What You Can Learn From Litter...

Now that all the snow is melting, and with Earth Day 2009 still 16 days away, we're able to see all the crap on the side of the road that people have been tossing out of their vehicles since the last global cleansing occured on Earth Day 2008. With all the miles I've put on my bike recently I've learned a lot about people and the products that they buy (and then toss out their window).

1. The beer of choice for people who drink and drive and then throw their empties on the side of the road is Bud Light with Budweiser a close second..
2. The people who drink and drive, get really hammered, and throw their Bud Light cans on the side of the road also like to kill their hangovers with coffee and donuts from Dunkin Donuts and then they throw their 20oz styrofoam coffee cups and wax paper DD bags on the side of the road.
3. People who eat at McDonalds are too fat and lazy to carry their empty bags and Big Mac containers to a trash can.. In fact, I was riding my bike past a McDonald's last week and there was a gigantic woman in a very small car that actually was tossing the empty bag out of her window before she even got out of the McD's parking lot. I gave her a look while shaking my head and she flipped me off. Her middle finger covered in ketchup.
4. Apparently, not only is it not littering to throw a burning cigarette out the window after it's done taking another few minutes off your life, it's also OK to chuck the empty pack out the window too.. Butt of choice for littering buttheads: Marlboro Light.
5. Energy drinks really work! I can tell because every empty energy drink can I saw on the side of the road was violently crushed before it was whipped in the woods.

I think the biggest thing I learned from this exercise is that the people who don't give a shit about what they put in their bodies also don't give a shit about what they toss around our planet.

So why is this an entry in my "Redefining Fitness.." blog? Because what we're doing at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning is so much more than just a place to workout. For the people who get it, this is a lifestyle. They come to the gym to challenge their bodies at a very high level with natural movements. They work to get their eating habits in order to complement their workouts and to add good years to their lives. They don't eat at McDonald's or eat donuts. All the positive energy gained at the gym starts to influence everything else in our lives. In my own experience I can tell you that I care a lot more about what I eat and where it comes from. I care more about the planet. I try to make good choices and decisions. I'm much more aware of how my actions affect and influence the people and the environment around me. It's part of the whole package. You start taking care of yourself and the rest just kind of falls into place. The gym is one of my favorite places to be because of the positive energy and excitement that everybody brings to the place and the effect it has on me.

Workout for today:
-4 x 4:00 min sets of 1 arm snatch with 16kg with 1 min between sets. 1 arm switch per set. About 320 snatches total
-150 pushups
-35 pullups (forearms were fairly cooked after the 16:00 mins of snatches so I didn't want to push it beyond this on the pullups)
-a few minutes of mace swinging
-interval session on the bike trainer - 5 x 3:00 at 300W with 3:00 rest between intervals. In my experience, intervals on the trainer come in at a power level about 10-20% lower than if you're on the road and I think it's because when you're on the trainer you don't get any assistance by pulling on the handlebars. These intervals felt like the equivalent of 330-350W intervals on the road. At the end of the 3:00 min intervals my heart rate was at about 97% and I wanted to puke.

Train hard. Don't be a litterbug :)
kevin