A one month extension to clear the bonus. Sweet jebus. I guess I will be able to clear this bonus after all. YESSSSSSSS!!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
What's the opposite of a bad beat?
In the past, clearing ironman bonuses within the month was like breathing... it got done and I didn't even have to think about it. Hell, to keep things interesting, I usually did contests against Bayne. But now, with my workouts and social life kicking in full gear, I don't have as much time playing poker... so, I came to peace with the fact that I probably won't clear my $500 ironman bonus... Until last night, I checked (just for kicks) how much bonus I am due and guess what I saw!!!
A one month extension to clear the bonus. Sweet jebus. I guess I will be able to clear this bonus after all. YESSSSSSSS!!!
A one month extension to clear the bonus. Sweet jebus. I guess I will be able to clear this bonus after all. YESSSSSSSS!!!
7 week master plan
Disclosure: This has absolutely nothing to do with poker.
Ok, so there are bazillion things I want to do. I want to do a real olympic distance triathlon... and I want to do the Vegas half. Considering that I have no desire to immerse myself in training for either, but since running tends to come more naturally for me, I am guessing that this year, I don't think I will be able to do a tri... I might find another duathlon or a sprint tri but no real distance tri for me... at least not in '09. And to answer Peaker's comment from the other day, it's just that I don't like running... and that's why you don't see running in my workout plan. Of course, in order to do the half, I'll prob have to run some but I think I can get enough cardio in through swimming and biking so I won't do much running. We'll see how that pans out.
In the meantime, few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to be able to bench 250lbs (free weight, obv)... sure enough, my buddy JT read the blog and emailed me, telling me he can come up with a master plan. He knew how strong (or weak, it's in the eye of the beholder, I think) I am and so he came up with this 7 week plan, full with guidance like "make sure to take at least 120g of protein on the day of and day after your chest workout." He also told me that I need to do shoulder and triceps but not within 48 hrs prior to my chest day.
Since JT is a freakin beast I decided to take him up on his offer and today was Week 1 of his 7 week master plan (Mondays from here on out will be chest days, most likely Wed/Thurs would be when I would incorporate shoulders and triceps amongst other things).
His week 1 regimen:
Flat Barbell Bench
135 x 12-15 (I did 15)
155 x 10-12 (I did 12)
205 x 4-6 (I did 4 plus 1 with help from spotter - the 50lb increase was definitely felt)
225 x 2-4 + 2-4 forced reps (basically, I ended up with 3 forced reps, ie 3 with help of spotter)
Feedback: Hmmm, maybe I'm not as strong as JT thinks I am...
Incline Dumbbell
35 x 12-15 (I did 15)
50 x 8-10 (I did 10)
60 x 4-6 (I did 6)
45 to absolute failure (I did 15)
Feedback: Considering I didn't do much incline dumbell before this and he didn't know where to start because of it, it seemed right on par. The 6th one on the 60lb dumbell was a semi-struggle.
Flat Dumbbell Fly
25 x 12 (I did 12)
2 sets of 35 x 6-8 (I did 2 sets of 8)
Feedback: I never did flat dumbbell fly (I always did the fly on the machine) so it was a little interesting but I think I could have added a little more weight.
Dips
3 sets to absolute failure (I did 13, 11, 10)
Feedback: I actually thought I could do more but I just didn't have anything left. Kinda disappointing that my first set was only 13 reps... I was certain I could do 15+.
Overall feedback: Pretty good week 1. In terms of number of exercises, this is a little less than what I usually do since I usually would also do a decline bench press. So, we'll see how this goes. Since JT is also trying to gauge my strength and process, the outer weeks can change, even though it would probably only be a slight tweak. Considering he took the time to write up a 7 week program where in week 7, I'll be doing reps of 250lbs on the bench, I will def be working hard since a) I think I can do it and b) I don't want to feel like I failed him.
This won't be easy but it will be pretty cool to be able to do 3 reps of 250lbs at which point, I can see my name go up in the weight lifting board since that would be like 150%+ of my body weight. MONEY BABY!!!!
Ok, so there are bazillion things I want to do. I want to do a real olympic distance triathlon... and I want to do the Vegas half. Considering that I have no desire to immerse myself in training for either, but since running tends to come more naturally for me, I am guessing that this year, I don't think I will be able to do a tri... I might find another duathlon or a sprint tri but no real distance tri for me... at least not in '09. And to answer Peaker's comment from the other day, it's just that I don't like running... and that's why you don't see running in my workout plan. Of course, in order to do the half, I'll prob have to run some but I think I can get enough cardio in through swimming and biking so I won't do much running. We'll see how that pans out.
In the meantime, few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to be able to bench 250lbs (free weight, obv)... sure enough, my buddy JT read the blog and emailed me, telling me he can come up with a master plan. He knew how strong (or weak, it's in the eye of the beholder, I think) I am and so he came up with this 7 week plan, full with guidance like "make sure to take at least 120g of protein on the day of and day after your chest workout." He also told me that I need to do shoulder and triceps but not within 48 hrs prior to my chest day.
Since JT is a freakin beast I decided to take him up on his offer and today was Week 1 of his 7 week master plan (Mondays from here on out will be chest days, most likely Wed/Thurs would be when I would incorporate shoulders and triceps amongst other things).
His week 1 regimen:
Flat Barbell Bench
135 x 12-15 (I did 15)
155 x 10-12 (I did 12)
205 x 4-6 (I did 4 plus 1 with help from spotter - the 50lb increase was definitely felt)
225 x 2-4 + 2-4 forced reps (basically, I ended up with 3 forced reps, ie 3 with help of spotter)
Feedback: Hmmm, maybe I'm not as strong as JT thinks I am...
Incline Dumbbell
35 x 12-15 (I did 15)
50 x 8-10 (I did 10)
60 x 4-6 (I did 6)
45 to absolute failure (I did 15)
Feedback: Considering I didn't do much incline dumbell before this and he didn't know where to start because of it, it seemed right on par. The 6th one on the 60lb dumbell was a semi-struggle.
Flat Dumbbell Fly
25 x 12 (I did 12)
2 sets of 35 x 6-8 (I did 2 sets of 8)
Feedback: I never did flat dumbbell fly (I always did the fly on the machine) so it was a little interesting but I think I could have added a little more weight.
Dips
3 sets to absolute failure (I did 13, 11, 10)
Feedback: I actually thought I could do more but I just didn't have anything left. Kinda disappointing that my first set was only 13 reps... I was certain I could do 15+.
Overall feedback: Pretty good week 1. In terms of number of exercises, this is a little less than what I usually do since I usually would also do a decline bench press. So, we'll see how this goes. Since JT is also trying to gauge my strength and process, the outer weeks can change, even though it would probably only be a slight tweak. Considering he took the time to write up a 7 week program where in week 7, I'll be doing reps of 250lbs on the bench, I will def be working hard since a) I think I can do it and b) I don't want to feel like I failed him.
This won't be easy but it will be pretty cool to be able to do 3 reps of 250lbs at which point, I can see my name go up in the weight lifting board since that would be like 150%+ of my body weight. MONEY BABY!!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Are you dating or are you paying for a hooker?
This morning, on the radio, I heard an interesting discussion. Apparently, this one guy who works at the radio station heard of an intriguing thing - there are people offering to pay for whatever the person's needs are in exchange of that person living in the house with them and "caring" for them whenever they needed care. Essentially, it was like a live-in maid who would also provide services that are beyond household chores for the right price.
Example they gave was let's say there is an attractive girl who needs to pay for her college tuition (wow, sounds a lot like the workers at the rhino working to "put themselves through law school"). The guy would pay for her college tuition. Of course, in exchange, she would take care of certain household chores but more importantly take care of him when he needed taken care of. He confirmed on the radio that "taking care of him" would entail what most listeners are imagining and that it wasn't completely ok to go into details on the radio.
The female hosts and some female listeners were absolutely disgusted by this idea. They thought he was a pig and that basically he was paying for a hooker. Of course, there were mixed thoughts on this one and there were girls that called in and said if this guy was decent looking, then something can be arranged.
I thought it was interesting, mainly because of a lot of the female arguments. They thought it was ridiculous that a girl had to put out in exchange for some fee (in this example, the tuition). They thought there's no difference between that and a guy going to a dark corner, hiring some prostitute, and doing it in the back alley (or the hotel room or whatever). The funny thing is, while all these feminists errrrr, I mean ladies were ranting about how disgusting this was, I started thinking how is this that different from dating?
Ok, yeah, I get that most people would classify it differently but is it really as different as people think it is? Hell, paying for hooker is probably like getting a girl drunk for a one night stand. Are all college girls considered hookers? Here's my thought. These ladies were all pissed off because of the notion that a guy paying for her needs is receiving sex in exchange. What do you think guys are doing when they are offering shots to women? Being nice just to be nice? Or being nice to get into their pants? If your answer is because the guy is nice, then wow... I mean, wow. How old are you, 12?
Let's see. You meet a girl, you take her out to dinner. You wine and dine her, share some stories, share some laughs, you take her home and give her a goodnight kiss. You even opened the car door for her and you were a perfect gentleman throughout the night. You don't get anything more than a good night kiss but all the guys reading this knows that it's just a set up to the next date where you're obviously going to go further. So let's see, what exactly happened here? You provided the girl what she needs (free dinner, free drinks, companionship, sense of humor, etc) so that you can get what you want ("taken care of"). I mean if the live-in maid concept is like prostitution, is dating all that different???
Yeah, yeah, I get that there are plenty of exceptions and I'm not saying that any girl in a relationship is a hooker. It's actually the complete opposite. I'm arguing that the live-in maid situation is NOT the same as having a prostitute. I mean I never had a hooker but I'm guessing the transaction goes something along the lines of you negotiate, you pay, and you have sex. She walks out the door, both getting what you wanted. Strictly business, right? In the live-in maid situation, it would be different wouldn't it? There doesn't have to be any chemistry but there needs to be some level of getting along because otherwise, it would just be annoying to live with someone and to pay for their shit if you can't hold a decent conversation. That sounds a lot more like dating, doesn't it?
I don't know, what do you all think? Am I totally off the mark? Am I a total pig? If I am, I'm ok with it... I'm not Tucker Max and I'm not trying to use this blog to get laid.
Example they gave was let's say there is an attractive girl who needs to pay for her college tuition (wow, sounds a lot like the workers at the rhino working to "put themselves through law school"). The guy would pay for her college tuition. Of course, in exchange, she would take care of certain household chores but more importantly take care of him when he needed taken care of. He confirmed on the radio that "taking care of him" would entail what most listeners are imagining and that it wasn't completely ok to go into details on the radio.
The female hosts and some female listeners were absolutely disgusted by this idea. They thought he was a pig and that basically he was paying for a hooker. Of course, there were mixed thoughts on this one and there were girls that called in and said if this guy was decent looking, then something can be arranged.
I thought it was interesting, mainly because of a lot of the female arguments. They thought it was ridiculous that a girl had to put out in exchange for some fee (in this example, the tuition). They thought there's no difference between that and a guy going to a dark corner, hiring some prostitute, and doing it in the back alley (or the hotel room or whatever). The funny thing is, while all these feminists errrrr, I mean ladies were ranting about how disgusting this was, I started thinking how is this that different from dating?
Ok, yeah, I get that most people would classify it differently but is it really as different as people think it is? Hell, paying for hooker is probably like getting a girl drunk for a one night stand. Are all college girls considered hookers? Here's my thought. These ladies were all pissed off because of the notion that a guy paying for her needs is receiving sex in exchange. What do you think guys are doing when they are offering shots to women? Being nice just to be nice? Or being nice to get into their pants? If your answer is because the guy is nice, then wow... I mean, wow. How old are you, 12?
Let's see. You meet a girl, you take her out to dinner. You wine and dine her, share some stories, share some laughs, you take her home and give her a goodnight kiss. You even opened the car door for her and you were a perfect gentleman throughout the night. You don't get anything more than a good night kiss but all the guys reading this knows that it's just a set up to the next date where you're obviously going to go further. So let's see, what exactly happened here? You provided the girl what she needs (free dinner, free drinks, companionship, sense of humor, etc) so that you can get what you want ("taken care of"). I mean if the live-in maid concept is like prostitution, is dating all that different???
Yeah, yeah, I get that there are plenty of exceptions and I'm not saying that any girl in a relationship is a hooker. It's actually the complete opposite. I'm arguing that the live-in maid situation is NOT the same as having a prostitute. I mean I never had a hooker but I'm guessing the transaction goes something along the lines of you negotiate, you pay, and you have sex. She walks out the door, both getting what you wanted. Strictly business, right? In the live-in maid situation, it would be different wouldn't it? There doesn't have to be any chemistry but there needs to be some level of getting along because otherwise, it would just be annoying to live with someone and to pay for their shit if you can't hold a decent conversation. That sounds a lot more like dating, doesn't it?
I don't know, what do you all think? Am I totally off the mark? Am I a total pig? If I am, I'm ok with it... I'm not Tucker Max and I'm not trying to use this blog to get laid.
Monday, July 20, 2009
I'm not a gym rat...
But I've been spending a lot of time devoted to exercises... of course, some of them, in my book, don't even count... like playing basketball in my mind is not an exercise... it's just what I like doing. So... my typical week goes like this...
Monday evening - I lift.
Tuesday at 7am - I play bball for 1.5hrs at the company gym.
Tuesday evening - I lift (diff areas from Mon, obv)
Wednesday evening - lift/swim
Thursday at 7am - same as Tues
Thurs evening - happy hr...
Friday at 7am - same as Tues/Thurs
Friday evening - more happy hr
Saturday - usually a pretty intense lifting day, followed by a swim
Sunday - bike 18-24 miles
I'm not big or buff by any means... I think I have a decent body... well, I've gotten compliments whenever I take my shirt off... but I have a small frame so I don't like that. I'm 6'0 and I only weigh 165lbs...
Well, the reason why I was incorporating swimming and doing 2-a-days when playing ball was because I was training for a triathlon... the thing is, it was a sprint triathlon so the distance for each leg is half of what the olympic distance triathlon is. So, my race was 300m swim/20k bike/5k run... about as short as it can be for a triathlon. Well, that was this past weekend and even though it's short, I popped my tri cherry!
I was pretty pissed off that my first transition time took so long... I had a tri top that had my bib # on and so I was trying to put that on... putting a tight top when wet is extremely difficult... and it literally took me like 2+ minutes trying to put it on, taking it off, trying again... Overall, I had a great time (not my actual time but the time I had at the race was fun) but I had way too much left in the tank at the end of the race so I was not too excited about my performance... but then again, it's my first one so I guess it's passable. I'll give it a B- for my personal grade.
I do know that I no longer have any desire to run a marathon (which at one point was on my life checklist). I will prob do a half actually... oh, for you bloggers who still read this and those of you that run (I'm pretty much talking to you and you), any interest in doing the Vegas half on 12/6? My buddy and I are doing it so you guys should join... isn't that around the winter gathering anyways?
So then this past Sunday, I did my tri... well, last night was our company league 3on3 tournament. Despite it being a company league, it's actually uber competitive and we have refs... if we can call them that... they are the same refs from the County league that I play in and they are freakin terrible. Well, in this double elimination tournament, despite losing our very first game, we actually won the next 4 games to make it to the Finals!! Of course, by then, we were totally gassed and considering we were playing against the #2 seed (we knocked off the #1 seed in the game before in OT) which was also last year's champion, and they played 2 less games than we did (because they were the #2 seed and they didn't have to go through the loser's bracket), they crushed us... during the seeding games last week, we lost to them 13-9 (it's a game to 20 by 1s and 2s or 20 minutes, whichever comes first)... last night, we got crushed in the Finals 20-4... No surprise. We were completely done after knocking off the #1 seed. Having said that, it was a total blast.
With all the workouts and my renewed social life, I've devoted a lot less time playing poker... but I'm ok with that for now.
Oh, at our company gym, there's also a list for anyone who can bench more than 120% of their weight and it is ranked by %. You have to bench the weight 3 times to qualify and so I did 220lbs 3 times, good enough to put me on the list at 132%. Of course, that puts me like 3 from the bottom but there are only about 15 guys on the list... so, my next goal is to move up that ranking. 235lbs would get me 142% which would put me on the upper half of the list so that should be my goal. Hopefully sometime in the next few months, I can get there...
Monday evening - I lift.
Tuesday at 7am - I play bball for 1.5hrs at the company gym.
Tuesday evening - I lift (diff areas from Mon, obv)
Wednesday evening - lift/swim
Thursday at 7am - same as Tues
Thurs evening - happy hr...
Friday at 7am - same as Tues/Thurs
Friday evening - more happy hr
Saturday - usually a pretty intense lifting day, followed by a swim
Sunday - bike 18-24 miles
I'm not big or buff by any means... I think I have a decent body... well, I've gotten compliments whenever I take my shirt off... but I have a small frame so I don't like that. I'm 6'0 and I only weigh 165lbs...
Well, the reason why I was incorporating swimming and doing 2-a-days when playing ball was because I was training for a triathlon... the thing is, it was a sprint triathlon so the distance for each leg is half of what the olympic distance triathlon is. So, my race was 300m swim/20k bike/5k run... about as short as it can be for a triathlon. Well, that was this past weekend and even though it's short, I popped my tri cherry!
I was pretty pissed off that my first transition time took so long... I had a tri top that had my bib # on and so I was trying to put that on... putting a tight top when wet is extremely difficult... and it literally took me like 2+ minutes trying to put it on, taking it off, trying again... Overall, I had a great time (not my actual time but the time I had at the race was fun) but I had way too much left in the tank at the end of the race so I was not too excited about my performance... but then again, it's my first one so I guess it's passable. I'll give it a B- for my personal grade.
I do know that I no longer have any desire to run a marathon (which at one point was on my life checklist). I will prob do a half actually... oh, for you bloggers who still read this and those of you that run (I'm pretty much talking to you and you), any interest in doing the Vegas half on 12/6? My buddy and I are doing it so you guys should join... isn't that around the winter gathering anyways?
So then this past Sunday, I did my tri... well, last night was our company league 3on3 tournament. Despite it being a company league, it's actually uber competitive and we have refs... if we can call them that... they are the same refs from the County league that I play in and they are freakin terrible. Well, in this double elimination tournament, despite losing our very first game, we actually won the next 4 games to make it to the Finals!! Of course, by then, we were totally gassed and considering we were playing against the #2 seed (we knocked off the #1 seed in the game before in OT) which was also last year's champion, and they played 2 less games than we did (because they were the #2 seed and they didn't have to go through the loser's bracket), they crushed us... during the seeding games last week, we lost to them 13-9 (it's a game to 20 by 1s and 2s or 20 minutes, whichever comes first)... last night, we got crushed in the Finals 20-4... No surprise. We were completely done after knocking off the #1 seed. Having said that, it was a total blast.
With all the workouts and my renewed social life, I've devoted a lot less time playing poker... but I'm ok with that for now.
Oh, at our company gym, there's also a list for anyone who can bench more than 120% of their weight and it is ranked by %. You have to bench the weight 3 times to qualify and so I did 220lbs 3 times, good enough to put me on the list at 132%. Of course, that puts me like 3 from the bottom but there are only about 15 guys on the list... so, my next goal is to move up that ranking. 235lbs would get me 142% which would put me on the upper half of the list so that should be my goal. Hopefully sometime in the next few months, I can get there...
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