Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it.
Month: March 2012
Things your burglar won’t tell you – #3
Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste… and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.
On OC spray
Wife has always been big on OC spray, carrying it with her constantly.
I didn’t want to add OC spray to my EDC gear because I carry enough stuff as it is. But a few years ago I had a situation with some dogs and gee it would have been nice to have OC on my person. I’ve had a few other times where OC would have been welcome, and so it’s spurred me to look for OC that could work for me.
Thing is, I’d like my OC can to be in a particular style, a particular way to deploy it, and so on. When I find something that could work, the capacity is small and the distance it shoots is very limited. When I find something that can shoot far enough and have enough capacity, then the ergonomics aren’t what I want. It’s always been a tradeoff and I’ve yet to find something that fits my needs.
Until now.
Sabre makes this model called the Spitfire. Seems to be just what I need. Read a bit about the model and design, and it seems like it’ll be a solid choice. I have ordered some and we’ll see how it works. Yes, I ordered a couple extra cans just so I can try them out and see how they spray. Hopefully it’ll fit the bill, and yes I’ll write about it.
I learned about this particular product via a Facebook posting from Claude Werner. I trust Claude’s take on things. And it has a greater weight when Claude writes it like this:
I tell every class I teach: “If you carry a gun, carry pepper spray. Not having pepper spray implies that all you are willing to do to defend yourself is use deadly force, i.e., kill someone. ‘All I am willing to do is kill someone’ is not a statement most rational people are willing to make if they think about it for a moment.”
I keep a pepper spray (Spitfire) on my keyring so I never leave the house without it. It’s very small and unobtrusive. I keep it in my hand anytime I am walking to or from my vehicle.
One of the great regrets of my life could have been one of the great triumphs if I had just had my pepper spray with me. I learned my lesson from that incident.
2012-03-26 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 7, deadlift 3
3 wheels.
To quote Stone Cold Steve Austin… “OH HELL YEAH!”. 🙂
“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge
- 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 325#)
- 1x5x135 (warmup)
- 1x5x165
- 1x3x195
- 1x5x245 (work)
- 1x3x280
- 1x3x315 (PR)
- Asst. #1 – Squat
- 5 x 10 x 135
- Asst. #2 – Ab Wheel
- 5 x 7 x BW (from the knees)
- Foam Rolling
3 Wheels. 315# deadlift. That’s awesome. Again, I had to limit myself to only 3 reps due to the “BBB 3 Month Challenge” (which is 2 more than you really are supposed to do, but hey….). I felt like I could have cranked out another 3-5 reps; it felt that good, that strong. In the grand scheme of it all, I’m still not strong; Bill Kazmaier can sneeze more than that. 🙂 But for me, it’s one hell of a PR and I’m thrilled with it. I do feel I’m starting to move into the realm of “not as much of a wuss” as the general population. So, I’m good with that.
In fact, I started looking at numbers and planning, and so long as I stay healthy and things progress reasonably well, I could be on track to join the 1000# club by the end of this calendar year. I plan on keeping progress steady, there may be a reset in my future too, so we’ll see how it all goes. I’ll get there either way, just a question of exactly when I’ll get there.
Because that said, my right knee is feeling weird. Kinda unstable. I’m a little unsure and nervous about it. I think my leg/knee angle when squatting may be a factor here, so I’m paying more attention to it. I am also willing to bail out of the 3 month challenge if it puts my health in jeopardy… the 70% squats, if it’s going to break me well… I don’t need that. I do this to make my health better.
So with that in mind, I’m not sure I’ll keep doing the ab wheel. It hurts my head, bad. When I’m doing it, it starts to feel like I’m going to pop a vein in my head. It’s the most intra-cranial pressure I feel doing anything. Even after my walk home, while just talking with Wife my head still hurt. I don’t think that’s good. I really love how the movement feels, I’m getting better at muscle involvement and making it a good work for me… but the head pressure is NOT good. Exhaling while I contract helps, and I even found myself relaxing more during the final sets helping too… but it’s still a lot of head hurt, in the bad way. I may be willing to experiment with it a little longer to see if technique can change it, but if not well… it’s going to go.
In the end tho, I’m just stoked at this PR. The next “obvious milestone” PR for me is 225# on my bench press, 2 cycles away. Of course, every cycle has PR’s, every cycle is milestones. That’s why I say “obvious”.
I’m still smiling tho from the PR. I mean… I had that 3rd rep up, and just stood there holding it, looked at myself in the mirror, and felt damn good. Next up, 325#. Onwards.
Things your burglar won’t tell you – #2
Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.
Sig Sauer Academy’s dry practice routine
This has been sitting in the inbox for a while. Slowly digging myself out. 🙂
Steven Gilcreast, Senior Instructor at Sig Sauer Academy wrote an article about dry fire practice, including a good practice routine. One interesting bit about this routine is the gearing towards Sig’s, or more specifically, the fact that (most) Sig pistols have DA/SA triggers and so a lot of the drills in the practice session consider this factor. While I don’t care for Sigs nor DA/SA guns, I really like the fact this practice routine is geared towards acknowledging the realities of the hardware and ensuring practice takes those factors into account.
I also liked this tidbit:
Your dry practice should be conducted 3-5 times per week and last no more than 20 minutes. I often work through the scheduled session and repeat if any time remains. When conducting the training, I work at 50% or less speed, focusing more on consistent, perfect practice repetitions over speed.
Good guidelines for practice, whatever routine you use. Short, frequent practice sessions do more for you than long infrequent sessions. Plus, working on being correct and consistent with every rep you do.
If you don’t know what to practice, starting with a program written by someone else can be a good way to get started. As you practice more, as you shoot standards and formal drills to assess your skill, you’ll find where you need work and can custom tailor your practice sessions to focus more on those skills. And yes, that means more weak-hand-only shooting for me. 🙂
Sunday Metal – Vixen
What can I say. I’ve always had a thing for Jan Kuehnemund. 🙂
Upping my geek cred
Apparently my geek (nerd?) credibility has been slipping. So I made up for it today by taking the family to the Sherwood Forest Faire.
I’ve never done a “Renaissance Faire” before, believe it or not. Have wanted to for many years but often I’d learn about the faire after it was over, or schedule conflicts. Well, I knew well in advance this time and was determined to go. Weekend weather has been rough, plus I spend many weekends at KR Training, so opportunity was slipping away… but I demanded it would happen today and it did. Basically, I’ve been so busy in life that I haven’t spent enough time with my family, so by gum some family time was going to happen. 🙂
We all had a fantastic time, and actually had more fun than we expected.
Yes, the moment we walked into the faire, we all kinda stepped back a moment because yes… it did feel like we entered a time warp. It was kinda weird, but cool.
Of course, the moment I entered I was hit by an amusing bit of commerce.
“Programs! Would you like to purchase a program, which has a map and guide? Only 3£!”
“no thank you”. I figured we’d either just wander, or if I really needed it they had a map on their website and I could always just pull it up on my iPhone.
Then I took a few more steps in.
“Here sir, would you like a map?”
Yeah… they hit you up for the $3 souvenier map first, then hand out a free black and white paper one. Gotta love it. 🙂
And yes, shops… err… shoppes… err.. “ye olde shoppes” were everywhere. Yes, we called everything “ye olde” throughout the day. And I was thinking, was this just going to be shopping? But then we saw all the entertainment, which was great. We saw a “dog show” that we figured would just be a dog doing tricks, but the lady explained a lot of training techniques and how to do things. A lot was familiar to us due to all the intensive training work with did with Sasha, but it was really cool that she wasn’t just showing tricks but also educating the crowd.
The one show we all wanted to see tho was the Sky Kings Falconry raptor bird show. Folks, that was just damn cool. Artemis, their Eurasian Eagle Owl, was awesome. And yes, the black vultures were awesome to watch… well, we thought so. Unfortunately both of them landed on top of a small child’s head… didn’t hurt the kid but sure gave him a fright, poor kid. 🙂
We saw various musicians, lots of belly dancers, Oldest threw some axes, Daughter and Youngest rode on a “jousting” ride. We watched the actual jousting… man, I have to hand it to those guys, taking a beating like that. Can’t be fun to get knocked off a horse, with force, in a full suit of plate armor. But very entertaining. Plus just lots of general entertainment by random people… and who knows if those people were official faire folk or just random folks that came dressed up for their own fun. One guy was dressed I guess as some sort of chaotic evil warrior, kinda creeped Wife out a bit but she did think it was pretty cool after her initial startle reaction. And yes, lots of people dressed in various garb of all favors from around the looseness of the genre. Tho I did see one goth girl walking around… the only way she could have stood out more was if she wore a Stormtrooper costume (Slave Leia would have just blended in).
It was a heck of a lot of fun. And yes, I can see why people would want to get season passes and come for many weekends. There’s FAR more to do there than I expected, just lots of great and interesting stuff. Just tons of fun. Expensive, but fun. Oh and yes, bring lots of $1 bills… no, not to slip into the cleavage of the saucy wench that served your mead, but because all the performers accept tips and I think it’s right and just to give them some sort of compensation in exchange for the entertainment they gave you.
After the faire, I took the family over to the A-Zone Range, where KR Training holds classes. Tom Givens is in town this weekend teaching a course, and with us so close to the range I wanted to take the family by so they could see where it is and what it is that I slip away for all these weekends (only Daughter has been out there before). Karl was there doing some chores and he showed the family around the property. Everyone got to meet Ribo (Karl’s dog). Got to talk with Lynn Givens (Tom’s wife) for a little while; always a pleasure to see her. Tom was running class so I interrupted only for a moment to shake hands, say hello, and have a quick introduction of the family. A nice little diversion while we were out there.
Oh… and I got to try Lynn’s M&P. She was experimenting with a new gun that has Apex Tactical’s new Forward Set Sear and trigger kit. When I got my M&P I thought seriously about getting that and oh…. after trying it I think I just might. It’s awesome. Wicked tight, a thing of beauty.
I digress. 🙂
It was a fine day. Yes, we’ll go back to the Ren Faire in the future, maybe even doing multiple weekends if time allows. It was a lot of fun, and just a great way to spend a day with the family. And really, that’s what mattered most to me today: being with my family, having fun, making memories.
Things your burglar won’t tell you – #1
Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shuttters, or delivering your new refrigerator.
2012-03-23 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 7, Press 3
I love 5/3/1 week. 🙂
“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge
- 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 155#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x65
- 1x5x80
- 1x3x93
- 1x5x120 (work)
- 1x3x135
- 1x3x150 (PR)
- Asst. #1A – Bench Press
- 5 x 10 x 115
- Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
- 5 x 3 x BW
- Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
- 3 x 10 x 60
- Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
- 3 x 10 x 30
I haven’t been feeling it so much lately, but 5/3/1 week always gets me up because it’s time to set some personal records.
Today, 150# for 3 reps was a new PR. Technically on this “BBB 3 month challenge” you’re supposed to only do the prescribed reps, so I should only do 1 rep. But damnit… it’s PR time and I’m allowing myself on just this week to do more than the prescribed reps, up to 3. And so I did. 🙂 It felt good! Not just to hit the PR, but the pressing itself. I’m starting to find a better groove with heavier (overhead) pressing, getting the full body into it (e.g. clench your butt), and just a better overall groove when pressing. It’s hard! But nothing worth having in life is easy. 🙂
I also sat there thinking how it felt like “just yesterday” I was thrilled to be breaking the 135# barrier, and now 135 is just another work weight for me. In some regards, progress is its own reward.
Speaking of progress, getting 3 chins for 5 sets across felt really good! OK, the last chin was a bit of a struggle at the top, had to throw my chin up there, but still… it wasn’t like the last weeks where there was no way I could even pull myself up and just had to do a negative instead. My goal? I’d like to work up to 5×15, and once I can do that, I’ll start adding weight. I also figure once I get to 5×10 I’ll try varying up my grip. I will get there.
On face pulls, 60 isn’t doing much for me but I’m getting better with form, engaging the shoulder more, not “pulling” so much. Think to pull the elbows back, not the wrists/hands in. But I’ve read that this movement works better with higher reps, so instead of bumping up to 70 for 10 I think I’ll try 60 for 15, then move up from there.
I also started thinking about the “BBB 3 month challenge” so far. I have mixed feelings on it, but generally positive. I miss hitting rep maxes, but I understand why that’s how things are done… and I’m sure I’ll appreciate it a lot more when my assistance work goes to 60% and 70%; I’m cool with it. I really like that it took me back to a simple program: just press, deadlift, bench press, and squat, and then a little extra to round things out (e.g. back work). So simple, so effective. I am not sure about the alternating of main lift and assistance. That is, on normal BBB you do your main lift, then follow it doing the same lift again with a different weight and set/rep scheme. On “BBB 3 month” you do the main lift, but follow it with the “other related lift” for assistance, so main press assist bench, main bench assist press, main squat assit deadlift, main deadlift assist squat. Jim said it was to make things not quite so boring. 🙂 I’m of mixed feeling on it, and this is probably something I’ll have to give a verdict on much later. I like doing a lot of the same exercise because there’s a lot of volume in that specific movement. But then, the movements you alternate with aren’t that much different from each other (it’s not like you press then squat). And I might be getting more out of it because I am switching it up a bit, able to lift heavier and better by mixing it up, or that I’m getting more out of it because of the stagger. Or maybe it all doesn’t matter one lick and it’s all in my head. I’m thinking the latter.
I was thinking what to do post challenge, and my present thinking is I will probably stick with this template, but not do it challenge style, just go to 60% on the assistance lifts because I reckon that’s going to be difficult but not exhausting taxing. We’ll see… too early to make a decision, but yes I like to think ahead.
Right now, let’s just think about the next workout. 315 Deadlift PR. That’s going to rock.
Stuff From Hsoi 