Advanced Class report

Tuesday night we went to the first ECR Advanced Class intro night. Dave Decot and Michael Levy did a good job trading off tips, with some APD Plus and a few new Advanced calls. It was nothing like Andy's sink-or-swim methods -- when I took the class about 7 years ago, we plunged right in to Chain Reaction, and I had to quit after contracting the flu about two weeks in. This time, we had 2 squares, about half students, which is not bad; some of my favorite people angeled, including Lou Ceci and allanh, who wrote about it here. We only attracted one student from outside the South Bay / Peninsula, but the rent on the school gym we used is apparently so cheap the class can be small and still break even. There were some breakdowns when Dave or Michael screwed up, but trying to make illegal calls work can be fun.

We already have the Big 5 and Callerlab definition books from my previous try at A, so we're set.

In unfortunate timing news, we'll have left for Ft. Lauderdale the day Andy/otterpop58 visits to call for ECR's dance.

Gym update

I haven't written about it for awhile, so here's the quarterly gym report.

Golds Mountain View: equipment aging, attendance down because of low-cost offers from 24Hr Fitness and the attraction of the spiffy new Golds in San Mateo. Met a goodlooking guy named Terry last week who was checking it out in comparison to Campbell, haven't seen him since [insert frowny face.] To compound matters, the hot water tanks installed to fix the "flush the toilet, freeze the guys in the shower" problem broke down last week, still unfixed. Lots of the big boys have moved to Santa Clara and points south. The departure last year of Brendan, our very gay-friendly manager, to Santa Clara has meant less capable management.

Me: I'm having to work around a number of small injuries and problems -- including pain in the right shoulder (which has always been troublesome since I separated it tripping on a crack in the sidewalk on Mass. Ave. in Arlington running back home from a wedding where I may have had a beer or two, c. 1985.) Continuing problems with tendonitis (both medial and lateral epicondylitis) have forced me to cut back on the weight I use for several upper-body areas. I have increased the number of reps to almost make up for it and mostly have kept upper body muscle mass, but my biceps have shrunk an inch or so.

Leg Press: I've backed off from my personal best 900# to a consistent 860# topout. excessor now does heavier weights for many things, including that, since he's more hormonally suited to building muscle. I keep the squats at 225# after topping out at 315# a few years ago.

Definition: body fat's around 12%, which is good enough for me. Diet has suffered a bit from holiday socializing. Time to dump the holiday cookies and get serious.