HOT MURPH!

I got a wild hair up my butt today, sitting calmly at my desk, in 72 degree AC, belly full of Paleo-goodness, to tackle Murph for my WOD today. For those that don't know, Murph constitutes:

Run 1 Mile
100 Pullup
200 Pushups
300 Squats
Run 1 Mile

Hardcore is to do it all with a 20 lb. vest. I'm not hardcore.

I did the reps in 10 sets of 10, 20, 30 respectively. It was 98 degrees which probably puts my garage at 97 degrees. Last time I did this was in January, much colder. That was my first time doing it as Rx'd, and it took me 1:02 and change.

Today I finished in 55:24. Much slower than I thought I could do, but the heat really took a toll on my from the very beginning. Here's some stats I jotted down as I went along:

Starting heartrate: 54
First Mile Time: 8:38 (deliberately paced, but I probably can barely do a sub-8 all out anyway)
Heartrate halfway through the reps: 140
Second Mile Time: 10:59 (holy dog crap, I was hot....walks a bit sadly)
Finish line heartrate: 170
Heartrate 1 minute later: 140
2 minutes later: 130
5 minutes later: 104 (here comes pukie... but I fought him off)
15 minutes later: 80

I'm glad I did it, but am slightly disappointed with my improvement. I don't want to use the heat as an excuse. Michael Murphy didn't get to choose his weather, right?

Why I refuse to mourn Michael Jackson

I know I'll make some people mad with this, but whatever. I don't walk on eggshells around anyone.

Michael Jackson was a talented musician. Granted. He was physically and emotionally abused by his father. Agreed. He was thrust into stardom without the social and emotional skills to handle it. Agreed. We should sympathize with is plight and understand how screwed up a kid can become from bad parenting.

I will not, however, feel bad for him, or celebrate him in his death. He was an accused child molester, and a drug addict. His treatment of his own children in public alone bordered an abuse, I can't imagine what kind of life they led behind the scenes. He was a self-centered, egotistic child playing out his lost childhood through the abuse of himself and those around him.

His physical ailments were nearly all brought on by his own destructive behavior. Even his death, it seems, was the result of morphine overdose. His family warned in the days leading up to his death, that he needed rehab for his addiction.

Don't mourn Michael Jackson, folks. PRAY for children that are, as I type this, being raised in similar homes, with abusive, absent or otherwise unqualified parents. PRAY for this world to again value good parenting and the proper preparation of our children for adulthood. PRAY that our children do not value fame and fortune the way Michael and so many other pop stars do. PRAY that our children value honesty, integrity, hard work, faithfulness, honor and dignity more than money and fame.

I believe Michael Jackson is meeting his Maker and is having to defend his actions. PRAY that God has mercy on his soul.

Out.

P.S. If PRAYing isn't your "gig"..... and I agree we all have the freedom to choose our own "gig"... than insert "hope" or whatever other meaningless feel-good word you like. See how far HOPE will get you.

Paleo a go-go.

Time to do more walkin-the-walk instead of just talkin-the-talk.

I give moderately detailed nutrition advice to any one who asks. I preach the "eat more fat, eat more protein, lose the sugar" mantra to everyone willing to listen. I have pretty sound anecdotal and empirical evidence to go along with the "new science" that is finally making it's way into the public realm. I know how to calculate zone blocks for folks, how to critique their current diets and recommend changes.

Then I go home and order pizza once a week and my cheat "day" turns into cheat "weekends". Time to buck up and put my money where my mouth is, and many other cliche's.

Starting today, I'm as close to 100% Paleo as I can get. I'm not ditching the zone completely, I still will have fat, protein and carbohydrate with every meal, it's the quality of what I'm going to eat, and maybe more importantly, what I'm not going to eat, that is key. I'm ditching dairy... I know, I know. Milk is good. I love it and there's nothing wrong with it. However, I can't tell someone to drink it for "A" when many people do not because of "B" without experiencing "B". So I'm off dairy. I'm also finally getting rid of artificial sweeteners for all the reasons I already knew. Just bad stuff. Milk might be back, artificial sweeteners will not.

So, what am I eating? It's simple, and Coach Glassman outlined it in the now famous "World Class Fitness in 100 words...". "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and sees, some fruit, little starch, no sugar." That's all folks. But, that leaves me with all the meat I already love and eat, veggies, fruit, nuts, eggs... all the yummerific stuff about clean eating. It get's rid of the grains, breads, sugars and processed crap that I was letting back in too often.

I pose this challenge, or better yet, this question, to fellow CrossFit trainers. What example are you setting for your clients? Shouldn't we be the example of what we preach? I will go out on limb and say many of us already do pretty well. But could we do better? Nutrition is such an important pole in the tent, wouldn't it behoove us to show our clients how important it is? How often do you hold nutrition classes or workshops? I've yet to hold one, but I do cover nutrition in my foundations course.

So, another new leaf to turn over today. Black coffee. No ranch dressing on my veggies. But plenty of the good stuff to satisy and fuel me for life.