In The Beginning...There Was...Marzipan

Below is a re-post from the original The Marzipan Incident, a blog I started about four years ago...I was going to start up on it again but I guess from years of inactivity Blogger erased/lost/cancelled/sold to aliens my password so I have been lucky in being able to start a blog over from scratch. If you have been curious as to where the name of my blog comes from, I have re-posted the original post, and want to reflect on it, as a blogger. So enjoy ... there will be more after the flashback...

Marzipan-
"Although it is believed to have originated in Persia (present-day Iran) and to have been introduced to Europe through the Turks, there is some dispute between Hungary and Italy over its origin. Marzipan became a specialty of the Baltic Sea region of Germany. In particular, the city ofLübeck has a proud tradition of marzipan manufacture (Lübecker Marzipan). The city’s manufacturers like Niederegger still guarantee their Marzipan to contain two thirds almonds by weight, which results in a juicy, bright yellow product."  
                     -wikipedia

Basic Marzipan Recipe:

Uncooked:
1/4 pound ground blanched almonds
1/4 pound powdered sugar
1 egg white
1/4 tsp. salt

Cooked:
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
4 cups ground blanched almonds

The above would be all and good if this Blog was about Marzipan... but it's not. For everybody who really knows me knows that i have a little quirk. My attention span is not long and I get obsessed with (fill in the blank) very quickly and due to one particular moment in my life my family has dubbed these spontaneous moments as "Marzipan moments". You'll have to ask my brother-in-law to describe it to you. So "The Marzipan Incident" is dedicated to those moments. What ever it is and how ever short it might be lived, it will be here. So stay tuned for the first because it was what inspired the blog. Excited? I know I am.

So were am I going with this? The original blog was very short lived, a few posts about a Wooden Articulated Man named Pan. The second Marzipan Incident is what you are reading now. My second attempt and hopefully it will have a longer tenure. What do I want out of this? Is it just a "Marzipan Moment"? I hope not, I am hoping this new philosophy, this Life Endurance thingy is here to stay.

So what should you expect:

• Posts of my progress
• My work outs
• How I Do it
• Marzipan (can't give it up)

What I expect from you:

• To be entertained 
• Maybe learn something
• Maybe every once in a while a encouraging post

As I work to get back into the flow after the toe thing and as I go on the road the Friday to ride safety with my running team while they trek 200 miles across Virginia for the Colonial 200, I'll need those encouraging posts.  

An Interesting Side Effect

Well, it has been an interesting week.  I am within two weeks of the Colonial 200, a 200 mile relay that I am participating in and have been training for the last 2 months, I discovered that I will be advancing in my career (more money so score), and I discovered a five pound weight falling from a height of at least 2.5 feet produces enough kinetic force to break human bone. Who would this test subject be, you ask? That would be me. Now, I love science as much as the next guy, I mean my job has it in it's name, but this science experiment is one I would have loved to not have been a part. I don't even have a cool story to go with it, like I was saving children from a burning building, or I just finished a One rep max on the Clean and jerk and when I dropped the weight it landed on my foot. No, it was none of these...my story runs along these line: I was in the garage looking for my jump-rope so I could complete my WOD, I was bare-foot and my garage (like most garages) is concrete, this is foreshadowing by the way. I found said rope on a table with a bunch of the boys' stuff on it. I picked it up and the next thing I knew was my toes were on fire. After I peeled myself off the ceiling and kids weren't saying things like, "Mom what are those words Dad is saying" or "is Dad dying?" I realized a weight had been hiding/lurking under the kids' stuff and I had disturbed it slumber so it had sought to take its revenge upon me. I had it x-rayed.  It was confirmed, no race for me. One week of no exercise, to allow the swelling to go down, and 30 days of no impact PT (Physical Training). Insert sad face. I had been training for this event for 2 months and was really excited to try the new training regiment out and to put a proverbial sock in the mouths of the haters on the running team at base. So what does one do when training hard for something and something happens with in weeks of the event that leave him unable to accomplished the it? Well...pout on the couch with his foot up.



So at this point we are going to have a side bar. Old me, lots of me to love, and tons of fun are phrases that would describe me. New me, smaller than old me but still grossly obese (according to the Coast Guard and the archaic BMI, I mean we ought to be clacking rocks together if we are using this) and I had the metabolism of a snake. Feed me and I would be good for a month. Problem was, I loved the taste of food so I would eat every day like I was preparing for winter.

So back to the previous line of thought. Based on past experience a week of inactivity and eating like I normally do, I would gain weight. Interestingly, I haven't.  In fact, I have lost wieght. What! Yes, I have lost weight this week. I haven't been gorging myself, but I haven't been watching what I was eating, either.  But, at the end of this week of inactivity I have lost one pound. To me this is crazy talk. I have been "running" two years now and this has never been a side effect I have had when I have stopped training. After two months of prescribing to the CFE philosophy, my resting metabolism is effectively still burning fat. Now, I don't have delusions of grandeur and think my body can maintain this for very long, but for this short period I have been okay.

Not wanting to push my luck, and as I have been cleared by medical to do no impact PT, I will be starting again tomorrow. Mostly it will consist of bike, kettlebells, weights (not the heartless vindictive kind), and the Versa climber. I want to keep that resting metabolism; I want to keep finding new things about myself and things i never thought my body could do. Once the toe heals up I will be hitting the road again,. but hopefully with less impact.

ath·lete noun \ˈath-ˌlēt, ÷ˈa-thə-ˌlēt\ VS. non-athlete noun\ nōn ath-ˌlēt, ÷ˈa-thə-ˌlēt\

ath·lete     noun \ˈath-ˌlēt, ÷ˈa-thə-ˌlēt\

: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina

 non-athlete noun\ nōn ath-ˌlēt, ÷ˈa-thə-ˌlēt\

: a person who is not an athlete

I have been pondering these words as I have been cruising the blogs and website. Brian MacKenzie, who everybody is probably wondering if I have a man crush on, talks about training an athlete or when referring the someone who he is training as an athlete. I have even had a co-worker, the same one who gently pushed or shoved (take your pick)  me into running, tell me I have to eat like an athlete on run day so I have the energy to finish the run. Again I have pondered this...am I an athlete?

By trade I am a Marine Science Tech., and for those not in the know, I don't do any type of marine science. It's just the name of the Rate in the Coast Guard. But I do enforce environmental regulation and that means I interpret law. I get all dirty in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations where terms like "Discharge" and "Release" have two very different meanings. To the point that two different laws are brought into play and whether you can bring criminal proceedings to the table. Two words, huge implications. Why tell you this? Just to drive the point home about how much I love to analyze verbiage, and to bring out my inner nerd. He needs to get out every once in awhile or things get rough. Okay, on to the point.  Athlete...to be or not to be? The definition "a person who is trained or skilled..." so let break this down, am I skilled? No, I am not skilled; if you have ever seen me run you would agree. My form is not good and I do not run very efficiently.  Remember, I am the intoxicated orangutan. Next question...am I trained? Now this I have been taught and I am currently studying to be better. I am trying to reshape my form to Pose running, while I have not be formally trained by a form coach I have read up on it and have watched many videos and I am currently training myself to run this way. So now comes in the timing...if you are in the process of being trained or in training are you an athlete? Are the players in the JV (Junior Varsity) Football athletes? would you call them trained or skilled. They practice daily to be great and to get to the Varsity level and then on to the next level and then the next level. It really never ends, they are always training to be better and always training to get to the next level.

So I have established that I am in training, this in itself does not make one an athlete.  You can train in chess but are you an athlete? Lets move on.  Next part of the definition is "... exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina." Well, I do not think you will get an argument that running or Crossfit meet this qualification. 

So conclusion: is this intoxicated orangutan-esk person an athlete...drum roll...Yes. What?!  Yes, the answer is Yes. Am I working on it? Yes. I am putting forth the effort? Yes. Do I want greatness? Yes. Am I skilled? Working on it. Am I trained? ...ish...working on it. I ask advice from people who are and I read a lot about it. Knowledge is power but the application of knowledge is more powerful by far. So my crossfit WOD today was:

7 rounds 

7 pull ups

14 burpees 

21squats

did it in 22 minutes...and it sucked. Lets see if i can do it better next week. I'll get better, I'll get faster. That is what defines an athlete...

...maybe dictionary.com needs to change their definition.  

Bad Days...Bad week

You ever had one of those bad days? The one when nothing goes right or the ones, my personal favorite (insert sarcastic font), the days that are just blah. Nothing really bad happens but then nothing really good happens. The day when you do not "see" anything, good or bad, just Vanilla. Well, I wasn't having a bad day...it was turning into a bad week. I read somewhere that if you write something down and put it somewhere you can see it, it will help you accomplish whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish. So I went on the internet for something motivational:

- LEARN TO LOVE PAIN

- DOING A THING NEARLY RIGHT AND DOING IT EXACTLY RIGHT IS USUALLY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE.

- IT'S WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT AFTER YOU GIVE 100%.

- THE MAJORITY OF FAILURES IN LIFE ARE SIMPLY THE VICTIMS OF THEIR MENTAL DEFEATS.

Yeah, no...at 0500 in the morning, when you are trying to psych yourself up to do 1600m of sprints and then do a full day's work, this is not what I needed to hear. As I stared at my clock I got up and made the drive to work. I walked up the stairs and looked at the treadmill, put my earphones on then I sprinted, 1600m worth. It sucked, at every rest period it was 90 secs of convincing myself to do another one. 6 sets later I was done. Tired. Wet. Sore. I took a shower, went to work, and taught all day long. The next day got up; went to work. Didn't have to teach that day and thought I should go to the gym looking at 45lb thrusters for 100 reps in the face, and crying like a little girl. Once I had peeled myself out of the fetal position I got up from under my desk, changed into my gym gear, went to the gym.  I stared at the barbell as I put in my ear phones in and in sloth-like persistence I did 45lb thursters for 100 reps and it sucked. Even now as I am writing this there is a:

6 rounds
21-18-15-12-9-6x reps
Knees to elbows
Dips
Squat jumps
KB swings

Workout waiting for me...and once again I have no motivation. What makes this week different than last week? Last week was hard but I still was motivated.  The week before was hard and so on and so forth. In perspective I did the workouts. Every one. It wasn't as easy to get started; it wasn't as easy to finish. I did start and I did finish. Is that motivation? If so, I need another word for what I need. So after being lazy and drinking a Cheerwine (only the best soda ever) I feel a little better, thanks for letting me vent. Well, those 6 rounds aren't going to do themselves and there is also the "Fun" 5K Friday 0545 tomorrow morning...yyyaaaaayyy :/

So with parting words I leave you this...in hopes of some motivation...good day to all.

Marzipan WOD: hitting the wall, diet, duck walks, and still no Marzipan

You can take your pick, health, mid-life crisis, peer pressure...job security but I started running, a lot. I hated it, still do.  It started with 5k's and just running off base at lunch. My father had been trying to get me to run for years and I had, off and on. Ok, lets get some something straight right from the beginning, the term Run. I use it loosely, I really don't know if I would call what I do "running", The definition is:


run·ning [ruhn-ing]
noun
1.the act of a person, animal, or thing that runs.


Images of graceful creatures moving in space.

That is not me, I look more like an intoxicated orangutan, I think i have hit my self in the face with my flailing arms, or slow shuffle, almost zombie-esk. What I do inspires words like, "is he ok" and "do we need to call the paramedics". I even had a student of mine come back for me to make sure I wasn't dead in the woods and getting eaten by some woodland creature. But I still did it, mile after mile, and hating every step of it. In one year's time I did three 5k's, two half marathons and a 24 hour utlra-marathon where I did 50 miles. After the second 13.1 I was so sick of running that the thought of it literally made me sick. Now I know that compared to others it might not seem a lot but to someone who hates an act to the core it was just too much. I wanted to stop but then there is the issue that the Coast Guard wants me to below a certain weight, I had to keep doing it.

In comes, from stage left, the Four Hour Body

,

 Liberty wanted to start a diet. I was all for it, if it worked maybe I wouldn't have to run as much, so score. she came home from the library with this book. We read it, started it and loved it. It worked, it wasn't very hard. It had different  parts, some for running, weight lifting, dieting, sleeping and others. I read most of the book. I was hooked, in the running section in the book he introduced a man by the name of Brian Mackenzie. He is a kind of pariah in the endurance community,  but I am drinking the koolaid. He has a LESS is MORE approach, I think I heard angels singing when I read it. He founded Crossfit Endurance and promotes Max effort short interval philosophy. I love it. No more long runs and my 5k time is dropping, which is also good because then I get to run less. Yes, I still hate running every single step but I love working out and how I feel after. So, for the last 6 weeks I have be training for a 200 mile relay with a team from the base. I have been using  CFE (cross fit endurance) as my training and it's been working swimmingly. This is what I do:

M/W - 1600m of sprints, 10min CF WOD
T/TH - leg work out
Friday - 5k for time

I have four weeks left to train for the race so I am starting two a days:

M/W - 1600m of sprints, BJJ and Reflex and development class
t/TH - legs, 10 min CF WOD, BJJ
friday - 5k for time x 2 
Sat - 5k for time

should be fun (insert sarcasm font) but at least I am not running 7 miles 3 times a week or have a 10 mile Saturday run. 

So why tell you this. Maybe it's a mid-life crisis. Maybe I am just sick of struggling with my weight. Maybe through all of this I have found that I walk like a duck, and that is bad. I am changing and jumping straight into this. I need your support and maybe you can jump in too. THis is going to be a chronology of my journey. Come along if you want it, might just be Marzipan but you can help me keep it real, join in or just watch it should be a entertaining if anything:)   

One parting note: 

I'll be buying it!