Day 73 thru 75 - Busy busy busy

The past few days have been chock-a-block... Friday we had a good friend's engagement party out at a bar down in Denver. They rented the whole place out, open bar (including the oyster raw bar) and hors d'oeuvres galore (salmon tartare and a load of fried nibbles). Needless to say, no alcohol but I did have a small spoon of the salmon as it didn't appear to be have a cream base although it was definitely rich so it was definitely not strictly PCP.


And yesterday Kim's uncle flew into town for a convention this week so we took him out to the Boulder farmers' market. I know, exciting, right? But it really was the best I've seen it... fresh mushrooms, colossal fresh whole grain bread loaves, something called braising greens which I had never heard of but were quite nice (very sharp), white grilling eggplants that were sweeter than the norm and phenomenal heirloom tomatoes. So, we came home with quite the haul. Not to bore the poor guy out, we took a trip down to Golden to see the Coors brewery... Of course, what brewery trip wouldn't be complete without a few sips of fresh squeezed beer, and having never been I decided to partake. Not trying to rationalize it, but it was probably less than a pint and being American beer it was not exactly heavy either. Although it was a good sight better than it is if you buy it in the can (Coors being one of my least favorite beers normally). I was pleasantly surprised actually...

Today we took it easy in the morning and headed to downtown Louisville to show Kim's uncle the old town (historically Louisville was a frontier mining town so it has a really rustic main street) and lo and behold there was a neighborhood fair sponsored by the local Italian American social club. So the three of us Italian Americans strolled over to check out the bocce tournament and food stalls. Shamefully I was mentally judging everyone with their enormous pasta dishes heaped with sausage imbued red sauce... there but for the grace of Patrick go I... Another weird thing: I've been checking out people's physiques a lot lately, watching how people's muscles are working (or not), especially their triceps. The fair wasn't the best example but Colorado is actually decently fit, relative to the rest of America. Which I know is something of a backhanded compliment. Its usually the one state that trends a little behind the obesity "epidemic" here. There are likely a lot of reasons for that, the outdoors definitely beckons... and hey, the olympic athletes all train out here. But the reality is that a 21% obesity rate (2010 data) is shocking by any measure... one in five Coloradans are considered obese. Even worse, check out how fast this has all happened: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html And what better segue to...

Workouts

Not too bad lately. Good energy levels. Really feeling the burn on the workouts. Got my push-up and tricep groove back, which is nice as I feel like I had fallen off the wagon with those. In fact most of the exercises "feel" right, which is a great sensation when working out as opposed to sometimes fighting yourself with the form or simply being confused about why you aren't feeling a given exercise. Of course, standard problem areas remain, including:

1. Pullups: Getting better... I managed 7 (last one was really rough though), but 60 to 70 are oddly out of reach.
2. Bicycles: just brutal... I am cheating on these. There is just no way around it though. I simply can't keep my legs up and do the full sets without them failing repeatedly midset as they progress.
3. All the leg stuff (Pistol Squats and Creeps): doable but killer... threw in the pro tip for 3/4 of the creeps too and it just destroys your legs. Very achy left knee today though (I blame the pistols).
4. V-sits: These start out sooo beautiful and then they deteriorate into a shameful mess by the end.

Interstingly (to me), I can actually do the full Plank sets! Its a fairly sudden change actually. And that's not to say they aren't cruel in their own way, but the fact that I can actually do them for the full time is quite heartening. Possibly related, I'm always getting a little 8MA action on the side... Kim is a great motivator there, but I do actually enjoy them so it doesn't take much.

Speaking of Kim, she and I have pledged to one another to stick to "the outer edge of the supermarket", as Patrick put it. That is a great way to look at it! They really want you to work for those items, eh? But we've really loved the breakfasts especially so I think those are here to stay... If Kim had her druthers it sounds like she would rather stick to apple and egg whites for dinner, but I'm glad for the larger meal with some protein. I find that I really feel like I need it. I'm also finding that my palette is still maturing/changing in some ways. I originally felt that the egg whites were far too bland and missed the yolk terribly. Now, for the first time, I feel like I am actually tasting salt in the whites. I never had that sensation before... Amazing that we are this far in and something like that would still be changing.

Looking forward to the next two weeks! Best of luck and continued progress folks! Almost there...