Look Ahead

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.
Ann Landers

So today I was going to get up at 5:30am but I set my alarm for pm. What a dummy so I just decided I would run 8 miles on Mission Peak and do 50 squats every 2 miles. I also did tabata squats at the top. Doing squats builds strong legs. And that's just what I need to have next month at Coyote two moons to finish in a good time.
Everyone who runs me knows this rock. It is where I stand on the top when on Mission Peak. It is actually the high point on Mission peak, not the pole which most people think. I stand on this rock and always say a prayer to my loved ones who have passed away. I ask my angels to guide me and to watch over me when on the trails.
I was actually happy I was out later then planned I saw a pair of Mule deers that looked to be in love standing near a rock just watching me run. Had I been earlier I wouldn't of seen them.
Mount Diablo looked foggy and Rose peak looked to have a lot of snow still.
I am running 100k on the Ohlone Friday starting at 6am from my friend Jerry's house. If anyone else wants to join us let me know. Mylinh, Joe and Jerry all plan on running 100k with me. Three of us are training for Coyote two moons. if the weather is good and I feel great I may go back out longer..Maybe 100 miles we will see ;)
Live is challenging me in many ways I'm still working on figuring out how I will pay for the race's I wanna run this year. I plan on going for a few speed records on a few trails too. But that doesn't cost much. No entry fee. I am just giving it up to the universe and hopefully the answer will come.
Beautiful mule deers below Mission Peak.

WOD 2-18
run 2 miles 50 squats 4 rounds. Didn't time myself. Totally 8 mile run 200 squats.
Tabata squats 20 sec. work 10 sec. rest 8 rounds (16 reps) low score

Gratitude Unlocks the Fullness of Life

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie
I started my 7 mile run in a sprinkle but it quickly turned into a down pour. Did I tell you how much fun running in the rain is. It makes me feel like a kid. If you have the right gear it can be fun. I ran along the Alameda creek trail and finished with a run in and around Quarry lakes.
It works out great on Tuesday to run there for me before my 12pm crossfit class which is just a few minutes drive from there.
I often think ultrarunners are badass for running in extreme conditions. But as I was running today I counted at least 10 fishermen sitting in the rain in these less then perfect conditions. They didn't have the best gear on but I guess they were determined like me but in a different way. They wanted to catch some fish and I just wanted to get a fast run in.
After seeing them I thought to myself they are way hardcore..I couldn't sit there for hours in the rain and cold. Sure I can run in it but I'm to wimpy to sit in it.
I hope they reached their goal and caught a fish or two. I reached mine and had fun just running in the rain.
Happy to be almost done my run in the puring rain. Notice Mission peak in the background.
WOD 2/17/2009

Complete five rounds for time of:

• Row 300m
• 30 push-ups

Your goal is to finish this workout in 8-10 minutes.

My time 16:05 rx'd

There has been only 1 person so far today that has finished the wod in under 10 min. I was hoping for under 15 min. but I was happy doing in under 17 min. after running 7 miles.

There is Always Another Chance

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford
Andy had a tough run yesterday but hung in there. I ran 11 miles of the trail and it was beautiful. I got to work at the one and only aid station that all the 50k runners past through 4 times. I like being able to give back and help at a race. The runners were lucky the weather was windy and cool. They were lucky it didn't rain.
Andy with 5 miles to go hanging in there.
Heading out on our road trip to the Morro bay area.
Taking Rocky out for a little walk in Sierra Madre

The Past...
Rash decisions or actions undertaken without forethought could result in a dead-end. Don’t just blindly forge ahead. Re-examine how you have dealt with situations in the past, they may not be the way to deal with things now. Perhaps new thinking, or a new way of doing things, is what is called for now. In spite of everything you will learn from your experience and shake off those blocks or obstacles. Sometimes you need more perspective so stand back and take a second look.
© Stephen Haynes

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY MY FRIENDS...............

Change and Challenge

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better. King Whitney Jr.

(Saint) Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The day was originally a pagan festival that was renamed after two Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines". Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.^[1] The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.^[2]

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend on average twice as much money as women.^[3]

Life Purpose

When you heed the calling of your heart, you are following your purpose. Having purpose in your life gives you the courage to do the things you are meant to do. When you are purpose driven, you have learned to listen to your intuition and never let no get in your way. Rhonda Britten

I started feeling a little better but I woke up this morning feeling worse. I will head out in the rain for a run in a couple hours. I know what you're thinking why go run if you're not feeling good. It's just a 3 mile road run to Whole Foods to get some herbs for my flu. I'm hanging out in SoCal the next few days. I will be working at the PCTR race here in SoCal.
Tomorrow I will hangout with my Monrovia crossfit friends. They have a training run for people training for the Mt. Wilson trail race. I will run with them then head up the Mt. Wilson trail for a longer run.
For now I'm just hanging out with Rocky.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines day....

If you're in love Valentines should be everyday and not just a day to celebrate once a year.

Todays WOD
Tabatas-
abs
squats
push-ups

Living Fully

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?
Henry James

Success

You do not determine your success by comparing yourself to others, rather you determine your success by comparing your accomplishments to your capabilities. You are "number one" when you do the best you can with what you have, every day
All the world is a gym, and the men and women are merely members. They have their weight rooms and aerobics classes and one person in their time has many opportunities to stay healthy.

Exercise and activity should not be confined to typical, formalized activities that you see in health club flyers and infomercials. There are a million ways you can enjoy being fit and still have fun. Kids do it at the park and in the schoolyard everyday.

Take the time to Find your Playground!
I found mine two years ago it's called crossfit. I suggest you check it out so you can decide if you like it or not.

What is Crossfit?

HQ Says

Crossfit is as Crossfit does!

and Crossfit does constantly varied, if not random, functional movements performed at high intensity.

That’s a mouthful. Let’s break it down;

Constantly varied: The best program is the one that you’re not on. If you are not switching things up and trying new variations, loads, sets, reps etc in your current workout, you are not getting the variety needed to make continual progress! Crossfit takes this one step further by presenting workouts in such a fashion that there is such great variety that they appear random and totally unpredictable, just like those little ‘oppurtunities’ life throws your way.

Functional Movement: Here’s one of the most misused terms in the fitness industry! Functional movement is purposeful movement. It is natural, and irreducible. It is not only safe but the most efficient way to accomplish a motor task. Functional movement is deadlifting, cleaning, squatting, pressing, pulling. Forget about the balance board. It will not be found at Full Circle.

High Intensity: Intensity is often defined in weightlifting as a percentage of maximum. The greater the percentage of your max you are lifting, the greater the ‘intensity’ of your workout. Well, that’s all well and good, but we mean something slightly different. We mean Power. We mean work, divided by time. Lifting a 95% max deadlift is intense, but it’s not an intense workout. Lifting a 75% deadlift for 21 reps and then doing 21 handstand pushups as fast as you can, that is intense. So we define intensity by relative power output.

Crossfit seeks to enhance an athlete’s ability to produce greater levels of power over broad time and modal domains. That means bigger maxes in heavy lifts, as well as shorter times in 10K’s. That means putting out more whether it be something moderately heavy 45 times, or whether it be repeated bouts of near sprints. Let’s face it, life is neither a marathon nor an Olympic lifting contest. It’s something in between. It’s precisely due to this fact that one can clearly observe that ‘nature, as well as combat punishes the specialist’. It is with this in mind that we earnestly seek to be competent in every aspect of fitness, and not waste too much time trying to be the best at any one thing. A well rounded athlete will always have choices as to how to best accomplish a motor task. A specialist only has one choice. If his square peg doesn’t fit that task’s round hole, he loses.

WOD 2/11/2009

Complete three rounds for time:

• 21 deadlifts (M:225#/W:155#)
• 21 ring dips

You are shooting for 10-12 minutes in this workout. It's a long time, but I really want you to concentrate a bit on your form during the deadlifts.

I did the workout in 10:05 with 115lb I will tell you my form sucked and my back is hurting. I am sick so should of took it easy. I also ran 6 x 400 meter sprints. Only because I wasn't feeling well enough to do a long run today.

Renunciation.....
Each day, accept everything that comes to you as a gift. At night, metally give it all back. In this way, you become free. No one can ever take anything from you, for nothing is yours.

What is depression?

Everyone has felt depressed from time to time. A death in the family, a failed romance, a lost job, a serious illness, or other life crisis will cause most people to feel sad, lonely, or down for a time. A period of grief or sadness is a normal reaction to such stressful events. It's even normal to feel "blah" sometimes for no particular reason. However, it also is normal to recover after a short time and feel like yourself again.

When the blues don't go away—when sad, lonely, irritable, or weary feelings prevent getting on with life—you, or someone you know, may have the mood disorder called depression. A mood disorder is an extreme, persistent disruption of a person's usual emotional state.

Depression is a "whole body" illness—one that affects a person's physical health as well as how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves toward others. A person who has depression may have problems sleeping, eating, working, and getting along with friends.

Depression can cause many different kinds of unhappy feelings. A depressed person may cry all the time, be very fearful, have panic attacks, argue with friends and coworkers, lose self-confidence, even have hallucinations. On the other hand, he or she might feel numb; not really sad, but not happy either.

People who are depressed will often try to self-medicate their bad feelings with drugs or alcohol, which only makes matters worse. Alcohol is a depressant, the last thing a depressed person needs.
Depression can come on suddenly, seemingly for no reason, or be triggered by a stressful event. It can also grow slowly over months and years, gradually draining away happiness and hope.
It is important for a person who is depressed—and his or her family, friends, and coworkers—to understand that depression is a disease. A depressed person has not caused these feelings and cannot simply decide to snap out of it and stop being depressed.

Depression is a very common health problem, and it is frequently misunderstood. People who have this illness often are embarrassed to admit they are depressed and to seek help for what they may see as a character flaw or weakness. This may be the reason two thirds of all people who are depressed never seek professional help.

Weakness has nothing to do with depression. Trying to ignore these feelings only gives them time to grow. Depression is a physical disorder that causes chemical changes inside the brain. These changes will not go away on their own. Recovery from depression may require psychotherapy, medication, or a combination of these or other treatments.

It seems like a lot of people I know who are suffering right now. It's ok to be sad but if it takes over your life it's best to get help.
Thinking positive, and running out on the trails always helps me when I feel depressed.

WOD 2/10/2009

Run 400m four times.
Rest 2 minutes between efforts.
Try to keep 15 seconds difference between all efforts.

Here are my times: 1:41, 1:42, 1:43, 1:43
also 3 mile run today.

Look Beyond The Situation And See What It Has To Teach !

New beginnings or the possibilities of a new start are soon to be presented. Use your inner magician to pull together all the components of what soon will be in the offing, as you should now be able to manifest your hopes, dreams and desires. Remember you are only at the beginning, the first stages of development, so the more you are able to accept the more will be given to you.
© Stephen Haynes

Look Beyond The Situation And See What It Has To Teach !

To transform waste into something purposeful and powerful is to remain light. To successfully transform something waste into something powerful and meaningful is to look beyond the situation and see what it has to teach. When there is the ability to do this, there is the ability to go on in spite of the most challenging obstacles. There is the deep understanding that nothing happens without a purpose. There is no time or energy wasted in wasteful company. When we understand the significance of everything that happens, we are able to transform in a second. So we are able to remain light because we are able to put in sincere effort and free ourselves from the burden of waste. We also find that there is no problem in our relationships too, as we are able to understand others and behave accordingly.
I happen to be in SF last night and this morning...I saw the Salon where my friend Julia works. I stayed the night across the street. I thought that would be funny if I saw her in the morning. I was walking back to get my vehicle when right in front of us there was my best friend Julia standing on the corner. She has a new boyfriend and she is going through some issues of her own as well. So I haven't talked to her in a week. It was nice to see her. We both got into Wasatch 100 too. We will get together next week for running and also to get my hair done.
WOD 2/9/2009

Complete three rounds of:

• 21 kettlebell swings (M:70#/W:53#)
• 15 L pull-ups
• 9 Handstand push-ups

You are looking to finish this workout at the 15 minute mark. To far under, you scaled to low. To far over, you should have scaled lighter.....

Time: 9:45..I should of used heavier weight for my KB swings, I used 30lb.

Virtue Is Love In Action !
"Wow...that's beautiful!" Is either a cry or a thought when faced with the mountain sunset, a spectacular view or a well formed man or woman. But where is the beauty, where is the appreciation of beauty, where is the ability to discern beauty? It is within our own consciousness. For the essence of who and what we are is beauty itself. The essence of beauty is not found in the body, a face or a mountain - they only stir the essence of beauty within our own spirit. And that beauty is not only something we taste within ourselves, but it emerges in our character as virtue, and in our life as care. For what is virtue, but love in action. The next time you say, "That's beautiful!" know that you speak of yourself, and it is you who are beautiful. Always were, always will be.

TAO is the truth. Follow it. Meditate on it. Become it. Then forget it. Only then can you live it.
So Carl and I broke up a couple days ago. A break up doesn't have to be viewed upon as a bad thing. It's just means we had different paths that we wanted to take. I don't believe in wasting someones time. Most people stay stuck in situations for a long time. I have so much stuff I wanna do in the wilderness..Like fastpacking and running long trails. Non of which Carl can do because he believes in a different way of training ,not going longer then 13 miles. My life is running. it is what keeps my soul alive. And every year I must take my few weeks to live in the wilderness.
It's sad but at the same time best for both.
Carl is an awesome person and great CF trainer.
I wish him the best on his journey through life.
I'm off to SoCal me and Rocky going on a road trip. Meeting up with friends do do Coyote 2 moons 100 mile training. I hope to stop by the Elite fitness academy for a WOD. Love coach LeClair he is an awesome trainer.

We must always take risks. That is our destiny.

" Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn."






Many people live in regrets, thinking and dwelling on what has already passed. Each day is a new day, which is the amazing part. We have to love each day and fulfill it to the best of our desires. No one should wait and waste it, but fulfill it like it is the last.
rest day..
Tabata squats and tabata Lunges.

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”
“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

There is a power at work that is not seen but nevertheless exists. When we are unable to deal with, or change, our situation this unforeseen power comes to our aid. So expect difficulties or obstacles to be transformed or even neutralised, but in all cases with a positive outcome. There is nothing to fear at this time, it is only a process, as the old gives way to the new. Without change growth cannot occur. The right ideas or actions will become apparent.
© Stephen Haynes
There is a lot of change that will be happening soon. Change is usually a good thing. It can be scary, but it usually makes me stronger.

WOD 2-3-09
3 MILE RUN
1 mile run carry Rocky 400 m(20lb)
repeat 3 times.
Time: 63 min.

Tabata sit-ups
count your lowest rep.
17

Try not to force the situation or force a resolution. If you would just wait a moment more you will be shown, or find, exactly what you are looking for. Try to use more inner guidance, in other words, your intuition or gut-feelings. You should now be evolved enough to know that you don’t always have to have all the answers or know the future in advance in order to attain success and avoid failure. Trust in yourself and the universe and everything will turn out as it is supposed to.
© Stephen Haynes

Practicing my up hill running on a steep hill on Mission peak..I had to walk a little it was to steep for me to run the whole thing. Just training hard for Coyote two moons 100.
These are a few of my favorite friends on Mission peak. I don't know why people are so affraid of the cows. They seem to love me. The first few years we had tough times, but now they know better then to try to chase me.
I did a crossfit wod during my run today...I had the cows watching during the push-ups. They canceled my 9am class at One world so I have to go at 6:30am a couple days a week. I will change my schedule at work to come in at 3pm instead of 2pm so I can go to the 12pm class a couple days a week. It's going to be hard waking up at 5:45am tomorrow since I usually don't get to bed until 12:30am.
It was another beautiful day. I can't believe how strong I'm getting. I ran the 50k yesterday but my body feels great. I am on day 9 of the master cleanse 1 more day to go.
2-2-09 Crossfit WOD/5 mile run

1 mile run-50 squats-1 mile run-40 up hill lunges, 1 mile run-30 push-ups, 1 mile run-20 frog jumps, 1 mile run-10 burpees. Time: 1hr 24 min.

Community...
Understand that you will be like those with whom you surround yourself. Your environment is stronger than you are
Today I ran the Tellas rock 50k fun run. Thanks to Beth and Joe for organizing this. It was a great day and I had a blast running with my friends.
It has 10,000ft of climb.We finished in 8:46 I ran with Joe and Mylinh most of the way.

Catra, Joe & Mylinh
RD's Beth & Joe. And Me