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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks guys. Your support is greatly appreciated.

[tertius]

Excellent work, sir.

[The Emancipated Freak]

Knurling I commend thee on the new PR, keep 'em coming.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks to you guys too, tertius and Freak.

5 minute warm up on the bike. (Medium Day)

Overhead Press: 165 x 5 x 5. I've been following bob g's advice and loading up on red meat to prime the pump for my next PR shot Sunday for 225 in the overhead press. I feel pretty confident so far.

One Arm Dumbbell Row: 120 5 x 5.

Delt rehab, foam roller torture, and stretched.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Jujitsu last night saw the kids on pretty good behavior again. Fear and pain are always good short term motivators. The adult class had me paired up with a 63 year old Japanese lady who kept calling herself old and I kept telling her, "You're only 3 years older than me. You're not old yet." She used to do judo and had a bum knee and wasn't certain she was up to trying falls. Very impatient with herself and I told her to put into perspective how different what she was learning from judo. This is comprised of a lot what I call "small technique." Judo, karate, and other martial arts in my experience are oriented around teaching "big technique." The difference is mobilization of large body movements and muscle groups for hip throws, punches, kicks, and other such major moves. Mushin ryu has a few things like that but much if not most is the assembly of multiple small body postures, hand positions, and foot movements that collectively disarray the attacker's own body or mode of attack. This can be very hard to adjust to coming from a judo background. It sure was for me anyway, and her as well. Fortunately for her having undergone this (and still having some trouble with it) myself I could explain to her why she was having problems. It was fun in an unusual kind of way.

I did a GXP on the cross-country ski elliptical this morning with a lot of foam rolling and stretching for the back. It's a little out of sorts today for some reason. The chiro will get me squared away this afternoon though for a scheduled chassis realignment.

[Mark E. Hurling]

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Light Day)

Overhead Press: 130 x 8 x 3 + 14. Pushed out that last set a little because it's bad luck to end on 13. So I hauled one last one out my ass to avoid the jinx.

Front Squat: 135 x 3 x 6.

Claw Grip: 170 x 2 x 5. I couldn't get these in earlier in the week because the cable machines I hook up to were all in use for the whole time. Too many people doing the cable crossovers.

I dinked around testing the right delt with empty bar sets of bench press. It felt OK, and with one more week's rest I think will stand me in good stead. Once I make the run at 225 Sunday I'm taking a week off. It will coincide with the last Great West Coast Road Rally when we pick up our daughter from OSU and bring her home having graduated from college.

[bob g]

... I've been following bob g's advice and loading up on red meat to prime the pump for my next PR shot Sunday for 225 in the overhead press. I feel pretty confident so far.

Steak, ground beef, bacon, chicken thighs Italian style, ribeye, bacon, ribs, pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, more bacon...

How can you not put two wheels into the lights when you prepare this way. I know you'll nail it, Mark.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Some odd things have been happening with my weight. I weighed in at 205 this morning in spite of some heavier meat consumption as bob has recommended. I can't figure out why, but I'll just keep on with the food.

Jujitsu had me working with a teen blue belt. We did a lot of techniques that are easy to see where Kano pulled out things to synthesize judo as it exists today minus the strikes. A number of them used blocks into closing in tight and executing a foot sweep. After putting a knee in the groin to cause a forward drop of the balance. Some of the others involved stepping backward into an attack from the rear and displacing one of the attacker's legs outward and back spreading their base. Kind of like an uchi mata or harai goshi in judo but with out getting them up on the hip for a throw. Instead the attacker ends up like an off balance isosceles triangle who only needs a slight push of the head forward and down to cause them to topple and face plant. I told the teen to go easy on my right shoulder because of plans for lifting tomorrow. One of the black belts circulating to oversee finer points of technique asked what I was planning and I told him a 225 overhead press. He's about 10 years younger than me and in good shape himself. His lifting consists of 3 sets of 20 and he's fine with it so I held my peace. Not everyone's strength and fitness goals are the same. There's a fine line between offering advice when it's asked and being a pain in the ass evangelist.

After several joking remarks about coots, geezers, Statler, and Waldorf as well as Walt Kowalski, what should be on last night but Grand Torino. God was he a curmudgeon! I also was informed that the jujitsu great Wally Jay passed away this week. He probably had more to do with bringing the art to the US mainland from Hawaii where Okazaki developed Dan Zan Ryu, the art on which ours is based in part. The great move on.

[tertius]

Aw, Wally Jay? That's sad. A lot of the older guys I trained with back in the day had spent time learning stuff from him, or his students. Hadn't thought about him in years.

[Mark E. Hurling]

What's really ironic is that just yesterday I was talking to a guy at work who does jujitsu who had never heard of Jay. I lead off my explanation by saying "I'm not even sure if he's even still alive." Eerie week all around.