Adarq.org

lol coges that is NOT winter. i live in what's technically "the south" in the US* and i'd call 12-14 just about ideal for picking apples on a pleasantly crisp fall day, or a fast marathon. no wonder australia doesn't produce long-distance runners, it's way too hot!

i think eric lives in upstate new york -- he gets probably the realest winter of anyone on here. two meters of snow kind of winter.

*i.e. below the mason-dixon line.

Haha.  Yeah I know. We rarely even have winter down there though. Normally we just have revolving seasons within the day with the occasional cold or hot day thrown in for good measure.  If the sun is out then I'm all good. When it's overcast and raining non stop that's when I'm hanging for warmer weather.

My sister actually just moved from Thailand to Michigan so I'm sure she'll be telling me about a real winter soon.

With a couple of exceptions this is exactly what I'm looking at doing.

is it ever ACTUALLY winter down there, though?

Haha this year is the first in a long time we've had a proper winter. And by proper winter it's hovering between 12-16 deg Celsius so I know that's not cold by US standards but it's still pretty average.

Welcome back! Jealous of your vacation. It's winter here and I desperately want to be somewhere warm.

20/08/15

Went to the courts during the day for a shoot around. Thought I could get some much needed practice in and also a few jumps. Body was feeling a bit meh but I figured I'd warm up and be ok. Did a heap of shooting practice. I've always been an ok but unreliable shooter. Guess that's why I score so much in the paint. Really want to add the outside shot to my game to be more predictable. The worst thing is I probably go at 50% in games from the field which isn't a bad rate but I feel bad taking so many shots whereas when I'm shooting from 2-4ft I'm pretty much a lock. Shot came on pretty strongly too. Mainly worked on keeping the same form for every shot and getting good involvement from the legs.

Did a heap of jumping too. SL was giving me a hard time as my left knee was buckling a bit. Had about 5 great jumps from a LR plant off two feet but just couldn't get the ball to stick when I went up with it. Super frustrating that. Even off 1 I couldn't palm the ball and I missed about 10 great opportunities. Need to get myself a better ball. The ones they use during games would be perfect but I can't bring myself to pay $80 for a ball just yet.

Ended up shooting free throws for the last 10 mins and left feeling pretty good. Legs were dead but good anyway. 

Ball game last night. Played the bottom ranked team and unfortunately we played to their level. Still won by 15 or so and I scored around 10-12 (don't have the stats yet). I got absolutely massacred though. Should have had 25-30 for the night but the refs kept no calling massive hacks on me. My left arm looks like it's been through a meat grinder.

I've also figured that I need about 4-6 inches (along with increased fitness) on my SL RV to consistently dunk on guys in game. Every game on the fast break guys will plant themselves 2-3 ft from the rim hoping for the charge. I got called for one last night (even though he was moving sideways) and even though I was tired I was still able to get to ring height.

If I can get my shit together over the next few weeks I'm seeing a few in game dunks coming up. Very excited. 

Edit- Scored 14 and had 18 rebounds.

Had my daughters birthday over the weekend which was basically a three day celebration. My wife also has her own cake business so it was 3 days of eating cake and cake related items and drinking beer. Pure nirvana for me basically. Now that it's over I need to face my expanding waistline. Oh well. It was worth it.

17/08/15

Day 11 of no real training program

Squats-
bar x 5, 60 x 5, 90 x 5, 110 x 1
120 x 5

Incline DB Press-
15s x 8
20s x 5, 5, 5

Some other machine pressing work to get some blood into the chest and shoulders.

10 mins stretching

Had planned (again) on being conservative with the squatting but felt really good. First couple of reps of 120 flew up and although the last was a little slow I was never in any danger of missing. Depending on how I feel next week I may shoot for 125 or do 3-5 sets at 120. It has me thinking though, am I better served by squatting heavy only once a week.

I'm not far off having a solid(ish) plan to go forward with but am still caught up in a goal conundrum. I figure though that I will likely end up with heavy low volume for legs and higher volume for upper body. I think anyway.

Edit- Forgot to add I squatted in my Kustom street shoes and not my power perfects. Felt pretty good tbh.

11/08/15

Day 10 of no real training program

Well since I'm sick I figured I'd just get some squats in. Made my rest periods pretty decent too.

Squats-
bar x 5, 60 x 5, 90 x 3, 110 x 1
125 x 3 

Didn't really have my head in the game and should have had 5 reps. Didn't even do my shoes up properly.
Either way relatively happy with 3 reps. Still an all time PR which isn't too bad in my current state.

May try and bench then deadlift later in the week pending how I'm going.