Rower 4x500

Hopped on the rower today. Realized that since it is too cold to keep the rower in the garage that I really need to bring my stereo downstairs so that I can pump my tunes through it. The speaker on the iPad is not loud enough.

WOD
4x500 row
2 min rest between sets

Felt solid. Working on my form. Watched a video of Rich Froming do this lasy week and he let his arms go straight before he pulled his legs in. My fastest split was with that method but it feels a bit odd.

Splits:
1:53, 1:51, 1:54, 1:56

Went to log on the box site and he did not have this workout. I need to have him add this in. I logged it to the closest one I could find which was 5x500 with 3 minute rest. I will ask Ryan via email to add.

Rest Weekend

Have every intention of resting this weekendbut watching the diet. Girls already have ourmenu planned for the day so need to make a quick run to Whole Foods this afternoon to pick up the mango salsa for the pork loin as well as a pound or two of bacon. No better bacon than what I buy at Whole Foods. It will let me do some more bacon wrapped sweet potatoe bites for the side dish.

I do plan on getting in a few rows though. I am going to follow Ryan's advice on doing some sprint ladders and then John's 4x500 workout. Good times expected.

Strong Double Unders Today

Excited about tonight's WOD. It had lots of kettlebell swings and double unders. Two things that I am pretty decent at. Only concern was that I have been pretty sore this week hitting the box Tuesday, Wed, and Thurs. My diet has been solid the past several days also.

WOD
5 rounds for time
20 Pullups (not allowed to use bands today so did jumping pull ups)
30 KB swings (1.5 pood)
40 double unders

3-2-1 GO

First 2 rounds were pretty solid. Did pullups in sets of 10 as well as the KB swings. Double unders were good and I was able to string in sets of 15-20. Round 3 started out rough. Pull ups in sets of 5. KBs in 1 set of 10 then remaining in sets of 5. Got to double unders and strung all 40 together. I hit the groove and just kept going. Next time I hit that groove I am going to keep going. 100 is definitely doable. I think if I hit 100 in the next few months I need to up it to 200. Kept going after round 3 and got all the way to double unders in round 5 with about 10 seconds to go. Totally out of gas but started and while I didn't finish all 5 in 30 I was pretty close.

Now that the weekend is here I am going to get in a few good rows.

Tale of the Tape

I've had some trouble sleeping lately.  Not sure why but I think it has to do with the late night Diet Cokes so I'm going to pull back from that and see if that helps.  Started looking at Juli Bauer's blog PALEOMG.  Some great looking recipes on that site and having met her a few times she is a lot of fun and definitely one hot woman.

Woke up this morning a little late trying to take advantage of getting some sleep.  Decided to brew my pot of coffee (have become addicted to that in the morning) and while it was brewing I grabbed the tape measure.  I was a little nervous because let's face it I did not eat all that healthy during the holidays.  Pulled the tape and I was a 47.  Real happy with that number.  I'm making good steady progress on losing the inches.  I'm not dropping any weight though but I'm getting much stronger.  Muscle weighs more than fat.  I need to see if Ryan will do the body fat test on me in the next month or so to see where I am at.  That would be a true test and one to start tracking.

Tonight's WOD (6 pm) is going to be a fun one.

WOD
10 Muscle Ups (I'll have to do the pullups / dip combination)
100 Push Press (75#)
1000 m Row

HQ WOD

Solid day in the box. Programming this week is straight from the HQ website. Primarily cleand and snatches the past few days. No surprise for tonight. we spent a ton of time tonight going through the entire bergman (sp?) snatch warmup with a PVC pipe and a bar.

HQ WOD
1000m run
100 pushups
10 snatches (135#)

Still cold and nasty outside and tons of black ice so a handful of us opted to row (me included). Got my bar ready and did a few reps of 135. Felt real solid but I was concerned I would have to drop weight after all of those pushups. I had 25# plates ready just in case.

Total time was 17:58. Pushups were a train wreck. Did all of them from my knees and I just kept going with sets of 3,2,4,6,1. You name it and I did a set of that many. Got to the snatches and got my feet set then went after it. I was really tired by this point but my form actually kicked in and I banged out all 10 at 135#. I owe it to the warmup that I could go through this. Overall I am real pleased with the progress.

Spent time before hand working with my new Rx jump rope. DUs are not as easy with this rope as they are with my other but I really like the feel of this rope so I am going to stick with it. I will get a faster rope in a few more months.

Cleans and GHD

Solid WOD tonight. Yesterday was CFT so I skipped that one and hung on the couch instead.

WOD
21-15-9
Cleans 135#
gHD situps

Total time was 9:57. Pretty happy with that time. Too tired and hungry to write more.

5k Row

As I've mentioned this week was a week of bought WODs.  For $20 you can buy a WOD.  One of our trainers, Scott H., bought today's WOD which was a 5k row for time.  I asked him why this one this morning and he said "absolutely no idea."  It's all good in my opinion.


WOD
5k row for time

Ended up with 22:42.  I've never done a distance over 1k so I was a little nervous about this one but looking back on it I had the right game plan.  I had my iPod with me and the tunes rocking and picked a nice pace and went.  When I got to about 700 to go I upped the tempo and really felt the burn.

A few learnings on this one is that I need to pick a pace and stick with it.  I also fumbled a bit with the clip on my ipod and rowed a number of reps with a single arm as I worked to fix my ipod.

It's a good starting point and one that I am going to bookmark.  Now that I have the rower at home I think I need to do this on a monthly basis.

I'm signing off from my WOD blog for a few days.  Headed with the girls up to Breck tonight through Saturday.

Back at it with FRAN

Felt much better after 2 days of forced recovery so I was looking forward to heading back into the box.  Unfortunately, I missed the WOD that I paid for but I'll make it up in the future.  Prior to heading in I checked the site and saw a post that someone had swiped 3 of our tires that we leave right outside the garage door.  What is up with that?  Why would anyone look to swipe monster truck tires that are 200 lbs apiece.  Quite disappointing if you ask me.

FRAN
21-15-9
Thrusters 95# Rx
Pullups

I checked my prior FRAN times and noticed that my first FRAN run was 10:50 in April using a 65# thruster and black and red bands.  My last FRAN was 18:58 using 95# thruster for 32 reps and 75# for remainder using just a black band.  Taking this into account (and the fact I'm just 24 hours away from a triple digit temp and pretty much no food for 48 hours) I needed to make sure I could get through it.  So, I went with 75# on the thruster and green band (plus red for when I got tired).

3-2-1 GO

Thrusters are a challenge for me.  It's got nothing to do with the weight and all about form.  I tend to hold the bar in front of my body during the movement given my extreme lack of flexibility.  No change here.  Depth is good and I'm starting to pull my legs closer together as my squats are getting cleaner and deeper.  Pullups are something I've taken a lot of pride in and am working hard on.  I went the first round of 21 on just green band.  Rounds 2 and 3 I used the red band.  For some reason on round 3 I got a major 2nd wind and blasted through all 9 pullups without stopping.  Moral of the story is that I need to drop the red band.  Told Ryan about it and he said the exact same thing.  Drop the red band and make it hurt more.

Time was 11:19.  Comparing that to my other FRAN times I am quite pleased.  It's a little soon to say it but I'm going to anyway.  My goal for next year is to do FRAN Rx.  I think I can do the weight now although it will put a lot of time on the clock for me and the pullups will come.

Finally, had a discussion with Ryan on the additional rower workouts.  He first said he has been real happy with the progress so far (as have I) in the just under 1 year.  I'm averaging 4-5 days a week in the box (5 to 6 if in town) and what he wants me to ensure that I do not do is get into the habit of rowing every day if I'm in the box that much.  He is going to get back to me on extra workouts but suggested I really look to only do 2 to 3 additional per week and has some suggestions.  He knows that what I need the most help in is stamina (ie. cardio...) and the added benefit is that it will help me drop some weight.

5k row is the WOD tomorrow.  Not sure if I am looking forward to that one or not.

Another Forced Recovery Day

I felt much better this morning and had planned to pull through completely (or more fully) and go to the 6 pm class tonight.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Started coughing this afternoon and while it is not bad I think the best thing to do is to continue the rest.  I'm taking the girls to Breck Wed - Saturday and I don't want to put that in jeopardy.

Monday Tape In

Sported a fever of 101 on Sunday so all I did was move from my bed to my couch and back and forth.  Was not able to do anything other than drink a little bit of water.  I did down a few big cups with electrolytes in them.

Monday WOD today is one that I paid $20 for.  At our box we are raising money for the holidays for the Asian Critter Campaign.  All money donated goes to buying animals for families in Asia.  A pair of chickens is $11.  So, Ryan and Kyla sold the WODs this week for $20.  Today is mine - 4 rounds of 5 power cleans at 75% 1RM and the a 100 yard farmer's carry.  Too bad I'm not going to be able to make it.

I did pull the tape out this morning and the waist measurement is down to 48 now.  Pretty happy about that.

Concept 2

Just took delivery of my Concept 2 rower with the PM4 monitor.  Will set this up tonight after my WOD and get in a 4x500 with a 2-3 minute rest per round.  Thanks to John D for that workout.

Forced Rest Day

Have to take a rest day today.  No time this morning to sneak away and get a WOD in and I'm attending Jacqueline's choir concert tonight immediately followed by Alexandra's orchestra concert.  Good news is that I'm into a pair of 40 inch waist jeans.  Got to love that.

Rest Day and Tape Day

Complete rest day today. Went to Whole Foods with the girls and picked up a lb of that tasty bacon like only they can get as well as a nice mango salsa.

Tree is up in the house and the girls are making a gingerbread train.

Decided to stay away from the scale for a while. The tape is a better judge of where I am at. Happy to say that I am down another inch in the waist.

Waist - 48.5

Love the progress. Have 1 more goal for the year which is 5 pullups. I think I can do it.

Thursday Rest Day / Friday WOD

Got in last night about 9 pm to the house.  I missed the Denver holiday party but no worries.  It was in Boulder anyway and that is a bit of a hike for me.  Decided for a little retail therapy and picked up the following items:

• Rx Jump Rope
• New Weight Belt (My velcro one died in CFT at LaLanne)
• Concept 2 D Rower with PM4 (Had thought I had ordered this already but I didn't press the final buy button)

All of the above will get in sometime this next week.

Friday WOD

For time
Run 400m
21-15-9
225 Deadlift
Box Jumps 24"
Run 400m

Ms. Courtney was the coach today and she told me to do 15-12-9 because she wanted more intensity inside the gym from me today since she knows that I blow at running.

225# deadlifts were cake compared to the 475 (almost 505) deadlift on Wednesday this week.  Box jumps were a little tough today.  I had to step up on a few to keep moving.  My cardio is horrible and I'm banking on the rower to really help out on that one.

Total time 15:11.  Would have liked to be in the 12 - 13 range instead but that is for another day.  Rest weekend with some light lifting planned on Sunday.

Crossfit Total

I have been looking forward to this WOD for about a week ever since I knew I was coming out to San Fran.  Crossfit Total is a good one for me because it is purely a strength WOD.

Entering into the gym I was pretty energized (could not sleep from the night before).  I had spent portions of the day before planning out what I wanted to hit.  The goal was 385 on the squat, 170 on the press and 475 on the deadlift.  I had read a paper the day before that talked about the importance of having a plan and a solid progression of weight.  I was ready to hit it.

John D. showed up and I was looking forward to working out with him.  He has a lot of experience at Crossfit so I was expecting to use that today.  Unfortunately, he had tweaked his back and was out of action.  He did get a nice video of my final squat attempt that I will look to grab and add here.

3-2-1 GO

Back Squat
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 1
365 x 1
385 x 1 (PR for me by 20 pounds)

Press
45 x 10
135 x 2
155 x 1
165 x 1
175 x 1 (PR for me by 20 pounds)

Deadlift
225 x 3
315 x 2
3.. x 1
405 x 1
4.. x 1
475 x 1 (Matched my PR from months ago but this was an actual deadlift form lift)
505 (f) - I could have gotten this but did not fully commit.  In hindsight I should have gone up to 495 then maybe 505 but I really wanted to get over 500.

Total Score - 1035 (PR for me by 120 pounds)

I've felt jazzed all day about this and am really happy on the progress.

Tuesday Travel Day

6 am flight to San Fran this morning.  I'll take today as a rest day as I get ready (mentally and physically but mostly mentally) for Crossfit Total tomorrow at Lalanne Fitness.  I've got my last performance on this from August written out and on my computer.

8/29
Squat 335
Press 155
Deadlift 425

9/9
Deadlift 475

Yesterday's WOD was a good one also.  We had 2 WODs

WOD1
Push Press 2 RM

We did this one on Friday also but the plan on this day was to do this one first.  I ended up with the same weight though as I was not looking to kill myself given my plan of CFT on Wed.  Ended up at 205 for 2 and failed at 215.

WOD2
On the minute at the top of the minute
5 Power Cleans
10 Pushups
15 Squats

I ended up with 1 round plus 15 reps.  I went the route of going with 155# as the weight.  Round 1 was good.  Had about 10 seconds to rest but I was gassed big time on the cleans and only made it through the pushups.

Pushups were solid though.

No Bread Challenge Update - I had a cheat day on Sunday going to Breck.  Have to make a stop at Beaujo's if I go there and their pizza is too good to pass up.  :)

DUs are Right up my Alley / 2nd PR this week

Real pleased with the WOD tonight.

WOD1

3 rounds for time
10 OHS (95# Rx - I went with 65# as this is a lift I need to work on)
50 DUs

DUs are a strength and I zipped through them in sets of 20-30. I need to set a goal of 50 in a row and then shoot for 100. I know I can do it and all I need is more rope work. My time was either a 6:26 or an 8:26. Originally, I thought I was an 8:26 then I saw the times posted on line of the group I was with and they were in the 8 min range and I know that I beat them all with time to spare. I need to get in the habit of taking apicture of the board before I leave.

On to WOD2

Push Press 2 RM

I like the push press and maxed out at 195 a few months back. Since then I have only encountered it in a few WODs and it's not something that I spend extra time on. My goal was to get to 185 for 2 and then go up to 195 for two to see if I can do it. Long story short is that I wasn't paying attention to the weights and just zoned out adding weight. I went for an attempt which I thought was 185 and didn't commit to first rep and dumped it. Kyla (owner with her husband Ryan and a great trainer in her own right) suggested to pull the 10# bumper and replace with the smaller 10# iron weight. I had a chuckle at that but went ahead and did it and while I was doing it I noticed that I had 185 already on the bar. My last 2 reps prior to dumping were already 185 and the weight was easy. On went the iron and there I went under the bar. 3-2-1 GO. 2 reps knocked out like child's play. Then time was up. Could I have gone more? Probably. In the end though I am real happy that I did 2 at that weight. 1 alone was a PR and I believe next 1 RM will be 225.

2nd PR in a week.

On a side note, No Bread score still at 48. Zero bread today as well. Still feeling great. Made a monster pot of chili (is there anything more Paleo?) that I can munch on over the weekend.

No Bread Day 5 Check In

I had promised myself that I would not be crazy about weight this next 30 - 45 days but couldn't resist hopping back on the scale.  WODs have felt good and I've felt more energetic.  Sleep is a bit hard to get though for some reason but I don't think it's connected to this.  Every 6 months or so I go through a week of having trouble going to bed and waking up a lot.

Tale of the scale and tape:

Weight - 319.6 (That's a 2.6 lb loss)
Waist - 28.5 (That's a 1" loss) - This is the one I am most pleased about.

Body is quite sore today from all the pullups, box jumps, push ups and wall balls from our WOD yesterday.  Looks like OHS and double unders today.

2nd Anniversary WOD and No Bread Day 3

First off, another day of zero bread. Feeling good overall so it is totally worth it. Made a morning trip to grocery store to load up on lots of meat and veggies.

Today was the second anniversary of Crossfit Parker. Real pleased I listened to the guys at work and started this back in January of this year. Finally seeing some really great progress and my times are getting better and I am moving more weight. Given that it was the anniversary we did the first WOD they did on day 1 and I have come to find this is the tradition on every anniversary.

Big Day WOD
As a team for time complete:
300 pullups (green band for about 20 and the green and red for remainder)
350 box jumps (24" box)
400 pushups
450 wall balls (15# ball)

This one really gassed me big time. I pulled my own and did my share on pullups and box jumps. The push ups are getting better but they are still something I need to work on. Wall balls were good but I was completely out of energy.

Deadlifts and No Bread Day 2

My No Bread Score at this point is a 48.  I indulged a little last night but quite minor in my opinion.  Today however has been bread free 100%.

Real happy with today's WOD.  It was a 2 parter.

WOD1
AMRAP 3 Min
Rope Climb

I'm typically pretty decent at rope climbs but for some reason tonight it just did not click.  I did 5 attempts and could not get a lock so I hopped on the ground and did pulls.  Ended up with only 4.  Something I need to work on.

WOD2
AMRAP 7 Min
10 Deadlifts 315# / 225#
15 Situps
10 Bar Facing Burpees

I decided to go Rx on this one knowing that it would be tough but I really need to work on heavy weights.  Ended up with 1 round complete plus 10 deadlifts and 10 situps.  The first round of deadlifts were broken into sets of 5.  I need to work on grip strength in order to get more.

Looking forward to CFT next week in San Fran.  Would love to go over 500 on deadlift.  My goal is to break 1000 total.

Jackie PR & No Bread Day 1

Back in the box today with Ms. Courtney today.  Jackie was on the menu and knowing this going into the workout I had planned to look up my old times but completely forgot to do it.

Spent the warm up working on rowing technique and found that it was a really great lesson.  I need to spend some off time working on this because my rowing is completely non efficient and it's pushing my further down the path of buying my own rower for Christmas.

Jackie
1000m Row
50 Thrusters 45#
30 Pullups

3-2-1 GO

Rowing was pretty nice overall.  I was gassed at around 700 and form totally went to hell.  Got off the rower right before 4:00 and had to walk  to shake out the legs a little bit before hitting the thrusters.  Thrusters are something that I am very bad at.  It is partially due to my lack of flexibility on the front squat and I end up really holding the bar out from my body and using my arm strength.  Not an efficient use of energy at all.  Ended up doing sets of 5 though the full 50 but need to up that to sets of 10 minimum.  Launched into pullups after this.  Had planned to use green band for pullups but after 10 was just too gassed to go so I hopped down and grabbed a red also to finish out the 20.

Total time was 15:02.  I was initially not that happy with that until I got home and looked at my stats.  15:02 is a 4:03 PR on Jackie for me and all prior times were black band and black and blue band.  I'm actually really pleased with this and further energized to get things moving.

Saw John D's post on the results that folks in his box got with the no bread challenge (especially his wife) and I had toyed with idea of starting no bread today for the next 30 days (will take it all the way to New Year's Eve).  I am definitely doing it now.

Waist: 49.5
Weight: 322.2

Great Rest over the Holiday

Spent most of the holiday relaxing with the family (girls and parents).  I got one workout in but it was more of a go through the motion workout than a work hard to improve workout.  I did bring back lots of good deer meat though which will go into the dehydrator and grill to jump start me on Paleo.  Need to focus on zero bread this month also.

Dropping the girls at dance tonight and then I'll head to the field house and do some cardio.  An hour or so on the bike or elliptical will be a welcome relief and help me get my sweat on.

Back in the box tomorrow and all set for the rest of the week.

Travel Weekend / Rest if I Can

Had an 18 hour drive with the girls to the good old farm in TN to spend the holidays with my parents.  First 3 hours of drive were the most hard due to general tiredness.  We made it in around 12:30 - 1:00 am.  Spent a little time relaxing then hit the bed immediately.

Woke up at 9:00 due to the tremendous wind / rain storm pelting the metal roof.  2 minutes later my dad walks into the room to get me to take a ride to Big Paul's house.  Paul's grandson visiting from Houston shot a deer and no one there had any clue what to do.  Pretty funny when you think about it.  So of course, Paul called my Dad and he and I drove over to gut, skin and quarter (partially butcher) the deer.  So, today's WOD consisted of lifting an ~135 lb deer up so that we could hoist it.

Did rest most of the afternoon though so I'll get after it tomorrow.  Looked at the WOD and it's one that I think I can pull off in the local gym.  Combination of front squats and turkish get ups.

11/17 Rest Day

Total rest day today.  Give my knees a little break and focus on diet and recovery today.

Burpees are pure evil...

...that are only topped by bar facing burpees (or burpee bar hops).

WOD1
50 Bar Facing Burpees for time

WOD2
Back Squat 3x5
Press 3x5

Burpees were actually not that bad. The plan was to keep moving but after 2 sets of 10 it was just sets of 2 or 3 or even 1. Eric stuck around and helped push me through this one. I ended up with 9:10 which wasn't that bad but if I had just kept moving I would have been sub 8 which is my goal for next time.

I was really looking forward to this strength WOD but the burpees left me a little gassed. I ended up with sets of 225,275 and 295 on back squat. Set at 295 I could only get out 1 and then had to dump it. Just nothing in the legs. I think with good rest I could do 295 for 5 easy. Press is a lift I need work on and ended up today with sets at 95,135 and then 155. Got up 2 at 155 then had to dump. Yesterday's WOD with the sand bag shoulder presses impacted today just a little bit.

Regardless, I amstill quite pleased especially given the previous blog post of dropping inches on the belly. Have not been below 50 in a really long time.

Delayed Weigh In for the Baseline Workout

I did the baseline workout on Monday and had planned to weigh in that night or at the latest the next morning.  Low and behold I forgot completely until this morning so when I woke up I did the weigh in and measurement.  The scale and the tape read 321 and 49".  Not where I want to be of course.  I need to be sub 300.  I'm putting a lot of emphasis on my weight and when I looked at the scale I was not pleased.  I then measured the stomach and noticed that I'm essentially 3 - 4" down from my when I was at my heaviest pre-Crossfit.  49" isn't that bad.  I'm pretty jazzed about it quite honestly.  Over the next 45 days I need to pull out the "no bread" challenge notes from John D. and see if that will help me get down below 310.  If I can shave another 1 - 2 inches on the belly that would be great too.

Need to make a note for myself on my calendar to go through this exercise at least every 30 - 45 days.  This is another way to really see the benefits of Crossfit paying off.

First Time Using the Stone

Recovery from Monday's WOD was solid.  Not feeling any residual pain in the knee which I am happy about.  I was concerned with all of the box jumps but thankfully no issues (yet).  We had a little bit of a FGB style workout today.  4 major exercises for 1 minute each then a 1 minute break.

CFP 095
Ground to Shoulder Stone
Row (for calories)
Sandbag press swapping shoulders
Weighted situps

There were 4 of us total so we each picked a station and started.  I ended up starting with the sandbag press.  3-2-1 GO.  I do it every time and have resigned myself that I will continue until I can drop weight and get my cardio up.  I went out real strong in the first round.  30 sandbag presses.  Didn't count the individuals after that but ended up with a first round score of 67.  After round 1 it went progressively down hill though.  Final round was a 44.  Ended up with 252 as a total.  Not having done this one before I did not know what to expect but 300+ is the goal for next time.

We ended up using the ~70-75 lb stone which quite honestly was very easy to lift.  I could essentially clean it up to my shoulder.  Just for fun after the workout and stretching I went for the big stone which is 115+.  While I could get it up with no issues it was more of a deadlift then squat then pull to chest then stand then shift to shoulder movement.  If I had tried to use this during the lift I would have been totally gassed after the first round.

Still enjoying things and looking forward to doing some solo workouts in the gym I found near my parent's house in TN all next week.

Baseline Workout

In prep for the holidays, Ryan decided to publish a workout that we are going to do today (did it) then again in early December and then lastly in early January.

2011 Crossfit Games Open Wod #2
15 min AMRAP
9 deadlifts (115#)
12 pushups (hands off)
15 box jumps (24")

I planned to do all Rx on this one which for me means zero pushups on knees.  Focus in the next 45 days will be to really work on my pushups.  I ended up with 3 rounds + 31 reps.  5 box jumps shy of 4 rounds Rx.

Good baseline and something to work on.

Nerf War and 1st Day on the Slopes

Saturday was by far one of the most fun days we had at the box. Ryan gave everyone the heads up to bring nerf guns to Saturday's WOD. Saturday started and we had 21 people show up at the box. After a nice little jog of about 600 meters we split up into teams and did capture the med ball while pelting each other with nerf darts. If you got hit you picked up a card from a deck and did the prescribed movement for the number or reps from the card.

Needless to say it was a complete blast.

Ended the weekend by heading to Abasin for the first run of the year. Snowy and windy and got in 3 runs. Perfect end to the weekend.

Ready to get after it this week.

I Still Hate Gymnastics

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I truly hate gymnastics.  I failed it in college by a point then passed by a point in summer school.  Coordination is not one of my strong suits but as I have said before I make sure I go on days where I am bad at the movements.  That's the only way to get bettter.

Today's WOD:
5 Rounds for time
20 ft. Bear Crawl
20 ft. Inch Worms
20 ft. Crab Walk

Spent a lot of the opening time on handstands and handstand walking.  It was a skill day.  I am not at the point where I can kick up against the wall.  I am good at walking up the wall though so I stuck to doing that today.  Courtney spent a good bit of time with me on form (ie. tight core...) which helped a lot and allowed me to walk down the wall when up, etc.  Something to work at of course.

Then on to the WOD.  Ended up with a horrible time 12:40.  I finished but it was painful.  Pushups are rocking though.  All on the inch worms were perfect form (zero knees).

Deadlifts & Double Unders

Able to hit the WOD this morning so that I can do a cardio session tonight.  Excited about getting in on this WOD.

5 rounds for time:
7 Deadlifts (315# Rx)
21 Double Unders

We had a nice warmup of jump ropes and core work.  10 minutes to setup the deadlifts and get a few warmup reps in.  Hit 135, 225 and 315.  When on the bar with 315 I can do the weight but as I look at things 7 reps for 5 rounds is a bit much and once I start I can't drop weights.  So, I chose to go with 225 (in hindsight I should have bumped to 275) for the WOD.

Final score was 8:10.  Real pleased with this especially on my double unders.  That's where I really made up my time.  I was able to consistently string sets of 11 or more together.  I only went through 1 round where I was looking at sets of 3,4 or 5 only.  On my last round I did all 21 in a row and was smoked.

Need to really stretch out tonight.

EVA - What an evil woman...

Today was my first attempt at EVA.  Needless to say, I was not thrilled when I saw this because of the multiple rounds with an 800 in there.  Running is not a strength.  I can say the life lessons from John D. ring true at times likes this.  It's those days when things are setup that are not my strengths that I can't miss.  So, off to the box.

Worked out with Courtney again today.  I always like seeing her because she was the one who put me through my foundations.  Had a chance to catch up with her after the WOD and it's always nice to hear when people see the progress and she has definitely seen the progress for me.  As I told her it has been a long 10 months and I have a long way to go but I'm having fun and getting better.

On to EVA.  Nice easy warm up since the WOD has a 50:00 timecap.  So, I needed to get after it quick.

EVA
5 rounds
800 m run
30 KB swings (2 pd is Rx but Ryan modified to 1.5 pd which is what I used)
30 pullups

Running is just something that I don't enjoy.  No stops on the first 800 but multiple walk segments on rounds 2, 3 and 4 (did not make it to 5 rounds).  Got into the box at 4:40ish on the first round after the run and jumped right on KBs.  3 sets of 10 no problem.  Jumped to pullups and knocked out first 15 with green band only then went to green and red band for remainder and for all other rounds except for the first 5 on round 2.

Total score was 50:00 timecap for 3 rounds plus 800 m plus 30 KB.  I'm finding (and made comment to Courtney) that for the KBs the weight is really not a factor.  It's all coming down to my cardio and breath.  Areas I really need to work on.  Pullups I felt were very solid.  Hindsight I should have knocked the first round down to just green band and I need to find whatever is between the green band and the green and red band.

Tomorrow will be a better day for me because it is strength movements.  5 rounds of deadlifts (315#) and 21 double unders.

Box Jumps & Squats

Quiet morning (which rarely happens) so I took advantage of it and went to the box for the 9:30am class.  I'm planning that tonight when I drop the girls off at dance that I'll head over to the rec center and get a cardio workout in (30 minutes or so on the bike).

Woke up and tested out the knee.  Per my previous posts I tweaked it a bit last Friday on double unders and was concerned that I would not be able to do that well on squat day.  Walked into the box and immediately told Ryan that my knee was bothering me and the details behind it.  He first said "thanks for telling me" and then he said go do this stretch with the roller on my thigh.  I was surprised by his first comment but I guess a lot of people come in and work through their pain.  My immediate thought was "what a bunch of idiots...do you want to get really hurt."  I went and got the roller and started working it out and all I can say is that the roller is pure magic.  Looks like the hamstring work on Friday focused on some muscles that I rarely use (and need to get on it quick) and I needed to really work it out.  Regardless, I was sensitive and didn't push as hard as I could have during the WOD so that I wouldn't hurt myself.

Warmup:

400 m run (Run was pretty nice.  Not getting winded on them at all now which i am real happy about.  Knee twinged a little bit but nothing major.  Cold as all get out though.)

2 rounds:
10 GHD Back Extensions
10 Ham band pulls
10 Squat Box Jumps
10 Situps (these were a cake walk which I am finally happy about.  Tomorrow is going to be rough though - 150 total expected)

WOD:
30 box jumps for time - 24" box
Back Squat 6 x 6 x 6 (50% 1 Rep Max)
OHS 5 x 5 x 3 x 3 x 3

Score:
Box Jumps - 1:33 (I was real pleased with this especially given that I stepped down on each one.)
BS - 135 / 185 / 205 (I was timid on this one for fear of hurting the knee and focused on form.  First 2 rounds were too easy though so I went up on the last one.  Was getting way below parallel so I was real happy with that.)
OHS - 45 / 95 / 105 / 115 (f) / 115 (f) - I am still not that comfortable with this much weight over my head.  Need to get past the mental part quick.  I can do the weight.  Do need to work on balance though.

Friday Tabata Row and Double Unders

Spent a few good days in Houston and was ready to hit the box on Friday night. I had expected a really fun warmup given the WOD did not look ike it was going to last long. Something like the junkyard warmup or similar. Not in the works. Instead Ryan gave us a little bit of a lecture on hamstring strength. I do like going through these on occasion and this was a good one. Our warmup was focused on building hamstring strength which can be applied in a bunch of different areas. All parts of the warmupwere controlled and slow movements.

Warmup (2 minutes each)
Incline row - focus on pulling forward with the heels down
Hamstring band pull
Jump rope - sigles, doubles, cross overs, mix it up
KB - 4 romanian deadlifts, 4 single arm swings each arm

WOD
Tabata row for distance
Tabata double unders

Rowing was a lot of fun. Ended up with 899 meters. Double unders started out great. 27 on the first round and all were in a row. Ended up with 8 on my lowest round. Tweaked my left knee a little bit but pushed through it.

Knee was sore and really tight all weekend up until Sunday night. Tomorrow's WOD is box jumps and squats so I need to make sure I tell Ryan beforehand so he doesn't let me go crazy and hurt it more. Hope to get in 5 days this week.

Double Unders and Clean / Push Jerk

I'm flying out to Houston tonight on the 6 pm.  Since I normally attend our 6 pm class at the box I went in early (10:30am class) to keep "ahead" of my fitness goals.  One thing that is a bit disappointing is that the attendance has dropped off quite a bit lately.  Not quite sure why but the morning classes are usually 4-5 people and the night classes are typically 7+.  When I signed up for the class I was the only one so I was real happy to see that Jon (who was signed up for the 9:30) decided to wait and do the 10:30 so he could have someone do it with him.  We also had Chad sign up last minute and a punch card guy (Brian) come in.

Looking forward to this WOD since I saw it posted yesterday.  Double Unders and 95# clean and push jerk.  Two things that I am pretty good at.  My body was still a little sore from yesterday's WOD (wall climbs were tough) so I went in 30 minutes early to get some good stretching in.

WOD:
5 min Double Unders
5 min 95# Clean & Push Jerk
3 min
3 min
1 min
1min
Score = Total number of reps

Temps were in the low 30's so we warmed up on the rower inside.  After rollouts I went through a few rounds of double unders and stopped right around 20 reps.  Did this 3 or 4 times.  Felt really good going into the WOD.

3-2-1-GO

Let me start with my final scores.  229 total Rx.  144 / 64 / 21.

On Round 1 I got a nice set of double unders in right off the bat.  51 total in a row.  Then the train fell of the tracks.  I could only squeeze in single digits in a row (and low single digits).  Ended up with 119 the first round.  Got to the bar for clean and push jerk and could only squeeze out 25.  I'm finding that the cardio is killing my performance and is an area I really need to get after.  Round 2 was 45 double unders and 19 clean / push jerks.  Don't remember what the final round was but I just kept moving.

Lessons learned:

Stay after my diet.  Drop the grains big time.
Work on cardio.  I think I'm going to start back up on the cardio workouts each day also.  30 minutes on a bike or elliptical or treadmill in addition to the WOD will pay off.

Yowsa !!!

Holy Mackerel on the WOD tonight !!!

20 min AMRAP
3 Wall Climbs
10 up/downs
5 Parallel pass throughs
10 Grasshoppers

All are moves that are new for me.

3-2-1-Go

Started out pretty happy. Wall climbs were actually something that I could do for the most part. I ended up doing them and going between 1-2' with my chest to the wall. Up/Downs killed me. Pass Throughs were easy. Grasshoppers were not fun.

To make a long story short I am pathetic when it comes to WODs like this. I knew what the WOD was going into the day but as I have learned the days where you will do bad are the days you really need to go. So, I went.

Final score was 3 rounds and 1 wall climb. I mistakenly did 20 grasshoppers in round 2 so I scored 3 + 11. :)

Halloween WOD

Went to Mile High Crossfit tonight to celebrate their 1 yr. anniversary of opening and to participate in a Halloween WOD.  Yes, costumes were required.  I opted for the Swedish Chef this year.  Given that this was a partner WOD I convinced Kevin T. to join me.

Halloween WOD (Partner WOD)
12 Minutes AMRAP
30 Pullups (15 each)
40' Sled Pull 225#
30 Pumpkin Thrusters (15 each) - Yes, it was a real pumpkin
40' Sled Pull 225#

Kevin and I completed 3 rounds 30 pullups / sled pull / 15 thrusters.

Real pleased with the WOD (given I was in full costume).  I did the 60 pullups in total (used green band only for 45 of the pullups and green plus red band for last 15).  Sled pulls were a lot of fun.

Overall, I am yet again quite pleased.  It was great hitting another box and they were very welcoming.

Plan to get our planned WOD today in tomorrow morning during open gym.  Back Squat 6 x 2.

Rest Day

Starting to get into the swing of things on workouts and timing. Had a stong WOD effort on Tues and Wed and felt that today was a good day to get some rest in. Body is a little sore but nothing major. Big WOD for me tomorrow. Back Squats 6x2. Expect to get after it quite a bit. Should be able to get a few sets at 400+.

AMRAP x 3

Great day at home today. Snow started falling last night around 10 and kept going until about 4 pm today. The only downfall today was that Jacqueline's school cookie order drive came in. And yes, I ordered and cooked up a few late tonight. Running in tomorrow's WOD so I am good to go.

Real interesting WOD tonight coming from Crossfit Ventura via Liz N.

AMRAP x 3 for 5 minutes each

Round 1:
10 walking lunges (go heavy) - I used 45# dumbbells
10 toes to bar (I pulled out a few but mainly did as high as I could go)

5 minute rest

Round 2:
20 double unders
7 single arm snatch / arm (go heavy) - I used a 1 pd KB

5 minute rest

Round 3:
250m row
10 KB swings (go heavy) - I used. 2 pd KB (it was rough)

We had 6 total athletes tonight and only 5 rowers so we split into groups of 3. Scott C. Said for 3 to hop on rowers and since no one was moving I hopped on. Pushed hard on rower round to get the KB swings in. 2 pd KB felt good. All 10 reps straight round 1 but had to move to sets of 5 on round 2 and part of 3. Then it was just 2 at a time.

Total score was 2 + 6 lunges / 3 + 45 singles (I could not get the double unders going except for the first round and switched to singles on rounds 2 and 3 to keep up intensity) / 2 + 250 row + 2 KB swings

Overall I am very pleased. Tomorrow is going to be fun. Looks like an 800 m run then 50 box dips then repeat.

Wall Balls of death

Had to bail on Monday night's WOD. Zero energy thanks to GRACE on Saturday.

Tuesday's WOD had all sorts of fun tatooed on it.

5 rounds for time
25 wall balls (Rx 20#)
30 pullups

As I have previously mentioned i have moved to the green band but I knew there was no way I could do 150 total pullups with the green band. So, I opted to start with the black and then move to the black and Red (smallest band) when I needed to and then ahift to jumping pullups.

Overall I was pretty happy. Wall balls were tough but I stuck through them. Did sets of 10 through first 2 rounds then went downhill to sets of 3. Form was horrible near the end. I am getting great depth but I am catching the ball way in front of me and that throa my balance and control off. Did 1/2 pullups with bands and 1/2 of those just with black band then remainder jumping pullups.

total time was 26:08.

Ready for tomorrow.

Good Rest Day

Solid rest day today. Weather was nice but just hung at the house with the girls. No travel this week so I will be able to take advantage of the box all week. I have signed up for classes all this week. Hopefully I will be able to keep all of my dates.

GRACE

Did GRACE this morning for the first time this morning as the WOD for the fundraiser "Barbells for Boobs." it was a great turnout at the box with a number of folks from mile high crossfit and crossfit buckley (where we did the 31 heroes WOD).

GRACE
30 reps Clean / Jerk 135#

Going into this my goal was sub 6. Not having done it before I thought that would be a good time. Did a few reps while warming up and nerves aside felt good. When there are people around watching I always get a little nervous.

3-2-1-GO

Didn't have a strategy going into this not having done it before so I just went. First 10 reps in 0:41. Holy Crap!!! I then hit the wall. The challenge om this WOD is nothing to do with the weight. I can clean / jerk 135 like no bodies business. But the cardio on this blew my mind. After the first 10 I banged out sets of 2 and then 1. If I could do it all over I would have lnocked out 15 on top and then stuck to sets of 3 and 2. Let's face it I could never catch my breath so why even try in this case.

Total time was 5:27 so I was quite pleased because I was sub 6 as desired. I am going to put this back on my calendar 6 months from now. Need to get with it on the nutrition and drop some weight and get after the olympic lifts.

No more black band allowed

Day before Grace at the box. Wanted to go in and get a sweat on at least.

Minute Man Pullup
1 PU first minute
2 PU second minute
3 PU third minute
Etc.

Decided to drop the black band as it is too easy. Ryan suggested I try a green and red as the next one down. I did a few reps and that was too easy also so I went straight to just the green band. Real happy with pullups and Ryan was pleased to see the progress also.

Made it to the 7th minute.

Prior to the WOD we had 15 minutes to get to a 10 rep max on the bench. I started at 135 and it was way to easy so jumped to 185 and knocked out 10 right away. Bemch has always been a weak area but I have noticed that my pushups are much better (no longer on knees unless doing a bunch of reps). Decided to stop at 185 because I want to knock it out of the park tomorrow. Did throw on 225 to see what that felt like and knocked 2 out right away. Could have gone more but I was so pleased I just stopped.

Been a great month for making and seeing progress. Tomorrow will make it 5 days this week in the box. i can't always do that because of travel so I need to maximize it when I can. It looks possible next week also.

10/20 Rest Day

Total rest day today.  Don't even think I'm going to walk the dog.

WODs are the best way to recover

Great fun in the box on Wednesday night.  It was one of those days at work and since I did not have anything scheduled late in the afternoon / early evening I opted to make the 5 pm class instead of the 6 pm class.  Another reason to go in at 5 instead of 6 was that I was the only one signed up for the 6 pm class and while I enjoy the personal attention of just me and the coach I like people around for the competitive factor (it keeps me moving).  Total class size was 6.  Workout was dubbed CFP 089:

CFP 089
5 muscle ups (sub 3 for 1 pullups and dips)
10 deadlifts 245#
30 situps (15 GHDs if advanced)
50 yard sprint
5...
10...
30...
100 yard sprint
repeat
150 yard sprint
repeat
200 yard sprint

On Monday's WOD I did 25 GHDs total and I was absolutely feeling them on Wednesday night.  In all honesty I felt them all day long.  I opted to not do GHDs for this WOD but thankfully at the end of the WOD I felt stretched out at least.

Black band for pullups (I am no longer going to use the black band as proven by tomorrow's WOD which is pullups per minute when I will move down to the green band or green plus some combination).  Deadlifits felt nice and solid through the first 2 rounds.  I think the running caught up to me on the last 2 rounds as I could only do sets of 3 (final set of 4).

Overall time 27:30.  I like this WOD and think I will use it as a benchmark at some point.  I'm starting to see some real good results (improvements) in my pullups and situps.  Just like golf where I only need 1 good hole to keep coming back I'm still hooked on crossfit.

Tabata - Double Unders / Rows / Squats / Double Unders

Great night in the box.  Tabata on the agenda.  I like Tabata type workouts overall.  It is a good metcon for me and one that I just keep moving through to keep the intensity up.  As part of the warm up we did the following:

8 rounds
3 lateral jumps (choose the box height)
25 yard sprint
walk back for rest

I started with a 24" box for the first 4 rounds but on my last round I had a bit of a mental block and couldn't get all the way over.  I essentially tripped up and jumped on top of then off.  So, for rounds 5-8 I switched to the 12" box to keep the intensity going.

On to Tabata

Double Unders
Row (for calories)
2 min rest
Air Squats
Double Unders

Any time I see Tabata and row I know that i need to game the round right before row so that I have enough time to get on the rower and move.  Otherwise, I will only get 1 calorie in the first round and that kills my overall score.

First round of double unders were really solid.  I have been modifying my rope length a lot over the past month and feel that I finally have a really good length.  The first 6 rounds i was doing 20-24 double unders each 20 second interval with 15 - 16 in a row.  Real happy with this.  Round 7 I had a brain snafu and couldn't string a lot of them together and only ended up with 15.  So, I went into the last round and knocked out 15 immediately then got to rower to get my setup moving.

Rowing for me is a nice and smooth activity.  I ended up with 5 calories as my lowest score on the row.  Knowing that I had a 2 min rest I pushed my last round hard going into a 2 min rest.

Air squats are never fun when you are doing them for time.  I peaked out in my first 4 rounds at 16 but dropped dramatically after that.  Ended up with 7 as my lowest score.

Going into double unders on the last of Tabata I envisioned I could do just as well as the beginning and was shooting for the high teens.  Reality set in big time when I did my first round and could only squeeze out 9.  Ouch !!  The good news is that I was able to get back up to the 20's after round 3 but I had to score the 9 as my best.

Overall score - 36

Snatch form work

Today's WOD:

Snatch 7-7-5-5
GHD 5 x 10

Snatches felt better today than they have felt in months.  I was a little disappointed from Friday's WOD where we did hanging snatches because I was called out for bouncing off of my thighs.  While it was a slight bounce I believe I have been doing it for so long I don't even notice.  So, I'm set on getting that corrected.  As such I did not go past 95 lbs today working solely on form.

65, 65, 95, 95.  Felt real solid catching the weight overhead and locking out.

GHDs are another matter entirely.  I powered through 2 sets of 10 between snatch reps.  I got to my 3rd set and felt a little twinge in my right leg so I hopped off after 3 reps and completed the rest of the reps as situps (x2).  Did a round of situps (20) to keep the intensity going and had planned to finish my last set of GHDs.  Got to rep 3 again and felt a twinge so I hopped off and completed the situps.  Definitely do not want to injure myself.

Tabata on the agenda tomorrow.  Double unders, rows, squats and double unders.  Expect it to be a fun day.

Rest Weekend

Spent the weekend resting. So, no WODs to speak of. Diet was pretty solid though with only a few slips. Went to cheer on Scott H at the master's championships and on the way back home went by Whole Foods. Bought a salmon steak and some nice thick cut bacon. Cooked the salmon tonight and I proved yet again while I can cook anything on the egg I still blow when it comes to cooking fish. I think I need to retire trying it. The bacon was excellent though. Price of meat was on par with the local store so I will be back. Also found the 18 rabbits granola nars that I had in San Fran. $2 a bar which is a bit pricey in my opinion so I need to find a place to buy in bulk.

Looking forward to the WOD tomorrow. Snatches and GHD situps are on the agenda. I need to work on snatches (will also do a few cleans) as well as abs.

I have the alarm set at 7 so that I can get up and have a decent breakfast. Back on fish oil and vitamins and I have felt great all weekend. I must bean idiot for not doing that every day. One day I will learn.

Handstands and Snatches

Back in the box tonight after a few long days at an off site in San Fran. Looked forward to this WOD most of the day because I enjoy olympic lifts.

25' handstand walk
15 hang power snatch 95#
25' handstand walk
12 hang power snatch 95#
25' handstand walk
9 hang power snatch 95#

Started off with a nice 800 meter run. Running is definitely getting better and I am not dreading it that much. My plan is to get a track run workout in this weekend (there is snow at Abasin so I may opt to go boarding). Good solid drills and then on to the workout.

Overall I am not a fan of handstands and I can't do walking on hands to save my life so the movr for mr was 4 attempts against the wall each round. I made it up 3 times but bombed on my head. Need to work on it. As for the snatches, they were a breeze. My coach, Ryan, noticed a bad habit I need fo get out of though. On both my snatches and cleans I have a tendency to pop the weight off of my thighs. Something I really need to work on but I did get a little dissappointed because I have been doing it like this forever. So, yet again something to work on.

Total time 10:05.

I plan to get a couple of days of cleans early this week in preperation for Grace and I amgoing to be very strict about diet and get back on my zone / paleo all this next wek starting tomorrow.

450 Mash

Real interesting WOD on Wednesday's agenda.

450 Mash:
100 jump rope
50 jumping pullups
50 deadlifts 135#
50 double unders
50 air squats
50 pushups
50 push press 45#
100 jump rope

First off this adds up to 500 so no idea where the 450 comes from.  Total time was 25:06

The important thing going into this WOD was strategy.  Important to stay consistent on the movements.  Overall concern was that I would get to a movement and go all out then pay for it later.  Solid all the way from beginning to the double unders.  For some reason I could not get my double unders working.  I could string 4 or 5 or 6 together but that was it.  The frustration level was getting high so I switched to singles (3x remaining) then moved on to the rest.  Air squats were good and pushups were strong (happy about this finally) even though I did them on knees.  Push press which I thought would be easy was very difficult.  I remember back to doing FGB and doing 22 - 25 reps per round on a 95# push press.  I could only bang out sets of 5.

Finished up with 25:06 which while not a good time I was pleased with because I kept moving.  Taking Thursday as a rest day and getting back at it on Friday with OHS 7 x 1.

AMANDA on the dance card

Looked forward to this WOD all day. Snatches are a strength and the pull ups and dips that I had to do in lieu of muscle ups are good too (truly need to move down from blsck band because the pullups are not challenging enough as proven tonight).

Amanda
9-7-5
Muscle ups (x3 pullups and dips)
Squat snatch 135#

I had to scale on this one. Used black band for PU and dips and as mentioned above I need to go down from black band. Also dropped weight to 95#. Did a few reps and can easily snatch bit when it comes to squat snatch I have zero control. A movement I really need to work on. Should have gone down to 65# because I ended up power snatching all the reps.

Key lessons:
Forget about high weights and concentrate on form for next few months. The weight will come.
Push myself harder. No more black bands.

Killer Stop Sign

I had a little chuckle when I woke upmto see what the posted WOD was. Killer Stop Sign? Knew that it was going to involve sprints in some fashion. My box is in a nice little industrial park and there is a hill right outside the garage door leading up to a stop sign. It is roughly a 100 meter run which even though the slope is not huge multiple runs up put a cramp on the day. It also happens to be the same little hill we have to run up starting our 400 or 800 warm up. After reading the enrire WOD I groaned a bit because I saw the added 1 mile run. Running is not a strengtj but I took advice from John D.'s 10 ife lessons and worked on the things that I dread.

Killer Stop Sign
10-9-8-7-6 KB Swings 35#
After each set of reps sprint to Stop Sign and back
After 6 rep set run 1 mile
5-4-3-2-1 KB Swings 35#
Sprint to Stop Sign and back

I hate to say it but the KB swings were a joke. I really should have moved up to 1.5 or 2 pood KB. Sprints kicked my a$$ bigtime though. Started the mile around minute 7 and made it back right at minute 20. A 13 minute mile is not killer but it is a PR. Surprising even though a walked a bit of it.

Overall I am pleased. Got a peek at tomorrow's WOD which is "Amanda." While I can't do muscle ups yet the squat snatches will be a breeze.

Reflecting on the week and FGB...

Taking some time on Monday morning to reflect on the prior week.  I was real pleased with my work in the box last week.  I made it in each day Monday through Thursday.  Solid strength improvements and cardio on the metcons.  I bailed on Friday to recover from the workouts and to build my strength up a bit for Saturday morning's FGB. 

FGB Saturday

We had a huge showing of folks from not just our box but from a few others (primarily the South Metro Crossfit team which is the Crossfit community for fire fighters in Douglas County).  There were some really high scores posted (all of the fire fighters were mid 300's plus which made me feel very confident of the guys who save lives) with the highest score coming from Jon M. (trainer at our box who is leaving in the next few months for the Air Force Special Operations group).  We had 2 lanes setup and ran through 5 heats total with 2 to 3 people per lane.

My score was 191.  My goal for the day was 200+ (prior score was 166 back in May).  Although I didn't reach my goal (9 shy) I was real pleased with the 25 point gain.  I started with the wall ball station per the normal flow.  Eric N. was my counter and we discussed the strategy before hand.  His suggestion and I agreed was to shoot for 15 points per station.  That would get me to 225 total for the round.  Strategy is one thing but reality is another.  I made the same mistake I always make on workouts with multiple rounds.  I went out strong real early.  First two stations (wall ball and SDHP) I scored a 22 and 21.  Used up way too much gas early on and the box jumps smoked me.  I ended up just moving through them stepping up and down.  I did catch up on the push press (22) and gamed the row a little bit to catch my breath.  My first round total was 81 and I fell off on rounds 2 and 3 in the mid 50's.  Regardless, I am real pleased.  Eric pushed me quite a bit in rounds 2 and 3 yelling out for 1 more here and there and telling me to stop and move to the next station to take a few deep breaths.  As I look at things I think I could have found another 9 reps somewhere in there if I had a running total of where I was at.

I'm traveling quite a bit this week and next so will miss a few days but I'll be in San Fran and will do my best to make it into Lalanne fitness for a day or two.  I'll at least put my gear on and run / walk the streets of San Fran.

Helen in the rain...

Just read John's post about how much you push yourself if no one is watching.  It's a good question and one that I'd like to say I push myself just as hard but I'm honest enough to say I don't.  It's not that I'm trying to skate by or get away with anything but I find that when I work out and count reps or do a movement I will either forget my count entirely because I'm not paying attention or that my form goes to complete crap.  I think that is also why I prefer the smaller class sizes so that I know the coach is looking at me more often.  Perfect example was tonight's WOD.

Helen was on the menu tonight:

3 rounds for time
400m run
21 1.5 pood KB swings
12 pullups

To start with the weather in Denver is starting to turn a little bit giving us a taste of fall.  Weather for tonight's WOD was rainy and cold (~55 degrees).  I was geared up for the cold (long sleeve under armours are great) but not for the rain (I had expected it to slack up). 

3-2-1 go. 

Round 1
First 400 was great.  Happy with my time of 2:35 which for our course is great (not flat at all).  Moved right into the box for the KB swings and made a huge mistake by not wiping my hands dry.  It was a slow steady drizzle outside and I was drenched.  Knocked through 5 fairly aggressively (I was a bit concerned that I would not have the gas to do 1.5 pood but stuck it out) when Eric (guy from box who stayed around for fun) suggested I stop and wipe hands dry.  It was great advice.  Knocked out the remaining 16 without issue (set of 10 then 6.  Jumped up to the bar pullups using just the black band.  I need to put some serious thought into moving down the color of the band.  I'm kipping pretty hard now and I'm almost hitting my chest on the bar each time.  Knocked my pullups out in 3 sets of 4.

Round 2
Rain picked up a bit but was not that concerned by it.  Started out my 400 (which starts with a steep 50m or so.  Made it to the top and had zero breath so walked for a little bit to catch breath but kept moving.  Walked in total on the 400m about 100m.  Not good but I could not catch my breath.  Time on this run was right at 3 minutes.  Straight to KB swings but this time had a stop to dry my hands and chalk up (helped also).  Knocked KBs out in a set of 10 then 5 then 6.  Pullups were next and knocked them out in sets of 4.

Round 3
No change in rain.  Still falling pretty heavy.  Same issue on the run.  As I made the first climb my back started to twinge a little bit.  Pretty much the same amount of walking.  Time on the last 400 was just north of 3 minutes.  Straight to KBs.  Knocked them out in a set of 10 and a set of 11.  On to pullups which I knocked out pretty quick in sets of 4 with minimal rest.

Total time - 17:56

As I reflect on the time I can say that I am pretty happy with it.  First time doing Helen so it's a good benchmark (I can't find my WOD book which is not cool but haven't checked in my Dreamforce stuff which is where I think it is).  If I had my game face on more I think I could have done sub 17 at a minimum.  I do think I did as good as I did because the coach and Eric (who stuck around) kept pushing me.  Any time I put the KB down they would say "take a deep breath and jump back on" or "let's pick it up, 3 2 1."  That's the kind of thing that I would not get if I were doing it all on my own.

I'll get day 4 in tomorrow which I'm pretty lucky to do given that I'm at home this week because the recovery is much faster.  Travel does make working out more difficult for me at least.  I'm gearing up for a good FGB score (goal is 200) so may plan to skip Friday's WOD.  I'll look and see what it is.

Sept Front Squats

Rolled from a good solid week in the box last week into a new one this week.

Monday's workout - Tabata

8 rounds each (20 on / 10 off) of:
pullups
pushups
situps
squats

Did not score well at all.  Ended up with a 166 which is a 5 point improvement over my last time back in June.  I'm more fit now but still had expected a bit more than this.  It did not help that I had zero gas in the tank.

Tuesday's workout:

Front Squat 5x3 - 185, 225(2), 185, 205, 225

This is by far my worst lift as I consider form.  I have poor mobility in my wrists and this is key for this lift (and thrusters which I also struggle at).  Depth is great though as I'm really working on getting below 90.  Need to look into something to strengthen my wrists and forearms as I believe this will help this lift.  Still had pretty low energy.  A great highlight to the workout was the 800m warm up run.  I'm pretty happy with my running lately.  I'm still slow but I'm not sucking major wind when I am done.  I plan to hit the track at the high school this weekend to run 4 distinct 800's for time.  Our 800m course at the box has some pretty challenging hills.

Diet is something I'm really going to focus on for the remainder of this month and into October.  Going to try the primal route and see how that works.

Deadlift PR

Great night at the box. WOD played to my strengths (no pun intended). Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1 Great warmup then started into the weights. 405 / 455 / 475. Last rep was ugly but good. Decided that I could not go up in weight and even if I did I could not put anymore weight on the bar.

Good to get back in the box

Solid WOD on the agenda for today: 3 rounds for time 15-12-9 Thrusters 135# Plyo Pushups My score was 19:51 but had to bail on 135# after rep 18 and drop to 95#. My grip strength is really hurting me on all things front squat related. Need to look into what I can do to increase this. Plyo pushups on knees. Seeing noticeable improvements in the pushups though so I am happy there. Decided to go the primal 30 day challenge. Bought the book et. al. My weight is what is holding me back on all of the crossfit endurance related WODs. Need to try whatever I can to drop weight so I will give this a shot. I'll traxk it here when I get it started. Need to also try to get some extra lifting in on days that I take a break from crossfit. Squats and cleans are strong mocements so I will see about ramping up my strength there.

Long blog hiatus...

It's been 2 solid months since my last blog entry.  Lots to update but I'll focus on the ones that mean the most to me.  I've had some great improvements over the past 2 months.  I'm most proud of my 915 crossfit total score.  I will confess that I could have added another 60 pounds or so to that total if it were not for 2 things:

1. I was paired up with a guy that I have not worked out with before.  I had a final weight of 385 on my back squat (had just finished 335 with no issues) and as I was going down I felt the guy right behind me (he was trying to spot).  This unfortunately freaked me a bit and I blew the lift.  I decided to go ahead and move to the next movement.
2. I was pushed for time and had to move quickly through the press where I stopped at 155 so that I could move on to deadlifts.  I've done 155 for sets of 3 in the past so I felt I could have easily gone up another 15 or so pounds.  This is by far the hardest lift for me of the 3 because I always want to cheat but I stayed strict this round.
3. Ended up with a 425 deadlift (could hit almost 6 in college so this is an area I can work on).

Overall very satisfied with my 915 but I can break 1000 by year end.

Other things that I've been pleased with is my cardio capacity is much greater.  I'm not out of breath after the 800 m warmup runs and running in general is not something I cringe at.  If only I could take the same attitude with burpees.

I finally made it in to LaLanne Crossfit in San Fran.  It is a nice gym and I no longer have an excuse for not going in.  Was able to work out with Sean again and John D. for the first time.  Both of those guys are animals (John D. by far at the top) and in my opinion it's good to work out with guys like that to keep the drive going.

Lastly, I did my first hero wod (31 heroes wod) this last weekend.  It was a grueling workout but as I sat and reflected at the end it was a great experience because the money all went to a worthy cause and regardless of what the hero wods turn out to be I need to get with it and do it.

Fight Gone Bad is coming up in 2 weeks so I'll double down and get some good workouts in.  Just need to focus on diet and be serious about it this time around.

I'll commit to keeping my blog a bit more up to date going forward.

7 days on the Countdown...

7 total days left on the countdown.  I've spent the last 1 1/2 weeks on PTO from workouts.  Hopped on the scale and pulled out the tape to check the damages and was happy to see no increases at all.  A slight decrease which is always cool.  I'm hittng the box hard the next 3 days to make up for some lost time.  Headed to Tahoe this weekend for a birthday party and then NYC Monday - Wednesday.  I will be able to squeeze in a morning workout on Monday before my afternoon flight.

Day 20 / Half Way

On day 20 and at this point the food selection process is getting a lot easier.  I'm finding that when in the store I'm picking up items and looking at the labels quite a bit more.  It's pretty comical.  I'm sticking to a lot of good vegetables and away from grains (I have the occasional piece of bread though).

WODs have been solid when I've been going.  In San Fran this week and it didn't happen there but I did get into the box today.  The WOD was Joshie:

3 rounds for time
21 right arm 40# dumbbell snatches
21 pulls ups (with high knee hold before starting and when finishing)
21 left arm 40# dumbbell snatches
21 pulls ups (same as above)

I made it through 2 rounds and 5 right arm snatches in 30 minutes using the black band.  Did decide with Coach Ryan that it's time to progress to the next band which is a combination of green and blue or green and red.  I'm looking at the schedule to see if anyone signed up for the 6:30 class and if so I'll head back in for a 2nd workout.  Need to get in some rowing.  If no one goes I'll go to the rec center and get on the bike or elliptical for 30 minutes or so.  ONly have 20 more days and need to take advantage of the extra time.

Day 14

Last few days have been rough on the food front. Traveling does not make it easy to stay on target with eating like I should. WODs are next to impossible to get in also.

I did make it to the box for a workut tonight. We did the Regional WOD number 6 consisting of:

20 calori row (i did this in about 42 seconds)
30 burpees (always a killer for me but I am very proud to say I did 30 true pushups this round and zero on my knees. I am getting better at pushups.)
40 ground to overhead (Rx was 45# db and I did 35# which took a lot out of me)
50 toes to bar (I ended up doing knees to elbows to start and then just literally as high as I could get them)
100 foot lunge with 45# plate (Rx) I did 25 for only half way then hit the wall at which point I sid the rest of the lunge without a plate.
150 foot sprint

Needless to say this completely wrecked me. I can definitely feel it when I miss so many days of training. Tomorrow is a new day so I will hit it again and given I will be in San Fran next Mon through Wed I will make sure to at least get one day in at LaLanne's.

Day 9 and 10

Day 9 was a day of yard work at the house.  I tore down the old playground as my WOD.  Carting that back and forth from the backyard to the front was not easy and gave me a nice little workout.  Meals for day 9 were easy to put together and I got back on track.

Day 10 started with a 6:15 am WOD.  The WOD was:

5 tire flips (390# tire)
Jump through (essentially jump into center of tire and then out)
100 meter sprint
5 tire flips (390# tire)
Jump through

I did it all in 1:03.  I felt pretty happy about that but really hoped to break 1 minute.

Headed to Austin tonight for 2 days then on to NJ.  I do have my gear and plan to get a workout in at least tomorrow night.  Need to find one I can do in the room and little hotel gym.  I'll most likely burn myself out on pushups.  That's the 2nd big area that I need to work on.

I bought a handful of Paleo Kits off of the internet.  They are zone compatible (essentially 3 to 4 blocks across the board).  This will give me an option for snacks at least when traveling.

Day 7 bleeds into Day 8

Day 7 was nice and solid.  Getting really used to the diet overall and I'm feeling great.  Recovery is definitely improving.  Looking forward to Day 8 which is when I am volunteering for the Reebok Games.  I'm also planning the afternoon / evening as my cheat for the week.

Day 8

Breakfast was solid:

3 Eggs
Onions & Mushrooms
Salsa
Avocado
Coffee

Rest of the meals were not good at all.  I went to the Games and checked in and bypassed lunch entirely.  I did stop for a break and had some beef jerky and a zone bar.  Was able to catch the last 2 men's heats which was a killer workout:

100 pullups (most guys tore their hands bigtime)
100 KB swings (1.5 pood minimum it looked like)
100 double unders
100 OHS @ 95 lbs

It was awesome watching the competition and at least cheering Ryan L. (main Coach and owner of Crossfit Parker which is my box) on.  Sweet time overall and I'm looking forward to a handful of WODs coming up this week.  Will definitely get my own WOD on tomorrow at home while I'm doing some much needed yard work (and tearing down the old playset).

Day 6

Day 6 was pretty good.  Diet was solid.  On course with my blocks (total of 23 allowed) except for my mid morning snack which I totally skipped.  Just got too bogged down in work and went right through it.

WOD was good tonight.  We did Moore:

AMRAP in 20 minutes
Rope climb
400m run
HSPU (I did pushups with my knees up on a 22" box)

I made it through 4 rounds and attempted rope climb three times on last round.  Coach Scott made me start with my back on the floor and pull up with my arms and then climb the rope since it's only 2 pulls for me to get to the top.  Climbing rope is one thing that I excel at.

Diet is starting to kick in nicely.  I'm able to put the right number of protein and carb blocks together but the fat blocks make it a little difficult.  I'm digging dinners of a good block of protein and a ton of vegetables.  Playing with a bunch of spices to keep it from getting monotonous.

Still happy with how things are moving.  No WOD tomorrow scheduled so I'll go the route of running and pushups / pullups on my own.  Need to keep the intensity going.

Day 5

Day 5 of the 40 day challenge is almost over.  Spent today traveling for the most part.  Up at 3:30 my time and on to San Fran for a meeting.  Meetings that were supposed to be setup tomorrow in same location (Cupertino) did not materialize so I hopped an early flight home to save the company a hotel room (flight was quite expensive though).

Zero exercise today which I'm good with considering the progress I've seen.  Still have the motivation and tomorrow is a solid workout:

20 min AMRAP
Rope Ascent
400m
Max HSPU (I'll do regular pushups)

Diet was difficult today.  Did learn that I need to take enough for a meal or two with me when I travel for cases like this.

Breakfast:
4 oz pork chop
Apple
Almonds

Snack:
Zone Bar (yuck)
Latte

Lunch (at HP cafeteria):
Chicken breast
Vegetables
Tea

Snack:
Almonds
Latte

Dinner:
Bag of beef jerky on plane
Almonds

Snack:
2 cups milk
Apple

I'll have to add up my points but this is most likely a 20 point day (if lucky).  Will hit the WOD hard tomorrow night at the 6:30 class.

Day 4

Day 4 is all good so far.  Energy is good and I feel great.  I haven't "cheated" at all and have kept the cravings under control.

Breakfast:
3 eggs
Cheese and Salsa
Banana

Snack:
Beef Jerky
Nuts
Banana

Still quite floored about the quantity of food that I am consuming but I did hop on the scale this morning and noticed a 3 pound difference.  3 pounds over 3 days is a pretty solid signal that things are working.  Water intake is high but it's keeping me full and keeping me away from trying to snack.

Today's WOD is going to be fun.  I'm hitting the 6:30 pm class tonight.

Tabata Something Else
20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 4 minutes each exercise. Count points.

• pull-ups
• push-ups
• sit-ups
• air squats

A little stressed about the next few days.  I'm traveling for work to Cupertino and need to plan on how I'll eat and train while there.  I can hit the hotel gym (and pushups) at least tomorrow night which will get me a good cardio workout which can take care of training but food is going to be a challenge.  I can't eat zone bars and almonds for 2 days. :)


Lunch consisted of:

Can of Tuna
Almonds
Romaine Lettuce (a lot of it)

Easily got my 5 blocks of protein and fat but the carbs are a little light.  Key learning point today is that while tuna does have a lot of protein it is extremely bland.  Desperately need to add some flavoring next time.  Need to really think about it.

Day 3

A really interesting WOD lined up today:
For time:
25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35 pound dumbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball 
3 Rope climb ascents

Completed pull ups with black band.  Needed to sets of 10 given that I hit pullups yesterday at home.  Box jumps in sets of 5 nice and steady.  Cruised through the DU with no issues.  Did 15 right off the bat then finished the last 5.  Ring dips were tough (need to work on these at home big time) and had to use a blue and green band.  KB swings with the 2 pood took a lot out of me.  I went through them in sets of 5.  I stuck with the 2 pood because Ryan doesn't let me go down on KBs.

Diet has been good so far.  It started early with a zone bar at 5:30.  Got home and showered after the 6:15 WOD and had a 3 egg omelet with cheese, mushrooms and salsa with a piece of toast.  4 blocks which is 1 shy of what I need to consume but I couldn't shove anymore food in.  Water intake is solid so far.


I'll hit a cardio workout tonight when I drop the girls off for dance and get in 35 to 40 minutes on the bike followed by some intense stretching.  I may try to swing by the box and hit the rower if there are people there.

Day 2

Check in on day 2. Energy level is high. Still feel like I am eating a ton though. Weather is hot today. Should hit 95 today. I'm headed out with the girls for a few hours and when back will do a little workout:

2 rounds for time
Trail run behind house (~800m)
10 pullups

Need to consume a lot of water today. Going to be warm.

Picked up a great single serving of almond butter that is 1 block of protein and carbs and 8 blocks of fat. Was told to double fat.

Finished my mini home WOD in 18:15. The heat is killer.

Day 1

Weigh in and measurement took place last night. Numbers were high like I expected.

319 lbs
27 1/2 body fat

Going strict zone and workouts for next 40 days. Comes out to roughhly 23 blocks for the first 2 weeks then we are going to re-evaluate.

Day 1 started nice and early. Made sure to get up by 7 to eat breakfast in prep for today's WOD. 5 blocks for breakfast is a lot of food. Milk plus 3 eggs plus some almonds. WOD was a team effort today. Team WODs are always a blast. Nothing like a little competition and the encouragement from the team is killer. We did a FGB style WOD:

Pullups
Ball slams
Row
Tire flips
Single arm KB swings

Points were allocated based on how you did thinngs (ie. 1/2 pt per assisted pullup to 2 points for dead hang pullup...). we all counted points but in all honesty we were way off. It was all about having fun.

I felt solid on pullups doing 30 total in the 3 rounds with the black band. Ball slams were a breeze with the 30 lb ball. Over the three rounds I did 20 (only did them for 2 rounds). Rowing was solid. We had 2 people row per round and I ended up rowing twice. I burned 27 calories dirst round and 21 the second round. Tire flips were fun as well as the KB swings.

These types of workouts are fun.

Back to the diet side I had a great 3 block snack of 3 cups of milk and some almonds. Lunch was a 5 oz ribeye with a ton of vegetables and even after that many I had to eat a piece of bread to get the carbs. Fnished up with an avocado. I am floored by how much food this is. Afternoon snack of cheese and an apple. Really hit the spot. Dinner is ribs and beans.

A key thing I learned this weekend is my wat intake is just not enough. I have been monitoring it today and I have been consuming what I need which by comparison to earlier is a ton more. I think this is why it has taken me so long for my triceps to recover. There is a great MWOD video where KS shows you how to check for fluid in the body by pressing on the leg. I recommend it ti everyone.

Lastly, not sure if it is the diet or not but I feel like I have a lot of energy. Going to hit the pullup bar heavy in the garage tomorrow and get sme running in.

Pre-40 Day Challenge "Jackie"

Drug myself out of bed early this morning for the 6:15 class.  I'm typically not a fan of getting up early unless I'm headed to a flight but I will confess that the morning was beautiful and it was nice a peaceful in the box.  Just 2 of us this morning with Coach Jon.

"Jackie" was the plan this morning to set a good baseline for the 40 day challenge.  Part of the "score" to determine the winner is the time improvement so I'll see "Jackie" again in 40 days. :)

Jackie:
1000 m Row
50 Thrusters 45#
30 pullups

I felt pretty solid on the row.  Time on the rower was very consistent to my normal times (4:04 for the 1000).  Went over the the thruster and immediately had issues.  We did a killer workout that I'm still recovering from on Wed (see below) and the pushups completely wrecked me.  I ended up doing the thrusters in sets of 5 which was quite disappointing but I did get through them.  Got to the pullups and started with a black band only.  Pullups are one thing that I've been working on pretty heavily here at home with my own pullup bar and bands and rings.  I felt pretty confident that I would be able to get through 30 that late in the workout with just the black band.  Made it to 16 nice and smooth in sets of 3 to 5.  Kipped a little bit when needed but stayed pretty smooth.  Coach Jon did give me a "NO" on 3 or 4 which only drove me to keep pushing harder.  When I got to 16 I just hit the wall and needed to add in a blue band.  Sets of 2 to the end and at least another 4 or 5 that were called "NO."  It's a bit heartbreaking to here "NO" that late in the day but I was glad Coach Jon was doing it.  Afterwards he gave me a bit of a hard time about it and I just smiled and said "that when I am doing the WOD the last thing I want is for you or any of the other trainers to be my friend."  He actually turned to me and said that my statement was by far the best attitude he has heard from anyone ever.  At least I have that going for me.

Need to plan on consuming a few gallons of water today.  Get the fish oil in and recover so that I can really make the next 40 days successful.

Weigh-in and tape measurements are tonight.  I'll post the #'s to help me stay honest late tonight as a comment.

Completely Wrecked

I was really looking forward to today's workout. 1x7 snatch squats. Essentially a power snatch and extremely deepsquat all in one. Warmup was solid and then I went to the bar. Try as I might I could barely get up 65# in a nice solid movement. Needless to say it was a complete failure of a WOD. I am up early tomorrow morning for Jackie as the benchmark for our 40 day challenge. Headed to bed soon.

The good thing is that I did some major form work.  Video attached.

Good start to June

Solid WOD today.  Plan was 3 rounds for time of:

100m run
50 pushups
100m run
50 situps
100m run
50 squats
100m run
50 back extensions

Time limit was 30 minutes.  Ended up with 1 round plus 100m run plus 25 pushups.  Pushups all from knees.  Quite surprised how much the movements took out of me for the run.  Looking forward to the WOD tomorrow.  Snatch 1 x 7.  Looking forward to it.

End of May

Memorial Day Weekend was pretty much a bust from the planned epic camping trip to Lake Charles.  My buddy, Pete, and I made it up there in pretty good time and from experience would have made it up to the site by 7 pm (plenty of light left to get settled in).  The road up was in bad shape and we both had a bit of a laugh when we rounded a bend and saw a very large tree that had fallen across the road.  Out comes my camp pack axe and after about 15 minutes we were able to push the tree down the side of the road.

Onwards and upwards.  We made it about another 1/2 mile in the car and encountered some monster snow banks on the road.  Time to park the car and put on the packs.  The campsite and trailhead / parking lot was at least another 1/2 mile up the road and the going was decent but not ideal.  We made it to the trailhead and logged in then started up the trail.  1+ hour later and perhaps a mile at most into the trail (at least 4 1/2 to go at that point) we were both so frustrated by the depth of the snow (at least 4 feet in some areas) that we found a spot up off of the trail and setup camp for the first night.  One thing that I did note is that the months of crossfit paid off because I did not collapse.  However when you are walking on top of snow and 1 foot goes down about 3 inches and then the next step goes down about 3 feet it is very difficult to stay in a good mood.  Completely needed snow shoes.

Decided to bail after 1 note and head home.  So, spent all weekend riding the motorcycle and going to neigbors' houses for cookouts.

40 day challenge starts on June 3.

pre-FGB Check-In

Received my FuelBook that I ordered a week or so ago.  I'm getting it ready to plan out my zone / paleo challenge for the month of June.  I took advantage of the "no bread challenge" to drastically reduce the amount of bread and grains I've been consuming to help in the transition to a month of pure zone / paleo.  At a suggestion from Scott H. at my box I picked up the FuelBook to help me plan my meals.

Feeling pretty excited about FGB tonight. Had a good salad for lunch with chicken and beans for protein and energy.  Will post results tonight.  I'm shooting to be as close to 200 as I can.  I'll do well on wall balls, SDHP and presses.  Box jumps and rowing will be recovery movements.

Putting it into Perspective

Nice relaxing weekend spending time with the girls. School is almost over so it's time to get things rolling for the summer. Summer officially starts after Memorial Day weekend camping trip to Lake Charles.

Late dance class for the girls so I made it into the fieldhouse for some cardio. 35 minutes on the stationary bike to get the sweat nice and rolling. FGB tomorrow in the box. I will be at the 6:30 pm class so I will have all day to look forward to it. Need to figure out a good score to shoot for. Plan on round 1 is at least 60 so I will se where I go from there.

Another Week to Check In

Another 1/2 inch of the waist. It's been 3 weeks since I started tracking and I am trying to only do t he scale / tape every 2 weeks. Couldn't resist this time.

Recovered finally from the day of running and squats. One thing I learned is that I need to get out and do more exercise when that sore. Got some good leg work in today while doing the yardwork. Helped a lot. Afternoon run may be in the works.

LaLanne Crossfit

It was a long day and I opted to meet up with a great friend (Iain Grant) to catch up. On the way back to hus car (he was giving me a ride to hotel) I walked right by LaLanne Crossfit. Johhny D. has said gat things about it so I had to take advantage to check it out. The 6:30 class was already over (around 8 when I went by) but the door was open and I had to check it out. I met Chris LaLanne (owner) to get the details on the palave and like all of my experiences he was very welcoming. I will definitely "man" up and make the class the next time I am in town.

Making it a Rest Day

Quite worn out from yesterday's WOD.  Combine that with an early morning flight (6 am) and a full day at the office and I think I'll make today an official rest day.

Running and Squats = Jello Legs

Real interesting WOD today and one that was new to me.  Combined 1 thing that I am horrible at (running) and 1 thing that I am real solid at (back squats).  Needless to say when put together it made for an interesting day.

5 rounds for time
400 m run
5 squats

When I see lifts come up without a prescribed weight I always spend too much time trying to determine what I'm going to go for.  I flipped through my book and found my last squat day where we did 5 x 3 and I ended up my last set at 225.  I remember that day as being one where I should have gone a little heavier.  So, I essentially took the weight and looked up in the book for a 3 rep max close to that weight and scaled down to 75%.  205 was the magic number so I stuck with that.  I've graduated from having a medicine ball underneath me sitting on a 10 lb plate to just the medicine ball.  It's great progress but that extra little inch is taxing.

3-2-1

First round total was a around 3:10ish.  The rounds after that were all 5 min in length.  Our 400 route has a number of hills and as luck has it the first part of that is the most steep.  While I ran the entire first 400 the tank was empty of gas and I ended up walking a little less than 50% of each lap after that.  I kept the intensity up though so I was pleased with that.  Squats were real solid.  No breaks in reps.  I had the weight and went 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.  My form is definitely improving but I need to focus on a few fundamentals.  Deep breath filling up entire cavity and keeping weight on heels is key (I need to break in my Inov8's for these types of days).

23:40 was the total time.  I'm pleased with it.  Especially given that Monday was a boomerang trip to San Fran and I didn't eat that much today (stupid mistake on my part).  I'm off to San Fran again tomorrow morning for meetings through Friday and I'll take my gear with me to at least get out and run.  If I can motivate myself I'll check out the LaLanne (sp?) crossfit box.  John D. recommends it highly.

I had to copy / paste this in from my crossfit box's site today.  Words to live by...

Definition of a Clock Whore: Person who is so obsessed with beating the clock/others that they will prostitute themselves and sacrifice important and vital components of training such as range of motion, repetitions or other performance metrics for a ''better'' time.  These people actually miss the whole point of the training. The point of physical fitness training, from my perspective, is to improve oneself both physically and mentally, not necessarily in that order. The people who have taken the time clock or score beyond the extreme and compromised range of motion, number of repetitions, etcetera are doing so at the expense of the utility of the training. If someone judges their performance solely based on their status relative to others it reflects a distinct lack of self esteem. The idea of the style training is to develop self-esteem to increase capacities in many, many different modalities. A person who compromises training in order to beat others harms their self esteem. People know inherently when they are doing something wrong and there is a price to pay when they go against what they know is right.
 
Spotting Clock Whores: I imagine it is the same a proctoring an exam – The person who is constantly looking for the instructor is suspect. Another suspect behavior is always partnering with the same person when they score their workout. If some only does a full range of motion when the instructor is looking, then they are suspect. These behaviors are not hard and fast. On more than one occasion I have been called out by my instructors, rightly so, for ROM violation because I was exhausted. (The call outs are done with much joy and aplomb.)We all have issues when we get tired, it is part of the training. I have asked Tamer on more than several occasions what rep he was on because I had no idea where I was. The real difference is the consistent corner cutting. It takes time to become apparent, but when it is, it is like the giant elephant in the room no one acknowledges.

Day Trip

Day trip to Sunnyvale, CA for customer presentation. No workout. Exciting work opportunity building though.

2 Week CheckIn

It's been 1 day shy of my No Bread Challenge. Time for the weigh in / tape measure. Total weight lost = 0 lbs. Total inches lost on waist = 1/2 inch. As I reflect a few things come into mind. I've cheated a little but not as much as I thought I would. It has been much easier during the week to stay on target. Weekends are rough (evidenced by my breakfast of pancakes with my daughter Alexandra). I need to really work on portion sizes and dump the soda completely to lose some weight. Had to buy a handful of new shirts this weekend for casual wear given my others are not fitting well (huge in body but tight in chest). Need to buy some new pants also or at least a different belt that I can cinch down tighter. Need to buy some new clothes in another month. Oh well, money I will h ave no problem spending.

Regardless, I am seeing progress and will keep at it. I am smart enough to know it is not going to happen overnight. Workouts have been better and I am seeing a lot of imiprovement there. Not stopping on the 800m warmup run nor the 800m 45# plate carry are good indicators. True burpees as opposed to burpees on knees and the need to move down from the black band on pullups.

I am finding my blogging about this and my record keeping on workouts helps a lot. I am looking forward to the June Zone / Paleo challenge. The fuelbook I ordered from www.wodbook.com will help also.

Saturdays = team WOD

Team WOD at 9:30 on Saturdays. What a great way ro start the day. Although still really sore from yesterdays WOD (forearms are tight and grip is weak)I was really looking forward to it. WODs on the weekend are usually pretty full so workout with ina larger group is definitely a preference. The class times I ussually attend are either solo or up to 4.

2 teams of 5 with 1 woman on each team.

5 min AMRAP Double Unders
Winning team rests 4 min, Losing team rests 4 1/2 min.
Tire flips (winning team gets 5 min, losing team goes for 4 1/2)
Winning team rests 5 min, Losing team rests 4 min.
Burpees (losing team gets 5 min, winning team gets 4 min)
Winning team rests 5 min, Losing team rests 4 min.
Run (as a team) with a 45 lb. Plate

3-2-1 Go

102 DU for me
35 tire flips (difficult since we had 4 tires so had to share and push to get in front)
20 burpees (huge weakness area for me)
Run (team did 800 m + 30 feet) - I carried the plate for a solid 100 but most importantly I ran the whole way. My running is getting better.

Even though you needed a PhD to follow this WOD it was a great time. Our owner / head trainer summed the goal of the day up quite well when he said to push yourself so that it kicks your butt. Needless to say I followed that advice and had a great workout.

I am traveling Monday next week as well as Wed - Fri so I will need to get a run / pull up workout in tomorrow. I will hit my box on Tuesday and plan to hit Lalaine's (sp?) in San Fran on Thursday.