My First Blog!

OK.  My first Blog Post!

I guess I'll do my little "about me" spiel.

My name is Joe Thomas.  I am 31 yrs old, 6'1", 200#, and I am a structural engineer in Mobile, AL.  My primary job is as a bridge inspector and I get to travel around the country and climb on cool bridges to make sure they are structurally safe.  I am also in the AF Reserves, 556th RHS at Hurlburt Field, FL.  I am currently a Captain, and hopefully soon will make Major.  I was active duty Army for about 5 years and enjoyed a lovely, all expense paid trip to Baghdad for 15 months.

My wife (Ashley) and I just had our first child, Carolyn Ann Thomas, who we refer to as Squirm.  She is amazing!  It's awesome to just be around my family and have that love in my life.  My wife is now a stay at home mom, which she has taken to incredibly well.

My fitness background is pretty sordid.  I played basketball, soccer, tennis, and football in high school.  I played basketball in college at the University of South Alabama, before I had a bad ankle injury and couldn't play my freshman season.  Since I was a walk-on, the university could not keep me in the program and I was invited to come back next year.  Of course, I drank a lot and got lazy and lost a lot of confidence.  Anyhow, I played tons of intramurals and did ROTC which took me into the Army.  There I developed a great love for training and working out.  I also fought amateur MMA, 6-0.  I really enjoyed it, but the wife wasn't too happy with the black eyes and broken noses, so I had to move on.  I also was introduced to Crossfit which has really inspired me to develop myself as an adult athlete.

I am incredibly ADD when it comes to sticking with a program.  I see something cool, and say, "I bet I could do that."  Then train really hard for a while, get sidetracked, and start something else.  Along the way I have used tons of different programs and techniques.  But I'm convinced that it matters so much more HOW you do something, than WHAT you actually do.  So this blog is my attempt to stay focused on a list of goals and train to achieve them one at a time.  This list is made up of things I consistently come back to.  The first is easily the longest goal I've had.  I've wanted to dunk for as long as I can remember, and there is no time like the present to start with that one.  Anyhow, here is my list and where I'm at currently:

1. Dunk a basketball. - Currently can grab the rim with both hands and can dunk a tennis ball with ease. 2. Run a marathon under 4 hours - I have run 5 half marathons under 1:51 3. Do a full planche - I can do an advanced tuck for a few seconds 4. Do a muscle up on bar and rings - Can chest to bar/rings and do deep dips for reps 5. Do an L-sit to handstand with straight arms - I can almost hold it with bent arms and going to a tuck on the PB 6. Max my AF PT test, 60 PU in a min, 60 SU in a min, 1.5 mi in 9:30 or less - Max PU/SU, last run was 9:50 7. Bench 1RM 300# - 1rm is 265

*Side note: I pretty severely tweaked my back on Monday, so I'm taking this week off to regroup.

I have a pretty extensive workout log at Crossfit.com (http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=57890) if you want to check out what I've been doing for the past while.