18
Jun

SPARTAN PERFORMANCE                                       CROSSFIT SUFFOLK

 

7X1 Power Clean + Push Jerk – work up to a heavy single, rest 60 sec.

-then-

4 rounds for total working time (not including C2B) and total reps of C2B:

50 Double-Unders
10 Push Jerks @ 115/75#
*Rest 30 seconds before C2B.

ME UB C2B Pullups
*Rest 1 minute before starting next round.

 

CF-Suffolk-6-6-2012-55

 

 

 

Father's Day 2012

By George Demetriou


I feel fortunate for having been raised by my parents.

My dad imparted wisdom that forged a good part of my character.  It was this wisdom that carried me through life and still does today.  I've had friends complain to me that their fathers "didn't give them good advice or didn't teach them about important issues that would inevitably come up." I, fortunately, never had that issue.

From the time I was young my father told me, on a regular basis:

"Everyone has something to offer the world…everyone makes a contribution."

"You judge people based on the content of their character." (Dad had the opportunity to have breakfast with Dr. Martin Luther King, but he felt that way before that special breakfast.)  Not on how they look or because they have an opinion that is different than yours."

"Every girl/woman is someone's daughter, mother or sister.  Always respect them."

"Don't fight–unless you absolutely have to–then hit first, hit hard and hit fast."

I took all these to heart–even when I was too young to understand some of them.  When I became a police officer I met individuals who made me stop and think about what contribution they were making when there was seemingly none.  I trusted Dad's advice and figured perhaps there is something else going on that I'm not privvy to.  Or perhaps the "contribution" some made was to be a "negative" role model so that (1) we could appreciate the positive people, and (2) they served as an example of how not to behave.

I spent a good portion of my police career in poor, "minority" neighborhoods.  I spent over two years walking a beat.  I joked that I was the "minority".  I never felt uncomfortable in any way, unless I was being threatened or assaulted, but more importantly I never became jaded or resorted to painting an entire race or culture with a broad brush.  In fact, I learned that there were more similarities between various races, cultures and religions than there were differences.  I was able to keep an open mind and a good attitude because of how I was raised. 

My father taught me that fear and ignorance is what caused hatred.  I wasn't raised to be fearful and ignorance wasn't tolerated in my house.

As much as I learned from my listening to my father I learned much more from observing him.  When my brother, Steve, and I played ice hockey we played at all hours of the night and morning. We had games at 10pm, 12am amd even 2am.  My parents were divorced when we really got into the sport.  We lived with my Dad after the divorce.  My father was working two jobs and he still drove us to practice and to our games.  Sometimes I would have to wake him up after his shift driving a taxi in New York City, his second job.  He would get up after sleeping 2 or 3 hours and drive us to the rink.  He was so tired that he would say things, upon waking, that made absolutely no sense whatsoever.  I realized later that the first few minutes he was up and moving he wasn't really awake at all.  I didn't realize how difficult this on him until I started doing it with my own children.  And I only worked one job.

One day after a day time game we were returning home.  My father was driving and my brother and two sisters were also in the car.  I don't remember how the incident started, but a man began yelling out of the window of his pick-up truck.  He apparently thought my father cut him off in traffic.  Shortly after the yelling the pick-up came to a red light and we were stuck behind him.  The driver threw the pick-up into park, got out of the truck with a wrench in his hand and he began walking toward our car.  I was about 15 and I was terrified.  The driver was about 6'3", 230 lbs and had absolute rage in his eyes.  He had a lots of facial hair and a bandana around his head.  He looked like he did physical labor for a living. He looked mean.  He stopped at the back of his truck and began beating his own pick-up truck with the wrench while looking at my father and screaming.  I gave my father a horrified, wild-eyed look, but didn't say anything.  My father looked at me and his expression was completely calm.  He looked at me as if to say, "everything is going to be alright."  The pick-up man then walked over to my father's car and before he could say anything my father calmly said, "You didn't come over here to pick on my kids, right?"  The man seemed to be disarmed by my father's lack of reaction to his antics.  He mumbled something, walked back to his truck and drove away.  I looked at my father and said, "How did you stay so calm, weren't you scared?"  My father said, "When a man is screaming and beating his own truck it's because he doesn't really want to fight, but he wants you to think he does.  You don't have to respond to his stupidity or his emotional outburst."

I would have understood if my father had got into a fight with the pick-up man, but I was far more impressed with how calm he remained.  I was impressed with my father's choice of words in this situation and how he didn't do or say anything to escalate the tension of the situation.  I was impressed with my father's ability to diffuse the encounter.  It is something that was burned into my psyche that day and I have done my best to emulate that calmness in similar situations.

When Steve and I were 11 and 12 my father took us for a canoe/camping trip down the Delaware River.  We had a great time, but the thing that made the trip so memorable was how Dad made Steve and I feel.  He didn't treat us like we were little kids.  We went to give one of the other men from the trip a ride.  Upon entering his house, the man's mother stepped out and said, "Aren't you concerned that this trip is dangerous for the boys?"  My father replied, "There are no boys on this trip, there are only men."

I learned about work ethic from my father.  I began helping a friend deliver newspapers when I was 11 and got my own route when I was 12.  I've been working steadily ever since.  When I played ice hockey I paid for my own equipment and my own ice time.  When I bought my first car it was with my own money.

Dad liked to write and when he was in the Army he was selected to instruct in a special unit.  It appears I have those qualities in my blood, two more qualities to be thankful for.

My father would often say to me, my brothers and my sisters: "Look at each other.  When you need help some time in life these are the people who will be there for you for no one else is."  He made sure that above all else we remained close.  We are to this day.

I have two wishes for Father's Day.  One, that my Father enjoys the day and understands what a great father he is and, two, that I am the father to my children that their Grandfather was to me.

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 What America Spends On Groceries   "We now spend a much bigger share of our grocery money on processed foods, which includes things like frozen dinners, canned soups and snacks."—Lam Thuy Vo, NPR

The Paleo Diet Moves From The Gym To The Doctor's Office   "Lane Sebring, who has a clinic in Austin, Texas, is a physician in the Paleo Physicians Network who says he's been using evolutionary medicine for 12 years to treat diseases like diabetes, heart disease and depression.

"Modern medicine has failed many of my patients," Sebring tells Shots. "Instead, I talk to them about what kind of exercise and diet is best for human beings and that's about recognizing what genes can do."—Eliza Barclay, Shots, NPR's Health Blog  (Thanks to mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple for the two re-posts!)

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