Out Rocky Mountain Way

(GIS for "Denver." From the Onion.

I am in Big Sky Country until Saturday evening to interview Roger Huerta for FIGHT! My body clock is all screwed up but I am a little more relaxed than I have been the last couple of days. The wedding is eight days away, Amanda and I might be putting an offer in on a house, and I am under the gun with 9-to-5 and freelance work.

Diet Crap, morning, noon, and night. Short term derailment.

Strength & Conditioning 400 meter run, 50 push ups, 400 meter run, 50 sit ups, 400 meter run, 50 squats, 400 meter run. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 minutes.

Walk, walk, walk

I rode my bike to work at 10 a.m. on Saturday, got home around 2:30 p.m., then went back to work at a quarter to 7 a.m. Sunday to work the race. Since I'd be done at 3 p.m., I was told I could carpool home early. Problem was, the early carpool left without calling me. My options were to wait until 8 p.m. and leave with the other photographers or walk home from the track. I started walking around 4 p.m. Five and a half miles with thirty pounds of gear after working all day. Sucked.

Be the hammer

"That's how you do it," Jeff Chapman said. "That's how you do it every time."

I was bent over gasping for air after the day's CrossFit workout when Jeff contragulated me on a good effort. Before I started he told me he wanted me to finish in less than 18 minutes so I started strong and managed to keep a pretty good pace throughout. When I headed out for the last run Jeff told me I had just over two minutes to make time so I decided to push it and finish sub-17. I ran as hard as I could manage and came in at 16:44, my best CrossFit performance to date.

That good news is tempered by bad news, or at least bad news in my little world. With just a couple weeks to go until the wedding and the Indianapolis 500 and a freelance work trip to Denver between now and then, I decided that it is in my best interest to take a couple weeks off of MMA workouts. It's not a ton of time each week but it's a huge energy expenditure and one more thing to accomodate in my schedule. It sucks, but life will be much less complicated the second week of June.

Diet Honestly I can't remember.

Strength & Conditionin 50 squats, 200 meter run, 50 push ups, 200 meter run, 50 sit ups, 200 meter run, 50 box jumps, 200 meter run, 50 double unders, 200 meter run.

Skills Nada.

Dull Ache

Days are peeling off the calendar quicker and quicker and the wedding that seemed so far away is hurtling toward us. Juggling work and last minute wedding details gave me a dull, achey headache that made me want to lie down after work and not get up until tomorrow. In a moment of will power, self abuse, or stupidity, I figured that CrossFit would either eleviate my headache or make something else hurt bad enough that my head wouldn't be foremost on my mind. Sure enough, after the workout my headache was gone. I chilled out for an hour after I got home and then went to Self Defense Systems for a class Jerry Smith is calling "secrets of the temple." It's an invite-only class for his longtime students so that he can teach techniques and strategies he learned from Joe Lewis while competing. Fifteen-year old Neal would have attended the class and gone home. Twenty-nine-year old Neal took notes and did drills on the bag afterwards.

And Amanda just told me that she spent $280 dollars on books at Teacher Appreciation Week at the Scholastic Book warehouse. Jesus fucking christ. I think the headache is coming back.

Diet 9 a.m. Soda and mini-donuts. Fuck me. Noon Pizza and water. Feeling worse. 6:30 p.m. PB&J, water. 9 p.m. Wendy's. Why not finish the day on a high note?

Strength & Conditioning 21 15 9 Hanging clean, pullups, 600/400/200 meter run. Finished in 16:30. Felt faster but pull ups kill me. At least I am doing workouts to prescription now.

Skills Worked on slip kicks, squeeze steps, switch steps and entry kicks off angles. Jerry gives me a hard time about throwing my lead hand down when I kick now but when done quickly and correctly you're shielding your chin with the shoulder. You can't be 100% protected 100% of the time. I am accepting the fact that learning Muay Thai is changing how I approach American Kickboxing but my AKB colors my Muay Thai, too. I started working on karate-style kicks again just to have them in my arsenal, adding mechanical elements from Muay Thai to add a little oomph to them. I would explain more but these are secrets of the temple, man.


Does this guy look like a good secret-keeper?

Stress.

Couldn't get to the gym today because Amanda needed my help cleaning out her classroom. Moving crap from the second story of the school into our basement got my blood flowing. I chopped wood when we got home to blow off steam. I am training someone to take over the more tedious aspects of my job which I am happy about but spending a day discussing something you hate in fine detail is maddening.

I am starting to get wound up about wedding details. Between now and my wedding day, I have to finish a feature story for FIGHT!, work through race weekend, fly to Denver to work on a cover story for FIGHT!, and finish 100 little things before my bachelor party and the rehearsal. In lighter news, Amanda is watching NCIS and tonights episode features Oleg Taktarov in a bit role as well as a scene shot in what appears to be the same desert diner as this Bleeding Through video.

Diet 9 a.m. Sausage sandwich and fruit salad. Noon Chicken burrito, cookie, water. 8 p.m. Leftover pizza, water.

Strength & Conditioning Nope.

Skills Jack and shit.