Anyone else Burned out?

This is not a good position to be in. Not sure why, but I seemed to be really burned out on everything starting with....gasp....CrossFit.....and second....gasp, gasp...Running!
I need to get rid of this lazy feeling and suck it up. This is my body wussin out on me.
Today was a kicker for me. I simply didn't want to push myself that hard during the workout. It's nothing they did, it's just me. Seems every time I do a workout I push myself to extreme exhaustion. Painful exhaustion. Kinda getting burned out on that I guess.

I know the answer is to not back off the CrossFit, but maybe scale back while doing the workouts. Maybe mix it up a little. Go heavy on the weights one day, make it a heavy Cardio day the next.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a chance to go for a run today. Simply not enough time to fit it in.

Kim "The Trail Goddess" is running the Burning River 100 this weekend. I will be crewing and pacing her the final 30 miles. I think being back in these kinds of surroundings will help me get back into it. Wish her luck. This is gonna be a great finish for her.


CrossFit WOD
Warm Up: 1 Mile Indian Run

Skill: 5x5 Back Squats: Weight: 205 lbs

WOD:
11 Power Snatch (ended up doing 3 sets of KB Snatch because of my shoulder)
400m Run
AMRAP in 20 minutes....my score: 5 Rounds

Pluggin along and feeling good.

I purposely slept in today thinking I may get a little heat late morning into the afternoon. This would not be the case. We have had some weird weather here in Ohio. We've had maybe 1 or 2 days that hit in the 90's. That's it!

When I went out this morning it was in the low 70's and pretty much stayed that way.

I need heat to train in!

I took the bike out for a ride around town to do some exploring.

It was great to explore new parts of town I had not been on my bike.
It was kinda uneventful. No police were involved though. Ended up with about 30 miles.

After the ride, I went home and got my 40 lb vest on and headed to Chestnut Ridge Metro Park.

I ended up just power walking as I have not used my vest in a while for running and didn't want to chance injuring myself. I kept a steady pace throughout the walk and never stopped on the uphills.
This workout felt great. I ended up with a little over 4 miles for the walk. Again the time out at Chestnut Ridge was uneventful. In the pictures below there is an opening in which you can see Downtown Columbus off in the distance. The zoom on my camera was able to pick it up better in the second picture. With the naked eye, the view is awesome.

The final picture (I hope you can click on it to see it). There was a small Garter snake, maybe about 3 feet long slithering across the trail.

Puddle of a fat boy..........

Okay, the title is a little harsh I know, but we all somehow make fun of ourselves in order to motivate ourselves. I by no means make fun of "weight challenged" people...unless they are gluttons. The Puddle you see is my sweat puddle after today's ass kickin' from a totally ass kickin' workout.

I woke up today feeling great and knew I had to jump back in full force. So what do I start my day off with? Of course a near death experience at Rogue Fitness!

A little CrossFit action first thing in the morning (my morning) really gets the blood flowing for the rest of my day. AWESOME!

Below is a picture of me after the workout. I was hurtin bad during that final set of Push Press. My body was screaming for me to stop. I just had to ignore the signals that my body was about to shut down and just suck it up. If I was going to die, then I was going to die during a killer workout. That's all there was to it.

You have no idea how bad I wanted "J", our instructor, to come over and start screaming at me like a Drill Sergeant after someone had wizzed in his cornflakes.

My only motivation to continue was knowing that just one more rep, I would be closer to being done and closer to being able to fall to the floor and allow the blood to rush back to my vital organs.

Warm up: 1 mile run

Skill: Push Press: 3x3 maxed out at 135lbs. (Shoulder felt great)

WOD:

400m Run

20 Push Press (95lbs)

30 abmat sit ups

4 Rounds for time:

My time: 24:06

I'll take it. I need to get back in the gym and suck it up and get better and prepare for up coming events. I added the little evil face. Someone put a happy face up there and I changed it. Well deserved in my book.

Oopps....I forgot to post this

Easy 8.5

I decided to skip CrossFit today and hit the trails. I was on call this past weekend and ended up getting very little sleep and any form of training was non-existent.

Since Mohican, my headaches have started back up again and has prevented me from doing any serious hard training. Yeah, I've been going to CrossFit, but it has been a struggle.

No energy, headaches, nausea, and that "I don't give a crap" feeling. Not a good combo for hard workouts and Ultrarunning.

I went out to Slate Run today for a run on the trails and made it around nearly all the trails for a relaxing 8.5 miles. I wanted a little more sun than I got but in the end, I was happy with 75 degrees.

The pace was easy. When I say easy, I mean easy. I ran most of the hills, but walked a couple of them and used that time as water breaks without stopping. In the end, the run was what I wanted.

Taking a look at my schedule, I have a few events coming up that I really need to buckle down and train hard. I'm Pacing Kim at Burning River 100, then Dances with Dirt 50 miler-Hell Michigan, Germantown 50k, then the biggin: Javelina Jundred in Arizona. I'll use Burning River as a training run and let DWD fall where it may.

I'll try my best to blog more and attempt to make it a little more interesting. Right now, I am simply bored to death with everything. Hmmm. maybe I need to train more? Possibly.

Beat to a Pulp

The other night at CrossFit, we did 5x5 Back Squats, but I ended up only doing 4 sets.
I have a long history of bad Hamstrings, and that night I was reminded of that past. By time the 4th set, I knew I was toast. My Hammies were gone. I begged Heather (CF instructor) to let me roll out for a few minutes with the foam roller.
Yesterday was a recovery day, and when I went in tonight, I knew I wasn't recovered enough by the time we were getting ready to do the main workout. My hamstrings were seizing up major.

"Suck it up......Could be a lot worse" I said. I started to rethink why the hell I was there. I saw the WOD (workout of the day) on the board and knew this was gonna suck big time! Why the hell did I come there tonight?
Today, I begged Nate (CF instructor) to let me roll out and stretch. I was nervous.
I ended up scaling the weight back as I knew at anytime, I could easily pull a muscle. Not good when I am training for Ultras.
In the end, it sucked more than I thought, but I got through it. My time was a lot slower than I wanted, but seemed every exercise made my hamstrings hurt worse than before.

I came home and iced it with a beer or two and now, I feel much better. That Sam Adams is a real magician.

Warm up:
400m run
20m Push ups
15 Squats

Skill: None: Set up equipment only

WOD: AROMAS (No idea what this means)

15 Hanging Squat Power Cleans 95 lbs
30 Toes to Bar or Knees to Elbows
30 Box Jumps
20 Ring Dips
30 DB Push Press 35 lb DB's
90 Jump Ropes
15 Thrusters 95 lbs
30 Burpees
50 Walking Lunges (I didn't use any weight)

For Time!

My time: 25:42

No excuses. My time should have been shorter.

Update on my "Speeding incident"

I called the County Sheriff where I live and they got a kick out of my story. They said there were no reports of any deputies pulling over a cyclist.
They said the officer didn't have jurisdiction to pull me over since the incident was inside city limits. The City police could have pulled me over though. They said I do have to follow all rules of the road including speed limits.
They then asked me to describe the officer. I said: "Big, Fat, Angry man in a uniform."
They replied: "............Um.......Okay........That's all I need.......Have a Good Day Sir."

CrossFit WOD from Yesterday: YEAHHHHHHHH BABY!!!!!!WHOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Warm up: 1 mile run
30 Squats
20 Push Ups
20 Roll Overs

Skill: Back Squats 5x5: Max: 175. The last set I didn't do. My hamstrings were hurtin too bad.

WOD:
5 Strict Overhead Press: 95 lbs
7 Strict Pull Ups
AMRAP in 12 minutes.

My score: 10 Rounds and a pounding headache!

Pulled over on my Bicycle...for Speeding

This Friday after CrossFit, I decided I was going to make a batch of Mead. I feel the need to follow in the footsteps of my Dad, brother and the rest of the family. Many years of Moonshining, bootlegging, brewing, and wine making needed to be carried on. I'll just stick to Wine and Beer making.

Mead for those who don't know is simply: Honey Wine. The oldest form of alcoholic beverage in the world. They talk about it in the Bible. (Don't ask me where)

It's simple to make:

1 Gallon of Spring water
1.5 lbs of Raspberries
4.5 lbs of Honey
1 juiced lime
1 juiced lemon
3 tablespoons of Strong English Tea (I used Longaberger Homestead Tea)
1 packet of Dry Ale Yeast

Raspberry Mead Ingredients:

I also made a 5 gallon All Grain Batch of beer: Honey Kolsch
10 lbs of Grain
1 lb of Honey
6 Gallons of water
2 Ounces of Hops: Hallertau, and Tettanag
1-2 Pints of cultured Kolsch Yeast

Honey Kolsch Ingredients:

This batch of beer was my first solo All Grain batch. I've been planning for this brew for a while now by learning all that I could about the various techniques involved. I decided to go Spartan on the equipment and keep the costs and hassle down a bit. I was still nervous as can be. There is somewhat a little bit of time, effort and money involved in this. It's a gamble I was willing to take.

Here is the Mashing of the grains in my Mash Tun:

There are a lot of guys out there with elaborate Brew Systems that turn out great brew. Then there are other guys out there with a cheap and simple set up that can produce the same results. For now, I want to be one of the later guys.

Here is the cooling of the Wort:

The batch turned out great. I achieved the original gravity I was shooting for, and it's now fermenting like crazy in the fermenter.

Okay.....This is where it gets interesting. Skip to here and read this:

I went on a bike ride today and was unsure of the distance. I got about 3 hours of sleep and decided to just stay up. Otherwise, I would have fell back to sleep and ended up waking up really late in the day. The ride itself was uneventful with the exception of a few near misses with running off the road. Those skinny tires are a bear to get used to.

Toward the end of the ride, about mile 20, there is a long sloping hill that leads into my town.
I love this section as you can really get up to speed. Now, this highway I ride on has a bike lane on both side of the road. There is plenty of room for two bikes side by side including traffic lanes.

I started cranking down the hill and dropped down on my aerobars and continued to pedal hard.

Out of nowhere, I hear this sharp ear piercing chirp from a police siren. I nearly wrecked my bike. Those damn skinning tires. I kept pedaling, and heard the siren again. Certainly this jackass was kidding. I slowed down and he pulled right behind me. Kidding right? No! I slowed down thinking he was pulling into one of the houses. Still pedaling, I thought okay, I'll let this moron around me. He slowed as I slowed and then I finally stopped. He got out and asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I said, "No, How fast"? At this point I still thought it was a some joke my neighbor was playing on me. He is a Highway Patrolman and a big jokester.

For fun, we'll call him: Deputy Richard Noggin.

Deputy Richard Noggin: You were going 32 MPH in a 25. Cool! I thought.

Me: "Really"?

Deputy Richard Noggin: "Now, I really pulled you over because of how unsafe you were being".

Me: "Okay".

Deputy Richard Noggin: "There are side roads here that cars could pull out in front of you"

Me: "Then wouldn't that be their fault"?

He looked at me with this stupid look on his face and proceeded to tell me to slow down and be a little more careful.

Me: "Okay" I am still waiting for the punchline because this cannot be for real. He told me it wasn't worth giving me a warning or a ticket. Damn! If this was real, I wanted the ticket!

I was just too dumbfounded to think about getting a picture of this incident. I pedaled off still waiting for the punchline that never came. Tomorrow, I am going to call the county and see if it is even something they could have pulled me over for. Really? Speeding on a bicycle?

I only thought Rainmaker or Lance Armstrong could do that.

Totals: 23 miles: bike

Not you average pansy track workout

I decided it was time to start seriously training again. I had enough time to rest and I feel that I'm in need of some heart pounding CrossFit work outs and some long slow trail runs.

I went to CrossFit tonight and knew it would be bad. I was hoping no one would show up and it would just be me. Turns out one other showed up. Oh well.
The work out was going to be a good one. It involved running and a nasty CrossFit move that always makes people stomachs churn when they hear the word: Burpees.

Burpee demonstration

I needed this workout, I needed to suck it up and just do it. This will be the first of many ass kicking, fight for survival, near death experience type workouts I am always after.
This is what makes you the best you can be. All I need to do is convince my brain to get on board and just Suck it Up.

Warm up: 10-1 (10 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps........1 rep)
Push Ups
KB Swings: 53 lbs


Skill: Push Press to Max: 3-3-2-2-1-1-1-1 my max: 155 lbs

WOD:
1 Mile Run
50 Burpees
1 Mile Run

My time: 19:51 (Some Dude did it in 13:32. Amazing!)

This was the first time I ever walked during a workout. Those Burpees killed me.

Busted!

I haven't had the desire to blog lately. Not sure why exactly. I really think have came down and crashed hard from Mohican. I have no energy, irritable beyond belief. (Yes, I am a man who can admit things like that). I also have this feeling that nothing is going my way. Is it all psychological. or is it something else? You decide.

Besides the slump in blogging (who cares really), I went to CrossFit a few times last week, and had no energy each time I went. Apparently, I didn't have the energy to blog about it either.

This weekend started off like any other. Worked Friday night, stayed up all day to celebrate my wife's birthday, then we ended up not doing anything because the places she wanted to go was close because of Independence Day. - Yes, it's Independence Day not "The Fourth". We didn't achieve "The Fourth" from the English. Our Forefathers achieved Independence, for us.

Irks me like when people say Xmas. Who the hell was Xmas? It's Christmas!

So Saturday afternoon, I start working on my Wort Chiller (Big Copper Coil -Google it). This device is used to cool down beer that has been brewed, from about 170 degrees to 70 degrees. I could have bought one, but for some reason, I have it in my mind that I can make one cheaper and better than one off the Internet. This thinking will change.

I've never soldered copper before. Always a chance to do something new. Everything was going good, I was having no problems, and the soldering job looked good. This all changed when I started burning my fingers, hands, legs, dropping molten solder all over my shoes, bare skin, CrossFit equipment, clothes....you get the idea.

The flux was not working properly, I wasted so much solder. When I was done...the damn think leaked in a few spots. Okay, I'll fix those. Done, tried again, leaks, more leaks, WTF? Tried again, burned the hell out of my leg, done, more leaks. I told my wife one more time and it's going in the trash. More burns, adjustments made.....leaks. In the trash it goes where it is still there. I'll order one from the net and never look back at this experience.

After that, it was time for bed, 'cause the next day has got to be better. It's Brew Day!

Brew Day at my friend Bret's house (pictured above) and we planned to brew a Honey Kolsch. I loaded up my gear, and then heaved my 105 lb Black Lab into my cramped, hooptie of a Jeep and off to some old stopping grounds.

The brew day was going great. We had mild temps, and actually dropped down to a chilly temp. The brew was going along nice. We sat around stirring the kettle of Wort (Google it). The aromas that were given off were unreal. The smell of the Crushed Grain was almost euphoric. This is why I brew people. Good times, with good friends. My weekend was looking better and the previous day was patched up and almost laughed about because of Brew Day.

When we were done brewing, we tasted the Wort (I told you to Google it). Oh man. I could sense the excitement in Bret as he tasted it. At this point the Wort doesn't really taste like the final product. That all comes with aging the beer and carbonation.

The Wort was sweet and you could really taste the 1 lb of Clover Honey. The initial Gravity was high (1.060) and we knew we had a winner.

I put the Wort and 2.5 gallons of water into a Glass Carboy like I've done in the past. We chilled it down in Bret's kitchen. I couldn't get the temp below 80 degrees, so I decided to not pitch the yeast until I got home.

Busted!

When I went to move the Carboy, we noticed a leak and subsequently a crack on the edge. I quickly got my secondary bucket, and proceeded to siphon off the Wort in there. The thing with my siphon is that you have to pressurize the Carboy with filtered air from your mouth. As soon as I blew air into the filter, the Carboy exploded, and like Niagara Falls, the wort went gushing EVERYWHERE! It was a slow motion surreal experience. One I hope I will never encounter ever again.

I was so furious and extremely embarrassed. I just flooded my friends kitchen with 5 gallons of a fermentable liquid. Thank goodness there wasn't any yeast in the wort.

We cleaned and cleaned until there was no trace of our tasty beer left. My wife had already left and gone to the movies by herself. I didn't care really. All I cared about was cleaning up the mess. Literally, $30.00 down the drain.

The last time I brewed, I was moving the same Carboy and dropped it onto the concrete floor in my garage. This stress from this coupled with the temp changes is probably why it cracked and then the pressure finished it off.

Bret and I agreed that I am lucky that I didn't end up in the hospital with major lacerations.

So, what is the cure for these disastrous events? I'm going here: