Service Interrupted

After more than a week of snow shoveling, firewood gathering, and brush clearing, things are finally getting back to normal here in Connecticut.

I know some towns had it much worse than where I live, but here’s a shot from just up the street from me.

And on the other side, you can see what happened when the lines were pulled down!

I’d like to shout out to the crew from Alabama that cleaned up this mess. Thanks, guys!

If you couldn’t tell, it’s taken a lot of work to clean up around the state. I already mentioned my small share, and I’ll say that the long hours left me tired and really hungry. It was a good week to pig out on all our food before it spoiled. I haven’t eaten so well in a long time!

Getting Back to Work

This week, I resumed teaching at my high school and at Gracie Farmington Valley. It was fun to play Little House on the Prairie for a while, but family dinners by candlelight and games of cards by the fireside are once again taken over by modern life with its hectic pace. So it’s back to Fun Size workouts.

Again, I’m trying to squeeze in effective training to supplement my martial arts practice that doesn’t impact my schedule and doesn’t leave me too sore to train.

The main thing I’ve noticed during this trial–especially after last week– is that it’s much harder to maintain 10 minutes of high intensity versus 60 minutes of moderate to low intensity. That’s why you’ll see thousands of people running a marathon but only a handful sweating it out in a Crossfit box.

I don’t mean to disparrage those who improve their fitness with long hours on the road or at the gym. I just don’t think you need to spend that much time to get in great shape.

What you do need is focus and resolve to get through intense workouts. There’s no time to zone out or to relax when you need to maintain high output. I don’t even listen to music because I find it distracting.

I wrote about this before, but I’ll say it again: I’ve enjoyed many of my greatest gains in cardio, muscular endurance, and strength by training less rather than more. I’m no workout guru–not even very athletic–but I challenge you to try it out. You may be surprised by the results!

Fun Size Workouts Redux

Again, you can follow some of my short workouts Facebook. Definitely feel free to add comments and your own training ideas. I originally planned to post them for a month with minimal repeats, but I’ll extend that a bit due to the outages. Also, I’ll just list the new and interesting ones from now on.

Take a look and let us know what you think!

Sweet, Sweet Internet

I have to admit I missed having electricity.  It’s great to get back to blogging!  Here’s a video of me shot when the lights came back on in my neighborhood. Enjoy your training, and I’ll see you on the Net.