Was flying solo today, partner #1 is on Boston for a wedding and partner #2 had a major calf injury playing frisbee on wednesday, he could hardly walk! It was a beautiful morning here in boulder, and I merrily sprang out of bed to head to the gym. Friday’s are back and bicep day, and while I didn’t have anyone to push me today I was fairly pleased with my performance. I think my body has started adapting to our routine a bit, so am starting to feel it might be time to change things up pretty soon and swap in some new exercises.
The gym regulars were great today, people notice now when our whole crew wasn’t there so I got a number of numerous comments. I like my gym, I like the people that are there when I work out. Most of the people there are quite a bit older than me, and I find it awesome that they work out as regularly as they do. Great models of how to make working out a lifestyle, not just something you do to look better.
I’m digging this strength training thing I really must say.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Damn, I really really didn’t want to run this morning. I felt a deep routed avoidance springing up, straight up not wanting to get out of bed and not wanting to run at all. The weather wasn’t horrible, but not sunny and inviting either. I acknowledged the feeling and then pretty much ignored it and stuck to routine, the thing that’s turning out to be the key to my success in this endeavor.
My warm up was slow, I felt achy from yesterday’s Strength Training session. My first interval also felt that way, but once I loosened up a bit and by the time the 2nd and 3rd charges up the hill came around, I was feeling much better. Not my best day of running by any means, but another day of running, that’s for sure. I’ve definitely noticed my recovery time in between sets improving, so while the run UP the hill isn’t getting easier, I’m breathing and feeling much better on the way DOWN the hill.
I’m never going back to long 45-60 cardio sessions again, as High Intensity Interval Training is filling the needs of my body in less time.
Popularity: 25% [?]
They’re Legs, Legs, they’re big, they’re heavy, they’re wood.
They’re Legs, Legs, they’re better than bad, they’re good!
Everyone wants legs! You’re gonna love um, Legs!
Come on and get your legs! Everyone needs Legs!”
Yup. With Rollie this morning. We rocked ‘um.
Popularity: 21% [?]
And I’m Back. After spending some time in IL, falling off my regular sleep, eating, and exercise schedule, I knew to get back into routine the best thing to do would be to jump right in. Got back from the airport around midnight, fell asleep 30 minutes later, and was up at 6:30 for a day of high intensity interval training. The good news, today I didn’t run alone, Marketing Guru Casey Capshaw joined me on my charge up the hill. The bad news, after a weekend of poor eating and little sleep, my body was hurtin’! The air felt particularly thin this morning, and my lungs ached like you wouldn’t believe, but it felt great to get out there and run.
Just after the 5th interval, I jokingly said to Casey that I couldn’t believe I had actually been looking forward to this all weekend! But I was! So I’m back, and ready to train!
Popularity: 27% [?]
**NOTE** The digg button doesn’t seem to work on the homepage. Click the title of this post to go to the permalink page, it works fine there **END NOTE**
Okay, so a little less than a year ago I blogged about these freakish pictures my friend rich was passing around that his head chef on the east coast took.
They still totally freak me out, and I still have no idea what the hell they are. I want to know, and using the power of the net its time to find out. DIGG THIS and hopefully someone out there can explain what exactly it is we’re seeing!
Original note:
Check out these photos.
This is Marco’s (BBW Kitchen Manager Marco) reply:
Hey Rich,
Hope you’re doing well. It crawled on to my cement walkway, it appears to look like a snake. It moved slowly about 15 feet or so and then when back into the grassy area.
Marco
—–Original Message—–
From: Peg [mailto:XYX@XYXYX.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 1:30 PM
To: Rich
Subject: FW: PhotoCheck this out! Marco found on his sidewalk. 14 inches long No one knows what it is Love Mom
Popularity: 40% [?]
This is the 2nd time I get to say this: Failure! Well kinda; my back was still really tight and achy from yesterday’s mishap, so upon waking up this morning and judging the situation I decided not to run. While it sucks to have missed a workout this far into my training regiment, its important for me to train the right way, which means not hurting my body.
Leaving for chicago tonight to shoot some videos for a project, so I don’t think I’ll be doing biceps tomorrow. Fly back monday night and might be able to hit my local gym back home, we’ll see. Traveling really f’s up exercise routines.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Ouch, today wasn’t good. Had plenty of sleep, did my bike warm up, abs, and then got to the squat rack. Did a warm up set with just two 45′ers, and all was well.
Got to my first real set with full weight, had a belt on and was adjusting here and there trying to get into best form. Around rep 8 I started feeling pain in my lower back, and that was it. Not sure what I did, but in trying to better my form I f’d something up. Ended up only doing one more squat set with low weight just to feel things out. Did the rest of my leg routine without problems, but my back is definitely hurting.
On that note, and because for the last 7 days I’ve been feeling really low energy, I’ve decided to listen to my body and down shift a bit. First off, I’m going to cut the weight for the next few weeks and focus on low weight/high reps. Second, I’m going to take the week of July 2nd completely off to give my body a solid 7 days to rebuild and recover.
I’ll probably continue with the low weights through July, and then do another high weight mass building cycle in august.
It’s good to remind myself that there is no rush with my strength training, as I don’t need a new body over night, and this is after all a practice I will be doing for the rest of my life.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Once again I got up at the crack of dawn to run up and down a hill. Was pretty low energy the first couples of sprints up the hill, but was making great time and cut my recovery cycle down from 2:30 to 2:00 in between to of the charges. Also, most interesting of all, on my last sprint a good tune came on and I found myself blasting up the hill as if I had boundless energy.
It’s pretty crazy how much the mind can affect the body. After by 5th interval I was feeling totally dead, and then boom, energy rush. A good reminder really, a lot of the time I think I’m on my ‘edge’ of performance, be it in training, work, or life, I’m actually not. There’s a ton of extra energy there waiting to be used that’s often actually just wasted on trying to avoid the pain, instead of embracing it and just blasting right through it.
So yeah, my guess is whatever you’re doing right now while reading this you might only be doing half assed. Redouble your efforts, I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what results!
Popularity: 24% [?]
I’m thinking I need to go on some kind of retreat at some point this year; I’ve never done any extended sessions of meditation or silent practice and I’m getting this gut feeling I need something like that to push me a bit to raise the stakes a bit…..Snowmass? Vipassana? Any suggestions anyone? Something guided would probably be best, but as I’m unemployed $$$ is probably going to be an issue. I feel like I need to take a walk towards emptiness.
Gotta keep my spiritual game progressing just as much as I do my physical one.
Popularity: 9% [?]
my [semi] coherent rant on social networks and where they might be heading…
The Networks Are Breeding (and why facebook will win)
Popularity: 14% [?]
Week 8 begins. I’m traveling to Chicago thursday night until monday night, so the routine will be a wee bit off this week. Which is why it was good to start the week with a bang. Myself and Rollie hit the chest/triceps pretty hard, though I was a bit sluggish as I was up later than usual to see Brett Dennen play the Fox Theater. Thanks to all those who came, was an excellent show! Had a nice chat with Randy and Brett afterwards to catch up on things, quality cats they are.
I’m so incredibly hungry I can’t WAIT for my 10:30 shake. Fuel the body, fuel the mind, all in time…
Popularity: 21% [?]
Another site up, though its only 90% as of now. Still have to add 2 examples, pricing page, and a few other things, but it’s more or less complete. If you, or anyone you know, needs wedding slideshows, I’m your man!
Spread the word: Wedding Slideshows, your best source for slideshows and video montages for DVD and the web.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The latest video from Mr. Toby Rogers, ala RFK ActionFront Productions.
Produced and Directed by Toby Rogers.
Edited By Jason Lange
http://one.revver.com/watch/304208/flv
Popularity: 20% [?]
Biceps and back on Friday, the end of the 8th week. No pretending today, this morning’s workout kinda sucked. I was really, really sluggish, as were my training partners. We all stayed up too late and didn’t really dial in and focus on the workout.
My body felt a little rocked this week, and I still gave my arms a run for their money. Ups and downs, strikes and gutters!
The training continues and that’s far more important than how any one day goes.
Popularity: 21% [?]
High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT that baby. Boy howdy I felt sluggish this morning, and sluggish last night at frisbee too. My run went okay today, not great but not terrible. My legs were very tired and I could feel them running out of juice by about half way up each hill run.
But that’s what I’m training for right? The time it takes me to catch my breathe after a sprint has definitely decreased, though its still brutal as hell each run up the hill!
Biceps and Back tomorrow, and then I’ll have 4 weeks left. Traveling to chicago at the end of next week, so my routine is going to be out of whack for a few days but hopefully I’ll find a way to get in as much training as possible.
Popularity: 24% [?]
Instead of planning out mega huge massive sites that cover everything, I’ve launched both SantaCruzTraveler.com and BoulderTraveler.com blog style. While not as fancy, this format allows me to start adding stuff as I go whenever I can. If anyone is interested in doing some write ups of restaurants, things to do, anything travel related let me know, I might even pay you, though it won’t be much!
Popularity: 20% [?]
Legs this morning, our posse or trainers was just down to two. Yet again I went to bed about an hour too late last night, must get myself back on schedule!
None the less, today’s strength training session was another fabulous day or leg lifting. For squats and the leg press I tried to really focus on form today, which I need to continually work on as I advance in weight.
I still feel that something is off between my left leg and right leg, be it the muscular imbalance I discovered when I got my body comp test, or possibly even a difference in length. Once I have some consistent cash rolling in again I think I’ll see a rolfer or chiropractor to figure out what’s going on with my gait.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Consistent practices of any kind are a great distillation of life; sometimes things go great, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you feel like an unstoppable machine, other times you’re hardly able to walk. and sometimes its sunny, and sometimes its not!
Today it was not. My session of High Intensity Interval Training began this morning when I awoke to the soft pitter patter of raindrops on my window sill. I went upstairs to get some juice and my suspicions were confirmed, it was cloudy, foggy, and raining out. Not too raining though, so I figured today’s weather would just make for an extra special challenge. I suited up (put on a long sleeve T to keep me warm, from a 5k I ran in high school with george hanson), and headed out. Then things got worse! My stupid crappy old Diamond Rio Sport S35 MP3 player has a pretty shitty case, one that often accidentally rubs against the power switch turning the damned thing on. So it had been on since Thursday, my last run. It was too late to turn back now though, so I through it on a flower bed near my house, and ran on through the rain sans music.
My warm-up run felt horrible today, but once the blood got flowing I actually kind of got into it all. No music meant I was able to pay a bit more attention to my breathing, the rain kept my body cool, and I built up a story of me versus the elements.
I felt pretty good, my allergy meds have starting making a bit of an impact, and my body was in top form so I even did an extra interval on my jog home!
Popularity: 25% [?]
I’ve moved this puppy over to wordpress, hello freedom!
goodbye form cramping FTP New Blogger.
Might be a while before I can fix the template to work correctly in IE6.0. Besides, you should totally be using FF by now, shame on you!
Popularity: 8% [?]
So begins the week of 8. Went to bed pretty late last night, but managed to crawl out of bed, though my effort was nothing compared to that of the crapshaw, who woke up in a tent in mountains and still managed to make it down to pick me up, now that’s hardcore!
Good chest/triceps lifting session today. I did drop sets on both the incline and decline bench press, which seems to currently be a key factor in my gains. Additionally, I’m using an exercise ball for my crunches, which while painful as I have flabs, not abs, seems to be working my out nicely.
Popularity: 20% [?]
just dropped a wad of cash on plane tickets for my 2 trips in august. wealth, i am wholeheartedly inviting you into my life at this time….bring it.
Popularity: 22% [?]
here’s the scene:
Casey, Steve, and myself head over to Trilogy from the office at 5pm. From 5-7pm they have just about the greatest happy hour ever: a bottomless glass of wine and an appetizer for $8, which really is just unbeatable. As the hours progress more and more folks show up and we’re having a merry old time. Several glasses of wine later they have last call for the bottomless glass….we all down another and decide it’s time to get some real food.
Over to Pizza Calore for a few slices, which we then take up to the Rooftop deck of The Chief Good offices (which we sadly only have till the end of the month!).
We eat, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and make a plan of action for the rest of the evening. A few folks split off, but myself, Keith, and Brian Berger decide to keep the night rolling. While on the roof, we spot what looks to be a crazy happening party on another roof deck about a block down. The game is set, we’re gonna crash this party.
We walk down Pearl, find our way to the elevator of the building, easy enough, no problems so far! While in the elevator, we put our game faces on, decide that we’ll just say “Heather, John, and Joe told us to meet them here”. Fantastic, we’re all on the same page!
Elevator opens and we transform, ain’t nobody gonna stop us from crashing this party….as we walk towards the people and the noise, time slows down a bit…..we hear music, see party decorations, and a lot of short people. An tall older man steps in front of us, and a disgruntled looking older women quickly leaps to our side and asks “Can I help you gentlemen?” Not to be phased, Keith immediately springs into action: “We’re hear to meet Heather, John, and Joe. They told us it’d be cool if we came”.
It’s then we realize, this people aren’t just crazy short, they’re YOUNG!
The older woman cackles “Uh, I don’t think so guys. This is a MIDDLE SCHOOL PARTY“.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Week 7 rocked. I’ve had 5 solid days of physical practice this week, all of which I felt like were at a great level of intensity. This morning’s biceps/back workout was quite good, I definitely pushed to the edge of my performance level, and it felt good.
I’m not sure if I’m going to make my 12 week goal or not, but at this point I’m starting to not care. Strength Training is slowly becoming the anchor and point of stability in my life, and that’s something I’m going to want to continue for the rest of my life (so I hope).
Getting up at 5:30am is no longer a problem, my body has fully adjusted to my new sleep schedule and routine. I’ve always liked mornings, but never been a morning person before. I must admit it feels good to have that change, there seems to be a different energy available in the mornings, shit is just that much easier to get done. Days now feel like an intense session of lifting actually - doing the biggest and hardest shit (ala working out your biggest muscles) first, then moving on to smaller stuff throughout the day until you’re simply taxed out for the day.
I like it, and hope to continue it in what’s shaping up to be one of the craziest summers ever…
Many thanks to Casey and Rollie for a great week.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Baby I was born to run…….
intervals this morning. Strange run, as last nights hurricane like winds tore down a number of branches, leaves, and even a few full blown trees. My usual route had a few obstacles on it, made for a few fun jumps.
Overall the run went well, things felt quite rough during warm-up, and my legs were noticeably sore from yesterdays leg day and Frisbee game, but once the blood got flowing I felt pretty good.
Week 7 is almost over. at the end of next week 2/3rds done, crazy isn’t it?
Popularity: 25% [?]
What the hell, why not give it a shot? Alladvantage all over again baby. Get $10 just for signing up, beer money folks, beer money.
http://www.makemoneyreadingads.com/
i feel so dirty..though if just 10 people sign up for this, it’ll have been an experiment worth while. eh?
Popularity: 8% [?]
Things are more or less wrapping with my current job at the end of the month. I simply loathe the idea of job hunting again, and have absolutely zero desire to get a 40 hour a week job working customer service for some shitty company.
So I’m going to try and freelance my way through July. Exciting, but also scary. Not necessarily the best move for someone with as much debt as me. Worth a shot though as its more likely to lead to the lifestyle I want to be living, so I’m going to try it.
Things I can do:
HTML/CSS coding, basic flash design/creation, wordpress setup/installation/configuration, search engine optimization, web videos, dvds, live event coverage, wedding slideshows, instructional videos, computer installation/troubleshooting/installation, home theatre consultation/installation, basic photoshop retouching/remixing (great with collage stuff, terrible at creating things from scratch), and more……
if you know anyone that might need any services such as these, please pass them along my info….
Popularity: 16% [?]
Yee-haw. Legs this morning, and it rocked, so much in fact I’ve got the rubber legs. This morning’s leg workout went really well, pushed myself hard on squats, leg press, stiff legged deadlifts, leg extension, hamstring curl, and calf raises. Definitely got in the flow today and it felt damned good. The sauna was brutally hot as I was pretty dehydrated then.
anyways, good stuff. Week 7 is going pretty damn well.
Popularity: 21% [?]
RUN RUN RUN RUN……..
I had a great interval training this morning. My legs have had since Thursday morning to rest, and I really felt it today. The sun was shining, I warmed up easily, and my 6 intervals went by and I felt flippin’ great. Congestion/Allergies still slowed me down a bit (going back to the Doctor this afternoon actually) but overall this was one of the best runs I’ve had yet.
Popularity: 25% [?]
despite some financials pains and the uncertainty of my employment situation in the coming months, life is pretty good for me right now. I’m feeling good and excited about how things are going in a number of different areas of my life.
With that has come the strange sensation of trying not to get attached to that happiness. To allow myself to feel it deeply, but not come to expect or even require it. It’s a very interesting thing, many people talk about not becoming attached to physical possessions, power, love, past traumas, bad times, or even state experiences. It’s more infrequent to find discussions of holding happiness itself at arms length, often times the things we generally think of as making us happy are the elements of samsara, things which can never truly last.
The trick, so they say, is to realize that the good and the bad are really all the same, just fleeting manifestations. However, if you learn to love the space from which all things unfold you’re really onto something. So that’s what I’m trying to do, and I find myself trying not to get too wrapped up in the good times, as inevitably the bad ones will return. Instead of pounding a few more shots to increase my buzz I’m trying to enjoy where I’m at and slowly enjoy a full glass of wine. Have patience with happiness, let yourself enjoy the good things in small doses, and know that it’s just as finicky as suffering and will come and go as it pleases. But don’t be afraid to enjoy its company when its here…
the dude abides.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Week 7 begins. Chest and triceps. The whole crew was there this morning, along with another member. Seems like we’re attracting quite a crowd, we’re gonna have to split up pretty soon as it gets increasingly harder to focus with more people around to chat with.
Pretty good workout, my chest still feels pretty weak in comparison to other parts of my body, but I’m taking the slow and steady route so it’ll really just take some time considering I’ve never had any muscle there before. Triceps didn’t quite get their due today, we just ran out of time and it felt like we were kind of rushing things and not focusing.
Keep on keepin’ on.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Highly recommended. Judd Aptow does it again, comedy and drama mixed to perfection. A startlingly poignant examination of both the light and dark sides of the masculine and feminine.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Take note y’all, day 30 has been completed. That’s 6 weeks meaning I’m halfway through my ‘training program’. Feeling good too, my body has adjusted to the higher intensity trainings and I’m feeling pretty damn healthy overall. Jumped on a scale today and was pleased with the numbers, though I’m not going to pay them all that much heed as its body comp that i’m really interested in changing.
Anyways, after a few weeks of craziness, the 3 Amigos re-united this morning for a good solid bicep and back workout. Twas good clean hard workin’ fun for sure, a nice 2 hours of simplicity and stability in this crazy ass world of ours. Lookin’ forward to the weekend and figuring out what’s coming up next in life…
Popularity: 21% [?]
