I should say that I finished of 2011 in true binge style …
home-made clam chowder and Dunkin Donuts coffee with milk inclusive. By the
time supper was ready at (you guessed it … 10 minutes to midnight!) I was
actually not even very hungry. Or maybe that was the red wine.
I specifically found what I hoped would be the smallest New
Years’ party around because everyone seemed to want to ‘go big,’ out to a club
or a music festival or something and I wasn’t in the mood for any of it. I
could probably have stayed home but that didn’t seem quite right either so I
went over to my friend Babett’s place where we had a beautiful view of the city
and could hang out outside all night, braaing in the streets of District 6 and
making fun of all the people trying to get to the Waterfront the entire night.
But it’s strange. New Year’s doesn’t feel the same without
the Times Square broadcast and the ball drop. Even in California we watched
that played back. Here, of course, it wasn’t happening for another 7 hours. I
think when I woke up the next morning and was chatting to LaaLaa in Hawaii it
was still 10 minutes to midnight. Funny how that works; such a thing that we
mark in our heads as being such a momentous thing … a new year! A chance to
start over! Well, whatever. As I said on facebook, nothing changes New Year’s
Day, unless you decide to change it. Same as every other damn day of the year.
But, my desire to be social and drink on New Year’s Eve out
of the way, I have now started my detox diet. I was feeling fine the first two
days, today I now understand why it’s called a detox because my body just wants
to chill. I even took a nap this afternoon which is unheard of for me, and I’ve
been sleeping like crazy. I think it will take a week or so for my body fully
to adjust to my now mostly vegetarian diet but so far so good. I’m also pleased
to report no caffeine withdrawal symptoms such as headaches.
Yesterday, however, was a training day and I’m happy to
report that two days into the new year I managed to achieve two of my strength
goals for the first quarter, and hit a PR for clean & jerk. Unfair in a way
because I hadn’t tested 1 rep max overhead squat ever (but I knew I kinda
sucked at it so to get 5kgs above what I was hoping for was a bonus), and my
back squat max was from maybe 6 months ago. Overhead squats were interesting …
my biggest problem there is getting the bar into the right overhead position to
get the right balance, because oddly enough my 40kg squat was easier than
30kgs! The 45kg PR was appropriately challenging so I stopped there.
Back squat was similarly amusing: I started singles at 70
going up in 5kg increments to 80. 80 felt easy, so I added weight then failed
the next lift, decided it was a mental fail, re-loaded the weights and hit the
lift. It was only then that I realised I had actually gone up 10kgs by accident
(no wonder 85 felt so damn heavy!). Good way to get through a mental block,
though, by not realising the amount of weight on the bar.
Found out that my max strict pullups I can do in a set is 3:
this is one of my weaknesses that I want to work on this quarter.
After some shopping, went by Obs for swim technique coaching
with Kerry. That took about 45 minutes because that was all the time I had, but
she made some major corrections to both my kick and stroke, so now once we fix
my breathing I can practice. It was amazing the difference that 45 minutes made
in terms of power output. Wow, coaching and learning is cool (when you don’t
completely suck). In other news, despite daily practice, my double-unders still
suck. Ha.
So, after swim lessons I drove out to Somerset West to train
with the crew at Ballistix Fitness. They have some super weights there so I
decided not to deadlift but rather to do some power snatches (went up to 40kgs
but then my shoulder was feeling tight … probably all the overhead squats in the
morning), so I moved onto power cleans because my legs were feeling too tired
for good form on squat cleans. 55kgs was amazingly easy, 60 flew right up and I
put it overhead for a new clean & jerk PR. Mental fail on the next lift
because we were rushing to set up for the workout (death by pullups).
Ripped my hand in the round of 6 or so, and afterwards gave
one of the guys at the gym his first experience with New Skin. Apparently: “I’m
telling you, this REALLY hurts” isn’t a sufficient warning label. At first I
thought he wasn’t going to speak to me again then he came right back over when
I told him he needed a second coat. Finished up the day giving Hes some tips on
how to learn the kipping pullup. Happy to say she made major progress on the
kip, but transitioning from the kip to the pull needs work. Practice makes
perfect, as they say.
Now I’m off to watch Mona lift for a bit, and chill on the
other side of the mountain. Tomorrow is bound to be an interesting one, which I
will tell you all about once it happens.
- "Let me just wipe the blood from the bar." - Hes
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