A Million and Two snatches, give or take nearly a million

Wanted to do something with a light weight today, and also to prepare for the June RKC, so I just decided to do a bunch of snatches with the 16kg and see what happened.

Here's what happened, and it was harder than I'd expected:

15:15 (15 seconds snatching, 15 resting) with 6 snatches per round for 35 rounds. Total of 210. Then my form and breathing got ugly. This was a really interesting practice--not a brutal workout, but hard. Almost more of a mental hard than physical. I'll definitely be coming back to this at least once a week until June's RKC.

In other news, I just finished reading a horrific teen book called Living Dead Girl. I can't remember who it's by and don't want to look it up. If any librarians happen to be reading this, this is the book to force on all those morbid teens who are always asking for A Child Called It and The Burn Journals. HP Lovecraft was no laugh riot, but tentacles and gibbering fishmen are nowhere near as depressing as abuse.

H.P. Lovecraft day

I have decided that today is officially HP Lovecraft day. If you don't know good old HP, he was a miserable wretch of an author who died too young and was very concerned about things like Gods living at the bottom of the ocean, people breeding with giant white monkeys, tentacles galore, and other terrible things. He is also possibly the greatest short story writer of all time.

If you have never heard of him, now you have. If you don't know where to start, read the story "The Outsider" or "The Call of Cthulhu" (also a less-great Metallica instrumental).

If nothing else, you will surely agree that he is a handsome devil, offspring of giant white apes or no.

Dinosaur Training

Just finished reading Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik. Can't recommend it enough. You can get a copy off of the Dinosaur Training website for cheap. It's an easy read but a lot of fun, with a ton of great information about old-time training methods. Brooks is a brilliant guy who is also incredibly strong. His comments about the mullets and the gym bunnies made me laugh on every page.

Check it out if you're looking to shake up your program or make it harder.

Tried a homemade thick bar, The Suicide Collectors

Saturday I bought some pipe insulation and snapped it over the bar this morning for deadlift. It increases the diameter of the bar by a little more than an inch. It made the exercise much harder and my focus completely shifted from lifting it with my legs to holding onto it with my hands. I also switched to a double-overhand grip.

Sumo DL: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 245x5x2

Lots of arm bars and half get ups with 16 kg.

In other news, I'm about halfway through The Suicide Collectors, a new book that is surprisingly good and pretty creepy. If you're looking for something to read, you could do worse.

Finished Drood

After reading The Kite Runner and a Thousand Splendid Suns in one week, I was dying to read something light. Enter Drood, by Dan Simmons, which turned out to be the least light-hearted book of all time. It was a so-so 800 page book that would have been a great 300 page book.

Simmons' other big fat horror book The Terror is still one of the greatest things I've ever read.

If the Taliban show up at your door, shoo them away--you shouldn't have to read The Kite Runner to know this.