9*6*11 day one lower... training and throwing... NOW WITH VIDEO

Today I am a bit stiff still from the trip and competition.  However since there is only a small number of training days left before worlds I have to take advantage.  Also today it seems that Ash managed to fit the Bay Area's weather in her bag and brought it home with us.  So with the hi today in the low 80's I decided I would be doing myself and my training a disservice if I just sat on my ass all day.  Here's how it went.

Warm up- x 5
jump rope x 100
pvc roll
philly ball roll
eblow rehab
band good mornings
stretch

Training:
squat:
bar x 10 x 3
135 x 5 x 2
225 x 3 x 2
315 x 2 x 4

Throwing:
22 hammer x 2 (on the second throw the head shot off before the throw I think it was about to go almost 200'  My Fat like reflexes saved me from going down though.)
16 hammer x 12 best of 133'  (felt solid I like the dynamic start.  I am going to keep playing with it.)

I figured while the ground is soft following whatever this Lee storm was supposed to be, I will throw some hammers.  These are my weakest event that I can train.  (Caber is way worse but I don't have one and probably wont have one in the next two weeks.)   So may as well strike while I can and try to make some improvements so I don't get to embarrassed at worlds.

9*6*11 BACK FROM CA... part 1

So Ash and I got home last night around 8:00 pm.  I am still pretty tired and my low back feels like mashed up assholes.  We boarded our 1st flight in Sacramento at 9:25 and stayed on the same plane through stops in LA, and Denver finally getting to New Orleans at 6:45pm.  However the flights were pretty uneventful and we were able to spend most of the time in the bulkhead seats with the just the two of us on our row.  This makes for a huge difference in travel since I have room to stand up and stretch when I want to.  None of this is new to those of you who also travel regularly, so on to the trip.

Day 1:  Travel and being failed by friends bad choices in restaurants

I married up... part of my code

We got up and rolled out heading to New Orleans to catch our leaving flight at 10:00.  No big deal there.  My wife looks infinity more attractive than I do anyways and especially on days that I am setting up for long travel.  Personally I cant bring myself to wear anything but sweatpants/shorts and light t-shirts.  I am trying to fight the non stop war on swamp ass all day.  The two of us have not had the chance to travel together other than our honeymoon since we drove up the east coast two years ago.  She was a great travel companion, one of the best parts is that she goes about it the same as I do with minimal expectations and takes it as it comes.

SAN DIEGO--rough translation "A whales Vagina"

We arrived in Sacramento at near 4:00pm after a short layover in Whales Vagina (San Diego).  We sat and had an older latin couple tell us about there travels and what we needed to do while in San Francisco.  Old people are Honey Baddgers they just don't give a shit if you have headphones in and are not listening. They will keep talking and eventually awkward you into the conversations.  So out the airport, get bags, and onward to pick up the whip.  This trip we have the luxury of navigating the bay area in a Nissan Versa.  This car is the cheapest option and feel just like that.  However it is easy to park and help all of our shit.

Driving into San Francisco from Sacramento takes about 1hr and 30mins so we stopped and grabbed IN-N-OUT like fucking bosses and made our way into town.  We were fortunate that our GPS (Shelia- this is the name of our cunt GPS voice) rerouted us away from traffic and sent us over the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was fun and now after being in CA for an 1hr we have now checked out the Golden Gate Bridge and smashed some double doubles.  Pretty solid so far.  Arriving at our hotel (the Metro) in downtown SF was easy enough then parking was another thing.  Our room was quaint with a tv the size of my head, but who needs it.  We showered and cleaned up to meet some friends for dinner.

little of the old IN-OUT, IN-OUT

having some Double Vodkas and bangers and mash... you betcha.

Dinner was originally planned for Tiernan's Irish Pub,(here is the YELP page for it.  Yelp is good if you are new to traveling and have never used the internet before.) this place is down by Fisherman's Warf and my buddies Duncan and Jonathan have gone every year for awhile.  (no self-respecting Ultra-marine would eat or drink here.)  Well while still respecting my friends opinion on things, Ash and I arrive before them by about an hour.  This place is tourist central and currently has a mutant running/singing awful karaoke.  There are laser lights and shitty "Fridays" fake memorabilia stapled to all of the walls.  Now that both my wife and I are pissed and can't get drinks from the Pikey wait staff fast enough to combat the onslaught of awful on our senses.  We text our friends tell them them we hate them and we are heading somewhere better.  After about 15 seconds on my phone we found a much better destination called The Irish Bank, and it is awesome.  Great atmosphere (dark and outdoorsy) and waitresses that are trying to make a living.   After finally leaving here and catching another cab back to the hotel we finally pass out kinda drunk, thank you vodka.

Day 2: San Francisco Day

Coffee- CHECK

We woke up with a bit of a headache from all of the excitement the night before, then promptly made our way to get coffee and breakfast rations.  There is a small place up the road that my wife wanted to go to.  It is nothing special but the coffee was good and the food was aces.  This place is kinda a locals joint called Eddie's Cafe.  This place uses random coffee mugs as their mugs.  I got a sweet giants one while Ash's was hearts like cartoon boxers.  After filling our tanks with black gold we set out to explore the city.(also I got a parking ticket for not having my wheels turned to the curb on a hill better than 3% grade.  WTF!!! $50 great stupid local law bullshit.)

That bee next level pollinator... mother nature thanks you.

Since where we were staying was right next to Golden Gate Park we started there.  This place was beautiful and holds some different gardens.  Our first stop was the Botanical Garden, this place was super cool.  The exhibition that was on display was "Wicked Plants" (this is referring to that the plants sting or kill things, not that they are Bruin, Sox, or Celtic fans.)  Not much to say about it but plenty pictures.

Venus Fly Trap doing work...

These are cactus....BOOM!!!

I fight back.....

it's the beach dummy.

SUP DOODS!!!!

I eat a lot of carbs I mean Crabs . Well we know truth.

After that we headed over to the beach and gave it a good looking at.  The sand in CA sucks compared to FL and the water is cold.  But I guess it is the reason that San Francisco feels like the AC is always on and Home feels like the inner circle of hell.  There were a couple of sweet ass crabs on the beach, as well as rocks and what not.  We loaded back in the Versa and stopped for more coffee.  unbeknownst to us the restaurant we stopped at over looks the ruins of the Sutro Baths.  This was a giant ocean water filled bath house where dudes and chicks wearing dumb swimsuits could use water slides and swim laps.  Pretty sweet, so we gave further inspection finding a cave.

Ruins of bath House

used to be this... worst MTV spring break ever.

that's my boo.. I can see her aura.

I snuck around the barrier.... FUCKING REBEL

When we finished all of the wandering around the coasts we determined that we were hungry again and in fact it was time to find Mexican food.  We made our way to our previously decided lunch destination of Taco Shop at Underdogs.  This place has by far and way the best fucking fish tacos I have ever had, that mixed with a pint of Anchor Steam made for a fantastic lunch.  This place was great, good service, cold beer, delicious food, and good music playing.

Full table of TACOs....SMART

The Armory-Where dreams and girls with daddy issues go.

Now powered by the best tacos ever we made our way to Haight St.  There are a ton of vintage shops and other bullshit over there.  Lots of people and no clothes that fit fat people like me.  Ash found some stuff she wanted so that was cool.  Very touristy area, next time we come there will be no reason to stop here.  OH I forgot on the way we made a swing by The Armory in downtown.  This place has been used for all types of shit, but now currently is owned and operated by Kink.com and they can make a great fuck picture.

After exhausting ourselves walking around at such great altitudes we decided it was time to head to Pleasanton and check in to the Hotel.  We ate some giant ass noodle bowls for dinner at a place completely getting ripped off the apple logo.

Get day one of competition in part 2.  Stay tuned it's a cliff hanger.

8*31*11 Video from lifting last night and packing for San Francisco

So here is the Video of last nights lifting.  The battery died on my camera and I was not able to record my throws.

So today, I am taking care of my normal bullshit around the house before I leave for CA.  My wife has a bit of an itinerary planned for us, on Thursday evening and Friday around San Francisco.   She has a list of things to see and places for us to shove food in our mouths.  

Here is the short list of what we are planning on eating.

Since my wife has to eat Mexican food in some manner every 12 hrs,  I am sure going to be stop number1.
1.  The Taco Shop at Underdogs

This joint is supposed to have amazing Fish Tacos.  If there is one thing in life that I absolutely love, it is watching people fail, ( see the following) after that it is a delicious Fish Taco.  So I am pretty stoked.

What is that a jpeg? You have to use a TIF file.

 

2. The Magnolia Pub and Brewery

This place looks pretty solid despite that they want to serve beers with annoyingly clever names in pretentious glasses. (side note I can't even get close to spelling pretentious with out 10 lbs of spell check.)  

Reality CZECH Pilsner.... ugh...

              

This reminds me of a time I was in Ohio, hanging out with two friends.  I had picked up a 12 pack of Goose Island beer to drink and upon arrival I asked "Have you guys ever tried this?" and with a quick response one of these two savages says, "Yeah, I have had a beer before."  That was that.  Then I sat on the couch and watched these two superb athletes play their weekly game of NCAA 2010.  This is by far the most pathetic thing I have ever seen, they sit there and run up the score cause the other guy won't play defense.(literally doesn't hold the controller)  Instead they take turns throwing 1st down hail mary's, then dipping and texting people not there.  I think this SHIT SHOW ended with a score of 71-67 Ohio State over Arizona.  Also I think 4000+ yards of total offense were accomplished.  AWFUL.

3.  Rosemunde Sausage Grill

This is the other place on her growing list of things to do.  It is a sausage shop (fancy ass hot dogs) in downtown SF.  I feel like it just softballs the jokes in there.  Ummmm I bet this place is a desirable 1st date location in SF.  (get it.. cause of the sausages and all the gays.  Sausage is like dicks.)  However I digress, I love sausages, hotdogs, and beer.

Skin encased Meats....SMART!!!!

She is stoked on all three of these places so I am looking forward to it.  In our travels I have never been disappointed by here choices for food.   We are also planning on seeing some of the local sites.  I have not been to SF in probably 6 years to really check it out.  So I will get to show her around town Thursday and Friday then throw on Saturday in Pleasanton.  I am really looking forward to the break from the heat and being in the bay area.  The ability to wear a hoody at night literally gives me a good weather boner.

 I also picked up some sweet hot pink spandex shorts for under my kilt.  Should match the rest of my look.

Reppin the Dirty

8*30*11 Training today and Trying out new product

Short update here:

Training: 
Push Press:
bar x 10 x 2
135 x 10 x 2
225 x 5 x 2
275 x 2 x 2
315 x 2 x 3

Thing felt really good today and fast.  I decided to do a normal push press to feel the drive from feel all the way up to the hands.

Throwing:

Ostone:
standing x 5 best of 53'  Changing a bit here, after getting some advice from Bert Sorin and John Davis I think I can get a longer push on the stone.
fulls x 5 best of 61'

LWFD: x 6 best of 84'

Really smooth today just working rhythm and hitting a low point in the back and driving to the trig.  Things are where I want them to be right now, I need to figure out how I can throw hammers tomorrow with the ground like concrete and some WOB and call it a week.

Also today my C-prime bracelet came in.  I am curious to see the benefits of this.  All of the guys at Sorinex are wearing them as well as the guys who run Athletes Arena.  Since none of the guys at either have ever pointed me in the wrong direction with anything, I'm going to give it a shot.  The biggest difference they claim it makes is that it helps you get a deeper sleep.  I will keep everyone updated on it.





(Kinda looks like a condom wrapper but its about the size of a CD...or what I call my condom wrapper..ZING)

8*29*11 Pre-workout shake, Training Video, and Cakes

I am still prepping for my last three games of the year.  I was for whatever reason not really feeling motivated to throw today, but after taking my pre-workout shake I was ready about 15 min later.  I mix two scoops of protein (Chronomass), 1 scoop of Jack3d, and 1 scoop of Modern BCAA.  For whatever reason this combination has worked great for me.  Even on days that I don't want to train after I take my shake and get my lifting for the day planned out and what I want to accomplish I am good to go.


Now that I am feeling motivated to do something other than lay on the couch, I decided to knock out my day one.  Normally with a games this week I would be backing way off but since I have three in a row I will be backing off at the end of next week so that I can try and peak at IHGF Pro Worlds.  This is not saying that I don't want to throw well the next two weeks, (cause I do and will have to if I want to win) I just want to give my self the most opportunity to throw my best at Worlds.

Training:
Lifting:  Here on out are sets of 2.  Nothing too heavy keeping it between 50-65% so that weight feel fast.

Warmup:
jump rope
roll foam/pvc
stretch
stick
rehab on elbow

Squat: ss bar
bar x 10 x 2
135 x 5 x 2
225 x 2 x 2
315 x 2 x 2
365 x 2 x 2
(elbow rehab between sets)

Throwing:
Ostone:
standing x 5 with shot  best of 50'   (sucks throwing one of these again)
fulls x 5 with stone best of 61+ three over 60'

HWFD:
one turns: x 3 40'
fulls x 5 best of 44 ( all over 40' and three around 43+')

Things are feeling how I want them to feel right now.  I just need to stay focused for the next three weeks and get done what I am supposed to.  I also came in from the field yesterday to find my lovely wife baking a cake and cupcakes.  She made a cake that was like a giant Ding-Dong, the snack cake not dicks, and cupcakes the same way.  She is totally awesome I can't wait to have her come to San Francisco with me and fill her up with In-and-Out.  I have to say I am just as excited about this trip as I was going to Iceland this summer.

ARTICLE: Priorities Focus on what you want to accomplish

Success, Making it a Priority

By Matt Vincent

Making training a priority is necessary if you want to be successful.  This idea is definitely nothing new, however many people still don’t get it.  For the last two years I have been competing in Highland Games seriously.  In that time I have gone from being a decent amateur to winning the IHGF Amateur World Championships in Spokane, WA this past weekend.  To make this happen I had to make training to throw far my priority.  When I tell people about the amount of time I put into throwing and training I usually hear that they do not have time to train like that.  Well I’m here to say that the reason I have time to train like I do is because I make time.  The most important thing in my life is my relationship with my wife, without this everything falls apart.  Next is making sure my job is being done well, not having a job is not an option and I like the one I have.  Third is my training.  Everything else in my life falls into distant places behind that. 

Having time to train properly is something that does not just happen, it’s something that you have to make happen.  When I write my training program, I do the workouts as scheduled each day with little exception.  I don’t skip training to go to the bar with friends or because I am tired at the end of the day from work.  Everyone has an hour or two that they could get for training if they wanted to.  The key here is that “want” to train.  There will be sacrifices made so that your priorities stay in line.  However, anything worth accomplishing is hard and will require sacrifice and discipline.  If something is truly important to you then these sacrifices are will not be an issue.  This dedication to what you want to accomplish will get you closer to your goals. 

I have tried many different things to dial in what works best for me.  Personally I like a high training volume.  I can lift and throw in the afternoon in about an hour-hour and a half at most.  I do all of my recovery work in the am before work.  I do some walking ( 10-30 min) then rolling and stretching, this usually give me time to wake up clear my head and figure out what I need to try and accomplish that day in training and work.  Another sacrifice I have had to make is now I train alone 90% of the time.  When I was focusing on powerlifting I was training with a great group -- however the workouts were taking too long.  Even though getting a chance to talk shop and bullshit with a group of guys is something I enjoyed, it wasn’t getting me any closer to my end goal.  Because of that I had to take my training back to my garage and go it alone.  Many people hate training alone and find it hard to self motivate; I’m not one of those people.  I have goals I am focused on achieving, and that is all the motivation I need. 

               

                In short if there is something you want to accomplish in your sport or life for that matter, stop talking about it or making excuses and get to doing it.  Every day that you sit by and do nothing, you just gave yourself one less day to accomplish things before you die.  So time is short and there is no time like now.  Stop making excuses and get your priorities set for whatever it is that you want to do. 

8*28*11 Strongman and gearing up for travel...

So this last weekend I went and help a great friend of mine run a strongman competition.  Mark Cummings has been promoting strongman in Louisiana for the last 3 years and I have been lucky enough to have been part of them in some way.  Mark also was a main influence in both my brother and I getting into strongman and actually competing in strength sports. I have since retired (I say retired cause it sounds like a decision, however the real problem is that I am not good at it and it is really hard.) from competing in strongman other than the occasional Highlander.

This contest is a welcome one every year due to it being inside with AC and a great crowd.  It is part of the Taste of Tiger Tailgating, which is to promote the up and coming LSU football season, and has a full house packed into the Baton Rouge Convention Center.  A large crowd was on hand to watch the 20 guys compete in max log press, car wheelbarrow, carry and drag medley, and the infamous atlas stones.  When the cards fell at the end of the day I was pretty proud that the winners of both the LW class and the HW class are two of my regular training partners.  MAHK and Lonny, these guys have been instrumental in helping me become successful in strength sports.

Over a year ago when Strongman was my main focus and was MAHKs we were both under the impression the bigger we got the better it was going to be.  Before the last contest that we both actually focus and trained for I think we both made weigh ins at over 300+(me at 312 and MAHK at 303)  looking red and puffy as ever.  The fantastic bloat we were chasing was epic full on diet of pizza, salt, and ice cream.  Needless to say those days are long since gone.  I am stable at 275 now and MAHK is sitting below 240.  Here is Turbo Fatt me looking like a hero and drinking what is supposed to be a captain and coke however looks like the coke missed the invite.

Anyway it was fun to be around the strongman group again however I know that this type of competition is not for me any more mentally.  The shift to the highland games has been great.  Most throwers are pretty laid back, therefore bringing a lack of sitting around and mean mugging each other for 6 hours of a contest.


In just a few more days me and the wife will pack up and head out for San Francisco.  I will be competing in the Highland Games in Pleasanton, CA. and we will enjoy a short vacation.  I am really looking forward to the games it should be a pretty competitive day since Pleasanton is always one of the strongest games of the year.

TRAINING:


This weeks training will be a three day week. I will lift and throw mon-wed.  then shut it down and recover till the contest on Sat.  Three more weeks in a row of games then I head to Chicago for work for a week and my lovely wife is coming with me for this as well.  She has never been so this will also be great and it will give me some time to start de-loading before the off season  training starts.  I am still dealing with a bit of elbow pain but it seems to improve a lot from using Ice and Stem.  Since I now have a portable tens unit I can take care of that on the road.

traveling and tossing-Like a BOSS!!!-
MAT$O