Posts Tagged ‘Costa Rica’

Pura Vida Part II

Posted: February 7, 2011 in CrossFit
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After waking up, each day has looked like this, in no particular order:

  • cup of cafe latte
  • 15min barefoot run on the beach
  • surf
  • mahi-mahi tacos (fresh fresh fresh)
  • For time: climb 30′ palm tree
  • CrossFit WOD on beach
  • eat some fruit
  • jump off 35′ waterfalls
  • ride 12 zip lines from 1000′ above sea level
  • beach sprint intervals
  • trail running in the mountains

While I resisted a vacation initially, the time spent down here has been a creative catalyst for the direction of CrossFit San Mateo as well as where/how I want to live my life. There always seems to be a million things going on. My good friend Tim Dymmel, owner of CrossFit Palo Alto, has a recent post regarding Perpetual Motion.

The lesson I came away with from his post was this: despite indecision in direction, always keep moving. Tim and I share many qualities and one of the biggest is lack of time. How do you maximize time spent on the important tasks, with the intent of moving toward one’s goals, while also maximizing the things that make life worth pursuing? In many regards, it’s a good argument for the 4HWW life model (4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss). Above all else, my trip to Costa Rica has solidified my larger goal; an automated income system(s). With the hustle and bustle, constant grind of the athlete/biz owner/father life, I had almost lost site of it!

Going back to Dymmel’s post, often enough we get caught up in the “right direction.” Often times we have many options to choose from in business and in life, all of which can seem like the right direction! So, what is the right direction? While taking time to reflect is always important, don’t stall. If, D). All of the above, is a viable option, pick one and start moving. Always keep moving in the direction of your dreams. Sometimes I’ve also felt that the decisions I’ve made may not have been the best. Nonetheless, I stay on my grind. I once heard a great quote, “Fate rewards those who are prepared.” Identify your goals, work hard and never stop moving.

In the mean time….

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Pura Vida

Posted: February 4, 2011 in Track, Trail running
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It’s the saying in Costa Rica and after visiting here for a couple days, you come to understand why. It means “full of life” or if someone asks you how you are doing, it’s the same as saying, “awesome!”.

After stepping off the red-eye having gotten no sleep, I felt terrible. Everything felt like it was tied in knots. Doing some full depth squats, easy good mornings and stretching in the airport really helped and after walking around town a bit, we noticed a tiny studio for Aurora Yoga. We promised to come back for a class. That night I did an easy 20min shakeout jog on the beach.

Costa Rica is the fitness guru’s heaven; lot’s of long beaches to run, big waves to surf, countless trails to explore and waterfalls to jump from just to name a few. We started Thursday morning with Yoga class at the tiny studio in Jaco. Come to find out, the owner was from San Francisco as was her two employees! She was a recent graduate of UCSF and had just opened her doors 3 months ago. Very cool! After stretching it out with deep holds for an hour in what seemed like a Bikram class (it’s 90+ degrees outside and 1000% humidity) we walked out feeling much better, albeit a bit dehydrated. The one downside to living in the Bay Area is that it does not prepare one for the heat and humidity.

Running gave me a good lay of land, however, and I ended up climbing 800ft above the ocean to the point b/t Hermosa and Jaco. After running outside the town, I found a dirt road that literally went straight up the mountain. Thinking it may be private, I asked the three men sitting at the entrance “Correr?” They looked at me like I was crazy and then said, “Rocky!” The 800ft climb wasn’t too difficult but the view was amazing! The evening was finished by some body surfing, easy strides on the beach, hollow rocks and pushups. When I was in college, I remember some of the veteran runners giving me advice regarding racing overseas. They would always stress running very easy the first couple days, no matter how great your legs feel. Traveling, especially overnight flights, puts tremendous stress on the body. The last thing you want to do is tax yourself more when racing.

Dinner has been very good. Always fresh caught fish with rice, broccoli and beans. I have to make a point of saying, the fish here is amazing. Mahi-mahi, sea bass, whatever. It really doesn’t matter what kind of fish you have, it’s so fresh. It definitely makes getting in your omega 3′s very easy.

Today was again chalk full of adventure. There’s so much to write about, I’ll have to save it for tomorrow. Until then…

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Utah, get me two…

Posted: February 1, 2011 in CrossFit, Track
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workouts and I’m back! Repeat 10x200m’s at 27-28 on Friday felt like I was running in sand. WTF was the word for the day! Less of a muscular/fitness issue, it had more to deal with firing up the nervous system again. It had been 3 weeks since I did any type of pace work and my legs were a bit surprised. Damn, so was I!

Following Friday’s workout were easy runs on Saturday and Sunday all while the medial glute felt great. So today I decided to turn the wheels for 6x800m @ 230, 226, 218, 230, 226, 220 with 2min rest feeling relaxed. I followed up with one 200m @ 27 feeling like I was floating. I shut it down feeling good with the work for the day and a good last track day before a week in Costa Rica.

This evening I finished up with a killer WOD with my buddy Josh Courage. Tuan programmed it and then jumped the gun and started before us. Punk! It went like this:

6 rounds of:
150m sprint
10 pullups
8 power cleans @ 135lbs
6 lateral bar hop burpies

I went 10:24, Josh went 10:55 and Tuan went 17:25ish…cause he didn’t do it with us ;0

Stoked for some guaro and wavos!

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon