My ambition has long been to be a young man of independent means. I achieved the “independent means” part some years ago, but I don’t seem to be making much progress toward being a young man.
Still working on it!
My ambition has long been to be a young man of independent means. I achieved the “independent means” part some years ago, but I don’t seem to be making much progress toward being a young man.
Still working on it!
Is this not an especially lovely loaf?
No photo, so not so interesting for you, but at the end of our walk, just before crossing our little creek toward home, Ashley and I saw a red fox! It ran off as soon as it saw us, which is too bad—I’m sure Ashley would have enjoyed a good tussle with another canid. 🦊🐶
Jackie toppled up my third coffee, so I get three-and-a-third coffees this morning! (Also shown: Ashley #dogsofmastodon.) #coffee
Not many people out-and-about before dawn on a foggy Christmas Eve.
Solstice feast: Roast beast with Yorkshire pudding, served au jus, with horseradish sauce, green beans (me) and Brussels sprouts (Jackie). Her desert was more Yorkshire pudding with honey, while I ate some of my ginger sparkle cookies left from Zamenhof Day.
Things outside the window that need barking at, in priority order, according to Ashley 🐕 #dogsofmastodon:
I have ordered a signed copy of Steven D. Brewer’s Better Angels: Tour de Force, just out today!
I have ordered a signed copy of Steven D. Brewer’s Better Angels: Tour de Force, just out today!
Based on the ideas that I talked about in Training for everything, here’s my latest cut at a personal exercise program. (My first cut was derailed by circumstances, and then I adopted a dog which derailed everything except dog walking. Then I got West Nile fever.) See my no-longer-particularly-recent Starting to rough up a new training plan for more information about the specific exercises and how I organize them into sets, reps, and progressions.
I have a set of exercises that I want to do, ideally twice a week each:
That’s five things, so if I did each twice, and gave everything its own day, I’d have to have a 10-day week. That isn’t impossible. In fact, I’ve seriously considered planning my workouts in a longer cycle than weekly in the past, it but is unhandy in various ways. Fortunately, I think I can double-up several of these exercises in a way that will let me fit them into 7-day week.
The 1-handed club swinging isn’t particularly intense cardiovascularly, so I’m thinking I can combine it with the clean & press. The KB swings is intense cardiovascularly, but because it’s very different, I’m thinking I can combine it with the gymnastic rings bodyweight circuit, doing the KB swings as a “finisher” after the rings workout.
My HEMA (sword fighting) practice is three times a week, and I can’t adjust that schedule, except by skipping workouts, so I have to work that in when it actually happens.
Of course I also want to get one day a week of complete rest. I’d normally make that Sunday, but there’s a HEMA practice session on Sunday so it’ll have to be on Saturday instead.
So here’s a quick stab at a possible weekly plan:
Day | Morning | Midday | Evening |
---|---|---|---|
Sunday | Rings circuit / KB Swings | HEMA | |
Monday | 1-H Heavy Club / KB C&P | ||
Tuesday | Sprints | HEMA | |
Wednesday | Rings circuit / KB Swings | ||
Thursday | 1-H Heavy Club / KB C&P | HEMA | |
Friday | Long run | ||
Saturday | Rest |
I’ve omitted a “warm-up” block, because I already do my morning exercises, my ridiculously long warm-up routine, nearly every day. I’ve also omitted my dog walking, which averages something over 6 miles a day.
I’m pretty happy with this. It has my HEMA practice sessions in at the correct times; it leaves open the time slots where I have Esperanto, and meeting friends for lunch; it has a full rest day.
I don’t show it here, but I’ll definitely do a de-load week every 5 or 6 weeks.
I should be very clear that, at this point, this is entirely aspirational. I’ve been doing each of these workouts individually, but the only combined workouts I’ve tried so far are the heavy club swinging and the clean&press workouts. I’ve also been taking more than one rest day per week. But the progress I want seems to depend on doing something like this workout schedule, so I’m going to give it a try.
I’ll report back regarding my success or failure.