July Check-In
July was mostly a good month for me. A small medical mishap, but otherwise a good month.
A Quick Trip to Urgent Care
My attempts to break new PRs for deadlift and squats ended up getting delayed thanks to a mishap with a garden hose. I had to replace the end of a hose since it got damaged and unfortunately sliced my finger open on the metal ring holding the new hose end. I ended up needing stitches so lifting was basically out of the question. I definitely did not want to bust the stitches open by twisting the skin or anything else that might happen when you're lifting hundreds of pounds of weight. I ended up condensing two weeks of lifts into one at the end of the month in an attempt to hit my goals before starting my marathon training. I was able to set a new squats PR at 365 lbs., but ended up failing in my quest to deadlift 400 lbs. I'm disappointed, but will try to hit 400 in the next one to two weeks before lightening my lifts for when the marathon training really ramps up. I don't really want to be going super heavy and setting new PRs while I'm trying to also put in 30 miles of running in a week. My plan is to lift two days a week, but with less volume than I've been doing for the year. Keep my strength up, but focus on running.
Hockey Tournament
In mid-July, my ice rink hosted their yearly tournament. I formed a team last year and played and it was fun. This year though, I just joined a pre-formed team so I didn't have to worry about gathering enough players which took a bunch of stress away from the event. Our team went 0-3-1, but we played competitively despite never having played together before. For anyone who hasn't played hockey before, it can be challenging sometimes to play with a new team since different players have different tendencies. Learning those tendencies and quirks can make teams and players more effective. Not knowing those same tendencies can make things a little more difficult. At the end of the day though, it was fun. Met some new people, played with people I've played both with and against previously, and got plenty of exercise.
Journaling
Over the last couple of months, I've been trying to keep a daily journal of what I've done, read, and anything else that might come to mind. I'm just not sure what kind of format I want to use. I've been making a new markdown file every day, but I'm also considering just using my Moleskin notebook and a pen. To make matters more complicated, I've also considered using my iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil. I'm still not sure what format will end up winning out, but I find it relaxing and interesting keeping track of my days. With how crazy things often are and how the days seem to blur together, it's nice to have a little log to write down my activities and thoughts.
Monthly Roundup
🏃🏼♂️ Running & Biking
- Running: Only ran a little under 13 miles this month. The 90-100 degree days did not make running all that appealing. Marathon training starts in August, so might be some early-morning runs in my future.
- Biking: Nope
🏋🏼♂️ Lifting:
- Hit a new PR on squats - 365 lbs.
- Failed a 400 lbs. deadlift
📚 Reading:
Finished 3 books this month.
- Katie Mack - The End of Everything
- Albert Bourla - Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible
- Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns
✍🏻 Writing
- Continued with my weekly reading posts every Friday.
- Wrote about connecting to Feedbin to populate my likes page
🎮 Gaming
Been playing WoW a bunch. Trying to get ready for Wrath of the Lich King in September.