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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 255.

Took a short hike on Indian Creek Trail in Giant City with Our Daughter's dog and my my new hiking buddy, Kronk.

Kronk.jpg

He's a Humane Society dog, they thought part Belgian Malinois and something else. Which from the shape of his skull and jaws I would guess pit bull. He's a mischievous, energetic, and playful guy.

This afternoon was rounds of cable crunches, speed bag, arms only SciFit and rower, heavy bag, medicine ball toss, and stretching.

Average HR was 121 bpm @ 78% of MHR.

[57bergstrm]

Wow, those belgian dogs are great, and Kronk is a cool name. Hope those longer rest between sets is helpful.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight:255.

Sets of 5.

Bench Press: 185-195-195. I dropped the Hammer Overhead Presses because they were starting to put a strain on my a/c joints. As good as Hammer plate loading ergonomics are for pulling and leg presses, I've always gotten tennis elbow from their pressing equipment. I'd never used the overhead press before and gave it a shot. No mas. I haven't done flat bench presses in quite a while, maybe a year or more. The 3rd set was a bit of a grinder, so I'm going to go with 185 next session and get some momentum going.

Hammer Row: 370-375-385.

Hammer Leg Press: 580-600-620.

Average HR was 127 bpm @ 83% of MHR despite my best efforts at resting between sets 4-5 minutes to reduce the cumulative intensity. Maybe even more rest is the ticket.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 254.

I took the long anticipated hike on the River to River Trail this morning to find the Cedar Wonders Natural Arch. The trail was challenging. It was a combination of slick mud and leaves liberally interspersed with a bunch of ankle breaking rocks. Along the way, I kept seeing what looked like styrofoam particles. They turned out to be ice crystals curled like I'd never seen them before.

Ice Crystal.jpg

The trail was marked reasonably well, even what was described (and very poorly I might add) by the local Sierra Club cadre as the "unmarked" and "nearly invisible" side trail leading to the arch along a branch feeding into Cedar Creek. In fact, some enterprising souls marked it with an imaginative Cairn.

Cairn.jpg

It wasn't a long trek, but a difficult one through a rock garden of semi sized boulders and deadfallen trees. But at last, there it was.

Arch 2.jpg

Somehow, despite Google Maps and an AllTrails app, I managed to miss the main trail back out. By the time I found a waterfall up a blind re-entrant, I accepted I had gotten a little lost. From there I scrambled up the cliff face and discovered a recently harvested soybean field that I cut across to find where I had parked my truck. Great fun.

[BrooklynJerry]

Nice photos. Do you have to worry as about hunters in the woods?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Nice photos. Do you have to worry as about hunters in the woods?

Heh. I intentionally timed this between the shotgun deer seasons here in Illinois. This state does not permit rifles for hunting, but does have a shotgun, muzzle loader, youth firearms, bow, and crossbow.

Funny you should mention that, because after having scaled that bluff by the waterfall, I arrived at a nice wide path along the rim and followed it past a well concealed deer blind. There are a LOT of deer everywhere downstate here. I've even seen them in the middle of Carbondale and on the SIU campus in the dusk and dawn hours.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Ethan, Emma, and Ken showed tonight, albeit kept at a distance to observe. He said he was getting over a bug.

I had Ethan work with Emma and both of them seem to be suffering from tryptophan memory loss post-turkey day. So there was a lot of coaching the coach along with direct teaching on my part going on. Emma's chatteryness keeps growing, but she's a good student. Just a little distracted tonight. She told us how she practices the techniques as katas at school and the other kids are utterly baffled by it. Good going on her part. I'll work on keeping her better focused next week.

Average HR was 116 bpm @ 72% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 253.

Today was rounds of Speed bag, side bend, hand ball, round bag, row, stretched.

Average HR was 123 bpm @ 80% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 256.

Yesterday was not the greatest day for a ride on the Dark Lady, it being overcast and in the 50's here, but not too chilly either. So, it was off to the Trail of Tears State Park, the Illinois one, Missouri has one on their side of the river too. I went by way (mostly) of Hickory Ridge Road and made the last leg on IL-127. It's a lovely park with lots of twists and turns and hills.

On the way back on 127, I decided to take Dutch Ridge Road back home. I made a slow speed 10 mph right turn and the rear wheel whipped out from underneath me having slipped in some chip gravel. The bike went down, hard. Anyone who says helmets and other protective gear is for pussies can go take a hike. My helmet got bashed up and my leather jacket, along with my right leg got boogered up. Wear your damn gear!

So today was as light and easy as I could make it. My right knee, elbow, ribs, and neck are sore. So I did somewhat longer and very slow rounds of rowing, ball toss, SciFit, and stretched.

Average HR was 117 bpm @ 76% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Ken showed tonight. I felt better as the day progressed, but my neck and ribs are still pretty tender. That left out some of the neck compression and related techniques. So we concentrated on the other techniques with a few impromptu additions. Like applying a figure four arm lock (Ude Garami) from having blocked a roundhouse punch. Or grabbing a handful of torso skin if caught in an over arm bear hug. Or how a twist of the hips and shoulders can add 4+ inches of range to a back fist when a straight punch barely touches the attacker's head.

Average HR was 119 bpm @ 78% of MHR.