Life Needs Strength

I have been doing 'CrossFit' now for about 4 years.  This is my 3rd year competing in the CrossFit Games Open.  From the time I began my fitness journey, I have made significant improvements.  If I compare what I can do now to what I could do when I began or before I began, the difference is staggering.  However, for a couple of reasons, it is becoming more difficult to improve.  Primarily I am limited in how much time I can put into training, and frankly, I don't want to put a great deal of time training.  My largest priority in life is my family, and so supporting them and being with them will always have to come first.  And so, because I have no aspirations to be at the very top of competitive fitness, I must be satisfied with what I can put into it and what I will get out of it.  The best thing I can do then to be better, is to tackle weaknesses and to use my time as effectively as possible.

During this last Games Open, I discovered that I do a lot of things OK, and nothing great.  But a big glaring weakness I have is in the strength category.  By far my worst event was the one rep max clean and jerk.  I got 205 lbs.  That is actually a PR for me, but still by far my worst ranking event.  This is nothing new.  I have always known that I need to be stronger.  But how will I get stronger with my limited time?  I barely have enough time to do the daily workout.  Jesse has programmed lifting for us in the past, but I never have enough time to finish it.  So I need a new solution; a simple solution, and preferably a free solution.

I read an interesting article by End of Three Fitness called CrossFit makes you weaker.  It doesn't really, he's just trying to get attention with the title.  What he means is that if you are a strong person and switch to just doing CrossFit, then you will decrease in strength in all of your max lifts.  But if you are like me, and weak to begin with, you will become stronger, but only up to a point.  If you want to make gains in the strength department, you have to include a strength training program.  So here I go looking for the right strength training program for me.

I start looking online for strength training programs.  A lot of great programs out there, most of them for power lifters.  One that I really want to try, but I would have to pay $40 for the ebook, is the One Man One Barbell program by End of Three Fitness.  It looks like just what I'm after, but I don't want to pay, so I'm holding off.  I find the Stronglifts 5X5 program.  It looks great in terms of simplicity and very basic strength training, but it even says in the description, that if you can squat 300lbs properly then you are too advanced for the program.  Maybe, maybe not.  But one thing about it, is it will not help me at all with any of the olympic lifts, which is something I will have to work on as well.   How about Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program.  It looks like another awesome program.  He offers a little more flexibility with some of the supporting exercises.  He even gives you most of the info for free, but to buy the program with everything there it's another purchase.  Probably worth it, but I'm cheap.  I keep looking and find the Starting Strength program.  This looks like I'm getting closer.  I have been checking all these programs out, and doing a lot of reading, so I have a pretty good idea about the basis for each of these programs and how they work.

Using the Starting Strength program as my template, I add in one more day per week to bump me up to 4 days a week.  The program is so simple I can get through it pretty quick without having to switch a lot of weights around for each set.  The movements are core and basic and because of the extra day a week I can add in some new stuff so that I can also work on clean and jerk and snatch.  Here is what it looks like:

Week 1
Mon - Back Squat 3x5, Shoulder Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
Wed - Front Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Back Extensions 3x10, 3 max sets strict pullups
Fri - Back Squat 3x5, Shoulder Press 3x5, Power Clean 5x3
Sat - Overhead Squat 3x5, Barbell Row 3x5, Snatch 5x3

Week 2
Mon - Back Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Back Extensions 3x10, 3 max sets strict pullups
Wed - Front Squat 3x5, Shoulder Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
Fri - Back Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Back Extensions 3x10, 3 max sets strict pullups
Sat - Overhead Squat 3x5, Barbell Row 3x5, Snatch 5x3

You alternate weeks 1 and 2.  I'm planning to go for at least 12 weeks and we'll see how it goes.  As far as the weights to use, most of these programs follow a similar principle, which is to start light and progress from there.  So I have determined a starting weight for each exercise that is well below my 5 rep max.  Each time I successfully complete all of the reps on a given day, then the next time I do that lift, I increase by 5 lbs, except for back squat and deadlift, which I will increase by 10 lbs in the beginning and then as it becomes more difficult, slow that down to 5 lbs each time.  With such light starting weights, my primary focus will be on form, so that when the weights get heavy, I will be better off and be able to do better.

I have also tried to record all of my known maxes, So that I can measure progress.  Here are my one rep maxes as of now.

Bench Press  235
Back Squat  300
Front Squat  185
Deadlift        375
Shoulder Press (TBD)
Clean & Jerk  205
Snatch          155
OHS             175

So how am I to fit all of this into my schedule?  Well I still want to do the daily workout at the gym in addition to this strength training program.  I still have to leave the gym at the same time so that I can be to work on time.  Extra trips to the gym will be hazardous to my marriage.  So it looks like the best option for me is to get up a little earlier and get to the gym a half hour earlier than usual, so that I have time to complete this work before the workout.  That will mean I need to make sure to get to sleep at a decent time.  No staying up late watching TV.

I'll post back on this in a few weeks.

New Chapters

I'm a terrible blogger!  But it will be impossible to catch up on everything over the last couple of years.  I like having this here for posterity and all.  And it's faster than writing.  The best thing that has happened is that I have a new baby boy.  I never thought it would happen, but on July 11th, 2014, Kaitlin gave birth to our son Lukas Exeter Bradbury.  He has been a wonderful addition to our family and we strongly feel that our family is complete and we are not planning on having any more children.  Kind of sad in a way, but a huge relief too.  We have as much on our plates as we can handle.  Totally maxed out.

Lukas is a strong lad, and big.  He was born 9lbs 15oz, and has remained large through his development.  I guess that's what you get when you are constantly eating.  He is 8 months old as of this writing and in fact, just today he cut his first tooth.  Pretty exciting stuff.  Because he is constantly eating he is also constantly spitting up.  It has slowed down considerably in the last couple of months, but he spits up far more than our other children did.

So, what's been going on lately?  Well for the last few weeks I have been participating in the CrossFit Games Open, which is a lot of fun.  This will be my third year participating in this event.  In the past, those of us participating would head up to CrossFit Cache Valley and perform the weekly workouts there to have them validated through their affiliate.  This year we have been filming our workouts and posting the videos to validate our scores.  Since I have all the videos on You Tube now, I can link to them here.   Better yet, I can link to my athlete profile where you can click on the video for each of my workouts and see my score and ranking so far.

http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/164439

I usually place around 2000th in the region.  I really want to improve on that this year and get down closer to 1500th.  So far I'm doing OK.  I just need to have a couple more good workouts and I should end up where I want to.  I keep a separate fitness journal with my workouts and progress, so I do not have to be exhaustive about it here.

I think that's enough for one day.

Back in the Groove

I'm feeling more like myself again.  The sickness is subsiding, and I even did a workout yesterday.  It was a bugger.  This workout has a story to it.  It is called the "Hotshots 19" memorial workout, in honor of the nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighting team, who tragically lost their lives on June 30, 2013 while fighting a fire in Yarnell, AZ.

"Hotshots 19"

6 rounds for time of
30 squats
135 pound Powerclean, 19 reps
7 strict pullups
Run 400 meters

I was getting sideaches like crazy during this workout.  We had a 31 minute timecap for this workout.  At the end of the 31 minutes I had just finished my 5th round.  We were all rolling around on the floor like we were going to die when I noticed that Cal was still going.  I asked, "are you going to finish it?".  To which he said, "I have to.  I have to finish it!"

Well that kind of crap inspires me.  So I said, "Well if Cal is going to finish, then I'm sure as heck going to finish!"  And we all started working out again until everyone had finished the 6 rounds.

It was great to see Cal and Ron trade off on the powerclean bar, yelling to each other to "put out the fire".
I love when people keep pushing each other above and beyond what they think they can do.  That's the kind of stuff that makes all the difference in your life.

https://hotshots19.crossfit.com/

Lousy weekend

I was really looking forward to this weekend. It was supposed to be a nice 3 day weekend, but unfortunately I've been sick for most of it.

Saturday began with a great workout.

30 clean and jerk (135 lbs) for time

I've done this once before with a time of 3:47. I only know this, because Jesse had recorded everyone's time, and then posted our previous time and weight on the board before we started. So naturally I had to best my old time. I was able to do so with a new time of 3:06.

The day is going great. Soccer games for both girls, and a game of Dungeon Slayers with Nik planned for later. Very good day. Only a very minor sore throat which I was sure would be gone by morning. But Sunday morning hit hard. My throat was killing me, and I felt like crap. I still do, and tomorrow I have to go back to work. I guess I'll be downing the Dayquil and maybe leave early.

Somehow we managed to still get a lot done around the house. We moved some rooms around and did a lot of cleaning.

Sleepless Run

Well this morning I couldn't sleep.  I woke up at about 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep.  I was stressing about my 4-year-old daughter's soccer team of all things.  I'm coaching Sofi's team this season, and I've been bothered by a couple of things.  There are only enough girls for two teams to play, so it's the same girls playing each other each game.  The other coach has not made it to the first two games, and he won't be there for the third game either, because they'll be out of town on vacation.  I worry that because of this, the girls on his team aren't having a good time and won't want to continue playing.  Also, there is one girl on my team who is scoring tons of goals and nobody can stop her, which gets depressing for the other girls getting scored on constantly.  They get discouraged easily about it.  So I'm trying to find ways to help everyone have a fun time, and to balance out the play as much as possible.

Any suggestions?

Sofi, not being the most athletic, hasn't really gotten into the play much, so she's not having a great time either.  In the last game she just wanted to stand by me the whole time and say, "Me coach!".  She wanted to be the coach, and wouldn't play the game.

Well, because I was unable to sleep, I just got out of bed and went for a run.  I haven't been running lately, because my left knee has been bothering me when I do.  I have taken some time off to see if it will get better.  It doesn't hurt when I do a crossfit workout, just when I run.  After about a mile or two it starts to hurt.

Today it did pretty good.  I was able to go about 4 miles, and the pain was very minor, so I think it's getting better.  Maybe I can start to ease back into a little running.  Based on where I am feeling the pain I think it might be my LCL (lateral colateral ligament) that is hurting.  But I'm not sure.

Small Logjam

Well, it's been a few days now since I recorded my workouts, so I have a little catching up to do.

Monday
5 rounds of:
400 M run
10 front squats (135 lbs)
10 burpees

My time:  18:45 ?give or take a few seconds?

The goal was to go unbroken on all the sets, which I mostly did except my 4th round of front squats.  I had a little mental breakdown and dropped the bar after the 6th rep.  I feel I made up for this by doing the last round unbroken.  And I was ok with my time.

Tuesday
12 minute AMRAP
11 pullups
13 wallballs
15 kettlebell swings

My score: 5 rounds + 3 reps

I got really sluggish the last 2 rounds.  I was hoping to get through 6 rounds, but I just gassed out.  I did all the sets unbroken except for the last to rounds of pullups, I had to break them up.

Also, we had a pullup bar in the lab that I brought in for the nightshift guy to use, but it was still up in the morning so I ended up doing about 100 pullups between the workout and small sets at work each time I went to the breakroom.

Wednesday
Run 800 M
20 hspu
20 kettlebell snatch each arm (50 lb)
100 situps
run 800 M

My time: 16:46

I felt good about this one. I wasn't as fast as some people, but I was going full range on my hspu.  I did the workout Rx, which is always nice.

Since I did a boatload of pullups yesterday, I decided to to a truckload of pushups today.  I planned to do 10 sets of 20 pushups throughout the day.  Almost done, just three more sets to go.  I would like to make it so that pushups and pullups are a strength for me in workouts.

New Levels of Sore

I am sore today in places I've never been sore.  Last night for our scouting activity we took a little trip to the pool for some swimming.  We are incorporating swimming into our training for a triathlon.  I can swim, but I'm no swimmer.  I usually avoid a lot of swimming, because I'm not that good at it.

At first we just goofed off on the diving boards, and we were taught some basic pool entries from the side of the pool. Then we were told to tread water for as long as we could.  I figured I'd last about 5 minutes and I'd be done.  Heck I was tired after two.  But we all just kept on going.  After a while it didn't seem so bad and I felt like I could keep going a while.  Eventually we reached 15 minutes, and then we called it good.  I didn't think I would be able to tread for that long.  I was pretty worn out, but we weren't done.  We swam several laps working on different strokes.  That really gassed me out.

Today I am super sore in my legs.  Especially my calves and butt.  I think I will have to add some swimming into my regular routine.  I can see it doing great things to increase my base of fitness.

Someone else's Blood, My Sweat, and No Tears

An interesting workout this morning.

8 min AMRAP

3 strict pullups

10 walking lunges each leg

Rest 2 min

8 min AMRAP

2 wall walks

50 ft farmer carry (I used 45lb plates)

My scores:

First AMRAP: 10 rounds plus the pullups and 2 lunges each leg

Second AMRAP: 9 rounds plus 2 wall walks

Wall walks are a great exercise.  You lay down on your stomach with your feet against the wall.  Then you walk your feet up the wall as you walk your hands underneath to support yourself until you are fully upright with your stomach against the wall.  Work your way up and then back down.  That's 1 rep.  They are hard to do if there are a lot of them, but 2 at a time works great.  I always like the way I feel after doing them.

As I lay down to do my first wall walk I noticed that there were drops of dried blood on the cement right in my face.  For some reason this just got me all pumped up to do these wall walks.  And the blood continued to motivate me throughout the workout.  I added several drops of sweat to the pile, and we were in business.  No tears though.  I have yet to actually cry from a workout.  I've thrown up a couple of times and felt like it many times, but I don't think I've ever actually cried.  I'll have to check with Kaitlin on that one.  There was the time I hurt my back really badly.  That was some serious pain, but I honestly can't remember if I cried from it.

My inner Bob Ross

Kaitlin and I decided a while ago that it might not be a bad idea to do some paintings for Christmas presents. Also I wanted to do a painting for the county fair. So I took a shot at doing a Bob Ross style oil painting. Unfortunately it will not be dry in time to submit to the county fair. No big deal though it will still make a good Christmas present for somebody.

It's not a good photo.  You can't see the colors very well at all, and there's some sort of a weird streak that showed up in the lower left corner.  This photo makes it look a lot duller than it is.

Our workout of the day was:

30 hand stand push ups

60 box jumps (24" box)

15 hand stand push ups

30 box jumps

My time: 10:04

Felt good about the time and my effort.  I put 4" boxes under my hands and padding under my head to make it level across, so that I could work on full range on these.  I probably did about half of the hspu Rx.  The other half were either partial range, and on some of the reps, I would just lower myself down as slowly as I could.  The full range of motion definitely made it harder than what I'm used to, which is good.  As always though my neck is sore after doing these.  Where I was slow on the hspu, I tried to make up ground by going fast on my box jumps.

"Fran"

Kaitlin and I determined to make it to the gym today since neither of us was able to make it yesterday or this morning. So we got my mom to watch the girls so we could both go.

When we walked in and I saw the workout on the board, my heart rate immediately increased as a strong mix of emotion filled me.

"Fran"
21-15-9
thrusters (95lbs)
Pullups

It might not seen that terrible, but it is... Infamously so.  An elite crossfitter can do it in under 3 minutes. Some of the faster times are low 2's and even a few guys can do it in under 2. The last time I did this workout I did it in 7:04. Not impressive, but it still nearly killed me.

I was determined to best my previous time.  My time was 5:17.  I was very pleased, but completely spent. Next time I'll have to do it in under 5.

Planter beds part 2

A tough workout this morning:

5 min Airdyne
rest 2 min
5 min burpees

My score: 134 calories / 47 burpees

I was so spent after the airdyne, that I had difficulty pushing very hard on the burpees.  I did't do as well as I would have liked on either.  I was hoping for 150 calories on the airdyne.  I was happy there were no pullups though.  It gives my hand a little time to recover from the tear.

We decided to get the next planter bed done today.  Here's the before shot

Not too impressive.  It's pretty ugly.  We dug it up early while it was still cool out, and then headed back up to the river bed to find some more rocks.  Here is the river bed.  After gathering rocks we went for a little walk up it, since it was dry.

Afterwards we came home and laid in the rocks.  I made sure to employ my child slave labor to get the job done.

And the finished product looks pretty good.  Now we just need to find some plants to go in them.  Because we do not have a rain gutter on our house we put in a row of small river stone along the drip line.  Last time we planted things in this planter the dripping was hard on our new little flowers, so we were hoping this would help with the problem.

Anyways the girls had a great time playing in the rocks and dirt.  Any time there is dirt, sand, or water involved they have a great time.

Busy Day Off

I did a lot of stuff today.  For starters, I got up with Kaitlin.  She went to the gym and I hopped on the computer.  I was determined to get some artwork done, so I started cleaning off my computer desk so I could do just that, but it wasn't long before Sofi started screaming which woke Heather and she started crying, so I had to go get them and see what the big fuss was.  Well, Sofi had thrown up in her bed, so there goes the morning.  Luckily she didn't get any on herself, just on the bed.  We cleaned up that mess and everyone was up.  We had breakfast and I was still feeling motivated, so I cleaned the kitchen.  Kaitlin had of course returned from the workout and got cleaned up.  I guess she wanted the day off, because after her shower she just went back to bed.  I figured she needed the rest, so I got the girls ready and we were just about to leave to go rock hunting, when she came out and wanted to go with us, so the whole family went rock hunting.  We drove up by the "I" on the mountain and found some nice rocks.

Great view from up there.

We went a few other places too, and I gathered a bunch of river rocks for a project I have in mind.  I've been wanting to dig up the planter beds because they look terrible.  Then line them with some nice river rocks.  That's what we spent the afternoon doing after lunch is digging up the planter beds and lining them with the rocks we had gathered.  The girls were great help with this project.

By now it was getting too hot, so we all came in and took a nice nap.

After the nap I went out and washed the car, and then it was time to head to the gym.

Today's workout
4 rounds for time:
400M run
10 thrusters (95lbs)
15 pull ups

My time: 15:22

Not too shabby.  It was one of the faster times up on the board.  I did tear a callous on my finger though, which hurt.  I figure I might have done a little better if it weren't so hot and if I hadn't already done so much work today, but that's just making excuses.  Just work harder, that's all I can do.

Call the Wonder Pets - I'm not cut out for this!

It was rather relaxing today.  I got to sleep in til 7, which never happens!  I got up with the girls and we ate breakfast while Kaitlin headed to the gym to workout.  When she got home she decided to hop on the treadmill for a bit, so I went outside with the girls.

We spent time watering the grass, raking up all the crap that falls off our trees, and attempting to save baby birds.  Apparently today was the day mom and dad bird were kicking the babies out of the nest.  They weren't doing so well with it.  The first to fall out was battered about severely by the cat and dragged off in its mouth.  After chasing the cat all over creation, we managed to free the baby bird from its clutches, but now what?  It will most likely die if we just leave it, and trying to take care of it until it can fly on its own was not really a good option.  And if we return it to the nest, it's chances are still not good.  Nevertheless, we opted to return it to the nest and hope for the best.  So I climbed on up the tree and placed it back in the nest.  I don't know how it did.  I have not been able to spot it up there, so its either resting, or maybe dead.

This baby bird had a sibling though.  And it's turn to plummet to near certain death came later in the day.  After taking a nice nap midday, I decided to wander outside and see how the birds were doing.  I was able to witness the second baby bird making a go at it.  It ventured from the nest out onto the branches, but it wasn't long until it came flapping down and thudded to the ground. It seemed uninjured though, and this time I determined that its best bet was for us to just not touch it.  It made attempts to fly back up the tree and even was able to grasp the bark and hang on for a while before falling back down.  It rested there a while, and I defended it valiantly from my daughters and the neighbor girls who desperately wanted to pick it up.  Eventually it flew off down the street and took shelter in a rose bush a while.  When I checked back on it later, it was gone.  So who knows, maybe the second one made it.

After the baby bird fiasco, I went inside to do my own workout.  The workout from the gym was one I could do at home.

The workout:
50 Hand stand push ups (HSPU) for time.

My time: 11:15
It felt really slow for me, and my head was killing me.  I need to learn to come down slower, so I don't kill my head and neck.  Maybe there's a secret for this.  I don't want to injure myself.

After that I did the Ab Ripper DVD from the P90X workouts.  I only did 16 of each movement instead of the 25 they do in the DVD, and did 10 pushups in between each.  I figured 16 of each was good since it's been so long since I've done it.

Then it was time to shower up and head to work.  Kaitlin made up some venison chili for dinner, so that's going to be great!

Laterz

Got Milk?

Today was a rest day.  No workout today.  It's a good thing, because I'm pretty darn sore from this week.

Since I am resting, it's a good time to write about something that's been on my mind of late.  Is milk good for you or bad?  I love to drink milk.  I drink it everyday.  I have had several people tell me that milk is bad for me though, so I have to wonder why?  I have been delving into the issue and found several arguments for both sides.  Some saying how terrible milk is and how bad it is for you, and others saying it's just fine and that people thrive on milk.  So what is the truth?!  How can I sort through the mists of confusion?

I think I'll go find a grove of trees somewhere and pray about it...   Hey you never know...

But I am not fully convinced of the negative arguments.  Most of them can either be easily refuted, or they just plain don't make sense to me in terms of human physiology (based on my limited understanding).  I have decided to ask one of the fittest dudes I know what his opinion is.  Gil is always up on this kind of thing and always eats for good performance since he's a competitive Crossfitter.

Gil drinks a lot of milk.  He especially likes whole milk which he says is great for building strength.  He does not put much stock in the negative claims against milk, particularly in the claim that milk actually weakens your bones by drawing calcium out to neutralize your pH levels as a result of the protein intake (which doesn't make any sense to me, but I haven't looked at the actual science behind that claim).  He thinks that if you are doing weight bearing exercise, that you will still build bone density and not lose any.

In addition to Gil drinking lots of milk and being way tougher and more fit than I'll ever be, he also referenced that Rich Froning drinks tons of milk.  That pretty much ends the argument right there.  Enough said about that.  I'm a "by their fruits ye shall know them" kind of guy, and there isn't better proof than the fittest man on earth - three years running.

Well, I think I'll enjoy the rest of my Rest day with a nice tall glass of milk.

Laterz

Fitness Journal

I was watching a few videos on crossfit.com today and I decided it would be a good idea to keep a fitness journal.  I used to be pretty good about that.  I would write down my workouts, times, and reflections about it in a little notebook, but I haven't done that in a long time.

I thought I might use my blog to do it since typing is fast and nobody really reads this blog ever anyways, so why not use the space.  It might be a good way to get me blogging again about everyday stuff as well.

So, today's workout:
21-15-9
Deadlifts (bodyweight +10) - I used 185
Box Jumps 24"

My time was 3:14

I felt pretty good about how I did.  I went almost unbroken on all the deadlifts.  I did pause a couple of times.  Overall I am really sore today.  It's been a good week of workouts and I'm definitely feeling the effects.  A lot of pushups this week which is great, because I haven't been doing well on those lately.

Life has been far too busy.  Lots been goin' on.  Klowi and Sofi are both in school, so that keeps Kaitlin busy getting them where they need to be.  Klowi is also in Tavaci, and Klowi and Sofi both take ballet.  Somehow Klowi nailed an audition for a part in the next Tavaci performance.  The instructor says she got up fearlessly and sang the song perfectly, so they are giving her a solo, which they never do for first year students.  She's an exceptional kid.  Sofi is getting much better at speaking.  Saying new words all the time, and starting to string more together.  She has come a long way.  Heather is growing healthy and strong.  Well fed baby.  Nice and big for her age.  She'll be 4 months in just a couple of days.  I could not be more happy and proud of my wonderful daughters, or more thankful for my amazing wife and all that she does to care for them when I'm at work.  I love my family.

Went deer hunting this year.  Didn't get anything.  I thought for sure I would, since I scheduled a lot more time this year.  Sadly the weather didn't cooperate with my plans.  Dustin went with me, and he did get a deer which was rather exhilerating.  Had a good time, but I might skip this next year.  We'll see.

Still been doing crossfit.  I love it.  In fact I did my first ever muscle up the other day.  Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxfKOZ8j2nA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I definitely reached my goal of being in the best shape of my life by the age of 30.  Now, I just want to keep going and stay and live healthy.

"Stronger people are harder to kill, and more useful in general."
                                                         -unknown

In addition to all of that, work has been very busy lately.  I'm a bit behind on a few things there.  I work a grave shift this weekend, so hopefully I can get a few things done then.

I am also trying to get going on some paper minis.  Nik and I want to have some new stuff to show for Salt Con in February.  I'll be working on the dwarf and orc armies, so we can put together a little display.

Well that's a nice little recap.  I think if I blog more about what I'm doing, I can be more productive, and enjoy different projects more, so I want to do more blogging for posterity.  For me it's just like keeping a journal... a somewhat public journal.

Laterz

We had a fun day today.  Kaitlin worked this morning, so I took the girls fishing.  We walked up to Mayor's Pond.  That's a long walk for 5 and 3-year-old girls.  We got in about an hour of fishing.  No bites.  We were using salmon eggs with bobbers.  Klowi spent most of her time chasing butterflies, and Sofi spent most of her time getting muddy and tangling up the lines for me.  It's to be expected.  No one got hurt, and we made it back ok, so all in all it was a good time.  Next time, I'll drive.

We had a great nap after lunch.  My hike with the scouts was cancelled, so I took Klowi with me to the crossfit gym for a workout.  While I did the workout, she built a fort out of medicine balls in the corner.

WOD:
Run 200m with a medball
Do 50 Thrusters
Everytime you put down the bar, do a 200m run with the medball.

I broke up my thrusters to 2 sets of 15, and 2 sets of 10

After the workout, I got cleaned up and took all my girls out for a date.  We hit the fish farm in North Ogden, since we didn't catch any earlier in the day, then went to Golden Corral for dinner.  I wish I had gotten pictures of the girls after eating dessert.  Their faces were covered in chocolate from the chocolate fountain after eating dipped marshmallows and strawberries.

New Designs

Just having fun making some new designs. Box Elder Elite Fitness is run by Jesse Roberts, who I went to high school with.  He runs crossfit-style fitness classes out of his garage.  He has a great blog where he posts his workouts and thoughts on fitness.  beelitefitness.blogspot.com

It also happens that I work at the hospital with his wife (Erin) and brother-in-law (Gil).

Vote for your favorite in the comments.  Happy to get feedback.  I'm just throwing stuff out.  I have no idea what will be liked the best.  I think my personal favorite is the third one, but that's just me.

Wahaaaaa! (sung in angelic tones)

Just after typing my last post, I took a deep breath, focused my chi, and pondered the meaning of the cosmos.  Just then, one more place to look appeared within my mind, and before I knew it, my body was taking me there of its own volition.  There I looked, and I beheld with my own eyes, the pen for which I had been searching.  Angelic choruses rang clearly through the air as I took a wide stance and held the mighty pen aloft.

It was in a bag that I had already searched three times and not found it.  But then I remembered it had a sleeping bag pouch on one end.  The thought occurred to me that it might have somehow been concealed by the folds of the pouch.  As I fished around, I caught hold of it.  Sweet victory at last.  Now I can get busy with some artwork!

Argh, and double Argh!

I am so frustrated right now.  I finally work up some motivation to get some artwork done, and the pen for my pentablet has vanished from the face of the earth.  I have searched high and low, far and wide, but it is nowhere to be found.  I don't know what could have possibly happened to it.

I've considered the possibility of one of my daughters having grabbed it and walked off with it somewhere, but I've looked anyplace I can fathom that they might have put it (pretty much our whole house), and I can't find it anywhere.  I just know as soon as I buy a replacement for it, it will turn up somewhere.

All the time I've spent searching for it, I could have done a lot of artwork in that time.  Grrrrrr!