very tired

This is going to be short. I am very tired. I stayed up late last night to watch the end of the south carolina college world series game. I am glad to say USC is the national champs. The lost sleep was worth the price. However I felt the effects of it all day. It is interesting to note how i felt.

My fear is that this is how I will have to be at law school. I hope I am able to get more then 6 hours of sleep a night. I know some nights I will not be able to. I am just hoping that I will be smart enough to know I need sleep to function well and that those extra 90 to 120 minutes make a world of difference.

My goal is to put all more learning experience towards success at law school. I hope I am able to, I know I will have failures, but I know that is how you learn. I just hope at the end my achievements are up to my expectations.

Workout: 40 handstand push ups, 80 kettlebell swings. The trick was as many handstand push ups I did, I had to do twice as many kettlebell swings. I came in with a poor time of 11:05. I am crediting the poor time to being tired.

Inspirational quote: "Everything is a learning experience."

Why specialize?!?!??!

For decades people have felt that you have to specialize your training to your sport. There is no need to specialize training. In fact it is possible to get more gains through not specializing. In this case specialized training refers to programs where the emphasis is on sport specific training. If that is what specialized training is, non-specialized training is doing the opposite. This means it is just training hard in a variety of ways to get better fit across broad measures. Non-specialized training is more beneficial to all but a select few athletes.

There can be many reasons why an athlete would choose not to specialize his training. However the reason is not important, the athlete is making a good choice to get better across many measures. Any athlete should always want to get better across the ten basic measures of fitness. Those measures are accuracy, agility, balance, cardio endurance, coordination, flexibility, power, speed, stamina, and strength. When an athlete is able to get better across all of these, he becomes a better athlete. The best athletes in many fields are able to be good at many sports because of their grasp on these ten traits. Look at pro athletes for an example. Yes they are specialized in one sport, but many could probably play another sports at a close to professional level.

The biggest reason though to not specialize is that it is possible to get stronger and faster by not specializing. When you specialize you have to cut out some part of fitness to focus on another. That part missing is no less important to your overall fitness level. The more overall fit an athlete is, the better he will be at any sport.

There are times when specializing is good. If you are an athlete training for the Olympics in 100m dash, by all means just focus on sprinting. However there might be some speed you lose by not lifting weights to get stronger. If you want to be very good at a very narrow focused skill set, by all means specialize. If you are someone who just wants to be better at life in general, non-specialized training will be the best for you.

Workout: Buy in was 100 double unders, then 30-20-10 of sandbag lunges, and sandbag presses. Total time was 7:07. The double unders were about 1:14. This is over a minute improvement over last time. I was able to do 77 double unders in a row! Most I have done by about 15.

Inspirational Quote: “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.” –crossfit.com

taste your own sweat

Today the temperature hit a high in the 90’s. This by itself is not to bad. When it is teamed up with humidity and working in the sun it leads to a hot day. This was evident by the fact I sweat through my pants by 1000 today. In fact I was able to sweat through my clothes twice today.

Work and my workout made me think about sweating. Why do I like it? What is it about sweating through my clothes that is enjoyable? Any logical person would say there is nothing. My feelings are the opposite. There is a lot to learn when you sweat hard. In fact I feel bad for people who never have had to produce a hard sweat.

I enjoy the taste of sweat. Sweat stand for a whole lot of good. I know when I sweat I am working hard. I know anything worth my time requires hard work. Therefore if I am sweating, what I am working towards has to be worth the effort. When I sweat it teaches me how hard I can go. I know that if I am not breaking a hard sweat, I have more to give. Also, when we push ourselves to a hard sweat it teaches us that we do not break. There are people in the world scared to sweat cause they might push themselves to hard. I feel sorry for them.

This is why in workouts I try to push myself towards a hard sweat. When I am done I want to be able to taste my sweat. This is because I know I am moving in the right direction when I am pushing myself hard.

Workout: 4rds of 25 push ups, 25 squats. 6:45 was my time. I did the first 2 rounds at 3 minutes. I am happy I was able to keep up a pretty good pace even when my push ups were struggling.

Inspirational quote: “I see no virtue where I smell no sweat.” –Francis Quarles

free write....

Speaking that this is half my journal half my outlet and half just a blog of things on my mind. I decided today to do a free write.

Today I had many observations. The main one being you just have to keep moving forward. Last night I realized I have not been as good with a certain subject as I could be. It hurt me deeply to realize this. I had to pick up the pieces though and continue to work. I was able to do that today. During the day I just focused on my work cause worrying about something else will not help it get done. This should be the same during a workout. You should be focused just on the work. If you worry about everything else on your plate and other people you will be disappointed with your results.

Today I also had the pleasure of running into an old english teacher and tutor of mine, Mr. Barner. While I am not sure he would understand the whole blog thing, he was pretty influential in my english development. He taught a love for books. A way to analyze deeper into them which other teachers never did. His ability to do this was unique. He was able to talk about a book and except that there was no right answer always, it was how you saw it. This view is why I love to read. If you read expecting to see what everyone else sees, you will not see what is there for you.

My disappointment for the day. There were no children in the park today at 1500 when I drove by. Why is that? It is the first day of summer vacation! There should be children playing. A co worker and me were talking about this. There are so many young children who play video games. When I was a child yes I played video games. But we played outside the majority of the time. I believe younger and younger kids are taught to play video games cause it is ok. Just like it is ok to be fat. I think this is all horse shit. There is no genetic reason for children to be so overweight. It is disturbing that it is now the norm. I do not know if parents do not want there kids outside because of the scary men outside or if the kids do not go outside cause their parents do not force them. Which ever reason it is I just think it is bullshit. Just go outside and play.

This does not stop at children though. Everyone should go outside and get some exercise. You are never to old to do something active. If you spend hours upon hours in an office during the week then you definitely should be outside on the weekend being active. I cannot stand laziness.

Workout: 2 miles 25 lb weightvest run untimed.

Inspirational Quote: "There is no passion to be found in playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -Nelson Mandela

Boxing yourself in...

When I was applying to colleges, I was asked to describe myself with one word. While I am good at talking about many things, myself is not one of them. Knowing this I got the help of my mom to generate words. The one word I still remember her describing me as is, “eclectic.” The dictionary defines it as, “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.” I still believe this describes my life very well.

I am a big believe in being well rounded. I am always trying to learn in a vast many subjects, from how to fix up the house to new ways to cook ground beef. The fact that I am currently reading three books lets you know I enjoy being well rounded. If this is the case, should it not also be the case in my workouts?

The problem I have had over the past few weeks is I was very boxed in. Yes, I was using many different movements but I was keeping the workouts too short. I was almost coming up with workouts just to get a workout done. While this will keep me in shape, I want to push towards elite shape. This being my goal, I decided to break out of the box.

While I did not run out and buy new equipment, I am always looking though; I decided to have a variety of workouts. I was able to come up with a few new movements as well as different ways of timing to extend my workouts. I am hoping this along with other changes will help me push towards elite shape.

I believe that how you are as a person, should be in everything that you do. I enjoy many different things. I like having a decent variety in how I cook as a result. Sometimes I love spicy, sometimes sweet, and sometimes I enjoy it when someone else cooks. The lesson I have learned from this is that you cannot let yourself get boxed into one way of doing things. Everything you do in life should mimic your personality; you should not be changing your personality to the task.

Workout: 4rds of 60 seconds on 30 seconds off of push ups, sit ups, and squats. My goal was to get in the high 300’s while at the same time doing a minimum of 100 push ups. I achieve both. My overall score was 430. I did more then 25 push ups each round so I had to be over 100. I was happy with this.

Inspirational Quote: “Get comfortable with uncomfortable.” –James “OPT” Fitzgerald

Facing the Enemy

Besides working and working out, the other major activity in my life right now is reading. I will read anything that sparks my interest. Right now, being a nervous/excited soon to be law student I am reading a book about law school. While I am sure no book can completely prepare you for anything, it cannot hurt.

The book that I am reading is called One L by Scott Turow. This book is a collection of his journal entries from his first year of law school complied after his first year He attended law school in the mid 70’s but the lessons still hold true today. This is due to little change in how the first year of law school is taught.

I am only partially done with the book but there is one idea that has gotten a hold of me. The author talks about it when he is contemplating law school. He is talking to a friend of his and his friend says he would go to law school to, “face the enemy.” I identify with this concept.

At law school I believe I will come face to face with my enemy. My enemy of course is myself. I have never been the best student. I have been able to get by with my natural smarts. I believe I am now ready to take my studies seriously. And in fact I am willing to back myself big on that bet. This change has come to me through an unlikely source, crossfit.

I feel every time I completely a workout I have accomplished something. In this accomplishment I have learned a lot. I have been through the suck of the filthy fifty, when you are dead tired and you still have 50 more wallballs, burpees and double unders. I have also been at the accomplishment end of it. I know that there are going to be times when the work piles on me and I cannot see the end or a break.

The question in my own head is how will I handle it? I have a feeling I will handle it the same way I have handled many workouts, one step at a time. I know in the middle of the filthy fifty I have to just keep moving forward, school will be the same thing if not easier. As OPT has said, after knowing what the filthy fifty’s are like. It makes all of life seem easier. I just hope he is right.

Workout: Started the three weeks of programming. I am not allowed to alter the workouts at all I have decided. Today was 4 rds of 20 sandbag lunges and 10 handstand push ups. It took me 8:54. I believe some of my handstand push ups were suspect. However, I am willing to take the output on that one movement for now.

Inspirational quote: “hello old friend, Fuck you!” –James “OPT” Fitzgerald

Am I driven?

Do you think this man is driven?

Last night at dinner my parents told me a story. It was a short story without a lot of details. I am going to skip over almost all of them. The basic part of the story that is necessary is that a few months ago when they told family friends I was headed to law school. The reaction was almost disbelief. It was more they did not believe I was serious. It seems to make me think do I have that drive that people see? Was their reaction due to them not seeing me, or me not seeing how people see me?

Driven is used often to describe someone, but what does it mean? Is a driven person someone who wants to succeed? Well who does not want to succeed? I am not sure what it means. I do not believe it really means anything, just a nice sounding expression to give to people who succeed.

I do know these things about myself though. In everything I do, I want to do the best possible. I absolutely hate the feeling of holding back due to laziness. In things I truly care about, I want to be a stand out. I am not scared to admit it. I would love to be a standout crossfitter, I am not, I would love to be though. In law school I want to succeed. I know how to accomplish all of this too. I have to work as hard as possible.

Also I know I do not like to sit still. I constantly am trying to better myself. The fact that I took a year to take care of going to law school drives me crazy. I feel like I am a year behind now. However, that is what I needed to get focused.

Do these things make me driven? The truth is I do not really care. It would not change how I am. I do not think of nice adjectives to describe myself and say that is what I want to be. I just want to be me.

Workout: Rest day.

Inspirational quote: “Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.” –Wendy Wasserstein