Day 425 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Wrestled this morning. Lower body lift later in the day. It will have taken me 30 years of wrestling to finally get an opportunity to wear an American flag on a wrestling mat. I’ve been thinking about what that will feel like.

Day 424 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: I haven’t had much luck lately but I’ve got a feeling I’m due.

Day 423 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Rest day today. Totally relaxing. Last farmers market of the year out here. Hard to stay still but has to be done.

Day 422 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Walked a couple miles this morning. A little worn down. Taking it easy this weekend. I think I was on for 12 days without a day off up to today.

Day 421 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Hour drill this morning. Hard week. 4x wrestling, 3x lifting. Two-a-days Wednesday and Thursday. Up to 176.4 this week. 3,500 calories a day.

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Day 419 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Wrestling this morning and upper body lift later in the day. Very hard. Did not wrestle well. Slow and tired. Everything I’ve got.

Day 418 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Same thing we do every day.

Day 417 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: 7am drill at The Barn.

Day 416 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Some live wrestling / sparring this morning. Maybe four six-minute goes. Let me tell ya, wrestling for six minutes will cook you. Headache.

Day 415 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Hard week. Slept way later than I usually do. Full body lift today. It is easy to get down this optimization rabbit hole where you’re constantly looking for some kind of quirky way to make hard stuff easier. There is a great story from The Boys in the Boat about Joe Rantz, who won a gold medal for the U.S. rowing team in 1936. He talked about how he needed to get stronger over the summer so he took a job working a jack hammer on a tunnel or highway project or something like that. What to do is often times not very complicated, it’s just difficult. That thought process of trying to over-optimize things I think is a way of running from hard and that can make you a chicken.

Day 414 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: A little worn down this morning. Wrestled every day this week. Plus two lifts. Another lift tomorrow. Three workouts over the past 24 hours. Stay the course.

Day 413 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Wrestled this morning and lifted later in the day. I have wrestled or been around wrestling for my entire life. I know what it’s supposed to look and feel like. This is good and bad. Bad in the way that for many months I’d walk away from the room like well this was all garbage. It is hard to keep running back into the fire after feeling like that for so long. Good in a way where you finally hit it and you’re like hell yes that was it. Maybe one or two exchanges today I felt were good, real wrestling. Beat inside, work back in, snap, move my feet, pull on the head, fake, pressure in, snap again, cut an angle, shot. A common theme I saw when I worked in the NFL, particularly among coaches, is there is a point you get to where the losses hurt worse than the wins feel good and that is when you know it’s over. I do not feel that way and that is how I know it is not over.

Day 412 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: I had this coach at Bergen Catholic who was a great heavyweight for the Dominican Republic. Used to tell me stories about wrestling Karelin and how he hated Matt Ghaffari because he claims he’d always step on his feet. He said he used to eat five pounds of salmon every day. Was a gargantuan human. Idk if it actually happened or if the lore has evolved in my mind over the years but I believe I witnessed him doing pull-ups with one arm. I had a pound of salmon with dinner last night just because it was all thawed and I needed more calories. I felt good pretty good wrestling this morning. Maybe he was on to something.

Day 410 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Drill at The Barn this morning.

Day 409 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Full body lift today. That one takes a while. Watched the matches from my weight class. Russia won 3/4 medals at 78kg. They’re good but anyone can be beaten. Stay the course.

Day 408 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Upper body lift today. My weight class wrestles tomorrow in Jordan. I have 1 year to get it right. Stay the course.

Day 407 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Had to be up and out early today. Circuit first, though. Have to have good habits. You’re getting better or you’re getting worse. No in between.

Day 406 of training for Veteran’s Worlds with @BuFuApp: Run this morning.