Hurricanes, Flood Control, and Common Sense

I’ve always been fascinated by violent weather. Fundamentally, weather can show us how insignificant and powerless we as humans are in the scheme of things. In my short lifetime, I’ve been through one category 3 hurricane and I’ve personally witnessed a 20 foot wall of water descend upon a central Texas river, changing the calm cool Blanco river to a raging, angry torrent in a matter of about a minute. Don’t mess around with mother nature.

I write this morning watching from the comfort of my living room an impending tragedy that will descend upon the Gulf Coast. I watch in fascination and horror the third wholesale evacuation in 10 years (Georges 1998, Katrina 2005, Gustav (2008) of one of our nation’s great cities, New Orleans. My prayers and thoughts go out to the evacuees, and I hope we’re as generous and helpful as we were the last time.

I also wonder if we need to radically change the way we approach flood control in this country?

The knee jerk reaction many have is to abandon New Orleans and let it revert back to nature. The area is a bowl, and most of the city lies below sea level. But is that the right answer? The area is largely below sea level and we have built levees and structures that unfortunately have excaberated the problem. However, there are 300 years of history in South Louisiana, starting with the French in the 18th century and continuing with the British expulsion of the Acadians from the Bay of Fundy shortly thereafter. Basically, New Orleans and Acadiana are peoples’ homes. Can we in good conscience tell them we give up and tell them to move?

We are a great nation, but we aren’t the masters of flood control. Maybe we should admit we have failed, and pay the people who built this to design a world class system for us to protect South Louisiana. They’ve been at it for 1,000 years, most of their entire country is below sea level, and they are pros.

We may be a proud nation, but the Office of Common Sense asks the question – why not pay the Dutch to design and build our flood control? What do you think?

Saturday’s commentary and training

Got a late start today, with people taking leave of their senses in H town today. A hurricane, not even in the Gulf and probably not headed this way, has people and the local tv action news types** in a frenzy. Hence, a run on the stores and hence, my dark thirty trek to the local grocer, farmer’s market, and megadiscountwehateunions mart to take care of the day to day needs and stock my survival bombshelter*. A family does need to eat and it wouldn’t hurt to have some bottled water in case Gus heads this way. Whatever happened to filling a bathtub and a couple of GI cans with tap water to ride out a hurricane**?

After renewing my NRA membership* and making sure I am prepared to ward off looters in the post-acopalyptic society sure to descend on this area* after a direct hit from a Category 13 hurricane* (Charley doesn’t surf, and Charley doesn’t evacuate**) it was time to hit the bells in my 150 degree* garage.

intuflow intermediate class*** and warmup
2aj16kg – 5/5/5/5/5.
1aj24kg – 6/6
Sn16kg – 5m at 12 rpm
1asw4kg – 20/20

* indicates satire or flat out ridiculous statements – in other words, not OCS approved.

** true statements. (1) Our very own Dan Rather of KHOU got his big break covering Hurricane Carla from the Seawall in 1961 and everyone locally has tried to one up him since, (2) I still drink tap water – I pay for it through taxes so I’ll drink the local tap instead of someone else’s bottled tap and (3) more people died evacuating from Hurricane Rita than from Hurricane Rita. I live 32 feet above sea level well outside of a flood plain or surge zone.

*** today, I did things a little differently. I went through the mobility drills slow and deliberately, really focused on what I was doing, and consciously kept track of the directions of the circles. I can’t say enough good things about intuflow regularly practiced.

Simplicity at 530 AM

this is how it will have to be – mornings. a good warmup is important.

intuflow intermediate class and warmup
2aj16kg – 5/5/5/5/5
1aj24kg – 6/6
Sn16kg – 12/12/12/12
1asw24kg – 20/20

I had forgotten how good I feel after at least a five minute set of double jerks.

The best laid plans of men…

Sometimes my posting shows how absent minded I am. Take last Monday with a nice template I laid out. Should have run that by the Office of Common Sense.

My wife is at T minus not much longer for delivering what should turn out to be a big, healthy boy. Sleep is going to be hard to come by, there is so much to do before the boy arrives, and false labor/trips to the doctor take up time. Plus I work.

I need to really, really simplify my training and plan on the fly. Not ideal, but at the same time, necessary. Fundamentally, I need to do a pull and a push, I need to do it consistently and with rest, and I need to make sure I am accomplishing something until I can train regularly.

Jerks and snatches AKC style for time, Swings and Getups RKC program minimum style, or one arm jerks and swings (courtesy of Scott Sonnon seem to be viable at this point in my life. Getups don’t agree with my knee, so that leaves jerks/snatches or one arm jerks/swings out of the list above. For those of you RKCs reading, the leading clause of the previous sentence does not mean I don’t endorse the program minimum. I’ve done it before, it’s a fine program, but it doesn’t work for my knee.

Coupled with joint mobility and some sort of dynamic mobility, I think I have a plan with jerks/one arm jerks and swings/snatches. Stay tuned to see how a new father trains in the next few weeks.

Feels pretty good

After today’s intuflow and flowfit, I feel pretty good. My mechanism of 4-5 days of non-consecutive lifting with 2-3 lower intensity days seems to be paying off. Yesterday, to visit old friends, I went to the Kettlebell Club and did a hard style workout for a change of pace. Glad today was a lower intensity day as I seem to bounce back better from jerk and snatch sessions.

Here’s what I’ve done lately:

08222008 – Friday
intuflow intermediate
back stretching

08232008 – Saturday
intuflow intermediate class
warmup with swings
2aj20kg – 5 5. 10 total. 2m.
Sn20kg – 24/24. 4m.
1aj28kg – 6/6

08242008 – Sunday
Went to the Kettlebell Club and did something different today.
Joint mobility
1alccp16kg (left) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20; 1alccp16kg (right) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20
1alcsq16kg (left) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20; 1alcsq16kg (right) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20
1alccl16kg (left) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20; 1alccl16kg (right) – 10; 1asw16kg – 20
Sn24kg(left) – 10; 1asw24kg – 20; Sn24kg (right) – 10; 1asw24kg – 20
Various other exercises

08252008 – Monday
2008
intuflow intermediate class
flowfit – various levels. 2 single sequences and 1 double sequence (i.e., each exercise twice before moving on to the next)
feels pretty good!

Two minutes with the 20kg is getting comfortable, and it’s time to increase. This week, I plan to do the following:

Tuesday and Saturday
16kg jerks – 5-6m
16kg snatches – 6m+
28kg oaj

Thursday and Sunday
20kg jerks – 2-3 sets
20kg snatches – 4m +
28kg oaj

Wednesday
16kg long cycle and some flowfit

Friday
intuflow and flowfit

Tropical Storm Charley

There is a tropical storm in Florida dropping rain in biblical proportions. I’ve lived through two like Faye – Claudette in 1979 which dropped about 43″ near us and Allison in 2001 which dropped about 30″ on us, made I10 into a kayakers’ and jet skiers’ paradise, and was a tragic mess. I’m not sure I’d want to be touching floodwaters from White Oak Bayou in a kayak or jet ski, but I digress.

We got about 2 inches of rain today, which in turn made the humidity about 100% when I trained tonight. Short duration swing, jerk and snatch sets don’t seem like a big deal and I am building volume, but I sure did break a sweat a sweat of biblical proportions – soaking a shirt in about 5 minutes. Wrist bands and head bands are required, and I keep a smooth bell for snatching in humidity.

It never get below 80 degrees in the summer here, even at night, and any sort of relief is about 6 weeks away.

intuflow intermediate class
swings for warmup
2aj20kg – 5 5 2. 12. 2m.30s.
2aj20kg – 12. 1m12s.
Sn20kg – 22/22. 3m30s.
1aj32kg – 5/5.

Tomorrow is more intuflow and flowfit, and the kettlebells return this weekend.

Progress

I had to cut my training short today due to that pesky little thing called life, but through the distractions of a neighbor talking politics in my garage, I was able to complete a 3m set of 15 jerks with two 20kgs and then another, speedier set of 10 in a minute. Dividing my week into higher intensity days and lower intensity days seems to be working – but I need to stick with it. The key for me is the daily joint mobility work, which I am doing with Scott Sonnon’s intuflow. This weekend, I’ll begin reviewing my prasara yoga video and will begin to incorporate some of those flows in earnest.

The 20kg is a new weight for me that requires adjustment. The good news is that I can sink into a nice rack with this weight, which doesn’t happen for me with the 16kg. In a couple to a few weeks, I’ll be doing a 6m jerk set comfortably, which is where the real progress begins.

What I’m Doing

There are so many shiny objects out there as far as programs go. When you’re ADD like me, it is tempting to try them all without really sticking to anything and accomplishing steady progress. A review of my prior logs yielded the following insights:

1. Four days a week with the bells is optimal. That gives me three lower or no intensity days.
2. Joint mobility seven days a week is optimal.
3. A simple program of double jerks, snatches, swings, and pullups has yielded good results for me.
4. Consistent practice of some sort of dynamic movement routine on low intensity days has yielded good results for me. I’ve used FlowFit for this sort of thing in the past.

Basic Program
I’ve kept it pretty simple. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are lower intensity days for joint mobility and some sort of more dynamic mobility like yoga or FlowFit. On Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I do a set of jerks, another set of jerks with the same repetitions in half the time, a set of snatches, and a set of swings. The jerks and snatches are with the 20kg, and the swings are either with the 28kg or 32kg.

Intuflow Intermediate
After spending yesterday painting my son’s nursery, I needed to really up the joint mobility for today. I’ve been doing the basic class for a few months, and decided it is time to switch over to the intermediate class. I’ve been doing Scott Sonnon’s Intuflow for a few months and am pleased with the results I’ve achieved. The intermediate class has more challenging movement patterns, and I expect to be practicing it for 6 months to maybe a year before moving on.

Training Log and Posting

My training is about to get very boring and monotonous. Trust me when I tell you this.

I’ll post milestones, other thoughts, cool stuff (training related and non-training related), an occasional rant, and whatever else comes to mind here. This blog will be devoted to common sense and non-sense.

If you want to read my training log, I keep one at Day to Day.

Speaking of common sense and non-sense at the same time, have you inflated your tires properly to help eliminate our dependence on foreign oil?

Also, no matter your political leanings, this is probably the funniest thing I have read or seen in ages

My summer vacation

I spent this week in Colorado hiking, rafting and biking. I summited two 14000 peaks – Torey’s and Mount Sherman. Also got some biking in as well. Once I figured out that running shoes, and not hiking boots, work for me, I had a much better time. The timed set lifting and conditioning emphasis paid off in that the altitude didn’t bother me too much.

Today, I did the following at the gym:

A1-Pullups – 2,2,2,2,2
A2-Slow, controlled pushups – 5,5,5,5,5
thenRoss Enamait’s “Magic 50″
B1-50lb dumbell swings – 5/5
B2-50lb dumbell snatches – 5/5
B3-Burpees – 5
Repeat for a total of 5 times. Time – 11m15s.
then
Power wheel bear crawl – about 50 feet.

Back to the kettlebells tomorrow.