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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247.5

I've read everything Pressfield has written except Bagger Vance Bill. He himself has not spoken highly of it. Tides of War is an excellent account of the real downfall of Greece, the Peloponessian Wars. Then again, all his stuff is great. Same with Cornwell, Uhtred is a great character and after all, "Fate is inexorable."

You'll like Harry Bosch bob. Connelly develops his character ever so well over the course of his novels. I just picked up HMS Surprise from the library on the way home from jujitsu today. O'Brian's character development is great too. It's a shame he talked shit about Cornwell though, because as much as I like both of their books, O'Brian has some quirks regarding long exchanges of dialog that you can't keep track of who is talking to who and some abrupt changes of scene that he doesn't introduce very well. I'd forgotten how annoying that was until I picked him up again.

Jujitsu today had me sleepy, creaky, and a little out of it with my back bothering me. I almost stayed home, but sucked it up and everything went well enough on the mat. No disasters anyway. I'm not sure why the drowsiness, I've been having this all week. The drive into the far north end of the San Fernando Valley was overcast all the way and the cloud cover made the San Gabriel Mountains look more like something out of Tolkien than I have ever seen here in SoCal. We worked a lot on arm bars and take downs using them. As in you deflect a straight right punch with both hands and grip the wrist with your right hand and press his upper arm down in a sharp small circle with your left forearm. The attacker gets proned out in a face plant and if you elected not to break his arm on the takedown, it's easy enough to follow up and do it with a foot on the back of his neck. We did a number of variations of that technique standing and then from a ground position.

We also did some upward deflections of straight punches that expose the ribs to a quick rear heel trip. Then moved on to a downward deflection variant to a rising head and neck hook across that sends the attacker sailing backward head over heels to a very hard fall. Victor, a 3rd degree black belt and the only one bigger than me (at about 290) was talking about how reliance on strength can become a weakness again. So true, and I have had the damndest time letting go of my pride in that respect and just doing the techniques correctly and properly rather than blitzing through my training partners.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 246.5

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Heavy Day)

Overhead Press: 190 x 5 x 3. I used 5 minute rest intervals between sets, and MAN do those 5 minutes seem like an eternity! But all 5 sets were smooth and while challenging, felt like I had one more rep left. Shoulder is holding up quite well.

Sumo Deadlift: Tried to 355 x 3, but couldn't break the bumper plates off the floor in two tries. Not surprising, because my lower back has not been quite in proper working order since Thursday. I decided to not let this be a self fulfilling prophecy and at least make the attempt with careful monitoring of how my warmup sets felt. 315 was OK, so I went for it but to no avail. Time to see Dr. Laura, my chiropractor. Finished off with a GXP. Next time for sure.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minute warmup on the bkie. (Heavy Day)

Bench Press: 215 x 5 x 3. This was a little challenging because I woke up with the right shoulder hurting a little. Slept wrong maybe. Also a lot of general fatigue from bad sleep for the last few days. I moved yesterday's session to today to let my back hold it's Monday adjustment on the advice of my chiro. It helped, but the back still isn't quite right. Between feeling dragged out by loss of sleep and my back I will probably stay home from jujitsu tonight. Some weeks the age catches up with you and all the teeth gritting will power in the world won't redeem you.

Hammer High Row: 345 x 5 x 3. PR! A surprising triumph given my malaise. But I'll take what I can get.

Pinch Grip: 155 for 10 seconds.

More rolls on the roller than usual to try loosen up Mr. Back and more stretching for same. I'm the walking dead this morning, and it's shaping to be a very demanding day.

[DoctorWho]

[QUOTE=Mark E. Hurling;311747]mmer High Row: 345 x 5 x 3. PR! A surprising triumph given my malaise. But I'll take what I can get.

QUOTE]

PR in the middle of an otherwise off day. Repeating myself AND stating the obvious: strong bastard.

[Bean1871]

Mark, even your bad days inspire the rest of us. Congrats on your PR. -Bill

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Mark, even your bad days inspire the rest of us. Congrats on your PR. -Bill

+1

[Mark E. Hurling]

Man can I use this type of encouragement today. My eyelids are at half mast and I have meetings to slog through this afternoon.

[Oldster]

I'll add to the kudo's then. Absolutely awesome PR! You must have some great overall upper back strength handling weights like this.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks guys. You should see the eyes of some the guys I do jujitsu with get big when the techniques calls for an inward pull. I'm only trying to use 1/3 to 1/2 strength so as to do the techique properly, but they get pulled in like light to a black hole. Which is funny considering the black gi I wear. There's one type of pin we learn called the scarf hold or kesa gatame in Japanese. You throw or take the attacker down and then get at a 45 degree angle to him and pull his head and traps up with your right arm around the back of his neck and his own right arm in and under your arm with your left hand and arm. I've been told that the effect I have on whoever I've done this to is produces an immediate inability to draw in air to the lungs because I have them constricted in so tight, like an anaconda. Tap outs in under 10 seconds are usual because they panic fast when they can't breathe. That includes a few my size or close to it, and not just the mostly smaller people I bounce along the mat with. Of course it's not a smart technique to lock up with if there are multiple attackers or a crowd around to "step" on you. I suspect if I went close to 100% I'd break some ribs.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 249

I did a GXP today near the woman who sings off key to herself with her ear buds again. She seems more or less normal otherwise, I can't imagine why she does this. I did some foam rolling and stretching. Both delts hurt now so I also did some external rotations. I think the nature of my problem is getting close to my limits again. This kind of snuck up on me until I looked back at my spreadsheet a few months ago when I managed a single PR of 215 in the overhead press. My least heavy session was 190 in the OHP which was what I was using when I started my 2-3 week run that ended with a 215. That and my DL and squat are at or very close to my maxes back then too. No damn wonder I'm feeling tired as Hell when I wake up in the morning. In addition to my delts, I feel the upper rib cage or pecs are sore in a way I've never experienced before. Dearly Beloved used to get costochondritis and I'm wondering if what I feel is similar to that. Then too Mr. Back is still not right, so I need to see my chiro again.

Piss, moan, whine.

But I'll be damned if I give this shit up!