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We took a few days off. A few days off from eating healthy, a few days off from teaching, and a few days off from training. It was good. My wife and I both needed the time to unwind, sleep until we woke up naturally, and catch up on being relaxed human beings.
Our favorite, repeatable, vacation spot is the Napa Valley. We’ve been there a few times and all you really need is a long weekend to make it worthwhile. Fantastic wine, great people, and some of the best food in the world. Top that off with mid-seventies and sun (in February) and it was a fantastic way to spend my birthday weekend.
The exercise side of things pretty much consisted of a couple walks and a good amount of lacrosse ball mobility work. One day we made a small attempt at a bodyweight workout, but it didn’t really amount to much. Our goal was relaxation and that was very successful. All in all we had some great new wine, some great old wine, and ate at some brilliant new restaurants thanks to Dave Cruz of Ad Hoc. Richard Reddington is my new culinary hero for his tasting menu at Redd while Oenotri and the Fatted Calf are locked in a fight to the death for the trophy of best cured meat.
The break was good. It was great to actually read a whole book, (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Review coming soon.) and I can’t say enough positive things about being out in the sun in shorts and a t-shirt in February. I was ready to come home though. We were feeling the side-affects of some non-paleo options (bread and wine) and my energy level was clearly indicating the need for a return to the gym.
Sunday morning: gym and groceries.
I opted for a “Deck of Cards” workout. Easy to plan, doesn’t require a whole lot of thought during the workout. I figured that with the couple days off I could up the intensity from my last “Deck of Cards” by swapping push-ups for burpees, and changing the jokers to be a few muscle ups. I didn’t count on drawing nothing but hearts and spades for the first fifteen cards or so. That meant by the time I started drawing diamonds it was pretty much all pull-ups all the time. When I hit the jokers (within five cards of each other) my arms were simply too shot for the muscle ups. Definitely harder than my last one, and longer as well. I always seem to forget that pull-ups get a heck of a lot harder when your core is fatigued from sit-ups.
Grocery store was piles of protein and veggies for a Sunday cookup. Getting the week on track food-wise makes everything that much easier. All the planning and thinking of eating gets sorted in a single day, and I feel good dedicating some time to just cooking. Continued thanks to Melissa Joulwan for changing how I think about cooking at home.
Here’s to a good week of teaching nineteenth century economic theory, eating healthy food, and lifting heavy things.
WOD: (Harder than expected.)
Diamonds: Pull-ups
Hearts: Burpees
Spades: Full ROM Sit-ups
Clubs: Goblet Squats (24kg)
Jokers: 5 muscle ups (fail)
27:18
Cookup: (Tastier than expected.)
2# grilled chicken (garlic, salt, pepper)
2# browned ground beef (onion, garlic, salt, pepper)
3# Czech Meatballs (subbed the pork for beef)
Mashed Cauliflower
Faux ratatouille (stewed tomato, zucchini, eggplant, onions, and garlic)
Piles of prepped veggies. (Cucumber, carrots, celery, bell peppers, cabbage, salad greens)
Teach, Think, Sweat 