It's the Final Countdown – Cue the 80's Synth Keyboard Beat

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Here we go folks. Less than 20 days until the big day, and I’m running around like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to teach a course the two weekends leading into the Long weekend before the wedding, as well as begin working on the follow-up to Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Lower Body, while writing a new article for T-Nation that will hopefully come out when I’m on vacation, and oh yeah, planning the final bits of the wedding with Lindsay. Meanwhile she’s been running herself crazy with a new job, training herself for some races coming up, and stressing herself into a little ball of worry about every little detail involved in wedding planning.

With all this going on, Operation Sexified By Dean is in full effect. I’ve managed to drop down from 246 to 231 in the past 3 months, without going into starvation mode or completely trashing myself in the gym.

Not actually me, but pretty close

And to be honest, I’m actually feeling better than I have in a long time. Not to say that I don’t have moments of low energy, but my back isn’t bothering me (thank you heavy deadlifts and dedicated hamstring work), my feet and ankles aren’t throbbing when I run like they were last year, I have no knee pain, no shoulder pain, no neck pain, and pretty much no physical problems that would warrant anything more than a good neck crack and some time on a foam roller.

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Is this a result of the weight loss itself or just a co-factor relating the new style of workouts I’m putting myself through, focusing more on technical lifts and heavier weights instead of more volume and endurance-based work? Six of one, half a dozen of the other, but as I’ve been able to get down to 216 a few years ago leading into a big trip to Cancun, and in doing so I felt like complete ass, I don’t think that the weight has anything to do with how I’m feeling.

So with everything happening in the world, you can bet your sweet ass I’m looking forward to heading out with the Missus (the new name for The Future after the big day. We’ll see how long that lasts) to spend some QT in the mountains bumming around Banff. Hopefully we’ll spot a unicorn or ten while we’re down there.

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In between unicorn sightseeing tours, we’re planning to get in some mountain biking, hike around Lake Louise, do some canoeing, maybe some white water rafting, and hopefully get in a workout or two. Neither one of us are the sit around kind of people, so when we go on vacation, we like to get out and do something. All-inclusive resorts are nice, but there’s only so long I can literally sit around doing nothing before I start climbing the walls and trying to find the escape hatch.

Since this will be the first vacay either of us have been on not involving a long weekend or a trip to the parents place in about 2 years, it will be a great chance to recharge the battery, and also spend some time together. Most of the week, I’m either working or she’s training, so we typically only see each other in passing except for about a 2 hour period each night where we can catch up, so having an entire unbroken week together will either bring us closer or drive us closer to the edge. Odds are, though, after spending the past 7 years with her and not wanting to run through the door and leave a perfect outline cutout of my form, I figure we can both manage a week together.