I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.
Strawberry Coconut
Turned pink… but coconut is white anyways so…. pink it is.
In the end… no. I mean, it tastes like you might think Strawberry NesQuik plus coconut would taste… maybe like a Mounds bar without any chocolate. That sort of sugary coconut sort of confectionary taste.
It’s not to my liking. I like coconut, but real coconut. Artificial is just to sweet-fake for me.
It’s not horrible, it’s not disgusting. Just not to my taste.
Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.
Week 1, Day 3, reloads
I need to get another set of weighted practice magazines, but I wish I didn’t have to buy through RINGS given my prior poor experiences with them. Well, I don’t need, but it does help to have magazines of full weight and that can also allow the slide to be cycled without locking.
I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.
Strawberry Banana.
This one we guessed might be a sort of pink-yellow color, but no… just pink.
It tastes like strawberry banana… artificial, strawberry banana. It took a bit for me to find the right way to describe the banana flavor, but I think I know it: like a Banana “Now and Later”. That sort of really artificial banana flavor.
Not really my thing.
This wasn’t horrible by any stretch. In fact, I’ve been really happy that everything has tasted good so far. But it’s just a bit too artificial-flavored for me. Another one that I could probably have a few times, but there’d be no way I could stomach 10# of it.
A local “a girl and a gun“, Julianna Crowder is featured in today’s (July 18,2012) issue of The Shooting Wire.
Founded in February of 2011 in Austin, Texas by Julianna Crowder, a female (obviously) firearms instructor, A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League was born out of Crowder’s desire to build a stronger community of women shooters.
Using a little marketing savvy and a variety of social media tools, including MeetUp.com, Crowder kicked off her A Girl & A Gun events, like Girl’s Night Out, Breakfast & Bullets, and “T” Time (the “T” is for “target” or “trigger”, natch), with just five or so participants.
And then it began to grow…and grow…and, grow faster.
This past February A Girl & A Gun celebrated its one year anniversary with 250 members. Today, they have approximately 470 members – a mere 88% growth in five months – with 11 chapters in Texas, one each in Colorado and Virginia, and chapters forming this year in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.’
It’s been great watching Julianna work and her project grow as much as it has in such a short time.
But to author and editor Paul Erhardt, I do have to say:
A Girl & A Gun gives its members a fun, social atmosphere in which to learn about firearms, without the interference of what Michael Bane famously described as the “Little Lady Syndrome” where men are compelled to be the “experts” and end up coming across more condescending than chivalrous.
Sorry ladies. We can’t help it, it’s in our DNA.
Actually Paul, we CAN help being condescending.
Other than that, it’s a great article about Julianna’s efforts. Cheers!
There was a discussion on the Insights Training Center mailing list where someone posed a “what would you do in this scenario?” type of question. John Holschen posted some response, and this snippet in particular stood out to me:
If your question was really about the physiology of a hypothetical “hostage shot” that you have no choice but to take…1. Anything other than a bullet in the brain or upper spine is unlikely to produce instant physiological incapacitation.2. Not all bullets in the brain or spine will produce instant physiological incapacitation (especially from a handgun.) I.E. There are no guaranties.On an additional note: I expect that most people in this situation would wish they were more competent in their firearms skills than they currently are (i.e. could more reliably deliver bullets to a smaller target area.)
It’s the last part that stands out.
It probably stands out to me because of this past Saturday’s Skill Builder class. We’re trying to get people to shoot to a higher standard. That B-27 target creates a horrible standard. Not just because it’s anatomically wrong, but on the TX CHL test if you get a hit within the 8 ring or higher, that’s a “good hit” earning the maximum 5 points. That 8 ring is HUGE. If you can only keep your shots within that 8 ring, you’re not doing too good. The reason is, under pressure your skills will degrade. If you can keep things in a 6″ circle even under the artificial pressure of class or competition, then when the flag flies you’ll be able to keep them i that 8-ring. If you can only keep them in that 12″ area when there’s no or very little pressure, when the flag flies you’re going to be making unacceptable hits.
I recently saw some pictures of some students that passed their TX CHL test, and the targets looked like they had been peppered by a shotgun blast (and one had a textbook case of trigger slapping/yanking). I am happy to see these folks seeking their CHL, and I hope they will seek further training to improve their skills.
In the Skill Builder, we shot at a 3″ dot and worked on groups in that 3″ dot. Then we worked to stay within the “-0″ ring of an IDPA target (8” circle) against the timer. Finally, we moved to the KRT-1 target, which has some rather small targets. The class ended with shooting the “3 Seconds or Less” drill on the A/B zones of the KRT-1, which is tougher than usual because the A/B zones on the KRT-1 are smaller than the corresponding zones on IDPA or IPSC targets.
Can you do this?
Can you do this on demand? Repeatedly?
Can you do this cold? because when you get attacked, you won’t have a chance to warm up.
You must understand that when the flag flies your skill and ability will degrade. Karl likes to bring up something Paul Ford said. Paul is ex-Austin PD and SWAT, been in a few gunfights, and Paul said something to the effect that in a gunfight you will do about 75% of your worst day at the range. So get that. It’s not your best day, it’s your worst day… and then you’ll do even worse than that. Think about your most recent bad day at the range when you just couldn’t hit shit, you just couldn’t perform. And now think about that being worse…. is that how you want to perform when your life or the life of someone you love is at stake? Or maybe you should do what it takes to ensure your worst day is at least better than most people’s best day. So that if you found yourself in that hypothetical situation that John Holschen spoke of, that you’ll have the confidence and knowledge that you can and will perform, instead of wishing you had trained harder.
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.
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.
Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.
Week 1, Day 2, draws.
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.
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:
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.
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.
