Rocky and Shay Shay--Eyes of the Tiger!

Remember Rocky IV? I sure do. I remember going to the theatre with my parents and being totally engrossed in the drama of it all as he battled and endured the strong and powerful Russian athlete. Although I was just a young kid, I remember being struck by the very different methods of training by the athletes. The Russian trained in a state-of-the-art facility with highly technical equipment and was surrounded by scientist monitoring his every move. Rocky, on the other hand, took it to the barn and the snow-covered roads and mountains. He used his body weight (and others for that matter--remember him lifting his family in that wagon?!?!) and simple tools in the barn and outdoors to get himself ready for the fight of his life (pretty much literally). These simple, but gut wrenching methods surpassed the highly technical workouts of the Russian. In the Russian's words, Rocky "was not human."

Rocky IV may have been fiction, but it teaches a real lesson about training. Besides having the overwhelming desire and discipline to be great, I am learning that I get the most challenge out of the most simple workouts. What are you talking about Shay Shay?

I remember the days when trainer Murph and I were just starting to work together. He had me pulling him (yes all 200 lbs of him) up and down the gym with a rope (my good friend would yell--now I know who to get to tow my truck), doing "prison" squats, and lots of step ups and step up jumps. Many days we would never use the machines. It was exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time.

And let's not forget kettlebells. I can't say enough about this form of training. This is a no frills gym; the training space is about the size of many family rooms, and I LOVE IT! And, I mean really, we are just swinging and lifting what look cannonballs with handles, but what a workout!

And running. My training run today is really what sparked this Ode to Rocky. Because of cold temperatures, I had been doing my runs in the gym on the treadmill. Today I finally hit the pavement for a 55 minute run. I felt pretty confident as I had done an hour on the treadmill at a pretty good speed with not much problem at all. But today, I must admit--it was TOUGH!! Running on pavement, I knew, would be different, but I did not have a full appreciation of how much tougher it would be. Now that it's over, I feel great about meeting the challenge and look forward to my 1, 50 minute run Saturday! The only way I'm really going to tackle this half-marathon is to get outdoors like Rocky and "eat lightning" and "crap thunder"!! Boxing Trainer Mickey, Rocky (1976)