Adarq.org

Holy shitballs, that's a long article. Too long for me to read. Here's all you need to know to know that 8x8 or any other universal prescription for water intake is total bullshit: that means that me, a 165-170 pound moderately active male, my 115 pound mostly sedentary (mostly  ) girlfriend and my 100 pound hyperactive grandmother should drink the same amount of water in a day. Water intake is like anything, it depends on the individual. You should drink enough water that you're not thirsty but peeing normally. The end.

Yeah, not cool. I was on this plane: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/20/afghan-airline-crash-safety-criticism 18 hours before it became a smoldering pile of twisted metal in the mountains north of Kabul. Not the same kind of plane, not the same airline, the same physical aircraft that is now in pieces. And I flew over the same spot where it crashed, in the same shitty weather (foggy as crap, couldn't see anything out the window), with the same pilot.

My colleagues, that pilot, and the 41 other people on the plane the next morning, weren't so lucky. They still haven't found any bodies but funerals were held last Friday as soon as they spotted the wreckage from the air (too mountainous/weather too bad to do a proper ground search yet, last I checked).

@vag: The high risk of getting killed part wasn't awesome, but most of the time I felt totally safe. The awesome part was the people out there and the work that we do. It's good fucking work and I'm really proud to be part of it. Also, the place I was flying to/from is absolutely, stunningly beautiful.

Closest I came to a level 7 was some explosions when I was up in the mountains, but it was just people blasting rock to use for construction. Still, I was ready to make like Usain Bolt for about two seconds until I figured out what was going on. The guys I was with (both Afghans) made so much fun of me for getting spooked. Afghanistan is a crazy place but 99.99% of the people are just trying to live their life and get by. Most of the people carrying AK-47s, even, and they are everywhere, are just trying to do their job, not hurt anybody.

Reminds me a bit of the Greg Oden block on Chris Lofton from a few years back in the Final Four, where he jumped and then you thought he was going to stop going up, but he just kept going up forever. Except Oden is 7-1, so this one is cooler.

Awesome.

Anyway, I'm jet lagged as balls today and don't sleep well on planes, so I'm going to take a couple of days to readjust, then probably do a couple of weeks of pretty submax stuff just to get my work capacity back up. More cardio than before, too, preferably in the form of extensive tempo runs and jumping rope. Then I'll start back in with the jumps/sprints + MSEM + some upper body, a la adarq.

BTW, Afghanistan was freaking awesome. I almost died last weekend. (Not joking. One of my colleagues was killed and the brother of another colleague was also killed.) Other than that, though, it was great and I would totally work there.

Last night, with a teammate:

Warm up
jog
varsity warm up

Work
falling starts 4x10y
pushup starts 4x20y
seated reverse starts 2x20y
rest
4x20y @90-95%
4x40y @90-95%
20-40-60 ladder started cause my friend wanted to, then he pulled his hamstring, so we stopped. My motivation kind of died after that, I felt so bad for him. He's had so many problems with that leg (two knee surgeries...he's got a piece of cadaver in there for a tendon!). Now it's gonna be another 3-4 weeks before he can start playing again. Shit.

Cool down
stretch

Not likely to work out today cause I have a bunch of work and haven't even started packing yet

Is there any liquids i can drink that will improve the quality of my piss so i can jump higher?

Melted weed butter. You will be flying.

Finally had a good, full workout tonight. Gym was jammed and basketball courts all taken outdoors, so I found a tree on a side street with some leaves hanging down around 9'8" or something and jumped to those. Pretty ghetto, haha. Also the sidewalk wasn't exactly flat. Whatever.

Work
DLRVJ x~35
ankle hops to low box 2x10 - felt pretty dead
REA squat 4x3x95
MSEM squat 2x2x300
BSS 3x5x70 (2x35#), jumping on each rep

I'll echo what others have said about working on mobility and slowing down. Lots of stretching, hurdle walks, quad rock backs, etc. If you want some more ideas, I got 'em in spades.

You've got really long legs, though, so don't sweat it too hard if you don't ever get all the way down. Fuckers with short legs, like yours truly, can get low more easily. That said, you're folding at the waist too much. Keep your shoulder blades together and chest open and sit down, not back, if that makes sense. Your butt's gonna go back and shoulders are going to come forward somewhat as you fold up, but try to keep your torso pretty upright. Elevating your heels a half inch or so with something hard, like 5lb plates, helps with depth, too.