Crunch: Weights, Swimming, & Recovery

I went into the Crunch gym in Stratford last weekend, and the guys at the front desk kind of gave me a hard time.  "Hey, we haven't seen you in here this year."

It's true.  Time really got away from me in the later part of the year.  With that, I leaned into the pool more than the weight room, and I swam okay, but that's about all I could say for myself.  I'm still battling a little hamstring pull, and that makes running tough, and between rain days and Christmas vacation, I wasn't even bike commuting over-much.  For several weeks, it was pretty much just swim-or-bust.

I finally got back into the weight room on Sunday, January 8th.  I kept it simple, but at least I went.  I then had class Tuesday night, and we shot the AFF podcast Wednesday, but with Sally's encouragement I went back to the gym Thursday, doing a slightly longer back/biceps workout.  I did a long set of pull-downs, some bent-over rows, and a few sets to work my core and lower back.

5 Things on a Friday: Trying to Move On

Back to work this week.  It hasn’t been an easy transition, and yet here we are.

I hope you all enjoyed your time off.  I know I did.  I already miss skiing.

The Mermaid: A PC Race Design for D&D

We have a rule at our house.  Everyone in our family has to make a Christmas gift for everyone else in the family.  My daughter Hannah has been clamoring to play D&D as a mermaid for months now, so this design for a Mermaid Player-Character race was my made-gift to her.

It's pretty simple, but she was delighted with it, immediately launching into a deep discussion of the four sub-races of mermaids--arctic, tropical, river, and deep--and their shared history, theology, and lineage.

We may publish an update with the four sub-races.  Who knows?

Swimming: New Year's 5000

My good friend Dave got this workout from his Master's coach.  It's 100 x 50.  I'd planned to do 50 x 100, but this was much more creative than what I had planned.  My stuff always tends to be grinding aerobic-tempo distance work.  This was more a mix of stroke and speed work.

All things considered, it went better than I had an right to expect.  The second set was the hardest.  After that, I think I did okay.

Goals for 2019

I refuse to call them "resolutions".