Rockin’ the Rockies

So, now I’m pretty much packed up and ready to head back home tomorrow. Been out at the Springs again for the last week and a half. Pretty busy time here, too.

Got a classroom session learning about fly fishing last Thursday, followed up by the field portion the following Saturday. That was quite… interesting. It was a long day in the out doors; standing in a freezing stream from about 0900 to 1430 (a partial fasting day) whilst being buffeted by constant 25 mph winds, and the occasional snow/sleet/rain. But a good day out of doors, nonetheless. I’m seriously thinking of taking this up as a recreation and excuse to get outdoors when I get back home.

I went up to a cliff dwellings site up in Manitou Springs and crawled all over it. Pretty cool.

PT-wise, I was pretty active, this time. I’ve learned *not* to PT the first day or two out here. When I first started coming out here, I thought it would be best to acclimate by immediately hitting the gym, sometimes even before doing any unpacking except for the PT gear. I figured that would stimulate my system to adapt to the altitude quicker. But, it seemed that I always ended up getting bad headaches and super-dry sinuses after doing that.

So, I backed off, rested a couple of days, and boom… little or none of the symptoms of altitude problems (and–it is super-dry out here in Colorado). I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, or if I’ve finally adapted pretty well, and only slightly detuned after not being here for a couple of months, or, if indeed it was the resting a couple of days that did it. But hey, if and when I come back, I’ll use the same strategy.

After those couple of days of rest, I hit the gym in the morning and did a basic PT. Started with 20 minutes of intervals on the recumbent stationary bike, then jumped up for the first half of the UAW (Ultimate Aerobic Workout–now that I think about it, it should be called the Ultimate AN-aerobic Workout…), which takes about 15-20 minutes of lactic acid-building effort.

After a day off or so, I did another morning PT, following a Tabata protocol, using the GYMBOSS for the 20 sec on/10 sec off, for 8 rounds… and doing four cycles of that. I started with pulldowns on the cable machine, switched over to ballistic push ups on the ab bench (using the bench to do non-standard hand positioning push ups), then hit the floor for eight rounds of abs of different stripes, and finished up with jumping lunges. THAT was a tough one, lemme tell ya. Another guy was there, and we finished up around the same time. He noticed my training shoes (the Asics wrestling shoes) and the way I was training, and asked if I was a wrestling coach… 🙂

Saturday was the all-day outdoor adventure, which, though it sounds easy, ended up being fairly taxing.

Sunday found me hiking all about the cliff dwellings, and Monday’s treat was a morning raid similar to the earlier Tabata day. For some fun, I used the cable machine to do clean and jerks this time, and varied the other exercises somewhat.

As it was a fasting day, I went ahead and did an afternoon session, too, taking a Tabata run/walk for the first eight rounds, then recovered for a long walk, interspersed occasionally with a run along the way. I ended going a ways up from my hotel, then found a nice park (Monument Valley Park, I think), then back “home.” Just about 2.26 miles or 3.64 klicks. Not a killer, just something to keep me busy and warm.

So, I’m looking at getting one more in tomorrow morning before going in to work, and heading out to the airport after. Maybe that’ll help me relax more for the journey back. We’ll see…

Read Full Post »

Back To The Old Grinds

Simple stuff this morning–back to the basics. Straight out of Pavel’s Power To The People (PTTP). Sometimes I just like to do something simple and raw, and that’s what this is. Pure power up.

Grabbed the 32 kg kettlebell and did five military presses on the left, then five on the right. Then the long bar for deadlifts. Just three singles. I’m not sure about doing heavy weight in the morning, though. That first time up was a struggle. By the third, though, I pretty easily lofted it. Maybe I need to better prepare for it or something.

Today’s DL was whatever I had left on the bar since last time from a few months ago. Lessee: just 331 lbs., so not super-heavy. But feel-able.

Speaking of feeling… did it with my NationKilt on, to see how that goes. Even though it’s already plenty warm today, that bar went up *under* the kilt, and let’s just say–that bar is *chilly*!! O.O

😀

Read Full Post »

The Eyes Have It

Friday night was a good longsword session–my first after the LASIK and having no glasses. So naturally, Chris had us do exercises where in particular, we were not *supposed to use a mask*… 🙂

I agreed with his reasoning; don’t go full speed, but you can’t use the mask as an excuse. You *must* feel some threat, which really does change the dynamic of the play. When there is explicit protection, it’s too easy to get wrapped up in just single-cheeking (“half-assing”) the movement, and getting hit. Without the artificial pro, you get a real sense of “you’d better do it right.” And I think it worked for the most part.

I’m okay with this line of thinking, and pretty used to acting as if it were real with or without the protection on. But I think it was, well… eye-opening for the younger students. In fact, right now, other than Chris and me, the other students are in High School and even Junior High. So, they often fall into a bit of a sort of laziness. Chris has been doing different drills to drive home the real martial nature of the experience, and hopefully, it’s helping.

As far as for me doing it without glasses for the first time–it was an interesting experience, but exactly opposite of what I expected. I expected to be super cautious, flinching at every move at my face. Instead, I felt calmer, even sometimes letting the opponent’s waster directly touch my face without even a wobble or a blink. Hmm. I know that I’ve always been aware of having the glasses, and getting them hit–apparently I was more afraid of hurting the glasses than myself. I know also that for me, rain and wet meant a hassle. Not because I’m particularly afraid of water, but because I needed to keep the glasses dry, because drops of water, etc. make it really hard to see to do things, like drive, etc.

There you go.

Saturday morning was a hot, beautiful one, so I made it a point to head out to the driving range early. After that, I ended up getting some brunch, as it had been a fasting day yesterday. Because I spend so much time on the road to and from work, for the last few years I’ve made it a point to not schedule anything early on Saturdays, because I just wanted to get up, putter around, and not have any demands put on me. I could get everything going once that happened.

However, often by the time I would get going, it would push everything back later in the day and sort of create more hassle. I’m taking back my mornings on Saturday, now, and have decided to get things going early, *then* backing off. So if I can get something going early–exercise, work around the house, etc., then I can back off and be more productive. I know that sounds intuitive to a lot of people, but then, a lot of people don’t have to drive one and a half to two hours to work in the morning. And then back, getting home in time to maybe look at the TV for an hour then go to bed.

I was looking at getting a hard workout in later in the evening, but that plan was aborted, and I ended up meeting some friends for food in the evening, then walking around Old Town Fredericksburg just sauntering and smoking cigars. So–I’m glad I got the golf range going in the morning. Sun, and a little light exercise. And some desperately needed practice! 🙂

Read Full Post »