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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Nice to read the progress your having with the trainees.

Thanks Jerry, but the progress is all theirs. I'm still just stumbling my way through helping them be better versions of themselves. Sheridan in particular is really inspiring. The others had been lifting before I got started coaching Special Olympics. Sheridan only started a few weeks ago and has some mild cerebral palsy and has trouble translating verbal instructions in how to move. It took some creativity and patience to crack the code for getting her form to improve. She and a couple of others have some work to do even still, but Sheridan started from noting in all of this.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Some conditioning rounds of plate halos, speed bag, crunches, elliptical, heavy bag, supine medicine ball tosses, hip flexor, knee, and hamstring stretches, finished off with dislocates.

36 minutes @ 117 BPM @79% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

The Karate guy asked if I would teach a class on breakfalls tonight. I included some ground defense along with counters to common takedowns. It was something of a revelation to the Karate folk. They are used to stand up striking and being put in a two dimensional horizontal plane having to defend an attack while on their back on the mat was new to them. Some research I had been doing on vulnerable points on the back added to preparing them for a double leg takedown shoot that they could counter with a sprawl and nasty attack to a hitherto unknown nerve center plexus between the shoulder blades that takes the wind out of the attacker. Along with some advice on things they already knew, like strikes to the back and sides of the neck, and cranks to the neck, they felt better prepared to deal with grapplers.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Deadlift: 95-5, 185-3, 255-1, 325-0, 325-0. Looks like the accumulation of fatigue from Sunday's demo to the Girl Scouts, Monday's lifting and coaching, then Tuesday's conditioning along with the Jujitsu last night whacked me pretty good. Added to that I woke up with a fairly sore back and my knee had me gulping down 800 mg of Naproxen and deciding to start taking Meloxicam for the knee. I could barely break the plates off the floor on my first try. After some real disgust and a few minutes waiting, I tried again. Nada. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow depending on how I feel. This getting old business sucks.

Music: Up Around the Bend, Highway to Hell, Semper Fidelis, Shipping Up to Boston, Copperhead Road, Smoke on the Water, Thunderstruck, Marine Corps Spirit.

38 minutes average HR 122 BPM @ 82% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Deadlift: 95-5, 185-3, 255-1, 325-1-1-1-1-1-1. I took another run at it since I woke up feeling reasonably good. Or at least what passes for feeling reasonably good at age 72. I had to dig really deep for the last two singles but managed to eke them out without feeling injured. So far anyway. With nothing else left in the tank, I declared victory.

Music: 1812 Overture, Patton, Takin' a Ride, Gladiator Waltz, Sharp Dressed Man, Cocaine Blues, Rocky, Tainted Love, Rite of Spring, Another One Bites the Dust, Devil with a Blue Dress, Whip It.

55 minutes average HR 131 BPM @ 88% of MHR.