Oban 14 Year Single Malt Scotch

So after sipping my Balvenie Single Barrel for awhile, I decided it was time for another bottle of single malt scotch. I've stopped by a few liquor stores during the past couple of months, but all I did was browse the scotch aisle.

Last week on my way to Finale's, I stopped by the wine place next door. They were closing, but the owner was gracious enough to let us in and browse. I struck up a conversation with him, and we discussed my scotch experiences. After describing my progression from blends to single malts, he commented that my palate seems to be developing right along and gave me a brief summary of his journey. I left that night with a bottle of Oban 14 Year Single Malt Scotch ($64.99), which was what the owner described as a nice "next step" on my single malt journey. He encouraged me to stop by and tell him what I thought.


Well, I didn't really have a chance to sip it right away, but a couple nights ago before bed, I poured myself a bit to try. On the nose, it smelled sweeter than the Balvenie. So that right away got me a bit excited. I took a nice sip and let it linger in my mouth. There were hints of sweetness and spice, and it finished quite nice (haha..). I didn't get a lot of burn, and I couldn't really remember how the Balvenie was like. So I poured myself a bit of the Balvenie and went back and forth. In the end, the Balvenie definitely left a presence after the sip. The burn lasts a bit and really warms you up. I also thought the Balvenie was bolder and demanded attention, whereas the Oban was smoother and softer. I don't favor one over the other, just as I don't favor one particular beer, but it was nice to have a different single malt. I'll enjoy this bottle for a bit before moving on to another step.

One thing I do have to note is that after trying the single malts, the Johnnie Walker blends just aren't the same. Granted I've only had the Black Label and the Gold Label, but I had some of those a few months back, and they are lacking compared with the singles. I've had a shot of Blue Label once, and I'll admit that was very smooth, but I haven't had that for a while and can't give that a good comparison. Maybe, when I have a spare couple Benjamins, I'll get a bottle to keep on hand. For now, the Oban will be good enough!

Note: After writing this, just found out Oban is owned by Diageo, which owns among all their liquor companies Johnnie Walker! They also own some other names such as J&B, Guinness, Crown Royal, Captain Morgan's, Bailey's, etc....

Done with glucosamine

Well, I did it. I weaned myself off of the glucosamine sulfate. I was paranoid about going off of it, but someone had a knee problem from running and I gave my mostly full second (and only) bottle to him. I've been off for about a week and the shoulder feels mostly the same. Is it a 100%? No. But the fact that it made it through a heavy workout says quite a bit. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: Run

Tuesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps

Wednesday: Run

Thursday: Heavy weights - Chest/back, calf raises, lunges

Friday: None
Saturday: None

For my "heavy" workout, I actually made it to the gym. I had access to whatever I wanted. I started off with body weight chest dips/pull ups supersets. Three sets of five. It felt awesome to be able to do a decent amount of pull ups again. Then I headed over to a bench and did supersets of dumbbell chest presses and one-arm rows using 45-lb dumbbells (I did one set with 60-lb and decided that was too heavy for now). I followed that up with some incline presses and finished off at the lat pulldown with 130-lb. Then I did some box jumps and a quick cooldown at the treadmill. Boy, it was nice to have all that stuff available. Very nice. I know my "heavy" isn't quite heavy right now, but considering that I have never benched my full weight and the fact that I'm getting over a shoulder injury, I'm doing just fine.

I knew the workout was pretty good, because I started feeling some tightness by the end of the day. When I woke up the next day, My chest and lats were sore. It was a feeling I've missed for awhile. Then I started feeling sick. Well, at least I thought I was sick. My gut felt pretty bad. It took me a while to realize it was my core that was sore and even longer for me to piece together that it was from the box jumps. I haven't done box jumps for a while and didn't think it did more than work out my legs. But anyway, I've recovered from that workout and even finished my regular chest/back work out. It feels pretty good.

My first 4,000 footer summit is this coming weekend. I feel pretty confident in my physical state, so I hope to summit and descend just fine. Mt. Osceola is a bit more than Mt. Monadnock, so if I finish in a better state than Monadnock, then I've come a long way.

As for my diet. Yeesh. From Thursday on, it was trash. I even gained weight, though 0.5 - 1.0 lb may be water retention from some salty foods I ate. I was so bloated yesterday that my eyes hurt. Need to concentrate more this coming week.


Last weigh-in:
174.5 lb