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Irregardless of which way you add up the numbers, I’m going to spend a long time away from work. I have a bunch of leave available and I decided, hey, why not take a bunch of it all in one giant go? I won’t be traveling far from home during the duration of my leave but I’ll have plenty of time away from work to goof around. I only have a few goals while I’m on leave

1. enjoy my time away from work
2. avoid thinking of work
3. goof off whenever possible
4. read a book or two
5. study
6. hang out with Jessica
7. hang out with my parents (who will be here from the 6th-12th)
8. wear all of the dogs out
9. Train for snowboarding season (its right around the corner - hooray!!!!)
10. Go to the Mariners game on the 9th (my birthday coincidentally)

None of the goals are monumental and all are achievable. The only ones that will take a little bit of willpower to achieve are numbers five and nine.

I’m going to study for a few CLEP tests while I’m on leave so that when I return to work I can enroll in school. Due to the manning situation at work (we don’t have enough manning at work) I’ll still be on mid-shift for the next few months. The current schedule looks like I will be working nights until Thanksgiving. It could be drawn out longer but we’ll see what happens when we have people return from this current rotation to the desert. As a military member we sacrifice, this is my current sacrifice; I work a shift that nobody else wants because I’m the only guy that can do it. It messes with my personal life and its going to mess with it further when I enroll in classes in late September. I should have plenty of time to do my homework at night but some of my classes are going to be during the evening. There is no way that I can avoid that - oh well, gotta get my education finished sooner or later.

Training for snowboarding season means a tweak in my workout regimen. I’ll target all of the flexors and core muscles in my body while doubling my lower body workout. I lift legs once every 5 days and do cardio every other day. I’m planning on doing a two day leg lifting split that will have me doing one day of ridiculously heavy lifting followed by another day of endurance lifting. I’m not worried about the heavy lifting - I’m worried about the endurance lifting. Simply put, its going to hurt - alot.

I should have a busy, and hopefully relaxing, month ahead of me.There are times when it’s great to be a government employee - thank god for paid leave.

The stationary bicycle has been my preferred form of cardio for quite some time. The first time I got on it I thought I wasn’t going to make it but I figured out how to get my rythm and I figured out how to use the up and down stroke to reduce muscle fatigue (foot straps are an invaluable tool when riding) Yesterday, I had a little too much energy at 5AM and I didn’t have anything that I interested me in the few hours before I was going to sleep. So, I did what any other unstable person might do, I chugged a pre-workout drink and headed to the gym. My current regimine consists of alternating 4 and 5 day lifting cycles. The current day in my program was legs

My workout consisted of
Squats - 20×225lbs 10×275lbs
Leg press - 40×275lbs
Calf raises - 50×135lbs
Medicine ball lunges - 60ea
Medicine ball bridges
Side bridges
Three point bridges

I’m not moving around a bunch of weight because I’m not trying to pack on muscle - I’m just trying to stay a lean mean fighting machine.

If I’m feeling especially ornery I’ll go for some deadlifts. They are quite hard on my back so I tend to shy away from them. After my workout I hit the stationary bike and did 15 miles in 37 minutes while climbing 2400ft of elevation. (If I did my math right I maintained a near constant speed of 24mph - not too shabby) Needless to say - I nearly killed myself. I was amped up from the workout when I got home but I knew my body had nothing left in the tanks. I’m sure parts of my body think there is a disconnect between muscles and brain. I should have stopped working out when I was done lifting, I should have given in to the pain, and I should have not set the stationary bike on level 14. There are days when I’m amazed by the amount of drive that is hiding deep inside me.

It was quite an odd feeling when I woke (at 1400)- I wasn’t really sore. I was simply wore out - still. I downed a bunch of cereal and couple of bananas and waited for it to kick in. I was dragging until 0030 this morning when I finally started to get out of the slump (I work nights at the moment).

Previously that day Jessica and I took our bikes out for the first time this year. She has an old Roadmaster mens bike, its a “wal-mart” special thats 2-3 inches too tall, and I have a Giant Sedona, a trail/city bike, that allows me to do a little of anything. I got it a 6-7 years ago for roughly $400 because I knew someone that worked at the bike shop. It was the cheapest entry level “non-walmart” bike I could afford at the time. I feel bad for her because she doesn’t know how easy I’ve got it compared to her. If you’ve ever ridden on a cheap bike and moved to a higher quality bike you’ll understand exactly how much easier of a ride you’ll get. I’m sure that if I rode her bike, which I couldn’t because its too darn small, that I would have burned 25% more energy just trying to get the darn thing moving. I forgot how much I liked to get out and just feel the wind in my face while hearing the ratchet of the chain as I rode around.

As a kid my bike was my primary form of transport until I was old enough to drive the Plymouth Voyager (the model with the monstrous, earth rotation altering, 2.2L I4 generating an amazing 96hp complete with fake wood paneling). I only had a heavy ass “roadmaster” type bike at the time and probably did no more than 20 miles on any given day. I rode that darn bike everywhere. I’ve never owned a road bike but I’m thinking next year - next year I might try and get one. I can always pick up a used bike on Craigslist or I can just wait until the end of the season and try to pick up one on clearance. I’ve got to get back on the road more often. I’d like her to come along with me but I know that I’ve got to get her a better bike first - she’s never going to make it if she is trying to keep up on her bike. I’d like to ride from our house to Sunrise point on Rainier (its only 83 miles away with a 5900 foot change in elevation - childs play…. or not) next year. We’ve got a lot of training to do in the off-season if we’re going to make it.

I’ve been getting to the gym and doing my time but the quality of my workouts have suffered. The gym at Balad was absolutely packed with equipment, unfortunately, that is not the situation at McChord’s gym. For some reason, the quality of my workout has been slipping but I’m still doing my time. I can definitely tell that I’m not getting an adequate amount of stretching - I feel so old some days. I’ve got to give myself a little credit because all I do is move awkward heavy boxes all night long. The lightest box that I move weighs 71lbs and I’m bound to move at least a dozen of them a night.

Everyone is taught how to properly lift an object at some point during our working lives. Use your legs, don’t twist your back etc. These damn things are so awkward that its nearly impossible to practice the proper lifting techniques. My lower back bears the brunt of the work.

I’m still going to the gym - I’m still putting my time in - I’m just not seeing the same gains that I saw while deployed. I haven’t seen any weight gains since I returned so at least I’ve got that going for me. I just need to find a way to spice up my workouts - cayenne pepper maybe?

I’m not in the mood to write a full post so I’m going to give you a file and a couple of links. First off is the best appeal to an Article 15 punishment that I’ve ever seen. Its well worth the read - I had a feeling that I wasn’t the only sarcastic ass in the Air Force.

Next up is an writer that looks at our nation and its productivity if we completely eliminated obesity. Its more editorial than fact but she does bring the work of a few economists into the mix. Its an interesting read thats worth checking out.

Last is an article about corn and how it is and isn’t impacting the cost of food and gasoline in our country. For some reason, as an Iowa native, I feel compelled to write about corn whenever I get a chance. My home state only stands in the spotlight once in a great while. Most Americans only hear about Iowa once every four years during the Caucus. It’s a shame that most of them are still unable to point it out on a map.

I’ve been on a quest - a quest to regain some of my youth. In particular, I’ve been trying to get rid of weight that I shouldn’t have been carrying around in the first place. When I left the states I was carrying 195lbs on my 5′11 frame. To put that in terms of a BMI I was a whopping 27.2 - I was overweight - and I wasn’t far from what they consider obese. Today I am a svelte 165lbs and with a “normal” BMI of 23. I haven’t been at this weight since I was 20 (I’m almost 27)

The last five pounds went when I gave up one more thing. I gave up Gatorade. Sure, Gatorade tastes great (I swear to god they aren’t paying me for this) and it replaces lost salt but it has calories. Each bottle contained something like 230 calories - I was going through two of them a day. I ended up drinking another bottle or two of water - a drink that is devoid of calories.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I go home. I know that if I go back to my old habits I’m going to have to work three times as hard to stay at this weight. I had a soda a few weeks ago and I thought I was going to go into sugar shock - maybe, just maybe, I can figure out moderation. I’ve been able to do it with my meals and I have been able to cut out snacks - snacks are simply food that I really don’t need. I allow myself something sweet (cookies or ice cream) about three times a week and I’ve found that watching the portion size has really helped me reach my goal. Gone are the days when I use the “shovel” method to crap heaping mounds of ice cream into a bowl. I always felt ill after eating that much - I think that I’ve finally figured out how to listen to the signals my body is sending me.

If I can do it, you can do it. Its going to be hard and you’ve got to manage your portion sizes and get to the gym. Sure, you can try diet alone but your progress is going to crawl at a snails pace.

Boredom will force you cause you to make foolish decisions. My latest foolish decision was to go to the gym for the past 12 days without a break. If I was a normal, healthy individual this wouldn’t be that big of a deal but I’ve got problems that don’t respond well to repeated abuse.

My latest problem started when I decided to squat too much weight for far to long. I took some serious time off my leg workout to give my lower back time to recuperate. I redesigned my workouts to reduce the stress on my back and continued exercising daily. My lower back has taken a slow and painful beating. Muscle pain, in my view, arrives in two different formats. The first is muscle pain - this pain is intense and comes regardless of what position you place your body. It feels as if your bones are attempting to separate from your muscles and that your entire body is trying to tear itself apart. This is excruciating - I deal with it 4-6 days a week. I do not take ibuprofen - I “tough” it out. The second type of pain we’ve all experienced - muscle soreness. If you stress a muscle and later stretch or move that particular area you will experience some discomfort - I rarely feel this as pain in the prevalent experience.

So - my back has been feeling fine lately. I have been stretching and doing some “yoga-esque” things to make the pain go away. My hamstrings and hip flexors cause the majority of problems. These muscles will NOT relax. I have tried for days to stretch them but they will not release one iota of pressure from my back. Today, my common sense defeated my strong desire to go to the gym and push through it. I’m taking the day off - I’m not really sure what to do with the time other than to write a series of random blog posts. I guess boredom will do that.

My workout routine is always up for a revision and and I always try to do something a little different to keep my body guessing. The one thing that doesn’t change is that on days where I don’t lift, I do cardio. I loathe cardio but its a necessary evil so I must do it. My normal routine consists of using the cross trainer for 25 minutes followed by a gut busting “gut day.” My ankle has prevented me from using the cross trainer so my only option was to get on the bike. I was aiming for 30 minutes of high intensity biking - to me - high intensity is to keep the rpm above 100 for as long as possible. In an attempt to increase my motivation, I make sure that my mp3 player is loaded with intense music - there are no ballads and the temp is always cranked.

So, to begin my arduous bike workout, I set the level to 8 (of 20) and started to bike away - I biked to 5 miles, then 10 miles and before I knew it I was already at 35 minutes of elapsed time. I felt like I was in the groove so I aimed for another 5 miles before I got off the bike without dropping my intensity - I wanted to make up some time and get the next 5 miles done in under 10 minutes. It was a lofty goal but I know how to push myself past the breaking point when needed.

I selected an Ill Nino song and went to town - at 135rpm. Sweat that was on my brow began to come down in a torrent that obscured my vision - the searing pain in my legs caused tears to form in my eyes - I wasn’t going to be defeated. I was not going to surrender to the pain. Nobody could tell that my eyes were watering because my entire body was soaked - it appeared as if I had jumped in front of a fire hose. I kept on pumping my legs as hard as I could until I reached 15 miles - at that point I looked at the clock - 44:58 - I had done it.

I really couldn’t believe that I could push myself that hard - I’m completely worn out at the moment but I know that there has got to be some sort of energy reserve left. I tried to do the “gut buster” workout but my body was shot - I guess it will wait till tomorrow.

FYI - gut buster is comprised of no less than 6 gut exercises - I am for 200-300 total reps. The pain is quite intense - but - I’ve got free time and I’m still young. I often wonder how much further I can push myself - I guess I’ll just have to find out for next time.

On a side note, I try to title all of the blog posts in a creative manner - some titles don’t make the stringent selection process

Todays rejected post titles include

1. Push it, push it real good Salt-N-Pepa wrote as song called Push it - and push it I did

2. Bike it out, bike it out - my take on Walk it Out

3. My humps, my humps, my lovely lady humps. - this in an homage to Will Ferrel in Blades of Glory as he was on his bike cranking out some cardio - well, he really wasn’t cranking much. There was discussion about what this song meant and nobody really knew - they just knew that it was promiscuous.

I’ve been hobbling around like a cripple for a week due to an ankle sprain. Its nothing major but we walk everywhere here and it just takes a little bit away from your day. You can have a great day but if it hurts to go everywhere how great was it?

I go to the gym constantly here - its good for my health and it gives me something to do for 60-90 minutes a day. The ankle problem isn’t helping my cause - I’ve been unable to do any cardio for a week. Needless to say, I just wish the damn thing would heal up. I’ve been told to go to physical therapy but they have “banker hours”. I work night shift and I refuse to wake up in the middle of my night to go get checked out. Yes, I know that nobody will suffer but me but it’s not that big of a deal.

It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I was virtually indestructible. Now I work on rehabbing my shoulder every day (I injured it two years ago), now I worry about re-injuring my ankles and getting fractures again, now I worry about re-aggravating my sprained ankle. Oh well - I guess this is supposed to happen with age. Damn you age!

Work has been slow as of late - work makes the time go by quickly - without work the days are beginning to drag. We stay busy by killing people - sure, its not the flashiest or the most humane type of work but it keeps food on the table. When we aren’t killing people - it tends to get boring. I wish they could just go do some random goat or camel target practice - sure, its bomb they drop costs upwards of $20k but it would be good for my morale and well being.

Ok, so I still haven’t done what I set out to do on my day off but I’m getting closer to it with each passing week. I have extremely little free time on a daily basis as I have scheduled only enough time to plow through my routine. There is no extra time for anything else unless I want to cut into my sleep schedule. I do well on 6 hours of sleep but 7 is better. Unfortunately, I don’t move fast enough when I wake up and that extra hour is imperative. Jessica, on the other hand, wants 10 hours of sleep a night. I have no idea how she sleeps that much and still has enough time to do everything. Even when I am bored and have little to do sleep is always a last option for me - she is down for a nap at almost anytime of the day. Often she insists that I join her - (more…)

The did it in Abu Ghraib prison to people that didn’t deserve the treatment. I do it to myself on a daily basis. Why in the world would somebody beat the ever living crap out of their body? Why would someone push themselves until they were in so much pain that they thought they were going to puke?

Boredom

I decided to see how hard I could push myself today. My shoulder is almost completely rehabbed - almost to the point where I don’t have to worry about it. I’m still working on strengthening the anterior deltoid muscle (the weak one in the bunch) so that it keeps all of the other muscles where there are supposed to be located. It was leg day - the most brutal day of the week. Leg day is an all out assault on the largest muscle group in the body. It is the muscle group that is constantly in use and the one that takes the most punishment (save for the heart of course). I went through my normal routine but I cranked it up to three sets of 20 reps. I normally work in the 3×12 range but I essentially doubled my reps while maintaining the same weights. By the time I was done with each set my legs were on fire - veins were starting to pop out from my skin that I didn’t even know existed. I could barely walk by the time that I was done - not being able to walk isn’t a bad thing in this case - it merely shows that I properly worked out the muscle group. If you’ve watched any bad horror movies and have seen zombies stumbling about - its probably close to how I’ve been walking around. We probably smell the same too - its been a few days since we’ve had running water. Unless the world goes to hell, I’ll get my first shower in days tomorrow morning.

I’ve been resisting the urge to expunge the material in my stomach - its been 30 minutes since I’ve walked out of there but the pain is so intense that I can barely hold my guts in check. Its a hobby - albeit a painful one.