Sunday March 8

Right-oh, another week slides by.

Late in the week I called ASADA to ask for a password to logon to their whereabouts system, they were supposed to send one in the mail but with the deadline looming I thought I'd better get this out of the way sooner rather than later. So now I can report that I am 'ASADA compliant'. Although it was a surprise to me to find that I am MALE according my online profile. A quick call to the hotline and a chuckle with the helpdesk girl had that sorted out quickly.

When I say that I am compliant, well I have nominated one hour every day for the months of April, May and June where I will be 'anchored' for the hour. However, how does one nominate where one will be on a given day? particularly on weekend, a month or three in advance? Best effort I guess. The 'calendar' will have to be updated as necessary - at least its an online system...

I've also gone to the trouble of setting up appointments in my organizer with alarms to remind me when and where I have to be. I'm not risking any 'missed test'! Three misses in an 18 month period constitutes a minimum one year sanction. Knowing my dumb luck I'd be tripping down to Haighs or Toby's Estate to score a hit (haha chocolate or coffee) and forget my about 'ASADA hour' as I've called it in my organizer... chuckle.

Training has been a bit crap this week, I haven't been feeling 100%, just not my usual self and its shown in some poor performances. I've dropped weight at long last, down to 69kg and tonight squeezed myself into the red Inzer squat suit - 20 mins to get it on, 20mins, a broken nail and tortured finger tips to get it off.

I've almost finished the 2nd in the vampire series by Stephenie Meyer: Twilight and New Moon. I enjoyed the movie and both Madii and Leah said the book was even better, so here I am reading the series.... Not that romance or supernatural are really my kind of thing, but I am enjoying the escape. Although to be honest its left me feeling a little lonely, wishing I were not alone so much at night, but then again I don't want someone there all the time either, never again down that path. Just a big warm body to snuggle into sometimes. But I am so picky.... Someone bigger than me, at least by 15-20kg, there is no comfort in cuddling up to someone scrawny. I want to feel protected, from what I don't know... its not like I cant look after myself. Enuf dreaming.... back to reality... Perhaps I should just stick to reading crime novels :-)

=====

Tuesday March 3 - The Parcel

Ooops. A week has escaped me. A rather eventful week too. Where to start?

Wednesday, very obviously, from the dug up stones and tyre marks on the driveway, a courier attempted to deliver a parcel to my home, but it required a signature so my front door was carded. Was this the new iron I had ordered by redeeming my flybuys which were about to expire? I rang TNT and arranged re-delivery to the office the following week as I was not in any hurry and wasn't about to drive out to Hallam to pick it up!

Friday, an email message from reception alerting me to a parcel which had been delivered - how exciting, was this the iron being re-delivered early - LOL. But what I retrieved from reception was DOCUMENTS. WTF??? Sigh... a poison parcel! Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) Athlete Whereabouts Information Pack. Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Well, After being read the riot act when I first muted the idea of switching camps, I cant say it wasn't expected. Random, my arse!




From ASADA website:

What whereabouts filing information is required?

Athletes included in ASADA's Registered Testing Pool (RTP) are required to provide quarterly whereabouts filing directly to ASADA. The required whereabouts filing includes:

1. Address and contact details

Such as

• primary residential address
• primary mailing address
• primary contact phone numbers
• email address (if available)
• alternate contact name and phone number
• coach's name

2. Locations and times

Athletes are required to nominate one (1) location per day where they will be available for sample collection and provide the start time of the one (1) hour period that they will be at that location.
This one hour time slot must be between 6am and 11pm.
Locations nominated by athletes must be accessible to ASADA Doping Control Officials.

1. Regular schedule of routine locations

Athletes must provide a completed hardcopy of the ASADA Whereabouts Filing – Regular Schedule Form. This form requires confirmation of personal details, addresses of residences to be used in the following quarter, regular training addresses and usual time available, other regular locations such as work or school and the usual times available at those locations and a schedule of the locations and dates of upcoming competitions the athlete intends to compete in during the upcoming quarter.

=======

Saturday I had planned to attend the Geelong Powerlifting comp. Steve, Bill, Yogi and Travis from Southern were all competing. Deb unfortunately had to pull out due to injury :-( I made a deal with Madii that if she drove (on her L's in the truck, that I would buy dinner at the pancake parlour. Reluctantly she agreed.

Half way into the trip, the truck boiled, the radiator cap had not been put on properly and blew off. Fortunately it landed, and stayed, on the battery! Limped to nearest servo and refilled with coolant, but not enough and the instructions said don't add water.... SMS'd Leigh as we were in his territory and he came by and took us off for a latte while the truck cooled.

We set off again and had not gone far when the car boiled again and wouldn't start. A couple of good Samaritan's stopped and helped, I was so grateful, the gas converter had frozen as a result of no hot water from the radiator and They poured more water into the radiator and over the gas converter but still the car wouldn't go as the gas was totally frozen. So they guys suggested running on petrol until the gas converter thawed, there in lies the next problem - there was no fuel in the petrol tank - despite the fact that I put a full tank in a year ago - ok, so I don't drive it on petrol that often, but to have it evaporate!?!

So these two helpful guys went off in search of a gerry can and went to the servo and got me some petrol. We got some hot water over the gas converter, enough to start the car and then switch to petrol just as the gas converter started to freeze over - literally you could see the frost forming! That sealed the end of the day for me, Madi and I headed home it was 4.30 and we'd missed the comp. The two good Samaritans followed us on the freeway until their exit to make sure we were ok. My faith in mankind is much renewed!

=====

Training

Sunday ME Squat

bar x 5, 40x5, 60x5 80x5 light knee wraps, 100x5 wraps&belt

112.5 1/2 suit, wraps and belt x3

118 as above 3 reps

120 as above 3 x 3reps

Front squats with light wraps

60kg 4x5reps

Tuesday

Reverse lat pulldown 100 x10 x4sets

Seated Row 120 x4 x4

Shrugs 65lb dbells 4x10reps

Rear delt flyes

Roman chair situps

======

Found this old pic of my bodybuilding heydays... very serious stuff! :-)

=====

Monday Feb 24

The amount of junk mail coming into my inbox lately has quadrupled - so annoying! I need a better spam filter.

Spent a whole evening of what should have been 'relaxing time' applying the latest firmware update to my Topfield 7100. First up it wouldn't recognize my usb, in either the front or back port, I tried another usb stick, still no luck. Formatted the damn thing FAT32, which it already was - still nothing, switched off the toppy, on again... nup. Surfed the Topfield forum to find out if it was possible to FTP the update - YES! Rebooted Toppy with the update in the mount directory and off it went happily applying the update. Performed a factory reset when it completed then the arduous task of setting the whole thing up from scratch, re-scanning the services, setting up the wireless network... ughhh. Hours of misery as IceTV failed consistently. Ping to IceTV failed. EPG fetch failed- server busy - Bullshit! Check the network. Ping from laptop to Toppy - ok. FTP server working. So LAN working but Toppy cant get outside - the laptop can tho'?!. Ahh-ha found a typo in the DNS address - fixed that, so far so good, ping to IceTV - ok. EPG fetched! Phew.... But no, timers from Ice now not getting sent. Deleted the token, set up again - nope, rebooted Toppy, no avail. Went to bed to sleep on it - at least 90% setup........ No magic fix overnight - checked the network again, checked the router all looks ok. Rebooted EVERYTHING! Toppy, Router.... Success! Not in any hurry to do that again!


Can relate very much to this youtube clip...


Training:

Sat
ME bench - worked up to tripples on 75kg
Lockouts at 80kg 3x8reps
Closegrip press 50kg 4x8
Dumbbell Floor press 4x15 @20kg dumbbells

Sun
ME squat - Worked up to tripples, half suit, belt and wraps 105kg 2 sets, 112.5kg 2 sets
Front squats - raw. 40x5 45x5 50x5 55x5


Mon
Assistance
Good mornings 60kg x6 70kg x6 x3 sets
Hypers 25kg 12 x4 sets
Dumbbell Shrugs 55lbx8 65x8 x3 sets
Lying leg curl (light) 8 x4 sets

===

Monday Feb 23

Well the diet is off to miserable start no thanks to the sticky date pudding I made last night. Very yum and sickly sweet. I was good all week tho, however the scales do not lie and I found myself up 100g grams this morning (having been down 100grams on Friday) Dropping 3 kegs in the next 5 weeks is not looking hopeful. BTW I did take a before photo but I wont be posting up until I have the after photo to go with it - just in case there is no change.


===

Mon Feb 16

Thursday

Speed deads with green bands & 60kg 3reps x 8 sets
Rack pulls: (below knee) 120kg 5reps x 3 sets
................(above knee) 140kg 5reps x 3 sets
(Annoyed - forgot my wrist straps to overload bar.)
Good mornings: 40kg 8x4
Pull Thrus: 120 10 x 4

Friday rest

Saturday

ME Bench - new shirt (too big)
1 rep max at 85 kg - didnt get much kick out of the shirt and was able to touch with only 50kg - bit disappointing.
Dumbbell press: 40lb x10 50x8 60x8 x3sets
JM press: 30kg 8 x4
Rotator cuff/rehab work

Sunday
Squat: bar x8, 40kgx8 60x5 80x2 95x5x2 (knee wraps) 95x4 100x3 100x5 (belt and wraps)
front squats: 60kg x2 x2, 60kg 3x2 (belt no wraps)
Standing calf raise: 95 x10x4

Dropped the ball on the 3rd set of 95's went down for the 5th rep but was thinking too much and not doing enough and failed at the bottom. Unloaded the bar and set it backup again but went to 100, lower back was starting to feel the strain so belted up for the last set.

=====

Feb 12

Picked up my new bench shirt from Apollo - hope to give it a try on Saturday with SPLC. At the bench seminar, Marty Girvan invited me to do some shirt work with his guys to help break it in if needed. I tried to get my arms in it, whoooo this will be fun (not) could just get it to my elbows....

Training Report.

Monday @ Definition
Yay George has bought a new bar and some more weights.
Ahhh new, fresh, prickling bar
Squat - warmups @ bar, 40,60 75, 85 then 6x3 @ 95 with knee wraps on (last 3 sets better than first 3..)
Front squats @50kg 5x5 (time to go up I think)
Hypers (variation with glute/ham raise) 7.5kg 4x8 (very wussey but the glute/ham part was tuff!)
Reverse cable squat 160, 180, 200,200 x 8 reps

Slept funny or pulled something doing squats - result stiff neck/trap affecting bench.

Tuesday @ MBS
Lockouts @75kg 4x8 very uncomfortable - even with a lift out.
Speed bench 55kg 8x3's
Cross body tricep press 10kg 4x8
JM press 30kg 4x8

No upper back assistance work

Wed - rest

Thurs - @ Definition
Plan.... Speed deads and heavy rack work.

Have started 'thinking' about dieting....
Thinking only...
Maybe start 'doing' Monday next week.
Currently weighing in at 69.999999kg
I should do one of those 'before' photo shoots this weekend - you know the type: slouched over, bloated tummy, no makeup, bad hair, granny style bog-catching undies and grouchy face.... snigger....

=====

Feb 9 2009

The devastating fires overshadow everything at the moment. The death toll currently stand at 128 and is still rising. My thoughts are with those who have lost all, the burn victims and with the almighty Fire crews, SES and Police that have been battling the bush fires on our hottest day ever recorded. We can only hope that the cool change is helping, although it has not brought forth the much needed rain and the forecast is for the heat to return at the weekend.

Training report

Tuesday - Speed bench.
Arrived late to training because Madii had to be dropped at work at 7, which is when I was meant to be at training. That's life.

Lockouts 75kg 8 reps 3 sets
Speed bench 55kg 3 reps 8 sets
Rolling tricep press 8kg 12 reps 4 sets (still nursing elbow soreness)
Close grip press 50kg 10 reps 4 sets
Chest supp row 8 reps 4 sets
Rotator cuff / rehab stuff

Wednesday Deadlift
(late again - trg cut short)
Sumo Deadlift 140kg 3 reps 4 sets (belt only / grip being an issue)
Good mornings 40kg 8 reps 4 sets (light-ish after heavy deads)
Reverse Hypers 30kg 15reps 4 sets


Thursday
Massage with Kellie at Melbourne sports medical centre
Last year I started having some massage with Ruth which was really convenient because she comes into the office each Thursday. But when I need a hard core massage, Kellie is the girl! Hamstrings, glutes, erectors, upper back and right shoulder (the niggley one) Kellie is tough, I was sore the next day but she really gets in and tackles the knots. Ouch... purr....

Saturday - ME Bench, just as the cool change came.
Worked up to a double on 75kg, 80kg just didn't happen.
Dumbbell Floor press 20kg 8 reps 4 sets
Chest supp row, 3 angles, 8 reps each (24reps) 4 sets
Rotator cuff/rehab work

Sunday - Pony club! Bought new tyres to replace the ones that were slashed on the float and got my truck back from my sister so we're back in the swing, although Madii wont be riding much this year, Year 12 VCE homework is full on, she's already cut her part time job to just 2 shifts per week. Mojo is going to have an easy year, I haven't ridden much either and right now cant afford the membership fees for adult riding club :-(


=====

Feb 2

Beach Dreaming....



For everyone that has complained that about not having a hot summer, I hope you are satisfied now! 45.1c on Friday. I was working from home and while I'm glad I didn't suffer through any power failures my evap. cooling wasn't coping too well, it was still 33+ inside the house. Later that night Leah, Andrew and I sat IN the Yarra river at Warrandyte along with a gazillion other people and their dogs.

Training Report

Well I'm not so stupid as to risk heat stroke.....

Wed Deadlift.

It was about 40c so I settled with doing speed work and got out fast

Speed deads 100kg 8x3 alternate sets conventional and sumo
pull thrus 100 4x12
reverse hypers 4x12
Thought about abs... went home

No training Thurs or Fri... Refer to river sitting instead....

Saturday Morning ME Bench @0700 (before the heat of the day - bullshit!)
Warmup with little little little dumbbells
front raise, side raise, bent raise, every raise.....
Raw bench - 40kgx6 50x6 60x5 70x4 75x2 80kg=fail x2 - such is a sticking point!
JM press 35 4x8
Floor press 20kg 4x10
Rear delts/ rotator cuff work

Sunday Squatting @0700 (again! - I must be mad)

warmed up to 75x 3 raw
90 x3 x3 with knee wraps then a double at 95.
Front squats 50kg 4x4
High pin squat 180kg 3x3 Pin 26 (FMR)

Around to Toby's Estate both mornings for post workout latte's and read of the paper.

Its that time again - rating's period starts this week and I note with much dismay that one evening there are 3 programs that I want to watch all on at the same time. Sheesh, Toppy 'only' has 2 tuners.... what to do, what to do? Ah-ha! Reconnect the old LG Set Top Box to component 1 of the TV and viola - third tuner. Yay, now I can record 2 shows on the Toppy and watch the third via component 1. Now all I have to deal with is IceTV interactive not sending down timers for channels 7, 9 or 10. SBS and ABC work fine! I guess I will have to resort to deleting the device and setting up all my timers again. Ughhh.




=====

January 28th

Seminar report

Attended the ESP bench press seminar -VERY informative. 4 hours of bench press technique, setup and accessory work. Delivered by Marty Girvan, Chucky and Shaun Bostock all very knowledgeable with impressive records, they explained the hows and why's into each of their topics. Along with the hands on approach, everyone got their chance to try stuff out and get it right under expert guidance. Its one thing to read about some of these things but to have the opportunity to be coached and corrected in this manner and to ask questions to the likes of Shaun Bostock was an experience not to miss. The hands on approach worked well with Marty being able to correct my leg position on the bench such that I CANNOT lift my butt from the bench - something I've struggled with always! Personally it was also good to get some positive feedback that my technique is good, learn some verbal cues that focus me and pick up specific tips for my training that will improve my benching even further. Even Steve Brown who was not there in any official capacity for the seminar offered me some hands-on advice, showing me how to 'get it right' with the accessory work. A great non-competitive environment where these big guys were willing to share what they know works.


Training report

Sunday Squatting
Warmups RAW - bar, 40, 50, 60, 75....
Comp squats 5x5 @90 with knee wraps on.
Front squats 4x4 @50 RAW
Donkey calf raise 4 sets
Rear delt machine 4 sets

Tuesday - Speed bench with SPLC
Full of beans - ate WAY too much carbs........
Warmups......
Lockouts @80 3x6, @75x8
Speed bench @ 55 8x3reps somewhere between 50 & 60 being the optimal value for my speed work as calculated by Marty at the seminar.
Could feel myself slowing in the last 2 sets
Accessory work
Rolling Incline dumbbell tricep press 8kg x15 x4sets
Cross body tricep press 10kg x12 x4
Lying Lat pulldown 60, 80 100, 100 x8 reps
Standing dumbell rotator work 5kg

Spent a good deal of time Sunday after training in the Toby's Estate Cafe around the corner from D's - check this article here
Here we were at the perfect place to relax, read the paper and have a post training chat while sipping at perfectly poured latte's, low and behold a couple of complimentary affogato's are placed in front of us - YUMMM-O ! As I was getting a bit low on bean at home I took a look at the fresh bean for sale and settled on 250g of 'Woolloomooloo' bean - which as I then discovered gets me another complimentary latte! YAY!! Left there spinning!! Haven't tried the new beans yet - tonight's the night!!!

=====

January 25th

I am so ANGRY!
Fire breathing, blood curdling, murderously ANGRY!!

Some self serving, nasty f-wit arsehole with barely 2 brain cells has, for no reason other utter stupidity, slashed BOTH right hand side tyres on my horse float.

I sat in the lounge room for an hour, in utter silence, brooding and fuming.

I have no argument with my neighbors. I keep to myself and apart from Keith and Lis at the side of my property who are ALWAYS so helpful, by and large I don't really know the others. I don't complain to the police about parties - they are few and far between so who cares if there's a little noise now and then - no big deal. So why?? Friday night there was a party, I didn't care. But Friday night or in the wee hours of Saturday morning someone at that party decided to slash the tyres on my float. Why do I think it was someone from the party? The empty Jim Beam Whisky bottle left by the float is bit of a give away. So yes, this time I have reported it to the police. Not happy Jan.

These tyres would have hardly under 1000k as I replaced all of the 'car tyres' that were on the float when I bought it with the recommended truck tyres that should be on there. At great expense as part of trying to 'fix the float up'. And now, some lowlife scumbag has gutted them. 2 - 3 2cm cuts into each of the tyres. I'm not sure if they can be repaired or will I need new tyres - again!

How the hell am I to get them off? Will I need two jacks? Bricks? I only have my little Mazda jack and no-one to help me. AND I know my wheel brace doesn't fit the float- Damn it I've been meaning to get one for the float. I've lent my old truck, with the other jack, to my sister because her car is in being repaired after some prick hit her car in a car park and took off (What is the world coming to?) and she's away for the long weekend.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Yesterday's Bench press seminar and today's squatting report will be written later - if / when I calm down.

=====

January 23rd

Here it is Friday before the Australia day Long weekend and it seems I have made onto tomorrow's ESP bench press seminar after all. Even better Leigh is fronting up half the cost - what a good coach!

Training Report

Training this week has been much better - headcold starting to subside.

Tuesday - bench with SPLC on Tuesday - Speed.
Lockouts - 70kg x8 x4
Speed - 50kg x3 x8
Lying tricep - 4 sets
Single arm cross body tricep - 4 sets
Dumbell press - 45kg x8 x4

Wednesday - deadlift/hamstrings
warmed up with some light squats 60kg
Rack pulls - 120kg 6x6 (overhand grip and wrist straps)
Good mornings - 60kg x8 x4
Cable pull thru - 100,120, 140 140 x8 reps each

Thursday - shoulders/biceps
Side raises - 10lb, 15, 20, 25, 20 x8 reps each
Seated overhead press - 100, 120, 140, 160, 180 x8 reps each
Barbell front raise - 35lb x10 x4
Dumbbell bicep curl - 20lbx8, 25x8, 30x6, 35/3 drop 20/6 (smacked my finger with the 20lb dumbbell - ouch!)
Cable curl - 5 sets (with tears in my eyes - poor finger still smarting)
Reverse barbell curl - 30 x12 x4 (3 finger grip)

Tonight - rest

Injury report.

Right pointer finger - bruised first knuckle above nail - ow! - refer above.

Right Elbow - nagging tendinitis? Andrea Bizas (Chiro) says my right shoulder is still NQR - this may be contributing factor. May make an appointment next week to see one of the physios at Melbourne Sports Medical Centre to have elbow looked at.
Yes, my HBA limits are refreshed with the new year!! :-) I think I shall annoy Gordon McDonald with this one (Payback for Ben).
Left knee - Consultation with Orthopaedic surgeon. Xrays normal. Diagnosis: torn cartilage (Medial meniscus). Treatment Arthroscopic cleanup to trim the tear - 20 min procedure. Recovery 6-8 weeks! Discussed this with Leigh. We are too close to April comp and I DO need to do a qualifying comp for PA, then insufficient time between April and July Nationals. So, plan is postpone surgery until after Nationals giving me the most recuperation time before End of Year competitions (ie World Masters in Nov or Oceania's in December) All going to plan that is.

Right Hip - Pain free (touch wood) for no apparent reason or treatment? Physio Jess is off the hook for the time being - wont have to dig his precious elbow into my butt... for now....


=====

Jan 20th

Spent Sunday at Smiths Beach, Phillip Island. I didn't really feel up to it but had promised earlier in the week to take Madii and her friends, so kinda committed to it. Leah, Andrew and Miss Olivia joined us. It was a beaut day 26c nice breeze, water chilly but not so cold as Safety beach the other week - that was straight off the Antarctic! :-) Madii snapped a shot of me in my new cozzie - she was trying to get a 'Baywatch' pic of my coming out of the water - LOL.

Have stayed away from training but will venture back into MBS tonight and do speed bench with SPLC. I had put my hand up to attend a bench press seminar being held at Apollo Gym by the EFS guys but looks like I didn't get a guernsey, oh well $100 to put towards a new bench shirt for the April comp. Looking for a RED Titan F6 in a size 38 or 40. My chest measured 37, which is between sizes, so do I round down or round up? A 36 chest is a 38 shirt (meet fit) and a 38 chest is a 40 shirt (meet fit) or a 38 shirt (competition (tightest) fit). I'll probably err on the side of caution and go for a 40 since I haven't worn a Titan shirt before and my arms don't conform to their expected measurements, a bit big! Lifting Large are expecting some more stock in later in the week - hopefully they'll have one in my size.

====

Jan 17

Errrghh have been struck by the dreaded head cold fairy. Started feeling miserable in the wee hours on Friday morning, sore throat, fever. Soldiered on to work but my symptoms got worse as the day went on, sneezing and sniffing, so as soon as the clock ticked 3pm and pager was over I was out the door. Leigh was at the MCG and suggest I swing by and we go off for a latte at Atomica - I needed that!

Slept poorly Friday night, couldn't breath but at least by this morning the sore throat had subsided. Gave in and went to the chemist for some codral night and day tabs. Skipped benching with SPLC. A few of them are competing in Feb so not wise I think given my germy state. Still went over to D's to squat with Leigh but no energy, he suggested I just do 10 sets of 3 @ 60kg and I didn't argue (so unlike me and yet so indicative of how crap I felt) did 5 sets of 3 @ 60and an further 5 sets @70kg - to redeem myself a little. Couple of sets of bench press @ 60kg too, just for good measure.

Set off for a post workout latte and HIP HIP HOORAY! The absolute highlight of the day - TOBYS ESTATE cafe was OPEN !! No longer do I need to press my face against the window and peer in longingly. Terrific and the first latte's were free. Beautifully presented and delish to the max. Yummmy!! Melbourne readers or anyone visiting please do call in for a latte experience you wont forget. 29 Weston St, Brunswick.

Choofed off home - Madii is out, staying over at Michelle's. Home alone, sick and miserable. Fortunately I recorded a very interesting program which was on SBS the other night. "My penis and everyone Else's" Well, I guess it's not my penis, per say, I don't actually have one... but the program, a documentary, was about men's obsession with their penises, their lack of size and their inability to talk about it with other men. Fascinating really, women will talk about any genitalia issues or other problems with women but men wont discuss any dysfunction or such with other men - how do they ever get on? I got a good laugh out of it anyway - hmmm its seems that's why men wont talk about it - someone might laugh... idiots! :-)

Well, time I put myself to bed I think. I've downed the two night time tabs with my strawberry tea. I think a few pages of 'Dear Fatty' and I wont long off examining the insides of my eyelids. Goodnight Johnboy. sniffle....

=====

Wed Jan 14

Back at work for 2 days and already I'm having a 'work from home' day. It's boiling hot so I'm regretting my choice although it was nice to sleep in.

Quick review at Melbourne Sports Medical Centre with my sports Doc, Ben Barresi. Hip MRI didn't reveal any tear, that's good. There was some small blip, perhaps a hip defect that under some condition wears at the cartilage causing the pain or perhaps it a german submarine.... Anyhoo, right now (since the MRI strangely enough) it doesn't hurt - touch wood (touches head) so care factor zero. Knee still stiff and sore at times, like after sitting at my desk for extended periods, but not 'as' painful to poke an prod as before and I can kneel and sit down on my calves. Knee specialist next week, fingers crossed that its miraculously healing and wont require intervention.

Couldn't bench with SPLC last night. Madii had been part of the studio audience for that dreadful show 'Australia's got (no) talent' Ugghh. I was expecting to pick her up at 7pm but some misguided soul decided to jump in front of a train, fortunately Madii & Michelle didn't witness it but it delayed their return home.

In the meantime I trained back in the familiar territory of Definition. It was packed when I arrived just after 6pm, stifling hot and sticky. Its a great little gym with almost everything I need, however its getting more and more difficult to train there with so many people. Then there are those doing 'circuit' stuff and hogging multiple pieces of equipment - this should be restricted to off-peak times like the cardio equipment which has time limits. Enuf griping...

Speed bench: warmed up to 50kg 8sets 3 reps
Pin press: 70kg 4sets 8 reps
Floor press with 45lb dumbells: 4sets 8 reps
Tricep press: 80 90 100 100 8 reps each
Wide Seated cable row: 90 100 110 110 8 reps
Started on cable side bends when I got the SMS to pick oup Madii. By now it's near 7.30pm and so I finish set 2 at 100 and leave.

Dinner: the lazy womans guide to cooking...
chicken surprise: throw whatever you have in the fridge and/or pantry in a pot along with some minced chicken and surprise surprise maybe something edible!? or not, but I'm willing to take that chance...

Whilst in the pantry, I grabbed a can of cat food for the cats, not me, and with all the dexterity and hand/eye co-ordination of a tourettes sufferer I swiped the can off the shelf and onto the floor. Damn! Now I have to bend down and pick it up - Ughhh, why is this so difficult? I should have taken the opportunity to ask the Doc-meister during my consult. 'Why is it possible for me to squat down with say 100kg on my back, raw, and get back up, but pick up an 85g can of cat food is nair impossible? ' 'Why, when getting something out of the bottom draw do I need to pull my self up with the bench top?' 'Why do I need to use the arms of a chair to get out of said chair?' 'How is it that I can pull 130kg ,raw and OMG 177kg with a suit in a deadlift but the damn 85g cat tin is a monumental effort?' I don't get it! hmmmmpfh

Leigh suggested last night that we may start squatting on Monday nights again - yay. I love routine and I love a plan. I perform best when I have a focused and I focus best when I have a plan. Leigh knows how to make it all come together! That's another think I like about SPLC too, routine, planning. Speed bench Tuesdays, Heavy Bench Saturday - Be there or its your loss! I'm really impressed with Rikki too, she has her comp training plan all worked and written up in her training log - so organized, puts me to shame! :-)

Deadlift tonight; probs speed pulls off a two inch platform, heavy rack pulls and hamstring stuff, good mornings, hypers...

=====

Jan 9, almost Jan 10

Late entry....

Just got home after a late squat session and debrief latte's. Hungry now but too late for a real meal so cup-a-soup will do. Chinese chicken and corn.

Squatted well, warmed up to 4x4@90 with light knee wraps - still protective of the left knee. Had to use the monolift, which has some scary memories, but I did the walk out rather than use the monolift proper. Then a regular squat rack was free I did 4x5 front squats with just 40kg, these force me deep and keep my knees apart - neat! Last some box squats 4x3@40 ultra low and speedy.

Today I relaxed - I think this is officially the last day of my holidays, being Friday. Sat out on the deck with a latte and my book for a while this morning, taking in the sunshine and tranquility, listening to the bell birds. Then I destroyed all that peace by starting up the chainsaw. Felled a large dead wattle at the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately it didn't fall quite where I wanted, or rather it did, but I didn't plan it very well and it landed on top of a nice blossom tree down at the road. This took some effort and time to clear and I've sadly damaged the blossom tree. Bugger it! Then off for a little shopping trip, home, then off to afore mentioned training.

So now just a regular weekend and back to work Monday - on pager. Yay (not).

Training tomorrow with SPLC - heavy bench. Starting to fit in. I like it. Sunday over to my sister's to loan her the truck while her car is off being repaired.

On the chores front, I have competed a couple more tasks:
De-spiderize / cobweb the outside of the house AND as an extra I de-spidered the horse float.
Started work on the DARC website. Please take a look, not all the pages have content yet (News & Out 'n About) but the others have a little bit. Check out the gallery page, see if you can pick out me & Mojo.


====

January 4th

Welcome to 2009 - Boy the year is moving fast. Cant believe its the fourth already! New Years resolutions... NONE. I'm already perfect.

However I am starting out the year with a new (sort of..) direction, in so far as, for those who don't know, I have resigned from CAPO and joined up to Powerlifting Australia. Target competition is Melbourne Open on April 4th (re: countdown above right). My reasons for leaving CAPO, well there are a couple, but mostly I want some legitimate recognition for my lifts and to compete at an international level - this kind of opportunity is not realistically available via CAPO. SO the plan is to get my qualifying total in at the Melbourne so that I can compete at Nationals later in the year and all going to plan I'll get a decent total at Nationals that will qualify me for Worlds.

Zoo report:

Feeding time for the lions

And up close

Leah and Madii

Olivia and Andrew

Cashy & Madii

Me - LOL

Started the new year with a squat session at D's with Leigh. Worked up to 5reps @75 before wrapping the ever delicate knees and settling in for 6 sets of 3 reps @90 while Leigh Box squatted and did some super impressive deep front squats. Followed this up with some gay leg press; 4 sets of 8 pausing at the bottom for an explosive press. Then off in search of a coffee shop that would be open on NY day.

Speaking of which, I saw a sign in the window of the Toby's Estate cafe which has been teasing me for the past 6 months waiting for it to open. Finally the council has given their approval (I wonder who slept with who to get that !) Anyway... YAY!!!!!!! Its opening!! They're looking for barista's too - fulltime / parttime. I'm gonna see if they'll let me do 'work experience'. Really, I'd like to do it! I mean, after all, I do have my barista certificate from Lavazza. I would be way cool to get some experience on a commercial machine. Of course I will still love my Rancillio Silvia (in an objectaphile kind of way - LOL)

Back to training stuff. Speed bench with SPL at MBS again on Tuesday and then followed up with a max bench session on the Saturday- double at 75kg - failed at 80kg - ran out of steam.

=====

Chores

As promised to myself, I made a start on the chores around the house. One that I hadnt put on the list but has been completed today was to clean the BBQ and get a gas bottle refill, checked it all and made sure its working. So I'm all ready for the summer BBQ's out on the deck.


Speaking of the deck I can also tick off re-sealing the decking - just one coat this year. After close inspection, it wasn't in too bad of condition. Got it done in around 1 hour - this time I wore knee pads - what a difference they made: No knee blisters!!

I have a vistor staying here for a few days. One of Madii's friends who moved interstate has come down to Melbourne for a visit and no where to stay. He (yes He..) sleeping in the spare room at the very bottom of the house!! Seems pretty nice, for a vegetarian... polite 'n all.

Tomorrow we're all off to Melbourne Zoo. Haven't been for a few years and this will be Andrew's little girl Miss Olivia's first time.

Pretty quiet on the training front. Saturday morning's squat session went better than expected. Although wondering why I had agreed to squat at D's so early, I felt good, no hip twinge for a change and so warmed up raw to 5 reps at 75kg and knocked off 8 sets of 2reps at 90kg with light knee wraps ever careful of my wonky knee. Nice and easy. Tomorrow night I'll be back over at MBS in Richmond to speed bench with SPL.

Looking at that paragraph, I'm thinking I need to put an acronyms & abbreviations list on the side of the page. LOL

=====

Christmas Chainsaw Adventures

Guess who got a CHAINSAW for Christmas......

How funny too that Leigh, without prior knowledge of the chainsaw gave me a DVD titled 'Women that kill' and a 'Evil Penguins' featuring a penguin with a Chainsaw on the cover. He also gave me Dawn French's book 'Dear Fatty'. That alone is justification, officer, for a chainsaw massacre. Brave move that one! Actually, it looks like a good read.... :-) Its next on my list after I finish Jeffery Deaver's 'The Broken Window' which I got for my birthday last week.

Poor Andrew had the pleasure of buying the chainsaw and told the salesman that he was buying it for his 'mother-in-law'. 'You're game! Oh well if she has a go at you, you'll be dead before you know it - its pretty sharp!' LOL.

So, Christmas over for another year. Such a long day of eating, drinking, eating, drinking, eating, eating and then when you think its over... some more eating.

Spent Boxing day away from the crowds / shopping. I have this theory that all the stuff on sale has been brought in especially for the sales. ie. nothing that I saw / wanted last week is actually on sale. Watched a favorite movie with Madii, 'Love Actually' no matter how many times I watch it, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry. Pure fantasy of course - love is never so romantic in real life.

I did, however, venture to Westfield today (Saturday) with Madii as she wanted to spend her Christmas money and spoilt myself with a 1/2 price GUESS bag.

Have not made a move on any of the chores so far... choosing to indulge myself in doing nothing more than lounging in the sun. Tomorrow... no, Monday, I'll make a start on Monday.... (famous last words....)

Gym tomorrow - 0700 squatting - ick! Such an unfriendly time of the day.

=====

Christmas Eve

Had my MRI this morning - Eoww very claustrophobic. Worse than a sun bed! Fortunately my head wasn't too far into the machine and I could kinda see daylight behind me. Closed my eyes and listened to the music. Really noticed my breathing, big, shallow, shallow, shallow... My old yoga instructor always said to notice your breathing, but I never really did - not like this anyway. After a first little bit I was ok. Appt to get the results in mid Jan after I return from leave .

Yes 2 & 1/2 weeks of leave from today, of course returning smack bang into carrying the P1 pager :-(

Holiday Tasks.
==========
Clean and re-coat the decking (thats what Christmas holidays are for..)
Clean the gutters. Ick - ladder of death....
De-spiderize / cobweb the outside of the house.
Clean Windows (yuk)
Finish spray painting the horse float - and wash it!!
Train, train and when I'm not doing anything else... train.
Oh... and sleep in every day.

If I can find the money I might get some more stones and pavers for the drive and around the side of the house - where, since Leah has returned home, the truck has been relegated to (again)

Yay - Christmas tomorrow :-)

========

Pictoral post

Munted Rabbit

Priscilla's contribution to Christmas dinner.....

One bicep pic.
Actually the pic is of the bruise which looked uncannily like the little MSN man.

Me 'n Mojo - Isn't he a spunk!

Freshly mowed backyard (1/2 acre)
hours of fun on a 30c day.

Struck down by a virus

Miserable weekend - some dodgy damn Trojan virus infected my laptop. No matter how many times I cleaned it - it kept coming back. The main virus - a dropper, was loading other viruses and remaining undetected itself - sneaky. Took me until Tuesday to get rid of it, in the mean time I was using a older decommissioned machine to work with and after installing some updates to make it compliant - the hard disk failed. Fortunately Madii's photo's have been able to be retrieved and a new hard drive from another decomm machine has been installed. GIT are in the process of re-imaging it with all the oracle software and updates etc....

Tuesday I went off to see Dr. Barresi, my sports doctor about my wobbly knee cap. He's referred me on to a knee specialist concerned that I may have a slight tear in the meniscus. It doesn't hurt, just feels unstable sometimes and is rather stiff when I try to squat deep. Of course it hurts more now that there might really be something wrong - LOL, but in fact its been like this since mid September (2 weeks before Nats). I remember the exact moment it happened too, I was doing walkouts with 200kg and I felt my knee 'give a little' - didn't hurt, but since then the knee cap has felt 'wobbly'. I went on to squat 145kg at Nats so.... ahhh... I'll just be a llittle careful with it - keep the knees wrapped when I squat until I know what's what with it.

Also have an appointment next week for an MRI on my right hip. I am determined to know why my hip hurts - all the stretching in the world hasn't alleviated the pain - it's so annoying. Its not a pain that stops me lifting but more like.... it makes me hesitate and not drop into the squat becuase I know I'll get this sharp stabbing pain - grrrrr. Dr Barresi suspects "Labral tear with ligamentum teres tear" That's what we'll be looking for. Not that anything much can be done if that is what the problem is - pain management and inflammation control, but no magic bullet.

Benched with SPLC again on Tuesday evening - speed work, which is what they do on Tuesdays, nice and easy for me. I almost didn't go due some mad panic attack, a completely irrational feeling that I was like an intruder inviting myself along to their training - Stupid! and I'm glad I went. I've become so accustomed to training on my own or with Leigh that I find it a little hard to interact with others and then I try too hard and get into a mess. I'm sure it will get easier as I get to know them.

====

Friday, December 12

Busy week in the office with one of our main machines down for a few days making life very difficult and slow and then trying to get thru the backlog of work in my queue.

Madii came a cropper at the weekend falling from Mojo on the last jump of the last round of the State Qualifier. Stirrup leather broke just before a double jump, too late to pull up and when she landed between the jumps she came off onto her back and winded herself quite badly. Bugger too as she had a clear round otherwise. Poor Mojo didn't know what was going on and just stood there beside her even as I and the medics came running up - what a good boy. She's ok tho', sore but otherwise ok.

Tuesday night I trained with Southern Powerlifting Club at Muscle and Body Shape Gym in Richmond. They all made me feel very welcome and it was really good to train with like minded people. We did some speed bench with bands and board presses. I've done lockout work before but not board presses. Was really good to try something different too. For someone that trains 90% on my own, I really enjoyed training with the group. I think this will do a lot for my training and hopefully I can give back to them in some way too.

Deadlift training Wed afternoon went a bit pear shaped and so I ended up doing another leg workout Thursday night at Definition. Squats 8x3 @90kg with light wraps and belt. My right knee cap has taken on a life of its own and seems to be trying to escape so I've booked an appointment with Dr. Ben B at Melbourne Sports Medical Centre. It doesn't hurt to squat, but 'moves' which is really uncomfortable - so that's why I used wraps this week. I probably could have gone without the belt but I was just lazy. Did 5 reps@ 80kg with just light knee wraps... (Yep Lazy!)

Lunch at 'The Curry Club' today followed by chocolates and coffee at 'Truffles Chocolatier' in Richmond, all courtesy of our USA manager to thanks us for the excellent work our team does, given that there are only four of us here! Maybe some fat lady benching tonight at Definition - I'm sure I'm up a weight class....

====

Something new

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.... Was lacking imagination last night for some core work so asked Dirk for a suggestion. What he came up with was nothing short of wicked. I'll try to describe it:

Bar anchored to the floor at one end with a plate of your choice at the other, I started with a 10kg plate. Standing with legs apart in front of the bar grip the bar, alternate grip, close to the plate. Stand erect and swing the bar, arms extended, across your body and up - stop before the bar descends in over the arc. Keep your knees facing forward and twist only from the waist - really works the obliques to control the bar. Too much swing and its going to fly over the arc and take you with it!! Massive cardio work too - or maybe that's just my poor CV fitness!

Squatting tonight at Doherty's....

Major running around to do tomorrow...

Sunday we're off to Wesburn Park Equestrian centre for the state qualifiers - Madii and Mojo are doing Grade 3 showjumping. We've had Mojo in the 'Jenny Craig' paddock this week and hand feeding him - he's just getting too fat, doubt he'll be able to haul his fat belly over the jumps. The video is Madii fighting with him to do the cross country jumps SLOW - he tends to bolt at them.

Kangaroos the back yard the other night.
Taken with my camera on max zoom.

My weird-arse Latte art

Max Ryan - need I say more. xxx

====

Landmark Sex:

Thanks to IceTV's online TV guide I'm discovering all manner of obscure shows.

On SBS tomorrow night:

Landmark Sex: Married to the Eiffel Tower
A compelling documentary about the ‘objectum sexual' disorder. Naisho is married to the Eiffel Tower. She has a passion for inanimate objects, and her mission is to fight the stigma surrounding the disorder and create a global network of sufferers - like Amy, in love with a church organ, and Eija Riita, who married the Berlin Wall. Present tense narrative mixes with intimate stories as the characters describe their love and relationships, and just what it's like to be in love with a highly public structure.

An interesting review of the 'documentary' is on the internet - and I quote:

"Standing wistfully in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, Naisho announced that "despite our vast differences, we are very much in love". The bridge kept quiet in that way bridges tend to. This former world champion archer had enjoyed previous affairs with a crossbow and a sword, which could at least be conducted indoors. Asking the Golden Gate Bridge to come back to your place is a bit trickier.

Naisho regularly made love to a piece of metal stolen from the bridge. Fortunately we were spared this spectacle, although she was filmed getting hot and heavy with a length of fencing."

So there is hope for me yet to find true love..... ;-)

=====

Drug free

It's been 9 days since I had any meloxicam (Mobic), I am in pain when I walk and the underside of my foot feels swollen although visually it appears not to be so. I am also questioning if the onset of a bout of tendinitis in my right elbow is related to the cessation of this anti-inflammatory drug. I've increased the does of glucosamine and fish oil but so far no tangible benefit. Mobic is, I am told, not addictive however it's not the sort of drug that anyone should be on long term given it has some cardio vascular risk. I've been on it for the past 12 months since my chilectomy. I'll hang out a bit longer and see if my body starts manage naturally. In the event of failure, the doctor advised that there is an alternative drug treatment...... I'm off to see Andrea Bisaz this afternoon - my chiro, no doubt he'll have some more poking and proding to for my elbow too.

Still cant complain too much, while the elbow is inhibiting my pull work, deadlift, back etc... I still managed to bench on Monday although I had to cut the assistance work - attempted some close grip bench (triceps) and this hurt majorly.

Night off tonight - gonna crash in front of the telly or do something equally exciting like wax my legs. A sigh of relief as Dad has gone home from hospital (admitted Tuesday morning) He wasn't too good when I saw him Sunday, but ok enough now to go home. Apparently he overdosed his Ventolin 'cos he was having trouble breathing and this caused some heart palpitations etc.... bit scary when you're 85. Parents.... what a worry!

=====

In the door

Just got home from the Colac comp and have got half an hour to kill before heading out to pick up Madii from the movies. So here's a brief update.

Quite a big turnout for a comp so far out of town, took over two hours to get there but it was worth the drive. Really good standard of competitors and I was very impressed with the 'Southern Belles' (the Chickies from Southern Powerlifting Club) Very strong and excellent technical benchers. I'll have to wrangle an invite to bench with the club. I was also surprised at the number of lifters from Marty Girvan's gym Apollo (ESP?) Some big guys!

The comp moved along at a slowish pace, well it seemed that way after lifting in the fastest comp ever in Perth. Sheesh, like we were hardly off the platform from the bench press when the deadlift was being called. Seriously I got to warm up with a double on 100, a double on 120 and a single on 140 before Leigh dragged me to the platform to do my 160 opener with the finals words of "you can catch your breath after you've done your opener..." And I was not the only one caught out by the fast pace.... Maria had to *cut* her squat suit off in order to make time before benching...

Anyway back to today's comp. As I said it was moving slow... (or regular pace) and unfortunatley leaving a t 5pm, (The comp started at 12.00) I didnt get to see the deadlifting section, my favorite! :-( But just couldnt stay any longer. I have some photo's from the squatting which I'll post a couple of them here once I get them off the camera and I'll check out both the PA and Souhern websites for the final results.

Well that's it, hanging to go to bed.... tired, once I get Madi home I'm off. Squatting tomorrow morning - extra light speed work, my legs are still sore from Thursday's training - must have been the leg press! :-)

=====

Previous applicants need not re-apply.

I would rather remain single for the rest of my life......... No 2nd chance so don't bother with the 'how'r doin' txt message some 18 months down the track. Foff.

Squat
Had a squat partner at Definition last night. Steve is training under George Mariolis, who has had awesome sucess this year at the various federation's body building shows with his clients. So we 'shared' the squat rack.

85x3 x8 (down up down up down up - rack)
80x3 x5 box squats - belt, light wraps and the safety squat bar just to add to the degree of difficulty!
100x8x2 140x6x2 Bottom leg press (partial press only)

Seated Calf raise 4x15
incline situps 5x20

Some new features on the side bar, a widget for following the blog and a chat style comment box - we'll see if this encourages some feedback.

It's a BOY

MAX RYAN - born November 20 2008.

Congratulations to Mumma Jo and Daddy Ryan.

Joanne is finally a Mum !!!!

Poker Pro's

Corporate games 2008 - Poker. I still question how poker is classified as a sport but what the hell, $1500 in Casino chips to play with - aka lose. I lasted about the same as last year - 45 mins, had a couple of good hands beaten by ever so slightly better hands and when the blinds started doubling it got too rich for me and I was out. Adrianna on the other hand made it thru to round 2 today and gets allocated $10000 in chips. What a pity they cant be cashed in :-)

On the training front, working backwards from today, squatted this morning at 6.30am - yuck!

Side note: I am getting damn tired of this bloody hip pain, I've kept up the stretching as suggested by the physio but its just not working. My flexibility has improved in that particular area, but its not relieving the pain when I squat, and I've go no more physio allowance on my health insurance until January when the new year limits are reset again. Wouldn't it be great if I could use Madii's allocation of physio benefit....

Where was I? Ahh squatting....
2 x 5 x bar (20kg), 5 x 40kg, 5 x 60kg, 5 x 80kg
5 x 5 x 100kg wraps and belt.
4x5 x15kg standing leg curl.

Friday
Poker - no training....

Thursday
Madii - spray tan for her school formal (this coming Monday eve)
Out shopping with Leah at the recently re-opened Westfield Shopping Town - trying to find a nice keepsake for her 21st -without any luck. Stopped in at Koko Black for one of their infamous hot chocolates and indulge in a couple of their hand made chocolates - yummmmmm. Felt sick after.....
No training....

Wednesday
Deadlift - warmed up to 5 x 120kg using conventional style and then 3 x 5 @ 140 with belt on sumo style. Probably should have warmed up a bit more in sumo rather than changing style for the last heavy sets. Felt strong with the conventional method for a change. Went on to do rack pulls (conventional) @ 160 but struggled and was not tight so rather than risk doing something stupid and getting hurt I moved on to do some shrugs. Could have really done with a massage the next day... grrr.. have run out of massage benefit too!

Carrying the p1 pager this weekend (have been on pager all week...) No time to train tomorrow. Gotta be at Bunnings for the DARC sausage sizzle in the morning for an hour or so. Then the pager will kick in. Monday benching after Madii goes off to her formal. Will train straight thru Mon - Thurs. Out Friday night for dinner with an old friend Andrea, who I have not seen for a couple of years - we have so much to catch up on!

Saturday - off to Colac to watch the PA/IPF Victorian Extravaganza.

But right now... I could do with a nap!

====

Tuesday Nov 17

Watched the funniest show last night. Nip/Tuck. Its on quite late and I just happened to chance on it last night, I know its been around for a while but I had never seen an episode. Hilarious, strange but hilarious! Have setup the Toppy to record this each week.

Talking of the Toppy - yes I finally mastered the network issue. I needed to have a 10 digit hex passkey - I had only setup a 5 character ascii key. Found this juicy little tidbit on the Topfield forum. Nowhere is it documented that this is required. Anyway, this messed up the laptops and my Dopod, had to change the passkey's on them also. End result: I now have the wireless modem/router over by the window were it gets the best 3G reception and everything connects, IceTv & Interactive is working, I can ping the Toppy and FTP to and from it !! Yay!!

Benched but still didnt crack the 5x5 on 70. 5 sets of 3 reps was best with belt on. Funny how 60 can fly up for 8 reps easy, just a little 10kg more and flat!
Dumbell press: 45lbx8 55lbx8 65lbx4 55lbx6 50lbx6
Doh - should have done some flyes....
Rope pulls 100 x8 4sets
Wide grip rows 110 x8 4sets
Ab crunches 3x20

=====

Monday Nov 17

Training plans a little messed up on Saturday, so settled for some arm work: close grip presses, french presses, reverse cables, ez-bar curls, machine curls....
Breakfast at the cafe around the corner afterward.

Sunday afternoon squat:
warmed up to 5x5 @ 82.5 (raw/raw)
Low box squats (belt and lightwraps) 70kg 4x5 too easy with equipment but engages the hips better.
Bottom hack squats 30kg 4x8
Leg extensions - crap not doing these any more, every 2nd rep I could feel my knee cap slipping out of place - doesn't hurt but is totally off putting and who knows what damage it might be doing.

No residual soreness today, Benching tonight at Definition. Plan is to stick with 70kg 5x5 until it feels easy. Deadlifting later in the week, maybe Wednesday.

Another failed attempt at getting my Toppy to connect to the wireless network last night - feeling quite frustrated by this network issue. Everthing else can connect to the wireless network - why not the Topfield 7100? Will see if disabling the WEP security works.

Working from home today and tomorrow - aka working in pjamas :-)

=====

November 12

Benched Monday as planned - wasn't feeling particularly strong and the 40kg warmups felt really heavy. Still, fought thru 5 sets of 3reps at 70kg, I did cheat some what by having my belt on. Lockouts @ 80kg were also lack lustre. Tricep JM presses, still protecting my elbows... then Chest supported rows 35kg each side: 2 sets of 8 and 2 sets of 6 followed by pulldowns 15,15,15,10 V-handle, wide, reverse, wide...

No training last night - stayed in and did the nerd thing - played with my toppy. Still no luck getting wireless working. I've downloaded some instruction off the Topfield forum which has some extra steps, but I wont get around to trying these out until Friday or at the weekend. Installed Icetv onto my Facebook page but its reporting some dodgy error which I've reported on the forum.

Traffic along the eastern freeway has been shocking the past few days - how is that on a freeway we can come to a complete halt and then crawl, stop, crawl, stop and then suddenly if frees up and back to doing 80k... then suddenly stopped again. Hoddle street / Punk road has also been bad and I've been getting to office after 8... Great case for working from home!

Managed to get off my seat at work today and sit outside in the sun - so nice. Just sat out the front of the building and soaked in some vitamin D for 10 mins.

Off to Leah and Andrew's tonight to try and figure out a problem they are having connecting/resyncing her IPOD.... Jack of all trades...

Tomorrow night - Deadlift training

Yowser

Not walking like an Egyptian... walking like a cowboy.

Not riding for a couple of months will do that to you. No matter how hard I train legs there's nothing like going for a ride to kill your inner thighs. I was thinking of deadlifting on Tuesday - forget it, I'll aim for Thursday, maybe then I will have recovered.

Did train legs Saturday afternoon - after riding as planned. Lacked a bit of spark, speed work (supposedly) 9sets of 3reps at 80kg, followed by ultra low box squats at 60kg - fun. Then out for dinner down Lygon street.

Madii rode on Sunday afternoon. Clear round in show jumping and one refusal on the cross country. We're all (all 3 of us) unfit. Mojo held up well - no sign of lameness (touch wood). Still supplementing his feed with glucosamine but no BZT's at the moment.

And on the supplement line... Chatted to Tony Torcasio From MAX's at Doherty's on Saturday, Leigh had been telling him about my successful lifts at Nationals. This also prompted me to check my supplies when I got home.... ughh getting low on my post workout protein shakes and I'd really like to try Max's Reload HGF... However I still haven't renewed my Doherty's membership and I need some new equipment ie: bench shirt and some bits n pieces for when I compete next year... so the supplements are gonna have to wait....

=====

Sore all over.

Training like a bodybuilder hurts - LOL - only because they are movements to which my body has become unaccustomed. dumbell bench, flyes, bicep curls.... my body hurts! Never mind I plough on.

Deadlift-y stuff last night. (back to powerlifting basics)
Rack pulls @ knee level - warmed up to 140kg for 5x5 with belt and straps - note to self adjust belt out one notch (yes the weight is coming back on.... bang on 70kg)
Then just for a bit of fun went for a 1 rep max, 150x3 160x2 170x1 180 fail. Just a bit knackered by then.

Dumbell shrugs - 50x12 60x10 75x10 x2
Dumbell snatch thing-y - never done this before so very light while getting technique right. 10x8 12.5x8 15x8 20x8
Cable pull thru's - 100x12 120x10 140x8 x2

Toddled into the city yesterday - replenish my supply of supplement from Evelyn Faye. $128.00 later I have just 3 bottles of goodies: Glucosamine, multi-vitamin and CoQ10 - Ouch. I had dropped all my supplements bar fishoil and glucosamine after the comp, but its time start loading again. I still have half a tub of creatine and half a tub of glutamine, so have started back on them. The loading phase for creatine is always difficult. I drink coffee way too often and rarely have an empty stomach! (LOL) I think there are some creatine's that don't need loading - I'll look into that when I run out, although I'm still not convince that creatine does all that much for me personally. Some of the other supplements I'll leave until I'm in a competition cycle. I don't believe in supplementing all year round - I feel it devalues the benefit (and it devalues my bank account).


Today my traps are sore... Thankfully tonight is rest night, my only one this week. Tomorrow afternoon squatting at Doherty's - my membership has runout - hopefully Tony will be there and I can get a good deal with him to rejoin.

I'm hoping to get down to DARC tomorrow morning, although the weather is looking pretty nasty. Just want to get in one lesson - I haven't ridden for such a long time, a few months at least. Probably not the best thing to do before squatting but no chance on Sunday - I'll be wayyyy to sore from riding to even consider training.

Finished reading the latest book by Lynda LaPlante 'Deadly Intent'. Now I have nothing to read :-( :-( Started re-reading Red Dahlia, with a sense of deja-vu strangely enough. This is why I've never re-read any of my books in the past.... Both Madii and Leah do it all the time..... Ughhh. Got hold of DEXTER season 3, but only the first 6 episodes. There'll be a DEXTER-FEST over the weekend with Madii :-)

Still on the todo list:
Configure the Toppy to connect wirelessly
Change the network from DHCP to Static (better see what address is available outside DHCP)
Create website for DARC

=====

After training....

Had a great workout tonight - felt very strong. Very bodybuildery.. LOL

Bench (in the power rack) worked up to 70kg 5x5
Dumbell press 35lbx12 45x10 55x8 60x8 x2sets
Dumbell flyes 20lbx15 x4

Wide seated row 80x10, 90x10, 100x8 110x8 120x8
Wide pulldown 80x10 100x8 120x6 80x10

Hanging leg raise 2x8 2x8 (weighted)
Cable crunches 60 x12 x4

Shepards pie and vegies for dinner followed by a latte made from freshly roasted beans from Atomica - Does it get any better?

=====

Homeless

In limbo, homeless. The change is underway. Some will know what this means, but until the transition is complete I feel lost

Thursday night squat and deadlift. A brief chat with Paul Nay, CAPO president, Jojo and their training partner (I am so bad with names) who, if I understood correctly, may be competing in IPF here.

warmed up to 80kg then 5x5

First full on deadlift since the comp, an easy 80kg 5x5
Played with 140kg, but my hands were soft and not gripping the bar , bit like the guy at the olympics, my hand wouldn't stay closed around the bar. Left it alone as my head was not in the right place for anything big.

Friday - legs sore! I've really become unaccustomed to reps....

Brought home the new baby Friday night, a Toppy 7100, $650 from 'The Good Guys' Nunawading and HDMI cable for $45 (was 70). Pretty happy with those prices. Ripped out the old set top box and DVD recorder and hooked up the Toppy. Worked nicely out of the box. Spent Saturday on the couch fiddling with it and installing the lastest firmware so that IceTV would work. Couldnt get it to connect with my wireless network, but once I hooked up the ethernet cable it was fine. Still I want to get it going wireless so I'll get onto that tomorrow.

Gorgeous day yesterday, mowed the grass (again) - such a big job. Got a blister on my littte finger. Fell asleep in the recliner watching Indianna Jones 4.

Today (raining) - working from home, it's 1pm and I'm still in my PJ's. Tomorrow Cup day holiday, plenty of time to mess with the Toppy. I might even make a start on the DARC webpage. Taking Madii into Fitzroy to Atomica for a latte this afternoon. Will train at Definition tonight. Bench stuff and squeeze in a couple of hours tomorrow for legs again - accessory stuff.