How I got up the hill today

It was pretty fun, actually.

Picked up my brand-spankin-new Pendlay Olympic Barbell today. It was delivered to my old address in Creekside; I grabbed the bus there and back, including a lovely chat with Miranda's flatmate Helena. The real fun part though was walking up Staff Hill with a 7', 45-lb steel bar (I'd dispensed with the cardboard packaging already). Decided to make it a bit of a workout. It went like this: every 16 steps or so, full-press the bar above my head as I walked. Hold it for the same count, and repeat. I maintained that all the way up, hiking it at a good pace and rhythm, without stops (though I did slow some). Perfect level of exertion for a pleasant walk home; just beginning to growl with the effort as I made it to the road. I don't know the distance or vertical rise of that hike. It's not immense, but it is a bit of a workout, especially with extra load. Perhaps a 400m distance with 100m rise? I'm gonna find that one out sometime.

Also, my universal door-mount pullup bar arrived! What a lovely, simple piece of work that is! Soooo much more comfortable than swinging my door out and hanging on top of that. Much nicer on the hands :) Set a PR for pullups (as far as I can recall) at 10 , and a PR for hanging L-sit at 45sec (a bit sloppy, not strictly to 90 degrees). Played with kettlebells a couple times as well, of course.

Oh, I hadn't mentioned yet... my olympic plates and kettlebells arrived this weekend! (well, I loaded them into the taxi after an airport drop-off, and took 'em home) I've been LOVING the kettlebell work/kettlebell play! So much fun, and it feels so good. The physical results of my past two months' enthusiasm and effort is showing up.

So, I now own:
Pendlay olympic bar, and color-coded bumper plates
7 kettlebells, from 12kg(x2) to 32kg
A universal door-mount pullup bar

and soon to be arriving, my gymnastics rings & ringtraining DVDs!

Next up for fitness tools: books and video from Pavel Tsatsouline on kettlebell training and general hard-living fitness. Then probably a heavybag and some focus gloves.

Exciting times, indeed!