I know how you feel. Not city living here, but we are in town with close neighbors. My hope is that once the boys are done with highschool we can sell what we have and buy something with some land. Then school districts won’t matter and we can buy wherever we want. (Within reason. I still have to go to work unfortunately).
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My wife and I teach at the high school our kids will attend. I’m pretty sure we can send our kids to any school we like since we work for the school district, but as luck would have it we won’t have to worry about asking for special permission.
I’m actually interested in the school district for the land we viewed yesterday. Our high school have over 2400 students. The one there has 614 and is the same size as my hometown high school. But, it’s not to be for now…
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Things work out in funny ways. And I can tell you from experience, some of the absolute worst things that have ever happened to me ended up being the tipping point for something great. Including questionable real estate investments. Lol. Something will fall in your lap that will be what you are looking for. You just have to know it when you see it.
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With the real estate, would it meaningfully change the equation if the estates in question halved in price? If so, I’d consider making an outrageously low offer, and see what happens, you never know someone might be desperate to sell (and if you were serious about the desire to move but not fixed on a specific plot, then I’d re-run the same play repeatedly until I found a plot/ someone that would take a stupidly low offer).
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I think the property we viewed has already sold once. Its tax appraisal is based on all 10 acres plus the house and it’s a little under $160k. The property is owned by an LLC and they’re asking $225k for each half. They’re going to have to drop their price, but I bet they’re patient. The only selling point is to get 5 acres of land right off a blacktop road which is rare. But they’re going to rely on someone with more money than sense and unfortunately that’s not me.
For now I’m following your second recommendation. Found another plot that posted yesterday, but it’s a bit further away from the city than we like. In a perfect world, we’d have a 15-20 minute drive to work and this one is right at 30. It’s also technically in my hometown and I think that’s negative thing for my wife. It’s like we’re both trying to avoid moving back home while still achieving a similar experience/lifestyle. Funny how that works.
I still need to do some math to see how viable this is anyway. It all comes down to our monthly budget after the fact. If I just run that through a regular calculator now then it tells me not to spend over $200k, but that doesn’t account for the equity we can get out of our current homes. So I guess the goal is to have no more than $180k-200k in debt when it’s all said and done and I’m finding it’s tough to work that equation on my own. The cost of land is easy, but I’ve never built a home and have no idea what I’m in for. I also wouldn’t mind doing some work myself to save money, but I don’t know any home builders to even discuss options.
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This sort of logic/reasoning financial modeling I find AI really useful, recent discussions include payback time of solar panels and air source heat pumps, various options for mortgage overpayment including selling a rental and the various options including overpayment/early repayment (including fines), taxes, capital reinvestment etc. Anyway, rambling to say it’s a solid place to start the conversation, it’s not a place to make final decisions and always check the maths, but when you’re trying to figure out if you’re in the right ball park or a million miles off it’s a great start.
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Thanks for the suggestion! I use it to build assignments and curriculum for my students. Might as well use it for myself, too. Don’t worry, I fact check the assignments but it saves me a boatload of time letting AI build the worksheet or presentation.
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Funny thing. I started typing to ChatGPT and I’ve learned that the better your prompt, the better the result. I was trying to write this super detailed prompt and ended up laying things out in a way that I could answer my own question. I just moved it to a spreadsheet and wrote out the math as I went. I think I at least have a working equation I can use. It seemed overwhelming until I wrote it out because everything hinges off the first number which is the cost of land. Our funds will be based on the equity from selling our rental house. That determines our budget for a down payment on land and then another down payment on a construction loan. And then in the end we’d use the equity from our actual home to pay down the loans when we refinanced them into one mortgage. Lots of variables and potential moving parts for such a big decision.
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1.22.26
Warm-Up
5 minutes on the bike
Squat
135 x 10
205 x 8
245 x 6
285 x 4
320 x 2
My legs apparently thought this was a shock to the system because these reps were harder than I expected.
Hang Power Clean
185 x 2
205 x 2, 2
215 x 2, 2
I used the American Barbell Power Elite bar. It’s slightly thicker (like 29 or 29.5 mm compared to 28mm) and very stiff. I used the same bar two weeks ago and had the same experience - my cleans sucked. Every set was harder than it should have been. I thought I was just having a bad day, but I think it’s the stiffness of the bar. It’s not a bad thing; I just need to accept that using it will make lighter weights feel harder so the load will change for the day.
Seated Leg Raise
145 x 15
175 x 12, 11
Sled
Tank M4 + 45 lbs
Alternate pulling 25m and pushing 25m x 5 ea
Time: 9:56 - sub 10 minute goal achieved but it wasn’t easy
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1.23.26
Snow storm is coming and I’ll be holed up in the house tomorrow. Didn’t feel like training today, but I was able to split it up throughout my classes and made it manageable.
Bench (4th hour)
135 x 10
175 x 8
210 x 6
245 x 4
270 x 2
Seated DB OHP (6th hour)
60s x 10, 10, 9
superset with
Pull-Up
BW x 6 x 5 sets
Bent-Over DB Row (7th hour)
like barbell row but with two DBs
75s x 10 x 3
85s x 10
These kind of suck.
Barbell Curl
70 x 10F/10T/10B
60 x 15F/10B
Rear Delt Fly
25s x 10, 10
Cable Press-Down
70 x 15, 12
Actually ended up feeling pretty good and did more than usual in terms of exercises per session. But on the other hand, I didn’t do any jumps or abs.
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1.24.26
Basketball
Played about five or six games to 11 by ones and twos. We rent the space from 9:30 to 11:30 but we were slow getting started so probably only played for about 1.5 hours. It’s sad and frustrating for me. My body is so far removed from this game that I can’t do what I want. There’s a huge disconnect between my brain and body. I’ll be playing defense and know what is coming and then when I react to make a play I can’t. My brain is saying “He’s going to fake right and then spin left to shoot a jump hook. We’ll block it.” And then I time it up and get nowhere near the ball because I’m slow and can’t jump like I used to. And they score easily. I’m struggling with that.
So what do I do about this? I don’t know. I think it might have been Jim Wendler who said you can’t ride two horses with one ass. That means one must pick a main priority and pursue it. So what do I pick? Athleticism - work on my speed, agility, and vertical or strength? One might say “why not both?” and the answer is my unwillingness to commit enough time to both.
You would need more than one hand to count the times I’ve looked at Wendler’s 5/3/1 Bodybuild the Upper / Athlete the Lower template. The kicker is that the athlete part has a lot of running - every session. Time to look at it again and see how I can tweak it to fit my goals without destroying it…
I now understand why others before me have walked away from the game of basketball altogether. It’s hard on the body (I hurt all over), but it’s even harder on the mind when you let yourself get to the point where your body fails you.
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I spent a lot of time talking with ChatGPT last night about my training program. I think I’ve put together a modified version of 5/3/1 Bodybuild the Upper/Athlete the Lower with its help. No running, emphasis on jumps every session (still pretty low volume), conditioning options that include the sled, agility work, 5-10-5 shuttles, defensive slides, or the assault bike.
The only down side is that I’ll have to veer away from my Step Progression Method for a bit. But I’m also cutting weight so top end strength is going to take a hit anyway. I could also always throw in a Training Maximally session where I work up to my TM and then hit some Jokers. The main approach is going to be 5s Pro.
Another positive is that when I worked up to a 300 lb bench last spring-summer time, I was using the Step Progression Method and doing something similar to 5x5 FSL on bench. That will be a part of this program for the bench and press so I’m hopeful to continue seeing progress there.
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1.25.26
Thought about going to the gym, but my legs are trashed from playing basketball yesterday. I did bench Friday and if I give this 5/3/1 template a try, it will start on a squat day. So today’s workout was shoveling snow for an hour. Lucky for me it was light and dry so easy to move compared to the wet stuff.
School is canceled tomorrow thanks to -13 wind chill in the morning plus the 6+ inches of snow on the ground. I know it’s not much compared to states that actually get snow restaurant my regularly, but you have to understand most of our students don’t have winter gear. They’d be walking to the bus stop or school in Crocs or tennis shoes instead of waterproof boots. Besides the obvious perk of a free day off, I can go to the gym before the crowds! I have an appointment that would generally be right after work meaning I wouldn’t train tomorrow or I’d be going at 5pm in January. That’s the worst.
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1.26.26 BB the Upper/Basketball the Lower C1 W1 D1
Here we go!
Warm-Up
Stuff - 2 minutes jump rope (I’ve regressed on these), stretches, leg swings, 90/90s, SL Calf Raise. Supposed to be 8-10 minutes.
Lying Leg Curl
125 x 15
140 x 10
Got ahead of myself and almost forgot the jumps. These will be my warm-up and bonus hamstrings work for squats and deads.
Jumps
18" Box Jumps: 3 sets of 5
Tried jumping as soon as I landed on the 2nd set and it was atrocious. It also hurt. Baby steps.
Squat
135 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 5
FSL for 3x5 is an option, but I’m still tired and sore from basketball so it seemed like a good idea to skip them.
FFESS (front foot elevated split squats)
single 75 lb DB x 8 ea x 4 sets
Alternated between holding the DB on the working side and the supporting side.
Core
- 45 Deg Back Ext: 40 x 15 x 2 sets
- Side Crunch: 15 x 10 ea x 2 sets
- Flutter Kicks: 15, 15
Total lifting time was 44 minutes. The goal is to do everything in 60 minutes so I have work to do. Single-leg work really slows things down, though.
Conditioning (this was pathetic)
Short basketball court. The YMCA court is not your typical 94 foot court. I’d guess they shaved about 20 feet off it which is perfect for old man basketball.
EMOM
- back pedal to half court, run back, back pedal full court, run back x 2
- run to half court, back pedal back, run full court, back pedal back x 2
- side shuffle to half court and back, run full court, back pedal back x 4
These all took about 24-25 seconds so speed or pace was consistent, but my heart rate was way too high for such a simple basketball task. Average HR was 145 and peaked at 156 bpm. Even though the performance is sad by basketball standards, it felt good and the work/rest periods were spot on for me.
So if I add it all up together, I spent about 60 minutes working plus whatever time it took to move from warm-up to lifting and from lifting to conditioning. I think I was there for 90 minutes total which is too long for a regular weekday where I have to work.
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1.27.26
Well, it seems I’m going to fail my log title and suck today. Mandatory staff meeting immediately after school and then I have to be at my very part-time job less than 90 minutes after that (with a 25 minute drive each way). I set my alarm to go to the early mandatory meeting but it didn’t go off. I think my phone outsmarted itself. I turned my regular M-F alarm ‘off’ and it gave me the option to turn back on Wednesday (tomorrow). I selected that option and I think it killed the alarm I set to go off earlier, so no I don’t get to train according to plan. I could technically lift during the day with my classes, but I can’t exactly do my workout as written. I supposed I could do some stuff today and then have less to do tomorrow…
On the diet and weight front, I weighed 234.0 this morning. I hit 235 about 10 days ago but I knew it was one of those fluke momentary dips. I feel like this one is legitimate. I ate a big lunch at about 2pm consisting of beef and vegetable soup with shredded cheese and crackers added to thicken it up. Dinner was some leftover chili poured over rice and lettuce to kind of make a Mexican inspired taco salad. My appetizer was broccoli and this sweet and spicy dip I picked up at Trader Joe’s. I’m pretty sure it’s cheese based.
All that to say I woke up with no bloat, looking as lean as I can currently, and hungry. I was worried I overdid it on calories yesterday, but I guess we’re good.
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1.28.26
Bodybuild the Upper/Basketball the Lower C1 W1 D2
I had PT after school which crunched my training window significantly. I managed to get the lifting done during school and the athletic stuff was later at the Y.
OHP
70 x 5
95 x 5
105 x 5
120 x 5
Used the axle. I love pressing with the axle.
OHP FSL
85 x 5 x 5 sets
Superset with
Pull-Ups
BW x 6 x 5 sets
DB Incline
75 x 10 x 3 sets
Superset with
Rev Fly
30 x 10 x 3
…a little later…
Back Ext
BW x 25, 25
Jumps
Lots of pogo hops, single leg pogos, low box jumps done quickly, and some skater hops
Conditioning
Rower Ladder from @T3hPwnisher
500m, rest 50 sec
400m , rest 40 sec
300m, rest 30 sec
200m, rest 20 sec
100m, done
Program calls for 8-10 minutes of optional conditioning with the sled or assault bike.. Well I went to a different branch of the Y and no bikes. They had a sled but I didn’t feel like messing with it. Planned to go back up but this took 8:19 so I called it.
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I don’t know why, but this made me laugh.
Credit where credit is due, that conditioning protocol actually comes out of the Tactical Barbell Book II. I HIGHLY recommend it. Outstanding read.
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I thought about finishing my initial plan of working my way down and back up, but then I thought of the brief talk about feeling good after conditioning instead of buried. I felt good and hit my goal time of 8 to 10 minutes so I walked away.
I’m not sure if progress will be a bit slower compared to the old work yourself to death approach, but I sure feel better. My mental game is becoming more important these days because it’s in charge. I prefer to enjoy what I’m doing either because it makes me feel better or because I’m improving. If my body hurts all over then it’s hard to enjoy much of anything until that passes.
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I’m not sure if progress will be a bit slower compared to the old work yourself to death approach, but I sure feel better.
I’ve become mature enough to realize the wisdom of leaving something in the tank. It’s about frequency.
If we make a little bit of progress and walk away feeling good, we can come back tomorrow and make that same little bit of progress. We recover between the sessions quickly enough to come back and do it again.
If we make a LOT of progress in one session and the consequence is that we are too obliterated to do another session for at least another week, we spend 6 days NOT making progress. The question we have to ask is “did we REALLY make 7 days worth of progress in that ONE day of effort?”
And of course, the answer is: no. If it WAS possible, you’d never see a fat person on the beach. If all it took was just one BIG effort, anyone could do it. We all have that in us. What most of us LACK is the ability to make a consistent, daily effort that is enough to get progress without setting ourselves back.
It’s just like how, if you wanted to be good at guitar, you really just need to work your scales about 20-30 minutes a day over several years. Yet so few people are good at it, because no one wants to do that (self-included)
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