Boot and all, Earl managed to crutch on in to the gym and do some powerlifting with Ricky and me this morning.
Talk about awesome!!
Yes, yes, super lame to take photos while working out, HOWEVER I was just so excited for and proud of Earl for getting er done despite his snowboarding accident.
It’s actually been awesome when we train together now, because he hasn’t been able to train for so long and is just getting back, we now are using all the same weight levels. Convenient! I’m sure that won’t last once he is able to come back with more frequency.
He has another surgery tomorrow to take some pins out. Then another cast put on for a few more weeks and lotsa rehab. But- hey- at least back in the gym a bit for some upper body stuff! woot, woot.
Today at powerlifting training with Ricky we worked on cleaning and pressing the log.
I *HATE* the log!!! The first time I ever did it at strongman training, I ended up with massive forearm bruises coloring my arms up for weeks. People actually would stop me to ask if I was a domestic violence victim.
Normally, we lift the log in group, so I was surprised when Ricky had me set it up today for me to work on alone. I kind of need the camaraderie and team-cheer-you-on spirit of the group workouts to get the log up.
Ricky is convinced my aversion to lifting the log is all mental. He thinks I’m scared of it.
I AM SCARED OF IT! Look at this thing- just sitting there taunting you to lift it up:
What makes lifting the log harder than lifting a regular bar with weights are the perpendicular grips. Also, the fact that if you aren’t using enough grip strength to hold it away from your body entirely (which I wasn’t/can’t) the entire weight of the 145lb log presses against your forearms just in that one spot- right against the steel “cage” around your hands:
So here’s me cleaning it and almost about to jump into a press:
Horrible form, but the last last one of the day and it was strictly for the photo-op, as I asked Ricky to take a picture so I could show Earl what the log was.
Man, the log kicked my butt today! We started with regular dumbbell overhead presses to warm up, and then the entire workout was just one thing: THE LOG.
We were going for 20 “perfect form” clean and presses. If I messed up, or paused too much between squatting and cleaning, or before my press, or didn’t successfully get it up over my head, we wouldn’t count that one and I would have to start all over. Somewhere around rep #7 I started to feel dizzy between reps when I would let it crash down to the ground. Somewhere around rep #14 the log whacked my face on the clean and I dropped it and actually STARTED CRYING. 145lbs to the face. I’ve never cried at the gym before! I think I was stunned from it hitting me, and hurt. I faked like I needed to go get some water, kinda washed my face off and came back. I got over the tears almost immediately, but I think Ricky was onto me. He says more often he finds that people cry from deadlifting… heh.
Anyways- stupid log. I can’t say I love it now, although it’s growing on me. This is about our fourth session with it and I’m getting better each time. At first I couldn’t even deadlift the log. Then the next time I could just deadlift it and squat. Then I mastered the clean, and now the press. Hopefully soon I’ll get good enough to hold it right and not let it rest against my forearms, so I don’t look like this immediately after (apologies for the wet messy hair and mirror):
And that is just tonight, not even 5 hours after lifting the damn thing! I bet these babies are going to be all kinds of purple and blue tomorrow!
Ricky told me today that the more often you lift the log, the tougher your forearms become and then you won’t bruise up anymore. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I look forward to that day!
Someone is excited to be out for a walk on a bright sunny day!
corgi in tahoe
We are walking further and further each day. His neuro surgeon is having us build up walk lengths, adding one minute per walk per day! This one in particular was rather tiring- I think buddy was feeling the altitude, and there are lots of hills in the ski house neighborhood.
We also did some physical therapy walking on snow… basically it’s really good for his paws to be walking on various surfaces- sand, pebbles, dirt, woodchips, pavement, water, snow, what have you… the variety spices it up and gives his neurons new textures to learn and send to his brain. He’s still feeling pretty disconnected- walks with a DISTINCT wobble and always seems on the verge of toppling over. He’s feeling better, though. At one this weekend, he took an enormous LEAP off the couch- really sent himself sailing- he looked like Superman or the corgi doing the corgi flop. Earl and I were both like, “NOOOOoooooOOOOO” in slow motion while he did it- I was sitting right next to him and reached over to stop him but it was too late.
Fortunately, as far as we can tell, the Leap of Death didn’t seem to do any permanent damage… and technically at this point we are almost exactly four months out from his surgery, which means he can add in “high impact” activities. However, I don’t think we’ll EVER be letting him jump on and off beds and couches or even do stairs himself anymore. Just too high risk. This one time was a fluke and we are lucky and happy that nothing bad came from it.
Btw- the above pic was taken on the camera of my new droid phone. You like? So far I am pretty happy with it! Just got it on Monday.
Been training with Ricky 3x a week these past few weeks- gonna stay with that for the next few months. It’s great feeling so strong!
It’s funny how plain old Chuck Taylors are the standard for powerlifting shoes, although I think it’s pretty cool. Just the basics, nothing fancy! What a refreshing change from Ironmans, with thousands of dollars of carbon junk, $40 water bottle holders, gel holders, water bottle holsters, bike shoes, water shoes, Orca suits, wet suits, etc.
Here you can see Ricky deadlifting 700lbs wearing *his* Chucks:
In other equipment training news, we also just ordered a foam roller for muscle rehab at home (using the one at the gym was grossing me out, especially last week when I saw a woman essentially foam rollering her sweaty groin!). Linus also got some new physical therapy equipment- 5 lengths of various sizes of PVC pipe. We set them up in our living room, and 3x a week he has to walk stepping over them back and forth for 10 minutes. Kinda fun! He’s doing pretty well at it.
Heading up to Tahoe tonight in another crazy storm. Hopefully a less eventful drive than last week!
6:00pm: post school/work, meet at gym, get in a quick workout
7:30pm: Home, showered, load car
8:00pm: pick up Papalote burritos (in retrospect a bad idea, fantastically hard to eat while driving) and hit the road
8:15pm: driving across the Bay Bridge, officially out of the city
10:30pm: even though we don’t really need it, stop to top off the Jeep with gas and also pick up one diet coke to split and a small package of Reeses Pieces. THANK GOODNESS BECAUSE LITTLE DID WE KNOW WHAT WAS COMING….
10:45pm: Linus gets upgraded from traveling in the kennel in back of the Jeep to sitting on Earl’s lap in the front seat
11:00pm: downed power lines north of Placerville have us pulling off the freeway and stopping in a line of cars off the exit. We chill here for about an hour
11:10pm: Search smartphone gps for backroad routes. There are no backroad routes.
11:30pm: Dog gets dinner. Dog gets walked in blizzard like conditions along side of road
12:00pm: Downed power lines cleared, line of cars heads back on the road- driving towards Kyburtz, traffic goes slowly due to massive back logs, avalanches and accidents
1:00am: Avalanche takes out 18 wheeler, traffic stops near Polluck Pines
2:00am: Dead stopped traffic in a line of cars. Everyone turns out their headlights and “sleeps” in their cars
2:30am: Dog is like “I don’t really know what’s going on, but at least I am getting to sit in your lap and get petted all this time.”
3:00am: We move about 300 yards
3:30am: still dead stopped, due to accidents and avalanches. NOTE: at this time we are ONLY 18 MILES FROM OUR SKI HOUSE IN MEYERS!!! ARRRRGGGHH
3:45am: Dog becomes highly valued commodity for his lap warming properties in freezing cold car as we sit parked in the blizzard.
4:00am: woken from dead sleep in car to plow zooming by. Traffic hasn’t moved but man we are cold, starving and worn out. We thank ourselves for buying that diet coke and reeces.
4:30am: Get into fight about whether to wait it out or turn around and go find and check into a fleabag motel. The stubborn one of us is like “I’M NOT TURNING THIS CAR AROUND! We’ll lose our place in line! Greene’s don’t back track!”
5:00am: Rational one wins. Decide to turn around and find a place to pull off the road and snooze. Find a nice side road pull off where we can spy if and when the traffic moves.
7:00am: Cars start moving!!! PRAISE THE LORD.
7:30am: Drive last 18 miles into South Lake. Go straight to Red Hut where we both order pancakes and coffee.
7:40am: Realize that at least four other groups eating at Red Hut were also all stuck in traffic all night on 50! We all bond over the craziness. One poor couple left San Francisco at 3:30pm, only to head up 80, have that be closed, turn around and try 50 and get stuck in the same shitshow we were in…
8:30am: Powder day at Heavenly! Hit up and early chair and make tracks on The Face…. worth the crazy drive? Hmm…
4:00pm: skied all day with a bunch of friends and we are WIPED! Head back to the cabin to sleep for 12 hours straight.
7:30pm: log into email to post this writeup and find this message from our friend: “FYI, anyone driving up or considering it- all roads to sLT are closed
as of now and things are pretty gnarly out there. Extreme discretion
advised- talking collapsing trees, avalanches onto the road, etc.”
… now he tells us! Haha… turns out he sent that at 7:00pm last night- too bad I didn’t see it then, we could have avoided the whole debacle!
A few photos:
On the ski lift:
WE MADE IT!! WE SURVIVED THE 11.5 DRIVE THAT NORMALLY TAKES 4 HOURS!!
All that for… this? The level of snow at the ski house:
Can you spot the corgi?
One more of Linus in the snow- he had fun prancing around! I like letting him play in fresh powder because I feel like it’s nice and supportive of his back, and let’s him sort of “romp” which we don’t usually let him do because it’s too high impact:
AND GUESS WHAT We picked up our season passes!!!!! wahhhooooooooo Please note in both of these pass pictures it was nuking outside before I walked in to get my photo taken, so here I am sporting a bit of a “drowned rat” look. Apparently both mountains let you email your photo in beforehand (which we didn’t know about until we went to pick them up), so next year I’ll have to rock a spiffier look.
We skied one day at Kirkwood and one day at Heavenly. They were both good, although pretty windy both days and lots of lift closures. Still nice snow, though. Met up with my friend Amy for some turns:
Linus got walked in the snow (with his support sling in the back). Earl did NOT want to pose for this picture and was all “hurry up and get over here, my back hurts!”
Linus also had some nice crate rest in front of the fire. I still have a bit of a guilt complex about leaving him in the crate 24/7 except for walks. I feel so bad for him! I wish there was some way to explain to him that we’re doing this for his own good and hopefully resting in his crate for 6 weeks will help him heal.
All in all, an awesome, RELAXING and fun weekend which was exactly what we needed. Excited to be spending lots and lots of time at the ski house this season.
One of the things I learned this morning with Ricky is how much more “mental” deadlifting is vs. squats or bench. Squats and bench you can prettymuch just rely on your own strength to get you there, and make sure you can actually do the lift. Even if you’re not mentally focused, your brute strength can pull you through and compensate so you can get the weight up. Deadlifting, however is a whole ‘nother story.
A week and a half ago I gave myself giant blisters UNDERNEATH my calluses on my hands while doing zillions of deadlifts. It was SOOOO PAINFUL. Then on Sunday, attempting to relieve pressure and pain I very stupidly “popped” the blisters while waiting for Earl at the farmer’s market. That was about the most absolutely idiotic thing I could have done, and it left me not only in HELLA pain, but also with enormous yucky open rips on my hands.
Last week I suffered through having NO calluses on my hands and dealing with ripping open flesh on my palms while deadlifting. Ricky just laughed at me and called me “soft” … I even actually CRIED at the gym (for the first time… and for the record I haven’t puked there yet either) because I was in so much pain in my hands!
It was really frustrating because I was trying to lift a much lower weight than I normally rep, however I couldn’t do it because my hands were screaming in pain. How I finally overcame it was (on Ricky’s suggestion) by SLAPPING my hands together as hard as I could (really whacking them against each other super hard!!) to cause them even MORE pain and then I wouldn’t feel it when I was lifting the weight. So almost a distraction-type pain.
My point is, that it was a rough week for my deadlifts. Then today, when I’m trying to rep what SHOULD be a very easy weight for me (225), I was having trouble. I was getting it up, but my form wasn’t the best and also I wasn’t EXPLODING up as easily or as quickly as I should. I SHOULD be deadlifting about 300lbs now and instead here I was struggling with 225. ARGH!!!!
I think I was “too much in my head” based on my ripped up hands and former pain from last week. I’ve never really had a sport where MENTAL TOUGHNESS really came into play in such severity. Even in Ironmans and triathlons I just kind of bumbled through and kept going. Even in my hardest and longest marathon or triathlon, I never found that I had to really keep my head in check. It was simple- you just kept going until you got across the finish line. Both skiing and swimming I’ve been lucky enough to possess such an easy, natural talent and affinity for that I never had to TRY that hard or overcome mental demons.
In that regard, I’m pretty stoked because powerlifting is presenting me with this new challenge and problem to overcome. I think I’m going to do some reading about mental focus and toughness and how that plays into weightlifting in the next couple of weeks. Try harder to “get in the zone” before my lifts.
The competition is coming up (January 9th!) and I’d love to be able go up there and give it my 100% best… mental issues aside! To borrow a phrase from triathlons, to “leave it all on the course.” Here’s hoping!
This morning at group workout with Ricky, we did deadlifts, deadlifts and more deadlifts.
12 sets of 10 reps, all on top of a warmup that was …. DEADLIFTS. I was repping at 185lbs for the first half, but then was losing grip strength in my right hand and couldn’t keep the bar even. It’s funny how the weakest part is always your stupid hands and grip strength! SOOOOO frustrating!! And you *know* we are not allowed to cheat with the grip straps, since as Ricky put it “we lift raw.” I finished out at 135lbs and by the 12th set even that was killing me. Right now my hands feel totally dead. I couldn’t even hold and grip my KEYS well to open the door when I got home.
Ohh!! Guess what! Yesterday I signed up for a powerlifting competition! It’s in Pleasanton in the beginning of January. Not really feeling like I’ll be ready for it, but going to try it out nonetheless. A bunch of people I train with at Body Mechanix are doing it, so at least there will be some group support, and we can have fun cheering each other on. I’m really stoked to have something tangible to train for.
The powerlifting competition is only three exercises: squats, deadlifts and bench. I’m not out to hit any goals except have fun. Here is the humiliating part- we have to wear singlets for the competition. They’re basically a spandex outfit with shorts and a bib.
^^^ Yiesh!!
So… more motivation to eat clean until the competition!
Kind of looks like my old Ironman outfit:
although I doubt I could just wear that, because the triathlon outfit has padding in the butt for the bike ride.
Update on Linus coming later today. Thank you again everyone for the thoughts and well wishes. He is doing MUCH BETTER and I will post some photos (and maybe even a video of him “walking” in his sling) later today.
This morning my friend Andrea and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7am and met up at the Panhandle for a bike ride. She and I have been going the past couple weeks as we try to ramp up our mileage and get ready for a century ride sometime this fall. We’re both out of shape- it’s almost comical. The hills I have to walk up- they’re so small! It’s sad… and funny. But, I can already feel the improvement. Getting back on the bike is really nice. I even dragged my rollers out of the garage yesterday and used them on our patio. Poor Earl had to come outside and “support” me- physically and emotionally- while I got my groove back on them. I did about 10 minutes yesterday on the rollers- gonna work up to an hour, I hope.
Anyways- today Andrea and I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, to Sausalito and then around Richardson Bay to Tiberon! We took the ferry back. It was super fun! Sausalito seems like a really cute town- it would be fun to go there and poke around for an afternoon. Andrea and I stole into a little cafe along the waterfront for a while mid-ride to warm up with some hot drinks. It was pretty foggy and cold in the morning.
The whole ride was really nice- lots of bike-only paths and really not much heavy traffic. Here we are waiting for the ferry:
Our total distance today was 27 miles. Andrea rides a hybrid/mountain bike type bike, so she gets extra points for bad-assery. I think we’ll try and add 10 miles per week, with about 2 weekly rides. Pretty chill schedule, but we have the time and I think getting back up to speed is a slow process!
Ps- here is Linus being cute with his tennis ball about 5 minutes ago:
Each purple “X” is a day I worked out. So any day with a purple x on there represents either yoga, running, or lifting. If there’s a star or more than 1 star, that means more than one workout!
Slow going at the beginning of the month was because of my quad strain and recovery time period. Then right around the mid-month I got caught up in some ALS training at work and prep work for a PHTLS class. HOWEVER… once that was done instead of just giving up on streaking and calling the month a wash I got right back into things and managed a pretty nice come-back.
Even though my weightloss has kinda plateaued, I’m pretty psyched and proud of my constancy through April! I’m starting to feel like an “athlete” again… or at least getting back into the mindset where I feel athletic. And when I DON’T workout for the day now, I miss it. That’s a HECK of a lot better than where I was last summer
All in all, I worked out 20 of 30 days. Not too bad! Also, I’m really digging the accountability of marking it on the calendar and attempting a streak. I’ve gotten into the swing of things at work and really gotten my schedule down to the point where I can work a 12hr and also get in a good workout. Generally, I work a morning 12- say 5am-5pm, then meet Earl at the gym at night. When I work a 24hr or a 36hr (which is rare unless people call out and I opt to pick up shifts), I bring a jump rope and a blanket and get some leg work and abs done.
As far as streaking, I know it is extreme, but it does suit my personality. Maybe I’m just one of those people who needs crazy goals and gimicks to motivate themselves. As my friend Steve, who is also on a crazy streak, writes:
I’m 33 years old, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, no matter what it is, if I do it in moderation, I lose interest and ultimately fail. Don’t ask me why, it appears that it’s just the way I’m wired. I can give you example after example of how my life is like that.
I think I’m in the same boat. My streak attempt is a tad different than Steve’s- whereas he is attempting to RUN every single day, I am just trying to WORKOUT every. Here are my May Fitness Goals:
Workout every single day! Streak for the whole month! Workouts can be any of the following: jogging the dog (recovery day), long run, SPEEDWORK run, yoga, lifting, or softball. Lift 3x a week consistently.
lose 10lbs
keep tracking my workouts in my training journal. This is tedious, boring and a time sink, but I think the benefits of tracking over time and being able to go back and see your progress and plateaus is invaluable
build base miles for my Mt. Diablo 25k on June 5th. Get up to an 18mile long run. Do lots of hill work because that race has 4,450′ of climbing. Ack!
And some general Future Fitness Goals, most of which I think can be accomplished before 2010 is up (except for Scorpion pose, I’ve heard that takes about 3 years to master):
bench my weight! my bench will have to go up to hit this, and my weight needs to get down to somewhere under 150lbs.
This one is totally lame and a complete vanity thing, but I’d love to master the scorpion pose at yoga. *sheepish*
Run 50 miles
Do 10 pull ups
Do 100 pushups
By the way, isn’t my corgi calendar great? The photo for May has me completely charmed:
Oh- just one more thing that’s an exciting aside from the gym last night. My lifting workout goes like this: bench, leg press, lat pull downs, skull crushers, shrugs with bar, seated row, bicep curls, calve raises and abs. I’ve added jumping rope on the end of it, mostly because Earl is always finishing something up or got there late or is taking forever to get done, so it’s nice to have a “variable” at the end to kill time and wait for him to wrap up. I think jumping rope is so neat. It’s fun, and it’s some cardio at the end, and it’s sort of “old school” in a hardcore, Rocky-esque fashion. I really like it! Anyways, I’ve worked up from tripping over the rope every 10 jumps to doing sets of 100 jumps and working in different styles and whatnot. I do side to side, skipping, criss crossing the rope in front of me, etc. Like what this chick does, only more fat rolls bouncing around, a lot sweatier and lots more huffing like a dying waterbuffalo.
Much more tripping over the rope and whacking myself on the butt and arms with it as well. She is gorgeous and graceful and has the technique I am aspiring for with the jumprope!
ANYWAYS… when I was there last night doing my jumprope last night, I was huffing and sweating up a storm, but managed to do a bunch of different types of jumping without too much tripping and stopping for eight minutes and thirty seconds. Which is WAY MORE than when I started and could only go for 30 seconds total! When I was done I was really breathing fast and almost keeling over when I went to hang the rope back up on the wall. This in-shape looking dude, who had been doing crossfit stuff in the same area, comes up to me and says, “Wow, that was impressive! I don’t think I could jump rope for more than 10 seconds!” So that was nice Accolades for my hard-won jump rope skillz!!! I was practically floating the whole ride home. Thanks random dude!! I hope to work up to 20-minute jump rope sessions over the next couple months.
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