Delta Romeo Sierra

I haven't done one before, but I'm the guy who everyone thinks of when they see ads for Tough Mudder. Literally. As in, every time one of my friends gets a Facebook ad for it, they forward it on to me, saying "this looks like something you'd enjoy!" I'm starting to think a lot of people actually just want to see me covered in mud, getting shocked... Have you done one? If so, any advice?

Thanks, Feowyn. As far as when to apply, that largely depends on when I can hit the optimal targets (swim, push/sit/pull-ups, run) again. If I had to guess, I'd say it could take me as long as 6 months, but then again, I've never really focused on optimizing my nutrition before. I'm guessing that fixing my nutrition will have a profound impact on how quickly I make improvements. I sure picked a tough time to start one of these challenges. My work schedule (rotating between nights and days right now, and in a couple weeks, moving to work on the opposite end of the week) is really interfering with my ability to get adequate sleep, which is interfering with my energy levels (so it's harder to get workouts in). Ironically, there's not much that I enjoy more in life than a tough satisfying workout, but this temporary sleep deprivation is even making it hard to get in something that I truly find enjoyable. Just gotta push ahead, and it really does help getting support from this awesome community. Oh, and slow negatives? Yeah, they're brutal! Highly recommend!

Battle Plan for Week 3: It's going to be necessary to get this organized to make Week 3 a success because of the insane flip-flopping I'll have to do between day and night-shift schedules). 1. Sleep 45.5-56 hours (Progress: 13 hours) 2. Eat Paleo for at least 80% of meals and snacks (Progress: 3 / 5 = 60%) 3. Train Strength and Cardio/Endurance daily, excepting Monday (Strength Sessions completed: / 6 , Cardio/Endurance Sessions completed: / 6 ) 4. Lead my team to Tough Mudder glory on Saturday 5. Be punctual for each scheduled work event ( 1 / 4 ) I'll keep this outline of my goals updated as I make progress throughout the week, but I'll also record individual workouts completed underneath this as separate posts. Here's to a great Week 3 everybody!

"I know that if I put myself down on the bad days, I won't give myself any credit for the good days." Probably one of the smartest observations any one of us can make. Cheers to a good week, and enjoy your rest!

All calisthenics today (in the middle of 3 12-14 hour night-shifts, so I just get done what I can): 5x6 pull-ups (with slow negatives) 5x20 push-ups (with slow negatives) 4x15 deep body-weight squats 4x25 deep body-weight lunges 2x10 burpees I installed a pull-up bar in my office, so I'm actually getting this done while working. Shhh..... ;-)

It sounds like you're doing great on your goals, especially your strength training. I love your idea about taking a photo-a-day, too. Since everyone seems to be offering advice, I've got a couple things for ya: 1.) I always share this with people who are really diving into a running program for the first time: Although it sounds like you're making good progress with your running, everyone has an off-day every now and then. You just don't feel like you have any energy, it's a fight just to keep a pace that was no big deal for you a week ago, etc. The reason behind these off days? Overtraining, not enough sleep, improper nutrition, inadequate hydration, etc. Although it's important to try and fix any of these problems, right now, you're running. Stop worrying about your pace, or your distance, or your time and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Seriously: one foot in front of the other. If you get through what feels terribly hard today, you'll build the resilience to get through something even harder tomorrow. 2.) I've always really loved exercise, but I've struggled with eating junk food for years. I'm not really overweight, but I'm definitely not as lean (or strong or fast) as I could be if I'd always taken care of my nutrition. As I've been transitioning into a paleo(ish) diet, I've been using a mental tactic to avoid junk food that I learned on this website. Instead of telling myself "I can't have <insert junk food here>" I've been telling myself "I don't eat <insert junk food here>." It sounds simple, but I've been amazed at how well it works. When I used to say "I can't have..." I'd feel like I was depriving myself of something, which requires some mental resilience, a finite resource. Once I switched to saying "I don't eat..." I felt more like I was the one controlling the situation; that I was making a decision. Best of luck to you over the coming days in this challenge, we all want to see you succeed!

Today's workout: 2 mile run in 16:01 (was not paying close attention or I would have shaved that last second off of there!) Heavy weight lifting: bench, squats, hang cleans, lat pull-downs, various triceps isolation moves, one biceps isolation move, and calf raises. Calisthenics: 5 sets of 6 pull-ups with slow negatives, 5 set of 20 push-ups with slow negatives. I'm just going to have to trust that my calisthenics guide is going to get me the results I want (after all, it was created by the school I'm trying to get in to), but it seems so weird to get rid of my 5x12 pull-ups and 4x50 push-ups 4-5 times a week.

So, my quest has stayed on track, but my updates have certainly not! (Ahh, the hazards of working nights and then trying to live by a normal human schedule on your days off). So let's see here, Tuesday consisted of lots of heavy lifting with my brother as a spotter, and yesterday involved mostly calisthenics. To increase my max reps on push/sit/pull-ups, I'm using a guide put out by the exercise physiologists who run the training program at the special operations school I want to attend. Funny thing is, they have me doing WAY fewer reps per set than I was doing before I got sick. Previously, I was doing 5 sets of 12 pull-ups and 4 sets of 50+ push-ups on calisthenics days. I used their guide to-the-letter for all of my run, swim and weight training, but I always felt that I could do more in the push-up/pull-up department, so I just did. Turns out, after doing some deeper reading, I probably wasn't getting the full training adaptations that I wanted by doing it my own way. Right now, with a current maximum of 10 dead-hang perfect form pull-ups, the guide recommends 4-5 sets of 5-6 reps with 1-2 minutes rest between sets. Never wanting to do less than the max, I did 5 sets of 6. This time though, I also followed the guide's recommended technique, and I performed every rep trying to take about twice as long on the negative portion. Results? Un. Real. I performed 30 total pull-ups (half my old daily number) yet, all the relevant muscles were on fire when I got done! I did the same thing with push-ups, performing 5 sets of 20 reps making sure to lower myself at roughly half the speed at which I was pushing up. Absolutely everything burns! Slow negatives FTW! I have no idea whether or not following this training prescription will result in me upping max pull-up and push-up numbers any faster than before, but I'm certainly willing to give it a shot. Thursday was supposed to be another heavy lifting day (heavy enough that I had to change plans once my brother let me know he couldn't show up to spot), but ended up being 4 quarter-mile interval runs at a 10mph pace, some lighter lifting, working on form for the big heavy lifts, and then some more calisthenics. These first couple of days were really thrown together and rushed, so future updates will be easier-to-digest lists of sets, reps performed, summary of success with paleo, run/swim times/distances, etc. Final thoughts: A week from tomorrow, I'll lead a team of great friends on our first Tough Mudder adventure. It's a great group of guys and I'm really looking forward to applying my strength and endurance to help lead our team to glory. Muddy, muddy glory.

Yikes. I have what I like to refer to as bankles (or, baby ankles). A few years ago I kept getting sprains way too easily from the most ridiculously minor incidents. Like turning. While walking. Good news is, I started wearing minimalist shoes while I did strength training and even a little bit while running outside, and I've been injury-free ever since. I know correlation doesn't equal causation, but I think the increased use of all the stabilizing muscles around that joint have made it more resilient. Hopefully, your work in the Vibrams will have granted you some of the same resiliency and you can keep on plugging along with your training.

Feeling great! Off to the gym right now, in fact. Since I lifted heavy upper body yesterday, tonight will be dedicated to push/sit/pull-ups, heavy (for me anyway) lower body lifts, and then running and/or swimming. Will report back in a couple of hours on what was accomplished.

Thanks for the welcome and the heads-up about QuickDraw's similar quest! The optimum goal numbers for entry into my desired program are as follows: 500 yard swim (using combat swimmer sidestroke): 9 minutes Push-ups (in 2 minutes): 90 Sit-ups (in 2 minutes): 85 Pull-ups: 18 Run 1.5 miles: 9 minutes 30 seconds Prior to wimping out on my training and getting sick, I was able to perform 9:30/60/90/19/9:27 with the allowed breaks between each exercise. Since I'd be such an exception, I'd like to be able to perform 9:00/100/100/20/9:00.

Background info/Introduction: Hello everyone, I'll go by Delta-Romeo-Sierra here. I've been checking out Nerd Fitness for a couple of weeks and have been inspired by the positivity of your community. I decided that this would be the perfect place to refocus on some of my fitness goals. I'm a professional and a college graduate who has spent several years trying to get myself into phenomenal shape and earn a contract to enter a special operations training pipeline. A few months back, my training really started to nosedive after I turned 31 and officially became too old to apply to the program. There are incredibly rare exceptions that can be made if you're able to get recommendations from operators already in the community (I should be able to do this), but you don't dare ask for such an exception until you can practically max-out every single event on their physical screening test. After turning 31, I realized that even getting a chance to join this community was unlikely, and I let it get me down. Soon, my training fell off and my sessions at the gym became sporadic and unfocused. I was probably even experiencing some mild depression. Right when I thought I couldn't feel any lower, I got bacterial pneumonia! It took me a full week to go see a doctor, a full week of antibiotic therapy, and about two more weeks before I could even walk a significant distance without going into a coughing fit. All told, about a month's worth of deconditioning set in. Now that I'm working my way back into shape, I've got a whole new attitude. I want to get so strong and so fast that the only way I get turned down for a contract is 100% because of my age. If I get optimum scores on every part of the screening test and still get turned away simply because I'm too old, then so be it. At least I'll have done everything in my power to succeed and I'll be able to move on with no regrets. To kick off my time at Nerd Fitness, I guess I'd better state my main goal/main quest for this first challenge. Main Goal/Main Quest: Perform 15 consecutive good form pull-ups (I can currently only perform 10, despite having a much higher max before I started slacking off and got sick). Plan: 1. Eat as close to paleo as possible in order to lose weight (thereby giving my muscles a smaller load to pull-up over the bar). 2. Use the relevant physical training guide and perform the recommended sets/reps of pull-ups 4 or 5 days each week. 3. Mix in short but high-intensity run and swim sessions to augment the weight loss I'm expecting from going paleo. 4. Keep up the new heavier weight training I've already got underway after reading articles on this site (respect, Spezzy!). A sincere thanks to anyone who read through this whole thing. I'll update daily with workout summaries, and will even post a video of myself performing said 15 pull-ups if I succeed in this challenge. Delta-Romeo-Sierra, out.