Links

Myths Under the Microscope
Tips for Athletic Conditioning
Osteoperosis: The Silent Epidemic
Red Planet May Be Known as The Wet One

Links

Define Your Training
Another Bump for Obama's Healthcare Plan: Abortion
Living with Prostate Cancer : The Other Reason Why FGB4 Was Worth It

Farm Crawl!!!

Farm Crawl 2009 was epic. So epic, in fact, that Farm Crawl Iraq could happen. Carlee and I invited our UVM friend Natalie for a weekend of reminiscing and trouble making. We didn’t plan ahead and played it mostly by ear, which is how we like it.

She arrived on Friday night, shortly after 9pm and even before she entered the door had broken a beer bottle. We cleaned up and invited her in. Natalie brought Carlee a Sparks, ‘cause we’re classy. With the three of us together it was as if we’d seen each other at least once in the past two years. We started talking like there were no breaks, bantering back and forth, poking fun at ourselves, our school and a couple of our friends. After a couple of hours we went to bed knowing the epic day that lay ahead.

Carlee woke up first, of course, and went on a 16 mile run. I woke up second and did what felt like a half assed Fran but ended up being really good for me, 2:46 (PR). I think what happened was that I decided not to drop off the bar but instead take an extra 2-3 seconds between thrusters and pull-ups for rest. Jason “Rhabdo” Kaplan’s sub 2-min still seems miles away. Natalie woke up, we showered, dressed and made our way to Michaels for some Pumpkin Bread French Toast, eggs, sausage and home fries. I think Natalie came away impressed, and full.

The Lyman Orchards was the first stop on our Farm Crawl bucket list. We crushed it. George Washington/Barack Obama Maize Maze had no chance although it was surprising how much harder Carlee’s trivia questions were. After the maze, venturing into the whirlpool of people known as the Apple Barrel and stealing a peach we ventured down the road to the Durham Fair, known simply to us as Farm Fair! Farm Fair was an extraordinary sight to behold. Food as far as the eye could see and manure as far as the nose could smell. We polished off our crowded snails pace walking with root beer floats and maybe a sense that we were more patriotic for having visited.

On our way back to Cheshire we hit up a couple of orchards to make Farm Crawl 2009 legit. In total: 4 orchards, 1 Farm Fair, a Maize Maze and a stink that I don’t think I can get out of my nose.

Was I exhausted? Absolutely. Was I hungry? Absolutely not. Will we do it again next year? You bet.

Farm Crawl 2009 was epic.

Fucking Grey's Anatomy

Do you want to know the only thing that I dislike about Fall. It's pretty simple. TV. More specifically Grey's Anatomy. The show that has captured female hearts nation-wide is back and it makes me want to douse my head in chlorine. What bothers me isn't the lack of working knowledge of medicine in the writers room or the fact that an entire hospital can be impossibly good looking (it's network TV) but that everything is said twice. They are, at all times, doing the repeater ON THEMSELVES. For instance, during an exchange between a patient's mom and Torres, the spicy hispanic surgeon with the caliente demeaner the parent says, and I quote, "We can't sleep, he can't sleep, I can't sleep, (with more spacing and more drama this time) We...Can't...Sleep." Imagine if the rest of the world spoke like this. "I want a cheeseburger, a burger with cheese, a cheese burger." "It's hot out today, hot...today." I'm fairly positive that you would get punched in the face. If I heard anybody do this in real life, and be 100% completely serious I might defacate on something of value.
By writing this I am hoping that you, if forced to watch this garbage like I am (a small price to pay for an entire weekend of Football sans interruptions) it will be impossible not to notice. The annoyance will spread to every husband, boyfriend and son who will actively protest such horrible writing and one or two things will happen. The show will either be improved markedly or it will get cancelled. I enjoy medical dramas as much as the next guy (which is to say not very much but they're tolerable) so to see an entire ensemble cast out of work would be tough, especially since none are all that talented to land a movie deal or another pilot. On the other hand, basketball and hockey season starts soon so Thursdays airwaves could be spent much more wisely.
The point that I'm tryng to make is that we, as men and people who enjoy quality television, can change the course of network programming. Point out the repeater, see if it doesn't get on anybody else's nerves and start the revolution by fighting against bad TV, Bad...TV.

Michael v. Mikhail
Are We Meat Eaters Part 2 Part 1
A Conversation with a Nobel Prize Winner
The Cost of Aging

FGB4

Every once in a while Crossfit decides to put its pretentious and pompous attitude about most everything aside and decides to do some good. For the fourth straight year affiliates will host Fight Gone Bad (FGBIV) to raise money for worthwhile causes. This year the proceeds will split between Wounded Warrior Project and Athletes For A Cure. The former supports injured soldiers while the latter is a charity for Prostate Cancer Research. Athletes from each affiliate raise money to “sponsor” them and then on Saturday 9/26 those athletes go through the ringer of Fight Gone Bad. I encourage each and every one of you to join the party (and I assure you that it is a party) and donate your time to these worthy causes. If you don’t workout at a Crossfit affiliate you can go to the Affiliate Blog attached to the Main Page to find the gym nearest you.

Except that I’m the hypocrite that won’t be participating or raising funds. I know, I’m a jerk, but one of my buddies from Vermont is visiting and since it’s been close to two years since our last visit N McWill takes priority and that’s a fact. She may want to participate, in which case we’ll take the drive up to Watertown but I don’t want to be held responsible for a bad race (she has a marathon the following weekend).

Anyway, make it up to gym, do the workout, maybe raise a couple bucks (the goal is to break $1 million) and have a good time. I wish that I could be there to root you on.

Equality in Health Care?

Vitamin D For Athletic Performance

Reading the McChrystal Report

Friending Admissions Officers

Preventing ACL Tears in Girls

Articles and Apologies

I'm sorry that I've been less than enthusiastic about posting lately. I promise, when things let up a little (and the crazy tattle-tail who sits behind me takes a day off) I will post something of note. In the meantime, please read these articles, digest them and if you feel so inclined, post in comments
Exercise vs. Dementia
How Genes Get Altered
Fat Loss and Running

Links and Music

Short Term Benefits of the Paleo Diet
Paleo Diet vs. Type 2 Diabetes
Are We Meat Eaters Part 1

Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade

Fuck This Gym

I'm not sure where the disconnect is. It could have been in the training, it could've started in the programming at Crossfit USA or the disconnect could be born simply out of confusion but somewhere along the line, the owner and head trainer of Crossfit Cheshire seems to have lost the fact that Crossfit is measureable and repeatable. A workout should be able to determine power output over the cliched broad time and modal domains. However, during today's workout at CFC, in which we did the standard Crossfit Chaos (intro) workout I realized that all new clients were not going to understand what makes Crossfit a different type of program from anything else that can be found on the internet. The workout was not timed nor were reps counted. Besides this, improvement of technique was not approached and skills were not improved.
How am I supposed to know how my fitness has improved from day to day, week to week, year to year? By the way that I feel? That's hardly scientific. I've done Helen and Fran, felt stronger but have gotten worse times, thus decreases in power. The same applies to workout types such as Fight Gone Bad or Cindy.
In Crossfit, fitness is to be a measurable venture and from what I've seen, aside from poor technique coaching and lesser standards, the trainers at CFC don't understand this. Because of this I have vowed, starting after tomorrow's Special Olympics Charity WOD, to not participate in Group WOD's at CFC. My disappointment with the quality at Crossfit Cheshire cannot be ignored any longer and going forward will continue to train myself.
I guess these are the reasons to open my own box.

Dueling Eaters

I’m still reeling from Sunday. I decided to take my eating to the limits. I entered the Blackie’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at the Cheshire Fall Festival. The challenge: AMHDAP in 10 minutes. Rules: the hotdogs were foot longs and they were covered with mustard and hot pepper relish, delicious. The other option; finish all 12 hotdogs before time expired.

The results: my buddy ‘Nucci broke us all down with an impressive 12 dogs in 7 minutes. I finished out with 9 during that time coming in a staggeringly low 4^th place. You might be asking yourself, “hot dogs, with buns? Those aren’t paleo, are they?” No they’re not. Oh well. One indiscretion won’t kill me. It’ll make my stomach do back flips and cause food comas but in the long run, one meal won’t kill me (although, at hot dog 8, I thought a little differently).

But that night, I jumped right back on the bandwagon. Nothing but water for the rest of the evening. The next morning, a salad for breakfast, you know, to even me out. The point is a moment of weakness won’t derail your fitness goals. I won’t ever say that 9 hot dogs is a great way to getting beach body ready but seven minutes of indiscretion over the course of 168 hours of clean eating can’t undo the hard work already put in.

Don’t use this post to eat like crap seven minutes out of everyday. That’s enough time, as I’ve realized, to really do some damage. It’s the occasional treat that makes everything alright. A cookie or brownie here and there won’t kill your efforts, although I’d recommend eating paleo versions of the two. Now, I don’t want to hear about anybody downing an entire cake unless, of course, it’s in competition. In that case; BRING IT ON!

The Euwww Ads

Athletes: Keeping it Real

Angry Republicans

Game Brain

Music Sunday + Football = Fantastic

Fantasia 2000 Rhapsody in Blue (my favorite song of all time)
Chuck Ragan covering California Burritos
White Rabbits - Percussion Gun
Harlem Shakes - Nothing But Changes Part 2
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date with the Night
Dinosaur Jr. at SXSW

...and for those more inclined to read
Vacation '58 - John Hughes (i'm pretty sure you know what this eventually became)

Friday Links

What Are the Odds That you Graduate
Exercise for Muslim Women
New York Mag Movie Reviews
How The Mexican Drug Cartels Work
The Great American Bubble Machine
Obama Health Care Speech

Cheetah Breaks World Record

That was pretty effin' cool

2010 Games Announced

Medieval Diet
Gode Cookery
2010 Crossfit Games
Boston 4-Square
Cupcake Bubble

Running?

Weights withdrawal is an ugly thing.  It’s rearing its head as we speak.  I’m getting the itch and my legs feel weak.  There’s a sense that I have become too comfortable.  There is no DOMS and there is no way that I could do this again.  I have officially gone since Friday without moving a barbell. 

Not that I really had a choice.  CFC was closed on Monday due to the holiday and on Saturday I enjoyed some time with the CFC crew for a Barbell free WOD.  In lieu of squatting on Monday I ran (pick your jaw off of the floor).  It wasn’t just a couple of 100’s, or even 400’s.  I ran a 5k.  The New Haven Road Race, held every Labor Day was a nice little 3.1 mile jog through some nice and some seedy parts of New Haven.  While Carlee ran the 20k, knowing that I don’t run, hate to run and dislike runners I still would rather put myself through 23 minutes and 30 seconds of misery than to stand around for nearly an hour and a half with nothing to do except watch people with a misguided sense of fitness zoom, stroll, limp or crawl by me. 

It will be nice to get back into the gym and do what I enjoy doing again.  I will be picking weight up off of the floor and putting it over my head; not mingling with anorexics chasing down a cheese burger. 

You might be wondering how I was able to move fairly quickly despite the fact that I don’t really do any conditioning, let alone jog.  The answer, while not blowing in the wind, is very simple.  I work hard, have strong legs and can tolerate pain and being uncomfortable. Through years of swimming and the past two years of serious weight training I know that the discomfort I feel while doing something is only temporary and that kicking ass and taking names (my two qualities that I cherish the most) takes being uncomfortable.  Now, I won’t be running in too many races, it doesn’t appeal that much to me, but I could see myself doing Turkey Trots and stuff like that, at least for the t-shirt.

Here is my 5K playlist'

Phish - Bold as Love

Blur - Chinese Bombs

John Mayer - Try!

Lustra - Scotty Doesn't Know ( a young Matt Damon everybody!)

Schooly D - Aqua Team Hunger Force

NERD - Lap Dance

Kings of Leon - Red Morning Light

Friday Links

Exercise Doesn't Hurt
QB Saves Bus
Rubber Room
Drinkers Exercise More?
More Americans On Food Stamps
Colbert Interview
D-Dub's Girl is a Hottie

End of Summer

There’s nothing sadder than Labor Day.  The summer is over and it’s time to start putting our clothes back on.  But there’s a lot to love about Fall.  The veggies are more delicious, the weather isn’t unbearable and my two favorite holidays are on their way (Halloween and Thanksgiving).  We can’t forget that snowboard season is only a couple of weeks away in some places (Boo-yah!).

But, thanks to living in the Northeast, I can avoid being vain altogether and focus on gaining weight again.  With the summer around there was this lingering temptation to keep the six-pack going just to impress the other beach goers (and hikers).  But now, with the calendar pointed towards sweaters and snowboard boots I can get my mind off of the absurd idea of looking sexy and get under some heavy weight again.  It’s time for me to rep it out at 315# and to really pull under the bar with serious weight.  Because of my new schedule I will be able to commit a little bit more time to conditioning in than last year (nobody wants to be winded after a couple runs down a mountain) but I have a real opportunity to hit my goal weight of 230. 

So, despite bikini season being officially over, I look towards the fall and winter with wide-eyed optimism that I can take care of business in the gym and in my kitchen to hit my goals.

Coconut Water

School Lunch

Primal Jambalya

Grilled Lamb Chops

Mango Salad w/ Steak