Whats a Shankle?

Usually I start with a title...today, I'm writing first, I'll let the title figure itself out.  A little look behind the curtain if you will, so look for it later.  

Lots to talk about tonight.  So we'll go down the list, starting with yesterday.  Firsts continued from yesterday.  Thats you!  I'm not really sure who found this blog first, but it was Andy ( remember the burpee tyrant?), well Andy sent me first a FB friend request, then a Google + one.  Shortly after, his wife (coach Laura at CFDS) made the first comment on this here blog.  Then the gates opened, page view count by the end of the day was 10x more than it was the 3 weeks before.  Having never had a blog, and being new to this, I can assure you, is very exciting.  Ended the day with a few new people in my circles in G+ and more than a few new friends on FB.  Fair warning though, you friend me on FB or G+, I'm not just a stay quite kind of  friend, I've got lots to say... I mean I'm blogging...and I've still got a lot to say, I'm a social butterfly *shrug*.  Last thought on this, thanks for the follows and reading my ramblings, it's humbling having people come up to me and say things like they like this blog, and that they're proud of me, stuff like that... so thank you. 

Brings me to point two of the evening.  One of our (can I say our?) athletes, Ryan, whom I officially met (as opposed to just seeing him at the box) tonight, had a request for a post.  Another first.  He wanted to know what my goals were, thought it would be a good idea to put them out here.  I happen to agree.  I have several, and they're all over the place.  I'm probably going to get a little personal on this, forgive me, but it is personal.  This is stuff I'd like to have done by the end of the year.  This is a living document, so I may come back and change them as I hit them.

1 real pushup--I've got a weak upper body...at least for now.
1 pullup, working towards 1 strict pullup
Drop 30 lbs before my work takes me away from CFDS
Find a max for every move we've got
Drop 60 lbs by the end of the year ( I really expect to keep moving this one back)
Get to RX (or whatever it is) for every move
Show improvement on half the benchmark workouts I get into Wodify. 

More of a longer look (as in I don't know how long it will take to get here):

Beat all of Andy's times on the benchmark leader board. 
Get in the top 10 on all our boards (pre-req being hitting the RX mentioned above)
Lose 200 lbs.  Yeah, you read that right, I've got to lose a whole damn person, going to do it too.  Can't beat Andy's times carrying two people around... if I could that would be sick...but no, thats not the goal. 

I've been picking on Andy a lot on here already, but really I have so much respect for him and all the coaches at CFDS.  Everyone here makes me want to get better, to be better.  I'm sure there is more lovely dovey stuff to share, but I can't get mushy now, my competitive fire has be rekindled, and I'm talking a little smack, have to stay focused :P

Ok, so those are some of my goals...maybe I'll come back and make edits with strike through and put dated comments beside them... yeah, thats probably better than changing them outright. 

Moving on, today's workout... parts of it were too easy, tells me quite clearly I need to up the weights on some of these moves.  Just to make sure there's no misconception, I haven't been sandbagging, I'm just trying to find my max's.  Bent over rows was the workout tonight, done to a count of 12-10-8-6-4-2.  My 2 was only 115lbs...LOL, I said only.  Look, 115 lbs is a monster to a lot of new people, some moves it's a monster to me, so if you're not there yet, you'll get there, just work at it, we'll all help you get there if thats your goal, or better yet, on your way to your goal.  I don't want anyone reading this to get discouraged, we all start somewhere.  Most of these moves, I start with and empty barbell or sometimes less.  Better?  Better!  Back to the workout...some shankle complexes...who is shankle?  Should that a be a proper noun?  Sorry, I'll get back on track... no, one more side note, if my use of ellipses (the ....) drives you nuts, my apologies... it's the whole typing like I think, like I talk, I see it as a way to let thoughts trail off or change subjects.  Also, just googled it Shankle should def be a proper noun.  Watch this if you don't know who he is.  Impressive stuff.  K, so we did some Shankle complexes, some stretches, rowing etc.  Push-ups too... still on my knees (see the first goal I put above).  Only person on their knee's... c'mon now, man up...  sorry, thats for me, not you, if you need you knees, use them, I do.  We'll get there together.  Enough WOD, cause I don't want to talk about planks...evil things.

It's like my Friday.  Kinda.  I get to sleep in a little tomorrow, take a few calls at the hotel before I go to the office, and then go the airport.  So Wednesday WOD's are special like that.  I know no matter how bad it is, tomorrow I get a wee bit of rest.  My muscles just relaxed at that realization, but don't tell anyone.  

There is no substitute for hard work.  It's cliche I know, but I had it reinforced today.  I was messing around looking through Google communities, found one on fitness, and some of the "healthy" things people were doing... smh.  I know things like cleanses, and juicing, and fad diets have their place, but if you can make that mental jump past the word diet, and make it a lifestyle thing, I think it makes it a lot easier.  My food intake isn't perfect, likely never will be, but it's gotten A LOT better in the past few weeks.  I work too damn hard to go eat something that isn't going to help me.  GSP  (Georges St-Pierre, MMA fighter) was training for one of his fights, and was interviewed about some of his prep work.  One of the things he said was that he doesn't put anything into his body that does not help him towards his goals.  Man has more discipline (and money...) than I do, but it's a good goal to strive for in my opinion. 

Wrap up.  The power of music.  We workout with some decent music, and getting a good beat can give you a good rhythm, all pluses in my book.  The music I'm talking about, it's my pre-box drive music.  I love me some XM/Sirius, so when the rentals have it, I get excited.  Hate commercials... I mean NFL games are 60 minutes, but take 180+ to watch on average...ug, sorry, thats a soap box thing for me.  Getting back to the story, I was sore this morning, shoulders from all that hanging (remember, it's like a person on each arm for me).  On my way to the box after work, I'm whining to myself.  If this was anything else, I probably would have just called it a night and chilled out.  CrossFit is in my blood now, unless just physically unable,  I'm going... back to music.  I'm sore, being whiny, and one of those feel good 90's songs comes on.  Some of you don't know who Marky Mark is... and I'm not going to tell you.  If you figure it out from this video, you get todays gold star.  After watching that myself, two thoughts, one, sometimes I miss those low tech music video days... I'm one of those old people that remembers when MTV played nothing but music.  Second, I wonder if he CrossFits...  Anyway, that song brought me out of my malaise, and I was pumped for tonight when I rolled up.  Endorphins... 


Have a great night, thanks for sticking with me through this long post, I'll try to prep you for that next time.  

TCN