Memorial Day Weekend, Peloton App and the Murph

Lots of things to work on today. First, tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the U.S. and I will always remember the reading by General Kelly now known as "The Last Six Seconds". It is courage like this,  in the face of certain death, that we remember on the last Monday in May.

Traditionally I have done the Murph WOD on Memorial Day. Wear the 20 lbs. vest if you have got it, body armor if you are in the military. And no Crossfit "pull-ups" damn it.... strict pull-ups that will make you suffer. We do not gimp our push-ups or squats.... why pull-ups?!

Finally, I wanted to make a plug for the Peloton App. Since my marathon I had been looking for some type of cardio work that was not too painfully boring. There was a woman at the gym that was KILLING IT on one of the spin bikes while wearing ear buds.... it was clear that she was pushing herself more than a person would on their own.... something or someone was motivating her. She told me about the Peloton App, that you could do two weeks for free and to watch the rides with Robin Arzon leading them. Super fun, very hard, great music.... check it out!

Today is a rest day prior to the morning Murph WOD tomorrow.

Have a Great Day!!

Memorial Day Weekend, the Final Pack-Up and the Workout

Memorial Day Weekend. It is easy to get wrapped up in things like I did today: "Oh crap. I have to close the bank account here in Arizona today because Monday is Memorial Day." For many Americans, Memorial Day is an inconvenience because things like the bank or post office will be closed on Monday. The reality is that we are still at war and there are still Americans dying, now fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq along with the continued fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Just last month a Navy SEAL from Phoenix died as part of a quick reaction force in Syria as he waded into combat helping to extract other American military advisers. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charlie Keating IV died a hero at a time when it is easy to forget that there are military personnel out there risking their lives every day.

I am not sure what it is going to look like here Monday on Memorial Day for the workout. We are packing everything up for an early final departure to our new home in Chattanooga on Tuesday. This includes all of the workout equipment so I am going to dedicate today's workout to all of our brave men and women out there that are serving their country and especially in memory of those who have died in that service.

I am going to modify the "Whitten" Hero workout. Since I have sent the wall ball to Chattanooga already on our moving trailer I will replace the wall ball toss with thrusters with a pair of 20# dumbbells. The workout is named for Army Captain Dan Whitten. Whiiten, 28, of Grimes, Iowa, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based out of Fort Bragg, NC. Whitten died February 2, 2010, when enemy forces in Zabul, Afghanistan attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Whitten is survived by his wife, Starr Whitten, his mother, Jill Whitten, his father, Dan Whitten, and his sister, U.S. Army Captain Sarah Whitten.

Warm-Up: Three rounds at a warm-up pace.
400m Jog
Glute Bridge, 15 repetitions
Push-Up Plank Hold, 30 seconds
Butterfly Sit-Up, 20 repetitions
Workout: "Whitten" Five Rounds For Time.
Kettlebell Swing 32kg, 22 repetitions
24" Box Jump, 22 repetitions
400 Meter Run
Burpee, 22 repetitions
Dumbbell Thruster (20# Dumbbells), 22 repetitions
Cool-Down:
400m Walk

Have a Great Day!!

Memorial Day, The Wounded Warrior Project and the Murph WOD

Today is Memorial Day. A day that most folks will spend cooking out or jumping into the community pool that just opened up.

I would however encourage everyone to take some time and reflect on the brave men and women of our armed forces who have gone off to war and either never returned, returned in a coffin or returned with a terrible life altering disability... sometimes these are dramatic and visible like burns or amputations. I think though that it is also important to remember that many of our brave men and women who went off to fight for our country have deep wounds that people may never see... traumatic brain injuries or post traumatic stress disorder. If you have the means and can find a little bit of extra money, please give. Any amount will help. I just gave $20 at Wounded Warrior Project.

It is often times easy to forget that we still have people fighting overseas. We still have people on the ground in Afghanistan, we are conducting raids into Syria and the bombing runs continue in Iraq. Please remember them today and if you are so inclined, pray for their safe return home.

Today's quote is from Francis A. Walker:

"We come not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them."

Workout: Murph WOD, Named for Navy SEAL Michael Murphy
Warm-up:
Walked with the dog for a half mile doing high knee lifts and kicks
WOD: I do these in order. No mixing it up as a circuit. I personally think this is meant to torch you with 300 squats just before the final run. Shoot for under one hour.
1 Mile Run
100 Pull-Ups (Sorry crossfitters, no kipping. Do real pull-ups)
(Primary muscles worked: Latissimus dorsi, infraspinatus, teres major, and minor)
200 Push-Ups (No kneeling, damn it!)
(Primary muscles worked: Pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps brachii)
300 Squats
(Primary muscles worked: Gluteus maximus, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, intermedius, and medialis)
1 Mile Run

Have a Great Day!!

Memorial Day and "The Last Six Seconds"

I was able to get my MURPH WOD in this morning. It was a pain in my ass but a great workout!

I wanted to share a speech given by Marine Lt. General John Kelly for Memorial Day. Kelly gave this speech to eulogize two brave Marines who did their duty and paid the price. What the speech does not say, is that Lt. General Kelly's own son was killed in combat just four days before he gave this speech:

Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 “The Walking Dead,” and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour.

Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines.

The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda. Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island.

They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America’s exist simultaneously depending on one’s race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.

The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like: “Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.” “You clear?” I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: “Yes Sergeant,” with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, “No kidding sweetheart, we know what we’re doing.” They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, al Anbar, Iraq.

A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way—perhaps 60-70 yards in length—and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck’s engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped.

Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn’t have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.

When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different.

The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event—just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I’d have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.

I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, “We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing.” The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion.

All survived. Many were injured … some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, “They’d run like any normal man would to save his life.”

What he didn’t know until then, he said, and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal. Choking past the emotion he said, “Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did.”

“No sane man.”

“They saved us all.”

What we didn’t know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.

You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: 
“ … let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.”

The two Marines had about five seconds left to live. It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were—some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.

For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines’ weapons firing non-stop... the truck’s windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers—American and Iraqi—bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe … because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber.

The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.

The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. 

Six seconds.

Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty … into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight—for you.

Enjoy your Memorial Day but don't forget why we have the day off.

The Plan for Memorial Day: Murph

I have a plan for Monday's Memorial Day workout. As you know, I have not been feeling well and I have taken the last few days off to rest for my workout on Monday. "How bad can it be?" Well, in honor of Memorial Day I plan on doing a classically challenging WOD called MURPH.

First of all, yes it is interesting that I chose a WOD named MURPH being a Murphy myself. But there is a damn good reason for it. The MURPH WOD was named after Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy who was killed while on a mission in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005. Murphy was killed when his four man SEAL team was attacked by 30 to 40 Taliban. The SEALS were engaged with the enemy and had killed a number of Taliban but all four SEALS were injured, the radioman was mortally wounded. Knowing that they needed help Murphy left cover and went into an open area while still under fire and got a satellite phone call out to their base giving them a location and a situation report. After completing the call, Lt. Murphy continued to engage the Taliban until he was also mortally wounded.

Clearly this guy is a way bigger bad ass than I am. But if you know me and my brothers and look at this guy's photo on the right.... you could plop him down in the middle of one of our Murphy family photos and he would fit right in! The resemblance is a bit crazy.

So this is the plan for Memorial Day here in the Sonoran Desert: Drag my ass out of bed before the sun comes up. Eat breakfast, hydrate and then crank out the MURPH in honor of Lt. Michael Murphy and his sacrifice. I am personally not attached to whether you time yourself or not, but the point on this day is to leave nothing on the table. Puking at the end? Likely. You puke at the end, you have gone fast enough.

1) One Mile Run- Do this as fast as you can! For those who have been keeping up here, you know that I have not been running. But, I will be going the fastest clydesdale style that I can.
2) 100 Pull-Ups- And none of these kipping nonsense pull-ups that are all the rage now. Do a real damn pull-up. Hang on the bar and pull 'til your chin clears it... no whipping around like a fish! If you have to do 20 sets of 5 good honest pull-ups, so be it.
3) 200 Push-Ups- Same as above. None count that are on the knees. Real push-ups. This dude walked into AK-47 and RPG fire... the least we can do is some good push-ups.
4) 300 Air Squats- Just get through these. I am just hoping at this point that I can count to 300!
5) Another One Mile Run.

That is the plan. No fancy equipment, no BS. Will we suffer a bit? Yeah, a bit. But then again, it will be Memorial Day.

The Wisdom of Middle Age, Exercising While Ill and Memorial Day

One of the reasons that I started this blog was to document workouts and progress. The other reason was to share ideas and thoughts about strength training and exercise for people that are middle aged like myself. One thing that I have appreciated about getting older is the judgement that I have developed over time by screwing up so much when I was younger.

If you read the last few posts you know that I have been fighting off some type of virus or bacteria that has manifested itself in the form of fever, aches and just plain old feeling crappy. Back in the day, say when I was a 19-year old, I might have actually tried to "suck it up" and continue my normal exercise routine. Now though, at 44-years old I think I have a much better sense of what is good for me.

I have developed a bit of a theory that is in no way based on anything a medical professional has advised: If I feel like I WANT to get up and exercise then I am probably able to do it. If I feel like crap and I DON'T want to get up, then I don't. The real threat the last few days with this fever that ebbs and flows between sweating profusely and being non-existent is the danger of overheating. I have been careful not to do that. Yesterday I rode the spin bike for 30-minutes and did a series of abdominal work. That was enough for yesterday.

I am contemplating resting, eating well, hydrating and hitting it hard on Monday if I am feeling better. Monday is Memorial Day here in the States. There are folks that mix up Veterans' Day and Memorial Day. Veterans' Day is when we recognize and celebrate all those people that have served this country in the military. Memorial Day is a day where we remember those members of the military who died in service to their country. For me as a former Marine and as an American, it is an important day. I am very lucky: I am in one piece physically and mentally and I was able to come home after my service. Every year I feel the need to do something to remember all those that never came home alive.

I have a workout plan for Memorial Day but I will get to that later. If I am going to pull of that workout Monday, I need to rest from this bug. See that? Hard earned middle-aged wisdom!

Have a great day!