Good morning everyone! I’m hoping that today is finding you happy, healthy, and training hard!
I’d like to take a moment here to promote an event that I am helping to organize and participate in coming up next month. The 3rd Annual TACP Association 24 Hour Challenge is a 24 hour continuous running event to honor our fallen brothers in the USAF Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) community and a fundraiser for the TACP Association. (You can read more about the TACP Association here on their web site.)
All TACP units across the country and in deployed locations will be participating in this friendly challenge to see who can rack up the most miles and raise the most money! The group I am representing is Team JBLM (Joint Base Lewis-McChord) and in the past this event has been a huge success for us. Please help us keep that tradition going!
The run will begin on March 27 at 12:00pm and go on continuously through March 28 at 11:59am. It will take place at the Cowan Stadium track on Ft. Lewis and we will have at least one runner on the track during the entire 24 hour period.
Enough good cannot be said about the TACP Association and if you choose to donate rest assured your money is going to a fantastic cause! Donations are being accepted on the Team JBLM Fundly site which you can visit here. There are several tabs you can click on the page to make a donation.
Thank you in advance for your time and generosity. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on the form below, or just leave me a comment!
Rock Candy Mountain in Olympia. Just for the hell of it!
Taking another off day and literally having to force thoughts of training out of my mind… Especially after the release of 14.1 and watching Fisher and Hendren go head-to-head! Overall though I will say that I’m feeling stronger. Every night before bed I’ve been taking 10mg of melatonin and a serving of Progenex Cocoon, and also turned the temperature in my room down to 68 degrees and my sleep has been great! This good rest coupled with the fact that I’m still eating like I’m training has lead me to feel strong, solid, and ready to go! Looking to do some light technique work and crush 14.1 on Monday morning!
Check out this video by Barbell Shrugged featuring Brian MacKenzie and Athlete Cell as they breakdown and strategize for 14.1!
I love the Progenex commercials (and their products!) Simple, motivating, cool. And this one featuring Sam Briggs is my favorite! Watch them, get inspired, then go train. And take your Cocoon!
So 14.1 was just announced by Dave Castro and as I write this Garrett Fisher is pulling ahead of Marcus Hendren in the 14.1 competition. It turns out that 14.1 is a repeat of the first CrossFit Open workout ever! Here it is without further delay:
10:00 AMRAP of: 30 Double Unders and 15 Power Snatch (75lbs/55lbs)
There you have it! What are your thoughts? Going to be spending my next few days practicing my double unders and snatch form. However, I will be taking it easy and just working form and technique. Saving myself up, I’m doing my official 14.1 attempt on Monday morning! Wish me luck as I extend the same to you. Comment on this and let me know what you think about 14.1 and your strategies for doing your best in this AMRAP!
And Garrett Fisher wins the 14.1 heads up! But, still didn’t catch Rich Froning’s record set in 11.1.
The big day has finally arrived! The 14.1 Open WOD announcement will be this afternoon at 5:00 PT. What are your predictions for the WOD? I’m thinking that they are going to start off kind of slow this year then build as the weeks go on. I’m also expecting there to be one or two new movements in the mix that we haven’t seen in an Open WOD to date. Remember to embrace the spirit of a truly “open” competition all the movements have to be able to be executed by just about anyone with minimal to no equipment. Get pumped!
Coming off of a day and a half now of rest and recovery I’m feeling a little heavy (cause I’m still eating a lot), but stronger overall. Today is going to be another rest day but for those of you still going after it, here’s the Daily Motivation and the CF Endurance WOD:
DAILY MOTIVATION
“All the effort in the world won’t matter if you’re not inspired.” – Chuck Palahniuk
As I read this quote, I’m looking a little bit beyond the surface down to a baser meaning. The thought behind the curtain and at the root of your motivation. Yes, we all need inspiration, but that inspiration could be a million different things. You may be inspired by a song you hear on the way to the box, which may be all the inspiration you need. What I’m getting out of this however is something beyond simple motivation and inspiration. Not the “what,” but the “why.” Sure, you’re inspired to go train because you want to do well in competition, or you want to be healthier, or you have a simple specific goal in mind. Thats all well and good and noble reasons to be training hard. But I think it would serve us all well to take it a step further (or more of a step down) to the reason behind the reason. So why do you want to reach your goal? What is it in your heart that is driving you? Surely, that upcoming competition is not the reason you put in hours a day and multiple days a week training for years. So what is that simple, pure reason deep inside of you? I don’t know, only you do. Think about it. Strength Through Discipline.
So tomorrow is the big day, 14.1 announcement! For the past year, yes, literally a year, I have not taken any significant off time. By significant I mean more then two days in a row off. Also, nearer time period I haven’t taken a full rest day in about a week and a half. My body is feeling it. I’ve decided to take a few days completely off training except for mobility work. I just do not feel that pushing hard these last few days will give me any gains or benefits prior to 14.1. My body will do better with the rest. After I complete 14.1 I’m going to get back into as hopefully, these few days off will hit a reset switch physically and mentally and allow me to go hard for the next month of Open workouts.
Continue checking the blog though! I may not be training, but I will continue to past. Actually, I’m going to be posting more! You can expect new things in pretty much every page/category on Strength Through Discipline. In addition, you may see a re-hauled site with a new look and set up. I’m feeling more and more adjusted to blogging and its time to move out of the experimental phase and really hit the ground running! Expect big things to be coming out soon!
As always, continue to check out Strength Through Discipline every day, leave comments, and most importantly share with your friends! Let’s keep it moving forward! Many thanks and highest regards!
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” – Sigmund Freud
No one can know what the future will hold for themselves. Though I can say with a fair bit of confidence that looking back on my life, the ups and downs, triumphs and tribulations, pleasure and pain that I will entirely agree with Freud. I, like most, am a results driven person. Positive outcomes are my reward for hard work and dedication, and that’s a great thing. Am I satisfied at this point? Yes and no. With respect to the fact that I have accomplished a goal or task or progressed in some way, yes I am satisfied. But do I quit at this point? Does anyone? Most of us will not. We will accomplish what we set out to then look for the next challenge, that next step that will take us even further and further down the path of the journey we are on. So is the true beauty in life in the victory and achievement? Absolutely not. The beauty is in the struggle, the effort, the work that takes us where we want to be, not sitting back and reveling in achievement. So next time you are in the middle of a training session and things are really starting to get tough realize that THIS IS IT, the beauty of it all, you will make it through, you will achieve. Then you’ll do it all over again. The cycle continues….Discipline > Strengthen > Achieve > Repeat. Its beautiful.
At the young age of 23 Ben Smith surprised a lot of people by finishing 3rd in the 2013 Games. Check out the great article/interview featuring him by Box Life magazine at the link below.
Check out this quick video by CF Endurance. They are starting a series called Two Minute Tuesdays, which I will continue to post for you. Great information in here, which I’m sure they will keep up!
MORNING SESSION
Warm-up:
Stretching with PVC
500m row
5 hand release push-ups
5 AKB swings x 3 @ 26lbs
10 Bent over single-leg hamstring stretch, left/right
Strength & Conditioning WOD:
5 rounds of: Deadlift x 5 @ (315lbs/215lbs) and 10 burpees. *Scaled weight to 245lbs.
Time: 8:20
Biking:
7:00 on/4:00 off until form/pace dissipates.
2.14M
2.08M
2.09M
Taking an afternoon off, eating large quantities of healthy, organic food, and a good nights sleep can work wonders for the human body. Thats just what I did yesterday and subsequently crushed this morning’s session! I was able to successfully complete the Strength and Conditioning WOD and the biking session back-to-back. (CF Endurance recommends waiting at least three hours between sessions, which I normally do, but I’m not going to be able to work out this afternoon.) The S&C WOD pushed me hard and I pushed back with equal vigor. The dead lift load was heavy for me, and I was actually able to complete more reps unbroken later in the WOD, same with the burpees! I then moved on to some knees-to-elbow to hit my core, then went right over to the bike. The biking session was just as strong as the S&C and I was able to push hard and felt a good sense of exhaustion when it was all over. GREAT DAY!
Jordan Rapp, professional triathlete, and Ironman Champion!
Jordan Rapp is an amazing triathlete with a bit of a background story. In March 2010, while riding his bike he was victim of a hit and run which left him severely inujured. With multiple broken bones, several lacerations, and a severed jugular the immediate future looked bleak, let alone a long term future containing competition. Despite the extreme nature of his injuries he went through several months of recovery and returned to competition in August of 2011 in great style! He was victorious at Ironman Canada!
5 Rounds of: 7 OH Squat (135lbs/95lbs), 14 Push-ups, 28 Double-unders. *Scaled OH squats to 85lbs and double-unders to 84 single-unders.
Time: 12:46.
Technique:
Double unders.
Sorry, short post today. Monday morning and work needs caught up on. Maybe I’ll be back later to give you more of a breakdown of this morning’s session…if you’re lucky! I’d also like to throw in my two cents on the motivational quote. So much to do, so little time….
So I was supposed to bike tonight, but was exhausted. Listening to my body like I said I would and resting for the evening. I should have tried to get more than 4 hours of sleep last night. Tomorrow WILL be better! #doasisaynotasido
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The beauty of this is that the meaning and idea behind this quote can be applied to all aspects of our lives. Not only that, but it is also true to the fullest extent! The power of your mind, and in particular positive thinking, is something so unfathomably vast its incomprehensible. In addition, it has also been said that your mind’s ability to process positive thoughts is much greater than its processing ability of negative thoughts. Let me clarify this with an example:
You are focused on completing a difficult task, whether it be a PR lift, a game winning shot, or some other high pressure situation demanding complete focus. Let’s say a positive outcome for this task is Event A and a negative outcome is Event B. Your mind will better process thoughts of Event A “I want/I will/Do Event A” than thoughts like “I do not want/I won’t/Don’t Event B.” So if you’re doing a heavy squat and know that you will have a problem with leaning forward under heavy loads, losing that posterior chain engagement, and you’re thinking “Don’t lean forward, don’t lean forward…” your mind is processing “Lean forward, lean forward.” Almost inevitably you will lean forward, lose that posterior chain engagement and either execute the squat with poor form, fail to execute the squat, or worse injure yourself. On the other hand if you think positive thoughts like imagining yourself executing with perfect form or keeping the weight back in your heels then your mind will process those positive thoughts and dramatically increase your chance of executing properly and successfully.
Alright, that was a long-winded and possibly confusing way to make my point. Apologies. But, the long and short of it is positive thinking and an uplifting attitude will trump negative thinking and doubt every time. If you have a particular goal in life, big or small, you need to create what I would call a “positive obsession” with reaching it. Completely immerse yourself in whatever you need to do to ensure a positive outcome. Half measures and weak efforts will lead to poor results. Jump in with both feet, focus all of your energies on the required tasks, tie the positive outcome to all of your physical, mental, and emotional actions. To end this portion of the post I leave you with an extremely overused adage, but I think it summarizes this complicated explanation of a simple idea succinctly. “If you believe it, you can achieve it.”
Positive thoughts. Show some STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE!
Bench Press, 3 x To burn with light weight. Completed: 15-15-12 @95lbs.
KB Swings, 3 x To burn with light weight. Completed: 3 x 9 @ 35lbs.
Strict Pull-ups, 3 x To burn. Completed: 5-4-4.
As an added bonus, I thought I would throw this into today’s post! Check out this article by Training Peaks on how to simulate open water swimming in the pool. One of the biggest adjustments and most difficult things to cope with in triathlons is going from training in a nice lap pool to competing in an open body of water like a lake or the ocean. Many thanks to Training Peaks for compiling this list!
Struggling in the pool this morning! First of all the pool was packed and warm temperature wise. Really, too warm to complete a good 1200yd TT. Decided to push on with it though and after a quick warm-up I got right into it. I don’t know if I pushed to hard at the start, my form was off, or if I was just too tired but about 1/4 way in I was having trouble getting my breathing down and felt out of it. For the rest of the 1200yds it was a battle for every stroke and every breath mentally. When it was all said and done though my time was solid, I’m pleased with it. I’m getting faster, but don’t want to sacrifice form. After finishing I took a minute to chat with my lane mate Jackie. She was clearly a MUCH better swimmer than I and was able to offer me some tips and talk tattoos! Apparently, I need to pick my head up a bit more as I’m creating a fair amount of drag. This came as a surprise to me because I always felt my head was too far up and I was actually making a conscious effort to keep it down. Something else to work on. Great to meet you Jackie, hope to swim with you soon!
“Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you” – Ovid
We all have goals in life. If you have been reading anything on this site you know the formula I follow to achieve them is pretty simple: discipline leads to strength, which leads to performance, which leads to achievement, which in turn leads to new goes and the cycle repeats. Theoretically straight forward, but practically…well in practice it may prove much more challenging. There will be pain involved. Physical pain yes (the whole blood, sweat, and tears thing), but also and more importantly, mental and emotional pain. It is how we deal with the latter to that will truly allow us to succeed and separate ourselves from the pack. There will be days where we struggle with our motivation our will to keep pushing through that physical pain and discomfort of training. We need to break through the mental barriers created by the physical pain. Keep pushing, the training session WILL end, you will reach that 50M mark on the bike, that 10M finish line on the run, the last lap on the 2000m time trial in the pool, and the last rep in that 20:00 AMRAP you’ve been dreading. As Ovid states in the quote “be patient AND tough.” Don’t just ease your way through a difficult session to the finish. Be tough, push yourself to the extent of your abilities and you will achieve results. Your goals will be reached eventually, then you can start over reaching higher and higher every time! And as the cycle continues you will remember the pain of the past, how you fought through it and will fight through the new pains to come. The past pain “will be useful to you” in meeting head on and crushing the pain to come!
“BE PATIENT AND TOUGH!” AND SHOW SOME STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE!
Considering I’m doing a nice (but damn it’s going to be cold!) ride on the bike today I thought I would feature a triathlete on the Daily Athlete portion. So check out Craig “Crowie” Alexander, an Australian triathlete with numerous victories under his belt. His level of athleticism and performance can serve as an inspiration to all. At least I know it does for me!
Craig “Crowie” Alexander, Austrailian triathlete and Ironman World Champion!
Check out Crowie’s web site and the first part of a video series focusing on him and his training for Kona. I only posted the first part of the series, but I encourage you to watch it all!
Hollow rocks position hold with 5lbs ankle weights 3 x TF
:52s
:47s
:45s
Great session this morning, but even writing this about four hours later I’m still cold! It actually started to snow during one point of the ride. Oh well, no complaints and pressing on! The main focus of the session this morning was to keep my RPMs in the 85-90 range. The course I rode was mainly flat with a few steeper uphill and downhill portions. Getting more and more used to the shifting system and if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t feel my fingers I would have been a lot smoother with it. My pace was slightly disappointing, but considering two weeks ago my 15M TT was 48:00, 53:57 for a smooth tempo ride isn’t bad. Also, that TT was indoors on a CompuTrainer. Looking forward to do some more indoor/outdoor ride comparisons. I’m told that indoor riding on a trainer is more difficult physically and mentally. I can definitely attest to the mental part! Nothing beats the scenery riding outside in the Pacific NW! Even if its so cold you can’t feel your appendages!
Addressing 2009 CrossFit Games Champion Miko Salo, someone asked why he didn’t “fall on the ground after a CrossFit workout.”
He replied: “No. When animals surrender they go lying on their back. I never go lying on my back. It’s a sign of weakness and surrendering. Never lying on my back.”
What is the obsession with CFers completely collapsing after a challenging WOD? I understand you’re totally smoked, I’m not trying to take away anything from the effort you just displayed. Something inside me just doesn’t agree with the whole “fall down on the ground, look at how hard I worked” flop that some people do at the end of a met-con. Personally, I’d find it more impressive if you put forth the same effort and remained upright. Isn’t that why we CF, to get stronger? Why show a weakness or vulnerablity. You talk strength, show some. Just saying….
Dynamic Effort (DE) Sumo Deadlift, 10 x 2 @ 70% 1RM every :60s.
Completed with load of: 170lbs
Conditioning WOD:
AMRAP in 8:00 of: 5 Front Squats (155lbs/115lbs) and 10 Box Jumps (30″/24″) *Scaled to 135lbs front squat and 24″ box.
Rounds completed: 4 + 1 front squat
Core:
Ring Plank 3 x TF
:46s
:35s
:36s
Toe-to-bar 3 x 10
Technique:
Double unders.
Long session this morning, but worth it! Kicking off Beast Friday the right way! The strength session was excellent and my form on the sumo deadlifts felt tight (as in right on). Really breezed through the dynamic effort portion, I’m thinking that the load was a little on the light side. Definitely have to remember that for next time, though I’m not seeing a whole lot of sumo dead lifts in the CF Endurance programming. Onto the Conditioning WOD! Looking at this on the CF Endurance site I wasn’t too sure what to make of it. My 1RM front squat is currently at 180lbs so completing an AMRAP with 5 x 155lbs front squat may have been possible for me, but would have slowed me down a lot. Obviously some scaling was in order and I loaded 140lbs, started the clock, did three reps, then dropped it to 135lbs. The struggle to push it up was just a little too much. The 135lbs load seemed to work good, I was pushing hard and wasn’t going unbroken (especially after the box jumps started). That’s what I wanted though. I need to build the strength up in my legs and I think going lighter would have given me a better cardio workout, but not enough strength building. My cardio is good all around, pure strength is my weakness and that’s where I need to focus. Hopefully, you’ll start seeing some heavier loads on here. Taking it easy until the afternoon session. The RX is long interva running, but I’m dying to get on my bike. So if the Pacific NW weather cooperates expect to see the run pushed to this weekend!
AFTERNOON SESSION
Warm-up:
25 jumping jacks x 3
10 Leg swings front/back, left/right
10 Ankle rotations
10 A/S
Running:
3 x 1M at TT pace resting 5:00 between iterations.
Good morning everyone! I’m hoping that today is finding you happy, healthy, and training hard!
DISCIPLINE - STRENGTH - PERFORMANCE ATHLETICS 