El Puma/Warpuma Chronicles

Rest Day/Make-up Day

Miss a workout this week? Make it up today. Otherwise, work on stretching, mobility, and a skill or two, but no heavy metcons. Recover from the previous three days and be ready for tomorrow...


Pretty easy day. Single leg squats while holding a 45lb plate, pull-ups on the rings, one-arm push ups and fine tuning my muscle-up.

"Remember that pain has this most excellent quality. If prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged."
- Seneca

It is better to live one day as a lion than one hundred years as a sheep.

Do that which you fear and the fear will die - Emerson


"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."
- William James

 

Took the day off from CrossFit today so I could concentrate on strength training and hill sprints. I also have an announcement.


December 16, 2011

Thank you for submitting your entry for the January 14, 2012 Team Ortho Chicago Polar Dash: Polar Dash Half Marathon.

ESB members,

Thank you for your continued support and for those who have followed me,helped me and believe in me...this race is for you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/f...s-the-cult-of-physicality.html?pagewanted=all

There, they sat in folding chairs and listened to Mr. MacDonald give a lecture. The class members, some of whom had traveled from as far as London and New York, took notes and followed along with a 135-page study guide.

“You can never get rid of endurance work,” Mr. MacDonald said, stabbing at the board with a marker. “If you need to get rid of something in your workout, it needs to be the weight room.”

He put the cap on the marker. “And always — always — be prepared to go to a dark place,” he said. “Now, who’s ready to work out?”


"Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk."

-Unknown

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."


-Dag Hammarskjold





"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."

-Edward Abbey

 

Team of 3.

10 Wall balls 20lbs

10 Ring Push ups

10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 95lbs

Counts as 1 set. Do as many sets as possible in 15 minutes

My individual score was 7 sets + 10 wall balls=220 reps.

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."


-Unknown

4 more weeks until the race. Go hard, rinse, rest, repeat.



"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that ? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."


- Marie Curie

 

I'm sorry you don't think what I do is normal and is harmful for my health. I don't begrudge you and I still and will always love you, my little brother. Wealth is not health for me.


"Lance always has been motivated by people who don't believe him or doubt him."


"To all the cynics, I'm sorry for you, ... I'm sorry you can't believe in miracles. This is a great sporting event and hard work wins it."
- Lance Armstrong


"If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell."
- Lance Armstrong

 

Strength: Power clean, 3-3-3-3-3

1st set 135 lbs

2nd set 165lbs

3rd set 165lbs (Failed 185lb attempt)

4th set 165lbs

5th set 165lbs

WOD: AMRAP(As Many Rounds As Possible) 10 minutes of:

200m Run

10 KB swings, 70#/55# (I and other as Norberto put it, "heroes" opted for 75lbs lol. Thank God for IB profen)

10 Chest to bar pull-ups

With as much as my stomach is shrinking for the upcoming race, I should have known better than to eat pre-workout as much as usual. I paid for it with cramps, but lesson learned.

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"...when you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, then you have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life."


-Stedman Graham


Now I have to crunch time in to study for my eventual CrossFit Level I Certification and condition my body for a dip in Lake Michigan after my Half Marathon with the other crazies next month.


"To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded."


- Ralph Waldo Emerson





"If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances."


- Julia Sorel

 

Tuesday, December 20 2011
Strength vs. Endurance

For the next 6-8 weeks, we will be attempting to focus a bit more on strength training; however, endurance alternatives will be provided for those who would prefer more endurance work. It is highly recommended that you complete the strength portion if you are planning on entering the CrossFit Games 2012 Open.
Strength: Back squat 2-2-2-2-2
Or
Endurance: Row 250m for time. Rest 3 minutes. x 3.
-
WOD: 5 Rounds for time of:
10 Jump squats, 95#
10 Ring dips
20 Double unders (Did 60 singles each round instead. My double unders suck...for now.)

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Topped off my squat at 255lbs. Will have to work on that but it's a thin line between losing weight and gaining strength...

No. Just ****ing do it.

CrossFit is the truth. I found my salvation.

"I walked away from the grave
some kind of zombie
I will never be afraid
some kind of zombie
I gave my life away.
I'm obliged and obey
I'm enslaved to what you say. "

I needed more, tonight. I needed to know just how powerful an engine I was building for the upcoming races. Devil's Lake....



"The time has come. You know it in your soul, for I am your soul... You cannot escape me. You are puny, you are small, you are nothing--a hollow shell, a rusty trap that cannot hold me. Smoldering, I burn you--burning you, I flare, hot and bright and fierce and beautiful. You cannot stop me, not with wine or vows or the weight of age--you cannot stop me, but still you try. Still you run. You try to drown me out... But your voice is weak."

Seemingly endless stamina between short 7 second sprints. Tonight felt like a baptism of sorts with minimal clothing and the cold wet air blanketing me. I am mine. I am all that came into this world with and that is how I will leave. But in between, what i do, will live on long after i am gone from this earth.

“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”

-Neil Gaiman

 

WOD - 5 Rounds, each for time of:
5 Deadlifts
15 Burpees
Rest 3 minutes between rounds. Increase weight each round if possible.


I'm warmed up...shake my arms, lick my lips, I'm ready to break metal warmed up.

I think of all those yesterdays....

1. 225lbs

2. 255lbs

3. 275lbs

By now, thoughts are distant. Focus is locked in. I summon the effort I put in for others and keep it for myself.

4. 295lbs

Sometimes...it's good to be selfish.

I take my shoes off for the last set.

"I'm Gonna fight 'em Off
A Seven Nation Army couldn't hold me back"

I heave with as much perfect form as I can muster, double my body weight and I feel the screaming that starts in my intestines travel out my throat. All those yesterdays....in 5 reps. I did it.

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“I wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your whole life breaks down. That's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about.”

Chuck Palahniuk

 

"Pain, I came to feel, might well prove to be the sole proof of the persistence of consciousness within the flesh, the sole physical expression of consciousness. As my body acquired muscle, and in turn strength, there was gradually born within me the tendency toward positive acceptance of pain, and my interest in physical suffering deepened."

 

Strength: Push jerk 1-1-1-1-1


Topped out at 175lbs after failing a 185lb attempt. I am pleased I have video footage of this since my form needs work with the second dip in the movement.

WOD:
Tabata intervals of the following:
Wall ball, 20#
Box jumps, 24"
Toes through rings
Row for calories
20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds rest counts as 1 set. Perform 8 consecutive sets of one movement before moving on to the next movement. Add your reps/calories from all 32 sets for a total score.

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I felt like dying. A small taste of what "Fight Gone Bad" will bring when it gets here.


Training for the marathon has been spot on. No complaints in the strength department as I am following what Brian MacKenzie preaches for endurance athletes in CrossFit Endurance. "UnScared"


All in all everything is coming together for the better. The future looks as bright as the past is distant.


"And there's things I would like to do
That you don't believe in
I would like to build something
But you'll never see it happen"

Motorcycle Driveby - Third Eye Blind

 

Feel the speed through intersection
Sheets of rain I seek out cars
Hands in gloves, grip handlebars
Ride alone to the pub in the dark
I get a little wet but I don't have to park
And the lights start flashing green and red as I ride
A car turns left and I slide
I can't turn back, I make contact
Blinkers smash to mosaic
Then I start flying

Always think we get more time
Now flying through the air
Maybe living, maybe dying
In this motor crash it's you who comes to mind
Don't we always wished had more time?

I'm thrust slow mo through time and space
Details smash, I protect my face
And then I see yours
And go to a time when we just knew
Mister death in the car below
Doesn't even slow and away he goes
In the majesty of a motor crash
Skid into my darkness forming
Sex and death, heartbreak and strife
But they give no warning

Always think we'll get more time
Now I'm flying through the air
And it's you who comes to mind
In the red lights and Cathedrals there's a sign
Don't we always wish had more time
Here it comes
My hit and run

Always think we'll get more time
Then you're flying through the air
With someone on your mind
In the shattered glass reflections there's a sign
'Cause you were there
And I wish we had more time

I come down hard and roll to my feet
And rain washes blood now off concrete
People turn away and I just had to laugh
'Cause I'm still flying
Living and dying

Always think we get more time
Flying through the air
With someone on your mind
And this motorcycle crash it is a sign
'Cause you were there and I wish we had more time
You were there

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My Hit And Run-Third Eye Blind

"...may you always find the inspiration you need to succeed"

 

Team of 2

Tri and I

4 reps of Clean and Jerk @ 135lbs

8 Hands off floor push ups

4 Burpees over the bar

Counts as 1 round. As Many Rounds As Possible in 15 minutes.

Though tired and sore as we may have been, we jumped at it like the lions that we are. Fatigue be damned, we gave it all to the end.

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later, we lay in a puddle of our own sweat with glazed eyes. There was no better way to spend Christmas Eve this morning.


Thank you Tri.


Resist
<3
Pain feels good
has someone taken your faith
you
They all died in the fire I started
Help me
I pain
your faith
Goodbye

 

Tired, sick, heart racing with very little exertion. Very happy to have had the day off because this is what I had ahead of me...


Run 400m
31 Overhead squats, 75#
31 Push-ups
31 Deadlifts, 185#
31 Pull-ups
Run 400m
31 Overhead squats, 75#
31 Push-ups
31 Deadlifts, 185#
31 Pull-ups
Run 400m

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"May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to bring you joy."


-Unknown

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Tuesday, December 27 2011
Paleo Challenge?

Who's up for a 30-day paleo challenge beginning January 2nd?


WOD: 5 Rounds, each for time of:
3 Push presses
15 Toes to bar
200m Row
Rest 3 minutes between rounds. Increase weight each round if possible. Racks are allowed. Post loads and time to complete for each round to BTW.


Pain was my friend today. Last second decision to go was not regretted.

135#

155#

155#

165#

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Almost did not get the last rep....came back down and amid the loud encouragement, I muscled that mother****er up, locked it out and held it.


**** limitations.

Now...hill sprints and a tempo run.


Live the lifestyle instead of paying lip service to the lifestyle. Live with commitment. With emotional content. Live whatever life you choose honestly. Give up this renaissance man, dilettante bull**** of doing a lot of different things (and none of them very well by real standards). Get to the guts of one thing; accept, without casuistry, the responsibility of making a choice. When you live honestly, you can not separate your mind from your body, or your thoughts from your actions.

Tell the truth. First, to yourself. Say it until it hurts. Learn the reality of your own selfishness. Quit living for other people at the expense of your own self, you&#8217;re not really alive. You live in the land of denial-and they say the view is pretty as long as you remain asleep.

 

Strength: Back squat 4-4-4-4

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or


Endurance: Row 500m for time. Rest 5 minutes. Repeat.
WOD: 5 Rounds for time of:
7 Weighted pull-ups, 45#/25#
14 Second chin over bar hold (no weight)
14 Box jumps, 24"/20"
28 Double unders

Starting the Paleo diet while also running fried me out. Pathetic showing on the last two sets of pullups which I did w no weight. Double unders are still poor.

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I have to modify Paleo because eating like this and simultaneously doing endurance and strength training has me spread very thin.

I'll make it work. Because I choose to.

 

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If you have me on Facebook, it's there but I won't post the WOD here and probably not today's session either.

My race is coming up and I am becoming more quiet and intense. Training has been good. I have not posted everything I have been doing but this isn't really what this thread is about. Take from my logs that which you deem useful and apply them in your life. Overcome past limitations to face the upcoming challenges and changes.

Live your legend.

"Feels like i'm stuck in a dream and can't get out. And still everyday I wake up to feel the absence I've yet to get used to. There is still so much left I have to do..."

-Puma