Bodyweight Exercises

Seriously...?

Who thinks of something like this?  And who the hell goes along with the idea for that matter? 

Now Hiring: Human Weights!

I really hope this isn't serious.... even if it is absolutely hilarious.

-dunkie

Ninja Warrior!

Haha found the video that I was looking to post a while back...



-dunkie

A Conundrum of Sorts...

Co-nun-drum (n): a) a question or problem having only a conjectural answer b) an intricate or difficult problem.

First of all, I’m no biology major. Realizing that, I am going to stay away from scientific terms, partly because they confuse me. What I know, or think I know is based on what I have read, heard, or experienced. Even then, I’m not sure if what I know is correct or if it fits together on the scientific level. Confused yet? Me too, and I haven’t even gotten to what this is all about.

Where do I begin?

Moving heavy weight is hard. When I use the word heavy, I am speaking relative to whoever is lifting it. What looks heavy to me can be chump change to others. Anyways… when we are moving heavy weight there is only so much we can do until we reach failure and drop the weight on our face. At this point our muscles have been taxed to the limit and we need to rest them before they can do more.

In short, when moving heavy weight, the major limiting factor at play is strength.

Next…

Moving a low amount of weight (again, relative to whoever is moving it) at a fast pace is also hard. There is only so much we can do before we fall over in pain and/or exhaustion and start to cry. At this point, we usually stop or slow down until the pain subsides and we can do more.

To summarize, when moving low amounts of weight at a fast pace, the major limiting factor that comes into play is endurance.

Still with me?

This is where the conundrum begins.

If we are training to lift heavy weight the answer is relatively clear. Train for strength.

If we are training to run long distances, a similar approach applies. Train for endurance.

But what happens when we want to move medium/heavy weights at a quick/fast pace, or even low amounts of weight at an extremely fast pace? And if that is our goal, how do we train for it?

With these types of goals in mind, there are not one, but two limiting factors that come into play. These are strength and endurance.

An Example:

Let’s take two athletes and assign them numerical values for their levels of strength and endurance (10 being high, 1 being low):

Note: All other levels of fitness (Power, speed, agility, ect…) are the same for each athlete.

Athlete A has a numerical strength value of 8, and an endurance value of 6.

Athlete B has a numerical strength value of 8 and an endurance level of 10.

If we put both athletes on a bench and asked them to go for a one rep max bench press, their weights would be almost identical. However, if we scaled the weight back to 60% of their one rep max and asked them to go for max repetitions, Athlete B would be able to perform far more repetitions then Athlete A.

Why is this?

In a one rep max, both athletes have a high enough endurance level that it just doesn’t come into play. In other words, they don’t come close to reaching their endurance threshold.

At 60% max weight for max reps, Athlete A reaches his endurance threshold before he comes to his strength threshold, and is forced to stop. Athlete B however, is able to continue on and perform reps until he reaches his strength threshold.

Another example:

Same two athletes:

Athlete A has a numerical strength value of 8, and an endurance value of 6.

Athlete B has a numerical strength value of 8 and an endurance level of 10.

This time they are running a single 40m dash.

Since all other areas of fitness are the same, both athletes run the 40m in the same time. The reason being is that at such a short distance, endurance doesn’t come into play. Both athletes come nowhere near their threshold.

If however, Athlete A had an endurance level of 2 or 3, he may reach this threshold in this short of distance and he would lose the race.

Now, let’s move out the distance and make it a 400m run. Assuming they are going all out from the start, both Athletes will be tied for the first leg of the race. At some point, Athlete A will start to hit his endurance threshold and Athlete B will take the lead. Later on in the race, they might both hit their strength threshold, but this will be a moot point as Athlete B will already be ahead.

Of note, if Athlete B had a slightly lower level strength/power/speed then Athlete A ,this might even itself out by the end, with Athlete A taking an early lead and Athlete B coming back at the end.

Enough with the examples…

In short, the conundrum is that training across multiple fitness domains is a difficult task. If you are training for a specific movement, or event, this is made a little easier.

For example (I lied)

If you are running the 100m it is optimal to maintain a point where your strength and endurance levels max out at the same time. If you have 100 hours to train and you devote 99 of them to training strength, you are probably going to die after 25m. Similarly, if you train 1 hour to strength and 99 to endurance, you might be able to run 100m without breaking a sweat, but you won’t be breaking any world records. For this event, training 60 hours to strength/power, and 40 hours to endurance might be optimal.

That example is pretty specific. But what if you are training for the 1600m also? The optimal training breakdown for that event might be 20 strength/power and 80 to endurance, which is by no means optimal for your 100m efforts.

The optimal solution would be to train 40 hours to strength/power and 60 hours to endurance. Sadly, this probably wouldn’t lead to any personal bests in either event.

For most sports, such as football, soccer, baseball, or even CrossFit, you don’t have the leisure to pinpoint a single optimal breakdown. When one play in football might require you to stop a 230 pound freight train from head on, another might require you to chase down a 175 pound gazelle. In this case, the best for one, screws you for the other.

The way I see it, which isn’t all that clear, is that the only way to find that optimal training point would be to take the optimal split between every possible activity, assign it a value for how often it might occur relative to other scenarios, and then come up with an optimal training split. If you are a super nerd, then you might even find a way to factor in at what levels an activity would switch from “success” to “failure.” This, obviously, is more than I care to tackle.

Thus we find ourselves at our conjectural answer to the conundrum at hand…

Con-jec-ture (n): a proposition (as in mathematics) before it has been proved or disproved.

Answer:

Fudge it. Pick an optimal split that you think is right and train for it. At the same time, test yourself in whatever you are doing to see if you are improving and what is holding you back from improving more. If you continually find yourself reaching a strength threshold before an endurance threshold, then train strength. If the opposite is true, well then do the opposite.

Reasons this Answer sucks:

Training multiple fitness domains at once is almost never optimal to achieving a high level in one single domain. In fact, excelling in one specific fitness domain will often result in going backwards in another. As a result, going forward in two domains is slower.

Some would make a case that given a set period of time; you should specialize in training one, and then switch to the other, rather than do both at once.

For most, this isn’t an option given the short periods of training times between major events or when sport seasons take place. For Olympic athletes who have longer periods of time between events, specializing might work better, or it might not.

In Closing:

I think I started this post wanting to talk about lactic acid thresholds, but got a little sidetracked. Oh well. Maybe I’ll ramble on about that next time.

-dunkie

5 Days in Portland

Since I was already heading down to Portland for the show last Wednesday, I thought that I might as well take Thursday and Friday off and make a much needed mini vacation out of the whole trip. The following is a recap of the highs, lows (sadly), and random observations from my 5 day excursion to Portland.

-Saw Nate Moceri for the first time since 7th grade, who is currently living with B-unit. It was great catching up with him and recalling how cool we were back in the day. For the record, if you didn't get a CCS Magazine in the mail every month or didn't own a pair of Vans, you weren't cool.

Note: B-unit still owns a pair of Vans and has a new CCS Magazine sitting on his desk.

-Received was easily the best service by a waiter while down in Portland at a place called The Fat City Cafe. I came inside from being on the phone about 1 minute behind A-Mac and he already had a cup of coffee sitting in front of him. Within seconds of sitting down (keep in mind, the place was pretty busy and he was the only waiter), the waiter had come by again asking me if I would like anything to drink. Orange juice and coffee please.

In no more than a minute, I too had a cup of coffee and a glass of OJ sitting in front of me. Fantastic. And it didn't end there. Our food was brought in a timely fashion and during that time I never once reached empty on my cup of coffee. Talk about being Johnny on the spot. Lastly, we had ordered some lunch for a friend to-go and it was brought out to us in a box right as we finished our food. Quite frankly, I don't think I've ever had a waiter that was even in the same ballpark as this guy.

-Another Fat City related note... Ordering a cinnamon roll, a side of hash browns, a blueberry waffle, a biscuit and a farmer's sizzle (hash browns, eggs, veggies, mixed together with gravy on top) is entirely to much food to eat in one sitting. I am still regretting this.

-Worked out at the 24 Hour Fitness with B-unit on Thursday. Went over some form stuff with deadlift, cleans, and squats. It's always great having someone knowledgeable on hand to critique what you are doing (or not doing). After that he had to work with some of his client's so I went along and did a CrossFit workout to finish up the day.

21-15-9 rep of
Thrusters - 95 lbs
Burpees - w/ OH clap

Time: 7:47

Was planning on doing "Fran" but wasn't able to locate a pull-up bar near the barbells. This ended up being much worse as your legs don't get a rest. Following my WOD, a guy came up to me and asked where I CF'ed at. Apparently he owns a CF gym in Seattle and doing thrusters and burpees makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

-Random quote from someone else who saw me doing my workout:

You have very nice thruster.

Umm... thank you? I think.

-Cat & Bird seemed to enjoy this video immensely (especially the balloon part):



I'm pretty sure all 13,000 views are from them watching it.

-Nate's birthday was on Friday so we took him out to a place called The Good Foot over on the east side of Portland at the advice of B-unit (who had to depart for San Diego earlier that day). Apparently, Fridays are Funk/B Boy night and it ended up being pretty awesome. Some of the B Boyz were pretty impressive and the music was fun to dance to.

Needless to say, we got Nate smashed. On the way home (I was the DD for the night) the five of us rocked out to some Daft Punk in the car, followed by another five dude dance session to Daft Punk once we got home. While that was probably my first (and hopefully last) all dude dance party, it was pretty much the highlight of the entire night.

-Learned that one of CWA's founders passed away last week at the age of 89. Always a sad day when news like that comes along. His love and postive influence well be felt at CWA for generations to come. RIP Sam.

-I'm glad my nickname isn't poo pile.

-Found out that my drivers license expired a few weeks ago. Whoops. Didn't have any problems with it until we tried to get into a bar downtown on Saturday. Luckily, the back door was open. Thanks Poo. I think that is the first time that I've ever snuck into a bar.

-We started out on the east side Saturday night and met up with Cat's roommate there who works for a large athletic apparel company that isn't named Nike and starts with an A. They were having a going away party for one of her bosses and so the place was packed with employees. Around 10:30 we decided to finish our drinks and meet up with some friends in the downtown area.

At that point I sent a text to my friend Fitz to see where he was, and recieved a reply that there was a shooting and that SWAT and the police were swarming the place, but we should still come down to the bar he was at.

We later learned that a gunman had opened up fire outside of one of the bars there and had injured 7 and killed two. Damn...

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/01/portland_police_respond_to_dow.html

Note: learning this was easily the lowlight of the trip.

-While walking to one of the downtown bars we passed a guy playing a guitar on the street. It wasn't until I was a few steps passed him that I recognized that he as playing "Wagon Wheel" by OCMS. I quickly turned around and emptied my pockets into his donation hat. Randomly hearing one of your favorite (and somewhat obscure) songs while drunkely making your way down a city sidewalk late at night? Worth every dollar.

-When you know you will be sleeping on couches and floors for 4 nights in a row, always, always, ALWAYS, bring your foam roller along with you. I didn't and my back hate me for it.

-Lazzeri meat balls are nothing to rave about. The verdict is still out on Paccione and Moceri.

-Also on that food related note, Fitz and Drew opened up my eyes on the cooking possibilites for the Paleo diet. Stay tuned for the results of my first Roast.

-Flooding a second story house is not fun (don't worry Adam, we didn't flood again). Even worse is when it starts leak out of the ceiling below. For the record, this was totally the result of a failed attempt by a landlord to fix this matter and the involved tennants should not be blamed.

If you tell your landlord that your toilets aren't flushing correctly and they send someone by that takes one look at the toilet and tells you "that is how toilets are supposed to work," and then your toilet floods the next day, that is their bad, not yours.

-Made it down to Portland in 2 hours flat and back in 2:10 without having to re-fill my tank. I think I am just going to start makin weekend shopping excursions down there for food and whatever else I need. I'm pretty sure my tax savings could pay for my gas bill at the current gas prices.

In conclusion, Portland is a pretty great place and I'm looking forward to my next visit down there. Maybe next time I'll try filling up my gas tank while I'm there. What happenes if you try to fill up yourself? I guess I'll just have to find out...

-dunkie

A Portland Debut

After months of anticipation and a postponement due to inclement weather conditions in December, the time had finally arrived to witness the Ben & Jon's first concert. A-Mac and I met up Wednesday afternoon and caravanned down to Portland for the show that night.

The show was held at a small venue in Multnomah Village called O'Connors. After helping the band set up and doing some sound checks, A-Mac and I settled in to keep an eye on the equipment as the band made a quick trip home to do some last minute things before the show.

Side note: My attempt to stay on the Paleo diet died here. It's doom came at the hands of two orders of hush puppies, two orders of wings, a hummus plate, and a tasty micro brew. While I fully intend to pick the diet back up now that I have returned home, the rest of the week was filled with even more horrible non-paleo foods that my body hates me for right now.

Around 8:00 the band had returned and had gone about mingling with the growing crowd of friends that had come by to see the show. By 8:30 the place was nearing maximum occupancy and the band had moved to the stage.

The set started with a song called "Mixer," which I recognized from one of the band's practice sessions. I can't recall all of the song names but it was one of my favorites along with "Bonnie and Clyde" that followed shortly after.

About half way into the show, the inevitable question was thrown out from somewhere in the crowd

"What's the name of your band!?"

In the hours leading up to the show, the guys were still going back and forth between some of the possible names and hadn't been able to nail one down. Previously, they had settled on "Brother Brother," but no one seemed quite content with that. This was mostly because there are three of them (with their new drummer Chris) and that name only really worked for two.

After taking a few suggestions from the crowd and opting to remain undecided on the matter for the time being, they continued on with a few more songs before moving into two cover songs. One of these was "Starlight" by Muse and it was done exceptionally well.

The second to last song of the night was called "Wonderful" and was most definitely my favorite. This was another one of their songs that I heard them practice a few months ago when it was a work in progress at the time. It was great hearing how it came out.

As an encore, Ben and Jon performed a song so new that that it didn't have a name (unless "New, New Guy" counts) and their drummer Chris hadn't had a change to hear it yet. It was a slower song and seeing them perform it while sitting next to each other on the same piano bench made it a fitting end to a night that had been so many months in the making.

I'm looking forward to the many more great shows to come and hopefully they will be able to start recording some of their stuff in the near future. Ben indicted that recording might occur in the next week to two, so hopefully shortly after that! I'll post a link whenever that happens.

-dunkie

Just A Couple Thoughts

-There is something positive to be said about having the leader of your country being in good physical health. It really does feel good knowing that our President (Elect) could take any other President out there in a 1v1 basketball game.

Seriously, how confident would you be if Obama was at an impass with another President and just said,

"Listen, this discussion isn't going anywhere. How about we just shoot for it?"

Is there anyone out there that you would even have to worry about hitting rim?

-I'm test driving the Paleo diet for a month. So far it sucks. Almost every meal requires me to cook 2 or more items. I guess this wouldn't be so bad if I had the slightest clue on how to cook things. Until now, my only real stove-cooking experience involved boiling water in order to make pasta and the such. Sadly, all of that type of food is cut out in the Paleo diet. The over/under of my lasting on this diet is about 3 days.*.. which would be Wednesday. Wish me luck.

*To be fair and not hold back any information, I should probably state that there is a candy bowl with almond roca in the reception area at the office. Everytime I pass by it takes every ounce of willpower I have to not eat any. This will be my downfall... it is really only a matter of time.

-Can anyone tell me what the difference between chopping, cutting, dicing, slicing, and mincing is? Are they just fancy words that cook book authors use so they don't sound repetitive, or is there actually a difference?

-Bill Simmons has it made. Half the stuff he puts out there is directly from his readers. There has to be at least a hundred people out there who could start ghost writing for him and no one would be the wiser. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this already happened a la The Princess Bride.

"Well, Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. He took me to his cabin and he told me his secret. 'I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts', he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired 15 years and living like a king in Patagonia."

Except in Bill's case, he is probably broke and living in Vegas.

Side note: I can't wait for someone to make a movie about this. Can anyone say Nicholas Cage?

-My new favorite word is "Pood."

Pood (n): a Russian unit of weight, equal to 36.11 pounds (16.38 kilograms).

It is extremely fun to say. Just try it...

...did you try it?

......when you tried it did you also stick your neck out?

It's like a natural reflex for me when I say it.

Pood... Pood... Pood!

-Fiat is considering buying a stake in Chrysler right now. I'm pretty sure that would spell doom for the Dodge Viper. This saddens me.

-Speaking of cars, mine is back from the dead. Long story short, the fuel sensor went haywire, which prevented my car from starting as a saftey precaution. Thank you Mr. 4 year/50,000 mile warranty!

That's all for today.

-dunkie

Everything Works: Just Not Necessarily For You

I don't read many books. Aside from the yearly book that I receive as an x-mas present from my Aunt & Uncle and the occasional work related book, I really can't recall the last book I read. That is not to say however, that I don't read much. In fact, I think I almost spend a little to much time reading.

Of the wide assortment of things that I read up on, which ranges from whatever The Wall Street Journal is reporting to the latest in sports, I have recently found myself focusing a lot more on fitness related topics. For the most part, the majority of these articles are opinion based (resulting from personal experiences), while a smaller portion are more focused on the more technical aspects of how things work.

From what I have read, I have come to this conclusion:

Everything works.

Everything?

Yes, everything.

Simply put, in regards to fitness programs, everything out there works to some degree. The catch is that it might not work for you. Sticking with tradition, let me try to use an analogy to explain this.

Choose Your Own Adventure/Light Bulb

A light bulb in your house goes out. What do you do? Well, you take your ass down to the hardware store to buy yourself a new one.

So you do that. Now you are at the hardware store, standing in the lighting section, wondering which one of the 100 different types of light bulbs you need. Depending on who you are, or what you know, this could lead to a few different scenarios.

Scenario 1:
You know nothing about light bulbs, so you ask someone for help. When they ask you what size light bulb you need you just stare at them with a blank look on your face. "Uhh... one that gives off light?" Using those parameters, the "helpful" sales associate hands you a light bulb and tells you to go try it.

Once home, you take your new light bulb out of the package and then...

1) Scratch your head because you have no idea how to install it.
2) Electrocute yourself because you forget to turn the light switch to off before installing it.
3) You find that the light bulb is not the right size.
4) Install it successfully.

If you picked option 1 or 2, you are pretty much hopeless. Sorry. Game over.

If you went with option 3, you go back to the store with your light bulb and return it, saying that "the light bulb doesn't work." Secretly, the person at the Returns counter is thinking to themself "Of course the light bulb works. You just chose the wrong one, idiot" but of course they don't say that out loud. Instead, they suggest another light bulb that might work for you. At this point, you go home with your light bulb and repeat the steps above.

If you chose option 4, you smile to yourself happily. That is, until you realize later that

a) The light bulb is not energy is efficient.
b) The light bulb gives off a crappy yellowish light, versus the bright white light you wanted.
c) You don't realize anything because you are just happy that you have light again.

Scenario 2:

Since you are an intelligent individual (not that I'm saying people the fall into scenario 1 aren't), you brought the burnt out bulb with you. You quickly identify the same bulb and purchase it.

Once home, you take your new light bulb out of the package and then...

1) Install the light bulb, only to remember, "hey wait, I don't even like the light this bulb gives off, why the hell did I buy this same bulb again?"

2) Are completely satisfied with your new light bulb. Who cares if it isn't energy efficient? Not you.

/end analogy

Okay, so we (both you and I) probably could have done without that analogy. What I am trying to get at here is that if someone took the time to write about some fitness program they did, it is probably because of one of following:

a) They got results, liked their results, and think you should do the same.
b) Got results, but they weren't the results they wanted. Regardless, they learned from it and are trying to share that knowledge with you.
c) Were lazy and didn't work hard, and have decided that the program they used sucks and they want to share that with everyone to shift the blame.

Whatever the reason, the program itself most likely "works." That is to say, if you are starting at point A, this program will get you to point B. Problems arise when you aren't starting from point A and they get even worse when point B isn't your goal.

So what then? How do you find something that will work for you?

First off, it helps to know where you are. Simply knowing that will eliminate half of the fitness programs out there. If someone is extremely obese and has a very limited range of motion it won't exactly benefit them to jump into an Olympic Lifting program. On the flip side, it wouldn't be very beneficial for an Olympic lifter to walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day. Will either of these programs be of some benefit? Probably. Are they remotely the best choices for these individuals given their respective starting points? Absolutely not.

The next question is, where do you want to be? What is your goal? For some people this is easy: they want to be in better shape. Sadly, this tell us nothing. Who doesn't want to be in better shape? Given that goal, pretty much ANYTHING will work... for a time. More often then not, there will be some part of a program that just doesn't work for you and you will drop it.

For instance, the program you go on might require you to workout 5 days a week. Given the goal of being in better shape, this program should have been a perfect fit. But it isn't. Why? Because maybe you don't have the time to work out 5 days a week. Maybe you can only work out three. In this case, your goal really should have been "to get into better shape using a program that only requires me to work out 3 times a week."

Using another analogy here (a short one this time)...

It's like a smoker saying their goal is to stop smoking, except not wanting to give up nicotine. That sort of limits things, doesn't it?

With goals come sacrifices. If you don't know what you are willing to give up to reach a goal then it is hard to find a program that will help you reach your goal without some trial and error.

For others, their goal may be more specific. Their goals may be to be faster, stronger, or better looking. But again, while there may be 5 different programs for each out there, not all of them will fit into the sacrifices that you are willing to make for them to be successful. However, if you know what sacrifices you are willing to make this might narrow the programs down to 1-2. You may even come to find there aren't any programs out there for you. In this case, you may need to re-evaluate your goals or even the sacrifices you are willing to make.

Another disconnect that occurs is when people do something fitness related and they don't know why. They might know exactly where they are, and exactly where they want to be, except they end up choosing a program that just doesn't fit them. Why do they do it? Because they don't know any better, or the person that told them to do something doesn't know any better.

Everything works, and if you are lucky, it might even work for you to some degree. Whether it is optimal for you, given your goals and the sacrifices you are willing to make, is the question, and honestly, you might not care if it is optimal, as the program might fit you well and you are able to sustain it. Just being able to sustain a fitness program is a goal to many people.

If however, you can determine where you are, where you want to be, what you are willing to sacrifice, and put in the time to research why you are doing what you are doing, chances are that you will find something that not only works, but works for YOU.

All this aside, I like CrossFit.

Is it for everyone? No.

Is it scalable so that anyone can do it? Yes.

Does it allow for flexibility for people at different starting points or with different goals that may need to have an emphasis on specific componenets of fitness? Yes.

Does it work for me? Yes.

Can it work for you? Yes.

Will it be optimal for you? That depends...

-dunkie

Side note: This idea that all fitness programs essentially "work, just not ncessarily for you" has a lot of parrellels to the financial/investment industry. When it comes to investing, a lot of people have the goal to just "make as much money as possible." This is great, until their investment guy takes that idea and runs with it, and then they come to find out that their guy basically went to Vegas and bet all of their money red. For most, they are not willing to take that amount of risk, even if the potential return are great. The problem is, if they don't say that, they might find themselves in a "program" that doesn't fit them.

If you are able to identify where you are, where you want to be, and what sacrifices you are willing to make to get here then you will be taking a step in the right direction. After that, the next step should be to educate yourself so that they can find a "program"or "investment strategy" that works for you.

p.s. If you actually made it through this entire post without becoming lost and/or confused, I applaud you. I got lost just trying to proof read it...and I wrote the damn thing.

Holy **** Moment of the Day

Back in the day at Voyager Elementary School we used to play a lot of soccer at recess. Typically, we would play 2nd-4th grade against the 5th graders.  This would usually amount to a 20-30 vs. 8-12 scenario and if it wasn't for one factor, us younger kids would have always been slaughtered by the much more talented 5th graders. This one factor was Danny Waltman.

Danny Waltman was a 5th grader.  Probably the best 5th grader at that.  He could dribble past anyone and score from 50 yards out.  Okay, maybe not 50 yards out, but he was amazing.  To make things fair the teams fair, he would always play with us younger kids.

When I say "play with" I choose those words carefully, because that is exactly what he would do.  Despite the fact that all of us sucked (except for maybe Andy and Drew) and he could easily dribble through the entire opposing team (this is no exaggeration), he was always a team player and would do everything he could to make us feel like we were actually doing something to help the team. I'm pretty sure the first legitimate soccer recess goal I ever scored came off of a Danny Waltman assist.

At some point near the end of his 5th grade year I can remember sitting with him by the wallball courts and him telling me that he was moving and that he wouldn't be going to Kopachuck Middle School, which was right across the way.  This pretty much meant that I would never see him again.

To get to the point of all this, Danny Waltman was my hero in elementary school.  If there was anyone that I wanted to be like during those years on the playground, it was him.  Throughout the years I've always wondered what happened to him, that is until today when Facebook informed me that another elementary school friend of mine had joined the Danny Waltman Fan Club.

Holy S***!!!! Danny Waltman?!?!

Apparently, Danny went onto be a 4 year starter at Bellarmine Prep.  He also attended the University of Washington where he made second team All Pac-10 his senior year and was voted Most Inspirational by his teammates.  Currently, he plays in the Major League Indoor Soccer League as a goalie for the Detroit Ignition.

I don't think he himself is on Facebook, and I probably will never get a chance to talk to him. But on the off chance that he decides to Google his name and this page pops up...

Danny,

Thank you for being my hero all those days on the Voyager playground.  You were an inspiration and role model to us all.

Sincerely,

-The little asian kid that used to follow you around at recess... and was really bad at soccer

Note: This is a recollection from my elementary school days and might not be 100% accurate, but is it the best I can remember things.  I'm a little hazy on how the teams were split up grade wise (it may have been 1-3 vs 4-5) and I can't recall exactly why I was never going to see Danny again.  I do however clearly remember sitting down with him by the wallball courts and him telling me that he was going away.

New Years Resolution. About Damn Time...

This is probably my 4th or 5th go at trying to write this blog. Within those attempts, I've easily come up with a dozen different goals, all of which I was never really happy with. That being said, I going to skip the fluff and jump right to my New Years resolution, as to avoid a 6th attempt at this.

My 2009 New Years resolution is to qualify for the 2010 CrossFit Games. There, I said it. No going back now. Onwards and upwards!

Okay, now onto the fluff...

Q: 2010 CrossFit Games? Isn't that... in 2010?

A: Yes. The regional qualifiers would be somewhere around May 2010, with the actual games in July of 2010. This gives me roughly 18 months to prepare.

Q: Why not the 2009 CrossFit Games?

A: I'm planning on participating in the regional qualifier, but it would be an extreme longshot for me to qualify (I'd put it up there with the Huskies chances of making a bowl game next year). Only 4 men and 4 women are taken from the NW Region.

Really, I'm just planning on going this year for fun and the experience. 6 months should be enough time to not completely embarrass myself, where 18 months should be enough time to actually reach a competitive level.

Q: So... this is your big goal that it took you two weeks to write down?

A: Encompassed within this goal are dozens of smaller goals that I am going to have to work to get to my destination. There are about 1-2 dozen benchmarks that I will be working towards over the next 18 months that will help gauge my process. On top of that, this is going to take a lot of dedication and commitment.

Q: What are some of these benchmarks?

A: CrossFit has a lot of daily workouts (WOD's) that serve as benchmarks that people can do to compare there level of fitness to others who are doing the same workouts. The most notorious of these is a workout called "Fran," which involves a round of each of the following:

21 Thrusters - 95 lbs. /21 Pull Ups

15 Thrusters - 95 lbs. /15 Pull Ups

9 Thrusters -95 lbs. / 9 Pull Ups

I believe the current record for this is 2 minutes and 5 seconds, however I don't believe this record is performed to competition standards, which includes full depth squats with no ball, and chest to bar pull ups. These additional requirements can add a significant amount of time, which make a 5 minute "Fran" competitive.

Another benchmark is what is referred to as a CrossFit Total. This is a total of your max deadlift, squat, and press. You are allowed 3 attempts at each and there are strict form guidelines that help to standardize the lifts. Anything over 1000 is pretty ridiculous. Especially considering that some of these guys are 160-165 lbs. A CFT of 900 is pretty competitive.

I am confident that I can reach many of these competitive levels in the next 18 month. The X-factor here is the fact that the CrossFit games is only now coming into its 3rd year. Two years ago, a CFT of 900 was considered amazing. Now, those same competitors are reaching 1000-1100.

Q: Uh... what is CrossFit again?

A: Visit www.crossfit.com for more information. I also have a short blog post on it if you don't feel like making the jump.

Here is a video from the 2008 CrossFit Games:

Q: Why this? Why not something else as your goal?

A: I could probably write an entire book about this, which would include much of my life story. To save you (and I) the pain of going through that, let's just go with the cliff-note version:

I find myself being at or around average at a lot of things. This makes CrossFit a good fit for me as it stresses a balance between all 10 aspects of fitness. I don't think that I'm great, or horrible at any one aspect, which makes me a fairly balanced person in regards to fitness. Do I see myself being the strongest person out there? Of course not. What I do see is the possibility of being above average and excelling at all of the aspects of fitness? Yes.

Aside from the whole physical aspects of this goal, I think this will also be a great challenge mentally. With all that in mind, that is how I came to this goal.

Q: What if you don't make it?

A: My fallback plan is to move to Japan and attempt to become The Ultimate Ninja Warrior.

*Note: Ugh... just tried to find the YouTube video of this but it looks like all of them were removed due to copyright infringements.

Q: What...

A: Sorry, that's all the time I have for questions tonight. In closing I'd just like to say that I am disappointed that we never found any weapons of mass destruction.

-dunkie

I Just Peed My Pants

Not really... but almost. The Tampa Bay Rays just signed Pat Burrell to a 2 year, $16 million dollar deal. If you don't know anything about Burrell, he is basically a slightly crappier version of Raul Ibanez, much like Franklin Gutierrez is a slightly crappier version of Adam Jones.

If you don't know who any of those people are, then just think of buying an VW vs. an Audi, or a Toyota vs. a Lexus. The former will cost you 2/3's the price, but you will basically be getting the same thing plus or minus a few bells and whistles.

That being said, this signing eliminates what is speculated to be one of Griffey's top two choices to play next year, as Burrell will most likely DH for the Rays. This leaves Seattle as Junior's next top choice.

Is it to early to predict that Seattle sports will single-handedly be brought back from the dead by Griffey in 2009?

If I buy tickets to opening day at Safeco will I just jinx things, causing the Mariners front office to not sign him, or even worse, him being hurt before the season even starts?

Do I want to shoot myself in the face for writing that last paragraph?

Should I even mention that I broke a mirror this morning?

I'm going to shut up now.

-dunkie

p.s. one last thing... Burrell wasnt resigned by the Phillies because they decided to "upgrade" and sign Raul Ibanez. If Griffey ends up in Seattle because of this sequence of events (i.e. the Mariners not beating the Phillies offer to keep Ibanez in Seattle) it might actually pee my pants.

p.p.s. how pathetic is it that I am actually trying convince myself this is all part of Zdurienik's master plan? Ugh...

Where to start?

-It's snowing again.  Pursuant of my last post, I'm not very excited about this.  On the somewhat bright side, if things ice over I will probably have the day off tomorrow on the account of my car being unable to leave the garage.  Strangely enough, I'm kind of ready to get back to work right now.

-In the last month I've had 3 friends tie the knot, and another 3 that are now officially engaged. Did I miss a memo here or something?  Speaking of which... Sherman, have you gotten the memo yet?

-There was just an infomercial on TV for the "GRAbit," which is a tool that removed stripped screws "in under 10 seconds!"  I don't think I've ever been so tempted to buy something from an infomercial in my life.  I'm not quite sure if it is because trying to remove a stripped screw is extremely frustrating, or because instead of a "order in the next 10 minutes and save" they actually have a 30 second count down clock on the screen.  I actually found myself thinking "I need this right?  Where is my phone? I only have 21 seconds left!"  

-My house is flooding. Well, not really.  A few days ago a puddle of water started to form outside of our laundry room.  My landlord just came over and she seems to think that we opened the door to the washing machine mid cycle and let a bunch of water pour out, and are thus responsible for the water damage that has occurred.  This actually makes sense except that:

A) My roommate is currently in Australia.

B) I haven't done laundry for over two weeks and the laundry room door has been closed the whole time.  

C) Opening the washing machine door after you start a load is about a 4 step process, each step of which would be impossible to complete without thinking to one's self "If I do this, a large amount of water is going to spill out onto the floor."  I may be stupid sometimes, but I'm not THAT stupid.

I can't wait to see how this whole situation works itself out.  And by situation, I mean how to deal with my dwindling supply of boxer briefs and socks.

-The 2008 Hoops & Suey Reunion Tour has officially concluded.  Among the highlights of the reunion...

1) The girl Hoops "found" himself dancing with, on New Years Eve.  She was definitely a dime piece among a sea of 1 dollar bills.  This whole situation only got better when her date started trying to dance with her at the same time as Hoops. Hilarious.

2) Mystery Pong.  It's what happens at the end of a week of drinking when only the following is left in your refrigerator:

1 can of Guinness

2 cans of Bud light

2 bottles of some strange wheat beer

1 half bottle of champagne

1 half bottle of tequila

1 half cartoon of 2% milk

Let's just say that this was a horrible time for my week long win streak to come to an end...

3) When you put two people (Pat and Hoops) in a situation where they probably will never see anyone they meet ever again you are pretty much asking for a world of embarrassment.  As a result of this I'm pretty sure I won't be going to The Hob Nob again anytime soon, which is a shame because their breakfast menu is pretty amazing.

That's all I have for now...  Stay tuned for a New Years Resolution update.

-dunkie