Chewing the fat

Last week, I decided to get my body fat measured via caliper. I decided to do this after I learned that the far reading scales can be off by as much as 5 in the measurement, and can be influenced by how hydrated you are. I also had this grand plan of dropping from 184 lbs down to 172 or so. Basically, that was my pre-Afghanistan weight, and I remember being a faster runner (sub 7-minute miles).

Anyway, my body fat measurement using the Jackson/Pollock 3 caliper method was an 8.2. That puts me in the athletic range. However, this method of measuring also has a deviation of +/- 2%. The essential fat range for men is 2-5%, and I probably want to stay away from that.

So now comes the new question: can I drop muscle mass and retain a high (if not obtain a higher) strength to weight ratio?

Some of you may ask, "Are you sure that your run time is due to your weight?" I'm pretty sure of this (unless I'm getting old, although women in bars tell me I look 24). Back in the Army, I was never much of a "runner". That is, I MAYBE got out one a week, in the spring, and ran. Also, any mandatory runs, and running during summer training.

There's always the thought of going vegan, but I like meat. And don't even try to sell me on those vegan, tofu meat-substitutes that taste like crap. Tofurky? To-fuck yourself.

Over Training

Last week, I took Friday to Sunday off from working out. I think i had to. I may have been pushing it too hard with my training. I mean, it's good to go hard in your training. But I don't think that doing it twice a day was giving me enough time to rest.

I seriously have no idea how I got through some of my workouts. It was as if once I started moving, I would be good to go. However, afterward, and into the next workout, I was run down and partially broken.

This whole upcoming tryout seems to have me running with minimum direction. No direction or known end, but running as hard as possible the entire time.

Sizing up the Competition

So, I am currently competing for a slot on one of the teams at work. Without saying too much, let's just say that this team is really physical. Thanks to the fact that many people do not know how to use BCC on email, I also know that there are 30 other individuals in the running. While that doesn't seem like much, that number is around 3% of individuals who would be eligible to apply. Seems a lot bigger now, huh? I think in personally know 8 or 9 of them.

So what do we have to do at the tryouts? No one really knows. There are no published standards, except for one shooting test, which is standard for our job. All we have is a packing list, a date, and the fact that it will take 36 hours. We were also told that water would be involved.

So you have 30 guys, all doing whatever training method that they can, with no metric to compare themselves to, outside of themselves. Some do Crossfit, Military Athlete, Ladder 25 (just heard about this today, but have no info on it), some do workouts that have been floating around and are designed for trying out for another team, which is harder to get onto. It's insane.

So you may wonder, how many slots are there for this team? I have no idea, but as far as I'm concerned, there is only one slot.

That's really the mentality that I have to go into this thing with. I mean, if there are 5 slots, you can't shoot to be the 5th best. That's just lazy. You want to coast past the others and gain a slot without any worry. You have to want to crush the competition. I'm literally sizing up the status of every other person that I came across. What's their workout, who do they know, what do they know about the workouts of others.

We're all just waiting and wondering.


And working out.

Pain Redifined

The other night, during my workout, I had to do some psychological evaluation of my definitions of pain.

Now, there are different types of pain. There's the physical type that is caused by actual damage or stress to body parts. For example, I don't use Nike sneakers, because they cause a huge amount of pain to the bottom of my foot, under the arch. Anyway...

Due to tryouts coming up in May, I have begun ramping up my physical training. What this amounts to is usually 2 workouts a day, plus martial arts training on Monday and Thursday. Physically, I'm not going to die, but I'm feeling something I haven't felt in a long time.

It's probably due to the fact that I am generally in better shape than your average person, outside of the military. When you compare yourself to the people around you, you feel really good, because they are generally out of shape. However, this leads to a level of complacency. I haven't had to push myself like this in a while, so I'm starting to hit those walls that I haven't hit. There is also the matter of learning that I can easily function through that pain, as long as I psychologically identify it for what it is: not the point of failure for my body.

As badly as this training is kicking my ass, it's necessary. I know that this year, the deck is stacked, and I know some of the people trying out. I know I have my work cut out for me.