2013 - Plans and Desires, Wishes and Dreams!

2013 looks to be even more fun than 2012!

And that's saying a lot, because 2012 was an AMAZING year!

Also after writing that Giant review post... I think for my recap at the end of this year I'll just do a "Top 5" or "Top 10" instead of tons of pictures and text for every month.

So what's in store for the year Two-Thousand-Thirteen?

A LIST of course!

PLANNED: things I am FOR SURE doing

• Official Things:
• Buffalo Run 50K in March. And preparing for that.Basically I have to run a lot more than I normally would to prepare. I guess I don't "have" to prepare too much - I mean honestly I am not worried about finishing the 32 miles. My goal for this, and why I need more preparation, is I want to be able to move around the days after the race without TOO much soreness. I don't want to be stuck in bed because I can't move from running over 30 miles!
• Spartan Beast - I have like 16 people on my team already - some of the same people we did Tough Mudder with last fall - and people they have invited. I may try to put together some training times much like Justin and I tried to do. I also probably won't do a 'we stick together the whole time' for this... because I don't want to have to wait for people who haven't prepared! I love obstacle races!
• Unofficial or Non-event Things: 
• Yoga, yoga, yoga! We enrolled my beautiful wife in Yoga teacher training - she starts in March. It will be a bit of a sacrifice for a few months where she will be BUSY and learning - but in the end I'm sure I'll learn a lot too! I'll also continue Yoga classes at work.
• Climb more - at least one time outdoors with somebody experienced! (and with more equipment than me!)
• Bag more Peaks - one possible course I'd like is to make it up to Bountiful Peak from the Davis Creek trail
• More HIIT workouts! Pullups! Backyard Exercises! Utilize my awesome pullup station AND improve on it
• Continued BJJ classes at work.
• Slacklining - I got TWO of these for Christmas - so I'll definitely be doing as much of this as I can!

Desires: These are things I would like to do, but haven't signed up or anything official. Still a good chance of doing! These could be possible!

• Dirty Dash - I LOVE the Dirty Dash. It's not hard - it's just good clean DIRTY fun! With a group, and even better, with a photographer - you can have a BLAST. Like I said - I do love the obstacle races!
• Bairgutsman - I wanted to do this last year - hopefully I'll find a way to do it this year!
• More to come!

Wishes: Things that would be nice, but might not be doable.

• BJJ Gym membership - If we can get our finances are a bit more in order I'd love to add some sort of official BJJ along with the stuff I'm learning with Micah. Maybe even at Unified BJJ where he teaches the kids class.
• Ninja Warrior/Parkour style equipment - I plan on improving my outdoor workout equipment - but I'm not sure I will be able to do THIS type

Dreams:Yes... any of these would be awesome! (unfortunately not that likely!)

• Yoga on a Caribbean Island...
• Try out for American Ninja Warrior
• Buy some land away in the wilderness(ish) and create an ultimate obstacle-course/workout/training/adventure course!

Previous years staples that AREN'T on the Docket:

• Ragnar - there is still a chance this could happen - there are almost always people looking for team members last minute. We'll see what happens but I've already done 4 of these... I'd be okay not doing one this year.
• Yeah that's pretty much it that we did last year that we aren't doing!

Other thoughts:

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I do what I do, fitness-wise. I've said my MAIN goal is to be ABLE to do whatever I feel like doing - and to be CAPABLE enough to ENJOY doing it - not beating myself up too much doing what should be FUN. That definitely hasn't changed.

Secondary to that is for Aesthetics. I'll admit I am plenty narcissistic. I want to look a certain way - and I know what I DON'T want to look like.
I admire Tony Krupicka and his abilities - but I don't want to look like him.

Anyway... This year will definitely be great!

Getting Stronger!

Getting stronger is great. No I'm not really talking about the Rocky Training montage although that's pretty great too... But I mean really feeling like there is improvement and growth in many areas of fitness.

It's fantastic!

Yesterday while waiting to start Crossfit I looked at the Incline Bench Machine and the weight was set to 235 lbs. I figured I'd give it a shot just for fun, and it was EASY. 3 reps and I didn't do more just because I was talking to some people. Now I'm not saying I can bench 235 - I have no idea. I haven't bench pressed in years due to a recurring shoulder issue and last time I did it was 180 or so. Still - I don't think I could have done the machine at 235.

Then Crossfit yesterday was tough - but not TOO tough, and even though I'm sore today, I think I was more capable in completing the workout than I have been.

Sweet!

This morning I met up with some Mudder team mates (one other guy showed up so it wasn't just Justin and I!) and we did the same relay workout we did back in August. With 3 people we did it a total of 4 times each so everybody got a fair turn. It was a COLD morning but it warmed up once the sun came up. One more week until we get to be up at a similar time, hopefully a bit warmer, and starting into our 10 mile Tough Mudder adventure!

If you haven't noticed, I'm quite excited!

I won't recap the workout - it was basically the same as last time with only a couple differences. If you really want to see you can check out my entry on Fitocracy.

I got a couple pictures of me doing the Sled Pull and Tire Slams too!

Yoga, Climbing, Crossfit, Trail Running, Mudder Training CRAZY!

Wow.

Exhaustion.

Pain.

And even after all that I could STILL do muscle-ups at the peak of exhaustion! WOOT.  (I did 3 today after our Tough Mudder workout AND last night after our trail run)

I think I can consider that goal COMPLETE.

Warning folks, this is a long post with probably too many pictures!

SO. Yesterday.

Fantastic early morning yoga class with the awesome new yoga teacher/wellness intern followed by a solid half hour climbing on the wall. I used chalk this time to avoid the chafed hands I had on Wednesday, but I climbed fast and went up and across and back down and all over that wall a lot, so by the time I was done - I had some painful spots on my fingers that may turn into climbing callouses. Also I need to get a chalk ball to put into my chalk bag - just loose chalk is a bit harder to rub in properly.

That wall is already not very hard for me... but I can still get a dang good workout in and I love it!

Work got busy - but I still felt like I needed to go to Crossfit.

Warmed up with a half mile run (the route would be included in our workout) and some double kettlebell cleans, squats and presses, since that is also what we were doing for the workout. I had 2 35 lb kettle bells for the workout. When we were done with that, we started the workout, to finish for time:
Run .5 miles
Double Kettlebell Clean, DKB Squat, DKB Press 10 times
5 burpees
DKB CSP 8 times, 5 burpees, 6 KB, 5 b, 4 KB, 5b, 2 KB, 5 burpees
Run .5 miles

I finished 2nd out of everybody in a time of 14:32, the next person came in just before 15.

After the main workout we had 2 more workouts, the first being Russian Twists with a kettle bell - 20 seconds on, 10 second rest, 8 rounds. Yikes! The first 4 or 5 rounds I was all right, then 35 lbs was tough!

We finished off the workout with about 20 yards of Handstand Walks. I still can't even do a normal handstand, let alone walking on my hands! So I kicked up and pedaled my hands a few times and came down until I made it across. Now that I've completed me muscle-ups goal (though I will definitely continue to improve on them!) Handstand might just be my next major one.

So that was a crazy good amount of working out for one day right?

WRONG! Okay, so yeah, really you were right, because that is most definitely a crazy good amount of workouts, but I wasn't done yet.

I hadn't gone running up in the mountains all week! That's horrible! So my sister came over and watched the kids while the most lovely Kakes and I went for a run. 3.5 miles up Farmington Canyon, we kept a 17 minute pace, which was great for the way I was feeling, and we got some good pictures!
And we all know that's really what's important right?!

Definitely the pictures!!

Man... how many times can I pose the same way in one post?! (the answer according to this post is FOUR... wow)

So after that crazy day (worth 2040 points on Fitocracy, woohoo!) I was tired. Exhausted.

And of course excited to see what punishment could be dished out by my friend Justin today in our Tough Mudder workout!!

Unfortunately only Justin and I were there from the team, AGAIN. But I DID bring my sexy arm candy so she could experience the pain "ABSOLUTE FUN" of our trainings.

Yum! Arm Candy! Mmmm

Our workout today (which incorporated a few of the same things we did 2 weeks ago) consisted of 3 15 minute sections:
Warmup/Round 1:
Run for 2 minutes
Bear Walk for 1 minute
Run
Monkey Bars!
Run
Crab Walk
Run (sheesh is there some sick pattern here or what?!)
Monkey Bars!!
Run
Walking lunges (my nemesis!)
Round 2:
Run 2 minutes (wait more?!)
Tire Flip 1 minute
Run (Most definitely more!)
Sledgehammer
Run
Sandbag (70#) lift (clean, clean & press, whatever)
Run
Jump Rope
Run
Dip Walk
Round 3:
Farmer Carry 2 minutes
Burpees 1 minute (yay no more running)
Sled pull (sandbag in sled)
Jump angle sprint (Broad jump forward, Sprint to the side and forward for about 10 yards, repeat)
Medicine Ball throw and chase (17# ball - split the tape some need to fix it!)
Goblet squat (20# kb)
Agility Ball throw and catch - mean little sucker bounced all over the place - fun!
More MONKEY BARS!
and Box Jumps.

Awesome workout. My shoulder hurts. I think it is from yesterday's handstand walking attempts. Or the falling.

Saturdays are for PAIN!

Okay so I haven't had the workout of the day yet, but I'm already in pain from the rest of the week!

It's been a great week! So this is a LONG post!

Last Saturday we had a very busy day so I only got in some pullups and curls... at least I got something in!

Monday was Labor Day and we took it easy for most of the day - then in the evening we went to my Aunt's house for a barbecue - and had a quick HIIT workout for those who wanted to do it! We had a bunch of people it was nice!

Here's the workout:

Warmup:
Pushup x10
Air Squat x20
Lap around yard
- Repeat for 2 times



Workout:
Jump Rope
Shovel Glove
Medicine Ball Throw and Chase
Tire Flip
KB Swing
Ab Wheel Rollouts
Burpees
Chair Dips
1 minute interval – very short break to move between exercises

Normally you'd repeat for a few rounds... but we had a bunch of people sitting around watching us waiting to eat... so we just did one round. Still a decent quick 15 minute or so workout!!

One advantage to people that didn't do it - More Pictures!

  

Tuesday we ran around a wilderness park, trying to see if it was a good place to practice some of the awesome freerunning/parkour workouts from DemonDrills (Check out the intermediate and advanced playlists too!!) Had fun playing Tag with the wife and kids and running around on the little trails!

Wednesday I climbed on the climbing wall for a half hour in the morning, went to an awesome and tough Yoga class after lunch (and a big lunch from WingNutz made it more difficult!). Practiced some Wall handstands too - getting closer!

Thursday took it relatively easy - went to BJJ at work and we videoed it! So here's a long video - if you skip to the end (right after the credits) you can see me NOT getting the moves I'm trying to learn... Slow brain that day or something!

So yeah... That catches us up to but does not include YESTERDAY.

Yesterday was crazy. So I'll post about that later today after we do our crazy Tough Mudder training workout!!

Are you asking me for a Backyard HIIT CHALLENGE!?!?!

Yoga was fantastic yesterday morning - and we are starting to get a lot more people to come out to the classes! It helps to have a new teacher, new times, and more awareness for sure. It was really funny though, I was running a tiny bit late, but when I walked in there were 4 guys (not including me!!) lined up on mats to do yoga and NO WOMEN!! Then 3 ladies showed up.

Next up - Climbing! I enjoy climbing a lot. I've always known that. For some reason I've always been apprehensive about asking somebody with equipment and stuff if I could tag along... Not sure why. I still haven't done that. BUT I'm pretty good with indoor stuff and everything, so I like training people on the safety requirements of my work's new climbing wall. Especially when some of the people I train are friends that will NOT try working out in other ways. Even better when after the training they go "Hey, I could do this kind of exercise! That was fun!"

I couldn't go to Crossfit yesterday because I got really busy with a work issue. This particular project has been a lot slower than we've wanted, but it's FINALLY getting momentum and should be good.

It was all right that I missed the crossfit class though, because we had a lot of fun last night doing a Backyard HIIT with my sister!

Kakes put together this great workout for us, she's amazing. And also extremely hot.
I mean she is really really really good looking. I'm a very lucky man!

Warmed up with an 8 round tabata -
Football sprints for 20 seconds, pushups for 10 seconds - 4 minutes total.
Great warmup, I made myself do 10 pushups every time. By the end I was actually doing 10 faster than the 10 seconds.

Then we started the workout:
30 KB Swings (35 lb Kettle bell)
20 Weighted Reverse Lunges (2 25 lb plates)
1 minute Double-unders Jump rope
50 Medicine Ball tosses with a partner (17 lb ball)
1 min max pull-ups (I did 2 sets, 1 set of 10 regular pullups and 1 set of 10 semi-close-grip chinups)
20 each side tire slams (16 lb sledgehammer)
50 chair dips (I'm sore from this one!)
30 leg throws
20 Wall runs (These were VERY hard to do last!)

Loads of fun and sweaty-ness!
Blurry Picture time!!

Medicine Ball Throws!

Pullups!!

Sledgehammer!!!

Wall Runs!!!!

Even the kids got into it!!!!!

Life is good folks. Don't let it pass you by!

More Mudder Training!

Met up with my friend J for another Tough Mudder training workout yesterday morning.

We started out with a warmup of 5 pullups, 5 pushups, 5 step ups and 5 dips for 3 rounds.

Next part was the animal part of the workout - a 20 yrd "Animal Run" followed by one of the six different monkey bars at the school playground where we were working out.
Bear Crawl with the Uneven Monkeybars
Frog Jump with the climbing monkeybars (most like the ones in Tough Mudder)
Crab Walk with the circular monkeybars
Gazelle Jumps or Bounders with the Rings
Spiderman or lizard Crawl with some more regular monkeybars
Monster Walk or Sidesquat walk with some curving monkeybars

That sequence sure tore at hand callouses! Fun to do though.

Now for the main part of the workout - this picture was taken after the first round, which was really done in 3:58.3 not 2:58.

1. The first person starts (A) with the Sandbag sequence, Lift the sandbag, squat, Press the sandbag lunge left, lunge right.
2. Pass the Sandbag (60-65 lbs btw) to second person (B) who runs the sandbag about 25 yards to the sled and places the sandbag on the sled.
3. A pulls the sled the 25 yards back to himself
4. B runs the 12 lb sledgehammer back to A
5. A Hammers the tire 10 rounds each hand, so 20
6. B flips the tire the 25 yards back to where the sled started
7. A carries the Sandbag (and the sled rope) to B
8. B starts with #1 and repeat through 7 which finishes 1 full round

Awesome workout! Our first round was 3:58.3, the second was almost exactly the same. Which is how we realized that when we wrote 2:58 we were wrong, because there is no way we were a full minute slower. Our final 3rd round we completed in 3:42.9 - nice improvement!

We finished off with a farmer's carry of two 35 lb kettle bells for about 70 yards. Each person took 3 turns walking it that far. (or a bit more)

Awesome workout - a few hours later I crashed for a nap, then I woke up hardly able to move. Busy couple of days!
Today I still feel a bit sick and sore, but not too horrible.

I'm looking forward to doing some good climbing and climbing safety training over the next few days!

An Awesome Workout by my Wife!

Went to yoga at work today... nothing too special. It felt good to work through some of the kinks in my back, shoulders, and hips, but otherwise it wasn't particularly challenging or enlightening.

We were kind of expecting to have a running night tonight but because it is a local holiday some (24th of July, Pioneer Day!) people were busy so we invited my sister and family over for a workout similar to the fun one I had on Saturday. Kakes decided she would put together the workout and she did a great job! She came up with 4 stations each with 4 workouts we could do in our backyard.

Of course, I made sure to get pictures of this momentous occasion! Actually USING the stuff we've built and acquired for backyard workouts! I'm so impressed with us!

Station One!

Station Two!

Station 3!

Station 4!

Yeah... I'm pretty amazing, I mean I TAPED those papers to trees, fence posts, and square foot gardens. Talk about tough work!!

Seriously though - props to Kakes for coming up with a great workout! We set a timer and did each workout at our station for 1 minute, then moved to the next station and continued until we had gone through all 16 workouts.

First I recruited my 10 year old to take a few pictures of us during our first round... They turned out pretty blurry! But he got some good ones too. Then after we finished - I did a few more of the workouts so we could get some of the other workouts too!

That's a weird face...

Okay, so I always have a weird face. Knee hops make me feel like I'm doing Insanity again!

Ring pushups - normally I'd have the rings a lot lower

My beautiful wife displaying the squat

...and the plank with baby-pose!

Where's my head!?

So much fun!! Fly away little medicine ball! Fly AWAY!!

The fabled Tire-head-man! Rare sight!

Fun workout. I definitely look forward to doing these more often... and not just with the Tough Mudder guys, although I am looking forward to more of those too.