Winter is here!

Ok, it wasnt quite this cold...but it felt like it

Ok, it wasnt quite this cold...but it felt like it

Winter is here.  I am not ready for it.

Summer went by too fast and I traveled almost all of the fall.

Today, it was 25 degrees as we took off on our 5 mile run.  The wind was blowing and it was cold.

Despite the cold, I had a nice run with Mike Drew.  It was faster than conversational pace, however, we managed to catch up between my labored breathing.

We ran 37:30 on our big hill course which is 2:30 faster than last time.  It felt pretty good so I have to keep it up and run more.  My running was really good again before Selection and I do not want to lose it.

Happy Winter everyone

Olympic lifting

I know that this bears an uncanny resemblance to me...but it is not.  That is Dimitry Klokov showing how its done!

I know that this bears an uncanny resemblance to me...but it is not.  That is Dimitry Klokov showing how its done!

Warm up

10 KB Swings

10 dips

10 Lunges with 45 pound bar


3x3 clean complex from blocks- clean pull+hang squat clean from knee+ push press @95

3x3 Clean complex from blocks  at 135

2x5 back squat at 135 lbs

3x3 Jump squats + land in bottom of squat @135

3x3 Jump squats + land in bottom of squat @225

3x3 behind the neck push press + Snatch balance at 115 lbs

7x2 behind the neck push press + Snatch balance at 135 lbs



Team workout

RRL Warm up

 


Thruster
5-3-3-1-1
Work up to a 1 rep max

then



Team workout

In teams of 2

AMRAP 20 Minutes

5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats
One athlete will run 400 Meters while the other completes as many rounds of the AMRAP as possible. The athletes will then switch, with the athlete coming off the run starting a new round. Only completed rounds will be counted.


I suggest that each team has sidewalk chalk.  


Burpee Madness

Becca Voigt, 7 time CrossFit Games competitor and Kokoro 30 teammate after her Burpee Madness workout on Instagram

Becca Voigt, 7 time CrossFit Games competitor and Kokoro 30 teammate after her Burpee Madness workout on Instagram

The burpee has long been the foundational movement in our fitness here at the RRL.  Outside of the squat (various types) it is definitely one of the most used and certainly one of the most effective.

I came across this workout by Becca Voigt, my occasional swim buddy at Kokoro 30.  Becca is the real deal...7 time CrossFit Games Competitor, Kokoro Graduate and just a fantastic human being.  I pay attention to her programming and occasionally put it into ours.  This one fit the bill for today.  I am traveling, and will do this one on the road while the garage will be full of guys getting this one done.

The workout is called Burpee Madness and it has a really weird rep scheme.  Not sure why so instead of arguing, we will just do it as written.  From my math it equals 199 burpees. 

The workout is this:

Minute one: 20 Burpees
Minute two: 20 Burpees
Minute three: 5 Burpees
Minute four: 11 Burpees
Minute five: 2 Burpees
Minute six: 18 Burpees
Minute seven: 6 Burpees

Minute eight: 15 Burpees

Minute nine: 4 Burpees
Minute ten: 8 Burpees
Minute eleven: 17 Burpees
Minute twelve: 3 Burpees
Minute thirteen: 13 Burpees
Minute fourteen: 9 Burpees
Minute fifteen: 12 Burpees
Minute sixteen: 14 Burpees
Minute seventeen: 16 Burpees
Minute eighteen: 7 Burpees
Minute nineteen: 19 Burpees
Minute twenty: 1 Burpee

If you can not hit the number on the minute, save them until the next minute.  Do not go to the next minute reps until you have completed the one you are on.  Only go for 20 minutes.  The goal here is to complete this workout as written.

Give this one a try while on the road or back at the gym.

Just do it

You can do anything that you decide you want to do.  Make the commitment and do it.  Burn the boats, go for it!  There are few things more unlikely than my story of how I became a professional fisherman and television producer.  …

You can do anything that you decide you want to do.  Make the commitment and do it.  Burn the boats, go for it!  There are few things more unlikely than my story of how I became a professional fisherman and television producer.  If I can do this...you can do anything.


I came across this email response that I wrote to a fan of our fishing show.  It is a very common question that I get and I thought I would post it here.  I know that most who read this blog are here for both mental and physical training information but this advice would go a long way towards making any dream come true.

It is my hope that anyone can take something away from this response.  If you have a dream, go get it.  Go after it and don't let anything stop you.  If you are not a fisherman, substitute fishing for whatever it is that you are into...the advice is just the same. 

Find your passion and pursue it.  Do whatever it takes.


#1 question...How do I fish for a living?

August 27, 2012 at 12:21pm

A fan writes:

Hi Captains, I love the show. I'm 42 years and have a deep passion for fishing. Until recently, I worked 10 years for UM. But, I was never really happy because I wasn't doing what I love. I am interested in working on a charter boat. How difficult is it to begin this? Do you have any tips? What is the average salary? Do you know of any captain's having any openings, maybe even you guys? Thank you.

Robert Miranda


My Response:

I get this question all the time.  When I say, "this question" and "all the time" I mean that I get some form of this question at least once per week and I have since reached the "tipping point".  The tipping point (read Malcolm Gladwell's book with the same title) is when things just change and tip in the direction of success.  For me, I reference the tipping point here as the moment when the outside world quit asking me when I was going to get a real job, or If I really thought I could make a living fishing, and started asking me questions like Robert just did. 

 

I guess that if you just continue to do what you love long enough, people just kind of figure that you are doing ok, or maybe it was the infectious positive attitude, or the 14 hour days that I never complained about, or that I was always doing 14 hour days for months at a time, and on the one day off that I might have, I would do an 18 hour day just for my own enjoyment.  Behavior like this is so contrary to the 9-5 punch a clock mentality that is so prevalent in our society.

 

Robert, I promise that I am going to answer your question...hang in there.

 

Sometimes, I find it a little funny that anyone would ask me for advice on how to get started.  It is funny because I did virtually everything wrong that can be done wrong and continued to do that until another "tipping point" where people just started assuming that if I had been doing it that way for a while, maybe it was the right way.

 

My father was not a professional fisherman or guide.  I did not grow up in the Keys or near the ocean.  I did not know anyone who had ever been a professional guide and I had only taken a couple of guided trips in my lifetime, from guides who were not people that I had any desire to emulate. 

 

No, I just started fishing and loved it.  When I say that I loved it, I mean it.  Fishing became everything to me.  When I was fishing, I had complete tunnel vision and laser focus.   Was able to learn at a rate that I never knew in school and for the first time ever, I had a passion, an unrelenting desire to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible in the shortest amount of time.  This was new to me.

 

High school was tough for me.  I had no idea what I wanted to do and even less of a desire to figure it out.  College was even worse.

 

However, I did take a risk and applied for a job in Yellowstone National Park for a summer.  I got the job and found myself packing for a summer in a place I had never been before.  One thing that made the backpack was a 8 1/2 foot 4 piece 6 weight Western Series Orvis fly rod.  It was cool.  I had no idea how to use it.

 

Once out there, I found my way to the Yellowstone River and managed somehow to tie a fly onto a leader. Having no idea what I was doing, I walked down the bank of the river  and looked into the water.  Floating 2 feet above the water was the most beautiful fish that I have ever seen.  It was a Yellowstone Cutthroat trout and it was precisely 19 1/4 inches long. 

 

As I stared at the fish and tried to understand how and why it was floating above the water, it hit me.  Far from the muddy TN waters, I was just beginning to understand the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.  The fish wasn't floating above the water, I had just never seen water this clear.  It was as if there was no water at all.  Confused, I started to put things together and the bottom, fish and surface of the water all began to align correctly and I realized that the fish was holding in the current about a foot below the surface.

 

Somehow, I managed to get my fly upstream of the fish and watched as he would not eat it because it was dragging unnaturally.  I tried for about 2 hours until I changed flies, moved and finally was able to get the right drift to the fish.  As Yellowstone Cuttroats do, he tilted toward the surface, and began to slowly rise toward the fly.  This fish knew something was not right and he drifted under the fly for a foot or so before actually opening his mouth and eating it.  Miraculously, I set the hook and caught the fish. 

 

When I landed the trout, I experienced an inner peace that I had never felt before.  As he slipped out of my hands and back into the river, I knew that I would be a fisherman forever.

 

So Robert, the answer to your question comes now, in sort of a Yoda type way.  Once I decided that I was going to be a fisherman in that moment on the Yellowstone River, I was committed.   So committed, in fact, that I probably should have been committed.  Nothing was going to stop me...nothing.

 

Not only was I willing to sleep in a car, scrub toilets, travel, work 18 hour days, make a fool out of myself, ask stupid questions, clean boats, hang around fly shops until they wanted to kick me out, work for free, be a camp cook, wash dishes, build fences, change bearings on trailers, take boat loads of firewood down class 2 whitewater, fix cars, teach flycasting for free, live in a commune with 20 other people, and many many other things to make it happen, but I did all of those things with a giant smile on my face.

 

I of course, like you, asked for advice and got plenty, but none that ever helped.  I looked for any help to try to make my dream a reality.  I am sure that some people probably gave me some great advice or contacts that may just not have made sense to me at the time.  The fact is that my story of how I was able to become a professional guide is quite the same as others I know that did it and continue to do it well.

 

Want the secret?  Well, here you go.  First, determine what you want.  You say that you want to work on a charter boat, others say they want to be a flats guide, an offshore guide, a tug boat captain, a trout fishing guide, an elk guide, a professional bow hunter...You name it.  The method is all the same.

 

Just do it.  That's it.  Just go out there and do it.

 

You are not happy with your job, your life, your situation?  Change it. 

 

Want to work on a charter boat...ok.  Go where there are charter boats.  Walk the docks.  Talk to the Captains and tell them you want to work for them.  They wont hire you?  Of course they won't.  You just showed up!  Stick around and take their shit until they do (you will be tested, because they will dish out ALOT of shit ).  Work for free, clean fish, scrub toilets, sleep in your car, LIVE in your car.  One day, someone wont show up and you will be in.  Then, you better work your ass off and make sure that the customers are happy, the boat is spotless and then clean it again.  Be the best mate that has ever been on that boat, on that dock, in that town, in that State, in the United States, in the World.

 

I cant tell you how long it will take or if that first dock will be the right place, but if you are committed, it will happen for you.  Make your decision and do it.  In my opinion, being happy, hungry and doing what you want to do is better than being safe, fat and unhappy.

 

That's my advice.  Take it or leave it

 

-Tom Rowland


Related

Carry, Run, Press (and puke)

Carry, Run, Press (and puke)

That is Ross Enamait in the video above.  He is a stud.

You would not be reading this blog if I had not found his website in 2003 or early 2004.  I was tired of running marathons and had decided that I had lost an unacceptable amount of muscle and strength.  In search of something else to do to get in shape, I searched jump rope workouts and found www.rosstraining.com.  It was on that day that I realized that I had already trained well in my former wrestling days.  I may not be able to get back on the mat regularly, but I could still train like it. 

Read More

Easy day

Yesterday was pretty tough with the Overhead squats and Nancy in the morning then lifting with Hayden and Brice in the afternoon.  The session was pretty good with work on cleans off the blocks, jump back squat to full squats, clean pulls and snatches off blocks.

I felt it this morning a little, not with soreness, but just being tired. 

It was raining this morning so I rescheduled the sandbag workout I had for today and put in a simple but effective deck of cards.

Original Deck of cards:

Spades=Burpees

Clubs=Pushups

Hearts= Situps

Diamonds=Squats

Joker 1= 1 minute Plank

Joker 2= 30 Vups

 

We followed this with a nice Yoga session concentrating on our hips. 

 

SealFit Monday

“Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”


SealFit Monday

Work Capacity: Complete the following for time…

        Run 1 mile
        75x KB swings (53#/35#)
        Row 1,000m
        60x wallball (20#/14#)
        Run 1 mile
        45x pull ups


Strength: Power clean – Warm up then, 80% x 3 reps, 85% x 3 reps, 90% x 3+ reps.

Durability: 3 rounds – 20x GHD sit ups, 45sec/45sec side bridge, 10x slasher (16kg/12kg), 5x Romanian deadlift (135#/95#). SEALFIT Yoga Mobility drills. Hydrate and fuel within 30 minutes.  Journal post training session SOP.


PM:

Baseline: Pre-SOP and box breathing, then ROM drills. Run 800m, then complete 30-20-10 reps of front squats, lunges, push ups.

Stamina: 4 rounds, not timed: 10x power clean @ 95#-135#/115#-155#, 20x KB sumo deadlift high pull (70#/53#), 25m crab walk.

 

Being Coached

After Selection I decided that my next goal would be to really improve my Olympic lifting.  This goal goes hand in hand with my greater purpose of spending more time at home and more time with my wife and kids. 

My 15 year old, Hayden, has been training with Brice Johnson at the YMCA.  Brice is an excellent coach and really knows olympic weightlifting.  Hayden has improved quickly and so has RRL regular and leader, Trevor Taylor. 

I have been wanting to get coaching for some time now, but it just didnt work with my schedule, so I struggled to improve on my own. 

Today, I started with Brice and worked out alongside my son Hayden.  I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere and certainly enjoyed the one on one time with Hayden.  He is turning into a beast in front of my eyes and has some real potential to take olympic weightlifting to a much higher level.  At 150 pounds, he is already cleaning 220 and I expect him to max at 250 before the new year.

We did the following workout:

3x3 vertical pulls

Clean Dynamic warm up- just bar, hang cleans, hang clean pulls, front squat

3x3 Clean @ 50kg

2x2 clean at 70 kg

1x1 Clean at 80 kg

1x1 Clean at 90 kg

1x1 Clean at 95 kg

1x1 Clean at 100 kg

3x3 Clean at 90 kg

4x3 Front Squat at 90 kg

1 clean pull/3 RDL at 90 kg

3x3 1 clean pull/3 RDL at 100 kg

1x1 1 clean pull/3 RDL at 110 kg

3x15 GHD + plate press at 15 kg

I like being coached and hope that I can make some serious progress toward both my snatch and CJ

New Project

I have been traveling since Selection but I have been able to keep up the workouts.  Certainly, my daily workouts are not what they would have been if I were able to workout with my friends in the garage, but I believe that I was able to maintain my conditioning without losing much.

It was a good time to heal from Selection as well.  Lots of Yoga, mobility, stretching, breathing exercises and more time spent on my Unbeatable Mind training has me in a place where I am super excited to get back to training hard every day.

Moving from Selection focused training, I plan to move back into a SealFit Opwod based training while keeping up the strong running base that I built in preparation for Selection. 

Just before Selection, I filmed our offshore show, Into the Blue, in Venice Louisiana.  It went pretty well and we got some good shows.  Here are a few shots:



Just a few days after Selection, I was in the Florida Keys filming Saltwater Experience.  We had several amazing days before a tropical depression hit and we were forced to conclude a day or so early.  Here are some pictures from that one:

 

And finally, i went from the Keys to Missouri to film our newest project, Sweetwater.  I was very excited about the footage we got here as the mornings were covered in fog and the sky was clear.  The combination of the fog and sunrise made for stunning conditions visually and our cameras were able to capture some of the best footage we may have ever shot.  Check out some of these shots:



Now I am home for a while and ready to train hard and have some fun with team workouts.


Watch for all these shows to air on NBC Sports, Destination America and Sportsman Channel starting January 1.


Train hard, Train smart.

10/28/14

Today in the Garage:

RRL Warmup (30 Overhead Squats, pick load 10 Push-ups 10 Ring Dips 10 Pull-ups 5 Muscle Ups Jump Rope (Singles), 3 mins 20 GHD Sit-ups 20 Hip Extensions 20 Toes To Bars)


A.

60 Seconds max double unders or max singles

10 Pullups

10 Dips



B. In 15 minutes, complete:

Run 800 m

21 Power Cleans @135

15 Front squats @135

9 Push Press @135

Then, in the remaining time, do as many bar facing burpees as possible until time runs out.



C.

Max set Dips



Travel again

"True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united."

Wilhelm von Humboldt


It was so good to get back into the garage this morning and have 24 guys there to workout with me.  Man, is it better to have a group.  Intensity, comraderie, excitement and overall volume are far better and higher when I am with my group.

Unfortunately, I am on the road again but only for a couple of days this time.  When I go, I prepare by first packing my workout stuff. 

Travel workout gear includes:

1 pair running shoes

1 pair of Nano (worn)

1 pair shorts

2-3 tshirts

1 deck of cards, all plastic with 4 jokers

1 jump rope

1 Green band

Ipad or Iphone ready with this link:

http://www.fitnesstruthtv.com/resources/travel-workouts/

I also found this site recently and it does a good job of generating workouts for you:

http://wod-gen.com/exercise/323


I am really looking forward to getting back home and staying for quite some time. 

Back in the RRL

Super excited to get back into the RRL tomorrow and hit this workout



Workout A.

Sled Pull

Sled Push

1 Round


Workout B.

Teams of 4

Work Capacity: In teams of 4, complete the following for time:

150x wallball shots (20#/14#)
100x power clean (135#/95#)
50x muscle up
Strength: Back squat: 10 rounds – Every 60 seconds, perform: 2x back squat, use same weight across the 10 sets. Choose a weight that is challenging but you can move with speed.


Workout C.

Durability: 3 rounds, not timed – 30 second L-sit hold, 10x medball GHD sit ups, 10x reverse hyper (heavy). SEALFIT Yoga Mobility drills. Hydrate and fuel within 30 minutes. 

 

Another day with the RRLanta in the Florida Keys

There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A text from Chip Lusk came through last night asking if I could work out again this morning.  What a pleasant surprise!

It is so much better and easier to workout with friends rather than to try to go alone.  I would have worked out this morning without Chip, however, getting together with Chip and his Uncle made the start to my day MUCH better.

Since we are still in the heart of a Tropical depression, we decided on a Deck of Cards, one of the best travel workouts.

Chip came up with this one:

Heart=burpees

diamonds=pushups

clubs=v ups

spades=squats

joker=elevated pushups


We then went through a Gratitude Meditation exercise afterward for about 12 minutes and finished the morning off with a nice breakfast and coffee.

 

Old friends and new friends

This is our best attempt at a triple selfie.  My daughter would be embarrassed.  We are all looking at different cameras,. Great workout nonetheless, and good to have someone like Chip to workout with this morning.

This is our best attempt at a triple selfie.  My daughter would be embarrassed.  We are all looking at different cameras,. Great workout nonetheless, and good to have someone like Chip to workout with this morning.

While working in the Florida Keys, I got a text from my good friend, Chip Lusk.  Chip was an original member of the RRL in Chattanooga and then moved to Atlanta where he set up his own garage gym, RRLanta.  Check out his group on Facebook and in this post.

Chip has a group visiting the resort where I film my television show, Hawks Cay Resort.

I ate dinner with his group last night and then we met at 6 am this morning for a good bodyweight workout followed by some breathing and gratitude exercise.

His Uncle joined us who is managing the construction project at the resort.  Lots of coincidence with him...He bought the house 2 doors down from the one I owned in Key West, knows Chip, knows Chattanooga and now works on Hawks Cay, my second home.  Crazy.

He also is a retired Navy vet and was Force Recon in Vietnam.  The guy is a stud.  67 years old and was hitting this workout with us this morning in the rain:

Jump Squats x 25 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Pushups x 25 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Body Weight Squats x 50 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Mountain Climbers x 50 reps (each leg counts as one rep) 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Lunges Left Leg x 25 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Lunges Right Leg x 25 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

High Knees (Running/Sprints in Place) x 50 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

V sits x 50 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Jumping Jacks x 50 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

 

Push to Plank x 50 reps 

     Burpees x 10 reps 

I found this one on the internet last night.  It looked pretty good so we gave it a try.  We were in the middle of a Tropical Depression so the swim workout I had planned might not have been the best idea, and running was probably out.  This one was fine...not too hard, but challenging.