Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Labor Day Weekend

I have always loved Labor Day weekend. My birthday, September 2nd, usually falls on or near it so we usually celebrate it over the long weekend. This year it fell on the Wednesday before the weekend. Labor Day weekend is also the first 3 day weekend after the long summer here in Charlotte, NC where the weather is getting a bit cooler - at least in the morning and the evening.

This Labor Day weekend lived up to my expectations. I did my usual karate class on Saturday, tried a really good Cuban Restaurant, Carlos Cafe, down in Rock Hill, SC and later that day my wife and I bought my son Jack his early 8th birthday present - a new 20 inch mountain bike.

Sunday, Jack was up early dragging my wife and I out of bed to go bike riding. We hit the McMullen Creek Greenway by about 9:30am over in Pineville and rode the length of it and back. I was impressed my son handled the route with no complaining at all about being tired. He loved every second and wants to do it every weekend.

Monday was the best of all. Our handyman came by and installed my ceiling mounted pullup bar (I will have a review in an upcoming post). I did a short workout as my garage was starting to get really warm and then did some jumping on the trampoline with Jack.

This morning I got up, got Jack off to his school bus and came back home for one of my favorite workouts in my garage - after the typical crossfit warmup. The workout consists of single arm kettlebells swings and burpees (25 reps / 20 /15/ 10 / 5). I haven't been doing much kettlebell in the summer as my garage is too hot and the sweat and the kettlebells destroy my hands. It doesn't matter how much chalk I use, my hands get torn apart. Now the mornings are cooler it is back to the kettlebells. I used a 24kb for the swings and I have to say I forgot what a great heart pumping working switching between swings and burpees can be. So I banged out that workout in about 20+ minutes and then got my butt ready for work.

Stud Bar Pull Up Bar