3.25

Wow.

What a brutal workout today we had with Jay. I can barely walk courtesy of Dan’s workout on Tuesday, which made my decision to walk on the stair climber that same night for 20 minutes seem like a very, very stupid idea. The Rhino Hunter (Dan) is living up to his name while Lucifer (Jay) is providing some impressive torture. I didn’t workout yesterday, mostly because I could barely walk, and while I plan on going to the club closer to where tonight the workout will be extremely low key. I do not want to end up hurting myself before I really begin to get into the groove.

Speaking of groove, some key improvements I have noticed in the last week:

1. Pushup strength and endurance has gone up noticeably

2. Instead of converting situps to crunches I’m following through on a full motion

3. My overall endurance is improving slowly

4. My Deadlift form is utter crap

I’ll have more of a reaction later tonight after I can properly think on everything that I’ve been through today. Like I said, a brutal day, but I feel incredible. On to the workout for the day:

1 Round for Time 8:25

50 Knees to Elbows

50 Deadlift

50 Knees to Elbows

* 4 Pullups at one minute intervals

3 Rounds for Time 11:13

10 Overhead Squats

20 Sumo Dead Lift Cleans

30 Pushups

40 Situps

50 Squats

More to come later!

As part of finding my motivation behind all of this craziness, I found a graphic online that I liked very much. I modified it a bit to match my nickname — Rhino — and plan on making t-shirts out of it so I can spread the word. This is part of what I meant in an earlier post about shouting out your goal at the top of your lungs so absolutely everyone knows what you're shooting for. I'm shooting for the Finals, and I'll be competing for a top spot when I get there to join whatever combination of men and women they decide will get to join in.

Speaking of motivation, I was talking with Tracy tonight about why I'm wholly and completely jacked up about this CrossFit obsession. I believe that after a week I finally figured out the why behind the effort: I've never been great at any one particular thing. I've been very good at selling memberships, or speaking and relating with people, or organizing community service, et cetera. However, the point is, any physical goal that I've had has never led to any great or spectacular accomplishment. I would never last in an Iron Man competition, have never even thought of trying a marathon, and Triathlons just make me feel queasy whenever I think about them. So why CrossFit? Why can I get so jacked up and motivated about this without losing confidence in myself or believing that I wont' be able to do it? What makes this task so different from the other tests of strength and endurance?

I hope to find answers to these questions during my journey. I want to capture that feeling of when someone finishes a true test of strength and endurance at the end of an Iron Man race or a Marathon but in something that I really feel I have a shot at actually competing in. I've never had that kind of endurance but I have always been able to push my limits with lifting similar to CrossFit. I want to push myself beyond every limit I have ever set for myself. For now, I have to go get some rest before another long day, and I look forward to training later tonight.

— The Albino Rhino

Day of Rest

"Some guys play with their heads. That's okay. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more important, you've got to play with your heart--every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second."
- Vince Lombardi

I wanted to comment on my workout from Thursday because I’m beginning to grasp certain aspects of our crossfit program here at Life Time. I just go the final time for both of my workouts and I finished round one in 20:30, and round two in 15:35. The fact that I finished the workouts in great form and ground out the last legs of each with any intensity at all was an accomplishment. I felt great after 20 minutes in the hot tub and about five minutes of curling up in the fetal position. It was brutal!

My focus during these first few weeks is going to be very simple. If I don’t set simple yet challenging goals for myself that are short-term and long-term I will never get to my goal of competing in a year. So, my initial goal is to improve my time and not necessarily the weight load. I want to make sure my form is proper as well, which brings me to my next fun aspect of Thursday’s workout.

One of the extremely fit women who started participating in the second round circuit — who had, I hate to say, finished well before I did — commented on my good form during the over head squats and the thrusters during the last round for time. I felt a great deal of pride in that because I haven’t been lifting regularly for over a year, and even then I haven’t really done anything athletic outside of Rugby in 2004. Next time I’ll be sure someone takes pictures/video so I can not only critique myself, but self-evaluation only goes so far without allowing others to be critical after the fact. If I want to get better I need to be pushed, critiqued, and hammered into a useless pulp of human flesh with no will to go further. I need to find my limits, and then push further than I ever have before.

More to come later. Right now I need to focus on get some good rest because I have my RCIA retreat tomorrow morning. I'll be wicked tired since I have to wake up at around 6:00 to get ready. I'm excited! After the long day I'll be working out with Tracy over at Burr Ridge, but I'm not certain on the workout just yet. I'll be posting the rounds and other specifics tomorrow once I've decided.

— The Albino Rhino

Thursday 3.18

Round 1 (Lil' Murph) 20:30

1/2 Mile

50 Kipping Pulls Ups

100 Pushups

150 Squats

1/2 Mile

Round 2

5 Rounds for time of:

5 Barbell Burpees

7 Overhead Squats (10 lbs on each side)

10 Thrusters

20 Situps

Jay ran this workout. He is now Lucifer, and Dan is knocked down a step to Rhino Killer.

Holy crap ... this is going to be hard.

Tuesday 3.16

First Day. Dan K. is dubbed "Satan."

Round 1 18:00

100 Push Ups

100 Body Pulls

100 Situps

100 Squats

Round 2 20:00

50 Wall Balls @ 10 Ft

50 Decline Knees to Chest

50 DB curls @ 15lbs

50 Decline Deltoid Fly @ 10lbs

50 Floors on Stair Climber

I felt like dying. Literally.

The Journey Begins

The Albino Rhino. The myth, the legend, the name behind an effort of extraordinary proportions.

Cross Fit is a program that I've been following for years but have never really stuck to. I've put together my own workouts, modified basic programs and have done pretty well on an inconsistent basis. However, now with the proper motivation I'll be training extremely hard over the next year in order to accomplish a singular goal.

Compete in the CrossFit Games 2011 by placing in the Sectionals, Regionals and moving forward through every level until I reach the finals.

It is a lofty goal, and considering my background in Rugby and weight lifting I feel as though I have a very good chance at accomplishing this goal. I'll be doing my training currently with Jay Miles and Dan K. (I can't remember how to spell his last name!) from the Life Time Athletic in Vernon Hills. I just began a training regimen with them this past Tuesday and I've been hooked.

In fact, I'm so hooked, I'll be making t-shirts and putting together this blog in order to fully immerse myself in this goal. When I train without an end game, without something to work toward that is both challenging and fun, then I do not stick with my workout plan. When I first came home from college in such terrible shape back in 2006 I had the goal of feeling better mentally and physically. I reached it, and then fell off, and so has the story gone over the last several years since then.

I lose myself in work, social life, and many other facets of day to day activities that prevent me from fully committing myself to any goal whatsoever in regard to fitness. So here is where my journey will begin, and next year in June I plan on doing my very best and giving every last shred of my strength to accomplishing this goal.

WOD's — or Workout Of the Day — will be posted here along with the Tuesday and Thursday training sessions with the aforementioned colleagues of mine. In the sales industry, when you have a goal, you shout it from the rooftops and announce that goal to everyone. This holds you accountable and requires all of your effort in order to avoid disappointing yourself and everyone who is rooting for you to accomplish that goal.

To begin here are my stats:

Height: 6'1''

Weight: 261 lbs.

Age: 26

Milestones to be posted as the daily workouts are.

— The Albino Rhino