Easter Lamb Cake

While my parents were alive for many years, it was my responsibility (happily) to make a lamb cake for Easter (I was raised Catholic). I started baking maybe in 7th grade, got really good at it while in high school (and I prepared the family meals every night for 4 years), and then while I was married and after, assumed a few baking traditions. Easter lamb cake was one, Christmas fruitcake was another (which has since been taken up by one of my sisters) and always something for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know when the official date was for Easter, but I noted there was Easter candy in my grocery store for weeks, so I stocked up on jelly beans, and stupid me, didn't buy any Peeps and now they are gone.

A few days ago I thought about how much I like lamb cake and thought maybe I should make one. I won't bake just for myself, but luckily I have some friends that will happily share whatever I come up with. So a few days ago I decided to make one. Below are the pics of everything in progress followed by the recipe that I use, which has served me well for many, many years.

Enjoy!

Batter

Greased pan

Greased and floured pan

Batter in the pan

Closed up pan ready to bake

Cake in the oven

Cake directly out of the oven

Cake while cooling

Frosting!

Ready for assembly

Frosted

Finished!

Easter Lamb Cake

1 lamb cake mold (available at Wilton’s or online, although the one I saw online is gay looking—mine must be vintage!)

Cake:
1 cup butter (salted is fine), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups cake flour or sifted all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. Baking powder
¼ tsp. Salt
finely grated rind (the yellow part) of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 350

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. This may be done by hand and does not require an electric mixer. Stir in the lemon rind.

Stir or sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, and add to the batter slowly, mixing until blended.

Grease (I use butter, but I suppose you could use a spray cooking oil) and flour both halves of the cake mold. Be especially careful with the head/ears! Put the halves onto a baking sheet to support the thing while it bakes.

Spoon and then evenly distribute the batter into the side of the pan without the hole in the nose. Be sure to get into the crevices and the head and ears.

Cover the battered half with the top piece of the mold, and put a toothpick into the hole all the way down into the batter so its end does not stick out of the pan. This is to add strength to the thing’s face!

Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes. You can remove the top half of the mold after 50 minutes to check that it’s nicely browned and/or use a cake tester. It should be a light to medium golden brown. Remove from the oven, remove the top and let the cake cool while still in the bottom mold for at least 10 minutes. At that point, carefully invert the cake onto a plate for final cooling, leaving the lamb lying down (you might want to play Genesis ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ for this part). Cool cake thoroughly before beginning final assembly.

Buttercream Frosting:

3 ¾ cup confectioners sugar
½ cup butter (salted is OK to use), softened
3-4 tbsp. Milk or cream
1 tsp. Vanilla extract

I don’t prepare this the way the Domino’s package says, because if you do, you will have powdered sugar everywhere! Rather, I start with the butter, very soft, and stir in maybe a cup of the sugar, and then maybe ½ the milk and vanilla. Keep adding sugar slowly until it’s all in there and then sparingly add remaining milk, a little at a time. Depending on your altitude and humidity, you may need more or less milk. Be careful when adding either, because you want the end result to be smooth, but quite firm. Why is it that many recipes sound erotic?


Assembly:

Frosting
Jelly beans
Coconut (optional)
Food coloring (optional)
Ribbon (optional)
Aluminum foil

Choose your serving thing and line it with aluminum foil. Decide where the lamb is going to stand up and put some of the frosting there which will hold it in place.

Frost the entire cake using either a spatula, or you can use a decorating bag for all or part of it. You probably want to leave the face with smooth frosting. Some people like to get decorative with the lamb’s body. Do what you want! Frost the head last, so that you have something to hang onto while you work on the rest of the cake. Again, sorry if this sounds erotic.

I personally frost the entire cake smoothly, and then give the lamb, except for its face, a good coating of coconut, patting it gently in place so it’s evenly distributed. Use the entire recipe of frosting, which will allow you to choose where you want to put more or less.

Cut a black or dark-colored jelly bean in half to make the lamb’s eyes, or use some other candy if you like, and pick another color for its nose. Use frosting to secure these in place. Tie a ribbon around its neck or not.

If you’d like grass, dye some of the coconut green and then scatter at the lamb’s base, and toss in a few more jelly beans for a cute effect.

Cover cake loosely with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated.

This is a rich cake, especially if it’s coated with coconut, so slice thinly and let people fight over which part of it they want. My favorite part is the butt, of course!

Perfect!

CrossFit Vs. Traditional Endurance Training for Triathlon Success

There's a discussion going on over in the Slowtwitch forum about this, and while I have opinions, I'm not going to voice them over there, but rather here.

So there's this spinoff of CrossFit called CrossFit Endurance. While I do like their pirate-based logo, I cannot say I agree with some of the claims being made here. I am in no way making a statement about the value of CrossFit as an enhancement to an endurance training program. I think I have enough years of fairly serious exercise in me (18 years of strength training and 11 years of endurance training) to make some observations and comments on my little N=1 study.

First, I'll assume anyone reading here has a basic understanding of Exercise Physiology. There are many good books on this covering things down at the cellular level all the way up to the musculoskeletal system. But to frame things, I'll state the "Basic Training Principles" that you'll find in any of those books:

1. Individuality: what works for you might not work for me. This is from a combination of genetics, prior experience, mental focus, etc.
2. Specificity: You won't get better at swimming by riding a bike. Seriously! While developing overall cardiovascular fitness is helpful at maintaining overall conditionining, there is no crossover, especially when you are talking about a skill/technique based sport like swimming or tennis.
3. Disuse: Use it or lose it!
4. Progressive Overload: You need to push yourself, sometimes to the edge and beyond, to create new gains in fitness.
5. Hard/Easy: Contrary to what you see on my blog, it is important to cycle workout intensity!
6. Periodization: Overall training loads need to be varied within the context of a training/competition cycle.

I always wondered why there wasn't a principle called Change. It is partly encompassed by Periodization and some of the other principles like Hard/Easy, but not fully. Periodization needs to occur within varying length cycles--we usually think of a training "season," but when you are first starting out at a sport like triathlon, you can't jump right in and begin training 750-800 hours a year, which is what I do. So over the course of a few years you'd build up to that level.

But I digress. If a person did the same training plan from one year to the next, where that plan included all the Basic Training Principles, would they get any better/faster? For a few years, yes, because that is what people are talking about when they say "base building" and also consistency (which is just another form of the Disuse principle). The fact that I've been at Ironman training for almost 9 years means that I have a huge base compared to someone who is in their first year. Which means I am able to do crazier shit than many people with smaller bases (or else I am just smarter about it!).

Eventually, though, your body adapts to anything you throw at it, and on a steady diet of same old same old, you will eventually plateau. You've heard the old adage "it doesn't get easier--you just get faster." Like my bike and run training is time-based, so I run for X minutes, bike for Y hours, and how ever much mileage I cover is what I get. This removes things like terrain and weather and fatigue levels from the equation. On a given day, I might run further in X minutes than the prior week.

When I look across my records, I can document that I am running and biking faster than I have in the past. Not by a whole lot, but it's there. At least in training! We will see how it translates to long course racing in a few weeks. It was interesting the other day that I realized the previous time I won the Indoor Triathlon Series was in 2004, but when I won it this year, I am now 5 years older and faster! Isn't that cool?

Anyway, I keep digressing...the biggest thing I've learned in all my years at this is that the body needs, in fact, CRAVES change. I MUST change up my stretching routine, my strength routine, my swim/bike/run routines, my challenge events every single year and sometimes more frequently, if I want to see improvement. Can I document every subtle change I've made? No...I'm not that anal-retentive ;) But I can look across years and know significant changes I've made, including perhaps resting more, sleeping more, stretching more, doing more strength work, doing various focused sport efforts, etc., and see how it has made a difference.

Is what I've done scientifically based? Hell no. It's been motivated by the fact that I like change, we live in a world of change, and I am always looking for new ways to gain an edge not only competitively, but in how strong I feel in my daily life activities, such as they are.

Whenever I am asked how I have come to be in the shape that I am in, I always point to it being a combination of endurance training, strength training, flexibility, diet, massage and mental training.

I know a few people who are serious into the CrossFit thing and others who are just beginning to dabble in it. I have complete respect for anyone's method of achieving overall fitness--whether it's playing basketball, rock climbing or whatever. As an aside, I think that a serious rock climber is probably in overall generally good condition...

I just happen to have chosen triathlon as one of my vehicles. But I have a longer strength background and I keep that up because I know what it does for me. It was just coincidental that I met some CrossFitters and some other friends started dabbling in it, and I thought, hey, it's time for me to change things up a bit, and so I am trying out a few things here and there.

But my core triathlon training is not changing...I will only get stronger on the bike by working hard on the bike. I will only develop the tendon/ligament strength in my legs for running by running. As to my swimming, well, I'd need a one-on-one coach and at least 15,000 yards per week in the pool to see any serious gains there, and the time investment is just not worth it to me, so I'll settle for my 10,000 yards a week that I enjoy doing and keeps me from slowing down too much and helps my recovery from biking and running.

What about the idea that if I significantly decreased my swim/bike/run training and did more CrossFit type stuff that I'd get faster? I think not. First of all, I have a pretty balanced triathlon training program that includes a big dose of intensity amongst all the LSD stuff. And seriously, I rarely do a 100% LSD workout--my long runs and rides have significant work periods in them, and unless I am 100% shelled, I am able to execute those with regularity. Riding a bike hard works my quads hard. Swimming with paddles works my lats, traps and shoulders hard the same as lifting weights. Running hills fast makes my legs stronger. Do my muscles care that the strength they've acquired is from being on a bike vs. doing squats? I think not. I've been playing around with doing a bunch of squats, and while I haven't tried to max out, let's just say I think my quads are fairly strong, and it isn't from doing a bunch of squats!

I do believe it's very important for triathlon specialists to mix it up, even though there's this notion that because we are training 3 sports that we are cross-training. Bunk! Like I said, your body adapts to anything, and there are many unused muscles and even muscle imbalances created if all you do is swim, bike and run.

There is, I believe, an overall strength component to reducing one's level of general fatigue, and the point at which during a long workout, say an Ironman, one reaches it. For example, it's well-known that it's important to maintain upper body strength to be successful at running, because when your upper body tires, your form can fall completely apart. Ultrarunners in particular need good overall strength since most of their events are quite challenging in terms of terrain, much more so than a silly Ironman!

You also need a helluva strong core to stay on a bike, especially in an aero position, for long periods of time. I want to take one of my CrossFit friends with me on a 120-mile bike ride! Now maybe I can't do 20 repetitions of climbing 100's of stairs with kettlebells, but I'm not training to do that. If I wanted to, though, I could. And yet, I don't feel lacking in my overall general strength, at least not for the life I lead. I think I'm plenty strong, thank you. Although I suppose that if I get trapped in a collapsing building I might be in some trouble...

I do believe that no matter what your chosen sport or physical application that you need to mix it up frequently during the course of a training cycle but also across years. Change is inevitable. If a person is responding in their target sport by changing up their routine to something that favors more CrossFit-type workouts, who can say it's because it's CrossFit and maybe they would get the same results by taking up rock climbing?

It's good to experiment with different exercise modalities for overall health and strength, and also to prevent mental burnout in a given sport. But if you want to be really good at a particular sport, you gotta do that sport. I mostly want to be good at riding a bike and have fun doing it. For some reason, I like triathlon because it introduces some variety by adding in swimming and running. I come from a strength training background, so I keep doing that, too. I've experimented with various types of circuit training, have taught classes in it, have trained for and competed well at stair climbs, volleyball and softball. I may have put some of those things aside for my current tenure at triathlon, but I have never forgotten that I need to keep changing things up. It may not always be evident from this blog, but it's there. So what if I'm a little heavy on the endurance stuff vs. pure strength/functional conditioning? To each their own. My current objective, though, is not to be good or competitive at CrossFit stuff. If that is what I wanted, that is what I'd be doing. I will not apologize to CrossFitters for the way I do things, and I will not belittle what they do. It's all good!

Get out there and exercise, and if you want to compete, good, if you want to just look good and feel good, also good, but don't forget to change things up!

Another 4-Peat Today

I don't even know how I am doing this...

5:55AM I am at the Y, and I do 10' of chinups, pushups and abs--15/60/120.
6:10AM I am on the treadmill, and I stay there for 1:39 and then head to the track for the last 11' which were supposed to be Z2, but I figured, what the fuck, run how I feel. I felt great, and it felt easy, and I was running tempo. Go figure!
8:30AM I am in the pool, which is still nice and cool for the 4th time this week, and I knock out an easy 1,000 yard cool down swim. The lag time in between running and swimming is yak time--I ran into a few friends.
2:15PM I finished up my strength training for the week (at home), and it only took 22'.

I am at 9.12 hours of training (not counting the extra crap) for Monday-Thursday. Tomorrow will be about 2 hours, and the weekend stuff will be the same as last week. I might go over 18 hours this week, and despite a few blips in the system, I feel pretty damn good.

Rock solid!

In Honor of the Full Moon Today

Four Workouts in a Day--When 2 or 3 Just Isn't Enough

So I'm pretty used to 2 workouts per day. Right now, I am biking 3 times, running 5 times, and swimming 4 times per week. Soon enough I will add a 6th run. My weekly pattern for this is:

Monday: AM swim, PM (mid-day usually) run
Tuesday: Quality bike and brick run
Wednesday: AM swim, PM tempo run
Thursday: Long run, optional (if time) recovery swim
Friday: AM swim, PM run
Saturday: Long bike #1, brick run, recovery swim if time/energy
Sunday: Long bike #2

Saturdays and Sundays will get switched often depending on whether there are available group rides going on (usually Sundays) and I want to ride longer than is on my plan. I can always ride more; it may not be extra hard stuff, but TITS (time in the saddle) is paramount!

On top of this, I have to somehow fit in strength training. Yes, I HAVE to. It is part of what keeps me sound so that I can do so much of the other stuff. I am lucky that I can fit it in here and there because I have all the weights and such at home, in my office. So there's no excuse for me to not do it, and I can get in 10' here, etc.

On top of this, I have escalated this other stuff I've been doing since late February when I decided I needed to lose some weight. I started out with rather modest daily goals (20 pushups, 5 chinups, 50 crunches and 5' of jump rope), but the stuff just got easier, so what was I to do but up the ante?

In the midst of this, I did a few races, won them and started to feel really strong, and my training volume has really picked up. I always ask myself can I do more, and I guess I can! But now with where my training volume is, the optional "other stuff" which I fondly call crap is going to become completely optional. Especially in June when the outdoor pool opens and ride my bike to and from it, not only for the extra bike mileage, but also it's a good thing to do for the environment and saves me some money.

I will always execute my core S/B/R and strength training, and then whatever extra stuff I do will be gravy. When the baseline is 17+ hours, I don't really need to do any more, do I?

Today was a good day, though. I hadn't done any extra stuff since Sunday and felt like I should go ahead and get some in. I was up early enough anyway.

So before I swam, I did 30 or 40 chinups on the assisted station so I could play around with different grips, and then I did 3 rounds of 15 hanging leg raises, 20 pushups, 5 dead bugs 10" hold, 10 regular crunches and 10 bicycle crunches. I yakked with a friend I ran into for a few minutes, then I went and jumped rope for 5' alternating 30" easy jumps with 30" of hard, continuous jumps on one of the wooden basketball courts, because they are nice and cushy.

Right after this I went and swam 3100 yards this workout:
Warmup: 400s, 200kick
Main Set: 8x50 25 rt/lt, 25 build 20"RI
1' bonus rest
1x500 @T-pace+6" 15"RI
2x250 @T-pace+2" 15"RI
1x500 @T-pace+5" 15"RI
5x100 @T-pace 15"RI
cd:100

I didn't do it exactly as prescribed, but I kept up a good intensity and I used the paddles for 1500 of the main set. The pool was nice and cool and I had a parade of characters sharing my lane with me. A friend who is an awesome swimmer was in the adjacent lane, but we didn't get much chat time, which was fine.

At noon I had a meeting scheduled which was me listening in and watching a presentation. I thought, huh, I can do some strength training while this rolls, so I got in about 20' of solid work, chest, back, tris and a few bis and delts.

I thought the meeting would go longer than it did, but surprise, it finished in 40', so I figured I better go and run so I could eat lunch finally! I went and ran the same route I did last Wednesday, only today it felt easier, so I suppose my heartrate was down from last week. At least the hills didn't feel bad at all. Same time as last week, though, which isn't bad considering I really rode pretty yesterday (1:45 for TSS of 127).

So it wasn't 4 BIG workouts, but it was still 4, and now I'm going to get a massage. Well needed, I might add, because I missed out on one last week.

Things will keep changing and I'll keep mixing it up, but bottom line is now I'm signed up for 18+ hours of training per week between now and Triple T, and then well, I'll just keep going at that rate through IMLP. After that, I'm not entirely sure!

But I need to stay healthy and no more dieting or silliness like that. In fact, I've put Twinkies onto my grocery list this week, and it's only a matter of time before Cheetos make an appearance in my house. All good!

Pain

So I'm getting to the core of some things that are weighing heavily on my psyche today, and despite having slept OK, feel the crush of the grief headache. At one point, I thought I'd practice a little actual meditation, which I like to do lying down, so I got in bed, put earplugs in, a sleep mask on, and focused on my breathing. I'm not exactly sure how much time I spent there, but my little getaway worked wonders, and I went back to work somewhat renewed and more peaceful.

And yet I could tell my body has been taking it up the butt, so to speak, as I've been punishing myself as dictated by my self-imposed training schedule, but also piling extra stuff on just because I want to see if I will crack.

Yesterday morning I swam 2900 yards and then ran for :50 before I started work. My poor little arms were sore from the Sunday morning stuff, and I thought my legs would be a little toasty, too. But I actually swam OK and the run felt, well good. What the hell???

Early this morning, what with the headache and all, I figured I'd at least do some strength training before starting work, since I can almost always do that no matter how tired I am because it's not cardiovascular, and I've been lifting far longer than endurance training. So I got to it about 6:45AM and ended up doing :38 of mostly abs/core and a few other things because I felt like it. My abs are pretty strong and no worse for how ever many extra crunches I do--I could do hundreds a day if I just got down and did them!

As usual, I figured I wouldn't be too useful on the bike, but with some Coke (it's the real thing!) to motivate me, I knocked out one of my best workouts this season. While I was hurting myself on the trainer, I got in some real deep-think time and had some revelations which I will share another time.

As much as I am looking forward to all outdoor riding, I have to say there is something inherently special about being on the trainer. Unlike swimming, where that damn wall keeps coming at you, or running or biking outdoors where you need to pay attention to stuff around you, biking on the trainer allows me to focus on just me and the pain. There is nothing else!

I get to choose how much pain to inflict on myself. It's like the opposite of a pain medication button in a hospital. Please, nurse, I'll take the pain! More pain, please! How can you be bored when you are in pain? This is not to say I won't inflict pain on myself outdoors--I will--which is why I like riding in the controlled environment of Fermilab where there isn't as much distractions as open road--it's just me, a few roads with almost no traffic, a couple of turns, and open sky. I laugh every time someone asks me, "How can you stand riding laps around Fermilab?" Because whoever asks me that question has just told me a lot about him/herself--unable to focus deeply on the pain. I do the work because the work needs to get done, knowing that there will be plenty of opportunities to look at nice stuff. It's all about pain, baby.

Physical pain is nothing compared to psychic pain. Physical pain can make you better able to withstand the psychic variety. I hurt myself and then maybe I don't want to hurt someone else. Sometimes I want others to be in as much pain, but that's usually the psychic variety. Real, true physical pain is something I prefer to claim for myself.

It is such a luxury to be able to choose pain when you want it, isn't it?

I wish I could find a video for Vanessa Daou 'A Little Bit of Pain,' but I can't. Listen to the song sometime.

Broken

You know how sometimes you want something to come to a conclusion, but then you don't? Like when you are training really hard for a race, and then you hit your taper and you feel like shit, and for me, part of that feeling is that I really enjoyed the training and didn't have to think about the race itself which is the real test, even though the whole reason for the training in the first place was to bring it to an end and do a race.

I've been a jumble of emotions as I've been training hard (and well, it would seem), and I'm coming up on the 2-year anniversary of my Mom's death, and now it looks as if I'll be able to close Dad's estate within a month if I can get my shit together.

I thought I'd processed most of the grief associated with Dad's death, but being Executor, I guess you never really get to "finish" until the Estate is all done and closed. And so here I am on the cusp of that--something that I should really be looking forward to, and all it is doing is making me feel this mix of stuff that is hard to describe. Like what happens when this is finished? Do I all of a sudden become happy? Do I lose any excuse to underperform, to be less than a good person?

It feels like Dad isn't really gone, but now I know he will be, and I am so sick of endings, and I know I can feel all of this right in my actual physical heart, because I've had that sensation too often lately. Actual heartache! Back in 1994 when I broke my right arm, Dad wrote on my cast, "You are broken."

Who sees this in me, who understands, who wants to know? How can someone know how this feels to me, when it appears to be so contrary to my typical projection? Oh yeah, that's right--I have no fucking emotions--I am here to be shallow and narcissistic and self-absorbed and driven and competitive and successful. That stuff is but a shadow of who I am. But I'll put on the smiley face, try and give of myself to others, because God knows, I can't possibly have any problems, can I?

Fuck, sometimes I think I feel too deeply, care too much, want so much for everyone around me to be happy. I feel that I must set the example, show how it's done or at least put on the show. It's a good one, isn't it?

7 weeks until my next big test. And holy fucking crap, it's going to be a good one. I have never felt so strong physically. And that is what will get me through the next 7 weeks.

Weekly Workout Totals 03/30/2009-04/05/2009 and Got it All Done Today

So I did the crossfit-type thing (see previous post), and then I did my 2:15 trainer workout which was this:
WU: 20' Easy, 40' Steady (80-85%), 5' easy
MS: 1 x 20' at FT, 5' easy
20' Steady (80-85%),
1 x 20' 88-93%
CD: 5' easy

Motherfucker my legs were trashed when I got to the last 20' interval at 88%. But the rest went pretty much ok ;) Not bad for having done a decent amount (150) of squats beforehand. Am I fit? I think so. Also when I got to that last interval, my body was screaming for additional carbs, even though I'd had a can of Coke and about 20 oz. of Gatorade. Usually that's plenty for a short-ish ride like this, but I did the shit beforehand so I needed more. Here are the stats for the ride:

Time: 2:15
kcal: 1332
TSS: 151
NP: 163 (IF=.795)
Distance: 44 miles
Pace: 19.6MPH

And when I finished, I suited up to swim and headed to the Y and swam 1500 yards--pretty easy stuff, but I almost did 2000 yards but stopped myself figuring I had done enough.

I got no stinking massage this week and really need one! I also need some decent fucking weather...I need to get in some outdoor riding, and I'm just not doing it if it's below 55 at this point. Although I can't complain--I've been racking up some pretty good TSS on the trainer, and that should make outdoor riding feel like a piece of cake.

OK so here it is--another big week as I continue my march towards Triple T. I included this morning's chinup/pushup/squat festival in the totals, but I actually did an additional .88 hours of crap which would bring me to a total of 18.5 hours for the week! No, I don't know where I find the time except I can tell you that I rarely watch any TV.

Weekly Workout Totals	03/30/2009-04/05/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by seeing just how much I can take. I should take more.
Swim:	10700 yards (6.07 miles) in 3.88 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1359 calories burned Canadian: 9784.08 meters
Bike:	Approx. 131.9 miles in 6.85 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 4039 calories burned; Total TSS=461 Canadian: 212.27 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 34.65 miles in 5.19 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 2343 calories burned Canadian: 55.76 kilometers
Strength:	1.72 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 430 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 172.62 miles in 17.64 hours; approx. 8171 calories burned Canadian: 277.8 kilometers
Sleep:	8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.88 hours. Massage: 0 hours

Oops! I Did it Again!

Watch/listen while you read and stare:

Britney Spears - New Music - More Music Videos

So I woke up this morning feeling appropriately tired from yesterday's festival, including a little "fatigue headache," which is something that comes with the territory when I'm training this much. I had some breakfast, did some Intertubes, changed my bed and fired up some laundry. After I went outside (in crappy ass weather) to grab the Sunday newspaper, I brought in a new acquisition that inspired me to go ahead and do this little workout:

10 rounds of:

• 10 chinups
• 15 air squats
• 15 military pushups
• 5 dead bugs each side of body, extended arm and leg about 1" from ground; hold 10 seconds
• 10 1-2-3-4's, which are standard crunches where you lift your torso progressively 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and all the way up slowly and then back down the same way

It took 28:47, and then I capped it off with 5' of jump rope done as 30" easy skipping and 30" of fast, continuous jumps. So I kept the chinups and abs same as last week but added 50 squats and 50 pushups over last week.

FUCKING A!

I had company for the workout, and here she is:

This is before we started.

She had to have some help with the chinups, so I strapped her onto the bar!

Her Dead Bug technique isn't as good as mine.

Her air squats left something to be desired, too.

I can't believe she could do pushups on her fingertips--I can't, so I guess I suck!

Nothing felt bad during the workout until I was on the 8th round, and then it was just the chinups that got a bit rough for me, so that's my weak spot in this. Although I am not back at the point where I can do the clapping pushups, either, which I used to be able to do, but I guess that's just something I need to practice.

Here I am (all narcissistic and all, and no I did not wear that cheetah top while doing the workout--I was, in fact, topless!) after finishing up:

Crap my back still looks undeveloped.

It would appear that chinups and pushups are good for my upper body

Me and my workout partner. And NO we're not gay!

I've had this jump rope for over 10 years. It has served me well, and I'm glad to be using it again!

If I look a little tired here, it's because I am. I was a little light-headed, but nothing that some Gatorade and a hard-boiled egg couldn't fix.

Now it will be interesting to see if I can knock out a 2:15 trainer ride and :20-:30 swim. I predict a nap in my future!