Author Archives: MtnEvan

Finishing the Super Spartan Race, Barefoot and Barely

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“Shit…I’m going to die in a fire.”

Thanh pointed out, “You have wet mud all over so you probably won’t burn right away.” Pretty reassuring, actually.

Piled no more than one foot tall, no more than two feet wide, was a row of burning wood. It clearly wasn’t made to be a substantial obstacle. Just a last “haroo!” that made for a great photo opp as you jumped through fire like an action hero. Any other day, it should have barely elicited a quick glance before a quick hop over. But at that moment, it was like Springfield Gorge. “You can always do burpees instead,” Thanh reminded.

“No, no. I can barely stand up right now. No burpees. I can’t do burpees.” Every single muscle in both of my legs were at their very limit. I had trouble standing.

TL;DR: For 3.5 hours, in these cold, foggy hills, I had pushed myself further physically than I ever had in my entire life. (Warning: long post ahead.)

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Taken about halfway through. Is it just me, or is there something about this photo that makes it look like we’re now dead?

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The Best Part of a 10 Week Roadtrip Across the USA? The People

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This is a guest post by Cherry Duong, VP of Visual Communication at the Primal Professional, owner of Cherry Topping Designs.

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I grew up in an area of Sacramento where the word “vacation” was nonexistent. Many families, including my own, had first generation working-class parents who were too busy working, saving money to send back to their families in their homeland. This explains why I’ve never had the travel bug. But it makes it harder to explain how I quit my job of 3.5 years and traveled the country for 10 whole weeks, sometimes staying in strangers’ homes.

Doesn’t show every stop because Google Maps maxes out, but it’s the route we took.

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Why I Got a Shotgun, or The Importance of Self-Reliance

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I got my first firearm: a shotgun. It’s a simple, reliable, pretty affordable, and highly versatile survival tool. Because of California’s waiting period, I was in anticipation for 10 days, and I shared my excitement over conversations. Unexpectedly but unsurprisingly, that excitement was usually met with puzzlement, and/or fear. But I enjoyed the discussion, and with each subsequent chat, I’ve been better able to refine my views.

So here, my California liberal friends, is Why I got a shotgun. Firearm knowledge and ownership are a natural extension of the same personal responsibility you apply to and cultivate in other areas of life.  Continue reading →

Self-Employed No Income, or The Summer Vacation I Never Had

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Beach & Beard, staples of Summer 2012. via Instagram

“What have you been up to, Mountain?”

If you’re my friend (real and/or facebook), you probably know I left my job in March to travel the country for 10 weeks, promoting my startup the Primal Professional. Since returning to San Diego late May, life has been less exciting, but different enough to warrant a blog post. We have enough savings and enough potential for income in the near future to be comfortable without clocking in for paychecks. But we don’t have so much savings nor such a guaranteed future income to really do everything we want to. It’s not quite 4-Hour Workweek status, but it’s undeniably better than working full-time.

I’ve been occupying myself with “cheap/free” activities: reading, fooling on the internet, TV and movies, growing a beard, working out, breaking my pinky, cooking, eating, meeting up with people to chat or catch up, and the beach. But first, let’s start with…

Business Continue reading →

Slow-Bulk 1 Week 1

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Last Thursday, I started my first ever deliberate attempt to gain lean mass. At least, I hope it will be lean mass mostly…I find myself having mild separation anxiety from killer abs after high-calorie training days. However, they do come back by the end of the lower-calorie rest day. That was among a few unexpected and interesting things I’ve noticed just in the first week.

Kefir with a swirl of ruby port. Hedonistic bulking. via Instagram

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I Killed an Animal

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It was a chicken. The first warm-blooded life I had taken directly.

It wasn’t for fun (and it certainly wasn’t fun). It was for nourishment…and for a much-needed education. As much as we would like to forget, and have been allowed to forget, via the modern industrialized food chain, we are all bound to nature as participants in the eternal cycle of life and death. We all have the blood of animals on our hands. Vegetarians and vegans not excepted.

So for the first time in my life, 

I took personal responsibility for taking a life,

an act necessary for the continuation of our own life. Continue reading →

What Do All “Dieters” Have In Common?

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(Photo: Kevin Cheng)

Paleo. Vegan. Vegetarian. Fruitarian. Local. Raw. Organic. Macrobiotic. Mediterranean. Low-fat. Low-carb. Slow-carb. High-protein. Gluten-free. Intermittent fasting. Warrior diet. Six small meals. Gallon of Milk A Day.

What do all “dieters” have in common? They all have chosen to depart from conventional eating habits, in hopes of finding something better. It could be for themselves, their family, their community, humanity at large, and/or the environment. Let’s begin by acknowledging this fact, and respect that they make efforts to do better.

It must be said, though, that often times, the assumptions we hold about a diet are completely wrong. As with anything else, an open yet critical mind must be kept.

Becoming a State Champion Powerlifter, part 3: Lessons and What’s Next

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On February 11, 2012, I competed in my first powerlifting meet and became a state champion and current record holder in my division. This is a 3-part series on my adventures in powerlifting from Feb 2009 – Feb 2012. The first post talks about how I got into the sport. The second post covers more details on training and the day of the meet. The third post is on lessons learned and what’s next.

Lesson 8. Find synergies. (Photo: Ryan Chang)

The cool thing about these lessons is that they have carryover into all other parts of life. I’ll keep it short, but each one can probably be a post all by itself. Continue reading →

On Convincing People to Try Barefoot

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My friend Andrew Rademacher of Leming Footwear asked on his company’s facebook page:

Have you managed to convert anyone to minimalism? Or have you just been met with a wall of rejection? It seems like everyone anti-minimalism goes to a convention together because every reasoning always ends up with “We were not meant to run on hard surfaces.”

My reply:

I’m counting 9 people total that I’ve gotten to go minimalist. The common denominator among these 9 is that, while skeptical, they were all willing to just take off their shoes and give it a shot. If someone isn’t even willing to give it a shot and see for themselves, I don’t bother trying anymore. No amount of evidence nor reasoning from me would convince them otherwise.

Final note…100% of the people who were willing to give it a shot are now minimalist walkers/runners.

This is probably true of most unordinary and extraordinary things.