W1,Day 4: Have you ever seen the pain?

That's exactly what I was thinking when the Creedence song came on while I was working out today. No rain, but a lot of pain. Man I'm gonna die tomorrow,lol.Thank God I did all my chores before I lifted. I planted 3 trees, removed sutures out of 1.5 cows' heads, carved on some new stone heads for the front gate, cooked dinner, made dinner for work tomorrow, and hauled off palm fronds. After I finished my routine I could barely lift the steak onto the grill(no kidding). How I chose the weight I am lifting at present is I selected the weight I was lifting at 6 reps on BFL. In a couple of instances this has proved a little too much. We need to come up with a good name for Jim's workout plan, it's a killer!
Today's torture:(Oh and when Jim says you swell like a blowfish, he ain't lying)
Warm up:
Lat pull downs:
10 reps at 65 lbs,8 reps at 65 lbs, 5 reps at 97.5 lbs, 3 reps at 105 lbs
Lat pull downs: the real deal
8, 8, 6, 6, reps at 130 lbs
Dumbbell rows:
10,10,8,8 reps at 80 lbs
Barbell curls on the Beth machine:
8,8,6 reps at 75 lbs
Incline dumbbell curls:
8,8, 5(failure) reps at 40, 37.5 37.5 lbs respectively.
And thank God that was all because that was all I had to give. Doesn't look like a lot on the surface, but trust me it totally kicks ass!
Tom- yes, us old dudes rule!
K- I'm sure it's just my elliptical. We have discussions all the time at work because three of us workout and we all hit totally different cals on our cardio equipment. I can get 10 miles on my recumbant in 30 minutes and the other guys get 2 and 5 miles, so I don't put a lot of faith in the cal thing.
Hope you guys have a thumbs up kind of a day!
Later, Troy.
Cals for the day 2635, 39/33/28 protein to carb to fat ratio.

Day 3

And today was cardio, which now, until I get over the pain of lifting will be as good as a free day,lol. I am still sore in the chest area from Monday and the legs are slow moving from yesterday. At first I thought 7 days until the next chest day would be too long, but I think it's going to get here faster than I want. But so far so go, oink oink or whatever noise a guinea pig makes.
The cardio went something like this:
Elliptical for 30 minutes burning 644 cals.
Other than that I had one of those days were there wasn't enough time in the day to get everything done I needed to get done.
You guys have an awesome rest of the day and I'll think of y'all when I'm lifting!
The cals for the day were 2085 at 47/37/16 p/c/f.

W1,D2:No hurt, no tank top shirt.

Hey, it rhymes, and I hurt, so there, lol. Anyway I was hurting pretty good from the chest routine I did yesterday and today I did quads and hamstrings. I think I'm gonna hurt tomorrow! I also want to thank Jim for the congrats of the completion of my challenge on tracker and to those of you who read my blog and made comments on tracker. Thanks guys! It gave me the inspiration to work through my pain today and hit those legs hard.
O.K. the acorn to oak routine: and after I get comfortable in what I'm doing, I'm going to give some of these exercises the descriptions I'll come to know them by:
Warm up: barbell hack squat
10 reps 80 lbs,8 reps 80 lbs, 5 reps 120 lbs, 3 reps 130 lbs
The real deal: barbell hack up a quad muscle because this hurts so fuckin bad squat(oh I'm not going to do that yet)
8,8,6,6 reps at 160 lbs
Barbell power cleans:
5,5,5, reps at 80 lbs, the last 5 reps 90 lbs
Leg extensions:
10, 10, 8 reps at 170 lbs
Romanian Dead Lifts:
8,8,6,6 reps at 120 lbs, the last 6 reps I bumped to 130 lbs
1 legged curls: ( I don't know why I would use 1 leg when I got 2 healthy ones, but that's what Jim has suggested, lol)
10,10,8,8 reps 50 lbs on the 10 reps and 55 lbs on the 8 reps.
Well there it is, day 2, in the books, and I'm on the floor, not really but tomorrow will be interesting. And what's really funny, I'm looking forward to doing cardio tomorrow, for the first time no less. I wonder why.
Again thanks to those of you for the tracker comments, and to Jim for working me through this new routine. But Jim I still have the right to take that thanks back!
Had to edit for the food: Cals for the day were 1767 at a 40/41/18 ratio of protein/carbs/fat. It was a short day due to getting off graveyards.

Challenge 6: Acorn to Oak

Week 1, Day 1:
Working nights, got home at 0600, woke at 12 noon.
Pre workout food: apple, banana, mixed nuts at 12:30.
Worked out at 1:30p. for 52 minutes.
The routine:
Warm up: bench press on the Elizabeth machine
10 reps 80 lbs
8 reps 80 lbs
5 reps 120 lbs
3 reps 130 lbs
The real deal: bench press
8,8,6,reps at 160 lbs, last 6 reps at 190 lbs(thats all the weight my machine has)
Incline bench:
8,6, reps at 140 lbs, last 6 reps at 150 lbs
Dumbbell pullovers:
10,10,8 reps at 60 lbs
The weight lifting lasted 32 minutes and I will move up next time as this was my first attempt at this per Jim's suggestion for muscle gain.
I finished the routine off with ab boot camp which took an additional 20 minutes.
The eating for the day was at 2539 cals and the ratio was 40/42/18 protein/carb/fat breakdown.
I thought the routine went well, but about 5 hours into work tonight I felt the effects, like a gorilla had sat on my chest. Wow, I am sore! Thanks Jim,lol.

Week 12, Day 84 Putting down the torch.

I hope I did Julie proud. I thought of her throughout this whole challenge and how she has inspired me. I think it pushed me to a new level and I impressed myself of what I could do weight wise even after I had to get off the suppliments. I was able to roll with the change and push myself harder and not use it as an excuse to do less.Thank you Julie for your inspiration!
Rating the Torch Challenge, I would have given the whole challege an 8, and that would have been mostly because of the eating. I ate mostly E.F.L. type meals,but I think portion control is an issue at times, diet coke, coffee, and the shark feeding frenzy spectacle I routinely display on freedays subracted a point, BUT.... ALONG CAME THE TWINS! They have been a handful(no pun intended yet:still off limits) and with all the extra chores, cooking, and not missing a workout in week 12, I had to give that point back, giving me a 9 rating!I'll try to take pics tomorrow for tracker. The only thing that changed on my stats was I gained an 1/8 of an inch on my bi's, but I lost 2 0r 3 lbs :(.
I'm starting C-5 tomorrow and my goals are to use Jim's suggestions for bulking. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to get started. I wonder if Jim's thinking" yeah buddy talk to me in a few days and let's see how excited you are?"lol.
Out of this, other goals will be to gain some weight, add some size to the bi's, and continue to work on that six pack(my understanding though is that might not happen while adding mass).I also will try focusing on eating more. Eat big, to get big!
Anyway, that's about it.
Thanks to everyone for making this challenge a fun one since I found this blogger thing, and thank you Julie for your inspiration!

Nearing the End

The torch challenge is coming to a close. I think I have given this challenge everything I have given my previous challenges, yet the changes again, have been subtle. I need to figure out where I want to go from here and follow the next plan as I take on another challenge. This challenge I would like to get some mass. Several people have told me if you want mass, then you have to eat more to gain mass. This is hard to do when you have lost weight by watching what you eat, and now I have to eat more( good food of course) to gain mass. I guess I'll have to find a routine that uses less reps but heavier weight to get there. I also will have to ease up on the cardio. At least there's a positive side to this lol.Anyway, hopefully by Monday I will have a plan and a routine started as I venture into C-5.
An update on other things at the ranch:
First: the twins , Jim I've named them Arnold and Hogan, lol. Susan says right now if she had a do-over she wouldn't do this again. She is still hurting and has had other problems dealing with this surgery and is pretty much out of service. I really didn't care whether she did it or not, and I can't stand to see her in discomfort, but as far as tata's are concerned, man I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble because they look so awesome and I'm gonna have a tough time not loving, touching, squeezing them all the time!
Second: The pups(our Bulldog) is having surgery today. She has a luxating patella and it needed to be repaired and the younger the better. While we were at it, because this is genetic, we decided not to breed her and have her spayed.So we won't be having any pups.
Thirdly: Starting a new challenge on Monday, anyone else interested?
You guys have a great day and I need to go do my last C-4 UBWO!
Tata, as in by!

The Twins

Wow, who ever said twins would be a handful wasn't lying. In more ways than one,lol. I got my first viewing today and I was amazed at how big they were. I think I might have even embarassed myself by how I responded in front of the doc as he unveiled them. I must admit I was more into Susan's behind and legs, but I gotta say, wow! The miracles of modern science astound me. One day it's lemons, the next day it's melons.They come in twos, hard to choose.....Anyway the other part of the twins being a handful is the recuping part. All the extra chores have got me going non stop.It's been busy! Still got my workouts in. I was going to skip my UBWO last night but when I went to feed the animals a chicken roosting in the rafters crapped on my head, so I figured if I have to take another shower I might as well workout. I guess the chicken poo on my scalp gave me some extra energy because I upped most of the weight and hit several twins, er I mean tens, lol. Maybe it was the twins!Well I need to get. Susan is doing a little better today, but she's already called it the night.
Have a great w/e.
Troy.

Technological wonders of our world.

It's simply fucking amazing that I am sitting in the hospital waiting on Susan who is getting breast augmentation as we speak and I'm on the computer.I am trying out a T-Mobile air card that allows me wireless access, of course at a price, but it just simply amazes me! It also amazes me in two hours Susan's breasts will be a different size.I've got to hand it to you women though, y'all handle the anticipation of surgery or the possibility of pain so much better than us guys. I think I have been more anxious the last few hours than Susan was. She seems to handle this stuff with so much more composure than I do I wonder if we would have already been an extinct race had men had to give childbirth? Well anyway that's what's going on with me today,lol
As far as the challenge, I'm easing up to the end of week 11 and so far the workouts have been stellar! The eating has been on plan except I had a salad Tuesday that probably wasn't a choice selection.
Well I need to go puke again and maybe we'll post pics of the twins sometime later next week,
Take care,
Troy.

Hamburger!

Here's the mini zebu cow that was born yesterday morning. He's about 5 hours old in this pick. The really odd thing about him is that his hooves are all white. Up to this point they have all been black. We will entertain any name you guys can come up with that starts with Z. We have a Zippy, Zola, Zena, Zack, Zazu and the odd couple, Elvis and Minnie. Well, got to get, have a fantastic w/e.

Born and dehorned

First of all I couldn't post a pic tonight for some reason.Every time I clicked on add an image it wouldn't do anything, yet when I got the laptop out it worked immediately. I just don't have the pics on the laptop yet. So today was dehorning day. I got home and went to bed at 0600, got up at 0830 and before I got out to help Susan, she told me Zena had just given birth. That's the pic I couldn't get posted. I'll try tomorrow. So after we got them situated, we loaded the other 2 up and got them dehorned. Got home, unloaded them, got Zena and the new calf in the baby area and then Susan had to take the pups to the vet. She has a bad knee and needs surgery, so now we need to talk to an orthopedic surgeon about that.
I managed to get my LBWO in and have eaten well today. Susan missed her LBWO and will try to catch it on Sunday.
Other than that everything else is going well, just too busy with animal stuff. Tomorrow is fun day, pressure washing all the indoor bird cages, fun fun!
Well that's it for now, talk to y'all later!

Smarter than the average cow, moo moo

O.K. here's the plan I came up with to laod Zazu and Zena to go to the Vet Friday. Ramps and pallets. As you can see Zazu took full advantage of the new load and go system I have developed(well, with a little help from NASA ,lol). Anyway when we evacuated last Sept. for Rita the only way we got all 7 cows in The Land Arc was to rope em and physically drag them in to the trailer. They don't step up into trailers well for some reason.Yes and I hit several 10"s that day! So Friday's the big day, dehorning!(I bet Susan would get that done to me, lol, especially with the 2 new friends arriving shortly.) It should be painless though.You can have it done for 10 bucks where they are run into a chute and the vet takes these clippers and whacks them off. It's pretty traumatic and I'll spare the details, or you can go the 70 dollar ride, you talk them every so nicely into the chute, and then we praise them and pet them. The vet gives them a local in that area and ever so delicately removes the horns with precision and accuracy with the extra dollar pair of Ivory handled horn removers. Then he stitches each area up, applies some antibiotics and we bring them back home. I think we have to pay extra for the stitches! Anyway it will make it safer for us during feeding, they tend to get a little horny!
The workouts and eating are still pretty much on, as usual.
Today before I go to work I'm going to try a new dish that sounded good. It's turkey breast, brocolli flourets, chicken broth, onion and cous cous cooked together. Takes about 15 minutes, so I'm gonna give it a try.It also called for bell pepper, but Troy don't do dat or tomatoes!
You guys have an awesome day!

A little blogger time

Sometimes when I get up on a day off, I like to have a little coffee, well actually a lot of coffee, visit tracker a bit and then visit the blogs. Usually I make a few comments , go workout and then feed the animals. Then I make an attempt to post my blog with the routine I have completed and what I have eaten or is on plan to eat for the day.And as usual those plans change dramatically once I enter the animal kingdom in the back yard. Hoss(camel) has learned how to reach over the fence to avoid the charged line(I use solar so it's not that bad of a shock) and eat the grass on the other side. So I had an hour of fence repair and will have to remount the wire a little higher. Then I needed to move Zena,Zazu, and Zoe(mini cows) into different pastures. That took another hour. Zena's getting ready to have a baby and we don't trust Hoss with the babies and on Friday Zazu and Zoe are going to the vet to get dehorned.So I have to get them all situated in other pastures(the birthing pasture and the load and go pasture).
Well ,by the time I launch into my other chores, half the day is already gone.
Tonight I start graveyards so I thought I'd try an early blog and catch up on comments.But first the routine that hasn't happened yet.
The routine for the day.
I will elliptical my ass off.
For food:
I will eat my ass off. Oops I mean, I will eat good, healthy food at the correct portion size.
Responses to the past weeks comments and replies with little smiley faces when there's a comment but I can't really respond,lol.
Jim: That is an M on her nose. We were going to name her Muscle head, or Meat head but those names were already yspoken for.
Coco: :), I tried the asparation, but not cooked. The label fell off and when I was inventing my exotic greenery salad I accidently chopped it up and put it in there, so I really don't know how it tastes.
Super Bev: :), Hanging in there, doing well.
KFM: :),:) Thanks!
Jess: :), check with Lisa first,lol.
BethKK: I knew there would be a Beth out there,lol.Sorry! But I like you better and I haven't even met you.
Dr. P.: Marriage the second time around is great. Just think of the first one as a practice drill gone terribly wrong, and learn from those mistakes.
Erin: :)
Lori: :)
Tom: As far as the Beth's go, it's been suggested I run, far far away, lol.
Now, for overcoming the dreadmill experience. Picture this, you're running, a bbq'ed rack o ribs, or maybe that smoked turkey leg you waved at me is dangling just out of your reach. If you reach your goal you can have that prize. It's only a minute at a time, and before you know it 20 minutes will have passed and you'll be reveling in your accomplishment of hitting that goal, and winning that prize, which you know by now is a bowl of ffcc and an apple.Hope that helps!
Time to go cardio o o and see what new adventure awaits me in the back yard.

Week 10

Hey guys, still kicking butt, had a great lbwo today and food is on track. Just been super busy and with no internet privledges at work, it's even harder to keep up.Will get some comments to you guys soon, hopefully tomorrow!
Stay cool, and well lubed,lol.
Troy.

Week 9, day 63

So much for Cingular's aircard with my laptop. Seems I can't get a connection at work on my laptop, yet several of the people who have Verizon have no problems at all. And my cell phone service is with Cingular and I have decent luck with that. Must be different towers or satellites that they operate on. So as far as the tracker and the blog goes, while I'm at work I won't be doing either. Anyolfrickinway, had a great upper body workout last night. When I get home tonight it will be a little 30 ride through the park on the recumbent. Sounds better that a grueling session in the room of doom on the lung hacker doesn't it?
The UBWO Routine:
Decline press: 140-160 lbs the last set at 150 lbs only 6 reps
Standard press: 100 lbs 12 reps
Shoulder press: 80-87.5 lbs
Shoulder shrugs: 105 lbs
Chest row: 85-115 lbs
Seated row: 105 lbs
Triceps kick back: 22.5-30 lbs
Triceps overhead extension: 52.5 lbs
Standing curl: 47.5 -62.5 lbs
1 arm ( say your confessional to your) preacher curl (cause you're cursing to get those last reps out and need to be forgiven for that type of language) 35 lbs.
Tonight when I and after I post this I hope to have hacked a lung, er um I mean, have taken a 30 minute ride through the park on the recumbent.(think pleasant thoughts and the experience will be pleasant...... right go blow that smoke..... ).
The Consumables for the day, which by the way mirrored yesterday's fare:
#1 meal fiber one and ff skim milk
#2 ffcc and yogurt
#3 2 turkey bacon and cheese ww bun breakfast sandwiches
#4 Salmon in a bag over the exotic green salad I made the other day
#5 chicken breast, ww pasta, broccoflower or caulicolli( a cross between broccoli and cauliflower from Central Market)
#6 ffcc and almonds
Well that's about it for now, til we chat again, later.

Week 9 Day 60, Meet Elizabeth!

Yeah that's right, I named her Elizabeth, after my ex wife because the similarities between this equipment and her are uncanny. Neither one of them cook, they are both hard and cold, expensive, dread having to deal with them, make me hurt, while one was more a pain in the ass, the other a pain in the muscles, make a whole lot of noise, make me shake and wobble after dealing with them, but when it's said and done with, I always walk away feeling so good about myself,lol.
Anyway meet Beth! Now run!
O.K. now for a few responses:
Jess: that's what extreme lifting will do.
KFM and Super Girl: thanks
CoCo: I can't help it!
Rod: thanks for the dentist suggestion, but the fangs help hold the upper lip in so I don't inhale it while lifting!
Now for the routine. Today I used the alien... I mean The Beth for my LBWO:
Abduction: 22.5 lbs- 30 lbs, still doing the BFL routine
Leg extension: 120 lbs 12 reps
Adduction: 22.5 lbs- 30 lbs
Split squats: 50 lbs dumbbells each hand
Hip extension: 32.5 lbs - 40 lbs
1 leg calf press: 100 lbs
Ab crunch a bunch of fritos: 40 lbs - 70 lbs
Oblique crunches: 12 reps
As usual she caused me great pain, got no dinner out of it again, she was hard and ruthless, and I still continue to pay, but damn I feel so good when our encounter is over, now it's time to run!
The grub for the day:
pre workout: banana and an apple
2nd meal: omelet with spinach, onions, jalapenos, 2 ww tortillas, anD 1 2% pepper jack cheese slice
3rd tuna and an apple
4th meal: went to CoCo's store(Central Market) and bought a bunch of exotic greenry to make a world famous grilled chicken and exotic greenry salad. Think the Beth will help,lol! Not!
5th meal : bowl of Fiber one cereal, with ff, lactose free, taste free, tax free milk, or is it white water?
I didn't get up til after 11a.m. off this last graveyard, hence the lack of a meal of two.
Anyway, that's a wrap.
Have a great day y'all.