090114 (Part I): 2009's First CrossFit Workout!

0400 - wake-up, walk dogs (only 1/2 mile because of cold)

0450 - breakfast:
1-1/2c. Kashi Go-Lean Crunch with
1-1/2c. whole milk

0520 - Pre-workout:
3 T-Bomb II tabs
1 serving Trac Extreme NO

0600 workout:
Warm-up: 1 round of the CF warm-up, 10 reps:
3 rounds of 10-15 reps of
Samson Stretch (do the Samson Stretch once each round for 15-30 seconds)
Overhead Squat with broomstick
Sit-up
Back-extension
Pull-up
Dip

Workout:
For time:
67.5 pound Power clean 15 reps
30 Dips
67.5 pound Power clean 12 reps
24 Dips
67.5 pound Power clean 9 reps
18 Dips
67.5 pound Power clean 6 reps
12 Dips
67.5 pound Power clean 3 reps
6 Dips

Dips were done on parallettes with feet elevated on a 16 inch box.

Time to complete: 16:05.60

0715 Post-workout:
1 serving Dark Matter

Totals:
Calories - 820
Protein - 37.5g
Carbs - 133.5g
Fat - 16.5g

090113 Reset, Some Progress

I've been worn out from working 3rd shift and being sick the last several days so today was the first day back in the gym since last Fri. I reset to Starting Strength Workout A and will continue from there.

Warm-up: 5 minutes elliptical cross-trainer
25 rep sit-ups with 10# plate on my chest

Workout:
Squat
2 sets 45 X 5
95 X 5
135 X 5
175 X 5
Planned 3 sets 225 X 5. Achieved: 3 sets 205 X 5 (I really wanted to get this number up today, but it wasn't going to happen - probably because of just getting over the stomach flu)

Standing Shoulder Press
45 X 8 (planned 5, but got in the zone and kept going)
65 X 5
85 X 5
95 X 2
Planned 3 sets 105 X 5. Achieved 2 sets 105 X 3, 105 X 4 (I don't know how I actually managed to get the last 4th rep as I tried for it on the previous two sets)

Deadlift
95 X 5
135 X 5
185 X 5
225 X 3
Planned 245 X 5. Achieved: 245 X 2

090109 - Running

Today's workout was for cardio purposes:

5:00 minute warm-up jogging at 4.5 mph
35 minute Time Trial - distance 3.69 miles
5:00 minute cool-down

Really need to work on my endurance and speed.

090107 - Starting Strength Workoout B

Warm-up: 5 minutes on Elliptical cross-trainer

Workout
Squats:
2 sets: 45 X 5
95 X 5
135 X 5
175 X 4
3 sets 205 X 5

Bench Press:
45 X 5
75 X 5
105 X 5
125 X 3
3 sets 145 X 5

Back Extensions: 5 sets of 10 reps on a Hammer Strength GHR

Pull-ups: 5 sets of max reps:
5/3/3/3/3

090105 Starting Strength Workout A

Warm-up:
Elliptical Cross-trainer 5 minutes
25 BW Sit-ups

Squat:
2 X 45 X 5
95 X 6
135 X 5
165 X 4
3 X 195 X 5

Press:
45 X 5
65 X 5
75 X 5
95 X 5
2 X 95 X 4 (These last two sets I just could not squeeze out the fifth and final rep)

Deadlift:
95 X 5
135 X 5
185 X 3
225 X 5

Soviet Boomer to be Scrapped

In the news today:

A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm nearly two years ago will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it has said. The 282-foot submarine, known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor'easter in April 2007. Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise in July, and inspections showed that the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

Restoring it to an operational museum would have cost more than $1 million, said Frank Lennon, director of the Russian Sub Museum and president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

A local company, Rhode Island Metals Recycling LLC, has agreed to move the sub downriver and eventually dismantle it for scrap metal if no one offers to buy it intact by the end of this month.

"We remain hopeful that someone will step forward who might be interested in taking over the stewardship of this very interesting Cold War relic," Lennon said.



The sub, alternatively designated as K-77, was launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and later tracked U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and as a set for the 2002 Harrison Ford movie K-19: The Widowmaker before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation.

It opened as a museum in Providence in 2002 and drew tens of thousands of tourists over the years.

Lennon said the museum would remove artifacts such as periscopes, torpedo tube doors, missile firing stations and other items before the sub is dismantled.

He said he had received inquiries about the sub, including one from an Australian group that wanted to sink it and use it as a reef, but no serious offers.

How cool would it be to go to a ballistic submarine reconfigured to be a vodka bar?

The Military Polled About 2008 Elections

Poll results published in the 5 January 2009 Military Times newspapers:

Do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama's calls to withdraw combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months?
34% Approve
49% Disapprove
17% No opinion

Do you support plans by some senior military leaders to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by more than 20,000?
79% Yes
10% No
12% No opinion

How likely is the US to succeed in Afghanistan?
68% Very Likely or Somewhat Likely
20% Not very likely or not at all likely
No opinion: 8%
No answer 4%

As President, Barack Obama will have my best interest at heart.
36% Agree
43% Disagree
21% No opinion

*and the kicker*
President George W. Bush has my best interest at heart.
49% Agree
39% Disagree
12% No opinion

Also of note: 58% of respondents do not support Obama's call to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell while only 29% actually support him in this. (Significantly 71% state if the policy was overturned, they would continue to serve while only 9% would not even consider re-enlisting.)

Looks like the Military is going to be a tough audience for Barack to win over.

The online version of the Story:

When asked how they feel about President-elect Barack Obama as commander in chief, six out of 10 active-duty service members say they are uncertain or pessimistic, according to a Military Times survey.

In follow-up interviews, respondents expressed concerns about Obama’s lack of military service and experience leading men and women in uniform.

“Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified.

For eight years, members of the U.S. military have served under a Republican commander in chief who reflected their generally conservative views and led them to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now, the troops face change not only at the very top of the chain of command, as Obama nears his Jan. 20 inauguration, but perhaps in mission, policy and values.

Underlying much of the uncertainty is Obama’s stated 16-month timetable for pulling combat troops out of Iraq, as well as his calls to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military, according to survey responses and interviews.

“How are you going to safely pull combat troops out of Iraq?” said Air Force 1st Lt. Rachel Kleinpeter, an intelligence officer with the 100th Operations Support Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, England. “And if you’re pulling out combat troops, who are you leaving to help support what’s left? What happens if Iraq falls back into chaos? Are we going to be there in five years doing the same thing over again?”

When asked who has their best interests at heart — Obama or President George W. Bush — a higher percentage of respondents picked Bush, though Bush has lost ground over time. About half of the respondents said Bush has their best interests at heart this year, the same percentage as last year but a decline from 69 percent in 2004.

Nearly one-third of respondents — including eight out of 10 black service members — said they are optimistic about their incoming boss.

Even some service members who voted against Obama — only 1 in 4 supported him over Sen. John McCain in a pre-election survey of Military Times subscribers —now express goodwill toward him as their new commander in chief.

“Overall, the prospect of having someone who isn’t necessarily tied to old strategies is a good thing,” said Air Force Master Sgt. David Ortegon, who said he voted for McCain. “Sometimes you need a fresh perspective to be able to handle our military readiness and the needs of the nation.”

The findings are part of the sixth annual Military Times survey of subscribers to Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times newspapers. This year’s survey, conducted Dec. 1 through Dec. 8, included more than 1,900 active-duty respondents.

The responses are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole. The survey group overall under-represents minorities, women and junior enlisted service members, and over-represents soldiers.

But as a snapshot of the professional corps, the responses highlight the challenges Obama faces as he prepares to take command of military careerists with different political and cultural attitudes.

In keeping with previous surveys, nearly half of the respondents described their political views as conservative or very conservative. Slightly more than half said they consider themselves Republicans, 22 percent independents and 13 percent Democrats.

Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who has written extensively about civil-military relations, said a degree of uncertainty among service members toward Obama is appropriate, given their questions about how he will govern as commander in chief.

“Those numbers don’t convince me he has got a big problem on his hands because what he is seeing is not military hostility, but rather military caution, and caution that is reasonable because he has never been in the position of this office,” Feaver said. “It’s sensible and understandable that they have doubts about him.

“They respect the office of the commander in chief,” Feaver said. “As long as he wields that office responsibly, then these numbers need not morph into a problem.”

David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, said respondents’ optimism toward Obama can be partially attributed to confidence in his military advisers, including Richard Danzig, former secretary of the Navy, and retired Gen. James Jones Jr., former commandant of the Marine Corps and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

On Dec. 1, the day the survey was released, Obama announced his national security team, including Jones as national security adviser and Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, as defense secretary.

“There is an understanding that the president doesn’t do all his own paperwork,” Segal said. “The quality of any president is going to depend on the quality of the people he has around him.”

When to leave Iraq
While nearly half of the respondents said they disapprove of Obama’s proposal to withdraw combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, a slightly higher percentage said they support the Status of Forces Agreement calling for U.S. forces to leave the country by the end of 2011.

Army Spc. Robbie Blackford, an infantryman with C Troop, 1-71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, who returned from a 14-month tour in Iraq in late October, said Obama should gradually reduce the number of U.S. service members in Iraq.

“In my mind, things were changing to the point where we could get out of there and the Iraqis could take over their own country,” Blackford said. “I think that he should just pull out a little at a time.”

Although realistic about the challenges ahead, troops overwhelmingly support the mission in Afghanistan.

Eight out of 10 respondents said the U.S. should have gone to war in Afghanistan. Nearly the same amount support plans to boost the number of troops there by more than 20,000, for a total of more than 50,000.

“We just don’t have enough manpower to be out there doing what we need to do, winning the hearts and minds and so forth,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jay Brewer, a meteorological and oceanographic officer with Marine Forces Pacific who has twice deployed to Iraq. “In Iraq, when we increased the number of troops, we were able to increase our presence full-time in certain areas.”

While the majority of respondents expressed some degree of optimism the U.S. will succeed in Afghanistan, 30 percent said troops will need to stay for more than a decade to achieve its goals.

The survey results also suggest that despite the military’s efforts to address mental-health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, stigma associated with the conditions lingers.

About 15 percent of active-duty respondents said they are suffering from or have suffered from PTSD, TBI or other mental health issues.

Most of those respondents said they sought help with the treatment. But four out of 10 said they believed seeking care for such disabilities would negatively affect their career.

Navy Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class William Rioseco, an instructor at Center for Security Forces, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, said mandatory post-deployment screening across all services would help to reduce stigma associated with mental health disorders.

“Like PT, it should be mandatory. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in action, or you’re doing support,” he said. “If you’re in a combat zone, you’re subject for mandatory psychoanalysis because people can get affected by different things.”