It's The Final Countdown

The weather is still snow and rain forecasted for the next ten days! So, paintball is still out of the question. Even if it was nice, we'd still be playing in a mud bog. The weather can't be hideous forever can it?

I just finished "Body For Life" by Bill Phillips, and my eyes have been opened. Apparantly I've been going about this whole get in shape journey all wrong. The book makes a lot of sense, and I have decided to accept Mr. Phillips' twelve challenge. Today is Friday, and I have decided to mark this monday as my first day. I'm pretty excited, and yet a little aprehensive. I see the before and after pics of people who've succeeded following this program, and I get all excited. I can't believe the change these people were able to make in just twelve weeks!

I guess the only thing that I am nervous about is getting all the workouts in. Without going into a lot of detail, the nature of my job is going to make some days virtually impossible to work out. I'm going to give it my best however. A missed workout here and there shouldn't destroy everything. The good news is that under Bill's program the workouts are pretty short, so squeezing them into a busy schedule shouldn't be as tough.

Anyway, I plan to keep a regular update on here as to my progress, and workouts and dieting and stuff. I think I will take a before picture, and then one every three weeks, so I can see a photographic record of my progress.

We shall see how it goes.

Desperate times are calling

Today is another judgement day. I weighed myself, and found that I've lost maybe one pound at most. I am just a little over 209 now, according to the mechanical scale. Maybe I've lost a little more, since it seems like I was on the heavy side of 210 last week. All in all, it's no great cause for celebration. I'm happy that I didn't gain at least. This week wasn't filled with an abundance of workouts either, so I can't complain too much. Work was just scheduled so that the work out opportunities weren't there. I am happy to report that twice during this week I broke my running records on the treadmill. I've never been much of a runner, and have never run continuously for more than three miles in thirty minutes.

At the beginning of the week I did run 3.25 miles. I hit the 3 mile mark at 29:20 min, and continued on just for the sake of breaking my record to 3.25. I am happy to report that this morning I broke that record. I started at a 10:00 min mile pace for 5 min. Then I increased the speed to 8:34 and ran that for 15 min. Then back to 10:00 for 5 min. and back to 8:34 for the last 5 min. In the end I have the following new records:

Longest time to stay at an 8:34 pace = 15 min.

Fastest time to run 3 miles = 27:10 min

Farthest to ever run without a rest = 3.5 miles

So, the weight loss may not be going as fast as I'd like it to, but there is some progress and something to be proud of. Also, have gotten some comments that my face is looking slimmer from a couple people, and my pants and duty belt at work seem to be fitting looser. I wonder if I am depending too much on the scale. I have been lifting weights a lot, and eating a lot of protein, so maybe I'm losing some body fat, while building some muscle, and therefore weight loss isn't translating to the scale.

Be that as it may, I'm thinking of adding Hydroxycut™ to the equation. To be honest it goes against my principles. I'm not a big beleiver in using drugs and supplements to attain fitness. If you can't attain it naturally, you won't be able to maintain it naturally. That's been my philosophy on that. But since this last ten pounds has been so stubborn coming off, I'm starting to think about using it just to fire off these last ten to fifteen pounds. Then go cold turkey. I am going to call the nutrition store today, and ask some questions. How does it work? Does it suppress appetite, or increase metabolism, or both?

Well, that's about it for now. Nothing paintball worthy to report today. It snowed last night, and the 30-40 mph winds are blowing it all over today. Looks like a scene from the Antarctic. Just waiting for the weather to warm up. That's it for now.

The Joy of Outfoxing

Out of boredom, I thought I'd post one of my favorite paintball memories, for posterity.

It was sometime in the mid-nineties, and a group of about ten of us had gathered for some recreational play in some river bottoms that line the banks of the Snake River. After a few friendly games, we noticed another group of about ten guys in full camo approaching us, paintball guns slung over their shoulders. They too had the same idea. They seemed like nice guys, and it wasn't long before it was decided we should band up and play together as one large group.

We played a few mixed games with them. By mixed, I mean we were all mingled together...no us vs them mentality. It was all fun and games, until they decided that they wanted to take us on. Their most out-spoken player said, " Hey how about us versus you guys for a game?" Suddenly the competitive juices started to flow. Don't get me wrong. They were the consumate good sports, but you could feel that somehow a lot of pride was being laid on the line. We all felt a burning need to beat these guys, and show them who was king.

We agreed. The format would be simple. Elimination. Each team would start from opposite ends of the field. The goal was simply to eliminate the other team. No flag to capture or other objectives to win. The last team with a surviving player on the field won. We seperated and startd walking to our respective sides of the field. My mind raced for some kind of strategy to use against these guys. I was more used to capturing a flag or achieving some other objective in order to win.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. It would be a risky plan, but if we could pull it off it would work great. When the whistle blew to start the game. We sprinted towards the other team as fast and as quietly as we could. When we reached close to mid-field we quickly went about burying our team mate, Jon, under a pile of branches, grass, and leaves. With Jon completely camo'd, and the other team not in sight yet, we faded back towards our base, taking cover in the trees and undergrowth.

It wasn't long before the other team began to appear in a skirmish line, emerging from the forest- one by one- like phantoms from a mist. We let them come a little closer, and opened fire. For a little bit we traded fire with them, until they eliminated one of our guys. That was our signal to fall back slowly. As we fell back, they naturally pushed forward, and to my much delight, they pushed right on past Jon, who still lay motionless under his hiding spot. Once we knew they were past Jon, we stopped our feigned retreat, and really opened up aggresively on them, moving, shooting, flanking, and pushing up a little. This was all to cause distraction - to get them so they had tunnel vision. Jon waited patiently for his signal to start the main phase of the plan.

With a loud war cry, I charged like a kamikaze towards the other team, firing at them as fast and wildly as I could, and also keeping myself in the open to present an irresistable target. The other team fell for my distraction technique, as all of them were firing like mad to take me out. Which in fact, they did. I felt the hot sting as several paintballs impacted on my chest and legs. Raising my hands I called myself out and started walking over to the side. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jon emerge smoothly from hiding. His gun reminded me of a coiled snake about to strike as I watched him take aim at the back of one of the unsuspecting opponents.

To wrap things up, let me just say, Jon had single handidly eliminated at least half of the other team, before any of them had any idea what was happening. The remaining four opponents collapsed on themseleves as our team rushed in for the kill. With Jon firing a hail storm of rounds at them from behind, and seven of our guys doing the same from the front, while charging and flanking, they didn't stand a chance.

The game was over. There were handshakes and smiles. War stories shared. The other guys were in utter awe.

One of my favorite things about paintball is when you put together a plan as a team, and follow that plan, using solid tactics and team work, and come out on top. It really is the icing on the cake in the sport for me.