[dcarter]

This range diary was started to track my own progress and to give hope and assistance to others.

For those of you who do not know me let me give you a little background so you understand where I am, where I've been and where I want to be. I am 38 years old, a husband and father of 3 children (ages 1, 3, 6). I started shooting USPSA in May 2006 and became hooked instantly. After my initial classification as a "C" class shooter in production, using my duty gear and pistol (a S&W 5946 with a 12 pound trigger). I played a little in L-10 and was classified "C" class again. I went back to production after my department began issuing the S&W M&P9 and I have never looked back. After a couple of matches with my duty M&P I spent the money and bought one of my own so that I could do the mods that I wanted to.

Before I started shooting in this sport I had gained a lot of weight several years ago after I tore my knee apart chasing a 15 year old drug dealer. While this made for a perfectly good excuse for my weight several years ago, now it is no excuse at all. I have made a commitment to myself to lose as much of this extra baggage as I can between now and March of 2009. The plan for this has been in place, written on my match calendar, for the past two weeks and it is now time to put this plan into action. This, along with a planned and consistent dry fire / live fire schedule should put me in a much better position to win next year.

One of the biggest problems with a plan is not the desire to see it through, it is keeping all of life's little surprises from wrecking your plan. With 3 small children this is going to be my major hurdle. Unexpected problems are always abound with children and my wonderful kids are no exception. While I have attempted to make a plan that is as flexible as possible, I am sure that at some point I will have to give up a workout or a dry fire session in response to one of these surprises. My plan to deal with this is simple. I will let it go and pick up where I left off without getting discouraged and not let it wreck my entire plan. Anything you can do to improve yourself and/or your shooting is worth doing.

Please feel free to make comments or give assistance. I will probably not post everyday but I will make note of any cool insights and track my progress with my plan.

This post has been edited by dcarter: 23 October 2008 - 01:47 AM

[Pharaoh Bender]

Rock on Dan Have you fixed your sights yet? I know that was holding you back last month.

[boba]

Pharaoh Bender, on Oct 23 2008, 02:52 AM, said:

Rock on Dan Have you fixed your sights yet? I know that was holding you back last month.

Dan my hat is off to you and stick with your plan. I am also going to start a diary and like you there is a high possibility that I won't be able to stick to all the time. Like you have already stated I believe that the secret will be to not get discouraged about progress or the lack of time for the training planned.

[Bigpops]

Good Luck!

I have the same goal as you as far as shooting. I am just to chicken to post it for everyone to read!

[hk_mtbr]

Get on the Bike Squad at work - no not the harley's. Pedal up Vine and Ravine a few times a shift and you'll drop weight like a crack-head who won the lotto.

Seriouslyl - Good luck with your plan!!

[dcarter]

hk_mtbr, on Oct 23 2008, 02:29 PM, said:

Get on the Bike Squad at work - no not the harley's. Pedal up Vine and Ravine a few times a shift and you'll drop weight like a crack-head who won the lotto.

Seriouslyl - Good luck with your plan!!

Oh, man that is funny! Yes PB, I did get my sights fixed and I went to the range this past Monday to check the zero on them. I'm good to go. I see that a lot of people have a plan in place to improve themselves amd I'll make ya'll a deal...You give me the stregth I need to see this through when I need it and I'll do the same for you. Anytime someone once to throw some lead around at MRPC let me know and we will try to hook up. Good luck to everyone who puts in the time to be a champion. I'll be around next year with a thinner waistline and a desire to win.

[Pharaoh Bender]

Sounds like a plan baby Are you gonna hit up MRPC this weekend?

[FranDoc]

Dan -
It was good to meet you @ Circleville last month.

Good luck with the winter training plan. Yes, 'real life' has a way of making its own agenda. I think your acknowledgement of 'flexibility' will be very helpful.

Hope to see you around the range next summer.

[boz1911]

Best of luck, no never mind the luck part. It's obvious you're gonna do this. !!!

[dcarter]

Pharaoh Bender, on Oct 23 2008, 06:05 PM, said:

Sounds like a plan baby Are you gonna hit up MRPC this weekend?

Yes sir, I will and I'll be at Oxford the following weekend.

[Calamity Jane]

The love for the sport can drive you to do many things you don't think are possible.

Best of luck on a journey that will change you.

Jane

[dcarter]

Well, my first week is almost over and it hasn't been bad. I'm getting about an hour and a half of dry fire in every day and about 20-30 min of cardio every day. Strength training every other day alternating upper and lower body. Add to that driving around trying to improve my grip strength. The diet is only so so. I've had days when I would forget my packed dinner and have to resort to Subway and had trouble when my microwave gave out on us early in the week making it difficult to make a fast meal. Eating 6 small meals a day is not as easy as it sounds. I don't feel like I'm starving or anything it just takes a lot of effort to remember to eat when I need to. Drinking lots of water and staying away from Mt Dew. Getting my kids ready for trick-or-treat is a lot of fun. They are going to be the three little pigs and my wife is going to be the big bad wolf (which is perfect!). I get to stand on the porch and scare all the little kids. I love this holiday! Last match for the season this Sunday at Oxford so I'm going to have fun.

[Chris Keen]

Not if you count Miamisburg NEXT Sunday ...................

[Flexmoney]

dcarter, on Oct 31 2008, 07:06 AM, said:

Eating 6 small meals a day is not as easy as it sounds. I don't feel like I'm starving or anything it just takes a lot of effort to remember to eat when I need to.

Gotta get into the tupperware/rubbermaid mindset. Pack it all the night before.

I used to have a Timex Triathlon watch. It had a count-down-repeat mode. You could set it to beep every 2.5hrs (or whatever your eating scheduled worked out to be). It would go off, then start over on it's own. Extra handy.

[dcarter]

That would be a cool thing if I could get it to work. I don't get along too well with technology. Hell, I just learned how to send e-mails 2 years ago. I was planning on doing a lot of the pre-packing on my off days. Like cook a bunch of chicken, fish and pasta then store it away in the fridge.

[dcarter]

Week 2 is almost at an end and things are progressing. I have my workout times all worked out and I can get some dry firing in at work most nights. I have found one of our sub-stations that has a large meeting room where I can set up some 1/3 scale targets and I have two 3' PVC boxes to practice some of my movement. The family is doing all they can to make this a challenge. My 3 year old yesterday had come to get me up from my bedroom and had taken off her diaper and had rubbed crap all over our hallway and her bedroom walls. It took forever to get it all cleaned. I haven't gotten out to do any live fire yet but I have plans for that as well. I still have trouble with the whole eating when I should thing. I'll get it worked out.

My last match at Oxford was fun and I did have one good stage, the classifier. I had never shot "Single tap standards" before and I can understand why. It is the only time I've ever had to go prone. Althought it did work out for me I still didn't like it. I ended the day as 5th in production. I have seen my scores steadily decline over the last 3 months and I can't say exactly why. I think a lot of it has to do with my confidence. I had a really bad match at Oxford a couple months ago and it just killed me. I know I should learn to let it go but no one likes to fall as far as I did on that day. I also noticed that I have normally have just gotten off of work when I go to most matches and am tired when I get there. This may or may not play a part as I get very excited about shooting. These are all things I need to think about during my off season.

[dcarter]

Dry fire is going well. I've kept up with my promise to work on my movement. I've been moving between boxes and trying to learn the best way to set up for the first shot at barricades. I learned one thing that I have been doing wrong....I'm not keeping my gun up! I appear to be looking for my footing instead of the target. I also had some problems with mag changes this year and I'm working on those along with the movement as I should. I need to keep my focus on my sights! I find myself concentrating on the target.

My workouts are proceeding as planned. I had to give up on Saturdays workout. We took my 2 year old son out for his birthday. I still was watching what I ate but had to stray off a bit there as well. What the heck. He will only turn 2 once.
And the drama continues.

[dcarter]

I just got done with one of my dry fire sessions and realized I haven't added anything to this diary in a long while. I have been doing a lot of dry fire and a little work on movement in and out of positions. I've seen improvement in sight picture after moving and getting my big butt going before the last shot is fired. My workouts are only going so-so. With Christmas coming and working details at the Zoo to pay for the thousands of toys my kids are getting, I have been running on little sleep with no time for going to the gym. I try to watch what I eat and to get some excercise at work. When was the last time you saw a cop actaully WALK a beat. We just got 4 brand new segways in each station. What in the world were our bosses thinking! This is the dumbest thing in the world to try to patrol on and you look stupid too! You will never see me on one!

Anyway, I asked for a new set of shooting glasses for Christmas and I may buy a rifle in the near furture. I have been working on making a list of the major matches I want to attend this year and set aside the money for them. I will continue to work on movement and try to get out to our range to do some live fire as soon as possible. My biggest goal is still to work on my weight. Hell, I could shave off a second of time on each stage if I could lose the extra baggage.

Until next time....Happy Holidays.

[dcarter]

Well, Santa brought me the new shooting glasses so as far as equipment goes all I'm looking for now is a set of shoes. I have a cardio workout in about 2 hrs so I'm going to give it about 30 minutes on an eliptical then maybe a small upper body workout. Tonight after the kiddies go to sleep I'm going to get out the ole practice targets and work on some movement drills. Box to box about 10 feet apart with a reload.

[dcarter]

Had a relaxing time yesterday working on some drills. It not so much work when you find it fun! I'm really starting to get the bug for shooting again. It seems to take about 30 days before I really start to miss it. I'm going to stick with my schedule and keep working out. I have goals that I want to reach before I start up again in March and I am not there yet. I'm hoping that the M&P9L will be on the production list before then. But all the good equipment in the world won't make me a Master. I need to work on the skills that will get me there. I don't want to end up being a "classifier" Master. I want to dominate at field courses as well.

[dcarter]

Well, 10lbs down and 40 (or more) to go. I'm still doing cardio on a daily basis but not so much strength training. I need to add some more lifting with my cardio workout concentrating on arms, legs and torso. I also need to do some pre-emptive work on my arms to keep the dreaded tennis elbow from coming back. I just signed up for 2 matches and have started getting really excited about the first match. The one aspect of my plan that has not been working so well for me is my diet. Not so much what I have been eating as the amount that I've been eating. I'm sure that if I can get this worked out I will lose more faster. Dry fire is still going strong. My reloads, draws and table starts are all pretty good. I still need work on getting moving out of a position, shooting on the move and sight pickup upon entering a position. I need to learn to keep my knees bent and my feet rolling.

[dcarter]

I'm going to try something new in the next couple days. Our department has had a F.A.T.S. simulator for some time but I had never thought of using it for competition training. They have M&P pistols that are CO2 operated so the slides work and everything. They have several programs that could help with some aspects of my training. It still won't help with my movement problem since there is no room to run but I can get a lot of good practice in anyway. I am still going to the gym everyday and doing about 30 minutes of cardio. I'm going to add some lifting soon and build up some extra fat burning muscle.

[dcarter]

I've got an A-1 chest cold. I will not be doing my cardio for a couple days. I had a great time at our in-service training for our department. I got to do a lot of "live" fire with the F.A.T.S. system. I found a couple of programs on the system that are very helpfull including a rack of six plates and other activated targets. I'm going to have a lot of fun using this thing. I'm set up for 2 majors so far and will be sending in another couple next week. I would like to make 7 this year and with the Ohio sectional being back in Ohio I should make that goal with little effort. I will continue to work on my drills even if I'm sick. I have got to make Master this year!

[Sarge]

Hey DCarter. We have spoken here before. I am in the process of joining MRPC. I want to get seriously involved this year with both shooting matches as well as helping to run them as much as needed. I know I don't need to join but I want to so I can have access so I can build some portable barricades, etc and throw them in my truck and do some rehearsal firing.
I was reading your posts and it occured to me that I may be able to help you while you help me. If you even think for a moment that confidence may be an issue perhaps teaching me what you know already will help with it. Maybe not. But it is a thought. In my past life I was a 7 handicap golfer and It made me feel, and most times, play better when somebody asked my "professional" opinion. I knew I still had a long way to go to become a scratch golfer but they never knew that. Usually when I would be explaining a technique to them it would occur to me that I was no longer following my own advice.
Anyway, good luck. See you at the range.

[Sarge]

And another thing. I believe the club is having a clinic in March. Sign up to help with that. There will be a bunch of us there that will need pointers.