El Puma/Warpuma Chronicles

thumbsuphappy

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YC7TMi0l68[/ame]

 

Took Monday off as I was a bit spent from doing 109 burpees in 7 minutes and then running 17+ miles later that day. I came back today.

Tuesday, February 28 2012
Strength: Weighted pull-ups, 3-3-3-3
-
WOD: 5 Rounds each for time of:
20 KB swings, 55#
15 Push presses, 115#
10 Box jumps, 30"

Rest 3 minutes between rounds. Max time cap per round is 2 minutes. You will need to perform each movement unbroken if you want to complete within the allotted time, so scale the weight accordingly. If you have to break up a movement during any round, move on to the next movement and scale back the next round.


Tough WOD. I had to start scaling the reps in round 3 and if I had time, I would run back and finish the reps I missed on the push press.

I was ok with doing pullups with a 55lb Kettlebell. I have to get stronger and I am realizing the more moves I encounter, the more time I have to invest in all areas of training for peak human performance.

Virtuosity. Doing the common uncommonly well.



The path of the Warrior is lifelong, and mastery is often simply staying on the path.
- Richard Strozzi Heckler, In Search of the Warrior Spirit

 

I've been busy with extensive training and now that i have completed Crossfit Open WOD 12.2, I can take a little time between sets to post.

Un (un) scared (skârd): The art of dealing with fear.

EARLY IN THEIR FRIENDSHIP, Kelly and Brian share programming and compare results from opposite ends of California. Brian remembers, "They'd be hellacious ****ing pieces that we would put together. And then we would just start to say, 'I'm unscared,' you know, 'I'm just--I did it and I was unscared.'"

There isn't much conversation about the meaning of the word, or about why it resonates so strongly--the word carries everything needed to understand. Says Kelly, it's "one of those central concepts. I don't have to explain love to you. You just know what it is."

Across his knuckles, Brian gets the word tatooed in dark ink. He's not the last person to permanently etch the word into their skin.

We're in the days of the underground. The days before ESPN2 and Reebok. Before sponsored athletes and international affiliation. The tattoo, the philosophy, the training, to Brian, is like "that middle finger up at the rest of society or the people who are saying, 'You're crazy for what you're doing.'"

Friday, March 02 2012

CrossFit Games Open 12.2

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:

This content is protected

165 pound Snatch, 30 reps
210 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

For a downloadable PDF of the workout, click here.

CrossFit Games Open 12.2 workout instructions and demo - video [wmv] [mov] [HD mov]

This content is protected

I took video but my camera phone tipped upwards and recorded the lights instead.

 

I'm also going to be reviewing the SPEAR System a few weeks after I try it out.

The SPEAR system (originally an acronym for Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response) is a close quarter protection system which uses a persons reflex action in threatening situations as a basis for defence[1]. The primary founder, Tony Blauer, developed the SPEAR system in Canada during the 1980s.[2] It has since been adopted by several military and law enforcement agencies across the world.

 

Workout 12 . 3

This content is protected

MEN - includes Masters Men up to 54 years old

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 24" box
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar

My body aches, breaking down and it gets harder to summon the spirit needed to go all out. Is it over training? It does not matter. I've been here before and before I die, I'll be here plenty more times.

How high you soar depends on how deep your fall.

My name is Carlos Garcia. El Puma. I take on big challenges, monsters if you will, because I believe in myself and so to can you. In this life and the next.

" Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.

I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more."

Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)

 

WOD:

CrossFit Games Open 12.3

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 24" box
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar


So...brutal. One pinched nerve in my right shoulder, gasping for air and seeing colored spots and that was before it was halfway through. I kept going. I eased into the pain like one would a really hot bath. Gave what I could without going over the razor's edge.

I loved it.

This content is protected

Death's cold presence was beside me and I never felt more alive.


Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from one place to another.

--Socrates



I still have so much to do here....

 

I'll be back with results of repeating 12.3 but first....

I use certain mediums to get a point or feeling across and the ones I use come from heroes or great inspirations in my life. having said that, I know or would at least like to hope, is that one day my daughters will find this and get a better understanding of why things needed to happen the way they did. One day i hope to see them and in my own words, express how I feel for them and their mother.

It's no coincidence 2 of my most important Ultras fall on 2 of their birthdays and I am submitting one of my daughter's name as a WOD to CF HQ.

21-15-9 for time

one arm pushups

pistols

strict pullups

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7latE36uyeg&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCweQqRCzA&feature=relmfu[/ame]

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC7UfGnNIdY[/ame]

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

So I did 12.3 again. This time with a new split technique on my push press and paced myself better. I improved by 40+ reps.

Yes, I remembered the pain and suffering of the first one. But, it didn't kill me and I came back stronger. I did not let fear get the best of me and even with knowing I ran 30+ miles the night before.

**** impossible, leave nothing.

“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

 

9 and 6

 

:good I'm coming back in a big way starting today. More videos and more programs.

 

It's been a bit.

It all started with the second time I gave the Crossfit Open WOD 12.6 a go and fell short of bettering my score. Turns out the weeks of training for the Ultra, Crossfit WODs and competing in the open finally broke my immune system.

The last WOD I did 3 days before my race was a 1 mile timed run. I lost. I redlined it the whole way and did not have my extra gear in the last 400 meters like I usually did.

I decided to take the rest of the week off and concentrate on the 50k Ultra I trained my heart out for.

It started off rather well despite not being able to warm up properly due to the cold and other factors. We shot off the 7 of us, ahead of over a hundred people, going at a sub 6 minute pace. Looking back, I remember when and where I twisted my ankle within the first 5 miles. My race and my training was over at the 20 mile mark....3 hours into a 31 mile race.

I would be out for 8 weeks....limping my way through the days and waking up to agonizing foot pain in the mornings before work. The recovery was long and painful. I missed races, WOD's and the world as I stayed secluded.


I'm sure you've wondered where I have been and since I am nursing a nasty cold from getting hammered with damn near super human WODs...I will tell my tale.

I trained harder than I ever did and I fell. Broken...physically and fractured spiritually.

But I came back and it all started with a first place finish as part of a team.


I'm back. I am here to show you that if I can do it, so to can you.

John Blake: Not a lot of people know what it feels like to be angry, in your bones. I mean, they understand, foster parents, everybody understands, for awhile. Then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can't do, move on. So after awhile they stop understanding. They send the angry kid to a boys home. I figured it out too late. You gotta learn to hide the anger, practice smiling in the mirror. It's like putting on a mask.