Compound Night

After Tuesday's little adventure with 520 arrows, I knew that I was NOT holding back 30+ lbs at full draw, so I pulled out the Bowtech Equalizer and shot a surprisingly solid score for someone who almost never shoots training wheels. I finished the 30-arrow target round with a 274/300, 4X, which is pretty darned good for me given that I was shooting skinny arrows and hardly ever practice with the compound. I also felt surprisingly good considering that my upper back is still a bit talkative. It was so darned worth it though!

Proud of my Mighty Hog Slayer

My other half may not be much of a target archer or any sort of athlete or someone who likes to miss his horrendously boring "reality" TV shows involving buying/selling junk but he's certainly well-trained in the art of controlling the hog population one at a time. He got this good-sized sow and I have a feeling that this one will be pretty darned tasty and tender! And if I may add, he shot this sow with a recurve he built himself. I'm certainly proud of my guy, even if I still need to train him to read the actual ingredients (and decipher them) and to not bug me while I'm working out or working on target archery!

The 500 Arrow Challenge

Originally Coach Rob had set it as a 400 arrow challenge, but someone had shot 500 arrows on the dot last week. I didn't know about it in time to do it that Thursday but vowed to take a day to see how far I could get before either parts started falling off or before *other* things kicked in. I shot all of 520 arrows. I could've safely gone to 600 with good form judging from how my upper back, my limiting reagent, felt, but unfortunately I made the mistake of answering the phone and *someone* wanted to spend quality time with him (which unfortunately doesn't involve testing physical limits thanks to his torn meniscus and general lack of interest in high-intensity challenges) because I spent the weekend severely out of commission... so I got stopped prematurely... just to be nice.

My last un-interrupted endurance run had me running out of fuel somewhere around 300 arrows, which was sometime in April, shortly before my original nemesis at the gym left for his next adventures in medical school. I haven't really had too many opportunities to do these because it's hard to get to the range with a clean conscience on a weekday morning and weekends tend to involve a significant other who thinks 100 arrows is pretty significant and has trouble understanding why someone would voluntarily want to challenge themselves that aggressively. I had an attempted endurance run in August as well, which unfortunately got interrupted and I could tell that 350 arrows would be pushing my limits again. I think there's a lot to be said about my current nemesis at the gym, who has pushed me to my limits and beyond with what can be described as a mixture of CrossFit and Army training... mostly because I know I haven't been shooting as much as I like or should... and the only significant change to my training has been my new nemesis, who has inspired me big-time.

This was my final end, which isn't too shabby for 500+ arrows! As of now, I hold the record at Newberry for most arrows shot in a day, at least as of when Coach Rob posted the 400+ arrow challenge. I may have to defend that title soon though and I'll make sure that my phone is turned off the next time I do it!

Note to self: train the other half to NOT keep interrupting me while I'm actually trying to do something exciting... and train myself to just ditch the phone when I don't want to be interrupted!

Wanna Try These?

I dug these up in my training notebook and thought I'd put them here as well as on my other blog. I personally favor timed circuits like the one right below, partially because it encourages me to be a bit more aggressive, partially because I have way too much fun playing rough with an intriguing creature with an extremely strong, driving personality who inspires me to push myself that much harder and let him know that I can be just as tough as he is, if not tougher. This was a single pass, which is a bit different from the usual increasing reps I'm used to from this critter, and it inspired quite a bit of grumbling and groaning from the other three people who did this with me.

The next three were all part of a single workout, none were timed and were generally at a relatively relaxed pace. The fellow who gives these circuits is extremely laid-back and doesn't exactly inspire the urge to show off or to be aggressive, but it's still challenging in its own ways. It's a good thing my time as a TA has trained me to decipher all sorts of different hand-writings or I probably would've had to knee-cap someone for writing illegibly. Actually I've seen far worse handwriting than this, mine included, but when there's sweat on my glasses and in my eyes, it does get a little hard to read and remember.

These three circuits didn't feel too tough actually even if other people were convinced that even one of those was going to kill them. Of course, being a lot more focused on form and not having someone barking orders to go faster and harder makes a difference too. They're not too much different from the circuits I do on myself periodically, just a little more emphasis on endurance than bulking up than I tend to do.

So... does anyone want to join me for a bit of running, squatting, push-ups, burpees, and maybe some barbell work? ;)

Height Extremes

I think *someone* is just freakishly tall. The camera angle sure as heck didn't help either!

Hog-Slayer and Random Camera Cleanout

As usual, click on the title for the full suite of pictures I've accumulated through the semester but didn't remember or bother to post for whatever reason. Or click HERE

It's probably a good thing that there's no smell feature on the computer yet... This hog reeked really, really badly.

Nothing like playing with Coach Rob's tournament recurve. I'd much rather shoot my longbow!

Did I mention that Coach Rob is also one freakishly tall fellow to have to use something this huge?

Not a common feat. for me...

18 meters with the zebra-wood longbow. It doesn't get much better than this!