Cloudy days, chasing the sun away

It's been cloudy and raining for days which really screws with my mood. If that weren't enough I was on deadline for two freelance stories, Amanda was all wound up about the fact that the principal of her school is a total beast and oh yeah, someone tried to kick our door in when we were at work. Super. No MMA workouts so far this week but I am going to the gym tomorrow, and I've gotten good work in at Indy CrossFit. Wednesday was brutal - 265 meter run, 20 55# kettlebell swings, 20 wallballs, seven muscle ups (see video below), five rounds for time. It took me just over 33 minutes. My back locked up so bad it felt like someone "loopied" a muscle, pulling me over to the left as I ran or walked. I gotta warm up and stretch more. We're short on groceries, eating too much crap, need to be more goal-oriented.


(We did jumping muscle ups on gymnast rings, but Mango here will give you an idea of what the exercise is.)

I'm checking out.

I got up at the ass crack of (pre-) dawn to shoot and edit videos about the election today. Presidential primaries, Congressional seats up for grabs, and Indiana is in the global spotlight. I ran into people from Al Jazeera America. I bet they never get hassled. I am beat - no workout tonight, just rest.

Diet 5:30 a.m. 24 ounce coffee, mini-donuts. 7 a.m. 32 ounces of water. 11 a.m. 12-inch veggie sub, chips, cookies, soda. Thanks, Jared!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

I am beat. CrossFit, ride to work, have a shitty day at work, ride home. I have to wake up at 5 a.m. to shoot and edit video of the Democratic primary election tomorrow, so I am knocking this off and heading to bed.

Diet 8 a.m. Turkey and swiss on an English muffin, water. 10 a.m. Tuna sandwich. Noon Pizza, breadsticks, soda. 8 p.m. Turkey melt, carrots, soup, water.

Strength & Conditioning Cinco De Mayothon. Five pull ups, five box jumps, five situps, max rounds in five minutes. One minute rest, then five burpees, five thrusters, five double unders, max rounds in five minutes. One minute rest, then five push-ups, five wallballs, five sumo deadlift high pulls, max rounds in five minutes.

Skills Nada.

Uh...

("Who's got the pad thai hookup?")

I showed up at CrossFit this morning and no one was there. Don't know what's up with that. Dan Christison showed up at the gym today to work out with Jake O'Brien. Word was that Evan Tanner was going to workout, too, but as far as I could tell he showed up, got directions to a Thai restaurant and bailed. Felt like shit when I was grappling today. Need more mat time.

Diet 9:30 a.m. Smoothie - milk, protein powder, strawberries, blackberries. 11:30 a.m. Tuna sandwich, lots of water. 1:45 p.m. Tuna sandwich, fries, soda.

Strength & Conditioning See below.

Skills Muay Thai shadowboxing/takedown drills, walk knees, clinch work, three rounds of kicks seperated by push ups, several rounds of live takedowns and grappling seperated by jogging.

New gym, old feeling

I showed up at Throwbacks today and the parking lot was empty. A sign on the door read, "We've moved. Call Pat." I peered in the window and the warehouse was empty. I called Pat and got directions to the new gym on the east side. It's another warehouse, but this one has running water. It's the home of the Red Cobra Wrestling club, more on that on Saturday.

We worked on Thai clinch and knees, running laps around the large mat and doing pull ups between rounds. "I saw you ripping off those pull ups man, I was surprised," said Keith Palmer. Backhanded compliment or not, I'll take it. After several rounds of that we moved to the cage where I rolled with another heavyweight named Jamie and a Thai boxer named Nick Hyde. Nick has been a nomad for the last decade, training with just about every legit fighter in Indianapolis at one point or another.

I don't know if it was stress or back pain flaring up, but my ground game was shittier than usual. I wasn't doing what I know how to do and I was putting myself in bad spot after bad spot. It was extremely frustrating.