Diet great. Workout bad. A reversal of yesterday. The diet was spot on. The workout included overhead squats which automatically made it terrible for me. Grrr. So frustrating when you don’t feel like you are getting better at something. To really compete at the level I want to I have to be doing at least 30 more pounds than I can right now. At the moment that seems an impossible task for 6 months. One workout at a time, I suppose…

Best thing to do when I get frustrated is find something to laugh about. Easy for me as I am easily entertained. Check out this website if you haven’t already: http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/. For some reason it cracks me up. The point is that when you gain a bunch of unwanted weight it is almost never because of lack of exercise or genetics or bone size but because of what and how much you eat. What a fun way to get that point across and then some.

People really eat this stuff. Definitely go check out how this restaurant makes a fries and onion rings casserole. Or Paula Dean’s battered and deep fried butter balls.

My favorites on the site are the desserts though. They might be too much even for me. Like Dessert Lasagna or the The Icingcano. UGH! Now that’s just gross.

They also have this Oreo Stuff Dip where you take all the frosting out of the middle of a bunch of Oreos and melted it into a dip. Guess what you dip in it? You guessed it more Oreos. Hahaha. Now THAT is not Paleo.

Workout? Great. Diet?… Meh. I ate all the right stuff except for one major indulgence. Last week in a moment of weakness I bought some trail mix from Whole Foods called ‘Chocolate Stampede’ that contains a bunch of milk chocolate disks and some white chocolate chips. Let’s just say after I got done with it today it is now just plain ‘Stampede’. The workout, however, was awesome. A solid 20 minutes of nearly unbearable suffering:

Round 1:  1 pull up, 1 burpee, 1 box jump, 1 dead lift @ 85% of your max
Round 2:  2 pull ups, 2 burpees, 2 box jumps, 1 dead lift
Round 3:  3 pull ups, 3 burpees, 3 box jumps, 1 dead lift
Round 4….

…continue adding a rep to those exercises every round for 20 minutes. I completed 13 rounds. Ouch! After we recovered a bit someone turned to me and said, “That was a great workout. I never want to do that again.”

I taught my first skills class tonight! Back squat and overhead squat. The two guys were great and made it really easy. I am really looking forward to being a trainer.

In other news, I emailed an update to Body For Life on what I have been up to since March. They recommended I go in for a second set of after photos now that 6 months have passed since I finished the challenge. With so many people to judge, anything I can do to stand out a little should at least help a little and I really want to give myself the best chance I can.

So I scheduled the date of the second photo shoot for one month from today, October 13th. I now have 30 days to trim off any remaining roughness around the edges. I don’t have as much to worry about as I did the first time around but I still don’t want to slack off. Despite popular belief I am fairly terrible about following a health food diet. I indulge on a pretty regular basis.

I also dislike getting my pictures taken. I have a hard time standing still for that long. But I am really excited about working with that fitness photographer again. The guy knows what he is doing. He just finished doing the calendar for the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders! Anyway, I figured reminding those people about me a little bit closer to January when they pick the winners would be a good idea. I definitely did not do it for the prize money but I still can’t help being motivated by imagining what I would do with an extra 10 or 25 grand in my pocket. First on the list would be to sponsor another kid.

This morning we rode Hall Ranch. I managed to make it up and down a bunch of difficult rocky sections without crashing until we were about 200 yards from the car when I fell sideways and smashed my left cheek on a rock. (Not the cheek on my face). As if my legs were bruised and battered enough I now have claw marks down my calf muscles. Check out the rattlesnake we saw crossing the trail:

That was the highlight of a pretty rough ride. However, the rough ride did not prevent me from going to the gym immediately afterward to work on lifting technique. I took so many days off last week that I wasn’t feeling much like myself. Great to be back at it.

This morning was the Tactical Strength Challenge over at Front Range CrossFit. Only 3 events. The first was dead lift. Only 3 of us represented our gym today but all 3 of us hit a personal best on dead lift. Me at 265#, Elizabeth at 275#, and Sean at 380#. Great start to the day.

Next was dead hang pull ups. During the first week of this blog I set a goal of being able to do 10 dead hang pull ups. At the time I could barely do 1 and had to kick my feet to get a second. See post. I worked up to 7 during the first couple months but then stopped doing them altogether. So today I decided I would be happy with 7 but would shoot for 8. Elizabeth said she would be happy with 10 but I told her to fight for 11 since everyone shoots for a nice round number like 10. Well guess what? Elizabeth got 11. And guess what else? I got 11 too! I have no idea where it came from but I am happy to say I have finally met that goal. Sean’s goal was 30 and he got 29. We do not yet know how we finished but that number would have put Sean in the top 3 for the same event back in April. Extremely impressive.

Finally we did the 5 minute kettle bell snatch test. Ouch. Elizabeth’s original goal was 100 reps but at the last minute she set her sights higher ended up with 117. With her other two events she will definitely be near the top. I had done this before and got 120 so I was thinking 125. But the girl who went before me proved to be really good at them and got 129. So I had a number to beat. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as hers but I got 136. I ripped my hand for the first time during that last minute but it was totally worth it. Sean, on the other hand, did about 2 kettle bell snatches before his earlier 400# dead lift attempt caught up with him and his back seized up. It would have been great to see what he was capable of after doing so well in the first two events. And it really sucks to be so highly motivated and then suddenly get injured and stuck waiting around for recovery. Luckily, he is a tough guy and is certain to recover quickly. And once he does he will have no shortage of opportunities to show what he is made of.

Results will not be posted until Sept 25th.

Over 170 homes destroyed by the fires so far and the winds are still blowing today. Officials are saying that the fire could still come over the hill and down in to Northwest Boulder. Evacuations are expected to continue throughout the day. I wish I was a firefighter today so I could help.

I cannot remember wishing harder for rain than I did today. The fires have now claimed nearly 140 homes, the worst fire damage in Colorado history, and it is still listed as 0% contained. It did finally rain a little bit this afternoon but I was hoping for more. Todd took this picture of neighbor Joe’s house after the rain stopped:

For the updated  info on the fires: http://www.boulderoem.com/emergency-status

Many of us know people being affected by the fires in Boulder. Either they have already lost their homes or have been evacuated and are still waiting for the outcome. I wish our friends the best and I am available if anybody needs anything. In the meantime, I am arranging for a group of Flatirons CrossFitters to volunteer once Boulder Fire has determined the work that needs to be done. I will keep you guys updated if you are interested in participating. Others are also welcome to join our group. Just let me know. Todd took pics last night from Lafayette.

Notice the fire is spread out across the whole ridgeline:

Several separate blazes were visible from 75th and Baseline:

The smoke looked like an approaching storm:

I took this with my cell phone on the way home from Longs Peak. The smoke was so thick it nearly eclipsed the sun:

Despite freezing weather and hours of treacherous winds we made it to the top of Longs Peak today and more importantly back down. The wind became so forceful on the way back that we literally had to cling to the rocks to keep from being blown away. None of us had ever experienced such forceful winds much less while hanging on to the side of a mountain. I am very happy everyone arrived home safely.

I was very proud to be part of this group representing Flatirons CrossFit today (Sean, Joe Brown, Josh, and I). Despite being desperate to get out of the wind after enduring such an ordeal we stopped at the bottom of the boulder field to check on a man who had been blown over by the wind and had smashed his head on a rock. He was covered in blood and his wife was in an absolute panic and on the verge of a complete break down. The winds were too strong to send a helicopter. The couple was stuck there. With no other options, the four of us worked together to evacuate this man, his wife, and all of their backpacking gear 5 miles back to the trailhead fighting those gale force winds with every single step. Without hesitation and without complaint our crossfitters endured an extra several hours of bitter winds to help these people. It was amazing to me how our mental and physical conditioning had been directly responsible for our ability to help this poor couple out of such a desperate and dangerous predicament. When the wife asked ‘how are you guys so strong?’ I mentioned we all worked out at the same gym. She replied ‘I want to come work out at YOUR gym’. The man was taken to the hospital and will be just fine and his wife was extremely gracious. Well done today, team.

Despite planning to climb Longs Peak this weekend I still agreed to go mountain biking with Todd today. Only instead of our normal 10-15 miles we did a 22 mile loop at Buffalo Creek that took 4 hours. I was feeling pretty good until about the last mile of the last climb when my legs did not want to work anymore. Slow and steady in a low gear I somehow made it up the rest of the way. Totally worth it too. The trail was gorgeous and the payoff at the end of the climb was a full 8 miles of gradual down hill. It was so fun winding in and out of the trees and around the boulders that I forgot how tired I was. (I remember now though).

The first part was through the area destroyed by the Hayman Fire. A little creepy but fun trail surrounded by wildflowers and great views.

Much of the trail was in the trees and not terribly steep.

Then for the best part. Coasting down the hill.

We also met two very nice guys at the trailhead and ended up joining them for a late lunch at a place called The Buck Snort Saloon. One of the guy’s name is Charlie Brown. No kidding. Great guys though. Looks like we may end up going riding with them again sometime.