Fam Time & USPSA #13

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Tuesday, May 5:

No workout, but since my sister was visiting, we went to see Big Pete.  It was her first troll.

Wednesday, May 6:

With a new PATHFINDER training class (048) active it was time for another APFT.
- 47/40 Push-ups
- 79/76 Sit-ups

- 15:59/17:00 2-mi run... probably my slowest yet, but I had to stop twice due to my post-nasal drip issues... plus, it was raining, plus, the sole of my right shoe came off with about 0.15 mi left!  Fortunately, I wasn't far from the finish line, since it creates like a 1in difference in limb length.  I liked that shoe... it was the Saucony Vizpro with reflectors built in.  It was good for safely running at night on the streets.  The shoes are well over 10 years old, I'm pretty sure.  While they may not have a ton of miles on them, I'm sure glue degrades over time.

I did a 2 mi ruck afterwards in 30:28.

Thursday, May 7:

No workout, but went to Stowe Botanical Gardens with my dad.  

The kids' castle big toy is now open.  

Since this was our third time visiting, we tried out the trails that went out towards the back of the property.  There's another trail that makes a big loop around the grounds, but the main garden is fenced off from that, maybe so that people can't just walk in to the garden from outside without paying.

We also discovered one section with some pretend animal skeleton and a swing and the ruins of a building, that we hadn't seen before.

Friday, May 8:

Root to Rise & Gentle Yoga for Tight Hips with Adriene.  

I did "My Invention+" in 48:17 afterwards.  It felt pretty good and was redemption from last time.  It probably went well since I'm quite tapered right now, after the low-workout week in Orlando.

I did a finisher of a 3 min high plank with a 30# RPC.

I went to Coleman's for their night shoot.

I started with the May AET Drill

- 7yd

- 1/4 sheet paper as a target

- Load 2x [1x2 and 1x4]

On the beep, draw and shoot 2, reload, shoot 4.

Repeat.  

The slower of the two times is what counts, and the standard is 5s.

I did 4 full mags of pairs and 4's from holster to warm up and to get enough empty mags to load for the drill.

I tried 6x... no auto-loads on the first two tries, plus drops and a time in the 7.XX range.  My second two tries were the best with a best time of 6.82s, where auto-loading worked.  I did two more but rushed and dropped points and was slower with no auto-loading again.

I did 2 more mags to practice and learn recoil patterns in my gun but dropped 1/3 of the shots.

I worked on the Bill Drill with the same target and distance.  My best was 4.58s with all hits, but I was more often in the 5s range with drops.  I have to slow down to get hits on this target and this distance.

I did some pistol practice moving between two positions, about 7yd apart, shooting at 1/4 sheets of paper 7yd away.  Again, need to slow down to get the hits.  

I leveled it up with forwards and backwards movements into position, too.  All shooting static, only moving to get into the 4 positions.  With 15yd for the back positions, I had to shoot super slowly and patiently.

I practiced multiple distance targets next, to learn to throttle up and down appropriately.  I was doing that before when running, but this would help to isolate just the shooting throttling.  I loaded up with 2x6 and would alternate targets with pairs.  Transitions are also a core competency here.  I wasn't too happy with how I did with the misses... 

I did the same drill with rifle next, by adding 10yd to each target distance.  I also mixed in different positions, doing 2 standing, 2 kneeling, 2 seated, 2 prone.  For kneeling, it worked out better when I had my left forearm on my right leg, vs just the boney elbow with slidey skin.  I did account for height over bore.  I felt slow and clumsy, since I was starting to get tired after 2 hours of pistol, though.

I went to what I call "The Forest Bay" next, for some mid-range rifle practice on different props.  It was also good ranging practice.  I misranged a 410yd target at first because it appeared as if it was in a treeline in the back (where other targets are), when it was really on the top of the hill in front of that.  It's always a good practice to scan L vs R as well as up and down.  I shot 2 mags of 77gr and didn't have any wind to worry about.

While trying to shoot at the targets, I also observed that even my lateral movements to switch props would cause enough shift in the distance to the target that I'd miss without re-ranging and getting new dope.  I also noticed that the ocular focuses of the left and right sides of the Vortex Fury binos are different... it's not my eyes... I used the same eye in both to test.  

I stayed here on this range for the night shoot.  Unfortunately, my IR wasn't strong enough to allow me to see any targets at night.  Another guy was with me, and he had trouble, too.  Some guys came running up later on, and they had more powerful gear that could light up the 260yd targets, but I couldn't even see the 175yd ones.  It was kind of a bust for me as far as night shooting goes, but it was fun to make a new friend on the range.  There was also one pistol target that we could shoot at, too.  I mostly spent 24 rd shooting at black splotches that represented the berms where the targets were, only hitting a few times.

Saturday, May 9:

Rucked 5 mi at Pharr Yarns Family Trail with my dad, wearing MACV2s and 30# in a Rucker v3 shorty, in 1:53:56.

Sunday, May 10:

Glute and pec PT v1 in 28:37, seemed pretty strong.  Then HDT "SIAS" 15 min AMRAP with a 40#SB with 4 rounds and 33 reps, a good one... I should do more of this for TTG prep.  Finisher was 2:30 6" with a 40#SB

And family time.

Monday, May 11:

Dedicate - Day 3 - Observe & Yoga for People Who Sit All Day with Adriene

And family time.

Tuesday, May 12:

No workout, but went out to dinner at Rooster's with my sister and mom.

Wednesday, May 13:

Rucked the Ren Park short track trails and the City Park neighborhood playing Ingress, using MACV2 8" and 30# in the v3 shorty Rucker.  I had felt peppy in the morning, but I had no desire for intensity or strength work by the time evening rolled around, so I rucked.

Thursday, May 14:

18A "Dynamic Warmup" in 25:42 felt pretty good.  Then 45 min Rolling Hills Ride with Hannah Frankson with 13.38 mi, 407 cal, 84 ave cadence 42 ave resistance, 133 watt ave output, which was challenging but reasonable.

Friday, May 15:

Training with Em.

Worked on recoil management with a better grip pinching the back with palms.

Practiced moving sooner after finishing the last shot, right after follow-through on the trigger.

I need to work on landing with feet spread apart and stable.

Worked on throttling up and down on speed based on the difficulty of shots on body vs head, and also with distance changes.  Somehow, I go the same speed regardless of distance, so I may be able to push it a little faster on the closer ones, since I'm hitting everything.

I need to only reset to the wall, vs fully off the trigger.

For runs, I might want to let go with my left hand more often, to run faster.

Saturday, May 16:

I did a zone-2 run at Latta Nature Preseerve, sticking to the Hill area for the most part, to maximize Ingress points.  I had a bad ankle roll on my left foot towards the end, unfortunately.  9.2 mi in 2:41:34.  Ingress or the internet was really slow today, so I had many long pauses.  17:34 ave.  It seemed easy to stay in z2 today.  I wore Altra Superiors.  It was pretty much a fasted run, but it was fine, since I wasn't hungry.  My dad walked while I ran, as usual.

Afterwards, took my mom to First Watch.  It's my second time going to this chain (first time was in Bentonville, AR).  Everything on the menu looks good.  This location recently opened, so there was an hour long wait to get a table.  Worth it to me!

Sunday, May 17:

18A "Upper Body Prep" in 23:40, then "Pull-up" in 31:35.

MAY BLACKSTONE THIRD MONDAY USPSA MATCH

Stage 1: <Virginia> - "Down the Middle" Classifier

- Start hot, hands by sides, standing in the box

- On the beep, shoot 2 per tux IPSC 

Learnings/Outcomes: 12/12 div, 20/20 overall

- 5A, 3M in 6.90s = 0% HF

- My first time doing a USPSA Classifier at a match

- I saw my sights I thought, so I must've yanked it

- I didn't remember doing my proper grip with a strong left palm smash

- My misses were left but vertically OK... left by an inch or two

- I had really wanted to get all A's

- Sad about letting my coach down

- I went far to near and sped up.... the cadence sounded reasonable... though sometimes, I end up making bad shots trying to keep a cadence when I should really go off of sights being ready

- I even chose a particular pasty to aim for on the target like I heard a guy suggest to another guy

Stage 2: <Virginia> - "Too Close for Comfort" Classifier

- Start hot, in the box, hands by your sides

- Shoot 1 hit each on 5 targets (4 full and one head) in any sequence

- Reload mandatory

- Shoot 1 hit each on 5 targets (4 full and one head) in any sequence

Learnings/Outcomes: 9/12 div, 15/20 overall

- 10A in 13.00 = 3.8462% HF

- Loaded 5 in mag 1 to force a full, clean reload without having to fight a round already in the chamber, and to make it obvious to me that I need to do a reload and not forget

- I went slow, and it went well for me

- I went for the top half of the head, to make sure I got all the points

- I went L->R then R->L

- I'm glad I remembered 1 shot per, since we're used to doing 2 shots per

- My cadence on all 5 was somewhat equal, but maybe that makes sense since the head was also the closest shot

Stage 4: <Comstock>

- Start anywhere outside the shooting area, facing downrange, hot and holstered, hands by your sides

- On the beep, shoot 2 IPSC 2 hits ea @10yd from the back box.

- Run to the left box and shoot 1 full, 1 head, and 1 full IPSC @3yd, 2 hits ea

- Run to the right box and shoot 3 full IPSCs @2yd, 2 hits ea, working around a NS

Learnings/Outcomes: 10/12 div, 15/20 overall

- 14A, 2C in 18.97s = 4.0063% HF

- Not sure where the C's came from, since it had felt pretty clean... maybe the head shots not being high enough for A's?

- My foot placements in the boxes were wide and good like I wanted, without having to think about it.

Stage 3: <Virginia>

- Start with hands and feet on the XX's, hot and holstered

- On the beep, shoot 1 full and 1 up-side down and partially NS IPSC from the right side of the wallls, leaning against the bay wall, with 2 hits ea @15yd

- Shoot 2 full and 1 upside-down and partially NS from the left side of the back box, 2 hits ea, @15yd

- Run to the left box and do the tux classifier again (4 tux's @10-12yd)

Learnings/Outcomes: 10/12 div, 14/20 overall

- 17A, 1M in 28.60s = 2.6224% HF

- The 1M was on the 3rd to last tux target, off the left again... urg.

- I noticed resetting the trigger just to the wall for the first time this match... I had forgotten to focus on it during the other stages, despite wanting to focus on it

- I topped off the gun to be 18rds beforehand

- I took my time with the shots, and it paid off

- I ended up going close->far on the tux's this time, since it was easy to access (and natural to want to go after) the close one first

- I was mindful about where the A-zones were on the upside-down targets, although you'd naturally want to go for those spots based on center of mass anyways

- The cadence on the tux's did slow down like it should as you go farther away

Overall: 11/12 div, 16/20 overall

- Go as slow as it takes

- Need to check why I yank left on the tux's

- Continue good wide foot placement in boxes

- Continue paying attention to upside-down targets, topping off for 18 round stages, letting go of the left hand to run when it makes sense, moving reasonably quickly between spots

- Continue going for the top half of head shots

After the match, I still had some nerves to burn off, so I rucked 4 mi in 1:21:26 with a 40#WV, which wasn't bad, since I was mentally prepared to suffer.  I wore MACV1s.

Orlando 2026

Sunday, Apr 26:

Got a little rucking in before the trip, while I could.  Our car was already going to be really full of luggage for 4 people for a weeklong trip, so I wasn't going to bring a ruck, too.  There's enough non-rucking fitness that you can do over the course of a week to manage without it.

I didi 3 mi in 1:08:36 with 30# in the rucker v3 shorty, wearing MACV2s at Rocky Branch trail.  I was playing Ingress and doing fartleks of sorts between portals. 

At night, I did glute and pec PT v2+ in 25:20, followed by HDT 23.1.1 (arms) in 41:34.  While you can work out on vacation, it can be hard, when you feel like you need to maximize time with family, and you're already out and about for long days on your feet.  I wanted to get in some quality work while I still could at home.

Monday, Apr 27:

Drove down to Florida with my parents.  Took my dad to see Buccee's for his first time.  I got to get some merch that I regretted not buying on my last visit.  For their onesies, the one I got was a bit small on me (youth large or something), but the next size up (adult S/M) would've been gigantic. 

We stopped by St. Augustine, since we had some hours to kill anyways, to align our arrival time with my sister's flight in to MCO.  We visited Castillo de San Marcos with my dad's America the Beautiful pass.

By the time we were done with that, there wasn't a lot of time left before we had to continue our journey south.  

We were sad to discover that the lion statues were taken away for repair back in January.  I'm glad my mom and I got to see it while it was still there, since they will be away for a while, with an expected return in 2028 after the seawall is repaired.

We did a quick run-through of the pedestrian shopping alley and Flagler college before leaving.

Got some groceries, went to the airport and picked up my sister, before arriving at the AirBNB.

Tuesday, Apr 28:

We got 3-day park hopper tickets for Universal, since that seemed to be the best way to get access to the new Epic Universe park.  After breakfast, we chose to go to Epic on our first day, to see all the new rides.

The concept behind Epic is that there are "portals" to different themed lands.  Pretty much every park has the concept of lands, but they make it more siloed here, I guess.

I had watched Youtube videos to get ideas on what kind of itinerary to follow to maximize time in the park and minimize wait times.  We ended up starting at Darkmoor and doing the Frankenstein ride.  That actually had a pretty short wait time all day long, relatively speaking.  Some rides are known for their wait line theming, which can be as much fun as the rides, and this was one of them.  In the Frankenstein ride, you're part of an "experiment" run by Igor, and you get to see some monsters fight each other in an experiment gone wrong.

They also had a werewolf mini-roller coaster, which we went back to later in the day.

Harry Potter was what we were most excited about seeing.  It's themed around Paris, so if you didn't know better, you might think it's just a Paris-themed land at first.  The fake Parisian storefronts in the land give wandholders ways to pretend to do do magic with RFID tech, which we were excited to try.  When I got my Gen2 wand online, I didn't realize that I had previously purchased a Gen1 wand at some point, so we go to play with both.  The Gen2 wand lights up and vibrates, though, which is cool.

The main attraction is the Ministry of Magic ride.  You start off in the French MoM, and then you take the floo to the British MoM.  The experience and set is pretty impressive, and that's just the "waiting in line" part of the ride.

The ride is different, which is good... less like Frankenstein and Battle of Hogwarts (where you're in like a 4-person contraption that will move around and take you through different scenes) and a bit more like Tower of Terror, in that you're in a big box with about 20 other people.  You still feel like you're seeing different scenes, but because of the bigger box, the movements aren't quite as drastic.

I could stay in the Harry Potter lands all day, but there was more to see in the other lands.

We did Stardust Racers a couple of times.  It's in the main central area of Epic.  It might be the most thrilling and fun roller coaster I've been on.  You can choose between the green lane and the yellow lane and pretend to race against the other coaster.  You spin around a lot, but not in a way that hurts your head like Hulk.  You also do a double acceleration, where you feel like you've already accelerated a ton, and then acceleration pauses for a second before increasing even more.  We heard that it's even cooler ride to do at night, too, as fun as the daytime experience is.

On the drives for the rest of the week, whenever I'd accelerate, I'd yell "starship cruisers!"

We went to Isle of Berks next, to see their How to Train Your Dragon show.  Shows are a nice way to sit for a while and break up all the standing in line.  AC is nice, too.

My parents were up for doing the water blaster Fire Brigade ride.  Our team won, although I think we had a 1-person advantage.  I do like shooting rides.

I don't think I've seen the HTTYD movie, but you can still appreciate how beautiful the set is.

We heard that it's good to visit Mario land after dinner, when the little kids have gone home.  It was still pretty crowded when we went, though.  I did not buy the Mario equivalent of a HP magic wand, so when I'd knock the question mark blocks, there would just be a sad noise instead of a happy gaining-coinage noise.  At least there was something!

We did Bowser's challenge, but we opted for the single rider line to save time.  That meant that we missed all the instructions on how to play, so we googled it while we were waiting in line.  A lot of it has to do with where you're pointing your head when you pull the trigger to shoot your turtle shells and turn, which didn't come super naturally to me.  The set in the waiting areas looked cool, though, so I'd like to go back and wait in the full line one day.  I'm not even sure that we saved that much time, since single rider lines only take people when there are empty slots.

We ran through Darkmoor and Harry Potter and Stardust Racers again before the end of the day.

Wednesday, Apr 29:

We wanted to make sure we used our 3-day tickets during our trip, since they are time-boxed, and we wanted to be able to use them on good weather days, so we went to the OG Universal Studios, followed by Islands of Adventure, on Wednesday.

We did the Mummy (which is still a pretty impressive ride) and all the other rides in normal Universal, before making our way to Harry Potter world.  They retrofitted Universal with Diagon Alley, which hadn't been there the last time I went to Universal, so I was excited to see it.

The main ride is Escape from Gringots.  They have a single rider line, which we ended up doing after waiting in the full line once.

They also have tricks that you can do with your wand.

We visited Olivander's.  I ended up being selected for the wand activity, maybe because I was dressed like a superfan.  I was surprised that there weren't more people dressed in robes at all the HP lands.  It was fun.

Since we had parkhopper tickets that could get you into multiple parks on the same day, we were able to take the Hogwart's Express.  We had single-park tickets on our last trip, so this wasn't an option for us last time.  It gets you between parks and saves you a bit of walking, but it's also a fun concept - through the fake window, you get to see different movie-inspired scenes.  Out in the hallway, you also feel like different characters are walking by your train cabin.  The experience is different based on whether you're going from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade, or the opposite direction, too.  My dad likes trains or the idea of trains, so he was looking forward to trying this ride.

We got close to the last train of the day, since the parks close earlier in the day on non-peak days.  By the time we got to Universal, there wasn't a lot of time to do stuff before closing time.  We did get to try a variety of magic wand tricks, though.  The park does stay open beyond closing time by a bit, but the rides get shut down.

My mom wanted to take a bunch of pics on our way out as the park closed.  That was actually a great time to take pics, since there were fewer crowds.

Thursday, Apr 30:

After 2 days on our feet, my parents (and probably me) were ready for a bit of a break.  This was going to be a potential rainy day, too, so it was a good day for a rest day.

The "resort" had a fitness room with an Echelon tablet, where you could essentially play workout videos on a big screen.  Maybe it does more than that?  But that's what I could figure out.  The workout library wasn't big.  I don't know if there are different tiers of access or something, that would open up more.  I found some good workouts for core and arms, though, which I repeated so that I could record the exercises to repeat in the future.

Strength 20 - Arms and Abs with Sam Jackson

(7 exercises with 45 on/ 15 off)

> curls with 10#

> row tricep kickbacks with 2x7#

>arm circles with 5#

> side plank DB raise to top with straight arm with 5#

> 15# sit-up curl to press

> bicycle

Strength 20 - Total Body with Ryn Tucker

(8 min AMRAP of 10 reps of each exercise)

> single-arm press with 15#

> bent rows with 2x15#

> squat and curl with 2x15#

(8 min AMRAP of 10 reps of each exercise)

> leaned forward tricep extension with 7#

> RDL with 2x15#

> side plank shoulder press with 5#

We splurged and had dinner out, instead of making our own food on this day.  My sister and mom went to a seafood restaurant to order a la carte.  My dad wanted to go to a buffet, so I went with him.

After dinner, we went to Disney Springs, which we typically visit each time we go to Orlando.  There was more to see that we didn't get to, even though we stayed until after dark, but we didn't want to stay out too late before doing another long day at the parks the next day.

Friday, May 1:

We had some un-timeboxed park hopper Disney tickets to use, so we took a break from Universal to see some Disney Parks.

We started with Animal Kingdom and the safari.

I had not been to Pandora before.  That was my parents' favorite ride of the trip.  Its setup reminds me of Soarin', in that they had a big group of people in a room with a big panoramic top-to-bottom screen.  The vehicle you were in was more fun here, though, since you're in something that feels like a motorcycle, vs an airplane seat.  The waiting areas for the lines were pretty good, too.

My parents were up for Kali River Rapids, too, which was fun.  

Expedition Everest was down for maintenance, so we didn't get to do that.

Next, we drove over to Epcot.  Spaceship Earth is different from what I remembered.  They probably had to redo the part of the ride about what the future would be like, now that we're in the future, vs what the world was like when this ride first opened.  They had a new component to the ride where you got to answer questions about your interests, and then they took your picture and had a little animation about what the future could be like based on how tech is now, which is geared towards your interests.

There was a water play area that was Moana-themed that was new to us, so we walked through that area.

Mission to Space, as corny as it might be, is probably my favorite Disney ride.  They really make you feel like you're accelerating away from earth on a space shuttle with their centrifugal force or however they do it.

We didn't go through World Showcase on this trip, since we wanted to get to Magic Kingdom and do stuff there before the day's end.  Magic Kingdom was open the latest out of the four parks, so it was a good place to end the day.

Magic Kingdom just feels different... maybe it's the crowds?  Maybe it's the castle?  It feels like the park to be at.

I was playing Ingress all trip long.  There are many portals at all of the parks.  I came across someone's impressive multi-layered field.  

We got our favorite smoked turkey leg.

At the parade, everything started well, where we found a group of people who were all seated in front of the castle.  Everyone would be able to see everything.  But then one person ruined it by standing, so people behind them started standing, and then nobody except the front row could see anymore.... ruined.

I went on the Seven Dwarves ride for the first time.  As it was ending, fireworks started, which was fun.  We didn't get to see the fireworks show, but we felt like we squeezed a lot into one day!  My sister and I also rode Space Mountain.  

Saturday, May 2:

Another rest day from a park perspective.  The fitness room was closed by the time I tried to go, so I worked out in the condo.

18A "Lower Body Prep" in 19:43, "Lower Push BW" in 41:18, subbing in the KB squats with prisoner squats, since I didn't have any weights.  Pretty good substitution.

Sunday, May 3:

My mom stayed home today, even though we had a rest day yesterday.  The walking and standing was a lot.  My dad, sister, and I went out to Islands of Adventure to round out our Universal 3-day pass.  

We did King Kong for the first time.  It had a short wait time. 

We went to Hogsmeade and did Hagrid's motorcycle ride.  Because I had a robe, the cast members made me sit in the sidecar and wouldn't let me ride the motorcycle.  I wonder if they were afraid that robes would get caught on the track or something.

We waited in a long line to take the Hogwarts Express back to OG Universal.

Then we went back to Epic, to take advantage of the opportunity to see that park.

My dad was able to catch us on camera on Stardust Racers.  It helped that I had on a red shirt.

In Mario land, we rode Yoshi, since we hadn't prioritized that on our first day.

You get some unique views of the land from up there.

We went again at night, which Youtube had recommended.  It was different, but not that different, in my opinion.

The Donkey Kong ride was still down for maintenance, unfortunately.  That area looked pretty neat.

Monday, May 4:

We stopped by a different, smaller Buccee's by a Costco on our way back.  The statue was much smaller and wouldn't be big enough to carry a person.  The inside seemed similar enough, though.  The rest of my family got food from Costco while I played frogger across the road to get to Buccee's.

Our pit stop this time was Mickler's Landing.  We found 4-5 shark teeth.  I found the most in the area near the entrance to the beach, surprisingly.  I used the digging technique this time, for the most part, and it seemed to be pretty successful.  I wonder whether I found more at the beginning than at the end because I was looking more carefully and slowly at the beginning.

We stayed for a little over an hour.

We got gas at the big Buccee's in Georgia.  I got more merch.