motorcycle | Bacon & Fitness

Picking up the intensity

Posted on May 25, 2015 by therangersteve

Finished the switching phase with a little Thigh Day Friday action with my new LiveSore shirt.

Well a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, the crazy life of pushing towards the end of the semester can sometimes get in the way of other pursuits. I did my best to stay on track and keep myself going in the right direction. There is two full weeks left of school, I have the seniors finishing their last couple days, my first graduation ceremony as a teacher, and a PT test that I need to do well on to come in the days ahead. The three day weekend was a welcome break and it has been spent on coffee, motorcycle dates, time with friends, and the feeling of freedom the only comes from the wind beating your body as you move at speed down a two lane road. There’s something refreshing about the drone of a motorcycle engine, the feeling of the environment around you and the knowledge that you are truly experiencing the movement of your body through the place. Riding allows for an experience that driving the same road in a car will never allow, and requires a bit more focus on just what you’re doing and to removal of the distractions of everyday life. The rides of the past two days have created a break in time, and a backdrop to officially set an end to the spring, and put a line in the sand of transition into the summer. And making myself ready to move from Teacher Steve to Student Steve.

My bike hanging out with new friends at the Springfield Mile races.

Moving forward in the gym, this morning was day 1 of the “intense phase” and it already lives up to it’s name. And it’s only going to get harder as the weeks go forward. Squat days dropped to three for this cycle, and I’m happy that I don’t have to try to be ready to move this much volume that extra day every week. I can’t wait to see the results at the end, but here’s my photos for the start of the cycle.

Tomorrow is Murph, and I’m shooting for not a time PR, but my first attempt in a vest. Let’s see how this goes.

First race weekend….

Posted on May 2, 2015 by therangersteve

Well here it is, all finish up, my tribute to growing up in Chicago. I couldn’t be happier with it. And when it’s done healing it will be even better looking than it is here. The picture is from about 3 hours after we finished. We finished it up yesterday and after a day of healing I was back in the gym. Today was the last day of the first mesocycle for Smolov 10×3 at 300 was heavy but good. I’ve been trying to do it with as little stuff as possible. So I did my first sets without sleeves or belt, at the fourth set I put on the sleeves and didn’t add the belt till the very last set. Afterwards conditioning today was a combination of Toes to Bar, Overhead Lunges, and Double Unders. Great way to close out a heavy week and a fun one too. Next week is testing, and I love testing week, you get to see some data for all the hard work that you put in. Here’s the tattoo in school mode, just showing out the bottom of my sleeve. The kids all know that I have it, and about the dino on the other arm too so it’s no surprise to them when they get a good look at it. But there’s other things going on that I need to talk about. I won’t write again till Sunday night because I’ll be down in St. Louis, I’m running my first race. I don’t really enjoy running, although the Army says that I have to do it. And in order to keep myself motivated and to see where I land I signed up for a 5k, it’s at Six Flags down there and really I only decided on that one because after you’re done you get to spend the rest of the day riding rollercoasters. So I’ll run a few miles, see how I do and ride some fun rides. My partner for this thing got stuck working so I’m camping down there and running solo. There’s going to be a couple people sharing the campsite and it should be a good time with them, though I don’t know how much of the day we will spend together. Once I’ve ridden enough I’ll head back up here, prep for testing week and get ready to go to Cedar Point. It’s going to be a good week, lifting heavy stuff, rollercoasters, and hopefully my letter from the state that says I’m legal to ride this motorcycle that I purchased, licensed, and insured this week.

New Summer ride

Posted on April 29, 2015 by therangersteve

Time to get back on two wheels. Today I brought myself back to the world of motorcycle riding. I purchased a GS1100. It’s fast, and loud…….and purple? Well it won’t be that color forever, everyone knows that there’s really only one color that I love. But for now I have it, and it’s a fun ride. All summer I’ll play around with it, and then this winter I will likely get more involved into doing some work to change it’s look more. Here it is running after I brought it home. 2015-04-28 20.14.26

Oh, and I did today’s Smolov 5×7 at 265. No knee sleeves, good reps, just knocking them out fueled by Dunkin Donuts iced coffee…

Putting fitness to use

Posted on April 27, 2015 by therangersteve

I have to say that I look pretty good in a helmet. Over the weekend I spent my days on the back of the motorcycle you see pictured. It was a good break from the time in the gym and I got to put my work to use in a way that I haven’t in a long time. I grew up riding, learning to ride a little dirt bike at 7, and rode all through my childhood. I’ve ridden off and on since then but this year I finally took the Motorcycle Riders Course so that I could get the discount on my insurance and buy a new bike this year. It was good to practice my skills, and even managed to get a perfect score on the evaluation. At the end of the weekend they asked if anyone would like to work for the course and so I put my name in to start out helping at the range and by the end of the year I could be an instructor myself. Now to get back on the grind, 4 squat days this week for Smolov, weights are 250, 265, 2980, 300. And on Thursday I’m finally finishing the tattoo sleeve. I can’t wait. Bring on another week, and I guess bring on the 5k that happens Sunday. Turns out you can squat all the time and then run races.

The school year must be coming to a close

Posted on April 21, 2015 by therangersteve

While I may wish that my full-time job was to hang out at the gym, wear comfy clothes and pick up heavy stuff all day, I have yet to get my L1 and take on that life. So my “real job” is to teach high school, I put it in quotes because while I may work in the classroom this year and I’m pretty good at it, I don’t think it is the career path that I will follow. When I was going back to college to get my degree and entering as a History major I decided to minor in Education. It made sense, I was good with kids, and I thought what else was I going to do with a degree in History. Plus summers off, who could beat that? I made it through my years as an undergrad, spent time in the classroom, took the tests, and student taught. After graduation I applied for various teaching jobs around the state but got nothing. In the mean time I had started work as Park Ranger and really felt that was where I would continue to work. Over the years since I left school I have worked with the Park Service and in the classroom at various times. I take pride in my work in both areas, though today it has become very clear to me that I am going to return to the Park Service and that is where I was meant to be. Enough background though, let’s get back today.

After a long school day today, dealing with issues that I really shouldn’t need to deal with because I teach high school students that need to be much more responsible. I was ready to go lift. Students came at me all day asking for extra credit and for me to offer them a rescue for all the work they decided not to do over the course of the semester so far. Because we have hit the last few weeks before school ends at the beginning of June, and they’re realizing that they should try to pass my class. Well I have no sympathy for that, and have stated that there’s no extra credit for my class and if you decided not to do the work so far, then you decided not to pass the class. And if you missed class you are old enough to ask me about your work, I’m not tracking you down to make sure that you know you missed work. Just because you weren’t here doesn’t mean we sat around and did nothing. Ok, enough of a rant, Monday’s Smolov was 5×7 at 255, and I was focusing on some things to make my squats better that I had discussed at the end of my Sunday session. Squats felt good and while I can tell that the linear progression of Smolov is going to tax my abilities, I can see how that my body is adapting already to meet the challenge. After finishing the squat cycle the strength programmed at C3 was a clean complex of 2 cleans + 1 jerk every 90 seconds for 8 rounds at 75% cleans felt good and it was nice to do something other than put a barbel on my back and lift. The WOD for the day was 3 rounds of 21 chin ups, 10 hang power cleans at 135, and 30 pistols. I finished in 18:00 it was rough after the squats, and my pistols are not that great even when I am fresh. All in all it was a good Monday afternoon and chance to kick off the week right. Two days till the tattoo gets finished and three till I spend the weekend riding motorcycles. I can’t wait, because the students might be getting stir crazy and ready for summer, but their teacher is too.

Which is worse 5×7 or 7×5?

Posted on April 17, 2015 by therangersteve

Last rep of last set, pain face in full effect

Yesterday was the former, today the latter, and to be honest I’m not sure which one was harder to do. Today’s weight moved up to 250 for the sets. The work was manageable and overall it was a good day in the gym. I’m working a lot of trap/shoulder work because it’s a weak point for me so I’m throwing in various movements after doing the squats and it’s been a help so far. The time in the gym is just what I need, and I’m finding myself falling back in love with my time there. It’s easy to get out of a groove when you feel like you just go in everyday without a real purpose that what you’re doing. For a long time I’ve bounced around between programs, tried this challenge and that, but not had a real drive other than to work out each day. Coming in with a set goal of breaking 400 in my back squat at the end of the cycle, and knowing that I’m working to get lean, look good, and move a ton of weight has been great. The warmer weather helps to I’m sure. I feel myself pushing harder, and looking to see how I may or may not be dropping some of that belly fat. It’s funny to look to drop a few pounds here and there compared to a few years ago when I was just trying to get under 300 pounds at all. I’m sure that I’ll dedicate an entire post in the near future to drive and motivation but for now it’s good just to see that spark come back and walk into C3 with a pep to my step.

Besid 2015-04-16 23.56.16 es having the good experience in the gym my day was only decent. I got an email from Vitamin shoppe last night about a protein sale, I took a special trip out there and walked in to talk to the guy working and he had no idea what I was talking about, and the product advertised was not even being carried by them currently. He offered no substitutions or anything to compensate me for the extra trip, and for now I can say that I likely won’t be going back there for protein anytime soon. Just once again reinforces my love of Amazon and being a Prime member. I also had a guy come over looking to trade his motorcycle for my camper. I have a pop up that is going to be the base for a tiny house that I’m designing. But if he wants to trade I’ll grab up a new motorcycle and find a different trailer to build on. I learned to ride at 7, the same weekend that my sister was born and over the last few years I haven’t had a bike and it’s been kind of sad. Plus I’d love to be the teacher that rolls up to school on a motorcycle to teach for these last few weeks.

I would say that today was a pretty good day all things considered, anytime you can knock out sets heavy 5’s and then look to get a new motorcycle is a good one in my books. Can’t wait to close out the week tomorrow and get to Saturday because Saturday is a Rugby Day!