So, E3 in Los Angeles was a blast, and it turned out that the hotel actually had an okay gym in it (for a hotel) with no only cardio machines, but several weight machines and a set of free weight dumbbells that went all the way up to 50 lbs., so I hit the gym three out of the four or so days I was in LA.
Wait, backing up a bit, so we actually left for LA on Friday night, arriving there late-ish, picking up a rental and then driving down to Orange County where we checked into our hotel around midnight. The big bummer was that I was totally ill on Thursday night, as in food poisoning ill where you just lie in the shower suffering until there's nothing left inside you... yeah, not a pretty picture, but I was feeling just good enough to still go into work on Friday morning because I had waaaaay too much to do, especially since I'd been out of the country for weeks before. I grabbed a nap or two during the day to try to recover, then passed out in the boarding area at the airport for about an hour before the flight, and when we finally got to the hotel late that night I was ready for, no in need of, some more sleep.
The hotel ended up being pretty nice, we had a one bedroom suite that she managed to find for only $89 per night, and it was only a couple of blocks away from Knott's Berry Farm, where we went on Saturday morning. I was feeling much better, although my appetite had not yet really returned, so we went on pretty much all the roller coasters before heading back to the hotel in the early afternoon for a long happy nap. That evening we debated what we wanted to do, and ended up going to Midevil Times, which as you know from the Cable Guy movie, is pretty silly, but it was actually a LOT of fun. The show was very well done, with lots of horse back riding (jousts and fights), battles and knightly endeavors. The food wasn't bad either, and I enjoyed a large beer which very much relaxed me. She wasn't too excited to go Midevil Times, but once we were there she had to admit that it was pretty fun. It was the first time for both of us.
After a great night's sleep Saturday, we headed back towards LA and ended up stopping in Manhattan Beach for lunch and shopping. I've changed a bit since I lived in LA some six or seven years ago, and while I didn't much like it then, I think I could actually be happy living there now. Why? Well, when I used to live there I was not that long out of college and was used to have one or two very close friends, but LA culture is not suited for that as much as having several or more good friends, and hopefully a partner how is a close friend. Not sure if that makes sense, but nowadays, I tend to have the later kind of relationships anyway, becuase you know lots of people through your partner and work, and just don't have the time it takes to develop one or two super close friendships. Anyway, it was a typically beautiful southern California day, and we enjoyed the afternoon near the beach before she jumped on a flight back to SF. From the airport, I took a shuttle to the hotel and began getting ready for E3.
As I already said, E3 was a blast, as well as a success for my games, and I managed to get three pretty solid workouts in during my week there, which I think maintained me. I flew back to SF on Thursday night and then went back to the gym to restart the 5's. Over the past week I did days 1, 2, 3 and today, 4 of the 5's and I feel really good. 5's are fun because you are approaching your max and feel like a bad-ass lifting heavy weights again.
Today I was able to a nice set of bench and squats at 185 and 200 respectively (with eight reps each) that make me think that I'm going to be able to blow through my maximums on day 6 of 5's. I'm hoping I'll be able to hit a bench of 215 in a week or so and a squat of 230 (5 reps of each). If I can't just do them, then I'm going to change over to splits and work on increasing my max weights for a few weeks before I do any strategic deconditioning. In general, I'm feeling strong and want to capitalize on that for awhile until I plateau. Then I'll decide what routine I want to do next, HST again or something new. I may actually hire a personal trainer for a month or two and try something completely different. I've been watching a couple of the trainers at the gym, and there is at least one that I think could teach me a thing or two.
Anyway, really enjoying the end of this HST round, although falling off the diet kinda sucked. My weigh-ins have been fluctuating between 234 and 239 since I restarted after Japan, which means I haven't lost any weight. I don't look much different, so I don't think I've actually put on any fat, but since I doubt I've put on 6 or 9 pounds of muscle, I don't think I've lost any either. I hate dieting, but I'm going to have to go back on one shortly. God. Damn. It.
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