My life goals

This is your life. And it's ending one minute at a time.

I was watching Fight Club the other day for probably the 30th time and one particular scene really stuck with me. On a rainy night, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is recklessly driving a car with the Narrator (Ed Norton) in the passenger seat and a few members of Project Mayhem in the back. As he steers the car into oncoming traffic and accelerates, Tyler asks:

What would you wish you'd done before you died?

Tyler: Guys, what would you wish you'd done before you died?
Ricky: Paint a self-portrait.
Mechanic: Build a house.
Tyler: [to Narrator] And you?
Narrator: I don't know. Turn the wheel now, come on!
Tyler: You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?
Narrator: I don't know, I wouldn't feel anything good about my life, is that what you want to hear me say? Fine. Come on!
Tyler: Not good enough.

It occurred to me that, faced with the same question, I couldn't instantly come up with an answer. And that's sad. Although I painstakingly worked out my fitness goals, I somehow had not done the same for any of my other goals. I routinely shake my head at people who head to the gym with no clear purpose defined, but to a large extent, I've gone about my whole life that way. I figured it was time for a change.

What would you wish you'd done before you died?

1. Visit every continent.
2. Sky dive.
3. Write a book.
4. Deadlift 500lbs.
5. Run a 5 minute mile.
6. Clean and Jerk 315lbs.
7. Run 400m in 55 seconds.
8. Do a planche push-up.
9. Dunk a basketball.
10. Do a backflip.
11. Become a recognizable name in the software/CS field.
12. Go into outer space and look down at the curvature of planet earth from above.
13. Survive for one month like a caveman: that is, live alone in a forest with no modern technologies or comforts.

So, that's it for now. Some of these goals I may accomplish within a year or two; others, perhaps never at all. It doesn't matter, so long as I try.

My 2010 Crossfit Goals

General
Top 20 finish in the Crossfit NorCal Sectional Qualifier (March 27/28).

Strength
Squat: 455lbs (current: 405lbs)
Deadlift: 500lbs (current: 495lbs)
OH Press: 225lbs (current: 205lbs)
Crossfit Total: 1180lbs (current: 1055lbs)
OH Squat: 255lbs (current: 245lbs)

Power
Snatch: 225lbs (current: 203lbs)
Clean: 315lbs (current: 288lbs)
Jerk: 275lbs (current: 258lbs)

Gymnastics
Consecutive ring muscle-ups: 10 (current: 4)
Consecutive full ROM HSPU: 10 (current: 2)
Consecutive pistols (per leg): 15 (current: 10)
L-sit: 1:00 (current: 0:20)

Speed
Run 40 yards: 4.5 seconds (current: ?)
Run 100m: 12.0 seconds (current: ?)
Run 400m: 1:00 (current: 1:10, track)
Run 800m: 2:30 (current: 2:50, track)
Row 500m: 1:30 (current: 1:29)

Stamina/Endurance
Run 1600m: 5:45 (current: 5:53, treadmill)
Run 5000m: 20:00 (current: 22:38, track)
Row 2000m: 7:20 (current: 7:17)

CF WoD
Fran: 2:30 (current: 3:20)
Cindy: 30 rounds (current: 28)
Mary: 15 rounds (current: 10)
Angie: 14:00 (current: 16:08)
Helen: 8:00 (current: 9:01)
Murph: 30 minutes (current: 32:29)
Eva: 42 minutes (current: 49:32)
Grace: 2:00 (current: 2:47)
Isabelle: 6:00 (current: ?)
Fight Gone Bad: 375 (current: 364)
King Kong: complete it (current: ?)

A look back at 2009

What a year it has been. I moved to CA, joined CF Sunnyvale, resolved to try to qualify for the CF Games, and got myself into the best shape of my life. I had fun going through my workout journal and seeing some of the improvements I've made:

Squat: 315 --> 405
OH Press: 165 --> 195
Deadlift: 405 --> 455
OH Squat: 165 --> 205
Power clean: 215 --> 265
Snatch: 135 --> 195
Consecutive kipping pull-ups: 30 --> 40
Consecutive air squats: 50 --> 100
Consecutive sit-ups: 60 --> 100
Fran: 5:58 --> 3:20
Murph: 40:01 --> 32:29
Cindy: 22+ rounds --> 28 rounds
Angie: 22:04 --> 16:28

2009 goals: how did I do?

Looking at my 2009 goals, they can be broken down into 4 categories:

Success
Squat 365, deadlift 455, press 195, 1000lb CFT, OH squat 205, snatch 185, clean 275, 40 consecutive pull-ups, 100 consecutive sit-ups, 100 consecutive air squats, 3:00 Fran, 28 round Cindy

Did not attempt
315 bench press, 100 consecutive push-ups, split jerk 250, 150lb weighted pull-up, King Kong

Failure
Run 400m in 1:00, run 800m in 2:30, run 1600m in 5:45, run 5000m in 20:00, Murph in 30:00

Looking at the above, the pattern is pretty clear: my CF strength/power hybrid routine did a great job of developing strength, power, muscular endurance and conditioning in interval/circuit style CF workouts. There were a few items that I never attempted due to a shoulder injury (bench press, push-ups, split jerk) or a lack of equipment (don't have a dip belt for weighted pull-ups and I was supposed to try King Kong this week, but don't have access to bumper plates). Finally, I failed on all the tasks that involved primarily monostructural cardio - in particular, running.

Treadmills are evil

I think a lot of my troubles with running can be attributed to over-reliance on treadmills, which caused a number of issues:

1. POSE technique on a treadmill is different than outside so I have a lot of form errors to fix. This is probably the biggest issue.

2. I never learned what different running speeds "feel" like since the treadmill controlled the speed for me and now I often run too fast or too slow outside.

3. I never developed the mental toughness to maintain a difficult pace and often slow down without the treadmill's constant speed to keep pushing me.

4. I thought my times were better than they really were as running on a treadmill is a lot easier.

Looking to 2010

The good news is that my weaknesses are now clear and I know what I need to do in the coming year to eliminate them. I should be able to run outside a whole lot more in CA, so I'm going to try to fit in more monostructural cardio (running and rowing) a few times per week until my technique, pacing and mental toughness improve. Given how much I hate running - which, of course, is probably the biggest reason of all why I suck at it - my workout plan for the next few months can be summarized as:

"Beatings will continue until morale improves."

Will I improve enough to stand a chance at the CF Games sectional qualifier? Meh, probably not, but it'll be fun as hell to try.