John’s Ramblings

I haven’t been just sitting on my butt…

I was fairly tired and sore on Saturday, but we had handiman/cyclist/all-around-nice-guy Geoff Hazel coming over to do a little work.  On the agenda was some drywall tape-joint repair and to rebuild a deck (this would be deck #4 in the Calnan Deck Series.  #5 is fine).  While Geoff did his finesse work on the walls inside, I did the demolition work on the outside.  Trip to Lowe’s for materials (another $200 contribution to their shareholders: NYSE Symbol LOW) and we’re rolling.  Well, Geoff is, anyway.  My task at this point is to bring the materials I have purchased to the construction site and haul the old demolition material away.  Enter kettlebell-boy.  The route for this material-hauling is up and down this little gem (pictured at right).  No, it’s not a mile long, but it’s steep, uneven, and a wee bit slippery.  My trainer Luka would think this was a great “chaotic training exercise to strengthen the core”.  So I went about it in Luka fashion: Carry two armloads of stuff up the hill, then immediately carry two armloads of stuff down the hill.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

The construction phase went really well, and faster than I would have thought.  Geoff did the supporting framework while I did my fetch-and-carry routine, above.  I then put myself in charge of cutting the decking 2×4′s to the rough length needed.  Geoff screwed them in to place almost as fast as I could deliver them and we were done just in time for happy hour!  Here’s a peek at the finished product.  The man does good work, I tell ya:

While the men-folk were a’lumbering, Terri spent the afternoon clearing vegetation from around our backyard pond and doing landscaping work around same.  She may have had the tougher duty, as she was in the hot sun far longer than Geoff or I.  When the deck was completed I was enlisted to “move a rock”.  The rock she needed moved was a beauty: about 40 pounds of egg-shaped basalt, smoothed of rough edges but enough texture to the surface to make it fun to heft.  I immediately began negotiations to add the rock to my workout equipment.  The final deal involved me digging up and moving a much larger boulder from another part of the yard, and relocating it to the now blank spot by the pond.

Sunday was a rest day.  Given my new Tuesday night schedule with Luka I probably should have done my workout “C” on Sunday, but I was still pretty hammered from Weds/Friday/Saturday, so I opted for a 3 day break to be rested for Tuesday.  Monday I went with Terri for a leisurely 19 mile ride through the valley.

Tuesday night was a blur.  Luka hit me hard with a couple of dense training supersets.  I frankly can’t remember the exact sequences, combinations, or reps.  I distinctly remember grunting and groaning through all the following, however:

• jump and chin-up (now featuring 1st reps without assistance! He’s getting there!!)
• kettlebell clean and squat, 2 x 24 kg kb
• high pulls 24kg
• pushups
• bulgarian 1 leg squats R & L (killer!)
• 30 lb d-ball military press
• squat jumps

I have to try to get that workout “C” in today, and hopefully before it hits 90 degrees here.  As I recall, this is the one that left me lying in a pool of sweat two+ weeks ago, so I don’t need the added complication of heat stroke.  Unsure whether I’ll work this bad-boy into the routine or not:

size 10 provided for scale

Tags: exercise, hocevar performance, kettlebell, workout

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.