In Bris now, been a great couple of days so far. The 14-hour flight went much better than I expected, and I wasn't nearly as jet-lagged as I feared I'd be. I made it through a day at the theme park and a few games of lasertag without a ton of difficulties. I am starting to understand why Brisbane has the best team in the world, though. Their maze is very difficult (and contains more than a few items that would never pass regulatory muster in the States from a safety perspective), and they run a competitive league nearly year-round. It's going to be a very difficult week. I think the Hybrid and Mildura teams will be the definite bottom-tier teams; USA, Oakleigh, and Bris C will be very competitive with each other; Bris B will probably dominate most other teams, at least in the early rounds, and Bris A is almost definitely going to smash everything in their path.

Tomorrow I am going to book some more practice, do the captains' meeting (please be short this year), and participate in the formal warm-up night with my team. I imagine our positions will be pretty much as I expected, but there is still a lot to deal with from a strategy perspective.

Tournament update: Team USA is sitting solidly in the middle of the pack, 4th out of 7. However, we're the only non-Brisbane team to beat a Brisbane team thus far, and we still have a good shot to move up the ladder when Finals rolls around. I'm happy with how I'm playing an having a badass time. Pics later. For now, you can watch me eat absolute **** when I tripped over my buddy's foot in a game:

Tournament is now over. We came in 4th, beating all the other visiting teams and losing to the top 3 Brisbane teams. Not a bad result overall, though I would have enjoyed a top 3 finish (though as it turns out, the Bris C team that eliminated us pulled out an upset and beat the Bris B team in the semi-finals, leading to a 2nd place finish, so that makes me feel a bit better about losing to them!). I managed to take home both the MVP Ammo (stats-based) and All-Star Ammo (peer vote-based) awards, and another of our guys took home the All-Star Scout award. Our best player received 2nd in a number of statistical categories (leading to an unofficial "always a bridesmaid" award). So not a bad showing by the Americans at all!

Hopefully going to see some of the natural beauty of Australia in the next week, but getting my team moving early in the day is like herding cats. I probably didn't budget enough for a 15-day trip, but I'm enjoying myself nonetheless.

Nice trip report! Get to the great barrier reef if you can. Worth the trip.

Can't make it this time. It's on the bucket list. The next trip over here is going to be very expensive.

The cowbell gif is here at last!

Video I took on one of the theme park rides today:


Various pretty pics from my travels:


Team USA with our two Aussie mercs.


Brisbane skyline in the background.


Emerging from the Toohey Forest Conservation Area


Petting a kangaroo!


Petting a koala!


The Gold Coast.

Only one more full day in Australia. Definitely going to miss it. But I'll be training even harder for next year!

Brought home those awards for Team USA!

Back in the States now after the best vacation of my life. I'm at least 50% sure I want to move to Australia, but that's probably just holiday goggles. Had to ease back into real life today by submitting two more job applications. Got to the gym last night and tried to get back in slowly with 10 chin-ups, 2 x 40 push-ups, and 16-minute cycles of bike, elliptical, and treadmill walking at incline. Still feeling a bit sick from being stuck in a metal tube for 12.5 hours, but I'm sure I'll feel better soon.

With the tournament over, I will need to refocus my workouts, but I still plan on staying close to playing shape--next year's tournament will be here sooner than I expect, and I don't want to lose fitness this year! There is a 5K at Christmas time here in town, which I will probably make tentative plans to participate in to give me a goal to shoot for. Not sure what else to do in the meantime. I want to schedule more hikes, but first up on the agenda is job apps and hunting for a new apartment!

8/6

Push-Ups: 2 x 45
Chin-Ups: 12, 10
Cable Curls
Cable cross-over rows

Ran 1.5 miles at 7.0 mph, walked another 0.75 at 3.5 mph, then did about 12 minutes on the bike to finish up. Fairly light today, kinda easing back into it. I've been tired and had a headache most of the day. I think it's probably caffeine withdrawals. I could try to get off caffeine... but where's the fun in that? COFFEE!!!

Some Goals
1. Get to 15 chin-ups on a consistent basis
2. Run 2 miles in 15 minutes
3. Get back to that sub-27 5K in the short term
4. Run a sub-25 5K by next year sometime (not Jan 1 necessarily, just in 2015--this should be doable, but remember I'm an awful runner)
5. Win the damn tournament next year, since it will be on US soil.

8/8
50 Push-Ups, 12 Chinups
Cable Curls
Crossover rows

Ran two miles in about 17:12. Working up to that 5K in distance and down to that 15:00 in speed. Trying to decide which avenue to pursue first, or if I want to use one run per week on speed, and the other for distance.

1.5 mi run in 11:30 today, bit of speed work. Tomorrow: playing lasertag for the first time in almost two weeks! It's been too long!

For the first time in years, we are going to run an actual competitive league at our lasertag site, about which I am super-excited. It's tough playing mostly casual games all year and then having to kick it up into overdrive for tournaments, so this will be a chance to flex my competitive muscles closer to home. Last night was the team draft, for which I was one of the captains, and I must say I'm very pleased with how my team shaped up. I honestly couldn't believe that some of the players were available when it came around to me. I had 4th (last) pick initially, and the person I would have drafted at #1 was still available at #4. Definitely intend to smash this league, which will start after Labor Day (the next few weeks are practice).

Only unfortunate bit from last night was a knee-to-knee collision with one of my teammates. My left knee now has a fat bruise, and that will definitely preclude me from running for the next couple days most likely. Looks like it's back to the elliptical for now.

Minor knee injury had indeed taken me off running for a bit, but I managed to do some elliptical work the last two days, and I've been keeping up with my push-ups and pull-ups. Yesterday, added dips as well. I was ridiculously disappointed with how few I could do per set (7), so those are now being added to my calisthenics routine every other day.

Managed to work on the knee enough to run a mile yesterday, but only a mile. It's a start. I also played some lasertag Friday night, thanks to the new Achievement software that was just added. Being able to get some new features on my account made it very fresh again, took me all the way back to 1997 when I first joined up. Jesus... 1997... I'm old.

Should be playing twice this week now that I have a steady team for league. One of the teams might have just gotten a lot stronger at the top, but I think my team's strength at the middle rungs of the player ladder will give us a big edge in close games. I just need to be able to apply what I learned in Brisbane and start smashing people again.

Anyhow, push-ups, pull-ups, and dips are still happening, though not with as much intensity as of late. Concentrating more on cardio and lasertag skill for the moment. Talk is already underway for the 2015 tournament. I haven't been this stoked about the game in years, and I feel like I could actually break back through to a higher level of play. Just sucks that our facility is closing at the end of the year, with still no confirmation about when a new one might come in--but my buddy is optimistic he'll get funding soon.

Lasertag practice continues, and after months of playing rec games where I was mostly Ammo or Medic, I shocked the other players with my old school style of Commander where we killed out the enemy Ammo and Medic in under 3 minutes. Hopefully I can bring up my bottom-tier players to an acceptable level for the league and we'll have a big edge over the teams that don't appropriately train their newer guys.

Did some various exercises yesterday. Just keeping my total numbers here for my own reference:
100 squats
100 push-ups
12 chin-ups
10 pull-ups
20 dips
20 curls
20 rows

2 miles in 17:15. Going to keep working on this, as my goal is still to run a 5K race around Xmas time. In concert with lasertag leagues, I should keep in a lot better shape this winter. When the site closes in January, it will be a little tougher, but maybe I'll take up basketball or something to keep my reflexes sharp.

Planning is already underway for 2015 Internationals. Loveland, Colorado (about an hour north of Denver) seems to be the place. New site, new players, whole new chance to win! I'm excited!

We had an extra practice on Thursday, which didn't go all that great, but I think everyone was tired, so I'll give it a pass. Hope it wasn't the fact that I'd run two miles the day before, because that shouldn't tax me so much. Spent much of the rest of the week drawing up a playbook--this is the level of nerd (but it's semi-athletic, so jock-nerd?) I have reached now. On the exercise front, I've had to take it a bit easy on upper body stuff, because I think I may have strained some pectoral attachments near my sternum, which feels a bit tight. Going to lay off the push-ups and dips for at least one more day.

Other good news, though, is I finally landed a job in the area. It's not teaching, but at least it's at a college campus, working in their tutoring center. Having money coming in will be nice.

Off to buy some new dress shirts today, as I realized when I went for my interview last week that all my shirts were from my days as a fatty, and I'm a little too old to be wearing ill-fitting clothes. Tomorrow, I need to do some kind of run. I may shoot for a 5K to get my training back on schedule, but I don't want to throw myself off for Monday practice--though I suppose practicing on slight fatigue could be a better test.

Chest was still a bit tight today, so stopped after 20 push-ups. But also did the following:

100 squats
36 pull/chin-ups
32 shoulder/lat raises

Fartlek time! 3/2/1 cycle (6.7/7.4/8.1). Didn't feel too bad. Definitely feel much better now, after a big dinner tonight (farfalle with pesto, turkey and gravy, yum!). Hopefully chest tightness will go away soon so I can get back to push-ups and dips. With money coming in again, I might even be able to afford going to a real gym now!

After much deliberation, I'm probably going to keep the apartment for another 6 months or so. Even with the problems, it's not really worth the hassle of moving, given the location of my partner's job, and my new job. Hopefully, my long-term job plan (AP History teacher/full-time college gig) will pan out by next year, and we can afford a much nicer place.

Broke my glasses during Monday night practice on a collision with another player who claimed it was my fault. Ended up in a really ****ty mood the rest of the night, which did no one any favors. Tuesday was a rest day. Last night, I tried to work out, but got a migraine about 2 minutes into my run. Not fun. I'm going to see about an extra practice tonight, which might help my team on a couple things, but I do need to make sure I keep my workout schedule at least semi-regular. Going out of town this weekend, most likely (the in-laws, oh joy...), so hopefully that won't derail things too much.

Spared myself the out of town trip this weekend, but still adjusting to the glasses--something is off with my peripheral vision, so I had to take off my glasses while running last night. And due to practicing again on Thursday, I wasn't able to do as full a run as I would have liked. I did figure out the chest-tightness though. Apparently it's something with my dip technique, so I'll need to monitor that.

One more practice tomorrow before league (and my job) start on Monday. Definitely looking forward to it, though there are still a few kinks to iron out in places. In the meantime, been doing more of the same every few days.

Sets of:
50 Push-Ups
50 Squats
12+ Chin/Pull-Ups

Today I ran 2.25 miles, working on getting the distance back up, but with lasertag twice per week, it's tougher. Looking forward to the weather cooling down to do some more hiking and biking. The new condo I'm looking at now is close to the bike trail and is across the street from a 24 Hour Fitness, so that could be a really nice fit if it works out.

Looked at a new condo today, which looks great, and is adjacent to a 24-Hour Fitness and the bike trail, which would be about the most ideal thing ever. Today's exercises:

100 push-ups
12 pull-ups
10 Dips
4 x 10 rows
2 x 10 curls

2.30 miles in 20 minutes (2 min. walking + 3/2/1 fartlek at 6.8, 7.5, 8.2 mph)

Stoked for Football season starting tomorrow, job starting on Monday, and lasertag league finally starting Monday night!

Lack of updates and pics of late, but been doing more of the same. Having started work, gym schedule is a little tighter, but I'm still making time for 1-2 runs per week (1.5 miles tonight, but I've been feeling a bit sick of late). Enjoying the job so far; the worst I can say is it's a little boring at times, but maybe it'll give me a chance to work on that novel.



League started for lasertag. First week didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped, but my plan to use my weaker team lineups first (this league has a rotational format, so all players have to play all positions) will hopefully pay dividends in the second and third round of play. Really looking forward to making up a few points next week.

Been awhile since an update, but I don't want to make this log too boring. Things that have happened recently:

1. Hiking is on hold because the entire State has basically decided to burn itself to the ground--I had to cancel my 30th birthday (this weekend) plans as a result. Good news is hiking season will be longer at this latitude, so I'm looking forward to those autumn colors in October and November... if any trees remain.

2. Condo approval went through, which is great news for my fitness goals. 0.3 miles from the bike trail, which means I can haul the bike out of the garage, and with the bigger apartment, I'll have a space to store it. The trail also has a couple nice landmarks for running routes, so I can continue outdoor runs as I (maybe) gear up for some kind of race.

3. Lasertag league is in full swing, and my team is doing decently. The rotational nature of the league has produced some weird matchups, but if we win two crucial matches this coming Monday, we should be able to lock up a top 2 seed, which will be important to Finals. After that, we just need to set our best lineups, which is all that will matter when it comes time to battle for 1st.

Some scenes from the area I was hoping to hike:







So yeah, that was a no-go. Props to all the firefighters--in another life, I could have seen myself going into that line of work, but I'm too much of a nerd.

Updates:

(1) League rolls on, with my team solidly in 2nd place. Top 2 seeds have a similar advantage, so I'm not overly concerned about this. Oddly enough, I think we actually match up best against the team that is currently leading, so when it comes to Finals, I wouldn't be too fussed if we played them twice. My team just has to solidify the defensive end of our play, because we're getting smashed at the start of a number of games.

(2) New job rolls on. It's boring but whatevs, it's easy. I have a nice view anyway:


(3) Still doing basic workouts, but my running schedule has fallen way off. I'll be happy when I'm close to the bike trail again and I can hit it on the weekends. Managed to at least walk a bit last weekend when the weather finally cooled down and we got a tiny bit of rain:




River is still SUPER low. In the awkward of having to hope for a wet winter after leaving Portland to get away from that ****.

I know there has been a real lack of updates, so here's the short of it...

The bad news: my team came in 2nd in the league, and I'm sad to say it's mostly my fault for a costly error in the first game of Finals. More motivation for next one I guess. The other bad news is my running fitness today was awful. Between the long work hours and the stuff with the move, I wasn't running more than once/week other than at lasertag. Really need to up my cardio.

The good news: officially moved in to the new place, which is MUCH better, and I can get my bike out of storage and hit the trail as soon as I get some new tires. Other good news is work is going well, and is giving me plenty of time to work on my novel (lol). I guess the silver lining to league is I did get MVP, but I'd much rather have gotten 1st in the team standings.

So with the weather changing, I'm going to try and do a bike ride every Friday (once I get it tuned up... hopefully can pick up the bike itself this weekend), and run on Wed and either Sat/Sun, with lasertag on Mondays and potentially Thursdays once league starts. I'm planning to actually hit the gym again after Xmas when it's too cold to run outside, and I'll hopefully be getting a 2-year membership to 24 Hour for Xmas.

Back on the bike, knocked out about 20 miles this morning. Felt pretty good to get out there before the rain hit, though it looks like we won't get as much this afternoon as I was hoping. Having the bike back is a big relief, and hopefully I can still get in a fair number of rides in even with the weather about to change.

Two weeks of piss-poor attendance at lasertag, but hopefully we will be redrafting teams for league soon, and we can get back in a competitive environment or at least play a few tournament games. Rec games are all well and good, but doesn't really help prepare for the next Nationals.

Next up on the agenda: get a new car. Won't that be fun?

Yikes, 3 weeks since my last update. Better get with the program, because as my posting drops off, my gut gets softer.

I'm in that danger zone now. Temp getting colder, night falling earlier, weather getting wetter--makes outdoors stuff less accessible, and I can't afford that gym membership until Xmas. Trying as hard as possible to keep to the bike stuff, but when the temp is lower, my fingers/nose/ears start hurting, and it makes it rather unpleasant. To make matters worse, I am super tired when I get home from work now, and the prospect of going for a run in the cold and dark is super unappealing. And with holiday sweets coming up, I worry I'm digging myself another winter hole.

So, I have to keep motivation up. At least there is still lasertag on Mondays, and while I'm not psyched about my next team draw, it just means I have to work harder to lead my stable of players. I want to be in peak shape and playing form for the next Nationals, which I hope to win... though at that point, my guys and I will be on 3+ months of rust most likely, which is a major bummer.

Anyway, enough of my whinging. Here are a few hiking pics from Vets Day:









Going to try and do a run today. I am prepared to cry at my awful performance.