Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 259.

Today's session of jujitsu felt like a long difficult low crawl over broken concrete and glass. Once again, I slept badly while my brain played out Jungian sturm und drang symbology behind my eyeballs. I slept better than this when I was actually undergoing the chills and thrills that were the proximate causes of last night's psychodramas.

I was paired with a teen purple belt and my task was to review all 6 belts and 90 techniques from white to purple 1st degree. We were both wiped out after around 90 minutes of bashing each other around and had another 60 minutes to go. We staggered through it all to the end.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 259.5

3-3-3 Cycle.

Seated Press: 105-3, 120-3, 135-7.

HR peaked at 130 on the last set for 83% of MHR. Cardio (GXP) and stretched.

[hector_garza]

Congrats on your belt promotion!

I posted before, but looks like it didn't go up.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thank you hector.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 259.

3-3-3 Cycle.

Squats: 205-3, 235-3, 265-4. I am not entirely confident of my depth on that last set. Not a good place to be less than a month before a meet. Gotta figger out how to use my new smart phone to video this.

Stretched.

[Mark E. Hurling]

A few of the kidlets had full moon fever tonight but were generally well behaved with some spiky exceptions. The chief of which was the one I have named Alligator Boy because of his dead reptilian eyes. A real case of refusing to focus and listen. I wonder how many pets in his neighborhood have gone missing. Master Bellman introduced a new finish to one of the white belt choke escapes, the strip release.

The attacker grabs the defender in a two handed front choke. The defender hooks the attacker's wrists and pulls downward and backward while stepping back. Then steps back in grabbing the back of the neck and driving a knee into the groin. The new part was a side step with a knee roundhouse kick to the body as a follow-up.

The adult class had Dr. Mike and I reviewing the lower brown belt techniques and helping out the green belts with chokes when they had problems. Between squats and jujitsu, I am sapped. Decompressing now.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: forgot to this morning.

3-3-3 Cycle.

Bench Press: 160-3, 185-3, 205-6.

Parallel Grip Pulldown: 215 for 3 sets of 5.

Cardio (GXP) and stretched. HR during lifting topped at 123 for 79% of MHR. Total session time, 33 minutes.

My qualms about my squat depth aside, it was time to start planning for the meet a mere few weeks away.

SQ: 125(kg) 275 (lbs.), 135-297, 147.5-325.

BP: 100-220, 110-242, 115-253.

DL: 170-374, 182.5-402, 187.5-413.

Total: 450-991.

I only need a Class II total of 793 for the drug free nationals but I want to at least make a Class I total of 898. The 3rd attempts on the SQ and DL will be competition PR's for me. I am not frankly sure if I have a 253 BP in me or not, the other two, are maybes these days after last years back problems and ongoing fatigue.

In other news, I have firmly decided on starting the ACE PT certification. Just some last minute discussion with DB over the price of study materials. Frugality uber alles.

In still other news, DB pulled another surprise on me last night when she said, "You wanna get a motorcycle when we move?" Which just stunned me given her adamant position against it for the 35+years we've been living here. Her position was, too dangerous here in SoCal. I didn't want my husband injured or killed. Ooookay then. So we agreed something in the range of around 500cc seemed reasonable. So I'm looking at the Harley Street 500. I like Hondas better, but they don't seem to offer much in that size.

[tertius]

Congrats on the promotion!

Also, do pick the leatherwork back up!

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks tertius.

Also, I will on miserable winter days too cold other things. FWIW, I used to drive over to Bloomington every few months to buy buckles back when I lived back in Southern Illinois the last time.

[Mark E. Hurling]

OD and I went to the gym where she works the reception desk so I could show her the ropes of using the squat rack, the bench press, etc. All about hand spacing, form, and set up since she hadn't lifted in a while. She retained a lot of upper body strength but was stunned by her detraining on the squat. OTOH, she pulled a great set of 5 with 135 in the DL despite octagonal plates.

As a special treat, we were taking my favorite cruise along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific at Esplenade. I spotted a whale spouting so we U-turned and parked. It turned out to be an extended pod of indeterminate numbers about 150 yards from shore. Lots of spouting going and I saw one of them sounding and flashing it's tail flukes at us. No idea what kind of whales they were, not big ones though.