Why BarbellMile

My friend, trainer and trainee Vanessa, Nineties-Small or Hippy-Milk as I more usually call her, started bothering me about starting a blog. I wasn't at all sure at first, but people let me know in various ways that they like me and want to know what I'm thinking. Honestly that is hard for me to believe. It's true I am pursuing awesomeness as I understand it, and if I start talking about my pursuit of awesomeness I have a pronounced tendency to keep talking for hours. Nonetheless I view myself as a rather average, boring guy. But still people let me know in various ways that they like me and want to know what I'm thinking. Fine, it's on.

First we had to come up with a name.


Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 8:50am
If you haven't set it up yourself already, think about the url you want and the blog title. The url is www. whatever .blogspot.com

James Drebenstedt September 1 at 8:50am
retarded fucker?

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 8:53am
Hmm.. maybe not... The Other Twin Freakn' Strong

James Drebenstedt September 1 at 8:54am
speakingenigma

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 8:56am
Enigma Walking

James Drebenstedt September 1 at 8:57am
Complete fucking badass

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 8:58am
People are going to have to look that up. What kind of person do you want to attract? Do you want to actively drive away women by putting up obvious photos of female eye-candy like T-Nation? Or be more subtle like Crossfit.com.

James Drebenstedt September 1 at 9:02am
I can only be completely authentic.

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 9:04am
OK... annoying women is your other hobby anyway...

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 9:06am
Authentic Power

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 1:14pm
taken. so is authenicstrenth
authenticpowerwithjamesd is ok
jamesdrebenstedt is ok
wotansauthenticpower
authenticpowerandstrength
authenticexplosivepower

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 1:21pm
badasspower is ok

Vanessa Pinter September 1 at 6:01pm
awesomepower is taken
sheerawesomepower is ok

Vanessa Pinter September 2 at 1:47pm
Oops. Too busy talking - forgot to set this up!

James Drebenstedt September 2 at 1:47pm
no problem I'm asleep anyway

Vanessa Pinter September 2 at 1:48pm
Pick a name and I'll get it started, then you can play with it.

James Drebenstedt September 2 at 1:54pm
BarbellMile as in do a barbell mile with JamesD, motherfucker

And so it was.

The barbell mile is extremely simple. You load a barbell and walk a mile with it. I was at a loss for what workout to do on my last birthday, so I chose the barbell mile, loaded up 135 and completed it with the one and only Eric Walden. The second time I did it was Steve Nagel's birthday, and I thought I might as well use my body weight of 185.

I've done many much harder workouts. "Religion" comes to mind immediately. That's 5 rounds of max repetition squats at body weight and 7 box jump burpees. Another killer was 10 minutes of on the minute 3 squats at 70% (I think, and I've actively tried to forget this) of 1rm, 50 meter sprint and 5 pull ups. This was after I had been working on my squat, so I was supposed to use 275 pounds. Take that deep 3 times a minute for 10 minutes when you can't breath. Ouch.

So the barbell mile is easy in a sense. You just load a barbell and walk a mile with it. I have an open invitation to basically everyone I know to do the barbell mile with them on their birthday. I'm sure I'll be doing it many more times, and I hope it becomes a tradition.

The problem is just it hurts, and you'll want to quit. With 185 I encountered serious problems at 3/4 of a mile. I could still do an ugly power clean, but I couldn't get the bar over my head into a decent position to carry it. I actually bounced 185 pounds off my forehead, bounced off a chain link fence and fell in some loose sand and gravel off the sidewalk. The idea to strip 50 pounds, go down to 135 and continue was debated, but I vetoed it. Instead I had a couple guys pick it up for me while I ducked under and put it on my back. I could go back to the article where I first read about the Barbell Mile and see if this constitutes cheating or not. I'm more interested in having finished what I started even if it wasn't quite how I had thought it would go.

I find the pursuit of awesomeness is similar to the Barbell Mile. It hurts and most people will want to quit. I can't be sure I'll get to awesomeness without changing my definition of awesome along the way. I am sure that when I fall down, I'll get up and find a way to continue forward.

You can join me. You can also criticize me, and if you're doing something better than eating ice cream and watching television, I might even listen to you.