Friday, June 29, 2012

Develop Strategies for Coping

OMG could you be more general:


How you respond to the ‘craptastic’ moments is what shapes your character. Sometimes crap happens – it’s inevitable. Forrest Gump knows the deal. It can be hard to come up with creative solutions in the moment when manure is making its way up toward the fan. It helps to have healthy strategies for coping pre-rehearsed, on-call, and in your arsenal at your disposal.

Specific examples of coping strategies, please. I'm in total agreement that crap happens and that it's hard to come up with a crap management plan right then, so plan ahead. One hundred percent.

Probably the most upsetting thing that's ever happened to me was not making WCR when I first tried out. Which is probably a terrible thing to say in light of the fact that I'm the only member of my family who isn't dead, dead from cancer, or diagnosed with cancer. I'm not saying that shit wasn't upsetting, but I still got out of bed. I think when the chips are seriously down, you can't breathe and you know it's life or death and you get up. Whereas to breathe, perchance to whine, but you know what they say, In whino veritas. I didn't get out of bed for three days after those tryouts. I watched three seasons of Entourage. At the end of the week I got out of bed and told my therapist that I was tired of being handed shit and being expected to turn shit into gold, for once in my goddamned life I wanted to be handed gold. To which she said, "I bet people who get handed gold are tired of turning gold into shit." I don't know what I said to that, probably Fuck you. This was before Myra, I never say fuck you to Myra.

But it is true if you've been handed enough shit in your life, you get good at turning it into gold. Or you get good at it if you get good at it, another one of those super helpful things I like to say. And I will say that if you do get good at turning shit into gold, then you were handed gold; that, my friends, is a skill. I write comedy so if I get a handful of shit, I run with it, but in all honesty, I stand before you with my hands full of gold. (Yeah, see? That wasn't funny at all.)

Anyway without further ado, here are a few of my shit-tested strategies:

1. Do no harm

Do you know about Darmok? This is my Darmok for exactly what not to do in the moment:

Aaagh, I can't even watch it. All I have to do is flash to this scene and I know that I don't want to write that email, I mean I want to write that email more than anything else in the world and by I, I mean Satan. Satan lives for moments exactly like this. When you're vulnerable and your guard is down, that's when he gets in and makes you think that you want to do something really stupid.

2. Get deep rest

In one of her books, my favorite life coach Martha Beck tells about mishearing the word depressed as "deep rest." As a person with depression, I can tell you that these words have saved my life. The idea of depression as possibly not an adversary, but an overbearing but well-intentioned friend, has saved my life. When bad things happen, it makes you tired. When you're tired, you need rest. Sometimes depression is to let you know that you need rest.

Myra agrees with this, she says that it's totally okay to get into a funk and check out for three days and you'll get up when you get up. Yeah, I say, except you meant six weeks, right? What can I say, I was pretty much a rubber chicken after I took my exam. All I was doing was keeping the team going and watching television. No seriously, those two things. I was worried that I might be broken for good, but then the day after IKC, bing, toaster got back up, totally functional.

3. Good news, bad news, who knows

So when I'm checked out, I just think this. Good news, bad news, who knows. It is my mantra.

I think the main thing this is good for is, it's a better way to think about the universe than, say, I'm a loser. Believe me, you do not want to get it in your head that the universe has it personally out for you, because a) it's not true, and b) you can make it true. It's way more plausible and workable that the universe frankly does not give a fuck, so don't take it personally, good news, bad news, who knows, or the British version of this, Keep Calm and Carry On, and honestly, who's going to come up with a better coping strategy than that.

4. Go back to your routine

When you're ready to get up, it's good to have something to get back to. Something familiar, something that you know works. Water, morning pages, smoothie, tidy bedroom, tidy kitchen, wash up, and usually if I get that far, I'm good to go.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

SkateForm
 overview

So this summer I'm running five weeks of SkateForm, or well, I ran three weeks and now Trix is going to do two weeks of "vertical skateform," you should go. I've already written a little bit about where this practice fits in the phases and objectives of training. In short, SkateForm is a low intensity practice focusing on core awareness and endurance as applied to skating form. It's appropriate for beginning skaters or as an offseason refresher for skaters of all levels.

I often think up workouts to do with others because they're too hard to do by myself, or in the case of SkateForm too boring. Ha ha, definitely more Enya than Violent Femmes. In SkateForm, we pay a freakish amount of attention to muscles that we would never give the time of day during the season. Core muscles are like wallpaper, you don't really notice them unless they're not covering what they're supposed to. So now is when we hang wallpaper like crazy, we get five weeks and then we don't get another chance to be this self-indulgent until I don't know when again. Five weeks to establish an lightning neural connection to my core muscles, so that I can find them and fire them every which way especially up.

1a. Supine stability

We start supine, i.e., lying on our backs, to use the floor as a cue for proper body alignment. Almost all of us lie a little bit curled up where we should be flat. We start with the lower back, which is naturally arched, but arched too much in most of us, so we gently press our spine to the floor to get back to neutral. It's pretty typical for lower backs to be tight and bellies to be weak, so we work on engaging the belly to relax the back.

Then moving up, we pay attention to our shoulders. Again it's pretty typical for chests to be tight and upper backs to be weak, so you see a lot of shoulders curled up off the floor. We work on engaging the upper back, i.e., shoulder blades, to pack the shoulders back into their proper position.

1b. Supine mobility

Stability's all well and good, but it's not good for much if all we can do with it is lay around. Now that we know what stability feels like, we try to hold on to that feel while moving our arms and legs like dead bugs. I don't know why it's called dead bugs, surely dead bugs don't move—

2. Side stability and mobility

Quick turn to our side, just to reorient ourselves and reestablish stability in another position without the floor at our back. The goal is to be as flat and straight as we were with the floor at our backs, just like a plank turned on edge. Then we do some leg raises to add a mobility challenge.

3. Quadruped stability and mobility

Another turn to all fours. Reorient and reestablish stability while doing donkey kicks and fire hydrants.

4. Prone stability and mobility

Take away the support of all fours and reestablish stability in a prone position—i.e., plank. Mobility comes into play when we do pushups.

5. Standing proximal and distal mobility

I think people probably do the least standing core work, which makes no sense. When do you think you need your core the most, when you're lying on your back, which is what you're practicing when you do crunches, or when you're being all bipedal and master of the universe? Especially when you're being all bipedal and master of the universe on wheels? Yeah. If you have any other practice with me, it starts with this whole section as a warmup. We work the whole range of motion of shoulders, hips, and ankles, achieving balance through core stability.

6. Squat

Then we do squats. The thing I want you to always remember about a squat is, it starts by hinging your hips back.

7. Lunge

Then we do forward and side lunges. The thing to remember about a lunge is, it finishes by transferring your weight to the forward leg.

8. On skates standing proximal and distal mobility

We put on skates and do all of the above standing proximal and distal mobility while rolling around the track. And go big or go home, you have to be able to do everything that you can do on shoes on skates.

9. On skates squat and lunge

Then we practice squats and lunges—i.e., we do speed laps. That good skater form is a squat, which starts by hinging your hips back. Those good skater steps are lunges, which finish by transferring your weight.

10. Stretch

Finally we stretch, but I teach a different kind of stretches for SkateForm. These isn't about evenly stretching your whole body, these are long stretches that are meant to correct tightness in the chest, the lower back, and hip flexors that cause and are caused by posture imbalances.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Fruit Jar

fruit jar

I saw this idea for packing salads in a mason jar, but it's no problem for me to make up a salad whenever I want and then they're fresh. The other thing that I've been eating my bodyweight in, though, is fruit. Boy I've practically been anti-fruit, and now I can't get enough fruit. I discovered cut fruit, is what. I live by making good food as easy to eat as possible; but if you're eating four or five quarts of cut fruit per week, the plastic containers add up. I guess the bought cut fruit got me to eat fruit and now that I like fruit, I'm willing to do a little work to cut my own fruit. Bought cut fruit was a gateway fruit.

It's not like I don't already own containers I could use for cut fruit. The mason jars are cute, the better to motivate me with.

So basically three or so fruits, cut them up, throw them in the jars: watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, grapes...

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Green Salad with Eggs, Kidney Beans, and Tomatoes

green salad with eggs, kidney beans, and tomatoes

I have figured out salads! It's not a little bit of avocado on a bed of lettuce, it's a little bit of lettuce on a bed of avocado. No, seriously. A giant bed of lettuce is like mowing the lawn, a little bit of lettuce is a delicious accent. So the avocado and the lettuce are the green, then you top the green with good protein, good starch, and another good vegetable.

Really this is just last year's chopped salad with more egg and more avocado. Still.

I have a cutting board and a knife stashed at work so I can make myself fresh salads for work lunches. I bring the marinated beans in a takealong container.

a can of kidney beans
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
eggs
cherry tomatoes
an avocado
half of a romaine heart
a handful of cherry tomatoes

Rinse and drain the beans. Whisk the cider vinegar with the olive oil, and marinate the beans in the vinaigrette. If you made extra marinated beans when you made quinoa salad, you can use whatever you have and just take them out of the fridge.

Put as many eggs as you want in a saucepan, cover them with water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let stand for ten minutes, then run under cold water. Peel and slice two eggs.

Slice the tomatoes if you don't like cherry tomatoes bursting in your mouth.

Halve, pit, peel, and dice the avocado, and chop the romaine. Make a bed of green, then top with sliced eggs, marinated beans, and sliced tomatoes.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Horizons and Summer Chart

I have a new tool! Horizons of Focus, from GTD. I adjusted his horizons to my idiosyncrasies, your mileage may vary as always.

horizons

Apron

Did you know that where the plane parks and refuels is called the apron? I found this out by googling "what is the place before the runway where a plane goes." I am ridiculous, but parking and refueling is a perfect metaphor. I always want to keep in mind that I'm an organism that needs to sleep and eat.

Runway

I'm also an organism subject to the second law of thermodynamics, order naturally decaying to disorder unless I keep up with chores: making the bed, doing the dishes, sorting the laundry, making the grocery list, cleaning the bathroom, tidying the front room, paying bills. This is also known as the "buttoning and unbuttoning" level; this work is always, constantly, getting done and undone. If I don't keep up, things fall apart and it's a disaster. Sometimes, though, it seems like that's all there is, and I get depressed. So it's best to be efficient here, so you can level up!

10,000

This level in my scheme is tasks, meaning all the tasks for projects I have to do. Tasks are different than chores to me. Chores are Sisyphean. With tasks, there's a sense of progress.

20,000

Now we're getting a little bit up in the sky, this level is where I look at the all the projects I have to do: prioritize them by urgency or importance, and plan what tasks I have to do to get them done. I look at projects once a week when I review and plan.

30,000

Since I don't have a job, I don't have much to do on this level. When I do, I will look at this once a month.

40,000

I don't even know if I will end up working for a company. If I do, I will look at this once a quarter.

50,000

This is where I look at my life. I will look at this once a year, probably this would be a good Winterval exercise.

So for example, I looked at my life a little over a year ago and decided that I really did need to make my living doing something that I felt connected to and that for the past four or five years I've really liked being a trainer. So then back down to 20,000, getting my certification became my project. Then I spent a year at 10,000, where my tasks were study, study, and study. And now that I've gotten my certification, my new project is getting a job and my first task is to do my resume. [ETA: And go on my first interview. Aaand get my first rejection.]

Hey look, I didn't have to break this into seven different posts! Succinct!

Here is my chart of many colors:

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
front room bedroom
kitchen
WORK
 
bedroom
kitchen
WORK
 
bedroom
kitchen
SkateForm
Review & Plan HOBBY WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
bathroom
 
Referee
kettlebell
HOBBY  PASTIME
 
KettleBox
MMS
RowStrike
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
PASTIME
 
Agility
 
PASTIME
 
C Team
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

Now I think of every day as rolling out from the apron onto the runway up to 10,000 feet. How high is that? Is that high enough for an actual plane? I don't hardly get higher than that, I only get to 20,000 feet once a week. But I felt like I was driving my plane back and forth between the apron and the runway for most of April and May, I'm delighted to be off the ground at all. You know that feeling, when you're on a plane, when you can feel that the plane is on the ground and then it's off the ground? That's how I feel.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer Food Plan

I started on my summer food plan in the last third of spring, spring was terrible. I was living for bagels and sandwiches with chips and coke at work, and chicken tortas at home. I didn't sleep a wink the night before playoffs, had pancakes with syrup for bout day breakfast—I mean, I also had an omelet—and for bout fuel I drank down a 20 oz Coke. Which, you know, will do in a pinch. When you're on the carb rollercoaster though, you definitely feel like you're in the grip of something and I don't like that.

So I decided to clean it up, and I decided to be my best client and not do the opera about the bagel. The opera about the bagel is the drama that goes with making bad food choices, you think you're addicted to the food but you're addicted to the drama. I think you can read more about this in David Kessler's The End of Overeating. Which I have not actually read, I read an excerpt and ran with it. Nobody cares what you eat, Munt, so don't be a drama queen about it. If you want to clean it up, clean it up and no crying.

Clean it up means I'm eating almost all whole foods, hardly anything packaged. No sugar, so obviously no Coke and also no sweetie tea as dilute as that is. I have unsweetened tea in the fridge now, or I drink water, or black coffee. Quinoa and beans are my starch, and sometimes I eat potatoes. I could eat rice, but quinoa is faster. No pasta, no bread. Lots of protein, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

Still fits with my basic guideline for eating around workouts:

BEFORE
complex carbs &
light protein

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE
simple carbs
 
WORKOUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
simple carbs &
light protein
AFTER
complex carbs &
heavy protein
BETWEEN
complex carbs &
heavy protein

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes, before/after means within 1-3 hours, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts.

Summer is:

  • Dinner - complex carbs with light protein - quinoa salad with beans and raw vegetables
  • Workout Drink - simple carbs - CocoOJ2O
  • Post-Workout Snack - complex carbs with light protein - fruit salad and cottage cheese
  • Breakfast - complex carbs and heavy protein - power smoothie
  • Lunch - complex carbs and heavy protein - green salad with eggs, chicken or fish

I mean, eh, "simple," "complex," "light," "heavy," the basic rule is eat easier-to-digest foods closer to (before and after) your workouts, and more complicated foods further away. It's sort of relative, so like you could eat, say, pasta between workouts and, well, I've read one sports nutritionist who says that if you're going to eat candy, save it for before and after your workouts. Or you might eat whole wheat pasta or bread between workouts and white pasta or bread before and after. I'm not really eating pasta or bread at the moment, I eat fiber carbs (vegetables) between workouts and starch carbs (whole grains and beans) before and after. And also, do you see, this is an okay strategy for upgrading your carbs over time. If you want.

But anyway this is the simplest I've ever eaten, and simplest means the easiest. I feel like when you read a book off the prelim list, and it's so juicy. Like watermelon which I've been eating a lot of lately, who knew it was so sweet! Nothing is work, and everything tastes so good. "Recipes" TK.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Summer Fitness Plan

It used to be that summer was break for home team skaters, but last year I planned a little bit of a postseason schedule and this year I planned a little bit of a postseason schedule and training planned a little bit of a C team, and that's been shaking itself out. But I'll tell you the best thing I did this season was extend postseason through August so preseason starts after Labor Day, so here's my next twelve weeks:

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
front room bedroom
kitchen
WORK
 
bedroom
kitchen
WORK
 
bedroom
kitchen
SkateForm
Review & Plan HOBBY WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
bathroom
 
Referee
kettlebell
HOBBY
 
PASTIME
 
KettleBox
MMS
RowStrike
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
PASTIME
 
Agility
 
PASTIME
 
C Team
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

I'm training new ref trainers, so I actually only have a few ref practices. Most Sundays I have recruited the sweetie man to let me drag him around the schoolyard with a bicycle tube, then I finish with MBody Strength's beginner kettlebell density workout:

I love this guy, he's so cheerful. I did his earlier beginner kettlebell workout for the better part of home season, his easy workouts are easy to pick up. I'm working up to his hard workouts!

Agility and SkateForm are part of the postseason that I planned. More about SkateForm TK!

Then I have another kettlebell workout with Box to work on functional movement and form.

C Team is going to be one, maybe two practices per week? Every third Wednesday we have mixed meat scrimmage, which is also part of the postseason I planned.

I also lost my head and bought a youswoop for RowFit Chicago for a song, $66.00 for twenty-five classes that I have to use by the end of August i.e., by the end of postseason. Which I bought because I didn't know what league practices were planned for postseason, but Poppy, you're the one who plans league practices. Why didn't you ask... you? And now I have a more than full schedule even without C team, what was I thinking. Sometimes you do things without thinking for a reason, though. I've been doing the rowing and striking bootcamp, striking as in hitting things with your FISTS. Which is the BOMB.

p: i think i sprained both pinkies.
p: meh, i don't need my hands for anything.

This changes halfway through summer, when agility becomes blocking and SkateForm becomes SkateFit!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Trust My Navigation

p: a frog and a bear, seeing america!

p: i'm the frog, and you're the bear!

p: or do you think you're the frog and i'm the bear?

p: i think i'm the bear!

p: do you want to be the bear?

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Excellent Fancy

odie reading in bed

Ha ha ha, I found Odie reading in bed.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Bout Day Breakfast
 Ivy King Cup Championship: MA vs TF

fried eggs on potato bean cakes, spinach, and peppers with coffee and OJ

Fried eggs on potato bean cakes, spinach, and peppers with coffee and OJ

More bout day breakfasts!


Friday, June 1, 2012

Aintcha Got No Rhymes For Me

p: i have classes on my rowfit schedule now.

m: yes?

p: i'm signed up for that elements class.

m: good.

p: and i signed up for striking and rowing bootcamp.

m: what is striking and rowing bootcamp?

m: picketing and shit?

p: haha, yeah.

m: occupy rowfit.

p: HELL NO, WE WON'T ROW!