Redemption Song or F-U Kona Red

So today I have a good idea of why I almost collapsed and passed out on Tuesday.

See, on Tuesday I drank me a bottle of some Kona Red.

What is that you may ask? Well, despite the fact that it's called KONA Red it's actually a drink they make right here on Maui. Somebody figured out that you can take the red fruit from the coffee bean bush and actually do something with it.

Supposedly it has more antioxidants than blueberries and acai berries but it also has a kick like a Red Bull.

I don't drink coffee or even Coke or Pepsi or anything else besides water and coconut juice (alcoholic beverages are different of course) but someone left a pack of Kona Red in the office and offered it to everyone so I took a bottle.

The stupid thing was I drank it late in the day, around 3 p.m. or something. By the time I got to the gym I was feeling sort of weird. I just thought I was excited to make it to a workout finally.

Anyway, like I said during the last post I did the first round of double unders and my frickin heart was pounding and it felt like all my blood was flowing away from my brain. 

At first I thought I might have to do something drastic, like stop drinking beer. (Shiver)

Then today I was in the office and saw the Kona Red box and thought, waitaminute, that might have had something to do with it.

I knew I'd know for sure today because we had to deal with Annie, which was 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 reps of double unders and sit ups. 

If I almost died from doing just 20 DU's then I wouldn't last long today. 

So we start, and I start killing the DU's. 

I mean, not as fast or as quick as D.Meyer or Ikaika or anything, who were both BLAZIN through the first 50 DU's but I wasn't slow either. I got stuck around 30 but pounded out the next 20 pretty easy.

The sit-ups sucked though but that's okay, because I kept ripping the DU's. It was nice to have Kristi reaffirm that I was doing well with her "YEAH ROD!!!" cheers everytime I got up there.

I finally got to the last 10 reps and copied a move that Tehau did earlier, where she flung her jump rope across the room. Freaking redemption today man, I was tired but happy.

All I gotta say is I'm NEVER DRINKING KONA RED AGAIN . . . I mean, as someone who totally supports small business as the solution to bringing back the economy (for example, RFM) and I'm very impressed that these guys found a use for a fruit that was being thrown away by the ton by the coffee industry . . . this stuff and my body do not mix. At all.

By the way, good to see braddah Josh Lindsey in the RFM gym once more. I brought Josh to RFM back in 2010 and he was killing it, but then started working construction in Lahaina and couldn't make the workouts anymore. Today he was yelling at me and pushing me like old times and it was a good thing because those sit-ups were tough. 

Wow, never thought I'd ever say that sit-ups were tougher than double-unders but there you go. They were. 

You know what? For the first time I didn't look at anyone's time except for me. I know I finished at 10:29 but I can't tell you what Derek or Ikaika or anyone else did. 

And you know what, I don't care. It's good to be back. Been a good year so far and it's only getting better. 

As for Annie, she's my biyotch. Who's next?

Later kids,

Rod

Epic fail and Kehau has the same birthday as my grandma

First off, happy birthday to Kehau, aka Tehau, the strongest Samoan/Tongan hybrid woman on Maui.

She turned the big 30 today as my grandma turned 83. Slight age difference between the two.

We had a birthday party this past weekend for Kehau, during which we celebrated only as RFMer's should.

We did WOD's. Well, not me. I was drinking. But her husband Frank and Ikaika were all over it.

By the way, the WOD was ridiculous. It was the "do as many burpees as you can in 7 minutes or until you die" WOD. Here are the guys in action on Saturday:

Yeah, sorta kinda nuts.

In any case I did NOT do this WOD. In fact I haven't been doing any WOD's lately, hardly ever. Combination of stupid after work meetings and more stupid meetings.

Then yesterday I tried to workout, I was excited even. We had this cool WOD upon the board that had like 8 different movements. First was box jumps and push-ups then pull-ups and double unders followed by kettlebell swings and the 100 meter dash. Fun stuff.

Started out well too. Derek did four rounds and I was right behind him and with 3 rounds and 6 reps.

But then I started really SUCKING at the pull-ups like I've never sucked before. And my double unders were there the first round, I went really fast and again I had a witness, Kristi this time.

After that though, I was out of gas. I started feeling dizzy like I just gave blood or something and when the round was over I laid down and couldn't get back up to do the KB swings.

What the hell man? My back was still in one piece and this was a good mix of movements, some upper body and some lower, perfect for me or so I thought.  What the hell happened?

Whatever the case I think I need to get a little more regular about my training. And start eating well again. My body cries out for another round of Paleo and I need it to train for the Warrior Dash.

Seriously, because today sucked.

Here's something that does not suck though, my buddy Josh is back at the gym.

Josh started coming to RFM about two years ago then dropped out after about a month and a half. He just had a lot of things going on but I knew he'd be back one day.

Good to have you back bro, hope you start reading the blog again.

Okay folks, tomorrow is another workout. Let's hope I don't almost pass out again.

Rod