Reflecting
American military planners typically refer to the period of darkness instead of night, because what matters is the length of time our military has for a mission when our team has night vision and the enemy often doesn’t. I love using night optical devices and thought it would be fun to do night trail runs with NODS instead of a headlamp sometime (but my favorite model, the GPNVG-18, goes for $40k so for now I’m sticking with my Petzl headlamp). It is good to see and great to see better than your enemy.
And I can’t see well. I’ve never been bothered by wearing glasses until I started jiu jitsu, but now it is a pain. So later this month I’m going in for a Zeiss Smile procedure to fix my vision so that I wont need to wear glasses all the time. It is similar to Lasik and is reputed to be a good fit for MMA because it doesn’t weaken the eye’s surface (which can increase the risks from striking). Results TBD. If you’ve gotten yours fixed, please comment below on how it went, especially how it impacted sports.
My hope and expectation is to get immediately back into activities without skipping a beat. One of my next strength events is a push up competition next month. Last year, Vale Tudo readers generously supported it:
If you gave last year: thank you. To everyone who supports me and my work: please help. Please donate and comment here. Every $0.01 raised goes to support The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for kids with cancer. Please give what you can. Last year I did 682 push-ups. This year my goal is 6 every 30 seconds for a goal of 720 in total. If everyone who is able to help would please give something, even $1, I'd really appreciate it. It is a great cause and it motivates me. If you know of anyone else who likes push-ups or dislikes cancer, please share my page with them:
https://give.holeinthewallgang.org/valetudo
Any guesses as to how many I’ll be able to do?
Training
This morning’s white board —
3 Rounds
AMRAP 3 Cals on the Bike/Ski then rest 2
AMRAP 3 10 Wall Ball 30 lbs., 10 Burpees then rest 2
*You must use each machine at least once…that last round is up to you.
Turn any gym shoe into a heavy weightlifting shoe with these inserts. I love Bear KompleX grips for pull-ups but their thumb tape slips off too easily once your hands get sweaty. Better option: 2POOD Lift Heavy Weightlifting Tape. They are wickedly expensive, but worked out in Stoko tights this morning. They’re fine. They are quite supportive of knees, which is great. If you’re having knee problems, considering quitting workouts or having surgery and willing to try anything, then try them. But if you don’t have a problem to solve then there are probably cheaper options that would serve your needs almost as well.
Next 5 AM run:
Fueling
Do you need more protein? (Almost certainly). Buy this. Delicious, proteinaceous, and a great value.
Supplementing
Everyone in your family should supplement magnesium. This is a big discount and great price. It isn’t my favorite way to get it, but the gummies are nice ways to bribe kids to remember to take it.
Measuring
Trading out 32” waist clothes for 30”. Expensive to have to switch, but risking bathing suit and shorts falling off when I swim or run without holding them up. Progress.
Recovering
Few things feel better than taking trail running shoes off after a long day on the trails. I love changing into these recovery shoes, which I leave in my truck for the drive home.
Closing
Still the best 100 word summary of all you need to know about health and fitness.
Haven’t had any personal experience with the panoramic NVGs, but the 31s on that site are hot fire! I felt like I had great situational awareness in just about every scenario I used them. I didn’t realize how reasonably priced the are (comparatively speaking).
Good luck w/ the eyes. I second Boyan T's question below, knowing how much research you do. And, what is the rush? fwiw I wear my glasses on the mats so I can see the move of the day, and take off for anything w/ a partner.
Re. magnesium, I like this one right before bed: https://bluebonnetnutrition.com/products/magnesium-glycinate