GET SOME

i went hiking last weekend with two marines (not on active duty, but i'm not sure if that makes them "ex" marines. i'm pretty sure as long as one doesn't have a dishonorable discharge, one is always a marine). like any good experience, it changed my life in a number of ways. one of them recommended that i get and read the book generation kill which i promptly obtained and have nearly finished.

the hike and the book have both given me a pumped-up, energized, do-or-die perspective on life. it sounds cheezy. it is cheezy. but it's real. i felt it in both my workouts this week. i feel it in my plans for the weekend. i have a strong urge to bring more 'survival fitness' into my exercise regimen (tomorrow will be a good test of my seriousness).

i will never be a devil dog, and i may never be a hard-ass killer, and i will always be a pussy in the eyes of a real marine, and i'll never again have the physical advantages i squandered in my teens and early twenties, but i can let their level of fitness and their positive(ly insane) attitude inspire me.

it's already begun. i've got back the spring in my step when i wake up (maybe not related, might go away again, especially if i've caught my coworker's cold). where my adopted marine spirit has already shown itself is in my weight training. this morning i blasted through a PR set of deadlifts as if it were nothing, follwed that by a second set of PR-approaching bench press where I'd otherwise have done only one set, and followed all of that with a fist-pumping "get some" that would have gotten my ass kicked had there been any marines nearby.

i could go on but i've been pumped all day somehow and am in the midst of a nearly unprecedented productivity streak at work. booyah, as they'd say in my chosen profession.