Beards, Barbells, and Beer

Sun May 27, 2018

Hockey

We were short defencemen last night so I dropped back again. The team we played was better than the one we played a few weeks ago and it was interesting to see how sloppy our forwards were from the viewpoint of a defenseman. They were very lazy in the neutral zone and allowed a lot of odd-man rushes and undefended rushes by the other team. As a result the defence got hammered pretty hard all game. I was feeling okay but the other defensive pair was completely gassed by the third period. I think we would have faired better if i had stayed at center since I focus a lot on chasing guys down and slowing their progress through the neutral zone.

The other issue was that with all of the changes to our team we didn't have much offensive punch. We had a decent amount of shots but not too many scoring chances. It was a testament to our defensive play and our goalie that we only lost 3-2. It's not bad that we lost since it improves the odds that we will stay in this division which gives us a better chance at winning the season.
 
Mon May 28, 2018

Conditioning

20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the elliptical. Average HR 131.

Did some random chins with two dips in between for 8 minutes. Used different grips, transitioned between them, did a few sets of 3 etx
 
Thurs May 31, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
65x5
95x5
115x3
135x3
165x3
195x2
225x1
245x1
255x1
+Belt
265x1

Felt pretty good. Maybe had 275 in me but didn't want to push it since my.ability to judge is rusty. Added the belt simply because the squat comp in the main says you can't add equipment later.

- Strict Press
45x5
45x5
65x3
75x2
85x1
95x1
105x1
110x1

Last two were pretty sloppy so 110 is definitely my max. Not bad considering my all-time PR is 140.
 
Mon June 4, 2018

Hockey

The team we played were bumped up from the division below us after going 3-0 to start the season so we knew they would be a decent team. They skated and passed well but didn't have any standout players. We were had a bunch of guys show up late so the beginning of the game was a bit of a mess. Our opponents controlled a lot of the play but didn't get any great chances. Eventually a few more of our players arrived and things evened out.

The first period ended 0-0 but we scored in the first minute of the second period to make it 1-0. The period continued the same as the first, with our opponents probably controlling a bit more of the play but my team getting more chances. We book-ended the period by scoring to make it 2-0 in the last minute.

Our opponents came out aggressive in the third, scoring quickly to make it 2-1 and then keeping it up to go up 3-2 within 4 minutes. A few minutes later we scored to tie it 3-3 and that completely changed the tide. We started to match our opponents aggression and the game got pretty chippy and we managed to control the play. With a few minutes left in the game we scored back to back goals to go up 5-3.

Overall it was a fun game. Our opponents were pretty aggressive and it took us a while to get up to the same level. Really the game shouldn't have been so close as two of our top scorers had multiple breakaways and didn't bury their chances. I had a pretty good game but only came away with one assist. That has been our story so far this season. Our defense and goaltending has been good but we're aren't scoring as much as we have in the past. Next week's game is against the last place team so that might give us an offensive boost.
 
Mon June 4, 2018

Conditioning

Got to the gym late so did a quick 25 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. Slow was 3.1, fast was 7.7, 1 minute on/1 minute off. Average HR was 119.
 
Tues June 5, 2018

treadmill, dynamic stretching

- Chins: 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1/2/3/5 (35 total)
- Push-ups: 12 sets of 6 (72 total)

- Rear delt flies: 3x12, 7.5 lb

Just did upper body today because my legs are tired from hockey and yesterday's intervals. I will hopefully fit in another session on Thursday.
 
Sun June 10, 2018

Hockey

Playing the last place and team and we controlled most of the game. My line scored two goals in the middle of the second and it looked like we might blow them out but their goalie stood on his head and kept it close. There was no scoring in the second and they scored early in the third period to make it 2-1. That woke us up and took control of the game again, putting in two more goals (one by me) to win 4-1.

This game really highlighted our lack of scoring this season. We controlled play and had some chances but didn't bury much. We have a two weak skaters who play wing so those lines really depend on the other winger and the center driving action but this summer that's not happening as much. My line had a good game though as we were constantly all over the other team and scored 3 of the 4 goals.
 
Mon June 11, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Dips: 2/2/2/3/3/3/4/3/2/1/5 (30 total)
- Chins: 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 (25 total) then did 5 minutes of static hangs and transfering holds

- High band pull-aparts: 3x10
 
The rest of last week was a write-off. I worked from home Tues/Fri and had a ridiculous amount of meeting Wed/Thurs.

Sun June 17, 2018

Hockey

Sunday it was hot as hell and I was outside for about half the day. In the morning I took my son to a splash pad and when he went home for his nap I spent two hours scrubbing and washing my deck. In the afternoon I took my son and we did some shopping and then made dinner together.

All that said, somehow I had a tonne of energy for hockey. I buzzing around the ice in the first period and had a bunch of chances but couldn't bury anything. The team we were playing was tied with us for first place so it was an even game. Late in the first period they scored two quick goals to go up 2-0. In the second period they scored to make it 3-0 but we quickly answer to make it 3-1. However our opponents started to control a lot of the game. By the end of the second I realized that we needed to cover just two of their forwards to shut down their offense. As the center I was covering the center of the ice but these two guys kept digging pucks out of the corners, beating our defense or wingers and getting good chances coming off the side boards.

In the third period I basically shadowed their leading scoring and shut him down. Midway through the period we scored make it 3-2 and from there we kept the pressure on for the rest of the game. Their goalie played well though and we couldn't get the tying goal so we lost 3-2 in the end.

Overall it was a fun game and a hell of a workout. I'm having a decent season with 3 G, 4A in 7 games. When I woke up on Monday morning I weighed 187.1 which I chalked up to still being dehydrated.

Wed June 20, 2018

Conditioning

5 minutes of walking on the treadmill then ran 5k in 32:07. Not bad considering it's been over a month since I've done a 5k. Afterwards I did 10 minutes of chins and dips. For the chins I did strict reps, partial hangs, switcihng grips etc and then 2-3 dips.

Weight yesterday morning was 189.3 so it's possible I'm actually below 190 now.
 
Sat June 23, 2018

Spartan Sprint!
My friend thought it was a good idea to get drunk on Friday night so he was hungover and dragging his ass on Saturday. The course was at a ski hill so had a lot of big hill climbs so I spent a lot of time waiting for him because we said we would do it together. The only obstacle I failed was the rings, and I got to the last ring but didn't have enough momentum to swing and hit the bell. Finished in 1:59 which was slower than I hoped and I also didn't feel challenged.

The race was at Brimacombe Ski Resort, about an hour East of Toronto so it had a lot of hills. It rained overnight and through the morning but stopped by the team our heat started. We did the Rookie Heat (for first time racers, it's cheaper) so it was later in the day at 1:45. We would have been screwed if it was a hot, sunny day. Let's see if I can remember how the race went...

EDIT: Found a photo of the map on Instagram. My memory of the race was pretty close.
SprintMap_zpsyjbelgr9.jpg


  • We started with an uphill jog to the top of the ski hill. About 2/3rds of the way up my friend said he needed to walk to pace himself. This was a bad sign.
  • 4 foot wall - easy
  • 5 foot wall - also easy
  • Under a wall - yep easy
  • Cargo net wall - easy
  • Back down the hill, a bunch of the fancier apparatus were setup at the bottom
  • Hercules Hoist - had to hoist a 106 lb sand bag via rope and pulley. easy.
  • A-Frame cargo net - This was kinda freaky because it's pretty high but not really difficult per se
  • Monkey bars - Thought these might be tricky but I breezed through them. My wife got video that I'll have to post
  • Rope climb - Fuck technique, I brute forced my way to the top with a bit of body english at the end. I was pumped at this point.
  • Rope pull/drag - had to pull a metal bin full of rocks towards yourself and then drag it back via a chain attached to it. It was really light.
  • Back up the hill (climb #2)
  • Sand bag carry - carried a 40 lb sand bag about 30 feet down the hill and then back up.
  • Climb through a wall. Wait for it... easy.
  • (something else here??)
  • Back down the hill
  • Bucket Brigade - carry a 80 lb bucket of gravel around a fence. Maybe 40 feet total. Easy except I think this is where I tore a chunk of skin off my finger
  • Barbed wire crawl - tried crawling on my belly but it was hard to keep my butt down so I switched to sideways crawl, almost like shrimping.
  • Olympus - A wall with a variety of holds that you have to traverse laterally with no foot holds. Lots of slipping but I made it across.
  • Back up the hill (climb #3)
  • 6 foot wall - my hands slipped a bit but recovered and got over
  • Atlas carry - Carry a 115 lb atlas stone 15 feet, drop, 5 burpees, carry back. A lot of people seemed to struggle with this but I wouldn't have thought it was 115 lb but that's what I was told.
  • Downhill descent
  • Jog around a small lake (well we walked because of my friend)
  • CInder block drag - Apparently earlier in the day there was a huge lineup for this because the distance was pretty far and there was no room for passing. By the time we got there they had shortened it to about 15 feet up hill and back down so it was a joke
  • More jogging on flatland (again... walked boo)
  • Bog - This was fun. I don't know how they got this part so mucky but a few people lost shoes and it was impossible to not get muddy. Thankfully I'm tall so I only sunk to my knees but some of the shorter people were muddy almost to their waist.
  • Inverted wall - leaned back maybe 20 degrees? A bit tricky.
  • (I feel like there was something else here??)
  • Uphill climb #4 - This was the steepest one and I could feel it in my glutes.
  • RIngs - A combo of rings, a monkey bar, a couple vertical bars, and a few vertical ropes. Thanks to my long gangly arms I was able to swing between the rings but I ran out of momentum on the last ring. I tried to grab the rope and pull myself up but no dice. I wonder now if I could have swing my legs up and kicked the bell? I'm not sure if that's allowed. Did my 30 burpees.
  • Downhill descent
  • Spear Throw - I nailed this one which was a relief. You only get one try so I thought for sure it would mean burpees
  • Blackout - Crawling under a gigantic tarp through mud. Not difficult but rather unpleasant and obviously designed to get you extra muddy before the finish line.
  • Slip wall - An angled wall with a rope to help you get up. You could run up and grab a shorter rope with knots in it but risk slipping and falling back down. I chose the conservation route which was the long rope with no knots. Despite being muddy I didn't slip and made it up easily. While at the top an women almost made it up and yelled for help so I grabbed her hand and help her haul herself over.
  • Fire jump - Woot.
I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some stuff. There were 4 full climbs (i.e. walk/run all the way up the hill which was over 100m elevation change) plus two where we went partway up. I can even see some of it on the pics my wife took but can't remember what exactly happened.
We are now discussing what to do next. There is a Trifecta weekend in September (Sprint, Super, Beast on Fri/Sat/Sun) that we will probably attend. I originally thought i wanted to do the Sprint so I could go hard and see how fast I could do it but it's a different course, much flatter, so the times from last year are a lot faster. Really, I want to redo the course from last weekend. So for that reason we might try the Super in Sept which has average times around 2:30 (compared to 3:30 at last weekend's course) and then do the Brimacombe Sprint in 2019. I feel like I have some unfinished business with that course :)

Made a small album with pics that my wife took:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pjF2MM5wB8Fz17S19

The Spartan Sprint sent out a link with their own pics but it seems incomplete as their is only one picture of me and I know they took more. Hopefully more will be uploaded tomorrow and I can add them too.

Sun June 24, 2018

Hockey

I was expecting to feel wrecked for hockey but as the race wasn't too bad I felt okay. It was the drinking on Saturday night that hurt, lol. Long story short, it was a back and forth game and we ended up tying 5-5. I was hurting in the second period but got a second wind in the third period, scoring the 5th goal. Our goalie had an off night too and on a good night would have stopped 2 or 3 of the shots that went in.
 
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Tues June 26, 2018

Conditioning

Warmed up for 5 minutes and then ran 5k in 31:37. Finally broke 32 minutes!

Dips: 2/2/3/3/4/5/6/3/2 (30 total)
 
Wed June 27, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretching


- Squats
45x5
75x5
95x5
115x5
135x5
155x5
155x5
155x5

Felt fine. Gonna do 155x8 and then 155x10 and then start the progression again.

- Box jumps: 24" x 5, 30" x5

Just for fun since the box was right next to the squat rack.

- chins: 9 sets of 4. 3 sets overhand, 3 close grip, 3 underhand grip. Time to move up to sets of 5!

Weight is still around 190 lb.
 
Thurs June 28, 2018

5 minutes warm-up on the treadmill and then 25 minutes of intervals. 1 minute on, 1 minute off. Speeds were 3.1/7.8 mph. HR peaked at only 154 so I probably need to make these more intense.
 
Wed July 5, 2018

5 minutes warm-up on the treadmill and then 25 minutes of intervals. 1 minute on, 1 minute off. Speeds were 3.1/8.0mph, a bit higher than last time.

I've officially signed up for the Tough Mudder on Sept 15 with two friends. We are doing the Half Mudder, so 5 miles and 13 obstacles. In preparation I'm going to increase my long run from 5k to 7-8k over the next two months. And continue with the chins/dips. Basically the same as for the Spartan Sprint since it went well. If I'm able to get to the gym more than twice/week I'll try to squat too but that seems to be rare lately. I'm also going to be away on vacation the week of July 15-20 so I probably won't get much (if any) training in that week.
 
Fri July 6, 2018

Conditioning

Warmed up for 5 minutes and then ran 3.5 miles (5.6 km) in 35:08. I did a lot of the run at 6.0 mph which has been an unofficial goal for a while. My HR slowly crept up to 140 and I'd back off to 5.8 mph for a few minutes to let my HR settle back down. Hopefully soon I'll be able to do the entire run at 6.0+ mph.

My goal for the end of the summer is to run 4.0 miles (6.4 km) in 40:00 or less and get my weight down to 185. I didn't run more than 5km for the Spartan Sprint and was fine doing the 7.3 km there so I don't think I need to actually be training for 5 miles. It's not like it's a continuous run.
 
Sun July 8, 2018

Hockey

The last time we played these guys I dropped back to defence and our neutral zone play was awful. We allowed them a tonne of time to build up speed and a lot of odd man rushes. This week I was back at center so I did my best to muck up the neutral zone and it definitely helped. This team passes really well which still gave us fits, especially when I wasn't on the ice because our other center was hungover after a week at the cottage. However we definitely did a better job of stopping them in the neutral zone and I think that made all the difference.

It was a close game the entire time. In the first period they scored first but we replied about a minute later. They then scored again to make it 2-1 and we scored off the faceoff to make it 2-2, about 10 seconds later. We made it 3-2 with about 5 minutes left in the first period and that lead held until about 30 seconds into the second period.

It stayed at 3-3 heading into the third where we scored two quick goals to make it 5-3. They continued to push and our defence definitely looked tired but our goalie stayed strong and kept it 5-3. With a few minutes left in the game I took a slashing penalty after getting frustrated at the amount of abuse I took all game (as a big guy the refs tend to let me get hooked, held, tackled, and slashed A LOT before they call a penalty). They scored to make it 5-4 on the power play but that was it and we won.

Overall it was a fun game. I was a bit late so I missed the warm-up and never really felt that great all game. I had a few decent chances but only came away with one assist. Lately our weekends have been so busy that by Sunday night I'm low on energy. We have a Wednesday game this week that is at 10:45 so while I should be fresh from sitting at work all day I'll definitely be getting tired by then. Oh well, thats adult hockey!

Mon July 9, 2018

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Chins: Did a ladder up to 5 with overhand grip, then up to 4 with underhand grip, then some doubles until I hit 36 reps.

- Dips: 10 sets of 3. These weren't too hard by the end so I'll up the reps to 4 in the future.

At hockey last night I fell on my hip at some point. I don't remember exactly what happened but it was sore last night and stiff today. I walked and then jogged on the treadmill to see how it felt and while I could feel it, it didn't hurt so that's good. Probably just a bit swollen.
 
Wed July 12, 2018

Hockey

A rare Wednesday night game and super late to boot, it started at 10:45. Our opponents only had 8 skaters but our team was half drunk. A handful of guys were watching the World Cup earlier in the day, and another 3 had an earlier game with their normal weeknight team so decided to have pizza and beer between games. So that kinda evened things out.

It was a pretty sloppy, slow-paced game which played to our opponents. We were playing at the Mattamy Center (formerly the Maple Leaf Gardens) which has a bigger ice surface so they were able to slow the game down and save their energy. I scored on my first shift, chasing down a loose puck and then knocking the puck passed the goalie who seemed to think the play should've been called dead. I'm not sure why but I'll take the easy goal.

After that the game was just kinda sloppy and our opponents took advantage to build up a 3-1 lead. It didn't help that we took a bunch of dumb penalties in the 2nd and 3rd period which allowed our opponents to setup in our zone and pass the puck around, getting a rest while still getting some scoring chances. We finally settled down with about 5 minutes left and started to mount some offense. I tried a wrap-around at one point and my winger banged in the rebound and then a few minutes later we scored a similar goal to tie the game. Things ended 3-3 which seemed about right.

I'm on vacation starting this weekend so I will miss the last regular season game but will be back in time for the playoffs, which start on July 22 or 29, depending on which weekend we have off.
 
Fri July 20, 2018

I was on vacation this week but managed to fit in a run on Friday. We were staying at a cottage on a river near Bracebridge (2 hours north of Toronto) and it was on a quiet, hilly road. I did roughly 5k in 35 minutes. It was quite hilly, my FitBit says I climbed the equivalent of 55 flights of stairs, lol. There was a small hill at the end of the road where our cottage was so I did 10 hill sprints to finish things off.

It was a busy vacation. Unfortunately the "shallow wading area" at the edge of the river was very small and the waters edge was very shaded and mucky, so lots of mosquitos. Not the sort of setup where you got down and splash in the water for a while. I have family in Bracebridge who told where the good beaches are so we drove to a number of them. They were nice but having to pack up and drive there when every day was split in half by my son's nap was more work than I would like. On the plus side Muskoka Brewery is in Bracebridge so we visited a few times. We also visited Sawdust City Brewery in Gravenhurt, about 15 minutes south of Bracebridge.

I also ate lots of junk in addition to all the beer so when I weighed myself on Saturday I was up to 197, yikes. I was 191 before I left! I was aiming to be 185 for the Tough Mudder in September but now i think getting under 190 is a good goal.

Sun July 22, 2018

Hockey

First playoff game. We had a full 3 forward lines which was good because I was obviously slow coming back from vacation. We started strong, going up 2-0. In the second period momentum shifted and our opponents scored two garbage goals to tie things 2-2. The third period was really chippy and neither team took control of the game. With about 5 minutes left we had good pressure in the offensive zone when my winger centered the puck and the other team's D-man intercepted the pass and accidentally one-timed it into his own net to give us the 3-2 lead. They pulled their goalie with abut 1:30 left in the game but couldn't muster up any chances and we got the win.

I scored a nice goal in the first period, splitting their defense and putting a wrist shot under the goalie's arm. to make it 2-0. Overall my line played well. It's taken all season but we've finally settled into proper lines after getting 4 new players for the summer and it's beginning to show. We now have 2 weeks off before our next playoff game.
 
Mon July 23, 2018

Conditioning

Warmed up with 5 minutes on the C2, then did intervals. 30 seconds on, 60 seconds off. 12 intervals. My legs are definitely lacking a bit of muscle endurance right now. I'm going to alternate jogging on the treadmill and C2 intervals, instead of doing intervals of the treadmill.

Dips: 1/2/3 then 7 sets of 4 and one set of 2. Couldn't quite get that last set of 4.
Facepulls: 3x15
 
Thurs July 26, 2018

Conditioning

Warmed up for 5 minutes on the treadmill then ran 5k (3.1 miles) in 31:19. I was going to do 3.8 miles but just wasn't feeling it. I think I might be getting sick because I've been totally drained of energy all week and my mother-in-law (who I was at a cottage with all of last week) is sick. At least my 5k time didn't suck. I suppose the other issue is that to do 3.8 miles (6.1 km) I'll have to do a slightly slower pace.

My weight has quickly come back down to 192.5 or so after eating well for the last 5 days.
 

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