Posts from — August 2009

Chile

I went a little nuts, and made a serious dent in my “Books to Read List” and bought a bunch. Here is part of the list. A lot are rereads that I just want to have around.

1.Wolff, Tobias. In Pharaoh’s Army Memories of the Lost War. New York: Vintage, 1995. Print.
2. Reid, Robert. Year One An Intimate Look Inside Harvard Business School. New York: Quill, 1995. Print.
3. Richardson, Heather Cox. West from Appomattox The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War. New York: Yale UP, 2007. Print.
4. Tetlock, Philip E. Expert Political Judgment How Good Is It? How Can We Know? New York: Princeton UP, 2006. Print.
5. Toll, Ian W. Six Frigates The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
6. The Defense of Duffer’s Drift, Swinton (and the various knock-offs)
7. The Bear Went Over the Mountain and/or The Other Side of the Mountain, Grau and Jalali
8. Infantry Attacks, Rommel
10. A Short Course in the Secret War. Christopher Felix
11. The Republic, Plato
12.For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
13.Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
14.The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
15.Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
16.White Noise by Don Delillo
17.The Young Man’s Guide by William Alcott
18.Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
19.Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
20.Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
21.Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
22. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
23. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Ben Franklin
24. The Landmark Thucydides, Thucydides
25.Dahl, Robert A. After the Revolution? : Authority in a Good Society. New York: Yale UP, 1991. Print.
26. Dugard, Martin. Farther Than Any Man The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook. New York: Washington Square, 2002. Print.
27. Easterly, William Russell. White man’s burden why the West’s efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
28.Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Back Bay Books, 2007. Print.
29.Klein, Gary. Sources of Power How People Make Decisions. New York: The MIT, 1999. Print.
30.Moss, David A. When All Else Fails Government as the Ultimate Risk Manager. New York: Harvard UP, 2004. Print.
31. Nasr, Vali. The Shia Revival : How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 2007. Print.
32. O’Neill, Joseph. Netherland. Vintage, 2009.
33.O’Sullivan, Meghan L. Shrewd Sanctions. Washington D.C: Brookings Institution, 2003. Print.
34. William R. Johnson Thwarting Enemies at Home and Abroad: How To Be A Counterintelligence Officer
35.David C. Martin Wilderness of Mirrors
36.Sam Adams War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir.
37. Roger Z. George and James B. Bruce, eds. Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations.
38. Stepehn Coll, Ghost Wars
39. Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower

My favorite 75 year old.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

On 31 August 2008 I did:

1500 M Row
5 Back Squats (225)
5 Muscle Ups
1000 M Row
10 Back Squats (225)
500 M Row
5 Mus
15 Back Squats (225)
5 MUs
24:15

On 31 August 2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I did:

1.14 miles Warmup run to River

8 x 400 on 2:00, Most came in at 1:40

1.14 miles Cool Down run home

Then

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 225# Deadlift/Burpees

16:23

I’m going to start posting these more frequently. I want to give the people reading this an idea of

1) How long I’ve been doing this, at high intensity

2) How far I’ve come in only a couple years

We actually found a hill steeper than in Aromas. WOD was:

5 Rounds, no time component of: 100yd~ Hill Sprint with 70# sandbag

Fun.Fun.Fun.

Turn and sprint. Clean bag to shoulder.

30 Meter Slight incline

Universal "oh shit" face

Steep Hill

Drop the bag and sprint

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” -Jim Rohn

Uruguay

PCF WOD: This is the first time I have tried this benchmark WOD. By the end I was slipping off the pullup bar which slowed me down a ton.

AMRAP 20 minutes:
5 HSPUs
10 Pistols Alternating Legs
15 Pullups

Score: 9 rounds
—————————

O Me. O life!… of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

- Walt Whitman

PCF WOD: 3-3-3-3-3-3

Overhead Squats

175-205-225-235-240-240

10×3 Weighted Back Extensions

My main man doing his thing.

POSE much?

“The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is no use’. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain andgoes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.”

–George Leigh Mallory, 1922

This is what happens when the zone, a crossfitter, and "Color Me Mine" collide.

PCF WOD:

4 Rounds for time:
20 Dumbbell Power Snatch, 10 each arm, 45/30 lbs
10 Slapping Push-ups

4:06

Did this with Aviv and Mark during the day. Nice to have someone to pace off of. Everything was unbroken except for the last set of slapping pushups.

Knowledge: If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment -Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Excelsior. Photo: Ryan P.

5×5x5 Low Bar Back Squat

295,305, 315

I’m happy with this considering last time I dback squatted was in April at Crossfit Newport Beach. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t like the feel of Olympic lifting shoes when I low bar back squat. I’m a Chuck Taylors guy- I really like the flat heel.

5×5x5

135,145,155

Don’t think I hit my 5 rep max on this. I’m pretty good at going overhead, so this isn’t really a priority lift for me right now.

Links:

Seth Godin: Do you know enough? Short and clear.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. My favorite book on stoicism is available for free online.

You know you've made the switch when you start getting cards like this for your birthday.

Score: 17 Rounds

4 Stations, no rest:

AMRAP in 5 Minutes of:

3 Strict HSPUs

Row 150

AMRAP in 5 Minutes of:
7 Ring Dips
30 Double Unders

AMRAP 5 Minutes of:
3 Deadlift, 225/155 lbs
20 Box Jumps, 24/20 in

AMRAP in 5 Minutes of:
7 Strict Pull-ups
Run 1 Lap

The workout felt decent considering it was 20 minutes long which isn’t exactly my strength.

The Perils of Being an Experienced Crossfitter

On the last station (dead hang pullups and run 1 lap) I was reminded of the perils of being a more experienced Crossfitter. I came in from my 3rd run with about 50 seconds left in the workout. I knew that since only half rounds counted, and there was no way I was going to do 7 pullups and a lap in 50 seconds, I could slow way down and comfortably finish my 7 pullups in 50 seconds. This is exactly what I did.

My workout partner Jeremy made a much better choice. Jeremy, who in addition to being a great guy is an excellent crossfitter, came in from his last run at the same time I did. However, instead of gaming the WOD like I did, he got right on the pull-up bar and flew out the door. He probably only made it halfway through his last lap, so it didn’t show up in his score.

The whiteboard didn’t show any difference between Jeremy and I, but I knew how much harder he pushed. If I’m going to continue to improve, and keep up with beasts like Jeremy, I’m going to have to stop trying to game my score and just start working harder.

Links:

100 must read books for a man’s library

Is there anything better than this video? Derek Redmond’s Olympic finish.