Me

A year of veggies

/ hsoi

I can’t believe it’s been about a year since we started doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. In fact, I just renewed for another year. They were running a special of a year subscription at 20% off, and I just couldn’t say no to such a heavy discount. Plus I know it helps them a lot to have some solid cash in the bank, and it’s great to be able to support what they do.

So what do I think about the first year?

The Good

The veggies, no doubt. Oh my gosh, it’s fantastic. First, that there’s so much variety. We get forced to try new things, different things. I had no idea what kohlrabi was until it came in the boxes, and I’m totally sold on it. I love all the greens. There’s no rut of just eating the same old thing that you get at the grocery store, because it’s shipped in from wherever all year round. There’s much to be said for eating what’s local and seasonal too.

The quality is high as well. I’m not a tomato person, but after eating theirs? I’m sold. As well, who knew carrots could have such deep flavor! But when they’re able to stay in the ground until they reach their peak, then picked and you eat it within days of coming out of the ground? You’re going to get better tasting food. Plus I can see the care the JBG group puts into seed and variety selection, to make it not only something that will grow and flourish here in our climate and soil, but also that’s just darn yummy.

The price is reasonable too. I was not going to sign up for it if it was going to be really expensive vs. the grocery store. But after pricing it out as best I could, I could see it works out fine. I have to say “as best I could” because I’ve never seen kohlrabi at the grocery store. Oh I’m sure Whole Foods has it (I don’t shop there, too expensive), but that means JBG will be an ever better deal. Furthermore, when buying in bulk, they offer these discounts and so that’s even better. Sure it’s a bunch of money up front, but it pans out over the long term.

And you know what’s fun? The box. The surprise of “what is in there this week?”, and getting excited when you see what’s coming. Oh geez… as I write this, I just remembered that pattypan/sunburst squash are going to soon be here…. another new thing from the box, that I just LOVE and can’t wait for. See what I mean? No you can’t see how truly silly excited this makes me… but it does. And that’s part of what’s cool, because you can read about what they’re planting, what they’re trying, and thus what you have to look forward to. It’s fun!

The Bad

The box policy annoys me. I totally understand why they have it, and I do respect it. But it sucks when responsible people have to be penalized for those who aren’t.

The pick up. Wife and I did pick-up until recently. We actually kinda enjoyed it, calling it our “Veggie Date” because just she and I would go to pick them up. A little time with my honey is good. 🙂  But it kinda got old and sometimes we just didn’t want to drag out to do it because it didn’t fit the schedule. Or we’d have to schedule things around the pickup. So… we opted to change to home delivery. It’s $5 more per box, but frankly, it’s worth it. With the price of gas, when you account for the 30-60 minutes it takes (normally not 60 minutes, but if the truck is running late…), all that time and money adds up. The $5 for delivery ends up being worth it. And we don’t have to deal with the box issue. 😉

But the one downside is there’s no more trade box. The trade box was awesome and we took advantage of that a lot, not necessarily because we didn’t like something in the box (I think only arugula has ever been the flat out “no” to us), but because there might be something better or more fitting for us in there… like one time there was a HUGE bag of spinach in the trade box and that was a win!  But in talking to the JBG folk, they are working hard towards having more “up front” box selection, which would be really cool. Either to be able to pick and choose your box contents would be neat, or to be able to buy more of something some week would be nice. They’re working on it, and I eagerly await that.

Happy Are We

All in all, we’re really happy with this. It works out well for the grocery bill. It makes life a bit easier at the grocery store. We’re getting high quality food. We get to support local business. We get to expand our palettes. What’s not to like?

Looking forward to the next year.

2012-04-23 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Bench 2

/ hsoi

A nice way to start the week.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x140
    • 1x3x165 (work)
    • 1x3x185
    • 1x3x210
  • Asst. #1A – Press
    • 5 x 10 x 95
  • Asst. #1B – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with the Press)
    • 5 x 10 x 70
  • Asst. #2 – Rope Triceps Pushdowns
    • 3 x 12 x 50

I like pressing. I actually think pressing is gaining more favor with me than bench pressing. I still suck at both, but I’m enjoying pressing more and more. Odd to say this on bench press day, but here we are.

I will say that I am getting excited to get closer to a bench press milestone of 225# (i.e. 2 wheels), which will happen next cycle. Oh I’m sure I could do that now, but why? Just keep doing the program, I’ll get there eventually.

I did something different today too. I bumped the pushdown weight. I normally don’t change weight on assistance work mid-cycle, but the 45# just wasn’t cutting it for me. 50# was a little tougher… still squeezed out the 3×12, but it was a bit more work and that’s what it’s all about.

2012-04-20 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Deadlift 2

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Progress is always a good thing.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 3 reps – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
    • 1x5x135 (warmup)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x3x205
    • 1x3x235 (work)
    • 1x3x270
    • 1x3x305
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 170

Dang. Just realized I forgot to foam roll before I left the gym. Very important on days like today. I’ll do it a little later today, especially before bed.

Anyways….

Deadlifting felt so good today. I lift things up and put them down. It felt heavy, but not like I couldn’t move it. Was a little more in-tune with things mentally today, and that helped. I just keep looking forward to PR day, because I love setting deadlift PR’s.

On squat, I felt really good today… which is kidna crazy to me. I hate squats, but as is often the case… keep doing what you suck at, and eventually you won’t suck at it any more. Keep squatting until you don’t hate it. I still don’t love squatting, but I’m at least getting better. I tell you, that “chin in” cue is making a big difference in my form and how worked I get. Really keeps me from leaning forward and keeps me honest out of the hole.

I keep thinking about what to do after the challenge is over. I thought about it a bunch in between sets today. My present thinking is to stay the course, more or less. I don’t have a specific agenda, not working towards a meet, am not sure if I have any isolated weak spots because I’m just pretty weak all around. 🙂 So I think I’ll stick with the BBB template, but with some minor changes. First, I’m thinking about being “more boring”. That is, Jim said on the BBB challenge to mix up the main lifts and assistance work, so like instead of doing squat work then squat assistance, you do squat work then deadlift assistance… to make it less boring. I’m thinking about pulling back to doing the same in each day… kinda curious if that might make any difference, and if so what. Because, I’ll also be upping my assistance percentages, probably starting at 60%. I may also switch around the additional work (e.g. face pulls, curls, pushdowns, etc.) just depending how everything falls. The other big thing I’m thinking about doing is bringing back rep maxes on the final work set. Just have to see how this will all shake out.

Tho there’s a part of me that wants to try the Powerlifting template of 5/3/1. Why? I don’t know… variety, curiousity. I do think about doing a competition. Maybe nothing too serious yet but I keep thinking about the Hyde Park Gym’s push/pull event that’s coming up. I don’t think I’ll do this one, but it’s something like that for getting my feet wet that I might do. I dunno.

2012-04-18 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Press 2

/ hsoi

A good workout.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 3 reps – Press (working max: 160#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x3x115 (work)
    • 1x3x130
    • 1x3x145
  • Asst. #1A – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10 x 140
  • Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
    • 5 x 4/4/4/3/2 x BW
  • Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 65
  • Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
    • 3 x 10/9/8 x 35

What a good day.

I’m getting better with my pressing technique. Before lifting off, taking the deep breaths in through the nose helps a LOT towards ensuring not only enough breath, but a clear head and no dizzy feelings during the lift. My body is staying tight, it’s all working well. I also did some brief, but not rushed, visualization before the big lifts, just seeing myself in the 1st person pressing out all 3 reps. When I did the 145, it felt like cake, which hasn’t been quite the case in the past weeks. I figure it’s a combination of the better breathing, the better tightness, and visualization.

Everything else rolled quite nicely. I’m happy that my chin-ups are progressing well. I’ll get to 5×10 eventually. 🙂

2012-04-16 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Squat 1

/ hsoi

Oh crap, this is killing me… and it’s only the first week (of the 2nd month of the BBB challenge).

“Week ” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • WORK – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x5x185 (work)
    • 1x5x215
    • 1x5x240
  • Asst. #1 – Deadlift
    • 5 x 10/10/10/6/6 x 205
  • Foam Rolling

Holy crap…. 🙂

Squatting was ok… and I’ll talk about this more in a moment.

Deadlifting was killer. It involves so much of your body, so many muscles, so many large groups, it gets your blood pumping and I’m sucking wind. The weight wasn’t heavy, I was pooped! I suck. 🙂

I couldn’t do the hanging leg raises… I was empty. But I was sure to foam roll the heck out of my lower body. Will try to remember to do more of that tonight.

As for squatting….

I’m noticing my form is improving, but because the weights are heavier, it’s then hurting me. Like on my last set today I was all over the place, heavy forward lean. I am giving thought to resetting my squat weight, so I can get my form back in order. That “pull the head/chin back/in” cue is really a great cue. Plus I’m videoing myself to ensure I go deep in the hole, and putting all of these things together, the heaviest weights I’m doing are just getting sloppy. But, that might be ok… your heaviest weight is going to be less than ideal form, but it still feels like it should be better. So I don’t know for sure. Thinking aloud right now.

2012-04-13 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, bench press 1

/ hsoi

Whoops… realized I forgot to write this up!

“Week 1” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x140
    • 1x5x150 (work)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x5x200
  • Asst. #1A – Press
    • 5 x 10/10/10/7/9 x 95
  • Asst. #1B – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with the Press)
    • 5 x 10 x 70
  • Asst. #2 – Rope Triceps Pushdowns
    • 3 x 12 x 45
  • Foam Rolling

Yeah man… 60% is killer. It doesn’t kill me, but it sure works you hard. And so yes, I think it’s the place you want to be, once you’ve been doing BBB for a while and have gotten used to the work. Wendler recommends starting at 40% and working your way up, so yeah, work your way up here at least. It works you hard.

Benching went fine, and I still kinda get bummed out that I can’t rep out. But it makes so much sense when you have to do things at the level of 60%.

On the pressing, you can see set 4 only got 7 reps but set 5 got 9. This is because I didn’t quite have my breathing right and when I went for 8 it just wouldn’t go. But I got my breathing back in order on the last set and you can see how it cranked.

Lifting heavy is good.

2012-04-11 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Deadlift 1

/ hsoi

I knew this was going to be tough….

“Week 1” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
    • 1x5x135 (warmup)
    • 1x5x170
    • 1x3x205
    • 1x5x225 (work)
    • 1x5x255
    • 1x5x290
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 5 x 10/10/10/8/8 x 170
  • Foam Rolling

Ooof…. that’s hard. 🙂

The deadlifting went fine. I actually was to do 220 but did 225 instead because I was being lazy with plates. The notable thing was I did the last set with double-overhand grip. I usually go mixed on the last set, but I wanted to see how well I could handle it with this weight. It was hard to hold on, but I did.

Then squats. Oh my… you can see I only got to 8 and the last 2 sets. I could have ground out 2 more reps on each of those sets, but why? This isn’t about going to failure, especially on assistance work. I sure pushed it, but wasn’t going to kill myself. Tough tough tough.

One thing I did try was a different cue. I forget where I read this, but it was saying that instead of a “chest up” cue to use a “head back” cue. That is, you pull your head back… or more like drawing/sucking your chin in. If you do that, it really tightens everything up in your shoulders AND brings your chest up. I find this a far better cue than “chest up”.

I dropped the ab wheel. As I mentioned before, it gives me massive intra-cranial pressure. I had enough after squatting, why make it worse? I’m not sure what else I’ll do for ab work here, if anything. Maybe I will do nothing because, at least at my level, do I need specific ab work or should I be getting all I need out of good squats and deadlifts? What would Rippetoe say…?

2012-04-09 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 8, Press 1

/ hsoi

And so begins month 2 of the “BBB 3 Month Challenge”. Also my 8th cycle on Wendler 5/3/1.

“Week 1” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • 5 reps – Press (working max: 160#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x5x105 (work)
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x5x140
  • Asst. #1A – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10 x 140
  • Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
    • 5 x 4/4/3/2.5/2.5 x BW
  • Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 65
  • Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
    • 3 x 10/9/8 x 35
  • Foam Rolling

Yeah… month 2 is where the challenge really starts. 🙂 Assistance weights go up to 60% now. Bench press isn’t a big deal for me, but others… we’ll see how it goes.

All in all, the pressing went fine. I wasn’t in a good groove this morning (slept weird last night) and my form wasn’t as good as it should have been in either pressing movement. But you get through and do what you have to do.

Chin-ups move to 4 reps across, but as you can see I didn’t get there. In fact, I’m upset that I dropped to “2.5” reps on the last 2 sets. The only people recording half-reps are those that can’t do enough (which is me), but I want to remember them because I am getting up there, can’t get all the way… hold it… hold it… hold it… then slow lower. So it’s still some sort of work, and I’m hoping it will be something that helps get me over the hump towards more full reps.

All that extra work from the chins, the face pulls… it didn’t leave me with much in the tank for the curls, but meh.. it’s curls. I thought about dropping down to 30’s and trying to get 10-12 reps instead, but no… just stay with this. This is a challenge, so keep moving along.

Next workout is going to be… interesting. Squats assistance… should kick my ass. 🙂

AAR – BP1 and AT-6 @ KR Training, 7 April 2012 — where I stink up the joint

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

This day at KR Training was a little different for me.

In the morning, we had Basic Pistol 1, and in the afternoon was AT-6: Pistol Workout.

What made it a little different was in BP1 I got to do a little more teaching in the lecture portion of the class than I have in the past. I’m enjoying that, and the more I get to do it the better I get. The BP1 class was small due to some people withdrawing at the last minute, so we had an especially good teacher-student ratio. More than half the class was women. Because of the smaller class size, we got through things a little quicker than usual and Karl was able to field a lot of questions from the class. It seemed to be a very informative session today, and the students seemed pleased.

But what really made it different for me today was I got to shoot! Instead of assisting with AT-6 I got to shoot AT-6. The class size was small enough and the class content is directed and advanced enough that Karl was able to run things and we all just shoot drills and work on skills. The general design of AT-6 is to work on all those things you hate to do, like 25 yard group shooting, shot calling, one-hand-only shooting, and so on. It really pushes you to your limit.

And oh… I stunk up the joint.

I was very unhappy with my performance. I dropped too many shots, where I shouldn’t.

There’s a part of me that wants to double-check some things with the M&P to ensure it’s good and dialed in correctly, especially with my practice ammo. But I’ll be honest… I’d love to blame things on the gun, to say it’s things like me still getting used to the gun, to the heavier and longer trigger, and all that stuff. And I wouldn’t be surprised if in part that was involved in why I stunk so badly today.

But in the end, it’s not the equipment, it’s the shooter. I know it’s me, and even if it’s things like the trigger or other gun things, it still comes down to me improving my use of the tool, not fixing nor improving the tool itself. The only thing tool-wise I might want to improve is mag pouches. The Blade-Tech dual mag pouch I couldn’t stand… dug into my leg, too close together. I borrowed Tom’s 4-pouch Raven, which was OK but like all Raven products they’re a huge slab of Kydex. I did like how tight to the body the inner pouches were held tho. I’ll probably get a Beltfeed from Comp-Tac one of these days.

I already knew I needed work on one-hand press-outs, especially weak hand. I’ve been focusing a lot lately on weak-hand-only shooting, and when it comes to slow fire I’m fairly pleased with my improvement. But once some time pressure is added, I start dropping shots all over the place. Sure I can do tricks like aiming higher so when I slap the trigger on a WHO press-out the shot still lands within the target zone, but that just masks the problem. But what hit me was how much I need press-out work in general: both hands, SHO, WHO. I’ve been working the press-out in a very slow and smooth way, but it’s too slow. So when I had to speed up to today’s speeds, everything went to crap — too wide a jump from the speeds I’ve been doing to the speed I needed.

I have also noticed that I’m retraining myself on a lot of things. I’m finding the way my eyes are working regarding finding the front sight and the target is changing. Due to all my weightlifting, my grip is MUCH stronger and I find myself wanting to use it, really crushing the gun, but all that grip changing isn’t consistent yet and could even be why I’m mashing the trigger (HULK SMASH!).

I really don’t know exactly why I’m doing all that I’m doing. There’s a lot I’ve been working on, that’s changing, but then also because time is limited some things haven’t been worked on and thus have suffered and regressed. So today was a good diagnostic towards things I need to work on more, but I need to do more to figure out just what the problem is and thus properly correct it.

Lots of 25 yard shooting, and that’s improved, I feel more confident in shooting that slow fire… but then I haven’t done much 3-10 yard shooting for speed and obviously that’s regressed. Lots of slow fire doesn’t require lots of pressing out, and that regressed.  I still need more 25 yard shooting, I still need more slow fire, but I need to not neglect these other areas. And at least more trigger time like that should help me figure out and get over my slapping… stop rushing.

In a side note… the grip texturing on the M&P is great. It actually rubbed me a little raw today in some spots, but it’s not overly rough. I like it better than the XD or XDm grip texture. I don’t think I’ll bother getting any stippling or other texturing work on my M&P. It’s pretty nice as it is.

Well, I’ve got homework to do….

 

2012-04-06 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 7, squat 4

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

“Week 4” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

  • Deload – Squat (working max: 270#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x135
    • 1x5x165
  • Asst. #1 – Deadlift
    • 3 x 10 x 165
  • Asst. #2 – Hanging Hip-Leg Raise
    • 3 x 8 x BW
  • Foam Rolling

Meh. Whatever. deload. 🙂

And so, month 1 of the “BBB 3 Month Challenge” comes to a close. I’m happy to have gone back to BBB because it’s just a solid template. If you don’t have any specific areas to address, it’s the template to do.

I can say that 50% weight is too light for me. Sure, Jim says in the book to start at 40% — start light, underestimate, it’s better that way for the long term. And over time I did adjust weights some, maybe 50% on some, 60% on others, but when you have everything uniform and see it all in front of you, you can’t help but take note. It’s just not sufficient. Good to start, not good to stay there. I reckon 60% will become the new standard, maybe even more depending on things. I just can’t see lifting less than 60% on the assistance lifts… the new “floor” for things.

And so, next month should be climbing a bit higher on the challenge. But… that’s why it’s a challenge. It’s not supposed to be easy, and nothing in life worth having is easy.