Unbroken

Happy Memorial Day? Hell yeah.

Reflecting

This world is for the living.  We should live it up good and hard.  We should exuberantly celebrate all there is to celebrate.  This long weekend we Americans should go someplace beautiful, surrounded by those we most love and do something loud, wet, and dangerous with exquisite horsepower and dismal gas mileage.  Have fun.  The phrase “happy Memorial Day” isn’t quite right but have a happy long weekend this Memorial Day. 

This is not ignoring our heroic dead who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.  This is living freely.  Living a life worthy of their sacrifice.  We don’t need to stay grim to prove to the dead that we are not frivolous.  Between grim and frivolous, we can be resolute.  They fought with unwavering purpose and determination.  We can be resolute in all things – working and playing and when necessary fighting.  No equivocation, shirking, performative apologizing, or pandering to faddish hostility to patriotism.  They gave their lives for the greatest nation on Earth and the hope for all free men.  We honor their names and sacrifices by living as fully as they would want us to — happy, resolute, and defiant.

Training

And we keep their names alive.  Reflect on their lives as well as deaths. I will remember. I will be honoring Lt. Michael P. Murphy (far right) the same way I do each year.

He is but one example. He was exactly my age and would still be going hard today if he could. We still can.  So don’t just “do Murph” this weekend.  Do it how he did.  Do it how he would if he could do it today.  Time to strap on the weight vest.

Tomorrow morning’s run:

Fueling

Cloud eggs:

Supplementing

I need to get new bloodwork done before going back on supplements.  Amazon’s (AMZN) One Medical just opened up a short walk from my home and it is quite convenient for comprehensive blood panels. 

Measuring

These blood pressure readings seem highly sensitive to my stress on any given day:

Recovering

I’m feeling well on my way to recovering from my pulmonary embolisms (this is more me being tired of my doctors than the doctors agreeing with my prognosis).  But I still need to make good quality decisions.  I am doing as much as I can for as long as I can in the gym and on the trails, but not able to reengage in MMA or mountains.  Contact is a problem (head trauma risk on blood thinners) as is being inaccessible for modern hospitals that I still require on a too regular basis.  So I’ve had to decline some epic trips, but hope I can start saying yes to everything I want to before too long. 

Closing

I’m still a lot weaker and slower than a year ago.  I’m not really competitive at the things I care about the most.  But there has been a little spark recently.  Without the strength or speed, I’ve been trying to use my coaching and time better, to really get what they’re saying because there’s no hope in me sloppily willing my way past other athletes.  I’ll lose anyway.  So I might as well do it right. 

My rowing is improving.  At half the effort I’m producing around three quarters of the output.  My toes to bar is improving and my work on the rings is coming together.  In each case, I’m not trying to do everything at once and just letting the movements flow, not interrupting my catch rowing, getting way behind the bar for toes to bar, and angling far more back on ring muscle ups.  I used to go way too abruptly and couldn’t string any of these together, but I’m just starting to rebuild a rhythm where I can row better and do toes to bar unbroken.