Small Victories

I suppose it was a little over 20 years ago since I went through one of those special military training courses that only a few dare to volunteer to attend. It’s the kind of course that requires you to sign a wavier stating in effect that if they break or kill you, your family can’t sue the government. I was the senior enlisted one, so I stood out front and received the lion’s share of the beat downs. The beatings are mostly forgotten now, but one thing that this one particular bad guy would say has been coming to mind repeatedly over the last couple of days. He was built like a NFL linebacker and his favorite catch phrase before he knocked me down was “you shouldn’t have let me know you got the small victory.” He would say that in English with some kind of weird accent that was unrecognizable, and then wham! He would strike me right up side my head. Nothing says realistic training like a few good stiff blows to the face and head.

I’ve been thinking about small victories a lot lately. Not the unrecognizable ones that I suffered for way back when, but the ones that I’m racking up right now. Fruit, both spiritual and physical, need both cultivation and time. It can sometimes seem like forever before that first tiny blade pops through the top soil, but the watering and vigorous weeding with the rake and other garden tools is needed daily. First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear (Mark 4:26-29). It is easy to become impatient and discouraged unless you learn to focus on the small victories. Completed actions, no matter how tiny the step in the right direction, are small victories. It’s unlikely that anyone will celebrate putting in today’s work when they’re totally focused only on results. Consider today’s work a small victory though, and it will keep your motivation high to continue working for the harvest. The farmer who digs up the seed or stops watering because he doesn’t see any evidence of corn, will only be disappointed. Better to just take care of the little day to day things, and the bigger victory will take care of itself.

My Workouts this Week

Monday and Thursday are still my kettlebell workout days. I’ve divided up my full light dumbbell routine into two workouts instead of one. So, I’m still hitting the same exercises twice in the week, but now they are spread over four days instead of just two. Light dumbbell work is now scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It looks like the same amount of work on paper, but the effect has left me sore all over. Not complaining. Just a sign that this new split has increased the intensity even though I haven’t increase the weight, sets, or reps. I have added a few new exercises, but these are to improve my one leg squat strength. I have also taken my calf routine and split it up doing one superset at the end of each workout. Again, no change in volume, but now I’m hitting my calves six days a week.

I was really sore when I woke up yesterday morning. I was sore when I went to bed, and I felt sore each time throughout the night when my sleep became light with tossing and turning. I adjusted my morning wake up time from 2:15 AM to 2:00 AM this week. I haven’t always gotten up so early. I would much rather sleep in and get up at a nice normal 4:30 AM, but then that would require me to have a new job that I wouldn’t have to start at 7 AM. Does it really take me six hours each day to get ready for work? No, not at all, but it does take me at least six hours to do what I do before I go to work. The first hour of the day I spend reading the Bible followed by prayer. This has been my first small victory of each day for over 15 years now. I spend the next hour getting my daily devotional blog ready to post. Sometimes it takes a little more time. Sometimes it takes a little less. I set it to auto publish at 4:30, and that’s small victory number 2. I then move straight into my physical workout for the day. I schedule 90 minutes for my workouts. It usually takes me closer to two hours on non-work days, but I try really hard to finished by 6 AM on days when I will be going to work. That gives me an hour to take care of personal hygiene, get dress, eat breakfast, and be ready to go by 7. And that’s small victory number 3. Who knows what the rest of the day may hold, but at least if you start the day with a small victory of your choosing, you are much more likely to win the entire day.

Today’s Workout

I got up when the alarm went off at 2 AM as usual. I started getting dress, but I was really feeling like I needed more sleep. I set my alarm for 30 minutes and got back in bed. I lay there in a half-awake-half-asleep state for about 15 minutes. I finally admitted that wasn’t working, turned off the alarm, got up and got busy with my morning routine. Surprisingly, once I got things moving, I felt much better than yesterday. Not as sore and stronger. It saw surprising, because it has been a long tiring week and I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to complete every session of this new training plan outlined above. I got a tremendous pump though. Small victory achieved. Rest day tomorrow, then look to repeat next week.

Here’s what I did today:

PLANNED	ACTUAL	COMMENTS
Start/Finish – 4:30/6:00am	about 5:00-7:00am	No rushing to the finish, and no wasted time.
Daily Min. (Floor)	long version
Vitalizer	about 11 mins
Ab Wheel	as planned	Getting better at control and focus
Light Dumbbell (5lbs.)	as planned	Shoulders: 5 moves, 30+1 reps each move Traps: 2 moves, 30+1 reps each move Back: 4 moves, 30+1 reps each move
Patrick Step-down	as planned	15 reps on right, 15 reps on left, and 5 more reps on right (right felt much weaker so I gave it a few extra reps)
Calf Superset	as planned	Squatting Calf Raise/Tiba Raise 30/30/20
Mandatory Poses	as planned	First time this week when I still felt strong while hitting these