thorra’s BodyBlog

-Today’s grilling was brought to us by the unseasonably warm weather we’re having.

-Gotta get caught up with my hydration.

-I hope I don’t have to type this for a fourth time.

-Gained 3/4 of a pound this week (216.75 lbs.)  That’s with skipping most of my cardio after working out and missing 2 or 3 meals (oatmeal) this past week.

-Today I thought I’d spend some time doing some of the many handyman things that need to get done around the house.  Since I am in no way a handyman, I was well aware I could do more damage than good.  But what the hay?  I had nothing else better to do.

After surveying the list, fixing the still leaking bathroom faucet and cleaning the gutters looked the least painful of all.

Let’s start with gutters.  I was so sure that this was going to be easy since I had bought the coolest ladder I could find at Home Depot this past spring.  It’s a nifty Werner ladder that has 10 or 12 different positions and transforms faster (and is much cooler) than my childhood Voltron toy.

Unfortunately, no matter how cool the ladder is, I am still an incompetent git when it comes to home maintenance. 

While I didn’t fall off the ladder, getting it into position on steep and unlevel portions of the house proved more difficult than it should have.  I can only imagine how stupid I looked pressing the fully extended 24 ft. ladder over my head, trying to get it in position against the house.  I kept trying to move forward, but the ladder and I kept going backward.

Oh well, the job finally got done, though I skipped some areas.  Also, my shoulders are killing me.  That is one heavy ladder.

On to the leaky faucet.   Took the faucet handle off and headed down to Home Depot.  I’ll skip the part where I have to go down the mountain following an elderly gentleman who believed in driving 10 miles below the speed limit. 

Usually Home Depot is very helpful when I have a project.  Today was an exception.  The two people I asked for help were as clueless as me and seemed like they had better things to do than help, so I was screwed.  Ended up leaving with nothing.  I’ll skip the part where I went up the mountain following two huge trucks who went at about 8 miles per hour (where are the slow elderly drivers when you need them?)

I was going to call it a day, but for some reason the leak was really bothering me at this point. So instead of trying to figure out how to fix it, I just took the whole faucet fixture off.  It was easier than I thought it would be; definitely easier than trying to fix a leak.

My wife wasn’t too happy with my decision making skills, but softened up when I sent her out to buy the replacement faucet (she never liked the original one anyway).

I just hope installing is as easy as removing.

-Great workout today.  I’m going to be feeling it in my quads tomorrow morning.  My biceps are already sore.

-Had an amazing snack craving tonight.  I almost broke down and went for whatever was sweet and nearby (too many things to list).  Fortunately it was after 6:30, and I’m a stickler for no snacking after 6:30.  If I did, I’d end up snacking every night and skipping my late night shake.  So no snacking after 6:30.

Okay 6:45 sometimes.

-Ick.  Too much peanut butter in my good night shake.   BLECHH!

-Day off tomorrow.  I probably won’t do any cardio.  I have gutters to clear and I want to be well rested for when I fall off the ladder.  Over and over.

With the extra lounging in bed this morning, I’m behind a meal.   I skipped the oatmeal after my post workout to get to another shake.  If I don’t make it up before bed tonight- no worries.  I’ve been lax on my cardio after working out, so it’ll work out in the end.  I’ll check the scale tomorrow to make sure it works out.

Hydration. Hydration. Hydration.  Got to up the drinking and quick. 

"Da pain, Boss, da pain!"

"Yes, Tatoo.  I can feel the pain."

Today was one heck of a workout.  It was great.

Dragged my sorry butt out of my sorry bed late today.  Kept waking up, drifting off, waking up, drifting off.  It was ridiculous.

Took a while to warm up today.  But finally was ready to get squatting.  Started off with ATG squats (10,10).  Then I moved onto parallel  squats (9,8,7).  My last two were 10 pounds over my previous best (Booyah!!).  Finished off with two more ATG sets (12,10). 

I’m in pain.  I’m in pain.

Moved into lunges.  Went heavy today.  Managed five reps in each set, before dropping the weights and going for 5-8 more. 

Great pumped feeling at this point.

Time for the biceps.  EZ bar curls are up first.  Close grip.  8,7,6,8 was the rep scheme.

Quickly moved into incline dumbbell curls (10,8,6,6).  At the end of each set, I held onto the weights, and just hung in until the pain was unbearable.  I was close to screaming (like the time I found out Mulder wasn’t going to be on the X-Files for a loooong time.  That’s the type of pain I’m talking about.)

Reversed curls and isolation curls finished the biceps off.  Followed that with two sets of weighted hangs and called it a day.

I’ve been skipping cardio lately.  No worries.

-Upper back, lower back, triceps, even my butt are all sore.  Yesterday’s workout was one of the best I’ve had in a long while. 

-I hate it when I take a nap when it’s light out and wake up to find it completely dark out.  I find myself confused and completely out of sorts.  And it was only a 20 min nap. 

-Quads and biceps tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to squats.  Not the lunges, though.  Definitely not the lunges.

Suck it up, kid.  Suck it up.

Baked a batch of apple-oat bran muffins earlier today.  Unfortunately they weren’t for me, and I was too lazy to make a second batch, even though I would have liked to have something other than the same old- same old. 

Oats and more oats.

Cottage cheese and milk.

Apples and apples.

Blah, blah, blah.

Ahh well, nothing wrong with the same old.  It could be worse.  I suppose.

Maybe.

I was up pretty quickly this morning.  No sighing.  No whining.  No whimpering under the covers.  No wondering where the night went.  I was so proud of myself.

Started my workout with hyperextensions.  I’ve been getting a bit bored with my ab workouts, and I’m liking that stretched and worked out feeling in my lower back.

Moved on to weighted super crunches.  I can’t think of the name for when you do a regular weighted crunch and then a reversed crunch, exhale and wonder if your abs could stop a bullet (stop a bullet?  Someone needs to stop eating the toothpaste!)  So I’m calling them super crunches.  SUPER CRUNCHES!

Four sets of those super crunches, and that was it for ab work.  Moved on to cardio (bike work). Thirty minutes at my new moderate pace (really focused on staying out of my comfort zone).  My heart rate got up to about 90% of my max, but that will go down with practice, practice, and more practice.

That’s it.

-Pretty decent workout today.  Restored my faith in deadlifts.  Now I just need to work the kinks out of my squats and I’ll be back in top form- until I lose my focus on something else.

-Abs and cardio tomorrow.

-Those kids better hurry up and finish off those leftovers before I get creative.  Perhaps I’ll remind them of last year’s "Turkey Mash" fiasco.

-I got up pretty late today.  I ended up cutting out my oatmeal meal (too many meals?).  No biggie.  Everything else is spot on.