Beards, Barbells, and Beer

Mon July 30, 2018

When I stepped into the shower after my conditioning on Thursday my knee wobbled or something and was very sore after. It was stiff over the weekend and still feels off today so I stuck to lower impact conditioning. It tends to stiffen up when I sit with my knee bent for too long (e.g. at my work desk or watching TV) but it loosens up after a few minutes of walking and is fine after sleeping. Fun with getting older...

Today I did incline treadmill walking for 20 minutes (HR around 120-125) and then 15 minutes on the elliptical (HR 130ish). Average HR overall was 121.

After that I did chin. I ramped up to a few sets of 5 but couldn't keep that up so did a set of 4 and then a few sets of 3, hitting 39 total reps. After that I did 6 kipped reps, jumping my hands from the lower neutral grips to the higher, wide grips. So 45 total reps.
 
Tues July 31, 2018

C2 rower, treadmill, dynamic stretching

My right knee didn't love the rower so did some incline walking to work up a sweat.

- Dips: 1/2/3 then 9 sets of 4. 42 reps total. Time to move up to sets of 5!

- DB Rows
25x10
50x10
65x10
65x10
65x10

It was a quick one today. My long term goal for chins and dips is to get to 9 sets of 8 and then start adding weight. I'm doing 9 sets since that is the test in the Armstrong program. Seems like as good a reason as any *shrug*
 
Wow I haven't been here all month. I was super busy before the long weekend and then I got sick over that weekend so I didn't make it to the gym last week. The only good thing is that my weight is quickly back down to 191 or so. I'm feeling about 75% today so trying to get back into it.

Sunday Aug 12, 2018

Hockey
Second playoff game, playing the first place team. The other team in our round robin pool was already eliminated so this game only determined ranking. Of course that didn't stop it from being a chippy game. The first period was super fast-paced but ended 0-0. Both teams had chances but the goalies were solid.

In the second we slowed down and the other team built up a 3-0 lead. However in the latter half of the period we picked it up and scored twice to make it 3-2 (one goal was a sweet breakaway goal by our top scorer and then I deked a few guys to come out of the corner with the puck and putting a backhand over the goalie's glove). The third period was back and forth, they scored to make it 4-2 but we answered back to tie it 4-4. Both of our goals were garbage, first was a mad scramble in front of the net. I scored the second after a shot went wide but bounced back in front of the net. The goalie was way out of position and instead of playing the puck their defense tried to block my shot and I fired it off his shin into the net.The game ended in a tie so we went to overtime. In the first minute I grabbed a loose puck and came down the wing, chipping the puck to my winger who was wide open but was denied by the goalie. Our opponents went back the other way and were also denied. However off the ensuing faceoff their defense got a shot on net that was deflected in for the winning goal.

In the end it didn't matter as we both play in the semi-finals next week. There's a good chance we will both win and meet again in the finals.

Mon Aug 13, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretchin

- Chins and Dips (supersetted, same rep scheme): 1/2/10 sets of 3. (33 reps total)

-Face pulls: 3x15.
 
Fri Aug 17, 2018

Busy week. Was hoping to hit the gym at least 3 times but just saueeEds in today's session

Did 25 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. Right knee felt good. I'd say it's back to 100%

Chins/dips: 1/2/3/4/5/6/1/2/3/3. Then did two sets of 3 of explosive chins (kipping and jumping from the lower neutral grips to higher wode grips) and 6 more dips.

The Tough Mudder is now less than a month away so I need to get in a bunch of gym time over the next two weeks. I'm off the first week of September so it will be tough to do much that week.

Hockey semi-finals on Sunday. Hopefully I have another good game.
 
The last two weeks of August were crazy busy so I didn't make it to the gym ta all. I played hockey a few times and then went for a run on the beach on the long weekend.

August 19, 2018

Hockey
Semi-finals. Our opponents played well as a team but were missing their top scorer. As a result, while we didn't run away with the game we pretty controlled the entire game. The first period ended 0-0 but we broke things open with two goals in the second period. In the third we continued to roll along and won 3-0. I scored the second goal after digging the puck out of the corner and putting a wrist shot low stick side.

August 26, 2018

Hockey
The championship game! We came out guns blazing and dominated the first period. I scored on my second shift of the game, one-timing a nice pass from my winger. We continued to press and were up 3-0 at the end of the first period. In the second we backed off a bit and our opponents started to claw back, scoring twice to make it 3-2 but we scored late in the period to go up 4-2. Our opponents scored again early in the 3rd period to make it 4-3 but we answered back on the next shift to make it 5-3. That seemed to finally wake us up again and we dominated the last 10 minutes of the game, barely letting our opponents even have a shot on goal. The game ended 5-3 and we are the summer beer league champs, woo!

Sept 1, 2018
We were at the cottage for the long weekend so when my son went down for his a nap I went for a jog on the beach. It was quite pleasant as it was sunny and hot but there was a nice breeze coming off the bay. My FitBit says I did 5.9 km in 39:45, average HR was 134.

My weight is up a bit, sitting at 194-195, which isn't surprising since I ate a lot of junk in August and was pretty inactive. I'm hoping I can drop a bit of bloat in the next two weeks before the Tough Mudder.
 
Tues Sept 4, 2018

5 minute warm-up then ran 5k in 32:06, average HR 132. My time was as good as my times in May/June before the Spartan Sprint so I haven't lost much cardio. It was more a mental thing since I simply haven't been on the treadmill much.

Chins: 1, 2 and then 9 sets of 3
Dips: same thing
 
Thus Sept 6, 2018

Conditioning
Warmed up for 5 minuts and then did 20 minutes of intervals 3.1/8.2 mph. Felt good.

Chins: 10 sets of 3 and then 2 sets of "traverses"

Tomorrow I'll do another 5k jog plus dips and probably facepulls. We got our start time for the Tough Mudder today, we are in one of the last heats at 1:30. Hopefully we don't get a hot day but being Sept 15 it shouldn't be too bad.
 
Mon Sept 10, 2018

Conditioning
5 minute warm-up and then ran 5k in 32:18. Felt good. Average HR was 130.

Chins/Dips: 1/2/3/4/5/1/2/3/4/1/2/3/1/2/1 (36 total). Supersetted chins and dips.
 
Tues Sept 11, 2018

Conditioning
5 minute warmup then 25 minutes of intervals. 3.1/8.2 mph. Average HR 129. I forgot I have a work event tomorrow afternoon so today was my last session before the Tough Mudder on Saturday.
 
Sat Sept 15, 2018

Tough Mudder Day!
Ran the Half Mudder on Saturday with two friends. The course was 8 miles with 13 obstacles. It has a hot, humid day and we started at 1:45pm. It was really hot in the morning but luckily it got cloudy after lunch so we didn't totally roast. I would say this was physically easier than the Spartan Sprint as there were fewer obstacles and they generally required less strength. We finished in about the same time but me and my friends spent a lot of time helping out on a lot of the obstacles. The teamwork was actually a lot of fun.

Lets run through the obstacles:
  • Pitfall - slide down a muddy hill into roughly thigh-deep water .the tricky part is that there are random holes dug into the ground underwater that drop another 6 inches so you can stumble and end up in the mud
  • Quagmire - a short walk through some thick mud
  • Devil's Beard - Crawl under a cargo net
  • Creek Crusade - walk through a tiny creek
  • Mud Mile 2.0 - series of water-filled trenches with big piles of mud in between. Since I'm tall it wasn't too hard to get up but me and my other tall friend spent some time helping people up
  • Berlin Walls - A 8 (??) foot vertical wall. However there was a board on the front about 2 feet up to help boost you so it wasn't too hard to hop up and get a leg over. My friend, who is a climbing instructor, helped a lot of people here.
  • Hero Carry - Piggyback your friend down the beach.
  • The Block Ness Monster - giant rotating square blocks in a big pool of water that you have to grab onto while other people turn the blocks to get you over (YouTube it). This was a blast and we spent a while here helping to rotate the blocks. It was perfect timing as it helped cool us off.
  • Skidmarked - Another big wall, this time tilted backward to make it more difficult. I was able to jump up and grab the top, then pull myself up and get my arms over, then swing my legs a bit to get one over. Again we stayed here and helped some people over.
  • Ladder to Hell - Super lame. A big ladder-ish structure that took maybe 10 seconds to get up and over.
  • Kiss of Mud 2.0 - Crawl through under barbed wire. Easy but the mud smelled like cow shit.
  • Bale Bonds - Climb over big hay bales. Unfortunately since we were running later in the day the bales were falling apart and easy to get over.
  • Everest 2.0 - Gigantic quarter-pipe that you had to run up and then have people grab you and haul you up. Or if you are my rock-climbing friend just fucking launch yourself up like some goddamn ninja. I don't know how he did it but he timed his jump perfectly and didn't even need any help. It took me a few tries because at first only my friend was helping. eventually we all got up and then spent some time hauling people up. Again, a lot of fun. With some people we'd end up grabbing their arms and holding them so they could swing a leg up, then we'd haul them up via their arms and legs.
  • Happy Ending - a 45 degree slope where people hand to stand on each other's shoulders to create a ladder and then people would hold your hands to help them climb up. Of course with water at the top and bottom. Again, me and my 2 friends formed the ladder for a while and then once we made it to the top we hung down to help people up. And then finally we slide down the other side to the finish.
Overall it was a good day. I was a little disappointed in some of the obstacles but the big, teamwork-based ones made up for it. We got a discount code afterward for next year's Full Mudder so we are going to do it next year.
 
Sun Sept 16, 2018

Hockey
We got crushed 8-0. Our old goalie came back and didn't play well. If he let's in a bad goal he tends to lose confidence and that happened early on. We need to play differently with him as our goalie compared to the better goalie we had over the summer so it will take some time to readjust

I had a pretty good game, my line had some decent chances and we're only on the ice for a couple hoale against. I had a few great chances but was kinda rusty and didn't finish my chances.
 
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Wed Sept 19, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
65x5
85x5
95x5
105x5
115x5
115x5

-Chins/Dips: 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1/2/3/4/3/2/1 (40 total, supersetted)

Squats felt okay. Shoulders are a bit tight.
 
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BUMP!

I was out of town on Sept 23 so missed my hockey game. We got crushed again, I think the actual score was 11-3.

Then I played on Sept 30 and had a great game,1G, 2A. We tied the team we played for the championship in the Summer 5-5 which is about right since we beat them 5-3 but with a better goalie. We had a sub over the summer who is much better than our regular goalie so after the first two blow-outs there was some talk about getting the sub back, at least part-time. I'm hoping that a few closer games will quiet down that talk because I don't really want to have to juggle two goalies.

Next up, a couple weeks ago my son got Hand/Foot/Mouth disease. It's kinda like chicken pox but more mild. Unfortunately I also got it and in adults it gives you flu-like symptons as well as VERY itchy spots on your hands, feet, and mouth. Luckily I didn't get them on my mouth but for a few days starting Sunday Sept 30 my hands were unbearably itchy. I felt really shitty the few days leading to that and then I worked from home for a few days to avoid getting my co-workers sicks. Luckily my son and I were both better for his second birthday party on the Thanksgiving long weekend.

So now I'm back and feeling close to 100%. Work is still crazy busy but should die down next week. I managed to make it to the gym today at least...

Thurs Oct 11, 2018

30 minutes on the treadmill, started walking and ramped up to 5.8mph. Covered about 4 km in that time. Felt pretty good.

I have to miss hockey this weekend to see a play, which sucks but at least the play is supposed to be really good (Come From Away) #culture
 
Tues Oct 16, 2018

Ran 5k in 32:43, average HR 135. My time was okay but this was harder than usual, definitely a bit out of shape due to recent inactiviy and sickness.

Chins: 1,2, 10 sets of 3

Wed Oct 17, 2018

Did intervals on the treadmill. About 5 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of gradually faster intervals then 20 minutes with running at 7.8 mph, walking at 3.1.

Dips: 1, 2, 10 sets of 3
 
Sun Oct 21, 2018

Hockey
We had our fill-in goalie from the Summer this week but still lost. There was a lot of construction around the arena and a bunch of people were late plus we were short 5 skaters altogether. Thing started off okay but then we started to get penalties and the other team scored a couple goals. I took two garbage tripping penalties and then in the 2nd period some guy deked me behind the play so I slashed him and the ref gave my (only me!) a penalty. The league has a rule that 3 penalties means a game ejection so I was out.

After that the team really couldn't get any momentum going again. Our goalie played well but we ended up losing 6-3.

Thurs Oct 25, 2018

Treadmill, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
65x5
85x5
105x5
115x5
125x5
135x5
135x5

Felt pretty good. Obviously quite light weight but I've barely lifted this year so I'm basically just starting from scratch. My conditioning feels okay but I've lost a bit of jump from losing strength so I'm gonna focus on that for a bit.

- Chins: 6 sets of 4 then 3/3/2/2. Working up to ten sets of 4.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll do cardio and dips
 
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Sun Oct 28, 2018

Hockey
After last week's loss we were 1-3-1 so we got bumped down a division. The game was noticeably slower and more fun because of it. We were short defenceman but had all 3 centers so I dropped back to D. I had a good game, picking up a goal in the first period. As the game went on we got sloppy and ended up losing 4-3. Overall it was much better than the higher division and once we get our confidence back I think we will challenge for the championship. That said, we need our goalie to become more consistent because again he let in a couple weak goals.
 
Tues Oct 30, 2018

Treadmill, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
165x5
195x3
225x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3

Hands felt weak. Well really I'm just weak overall. My right side is a bit sore tonight so it's good that I didn't push it. I imagine I'll have some nice DOMS tomorrow.

- Dips: 10 sets of 4. These are going well at least.

- Chins: 5 minutes of switching holds, kipping pull-ups, sideways traverses etc
 
Wed Oct 31, 2018

Conditioning
5 minute warm-up on the treadmill then 25 minutes of intervals. Slow was 3.1 mph, fast was 8.2 mph. 1 minute on, 1 minute off. Average HR was 130, peak 151.

My weight got up to 198 on my most bloated day but has settled back down to 193ish. I am going to tighten up my diet in November and hopefully get under 190 before mid-December and the holiday gluttony.
 
Fri Nov 2, 2018

Conditioning
Got to the gym too close to the lunch rush so the squat racks were busy (with people benching of course) so did 5k instead.

5 minute warm-up then did 5k in 31:43, one of my best times. Kept a good, steady pace. Average HR 134.

Did some rear delt flies and YTWLs after for shoulder health
 
I was out of town on the weekend and hockey was early so I didn't make it back in time. We had a short bench and a sub goalie but pulled out the win in what was apparently a very rough game.

Tues Nov 6, 2018

treadmill, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
75x5
95x5
115x5
140x5
140x5
140x5

Felt good. Only thing is that I need to do a little extra warming up so my right knee doesn't feel achy. Getting older...

- Strict barbell press
45x8
65x8
65x6
55x6
55x6

I expected to be weak but damn...

- Chins: 7 sets of 4 then 3/3/2 (36 total). First set was 4 singles with a few seconds rest in between (my idea of a warm-up).
 
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