Wed and Thursday Aug 25

Session one today

Wednesday was an off day. Some early morning stretching and rolling and then a mid morning swim. I'm glad to have access to a pool this summer, man. Honestly, I'm just grateful. My son enjoys the running around and I enjoy the stretching aspect of it.

There was some discussion about continuing the adult membership into the fall for my wife and I during an evening walk. Not sure if that would actually work, but I'm willing to try anything.

Thursday I did a kettlebell workout. Five rounds of this:

20 H2H
10 cleans
10 clean and presses
10 snatches
10 step ups
10 bicep curls


During the kettlebell part, I varied between the 12 and the 16 kilo bell. During the last round, I got the 20 kilo bell up and going. That was a struggle.

Session two today

I then went for a swim with my family. I did some stretching but didn't quite find the groove today. I got my legs loose enough to be happy to get to physio and let them get worked on there.

I then went to rugby training and got a sprint/hooker throw session done after a rather long session of sprinting and hitting rucks.

All in all, was all good.

Monday and Tuesday August 21 and 22

The only time I really like sweating on turf

Monday I finally got back to EPC for a session with my dude. Mostly body weight stuff, as this was the first session of August together. I know, I know ... Monday's have been rather odd this August.

In any case, it was a good session. Diet is still off, though. Need to do some more reading about what to eat and when.

Also looked around for a place to learn to do some boxing this summer. Although I know Wrestling/BJJ would really help me, I just don't want to risk something popping out of my stomach and rushing to the hospital this winter. If I can learn a bit of boxing, at least I can sweat and do something near to what I like to do.

Well, that and running.

I did go for a nice walk with my wife, too. Those help with mental health more than anything else.

Tuesday I was expecting a decent session after a player's meeting at the club. I have no reasonable explanation as to why I thought this, but it didn't happen. At least I got a walk in early in the morning to try and get my legs working properly.

Saturday and Sunday August 20 and 21

Actual picture of pitch

So, Saturday. Yeah. About that. Played a second team game. A complete second game within 72 hours of each other. Yeah. That wasn't good. Hot and horrible. My legs hurt after

I mean I'm glad I got it done, but it wasn't a lot of fun, man. At least we won this one. Afterwards, I watched The Hip concert in my basement and enjoyed the AC.  I also did a lot of icing.

Sunday was a lot of recovery work. I got to Lake Ontario's shores and did a stretching session while my son tore up the playground.

Later on in the day, I went for a water recovery session, too. Just so sore. Then still later, went for a walk with my wife. A good day, but a lot of Advil.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday August 17, 18 and 19

Wednesday was an off day - all I did was go watch some rugby league being played at my rugby club. Kind of weird watching RL being played on grass, to be frank. Ontario Selects lost to an English side. They were pretty good. I did do a stretching session, too.

I also saw this



Thursday was a rugby night and I played a full 80 minutes of first team rugby at tight-head prop. At least it kicked off at 7pm, so the whole "the sun and heat is making this much harder" part was at least only in a part of the first half.

Friday was a recovery day. Stretching in the early morning, a session in the pool at Cedar Springs and then a walk later on with my wife.

Monday Aug 15 and Tues Aug 16

Monday was ... a rugby day.

Yeah, it was weird. I got a call and did a photo shoot today. I had to get into a rugby uniform and do about two hours of running and catching a ball in the heat of the day. I got sweaty and had a bit of fun. Meh, there was even a dog I played rugby with too.

All was good.

Tuesday was a training night. I keep getting there late, man. Just so freaking annoying. In any case, there were six guys at training tonight. Shake my head.

So, yeah, touch and I just don't get along, so I did the following for eight rounds right beside the rugby pitch:

90 seconds at each station

A. punches thrown in the half guard position
B  Kettlebell swings
C. hitting simulated rugby ruck

all told it was 45 minute long workout. Which I thought was better than just playing touch for about 20 minutes.

In any case, after that workout, I did also do some work on my line out throws. I did about ten or fifteen minutes worth of throwing practise. All good.

Friday Aug 12, Saturday Aug 13 and Sunday Aug 14

I took Friday off - had a nice awesome physio session and called it a day.

I shouldn't have, but that is what I did. I also took the time to read and get on my new way of eating with the help of a lot of protein.

I'm wondering if I need to start blogging what I eat again. Meh, I'm considering it. At least I , like a lot of other 40-year-olds, like to post pics of their workouts and their food.

Saturday was a rugby day. Seconds won and are still on track to maybe win their league. I had a few nice moments and a few not so nice moments. It was really really hot and dry. I even got in to the last 20 minutes of te first team game, too.

Sunday was a recovery day and drank a lot of water. I took my kids for a swim and I got a chacne to stretch. Oh, man ... I even got a short 25 minute session done in my garage:

four rounds of:

20 single hand KB swings
10 kb cleans
10 kb clean and press
10 kn snatches
20 step ups
10 bicep curls

I used a combination of the 12 and 16 kilo bell. Still working the 16 kilo bell into the sessions makes a big difference.

Thursday Aug 11

Yeah, worried about a few things ... like the gaping holes in my body. Hernias are a serious thing and I went to get them checked out.

So, it was a little good news and a fair amount of bad news.

Good news first - the two hernias I thought were the most dangerous and in need of repair, aren't so anymore.

The news is the third one needs fixing.

Without a hint of a smile, the dude said that you can't put stitches in butter and expect it to heal. In the next breath, he said that I needed to start with losing 60 pounds and when that was accomplished, to come back and they'd consider.

I then spoke to the nutritionist and got her handouts and advice. We chatted about the Olympics and she saw my ears. I told her about cutting to 207 in 2012, and how shocked I was when I had to weigh in that day.

282.2 / 128 kilos.

I am still kind of ashamed of that number. How far I've gotten off track and the like. Just ashamed.





Still, it will make for a more interesting September and beyond.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Aug 10

So, yeah.

Vacation. Some walking in the woods with my wife. Some chasing my kids around. Lots of sitting around. Some healthy eating, not much wine or beer. Pleasant and a nice get away.

Worried about a few things.

Friday and Saturday Aug 6

Friday I took it easy - a big game the next day.

Saturday was a crap show, all around ... at least for me. People crying off a rugby game, not showing up and the like.

It was a reminder to me that it isn't the team you put on the pitch in May that wins championships, it's the team that you put on the field in August that wins the show.

Thirds lost their chance to win the league. Seconds lost their chance to win the league. First team at least won, but not with the bonus point.

Another season in jeopardy.

Wednesday and Thursday August 4

I want to celebrate a minor victory. I had two days of at least two sessions each day for both of these days.

Wednesday morning was stretching on near the water. My son found a playmate and I had my yoga mat and awesome rolling ball with me. He ran and climbed and I stretched and rolled. Honestly, it was what needed to happen.

Later on Wednesday, I got to bang with the heavy bag at a gym I joined for the summer. Always empty and had the Jays on tv. It was this for eight rounds:

1:50 punching
1:50 kettlebell/dumb bell snatches

for eight rounds.

Yeah, it was a pretty good session. This particular workout I seem to like as I may use what I'm doing here in a rugby game. I would never hope that I would have to, but the day may come; preparation is key.

I got up again on Thursday morning and expected my alarm clock to also get up. He did not. I crept into my living room and played on my phone, waiting for him to come and find me, so we could go somewhere fun. As it was, he didn't get up until almost 7:30am. What. A. Slacker.

In any case, shortly after he got up, my wife got up to take care of him. He was in good hands, so, I went to my garage gym and got the following done for four rounds:

20 kb h2h swings
10 kb cleans  (each exercise, each side)
10 kb clean and presses
10 kb snatches
10 bicep curls
10 step ups

I did use both the 12 and the 16-kilogram bell today. There is a real difference in the two, quite frankly. There was a real sharp upturn in the live heart rate monitoring I was doing this morning. It was cool to have my HR on a screen that I could see while working out. Kinda like the way some expensive gyms do it.... Orange Theory, for example.

I did also do a stretching session with my therapist today, too. Oh, goodness, that was a great session.

It was also a training night, so I go to rugby and did lots of sprints. I did some ball handling and I also did my own session at the end of training. Lots of line out throws and a fair number of short sprints. I wore the HR monitor again, but don't think you need to see that one. It was neat to see that I jogged 1.53 kilometers in that time. I'm shaking my head wondering if I might get the Nike+ site to start seeing these workouts and kilometers and count them in my annual totals ... meh, I had a good session and I'm just going to keep on trucking.

Tuesday Aug 2

So ... I'm going to just step forward. I'll write about bigger things later on in the month.

Today:

Got woken up early by my five-year-old alarm clock. It's incredibly accurate and .. well, it's my son. We got ourselves to the beach this morning by 7am. He wanted to play in the jungle gym beside the park, and I am more interested in peace in our relationship than moving ten feet further ..so, I worked out this morning literally right beside the beach.

four rounds of this with a 12 kilo bell:

20 hand to hand swings
10 cleans each side
10 clean and presses each side
10 snatches each side
20 body weight squats.

Nothing hard, to say the least. I know I have to work up to the yellow bell in order to further my fitness plan.

Later on in the day, as it is Tuesday, I got to rugby training. Lots of technical skills and a bit of fun. Yeah, I was asked to kick today. It didn't go well. I did do my usual "ball handling" at the end of training. While I was doing that, a couple of my teammates did a sprinting/bodyweight training session of their own. It was cool to see.

Monday August 1, 2016

Well, isn't this a fine kettle of fish I've gotten myself into.

The WordPress switch just never happened.

The ongoing struggles with "things around me" continues.

I did read my email this morning and got a little poke in the rear end from Vic Magary. He's a fitness guy I've followed for several years ... I even won a coffee mug in a contest he ran on Periscope a while back.

What hit me from Vic's email was that this Monday, was the first of the month and also a Monday; this won't happen again for a while. I needed to take some action to start something good today in order to keep moving forward.

A good chunk of the day I wondered about getting back on the writing bandwagon. Just write something every day. And so ... here it is.

Right.

Things are going well in the rugby season. We are running three teams this year and all three teams are either in first place or in second place in their leagues. I've yet to step on the pitch to play firsts, but lots of rugby being played, so that's ok.

A fair amount of fitness going on - playing catch up at the moment, if I'm being honest. Life just kept kicking my ass this past spring. I survived, but barely. I just couldn't get my butt moving. I just couldn't get to lift anything. It was not fun.

At the end of May, I got to finally play some rugby and forget about my troubles. But, without much of a preseason and without much fitness, I was and am a shadow of what I was like two seasons ago.

Shameful.

I'll keep this post brief - I went for a 3.5k run tonight. I did some thinking about what I want to see happen in the next ten months, as well.

Lots to do, lots to do.

Oh yeah, also picked up a Polar HR monitor. Works like a charm.