Training Log

Last week to week and a half have been shit for sleep, so I was thinking of taking a week or so off, but the last couple nights I've been diligent about getting to bed early, and I'm feeling good, so I'm going to start up the last 3 week cycle this week to finish strong. I was thinking about waiting until Wednesday or so, but since I'm feeling good, I'll just plow ahead. It's kind of amazing to me to even think that way - probably as recently as a year ago, I don't think I mentally could have gotten past the roadblock of not starting a training week on a Monday. Ah, stupidity. 
In any event, did some conditioning on Saturday. I haven't been doing much outside of playing basketball on Tuesday nights and very occasionally running sprints. So I decided to try the Jim Wendler conditioning test - basically, he says he wants to always be "in shape" enough that he can do 10 40-yard prowler pushes, with a 45 on each handle, with 1 minute rest between sprints. Well, it sure as shit wasn't easy, but I did it somehow. I can also honestly say performance didn't decline much, as pretty much every sprint was right around 10 seconds.
It was, honestly, as much a mental exercise as physical. I watched a video Friday that was a speech delivered by a Navy SEAL to the Oakland Raiders from about 8 years ago. In it, he talks about when he was going through the training, they have a saying that goes something to the effect of, "If I have a beat in my heart, I'm not dead, and if I have a thought running through my head, I can't think to quit." I'm sure I butchered that, but he also notes that it was to long to think of during training, so he shortened it to "Not dead, Can't quit." This was, quite literally what was running through my head.


After 7 - wanted to quit, but couldn't
After 8 - same
After 9 - shit, you've made it this far, you better fucking finish


I say none of this to show I'm a badass - I'm sure as shit not. It's much more so to show that your mind is ridiculously powerful. I know that part of the reason I got through it was knowing that I only had 10 of them to do. So my mind did sort of wonder after - what if I had 20? Would I have made it? That may be a challenge for another day.
One last quote that I recall seeing recently went something like, "every day that you do not challenge yourself is a wasted day." Obviously this doesn't have to be physical, but as with everything, pushing our boundaries is where change and growth happen. Find a way to push your limits physically and mentally, and take the opportunity to grow.