If you had asked me Thursday morning who my favorite musicians were, there is almost no chance that Prince would have been among the names that came out of my mouth. I didn't own any Prince CDs growing up. I was never itching to go see Prince in concert. It wasn't that I didn't like Prince's music. For me, he was always one of those artists where if he came on the radio, I'd be like "hold on, don't change the station". It's hard for me to explain it better than that. There were so many songs of his that I enjoyed, but for one reason or another, he was never in the forefront of my mind when I thought about music. When I learned of his death on Thursday afternoon, I was shocked by how much the news affected me. A flood of memories went rushing through my head and I suddenly realized what an impact he had on my life. He was one of the greatest musicians of my generation and suddenly he was gone. I was floored.
I've always had tremendous respect for artists who write their own music. Prince not only wrote his own music, he wrote a bunch of famous songs that ended up being hits for other musicians. If Madonna was the female embodiment of sex in the 80's, then Prince was her male counterpart, which is remarkable given he was a 5'2" dude from Minnesota. He did everything his own way and gave zero fucks. I mean, the guy changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol for 7 years. Who does that? He led a truly remarkable life.
Before getting to my recap of Endurance class where I wore one of the few purple shirts I own in honor of Prince's passing, I'd like to give my top 3 memories of Prince:
3) The 1991 MTV Video Awards
13 year old Dave can't believe it! Cinemax had finally become unscrambled on his TV set! Oh wait, it says MTV in the corner of the screen. That can't be right. There was clearly some sort of pornographic movie playing. And Prince is starring in it. I remember watching this performance and thinking to myself "I hope that my parents don't catch me watching this or I'll be in big trouble". (Note: I'm not sure why I thought this since my parents had no problems with us watching movies that had nudity in them when we were growing up. I think I just thought I was getting away with watching something scandalous.)
For seven minutes, MTV viewers got to experience a Roman orgy as Prince sang about getting off. And if that wasn't graphic enough for you, Prince brought it to another level by boldly going with the choice of assless pants. It was one thing for a bunch of dancers who were trying to get their 15 minutes of fame to appear in various states of undress. But a famous singer showing off his ass in a televised awards show? That was a memory that stuck with you. (Watch this video, then think about how crazy the world went after seeing one of Janet Jackson's boobs for a millisecond.)
2) Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Story
Prince's legacy wasn't all about music. And to be fair, he wasn't technically responsible for this memory. But as someone who loves comedy, this ranks among my favorite comedy skits of all-time. (Note: It's my second favorite Chappelle skit after Dave's night out with Wayne Brady. The Law and Order skit? Fif, obviously.)
So many good scenes in here. Charlie Murphy in the club. Prince and the Revolution's basketball gear. The screen set on Charlie Murphy. Prince calling out plays. Prince calling his shots. Prince "dribbling" the basketball. And of course, Prince calling game. (The fact that breakfast is served at the end probably gives this skit a special place in my heart as well.)
1) The Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show
I generally hate Super Bowl halftime shows. I remember U2's performance in 2002, but that was striking more because of the fact that it was honoring victims from the September 11th attacks and the nation's wounds hadn't healed yet. As far as musical performances were concerned, most were not very good. Then Janet Jackson's nipple made an appearance in 2004 and the halftime show became controversial. Organizers went very conservative the next two years, going with Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones (combined age: 692 years old). With no incidents during those two performances, the organizers went with an edgier selection in 2007: Prince.
The game was played in a downpour and I remember towards the end of the second quarter wondering what they were going to do with the halftime show. Will they still do it in the rain? I couldn't remember another halftime show that had gone on in the rain. Seemed like there was lots of electrical stuff involved and it might not be safe. Before Prince even began playing, there was a curiosity factor simply due to the weather.
Then the set began. And over the next 12 minutes, it didn't seem like a musical act was performing while the most important football game of the year was taking a break. It seemed like you were watching a concert and that there would be some crappy football played once the music ended. There was Prince belting out "Let's Go Crazy" to get the crowd going. Then there was a Drumline scene as he played "Baby I'm A Star". He showed off his range by delving into other artists' songs like "Proud Mary", "All Along The Watchtower", and "Best Of You". Finally, the set concluded with the apropos "Purple Rain". The censors must have gone scrambling as viewers were treated to a silhouette of Prince wailing away on his dick guitar before engaging the stadium in a sing along to end the show. It was epic. Just thinking about this year's show in comparison makes me cringe.
It's a shame that we have lost so much talent in 2016. And I'm still not over losing Indy. But perhaps these deaths have given me a greater appreciation for those that impact our lives. So thank you, Prince Rogers Nelson, for all of the great memories.
How did Prince end up taking over my Crossfit blog entry for the day? Partly because the news of his death consumed my thoughts for most of the day. Partly because it is hard to write an entire blog on Endurance day. And partly because a guy named King was heavily involved in my experience at Endurance class. (Never pass up an easy opportunity for a blog theme when one is handed to you.)
After donning my purple King and Queen t-shirt from a few years ago, I headed to the track for Endurance. There were 15 of us in class, with Mariana and Laura A donning purple as well. Might have been pure coincidence with them, but I wanted to believe that it was not. As we stretched and waited for class to begin, I got into a conversation with King. King is one of the early morning monsters who puts up crazy scores and times. His need for hair care products is as limited as my own and he's got a few years on me. That information probably isn't important, but I'm sure part of the reason I compare my results to him is in case there is an older bald guy division in the Crossfit Open one year.
As we were talking, he mentioned to me that he had seen that I was lifting big weights recently. Consider me floored again. I always stalk the results of the morning athletes, but it never dawned on me that any of them would be following my results. Especially because my results tended to be worse than theirs. But King had seen at least some of my recent results and had paid me a compliment. It was an unexpectedly cool moment. (Note: For those of you who get on me for not taking compliments, I did say thank you to King.)
Coach Tim got the 15 of us warmed up and then explained what the workout would be. We'd be starting off with an 800 meter time trial. Then we'd be doing some stadium work, meaning we'd be incorporating the bleachers on each side of the track into our workout. For some reason, I've missed every stadium workout in the past, but I was looking forward to trying it out for the first time. As for the 800 meter time trial, I wasn't nearly as psyched about that, but I'd do my best to keep up with the speedy folks in class.
It wasn't long before we were lined up at the starting line, ready for our two-lap challenge. The 800 meter run has always been a tricky distance for me. You can't really pace it, but you can't sprint the entire way either. To use a horse racing term, it requires a strong "cruising speed", something I do not have. I did the 800 meter run in one of the few Endurance classes I attended last year, finishing about 100 meters behind Laura. So the goal was to not let that gap between me and her increase this time around. Kevin B. was in class and I expected that he'd be on the lead with Laura and that King would not be far behind. As for the other runners in class, I wasn't sure what to expect, so I was going to keep my focus on those three for the most part.
We took off and a pack of four went out to the lead at a pace much faster than I was comfortable going. The lead group was Laura, Kevin, Olan, and Luke. King was next and I settled in about 30 meters behind him. As we hit the straightaway to end the first lap, Luke was tailing off of that lead group as King and I began to gain on him. When I crossed the finish line, Tim yelled out my time (1:29) and I was pretty happy with my pace. I was pushing, but I wasn't exhausted. It seemed possible that I could stay at about this pace for one more lap. As we rounded the first turn, King went by Luke and I faced the trickiest part of the run. Whether we're in our car or running, I think people have a natural instinct to speed up when someone else passes them. I was trying not to lose touch with King, but as he passed Luke, Luke found a little more energy and sped up a bit. I knew the easiest way for me to lose King was to have someone in between us, so I had to speed up as well in an attempt to get by Luke. I managed to do that, but then Luke went even faster, trying to stay with me. As a result, I had to maintain this surge longer than I would have liked or else Luke would have been back in between King and myself. By the time I had gotten a little separation from Luke, we had hit the 200 meter mark and I knew I wasn't getting a breather. It was time to push with whatever I had left to get to the finish line. On the final turn, King opened up some extra ground on me, but I was able to close in on him in the final straightaway. I'd say he finished about 40 meters ahead of me, which wasn't too bad all things considered. Kevin finished first, about 100 meters ahead of me, then Laura and Olan. My final time: 3:04. (Four seconds better than my time from last year)
That was a good start to things. We're early on in the Endurance season and it seems like there is a real possibility that I could get that time down to the 2:50 range if I make Endurance a weekly habit. Next up were the stairs. We would be doing 3 laps. For the first lap, we would be running to the first set of bleachers, then running up and down the steps one at a time. When we reached the track again, there would be a 50 meter jog, then a 50 meter sprint before arriving at the bleachers on the other side. We'd repeat everything we did on the starboard side of the track over on the port side before completing the lap. We would then get three to four minutes of rest before the next lap. In lap number two, we would be climbing the steps two at a time (just one at a time on the way down). For lap number three, we would be doing bunny hops up every step.
It's a little difficult to describe my performance on this section of the workout. There was almost no room to pass someone on the bleachers, so your finish was highly dependent on how fast you ran to the gate that led to the bleachers. For laps one and two, I didn't sprint at the start and ended up well back in the pack, only able to pass a couple of folks on the small sprints on the turns of the track. I felt good during those laps, especially on the second lap. I typically go up stairs two at a time, so it felt very natural to me, despite the steps being much larger than you'd find in a typical staircase. For the final lap, I wanted to challenge myself, so I bolted towards the initial gate and got to it 5th, behind Laura, Kevin, King, and Alona. On the sprint to the second set of bleachers, I passed Alona, but I couldn't catch up to the top three. And those bunny hops were painful after a while, something you could tell by how spread out the 15 of us were on the last lap. The final time for each lap was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5:30-6:00.
After Endurance was complete, I went home, showered, threw on my purple Breeders Cup polo shirt and went to cheer on Gordy as he took on the first of his four Masters Qualifier events in his attempt to qualify for the Crossfit Games in the 60+ division. The workout was a 15 minute AMRAP that I would have struggled on tremendously, consisting of 55 double unders, 15 pull-ups, and 5 hang power cleans. Gordy was amazing as always, nearly completing 5 full rounds before finishing with a score of 370 reps. I'm not sure I would have finished much more than two rounds.
Monday preview: A trip to DC takes me away from the gym Friday through Sunday, so my next workout ends up being on Monday, when we all get to take on one of Gordy's other Masters Qualifier events. Spoiler: I don't even come close to Gordy's time. He's a machine.
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