Around the Blogs

Mike T. Nelson has a great video example of olympic athlete vs average dude. Funny...

Master RKC Kenneth Jay...the Dane of Pain has an excellent post about generating power in the snatch. Interesting!


Training Today
Z nwu
RIFGA
Ride 70 miles

More scoop

It is official, I'm headed back to St Paul MN to be an assistant instructor at the RKC instructor certification in September. This is going to be an honor.

Here is another bit of information that I missed the first time I read ETK.

"For our strength-building purposes, it makes little difference whether you have hake 15 minutes, an hour or a whole day to do your five ladders..."(Pavel)

Strength isn't only building muscle. It is also training the nervous system to improve movement skills.

Read Enter the Kettlebell and learn more!

Follow Me

I finished reading Pavel's Enter the Kettlebell (again). As usual, I have learned more things. This time it was more about the Right of Passage program Pavel introduces. Let me start by saying, this program works! You will build become stronger physically, develop strength endurance and imporve your ability to endure pain. HAHAHA. I know it works because I jumped on board with the program as soon as the book was shipped to my house just over 2 years ago.

I continued on the program for about 18 months. Then I became complacent, lazy and started messing around with different things. You can see that in this blog's entries. After screwing around, I have lost some of my hard earned gains. That is to be expected when the CNS has been focusing on the other end of the physical spectrum -- endurance.

I decided to revisit the ETK program again. This time with a different focus and more knowledge. How long will I stay the course? Here's what Pavel writes in ETK.

"Stay with this routine until you can one-arm press half your bodyweight and snatch a 53-pounder 200 times in 10 minutes and become a man among men...It does not matter how hard you are training...if you quit a month doen the road. And switching to another workout is quitting, period (Pavel)."

[insert Rocky music here] I will stick with it until I get where I need to be and then I will probably do it some more. Why change something that works.

Follow along and find out how long it taks to gain the strenght I had last summer.
How long will it take to reach the new RKC II standards? I can't wait!

Practice today:
3 rounds, 24k:
Get ups 3,2,1
Pull up x 5
Swing 1 arm - 10/10

yesterday:
Clean and press ladders 24k 1,2 3
Swing 24k 1 arm 5 x 10/10

I noticed yesterday and today that I have lost the strength endurace. I need it back so I can add intensity.

Monday
Ride 25

Saturday
Ride 40

Spins

I've been feeling some deep muscle fatigue all week on the bike and walking up stairs. Along with this I had loss of some leg strength. I had a difficult time doing pistols yesterday. It took nearly half of my commute today for my legs to finally start feeling normal.

I eased into the ride struggling to maintain any speed and thought, well here we go again. Instead of doing super intense intervals I decided to modify the morning's training plan. I kept the gears at the same gear I was warming up with and did spins. The goal was spin the cranks as quick as possible. I topped out at 148 RPM on every spin which brought me to 28-31 mph on the Coho. I felt great after these spins and feel fully recovered. The rest of today's riding felt pretty strong.

Training
Z NWU
RIFGA
Ride 30 - 8 spins up to 148rpm - long recovery in between

I tried it!

This afternoon, I was talking to a couple of my mentees. Yes, I am entrusted with the honor of mentoring young Marines. (Insert Evil laugh here) One of them picked up the 16k kettlebell and began doing 1 arm presses just as I instructed him in a 10 minute period of instruction back in June. He did a fine job. I told him to park the weight and shake it out.

I asked him and the other Marine if they wanted to try the overhead press part of the combat fitness test (CFT). This portion is a 2 minute overhead press with a 30 lb. ammo can. Well, I don't have an ammo can in the office but I do have 16k (36lb) and 24k (54lb) kettlebells sitting by my desk (You never know when you will get the itch). Well after watching them both do a couple reps...I got the itch.

I said, "Let's race. I will use the 24k and you can use the 16k. We will race to 45 reps."
It was an agreement. I raced the Lance Corporal and the Private First Class counted reps. Ready, Set go! We started going at the same pace until around 30 reps. Then things got interesting. He slowed way down and was having issues. I paused a moment to show him the resting postion. I hit 45, and the LCpl had 37ish and I called it a day. Good thing too, the kettlebell was getting slippery. We didn't time the event but I'm most certain we were at about a miunte.

Lesson:
I'm pretty sure I don't need to practice this event.
I will continue working towards the heavier 1 arm press, jerks, Viking push press etc.
The young Marines need to work on this event. The LCpl I raced is probably one of the strongest Marines in the student population. If he was sucking wind...It's gonna get ugly.
This was fun.

Training:
Z
RIFGA
Ride 25
Clean and press - 24k 5x5
2 hand overhead press 24k - 1x45 (I used a combination of strict press, viking push press and jerks when the lactic acid was flooding my shoulders)
Jerks 1 arm 24k 3x10

Recap

Photo by Branson K.

Saturday was the RUSA 10th Anniversary 200k. Click here to read the day's recap.

Ride Stats:
125 mi.
Time: 950. 1 hr stopped time.

No NSAIDs! Before during or after the ride (even now). This is the first time I've done one of these events without this aid. GO Z!

Chow:
2 pkg cliff shot, 2 gatorade, 6 bottles water, 3 peanut butter and honey sandwiches (need to make them bigger), 1 ham and cheese sandwich, 1 Cliff Bar.
I did have some bonkage but it could be more fitness related than food intake.
Weight Loss: 5 lbs =~3 body weight. This is acceptable. Of course this weight is after a picnic.

Note: I did Z 10 min warmup with some added lower body drills and 10 min RIFGA pre ride.

Today:
Ride 6 miles
Z
RIFGA
Foam roller 'fun' begins shortly!

Intervals

I've put it off long enough (a few years). It is time to do intervals. I need to get faster. I've made some average gains on the bike by just riding the bike. The adaptation result from this method does work but there is a better way - increased intensity.

I plan to increase intensity significantly, keep strength training and get in at least one 3+ hour ride on the weekend. I also have to balance this with added combat conditioning but the instructor is a real pain in the you know what!

The problem is that interval training sucks! If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The results are worth the effort.

I have been messing around with some sprinting and hill climbing for the past few weeks.
Tues - ride 15
Wed - ride 15 with 6 miles of hill repeats
Thurs - ride 30 - 7 x 36sec speed/36 sec rest. this was difficult. I tried to keep the RPM at 85. This proved to be very difficult. I need to figure the best gear combination and cadence for this workout.

Hammer Fest

I just returned from a hammer fest on the bike. We cruised up to Ft. Story and did a few loops with the rollers and wind. This quick ride has left me pretty much DUN!

I've been doing 2 Z sessions each day. The 10 neural warm up and the R phase movements later in the day. In addition, I've continued the Z homework from Mike Nelson. In a conversation I had this afternoon with a colleague about supplement, mainly multi-vitamins we debated supplements and multi-vitamins. Here are the questions I'm left with.

1. Do you really need a multi-vitamin or are the claims a marketing gimmick?
2. What is really in multi-vitamin? Are the ingredients safe?
3. Do we really get enough essential vitamins and minerals from food?

What do you think?

My colleague also mentioned that he was taking a certain multivitamin (GNC Sport) and had severe headaches from them.

• I said, "you mean like a hang over?"
• He replied, "exactly."

I haven't taken this particular vitamin for a few weeks as I try to switch brands every other bottle. I too get a severe headache with this vitamin. For the past few years I just thought it was the pollen in the air. WTH? So, I ask you this, have you had this experience with a vitamin (or this vitamin)? I think it is interesting and need to know if there are others that experience this.

________Other News_______

The much anticipated USMC Physical Fitness Order was disiminated today. The order explains how we will be tested for physical fitness (PFT) and for combat fitness (CFT). To summarize there are 2 different tests that will be administered semi annually. I did the math and that is 4 fitness tests per year. The order also states that ALL Marines will participate in physical training for 30 min 5 days per week. Judging from the new CFT, doing pt 5 days each week is a really good idea.

In short order I was assigned as the Combat Conditioning Instructor for my command. I have some work ahead of me. The important thing to remember when training or introducing this training to the average Marine is to take it slow and build the intensity over a few months. Even though all Marines should already have a good fitness base it is still good practice to work into it. Add volume with common sense. It does the Marine and the Marine Corps to hit it hard for 30 minutes to failure everyday. You will get overtraining and injury.

Here is a fact, the introduction and testing phase of the CFT has yeilded a 30% failure rate. Marines, Get Off the Couch and PT.

--------More to Follow--------

Last, an update about last months remedials. Both of my pull up projects are now off the remedial pt program. This morning Schmuckatelli did 3 pull ups on a PFT like he owned the bar! GO front planks!

Training:
Ride 20 mi. - Several sprints and hills.

Wed.
Viking Push Press VO2 protocol 6 reps x 20 sets 15 on/15 off

Monday:
Ride - 30