"Broadside" Long

Very nice! Love the skull.

You scored as a William Wallace The great Scottish warrior William Wallace led his people against their English oppressors in a campaign that won independence for Scotland and immortalized him in the hearts of his countrymen. With his warrior's heart, tactician's mind, and poet's soul, Wallace was a brilliant leader. He just wanted to live a simple life on his farm, but he gave it up to help his country in its time of need. Nice!

I didn't have a chance to workout on Tuesday, so I had a brutal workout on yesterday. Today I just jumped rope for 20 minutes. Uh, I should say I attempted to jump rope for 20 minutes. I can go about 1.5-2 minutes before I step on the rope. But, that's a huge improvement over a month ago. Planning another intense workout tomorrow!

Kicking the coffee was hard. I've been dragging in the morning. Just this morning I woke up looking forward to a cup then I remembered...oh yeah, I'm trying to quit. I used to work in a coffee shop, that's how my "addiction" started. Good job on kicking the Starbucks habit, Blackjohn. I'll bet you have many more doubloons now! I would like to start running again like JackyTar, but I've been having some hip problems the last few years. Could be Army service related, I don't know. I miss running. Crappy workout today. Felt like I was gonna hurl after just a few minutes. But at least I did something!

I've been trying to kick the coffee addiction this week. Pounding headaches really sucked but I think the worst is over. Still did my workouts everyday though! Next I'll try to kick the Dr. Pepper habit. I think that's gonna be tough.

Thanks for the encouragement Blackjohn. Keep puttin' one foot in front of the other! LongTom, I tried indoor rock-climbing once. Holy crap what a workout. I'd like to try it again, but no rock gyms around. Wait...I do live near the Rockies! I also need to start some serious ab work. I used to think the core workouts were just a lot of hype, but boxing really put that into perspective. It involves the core muscles a lot.

Okay, I was unable to workout for four days in a row! I worked out Sunday - Thursday last week and figured I'd take Friday and the weekend off to avoid overtraining. Then my dog got sick (again!) and I had to take Monday off as well. Tuesday was a kick in the pants. I thought I was well hydrated over my break, but my workout proved otherwise. And I just felt slower and lethargic overall. I'm back in the saddle now though and I won't be taking that many days off in a row if I can avoid it.

I live about an hour from the Stanley Hotel, which was the inspiration for The Shining. Stephen King wrote a lot of the manuscript there. The Sci-Fi Channel's Ghost Hunters did a couple of episodes at the Stanley and it was very creepy. There are a lot of ghost towns here in Colorado as well, especially in the mountains between Denver and Durango. Broadside

I think I have almost all of Pavel's books, LOL! I plan on adding weight training soon, but first I'm trying to become "proficient" with my own bodyweight. If you're also interested in the low-tech approach try these websites: www.rosstraining.com www.gymjones.com Ross Enamait is a boxer I think. He's in phenomal shape and has some good tips on developing functional strength. Mark Twight runs Gym Jones (they trained the Spartans for the movie 300). He's also a mountain climber so fitness is literally a matter of life or death for him. He posts the day's workout on the website so that you can follow along. He has some very interesting ideas on fitness such as never doing the same workout twice so that you're body has to continually adapt. It's also worth visiting they're site to see the transformation of some of actors from 300.

Good for you, mate. Everybody has set-backs. Forget about 'em and just keep moving forward. BTW, I don't trust scales either or the BMI (Body Mass Index). Scales don't reflect the fact that you could be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. I think a lot of people just see that the scale isn't moving down and get discouraged when they're really making progress! BMI is sorta the same thing. You could be in great shape and still be considered overweight according to the BMI. I trust the way my clothes fit better, the way I feel, and that little peek of muscle that I couldn't see before!

I'm a Dr. Pepper and coffee addict as well. In fact, I would drink just about anything to avoid drinking water. Strange as it sounds, I just didn't like water. But I have come to the conclusion that, like most people, I was in a state of chronic dehydration. So I now force myself to drink A LOT of water everyday. I'm getting better and I've noticed that I have much more cardio endurance when I'm properly hydrated. If you kind folks would have me, I'd like to take the challenge to better myself and jump aboard this here thread. Weight is a big issue for me right now. I just turned 35 and have noticed for the last few years that my weight has been slowly creeping up along with my age. This is severely depressing to me. At my heaviest I was close to 220. Now, at around 197 lbs, 5'10" with a 39.5" waist I still look fat. I also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol so this could literally be a matter of life or death for me. As a consequence I have studied fitness extensively and I am in pursuit of real fitness not the appearance of fitness (i.e. beach muscles). As a result of studying real fitness, I have pared away the excesses of the modern philosophy of fitness and tried to mimic the daily activities of our ancestors and "primitive" cultures of today some of whom are incredibly fit. I don't go to a high tech gym and therefore avoid the expense, musclehead who tries to tell everyone how they should perform a certain lift and the others who seem more concerned with being seen with the latest sports apparel, etc. In other words I have taken a decidedly "low-tech" approach. I use tried and true compound exercises that incorporate as many joints as possible to achieve real strength as opposed to isolation exercises (bicep curls, etc.) that give the appearance of strength. I literally workout in my garage using old car parts. I also use push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and other bodyweight exercises. You will be amazed at the shape you can get into just using bodyweight exercises. But one thing I have discovered is training like a boxer. Just take a look at one of those guys and you'll see why! Plus, it's cheap and it works. I got a cheap punching bag, gloves, and a jump rope all for around $100. In the course of one month I have lost 1 1/4" off my waist. Jumping rope 10 minutes a day for one month has added 5/16" to each calf in! I feel lighter on my feet and there is no better way to relieve daily stress than pounding a bag at the end of the day. I'm not a trained boxer BTW so technique doesn't matter much to me, I just wail away. It can be a very transcending experience. I recommend it highly. Sorry this is so long and I know I sound like an infomercial. Also, I DO NOT mean this as an indictment of anyone else's fitness philosophy, it's just the path that I have chosen. I told myself I wouldn't wax philosophical, but to those of you who read this far...thanks for listening. Broadside

Thought my mates at the Pub might enjoy this. I am in the process of tracing my genealogy and stumbled across a line of Christians from the Isle of Man. It turns out that a branch of this particular family includes the famed Fletcher Christian. It also "appears" that I could be a direct descendant of William Christian or Illiam Dhone (Brown-haired William) who fought Cromwellian forces on the Isle of Man and was executed for his troubles. I've done quite a lot of research and this seems to be a legitimate line. Thought some of you might get a kick out of this! Broadside

Loreena McKennitt - Beneath A Phrygian Sky. Puts me in the mood.

Hmmmm? Big guy, likes women who are "above average", pyrating, costuming, lives in Colorado and likes green (I looked at your photo) my favorite color. Marry me! Are your eyes blue? Better yet are they green?! Unfortunately Silkie my eyes are brown, though a lighter shade. Sorry! And yer a fine figure of a woman as would make any man proud to have on his arm. But I'm already taken. On second thought, maybe I could have 14 wives like Blackbeard himself!

Here's the finished product complete with "Fancy" pewter buttons from Jas. Townsend & Son, whom I can recommend highly. The shanks on some of buttons are a little sketchy (they were cheapos, $.55 each), but their service was excellent and incredibly fast! Yours truly,