Tragedy in Boston

The events of Boston shook the nation.  A day marked as "the best day in Boston", Patriots Day, schools were out, the Red Sox were playing, runners from around the world had gathered... it was a big day, a beautiful day, an Americana day.

When the first plane hit the first tower on 9/11 the nation gasped at this terrible accident.  Then the second plane hit and the realization sunk in.  Similarly, the first bomb went off and spectators, runners, and news media couldn't believe the tragedy of a man hole cover/gas explosion/accident... and then 20 seconds later that dark realization of the world we live in reared its head once more.


There will always be evil. Evil people, evil deeds, evil consequences. But whenever evil people come out from the shadows, good people, courageous people rise up to meet them. When evil atrocities are committed, amazing acts of kindness and love can immediately be found in the still smoking embers. Before the evil (full of cowardice) can even slink back into the night, love, goodness, courageous are already running to the epicenter to pick up the pieces and prepare for tomorrow.

"The world is full of evil and terrible things, but fear not, I have conquered the world"

Crossfit Shoes

Several people have asked for a list of Crossfit shoes.

Here is just that, a simple list of the shoes I would recommend looking into:

Skora Phase (really ANY Skora shoe would be great)

inov-8 Bare-XF 210

inov-8 Bare-XF 260

Altra The One

New Balance Minimus Zero

New Balance MT00 Minimus

"Hey, what about X, Y, Z shoe!?"

There are a lot of other shoes for Crossfit that Look really good, but they violate my one hard-line rule of Zero drop only.  

Deliver Milk to the Orphans!

Hey guys, several people have asked about the strangely named "delivering milk to the orphans" workout that I've talked about some and that was posted on my list of crossfit style exercises.

It really is a great piece of work - hitting pretty much Full body.

Here's a little 2 1/2 minute video I made for a friend who was wanting to learn it - the first 2 minutes are the verbal explanation/instructions and the exercise demo starts at 2:04

http://youtu.be/XJ7uX2CxU64

WHY do you run? HOW do you train? Are they linked?

As is often said, you only get out of something what you put into it.

Exercise is THE perfect example of this.  You WILL reap what you sow.

So, decide first... What do you want Out of it?

Probably to each individual it seems like an easy answer, because you have thought about what Your motivation is, but understanding that that motivation is different for everyone is an integral part of learning about yourself:
Your source of motivation may change as you progress, and you may find that what you thought your motivation was in the first place was... not.

Here are some examples (good, bad, indifferent):

• To get in shape (about as lame and generic as you can get, but there you have it)
• To lose weight
• To fit into a small pair of jeans
• To look better in your bathing suit for the upcoming summer
• To make your body more healthy (heart rate, blood pressure, etc.)
• To have something to do with a loved one
• To have something to do to go pick up a new 'loved' one
• To blow off steam
• To be able to run faster
• To be able to run farther
• To be stronger
• To get myself ready to compete in x (a new distance: a 5k, 10k, half, full, ultra, etc.)
• To beat my previous time
• To win x race(s)
• To de-stress
• To run...away

Depending on which category(ies) you fall in dictates what you do to train and how.  If you want to run faster, than your training will look different than someone wanting to run ultras, if you're wanting to run ultras your training will look very different than someone wanting to lose weight, etc.

For me, running is not competitive.  Understand that I am a very competitive person, in most all aspects, but running is Not competitive for me, it never has been, and I truly Hope it never will.  For me, running is de-tox.  It's stress relief, it's joy, it's (as I've said many times) meditation in motion.  

So, with knowing that, how I run is very different than how most people do who are training for most of the things in that list.  

Again, what's important is that you recognize WHY you are running, and then plot your input accordingly.

The "55" workout

I'm a big fan of the "55" workout.  In it's traditional form it is usually done as push-ups and air squats.  With that in mind, the idea is this:
you do 1 push up and 10 squats, then 2 push ups and 9 squats, 3 push ups 8 squats, and so on.  You repeat the pattern until your last set is 10 push ups and 1 squat.
At that point you've done 55 reps of each (10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=55).

It's a neat idea.  What I really like about it though is that you can use that model of Any 2 workouts.

For example, you could do squats and pushups, or pushups and crunches.
You could also do walk 10, 'sprint' 1, walk 9, 'sprint' 2.
You could cross up your running and work out and do run 10, do 1 burpee, run 9, do 2 burpees, etc.

This morning I did dubs and C&J
1 double under, 10 clean and jerks, 2 double unders, 9 clean and jerks.
By the end, it was Brutal.  In trying to do it "for time" and racing through as fast I could, the exhaustion level gets so high you start missing your double unders (catching a foot).  Each double under missed, for whatever reason (especially at that point in the workout), feels like 10 successful ones as effort goes -- And 55 double unders and 55 clean and jerks as fast as you can go...heck of a workout!

Play with it and see what you can come up with.  Using the "55" model and randomly picking Any 2 things will give you quite the workout, with no guides and no real planning!

Motivation (motivational quotes)

and not the T.I. song.

Sometimes you just need a little motivation, and I am a sucker for good quotes.

Today I'll share 20 of my favorites (in no particular order):

1. Those who say it can not be done should not get in the way of those who are doing it
2. Falling down is how we grow, staying down is how we die
3. You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can't have it
4. Pain is inevitable but misery is optional.  We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy if we choose to.
5. The price of anything is the amount of life you are willing to exchange for it.
6. We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
7. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do
8. Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm
9. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
10. Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.
11. Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.
12. Never judge the one who tried and failed, judge the one who failed to try at all.
13. Adversity introduces a man to himself
14. Opposition doesn't built character, it reveals it.
15. Fear is a liar.
16. Don't strive for perfection, strive for progress
17. If you are never failing then you are never trying hard enough.
18. 'Obsessed' is the word lazy people use to describe the dedicated.
19. Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're finished.
20. I do because I can.  I can because I want to.  I want to because you said I couldn't.

Crossfit Workouts:

I love Crossfit - I am a believer in it's ability to change people.

It's perfect muscle confusion, it's scale-able, and most people can do it.
If you have never done anything before, you can scale it back (if you just did the warm-up everyday you'd have a pretty good workout).
If you are a super beast, it can still drive you into the ground.

See it's based on a perfect model of "you get out what you put in".  Every workout is for time and requires a built in gut check.

All that said, sometimes you can't get to a computer, you want something different, you need more, or you need less, or sometimes they put up workouts like they did yesterday:
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

(not designated a hero, not even named) I looked at it and wanted to go sit in a corner and cry just at the thought of it.  Any one of those would be a pretty good workout.

Soooooo,  for those interested, I've compiled a list of 75 Crossfit style exercises.  

Some of these are from Crossfit and a lot of them are from my own torture, er "conditioning" camps that I run for high school soccer programs.

I then placed them into 3 categories (without overlap even though many of them could):  Cardio, Major, Minor.

From here you can choose 1 from each, or just 1 cardio, or 1 cardio and 1 minor, or 1 major and 1 minor, or 5 minors, etc.

CARDIO:

10 Cycle

10k Run

400 Meter

5k Run

Backwards Run

Bunny Hops

Burpees

Carry/Be Carried

Crossover

Double Unders

Frog Leaps

Inverted Bicycle legs

Jumping Jacks

Lateral Leg Scissors

Lunges

Plyometric Dice Drill

Row

Run*

Shuffle

Sprint

Straight arm Rows

Suicides

Vertical Leg Scissors

MAJOR:
 

Back Squat

Clean

Clean and Jerk

Dead Lift

Deliver Milk to the Orphans

Farmers Walk

Front Squats

Handstand Push Ups

Jump Squats

Kettle bell dead lifts

Kettle Bell Flips

Kettle Bell Gun Slinger

Kettle Bell Lawn Mowers

kettle bell sumo deadlift high pull

Kettle bell swings

Medicine ball cleans

Muscle Ups

Overhead Squat

Overhead Walking Lunges

Partner Medicine Ball Sit Ups

Partner Medicine Ball Vollyball

Power Clean

Push Jerk

Push Press

Rope Climbs

Rower-Facing burpees

Shoulder Press

Snatch

Sumo Deadlift High Pull

The 55

Thrusters MINOR: Air Squat Ball Slams Bench Press Leg Raises Box Jumps Crunches Dips Elevated Push Ups GHD Bench Pulls GHD Sit Ups GHD Back Extensions Hand Release Push ups Knees to Elbows L Sits Leg Raises Pull Ups Push Ups Ring Dips Sit Ups Toes to Bar Wall Sits Wall balls