Last Burn of 2008

For my last training session of 2008, I did the following circuit:

Burpee / Clean 16kg / x5 l,r
Swings 20kg / x12
Mountain Climbers x40 (20 each leg)
Pushups x 8
Dips x15
Snatches 16kg / x8 l,r

4 Rounds - no rest between drills
40 seconds between rounds

I am tempted to wax philosophical, to recap the year, but I'll spare you. I think I've posted enough throughout the year about my goals, progress, and frame of mind. I tend to share too much sometimes.

Suffice it to say, 2008 was the year I became an RKC and snatched the 20 kg bell.

Enough!

I've consumed enough sugar over the last week to last me six months. My body is in shock. My brain is freaking out. What if I slip back into old habits? Yikes!

I will be cleansing the house of all Christmas treats TODAY. All the boxes of candy and the candy sack from church, all the chocolate covered peanuts and snack breads that were brought into this house will find new homes. I will share the joy.

In their place I have purchased cabbage and broccoli, farm fresh eggs, and the juiciest pears ever! The sugar binge is over!!

On a different note (sort of) I am happy to report that I have no New Year's resolutions. I have my previously reported goals from November, but nothing new. I want to stay focused on those other three.

1. Press the 20 kg bell.
2. Drop 3% bodyfat.
3. Drop one jean size.

I am making great progess on goal 1. Brad is really priming me well to press that 20 kg. I know when he says it's time, it'll be time.

I don't know where I am on goal 2. I need to meet with Brad and check against my bodyfat % from this summer.

I am also making progress on goal 3. Last week I actually did buy a pair of Lucky jeans that are one size smaller than all of my other jeans. And, they are THREE sizes smaller than my last pair of Lucky jeans. Unreal to me. When I bought that last pair (a few months after I started kb training) I thought I was making progress. Little did I know what was in store for me!

Here's a picture of me right before I started training with Brad Nelson. (December 2006)
And here I am today. (December 2008)

The pictures tell one part of the story, but they don't tell how I've changed on the inside. If you knew me then and know me now, you might say I have a changed personality. I feel like a different person.

So today I will focus on my successes, forget about the holiday sugar overdose, and remember how far I've come. I will continue to branch out and discover who I can be. Thank you to all of you who read my blog and who support me on my journey. It means more than you'll ever know.

Training Blizzard

or "Training in a Blizzard."

I never train in the morning, but today, I decided to give it a shot. The kids were outside playing in newly fallen snow. (They're working on a snow fort in the snowpiles that surround my parents' house down the block.) Jerry was on the phone with employees dealing with hazardous travel, broken furnaces, and a stubborn fireplace.

This is the view out my front door looking down the block at my parents' house.

With the blizzard of activity, I had nothing to do. Why not train?? Okay!

I did four rounds of the following:

Tricep Dips - 15
Walking Lunges - 20
Hindu Pushups - 8
Cossacks w/ 16 kg - 16

No rest between drills; 30 secs between rounds.

Later I will do some push presses with the 20 kg. Yoohoo!!!!

I actually have all of my kbs at home. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you! I'm going to teach two PE classes at my local high school on Monday and Tuesday. The school (I'm on its school board) received a federal PE grant and is using some of the funds to purchase kettlebells! Guess where they got the idea??? Hmmmmmmmm The only downside is they didn't tell me they were ordering kbs until after it was done, so I didn't have the chance to direct them to Dragon Door. (Maybe if they decide to purchase more, I can show them the light!) The kbs haven't arrived yet, so yesterday I gathered up all my bells for them to use.

So, the first two official days of my winter break will be spent training 17 year olds. I have a lot of these students in my college classes, so they know me and know about kbs. (In Iowa we have dual credit courses. Advanced high school students can take college credit courses.) I'm looking forward to showing these students how fun and challenging kbs can be.

The rest of this weekend will probably look like this:

Stuck inside looking out!

The wind has died down for awhile, but it is supposed to kick into high later. No travel. Good thing all my shopping is done! Have a great weekend!

Avoiding the Inevitable

I've been knocking out my training this week - good progress. The only area I've felt unsure of is my military press on the left side. I press out hardstyle on the right and my training protocol is working beautifully on that right side. I feel that I will be pressing the 20 kg in the next few weeks. (Unfortunately, I'm not confident I will git er done by Christmas. Bummer! But I WILL definitely try!)

On the left side, I have gotten very few presses out without a little knee dip. (Just to remind everyone, I'm doing double presses - 16 kg in one hand, 8 kg in the other.) Well, wouldn't you know it; David Whitley posted a video about getting your lats to engage when doing presses. The man can read my mind, seriously! I was doing exactly what he shows on my left side - lifting my shoulder up to my ear. Dumb, dumb, me. On the right side, I wasn't doing that. My left side must have an inferiority complex!

So, I will definitely be hanging around, shortening my arms over the next week. (If that means nothing to you, watch Dave's video.)

Click on his blog link in the right column ------->

The title of my post today reflects my absolute lack of interest in grading the 12 remaining research papers in the box next to my desk. I'm doing everything I can to avoid them. Heck, I may even post some more student photos to eat up more time. I am terrible!

I hope you enjoy the photos in this post. They are by Rachel Hughbanks.

The Big Chill

Oh baby it's cold outside! 15 below 0 without the windchill. Break out the wool boys and girls!

All of you folks who live in warm parts of the world, could you send me some warm wishes?! Tell me how you're training on the beach and running around in shorts.

I'll tell you how the wind howled all night, how I wore a sweatshirt and sweatpants to bed with two goose-down comforters and a quilt, how I saw semi trucks and school buses gelled up on the side of the road, and how all I want to drink is tea and eat is soup!

I have 10 days to press the 20 kg bell in order to meet my goal. I'm getting nervous. I think I'll give it a go this afternoon before I dive into my training. I want to see how close I am. I'll probably take next week off of training and just enjoy some down time.

I hope you're enjoying the photos I've posted so far. I will take a break from posting those until the student photographers have a chance to work with their images, retouch them, make me look 10 pounds thinner, you know! lol I did post a bunch of the unretouched photos in my facebook. It seems a little overboard to post all those photos of myself, but I really liked photos from each of the students. It's hard to just choose one from each person. Hopefully they all get an A on their projects!

Well, I'm off to get another cup of hot tea. Enjoy your week, no matter what kind of weather you're having!

Photos by Daisy

Photos by Daisy Ludke.

Photos by Adam

Here's a couple photos by student Adam Wittrock. Enjoy!

Boring Now - Fun Later

This is just a quick post about my training so far this week.

Monday
Double Military Press Ladders - 3 x 1, 2, 3
-I started with the 16 kg in the right hand and the 8 kg in the left. I changed hands with the two kbs on each rung.
- I rested 1:00 between rungs.

Circuit of
Swings w/20kg - 20 secs work / 10 secs rest
Burpees 20 secs work / 10 secs rest
5 rounds w/out any rest between rounds

Wednesday
Double Military Press Ladders - 4 x 1, 2, 3
- 16 kg in the left hand and the 8 kg in the right. I changed hands with the two kbs on each rung.
- I rested 1:00 between rungs.

Circuit of
Walking Lunges- 20 yards
Bear Crawl - 20 yards
Inverted Rows - 8
Squats w/ 16 kg - 10
3 Rounds
30 secs rest between rounds

I will have pictures from the student photo shoots to post later this week. The students did pretty well. After I have the photos retouched, they'll be ready to post. Stop back to see them!

Moving - No Other Words

Check out Brad Nelson's blog for a video showing his service in Africa. He, his wife, and his wife's family do mission work with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. They fit deaf children with hearing aids.

www.kineticedge.blogspot.com

Brad and Jordan - you're amazing. Thanks for sharing the video and for touching so many lives. You inspire me!

Thursday Comes Before Friday

Since Wednesday I was looking forward to my training on Friday. I was not disappointed today. However, I got in a bonus training session on Thursday.

The photography students at the college where I teach had a test. They each had 10 minutes to shoot me with my kettlebells. They had had a day to research kettlebells and they watched a video of me conducting some training on Wednesday. There are 11 students. A couple actually did some research. The others, not so much. A few wanted me to hold a bell in each hand and hold my arms out in a T. Maybe if I had 10 lb kbs!

Suffice it to say I had a two-hour training session while posing for 11 photo shoots. I bet I did 50 windmills, 30 TGUs, 30 presses, and 100 swings (w/ the 20 kg). I also did a lot of squats and renegade rows. I will get a disk with all the photos. I can't wait! I will post some on this blog and my facebook page when I get them.

All that training made me hungry! I had "naked" chinese for lunch Thursday (no sauce, just steamed veggies and chicken) and opted for the rice, which I usually forego. Then I had a naked burrito at Qdoba for supper. (That actually gave me a stomach ache. Yuck!) Wow, Thursday was kind of a naked day, huh?! LOL

Today I was sore, especially my sides from all the windmills. I didn't know how my training would go today. Here's what I did:

Circuit of
Tricep Dips - 15
Walking lunges - 10 each leg
Hindu Pushups - 8
Cossacks w/16 kg - 8 each leg
-3 Rounds
-No rest between drills
-30 secs between rounds

Clean & Push Press - 20 kg - 5 x 2 L, R

That went well. When I got home, I lied down and fell asleep for an hour. Whew! I'm beat. It's been a crazy week. I have two more weeks to go before my semester is over and I get a break.

I've been keeping my PhD. When I look back at what I've eaten, I think maybe I'm not eating enough. I don't know. My eating has been weird since I started the piehole diary two weeks ago. I've actually eaten more cookies in the last two weeks than I probably did the previous 10 months! Maybe it's just a phase. Hopefully it's just a phase! I don't usually eat a lot of sweets. I tend to go for grains - oatmeal, bread, cereal. Oh, and Templeton Rye!

Well, I'm off to bed early. My body and mind are D-O-N-E. Have a great weekend!

Monday, Wednesday Good - Can't Wait for Friday

Okay - I'm in training to press the 20 kg. Here's the beatdown:

Monday
Double Military Press Ladders - 3 x 1, 2, 3
- I started with the 16 kg in the left hand and an 8 kg in the right. I changed hands with the two kbs on each rung.
- I rested 1:00 between rungs.

Quick Circuit of
Swings w/20kg - 20 secs work / 10 secs rest
Burpees 20 secs work / 10 secs rest
5 rounds w/out any rest between rounds

Wednesday
Double Military Press Ladders - 4 x 1, 2, 3
- I started with the 16 kg in the left hand and an 8 kg in the right. I changed hands with the two kbs on each rung.
- I rested 1:00 between rungs.

Circuit of
Crab Walk - 20 yards
Bear Crawl - 20 yards
Inverted Rows - 8
Squats w/ 16 kg - 10
3 Rounds
45 secs rest between rounds

I'm having some trouble on the left with the presses. When I have that 8 kg in the right hand, it really forces me to use the appropriate pressing muscles and technique. No cheating!! My left side is definitely weaker than my right. I can knock out 3 presses on the right no prob. I end up having to do a little bit of a knee dip to get that 3rd rep on the left. I'm not discouraged, though, because I know the double presses will make me stronger, faster.

Friday I get to do push presses with the 20 kg. I am so freaking excited to get to pressing that 20 kg!!!! I have no doubt I'll do it, so it's fun stepping back and watching myself. My goal is to do it by Christmas. Stay tuned!!