Episode 23- Three Week Countdown

Gabe and Joe reunite to discuss new workout plans headed into the New Year, Hawaii surf plans, and a special look at diabetes and how the Paleo Diet can help. Then they go on a hike (not covered). Music by Option 3...available at www.cdbaby.com/option3.

Surf stories

Since the surfing competition I've been keeping a journal of my surfing outings. Journals are great for tracking progress and tracking data. At times, I've kept food journals tracking meals or workout logs tracking weights and exercises; typically for four or eight week periods. But this surf journal's been a bit different, as surfing is less quantifiable than diet or exercise. It's more experiential and each time you go out, you really don't know what you'll get. The variables are too many: weather, wave size, other surfers, your own ability. Even your mood can affect your performance. I think to the general public (in the US at least), surfing is more of an escape than a sport. To them, surfers are drop-outs and druggies, not serious athletes. Also, I've found that most people have never heard of guys like Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, or Mark Richards. So for me it was a surprise to wander into the Surf Walk of Fame at Huntington Beach last week. And the messages from these guys were inspirational. From Laird- "Live large." From Kelly- "Anything is possible". From Richards- "Surf for fun."



I went down to Huntington on a whim because it's been bigger than all the other beaches recently. Everywhere from Venice to County Line has been 0-2' with Poor or Flat conditions. Huntington's been consistently 3-4' and Fair according to my Surf Report app. But when I went down there last Thursday, it was windy and small, even at the pier. There were maybe three or four diehard guys competing for what there was. I ended up going to a nearby surf shop where I came across these placards in front. It started raining and it was just a cool thing, these placards shining in the rain, reflecting the greats of surfing- from Greg Noll to Gerry Lopez to "Rabbit" Bartholomew, guys I'd never heard of even back in June. I've really sort of fallen into surfing and it's become a passion.



So I went stand-up paddleboarding on Sunday and rented a board down in Hermosa from Tarsan SUP. I'd done SUP in New York in September on a windy day in Rockaway Beach. This was different. The conditions were flat and not that windy, and I went out by the pier. Gulls passed by in v formations, and the only other people in sight were on the pier looking at me and into the horizon. It was meditative and different, though maybe a little slow. It's interesting standing on water and balancing can be tricky depending on the waves. I ended up asking the dude who rented me the board and paddle if he gave performance lessons on waves, and he said yeah, he did. We'll see. Maybe I'll tackle that with Joe.



Apparently, the surf gets big in LA in December, but for now it's just not there which, I have to say, has been a drag. I miss it. My friend said he might give me his 6'0 thruster which would be awesome. As of now, though, I know no one who wants to go out- another drag. I was talking to a drummer friend the other day who was like, "Yeah, man I used to surf. I used to be one of those idiots who went to Hawaii for the winter surf sesh." I was like, "Man, I want to be one of those idiots!"


So there's your update, gentle reader. Hope you guys are doing swell out there. Beyond the surfing, I've been back to strength training 3x a week, sprints, and core training with a new 6 week program. With the colder weather, I've been more attracted to carbs and starches like potatoes, rice, and bananas. According to Robb Wolf, there's nothing wrong really if you're training hard, but I'm not so sure. Check out www.robbwolf.com for more. Here's an interesting article from an Australian newspaper about Shaun Thomson's book, The Code, which I mentioned in a previous post. It seems he's sort of an outlier in the surf industry and his positive life lessons learned from surfing don't jibe with a lot of folks' bad boy, surfer image. Aussies are one of the few cultures that really appreciate surfing as a sport.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/getting-on-board/story-e6frg9zo-1226767225444

Episode 22- Haunted Heats

Joe and Gabe recount their October exploits including Joe's bodyweight regime and Gabe's surf stories. Also- exclusive coverage on which alcohols are best and worst according to Primal Blueprint author, Mark Sisson.

October Surfing sessions

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2013/oct/27/surfers-haunted-heats-halloween-video

It's been an interesting month for me. Besides the above, Haunted Heats Surf Competition, I've been surfing regularly- going to Malibu, County Line, and Venice mostly. The surf has been smaller and smaller- but supposedly it gets bigger in the winter. I've also been traveling a lot which presents challenges to anyone looking to stay in shape. The traveling was predominantly wedding related too- and there's been a week-long celebration of Halloween in LA. All of this adds up to major derailing from any conditioning program.

About a month ago, I set out to shed weight and tone up with Rachel Cosgrove's Spartacus circuit. That is a great program for boosting your metabolism. It consists of three circuits of ten exercises done in 1min intervals. There's two minutes rest between circuits. Very difficult. I watched 300 once while doing it- which I'm pretty sure fueled my Poseidon character for the Haunted Heats competition. But I digress....The Spartacus workout or any Fat-Loss circuit done without rest is tough, but tougher without a partner or a coach, or an external motivating source, like a role to get in shape for. The actors from the Starz series did the workout together three days a week. So- definitely very different from doing it solo in the cardio room at 24 Hr Fitness. I probably completed it 5-6 times, and also Spartacus 2 which is a circuit of 9 exercises broken up into supersets of two. It's also very difficult- and reminds me of the workouts I've read Statham does- timed and circuit based. Occasionally, I interspersed these with A Men's Health poster workout with 4 exercises- more standard, though still focused on leg work to strengthen core. When I couldn't get to the beach, I swam at 24 Hr Fitness Altadena and used the jacuzzi, steam room, sauna as a circuit to loosen muscles. I started making a Laird Hamilton inspired shake using Catie's Greens in the morning with fish oil, Muscle Milk, and egg. It's actually good.



Also- read Shaun Tomson's Surfer's Code yesterday...Very cool book by a South African legend. The book itself (at lest the 2006 version) is not super-preachy but a very authentic voice talking about his experience in and out of the water. I'm so new to surfing I'd never even heard of him. But the book was cool for me as he describes very vividly places like Pipeline, Waimea Bay, and Sunset Beach in Hawaii. I also found his experience interesting as he's a Jewish dude from South Africa.



He details his 12 point code as:

I will never turn my back on the ocean: Passion
I will paddle around the impact zone: No short cuts
I will take the drop with commitment: Courage, focus and determination
I will never fight a rip tide: The danger of pride and egotism
I will always paddle back out: Perseverance in the face of challenges
I will watch out for other surfers after a big set: Responsibility
I will know that there will always be another wave: Optimism
I will ride and not paddle into shore: Self-esteem
I will pass on my stoke to a non-surfer: Sharing knowledge and giving back
I will catch a wave every day, even in my mind: Imagination
I will realize that all surfers are joined by one ocean: Empathy
I will honor the sport of kings: Honor and integrity

Surfing continues to expand my horizons, both athletically and in offering life lessons. I really dig it and am stoked that it can be a lifelong pursuit.

"The natural world establishes a physical bond between all surfers through the bands of energy we ride. I try to strengthen this bond by focusing on common experiences and the things all surfers share." - Shaun Thomson
http://shauntomson.com

Art De Vany's "Evolutionary Fitness" paper

On a plane from Boston to LA, I recently re-read DeVany's "Evolutionary Fitness". A precursor to his book, the New Evolution Diet, it's essentially a shorter, more concise version of the same thoughts on human health and nutrition. The fundamental point is that our bodies and minds are healthiest when we eat and exercise as humans did 40,000 years ago. We weren't meant to be sedentary or (notably) to work out regularly in a gym. We weren't even meant to eat three square meals a day, let alone rice and wheat. Our bodies were meant to adapt to scarcity and to be exposed to high intensity and short workouts. It really is a different way of viewing our place in the world, so it's understandable why so many people are reluctant to look at things this way.



Some quotes that struck me:

"The real point is to embrace randomness and variety within the context of structured repetitiveness. Good intuitive models of power law variation are the movements of the wild lion or the music of Bach or Mozart"

"Males among hunter-gatherers do not carry the large game our ancestors did, so they are not a good model of power walking for males. Consider this instead as a model. A historical source reports that 5 Indian braves drove 5 bison into a pit. After they killed these 2000-pound bison, they pulled them out of a pit more than 10 feet deep, lined them up and skinned and butchered them. Then, they carried as much as they could back to camp to get others to return for the rest. What a wonderful model of fitness, combining speed, power, strength, and stamina. You can be sure this successful hunt was followed by plenty of rest and play and feasting. This model is always on my mind when I think of what fitness means."

"The fact that you are alive is a remarkable thing. The odds against it are great. The genes you carry contain information from a continuous strand of surviving organisms that extends 2 billion years back in time. You are an improbable event and your existence is testimony to the toughness and adaptiveness of the ancestral line from which you come. You are a survivor, well equipped to live and be successful in the world for which your body and mind are adapted. Recognize, however, that the world for which your genes encode a successful design is not today's world; it is the world of some 10,000 to 40,000 years ago."

"By keeping your work outs brief and exhilarating you won't get bored. By adding lots of outdoors activity and play, you will enjoy the power and fitness you are achieving. If you start a new sport, or pick up one long neglected as you begin evolutionary training you will see how the power you gain improves your play. The feedback between the training and your new power in the sport will be habit forming. I fail to see how anyone can train 5 or 6 days a week in the gym and for hours at a time. That is factory or agricultural work, not anything human beings were evolved to do. And the paradox is that you will gain less strength and fitness if you over train. And you will join the thousands who quit out of sheer boredom."

"Aging is a slow form of lean body mass loss. What we call aging is sedentary aging and carbohydrate abuse. The accumulation of damage from hypoexertion and hyperinsulemia over a longer time scale is what aging is in Western countries. Adults lose about 5 per cent of their lean body mass per decade after they enter their thirties. Most of the muscle they lose is FT fiber, for they cease by some age to live in the FT region. They settle into the ST region and, consequently, as they age their muscle fibers atrophy. The 40 per cent rule may hold here too. Progressive aging and deterioration resulting in a 40 per cent loss of lean body mass may be a precursor or mediator of the dying process. The aging just die over a longer time scale than do acutely ill individuals. The aged lose lean mass and most of it is FT fiber. Because they do not and cannot stress their skeletons, they lose bone density. Their skeletons are vulnerable to falls and their muscles are not strong or quick enough to keep them from falling because their FT fibers atrophy. Keeping your FT fibers is the best way to stay young."

For more on DeVany and Evolutionary Fitness-
http://www.artdevanyonline.com/1/category/evolutionary%20fitness/1.html

Episode 21- Fit Fax 3

Gabe and Joe discuss their 90 day body comp analysis results; followed by Gabe's upcoming Fitness guide, and endurance training.



For more on Fit-Fax:
www.fitfax.com

Episode 20: Podcast Review

Gabe and Joe examine their podcast, what's working, what's not and make a plan for the future...including a catchy new theme song. Also, discussion of Joe's workout gains, Gabe's surfing competition, and Laird Hamilton's book- Force Of Nature...It's all happening on GFWGAJ!