5igmund.com

So I have been looking at my last posts, very lame not much content and well frankly they bore me.  So I am going to dispense with the daily workout updates and maybe just throw one out there every once in a while just to shake things up a bit.

This weekend ended up being quite lazy in terms of working out.  I would have liked to get my roller blading in this past weekend but, I just ran out of time.  I did get a brief workout in on Saturday but not the full crossfit WOD.   I did go for a 2 mile walk yesterday which does make me happy but does not really get me to my goal. Oh well on I will trudge with the WOD today.  Looks like I am on the hook for at least 25 burpees for time though I may do more as this was a staple exercise in basic training.  

Yesterday was a great workout and I am really feeling the burn a bit today.  I guess that is how out of shape I am.   I made it through 5 iterations of 10 thrusters and 5 pullups.  Though my pullups at the end were more of the jump up and slow downward movement than full pullups.  I am okay with that since I ended up doing 25 pullups.  Today will be a 2 mile run with the dog to knock the dust off the sneakers and get back into it.  I am looking forward to taking the dog out for a little jaunt around the block.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, all of my workouts from here on out will be rain or shine.  One caveat is that if it is super rainy I will most likely transition my skating workout to running so that I dont super soak my rollerblades and get rust going on the rivets.  I wish I would have kept going from last year when I came home but I enjoyed that home cooking just a bit too much. 

 You may have also noticed that I am not tracking weight!  That’s right because, I really dont care how much I weigh anymore.  I only care about how I look and feel.  As long as you are eating healthy, working out and look good does it matter how much you weigh?  I will be tracking my body fat% though which I think is the key guage as to how fit a person is.  At my lightest while I deployed I only got down to 165 or so.  No matter what I did or how hard I worked out I could not get lower than that.  Same as in High School I could not get below 160 but, I had little to no fat on me, it was all muscle.  That is why I don’t really care what my weight is anymore as I naturally carry a bunch of muscle. I just need it to show.

Yesterday I broke out the skates and skated around 2 miles.  Not for time or speed just to get out and remember how to skate on wheels instead of blades.  Not too bad but I had to get used to the longer base as I have training blades for going fast.  I felt pretty awkward skating around in them as I did not have a hockey stick in my hands.  It is much more of a workout to build endurance instead of working just on speed.  I was pretty zapped after my roll.  Today I will be doing the following workout courtesy of Brand X Martial Arts which provides scaled Crossfit workouts.  I am by no means in shape enough or tough enough to complete full crossfit workouts so I do the Brand X scaled workouts.  It’s true I do whatever the “buttercup” workout is.  It may sound weak but trust me it is not.

Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as you can of:
25 pound Thruster, 8 reps
6 Jumping or Beginner Pull ups.

Yesterday was day 1 of starting out my workout schedule.  Unfortunatly, I did not get as far along as I wanted.  I really only did a few pullups and pushups thinking that I would be playing hockey last night.  Well hockey got cancelled at the last minute and that was it for last night.  Tonight I am fitting in a few hours of rollerblading only a few miles tonight, enought to get the blood pumping again and remember how to skate on wheels.

Since last November I have been playing in a Men’s Hockey League.   Wednesday night was our final playoff game and we were eliminated.  Which, came at no surprise to us since we had only won 2 games out of 22 during the regular season.  Nonetheless it was a great workout and a fun time to get together with friends and play some Hockey. This summer we are going to continue to play but, the format will be much more ad-hoc and unorganized. Basically playing whenever there is open ice time and we can get some guys together to play. That is okay though as it will just be to gain skills and stay in shape for next season. Let’s be clear I am by no means a great hockey player. Growing up I was a downhill skier not a hockey player. In fact I skated very poorly until I joined an intramural team at the U and played a few games, and was not so great though I did score 1 goal. Ramping up to play in that league I got much better at skating. When I returned home from Iraq, George’s brother had a team and need some players so I joined up with the caveat that I sucked. Over the course of a season you can see my stats here,  Not so great and they are missing one of my games and my 2 penalty minutes.  So, we are out for the season but I am looking forward to keeping hockey as a workout for the summer.  Unlike the regular season I will play but do my normal workout as well as play hockey .  My new workout starts Monday so I have the weekend to have fun! 

I decided with a friend that we are going to train for and run the North Shore Inline Marathon in Duluth.  I am going to use this Marathon is a launching pad to get my butt outside and workout.  I have been hibernating too long and is time to get myself back in shape.  I am not going to go so crazy as to abstain from drinking or eating out every once in a while but, I will definitely be watching what I eat.  So starting today with a bit of hockey I will start motivating myself and doing a few  exercises to ramp me up for the big start on Monday.  It seems as though Monday is always the best day to start something new.  I am planning on my workouts to look something like this.

I will be using modified and scaled Crossfit workouts to act as strength and core exercises.  This will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturday’s.  On Tuesdays I will alternate running and skating every other week for a short mileage day.  Thursday will be my static distance speed workouts involving sprints and other high speed power generating workouts.  Sunday is my mileage day that will build my mileage gradually between running and skating up to 20 miles.  After week 16 I will add in more distance workouts to really prepare for the last month before the marathon. 

Friday will be my most important training day, my rest day that will allow me to recharge my batteries and get ready for the next training cycle.  I picked Friday because it is usually the day that I have the most going on, both with work and a social life.  I will post is frequently as possible both my workout, performance, and other stuff on what I did for the day.  Hopefully, this will not only spur me to workout but to update content on this site much more often.

Great news! It dawned on my today that I still do in fact have my old posts from Iraq! In the coming days I will be getting these old posts up on 5igmund.com and have them post-dated to last year. It will take some hunting at first but I will do one post with links to all of my old ones that way it is easy for you to navigate to them. I am really excited that these were not lost forever! The only bad news is I only have a portion of my posts in my gmail account, so the hunt is still on for more. 

Note:  I will also be posting all of my old pictures up to my Flickr account to make sure I don’t loose them.

Checked out the food and wine experience last night at the convention center yesterday afternoon. I had gone into it with mixed reviews from multiple parties. Honestly, it did not disappoint. I also appreciated that there were numerous breweries there yesterday to sample. Though they were mostly all large breweries, Sierra Nevada, Summit, Schells, Sam Adams, Red Hook, Bells, Schlitz, Amstel Light and the list goes on. I think I enjoyed the Sierra Nevada ESB the most out of the show yesterday. I drank a bunch of wine as well, and the Frontenac from Falconer Vineyard in Red Wing, MN was I think my favorite of the show. There were a few others as well but I can not for the life of me remember their names. There was plenty to eat and drink all day long, I really appreciated the generous and tasty portions from Holy Land Bakery. I would say that I got my $60.00 worth of drinking/eating and then some. In 5 hours of constant drinking, I was definitely feeling good by the end of the show, glad I was not driving! I think next year we will get a hotel.  Sorry, no pictures it was way too crazy to balance all of the food and wine along with a camera. Though I did buy a handy neck lanyard to hold my wine glass around my neck. Yeah it was dorky but, I was not really there to impress anyone.

Icy St. Anthony Locks, originally uploaded by 5igmund.

Krista, Duke and I went out to St Anthony Falls to check out the low water. The Army Corps of Engineers lowered the water in the middle falls area to do some tunnel inspections and some other studies. So we decided to go down to the stone arch bridge and check out the low water. It was pretty sweet being able to check out the river at low water. You could really see how the currents ran through the river and rapids through the river there. Basically, I would not want to be in that water at any point. There are so many intricate currents that these photos do not even do justice to. I highly suggest going down tomorrow and check it out before the Corps raises the river level tomorrow.