Rocket’s Red Glare

This can be an age of wonders

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

- Albert Einstein

Reflecting

I’ve had my issues with Elon Musk in the past but they’re in the past.  This week I pause with wonder and awe as his Starship’s aptly named Super Heavy Booster was grabbed by its launch pad.  My lifetime has been strong on software but weak on hardware innovation.  It took 66 years between the first flight and moon landing.  Then what?  The subsequent 55 years have failed to keep pace.  But this week showed that we haven’t yet given up on greatness.  Petty political squabbles will be soon forgotten.  They don’t matter and are worth ignoring.  We could stand on the precipice of a bold new age in which we begin to colonize the heavens.  This matters and is worth celebrating. 

Training

I find these cues helpful to review before each workout.  Preorder The Whiteboard Daily Book of Cues for Everyone to have them at your fingertips before WODs.

This morning’s white board -- as many rounds as possible in 16 minutes:

• 8 Dumbbell Push Press 50 lbs.

• 12 toes to bar

• 16 Cal Row

Next run:

Fueling

Whenever there are headlines complaining of high egg prices, I recheck my math and find them to be great values.  The average price per egg is about $0.25.  You can kickstart your daily protein goal while satiating hunger for hours.  I pay a net $0.35 for organic eggs (3% cash back on my Robinhood Visa / 10% cash back buying Pepper gift cards / 19% off from Whole Foods delivered to my front door).  Even better: raise your own chickens! 

Supplementing

I’ve added 25 mg of DHEA to boost my low estradiol. 

Measuring

I’m staying as far away from the election as I can but couldn’t avoid overhearing politicians squabbling over releasing their health records.  Specifically, they cite cholesterol as a health marker.  This is a terrible indicator of performance and longevity.  So many better ways to measure health and fitness.  What physical tests do I want to see?  For simplicity’s sake we could run our presidential candidates through the NFL scouting combine which offers a highly meritocratic physical, medical, skill, and psychological screen.  I’d want to see a one rep max back squat for strength and a max box jump vertical for explosiveness as well as percent body fat, Basel metabolic rate, free testosterone, and VO2 max.  This offers a far better window into their strength, endurance, performance, self-discipline, and consistency than the misleading and often irrelevant cholesterol test.   

Recovering

After intense workouts, get in active recovery wherever possible.  Pick some distance and try to always walk or bike it instead of drive.  To that end, I’m getting Rogue’s new bike which just came back in stock today and is $500 off.  My goal is to bike everywhere I can.  This isn’t going to be intense or competitive, just to keep moving. 

Closing

There are no victims here—they are all heroes.

- Sabin Howard

Whatever shock value modernity’s brutalism, nihilism, and prurience could elicit has dissipated with repetition.  Now it is all just boring and predictable.  Artists can’t be subversive when virtually all they’ve done in recent memory is trying to be subversive.  Enter Kent, Connecticut’s Sabin Howard.  He’s a classical realist sculptor and a damn good one.  He doesn’t celebrate the weak and the weird.  Instead of the endless modern artists who make art just to say, “look at me”, Howard’s work says, “look up.”  Instead of making his work about himself, he reminds us that there are things greater than ourselves.  Strength and courage, truth and beauty exist.  They’re real and they matter.  They’re worth creating and defending.  Next time you’re in DC, you can see them in A Soldier’s Journey his new monument honoring America’s warriors.