Proximal Strength

"Ask Cochise" on Q102 with Kristen B

2012-01-25T16:13:00.000-08:00

I fielded some great questions during this week's "Ask Cochise" segment on Q102's The Kristen Show! I'm having a blast doing the spot and am grateful to Kristen for the opportunity! Here's what we covered this AM:

I didn't train today cuz I'm feeling a bit sickly. I think I may have the stomach bug that's been going around town. Came home after the radio deal and straight crashed. I'm hoping it passes soon so I can get back at it over the course of the next few days.

CHEERS!

Max Consecutive Pull Ups

2012-01-24T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hallelujah.

2012-01-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

Max Consecutive 100lb KB Swings

2012-01-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

Great little "man test". It was my first attempt at max consecutive swings with the 100lb kettlebell. I was shooting for 30+ reps. It was tough to get in a rhythm and even tougher to get it vertical in a controlled manner. There are a few reps that were questionable but, for the most part I was getting the work done. I'll do it again before sectionals and see if I can't clean things up a bit.

INK Around The Rosie Nipple

2012-01-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

"This feels AMAZING!"

Outline: CHECK...Halfway there.

The finished product. For my past 7 pieces, I've gone to "Hearts of Fire" owner and artist Ethen. Aside from the fact that his work is SHARP, Ethen is just a cool, down to earth guy. He's a smart business man, he's got mad hustle (he works hard - for all you old folk who aren't jive'n with me), and I can tell he's also a bigtime family man. Aaaaand he's tattooed from head to toe and still not afraid to order a strawberry daiquiri. I'd recommend him to anyone looking into getting some fresh ink or wanting someone to share a fruity cocktail with.

The chest piece he did for me today was redonkulously painful. It had me trash talking, zoning out, fighting to control my breathing, and sweating like a mofo!!! I consider myself a somewhat tough little boy to routinely be able to tolerate the pain of CrossFit WODs- but this was a discomfort of a whole new flavor.

I'm completely stoked about the outcome. I told Jenny this might have been one of the best training methods I could have adapted just prior to the 2012 open simply because I was forced to sit there and try to breathe and remain calm while my left boobie was under tremendous duress. My poor, poor boobie. I actually went to CFS to do yoga prior to my tattoo appointment just to calm myself...Not sure if it worked but the result totally made the inevitable pain worthwhile! I love the way it turned out!!!

The best part is, now once a day I'll get to hear someone say to me, "I hope this whole CrossFit thing works out for you" for the rest of my life. Don't you worry, dear. I've been ALL IN for some time now.

~COCHISE

Said The Mighty Heart To The Feeble Mind...

2012-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

As for my Sectionals training, this week has been very much about trying to ramp up my mental game. Yesterday I did 6 x 5 of backsquat and strict press 5 x 1, push press 5 x 3, and push jerk 5 x 5. On Backsquat I did 245, 250,250,250,275, and 275- modest loads but heavy for all 6 sets. On strict press I got up to 175, on push press 235 for 3, and on push jerk 250 x 5. It was a taxing strength progression and I fully felt the effects of New Years Eve festivities.

In the afternoon I did a metcon of 10-1 KB swing @ 100lb with 1 round of "Cindy" between each set. Slugged through it at a steady pace, not breaking anything up but moving calmly through the WOD. I ended with a time of 11:25.

Today I felt pretty sore from the volume of yesterday and was hesitant to do the CFS WOD of 4 rds of 500m row, each for time with a 3min rest between attempts. My reluctance was evidence enough for me to know that I needed to treat it as a competition WOD and give it an ALL OUT EFFORT. I pushed very hard on the 1st 500m row but tried to lay back just a tad in order to put up consistently fast times for all 4 efforts. My first 500m row took me 1:27.1. One second over my PR. I rested exactly 3 minutes and managed to pull my 2nd 500 in 1:33.3. After the second attempt the following mental battle ensued...

Head: How are you gonna be able to put out another relatively fast time a 3rd time, let alone a 4th time as well? You're wrecked!

Heart: You have to. Finish what you started. Just try your best. Count your strokes on the rower to 50 and you'll be fine. Hopefully...

Head: You're an idiot. That's crazy. Ok. Well, go then!

My third 500m row took me 1:38.4.

Head: Just ONE more to go...Can you do this one more time?

Heart: Yes, I KNOW I CAN...just shut up and let me breathe for a second!!!

COCHISE:Both of you best shut up and stop being wieners!

Head and Heart (simultaneously): Ok.

4th 500m row I did the same thing as the 3rd.I told myself, "Don't look at the monitor, just pull hard to 50, use your legs, follow through with your arms, and tough out the last 100m. Whatever you do, don't let the clock get to 1:40!!!"

I was pleased to achieve almost the same result as my 3rd attempt: 1:38.9.

As you can see, there was so much tough mental "self talk" occurring that eventually it began to drown out (or at least somewhat diminish) the physical discomfort of the last few 500m sprints.

Simple single modality WODs like these are often overlooked or underestimated for their potency and ability to produce a monstrous metabolic effect on the body. WODs such as these are absolutely necessary for the serious crossfit athlete because of their ability to increase not only your workload capacity but also your mental toughness. The voices in your head will tell you 100% of the time to let up. The voices in your heart telling you to KEEP FIGHTING must speak louder if you are to ever tap into your full athletic potential. No Seas Weiner! Permanecer En La Lucha!

Create In Me A Clean Heart, Oh God...

2012-01-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

When I began this whole blogging business back in February of 2010, it was kind of against my better judgment. I also questioned whether I'd even stick with it. My intent was for Proximal Strength to simply be used as my training blog, which, primarily it has always been, but it's also been somewhat therapeutic for me as well to be able to journal about where I'm at in life. It's one thing to keep record of your daily musings and thoughts on life; it's another to actually take the time to review and reflect on those records. It's here where you might find that need to be careful of your actions, for they become your character and your character ultimately becomes your destiny.

This afternoon- in the wake of the 2012 new year- that's exactly what I did. I went back to December of 2010 and read a prayer that I had blogged about how I was sensing a season of change upon my life. Then I went straight to January 15th , 2011 where, after letting all the initial resolution banter die down, I finally decided to give my take on how I'd try to attack life in 2011. My thoughts centered on what my core values are. Here's what I had to say then:

"I know it's a little late but while since we're still relatively close to the new year, I've been thinking alot recently about my resolutions and goals for 2011. It never fails that each year when I make new resolutions, I often gear them towards curbing my behaviors or vices. You may tend to do the same thing. If you're anything like me, as the year wears on and your good intentions wane, you may also tend to revert back to those same tendencies you were trying to deviate from. It got me thinking: At the end of the day, my behaviors and habits should ultimately reflect my core values. If I'm really wanting to make any lasting changes to my daily actions, I'm going to have to take an honest look at what I value most in life. This thought forced me to ask myself, "What are my personal core values?" Well, here are a few that I've come up with so far (it's a work in progress):

1. I value my walk with Christ. I'm thankful for the opportunity life gives me to seek Him. My spiritual journey has had many highs and many lows, but the only times I've ever been able to experience consistent personal and spiritual growth is when I've sought Him daily. All too often I lose sight of this value and become malnourished. My attitude, decisions, and actions are poor when I'm not spiritually fed just as my athletic performance is compromised when I'm not eating enough or eating garbage.

2. I value my family. Jenny and Vin are my best-known remedy for lethargy, apathy, anger, and fatigue. Yet if I allow myself to forget that my family is one of my core values, they can quickly become the catalysts for my lethargy, apathy, anger, and fatigue. If I truly love and value Jenny and Vin, my actions and behavior will reflect it. I will listen. I will play. I will clean. I will be patient. I will engage. I will discipline. I will encourage. I will wait to fart. Nah. I will fart. Which brings me to my 3rd value...

3. I value my personal time. I'm very much like my mother in that I can easily get wrapped up in being a "social butterfly". I love good company and often overextend myself because of it. I'm still not the best at it, but I'm learning that sometimes it's okay to say, "No thanks- not this time." You know you're not getting enough quiet time when the only way you get quiet time is by taking a shower.

4. I value CrossFit Springfield. Even if my business partners kicked me out and I was no longer an owner and even if our members fired me from programming the website, I'd still show up and do the WODs just to experience the comradery of the CFS community. My resolve to stay true to this value drives me to pour my heart and soul into every athlete I train, every WOD I write, and every CFS business endeavor."

As I take stock in my progress in each of these values, I have to be honest and say I think there are some values I excelled in. For instance last year, I created more time for family. Which has made ours a happy home...usually. I could still use some more patience, but who couldn't? I also see the fruits of our CFS Labor throughout the year paying dividends in terms of increased memberships, many successful events, and increased local media coverage. The reality that I didn't really do much more in 2011 to grow my relationship with Christ is one that really bums me out. It's not that I didn't experience spiritual growth; I just know I must strive to be more proactive in daily seeking God's word.

There's a ton of me ranting in the paragraphs above...but I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon when I got the opportunity to watch a real wordsmith in Pastor John Cremeans (also a member of CrossFit Springfield!) of North Point Church in Springfield speak on the topic of New Year Reflection and Resolutioning. "Its a mistake to decide what your gonna do before determining WHO you want to ultimately be.", John says. John's sermon was spot on for what God has been speaking into my life lately. Forget about the fact that John gave a really cool shout out to CrossFit Springfield (particularly when he spoke about the dedicated weekly Hero WODs to HONOR fallen service members). Bottom line: This sermon represents everything that I desire in my life. The four principles John speaks on can tell alot about a person's character: Authenticity, Honoring, Purity, and Resiliency. These component's tied together for me everything that I've ever wanted Proximal Strength to stand for. Furthermore, I truly believe that if you make it your JOB to excel in each of these domains, you will begin to experience life more abundantly, irregardless of your spiritual or religious ideals. Here they are:

#1 Authenticity- I want to be real with everyone God places in my path. I want to make authentic, deeply rooted connections that impact peoples soul or their center; hence Proximal.

#2 Honoring - Something that in my adult life I'm VERY sensitive to. This, of course, is because as a young buck I had to learn-many times over the HARD way- that DISHONORING those who God had placed strategically in my life as my authorities repeatedly got me nowhere. It usually left me with a tremendous amount of pain and regret. I want to be a man of HONOR in all I set my hand to and towards all those I meet ESPECIALLY to those God has positioned in my life as my authority.

#3 Purity - It's a very personal and guarded topic for most- especially men. But, as Pastor John states, "Sexual impurity is an area of life that if you don't constantly check yourself on, it can tear down relationships, marriages, and unravel the entire fabric of your being...It can destroy you through guilt, shame, and loathing. You must decide to create appropriate boundaries for yourself." It means daily praying, "Create in me a clean heart Oh God and RENEW a right spirit within me." This is the daily charge to myself for the year of 2012.

#4 Resiliency - I never back down from challenges. That's how I'm hard-wired. I have the mentality that even if you're more talented than me in any discipline, I'd go head to head with you because I'm willing to bet that I'll do whatever it takes to out work you. It's not an ego thing. At all. It's just my mantra: I'm willing to do the WORK. I'm willing to give the EFFORT. Here's the rub: Even when you out work someone, things still don't always end up in your favor. Then what? To be resilient means to be able to recover quickly from difficult conditions. In 2012, my prayer is to be RESILIENT. To bounce back and to continue to MOVE FORWARD.

Below is John's sermon from Sunday at North Point Church. Allow it to challenge you and allow yourself to reflect on where you're at as we enter the new year. And remember: "Its a mistake to decide what your gonna do before determining WHO you want to ultimately be." So the question is this: Who do you want be? What do you want your legacy to be?

All Things New from North Point Church on Vimeo.

MY GIRL.

2012-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

It was so amazing to get to welcome in the 2012 new year with my best friend, ride-or-die chick, and beautiful wife, Jenny!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVED getting to be with just you babe!!!

250lb Snatch! HAPPY NEW PR!!!

2011-12-31T12:25:00.000-08:00

Learn & Play New Sports Regularly

2011-12-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

Took Animal to the movies to play some Bowling and to let him do what Animal does best...

POUT...

DANCE...

AAAAAnd get just a taste of sweet SUCCESS!!! What a funny little creature Vin is, indeed!

2011: A Very Cochise Year In Review

2011-12-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

As 2011 draws to a close I'd like to throw out a few highlights of my year. For me, these events helped to give shape to my 2011 experience and from them I'll always remember 2011 for a great year filled with time well spent with my family, my CFS comrades, and my ongoing pursuit of world domination.

January: Bring on the snow and dancing penguins!

February:

CrossFit Springfield wins the 5th Annual St. Louis CrossFit Cup

March:

CROSSFIT SPRINGFIELD finishes as XFIT League Season 1 CHAMPS!!!

XFIT League: End of Season One

League Results

Rank Box Points

1 CF SPR 16

2 CombatCF18

3 BHFIT 21

4 IM CF 25

5 CF 816 33

6 CF MAN 36

7 PFCF 36

8 CF 785 39

9 KCPD CF (NEW)0

10 CF MAT (NEW)0

11 CF LIN (NEW)0

12 CF TOP W

The 2011 "Groundhog Day" Open - I mean - CrossFit Games Open takes place. First 2 weeks: Perform WOD 11.1 as many times as possible. I win.

April:

CFS Hosts Olympic Lifting Cert with Coach Mike Burgener

CFS Prom

The 2011 Open Concludes:

The following men from CrossFit Springfield have placed in the top 60 and are now qualified for the North Central Regional May 27th-29th at Navy Pier in Chicago, IL (Out of 934 registered male competitors in the North Central region):5th, Macy Mitchell; 14th, Andrew Koch; 39th, Jeremy Mhire; 40th, Brian Llewellyn; 47th, Jon Newbold

The following women from CrossFit Springfield have placed in the top 60 and are now qualified for the North Central Regional May 27th-29th at Navy Pier in Chicago, IL (Out of 515 registered female competitors in the North Central region): 24th, Melissa Wistrom; 42nd, Kara Wallace-Racz; 59th, Kristin Anderson; 60th, Kathy Metz

In the Women’s Masters Competition, Cindi Little has finished in 5th Place in the 55-59 yr old division, qualifying her to compete in the 2011 CrossFit Games at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA from July 29-31. Way to go, Cindi!!!

May & June:

Spring arrives! Daddy, Mommy, Vin, and unborn baby Emille head to the park!

CFS represents at CrossFit Games Regional Competition

CrossFit Springfield fields a STRONG team and manages to qualify for the CF Games World Finals in LA! As an individual competitor, I was able to qualify for the finals of regionals and placed 12th overall in the final standings.

Jenny's Baby shower for Emille at the Wistrom casa!

Clean Up in Joplin with Convoy of Hope

July:

Emille arrives!

CrossFit Springfield competes in LA at the 2011 CrossFit Games.

August:

Planning and preparation for HOA3 begins

September:

See August

October:

Fun fall festivities, pumpkin chucking, trips with the family to the pumpkin patch- all good times!

November:

December: My WARPATH to the 2012 CrossFit Games season has begun. Training is in full swing, LivXFit is beginning to gain greater exposure, and the gym is as busy as it's ever been. To top off an already exciting month, an article I recently wrote profiling 2011 CF Games Individual athlete and North Central competitor, Armand McCormick, was published today on the Games site: BOLDLY AGGRESIVE. December was a fun-filled month full of Christmas decorating, gift giving and plenty of sacred time with loved ones!

2012 has got big shoes to fill in my book. I'm thankful for all of the wonderful blessings 2011 gave me! Here's to the New Year!

Making Off Season Strength Gains

2011-12-13T19:39:00.000-08:00

This CF games off-season I've been very intentional about gaining overall strength. In recent weeks, there have been a ton of interviews and articles with CF games athletes who say they've also been working towards making strength gains in the off-season. In a November video of a conversation on the topic of making off-season strength gains between CFHQ coaches, Nadia Shatlia and Dave Lipson, there are some great points made- many of which I've noticed in my training over the last month:

1. In order to gain strength, you must be willing to gain some mass. If you place more emphasis on hitting the primary lifts using heavier loads, yet continue to repeatedly crush yourself in 15 to 30+ minute conditioning efforts, you'll likely diminish the effect of your strength returns. You've gotta pick your battles in the box. For me, this has meant to hit at least 4 or 5 strength biased workouts per week while only performing one or two 3-10 minute met-cons and 1 chipper style WOD per week.

2. Milk does a body good. Unless you're a strict Paleo person, are lactose intolerant (in which case I'd recommend Lactaid), or can't handle farting all day like a CHAMP (and, boy, does my wife know I can handle it), milk is one of the best ways to help you not only recover- but also to gain mass.

3. Eat lots and eat clean. On the first part- EAT LOTS: You need the calories to build back up that which your training has destoyed. On the second- EAT CLEAN: Keep it simple; avoid processed foodstuffs and sugars and stick to lean meats, fresh fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, and little starch. Glassman said it best: "You won't perform like a high-powered machine if you're always pissing in your gas tank." Even doing this MOST of the time will result in improved overall athletic performance.

4. Determine if your lack of strength is due to neuromuscular insufficiency (technique, proprioception, mechanics, etc), the fact that you've tapped out your contractile potential i.e. you need to gain mass, or perhaps a bit of both. Over the past month, as I've PR'd on many of my primary lifts, I realized that for me, it was both. In many cases, I may have already had the strength to move the weight but what was lacking was the "learned" aspect of actually executing or successfully completing the lift. Bottomline: Slow down. Practice. Go through appropriate progressions. Warm up properly. Allow for gradual accommodation to larger loads. It'll all pay off.

Anyway, that's about enough of my musings for one night...Here's what my past couple of days of training have been like: After hitting yesterday's CFS strength piece of Thruster 4-4-4-4-4 (I reached 230lb x 4 and 235lb x 3), Andy Koch and I did the conditioning WOD of 16 minutes of Wallballs (20lb) for max reps. One person works at a time. Our strategy was to perform sets of 35reps for as log as possible. We made it through 5 full rounds each (Actually 6 for Andy) until at rep number 26 I finally hit the wall and dropped the ball. At this point there was about 3 minutes remaining and it became more of an all out gut-check- at least for me. Andy caught what he called a "second wind" and continued to forge through sets of 20-35 and I managed to trudge through smaller sets of 15-25 all the way to the finish. In 16 minutes the medball touched the ground only twice. Our transitions were always seamless. We switched out by passing off the ball mid-air to the next person who would slide in and continue working. Our grand total was 522 reps of 20lb Wallballs in 16 minutes. Needless to say, today I'm wrecked.

With this in mind, for my training today I decided to go for 30 Muscle Ups for time. My hope was to beat my previous best time of 4:56. As always, I flew through the first 20 and then slugged through the last 10. However, today I slugged 11 seconds faster and PR'd with a time of 4:45. Here's the video of my effort:

300lb Ham Nuggett

2011-12-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Last Friday the CFS strength component was Power clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. My progression was 245-265-275-285-295f-300f-300PR. Rest assured, it was a gnarly looking power clean, but i picked it up regardless.

I had an amazing weekend relaxing with the family! Vin put on Christmas concerts for us:

And Emille was her usual snuggly little self :)

I'm lookin' at the HAM in the mirra!!!

500m Row PR & My Olympic Games Moment!!!

2011-12-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

Rowed 500m today in 1:26. One second faster than my previous best 500m row. It hurt. Ooooh, did it hurt. Not sure if it was the cold December air or just me being a pudwhacker (you're right-definitely both), but this felt like one of the most uncomfortable things I've done in a while; even more uncomfortable than that time back in 1940 when I competed in the Summer Olympics...

HardyHarHar. I'm only joking, of course (about me being a pudwhacker). I'm more just a plain 'ole sissy at heart. Anyways, rowing 500m for time just goes to show you how deceivingly difficult the simplest of tasks can be.

I also did 5 x 1 deadlift today...did 335-400-470-505-540(f). I wanted to attempt the 540lb or maybe 535lb again but I did 5 x 7 backsquat yesterday and my hamstrings were strung, if ya know what I mean. They are RIPE, ripe, I tell you.

Happy Monday!

The Act Of Refusal

2011-12-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

I REFUSE to be manipulated, refuse to be digraced, refuse to be mistreated, I refuse to be replaced

But who really wins if I refuse to extend GRACE?

I refuse to talk things out, refuse to confront the PAIN, refuse to accept FORGIVENESS, refuse to accept my mistakes

But who really wins if I'm walled up by my SHAME?

I refuse to be a man, who, in living only for myself, would refuse to OPEN MY HEART to the burdens of someone else

And I refuse to find any comfort in a quiet or DARK, "safe" place

For the LIGHT still beckons me, and I refuse to not give chase.

~Cochise

Going Back To The Well

2011-12-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's 245lb Snatch miss left me with a feeling of unfinished business. I went to bed last night and woke up this morning with an insatiable desire to stick the lift and stand it up. My plan: After a good warm up, I'd take just 5 snatch attempts with progressive loads up to 245lb and let the chips fall where they may. I had to work for it but my more patient approach (This time I forced myself to take 1-2 minutes between each attempt) and strategy paid off and on my final lift I successfully snatched 245lb for a 10lb PR! Here is a video of the lift:

WooHoo!!! Very thankful to have hit it and appreciate the coaching and encouragement I received from Cole Samuelson and the rest of the noon crew! Immediately following the 5 x 1 Snatch work, I did "Isabel" (30 reps of Snatches @ 135lb for time). Not exactly sure of my previous best time but I'm pretty confident I've never gone sub 2 minutes on it. Today I did and finished in 1:52:

Great training day!!! Here's a video of the entire snatch progression I took towards 245lb:

Monday & Tuesday Training

2011-11-29T19:35:00.001-08:00

Yesterday (Monday 11/28/11):

Strength

Front Squat 5 x 3. I reached 285lb
Push Press 5 x 3. I reached 245lb

Conditioning:

"Fat Fran"

21-15-9 Thusters @ 135lb & Pull Ups while wearing a 45lb weight vest. My time was 8:45. Never done it before so I guess that makes it a PR. 135lb Thrusters were tough with the vest. Broke at 16 and then did 5 on the 1st set, 10 reps and then did 5 on the second. Last 9 thrusters I went 4-3-2. I do think I can better my time on it without the same volume of strength work being done prior to the WOD.

Today (11/29/11):

Snatch 1-1-1-1-1. I hit 155-185-215-235(PR)-245(Miss). Didn't have a ton of time so I went with an aggressive progression in loads. Was pumped about the 235lb lift but really wish I'd have stuck that 245lb lift. It was CLOSE. I'd like to get 250lb before 2012. Here is a video of the effort:

Afterwards I did 30 Muscle Ups for time in 5:01. Then this evening I did 3 Rounds for time of:

12 Bar-Facing Burpees
Row 400m
12 Overhead Squats, 135lb

Time was 9:31. Great gasser. Great past couple days of training.

CHEERS!

First Time's A Charm (Sometimes the 5th or 6th)

2011-11-25T11:58:00.001-08:00

I know this sounds weird, but my best ideas always come to me in the shower. The other day, whilst (yes, I said, "whilst") suds-ing it up, I had a thought: I'm going to make it a point to shoot for a PR in something EVERY time I train; not just whenever I'm "feeling it". Not only when I'm having a great day and all is well. But EVERY. D@MN. DAY. It's only been a couple of days since I implemented this new policy for myself but so far it's been working as I bested my 2 rep max hang power clean by 20lb on Wednesday (275lb), totally pillaged and plundered at least 3 more full plates worth of Thanksgiving dinner this year than I've ever eaten on Thursday, and beat my previous best "Filthy 50" time by like 3 minutes today (18:24). I'm not saying that from now on I'm gonna PR on all my benchmark WODs or crush my record numbers on the primary lifts every day. But if I routinely make it a point to find something- anything- to improve on each day, I know I'm going to continue to see progress. L-Sit for time? Yes. Today I'm gonna beat my previous best time. Consecutive double unders? I'm jumping rope til my arms fall off. Squat 2.5 more pounds than I did last time? You betch'ya. And why not? Why not attack every training session with the mentality that I'm going to guarantee myself a victory somewhere, somehow? Whatever it takes. At my CF Football cert last year, CFFB founder, John Welbourne said something that has always resonated with me. He said, "I hate it when I hear people say they can't do something. Whenever one of my HS or college football athletes starts whining about how they just can't squat this or deadlift that amount of weight I tell'em, 'I bet you'd lift it if I put you in a cage, threw a padlock on the door, and said you can't come out until you've lifted it.' " Along the lines of this type of thinking, during my workouts I'll sometimes imagine myself having to fight for my life or lift a heavy object off of a loved one. Here recently, during the final 400m run of a hero WOD I actually imagined myself trying to escape from the enemy in order to survive. Trust me, it made me run faster. I've had people tell me this kind of emergent thinking isn't healthy because it elicits emotional stress. Poppycock, poopypants. Life is all about how you condition yourself to respond to emotional and physical stresses. I, for one, like the idea of placing a ton of pressure on myself in my daily training environment so that on game day or in an actual emergency, I'm prepared. My point is: Don't sell yourself short or cut yourself off at the knees by placing limits on your potential in any aspect of your life. You want to start winning? Start thinking like a winner, wiener. Don't think, "Gee, I hope I'm able to pick up that bar, run that mile, finish all 5 rounds, etc..." Rather, think, "I'm GOING to do it." B-b-b-b-but what if I don't do it?!? What if I fail? First off, stop giving yourself the option of failure. Secondly, whether it's right now, tomorrow, or three years from now, it's only once you've stopped TRYING that you have you successfully FAILED. Keep swinging, slugger...the greatest breakthrough's in life and in sport sometimes come right after the times of greatest adversity.

Snatch Balance 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

2011-11-18T06:22:00.000-08:00

Although it wasn't graceful, I managed to get a 5lb PR on yesterday's CrossFit.com WOD of Snatch Balance 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. I really focused on taking my time with my warm up. It paid off by allowing me to come in on my first attempt at a higher weight. My load progression was 185-205-215-225-235-245-255lb. I'm still working on cleaning up a ton of garbage from a mechanics standpoint but you can see flashes of good technique if you look hard enough. Snatch Balance is an awkward skill transfer movement for me simply because of my arm, torso, and leg length. Anyways, no excuses, no apologies, here it is:

Check Yourself. Fo' You Wreck Yourself.

2011-11-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

CHECKERS...

Ahhh, the poor man's chess. I love it. It is, in my opinion, the greatest and most glorious board game of all time - immediately followed by "Shoots and Ladders" and "Monopoly" (joking about the former and dead serious about the latter). For all it's simplicity, the game of checkers can teach us a lot about how to succeed in life. In order to win at checkers it takes a combination of strategy and patience- both noble pursuits. But in checkers and in life, the best players are those who possess a strategic mind, patience, AND the ability to THINK two or three moves in advance. Some call it FORETHOUGHT. I think of forethought as being the more saintly version of premeditation (you just have to get past the Dateline 48 Hours Mystery connotation). Whatever you wanna call it, it means thinking in advance and considering the future or future outcome of any given action. WHAT??? Think before you act!? REALLY!? What a novel freaking idea.

CHECK MY FLOW: Whenever I say or do something stupid and in the moment or have a momentary lapse in judgement, I'll sometimes jokingly say, "I'm gonna let this be future Jeremy's problem to deal with." Funny thing is, there's a little bit of truth in every joke (oftentimes A LOT). "Future Jeremy" typically isn't very pleased with the results of "past Jeremy's" rash decisions. However, when I take time to think through and clearly visualize the finish line or end result of my actions, I usually end up feeling pleased with the outcome. There's merit in visualizing your heart's desires. Why? Because along life's journey, knowing your destination helps to dictate your decisions.

Do me a FLAVOR...Put all of your religious/spiritual biases aside, and just track with me for a moment. What are you pursuing in life? Is your pursuit happiness? Most wouldn't argue "happiness" as their general answer to this question. Those who would argue it are content to be miserable, angry MOFO's and might as well browse themselves off this site if they haven't already done so. L8R, H8R!!! I digress. So, if the goal is to ultimately achieve happiness in your life, then what makes you happy? Think about it. Visualize it. Okay, you can open up your eyes now, cheeseball. Now answer me this: What matters most to you in your relationships with your family and friends? What about your personal life and in your career? What leads you to feeling fulfilled in these arenas? Where are you at now and where will you be five years from now, ten years from now, or twenty years from now based on the decisions you're making? Your headed somewhere...we all are. Is it TOWARDS or AWAY from where you'd actually like to end up at. Just like in checkers, sometimes you've gotta think a few moves in advance in order to get a beat on which direction everything is going.

Hey, and if you don't like the outlook, then guess what you can do? CHANGE DIRECTIONS, JACKHOLE. ABORT MISSION. Throw your stinking sails up and wait for the wind. One brick at a time, your choices will build a stairway to your goal. Think about training for any sporting event. You don't just show up on the day of the event and hope that you'll be able to lift the bar, or hit the ball, or run the race. No, you train for weeks, months, and even years. All for the OPPORTUNITY to win, to compete, or just to simply finish the race. Each day of training is one more move that brings you closer to your objective, your finish line, your destination.

Time to LAND THE PLANE: Although I haven't played a game of checkers for quite some time, I'm pretty sure I'd dominate you if we threw down. Doubtful? Try me, cupcake. It's nothing personal. I just think I'll be willing to sit and out-think you til your thinker is thunked. I know, I know- a victory in a measly game O' checkers isn't nearly as glamorous as crushing your "Fight Gone Bad" score, besting your CrossFit Total, or beating your "Fran" time. No need to worry your pretty little lats off there, princess, I'm already three moves ahead of you...KING ME!!!

Riding High On Life With Grace!!!

2011-10-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

The past couple of months have been crazy and exciting all at the same time! God is good and life has been full of many recent blessings. Our baby girl, Emille, has been growing and getting sweeter with each passing day, Vin is blossoming into a full-time little boy with an agenda of his own, Jenny has recently gone back to work after being on maternity leave, and I've been up to my faux hawk in HOA3 planning and preparation. My head has almost healed all the way from the nasty abscess removal surgery I had last month. I've now got a nice 2 inch scar and a sexy bald spot on my head as keepsakes from the whole ordeal. Way more fun than scars and bald spots is the pick'em up truck I just bought last week! Upon taking my old ride in to get an inspection for tag renewal, I was informed that I'd need around $1200-1500 worth of fixes. Ouch. So, rather than dump more money into the ole' "gangsta-ride" Lincoln LS I've been pushing around for the past few years, I figured it was time to "man-up" with a new Toyota Tundra. I'm loving it and am very thankful to have found a good deal on one.

My training has been going well. I'm still just trying to gain strength and work on having fun with my workouts. I've had a few lingering injuries but I know my body well enough at this point to also know what I need to be doing to fix them. The only problem for me is that I'm really good at knowing and not so great on doing right now. After HOA winds down I plan to get back to yoga and eating a little better and hopefully some of my mobility issues will resolve.

I did manage to PR on "Grace" yesterday which was fun. "Grace" is undoubtedly one of my favorite CrossFit benchmark WODs because it's short and sweet. It had been almost a year since I last did it, so I figured I'd program the workout for CFS and give myself an excuse to pony up and see if I could improve on my previous PR of 1:46. I hit 22 reps unbroken but kind of punked out and dropped the bar in between reps 25, 26, and 27. Had I been able to push through just a little bit more I think I might have been able to pull a sub-1:30 score. Regardless, I'm pleased with bettering my time by 10 seconds. Here's a video of my effort:

If You Chop Them Down, They Will GROW

2011-10-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have the hiccups. I am speaking to you right now, from the middle of the now, and I keep hiccuping over and over again. It's completely irrelevant to the point I'd like to speak to but it's really pissing me off so I thought I'd just throw that out there. Now that we've cleared that up, I'd like to talk about my many failure's, or hiccups, in life. I know, it's hard to comprehend but, yes, I've screwed up LOTS. And LOTS.

As the firstborn child in my family I frequently suffered from what many would describe simply as a disorder of, "I am the center of the universe-itis." If you too are the eldest of your siblings you might relate well to this condition. Jealousy, selfishness, entitlement, and a tendency towards temper-tantrums are all frequently reported symptoms associated with this typical childhood disorder.

As a teenager in high school, I used my four years at Kickapoo High School to climb to the pinnacle of the failure mountaintop. I've always hated math. My solution at the time was to do everything in my power to find ways to cheat my way through every math class I ever took in HS. Although it got me through, as you can imagine, I learned absolutely nothing. If I'm honest with myself, I graduated from KHS with an underwhelming sense of responsibility and no comprehension of what it means to have work ethic.

In my sophomore year of high school there was one weekend evening where myself and a buddy snuck out of my house and broke into some cars in the neighborhood. We ended up stealing nothing of value but did end up landing ourselves in juvenile hall and were ordered to serve community service.

My bad-boy streak didn't end there as in my junior year-right before summer break- I ran from the police when an impromptu drinking party in a parking lot was broken up. I wasn't so crossfit at the time so needless to say, they caught me and I landed myself in jail for the evening.

It's not that I always maintained a rebellious attitude but for the most part, all the way through my young adult years, I managed to always find a way to screw up in epic fashion. In no way am I proud of any of these personal shortcomings but I have come to realize something quite profound through each of these instances- and the many blunders I've strategically failed to mention to you: I've managed to learn from my failures. I've experienced personal growth which has directly contributed to more decisive victories throughout my adult life.

At 24, after my wife, Jenny, and I were married, I went back to college at Missouri State University to study Sports Medicine and Athletic Training. During my first feeble attempt to receive a higher education I, of course, failed out of school. Never went to class and did nothing but party. This go-around the stakes were higher. Now, I was married and out of the desire to succeed for myself and my family, I resolved in my heart of hearts to do something I'd never actually done: To try. To try with every fiber of my being. I enrolled in classes at MSU and received an academic renewal. I sat in the front of every class. I listened. I studied. Four years later, I graduated from one of the most rigorous (we started with 44 students in my SMAT class; 10 completed the program) undergrad programs offered at MSU.

Looking back, my will to grow as a man and succeed in life was not birthed only out of my desire or duty to be a good husband or family man. It grew slowly and steadily because of many of the consequences of my failures. The community service I did back in high school was spent at a local nursing home. For weeks, I showed up at this nursing home day in and day out to perform janitorial tasks, wash dishes, and help transport beds. Ultimately, I would interact and socialize with many of the elderly folks who were living out their final days and months of life at the facility. They would tell me stories of their lives, of their families, their failures, successes, and what they learned from it all. Again, I listened. More than anything, I was blessed. In doing so I developed a keen awareness of the fact that our mistakes and failures have the uncanny ability to till up the soil in the landscape of our lives. From this state of tilled and broken soil we are given the chance to grow new gardens; new gardens which, if properly nurtured, maintained, and constantly cared for, can bear good fruit and bring forth abundant life.

The thought I would pose to myself and to you is this: When we fail (or maybe just have a hiccup or two) and look down only to find our feet sunken in broken ground, the only way we'll ever have a chance at bringing life back to our barren lot of land is if we begin sowing good seed. It may take time, but with lots of love, hope, patience, and perseverance we'll one day experience the joy of strolling through a fruitful garden rather than the regret of sauntering through an unproductive desert.

I've trained, coached, and competed as a CrossFitter for a few years now and one thing I've noticed is that whenever you allow any fear of failure to permeate your psyche, you immediately diminish the possibility for athletic growth to occur. To make gains in human performance, it's necessary to take risks, to try, and to expose oneself to bigger and tougher challenges. Likewise, in life outside the box, if we are ever to experience sustainable personal growth, we must free ourselves from the paralyzing fear of failure by intentionally giving an honest effort every moment of each and every day. Here's to daily sinking in our roots a little deeper, sprawling out our branches a little wider, and when necessary, breaking new ground and planting new trees!

Where's That Darn Easy Button...

2011-10-05T10:29:00.001-07:00

After being stuck at 225lb for over a year, this week I finally PR'd on snatch with a lift of 233.8lb. Here's a clip of the lift:

My training has been going fairly well lately. Each week is kind of hit-or-miss but more than anything, I'm just trying to enjoy myself and enjoy being in the off-season for CrossFit Games competition. I've competed at the regional level each of the past 3 years and each year, gaining strength is the focal point of my off-season training. There's been plenty of action in my life as of late: a beautiful newborn baby girl, 2011 HOA planning, and a recent surgery to remove a nasty infection on my scalp which put 13 staples in my dome...

Balancing family time with work has been tough so, needless to say, my training has somewhat taken a back seat for the time being- which is fine by me. I'm really more concerned with getting my diet cleaned up sooner than later. It's not that I've been eating terribly, it's more that I've just been pretty inconsistent over the past couple of months. When it comes to eating healthy, I struggle with the same issue most everyone else does; I'll do great throughout the week and then I end up crushing everything in sight on the weekend. Which reminds me- it's Wednesday...only 2 more days til the weekend! Sweet.

Community: A Little Less Observation, A Little More Action

2011-09-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Community. It’s the foundation and launching pad for a project Jake, Chance, and myself have initiated called LivXFit. The defining characteristic of any thriving community is shared and active participation by its members. I think Elvis said it best when he sang, “A little less observation and a little more action.” Ok, ok, maybe he actually said “conversation” not “observation” but for the purposes of me making an awesome point, let’s all just pretend he said, “observation”. Thanks.

Not everyone requires being told they're doing a good job when they’ve, indeed, done a good job. I do. I require verbal affirmation along with some type of super secret best friend fist bump/hand shake combo and a toy- any toy will do. But I’m an anomaly of sorts. However, in all seriousness, if we were to be completely honest with ourselves, most all of us would admit our desire for some level of affirmation in life. Words of encouragement build us up, they motivate us, and they give us confidence. We typically establish trust and forge a sense of camaraderie with those who take the time and effort to speak words of encouragement into our lives because it shows they care. It is this very concept that has catalyzed the success of CrossFit as a training philosophy. As co-owner of a CrossFit affiliate, I see the willingness of our coaches and members to empathize, encourage, care for one another and build each other up as being directly responsible for our success. The very nature of CrossFit to be community-based has cultivated the opportunity for CrossFitters to take some form of action in each other’s lives, be it positive or negative action. No matter the size or type of business, organization or community, none has the potential to be viable unless a critical mass of its membership contribute something positive. If you think about it, this is true in every aspect of life and at every organizational level of relationships from an individual basis, to family, friends, and acquaintances. When we pour out positivity into the lives of those surrounding us, it starts a chain reaction similar to the effects of an earthquake; the effects may be most evident at the epicenter, but the shockwaves are capable of carrying a lofty punching power which can be felt for miles and miles.

Outside of having a mohawked Filipino dude conjure up some of the most creative, potent, effective, and dare I say (I do), ingenious WODs in the world, what originally drew most of us to CrossFit was the fact that, at some point, someone engaged us. At CrossFit, we became more than just another faceless name in a stack of signed auto-renewal gym contracts. We weren’t allowed to fall through the cracks, hide beneath a hat, or workout alone in the corner of the room. When we needed to be cheered on to the finish line; someone cheered, when we completely butchered the technique for a movement and needed coaching; someone coached us, and when we needed to know we weren’t the only ones struggling for air; we sat up and looked around only to discover everyone else lying flat-backed as well.

Here’s the bottom-line: Even a little bit of encouragement can go a long way in terms of helping to build a cummunity. The amount of effort required in learning a new members name or by offering someone a well deserved “Congrats!” or “Great job today, buddy!” when they establish a new PR is minimal compared to the substantial impact it may have in their lives. But don’t cut yourself off at the knees by ending your pursuit of taking action within the bay doors of your affiliate’s box. LivXFit’s challenge to you is to not only see what can happen when you intentionally and purposefully infuse nuggets of encouragement in CrossFit settings but to take the concept of pouring out positivity into all those you encounter outside of the box: Your family, your friends, co-workers and acquaintances. In this life, you’re either someone who always wishes things would happen, someone who always makes things happen, or one of those who always ends up asking, “What the heck happened?” Be proactive. Take action within your sphere of influence. Make an impact in your community, one friendly smile, one sincere showing of support, and one super secret best friend fist bump/hand shake combo at a time.

Sometimes You Wear Stretchy Pants.

2011-09-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

I rarely post Facebook status updates. Now I'll post links to CFS's site and to my blogsite on FB but that's about it. The thing is, I'm an all-or-none dude. I typically don't do status updates cuz I know if I started posting them all the time, everyone would get sick of hearing the play-by-play analysis of what I just ate and how big my resulting bowel movement was. Oh, but today...today, my friend, the spirit moved me. The spirit moved and I updated my FB account, yo. Maybe it was the hotsauce on my naked burrito from Qdoba. Or, maybe it was the low-pressure system that moved into the Ozarks today, dumping rain on us and then leaving us as cold and wet as a vampire's vajayjay. More than likely, it's all the CrossFit naysayers out there I've had to listen to over the past few years who led me today to post on FB:

To everyone who has ever asked the question: "CrossFit? What's that?"

I say, "Watch ESPN 2 tonight from 7pm-9pm Central."

To everyone who has known what CrossFit is and has said:

"CrossFit? Yeah, it'll be another workout fad that'll be a flash in the pan."

I say, "Watch ESPN 2 tonight from 7pm-9pm Central...then kiss my rock hard CrossFit glutes."

And then like a true CrossFitter I kicked back in my chair at Qdoba, smiled, and kept score as I PR'd on the number of "Likes" I've received off one post. Whew. It's alot to take in...This many FB "Likes" all at once from so many of my Facebook besties. Guess somebody's gotta do it...

One Pound PRs and HOA WOD Testing...

2011-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Great Monday at the box! Started out with a canceled client so Grant and I decided to Clean & Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. I reached 276lb (because of kg, it made it a new PR...kind of) Here's the lift:

Wasn't a great lift but I was happy to reach my previous best. After monkeying around with Cleaning & Jerking, Grant and I took on WOD 1 from the 2009 CFG Southwest Regionals 1:
3 Rounds of 10 155lb Squat Clean & Jerk, Row 500m. My time at regionals 3 years ago was 13:05. Today I did it in 11:06 and felt every bit of the suck this WOD has to offer... big time. After grabbing lunch, training another client, and programming the CFS daily WOD for Tuesday, Grant, Melissa, and myself decided to test out one of the 2011 HOA WODs...I can now officially proclaim: That WOD is gonna be a beautiful, violent, suckfest. I'm confident of it. And it feels good:) Game ON!!!

The Story Of CrossFit Springfield

2011-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, I've received numerous calls and emails from individuals asking questions about CrossFit Springfield's business model, our growth, and what has led to our success as an affiliate. As a result, I've been thinking a lot lately about CFS; about where we're at, where we've come from, and where we're going. I figured I'd write it down while it's all fresh on my mind...here it goes...

If you were to document the rise of CrossFit Springfield's growth and influence in southwest Missouri, you'd have to start at the VERY BEGINNING. Before the 12,500 sq ft facility within which we currently reside, before the office space on Lark Street. You'd even still have to look before the opening of The Next Level Fitness Academy at the strip mall behind the Ye Ole Buggy Bath Car Wash on Lark St. CrossFit Springfield's rise to be generally acknowledged as one of the largest CrossFit Affiliates in the Midwest began with a man by the name of Carl Jungers who, after identifying several well respected and talented fitness clinicians training and teaching classes at the Springfield Jones Family YMCA, decided to present an offer to them. An opportunity to start up their own business based on training individuals through multiple fitness related disciplines. Carl would foot the bill and the core group of trainers and clinicians would be responsible for making a business plan and executing it as best they could. Jessi Grove, with her management background, personal training and group training experience would primarily take the lead, while other training domains (eg Boxing, Capo-era, Selah, and bootcamps, hiphop dancing, and personal training) would fill in the gaps and ideally provide additional revenue. The biggest problem with this format was that it left the business with no true sense of direction or solid identity. Next Level Fitness was kind of like "jack of all trades and master of none".

In the winter of 2008, my involvement with NLFA came about basically by chance (and "by chance" I, of course, mean "by way of God's divine plan"). I was in a church life-group with Dr Jami and Rana Jones. At the time I was a full time student in school for sports medicine and athletic training. I had just left the globo gym circuit in Springfield where I had worked for a few different training facilities making peanuts and for the most part, doing my absolute best to provide the clients I was blessed to work with with a quality strength and conditioning experience despite the "fluff" my employers expected me to dole out to them. At this time I had already discovered CrossFit but wasn't yet fully committed to the CrossFit method (mainly because my knowledge base on CrossFit programming was very minimal). Rana and Jamie encouraged me to meet with Carl and Jessi to discuss whether or not I might be able to contribute to NLFA. So I met with them. We hit it off well. Our initial agreement was that I would bring in my established client base, be able to train them at NLFA and in exchange, I would assist in building up and coaching NLFA Team Bootcamp sessions. During this time, Jessi and I realized that we shared the same interest in pursuing the CrossFit method wholeheartedly. In May of 2008, we flew to San Diego and participated in a two day CrossFit Level 1 Coaches Course. It was a phenomenal experience and birthed in both of us the genuine desire to start a CrossFit Affiliate in Springfield, MO. When we returned home from our certification, Jessi immediately wrote to CrossFit HQ and acquired our affiliation. I immediately launched www.crossfit-springfield.com and began structuring and formatting our WOD times, programming CFS daily WODs, and established membership rates. We decided to throw an event; a CrossFit competition-we would throw a Fight Gone Bad WOD challenge and scheduled our CrossFit Springfield launch date for June 28th, 2008. We had over 100 athletes show up to participate. The event went very well and because we offered Charter Membership rates for anyone who joined us on that date, we ended up immediately getting around 30 new CrossFit Springfield members.

Now, at this time both Jessi and I were embedded in Nursing school (Jessi) and Sports Med School (Me). Because of my obligation to my clinical hours and a verbal offer I'd received to be hired by St. John's Sports Medicine after graduation, my concern about committing to the new direction kept me from pulling the trigger on dedicating myself to CrossFit Springfield as a Co-Owner. Looking back, I find it hard to understand why I didn't simply commit due to my wholehearted love for what we were building at CrossFit Springfield. My thoughts were that after having spent so much time, energy, and effort (not to mention, money) at establishing myself as an ATC, how could I just throw it all away to pursue something that was uncertain. It was an obvious risk. The problem for my heart and head was that I knew deep down that CFS was were I wanted to be. I also knew that never, EVER, would I be able to find another business partner as wonderful and skilled as Jessi. Carl told us once that, "You guys are like thunder and lightning. If you two ever decide to pool your talents and your passion for people, you're going to be an unbeatable team."

So, after taking a great deal of time to pray and seek God's will, after taking much time to talk with Jenny, and after ultimately feeling a complete peace in my heart about my decision, I approached Jessi and let her know of my desire to partner with her as co-owners of CrossFit Springfield. Over a long 400m lunge with "Sandy" she oblidged and we discussed our desire to build up something special. Something unique even within the unique world of CrossFit. We expressed our desire for CrossFit Springfield to be a strong community of athletes whose relationships would be forged in respect and love and encouragement. We resolved ourselves to be engaging to every person who stopped by to try out CrossFit Springfield. To learn names. To build people up. To take the time to listen to our members when they had concerns or ideas about how we might improve the service CrossFit Springfield provides.

Today, September 7th, 2011, over 3 years later, we're just as committed to these tasks as ever.
We've had many changes: New members (500+ now), we've had additional owners in Grant and Melissa Wistrom who share the same vision and core values as both Jessi and I, we've moved facilities 5 times in an effort to expand the amount of impact we might be able to have in the community. But the heart of CrossFit Springfield beats on with the same sincere intention to help people achieve more physically, mentally, relationally, and spiritually than they might not have ever been able to achieve on their own or elsewhere. How blessed we truly are to be a part of such a caring CrossFit affiliate that is motivated to take action in their community and in the lives of each other.

Thanks so much for 3 years of great memories, CrossFit Springfield! Here's to many, many more!!

Funny Parts.

2011-08-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

The whole "funny parts" business started this evening when Vin kept asking me to fast forward a DVR'd video of the Looney Toons to "the funny part with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny".WAIT!!! Before you inevitably click on the oh-so-awesome link I have so kindly provided you with (you're welcome), I beg of you, do me one favor: Watch the entire clip with a straight face and try, juuuuuust try to not crack even the slightest smile. If you can do this, my friend, then you were apparently born lacking a funny bone or possibly even an entire funny skeleton. You best get your sense-of-humorless self to the doctor ASAP. I digress. Seriously, I love watching old Looney Toons re-runs almost as much as I love PRing on hang snatch...

ebedi-ebede-ebedu-eba-that's-all-folk's!

Me Is Not An Animal

2011-08-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I tackled the somewhat infamous CrossFit WOD "King Kong". I knew going into it that the 250lb squat clean x3 reps/rd would be the limiting factor for me. It went better than expected (6:19) but on the 3rd round I missed the s.clean twice before finally making the lift on the third attempt. It's a frustrating place to be: At the very end of a workout- Just a few reps from the finish line and miles away from finishing because your either gassed or at muscle failure or both. Today I decided to force myself into the same training scenario with the hope of raising my "I'm tired but I've gotta lift it again" game. After doing a strength WOD of Squat Clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 (155-185-205-225-245-265-275), I did 7 rounds of: 21 Ring Push Ups & 3 Squat Cleans @ 225lb. I'm pretty sure my time wasn't anything spectacular- the noon CFS WOD was on the clock so I didn't use one. But I do know that it was a tough one and was exactly what I needed.

In other news, Jenny started back at work today after being on maternity leave for the past 8 weeks. I picked the kids up today from their school/daycare. Actually, it's Emille's daycare and more a court-ordered daycage for Vin (aka "Animal"). Anyways, after expecting to struggle to keep both munkeys entertained, I was pleasantly surprised to get home and have Animal ask me if he could give Emille drum lessons...

What Goes Up....

2011-08-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

The bigger and taller the object, the harder it falls. In life just as with gravity, the harder we work to build up relationships, businesses, ideals, our status, our careers, etc...the more there is at stake when we suddenly see them come toppling down. Sometimes before we act, before we speak, or before we respond, perhaps it would do us some good to search our hearts and ask whether the loss of our integrity and character is also worth losing all we have worked so very hard to create. Just a thought. This way when life brings that unexpected storm, and your walls come crashing in on you, you'll be able to smile and say, "I still have my honor. It is well with my soul."

Proverbs 18

12 Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

Proverbs 24

3 By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
4 through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.

What's Been Goin' Down In Mhiretown

2011-08-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well weeks have gone by and I've slacked tremendously on keeping my Proximal Strength site up to speed so I figure I'll try to re-hash this last month as best I can and hopefully bring ya up to speed on what's been shakin' in Mhiretown. Deal? Well screw you then. Listen anyways...I got two chirrens now. I'm sorry, maybe you don't speak worn-down daddy talk. I repeat: I gots two chirrens now. Seriously, everyone tries to brief you on just how big of a change it is when you go from 1 to 2 kids. Guess I was just naive to think that it wouldn't change the family dynamic like it has. The biggest change is the lack of personal time your able to take for yourself. There is, of course, now two more life-forms for whom you must actively engage and wipe feces from their butts. The old, "You've gone from zone to man-to-man defense" line could never be more true. I've always said that this whole blogging thing is more for me than for anyone else. When done consistently, it's a fulfilling opportunity to reflect and get inside of my own headspace. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it more often in the coming months.

All things considered, time marches onward. My beautiful children, Vincent and Emille are blossoming into vibrant and brilliant little characters in our own Mhire house-hold reality TV show. Vin, the wild and rambunctious wannabe rockstar crossfitter and Emille, the adorable baby girl who will sometimes catch you off-gaurd with her rocket propelled flatulence. I must admit, it's been the most rewarding accomplishment in my life: To now have this wonderful family to love and care for. Emille's addition to our family has helped me and Jenny to be more intentional in our quest to work together as a team. I think we're doing quite well.

Summer is drawing to a close and we've made some sweet memories: A trip to Joplin to assist in relief efforts, a week long stay in Joplin with Jenny's family where we were able to relax and let the kids bond with Grandma and Papa, CFS's journey to LA to compete in the spectacle that was the 2011 CrossFit Games, lounging by the pool at the Wistrom casa, and a couple of awesome weekend trips to the lake.

It certainly has been a HOT summer. As far as my training is concerned, I've been enjoying myself a lot since my Games Season concluded at Regionals. I've not had much structure to anything I've been doing but I've still had a few highlights over the past couple of months (PRs on Fran: 2:24, Deadlift: 525lb, Overhead Squat: 290lb, FGB 403, Clean: 290lb, Front Racked Split Jerk: 285lb, King Kong: 6:19, and the CrossFit Total: BS 340/SP 190/DL 525). This Games off-season, my goals are to increase my maximal strength and to gain more capacity with the HSPU; my only real nemesis at Regionals.

Other than my own personal athletic pursuits, I'm eager to keep the ball rolling towards the Heart of America CrossFit Team Competition which CFS will host this November. I'm praying for this event to be well planned, well organized, and well received by all who participate! I can say this: THE WODS WILL BE AWESOME. I've completed the programming for HOA III and I honestly think this is the best I've ever done at creating events that will accurately reflect which teams should finish on the podium. We'll see....

CrossFit Springfield continues to grow in many areas: members, inspiration, toughness, and very soon, equipment! Over the next few weeks, we'll be providing our members with tons more toys! Can't wait to dish'em out!!!

Bend...Don't Break.

2011-08-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...bad form this, poor technique that...but I was locked in a death match wrastlin' with that rusty ole' 525lb barbell. I was tryin' to pick him up again. Guess what that rusty ole' 525lb barbell was trying to do? Stay on the ground. Guess who won?

CrossFit Hat Trick

2011-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

1 Week: Three PRs. I think Mista Miyagi say, "Dassa vedy goo Daniel san." We've all been in that place where you feel you're in a bit of a training rut. It could be for any reason, really. Maybe you're burned out, maybe a heatwave has struck the midwest and has been sucking the very life and O2 out of you. Or maybe you just had a baby and sleep has now become like that old best friend whom you are no longer on speaking terms with and when you happen to run into each other your meeting is just all awkward and short lived. You're numbers on lifts aren't what they've been when they've been at their best, your times seem to be getting slower, all is not well with your Jedi crossfit-force. Last week, this is where I found myself. I went into this week determined to get back into a good rhythm. I decided to keep swinging hard at everything thrown my way with the hope that maybe I'd connect with something. It began on Monday with my quest to pick up something heavy from the ground to my shoulders and then put it above my head. I programmed the following WOD for the CFS games competitors: C&J 5-4-3-2-1. Then, 1 minute of Toes Through Rings, 2 minutes of Double Unders, and 3 1/2 minutes to reach a 1RM of C&J (barbell begins unloaded). I warmed up well and on the 5-4-3-2-1 ended up hitting 290lb on the clean for a PR but missed the jerk overhead. On the 6 1/2 minute WOD I didn't do as well as I know I can (ended up with 432- got 265lb C&J) but I at least took away a small victory in reaching a new PR for clean. Momentum. Wednesday, I did the shoulder press,push press, front rack split jerk strength component of the CFS daily WOD. On split jerk I ended up sticking 285lb for another PR. More momentum. I had tossed around the idea of hitting "Fran" on Friday with CFS Coach and CFS Games athlete Andy Koch earlier in the week. Once Friday was upon us I wasn't feeling so frisky about going overhead after the volume of overhead training I did throughout the week.
Buuuuut....I decided to suck it up and be a gamer, dang it :) !!! No better time than right now...right? Right. Here's what ensued:

Gotta love getting a new PR on "Fran" (2:24) ...also gotta hate losing to that beast of a man, Cap'n Koch who also PR'd with a 2:18 (well done, sir!). But, hey 3 PRs in one week? Now, if that ain't positive momentum...

I Love You Too.

2011-07-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

I was once reading this great book (you may have heard of it- it's a little book called: The Bible) and it said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks". Well, my heart is now as abundantly full as it could ever be, so I figure I might as well speak a bit. Last Saturday July 2nd, at 8:39am, Jenny, Vincent, and I welcomed a brand new family member into the Mhire clan. Emille Annalise Mhire came into the world with big bright almond-shaped eyes and with a furry head of blackish-brown hair. She was very alert at the time of her birth. Slowly stretching and squirming about, her movements were like a baby ninja pterodactyl.

Although the adrenaline rush and excitement I felt witnessing the birth of both my children was certainly impacting, nothing compares to that moment hours, days, or weeks later when your newborn locks eyes with you for the first time. It's that moment when they look up at you and seemingly telepathically say to you: "I know you. You're my protector. You're my mother" or "You're my father. I love you". It's an irreplaceable moment and memory which recently brought me overwhelming joy as I looked into my Emille's eyes just as it did 3 1/2 years looking down into the eyes of my baby Vincent.

It's yet again the beginning of a brand new adventure in our lives!

Everyday I'm Shuffling.

2011-06-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh, post-sectionals and regionals life feels goooood. Really goood. I've been able to spend more time with the family- scratch that. More accurately, I've probably been spending just as much time with my Jenny shine-shine and my furry little drummer boy now as I did pre-regionals, the only difference is that now around 15-25% of the time I'm actually paying up to 90% attention to either of them, as opposed to my in-season average of 5-10% of the time paying even 50% attention to what anyone was ever saying. Rest assured, this data will be placed on the back of my official Topps CrossFit playing card right under: "Sucks at HSPU". I digress. Currently, I'm not thinking about thruster ladders or handstand push ups. Nope. Right now, I'm all about crushing pizza and kickin' it poolside, fool. I've been enjoying training without worrying about the clock or a stopwatch running. Even if one is, it feels nice to sincerely not give a flip about who may or may not be beating my times. Lately, it's also been fun to not have much focus to my training sessions. I literally did a workout yesterday that went something like this:

"Hmmm...What activity should I start with for my workout today? Maybe I'll farmers walk 50ft with those two 95lb barbells sitting over there." So I did. Then I was all like, "Well, that 50ft wasn't so bad...I think I'll farmers walk 50ft more." Here's where it gets good. "Whaaat next? Let's see here, I think now I'll do 30 snatches with one of these 95lb barbells." (15 snatches later) "Fifteen'll do. What now? Walking lunges? Why not!?! 50ft sounds good. That was easy. Let's do 100ft. That did the trick (water break- cue elevator music). Okay, now I need a grand finale'(cue drum roll)...For my final trick, I shall perform 100 single-arm bent-over-rows with one of those shiny black 55lb kettlebells we have over by the rowers while simultaneously closing both eyes and shuffling to LMFAO's instant party rock anthem "Everyday I'm Shuffling"...(walking to get said shiny black 55lb kettlebell)...But, wait!!! What's this?! It's a shiny black 35lb kettlebell! He looks so lonely. I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him and hold him and call him George."

(Cue "Everyday I'm Shuffling")...

Even though I talk a big game, it's not been all too unproductive. Today I did "Chubby" Fran: 21-15-9 rounds of 115lb Thrusters & Chest to Bar Pull Ups and PR'd by almost a minute with a time of 4:34, beating my previous time of 5:20. Special thanks to Jared for pushing me through the suck! Speaking of the suck, I never posted my "Amanda" WOD from regionals so here it is. I took 7th on the event, finishing in 5:56- a full minute OVER my PR of 4:55. This performance of "Amanda" was, of course, done under slightly different circumstances and performed with my body - let's say- "less than fully recovered". Coulda-woulda-shoulda pushed a little harder on this or that- anyway, enough with the excuses. Here it is:

Springtown Needs a Whole Foods

2011-06-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Mumfords The Word

2011-06-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've competed as an individual at the regional level each of the past 3 years. Each year, there have been twists and changes to the format of the CrossFit Games qualifying process. Two years ago there was no qualifier to get to compete at regionals- anyone could sign up, show up, and throw down. Last year, the sectionals filter was added. This upped the level of competition. This year, the online Open format increased the level of sectionals participants by almost 20,000 people. We now have a bigger pool, thus we ideally catch bigger fish.

This year, one of the most notable changes in the format of regional competition is the change to 3 days of competition with cuts being made at the end of day 2. For teams, the pool of 30 gets cut down to the top 10 and for the individual competitors, only the top 14 competitors advance to the day 3 finals. All of the sudden, the stakes become higher and the pressure much greater for each event- Particularly the first four WODs.

This inherent increase in pressure actually influenced my training strategy leading up to the North Central Regional. Rather than practice all 6 WODs, I completely ignored WODs 5 and 6 and focused solely on the first four, cycling through them before competition. I knew WOD 1- the run/handstand push up/row event- would be my Achilles heel. But I also knew that the workouts would gradually begin to cater to my skill-set with each event.

After WOD 1, I was ranked 34th out of 40 individual male competitors. With an 11th place finish on WOD 2, my rank jumped to 25th. WOD 3 was heavy deadlifts and high box jumps. I placed 14th for the event. Going into WOD 4 I was ranked 17th, 3 spots away from the top 14 cut-off. Oddly enough, I wasn't nervous at all before my heat. I was more eager than anything else.

Everyone has their own thing when it comes to pre-game rituals. Some people like to punch themselves in the face repeatedly and listen to hardcore music. I prefer to embrace the calm before the storm. All weekend long in Chicago, it was just me and Mumford & Sons in my ear-holes. I had tested "The 100s" WOD once, going out of the gate hard only to crash and finish it in around 21:30ish. The last thing I wanted to do in competition was let adrenaline get the best of me and force me out of a "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" game plan. At the end of the day, my cooler head prevailed and it paid off. My time of 20:42 placed me 7th for the event and jumped me to 13th place overall- good enough to sneak into the finals.

I feel like I learned a lot of personal life lessons this games season...some silly, some serious...here are just a few:
1. Eating junk food every once and a while helps me to relax; and relaxing helps me to perform at a higher level.
2. Even when your down- I mean WAY down- you're only out if you start to believe that you're out. So, if you're gonna choose to believe otherwise- you'd better start fighting.
3. I love me some Mumford & Sons. Seriously. This has to be the most I've fallen in love with a band since I fell in love with The Wu-Tang Clan. I kidd (kind of). But seriously, Mumford & Sons: Awesome.
4. Note to self: Chicago is expensive...Save nickels and dimes before visiting. Along these lines...The W hotel in Chicago is over-rated. Sad but true. It's like they use two-by-fours for mattresses and sandpaper for bed linens. I've stayed at two other W hotels- one in LA and the one in New Orleans. Both were hands-down way nicer.
5. My sister is a GAMER. The event director, Eric Barber of Next Generation CrossFit in Tulsa, asked me about 5 minutes beforehand if my sister would be able to sing the National anthem to kick off day 3. His exact words: "Is she good?" and "Are you sure she knows the words?" God bless you, Eric. But, please. This is what followed...

Here is video of me taking on WOD 4 at Regionals...

Mumford & Sons song listened to most last weekend...

Chasing Life Abundant

2011-06-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

The long road of maintaining a rigorous training regimen, mental preparation, and fierce competition finally came to head last weekend in Chicago at the 2011 CrossFit Games North Central Regional. In the fallout of my 12th place finish and Team CFSs 3rd place finish I'm left with so many emotions stirring within myself. Gratitude. Gratitude to the many friends, family, and competitors who helped me push myself far beyond my perceived limitations. I have joy and pride in the accomplishments of the community of athletes and coworkers I've been so blessed to associate with from CrossFit Springfield. And most of all, praise, reverence, and humility to my God who gives me life and breath and all ability.

With our second child to be born this July, both Jenny and I know the dynamic of our lives will again change. It is the knowledge of this upcoming season of life change that guided my decision to compete this year at regionals as an individual. Above all, I was drawn to the opportunity for personal and spiritual growth by taking on the challenge of facing the top competitors from our region in the flourishing sport of CrossFit.

Throughout this process, I've come to realize the awesome potential that can be fulfilled in my life when I simply trust God and honestly seek to be used by Him. It's a life strategy which must be revisited every hour of every day in order to be effective. This is so much easier said than done. In the pursuits of life, we all desire to receive attention for our good deeds done, adoration for our accomplishments, and glory for our victories. Don't misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with accepting this attention with humility. The problem is that when we seek to fully absorb these things, we diminish our ability to acknowledge He who is the giver of these good gifts. Our talents become less like gifts and more like prized possessions. Ultimately, prized possessions must be locked away if their owner wishes them not to be stolen. Let this be an encouraging word to you: Go out on a limb. Seek to fully comprehend the many gifts God has given you. And then, USE THEM. Use them to give hope to those who are hopeless. Use whatever talents you possess to be a light in an oftentimes dark world. You'll find more reward and fulfillment in living life this way...3..2..1..GO!!!

Here is some gameday footage of me tackling Event 3 at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games NorthCentral Regional- Enjoy!

Pure Unadulterated Bliss

2011-05-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

This was the first weekend in the past 8 weeks with no sectionals competition or CFS hosted event to deter my attention from my family. Being Mother's Day weekend made it an even more special occasion. After a wonderful surprise birthday party thrown on Saturday evening for myself, melissa, and llewellyn (which included gorging myself with endless piles of bar food and the like), the Mhire's spent a quiet Sunday afternoon together as a family at the park to enjoy a picnic, some sunshine, jenny's new fancy-pants camera (which I haven't a clue how to operate), and my lackluster guitar plunking skills. We ate and laughed and played all the while avoiding stepping in the dog crap and duck feces which littered our beautiful landscape. It was a masterpiece. Days like these shall not soon be forgotten.

Last Open WOD Of The Mohicans

2011-04-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

Finally. The end of the 6-week (ehh- I mean 7 week) sectionals road is here. And it ends with a final event that is an evil spin-off of "Fran": 100lb Thrusters & Chest to bar Pull Ups til you fall over and die or seven minutes runs out- whichever comes first. Rather than use the traditional 21-15-9 rep scheme, CrossFit HQ opted to stick with the AMRAP format and make this one a 7 minute rodeo. Your objective is to reach as high as possible into the following sequence 3,6,9,12,15,18,21, etc... The awkward part about this workout is that your larger worksets (12, 15, 18, etc) aren't at the beginning when you're fresh- they're at the end when you're out of mojo. Brilliant. I, being both less than brilliant and eager to get a test run at WOD 11.6, decided to do the workout on Monday at around noon, less than 24hrs after having gone full tilt on Sectionals WOD 11.5 for the second time. As the saying goes: "Shoot first, ask questions later."

I felt it went very well minus the round of 18 when Grant briefly lost count of where I was at with my thrusters. For a second, the wheels almost came off- but I trudged onward and managed to get 9 reps into the 21 thrusters. My score was 135 reps. I haven't submitted it yet because, honestly, I'm hoping to better it here in the next day or two. At least that's the plan.

Stay In The Fight

2011-04-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

I love the lyrics in Chris Tomlin's song "Our God":
"Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power
Our God, Our God…
And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?"

To me, facing adversity is part of what makes life worth living. Yet many choose to tuck their tails and run from challenges. Their loss is in doing so is they'll never know what might have been overcome. When we find ourselves face to face with a troubling life circumstance, if we trust in God by having the willingness to fight, to sacrifice, or to endure the unknown, HE honors our faith by making a way; even when there seems to be no possible path.

The 6 week Open Sectionals process has been taxing physically, mentally, and even emotionally. But the beautiful thing about it is that each week it has given me the opportunity to face the challenges set before me. I'm given the opportunity to stay in the fight. Whether it's sectionals or life outside of competition - for me, this has meant to trust in the Lord. It has meant to trust in the heart, mind, and ability He has given me. Rankings will forever change...but believing in God to fulfill my life's destiny and purpose is something I'll forever fight for.

Cuz you know I Gotta Git.That. Chip off My Shoulda!

2011-04-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Got some new ink done yesterday at "Hearts Of Fire" in downtown Springfield on McDaniel St. Owner, Ethan, straight hooked a brotha up. This one is of a patch that was given to all American soldiers who fought against the Japanese Army after their invasion of the Philippines. My Grandfather was a guerrilla fighter and fought alongside US Army forces to exterminate the Japs. He was shot twice and eventually captured- but ultimately survived the Bataan Death March which was the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war across the province of Bataan. It was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Post WWII Allied reports have tabulated that only 54,000 of the 75,000 prisoners reached their destination. Bad deal. But my LoLo survived it, joined the US Army, and brought the family to America. So I know I'll survive this week's "AMAMRAPWAP".

For me, the Open Sectionals Event 2 (DL/PU/BJ) was like an all out, as hard as you can hit me, punch me in the face with all you got-type of WOD. I had to stand there and take it like a man...and whine. Which, of course, I did. For about 24hrs. Then I woke up on Monday AM for the beginning of week 3, looked in the mirror, and I told myself, "Self, If you don't care about qualifying for Regionals then now's the time for you to quit. Be done with it...who cares, right? Wrong! I care! And if I do truly care what will I do? I'm gonna go on attack mode!!! I'm gonna fight, kick, scratch, snatch, and thruster my way into regionals. Redo an event 3 times just to better my score by only a couple points? Yes Please. I'm all in. Whatever it takes. My WOD 2 score dropped me from 22nd overall to 125th in the region. But with 4 top scores in the 4 final events, although it'd be a grind, it could bring me back into top 60 contention. We'll soon see.

Event 4 went well for me and all of CFS as our collective team scores finished us 4th in the North Central Region for the WOD and I managed to finish 10th in the region for the event. I tested Event 5 this morning with top regional contender and CFS athlete, Macy Mitchell. Going head to head gave us both a great push and consequently resulted in great scores (Macy: 361, Jeremy:351). We'll see how they hold up as the week progresses. Just gotta keep on keepin' on!

~COCHISE OUT!

ME WANNA ROCK!!!

2011-04-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhhhhh YEEEAHHH! Guess who's ready to get back into the training blog game? This guy. I've been hit or miss but now that we're 3 weeks in to the CrossFit Games, The Open Sectionals snowball has officially become an avalanche which has flattened life as I knew it. Now there's no more training routine, no more "what should I hit today?" or "maybe I'll get a heavy lift in"...Nope. Now my weekly training programming is mainly: Perform "AMAMRAPWAP", or As Many AMRAP WODs As Possible. As fun as the first one was to do FOUR times- I'm pretty sure I'll live if I perform the remaining WODs only once each week from here on out. Here's a quick re-hash of whats been going down in Mhire-town.....Jenny is in the 3rd trimester with our still oven-baking baby girl (Emille) due July-ish. We've settled in quite nicely into our new home and have met many lovely neighborly people. I mowed my lawn today and probably scared half of the children in the neigborhood to death. "Mommy is that dark complected guy with the mowhawk and all those tattoos going to kill us?" "No, Timmy, only if you run into his car with your bike." Good news is the lawn now looks beautiful. My 3 year old son, Vincent has been growing up like how kids do....FAST. Holy Crap! Just weeks ago he couldn't distinguish between his butthole and a hole in the ground and now he's coaching me on the importance of leverage, hip drive, and finishing when I perform the Olympic Lifts. Can someone please help me comprehend all this? I do love the snot out of the little dude. He's a funny, funny guy. Enough about him- let me tell you about what a little indian named Cochise has been up to...

2011 Sectionals WOD 1: HomeRun!!! I Did 8+ rounds (363rep) which I think was around the number that you needed to be at to separate yourself from the pack. After WOD 1 I was ranked 22nd in the region and 135th in the world. All good and well but I should have known the storm was on the horizon... 2011 Sectionals WOD 2: A Swing & A Miss. I did 10+ rounds of a WOD where the top tier scores were 11+ rounds. My score was borderline close to keeping me within the regional top 100 contention but as it were I dropped from 22nd in the region to 125th in the region. Blah. I did, however, manage to sleep every night henceforth with a very broad smile accross my face because I knew that at least I never resorted to pathetically worming up my push ups just to get more reps :) I kept'em strict and I'm happy to pay the price of having my rank drop because of it. It is what it is and we all saw alot of push ups in that wod weren't what they were supposed to be. Why even have standards?

2011 Sectionals WOD 3: A Base Hit! 30 Rounds (60 reps) I'll take it. In the video above- I had already performed two reps by the time the record button was hit. It was a tough WOD- you battle the desire to push all out until you crash or pace and stay steady but ultimately die a slow death.

WOD 4 was just released this evening. Its gonna be a nice little treat...10 Min AMRAP of 60 bar facing burpees, 30 OHS @ 120lb, and 10 Muscle Ups. My prediction is 130 reps. We shall soon find out!!!!

I Like To Move It, Move It.

2011-03-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since I last posted but it's been worth it to take some time away from the ole' training blog. Everyone knows talk is cheap and everyone who knows me knows that I tend to talk way too much. So for the past month I just decided to shut up and work. Not blogging also gave me a ton more down time with the family which is always a positive :) Going into this year's sectionals I've felt calm, a sense of pride in CrossFit Springfield and all of the amazing athletes I'm blessed to train with, and more overall preparedness than I had last year at this time.

I did WOD 1 of the CrossFit Games Open this AM with CFS coach, Andy Koch. It's a 10 min AMRAP of 30 Double Unders & 15 Snatches (75lb). I felt good about my effort but like most competitive athletes I feel I can still improve upon my performance. My score was 7 Rds + 30 DUs & 5 Snatches (350 reps):

I'll give'r another go on Saturday and see if I can't sqeeze a few more reps outta these old Filipino bones! 3..2..1..GO!!!

Striving For Better Than My Best

2011-02-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

I hate performing a task and knowing that I could've done better at it. However, I love it when I prove to myself that I can do better than my "best". These two statements basically sum up my approach to CrossFit and to life in general. Whether I'm relating as a friend, father, or husband, or in business when I'm training or coaching a client- or whether it's a competition WOD that you just want to put up a decent time for- I oftentimes sell myself short by settling for good enough. No more settling. I did a WOD last week on Monday which was this Feb STL indvidual competition WOD 2 at TNT of 21-15-9 Squat Cleans, Alt Stationary Lunges, Push Press. I went out of the gate like a psycho and ended up crashing. My final time was 10:38. After a nice relaxing weekend away with The Potts, The Browns, and The Wistroms at The Cliffs at LongCreek (Big Cedar Property) in Branson, we got back to springfield at around 3pm. Jenny wanted to take a 30min nap so I obliged and took Vin across the house to play music and watch MickeyMouse Clubhouse. 30 minutes later and it was time to roll...My mission: Knowing that I could do better than the 10:38 time I posted, I wanted to head up to CrossFit Springfield and to destroy the old time by any means necessary! So I did. After taking two very chill, relaxing days to hang with family and friends, I jumped into the car rolled over to CFS, hit a solid 5-10min warm-up, stretched it out for a few, and then busted it out- pacing all the way...and adding 1 extra lunge step in on the round of 15 just because I love lunges...OOOOOOR by accident. New PR for the WOD is now 8:54.

Clean It, Split Jerk It, Behind the Head Jerk It, Overhead Squat It

2011-02-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

I was sore for days after my trainwreck date with "Karen" on Sunday. This week's training has gone well. The WODs I've done have been varied enough to keep me honest and I've pushed myself hard enough daily to keep fit but I've not yet gone back to full throttle since last Sunday's 150 Wallballs for time. After speaking with CrossFit SOMO owner and uber-stud crossfitter, Rodney Hamby this morning, I got the idea to put together a little strength complex for myself:
Clean (power or squat), Split Jerk, Lower to back, Behind the neck split jerk, Overhead Squat. 7 attempts. The great thing about this progression is that every step of the way, there were tons of technical flaws I got on videotape of myself performing the complex. I'm getting to review them, and hopefully continue to clean up my messes. I need to work on faster elbows, bigger hip extension, and more speed transitioning myself under the bar and into the recieving position. The dip/drive portion of my jerks were slow. In general, everything just needs to be more snappy. My progression was as follows (135lb Not videoed):

155lb...

199lb...

221lb...

232lb...

243lb...

254lb...

Dear Me, Happy 3rd Birthday.

2011-02-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here's To You, "Karen"...

2011-02-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

Vin turns 3 years old on the 10th, so to celebrate we threw him a party at CrossFit Springfield on Saturday. Tons of family and friends came out to run around the gym, throw play-dough everywhere, and dance to some sweet jams (one of Vin's bday presents was a bad-to-the-bone drum performance by a local drummer). We were extremely happy and thankful for such a great turnout! Vin had a blast. The kids had a blast. Mom and dad had a blast. It was pure awesomeness.

Speaking of awesomeness, I've been having a ton of fun training lately. I don't know what it is exactly but, compared to this time last year, I'm having way more fun. My diet has been solid overall but you can believe me when I tell you I've partaken in my fair share of weekend cheat days. I was way more strict leading up to the games season last year with both my diet and the programming I fed to myself. All work and no play. Recently, I've been trying to enjoy the fun in competing against myself, other athletes from our box, and the clock. Though I think it's made a positive difference in my performances, it certainly hasn't kept the WODs from beating the crap out of me :)

On Friday I practiced split jerks on our new platform fabricated by our resident handymen, Mr Wistrom & Mr Cochran (It's freakin' sweet- thank you fellas). Afterwards, I did a 10 min AMRAP with Grant of 3 Push Press or Jerk @ 185lb, 7 Kipping Pull Ups, and at the top of each minute, snatch 135lb. Did 10 Rds + 3 P.Press + 4 Kipping Pull Ups. GREAT workout. Every movement seemed to loom.

Today I did the CrossFit.com mainpage WOD, "Karen" (150 Wallballs for time, 20lb). Last summer was the last time I did this benchmark WOD. My time then was 6:35. When I woke up today and checked the mainpage to see "Karen" was the WOD, I cringed and immediately started trying to talk myself into a different workout. Having that reaction made me realize that "Karen" was exactly the workout I needed to do. I'm glad I did cuz I PR'd by over a minute with a time of 5:25 and managed to do 103 Wallballs unbroken- which I know for a fact I've never done before...and may never do again:

Brokeback Mountain Of Snow

2011-02-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

After being cooped up inside the house for the past couple of days because of the snowpocalypse, it was nice to get out and about, coach a big noon crew WOD at CFS, and get some quality training in. I took yesterday off and did some yoga- or yoyo as Vin calls it. Also got to play with the family in the blizzard-like conditions, which was awesome. We put on 30 layers of any article of clothing we could find, went outside, and just tore up the frozen tundra like it was our JOB:

Then we drank hot chocolate...Then I shoveled the driveway like Jenny had just told me that it was my JOB. My back was so tight by the time I finished you'd have thought I had just done 1000 deadlifts for time.

Two days ago, on Monday, I did Bench Press 5 x 5 in the AM with Grant. I don't remember what I got up to but I do remember that it was terrible. I've been benching less over the past 6 weeks in order to stay flexible enough to be solid with my overhead lifts. It was very evident on Monday but I'm ok with that. Afterwards, I did 1 set of as many reps as possible of 25lb strict weighted pull ups and got 17. I then dropped the weight and did 33 more strict pull ups (not unbroken) at just bodyweight for a total of 50. In the afternoon around 4:30pm, I did 5 x 7 backsquat. On my last set, I did 309lb (was using kg plates) for 7 reps. At 5pm, Coach B and I finished up with a 21-15-9 WOD of SDHP @ 95lb & GHD sit ups. We played "rock, paper, scissors" to determine who got to choose who went first; I won, so, of course, I made Brian go first so I could have a time to shoot for. Llewellyn did 3:17 and I finished in 2:59...it's always nice to have a time to shoot for. Let that be incentive for you to shore up your "rock, paper, scissor" game. It comes in handy once in a while during a CrossFit WOD.

Today, thanks to Cap'n Koch giving me a lift to the box, I was able to do the CrossFit.com main page WOD of Overhead Squat 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. I PR'd with a OHS of 275lb:

I missed 285lb but decided to keep going with my behind-the-head split jerk just because the last time I did it I hit 285lb. I wanted to see if I could get more while I was warm. I'm glad I tried cuz I ended up PR'ing at 295lb:

With 5 minutes left til' noon I quickly scrambled my brain to think of a short met-con I could hit before having to coach the 12pm CFS group WOD. I decided on 5 minutes AMRAP of 5 overhead squats @ 135lb & 5 Hand release push ups. TOUGH workout but I loved it! 9 rounds + 4 OHS. A little over 1 month until sectionals begin! I'm eager to see what the programming looks like. Bring it, CrossFit HQ- cuz I'm gonna!

The Good, The Bad, & The Downright Ugly

2011-01-30T20:08:00.000-08:00

I've had some good, bad, and some down right ugly training days since I last posted. I guess that's the nature of the CrossFit beast. On Thursday I did the CFS WOD of Shoulder press 1-1-1; Push press 2-2-2; Push Jerk 3-3-3 (155/165/185f/205/225/235/225/235/245). Friday I did the CrossFit.com main page WOD which was Clean 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 (185/205/225/235/245/255/265f). This is one was definitely ugly- I ain't lyin'. You can see for yourself. Here are clips of the 245 x 3 and 255 x 3 lifts:

After a great coaches meeting at 7am on Saturday, I did the CFS daily WOD with Jenny. It was beautiful outside which made for a nice day to get out and run a couple of miles with ole' preggers. She did awesome!

Today at noon, along with Canyon, Brian, Steve, Andy, and Grant, I faced off with a hero WOD called "The Seven". It's a grueling yet fitting tribute to seven CIA officers who were killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on December 30th, 2009. I did the workout last year and recorded a time of around 30 minutes. It absolutely crushed me. Today, although it gave me the worst beating I've endured since that time someone dropped a banana in my pants and turned a monkey loose on me, I managed to PR with a time of 26:55. The rest of the day I've had a severe WOD hangover. I could go for some water and a goodnights sleep...and a banana.

Stick To The Plan, Fran!!!

2011-01-26T14:51:00.000-08:00

I went to bed last night with my morning all mapped out: I would wake up and make myself breakfast, sit down at the computer with a cup of coffee and write tomorrow's CFS daily WOD, then head up to the gym and hit yoga, train one of my clients, and finally go for a "Fran" PR at noon. That was the plan. Everything was going to plan and then as I was walking out the front door I noticed my dog had puked all over the carpet. The new carpet. As frustrated as I was at the time, I now realize that I should probably thank my furry little friend, Gizmo. Thanks to him puking and throwing my perfectly planned out morning into a frenzy, I pushed "going for a Fran PR" straight up to the top of my list...after cleaning up said pukie carpet, of course. But I did manage to hit that new "Fran" PR, finishing in 2:28 (previous best "Fran" time was 2:42). I owe an apology to the 10am yoga class for dealing with me replacing their zen-like silence with the sounds of me gasping my way through the whole ordeal. If only I could gasp loud enough to drown out the relentless barking from the dogs next door. Now that would truly be a moment of zen. Thanks also to everyone who hurled motivational banter my way. It definitely helped. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go apologize to my shitzu for being so hard on him earlier today and thank him for helping me PR on "Fran".

Do It To The MAXimum

2011-01-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I did a Hero WOD that I wrote for Marine LtCol Max Galea'i who served in Iraq with one of my friends and one of CFS's great coaches, Captain Andy Koch. LtCol Galea'i was killed on June 26, 2008 while supporting combat operations in Karmah, Iraq. While serving as the Commanding Officer of Hawaii-based, Second Battalion, Third Marine Regiment, a suicide bomber dressed in an Iraqi police uniform detonated an explosive belt during a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq. In addition to LtCol Galea’i, two Marines, two Iraqi interpreters, the local mayor and over twenty key tribal figures were killed.

Friends remembered Galea’i as a dedicated husband to his wife Evelyn, father to his four children, a natural leader and a caring buddy who would never burden others with his problems. LtCol Galea’i served at posts in Virginia, California, Okinawa and elsewhere. His service awards include two Bronze Stars (one for heroic action in the first Gulf War), the Purple Heart and five Meritorious Service Medals.

Andy asked me to program a WOD that would fittingly honor this man who was said to be both large in physical stature and in personal character. After reviewing all of the hero wods to date, looking at the rep schemes, number of modlities used, and movements of each, I worked on creating a simple, straight forward, yet severely challenging Hero WOD called "Max". What I devised somewhat resembles "Murph" in that the WOD is for time and the repetitions may be partitioned in any way you wish. But what makes this WOD real nasty is the combination of 3 dynamic movements two of which that are extremely anerobic at the RX loads and 1 calesthenic movement that crushes the will of even the fittest of athletes. The WOD is:

"MAX"

For time- partition the reps as you wish:

150 KB Swings, 70lb
100 Burpees
50 Thrusters, 155lb

My initial strategy was to perform 10 rounds of 5 thruster, 10 burpees, and 15 kb swings. That lasted all of three rounds until I realized I needed to just finish all of the thrusters and then move on to my 7 remaining rounds of 15 kbswings and 10 burpees. Whether it was a good strategy or not, it's what I did and my time ended up being 28:07. It was one of the most mentally and physically demanding WODs I've done in a while- proof enough to me that it is worthy of bearing the name "Max".

On Saturday, I headed to St. Louis with Jenny and Vin to take my re-validation test for my CrossFit Lv 1 Cert. I had a blast getting to spend time with the two of them. It snowed a ton in STL on Sunday morning which made for some pretty sketchy driving conditions but, thank God, we made it- and also thank God- I passed my exam!

After getting back to town late last night and still having to post the CFS WOD, I finally crashed at around 11:30pm. Today I peeled myself out of bed at 5am and coached a great CFS bootcamp and then came home and took a good long 3 hour nap. It felt awesome.

When I woke up, I grabbed a bite to eat and then trained with Grant, Melissa, and Brian in a 15 min AMRAP of:

9 Front Squats, 135/95
9 Pull Ups
9 Ring Dips

Shouldn't have eaten so close to gametime! I was gettin' the pukie-pukersons by round 5! I managed to hang on and finished with 9 rds + 9 fsquats + 6 pull ups.

A couple clients and phone calls later I trained with Meggin- hitting a midline flexion/extension WOD of 5 rounds for time of: 10 Deadlifts @ 235/135lb and 10 Toes to Bar. My time was 5:15. Tough little gasser. CrossFit HQ announced the start date for the 2011 CF games open sectionals (March 15th). Now it's do or die time: Eat right, train right, recover right...or lose, right?

It's Still My Turn!

2011-01-18T16:29:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I went bowling with Jenny, Vin, and Grandma Hicklin. Although it's never very much fun to get schooled by your 2 year old, your wife, and your mother-in-law, this WOD was hands down my most fun workout of the week. Exhibit A:

It was back to the grindstone on Monday with a massive dose of backsquats. I did 5 x 7 backsquat(225-245-255-265-275lb) then 5 rounds of 1 min max reps backsquat @ 225lb straight into 1 minute of push press @ 135lb straight into 1 minute of rest. I can't even begin to describe how sore my rear is right now. Lately, I've been trying to force-feed myself heavy backsquats in an attempt to get a little better at them.

Today I trained at 7am with Macy and James. We did 50 Chest to bar pull ups, 100 double unders, and row 1500m for time. I felt pretty groggy when I woke up this morning. After chugging a couple cups of java and getting in a good 20-25 minute warm up I felt slightly less groggy. My time was 9:20, Macy finished in around 11 1/2 minutes with a 25lb weight vest, and James came in strong in around 13 minutes.

As the 2011 CrossFit Games season rapidly approaches, it's been great to be getting some workouts in throughout the week with a variety of very solid athletes. This Friday, Andy K. and I plan to take on a WOD written in honor of a Marine who served alongside Andy and lost his life in Iraq. We'll be giving it a test-run prior to Saturday's 11am CFS Hero WOD. It promises to be a doozy...

Welcome To Value City

2011-01-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Friday): Did main page WOD from Wednesday- 15 minute AMRAP of Row 250m & 25 Push Ups. Got 7 rounds + 250m. So much for rest day, eh? You don't have to be Nostrdamus to have predicted that I wasn't gonna rest. But I figured I was feeling pretty good and it wasn't really the type of WOD that is gonna wreck you.

Today at 9am I did OHS 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. 205-225-235-245-255-265-275f. Decided to stop and live to fight another day. Here are clips of the 255 & 265 lifts:

I know it's a little late but while since we're still relatively close to the new year, I've been thinking alot recently about my resolutions and goals for 2011. It never fails that each year when I make new resolutions, I often gear them towards curbing my behaviors or vices. You may tend to do the same thing. If you're anything like me, as the year wears on and your good intentions wane, you may also tend to revert back to those same tendencies you were trying to deviate from. It got me thinking: At the end of the day, my behaviors and habits should ultimately reflect my core values. If I'm really wanting to make any lasting changes to my daily actions, I'm going to have to take an honest look at what I value most in life. This thought forced me to ask myself, "What are my personal core values?" In no particular order, here are a few that I've come up with so far (it's a work in progress):

Wee! Wee! Wee! All The Way Home.

2011-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a great week of training. Since Monday I've hit a 20min AMRAP of 15 Ring Push Ups, 15 GHD Sit Ups, 30 Double Unders, and row 300m on Tuesday (6 rounds); the hero WOD "Roy" on Wednesday (15:53); and today 3-3-3-1-1-1 Front Squat (225-235-245-255-265-275f) then 5 x 2 squat clean- both reps must be performed within 20 seconds- 10 minute time limit (205-225-225-235-245 for 1- I failed on the second rep) then 5 rounds for time of 10 Front squats @ 135lb and 5 Muscle Ups (7:42). I went into today feeling the full effects of the training volume I've maintained over the course of the past few days. But I figured, "Hey, some little piggies take rest days, this little piggy trains SORE". Genius. Consequently, my numbers for both the front squat and 2 rep/20 sec squat cleans were less than par. Regardless, I'm actually pleased to be ramping up my weekly workload. With any luck in these last few weeks leading up to sectionals, my body will gradually begin to tolerate the routine and the higher doses of abuse. You can't exceed your limits unless you test them. At least that's the hope. That's also my way of rationalizing the weak sauce I served up today :) Tomorrow I plan to take a rest day or possibly perform some type of "active recovery" activity such as sleeping with my eyes open while counting reps. Or maybe I'll do 1000 burpees for time. Genius. Here's a short clip of the 2 squat clean w/in 20 sec portion of today's WOD:

Point Break...And Beyond!!!

2011-01-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

After coaching a great group of CFS bootcampers at 6 this morning, I did 5 x 5 backsquat to 295lb, 5 x 5 shoulder press to 155lb, and 21-15-9 Rack thruster @ 135lb & Chest to bar pull ups in 5:47. My real test for the day came this afternoon at 1:30pm in the form of the CFS WOD:

For time:

11 Clean & Jerks
33 KB Swings
9 Clean & Jerks
27 KB Swings
7 Clean & Jerks
21 KB Swings
5 Clean & Jerks
15 KB Swings
3 Clean & Jerks
9 KB Swings

Clean may be performed as squat or power.

I used 185lb for the clean & jerk and 2pood (70lb) for the kb swings. My time was 13:55 with many thanks being owed to Steve, Grant, and Melissa who coached me through. Without question, this WOD has to be put in my top 10 list of "most uncomfortable" workouts I've ever done. It's, of course, a pretty subjective list because my level of discomfort is typically inversely proportional to how sorry I start feeling for myself when it begins to suck. But today, I'm happy to report: I went there...Emptied the tank...Jumped into the deepend headfirst. I took myself straight up to my breaking point where all I wanted to do was make the clock stop counting by working faster and more deliberately. To me, workouts like the one I had this afternoon are beautiful. They show me how much further I can push my mind, my body, and my will. I know I'm in my little "crossfit bubble" but, never-the-less, I find it impossible to deny the many parallels between the way I navigate my way through the suckiness of a WOD and the way I manage obstacles I face in everyday life.

And now, I shall retire to the couch and see how well Oregon manages the suckiness of losing the National Championship to Auburn.

Clean Livin'

2011-01-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after coming out of a flu-like fog, I managed to have a great training day. In the AM I did 5 x 3 front squat to 250lb followed by 3 rounds of 20 burpees & 20 chest to bar pull ups in 6:55. In the afternoon I did 500m row, 25 hang power clean @ 115lb, 25 ring dips, 25 toes to bar, 25 thrusters @ 115lb, 500m row in 9:43. Last week we moved into our new house. It's been a tremendous blessing- but the holidays and the two weeks in between the closing of our old home and the new one made it tough to eat as clean as I'd have liked to. Now that we've had the opportunity to get to the grocery store and stock up on fresh veggies and lean meats, I can already feel and see a difference in my workouts.

Filthy 50 Flu-Shot

2011-01-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

It never fails that every time I hear there's a flu bug going around, I can't help but think to myself, "Ahh, I won't get it." Yet 60% of the time, I get it every time. Monday I woke up feeling sick to my stomach so, naturally, I figured maybe it was just that I needed to train. "I'll feel better after a tough workout and some food", I thought. Flu-like symptoms call for a dose of the filthy fifty, right? I guess not. Two hours after having The Kent "Payne-Train" push me through all 500 reps of the filthy fifty WOD in 21:42 (which, surprisingly, turned out to be a 5 second PR), I found myself laying on what felt like my deathbed. It's now 24+ hrs later and I still can't determine if what I had was actually the flu or some type of a WOD hangover. The symptoms for both conditions are generally the same: Low-grade fever, nausea, vomiting, body aches, joint pain, and a headache. Either way, I seem to have slept off whatever it was that ailing me.

Time To Get Gangsta Wit It

2010-12-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

Forgive me, father, for I have eaten my weight in Christmas cookies. Wow. After spending a wonderfully relaxing Christmas eve, day, and day after with the family, I looked forward to cleaning back up my diet and resuming my training. The 2011 CrossFit Games Sectionals process has not yet been announced or explained- but it's gonna be here sooner than later- and with that in mind, I'm ready to ramp it up! Today was an exceptionally productive training day with my good buddy and CrossFit SOMO owner, Rodney Hamby making a guest appearance at CFS! This morning at 11pm, after having the always enlightening opportunity of visit Jenny's lady-parts doctor and listening to our tadpole's heart beat (HR was 162- don't know if that means boy or girl...I forget the wives tale but I guarantee it will surely be one or the other) I did Hang Squat Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. In all reality, for me it was hang squat snatch one meeleeon x 1 because I wouldn't stop attempting 205lb until I made the lift...And, alas, on the meeleeonth attempt, I made the lift. Exhibit A (please note David Helfrecht's exhuberent scream after I successfully completed said meeleeonth attempt):

At 1pm myself, Rodney, and Grant took on 5 Rounds for total reps of max consecutive reps 115lb Overhead Squat and max reps pull ups. You could not rest longer than 3 minutes between any effort (aka "dealbreaker clause"). Oh. My. Goodness. I would literally prefer allowing you 5 opportunities to punch me square in the face as hard as you can than to do that WOD again anytime in the immediate future (the immediate future being now until the Detroit Lions have a winning season). Max efforts are great because of their ability to force you into a serious gut-check scenario. Add the fact that both Grant and Rodney are stellar athletes and also the friendly competition factor and your weather forecast will be that of serious PAIN with a good chance of vomit. Regardless, we all got better today, and most importantly, fun was definitely had by all. After 5 rounds of action, here's what our scorecards looked like:

As you can see, I kind of bet the house on the first round of OHS and Pull Ups- not sure if that was the best strategy or not. I do know that by round 3 I was having some serious "suck it up, buttercup" talks with myself. By round 5, I was questioning my ability to do another set of anything. If you give it a truely honest and legitimate effort, max consecutive reps of anything is gonna SUCK. Like Rodney once so elequently put it: "If you wanna find out how much ball's you've got, try backsquating your bodyweight 'til failure."

Author's Note: This same guy once did just that...for 5 rounds...on one of his rounds, Rodney literally puked mid-set and then continued on until failure. Now THAT'S gangsta.

CrossFit Elf WOD

2010-12-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

Got myself embedded with a doosie of a gripping game today. At 8am I took on 21 Deadlifts @ 225lb, 42 Pull Ups, 15 Deadlifts @ 225, 30 Pull Ups, 9 Deadlifts @ 225lb, 18 Pull Ups. Finished in 7:26. Trained some clients, watched a class, coached a lil snatch here and there, marveled at Ryan Davis performing 100kb swings unbroken...and then at 1300hrs had a momentary stroke of genius and wrote the following WOD in 2 minutes:

For time:
6-4-2 with 135lb...
Squat Snatch
Thruster
Snatch Balance
then,
60 Double Unders
40 DB Push Press, 45lb
20 Hang Power Cleans, 135lb

Lung. Burner. It may have been the sushi I had just partaken of or it may be that I just so happened to have written a masterpiece- either way, I felt the standard CrossFit body-numbing-wheezy-sickly-tummy feeling throughout this whole WOD. Time was 8:42.

Christmas is almost here, so this evening, I'd like to close my set by performing one of my all-time favorite Christmas anthems for you...

Ahhh...May the sweet aroma of Christmas elf fart linger in your living room for many, many years to come.

"Whitten"

2010-12-21T18:05:00.000-08:00

Did "Whitten" hero WOD this morning at 8am with Grant...

Five rounds for time of:
22 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
22 Box jump, 24 inch box
Run 400 meters
22 Burpees
22 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

We haven't marked our run distances yet since our recent move to the new facility so we rowed 400m in place of the 400m run. I hate having to modify WODs, ecspecially hero WODs but time was limited so we had to make due. The 2000m of running would have no doubt added to my time. My time today with 2000m of rowing was 39:39. This workout was everything you expect out of a hero WOD- it was both physically and mentally challenging. By round 3, I think I had already experienced most of the stages of grieving...Denial, anger, bargaining, etc...Never really reached the acceptance phase. Looking forward to doing this one again- except next time as RX with the running.

Army Captain Dan Whitten, 28, of Grimes, Iowa, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, died February 2, 2010, when enemy forces in Zabul, Afghanistan, attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Whitten is survived by his wife, Starr Whitten, his mother, Jill Whitten, his father, Dan Whitten, and his sister, U.S. Army Captain Sarah Whitten.

Metcon/Strength/Metcon

2010-12-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hit-up a 10am team WOD today of:
15 Cal Row
25 Box Jumps
25 Burpees
25 OHS, 95/65
25 Pull Ups
25 Push Press, 95/65
50 Double Unders

Conveyer belt format- Everyone completes all reps for each movement but each team member can't advance until the person in front of them has finished. I led off for our team and got through the list in 8:15. Our team time was somewhere around 15 minutes.

At noon, I did the CFS WOD. Reached 245 on 2RM Hang Power Clean in 12min and 245 on 2RM Push Jerk in 12 min - then we did:

2 Power Clean & Jerks, 155/105lb
1 Round of "Cindy"
4 Power Clean & Jerks, 155/105lb
1 Round of "Cindy"
6 Power Clean & Jerks, 155/105lb
1 Round of "Cindy"
8 Power Clean & Jerks, 155/105lb
1 Round of "Cindy"
10 Power Clean & Jerks, 155/105lb
1 Round of "Cindy"

My time was 8:17. It's amazing, but in just two days of cleaning up my food intake and ramping up my training volume, I already feel my overall strength and conditioning kicking back into gear. Who'da thunk it? I may just decide to stick with this crossfit stuff after all.

Mental Strength Training For A Dummy

2010-12-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

After finally completing the bigtime tasks of moving the gym and moving my home all in the same week, today was the first day in a while that I arrived at CrossFit Springfield and felt both mentally and physically ready to train and train hard. I've been nursing what is either just a metatarsal head bone bruise or a stress fracture in my foot over the past few weeks. Nagging injuries tend to take your mind out of the game from the outset. Today I was determined to not let anything detract from me getting some quality work done. This morning I did 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 Backsquat and Bench Press. I reached 325lb on backsquat and 295lb on Bench- both numbers under my PRs for the lifts but I'll take'em considering my sub-par diet and spuratic training regiment as of late. I immediately followed up the strength WOD with CFS's daily WOD of 5 rounds: 30 Wallballs @ 30lb and 30 Ring Rows. I felt good about my ability to push through the workout and finished in 18:36. After running a few errands, this afternoon I did "Randy" (75 snatches @ 75lb for time). I hadn't done this WOD since last year - my time then was 4:02 and today I PR'd with a time of 3:26. It was interesting to see the progress. Even though I think I was physically stronger a year ago than where I'm currently at, I can tell that my ability to tolerate pain and continue to push through WODs has improved. I'm hoping for a good night's rest and looking forward to embracing more pain tomorrow.

Along Came A Pathway

2010-12-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

Dear God,

With my life, I have chosen to follow the path you lay before me; wherever it may lead. In times when my path was jagged and I could barely decipher my next step, You gave me the clarity to trust in You and continue on. In times when my path seemed to come to a sudden stop, You had the patience and grace to wait for me to continue on. In my times of darkness, You led me to lighted stairways. When my path has been well lit, You have encouraged me to keep pressing forward.

No matter the lay of the land You've been there, time and time again, to guide my steps and make my way known. You've given me an abundance of resources, tools, and mentors to assist me at every turn. As I begin a new leg of my journey, I want to pause now to thank you with all my heart and soul for your many blessings: My family, my wife, my son, Vincent, my unborn child (Emille, born 7/2/11), thank you for the joy they bring to my life. Thank you for the path I've walked thus far: Through schooling, tough decisions and life lessons, mistakes and misfortune, through sacrifice and instability, and through victory and defeat...Thank You. Thank You for guiding me to CrossFit Springfield and to all those whom I am now blessed to work with, learn from, and lead.

In the days, weeks, months, and years that may come, I pray for Your continued mercy, grace, and favor to rest fully upon my life and upon the lives of all whom I hold so dear, that we may do the good works you have placed along our paths for us to do.

With Great Pride I Call You My God And Savior; It Is with Great Humility That I Call Myself Your child,

Jeremy Mhire

Remember The Past, Face The Present, Look To The Future

2010-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Today I did the CFS daily WOD: "Murph" in 32:15. I know I've done this WOD at least a handful of times in the past 2 years but for whatever reason, I guess I've never recorded my time- or if I did- I've since lost it. So, here's to a PR!? I guess. It was good. I pushed hard through the cold on the first mile run and finished it in exactly 6 minutes. I broke my 300/200/100 Squats/push ups/pull ups into 10 sets of 30/20/10 which worked great until rounds 4-6. They were those rounds where you start trying to block out that annoying little voice in your headspace that chatters, "Cochise, your getting tired. It's only round 5. I bet you can't even imagine how much more rounds 6 through 10 are gonna suck!" But, listen I didn't and slug away I did, until at 25:06 I found myself through all of the reps and running out the door. It took me until mid-way through the 2nd mile to pick back up a decent pace. I needed a good conditioning WOD today and as always, "Murph" delivered.

Although I have never served in the armed forces, it's easy for me to approach the Hero WODs with great reverence as my grandfather, Vicente Repuyan, fought for the Filipino Army in conjuction with the US Army against the Japanese during World War II. I remember grandpa as a tall, athletic, yet quiet man who loved his family dearly. Although he was reserved, his still waters ran deep. As a child, when I would ask him about his WWII experiences he would tell me, with great detail, about the time he spent as a prisoner of the Japanese, and of his survival of the infamous Battaan Death March where as many as 11,000 US and Filipino soldiers lost thier lives in captivity due to starvation, execution, and disease. By God's grace grandpa managed to survive the ordeal because he could cook, so the Japanese soldiers thought him valuable enough to keep alive and put him in charge of preparing food. I, on the otherhand, would've been royally screwed (unless easy mac'n'cheese was readily available, in which case I could've hooked it up daily, yo). His menu was limited as rats, snakes, and monkeys were the only fare available in the jungles of Luzon. In retrospect, I think Grandpa spoke openly to me of the things he experienced because he felt that, as a child, I would be a safe soul to confide in. He probably also knew that it wouldn't be until years after his death that I would even begin to fully comprehend the magnitude of what he lived through. The morning he was captured, he was sitting in camp preparing to put his boots on. As he bent down to place his boot on his foot, a sniper shot him through his left shoulder. As he fell to the ground and his comrades scattered for cover around him, the sniper fired again, this time striking him in his thigh. Bleeding profusely and unable to escape, Japanese troops quickly emerged on his position and took him captive. Miraculously, he recovered from those bullet wounds, survived the death march, and was ultimately rewarded when General Douglas MacAuthor liberated the Philipine Islands. The United States awarded my grandfather with the Purple Heart and offered him and his family US citizenship if he would, in turn, join the US Army and continue the fight against the Japanese in the South Pacific. He accepted. And because of his bravery, his willingness to protect his homeland, and his desire to pave the way for our family to have a better life, I now have the awesome privilege of calling the United States my homeland. As I pursue God's will for my life, I am eternally grateful to the many heros who have fought, are currently fighting, and who may someday fight to preserve the American dream.

Chew On This...

2010-12-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

So, this week I got to see the heartbeat of our newest miniature Mhire creation (we're now 9 weeks pregnant with baby #2- it's still a bit surreal), we finalized the sale of our house (must upgrade living quarter accomodations prior to arrival of said tadpole), and topped off what was an already stellar week with a new Snatch PR (225lb). No time now for a long dissertation cuz I need to get to bed but I will post a couple of videos: The first is of today's snatch PR and the second is a sweet video of the final event at H.O.A by Dan Thacker of CrossFit Valley Park. Pardon my potty mouth at 1:43 - like most red blooded crossfitters I tend to get pretty hyped up on game day...however, it did taste good...aaaaaaand it made Jessi smile despite the nastiness of the WOD so it was worth the PG-13 rating :) Enjoi!

"Cobra Kai" tackles Event 3 at H.O.A 2.0

2010-11-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of team "Cobra Kai" during event 3 at H.O.A II (with BONUS false start footage). Huge thanks goes out to Paul Elmer for capturing the action in all it's night-vision splendor! The WOD was:

-Each team picks 2 runners to complete a shuttle run. Half of the distance will be completed wearing a #20 weighted vest.
-Once both runners are finished, the team will work to complete 60 deadlifts, 50 power cleans, and 40 power snatches. Scaled teams will do deadlifts, burpees, and thrusters.
-Only ONE athlete can be on a barbell at any time.
-Teams must strip weights when changing movements.
-Rx'd loads are #275/#185 deadlift, #185/#95 power clean, #135/#65 power snatch.
-Once ALL barbell work is complete, the 2 athletes who did not run to start the workout, will complete the run.

I believe our time was something like 10:02, placing us 2nd overall in this event. Great job, team!

515lb Deadlift PR at H.O.A

2010-11-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

An Ocean Of Grace

2010-11-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

I sit here, uninterrupted, staring at this screen waiting for elqouent words to crash land in my brain and I swear I've lost them. Somehow, someway, after bearing witness to and competing within the 2nd Annual Heart of America CrossFit Affiliate Challenge I'm left speechless. But there must be a reason. There has to be. And then it comes to me: All the emotions, the fighting spirit, the urgency, the pleading, the close-calls, the pain, the glory, the heartbreak, the elation, the love and the hate, the planning, the gut-wrenching expressions, the tears of joy after victory and those from having just survived a WOD, and the unity that occured over the course of 2 days and 4 events in St. Louis at HOA 2010...all these factors which make up a truly epic competitive event cannot be given full justice with words alone. No. These portraits of the human spirit you must experience first hand to fully grasp and comprehend their impact, their magnitude, and their worth. God graces us with the opportunity to take part in rare moments such as these. He graces and blesses us with the ability to overcome that which seems insurmountable. If God's grace was an ocean, HOA 2010 just sank into it. I'm honored to have gone down with that ship and her crew.

In The Beginning...

2010-11-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh...it's been nice taking a bit of a blogging break. With all of the November challenges and CFS's big upcoming move (woohoo!) taking up lot's of time, I've made a conscious effort to spend as little time as possible staring at the computer (aka "the devil's eyeball"...kidding...but, seriously) and as much free time as possible hanging with Jenny and Vin. Me and Vin made a rediculously awesome music video the other night. You can check it out on my facestalk page and MTV...Well...VH1, probably not MTV. Everyone knows MTV doesn't actually play music videos- their genius programming only allows for reality shows starring fake-tanned, sparkly-hat and/or shirt-wearing drunk people with VD.

Speaking of "Girls Gone Wild", that's exactly the WOD I re-tackled today after first doing the CFS WOD at 7am where I bench pressed 300lb for the first time (which surprised the heck out of me since I rarely bench press and, more accurately, have a history of really sucking at it). This time, I did the GGW workout with a little bit of a twist: 10 minutes to complete the GGW WOD (10 C & J @ 135lb, 50 DUs, 50 Sit Ups, 21 Thrusters @ 95lb, 21 Pull Ups, 10 C & J @ 135lb) THEN with any remaining time, perform AMRAP of "Cindy" (5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats). It was a beautiful disaster. 4:54 on the GGW WOD and 4 complete rds plus 5 pull ups and 10 push ups with the remaining time. It was a productive day. I love the feeling I get when I teeter on the edge of "I'm pushing it hard enough" and "I'm pushing it too hard". When the line between the two becomes blurred, I know I'm in my ideal training zone. It's not necessarily the "unload your clip" pace or the "everyday I MUST go all-out...or else..." mentality I attempted to maintain from January through May during last year's CrossFit Games season, but for me it's a realistic and optimal place to be day-in and day-out when my objective is to maintain conditioning and prevent burn-out by protecting my sanity.

Yesterday, we took on WOD 3 from Melissa's South Central Regional Qualifier for the 2010 Games: 100 DUs, 3rds of 10 Deadlifts @ 275/185lb (no dropping) & 200m Sandbag run @ 75/50lb (we used 90/60lb sandbags...uphill...both ways...in the snow) and then 1000m Row (we did 1000m run because the row class was rowing). My time was 13:35. Good times. T minus 4 days 'til HOA...until then...

The End.

I Got It, Daddy!!!

2010-11-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

Got a couple of great workouts in today. At 11am I did 3 rounds of: 15 Front Squats, 135; 150ft Prowler sled push (255lb), 15 Pull Ups staight into 3 round of: 15 Push Press, 135lb; 150ft Prowler sled push (255lb), and 15 TTB. Good WOD- didn't keep time but I think it took around 20 minutes. The "5k Gone Bad" judges/volunteer practice run was tonight at 4pm. Around 40 of the 50-60 judges and volunteers participated with local media (KSPR) covering the evening. It was a great time and a tough run! I took it on after having eaten a late lunch just 45 minutes prior to launch and paid for it the during 1st 2000m. Once my body reached steady state and cruising altitude all was well with the world. This event, which will be held on November 27th, is shaping up to be an extremely positive experience. Can't wait to see how things shake out! Afterwards, a group of us watched my 2 year old son, Vin, as he put on a deadlifting clinic. He's pretty much got his routine down: If its a drum, he beats it; if it's a guitar, he plays it; and if it's a bar, it's gonna get lifted. Good boy.

My training has continued to go well, I've worked with more moderate loads and intermediate time-domains recently just to give my SI joint a bit of a break. I've had some hip/pelvic issues lately so I've been trying to not force the issue. Overall, Im feel great going into next weekend's 2nd annual Heart of America Challenge in St. Louis. With 32 teams competing, the competition should be stacked with some great CrossFitters from throughout the Midwest. I'm thrilled to have 9 teams from CrossFit Springfield represented at this year's event!

How Much Snatch Could A Good Snatch Snatch If A Good Snatch Could Snatch Snatch?

2010-11-04T20:24:00.001-07:00

SO, guess what I did today? That's right, Clean & Jerk practice. No. The CrossFit Main page Snatch WOD: Perform 1 snatch at the top of each minute for 15 minutes. Post highest and lowest efforts. My goal going into the WOD was to pound technique an stay fairly conservative with my weight progression. My hope was to have no missed reps within my 15 minute time-frame. At the start of my 15 minute time period, I came in at 175lb and nailed it. I continued to successfully snatch 175 four more times and at minute 6 progressed to 185lb. I hit 5 consecutive 185lb lifts so for minute 11, I up'd the load to 190lb. For minute 12, I snatched 195lb. On minute 13, I jumped to 200lb and at minute 14, I hit 205lb, Going into minute 15, I jumped 10lb to finish with 215lb (previous PR). My first 215lb attempt failed, but I regrouped and managed to successfully snatch 215lb prior to time expiring. My range for the WOD was 175-215lb. After time ran out I attempted 220 twice but missed on both attempts and decided to call it quits.

At 11:30am Chance and myself took on WOD 3 for CrossFit Springfield's Fighfighter Challenge this weekend...

WOD 3:

One team member (A) must hold a 95/65lb barbell front racked while the other team member (B) runs around the building (285m).

Then Switch.

Team member (B) holds a 95/65lb barbell front racked while their partner (A) runs around the building (285m).

Partner (A) then picks up and front racks a 95/65lb barbell as well. Both athletes must then perform 30 Push presses each - HOWEVER – for either of your reps to count, while you perform your push press reps, your partner must simultaneously have their bar on their shoulders in the front racked position. Only one person may work at a time. While one teammate is accumulating reps, if the other partner lowers their bar from the racked position, the working persons reps will not count.

Once both athletes have completed 30 reps of push press each, both athletes will, one at a time, complete a 300ft prowler sled push (255/185lb).

Once both athletes have completed the sled pushes, the athletes will take turns performing a 150ft buddy carry or drag.

Once both athletes have completed the buddy carries, they will simultaneously complete a 300ft farmers carry (55/35lb in each hand)

Finally, Both partners must perform 15 Burpees each (both may work simultaneously)

Score = team time to complete the WOD. This WOD has a 17 minute time-limit.

We did the WOD dressed in full firefighter turnout gear with liners minus boots (except that I actually tried it in the boots and it was rediculous- so we're nixxing them and alowwing tennis shoes for the event). Our time was: 10:30. It's a tough WOD- full of just enough variety and suck factor that it will surely make for an interesting competition when winning and losing is on the line.

Saturday...12pm...CrossFit Springfield's 2nd Annual Firefighters Challenge!!! Come on out and cheer the 12 teams on!!! It's gonna be a battle, fo sho!!!

One Silly Monkey Jumpin' On The Bed...

2010-10-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

A whole crazy week of fun and excitment has ripped right on by and I've blogged about none of it. Commense Operation: "Catch Up"...Vin continues to punish the drumset I bought him a couple of weeks ago. He actually beat the thing so badly that we had to take him to the guitar center to buy a new cymbal to replace the one he broke in half. We've been doing the potty training thing for the past week and Vin has surprisingly taken to the whole "Big boys must empty their bladder and bowel contents in the elmo potty" coaching quite well. We've only had one or two accidents, but fortunately for me, I'm a pro at doing burpees with poop in my pants. Family-time has been wonderful as of late. With Vin getting a little bit older, it's been nice to have some sweet father/son bonding opportunities with him...Such as: Watching Vin jumping up and down and screaming on his bed, watching Vin when he falls off of said bed, getting fake red dragon tattoos, getting real red dragon tattoos (kidding- or am I?), rockin' out to Green Day's Know Your Enemy (Vin on the Drums, me on the guitar & vocals- oh, trust me- it's HOT), and of course there was getting Vin to go for a 55lb deadlift PR...20lb over his bodyweight...OH, YESSSSS!!! He got it. I don't think he really knew what happened but I thought it was pretty frickin' exciting.

My training has gone well over the past couple of weeks. I feel good enough. I feel strong enough. I feel conditioned enough. For right now. With alot of the met-cons I'm doing right now, I'm playing around with my pacing and work/rest management. My weaknesses have tended to present themselves in WODs with 15-25 minute time domains, so lately, I've been trying to practice WODs within that time-frame more often. I've kept mostly to my "S.E.M" rotation, gotten at least one new PR (OHS x 3 @ 245lb), and most importantly, had a crap-ton of fun. I'm really trying to focus on the fun right now, mainly because I know the rigorous grind of training for next year's CFit Games competition season will be here before we know it. Come next January, there will be nothing fun about the programming I dish out to myself...Spinach, Broccoli, Chicken, and Pain. Mmmm...mmmm...GOOD.

Highway To The Dangerzone

2010-10-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

With the hustle and bustle of life smothering my face off as of late, blogging has been at the bottom of my "to-do" list. Monday's 1pm CFS WOD was a brutal 5 round couplet of 100 ft Overhead walking lunges (95lb) and 15 Ring Dips. My time was 14:53 and I haven't walked straight since- the ole' B-double-Oh-Tee-Why is SORE. Tuesday I must have done something forgettable cuz I've now forgotten what I did...but I know without a doubt I did do something. I think. It was a strength WOD of some sort I believe. Yesterday (Wed) was 3 rounds of max reps HSPU, max reps chest to bar pull ups, and max reps backsquat @ 165lb- 40 minute time limit. Anytime you have a max effort WOD, you go into it knowing it's gonna pretty much be like having your brain and your body knifefight each other to the death. So needless to say, the workout was awful- and the scary part: It would have been even more awful if I'd have allowed myself to fly into the doomed "6th gear dangerzone". If you're a crossfitter you know exactly what I'm talkin' bout'. It's the deepest realm of unfathomable SUCK. Unfortunately (and fortunately), for me I went there on Monday so yesterday my transmission was still BROKEN-OFF sumthin' fierce. As my mind screamed, "Mayday, Mayday!" and ordered my body to "Commense Operation: Crush This WOD!", my body replied in a calm, yet resolute tone, "Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full." C'est la Vie...I live to fight another day. I got 208 reps on the workout. Then Maverick put a quarter in the jukebox, played "You've lost that lovin' feeling", kissed Charlie and they both drove off into the sunset on his motercycle.

Power Cleans & Burpees Makes Jack A Dull Boy

2010-10-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

I did the crossfit.com daily WOD on Friday evening...3 rounds of 15 hang power cleans & 15 burpees. It was a killer. My time was 3:40. The burpees on the 2nd and 3rd rounds were just awful but I moved through them pretty well I suppose. I hate burpees. Demolition and infill begins tomorrow at our new facility! I'm still in awe that it's only been 11 months and CrossFit Springfield will yet again be moving into another space. This will be our 5th home since July of 2008. The size difference (from 5000 sq ft to 12500sq ft) is overwhelming and the A/C'd locker rooms, childcare area, and office will be a huge God-send come next summer. Our initial hope was to be operational by November 27th for the CFS "5k gone bad" event, but with all of the permitting and inspections that go along with construction it's looking like we won't be fully moved in until early December. This evening, prior to a CFS coaches meeting we did 10 minutes of: 1, then 2, then 3 reps and so on of: Snatch grip deadlift, Squat Snatch, and OHS. After each round perform 5 Ring dips. Reach the highest possible round in the 10 minute time-frame. I made it to 2 OHS reps shy of round 8. Looking forward to a great week!

The Baby Whisperer

2010-10-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

So today I went with Grant and Melissa to visit Jessi, Ashley, and to greet their newborn son, Gaines, at Cox South. I've been so excited for the Groves and the arrival of this little guy and I couldn't wait to meet him. Knowing full well that the rest of the CrossFit Springfield family has been on pins and needles waiting to see pictures, I asked Jessi if I could take a couple of pics of their bundle of joy with my iphone. She said it was cool so I busted out the camera and right as I hit the button to take the picture here's what Gaines gives me:

It's just the perfect moment captured, right? He looks so sweet and peaceful...Here's the craziest thing: As I stood in the Grove's hospital room, staring at the image on my phone of this beautiful little miracle I couldn't help but be reminded of one of the first pictures we ever got of our own beautiful little miracle, Vincent, 2 and half years ago (don't forget the half, dang it - Vin gets pissed when you forget the half):

Now if I could only learn how to get kids to obey me as well I can get'em to smile...THAT would be really impressive :)

As for my ongoing workout adventures, today I did the CFS WOD of 2-2-2-2-2-2-2 Overhead Squat and 21-15-9 OHS @ 95lb and Ring Rows. My best 2RM OHS was 265lb and my time on the OHS/Ring Row couplet was 3:11.

Whatever My Lot...

2010-10-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been in cruise control for the past couple of weeks. It's not inherently good or bad it just is...going all out in a WOD or two during the day has helped to relieve me of alot of mental and physical stress. We recently finished getting our house ready and put it up on the market which has taken alot of time and energy but it's been well worth the effort to rid ourselves of a lot of clutter.

Another life-issue as of late has been praying for a close family member of mine who's been dealing with some medical issues. Quite frankly, the suddeness of the situation has shaken me a bit, but I remain confident that God's will will be done and prayerful for His peace and protection over my loved one.

A few nights ago, as a healthy dose of confusion and fear raced through my mind and spirit, I prayed for God to speak to my heart and to give me comfort. Awesomely enough, the next day I had planned to meet a buddy of mine for what I like to refer to as our weekly "Iron-sharpening" session- which basically boils down to us consuming gallons of coffee, eating breakfast and solving the problems of the world, all the while managing to interject as many biblical principals as possible into our conversation about disciplining our boys for acting like nutless monkeys...it's actually quite spiritually uplifting (however, it could just be the gallons of coffee). At any rate, I was supposed to have read the second half of Ephesians 3 and hadn't done it, so I figured I'd bust out the Good Book and see if God would drop some calming knowledge on my heavy heart. Here's what I got:

(Ephesians 3:14-21) For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell ...in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I've had times where I have felt as though God had just grabbed me by the shirt collar and said, "LISTEN UP, MOWHAWK BOY! I'm talking to YOU!" This was indeed one of those times. Though, the coolest thing is that not only did God speak volumes to me through this passage when I read it- it more importantly spoke volumes to the individual who is confronting said medical issues when I shared it with them. Wonderful, powerful, non-accidental stuff.

Punk-in Patch Kids

2010-10-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

...doesn't get much better than this.

Chasing Perfection, Catching Excellence

2010-10-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

Coached some great group WODs today at CrossFit Springfield. The WOD was Row 500, 400, 300, 200, 100m, each for time resting 2-3 minutes between efforts. Everyone showed up ready to rock and throughout the course of the day there were some excellent times posted in each class. I never cease to be encouraged by the level of effort given by the athletes who participate at CFS. I loved watching as partners cheered, pushed, and pleaded with each other to keep fighting through each row to the very finish. Energy like what we experieced in the box today relates quite well to a quote by Vince Lombardi who once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." Today I witnessed, many times over, our members not just striving to perform to a standard, but rather, striving to set higher standards of performance. We are truly blessed to function within a community of people who genuinely wish to see each other be at their best.

2010 CrossFit Games Champ, Kristan Clever sums up what many CrossFitters often realize early on in their CrossFit experience (scroll down the main page to view the video): "I Can Totally Do That" with Kristan Clever - video

I tackled the 500m portion of today's CFS WOD with the sole purpose of besting my previous 500m row PR of 1:29. With the coaching and ultra-motivating screams of the noon crew I was able to, rowing 500m in 1:27 for a new (and quite painful) PR. Wanting to still do the 1pm WOD of Push Press (no push jerk) 2-2-2-2-2-2-2, I stopped while I still had some gas in the tank and went through the push press progression as follows: 155/175/195/215/225/235f/235. Wish I would've tried 245 but ran out of time. Afterwards, I did a met-con of 20-10 Push Jerk @ 135 & Burpee Pull Ups. I'd done this one back in January fresh and did it in 3:56. Today, with a higher burpee pull-up bar and after two short WODs my time was 3:59. I didn't worry much about my time as I was going, mainly just getting through it- that task alone was pretty greuling.

Stinkerpotamous

2010-10-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

It feels like I've slept many, many moons since my last post and unfortunately also since my last workout! On Thursday of last week I did the CFS partner WOD with Coach Chance- the WOD (one person may work at a time- partition the reps as you wish) was:

Run 100m
30 Deadlift, 185/115lb
Run 100m
50 KB Swings, 55/35lb
Run 100m
20 Hurdle Burpees over 12″ Parallette
Run 100m
20 Tire Flips
Run 100m
50 Single Leg RDL’s, 55/35lb
Run 100m
30 STRICT Pull Ups (From A Dead Hang)
Both Partners Run 400m Together

I love team workouts. Whenever you're training alone, it's so easy to feel sorry for yourself and let off the gas; do the same with a partner or in a team setting and you let other people down as well. That ain't cool. Chance definitely didn't disappoint when it came to his performance and giving it his all- our time was 11:01.

After taking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off to get some chores done around the house and eat like a pig, I looked forward to training like a psycho today. At noon, with a great push from Seabiscuit and Grant, I did the 10/4/10 CFS WOD: Row 200m, then 5-4-3-2-1 Squat Clean & Jerk @ 155lb & Muscle Ups, and finish with 400m Row. Going into this one, my strategy was to hang onto the bar and the rings and get as much of the squat cleans and muscle ups done unbroken or consecutively as possible. I'm not really sure if it was the best strategy as after getting the first 5 of each, my body started to reject the work I was trying to impose on it. I had one missed muscle up that Grant said may have cost me 20 seconds. Regardless, after what felt like the LONGEST 400m row ever, the end eventually came. My time was 6:40 and my lung function now feels like it's hovering somewhere in the vacinity of 30-40%. It's probably the combination of the WOD being a gasser and the cooler weather.

To make sure I sufficiently punished myself for crashing the CrossFit Springfield "Girls Night Out" outing this past Saturday (Jenny figured that I'd be more than metro enough to hang...and boy was she right), I followed up today's noon session with none other than "Murph" at 1pm. Not the smartest thing I've ever done for myself when it comes to my training, but I figured, "Don't be a weiner, dude. You deserve this." The conditioning was great but there was nothing glorious about my time. It took me 40:31- which is somewhere around 6 or 7 minutes slower than my PR- which is prrretty slow to begin with :). Should sleep excellently tonight.

Stretch Yo-Self B4 U Wreck Yo-Self

2010-09-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Tuesday 9/28) I did 3 Rounds for time of:

6 HSPU on Parallettes

12 Clean & Jerk, 135lb

18 Deadlift, 225lb

24 Pull Ups

30 Double Unders

Nasty WOD and I loved it. My time was 17:41. Today I woke up and could really feel the effects of the past two days of training. Every muscle and joint felt tight and achy. I did yoga today at 10am and felt so much better afterwards. My stretching game as of late has been almost non-exsistent whereas in the past it's been on point. I did yoga a few times prior to Sectionals and Regionals earlier this year and I know that doing it in conjunction with once a week sports massage/PRT and daily stretching really benefitted my overall athletic performance. I'm not gonna lie- after recently seeing a CrossFit Journal video of 2010 Games champ, Graham Holmberg incorporating yoga into his training routine- it reminded me of how much better I felt when I was including it in mine. Trust me, I've got no shame when it comes to ripping off anyone's game- ecspecially not Graham Holmberg's.

After training a few clients and grabbing some lunch, this afternoon I did a strength workout of 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Snatch Balance and got to 245lb. I followed that up with a 5k Row for conditioning.

As for the most exciting part of my day...well, you'll just have to read for yourself (Read Comment # 24 first then scroll down to Comment # 30): http://crossfit-springfield.com/?p=6119#comments . I've heard that Coach Glassman once said, "When I step into your facility, I'll be able to tell the most about how successful your business is by first inspecting the bathrooms." Coach...Don't worry, at CrossFit Springfield we show no discrimination when it comes to making sure turds of all colors, creeds, shapes, and sizes are dealt with and properly destroyed. We also flush our poop.

Lock'in Out Loud!!!

2010-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

I got to spend some quality time with Vin this past weekend as Jenny traveled to Kansas City for a getaway with some girlfriends. It was the first time for me to bachelor pad it up with the little guy for a whole weekend so I was a little iffy on how he'd do...more importantly, I was iffy on how I'd do. Friday night we went to a sweet fundraiser at Randy Bacon Studios downtown for an organization called Speed The Light. My brother, Josh, played with his band and they absolutely tore it up- I was so proud! Vin, being the huge music lover that he is, thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. Afterwards, Josh took him up on stage and let him bang around on the drums- which gave me the idea to hook my little man up with a drumset for miniature-sized humans. I promised to get it for him BUT not without first making one of the most genius parenting moves I've ever made: He had to promise to be a good boy all weekend. It should be noted that there are varying degrees of good-boy-ness. Regardless, Vin made life relatively easy for daddy (and consequently, for himself) the rest of the weekend. On Saturday afternoon we cruised up to Toy R Us and Vin picked out a black and blue drumset to beat up on. We've already started up an 80s hair band "Metabolic Acidosis", shot a music video for our hit single "Lock'in Out Loud", and bought ourselves fifty pairs of leapard-print spandex pants. Groupies beware: Vin has thrice been to rehab for overdosing on chocolate milk. He also has a tendency to poop in his spandex (trust me, you don't wanna be on the tour bus when special guest, "Number Two" performs). Buy our album or doom on you.
As for the un-important stuff...today I did the Filthy 50. Previous PR was 21:47. I did 21:06 today which isn't the sub-20minute time I'd always dreamed of growing up as a kid (I hope you smell the sarcasm and enjoy the way it tastes) but I'll take the 40 second PR. It never fails, it's those dang burpees at the end that get me. Oh well. This afternoon, I hit up "Elizabeth" (21-15-9 of Squat clean @ 135lb and Ring Dips). My best "Elizabeth" time is 6:43 - today I got 6:47. I'm happy to have come within 4 seconds of my previous best, ecspecially after having done the Filthy 50 this AM.

Creating A Monsterpiece

2010-09-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

Not that I ever expected any other outcome, but doing "Fran" twice on Monday absolutely destroyed me. I'm still all kinds of sore all over. Yesterday, I followed Monday's cram session up with a great push/pull WOD for time of:

Row 500m, 50 Ring Push Ups, Row 1000m, 35 Ring Push Ups, Row 1500m, 20 Ring Push Ups

It's the same format as a CrossFit.com main page rowing/wallball WOD I've done a couple times before. My time on this little gem was 17:01. Today, just like every other day, I tried to devise an evil workout for the CFS peeps to do tomorrow. After almost three years of writing and programming WODs daily for CrossFit Springfield, I sometimes get writers block. There have been many occasions where I've spent an entire evening writing and re-writing WODs only to eventually post a workout like "Grace". Likewise, there are times where I've sat down and had a crazy masterpiece production of a WOD written up in less time than it takes to do "Grace". There's a great quote by CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman, where he describes CrossFit by saying, "The magic is in the movement, the art is in the programming, the science is in the explanation, and the fun is in the community." This quote encourages me and reminds me to allow myself the freedom to have fun and be creative when it comes to writing WODs. Not that every workout needs to be some clever creation- usually, the simpler the WOD looks on paper, the more dangerous it is in practice. With that in mind, I decided to put myself through the torture that will be visiting CrossFit Springfield's member's tomorrow (9/23/10)...check out the workout by clicking HERE. I scored 63 burpees on the first part and after resting exactly 3 minutes, did the 15-10-5 SDHP @ 115lb and Burpees in 2:37. Here is video of me doing the second portion of the CFS WOD for 9/23...

I Heart "Fran" (Squared)

2010-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

After a nice relaxing weekend, today I felt ready to start my week out strong. Jenny and I had the opportunity to go out on Saturday with a big group of CFS peeps- which was a blast! It's always nice to hang with everyone outside of the gym. Yesterday we had a meeting up at the box to discuss some of the specs for our upcoming 5k Gone Bad event. It's shaping up to be a very fun and unique race.

At noon today I did 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 Backsquat with Grant (225-245-275-275-305-305-315-335-335). After taking a 15min break to recover and to "get my mind right", I did "Fran". The last time I did "Fran" my time was 3 minutes even. Today, with an awesome push from a few people from the noon crew, I PR'd with a time of 2:32. My goal was to get sub-3 and, make it through every set unbroken. Although I managed the sub-3, I screwed up on my 21 pull ups and came off the bar at 20, thinking I had hit my 21 reps. The mistake cost me at least four or five seconds. I'm was otherwise fairly happy with my performance and the outcome.

But WAIT!!! Upon further review, my squat depth was garbage on more than a few reps (the camera angle didn't help either). So, what does any normal crossfitter do (and by normal I of course mean psycho)? Why they do the dang thing over again, that's what...and 3 hours later, at 3:50pm, that's precisely what I did. This time, using a medball for depth, I did 2:42 hitting everything unbroken except the last 9 pull ups. Am I happy now, you ask? Nope. Of course not. My hands are completely torn to shreds and I did it 10 seconds slower. But I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight knowing that I did it legit, got a PR, AND knowing that I can still go faster. I just gotta do it right the first time while I've got my mohawk mojo. Next time, if I can manage to not have any miscues, I think it's realistic for me to shoot for a sub-2:30 time.

I'm thinking tomorrow will be a good day to do an endurance WOD of rowing to log some meters for the C2 fall rowing challenge...Gonna kill 2 birds with one stone, baby! Here's a video of the 2:32 "Fran" with the bush-leauge thrusters (at 12:50pm today)...

And here's the legit 2:42 "Fran" (at 3:50pm today)...

Thruster/Muscle Up WOD

2010-09-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

Did the CrossFit main page WOD today: 9-6-3 rds of Thruster @ 165lb and Muscle Ups (CFit Games movement standard for the MUs; full turn-out with thumbs forward at the bottom). It was a sweet met-con/sprint workout. I did the first 9 muscle ups and the 9-6-3 thruster sets unbroken, but had to do the 6 and 3 rounds of muscle ups individually. On the round of 6, I did 7 muscle ups by accident. My time without the unecessary rep at the end was 4:20 - 4:28 with it. Yet another perfect example of why you should have someone count your reps.

1 RM Rack Jerk

2010-09-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today I did the Again Faster Competition WOD for week 2 with Seabiscuit: 1RM Rack Jerk. A couple of weeks ago I did 275lb which was a PR. This afternoon I got 285lb and came extremely close to 295lb twice. I'll get it, dang it. I know a 285lb rack jerk is garbage to alot of top-notch CrossFit athletes, but hey, so are most of my numbers! I can live with that. I just can't live with knowing that I can do more but not doing it.

Today I also rowed 2500m to log some meters for the C2 fall rowing challenge that CFS is participating in. Yes, I know there are some of you who are rowing somewhere in the vacinity of 150,000m a day and you're all like, "What! Only 2500m?! That's weak sauce, Cochise!" For the record- yes, on both counts: Only 2500m and I'm full of weak sauce. Don't judge, home-slice. Speaking of the C2 rowing challenge, I'm excited to see what kind of final number our box can put up! Below is the video of the 285 jerk- Head's up: I hope you have a glass of wine handy; I'll admit the post-lift victory yell is muy cheesy. I gotta be THAT guy. Jeesh, I annoy myself...

Be Strong And Take Heart

2010-09-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today started out weird. I had just dropped by starbucks to get an overpriced cup-o-mud, and as I was driving in a downpour on my way to the gym, I passed by the scene of an accident at Sunshine and Fort where a man had been struck by a vehicle as he was attempting to cross the street on foot. EMS crews had already been dispatched but judging by the large indentation the guy left on the front windshield of the car that hit him, it didn't look like a good situation. After having personally experienced a traumatic side-of-the-road near catastrophe two years ago with my lovely wife and my numero uno "ride or die chick" as I loveingly refer to Jenny as, I've never been the same whenever I find myself driving by a traffic accident. The magnitude of the incident we experienced on April 7th, 2008 still resonates within my spirit each day for me. Although I've told the story of what happened on that day countless times, I've never actually taken the time to articulate the event, all my thoughts, and all my feelings in writing. I don't necessarily believe now is the time to do it, but I will say this: Because of that day, I now find it nearly impossible to ever allow a day to go by without looking my wife in the eyes and telling her how much she truly means to me, without telling her how much I'm thankful for her, and without telling her how much I love her. Yes, this is indeed a sappy, lovey dovey, soliloquy- but- not one without merit. Miracles, by their very nature capture us, grip our hearts, and put us in awe. In my life up to this point, it is the miracle of Jenny's survival on that day which has left me forever greatful for God's grace, His peace, His mercy, and His awesome healing power. So often we mistreat those whom we love the most. I, of course, still have my moments. But when our family experienced the heart-stopping (pun intended) events of April 7th, 2008, I had a moment where I instinctivly reached for my bible and my eyes were led to this scripture in the 27th chapter of Psalm, verses 13 & 14:

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

In that moment and this, my spirit was and is empowered knowing that with patience, strength, courage, and faith in God, there is a destiny of purpose and goodness that I can walk through life with. You can too.

You vs Gravity

2010-09-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

...60% of the time, you lose everytime. I've done a hodge-podge of WODs over the past few days: The CFS 9/11 Memorial WOD (7:35), 1RM Snatch (210lb), "The Seven" Hero WOD (33:27), and today I did 7 x 3 Backsquat to 315lb and the CFS advanced WOD which was 30 Hang Power Cleans @ 135lb, *300m Farmer's Walk 2 x 70lb, and 30 Chest to bar pull ups for time (9:25) *Everytime you set down the weight, perform 3 burpees. I've had some good workouts (9/11) and alot where I felt pretty sissyfied (basically, all of the others). Tis' the glorious nature of the crossfit beast, I guess.

I can definitely feel the effects of being out sick for a week from a strength standpoint. In general, everything heavy feels heavier than usual right now. I've always sucked at backsquat, but backsquatting 315lb today I felt as if my lower intestines were going to come flying out of my belly button. I dropped down to 275lb on my last two sets and even those reps felt heavy. There's an interesting mind-game that goes on (which I love) when you train with larger loads. You can literally screw yourself out of a lift if you aren't confident and assertive straight from the get-go of an attempt. Ten times out of ten, you'll gain confidence as you train with heavier loads. You've just got to let your mind and body be allowed to accomodate to the work. Only when you're sensitive to and aware of the neuromuscular adaptations that must occur in strength training, will you be able to fully obtain your athletic potential. The catch is, you've gotta be patient and diligent enough to practice, which is typically where myself and most of us fall short. As I've said alot over the past few days, it's been nice to finally feel as though I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm eager to participate in the upcoming Heart of America CrossFit Affiliate Challenge this November. The event was such a great success last year and I expect nothing less from this year's competition!

Movin' On Up!!!

2010-09-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

Todays WOD: 3 rounds for time of 25 Wallballs, 50 Ring Rows, 75 DUs, 100m Walking Lunges. Time- 26:29. It was a great conditioning WOD. The ring rows and walking lunges were a bit of a grind. I managed to get all 3 Double Under sets unbroken. Looking forward to hitting a metcon tomorrow...I'm thinking one of the Girls named WODs or possibly even the 9/11 CFS daily WOD of 10 rds: 9 Muscle snatches @ 65lb and 11 OHS @ 65lb.

It's official! Today we took a leap of faith and signed the lease for CrossFit Springfield's next home. It's a 12,500 sq ft facility with air conditioned shower/bath rooms and a childcare area (also AC'd) that will be larger. I'm so thankful for the blessing of growth and excitement within our community right now! I believe this next step is going to allow us to significantly expand our class times, our class sizes, and our ability to positively impact peoples lives through fitness and commradery. Although our CrossFit Springfield community has grown tremendously in numbers over the past two years, I look forward to maintaining the family-like atmosphere which has been the foundation of our gym's success. Please pray for God's hand to be upon us in the coming months as we work to transition our CFS family to the new box! We've all been in situations where we have had to face transition, changes, tough decisions, or new challenges. Time and time again in my life, I've seen and experienced, first hand, the power of prayer and how God can deliver guidance, clarity, and peace even in the craziest of situations. Thank you in advance to everyone who will be praying and believing with us for this move to be an uplifting burst of life into the heart of CrossFit Springfield! 3..2..1..GO!!!

Stop Hitting Yourself!

2010-09-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Oh, if only I had the stones...I'd totally get this as my next tattoo. Like I don't already field a million questions about the ones I've got. What? What do you mean you don't remember the famous bible story of when the angel made the dude strike himself repeatedly in the face? It's only like the coolest miracle ever! Amateur. I need a stinkin' crossfit angel to make me do my burpees.

Today I did the CFS daily WOD: 15 Minutes to reach 1 RM Deadlift, 15 Minutes to reach 1RM shoulder to overhead anyway. Then 1 minute 155lb deadlift AMRAP and 1 minute 45lb seated press AMRAP. I stopped at 475lb on deadlift and max'd out at 275lb for the shoulder to overhead. For the 1 minute AMRAP 155lb deadlift, I did 50 reps. Instead of the 1 minute AMRAP 45lb seated press I did 1 minute AMRAP of 95lb push press for 40 reps. I decided to call it quits early on deadlift just to not overdo it after being out sick all of last week. On the shoulder to overhead, I attempted 285lb once after hitting 275lb. After missing the lift I could tell it wouldn't be worthwhile to try again so I called it good for the day. It's felt great to slowly be getting back into the mix. I feel I've regained a ton of strength and confidence over the past three days that I've been able to resume training.

Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.

2010-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

"I whuan to whiiiiin!"

The longer I am blessed to work in the industry of strength and conditioning, the more I revel at raw, God-given, uncoached, athletic ability. I mean, the athlete that is just naturally big, fast, strong, agile- and seemingly good at everything. What is most interesting though, is when you take the raw talented athlete, and put them into an unfamiliar athletic scenerio where skill, technique and finess' is also required. Oftentimes we see the athlete get by (if at all) purely based on their drive to succeed and raw ability- but these situations expose those areas which might need to be worked on if the athlete were to want to become more proficient at performing the task.

After being out of training for a week, the dumbest thing I could do would be to "gut" through a bunch of workouts and focus only on my WOD time, without rebuilding- or at least shoring up- my squat technique, my overall conditioning, and all of the basic movements that we hit on a weekly basis as crossfitters: running, rowing, pushing, swinging, pulling, pressing, lunging, snatching, cleaning, and jumping. My goal this week has been to reintroduce all of these modalities to myself in small doses and without the pressure of performing them for time- more like performing them for perfection. I always say to new crossfitters, "If your bodyweight squat sucks right now, why would I think that strapping a weighted bar to your back and having you do as many reps as possible in 3 minutes would be a good idea?" Obviously, it wouldn't be because you're not ready for that next step. It's all about progression- whether it be progression back to fitness from illness or injury or progression back to athleticicm from sedentarism- you can't throw too much at your client/member/athlete/yourself too fast and expect any success to be accompanied by competence. Which brings me full circle back to my original idea (Which is actually Greg Glassman's original idea- but I agree:): "Start with the basics and master them...then add the more dynamic and complex modalities and master them...then go back...begin anew, start again with the basics, only this time pay much closer attention."

So that's what I did today. I payed closer attention. I kept it simple. I was more purposeful and mindful of my movement. Was I slower? Absolutely. But did I get better? You bet your ipalopicusindabadangdang I did. As I practiced squat clean this afternoon I allowed myself time to repeat submaximal attempts of up to 250lb until my technique was solid and consistent. Main page WOD is Fran for tomorrow- Uh, Oh...there may have to be some gutting through the pain if I decide to give that one a go! We'll see. I might have to make it a gameday decision.

Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn't Work Hard.

2010-09-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, the sweet sounds of CrossFit Springfield. A little gangster-death metal-brit rock-hip hop-fusion blaring from the speakers in every corner of the box, barbells crashing to the ground, C2 Rower wheels spinning with each rip of the chain, coaches trying to yell orders to 25 athletes over all of the madness...it's perfect...and Oh, how I've missed it SO dearly over the past few days. I got out of the hospital on Friday and went straight to visit the gym. When I walked in, Jessi lovingly told me that with my drugged up eyes and IV needle holed-up arms, I looked like her pet cats when they get picked up from the vet. For the most part, I felt fine- just a little weak from the 48 hr liquid only diet and from being bedridden for three days. While I had time to lay in a dark hospital room and assess my plight, I came to the realization that I've gotta do a better job of managing my work- consisting primarily of training clients, coaching classes, answering and returning emails and phone calls, cleaning the box, and maintaining the CFS website, my training volume which, even though I've recently tried to be more methodical, is sometimes a bit too much when combined with work and my final main duty: My family. At some point (that point, for me, being hospitalization) something's gotta give. I've resolved to continue to eat healthy, train 4-6 days/week, and adhere to my S.E.M method. What I'd like to change is the precidence I've been giving my training over everything else. The problem lies in trying to fit so much into 24hrs that some things- oftentimes, many things- end up being adversly affected. I know it's a time management issue- but there's also something else- one of the most appealing parts of CrossFit to me: Having the drive to excel, the competitive fire to perform on an athletic stage, and the mental toughness to push through any type of adversity. These 3 ideals make it hard for me to let off of the accelerator when I'm going 30mph over the speed limit and it's slick out. Though after this last week, I now know I must let up a bit- at least for right now. For my personal health, for the health and quality of the work I do for CrossFit Springfield, and most importantly- for the health and sanity of my family.

So, with all these things in mind, my first WOD back was great! Today I did Melissa's rowing class WOD which was performed as a pyramid (perform the first task-then add the next, but start over with the first each time you add another task)- My goal was to perform each set unbroken for the entire WOD...

*For time:

10 OHS, 95lb

Row 400m

30 KB Swings, 55lb

40 Push Ups

Row 400m

60 Sit Ups

*Each time you break a set, you must perform a 15 burpee penalty. I had no broken sets and finished the WOD relatively fast considering the amount of recovery time I gave myself in between each modality. It was a fun little workout- Jessi did it with me- she's still crushing workouts with 3 weeks to go until her due date! Awesome. Jessi, Grant, Melissa, and myself are extremely exited right now about the state of CFS for alot of reasons:

1. We're currently working to move to a 12,500sq ft facility located directly behind our current 5,000sq ft box. I just threw up in my mouth- I'm both excited and anxious for this!!!

2. We're locking down a date for next spring (April) to host a CrossFit Olympic Lifting Cert with USAW Coach Mike Burgener! This will be amazing. No doubt.

3. Fall Team Bootcamp in October, Heart of America and 5k Gone Bad in November, Fall CFS Fire Fighters Challenge all coming soon!!! Lot's to plan for- it'll all be here soon!

Gotta keep on, keepin' on!!! Good Stuff.

Meningitis Blues

2010-09-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Why CrossFit? Because no amount of aseptic viral meningitis can ever keep you from overhead squating an IV stand - with meds attatched, mind you!

Viral Meningitis. Seriously? Kinda sounds like a venereal disease. Saying it to your friends almost makes you blush: Hello, my name is Jeremy and I have viral meningitis. What? Like you've been promiscuous? Ummm, No. Meningitis basically means that the protective "shell" of your brain and spinal cord, the meninges, is inflammed. The best part is, unlike venereal disease, you don't even have to sleep with 7 out of 10 students at Missouri State (10 out of 10 at Mizzou) to get it!!! Whoo hoo! Zing. It also means that you'll feel like your head got smashed under the weight of a thousand pound barbell, you'll be unable to look down, light will suck, standing upright will suck more, and the cumulative effect of these symptoms will result in nausea and, ultimately, vomiting. I know what your thinking: Isn't that how crossfitters feel everyday? On one hand, your absolutely right. Yes. Touch'e. On the other hand, this was the most painful "headache" feeling I've ever experience in my life. I went to bed Monday night feeling great about my "Jackie" PR and the clever jabs I took at myself on my last blog-post...slept like a babe. I woke up Tuesday with Thor's hammer handle sticking out of my earhole. I mean my head literally felt like someone shoved a chainsaw up my nose and turned it on. And it just got worse. As the day wore on, even after leaving work, going home, laying down, and resting, I started running a fever. Which, I would argue, is better than running at a feverish pace, but that's niether here nor there. Anyways, short story long: I knew something wasn't right so I went to the ER and was greeted in the triage waiting area by some random dude who handed me a flier and business card trying to solicit me to join his tykwando studio. I kid you not if I'd have been able to see straight I would've judo-chopped that clown straight in the neck. Instead I just muttered, "Dude, your timing seriously sucks" and let Jenny shoot her deadly eye-glare darts at him (which, trust me, are much more lethal than judo-chops). After a CT scan of my dome, a lumbar spinal tap ("this one goes to eleven"), a brain MRI, and enough pain meds, anti-virals, and anti-biotics to both cure and severely sedate the entire nation of Khasakhstan and just one of the Jonas brothers (you may choose which one lives- the rest will die!), the doctors here are now assured with 53% certainty that it is definitely possible that I may or may not have aseptic viral meningitis. They should maybe know for sure tomorrow when they get the final lab reports. Either way, I'm feeling much better than I did 2 days ago. The headaches are subsiding along with all of the other symptoms. I do feel a little weak because I was restricted to a liquid only diet for the first 48 hours, but obviously not so weak that I can't still overhead squat my IV stand. Finally getting to eat solids today was like Christmas morning. My doctor says this whole deal is probably a by-product of a minor shingles outbreak I had a couple of weeks ago. He thinks it's likely that I'll never have anything like this happen again and that the reason it happened this time is "lightning struck". He is hopeful I'll be able to get out of here tomorrow. I've had a few brave visitors mask and gown up to see me - to whom I'm extremely grateful. I'm also very appreciative for the numerous texts, phone calls, and CFS blog comments I've recieved from everyone. The prayers and words of support and encouragement were effective and have truly helped to lift my spirit. I'm very much missing my Jenny and my Vin and being able to kick it with them. I'm also missing the gym and hanging with my CrossFit Springfield fam'. Can't wait to get back to coaching classes, training clients, and the daily grind. In this situation as with all things in my life, whether good or bad, I will continue to trust in God's hand, His ultimate plan, and His purpose. It's all good.

Hit Me Baby, One More Time

2010-08-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Today, I whooped up on the CFS advanced WOD and then PR'd by a full minute on "Jackie". Then I started a street fight with these two black belt Karate dudes from the dojo next door. I won, of course. Topped off my day with a ride on my custom built west coast chopper- laid the bike out twice, but I'm good. Soooooo gangster, right? No. Why not so gangster, you ask? Because it's really hard to be gangster about anything when you used to be in a boy band. Yep, Jeremy... that's what's called "leverage against your mohawk'd-tatted up-crossfit-loving-Filipino-butt for at least the rest of your life" - probably longer.

Although no amount of seeing the world, headlining tours, or albums recorded and sold will ever make my former life very cool...fortunately for me, it was just that: Very cool. From my vantage point, I was for 4 years afforded the opportunity to get paid to wake up in a different city each day, put stuff like "Slinky's" on a tour rider just to see if the venue would put one in my dressing room (which actually worked), and make music. Well, pretty gay music at times, but still music none-the-less. Ok, gay music all of the time but...I got paid to make it? This isn't going well. Hmmm. How about this: Gay music, all of the time, but I got to do sweet synchronized, choreograghed dance moves.

Soooooo....

Did I mention that I PR'd on "Jackie" today? Yeah, I know. I'm gangster like that.

The Little Box That Could.

2010-08-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Naysayers. If you're in the CrossFit game long enough, you eventually hear them, planting business seeds of doubt here, a little dab of "You'll never make it without me" there. There will always be naysayers. Always. Even when you do the right thing- even when you're honest, even when you try your very best, even when you provide people with positive, effective solutions to their problems- there will always be naysayers. So, what then, do you do? I see it as being a pretty simple solution: You continue to do the right thing, remain honest, always give your best effort, and help people solve their problems. Until one day, you find you have traveled so far that when you look back, you can barely even make out the faces or the voices of your detractors.

As I contemplate the steady growth of CrossFit Sringfield, the thought of moving into yet another larger facility to accomodate our oft overflowing group WODs and rowing classes seems staggering. It seems we were just moving into our current 5,000 sq ft facility less than a year ago with the thought that we'd never be able to outgrow the space very soon. Well...very soon is now upon us and the out-growth of the box we're in is becoming more and more evident each day. Even though it gives me a little anxiety, expanding our operation into a larger space with a larger overhead and a larger pricetag kind of gets me fired up. Not fired up at the thought of expanding some CrossFit Springfield empire hellbent on global domination (though, hey we'd take it :). No, I'm fired up at the opportunity to continue to build the CFS community, I'm fired up at the opportunity that CrossFit Springfield will have in the coming years to impact the Ozarks community through the pooling and giving of our many resources. My prayer is that we would continue to expand our influence in town and encourage and help those in need in the best ways we know how. No matter whether that need is fitness related or otherwise, my vision is that CrossFit Springfield will be a useable, tangible source of strength within our community. Wherever the road leads, I'm confident of this: The CrossFit Springfield team of partners, coaches, members and clients continue to forge a legitimate bond that few groups of people ever truly find in life. If we would point our collected hearts in the right direction and continue to move forward together, there won't be a naysayer in the world with words big enough to overtake the great works we can, and will, do.

~Cochise

I Feel Funny.

2010-08-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week. As planned, I showed up ready to hit it hard on Monday did a 30-3-20-2-10-1 Bench Press strength workout (185-255-205-265-225-275), the Texas Throwdown 9-6-3 "D.T." WOD (in 3:42), and a 3,000m Row. Tuesday I did the 3 rds of 30 Hang Squat Snatches & 30 WallBalls WOD from the '09 Cfit Games in 14:23. I'm not sure if it's that my body feels wrecked from the past couple days of training or from eating paleo again or a combination of both but, regardless, I woke up this morning feeling pretty funny. And not funny like "Funny Ha Ha" funny like "Oh, that's funny: I feel like I just got hit squarely in my privates and twice on both ears with a ball-peen hammer."

Anyways, today I decided to take an active recovery day and did a 2.5 mile run and a 21-15-9 WOD of CTB pull ups, Knees to Elbows, and KB Swings in 7:15. Ok, so the 21-15-9 ended up being alot more work than I'd bargained on, but I was happy with my time to say the least. The weather was absolutely gorgeous during my run. I ran along the part of the Ozark Greenways trail that takes you around the pond at Nathaniel Greene Park. The cool breeze whipping off the water felt nice and refreshing. It was great to just trot along, not keep time, and enjoy the landscape and the day.

Monday Gameface: ON

2010-08-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you go through the weekend and by Monday feel like you never really had a chance to relax, catch your breath, and get your gameface on for the new week. Other times you get invited to the Wistrom's lake casa for the weekend and do nothing for two days except straight up marinate in the sun and stuff your face with fajita's, margaritas, and ice cream. It was definitely a nice precursor to the 6 week CFS paleo challenge which starts tonight. I've decided I'm going to do my best to adhere to it as much as possible for the entire duration. I pretty much did the whole paleo thing for 2 months prior to Sectionals and really felt it benefitted my training and overall athletic performance.

My training as of late has been going well. Last Thursday I did FGB. I was feeling a bit fatigued going into the day, but managed a score of 379 (PR is 385). Based off of having performed the WOD quite a few times now, I could tell I punked out, felt sorry for myself, and held back when I was at my breaking point in rds 2 and 3. On Friday I did a Clean and Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 max effort and reached my PR of 260lb. On my 265lb attempt, I was extremely close to locking it out and just didn't quite drop under the bar enough to make the lift. I did, however, manage to make a complete fool of myself by throwing a temper-tantrum of epic proportions after the failed attempt. After picking up everything I kicked over and apologizing to all those who were witness to my childlike outburst :), I did what any good frustration-ridden CrossFitter would do and took out my angst on a 10min AMRAP WOD of: 4 Burpees, 6 TTB, and 8 DB Snatches @ 45lb. I completed exactly 9 and 2/3 rounds.

Today, in an attempt to punish myself for my gluttonous performance this weekend, I did the CFS WOD from Saturday- "Run, Barbara, Run". I finished it in 28:54 and almost vomited at minutes 15 through 28. It felt good to sweat it out, though.

As I mentioned before, I had a great weekend- it was a blast getting to relax and spend some time friends and family. I also think I found a new past-time to conquer: wakeboarding. I'd never tried it before Saturday. I actually told myself going into the weekend, "Self: Do not attempt to engage in any new watersports because you're the one who always manages to find a way to get injured." Now, anyone who knows me well, knows that if ever there is a new and adventurous deed to be done, I'm the guy who tends to be all in- but I also happen to be the same guy who ends up in the ER. Fortunately, this time at least, I was smart enough to dole off only enough "wakeboarding crack" to get myself hooked and not so much as to overdose and kill myself...but you wouldn't believe it based on Vin's reaction to me wiping out...

Overhead Squat PR

2010-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Today: OHS 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. After a good warm-up, my progression was 1 x 5 @ 155lb, 1 x 3 @ 185lb, 1 x 3 @ 205lb, 1 x 3 @ 225lb, 235lb, 245lb, 269lb-fail (we were using kg plates as well as lb plates), 255lb, 265lb, 270lb PR, 275lb-fail (got it overhead- but I couldn't keep it locked out during the squat descent).

There was a great energy in the box all day today. Brian, Grant, and Melissa hit PRs on this WOD as well- which was very cool (see video below). Afterwards, we did the CFS advanced WOD which was 21-15-9 of: 115/75lb OHS & Chest to Bar Pull Ups. My time was 5:34. 115lb OHS felt like absolutely nothing after the heavy lift.

Whereas I used to lift heavy once or at most twice a week, my S.E.M rotation (strength, endurance, metcon) has forced me into doing strength WODs 3-5 times per week- contingent on how many 2-a-days I program for myself. I've had a few people recently ask me why all of the sudden I've PR'd on alot of the major lifts. The answer is quite simple: Right now, I'm practicing them with greater frequency and purposefully increasing my heavy lift exposure time. I heard a great quote while attending the CrossFit Football Certification that went something like, "Don't expect your 1RM to increase on any given lift when you're doing WODs like 'Murph' 5 days a week." Now, hey, if your conditioning sucks and if you're not hurting in the 1RM department- by all means- practice your metcons and chippers like crazy. I, for one, just happen to not have ever been the greatest 5-3-1 lift guy. It's all about learning to be a balanced athlete-hence, CrossFit...But being a balanced athlete requires you to use discretion; it requires you to evaluate your training volume; it requires you to face your weaknesses.

With regard to my training, one of the biggest things that has erk'd me- about me- over my last year of CrossFitting has been my tendency to just hap-hazardly do random WODs with total disregard for what I'd trained prior to, or would be training in the near future. A few times, this lack of direction has led me to frustration and injury.

I Know You.

2010-08-17T18:08:00.001-07:00

I know you. I know you're bigger, faster, and stronger than me. I know your Fran time is lower, your 5k is quicker, and your deadlift is heavier. I know you have 1,000 views on YouTube. I know you're a "WOD" Warrior. I know you.... but you don't know me. You don't know what's in my head, what's in my heart, and what's in my soul. You don't know that pain is my ally. You don't know that sweat and blood are my training partners. You don't know that I'm unbreakable. I know you train in your temperature controlled gym with the tough sounding name while I'm training in a garage exposed to the elements. In the heat and in the cold, in the humidity, rain and snow, I'm forging mental toughness. I'm tempering my resolve. I'm fueling my passion. I'm getting ready for the day we meet. I know your 1,000 YouTube views won't mean jack in front of 1,000 spectators. I know when the pressure is on, I'm goin' BIG. I know you don't know me....But you will.

~ Dave X from OPT

Ok, ok, so it's a little on the dramatic side...but it's still pretty cool. Today I did 10 x 5 Bench Press at 225lb and then 10 Rounds for time of: 10 Ring Push Ups and 20 Double Unders. Time was 9:32. Muh-bubbies-is-gonna-b-sore.

Saved by Grace

2010-08-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

This morning I did Backsquat 30-3-20-2-10-1. I did 185lb-295lb-205lb-315lb-225lb-325lb. My legs will surely be sore tomorrow. This afternoon I did "Grace" followed by a 5 minute rest, then "Fran" followed by a 7 minute rest and then "Helen". I hit a new PR on "Grace" with a time of 1:46 (previous PR of 1:56). I knew that by going full boar at "Grace" my other two WODs would suffer, but I really didn't care about my other two times today. No, today I wanted to PR on "Grace". Period. The last time I did "Grace" was on St. Patrick's Day in a kilt. The kilt was awesome- what wasn't awesome was that I initially thought I had PR'd but after reviewing the video I found that I only did 29 reps. uhhhhhhgh. I wanted to make sure history didn't repeat itself, so today, with flip video running, I talked Erik, Meggin, and Mary into counting my reps so I could keep track of where I was. It also didn't hurt to have them violently screaming sweet nothing's into my earhole like "You need to stop being a weiner, pick up the bar, hurry up and finish!" Boy am I glad to be finished and even happier to have gotten a new PR out of the whole mess.

By the way, just to throw myself under the bus- my subsequent "Fran" time was 5:02 followed by a blazing "Helen" time of 15 minutes. Ohhhh yeahhh, I was bookin' it after that "Grace". No.