Tuesday Night

Tuesday Night Olympics

4 Events (Was going to be 5)
500M Row
-my time 1:30
Squat Jump
-57
4 minutes of Cindy
-162 (total reps)

800M Run
1st.

With the workout in the morning, I was smoked.

The Biggest Issue

by David Brooks.

Between 1870 and 1950, the average American’s level of education rose by 0.8 years per decade. In 1890, the average adult had completed about 8 years of schooling. By 1900, the average American had 8.8 years. By 1910, it was 9.6 years, and by 1960, it was nearly 14 years.

As Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz describe in their book, “The Race Between Education and Technology,” America’s educational progress was amazingly steady over those decades, and the U.S. opened up a gigantic global lead. Educational levels were rising across the industrialized world, but the U.S. had at least a 35-year advantage on most of Europe. In 1950, no European country enrolled 30 percent of its older teens in full-time secondary school. In the U.S., 70 percent of older teens were in school.

America’s edge boosted productivity and growth. But the happy era ended around 1970 when America’s educational progress slowed to a crawl. Between 1975 and 1990, educational attainments stagnated completely. Since then, progress has been modest. America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited, with many nations surging ahead in school attainment.

This threatens the country’s long-term prospects. It also widens the gap between rich and poor. Goldin and Katz describe a race between technology and education. The pace of technological change has been surprisingly steady. In periods when educational progress outpaces this change, inequality narrows. The market is flooded with skilled workers, so their wages rise modestly. In periods, like the current one, when educational progress lags behind technological change, inequality widens. The relatively few skilled workers command higher prices, while the many unskilled ones have little bargaining power.

The meticulous research of Goldin and Katz is complemented by a report from James Heckman of the University of Chicago. Using his own research, Heckman also concludes that high school graduation rates peaked in the U.S. in the late 1960s, at about 80 percent. Since then they have declined.

In “Schools, Skills and Synapses,” Heckman probes the sources of that decline. It’s not falling school quality, he argues. Nor is it primarily a shortage of funding or rising college tuition costs. Instead, Heckman directs attention at family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years.

Heckman points out that big gaps in educational attainment are present at age 5. Some children are bathed in an atmosphere that promotes human capital development and, increasingly, more are not. By 5, it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won’t.

I.Q. matters, but Heckman points to equally important traits that start and then build from those early years: motivation levels, emotional stability, self-control and sociability. He uses common sense to intuit what these traits are, but on this subject economists have a lot to learn from developmental psychologists.

I point to these two research projects because the skills slowdown is the biggest issue facing the country. Rising gas prices are bound to dominate the election because voters are slapped in the face with them every time they visit the pump. But this slow-moving problem, more than any other, will shape the destiny of the nation.

Second, there is a big debate under way over the sources of middle-class economic anxiety. Some populists emphasize the destructive forces of globalization, outsourcing and predatory capitalism. These people say we need radical labor market reforms to give the working class a chance. But the populists are going to have to grapple with the Goldin, Katz and Heckman research, which powerfully buttresses the arguments of those who emphasize human capital policies. It’s not globalization or immigration or computers per se that widen inequality. It’s the skills gap. Boosting educational attainment at the bottom is more promising than trying to reorganize the global economy.

Third, it’s worth noting that both sides of this debate exist within the Democratic Party. The G.O.P. is largely irrelevant. If you look at Barack Obama’s education proposals — especially his emphasis on early childhood — you see that they flow naturally and persuasively from this research. (It probably helps that Obama and Heckman are nearly neighbors in Chicago). McCain’s policies seem largely oblivious to these findings. There’s some vague talk about school choice, but Republicans are inept when talking about human capital policies.

America rose because it got more out of its own people than other nations. That stopped in 1970. Now, other issues grab headlines and campaign attention. But this tectonic plate is still relentlessly and menacingly shifting beneath our feet.

Tuesday Morning

8 x 3 minutes at 5k pace with 90 seconds rest. 4 minute rest halfway through. Legs hurting.

Monday Night

I'm still draining out the tequila.

I finally beat Damian at something.

We started off with 5 sprints. After each spring I did 10 ring dips and 10 pull ups with chest to bar.

Then we did 3 sets of tabata, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off (8 rounds of that for each set for a total of 12 minutes working out).
Deadlift @ 225lb
Box Jump
Row

Score is cumulative reps and calories on the rower. I got 185.

Saturday morning

Single arm overhead dumbbell squats, 5 each arm and then run with the dumbbell. 12 mins. I did 8 or 9 rounds.

Friday

I swam around 1500 meters with McCall. About 800 meter warm up followed by 10 75s on the 1:20. Then we ran about 5 miles. Then we stretched.

Thursday Night

3 sets of 3 minutes of as many reps as you and your partner can get.

1. Snatch 95lbs.
2. 1 snatch, followed by overhead squats.
3. 5 snatches followed by max pull ups.

Counterpoint

My point regarding yesterday's speech by Obama is that he is acting Presidential even though he isn't the President. That is why I think he has a good chance of winning. All I hear from McCain, or imagine to hear, is grumbling and when he does say something about Obama, it's almost like he's setting himself up for failure. "Obama should go visit Iraq." So Obama went to Iraq. "The surge worked and I backed the surge." You're right, now Obama wants to pull out of Iraq, which, the majority of Americans want too. Even those that are the most fervent supporters of being in Iraq eventually want to get our troops out. McCain's campaign is dead in the water right now. I would like to see a better race.

The only criticism I have of the commentary below is that Kennedy and Reagan were President's when they made their trips/speeches. It's kind of hard for Obama's rhetoric to be grounded in reality when all he can talk about is what he would do. Still, I agree with the overall theme. Obama is just talking about hope. Hope flies out the door quickly when things go bad and people start pointing fingers.

Op-Ed Columnist

Playing Innocent Abroad

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By DAVID BROOKS

Published: July 25, 2008

Radical optimism is America’s contribution to the world. The early settlers thought America’s founding would bring God’s kingdom to earth. John Adams thought America would emancipate “the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush preached their own gospels of world democracy.

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Barack Obama is certainly a true American. In the first major foreign policy speech of his campaign, delivered in Chicago last year, he vowed a comprehensive initiative to “ensure that every child, everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy.” America, he said, must promote dignity across the world, not just democracy. It must “lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good.”

In Berlin on Thursday, it was more of the same. Speaking before a vast throng (and a surprising number of Yankees hats), he vowed to help “remake the world.” He offered hope that a history-drenched European continent could “choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday.” He envisioned “a new dawn in the Middle East.”

Obama’s tone was serious. But he pulled out his “this is our moment” rhetoric and offered visions of a world transformed. Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc. Some problem threatens. The odds are against the forces of righteousness. But then people of good faith unite and walls come tumbling down. Obama used the word “walls” 16 times in the Berlin speech, and in 11 of those cases, he was talking about walls coming down.

The Berlin blockade was thwarted because people came together. Apartheid ended because people came together and walls tumbled. Winning the cold war was the same: “People of the world,” Obama declared, “look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together and history proved there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”

When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign.

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

When John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, their rhetoric soared, but their optimism was grounded in the reality of politics, conflict and hard choices. Kennedy didn’t dream of the universal brotherhood of man. He drew lines that reflected hard realities: “There are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin.” Reagan didn’t call for a kumbaya moment. He cited tough policies that sparked harsh political disagreements — the deployment of U.S. missiles in response to the Soviet SS-20s — but still worked.

In Berlin, Obama made exactly one point with which it was possible to disagree. In the best paragraph of the speech, Obama called on Germans to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The argument will probably fall on deaf ears. The vast majority of Germans oppose that policy. But at least Obama made an argument.

Much of the rest of the speech fed the illusion that we could solve our problems if only people mystically come together. We should help Israelis and Palestinians unite. We should unite to prevent genocide in Darfur. We should unite so the Iranians won’t develop nukes. Or as Obama put it: “The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”

The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didn’t matter. What Obama offered in Berlin flowed right out of this mind-set. This was the end of history on acid.

Since then, autocracies have arisen, the competition for resources has grown fiercer, Russia has clamped down, Iran is on the march. It will take politics and power to address these challenges, the two factors that dare not speak their name in Obama’s lofty peroration.

The odd thing is that Obama doesn’t really think this way. When he gets down to specific cases, he can be hard-headed. Last year, he spoke about his affinity for Reinhold Niebuhr, and their shared awareness that history is tragic and ironic and every political choice is tainted in some way.

But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.

When Was The Last Time McCain Acted Presidential?

It's funny, the more I see of Obama acting Presidential, the more skepticism about Obama is raised in the media.

In Berlin, Obama Urges Europe,
U.S. to Renew Their Alliance

By JAY SOLOMON and MIKE ESTERL
July 24, 2008 5:01 p.m.

BERLIN -- Sen. Barack Obama, seeking to burnish his image as a global statesman ahead of the U.S. presidential election, made an impassioned call for rejuvenated U.S.-European ties in a speech before an estimated 200,000 Germans in this city's historic downtown Tiergarten.

The Democrats' presumptive candidate drew on Washington's historic role in rebuilding post-World War II Berlin to call for an enhanced U.S.-European alliance to combat everything from a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan to the spread of nuclear weapons.

Reuters

Obama in Berlin

The Illinois lawmaker also sought to heal the trans-Atlantic rift fueled by President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq by pledging a more humble and engaged American administration should he be elected in November.

"I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people," Sen. Obama said, his words generating perhaps the loudest applause during his 25-minute address. "But I also know how much I love America. ... What has always united us ... is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people."

Sen. Obama's speech, however, also hinted at some of the divisions that will likely continue to hinder U.S.-European relations, even if as president he were to pursue a more conciliatory line with Europe.

The massive crowd offered a muted response to Sen. Obama's call for Germany and other European nations to play a larger role in fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Those in attendance also showed guarded enthusiasm for the candidate's call for greater European involvement in international efforts to combat Iran's nuclear program.

"He brings hope," said Manfred Brüss, a 60-year-old German who received powdered milk from American servicemen as a child in 1948. But "we Germans think we're doing enough," he added, citing the role of German peacekeepers in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere.

OBAMA OVERSEAS

• Text of Obama speech in Berlin

• Washington Wire: Crossing Paths
07/24/08

• Obama Courts the Jewish Vote
07/24/08

• Washington Wire: Obama Gets Crash Course in Israeli Security
07/23/08

• Obama's Tour of Israel Confronts Skeptics
07/23/08

• Political Wisdom: Barack Obama, Not Traveling Light
07/23/08

• Photos: Last Stops in Obama's Trip
07/22/08

• U.S., Iraq Closer to Target Dates
07/22/08

• Photos: Obama Tours Iraq
07/22/08

• Obama Pushes Afghan Shift
07/21/08

• Photos: Obama Visits Afghanistan
07/20/08

Some in the crowd said the sometimes-flat response to Sen. Obama's oratory was driven by poor acoustics and the lack of a simultaneous translation into German. Some complained that it felt like a campaign event. But most seemed thrilled to engage a politician already deemed a "superstar" in German magazines ahead of Thursday's performance.

Sen. Obama confidently walked onto a stage at the foot of Berlin's Victory Column to intermittent chants of "Obama, Obama, Obama." Some in the crowd compared the event, accompanied by vendors selling bratwurst and beer, to the music and sporting events that often take place in the Tiergarten.

"A lot of Germans think he can save us," said Andrea Loehr, a 29-year-old American studies major from Berlin. "People want to see the change."

A spokesman for the Berlin police estimated the crowd size at 200,000. That's more than twice the size of Mr. Obama's biggest rally in the U.S. to date, which was 75,000.

Germany remains tentative about dropping its post-World War II reluctance to engage in a muscular foreign policy. Its 3,500 troops in Afghanistan are based in the north of the country, away from the worst of the fighting. Polls indicate about two-thirds of Germans don't want their army in Afghanistan at all --something that German politicians are acutely aware of ahead of their own general elections next year.

Sen. Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier Thursday, but a spokesman for the leader would only say the encounter was "a very open and detailed discussion in a very good atmosphere." Topics included Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East peace process, in addition to trade, climate, energy and the global economy, the spokesman added in an email.

Associated Press

Sen. Obama spoke in front of the Tiergarten's 225-foot high Victory Column.

Analysts and politicians in Europe also question whether Sen. Obama would be a fit when it comes to trade, where the candidate adopted a protectionist posture during the Democratic primaries. Germany's economy in particular is highly geared toward exports.

Relations between the U.S. and Europe have already improved enormously during Mr. Bush's second term -- after a near-divorce during the first -- as Mr. Bush has become more willing to consult with allies. Europe's changing political landscape also has played a role, as the generation of leaders that clashed with Mr. Bush over the Iraq war has been replaced, mostly by fellow conservatives.

Ms. Merkel, a conservative, has worked hard to mend ties with Washington since replacing former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in late 2005. In France, former President Jacques Chirac has been replaced by Nicolas Sarkozy, while Italy recently returned Silvio Berlusconi, a close Bush ally, to power.

Eckhart von Klaeden, a member of Ms. Merkel's Christian Democrats on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, described German-U.S. relations as already "very good," adding that Mr. Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain enjoys a lot of respect among his party colleagues. At the same time, he suggested it's a little early to join the public "euphoria" in Germany about Mr. Obama's candidacy. "It's wait and see," he said.

Associated Press

Sen. Barack Obama waved as he arrived at the Victory Column in Berlin Thursday.

Still, polls in Europe suggest Mr. Obama is dramatically more popular than Mr. McCain, who many Europeans believe would not bring as much change to U.S. policy. The Republican candidate sought out his own German stage Thursday, at Schmidt's Restaurant und Sausage Haus in Columbus, Ohio. "Well, I'd love to give a speech in Germany. ... But I would much prefer to do it as president of the United States," he told reporters.

Mr. Obama will make shorter stops -- and give no big public speeches -- in France and the U.K. on Friday and Saturday. He will meet with President Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace in Paris, and the two will hold a joint news conference later in the day. Since his election in May 2007, Mr. Sarkozy has met with Sen. McCain twice, according to the Elysee Palace.

While Mr. Obama is well known in the U.K., where the primaries made daily front-page news, his visit to London has generated less publicity here, where the country is focused on the plunging fortunes of its own leader Prime Minister Gordon Brown. No joint press conference is planned in London after Mr. Obama meets with Mr. Brown because Mr. Brown did not hold one when Mr. McCain visited recently, according to a spokesman for the British leader.

Morning workout

6x1000 @ 6, 5:45 and 5:30 pace with 1 minute recovery.

I screwed this one up. Dropped out of number 5 in part because of a strained muscle in my back was making it hard for me to breathe, but I also felt very tight all over. The minute recovery makes this a very challenging workout indeed. I'm ashamed at not finishing it, although I did jump back into #6. Essentially, I was a pussy; weak and fragile like an injured hummingbird that has had its wings torn off. I'm not pleased with myself. Breathing is a crutch.

Like Science Fiction, comic books are just an extension of our own reality.

I wrote the following in response to the article below.

I can't speak about other people, but the dilemma that Batman faces in Dark Knight in combating The Joker is what we as a people and nation face every day. Joker is just the extreme. He is the terrorist and the Investment Banker without scruples merged into one and beyond. You better believe you become something like your enemy in order to defeat your enemy. You think just because the Taliban believe what they are doing is right makes them any less the monsters that they are? I've been over their several times now and believe me, I don't care whether they act in the name of God or opium, what they do to defenseless people is pure evil. They torture and kill with imagination and glee. And we don't have to look to Afghanistan for the only source of it. It's everywhere in the world. Pick up the paper.

The evil and the ease with which Joker manipulates his adversaries doesn't affect me at all because I've seen it happen so many times in real life. Maybe people are interested in the movie because the fantasy is watching one character, Batman, handle that evil a little or a lot better than most of us do on a daily basis. Maybe the comic book world is closer to the real world than you think, only there isn't someone like Batman to take care of things. It's just you and if you're lucky someone will stand next to you.

Matt

Too Far From Escapism

By ALLEN BARRA
July 24, 2008; Page D5

Director Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," currently on track to be the biggest box-office smash of the year and maybe of all time, crosses a line that perhaps did not need to be crossed, the fantasy-into-reality line.

Nothing illustrates how much movies have changed over the past 20 years than to compare Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) with Mr. Nolan's "The Dark Knight." The Burton film, starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, was photographed in garish, neon-noir colors in a gargoyle-infested neo-gothic city designed by the late Anton Furst. The action was highlighted by Danny Elfman's rousing pop-Wagnerian score.

Peter Vaughan and TM

Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight.'

In contrast, Mr. Nolan's movie drains the fantasy element from the material. Gotham City bears a striking resemblance to Chicago, where some scenes were filmed, as photographed in shades of black, green and drab industrial gray. Gone are the Batcave and "stately Wayne manor." Bruce Wayne lives in a penthouse, and the closest thing to a cave is an underground garage where he tests high-tech weapons with his armorer (Morgan Freeman). The Batmobile is banished, replaced by an assault vehicle -- a high-speed tank, really. The minimalist score by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer evokes not exhilaration but dread.

All color, lyricism, and virtually any humor that doesn't partake of the macabre is gone from this Batman story. There isn't even a hint that this PG-13 film might be suitable for youngsters, as many parents of distraught preteens have discovered. The Joker's psychotic brutality -- he impales one character on a pencil and in a shocking scene blows one of the franchise's leading female characters to smithereens -- makes a mockery of the rating system.

What, then, is "The Dark Knight"'s near-fanatical audience responding to? To Heath Ledger's Joker, of course. Mr. Ledger's character has clearly touched some national nerve, and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the world responds to the film after the initial wave of hype has passed.

"The Dark Knight" isn't simply another superhero movie. In fact, taken on its own terms, it's really not a superhero movie at all: It's a supervillain movie, and the many critics and fans who are calling for Mr. Ledger to be nominated for an Academy Award are reading the film correctly -- they want him nominated for best actor, not best supporting actor.

This Joker is the most thoroughly principled and incorruptible character in modern movies. He doesn't care about money -- he contemptuously burns a pile of cash containing millions of dollars -- and, unlike Mr. Nicholson's Joker, he doesn't even care about power. He consolidates the various mobs of Gotham City merely as a means to his end, which, contrary to numerous editorials we are seeing, isn't terrorism. Terrorists, in their hearts, believe that they are really the good guys; Mr. Ledger's Joker has no such illusions. He's a nihilist whose avowed purpose is to disrupt society by corrupting and destroying its heroes -- Batman and Aaron Eckhart's straight-arrow D.A., Harvey Dent.

In the most unsettling scene ever presented in an action movie, Christian Bale's Batman is left to interrogate the Joker in a police lock-down room while the police simply watch. Mr. Ledger snickers, leers and goads Batman into beating him up -- thus violating his civil rights, which is precisely what the Joker wants Batman to do. It's a stunning victory for the villain that makes Batman seem helpless and foolish. This is the first time I've ever seen a superhero humiliated like this in his own movie. "The Dark Knight" seems to be telling us that, ultimately, we're completely helpless against any characters as ruthless and ideologically pure as the Joker. We can't even win by becoming vigilantes -- that's what the Jokers of this world want us to be.

Although pop-artists such as Frank Miller (creator of the "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" series) and Mr. Nolan (who also directed the previous Batman film, "Batman Begins") are undeniably gifted creators of images, the film is a bleak reminder of the limits of comic-book literature when it comes to dealing with serious themes. "Some men," says Michael Caine's Alfred the Butler to Bruce Wayne, "aren't looking for anything logical, like money. Some just want to watch the world burn." Is the only alternative to become as merciless as your opponent? It's a dilemma that leaves Batman and his fans in the dark.

Find television listings for Christopher Nolan, Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson at LocateTV.

The mania that "The Dark Knight" has touched off in a certain segment of the movie-going audience -- and it's not hyperbole to call it mania when people are going to eBay and paying up to $100 each for Imax tickets and $229 for action figures -- is reminiscent of the nuttiness exhibited by American teens in 1955 when "Rebel Without a Cause" was released after James Dean was killed in an auto accident. Media pundits who ask if Heath Ledger's death has anything to do with the obsession surrounding this movie know that the answer is yes.

But there is another, more troubling, aspect to this part of the story. We know that Mr. Ledger died of an overdose of prescription drugs after a period of insomnia and acute depression. What we see on the screen in "The Dark Knight" -- as we are plunged into a netherworld that provides no escape from its brutal realities -- may well be a projection of Mr. Ledger's inner torment as he tried to fight those afflictions: a portrait of a Method actor who could not keep a proper distance from his role, an artist who stared too long into the abyss and saw a twisted, drug-addled death mask staring back at him. (This past weekend, Christian Bale was arrested then released on bail following charges of assault from his mother and sister; "The Dark Knight" must present one heck of an abyss.)

We know enough about how involved actors can be in their roles to see that this idea is not far-fetched. Does that make "The Dark Knight" a $180 million-plus snuff film? Give that a thought before you plunk your $229 down for that action figure.

Success in Iraq is not yet Realized

If you believe what you read in the newspapers, it appears that the "surge" has worked. I cannot help but comment on how ridiculous a one word strategy sounds, but whatever, it's a sexual connotation so it works for me.

Surge has worked so well in fact that they are now calling for a withdrawal of American forces. Kudos for everyone involved. However, the real prize is only just at hand. Pulling out American forces of Iraq has always been a goal, but we want to pull out of an orderly, self governing Iraw so we can maintain a diplomatic and economic presence there. Now is the time to start building great infrastructure for Iraq, not only so they will have a better functioning society when we leave, but so that we leave some positive mark on their country. Now is the time to put into place a very elaborate intelligence network there, including Israeli intelligence. A stable and friendly Iraq is a huge boon to American interests. It lies smack dab in the middle of the Arab world. As it begins to normalize relations with its neighbors, this can only benefit us as our ability to understand our friends and adversaries increases.

Success will not be measured by number of attacks or number of people killed or not killed every day. Iraq must maintain security as a precondition for the real goals that lie ahead. A stable, growing, friendly and liberal Iraq in the middle of the Arab world. I have not heard McNumbnuts or Obout-turn mention anything along these lines. The work is only beginning.

Tuesday Night

Do you know where Sin Jin is?

The Filthy 50. Not what I wanted to do. Did 50 of each of the following:

• Box Jumps
• Jumping Pullups
• Kettlebell swing (1pood/35#)
• Walking Lunge
• Knees to Elbows
• Push-press (45# bar)
• Back Extension
• Wall ball (20#)
• Burpees
• Double-Unders

I started with back extension and went in order from there.
Notice that everyone that finished in front of me are cheaters. CHEATERS! It was the burpees that really slow me down. I need to work on them. But not tonight. Tonight is Dark Knight night. I need a rest. My body feels all beat up and no woman to make it feel better.

Tuesday Morning

Warmed up by running to Van Ness and looking for the group leaving the Olympic Club. They took an evasive pattern that actually led them right by my house, but I didn't see then. Luckily, I ran back to the start of the hill run and met them there. There were quite a few attractive runners out that morning for so early. It makes me think that I should spend more time out at 530 hitting on women, but I haven't figured out how to get a conversation started running. Or at all for that matter.

We ran the set of hills. I expected to be smoked from sunday's deadlifts and Monday night's workout, but I actually felt strong relative to the other guys. Drew and Hommeyer blew past me on the flat part at the end of hill 4. I ran with them to Fillmore and then back, avoiding Hospital hill, which I hate.

It took them 35 mins to get to the start of the hill run, which is a lot longer than I expected.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/405059

Monday Night

3 rounds of:
31 push press @ 75lb
max number of pull ups
1 mile run
3 rounds of:
31 push press
max pull ups.

Trans Tahoe Relay

3 legs of swimming for about 60 minutes total.

Friday

50 one legged squats each side.

Multiple Hand stand push ups/negatives.

Thursday

Tempo Run

Ran from the club to Bay and Van Ness where we ran at a moderate pace to Fort Point and then back to Fort Mason. Pace was all over the place. Around 6 minutes.

CRUSHED! (Tuesday Night with Kelly)

Hurting from the mile repeats in the morning, Kelly warmed us up with five rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats). The workout went as follows:

21-15-9
135lb. Front Squat
Handstand push-up
53lb. kettlebell swing (single arm, so 42 total on the first round)


This may have been the most crushing workout I have experienced. No doubt, the morning run was the hardest running I've done since the New York Marathon. I felt fatigued all day and so I should be happy just going into this and actually completing it. While my team of three came in dead last, I'm happy to note that they only had to wait for me on the front squats. I did a warmup front squat and knew right away that it was going to suck. I had no power out of the hole.

Well, everyone finished and Kelly turned off the music, just as my team began our last round of 9. Every time we switched stations Kelly asked, "Are you guys done?" I reracked the bar on the front squat 3 times before finishing. The interesting part is that I never lost balance on the last round, it was just sheer exhaustion in my legs. I couldn't stand up. Usually, my body tilts forward when I can't squat a weight. There was no fire left in the legs. This picture was not taken during that workout, but it's how I felt last night.

My lower back spasmed as I cooked/washed dishes in the kitchen. It wasn't painful, more shocking. I almost fell down. The thought of that made me start laughing. My roommates think I'm weird.

Tuesday Morning

4x1 mile repeats
5:50
5:40
5:30
5:35 ---- fucking bullshit (was supposed to go 5:20 but couldn't do it)

Monday Night 7/14

We started off with a 4 round tabata squat with the rest in the squat position. I scored a 19.

Then we did, on the minute, squat clean with 50lb dumbbell, pushup, so:
1st minute:
1 squat clean
1 pushup
2nd minute
2 squat cleans
2 pushups
etc. until you can't get it done anymore. I got through round 7 with a few seconds left and moved into round 8 but could not finish. We then went to pullups, which caused me problems because of my hands.

Then we did 3 rounds of
2 min double unders
1 minute hollow rock
1 minute reverse hollow rock

Long Time no Write

It's been a while. I will update tonight. Last workout I did was on Saturday,

30 x clean and jerks @ 155lbs.
Time: 20 mins

Obviously, I can probably do this faster. Maybe in 10 mins. Working out alone and hungover, the weight made me nervous. It went well though. I got a lot better with the form of the clean and really learned how to jump into that squat. Almost fell forward several times and exhausted myself keeping upright. Great learning workout. Look forward to doing it again.

Tonight, Mexican drug cartels take back California.

Matt