Sous-Vide Attempt Number One

Did my first attempt at Sous-Vide cooking last weekend. I went the el-cheapo route and tried out this hack.

While the water was coming up to 140 degrees, I started salting the steak. I let it sit in a heavy cover of salt for about 25 minutes. I wasn’t sure how this style of cooking would affect the amount of spice, but next time I’ll add at least another 10 minutes and a heavier dose of appropriate spices.

After the 25 minutes, I rinsed off the steaks and tossed them into ziplock bags and get as much air out as possible.

Once the water was just over 145 degrees, added it to the cooler and placed the steaks inside. I closed up the cooler and ignored it for about 30 minutes.

About 30 minutes in, I checked the temperature and noted that it had dropped about 15 degrees. I wanted to keep it around 130 degrees, so I added a cup or two more of hot water and sealed the cooler again.

After about 45 minutes I pulled out the steaks and was happy to see that they were cooked fairly well.

I tossed them on a grill for about five minutes per side just to give them a nice sear. I pan sear would work as well, but I had a grill going anyway.

I was pretty happy with how the steaks turned out, but I will up the spices and the salting time with the next attempt. The steaks came out very tender and moist, but a little bland.

May 11, 2010 | Filed Under food | Comments Off 

Drive to 400

Every year I come up with a crazy workout goal to keep things interesting. A couple of years ago it was going through Eric Cresey’s plan and last year it was going through Dave Tate’s Strong(e)r workout series (which ironically didn’t leave me stronger, but I think it did improve overall physical fitness).

These are the totals from the last time I tested max lifts.
Bench: 335
Squat: 375
Deadlift: 385
————-
1095

This year I want to push those three lifts to either hit or get close to 400 lbs.

Bench: 365
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 425
————-
1195 (Just shy of the 1200 lb club)

Not great numbers for a powerlifter, but not awful for a mid-30s computer geek.

The workout plan will be close to Wendler’s 5-3-1 workout with an emphasis on assistance exercises that focus on grip strength (my biggest deadlift weakness) and lower-back health. I’m pretty confident in the squat and deadlift goals, but benching makes me nervous since I don’t have a spotter. Once you get 300+ lbs balanced over your throat you better be pretty confident that you’ll be able to push it back up.

April 29, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

Reading progress

Updated my reading list for 2010. Pretty happy with the results so far, a decent mix of fiction/non-fiction (and biz stuff, which usually is more like voodoo than non-fiction).

I blew through Lipsky’s book on David Foster Wallace in two sittings. The times that Lipsky inserted himself or his thoughts was distracting, but it was great to dive into Wallace’s head for a nice chunk of time. I was happy with how ended, it would have been easy to be morose, but instead I was left with much happier memories. I like thinking about how much DFW was enjoying the process of writing and how he was looking forward to working for a good length of time.

I have six other books in progress right now, but I should knock out a couple of them this weekend. It’s slightly nutty, but I like the mix right now. I was planning to be working on more music this month, perhaps next week when Jen will be gone for a couple of days. Right now my evenings are nothing but a White Sox game on in the background and a book in hand. Things could be much, much worse.

Overall things seem pretty solid. Made some great progress at work and got rewarded for it, and today finished off a nice project that took longer than I hoped, but it was done the right way.

Yesterday someone at work asked how it is that I seem so happy all the time. I really didn’t know how to answer that. I feel like I’ve been pretty buried for awhile but it’s starting to burn off like fog. It comes and goes in waves, but right now things are well. It’s strange to be happy, but I never lose the feeling of other shoes dropping.

April 14, 2010 | Filed Under Books, personal | Comments Off 

lifting

I think I’m done with documenting workouts here. I put in a solid year going through Dave Tate’s strong(e)r program and it was mostly good. I feel like I gained a lot of strength in Phase II but Phase III burned me out and I feel like I lost a lot of power.

I’m going to be doing a much similar workout for the near future. Focusing on primary lifts: press, bench, deadlift, squat. It’ll be pretty similar to Jim Wendler’s 5|3|1 program and I’ll be working to increase strength more than anything. Fewer, heavier lifts with a deload cycle for recovery.

Next week I’ll be on vacation and I’m looking forward to the time off to recover and refocus. The last couple months burned me out and I stopped enjoying going to the gym. That’s the one thing in life that has been there for the last five years that I’ve always looked forward to, so for me it’s a good sign that I need to change things up.

Saw a guy at the gym this morning walk in and load up with knee wraps and a belt and knock out a 315 squat with no warm up. It looked like the wraps were preventing a full, deep squat but I can’t imagine doing that w/out any warm up. My body is far too old for that and I would be in more pain than normal. I’m going to continue on unassisted lifting with full range of motion and try to just keep increasing the load.

March 24, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

P4W1D3

Short and simple workout this morning, but it felt productive.

incline bench: 135×5, 185×5
bench: 225×5, 255×5 (three sets) 135×10 (five sets)
barbell row: 135×10 (five sets)

March 18, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

P4W1D2

Second day on the new phase, it felt good to deadlift again .. at least until the lower-back pain sets in.

deadlift: 135×5, 185×5, 225×5, 275×5 (three sets)
sumo deadlift: 135×8 (five sets)
leg raise: x12 (five sets)

March 16, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

P4W1D1

Starting a new lifting phase. I was getting pretty burned out and needed to change things around a bit. I’m going to try this phase for the next two weeks before going on vacation. I’ll see how I feel after some time off and work out where I need to focus on lifting wise.

press: 45×10, 95×5, 115×5, 135×5 (three sets) 65×10 (five sets)
chins: x3 (five sets)
zercher squat: 95×6 (three sets)
medicine ball rotation: x12 (two sets)
medicine ball crunch: x12 (two sets)
bike: HIIT (10 min)

March 15, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

P3.2W8D4

Arms:
incline dumbbell curl: 30×8 (eight sets) [30 sec b/w]
french press: 80×8 (eight sets) [45 sec b/w]
reverse curl: 80×6 (two sets) [45 sec b/w]
single arm triceps extension: 5×12 (two sets 45 sec b/w]
cable curl: 6×12 (two sets) [45 sec b/w]
seated calf raise: 70×8 (eight sets) [30 sec b/w]

March 12, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

P3.2W8D3

A good day at the gym. I went in and completely changed my entire lifting plan. I had a really solid level of energy and felt my time would be best spent with squats:

squat: 135×6, 185×6, 225×6, 275×2, 315×1, 315×3
standing calf raise: 135×10, 155×10, 185×10
seated calf raise: 90×18 (two sets)
cable pulldown abs: 11×10, 13×10, 15×10 (three sets)
leg raise: x8 (two sets)

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

P3.2W8D2

Back:
chins: x3 (six sets)
zercher squat: 95×5 (six sets)
// combo, 60 sec b/w
close grip row: 13×6, 15×6, 17×5, 18×4
close pulldown: 8×10, 9×10 (three sets)
medicine ball crunch: x12 (three sets)
medicine ball rotation: x12 (three sets)

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

← Previous Page — Next Page →