The "shrine" and yesterday's workout

I changed offices at work a couple months ago. In my old office, I had a bulletin board where I'd displayed a lot of my race numbers from ultras and a few other races, including the two races I've won outright in my life. When I moved offices, the bulletin board didn't come with me, so the numbers came down.

A few weeks ago, the CEO was in my new office and noticed that the numbers were gone. He said that was unacceptable; the numbers needed to be on display. He said he'd find a bulletin board. I forgot all about it. On Monday, when I came to work, I had a new bulletin board on the wall, with a note that read as follows:

"To Damon, the man who runs like a deer reindeer, from Santa"

Apparently, on Sunday, the CEO had been at work and he found one of the plant operations guys and they put up the board for me. The small hospital where I work is a really amazing place at times, and it starts with our CEO, who actually knows and interacts with every employee.

So, the "shrine" is back.

Last night, I started my workout with bench presses and bent over rows, as supersets. My primary goal was to hit 160 on the bench press. After my warm-up, I did 6 reps at 135. Then, 6 rows at 135. Then, I tried 150 for a single-rep bench press and it didn't go too well; my spotter had to help. That was disappointing. But, the 160 attempt was still a chance for redemption. Then, 1 row at 150, 6 bench presses at 145, 6 rows at 155, and then it was time for my attempt at 160 on the bench press.

I read a recommendation recently about the bench press. Basically, you are supposed to concentrate on "pulling" the bar to your chest actively, rather than simply lowering the bar. This movement (if you don't crush your chest) supposedly primes the system somehow for the reverse movement. I tried this on the 160 rep and nailed it almost too easily. I wrapped up that first superset and then moved on to close-grip lat pulldowns, DB presses and lower body Russian twists.

After that, I hopped on the the treadmill for a brief Tabata-like interval workout. Because of the time it takes to speed up and slow down the treadmill, I can't really do 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds easy, times 10. So, after a warm-up, I'd push the pace to sub-6. Once I got there, I'd stay there for 20 seconds and then drop the pace to 12mpm. I'd stay there for 10 seconds, and then return to sub-6 pace. I did 10 repeats of 20 seconds each at sub-6 pace. Then, I did a short cooldown for an intense 2 mile workout.

A big snowstorm is moving in this afternoon and skiing should be great for the next few days. The kids will probably have a snow day tomorrow, and I may have a case of the "powder flu", which would necessitate a trip to the mountain for me and the kids.

I start teaching children this weekend and we should have great snow. The mountains are supposed to get 10"-20" of snow, with 8"-14" at lower elevations.