Me

2013-01-09 training log

/ hsoi

No question, triceps are a weak point

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16 (mark 2), week 1

  • Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x150 (work)
    • 1x5x170
    • 1x7x195
  • Asst. #1 – Bench Press
    • 1 x 7 x 185
    • 1 x 6 x 165
    • 1 x 7 x 135
    • 1 x 5 x 135
    • 1 x 10 x 95
  • Asst. #2 – Chinups (band assisted)
    • 5 x 6/6/5/5/5 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – Stuff
    • Flat Bench DB Flies
    • JM Press
    • Hammer Cheat Curls
    • 3 sets, 8-15 reps, enough weight to make it hard; on 3rd set immediately drop weight and keep going to failure

There’s no question, my triceps are a weak point, and perhaps my anterior delts as well. It makes me wonder if my assistance benching should be something like immediately dropping to 135 with a close-grip and working to pound out 5×10 across or something. The new position, the new technique is certainly MUCH better on my shoulder, but it emphasizes triceps more and obviously they need more work. But, it’s all good. I’ll get back there.

I did stretch… didn’t foam roll, but at least got some stretching in. Nevertheless, my left calf cramped up like crazy as I left the gym. I think I’m just low on sodium because I’ve been putting salt on everything, so I think my body is down and craving hard. Wife’s cooking is very low-sodium because of heart issues in her family history, so I know in general I don’t get enough. Need more.

Anyways, rolling on….

2013-01-07 training log

/ hsoi

Squatting teaches you many things about life — no matter how heavy the load you are shouldering, stand back up for you will be better and stronger for it.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16, week 1

  • Work Set – Squat (working max: 285#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x145
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x5x190 (work)
    • 1x5x215
    • 1x7x245
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 1 x 8 x 185
    • 1 x 6 x 185
    • 1 x 10 x 135
    • 1 x 8 x 135
    • 1 x 8 x 95
  • Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
    • 3 x 15 x 130
  • Foam Rolling & stretching

This is my first true session post-flu. While I am over the flu itself, the residual effects still linger. I slept a lot over the weekend, and did wake up feeling pretty good, but I know I’m behind the curve. I certainly lost some conditioning because I was breathing hard and heavy from all the squatting, and I had only so much fuel in me.

My work sets went alright. The last set I had to grind out. It was tough, but you have to stand back up. Sure 245# isn’t much to a lot of people, but it is heavy to me.

After that tho, I knew I had only so much gas so I went with lighter weights during the assistance squatting. It still was a tough grind, mostly because I was out of breath and sucking wind pretty bad the whole time. I worked hard on technique, going deep, pushing my knees out, and I was really starting to peed out in my lower back and glutes — I felt it back there. After the 3rd set I was feeling ready to puke. No question I lost something in my sickness downtime. So due to all that, I opted to NOT pull the sled today, nor do any pull-throughs, just some ab work, and certainly some rolling and stretching.

I do need to get better about rolling and stretching, especially the back, glutes, hams, adductors. I am tighter than I should be, I know my mobility when cold isn’t where it should be, and it’s affecting my ability to lift heavier weights. I feel this twinge along the back of my glutes/hams… it’s a familiar twinge, which could be due to other reasons (I recall back in my martial arts days that I could NOT do butterfly kicks because even one would cause this same pain), but I know that the lack of flexibility is somehow involved right now. So even if I don’t stretch and roll every day, I do need to stretch and roll at least after every gym session, even if not a “lower body” day. Even if it’s just 1 minute of stretching and 20 rolls, fine; need to do something every time.

Anyways, I’m just happy to be getting back into the normal groove.

Starting IDPA

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I made it a goal of 2012 to participate in at least one competition match.

I failed to meet that goal. Main reason? Limited time on weekends, and I chose teaching over playing games.

Plus I’ll tell you a secret. Public perception. Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but people expect because you teach that you should be some awesome shooter — and that is not an unreasonable expectation. I know I don’t suck, but I am not at the level I expect of myself. I just haven’t made “becoming a Grandmaster USPSA/IPSC shooter” a top priority. And so I fear, with the “small world” that is the shooting world here in Central Texas, I’d go out to some match, stink up the joint, and how that would reflect on me as a teacher, upon KR Training, and so on. And so it’s kept me away. That’s just unhealthy and wrong, but it’s human of me. I’m getting over it.

I decided that in 2013 I need to shoot more. I need to get my skills up. And with Karl and Tim’s support, I’m backing off teaching and going to shoot local IDPA club matches in 2013. There are a lot of IDPA matches every month if I wanted to drive and be away every weekend, but I’ll start with one match and month and see how it goes. My intention is to shoot one IDPA match a month (with some minor exceptions), and dry practice the needed skills in between matches. If the only live fire I get each month is the match, then so be it — it’s better than I have been doing. I am not planning on shooting more than 1 match a month, but who knows how things might progress.

Interesting thing is the next matches? They’re all running the IDPA Classifier. Heck of a way to start, eh? But why not. In a way, it’d be cool to establish a baseline for myself. Yes, I expect to stink up the joint because I don’t know the rules, I don’t know how to play the game, and I don’t know how to “game” the game either. So I’ll just shoot, be very conservative, and suck. But at least there’s no where to go but up. 🙂

I’m also rusty as hell. *sigh*

That said, today I did go out to the A-Zone range and ran myself through some drills, one of which was the Classifier. At least I won’t be totally cold and unfamiliar with it. Alas, it’s been raining and was raining there this morning, light, but enough that it was muddy and slippery. Still, it doesn’t matter. Shoot, it’s no excuse for performance. The only thing it really prevented me from doing was kneeling — I got “almost down”.

How did I do? I’m solidly a Sharpshooter. That kinda depresses me because it’s not the level of performance I expect from myself — if I had shot Expert, I would have been happier. I had too many points down (especially on stage 3), including some misses that should not have happened. I mean, I expected I might stink up stage 3, but I should have been able to shoot stage 1 clean and I didn’t. *sigh*  I can say this was the first thing I shot, cold from the car, and the last time I did any live fire was a couple of months ago (yes, horrible). In fact, I haven’t done much dry fire either. I am not being a good role model. So really, when I look at it all, my performance is in line with everything. And I’m not happy about that.

I can’t fix it all overnight. Here’s a few things I can do now to start making tangible improvements:

  1. Get the first shot off faster. My time to first shot was in the 1.7 to 1.8 range. I was being slow today, intentionally so, but I can certainly work to improve this down to at least 1.5. A lot of this is just anticipating the buzzer and moving my body quickly to get the gun out of the holster a.s.a.p.. After shooting the Classifier, I spent some time doing one shot draw drills against the timer, trying to push myself. I could push and get to 1.5 without much problem but then #2 would fall apart.
  2. Work on the press-out/presentation. It’s about getting into that eye-target line, so when I do the draw, when I get things out faster. This really dovetails into #1. But while I do want to strive for the ideal sight picture and such, I have to remember the Brian Enos stuff of seeing as much sight picture as is needed, but no more. Allow myself to go faster and have the “good enough” sight picture for 7 yards (which will be different than 20 yards).
  3. Slow down more on the 15+ yard shooting.
  4. Speed up on 1H shooting.

Really, I think if I work on the draw/present, that’ll take me far with everything at this point. The goal then being to be able to shoot stage 1 clean, and I think 30 seconds is reasonable as a starting goal. I found some posts on the brianenos.com forums, for Expert breakdown and Master breakdown. Using those as a guide, I think cleaning stage 1 in 30 seconds is a good starting goal to work towards. Given how I shot today, it’s quite do-able with the above focus of faster draw and speeding up the 1H shooting.

Once I tackle that, I’ll reassess and tackle the next weak point. The larger goal is to classify as Expert (or better). In terms of time frame, I reckon that means “by the next Classifier”, which is probably January 2014. I’ve got a long road ahead of me.

Wish me luck on this new journey.

Fun Family Day

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

If you look down on “rednecks”, both the people and the things they do, then you should stop reading now because this post will probably offend you. 🙂

Had a wonderful day with the family today. Originally we were to do this during my Christmas vacation, but since I was down with the flu it didn’t happen. Fortunately the heavens saw fit to give us today, so the opportunity was taken.

The main thing? Going to the gun range and shooting. Some work, some recreation. Thank you, Karl, for letting us use the range.

It started off with me doing some live fire pistol skills work, because of my desire to start shooting IDPA. Details on this elsewhere. Meanwhile, Wife and Kiddos were inside the range house doing schoolwork (the joys of homeschooling).

When I finished my work, I took Wife out for a little work with the shotgun. She wants to improve her proficiency with the shotgun, so we did some work there. Alas, a 12 gauge, even with low-recoil rounds, just isn’t in the cards for her (Karl, if you find her shoulder, please let me know). She’s just fine with the 20 gauge. I just wish … oh wait! It looks like Federal now has a 20 gauge buckshot with FLITECONTROL wad (PD256). Holy crap! This is awesome. Of course, as I look around right now, everyone’s out of stock. But wow, this is great. I’m there and it’s pretty much removed my reserves about the 20 gauge. Sure it’d be nice to standardize on 12 gauge, but oh well. At least now I don’t have to put up with sub-optimal 20 gauge buckshot.

After that, Wife was done for the day. With the wet weather and the temps in the 40’s, it was just too cold for her to keep going. But the Kiddos were ready.

I recently purchased a new shotgun and needed to break it in and ensure function. I ran a bunch of 12 gauge target loads through it, then some full-power buckshot (of course, the Federal FLITECONTROL), and some slugs (Brenneke low-recoil slugs). The slugs didn’t want to go into the mag tube easily for some reason, looks like the brass was hanging up on the retainer clips, but no big deal really. Everything functioned great. I did put a 12″ Hogue Short Shot stock on it (shorter LOP makes for easier shouldering) and while 12″ LOP is a little too short for me, it worked out alright and I didn’t smack my thumb into my face as much as I expected I would. 🙂  I consider the shotgun functional and able to be pressed into service.

Oldest has never shot a 12 gauge before — he’s always been a bit recoil shy. But today he stepped right up to the plate and fired it like a champ. We’ll work on speeding up his shot recovery, but he really did a great job with it.

Youngest has never fired a “big gun” before, just .22’s. But he wanted to try the shotgun. 12 gauge was too much tho, so I pulled out the 20 gauge (a Mossberg 500 Bantam youth model) and let him try it with some light target loads (which are still kinda stout). He handled it well, tho was taken aback a bit because it was a big boom — again, it’s the most gun he’s ever fired. But he did come back for a second shot, but that was enough. 🙂

We put the shotguns away and took out an AR-15. I originally didn’t plan on bringing out an AR, but when packing up this morning, Oldest expressed interest in shooting it and I wasn’t going to say no. Again, he’s been very recoil shy in the past, only wanting to shoot .22’s. So for him to want to step up is great in my book. I mean, I know he can handle it, after having shot that 255# feral hog a couple years ago with a .308 bolt-action. Oldest got to learn what “giggle factor” is. 🙂  He was having WAY too much fun with that rifle — I should have brought more ammo. Daughter shot it for a bit, but she tweaked something in one of her arms the other day and so it was kinda painful to hold up the rifle. Youngest tried the AR as well, and was quite pleased that the recoil was far less than the shotgun — tho it was a heavier gun to hold up.

We put the long-guns away, and pulled out everyone’s favorite: the Buck Mark Camper. All 3 kiddos shot at the steel targets with this, and it’s just fun to plink with such a low-recoil gun — tho Youngest did get bit by the slide. Daughter showed some good improvement on trigger control. She asked how you get to shoot faster, so I explained a bit and I guess something clicked because she was shooting a little faster by the time we wrapped up.

While a lot of today was about having fun, it also was with purpose. I want my kids to be self-sufficient and able to take care of themselves. Yes, that means being able to shoot a gun proficiently. You may not understand why that’s the case, and if you don’t understand I’d be happy to discuss it with you; even if you don’t agree with it, I hope you are willing to have an open mind and come to listen and understand. The guns shot, the things we did, all done with purpose, even if I was the only one that knew what the purpose was.

Alas, we had to wrap it up before everyone was tired of it, but that’s ok — always leave them wanting more.

We headed to the Elm Creek Cafe for a delicious lunch (everyone loves that place), then back home.

Oh… and the Buc-ee’s in Bastrop is finally open. Yes, we stopped in. Finally my family came to understand why I adore Buc-ee’s.

We had a great day. Smiles all around. Happy family. I can’t wait to do it again.

2012-01-14 training log

/ hsoi

Getting back into the groove

  • Squat
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 2x5x95
    • 2x5x135
    • 2x5x185
  • Deadlift
    • 1x5x135
    • 1x5x185
    • 1x5x225
  • Bench Press
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 2x5x95
    • 2x5x135
    • 2x5x165
  • Press
    • 3x5x95
  • Pull-ups (band-assist)
    • 6x5xBW
    • 1 set done after each set of bench press

Geez… about 2 weeks down from influenza. I lost 5# due to lack of eating (there’s my new diet plan – flu!). And all I wanted to do was get back in the gym. Today was finally that day.

I didn’t want to heavily work out because 1. with the cycle layout, it’s easier to start on a Monday, 2. I’m still not 100%, but close(r). All I wanted to do today was get back in the gym and have my body remember what the heck lifting weights is. I opted to do it quasi-deload style. I just hit the 4 main lifts, light wights, 60-90 seconds of rest between sets, and nothing major. Only “complicated” thing was between each bench press set I did a set of band-assisted pull-ups. I figure this is good enough to help my body ease back into things. We’ll see how I feel come Sunday.

On Monday, I’ll start cycle 16 over again. I see no reason to do otherwise, at least at this point.

Anthophila

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I gave Wife a unique gift for Christmas – a custom-made kitchen knife.

Anthophila

(click the picture to embiggen)

It has been dubbed Anthophila. Click here to see more pictures and specs on the knife.

Wife had no idea, hadn’t asked for anything like this, but over the years I’ve seen what’s been needed in the kitchen and thought this could be a welcome thing. Fortunately, my buddy Shawn Hatcher is a knife-maker, Hatcher Knives, so I asked if he could make this for me. We sat down together, I gave Shawn some goals, and let him do his thing. We liked the santoku concept, but I wanted a “taller flat” (I’m probably not using the right terms) to give more surface for the fingers to ride against when chopping, plus it allows the knife to be used as a “scoop” for taking chopped food off the board. I still wanted some sort of “tip” to make it useful for getting into tight spots, carving out, and so on.

I think Shawn did a great job.

Wife’s been using the knife for about a week now and is enjoying it. But you can tell there’s some reserve about using it. Exactly what? We don’t know. We’ve had a nice set of J.A. Henckels knives since our wedding, so I reckon part of her reserve is just that it’s different and she needs some time to get used to a different feel in the hand. Plus, I had to design the knife blind, taking her into consideration but never letting her in on the process. Daughter did help out, but that could only go so far (e.g. their hands aren’t quite the same dimensions). Still, we’re chalking this up to acceptable, and if after using it for some time Wife figures out what she likes and doesn’t like, how she might want to refine the design, or even start with a whole new design… well… we can do that, thank you Hatcher Knives. 🙂

Check out Shawn’s work. He’s developing a style and quickly maturing as a knife-maker. I’ve enjoyed reading his shop updates and watching not just the knife-making process but also his evolution as a maker. It’s always cool to watch an artist over time.

Training in 2013

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

With 2012 closing and 2013 starting, let’s see where my training has gone and where I want it to go.

It looks like this time last year I started my 5th cycle of 5/3/1. Until the flu derailed me, I was into my 16th cycle.

Working maxes for cycle 5:

Press – 145
Deadlift – 305
Bench – 215
Squat – 250

Working maxes as of cycle 15

Press – 165 (then I reset to 140)
Deadlift – 345
Bench – 240 (then I reset to 220)
Squat – 280

At the end of cycle 5, my 5/3/1 “maxes” were:

Press – 4×140
Deadlift – 8×295
Bench – 6×205
Squat – 5×240

At the end of cycle 15:

Press – 7×135
Deadlift – 7×330
Bench – 6×210
Squat – 3×270

Well, that just sucks.

So what happened?

First, I spent too much time not focusing on building strength. Instead, I spent a lot of time trying to dink with diet and lose some flab. As a result, I lost a lot of strength, and didn’t lose much weight. I had to reset a couple of times. I also changed to 2x week due to my day job change, and that proved to be less than optimal.

So basically, I made a lot of mistakes that took me off track of my goals, and  you can see it in my numbers, especially upper-body. Squats and deads gained, but not that much.

But what I did also gain from my weights dropping was improved technique. I know I still have a long ways to go to “master form”, but my form today is better than it was a year ago, so progress on that front is acceptable. If it means better gains over the long run, great.

Really… looking back over this is kinda depressing. *sigh*

So what am I going to do about the next year?

Well, I would still love to shed my flab, but I think the way to do that is not what I had tried this past year. I think what will help is just to tighten up my diet — it’s all about my carb intake. I also don’t think I need massive amounts of protein, sticking close to 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight will be a good place to reset myself. Drag that sled at the end of every workout. I think I’ll get there. Yes still “eat big”, just also “eat smarter”.

But the bigger goal is to build strength. I want to get to that 1000# total. And that’s actual lifted weight, not “on paper”. Thing is, I don’t to 1RM. If I only go by what I actually lift in that last work set of my 5/3/1 week well, that will be far below what a 1RM would be and thus keep me further from that 1000# total. But that’s alright. Thing is, I don’t expect to actually total 1000# in 2013 because the math just doesn’t add up to permit it — but I’ll get closer. What I would like to see is staying on 5/3/1, going up in my weights at the normal rate (5# per cycle for upper body lifts, 10# per cycle for lower body), expecting to reset at least once and maybe twice. When you do that math well…. no I won’t get to 1000# (tho maybe doing 1RM calculations on paper I will; meh), but I will get closer. That’s fine. And doing that math, well, my cycle 16 working maxes (and actual weight lifted in the last 5/3/1 work set) are:

Press – 145 (140)
Deadlift – 355 (340)
Bench – 225 (215)
Squat – 285 (275)

If I continue 3x week, that’s 5 weeks per cycle, so about 10 cycles. In theory, 50# gains on upper and 100# on lower, but figure in a reset and that it won’t be all smooth. To Press 185# probably won’t happen in 2013, but that will be a great milestone when it happens. In theory, I should break 405# deadlift in 2013 – that would be awesome. Also I should certainly be able to break 315# squats, which would be even more awesome in my book. And if I could bench 250#, I’d be thrilled. All of THAT is do-able, and gets me closer to 1000.

So that’s my main goal: building strength and being strongly on the road to 1000. If I can have some great milestones like 3 wheels in squat and 4 wheels in deadlift, getting my bench solidly above 2 wheels (with this new technique). Keeping my shoulders and other joints happy. And yes, maybe shedding some flab because of more sled pulls and better diet…. well, I’ll be alright.

As for the immediate future….

The flu knocked me off track since Christmas, but I’m getting better each day. If all continues on this healing path, I’ll head back into the gym on Wednesday for the first 2013 workout, and that will probably be a “light” deload-like day of squat and bench, with Friday then being a “light deload-like” day of deadlift and press. Just get me back in the groove slowly as I continue to heal up. Then the following Monday, start cycle 16 all over again and go go go.

on my flu

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

I officially have the flu – the doctor at the local “emergency clinic” (my regular doctor was out and his associates were booked) shoved a swab up my nose, ran a test, and I won the prize.

#1 – Mr. Doctor – you do NOT deeply shove long thin swabs up people’s noses unannounced. 

It was one of the stranger and more uncomfortable feelings I’ve ever experienced. Once my eyeballs returned to my skull, I realized my hand was already around his wrist to prevent him from shoving it up my other — I was strongly telling him to WAIT and NOT do that until I had recovered from the shock and sensation of the first violation. I understand what he had to do and why, and I’m sure he’d been doing it all day long for the past some days or weeks. But what’s become sickly routine to you is NOT to those of us on the receiving end — gotta remember that, Jack.

So since I have flu, I was prescribed Tamiflu. I vaguely recall hearing of that before, the prescription was already phoned to my local pharmacy, so off I went to get it. While I waited for them to fill the prescription (they were quite busy, as you could imagine), I pulled out my iPhone for a little research on Tamiflu.

#2 – Tamiflu is controversial and possibly worthless

Read this.

The lack of peer review, that any studies done were funded by the company, that the company won’t open up and let people see the studies, replicate them, and so on… well, that speaks volumes. And those government 3-letter agencies that so many believe are there to protect us, if the government blesses it it’s good, if the government doesn’t it’s bad (government defines “morality” I guess?)… well…

Nancy Cox, who heads the CDC’s flu program, told us earlier this year she opposes a placebo-controlled study (in which one half of patients would be given Tamiflu and the other half would be given placebo), because the drug’s benefits are already proven.

No it hasn’t. And if the benefits were proven (already a problem to say anything has been “proven”), then another solid study would lend more credibility and strengthen the position. So uh… why would they want to deny it? And isn’t the CDC supposed to be looking out for the public’s interest? or just whomever is lining their pockets?

All of this made me think about open source software. 🙂

Still, I’m taking it. I figure I paid $106 for it (yes….), I might as well see for myself. Of course, I have no way to really verify if it actually did help me or not.

#3 – Paying for your own medical care is informative

When costs are hidden behind “insurance” or “taxes” or other indirect methods of payment… boy, how that system can (and will) be abused by those directly involved. I’m so looking forward to Obamacare and how that’s going to fix everything. 🙄

#4 – My productivity is in the can

This is what I hate the most. I’m technically on vacation from work, and I get to spend it all being sick. I had all sorts of plans with the family, from going to the gun range, to seeing “The Hobbit”, but alas now those won’t happen and I don’t know when they will. It’s not the end of the world, but it sucks.

Obviously I’m not going to the gym either. I’ve decided to just start cycle 16 over, once I feel good enough to return to the gym. I may also call an audible once I get to the gym and may spend the first week doing something like a deload week to get me back into the swing of things first. Just have to wait and see.

I also have a list of things that needed doing, from long-postponed programming projects to just various honey-do items. I’ve tried to work to trim off ones as I can, but when all my body wants is to sleep, and even eating has been a chore until today… well… makes it hard to want to do anything. Even writing this has gotten to a point where I want to stop because I’m out of gas.

But I will write one more thing.

#5 – My wife and kids are the best

They’ve taken very good care of me, especially Wife. She’s sacrificed and done a lot to take care of me and help me get better. They’re all doting on me, constantly asking if I’m OK and how I’m feeling. Daughter keeps walking up behind me with the head-scan thermometer taking my temperature. It’s all quite wonderful. I’m a fortunate and thankful man.

 

2012-12-26 training log

/ hsoi

I didn’t realize I was ill….

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 16, week 2

  • Work Set – Squat (working max: 285#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x145
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x3x200 (work)
    • 1x3x230
    • 1x5x260
  • Sled drags
    • 6 trips, 75 yards each
    • 75# on the sled
    • 30 seconds rest every other trip
    • harness around waist, walking forward

I had started to feel sick the evening prior, but I didn’t think it was anything serious to worry about. Just a cough, right?

How wrong I was.

I got to the gym and was able to do my work squats just fine. Heck, the 3rd rep @ 260 was tough, but I pushed out 2 more because damnit I wasn’t going to let myself get crushed at 3×260.

But after that, I just wasn’t feeling it. Seriously not feeling it. Despite the below-freezing temperature and whipping arctic wind, I went outside to pull the sled. That didn’t last long…. the cold was too much.

I went home, and promptly passed out, and stayed in bed the rest of the day. I don’t know what I caught, but it was apparently FAR worse than I fathomed.

The worst part? Because of all the glute and ham work and that I didn’t cool down (no foam rolling, no stretching), I was in achy pain from the back of my knees up to my middle back all day while lying in bed. 🙂

I’m feeling better now and planning on going back to the gym tomorrow for bench press day, but I will take it as it comes and see how I feel.

I got better

/ hsoi

I have no idea what hit me, but it sure hit hard.

Christmas evening I felt a little something but nothing you’d give two thoughts to. Slept, woke up, went to the gym…. but actually went to Walgreens first because I felt the need for meds. BTW, big thank you to the pharmacist. I was set to get a cough suppressant because I was coughing because my throat was itchy and any time I’d breathe in it would tickle and I’d cough — I was getting raw from all the coughing. She said I didn’t want the suppressant because that would be appropriate if I had a cough because I had a cough. I had a cough because of something else, so it was more appropriate to treat THAT and then the cough would go away. She told me to take a Claritin (or Zyrtec or whatever allergy med) and that would address things. She also said to take an expectorant and Sudafed. I took her advice and oh what a difference it made!

Anyways, whatever I had knocked me down for the count. I didn’t do a complete gym session. When I got home, it all came rushing on very quickly. I felt like warmed-over hell, fever, nauseous, I would lay down and even that wasn’t comfortable. Everything sucked. What made it worse was I would drift off to sleep, wake up feeling like hours must have gone by, but it was only 30 minutes. The day dragged. Miserable. I haven’t been sick like this in many many years.

I don’t know what caused it, but I’m guessing my lack of sleep the past few weeks broke me down enough.

Anyways, last night my fever finally broke and I felt less dead. Finally ate a little bit of food (just some brown rice). Went to bed as normal, but around 12:30 woke up and I’ve been up since. Body said no more sleeping. But on a good note, I finally felt some hunger pangs! So I ate a little bit and now here I am, catching up on things.

Thank you for all the well-wishes.