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

[Mr. Bingley]

It was the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra's take in the Aaron Copland classic.

Ah, that must have been nice!

But I could definitely see lifting to this as well:

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - Fanfare For The Common Man (Full Uncut Video 1977) - YouTube

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 2, Week 1, Sets of 5 @ 90% of 1RM

Deadlifts: 230 lbs. @ 70%, 265 lbs. @ 80%, 295 lbs. @ 90% + 2 more reps. A very good effort for me.

Box Squats: Sets of 3. 55-105-155. The plan was for 3 sets of 3 with 155, but left those two sets in the two additional reps I eked out in the deadlift. My lumbars were feeling it hard.

Music: immigrant Song, Won't Get Fooled Again, The Boys Are Back in Town, Thunderstruck, Round and Round, Rescue Me, Patton, Shotgun, The Stroke. .

41 minutes average HR 127 BPM @ 85% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Conditioning rounds of speed bag, side medicine ball toss, Box jumps, plate halos, rowing, crunches, and heavy bag.

32 minutes average HR 137 BPM @ 91% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

ycle 2, Week 1, Sets of 5 @ 90% of 1RM

Seated Press: 115 lbs. @ 70%, 135 lbs. @ 80%, 150 lbs. @ 90% + 1 more reps.

Floor Press: Sets of 5. 105-125-125.

Hammer Row: 230 lbs. @ 70%, 265 lbs. @ 80%, 280 lbs. @ 90% + 1 more rep.

Music: Running With the Devil, O Fortuna, Bohemian Rhapsody, Smoke on the Water, The Four Seasons, Barracuda, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Dragonstone, Tush, Under Pressure.

50 minutes average HR 139 BPM @ 91% of MHR.

Got a depth check on my squats from DB. I was around 2" below parallel. Good news for the upcoming North American Drug Tested Championships in November.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Working on Purple Belt 2nd degree again tonight with the addition of some more advanced blocks and counters to strikes with counterstrikes and some takedowns. Then we moved on to some self defense techniques for the more age advanced for an upcoming demonstration this Saturday.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Quick in and out this morning with something I haven't done in a few years, a Graded Exercise Protocol. Five minutes warmup to 85% of MHR, five minutes working at 85% of MHR, and five minutes ramp down. A mere 15 minutes that actually keeps you in pretty good cardio shape.

[Mark E. Hurling]

ycle 2, Week 1, Sets of 5 @ 90% of 1RM

Squats: 170 lbs. @ 75%, 190 lbs. @ 85%, 215 lbs. @ 95%. I tried a single with 245, but got into a bad position taking it off the rack. My lower seized a little and I re-racked it. The heat this week has been wasting me, I needed a day or so of recovery from deadlifts on Monday.

Music: Star Spangled Banner, Scotland the Brave, Pines of Rome, Sharp Dressed Man, Dirty Laundry, Draggin' the Line, Rock Steady, Gimme Three Steps, Haka, Once Bitten Twice Shy, Lunatic Fringe, Born to be Wild.

57 minutes average HR 127 BPM @ 85% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Cycle 2, Week 3, Sets of 5-3-1 @ 90% of 1RM

Bench Press: 155 lbs. @ 75%, 175 lbs. @ 85%, 195 lbs. @ 95%. I got another single with 215 which went up pretty well. It took some considerable restraint on my part not to try 225, but I'll save that for the next cycle. I'm pretty sure I would have had it today, but decided to ramp up to it.

Pulldown: 120 lbs. @ 75%, 135 lbs. @ 85%, 155 lbs. @ 95%. Then another single with 190, 20 more pounds than my last 1 RM.

Music: Up Around the Bend, Anvil Chorus, Discombobulate, I Got a Line on You, Marine Corps Spirit, My Sharona, Wheel in the Sky, King of Pain.

31 minutes average HR 117 BPM @ 77% of MHR.

All in all, not a bad session with the promise of better to come.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ah, the rewards of reaching a certain age. My right ankle started giving me trouble last night at 0-dark 30 and made walking something of a dodgy endeavor. So I got out an ankle brace and laced up my Walmart Interceptor boots tight and then zipped up the side just to tighten it all some more. Like wearing a walking cast. Even so, I concentrated on conditioning stuff that didn't load up the feet too much.

Rounds of speed bag, SciFit, rower, cable rotations, plate halos, medicine ball toss, and heavy bag.

33 minutes average HR 139 BPM @ 90% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I’ve been debating whether or not to post any of this. Today decided me, for better or worse.

I’m no fan of the heat, it drains my energy and depresses me. No surprise, this July has been unusually hot and coupled with an A/C failure at home (now resolved) it has not been fun.

Then there was the funeral for my English teacher Mrs. Miller. While the service was a touching celebration of her long life, it still laid a pall over me.

Last week, Skoot was shopping at Walmart. I’ve learned to either stay home or wait in the Explorer for her so as not to be in the way. As I saw her coming out of the door, she was being followed by a 20 something guy with a mullet who was yelling and waving his arms at her. I drove up and grabbed a 4 D-cell Maglite I keep on my driver’s side floorboard for various emergency needs, this appearing to be one of them. I held on to the head and kept the shaft of the flashlight behind my forearm, something I picked up from my days as a cop and martial arts training. As in, don’t plan to fight fair if you have to, and don’t let the other guy know in advance what might ensue.

Moving in between them, I wave him back and tell him to get on his bicycle and on his way. I’d seen him roll up on one earlier. He goes into a full Monkey Dance, waving his arms, yelling at me, and moving in chest to chest. Then he swiped at my head knocking off my ball cap with a half-hearted slap. I countered with a right open palm dead hand between his mandible and mastoid, buckling his knees and causing his eyes to lose focus. But he recovered and came at me again, so I jabbed him in the face left-handed with the head of the Maglite and then let the shaft of rotate from behind my arm in full view. This seemed to bring him to his senses, and he retreated with a bleeding lip to his bicycle and rode off.

The actual physical engagement was over and done in less than 45 seconds. In past days, I would have had the shakes from an adrenaline burst for a couple of hours but was entirely physically relaxed. Which is not to say my brain was ping ponging around for a while afterward. Just not during the event.

Today we took our daughter’s dog to the Herrin dog park for an outing after we visited with her for a while. There was a man and his young son with three dogs inside when we got there. As I was bringing our dog inside, the other three dogs attacked him, and I had to throw and kick the other dogs away. During this, the outer gate was open, and their dogs ran out into the surrounding fields. Our dog was still leashed and at that point all we wanted to do was get him out of there. His eye had a cut over it that bled, but the injury was not bad enough to need to go to the vet.

As I took him back to the Explorer, the father yelled at me about letting his dogs out. Which lead to some rude verbal exchanges between the two of us. He wanted to yell and bluster but that was about it. Good thing too. Because between the extended dog fight and his nonsense, I was thoroughly amped. But not so much as to initiate anything physical between us, just ready to react to anything he might try. Later, I found I was bleeding from a dog bite.

The guy lived across the street from the dog park and as I burned off the shakes, I reasoned that a report to the cops might be in order. Not a complaint but getting ahead of that guy in case he later claimed that I had attacked or threatened him. So off to the PD to get a report on file.

It’s been a month. I’m glad to have July behind me. Oh, then there’s been the ankle injury that’s been plaquing me and keeping me out of the gym and the dojo for the last 5 days. Thank God for prednisone to beat down the inflammation.