He really enjoys making us suffer ...

Brian, that is. The owner and the (sadistic) coach for today's (5pm) WOD. You can see it in his eyes -- he does not appear to care that we are grunting (okay, perhaps I was grunting enough for everybody) and struggling. (Just joking ... it's the squint in his eyes of "I know this hurts but it'll make you better." At least that's what I'm convincing myself it is ...)

Today's WOD: deadlifts, front squats, and the dreaded double-jumps. Today I actually 20 DJs in a row! (Once. After that it was "oh no, we suck again" all over again.) Today hurt, and I certainly couldn't perform "as prescribed", but I didn't slouch either -- I pushed as hard as I could and didn't stop until the time was up.

On a side note, as Brian is looking at my squat form, he comments -- doesn't asks, just comments -- that I must jog/run.

• "Yes, of course I run." (I'm in the military after all.)
• "Don't."
• "Don't run?"
• "Right, don't run. It's keeping your hip-flexors too tight."

Apparently my hip flexors are hurting my form. (Beavis: are you reading this? I'm guessing you'd be arguing something against this point.) Flashback to a pashto class a couple of weeks ago ...

We've been commenting about how afghans (and arabs in general) often like sitting on their heels. In fact, they sit low and can for hours. Chris, being the show-off in-shape flexible kind of guy that he is, goes right into position without a pause and holds it for a while. Not to be out-done, down I go ...

Of course, you know where this is going. I can almost get "as low" as Chris, but certainly not as comfortable, as I just cannot stretch as much and end up balancing on my toes. This does two things: keeps me a little distracted because I inevitably rock trying to keep my balance, and it tires out my legs a bit faster.

To this Chris comments: "Bill, you are no-where near flexible in your hip-flexors. You should really work on stretching them out." Back to the present ...

Huh. Perhaps I should stretch them out a little more. I guess I should really listen to simple statements like "I didn't know how out-of-shape or inflexible I was until I did CF". Well, it's true. Honestly, I presumed heavy lifting did not work on true flexibilty as much -- in fact, many heavy lifters I've seen at the gyms ("Globo Gyms" is one popular phrase in CF-ease) are not flexible at all.

So, I'm inflexible. Guess I have another goal to strive for. So as I sit here with a small ice-pack on my knee (the front squats ached just a little), I re-gain appreciation for the finer things in CF: mechanics before consistency before intensity.

Beavis, I really think you ought to try a CF session or two. I'm curious to see how well you do at metcon! I think your SOPs are preparing you well, but ...

This weekend I'll try to visit a CF gym in Pensacola since I'll be there through Monday. I gotta be delicate, though, as Molly still does not know about me doing CF. Not sure how I'll get there ... she's going to catch on sooner or later.

Two at the same time ...

Not really ... but I did two consecutive nights of CF workouts, partly because I felt so good after yesterday's. Tonight's was (for me) a somewhat aggressive warmup (run a lap and then 3 sets of 10 pull-ups, 2 hand-stand push-ups, 10 toe-touch-to-bars, and 10 kettle bells) which did a number on me. After that, the front-squats elicited some scary sounds out of my left knee (which is one reason why I didn't push the weights much higher for the 5 sets of 3 squats).

The metabolic conditioning was by far the kicker of the evening: 21-15-9 of thrusters and burpees. Again, light on the weight until I know what I can handle, which translated into "I don't need more weight". Granted, that's as much because the burpees brought my heart-rate right up there and FAST. There's nothing like finishing last in a room full of people (somebody has to be the anchor man) to feed you some humble pie. I'm not completely embarrassed (I'm still new at this), but it's motivation nonetheless.

Tonight, Erika and Kristen were the coaches, and they were a great help.

I'm not sure I'm going to do tomorrow's WOD ... mostly because of my left knee which still hurts a little. We'll see how I feel in the morning. (Plus, I don't know if doing WODs every day this early is good ... gotta heal after all. I'll ask around and see what makes sense.)

Beavis: you gotta try crossfit! I'd be curious to know how CF compares with your SOP (and what Summer thinks about CF).

BTW: I just read a great list of things to NOT do when considering CF. Go to http://www.barbellsandbacon.com/archives/771. Interesting read.

I might live ...

Today's workout was great! Granted, I scaled a bit to keep the reps up but the overall feeling was awesome. The WOD was: 9-6-3 of dead lifts, hand-stand push-ups (scaled), weighted pull-ups (scaled), and a run. I did it in 10:55, of which I'm fairly proud. I might just get through this!

Pursuant with guidance I've gotten from friends (Beavis and Chris, mainly -- thanks guys!), I tried picking up my pace and fixing my stride on the run. Granted, it's about 400 meters (if that), but since I ran with Motion Traxx yesterday I feel like my pace has been a bit too slow. So I picked it up. This certainly throws off my breathing rhythm (my breathing, right or wrong, has often been in some form of sync with my steps), but that's not too hard to overcome.

Today's WOD's instructor is a former Navy ECMO. It's funny how many of the instructors (at least, the ones I've run into) are former military in one shape or another. I think so far I've seen an Army, a Marine or two, and a Navy or two. And each one of them agrees that they're in much better shape doing CF than any military workout routine they've done.

There's hope for me yet :-)

Pashto, week 10, complete

Only 5-1/2 weeks left and then the OPI (oral proficiency interview, though sometimes it sounds like an oral proficiency interrogation :-). I listen to others' OPIs and sometimes feel encouraged, and sometimes like I'll never make it to their level. Granted, most of the others have had 50 weeks to learn it and we're doing it in 16.

They've provided some graduated examples, starting with a 0+ (minimum contracted goal) on the ILR scale, followed by several higher-performing students. The "0+" example was difficult to listen to, because the student was clearly having difficulty with the most simple of questions (appeared deer-in-the-headlights, probably very nervous). The "1+" had a few gaps for us but was generally doable. The "2" was a little harder since many words we haven't learned are being used, though we could generally follow the conversation with small gaps.


The culture-centric conversations are certainly interesting. Just as I often find language barriers (they don't understand the question as asked), I find that as they try to help us become more acquainted with and open-minded about their culture, they are often not very accommodating with ours. I'm certainly not throwing stones as it is foreign for both sides, but it's certainly an interesting dynamic.

Not certain if this is related, but my spelling of english words is starting to slip a LOT more these days. I guess in re-wiring those portions of the brain to accept a different language, occasional short-circuits should not be surprising. And ... occasionally a french answer will jump to mind first (e.g. "il etait un longtemps que je ..."). If that weren't bad enough, mid-french-sentence I slipped right back into pashto. Talk about confusing (to me and to whomever is listening).

We still haven't been paid properly for our per diem and housing costs. So far I've paid out over $10.5k in rent alone and received much less than that (which doesn't come close to covering per diem). Apparently what Millington thinks is happening with their money and what PACC is doing with it are two drastically different things. Great.

Ciao.

Mechanics before consistency ...

Thursday night I went to the 7pm WOD: snatches. Having never really done them before, I looked and felt rather clumsy with them. Brian (the owner) helped me with some stretches (close to an "adjustment") since my shoulders weren't opening up enough, and though I never got much weight on I slowly got better (I think). Alison was helping a lot with the form, though I'm sure I'll have to do it a lot more to really be able to add reasonable weight.

I was paired with Mark (a 3-year CF veteran) for the snatches. He took it a little easy on himself (shoulders), which made it easier on me as I didn't have to remove a lot of weight each time. He was helpful and supportive, a good combo for me as a freshman in the program (those in the foundations class are still plebes, is that the right analogy?).

Break, break: my wife has been training to get back into running for her health. Years ago we used to run 5Ks together, and we really enjoyed it. We've let it fall off in the last few years (10?), so we're picking it up again. Her "repatriating" program (Couch to 5K) has another two weeks before she's running a full 5K. Well, schedules are meant to be bent ... she ran a 5K this morning (in Pensacola) and only missed her final goal by 20 seconds! Woo hoo! I'm so proud of her! I chose to run a sympathetic 5K around the block here and missed my modest intermediate goal of 27 minutes (I got 27:30) but really want to beat 25.

I tried something new in my running today, on the recommendation of Chris (a friend in my pashto class): Motion Traxx. It's a podcast from "Deekron, the fitness DJ" who has made 60+ minute long tracks of music mixed up to 128-180 steps per minute. Many experts claim that the ideal running pace (depending on health level,  etc) varies, but is typically in the 160-170 area (up to 180 for harder runners, down to 150 for slower joggers, etc). I think I've not always kept my pace when running, so this encouraged a consistent pace the whole way. Today's music (episode 3) was interesting, but I really just used it as a musical metronome. (A true metronome would probably bore the bejesus out of me!) I wasn't certain the mileage of it would work out, but as I'm rounding the corner at around 2.9, he comes up and says we should be nearing the 3 mile marker. Granted, I had another 45 seconds to go but  I had started the music well before starting to run, so it paired up well for me. Nice! I think I'll continue using it. (BTW: it's completely free, though if you like the music then he encourages and facilitates buying the full un-remixed tracks.)

CF Foundations, day 6, complete!

I've survived the class, no worse for wear. Mostly.

Much of my pain is easily "explained" by a few things:

• Though I can run (and "easily" pass the Navy standards, which doesn't mean much), I certainly am not in shape because of it; in fact, my legs have lot less strength than I thought they did, specifically in explosive moves and stamina.
• Though I can stretch decently (again, Navy minimums), I'm in fact a lot less flexible than I gave myself credit for.
• No surprise, but my upper-body strength is lacking. A lot. I need help doing ring-dips, pull-ups, and I'm certain I'll be scaling the WODs a bit to be able to continue for a reasonable time or number of reps.

Though I hurt, it's mostly soreness. In fact, I haven't had any neck problems since last week, which is a very good thing. I'm not certain if it was a random tweak, bad form, or what, but it hasn't come back despite some shoulder work. No, I'm sore mostly in my legs right now, though my lower back feels it a bit, too.

Today's workout was dead lifts and ring-dips. I was okay on the dead lifts (on a light weight), but the dips really suffered.

I must admit I'm embarrassed by needing as much assistance as I do (in the form of straps or light weights). I believe nobody there judges me, but there's always that moment where somebody 30-40# lighter uses no bands, heavier weights, and pumping out more, faster. Competition is a great motivator, no doubt about it.

One thing Chad (my instructor) said in the first class that rang true: his best performance on his semi-annual fitness test was in boot camp. After that, times and performance slowly declined. Though I can't claim CF is the answer, it certainly raises the issue that perhaps the military's physical training regiments could be tuned better.

I gotta say my initial reaction to my six classes of CF is good: the focus is on overall strength, symmetric and balanced. I'm certainly not training to be a modeling body builder, nor am I trying to "work on my shoulders" (especially since I feel it's obvious my legs are not as "decent" as I thought they were). My previous workout regiments (if you can call them that) lacked intensity, balance, or both.

According to my methods (posted on May 5th), I'm starting phase 3:

1. Improve my diet. I've modified it, leaning more towards proteins and fruits, controlling carbs. Not eliminating them, just being aware of when and how much. (Note: one of the instructors at PCF has a pseudo-CSA-like deal with local farmers and non-processed meats and dairy. I'll look at the prices and will likely get into some of it. I'll post more as I know more.)
2. Start the program. Foundations class, done.
3. Stay the program. Three times per week. Transitioning to normal WODs is a hurdle for me.
4. Stay the program, after leaving Potomac CrossFit and the DC area.
5. Stay the program, long term, after the Navy. (There's life after the Navy?)

 Out.

CF Foundations, day 4

Okay, so I spent most of the weekend in various states of discomfort. Half-way through Monday, I could move around but laying down still proved a problem. I was a bit anxious going into tonight, if for no other reason than I'd rather sleep well without waking up every time I roll over. Therefore I was resolute to throttle back the weights, focus on form and mechanics, and not kill my neck again.

Tonight's workout, however, focused more on lifts than presses, which is a good thing. "Really?" Apparently, when you do them right (i.e. not what I've done before), dead lifts and back squats work the core, the lower back, and a bit of the legs. (Granted, the high pull on the "sumo deadlift high pull" certainly had potential, but those were only demonstrate/learn today, not actually perform in the workout.)

So, I was actually able to do better today. Granted, I didn't impress anybody (only went up to 145# on the back squats), but (1) this isn't about impressing anybody but myself, and (2) today's goal was simple: don't get hurt (again).

So, I think I accomplished it. In fact, I feel great! A nice dinner of (very lightly) seared tuna steak (unfortunately not sushi-grade) and some sugar snap peas, and ice-pack on my neck (just in case), and I'm feeling rather refreshed.

This feeling is likely very rare at this stage of Foundations, so perhaps I missed something ...

Two more "classes" and then I'm released to the world of "Real WODs". Huh.

Pashto, week 9 ???

I had to do a double-take to verify this ... we're half-way through the training? Granted, I've come light-years into it so far but yet can barely speak about more than family, weather, and some basic daily or weekend routines. Not exactly riveting ...

Had a good conversation today with one of the directors (?) of DLS (whom is contracted by DLI to provide the language training). In our class (of 3 students), we've been asking more and more for things that the books have been unable to provide or provided poor (and/or contradictory) examples. Seems like they're in the process of fixing it ("yay!") and should have changes final by November ("boo!" as we are finished in June). However, they're attempting to modify things slightly for us, though I get the feeling we'll still be providing our own rudder to the flow. (This is really weird ... I've never been able to control my own training to this degree! Wish it weren't necessary but at least we have a strong say.)

We're working hard on verb tenses, something that has certainly taken pulling teach to get done. The hardest part, honestly, has been at times the language barrier. Figure that. For example, we finally convinced one of our instructors that it's alright (in fact, preferred) to answer a question about inconsistent verb conjugation with "it's an irregular verb, so memorize it". Last week we got into a lufbery (prolonged engagement) about a verb where he thought we were commenting that pashto is so inconsistent. Though the language is certainly inconsistent, he hadn't (yet) realized that we were talking about the conjugation itself.

We are also dealing with frequent frustrations with the vocab words they provide. For instance, a month or so ago we learned words for dog, cat, and (of all things) parrot. If parrots were an integral and pervasive part of Afghan culture perhaps I'd understand, but they aren't. Last week, we learned quail. Granted, we don't know how to say bird or even the verb to hunt yet. Neither word has been used in the examples they provide or in any conversation. We have, however, learned about exercise with spear; though there is certainly the not-so-popular afghan sport buzkashi, spears do not appear to be involved so I'm not certain what the relevance is.

Things are progressing. Tomorrow is my mid-term, a conversation with a yet-unnamed individual (internal to DLS) for 20-25 minutes, quite possibly on a phone. It's amazing how much of our communication (especially learning a different language) is visual. Though most of us are in fact NOT training for the test, we still feel a bit competitive (with ourselves) to do well. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they will not be providing an assessment of our current speaking level (something they will do in June on our final test).

8 more weeks. Wish me luck.

CF Foundations, day 3

Last night was day 3 in the Foundations class. "Tower, 104 needs a rep."

I think it's one of two things:

1. I tweaked my neck a little on day 1, made it a little worse on day 2 (last Wednesday), and tweaked it a LOT more last night; or
2. I am doing things slightly out-of-balance and therefore all of the dynamic moves are being exaggerated up my spine and into my neck.

I'm on motrin and using a heating pad (I used an ice-pad last night). It wasn't really until lunch today that I could turn my head to the right. I really *hope* this is a simple thing that I just hadn't recovered enough for last night's workout. (If I were an alarmist, I'd believe the internet warning that said this is possibly/likely a herniated disc. The internet's never wrong, huh?) We moved our #4 class/workout from Tuesday night to Wednesday night, meaning I have one more day in which to stretch, relax, and try to return my neck to a relative state of normalcy.

Anyway, last night's workout introduced "wall balls", throwing a medicine ball to a targeted height on the wall. Comical how simple it seems and how a weak neck/shoulder made it so difficult. The workout was "AMRAP: 15 push jerks, 15 wall balls, 15 situps". Admittedly, I did slower sit-ups to give me time in between the others. Lucky for me Chad was a real d*ck and kept pushing me to keep the intensity up there. I only finished 3+ rounds, which in hindsight sounds like such a SMALL accomplishment though at the time I could really feel my heartbeat. I think I did the first 2 rounds in 8 minutes. *sigh*

I really hope this neck/shoulder thing doesn't keep me down.

CrossFit Foundations, day 1

... and as I mentioned in the previous post, I'm also starting CrossFit.

So, I'm doing it at Potomac CrossFit at the Clarendon stop near DC. I walked in and was met promptly by Brian, the owner. Gregarious, earnest, approachable. Seems like he really believes in the program and his gym. In fact, I spoke with several of the instructors and they all have very similar mindsets in this. Not sure if it's a cult thing (just kidding), he's careful who he hires, or it's just that good a program. I'm thinking #2 and #3.

I'm in the Foundations course with Chad as my instructor. He's straight-forward, helpful, non-judgmental, knowledgeable, and so far really good. Perhaps I won't think he's nice when he really starts pushing me, but that's par for the course. The gym looks a little different than most gyms, but then the concept of CF doesn't really follow the standard "GloboGym" concept of weights and machines.

I made it (most (?) of the way) through Chad's "Half Cindy" (not sure if that's right) and wow, previously I only had a fleeting glimpse of what it would do to me. A little light-headedness was enough to remind me what hard workouts are supposed to feel like. And today's was not a "full" workout. Heh.

I hurt, both physically and I'm rather embarrassed at how little I actually did today. Chad tried to tell me that that's common, but it's still embarrassing. That's just motivation to do better!

My goals with CF:

1. By far my highest priority is to Get in Better Shape. Both stamina and overall musculature. I'm not specifically trying to build mass (though that'd be good) as much as improve my core and other balanced strengths. I'm not focused on "cardiovascular work" for two reasons: apparently the new buzzword is "metabolic conditioning"; this conditioning will come with time.
   
2. Control my Weight. I don't know if I'll actually lose weight, but I'm higher on the BMI index than I want to be and I'd rather it be more muscle than ... not. This is certainly secondary to #1, above.
   
3. Specific goals: unassisted hand-stand push-ups, rock-climbing, rope-climbing (arms only). (I've got a long way to go on these.)
   

My motivations, both immediate and long-term:

1. My general stamina and current metabolic condition, not where I want them to be.
2. I'm going to Afghanistan ... I'd rather be able to run, climb, hike, carry, ... when I need to vice huffing and puffing and lagging behind. Plus I will most likely be doing it at 8000 feet elevation.
   
3. This is NOT a mid-life crisis, though the timing may look like it ;-). Is 50 the new 40?
   
4. I want to be able to stay in shape (of various levels) well past leaving the military. Heck, I want to maintain it past 40, 50, and more. Since I'm rapidly nearing the point of military retirement, I need to start earlier rather than later (it'll be too easy for me to become sedentary out of the military). I've seen a relatively sizeable decline in my condition, and I need to stop ... errrr, reverse it.
   

My methods:

1. Improve my diet. Not cosmic. I'm not eating junk food, but I can tweak things. I'm not sure I'll go full "paleo" ... we'll see.
   
2. Start the program. This is likely the hardest part right now as I feel really frustrated and embarrassed. I can't miss or put off foundation classes or integrating into the normal WOD schedule.
   
3. Stay the program. At least 3 times per week.
4. Stay the program after I leave DC, into Indiana and Afghanistan. This may be difficult. Since I'll be relatively young in the program, I'll want to find friends in my future locations who know more than I do to help me keep it going.
5. Stay the program, long term. I'm hoping by this time (post-Afghanistan) it will be enough ingrained in my skull that I find it too satisfying to even think about letting it slack.
   

Okay, I said it. To the world (if anybody is actually listening to a blog started only moments ago). I hope this will help motivate me to keep going through the hump of starting.

Foundations, day 2, tomorrow night. If I make it! My shoulders hurt, just like Chad said they would.

It starts ...

Though many people claim many more reasons (and perhaps more significant/meaningful), I primarily have two reasons to start this blog:

1. Track my progress through learning Pashto and my impending deployment to Afghanistan; and
2. Track my progress as I start CrossFit training.

I'm a bit late for #1, admittedly: I started the language training in March, 6 weeks ago, and I'm just getting to the blog now. So, for that, I'll summarize the weeks/months in a paragraph or three:

Going into it, my first thoughts sounded similar to "I haven't studied another language in over 20 years", and often hovered near the myth "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". Not that I'm old, mind you, just more likely set it my ways of learning. And with my engineering background and Navy Aviation career, learning a spoken language (especially one as complex as Pashto) is a completely different tack, so to speak. Though I was partially right, I was so wrong on many notes.

After the first few weeks, we were finally able to compose (really) basic sentences. Our vocabulary was on the order of 300 or so words, our verbs constrained to the present tense (very frustrating), and listening skills have been (and still are) my weakest link. Defense Language Services (DLS, contracted by DLI-W) provided a couple of seminars, one of which focused solely on learning styles: visual vs. verbal, sequential vs. global, actual vs. referential, and intuitive vs. sensing. Not surprisingly, I'm completely visual, almost completely global, mostly actual, and about 50/50 on sensing/intuitive (though I had to bias some of my answers to be specific to something I haven't studied in 20 years ... learning languages is a bit different from engineering formulae!).

Anyway, perhaps the most frustrating part of the language part at this point and carried forward into the present is that the content they teach us is frequently random (e.g. why do I need to learn the phrase "exercises with spear" unless I will speak extensively of bazkushi, a relatively harsh sport in Afghanistan) and hasn't given us the tools a few of us feel we want to be able to better form sentences (e.g. tenses). Though some of this is certainly along the lines of "we don't know what we don't know" and we need to trust that the syllabus administrators have a purpose for the order and content, even after 6+ weeks we haven't seen a method to some of the madness. We'll see.

Long story short (too late), it's coming along. We're nearing our mid-terms (they call them "mock OPIs" or Oral Proficiency Interview, where the actual OPIs come in two months) and I think we're much better prepared than perhaps previous classes were. A lot of that can easily be attributed to several great and accommodating teachers we've had. I'm over the fear of learning a language and certainly into the swing of learning it. Only 8-1/2 weeks to go ...