AcroBend Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) On 7/28/2020 at 4:01 PM, Buccos1 said: Love that you took the extra time to dial in Raining Blood! Incredible achievement so far!!! Edited July 30, 2020 by AcroBend 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 On 7/30/2020 at 6:31 AM, AcroBend said: Love that you took the extra time to dial in Raining Blood! Incredible achievement so far!!! Thanks man! Slayer has been a go-to for a long time with bending. Not sure how the playlist will unfold for the last two, but it might be a mix of Rocky and Slayer. Gotta go all-out. Lol 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 One more to go ... 10 years 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcroBend Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 This final (red) nail in the coffin has to be coming up soon? Pretty neat that the conclusion of this and the @Donc101 60D feat are happening so close together. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 6 hours ago, AcroBend said: This final (red) nail in the coffin has to be coming up soon? Pretty neat that the conclusion of this and the @Donc101 60D feat are happening so close together. The final one will be this Sunday. I might keep it going for a few more weeks, or at least until the end of August just to allay any schedule/calendar anomalies. But this weekend will be the final official bend/attempt, to mark the culmination of ten years. Don's feats are pretty incredible. Beyond incredible in a lot of ways! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 15, 2020 Author Share Posted August 15, 2020 Sun (7/19) DO - IMPs 1/4 x 7" O1 1/4 x 7" Grade 5 Red Nail 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 15, 2020 Author Share Posted August 15, 2020 Sun (8/2) DO - IMPs 1/4 x 7" HRS 15/64 x 6" O1 17/64 x 7" O1 Red Nail One more to go. Looking back through my logs the last 10 years and seeing Red Nail after Red Nail after Red Nail, it's a little surreal. But I'm tuning things out with this the next few weeks and going into the last one ready to roll. Not going to mess around. Just destroy it. At this point, it's going to be an all-out crazy attempt. Not going to take any chances. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Sun (8/16) DO - IMPs 60d spiral 1/4 x 7" O1 1/4 x 7" Grade 5 Red Nail The final Red Nail bend, marking 10 years of non-stop Reds. Not sure what will happen with my double-overhand bending at this point, but I will likely continue bending double-over, (at least at a 1/4 x 7" Grade 8 level) but this streak will end at 10 years. I cannot physically do this much longer without a break. I might do a few more over the next few weeks to account for any weird scheduling issues, to make it official-official though. Kinda bittersweet. But this madness is about over. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stranger Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 37 minutes ago, Buccos1 said: Sun (8/16) DO - IMPs 60d spiral 1/4 x 7" O1 1/4 x 7" Grade 5 Red Nail The final Red Nail bend, marking 10 years of non-stop Reds. Not sure what will happen with my double-overhand bending at this point, but I will likely continue bending double-over, (at least at a 1/4 x 7" Grade 8 level) but this streak will end at 10 years. I cannot physically do this much longer without a break. I might do a few more over the next few weeks to account for any weird scheduling issues, to make it official-official though. Kinda bittersweet. But this madness is about over. That friggin awesome man, congrats! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donc101 Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Just an absolutely bad ass feat. I love the video, it is perfect. Rocky music, beer, kids talking....great video. I really want to be in this game for a long time and it is always inspiring to see people bending at a high level for a long time. Congrats Carl! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horrido Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Very nice to see. Congrats for this long time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcroBend Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 8 hours ago, Donc101 said: Just an absolutely bad ass feat. I love the video, it is perfect. Rocky music, beer, kids talking....great video. I really want to be in this game for a long time and it is always inspiring to see people bending at a high level for a long time. Congrats Carl! He said it better than I could have. And I about fell over when I heard you scrolling through the Rocky IV soundtrack. This is so great. And it doesn't get any more official than this - go ahead and take that well-earned break. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 17 hours ago, stranger said: That friggin awesome man, congrats! 17 hours ago, Donc101 said: Just an absolutely bad ass feat. I love the video, it is perfect. Rocky music, beer, kids talking....great video. I really want to be in this game for a long time and it is always inspiring to see people bending at a high level for a long time. Congrats Carl! 12 hours ago, Horrido said: Very nice to see. Congrats for this long time! 8 hours ago, AcroBend said: He said it better than I could have. And I about fell over when I heard you scrolling through the Rocky IV soundtrack. This is so great. And it doesn't get any more official than this - go ahead and take that well-earned break. Thank you guys. I appreciate it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 17 hours ago, Donc101 said: Just an absolutely bad ass feat. I love the video, it is perfect. Rocky music, beer, kids talking....great video. I really want to be in this game for a long time and it is always inspiring to see people bending at a high level for a long time. Congrats Carl! Don, I have no doubt you will still be doing this in 8-10 years, still upping your game! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William James Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Congrats on hitting this milestone! A great thread, thanks for sharing the journey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 15 hours ago, William James said: Congrats on hitting this milestone! A great thread, thanks for sharing the journey Thanks! Logging this for the final year definitely helped push through the end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted September 7, 2020 Author Share Posted September 7, 2020 Sun (8/30) OK, I wasn't really planning to do any more of these, but routine kicked-in as Sun(day) turned into Sunday evening and I "wanted" to do another Red Nail. I wasn't feeling that great either, but told myself to just finish-out the month of August. I really think this needs to end at 10 years but am having mixed feelings about stopping. However, with all of the neck issues I have been having the past 1.5 years, and never really having the chance to heal things up after all of this time, I really think stopping would help me overall and help alleviate a lot of the chronic issues I've acquired. Anyway, here is probably the last Red Nail bend after 10 continuous years of a Red Nail bent every 1-2 weeks nonstop, in single IMPs, according to Ironmind's official cert. rules. (10 years +1 extra): 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 5 months later ... I've been dealing with chronic neck pain for a few years now. It seems that in the several months since I've quit bending Reds, things have gotten better overall. I knew that double-overhand was beating me up pretty bad the past few years, but didn't know the extent of it until backing off the past five months. I also think that never taking a break from double-overhand for close to 12 years messed some things up, as there was never a chance to recover more than a week-or-two. That said, I've been bending some Grade 8s double-over the past few months, to stay active. They've been painful, but more due to the body not being used to the week-to-week bends with double-overhand. I have been thinking about my initial fears about taking time off from bending Reds, going back to around 2015, which was that if I quit bending them, I would never be able to do another one again, as it took me about a year-and-a-half to bend my first one, after a lot of work and focus. In retrospect, it doesn't really seem that important to look at this in that way. But part of me thinks it is, and part of me likes the challenge. So, I've been thinking about hitting a few more Reds, spaced-out over time, for that challenge. The biggest issue for me now is the (lack-of) flexibility in the shoulders and just overall age-related pain, and wear-and-tear. I'm going to start working on my flexibility a little more and hopefully have some news with this over the next few months. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svr Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Keep us posted. I have been following your bending for years, literally. Your 10+ year run is one of the most impressive feats ever. It has a mental / fortitude component that a one time PR can not touch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 On 1/30/2021 at 9:02 PM, svr said: Keep us posted. I have been following your bending for years, literally. Your 10+ year run is one of the most impressive feats ever. It has a mental / fortitude component that a one time PR can not touch. Thanks man, I appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadgrip Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 this is a pretty awesome little story man. i started bending maybe 15 years ago but wasn't very good at it and kind of put it to the side while I did other training. I came back to it some months back and things just started to move this time.. yellows, blues, hex, grade 5s, finally got a grade 8 some weeks back... I feel like the red might be close and I look forward to my bending once every 2 weeks. I'm 38 now so I feel ya man!! Keep going!!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted June 4, 2021 Author Share Posted June 4, 2021 On 3/16/2021 at 10:52 PM, deadgrip said: this is a pretty awesome little story man. i started bending maybe 15 years ago but wasn't very good at it and kind of put it to the side while I did other training. I came back to it some months back and things just started to move this time.. yellows, blues, hex, grade 5s, finally got a grade 8 some weeks back... I feel like the red might be close and I look forward to my bending once every 2 weeks. I'm 38 now so I feel ya man!! Keep going!!! Sorry I missed this. Appreciate it! Glad to hear and sounds like you’ve been killing it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sharkey Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 On 8/8/2019 at 5:19 PM, Buccos1 said: I have been thinking about how to tell this story for years, and always end up putting it on the back-burner, due to its complexity and not wanting to face reality, that this journey is near-complete, and with it, the end of a huge chapter of my life. Getting into the final year, the time is now, I guess. Onward ... After my Red Nail certification in August, 2010, I was trying to think of something unique, in that I could do long-term, that no one else had ever done. From the beginning, when I started bending steel, I wanted to become one of the best all-around benders in the world and sustain this over (at the time) at least 5 years (which of course, turned out to be 10+ years). After my Red cert, I decided to undertake a personal challenge: to bend an Ironmind Red Nail, under official cert. conditions, every 7-10 days, for as long as I could sustain it. I do not have my old log from Benders Battlefield in its entirely, but kept notes from the first few years. Years 1-3 were typically done once per-week. I did a bunch of other bends (cut-Reds for certs etc.) that I did not include as part of this challenge in the overall count. Also, there were a lot of days that I bent 2-3 Reds in the same session. These were not included; just the Red bend for that week. The first few years were easy, in retrospect, especially as I compare those years to the past few years' attempts. During those first few years, Reds were usually the easiest of 2-3 "challenge bars" I would do during weekly sessions. It wasn't until I hit 40 years old around 2014 that things started to hurt more and these weekly/bi-weekly sessions became much more challenging. There were several instances where I thought about stopping, but kept going. When I hit 5 years, I told myself that I would keep doing this as long as I was physically able, and set my sights on 10 years. I have told a few people over the years about the 10 year Red challenge, but never officially posted or wrote about it in detail until now. As I type this, I am at 9 years of bending a Ironmind Red Nail every 1-2 weeks, nonstop. This was through a lot of challenges, aside from the obvious. A few of the major things I encountered that almost derailed things were: Birth of my first son, where I stayed in the hospital for multiple days, with little sleep and no one really making it easy to bend in the hospital (had to hide everything). When I made the actual attempt, it was on a few hours of sleep, just a few seconds before the nurse came into the room. She definitely would not have been happy if she walked in when I was bending the Red at this time. PRK eye surgery - I planned my bends around my surgery date, to give myself about 12 days after the surgery to bend the Red. Kidney stone surgery (invasive) - This one was tough. They told me I could resume light training after 4-5 days, and then "normal" activities after 10 days. I just figured bending was not "normal" so didn't bother even trying to explain to the doctor. Multiple injuries - After turning 40, things started to break down a lot more frequently. I haven't really changed too much in training, but aches and pains have been nonstop for the past 5 years; especially the past 1-2 years. KTA/RRBT - I did both of these programs multiple times and had great As gains with grippers. My hands were destroyed for the better part of a year, which really made bending tough, but did not stop it. As I worked through week-after-week, and month-after-month of bends, I began thinking about the gravity of this endeavor; mainly, that if I would stop, it would be over for good. It took me over a year of dedicated training to cert. the Red back when I was in my mid-30s, in much better shape and condition. After 40, I was fully aware of some of my newfound limitations, and the reality, if I would stop bending Reds, it would likely be over for good. And I wasn't willing to give this up just yet. Bending, and by extension the Red Nail, were so intertwined into my personality, identity, and weekly routine, that I have been fighting to keep this going as long as possible. At 9 years, the end is in sight. And that is partly why I am writing this now. This is probably a little too much rambling, and I might go back and fine-tune it a little later on, but I know the last year is going to be a challenge and I am hoping to use the board as a platform for accountability, and more importantly, motivation. As such, I will post updates here in this thread over the next year, and hopefully, wrap it up after 10 years of continuous, bi-weekly Red Nail bends. In the picture below are most of the Reds during this streak. I counted 292 Red Nails. As mentioned above, this does not include all of the nails, including some of the shorter (5.5") Reds and the official cert. nail, which are in the "big bend" box. It kinda makes me sad typing this up, as I know that this cannot go on forever. It;s been such a huge part of my life for so long, that I cannot remember when I wasn't bending. And wasn't waiting for the weekly/bi-weekly Red Nail bend to keep it going. My friend this is a feat that will never be repeated. Insane 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccos1 Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 On 3/28/2023 at 2:24 AM, Mike Sharkey said: My friend this is a feat that will never be repeated. Insane Thanks Mike! Seems like almost a crazy dream now trying to think through it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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