The Dirty Dash

This past weekend was the Dirty Dash.  I ran it with a group from work, and it was a blast.  Definitely not an event I'd do by myself, but as a group...awesome!

5.5 miles of running, jumping, wading and sometimes even swimming through mud makes for a great couple of hours.  The hardest part about the Dirty Dash isn't the obstacles, it's trying to get good pictures as a group.  We had a camera in a waterproof case that kept getting covered in mud (hence some of the pictures).  This is the best we could do.

Good times.  If you're up for a fun mud run, you'll love this.

Next one on the list - Tough Mudder

Oxymoronic Weekends

Have you ever watched the Crossfit games?  I was introduced to the sport of Crossfit almost two years ago, and watching Crossfit athletes compete in games during the spring and summer of the last two years has been a favorite weekend past time (ask my wife).  She kind of snickers at the fact that I enjoy watching people basically workout for time.  For some reason though, it is awesome!  Watching what some of these athletes can do is absolutely amazing and extremely inspiring and motivating.

The last few weekends, I've found myself watching the Games live (when they are streaming it) and catching up on the updates throughout the weekend...all the while snacking and eating.  While I'm getting motivated and psyched, I'm eating and snacking...what a moron.

Oh well.  I'll enjoy while I can and hope that my oxymoronic weekends don't take too much of a toll on my weight loss and fitness goals.  Here's a great video from the past few weeks - Rich Froning setting a world record on an absolutely insane workout.

Most will find this boring.  I'm amazed at the stamina, but mostly the mental approach and planning.  The pacing, methodical active rest and guts are just awesome to me.

An Increased Respect for Crossfit Athletes

The Crossfit Regionals are in full swing.  I gained a much greater respect for athletes who compete in the Crossfit games today.

The Crossfit main site WOD today was one of the regional WODs.  If you watch the updates, you'll see that many athletes didn't finish the WOD in the allotted time, and there were some that just killed it.  I realize that I'm not in extremely good shape, but I'm also not in very bad shape.  These guys are just animals.

I did the WOD today, scaled the number of required pull-ups and even scaled the weight on one of the lifts, and my time was not too impressive, 30+ minutes.  There were some athletes that did it in under 20...crazy!

Week Wrap Up - 5_6_2012

The weeks feel like they go by faster and faster with less and less time to do things.  I guess a combination of work, two kids, spending time with my wife and trying to find time to stay active makes for a busy schedule.  Here's what my week looked like:

Monday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Lunch - 

• handstand push-supersetted with butterfly pull-ups
• power cleans supersetted with butterfly pull-ups
• hanging power cleans
• finished off with a 15 minute walk at high incline

Tuesday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Lunch - Chest

Wednesday:

Morning - 40 minute cardio sesh

Afternoon - "The Chief" - 5 cycles of:

• 3 minute AMRAP of:
• 3 power cleans at 135#
• 6 push ups
• 9 air squats
• 1 minute rest

I ended up doing 5 rounds, 4, 4, 4, 4 respectively through the cycles.

Thursday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Friday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Saturday: Rest Day - Happy Anniversary to my awesome wife!

Pretty good week.  Dropped a few lbs and about 1% body fat.  The Crossfit Games Regionals have been going on, so it's been fun to watch those.  Here's of video of Ben Smith, a Crossfit beast.  He works out in his garage and for that, I think it's a great inspiration that the dude can do what does and compete at such a high level.  Enjoy.

Week Wrap Up - 4.28.2012

Between work, kids and workouts.  Weeks seem to fly by so fast.  This was a great week - had a blast with the family, a lot done at work and some great time in the gym.

Here's the wrap-up of my workouts:

Monday - Mini Murph (kind of)

400M run

50 pull-ups

150 push-ups

200 air squats

400M run

15 minute light cardio

Tuesday - Two-a-Day

35 minute cardio in the morning

Deadlift and Snatch workout + 20 minutes cardio in the afternoon

Wednesday - 45 minutes cardio

Thursday - Two-a-Day

40 minutes cardio in the morning

Plyometrics + cardio in the afternoon

Friday - 5K

Saturday - 45 minutes cardio

Not a bad week.  Diet was a bit more dialed in than last...except for Saturday (lots of snacking).

Carb Substitute | Spinach

There is a lot of talk about the effect that cutting carbs out of your diet can have on weight loss.  There are diets that cut complex carbs out completely, some that limit carbs and some that limit you to specific types of carbs.  Whatever the restriction level may be, cutting carbs out of your diet can be pretty difficult.

I can't say that I've cut carbs out of my diet completely - I have a wife who makes amazing bread and growing up in Hawaii, white rice is part of every meal - the stars just aren't aligned for me to cut them out completely.  What I have been able to do however, is limit my carbs and limit myself to the right type.

Every now and then however, there's a dish that you would normally serve over a bead of rice or a plate of pasta.  I find that situations like that are the hardest for me to resist the mighty carbohydrate.  Recently I've started substituting spinach for certain types of carbs.  It obviously doesn't work for all meals, however I have begun putting different dishes over a bed of spinach as opposed to a bed of rice or pasta.  Not only is spinach great for you, but the dent that it'll make on your carb count is minimal.

You should try it some time.

Week Wrap Up - 4.20.2012

Here's the wrap-up for the week.  Great workouts and good lessons learned.

Monday - Crossfit WOD

Run 800M
10 rounds of the couplet:
5 handstand push ups
20 squats
Run 800M

After round 8 I had to do 10 regular push-ups instead - 22:18

Tuesday - Back and Cardio
5 rounds of deadlifts super-setted with pull-ups
30 minutes of cardio

Wednesday - 30 minutes of Cardio

Thursday - Crossfit
"Nancy"
5 rounds for time of:
400M run
15 OH Squats at 95#

New PR in 18:22

Friday - 45 minutes of Cardio

On instagram recently I've seen a ton of quotes posted that say, "Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% cardio" or something like that.  I've definitely learned this week that this is true.  Great workouts, mediocre diet...not much progress on the weight loss front.  Last week, decent workouts and great diet...much more progress on the weight loss front.

Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow with the family!

Resources on Crossfit Methodology and Training

I've blogged about Crossfit before.  I have yet to join a box (mostly for financial reasons), however I do incorporate two or three Crossfit workouts a week into my schedule.  Aside from the shear invigorating pain that a WOD can give you, I am a big fan of the foundational thinking and concepts behind Crossfit training.

I love the "World-Class Fitness in 100 Words" of the Crossfit mentality:

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. 

Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. 

Regularly learn and play new sports.

One of the things that I love about Crossfit is that it is structured to allow me to constantly challenge myself.  The scoring, timing and scheduling always provides an opportunity for me to measurably improve performance.

Anyways, I could spend a lot of time trying to explain the methodology, however I'll leave it to Crossfit pioneer Greg Glassman in his article, "What is Fitness?"

The Biggest Loser and PALA

I watched an episode of "The Biggest Loser" the other night.  This happened to be the one where the contestants had an opportunity to visit the White House and meet The First Lady.  First off - I've always been a major fan of Mrs. Obama's movements and passion for better health amongst our youth.  Part of the episode was a plug for one of the program's that she's advocating regarding health and fitness.

PALA, or the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, is a way for individuals and families to participate with thousands of others who are trying to be more active.  The concept is simple: for 5 days a week, you are to engage in 30 minutes of exercise (for adults - youth is 60 minutes).  You track and log your activity and progress and are awarded points for activity.  The amount of points you earn allow you to qualify for different levels of the award.  

It's a simple concept which has been used previously, but it's fun to see it gaining such support from the White House.  My wife and I decided that we would sign our family up last night to encourage not only ourselves, but our children (specifically our 3-year old) to be more active.

P.S. If you want a fun personality to follow on social networks like Twitter and Instagram, @mytrainerbob, Bob Harper is great.

Excited for The Dirty Dash

Maybe I just haven't been conscious to it prior, but it amazes me how many more "runs" have popped up in the last couple of years.  I feel like people have become more conscious of health and fitness in the last couple of years and runs and races have followed.  What has been exciting and fun about this, is the amount of "out-of-the-box" events that have risen up.

Mud runs have become a craze and I'm happy to say that I'll be running in The Dirty Dash this June.  If you haven't heard about it, check this video out.

It's probably the dirtiest (and potentially the funnest) 10K I'll ever tackle.  Needless to say...I'm pretty stoked.  More on this later.