Alright, first off... this Top Golf stuff is killing me now. Left forearm is still tender, and I can feel whatever muscles sit over the kidneys... I thought they (kidneys) were failing yesterday, drank a LOT of water. Sneaky soreness.
Moving on from golf, it's a squat day again. If you've been keeping up, I've been hating squatting for a while now. That may have "turned the corner" as they say. I didn't have a lot of weight on the bar... 95#. First few sets (I'm not paying attention to the cycles they're on, I wasn't there at the beginning... and I want to fix my squat so yeah...), but the first few sets were awkward, still overthinking it. Then, something changed. I decided to go for speed... and my goodness, not only did it feel good, I stayed on my heels and pushed a bit more through the posterior. Wait... going faster made it easier? Yeah. Did it again... I like this, I think I've found part of the solution to my squatting problems. Still not calling the 'search for squat' complete, but I feel like we've made progress. Any sci-fi fans catch that? No? Fine.
The last set, I think my knee crashed in or something, I felt a little... something. Call it a twang? On the outside of the knee... I blame this on golf. LOL. I felt it some while we were there... more stretching and rolling in my future. If you're wondering, yes, I did get that in today. Some good rolling on the IT band and the quads. Need moar!
Did a additional ancillary thing, some barbell good mornings, which are feeling better. I think I'm holding the bar better, it doesn't roll up on my neck like it used too. Was supposed to do some goblet squats as well, but I eschewed that in favor of not messing with my knee more than I had to.
METCON was some concoction of medball situps, hand release pushups, and 95# thrusters. 3 rounds, a few rep changes, but plenty of work. I alternated being on my knees and doing full pushups. I still don't like my "full" pushup... My chest is always up, or almost all the way up before the rest of my body engages and pulls itself up off the floor... Need to get some coaching on this...I feel like it's not much better than knee pushups.
The medball situps are wonderfully awful. I enjoy them for the fact that the medball gives me the inertia to get up and past half way. I hate them because they are WORK, and my future six back aches after. The thursters... we're hit and miss. The first round, I struggled to get 3 before putting the bar down. The next round I banged out 5 fairly easily before dropping the bar. Shrug. Not sure what the deal was. Last round, on what was supposed to be my last set of 5, on 3, the knee did the crashing in thing again... dropped the bar. Not sure what the issue is, hopefully it's nothing, going to have to keep an eye on it.
We did some group stretching after the WOD... fairly rare occurrence at On Track, and then we were done. I was tired, but I wasn't normal tired... I felt good.... but not just endorphin good... this is where the placebo vs Pruv It comes into play. Got my first Keto//OS shipment today, and had a half scoop before the workout. Felt the caffeine pretty quickly (well, if 30 minutes is quickly), and was better off than before I took it... I was in that nap zone of the day, but that ship was sailing further away the closer I got to the box. After the WOD, on the way home, I didn't feel like I'd gotten my ass handed to me in the gym. Don't know if it was the ketones, or the stretching. Wife hopes it's the stretching... we'll see.
I'm going to try and take some good notes the next few days, give you my thoughts and feedback on it. Might be singing some high praises soon. #wellsee #ketones #goingtopruvit or disprove it... Wish me luck.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday brunch catchup
Two days late on this one... got busier than normal.
The highlights of the past 48 hours, all non box related:
I didn't get to sets of 6... I struggled to string together 4's and 5's. Need to count out where the band goes, I've been putting it a tad low it seems. I don't think I got my forehead to the bar, but I did pull from a dead hang, and it's the correct muscles, so it's still work in the right direction right? Moving on, the next part was to string together 50 more pullups, using whatever method you wanted. By this point, I couldn't do more than 4, often 3's. I think I got to 30 before moving on. Baby steps.
METCON was 3-5 rounds of 15 cal row, 30 wallballs, 15 burpees. I barely got to the box in time for class, and did zero warm up for squatting. Ended being a mistake. I made it to the second round of wallballs, and the pain in my knee (over the knee cap area... again...), and I called it quits. While the pain was certainly legitimate, I still felt like a bit of a baby for stopping. Iced it for a good while after the workout, nice and numbed up by the time I left. People talk about needing more cowbell, I need #morestretching to keep myself out of these predicaments.
Looking forward to this week, should get all the work stuff figured out... with what will likely be west coast clients, I might have to become an AM warrior... likely the... 0530 class. Ouch. We can call that 0545 class at #CFUnlocked good training... if it comes to that. So really, it might be 2-3 weeks before I have it all figured it out, but once I do, it's on. Going after those Building a new Justin weight loss numbers.
The highlights of the past 48 hours, all non box related:
- Eldest child's 3v3 u6 soccer team destroyed their competition. I got there late, but they scored 8 goals while I was watching, and the other team got nada.
- Went to Top Golf for the first time... first time swinging clubs in about a decade. Have to tell you, functional fitness doesn't cover the golf swing... sore in strange places from that. Good time though.
- Got to spend good time with a few different friends that I don't get to see often.
- Paid the penance for "forcing a trade" at work, got a kick in the junk for my review/compensation, messed up my whole Friday.
- Didn't have the best of convos with the Mrs. about the Keto//OS purchase, need it and myself to put up big numbers.
- Pulled up lame in the workout, not an injury, but I did stop...
I didn't get to sets of 6... I struggled to string together 4's and 5's. Need to count out where the band goes, I've been putting it a tad low it seems. I don't think I got my forehead to the bar, but I did pull from a dead hang, and it's the correct muscles, so it's still work in the right direction right? Moving on, the next part was to string together 50 more pullups, using whatever method you wanted. By this point, I couldn't do more than 4, often 3's. I think I got to 30 before moving on. Baby steps.
METCON was 3-5 rounds of 15 cal row, 30 wallballs, 15 burpees. I barely got to the box in time for class, and did zero warm up for squatting. Ended being a mistake. I made it to the second round of wallballs, and the pain in my knee (over the knee cap area... again...), and I called it quits. While the pain was certainly legitimate, I still felt like a bit of a baby for stopping. Iced it for a good while after the workout, nice and numbed up by the time I left. People talk about needing more cowbell, I need #morestretching to keep myself out of these predicaments.
Looking forward to this week, should get all the work stuff figured out... with what will likely be west coast clients, I might have to become an AM warrior... likely the... 0530 class. Ouch. We can call that 0545 class at #CFUnlocked good training... if it comes to that. So really, it might be 2-3 weeks before I have it all figured it out, but once I do, it's on. Going after those Building a new Justin weight loss numbers.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Be wary of workouts with built in breaks
I've known this for a while, the being wary part... but I saw last nights WOD with breaks, and I had hope. Now, the experienced CrossFitter in me saw this for what it was... I'm going to need a minute to drag myself away from one activity and to another... but that optimist in me was like, ooh, a break, right on! Should have paid more heed to the voice of experience.
So this WOD was basically 50 minutes. Got four 1 minute transitions, and those were the breaks. 5 "stations", 9 minutes of work, with a 1 minute plank "break" in the middle of each 9 minute station.
Started at station B, 10 pullups or ring rows, 10 pushups, 10 situps. Would have set up for pullups, but Brian suggest if we didn't have 10 of them without bands, to do it with the rings. This wasn't meant to be an AMRAP, but the goal was to be in constant motion. Having moved on to banded pullups, I thought, oh, this will be easy... na, not so much. I mean it wasn't killer, but stringing together more than 5 was problematic towards the end. I did feel clever doing pushups, touching my chest to the abmat to make sure I had decent depth... maybe clever isn't the word, but it was a goal towards the end, and it kept me honest. Not much to say about the situps, they got slower as we went. 1st plank was the best one of the day. "Butt down Dan"... dammit. So now I'm making sure my stomach is just making contact with the floor... oh the burn. Only dropped twice...only time I only dropped twice too. Right now, as I write this, my forearms are tender to the touch.
Next up, 10 hang power cleans at 115, and a 200 m run. We had a lot of people today, and my typical 'I'll row instead' got eschewed for a 100m run. Probably more like an 85m run (didn't seem that far), but idk. I did what I was told to do, half the "track". Running in lifters sucked. Tried to keep it to the military double time shuffle run. Lower impact and consistent speed... worked well in the past, worked alright today. Still had a bit of huffing and puffing. The hang cleans were difficult. 115 is a heavy hang clean for me, especially after running. I did 3 sets, and I think I had maybe 8 real good looking cleans, 8 ok cleans, and the rest were ass. 2nd plank was where the forearms started feeling sore, and I had 3 more to do after this....
Row 250m, 30 KB swings. Simple right? Well, the rowing was fine. I need to go faster, I'd like to have a projected 500m of 1:50 instead of 2:00. Small things. The KB got rough. I'm tired by this point, and I'm using a heavy KB... heavy enough that my wrists got some extra work. Not enough to be like owww, but enough that I focused on keeping them locked. Plank was the worst one yet. Had the start to a nice little puddle, but took a lot of breaks.
10 deadlifts at 165, and 50 single unders. The 165 was really heavy today. I mean really heavy. I think part of it was an utter lack of sleep the night before... So I struggled with the deadlifts the whole time. The jumping wasn't good on the first round, think I strung maybe 15 together at the best stretch. Then the plank in the middle. My forearms are fire at this point. 5 seconds on, 5 off the whole time, then it was back to the dead lifts. Second set of jumping was great though, think I strung together 33 or so. I really like this Rx rope man. Need to stop screwing around and buy one.
Last station.... 10 clean pull back at 115, 10 push press, 20 hollow rocks. Deadlifts got my back all kinds of tight. It took me a long time to get 10 pulls done. In fact, thinking back, I don't think I did a full 10 before moving on to the push press. I find myself experimenting with the push press all the time... like I still don't have it down 100%. Some of these were difficult, others were easy... I need to really work on that part to make them all easier. 115 shouldn't have felt that heavy on a push press. Tried harder on this last plank set. Had a puddle that was roughly the size of a 3x5 notecard. Good times.
WOD kicked my butt. Went home, showered, ate a little bit of food, drank a Neuro, and was in bed before 8pm. Didn't sleep all that well last night, kept waking up, but I did sleep a lot. Maybe quantity will beat out quality today.
Going shoe shopping after work, either picking up the Ascis from the running spot (or ordering a different set of colors) or I might get a BOGO offer done at Shoe Carnival. Also getting some new spec's today... not really fitness news, but whatever. Lastly though, as soon as the check comes in for this last work trip, I'm getting on this Keto//OS plan. Will tell you all about it in the coming weeks I'm sure.
So this WOD was basically 50 minutes. Got four 1 minute transitions, and those were the breaks. 5 "stations", 9 minutes of work, with a 1 minute plank "break" in the middle of each 9 minute station.
Started at station B, 10 pullups or ring rows, 10 pushups, 10 situps. Would have set up for pullups, but Brian suggest if we didn't have 10 of them without bands, to do it with the rings. This wasn't meant to be an AMRAP, but the goal was to be in constant motion. Having moved on to banded pullups, I thought, oh, this will be easy... na, not so much. I mean it wasn't killer, but stringing together more than 5 was problematic towards the end. I did feel clever doing pushups, touching my chest to the abmat to make sure I had decent depth... maybe clever isn't the word, but it was a goal towards the end, and it kept me honest. Not much to say about the situps, they got slower as we went. 1st plank was the best one of the day. "Butt down Dan"... dammit. So now I'm making sure my stomach is just making contact with the floor... oh the burn. Only dropped twice...only time I only dropped twice too. Right now, as I write this, my forearms are tender to the touch.
Next up, 10 hang power cleans at 115, and a 200 m run. We had a lot of people today, and my typical 'I'll row instead' got eschewed for a 100m run. Probably more like an 85m run (didn't seem that far), but idk. I did what I was told to do, half the "track". Running in lifters sucked. Tried to keep it to the military double time shuffle run. Lower impact and consistent speed... worked well in the past, worked alright today. Still had a bit of huffing and puffing. The hang cleans were difficult. 115 is a heavy hang clean for me, especially after running. I did 3 sets, and I think I had maybe 8 real good looking cleans, 8 ok cleans, and the rest were ass. 2nd plank was where the forearms started feeling sore, and I had 3 more to do after this....
Row 250m, 30 KB swings. Simple right? Well, the rowing was fine. I need to go faster, I'd like to have a projected 500m of 1:50 instead of 2:00. Small things. The KB got rough. I'm tired by this point, and I'm using a heavy KB... heavy enough that my wrists got some extra work. Not enough to be like owww, but enough that I focused on keeping them locked. Plank was the worst one yet. Had the start to a nice little puddle, but took a lot of breaks.
10 deadlifts at 165, and 50 single unders. The 165 was really heavy today. I mean really heavy. I think part of it was an utter lack of sleep the night before... So I struggled with the deadlifts the whole time. The jumping wasn't good on the first round, think I strung maybe 15 together at the best stretch. Then the plank in the middle. My forearms are fire at this point. 5 seconds on, 5 off the whole time, then it was back to the dead lifts. Second set of jumping was great though, think I strung together 33 or so. I really like this Rx rope man. Need to stop screwing around and buy one.
Last station.... 10 clean pull back at 115, 10 push press, 20 hollow rocks. Deadlifts got my back all kinds of tight. It took me a long time to get 10 pulls done. In fact, thinking back, I don't think I did a full 10 before moving on to the push press. I find myself experimenting with the push press all the time... like I still don't have it down 100%. Some of these were difficult, others were easy... I need to really work on that part to make them all easier. 115 shouldn't have felt that heavy on a push press. Tried harder on this last plank set. Had a puddle that was roughly the size of a 3x5 notecard. Good times.
WOD kicked my butt. Went home, showered, ate a little bit of food, drank a Neuro, and was in bed before 8pm. Didn't sleep all that well last night, kept waking up, but I did sleep a lot. Maybe quantity will beat out quality today.
Going shoe shopping after work, either picking up the Ascis from the running spot (or ordering a different set of colors) or I might get a BOGO offer done at Shoe Carnival. Also getting some new spec's today... not really fitness news, but whatever. Lastly though, as soon as the check comes in for this last work trip, I'm getting on this Keto//OS plan. Will tell you all about it in the coming weeks I'm sure.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Chelsea Chelsea Chelsea
Sorry, had to do it, they're my favorite team not in KC. Part of the reason I had to do the workout today as well. It's dumb, I know.
Actually, there were a few reasons why I showed up today. The name of the workout (ie the team), I'd never done it (that I can recall), it might delay my soreness, and lastly, Brian Stites.
Let me expand on that Brian part. After the absolute nastiness that was yesterdays WOD, Brian suggested I should come today, there would be deadlifts. I looked at him an laughed a little. We'll see buddy. Then he was like hey, I could just show up at your place in the mornings, wake you up at 5am on Monday, be like "C'mon theres still time to make the morning class". Na. I'm good Brian.
So what happens at 0905 this morning? I look at the alarm, and start thinking about catching some more z's. Then I hear the voice in my head... c'mon Dan, theres still time to make it to the morning class. Pretty sure I started talking out loud to nobody after that, giving excuses about being tired still, needing more sleep, I'm sore... and this mental picture of Brian giving me one of those coach looks (you know those coach looks, don't lie), and then my feet hit the floor, and I was in motion for the day. #thanksBrian .... you know, right after hashtagging that, I felt the need to go and watch a #thanksObama video, this one in particular. Still cracks me up.
You don't have to think it's funny, it's ok.
Alright, so I'm sore and tired... nothing new. Got in the box, did some of my typical shoulder/hip warming up, then rolled out the quads a bit. Trying to get better about that after talking with Brandon on Thursday. Todays warmup was actually Helen... LOL. Seems silly to me, but it's not my call. No one took it too serious that I could tell, and I think more than a few people just leisurely did 2 rounds before we expired our 10 minute...ish warmup time.
The team training group was taking up the main box space this morning, so the 15 or so of us went to "the dungeon" and worked up to a "heavy" 5 rep deadlift in teams of 2-3. We got up to 245 in my group of 3, and called it good. I think had we been doing this for single reps, I would have finally eclipsed 300 lbs. Still need to set that PR... After we went heavy, we were to drop about 10-15%, and do another 10 each, broken up however we want. It was easy. I've been told by many places, online and off, that deadlift strength is a good measure of overall strength. Don't know if thats true from my own experience, but the fact that I'm getting much stronger with it is pretty cool. 205 was really heavy to me at one time.
Chelsea. For the uninitiated, is Cindy with a time/round limit instead of an AMRAP format. If that still means nothing to you, Chelsea is an EMOM, 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 air squats, for 30 minutes. The day I'm able to do this RX, I'll consider myself ready to compete :) I'm not going to go through all the suffering that it was, round by round. I don't know how many I did, I know I was going every other through the first 12-14 minutes, then a few times I had to take two minutes off... I'm going to say I ended up with 13 rounds, not 100% sure.
Notable things to me from the WOD:
- Did full pushups the first round, trying to be like when I did the competition, seemed to work out ok, but I was slow. Ended up doing the dreaded princess pushups for most of it.
- Did banded pullups... a whole lot more than my first time doing pullups... going to feel this in a very bad way tomorrow and Monday.
- The airsquats were mostly... awful. Form and how they felt. All them wallballs and squats earlier... no favors here. I'll love the gains later, but right now, I'm in the thick of it, and it's no fun.
Best part about Chelsea, is that it's over. The endorphins hit early, and man, they were needed for sure. Told Brian the story from when I woke up, he chuckled a bit. Said my farewells, came home, mowed. Solid cool down work :)
More of the "other news" type stuff, the running store came through with two shoes, stopped by and tried them on. They were comfy, felt good. Then I stood up and walked around. BOTH of them were squishy in the heels. The New Balance more than the Asics, but both were squish. Can't be having that. I asked them to hold the Asics for a week, they're the newer model of the shoe I started with... and they're probably be fine, but I want some time to think before dropping a note on one.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Day 494, make the bad man stop...
It was a rough workout... going in, I was expecting workout A, what I got was workout B. Leads me to a question. What do you think about when it gets spick? I don't have a good answer myself... makes me think I go into survival mode, breathing and counting, emphasis on the breathing. So thats what I do, what do you do?
Alright, so why did this suck so bad... The workout I thought I was going to do looked fun in the sucky CrossFit sense. Easier to copy paste:
WOD 1:
- Min 0-6
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
15 Power Clean to Overhead - 95/65
10 Bar Facing Burpees
- Min 6-12
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
10 Power Clean to Overhead - 135/85
10 Bar Facing Burpees
- Min 12-18
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
5 Power Clean to Overhead - 185/125
10 Bar Facing Burpees
These are not AMRAPs! They are single rounds performed as fast as they possibly can be and rest the remaining (likely) 4 minutes. Trust me, they are hard!
Scaling: Toes to Bar can be scaled to Knees to Elbows and weights can be scaled to some degree, but you want to make sure the heavy weight sucks and that the medium weight... well, so that it also sucks.
So there you have it. Looks simple enough. Hard work, high intensity, and maybe some rest. I'm thinking I can knees to elbows...ish, and I thought that would be good.
No sir.
Brians like I want you to do the level 1 stuff. Here is what it is:
Level I differences: At the top of each 6 min interval, do:
2 Rounds
15 AbMat Sit Ups
10 Power Clean to Overhead - 95/65
5 Bar-Facing Burpees
- weights and reps do not change
Oh, ok, that wont be so... wait... did that say do it twice? !@#$... !@#$ !@#$ !#$ !@#$!#@$%%#@%! ... I could do that for a while. I'm so stinking slow with situps and burpees, and now I have to basically do two for what other people are doing 1 for. Noooooooooooooooo.
No sense arguing about it, time to do it. Won't go into the suffering, it was so bad that I went to the place of trying to breath. The first two 6 minute workouts, I got through. 1st set, I had almost 2 minutes left. Nice. Second round, I had about 20 seconds left... oh man, where did it go? 3rd round was awful. I got to the second set of cleans... and then I wanted to die. Breathing was certainly the struggle... caused by the situps and the burpees. One WOD at a time, going to get better.
Truth be told, I was done at this point... so stinking tired... and then we got a second workout. 500m row, rope climbs or their scaling, sled push, 30 wallballs, 100 single jumps. Took me 15 minutes, thats how tired I was. Which is to say fresh I probably would have done it 9-11, maybe less. Cool part, the Rx jumprope was there this time, and man, it jumped like a dream. My legs were shot, so it took me 10 tries to get my 100, but I got all of them.
Alright, so there, I'm tired, got my butt kicked hard today, and sitting here now, I'm ready for more... we'll see how it feel stomorrow.
I do like that I've finally gotten to 3 sessions in KC in a week... been a long time (ever?) since thats happened. Might even go back tomorrow, and if so, I'll see you then.
Alright, so why did this suck so bad... The workout I thought I was going to do looked fun in the sucky CrossFit sense. Easier to copy paste:
WOD 1:
- Min 0-6
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
15 Power Clean to Overhead - 95/65
10 Bar Facing Burpees
- Min 6-12
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
10 Power Clean to Overhead - 135/85
10 Bar Facing Burpees
- Min 12-18
1 Round
20 Toes to Bar
5 Power Clean to Overhead - 185/125
10 Bar Facing Burpees
These are not AMRAPs! They are single rounds performed as fast as they possibly can be and rest the remaining (likely) 4 minutes. Trust me, they are hard!
Scaling: Toes to Bar can be scaled to Knees to Elbows and weights can be scaled to some degree, but you want to make sure the heavy weight sucks and that the medium weight... well, so that it also sucks.
So there you have it. Looks simple enough. Hard work, high intensity, and maybe some rest. I'm thinking I can knees to elbows...ish, and I thought that would be good.
No sir.
Brians like I want you to do the level 1 stuff. Here is what it is:
Level I differences: At the top of each 6 min interval, do:
2 Rounds
15 AbMat Sit Ups
10 Power Clean to Overhead - 95/65
5 Bar-Facing Burpees
- weights and reps do not change
Oh, ok, that wont be so... wait... did that say do it twice? !@#$... !@#$ !@#$ !#$ !@#$!#@$%%#@%! ... I could do that for a while. I'm so stinking slow with situps and burpees, and now I have to basically do two for what other people are doing 1 for. Noooooooooooooooo.
No sense arguing about it, time to do it. Won't go into the suffering, it was so bad that I went to the place of trying to breath. The first two 6 minute workouts, I got through. 1st set, I had almost 2 minutes left. Nice. Second round, I had about 20 seconds left... oh man, where did it go? 3rd round was awful. I got to the second set of cleans... and then I wanted to die. Breathing was certainly the struggle... caused by the situps and the burpees. One WOD at a time, going to get better.
Truth be told, I was done at this point... so stinking tired... and then we got a second workout. 500m row, rope climbs or their scaling, sled push, 30 wallballs, 100 single jumps. Took me 15 minutes, thats how tired I was. Which is to say fresh I probably would have done it 9-11, maybe less. Cool part, the Rx jumprope was there this time, and man, it jumped like a dream. My legs were shot, so it took me 10 tries to get my 100, but I got all of them.
Alright, so there, I'm tired, got my butt kicked hard today, and sitting here now, I'm ready for more... we'll see how it feel stomorrow.
I do like that I've finally gotten to 3 sessions in KC in a week... been a long time (ever?) since thats happened. Might even go back tomorrow, and if so, I'll see you then.
Still a work in progress
If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm turning into a basket case... at least in a few areas of my life. LOL. I've decreed that my squats are fully broken. Had a chance last night to do a "heavy" 1 rep. The last PR I set was back in Feb at Unlocked, when I still carried the bar about an inch higher on my neck. Ever since then, I've been trying to do heavy weight while fixing that issue. Terrible idea. Absolutely awful. Yesterday, instead of really getting after it, I asked for a lot of feedback, because I want to get it right. I was 100lbs from my last PR, and I was struggling out of the hole... trying to fix things before it's too late.
A little more detail on it... my last PR... not only was I lifting a lighter higher on my neck, but I'm pretty sure (looking back) that I was lifting with a lot of quad activation by sitting mid foot. So, I'm really trying to fix two things at once, lifting from a lower, growing shelf of traps and getting a greater amount of glute/hamstring participation in the lifts. I have this idea... and I'll have to ask if it's a good one, but my thought is maybe using a 1/4 pices of wood to put my toes on, so they're more elevated. My thought is that this might help me to remember to push through my heels, and not through my quads. Hopefully that makes sense.
So, working on finding a true squat... depth, straight/upright posture, add weight as I can. Call this a work in progress.
Rest of the WOD yesterday wasn't kind. Row 15cal, 30 wall balls, 15 lateral box jump overs. My knee has been bugging me and I told Brandon (Koontz) about my knee hurting... it's the same pain I've had before, the over the knee cap thing... and being honest, I didn't feel like doing this for three rounds, so I was basically bitching. I'm pretty sure he could see through it all... his modified moves that he showed would probably help someone with functional knee pain, but my knees move fine, they just hurt... like a tendon is tight or something. Having to share rowers and the like, I can't give you an accurate count of how long it took to do three rounds (with built in 2-3 minutes of rest).
Brandon later suggested rolling out the quads and some other stretches... going to start doing more of that.... reminds me I need to get that magic stick thingy. Even though I wont be traveling as much ( I don't think), it would be nice to have something besides a rolling pin. :)
Don't have much else this morning, busy day today at the office, so I'm going to get to it. Cheers.
A little more detail on it... my last PR... not only was I lifting a lighter higher on my neck, but I'm pretty sure (looking back) that I was lifting with a lot of quad activation by sitting mid foot. So, I'm really trying to fix two things at once, lifting from a lower, growing shelf of traps and getting a greater amount of glute/hamstring participation in the lifts. I have this idea... and I'll have to ask if it's a good one, but my thought is maybe using a 1/4 pices of wood to put my toes on, so they're more elevated. My thought is that this might help me to remember to push through my heels, and not through my quads. Hopefully that makes sense.
So, working on finding a true squat... depth, straight/upright posture, add weight as I can. Call this a work in progress.
Rest of the WOD yesterday wasn't kind. Row 15cal, 30 wall balls, 15 lateral box jump overs. My knee has been bugging me and I told Brandon (Koontz) about my knee hurting... it's the same pain I've had before, the over the knee cap thing... and being honest, I didn't feel like doing this for three rounds, so I was basically bitching. I'm pretty sure he could see through it all... his modified moves that he showed would probably help someone with functional knee pain, but my knees move fine, they just hurt... like a tendon is tight or something. Having to share rowers and the like, I can't give you an accurate count of how long it took to do three rounds (with built in 2-3 minutes of rest).
Brandon later suggested rolling out the quads and some other stretches... going to start doing more of that.... reminds me I need to get that magic stick thingy. Even though I wont be traveling as much ( I don't think), it would be nice to have something besides a rolling pin. :)
Don't have much else this morning, busy day today at the office, so I'm going to get to it. Cheers.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Post number 200, and I'm lost
What I mean about lost... I've been a bit directionless lately. Tell you now, this is more of an introspective post today.... more of a "state of the union"... and it's in disarray after the past month. I've had two client changes, and now I might be off the road completely, which doesn't bother me, but it changes things, and I haven't been handling that change well. It's Wednesday into week 2 of 2 being home, and I've been to the box 3 times... work stress, routine change... I'm not handling any of it very well.
Tomorrow is a new day though, and I'll be back to the box.... going to right this ship. Had a good workout today, and talked to Brian, told him that I wanted to be a poster child for him, and I wanted the results of the last guy he slimmed down years ago. He looked up for the challenge, and we talked a little bit about diet and sleep. Working on the sleep part (trying to get a different CPAP mask to see if I can keep it on throughout the night). Diet will be a challenge, always has been, but when I get the Keto/OS stuff, along with working with Madison some more, I expect things will be good.
So.. Ketones stuff... work being out of balance, what else... um... oh, used the shoe goo finally. Looks a mess, but the lifters held up nicely today. The "fit" is better than it's been in the past months, so it's nice. Staying on shoes, went to this running shoe store, trying to find another pair of solid shoes like the ones I started CrossFitting with. Guy looked at my shoes and was like wow, those should be on eBay... I've had them for 12 years now. Worn out, but still look newish... Ascis if you're wondering. Might be what I end up with again, waiting to hear back from the store as they look in their systems for something that will work.
Workout stuff, today was good. Snatches, overhead squats, some burpees... moved alright during everything. Nothing I wanted to work out, but all things I need to get better/faster at, so the work was good. Did more OHS than I've done... ever, so that was cool. Progress we'll say.
So, to summarize, this last month has been a good mix of up's and downs. We're on a down slope right now, but things are looking up, so I expect to make that climb back up to the top of the sine wave. First competitions, first pullups, arguably my first pushups, and PR's... all solid things to build off of. As soon as I get back on track, I'm going to focus a lot more on results, prepping my own food (thanks to being home), and I expect to start seeing more pronounced gains. Want to look markedly smaller by the time I get back to my first families of fitness in DE (north and south). See the word play there... Delaware, the first state, my first CrossFit families... I'm a nerd, I know.
Small milestone, 200 posts. Need to finish up my 201st thats sitting in draft status. Soon... and I promise it will be a way different kind of read, you'll see.
Tomorrow is a new day though, and I'll be back to the box.... going to right this ship. Had a good workout today, and talked to Brian, told him that I wanted to be a poster child for him, and I wanted the results of the last guy he slimmed down years ago. He looked up for the challenge, and we talked a little bit about diet and sleep. Working on the sleep part (trying to get a different CPAP mask to see if I can keep it on throughout the night). Diet will be a challenge, always has been, but when I get the Keto/OS stuff, along with working with Madison some more, I expect things will be good.
So.. Ketones stuff... work being out of balance, what else... um... oh, used the shoe goo finally. Looks a mess, but the lifters held up nicely today. The "fit" is better than it's been in the past months, so it's nice. Staying on shoes, went to this running shoe store, trying to find another pair of solid shoes like the ones I started CrossFitting with. Guy looked at my shoes and was like wow, those should be on eBay... I've had them for 12 years now. Worn out, but still look newish... Ascis if you're wondering. Might be what I end up with again, waiting to hear back from the store as they look in their systems for something that will work.
Workout stuff, today was good. Snatches, overhead squats, some burpees... moved alright during everything. Nothing I wanted to work out, but all things I need to get better/faster at, so the work was good. Did more OHS than I've done... ever, so that was cool. Progress we'll say.
So, to summarize, this last month has been a good mix of up's and downs. We're on a down slope right now, but things are looking up, so I expect to make that climb back up to the top of the sine wave. First competitions, first pullups, arguably my first pushups, and PR's... all solid things to build off of. As soon as I get back on track, I'm going to focus a lot more on results, prepping my own food (thanks to being home), and I expect to start seeing more pronounced gains. Want to look markedly smaller by the time I get back to my first families of fitness in DE (north and south). See the word play there... Delaware, the first state, my first CrossFit families... I'm a nerd, I know.
Small milestone, 200 posts. Need to finish up my 201st thats sitting in draft status. Soon... and I promise it will be a way different kind of read, you'll see.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Sleep deprivation, malnutrition, and the buuuuuuuuuuurn.
Man, this second days DOMS from the pullups is really cramping my style. I feel like I need to be shoulders back and flexed at all times JUST to not feel my lats and even more tender still, my read deltoid area. My goodness... and it's been getting sorer and sore as the day has gone one. So my day has been pretty rough... constant soreness...constant whining to myself all day...all very annoying.
I'm going with a different format tonight, cause I'm tired (hence the sleep deprivation in the title). I got up at 459... with my alarm set at 615, and this isn't the first time this week waking up early.
I'm malnourished cause I've been eating at very irregular times the past two days (hey, I worked 22 hours the past two days), and my food choices haven't been complete garbage, but it hasn't been great either. Salad, pretzel bread sandwich, chicken with beans and rice... all decent. Pizza, Taco Bell, and QuikTrip Hotzi breakfast sandwiches... not so much. Add to it that I need to get my protein shake game up to snuff... probably fix a lot of issues... I workout too hard to not be eating right.
WOD was some Hatch squatting... I didn't do the % progression, I just did 135, and had Brian help me with my back squats... made some progress, but still a ways to go. Some front squats too, but I've almost got those locked down. Their was a part I'm forgetting, I think. Then the METCON. We kinda got our choice of WODs. Amanda, Elizabeth, or Friendly. I chose friendly, because I had no desire to do ring dips/ring pushups... 21-15-9 push press at 95, air squats, and a 55lb KB swing.
The good, I did it all RX.
The bad, most KB's I've done at 55
The ugly, the shoulder buuuuuuuuuuurn
11:31. Not a great time in my opinion, but it's my first time doing Friendly so now I've got a benchmark.
I'm going with a different format tonight, cause I'm tired (hence the sleep deprivation in the title). I got up at 459... with my alarm set at 615, and this isn't the first time this week waking up early.
I'm malnourished cause I've been eating at very irregular times the past two days (hey, I worked 22 hours the past two days), and my food choices haven't been complete garbage, but it hasn't been great either. Salad, pretzel bread sandwich, chicken with beans and rice... all decent. Pizza, Taco Bell, and QuikTrip Hotzi breakfast sandwiches... not so much. Add to it that I need to get my protein shake game up to snuff... probably fix a lot of issues... I workout too hard to not be eating right.
WOD was some Hatch squatting... I didn't do the % progression, I just did 135, and had Brian help me with my back squats... made some progress, but still a ways to go. Some front squats too, but I've almost got those locked down. Their was a part I'm forgetting, I think. Then the METCON. We kinda got our choice of WODs. Amanda, Elizabeth, or Friendly. I chose friendly, because I had no desire to do ring dips/ring pushups... 21-15-9 push press at 95, air squats, and a 55lb KB swing.
The good, I did it all RX.
The bad, most KB's I've done at 55
The ugly, the shoulder buuuuuuuuuuurn
11:31. Not a great time in my opinion, but it's my first time doing Friendly so now I've got a benchmark.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Got my first (assisted) pullup!
This was worse than the competition... I'm winded and tired as heck after Tuesdays WOD. And really, it might be fallout from the comp, but it could also just be lost lung capacity. I spent two days whimpering from the DOMS that the Blind Date competition gave me. Monday I wanted to go in, but it was a lot of squatting... and my quads we're still VERY sore. There were also at least 70 burpees for time at the end, and I wanted to do it... see how long it would take, a capacity benchmark, something I can test again later, or at least thats how I looked at it. I decided to pass on the whole WOD with the lingering soreness, and I did the hard thing, grabbed a rolling pin at home and brought myself to the edge of tears rolling out the quads, hammy's, etc. Worth it in the end, but wow it hurt. I've got goals to meet, can't be missing WODs like Mondays just because I'm sore.
Like I alluded to above, Tuesday had me wiped out. I was more winded and tired than I'd really been at any time during the competition. The rowing during the METCON was what did me in. I think I've lost a lot of my capacity. 500m in 90 degrees was like 1000m in the Spring. Slow and tiring. I have what might be a good excuse though. Did my first (assisted) pullup today.
YEAH!
Brian grabbed a large black band, and hooked it horizontally on the rig, about sternum height (bars ARE a little higher here than most places), and was like there ya go, try that. Fear. Not utter terror, but I was like wha? He walked away too, so it was kind of a "here's the tool, you can do it". And I did. The band is actually so strong, I have to push down a little, and then bend my leg a little to get full extension. Chin doesn't clear the bar, yet, but still, I got up to eye level, and I've never done that, so it was really cool... hard, but cool. No more ring rows, or at least less ring rows.
Next we worked on split jerks... and man alive, I had some issues. Part of it was my shoes are a little bit more torn up... I still need to ShoeGoo them. My shoe felt loose a lot.... and so my first few under some weight looked pretty bad. Got better, but I never really got much weight on the bar.
METCON is what got me. 15min AMRAP of 500m row, 12 ring rows, 9 deadlifts at 135, and 5 shoulder to overheads. Thing is... I still had 95 on the bar when the clock started. I was a bit slow in the transition, so I lost some METCON time... which sucked as I've alluded to. I got to the 4th round.... oh, something else that slowed me down... the first set of shoulder to overhead, I did clean and jerks instead of just one clean and then push presses. Oops.
Like I alluded to above, Tuesday had me wiped out. I was more winded and tired than I'd really been at any time during the competition. The rowing during the METCON was what did me in. I think I've lost a lot of my capacity. 500m in 90 degrees was like 1000m in the Spring. Slow and tiring. I have what might be a good excuse though. Did my first (assisted) pullup today.
YEAH!
Brian grabbed a large black band, and hooked it horizontally on the rig, about sternum height (bars ARE a little higher here than most places), and was like there ya go, try that. Fear. Not utter terror, but I was like wha? He walked away too, so it was kind of a "here's the tool, you can do it". And I did. The band is actually so strong, I have to push down a little, and then bend my leg a little to get full extension. Chin doesn't clear the bar, yet, but still, I got up to eye level, and I've never done that, so it was really cool... hard, but cool. No more ring rows, or at least less ring rows.
Next we worked on split jerks... and man alive, I had some issues. Part of it was my shoes are a little bit more torn up... I still need to ShoeGoo them. My shoe felt loose a lot.... and so my first few under some weight looked pretty bad. Got better, but I never really got much weight on the bar.
METCON is what got me. 15min AMRAP of 500m row, 12 ring rows, 9 deadlifts at 135, and 5 shoulder to overheads. Thing is... I still had 95 on the bar when the clock started. I was a bit slow in the transition, so I lost some METCON time... which sucked as I've alluded to. I got to the 4th round.... oh, something else that slowed me down... the first set of shoulder to overhead, I did clean and jerks instead of just one clean and then push presses. Oops.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
My first competition
Man... where to start from? Just got home and cleaned up from my very first CrossFit competition. Fun time. I'm tired. Having an Olaf moment... I can't feel my legs. If you don't get it... Google Olaf, and legs, I'm sure there is more than a little bit of internet shenanigans that will help explain it. You can click it here if you're lazy.
I guess I'll start at 0001. Still a ladies night going on at the house, girls and their giggling... so, not wanting to be a quitter, and still staying out of their way, I'm in the basement playing games. They finally left, and I finally got to bed after 0100. Not a great start to this competition. 0700, I'm awake. Yawwwn. Shower and a 5 hour energy later, I'm at the box, early. 0750.
Taran shows up shortly after 0800... my team mate has arrived, and now we wait. Taran, for those of you who haven't been following, is the guy who's example led to me trying CrossFit for the first time. So it's cool that I have him here on my team. Spent some time showing him around, and introducing him to the On Track folk. Would love to have him here... time will tell. I'm not going to keep it "play by play" style with the times, I promise.... after this last one. 9am gets here, it's time to get going.
The competition is called the Blind Date competition. Teams of two (mere-mortals) and then a person from the On Track team (firebreather). The blind date part being that we have no idea who our teammate is going to be. Bit of nerves for that part. I know... or "know" maybe 10 people on the team, so I've got come concerns about who's we're going to get. I'm sure that all the firebreathers are just that, nasty fire breathing WOD killers, but I'm still hoping to get a name I recognize.
One by one, teams get announced to the group, and I slowly see my internal list dwindle down. Picked the name Future Jockeys for this comp... two reasons. One, I planned on wearing my Soulshine #Junkheadband (has a horse and jockey on it) and two, I'm still a large dude, and Taran's a big (tall) dude... and that makes it dry humor funny, cause there is no way either of us would or could be jockeys.
We're finally up to get our firebreather, near the end of the group of mere mortals, and the two people I was hoping for are still available. Hand goes in the hat, aaaaaaaaaaand the firebreather is.... Katie Mueller. Not at all who I was expecting (I was hoping for Brian or Brandon), but she's on the list, and frankly, she's a beast, so I'm very happy with this. I remember from watching Regionals that she could do some real work, and she was on the team that went from dead last after the first event to missing The CrossFit Games by 6 piddly points. Awesome, happy to have you, lets do work!
Team Future Jockey's!
Now's probably the time to tell you to go get some popcorn... this is going to be a looooooooooooooooong post. No. Really.
We're in heat two for the competition, not sure if this is good thing, or not. Katie had just gotten here, so she trying to hurry through a warmup, and Taran and I are trying not to cool down too much before go time. WOD 1 is as follows:
WOD 1:
9 min AMRAP Relay
Firebreather - 5 Full Snatch @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 1 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 2 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
- 5 Clean CAN be substituted for 10 Deadlift
Heat 1 finishes up, and these cats look tired. Ok, fine, let's go. Katie leads us off on the snatches. Boom, done. Then Taran took the first set up power cleans, then it was my turn. During warmups, I did a few 135lb power cleans, and I had some concerns about my ability to do that many of them... thankfully there is a deadlift substitute if need be. I got 5 cleans done, then it's back to Katie.
We went through the progression again, 5 more cleans, again, 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. I don't know exactly how many rounds we went through, but I didn't deadlift once. I don't know if it's that extra push because of team mates and a competition, or if it's the fact that I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit for... the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I felt we did well, I didn't feel terribly slow, I tried to let the bar and gravity pull me down every time. Little tired after the round, but feeling good. Break time.
Between the main workouts they had community WODs. There was a buy in (like raffle ticket buy in), and then you'd perform, some prizes awarded for the "winner". EVERYONE is timid... we just got done with this, what could it be? Got a few volunteers, and then the hand went into the hat... 1 minute workout of.... best Golds Gym pose! Wait, what? Yeah, heard that right (you read it right too). I smell a trap, but no, it's just what they said it was. We've got people with dumbbells, taking their shirts, off... is that an infant? Yes it is! Posing with a child in your arms, dastardly. One competitor went and grabbed a young puppy... tough decision now. The winner ended up being a little dude using two dumbbell to flex and pump, and as a bonus, he'd taken his shirt off. LOL! I don't know his name, Ty's kid, but he was kid cute, he wins it, hands down.
The break was nice... I wasn't totally gassed, but the extra time was good. Whats next?
WOD 2:
Chipper (14 min Cap)
Set Order, must attempt (not complete) 1 rep to move on
50 Pull ups
100 Hand Release Push Ups
150 AbMat Sit Ups
200 Air Squats
250 Double Unders
Oh man. This is what I was dreading, and wanting... no, needing a dynamo 3rd for. Taran's good, but he's not team fit (yet), and there's no way I'm going to be of any help with pullups... so Katie is going to get leaned on... harder than I want to, but thats how teams work, you can't all be good at everything... or maybe you can? I'm not there yet... so I'll say it now, thanks Katie, thanks Taran, you guys are awesome.
Rules being the rules, we each have to at least attempt a rep. Katie led us off, and somewhere around 10, she hit her elbow on something, came off the bar. Acted like she'd been bit... thought she might have hurt her elbow (liked pulled something type of hurt), wasn't the case, thank goodness (not just for this now, but getting hurt just sucks in general right?). She's good.... For my attempt, I jumped up on the bar, and pulled with all my might. I think I elevated an inch or two, but that was it. Cool thing, I popped several vertebrae.... then I hopped down. We did that for 2 rounds, then finished up.
Our brief pullup debacle cost us some time, we're dead last moving to the hand release pushups. I did 5.... and they're close to being legit, real deal pushups, handed off to Katie, who handed off to Taran... we're all tired already. It's a lot of Dan to pushup still, and what they lack in my size, they've both made up for in effort. As we get further along, the numbers get less "neat". We're picking them up at 8's and 6's and 3's... I ended up doing the last 10... I'm trying man... I want to take as much of it as I can. I can tell that taking that last 10 was a good thing for Katie. Not that she was struggling, but with 10 left, she asked if I was good, and I was like yeah, I've got these. She hustled over to the abmat to get ready for stiups.
She took off too. All of this stuff sucks for me, body weight exercises are just not a strength yet. And even situps take a lot of extra oompf. I don't rembmer exactly how we split this up, but yet again, I am in the debt of the team. I finished out the last set of 20, didn't want to have to have Katie do anymore, but Lawd they were painful, as soon as I got it though, we're on to the air squats.
Finally, something I can try to contribute to. Well... maybe. Katie was banging these things out. So much power, she was practically leaving the ground with every one. I mean her feet were moving around, she was creating so much force on the way up that her feet weren't exactly in the same place when she came back down. I don't have that problem yet :) We kept the same familiar formation, going going going. Taran didn't move around quite as much... but all this raw power, wish we have a little bit more barbell work. During one of my turns, I almost fell on my face. LOLOL I was so worried about speed and power, I ended up on my toes, and I had to throw my arms out and windmill a bit to get back to normal. Katie got in my ear about picking a spot on the wall and focusing on that. Helped. Yet again, got the last 20 reps, and then Katie takes off on the doubleunders.
She's good. Not an out and out jump rope goddess, but very good. She banged out 70 without missing a beat. Taran looked like a beaten man. He tried a few times, got a few reps in, and he was frustrated. I tried... almost sorta got one. I looked at Katie, her eyes we're a bit less imploring than her words, she was like try some more. Sure. I tried again... I could barely jump. My quads... or whatever is right above the knee, on the inside of the leg... absolutely shredded. Not getting any useful bounce out of these bad boys. Tried again.. no. Katie was about to take off... time. Hit the 14 minute cap.
Oh wow. I'm done. Taran's done... idk, maybe Katies done... na, she still looks fresh. I want to get on her level. At this point, I'm trying to "walk it off". Airsquats did me in. It's ok though, break time. Got a few more volunteers for this break WOD... and it was a 1 minute AMRAP of.... double unders. Lots of suckers... er people in this one. Going to be rough for anyone who just got done in heat 2 of the chipper. The winner ended up at 117. Pretty good if you ask me.
Third and final event. Two part WOD. Complicated setup:
WOD 3:
2 Part Workout, 2 separate scores
Part 1
Firebreather Static Holds for 1 min while Mere Mortals complete Burpee Box Jump Overs, one working at a time. Reps only count while the static hold is being held.
5 min: FB
1 min Flexed arm hang
1 min Handstand Hold
1 min Top of Ring Dip
1 min Bottom of Squat
1 min Plank
5 min: MM
AMRAP Burpee Box Jump Overs (20/16)
- one person working at a time
+
7 min AMRAP
20 Toes to bar w/ 1 partner in a bar hang
25 Partner Deadlift - 255/185
20 Handstand Push Ups w/ 1 partner in a handstand hold
25 Med Ball AbMat Passes
20 Synchronized American KB Swings (70/55 for FB, 55/35 for MM)
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Handstand Walk
Max reps Muscle Ups w/ time remaining - partners can complete muscle ups any way they want, including assisted!
Follow all that? Cliff notes, first WOD, Katie holds the static holds, Taran and I do burpee box jumpovers. We had a good break... actually, we had an extended break, we've actually had to change the format to 3 heats, due to the second half of the workout, and we're in heat 3. Lots of time to watch... and wait. Finally, it's our turn.
Taran and I worked out a deal... he'd do 4 to my 2. This is great for me, keep me fast, but is going to hurt Taran later... Looking back right now, I should have listened to my gut and done more burpees in a few spots. What I'm saying is that there were a few times where I should have done 4 instead of 2, and give Taran an extra break. My bad man. This was a nasty 5 minutes too. Katie was a champ, only struggled on the ring dip holds... other teams were struggling with holds everywhere, she was a champ. Wish we could have gotten more reps for her efforts. Thanks for the stellar work KM.
One minute break, and really, it was just Taran and I pulling ourselves together, and then it was the toes to bar with one partner in a static hang. I don't have a good hang, but I volunteered to go up with Katie, her doing the toes to bar. "I've got you for 5"... She does 5, then we're both down. That 5 count was awful. It held as long as I could, and by the end of it, I had blackness coming in on the edges of my vision, like no exaggeration I thought I was going to fall down and wake up somewhere else... it would have been scary if I wasn't in survival/go mode. Taran and Katie go up, Taren gets 5 T2B himself, they come down. Katie looks hungry, ready to get this over with... alright lets go. We jump up. I'm determined to not let go till she's done... and the only thing I focused on, was getting air in and out. I took the deepest breaths I could, in, out, in, out. No blackness... and it wasn't soooooo awful. Katie got her 10, and we're off the bar. Really wasn't that long to be on the bar, but I feel like it was probably the longest I've ever held on... maybe time since the workout, along with the o2 deprivation are playing tricks on me and my memory. Katie is fast... so it probably didn't take all that long...
Partner deadlifts... not terrible heavy, and if Taran and I ever got fully on the same pages, we'd be ridiculous. We set it down at 10, and then we got to 20, and walked away. Judge was like waaa??? WAIT, you've got to do 25! CRAP! The whole time (1-20), I think Taran thought I was dying... and maybe I was, but this wasn't so bad, we banged out that last 5 quickly, and then it was on to the handstand pushup/hold.
The handstand pushup... ended up being our Achilles heel. I don't have these (yet) and I've never tried to go upside down... I'm scared to try it now... endorphins, adrenaline, caffeine... I have my concerns that this concoction will lead to me breaking my neck, so it's really up to Taran and Katie. This... is our teams biggest "needs improvement". Taran is spent, and he's struggling to hold up more than two reps at a time. So frustrating to watch, wanting to help, but not being able to. We finally make it work (really, probably more "bro-reps" than anything), and we're done. Praise the Lawd!
25 Abmat med ball passes... I jogged over, and Katie took my que, she's there too, and we're going. I think we got to 15 or so, and Taran wanted to take over. You got it bro! He finished off the set, then it was on to the three person synchronized KB swings. 55lbs is heavy for me, I don't do it often in WODs (yet). We all grab the KB and start. Man alive, this sucked. 5, 10... and then it got interesting. I wanted to set it down, take a break, but no one else was stopping, so I kept swinging. Got to 15... break? Nope, kept swinging. Made it all the way to 20. Dropped the KB at the end, don't think I've ever dropped a KB before... My grip was gonzo. Found out after the workout, Taran had wanted to stop as well, but saw me keep going, so he kept going. I'm sure there is a term for whatever that is, pushing yourself further cause you don't want to let the next person down, but I don't know if off the top of my head.
Taran dropped down for the crab walk after that, and got maybe 7 feet before we hit the time cap. I don't think I've ever been so happy to have hit time. Finally. Finished.
So tired....
We didn't get first... or second... or third. I wanted a top 30% finish, but frankly, I'm somewhat excited that we finished at 12 of 17. Not terrible for my first time out. Happened to be Tarans first competition too. Good times.
I did get this for my troubles. After the team winners were announced, they had extra awards for sweat hogs, best team spirit, best costume, and a few other thing. I got the first award. I'm On Track FAMOUS now!
No, the honest jerk side of me is looks at lit like a backhanded complement, but the majority of me is like yeah... I pushed harder than I've ever pushed before, did more than before, and kept moving forward, so this is freaking sweet!!! I even took a bow after accepting my cert, prize, and all the goodies that came with it. Might as well enjoy the spotlight while I'm in it. :)
Alright, thats all I've got for the competition, we had a pot luck after, lots of great jobs, fist bumps, high fives. Yet another thing that makes getting off the road my #1 priority right now....
Out of competition memories at the moment, if I think of more, I'll edit them in.
One bit of "other news", took flights on 3 different models of airplanes this week. Didn't need a seat belt extender on any of them. So awesome. Vindication. Hard work paying off. #HWPO YESSIR.
Thanks for reading, I'm tired, I've been working on this off and on for a while now (tv is so distracting). I'm going to bed. Thanks for the great day Diana, Brian, and the rest of the folks who made this possible at On Track!
I guess I'll start at 0001. Still a ladies night going on at the house, girls and their giggling... so, not wanting to be a quitter, and still staying out of their way, I'm in the basement playing games. They finally left, and I finally got to bed after 0100. Not a great start to this competition. 0700, I'm awake. Yawwwn. Shower and a 5 hour energy later, I'm at the box, early. 0750.
Taran shows up shortly after 0800... my team mate has arrived, and now we wait. Taran, for those of you who haven't been following, is the guy who's example led to me trying CrossFit for the first time. So it's cool that I have him here on my team. Spent some time showing him around, and introducing him to the On Track folk. Would love to have him here... time will tell. I'm not going to keep it "play by play" style with the times, I promise.... after this last one. 9am gets here, it's time to get going.
The competition is called the Blind Date competition. Teams of two (mere-mortals) and then a person from the On Track team (firebreather). The blind date part being that we have no idea who our teammate is going to be. Bit of nerves for that part. I know... or "know" maybe 10 people on the team, so I've got come concerns about who's we're going to get. I'm sure that all the firebreathers are just that, nasty fire breathing WOD killers, but I'm still hoping to get a name I recognize.
One by one, teams get announced to the group, and I slowly see my internal list dwindle down. Picked the name Future Jockeys for this comp... two reasons. One, I planned on wearing my Soulshine #Junkheadband (has a horse and jockey on it) and two, I'm still a large dude, and Taran's a big (tall) dude... and that makes it dry humor funny, cause there is no way either of us would or could be jockeys.
We're finally up to get our firebreather, near the end of the group of mere mortals, and the two people I was hoping for are still available. Hand goes in the hat, aaaaaaaaaaand the firebreather is.... Katie Mueller. Not at all who I was expecting (I was hoping for Brian or Brandon), but she's on the list, and frankly, she's a beast, so I'm very happy with this. I remember from watching Regionals that she could do some real work, and she was on the team that went from dead last after the first event to missing The CrossFit Games by 6 piddly points. Awesome, happy to have you, lets do work!
Team Future Jockey's!
Now's probably the time to tell you to go get some popcorn... this is going to be a looooooooooooooooong post. No. Really.
We're in heat two for the competition, not sure if this is good thing, or not. Katie had just gotten here, so she trying to hurry through a warmup, and Taran and I are trying not to cool down too much before go time. WOD 1 is as follows:
WOD 1:
9 min AMRAP Relay
Firebreather - 5 Full Snatch @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 1 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 2 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
- 5 Clean CAN be substituted for 10 Deadlift
Heat 1 finishes up, and these cats look tired. Ok, fine, let's go. Katie leads us off on the snatches. Boom, done. Then Taran took the first set up power cleans, then it was my turn. During warmups, I did a few 135lb power cleans, and I had some concerns about my ability to do that many of them... thankfully there is a deadlift substitute if need be. I got 5 cleans done, then it's back to Katie.
We went through the progression again, 5 more cleans, again, 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. I don't know exactly how many rounds we went through, but I didn't deadlift once. I don't know if it's that extra push because of team mates and a competition, or if it's the fact that I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit for... the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I felt we did well, I didn't feel terribly slow, I tried to let the bar and gravity pull me down every time. Little tired after the round, but feeling good. Break time.
Between the main workouts they had community WODs. There was a buy in (like raffle ticket buy in), and then you'd perform, some prizes awarded for the "winner". EVERYONE is timid... we just got done with this, what could it be? Got a few volunteers, and then the hand went into the hat... 1 minute workout of.... best Golds Gym pose! Wait, what? Yeah, heard that right (you read it right too). I smell a trap, but no, it's just what they said it was. We've got people with dumbbells, taking their shirts, off... is that an infant? Yes it is! Posing with a child in your arms, dastardly. One competitor went and grabbed a young puppy... tough decision now. The winner ended up being a little dude using two dumbbell to flex and pump, and as a bonus, he'd taken his shirt off. LOL! I don't know his name, Ty's kid, but he was kid cute, he wins it, hands down.
The break was nice... I wasn't totally gassed, but the extra time was good. Whats next?
WOD 2:
Chipper (14 min Cap)
Set Order, must attempt (not complete) 1 rep to move on
50 Pull ups
100 Hand Release Push Ups
150 AbMat Sit Ups
200 Air Squats
250 Double Unders
Oh man. This is what I was dreading, and wanting... no, needing a dynamo 3rd for. Taran's good, but he's not team fit (yet), and there's no way I'm going to be of any help with pullups... so Katie is going to get leaned on... harder than I want to, but thats how teams work, you can't all be good at everything... or maybe you can? I'm not there yet... so I'll say it now, thanks Katie, thanks Taran, you guys are awesome.
Rules being the rules, we each have to at least attempt a rep. Katie led us off, and somewhere around 10, she hit her elbow on something, came off the bar. Acted like she'd been bit... thought she might have hurt her elbow (liked pulled something type of hurt), wasn't the case, thank goodness (not just for this now, but getting hurt just sucks in general right?). She's good.... For my attempt, I jumped up on the bar, and pulled with all my might. I think I elevated an inch or two, but that was it. Cool thing, I popped several vertebrae.... then I hopped down. We did that for 2 rounds, then finished up.
Our brief pullup debacle cost us some time, we're dead last moving to the hand release pushups. I did 5.... and they're close to being legit, real deal pushups, handed off to Katie, who handed off to Taran... we're all tired already. It's a lot of Dan to pushup still, and what they lack in my size, they've both made up for in effort. As we get further along, the numbers get less "neat". We're picking them up at 8's and 6's and 3's... I ended up doing the last 10... I'm trying man... I want to take as much of it as I can. I can tell that taking that last 10 was a good thing for Katie. Not that she was struggling, but with 10 left, she asked if I was good, and I was like yeah, I've got these. She hustled over to the abmat to get ready for stiups.
She took off too. All of this stuff sucks for me, body weight exercises are just not a strength yet. And even situps take a lot of extra oompf. I don't rembmer exactly how we split this up, but yet again, I am in the debt of the team. I finished out the last set of 20, didn't want to have to have Katie do anymore, but Lawd they were painful, as soon as I got it though, we're on to the air squats.
Finally, something I can try to contribute to. Well... maybe. Katie was banging these things out. So much power, she was practically leaving the ground with every one. I mean her feet were moving around, she was creating so much force on the way up that her feet weren't exactly in the same place when she came back down. I don't have that problem yet :) We kept the same familiar formation, going going going. Taran didn't move around quite as much... but all this raw power, wish we have a little bit more barbell work. During one of my turns, I almost fell on my face. LOLOL I was so worried about speed and power, I ended up on my toes, and I had to throw my arms out and windmill a bit to get back to normal. Katie got in my ear about picking a spot on the wall and focusing on that. Helped. Yet again, got the last 20 reps, and then Katie takes off on the doubleunders.
She's good. Not an out and out jump rope goddess, but very good. She banged out 70 without missing a beat. Taran looked like a beaten man. He tried a few times, got a few reps in, and he was frustrated. I tried... almost sorta got one. I looked at Katie, her eyes we're a bit less imploring than her words, she was like try some more. Sure. I tried again... I could barely jump. My quads... or whatever is right above the knee, on the inside of the leg... absolutely shredded. Not getting any useful bounce out of these bad boys. Tried again.. no. Katie was about to take off... time. Hit the 14 minute cap.
Oh wow. I'm done. Taran's done... idk, maybe Katies done... na, she still looks fresh. I want to get on her level. At this point, I'm trying to "walk it off". Airsquats did me in. It's ok though, break time. Got a few more volunteers for this break WOD... and it was a 1 minute AMRAP of.... double unders. Lots of suckers... er people in this one. Going to be rough for anyone who just got done in heat 2 of the chipper. The winner ended up at 117. Pretty good if you ask me.
Third and final event. Two part WOD. Complicated setup:
WOD 3:
2 Part Workout, 2 separate scores
Part 1
Firebreather Static Holds for 1 min while Mere Mortals complete Burpee Box Jump Overs, one working at a time. Reps only count while the static hold is being held.
5 min: FB
1 min Flexed arm hang
1 min Handstand Hold
1 min Top of Ring Dip
1 min Bottom of Squat
1 min Plank
5 min: MM
AMRAP Burpee Box Jump Overs (20/16)
- one person working at a time
+
7 min AMRAP
20 Toes to bar w/ 1 partner in a bar hang
25 Partner Deadlift - 255/185
20 Handstand Push Ups w/ 1 partner in a handstand hold
25 Med Ball AbMat Passes
20 Synchronized American KB Swings (70/55 for FB, 55/35 for MM)
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Handstand Walk
Max reps Muscle Ups w/ time remaining - partners can complete muscle ups any way they want, including assisted!
Follow all that? Cliff notes, first WOD, Katie holds the static holds, Taran and I do burpee box jumpovers. We had a good break... actually, we had an extended break, we've actually had to change the format to 3 heats, due to the second half of the workout, and we're in heat 3. Lots of time to watch... and wait. Finally, it's our turn.
Taran and I worked out a deal... he'd do 4 to my 2. This is great for me, keep me fast, but is going to hurt Taran later... Looking back right now, I should have listened to my gut and done more burpees in a few spots. What I'm saying is that there were a few times where I should have done 4 instead of 2, and give Taran an extra break. My bad man. This was a nasty 5 minutes too. Katie was a champ, only struggled on the ring dip holds... other teams were struggling with holds everywhere, she was a champ. Wish we could have gotten more reps for her efforts. Thanks for the stellar work KM.
One minute break, and really, it was just Taran and I pulling ourselves together, and then it was the toes to bar with one partner in a static hang. I don't have a good hang, but I volunteered to go up with Katie, her doing the toes to bar. "I've got you for 5"... She does 5, then we're both down. That 5 count was awful. It held as long as I could, and by the end of it, I had blackness coming in on the edges of my vision, like no exaggeration I thought I was going to fall down and wake up somewhere else... it would have been scary if I wasn't in survival/go mode. Taran and Katie go up, Taren gets 5 T2B himself, they come down. Katie looks hungry, ready to get this over with... alright lets go. We jump up. I'm determined to not let go till she's done... and the only thing I focused on, was getting air in and out. I took the deepest breaths I could, in, out, in, out. No blackness... and it wasn't soooooo awful. Katie got her 10, and we're off the bar. Really wasn't that long to be on the bar, but I feel like it was probably the longest I've ever held on... maybe time since the workout, along with the o2 deprivation are playing tricks on me and my memory. Katie is fast... so it probably didn't take all that long...
Partner deadlifts... not terrible heavy, and if Taran and I ever got fully on the same pages, we'd be ridiculous. We set it down at 10, and then we got to 20, and walked away. Judge was like waaa??? WAIT, you've got to do 25! CRAP! The whole time (1-20), I think Taran thought I was dying... and maybe I was, but this wasn't so bad, we banged out that last 5 quickly, and then it was on to the handstand pushup/hold.
The handstand pushup... ended up being our Achilles heel. I don't have these (yet) and I've never tried to go upside down... I'm scared to try it now... endorphins, adrenaline, caffeine... I have my concerns that this concoction will lead to me breaking my neck, so it's really up to Taran and Katie. This... is our teams biggest "needs improvement". Taran is spent, and he's struggling to hold up more than two reps at a time. So frustrating to watch, wanting to help, but not being able to. We finally make it work (really, probably more "bro-reps" than anything), and we're done. Praise the Lawd!
25 Abmat med ball passes... I jogged over, and Katie took my que, she's there too, and we're going. I think we got to 15 or so, and Taran wanted to take over. You got it bro! He finished off the set, then it was on to the three person synchronized KB swings. 55lbs is heavy for me, I don't do it often in WODs (yet). We all grab the KB and start. Man alive, this sucked. 5, 10... and then it got interesting. I wanted to set it down, take a break, but no one else was stopping, so I kept swinging. Got to 15... break? Nope, kept swinging. Made it all the way to 20. Dropped the KB at the end, don't think I've ever dropped a KB before... My grip was gonzo. Found out after the workout, Taran had wanted to stop as well, but saw me keep going, so he kept going. I'm sure there is a term for whatever that is, pushing yourself further cause you don't want to let the next person down, but I don't know if off the top of my head.
Taran dropped down for the crab walk after that, and got maybe 7 feet before we hit the time cap. I don't think I've ever been so happy to have hit time. Finally. Finished.
So tired....
We didn't get first... or second... or third. I wanted a top 30% finish, but frankly, I'm somewhat excited that we finished at 12 of 17. Not terrible for my first time out. Happened to be Tarans first competition too. Good times.
I did get this for my troubles. After the team winners were announced, they had extra awards for sweat hogs, best team spirit, best costume, and a few other thing. I got the first award. I'm On Track FAMOUS now!
No, the honest jerk side of me is looks at lit like a backhanded complement, but the majority of me is like yeah... I pushed harder than I've ever pushed before, did more than before, and kept moving forward, so this is freaking sweet!!! I even took a bow after accepting my cert, prize, and all the goodies that came with it. Might as well enjoy the spotlight while I'm in it. :)
Alright, thats all I've got for the competition, we had a pot luck after, lots of great jobs, fist bumps, high fives. Yet another thing that makes getting off the road my #1 priority right now....
Out of competition memories at the moment, if I think of more, I'll edit them in.
One bit of "other news", took flights on 3 different models of airplanes this week. Didn't need a seat belt extender on any of them. So awesome. Vindication. Hard work paying off. #HWPO YESSIR.
Thanks for reading, I'm tired, I've been working on this off and on for a while now (tv is so distracting). I'm going to bed. Thanks for the great day Diana, Brian, and the rest of the folks who made this possible at On Track!
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Competitions, comrades, and the Falls City....
It's been a busy (work wise) 7 days, my apologies for not getting back to this sooner. I've been digging and researching the town of Louisville, KY, and their boxes, trying to find a good fit. I may have found on. Went to Falls City CrossFit tonight. It's not the box I wanted to go to, but it's a lot closer, and the class times fit with the schedule.
First impressions... not the greatest if I'm honest. Facility is the smallest box I've been to, and feels a little bit off. Equipment is new, or newer... New bumpers, Rogue rig, Rogue Ohio bars, and probably some things I don't know about yet, but man, it's small. LOL! They got some rowers that were branded from a failed box, but you know what, equipment is equipment, can't fault them for that.
Coach John runs the box, does the programming and everything by himelf. Guy is 25 and first impression is that he is a bit of a clown. LOL. I felt there was some professionalism missing from him. He's flirting with one of the girls a bit... not in that over just hanging all over you stuff, more of the playful gym banter. Could be his girl, idk. From a coach standpoint, he's got a solid knowledge, and is teaching decent mechanics. I'm thankful that I already know a lot though. Could just be a comfort issue. I'm going to give the guy some time though. Rough first impression, but I came here cause it looked like solid programming, and he's the programmer... so he can't be all bad right? That and I didn't have a great first impression of Soulshine, and I ended up liking them plenty well. #optimism
The other reason I want to give them some time... they've got a "rowfit" program. It's a rowing based program, and it's right after the 6pm class. So really, I can get two workout's in at the same time. I think this has the potential to be huge for me and my weight loss, and that potential has me wanting to give them a break. Moving on to the workout...
Wednesday nights are their light days, but it's been 7 days since I've had a good workout (tell you about Monday later). Did a pausing thrusters at a tough weight. 4x2 was the set. I made it up to 115. It was tough, but doable. Everyone was impressed with my front squats.... maybe it's cause of my size, or maybe they're all just THAT new. To my credit, I feel like my heels were flat as could be, and that was a nice change from the coming up on them I did last Monday. One of the other things about this place, it feels like a very young (inexperienced) box, and it might be. I won't go so far as to say I'm the best athlete there, but I feel like I'm better than most of them, even though they're in better looking shape. Guess we'll see.
Next workout was a simple 4x8 strict press. Went really well at 95#. The last set had me wobbling and leaning on the last 3 reps. Got it done, and it was pretty solid overall. I enjoyed it... minus the feeling of clowns.... After that, John led us through some mobility stretching, and then it was over. Simple workout really.
Ready to be back to it Monday next week... and speaking of Monday THIS week, didn't have a chance to go to a box, so I used the hotel gym. This one is nicer than most, but still, not what I wanted to workout with this week. Did some dumbbell work, gotta use the tools available. Shoulder presses, curls for the girls, dumbbell presses, and some dumbbell snatches. It wasn't an awful workout, even had sore pecs for a day or so, but it wasn't CrossFit, and it wasn't fun.
Speaking of fun, got some news, the guy I'm replacing out here, who's actually just changing roles on the project, is into CrossFit. Might have a buddy, and that could be fun! That would be cool anyway, be like Soulshine, have a comrade in arms, someone to bitch about the struggle with. LOL!
More news
Going to my first competition on Saturday. Excited, and terrified. Bringing my boy Taran, the guy who really lit the fire of CrossFit for me. Been trying to get him to On Track, and this will help, I think. The workouts just got released, and I'll post them Saturday, after the comp.... The competition is called the Blind Date competition, and it's in house only. You and a same sex teammate are going to get paired up with one of the On Track team athletes as our blind date, and we have to go through 3 workouts with them. Should be fun. Burpees, box jump overs, muscle ups... there is some I'm going to have lean heavy on the others. We'll see.
Food this week hasn't been great....need to find some place good. No hotel fridge (yet), so I've got to play it by ear. This will be crucial. Focus!!
Alright, it's late (as usual) and I've got a big day tomorrow.
*************************************************************
Next day additions, things I didn't think to add.
One, while this is the smallest box I've been too, it's also the only air conditioned box I went to. Wonder if I'll sweat any less becauxe of that.
Second thing. The clown, aka Coach John did "teach" me one thing... and it's probably something I've heard from every coach, but it stuck last night, and that was how to address the bar. Two things went into this... one, I grabbed the only power lifting bar they had... so that was two weird things... but when I started the thrusters, I was grabbing this thing out WIDE.... which brought on the whole conversation anyway. Now I address the bar with my thumbs out, tips touching the smooth part, then it's good to go. It worked well last night, and now that little bit has stuck in my head... finally. :)
First impressions... not the greatest if I'm honest. Facility is the smallest box I've been to, and feels a little bit off. Equipment is new, or newer... New bumpers, Rogue rig, Rogue Ohio bars, and probably some things I don't know about yet, but man, it's small. LOL! They got some rowers that were branded from a failed box, but you know what, equipment is equipment, can't fault them for that.
Coach John runs the box, does the programming and everything by himelf. Guy is 25 and first impression is that he is a bit of a clown. LOL. I felt there was some professionalism missing from him. He's flirting with one of the girls a bit... not in that over just hanging all over you stuff, more of the playful gym banter. Could be his girl, idk. From a coach standpoint, he's got a solid knowledge, and is teaching decent mechanics. I'm thankful that I already know a lot though. Could just be a comfort issue. I'm going to give the guy some time though. Rough first impression, but I came here cause it looked like solid programming, and he's the programmer... so he can't be all bad right? That and I didn't have a great first impression of Soulshine, and I ended up liking them plenty well. #optimism
The other reason I want to give them some time... they've got a "rowfit" program. It's a rowing based program, and it's right after the 6pm class. So really, I can get two workout's in at the same time. I think this has the potential to be huge for me and my weight loss, and that potential has me wanting to give them a break. Moving on to the workout...
Wednesday nights are their light days, but it's been 7 days since I've had a good workout (tell you about Monday later). Did a pausing thrusters at a tough weight. 4x2 was the set. I made it up to 115. It was tough, but doable. Everyone was impressed with my front squats.... maybe it's cause of my size, or maybe they're all just THAT new. To my credit, I feel like my heels were flat as could be, and that was a nice change from the coming up on them I did last Monday. One of the other things about this place, it feels like a very young (inexperienced) box, and it might be. I won't go so far as to say I'm the best athlete there, but I feel like I'm better than most of them, even though they're in better looking shape. Guess we'll see.
Next workout was a simple 4x8 strict press. Went really well at 95#. The last set had me wobbling and leaning on the last 3 reps. Got it done, and it was pretty solid overall. I enjoyed it... minus the feeling of clowns.... After that, John led us through some mobility stretching, and then it was over. Simple workout really.
Ready to be back to it Monday next week... and speaking of Monday THIS week, didn't have a chance to go to a box, so I used the hotel gym. This one is nicer than most, but still, not what I wanted to workout with this week. Did some dumbbell work, gotta use the tools available. Shoulder presses, curls for the girls, dumbbell presses, and some dumbbell snatches. It wasn't an awful workout, even had sore pecs for a day or so, but it wasn't CrossFit, and it wasn't fun.
Speaking of fun, got some news, the guy I'm replacing out here, who's actually just changing roles on the project, is into CrossFit. Might have a buddy, and that could be fun! That would be cool anyway, be like Soulshine, have a comrade in arms, someone to bitch about the struggle with. LOL!
More news
Going to my first competition on Saturday. Excited, and terrified. Bringing my boy Taran, the guy who really lit the fire of CrossFit for me. Been trying to get him to On Track, and this will help, I think. The workouts just got released, and I'll post them Saturday, after the comp.... The competition is called the Blind Date competition, and it's in house only. You and a same sex teammate are going to get paired up with one of the On Track team athletes as our blind date, and we have to go through 3 workouts with them. Should be fun. Burpees, box jump overs, muscle ups... there is some I'm going to have lean heavy on the others. We'll see.
Food this week hasn't been great....need to find some place good. No hotel fridge (yet), so I've got to play it by ear. This will be crucial. Focus!!
Alright, it's late (as usual) and I've got a big day tomorrow.
*************************************************************
Next day additions, things I didn't think to add.
One, while this is the smallest box I've been too, it's also the only air conditioned box I went to. Wonder if I'll sweat any less becauxe of that.
Second thing. The clown, aka Coach John did "teach" me one thing... and it's probably something I've heard from every coach, but it stuck last night, and that was how to address the bar. Two things went into this... one, I grabbed the only power lifting bar they had... so that was two weird things... but when I started the thrusters, I was grabbing this thing out WIDE.... which brought on the whole conversation anyway. Now I address the bar with my thumbs out, tips touching the smooth part, then it's good to go. It worked well last night, and now that little bit has stuck in my head... finally. :)
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