Beautiful Moments - Part 3
Yesterday’s training session brought me a beautiful moment. I’ve been working at home since mid-March because of COVID-19, and most days I get my training in during my lunch break. Training mid-day helps me get away from my computer, blow off some steam, and enjoy the beautiful summer weather.
This past Saturday, my new 200-lb sandbag from Rogue showed up. Cali helped me fill it up with four 50-lb bags of play sand, but I didn’t actually train with it until the following Monday (yesterday). The temps were in the mid-80s yesterday with abundant sunshine. Growing up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I didn’t really know what it was like to train in any kind of heat. Cold? Oh yeah, I’ve definitely done plenty of training in the cold. I can think of a number of football games and even track meets where snow was actively coming down during the event. It wasn’t until I moved to Arizona in 2007 that I really got to train in the real blast furnace kind of heat. It turns out that once I got adapted, I absolutely loved it. When I was taking grad classes at Arizona State in Tempe in the summer, I would go at lunch time and run the track that went around the multipurpose field outside of the student gym. It would legit be 110 F or so. Yes, it’s a dry heat, but 110 is still 110. When I moved to South Carolina in 2010, I got to experience training in the high humidity swamp-like conditions. I loved all that too because it took no effort to break and keep a sweat.
Anyways, back to Monday’s training. After my kettlebell snatches, it was time to finally get out the new sandbag and give it a whirl. I carried the sandbag over to this flat grassy patch that’s in the middle of my cul-de-sac. My goal was to do ten total of what I just call, “Shoulders,” which is basically just bringing the bag from the ground up to one shoulder, showing control by taking the off-hand off the bag while standing upright, pausing, and then dropping it back down. I had zero inclination as to how this was going to go, but my plan was to do one rep every 90 seconds.
On the first rep, I got the bag up to my chest, but lost control of it and dropped it before getting it to my shoulder. Okay, rough start. During the second rep, I figured out just how aggressively I needed to be when standing up out of the squatting position with the sandbag in my lap. This rep went much better, and I knew I could complete the set.
By about the fifth rep, sweat was pouring into my eyes and the sun was baking down on me. I was wearing nothing but some underwear and a pair of gym shorts, so I really felt the heat from the afternoon sun all over. I was huffing and puffing, covered in chalk, dirt, and grass with my chest turning red from the sandbag rubbing against me on the way up and my bare feet getting acquainted with the grass. A neighbor came out to get in his car to go somewhere and looked at me kind of odd, probably wondering if I was right in the head.
This whole scene was a beautiful moment. Any day where I can go out in the heat, feel the sunshine on my skin, train hard, and feel strong and alive is a great day. Sweating profusely and breathing heavy make me feel like I’m in a fight for my life. The effort makes me focus on the task at hand, and I can forget about all of the negativity and bullshit in the world and just do that one hard thing the right way and for the right reason.
200-lb of fun