....And Carnac the Magnificent Says:

That tomorrow the stock in Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Flexeril, etc. will all jump about 5 points each. For me, it'll be the Advil and Aleve, with a small dent in my Flexeril stash.

Why?

 ----- woo! -----

[Just heard one of our Air National Guard F-15s go screaming overhead, afterburner in full burn.  Damn...I will NEVER get tired of that sound!]

Ahem.  Back to our regularly-scheduled programming. 

Well, there's something called the "Memorial Day Murph" that's done in honor of a SEAL who died during a mission called Operation Red Wing (or "Wed Wing" as my tired fingers almost wrote); it was a mission that had the greatest loss of SEAL life in the history of the SEALs -- since World War II.  Those who know me know I enjoy military history, something I inherited from my father. 

I am also fourth generation Air Force; beginning with my maternal great-grandfather who was in the Army Balloon Corps in WW I, my maternal grandfather who flew a B-17 at Guadalcanal (he also witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and then my father who served stateside during the Vietnam War.  I served during the First Gulf War at Carswell, AFB, as an Air Crew Life Support Specialist.

"The Murph" as the workout is called, consists of:

• 1 mile run
• 100 pull-ups
• 200 push-ups
• 300 squats
• 1 mile run

There are lots of people all over the nation today doing that, many of whom (like me) who are new and going to be sore...but that's weakness leaving the body, right? (Yeah, um...right! :-)  )

I had my doubts about really chipping off much of that, due to my brand-spankin'-new-car-smell status off CrossFit, even though I've been a pretty avid gym goer for awhile and have been in pretty good shape lately.

Actually, the thought of getting through most of it made me do this (especially the thought of 100 pull-ups):

I did donate $25 to the "Memorial Day Murph" Fund, which also gifted me to a neat t-shirt (which didn't come in time to wear this weekend, sadly); the funds go to three charities: The Michael P. Murphy Scholarship Fund, The Wounded Warrior Project, and the Lone Survivor Foundation (started by Marcus Luttrel, the only man to survive Operation Red Wing).  However, I have to say I felt a little funny wearing the shirt if I didn't attempt to do anything.

So my thought was to come up with something I could do.  Most of yesterday was spent watching Generation Kill, and today I started The Pacific, as part of my Memorial Day tribute (excellent programs, by the way), and so about 1:45 I started my version.

My plan was to do two hours of challenging yoga, but about an hour into it I got inspired as I looked at my flag that I have hanging out on my terrace for today.  I had already done 35 push-ups towards the end of my yoga, and so by then I was pretty warmed up.  I decided to keep going, and did, at that point:

• 200 squats
• 25 push-ups 
• Break to get some much-needed Gatorade-laced water

• 10 push-ups
• 25 squats
• 10 push-ups
• 25 squats
• 10 push-ups
• 25 squats
• 10 push-ups
• 25 squats
• 10 push-ups

[Scramble to get out of my yoga clothes and into my running shoes, shorts and top]

• 2 mile run on treadmill downstairs, using hill profile (alternated between #1 and #2), finishing in 22:14
• 25 more push-ups (after a cool-down walk outside on what became a beautiful afternoon!)

So, that was a total of:

• 300 squats
• 125 push-ups
• 2 mile run
• 1 hour of challenging yoga

The "Murph" part took about 50 minutes, so overall, though it was about a 2-hour workout when you factor in the yoga I did before. I feel pretty damn pleased with myself, and I'd like to think he'd be grinning as well.  It was really more a tribute to myself than to him, which is how I think he'd perhaps more likely want me to view it. 

My thought is that if I can manage all of that now, that maybe I can do a full one next year.  That's what I'm going to strive for, at least.  I know I couldn't have done 100 pull-ups, even if they were assisted (well, maybe on a Gravatron machine with all but about 10 of my own pounds assisted...) and I sorta wish I'd tried that today. 

Next year: A full one
Year after: With the suggested 20lb vest (more likely to find that than the other option: body armor).

Well, I can always try throughout the year, too.  Use it as a litmus test for fitness, if you will.  But I do know that, come tomorrow morning, I'm going to be feelin' the Tin Man's cry:

Oil can!

Still, this weekend has left me feeling rather sad, both from my own personal reflections about what Memorial Day means, and as I think about Michael Murphy's family, friends, and the fiancee he left behind, who has, if you ask me, the best name ever: Heather.  :-)

I understand what's behind the charities and the workout itself, but it seems like handing someone with a starving 15-person family 1/4 of rice.  There's a part of me that thinks of him, of the fellow on the MIA bracelet on my wrist, and of all the headstones at any cemetery like Arlington or Punchbowl, and I think, What a waste of life of good men and women.



At least I feel like I earned the "privilege", if you will, to wear the t-shirt when it comes.

MUSIC:
     Yoga: Meditation music through an app on my iPhone
      Running: Crystal Method, Vegas

P.S. Bite me, upcoming "milestone" birthday in July! :-)