day fifteen

i was fairly uncomfortable for most of the day. there are many positions that are difficult with a misplaced rib. getting in and out of bed, turning over, hell even trying to dress yourself can be a challenge as well. there is also pressure in your back when you take a deep breath. so i spent most of the day in bed with an ice pack on my back.

after a lot of deliberation and mental coin-tossing i decided that i would go to the gym. i figured back day would either be the hair of the dog or it would be the proverbial camel's straw. i have been home for about an hour now and i am moving comfortable so at this point it was the hair of the dog.

attempting to get out of bed tomorrow morning could be another matter quite entirely.

all in all i am quite pleased with the last workout of 2012. here is to better, stronger workouts in 2013 with pounds of personal growth.

happy new year and all the best to those of you who take the time to stop by and read my ramblings. may you and your families experience nothing but health, joy and happiness in 2013.

p.s.: 225 words were added and we are officially at the half-way point of the challenge.

day fourteen

the struggles continue. i am adding words but i am not confident in them. hopefully all can be fixed in the second edit. but good words or bad there was another 150 added in today's effort.

trapper john was back at the gym today but he wisely left his furry hat at home. i wonder if he reads my blog?

in other gym news there is a very real chance that i squirted out another rib today. i either did it during front squats or when i was in the power squat machine. the padding on the yolk is fubared and i was distracted by what felt like a bolt head digging into my shoulder. i may have tried to shift away from the bolt head and likely made sh!t a whole lot worse.

in the insult to injury department: it turns out that the sports medicine clinic is open for business tomorrow, however my athletic therapist is at home with a busted ankle!! it's either going to be a case of miche heal thyself or suck it up and hope she heals quickly.

tomorrow i am supposed to dead lift and the focus of this six week training cycle is to either meet or best my previous record lift. it might be tricky with an errant rib.

day thirteen

arrgh!!

there is a word, a phrase that i am struggling to find. for reasons unknown my ability to find the words i need escape me. after i stalled out at the 200 word mark i gave up. actually giving up is really not a fair assessment, i consider it more of a strategic retreat.

i did manage to make it in to train today but it was not a very impressive performance. i struggled with the weights that i had planned to use. i hope that it was merely fatigue from my cold bug and not any real loss of strength. a loss of strength would really piss me off right now.

since i stayed missed yesterday's workout i will be hitting the gym on holiday monday to stay somewhat on schedule.

sadly it is that time of year again when the gym if filled with knobs and noobs who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. while some of it is entertaining some of it is also quite frightening. i am sure some of you think i should go out of my way to save them from themselves but since i no longer work there i just prefer to point and laugh. well i point on the inside i just snicker on the outside.

hey... i never said i was a nice person.

day twelve

i was struggling to write this evening. partially because i have a bug that i can't shake and partially because i have written myself into a corner. i need to do some more research before i can move ahead. hopefully i can be more productive tomorrow. tonight's 75 words was not impressive by any means but they are still words in the plus column. beggars can't be choosers.

no chest workout this evening just be more cold med's and then bed.

this post is short... but sadly not very sweet. maybe next time kids!

day eleven

since i was quickly running out of day, i had to be brief but i did add another 100 words. tomorrow i plan on moving one of my earlier chapters. i know i said that i would write 'forward's but as i mentioned yesterday the part of the story that i am currently working on has three distinct scenes that occur simultaneously. in hindsight i realize that i have the aforementioned paragraph out of order.

while at the gym earlier i had to marvel at the way a guy was training. he was doing seated rows and lat pull downs with a full back extension. extended to the point where his head was frighteningly close to the floor. i never thought i would see the day where cranial protection would become required gym wear. i should also add that i was not surprised to see him holding onto his back as he walked away from the machines.

gadzooks!!

day ten

525 words today. i am trying to tie together three separate scenes that happen almost simultaneously. i think that the method i have chosen is working pretty well, so all in all i am pleased.

yesterday i watched resident evil retribution. i am not sure what it is but for some reason i have recently become such a fan of the paranormal. milla jovovich's character alice is a bad ass and the fight sequences are so freaking awesome. i was literally cheering aloud as she dispatched her brand of justice. there was this scene where she broke a guys neck. she was standing over his prone body, she looked up and realized it was time to go and she just did this leg twist thing and you heard his neck break. it gave me shivers... the good kind.

anyway watching alice destroying zombies reminded me of something i had meant to show you. a while back StormOne offered to turn any of her readers into a zombie. well that was an opportunity i couldn't pass up. i sent her a pic from my recent trip to florida and like that i was zombiefied. i love this pic.

day nine

first of all i added 275 words today. in case you are curious my gift haul included some money, some gift cards, a new tennessee hoody and a dri-fit zippered jacket.

more importantly so far all of my gifts were well received. my brother was very pleased with the gift of golf balls. seems that was exactly what he planned to purchase for himself after christmas. score!! my mother was practically squealing when she opened her present. so i did well there as well. the gift i was most concerned about was my father's but when i saw him playing with it in his room several hours later i was pleased. my dad isn't one to show a lot of emotion and he has a tendency to save his gifts and you generally never see him use them. so walking past him pouring over the instructions and trying out the player on his own was very satisfying.

anyway i should go. pizza and cake beckon.

day eight

luckily it turned out to be a short work day. to be honest i wasn't sure i would have been able to last the entire work day. i was really noticing a draft as the day went on. the additional benefit to the abbreviated day was more time to work on the story.

i was able to add another 200 words. i named the two characters that i recently added, although technically i renamed one of them. i have to admit that naming characters is by far my favourite thing to do. i also created a photoshop file to help me keep track of who my characters are and their relationships to one another. and more importantly i did some research about a health concern that is going to factor into the story.

all that and i got a nap too. i slipped into a nyquil coma for almost three hours during the latter hours of the afternoon. yeah for me!

i guess i have put it off as long as possible, it is time to wrap the gifts i bought and stuff 'em around the christmas tree.

oh joy, oh bliss... who am i trying to kid? bah and humbug to you and yours ;-)

day seven

i ran into the bloke at the gym today and we discussed the writing challenge and the story. i told him about my need to cast more characters and my concern that there would not be enough time add to the story before the end of day. his felt that casting should count as writing as it is an important part of the process. i can see his point but since i didn't consider challenges like casting when i set the rules for my writing challenge i feel like changing things now is kind of cheating.

so to that end i focused on casting the characters i needed before i added a little more to the story. it was only about 75 words but more importantly i feel like i wasn't breaking my own rules.

i think that my blog is the only place that i haven't included post dead lifting pictures. so enjoy

day six

today was a big day. first of all i want to mention the 400 words that i added to my story. lucky for me it was not my only accomplishment for the day.

my intention was to get out of the house by 9:00 a.m to hit the stores. i needed to start and complete my christmas shopping before 3:30 p.m. i woke up feeling crappy and it was closer to half past ten before i was really up and quasi at 'em. it was 11:30 a.m before i really got the shopping thing underway.

my mother likes to wear sweat suits in the winter months and she likes them with holiday motifs. as the years pass it becomes harder and harder to track those sweat suits down. i was able to find some sweatshirts in one mall but had to go to another to locate coordinating bottoms.

my brothers and the sister-in-law were easy as they are all a bunch of golf nuts. a game that for the life of me i can't fathom but so be it. i will admit to basically mailing in the gift for my brothers kid but for reasons unknown the little sh*t does seem to have an issue with the words thank and you. my father was truly difficult. i thought maybe i'd get him a tablet since he is all about the computer game but without a wireless connection a tablet is somewhat useless. i am sorry but i am not comfortable with my parents having unlimited access to the interwebs. so after spinning my wheels in about three or four different electronics stores i finally settled on a portable dvd player. my dad is kind of gadgety so he should enjoy the new toy.

i was finished shopping by 2:30 pm so i was home with plenty of time to listen to the basketball game. sadly the lady vols lost but in their defence they lost to the number one team in the country. i will admit my team could have and should have played better but it has been a tough schedule of games with the last two games have been against the top ranked teams in the country. here's hoping they come off the christmas break playing with renewed fire and determination.

after the game i went to the gym. i have been focusing on my squat of late. my goal was to increase my squat poundage, to hopefully get it back to where it used to be pre-injury. it looks like i added 10 lbs to my 1RM, so that shows an improvement. it is likely not a true representation as i am still not 'better' and i somewhat congested. squatting heavy is hard on a good day... it is even harder when you aren't getting your full wind.

starting next week i plan to run a six week focus on dead lifts. the best i have ever done was 405lbs for one rep. i would really like to get at least get back to that weight. but i really want to surpass it.

after six weeks of deads my next focus will be on chest before i repeat the cycle again.

wow... i was wordy here tonight too.

day five

okay i broke the rules. i looked at the bit i wrote last night and i looked back at the scene as i wrote it in my journal. the journal version worked better. so i deleted 150 of yesterday's words but added 300 more. i still haven't cast the new characters that i mentioned needing yesterday. but then i was off work sick again today. three hours ago in fact was the first time that i got out of my bed today.

it is doubtful that i get a chance to do any casting tomorrow either. since the mayans were wrong, tomorrow no matter how i feel, i will have got to go out and start xmas shopping. i believe the stores open at 9:00 a.m. and the lady vols tip off at 4:00 p.m. So I have a good 6 hours to shop. I am curious to see how much shopping actually happens. I really don't like shopping at the best of times, so there is a very good chance tomorrow sees me grabbing a handful of gift cards and heading back to bed.

bag and humbug!!

day four

225 words were added today. it is almost time to introduce some new characters to my story. but before i do that i think i have to do some casting. when i started this story i had planned it around nine characters but the more i get into it, the more i realize that i need more characters. characters that i hadn't initially planned for. at this point i think i only need another two or three characters but as i move further along i may need to add a few more. the thought of trying to keep track of a dozen or more characters is really starting to freak me out.

should i talk about the deluge of treats that were laid out at work today? someone brought in an entire wheel of brie. and when i say an entire wheel, i am talking about the wheel that is the size of a small pizza. there were at least two platters full of baked goods, roasted pecans, two boxes of crackers that accompanied the brie. i think i even saw a platter full of gingerbread people. every time i went over to the laser printer there was another platter of food out. the people i work with really know how to lay waste to some food. and i am pretty sure there wasn't a lot of left overs. (read: none)

i've had to take another couple days off from the gym. i was home sick yesterday and obviously it wasn't a good idea to try to hit the gym. i have been feeling congested, like i am not getting my full wind with each breath. today should have been hamstrings but i believe you really need to be able to breathe for that. here's hoping all these sick days aren't working against me in the long run.

day three

there is something making it's way through the department at work. if i remember correctly three people were off sick on monday. i believe one person went home ill early tuesday morning and i was in no shape to make it in today.

my lady vols got spanked last night in waco. their opponent was ranked third in the polls so it was highly unlikely that my tenth ranked team would get the win. even still i was still very disappointed for the team and there is no way i would have been in a position to do any creative writing at the conclusion of the game.

today i added another 250 words to the story. it probably should have been a better writing day but it was a little difficult to concentrate today. with my last story attempt the most consistent criticism was my lack of description. i wrote without giving my reader enough physical clues to be able to imagine what the characters looked like. i am trying to do a better job of that with this story, it could be part of what has made this attempt far more challenging. sometimes i feel like i am so busy describing things that it is impeding my ability to move the story forward.

but it is still early going in the first draft. which means anything that doesn't work or needs to be fleshed out can be in later drafts. i have to remember above all my mission is to write forward!!

day two

today's attempt went better than yesterday. my favourite basketball team players the lady bears of baylor in about four minutes. i knew that i had to write before the start of the game. baylor is a tough opponent, we are down to eight players due to injury and we really could have used those injured players. either way the lady vols have been playing a hell of a lot better basketball than people expected them to this year.

i am happy to report that i added another 375 words to my story. i am also pleased that i seem to be getting back on track, as far as following along with the story notes that i have in my journal. sometimes when you write the story takes off almost as though it has a mind of it its own. you have to let the story develop and you really can't force it to follow along with your initial plan. or at least that is what i believe.

i will have to edit this later... it is almost time for tip off.

go lady vols!!!!

day one

man i sure hope this gets easier.

i have been told to get through a writers block is just to have to write. you try not to concern yourself with the quality of words but just keep trying to move your story forward. hopefully at some point you regain your mojo and overcome your block.

well i sat here this evening and i struggled to move my story forward. oddly enough, i know exactly what i want to write. i have pages of handwritten notes in my journal. but i just can't seem to transfer the words from on medium to the other.

i suppose the important thing was that i did it. a grand whopping total of 130 words. words that i would just as soon replace with a might stroke of the delete key. actually truth be told, i wrote a lot more than 130 words but suffice it to say that tongiht the delete key was going down more often that a new york
hook– umm.... never mind.

yesterday was back day and was doing the deficit deadlift. it is an excellent way to improve your dead lift particularly if you are 'slow off the floor.' the lifter pulls from atop a slight platform which helps you generate more power in the 'hole.'

i generally do this variation while standing on a reebok step which means the barbell is approximately 4 inches below me. i am pleased to report that yesterday i was pulling 225lbs for 6-10 reps, which is a new personal best. i am also pleased to report that i still cannot dead lift without cutting my shins open on the bar and i should also add that i am sick enough to take cell phone pics of my bloody shins.

clearly i need help... but it is all part of my charm.

30 days hath december???

no not quite... but i did want to make it official. starting tomorrow a post a day on the blog.

i plan to write every day for the next thirty days. i hope to use this push to get through my writer's block with my basketball story. i plan to post a quick recap of the days successes or failures here so you can follow along at home.

sorry to be brief but i am trying not to let the water overflow in the bath.

sometimes multitasking can be dangerous

do they know it's christmas?

i am forever amused by the people i work with and more importantly i have an excellent idea on how to tackle the world's hunger problem... well at least through the month of december.

on almost a daily basis there is scads of food laying around. i propose that some of the starving be brought by. now while i understand that cookies, cakes, chips, donuts and the like are not exactly the kind of fare that would be best for someone starving but in comparison to having nothing at all... it has got to be the better option.

what i also find amusing is most of my work mates claim to be dieting or watching what they eat. as near as i can tell they are just watching as they eat.

i know... i am going to burn in hell.

on a personal note i have been thinking i need to do another 30-day writing challenge. i have writer's block and rather than push through it, i haven't even been trying to write. i generally like to start new things on monday's so it is very likely that i will start on the seventeenth.

and finally this regarding this anne hathaway thing. apparently her 'personal business' has been 'splayed*' all over the internet. it seems the paparazzi caught her getting out of a limo. ms hathaway had opted to go commando rather than face the horrors of the panty line. gasp!!!

well i gotta tell you that i am a fan of the panty line... know why? 'cuz it means that i got my draws on!!! and do you know what it means when one has their draws on? it means slimy paparazzi can't take pictures of your business and spread it over the internet. they could still distribute pictures of your draws but i for one would rather that then the alternative. yikes!!

* pun intended

a brand new day?

once again i have let a lot of time pass between blog posts. the reality is that i have been doing some pretty heavy thinking. as i shared last time i had taken some pictures in florida. pictures that showed a result that i really wasn't hoping to see. it was my opinion and the opinion of a fellow bodybuilder that i have been losing size. losing size is a big deal to a bodybuilder it is the antithesis of what we are trying to do.

during the last two trips to florida natalie kept referring to a time when i used to be 'bigger'. and frankly those comments really stung. i couldn't imagine how i could consistently be in the gym and still be losing size. well i guess a picture is worth a thousand words. because clearly that is what has been happening.

earlier this year i learned of another training protocol called x-reps. the x-rep protocol was supposed to allow the lifter to train for size while utilizing weights that aren't as 'heavy'. which should allow the lifter to go easier on their joints. i was excited about a possibility where i could gain much needed size without risking further injury. it was the protocol i followed since the start of the year and it would appear that when push comes to shove, it really didn't work for me.

i am back to thinking that the only way to re-build the muscle mass that i lost is the same way i built it in the first place. so the x-rep experiment is behind me and i am now trying to move more weight. hopefully the next set of pictures will show a real improvement all round.

as i have said before... miles to go before i sleep.