Gorgeous..

...outside. COuldn't do Firepower inside on a day like this. Went to the park to practice my 2HA- they suck. I'm using teh 24KG for the BP on top and the 20KG for the curl at the bottom. I cant get it w/ the 24on my left and the 20 in my right so I downsized to practice form using the 20KG on top on my left and the 16KG on bottom on my right. The good news is I am dropping my ass A LOT lower, rock bottom squat. That I am excited about. After 3-4 of those on either side I did 3 rounds of
w/ the 24KG
5 R/L RR
5 R/L alt chest presses
5 R/L fig82H
60 yards walking lunges.

1 min rest, repeat.

AFter that I did 60 yards over head rack walk with the 36KG on my left side (need to firm up that L shoulder), 60 yards rack walk with the 20KGs and finally 60 yards farmer's carries w/ the 24KGs.

After that I am smoked.

worst work out ever?

friday afternoon i did 3 sets of swings, snatches, russian twists and windmills. used the 20 for the snatches, everything else was with the 24KG. practiced my 2 hands anyhow. got WAY lower this time but couldnt curl the bell on my right side for some reason.

when i was thinking about it, i thought this work out sucked bad (b/c a friend was with me and i was talking the whole time and there was a lot of break time) but when i writ it out, minus the breaks, it was ok. i didnt feel like doing anything anyway so i'll take the fact that i did anything at all as a bonus.

11 min of hell

Last weke when I did my 11 min of C&P, I told Jenn about it and she said it it takes her x amount of time to do y reps doing double C&P with the 16KG bells.

I took it upon myself to see what I could do doing doubles w/ the 20KGs. Let me tell you, 11 min of doubles MUCH harder than 11 min of singles (duh). I got 39.5 reps in 11 min. I REALLY wanted 45 and realized I would have to settle with 40 but that 40th rep wasn't happening. I stopped on it twice. If I could have taken 20 more seconds I could have gotten it in but the clock shows no mercy.

The Mighty Flurpie

Yesterday Jonathan and I did 5 sets of 3 and a final set of 5. We mixed it up a bit alternating our burpies in between flips with the 'super burpee' from AoS Firepower (which is a squat thrust up to a sumo dead lift where at the top you catch the bottom of the bell in both hands and do a full rock bottom squat) Our warm up round of flurpies I caight on video. The 6th set where we did 5 instead of 3 was the real deal. My legs were on fire.

Getting it done

Last nite I did my back-in-the-swing-of-things workout- swings. At the moment I can do about 200 without loosing form. After 200 things get wonky and quickly turn to shit. I'm not beating myself up about that. I'm doing something about it instead.

I did 200 swings on the porch. Took about 15 min. My forearms, and legs were smoked by the end. The only thing not giving out on the swings are my hips and my core. Everything else turns to jelly right around 200.

Today is tire-fun day with Jonathan. We're thinking flurpies, in which case I will get a video a video of it and get it up here.

Saturday

I finally did AoS Firepower for the first time in forever. It kicked my ass but for hte first time I tried the short rest version and they aren't kidding- its basically no rest. BUt I made it all the way through only really needing a break during hte alternating clean (i hate that excercise) and the see-saw press which I am usually pretty good with.

I will do some swings today at some point, just not sure when yet.

Genius

First Time for Everything.

Couldn't decide what to do yesterday, felt totally out fo it. Decided on 11 min of C&P w/ the 20KG. Got 83 total reps in, 43 on my L and 40 on my R. MOstly did 5 a side before switching and usually doing 2 sets on each side before setting the bell down. Overall I think I'm ok with those #ers. Before I started I tried my first 2 Hands Anyhow using the 24KG for the BP aspect and a 20KG for the bell on the ground. I did it on both sides and I took a video of it on my left to look at my form. Its not great but I got it done. I need to drop my butt more but considering 6 months ago I couldnt even KIND of do an OH squat, I am happy with the progess. So I'll take that.

Late Nite Hype

I got home from a rough day and had a rough evening. I was supposed to hook up with Jonathan @ 6pm to do Firepower and some heavy tire flipping. He called me at 6:15 and said his home improvement sesh took him longer than he expected. I told him that was ok, I was physically and emotionally exhausted and I was going to take the night off.

10PM rolled around and I felt like shit. Felt like all I did all day was drive around and drink sugar free red bull and eat (not actually true but it's how I felt). I remembered reading Sandy Sommer's blog about 11min a day, 1 excercise, strict form workout format he had just posted yesterday. I said fuck, grabbed my portable IPOD dock, the kitchen timer and went outside and grabbed my 24KG bell.

I stood on the second step on the porch, put the bell behind me on the third step, did a warm up set fo 30, set the timer to 11min and got going. All in all I did 185 swings in 12 min. I am not to sad about that. I was mostly doing sets of 30 until the end where I did some sets of 15 and 10 and the last set I tried to finish strong with a set of 25. My forearms were cramping bad at the end and I was totally smoked. 11 min of seriousness with as much attention to form as I could. Setting up like that with me on the second step and the bell on the third really helped me with my swing form. If you're trying to tweak yours or you feel like 1/2way through your workout it goes wonky when you get tired, try that set up and see how it treats you.

Friday & Sat

Friday was another swing day. This time I changed rep style's and got the first hundred swings in about 4 min. Then I started talking to Jonathan who I haven't seen in forever and wound up getting off track a little Got then next 100 swings in about 5 min. All in it would have taken me 9 min to do the 200 swings I did. It's not stellar BUT its a damn site better than it taking 20 min. I did sets of 5, 5 sec rest, 10, 10 sec rest, 15, 15 sec rest and 20, 20 sec rest (5,10,15,20=50) I went through that twice. I stopped at 200 b/c that is about the volume my body is capable of using the 24KG. I'm not happy with my numbers and how I've let them fall so much but I am happy that I met my goal of 2 days this week of a swing workout.

Saturday I ran with the wife. 1.2 miles down at a strong paced jog, 1 min of stretching then 1.2 miles back of interval sprints, sprinting 3/4 a block, walking 1/4 of a block and repeating. walking only 1/4 of the block wrecked me this time and I couldn't finish with the sprints. I had to walk the second to last block and fast jog the last block. If I would have had anything in my stomach of substance, I def would have been puking it up.

I was going to do Firepower today but my legs and hips are so sore from the swings and sprints, I'm thinking off day today making this week a 4 day workout week and I can live with that.

rule every moment. sieze every day.

i came across something i posted somewhere a few years ago. then i didn't really know what it meant to face tough times with something to loose. i'd been there before but always on my own and with nothing to loose if i went down in a hail of bullets.

not so much now. and that is making all the difference in the hardest ways.

but i was reading it again this morning and i realized that i still feel the same way and the words mean more now than they ever have.

"Rather let me fail than never to have tried at all,
Come what may,
Nothing short of death will see me cry defeat,
Rule every moment,
Seize every day,
By storm,
By the throat,
With every breath I take,
It's not what you can't do,
It's what they told you you can't do,
So fire your gun into the mouth of doubt,
Let the masses dictate themselves,
I am not theirs neither will I ever be,
They won't crush my hopes,
They won't smash my dreams,
Rule every moment,
Seize every day,
By storm,
By the throat,
With every breath I take,
Not inspired by men without faith,
Not deterred by events that cause the average man to break,
Rule every moment,
Seize every day."

(if you wanna hear it)

lies

i didn't have bodyweight drills and sprints yesterday. instead i had swings. i realized i haven't been doing enough swings AT ALL. my swings suck now, not mechanically, but volume wise. it took me 20min to do 200 swings w/ the 24KG, doing sets of 20. i used to do sets of 310-330 swings in 12 min w/ the same weight. from here on, 2days a week will be dedicated to the mighty swing. i forgot somewhere that you dont need to run to get cardio, last nite was hte proof in the pudding (namely the pudding that my legs, forearms, wrists and lungs turned into).

it was very tony the tiger (grrrreaaat!).

ellipses

"I have made the big decision, Im gonna try to nullify my life..."

anyone know where that one is from?

I used to use drugs to get away from things, a long long long time ago. Now I work out.

Lou Reed's got Heroin. Today I've got bodyweight drills and sprints.

It's like anti-Zen. I fucking love it.

Heavy

I probably wasn't well enough to work out but when I got home I felt like if I didnt my head would explode. I grabbed the 24KG for the first time in over a month and did 3 1-3 ladders of C&P. Then I did 3 rounds of bent press singles with it which was a PR for me, haven't been able to BP the 24KG on my left side. All that GTG worked. Then 3 sets of 4 windmills L/R and finished it off w/ 5R/L bottoms up swings. By then I was shaking all over and sweating icecicles. BUT I felt better...

Under water

I am on the ropes. My situation has been going on for almost 11 months now- an end isnt in sight. I've got at least another year of this, maybe more. I have gone up and down through this time period. Last March I couldnt imagine life 2 weeks into the future and here I am 11 months later. That's something I guess.

But I took a hit last week and I am not dealing with it so well. Comparatively I guess I am. Before this all started what happened last week wouldhave sent me to this hills screaming and tearing my hair out. As it stands now, I'm just depressed and want to quit. You really do get to a point where you can honestly say to life "what else? what more can you do to me?". I'm not there yet but I know that point exists. I've been there before. The difference is the last time I was there I had nothing to loose. This round I do.

I started getting sick Friday night with what felt like the flu so I took it easy and didn't work out all weekend. Started taking some wierd Fremch homeopathic stuff along with my threaflu and it has really seemed to have worked. I'm most likely gonna back on it today, I need to. I need to because my situation isn't even making me angry or hateful (which is the ususal response). Instead it's just making me depressed. When that happens I have to get something going to snap me out of it before things get out of hand.

At this moment, I truly and honestly with all my heart want to quit, to bail on everything and start over somewhere where no one knows anything about me.

My reserves have been broken. I am running on emergency power, one engine, and no co-pilot- the black box isn't even worth replaying.

Fuck it. Bring on oblivion, I'm ready.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

I. Ruin. Everything.

Getting snatched by snatches

Tried for 30 sets of 8 w/ the 20KG. Didn't get it. Got 24 sets for a total of 192reps.

Doing the ladders last week I got 220 reps but the pace was VERY different and I took some serious breaks on that and broke it up- so I guess I shouldn't hate on myself too much.

Something is fishy in my right knee and I am not pleased about that as my left knee is already in shambles from an injury years ago. I started feeling it there and in my lower back (LB pain wasn't injury, it was fatigue).

Today might have to be an off day.

18 Blocks

Ram 2.2 miles with wife last nite.

The 1st 1.1 miles (9 blocks) stopped at end of every block and alternated between push up variations and abdominal variations. I did descending twists, push ups, plank, diamond push ups, single leg raises, spiderman push ups, double leg raises/leg scissors

On 2nd 1.1 miles I picked up the pace for the first 3 blocks and then for the remaining 6 blocks I alteranted sprinting 3/4 of a block and walking a 1/4 of a block.

This was brutal. I would have thrown up but there was nothing in the belly. Not sure what I'm doing today but this was great. First time I've sprinted since I rolled my ankle 3 weeks ago- felt awesome.

Super Sunday

Wasnt going to do anything. Changed my mind. Navy seal fit deck and snatch ladders w/ the 24KG.

This was the first time I've used the 24KG sicne I've been sick and it was challenging. I did 1/2 the deck and did 3 1-3 ladders snatching the 24KG. somewhere on the last ladder something twitched in my *good* knee and i skipped the 2 leg cards in the deck b/c it was hurting my knee to explode off of it. by end of workout it was ok though.

today i am sore sore sore from that fit deck. body weight excercises really are the real deal. this has committed me further to doing this deck workout once day a week.

not sure what's happening today.

Saturday

Was my first double-bell workout since I've been sick. It kicked my ass. I did modified man makers.

5 rounds
drop into RR position, row R, row L, explode up and clean bells to rack, press over head, lock out, overhead lung R, over head lung L. repeat for 3 reps.
this destroyed me. adding in the overhead lunge did me in. i never do those let alone do them with 88lbs over my head. this relly got me. took me forever to recover for the next round- like 2-3min.

when i was done i was so pissed at how long this took me to recover i did 3 rounds of 2R/2L bent presses w/ the 20KG into R/front/L planks, 30 seconds each way.

After that I was completely done but wife really wanted me to go running. I said can't so instead we went on a 5 mile walk. I am from Houston and that is a LONG walk.