Motivation...

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."

-Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore

I remember one time while finishing up our time at 5 Points Fitness, one of the fighters there asked me if I was training for something. I asked this person, what he meant by this? His reply was, “well I see you guys always working out so crazy here, and there must be something in particular you’re training for.” At the time, I didn’t quite have the idea of Zombie Fitness in my head and training for the apocalypse, but my reply was basically, “nothing really, this is just how I train.” He laughed, and said, “Wow, I wish I had that kind of motivation.”

Motivation is a funny thing. It’s different for all people. For some, its monetary gains, for some its glory, and for others it may just be personal satisfaction. It’s as unique as someone’s fingerprints. No two people are going to be the same. However, an interesting thing about motivation is that all of us need it in everything we do. Sure, there are varying degrees, but that drive to accomplish a goal or do something has to be there in all creatures. Motivation is quite simply the force for our behavior, where behavior is defined quite simply as action. This action drives the way we relate to our environment. Whatever the motivation is, it’s as important as the air we breathe because it affects our lives everyday. It determines if we get out of bed, go to work, eat a veggie vs. a greasy burger, or pick up a weight.

So what’s your motivation? Why do you train? Why do you get up in the morning? I find motivation many times in the simplest of things. Some times something quite small such as a quote or a scene from a movie for example sparks that drive in me. Sometimes I need more, though such as the threat of a zombie horde creeping up on my behind. But there is always something. So as you sit there, as you breathe, always ask the important question in yourself. Why do I do this?

Your Own Apocalypse

When Justin and I came up with the concept of Zombie Fitness-training for the Apocalypse, it was out of the fun spirit of being fit enough to survive a horrific catastrophe where mankind was faced annihilation and zombies ran rampant. Being able to survive such an event meant being in peak physical condition because every minute would be a do-or-die situation.

But on a basic level, we all have those moments when we feel like our world is coming to an end: whether it be losing your job, a loved one to an unfortunate accident, not making the cut for your team tryouts, or having a broken heart: these moments all feel earth-shattering on some level. Now imagine having to deal with these moments with an injury, or being sick, or being alone with no productive outlet to deal with those emotions. You see, own personal hell seems to deepen by a few more levels. It's like that saying goes, "At least I got my health."

This is why Crossfit seems to be the best way to train-it's programmed to train you run, jump, and climb, push and pull your way through any physical obstacle. But it also trains you to be mentally tough as well. It takes a lot of fortitude to gut it out through a WOD like Fran or Murph. It takes an inhuman amount of drive to eat correctly in a world surround by chain zombies like McDonald's and Wendy's-now those are some bad ass monsters there! And Crossfit allows you to train side by side with people who share the same views on having kick-ass, gut-wrenching workouts just like you and me. And speaking from personal experience, you develop a genuine camaraderie with someone you spend time suffering through the "Filthy Fifty".

Crossfit is built to give you the toughness to get through a WOD, your bad at the office, and if necessary, yes-escape from a horde of flesh-eating zombies while your milkshake-drinking friends are buying you more time to flee by being digested. Everyone has a role in your life.


So train hard, and think harder. Remember, there are zombies everywhere. And sometimes they look like people.

Pressing on...

So as the moment seems to be coming where my days at the box are numbered, its starting to become clearer that I need to really sit down and begin to program a little better. Right now its kind of a mish-mash of whatever WOD I can do or come up with something for that day. So in the near future, that will be something that I need to focus a bit more on.

So with all that being said, I did do the main site WOD last night and it was a little harder than I thought, as my shoulder was a tad achy for some reason. The WOD was:
Shoulder Press
3-3-3-3-3

My scores were 145-155-155(x1)-155(x1)-150(x2)-135(x5). Shoulder just wouldnt hold up after my first set of 155. Since I failed at the others, did a final set of five at 135. Presses can be so frustrating at times.

Summer of Hell p.2

So today starts something I did last year that worked pretty damn well. I call it my Summer of Hell. Im about where I started out at last year, but have started already (although this past Memorial Day weekend was particularly nasty). Im going to take this next few months and just work like a banshee to get back my mojo. Im going to try some new things, ditch some old, and truly make this a bold damn summer. Lots of stuff to look forward to for the next few months, and Im jumping in head first. So nothing left else to say but welcome to my Summer of Hell part 2, care to join!?!?

So today I started with a version of the mothership WOD because I couldn't do some of the R'xd exercises. I had to hang out around the homestead today due to my 360 being delivered after catching the RROD. So my WOD today was:

Run 1 mile
Two minutes of each:
1 pood kb sdhp (31)
30 pound Dumbbell thruster (20)
30 pound Dumbell cleans (13)
Double-unders (30)
Push-ups (30)

Post total time and total reps plus calories (from row) to comments.

The clock runs continuously for the ten minutes after the run.

My total time was 18:43 (8:43 mile) with a total score of 124. The breakdown of score is in parenthesis above. This for some reason really kicked my ass. I think it was because today was probably the warmest/muggiest day of the year and I did it in the hottest part of the day. Took a while to recover, but after this weekend, I needed a good kick in the ass.

Excuses!

So yeah, Its been a while since Ive posted... I slack on this shit sometimes and its my fault. I'm not going to make excuses. Sometimes I just forget and then get lazy and put it off. Then I think, well its been so long why bother? And to be honest, that's a piss poor attitude to have in anything you do. It starts in something small, but then infects other parts of your life, and then you are making excuses for everything.

So I'm going to work on that. Not going to say its going to be better over night, but I'm going to work on this shit. And for everyone out there who is thinking about making excuses for yourself, I give you this: