Category Archives: Sports
Kelly for the W!
North Shore of Oahu-2022. March 2022. Billabong Pro Pipeline 2022. Banzai Pipeline.
As Ice Cube famously said: Today Was a Good Day. Woke up, got outta bed, had a quick slick line-up, a few pieces of Sashimi, packed up the beach bag and headed out the door. Didn’t go fast, not too slow, just moved to the flow of the day. Picked up my friend and headed from the South Shore to the North shore. Hoping to see the Pipe Pro.
I did get stuck in some traffic, but just turned up the tunes and took some deep Yogic breathes. All chill no stress, Knowing that it would all work out and we will arrive on time. Cars along the road were like a full parking lot, but didn’t get upset. Got to the the pipeline and just as we arrived a car left and we scored the perfect parking spot right outside the surf meet.
There’s a Goat that eats aluminum cans, there’s a Goat that played basketball, a Goat that Golfed and another who played tennis. There is also a Goat in the Ocean. Name is Kelly Slater.
Just chilled and walked to the beach. No rush, Just perf. Sat down and saw some surfers in the water Next up Kelly Slater winning a heat against Miguel Pupo right after we arrived. Such perfect timing. Watched another heat and then got to see the finals with Kelly “the Goat” Slater and Seth Moniz.
Kelly had an almost perfect heat hitting some incredible barrels only he could do. Sneaking in back door and just as the wave closes out, he appears sneaking out the end hands held high. He won the finals and we were there to witness it in person.
We stayed on the beach to watch the awards, then sat in front of the Volcom house to watch the free surfing and to get a bit of sun tan.
Had a mouth watering burger with giant avocado at Kua Aina and headed back home to the crib. Today was a very good day! Yes indeed. A very perfect awesome day! Enjoy the pictures taken via iPhone 13 Pro Max.
See you on the beaches and the Streetz…blog!
My Washer & Dryer Are Too Hot
So, I thought my washer or dryer was shrinking my clothes. I couldn’t button my work pants. Come to find out my stomach got big some how. I guess my metabolism finally changed after years of it being the same.
After 3 weeks of something similar to the FIGHT CLUB work-out AND eating 3-5x protein and vegetable meals a day, I’m back in my pants again. At my age it’s really 75% eating well and 25% working out. But, for me the working out is the fun part and I feel better in general.
I won’t admit that I do this work out exactly and all the time, but I do something pretty close. Mostly working with lighter weights very quickly. Going from one exercise to the next in rapid progression. It seems to be the best way to have fun and get things done that bring results.
If you’re interested in Brad Pitt’s FIGHT CLUB Work-Out. It’s shown below along with some of what he ate when he trained for those rad abs he had in the movie.
Pitt’s workout for FIGHT CLUB:
Monday — Chest
Push-ups — Three sets of 25 reps
Bench press — 25, 15 and eight reps at 165, 195, 225 lbs
Nautilus press — 15 reps at 80, 100, 130 lbs
Incline press — 15 reps at 80, 100, 130 lbs
Pec deck — 15 reps at 60, 70, 80 lbs
Tuesday — Back
25 pull-ups — Three sets to fatigue
Seated rows — Three sets at 75, 80, 85 lbs
Lat pull downs — Three sets at 135, 150, 165 lbs
T-bar rows — Three sets at 80, 95, 110 lbs
Wednesday – Shoulders
Arnold press — Three sets at 55 lbs
Laterals — Three sets at 30 lbs
Front raises — Three sets at 25 lbs
Thursday – Biceps & Triceps
Preacher curls — Three sets at 60, 80, 95 lbs
EZ curls cable — Three sets at 50, 65, 80 lbs
Hammer curls — Three sets at 30, 45, 55 lbs
Push downs — Three sets at 70, 85, 100 lbs
Friday & Saturday – Cardio
Treadmill — one hour at 80-90 percent of maximum heart rate
Cardio, Cardio, Cardio
Breakfast: Eggs (six whites, seven yolks) and 75g of oatmeal with raisins. Occasionally, Pitt would replace the eggs with a protein shake if his schedule was tight.
Mid-Morning Snack: Tinned tuna in whole wheat pita breads
Lunch: Two chicken breasts, 75-100g brown rice or pasta, and green veggies
Mid-Afternoon Snack [Pre-Workout]: A protein bar or whey protein shake and a banana
Post Workout: Whey protein shake and a banana
Dinner: Grilled fish or chicken, brown rice or pasta, vegetables and salad.
Evening Snack: Casein protein shake or low-fat cottage cheese (slow release protein).
*I recommend eating the new Gluten Free Pro Bar BASE. It has 20 grams of protein and comes with Chia and Flax Seeds. The best part about it, my stomach doesnt make noises after eating it. Many bars on the market make my stomach kinda’ sick. This Bar is Awesome and tastes good in Cookie Dough Flavor.
What do you think of this workout? How’s your washer and dryer working? See you on the Streetz!
BTW: Check out these Stylish Streetzblog x DORY x Off White Shorts I made for my grand baby-Adalyn. Her favorite movie is Dory and my favorite brand of the moment is Off White. A Perfect Match!
Congratulations to the Chi-Town Cubs
Winners and My Chicago Cubs Fan Story
The Chicago Cubs are World Champions! They won the 2016 World Series. Just one year off the year that Back to the Future Guessed 30 years ago. And more years than that since I was a big fan in the mid to late 70’s, even more than that since their last win in 1908.
I really didn’t even think, I’d ever see this happen. Growing up and way past growing up years, the Cubs lost A LOT. It wasn’t until this year, when I saw them play at Wrigley on Labor Day Weekend that I said, “Wow, this is actually a really good team, they look like winners”. The year before I saw them play, they were better than usual, but this year they were stellar. This was for sure the year to win. And the game itself was quite entertaining.
Here’s my Big Cubs story growing up with them in the 70’s:
The Cubs had seats made of Wood. The seats didn’t flip-up automatically. But the Cubs needed the seats up to clean the rows. So, if you sat in the far right side of the stadium in the 7th inning and got an end seat. You would meet a nice man after the game and he would give you a small lucky ticket.
I would take my lucky ticket and flip-up ALL the seats in my row throughout the stadium. Then the nice man would meet us all at the end. And give us a free ticket to any upcoming game. Best part about this gig is the nice man had a crush on my mom. So about 2-4 games a season, she would come and he would give her 4-5 extra free tickets and I wouldn’t have to work for a weeks worth of Cubs Games.
I saw almost every home Cubs game that they played with my friend Scott McGinnis for 2-3 years. Had my glove signed by Manny Trillo. Took the El Train which cost only $1 and brought my home lunch. Great Memories, Great times, they rarely won a game. Didn’t much matter, they were Fun Summers and pretty much Free Summers.
BTW: Harey Carey also had the hots for my mom at some bar in the early 80’s. She said he was DRINKING. That’s all I remember on that story. LOL
Congratulations to My Chicago Cubs!
Go Cubs Go!
All The Way!
Lights, Camera, Spartan!
Part 4 of the 4 part Spartan Race Survival Series.
This is part 4 of the 4 part Spartan Race Survival series. It’s way different from the last post. By seeing many of these pictures you would think it was just a wonderful beautiful day at Kualoa Ranch. And yes, that’s what it was in part. The other portion was survival of a 13+ mile race with over 25+ Obstacles.
The picturesque setting is really famous for the filming of Jurassic Park. You may have also seen some of this picturesque beauty in Fantasy Island, Lost, and Pearl Harbor. During the first few miles of the race, I did enjoy the view, after that I saw a few things here and there, but was mainly just trying to survive Thanks to James for all the great pictures from his GoPro. All of these are his and my pictures. All Original direct from the source:
James and the Art of the Spartan Selfie
The Spartan Beast Start 2014-Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu
The Spartan Beast Race-Kualoa Ranch on Saturday August 16, 2014
The Finish-James completed all 3 races and did the Trifecta. In the middle are the 3 medals connecting to each other. I Finished Saturday’s Spartan Beast Race.
2014 Spartan Race Completed!
Did, Done, Dang
This is the Finisher T-Shirt from the Spartan Race in Hawaii on August 16, 2014. Also shown is the BEAST medal. I guess you need to do the Sprint and the Super to get the other 2 thirds of the medal.
I swerved off the usual Fashion, Kicks and Lifestyle topics for the past few days to concetrate on the 2014 Spartan Race at Kualoa Ranch in Hawaii. I participated in the longest and most grueling race of the 3 choices entitled the BEAST. Good news is that today is Sunday, the race was Saturday and I’m Alive. I may joke around a bit on streetzblog, but this race was no JOKE!
I did try to prepare, I trained for 7 weeks going from the number 1 incline on the tread mill to number 9. I also ate a bit more tuna fish, chicken and vegetables than usual, and thought I read enough prior to be prepared. I actually didn’t wear my Air Jordans and picked up a pair of Asics Lows with ultra grip especially made for mud. I’m not a fan of running shoes, especially since they aren’t hi-tops. Although mine had a bit of fashion forwardness with the camo outersole. And of course, I bought the Black and Grey version.
The Kicks I wore for the 2014 Spartan Race in Hawaii 2014. Asics-Black, Grey, Silver, Camo outer Sole.
I didn’t prepare enough. I was pretty off, this was one of, if not the hardest thing I’ve ever, ever done in my whole entire life. I’m not a 22 year old in the military, I’ve never done a charity walk, I do go to the gym 4x a week, but I really don’t work that hard there. My friend said it would be F-U-N. Thus, i said I’d do it. Do it I did. And glad to say I am here alive and well to write about it.
To make this blog post easier to read, I think I’ll just list the time-line with bullet points. As always keeping things postive, yet there maybe a bit of (spoiler alert) negative in here, but not really negative stuff, just some facts.
- Pre Race Breakfast: I had some coffee, a few sips of water, 1 piece of grilled chicken and a Gatorade goo pack. This was absolutely wrong. Tip 1: I recommend eating carbs for 3 days prior and having a Big breakfast the day of the race with eggs, toast, hash browns, coffee, and gatorade goop. I was starving after the first 20 minutes!
- First 2 hours: This was fun, walking, jogging, hanging with my friend and meeting some really nice, cool, friendly people. Best quote from this portion was from a co-participant named Jamal. He said, You Paid good money to do this. That was early on when it just seemed hard, a bit challenging yet very doable. I actually got really excited when I jumped over some super tall wall and made it without getting hurt.
- Next hour or so: I don’t remember all 25 obstacles but I sure remember this one. Check this out! They give you a BIG bucket, you are told to fill it with sharp grey ROCKS, that takes about 10 minutes to fill up. Then you carry it up a hill then down the hill. My brain thought it was crazy watching the others do it. Come to find out this was what I was best at. Go figure. I left this challenge smiling and psyched.
- Memorization: This was really funny to me. In the middle of all the chaos of surviving the elements, we needed to look on a big poster, find the last 2 digits of our race tattoo number and then memorize the saying next to it. I will remember mine for the rest of my life: Yankee 384-7893. They said that you needed to remember this to tell it to someone later in the race or you needed to do 30 burpees. BTW: No one ever asked us to repeat the number. But good thing is for about a half hour it kept me in a meditative state repeating the number over and over, a nice distraction so that I didn’t notice the pain, hunger and thirst.
- Next segment: We walked up a super slick, brownish-red mud path that was about 1 foot wide. We were going up, the fast people were coming down. This is where it gets funny. I would ask peple if we were almost over the hill. They would say all sorts of things like. Yes, the water is a half mile away, No You have a loooong way to go, and Oh its about 5 miles until you get back here. And the most outrageous comment came frrom a volunteer who said. Oh, just run to the top, the bottom has a nice waterfall with a water station. There was no waterfall and this is the part that really sucked, the guy at the water station, said he was OUT of water! O-U-T of water, Wow, luckily he gave me two sips of his own water bottle. Tip 2: Take complete control of your life and your circumstances. It’s hard to realize how true this is, but you and I are where we are due to what we have done, not what people have done to us. Bring your own water.
- After that water mishap: I am 99% sure I went the wrong way and got lost. My friend dissapeared and so did I. It’s like Vegas-No clocks. I have no idea how long i followed the wrong pack. But it felt like 20 minutes? 45 minutes? whatever it was, not good. I never saw my friend in the race again.
- So: I was Alone, trucking through weeds, mud, then some really awesome cool greyish green fern area appeared that felt just like a King Arthur or Lord of the Rings movie. I actually sat down and enjoyed the view and feeling of being somewhere wonderful. This was my favorite part of the whole day, it was just plain awesomeness.
- Next hour or 2 or 3? We walked through not around but through a creek bed. This area had brown water, big huge boulders, little rocks, more gushing water, sillpery slopes and mosquitos. It was here, I wanted to go home, but once you’re in a Spartan Race, there doesn’t seem to be any other way to go except thorough the race. So I did, I personally only received one cut on my hand. But I saw some very nasty wipe-outs. Sure hope no one cracked a skull. There is no one around to help other than the fellow racers. So, yes this was quite scary.
- Finally out of the creek: Found a volunteer who should have had water, he said he was just hanging around and had no water. I had cotton mouth at this point. Was so hungry, so thirsty and feet started to hurt. Tip 3: Bring 5-6 of those gatorade goops with you on the race and if you’re back doesnt hurt too bad, get a hydration pack filled with ice. So in case you are slow like me, you don’t have to rely on the water stations that were out of water.
- The Walk: I walked, I walked, I talked a little to some nice, friendly people and some unfriendly grumps who kept complaining about not having any water. That can be easy to do, but I’ve been working on my mind not to complain, condemn or criticize. When the criticizing thoughts came up about the water I changed my thoughts. The 2 mantras I interchanged were I love my life and Peace, Love and Happiness. This walk went on and on and on. Then we ran into another obstacle. This is where it was fun again. I looked at the tall wall like WTF, How am I going to jump over that very tall massive piece of wood? Well you never know what you can do until you try. I just ran at it grabbed the top and jumped over. Amazing! Tip 4: You never know if you can do something until you try to do it. Just do it, or at least try to do it, you will succeed.
- Water: We finally found some water. A big barrel of ice. I ate this and brought some along. The ice woke me up more than a morning cup of joe. I never knew how much a body really needs water and food. I felt great going back up the muddy hill we had traversed a few hours earlier. With the ice water I was rejuvenated and felt good… well until I ran out.
- Miles: Over the next 20-50 minutes I asked all the volunteers I could find how far is it until the finish? Even though we were moving forward, we all received the exact same similar answers. I remember the answers to a T: About 3.5 miles, 3 and a half miles, a little over 3 miles and less than 3 miles. It became a joke amongst our little group of travelers. Like I said, it’s like Vegas here-No clocks. And no real information, hey maybe that’s what it was like in Sparta? It’s like you’re in the Twilight Zone.
- The Question: With around 3 miles or so to go, the 5 of us were asked a question by someone who I think was a Medic. He asked us If we were seeing any spots? I saw the Ranch spin, I could barely walk, I needed some food, and I was hurting all over. But no spots in my view, so I told him No. The other 4 participants also said No, so we continued on towards the finish line. I guess it’s all good if you aren’t seeing any spots!
- Delirum Walk: After coming down from the hill, we had another super long walk through dirt and grass. My feet felt like pain encased in lead gym shoes. If someone drove by and asked me if I wanted a ride, I would have said Hell Yeah. But, I heard one of my favorite things, music! So I sang along to some Calvin Harris Feels so Good and one of my all time favs, Guns & Roses Welcome to the Jungle. This got me about 20 minutes further towards the finish. YAH! I also bumped into 4 people I’d been seeing here and there thorughout. Was able to chat with them a bit, they were very nice and helped me push through the pains. I also saw another guy with a very hurt knee, who every time I was about give up. He would appear and I’d chat with him long enough to keep us both on track. I think if you don’t talk to fellow racers or have a some sort of spiritual practice, this race would be even tougher. I’m pretty good at postive thinking and mantras so it helped. Tip 5: Stay positive no matter what happens, repeat a mantra or 2 when things get you down. Concentrating on a mantra keeps the monkey mind away and keeps you focused, relaxed and moving towards your goal centered and on track.
- Best Banana Ever: With only 2 miles to go. I thought a medic was going to take me away. Instead his buddy handed me half of a banana and said to finish up the race. He gave the other half to my new friend with the hurt knee. I ate my banana. It was the best tasting banana ever. And it gave me a hope and a real skip and a jump in my stride. Unbelievable, Amazing, Crazy. Food works. Tip 6: in the race and in the real world, pay attention to the trainers and doctors and eat every 3-4 hours, food is really much better energy than Caffeine.
- Obstacle: After the Banana I was able to carry a very heavy rock down the road, then do 5 burpees and return the rock. Thank You very much to the Man with the Banana.
- Spear Throw: This is one of the last 3 obstacles. Here you are given a spear and told to throw it into the hay and make it stick. The boss man at this was the strictest of the day. He wouldn’t let any of us leave until we did it. Which sounded outrageous but turned out to be pretty cool. 18 throws later and a special technique, I made it. It gave me a great big smile and the energy needed to go up and over some big wood structure, then jump over a fire and under the beeping timers table. All Done. I started at 8:20 a.m and finished at about 5:15 p.m. At the finish I ate 4 bananas, had some ice water, coconut juice, received a nice shirt in my favorite color and a third of a Flo-Green medal. Whew! Now it’s back to shopping, finding fun fashion and some more stories on KIcks.
Spartan in the Mud! Yep that’s me in the grey shirt and orange shorts.
Will I do this again? I don’t know. The pain today is pretty excruciating. And like I said at the beginning of this post, I truly am glad to be alive. No joking around. My heart was pounding hard, it was a bit dangerous out there, but I have a huge feeling of great accomplishment. Tip 7: I was able to do this race and survive. If you put your mind to any project you may think up, it’s all possible. And I suspect it will be much easier to accomplish some of my dreams much quicker and easier after a grueling race like this. I also suspect things I thought were big deals at work will seem much smaller after completing a race like this.
Glad to say, I’ll see you on the CITY Streetz this week. Have a Great Week!
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