30 Days of CrossFit: Day 2

Today's workout at first seemed like it might not be so bad, but by the end I was seriously struggling! All that running and squating yesterday didn't help I'm sure, but I figure it's building my endurance and muscles -- and just for good measure I'm going on a 30 mile bike ride in a bit! (Wish me luck....)

For day 2, we did the "day 1" WoD (Workout of the Day): five rounds of 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, and 10 air-squats. I also did a half mile jog as a warm-up. For a while I was doing push-ups almost every day, and I was at the point where I could do about 40 in a row. Perhaps I was focusing more on my form, or perhaps the other exercises just took more out of me, but five sets of 10 push-ups felt a lot harder than one set of fifty push-ups!

Anyway, while my legs are a little stiff right now, overall I'm not feeling too bad. I didn't bother weighing in or anything like that, as I figure I'll do that once a week. Just keep plugging away, try to eat reasonably healthy -- and no overeat! -- and you should see some good results. That's my plan, and I'm sticking too it. Now I need to go fix the flat tire on my bike, which I apparently acquired at the end of my last ride. Bummer....

Update: So the bike ride was... long and rather difficult, relatively speaking. I was dogging it the whole time, and every little hill saw me dropping down to 10 MPH or so -- hills that I would have normally taken at 14-15 MPH. My legs were just not giving me the normal push, as all the air squats and jogging of the past two days took a lot out of them. But, despite being tired, I did manage to do a 40.5 mile ride with some friends, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Next scheduled ride: Friday, where we'll shoot for a 60 miler most likely -- we're looking at doing a century on the 10th (Lewis County Historical Ride, if you're wondering).

CrossFit: Rebooting My Fitness (Fatness?)

I don't know that anyone is following my Slight Edge Diary any longer, which they probably shouldn't considering that I haven't updated the blog in close to a year! Needless to say, I'm not a very good planner and I'm still trying to find that groove that leads to success in life -- in areas of family, spirituality, fitness, social life, and work, roughly in that order of importance. But since I already have this blog, I figure I'll repurpose it for now as I apply Slight Edge principles to my fitness.

Last year, I did the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride for the first time. It's a grueling 204 mile ride, start to finish, and I did it with some friends -- and about 10,000 other riders, though I don't know how many actually finished -- in about 12 hours of cycling, and three hours of rest stops along the way. You might think that sounds crazy, but it was such a fun experience that I managed to talk three of my brothers into signing up for the ride with me for this July.

That of course means I need to really get going on my preparations for this year, and so last month my wife and I took a one month Crossfit class. It was certainly a good workout, but I have to be honest: the price is rather steep in my opinion: $75 each for three workouts a week is what it costs (though we had a coupon for the first month so it was only $50). It's also always a bit of a pain to work something into your schedule when you have to pack up the kids, get over to the class, then come home again.

Long story short, as much as my wife and I enjoyed the classes, I was looking for other alternatives. We still might buy a family pass to the YMCA, but for this month we found a 30 Day At-Home CrossFit Challenge that looks promising. We started with the first workout today, though technically I skipped to the second workout just because I felt like starting the week with some running. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm going to use this blog to track my progress for the next 30 days. Fun times, right?

So the workout of the day (WoD in CrossFit lingo) is three rounds of a half mile run followed by 25 or 50 air squats. Today we had our two boys wanting to follow along, which meant my wife and I alternated running with the squats. I started with the run, she started with the squats, and we both finished more or less at the same time. There was a bit of a delay at the end of the squats while we would wait for the other to finish the jog (so that they could keep an eye on our kids), so the time taken on the squats is perhaps a bit longer than it would otherwise have been. Here's how my workout went, on each leg of the WoD:

1. 0.5 mile jog: 5:14.20
2. Air Squats: 5:26.68
3. 0.5 mile jog: 5:56.35
4. Air Squats: 4:28.71
5. 0.5 mile jog: 6:11.33
6. Air Squats: 3:16.16

You can see that each half mile jog took a bit longer, which is what I'd expect, but I did manage to improve my air squats time each round. Part of that was simply getting the kids to settle into the routine, and the last round I was able to just do the 50 air squats and then hit the stop timer. Total time for the workout: 30:33.46. And in the interest of full disclosure, I currently weight 210 pounds, I'm 6'3" tall, and I'm looking to lose about 25 pounds before the STP ride in July. If you're wondering, this is what I look like after the first workout -- still smiling! :-D

Old Testament and More Laws of Leadership

Okay, I've pretty much listened to every General Conference talk from the last session at least three times now, and while I won't even begin to profess having learned and applied all that they contain, I want to read and study other gospel related material. Funny enough, two years ago (!) I made a goal to read through the whole Old Testament. Sadly, while I started off strong, about a third of the way through the year my wife and I had a new baby enter the family, and my reading got seriously derailed. The fact that I was in 1st Chronicles probably didn't help.

Since then, I've been slowly reading chapters on occasion, but I still haven't finished my complete reading of the Old Testament (OT). I figure for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to read at least a couple chapters each day and look for some good quotes for this blog during the reading. Rather than just reading, though, I'm going to first read from another book (e.g. 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership), and then I'm going to read from the OT and look for something in the reading that directly relates to one of the areas I was reading in the other book. Sound good?

Today's reading from the 21 Laws covered chapters 12 and 13 -- and if you're keeping track, you'll notice that I've read but didn't blog about chapters 6 through 11. I did read those last week, however, and for the sake of completeness I'm going to at least give the laws discussed if not a good quote -- which is sad, because there was some really good stuff in here! Actually, I do have a few good quotes, which I've inserted after the laws below, so this is going to be a bit lengthy.


The Law of Solid Ground: Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership: "No leader can break trust with his people and expect to keep influencing them." Maxwell discusses the lack of trust we now have for most politicians, and how in many ways Vietnam marked the transition. I'd say that for most of my life, I have not had a trusting attitude towards the President of the United States, and sadly I would say that Obama has continued a downward trend and currently is someone that I do not trust at all (witness Obamacare, which was ramrodded through despite objections from a majority of the constituents).

The Law of Respect: People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves: Maxwell starts with a story of a woman that would not necessarily seem like someone you would respect at first, but then he goes on to show why people did respect her. However, "by the start of the Civil War, she had brought more people out of slavery than any other American in history -- black or white, male or female." That woman was Harriet Tubman.

The Law of Intuition: Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias: Maxwell talks about Steve Jobs and Apple, and the success Steve enjoyed during his life. (Interestingly, I was just listening to the Daily Mentor call about Steve Jobs today, and blogged about that elsewhere.) I didn't particularly care for Steve the man, but he was do doubt an amazing leader and had a great sense of intuition. "Steve Jobs' story is a reminder that leadership is really more art than science. The principles of leadership are constant, but the application changes with every leader and every situation. That's why it requires intuition. Without it, leaders get blindsided, and that's one of the worst things that can happen to a leader." I have to say, my boss (Anand Lal Shimpi) is definitely someone who is skilled in the Law of Intuition.

The Law of Magnetism: Who You Are Is Whom You Attract: Starts with the story of Lincoln and Robert E. Lee; Lincoln went on to become a great leader, but he didn't start that way. "If Lee had chosen to lead an army for the Union instead, many other good generals would have followed him north. As a result, the war probably would have been much shorter. Some speculate that it might have lasted two years instead of five -- and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved."

The Law of Connection: Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand: Cheesy but true: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I've said this many times during my life. :-)

The Law of the Inner Circle: A Leader's Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him: Maxwell relates the story of Lance Armstrong and his seven consecutive Tour de France victories. I wonder how he might change his opinion of this in light of Lance's final admission to having doped, used HGH, etc. Regardless, Lance is still an amazing cyclist. "Leaders have to deliver. There is no substitute for performance. But without a good team, they often don't get the opportunity." Almost done!


The Law of Empowerment: Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others: This time, we get a counter-example of empowerment and the problems that resulted. Henry Ford was way ahead of the game when he founded the Ford Motor Company and began mass producing the Model T. Within ten years, Ford was producing nearly 50 percent of all automobiles in the US, but after that initial success, Henry Ford couldn't stand the thought of others surpassing him. When presented with a prototype of an improved Model T as a surprise, he tore it apart with his bare hands. It wasn't until 1927 that he grudgingly agreed to offer a new car to the public, the Model A, but by that time Ford was far behind its competitors and in 1931 they were down to only 28% of the US automobile market. Henry Ford II eventually took over and at first did well with bringing in other leaders, but his own insecurities led to him pitting these leaders against each other and getting rid of his best people. I wonder where Ford could have been today had they not wasted fifty or so years with egotistical leaders that refused to let others rise up and embrace change.

The Law of the Picture: People Do What People See: The HBO series Band of Brothers is based on the story of Easy Company in World War II. There are instances of both good and bad leaders; thankfully, they had more of the latter than the former, which is what enabled them to become worthy of the books and shows based on their lives. "Good leaders are always conscious of the fact that they are setting the example and others are going to do what they do, for better or worse. In general, the better the leaders' actions, the better their people's."

I'll say that of the above laws and chapters, the segments I struggled with the most are the Intuition, Inner Circle, and Magnetism areas. I liked most of the reading, but the actual application in my life of the principles involved is more difficult. That probably means those areas are all weaknesses for me, which isn't surprising. Anyway, time for a good quote from the Old Testament; as noted earlier, I'm currently reading in 2 Chronicles, which is a book that repeats much of what was already told in 1 and 2 Kings (and elsewhere). It's the story of both good and bad Israel, which is -- surprise! -- largely a reflection of their good and bad leaders.

I actually just finished 2 Chronicles today, which ends with the righteous reign of King Josiah who is followed by evil kings that reign (and are deposed) when Babylon destroys Jerusalem. Going with the above themes of leadership, I'm going to use a quote that shows the Law of the Picture in action. Hilkiah has found the book of the law in the Holy Temple, which has apparently been lost (intentionally, thanks to an earlier unrighteous king) for a long time and explains much of the idolatry that is present. When Josiah hears the words of the book of the law, he rends his clothing and inquires of the priests as to what the Lord would have him do. Then he does his best to help reform Israel, by leading the charge:

"And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers." (2 Kings 34: 31-33)

I'm reminded of a similar principle taught in the Book of Mormon (slightly edited): "If it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would establish the claws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could always have just men for your kings, then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you. Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a king or kings to rule over you. For behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!" (Mosiah 29: 13, 16-17)

The Office: It's Done! (Okay, Almost)

Big news today: I spent the better part of four hours working on finishing up the paint job in my soon-to-be office. The result: all the painting is now complete! Well, except for the doors, which still need another coat or two. But I'm not even sure I'm going to put up the closet doors, so they don't really count, right? Anyway, I'm sure all three of my blog readers are eager to see pictures, and I'm not one to disappoint:

 

I don't know that the camera captures the colors all that well, but it's a light tan shade, maybe with a hint more yellow. The trim is "eggshell white", and the carpet is...in need of a serious cleaning. But that will come in due time. Next stage: removing the paint supplies, putting up the blinds, moving my desks into the office, and setting up my PCs and workbench. Fun! That should be done before the end of the week, I hope. And in case you missed it, here's what the office looked like at the beginning:

My quote for the day comes via President Eyring's talk, We Are One, where he's quoting from the Doctrine and Covenants: "And go ye out from among the wicked. Save yourselves. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." My office may not be clean yet, but at least it's a lot nicer looking than before, and soon enough it will truly be clean...and then I'll clutter it up with computers and stuff.