December 2010
16 posts
Practicing Running Technique in the Snow
A blizzard may seem like the perfect excuse to hang up the running shoes until Mother Nature gets reasonable, but it actually presents an unique opportunity to practice good POSE running form (or Chi, natural, etc. I recommend against practicing barefoot running in the snow unless you are REALLY hardcore). Keep your running shoes on the wall, your lycra tri-shit in the bottom drawer and just pay...
Not a bad workout
Buy In: Dig my car out of the snow. Watch and laugh at the comedy of a tractor trailer getting stuck and blocking me in right as I finish.
Workout: Dig the tractor trailer out of the snow/ice that almost caused it to crush my car.
Cash Out: Dig out the car of the woman who asked for help right as I finished getting the tractor trailer out of the way.
90 minutes after I started digging my car...
Serenity in motion
In the midst of the cookie, prime rib and root vegetable eating frenzy known as Christmas, I was able to get a really relaxing workout in. Before seeing the folks, I went to the gym and finished up the last work week of cycle 2 of Wendler, which ended on a disappointing note. With the deadlift set at 310, I was only able to pull a paltry two. Not sure what was wrong, but definitely not the...
What is Elite? →
Dan John is an interesting guy. He does tabata front squats with more weight than I can even lift, throws odd objects long distances and has some insightful stuff to say about the strength game. However, there are two main issues I take up with his writing, both of which are brought up in the link.
1. As I mentioned in the Never Let Go post, Dan John has some favorite stories and talking...
1 tag
A Language Older than Words
It isn’t often that you start reading a book and the author drops a book ending bomb in the first couple of pages. On page 3, Derrick Jensen describes his own, along with his family’s, beatings and rapes at the hands of his father. This confronts the reader with two choices, grit your teeth and find out what is going on and why or abandon the book immediately. Interestingly and likely...
Responsibility: Frankly, If We Were Better at It...
The following is from a blog recommended to me by one of my pregnant friends:
Experts suggest that the best way to teach children responsibility is by your own positive example as a parent but honestly, that sounds like a fucking ton of work and so instead I suggest setting up a series of lessons intended to traumatize your child into being the responsible one in the family.
1. Buy your child a...
The Unknown and Unknowable
“There are some training programs out there which I won’t name such as Crossfit which claim to prepare you for the unknown and unknowable. That’s bullshit, their WODs have never included a live animal, poison or any of the dramatic arts. With Danger WOD we prepare for the unknown and unknowable by constantly having no idea what we are doing. Today’s WOD is multiple...
Two Goddesses
There are two Goddesses in your heart, that of Wisdom and of Wealth. Everyone searches for Wealth, thinking Wisdom will come on her own. That is backwards. Give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous and follow you.
Paraphrase of Running Coach Joe Vigil
Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle
Steven Vogel, a college biology professor, put together a book that would have been better subtitled: A History of the Stuff Muscle Does. I was somewhat disappointed, not only in his obvious biases and for the flat out bad lifting advice, but also that muscle itself was not the focus of the book. Mostly, the book is about tools, from paleolithic hand ax to onager to penal treadmill. This was...
800# Crossfit Total
After taking a couple days off, I figured I would try to nail down one of my 2010 goals: an 800 lb. Total. My last recorded total, from about 15 months ago was 700 and I have gotten significantly stronger since. I ended up with:
Back Squat: 275, 290F (depth), 300 (10# PR)
Press: 140, 145F, 145 (5# PR)
Deadlift: 355, 375F, —
Stopped lifting as the head trainer was teaching a class...
1 tag
Fooled by Randomness
When I was 17, I was the foreman of a commercial waterproofing crew. I worked for my dad (he sold the material and the application services) and the crew was a combination of friends, family and day laborers. Given that I was in charge of people at least as old as I was and often much older, I had to be firm in the my decisions and accountable for success and failure. One particular uncle would...
1 tag
A recipe for an Erect Penis but a Flaccid Deadlift
“We ourselves use some hydroskeletal support when we lift something heavy, hold our breaths, and tense our abdominal muscles, thus increasing our internal pressure. The behavior may take some force off the backbone, but it can’t be recommended since it may prevent an adequate amount of blood from returning to the heart. We-particular we human males- use another hydrostatic device, an...