Style and a “Non-Fat” Justin
I fully expect to get completely flamed from my buddies on this post but whatever.
Is it bad that I am looking forward to changing my “style” once I get to my goal weight? I haven’t been buying clothes because I am not finished losing weight and I don’t want to have to keep buying stuff. I am a teacher yo, we aren’t millionaires.
So, it kind of hit me when one of my student’s asked if they could start calling me Coach. I asked why full expected some ridiculous answer, but they said… All of my other coaches were Khaki pants and College Polo shirts, you look like my baseball coach and Coach is easier than Mr. Dearing (cue ridiculous answer).
I have always been a little reluctant to wear more adventurous (that sounded like I was going to wear a bedazzled shirt or something) style of clothes because of my size. I am “blessed” with a body style that features THICKNESS. I wouldn’t call myself fat… anymore… but I am still working towards the goal.
I would wear ties more, dressier clothes, sports coats and other more trendy clothes.
We had the option to wear shorts to school the last week of work and while most of the teachers went with the shorts and a t-shirt or the ever popular and ridiculous hawaiian shirt, I went and tried to recreate a cheaper version of an outfit I saw. Colored shorts, Red Oxford shirt and some boat shoes… Thought I did ok, definitely an upgrade from my cargos and a Sons of Anarchy or Crossfit shirt.
Same kid that asked to call me Coach said I looked like I graduated college but not the fraternity… Can’t win I guess.
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Murph.
A few weeks back, I took on my first Memorial Day Murph. This WOD is dedicated to Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy, who was killed in action on June 28th, 2005. For those of you who have seen/read Lone Survivor, it’s the Lt. Murphy from that movie.
Our box did ONE class on Memorial Day and we had 25-30 people show up. We started the class off by watching a video about Lt. Murphy. You could feel the mood in the room change from our usual lighthearted, fun style of workout to a very serious and somber mood. This was a big deal.
Murph is a Hero WOD, a signature WOD in Crossfit. It’s a book-end WOD. A mile at the front and then finish it off with another mile, but in between we got the privilege to do 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups and 300 air squats. Less than a year ago I couldn’t do one pull up. Could I do 100 pullups? Not too sure.
It was my wife’s first workout back after her injury and she picked a heck of one to jump back in on. She did a half Murph, and she KILLED it. Was she sore for a week? Yes, but she finished and even jumped in with one of her girls for their last mile to make sure they finished. Beast.
I’m in the green looking like a dead guy hanging from a bar.
3,2,1… Go. The first mile wasn’t bad. I got into the box and started scaling the mountain ahead of me. Could I do 100 pull ups? I would find out 10 at a time. During the Regional events, Rich Froning claimed one of the events took him “to a dark place he never likes going, and he has to fight hard to get out”… Murph took me there. FAST. I broke the workout up into 10,15,20 of the PUs, Push-Ups and Squats. Excuses could easily fill this area… We just got home from a weekend at Regionals where the food wasn’t healthy and the beer was good, the box felt like a sweatshop, but none of those really would make this not SUCK as bad as it was sucking.
I took off on my last mile, that looked alot like a guy walking home in shame after getting his butt kicked, and crossed the finish line in 60 minutes and 58 seconds. My goal was under an hour. Was I mad? Not really.
It really was an honor to get to do this workout with my wife and tons of my friends in honor of a REAL Hero. One of the toughest hours of my life, but can’t really compare to the life of a soldier.
Can I do 100 pull ups? Hell Yes I can.
Memorial Day Murph 2014 – Crossfit Fervor
Thoughts on Thursday
A story turn is a moment in someone’s story when they pass through a door they can not go back through
-Donald Miller – Creating Your Life Plan E-Course
Love this. Teaching my students about character development in their films and this is being added to the presentation
Crossfit Games Open – 14.3
5 Weeks. 5 WODs.
Disclaimer: I am not an elite Crossfit athlete, there was never a time in this competition that a shot a regionals was even remotely on my radar, but I did have goals set for myself for where I wanted to fall in our box and nationally (basically not last like that one competition I talked about).
The Crossfit Open is a chance for everyone to compete in the same competition and see where they rank in the world. I paid my $20 Dollars and I build a profile on Crossfit.com. I want to take you through the journey of each WOD over the next week or so and then sum up where I ended up and more importantly what I learned about myself in this competition.
This is the WOD I was hoping for, something that would give me an advantage. I love lifting heavy. I hear Castro say we were going to get heavy and I was ready. Then he said you had 8 minutes to get there while mixing in some box jumps. NOT COOL.
I made it 18 reps into the 275 pound round. The box jumps/step ups were a good break to catch my breathe and recoup from the lift. My 1RM for deadlift is over 400 pounds, but I’ll be damned if that 275 pound bar didn’t feel like it was 500 pounds on that first rep. I loved this one. I felt confident going in and coming out of this one.
Best part of the WOD would be the little kids outside the box screaming with me when I was in my last round of deadlifts.
Crossfit Open 2014 – 14.2
5 Weeks. 5 WODs.
Disclaimer: I am not an elite Crossfit athlete, there was never a time in this competition that a shot a regionals was even remotely on my radar, but I did have goals set for myself for where I wanted to fall in our box and nationally (basically not last like that one competition I talked about).
The Crossfit Open is a chance for everyone to compete in the same competition and see where they rank in the world. I paid my $20 Dollars and I build a profile on Crossfit.com. I want to take you through the journey of each WOD over the next week or so and then sum up where I ended up and more importantly what I learned about myself in this competition.
CROSSFIT OPEN 14.2
Quote my wife on the release of this WOD. Be home, I am watching this one, Camille is my favorite! So when they released the WOD, they have two elite athletes go one on one to show what the workout looks like and to show what the elite are going to do. Wifey is a fan of one of the women on this release, so we watched it while we ate dinner.
First thoughts when I saw the scheme… 3 minutes of hard work. I MAY get to the second 3-minute period… a BIG maybe. When I started CF I couldn’t do a single pull-up, now I can string some together pretty solid. So there was a little hope of a successful run through this one. The squats weren’t a worry, I love the lifting side of CF.
WOD starts and I am through 10 OHS with no worries in 12-15 seconds. I jump on the bar and launch myself into my first attempt at an “In-WOD” Chest to Bar pullup. NAILED IT. Got it easy. Time for my first mistake. I decided to try to string some together and lost my momentum on the second and third try. Dropped off the bar, Got back on… Missed by an inch, then missed by two inches, and then three. Just couldn’t get back up there. I dropped off the bar with about 45 seconds left in the first 3 minute time period. I laughed at how hard this was. A few more failed attempts and I was out of time. I finished with a score of 11 reps. I was done with 10 of them in 15 seconds.
Frustrated would be an understatement.
This WOD reassured me again that I get too frustrated and get into my head sometimes, I also realized another weakness that needs some attention. STRICT pullups. If I can build that core skill up C2B will become quite a bit easier.
Two Weeks in and even though my scores weren’t where I want them to be… I felt like an athlete. I felt like there was so much progress from 9 months earlier when I started. The following Thursday, 14.3 was released and I was more than a little stoked. Things got HEAVY.
Crossfit Open 2014 – 14.1
5 Weeks. 5 WODs.
Disclaimer: I am not an elite Crossfit athlete, there was never a time in this competition that a shot a regionals was even remotely on my radar, but I did have goals set for myself for where I wanted to fall in our box and nationally (basically not last like that one competition I talked about).
The Crossfit Open is a chance for everyone to compete in the same competition and see where they rank in the world. I paid my $20 Dollars and I build a profile on Crossfit.com. I want to take you through the journey of each WOD over the next week or so and then sum up where I ended up and more importantly what I learned about myself in this competition.
CROSSFIT OPEN 14.1
I came home from my 5 o’clock workout the night of the release and set up my Apple TV to watch my first Open Release show. It was kind of cheesy and “UFC-ey”, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t just in shock of what the athletes were doing in the showdown. Dave Castro announced the WOD, I felt somewhat confident about the WOD because the snatches were light and I have been working on DUs for months now after the pitiful show at the Garage Games in January. I went to work, ate perfectly, drank my spark, and showed up to the workout.
Then my coach said 3,2,1 GO….
Boom. DUs were nowhere to be found. Couldn’t string together more than about 3 or 4 for the first few rounds. The Snatches weren’t easy but they weren’t the bad. My goal of 5 rounds seemed pretty much shot after the first round ended. Then, the snatches got heavy fast. The struggle was real. I made it through my third round with 30 or 35 seconds on the clock and BOOM 26 unbroken DUs.
Totally pissed me off.
This WOD showed me a few things. I get antsy when the clock starts. I get frustrated easily. My coach knows how to get my mind right mid-WOD by saying certain things.
Weakness revealed in 14.1 – DAMN DUs.
I liked this one overall, would love to hit it on a day when my DUs were going my way.
Another Dose of Transparency.
24 Day Challenge. Failed.
I could list excuse after excuse on why I fell apart in the last 10 days of my challenge, and I am sure some of you would say… That’s life, $hit happens. And I appreciate it, but that is the excuse that got me up to 280 around this time last year. I rocked the first 15 days of my challenge like no other. Dropped 14 pounds on the cleanse phase and then BOOM. Stopped tracking my food, stopped tracking my steps/workouts (my fitbit broke, I feel that is aiding in this, excuse.)
I talked early in this blog about Transparency and how I would share my struggles and triumphs, so here ya go. I think I ignored this place for the last 24 days because I REALLY wanted to write about how badass I was for dropping over 20 pounds on my challenge. I ended up losing right at 7 pounds.
Summer is coming. Some really cool possibilities are happening for my family and I. My wife’s business is exploding. Things are good. One bad stretch of nutrition won’t set me back, but it will stick with me as some motivation.
Throughout this process I ‘competed’ in my first Crossfit Open… This week I will talk about my trip through these WODs and what I learned about myself through the whole thing.
Thoughts on Thursday
I usually post a quote from someone here in Thursday but this week I will be posting my Facebook status from last night. Needless to say I was excited after my workout last night.
31 year old Justin
just squated more weight than 18 year old Justin ever did. Suck it fat boy.
Yup. 355. 5 more than high-school.
Sweetheart Scuffle
Things got a little crazy there for a bit.. Work, family and other random things, I didn’t follow through on #30days hustle of 15 posts last month but I am back!
Today, I want to talk about the opportunity I got a few weekends back to do something that I didn’t think I would have do. When I started this Crossfit thing, I wasn’t doing it to compete in any competitions. I wasn’t doing it to have any sort of medal hanging on my wall or anything like that. I started it to be a healthy dad. My wife started it to be a strong healthy mom.
Fast forward almost a year, we are walking up to my second competition and my wife’s first. We are Team DearSkin and we are competing in the “Sweetheart Scuffle” together as a couple. Everyone we work out with suggested we not work out on the same team but we did it anyways. The first WOD wasn’t as bad as we expected, we came out and did better than a few teams. We didn’t go into this looking for a medal, we wanted to finish. We didn’t want to come in last. That was the goal.
Photo by: Rhonda Kay Photography
The second WOD was a powerlifting meet basically, and I was excited. I knew we were a strong couple but this WOD proved we were physically stronger than most. Caty stepped up to the bar and did something she didn’t think she could do, she snatched 85 pounds from the ground to overhead in one move. She was one of the top girls in the scaled division. I stepped up and Caty decided it was time to dance and be goofy. According to her, I turn into a psycho when I lift heavy, so she wasn’t surprised when I politely asked her to dance a little to the left so I could death stare at the wall. This picture came from that even and I think it is an amazing depiction of our relationship. Caty is intensely watching as I am trying to do something I haven’t ever done before. She came unglued when the weight hit my shoulders and I stood up. Hello, new PR. Hello 230 pound Clean and Jerk. We finished 5th in the competition in the second WOD because we are physically strong.
Photo by: Rhonda Kay Photography
Then the third WOD showed up and showed us that we seriously are a strong couple. The wait time between the second and third workout was pushing 2 hours and I was getting anxious and worried and overly nauseous because I wanted to finish this workout, and it definitely looked like the workout was going to be brutal. Finally the workout gets moving and we are knocking the first part out like its the easiest thing we have ever done. That feeling immediately stopped when we moved into the next part of the workout. Partner Fran. My wife had never done a thruster over about 55 pounds and her shoulder was acting up… So that first thruster scared the hell out of her and I could tell the first thought of “We aren’t finishing” clicked in. We got through those 21 as quick as we could and moved to the pull-ups, which were scaled to jumping pull-ups. I can do traditional but I figured, for times sake, I would jump. Got rolling into them and then snap… rolled my ankle off the 45 pound weight I was jumping off. That sucked. We got thru Fran and went into Grace. Another ball of suck, Caty was struggling, my ankle was throbbing and we were running up on our 15 minute cut off. We finished though. 14 minutes and 15 seconds. We finished and we kinda made out… and I slapped her butt before I went and laid down on the floor.
This event proved to me that my wife and I can do just about anything we try. We are both physically and emotionally strong. Now it’s time for the Open… and let’s just say 14.1 kicked my ass.
