Category: meta

Prior to working out, walked probably a mile-and-a-half with the wife.

Today, did this Turbulence Training a.k.a. Craig Ballantyne cardio circuit called the “Crazy 8 bodyweight 300 cardio circuit” – C8B300 for short. It’s billed as a cardio workout and reminds me a lot of the more cardio-aimed CrossFit workouts:

1. 60 Jumping Jacks: Done as fast as possible, but make sure you do full jumping jacks.
2. 15-20 Spiderman Pushups: I’m just doing normal pushups until they become too easy. Typically it is a breeze for me to do 40+ pushups, but it is much tougher when you do these with zero rest in between jumping jacks.
3. Walking Lunges: I take 20 steps total. This is the easiest part of the workout in my opinion.
4. Spiderman Climb: I do a total of 20 of these (10 per side) I really feel these in my abs and obliques.
5. Wall Squat: Do for 45-60 seconds. This hurts! Don’t rest your hands upon your legs, since it makes it easier.
6. Planks: Do for 60 seconds. Tough after doing all these other exercises without rest.
7. 5 Burpees: Make sure and do a full pushup at the bottom and explode as high as pssible at the top into a jump. I’m still kind of uncoordinated with these…probably because I’m “smoked” at this point!
8. High Knees: Done as fast as possible. Do 50 total. I just count when my right leg hits the ground for 25. It is hard to count both legs for 50 since you are going fast. You will be dying about 1/2 way through.

Notes: Each exercise is done back-to-back with zero rest in between. You will want to rest, but immediately hit the next exercise. After this 8 exercise circuit is done, rest exactly 60 seconds. I usually run over to the microwave and set the timer. Those 60 seconds will feel like 15-20 seconds. Do this circuit 1 more time. Don’t add in the 3rd one until you are ready.

The spider-man routines are totally new to me, so I did my best to do them right. However, I know my form needs some practice. Also, Craig says the static wall squat is a 45 second manouever.

Final note, I couldn’t quite add it up to 300: I think the closest I got was 295 (note this is per round, so you really do close to 900 total reps/second-holds).

Took me 24:30 (resting a minute between the rounds). Was a solid workout that really ramped my heartrate and made me break a sweat. Amazingly, Ballantyne actually suggests you do 15 minutes at highest intensity cardio afterwards to top it off. Yikes! I’m passing on that this time around.

One thing I really like about it is that you can do this practically anywhere. You only need enough space to do push-ups and jumping jacks (assuming you could just sub doing the lunges-in-place).

Glad to add it to my repertoire!

Here’s a brief life update.

The wife and I are in Augusta. We’ve been here on an ongoing basis since late December; prior to our move beginning in June of 2007, we found the need to spend about two-thirds of our time in Augusta (The rest being spent in Atlanta at our place in Ansley Park). I won’t go into it, but there were (and are still somewhat) some family things going on in “the AUG” that required our presence. Despite having spent most of the past year in Augusta, I still consider myself an Atlantan.

As much as Augusta has going on for it, the move here is temporary. We are likely to be here for a few more months and will then either move on back to Atlanta or move somewhere else (Maybe some place entirely different — Abroad? Another U.S. city? Trying to figure that out).

Our mobility has been largely driven by the nature of my current work, which continues to be development of the Implode-O-Meter network via our flagship MLI and the others (HFI, HBI, BI, and the forums). Web entrepreneurship is fantastic in this regard. It is hard to beat requiring only an internet connection and a laptop to work, and ofttimes, my Blackberry is sufficient. The fundamental drawbacks include the always-open nature of websites and the gnawing understanding that most all websites have a terminal shelf-life. That latter point is less true for personal sites like this one — at least, I hope to live a long and interesting life. Of course, this site isn’t likely to result in any tangible wealth!

What’s there to do in Augusta? Aside from mountain biking the excellent trails at FATS or going to the occasional movie, not a lot. I’ve been spending my leisure time trying to get in shape via improved diet and working out with a VKR station and kettlebells. I’ve experienced good results from this combo (high intensity, low-carb and fasting).

Just a few days ago, I happily discovered that Augusta has a newly formed Crossfit gym (Site “under construction” — and though the site doesn’t say it, they’re located at 766 Industrial Park Drive). Sonal and I went and checked it out last Friday, doing a modified version of Helen. Having completed another WOD yesterday (One by Rob Miller), I can say with confidence that Crossfit is not for the weak of heart. I expect doing Crossfit will do wonders for my fitness, moreso than I would have been able to accomplish with my poor-man’s home gym. We’ll see.

With all things health, I’ve been taking some progress photos that I want to make public in the coming weeks. The first of these stretches back to February of this year. Stay tuned.

Otherwise, I’ve been spending time enjoying the wonders of OpenArena, a free, improved version of the classic FPS Quake III Arena. I play with my trading buddy and college-chum “papahalv” (We “DOMINATE” via our satirical, two-member “clan” CBB).

And speaking of trading, I’m on the road to recovery from getting blown out of the water by Fed Shenanigans last August and then again in late November. That’s a story for another day.

The quiet life of Augusta has also allowed me to catch up on reading. For details, check out my books page. I’ve mostly been bouncing between Sci-fi and science books lately.

On the family front, I became an uncle in mid-March. Oh the plans I have for that one.

And that’s it. Just wanted to provide an update on my personal life for the “historical record” and to update anyone who’s interested. I’ll try to incorporate more “biogblogging” (or “bioblogging?” Just made that up) in the future!