Got back into the jamesnasium early this morning. I was supposed to be benching with buddy and former team mate Porter, as it sounded like he was going to have trouble making the team time at 5:00PM today, but he texted last night saying he was going to make team time. Whatever, Mr. Responsible.
Anyhoo, in typical bench day fashion, seems like I got more volume than I should have in for the day- this was spread out over the course of only about an hour or so.
Not awful for not getting much work in over the last two weeks. The shoulder seems to have held decently strengthwise for the lack of work, but I could definitely tell it was getting fatigued.
It's been a minute, hasn't it? Let's catch up and see what has been occurring this past week or so, shall we? I was originally planning on this being one long post, but holy shit snacks there is a lot to it.
There will be pictures. There will be video. There will be short beer and restaurant reviews. There will be donuts. There will be links.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll get in trouble at work for spending too much time on the internet.
But I digress.
WEDNESDAY
My little lady officially turned five years old.
FIVE.
Years old.
God bless, it goes by quickly. Seems like just the other day she was all
And now she's all
She dressed herself, of course.
And before too long she'll be all
Or maybe
Or
Or even
Pure insanity.
At any rate, she went to school that day. Sara and I brought cookies up for her class and I took her home early. I was going to take her to a movie that afternoon but in a classic Ilse move, she decided instead that she would rather stay home and watch a few episodes of Batman Beyond and hang out. Knowing I was leaving town the next day, I was more than happy to oblige a little hang out time before dinner.
Dinner, at the daughter's behest, was at Central BBQ. Had a good time with family, back to the house for cake and presents. She made out like a bandit and had a great time harassing her cousin as he played wrapping paper clean up duty.
Books, snuggle time, bed.
THURSDAY
To Portland we shall go.
Packed up the newly acquired Kelty Redwing 44 with all the business needed for my three day/three night excursion to the PNW plus a little more (extra pair of pants, shorts, two extra shirts, underoos, Surface RT with touch cover in its factory packaging), double and triple checked, and rode with my lady to the aeroportal. Security at Memphis was quick and efficient (suckas!) and before long, I was seated for my glorious excursion with Delta Airlines.
Pay for the preferred seating, people. It's worth it. That said, no matter how much leg room you have, it won't make your ass any less sore by the end of the trip. Remind me to pack a neck pillow and maybe spring for first class one of these days. Sweet Jeebus three hours in a plane is too long.
At any rate, smooth flight, no real worries. Got into my connection at Salt Lake City in decent time and in an unheard of situation my arrival and departure gates were actually close together! This may happen to some of you more regular travelers on the reg, but I can't recall EVER having my arrival and departure gates literally five gates apart- arrived in C3, departed C8. Flipping awesome planning on SLC's part or awesome coincidence. Still didn't have time to meet up with my arfcom pal, Terra, but the gate proximity made for a much more stress free 42min layover.
A bison arrives at PDX.
Landed a hair early at PDX, breezed through, and was picked up by my buddy Brian, who in a bid for future sainthood, battled through two hours of rush hour traffic to pick my sorry bottom up.
This being my first trip to Portland, I was immediately enamored with the scenery on the drive from the airport to Beaverton, where his abode is located. I am a sucker for fall foliage as we don't really have what one would refer to as "seasons" in Memphis, and who doesn't love mountains? Got a great glimpse of Mt Hood on the way in, and though this would be the only really clear sky of duration of my stay, it's great country to be surrounded by.
Also, dick and fart jokes. And comic voices.
In his second bid for sainthood, Brian stopped us by one of the local groceries for a handcart full of bombers of local beers and we stopped off at Five Guys for some grub to take home. Very thankfully, Five Guys there is better than Five Guys here, so upon arrival at the Link's abode, we plopped ourselves down for an evening of tomfoolery, burgers, and beer.
First beer for the night, if I remember correctly, was Ninkasi's Believer Double Red Ale. Ninkasi is a brewery out of Eugene, Oregon. Check the link for their notes on the beer, which I found to be pretty representative of the beer. A little lighter of a beer than I really like, but still very good stuff overall.
Maybe the best IPA ever.
The second beer of the night, which honestly may one of my favorite beers ever, was Elysian Brewing's Valhalla Red IPA. Not representative of Oregon, sadly, as Elysian is located in Seattle, but holy shit was this an awesome IPA. Powerful, but not overly bitter, with just the right amount of citrus and floral notes and a bedroom stare that makes you want to drink it all night. And it's called Valhalla Red IPA. If it's good enough for Odin, it's good enough for me.
This also came up before bed - don't watch it at work unless you're the boss, have a closed office, or wield the power to punch anyone that questions your actions in their no no bits.
FRIDAY
Woke up surprisingly easily and early Friday morning and was a little disappointed in myself that the first thing I did was reach for my phone to check work email. Damn our corporate lifestyle and the demands that it places upon us!
At any rate, very pleasant morning of coffee, email, and chillaxing with more coffee. HOWEVER Brian's wife, Lyndsay, in an apparent fit of excitement over my arrival the previous evening, decided to cast her iPhone against the ground upon which she was jogging instead of holding onto it, so we took a trip to the Apple Store at the nearest mall. This did, however, afford us a few things:
More genital humor - There is a Dick's Sporting Goods as one of the anchor stores of the mall. This is apparently the Links' favorite entrance to the mall, as the lot in front of the store is reportedly rarely busy so it affords easy access, even during the holidays. According to the joke, however, Brian is just naturally drawn to big dicks.
Trip to the Made In Oregon store, in which I left many dollars in exchange for goods for my wife and baby child
Trip to the Lego Store, from which I absconded with a larger base plate for baby child's dioramas (Lego apparently thinks that it's cool to have base plates too small to fit everything in a diorama, or no base plate at all) and two of the coveted Lego removal tools. Much excitement.
The great phone debacle having been resolved, not necessarily to the Links' ideal desires, we returned to the Links' abode and Brian and I went back out for lunch and a trip to the Nike campus, his place of employment. Lunch was just some Panera, not awesome but solid, over which we shared more quips about life and work, the state of things, etc. The Nike World Headquarters campus, however, is pretty awesome. I didn't take any pictures (who takes pictures of someone else's workplace?) but they have managed to carve themselves out a nice corner of the world. Lots of great design and layout, plenty of sport memorabilia, and some harmony with nature add up to a pretty impressive set of buildings, I must say. Nike sounds like a good employer in general, and they work with the community as they constantly expand and grow workforce and footprint.
Good on you, international sporting goods conglomerate.
Dinner Friday was a trip to McMeniman's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. McMeniman's is kind a local chain in and about Portland, and have a tendency to find old, historical spots and renovate them into restaurant/events spots. Good vibe, not a terrible menu (think medium to high pub food), and some pretty decent beer made for a good dining experience. I had a burger with bacon, Tillamook cheddar, and a fried egg on it, half a mountain of Cajun tots (these were awesome), and the Hop Goblin IPA. Decent burger, great beer. Sara was up visiting earlier in February, and their experience was not so good- sounded like a service issue. I found everything to be quite adequate.
Outside the main dining hall, not my picture
Inside the dining hall, also not my picture
Dinner done, we headed back to the house, mom and kids went to bed, and the Brian and I stayed up with a few more beers and a viewing of This is the End, and an attempted viewing of Oldboy. My first time seeing This is the End, and being that this was dudes' weekend of dick and fart jokes, this was highly appropriate, welcome, and high larry us. Check it out if you are into low humor and actors making fun of themselves by portraying themselves.
Who knew coked out Michael Cera was a funny thing?
Yeah, so beer. Trying to remember what else we had Friday night, but I know we had this one.
Eugene, Oregon's Oakshire Brewing's Overcast Espresso Stout. While Brian didn't like this one (he's not a fan of stouts) I found it rather good. A little bitter, as expected with a stout, without the creaminess of, say a Guinness or similar. More of a straight up stout, the coffee flavor is well incorporated and not overbearing. A good coffee oatmeal stout.
There was probably more, but I can't remember it offhand.
Suffice it to say that while we tend to agree on comedies (though I have no use for the Jackass series), Brian and I differ greatly on foreign films. Food, beer, and subtitles apparently make the man fall asleep. He couldn't even make it to the hammer fight. His loss.
Oh, and Friday would have been the day that I would have dragged Brian, kicking and screaming, to see Godflesh at Hawthorne Theater. Godflesh.
Yes, fucking Godflesh. Highly influential progenitors of industrial, metal, etc, hailing from Birmingham, England and MAYBE my favorite band of all time.
Godflesh.
But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, they couldn't get their entry paperwork approved to make the tour. Due to the government shutdown? I don't know. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Tour rescheduled for next year.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I guess that just means I have to go back to Portland in April. Oh well.
Looks like the blog here hit 2000 page views yesterday! Just wanted to drop a line and say "thanks" for everyone who has checked in on my little corner of the interwebs. Keep on reading, share, let me know what you think and what you want to see- I appreciate all of it!
Working on the Portland, etc, post still, so y'all sit tight. In the meantime, here's some Converge.
So I just walked in the door at about 1:45AM from my several day trip to visit some friends in Portland, Oregon. More to come with many lovely pictures, but I am a tired lad so poo on your curiosity. It will have to wait.
Thanks again to the Links, my buddies and host family. There was much joy and male silliness and a few beers drunk and a few burgers eaten.
Since training days got a bit off last week and ended up lifting on Sunday, I decided to put bench to this morning (Tuesday) versus yesterday morning. Not a huge impact, aside from the fact that I didn't get to hang out with the Monday morning boot campers. Don't cry for me, Argentina.
Pretty typical routine, got in a little late due to waking up late. Daughter decided that 11:00PM was a good time to go to sleep, so I didn't get to sleep until 11:30PM or so. Probably would have slept longer and missed had she not decided that she wanted to be in bed with us at 5:00AM. Thanks, tiny warm alarm clock!
Sometimes short training sessions are worth it.
Here's what was done-
Bench - 2x10xbar, 2x8x95lbs, 5x115lbs, 3x5x125lbs
Band hip abductions between some of the above sets- 5x20 w/doubled over pro mini band
Cable lat pulldown - 5x10x110lbs
Klokov press - 4x10x65lbs
External rotations (Ws) - 5x15 w/ pro micro mini band anchored around power rack
This popped up in my Google image search for shoulder external rotation. Awesome Ws, Mr. Knievel.
Spotted one of our geared lifters through some one board pressing in his shirt, took a shower, headed to work. Decent training session but needs more triceps and shoulder work, will get some band and kettlebell action tonight or tomorrow at the hizzie for more rehab. Have an odd mobility/stability issue that I have recently diagnosed (because I am a doctor with extensive experience in kinesiology and rehabilitation) with some kettlebell overhead extensions- was running through some a week or two ago before bed with a 20lb bell, started with my right side ("good" side) for a set of 10 or 15 minimal effort repetitions then moved to do the left side and couldn't stabilize the shoulder to get my elbow in front and up with the bell behind in the "start" position of the extension. Went and picked up a cheap 10lb bell and it seemed to stabilize halfway acceptably, so I know that side still needs a lot of rehab work in addition to the strength work.
Ah, Monday. That most glorious of starts to the week. The year is getting older, the air is getting colder. As we start a new week into this our autumn of... content... let us reflect back on what our weekend held. I think it was a good one.
Saturday we piled in the car, grabbed some Panera for breakfast, and took the little lady down to get her hair cut and headed south to Cedar Hill Farm for some play and pumpkin grabbing. We had gone down last year and Ilse was eager to get back there this year. It's a pretty great place to go hang out for a few hours with the family- petting zoo, play areas, expanses of field for running, pumpkin patches with tractor driven hay rides, etc. Little lady loves the place for the obvious reasons, but she especially likes the big pirate ship play fort. Couldn't talk her into shooting at the paintball "gallery" they have set up and it threatened to rain us out, but a few hours later we had a bag full of miniature and pie pumpkins and a content four year old.
Saturday night brought two observations- 1) it is pretty much a given that you will stuff your piehole at a Mexican restaurant, and 2) Mexican restaurants have the best Dr Pepper. #1 is pretty much a given, chips + salsa and queso + fajitas, rice, and beans = full belly. #2 is only a slight anomaly to me, but it pretty consistently holds true. I am good with it, even if I shouldn't be drinking Dr Pepper. It's anabolic, though, right? What follows is highly scientific, and all proven fact, so bare with me:
+
=
Seriously. It's science.
Sunday morning was deadlifting, after all, so it is only appropriate that Saturday night was fajita and Dr Pepper night. As evidenced by the sheer, raw power imbued by the potent cocktail of sauteed meat and veggies and sugary caffeine-laden syrup drink, this is what occurred:
Deadlift with hook grip - 5x135, 5x225, 5x275, 2x315
Deadlift mixed grip - 3x365
RDL - 5x10x135
Meadow's row - 5x10x45lbs
Reverse hyper - 5x10x90lbs
I know, y'all calm down, your towns and sleepy mountain villages are safe. I promise I won't pillage your cities and destroy mankind with my brutal force.
Also, I suck.
Obviously not where I want to be, but I did get the opportunity to play with hook grip. For those not familiar with a hook grip in weightlifting/deadlifting, it is supposedly one of the most solid grips around. To perform the hook grip, one grips the bar as such:
So in practice looks a lot like
Ow.
Versus the "standard" deadlift grips, pretty well illustrated in this pic from justfitness.co.uk:
The hook grip is typically used with an overhand position versus a reverse or mixed grip position. For the uninitiated, the pros/cons of the various grips are, generally speaking:
Overhand (pronated) grip: symmetrical hand placement, but typically weaker grip for most people. This is the grip that most people will learn with when starting to deadlift.
Reverse/mixed grip: typically much stronger grip than overhand, but can pose an increased risk of tearing a bicep (I said "can pose", Captain Internet Debater)
Hook grip: overhand positioning, so more symmetrical and generally "safer" for the biceps, very popular grip with Olympic style weightlifters. Stable and strong, but it is... uncomfortable... to say the least
Having gotten in a grand total of about 17 reps with a hook grip, I can now say that I am one of the internet's foremost authorities on the grip, probably of powerlifting itself. That said, it fucking hurts BUT the bar was absolutely locked in. It doesn't quite hurt like getting soap in your naughty bits or what I imagine childbirth to be like (because those are comparable), but crapola. The lighter sets, obviously, are not a big deal, but I decided two reps at 315 was enough for the day and while I didn't tear anything or shred my delicate thumbskins, my left thumb has largely been numb since then (24hrs ago at the time of this writing), though it is getting better. A couple of buddies, one of whom is one of the only people I know that does CrossFit (tee em) that I will give any credence to, recommended taping the thumb, which I intend to do next time. Time to troll Amazon.
Supposedly the good stuff
Still taking it reasonably light on the reverse hypers, and first time playing with Meadow's rows. Good times.
After a shower and some more leftover fajitas (no tortillas or Dr Pepper this time around), we got dressed and headed out to Kids Play with a trunk full of cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate the tochter's impending fifth birthday with a bunch of her buddies. Madness ensued (one of her friends hit the ground running with the most convincing war face I have ever seen on a four year old), fun was had, treats were eaten. Having been to several of these types of places, activity centers rented out for birthdays, etc, I have to say this is probably one of the best in the area. It was strangely calm- being well lit and not so jam packed as others, there wasn't the feeling of fairly constant tension, like you had to constantly watch your child to make sure they weren't launching themselves from a 20' high ledge or trying to maim themselves. There was also room to do what kids love to do best - run. Big thank you to all of her buddies and their parents for coming to the party, and to my lovely wife for arranging it.
Also, this happened
l'artiste en herbe
And I got to see the future...
Like my wife said, sometimes you can look at her and see what she will become. While it is bittersweet to see her growing up, it is awesome to know that she is doing exactly what she needs to do.
Today was a decent, albeit short training day. As mentioned previously, it seems I get a lot more work done on bench day than others, but here is what was run:
Wide stance SSB squat to low box + black pad – 5xbar, 5x132, 5x172, 5x222, 5x262, 3x312
Leg press – 10x6plates (total, not per side), 10x8plates, 2x10x10plates
Reverse hyper – 4x10x90lbs
Brought my Romaleos (thanks, wifey) intending to do some fairly standard medium stance squatting, but the only rack available had the EliteFTS safety squat bar on it and being that I need the back work, I decided to roll with wide stance box squats with the SSB. Didn't bring my Chucks so I just went sock foot for the duration of the session.
Different kind of Chuck.
First time I have ever done that and it wasn't bad at all. Thanks, Hanes!
You just clicked a link to a page for socks.
BOOM!
The EliteFTS Safety Squat Bar. Kneel before Zod!
I gotta say that I forgot that I kind of like squatting with the SSB. It's a little different movement, for sure- the SSB forces you to keep your back tighter and more vertical, lest ye be tossed forward on your face. The box squatting helped me remember to sit back more, which I think I had begun to forget previously as I have more of a tendency to sit down than back in the Oly shoes.
Also got some tips on bettering my work on the reverse hyper from good ol' David.
Also some random talk on the degree of training and performance of professional athletes that most people will never comprehend, and how Dave ridicules his clients and employees/trainers. To their faces, of course. It would be rude otherwise.
Not any ground breaking work and I am still weak as hell, but a good training session nonetheless.
Actually, Joliet sounds like it is the place to be if a town in Illinois was an 80s stock broker, reportedly a rapidly growing town complete with an illicit drug problem.
According to several reports, krokodil usage has been positively identified in three young female residents of Joliet at the Presence St Joseph Medical Center. With heroin usage big in the area and Chicago as a major distribution point of the country, it's no wonder this dirty shit has spread. One worrisome piece of info, as if the effects of krokodil (don't click that unless you have a strong stomach or a stronger hatred for krokodil junkies) weren't enough, one report says that two of the "victims" didn't know they were taking it.
Dishonest drug dealers. Weird.
Though I'm not aware of Memphis having a huge heroin problem, it is a bit worrisome seeing krokodil in Chicago. I've got a buddy that works drug interdiction for one of the fed agencies that spends quite a bit of time tracking undesirables along the Chicago-Memphis route. This crap being cheap enough (reportedly about 10-20% the price of heroin) and "trade routes" being what they are I won't be surprised if this shit starts making local zombies by the end of the year.
