Friday 12.31.10

Wake Up:
7:15am

Devotion:

Workout:
WOD: The End

Warm Up:

• Sandbag Complex: 2 rounds for quality
• 10 Deadlift (100 lb bag)
• 10 Bent over row (100 lb bag)
• 10 Power Clean (50 lb bag)
• 10 Front Squat (50 lb bag)
• 10 Kneeling military press (50 lb bag)
• 10 Back Squat (50 lb bag)
• 10 Pushup (hand release at bottom)

Work Capacity: Diane w/ a twist

• 21-15-9 (10:40)
• Deadlift (100 lb bag)
• Kneeling military press (50 lb bag)
• Backsquat (50 lb bag)
• Burpees
• Weighted situps (50 lb bag)
• Notes: Very pleased with the work capacity. Everything was done unbroken.

Stamina:

• Mnt Athlete Hamstring Hell: 3 rounds (each leg)
• 10 poor mans leg curl
• 10 donkey kick
• Jakes Plank Complex: 1 round for quality
• Mnt Athlete Leg Blaster: 2 rft w/ 30 sec rest between rounds. (1:09 and 1:12)
• 20 Squats
• 20 Lunges (10 each leg)
• 20 Jumping lunges (10 each leg)
• 10 Jumping squats

Mobility:

• HAM hip mobility: 2 rounds for quality (each leg)
• HUG hip mobility: 2 rounds for quality (each leg)
• Active stretch including various yoga poses for hamstrings

Durability:

• Snowshoe (62 min in 5 degree weather)

Thursday 12.30.10

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. (Psalm 138:7)

I have called on God in the day of trouble; I have pleaded His promise of deliverance but no deliverance has been given; the enemy has continued oppressing until I was in the very thick of the fight, in the center of trouble.

Though His answer has so long delayed, though we may still continue to go on in the midst of trouble, the center of trouble is the place where He revives, not the place where He fails us. When in the hopeless place, the continued hopeless place, is the very time when He ill stretch forth His hand against the wrath of our enemies and perfect that which concerneth us, the very time when He will make the attack to cease and fail and come to an end. What occasion is there then for fainting?

The Eye of the Storm
Fear not that the whirlwind shall carry thee hence,
Nor wait for its onslaught in breathless suspense,
Nor shrink from the whips of the terrible hail,
But pass through the edge to the heart of the gale,
For there is a shelter, sunlighted and warm,
And Faith sees her God through the eye of the storm.
The passionate tempest with rush and wild roar
And threatenings of evil may beat on the shore,
The waves may be mountains, the fields battle plains,
And the earth be immersed in a deluge of rains,
Yet, the soul, stayed on God, may sing bravely its psalm,
For the heart of the storm is the center of calm.
Let hope be not quenched in the blackness of night,
Though the cyclone awhile may have blotted the light,
For behind the great darkness the starts ever shine,
And the light of God's heavens, His love shall make thine,
Let no gloom dim thine eyes, but uplift them on high,
To the face of thy God and blue of His sky.
The storm is thy shelter from danger and sin,
And God Himself takes thee for safety within;
The tempest with Him passeth into deep calm,
And the roar of the winds is the sound of the psalm.
Be gald and serene when the tempest clouds form;
God smiles on His child in the eye of the storm.

Workout:
WOD: Kona

Work Capacity:

• 130 pushups
• 100 squats
• 100 situps

Notes: short on time. This week has been so busy my workouts have really suffered. 

Wednesday 12:29:10

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:


Workout: Took another day of rest and recovery. Body is pretty beat up and just did not have time as the week has been extremely busy. Sleep and nutrition has been extremely poor last couple of days. Looking to get back on the horse tmrw with nutrition, sleep amounts and workouts.

Tuesday 12.28.10

Wake Up:
4:30 am

Devotion:
His neck was put in irons. (Ps 105:18)

The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as a youth, and the souls struggle against sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude. And these traits make up the indispensable foundation and framework of noble character.

Never run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently, and submissively, with the assurance that it is God's way of instilling iron into your spiritual life. The world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies, iron tendons, and muscle of steel. But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no way to impart iron into His people's moral nature except by letting them suffer, He allows them to suffer.

Are the best years of your life slipping away while you suffer enforced monotony? Are you afflicted with opposition, misunderstandings, and the scorn of others? Do your afflictions seem as thick as the undergrowth confronting someone hiking through the jungle? Then take heart! Your time is not wasted, for God is simply putting you through His iron regimen. Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your sould to make it strong and brave.

But you will not mind the roughness, nor the steepness of the way,
Nor the cold, unrested morning, nor the heat of the noonday;
And you will not take a turning to the left or the right,
But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night,
For the road leads home.

Workout:
WOD: Rest and Recovery

Monday 12.27.10

Wake Up:
5:30

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. (Zech 4:6)

I have only to get in touch with Him and to maintain communication with Him, though it may be only one little finger of faith, and that will be enough to make His power mine for the doing of this bit of service that just now seems too much for me. And I was helped to dismiss my weariness and to realize this truth.

Abandoned
Utterly abandoned to the Holy Ghost!
Seeking all His fulness at whatever cost;
Cutting all the shore-lines, launching in the deep,
Of His mighty power, strong to save and keep.
Utterly abandoned to the Holy Ghost!
Oh! the sinking, sinking, until self is lost!
Until the emptied vessel lies broken at His feet;
Waiting till His filling shall make the work complete.
Utterly abandoned to the will of God;
Seeking for no other path than my Master trod;
Leaving ease and pleasure, making Him my choice,
Waiting for His guidance, listening for His voice.
Utterly abandoned! no will of my own;
For time and for eternity, His, and His alone;
All my plans and purposes lost in His sweet will,
Having nothing, yet in Him all things possessing still.
Utterly abandoned! tis so sweet to be
Captive in His bonds of love, yet so wondrous free;
Free from sin's entanglements, free from doubt and fear,
Free from every worry, burden, grief or care,
Utterly abandoned! oh, the rest is sweet,
As I tarry, wating, at His blessed feet;
Waiting for the coming of the Guest divine,
Who my inmost being shall perfectly refine.
Lo! He comes and fills me, Holy Spirit sweet!
I, in Him, am satisfied! I, in Him, complete!
And the light within my soul shall nevermore grow dim
While I keep my covenant... Abandoned unto Him!
---Author Unknown---

Workout:
WOD: Barber

Warm Up:

• Body Weight Complex: 2 rfq
• 30 Mnt Climbers
• 20 Pushups
• 10 Groiners
• 5 Burpee

Work Capacity: (14:58)

• 21-15-9: Hanging Squat Clean, Upright Row
• 50 Burpee
• 9-15-21: Military Press, Suitcase Crunch (full ROM)

Notes: Squat cleans and upright rows were done unbroken, burpees were hell as usual, especially after poor diet during the holidays. Military press were very tough especially after the burpees. 

Mobility:

• Sealfit Hip Mobility
• Pause Squat (1 min)

Durability:

• Snowshoe (60 min)

Sunday 12.26.10

Wake Up:
8:00 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
Sit here while I go over there and pray. (Matthew 26:36)


It is a very difficult thing to be kept in the background during a time of crisis. In the Garden of Gethsemane, eight of the eleven remaining disciples were left behind to do nothing. When Jesus went ahead to pray, Peter, James, and John went with Him to watch, but the rest sat down to wait. I believe that the ones left behind must have complained. They were in the garden, but that was all, for they had no part in the cultivation of its flowers. It was a story time of crisis and great stress, yet they were not allowed to participate.

Perhaps you have seen a great opportunity for Christian service arise, and some people are sent immediately to the work, while still others are being trained to go. yet you are forced to do nothing but sit and wait. Or perhaps sickness and poverty has come your way, or you have had to endure some terrible disgrace. Whatever your situation, you have been kept from service, and not you feel angry and do not understand why you should be excluded from this part of the Christian life. It seems unjust that you have been allowed to enter the garden but have found no path assigned to you once inside.

Be still, dear soul... things are not what they seem! You are not excluded from any part of the Christian life. Do you believe that the garden of the Lord only has places for those who walk or those who stand? No! It also has a place set apart for those who are compelled to sit. Jesus is delighted by the sight of us. For through our mere fragrance and beauty , we have brought Him joy. An just our existence and the preservation of His law has lifted our Masters heart.

Workout:
WOD: Test Day

Warm Up:

• Snowshoe (Approx 1 hour 15 min)

Work Capacity:

• Grappling Complex: 3 rounds for quality
• Use two 35 lb db's resting only long enough to complete each round w/out putting db's down
• 8 bent over row
• 8 upright row
• 8 military press
• 8 split squats (each leg)
• 8 squats
• 8 military press
• 8 rdl
• Test
• 2 min max situps: 
• 100
• 2 min max pushups:
•  115 
• Notes
• Disappointed in situps was aiming for 110-115
• Pleased with pushups, especially after all shoulder work in the WC portion previous.

Durability:

Mobility:

Saturday 12.25.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
8:00 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert

Workout:
WOD: 

Warm Up:

• Snowshoe on lake (45 min)

Work Capacity:

• 8 rft (10:24)
• 25 Pushups
• 25 Squats
• 25 Situps

Durability:

• 45 ruck march w/ 45 lb pack (Approx 3 miles)
• 40 min walk at night (Approx 2.5 miles)

Friday 12.24.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
He went out to the field one evening to meditate. (Gen 24:63)

I would be a better Christian if I spent more time alone, and I would accomplish more if I attempted less and spent more time in isolation and quiet waiting on God. The world has become to much a part of me and I am afflicted with the idea that I am not accomplishing anything unless I am always busily running back and forth. As a society, we no longer believe in the importance of a calm retreat where we sit silently in the shade. As a people of God, we have become entirely too practical. We believe in having all our "irons in the fire" and that all time we spend away from the anvil or fire is wasted time. Yet our time is never more profitably spent than when we set aside time for quiet meditation, talking with God, and looking up to heaven. We can never have too many of these open spaces in life... hours set aside when our soul is completely open and accessible to any heavenly thought or influence that God may be pleased to send our way.

Someone once said, "Meditation is the Sunday of the mind." In these hectic days, we should often give our mind a "Sunday," a time in which it will do no work but instead will simply be still, look heavenward, and spread itself before the Lord like Gideon's fleece, allowing itself to be soaked with the moisture of the dew of heaven. We should have intervals of time when we do nothing, think nothing, and plan nothing  but simply lie on the green lap of nature and "rest a while" (Mark 6:31).

Time spent in this way is not lost time. A fisherman does not say he is losing time when he is mending his nets, nor does a hunter feel he has wasted his time by taking a few minutes to sharpen his blade. And people living in cities today would do well to follow the example of Isaac and as often as possible visit the fields of the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. After having grown weary from the heat and noise of the city, communion with nature is very refreshing and will bring a calming, healing influence. A walk through a field, a stroll by the sea or a hike across a meadow sprinkled with snow will purge you of the impurities of life and will cause your heart to beat with new joy and hope.

The little cares that worried me,
   I lost them yesterday.
Out in the fields with God.

Workout:
WOD: Maintain 

Work Capacity:

• 4 rounds for quality
• 25 Goblet squats
• 10 Unilateral kneeling curl to press (each arm)
• 3 rounds for quality
• 10 Unilateral strict curl (each arm)
• 25 Military pushups 

Thursday 12.23.10: Daily Disciplines

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. (Heb. 11:8).

Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went with God. He leant not so much upon the promises as upon the Promiser. He looked not on the difficulties of his lot, but on the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, who had deigned to appoint his course, and would certainly vindicate Himself. O glorious faith! This is thy work, these are thy possibilities; contentment to sail with sealed orders, because of unwavering confidence in the wisdom of the Lord High Admiral; willinghood to rise up, leave all, and follow Christ, because of the glad assurance that earth's best cannot bear comparison with Heaven's least. 

It is by no means enough to set out cheerfully with your God on any venture of faith. Tear into smallest pieces any itinerary for the journey which your imagination may have drawn up. Nothing will fall out as you expect.

Your guide will keep to no beaten path. He will lead you by a way such as you never dreamed your eyes would look upon. He knows no fear, and He expects you to fear nothing while He is with you.

The day had gone; alone and weak
I groped my way within a bleak
And sunless land.

The path that led into the light
I could not find! In that dark
night God took my hand.

He led me that I might not stray,
And brought me by a new, safe way
I had not known.

By waters still, through pastures green
I followed Him--the path was clean
Of briar and stone.

The heavy darkness lost its strength,
My waiting eyes beheld at length
The streaking dawn.
On, safely on, through sunrise glow
I walked, my hand in His, and lo,
The night had gone.



Workout:
WOD: Active Recovery
En-Durability:

• 4.2 mile ruck march w/ 40 lb pack (1 hour 22 min)
• Jakes Plank Complex
• Mtn Athlete Hamstring Hell (1 round)

Mobility

• Mtn Athlete HUG hip mobility drill
• Mtn Athlete HAM hip mobility drill
• Static yoga stretches
• Frog Stretch (12 min)

Wednesday 12.22.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
A thick and dreadful darkness cam over him (Gen 15:12)

Have you every experienced a terrible sorrow that seems difficult to reconcile with Gods perfect love... A sorrow that comes crashing down upon you, wrings from your souldl its peaceful rest in the grace of God, and casts it into a sea of darkness that is unlit by even one ray of hope? Have you experienced a sorrow caused by unkindness, when others cruelly mistreat your trusting heart, and you even begin to wonder if there is really a God above who sees what is happening yet continues to allow it? If you know this kind of sorrow, then you know something of this "thick and dreadful darkness."

Human life is made of brightness and gloom, shadows and shushine, and dark clouds followed by brilliant rays of light. Yet through it all, God's divine justice is accomplishing His plan, affecting and disciplining each individual soul.

The disciples thought that the angry sea separated them from Jesus. In fact, some of them thought something even worse... they thought that the trouble they were facing was a sign that He had forgotten them and did not care about them.

O dear friend, that is when your troubles can cause the most harm. The devil comes and whispers to you, "God has forgotten you" or "God has forsaken you" and your unbelieving heart cries out, as Gideon once did, "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?" (Judg 6:13) God has allowed the difficulty to come upon you, in order to bring you closer to Himself. It has come not to separate you from Jesus but to cause you to cling to Him more faithfuly, more firmly, and more simply.

We should abandon ourselves to God more fully at those times when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy His light and comfort when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but may we not attach ourselves to His gifts. May we instead attach ourselves to Him, and when He oplunges us into the night where pure faith is required, may we still press on through the agonizing darkness.

Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
   when defeat seems very near!
Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
   Into victorys ringing cheer...
Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear.

Workout:
WOD: Edge

Warm Up: 5 rfq

• 10 dips
• 10 pushups
• 10 squats

Work Capacity: 5 rft  (Time: 21:11)

• 30 Pushups
• 10 Squat Clean
• 20 DB Swing
• 30 Upright Row

Strength/Stamina:

• Mobility Complex (5 reps of each excercise, each arm, using 35 lb db)
• DB Swing
• Goblet Squat
• Hang Squat Clean
• 1 arm hang squat clean
• 1 arm hang squat clean to thruster
• 1 arm hang squat clean, press to stand
• 1 arm hang clean to jerk to squat

Durability:

• Skipped due to time

Mobility:

• Skipped due to time 

Tuesday 12.21.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
6:00 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was let by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted byy the devil. (Luke 4:1-2)

Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost, and yet He was tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with its strongest power when he is nearest to God. As someone has said, "The devil aims high." He got one apostle to say he did not even know Christ.

Very few men have such conflicts with the devil as Martin Luther had. Why? Becasue Martin Luther was going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh what conflicts John Bunyan had! If a man has much of the Spirit of God, he will have great conflicts with the tempter. God permits temptation because it does for us what the storms do for the oaks... it roots us; and what the fire does for the paintings on the porcelain... it makes them permanent.

You never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that He has a grip on you, as well as when the devil is using all his force to attract you from Him; then you feel the pull of Christ's right hand.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. God hath many sharp-cutting instruments, and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent He hath oftenest His tools upon. (Archbishop Leighton)

I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When the schoolroom is darkened, I see most. (C.H. Spurgeon)

Workout:
WOD: Whitten

Warm Up:

• Body Weight Complex: 4 rfq
• 30 Mountain Climbers
• 20 Pushups
• 10 Groiners
• 5 Burpee 

Work Capacity:

• Whitten: 5 rft: 
• 22 DB Swings (11 each arm)
• 22 Squat
• 22 Pushups
• 22 1 Arm SDHP (11 each arm)
• Total Time: 11:04

1 minute rest then:

• Mountain Athlete Leg Blaster: 5 rft
• 20 Squats
• 20 Lunges
• 20 Jumping Lunges
• 10 Jumping Squats
• Times each round: 1:17, 1:16, 1:17, 1:17, 1:14 (30 sec rest between rounds)

Durability:

• 111 situps in 2 min
• 100 Flutter Kicks (unbroken)

Mobility:

• Sealfit Hip Mobility x 3

The Spell of the Yukon, Robert W. Service

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I wanted the gold, and I sought it, I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave. I wanted the gold, and I got it — Came out with a fortune last fall, — Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn't all. No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?) It’s the cussedest land that I know, From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, deathlike valleys below. Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it’s a fine land to shun; Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it For no land on earth — and I'm one. You come to get rich (damned good reason); You feel like an exile at first; You hate it like hell for a season, And then you are worse than the worst. It grips you like some kinds of sinning; It twists you from foe to a friend; It seems it’s been since the beginning; It seems it will be to the end. I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim; I've watched the big, husky sun wallow In crimson and gold, and grow dim, Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming, And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop; And I've thought that I surely was dreaming, With the peace o' the world piled on top. The summer — no sweeter was ever; The sunshiny woods all athrill; The grayling aleap in the river, The bighorn asleep on the hill. The strong life that never knows harness; The wilds where the caribou call; The freshness, the freedom, the farness — O God! how I'm stuck on it all. The winter! the brightness that blinds you, The white land locked tight as a drum, The cold fear that follows and finds you, The silence that bludgeons you dumb. The snows that are older than history, The woods where the weird shadows slant; The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery, I've bade 'em good-by — but I can't. There’s a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless, And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still; There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back — and I will. They're making my money diminish; I'm sick of the taste of champagne. Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish I'll pike to the Yukon again. I'll fight — and you bet it’s no sham-fight; It’s hell! — but I've been there before; And it’s better than this by a damsite — So me for the Yukon once more. There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting; It’s luring me on as of old; Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting So much as just finding the gold. It’s the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder, It’s the forests where silence has lease; It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder, It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

Monday 12.20.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
I am not alone, for my Father is with me. (John 16:32)

It is certainly unnecessary to say that turning conviction into action requires great sacrifice. It may mean renouncing or separating myself from specific people or things, leaving me with a strange sense of deprivation and loneliness. Therefore, if I am to ultimately soar like an eagle to the heights of the cloudless day and live in the sunshine of God, I must be content to live a relatively lonely life.

There are no birds that live in as much solitude as eagles, for they never fly in flocks. Rarely can even two eagles be seen together. And a life that is dedicated to God knows devine fellowship, no matter how many human friendships have had to be forfeited along the way.

God seeks people to be like the eagle, for no one ever comes into the full realization of the best things of God in his spiritual life without learning to wak alone with Him. We see Abraham alone "in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities... near Sodom" (Gen 12:12). Moses, although educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, had to spend forty years alone with God in the desert. And Paul, who was filled with all the knowledge of the Greeks, and who sat "at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3), was required, after meeting Jesus, to go "immediately into Arabia" (Gal 1:7) to learn of the desert life with God.

May I allow God to isolate me, but not the isolation of a monastery. It is in the experience of isolation that the Lord develops an independence of life and of faith so that the soul no longer depends on the continual help, prayers, faith and care of others. The assistance and inspiration from others are necessary, and they have a place in a Christian's development, but at times they can actually become a hinderance to my faith and welfare.

God knows how to change my circumstances in order to isolate me. And once I yield to Him and He takes me through and experience of isolation, I will no longer be dependent upon those around me, although I will still love them as much as before. Then I will realize that He has done a new work within me and that the wings of my soal have learned to soar in loftier air.

I must dare to be along, in the way that Jacob had to be alone for the Angel of God to whisper in his ear, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel" (Gen 32:38); in the way that Daniel had to be left alone to see heavenly visions; and in the way John had to be banished to the Isle of Patmos to receive and record "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him" (Rev 1:1).

He has "trodden the winepress alone" (Isa 63:3) for me. Therefore, am I prepared for a time of "glorious isolation" rather than to fail Him?

Workout:
WOD: Self-Mastery

Warm Up:

• 21-15-9 
• Upright Row
• Squat
• Pushup

Strength/Stamina

• 100 Strict Kneeling Military Press
• 100 SDHP

Work Capacity: 10 rft, Total Time: 17:37

• 6 Strict Kneeling Military Press
• 20 Flutter Kicks
• 14 DB Swing (7 each arm)

Durability:

• 2 hours of basketball

Notes: 

• Busy day so did not get to this one until 10:30 pm. Not overly difficult physically, but a mental bear getting started so late at night after a busy day. Glad I had the mental fortitude to finish. 

Saturday 12.18.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
6:30 am

Workout:
WOD: Complex

Warm Up: 4 RFQ

• DB Complex 1
• 6 RDL
• 6 Upright row
• 6 Squat
• 6 Military Press
• 6 Squat

Work Capacity: 5 RFQ

• 6 Squat Cleans
• 20 Situps