Hell's treadmill threw me off.

I am pushing to get a cover story (that I didn't want) done for the publication I work for while transitioning into a new job. That means I worked past when I normally would have and lost my MMA workout yesterday and my CrossFit today. I could have done CrossFit this morning but I was exhausted and felt like shit. I am eating ok, as good or better than normal, but I just felt like crap today. I am chalking it up to dealing with douchebag/incompetent publicists. Missing workout fucks with my mood. I get really bummed on myself, frustrated and afraid that I will punk out on this whole project like I have so many other things. Back on the treadmill tomorrow.

Hell's treadmill never stops

Not a super eventful day unless you count morning CrossFit, work, and getting deadlines on two freelance magazine stories (three weeks + 4,000 words = pressure). I ate a lot today but never really felt stuffed, and I feel good about what I ate with the exception of dinner. I really really really hate leaving work and being forced to run around until 8 or 9 p.m. at night.

Diet 8 a.m. Homemade smoothie (locally produced organic milk, frozen berries, EAS Whey protein). 10 a.m. PB&J. Noon My friend took me out for a late birthday lunch. Small beef with broccoli and a bowl of hot & sour soup. 4 p.m. Bowl of chicken and vegetable curry over rice and greens. 8 p.m. Arby's.

Strength & Conditioning 21-15-9. 135# sumo deadlift high pull, box jumps, double unders, 400 meter row. I couldn't catch my breath but I finished in 17-ish minutes. I've got pull ups and box jumps, now double unders is the next exercise I need to start performing as prescribed. I rode my bike to work this morning but chucked in in the back of my truck when Amanda came downtown this evening.

Skills Nada.

"Off" days...

I went to Throwbacks on Thursday and we worked mostly on boxing. Lots of rounds of shadowboxing, double-end bag, and heavy bag work. I was pretty run down on Friday so I rode my bike to work and back before going out to dinner for my Mom's birthday. Still lagging today so I got up early and ran errands before doing a couple of hours worth of yard work and gardening. I just woke up from a much needed nap and started doing food prep for next week.

Jeff Chapman and Indy CrossFit

Jeff Chapman is the owner of Indy CrossFit, the gym where I do my strength and conditioning work. He sat down with me one afternoon after our workout to do what turned out to be a very long Q&A. I normally wouldn't publish an interview in its entirety, but I think in this case the juice is worth the squeeze.

What is your athletic and fitness background?
I started competitive powerlifitng when I was in high school, played Football and track in high school. I was good enough to play football and track in college as well (Anderson University). Got my CPT when I was 18, my freshman year in college. Pretty much from then it’s always been a part of what I’ve done. I worked at several YMCAs as a wellness director, taught classes at a YMCA or another fitness facility. The big thing I do now is Highland Games. I have martial arts background, BJJ – I started doing that in ‘96, and Krav Maga, I started that about two years ago. (Also competed for a time as a sprint triathelete)

How did you get into CrossFit?
About eight years ago, even before the CrossFit website went up, there was a couple of guys from Indianapolis went out to California to train at the Gracie Academy. The came back and told some of us who were training up at Greg Eldred’s at the time about some CrossFit programs. I did a little research, called some people I knew in California, and started doing some of the crazy stuff they were doing out there. About three years ago is when I started in earnest, doing the website WODs. Eight years ago I was actually doing them at the YMCA. The WODs were not very advanced back then it was like, “Deadlift and go run, deadlift and go run, deadlift and go run, ok, you’re done.” Most people didn’t look at us too crazy, then about three years ago I just started doing it in my garage.

So much of it is open-source, how can you tell who is a legitimate CrossFit trainer and how do you become a CrossFit affiliate?
I made the decision that I really wanted to open a gym. I ran several very large YMCAs and it’s always been a passion of mine. There was really no place to do CrossFit except in my garage and there’s got to be a faction of people like me who like more aggressive workouts. The wife gave me the blessing and I basically took my life savings and opened the gym. At that point I realized I needed to get CrossFit certified as well so I went to CrossFit certification. To answer your original question, you can tell a good CrossFit trainer if they understand the methodology, if they understand the exercises, and if they know how to structure a workout for people to get a full-blown CrossFit experience. Are there a lot of people doing CrossFit from the website? Absolutely, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Are there people doing CrossFit from the website and calling themselves CrossFit trainers? Probably. But I think you can tell the difference right away.

What are metabolic pathways?
We want to look at strength training, the aerobic, and the anerobic. When you look at a workout like we did today, the double-unders are almost aerobic conditioning, then you throw in the pullups, the dips and the pushups and you get some strength training in there and an anerobic program.

What do you say to critics who say you can’t effectively train all three at the same time?
CrossFitter vs. Distance athlete – Over the first 800 meters I’m going to be a lot faster than you and a lot stronger than you. Do we go out and hammer mileage and get really good at distance running or do we stay in the gym and hammer strength training and get really strong or do we do a combination of both so we’re kinda strong, kinda can run, and can do other stuff.

Why do you think people are so loyal to old-school isolated movements?
I would much rather do a set of bicep curls, work up a sweat and go home and have a good pump on and feel good than do what we did a few minutes a go where you’re completely trashed and laying on the mat. I only have once chance to do this in life, I only have once chance to live my life the way I wanna live it, and to me, the body is a special portion of that. I might as well push it to the limit. A lot of people see it as stupid and hard and they think, ‘I’m going to go do my bench press and preacher curls and call it a day.’

Some critics say that CrossFit is dangerous because you’re throwing weight quickly, training for time, working to capacity and beyond, and that it’s not ideal for most people.
I struggle with that myself, sometimes. I don’t want anyone to think I am a CrossFit Kool Aid drinker because I’m not. I’m a CrossFitter because it works for me. Does it work for everybody? I don’t know, but it works for me. I do think you have to have some level of virtuosity in your technique. I do believe that you have to have a strong basis of being able to (move) weight with good technique. If Joe Smith comes in off the street and says ‘I’ve never worked out before,’ am I going to have him do the same thing we did tonight? Probably. Am I going to have him do the same weight and repititions? Absolutely not. Am I still going to try to get him to use full range of motion and proper technique? Definitely. I do think once you understand the technique you’ll have the ability to do a greater workload. Are there people out there that are doing it on their own and getting hurt? Absolutely. I hate to say this but I think that’s the difference between doing it in your garage and doing it at an affiliate where there’s a trained observer to tell you, ‘That’s total crap, you’re not doing it right.’

You mentioned CrossFit Kool Aid. As loyal as people are to traditional training methods, CrossFitters tend to be even freakier when it comes to promoting what we do. What’s up with cult references and people getting so defensive about CF?
It’s tounge-in-cheek now, people make fun of the cultish behavior. I think it’s the way with anybody that finds something that works, something that makes them a better person. I do feel like a better person, a lot of stress has been relieved from my life since I started doing CrossFit. Your natural reaction is what? To share it with someone, especially when someone says, ‘Hey, I notice a change, you look different, you’re acting different.’ I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t tell people when they asked. I think that’s the cultish behavior. Proselytyzing…some CrossFitters take it a little too far. It is a tight-knit community. You can find out about any CrossFitter in the world in a minute online.

How do you taper workouts so CF doesn’t interfere with athletic competition?
I’ve always been a big believer in tapering. My rest is really important. I believe if you are going to do something as strenuous as a mixed martial arts fight there’s no way you’re going to be able to come in here and do CrossFit two or three days out and be 100% for the fight. Two weeks out maybe too much (rest) but a week and a half is probably about right. For Highland Games I need to take off two or three or days off so I feel like a spring ready to go off.

This is the first time I’ve never had goals in a gym. What do you say to people who see that as a drawback?
I look at the workout and think, ‘I can do this in X amount of time, can do this in X amount of time, can do this in X amount of time, so I should be right around this amount of time for the whole workout.’ Set goals of doing 25 repetitions in a row instead of 10, or 100 straight squats. Those are big things to achieve. If you break things down, and I hate to say compartmentalize, you’re probably going to do fairly well.

Boutique, “high performance” training has gotten more popular. Have you seen an uptick in interest recently?
I think it’s just too damn hard. I really thought there had to be about 100 to 150 people in Indianapolis that would probably be interested in something like this. I have not found that to be the case. I think it’s the simple fact that most people don’t want to work hard. In fact, I just had this conversation with someone before you came in tonight. Most people don’t want to work hard at their job. Most people don’t want hard at home, they don’t want to work too hard on their families, so why in the hell would they want to work hard in a work out? I hate to say it, but maybe this goes back to the cultish behavior. People like us have have a tendency to be a little bit off.

Is CrossFit hard on joints?
You know what, I tell people this and they don’t believe me; I’ve had knee problems most of my life and since I started doing CrossFit, deep squats, I’ve had no knee issues, knock on wood, and my shoulder, from bench pressing, power lifting, I’ve always had range of motion issues. Since I started doing full range of motion pull-ups, again, knock on wood, I’ve had no problems. However, CrossFit has a tendency to breed tendonitis. I have no scientific analysis to back that up but from my small sampling of the group of people we have here, tendonitis has been bred I think from the pull-ups and the increased workload.

What do you think about my progress from November to now?
The big thing I’ve noticed is that I think you understand now what it takes to work hard. It just wasn’t there. I don’t know if it’s been a humbling experience, because a humbling experience is when some people all of the sudden excel and other people say, ‘I’m never going back there because they’re a bunch of jerks.’ I do see now that it clicks in your head. You do truly understand that it takes a lot to put forth 100% effort in this workout. Obviously I’ve noticed that you’ve lost weight, it looks like you’ve firmed up, but I think more than anything is the ability to master your mind. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed.
I’ve seen the progress and I think you’re starting to understand the techniques. I think the next step is to get you to lose a little more weight and start hammerin’ it hard. If we can get you down to 220, 225, I think you’ll start hammerin’ it hard, I really do.

What’s the learning curve where people really start to see gains with CrossFit?
I think it’s three to six months. If you’re a former athlete or a pretty good athlete maybe less time than that. Usually it’s about six months. You spend a lot less time looking around and a lot more time looking to your next exercise.

Could you explain the Ferrari theory?
The Ferrari theory is something I came up with while selling high-performance vehicles. A guy I used to work with said the Porsche was capable of doing a lot more than I was capable of doing with the car. I was fortunate enough to finally buy a Porsche and I had it out on 465 one day and I was doing 125 miles per hour and I got scared, like, shitless scared, and the car kinda sat low, like, dude, whatever you got, bring it on. I talked to they guy and he said ‘the car is capable of going 180 miles per hour. You are not capable of driving it that fast because you are not trained to drive it that fast.’ Your body is capable doing a lot more than you ever, ever imagined. However, we’ve got a built-in mechanism by whoever engineered us that says, ‘Neal, whenever you reach 120 miles per hour you need to ratchet it down because you’re gonna kill yourself.’ But once you train yourself to go up to 120, 130 miles an hour, you realize, ‘I can do this.’ You can push your body that far, keep yourself within a good zone, and the next thing you know you’re doing stuff you never thought possible. That’s the Ferrari theory.

Diet 8 a.m. Leftover pizza. 11 a.m. Turkey sandwich with sprouts, avocado, and cheese, half a dozen baby carrots. 12:30 p.m. Small orange. 2 p.m. Turkey sandwich with sprouts, avocado, and cheese, half a dozen baby carrots. 6:30 p.m. Protein shake. 8 p.m. Chicken alfredo, steamed vegetables.

Strength & Conditioning 200 meter run, six 40# man-makers, six pull ups, six 20# wall balls, five rounds for time. I finished in 25:24 and collapsed. I was on the edge of unconsciousness for ten minutes before I got my shit together and drove home. Amanda and I walked two and a half miles on the track by her parents house afterwards.

Skills Nada.

I feel very strange.

My mood has been going up and down and up and down since I got some more than three hours ago. I ate a fairly decent dinner. I self-medicated with dessert, thinking it was blood-sugar related. The only way I can explain it is that my brain feels like the way a drunk dude walks.

Diet 8 a.m. Protein shake. 10:30 a.m. Half a turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and avocado. 11:30 a.m. Half a turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and avocado. 3 p.m. Hot dog, small fries, soda. 7 p.m. Baked chicken over greens, mashed potatos. Ice cream for dessert. Approx. a gallon of water over the course of the day.

Strength & Conditioning Nada, unless you count lots of rolling.

Skills I rolled 6...8 rounds? It's weird how jiu jitsu becomes more and less difficult when you're dripping with sweat. After rolling with Pat for a couple weeks I'm starting to "get it." I can pass guard on a lot of guys, escape submissions or stay out of trouble, sweep, reverse. I'm a long way from mediocre but I'm getting better fast.

Whip it like a towel.

Amanda was gone most of the weekend and I was busy with workouts, preparing my vegetable garden plot, attending a friend's cocktail party, and then the UFC. I worked Sunday, so here we are catching up.

On Saturday I went to CrossFit at 8:30 a.m. and we did a birthday workout for one of the regulars; 600 meter run, 41 pull ups, 41 squats, 41 burpees, 600 meter run, 41 wallball, 41 box jump, 41 push press and 600 m run. I finished in something like 36 minutes, 13 slower than the next slowest person...BUT I did this workout to prescription which is a major accomplishment. No band pull ups or box step-ups, all 100% legit. I was about to quit on this one before we started because my back was so sore from pull ups on Wednesday but I thought, "fuck it, I'd rather do five pull ups and fail than face doing 123 jumping pull ups." Amazingly, I did 41 kipping pull ups in sets of two or three. The mind is strong.

After that I ran some errands, ate lunch, and headed to Throwbacks for the Saturday workout. I dozed off in the back of my truck waiting for people to show up and only rolled for 15 minutes before having to head to Self Defense Systems for my private lesson with Jerry Smith. We worked on the slip kick, a deceptively powerful kick delivered to the leg or groin that allows a fighter to cross the gap while scoring/doing damage, and it sets up punch combinations beautifully. I was off balance and swinging the kick slowly when Jerry said, "Snap it like a towel," and BOOM, I had it. I need to remember that when I am using Thai kicks. The slip kick is pure Jeet Kune Do/American kickboxing, and I think it's something I can use to great effect against taller fighters.

Today I crushed a fruit salad, a turkey/avocado sammich, a cheeseburger, protein shake, and some pizza and washed it down with a mix of soda and water. Sounds like a lot but my portions were pretty reasonable...until dinner.

Jeff wanted to hammer in the proper form for jumping pull ups tonight so we did a 235 meter run, 12 thrusters, 12 jumping pull ups, 12 double unders, 435 meter run, 18 thrusters, 18 jumping pull ups, 18 double unders, 600 meter run, 24 thrusters, 24 jumping pull ups, 24 double unders. I finished around 19.5 minutes.

So...totally...thrashed.

Submission by vomit.

I was trying to pass Pat McPherson's guard when he shouted. I looked at his hand and his pinkie was dislocated at the first knuckle. I think he jammed it against my knee. He pushed it back into place, taped it, and said, "You know, if you don't give a fuck it doesn't matter," and we started rolling again.

Diet 8 a.m. Fruit salad. 11 a.m. Jambalaya, greens, black eyed peas, Switch. 2 p.m. Two slices of cheese pizza and a soda. 7 p.m. More jambalaya. I need to get back on a tighter meal plan but I'm the only one who cooks in this house and when I am busy the wheels come off. I drank lots of water today.


Strength & Conditioning Something like 150 kicks on the bag, each leg, and four rounds of grappling. People talk about how well-conditioned grapplers are, and it's true, but I don't think Thai boxers get their due. Kicks absolutely wreck your heart and lungs, especially when you're throwing 25 or 50 in quick succession.

Skills Ian hovered around me tweaking my kicking mechanics. I am starting to feel quicker and more powerful with my kicks. Pat work with me on creating space with my hips and controlling my opponent. I get my ass kicked on the mat by pretty much everyone in the gym but I managed to pass guard on the heavyweight I rolled with today and maintain side control and a half guard for a while. Baby steps.

I was annoyed when I scraped skin off my left knee and right shin while doing deadlifts today. But I was astounded when I looked up at my hand after the workout and saw that one of my callouses had been ripped clean off by the texture on the bar.

Diet 8 a.m. Half a Naked juice and a homemade sausage muffin with egg and cheese. 11 a.m. Grilled chicken salad with shaved walnuts and a bottle of Switch. If I ever kick the soda habit for good, I'm going to send the CEO a thank you note. 3 p.m. Banana and water. 8 p.m. Part of a frozen pizza, steamed vegetables.

Strength & ConditioningAfter scolding me and a few other people about shitty pull up form and effort on Monday, Jeff hit us with a workout that looked manageable on the dry-erase board but was a bear two minutes in. 21-15-9, 225# deadlift and pull ups. I did band pull ups for the first round and a half and then switched to jumping pull ups. I finished in something like 14:58.

Skills None.

Today was kind of low key at Throwbacks. Pat seemed annoyed with a couple of guys so I kept my head down and did my work. After we did Fives - you and a partner each do five sets of five takedowns each - me and two other newish guys spent most of an hour working with Aaron Sullivan, an IMPD officer and combat submission wrestler. We worked on the half guard and two submissions off of it. It was good work and I am anxious to apply it. Learn a little, try it out, learn a little, try it out. I feel pretty good today but my shoulders are still trashed from yesterday's CrossFit.

Diet 8 a.m. Two eggs, fruit salad. 10 a.m. Half a tuna sandwich, half a pear. Noon Side salad, lasagna, water. 3 p.m. Half a tuna sandwich, handful of macadamia nuts, almonds, and peanutes. 7 p.m. Po Boy sandwich - smoked sausage and coleslaw - chips, applesauce, soda. Drank lots of water today. 9 p.m. Leftover fruit salad from this morning.

Strength & Conditioning See below.

Skills Worked takedowns and then drilled the half guard and worked two submissions from it: an arm triangle and a kimura.

So busy.

I turned 29 last Friday and it became an unintentional day off. There was no morning CrossFit because everyone did a 5k benefit run during the firefighter's convention and there wasn't enough time for me to get an afternoon workout in before we were supposed to meet family for dinner.

I couldn't work out on Saturday because our agenda was all full up with haircuts (hadn't had one in three months), a meeting with our credit and mortgage counselor, a trip 30 miles north of the city to meet Chloe, a crazy hyper Pug that Amanda wanted us to adopt, then back home to work on freelance stuff before dinner with friends.

Sunday was a mixture of work, rest, and grocery shopping. Turning 29 was anti-climatic. As I told my mom years ago, Christmas and birthdays lose their magic when you stop getting GI Joes. But I am 15 pounds lighter than I was when I turned 28, my on-the-verge-of-requiring-medication blood pressure has dropped, and I went down a pant size. Between that, Amanda, and my burgeoning freelance career, 28 was a good year.

Monday

Diet 8 a.m. Fruit salad with yogurt. 11 a.m. Half a tuna sandwich, half an apple. 1 p.m. Half a tuna sandwich, a small orange. 32 ounces of water. 6:30 p.m. McDonald's. Amanda was upset about school, I was completely trashed from CrossFit and stressed out because she was upset - long story short, I do almost all the cooking, and nights like this I don't want to spent 30-45 minutes in the kitchen. Good day otherwise. Another 32 ounces of water. 9 p.m. Popcorn and 100% cranberry juice.

Strength & Conditioning Jeff Chapman looks at the dry erase board and shakes his head. "This is gonna suck," he says. 600 meter run, 20 hanging cleans, 20 pull ups, 25 box jumps, four rounds for time. By the time we started round two he had revised it to be three rounds for time. I did jumping pull ups and box step ups and finished in just over 28 minutes. When everybody was don Jeff demonstrated proper form for the hang cleans and then (more or less) told several of us that our jumping pull ups were bullshit. It wasn't what I wanted to hear after a workout but I can't disagree.

Skills Zilch.

Ugh.

I had a job interview that lasted until 5 p.m. so I didn't get to the gym until most everyone was wrapping things up. I worked on Muay Thai footwork, shadow boxing, and kicks for a while and then Pat put me through the paces of some BJJ drills. Between my shadow boxing, Muay Thai drills, and these BJJ drills, I can do solo work every day to tune up my skils, excuse me, my SKILLZ.

Diet Low on groceries, short on time. Fast food lunch, fast food dinner.

Strength & Conditioning Zip.

Skills See above. Duh.

Oh, me oh my oh

Busy, busy, busy working on the CrossFit story for FIGHT! as well as getting the print/video interview with Jeff ready to post.

Diet 8 a.m. Fruit salad, part of a burrito. Noon Turkey sandwich, chips, half an apple, cookie, soda. 3 p.m. Handful of peanutes and raisins, water. 9 p.m. Wendy's - I had to work late.

Strength & Conditioning Sweet jesus, CrossFit sucked today. 200 meter run, 20 knees to elbows, 200 meter run, 40 sumo deadlift high pulls, 200 meter run, 60 dumbbell cleans, 200 meter run, 80 squats, 200 meter run, 100 pushups, 200 meter run. I hit the wall during the squats and had trouble focusing afterwards but I pushed through and finished in 29:55. I passed out on the couch after eating breakfast.

Skills Nada.

Catchin' Up

Monday

Got up and out the door for the 7:15 a.m. CrossFit. 400 meter run, 15 thrusters at 115#, 15 pull ups, three rounds for time. Not to be confused with the push-press, the thruster is a front squat to overhead press. My time was decent, something around 18 minutes, mostly because I didn't quit on the runs.

Diet 8 a.m. Fruit salad, water. Noon Tuna sandwich, chips, two cookies. 3 p.m. Salad with three ounces of chicken, greens, kidney & black beans, green peppers, and a little Ranch dressing. 6 p.m. Handful of macadamia nuts and chocolate covered cashews, multivitamin, two fish oil caps, water.

Strength & Conditioning See above for CrossFit details. I rode my bike to work and home. It's a nice 25 minutes each way and I figure anything that's free and contributes to a healthy lifestyle is worth doing...when it's warm.

Skills Nada, baby.

Tuesday

Felt good today until I spent an hour at the bank dealing with bullshit. If I make a payment online and the money leaves my account but is never received by the payee, where does it go? What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Pat wasn't at the gym tonight so the re-re's ran the group home. The port-o-let that was outside the gym for a few weeks is gone now so it's back to pissing behind the dumpster. I'll have to ask Pat how he feels to get an office and then have it taken away.

Diet 8 a.m. Two eggs sunny side up and fruit salad, multivitamin, two fish oil caps. Pizza. 3 p.m. A small bag of peanuts, macadamia nuts, and chocolate covered almonds. 7 p.m. Steak sandwich, chips, and a pickle. I drank a lot of water today.

Strength & Conditioning No thanks.

Skills I jogged, did 100 jumping jacks and three sets of 10s (sprawl, push up, jumping squats) to warm up. Pat never showed so dudes split up and worked on what they wanted to. In that situation I don't feel like I'll get much out of rolling, so I worked on Muay Thai. Three three-minute rounds of Muay Thai shadow boxing and then about thirty minutes of working on Thai kick technique with Ian Ransburg. That little man kicks hard.

Workin' for the weekend.

This weekend was two off days diet-wise. We had a lot of wedding stuff to do and I was catching up on sleep for the week which left not a lot of time for food prep. As soon as I finish this entry I am back in the kitchen to get food ready for the week.

I went to Throwbacks yesterday and grappled. I jogged and did my tens to warm up, stretched out, and got in the cage with Pat. Orville stood outside of the cage and gave me instructions while Pat worked with me. We did two five minute rounds and one ten minute round. The last round was rough. I vomited in my mouth at one point - it's really difficult to describe the stresses grappling puts on your body but I was out of breath, nauseated and Pat was grinding his knee into my temple, my jaw, my ribs, my gut. He started covering my nose and mouth, making me fight him off whenever I got lazy.

Day off.

I took a day off work to rest and work on wedding stuff with Amanda, run errands. There is still soreness around my elbows from the Wednesday workout. Tomorrow I've got CrossFit in the morning and MMA in the afternoon, house showings, a meeting about the wedding reception menu, and then we’re getting together with our parents to assemble the invitations. I’m not even doing most of the work and this shit is exhausting.

Diet 8 a.m. I woke up hungry. Baked chicken over greens with green pepper, black and kidney beans, tomato. Noon Indian buffet – salad, curried vegetables and chicken. 7 p.m. Chicken penne pasta with cheese and vegetables, salad, breadsticks, soda. I ate a lot of damn chicken today.

Strength & Conditioning Nada.

Skills See above.

I am wrecked.

I got to bed late last night and I am very sore and very tired because of it. I had to knock out a story for a magazine...and catch "The Ultimate Fighter" season premiere. I did some food prep but didn't get lunch made for today. I have to go out and work tonight and I am considering taking a nap tonight instead of heading to Throwbacks. Actually that's bullshit, I'm going to go do my workout.

Diet Diet Ham and eggs, avocado slices, grapes. Super hungry this morning. Noon Two slices of pizza, water. Still super hungry. 7 p.m. Baked chicken over a large greens salad with green pepper, tomato, kidney and black beans. 9 p.m. Ham sandwich. I had a beer at the bar later. I don't think a Bell's Oberon is in my meal plan buuuuuuuut fuck it.

Strength & Conditioning Jogged to warm up, did my three sets of tens, and shadow boxed three five-minute rounds. Pat wasn't at the gym so everyone was left to their own devices.

Skills I focused on staying in the pocket while shadowboxing - tucking my chin into my shoulder, throwing straight punches, keeping my hands up, bobbing and weaving in, throwing combinations inside and retreating with punches. I worked with Ian Ransburg for a bit on basic Muay Thai footwork and kick mechanics afterwards. It wasn't a particularly rough workout but a few months ago I would have skipped it altogether in favor of rest.

I shot an interview with Jeff at Indy CrossFit this afternoon. Part of it is for a story I am writing for FIGHT! and part of it is for this blog. I hope to have the video up early next week.

Diet 8 a.m. Fruit salad with a quarter of a melon, strawberries, and grapes. I had half a cup of cottage cheese but the first bite almost made me vom. Noon Burrito and water. 4 p.m. Smoothie from yesterday's leftovers. 7 p.m. Ham sandwich with avocado slices, mashed potatoes. I need to drink more water.

Strength & Conditioning 63 pushups, 63 pullups, 63 dips, 126 double unders. Needless to say, I did not do this workout to prescription. Substitution rules dictate that one double unders can be replaced by three rope jumps, so I did 378 rope jumps. I knocked out the pushups with relative ease, and I got through a dozen pullups and dips before switching to jumping pull ups and situps. My arms and shoulders were just thrashed from Tuesday's MMA workout. I finished in 21:02.

Skills Nada.

Mother of God...

Note to self: When your journalistic sassy pants instincts tell you to blog about how your loss inspired you to work harder, REMEMBER THAT YOUR TRAINER WILL PROBABLY READ IT. Pat absolutely brutalized us today but I made it through more or less intact. Read below for...specificity.

Diet8 a.m. Smoothie with two cups milk, one cup blue berries, two cups strawberries, two tablespoons peanut butter, a handful of cashews. Can't say I was a fan of this mudslide. 10:30 a.m. Half a ham sandwich with one slice of cheese and a quarter of an avocado, half an apple. Noon Slice of pizza and a cup of water. 2:30 p.m. Half a ham sandwich with one slice of cheese and a quarter of an avocado, half an apple. 7:30 p.m. Bacon cheeseburger, small portion of fries, soda. I went off the reservation but I was shaky after the workout and Amanda's parents were buying.

Strength & Conditioning Today's MMA workout consisted of a short jog and tens to warm up - ten sprawls, ten pushups, ten jumping squats. Then it was five three-minute rounds of shadowboxing with knees and sprawls. We did crunches in between rounds. Then we did a five minute round of two minutes of punches, one minute of knees, one minute of ground and pound on a pad. After that we did four sets of 10 kicks on each side and ten jumping squats. Then it was four sets of 25 knees to a body pad and 25 pushups. Then we did five trips across the gym and back doing thrust kicks against a pad, then it was two rounds - I was almost delirious by now so they could have been anywhere from a minute to five minutes in length - of grappling, trying to get out from under the mount in the first round, and fighting off a rear naked choke in the second. As a special treat we finished off the night with 75 squats in a circle and pushups in the round - each guy does one push up all the way around, then each guy does two, so on until everyone works up to 10. The goal was to stay in plank position throughout, but I didn't.

Skills I just focused on breathing and maintaining good form, punching from the pocket, keeping my hands up, keeping my feet moving, and throwing good knees and kicks.