Sept 11, 2016

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A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful.
William Arthur Ward

Sunday long effort today

We met at the Baylor track and Mike put together a 90 minute workout combining the track, stairs and field.  By request, I brought our 2 Rogue small sleds with a 25 lb weight for each.  The workout looked like this:

Run on track to the first set of stairs, run up and down, continue on and run every stair in the stadium up and down and make your way around the track back to the starting point where we pulled the sled down 50 yards and back, then did 25 yards of walking lunges and one 25 yard bear crawl.  We continued this for 90 minutes.

This was a fantastic workout that helped to prepare me for the Upchuck 50 k and also just to get a longer, slower pace workout in for the week.

Kudos to:

Mike D

Lisa D

Chris R

Rusty G

Doug "The Snowman" F

Jody "Bolt" B

and Reggie V

September 9, 2016

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“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Show respect to all people, bow to none. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

— Tecumseh

 

5:15 am

WHM Breathing x 3 + pushups

RRL Warmup

Build to 1 Rm Clean and Jerk

2 Man Tag Team Partner workout

Run 200 m + 1 Rope Climb

200 KB Swings with 70 lb Gorilla Bell

The way this one works is one partner(P1) starts on the run while the other (P2) swings the KB as many times as he can before P1 returns from the run and completes 1 rope climb.  The partners tag out and continue the running total of KB swings.  P2 takes off on the run and P1 starts swinging.  Continue like this until 200 KB swings are completed by the team.

Good times this morning.  Great group and a fantastic way to start the day and end the week.

September 8, 2016

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“When you finally decide how successful you really want to be, you’ve got to set priorities. Then, each and every day, you’ve got to take care of the top ones. The lower ones may fall behind, but you can’t let the top ones slip. You don’t forget about the lower ones, though, because they can add up to hurt you. Just take care of the top ones first. In 25 years as a head coach and assistant, I think I might have missed one practice. Why? Because practice is my top priority.  A day doesn’t go by when I don’t accomplish something in my family life or my profession, because those two things are my top priorities.”

-Dan Gable

RRL Warmup

Then

Bench Press 5-5-3-3-1-1-1

Then

Row 5000 with a goal of 20 minutes

or Run 5k

Sept 6, 2016

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“Take pride in yourself. Be your own person. Don’t do things because everyone else does them. Don’t be part of the crowd. Dare to be different. Never be afraid to stand up for what you believe to be right, even when it means standing alone.”
— Jack Lambert

RRL Warmup

Deadlift 5-5-3-3-1-1-1

Then

100 KB Swings @ 53 lbs

EMOM do 5 burpees

4:52Top score 4:32, 4:35 from Mike and Trevor

then

Max Air Squats in 2 minutes- Goal 120 per SealFit Assessment

123 for me

Sept 5, 2016

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"It is moments like this that one needs to face his fears. The best way to have such a moment is to gradually confront the fear and approach it in a way that is both exciting and inspiring. You have to be decisive and physically prepared to do your best. After that, little by little, you will see progress."

-Wim Hof

Team workout today

First,

RRL Warmup

then

Hang Squat Clean 5-5-3-3-1-1-1

then

2 Man Leap Frog Workout

10 Pullups

10 Assault Bike Calories

10 Wall Balls

AMRAP 15 min

then

Gratitude 6 minutes

30 and 60 days out from SealFit Kokoro

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I came across this great video from the guys at SealFit.  All of these guys and ladies are Kokoro graduates and offer some outstanding advice.  If you are considering Kokoro, please watch this video and pay attention to the details.  Below, I will give you what I did and where I think you should be 30 and 60 days out for Kokoro.

 

I agree with their advice and I can offer a little more from the perspective of an older athlete going into this event.  At 60 days out you should feel pretty confident in everything.  Use the published standards as a guide and then add 30-40 reps on top of the published standard as a minimum guide to progress.  At 60 days out, you should be increasing your weekly mileage of running considerably while avoiding injury.  Every day, you should be training in the boots and pants you will use at the event.  I was doing Opwods 3-4 days a week, running focused work 2 days and rucking one day...long.

30 days out, your gear should be dialed, your feet should be hard and you should be prepared for extreme workloads of 2-3 hour constant workouts. I did the 5 miles/1000 Burpee workout, Triple Murph and lots of other challenges before the event.  You should feel comfortable with a 10 minute, no movement plank and be able to do Murph weighted at any time.

At 30 days out, you should have all the work done that you need to survive the event.  It is important at this time to try to heal up any injuries that you have and show up to the event healthy.  Showing up healthy is of major importance to all athletes, but to the older athlete, like me, showing up compromised is not at all what you want to do.  Show up healthy, strong and plan far enough ahead that you are not in a panic 30 days out, rather you are starting your taper.

Good luck.

The Filthy 15 Miles

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"Demand more from yourself than anyone else could ever possibly expect"

-Tony Robbins

There is an internet unicorn with the initials SS that I have been following for quite some time.  This guy has created and completed some absolutely crazy workouts.  He did them in preparation for BUDs training.  He has also completed some of the most intense, endurance challenges that I have ever heard of or seen.

I have chipped away at many of the challenges that he put on the internet, but there have been a few that loom large on the horizon that I was unsure that I could complete.  After doing Marathons, Tough Mudders, SealFit Kokoro, Goruck Selection and many others, I am now finding great fun in simply finding a challenge and doing it right here in my driveway with my friends.

Yesterday we tackled one that I have been considering for a long time but refrained for any number of reasons that keep all of us from doing difficult things.  Finally, the challenge was accepted and completed.

This one was

The Filthy 15 Miles

Run 400 m

10 burpees

1 Muscle Up

x 60 Rounds

This equates to running 15 miles, doing 600 Burpees and doing 60 Muscle Ups.

Mike, PSC, Rusty and Jody showed up and took on this challenge with me.  Mike mentioned that he was more nervous than when he was at the starting line of a Marathon, PSC remained confident and I know that I felt like not doing it....about 50 times.

At 7:30 am, we started the clock for 99 minutes (the longest the clock allows) and started a slow pace, hoping that we could keep it through the workout. 

We made it through the first 10 rounds in 30 minutes and started losing a few minutes each 10 rounds, but continued to chip away for 3 hours 30 minutes and 12 seconds for me.  PSC finished in 3:19:00 and Mike was in at 3:34:15. 

The first 30 rounds was a great workout and would fit into a Challenge Saturday perfectly.  Getting to 40 was mentally tough, but around round 46, I started to have some demons creep in.  Thoughts of not finishing were clearly present but this workout is so beautiful because 1 round is not really difficult so when things got tough...which they did, it was really easy to say, "well, Ill do one more round and see how i feel.  The next thing you know, you mark down 50 rounds and start feeling better.  After pushing through some very dark places, a second wind is found and I was looking at 5 more rounds.  While the muscle ups were getting extremely challenging, I was able to hit every one without failing on the rings. 

I have never done 60 muscle ups in any workout or even in a day.  This is another great thing about this workout.  The way it is laid out makes this amount of work possible.  To just try to do this work load straight through would be much more difficult for me.

Many people ask me why we do things like this.  I learned at SealFit the importance of always having goals out there that kind of scare you.  Always having something to train for.  This keeps us sharp, focused and continually putting ourselves in situations that create discomfort.  Pushing through creates confidence, mental toughness and durability.

We will continue to set the bar high and challenge ourselves physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  I encourage you to do the same, whatever that means to you.  Try the Filthy 15 or try a 5 k for the first time.  Challenge yourself

Training for the Known and Unknown

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In the early days of the CrossFit Games, it had a tag line, "Training for the known and the unknown".  With the popularity of events like Goruck Light, Challenge, Heavy and Selection; SealFit 20x, Academies and Kokoro; Spartan Races; Tough Mudders and other events like these, this is exactly what we are doing, however most people that I see are paying way too much attention to the unknown.

In my recent Selection class 015, we started with 278 people and only one finished.  Along the way, big groups of people were eliminated on each event that comprised the fitness test and I saw the same thing in my Kokoro 30 class. 

There is always the group of individuals who train their ass off and are meeting the minimum standard in training, but 1 or 2 "no reps" and they cant pass.  This is understandable, I guess, but these individuals must not be dissapointed or surprised when this happens.

I have learned about preparation the hard way and have learned to prepare properly for any endeavor now.  In my other life as a professional fisherman, I had to prepare for the best, the worst and for all kinds of other scenarios.  I dealt with alot of unknown factors as well as uncontrollable factors.  However, there were always "knowns" and I had better have all that shit dialed in perfectly, because nature and good old Murphy's Law were going to do their best to change things regularly.

The world of endurance challenges is much the same. 

If you take Kokoro for instance, SealFit publishes a list of minimum standards for the camp.  I copied this directly from their website:

"We want to prevent injuries as well as people holding their team back.  The work-load at Kokoro camp was described by an Iron Man athlete as “3 back to back Iron Man races, without rest.” It is intensely physical, probably beyond anything you can imagine now. Prepare well.

Prerequisites for a graduate certificate will be tested within the first few hours of the camp. They include:

  • 50 push ups (40 for women) in 2 minutes, 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes and 50 air squats in 2 minutes, with 2 minutes rest in between each.
  • 10 dead hang pull-ups for men, 6 for women
  • 1 mile run in boots and utility pants on the road in under 9:30
  • Body Armor (aka Murph) with 20# pack (15# for women): 1 hour and 10 minutes maximum

Endurance standards to guide your preparation (not tested for performance, but completion):

  • 10 mile run in less than 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • 20 mile ruck hike with load in less than 6 hours

Two event failures (PST/Murph) will result in a drop from the course and refusal to perform any event will be considered a non-verbal drop.  Note: we highly recommend that you ramp up your endurance and stamina training. A standard CrossFit or SOF Prep training regimen will not suffice. You should run a marathon or half Iron Man and spend considerable time rucking with load."

I don't know if you can get much more specific than that!  However, on test day, there were many who were just not prepared for these standards.  They were dropped from the course before it really even started. They went home without learning any of the lessons they came for. 

In Selection, you are given these minimum standard and you know you will be tested on them:

"Your ruck must weigh minimum 45 lbs. at all times, not including water or food. We will weigh your ruck at the start of Selection. If your ruck does not weigh 45 lbs., you will be performance dropped. You will have access to our scale prior to the commencement of Selection.

The PT Test

You will be tested on push-ups, sit-ups, a 5-mile run, and a 12-mile ruck run. You must meet the PT test standards in order to be given the opportunity to continue to train. If you fail to pass any portion of the PT Test, you will not receive a refund and your experience will come to an end.

PT Test Standards

  • 2 minutes: minimum 55 push-ups. *
  • 2 minutes: minimum 65 sit-ups. *
  • 5-Mile Run: maximum time allotted is 40 minutes. *
  • 12-Mile Ruck Run: maximum time allotted is 3 hours 30 minutes. **

* Push-ups, sit-ups, and the 5-mile run are done without a ruck.

** For the 12-mile ruck run, your ruck must weigh at least 45 lbs. at all times, not including water or food.

Once the PT test is complete, the rest of Selection begins. At that point, you will take all instructions from the Cadre. If you pass, you will earn the GORUCK Selection patch. It will never be for sale."

Despite this list, many failed every aspect of the test and were dropped before any of the good stuff began to happen. 

The point of this post is to encourage you to look at the whatever event you are training for and train specifically to dominate the known factors.  Remember that you are not training to pass the minimum standards but strive to exceed them by double.  If you cant pass the fitness test, all the rucking in the world is not going to help.  The only chance you have is to make sure that you can first pass the test.  Train specifically for it and plan to double the pushup, situp and pullup numbers.

Obviously, if you can do 100 pushups rather than 50 in the same amount of time, you are going to be in far better shape and far more likely to be able to handle the load that is about to be thrown at you.  The same can be said for situps, pullups, running and rucking.

First make sure you can pass that test, then train for the unknown.

If you are right on the line, maybe you are not ready for this class.  Look to the next class and give yourself more time to train.  These events are NO JOKE and have to be taken very seriously to pass and sometimes, to survive. 

Dominate the knowns and you will be prepared for alot of the unknowns.

Researching "known" factors in anything (endurance events, business, important meetings, phone calls, fishing tournaments, mountain climbing...) and making sure that you are completely prepared to dominate those in any condition or circumstance will lead you to success.  

September 1, 2016

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“The toughest thing about success is that you’ve

got to keep on being a success."


—IRVING BERLIN

 

Today we started chipping away at the SealFit Assessment

1. AMREP 2 minutes- Situps to Navy Standards with a partner holding feet and judging reps- Goal 100

2. AMREP 2 minutes- Push-ups with a partner with their fist under the sternum.  Chest to fist every rep- Goal 100

3. Work to 1RM Thruster- You can use the rack for this

4. AMREP 1 Minute- Thruster @ 95 Lbs- Goal 30