Reflecting
Biceps still shaking a bit but delts/lats/pecs still feel fresh after my first push-up competition. I planned on hitting 300 and 600 was my stretch goal until a friend offered the charity $1,000 if I could get to 680. Final count: 682. I was super strict about form despite the judges being, ahem, pretty lenient. I didn’t hear anyone getting no repped. Excited to try again next year. Here’s what kept me going: after deciding to shoot for 600, a kind and generous friend sent me this note:
I was 100% committed to hitting that and did with 2 to spare.
Training
Two great runs this weekend. Just loving time on the trails with friends. Had two jiu jitsu coaches working with me on ground work; making slow but steady progress. They’d like me to be less analytical and smoother. More flow and less pausing for a beat to think through the optimal reaction. They are naturals. I’m… not.
Fueling
I finally found an MD who’s like-minded on fueling. He wrote Longevity...Simplified: Living A Longer, Healthier Life Shouldn’t Be Complicated which I just finished and recommend. TL; DR: modern first world diseases mostly come from habits and metabolic disease, both of which are more efficiently attacked at their roots rather than at their many symptoms.
I’m really happy with getting alcohol dosage down to zero, which I’m increasingly convinced is the correct dose. It is a drug and not a very good one in terms of its costs and benefits. But culturally it is so pervasive that it is nice to have something to sip so my long-suffering wife and I recently tried and liked this substitute – it has a lot of the same feel as a cocktail without the booze.
Closing
One final thank you for everyone who gave!
I got to meet the organizers who gave me great confidence that the money we raised will be well spent. The event raised a lot of money to help send (very) sick kids to camp. It was both fun and genuinely moving (a word I rarely use).
For those interested, I was counting his reps so he wouldn't need to pay attention to them himself. He structured it into an EMOM format to allow for recovery. The first 9 minutes were sets of 15 pushups, then 45 minutes of 10 pushups (was trying to keep pushups under 12 seconds). The last 6 minutes had added pushups on top of the base of 10. Comes out to:
15 pushups x 9 minutes
10 pushups x 54 minutes
5 pushups x 1 minute
+2 pushups in the last few seconds
Think you're definitely right about alcohol. Really sad to give it up... but it just sets me so far behind in any given day or week.
Lately I drink club soda with a dash of some of bitters. I like these guys:
https://amzn.to/3MCVt3l
Not truly alcohol free but functionally alcohol free.
Also, since you're in the CrossFit circles, I am sure you have heard of Athletic Brewing. I think their Hazy IPA is pretty solid! It is at least able to scratch that beer itch for me.
I'll check out those Ghia drinks.
--Congrats on a strong performance!