Head-dibs

"Drummer John “Sib” Hashian who set the beat on Boston’s first two albums — the eponymous 1976 rock landmark and 1978 chart-topping sequel “Don’t Look Back” — died this week with drumsticks in hand." More at The Miami Herald ad  more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article140498533.html#storylink=cpy

Captain Kirk will be born this day in 2228. Happy (future) Birthday, Captain!

These intense workouts are completed for the purpose of remembering our heroes, a way of showing gratitude for those who have laid down their lives for our freedom. Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Adam Lee Brown, 36, of Hot Springs, AR, was killed on March 17th, 2010 in Komar Province, Afghanistan, in a battle against heavily armed militants. He is survived by his wife, Kelley, two children, Nathan and Savannah, and by his parents. 

Today's WOD got me. I mean it got me good. It's not unusual to find bodies all over the floor when the WOD is over, but today I died much earlier than expected. Started with 4 sets of 10 reps each of Bench Presses (115#, 120#, 135#, 145) the moved got right to work on 3 rounds of: 20 Upright Row (45#) 30 Ab mat situps 400m run 50 walking lunges 60 sec Plank Got the WOD going well enough, but in the second round I ended my run feeling like something was off. Stepping out the door of the cardio room to lunge my way back to the weight room, I stopped for a second at the water fountain, got a drink, a few more breaths and counted 40 lunge steps to the weight room. 10 more inside and I was done.  I assumed the Plank position and sweat began streaming off my head like someone poured a glass of water over me. Don't get me wrong. I was already sweating--but this was a stream. 15 seconds in, my body was shaking. I closed my eyes while the clock ticked down a painf...

Beware the Ides of March!

I have a confession. I did not want to do the CrossFit Open 17.3 WOD. Hang with me--there's a point to this. The more I watched the reports online and noticed what other CrossFit boxes were doing, the closer I came to ditching the effort. Mind you, I'm an old guy, so I was already thinking of how to scale (modify) the session so something could be done with it. I decided (almost last minute) that I was not going to do 17.3. Then I got an e-mail from a guy who trains with me (you know who you are) who was very excited about doing 17.3 with whatever modification I found. Permit me first to tell you a little about 17.3: it begins with 8 minutes of work and if the athlete completes all the work within the 8 minutes, he or she is awarded with 4 minutes of more work. If the athlete completes the additional work before time elapses, he or she receives 4 additional minutes to do (you guess it) more work. This goes on for 24 minutes, total. Here's what happened: we got to...

"Valley Uprising" is a gripping documentary focusing on the history, evolution and impact of the climbing community in the Yosemite Valley. Starting in the 1950's, about the time when the American Dream began to feel palpable for people safe at home, a handful of young men set out to pursue another kind of dream in places where safety is a stranger. According to one climber, insanity may have indeed been a contributing factor, but the truth remains: if the laws of gravity are to be broken, others must be broken, too.  The documentary is not exhaustive in highlighting every contributing climber, but their influence unmistakable. The film does not intend to demonstrate or discuss details of climbing but chooses to introduce three major eras, approaches, personalities of few climbers and the rewards gained by these unique adventurers. If you know the name "North Face" and "Clif Bar," then you will appreciate this film. "Because in the e...

Went from 80 degrees last week to Snow Day in one week. The snow started about 5 a.m. and ended just after noon. At this writing, it's already melted but it was wonderful to get out, hear the calm brought about by snowfall and enjoy a few hours of winter for a change.

Just got back from a run. I use a tracker to log my distance, time, and a bunch of other stuff. My wife often "follows" me "live" as I run, even tracking me on GPS. This afternoon I came home and she pointed out that at one point in my run, I hit my fastest speed: 85.98 mph (see the chart, below). She showed my on her computer. I double checked my tracker, and sure enough. There it is. That spike (above) is where my jet pack kicked in. Or something. I have no clue what happened. But there it is. In the record books. No wonder I'm so tired!

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to fly a kite but there was no wind? So you took your kite, played out about three feet of string and started running until the kite began to climb. You ran and played out more and more string until you felt the sky pull it back and "viola!" your kite was in the air! My day began much like that. Only without the running. Or the kite. I had zero mojo at first but doing much better now. Had a fantastic WOD for lunch today and I'll have to say I was not excited about it at first but it was fun after all. What made the fun was seeing hard work paying off with heavier weights and faster speeds. Started off with a 3-3-2-2-1-1 Dead Lift (3 reps twice, add weight, 2 reps twice, add weight, 1 rep twice, at heaviest weight). Started off at 115# and ended at 275#. Next time, I shoot higher! The WOD was: 200m run 20 box jumps 400m run 40 Thruster (45#) 400m run 40 Dead Lift (115#) 200m run 20 power cleans (115#) Felt my rocket e...

"It really isn't about the destination it's about the journey and the harder the journey is the more rewarding the destination." (Zach) I've got climbing fever. Thinking about Mt. Mitchell again in May . . .

Since using a fitness tracker, I've (as of this writing): logged 685 workouts  run 945 miles (the air-distance from where I live to Ft. Worth, TX) trained for 18 days, 13 hours and 38 minutes burned 306,043 calories (equivalent to eating 543 Big Macs--which I don't. Can't stand McDonalds.) In February 2017, I burned 4,480 calories logged 7 hours, 54 minutes, 20 seconds of fitness ran 14 miles Obviously, many WOD's or heavy labor tasks have gone unlogged so the numbers are much higher since I've started my fitness lifestyle. It's kind of amazing when you track and can look back because sometimes it feels like you're getting nowhere, but then you look at the numbers. Woah! I may not be moving faster, but I'm going places. And I'm lifting heavier, which is cool. Got that "Mighty" feeling wracking my body!  Today's WOD was Strength: 4x10 push press (started at 95#, ended at 120#) WOD AMRAP 10 2 power snatch  3...

I have. Took a whole 12 minutes, from bumper to bumper. Not counting the 10 minute specialized warm-up. Feeling every tread on each wheel 'bout now. Using 30# Dumbbells (adding 60 pounds to my frame), we did the following (modified) in 12 minutes: 2 rounds: 50 foot walking lunge 16 Knee to Elbow 8 Dumbbell Power Clean then 2 rounds: 50 foot walking lunge 8 pull-ups + 8 dips 8 Dumbbell Power Clean Slow moving truck, I tell ya. I'll be over here feelin' mighty with my proteins shake and banana.

"As the day wore on, I could feel my nerves beginning to unravel. At one point, while leading over crusty, crumbly vertical ice . . . I suddenly became overwhelmed by the fact that the only thing that prevented my from flying off into space were two thin steel picks sunk half an inch into a medium that resembled the inside of my freezer when it needs to be defrosted. I looked down at the ground more than three thousand feet below and felt dizzy, as if I were about to faint. I had to close my eyes and take a dozen deep breaths before I could resume climbing." (Krakauer, Jon. Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains. Krakauer: Lyons & Burford, 1990. p. 11)

Celo Knob (6,327 feet) on the way to Mount Mitchell (6,683 feet, in the clouds, behind me in this pic).  8 more peaks to summit and descend from this point before we're there. (May, 2015) "Mountain climbing is comprehended dimly, if at all, by most of the nonclimbing world. It's a favorite subject for bad movies and spurious metaphors. A dream about scaling some high, jagged alp is something a shrink can really sink his teeth into. The activity is wrapped in tales of audacity and disaster that make other sports out to be trivial games by comparison; as in idea, climbing strikes that chord in the public imagination most often associated with sharks and killer bees . . . why would a normal person want to do this stuff?" (Author's note, viii) Krakauer, Jon.  Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains.   Krakauer: Lyons & Burford, 1990.

Greatly enjoyed this book, the first of three in a travel series. Sure, it's dated by now (first published in 1982), but it's interesting to use this as a landmark of sorts, to mark how things have changed over the years--and how some things never seem to change.  Felt very much "along for the ride" in his van, "Ghost Dancing." His periods of insight and reflection were refreshing from the sense that here's a man who made a trip--he did not simply take one. In solitude, he thought and in writing, he shares many introspective discoveries. These were the best parts of the trip in reading the book; however, of all the place and people Heat-Moon meets, he seems to be followed by the "same cast of characters" (as it were). No matter where he visits, everyone speaks with the author's voice, with the same kind of whit and humor. Occasionally he seems to be condescending or takes a mocking tone but one could chalk that up to road-weariness....