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I immediately put Santa on a 10,000 cal diet and started busting the fat man’s butt.

Santa explained that he had once slipped off a snow covered roof and was stuck hanging on the rain gutter. So we had him do dead hang pull-ups.

Near dawn, after a long night of distributing presents, Santa sometimes has a hard time getting his Jelly Belly up the chimney. Nothing 10 rope ascents wont cure.

Santa wasn’t ready for all the successive rope climbs and tossed his cookies. Dismayed that he lost 200 important calories, I had him chill out for a bit and spot me in the squat rack.

Even fatigued from a grueling workout Santa still manages to pull a Millennium Falcon out of his bag.

Project Santa was a success. Even while increasing work capacity through broad time and modal domains, Santa proved that it is possible to put on 30 pounds of crucial belly fat if you eat 10,000 cals of cookies & spiked hot cocoa every day.

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Trigger Points

Re-Active gym moves into it’s third home after starting out in Paul’s garage.

Paul's Halloween Costume

I ran another 5k today, but this one was longer than yesterday’s 5K.

I ran a 5k today. The Ball’n chain said it was more like a 3.3k. Anyway, I ran today. At first it felt like I was carrying a 100# punching bag on my back.

Running with 100# Punching Bag

My knees felt a little achy and I realized that my quads and hips were tight from squatting the day before. That was inhibiting proper glute action during the run. I stopped and hit a monkey lunges and did a few quad stretches and SHAZAM, my knees felt great.

There is nothing like a good run to clear the cobwebs from my brain.

After the run, I took a walk with the family and Super Dave. Pleasanton’s newest Park (number 42 I believe) opened across the field from where we live. About four years ago the city had a winning plan for the development of this portion of the park at about 4 million dollars. After lots of squawking from the peanut gallery, the city had a park design competition. The original architect won. So they built the same park 4 years late. Except now the price tag is 8 million dollars (2x). The rest of the 50 acre park is looking at a 160 million dollar price tag for completion.

Seeing that the unemployment rate is near 11%, I think the city should post some help wanted ads on Craigslist and get the park done for 50%.

Save 50% on the park

As it is, we look forward to having the rest of the Park done by the time my 3 year old girls finish college.

But since the newest part of the park is just across the street, we will get our money’s worth out it. We’d like to thank the rest of the Pleasanton’s tax payers.

Did you know that the word gullible is not in the dictionary?

Scott, Kevin & Paul

Skeeter came buy for a workout with Harry and myself. He looked rough. Skeeter was downtown last night until 2am and then up for school at 4:30ish. What a warrior. Most people would have bagged the workout.

We squatted. Dynamic Speed squats. We put a thick green rubber band on each end of the bar and box squatted as fast as we could. 5×45 5×45+bands, 5×95+green band, 5×135+green band, 5×185+green band, 2×205+ green band, 2×225+bands for a whole bunch. When my diaphragm slipped, I backed it off to 135+bands and did a single set of 25 reps.

Skeeter and I hit the GHD 3×10 and then the Reverse Hyper with 270#’s for 3 sets of 6-8 reps.

That’s it for today. Going home to see the wife and kids.

Chicken Princess #2

Paul'n the Ball'n Chain

The Harry Monster family found out that they are not good campers.

Sleeping bags?
Warm clothes?
Covered shoes?

I mean, who woulda thunk that it would be below freezing this time of year?

Mr Freeze Meister

After borrowing all the blankets from the smart people that brought motor homes and fifth-wheels (everyone except us), we settled down for a cold sleepless night in the extra large tent Justin set up for us.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It was a great adventure and lots of fun. We raced rubber ducks down the river for money, and played Ultimate Frisbee. My main man Drake and I played Cribbage, built a damn, and rode an ATV. It was really nice to think about nothing for a few days.

Today was Super Dave’s birthday. I promised to take him Golfing.

Super Dave with gals

Super Dave and I went to High School together and shared a sweet house in College. That story could take up a whole blog.

Early Dave with hair

SLO Dave Days

Dave was in a near fatal skiing accident two years ago. His face and spine had to be reconstructed. Sitting in his hospital bed with lines and tubes everywhere and a hole in his neck to breath from, he said, “I love you man.” That choked me up. Until that moment, I had taken our friendship for granted. On the way out of the hospital room I told him to come see me when he was ready to start moving again.

After living in a hospital bed for a long time, a rigid ghost of the former Dave came into my gym. He was locked up, hunched over, and depressed. He had a handful of papers that the Physical Therapy people at Kaiser Wilhelm had given him. That was his rehab: four sheets of paper and a slap on the ass. “Your kidding me?”, I said. So we started at ground zero and rebuilt. First mobility work, then some strength. We went to the lake and swam. Horseshoes. When he got a little confidence, we went to the park and hit tennis balls. Golf. Then basketball.

Dave started helping me with some of the teams I was working with.

Coach Super Dave

About six months ago, Super Dave and I went to Amador High School and played 5 on 5 games with the players. At that time, I knew he was back. It was a thing of beauty to see him out there running and jumping and throwing elbows.

Today, you would never know what happened to him unless he told you. He still has a little bit of thoracic spine immobility from the titanium rods in his back, but he is back to doing everything. Including talking trash during the our entire golf game today. Lovely.