Category Archives: Life

100 Push Up Challenge, Week 3

Life

Last weekend was the beginning of the 100 Push Up challenge and I managed to get through 30 consecutive push ups for the initial strength test.

I really have no idea of what ‘normal’ would be for an average guy being asked to do push ups but I generally consider myself reasonably strong – so figured that an initial strength test of 30 was doing pretty well. It wasn’t until I read the training program to complete 100 consecutive push ups that I realised that I was no where near strong enough, in particular completely lacking the endurance. When doing strength training at a gym, I would normally do 3 sets of 10-12 repitions on a much heavier weight but the challenge of five sets with much, much higher repititions is going to be tough.

The first session in week 3 was, in short, an eye opening experience. I had assumed that since the guide placed me into week 3 that it’d be relatively smooth sailing, however I wasn’t able to complete all the requirements on each of the five sets and came up short in sets four and five. Not surprisingly, within 15 minutes of completing the session – my arms felt like they’d recovered and were able to go again. It wasn’t until Tuesday that I realised that doing push ups was working whole new sets of muscle groups, core muscles to be exact which were noticely tired and sore that day.

Session number two and the repitions increased again, which after not completing the first session successfully only two days earlier – I held little hope that I’d make it through. To my surprise, while I didn’t make it through all five sets completely – I only came up by a handful of push ups and incresed my total work output from 70 to 95 push ups.

On to the last session for the week and everything increased again, however after having what I’d consider a successful session two – I entered session three with reasonable expectations that I’d at least complete the strength training completely. Not only did each of the sets get completed, I pushed an additional 10 push ups out of the fifth set giving a total of 130 for the session.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going through last weeks work out with such a weak start, however after the initial shock of strength and endurance training for the first time in 10 months – everything kicked back into gear and I’m hopeful that I won’t fall off the wagon until I can complete at least 100 consecutive push ups!

100 Push Up Challenge

Life

I came across a personal fitness and exercise site named 100 Push Ups, which is about what it suggests – being able to do 100 push ups in a row.

Over the weekend I went through the initial test, which is to guage what your current fitness level is. The test is very straight foward, do as many consecutive good form push ups as you can in one session until you can’t push another one out. That number is used to place yourself into the fitness training program. I managed to get through 30 push ups in my initial test, which puts me into week three of the training schedule.

It wasn’t until I started reading through how the fitness program is structured to build strength that I realised that I was in for a bit of a shock. While at the gym, I’d normally do weights in sets of three with between 10-15 repetitions per set. At week three in the push up challenge, the sets start at 14 and go up from there.

As a matter of curiosity, a few months ago I thought it’d be useful to know how much weight I lift when doing a simple push up and it was approximately 55kg or slightly over 50% of my body weight. With that number in mind, I knew getting through the 100 push up challenge was going to be just that – a challenge and not something that I’d casually stroll through.

In the coming weeks, I’ll report back on how my progress is going on the challenge. I don’t expect it to be easy but I’m hoping that I build my arm strength up in a hurry, as by the end of next week the exercise program is expecting me to do 160 push ups over five sets with two minutes break between each set !

Smile Plus, Gold Coast Dentists Without The Fuss

Family, Life

Toward the end of last week, Claire mentioned that she had a toothache but didn’t take too much notice of it. By the time Friday clicked round, the toothache that she wasn’t paying all that much attention to was well and truly making her pay attention.

Being generally uneasy about dentists, Claire called one of her older sisters for a dentist recommendation. While Anita could offer a suggestion, it was more than likely that the soonest Claire could see anyone was going to be early the following week. At this point, the toothache was severe enough that Claire could barely wait for 9AM to come around to get to the chemist to get some serious pain relief for it. After taking the first two Panadeine Ultra tablets, it provided relief for about two hours – instead of the normal four and then the ice packs came out.

At this point, it seemed quite clear to me that there was no way that Claire was going to be able to make it through to next week (if she was lucky) – so I started calling around some local Gold Coast dentists just before lunch time on Saturday morning in a vein hope that one would be open and be able to see Claire.

The local Pacific Pines Dentist was open, however unable to get Claire in until Monday but referred us to Smile + or Smileplus in Southport. Giving them a quick call, the receptionist was helpful and I got to talk to the dentist within about a minute of calling. They were just about to close up but stayed open for us, which was absolutely fantastic. We left straight away to get into Southport Central and they were both very reassuring for Claire and really set her mind at ease about the whole dental experience.

About an hour and a half later, Claire had her initial consultation, x-rays and a the problematic tooth extracted. To Claire’s surprise, she was feeling considerably better before we’d even left the dental surgery, as the pressure being placed on the nerve was gone.

I think I thanked the dentist & his nurse about half a dozen times while we were there. It was such a refreshing experience to be able to call, when you’re really in need of a specialist service and to be able to get in touch with the specialists. Claire was so impressed with their service, that she voluntarily scheduled another appointment for this Saturday for a general check up, which I think speaks volumes about their service.

Year In Review

General, Life, Photos

Hugo Lattimore in Dad's arms when he was approximately 4 months oldTime just seems to keep on zipping by and 2008 is already behind us.

I think I can safely say that last year was the most incredible year that I’ve ever experienced and it has everything to do with Hugo. I  had no idea that a single little person could have such a profound impact on your life but it has been magnificent.

At the end of 2007 and the start of last year, I had a seemingly endless run in with different fauna:

Thankfully since the start of the year, we haven’t had any more wasp stings, massive cockroaches or cane toads inside the house.

At a similar time to all that going on, I bought the insides of a new computer to help re-establish my geek prowess and for the first time in a long time – had a bit of trouble with things. First off it was the power supply whirring, which took longer to fix than it should have. That was followed by a video card making high pitch squealing noises. After far too many weeks and months had passed, I finally got everything back together and now the fan on the video card is playing up! One of these days I’ll get everything sorted and I’ll have a fully functional and very fast desktop computer.

April saw a bit of activity as we were able to get out and about a little bit. We travelled out to Somerset Dam for Phil’s birthday bash with family and friends. Phil and Cam brought their new jet skis with them and I came very close to being bucked off the back while Cam was driving at a moderate pace. It’s been about five years since I’d ridden a jet ski, so I’d forgotten how much power they have and how aggressively you can turn them – it was great. I got to go and watch the Gold Coast Titans play the New Zealand Warriors at the new Skilled Stadium at Robina. The stadium was great, easy to get to with public transport (no on-site parking) and the venue itself was easy to navigate. We both went and saw The Phantom of the Opera as a present to Claire from her parents and it was positively magnificent – I’d see it again in a heartbeat. At the end of the month, I set up a blog for Andrew & Belinda which they’ve taken to with gusto – now I just have to get the others to get one!

July and August saw Claire and I attend antenatal classes on the Gold Coast. Over the five different antenatal classes, for the impending birth, we both learned a lot. Our instructor, Alex, was young and energetic and delivered each class really well. She was open to what probably seemed like odd questions too. I was surprised that the average age of our class would have been close to 35 and after watching some of the videos during the classes, I developed a whole new level of respect for women and the human form!

September saw the arrival of Hugo Rankin Lattimore at 12:50PM on Thursday 4th September. Claire was due to have Hugo at the end of August or possibly the first day in September but that wasn’t to be. Following is a brief chronological list of events from the day in question:

  1. 12:00AM: Induction
  2. 08:00AM: Waters broken
  3. 08:30AM: Drip attached to bring on contractions
  4. 09:00AM: Things are underway
  5. 10:30AM: Epidural
  6. 11:00AM: Action stations!
  7. 12:50PM: Hello baby!

From that time onwards, our lives have been changed forever and I wouldn’t want it any other way. We noticed early on that Hugo has definitely inherited some skin colouring from Claire. I’ve posted three major updates since then, 1 month, 2 months and 4 months. At the moment, Hugo is still growing like a little trooper and weighs in at approximately 8.8Kg and 70cm long. Those sorts of figures put him right at the top end of the growth charts for a baby of his age. It may sound like a lot but he is in good proportion and certainly isn’t overweight – just a big boy, which I think is awesome!

I suspect we’re no different to most other new parents in that we had a limited amount of knowledge about how to care for a newborn child. Over that time, we’ve stumbled and fumbled our way through, learning as we go, which has been really rewarding. Claire has been positively magnificent with Hugo, the understanding, care and compassion she shows him amazes me daily. One thing that I’ve come to realise, with a little help from Claire, is that babies will do baby things, whenever they want. Early on in the piece, I had an expectation that they’d know what was best for them (instinctively) and would march along to their own beat. At times that didn’t happen and I’d get frustrated because I thought I wasn’t able to do the whole baby thing. As it turns out, I was just anxious and not long after, I found my own drumbeat to march to.

December is meant to be relaxing, with Christmas and the new year to ring in – however this year it was rather busy. Mid-month we made our way up to the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre to attend Lucy’s graduation and were pretty disappointed with the parenting facilities (how life changes!) and the lack lustre cafe. We embarked on our first major road trip with Hugo on our way out to Chinchilla – approximately four hours worth of driving. We weren’t sure how that was going to pan out but with a little planning, it was smooth sailing and no screaming! Christmas was meant to be a low-key affair this year, however that just didn’t happen – I don’t think I’ve seen so many presents before in my life and soon thereafter I turned 28 and got more wicked presents!

Early indicators suggest that 2009 is going to be a bender, I can’t wait to see what it offers.

28th Birthday

General, Life

It’s that time of the year again, I’m now a whopping 28 years of age!

I woke up in no particular rush, Claire and Hugo came in to say Happy Birthday which was great. Being a bit of a present fanatic, Claire thought I should open some presents immediately – I obliged and received the following wicked gifts:

  • Bvlgari Aqva Marine
  • Huge box of Ferrero Rocher
  • Gift voucher for some clothes
  • Oakley Antix sunglasses in black tortoise
  • Professional canvas print of Hugo
  • Framed digital print of Hugo

After that we set about our normal morning routine with Hugo and I nipped out to get some McDonalds for breakfast too. We were expecting guests in the afternoon and the house still needed some attention post Christmas, so we cleaned the house to make it a little more respectable.

Andrew, Belinda & Ben arrived at our place just after 11AM for lunch. I received another present from the three of them, a pair of very cool looking cargo style shorts and The Dark Knight DVD which is the latest in the Batman series. Anita & Emily also drove up to the Gold Coast and I received an Armani Code gift set which contains the Armani Black Code perfume, body wash and after shave!

As is the ritual for lunch, we went to Hogs Breath for some fine meat. For those that are familiar with Hogs Breath, they’ll know that the prime rib is only available for dinner. The last two times we’ve been, the prime rib menus have been available for lunch – which is a little strange given that the 18 hours from the previous dinner wouldn’t have lapsed yet to cook it. As it turns out, they don’t serve the prime rib, they serve the same steak but as a rib fillet (so not slow cooked) but you can order it with any of the dinner arrangements.

On the way home, we picked up a cheese cake from the Cheese Cake Shop and everyone met back at our place for some dessert. Lucy & Michael couldn’t make it up for lunch but got to our place just in time for cheese cake. However, as I later found out they don’t like cheese cake, I maintain that it is their loss! Mid afternoon, everyone got on the road and headed back to Ipswich and Brisbane. For dinner, Claire thought she’d cook a chicken & pumpkin risotto that we both love and as usual, it was delicious!

Thank you to everyone who traveled to the Gold Coast, phoned, sent me an SMS, instant message or email today. My 28th birthday has been great and I can whole heartedly say that I’ve been very spoilt! See you all this time next year as I edge ever closer to the magic 30 milestone!