J.T. Kalnay's Blog, page 15
February 4, 2013
Chris Kyle Murdered
The fitness community, the shooting community, and those who help others manage PTSD lost a great friend in Chris Kyle. You will be missed.
January 31, 2013
CrossFit and Kilimanjaro
I came to CrossFit after a life as an endurance athlete was ended by arthritis and joint replacement surgery. One of my favorite endurance things to do was to climb mountains. Other activities included running marathons, doing triathlons (including 140.6 distance), and all things that took hours and hours and hours. I’ve recently committed to climb Kilimanjaro in 2014. CrossFit is great, but it’s just over so soon (I know, there will be at least 17,364 “that’s what she said” replies to that statement). You get to the gym, you warm up, you CrossFit until you’re certain you’re going to die, you cool down, and you go home, and all in an hour. It’s just so quick. It’s not like those two hour group runs on sunday morning with your training partners followed by long lingering conversations over coffee and pancakes at IHOP. It’s not like those four hour group rides on Saturday and the centuries where you’d get to talk to your friends for hours and hours and hours. It all ends too soon, and everyone goes home. Therefore, I’m going to roll out some new workouts designed for moving really slow and for providing lots of opportunity to talk about CrossFit. Here’s my first five, named after some of my heroes, (Merckx: 1,000 GTO with 55#), (Benoit: ten rounds of walking 1k while talking with a friend with 100 20#KBS after each 1k), (Hilary: every hour on the hour for six hours, 50 burpee buy in, walk up 50 stories of stairs, 50 burpee cash out), (Kropp: every hour on the hour for six hours, buy in, climb 100ft of 5.7 or harder, ride 10 miles), and (Nyad: every half hour on the half hour for two hours, buy in, hand stand walk across the pool and back, swim 1k). Training partners apply within. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…
January 30, 2013
Dear CrossFit, Head Games
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right” Henry Ford
Yesterday our evil, diabolical, yet methodical and calculating coach programmed the CTown Beatdown. The WOD was supposed to be 3x(5GTO@155#,25WBS@20#), 30 box jumps, 30KBS@70#, 3x(25WBS@25,5GTO@155#). There was supposed to be a 20 minute time cap, but it was really at 25 minute time cap. I looked at the board, tried to recall how long it took me to do things, and then decided I would likely make it to the end of the KBS. I was exactly right. Which makes me dead wrong about my mental prep before a WOD and pretty much proves Henry Ford was right. I saw other athletes girding their loins to do the best they could, with no expectation about how far they would get or how fast they would get there. Their only expectation was that they would do their best. They fared much better than I did on this WOD, not because they’re better athletes (which they are), but because yesterday they had the right mental attitude for a WOD. Instead of looking at the WOD, they looked at themselves and did their best. I looked at the WOD and tried to figure out how to pace myself through it so I’d get through the KBS. They decided they could try hard and they were right. I decided I couldn’t make it all the way through, and I was right. The difference is, their correctness is not self-limiting or self-defeating, while mine was. I’ve heard the coach tell me and others, many many many times, “turn off your brains and just go.” This is something I need to try, and something that may lead to another level of CrossFit, where the finish line isn’t the goal, but just a product of the goal, which is giving your best effort, even when you know it’s gonna hurt, and even when you want to rest. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be.
January 28, 2013
CM PUNK LOSES!!! Part One Has Come True!
CM Punk Loses to the Rock, Rock Loses to Cena, Ziggler Cashes In.
Not to toot my own horn too much, because the first step was blatantly obvious, but step one in my three step conspiracy theory has come true. CM Punk has lost to The Rock. Since Cena won the Royal Rumble, the stage is set for a Rock/Cena showdown at Wrestlemania. They can so damage each other that Ziggler can cash in the briefcase and run away with the prize! Stay tuned.
Dear CrossFit, Squat Clean vs. Power Clean, Learn to SQUAT
Today we searched for our 1RM on the C&J. Little people, and I mean really little people, like cross-country runner little, were cleaning BIG weights b/c they were squat cleaning. Big guys (e.g., me) were cleaning so-so weights b/c we are big and strong and are able to power clean them. But, the power clean can only take you so far. And, I want the box record for the C&J. Which means I have to improve my squat clean. Why? Because everything I’ve read, heard, studied, and witnessed indicates that most competitive weightlifters can only power clean about 80-85% of their squat clean. So, while I was kinda happy with my 230 power clean today, if that’s only 80% of what I could squat clean, the 230 would be 287.5, which is over the box record. Problem is, starting to lift after age 50 and after hip replacement has made learning to squat at all a big issue, let alone front squat and squat clean. After a couple months of practice dedicated solely to learning to squat properly, to where I can now do actual air squats and back squats, it’s time to start working the front squat and then the squat clean. Squat cleaning requires front squatting. Front squatting requires squatting. So if you’re unhappy with your clean (as I am), then get your squat on! I’ll be the guy working hard on front squat technique and then strength. Watch out box record, when the front squat is learned and strengthened, and when the squat clean is learned and strengthened, I’m coming for you, with both guns blazing! This record isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to be another 12 month effort. But watch out, I’m coming in. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…
Dear CrossFit, Doubling Down on Double Unders
Jumping rope is fun. It’s fun to do and it’s fun to watch. It’s something you can do with your kids or grandkids or nieces or nephews. I love teaching the kids how to jump rope in the barn, and then watching as they get their first jump, their first two in a row, their first five in a row, their first ten in a row, and so on. The other night, the 9 year old did 2,000 jump ropes over the course of an hour (there was money and bragging rights over her sisters involved). She did them in groups of fifty. It was very impressive. Even more impressive was watching the 8 year old work double unders. She wasn’t interested in a two hour slugfest, but she was interested in one spectacular movement that only one other person could do. She wanted to feel special. I overheard her tell the 7 year old “If Uncle JT can do them, I can do them. He’s old, has a steel hip, and he eats too much.” I wasn’t offended, because all these statements are true, and, I can do double unders. I couldn’t a year ago. I could barely get ten single unders in a row. But our coach is very insistent that people work on double unders. Very insistent. So insistent that some people who don’t have dubs actually work on dubs and get them. I hereby endorse the insistence on working on dubs. Dubs make your hands faster and make your feet faster and make you jump higher and make you spin the rope faster. Dubs make you learn how to breath. You simply can’t hold your breath for 50 dubs. And they’re just so cool. The sound that rope makes as it slices through the air, the look of amazement in people’s eyes as they watch you crank out an impossible number of dubs in a row, the feeling of accomplishment as you set a new PR for dubs. It’s all good. Dubs are a symbol of committment to consistentcy and persistence. You can do a dub, because, like Emma said, Uncle JT can do dubs, and he’s old and eats too much. You know the open is coming. You know there’s going to be dubs. Get busy Wodders, and get dubs. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…
Dear CrossFit, Vitamins, Fish Oil Capsules, and Almonds
I have to remember that it’s okay to swallow the vitamins and fish oil capsules, but the almonds should be chewed…. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be.
January 27, 2013
Dear CrossFit, Superpowers, Kryptonite, and Goats
Superpowers: as CrossFitters we all have our own personal superpowers. Maybe our superpower is only relative to our goats, but we have our superpowers. Maybe our most super power is so great that it can get us a record in the box, or first place at a comp. But as CrossFitters we also have our goats. Our goats might only be relative to our super powers, but we have goats. Maybe our goat is so heinous that it gets us a DNF in the box, or gets us eliminated from a comp. And as CrossFitters we have Kryptonite. It’s the substance, attitude, behavior or combination thereof that feed our goats and starve our super powers. It’s kryptonite, it exists, and we ignore it at our own peril. But maybe it’s not really kryptonite, because unlike kryptonite it might not have come from another planet. Maybe it’s here all the time, surrounding us, pleading with us to indulge the kryptonite, to feed the goat, to minimize our superpower. My kryptonite is food. What’s your kryptonite? Maybe by naming it, you can address it, examine it, and find a way to render it less powerful. Maybe your kryptonite is a stable transuranic element (element 126) that will ultimately decay to iron if treated just so. Maybe your kryptonite is an allowy of multiple things, (e.g., 15.08% plutonium, 18.06% tantalum, 27.71% xenon, 24.02% promethium, 10.62% dialium, 3.94% mercury, and 0.57% of an unknown substance, likely formed from sucrose and insecurity. It’s kryptonite. It’s real, and you know it. At times it is available in very limited amounts, and at other times meteor showers rain it down around us. It’s kryptonite, it feeds our goats. But like kryptonite was formed by the fusion of the explosion on Krypton and came to earth embedded in the tail of the escape rocket, we too are fundamentally intertwined with our kryptonite. Sometimes we even seek it, embrace it. Perhaps because our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond what we can even comprehend. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…
January 26, 2013
Dear Crossfit, Pain of Discipline vs Pain of Regret
“There are two types of pain you will go through in life, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tonnes.”
― Jim Rohn
I heard this quote again recently, and just lived it in the barn while doing burpees. I wanted to do 70+ burpees in 7 minutes. I did 30 burpees in three minutes and then quit. I sat down on my plywood box and panted and huffed and heaved as the pain of regret, born from the lack of discipline these past weeks, hung like a leaden albatross about my neck. There’s no-one else to blame, and sadly today there is no-one to receive credit. As I sat awash in the pain of regret, I asked “is this the person you want to be?” The answer was no. I got up, did 31 burpees in three minutes, then returned to the floor, awash in the pain of discipline, from having gotten up one more time than I’d been knocked down. I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…
January 21, 2013
Lake Effect Snow
I live right on the south shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland. I’ve been watching out the window all day as it has been snowing like crazy just a half a mile from downtown, even though it hadn’t snowed at all until a few minutes ago. This is lake effect snow, where the cold air crosses the relatively warm lake, picks up moisture, then dumps the moisture as snow as the air rises just south of the lake. Here’s the really odd thing… even though it is currently snowing at a rate of about an inch an hour, I can see the sun shining in the west and there is blue sky above. It’s very odd. I wonder if this will be an inch of lake effect snow or an epic one or two or three feet. One time two years ago in December we got 18 inches in 9 hours, all while the sun (or moon) was out.
