Bacon & Fitness

Memorial Day Murph

Posted on May 26, 2015 by therangersteve

Another year, another Memorial Day Murph. I’ve been doing CrossFit since July 2011 so this the workout is nothing new to me. I even managed to do a version of it while I was at Sill last year on the PT field. New for this year was the idea that I would take on the workout with the vest on. Murph as written includes wearing a 20lb vest while you do the workout, and I decided that this was the year I was going to take on that challenge. The vest is a game changer, I cannot stress that statement enough. Complete game changer, doing the workout for the fourth time, it felt as though I had never done it before.

Before…..

I finished the workout in 71 minutes, which doesn’t tell the story of how I finished the run towards the front, and even got through 1/5 of the pullup/pushups/squat combo in a decent time. Because at that point I hit a wall, hard. I got way too hot, and really light-headed. I had to stop the workout drink some water and stand in front of the fan. The thing that the vest does in addition to adding some weight is that it cuts off any airflow you have over your torso to regulate your body temperature. So after running a mile and then getting through a few rounds of the movements my body temp was so high that I was getting light-headed. I trudged through the rest of the reps. When I say trudged it, I mean it, every movement felt slow, doing each movement trying to be efficient but riding the struggle bus the whole way. I worked and watched the fastest of the group finish and head back out the door. Cursing that they had chosen to not wear a vest, while I had decided that I should wear one. Cursing as they came back from their run to cheer me on as I was still a few rounds from finishing my work. To finally leaving the door right before the one hour mark. Our mile course includes a nice sized hill, and my legs were having none of that nonsense. So I shuffled my way out, made decent time down the hill across the bridge only to turn and look back up the hill. The legs let out a collective F-this, and I ended up having to walk back up the hill. It was a humbling experience but after getting back up the hill I picked up the pace again and jogged it in trying to push the whole way. I came into the main area at 71:10, feel to the ground and was content to spend the next 10 minutes trying to gather myself.

……After

Memorial Day Murph was complete, I honored the legacy of a brother in arms and pushed myself to places that I wasn’t sure that I could make it through and came out stronger for it. I’m happy that I took on this challenge, but I’m also very happy that it’s over. At least for another year.

Picking up the intensity

Posted on May 25, 2015 by therangersteve

Finished the switching phase with a little Thigh Day Friday action with my new LiveSore shirt.

Well a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, the crazy life of pushing towards the end of the semester can sometimes get in the way of other pursuits. I did my best to stay on track and keep myself going in the right direction. There is two full weeks left of school, I have the seniors finishing their last couple days, my first graduation ceremony as a teacher, and a PT test that I need to do well on to come in the days ahead. The three day weekend was a welcome break and it has been spent on coffee, motorcycle dates, time with friends, and the feeling of freedom the only comes from the wind beating your body as you move at speed down a two lane road. There’s something refreshing about the drone of a motorcycle engine, the feeling of the environment around you and the knowledge that you are truly experiencing the movement of your body through the place. Riding allows for an experience that driving the same road in a car will never allow, and requires a bit more focus on just what you’re doing and to removal of the distractions of everyday life. The rides of the past two days have created a break in time, and a backdrop to officially set an end to the spring, and put a line in the sand of transition into the summer. And making myself ready to move from Teacher Steve to Student Steve.

My bike hanging out with new friends at the Springfield Mile races.

Moving forward in the gym, this morning was day 1 of the “intense phase” and it already lives up to it’s name. And it’s only going to get harder as the weeks go forward. Squat days dropped to three for this cycle, and I’m happy that I don’t have to try to be ready to move this much volume that extra day every week. I can’t wait to see the results at the end, but here’s my photos for the start of the cycle.

Tomorrow is Murph, and I’m shooting for not a time PR, but my first attempt in a vest. Let’s see how this goes.

Brothers and Rollercoasters, a winning combo

Posted on May 13, 2015 by therangersteve

First weekend at Cedar Point was a success. Fun times with the brother, lots of rollercoasters and some good food. Spending time with Ben has been a blessing, a great chance to decompress from all the work at school, and all the time in the gym. After testing and setting a new 1RM and the struggle of the first cycle of Smolov this weekend was a welcome break. This week and next are the deloads. One day of Squat Negatives, one day of Power Cleans, and one day of Box Squats each week. I’m taking the days as they come and working on technique and explosiveness in the cleans. I I’m enjoying what I’m doing and taking pride in the results that are starting to show. I’m looking forward to tracking the progressing going forward and pushing into the summer. Great things are ahead, inside and outside of the gym. I can’t wait.

What I’m doing tonight

Posted on May 6, 2015 by therangersteve

Once you go black…….

5k one day, squat PR the next, yup CrossFit

Posted on May 5, 2015 by therangersteve

Last warmup set, ready to go.

Today I followed up running my first race by testing my Back Squat max for this week’s Smolov. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to test the day after the race, but I ended up deciding just to do it anyway and see what happened. I was pretty sore from the race but as I’ve said the mental game is key to Smolov so I squatted anyway. I’ve been pushing myself more and more the hard work pays off, not always in the ways you expect but sometimes it does. I started out with warmups to 175, then jumped up to 315 and started pushing on up. I made moves up and finally finished at 375, a 35 pound increase my previous best and 60 up from the training max that I was using. After finishing up the programming was a super-set of Tempo Front Squats and Romanian Deadlifts. and the WOD was 20 Burpees, 40 Wall Balls, 60 Double Unders. 12 Minute AMRAP, aka wish for death but it will never come. It was a good day to be back in the gym, and doing the race and hitting this PR only fans the flame that makes me want to push even harder. I’m going to break 400 when I test after the final phase, I know it, and it’s going to put my ever so close to that double bodyweight back squat.

All the squats….quad game on point.

I’ve also found a June race to run, and it’s flat. So I’ll see what I can do. But first I’ll focus on Brother weekend, lots of Roller-coasters, and Memorial Day Murph. Going to push hard on this one and see where I land. Spring is here, the WODs are hot, and it’s time to see what you’re made of folks, cause the weight is not going to pick itself up off the floor.

When planning to do a 5k perhaps one should run at some point before race day….

Posted on May 4, 2015 by therangersteve

Life lessons from me, do not decide to run a 5k race and just wing it, it will be less than fun, you will not get your desired time, and while you’ll finish you will be very tired and sore.

I do however look pretty good in the above picture, it is of course about a mile into the race, I have not discovered that the next 2/3 of the race will be an up, and down a hill twice, and the heat hasn’t started to get going yet. I knew that I was going to run a race this spring, and you would think that I would have put some training into this. I did not, instead I started a new strength cycle, and focused on getting very strong to the exclusion of any idea of doing a run longer than 400 most of the time. I did do a couple of 800’s those were rare, and I was not a fan of them. So I did the race, I finished 70th overall, the field was 550 total runners, I was the 44th male and 8th in my age group with a time of 29:32 on the chip. Not all that bad really, for a guy that’s over 30, and on the plus side of 200 pounds I did alright. The down side to this however is that now I need to run a race in June and actually train for it so that I can do well on the PT test that I have coming up. After the race it was time to do the second part of the day which was to ride 5k worth of rollercoasters and this one was far more fun. It was a good day overall and I enjoyed the change of pace. Here I am on the first ride of the day.

So I’m going to train some more, run with a friend and set some goals mid race. part of what hurt me this time was I ran alone and didn’t pick someone to “chase down” just went and saw where I landed. Next time I will do better. With that here are a couple more from the day, about 2 1/2 miles in on the second big hill, and finishing up.

I had a lot of fun, took a break from the stress of finishing up a semester and camped out the night before. Nothing sets you up for a good weekend like five hours around a campfire. Disconnecting works wonders and I think that I’m going to try to bring it into my life more often. I really need a friend with some land, a stream and a place to park the truck and camp. Now it’s time to power through three days of teaching before it’s time for Brother weekend and the opening festivities at Cedar Point!

First race weekend….

Posted on May 2, 2015 by therangersteve

Well here it is, all finish up, my tribute to growing up in Chicago. I couldn’t be happier with it. And when it’s done healing it will be even better looking than it is here. The picture is from about 3 hours after we finished. We finished it up yesterday and after a day of healing I was back in the gym. Today was the last day of the first mesocycle for Smolov 10×3 at 300 was heavy but good. I’ve been trying to do it with as little stuff as possible. So I did my first sets without sleeves or belt, at the fourth set I put on the sleeves and didn’t add the belt till the very last set. Afterwards conditioning today was a combination of Toes to Bar, Overhead Lunges, and Double Unders. Great way to close out a heavy week and a fun one too. Next week is testing, and I love testing week, you get to see some data for all the hard work that you put in. Here’s the tattoo in school mode, just showing out the bottom of my sleeve. The kids all know that I have it, and about the dino on the other arm too so it’s no surprise to them when they get a good look at it. But there’s other things going on that I need to talk about. I won’t write again till Sunday night because I’ll be down in St. Louis, I’m running my first race. I don’t really enjoy running, although the Army says that I have to do it. And in order to keep myself motivated and to see where I land I signed up for a 5k, it’s at Six Flags down there and really I only decided on that one because after you’re done you get to spend the rest of the day riding rollercoasters. So I’ll run a few miles, see how I do and ride some fun rides. My partner for this thing got stuck working so I’m camping down there and running solo. There’s going to be a couple people sharing the campsite and it should be a good time with them, though I don’t know how much of the day we will spend together. Once I’ve ridden enough I’ll head back up here, prep for testing week and get ready to go to Cedar Point. It’s going to be a good week, lifting heavy stuff, rollercoasters, and hopefully my letter from the state that says I’m legal to ride this motorcycle that I purchased, licensed, and insured this week.

Week 3 update

Posted on April 30, 2015 by therangersteve

2015-04-29 20.50.23

I figured that it has been a few weeks now that I’m into this and I really haven’t shown any update photos of how my body has been changing to cope with doing volume numbers that this week will break 50k pounds. I don’t use a scale so I can’t tell you what I weigh in at currently but I can tell you that I’m looking better, clothes are fitting better, and besides my usual issue of having the extra skin from losing all the weight I’m happy with how I look.

Pretty happy with this look here. Not bad for a guy that doesn’t actually do any bodybuilding type work.

Back game felt on point today.

Overall I think that I’m showing some good improvement across the board. In terms of my ability under the bar I’m doing great, the weight is heavy, but I do the sets and I’m becoming a much more efficient lifter. My body is responding to the demands and I’m seeing growth in various areas. I think back to the way that my body changed to deal with the challenges of Fort Sill and training, and now my body is taking on a completely different challenge and doing well in that as well. Tomorrow I finish the Chicago sleeve, and it will be good to get to a stopping point tattoo wise for a while. have more ideas but I’m waiting for summer to pass. This is the first year that I really feel good about how I look and am anticipating doing things that will let me show off all my hard work. Now if only I learned how to pose like a pro and put in some work on bodybuilding type exercises to really get some definition.

New Summer ride

Posted on April 29, 2015 by therangersteve

Time to get back on two wheels. Today I brought myself back to the world of motorcycle riding. I purchased a GS1100. It’s fast, and loud…….and purple? Well it won’t be that color forever, everyone knows that there’s really only one color that I love. But for now I have it, and it’s a fun ride. All summer I’ll play around with it, and then this winter I will likely get more involved into doing some work to change it’s look more. Here it is running after I brought it home. 2015-04-28 20.14.26

Oh, and I did today’s Smolov 5×7 at 265. No knee sleeves, good reps, just knocking them out fueled by Dunkin Donuts iced coffee…

Finishing this cycle, come hell or high water

Posted on April 28, 2015 by therangersteve

Day 1 of the heavy week for the cycle, and a great day to be back in the gym. I have not felt the best all day, something about spending hours in the rain and cold to ride motorcycles has my immune system fighting off something. I almost took the day off work so that I could get some rest, but I toughed it out. I’ve said already that the mental game in Smolov is as demanding as the physical one, and pushing myself forward was a big mental struggle to not just phone it in at work so I had energy for the work at thy gym. 4×9 at 250 today, followed by EMOM power cleans and push jerks, and a metcon of 800M Run, 3 rds 10 DL @275 20 pushups then 400M run. Running and deadlift such a horrible combination.

After the gym today I ran to go take a look at a motorcycle. Over the weekend I took the safety course, nothing like a discount on your insurance, and a chance to brush up on your skills after not riding for a while. At the end of the course I was asked if I’d like to work helping out with the course, which is the first step to being an instructor. Nothing like getting paid to play around on the motorcycle range over the weekends. While I didn’t end up buying this one it will be good to get back on the bike and do more riding. So if you’re near me, and know someone looking to sell you should let me know. Time to push on through the week and get more work done. Tattoo on Thursday, race and Rollercoasters on Sunday. Drive forward, shoulder to the wind, I’m not giving up and I’ll finish this cycle, even if it kills me.