Big win for the New England Football Patriots yesterday as they cruised to an easy 41-28 victory. Gronk, unfortunately shattered his forearm again. Before I found out he was hurt, I said I didn’t like the play. The spiral of the ball spinning clockwise, naturally fades to the right. A timing pattern on the sideline made no sense. I’m not blaming anyone, I just didn’t like the call. Saturday went as I hoped. I saw Denver in Foxborough, Columbus Day weekend and they proved to be the pretenders I thought they were. I’m glad Green Bay is out. I don’t think the Patriots could stop Aaron Rogers. I was rooting for Seattle because I like Pete Carroll, and the Falcons did everything they could to give the game away. Matt Ryan is a rich man’s Tony Romo. They won, but he shouldn’t be feeling good about the way he played. The Boston College Eagle in him came shining through in that 4th quarter. I want a Patriots/49ers Super Bowl. I think the Patriots will beat them in a rematch. Green Bay’s defense was so undisciplined. Watching Clay Matthews playing right end and continuously taking an inside route to the passer, leaving the outside open. Awful.
Anyway my Aunt came to watch the game. She sold her house on Martha’s Vineyard and just bought a new condominium on the mainland. She’s a lovely woman, but boy, what an opinionated liberal. She’s smart enough to avoid the higher capital gains on the house by closing last year. She was always on the cutting edge of music when we were growing up. Big CCR fan, Elton John when he was great, etc. Yesterday, she’s telling me how she LOVES Beyonce (disagree), Maroon Five, and adores Adam Levine (Are you kidding me?) and hates JLo. Usually I just nod and don’t engage, being the lamb that I am. Yesterday, I started by telling her a knock joke, courtesy of my kids.
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Britney
Britney who?
Britney Spears
Knock Knock
Who’s there
Oops I did it again… 
I’m really torn up about Britney and Jason breaking up and her leaving the X Factor. He was concerned about her mental health. Really Jason? Did you think she could be cured? Anyway good luck to the both. As far as the X Factor was concerned, she wanted a 20% raise on her $15 million she was already making. That’s $18 million for you all without a calculator. She could barely form a sentence. She seems like you have to wheel her to the stage, and plug her in. She’s working on a huge deal to perform in Las Vegas. Why don’t I see that ending well?
I then proceed to horrify my Aunt by telling her that my favorite female singer is Ke$ha and in honor of her, here’s her top 5 best songs.
1. Take It Off As butt ugly as she is, when she urges you to take it off, right now, start stripping.
2. We R Who We R Just telling about the shit her and her girls do.
3. Gonna Die Young You can just feel the maturity in her singing and writing on the third album.
4. Tik Tok She stormed on the scene with this one, but it gets weak when she slows it down toward the end. Loses points for the P Diddy reference.
5. Blow and I don’t mean Cocaine. Better than Your Love is My Drug. Taking over, better get use to it.
I have a confession to make. I haven’t picked up a kettlebell in over 10 days and probably am not going to for a little while. I am currently doing Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program 3 days a week. The goal is to increase your squat, deadlift, bench press and standing military press. After these exercises, you do some assistance work and then some conditioning. According to the author, who is a tattooed, motor cycle riding, thrash metal listening, beard growing hardcore powerlifter, (sounds just like me!) if I follow this workout, I will move North of Vag or NOV.
So my workouts are looking like this. On all 3 days I warmup jumping rope 450 times, stretch and do a little foam rolling. Sets of 3-4 pullups are done between each set. On Mondays I do 3 warmup sets of squats, and the 3 work sets with the last set going balls out. Then I do 3 sets of dips trying to get 15 each time. Pullups between those sets. Then I do three sets of one arm rows heavy as I can for sets of 10. I finish with conditioning by doing sprints on the treadmill. I set the treadmill for 12 mph and an incline of 5.0. I sprint for 10 seconds, jump off for 15, I’m up to 8 rounds of that. Done.
Wednesday, warmup, 3 sets of 10 squats with about 50% of my 1 rep max. Bench Press 6 sets 3 warmup, 3 work sets, last one balls out. 3 sets of Dips. Pullups done between all sets of bench and dips. 1 set of Kroc Rows. Take an 80lb. dumbbell and do as many one arm rows then switch arms. I did 20 each arm last week. Followed up by treadmill sprints.
Friday, warmup, 3 sets of 10 squats again same as Wednesday, then barbell standing military press, 3 warmup sets, 3 work sets. Rep out last set. Deadlift 3 warmup sets 3 work sets, rep out last one and finally some more dips and sprints to finish. My goal for the dips and pullups is to do over 100 a week. I’m also playing soccer on Thursday nights. Right now, I’m pushing hard so I feel I need all the rest I can to gain strength. I’m not worrying about my weight, which is hanging around 194/195 but I don’t feel thicker in the middle even though I’ve put on 10 pounds since the summer. If I do kettlebells on the weekend, I just feel I’ll aggravate my shoulders. No need to go jogging.
The older I get, the more I’m convinced long distance running is a complete waste of time. I’m not talking 3-5 miles, I’m talking over that. It’s counterproductive because you’re releasing cortisol and in reality making yourself fatter. I did 13.5 four years ago on 3 cups of coffee and a glass of water. I was running a lot at the time and had one of those days where my legs had lots of spring. I did 8.5 and turned around in the cul-de-sac at the end of my street and banged out 5 more. The light headedness going up Rte 16 around mile 11.5 and the soreness in the groins and hips of the last 1.5 miles, cured any interest I had of ever doing a marathon Not that I don’t respect people who do them, it’s just not my cup of tea. Hopkinton is 7 miles from my house and I’ve never been to the start of the marathon. My 73 year old boss has completed it at least 35 years in a row. Great guy and just a machine.
I’m in week 2 of 5/3/1 and am enjoying it. It’s different and everything works for 4 weeks. So we’ll see what the future holds. I still love kettlebells and think the are the best tool. I am just trying something different to stay fresh.
Hahaha