The 1500: Bring the Pain

     I am a subscriber to an email sent out daily by the people of Spartan Race. It is known as the Spartan Race WOD, or the workout of the day. Every day I get the email, read it, think about whether or not I should do the workout, decide I should, but then I come up with a million reasons not to (most of my reasons are exercise-related, like I have bjj later that day and don't want to be worn out from doing a crazy spartan circuit--if I use one form of exercise to get out of another, does it count as an excuse? Something to ponder...). Anyway, today's WOD looks incredibly daunting. It's known as the Spartan 1500 and is as follows:
    -100 Burpees
    -100 Pullups
    -100 Box Jumps
    -100 Sandbag Squat Throws
    -100 Jumping Jacks
    -100 Ab Twists (50/side)
    -100 Squats
    -100 Sidekicks (50/side)
    -100 Jumping Lunges
    -100 Curls (50/side)
    -100 Tricep Overhead Extensions (50/side)
    -100 Frog Jumps
    -100 Squat Jumps
   -3 Rope Climbs
   -300 Crunches
As I read through the list of what looks like one of the most intimidating workouts I've ever seen, and my eyes jumped from one scary exercise to the next, I cringed. It's not the exercises themselves that are unfortunate, but there are enough reps in this workout to make a grown man cry. They don't call it the 1500 for nothin'.
     After reading the WOD once, and then twice, and then a third time, I decided that not only should I do this WOD, but that I actually would. I haven't set a deadline yet...I still need to decide how much time I'll need to condition myself for the 100 pullups. Perhaps I'll substitute something a little more manageable for that one. Maybe do two rounds of 10 pullups with a 90-second flexed-arm hang? Decisions, decisions. The 1500 is something for me to work towards. And if, by some otherworldly miracle, I conquer the tough feat of completing the 1500, I'll try to address the challenge set forth by Spartan Race; those f-cukers want you to do it in an hour. Ha. Haha. That's funny. I'll be lucky to get it done in a day. Tomorrow is my first attempt (each exercise will be completed 50 times instead of the suggested 100). Updates to come.

Olympics? Try the Georgia Games

The opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics aired last night. I sat next to my father and watched the endearing, but messy, ceremony that introduced the world to this year's Summer games...

The opening ceremony, if you will, for my 5k in the Georgia Games* was much...simpler. It consisted of a 30 minute drive to Kennesaw with my coach, while listening to Percy Sledge. He didn't seem to be a fan of my music choice, but I was driving so his opinion held very little weight. Having said that, once we got to the course, I did everything he told me to: pinned my bib on the front of my shirt, stretch my calves, run for a minute to loosen my legs up, etc. Not at all to say I didn't sass him--not sure I could hold my sass/sarcasm back even if I wanted to. The race started and then it was done. We did an hour of driving for a race that took me less than 25 minutes to run. Gotta love a 5k.

My morning concluded with a good hour and a half of bjj. 40 minutes of which were spent rolling...needless to say, I got my ass handed to me for 40 minutes. And thanks to my new love for this wonderful sport, every minute I'm not rolling, I'm thinking about rolling...and what to wear when I do. That's right, gi time. I bought my first gi from my coach. It's black. My coach won Worlds in it. I feel like a ninja. The second gi I own is also black. It was ordered online, which is always kind of sketchy. The top fit perfectly after washing it once, but the pants seem like they were made for a man whose lower-half resembles a short inverted-pyramid--very wide at the hips and very short in the legs. Oh well. Two ninja suits are better than none.

*The Georgia Games are a series of sporting events put on by Georgia State. They're just like the Olympics, if the Olympics were small and kinda crappy and the athletes weren't as good and no one really cared

Eat weights

This morning's workout was a rough one. Not necessarily harder than other workouts have been in the past, but, as the title says, I was lacking pep. I'm gonna go ahead and blame that on lack of sleep and food and the fact that yesterday's cardio session is still working it's way through my quads.
Anyway, this got me thinking: what can one do to prevent a pepless workout from happening? Surely some item exists to keep people on track even when they don't get enough sleep, food, etc. (the list of excuses is endless). I was right, there is.

What is this magical excuse-killer? I'm glad you asked. Cellucor C4 Extreme is a pre-workout powder designed to amp up any form of training. I'm not usually one to use or recommend supplements, but this one seems to do a damn good job. I asked a friend (one who is an avid user of Cellucor C4, and looks like he could crush a mountain with his hand) what is does, and he said, "it makes you want to eat the weights instead of lift them." I'm not exactly sure I want to be craving iron, but if it makes me feel that intense, then count me in. I'm buying my first container of it today. Updates on my beast-mode status to come.

Picture Caption: Inappropriate? True? Both.

Good morning blog! And good morning...bloggees? bloggers? What does one call people who read blogs? Huh. That's a question for google and completely unrelated to anything.

Today started with a lot of the one type of endurance training that I will openly complain about: cardio. I'm talkin' 15 minutes on the rowing machine, half an hour on the arc trainer (still not 100% what that machine is or why it's called that), half an hour on the stair-stepper, and then another 15 minutes on the rowing machine.  Not a huge fan of doing cardio for long periods of time, would much rather be grappling or punching or sprinting or yoga-ing. It is what it is, and it needs to get done every now-and-then.
And I'll get to do a lot of kicking and punching tonight for kickboxing. So have no fear! My odd, and slightly dog-like, need for physical contact will be met when my fist/shin hits the bag. Or whoever walks by at the right moment...Randy (my coach) better watch where he's stepping.  

And so it begins.

Post number one. Here we go.

I've always been someone who wanted/needed to get things done. Fortunately, I'm a full-time student and an aspiring athlete, so I have get-stuff-done opportunities all day, every day. Once I realized this, I became a bit more selective with the things I did and how well I did them (which is why I got crappy grades in pre-calc, but placed amazingly in all of my races). Recently, I've taken up a few new sports - apparently I didn't have enough stuff to do already - and am trying to fully immerse myself in them before school starts again (bringing along with it stress and a gross number of college-related obligations. Oh, the joys of senior year). BJJ and OCR are where I'm focusing my energy right now. I need something to take my mind off the stress of getting into college; without sports my head might explode. 

In theory, I'll be using this blog to talk about the trials and tribulations of competing in and training for unfamiliar sports, but I suspect some school stuff may find it's way on here, so let me apologize in advance. I'm hoping to keep the Mulan theme going throughout the blog, but that's a get-stuff-done opportunity that I'm not willing to commit to just yet. 

Having said that, I will bring this post to a closing. A new week begins tomorrow, full of shit that needs to get done. Training begins again tomorrow at 6 a.m., so as I am very fond of saying:   

*brazilian jiu jitsu and obstacle course racing