Brisket In Action

You know what I mean!

Mark Brown

May 4, 2023

I haven’t made a brisket in awhile. The last time I made it I simmered it to make Mexican pulled beef. That was a couple of years ago. For a special occasion I decided to break out the meat curing skills I learned years ago. On April 2nd I bought a 16.5 pound brisket from a nearby grocery store and started to put a cure on it a few days later. I know I stated why I don’t make a lot of briskets anymore. It’s still the case. They are still damned expensive. It was still worth doing for this occasion.

This is what a whole brisket looks like when buying.

Curing a piece of meat will give it another layer of flavor on top of what was already there to begin with. With beef, a cure has to be aggressive to bring that next dimension. I normally cure with a sealed bag. I wasn’t able to locate my Foodsaver so I had to cut the brisket up into 4 sections. I took the point off of the brisket and cooked it by itself and made a pulled beef out of it for personal use. The muscle fibers of the point run perpendicular to the flat. That’s part of why briskets take so long to cook. Getting both muscle groups be done at the same time is sometimes impossible. It’s a main reason why I don’t get bone in pork chops with both loin and tenderloin on them. Once the point was taken off the brisket I broke the flat into 3 mostly equal portions and removed some of the fat, mostly the kind on a brisket that doesn’t render in the cooking process. I proceeded put my pickling salt on each chunk then my pickling spice. I did manage to clear out a lot of whole spices that had been sitting in jars for awhile. I just don’t use all spice berries, coriander and fennel seeds a lot so they’d been just sitting around. Time to order more spices.

Corned Beef

One of the chunks of cured brisket sat in the fridge in a ziplock bag until April 29. I was always planning to make one portion of the flat to be corned beef and the other 2 to be pastrami. The difference between the 2 finished beef products is that that pastrami is smoked and corned beef isn’t. The smoke is what gives pastrami that little bit extra flavor to take it over the top. What readers will notice in some of these pictures is that the finished product doesn’t have that signature pink interior color found in commercially available corned beef and pastrami. I don’t use pink curing salt when I brine or cure meats.

The special occasion I mentioned is a family party on May 6 so I intended on getting the smoking done on the remaining 2 parts of brisket during my first week of vacation in May. The first 2 days of the week (May 1 and 2) were too windy to use the smoker. Smoking is all about fire management. Learning barbecue requires someone to learn a lot of different skillsets. Fire management is really high on that list of things to learn. Responsibility, in this case when to not start a fire, is a necessary part of of that learning process. May 3rd was a perfect day to break out the smoker. I got about 3 hours of smoke on the chunks of brisket, along with a few hours on some pork tenderloins and pork chops for dinner, before finishing in the oven inside my 8 quart French oven overnight. Overall, it took about 13 hours.

Pastrami after 13 hours of smoking and braising.

In terms of flavor, both the corned beef and pastrami I made are quite salty. The former much more so than the latter. The flavors are layered and they linger for a minute or two in the mouth after eating in both meats. I think used a bit too much salt on the cure. Breaking the brisket into 3 different chunks led me to cure each one on its own. Just more things to learn. I know how to get around the salt re-heating and such. This is definitely snacking meat, not sandwich material. It is very powerful juju.

A Brush With Injury

So I trained something a bit too hard

Mark Brown

May 3, 2023

I have recently been forced to deal with a legitimate injury that will require recovery efforts that I haven’t had to deal with in awhile. I have learned some pretty important lessons from it during that time. The primary cause of it seems to be overtraining my hips. There was no moment of shooting pain until 3 mornings after the final weight had been lifted. I know that recovery is a bit of a blind spot for me because of my mentality so the last few weeks have forced me to work through days differently.

Monday April 17 I woke up for work with a slightly sore back. It’s not first time I’ve felt that, nor will it be the last going forward. I went to work and the feeling never really improved, but I thought nothing of it. Soreness is part of the game, after all. Tuesday morning was the day that I woke up feeling something I had never physically felt before. It was a sharp, constant pain with an epicenter in my upper left glute. I gutted through work on Tuesday. Had to sit down a lot of times, take everything extremely slowly and couldn’t really pick anything up from the ground. I was getting more useless by the second so I got to my 8 hours and had to walk out the door before everything was finished. Anyone that knows me knows how much I hated doing that. Tuesday was the most awful day that I have had to endure while at Casey’s physically. There was no chance in hell I was coming to work on Wednesday. Then Thursday. Friday I got into my car, started it to try to drive to work but decided within about 10 seconds that it wasn’t happening either. What happened between Tuesday and Friday is fodder for at least 1 “Lessons from getting injured…” blog post.

The week prior I was on vacation. I lifted both very heavy and very differently comparative to what I normally do. I was aiming to use my week of vacation as one where I could experiment with splitting my lifting sessions up through out the day. Main lifts during the day in the garage and finish up with supplemental and accessory lifts in the gym, where all the machines are. My initial intention was to give a 4-5 hour split between the sessions but I didn’t follow through with it. I ended up finishing my work in the garage then driving to the gym to complete the rest of it. I didn’t think anything of it. I still don’t know if that that any impact on what happened afterward. Maybe it was the final crack in the dam. Maybe not. I did squat and deadlift higher numbers than I have in quite a bit while also working in the 95-100% range for a large chunk of the session. On Tuesday, I did 4 sets of 3 above 400 doing doing box squats: 405, 415, 425 and 435.That totaled 19,260 pounds of workload on just squats. I did block pulls off of a 3 inch mats on Saturday. Two sets of a 3 at 405 and 415 set the stage for me to pull 425 for the first time off of mats. There was only real hard struggle on the 3rd reps done at 415 pounds and the very last rep at 425 pounds. I only did pressing on Wednesday so the 3 days lifted while on vacation was less than my normal number of days lifted in a week but I packed every one of those sessions with enough for the entire week.

I’ve felt back pain and soreness before, mostly in the aftermath of deadlifts, but never quite like this. The pain itself was the thing that was so radically different. I can mentally deal with soreness and stiffness, but sheer amount of sharp, deep pain was overwhelming. I couldn’t bend over at all. That made all of the things I do easily almost impossible. Merely putting on pants and socks from Wednesday to Friday was a major victory. I put the former on a couple of times and the latter on once. That was when I tried to get myself to work on Friday. It was so, so hard to get myself into position to lean forward to be able to use even a small amount of leverage to get socks and shoes on. Driving got progressively worse through the 3 days. My hip was in progressively more pain when I drove anywhere. Fifteen to twenty minute drives were agony and felt like they took forever. By Friday 5 minute drives reached the same level of discomfort. It was both very eye opening just how much misery I was in by my left leg being forced into a position that I couldn’t avoid. The drive to Fareway on Friday to get pain medication was one I dreaded. I knew it needed to be done but I did delay it because of the pain.

The biggest effect of the pain was something that I’ve known about for years but never really felt in the worst possible way until now. I’ve laid in bed many times for hours on end because I just couldn’t calm myself down mentally. Everyone’s done it. I’ve also known for years that overwhelming physical pain can cause the same effect. I have now experienced that. It is every bit as bad as it as I thought it was. I tried numerous times in those 3 days to force myself to sleep but I couldn’t lay down in any position without making my hip fire even more than they already were. I was stuck in one position for 3 days. That was sitting on my recliner slightly leaned back so I didn’t make physical contact with the point on my body that was most sensitive. My left foot was up on an ottoman placed in front of the recliner most of the time. That gave enough space for me to ice my back. I did fall asleep a few times but never more than 45 minutes. Of all the things I have experienced in my life physically, not being able to fall asleep while being dead tired for about 90 hours is easily one of the worst of the bunch. Thursday into Friday was the worst day 30 or so hours I have had in long, long time. The only thing I was really capable of doing was ice my back or heat my back and watch television. That led me to watch a lot of 90s movies I have already seen a lot. GoldenEye, Deep Blue Sea, Braveheart all got watched on that day. What can I say? I grew up in the 90s.

Thursday I met with a chiropractor to help determine what the issue was and a path forward. It was my first time seeing one. I’ve seen videos on Youtube but didn’t know exactly what to expect. It was a major learning experience. He actually confirmed some things I had been physically feeling for years. It made me wonder why I hadn’t done this before. On the initial assessment, he told me that my left leg was 1 inch shorter than my right. My left hip was 1 inch higher than my right hip. I have always noticed the musculature on my left hip was physically in a different spot than my right when I looked in the mirror but never imagined it was because my hip was out of place. He made some adjustments to start getting my hip back in proper alignment. The most important thing was that he was able to determine that I hadn’t slipped a disc in my back because of where I wasn’t feeling pain when I moved my leg. My IT Band being strained was likely the cause of my pain. That’s what was causing the nerves in the area to over fire and prevent me from being able to sleep. I left in a little less pain but there was still a lot of work left to do. He told me to keep icing the area and I made another appointment for the following Tuesday to check back up on it. The check up went well. He told my hip still wasn’t exactly in the right spot but it’s better.

On a scale of 0 to 10, I was a full scale 0 for these 3 days. I was borderline useless to everyone including myself. I determined that my recovery plan from this IT Band strain had to have 3 different phases to it. Seeking professional help in a professional setting was the first phase. That part was initially done at the chiropractors office. He got the ball rolling. If I need to see a doctor about in the future, that will be part of it. The second is at-home recovery care. That has involved icing my back with ice packs and alternating that with heating pads. The third level was pain mitigation. I don’t typically have pain medication in the house because I very rarely need it. I knew it would be necessary for me to have any hope of getting any rest whatsoever. I grabbed some with a sleeping aid in it for when I was at home and some acetaminophen for when I was at work. This last part was the most crucial in the moment because I was able to stop feeling all of the signals my hip was sending my brain. Friday night I slept for 10 hours. It’s been years since I’ve slept that long. By Monday, I felt pretty decent. I rated myself a solid 6.5 out of 10 when people asked at work the following week. I was capable of bending over and moving as well as I needed to. I’m currently on vacation for a few weeks so I have more opportunities to relax a bit more throughout the day. I’ve always believed that making the body stronger so it can take the strain of everyday life is the best way to manage everything. Being forced to have pain medication with me just in case I needed it hasn’t changed that one bit. It’s also affirmed my belief that pain medication is a PED. I went from “not being able to put socks on” to feeling “not injured” because of them. If that’s not a PED, I don’t know what is.

I have replayed in my head multiple times over the last few weeks what all led up to my IT Band finally telling me to stop. I know there were times when I was doing barbell hip thrusts that my left glute would tense up while I was doing reps. With the weight, sets and reps that was on the bar, 315 pounds for 4 sets of 12, I thought of it as normal strain on the abductor muscle. I never felt the same level of strain when using the abductor machine but I also knew doing 2 to 3 sets of 50 reps at 295 pounds was inducing quite a bit of it. The abductor machine has gotten maligned as a “girls machine” but it does serious work. Yes, I am putting serious work into building a better ass. The focus I have put on developing strength in my hip likely put the smaller muscles and various other tissues at risk for overtraining at the weights I was working with. It’s not the first time I’ve heard about smaller muscle groups being more vulnerable to overtraining. I don’t train forearms that hard for that reason. I don’t normally get concerned when I do lifts successfully in the 12 rep range because I know that I am capable of doing them without a lot of short term risk. This has opened my eyes to the possible long term effects from lifts I do in that range. That includes lifts I have recently added to the program like dumbbell pullovers.

Overall, I’m in a decent place physically and mentally. I’m capable of getting through days without pain medication now. I haven’t quite figured out how I am will be dealing with the next few weeks of training yet. Bench pressing seems fine enough to do, as does tricep and seated bicep work. I have learned that keeping pain medication around the house is a good thing. I’m pretty bad at keeping medication in the house because I don’t typically need it. Not living with someone causes me to tend to keep only things around that I need in the moment. I am very anxious to get back to squatting and pulling. Just going to take some time.

2023 Week 16 and 17 Training Log

Week 16: April 17 – 23, 2023

Monday through Sunday
Unscheduled rest day – recovery

Steps/miles
Monday – 25,062 steps, 11.37 miles. Tuesday – 18,867 steps, 8.29 miles. Wednesday – 3,024 steps, 1.48 miles. Thursday – 1,640 steps, .68 miles. Friday – 3,169 steps, 1.55 miles. Saturday – 3,084 steps, 1.52 miles. Sunday – 3,987 steps, 1.87 miles. Total – 58,833 steps, 25.24 miles.

Week 17
April 24 – 30, 2023

Monday through Saturday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Sunday
Bench press, chains 44 pounds added at top – 135 x 6 wide, x 6 inside, x 6 narrow giant set, 225 x 8, 225 w/chain x 6, 235 w/chain x 3, x 3; 245 w/chain x 3, x 2
Incline press – 185 x 6, 195 x 6, 205 x 5, 215 x 6
Pin press – 185 x 6, 225 x 5, x 6; 235 x 4, x 3
Tricep pushdown, narrow pronated grip – 50 x 12, 75 x 12, x 12, x 12
Tricep cable pull over – 25 x 12, 35 x 12, x 12, x 15

Steps/miles
Monday – 25,909 steps, 11.67 miles. Tuesday – 24,529 steps, 11.24 miles. Wednesday – 25,528 steps, 11.44 miles. Thursday – 26,263 steps, 11.89 miles. Friday – 24,553 steps, 11.15 miles. Saturday – 3,959 steps, 1.91 miles. Sunday – 6,886 steps, 3.24 miles. Total (through Sat) – 130,741 steps, 59.3 miles.

2023 Week 15 Training Log

April 10 – 16, 2023

Mark Brown

April 17, 2023

Monday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Tuesday
Box squat, cambered bar – 175 x 12, 265 x 12, 355 x 6, 375 x 6, 405 x 3, x 3, 415 x 3, x 3 ; 425 x 3, x 3; 435 x 3, x 3
Hex bar deadlift, 12 inch – 290 x 6, 330 x 6, 380 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Leg press, low outside placement – 478 x 20, 568 x 15, 658 x 15
Preacher curl, plate loaded machine – 45 x 12, 70 x 12, 80 x 12
Leg extension, machine – 115 x 12, 145 x 12, 175 x 12, 205 x 10
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 25
Abductor, machine – 295 x 25, x 25, x 25, x 25
Adductor, machine – 295 x 12, x 12, x 12

Wednesday
Chest press, American cambered bar inside grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3
Chest press, ACB narrow grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3
Chest press, ACB third grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 3, x 3
Chest press, ACB outer grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 3, x 3
Muscle mace, giant set – 50 x 10(x 10)(x 10), 55 x 10 (x 10)( x 10), 60 x 10(x 10)(x 10), 65 x 8(x 8)(x 8)
Floor press, straight bar – 225 x 6, x 6; 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 255 x 3, x 3, x 3
Isometric chest press, machine per arm – 90 x 12, 115 x 8, x 8; 135 x 6
Tricep pushdowns, narrow pronated grip – 72.5 x 15, 80 x 15, 87.5 x 12
Cable crossovers – 35 x 15, 50 x 15, 57.5 x 15
Tricep pulldowns, single arm R then L – 10 x 20(x 20), 15 x 20(x 20), 20 x 20(x 20), 25 x 15(x 20)
Seated tricep extensions – 90 x 12, 100 x 12, 110 x 12, 120 x 12, 130 x 12
20 minutes seated cycling

Thursday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Friday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Saturday
Block pulls, 12 inch – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315 x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3; 405 x 3, x 3; 415 x 3, x 3; 425 x 2, x 2
Bent over barbell rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 25
Seated leg curls, machine – 130 x 12, 160 x 10, x 8
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50
Adductor, machine – 295 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Preacher curl, dumbbell R then L – 35 x 15( x 15), 40 x 15( x 15), 45 x 15(x 15)
Standing curls, cable – 42.5 x 20, 50 x 15, 57.5 x 15, 65 x 15

Sunday
Unscheduled rest day – necessary recovery

Steps/miles
Monday – 7,057 steps, 3.64 miles. Tuesday – 7,954 steps, 3.6 miles. Wednesday – 8,987 steps, 4.14 miles. Thursday – 5,021 steps, 2.48 miles. Friday – 9,254 steps, 4.47 miles. Saturday – 9,185 steps, 4.37 miles. Sunday – 2,106 steps, 1.03 miles. Total – 49,564 steps, 23.73 miles.

2023 Week 14 Training Log

April 3 – 9, 2023

Mark Brown

April 10, 2023

Monday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Tuesday
Box squat, cambered bar – 175 x 12, 265 x 12, 315 x 6, x 6, 355 x 6, x 6, 375 x 6m x 6; 395 x 3, x 3, x 3; 415 x 3, x 3
Hex bar deadlift – 325(9 inch) x 3, x 3, x 3; 375(12 inch pull) x 3, x 3, x 3
Call raises – Bodyweight x 25, x 25, x 25, x2 5
Leg extensions, machine – 110 x 12, 130 x 12, 150 x 12, 170 x 12

Wednesday
Chest press, American cambered bar inside grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3
Chest press, ACB narrow grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 1
Chest press, ACB third grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Chest press, ACB outer grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Dumbbell press, incline – 80 x 10, 85 x 10, 100 x 8
Tricep extensions, ez curl bar – 75 x 12, x 12; 85 x 12
Muscle mace, giant set – 50 x 10(x 10)(x 10), 55 x 10 (x 8)( x 10), 60 x 10(x 8)(x 10), 65 x 10(x 8)(x 8)
Straight arm lat pulldowns, v shape attachment – 70 x 12, 75 x 12, 80 x 12, 85 x 12

Thursday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Friday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Saturday
Black pulls, 12 inch – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315 x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3; 405 x 3, x 3; 415 x 2, x 2
Bent over barbell rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Preacher curls, Ez curl bar wide grip – 75 x 12, x 12; 85 x 12, x 12
Leg curls, R then L – 40 lb band x 12(x 12), 70 lb band x 12(x 12), x 12(x 12)
Abdominal (blank) R then L – 45 x 12(x 12), x 12(x 12), x 12(x12)

Steps/miles
Monday – 27,446 steps, 12.56 miles. Tuesday – 26,088 steps, 11.87 miles. Wednesday – 29,168 steps, 13.4 miles. Thursday – 25,930 steps, 11.79 miles. Friday – 24,914 steps, 11.36 miles. Saturday – 8,044 steps, 4.01 miles. Sunday – 5,159 steps, 2.35 miles. Total – 146,749 steps, 66.34 miles.

2023 Week 13 Training Log

March 26 – April 2, 2023

Mark Brown

April 3, 2023

Monday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Tuesday
Box squat, cambered bar – 175 x 12, 265 x 12, 315 x 6, x 6, 355 x 6, x 6, 395 x 3, x 3, x 3
Hex bar deadlift, 12 inch pull – 290 x 6, 340 x 3, x 3, x 3; 390 x 3, x 3, x 3
Good mornings, cambered bar – 175 x 8, 225 x 6, x 6
Call raises – 225 x 20, x 25, x25, x25
Leg extensions, machine – 110 x 12, 130 x 12, 150 x 12, 170 x 12

Wednesday
Chest press, American cambered bar inside grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3
Chest press, ACB narrow grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Chest press, ACB third grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Chest press, ACB outer grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Seated overhead press, ACB – 128 x 3, x 3; 138 x 3, x 3; 148 x 3, x 3
Dumbbell flies, incline – 35 x 12, 40 x 12, 45 x 12, 55 x 12
Tricep extensions, ez curl bar – 75 x 12, x 12; 85 x 12, x 12
Tricep pushdowns, v shape attachment – 70 x 12, x 12; 80 x 12, x 12
Straight arm lat pulldowns, v shape attachment – 70 x 12, x 12; 80 x 12

Thursday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Friday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Saturday
Deadlift, from floor – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315 x 6, 345 x 3, x 3; 365 x 1, x 1, x 1; 385 x 1, x 1, x 1
Bent over barbell rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Hip thrusts, barbell – 315 x 12, x 12, x 12,
Prone leg curls – 65 x 12, 80 x 12, 95 x 8
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 25
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50

Sunday
Bench press, to chest – 135 x 6 wide, x 6 inside, x 6 narrow, 225 x 12, x 12; 245 x 8, x 6
Incline press – 185 x 6, 205 x 5, 185 x 6
Dumbbell flies, incline – 35 x 12, 40 x 12, 45 x 12, 55 x 12
Tricep pushdown – 70 x 12, x 12; 80 x 12, x 12
Rack pushups – bodyweight x 15, x 15, x 12, x 12
Tricep pulldowns, single arm R then L – 10 x 15(x 15), 15 x 20( x 20), 20 x 15(x 15), 25 x 12(x 12)

Steps/miles
Monday – 20,094 steps, 9.19 miles. Tuesday – 25,330 steps, 11.58 miles. Wednesday – 27,292 steps, 12.36. Thursday – 24,567 steps, 11.16 miles. Friday – 23,515 steps, 10.79 miles. Saturday – 8,051 steps, 3.79 miles. Sunday – 7,999 steps, 3.63 miles. Total – 136,848 steps, 62.5 miles.

Don’t Be Afraid To Let Fruit Ripen

Photo by Dom J on Pexels.com

Be patient with produce

Mark Brown

March 30, 2023

Grocery stores are good at stocking most everything a person needs and/or wants. Meat, vegetables, fruit, snacks, baked goods, spices, medicine, cleaning supplies, and other items are all things found in a well stocked grocery store. Bigger chain grocery stores will have all of that while smaller chains might specialize in just carrying food. Some of that is to maximize the space. In Iowa, some of the dominant grocery store chains are Hy-Vee and Fareway. I am not counting Wal-Mart or Target in this category because they are different for the most part. Discount membership club stores like Costco and Sam’s Club are very much like Wal-Mart but many times greater in scale. When I was selling jams, salsas, bread, etc I maintained a Costco membership to get fruit and other items I needed for a better price on them. When dealing with fruit in the scale I needed, that was incredibly important. I learned something during that time, from about 2010-14, that changed the way I look at buying fruit.

The major lesson I learned was that I needed to have patience with certain fruits I was making jams, jellies, preserves, sauces and salsas with. I needed to let them ripen. Ripe is the state produce gets in when the starches in them have converted to sugars. This lesson came as a result of learning from both experience and a source I trusted, Alton Brown. On one of the episodes of Good Eats, he pointed out that the fruits and vegetables available at grocery stores was based more on looks than ripeness. This matters quite a bit when dealing with certain widely available fruits and vegetables, much more the former than the latter. He used tomatoes as his example. A tomato that is firm and red is the best bet for the grocery store to sell it. Tomatoes are a fruit, botanically, that ripens after it is picked for the most part. I once pulled about 800 Roma tomatoes off about 8 plants years ago from a friend’s garden at the end of October. All of them were green, but ready to get the process started. It took them a couple weeks of just sitting on a table to get it done. That signature red color of most tomatoes is not the best sign of ripeness. Achieving it can be done with just a bit or time and exposing them to certain gases. It’s one would use to hasten the ripening process once the produce is back home. Tomatoes are a great example to use because the red blush can be quite deceiving.

There are more than a few examples of fruits and vegetables that grocery stores sell far before they are ready to be consumed at their best. Peaches, melons, bananas and pineapples are just a few. The first two don’t help anyone visually very well. With peaches, feeling them will be enough to tell when they are ready to be eaten or used for culinary purposes. Firm with a little bit of give when squeezed is a good benchmark. I still have no idea when melons are actually ripe. Pineapples and bananas will show anyone paying even remote attention to them when they are ripe. Both of these fruits mystify me a bit because I see people eating them before they are even close to fully ripened, both in person and on tv by professional chefs. I’ve known for a long time that the darker bananas make better banana bread because my parents have made it for as long as I can remember. In my younger years, I never understood the reason why. I also understand why grocery stores choose to sell bananas when they are severely under-ripened, which is marked by their unblemished green or yellow color. I’ve eaten bananas at this stage of ripeness. They don’t really taste like anything. It’s only when they soften and the peel begins to take on quite a few dark spots that they begin to take on any flavor. If anyone eats a banana before this happens then complains it doesn’t take like anything, it’s on them.

I very rarely see pineapples being used when actually ripe on television. Maybe chefs think they are sweet enough while still visible green. I disagree with them. I don’t tend to enjoy the flavor of pineapples so I don’t get them a lot. What’s particularly interesting to me about them is the way they are often sold in grocery stores. Like bananas, peaches, melons and tomatoes, they are sold mostly in a severely under-ripened state. Like bananas, the fruit lets everyone know just how severely so they are by being mostly dark green. Seeing some yellow or orange on one will make me audibly laugh with a comment to myself or something like “Hey, this one is actually kind of close to being ready!” They are definitely sweet enough to be eaten, maybe not enjoyed, in this stage, but they get even better if someone just waits a couple of weeks. Yes, I said “weeks.” Over the period of 2 weeks, if not aided by gases, the pineapple will show it is ripening by the exterior becoming yellow, orange, red-orange then brown in that order. The entire thing doesn’t change colors as it ages. In this way, it is like a mango. Other changes to the exterior will manifest themselves. The fronds, the leaves at that top, will slowly begin to wilt over that time. That is more evidence that the fruit is converting the starches into sugars. This is when sugar content is at it’s max or very close to it. I will only eat pineapple when it is this ripe.

I first experienced how long pineapples take to ripen when I did my first batch of pineapple salsa 10-12 years ago. I was in the prime of my canning phase. I was very active in creating canned jams, jellies, preserves, salsas and sauces. There were some that I only made once and have just kept in my back pocket, so to speak, for future producing. I believed, and still do, that pineapple salsa should be hot because helps balance out the sweet of the the fruit. Salsas are no different than any other kind of sauce. Balance of flavor should be the ultimate goal, even if one aspect of it heightened. I also used pineapples in place of tomatoes. The second time I made pineapple salsa is when I truly learned the most from the process. I got about 9 pineapples from Costco and let them all ripen about as fully as possible. I combined that with about 3 pounds of unseeded jalapeños, 3/4 of a pound of unseeded serrano peppers, 5-6 red bell peppers, a lot of garlic, 4-5 large onions, salt, black pepper and cumin seeds and roasted it all in 2 large aluminum roasting pans. I learned that pineapple juice will eat non-stick coating from the the first attempt. I blended it with a stick blender until relatively smooth, then canned 29 jars of it. It took me 11 hours from prep to final jars canned. This was memorable because I stayed up the night before a vendor show to make it.

I tell this recipe/story to show how important letting pineapples ripen is. The salsa I just wrote about turned out really, really freaking hot. One of the hottest salsas or sauces I’ve ever made. It was even hotter than my habanero sauce I made around that time, and it had 100 of the little devils in a batch that made 25 half pint jars. I’d made traditional tomato based salsas quite a few times by that point. I was even good at making a hot salsa that took about 8-10 seconds to get there. I killed my ability to make taste mild salsa at one point during 2011-13 because of how much hot stuff I was making. The heat in this second pineapple salsa hit much faster and hotter than any tomato based salsa I’d made. The first batch was also quite hot. I suspect there are enzymes or something in pineapples that helps capsaicin spike when pairs with peppers. I haven’t really made any since so I have never really put any effort into figuring out why. Not using the pineapples until they were fully ripened was the most important part of the prep phase. I’m convinced if I would have used them when they were less sweet that the salsa wouldn’t have had the punch it had. That’s how I learned why I needed to let them ripen. I just don’t understand why I don’t see it on tv with professional chefs more often. Maybe I’m the crazy one.

Perhaps pictures will help some…

Purchased on Sunday February 26, 2023 already starting to turn yellow. These two pictures were taken on March 3rd. The pineapple had been sitting out on my countertop all week. Could I have hastened this process by putting it in a paper bag with a banana in it? Yes, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Notice the different colors on the fruit and how green the fronds are.

These pictures were taken March 7th. I actually cut it up shortly after taking them. Notice how brown the exterior is. The pineapple was perfectly good under it. It was quite soft and very easy to cut, even the core. The fronds on the bottom photo were very wilted. This is what a pineapple looks like at peak ripeness or very close.

2023 Week 12 Training Log

March 20 – 26, 2023

Mark Brown

March 27, 2023

Monday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Tuesday
Free squat, straight bar – 135 x 12, 225 x 12, 315 x 6, x 6: 345 x 3, x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3
Hex bar deadlift, 12 inch pull – 235 x 6, 325 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1; 345 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 25, 180kg x 25

Wednesday
Chest press, American cambered bar inside grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3
Chest press, ACB narrow grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Chest press, ACB third grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Chest press, ACB outer grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2
Seated overhead press, ACB – 128 x 3, x 3; 138 x 3, x 3; 148 x 3, x 3
Muscle mace, giant set – 50 x 10(x 10)(x 10), 55 x 10 (x 8)( x 10), 60 x 10(x 8)(x 10), 65 x 10(x 8)(x 8)
Dumbbell flies, flat – 30 x 12, 35 x 12, 40 x 12, 45 x 12
Lateral side raises, unilateral R then L – 10 x 12( x 12), 15 x 10( x 10), 20 x 10( x 10)

Thursday
Tricep pushdowns, pronated grip shoulder width – 50 x 15, 57.5 x 15, 65 x 15, 72.5 x 15, 80 x 15, 87.5 x 10
Cable curls, narrow grip – 42.5 x 20, 50 x 20, 57.5 x 15, 65 x 15
Overhead tricep extensions, cable – 42.5 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 12, 72.5 x 12
Preacher curls, dumbbells L then R – 35 x 15(x 15), 40 x 15(x 15), 45 x 15(x 15)
Wide grip curls, long dumbbells – 40 x 10, 50 x 10, 60 x 6
Seated tricep extension, machine – 90 x 12, 100 x 12, 110 x 12, 120 x 12

Friday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Saturday
Deadlift, from floor – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315 x 6, 345 x 3, x 3; 365 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Bent over barbell rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Hip thrusts, barbell – 315 x 12, x 12, x 12, 315 x 12
Leg extensions – 115 x 12, 145 x 12, 175 x 12, 205 x 8
Seated leg curls – 130 x 10, 160 x 8, 175 x 8
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 25
Leg press, low wide placement – 478 x 15, 658 x 8
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50

Sunday
Bench press, to chest – 135 x 6 wide, x 6 inside, x 6 narrow, 225 x 12, x 12; 245 x 8, x 8, 185 x 15
Incline press – 185 x 6, 205 x 6, x 6
Dumbbell flies, flat – 35 x 12, 40 x 12, 45 x 12, 55 x 12
Muscle mace, giant set – 50 x 10(x 10)(x 10), 55 x 10 (x 8)( x 10), 60 x 10(x 8)(x 10), 65 x 10(x 8)(x 8)
Tricep extension, dumbbells one arm R then L – 10 x 10(x 10), 15 x 10(x 10), 20 x 10( x 10)
Rack pushups – bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Steps/miles
Monday – 23,446 steps, 10.67 miles. Tuesday – 24,475 steps, 11.09 miles. Wednesday – 23,600 steps, 10.68 miles. Thursday – 24,207 steps, 11.10 miles. Friday – 24,307 steps, 11.13 miles. Saturday – 8,066 steps, 3.75 miles. Sunday – 6,430 steps, 3.19 miles. Total – 134,531 steps, 61.61 miles.

Lessons From The Home Buying Process

And some from home owning as well!

Mark Brown

March 23, 2023

This is intended to be an addendum to my essay about how being a home owner has changed me. Instead of being released as one solid essay, I will be posting a couple specific lessons at a time so I can get into them a bit more. This is just the first 2 I have learned.

Lesson 1: Location really does matter.

I have watched way too much HGTV since I got house. I laugh a bit when I see people looking for houses on shows like “Property Brothers” and “Love It or List It” talk about not being willing to be outside 30 minutes from work or a specific location. The humor I see in that statement made over and over again by different people is how I really came to respect location as a main driver of decision making. I didn’t think I would care much about location when I began looking for a house in June of 2016. I knew I wanted to be relatively close to work so the drive in winter would be doable even on the days the weather sucked. That led me to specific areas, and even away from a house I was seriously considering on the south side of Des Moines. The latter was ultimately too far away to be the right call when I started to consider winter driving. It checked off quite a few of the boxes I was looking at, but it couldn’t overcome location. Ironically enough, I’d be much closer to my buddy I lift with. However, the house I did end up with on the east side of Des Moines really provided me with everything I needed and a location about 15 minutes away from work. I have appreciated the location of the house more than I anticipated.

Location also obviously impacts re-sale value. I have no intention on moving anytime soon but I do recognize that it has to be part of the decision making process. I have heard what my property has been assessed at and openly laughed, even if it isn’t a joke. It is genuinely amusing how different the assessment and purchase/sale price is. I took a second visit to a house originally built in the early 1900s because it had a lot of what I wanted. It was a mostly finished updated house but had some major elements , like a pea gravel driveway, I could improve on to increase re-sale value and a decently sized lot. Location got in the way of me pursuing the house in a meaningful way. Madrid is a small-ish town, and I would know what one of those looks like because I lived in one for a long time, and a bit isolated by my current standard. By the time I had gone to see the house, it had been on the market for 130 days or so. I’m reasonably sure the location of the house is what was holding it back.

There is also an element of reading the tea leaves to see what the future holds for the geographical area one is moving. Cities are always gobbling up country land to create taxable property. That is something to really think about. I remember a buddy talking about specific areas he wouldn’t think about moving because he projected what might be happening to it over the course of his lifetime. The future us always nebulous and nothing but a collection of what-if scenarios, The entire reason to buy a house or property is to get more value out of it over the long haul. One doesn’t need to be a real estate agent or investor to know looking into the future is necessary. One of the most famous examples of Michael Jordan’s Chicago estate. He built a home in an area that wasn’t highly desirable in the 1980s and didn’t develop into one. When he decided to sell that house in (year), he didn’t get anywhere near his asking price of $30 million. The words “Michael Jordan’s house” couldn’t overcome an undesirable location. Simple as that. Location matters. A lot.

Lesson 2: Can live with it. Can’t live with it.

This is how I will talk about the understood “you can’t get everything you want when house hunting, especially when on a budget” rule. I broke up features in a house I was looking at into those 2 columns, like they would be presented on a “pros vs cons” chart. The decision to put an offer on a specific house involves very specific life math, so to speak. In this way, each equation will be different. The math just isn’t the same house to house. Some elements will weight heavier on specific houses than others. What rates as a 8 on the 1-10 scale at one may rate a 6 on another, not always necessarily because the former is better or higher quality than the latter either. Home buying is a an inexact process. Some parts of it are logic and math while other parts of it openly defy both of them.

There is more that goes into “Can live with it” and “can’t live with it” than liking or disliking. Decision making involves doing one thing at the expense of another. Yes, the effects of one decision can dovetail beautifully into another but that is hardly inevitable. When looking into the elements any particular house and/or property has, the best question to ask is what can and can’t be lived with. I noticed in my travels to different houses for sale in June 2016 that certain traits popped up in certain areas and towns. It made me question what I couldn’t live without. I learned that basements weren’t automatically a thing in houses built in Bondurant, a city about 15 minutes north of my current home, because of the water table. Some areas of Des Moines don’t have garages or the garages are so small that they might as well be sheds. That’s not just specific parts of the city either. The house opposite me doesn’t have a garage. It looks like it was converted into an extra room at some point. I grew up in a house in Polk City that had a double car garage and a basement. Coming to the realization I might have to choose between a basement and a garage challenged me to think of concessions I’d have to make in order to make a decision one way or another. What’s amusing now is how much I treat my garage like a shed despite the fact that I could easily park my car in there. I don’t even park there even in the dead of winter. Just shows how values change situationally. Getting a car that featured remote start right at the start of 2021 had a lot do with it.

Being able to live with something doesn’t mean that I like it. All it means is that something is not ideal or perfect but I can work around it. Life would be great if everything about something that costs so much money would be perfectly spot on, but we all know that it doesn’t work that way. Often times any thing’s, place’s or person’s best asset is their greatest weakness. As long as the overall structure is healthy and in tact, work can be done slowly to make it better over time. That is about as good as it gets when owning a home. Having to multiple home projects at once is the bane of any homeowner’s sanity. It’s super easy to lose track of costs when juggling multiple projects. This is especially true when the monetary situation is quite fluid. Those HGTV renovation shows I referenced really do make light of the reality of home improvement costs and what a monetary commitment it is. I would hesitate to say that shows that like that lie about the difficulty of making home improvements because that would be a charge that requires proof. Those shows really don’t help get a proper image of the home owning experience. They are good inspiration art galleries though.

Plus, what goes into the “can live with” part of the chart can be somewhat shocking given all things that can be considered. I put an offer down on a house in Altoona, a highly desirable city that I live within 2 to 5 minutes of, that featured a galley kitchen and a bedroom that someone in the family definitely smoked a lot of cigarettes in over the years. It was a good house in all other ways. Location was great, price was decent and the other living spaces was up to par. I know that smoking room would be a hard project to overcome so it’s probably good I didn’t get it. I was told at the time that getting that odor out of the room would be next to impossible. I know now there are paints designed to help eliminate them. That room was a major project by itself. However, the fact that I could put an offer on that house at all given how much I like cooking and hate the smell of cigarettes shows how easily not liking specific aspects of an asset can be overcome. I can’t overstate how much I hate cigarette smoke. It truly is one of the most awful odors there is in the world. If I could eliminate it from this Earth, I would do it right now. Buying a house will definitely challenge anyone’s “can’t live with” list.

2023 Week 11 Training Log

March 13 – 19, 2023

Mark Brown

March 20, 2023

Monday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Tuesday
Free squat, straight bar – 135 x 12, 225 x 12, 315 x 6, x 6: 345 x 3, x 3, x 3; 365 x 3, x 3
Sumo deadlift – 315 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Goblet squat, dumbbell – 75 x 12, 90 x 8
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 40, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 26
Leg Extensions – 115 x 12, 145 x 12, 175 x 10, 205 x 8
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50

Wednesday
Chest press, American cambered bar inside grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3
Chest press, ACB narrow grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 2, x 1
Chest press, ACB third grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 3
Chest press, ACB outer grip – 78 x 6, 148 x 3, 178 x 3, 198 x 3, 208 x 3, 218 x 3, 228 x 3
Seated overhead press, ACB – 128 x 3, x 3; 138 x 3, x 3; 148 x 3 x 2
Dumbbell flies, flat – 30 x 12, 35 x 12, 40 x 12, 45 x 12
Flat dumbbell press, narrow 30 x 8, 35 x 8, 40 x 8
Muscle mace, giant set – 50 x 10(x 10)(x 8), 55 x 8 (x 8)( x 8)

Thursday
Tricep pushdowns, pronated grip – 50 x 15, 57.5 x 15, 65 x 15, 72.5 x 12, 80 x 12, 87.5 x 12
Cable curls, two handed narrow grip – 42.5 x 12, 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 12
Overhead tricep extensions, cable – 25 x 15, 42.5 x 12, 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12, 65 x 12
Preacher curls, dumbbells L then R – 35 x 15(x 15), 40 x 15(x 15), 45 x 12(x 12)
Tricep pulldowns, no attachment R then L – 10 x 30(x 30), 15 x 25(x 25), 20 x 15(x 15)
Seated tricep extensions, machine – 90 x 12, 100 x 12, 110 x 12, 120 x 12

Friday
Scheduled rest day – recovery

Saturday
Deadlift, from floor – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315 x 6, 345 x 3, x 3; 365 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Bent over barbell rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Hip thrusts, barbell – 225 x 12, 315 x 12, x 12, x 12
Calf raises, seated leg press machine – 150kg x 50, 160kg x 40, 170kg x 30, 180kg x 25
Leg press, low wide placement – 478 x 15, 568 x 15
Abductor, machine – 295 x 50, x 50, x 50

Sunday
Bench press, from chest normal grip – 135 x 12, 225 x 6, x 8, x 8, x 8; 245 x 6, x 6, x 6, x 6
Incline press – 185 x 6, 205 x 6, x 5, x 6
Cable crossover – 35 x 15, 42.5 x 12, 50 x 12, 57.5 x 12
Lat pulldowns, MAG attachment – 42.5 x 12, 50 x 12, 60 x 12, 70 x 12, 80 x 12
Tricep pushdowns, V shape attachment – 50 x 15, 57.5 x 15, 65 x 15, 72.5 x 15, 80 x 15, 87.5 x 15
Flies, pec deck machine – 165 x 12, 180 x 12, 195 x 12, 210 x 12
Seated tricep extensions, machine – 90 x 12, 100 x 12, 110 x 12, 120 x 12

Steps/miles
Monday – 19,920 steps, 9.08 miles. Tuesday – 23,630 steps, 10.73 miles. Wednesday – 22,567 steps, 10.21 miles. Thursday – 23,142 steps, 10.59 miles. Friday – 23,782 steps, 10.91 miles. Saturday – 8,217 steps, 3.89 miles. Sunday – 9,442 steps, 4.51 miles. Total – 130,700 steps, 59.92 miles.