Drunkengunner’s BodyBlog

So I’ve been on Ft Lee, VA for over 6 weeks getting some additional training for my job.  I don’t know what it is about this place, but I’m ready to leave.  For the most part training has been going good, I lift every day of the week during lunch and Tuesday and Thursday morning I go to the gym for some extra lifting.  Between the organized PT Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and all the lifting I’ve been doing, I’m actually doing two-a-days every day of the week.  The weights have been looking good, been progressing rather well, and I’m able to keep the intensity levels really high.  All in all, I would say my training is going wonderfully.

This morning I had to run a Physical Fitness Test for the first half of the year, and I have to say I’m doing better then when I first got here.  Originally I did 14 pull-up, 100 crunches, and a 22:50 three mile run.  This morning I did 17 pull-ups, 100 crunches, and a 20:19 three mile, so I am definately improving…makes me happy.  I was pretty stoked about my PFT, until it came time for the weight in.  In the past 6 weeks I have lost 7 pounds!!!  What the hell is that all about?  I really just don’t understand where all the food has gone.  I can’t get any extra naps in before class and during lunch because I’m too busy eating.  I’m getting tired of eating so much because I just move from one thing to another.  I guess I’m just going to have to re-evaluate what I’m eating and what supplements I’m taking.  And I think I’m going to have to try a gainer of some sort…glorious.

I guess I’ll just go back to hitting the weights hard again tomorrow morning.

So I know this has nothing to do with weight lifting, but I just had to spread the word.  In the Marine Corps we have what’s called the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program otherwise known as MCMAP.  It consists of stand up fighting, weapons, joint manipuations, unarmed vs armed, et cetera.  And the main fun stuff of course…grappling.  Well to train for the grappling we will just go at it for a few hours.  You learn different moves and it’s just plain old fun.  Well the Staff Sergeant that teaches our course is really good.  I’ve only seen him get tapped out once because there were 5 other Marines holding him down.  Well today we had to do some grappling and he was one of the participants.  It’s safe to say I had to go against him a few times which I never really look forward to.  Long story short, I tapped him out.  I couldn’t believe it happened when he finally tapped, he didn’t even tap the mat or anything, it was a verbal “tap, tap, tap.”  It didn’t even hit me until our match had been finished for a few minutes that I had beaten Ssgt.
He got this book of moves and I found one that I wanted to try on someone, and that’s where it all started.  The move is called a gogoplata, and I didn’t quite have it right.  He had just worked his way out of it and I was able to hold onto one of his arms.  From there I threw my other leg around his head and crossed my ankles so his head was between my feet and I just flexed my hips up to get him in an arm-bar.  It was so great, a moment that I will never forget I guess.  Position…transition…position…transitio
n…submission!!!  
Of course to top it all off I busted my eye brow open doing something stupid when I was doing my test.  But that’s ok, I pushed through it and got my brown belt finally.  Time to work on my black now.

So I have come to realize that the US Marine Corps and bodybuilding just might not always work too well together.  I try to keep a regular schedule, but it’s getting to the point where I should just hope to make it, not schedule to make it.  

I’m deployed to Iraq right now until some time in March.  I picked up Sergeant a couple of months ago.  At first I thought I would get calls on the radio when it was something important, and that’s all it was…at first.  I would be in the gym, someone would call with a question, I would answer (if I heard it over my iPod), it would get taken care of, and I would continue to work out.  Now it has gotten to the point where they want me to find someone, or tell someone something, and I can’t make it back till some time hours later, if at all.  My favorite is when I’m on my way to the gym.  I’ll be headed there, already drank my shake, got my music going, getting angry at the weights already.  I’ll stop by to sign out so they know where I am (which is dumb because I have a radio and they can call me) and I’ll see the wrong person.  Said named person will proceed to tell me that I need to do something or talk to someone, ending any chance I have to make it to the gym.  I don’t think I’ve had a full work out in quite some time, unless I go in the early morning, and it’s cold in my tent gym that has no heaters…that’s a whole other story.

It’s getting a bit hard these days to stay motivated to lift because I know I’ll probably just get interupted.

On a bright side though, I have to walk half way around the world to find all those people, so I’m getting some cardio