Whiteraven

I just signed up for the Warrior Dash in NorCal. I've looked at mud runs like this for the last few years, but never felt like I was able to do them. Last week I stumbled onto this one and realized I was finally fit enough to run one. It's hard to believe. I'm getting a bunch of my friends hyped about it as well, and we'll hopefully be a good group. I'm excited, and ready to finally test myself out.

The Convict Conditioning series has vertical pulls and push ups for the absolute beginner. They are the starting blocks to pull ups and push ups. For vertical pulls, stand in a door frame and grip one side with both hands, like it's a large pole. Alternatively, use a pole. Place your feet as close to the frame/pole as possible. Keeping your body straight, straighten both arms. This is the starting position. Pull your body to the frame/pole and then straighten your arms. That's one rep. For vertical push ups, also known as wall push ups, face a wall. Stand about six inches away with your feet shoulder width apart. Place your hands on the wall directly in front of you. Straighten arms, this is the starting position. Keeping your body straight, "lower" your body to your hands and push back to start. That's one rep. These should feel easy. Do them as you would any normal exercise (3x10, 5x5, however you train your legs). Add reps and/or sets until you feel ready to move on to incline push ups and horizontal rows.

How long do you plan on staying at the school? IIRC, Krav is a system that is supposed to teach you fighting simply and quickly, and BJJ will take more time to develop as you learn the basics. Both will, of course, be more beneficial the longer you go, but if you don't see yourself sticking in one place for a while it might be a consideration.

Hey now, re-grade that Strength goal. Our official grading metric is A - 100% B - 75% C - 50% D - 25% F - 0%. So if you got 44%, that's technically in the C range! Give yourself some points!

His shoulder throbbed, his knuckles hurt, and the deep bruises to his abdomen would ache soon; yet Whiteraven smiled. Discouragement, his enemy, slowly walked away, hate flashing from his eyes. It had been seven rounds, six of them boring and workmanlike. This fight would never make the highlight reels. For six rounds Whiteraven had steadily jabbed at his opponent, countering whenever he needed. Not once had he tried to end the fight with a hard strike, not even when Discouragement had taken advantage of a momentary distraction to deliver some hard shots at his body. Discouragement never lost by KO. Anyone fool enough to try that had become winded quickly, and lost quickly. Discouragement would only lose by decision. Whiteraven stepped away from the ring, back to the small knot of monks that had been gathering during the fight. They smiled at him, wordlessly showing their approval with small gestures and large hugs. They knew, as well as he, that Discouragement would call for a rematch soon. Discouragement never stopped, but that was the key to beating him as well. Never stop. And so Whiteraven had trained to never stop. And he had won, this fight. Okay, grading time! I attended 12 out of 16 Wing Tsun classes. One class was canceled due to Memorial day and another fell on a planned vacation day, so there was a total of 16 days I could have made it. 75%. I ate 17 out of 18 salads I needed to eat. 94%. I blogged 5 out of the 6 weeks. 83%. And I kicked so much ass at working out. I varied my work outs, threw new things in, and definitely hit all my workouts and then some. 100%! Attributes added: STR 2.75 DEX 1.75 STA 3.5 CON 2 WIS 3 CHA 1 Updated totals in my Sig!

Hey Jezzie! Hope you're still kicking ass and grading names! Maybe that's not how that quote goes.... Oh well, one last weekend before the challenge ends! Keep kicking all that ass!

We're almost at the end of the challenge! Be strong and awesome this weekend!

Ok Monks, Monday is the end of the challenge and we've gotten really quiet around here. I know some, nay, all of us have had troubles but it doesn't matter. You get injured in a fight for your life, you keep fighting! Unless that injury has already rendered you unconscious. Yeah, you really can't do anything about that. But the rest of you, keep fighting! Now I'm not advocating that you need to push yourself to injury. And for those of you who have legitimately had to bow out due to circumstances beyond your control, I hope things work out for you and I'm glad you were Monks for this challenge. But there are plenty of us who can still do more, we just don't wanna. So let me challenge you to keep fighting! If you've been sucking up one part of the challenge, see how hard you can hit it before Monday! If you absolutely can't do one part of your challenge anymore, slam the other parts with twice as much vigor! And just to keep us all accountable, find two (2) other Monk challenge threads and give each one a little more encouragement. Hopefully every Monk here will get just enough encouragement to push themselves over the hump. Winning and grades don't matter anymore, finishing like a champ is what it's all about. ADRIAN!!!

WOOT!

Perfect example that real progress is made slowly. Your consistency is an inspiration to me.

Don't knock yourself too hard. Half the point of doing challenges like this one is to see where we are weakest. It would sure be a boring challenge if all of us always posted "Doing great! Knocked out another one!". At one of my fire spinning workshops last weekend the teacher said he wanted to see us drop our staffs. It meant we were pushing ourselves. Sure, if you are performing you go with your safe moves, but when you are among friends (and NF totally qualifies) you try your new moves and fail spectacularly! We'll cheer you on anyway. On a diet note, I remember a few months ago I was at the Cheesecake Factory for the first time in a bit. They had bread sitting out that I remember being awesome. I (like you) have tried to reduce my bread eating, but it was right there! And it tasted mediocre. Seriously, it was hella boring. I pushed it to the side of the table and had no more. So remember, if you are being honest with your body, it's going to start NOT wanting things like that. Your brain just has to put that in the Long Term Memory. Right now, eating is habitual for me, but I'm facing off 30 years of habit! Gonna take at least a year to stop automatically reaching for the bread. But you are thinking about it, and that's progress!

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, hitting on drunk people is kinda like playing video games on God Mode. It's fun to have all that power but ultimately unsatisfying.

Yeeeaaaaahhhhh!!! B-)

Time for bodyweight exercises!

Ok, I'm back in the real world after 4 days of being away and one day of readjusting. First off, I probably played havoc with my exercise and diet habits, so this week will be crucial to keeping the groove. Second, it was totally worth it. I'll probably detail my experience more in my personal blog, but I had a damn blast over the weekend. I pushed myself physically and mentally, and am super excited about trying to keep up with everything I learned. I fueled my body properly, with good food and good sleep. I drank so much water because I needed it all. I learned more contact staff moves, more whip moves, and learned double staffs and nunchuku. I burned through plenty of fuel, and drummed until I raised blisters. It was epic. I've got a lot of practicing to do, but I'm going to be awesome when next year rolls around. Woot.

Here's where it gets tricky. Memorial Day weekend means missing one class and one class being cancelled. I've worked other exercises into those times, including several versions of Tabatas and some swimming. I've also got a shortened week because I'm leaving on Thursday for a weekend of fire spinning, and I'll miss another class. However, I knew in advance I would be missing this one, and I'll be learning and spinning all day for two days, so plenty of exercise there. Food will be a little different, but I'll see if I can still Salad Up three days this week. Been knocking this one out of the park. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do my normal bodyweight routine on Thursday, but I'll try to mix something up. Regardless on how it all goes, I should be back to normal routine on Monday, so I'll be able to evaluate whether I took a step back or forward overall. Personally, I am totally willing to mess my schedule up a bit, since life is messy and getting back to routine is a part of disciplining myself. Expect a deluge of info next week.

I spent the first 18 years of my life not knowing how to do more than doggy paddle. In college I got a passable breaststroke and could tread some water, so I could play around in the water. However, at 30 years old, I finally have learned how to do the Crawl! Big props to my girlfriend, Bluesylady, for teaching me the basics in the pool this weekend. It's an ugly crawl, but it makes sense to my mind. Now all I have to do is practice!

Dammit Chio, you keep making practical challenges that will actually help me with my training. Respect.

This is straight money.

Hey, you increased your deadlift!

Another update! Food still is going ok. I'm changing around and doing more variety with my salads, so that's helping. Also, I've realized I don't need to eat as much to become full. My stomach is shrinking to a better size for maintenance. Now I just have to remind my brain that I don't need to fill large plates to be full. Easier said than done. I've been slowly changing my bodyweight routine to be harder, all without adding weight. I want to be able to work against myself as much as possible, then I can start evaluating whether I will do bodyweight or get a gym membership and lift heavy. There are pros and cons to both. I've been hitting all my kung fu classes, but I'm going to miss several soon. I've got a couple weekends away from town, plus the school is closed for Memorial Day, so I'll miss three classes in total. I'm not sure how to grade that, since I know ahead of time I won't be able to make it. I'll use my judgement. Since I'm missing class, I figure it's a great time to try out Tabata thrusters. I've heard they are absolute murder, so I'll be doing them in place of class. Kick my ass for missing class, that's what I think.

Ah yes, homebrewing. Better living through chemistry. Two of my friends have that particular "problem", but unfortunately they both live too far away for me to assist them in overcoming their "problem". Although one of them is a crossfitter, so she pretty much cancels out the indulgence with plenty of training.

If you build it, strength will come.

There's breakdance fighting.

I've discovered a new secret weapon for mediation: a white noise app on my phone. I plug my earphones in, set my timer, activate my custom mix of Buddhist monk chanting, monotone bass, and heartbeat, and close my eyes. Tried it during my lunch break. Amazing, felt like the beginnings of altered consciousness. Would try again.