95 degrees + 10 miles = "fun".

Parked across the street from the zoo, and ran along the shoreline trail to the mouth of City Creek Canyon. It was my first day in the heat this year, and it was a bit of a shock. So thirsty.

Route and elevation profile HERE.

Crossfit Total

Did the total today. Mixed results.

Back squat 1-1-1
Old PR-245#
250#/255#/260# New PR
Shoulder press 1-1-1
Old PR-135#
140#/145#/150# New PR
Deadlift
Old PR-345#
350# fail/345# fail/335#

CFT-745

Sunday

Headed up to White Pine Lake, but there was too much snow to safely make it up. Still though, it was beautiful and we still got in about 7.5 miles. Plus I carried a 25lb pack to make it more fun.

Wax on, wax off.

I took two days off because of some pain and serious tightness in my left knee. It was definitely the 100 yard sprints on Tuesday. Today, however, I could wait no longer and got after it.

4pm
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
20 double unders
12 push presses @95#
6 sandbag get-ups (weight approx. 40-60#?)
(6 rounds completed)

5pm
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
400 meter run
max rep pull-ups
(20,15,15,15,11)

I kept the 400's nice and slow, and my knee is thanking me.

Alright, time to hit the trails.

7am
Diane
21-15-9 reps for time of:
Dead lift @225#
Handstand push-ups
(8:13)
*Handstand push-ups are still not quite full range of motion, and I think my dead lifts were sloppy, because my lower back is very sore.

3pm
Every minute on the minute for ten minutes, sprint football field, goal post to goal post (100 yards).
*Averaged about 18 seconds each.

4:30pm
Bench press
5 @ 135#
3 @ 185#
3 @ 185#
1 @ 205#
Fail @ 215#
Fail @ 210#
1 @ 205# PR (don't laugh)
2 @ 185#
10 @ 135#

Fran is mean to me.

7am
Fran
21-15-9 reps for time of:
Thrusters @95#
Pull-ups
(5:29) PR
I'm capable of better, but for some reason this workout has gotten in my head. Still though, 35 seconds faster is alright.

4pm
3 rounds of
50 step ups @18" box w/ 2 x 18# kb's
1) 2:30
2) 2:16
3) 2:20
1 minute rest between each round.
3 rounds of
50 step ups @12" box w/ 2 x 18# kb's
1) 1:51
2) 1:45
3) 1:36
1 minute rest between each round.
Then
8 rowing intervals of 20 seconds work 10 second rest.
(819 meters)

Looking back

That's me getting a pep talk from Jeremy Horn after my first fight.

I'm in a reflective mood tonight after watching the finale to the Ultimate Fighter 9. I trained off and on for the last 5 years with the welterweight contender Damarques Johnson. Tonight Damarques lost, but that's not what brings me here. He will move on, he will be fine and he will continue to succeed. He's a genuinely good person who has punched me in the face more times than I can count.
Around the age of 26, I decided that I wanted to get off my ass and get a little physical. I was out of shape, unhappy and had no idea what to do with myself. I had spent my early twenties partying and wandering around with my wife, and the realities of growing up were starting to become clear. I had become a fan of mixed martial arts and often imagined myself in that cage. How would I do? Did I have what it takes? It became an obsession. It wasn't long until I had done some research and realized that mma legend Jeremy Horn had a gym just a few miles from my house. I walked into the gym only about two months after it opened, on a Saturday, and for the next two years I trained almost everyday. Sometimes twice a day. I was terrified, unsure of myself and not at all as tough as I thought I was. I trained in the morning and went to work in the afternoon almost unable to walk. I suffered and accumulated injuries. A broken nose, twisted fingers, sprained joints, dislocated knee-caps and black eyes. I loved it. I was a slow learner, but I was eager to learn and I was finding qualities in myself that I didn't know existed. I sweated and toiled and never missed a practice for a year. I was quiet and didn't attract much attention. Jeremy saw something in me, and when I asked him if I was ready to fight, he gave me the confidence to take the plunge. I'm no tough guy, and I have never been in a street fight. For the first 6 months of training I apologized whenever I would punch someone in the face. I got my fight. I began preparation to fight James Hamilton on the Rocky Mountain Bad boys fight card, Battle in the Cage 3. I had no idea how much harder the training would get. Strength and conditioning at 7am, two hours of jiu-jitsu and muay thai at 10am and two more hours of jiu-jitsu and muay thai at 6pm if I didn't have to work. This was 6 days a week. The promoters flew me, Jeremy and Bill Woodson (another fighter from the gym and a great guy) to Denver the day before the fight. I was a nervous wreck and I was grumpy as hell from my starvation diet. The weigh ins were the day of the fight and I only had 4 more pounds to shed. So we put on the plastic sweat suits and hit the sauna. This was my first experience cutting weight. It was not at all pleasant, but I was lucky to only have 4 pounds to cut. No problem. The hours leading up to the fight are still pretty clear to me. The drive over, drinking pedialyte, being checked by the doctors, getting encouragement from Tara and seeing my opponent for the first time. Having Jeremy Horn in my corner, who has over 160 fights under his belt, gave me a huge confidence boost. I warmed up with some thai pad work and some takedown drills. Bill's fight was first, and he quickly finished his opponent. Soon enough it was my turn. I suddenly got very calm. I don't remember my name being called. I walked down the ramp to the cage and all eyes were on me. Stepping into the cage brought me back to attention, and the full weight of the situation hit me. The dude standing across the cage was wearing only 4oz gloves and he wanted to punch me in the face until I lost consciousness or quit. The bell rang, we touched gloves and it was on. I threw a lazy jab and he threw a solid jab. His landed first. This is where you learn something about yourself. When another human punches you in the face, you have two possible ways to react. You will try to get away, or you will try to punch that person twice as hard as they hit you. I hit back. His jab hurt me, and I walked right into it. I made no attempt to cover up. I went right back at him and threw a straight right hand down the pipe. He went down like a ton of bricks. I followed him to the ground and to my surprise, he came to his senses and popped back to his feet. He was bleeding all over the place. For the rest of the round and all the way through the second we punched each other non stop. Neither of us would go down and neither would quit. The third round was much of the same and I could not believe this kid was still standing. He probably thought the same. Towards the end of the fight I remembered that I could also take this fight to the ground. Duh. I shot in for a single leg takedown and was able to muscle him to the ground. I punched him twice and he attempted an armbar that I slipped out of. The fight ended with more face punching and the fight went to the judges. I lost the fight by a half of a point. I wasn't too disappointed. I layed it all on the line and delved deeper into my own potential than I ever had. My opponent broke his hand on my head and I didn't go down.
After getting back home I returned to training and started getting ready for another fight. En route I severely sprained my neck and had to pull out. After that it seemed like I was plagued by injury after injury. I still managed to train almost everyday for the next year and a half. My knee started to fall apart and I started training less and less. Finally, I had a pretty major knee surgery to realign my knee cap and to remove damaged cartilage. I recovered, but never threw myself into training like before. A few weeks here, a few days there. I made one brief return over a year ago and fought here in Salt Lake. I fought on the second Elite Fight Night card against Peter Baker. I dropped over 20 pounds over the 2 month training camp. I trained and dieted and worked. The day before the weigh ins I was still 12 pounds overweight. For over 24 hours I didn't eat or drink. I layered on plastic sweat suits and heavy clothes and ran on the treadmill 10 minutes at a time. It was literally one of the hardest things I have ever done. Professional fighters do this every time they fight. I think it was then that I decided that this would be my last go at fighting. I felt like I was dying, and I lay on the floor drifting in and out of consciousness. I sweated out those 12 pounds and made weight, but I was mentally defeated. The fight lasted all of about 2 minutes. We traded some punches and he unintentionally kicked me in the nuts. I recovered. We clinched, separated, and traded more punches. Again he kicked me in the nuts. I was mentally beaten. I recovered again. I shot in for a takedown, left my neck exposed, and he secured a guillotine choke. Just before the blackness set in, I tapped out. It was a tough loss for me.
Over the years training at Elite I grew as a person and as a man. I was given a place to test myself and to push my limits. I learned to be humble. I got the opportunity to train with some of the world's greatest fighters. I did some warm-up sparring with 6' 7" Tim Sylvia. I wrestled with Rich Franklin, Joe Stevenson, Jorge Gurgel, John Alessio, Mike Whitehead, Duane Ludwig, Joe Doerkson, Edwin Dewees, Luke Cummo, Travis Wiuff, Matt Hughes, Justin Eilers(rest in peace), and most of all Jeremy Horn. It was Mac Danzig who sprained my neck while getting ready for my second fight. Does this mean that I am a great fighter? Absolutely not. During my time training I gained a basic understanding of the essentials. I have been tapped out and punched by master and beginner alike. I had a few shining moments against much more talented fighters, when I would pull off something out of nowhere. For the most part though, I was average and just enjoyed gutting it out.
My fighting record is zero wins and two losses. I am only now beginning to realize how important the years spent training really are to me. I have nothing to show for my time spent. My nose is crooked, I have just a little cauliflower on my left ear and I have three titanium screws in my right knee. I learned more than I am currently capable of comprehending. I learned to relish the struggle. I have supreme confidence in my ability to endure. I know that being humble leaves you in a position to absorb the lessons that the day brings. I've learned the value of surrounding yourself with people you admire.
I still train hard these days, but not to fight. I'll always be ready to fight, but my readiness will never be limited to one thing again. I've found myself doing what I love for a living, and in that I've found more people to admire, and to be inspired by. They are teaching me to bring more intensity to everything I do, and showing me that I'm capable of more than I know.
It's easy to lose focus when the things you want from life are intangible, and hard to define. I'm not interested in money anymore than I need to live in a basic, comfortable way. I don't want attention or admiration. Honestly, I just want the corny things in life. Love, happiness and maybe a piece of something bigger. Somehow this habit of pushing my mind and body is just a small step on that journey.

Training is hard. Tanking in competition is harder.

I'll catch up first.
Wednesday- 10 sets of 1 hang power snatch. Maxed at 115#. More of a recovery effort than a real 1 rep max.

Thursday- Rest

Friday- Worst workout ever. I mentioned before about doing one monster of a workout once a week to help prepare for the Speedgoat. Today was a monster.

10 rounds for time of:
25 calorie row
20 medicine ball slams @20#
15 hang power cleans @95#
10 push presses @115#
5 back squats @185#
5 muscle-ups
1 dead lift @275#

(1:39:29) Missed 4 of the muscle-ups. Subbed 4 ring dips + 4 pull-ups for each missed muscle-up.

The group today was strong, and it's very motivating to workout with people who are stronger than you. Everyone left it all out there, and Mike took a huge fall from the pull-up bar. Vi, Justin and Alex lapped me, and Rich gutted out 4 rounds. More than anything, this was mentally taxing, and mental preparation is what I need. I put it all on the line today, and now I can barely lift food up to my mouth, or bend over to pick up anything. The experiment continues. Tomorrow I will go on a long run with Tara. It will be interesting to start on what I presume will be dead legs. Hopefully Tara will take it easy on me.

Boo Hoo

10 rounds of the following for time:
7 medicine ball cleans @20#
7 burpees
(11:13)

Not much gas in the tank, but I'm still disappointed with my time. I did this workout months ago, and it was much faster, I swear.

Recovering, regrouping.

I got back in the gym today, but I took it a little easy. All in all I feel recovered from the race save some soreness in my calves. Once I got started on the workout I realized that my gas tank was only half full, and I was huffing and puffing until the finish.

Warm-up:
Ring dips 6,6,4,4,8.
Strict pull-ups on rock rings 6,6,4,4,7. Moving from largest holds to smallest.
Workout:
2 rounds of
20 hang power snatches @75#
20 slam ball @20#
20 weighted abmat sit-ups @25#
20 kb swings @53#
(12:38)
Nice recovery workout.

I'll give myself two more days to get back up to speed. I'm working on my training strategy for the Speedgoat, and I will change things up a bit. I'm thinking about switching from my Monday through Friday work, Saturday Sunday rest schedule. I'll start this week with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday work, Thursday rest, Friday Saturday work, and Sunday rest schedule. I think it will look something like this. Monday-Crossfit Endurance run interval work / Crossfit main site wod. Tuesday- Something heavy. Wednesday-Crossfit Endurance run interval work / Crossfit main site. Thursday-Rest. Friday-A long, grinder of a workout, with a disgusting amount of volume. Saturday-A long hard running session in the mountains, with as much elevation and climbing as possible. Sunday-Rest. This is a lot of work, so I will play it by ear. I will hold this pace until about two weeks before the Speedgoat, then slowly taper. After the Speedgoat, I will probably take a week off to fully recover and decide if I want to, or am capable of doing the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler in September. I have had my eye on this race since before I started doing ultras. I want it bad, but I know what being laid up with injuries feels like, so I want to take care of myself first.

Wahsatch Steeplechase

This one almost didn't happen. Well, not for me at least. A last minute e-mail informed the runners that the weeks of bad weather could lead to a course change. I had resolved to go back to bed if I was denied my chance to rematch the original course. Thankfully I woke up to weather that was at best good enough. Butch let us all know that to be safe we had about 2 hours at most to make the summit and negotiate the crags before our weather window would close. I did something a bit different this time, and I went out hard instead of my usual conservative pace. Well, I went out hard relative to my ability. From start to summit is all uphill, so I ran anything with a gentle slope, and slowed to a power hike on anything steep, or when I approached a level of huffing and puffing that would scare other racers. So far so good. My hydration and fueling strategy was panning out, and the extra attention paid to tapering over the past week had me feeling strong. At the base of the steepest and close to final climb to the summit, I heard the rumbling of thunder overhead. I would later learn that this thunder and lightning would cause Tara (my better and smarter half) to turn back. I know this was a decision that she struggled with immensely. She loves running and has a strong sense of pride, but also has a heavy fear of lightning. I was too close to the top, and kept on pushing. I started feeling a little gassed as the summit approached, and as the crags came into view my calves started cramping. Water, electrolyte pills and more fuel put a stop to that. The crags were very slippery and traffic soon bottle necked and slowed to a crawl. After clearing the hardest climb, the traffic cleared and we were on the move to Smuggler's Gap. It was all downhill from there, and it was on! I filled up on water, thanked the volunteers and took off down the trail. I quickly found out that I am indeed capable of doing a split. I got going a bit too fast and my left foot shot off the trail. It was more of a James Brown down and up split, and I only needed to pause long enough to make sure everything was intact. It was muddy and very, very slick. One section was equipped with a climbing rope. I found a way to make this rope dangerous though, and got in it's way as a lady, ahead and downhill, put her weight into it. She leaned back, the rope pulled taught and kicked me in the side of the neck, sending me almost head over heels off the trail. The rest of the trip down to the canyon floor was smooth and fast. I was disappointed see some runners cutting corners, and my first instinct was to take them down. Not turn them in; I mean take them down to the ground, punch them just a little, then force them to retrace their steps. I then realized that I train to run now, not to fight. Reaching the canyon was a morale boost, but then my biggest problem hit. I have never had stomach issues before, but today was the day. Having some salt helped a bit, so I'll assume it was an electrolyte issue. I went into auto pilot and just kept on pushing. At this point I was falling apart and my breathing and footfalls echoed through the canyon. Coming to the top of Memory Grove revived me and I ran it home. The official results are not up yet. 3 hours 35 minutes by my watch. I set a goal of sub 4 hours, so I am a happy man. A happy man with very sore calves. Maybe next year I can muster up sub 3 hours.

Studying the Wahsatch Steeplechase

Friday
I headed out with Rich to run the Steeplechase course. We skipped the Memory Grove portion and got down to business with the climb leading up the right side of City Creek Canyon. I felt the effects of a hard week of training, and pretty soon Rich was leading the hills with me scrambling to catch up on the downhills. We made the false summit of Little Black quickly, and began picking our way over the crags. At the top we got to see a rattlesnake coiled under a rock, but whether or not it was the fabled beast of Little Black I do not know. We got to Smuggler's Gap and it was on. This section of the course is a blast, and the surface was soft and forgiving. I've only done this race once before and it seems like the vegetation has taken over the trails here more than last year. After bombing the trail down to City Creek we settled into a more relaxed conversational pace, and brought it home. We returned to the truck in 3 hours 50 minutes. 12 to 14 miles.

Saturday
I couldn't muster up another trail adventure after five days in a row of training, so I drove out to Stansbury Island for some peace and quiet. I took my dog, Roodi, as a way to prevent any running that would ruin my recovery. She's getting up there in age, and running would just be cruel. I just wandered around like a child and checked out the rocks, watched the birds and relaxed in the sun. It's a beautiful area, but I was disappointed at all of the Private Property, Do Not Enter signs. I don't, for the most part, have a problem with private property, but this was just a bit much. All that beautiful open space, and the only thing I saw happening was the rusting of trucks, tractors and other machinery. Of course I didn't let the signs deter me, and meandered where I pleased. I don't have any respect for this type of hoarding.

This week.

Monday
Weighted pull ups
5 sets of 3 @53#

Tuesday
In the A.M.
2 sets of 10 (5 each leg) single leg dead lifts @95#
2 sets of 10 (5 each leg) single leg dead lifts @115#

In the P.M.
100 pistols (50 each leg)
Still have to hold on to something to maintain balance.
15 box jumps @36"
15 power cleans @155"

Wednesday
A.M.
Angry Sue
5 rounds for time of:
500 meter row
15 thrusters @95#
(17:10)
Did this WOD back in October and it took 22:36. Improvement is nice.

P.M.
2 mile trail run (17:50) Hilly/rocky.
2 mile hike. Not timed and quite relaxing.

Thursday
A.M.
3 rounds w/95# bar
Shoulder press to fail, Push press to fail, Push jerk to fail.
1) 10/7/6
2)10/3/3
3)6/6/3
Rich talked me into this. I can't decide if I should thank him.


Generally life is tranquil right now. I've been training hard and feeling motivated. I'm looking forward to running the Steeplechase course with the Upper Level Gumby tomorrow. After that I'll probably drive out to the Silver Island Mountains for some solo relaxation and trail running. Tara is in Vegas with a couple of girlfriends, and I'll bet they're on trip two or three to Thunder From Down Under.