Did some more measurements and the news was good. To my surprise my stomach measurement has gone down by 2cm, this is a welcome but unexpected change as I really have not dialed in my diet. Chest and thigh measurement have both increased by 1cm. I will have to find some scales soon to jump on, I through mine out a long time ago.

Waist 129cm -2cm :)
Thigh 76cm +1cm :)
Chest 134cm +1cm :)

I have done a couple of workouts since my last post. Lets start with Friday.

Friday 16th Jan 09
Its been quite hot lately, something you wouldn't expect in the middle of summer. I have a lot of trouble sleeping on hot night and Thursday night would have to be hottest we have had this year. Even with little sleep I made it to the gym but my only contribution to the morning was encouragement to the other crossfitters. Overall I was quite ashamed of myself.

Later that day i was reading through Crossfit Oahus website and watched a video of Jason Khalipa doing Grace in 1:45. This inspired me to hit the gym again and give Grace a hit.



I started with a warmup on the rowing machine. I got an idea from a recent article on Jason Statham's training. My intention was to row for 10min but keep my stroke per minute under 20. Well like most of my bright ideas it was better on paper than actual execution. I stopped at five minutes with 1080m. though it was painful I will keep working on this, I would like to hit 2000m in 10min, its gonna take a while.

I then moved on to grace. My final time was 5:37. Not the best time but I did shave 7 seconds off my last time. The rowing was not a good warm up for the exercise as I for one had not recovered before moving on and second, It is a very similar action to cleans. Doug showed up alittle later and gave grace a go, he smashed his old time and broke 5min. These are both great accomplishment being that our first times were over the 10min mark.

This is when everything starts to go down hill. Friday nights my house has become a sanctuary for all my beaten male associates. It gives us a safe harbour were we can all sit around and talk tough with out our girlfriends/wives hearing and also celebrate all the things that make man great. This includes Zombie movies, Computer games, Cop shows and/or anything with Arnold. More often than not it is all washed down with a bottle of Scottland's finest. Our weapons of choice this night was a bottle of McAlisters and season 7 of 'The Shield.'

The trials of Vic Mackey and the boys are not only one of the best dramas on TV but also fulfills all the testosterone driven needs of any man worth his salt.


"Alpha Male Vic Mackey"

After watching Aceveda knock some claret out of one of his associates and finaly show some back bone Doug yells out "Lets do Grace again."

We quickly make our way out to the gym but our bravado quickly starts to diminish. I then suggest that if Doug jumps on the rowing machine and beat my girlfriends 500m time i will re do Grace. i though this would be a safe bet but unfortunately for me Doug smashes his PR and the required time.

Not one to back down from a deal i set up the bar for Grace. My target was to beat 4:30. These types of statements are easy to make with some dutch courage. I then found a song on my ipod that goes for the required time, I decided on 'The Prince' by Metallica.

Now with a hole lot of screaming by Doug and and the boys plus some very understanding neighbours (It was after midnight) I hit the time of 4:12 shaving an incredible 1:32 of the my previous PR. Was it the wisky or the encouragement from my friends? we will never know, but i am very proud of that time.

Sunday 18th Jan 09 3x5
This mornings work out was quite simple. I hit 3x5 @150kg. On my final set and after competing the final rep I had to let the bar fall. I have had trouble with the bar slipping and this time i could not recover it. Afterwards my right arm started to ache and feel as bad as when i had broken it. This put an end to the rest of the workout but after some time and treatment is back to normal. I do not know what caused the pain which was like a bad knock on the funny bone. Hopefully I will be back up and running by Wednesday night.