Keeping Edge...

"My lifestyle determines my deathstyle."
--Metallica

So I'm doing my best to maintain my peak or "edge" before the RKC. This is the hardest part for me--NOT training hard and NOT throwing down. I love the throw downs Comrades! I've been feeling lethargic and soft the last week from scaling down my training intensity. I was getting dejected about it and thinking about calling Guro John RKC today for moral support then decided to hit the park for some heavy metal in small but VIOLENT and CONTROLLED doses...violence in this case is just related to my explosive training...it's actually a good thing if you are not familiar with kettlebell training.

I've been challenged this summer like no other time before. Easy compared to our soldiers in the Middle East, but challenging for state side and me. My life has been a series of knockdowns and getting up off the mat. This summer no exception. On the positive flip side, I was provided the most loyal Comrades I could ever hope to meet through the RKC. Second to none. Loyal. They have honor. In the end, the universe provides!

Tonight! Short but tight. Discipline needed to be maintained to save my hands and body. Started with some dynamic warm ups then proceeded to a gut check of 3:00 straight with the 24kg two-arm swings...HARD style. I shredded them like no other time before. I got to 3:00 and was ready to go to 5:00 but stopped anyway. Amazing because it was not that long ago that 1:00-2:00 nearly dropped me in vomit. Did some quick sets of 24kg snatches. Sets of 10-20. Totalling about 60 in all. Felt okay, but decided to go back to basics with swings. Tried one set of 20 but felt soft. Scaled back to sets of 10 at the top of each minute for 15:00. Lots of hip drive and crispness.

On the last sets, I could feel a switch turning on in my body and spirit. By the last set of 10 tears swelled my eyes, and I flashed back through my life this summer with all its challenges both good and bad...I released the absolute most violent and controlled set of ballistic swings in my last 15 months of kettlebells. Tearing the heads off people that have tried and failed to take me down and proving to myself that I'm still here and still ALIVE. Something happened that has never happened before...the swings were so hard and so violent that my lungs emitted a sort of "barking" sound like I was exorcising "unhealthy" demons...the people at the park probably thought it was true...maybe it was true indeed...it wouldn't be the first time I purged myself of demons through high intensity fitness and sweat.

Once again I line up against people half my age. My base is the High-Performance Health of Wellness, strong work ethic, and passion for what I believe in. Another challenge sure. I love the throw downs. I'm a heavy metal guy. Like Metallica's view above, I'll live by heavy metal and die by heavy metal...so be it. I'd rather die fighting than fading away weak and broken. Weakness is not my style.

In spirit from a HOT SoCal, Coach RJ!