El Puma/Warpuma Chronicles

Thank you. You came to mind after reading the following.

But within the willingness to die for family and home, something inside us longs for someone to die beside, someone to lock step with, another with a heart like our own.".

-Matthew Axelson

Will do and I'm happy you are motivated by the posts. It's something I take great pleasure in doing for those who want to walk the path.


I've also read some of your log. This one is for you. Godspeed.

"I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success�. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person."
- Og Mandino

 

Monday, January 23 2012
2012 CF Games Open - One Month Away!

For those of you planning on entering the CF Games Open, we have just one more month to prepare. Today we start two-a-day training. This is not recommended for everyone, but only those that have been crossfitting for several months and are ready to take on the additional work. For the next 2 weeks, we will have an additional workout for Open participants two days out of the week, and then the following 2 weeks we will shoot for two-a-days 3 times per week. Due to time restraints, we understand that you may not be able to get in the additional work on the recommended day; however, you are more than welcome to complete it at a later time if necessary. Good luck!

Snatch, 1-rep max
WOD: For time:
12-9-6 rep rounds of:
Muscle-ups
Clean & Jerks, 165#/110#
-
If you cannot do a muscle-up, perform 2 pull-ups and 2 dips for each muscle-up.
-
2012 Open participants, rest 10 minutes after completing above, and then perform 3 rounds of the following for time:
10 hang power snatches, 95#
15 Box jumps, 24"


Today was my day to struggle. Today my mind was scattered like dropped marbles. Could it be that my half marathon and long run last night caught up to me tonight?

I felt the onslaught of fatigue begin to weigh me down towards the end of the second WOD. I kept going...even if only one person depended on me finishing, it's plenty for me not to quit. Not like how I dropped at Devil's Lake.

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On the plus side, the rest periods in between were shortened thanks to my cardio system being worked overtime. My mind is still wavy...but I will still push. I will bet when most everyone else folds.


"What if your fears and dreams existed in the same place.
What if to get to heaven you had to brave hell.
What if everything you have ever wanted cost you everything you have ever achieved.
Would you still go there?"

Yes. Because the sweet is never as sweet without the sour. People need to be inspired. They deserve more.

 

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tn...ewas=100000686899395&returnto=profile&sk=wall

If you guys are on Facebook, this is a video of me after the race. I left it open to the public on my wall and if you send me a friend request, please include your user name.

"Bathed in sweat, bent over and gasping for breath, lungs burning, the athlete might have wondered aloud if this is what death must feel like. In time, this same athlete will surely realize the opposite. Indeed, this is what life feels like."

 

Tuesday, January 24 2012
CrossFit Games North Central Regionals Scheduled for May 18-20

Event location will be posted in early February - keep your fingers crossed that it will be held again right here in Chicago!
WOD: 5 Rounds for total reps of:
Row 300m
Deadlifts, 225#
-
You have 3 minutes to row 300m and then complete as many deadlifts as possible in the remaining time. Rest 3 minutes between rounds. Post total reps to BTW.



I came in tired and a bit unmotivated. But as I started to remember the email from 3 months ago I read today...it began to surge in me.

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Turns out the words the words they use so lightly, have been used on me as well. It would be nice to see words come back into power. For action to match or exceed the sound preceding it. What better way I thought, than to be the change I want to see.....

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I become silent, focused and tuned in to my anger and pain.

"Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is"

-The Outlaw Josey Wales

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Last round. Leave nothing. **** impossible.

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I ended up finishing 3rd overall on the leader board with one class left tonight. If I make it, I will post a pic. A lighthouse if you will, for all of you. Remember that a diamond is just a coal who stuck to their job longer than the others.


Going out for a run. Because I'm not doing this just for myself.

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The Laughing Heart
by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

 

For all who pass through this thread.

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams or for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow. If you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fit it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with the wildness and let the "Meatheadedness" fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you're telling is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not there everyday, and if you can source your life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still shout stand on the edges of a lake, river or mountain and shout to the silver of the full moon. Yes! I'm a Meathead...

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for someone you love.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and truly like the company you keep in the empty moments of your life and still remember me...

Orignally by Oriah but this verson is quoted by John Blais, 2005 Ironman Finisher

 

“At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable.”
- Christopher Reeve

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. “
-Helen Keller

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


Carlos Garcia - 13th Annual Chicago Lakefront 50k George Cheung Memorial Race

Confirmation #:


Confirmation Message
Ultra Runner, Thank you very much for running with us at the 13th annual Chicago Lakefront 50K George Cheung Memorial Race. We look forward to seeing you at the race start on Saturday, March 31st at 8:30 AM, 2012 at the Foster Ave Beach House on the beautiful Chicago Lakefront. Pat Onines & Tom Hepperle - Race Directors

 

Ask not alone for victory, ask for courage. For if you can endure, you bring honor to yourself. Even more, you bring honor to us all.-Unknown

"If I advance, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me."

 

It's never too late to turn it around.

“Recognize that competence lies on the other side of slogging failure. Make your preparations, and assault your target, never forgetting that victory is the end state of persistence. “ – Jon Gilson

 

Took two days to concentrate on 2 a days for my running. I have a new route for sprinting that has a deceptive incline and is quite scary. I will take video and post it for you guys. This I feel, is going to make a huge difference between a top 10 and a top 3 finish at my upcoming 50k.

The runs have felt great since I am training harder than I did for my 50 miler in October '10.The races I signed up for in 2012 are critical as 3 Ultras are 2013 Western States 100 qualifiers and one marathon is a '13 Boston qualifier.

Roll the Dice
by Charles Bukowski

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try, go all the
way. this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or
4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the
worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the
gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
it’s the only good fight
there is.

 

****ing Forrest

This brings to mind that incline I typed about earlier.

“Just know on the inside that you won’t quit. That’s it. There is nothing else. Shakespeare said, ‘To thine own self be true’. I don’t know what the @*$% he meant by that, but just don’t quit on yourself. It’s worth it. The juice is worth the squeeze. I assure you.”

- Forrest Griffin

“It would be good if some of you people learned that comfort and ease are not often associated with progress and accomplishment in any endeavor.” – Mark Rippetoe

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." - Teddy Roosevelt

 

Today is the second two-a-day workout for the week. If you are planning on completing both workouts, you need to be ready for the first WOD 20 minutes after the start of class. Once the first group has completed the WOD, we will run the second group (those not completing both workouts). The first group will then complete the second workout.
WOD: "Elizabeth" (15 minute time cap)
21-15-9 rep rounds for time of:
(Squat) Cleans, 135#
Ring dips
-
2nd WOD: For time:
30 Push presses, 135#
30 Chest-to-bar pull-ups
-
There will be a 10 minute time cap for the second WOD. Each time you drop the bar during the push presses, or each time you fall off the bar during the pull-ups, you must complete a 5 burpee penalty before you can continue. You do not need to do burpees during the transition from push-presses to pull-ups.



First WOD went well. I finished first in class with RX no less.

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Then came the second WOD...


I got my little ass handed to me. BAD. With a 10 minute cap, I ended up with 27 push presses.

Not enough food, too much running is what went through my mind. I came home and devoured a whole chicken along with 2 bananas, chia, coconut oil and honey. Sat on my ass and decided that I was going to rest from running. To lament that I was off by 3 reps in making the leader board on Wed.

I wanted to believe conventional wisdom that says pure strength and endurance cannot mix. Every "sane" person would agree that a day off would serve me well.

Until I read the following....

“You’ve got to drive the body to the last inch of energy then go on! You gain nothing by just going up to where your body says you’re tired. The body will build and grow only to fit the demands the mind makes upon the lazy body. If all you do is exercise until the body is tired, the body will get lazy and stop a bit shorter every time. You must go to the point of exhaustion, then go on. That way the body figures out, “We’ve got to build up more strength if that crazy mind is going to drive this hard!” If you always quit when you are merely tired, you will never gain. Once you let the body tell the mind when to quit, you are whipped for sure. You can not gain by listening to the body. We can become much stronger if we drive the body. We use about on-tenth of the available strength of our bodies and less than that of our minds.”

-General George Patton

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What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlers' sinews grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke
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To every man upon this earth
death comes soon or late
and how may a man die better
than facing fearful odds
for the ashes of our fathers
to the temples of our gods