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..