I over-slept this morning so I did not do my planned strength test. I will do it Saturday. Today I will do 30 minutes on the treadmill after I get home from shopping.

My 12/31/2009 morning bodyweight is 150. I would like to be at 145 on Decemeber 31, 2010. I will make that an official part of my resolution on 1/3/2010 when I post it.

The year is coming to an end. I haven't accomplished all of my goals, but I think I made positive strides. I will recap on December 31, 2009 and on January 1, 2010 I will formalize my goals/resolutions for the next year. I am sure that they will remain similar to my usual goals.

Christmas break is almost here. I will be off the grid for a few days.

I am on life "auto-pilot" right now career-wise. I feel under-utilized at my current employer, but that is mostly my fault. I need to either work harder at being more fully engaged or get out. I need to first re-define my life goals and then sketch a plan to get there. I have succeded in getting there with my fitness so I know what to do. I just need the motivation to do it on the other areas of my life. With New Years around the bend, this is a perfect time to do it.

I have a case of DOMS this morninging from yesterday's workout. I guess that is a good thing.

Last meeting tonight. It will be sad to be sure. I will just try to get out ASAP.

Although my back still hurts a bit, I started on NROL doing the break-in program. I figure I will do this workout until the end of December and then do the Strength 1 in January.

My back is finaly healing. It really hurt because of squats on Friday. I must have had some form break-down. I think I was not sitting back in my squat. I think I will start doing NROL on January 1, so I will start the transition phase tomorrow. I will lift MWF and run TR and weekend. I bought a piece of PVC pipe and I can work on squat form nightly with my mobility work. When January comes around I can move to the strength program.

I sold a Bill Clinton autograph on ebay for 78 bucks. Pretty cool considering I was thinking about just throwing it away. I will mail it this morning.

We went to the Kiss show on Sunday. It was a good show, not great, but good.

I had a rough night on the felt last night. I just haven't been playing good. I need to tighten up my O/8 starting hands and I need to get out of the pot when I am drawing to 1/2 pots. If I make those changes, I should be ok. I know how to do it, I just have to do it.

I did make it to the gym this morning even though I did not sleep much last night as a result of my cold. I rode the spin bike, so I didn't do much, but I did do something, and that is what counts. Tomorrow I will go back to strong lifts and I will attempt squats of 165. I am 99% sure I can get 3 sets of 5. If I do, I can get right back on track next Monday. I will add a few Over Head Squats after each workout.

I have been a bit sick the last few days. It is a common cold, but I have not worked out yesterday or today. I figured it was best to rest my body. Tomorrow I will run on the treadmil and friday I will squat 165 for 3 sets of 5. It will be difficult, but I am sure I can do it.

I've got a little bit of a cold today. I am sure it is a result of staying up too late this weekend playing poker. There really is a corolation between my sickness and playing cards. I am trying to catch up on sleep. I will work on it this week.

I went to the gym last night and it appears that the highschool football team got their winter workouts. I saw a lot of young guys wearing ipods doing quarter squats and other questionable routines. I actually looked at one of the sheets from one of the players. To my surprise, legs started off with leg extensions followed by leg curls followed by squats/or leg presses. WTF, start of with extensions and curls and then be given the option of presses or squats. Also no deadlifts. I have discussed the team's training before, and I still think it is inadequate.

Deadlift 235 (1.57bw) Squat 160 (1.07bw) Shoulder Press 90 (.6bw).

Great night on the felt. I started bad in NLHE and good in O8, but ended up turning around NLHE when I hit a str8 and cracked villians AA. In O8, it was pretty much just good cards, but NLHE was well-played. I kept tight and played small ball. I will employe a similar strategy tonight at Chris's.

At the gym, I felt pretty good. My back is a bit sore, but that is to be expected with the weight I guess. My form has improved. I look to be on track to hit my goals, I am actually over my goal on deadlift, so I need to work on squat and shoulder press. My strength is really getting there. Once I finish December I will focus on maintaining strength will increasing muscle endorance and power.

I have to re-read the Mountain Bike Training Bible and re-establish my training plan for 2010. I have bought a few strength books and I will add he information I learn to my plan.

I am hungover, this sucks.

I had a rough day on the felt last night. I got stacked twice in NLHE. The first came when I had K9h and flop came Kxx with 2 hearts. So I had top pair with a weak kicker, but a flush draw. There was a bet and a call, I raised allin. I figured I might be behind, but I had a flush draw to go with it. Figuring I had some fold equity, I thought this might be a good bet, looking at it with a bet and a call, I should have just called getting the proper odds. Poor play on my part. The next time I got stacked my AA got cracked by 44. I raised PF and was called in 1 spot. I cbet the flop and checked behind on the turn. Villian bet the river and it was not big given my remaining chips so I called. He had chased me off AA earlier with a similar bet. I couldn't put him on a hand that made sense (I didn't consider the set) so I called. I won't beat myself up about this hand, as I don't think I played it too wrong.

From the workout perspective, I ran intervals on the treadmill last night 1 minute at 8 mph followed with 4 minutes at 5.5 mph for 5 intervals. I was pretty beat afterwards, it felt good. This will be my new Tuesday workout. Thursday will still just be an aeorbic fitness day.

Pretty good weekend. I managed a long run, 40 minutes with 38 minutes in the my hear-rate zone. It felt good too. I will add 5 minutes this weekend and that will take me to the longest I will run, 45 minutes. I will start doing intervals on Tuesday and Thursday. This will give me 4 weeks to train for my next 5K, which should allow me to set a pretty good time.

My diet is not too good right now, I need to get that back on track, but it will only take a few adjustments to get that dialed in.

The squat volume is starting to worry me a bit though. I will get back into Strong Lifts and see how it goes.

Thanksgiving

On the good side, I had a good race. I finished 24th out of 48 in my age group. My time was a bit slower than I wanted, 28:58. Given the crowd at the start it was probably 27:58. I did manage my a personal best since at least 2004, so I am happy with my result. I would like to knock some time off for the resolution run in a month.

On the bad side, I drank too much and got in an argument with my wife. I was a complete ass and am sorry. The stress from the day just got to me I guess.

I bought 25 sharges of NGG today as it is a large utility with an attractive dividend. I had some cash in my Schwab IRA and I did not want to rebalance yet, so I listened to Bill Gross and bought a utility to gin up some money.

Tough Night on the Virtual Felt

I played for 2 hours last night in an attempt to clear some of my Holiday Bonus.
I had 2 games open, O/8 and NLHE. I played well on the NLHE table accumulating almost one buy-in when I made a poor play and pissed that away. I flopped top pair with a decent kicker and raised my oponent's bet on the turn. He raised all-in and I knew I was beat, but I called anyway to see a flopped set. WTF, I know not to call off my stack with one pair. It was just a bad play. I played pretty badly on the O/8 table. I am seeing way too many hands. I have to really tighten up and play for scoops. After loosing 2 buy-in's I did adjust my play and did win some money back, so I can do it.

My take-away from last night is, do not call all-in with one pair and play really tight in O/8.

I will try to win back some of my money tonight and over the weekend,

I have kept up the foam rolling and stretching in preparation for the Turkey Trot. I took today off to give my legs some rest. I am shooting to run under 28 minutes tomorrow.

Squats 165 (1x1.10 bw)

Made it to the gym this morning, but I did not follow the 5X5 program exactly. I was a bit late and I still have the weird chest pain that felt worse. I did squat and then I did single rep should presses and then push presses followed by pull ups and reverse crunches. As I have the Turkey Trot next week, my lifting will be light on Monday and Wednesday. This will also allow my chest to rest. I do feel I am making some good gains, I just need to dial in the food a bit. After the Turkey Trot, I can ramp up the Strong-Lifts again and should have no problem getting my squat strength where I want it by the end of January as I am not doing the Jingle Bell Run due to a scheduling issue (I may do a 5K on January 2, 2010). In any event December will be a big month of strength.

I slept in again, dammit. I was up too late. I just need to get back on track. I did manage to run yesterday and I can get to the gym at lunch. I will have to cut my workout short, but I can still get in squats and dead lifts. I can super set shoulder presses and pull ups. My chest still hurts, but I don't think it is pneumonia.

I wonder if my odd chest pain is pnuemonia. It could be, which would suck. I will run tonight on the treadmill as a test of whether or not it could be. We will see.

Overall uneventful weekend. I did manage to get Abby on the bike for a short ride. She was tired and bored, so it was not a fun ride.

Yesterday I tried to fix the sink, but I could not as the plumbing is not in great shape. I did manage to do some yard work. I did not run though as I have a strange pain in my chest. I am going to let it go for a few more days to see if it gets better. I did miss my 40 minute run, but I don't think it is too much of a problem in the grand scheme of things for my race. Hopefully I will just get back on track this week.

Elbow, back,and calf all feel fine. I will hit the gym at lunch and do Squats, Deadlifts, and Shoulder Presses with some pull ups, split squats, and Abs thrown in for good measure. I just need to watch my form on squats, but I think the Gray Cook progression and nightly mobility work has helped. I have about 10 weeks left doing strong-lifts. I should be able to get my squat goal of 200 by then as long as I do not get injured.

This weekend I have my last long run before the turkey trot. I should be out for 40 minutes. This will be a good test of where I am for the race. I really think I can get a good time. 29:07 is my time to beat. That is my time from 2007. I would like to think I am in better shape than I was then

I played around with split squats and Bulgarian squats yesterday. My legs feel it today. They obivously work. When I change my workout away from stronglifts, I will certainly incorporate them into my workout. I will probably add them now for a few sets just.

I lost an envelope that was on my desk. I needed that damn thing to get some work done. WTF. That is part of the problem with being disorganized. I am trying to improve this aspect of my life.

I ran on the treadmill last night and felt good. I used my heart rate monitor and I think the average heart rate reading is wrong. It has to do with the operation, not the device. I need to work on that. The good news about the run is that my calf did not hurt. I could feel it a bit, but it was not pain. I will run intervals tomorrow, hopefully with out pain.

Today at lunch I am going to do a modified workout, split squats, pullups, dips, bridges, and hyper extensions. My back feels good, and I do not want to stress it.

Another area of my life that I am lacking is my diet. As diet is responsible for 80%of physical appearance and performance, this must stop. I need to get back to eating clean.

List of injuries

Right now I have a bum calf, an injured back, and a sore elbow. The calf started on Saturday at the end of my run. My back started after Monday's workout and my elbow started after TKD last night. I am getting better. I will just back off a bit and not do deadlifts or shoulder presses tomorrow in an attempt to save my back. I will do step ups, pullups, dips, bridges and hyper extensions. 3 sets of each. I will keep working on foam rollers stretching and squat progession at night. It is painful to be in shape.

I made it to the gym this morning, but I did not do the stronglifts program. I did squats, dips, and inverted rows. For squats, I moved the weight down to 145 with the idea that I will work my weight back up for the week. I did not like my squat form last week, so I wanted to back it down a bit to focus on my form. I felt pretty good. I need to keep working on my squat form. I will work through Gray Cook's book to help my squats.

At the end of my run on Saturday, I felt a pain in my calf. I have had the same pain before. I think it is from increasing my mileage. Hopefully I can run on the treadmill tomorrow. I will just do steady-state and then do intervals on Thursday.

I am making no progress on paying down my debt. I just have to stop spending. If I can do that I can make some progress. My original goal was 1K per month, but that will not likely happen. I will shoot for 500. The first step is to just stop spending.

I have been hungover 3 times in 6 days. That is probably not a good thing.

I slept in this morning. I woke up on time, but as a result of 1 too many pints last night coupled with my wavering dedication to lifting heavy weights, I decided to just stay in bed. Had it been coupled with solid nuitriton, it would have been a good idea. But, it wasn't. I will still run this weekend and then get back to better nuitrition choices. That should get me back on track.

Three more Council meetings. I have to say that I am sad. I feel that I really am in my element during these meetings,but it is not to be.

My diet has been falling off lately. I really need to start paying more attention it.

I did squats last night. I got 155. I was able to complete all reps withought much difficulty. My form was possibly a little weak. I will have to work to correct it.

I have a slight case of DOMS in my legs from my squats. Tomorrow's workout should be difficult considering that I am going to run on the treadmil tonight.

Squat 155 1.07bw
Press 80 .56bw
Deadlift 235 1.62bw

The progression is getting hard now. The weights are getting to a point that they are taxing my body. I haven't failed yet, but I have to guess that it will happen soon. I really struggled on my press. Looking at my goals, I want my max lifts to be 120, squat 230, and deadlift 270. This would give me a CFT of 620, which is fine for me. My Deadlift is already over that. My other lifts are progressing. Using a 1RM calculator I need a 5RM of 105 for presses and 200 for squats. Given that I am doing 5 sets, my work wieghts are lower, so I might be closer than I think. My goal though is to work up so that my work sets are 105 for presses and 200 for squats..

Woke up a little late this morning, but still managed to get to the gym. I cut my workout short opting to skip pushups and reverse crunches. I will just do them when I get home from work. I felt pretty good on squats.

I woke up again to work out. We really are inert. The more I wake up on time, the easier it is to do. I am getting fitter, that I can tell. I just now have to convince myself the the treadmill isn't boring. I will listen to podcasts to help with that. I also have started foam rolling nightly.

Looking at my lifting progress, I think I can hit the intermediate level in the standards. I listened to the Strength Coach Pocast, and they talked about how strong, is strong enough. I think the intermediate level is fine.

I have also started to make my weekly schedule. Once I get this down, my life of success can progress.

Today's strength work

Weight = 145

Squat = 135 (.94 bw)
Deadlift = 225 (1.56 bw)
Press = 75 (.52 bw)

I rode my mountain bike last night. It was a good ride, but I think my legs were feeling it today. I did my strength workout, and felt a little week. I was still able to handle the weight, without much problem. It is getting harder though. I skipped pull ups and reverse crunches, but I will do them tomorrow. I did start to add foam rolling at night. Hopefully that will help.

Next week, I will add speed work to my running replacing my Tuesday treadmill work. I will run repeats at the track. 1/4 mile fast 1/4 recovery. I will still keep the time of the runs. My running is going well. I would like to break my PR of 29:07.

Good weekend

We had a good weekend. We went to the high school football game Friday and we won with 13 seconds left to go. It was a great effort. After the game, I watched Grand Torino. It was a great movie, I really enjoyed it. On Saturday we went to Hallowboo and then to Rick's to watch football. Yesterday we had soccer and I went for my weekend run. Then we finished with a great meal. Leg of lamb, cabbage, steamed veggies and naan. The vegetabes were overcooked, but everything else was perfect.

During my run yesterday, I felt good. I am getting into good running shape. Overall my whole fitness is good, which should help my cycling once I get back on the bike. My current routine is helping me more than crossfit did. I still agree with the crossfit methodology, but the change has helped me. In January I will start to do a few crossfit workouts per week.

This week has started off good. I woke up early and worked out, so I am moving in the right direction. My squats are building up. I started to feel resistence today with 135 pounds. My goal is 215 pounds, so I am 80 pounds away. If I increase by 5 pounds per work out, I can reach the goal in 16 workouts. Given the Turkey Trot and the Jingle Bell Run. I should be able to reach that goal by December 4, but there is time in case I stall, but certainly I will be able to do it by year end.

My life changes now.

I am not happy with where I am in my life right now. It is my fault. Only I can change it. That change starts now.

Here is what I am not happy with:
I am a slacker
I am in debt
I am worried about my job (partly because I am a slacker and partly because we are
hanging on by a thread)

I have made plans before, but I didn't really follow them. This time is different. I have transformed my body by using plannging and training, and I can do the same with the other areas of my life. I will concentrate on formulating my plan over the weekend and it will be in place by Sunday night. Most of the plan is done in pieces. It boils down to clearing stating my goal, implementing my weekly planning and finally, acttually doing it. My progress will be reported on this blog.

I have transformed my body, and can transform my mind and my life as well.

I have worked out every day this week. I made it to the gym five days, yahoo. I did miss TKD, but I might be able to pick up a class tomorrow unless we go to Hallowboo. Although I would also like to take my bike to thick bikes. I will play it by ear I guess. Overall though, I am happy with my fitness work this week. "Athletic Body in Balance" has seemed to help. Next week I will work on the squat progression.

On the poker side, this was a terrible week. I lost money all week. I made my usual mistakes. Last night I just got sucked-out on repeatedly. I think I will take a break tonight and tomorrow.


I am thinking of starting a new blog. Kind of an outward focused blog on Fitness and Finance. I will keep thinking about it.

I am on a downswing in the poker regard. The problems are many. I am playing too many pots. I am playing out of poisition. I am calling raises with bad hands. I am not paying attention to my opponents. I need to go back to playing small ball like I did when I won in Wheeling. I will concentrate on playing that way this weekend.

From a fitness standpoint. I have been stretching, working my way through Gray Cook's "Athleic Body in Balance". This has in turn approved my squat which was worrying me. I also have run on the treadmill twice this week. I really think it is boring, but it is good for my fitness.

I lost 2 buy-in's last night. The first one was horrible, the second one was questionable. Here is the low-down.

Hand I, there was an early position raise and I called from the BB with KJo, this was a mistake as I should have folded, but anyway I called. The flop came xjx, all spades. At this point I had top pair, but was beaten by an overpair, and a flush. I should have just check folded here as even if I was ahead, I didn't have a redraw. Instead, I stacked off on a bluff, firing 3 barrels in hope that villian was on a flush draw.

The second was more reasonable, I had AQ flopped top two, but villian flopped a set of aces.

My main mistake was wild aggression. I was not playing small-ball. I was swinging for the fences. I have to calm down and play small ball. Remember, never go broke with one pair.

I played some poker last night, but I didn't play very well. I got it all in pre-flop with KK and of course was against AA. I also pushed with a small pair and a str8 daw. I just played too loose. I will tighten up a bit this week.

I ran on the road this weekend. I will add a weekend run each week until the Turkey Trot increasing my time by 5 minutes each weekend until I run for 40 minutes. I have not run that far for many years. It will be good for my training.

I have been thinking lately about taekwondo. I have enjoyed it, but it is getting a bit old for me. I don't think it is very usfull in regards to self defense, and it has not really improved my flexibility, perhaps I was looking for it to do more than it can. Anyway, I would like to look at BJJ or MMA, and there is a new school opening in Greensburg. Perhaps after I get my black belt I will look into the other school, Pennsylvania Combat Sports.

passing out

I slept late this morning. This isn't really a bad thing on one hand because I got 8 hours sleep, but on the other, I didn't wake up for my workout. No big deal though as I will just go at lunch. The odd thing thous was that after I was finally able to pull myself out of bed, I was pouring my coffee my legs started to buckle and I had a weired sensation of being in slow motion. I started falling and knocked over a bunch of crap before finally catching myself before I went down. It was kind of scary and must either be a low blood sugar or low blood pressure issue. I will have to keep an eye on it.

I have been thinking about my life a lot lately, and I am not happy where I am career-wise. I need to make some changes in that area. I am making improvements in fitness and I will start using the same systematic approach to making corrections in that are as I have with my fitness. The key will be setting and following a plan. Following a plan has been my weaknes in the past, and I will overcome it in the future.

I overslept again this morning. Actually I woke up a little late and decided to go back to bed. I was up a little late working so that is why i overslept. I will finish tonight and can get to bed early so I should be able to wake up. I will try to get to the gym tonight will Jane takes Abby to dance.

Hurt my back

I was following the stronglifts program yesterday and I hurt my back again. Here is how it happened. As I was squating, I felt a "movement" in my lower back. It was an odd motion, and it must have been me rolling my hips. When I squated 85 pounds I did not have this trouble, but for some reason with 95 pounds I did. I think this may be a flexibility issue and I will work on my squat stretch and leg swings daily to loosen the hips. I will also keep my weight at 85 pounds for the next week to build up and work on my squat form. I will keep all my weight the same for one week

I slept in again today. It is not really surprising given that I could not sleep last night. The stress of working my current job is really getting to me. We need to be able to hang on a few more weeks until we get funidng and then we should be ok. If not, we won't be.

I will just shift my workouts to Thurs-Fri-Sat.

I actually woke up this morning and made it to the gym. I was a bit late and almost did not go, but I did force myself to do it. Yeh me. I stretched and did 10 minutes of bicyle cadence work and 1 mile on the treadmill. I had origianlly planed to do pull ups and dips on my Tues and Thurs workouts, but I think I will just stretch and do cardio in keeping with my strong lifts. Because it will be dark when I am at the gym I will just run on the treadmill I will try to add 2.5 min every week. Once I get up to 1/2 hour I will increase the speed. The treadmills at the gym have a heart-rate monitor. I can use them to increase my aerobic fitness. I have built an aeorbic training plan that will also get me ready for two 5-k races.

Also, I fixed my road bike derailure, just in time for putting it away for the winter

I rode the seven springs course yesterday. What a difference a month makes. I easily made it up the North Face climb and I only walked the bike a few times. I mostly made it throught the rock gardens. I think I was overtrained at the race. Looking back on it, I am pretty sure the weight loss and training load was too much. I was sluggish, and I knew it.

I cannot believe how easy the ride was. Granted, I was not pushing race-pace, but still I made good time. I was riding at about the pace we maintained in training prior to the race. Now, I just need to work on pace, but I have plenty of time to work on that.

My next goal is to work on cadence.

One other observation I made was that I really don't need my camel back for the race.

I have a serious case of Doms in my chest right now. It feels good.

I did not wake up in time to workout this morning as I stayed up too late last night, which is par for the course. This has to stop. I will focus on waking up on time in October.

I did my personal balance sheet for September. I fell short on paying off debt. I really have to work on that. I just have to quit spending.

I am having a bad week.

I have over-slept 3 days in a row
I have not strarted a tax project I have
I have done nothing at work
I have played very poor poker

The worst part about this is that I know what I am doing wrong. I am not planninging or trying. I certainly cannot expect to get what I want out of life if I just shuffle through. I am going to go the gym and when I get make I am going to get something done.

I had a good night at Wheeling. I won $235 which was a good night for me. I played small-ball and stayed out of pots with much resistence. I did make two errors. The first one, I had the nut straight and there were two players other than me. I figured one to have the nut straight as well as I did, but the player in between us I figured to be behind. I should have bet the end hoping for a call from the middle player and a raise from the player behind. Instead, I checked and it was checked down. The other mistake I made was playing a weak top-pair too strong. I had KT and flopped top pair I got one caller and figured him to be on a draw. He did not have much behind so I pushed on the turn and he called. He had a KQ and took the pot. Overall, I am happy with my results and will keep playing small ball.

On the poker front, I have been practicing for a trip to Wheeling on Friday. My intent is to play small ball when I play NLHE. I had some success last night. I also have been reviewing pot odds needed for the most likely situations that I will face. I think I am ready to make some money. I also have been watching videos on Dueces Cracked. The 8-step program is starting to seem like rubish, but the moving on up is pretty good. The thing I am learning from it is the importance of knowing opponents and folding early in marginal situations. Taking what I have learned and replaying the hand over the weekend where I had top pair, I should never have called the turn. I should either folded or raised. This weekend I am ready, I will play small ball, and I will win.

There is a 50 tournament on Friday, and I might play in it.

Poker mistakes

I am prepping for going back to the casino on Friday. I am working on my strategy, but I have made a few mistakes.

My strategy is to play big cards (ak-aj, KQ) and pairs from early position if I can get in first or cheap. In later position I will add connectors and suited one-gappers. Hand selection has been good, but the second step is where I have been messing up. If I miss the flop, I should c-b 1/2 the time (c-bet if second hand is between 12 and 6, check if on up side of minute) if I hit flop, bet 3/4 of time. If flop is suited or connected, bet 2/3 pot. If it is not connected, bet 1/2 of pot. Check turn to keep pot small. Remember, do not go broke with one pair.

In summary, try to play small-ball with one-pair hands.

For Friday, I will practice small-ball and review odds so I only draw in good situations.

I went to Mountaineer yesterday and lost $115. My play overall wasn't bad. The only questionable plays I had were:

Twice I had unsited connectors late and I folded them even though the table had limped around. I would have won two big pots with these. I should have played them because I had position and the price was cheap. I must remember that NLHE is a game of seeing flops cheaply with speculative hands.

The last questionable hand is a situation that I have faced and possibly mis-played before. I had QJ in middle position and limped in. I flopped to pair, the flop was Q96 and checked. Villian bet 10 and it folded to me. Villian was weak so I called. Turn bricked and I checked again villian be 20. At this point I though I might be ahead and I entertained the idea of raising figuring that I was going to call on the river anyway and this might either win me the pot of get me a free show-down. Instead, I called. The river was an Ace I checked and villian bet 25 and I folded. At this point on river, I was getting 3.4:1. I didn't really know where I was I probably should have called. My real mistake was not being more aggressive on the flop or turn. A check-raise would have been a better move as I played it too weak.


In summary, I was too weak/tight. I need to open up a bit in position and play more aggressivly when I hit hands. I plan to go back on Friday and hopefully, I can get some money back.

I went to the gym today and did a traditional strength workout. It was odd after crossfitting for 2 years. I am interested to see how I progess through it. It was more difficult than I thought and seemed to take a very long time.

I did front squats yesterday and my back really hurt after. I did Taekwondo at lunch and that loosened up my back so it felt better, but the issue has to be my squat form. I am going to take a six weeks and work on my form, strength and running. I can get back into crossfitting beginning November 1. This will fit nicely in my Foundation Phase of bicycle training.

Until November 1 I will hit the gym five days per week. Every day I will do the normal CF warm up. MWF I will concentrate on Strength with shoulder presses, deadlifts and squat work concentrating on form and supporting it with leg presses to build strength. T and R I will concentrate on building aerobic fitness with cadence training on the spin bike followed by running. I will move my static stretching to later in the day to accomodate getting through my workout and home in time for Jane to get to work.


My Strength workout will look like this:(setXrep)
Squat-light 3X8
Leg Press 2x5
Dead Lift 5X5
Shoulder Press 3X5/Dbell Bench Press alternate
Cable Row 3X8/Bent over row alternate

Great weekend. We went to the Pittsburgh Irish Festival on Friday night with some friends. On Saturday I went for a short ride in the morning and then we took Abby and our niece and nephew to the Irish Festival. On Sunday I made coffee can ice cream for the kids and took Abby for a ride on the South Side Trail. It was Abby's first bike trip. It was cool to watch her go. She was a trooper. She rode over the Hot Metal Bridge, and she navigated the sidewalks of the South Side. We stopped at Fat Heads and the Hofbrau Haas. I am excited to have her be able to ride. I think we can get several rides before the weather turns bad.

Well it is payday and I am broke again. After paying my bills, I am left pretty tight. I really need to watch my pennies over the next two weeks so I can make it to my next check. We are going to the Irish Festival this weekend, so I will have to watch my spending. We have nothing major planned for the next weekend, so I can just stay in. My goal of getting out of debt in 2 years seems pretty doubtfull at this rate.

This weekend I will concentrate on refining my goals and try to get a way out of this hole.

24-hour race recap

We rode the 24 hour race as a team. Much to my surprise I was the slowest member of the team. Part of this was due to the fact that I had terrible first two laps. My third lap was my only compfortable lap. In the first lap, I had terrible foot pains and calf cramps. Originally, I thougt this was a result of my shoes, but I am beginning to think that it was a result of running in flip-flops at the start. The second lap, a night lap, I vomited because I ate too much pre-ride and I had quad cramps. The third lap was slower than the other two, but I fiddled around at the start and I ran off the course at the mid-point to ditch my lights and Camelback so I think that made up for it. At least I felt good. Another factor was that my mind just wounldn't push the pace. I don't understand that, but then I am not overly competivie so that may explain it.

I want to do better next year, so I am designing my training around the Carmichael Training System from his book. I have plotted the different phases of my training. Now I just need to design the specifics of the training.

I met yesterday with an accounting firm to discuss the possibility of me joining their firm. There were two partners with whom I met. One was a bit of a dork, and the other was a decent guy. Basically, I would run their govt. audit function. I am not sure that the money is there and I am not sure I would be a good fit, but it is good to talk I guess. Think I would call another firm that is their competitor and let them know that I am thinking of moving to see if I could get a competition going. I think I would fit better with that firm. Of course I could chart my own course at either firm.

On the bike race front, we lost a team member yesterday, but we picked up a replacement. I will really miss Al on our team. He would have been really fun to ride with, but we will have to make the best of it.

My energy is low

I think because of trying to cut weight, my energy is low. I will start eating more tomorrow. I have made it down to my goal weight, so that is good. It should help me climbing in the race.

I have a few errands to run tonight and we are taking Abby to dinner. Hopefully afterwards I can get in a night ride. I am sure I will be able to.

Great Weekend

I had a great weekend.

On Friday I started my reveiw of Dueces Cracked. Hopefully that will enable me to really elevate my game. The first video I watched was from a series taking Bhudist teachings and tranfering it to the poker table. The first lesson was "right thinking" This deals with accepting things as they truly are and playing only when you are on your A-game. I want to watch one video of this series per week.

On Saturday I took my daughter to the Strip District. We had a good time. It was good exposing her to the various sights, sounds and smells of the Strip. We went to breakfast at Pamela's. Daughter is not a breakfast person afterall (she is the one that wanted to go early) Oh well, a lesson learend. We bought some good food and had a very nice dinner Saturday night.

Yesterday I went for a 36 mile road ride. It felt good to get some miles on the legs. I think I will be able to complete 3 laps for the race.

I went to the county fair last night with my daughter. She had a blast. We did not see one animal. She just wanted to ride the rides. She met little friend, and the two of them rode all night. I figured that she can see animals next time so I let her go.

On th poker front, I made the mistake of mult-tabling. I know better, but I just cant stop myself. I am going to subscribe to dueces cracked tonight and step-up my poker education.

I have an interview with a CPA firm next week. It will be an interesting discussion. I am not sure what I want to do.

I picked up my car from the garage yesterday. It was rather expensive at just shy of 800. I put it on a credit card, but I have previously paid that amount in anticipation of the charge. My car is good to go now, so I can get back on track financially and really start working on cutting down my debt.

I rode my bike last night. I felt really strong. I was able to clear all logs. I also climbed a big climb in the middle ring. I rode my bike like it was a single speed. For the race, if I ride this strong I can put in an under 2-hour lap. Endurance may be an issue, but at this point there is nothing I can do about it as I only have one long ride left. Everything seems to be coming together. My weight is at my goal weight.

I stayed up a little later than planned last night. I was cleaning the home office and playing poker. I played two sit-n-go's and I got bad beat out of both of them. The first was a worse beat than the second. In the first, villian had only 2 outs to beat me. I had top top pair and a flush draw and villian had second pair. The second hand I had AA and raised 3x, it folded to SB who called. BB folded. Flop was 89Q. Not the hand I wanted, but I had come back from 30 to 790, so I pushed all-in. Villian called with 9j. So, villian had (3(j)+2(9)4(10))= 9 outs. Out of the 2,162 possible hands, there were 717 hands that would beat me. Villian was 2:1 against, he didn't have odds to call as pot was closer to 1:1. In any case, I got the money in the middle with the best hand twice, and was beaten. The fact that I was down to 30 and came back was pretty good though.

As for training for the race, I will do a long night ride tonight and hill climbs Thursday morning. I will also do hillclimbs on Monday as my last hard workout before the race.

I found some nan in Giant Eagle yesterday and I think that will be a good food to take to race day.

We went for our final Seven Springs training ride on Friday and Saturday. My nutrition was off and my bike had mechanical difficulties. My brakes were rubbing and my rear axle was loose. This made my bike unstable and I used a lot of unnecessary energy trying to ride the darn thing. I did one lap with the loose axle. After it was fixed, I was more stable on the second lap. I did two laps with the bad brakes. I figured out what was wrong with them and properly adjusted them for the third lap. I felt strong on the third lap.

For this week, I will work on some hills. I will climb Bear Hollow Trail a few times to give the legs a good workout and I will get my bike into the shop. This week is really the last work week for training. Next week will just be rehab.

I have decided I want a new mountain bike. Getting ready for this race has been fun, but I am training on a beginners mountain bike. While on a casual ride, this is not an issue I just know I could perform better on a better bike.

When I started to ride in 1991, I had a low-end bike. I moved up a step with my second bike. My third bike was then a top-of-the-line bike. My Supercaliber. That bike was awesome. I rode that bike until my friends stopped riding. I then stopped riding as well. There is a whole host of reasons I stopped riding, but it was due mainly to getting married, having a child, playing rugby, etc. Really, I just filled my time with other things. I bought my current Trek 4500 at the same time I bought my road bike, our doodlebug, and my wife's bike. This was all well and good as we just rode on rails to trails and we did this very little. I started to ride my road bike more and I enjoy it. I like riding a mountain bike too.

This brings me to my current dilemma. I would like a new mountain bike. I don't need a new one, my current one works. I feel kind of bad looking at a new bike when I have other debts to pay. I also worry if I will get the kind of use that would be warranted from a new bike. If I ride next summer like I did this summer (I won't be on Council, so I will have more time) I could see buying a new bike.

Here is what I am going to do though. I am going to put $50.00 per pay in an envelope and by July 2010, I will have $1,200. If I still want a new bike, I will buy it. If not, I will just pay some debt.

Good Ride

We had a good ride yesterday. We rode at night for 2 hours. Actually, I rode for two hours. Chris rode for one. I did two laps, he did one. I really wanted to give my legs a work out. I was really warmed-up for the second lap and I think I rode faster.

Now I face a bit of a dilemma with tomorrow's workout. I should have woke up this morning and did my circuit, but I over-slept as I was up too late. If I do it tomorrow, my tri's may be shot for Friday&Saturday's ride. I think this is a chance I have to take. I will just massage them Thursday night. I will also not do my scheduled time trial on Thursday, as this will give my legs a chance to heal.

On Friday, I will do a pull-up workout and Tabata bike spins

I have some money set aside for my car repair. I think I am going to use it to pay down two of my small credit card balances. I will then use my credit card with the largest balance for the repairs. This will consolidate everything. I don't know if this is a a good idea, but it will make things more managable.

I replaced my cassette and chain last night. After I installed the chain, I had to adjust the limit screws, but then it wouldn't shift onto the low gears. I noticed that the cable was very loose. I pulled the slack out of the deraillure and it worked like a charm. I was very impressed with my maintenance skills. Let's hope that my brake job goes as well.

Weekend Recap

We went to Seven Springs to train for the race on Friday. We got late start because one of out team mates came from out of town and was stuck in traffice. Our late start was further pushed back because some people just fart around too much. If you are going to show up for a group ride, have your shit together, you just make others wait. Our group split up at the top as one rider had to put his lights one. Having not previously put his lights on, he had difficulty mounting his helmet light. Again, do not wait until a group ride to figure out how to mount your equipment. This put the second group 1/2 hour behind the main group. Two out of the three in the second group got lost on the course and this set them back an additional 1/2 hour. By the time they got back it was too late to do another lap. One of the riders in that final group had my helmet light and I needed it for my lap, so I couldn't take off without it. In all, I was dissapointed by only doing one lap, but I was happy with my performance. My team though is very undertrained. I am hoping we do 10 laps in the race.

I had a family wedding on Saturday. It was very fun to see the family. I did spend some money though and I drank too much.

I slept in this morning. It is probable a combination of staying up late to play poker,but a little catch up from this week already. I am disappointed as I did not make it to the gym at all this week, but I figured it would be good to bank some extra sleep. Of course I will try to do better next week. Let eff'ing around and more working out.

We have our first (likely only) full team ride toniight on the Seven Springs course. We plan to go up right after work and ride two laps. One will be a night lap. We are then going to stay up there and do some game-planning. It should be a blast and will be a real test of fitness. My plan is to go out slow and save some energy for the last lap.

Had a great training ride last night. The legs held up well as did the new lights. Also, the bike handled like a dream. Unfortunately, my crossfitting has been non-existent. I will likely only make it to the gym once this week.

I went for a nice 20-mile road ride last night. It went well and I felt pretty strong. Tonight will be a night ride. The ground is a bit wet, so it will get a little tricky. Should be fun.

I just talked to the garage. I have a car repair that will likely cost $500 for a tune up and an inspection. I can add the $300 for the body work next week and this will be an $800. Certainly expensive, but my car should be good to go for a while. Looking at my finances, this will keep me from paying off any debt, but I should not have to go into debt further.

I do need to talk to the wife about my budget though.

Weekend Disaster

This weekend was a wash on improvement front. First off, I ate too much crap this weekend. Second, I spent too much. Part of it is the bike race. Third I drank too much yesterday. I should not have driven. I cannot keep making this mistake.

I did my 10-mile time trial last night. I finished in 37:53 this is an improvement of 52 seconds. I am happy with the result as I did not think I was going to beat my previous time. I made it to the 1/2 way point in 19 minutes, which I think is faster than the last time, but I seemed to be losing time on the return. This is the opposite of what happened the last time. When I saw I was going to make it under 38 minutes, I really pushed it to finish.

I did a tabata workout on the spin bike at the gym this AM.

Hopefully I can keep up the training and not get over-trained. I am worried about this especially as I am trying to cut weight. I will monitor my legs, but I think I will be ok if I am watchful.

Gin and Juice Music Video

I am back

After a lengthy absence I am back. Many things have happened since I have been on hiatus. Some good, some bad. Nothing major.

I am re-committed to improving my life. I am reading "Awaken the Giant" in order to help. I want to improve my fitness and get out of debt. I will concentrate this blog on these areas. I have started to use Goaltribe and Gubbnet to help in these endeavors.

My journey to improvement will include paying off my debt and doing 20 pull ups. These are the areas that need the most work right now. To that end, I have included a "Debt Monkey" on my blog, to track progress on debt.

I have a serious case of DOMS. I did a body-weight work out last night 5-10-15-20 pullup, pushup, situp, and squats. I was toast. Because I have been concentrating on strength, some of my crossfit fitness has suffered. I will try to lift 2x's a week and metcon 3x's. This should be a good mix and still get me in shape for my rugby match in may.

I made the mistake of playing some heads up poker last night. I do not know why. I then managed to win back most of my money, so I did the least logical thing, I played some more heads up and lost it all back. I do not know why I keep repeating this self-defeating behavior. Anyway, I think I will just finish my partnership tax return and statements tonight and get to bed. I am going to try to not play poker until Friday night.

Wheeling trip report

I went to Wheeling on Friday for poker. I had a good time, but not good results. I lost $260.00. I played in 2 sessions. The first one was Friday night and the second was Saturday morning. On Friday I played at two tables and Saturday only one. A few notable hands will be discussed below.

At the first table on Friday, the play was pretty un-eventful. On one hand I had KK PF and raise. I got 2 callers. Flop came AAQ. I didn't really like the flop, but I was last to act, so I bet it and got one caller. I didn't like his call and figured him for an Ace. The turn brought another Ace and caller checked, as did I. He fired on river, and I figured him for quad aces at this point, but he could have queens. I haven't seen him do anything out of line yet though, I should have folded, but I folded, but I called. This is probably border line.

Still at the first table, I raised PF with JJ and got one caller, a tight player. I fopped a set of Jacks on a harmless flop. I checked hoping to get the caller to put in a bet. He checked behind. I checked the turn again, and he did not bet. I bet the river and he called, showing AA. The guy was tight passive, I should have bet the whole way, I think he would have called.

I was about even when I got moved. The table was full of gamble. I guy went all in blind. I looked down to find AKs. I was 65% to win, so I called, he drew out on me. Good play, just bad result.

I was dealt Ad6d and called a small raise as there was already a few people that called. The flop brought 2 diamonds and the pf raiser bet and there was once call before me. I called as the pot was giving better than 2:1. The flush did not come on the turn and the PF raiser bet all-in. This time, the other caller folded and it was back to me. I had to sit and think about it. I wasn't sure whether I should call. I needed at this point 4.11 times what it would cost me in the pot to make the bet profitable. I did not know what was in the pot at this time but others at the table told me I was good so I called. I won the hand.

In another and, I caught the low end of a straight and raised an original better. He lead pretty big on the river. I had the feeling I was beat, but I called his 50 bet. I really should have folded her. I "knew" I was beat, but I called anyway.

On my last hand of Friday night, I had AQ pf and raised. A got on caller. The flop came AKJ. I ran into resistance and should have folded. The board was just to scary. Instead I stacked off against AA. I again knew I was beat, but did not fold.

In the end, I played well. I had decent reads. I need to work on folding when I know I am beat, and I need to practice odds. I should have known in the flush hand where I was. I will concentrate on those areas.

I was making nice progress towards my goal of a $400 online bankroll, and then....I reverted to some old stupid moves. I played heads up for more than my bankroll could afford. As a result, I dropped $40. So it is back to rebuilding mode. I have been playing pretty well, so hopefully, I can't make it back soon.

I am heading to the casino tonight. I hope my results are better than they have been. I need to loosen up calling in late position, and I need to be a little more agressive in other area's.

We the local elections are here. At least the beginning of the campainging is. I will spend this weekend working on strategy. At least that is my plan. On top of that, I need to plan for Valentine's day. I am still not sure of the logistics there.

I went to Dave's cabin for our annual poker trip. This time is was less poker as Dave's buddies are less interested that we are. I did manage to win money in each game I played. That was good. On the way home though I stopped at Wheeling Island and lost money. I played ok, but made a few mistakes. Well I made one mistake really.

I am going to sign up for Deuces Cracked coaching site. I plan to watch 2 videos a week. This should improve my game. I will watch 4 before I next go to Wheeling on 2/20.

I hurt my back yesterday doing SS. Squats again killed it. I think I will lighten the load and work with front squats for a while.

I have slid back to not working out. I have missed every morning this week. I really have to get on the ball. I will go to TKD today, gym tomorrow. and run on Saturday.

I have back-slid on my diet lately. It is a result of poor planning really. If I went to bed early and woke up early, I would be able to get to the gym in the AM and then I would be able to have a sensible lunch. That appears to be my downfall meal. I guess I could just pick up some tuna and some veggies or hard boil some eggs. I think that will be my focus next week.

I have made it to the gym only 3 times this week. I have fallen off SS and the armstrong pull up program. I think it may have been too amitious to do them both. So, next week I will get back on the SS program and I will forgo the pull up program. I will instead work Tues and Thursday on pull ups and finish Friday's with a tabata pull up work out.

I made a really dumb move last night in O8 that cost a big chuck of my AB bank roll. I will really have to work to make it up.

great weekend

With the snow and cold weather, the daughter wanted to play outside. And we did. We rode sleds and played on the iced-over creek. We spent most of yesterday outside.

The Steelers won the AFC championship yesterday and I won an electric train in a raffle.

It was a great weekend.

I did 13 sets of 4 reps in pull ups today for a total of 52 pull ups. I think it was a mind thing really. So next week I will do 4 as my work sets for the 3-3-3 and try 5 for my max work sets. Tomorrow I will do the pyramid workout.

I did the second day of the pull up workout and used 3 as my working reps. It wasn't too bad, but harder than I thought. For tomorrow, I will use working sets of 4.

In starting strength, I was not happy with my power clean form. I need to work on it, but I do have 6 weeks to do so.

I choose to sleep later this morning and go to the gym at lunch.

Last night I had two situations that cost me money in poker. The first one was entirely my fault and I lost 1/2 my bankroll on Absolute. The second was just bad luck. In the first instance, I played O/8 way over my bankroll and abilities. I knew I shouldn't but, I just couldn't resist. I almost won it all back too, but that didn't happen. I should only play one game and it should be a game I can beat. The second one, I called with 77 PF. The flop came x7J. A loose player bet the pot. I figured him for either an overpair or a good jack so I raised. He just called so I figured my call was right. The turn brought a king and he pushed all-in. I still had him on the range I described before, but now JK made sense, that of course is what he had. So I was a 11:1 favorite and of course he hit his king. That is twice in two days that someone hit a runner-runner for a full-house. I can't get too upset about it, I got all the money in with the best hand. It is just bad luck.

Armstrong Pull UP program

I started the Armstrong pull up program to try to get my pull ups to 20. I made it up to 6 in the pyramid. I couldn't finish the set to seven so I did 25 = 4+6+5+4+3+2+1. I then did a max effort set where I did five on my own and then some jumping and some negatives.

Tomorrow I will use 3 reps as my training sets.

I went to the Steeler Game yesterday. What A game. We won and now go to the AFC Championship game. We are thus one win away from the big one.

Aside from the actual game, we had a great time tail-gating. I ate a ton and drank two tons. On the way out of the game, one of my friends slipped and broke his ankle. It was a terrible sight. So I got to ride to the hospital in an ambulance. After much medical hijinks's and hilarity, we got home rather late. Needles to say, I am struggling through today.

I did manage to start the SS program today. I took it a bit easy not knowing how high to go. My work sets were Squat 95, BP 135 and DL 135. On Wednesday, I will shoot for squat of 115 with the goal of squatting 135 on Friday.

I had a terrible night of poker last night. I donked off 50 playing 2/4 o/8. What a dumb move. I was out-classed and under-rolled. I also had another table open at the time. I violated 3 of my 2009 poker resolutions.

Because I will be going away for the next 2 nights, I do not have to worry about making that mistake again. I will try to play better on Friday night.

On the workout side, I have not been to the gym at all this week. I have had trouble sleeping, so I haven't been able to wake up. That is probably good as I have skiing and TKD testing and if I had started SS, I would be sore. I will get back on track on Monday.

Played at Billy's on Sat. night. I played reasonably well, but not aggressive enough. One particular hand is troubling me. I called a raise from Billy with AhJd. (I called as Billy routinely raised when opening pot, so I could be ahead). Flop came Kd Jd 9d. Billy bet $10 and I called. Here I was afraid that he had my second pair beat, but I was going to hit my nut flush 31% of the time. I didn't think about the chance that I was ahead. That was bad thinking. Anyway, I called Billy's turn bet of $10 and folded to his $20 bet on the river. The river was laying me 3.3:1 So I need not win too often for it to pay off. Also, Billy probably figured me for a missed flush draw I probably had the correct odds to call. Where I really made the mistake though was in not raising the flop bet. At that point, I had two cards to come so I had pretty good odds. It may have slowed Billy down. I have to play a bit more aggressively against Billy. Against Billy I need to tighten up and be more aggressive.

Online, I just spewed chips last night. I wasn't thinking, that is for sure. If I want to reach my goal of winning $500, I cannot play loose, multi-table and make poor game selection.

New years resolutions

After reviewing my accomplishments in 2008, I resolve the following for 2009

1. I will not procrastinate
2. I will be tidy
3. I will be debt free
4. I will win $500 in poker
5. I will be able to do 20 consecutive pull ups. To accomplish this, I will continue my 20 pull ups on the gravitron after every CF workout. While I am doing my SS workouts, I will end each with one Max rep set of Pullups and Dips, they will be excluded from warmup.
6. I will do have a CFT of 700. In order to do this, I will make cycle the SS program with CF WOD in the following manner: 6-weeks of SS with CF metcons on Tues and Thursday follwed by 6-weeks of CF WOD's

Happy New Year

I did a crossfit total this morning. It was awful 225 squat 135 press and 225 deadlift for a total of 585. I actually went backward this year, except for the press. I was happy with that number. There are several reasons for my poor performance.

1. I was tired (after New Years, waking up to take out the garbage, and being woken up by my child.
2. I was hungry. I worked out on an empty stomach
3. I haven't been doing heavy lifts lately

I am going to make some changes in my workout for 2009 that will address this poor performance. Look in my blog for resolutions.