Virtue I & Music

I think psychologists call it recency.

Sometimes you find yourself walking Main Street, maybe you have an extended short term memory, and recency causes you to think about the last five years.

It just works out that today I find myself at the end of the five years that started five years ago.

I've changed a lot over five years, and now more than anything I enjoy those closing moments of the day when I find tranquility and can meditate on Virtue.

Enough casual readings of Proverbs, and here you may choose proverbs or Proverbs as they're all edifying, and I realize I have memorized large excerpts of Proverbs without having consciously tried.  Actually if on
Main Street I were stopped and queried about the true business of a man, I could quickly provide an imperfect but close answer along with supporting citations from proverbs or Proverbs.

So, you can do that, or you can say, "don't be an asshole."





At the University of Iowa, I found a Rabbi professor.  I did not like him, but it was obvious that his intelligence was prodigious, so I usually went to his class.

This is where I learned that sometimes tests at a state university serve to test your understanding of a teaching assistant's misunderstanding of the material the professor covers.

And one day the Rabbi professor summed up his vast credentials placing special emphasis on the scholarly tradition of Rabbis, and then he told us he would explain the essence of Judaism.

After a suitable pause, he said, "don't be an asshole."

So there you go.






And then I have these defined abdominals I just don't handle well.  Maybe I can be forgiven.  I think the problem is that I'm too old to be ape shit fuck jacked.  If I had done it at twenty-one, things would be different now, but I'd have missed the last five years.

So I was at work, and Not Okay Coworker Two, being, well, spherical, interrupted Okay Coworker to explain that she had lost five pounds and she had half a slice of pineapple for lunch.

Man, I just don't know what is supposed to happen there.

So I did that thing where I lifted my shirt and said, "do you know how much you have to eat to do this?"

Here one sophist might say I joyfully helped her in her quest to stop being spherical, while another sophist might say I'm a vain and pompous asshole.

Leaving sophistry aside, maybe I can meditate on Proverbs tonight.





If that doesn't work, one has recourse to music.  I cannot explain this, but lately when meditating slides into sophistry I listen to this, with special enjoyment of the prelude, and this.




I squatted today.

14.3, Conditioning, & OtM

A somewhat lightened 7:30 am crew took on CrossFit Open wod 14.3 last Friday.

14.3
Complete as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
135-lb. deadlifts, 10 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch
185-lb. deadlifts, 15 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch
225-lb. deadlifts, 20 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch
275-lb. deadlifts, 25 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch
315-lb. deadlifts, 30 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch
365-lb. deadlifts, 35 reps
15 box jumps, 24-inch

I did and didn't like this one.  Dead lifts have to favor me as much as anything ever will but I was worried about the box jumps because I rarely use the prescribed 24 inches anymore favoring instead 20.

I don't know.
I just have this thing where I don't want to rupture my Achilles tendon.

 It was entertaining to watch the pro CrossFitters at the games announcement fall apart on the dead lifts, and I figured I and their more or less gifted imitators around the world would also start rounded back dead lifting by the second round.  I thought that because unlike several of their imitators I actually strength train I probably wouldn't get injured pulling 275 ugly.

Based on my own assessment of my current fitness, I set a goal of getting at least one 275 pound dead lift.  I got a little bit more than that.

Wow.




At this point I should probably provide a photo,but I'm not, so you'll have to trust me that I have visible abs again.  I don't think any blog about getting shredded is forthcoming because I'm not trying very hard to do it, and so I don't have any new suggestions.  I eat the same as always; I have merely upped the intensity, not duration of my conditioning work.  I think maybe it's working because against all  odds the experts are right about building muscle mass to lose fat.

So that's it.  I squat everyday, and I approach my three conditioning work outs a week as though they mattered.

I have yet to impress a single female, which is probably good, but having abs is fun anyway.  

Last week I was at the part time job I do to augment the sporadic income I get from owning a gym, and I was talking to Okay Co-Worker about diet.  For whatever reason, Not Okay Co-Worker who resembles a large marsh  mellow with toothpicks for limbs kept interjecting unsolicited input.  At length I've learned people think it's rude to
tell someone to shut the fuck up no matter how well justified, so I turned to Not Okay Co-Worker, pulled up my shirt to reveal what I have recently wrought,and said, "hey, Not Okay Co - Worker."

He shut the fuck up which alone, in my opinion, is reason enough to stay on top of conditioning.




I trained BJJ with some intensity for the first time since I popped my elbow.  I had forgotten how great it is to hang out, talk, and roll with those in a world so largely filled with jerks.  

My left arm didn't work as well as I'd like, and I had to give up on some positions I'm normally good at.  Still I had some good rolls and taped a few of those great guys.

I looking forward to training harder and more frequently.

God willing I'm still going to World Seniors in California this year.

CF Open 14.2 & Squatting

So then, I quit facebook for Lent, and it's been good, but I worry that it might be a gateway to quitting CrossFit.  I'm not sure there is a point to some of these work outs besides showing off, and I've removed myself from a highly available show off platform.

I've probably mentioned somewhere in this blog that quitting training is not consistent with my goals, so I'm still training, and since I train at a CrossFit affiliate, I at least claim to do CrossFit.

It follows, I think, that if you claim to do CrossFit, you might as well actually do it, and if you go so far as to do it, you might as well do the CrossFit Open.

I did 14.1 last week, and while I'm not releasing my score unless someone pays me $20, I will say that I was a magician with double unders.

14.2, overhead squats at 95 pounds and chest to bar pull ups seemed more palatable to me except that I wasn't sure if my elbow would allow me to do pull ups at all.  A couple guys were warming up with some nice kipping chest chest to bars, and since I couldn't show off online, I thought I'd show off my chest to bar butterflies live.  As soon as I hanged from the bar at full extension, I was rewarded with the pain I expected.
I made a nice pain face, and the guys advised me to save any real attempts for the work out.

Since I squat everyday now, I squatted the day before the work out, and I felt good but I didn't want to go heavy, so instead I tried a back off set of body weight x 20.  The day of the work out I squatted the usual easy 315 x 2, and when I started the wod the overhead squats felt trivial.

Then I got to the pull ups.

What can I say?

I refuse to be unable to do a chest to bar pull up so I did.  Then I did another, and since I wanted my final score to be a prime number, I did more.  It was a bitch as it was taking me two or three pull ups to get one chest to bar.

In the end I did too much work for the low prime number I finished at, but if you're going to do CrossFit, you have to do CrossFit, and so on.

Today was also a day, and since I squat everyday, I squatted today.

I hit a ridiculously easy 400 which I haven't done in quite a while, and 400 is again over twice my body weight, so I'm happy.

I think I'll just keep working and not worry too much about how very few people know it.

Every Cloud

My woes continue.  I feel like shit, and I've concluded that's because every cloud has its thorn.

All the same I've finished one week of squatting everyday, and I have nothing but good to report so far.  Of course most days I have only hit the 315 double, but I've gone above it a couple times hitting a fast, easy 375 double at most.


I wanted to time myself, so Saturday, an especially shitty day, I started the clock and tried not to hurry.  I hit the double in 8 minutes, 8 seconds feeling in no way rushed.

Eight oh Eight

I thought that was a decent time.

Look, if I had to train at a CrossFit where I was expected to do 25 minutes of mobility work and a 25 minute wod, I could still get my work done.

Or again, if or maybe more likely when I get kicked out of all the CrossFits and have to train at 24 minute fitness, I can still get 15 minutes in the tanning bed.


True, 315 is light and a double certainly isn't much volume, but it's more than a lot of people will do in their careers.

So again, it's been great so far, and I have the following to report:

On some otherwise horrible days, I did my thing and so avoided feeling totally useless.  I suppose though that this point might be countered with the observation that people who don't squat any day also never feel totally useless or they would squat some of the days.

I don't waste any time on warm up or mobility work.  Most days I just start with 45 x 5, but at least one day 135 was sitting on the bar, and I'm a  guy, so I hit that shit.  Before squatting everyday, I usually couldn't hit an air squat to depth in the morning without some preliminary work, and now it's no problem which makes me wonder if perhaps in general we spend too much time on mobility work, and not enough time on moving.

I don't waste time changing my shoes.  Dude, it's about 70% of 1rm, and the whole thing  takes less time than ordering Reebok gear online.  I guess if one my shoes falls off someday, I'll take the other one off to be symmetrical, but then again maybe not; it's 70% dude.

I wondered if I could avoid wasting time with a belt and wrist wraps, so I tried it and the answer appears to be yes so far.

I have very little soreness.  Until I quit breaking myself, I have to train BJJ conservatively, but in my limited trials squatting has not interfered with rolling.  Likewise I condition three days a week, and I do double unders and box jumps like a boss.  It seems like squatting, as I long suspected, is the ultimate warm up.

I don't worry about eating before, during, or after training.  I doubt I'm getting all catabolic with my volume.

Really I have nothing bad to say.

 I might eventually get bored, and then I'll put my bodyweight on the bar and see how many reps I can do in 5 minutes.  This came up on facebook lately, and at least one expert said it's a stupid thing to do which is all I need to do it as soon as I need a challenge.

I suspect my top end strength will rise slower than it would on a 5x5 or some such thing, but right now I can live with that.




Hopefully it continues to snow. I watched a documentary on Mongolian Judo players.  Apparently they like rubbing snow over their bodies after running up mountains, so I tried it myself the last two days after squatting, and it seems reasonable to me.

Be right, be wrong, but keep trying and training.

True Colors

Maybe two or three people know that since about last October, I have slowly been bringing my conditioning up, and I was happy this week to test myself against the CrossFit Open wod 14.1.

I'm still at best amateurish at double unders, but I thought I could do well with proper dress and pre-workout nutrition. I didn't have enough long socks for everyone, so I went with one only to avoid any other athletes getting jealous, I put on my PR t-shirt, and I had a pot of Death Wish coffee.

Team Show Tunes

The small but oh so passionate 7:30 am crew attacked 14.1, and on the whole we were happy with the results.

We will release our scores to anyone who cares, but we are charging $20 for that information.


I felt so good after training in the morning that I decided to train jiu jitsu at open mat last night.  About twenty seconds after I started rolling, I found myself on bottom of a Toreando guard pass.  My partner flanked me low and leading with the head, so I tried blocking the pass with my face and caught a skull in the eye socket.

First Line of Defense

These things happen; it's my second black eye in five or so years.

So my elbow is still angry, and I have a black eye.

I'd say I'm not mad or dejected, but competition team training is starting in under a half hour, and I recently lost both of my mouth guards.

I'd like to train today, but I'm not ready for chipped teeth.

Squatting Every Day

And then sometimes you have an idea.  You can't be sure if it's good or bad, so eventually you have to try it.

For two or three or four or five years, however long I've been serious enough about lifting to check up on the generally unreliable reports about what the Bulgarians are doing, I've been fascinated with the idea of squatting every day, and I knew eventually I'd try it.

I thought that I would train for the 2014 USAPL Raw Nationals in July in much the same way I've trained the last 18 or so months, after which, what the hell, I'd experiment with squatting everyday.

But then last Saturday I popped my elbow.  While it looks fine on the outside, it's still very angry, and it doesn't like to go to full extension.  I find I can do slow push ups, and I did a pull up today which I won't try to repeat soon since it made my elbow feel worse than it did Saturday.  I'm almost, but not quite, stupid enough to try any pressing.

A lot of guys, I fear, would take a couple months off here.


Earlier this week I saw an article headline which claimed men's self esteem is lowered when doors are held open for them.  I didn't read the article because I don't read articles like that, but I know I don't care about doors.  Sometimes people hold doors for me because they're genuinely great people, and as I have observed, sometimes they do so because they find me intimidating which makes me laugh.

But if I didn't train, I'm certain that my self esteem would take a bigger hit than it did in my latter teens when I happened on porn and what passes for average genitals.

So I decided to squat everyday.  By far the most reputable source I've read on this, James Steel, recommends hitting at least 70% of 1rm everyday, and going over 80% a couple times a week.  I don't know exactly where my 1rm is these days, so I don't know what 70% is, but 315 is close enough and it's easy to load.

I might improve some of my physical attributes doing this, or I might die, but I was going to do that eventually anyway.  Besides, I've been listening to a lot of what I call drug rap in training lately, and if those guys can ball until they fall, I can squat until I rot.

Thus far though, I feel great.  Obviously my lifting density is way up, but my volume and intensity are both down.   If I were to guess what happens eventually, I'd say I'll get a little bit stronger and a little bit leaner while feeling great all the time and having plenty of physical resources left over to train jiu jitsu with regularity.

And so there are some more ideas I have, but I'm not taking a couple months off anytime soon.

Well actually I've never had that idea, and I still slam doors on people who do.

BJJ Blues

Again I'm processing a loss.

Of course whenever you compete you can be adequately prepared, but you can't know whether you'll be a winner or loser.

At the urging of my younger training partners, I decided to compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu again after a four or five year break from competition.  I think it's a matter of integrity to walk the walk, as is commonly said, and if nothing else I set out to show that while I am aging, I am  not in any way enfeebled.

I was happy with both my physical and technical preparation going in.  I believe my guard has improved tremendously since returning to BJJ, and while my top game is rudimentary, it's serviceable. 

My team mates at Dark Horse BJJ and the guys I lift and condition with had me in good shape, and while I fought nerves for days, I was ready to return.

Waiting to warm up,

Without recounting the fight in entirety, I lost by submission to an Americana from mount.  I felt like I was in no real danger; I was carefully monitoring my shoulder which the Americana attacks, when quite unexpectedly my elbow popped and I tapped  right as the referee was moving to stop me.

My elbow.  Abraded but neither swollen nor discolored.

Obviously I'm not happy about losing.  I've been listening to music and playing one minute Internet chess which has me feeling tolerably well, and I'm not taking this loss nearly as badly as I would have in my previous competitive career.

Actually I have several things to feel good about going forward:

While I was nervous for days leading to the event, I have never been so calm on the mat.

I implemented my game plan of jumping closed guard with no problems.

I stayed active in guard. I nearly swept, I replaced guard after a near pass, and I had a good early submission attempt.  (Why oh why oh why oh why did I try a triangle when I almost certainly should have kept turning an omoplata?  I'd be writing a different blog now.)

I maintained my composure and kept fighting when the position turned against me.

I successfully defended my back and escaped a bow and arrow choke which normally is kryptonite for me.

My conditioning was superior.  Until my elbow popped, I was feeling very good while my opponent was panting.  Until the elbow gave out, I thought I would be able to escape and turn the tide.

I was fully present during the fight and was able to monitor my opponent's energy level.  I was particularly happy about this because I had been working hard on it in competition training.  (It comes in handy when you have to train with younger guys.  I work hard on feeling them wane and only then taking my shots.)



At this point my elbow doesn't feel any worse than it usually does with tendinitis, and unless it does something strange overnight I'll be training tomorrow.

I have to get serious now about the World Masters in October.

If it were entirely up to me, maybe I'd take another four years off.

But I have integrity, and it's not only about me.

God willing I'll be in Long Beach in October for my family, for my friends.