Handstand Reality Check

Wow.

You know, you think you're good at something and then . . .

Today's WOD was 21, 15, 9 reps of handstand pushups and kettlebell squats.

I've said it over and over again about how handstand pushups are my thing. But 21 reps of anything is . . . tough.

I hit 15 and then had to do 2 at a time. Then when 15 came up I was doing something like 2 or 1 at a time.

The shoulders were shot. Doing shoulder presses for strength didn't help either but that's how we roll at RFM.

I wasn't even phased by the KB squats. I couldn't even believe it. I felt like my body betrayed me.

Ikaika was like, "See? What did I tell you? HSPU's were killer today."

Yeah, I gotta admit he was right. That might have been one of the longest first sets that I have ever done. Or as Ikaika put it, I couldn't wait to get off that wall tonight.

Just goes to show you, be careful for what you ask for, you might just get it.

Been a helluva week back gang. I can't wait for till my body gets somewhat reconditioned to RFM soon. This week off has been brutal trying to get back.

In the meantime, I've finally gotten those Fight Gone Bad photos off my phone. Here we go . . .

 Ah yes, here we are receiving instructions from our fearless leader . . . 

 I'm sure he's giving out some important instructions, but I was busy taking pics

 Did I mention that Rikki was a ham for the camera? Just in case you didn't notice

Got the stairway shot of Kristi demonstrating wall balls, which were the most hated station

 Here's Val jumping. As you can tell my cell phone camera doesn't do so well with motion

I think this is . . . who the hell is this? 

 Okay someone help me out here, she's just too fast for the camera to capture

 I can only imagine this conversation, "This is going to suck babe, sorry."

"See, told you."

 At this point I finally got smart and waited for them to stop moving before I took a pic. Nice Rikki.

 Nalani push pressing 

 This might be the only real good non-blurry action shot I got

 Did manage to catch Shauna at the top of the box jumps, that was cool. 

 Ah Kats, he loves to smile. Won't be for long though.

 See what I mean?

 See how busy I am taking pictures? Probably why I missed counting some of Kats' reps

Fight Gone Bad. Hate it and love it at the same time. Mostly hate it, especially the wall balls

By the way, props to Carol and Rikki for maintaining their blog. What's up Kehau? You are cardio blog bogging. It's not like pushing a Hyundai you know, you gotta work at it. 

Enjoy the pictures gang, 

Rod

I have met the enemy and his name is "stairs"

So, I was sitting here contemplating what today's blog should be about. We just did a WOD consisting of five rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats and I was thinking, "You know that kinda sucked but I don't feel too bad right now."

Then I tried to stand up.

HOLY GOD PLEASE MAKE THE PAIN STOP!!!

The above thought flashed through my mind as my quads seized with stabbing pain. Then I tried walking up the stairs to the kitchen and of course the pain was worse.

And as many of you know, the second and third days are worse after a workout. I'm not looking forward to getting out of bed tomorrow.

Squats suck. That's all I gotta say.

Prior to this I was looking over Ikaika's shoulder in order to read the events of the Maui Strong Man competition. Didn't look too bad at first but then I took a closer look to what was posted online when I got home. The competition includes:

- a 50 meter car push, a Hyundai sedan for women and a Honda Ridgeline for men. On a flat surface? Can do.
- a three inch barbell hold, 225 pounds for men. What's a barbell hold? I looked it up online and you hold a weighted bar. I'm not sure how long I could just hold 225. A minute? Thirty seconds? Maybe I'll try tomorrow.
- a Farmer's Walk consisting of carrying 500 pounds for 50 meters. WTH? Five hundred pounds? What are they supposed be carrying? A Volkswagon Beetle?
- A Sandbag Sprint for 100 meters. Guys carry a really awkward looking 200 pound sandbag (I watched the video online) back and forth. Kinda looked like it sucked.
- A one armed barbell lift of 135 pounds. That looked really tricky. Gonna have try that at the gym for sure.
- The stone lift, consisting of lifting a rock weighing around 40 to 600 pounds. Small kine big range for the weight yeah?

As you can tell, I'm interested. I wonder . . .

Gotta think about this, later gang,

Rod

No workout for one week leaves one weak

A long time ago (as in back in high school) while reading a Muscle and Fitness magazine I read this one line about what it means to skip a workout:

"Think about it like picking up a bag of beans. Missing a workout means you spill all those beans and have to start picking them up all over again."

For years that saying would bounce back and forth in my head over and over again. I thought it was a stupid metaphor to use but it stuck with me for some reason.

Then I started Crossfit and that stupid metaphor made sense. Because now when I miss a RFM workout it feels like I really really effed up somehow. Nevermind that I had to go to Oahu for work. (And no I didn't have time to go to Hard Ass Fitness. And when I say I had no time I meant I was busy sleeping in the hotel room.)

Anyway, today sucked as you can tell. It was my first day back since the Fight Gone Bad workout and eating like crap for two weeks. Here are the highlights:

(1) I did so badly at back squats that Kehau coined a new phrase to describe my lack of intensity which she coined "cardio bogging." She said I had a lot more reps in me even though I was breathing hard and that I should have kept going. Maybe after I get another week under my belt.

(2) Ikaika and I pondered throwing on 115 instead of 105 for the WOD, which was 8 minutes of AMRAP of 4 deadlifts, 3 front squats, 2 push presses and 1 six point burpee. The front squats killed and I thanked the RFM gods above that I kept those extra 10 pounds off.

(3) My hands hurt. My hands never hurt. One of my fingers feels like someone hit it with a hammer. Ow.

On another note, I got Rikki's profile done! I'll send it over to Bump and Kristi and hopefully they can give it the okay and post it. Who wants to be next?

Actually I'll post my own bio here so that you folks can see the format. Plus I think if you see that I'm mostly harmless you'll all start to send me your info, right? Here goes:

Name: Rod “No Squats” Antone

Occupation: I write sometimes

Hails From: Paia, Maui then Boulder, Colorado then Honolulu, Oahu then Yakima, Washington then Albuquerque, New Mexico then Budapest, Hungary (six weeks) then back to sweet old Paia, Maui 20 years later.

Likes To: Spend time with his son Rylen, now aged 6, when he is here visiting from the mainland. Also a Netflix addict and professional Oakland Raiders fan.

Favorite Workout: Anything that does not involve the lower body.

Unfavorite Workout: Thrusters and burpees and wall balls. Oh my.

 Started at RFM: July 2010 then quit for a month then rejoined in September.

Rod started working out at age 15 when he realized that girls liked muscles. At age 25 he realized weights weren’t enough because it didn’t burn off all the beer he was drinking. He ignored the problem until age 38 when he met Bumper at their class reunion and realized it was now or never.

RFM changed my life. It’s changed my body and my mindset. I’ve drank the Kool-aid and I want more.

Seriously though, I’m not sure where I would be if I had not joined. It’s also forced me to  take a look at my diet all of the crap I’ve been digesting over the years. Nowadays I experience bliss just by working out at RFM, taking a shower, then driving back into town with the window down and letting the air cool me off. There’s nothing like it.

Later,

Rod

Fight Gone Bad goes well and why I haven't finished Rikki's profile yet

This Saturday we held the "Fight Gone Bad" workout at the gym. It was part get together, part fundraiser and part competition all rolled up into one. Lahaina Crossfit was there, Upcountry Crossfit and that other Crossfit in Kahului, I forget what it's called though.

So we all cram into the gym and they do the workout in four heats. The first two are scaled down versions of the workout which goes like this: wall balls, rowing machine, push presses, box jumps and power cleans for a minute each. Three rounds total.

This was actually one of my first workouts at RFM last year. I remember doing the scaled down version and sucking wind.

This time I got to do the regular version. It wasn't until later that I realized this. I'm actually happy about that now. On Saturday I was not.

Going last also sucked but I was in good company. It was Lori, Frank and Jun in my heat along with the Crossfitters from other gyms. We ran two people per station and there was a guy named Adam next to me, getting ready to row. He was a lean dude and looked like he was in good shape so I was sorta worried that he might blow past me.

Thankfully I was prepared to row via a crash course from Kehau. We had done those hard core one minute rows before I went to Vegas and so I had the technique down. I didn't eat anything except breakfast that day because I was afraid I was going to puke up lunch if I ate later.

In other words, I was ready. Or thought so anyway.

And then it started.

I kept on trying to look over to see how many calories Adam  was burning but the display was too small. I figured as long as I hit double digits I'd be okay.

From there I went to push presses which was the place that I knew I'd get most of my reps. I had hoped to do 30 per round but I think I might have done 20 to 25 instead. I just couldn't crank out more.

Box jumps sucked of course. I wish I could jump up and down at light speed like Derek. Jun is a stud at this too, guy has serious hops.
 
Power cleans were actually pretty hard. I thought I'd be repping them out like I did the push presses but I had a hard time making it past 10 reps.

The wall balls just plain sucked. I hate those things almost as much as I do thrusters. Come to think of it, it's the same damn motion as thrusters, we just use a medicine ball instead of weights. Ending the round with wall balls was nothing short of evil. I looked over at that guy Adam and he was blown out too. And that was just the first round.

At some point during the second round all the men in my heat took off our shirts. I needed to breathe better no matter what and I didn't care if anyone got a good look at my flab at that point.

By round three I stopped trying to keep up with Adam. He was ahead of me but I had no idea by how much. I did know that he was kicking my ass in box jumps and power cleans though. I was trying to make up for it with more push presses but my shoulders could only do so much.

When the third round was over I went to the ground. Frank was there already and it made me feel good. Fight Gone Bad had even taken him down.

And then I realized it. I just did the same workout as Frank. Same weights, same rounds, same time. He probably had reps in the 700 range of course while I had 215 but it still made me feel good.

In fact, I think this year's Fight Gone Bad might be the best indicator of how far I've progressed since last year. Sure I've got back problems and squat less than anyone in the gym besides Rocky the dog but otherwise I think I've come a long way.

The best part about it was I had gone home, showered and then went to Whole Foods to get some grub and I saw that guy Adam again. He actually thanked me. He said he kept on pushing himself because I was right there on his ass. I was almost stunned. I asked him was his rep count was and he said 258.

That's only 43 reps more than what I did. Even as I write this I still have a hard time believing it.

So thanks for pushing me too Adam. See you again next year.

Now, on to another matter.

I wanted to do some profiles for our gym members that Bump and Kristi would post on their RFM site. As I write for a living I figured it'd be a piece of cake.

I started with Rikki but had a hard time. I couldn't figure out what was wrong but then I realized, for all my years of writing for news and campaigns and public relations I never wrote anything for friends.

And Rikki was so honest and opened up to her personal reasons for joining RFM that I'm sort of handling her info like it's a fragile piece of glass.  I want to do her story justice and I'm afraid that I won't.

I know what you're thinking. "Rod you write a fitness blog that is read by 8 people. Maybe. Why worry about it?"

Yeah well the point is that I still want to do a good job. Plus it's not going on my blog it's going on the RFM blog which actually gets some web traffic. Don't worry, I'll take another crack at it this week.

I've also got some cool pics of Fight Gone Bad but it's on my new phone and for some reason I'm having difficulty downloading. I'll figure it out.

Later gang,

Rod

Push it

Yesterday we did snatch balances for 10 minutes, doing 2 reps per every minute. It's harder than it sounds, especially when you do Ikaika weight.

I know I know I know, I'm supposed to listen to my own body, let technique be my guide, etc. But when Ikaika slapped on those extra 20 pounds to bump his barbell weight up to 85 pounds I found myself doing the same. I'm a slave, I have no mind of my own, I'm sorry.

That and that crap killed my back. Which then leads me to the other part of this post.

The WOD was simple but sorta killer. Four rounds of running the 400 then coming back and doing 25 kettle bell swings.

I predicted that I would run stiff with my back totally straight and lo and behold, that is what happened.

On the last round though I tried something different. I said to myself that when I got to the halfway point I would rest for a second and walk and see if that loosened up my back, then I would run all out.

It actually worked. Sort of.

I started running fast, not totally all out but definitely not the stiff-backed jog that I was doing the three rounds prior. Not sure what happened, maybe I just needed to run it out all along.

Eventually the stiffness came back and I had to slow down but it was an interesting experiment.

Today I'm looking forward to shoulder presses and deadlifts and farmer carries. Oh my.

It's good training for running through the airport with luggage (see August post about RFM travel benefits).

Later gang,

Rod

The Hana Relay

So first thing's first. I was early to the Hana Relay.

How early? Like an hour. We were supposed to be at the KMart parking lot at 6 a.m. but I came at 5 a.m. instead.

Don't ask me why, maybe I wasn't listening. Maybe I misunderstood someone. Maybe they covered that part while I was buying Coronas for the team meeting at Sack n Save.

Here's a photo of me waiting in the car at 5 in the morning and realizing that I could have slept for another hour.

I even made my own running t-shirt, it said "Raw Fitness Maui" in the front and "I Hate Cardio" in the back.

To give you a sense of what I was going through I will also include the back and forth text messages between Kehau and I here:

Me: Eh, we meet at kmart at 5 right? Or is it the gym?
K: Kmart 6 am
Me: 6!!!!! Holy shit I'm here already. Damn it
K: Shit I'm so sorry. We were razzing Luke abt 5 am bc he got  to mtg hr late
Me: Oh man. K. Guess ill try to sleep in the car
K: You can maybe warm up :) oh man. This is classic. We always have ppl late but never early. Wow. This is for the history books.

Blah blah blah. And then I send Kehau the above pic:

K: OMG I love ur pic
Me: So glad u r happy. I'm going to run mad today, can't believe I could have had an extra hour of sleep. I'm so stupid
K: Maybe we should post our stream o texts. This is too funny. I'm dying

There was more but those were the highlights. Anyway, Ikaika is the first one there and he's not even running. He's delivering our running t-shirts which were cool "RUN RFM" which was a play on the "RUN DMC" logo.

(If you don't know who RUN DMC is stop reading my blog now and never come back. You are banned for life.)

Then Patty shows up and so does everyone else. Derek, Bump, Kalaheo, Kristi, Pat, Frank, Kehau, Kats, Lori and Ethel, Baldwin High School's female counterpart to Bump in the 90's. The gal can still run but we'll get to that later.

Soooo . . . we get running.

Pat takes the first leg then Patti. Meanwhile the rest of us jump in trucks and drive ahead to Baldwin Park where Kats gets ready to take the baton.

That's Kats in the white shirt waiting for his turn to run three miles, from Baldwin Park to Hookipa Park.

Again we drive ahead and wait. Everyone was worried about me and Kats because, well, cardio ain't our thing. Here's a view of where we were waiting for Kats at Hookipa.

I'm not sure how much time passes but at some point Kats comes into view but he's walking. Then he sees us and starts running again, God bless 'em. I wondered if I'd be doing the same thing. He crosses the line and hands off to Ethel who takes off and I ask him, "How was it?"

He answered, "That sucked."

At this point my turn was coming up soon. Ethel was running from Hookipa Park to Haiku Community Center. I was taking the baton from her and running 3.5 miles. The problem was that I wasn't sure where the hell 3.5 ended. But at this point I'm just thinking I want to survive and don't really want to think about it until it was actually my turn.

So we're waiting and then we see Ethel, and she's charging up the hill. I head up to the handoff point and then all of a sudden it's in my hand. Okay. Time to start running.

Except it's not really a run is it? I'm just jogging along. I'm concerned about my back because it was stiff before I even began but I didn't want to tell anyone. Just take it slow and easy.

Everything is all G until I get to the cemetery, then it's a long uphill fight. The worst part is that the road is uneven and my left leg has to reach a bit longer than my right. This causes my left calf to burn like a mother and my back isn't helping.

But then a strange thing happens, the road levels off and my back pain goes away and so does my burning left calf. I start hitting some sort of stride and it feels sorta good except I still don't know how far away the finish line is for me.

I try to put this out of my mind and I smell the guavas and think for a minute about my grandmother. This goes on for a while and then all of a sudden I see two figures in white t-shirts which I identify as Bumper and Derek. They tell me that the end of my run is about two hundred yards away.

Two hundred yards? That's it? But I had all this energy! I was barely sweating!

Seems I had paced myself a little too well and I took so long that my friends came looking for me. Damn it.

So for the last two hundred yards I sprint and try to get tired. A familiar feeling comes back to me and I feel like I do at the gym if I use a weight that's too light for the WOD. I should have pushed myself more, I could have done better.

But my leg is over and so is my part of the race. For the rest of the day we travel in the truck and I cheer my friends. I eat that chicken and drink that beer and we have a good time but I don't feel like writing about it. Maybe next year I'll be better prepared for the Hana Relay.

In the meantime, here's a few more pics for memories. Here we have Bump and Derek hiding under the towel in the back of the truck as the rain came down pretty hard:

And here we have Smooth Hand Luke after tearing it up on his run. There are references I could make here of Luke being too sexy for his shirt but I won't go there. We pick on him enough as it is.

Here we have Derek, Ethel and Kristi posing for the camera. If I'm not mistaken Derek's getting ready to run leg 12. 

Ethel stretching on a wall somewhere. I think by this time she had run twice already.

Here Kehau scarfs down Patty's tuna mix. That stuff was pretty awesome, wish we had more crackers.

That's it guys, those are my Hana Relay pics and my experience on the run. Next year I'll be better prepared for sure.

Great Aloha Run anyone? Only 8.8 miles?

Let me know.

Later gang,

Rod

What's in a name

There's no real workout blog today because we're all resting for the Hana Relay tomorrow.

However, I felt the need to blog because I'm looking over the list of teams running in the relay - there's about 164 teams - and some of the names deserve mentioning.

They include:

- Nature Nymphs

- The Booty Queens

- Mankini

- Happy Asses Again

- Runaway Brides

- Hairy Krishna's Gone Wild

- Drag Racers

- Big Testicicles

- This Shit is Bananas

And of course, one that I totally relate to:

- Running Sucks.

  Also I learned yesterday at the team meeting that I will be running the fifth leg of the race, which is about 3.54 miles. I had picked the second leg of the race but did not know that it had been spoken for ahead of time by the Wonder Twins, Patty and Kehau. My spider senses are tingling, I smell a conspiracy here . . . 

  That's okay, I need the cardio because the last time I ran a mile it sucked. Then again I was trying to actually keep up and run fast. This time I will go sloooooooooooowwww and amuse myself with the people running in costume. 

  I am a bit concerned that our team name, Raw Fitness Maui, isn't too creative however. Of course, from a marketing standpoint you want people to know the name so they know who to look for if they want to join the gym.

 Next time though, maybe we could come up with something more creative, such as:

- RFM Clean Snatchers

- WOD Runners

- Gym Gone Bad

- You So Smooth Luke

- Bumper's Sprinters

- I Stalk Kehau

My favorite of course would be:

- We Hate Cardio 

Get a good night's sleep gang, and see you bright and early tomorrow.

Rod

Here comes the relay

I'm in. I'm doin it. It's happening.

I, the proud founder of the I Hate Cardio blog/movement/cult, do hereby join all of the idiots who are running the Hana Relay this Saturday.

For those who aren't running, namely the sane people, the Hana Relay consists of 52 miles, 617 curves and 56 bridges. It starts from the Kahului Airport and ends at the Hana Ball Park.

That's right, I'm running as part of Team B for Raw Fitness Maui. Team B as in, not good enough to run with the studs on Team A so they had to make a second team of scrubs.

Yeah, but I'd rather be an RFM scrub than an elite athlete at another gym. Suckas.

I have to say though, Bob got me nervous the other day. He comes up to me and says, "So, I was running last week and I was good for about 12 minutes, then I started to bog pretty badly."

"I think it's because our workouts are intense but only last for a short period of time."

Great, so basically Bob's warning me that I'll be all good for little while, then my body will shut down and die. Good job Bob, thanks.

That's okay, guys like me and Kats have a plan. It's called, running slow. In some cultures they call it "walking."

Actually no, my plan is to look for someone that's running a comfortable pace, and then run right behind them. Ever see Days of Thunder? I'm gonna do some drafting then as I reach the end I'll pull out in front of them.

The only thing is I'm going to have to run three times, for about three miles for each leg of the run.

Can I run nine miles? Even if it's separated into three different heats? Hmmmm . . .

Guess I'll find out on Saturday.

By the way, Wednesday's workout was kind of a mess. It was a Fight Gone Bad prep workout that included one minute rounds of power cleans, box jumps, rowing, push presses and wall balls. We had to remember our max rep count then repeat and go for time for the second round.

Confused? I was. But I was sweating and tired and out of breath so whatever happened I got a good workout.

So . . . yeah. Here we go.

See you at the finish line.

Rod

Back pain strikes again, to relay or not to relay and rainbow socks

You knew it was coming back. Someday.

My lower back tweaked in the middle of the WOD. Surprise surprise.

Took a while though. I swear I've been back pain free since whenever that Portland Crossfit guy was here. When was that? July? Somebody look in my archives and tell me tomorrow.

I'm starting to deduce what triggers the pain. It's not kettlebells by themselves. There has to be some sort of pre-fatigue workout like squats. Both of which we did today.

The thrusters may have had something to do with it also but I think I just hate them so much that I like to blame thrusters for everything.

First was a strength workout consisting of shoulder presses and squats. I did 15 reps of 95 lbs for presses and 15 reps of 140 for squats. Not too shabby.

Then the WOD. Three rounds of three thrusters, six box jumps and nine kettlebell swings with a one minute rest period after every three minutes of work.

Ouch.

I made it to the third round and did six sets before my back stiffened up. I didn't whine or fight it, I just laid down. I'm learning to listen to my body and my body appreciates it. My relationship with myself has evolved, yay.

Now if only I can listen to my mind like I listen to my body. For example, I was not listening to my mind when it said to me, "Make sure not to forget your checkbook so you can pay Bumper for the Hana Relay registration."

So right now I'm not sure if I'm going to get registered. I want to run, for real! As long as there's no back pain I'll run my legs off. If I can I'll stop off at Kaiser tomorrow and drop off a check for Bump then. Please?

And if I do run, I will not be running with Lori's rainbow socks like I did today. I had my workout shoes and no socks so Lori let me use some extra ones that she had.

You know, I like sacrificing my dignity just so I have material for this blog but . . . yeah, those multicolored socks were a bit much. It wasn't so much funny as it was . . . weird. And unfashionable. Not that I coordinate my outfits but damn I looked confused today.

Okay, gonna ice my back. Or mabye just lay down. That sounds like a good idea.

Later gang,

Rod

Easy like Sunday bloggin

Before I start I'd just like to say you peeps missed a good get together at my place in Paia. Steak, beer and a good football game. Afterwards we played some music and grooved until midnight. Some of us went to Moana Cafe for more partying. I stayed home and cleaned up and decided to blog too.

Anyway, got some catchin up to do here. Let's start with Friday:

Friday was deadlift testing day. An scary message from our coaches online stated that we would be going so heavy on deadlifts that we weren't going to have a WOD. Instead we would have "mobility work as you may feel like you were hit by a truck after the heavy deadlifts."

Yeah.

So, I've sorta got a love/hate relationship with deadlifts right now. I used to love them until my back started tweaking. Now I try to be cautious and use strict form, to the point where the RFM coaches say my lift looks like I'm doing a three part movement.

Anyway, I tried to go big on Friday. I hit 365 which was a personal best for me. I was getting psyched up and yelled out, "C'mon gang let's get hit by a truck!" Big talk too soon.

Right after that I tried 385 and just couldn't get it past my knees. I felt the weight and it scared me and I said, no more for today.

It sorta felt like a couple of times when I was in the water and attempting to catch some decent sized waves. I got pounded down to the ocean floor and when I got to the surface I started paddling for shore for survival's sake. That's how badly I wanted NOT to do another deadlift after that scare with the 385. When I walked away I felt like I was paddling for shore that day.

But no worries gang, I eventually got back in the water (not that day) and I'll return to deadlift that weight. I want to hit 400 too. Kats hit 400 and he couldn't stop smiling. It was a big kid on Christmas morning kinda smile and I was happy for him. Can't wait to have that smile too. Good job brah.

So what now? Oh yeah, Saturday.

We had a special workout called "31 Heroes", in honor of Kraig Vickers, a Maui High School graduate who died in that Afghanistan helicopter crash on August 6th. I know Kraig's brother Mark and I knew Kraig too. Good guy and a good family.

So it is for Kraig that we did this workout. I'm not going to be so foolish as to compare Kraig's sacrifice to mine, because he gave his life for his country. He leaves behind a wife, kids and another unborn child on the way, a child who will never have met his father. You can't give more for us than Kraig did.

But, because this is I Hate Cardio and because I am who I am, I have to say this:

That damn workout sucked.

Thrusters, box jumps, pushups, burpees and double unders, as many as you can of each for a 2:04 minute round. Three rounds total.

Thrusters and burpees in the same workout? Insane you say? For you Kraig, only for you.

Thankfully we worked out with a partner, and God be praised that Luke was there to save my ass.

We tried to be smart, tried doing reps of 10 then switching off and letting the other one rest. But Kehau and Lori still handed us our ASSES. They beat us in reps and weight for their thrusters. I think their total was 700 plus reps and ours was 600 plus reps. AND their thruster barbell weight was around 105 pounds compared to our wimpy 75 pound barbell.

Hey, what can I say? They're good. One day I'll be just like them. And on that day I'll need to buy new jeans because my quads won't fit into anything.

It was good to see that Luke was tired too. He's the guy in the gym that makes everything look easy, but yesterday he was bogging like the rest of us. Hell if someone wasn't bogging I'd check to see if they were part cyborg. Give me power cleans instead of thrusters ANY day.

The aftermath? My triceps are sore like a mother. Hot DAMN they hurt. Must be from the pushups I guess. (Bump I think we might need more chest work, just a thought.)

But you know what the pain means right? Pain means you're alive. I'm alive because I live in a country that is protected by people like Kraig. God bless 'em all and the sooner we can bring everyone home the better.

Aloha gang,

Rod

Weight belts, relay races and the blog mid-life crisis

You know, there was a time when I couldn't wait to write this blog.

Now, though, it seems like I never have time for it. But like the workouts, you have to make time.

Or maybe it's just harder to come up with new stuff, to try and keep things fresh. Ah well.

Maybe I'll come up with a magic writing formula one day, for now though I'll just keep doin what I'm doin.

Like today. Searching for that one rep max for push press. The board said warm up with 50, 60, 70 percent and so on and so forth. Hell, I just kept putting on weight until something didn't feel right.

I got to 205 pounds and was tempted to stop. Then I saw Ikaika's weight on the board which said 215.

That's okay, I was still going to stop. Listen to your own body right, don't compete against anyone else except yourself.

Right.

Except . . . well . . . I didn't really struggle with 205. I mean I did, but I had a little left in the tank.

So I strapped on Bob's weight belt, tightened up the wrist straps and went for it.

Man, 215 was heavy, but I did it. Maybe the day will come when I rep 225 for push press, but it ain't happening anytime soon.

So yeah Ikaika, I did 215, but if you had the weight belt I think you could have done 225. Stabalizing my back made all the difference.

Speaking about my back, I'm getting small kine nervous about the Hana Relay. I think my stamina will be fine, but my back might give out again. Hopefully not.

Three miles a leg should be fine. I do Crossfit, right?

Crap. I should start running. Like, a lot. For an hour a day. Up and down hills.

Except I hate running. I hate cardio. It's the name of my blog damn it.

I'll run when I'm ready, which will be the day of the Hana Relay, not before.

I'm going to be sore for a week aren't I?

Sigh. Bump, maybe we better start running a mile for our warm-ups. Just a thought.

Later gang,

Rod