I mentioned last time that I would put up some pictures of a modest, little circle of stones I constructed a few years ago and have been tending off and on ever since. I was going to take some shots but I noticed that I had some pictures sitting on my cell phone that I took over the span of a couple of weeks this past Spring.

Sun, October 11th

• Afternoon Workout
  • Stationary Recumbent Bike: 30 Minutes, Manual Program, ~ 70 rpm’s, Level 8
  • Stretched for about 10 minutes.

Calories: 2066, Protein: 93 g.

Mon, October 12th

• Morning Walk: 1.97 miles.
• Afternoon Training
  • Superset: [CoC Gripper (S): 2 sets x 5 reps; (T): 2 set x 5 reps] +
    • (Set 1) Full Squats: 22 reps
    • (Set 2) Dead Bugs (2-ct): 22 reps
    • (Set 3) Crunches: 30 reps
    • (Set 4) Wood Chops (each side): 12.5 lbs. x 20 reps
  • Super Set: [Twist Yo’ Wrist (up and down twice): 6 lbs. x 2 sets, 8 lbs. x 2 sets] +
    • (Set 1) Walking Lunges (2-ct): 7 reps
    • (Set 2) Side Kick Stretch (ea. leg): 12 reps
    • (Set 3) Front Kick Stretch (ea. leg): 12 reps
    • (Set 4) Alternating One-Handed Russian KB Swings (2-ct): 15 lbs. x 12 reps
  • Worked on my Side-Lunge Stretch, which is one of my current goals.

A little closer look at the entrance. One doesn’t want to violate the integrity of the circle so I established this portal. The stick seals the barrier and I occasionally chalk runes and such on the larger, flat stones. It was raining a lot when I took these pictures so the chalk had washed off.

I enjoyed looking at this cluster of mushrooms for the short time I had them. It is wet in the Spring but once it dries out the mushrooms go away on my property until the rains return.

Calories: 1996, Protein: 112 g.

Tues, October 13th

Rest Day. My strange itch to assemble models continues, so I busted out a box of Game Workshop’s Zombies of the Ancient Sculpts or as GW calls them, Deadwalker Zombies. I’ve had these things sitting around for many years now. There are 20 in the box and I put 10 of them put together, including the three zombie percussion section. I’ll post pictures of them once I assemble the whole box.

Calories: I don’t really know because we had takeaway from our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area. I suspect that I’m high for the day, but probably not overly so.

Wed, October 14th

We’ve owned our house for about six years now and have this stout set of stairs in our basement that ends at the top in a wall. This reminds me of the trips we’ve made over the years to the Winchester House in San Jose, California, which sports similar innovations and many more besides.

Over the past few months, this lack of a door has been a problem since we started working out in the basement. So I dug out my Sawzall and decided to finally do something about The Door That Goes to Nowhere. It’s basically like a hobby project, right?

No workout today but where there was a wall now there is a door!

This will also allow us to leave the garage door closed while we work out and will be particularly nice when the weather is inclement. Also, several people, near where I live, do a poor job of securing their large, semi-unfriendly dogs so it will be nice not having to keep half an eye open for someone’s dog wandering in my basement while I’m doing curls or something!

Quite a bit more work to go on The Door to Nowhere but we’ve made a good start.

Calories: 2045, Protein: 100 g.

Thurs, October 15th

Didn’t do any training today but I did some more, lighter work on the door, put in a little threshold at the top of the stairs and painted. I also put together the rest of my zombies in the evening with the exception of the final one, who will carry the mob totem, which looks like a wooden cross with someone’s hands tacked onto the horizontal spar.

The moss-covered rotten stump seemed a good focal point in The Circle. I periodically decorate the stump with things I find in my travels, such as some shells I found down on the beach in Santa Cruz, and a mysterious, little clay bowl I dug out of the ground in some random place in the forest. Sometimes I’ll stick feathers I find on my property from owls, Stellar’s Jays, doves, red-tailed hawks and the like.

Oddly, I’ll come back a week later and stuff will be moved around or missing. In this picture my clay bowl was turned over and the pinecones moved around. Fortunately whoever (my money is on rogue squirrels) is moving the stuff around isn’t messing with the 20 pound concrete frog so there’s that.

Calories: 1784, Protein: 87 g.

Fri, October 16th

• Afternoon Workout
  • CoC Gripper (S): 3 sets x 7 reps; 1 set x 18 reps (right hand) and 11 reps (left hand)
    • In the FAQ on the Ironmind site, they suggest working with the next higher gripper once you can do 10 – 12 reps on the current one. On the last set I stopped only when I couldn’t close the gripper entirely. Based on this, I think I can move on more to the Trainer gripper.
  • Leg Complex: FOUR SETS { [Full Squats: 13 reps x sets #1-2 and 15 reps x sets #3-4] + [Side Kick Stretch (2-ct): 12 reps] + [Walking Lunges (2-ct): 6 reps] + [Romanian Dead Lift (2 lb. DB’s): 12 reps] }
  • Dead Bugs (2-ct): 23 reps
  • Stretched for about 10 minutes. I was able to achieve and hold the side lunge stretch with my right foot (in shoes) flat on the mat so that is a little step toward one of my current goals. I still have to work the stretch up on the ball of the left foot, however. After that I’ll work on the stretch with bare feet.

I’ve been using my spring bars for about a year now. My husband bought the larger one and I could bend it maybe about half way. That darned thing was (and is) no joke! So he bought one the smaller one, which is the one I’ve been training with. I had completely forgotten about the heavier one, which was languishing in the back of my closet until I stumbled upon it when I pawing through my Mountain of Unassembled Plastic.

I’m glad I found the old spring bar because the lighter one has become pretty easy. The heavy one is difficult, but I’ve started working it into my training. On Saturday I was able to fully bend it twice and then had to complete my set using the lighter bar. I think that is pretty good progress from not being able to bend the thing at all. This inspires me to set a goal for myself of being able to fully bend the heavy bar for a set of 8 repetitions. I’m going to put that as a new goal on my Goal Page.

Calories: 2020, Protein: 131 g.

Sat, October 17th

• Morning Walk: 3.34 miles.
• Afternoon Workout
  • Shoulder Complex: THREE SETS { [Twenty-One’s: 10 lb. DB’s for lateral, front raises, and rear delt rows] + [Arnold Presses: 20 lbs. x 10 reps, 25 lbs. x 10 reps for set #3] }
    • (Rested for 90 seconds between each set.)
  • Standing Push-ups using stairs: 4 sets x 10 reps
    • This was a bit harder than using the basement counter.
  • Bent Over DB Rows: 15 lbs. x 3 sets x 12 reps, 20 lbs. x 1 set x 12 reps
  • Standing Cable Flies: 12.5 lbs. x 12 reps (set #1), 12.5 lbs. x 6 reps + 10 lbs. x 6 reps (set #2), 10 lbs. x 12 reps (sets #3-4)
  • Spring Bar [alternated sets of hands supinated and pronated]: Light Bar: 2 sets x 8 reps, Heavy Bar 2 reps + Light Bar 6 reps (sets #3-4)
  • Super Set: Tricep Cable Pushdowns (tri bar): 35 lbs. x sets #1-3 x 12 reps, 40 lbs. x 9 reps + 35 lbs. x 3 reps (set #4) +
    • (Sets #1-2) Wood Chops: 15 lbs. x 12 reps (one side each set)
    • (Sets #3-4) Face Pulls: 10 lbs. x 12 reps
  • Super Set: Standing DB Curls: 15 lbs. x 3 sets x 12 reps, 20 lbs. x 1 set 12 reps +
    • (Set #1) Dead Bugs (2-ct): 20 reps
    • (Set #2) Two-Handed American KB Swings: 15 lbs. x 12 reps
    • (Set #3) Calf Raises: 20 reps
    • (Set #4) Full Squats: 25 reps
  • Worked on the side-lunge stretch and did a little general stretching to end the workout.

Calories: 2024, Protein: 107 g. (I was flat on weight loss this week so my total remains 16.2 lbs. so far.)