This and That

This post is gonna be all over the place, potentially. I have some things I've been wanting to type/write but just haven't had the time to make this a priority.

As you may or may not know, I've been training for my first olympic distance triathlon which is set to take place in Northeastern VA on 9/27. It consists of a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and a 10k run (.9/26/6 in miles) where the swim takes place at this place called the Naylor's Beach where it's basically a river swim. I wouldn't say that I'm completely ready but I'm fairly certain that I can complete this... my goal was going to be able to do it within 3 hrs which depending on how the swim goes would be pretty tight (not a great time for anyone in my age group but great for a newbie like me). So last night, after basketball, I go to the pool to do some drills and as I was doing my warm up swim of 300yds, I felt good so I thought, maybe I should try swimming 1.5k to see what that's like... But being that I was tired, at first, I figured I would do 500 yds (that's 20 lengths of the pool). As I got to lap 20, I just thought, well I can keep going so I'll do 20 more. When it was all said and I done, I was at 60 and 6 more laps would give me a full mile so I was going to go ahead and do it when the life guard is waiting for me at the end of the pool. He tells me to hop out of the pool so I was a bit surprised but I just assumed they were closing... an hour early. Turns out a girl puked in the pool so they were getting everyone out. According to a friend of mine who used to be a lifeguard, it shouldn't be that big a deal because the pool has a mechanism to suck those things out - who knows, maybe the Y has a higher standard of cleanliness or something... I sure hope so but once I found out what happened, I was pretty glad the guy got me out of the pool.

So, I'm still feeling good about my swim (and btw, I'm paying the price today - my shoulders/arms/wrists are sore!) and I notice that I have a call from an unknown number. Turns out it's from my best friend in Japan. I knew he was gonna be in NY sometime soon for business but no dates were set. Well, it turns out that he'll be in town (in NYC) starting the 20th and then he'll be here for 2 weeks leaving on Oct 2. So basically, he'll only be here for one weekend... which happens to coincide with my triathlon. Of course, this is my best friend since high school who I made a crazy weekend trip for his wedding where I was in Japan for as long as I was traveling so giving up my tri to go visit him in NYC is a no brainer... having said that, I'm a little bummed because I was really looking forward to this triathlon and training pretty hard for it. I mean there will be other races but I don't know... anyways, so that's $80 of registration fee down the drain... having said that, I know I would have a blast in NYC - we always do and so I am definitely excited to see them. Lucko/LJ, you guys met my buddy last year (I think), wanna come out to the city? I still owe you guys drinks so it will be on me!

Anyways, so now, I'm searching for another triathlon that I can do this year - I have to do one this year because I don't think I can keep training the way I do now through the winter season without a little taste of what it's like to do an olympic distance tri.

On a completely different note, I've recently become a TV junkie... well, not really from most people's standards but for me who only had one show per week that I religiously watched (Criminal Minds), I am now at 4 shows... First one is Shaq Vs. It's an awesome show where Shaq goes around competing against the other athletes in their sports. It started with him vs Ben Roethlisberger in a football showdown and on to him battling against Albert Pujols in HR Derby, the two US women's olympic champion beach volleyball team in beach volleyball, Oscar Dela Hoya in boxing, and last night was him battling none other than Michael Phelps in swimming. Of course, each of these have handicaps to even out the playing field but it's just a fun time amongst competitive athletes talking shit but having fun. I'm not a big fan of Shaq but his personality is perfect for something like this. You can catch all the episodes here. It's entertaining as hell and also, just reminds you of how great these athletes are in terms of how good they are in their sport. I mean these are the best of the best but I think you forget how good they are when they are also surrounded by other superstars...

The next show is Surviving Disaster. This ex-navy seal walks you through a disaster scenario where the stage is set so it's real life like... and he walks you and gives you tips on what you can do to survive the disaster. First one was if the plane that you are on is hijacked, next was if you are in a tall office building (this was 10 stories) and there's a fire and you're trapped... most recent episode was how to survive a nasty hurricane (of Katrina variety, I imagine). It's actually a very interesting concept and I personally love it. I'm not saying that by watching this, if the particular disaster strikes, you'd be ready but I already learned a lot so far that I didn't know before. Next week's episode is when house robbers come in to your house... I think it's totally worth watching!

Last but not the least is 2 months $2MM. It's about these 4 twenty-something year olds who play poker professionally (LJ, you should know this since you work at CR and White Lime is one of the 4)... Anyways, the setting is that these 4 move to Vegas for 2 months with the intent to make $2 million amongst themselves. As of week 5, they are way behind, being up $35k ish as a group but it's interesting to see how these guys who are great pros but on the same token, very young guys go through bad losing streaks, tilt, deal with women and the temptations of Vegas. One kid went out, got drunk, and woke up with a $5k bar tab! They high-carded for a $1200 dinner for 6 people (hmmm, actually, didn't we do that in Vegas? I backed out but you guys are sickos) and just have no regards for money... of course, when you're like 22-25 and have made over a million dollars playing poker, I can see how you can be detached from reality. Poker is the basis but it's more a reality tv show than anything else and it's just entertaining as hell. Ah, the sneak peak into a life of degenerates. Good times!

Ok, I feel like I've written enough. I'm gonna go search for some triathlons in some appealing places and see if I can find one that's worth traveling to.

Damn, I'm good

I'm chillin out in the afternoon watching football after running errands and stuff and this email pops up on my newly acquired blackberry (Tour which is freakin awesome if you have Verizon).

This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Tournament #101593141 Silver $15,000 Freeroll NL Hold'em
Buy-In: $0.00
957 players
Total Prize Pool: $15000.00
Start Date: September 12 3:45 PM ET

Dear RecessRampage,

You finished the tournament in 253rd place.
There has been $22.50 added to your account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.



Ha ha ha, nothing like cashing in a tournament without even playing!!!

It's so weird that I used to pay attention to make sure I never missed tournaments like this and now, it didn't even occur to me. Good times!

Week 6 - Falling Behind

This is week 6 of the JT workout. If you've been paying attention, this is week 6 of 7. If everything went according to plan, I should be able to put up 3 reps of 250lbs on the bench next week... unfortunately, I don't see that happening. Now generally, I'm not one to psych myself out. If anything, I relish the chance to come through under pressure. In basketball, I was never afraid to pull the trigger... that's not to say that I would take stupid shots but I knew I was a good shooter and so even if I missed 5 in a row, I would just keep taking open shots, as long as they were good choices (I wasn't a stupid player either). That's my way of saying that I don't go into a workout, wondering or thinking that I might not be able to do something. I go, I do. Simple as that.

Having said that, I encountered yet another set back yesterday when I tried lifting... not to make this an excuse but the guy who was spotting me (huge gym rat) pointed out that, and I quote, "everyone is weak on Mondays... all the drinking and the partying that they do, they're not ready for a big lifting day on Monday." *sigh* That is so true for me - at least the drinking part... this weekend, I had 3 fantasy drafts and I definitely went overboard... I think I was feeling the effects till Sunday evening. Well, without further ado, here's my workout.

Flat Barbell
135 x 12-15 (did 15)
185 x 8 (easily got 7 up, on my way to getting the 8th one up, I hit a major wall, seemingly out of nowhere. I just couldn't lock up my arms so it ended up being a forced rep)
225 x 4-6 (the above set got to my head - 1 + 2FR - just couldn't get anything going)
250 x 1-3 (245 x 2 FR - I'm sure the guy spotting me thought I should just stick to 225)
225 x 2-6 (I had nothing left here - 2 FR)

Incline Barbell
95 x 12-15 (did 15)
135 x 8-10 (did 10)
155 x 6-8 (5 + 1 FR)
165 x 2-4 (3 + 2 FR)

See, the irony here is that I'm getting stronger on my inclines now. Last week, I could only do 3 reps of 155lbs. This week, I knocked out 5 and I was able to get 3 strong reps of 165lbs. Flat bench is falling apart though...

Dips 3 sets to failure
11, 15, 12 - Suprisingly, after the first two workouts, I was exhausted and did not have much left... obviously.

Pushups 3 sets to failure
25, 19, 20 - Same story as the dips. Keep in mind that any other day, I can do 50 easy (after cardio work - not after lifting)... yet on my very first set, I can't go any further than 25.

I'm not sure what to do now... The whole time, I was set on hitting my goal after 7 weeks... do I start over at around week 4 workout?