Who the Fck invented Burpees?

The Burpee is named for a physiologist named Royal Huddleston Burpee. For his Ph.D. thesis at Columbia University in 1940, he invented the exercise as a way to assess the fitness of non-active adults. Burpee made participants perform only four Burpees at a time, and he actually specified that the movement should not be performed for a high number of repetitions. He was testing  generally unfit people and he warned that Burpees could be harmful to the knees and back and detrimental to those without proper core strength.

Well, F you Royal Burpee!

Okay, not really, but man, they are HARD.  As the NYX Endurance athlete prepares for September BINGO, we are ramping up your burpees.  See, depending on which card you chose or which card your coach chose for you,  there is a day with 100, 200 or 400 burpees in one day.  Right? You can all thank Laura for this insanity. 

So we are training for our day of burpees.  Much like we are building up to 200/500 or 1000 squats, 100/250 or 350 push-ups, each week we add more so when the DAY comes we crush them, don't get injured and possible just survive.

Personally, I am absorbing the squats, push-ups, wall sits, planks pretty well but not the burpees they still feel just as hard as day 1.   Why is that?  Because they target your entire body- upper, lower and core + cardio.  The cardio + lung workout is a bonus.  They are anaerobic, the respiratory and circulatory systems are working hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the muscles, that is what HURTS SO GOOD.  I have found if you yell FU Larua, that helps a bit. 

When recently asked,  'will this help my Ironman?" The answer is yes!  Going anaerobic is good, and something few triathletes do ever and think how easy other strength moves feel after burpees.  

And in case you were wondering what the Guinness Record?  The most burpees in 12 hours is 5,657.  So NYX Bingo players, NO COMPLAINING on your burpee day.    

 

 

 

Anger, fear, frustration, accepance

I wrote a blog on 4/5 about where you are in the COVID process. If you missed it here, it is.   Honestly, at that time, early in this process, we all assumed that by now, we would be back to "normal."  

Clearly, we are NOT!   For me personally, I have accepted the canceled race season, let's face it, there will no significant races in 2020, but there are some small local races, there is a way to race if you really want to.  I'm finding that most of my athletes and most of the athletes at NYX Endurance are not holding out for a race this year.  

What I do see is that we are athletes, we want to remain fit, we are motivated to train!  And we can create our OWN fun, get stronger along the way and crush goals.  My coaching has evolved from periodized training, tapering, and racing to working with each athlete to find what they want to do, what excites them, what scares them, what do they want! 

Me personally, I started by creating some personal goals; running 5.4.24, running 5 hours every 4 hours for 24 hours in April,  May was Everesting, climb 29,029 feet in one day on my bike, and then I was planning 4.4.48, and I broke my toe!  Plans changed, I rolled into 10K swims, monster days on the bike, pivoting to have fun and keep going.  What started out as my why, were soon embraced by most of our athletes, in one form or another. The camaraderie, goals, and finish line "feels" were there.  

Now, we have a goal to create challenges everyone can do, we have options so each person has their own goals!   We grew into this and its the best thing ever! 

Along the way through this pandemic, I co-founded a fantastic company!  NYX Endurance with 2 other coaches who inspire me every day.   NYX is a COVID baby, and I am thankful for that.   We are building something really cool, and what we are seeing, triathlon is not just swim bike run.  Its community!   It caring about each other, supporting each other and stepping out.  So without races, we have close to 50 athletes training and embracing our crazy ideas!

September is BINGO, we have JV and Varsity.  25 squares of fun and adventure.  Everything from 2 hours of stairs with a weighted backpack to a fast 1 mile run to 1000 squats to 100 mile rides to a 70.3 in one day to max 1 min power to 15 min of single-leg bike drills.  Some squares are quick and fun, others are a big ask.   We created a JV and a Varsity Card, so if 1000 squats are too much, you can choose another option. Don't want to do the swim row, don't.   Every athlete chose a card, JV, or Varsity and then worked with their coach to decide how many rows/columns they wanted to tackle!   And of course, there is the Black Out option. 

 Everyone has their OWN path, we took August to train for this.   So we have workouts that include 400 squats in one day, stair climbs, push-ups all day, and more.   A mantra of NYX embraces the darkness, so we have a run in the dark. 

Because we realize not everyone wants or needs a coach, or maybe they have a coach who is less fun and creative,  we offer the NYX MOB, join for $10 a month, and you can play BINGO along with us, and join all future challenges.   Our goal is to push some to the extreme, motivate some to do more than they have before or to offer just enough to keep others moving.   We even have an app to keep track of, thanks to the wickedly talented Alison! 

As a coach, this is incredibly fun!  We are training for events, executing events, and getting strong!   SAF strong as fuck  Thanks to Laura, who is a strength monster, hence the 1000 squats!   Coached athletes and MOB members get access to a free coached Zoom Strength session every Thursday, led by Laura.   

I had to write this blog today to remind me how excited I am.  I woke up in a foul mood, frustrated with the f'up situation we are in with COVID, as you may or may not now, my other business is contracting meetings and events.  What hat means now is canceling and moving meeting, which I am going to say, simply sucks!   I do see some hope in 2021, but getting there is rough.

So to plan for BINGO, work alongside coaches who motivate the fuck out me, is why I have a smile on my face now!  

We have so much fun, pain, and suffering planned for the rest of the year!.

We have a small group doing R2R2R on 10/10!  And then I need to embrace the darkness and knock out 4.4.48 the infamous David Goggins event. Run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. 

The tale of the stolen sign

We have had this sign for a few months, happily sitting in our front yard.  Friday, I was driving home from my weekly Social Justice Run,  Run4Breonna, when John called and asked if I noticed our sign was missing? 

What, NO, I had not noticed.

He went to our cameras and we quickly found the feed of the thief.  Car drives by, U-turn to the front of our house, conversation with passenger, and he gets out, rips the sign out of the yard and puts in his backseat.  WHAT?  Let me go back a few weeks, this same car, stopped one afternoon and left a note in our library, on a cocktail napkin, that said All Lives Matter.

Clerly we have a racist in our hood and now he is stealing.

So we went to work.

1- Poste a video and 4 clears shots of the car and the man, stealing our sign, asking for help in identifying him.

2 - Ran the neighborhood the next day  and aha!  John fondd the car in a driveway.

3- With the help on the internet, one you have an address you have a name and off he went.

4- Next we paid $4.99 on ReverseWhitePages and found a phone number.

5- Meanwhile NextDoor has blown up, eventually topping at 181 comments and it was insane,  No one identified the culprit but man there were many many tangents and it got ugly. Politics, racism, accusations, name calling and it went on and on.

6- Called the number, no answer, shocking.

7 -Sent a text and asked him to call Julie Dunkle.

8- 3 hours later a call comes in from a blocked number and it was HIM!  He immediately apologized, no excuses, took ownership and says he put an apology in the mail wtih $20 to replace the sign.   

9- I accepted his apology and did not engage further.

10- He asked how we found him?   Ah video cameras + internet and it was not hard.

11- He then asked if I would take the post down.    

So, that tells me, someone in the neighborhood saw the post, recognized him and reached out to him.  While NextDoor can be out of control, it did the job!  Sure we found him but I am guessing his response to me would have been a bit different without the public shaming.

Many on NextDoor wanted to put Social Justice and BLM signs in his yard, expose his name and address and more.  But I updated my post with " We have found the individual who stole the sign and have come to a peaceful resolution"   I left that up for a while but eventually deleted the entire post as it was out of control.   

To say I was shocked, minimized that for sure.  I am relieved and feel confident that this individual will think twice before he says  All Lives Matter and I am confident he will not be stealing signs.    

Of the 181 comments, that was about 60 people and 90% of them were cordial and rational so I am feeling good about my neighborhood.  I dont mind people with differing opinions or politics, but I do mind hate speech, name calling and beligerat behaviour.

Thank you Encinitas4Equality!  

FORM Goggles for Open Water

I was gifted a pair of FORM Goggles literally days after the pools shut down from COVID.   With great anticipation, I waited for the pools to re-open, while the goggles collected dust.  I used them while swimming tethered and it seemed the clock was slow, but really it just a testament to how boring it is to swim in place.  People complain about a treadmill, swimming tethered is 10x worse.

I digress.  I was able to be a part of the beta test for the FORM Open Water Swimming upgrade. I was excited.  The initial pairing, app, etc was a bit of a challenge for those of us who don't live in the tech world, but I figured it out and now it is quite easy using the app store, etc.  

I programmed my goggles to show running time, and then to cycle through distance, pace per 100 and average pace.   

1- the only time I would really want this data is in an Ironman and well at this rate the next race will be in 2022, so by then I bet the kinks will be worked out

Swim 1- paired my goggles and headed to the water.  Started on my watch and off I went.  For 4 minutes I could see all my data and I ran into my swim partner and a buoy, distracted much?  Suddenly it lost signal, hmm, I trod water and stopped my watch and restarted and nothing.   So for the next 41 minutes, I could see a timer but no other data.  I hit 2 more buoys and my ran into my partner twice.  I was not impressed.

Swim 2- upgrade to app and firmware and I am ready to go, swimming alone, less hazardous and my partner was "busy" LOL.   Paired up and off I went, I had full data for 11 minutes and it was interesting to see the pace and distance.  I decided that current pace needed to go and all I wanted was average pace, distance, and time.  Well, when I turned I lost everything so it did not really matter what I wanted to see.   My brain began to adjust to the running clock and I did not collide with anything.   Reported back and was told that likey the issue was bi-lateral breathing.   Well, I am not about to change my stroke for more data.

Swim 3- I changed my mind, I will change my stroke (for this test) and breath, right side only.  For 12 minutes I had data, time/distance/average pace per 100 which started at 2:20 and jumped to 1:05.  Now I love the goggle, see how fast I am going (LOL), and then nothing, disconnected.  Now my neck is sore from breathing on one side only and I still don't have any data.

0-3 and I am out.  I see now they have launched the  OW Upgrade. Well best of luck. 

2- these are pricey,  so I would put them under your cap because if a wave knocked them off, your race just got even more expensive.   Plus you will need to think about throwing them in T1, not that I do that. I carefully wrap up my gear and put it away.

3- If we ever have a mass start or a race, I'd hate to have them knocked off.

4- Wear these a LOT as it takes your brain a while to get used to the numbers running on the side.

5- Pool use- I have only been back in the pool twice and I was already worried about the walls and flip turns after 5 months of OW swimming.  But I will give them a go next week and see how I like that.

I enjoy coming into the wall and looking at the clock and either being happy or sad when I see the number.   My first pool swim I was so confused when I did my first 200, I was sure I swam a 2:44-46 and I saw a x9 and at first, was "yes"  2:39 but then I realized it was 2:49, I had to really sit for a minute and realize oh ok, I missed the send-off and was much slower than I thought.  Maybe that OW swimming is not translating to pool fitness, or maybe it was my first pool swim.   Who knows.... its not like I have a race to worry about.

 Another Review 

In other news, my toe is healing and I am running!   Man, I am happy about that... I am SAF (sore as fuck and slow as fuck)  but that is okay!  I am running, did I mention that.  

And I have big big news....but that is another post!  #embracethedarkness