Bucket List Golf Tournament: The 100th Resorters

 A good time to Blog again is coming up: The 100th anniversary Resorters golf tournament in Alexandria, MN. It's been a bucket list item of mine.  In fact, more than a bucket list item, but something I'd like to continue to do in the future.  But there has to be a first time, and no better time that the 100th anniversary.

Well, perhaps other years might have been "better."  With the hype of the anniversary, a record number of participants have entered, and it appears a higher amount of talent as well, at least in my division.  I'll be playing in the senior division, and another reason why another year might have been a "better" first-time choice for me is that the senior division for the Resorters is for players of 50 years or older. I didn't know that prior to this year.  I had always just assumed it was 55, like other USGA amateur events. (Not pro events, thanks to Arnie.)

So we'll see how this 55-year-old Resorters rookie fairs against the "kids."

Masters Thoughts

 One of the reasons I love The Open Championship so much (aka The British Open) is I get to watch it immediately after waking up, and not just the groups that are not in contention.  The same can be said of this years Masters tournament. With that, I offer these additional thoughts of the 2020 Masters tournament in this year unlike any other:

1. As with other PGA tournaments this year, one benefit of watching with no fans, er, patrons in attendance, is you get to see much more of the course and its beauty.

2. The traditional Sunday pin placement on #16 is not being used this year.  They've moved it to about where it was when Nicklaus made his famous put in '75. Without patrons to cheer the ball down the slope to the back left placement, I think this is a good year for a one-time move, adding nostalgic value.

3. Jack may be the greater of the two honorary starters, but I'd take Gary Player's swing at 85 years of age over Jack Nicklaus's at 80 any day. In fact, I'm looking forward to playing golf in my elder years if I can keep my body anywhere near in Player's condition. 

4. Speaking of elders, I literally go goose bumps seeing that Lee Elder will join the honorary starters next year. I'm being neither facetious no overly morbid when I say I hope Lee stays in good enough help to make it next April.

5. Yes, I'm using "literally" correctly above.  I'm not saying I'm literally a goose, but that I literally got the things on my skin that we traditionally call "goose bumps."

6. Even though Bryson DeChambeau is not in contention, he is fascinating to watch and to think about in how he might impact this game's future. I recall a Long Drive champion once saying about Tiger Woods that he knew one day someone with long-drive-champion skills would figure out how to hit it straight and dominate on tour, and that Tiger was the one.  But he really wasn't; Bryson is.  Will he dominate? Time will tell, but I think more likely, he will inspire more young players to be like him, a la Jason Belmonte in bowling. While Belmonte continued to dominate, I'm not so sure about DeChambeau.

7. I wonder if, instead of tour players like DeChambeau learning from the long-drive hitters and applying the skills on tour, that some of these Long Drive Tour members might learn from him and hit more of their drives in play. Or maybe if they did, they'd be joining the PGA Tour for the big money.

8. One thing I love about this tournament, even when I don't have a horse in the race, is knowing that if someone like Dustin Johnson wins his first green jacket, it's a lifetime invitation to return.  That always makes it interesting in the end. If it comes down to two who have already won, well that's exciting all by itself.

9. When the Masters is in April, it gets me excited about the upcoming golf season here in Minnesota. That's not the case this year, but I can say that I'm excited to work on a few things in the golf domes this winter.  With proper social distancing and mask-wearing, of course.

Last Year's Fitness Goals

In my previous post, which goes all the way back to June of last year, I updated the following goals:

1- Pull-ups
2- Bench Press
3- Slam Dunk

My current update:

1- I did indeed hit my goal of 12 quality pull-ups. For a brief few seconds I was pretty emotional.  Weird. Best guess as to how many I could do right at this moment is 10; it's just not something I train "for" anymore.

2- I've been training differently on most of my lifts since discovering this channel on YouTube last year:  Natural Gallant Bodybuilding. At this point, I have no interest in pursuing the goal, because "good form" in bench pressing means something different to me now.  Further, because part of my reason for wanting to hit this goal was because it is tested in NFL combines (with 225#), and because I've seen the sloppy form they often use, it means even less.

Maybe someday I'll try to hit the goal with the same sloppy form NFL prospects use, but for now, I couldn't care less about this goal.  Funny how things can change that quickly, and it ain't even sour grapes.

3- Yeah, still more than doubtful.  But I might give a 12-week "jumping" training course a try just to see how much improvement I can make, and then decide from there. On the plus side, my knees have been very good for a while now.

I credit different squatting technique, thanks to the Gallant YouTube page mentioned above. The guy is a riot, and speaks the truth. Kind of depressing feeling like 30 years were wasted, following scores of other types of training advice that only steered me wrong. If I ever start my own YouTube training page, it would be about stupid-ass things I did in the past. I'd have enough material for a post every week for the next 30 years.

Two weeks left to fitness goals deadline

Simply put, it looks like I'll be going 1-for-3 in my goals. Here's the latest:

1- Pull-ups. Did 11 the other night at a total weight (with clothing) of 191.7 lbs. Confidence level of meeting my goal of 12 in two weeks is very high.

2- Bench Press. Haven't attempted my body weight in a while. Will be giving it a shot tomorrow evening to check-in. I'm able to do 225 for 10 reps, and did 195 for 16 reps several weeks ago. I should weigh in around 185 in two weeks. All things considered, confidence level of hitting my goal of my bodyweight for 24 reps is somewhat low. That said, it's not one I'll give up on, as it does appear to be within my limitations should I keep trying.

3- Slam dunk. Who am I kidding? I've made gradual improvements, (like a couple inches) but at my lowest bodyweight (189) and with my knees and ankles on their best day (they can come and go), I've only been able to grab the rim with about 4 inches to spare. Confidence level of EVER reaching this goal is extremely low, much less in two weeks. I'll do a check-in this weekend.

Despite my low confidence in the last of the three, I'm still going to try things, for a couple reasons. First, I like being 52, a not-so-tall 6'1", and being able to grab the rim. So there's no need to lose that ability at least. Second, knowing I likely won't achieve it, it might be fun to try different training techniques and jumping form. With nothing to lose, it might be fun to learn something, and if nothing else, spice up the workouts a bit.

Fitness Goals update

It's too soon to measure any real progress since last time, but I took a couple positive steps forward, so...

1) Bench press - With a morning body weight of 195.4 lbs. on 4/18, I pressed 185 for 16 reps. Probably could have done a 17th, but was a little disappointed that it wasn't going to be easy, so I bailed. I had previously done 195 for 16 reps, so it seemed like I regressed. Possible issues: it was later in the evening (energy was more sapped), I had played some basketball for over a half an hour prior to (perhaps expended energy), food consumption during the day, or something else.

I think what may be happening is I've been training with lighter weights for higher reps, but perhaps the best way to to train for benching my weight for a high amount of reps (24 is the goal), is to go back to higher weights, say 225, and improve the reps for that weight. I'll try that and see what happens.

2) Pull-ups - With a training-time weight of 196.4 (including attire, no shoes), I did 9 full pull-ups, hands-over-top style. A personal record. Feeling good about this. What my self-esteem would have been like in junior high school had I been able to do that then!

3) Dunking/vertical jump - I've been working on my two-footed jump, practicing technique from some Google searches. They don't seem to be BS; I've noticed some improvement. Still, at a workout-time body weight (including attire and shoes) of 198.4, I was able to do a running, one-foot jump and get just a tad higher than last time. Probably 3 1/2 inches or so above the rim.

Still guessing my ideal body weight for these goals is around 185, but it may be closer to 180. The question is whether I'll be able to get the weight down that low without losing too much lean mass and strength. It's possible, but perhaps not in the short time I've given myself.

Fitness Goals

Three years have passed since I blogged last. No, I'm not rapping, although my toes are tapping.

Anyway, I figured I'd post this here because I want to put it "out there" to help inspire myself, without putting it on Facebook so as to look like I'm fishing for likes, compliments, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, when I realized it was 12 weeks until summer, I posted on Facebook that I have three fitness goals to hit by summer. I didn't say what they were; I only gave a vague reference to the fact that if I do hit them, I'll be in good shape for the beach.

Not that I've let myself go since losing some 35 pounds two years ago, but I've been simply "maintaining" and not really inspiring myself.  So I set some new goals, and made them a little different because simply "losing x pounds" or "benching x pounds" not only isn't as inspiring, but ultimately, the end goal is to look good, and one can accomplish those types of goals without really looking (or being) any more fit.

So Here they are, with an update:

1) Bench press my weight for 24 reps.  Whether I weigh 225 or 175, I want 24 reps at that weight. When I first benched 315 for one rep, a lifetime goal, I was overweight. When the weight went down, so did the strength. That's what happens when you're not doing PEDs. You can try to keep as much of the strength as possible, but you simply aren't going to keep it all when losing weight.

2) Perform 12 pull-ups in good form. Over-the-top grip, just like they made you do in school, and I could never complete even one.

3) Dunk a basketball on a regulation-height rim, with a regulation-sized basketball, with nothing but a regulation floor and regular basketball shoes. No cheating, in other word.

The thing is with these goals, if I achieve them all, I'll be in the kind of shape I want to get do. You can't do them all without being both lean and strong.

So here's a progress report:

1) 4/14/18 - Benched 195 for 16 reps, with a morning weigh-in of 195.2
2) 4/15/18 - Performed 8 good pull-ups with a body weight (including clothing) of 196.8
3) 5/15/18 - Was able to grab the basketball rim just enough to tug, but not hang on. Probably about 3 inches or so above the rim, meaning I'm about 7 inches away from dunking

Goals 1 & 2 are on track. Goal #3 may never happen, but if they all are to happen, I figure I need to get my weight down to 185 while losing nearly no muscle. I could see myself getting strong enough at 195 to do the first 2, but I'm not sure my knees would allow me to spring enough at 195 to get high enough above the rim. So for now, I'm looking at 185 as the target weight.

Here's hopping...er, hoping.

March Madne$$

I'm not sure exactly where I stand on whether Division 1 NCAA athletes should be paid. I'd probably be happy with generous per diems and looser rules that aren't related to cash.  Despite all of the revenue the big sports bring in, and thus allowing a profit on the backs of kids who will never see the big professional dollars, I'm not sure the right thing is to start paying them what would be akin to salaries.

One of the stronger arguments I've heard against paying them is that for the Division 1 colleges that don't make the huge profits that the Ohio States of the world make, paying the athletes on the big money teams might necessitate canceling sports that 

To that, some say, "So what? If you're upset that you don't get a free ride as part of the rowing team, learn to shoot a three-pointer."

Strawman, yes, but I'm probably not too far off.

Regardless, I find the amount of money being made on the backs of athletes who mostly are getting average educations, albeit free, is disgusting.  So when I was watching a kid interviewed after one of the games tonight, impressed at his articulation and eloquence, and ability to say all the right things and how great a game the next one will be, my mind wandered off, imaging something I would have liked him to say.

I'll preface it by saying that in addition to the obscene amount of money, I'm disgusted by the gall and arrogance of the NCAA.  They no doubt would have a thing or two to say if any athlete publicly blasted them after a big tournament game (or any game, really).  But what if his post-game comments went something like this:

"You know, we're really looking forward to playing Wisconsin on Saturday.  We lost a heartbreaker to them last year, so we really want to prove something.  They are a talented team, so I'm sure they want to prove something too.  So it should be a great game - one the advertisers will be happy to spend big bucks on and making a lot of people a lot of money.  I'm just glad to be a part the awesome ratings it will bring and commerce that will come with it, knowing that some people's nest eggs will be enriched."

I would love to see the athletes take a united stand in this; using irony that you can't prove to bring attention to the absurdity of big time college sports Imagine if every interview became just as predictable as they already are, only instead of "giving 110%" and other cliches, we'd hear about what great ratings and ad revenue it will bring in for the corporations, colleges, and NCAA.