Month: July 2012

True Nutrition Whey Flavor #4 – Wild Berry Blast

/ hsoi

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Wild Berry Blast.

We’ve started a little game. Before I mix up the next flavor, guess what color it will turn. For you see, in the little baggie it’s that off-white color of whey. But once liquid is added, so far they’ve all been turning colors. The 3 strawberry flavors I’ve already tried have all turned pink… as you’d guess from years of consuming artificially colored foods.

So now… Wild Berry Blast. We guessed blue or purple. And sure enough, that’s what it was. It was a light blue (greenish) sort of color.

The flavor? We thought about Crunch Berries cereal. Daughter has taken to taking sips and tasting along with me. We both thought the same thing.

This is probably a flavor that I could enjoy for a little while, but it would get old. Artificial-type flavors don’t always last with me. I can do them as one-offs, but trying to down a 10# bag of such flavors would be difficult. But again, that’s me. YMMV.

I also wondered what these were sweetened with. True Nutrition offers a lot of sweetening options, and I’m guessing some sort of artificial sweetener was used because 1. there’s aftertaste, 2. I’m wondering if the headache I’m getting is because this is the 3rd packet I’ve consumed today (spread over the course of the day). I understand why they do this, because carbs are the most evil to most whey consumers. But I’m thinking, depending what flavor I end up getting in bulk, about getting it unsweetened. First, if adding it to milk sweetens it enough, that’s fine. If I want something more, adding a little sugar is fine in my book. I’d rather have a pinch of sugar than HFCS or artificial sweeteners or other such crap.

So far, I still think the strawberries and cream is winning.

True Nutrition Whey Flavor #3 – Very Berry Strawberry

/ hsoi

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Very Berry Strawberry.

It’s well… strawberry, straight up. Where as the other strawberry-like flavors I’ve tried, strawberry cheesecake and strawberries and cream had other flavors to them, strawberry tastes just like strawberry. Well, not like real strawberries, but like any sort of familiar “artificial strawberry flavor” type of stuff. Like Strawberry NesQuik or the like.

It’s not bad, tho I had to drink it in water and I’m sure that degraded the flavor a bit, compared to drinking it in milk.

In terms of strawberry flavors so far, I think I like strawberries and cream the best because of that “cream” flavor… kinda smooths things out a bit, not as “sharp” a flavor (not that any of these are necessarily sharp). It’s all very subtle differences between the three flavors, but there’s certainly a difference you can taste.

2012-07-17 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, Day 2, draws.

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  2. 20 reps of wall drill from holster 2H
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from holster, SHO
  4. 5 reps of wall drill from holster, WHO
  5. 10 reps draw & fire at 3/4 speed, 2H
  6. 10 reps draw & fire slow 2H

All draws from concealment, but no extra stuff involved like moving on the draw. Just focus on the draw, the press-out, and the trigger press.

I noticed I reverted to closing one eye. It’s something I have to be conscious and “fight”. But I can tell my brain isn’t totally ready to see that sort of visual input “at speed” just yet. It’ll have to get there, and the only way is subjecting it. I do need to keep this in mind next time I do live fire, so my brain can take in that visual input.

 

2012-07-17 workout – sled drags

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

First day trying out sled drags with my DIY tire drag sled.

Start out light, start out easy, ease into things.

The Andy Bolton program I’m modelling after said for the first week:

  • 6 trips
  • 75 yards
  • 45# on the sled
  • 45 seconds rest between trips

So I based upon that. Andy’s program starts you on 45# figuring that’s enough for most people. It progresses by reducing the rest between sets, 5 seconds per week. Once you’re at 30 seconds of rest, it increases the number of trips one per week. At 8 trips, you can see about upping the weight and “starting over”.

The deck block made the whole sled about 80#, and the tire on concrete will give fair resistance. So I tried without the block, but the tire was too light, felt like there’d be no workout, and just bounced along the pavement. I found a 7-8# rock in the landscape border and put that into the tire. That was a good choice as it held the tire down and gave me just enough work.

I don’t recall if I did 6 or 8 trips… I lost count. And I only rested perhaps 30-ish seconds between sets, with almost no rest before the last set… just turned around and kept going. I walked, tho with a brisk pace. I faced forward and just held the ropes and dragged the tire behind me.

Oh, and before I dragged I walked a few hundred yards to warm up. While walking I did things like arm circles, neck circles, and so on… things to loosen my upper body up. After I dragged, I walked a few hundred yards again to cool down.

It was not the toughest workout… but I was sucking wind by the end. I felt it in my glutes and calves. So it was good for a first workout. Let my body adjust and adapt and I’ll slowly increase the workload.

 

True Nutrition Whey Flavor #2 – Strawberry Cheesecake

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Strawberry Cheesecake.

Tastes like the name says, tho being a cheesecake lover, I expected a little more “cheesecake” flavor. Didn’t thrill me as much as the Strawberries and Cream, and the aftertaste wasn’t as nice in my mouth. Not offensive or anything, I’d drink this again for sure. But for MY tastes, not as good as Strawberries and Cream.

My DIY Tire Drag Sled v1.0

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I might be taking the week off from the gym, but I’m not taking the entire week off from working out.

Behold…

My tire drag sled!

I’ve been wanting to get back to doing conditioning. Sure I walk to/from the gym, but it’s not enough… makes for a good warm up and cool down, but doesn’t really do much for my conditioning levels. There was a short time where a guy brought his Prowler to the gym and that was awesome, but he stopped coming at that hour. I tried sprints, but it was hell on my knees and shins. Machines at the gym are boring as hell and don’t work me enough. I’d do hill sprints… if there were hills around here within easy distance (I’m not going to drive an hour just to sprint). I’d love my own Prowler, but they are costly and they’re going to make a LOT of noise. I’m trying to be somewhat considerate of my neighbors. A drag sled would be cheaper, but being a sheet of metal would still be loud. I read a lot about these tire drag sleds and figured why not give it a try.

My goal? Improve conditioning. If it helps me shed some fat? I certainly would like that end result. But I really do just want to bring up my conditioning levels because getting winded sucks.

I stopped into a small Mom & Pop auto repair shop on the drive home from the A-Zone range and asked if they had a tire I could have. They had a stack, gave me one. Awesome. Cost me nothing but a little time and trouble, and it was very kind of them to just give me a tire. Thinking about it tho, next time I might seek a truck tire instead of just any old tire, as a truck tire will be a bit bigger and heavier.

I’ve been researching ways to put this together. There are a zillion ways online, but here’s what I did.

Materials:

  • tire
  • 25′ of 5/8″ nylon rope.
  • 2 3/8″ eye bolts, with nut
  • 4 3/8″ fender washers
  • some scrap wood
  • a patio deck block

I took my drill, inserted a 3/8″ bit, and drilled 2 holes in the tire.

I just picked a spot for the first hole, and opted to drill it just above the midline in hopes that will affect the balance of things and keep the tire flat on the ground (instead of putting it at midline or below it, or even too close to the edge). In terms of where to put the other eye bolt? I just held my hands out and measured that way — it’s basically “shoulder width” apart.

It’s a little tough getting the bolts in there, due to all the steel belting, but just keep working at it. I did opt to put a fender washer on each side, to ensure a good hold, but no need for anything like a lock washer since the tire will give enough and should put ample backpressure on the nut to keep things secure.

I took the rope and cut it in half. I tied large loops in one end using a double bowline knot. These will be the handles. I wanted thick rope to make it easier to grab, and large loops so it doesn’t compress my hands too much when pulling. The double bowline should remain secure. I must admit this is NOT the material I wanted to use… the rope doesn’t hold the knot very well, and I probably should have gotten 30′ instead of 25′ because I lost a lot more than I anticipated to the knots… it’s just thick and doesn’t hold very well, tho you can pull VERY hard and get the knots to tighten up better. I would have loved chains, but that would be very costly. I did look at tiedown straps, but they all would come with a ratchet and I don’t need it and the price was just getting too costly.

The other end of the rope was tied in a sliding knot. I forget what it is… it’s not a two-half hitches nor a taught-line hitch, but a similar variant. I figured a sliding knot would be necessary so I could fine tune the rope lengths to ensure they were the same size after all this knot tying. I opted to go for 2 separate rope handles because I felt that might be a little more secure and might give me some more options in pulling… but I could be wrong… it could become hampering if I try to do things like sideways pulls. But we’ll see. There are so many options out there on how to make a sled.

I had some scrap wood that happened to be just the right size to fit in and fill the tire. I did have to use my circular saw to cut it in half so it would go in, but that’s all I did.. just cut, put it into the tire, and let it be. No securing it down, nothing. It should be fine.

And then finally there’s the patio block to provide some weight. I weighed the whole contraption and it’s about 80#. My understanding is, for my goals, that’s potentially a lot of weight…. maybe too much to start with. I might start with just the tire itself to break myself into it. Start light, even too light.

In the end it cost me about $25, most of that for the rope. The eye bolts and nuts were $0.85 each, the 4 fender washers $127, the patio block was like $6, and the rope made up the rest of it. Of course, the more you use junk you have lying around the house, the cheaper this project can be.

I paced off 75 yards up and down the street outside my house. My goal? Lift Mon/Thu, drag the tire Tue/Fri. I have some simple routines from Andy Bolton and I’ll start with those and see how I do. It won’t be just a pure drag. I’ll probably do some light stretching, basic calesthenics to get my body warmed up, then drag, and a little cooldown and stretching. I doubt it’ll take me more than 30 minutes.

We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

On small guns

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Too many people who carry a gun for personal protection choose to carry a small gun.

Why?

I reckon because they’re more concerned with daily comfort. I get a lot of fellow Texans going on about the summer heat, and how in the summer they’ll carry some tiny gun in their pocket because anything else is too hot or uncomfortable or hard to wear and conceal in summer clothing.

If that’s your choice, it is. But I myself and many others I know strap on a full-sized gun every day no problem, even in the Texas heat, and we don’t have to wear a trenchcoat to do it.

I was reading an interview with Tom Givens. I just adore Tom because he’s got so much knowledge, and is able to say everything so dead on. He’s one of the most credible sources in this area, given his personal background and that he’s had about 60 students involved in self-defense shootings. We know what he teaches works. We know he speaks from truly knowledge, not Internet Toughguy or “been around guns all my life” bravado.

I think the place where most people who carry a micro gun screw up is that they think the primary purpose of my pistol is to be comfortable and concealed. No, the primary purpose of your pistol is to fight for your life in a sudden, unforeseen crisis. So, when that crisis presents itself, that little, bitty gun is hard to grab in a hurry, it is hard to handle correctly, it’s hard to hit anything with, it doesn’t hold many bullets, and when you hit somebody with it, it doesn’t hurt much. It’s not the optimum thing to fight with. If a fight starts, I want the biggest gun I can get with the most bullets I can get in it and the biggest bullets I can stuff in it.

As an experiment, I tried carrying the M&P Shield for a while, but I gave up on it. I do believe that gun fits particular circumstances, and if it’s the biggest gun you can get then so be it. But if you can get bigger, why shouldn’t you? Tom continues:

But think about that, if you reach for a pistol only because there is a deadly threat to you or somebody you love, you better have a pistol you can fix it with. I’ve interviewed an awful lot of people after gun fights and I’ve never had anybody say to me, “You know, when the bullets started coming back this way, I wished I had a smaller, less powerful pistol with less ammo in it.”

So Caleb asks if you’re underpowered with a wheelgun:

…and as I sit here typing this am carrying a Kahr PM9. All of those guns are not my first choice, but they’re guns and that’s something.

If it’s not your first choice, then why did you choose it? Granted, circumstances may dictate, e.g. a need for very deep concealment. These things happen. But if you have the choice, why would you intentionally cripple yourself? Tom’s thoughts:

I think carrying a small, inadequate pistol may be better than nothing, but I’m not really sure about that. You might be better to just take off running instead of shooting somebody with a thoroughly inadequate gun.

In the end, it’s your life and your choice as to how you wish to value it. And yes, I’m with Tom on this one because well… a good way to help you on the road to success is to see what other successful people do and emulate them. You may not reach the same level of success as they do, or you may exceed it. But no matter exactly where you end up, your chances of succeeding due to following success tends to be greater than if you take some other path.

I’ll leave you with these words from Mr. Givens:

One of the things we do in training is reintroduce the reality of why we carry a gun, and to put a sense of urgency into it. Maybe you’ll never need it, but if you do need it, you are going to need it horribly and maybe it is going to be your life at stake.

I saw a tagline the other day on an Internet forum that I thought was just incredibly bright. It said, “It’s not the odds. It’s the stakes.” And boy, there’s a lot of wisdom in that statement.

We don’t carry the gun because of the odds we’re going to need it today. We carry it because the stakes are our own life or the life of a loved one. That is what we are literally betting. So if you go out unarmed or you go out inadequately armed, you are betting your life, you are betting your children’s lives, you are betting your spouse’s life. I am not willing to bet the lives of the people I love on some tiny, little pocket rocket.

True Nutrition Whey Flavor #1 – Strawberries and Cream

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Strawberries and Cream.

Tastes like the name says. I liked it. A little weird to see this white powder turn pink when you mix it (I used milk), but the taste was fine. Strawberry-y and creamy. Nothing too bad.

2012-07-16 Dry Fire Practice

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Following the TLG 4-week sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, Day 1

Basic routine

  1. 20 reps of Wall Drill, from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, SHO
  3. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, WHO
  4. 20 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, 2H
  5. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, SHO
  6. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, WHO

Simple enough.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ve finally hit a breakthrough with my eyes and am able to shoot both eyes open — I still see “double” but my brain is able to cut the path and know the right visual input. I shot the dry routine this way, and will keep shooting all my dry routines this way, because obviously shooting this way is NOT ingrained in me because as far as I can recall my life-fire is still closing one eye.

Shot with my full-sized M&P9, racking the slide for a proper trigger break every time. Of course, couldn’t practice reset. If someone can make a trainer in the M&P form factor that can simulate reset with a good ApexTactical-like trigger, oh, I would buy that in a heartbeat. I will generally practice this way, unless noted otherwise.

Also noticed a strong desire to firm up my grip, especially the ring and pinky fingers on both hands… which causes a lot of “pull” and tension in the wrist flexors. But that really helps me prevent any movement in the front sight as I work the trigger. Tight tight tight… and if you think you’re tight, you probably aren’t.

 

Dry Fire routine

/ hsoi

I document my weightlifting because if you want to know progress, you need to measure it, and to measure it you need to record it.

I also think that the fact I post here somehow keeps me accountable.

So… I’m going to see about doing that with dry fire practice.

And like my lifting, it’s good to start with an established program. It gets you off the ground, it gets you working on things, and it can then help you see where you are strong and where you need more work. I know of some places I could use more work:

  • snub in general, but especially on the press-out ensuring I can get the timing for taking up all that long, heavy trigger press
  • longer-distance shooting, like 15-25 yards. Group shooting, shooting against the clock.
  • WHO
  • shooting more standards, more classifiers and qualifiers. Pushing myself and again, measuring myself.

and the list could go on, but I need to write writing and get to my point. 🙂

So I’m going to try embarking on a more regular and established dry fire routine, and document it here.

Where to start? I’m going to start with Todd Louis Green’s blog post that presents a 4-week dry fire routine. I think that’s a reasonable place for me to start. It keeps the individual practice sessions short, but the frequency is high and in many regards that’s more important. The routine focuses on all the fundamental skills, including one-handed shooting. I think it will make a good starting point.

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, but there’d always be some reason to not do it. Well, that shit stops now, and this shit starts now. 🙂

And so with that, off I go.