Thursday, June 26, 2014

A couple rest days can help a lot

I took a rest day on Friday.  It was nice to have a planned rest day.  The weekend was packed full of activities that made it very difficult to get everything done.

Friday night, we had dinner with friends.  Saturday morning, my wife and I fished from very early until 11:00.  I got home, did a little cooking, took a shower, and we were off to southern Vermont for the day to celebrate my son's birthday - visiting record stores, book stores, playing mini golf, and then dinner out.

I got to bed late for the second day in a row, and when the alarm went off to go fishing again, I hit snooze a few times and then turned it off.  There was just too much to do.  I got up and did some cooking.  Mowed the lawn.  Went for a run.  Took care of some business in town.  Did some more cooking for a dish we were taking to a party.  And then, we went to the party.

I finally got to sit down and relax.  I enjoyed some Whistlepig Rye and an Arturo Fuente Hemingway "Signature" cigar.  We had some really good smoked ribs and smoked chicken for dinner with our friends.  It was a hectic weekend, but the end of it was quite relaxing.

Monday was back to the normal grind.  Squats at CrossFit, plus barbell box step-ups, followed by a descending ladder of running and power cleans.

Tuesday, I took off work.  My daughter and I took the dogs for an enjoyable walk and I then headed to western Vermont to fly fish for the day.  I'm posting a lot less about fly fishing here, because I'm posting about fishing in the fly fishing blog listed to the right.  I got in a great workout, working my way up through a tight gorge in pursuit of big brown trout.  I was really exhausted after nine hours in my waders.

Last night, we did bench presses to start CrossFit.  We are doing 4 rounds of a Wendler cycle right now, with 4 weeks per round, and this was week 1 of round 3.  I am not making much progress with my squat and deadlift, mostly due to the strength I lost after my surgery.  I'm simply playing catch-up with those two lifts.  But, I am making progress with my bench press, mostly because I've never been good at it, and I was able to work on that lift fairly soon after my surgery.  I'm sure that 7 weeks from now, I will finally hit that elusive 200+ pound bench press.  Yes, that's pathetic, but it's where I am.  I want to continue to bench press as much as possible this year, to see if I can get to 225 by the end of the year.  After the bench press work, we did some wall balls, ring rows, and rope jumping.  I felt pretty good with how the workout went, especially given how humid and clammy the gym was.

Tonight, it's "work your weakness" night, so I'll probably pick burpees and Turkish Get-ups.  Then, some rowing and kettlebell swings.  As the weekend approaches, my calendar is wide open, a relief after last weekend.  I'm hoping to do a little fishing with my wife, and maybe visit my in-laws at their camp in northern VT.

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