“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” -Leo F. Buscaglia
There is a reason people live in mediocrity, because it is easy. If you never give it your all you will never know how far you can go. If you do go 100% you run the risk of losing control or "hitting the wall." If you worry about holding back or saving something you will never reach your full potential. To me the latter is much worse. I would rather risk an injury and go all out then worry about the injury and never know what I am made off.
I am not perfect, no one is. I can not give every ounce of my self in every workout but I want to. But I do it often enough to know that I can.
"I don't save anything for the swim back"
On a less serious note that whole blog your food shit is for the birds. F that.
Again not a bad day but not great. I need to work harder at packing my lunch so I am satisfied after meals. I have been craving sugar bad the last few days.
I want to start tracking more on this site. I'm not sure how long this will last but I am really trying to make a solid 6 week run with one cheat meal a week and I think this will help. I will update throughout the day.
My shoulder is fucked up. It hurts more and more every fucking day. It hurts more when I sleep then at the gym but its still keeping me out. I am going to the doc next week so he/she can tell me not to workout and I can tell him/her to go to hell. Then I will go to a PT who will tell me not to work out but at least try to fix me. So you know what this means? I will be doing more heavy back squats, dead-lifts and other static movements that I don't hurt and some running. No pull-ups, KB swings, snatches, shoulder press, push-ups or anything else remotely fun. Fuck this sucks. FML
Last Friday night I did a group run with friends and friends of friends from my gym called The Pioneer Run. In a nutshell it is a night time trail run from an undisclosed location for a unknown distance. This is how my coach and team leader for the run described it:
"Pioneer Runs were designed as a way to spend the evening with friends running through unfamiliar terrain making choices along the way (Thinking while running)...Friday night would serve as the 4th Pioneer Run. The initial concept was designed around 7-10 miles from Mt. Wilson to Jones Peak via the Toll Road and a ridge-line then down into Sierra Madre via the Mt. Wilson Trail. As the Teams filled up we had a unique opportunity to push the envelope and increase the distance all while giving our Teams the maximum opportunity to make great route selections for added Teamwork challenges.
The Teammates had no idea really what they were getting themselves into as they arrived at my house Friday evening. After a meeting with both the Team Captains and the Team of drivers we broke our folks into 4 groups...Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow. Once color-coded and matched with their respective Captains away we drove up the 210 Freeway to Highway 2 and up towards Mt. Wilson. Again, 90% of the Teammates still having NO clue as to where they were to be dropped off...that's how I like it.
The Road Closure Sign stopped none of us, and the snow packed road to Wilson only elated both imaginations and anxieties. The night was young, air was crisp, and the temperature was perfect...about 45 degrees. After a quick drop off at Eaton Saddle @ 5090ft we broke into our groups and headed through the Meullar Tunnel to Markham Saddle @ 5270ft. The snow, ice, and drop-offs forced a lot of folks to pay attention quickly..."
It was a great time that pushed me mentally more then anything else. Not because it was hard but my group had a few people that were not as at the level of fitness to be great at this so I took it upon myself to push them. Put it this way when we started I was the go-team guy cheering people on with an "at-a-boy" or a "keep pushing you can do this" and people liked me. As the night turned to morning and downhill turned into uphill my positive reinforcements stopped. Not that I was mean or cruel to these people, I just pushed them with a different timber in my voice, one of authority and anger, and not so much patience. I was physically pushing and pulling people up the hill for extended periods of time all and may have used a couple of bad words, but just a couple. At one point I told young Andy to "SHOW SOME FUCKING FORTITUDE!" and "I WILL NOT BE ON THIS MOUNTAIN ALL FUCKING NIGHT SO GET YOU SHIT TOGETHER AND GO!" But what was great about it was Andy responded. He did not recoil from the anger he pushed. I could see him pushing and it pushed me. Andy and I battled and I hope he would agree when I say we are both stronger because of it. When we finally made it to the final leg Andy was asked if he could run the rest of the way, about a mile or so. I did not let him respond I said "he doesn't have a fucking choice, we are running." And we did I finished right next to him in a RUN up to the drive way.
We finished at 2am and 15.5 miles in total distance with a lot of elevation changes in the middle.
Saturday I was useless. My WOD was sleeping on the couch for time.
Sunday I took a run technique class with my gym that I think will pay big dividends as I work on the technique. It wont come easy but I am committed.
Monday I did the WOD at my gym.
The Punisher
10x 135# squat cleans +
run 200m+
9x 135# squat cleans +
run 200m....
so on to
1x 135# squat clean +
run 200m
It was hard. My legs hurt and my back was the tightest I have ever felt it including the tightness I felt in my triathlons.
Pat: 25:28
It was not a proud moment so I took Tuesday to try and recover.
Tonight I will do
Karen
150 Wall Balls
EDIT time: 8:53
As a follow up to my diet:
I continued to work on my diet and continued reading and decided on a stragity. I will cut my carbs to 8 blocks per day like I said last time but I will add 3 fat blocks for every missing carb block. So if my lunch is a 4 block lunch it will look like this:
4 Protein blocks
2 Carb blocks
10 Fat blcoks
so because that meal is short 2 carb blocks compared to the protein I add 6 fat blocks. So far I like it a lot and have not had any issues as it pertains to performance, sleep or recovery but it is still early.
This past Monday was my 25th birthday, I did not do much to celebrate and that was fine by me. What I did do was use it as an excuse to carry the excesses from Saturday night right through Monday's pizza, beer and sweet potato fries lunch/dinner. Some of the crossfiters I have trained with tell me how they are never satisfied after cheat meals and it is never as good as they expect it to be. That was not the case for me. I had a great dinner on Valentine ’s Day and a great lunch on Saturday.
Prior to that weekend I had consistently stuck to my 17 blocks with two (sometimes three cheat meals) a week. It has been effective in decreasing my times and increasing energy and recovery but I wanted more. So after doing some reading and research (robbwolf.com) I have decided to drop my carbohydrate blocks down to 8 and increase my fats to 42. I was expecting to be dragging on Wednesday but by about 3pm I felt like I was going to tear through my own skin I was so amped. It felt like I had been pounding redbull all day. Today I am experiencing a similar feeling. I am actually a little light headed. I like it.
As far as workouts:
2/16
AMRAP in 20 min of
10 95# squat cleans
15 push-ups
I did 11 rounds.
I was happy with that number and was only slightly out done by one guy in the class. He did 11 and change, I did just 11.
2/17
7 rounds of 1 Squat Cleans
I pr'ed at 215#'s and it felt pretty good.
2/18
I meet up with Phil like it was last summer all over again and we invaded the land of the Jimmy’s. We strolled into a packed Globo Gym and did WOD from last year’s CF Games:
5x 275# Dead-Lift
10 Burpees
I'm not totally sure what my time was the last time I did this but I wanted to get close to 5min (top 50 at the games).
Pat: 5:29
Phil: 4:09
I went first and drew a ton of attention (and scorn) from the people in the crowded gym, especially from the fat-ass who could not comfortably do his seated calf raises, yes that’s what I said he was mad because I was so close to him while he did seated fucking calf raises. After I finished one of the trainers walked over and I could see the satisfaction on the people’s faces “now that asshole is going to get it! They should throw his ass out and revoke his membership for actually doing work in a gym. How am I supposed to concentrate on my lat crunch things with a 45# plate in one hand while some guy drops 275#s repeatedly.” But he is a friend of ours and only wanted to know my time.People were genially pissed that he did kick us out.
I am glad I went first because the effort Phil put in was humbling and I would not want to follow a 4:09.
Rest day today then a trail run on Friday and not sure about Saturday. Till then I will try not to make my shoulder any worse than it is.
No Name is about having fun doing what it takes to be good at what you do. For some that means power cleans and for others it means a 6 minute mile. Regardless we want to have as good a time as possible doing it.
What this is
This started as a group of friends getting together to have some fun in the gym. It has changed over this year. What started as a log to track our progress has turned into something more. Because of relocation the group no longer works out together but we still push each other. In a way this is my way of keeping honest, in part to those who I started with but mostly its for me. Its one part journal and one part log.
