My neck, my back, my neck and my back!

Sweet christ. I stumbled in the door tonight after CrossFit and could bare control my body as I lowered myself onto the couch. My legs were giving out, my back was spasming, I was a mess. I am sitting with a heating pad over my lower back as I type this.

Diet8:30 a.m. Half a Naked juice. 1:30 p.m. Small Penn Station sub, fries, med. soda. I fell off the soda wagon when I got the flu but my weight has still stabilized around 245#. The work never ends. 7:30 p.m. Mac & cheese with broccoli florets and tuna. 10 p.m. Couple beers and some chips at a party.

Strength & Conditioning Did a 1-1-1-1-1 workout at Indy CrossFit, max reps of five exercises for a minute each, three rounds. Deadlifts, squats, box jumps, wall balls, and pull ups. I had a good pace during the first round but as Jeff said "The wheels feel off in the second round." My legs seized up, then my back seized up. It was rough but I gutted it out and came up about 60 reps short of the second lowest total.

Skills Nope. I get back fight training tomorrow.

Thursday

Extremely sore from CrossFit yesterday. My mood is much improved.

Diet 8:30 a.m. Cereal, two eggs, two sausage links. 9:30 a.m. Switch. Noon Salmon and wild rice LeanCuisine. 5 p.m. Banana and soda. 7 p.m. Spaghetti and meat sauce with broccoli florets, garlic bread. I had a voracious appetite, maybe because I ate so little for lunch.

No skills or conditioning, just rest.

I usually avoid the genre of fake news that involves people yelling at each other about things they pretend to care about, but I saw this on Sam Caplan's blog and wanted to comment on it.



I know Jay Mariotti gets paid to wear clown pants on ESPN, and I know having 4.37 seconds to discuss issues doesn't lend itself to informed debate, but I cringed when he started talking the way I do when middle aged white people talk about rap. It's likely that he doesn't understand the history of the sport, the martial arts involved, the rules and how they developed, you know, the things you should know if you want to speak intelligently on the subject of MMA. He could have even said, "I don't really know what I am talking about, I'm just not comfortable with the sport." But then he would have owed an explanation for his enjoyment of football or how MMA is substantively different than boxing.

Jackie Macmullan says that young people love MMA because it involves violence and "that bums me out." It's such thoughtless thing to say, and I mean that literally. People would simply not say things like that if they put any thought at all into the subject. Violence has been a part of human culture since we started walking on two feet. Violence for cultural/political/religious dominance closely followed by violence for entertainment.

Hearing braindead megaphones like this spout off about the harm MMA does to our culture when they probably write hundreds of inches a year about football, a sport that cripples the minds and bodies of men across America every fall and winter, is akin to arguing about the war on drugs with a liquor industry lobbyist.

hump day

Diet 8:30 a.m. Orange juice, bowl of cereal, banana. 11 a.m. Tuna over greens. 1 p.m. I had to drop off a package on my lunch break. Slice of pizza, two breadsticks, water. 4 p.m. Granola bar and water. 7 p.m. Wendy's combo. I couldn't stand up long enough to cook and Amanda was starving after a long after-school mandatory meeting.

Strength and Conditioning I got a little bit of my mojo back at Crossfit tonight. We did a 21/15/9 with sumo deadlift high pulls, dips, and double unders (jump rope) followed by descending distance rows of 600/400/200 meters. My time wasn't great - 19:31 - but I finished strong and knocked loose some of the emotional/mental crud that had been building up for weeks.

Hello, old friend.

I am back on my feet and functioning at something approaching normal. It is disturbing how much being sick, hating my job, and not being able to work out for two weeks affected my mood. I hit bottom over the weekend, feeling listless, having problems with confidence, self-esteem. I haven't felt that bad in a long time.

I went back to Indy Crossfit yesterday and lasted two out of the proscribed five rounds before running to the bathroom to heave for a while. It's going to take me a week or two to get back into the groove. I passed on my MMA workout today because I have a lot going on with work and my job hunt and needed to assemble a new resume and portfolio. I think I may just do some light workouts on my own until next weeks. Dudes are getting ready to fight in Columbus and I'd rather jump back in next week at something approaching full strength.

This sickness was the universe's way to tell me to slow down and I am paying attention. No more two-a-days for me. I will be doing Crossfit and MMA on alternating days from here on out. On paper it might retard my progress but I think I'll be able to learn more and train harder when I am recovering fully and not getting knicked up, sick, and worn down every week.

I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel

Still coughing pretty bad, congested, and having trouble hearing. Earache symptoms on the right sid of my head. In good news I am down to 244#! Haha.

brilliant

I woke up this morning with a wet cough, cold chills, and full body aches. Amanda has been sick for two weeks and I finally caught the bug. Jeff suggested that I might be over training, running my body down and not giving it sufficient recovery time. I might reformat my workouts so that I'm not doing two-a-days. I dunno. I felt like garbage today, I haven't been this sick for a while.

Gearing up for a new week

Last week I was swamped with work (full-time and freelance) and drained from the stress resulting from a small financial crisis and fiance/mom drama. My band is recording this weekend, putting the rest of our material to tape before breaking up. It's been a fun, low-key way to put an era of my life to rest. I lost the passion for loading equipment, staying out late, and driving long distances. Don't get me wrong, many of my best memories were made with these guys, and guys I've played in bands with. But I think I've accomplished everything I'm going to accomplish in rock and roll and now it's subject to the law of diminishing returns. Maybe the fire will come back but I am passionate about other things now and excited to focus on aspects of my life that always took a back seat to the band.

My weight is hovering around 249#. I want to do my work and dial in my diet this week and see if I can get down to 245# by next weekend.

One hurdle cleared.

Wednesday

I was exhausted and missed my CrossFit workout. I wrote for most of the day before heading to Throwbacks. I didn't want to workout but like usual I ended up feeling better for it.

Diet Noon Pizza, steamed vegetables. 4 p.m. Banana, granola. 9 p.m. Spaghetti and meat sauce, bread, carrots.

Conditioning 50/50 kicks and an hour on the treadmill at the Y.

Skills Worked a lot of Muay Thai combinations, kick sparred and knee sparred. Felt really good with my kicks, not so much with my kick defense.

Thursday

I'll revisit this Friday morning.

Running, running, running.

A mind-numbing day of data entry followed by a break long enough to feed and walk my dog, a meeting, and a night of working on a freelance story. This is an "off" day?

Diet 8 a.m. Half a bottle of Naked juice. 10 a.m. Apple. Noon LeanCuisine. 7 p.m. We got Wendy's in a rush to get to a meeting with the tailor who is making custom Western shirts for my groomsmen and I.

Conditioning & Skills Nothing.

Jumpin' Jahosefats

I spent part of the weekend at Jorge Gurgel's gym for a story for FIGHT!and then I went to see Down on Saturday night. The show was badass, among the best I've ever seen. I am a little behind on life-maintainence stuff and I've got two stories to crank out this week.

I am working a lot on portion control and good consistent feedings. My weight is hovering around 248# but shirts are fitting differently these days.

Diet 6:30 a.m. Half a Naked Juice. 8 a.m.Two eggs, small bowl of oatmeal. 10 a.m. Turkey sandwich. Noon Lean Cuisine. 4 p.m. Granola bar, banana. 6:15 p.m. Peanuts, small bottle of Gatorade. 8:30 p.m. Curried kidney beans over rice and greens. Killed about a gallon of water throughout the day.

Conditioning 7:15 a.m. CrossFit. Felt great except for the dry heaving. Did an hour on the stationary bike after my MMA workout.

Skills Muay Thai combinations and kick counter-attacks. Rolled for 15 or 20 minutes and felt good with it.