S run - Off Schedule - Apr 30

Hey lookit me. I'm gonna slip on the running shoes and see if the bike path is any longer than it was last year.

6 mins to warm up. 4x .1 mi intervals as I ran around the skate park looking for potential geocache locations, and back.
28.31 total. Was it hard? I dunno, I found myself walking some. Am I in the shape I should be in? I dunno, I ran faster than I did last year in the intervals.

Some of all this is conjecture. Did I get out the door and suffer? Yeah. Yeah, I did that.

7 hours/12 hours. 39 minutes total, PE: 8. 217/16.
oGWICn: Day 120, 0 burpees.

Wl - A Shot to the Chest - Apr 29

Cooling my heels seeing if I'm going to go by GJ's house and do and be whatever I can for him. Hanging out at Hageman Anytime just doing what I … what I do.

Buy in:
3x
20 hyperflexions with 12# ball
16 feet to bar
10 burpees

4x11 leg curl/extensions

6x 12 & 6 Calves on the A-frame/seated calves
10 burpees

Cash out:
Hammered out the rest of the burpees. Who cares how it played out? I did them.

21 hours. PE: 7. 221/14.
oGWICn: Day 119, 119 burpees.

Dues on the Blue Die - Apr 27

Band morning, Pad Thai with John and Susan for lunch, Session at night. But I let the day go yesterday in the same AM/Noon/Evening form, and couldn't let this one go to accrue into 3 days worth of burpees. So had Kdawg roll the die and did 3x burpees for each roll. Sets of 18 were showing up a lot, it seemed. But it just seems that way … and it's a good seem, since you don't get to 223 with 3-sies and 6-sies. Took a lot longer than I thought, but just strolling through them.

5 hours. 40-ish minutes total, PE: 6. 222/13.
oGWICn: Day 117, 223 burpees.

You Might Be a Crossfitter if...

• you know Thrusters aren't as fun as they sound.
• you put bumper plates and kettle bells on your wedding registry.
• it takes you longer to recover from the workout than to do it.
• you can yell "Nice Snatch" in a room full of ladies and not get slapped.
• you jerk for time.
• you workout in a box, not a gym.
• when traveling, you wonder if you can kip on the hotel shower curtain bar.
• someone stares at you with a "you're craaaaaazzzzzyyy" look after you describe your WOD.
• a manicurist turns you away.
• you believe in sweat angels.
• your affinity with other Crossfitters is instant and sincere.
• you refresh your browser every 30 seconds after 9pm.
• you've learned not to say "That looks easy".
• you don't understand why tomorrow's WOD can't be posted at 7:30am.... after you just finished today's at 7:15am.
• you can come home, tell your wife "I did Barbara today!" and she congratulates you.
• you find yourself bragging to people how sore you are.
• you will do 3 on, 1 off come hell or high water.
• you would be pissed if the box closed on Easter, Xmas, New Year's or July 4th.
• you've seriously considered installing handicap bars in your OWN toilet.

Wl - You Suck, I Rule - Apr 23

Just getting in the stuff I can't do at home over the weekend, before the weekend sets in. Deadlifts, maybe. Deadlifts, for sure.

Buy in:
3x
15 knees to elbows
20 hyperflexions
10 burpees
7.52

Antagonists:
4x
11x extensions
11x seated curls
+1 11 seated curls

6x
12 calves on the A-frame @6.5 a side
10 burpees

3x
8 deads @ 225#
10 burpees

Was considering cutting it short today, booking it to the Friday Lengthwise cooldown, but two strapping 20-something guys stopped me on the extension machine to ask me if I had some lifting straps. They just can't do the deadlifts they were planning without them. No, I don't, sorry. But I do have enough old-fart attitude to grip-n-rip the bar you were afraid of for a few sets. Just couldn't cheese out on what seemed to be a challenge from on-high. Besides, the babies were on their cell phones every 2 minutes during their "workout." Just had to take their bar and rip it in their faces a bit.
Someone had to do more weight, more sets, more reps than them to show them how it's done. Living by example, that's me.

Would've been cake. But. But those MF'ing burpees, slinking themselves into the workout like Sharia law into government policy, or cockroaches in the kitchen.

8.5 hours/24 hours. 39 mins total, PE: 8.
oGWICn: Day 113, 113 burpees.

Wa - Piston'ed Off - Apr 22

21-15-9 Pull ups/Push press @ 135#
5 extry Pull ups
15.34 - Form over time.

8x14 burpees/
8! DB thrusters lightening the DBs each round by 5# (1 rep with 70's, down to 8 reps with 40's)
25.20

Just a lot of sweat and feeling purty slow ... and old ... and sucky.

9 - 1 hours/48 hours. 40 mins total, PE: 8.
oGWICn: Day 112, 112 burpees.

AR - Family Time, Grr - Apr 21

Just getting out the ya-yas on Kdawg's carpeted floor. The whole crew joined in ... kinda.

8x14 burpees/x15 abmats.
17.30

Cash out:
3 rounds of tabata hollow holds/planks.

oGWICn: Day 111, 112 burpees.

Wl - Power Hungry - Apr 20

Not much to say here. Just folding sets of 10 burpees into the entirety of today's workout. It's the spice of life.

Buy in:
3 rounds, no rests
21 hyperflexions with 12# ball/16 feet to bar/10 burpees

Antagonists:
4 rounds, no rests
11 ext/11 seated curl/10 burpees

4 rounds, no rests
13 calves on the A-frame @ 6/6 seated calves/10 burpees

Front squat @ 145#
3 sets: 6, 7, 8
These felt like God himself was pushing down on me with His little finger.

8.5 hours/18 hours. 52 mins total, PE: 7.
oGWICn: Day 110, 110 burpees.

WoD - Luck o' the Die - Apr 19

Oh Lord, I'm still sore from Saturday? This year has got to get rollin'.

Single die. A roll of 1, 2, or 3 means you do 11 burpees. When you've done 10 sets, you've done your 110 for the day and you're golden.
However, if you roll a 4, you do 11 SDHP (100#).
A 5; 11 Pull ups.
A 6; 11 Kb swings (1.5 pood).

Pretty fun, but like a baseball game, no one knows when it will end. In fact, if one were exceptionally unlucky, Steam Hammertime could just go on and on and on.

Today, luck was a girl who mostly served up burpee-rolls through to the 8th set. Then, the burpees stopped showing their faces for an unnerving number of rolls. Final tally: 3 SDHP, 1 Pull up, 5 KB sets. One set easier than the statistical average, yah?

One good thing about this WoD: if you don't really like burpees, you'll find yourself cheering for them.

7.5 hours/60 hours. 25 mins total, PE: 7. 221/10 (pm).
oGWICn: Day 109, 110 burpees.

M - WoD in the Park - Apr 17

Boogie was excited about getting out and doing a park WoD today. I was too. She rode her bike and wore the backpack with snacks and waters in it. Fun as all get out.

Run to Woody's WoD area: 25.31

Hung out a bit and got today's burpees in the can in sets of 10 before the CF Bako crew showed up ... only to find out that Steve had burpees built into the WoD. Doh!

Warm up, Buy in:
Tabata hill runs - 8 rds. After the burpees, going up was making my quads lock up.

4 rounds of a 5 round WoD:
Run 220
12 Burpees
24 Lunges
Alas, I ran the 220 for round 5, and came in thinking (or not thinking) that I was done. Sat down and realized I had some burpees and lunges to go. But I just let 'em go.
15.37

Cash out:
6 a side: Tabata hollow holds/planks

Run home: 27.23

8 hours/41 hours. 102 minutes total; PE: 8.
oGWICn: Day 107, 155 burpees.

Cl - Tea Party - Apr 15

Buy in:
11 Ov Squats bar only/4x11 Ov Squats @ 95#

You call this a main set?
5x12 calves on the A-frame @ 6/Seated calves 10 ish @ 2/5x21 burpees

Should have been on the treadmill, swapping the burpee sets with quarters. But, out the door to attend the Tax Day Tea Party at the Liberty Bell. Harder than it should have been today. Maybe I'm just being a baby.

7.5 hours/24 hours. 32 minutes total; PE: 7. 220/16.
oGWICn: Day 105, 105 burpees.

Wa - Stop Steam Hammertime - Apr 13

21-15-9... that's 45 reps. That's normal volume. What the heck am I doing to myself at 60 reps and 55 reps, everytime I set out? Lord, have mercy.

Buy-in:
5x12 burpees/4x15 knees to elbows

Main set:
5x
12 chins on the v-bars/11 push press @ 115#/10 burpees
1 minute rest between rounds.

Doesn't look like much on paper. 'Til you (A.) do the math, (B.) do the friggin' workout, and/or (C.) do A. and B. on a day after double burpees and deadlifts. Somebody stop me.

6 hours/20 hours. 43 minutes total; PE: 7. 220/16.
oGWICn: Day 103, 103 burpees.

An Illness, If You Had Time to Consider It

TV Turnoff Week was launched by Adbusters magazine and other organizations in 1994 and championed by TV-Free America, which is now called Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness (CSTA). In CSTA changed the name in 2007 to TURNOFF WEEK, to reflect the growing number of devices people use to watch screened media. 2008 Adbusters changed the name of TV Turnoff Week to Digital Detox Week to reflect the growing predominance of computers and other digital devices.

There's a scary progression in today's world. Drivers are texting at the wheel, students are texting at their desks, and anyone in line is texting at the teller, cashier, or when they should be figuring out what the heck they're going to do when they get to the front of the line. Joggers go out in pairs and both are wearing their own iPods, ignoring each other. Can't make a highway drive without firing up the DVD player for the kids. The TV is always on, just background noise. Kids are watching commercials with the same intensity they should save for the regular programming, unable to discriminate between voluntary entertainment and mercenary entertainment. And we all have known for decades that the grow-light for a couch potato is rectangular.
And the groups that recognize it, who want to make a difference by silencing the static for a week, can't decide what to call their annual campaign. No wonder they can't be heard above the noise.

...the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

How the freak can one pack 10.45 into 7.5? By texting, with the TV on, with one iPod earbud in in front of your laptop? If EMF doesn't get you, the next blackout will. How will you survive?

Six days until we go Amish at my house. We're going to kill the TV, at the very least, for the week. Unplugged. This will hibernate the TV's symbiote, the Wii as well. I believe we'll power down the computer too. And the stereo. Why not? We have a piano, a flute and a guitar. We can make our own music.

We'll trench and lay the liner for our backyard creek and pond waterfeature. We'll sort the wood for a playhouse, using some to raise a planter for pumpkin seeds and an herb garden. Let's see, we'll have some Crossfitting to do in the backyard as well. We'll pull out the handpuppets and create a Punch n' Judy show.

I'm sure some other stuff will come up, once the initial shock wears off and some silence settles in.
_____

TV Turnoff Week update: Day 1. TV stayed blacked out. Instead, we did CF in the backyard, had a dinner for the extended family. Keep it up!
_____
TV Turnoff Week update: Day 2. TV loses again. Dinner with grammy at Frugatti's, then final prep on CC's tiger-striped Awana derby car FTW.
_____

TV Turnoff Week update: Day 3. Who needs TV? Church, then the whole fam did burpees and abmats. Cool-down with a Mom-lecture on friendship.

Wl - Mark It Down As a Win - Apr 12

Okay, I was gonna test those 50 burpees. Check.

I'll nuke myself today first, just to prove that I haven't become a total sissyboi during my lax time off all weekend. All that stuff about letting myself down so well yesterday and Saturday, it's just a bad dream.

Actually, today was the first day I considered just throwing in the towel on the burpees. 200+ sounded like a lot ... like it was gonna take up all the little workout time I had today ... like I would be back off schedule again, just to do more burpees ... and I'm tired of them ... and how long can I keep this up, really ... shouldn't I continue this on a rotation or something ... boo hoo ... piss, moan.

Get on your best pony and ride. Once in the gym door, autopilot takes over. In fact, the first 100 burpees today felt good. Like a natural movement, and not really that gassing. Having two days off from them helped the legs reload a bit. The mind too, I guess. Fully half of this thing is mental.
This was a long day, though. I was pretty done by the end of it all.

Antagonists:
12 reps seated curl @145#
4x12 extensions/4x12 seated curl

5x
20 burpees
12+3 calves on the A-frame @ 6 wheels per side
The burpees felt good, even in 20's. The calves felt light.

4x10 deadlift @ 205#
These just wore a hole in me.

52 burpees straight through for time: 4.24
Did I need to beat 7.42 for 44? Okay.

Cash out after the cash out:
Oh, I still owe 51 more.
5x10 burpees with a minute-ish RI.

7 hours/72 hours. 51 minutes total; PE: 9. 220/13.
oGWICn: Day 102, 203 burpees.

Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zilch - Apr 11

A gorgeous Sunday morning, absolutely perfect for a run, after a gorgeous Saturday, absolutely perfect for an outdoor workout, where I spent the day yardworking, intending to do some squat cleans with some of the necessary burpees. Of course, as previously noted, I did neither. And did I do the run today? Hailz nah.

So, with a knowing eye to the outdoors, I walled myself off mentally from my traditional S run, and played some Mushroom Madness 2 with Kdawg. Fast forward to noon. Out we come from Youth Sunday to find that Bakersfield is brown soup, whirling in the dust of a 20 year duststorm.

Naturally, Murphy encouraged me to set up Coolaroos yesterday. I spent a critical 8 minutes breathing the dust, tearing down the sun shades I worked so hard to set up.

After that, I decided not to breathe for the rest of the day, if I might help it. I didn't work this hard - or neglect hard work - on so many occasions this winter, just to get the respiratory malady now. So, I ate Cheerios (AM), Taco Bell (noon) and crappy Costco lasagna (PM) with a few Blue Moons. I didn't catch up on the owed burpees, but it was a grace day ... a saving grace day.

About the only thing I did right today was to take a nap. Score one for me.

8 + 2 hours.
oGWICn: Day 101, grace day for burpees, owed 100.

AR - Day 100 - Apr 10

Didn't do anything but work in the backyard and go see UFC 112 (with Anderson Silva making an ass of himself). No burpees today, it's day 100 and I'll test tomorrow after doing a double-distance Susan. I'll take tomorrow's grace into today.

8 hours. 217/12.

WoD - Death by Burpees - Apr 9

Still off schedule, but this just seemed right today.

Buy in:
21-15-9-5 Bar dips

Then, Death by Burpees. 14.11 rounds. I surely thought I could do better. Maybe it was me doing them on a really full stomach. Maybe I'm just not motivated beyond my daily allowance of burpees. Maybe (and this really is the real maybe) it's how any Death by event creeps up on you, building your expectation, before lowering the boom on you and your high hopes with a steamhammer of hypoxia.

10 hours/26 hours. PE: 8. 217/16.
oGWICn: Day 99, 116 burpees.

Official Greg Walker Invitational Challenge: 100 Day Update

Well, kinda hard to have an update to something you never did originally date. I knew what I was in for, and do I need to tell myself?

I figured, at the turn of the year, that no one wants to hear about what you're gonna do. Especially if you're gonna do it, and they aren't gonna do it. Especially if you're gonna do it, and when you tell them that you're gonna do it, they say something like, "Fffffuuuuuu." or "How interesting." or "Wierd." Never mind the nervous giggling when you invite them to do it along with you.

Worse still when you invite the one guy that you prettymuchknow will do it, and he just laughs it off.

So I named the event after his sorry ass, and I spoke no further of it. I vowed to simply do my burpees and do them in silence, and, do them until day 100 before taking stock of any of it. Today's that day.

Since I didn't announce them, these were-and-have-been-and-still-are the Rules:

• Day 1, one burpee; Day 2, two burpees. Ad infinitum.
• Sunday is a grace day. No burpees unless you want burpees.
• If you miss a day, that's cool. You simply have to add today's burpees to tomorrow's burpees.
• Burpees suck. Individually, they suck. Grouped into a seemingly endless line, like hopeless prisoners shuffling into a gas chamber, they reallyreally suck.

So, expecting some really interesting battle stories, how I braved the grind?

Looking back, it's been a little uneventful. Some days, the burpees hung over my head like a grand piano on a thin string of dread. Some days, they were easy peasy. Some days, the first burpees' screams echoed in the hollowed-out cavities of my thighs, making me wonder if I would make it as the wear-down accrued. Many days, the burpees were the full workout of the day. Many others, they were folded into the day's workout in sets, adding to the overall work volume. And, not surprisingly, but surprisingly nicely, they have gotten easier over time.

On Day 3, I prognosticated:
>>Not so active today. What a lazy day, skipped church, reading Eragon. Considering how to best make this challenge work, doing burpees isn't going to last the year ... nor should it? Going to break the burpees into the 6 skills, put a 100-rep cap on any one exercise, and move into the next skill set, I think. Until the 100 rep cap though, I wonder about just hammering burpees each day. Think it's only fair to do so.
December's going to really suck, no two ways about it.

At Day 100, I think I might continue the burpees, maybe until Day 200. I can see that they're totally getting in the way of traditional workout progression … but that may be a good thing. Take the perfect work movement, perhaps the most feared one, and see how long you can stare it down. There I am, stuck in this staring contest that is both bad for me and good for me.

100 Days; What Have I Done With Them?
Most days, I did them on the bedroom carpet, about 2 to 1 over doing them on the gym floor, which was about 3 to 1 over doing them in the backyard during a garage-WoD.
Last Day I did them straight through, without partitioning them: Day 29
Days I did more than the daily allowance: 14
Did them drunk as a skunk: 1
Days I missed and had to carry them over to the next day: 7, counting today.
Days I did them on hotel room floors: 4
On the bikepath: 1
Grassy palisades overlooking the Pacific: 1

On day 48, I did 50 reps as 5x20 and said:
>>There's a big difference between a set of 12 burpees and a set of 20. Let's see how day 100 goes.

So I'll do 5x20 as my cash-out and see what's up today. On day 44, I did 4x11 after a Susan DD in 7.42. Okay, Susan DD, and I'll cash out with 50 in under 7.42. Or pack it up.

(That workout went like this )

... and time passes. Fast forward to the end of the reel. Here, on May 6th, I'm finally chronicl'ing the end. The end actually occured at day 120 and following, as the demands of RealLife caught up with me morning, noon and night for 4 days in a row. I couldawoulda paid up and continued... but that was like, 580+ burpees one day, then 120+ following. At this level, the burpees become the WoD. The biggest day was a 223 burpee day.

Not that that's bad, if I was stranded on the desert island, the Burpee would be the complete excercise. Now, since I'm not on that island, and have access to various weightlifting equipments and other items of punishment, the baseline movement needs to move the frick over and make way for foundational training.

Not, again, that I've been able to do any of that lately. RealLife is still exacting its unignorable siren call. But saying no to the burpees makes me feel like I still have some control. heh. But here I say goodbye to my New Year's resolution and my taskmaster - 20 days past 100 (cheers from the gallery) and 30 days short of 150 (boos from the gallery).

I did learn that burpees suck, but I can soldier through them. And, do them better and faster than most people. And, I did deposit a bit into what I've already banked within my character about doing something you don't like, don't want to do, and anticipate with some dread. But do anyway.

Burpees, I fear you not. And all you people who were invited but ghosted this, you don't know what you missed.

How I Know the World isn't Going Completely Tolerant

We’ll Show You the Real Prom
from http://www.nclrights.org

By now you’ve probably heard of Constance McMillen. Constance is an 18-year-old from Mississippi who, when she tried to buy tickets for herself and her girlfriend to attend the prom, was promptly told not only that she was forbidden from attending with her girlfriend, but she could not wear a tuxedo. When Constance went to the ACLU—who took her case immediately and sent the school a letter demanding that Constance be allowed to attend the prom with her girlfriend—the school canceled the prom, rather than allow a lesbian couple to attend.

It’s as absurd and outrageous a homophobic story as we’ve heard in a while. But that was not the end of this saga. When an “alternative” prom organized by her schoolmates’ parents was held this past weekend, Constance and her girlfriend showed up, only to discover that they and five other students—some of whom are differently-abled—were the only ones in attendance. And that the “real” prom was actually being held elsewhere, and the event they were attending was simply a ruse to keep all the so-called “outcasts” away from the “real” prom.
__________
Miss. prom canceled after lesbian's date request
from Chris Joyner, USA TODAY
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi county school board announced Wednesday it would cancel its upcoming prom after a gay student petitioned to bring a same-sex date to the event.

"Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year," school board members said in a statement.

Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba, recently challenged a school policy prohibiting her from bringing her girlfriend as her date to the April 2 prom. McMillen, who is a lesbian, and the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union urged school officials to reverse the policy both on McMillen's choice of date and attire. She also wanted to wear a tuxedo to the dance.

ACLU attorney Christine Sun said her organization receives requests for help every year from students facing anti-gay prom policies. The complaints are especially prevalent in the South where attitudes toward sexuality are more conservative, she said.

In the announcement, the school board encouraged the community to organize a private prom. "It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone," the statement concluded. School officials did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The announcement alarmed McMillen.

"Oh, my God. That's really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one," she said. "A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this."

School officials told McMillen last month that she could not bring her sophomore girlfriend to the prom and also told her she could not wear a tuxedo. The school then circulated a memo that prohibited same-sex dates.
__________
This follows as a comment in the shite-storm of commentary on the USA today site:

"It's not about a conservative community or a gay, young couple. It's about timing. The rules governing the "prom" have been in place, I'm sure, for a long time. These girls didn't become gay overnight. Why weren’t they disputed before now? Maybe a compromise could have been made. Also, I'm sure the student body didn't have any problems with these two lesbians and their daily "public displays of homosexuality" throughout the school year. This reaction by the school district and the public at large reminds me of Duncan Donuts decision to stop making and/or selling any food product that contains, looks like, smells like, tastes like or has been in close proximity to any kind of nut all because one fool, out of the 350 million people in this country, had a reaction to it even though they knew they were allergic."
__________
My emphasis added. And now, for the only little bit I'm going to write here on this, a question or two:
If the student body didn't have any problems with these two lesbians and their daily "public displays of homosexuality" throughout the school year, why did not one single fellow student in the entire school warn Ms. Tuxedo? How QueerHere&Annoying do you have to be to have no friends at all in an entire school?

WoD - Off Schedule - Apr 8

Well, half of the Walker Invitational Challenge is computing the best way to break down the burpees. I've not done them in one go since the 30's. So, day 96 was a perfect 6x16, and last night I did 6x16 plus one, while alternating sets of 16 abmats.

Today was a perfect 7x14, so I was gonna work it into the WoD that way. The problem is, when I started going, I just started doing 17's. I mean, it is more than the 16's I've been doing, so it's gotta be correct, correct?

6 rounds
17 Burpees
17 KB swings 1.5 pood
17 Pull ups

I was in the middle of the 6th round of pull ups when I got a mathematics flash: 6 x 7 = 42. I was wondering why rounds were taking so long. There's definitely a rep break above 14. 15 is the magic gas-point.

8.5 hours/72 hours. 40 minutes total, PE: 8.
oGWICn: Day 98, 102 burpees.

P n P - Empty Easter - Apr 4

Just a quick one today. Hey, it's the weekend!

10 Pull ups/10 Ring dips
11/11 ...
12/12 ...
13 Pull ups

6 -2 + 2 hours/24 hours. PE: 5.
oGWICn: Day 94, grace day for burpees.

115th Dream Hopbursted Imperial IPA

Yeah, so you brew beer. You hop it up. Buy the pellets instead of the petals. But nothing's prepared you for this. This is off the charts.

Prior to all the fun, I used a good amount of the bottling sugar to get a Safale-05 yeast starter going. 16 hours of preparation, you yeasties are still not gonna be ready for this.

Okay, here's the brewday schedule, which I messed up. I put in half of the boiling hops, and half of the near-aroma hops, because, dang, I'm not used to putting this much in!

4 gallons of water in, boil it up. Then put in 3# of amber extract. 30 mins later, in goes the first 1 oz of Cascade pellets (all at 7.5%). It should have been 2 oz. but that's Crazy!

30 more minutes, you're at the full-hour protein break. In goes another 1 oz of the Cascade, which should have been two.

15 minutes to the end of the boil, the first quarter of the 12 oz of the Hopbursted mix (from Northern Brewer) goes in to begin as aroma hops. Here's where I realize what I'd missed, and we drop in the other 2 oz of the Cascade.

So, we let the boil run and added the next two 3 oz batches of hops at 10 and 5 minutes out. Shut off the heat and added in the remainder of the 2# of bottling sugar and the final 3 oz of the Hopbursted mix.

The wort chilled quickly, but it was so full of gunk from all the hops, running it through the funnel with the microscreen took forever. Came away with about 2.5 gallons of super-hopped wort at ... get ready for this ... .1150 original gravity. Poured in the cook-pot of yeast. The garden hose provided the aeration for the next 2 gallons.

Didn't steep in anything this batch.
Extract: 6 lbs. Amber Malt, and 6 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
Honey: .5 lbs. Clover
Bitters: 4 oz. Cluster pellets (7.5%), 12 0z. Hopbursted (proprietary) mix
Yeast: Safbrew S-05, started on bottling-sugar water 16 hours prior

Good luck all.
_________
5 day update:
Gave the corney a swirl and didn't get any exhale from the relief valve, so I popped 'er into the fridge. It's a low 40's in there. 5 days at approx 68-70 degrees should have done all the fermenting that is fermenting. I'll pull a final gravity when I rack here in a day or two.
_________
14 day update:
Okay, finally got around to racking over from the leaker fermenter into the dispensary. Did I say a day or two? I meant a week or two.
Haven't racked in a few batches, I've just been letting the brew sit on the yeast for a couple of weeks, then pushing yeast off the bottom with the Co2 and drinking it clear. My racking cane is in my guts. But not this batch. Still, it's been sitting on the yeast for long enough.

Put 30 lbs of Co2 on it with some shaking, until no more pumped in. Now I'll just let it sit for a couple of weeks. No original gravity reading, and I didn't take a final either. I'll get a final at drinking time, maybe. What a brewmasterscientist I've become.
_________
33 day update:
Checked for final gravity (1006) and drinkability. Bud Light, you can suck it! It's hoppy - duh! - but surprisingly balanced for IPA-on-steroids. See you in 4 weeks, muthafukas! I predict a win.
________
The Bottom Line:
Took this out to the Amgen bike race tailgating party with a bunch of lite beer drinkers ... and it disappeared. Gnarly hoppiness, but man, so good.

Cl - A Little Death - Apr 3

No burpees tomorrow! It's gonna be Easter and a grace day. Jesus is in the tomb today, so we might as well kill ourselves, as well. Back to back Cl days. What kind of schedule is this? heh.

Let's start with:
Death by Cleans @ 100#
10.7 rounds
These really felt good. I didn't run out of cleans, I just ran out of time.

I stood with my hands on my hips and gasped for about 4 minutes and looked at the sky. What a nice 65 degree day. How terrible I felt.

Then, incredibly:
11 Ov Sqts @ 100#/21 KB Swings @ 1.5 pood/11 burpees 5.27
(which was just too friggin' much, so downshifted on the fly to)
11 Ov Sqts/12 burpees 3.11
21 Kb Swings/12 burpees 3.58
11 Ov Sqts/12 burpees 4.38
21 Kb Swings/ 12 burpees 3.11
11 Ov Sqts/12 burpees 5.07
21 Kb Swings/12 burpees 4.17
11 Ov Sqts/11 burpees 4.16

Some of the burpees were really sloppy, and I stood transfixed for whole minutes between rounds. But it's a mystical, spiritual day. I'm sure I did some monastic work there, deep calling to deep while unconscious or semi-focused.

Speaking of, time to shower down and brew a 115th Dream Hopbursted Imperial IPA. Oh, and finish off the last batch. The price of ales just went up.

8.5 hours/24 hours. 45 minutes total, PE: 9.
oGWICn: Day 93, 94 burpees.

Cl - If - Apr 2

Okay. So I pull up last night and one, the Hope is push-brooming the last of the devil-spawned pollen-pods off the driveway, and two, the hell-grafted Mulberry has dropped the last of its said pods, and three, I say to myself, with a glee borne of years of disappointment, "Gee whiz, I've survived a Spring without a nasty nagging cough or upper respiratory infection."

I know, life's little pleasures, right?

Well, Hope is still working up her brooming skilz, and I take the opportunity to demonstrate my superiour brooming experience as I clean out the garage and 5 feet of garage-door section of evil-pods. … It takes, like, 5 minutes.

I run upstairs, not knowing the evil intent of the allergens. I drop and begin the burpees.

Long story short? I cough from 3.30AM to 5.30AM - that is, I wheeze from 3.30 to 5.30, punctuated by racking coughing and long pulls on bottles filled with quadrisyllabic drugs that I normally wouldn't want in my body, but now consume like a bum on a baloney sandwich.

Lesson learned. Except, I am still Master of my Destiny.

On to today's workout. I'm gonna do what I can't do tomorrow, when I'm brewing beer. And, fuckin' A, I'm either gonna make myself sick and get it over with, or I'm gonna blow the creosote outta my pipes and get well in one workout. This is Sparta. Either come back with your shield or on it. I'm Master of my Destiny. If I'm getting sick, it's because I did it to myself. It's me against the pollen pods.
Humor me here.

4x
11 front squats @ 135# (take them all the friggin' way down, yah)
max reps (17-20+) seated calves
15.54

6 rounds
15 burpees
200/300/400/400/300/200 @ 2% and 6.0/6.1/6.2/6.3/6.4/6.5 mph on the treadmill
23.14

The front squats just feel heavy, for no good reason. And I don't know how wide to place my hands anymore.
The burpees and running the treadmill felt like crap, but I won't complain. It's for my good. Pollen, die in the flames of my suffering. It's either you or me, and I've already seen your end. The ass I'm kicking feels like mine, but it's yours, damn you.

9.5 - 2 hours/21 hours. 39 minutes total, PE: 8. 222/13.
oGWICn: Day 92, 92 burpees.

AR - Addiction Remedy - Apr 1

Needed a day off today, but my body was craving some endorphins. Thank goodness that my burpees are there, like some pushertaskmaster. Someday I'll be able to take an AR day without wanting to completely grind myself.

7x
13 burpees
26 abmats
16.59

7.5 hours.
oGWICn: Day 91, 91 burpees.