From Gold to Friday Night Lights to a New Path

The spring came in like a lion, and left with Journey. Rewind two weeks to the start of spring football (more on that later) and to the end of our road with the biggest baby I've ever met. I returned from Houston for work and Josh from a wedding in South Carolina to find Ms. J fragile and unable to walk. The next week was spent at the Eastside Animal Hospital - with a brief back-and-forth-field trip.  There wasn't much upside to the week which included a giant bill (though substantially smaller than expected), test after test with few answers, a dog blood transfusion from Rex (resident "willing" donor) and heartbreak in eventually having to make a difficult decision to end Journey's life. The great part was meeting a team of people who perform their jobs with love, which we were comforted by during and after we said goodbye. Journey was a modern story of a girl found on Craigslist by an unlikely pair, still grieving from the loss of Brutus (April

Technically the photo above is from week 8 - which included a self-imposed physical challenge. I had tire flips as part of my routine and as often is the case, decided I should test my limits. The workout was a 25-20-15-10-5 ordeal, so during the 25 flips, I questioned my original motives, but there is an insane satisfaction in doing the unimaginable. The structure of the workout provides no desire to quit as the hard part is already finished. So I flipped. And as I flipped I decided I needed more info. "Steve, how much do you think this weighs?" I called out across the gym. "Not sure, hun," in a way only Steve can say to all his clients - regardless of age or sex - without being patronizing in the slightest. So onto the bathroom scale we rolled this monster on top and got a reading of about 170 pounds. Quite honestly, I wasn't sure I could flip the tire at all. Doing it was an amazing high. Yesterday marked nine weeks of training at PowerThru. Next

I told Steve to quit going easy on me because of the difficulty of the two workouts I did Monday and Tuesday. I think the reality is that he's just been making me work harder and I love that. This is my fifth week training at  PowerThru  and I absolutely love it more now than ever. Wednesday: 1 round = Tire flip (down / back) with run to store  +  Tire pull on firehose (down / back)  +  10 pushups  +  10 machine row (0 plus machine)  +  ruck run with 30 lbs of sand to the light. I did four rounds in an hour - and felt like the hunchback of our town running with the ruck. Tuesday : 1 round = 10 handle pushups + 1 minute plank + 20 squats (B2B & regular)  +  10 manmakers (similar to burpees and T-pushup)  +  10 hammer curls (with 20 lb each)  +  wall climb (3x attempts)  +  pullups with bar  + sumo squat (45 lbs)   +   10 DB swing (20). I broke my 12-year record and threw up for the first time during a workout since 1999 at two-a-day football practice. I have reso

With yesterday off, I elected to visit Steve a bit later than usual, and in some ways I regretted it. My revelation that I dislike working out with distractions was apparent during my six reps of GI Jane (10 Burpees + 1 bodyweight row after each, 20 situps with 12-lb med ball, 30 bw squats, 4 blocks run). At the hamster gym, my nerves are frazzled by the zumba ladies shrieking while I'm running 20 feet away, headphones on full blast and I can still hear them.  At the spartan gym, it's the person who gives not only their life story, but also the stories of anyone who they know anything about. I wonder if it is also a hazard of making your living as a bartender, hair / nail stylist, probate lawyer.  At any gym, any time, I'd rather not ever talk - I'm there to get in, get challenged and get on with my day.  It is a contradiction. At the hamster gym, I wear headphones, every day, as loud as possible to not only ignore other people and try to achieve focus,

I read this funny posting about fitness philosophy. My favorite line was the one about letting your inner fat kid out... I have to battle mine daily. After two weeks of hitting the morning workouts hard and trying to eat cleaner, things are going well. Yesterday's workout was a 17-rep descending set of (DB swing with 20 & 20 DBs, squats, pushups and jacks). After I got to 1 rep, I made it back up to 10, and traded squats for situps for variety. Today's workout was a good combination of pressure (30 minutes) and the challenge to beat 34 reps. I turned in 25 reps of this: 10 pushups, 10 squats, 10 rows and 10 jacks. I did some very ugly pushups at the end, but I had a focus the past two days that was awesome. In my personal battle for getting ripped, I think it's worth it. My fat kid still loves cake, but I like muscle strength more.

I like to think I'm a pretty good mentor and coach.  For all the days I feel pretty good about, I suppose there are at least the same number of inconclusive results. There are platitudes to help with this, spun by famous coaches and motivators. I'm not sure if the real reason we are drawn to them is because we, ourselves, are discouraged but I suspect that was part of the reason this morning:  “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do.  Your attitude determines how well you do it." - Vince Lombardi Of course, that's not to say that I don't completely love this quote, or believe it, but it's hard to keep grinding when you have no focus.  I'm focused on the 2012 Get-in-Shape-by-Physical-Torture-Routine. I suppose I could go work out only three or four days each week and "orchestrate" some sort of "other" routine, but I know I won't. This is the reason I keep ta