"I'm going to hold you to it"

Ah yes, accountability.  Those words we're spoken to me today by the one and only Big Ticket.  We were talking about the next goal of getting under 400lbs.  He asked me when it was going to happen, thought I had already told him that was.  I couldn't remember what I told him though, so I told him the end of summer.  Better make sure I get on it. 

This week has been a bit more brutal that I thought it would be.  It's been successful, things are going well, people are happy, I'm doing my job well... all good things.  But I'm tired.  Like a stage past normal tired I always talk about.  Last night was another sub 6 hour night of sleep.  I'm somewhere around 15-16 hours of sleep since waking up Sunday morning... that, combined with 14 hour days... brutal.  Got out of work early today though, some of that hard work paying off, so to the box I went.  

Got there late, me leaving early from work didn't correlate to getting to the box on time... about 10 minutes late.  Doing Nancy tonight, first time that I've done it... or at least first time that I remember.  Got to the box, they're ready to go... I'm scrambling to get my lifters on, and Ticket comes up like "no no no no, we're running today son".  Uh, wut?  This man went and got my MF shoes.   Good time to tell you that all day, my calves were getting tight.  I mean I went and got coconut water, ate bananas, stretched, and they kept getting tighter.  I have no idea whats going on with them...  anyway, so Ticket drops off my shoes and is like "you gon' learn today"..... well actually no, not quite like that, more of a "we're running today", but still, it felt like he said the first phrase.  We actually went back and forth a little about it.  He was even like you can run a 100m.  I wasn't buying it.  First time doing this WOD... I'm tired as fuqq... my calves and getting tighter.  No sir, not today.  Soon.

Nancy.  400m run, 15 OHS @ 95lbs, 5 rounds for time.  I rowed 500m instead of 4, and did 75lbs OHS, still not comfortable with the idea of doing 95lbs that many times... another 'soon'.  There isn't a lot to talk about, it was lots of rowing, and lots of squats.  Breathing was the biggest issue.  I know I  need a spinal adjustment, but the breathing, my goodness.  Everything in the upper lungs, nothing getting deep down.  Need to do #research and of course more practice. 

Ended up with 19:37.  Sub 20 isn't bad for a first time right? 

Back to Ticket.  This man is a gold mine for quotes.  I don't have any more from tonight, but he's always got something to say.  Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're motivating, sometimes they can rub you the wrong way.  The man is unapologetic for being who he is, and I love him for it.  He seems to have made it his mission to make a man out of me, wants to hold me accountable, he's even confirmed he reads these very words.  Alright man, you want the job, it's yours.  Under 400 by the end of summer.  Do I get anything for doing it before then?  ;)

On to other things.  Product review.  Halo sweatbands.  The Halo II specifically.  Chris McCune over at www.ifailedfran.com had reviewed them a while back, and it made me want to try it out.  I got the basic black one:

 Nancy was a good WOD to do this too.  Lots of rowing, it's warm, OHS... lots of sweat.  At one point, I was grabbing the bar, setting up to snatch it and there was sweat dripping from the top of my head onto the mat.  Lots of sweat.  Not a drop of any of this sweat got in my eyes.  It was freaking wonderful.  No more red, irritated eyes.  I have proof... I used to be red eye before the workout was over.  No mas.  See:

Dem eyebawls is white!  And the best part, this thing fit my big ol' head.  If it fits me, it's likely to fit you too.  I'm ordering more (not sure I want to re-wear them in the week), going to get a wider one, then decide if thats going to be the deal going forward, or if it will be a mix.  In short, I love these.  I'll let you know how well they hold up as time goes on. 

Alright last bit.  I've talked on here a lot about how these people I workout with are like family.  It's not idle talk, I promise you.  I found out today that Kelly D's mom's passed this week, services are this weekend, and I'm going to miss them.  I try to make things like that every chance I get, it's one of those "people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care" type of deals.  Before she left for the night, I caught Kelly getting in her vehicle, and I gave her a hug, expressed my condolence.  Had a tear in my eyes as I pulled away, couldn't really say much more than that, just smiled and nodded.  Who has the reaction to strangers?  I'm telling you, they're family.  It hurts that I can't be here, I send all my love and support to Kelly and her family during this difficult time. 

200

Thats it.  200 steps, thats all I did tonight.  More on that in a short bit.  This is a conversion week this week, and that means 12-14 hour days.  That also means it going to be very hard to get to the box.  Being a bit of a problem solver, I thought it might be a good idea to bring the box to me.  So I texted the master of body weight workouts, Dave P, and asked him for a quick WOD I could do at the hotel, and boy, did he deliver.

5 rounds for time.  Bottom floor to the top floor, 10 air squats when you get to the top.  Oh, and try not to hold onto the rail.  Alright, I can do that.

Didn't do much warming up, didn't think I'd need it... and maybe I did... or didn't, not sure.  So I get to the bottom of the stairs (I typically stay on the second floor), take a deep breath, and here we go.  I jogged up the stairs.  Feeling good, moving good.  Theeeeeen we got to the squats.  Owie!  These first 10 were rough, not a good sign of the things to come.  Turn and burn back down the stairs.

I actually counted the stairs before I started, 200.  As soon as I touched the bottom, turn and burn... except the burn wasn't speed this time, it was the acid in the quads.  Got to the top, oh man oh man oh man, those squats were brutal.  Typical air squat form was gone, replaced by something else, I think they call it pain.  LOL.  Going back downstairs was suddenly very very difficult.  No handrails is out. I needed all the stability I could going downstairs. 

The following three rounds were all mental.  Going up the stairs was easy, no handrail needed.  The hard parts were the squats and going back down.  I'm not terribly proud of my time, I think I can take a bit off of it.  7:21.  I'm pretty sure I can shave 30 seconds just by speeding up my descent and air squats a little bit. 

I texted the Quad Killer back with my time, and that I did it.... I actually started the text with "I thought we were friends".  HAHA.  Later told him that my quads were trying to secede, and that they had a pretty good case.  I think they'll stay, but we'll see what the vote comes to in the morning.

Happy I got to get something in.  Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll get to get to Unlocked tomorrow, if not, I'll text Dave again and see what sort of nastiness he can come up with.    

Other news.  My peoples (Amanda) at On Track sent me an email this week.  "We miss you".  I was a little surprised, I'll confess.  On Track doesn't use a WOD tracking software (that I know of), so the fact that noticed I hadn't been around... I felt kinda special.  And then I felt bad.  She was right, I haven't been around, using my lack of sleep and general laziness on the weekends as an excuse.  No mas.  Wife and several DE readers have also given me a little salt about that as well this past week... confluence of people, I love you all.  

Don't advertise if you aren't selling....

Show'd up tonight ready to put in WORK.  I mean I was in a good mood, and I felt ready.  Hehehe... like a workout with breaks built in, this feeling wasn't going last.  Tonight, we had an all star cast.  Ticket, the Peets, the De Leons, the Navarres... lots of firepower for this WOD.  I'm going to come in dead last, I know it.  LOL

Warmup was a good one... one of those ones that gives you a nice heart rate, good little bit of sweat.... love/hate type of warmup.  After that, some skill work.  Toes to bar, or muscle ups.  I had high goals in my mind.  Thought I might just, maaaaybe, maaaaybe get those toe to the bar.  Yeah, no joy.  I did get some swinging type stuff going, and maybe sorta got the knees towards the elbows.  Still a lot of stomach in the way.  Time to do some real work now.

3 rounds for time.  300m run, 20 power cleans, 10 OHS, 5 HSPU  95/65.  I really toyed with the idea of 95lbs, but remembering back to the day of 80 cleans at 95, I remembered it being awful, with bad form... and then add on the OHS... might be an issue.  So I went with a little bit lighter weight, 75.  Ticket tired, unsuccessfully, but he tried to get me out running.  Apparently someone told him that I'd actually done a little running.  :)

So we started, and the rowing was a little more difficult than it should have been... a sign?  Maybe.  Got to the bar, and somewhere around the first 10 reps, it strikes me that this isn't going to as easy or fun as I thought it would be.  10 more and I'm hurting.  On the OHS... I don't think I did but maybe 1 of them to a decent depth.  Just wasn't moving that well.  HSPU, Dave (coaching tonight) had me set up with the pad RIGHT by the box.  I don't know that it was a very realistic expectation, but I tried.... and it wasn't very good, at all, I think I spent too much time trying to stay close to the box.  My last one was my best one, and then it was off to the rower for round two. 

I'm tired, it's getting late, I'm not going to to into the labored stories of rounds 2 and 3.  My OHS got better and better, especially in round 3.  Finally found a good groove, was able to get low, and stay locked out.  Happy about that.  The HSPU's, got a little deeper, a little better, but I was going quite a bit further out (away from the box) from where I had started. 

15:37.  Not a great time, but not a terrible time.  Probably could have added another 3 or 4 minutes had I gone running.  The rowing caught me a little off guard.  I haven't really had to row much in recent WODs, so I felt a little out of practice. 

Alright, so whats the business about advertising and selling and what not?  Well, like I said, Ticket was here, and he wouldn't shutup about running.  LOL.  I mean afterwards, we're all getting things cleaned up, and he's sitting on a box as I walk by, and he's like lets go run.  50, 100, 400, something.  I told him no.  So then he starts talking about getting outside my comfort zone.  I mumbled alright.  I don't think he heard me.  I could have got away!  Instead I grabbed my other shoes, went back out into the box, put them on, and stepped out in the light sprinkles to do a jog.   Dave P and Ticket accompanied me, Ticket even brought a 45lb plate for fun. 

I didn't tell them what I was going to do, but I was aiming for 200m, which is 100m than last time.  I think we got maybe 30 ft from the box, and both my calves started singing.... and it was one of those songs I haven't heard in ages, let me tell you.  Mind you, we're not going at any sort of real pace, but we are going, and we passed the first marker, and I think Dave and Ticket both thought I was going to turn around there.  Think I got a little bit of "man up" credit by going to the next marker.  LOL.  Got there and made the turn, wasn't planning on stopping, but I got maybe 20 ft from the turnaround, and had to stop.  Both calves were tight... and not just a little tight, I felt like I had two golf ball sized cramps in each calf, one on the left, and the other on the right side... so in both of the gastrocnemius.  I looked it up.  :)  Ended up walking another 20 ft or so, then jogging... or something... the rest of it.  I call it "or something" because I was basically landing on my heel and pushing off of it like I was doing a squat.  Very awkward... anyway... 

Spent a lot of time stretching, rolling, and otherwise getting the little knots out of my calves.  And for all the crap that I went through to do it... I'm kind happy I did it.  I wont tell him, but Ticket is right to push me a bit more.  I still don't plan on running during WODs full time, or even part time for a while longer, but the day to going back to it is closer than it was 2 months ago.  Really, it just comes down to the knees.  I still think the running I did when I started hosed me for a little bit... we'll see.  Everything still works... yeah, we'll see. 

Went to dinner with the family... place called... Arenas?  I can't remember.  I do recall it being 1/2 price sandwich night (from previous conversation), and with nothing between me and the hotel but a bunch of fast food, I figured I'd give it a shot.  Kinda invited myself anyway, saw people following each other, so I followed them.  LOL.  It worked out, got some grub that wasn't fast food, at least not fully.  We'll call it medium speed?  Ok, no, I'm clearly too tired, I'm making up stuff now...

Happy Anniversary!

I don't know exactly when I started CrossFit, but the first post on this blog was tax day last year, so we're going to call tax day my first day.  Got some surprises in store... won't be able to put them all in tonight... I'm actually going to write this over two days, there is more I want to put in here than I've got time for tonight.  It's already 1125pm, and frankly I want to hit Unlocked tomorrow morning for a 4th WOD this week... I mean one of the workouts is called Hip Hop BBQ... I've gotta... even thought it's nasty... unlike hip hop, and bbq.  Moving on...

Went back to my Mecca; CrossFit Diamond State.  Good place to go... good to be back where it all started.  Got a few hugs and high fives.  I'll be upfront and honest, this wasn't a good workout for me... I mean I did ok tonight, but it was more about the date, and getting back to "my roots" as it were.  Tax day will always be special for a whole different reason than taxes.  I do those in Feb anyway. 

Roxanne... if you're not familiar with the warmup, or part of a workout... you should be.  Old song by the Police.  Every time Roxanne is belted out, you drop an do a burpee.  I knew this was coming, so I did some research, 26 times.  I hate burpees, but this was fun.  I screwed up my like 4th burpee, my shoe caught in between the mats on the floor, and I missed that one completely.  Other than that, I got... idk, between 18 and 22 of them.  There were some at the end that were too close together, but it's a warmup, I don't feel too bad, not with having hit some may and jumping up like I did.  Getting better my friends, getting better.

We did more warmup activies, some empty bar work to get used to the movements, and then it was go time.  This is apparently a hero wod with a twist.  Don't know which one, I'm just repeating what I overheard.  12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, 6 push jerks, and 15 HSPU's... why it couldn't just be 3, I dont know.  I went with 95lbs, remembering the struggle from Monday with hang cleans...  Kinda wish I'd go a little lighter.  For speed sake you know.  ;)

Deadlifts were a breeze... the whole first round of barbell movements was quick... clean, and looked pretty... oh, and I didn't drop the bar.  The HSPUs... I tried something new...  I got up on a taller box, and tried to get over my arms, more like a HSPU, and not like a deficit pushups.  I failed... I mean I did 5, barely, got up... did 5 more, barely, and was going to stop at 10.... and I held up 10 fingers to Andy P, who was coaching tonight and was like "thats what I've got"... implying that that was all I wanted to do.  I don't know if he didn't hear me, or didn't like the answer, he was asked me something... I couldn't tell... sounded like "how many left?"...  point taken.  I had to go 3, 2.   It was like going to failure -1...  I think had I done one more, I'd have fallen off the damn box.

Segues into a nice little poem I thought up after the WOD.

Some of my coaches read this
Some of them don't
I'll bust my ass for some
For others I wont.

All of my coaches have my respect, and if I'm not deep enough in a squat, doing something wrong, or otherwise lolly gagging, I want them to tell me about it.  Some of these coaches, I'll go run a mile for, and give it everything I've got if they asked, and wanted me to actually run a mile from where I'm at physically now.  Others, I'd haggle with, and ask about the rower instead.  Not the best example, I'll see if I can come up with something better tomorrow.  Back on track... 

At this point, after 1 round... I'm in trouble.  I mean deep doo doo.  My shoulders are already smoldering and I've got 4 more rounds to do.  I'm not going to talk about the deadlifts anymore... they were easy.  I got lazy, and a tad breathless in the last two rounds, dropped the bar when I didn't need to, just to rest before the cleans... but thats it, no big story there.  The cleans... my goodness...  I thought they were ugly on Monday... form was gone.  I mean a few times I'd have a solid pull, fast elbows, and an otherwise exceptional clean, but for the most part these were quasi muscle cleans that I just wanted to get over with.  The push jerks we're ok... went about like you'd expect with HSPU's at the end of each round.  I still need work on my jerks, I don't feel I do enough jerking, like I need to get lower, faster.  Just re-read that sentence... the adolescent in me is chuckling.

The box HSPUs... by round 2, I... it was bad, ok?  I mean one to two.  I got to 5, and had had enough, it took me almost a minute to do 5.  I went over and grabbed a 12" box.  Damage was already done from the 20 (I think).  I got through this set, with decent "form"....and I feel these are harder, and better (truer) to HSPU's the the planks I did.  Round 2 passed without further incident.  3, 4, and 5 got harder each time... more stops, less of a HSPU look... it was ugly.  I'm happy I went with the larger box first, and that I tried to do this at a difficult level for me...  turns out I'm not quite ready for THAT, at least I wasn't today, but I tried, failed, "changed the weight" and finished the WOD.  21:08.

Thats all I've got for now, I'll have to gussy it up a bit in the morning, it's probably riddled with errors.  The second half of this is going to have my first coaches interview, we'll see how I'm going to proceed with them after this one... Do they get their own page?  Do I continue adding them to posts?  How do I present this awesome stuff...  Also need to get to work on getting the domain setup and getting a real site (not just a .blogger.com one) up.  Need to talk to Coach Randi from CFDS...

Going to use this here pic of myself with the Pallers as the break before "the interview".  I do find myself wishing I lived in DE with every day I spend with CFDS and Unlocked.  Tight bonds.  Anyway, before I write another lovely dovey novel about my affection for the CrossFitters of Delaware...

***********************************************************************************************************

Alright... this is about 6 days later than I intended to have it done.  I got busy, what can I say?  Without much further a due, here is the first of what will be many coach interviews.  I might get fancy at some point and make this official vlog type posts, but not this first one, this one is going to be transcribed from a vid I made that looked at the heavens or floor as much as at Coach Andy.  I started with some softball questions, then worked on some "harder" ones.  Might as well put it here, if you have something you want to know about, whether it's from my coaches (who may be one of yours), or you're curious what a CrossFit coaches answer to X might be, feel free to ask in the comments below.

How long have you been CrossFiting?

"Coming up on 5 years this summer, so we'll say 4 and a half"

What about coaching?

"About 3 and a half"

So, what got you into coaching?

"My job is... or was teaching customers for Siemens, and I guess I had a pretty good way of interacting with people in training, had a way of making things simple.  A lot of people were like "you're really good at this, you should get certified".  So I put it off for a about a year, and finally thought it was a good idea, plus (he's smiling now) it was kinda a way to get a free membership too, so for the last 3 and a half years I've been coaching."

Makes sense.  So what is your favorite movement, and why?

Mmmm... Hand Stand Pushups, cause I'm good at it (another smile, I laughed, cause, well, I'm awful).  I like to tease you with them, and I have good endurance with them too."

Whats the movement you hate the most?

"Snatches, cause I've still never gotten over 200lbs.  I got to 195 as my best ever, and then ever since my back has been tweaked, it's just been... no (he kind of trailed off there... feel like there is some unfinished business for AP).

Anything you love, or hate to program?

"I love making programs that look very simple, so like a minute on (going/moving), or rounds with rest built in them, because people think they don't need to rest or something, but the output is SO tough, that the workout surprises them"

You mean like Tabata?

"Yeah, yeah"

What have been some of your top moments as a coach and/or athlete?

"Uh, I have two.  One top moment was the second time I help coached Gia at regionals, and just being able to go back and see her progress over the year from the regionals before.  And the other was the toughest athlete I've had to coach, who was Oliver who was in here earlier.  His movments have been on point, and it challenged me to find the fine tuning for his movements."

Has he done CrossFit before, I saw him when I showed up tonight and he was just slaying this workout like it was... fun, almost easy.

"Yeah, he was at regionals twice, and  would have gone to the games if he wasn't in PT school"

Oh.. Awws.... so he's THAT kind of athlete huh?

"Yeah, he challenged me".

(editorial comment, this dude was doing this WOD Rx at 155, at he didn't look like he we struggling one bit.  To top it off, he doesn't look like you're stereotypical CrossFit regionals level athlete... at least not with his shirt on.)

Alright, I know you'll have something here.  What are some of your pet peeves at the box?

"Uh.... my biggest pet peeve is when I go to give somebody a good piece of advice, and they pretend to listen to me, and then they go right back to what they were doing before."

What's the sideways look for?

(headshake and a smile)

Oh ok, I was about to be like "what are you saying? "

*laughter*

Ok, two more, if you could only have one recovery item, what would it be?

"Probably Progenex.  I had a good weekend, SuperFit, first weekend I used that stuff, so Progenex Protein... Chocolate".

One thing, good or bad, that not enough people know about or do.

"Hmmm, one of the things I think a lot of people don't do, is take care of their hands.  Simple hand manicures, so they rip, constantly.  They don't understand that simple shaving of their hands will take care of that.  I've only ripped two times, and they were both in competitions."

Ok, last question, what is music that you absolutely can't work out to?

(no hesitation) "Country, I can't get down with country"

You know your boy Jeff (Peet) loves to workout to country?

"I do, yes."

Everyones gone, he turns on country, and I gave him this look like really?

"If I'm listening to music while I'm working out, I'm probably not working out hard enough"

Fair enough.  Alright, well this will be going up for posterity, anything else you'd like to share?

"No man, I just like to see that you made a full year of working out, that you're still around"

Are you surprised (I've got a big smile now).  You can be honest.

"Uh, no.  After meeting you, seeing your mentality, no."

There you have it, the first interview with one of my favorite coaches.  I wanted to interview Gia first, since she was my gateway into CrossFit, but she just got a new house, and had some things to do, so I got to interview my guy Andy.  AP falls into a special category of person for me and frankly, I wish I lived closer, I'd like to see him, Laura...and really all of my peoples more.  Many thanks to Andy for agreeing to be filmed while answering some questions. 

DNF

Three letters I hate.... Did. Not. Finish.  Shitty way to start the workout week.  Let me take a small step back, I was feeling all kinds of wrong when I stepped into the box tonight, but I knew I'd feel better in a little bit, and I did. 

I should have known it would be a rough night.  I decided to take the New Balance out, had looked at the WOD earlier, and it looked like 12 snatches, then a nice little METCON... buuuuut it wasn't 12 snatches, it's was a 12 minute EMOM with 3 snatches in each minute.  Power snatch, hang snatch, hang squat snatch.... great.  And now the completeness of my failure was apparent.  Plenty of snatch work, oh, and every 4th round, add weight... and me without a foundation to build on.

Every snatch, I'm thinking about my shoes.... matter of fact, forgot to mention, during the warmup, I was doing 5 OHS with the bar.... on the second or third one, I started falling backwards... couldn't save it.  Plunk, right down.  I think this is only the third time I've ever fallen over.  I blame the shoes.  It's funny, as many times as I've talked about these shoes, you'd think I'd chuck them and not look back.  Not to say they're bad shoes, I just don't think they're for me.  So why am I keeping them around?  Funny word... hope.  I hope that next time will be different....  The one "downside" to being an optimist I guess.

So the snatches, they went ok, I think of the 12, I only got 3 really solid squat snatches done.  Didn't have a stable enough base, and with the last 4 being 95lbs... unstable base means I'm not really itching to try hang squat snatches.  I mean I tired, but I only got two power snatches with a OHS at the end.... as disappointed as I was with this, I was feeling much better than when I started.  Cheers to endorphins.  

Second piece was simple.  2 rope climbs (or 20 mountain climbers per rope climb, so 40), 20  box jump overs.  3 rounds.  Go!  Mountain climbers... slow going (in my mind) but solid.  Box step overs... I wen with the 20" box again, trying to get stronger.  Might have been a mistake.  Between that, and the lack of water throughout the day, the second round of mountain climbers had a nice cramp form in the left quad.  I tried to stop, and stretch it.  Brian was coaching... "c'mon Dan, don't stop"... I wish it was just an I'm tired stop.  I tried the hurdlers stretch and a couch stretch, better.  To the box, 1, 2.... 8.  and I stopped.  Even with using my right leg to step up, my quad kept tightening.  Took the time to go over to the racks to get "the stick".  Rolled out the quad for a few minutes... felt better, but having to put up a DNF... not my idea of fun.

So, first workout back from an extended weekend, not the best, but I went, and got some work in.  I've drank almost 100oz SINCE the workout and will finish with a little bit more before the night is over.  Cramps suck... no mas cramps!  Viva los aquas!

Someone tell Big Ticket he missed it.

I get this a lot from Ticket. 

"Hey man, when are you going to come running with us."

"Remind me again when you're running."

"You said under 400 lbs right?"

"Lets go!"

Things like that.  Not all in the same day mind you, but about once a week.  HAHA.  Well guess what man, I went to 0545 this morning, and I ran.  And it was awful.  Found this meme fitting. 

It was part of a 10 minute EMOM... 100m sprint, and a heavy clean and jerk... might have been just a jerk, but you had to clean it, so we're calling it a clean and jerk.  Was going to do 145, but, frankly, too heavy for that early in the morning, coming off that kind of sleep, after doing that kind of WOD at CFDS less than 12 hours before... Ended up on 125. 

So yeah, back to it, I ran... the first 100m.  That was it.  But it was glorious, until my shorts started riding up, and I started slowing down... then it wasn't so glorious.  Really, my sprint was more of an inglorious jog.  After that it was on the rower.  Life was much better on the rower.  Only one other person was there with me this morning, Kim (forget her last name).  We battled through this, she kept running whilst I row'd.  Finally finished.  Great, lets go home.... Oh wait, we've got Hip Hop BBQ to do.  Alright lets do that, what is it?  

Great question.  It's six minutes of total work, spread out over six work periods.  60seconds each?  Not so fast.  90 seconds work, 30 rest, 60 work 60 rest, 30 work 90 rest, then repeat.  Ok, seems easy enough, whats the movement.  Oh, it's a goody.  THRUSTERS!!  Yay \o/  (thats a little head there with arms raised up on both sides... if you can't see it).  I haven't done thrusters since 15.5.  So I'm pretty well physically wasted from the 3 previous WODs, my shoulders haven't had time to recover... I've got no sleep.... and THIS was what I decided to do while driving home from CFDS last night.  Idiot.

If you have no idea who that is... you're probably better off not knowing.  If you want to know, leave a comment, I'll fill you in.  This is the exact phrase going through my mind as we start the first set of thrusters.... that and things like "I can't believe you chose to do this", "what were you thinking", "how is this related to BBQ?"

I made it a whole 2 thrusters at 95lbs before I dropped the bar and made a beeline over to the weight stack to grab 15's to replace the 25's.  Jeff helped me change the bar PDQ.  Like a NASCAR pit crew he said.  They wish they were this fast!  HA!  Anyway, this part of the workout ended up being pretty spicy for me... mornings are hit and miss it seems.  Tuesdays, I'm usually pretty good, Wed or Thurs, mornings, I tend to suck.  Here come the excuses: knee wasn't warmed up really well so squatting was awkward, shoulders are still toast from the night before, wrist hurt from trying to do more difficult HSPU scaling last night...  lots of little issues today.  Ended up with 58.  I think had I done this on Monday, been fresher, I could have finished in the high 80's with this weight. 

Oh well.  I knew it was going to be a battle coming into this, and a battle it was.  Still happy I showed up... I mean it was called Hip Hop BBQ (named after the popular Pandora station), but I still had to go... no pain... no pain.  Its a Direct TV add, some Russian guy, think they call him Epic Win... Which is really close to my twitter handle... @Epic_WINdler   Anyway, youtube that video, just put in No Pain Russian guy, should pop right up.  Cracks me up every time. 

Gotta run, need to finish a few things at the office, and then finish my anniversary post that I should have finished before this one...

Limiting factors...

I CRUSHED my old OHS (overhead squat) PR today.  50lbs, so yeah, crushed it.  I was feeling good too.  I had the right depth, I wasn't wobbly... I could have done more.  My limiting factor was my shoulders.  80 cleans, the HSPU's, pushups, and rowing yesterday... cut me down a little bit.  Also, I need to keep in mind that I'm trying to use a wider grip push press from behind my neck... and that was what I think the limiting factos were, the fatigue, and the wider push press.  Maybe I could have do a push press from the front?   I had 155 on the bar, and I'm 99% sure I could have squatted it overhead, but I couldn't get it overhead from the rack, so I stopped at 145.  Not a bad way to start the WOD though.  

Rest of it was terrible though, and I knew it would be.  On my way to car this morning, I dropped my water bottle and it rolled under someone elses car.  I had to basically do a burpee to get it (and I knew burpees were coming)... was a little slow getting up, took it as a sign.  LOL. 

I actually took both sets of shoes to the box this morning, but about half way there, it occurred to me that with the jumping rope... I shouldn't even bother changing shoes, I jump better in my lifters... might even do burpees better in them too?  We'll see.  Today's WOD was 500m row, 150DUs and 50 burpees.  We had a big class, so we split into two groups, ended up being guys and girls with the girls going first.  I should have got in that group, but more on that in a second. 

500m went quick.  I knew I was going to out do the other two guys, Rick and Ruben.  Rowing isn't a strong suit per say, but I'm better than a lot of people at it, I've had the practice.  Where I knew I was going to get caught was the jumping... and thats exactly where it happened.  I tried to string together big sets, think the most I got was 15 at one time.  My legs get tired, what can I say.  I could probably make a nasty working with all the things I want to get much better at... burpess, jumping rope, burpees again... moving on. 

Actually, back to the burpees.  Main reason I think I should have gone with the first group.  My burpees are slow, and when I get tired, my counting sucks.  More times than not it's just me getting ahead of myself on what I've done, and then getting further ahead.  Flashbacks to the plate burpees with Jeremy Navarre.  Thought I was done well before I actually was.  I'm not sure how many I did exactly, but I'm sure if I was going with wave 1, I would have finished with the end of wave 2.  I was the last one to finish anyway.  11 minutes and some seconds... 35 maybe?  Appropriately exhausted, however many I did.  Positive note, I jumped up from about half of these instead of that tired ass step up. 

Alright, last thing, then it's off to work.  I want to make something.... like a window decal, or an antenna topper... something to let people know I support them.  What people you ask?  Those people you pass on the road who are out running, walking, or otherwise trying to make their lives better.  I don't feel right honking at them or yelling encouragement out the window.  Waves are ok, when they see them.  IDK.  They motivate me, and I'd like to return the favor somehow....

The Caveman and The WOD Box.

Ate like a caveman tonight... mostly.  I'm talking bare hands, digging into a rotisserie chicken.  Nom Nom Nom.  I love that I've found these.  Not as varied as the wonderful food Carla makes, but it'll do for now.  Also had some apples and 3 of those little cheese wheel things.  Satisfied, maybe even full.  Actually, I'm not full, and I didn't finish the chicken, but I ate enough, and thats a good place to be... being stuffed isn't so good ya know? 

Another typical Monday... little sleep... was in the back of the plane this week... bit bumpy, not much napping.  Lots of caffeine, all day.  I just happened to have instant messaged with my man AP aka The Guru aka Paller aka Andy 1 aka... well, you know.   IM'd him while writing this, and he just boo boo'd on my caffeine intake mechanism (Monster Rehab).  I guess I didn't look too closely at the artificial sweeteners... oops.  Back to 5 hours... or perhaps even black coffee... ick.  I'll work on it. 

Also took some energy chews from my first WOD Box.  More on that later.  I think the combination of the energy chew and the caffeine... I had what felt like a weight sitting on top of my stomach.  And I mean it felt like I had the weight on the inside of my body, putting pressure down on my stomach... very strange.  I was concerned about working out tonight.  Thought maybe I'd end up getting sick or something.  Didn't stop me from showing up, can't keep a good man down. 

Tonight's WOD was called Clean Up, Aisle 5.  Another thought about throwing up... eh.  Pushed that from my mind, and started warming up, got through the group warmup, lets go!   400m row, 4 rounds of 10 power cleans and barbell pushups, 400m row, 4 rounds of hang power clean, 5 pike pushups off a plate, 400m row.  Now, these are my scaled moves, but it's a fair amount of work.  RX for the cleans was 135.  I toyed with the idea of doing 115... but decided to stay safe at 95. 

LOL.  I said safe at 95... thats a lot of cleans (80) at 95lbs... it's not that light.  I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about it.  The highlights... or notable parts, I hopped on the broken rower at first... oops.  First set of power cleans was unbroken... I pictured myself quite the Games athlete for a short short short while.  Hahaha.   The barbell pushups, I did off the knees... these were harder than I ever would have thought.  The hang cleans sucked.... form, effort, all of it.  I can't believe how many times I dropped the bar.   The pike shoulder pushups... I think I'd like to go back to doing these on a  box.  My shoulders feel incredibly weak when I do it.  i know it's part of the struggle, but I'd really like to get to HSPUs...  Giving it time, probably needs to be a lot more than I want to give it, but man...

21:25.  Not sure if I'm proud of this or not.  I don't think it was my best work, but it was very difficult, and I struggled mightily. 

Alright, on to this WOD Box.  If you don't know what it is, check it out here.  Short version, they're a subscription box service and they send you random products to try out, everything is WOD related.  This is what was in this months box.  Spoiler alert..... apologies if you hadn't gotten yours yet.  

I haven't had a chance to try everything yet, but as you can see, it's a decent amount of stuff for $20 (which included the shipping).  This one came with the swanky t-shirt, a can of FitAid (which I'm anxious to try, and compare to Kill Cliff), some kettle cooked sweet potato chips, which we're about like you'd think they'd taste.  An AboutTime protein bar (gluten and dairy free if I recall), it was a lot like some of those home made protein bars people make, very similar in both flavor and consistency.  There was also some almond butter, a shower pill (giant wet wipe I think), some paleo protein pancake mix, and the energy chews. 

I feel like this is a pretty good mix of stuff, and a good value overall.  I still felt like it needed more, but the price of eating a healthier lifestyle is not cheap, and this is a lot of stuff to try for a mere $20 bucks, $6 of which was shipping.  Shout out to Randi G from #CFDS for liking them.  Second product that I've gotten from a friends Facebook "Like" of a product.

Thats all I've got tonight, going to hit the early WOD tomorrow I think.  Free up the evening, have a feeling I'm going to have to work late, and I'd rather get something in, than nothing.   

Ninja Training

At least thats what they called it on WODTogether.  Tonight the box was packed... actually, no, it wasn't.  I got there are I felt like I was going to be the only person... turns out I wasn't, Shannon showed up too, but that was it.  Cherry pickers, the lot of them... Mmmmmamaaaaaaaybe we can excuse it for spring break, maybe... but I'm not buying it.  I think people are scared of what they might become, I mean it is ninja training. 

Warmup sucked.  I mean it wasn't hard, but it wasn't fun.  Three rounds of DU's, Russian twists, and walking lunges.  Someone is quad happy this week.  Front squats yesterday, the DU's and box jumps on Monday... and today is a nasty workout.  45-35-25-15-5 air squats (yay!  quads!), along with 5-10-15-20-25 burpees, and then for fun, 20 situps between rounds. 

I could tell you tales of woe, how this was very difficult for me.  I could tell you how I struggled early, and often.  I could tell you how my gameplan was to go fast on these burpees, just like I did with Kelly on Monday... I could tell you a lot of things.  Truth of it is, it was a slow, painful process.  My squats were ok, but my burpees were slow as hell.  I didn't hop up by maybe once.  Thats a lot of damn burpees to step up for.  Sooooo tired.  Squats killed my quads, which killed my burpees.  Viscous cycle.  Anyway, I wanted to cheat soooo badly, but Jeremy Navarre was running the show, and between him, being one of two people doing it, and my own pride, I didn't.  I'll wish I had in about 18 more hours, but today, I'm happy I didn't. 

27:07.  No world record, but I did it all.  And I'm an idiot for it.  I wore my New Balance shoes... and I'm going to feel these squats.  I'll be very sore very soon, I already know.  Sigh. 

I skipped crabs for this?

Going to keep it short tonight, I'm tried as hell, and thats after getting some solid sleep (quantity and quality).  Need to get a better time to get my frozen veggies... probably on Tuesday mornings when I can take it right to the freezer at work, and not have to worry about the hotel fridge.  Frozen, thawed, refrozen food... just...  no. 

Got to the box at a good time... again.  Love being on time (read early).  I'll say this.  I hate group warmups.  Line drills, short running, anything that reminds me that I'm not as good as other people, or that has me struggling to keep up, or back to short running... basically I dread and fear these.  Dread them even though I know they're not measured, timed, or otherwise counting for anything other than warming up.  We do a lot of them at Unlocked... and I've gotten a lot less self conscious about them.  My only real complaint now-a-days... is that I ALWAYS seem to have my lifters on for these.  Can't save these shoes for trying.  Sigh.  At least there wasn't running.  3 rounds Tabata style of air squats, pushups, mountain climbers, and these weird things that Dave called "tootsie rolls".  Covered in chalk dust and sweat by the end of it.  I hate and yet love warmups like this that have me sweating like a hot mess.  I'm complicated, lets leave it at that. 

5 rounds of 3 reps of front squats, get heavier as you go.  I worked with Randy, I didn't think his 1RM was as high as mine and these are some of the first front squats I've done since I jacked up my wrist, so I wanted it to be lighter than my max.  This was also a good chance to get my form better.  None of it was super heavy, but I did a good job of keeping myself upright, kept the bar more or less on the shelf, and had good form.  Not solid, not great, but good.  I didn't feel I did a good enough job sliding my hips back before going down in the squat.  Need some more practice. 

WOD was something I skipped another trip to Old Mill (the unlimited crabs place).  I will go there later in the season, but not today.  I wanted this pain... and right now, my hands are a wee bit miffed I did (as in they hurt like a summa bisch).  20 pullups (ring rows), 5 push jerk at 155 (115), 20 toes to bar (knees to stomach) and lastly 5 push jerk.  3 rounds.  I thought about doing 135, but I just wasn't sure I could do that much, that fast.  Not a lot to tell... other than the pain in my hands of trying to do toes to bar.  The ring rows sucked for two reasons.  The main one being that my lifters weren't having any of the typical lean back on your heels and pull movement.  Humidity killed what little grip those thing have on the floor, had to start further under (past) the bar and do it with bended knees.  Great workout, but man!  Other, smaller thing, was that 6pm was crowded tonight.  Lot of people packed tight on the bars.  Excited to see Unlocked expand. 

Workout was brutal, and with the minor gripes above, I was able to pull a 15:49.  Not a great time, but not horrible by any stretch.  I think if my toes to bar bar had been shorter (prevent my calves from cramping due to stretching to reach the higher bar I was at), I might have done more, faster.  Oh well.  I do like that I got just a little better at the dip-drive portion of things.  It wasn't just my legs dipping and then a push press, I actually got a good bit of lift and then did the rest of the jerk. 

Anyway, short and sweet. 

On track for 8...

If I keep this current pace up, I'm on track to lose 8 whole pounds this year.  EIGHT.  Thats it.  This is a freaking awful start to my quest to lose 100 lbs this calendar year.  And I know who's fault it is.  My wif... lol.  No, no, it's all me.  The plus side of this is that I know I can maintain my weight by eating whatever I want at home, and being pretty good on the road.  But we're not looking for that now.  Now it's time to lose, no maintaining. 

I've been talking a big game about wanting to lose this weight, but I haven't been following through when it mattered the most (at home).  Something I've started doing is asking myself the simple question, "will this help me lose 100lbs?" any time I eat.  The answer is starting to become yes more often than not when I'm at home, but I need to (and I will) edge that closer to 100% yes for both home and when I travel.  I'm rapidly approaching the one year mark of CrossFiting, and while I've made tremendous strides in the strength department over the course of this year, I let my weight loss goals suffer.  

Really, I think I just got comfortable with the process... like when you get on a chummy first name basis with your boss, and then you slip up and do or say something you shouldn't... thats where I'm at now.  Dealing with the fallout of letting myself get comfortable, complacent even, on my diet.  'Living the lie', telling myself that I was doing alright, even good.  The scale doesn't lie though.  I'll be back at the PCP (primary care doc) in about 7 weeks, and it's a great time to see my progress, make any adjustments I need to, and keep moving forwards.  After all, thats how winning is done. 

I'm being fairly hard on myself, writing all this down and having a bit of a monologue about it.... but it's also very fair criticism.  I haven't done (all) the work, and I'm expecting the results.  Performance gains are good, but the weight ones aren't, and I'm going to fix that right meow.  I have a healthy self image, and I don't bash myself like other people who get down, so hopefully you don't take that away from this.  I really don't need a hug.  Promise.   

Alright, that's  out of the way, time to talk about tonight.... er today.  Got a decent amount of sleep for a Monday (4 hours).  And when I say decent, I don't mean the quantity so much as the quality.  Wasn't much waking up or tossing and turning, good sign.  I'm actually going to finish writing this post tonight, then sleep on it, and proof in the morning.  Does two things, gives me time to make sure I didn't miss anything I wanted to hit, and then there is the whole spell/grammar checking.  Moving on...

Got to the box early, gave me time to stretch and otherwise catch up with folks.  Warmup we celebrated a 50th birthday with some jump rope.  Good times.  According to my research online, the first part of the workout was going to be working on some skill work... Dave P was running the class, turns out skill work was pullups...which is what I was going to work on anyway, but differently.  I had the idea in my head that I'd take 1, 2, or maybe 3 black bands and see if I could do a banded pullup with a monstrous amount of help.  Dave had other ideas.  Worked on the kip.  It was ugly at first.  Shoulders.  Didn't.  Move.  I got better the more I did it, but my grip, at this weight, is limited to say the least.  Heavy farmers carries and lots of bar hanging sets are in my future.

WOD tonight was something nasty.  3 rounds of 100 DUs, 25 KB swings at 53 (?), 20 box jumps, and 15 burpees.  I scaled it all in my head (sorry Dave).  Still took me a long time to do it.  I was wearing the New Balance tonight, and I'm really starting to hate them for jumping.  The scaled option was 150 singles, but I jumped at the DU number.... it's hard enough, adding to the suffering just doesn't sound all that great, na mean?  The KB's I did with a 44... which was lighter, or I should say felt lighter than I thought it would when I started swinging.  The step ups were strong tonight.  If I'd done them at 20", they'd have been a decent amount harder, might do it next time just for the burn... 18" was still a struggle.  Burppees... I cut those down the first two rounds, third round I did all 15.  Don't know why... I need to get better about doing it all at the amount prescribed, stop taking shortcuts.

Back to the jumps, the last round was a test of my patience.  It was like I was back in the open.  2 and 3 loop sets.  I wasn't going anywhere, fast or slow... I gave up somewhere around 80.  Frustration and disgust was all over my face..  I think Dave could see it.  LOL.  I'll get there man.  I did have an interesting experience in my first set though, a sort of jump roper nirvana, or maybe synergy.  The rope was moving around with no effort, or very very little, it felt weightless, I couldn't feel it when spinning.  Around that same time, the jumps were very smooth, also somewhat weightless.  I think it lasted 3, maybe 4 revolutions, but it was pretty neat, whatever it was.

Did something fun tonight.... fun, tiring as hell, and stupid... well, maybe not stupid.  My internal scaling got me done in 22 minutes (second to last).  Kelly D was a bit more accurate in her numbers, and she was the last one going.  I put up everything I'd gotten out, and decided on my way back to where our boxes were, I was going to finish the workout with her.  Why?  No idea.  I was all ready to start stepping up, when she got to the burppees.  Great.  Dave P had the same idea, and the 3 of us started doing burpees together... let me rephrase that, Kelly and  Dave we're doing burpeess together, going at a quicker than anticipated pace.  I tried to keep up.  LOL.  I got left in the dust.  The funny thing, I was trying as hard as I could to keep up.  The burpees I was putting out were faster than any of the ones I'd done during my own workout.  And not just a little bit faster, they were quite a bit faster.  I need to do my regular burpees with that intensity.  Found out something new about myself today... I CAN go faster.   

Last thing I got before going to bed, I ripped my favorite shirt tonight.  In the car.  The center console came down, and I just figured I'd pull it out without opening the console up.  I've done it plenty of times before, why not.  The KIA Optima I've got this week had other plans.  It didn't let that shirt go even a little bit.  I felt the rip... and sadness ensued.  Going to be harder to double dip with a shirt that has a fist sized hole in it.  Oh well. 

Is he still talking about 15.5? Get over it already...

Sometimes, when you don't want to workout, and you go, it's turns into something awesome... and sometimes not.  This was a not day for me.  Truthfully, I wasn't planning on going, but I woke up at 0444, and just stared at the clock for a minute... decided that it must be a sign and got up.  Really, I should have taken my tired butt back to sleep.  Another evening of working till midnight in the hotel room... yeah, I should have slept.  Drove to the box, secretly hoping no one was there... saw Jeffs vehicle from a mile away... schucks.  Oh well.  

Got to the box and I'm sore and creaky.  Walking was rough yesterday (let alone done anything else), my hammys are now in on the act... falling apart.  So I get there, and get some stretching going, trying to loosen up.  Today is a 1RM Snatch day.  Didn't specify, so I'm thinking I'll try squat snatching.  Do some oly stretching, trying to get my quads and everything firing, ready for some good work... and I get everything pretty well stretched, but my knee is still bugging me.... nagging me.   

Looking back this morning, I don't think I did enough warming up, or mobility work, especially getting ready for something like squat snatching... have to make a mental note to work on more of that before....  That combined with being Thursday after a long work week, makes me think that maaaaaybe Thursday morning isn't the best time for me to WOD... at the same time, I didn't do anything on Wednesday... so maybe it's ok and I'm just worn out? 

I didn't look before hand, but I knew my snatch's were two of my weaker movements, so I started light (the bar) and added 2 10's, then 2 15's (in addition to the 10's, and then 2 more 10's...  didn't get under that last set.  So I took everything off, put on plain ol' 25's, and did another squat snatch.  Added 2 10's back and couldn't convince myself to get under the bar.  So I tried to just power snatch it, and I did this sort of snatch jerk thing... my speed in turning it over is non-existent today...  I just updated the chart though, 95 is now a new official PR for the snatch.  I think if I'd done this in the afternoon, or maybe say tomorrow, I could have hit 125, or maybe even 135.  Tank was empty.

WOD was 400m run (500m row), 2 legless rope climbs (or 40 mountain climbers for me).  Nice little burner workout.  Didn't happen.  My knee has been feeling a lot like it felt Wednesday last week, so I jumped on a foam roller instead, trying to work that out.  It feels better right now, we'll see.  Need more work, may go in at a random time on Friday at On Track to see what I can do to work this back out to something normal.  15.5, the legacy lives on...  

This weekend is going to be another sleep deprivation survival exercise I think.  Get home late from DE tonight, up early for work tomorrow.  Possibly up all night Friday with the 5 week old, mommy is doing a sleep study... which means maaaaaaybe I'll sleep all day Saturday... but I've got other things I need to be doing while I'm home.  Guess we'll see.  Sleep is about to become priority one.  In other news, my man Brian Polla has reached back out to me, checking in on me, wanting to know what he can do to help me stay accountable with the food.  I have some ideas, but I don't know... if I knew what 100% worked to keep me motivated and accountable, I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing about this... Toying with making my food log public and paying some money into a charity pot for each awful decision (eating half a pizza, pasta helper thingy with biscuits, and other carb bombs).  I'll follow up on that later. 

Not much else to add... after the workout this morning, I used something, think it was called The Stick: Travel Stick or something like that, linked it with a website... but I used that bad boy, it hurt, but my quads feel fantastic at the moment.  I might have to buy one and put it in my travel bag.  Man I'm ready for my airplane nap...