Day 2 — Upper strength + hypertrophy

Use upper strength warm-up.

A. Bench Press

225 x 5
230 x 5
235 x 4
240 x 2
240 x 2
230 x 5 back-off
Rest 2:00 after first 2 sets
Rest 2:30 after 235
Rest 3:00 before and after 240 sets
RESULTS: 225, 230, 235 only 3 reps, 240, 240, 230 only 4 reps

B. Chest-Supported DB Row

3 x 8 @ 62s
1 x 6-8 @ 70s
Rest 75-90 sec
RESULTS: Done, last 2 reps of 70# slow and not perfect

C. Incline DB Press

70 x 6
62 x 10
62 x 10
Rest 90 sec
RESULTS: barely got last 2 reps of last set.

D. Half-Kneeling 1-Arm DB Press

35 x 8/side
35 x 8/side
44 x 5/side
35 x 8/side
Rest 20 sec between sides
Rest 60 sec between sets
RESULTS: done. 44# was ugly, but reinvigorated last set of 35 so that it felt easy! 44 not all reps were perfect.

E. Cable Face Pull

3 x 12-15
Use a load that keeps reps clean
Rest 45 sec
RESULTS: 85# x 15, 87.5 x 15, 87.5 x 12

These workouts are a grind. I pick a spot on the sidewalk, run up around the end of Saratoga, back down and around the culdesac to the right, then up past our house to the first corner.

It goes well in the middle once my body has done 1 rep, then it's fatigue at the end pushing my time higher.

I love the feeling of the strain.  It hurts, I want to stop, but I also like it.  It makes me feel so alive.  It makes me feel like I did something good for myself, and my future.

DAY 6 — RUN WORKOUT: MILE SUPPORT
Warm-up:

Easy jog — 8 min
Walking lunges — 10 total
Air squats — 10
Pogo hops — 20 sec
Relaxed strides — 2 x 20 sec
Easy jog/walk — 2 min
Workout:
 5 x 600m

Rest 2:00 walk/jog
Target pace:

Rep 1: 2:12
Rep 2: 2:12
Rep 3: 2:10-2:11
Rep 4: 2:10
Rep 5: 2:08-2:10
Cool-down:

Easy walk/jog — 8-10 min
Daily goal:

Fast but relaxed
No rep slower than rep 2
RESULTS: Brutal workout.  My times at an actual 600m measured in my neighborhood: 2:16, 2:10, 2:10, 2:11, 2:12

About 10 years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a sushi restaurant owner's daughter during my monthly sushi meetup with Jimmy, my old business partner.

She was about 16 at the time.  Friendly, smart, discipline, organized as she helped out waiting tables.

I found out she was beyond a straight A student, and quite accomplished for her young age.

Having 2 young daughters of my own (around 6 and 4 at the time), I was curious if there was some secret I needed to be privy to, in order to raise daughters with similar qualities.

Steve said, "Tae Kwon Do".

His daughter was a 6th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Steve assured me this was a big part of his daughters success at such a young age.

The discipline.  The life lessons.  The respect.

It was than that I hoped my girls would eventually find their way to the martial arts.

The first attempt failed when I enrolled Kalea into Tae Kwon Do classes when she was about 5 or 6.  ATA was the name.

Oh did she cry during the first group class.

And that was it.  One class.

Too young and/or not ready.

I kinda forgot about things until my younger daughter Kara asked to try Tae Kwon Do when she was 7.  

The closest spot was Tae Kwon Do Plus about half a mile from our house.

There's a video of Squeak in her white belt and headband, at home after the first class, responding to my prompts with palm strikes and kicks.

Her tiny little leggies sticking out for awkward little kicks, along with open hand "palm strikes" (which she now insists were never a thing, and what the hell was I doing... :) )

She stayed with it.

Then Bink joined up for her second attempt 6 months later.

They were in it.  They went every week.  And in 2022 or so, they both achieved the rank of Black Belt.

While that is truly the "beginning" of the journey in martial arts, Bink went off to high school cross country and track, and had to quit Tae Kwon Do.

But Squeak stayed on.  She forged new friendships, and has found her way into a tight "sisterhood" of TKD students and teachers.

In fact, she's now teaching kids after having advanced in the TKD leadership program, and is next in line to become a paid instructor.

She's entered several tournaments and come away with several gold medals, lots of silver medals, and a few bronze medals.

I couldn't be more proud of her resiliency and discipline she has embraced.

It's helped her far beyond the studio.  The lessons spill out into all of life, just as Steve said they would.

This is something I hope she continues for the rest of her life, as it's become a safe space for her.  A place where she can shut out the rest of the world for a time.

In 4 years she was never mentioned. Essentially "cut out" of the team, marginalized by the fastest (and therefore most popular).

Excluded, ignored, left out.

Sticking with her best friend, and a few others not a part of the "in" runner's crowd, she just kept on running.

After months of hearting about heavy legs, fatigue, and lethargy, her coach asked us to test her iron.

It was low.

Way low.  Ferratin level was a 4.  I hear that's pretty low.

So, we put her on iron supplements, and after several weeks, she began to PR.  In each race.

No longer were her legs heavy.  No longer was she "plateaued".

However, she was still ignored.

Award team meals, bus rides, races.  

I don't know that I'll ever fully grasp why, in a team environment in high school, cliques happen.

And in the end, The Bink persevered with her small group of friends on the team, and got the Most Improved Runner award after posting a 5:58 mile in her last run of the year.

A goal was reached.  More importantly, a lesson was learned.  You just keep going, through it all, and usually, good things happen.  Life rewards persistence.

So proud of Bink.

I still remember her first article as a Sophomore at FTHS.  It was an article about the Barbie movie.

https://foothilldragonpress.org/280296/a-latest/toxic-feminism-vs-body-positivity-reviewing-greta-gerwigs-barbie/

And her full body of work...

https://foothilldragonpress.org/staff_name/kalea-eggertsen/

"Dad, I just submitted my article to the backend!", she exclaimed as she climbed our stairs.  Big smile on her face.

It was new and fresh.  And she was writing for an audience of many now, instead of just 1, 2, or none. 

1 article, and 1 "Best of SNO" award.

Binky on fire!

Over time, she realized journalism wasn't for her.  She became an editor, overseeing her writers.

She travelled to Seattle and the next year, Minneapolis, to attend the awards ceremonies.

This year, 2026, the Foothill Dragon Press won a national award once again after missing it last year.

I admit I haven't read even half of her articles.

However, I'm making a point to go through them one at a time, each week, until I've see it all.

Funny how we don't always take the time to read the things that really matter.

Sometimes, I look at a page of text, and I push it away in favor of other miniscule tasks that "matter", but not that much.  And they certainly aren't urgent.

We've all got things to improve, and this is mine.

Lean into reading.

Step into the important things.

The mundane can wait.  

The mundane can be left undone, and you won't miss it.

Sifting through the pages of Bink's senior yearbook created a nostalgic feeling for those final years of childhood.

While my high school experience was filled with a tentative anxiety for all things: dances, cliques, girls, and people I didn't know - which was almost everybody.

So, while it's just 4 years of your life, and mine was more uneventful than most, the scribblings on the pages of the yearbook still create a nostalgic remembrance for this small snapshot of a long life.

When opening the weathered pages of my old Buena High School class of '91 yearbook, or any of the others from 6th grade on, I'm greeted with a cornucopia of emotions.

Sometimes, I can't read the scribbles.  Sometimes, it's a sarcastic message from an old, trusted friend...

Sometimes it's a short message of goodwill from a face in a few distant memories.

And sometimes it's a message that spawns bigger, blurry memories of times gone by.

Those last and precious few years of youth.

Most people enter your life for a short while, and leave, never to be seen or heard from again.  When I think about it, it's sad.  In these cases, you never know the beautiful or sad lives old acquaintances are living.

Ever.

It's as if the are off the face of the earth.

Life is so rich with both pleasure and pain, and I'll never know how it turns out for the people writing the scribbles in my old year books, along with their faded pictures from long ago.

Most relationships end.  Most people are never to be seen again.

What would it have been like?  What could have been?