Music

Only one this week

Lightning Round

It's been a little while since I've posted anything. I have my reasons. Well, just one big one. Carlee and I finally closed on our condo a week and a half ago. And while the place is in great shape it needed cleaning and right now I'm in the process of painting the living/dining room and quite possibly the master bedroom today if I'm feeling up to it (I'm not so sure. I'm sore. This is how "old-man strength" is developed). Here's a list of updates for you, lightning round style

• Tried to leave no leftovers for Thanksgiving, gave a valiant effort
• Have spent over $200 at the hardware store in a week
• Went to my buddy, Ryan's, b-day party in NYC, saw a fight
• Watched Man vs. Food last night and legitimately thought that he was a wimp when he couldn't finish the 7.5lb burger
• Need to catch up on sleep
• Have fallen in love with the Chinese Buffet
• DL'd 420 3x3

All in all, things have been going well. Now, time for a much delayed return to the gym and then for my massive breakfast. Things are back on schedule. Except for the whole after, we have to pick out a color to paint the walls. Welcome to home ownership, I guess.

Biggest Loser - Unhealthy

This Would Have Been Interesting to Attend

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Why Do You Train?

…And we’ll keep on fighting to the end. Dunn dunn dunn dunn dunn. Team 1, known the world over as Dark Side established itself early as the team to beat in the CT Ultimate Fall League and maintained their momentum all the way through the last week of the season where they ended up on top. All is right with the world.

And now it’s over. My beautiful, fun Ultimate Frisbee season has come to a close. I was able to learn and play a new sport, as outlined in Crossfit’s 100 Word Definition of Fitness, and thoroughly enjoyed it, even in the cold.

That’s what fitness should be about though. I don’t believe that being fit, or achieving fitness should really be what it’s all about. Certainly I would suggest going to the gym regardless of the goal involved if for nothing else than heart health and decreased risk of stroke and cancer. If you enjoy going to the gym for the sake of going to the gym, good for you, I kind of do too, but getting strong and fast for the sake of getting strong and fast isn’t half as appealing to me as getting strong and fast for a sport. Organized sports, whether they’re competitive (like Summer Frisbee) or just for fun (Fall/Winter Frisbee), are where you can test yourself to see how far you’ve come.

I saw my family (and by family I mean a whole lot of family) this weekend and when I told my dad that my Frisbee season had just ended he asked if there was a hockey league around. He knows that I love competition and that having an end-goal is important to me. While I’m not sure there is a hockey league in middle CT, or that I could even play as well as when I was 12, or that I could afford the equipment, but having something to do, besides squatting, is good for me and he knows it.

Winter Frisbee starts in January and it could be fun to play, especially because it’s indoors. But I’m not sure that I will, the hours are screwy, it’s in North Branford and I hate traveling in the winter. But it is nice to have that conditioning aspect to my life. Playing Frisbee is certainly more interesting than hopping on that treadmill, at least for me.

Siodme Poty

I wish I knew Polish

Recovery

Recovery is a four letter word. The idea that you ought to do less in the short term (read: today) to make improvements in the long term (read: next race, meet, fight…) can wreak havoc on your mind.

But let’s face it, recovery is important. Some people are proponents of the “do-nothing” method. These people prefer to let their bodies return to homeostasis and then begin training. Others, however, would rather just take it easy and focus on things like technique lifting only 65% of their maxes or jogging fewer miles at a lower intensity. I prefer the active recovery method. My weekly template generally looks like this:

Monday	Hard
Tuesday	Easy
Wednesday	Hard
Thursday	Off (Frisbee)
Friday	Hard
Saturday	Easy
Sunday	Off

Obviously, because I’m assuming you all can read, there are really only three hard days on the schedule. This changes from week to week depending on scheduling, soreness or emergencies (especially this house) but for the most part, less than half of the days are truly intense lifting days. Two are active recovery and the other two (Thursday and Sunday) are for vegging out. Granted, I’m probably not the best programmer on the planet (I actually guarantee it) but for the time being this is working for me. This allows my muscles to recover but also allows me to recover mentally which brings me to another important point.

Taking the rest days allows the athlete (you, me, Carlee) to focus on other things besides the gym or the road. You can kick back and relax a little bit. If this works, you ought to be more mentally sharp for those intense days allowing for greater gains, whether they are strength, speed or even fat loss.

I encourage you to draw up a plan. In your plan include rest days. I would recommend against going everyday until you crash and burn, this plan of attack never ends well. Carlee followed the Pftizinger programming which included rest days and recovery runs and was able to drop 24 minutes off of her marathon. Rest is just as important as the workout and gains cannot be made without it.

Music Sunday Lives

George Gershwin - Prelude No. 2
Mundy - Galway Girl
Parliment Funkadelic - Motor Booty Affair
Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game
Built to Spill - Else
St. Vincent - Now Now
Radiohead - Talk Show Host
Octoberman - X-Pat