws. It's been 10 minutes since I finished those, and my arms are still shaking.
I hit my limit for Swedish in the car today and had to switch it back to Opeth for the ride home. I'm going to take the morning commute off tomorrow, then pick it back up on the way home tomorrow.
Pushups 5-2
Situps 5-2
Intuflow/WW
Swedish in the car
Kanji Review
For the pushups and situps, today marked the shift from five set routines to eight set routines, with less rest in between sets. It started out pretty easy, since each set had much fewer reps in it, but it started to hurt quite a bit by the fifth set. For the last set of pushups, I only managed half of the minimum. So I did another max set after situps, where I managed to get 65 pushups. Then I did another set after Intuflow, which got me 30 pushups. Then I did knife draws. It's been 10 minutes since I finished those, and my arms are still shaking.
I hit my limit for Swedish in the car today and had to switch it back to Opeth for the ride home. I'm going to take the morning commute off tomorrow, then pick it back up on the way home tomorrow.
2009-03-10
Progress, maybe
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2100
Swedish in the car
Kanji Review
Somehow, someway, my body is starting to adapt to the workouts. Last night, after the situps, my abs were incredibly sore. So sore that I actually woke up in pain several times from trying to roll over or change sleeping position. Today, I'm fine. I can feel that they're tired if I try to sit up from laying down on the floor, but there's no pain.
Also, two new-ish developments in the knife training. One, I finally got my training knife, so I can get a bit more vigorous in my indoor training (but that really isn't in the schedule quite yet). Two, I borrowed "The Essential Ray Floro" from a friend and watched a few bits and pieces. For those that don't know who Ray Floro is, he's an Australian who teaches a form of Filipino Martial Arts known as "Floro Fighting System". And the knife syllabus is all pikal, which is just what I'm looking for. I'll probably start working on the basics he outlines later this week. I've only watched a couple segments from the first DVD (it's a two DVD set), and it looks like I'll be hanging on to this one until my friend comes over and physically repossesses it. At that point, I'm fairly certain I'll buy my own copy. It's that good.
I made a little progress in designing my first 4x7 cycle, and I also have an idea of what I'm going to focus on for the last 4x7 of next quarter, but I don't have specifics for it yet. I have an idea or two for the second 4x7, but I think I'll wait and see how the first one goes before I start planning it out in detail.
Swedish in the car
Kanji Review
Somehow, someway, my body is starting to adapt to the workouts. Last night, after the situps, my abs were incredibly sore. So sore that I actually woke up in pain several times from trying to roll over or change sleeping position. Today, I'm fine. I can feel that they're tired if I try to sit up from laying down on the floor, but there's no pain.
Also, two new-ish developments in the knife training. One, I finally got my training knife, so I can get a bit more vigorous in my indoor training (but that really isn't in the schedule quite yet). Two, I borrowed "The Essential Ray Floro" from a friend and watched a few bits and pieces. For those that don't know who Ray Floro is, he's an Australian who teaches a form of Filipino Martial Arts known as "Floro Fighting System". And the knife syllabus is all pikal, which is just what I'm looking for. I'll probably start working on the basics he outlines later this week. I've only watched a couple segments from the first DVD (it's a two DVD set), and it looks like I'll be hanging on to this one until my friend comes over and physically repossesses it. At that point, I'm fairly certain I'll buy my own copy. It's that good.
I made a little progress in designing my first 4x7 cycle, and I also have an idea of what I'm going to focus on for the last 4x7 of next quarter, but I don't have specifics for it yet. I have an idea or two for the second 4x7, but I think I'll wait and see how the first one goes before I start planning it out in detail.
2009-03-09
Breaking down
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 2040
Pushups 5-1
Situps 5-1
Intuflow/WW
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Today's situps went pretty well. I'm confident that I'll hit the 200 situp goal by the end of the month. Today I totalled 270 situps in five sets. Pushups, on the other hand, didn't go nearly as well. I had to stop during set three, but I managed to get all the way through set four without stopping (it was only 24 pushups, though). I decided to not go on for the max set right away, but instead finished up my Intuflow, then did my knife work, then finally I did my max set for pushups. The good news that I did 50 without stopping at that point. I'm not as confident that I'll be able to do 100 consecutive pushups by the end of the month.
One thing that's becoming clear to me is that since I'm in horrible shape to begin with, I'm not getting enough recovery time between high intensity workouts (the fact that 270 crunches and 180 pushups alone constitute a "high intensity" workout is sad in itself). I was still sore this morning from Friday's pushups. Thus, it's official. After I hit my goals for this workout cycle, I'm not going to be doing a traditional 3 workout/week routine anymore. I had wanted to tackle the 20 pullups program, but I think I'm going to have to make some compromises in order to keep my overall health where I want it.
The particulars aren't fully decided yet, but I'm going to be giving an RMAX style 4x7 workout a try for this quarter. I'll be able to fit three full 4x7 cycles into the quarter, and I've already got a pretty good idea of what I want to tackle for the first one. A 4x7 works by waving the intensity of your workouts. You start out with a Moderate intensity day, then a High intensity day, followed by a No intensity day, and finish up the series with a Low intensity day. This should give me more time for active recovery after the high intensity days. I plan on putting pullups on the High intensity days. I'm going to work FlowFit in there as well, to keep the gains I've made this quarter. We'll see what kind of progress I can make towards doing 20 pullups this way.
Pushups 5-1
Situps 5-1
Intuflow/WW
Kanji Review
Swedish in the car
Today's situps went pretty well. I'm confident that I'll hit the 200 situp goal by the end of the month. Today I totalled 270 situps in five sets. Pushups, on the other hand, didn't go nearly as well. I had to stop during set three, but I managed to get all the way through set four without stopping (it was only 24 pushups, though). I decided to not go on for the max set right away, but instead finished up my Intuflow, then did my knife work, then finally I did my max set for pushups. The good news that I did 50 without stopping at that point. I'm not as confident that I'll be able to do 100 consecutive pushups by the end of the month.
One thing that's becoming clear to me is that since I'm in horrible shape to begin with, I'm not getting enough recovery time between high intensity workouts (the fact that 270 crunches and 180 pushups alone constitute a "high intensity" workout is sad in itself). I was still sore this morning from Friday's pushups. Thus, it's official. After I hit my goals for this workout cycle, I'm not going to be doing a traditional 3 workout/week routine anymore. I had wanted to tackle the 20 pullups program, but I think I'm going to have to make some compromises in order to keep my overall health where I want it.
The particulars aren't fully decided yet, but I'm going to be giving an RMAX style 4x7 workout a try for this quarter. I'll be able to fit three full 4x7 cycles into the quarter, and I've already got a pretty good idea of what I want to tackle for the first one. A 4x7 works by waving the intensity of your workouts. You start out with a Moderate intensity day, then a High intensity day, followed by a No intensity day, and finish up the series with a Low intensity day. This should give me more time for active recovery after the high intensity days. I plan on putting pullups on the High intensity days. I'm going to work FlowFit in there as well, to keep the gains I've made this quarter. We'll see what kind of progress I can make towards doing 20 pullups this way.
2009-03-06
Tough Day
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1980
Pushups 4-3
Situps 4-3
Swedish in the Car
Kanji review
Intuflow/Warrior Wellness
Yeah, busy day. I didn't get started until well after 10pm. It's been a long week, and it showed. I had no energy when doing pushups, and felt completely drained by the end of the first set. I had to stop and rest twice during the fourth set, and I have no idea how many times during the max set. For situps, well, I guess two slices of pizza is way too much for me. My stomach isn't feeling at all well, so I called it quits after my third set of situps. Like on Wednesday, I did a modified Intuflow/Warrior Wellness routine in between sets of pushups. I'm doing it without the 4 Corner Balance Drill, which is actually a really important drill. I should probably add that back in next quarter. Knife work was knife work. Draw and vertical elbow shield. Added some movement to the rear corners towards the end of the set.
Somehow (I'm still trying to figure this out) I have completely missed out on the magic that is Opeth. I was looking for some Swedish music to listen to, and I found them. It turns out, their lyrics are actually in English, but that doesn't matter. It is quite possibly the awesomest music I've ever listened to.
Pushups 4-3
Situps 4-3
Swedish in the Car
Kanji review
Intuflow/Warrior Wellness
Yeah, busy day. I didn't get started until well after 10pm. It's been a long week, and it showed. I had no energy when doing pushups, and felt completely drained by the end of the first set. I had to stop and rest twice during the fourth set, and I have no idea how many times during the max set. For situps, well, I guess two slices of pizza is way too much for me. My stomach isn't feeling at all well, so I called it quits after my third set of situps. Like on Wednesday, I did a modified Intuflow/Warrior Wellness routine in between sets of pushups. I'm doing it without the 4 Corner Balance Drill, which is actually a really important drill. I should probably add that back in next quarter. Knife work was knife work. Draw and vertical elbow shield. Added some movement to the rear corners towards the end of the set.
Somehow (I'm still trying to figure this out) I have completely missed out on the magic that is Opeth. I was looking for some Swedish music to listen to, and I found them. It turns out, their lyrics are actually in English, but that doesn't matter. It is quite possibly the awesomest music I've ever listened to.
2009-03-05
The Pen is Mightier?
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1920
Swedish in the car
IntuFlow
Kanji review
It was a long day at work today, so I'm glad I'm not doing much in the way of working out. I listened to a Swedish podcast on the way home from work today, and I understood two words, so I'm pretty happy about that. Also, I did IntuFlow again (two days in a row, yay!) to help work out some soreness from yesterday's workout.
I'm also in the market for a new pen. Tomorrow's payday will have my annual bonus. While most of it will go to pay for the family trip back to Japan this summer, I'm going to use a little bit to buy myself a nice pen. The problem is, I like to clip my pens to my front pants pocket. This shouldn't be a problem, but over the years I have been completely unable to keep a clip on a pen when carrying it this way. I "solved" the problem by getting a small cheapo pen that I just keep in my pocket, but I'd really rather have it clipped to the edge instead of piling up at the bottom of my pocket with my keys and pocket knife. Ideally, I'd want a retractable pen with a solid clip on it. The only knives that have good, strong clips are the "tactical" pens, and almost all of them are the removable cap type. If I'm going the removable cap route, I'm going to need a screw on cap, otherwise I can almost guarantee I'll lose it. I think I've settled on the Tuff-Writer, since the guy who runs EDC Forums is getting a special run made for his web store.
Swedish in the car
IntuFlow
Kanji review
It was a long day at work today, so I'm glad I'm not doing much in the way of working out. I listened to a Swedish podcast on the way home from work today, and I understood two words, so I'm pretty happy about that. Also, I did IntuFlow again (two days in a row, yay!) to help work out some soreness from yesterday's workout.
I'm also in the market for a new pen. Tomorrow's payday will have my annual bonus. While most of it will go to pay for the family trip back to Japan this summer, I'm going to use a little bit to buy myself a nice pen. The problem is, I like to clip my pens to my front pants pocket. This shouldn't be a problem, but over the years I have been completely unable to keep a clip on a pen when carrying it this way. I "solved" the problem by getting a small cheapo pen that I just keep in my pocket, but I'd really rather have it clipped to the edge instead of piling up at the bottom of my pocket with my keys and pocket knife. Ideally, I'd want a retractable pen with a solid clip on it. The only knives that have good, strong clips are the "tactical" pens, and almost all of them are the removable cap type. If I'm going the removable cap route, I'm going to need a screw on cap, otherwise I can almost guarantee I'll lose it. I think I've settled on the Tuff-Writer, since the guy who runs EDC Forums is getting a special run made for his web store.
2009-03-04
Who shtole da till?
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1860
Pushups 4-2
Situps 4-2
Swedish in the car
I'm getting impressed with amount of pushups and situps I'm doing now, compared to where I started. The last set of pushups huts me every time, which makes me think that maybe I should be doing the middle column program instead of the 3rd column program. Well, it's not killing me, so therefore it must be making me stronger, right? My situps are getting crazy. I started the program doing full situps, then I noticed that they actually specify crunches, with just your shoulder blades coming off the floor. Since then, I've been kicking ass. Today's min for the last set was 54, and I ended up doing 90. They weren't easy, and I had to stop and take a couple of mini-breaks after 50, but I didn't actually reach muscle failure until 90. I'll definitely be ready for the 200 situps by the end of the month. Pushups I'm still not too sure about.
No kanji today, I got started too late. I did, however, do Intuflow/Warrior Wellness in between sets of pushups. I hope to keep that up as well (I know, it's not like I've got enough stuff to do).
Pushups 4-2
Situps 4-2
Swedish in the car
I'm getting impressed with amount of pushups and situps I'm doing now, compared to where I started. The last set of pushups huts me every time, which makes me think that maybe I should be doing the middle column program instead of the 3rd column program. Well, it's not killing me, so therefore it must be making me stronger, right? My situps are getting crazy. I started the program doing full situps, then I noticed that they actually specify crunches, with just your shoulder blades coming off the floor. Since then, I've been kicking ass. Today's min for the last set was 54, and I ended up doing 90. They weren't easy, and I had to stop and take a couple of mini-breaks after 50, but I didn't actually reach muscle failure until 90. I'll definitely be ready for the 200 situps by the end of the month. Pushups I'm still not too sure about.
No kanji today, I got started too late. I did, however, do Intuflow/Warrior Wellness in between sets of pushups. I hope to keep that up as well (I know, it's not like I've got enough stuff to do).
2009-03-03
Ursäkta
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1800
I'm going to review today's kanji in a couple of minutes here. I also listened to some Swedish in the car. I can now say "Excuse me" (the title of today's post), as well as "I don't understand Swedish". So that's progress.
I chatted very briefly with Rikalonius today, so I know he's still alive, which is good. Apparently I'm not the only one who hates moving. Hopefully Hephaestus will grace us with a blog entry (perhaps even revealing the unexpected revelation we had today via the Internet). And Remad commented on my last post, so he's accounted for. All that's left is the Fly, and I exchanged a couple of lines' worth of IM yesterday morning.
I'm going to review today's kanji in a couple of minutes here. I also listened to some Swedish in the car. I can now say "Excuse me" (the title of today's post), as well as "I don't understand Swedish". So that's progress.
I chatted very briefly with Rikalonius today, so I know he's still alive, which is good. Apparently I'm not the only one who hates moving. Hopefully Hephaestus will grace us with a blog entry (perhaps even revealing the unexpected revelation we had today via the Internet). And Remad commented on my last post, so he's accounted for. All that's left is the Fly, and I exchanged a couple of lines' worth of IM yesterday morning.
2009-03-02
Long Term Planning
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1740
Pushups 4-1
Situps 4-1
Kanji Review
I also did some Swedish today. I listened to a Swedish podcast about science and technology at work, then I listened to some phrasebook type material on the drive home. I understood none of the podcast, of course, but I like to get my ear used to the new sounds.
I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about how my goals are organized (or rather, how they aren't organized at all) and I think I'm going to adopt the system we use at work to measure progress against our goals on a quarterly basis. The end of the quarter is the end of March, so I'll probably unveil some new, concrete goals around that time. If you're curious though, here's a rough idea I have.
The physical working out is actually becoming more important to me than the knife work, which I didn't foresee happening at all. It looks like after years of being dormant, my love of activity and exercise is finally starting to burn a little brighter again. So most of my plans for the year actually center around this. I've already got concrete goal for the knife work, 10000 reps. That's not hard to plan for. The rest is a little more nebulous.
The general plan is to focus on one or two areas of fitness at a time. I want to improve everything now, but that's just not reasonable at this point. So I'm going to shoot for finishing my 100 pushups/200 situps by the end of this quarter. It's technically doable, since it's only a six week program to begin with and I'm already on week 4, but realistically I think it'll be a tight fit. The next step will be to address my lack of cardio, and I also want to work the pullups, since I've always (and I mean always) sucked at those. The trick will be to do all this and maintain my pushups and situps. After that, I'm looking at moving on to a more fluid workout, like yoga, or more likely, something RMAX based. I love that stuff. Perhaps the Body weight 4x7 routines that they recently released, or the TacFit stuff, which looks awesome but is really expensive. The ultimate goal is to get back into regular martial arts practice (when the family schedule allows) and not be a total fat ass.
Anyway, this has already gone on too long. Not really a problem, I guess, since I don't know if people even read this anymore.
Pushups 4-1
Situps 4-1
Kanji Review
I also did some Swedish today. I listened to a Swedish podcast about science and technology at work, then I listened to some phrasebook type material on the drive home. I understood none of the podcast, of course, but I like to get my ear used to the new sounds.
I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about how my goals are organized (or rather, how they aren't organized at all) and I think I'm going to adopt the system we use at work to measure progress against our goals on a quarterly basis. The end of the quarter is the end of March, so I'll probably unveil some new, concrete goals around that time. If you're curious though, here's a rough idea I have.
The physical working out is actually becoming more important to me than the knife work, which I didn't foresee happening at all. It looks like after years of being dormant, my love of activity and exercise is finally starting to burn a little brighter again. So most of my plans for the year actually center around this. I've already got concrete goal for the knife work, 10000 reps. That's not hard to plan for. The rest is a little more nebulous.
The general plan is to focus on one or two areas of fitness at a time. I want to improve everything now, but that's just not reasonable at this point. So I'm going to shoot for finishing my 100 pushups/200 situps by the end of this quarter. It's technically doable, since it's only a six week program to begin with and I'm already on week 4, but realistically I think it'll be a tight fit. The next step will be to address my lack of cardio, and I also want to work the pullups, since I've always (and I mean always) sucked at those. The trick will be to do all this and maintain my pushups and situps. After that, I'm looking at moving on to a more fluid workout, like yoga, or more likely, something RMAX based. I love that stuff. Perhaps the Body weight 4x7 routines that they recently released, or the TacFit stuff, which looks awesome but is really expensive. The ultimate goal is to get back into regular martial arts practice (when the family schedule allows) and not be a total fat ass.
Anyway, this has already gone on too long. Not really a problem, I guess, since I don't know if people even read this anymore.
2009-03-01
Borka Borka Borka
Hephaestus has decided on Swedish for our joint language expedition. I like tall blondes, so no objections here. I had planned to make some flash cards last night, but I got too sleepy and went to bed instead. Hopefully I'll have some time to make cards tonight after the kids go to bed. I did manage to dig up some free Swedish learning courses online last night, though, and I'll be setting up a Google Sites page with this stuff in if for Heph and I. Anybody else who'd like access to it should send me a message.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)