Slacking

Wow, I've been slacking on the posting. Really haven't got too much to say anyways. Haven't been working out because I was either feeling too ill or just consumed with work. Here in Columbus, Ohio for my first official HQ Staff Trainer gig. It's awesome. I really love coaching and being a part of this great revolution called CrossFit. I was all ready to do the trainers wod today but everyone went in separate directions: DT, Mainsite, skill work... so I just decided to work on my snatch. 3x75 3x95 3x115 3x125 1x135 1x155 1x175f 1x175f 1x175!!! PR Stephane told me it looked a little on the shitty side and I just muscled it up a ton, hips high, and bad bar path. All 3 175 snatches got overhead which is a new one for me, 1st two dumped out front and couldn't get solid lockout fast enough. C&J 185x3, 215, 245f, 245f, 245f although they were close I was getting too tired and called it a day. Worked on CTB/BFK pull ups 15,15. I was planning on another set of 15 but worked on trying to do a faster pull up with a higher cyclic rate. Charlie Dunifer was working a little of it with me as he's here to reattend a L1 cert. I think tomorrow we'll do the painful one 7 rounds of 7 pwr snatch, 7 snatch bal, 7 ohs. Yeah, fun!

Made me feel weak

Not a whole lot to say about today. Got tied up with business, frustrated, and just rolling with the punches. Was in no state to workout mentally. Watching some videos off of CF-OKC put one on paleo on the CFC Paleo Blog page and then putting this one on mine. She snatches my max C&J. Ha ha ha! She delivered me some weak sauce! Seriously some impressive shit. I have faith Roger will fix me though.

Little by little

I really probably should start adapting Alison's awesome rating scale. I slept 3 1/2 hours last night so definitely wasn't feeling energetic.

Alison and I met up with Roger at 11am. We started with snatches and the first couple of sets felt horrible! The started to get better as we warmed up through more sets but I seriously think the thrusters yesterday beat me up a little. Roger even asked both of us if we worked out yesterday. I guess he kinda seen it. I spent the majority of my time at 70 kilos couldn't nail 75 kilos for the life of me today. Bar infront, slow pull, soft lockouts... it just never ended. We got to the clean and jerk and life was soooooo much better. Spent 5 singles at at 100 kilos and things felt good. Things I need to work on: timing of coming up on the clean, in the dip: slow/med dip and a quick change of direction, at the lock out hold it and stabilize... slowly bring front foot back, then feet together. Progressions was 50x5, 70x3, 80x3, 90x2, 95x2, 100 5x1, 90 3x1

A bunch of my pulls were out in front of me. Cue: use the elbows and the wrists to keep the bar close.

Once again hands hurt after. I used a slightly rougher knurling this time around I think it was the Werksan or the Eliko bar this time around. First time I used the Werksan Training bar. It's nice and smooth.

Got an unplanned nap in from 3:30-5:00 had one of those "Oh Shit! What time is it?!?!" Moments and rolled out to the WL.

I just really wanted to go home and do a CFE wod but I think that was just laziness. I man'ed up and even though my hands hurt I did some pull ups.

5 Rounds for time of:
10 HSPU
10 CTB pull ups
10 24" Box jumps
8:49

Played with some hand positions in the HSPUs and I'm realizing that the wide/turned out at 45 degrees thing works really well for me. Chest to bars felt really good today. I think I just have to stop trying to touch higher on my chest and keep rolling with the belly to bar pull ups as it locks me in rhythm a bit better.

1/2 as planned

Wanted to get in a regular wod and a CFE wod but it didn't quite happen.

11:30am WL
.com wod

5 rounds for time of:

500m row

7 Thrusters 135#

14:45

1st: 2:43

2nd 3:05

3rd 3:11

4th 3:08

5th 2:37

Thrusters felt really good until the 4th round. Lower back started to fatigue. Made the 5th row feel like shit.  Had 0 intention of even working hard in the row. Thrusters unbroken. Still having a hard time breathing. Short row was sub 2 long row was 2:08.

Definitely too slow. Probably could shave 1:30 off this time. Thrusters didn't even feel close to fatigue/failure so rested way too long before picking up the bar.

Happy to get in at least 1 today.

Weak sauce!

Still feeling weak. Physically and mentally. I've really been trying to talk Mandie into donuts for the last 2 hours. 

1pm at WL
Worked on snatched
65x3, 95x3, 145x3, 155x1, 165x1f, 165x1, 175x1f

Still feeling better but still need some position work and need to record reps on film for analysis.

50 CTB pull ups for time 2:40. I think I did 55 but I lost count...I was hoping someone was going to tell me to stop but, no such luck. Breathing was a bitch... obviously still not recovered. FRUSTRATED!!!

The avalanche

Took yet another day off both because I'm not feeling 100% and because I'm backed up on work. It's funny how everything with CF/exercise is like a chain reaction. The less I feel good, the less I want to workout, the less I want to eat clean, the less I want to get off my ass/off the computer and leave the house... It's a vicious cycle, I swear. If you haven't heard me say it before/I'm really a fat/lazy guy. If I really didn't care about my future. I would be a fat, fast food eating, cigarette smoking, binge drinking, dude. Really, I never stopped smoking (yes, I smoked for 8+ years) because I didn't like it. It just conflicted with my future of personal training which I enjoyed more. I didn't stop drinking because I didn't like it. I just enjoyed not feeling like shit at CF after every workout. So I guess what everything comes down to is what do you love and want most???

I'd really like to feel better and get back to the training schedule that I'm 4 day behind on!

Allergies?

Okay, this is day 3 and I figure it might not be so much allergies as it really maybe a cold. Taking one more day off before jumping back into it. I tried to explain to Mandie that donuts might make me feel better. She's not buying it. I'm weak...but still haven't cheated.

A Coaches coach

Ahh! Drugged myself up with some Benedryl last night and slept for 9 straight hours! That was awesome. Today I got to work with Roger Nielson in Buffalo Grove. Two hours of olympic lifting work. Not that I don't love you guys/gals but it was awesome to not to think about anything but ME and have a coach only working with 2 of us on form. I highly suggest if you get a chance to work out with these guys.

3pm
Worked on some snatch position work. Then kept on add more on. Worked up to 77.5 kilos. Tried 80 a couple of times but couldn't tie everything together.

Things for me to concentrate on weight over the bar in the set up. Don't go so slow through the bottom. Use elbows to turn over snatch. Lock out quick and hard.

We did a little position work with the cleans then he let me load it up well. Worked with100 kilos for about 10 singles. Oh to add to the above he wants me to get my stance out wider (first time I've ever heard that one for me) quickly. Gripping the bar solidly for the jerk makes a huge difference for me. Can't forget about that. Roger worked on me a bit with my stance on the jerk loading my back leg a bit more. From the finish I should pull front foot back first then bring back forward.

Anyways tons for me to work on and I think I'm going to make it out there at least 1x a week.

Wanted to do a wod but had to take care of more work stuff and my hands hurt. I mean not like a 100 pull up hurt but like I held a scaling hot pot hurt. Still very tingly as I type.

Drugs!!!

Allergies were acting up yesterday. Getting 3-4 hours of sleep didn't help as well. Didn't get a wod in as I was more concerned about stopping snot from dripping from my nose. Gross I know, but true. I never take drugs and I tried to fight it until about midday. I gave up once my nose hurt from wiping it so much and I was having a hard time breathing. Zertec didn't help so I hit up a Benedryl. If I spoke to you on Wed. and I was a little fuzzy or out there I apologize.

Hair of the dog

Although this term is usually used in dealings with hangovers and booze, today was a hair of the dog day for me. Power snatches. The same power snatch that fucked me over Sunday. There was no way in hell I was going heavy or high rep, but I needed to get under that bar again.

I worked on a couple singles and a couple of full snatches at 95#s.

7pm

Rocky Mountain Regional WOD#2

I couldn't pass this workout up. I love this workout. Last time I did it in 5:40. I was at the JohnG and Liz's CF Level I in Milwaukee with 30+ on-lookers, strange enough JohnG was there again today. He may be my good luck charm.

I told myself for about 30 minutes before the WOD if I felt anything in my back I would stop... It took me about all 30 minutes to believe it.

4:24

I really don't remember what was unbroken and what/how I broke anything. Good thing it's on video. It just felt really good to move without my back irritating me. I felt my back a little in the 3rd round of front squats but really stopped and thought about it... once again told myself it was ok... actually I heard some just say, "all you have is 5 and burpees, then you're done!" so I just finished out.

Rocky Mountain Regional WOD#2 from Rudy Tapalla on Vimeo.

I really thought over the last two days my chase for Sectionals could be over. So today was a great hurdle over a big mental mountain for me. What I should have said as soon as I finished this wod was...YEAH BITCHES!

Bad habits

The last 3-5 days I have been in the horrible habit of sleeping no earlier than 1230am sometimes as late as 245am. Not good. I decided I wasn't going to nap today to try and regulate my sleep pattern back to sleeping by 11pm. So I have about 15 minutes to post, eat something sweet (clementines, sun butter, or applesauce), brush, and tuck in.

My back is feeling much better today. I'm not squirming as much and not doing the wobble anymore to protect my back. I gave some pull ups a whirl today. Didn't feel so bad. Took it a bit further with a human flag and that did not feel good.

Anyways, for those of you that read my blog you get some inside scoop. Here's the status:
LP: Carpet was installed upstairs and over the next week I'll be working on laying down the rubber matting. Still waiting on permits.

WL: Opened the doors to a class workout today! We'll be running a 6pm class M-F and then holding some weekend afternoon classes there. I'll keep you guys/gals updated. www.crossfitwestloop.com

Pretty exhausted but looking forward to trying to get a wod in tomorrow. I really want to do yesterdays but we'll see how I feel.

Hubris

hubris [ˈhjuːbrɪs], hybris
n
1. pride or arrogance

After my second rep of today's wod I should have took a DNF. Instead I told myself it was okay to work through pain and refused to put up a DNF. You know what that is? STUPIDITY! Watch the video below of my second rep. It made my back twinge and I still continued, I thought about quitting in my second round of snatches but self-justified it with..."what if this happens at Sectionals" and finished through the wod. Honestly I just didn't want to ok the DNF. HUBRIS got in the way of common fucking sense.

Untitled from Rudy Tapalla on Vimeo.

If it looked bad on video it felt even worse. I fucking sabotaged myself!

830am
Started of 1k row 3:40 ish. Forgot to set the rower on countdown. Legs felt a little burnt out from yesterday so I took a while before I got into the wod.
10 GHD sit ups
10 Back extensions

930am
4 rounds of:
5 snatch
10 burpees
7:19? I don't even remember I was so flustered.

Second round I was having a mental dilemma of calling it quits and pressing on. I decide to go on. I'm fighting shit loads of pain in my back to continue. Dog starts barking and I stop mid snatch set up to yell at the dog. I lost my fucking count! In pain after doing my 5th, I do another one because I'm unsure on my count. I ended up doing 6 reps and the weight was already eating me alive. I swear that was mentally breaking down at it's finest. This one ranks up there with Freddy's Revenge for me. Not as mentally defeating but one of the hardest mental battles I have had in a wod. I had no clue that many things could go through my mind in split seconds.

I don't even remember the 3rd and 4th round. I already gave up, it was over and I was so mentally done.

I should have quit after that second rep and just restarted the WOD. Game day is Game day and I'll kill myself then... not today. I am an official self-saboteur! You don't understand, I fucking HATE these people. They are people that choose to do shit that get in the way of their ultimate goal. They are unable to commit to promises made. They talk one thing and screw themselves over the next.

I had a good long day of barbell work planned for today and I fucking not only wasted it, I may have set myself back a couple of days. It took my back about 4-5 hours to feel somewhat better. Oh yeah, I apologize if I was short with you or a dick with anyone earlier I really was in some fucking pain for while.

Well, let's drug it up and see what waking up tomorrow feels like...

Fighters

Today started out great as I got to sleep in! First day in over a week I was able to sleep in past 530am! AWESOME!

Anyways, I often like to look at us as fighters. Everyday we have challenges that we either succumb to or we fight. It's not just the big ones, ie the wods that have us nauseous all day, the fatigue that we try to ignore, the pain that we tell ourselves is ok to feel. Quite often it is the small battles that are the hardest. It may be our "busy" schedules that stop us from making time to work out, it may be a two boxes of munchkins sitting by a warm cup of coffee while your starving, some great looking brownies as your munching on your yummy low sodium roast beef. Obviously today was a bit rough for me, there's no possible way I wouldn't have broke down if Mandie was with me. The hardest part about pre-cana was smelling munchkins for 8 hours and having people stare at you because you are eating nuts, broccoli, and lunchmeat for snacks.

Anyways, we all make choices. Yes, I highly agree that there is a balance that we all must achieve within having fun/living life and being healthy/CrossFit healthy. On a normal day I would breakdown and have a couple of munchkins and be 100% okay with it, but once you make a commitment I think you should be true to it. My commitment was to doing Sectionals. I may not be better than Bryce and maybe not even better than Mango by then but I am dedicated to giving it my all. It's only 3 more weeks until D-Day, which means there's only about 2 weeks of training left.

This is not even close to a sustainable pace for me. I would completely implode! However, I think I can hold the ship together with duct tape and safety wire (that maybe a Marine Corps thing) for the next 3 weeks.

Got this wod in pretty late as I just needed to clear my mind from the 50 million things that I have going on currently.

10pm
CFE 3x7min
3x7 min intervals w/3min recovery between rounds.
Suited up and ran this one outside
1: .88mi
2: .83mi
3: .82mi

Once again suited up almost perfectly for the weather. Cold running pants, dri-fit shirt, Burton shell, white shirt over (so cars could see me), UA hood, no beanie, Nike wool gloves.

Only mistake I made was route. When it's this late out all the smokers are in-front of the bars. I'm better off chancing shady people in the park then sucking in second-hand smoke.

A true rest day

Wow! Yesterday's wod really beat the shit out of me. I woke up today (at 4am for my 5am client OUCH!) and first time in a long time that my hand hurt. No apparent blistering from yesterday's Angie but the just hurt. I didn't want to pick anything up at all. It did feel better by the afternoon.

I'm taking a all out rest day today and hoping to go for a run tomorrow morning. If the weather is really shitty then I'm going to do a row. Planning to get this wod in before Mandie and I have to meet with the priest for pre-cana.

The only active thing I did today:
10 chest to bar pull ups at the box.

It been about 2 weeks since I had a full rest day. I guess it's about due.

Time of (Game) Day?

Considering we are going to have to work out in the morning for sectionals, I'm going to transition my wods to the mornings and my skill/CFE wods to the evening. I also figure I'm not going to be able to eat pre-wod so testing my body out on the coffee only thing.

7:10am

Warm-up:
1000m row 3:38.2

15-12-9
Cleans 185
Ring dips
12:40

I'm going to start recording my wods as I'll probably be doing many of them alone and I can watch where and how bad my form gets and exactly when the wheels fall off.

15-12-9 Cleans and dips from Rudy Tapalla on Vimeo.

The warm-up wrecked me. It wasn't even that fast but I really felt my hammies and lower back from "Diane" yesterday. Waited about 10-15 minutes to once again talk myself into doing this wod. This one I knew I'd finish but had no idea how long it would take. It's funny the first set of cleans felt good but form is definitely lacking. I need to maintain my back angle up top. It really helped in my 9 set to start looking up on the horizon to bring my chest up.

I'm having a hard time with both the endurance wods and these heavy wods. I have no idea how hard or how much I could push it. Today all I know is my back was fatigued and pretty much hurting from the end of the 15 set. I didn't fail any reps, so I'm going to assume I could have hit that a bit harder, but my back did not want me to get back under that bar. I even sat for a second to think about how much my back hurt.

Now what to do this evening. Originally I wanted to do "Angie" but not sure on that one just yet. I'll update this later tonight.

Update:
530pm
Angie 22:50

Decided to do it. It wasn't good. If I did this one "for time" then I'd definitely game it. 10 Pull ups at a time, 10 push ups at a time. I don't really do sit ups, Legs started cramping in my VMO (again! That was the same place me legs cramped when I ran! Gotta figure out what's going on with that) after 25 squats. It made the end of that wod very interesting.

Sleep? Recovery?

Not sure if I have just not been getting enough sleep or what. Today I'm sore. Everything on my back side, my traps, mid-back, lower-back, hammies... High rep deads usually get my lower back and hammies but not sure what the upper-back soreness is from. I took about two 1 hour naps today that felt much needed. I really couldn't afford to take the time away from work but body was asking for a little more R&R.

Active rest day.
7:30pm
250 Double-unders for time
7:25

I wasn't really in a hurry to get these done. Just wanted to get the skill work in. I even tried different ropes. I should be able to do this in about 4-5 minutes if I was really trying to push it.

It was really hard for me to take a rest day and not jump on the pull up bar, do some jerks, handstands... but body said REST.

12:00am UPDATE
Having a hard time trying to sleep. Thursday is usually my sleep-in day but I have to cover Alex for the 6am tomorrow. Thinking about doing my heavy wod in the morning at 7am. Cleans and rings dips??? I'm thinking 185 for 15-12-9? That already makes me nauseous. Also, considering 2 tomorrow. Possibly "Angie" in the evening ("What you don't like"Angie?"). A lot of it depends how I feel after moving some rubber matting tomorrow. We'll see.

More Benchmarks

I was expecting a ton more of soreness in my quads from "Karen". So, "Diane" was on the plate today. I thought it was funny that this is what was on Freddy's page too. I did read that he, on advice of Khalipa, is adding a 1000m row and 50 GHD and 50 back extensions to every warm up. I'll have to ease into that one but hopefully will be comfortable with that eventually. I started today with 15 CTB pull ups. Rhythm felt horrible, trying to hit a bit higher on chest to reduce the over pull one the CTBs. I might just have to stick with the belly-to-bar pull ups to cycle through faster.

6:30pm

1000m Row 3:36.9

"Diane"

8:13

Not sure what I was expecting but wanted to find out where I stand on this one. Here are my notes from the last time that I did it.

16Dec08 10:36 Man do I miss the comfort of an abmat. My last time 26Aug was 5:09 and I was excitied about doing 15 Dls straight. This time:
DLs:21/5,5,5/5,4
HSPU: 13,4,4/3,3,3,2,1,1,1,1/1,1,2,2,1,1,1
I don’t think I really needed to break up the deadlifts, but wasn’t too motivated to get back to the handstands. Didn’t count any faders even if they got locked out. There was one in the 9set that I probably should have counted but didn’t.

This time around:

DLs: 21/8,5,2/9

HSPU: 15,?/5,?/2,2,2,3

Deadlifts felt good. Handstand felt good in the 21 set but faded quick towards the end of the 15 set. In the 9 set I realized that the narrow hand space I use fatigues my triceps way too much and a wide hand placement works much better. Used it in the last 2,3 in the 9 set.

For some reason I wasn't too happy with this wod and continued to work on skills.

1x15 CTB the normal way

Jerks 185x5 (jerks felt great and easy, couldn't stand to receive the bar)

Tried 185 a couple more times and can't bear to drop it on my shoulders. I'm not sure if it's the wide grip that Coach Burgener put me in or what. Backed it down to 155 and still couldn't receive the bar. Unfortunately, I know if it came up in a wod it will be faster for me to not "rack" the bar and just hold it in my hands.

There has to be something wrong with just my mindset because I can do it with 135 for 10. Gotta keep working on these! and power clean/snatch and chaining more pull ups. I think I may bump it up to 20 pull ups after tomorrow. I think my body may need a active rest/skill day I might go with a CFE wod and 250 double-unders for time. Looking at my blog, I've noticed that I've slacked on the CFE wods just because my metcon has gotten a little better. Time to get back on it!!! No slacking....until after Sectionals, damn those donuts smelled really really good when I was getting coffee.

That reminds me too. Mandie did spaghetti squash again this evening and it was much better, a little more bland and not so sweet. I'm going to have to ask Erin O' if it's just luck of the draw?

Missed the mark

Warmed up with 1x15 CTB pull ups and some joint mobility work.

430pm
Karen
9:11

Sometimes we have some off days. I hit "Karen" today and pretty much got my ass handed to me. Okay, not just handed to me but smacked a little left, smacked a little right... then handed to me. I was shooting for a sub 8, not a good day. I did this 4Nov08 10:41, and 6:13 on 13Mar09 with a 12# WB (it was an interesting experiment).

Did another 1x15 set of CTB pull ups.

9pm as everyone was finally finishing their CF Total worked on cycling jerks with 135.
1x10 Couldn't do this unbroken WTF!
3x5 Really need to work on this. The jerk feels good, but cycling and receiving... not so much.
The last set I wasn't even cycling. I also tweaked my right elbow a little. I'm assuming it's receiving the bar in the wider jerk grip I've been working with but need to fix that.

Fear

Today I had tons of apprehension about the planned wod. I watched this video of Jason Khalipa murdering this wod:

Khalipa does WORKOUT 1/5/2010 in 2:46 from crossfitoneworld on Vimeo.

Now, that's some sick shit! I didn't even think I could make it through the wod at that weight. I'm not very good at power cleans. I planned to do it at 135 and see if I could do it in 3-5 minutes. Then, I figured that's a little too manageable for me so I was thinking 165 would put me in an uncomfortable enough place. Still hesitant and back and forth, eventually I was considering just to man up and do it at weight no matter how long it took me. My only fear... would I be able to finish? I haven't really questioned finishing a workout in a really long time. Why not find out?

Despite Mango's insistence that I just shut the fuck up and do it, Bryce came up with a completely different option which was do 30 power cleans at 185... that's a much better idea! It's funny how something could be so simple but we want to make it complex for ourselves.

12:30pm
For time:
185 Power cleans, 30 reps
5:38

Chained the first 4 together which was a big start for me. Hit 15 at 2:33. I had 10 left and Bryce was like  fucking do it, you haven't failed yet. Wow, never had that even crossed my mind! It sounds so simple once again but really changed my train of thought. (Bryce is my new master of KISS (keep it simple stupid) I pretty much picked up the next 4 reps with minimal rest. 30th rep...failed it. Took me a little to pick up the last one but finished.

I made it and I'll probably be shit sore tomorrow in my traps, but I need to work a bit more with heavy weights. I've finally got comfortable with 95 and 135 which a are good CrossFit numbers, but not competition weight. I used to think Rob Orlando was just messed in the head doing things like 225 cleans for 50 reps (http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Orlando_50cleans225.mov) but rethinking my whole outlook on that. Even a bunch of our gal competitors have had recent success in using a 20 wall ball to aid in helping using a 14 wall ball. So why not?

Warmed up with 1x15 CTB pull ups.
Finished off with 3x10 OH lunges 135#s.

Things to work on:
multiple heavy jerks (receiving and working while breathing hard), power snatch, ctb pull up (as well as the other boat load of CF things I suck at).

9:00pm UPDATE
Man does it rock to have a great fiance. I had to run errands and she dabbled with some spaghetti squash today. I wasn't a big fan (too sweet for me) but it was really cool to try something different.

Yeahhhh bitches!

I really wanted to go home and eat and take a nap and come back to the box in the evening...but once I lay down tonight, I'm not getting up.

3:30pm

From the Norcal Qualifiers:
500m row
30 buprees
10 shoulder to overhead

5:19 Did this last year in 5:46? I think.
I hit this one pretty well. I pushed about 905 on the row and hit about a 1:45 pace. Rolled right into the burpees straight through but had a short delay breathe at 27.
Took 20-30 sec to pick up the bar.1 push jerk and brought it btn. Had about half land very comfortably in my traps the other half nailed me in the neck/spine. One of them nailed me so hard it rattled me through my rib cage. Ouch! Gonna feel that one tomorrow. Almost lost #7 sliding off my back, I had to walk about 3 feet forward to save it. Missed locking out the last jerk. DAMN IT!!! I just didn't want to have to clean the bar again. I picked it up tried to jerk it and it went no where. Had to wait a while clean it rest a while and then finally finish. Second time I have felt super unsatisfied with this wod!

Let the frustration set in a little more then move to OHS. 75-135-165-195-215-235PR! Yeahhh bitches! 235 felt really good but didn't want to get too greedy (as I was already greedy on the 235) so called it a day.

Worked on some CTB pull ups
2x15 these are finally starting to feel good! Check 'em out JJ took some awesome slow mofo of me!



11:00pm UPDATE:
I broke down and got a pizza. First time I cheated in over a week. It was awesome! I feel sick! Also, I never take drugs unless I'm dying. Those behind the neck jerks definitely have my neck a little swollen and my upper back feeling a little funky. Not good!

Again

Another last minute decision to do the metcon today. Spent the majority of the day moving shit over to the West Loop side and really wasn't feeling up for a wod, but once again I tend to get mentally weak and not want to do things I should be doing. I think some people would call this laziness. The only thing that really made me want to do this wod is that I never workout with the crew 4/430 crew so just wanted to.

500pm

42 45# OH lunge
21 Pull ups
30 OH lunge
15 pull ups
18 OH lunge
9 Pull ups

4:40

I don't know why I like the OH lunge. I hate the OHS but like the OH lunge??? After yesterdays 75 CTB pull ups thought today was going to be a wreck but it didn't feel so bad. Broke both of the second sets. 10/20 on the lunges, and 8/7 on the pull ups. I didn't try any butterfly pull ups, just wanted to stick with the regular kip. Really just concentrated on breathing. It helped a ton!

What do you choose?

Today has been a bit of a stressful day. Just a boat load of calls from prospects after the Red Eye article topped with a new and exciting marketing plan. Legs are still sore from those  heavy squats and wanted to save them for tomorrow's OHS and overhead lunges.

LIFE HAPPENS TO EVERYONE! Now, it's a matter of who bows down and who rises up to the challenge. I choose to fight!

730pm
Today wasn't a race against the clock as much as it was timed skill work. Does that make sense?
5 rounds for time of:
3 snatch 135#
15 CTB pull ups
9:57

Really didn't try to crush this. I tried to take my time setting up the snatches but they still were ugly. They didn't even feel good. Not sure if it was residual from the 100 push ups yesterday or the compounding fatigue with CTB pull ups. The last round I gave in to the pressure of the clock and broke into singles. Need to get mentally stronger on my focus for these wods. Big plus was 15 butterfly CTB pull ups chained 2 days in a row! Getting better but not good yet.

Active Rest Day!

Decided to take the day off today.

VMO are finally starting to feel normal again. I want to run tomorrow but hear it's suppose to snow. Lower back is sore. Glutes feel like someone kicked the shit out of me. Hammies a little sore. Traps sore from muscle ups? Hands feel baked from the pull up, DLs, heavy kb swings. Feeling good for the most part though!

5 Rounds for time:
20 Double unders
20 Push ups
20 Squats
7:59

I was hoping to get this one under 7 but no such luck. Push ups slowed me. 20/10,10/5,5,5,5/5,5,5,3,2/broken up all over the place, used all kind of hand positions to finish out.

Finished the night out messing with some muscle ups, CTB pull ups, parallette HSPUs...

Increased work capacity!

I'm finally feeling like my work capacity is back up to where it was last year training for the Affiliate Cup. It's funny how fast CFE and eating right can get you back. My metcon still has to be worked on but things are getting better!

7:15am

CFE wod "Weighted Hill Climbtime Trial D12W"
I have no idea what all that means but it was on the site.
1500m Damper@10 5:36.5

Didn't know what to expect, felt pretty tired after the first 500m but settled in for the last 750m. Highest number I seen was 2:02 and it was only for a split second and 2:01 5-10 times.

4:20pm
Bryce asked me what I was working on I said, "Tabata DLs" he asked, "why?" I replied, "It's the only thing that isn't sore right now." No lie.

10 CTB pull ups, 1 min rest
15 butterfly CTB pull ups (faded on last 3), 1 min rest
15 CTB pull ups still working on butterfly-ish thing, 1 min rest
15 CTB pull ups " "
10 CTB pull ups, " " I was wanting to do another set of 15 but getting wiped. This was only suppose to be a fricken' warm up.

Tabata Deadlift @ 225
11,10,7,6,7,5,5,5
56 reps total

I really need to work on repping out DLs. My lower back always gives out (weakness) and my grip sucks. For this wod I had a hard time adjusting and trying to figure what was more efficient, for me to use a posterior chain (hammies and lower back) or get my sore quads involved. So I did both and shifted back and forth alternating between the two.

7:30pm
10min AMRAP
3 squats (65% of 1rm) 235#
6 burpees
9 kbs (09 Games standard)

6 rounds 2 squats
Way too many breaks! I started off with a great mental mindset and hit the first three rounds pretty hard. The next 3 rounds I began to doubt my legs (VMO still really sore) and was questioning my core strength (lower back especially) as I was having a hard time stabilizing the squat weight. I tried to take my time on the swings so I wouldn't be fatigued in the squat but it didn't really work and I just moved slower and slower. I started to breakdown a bit mentally, I went from KILL this workout to survive it.

Still need to keep experience this working out under a fatigued state because I'm not really sure how to deal with it. My 5th round my first swing went too far overhead and I dropped it. Somehow it ended about 10 feet from me. I picked it up and squeaked out 3. Are you fucking kidding me? 3,6 split on that one. Everything else was unbroken just lots of time to recover in between. Let's see what tomorrow holds???

The Champion Mindset

A couple weeks back I watched this video of one of my business mentors, Andy Petranek (Owner CrossFit Los Angeles). It's a little choppy and slow to start off but for some reason the last part really got me:


"If you are doing something that's really important to you, that you're passionate about and that you love. You owe it to yourself to go out and do it like a champion."

YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF! Not to your boyfriend/girlfriend, not your friends, not your most awesome coach in the entire world, not naming any names;) but to yourself. You can make excuses for everyone and even for a brief moment you may lie to yourself and believe it, but when you sit and blog and are alone with your thoughts, think about it. Are you giving this 100%. It's only 6 weeks that will culminate in 2 days at Sectionals. Is it so much to ask?

Don't get me wrong and take this the wrong way. Jeff Tucker has this really great saying "You are not your Fran time." Think about it and let it marinate as I go over my day.

7:30pm
1 set max HSPU on parallettes 8PR!

Earlier in the day my body felt a little wrecked from yesterday's workout extravaganza, but by the evening I was feeling better. I considered taking the day off for a moment, but had a good little push of motivation from Tim saying how he has checked out my blog and has seen how hard I've been training. That amped me up! Accountability to the community that reads this blog has helped me. Also, had a great chat with a very, very special member that reminded me on how important it is to stay mentally strong and persevere through times we feel weak.

9:00pm
Mainsite wod: 3 rds for time of:
12 muscle-ups
75 squats

6 muscle-ups in :24s 9@:59s 11@1:32s Rd1 4:39
All singles after that. Muscle-ups completed at 9:00 squats at 11:40
Last round, muscle-ups at 15:36 squats at 17:44

Came into this one all wrong. I need to consistently mentally prepare to kill a workout. Since I have not done a wod with muscle up in over 6 months, I came in defensively. I was thinking pace it. I should have analyzed it and seen upper body exhaustion to lower body exhaustion. The only time I really pushed it was the squats in the last round. Need to get mentally set every time to KILL workouts not survive them.

Fatigue management

Alright, started out this morning with some sore calves and some sore quads. I decided I was going to do a little self-experiment... in FATIGUE MANAGEMENT. The last thing that I wanted to do was anything that involved my quads and/or calves, but come Sectionals we are going to possibly do 2, maybe even 3 wods within 2-3 hour gaps. I wanted to see how well I could move a decent load fatigued. 


10:30am
Reps of 15-12-9 of:
135# thrusters
and pull ups
5:11


Decently happy with this one. I estimated about 7-8 minutes, so 5 kicks ass. The only downfall is that I should have been able to move through faster. 1st round unbroken! Pretty stoked about that. Then it fell apart quick it was something like 5,3,3,2,2 and in the last round maybe 3,2 last 4 were single squat clean thrusters. Glad to have Randy do this one with me because I mentally let myself slide a little when Alison called 4:52 or something around that as I was getting to the pull up bar. I had about 3 in when Randy jumped up and started busting out some butteflies. I broke 5/4 on the last pull up set.


1:00pm
70# swings, 25 reps (games standard, bottom completely vertical) had Mandie watch to ensure all reps were good. Unbroken! (No extra reps!)


1:30pm
Feeling slight fatigue in grip strength I decided to roll with more fatigue management. "ladies" Fran
Reps of 21-15-9
65# thrusters
pull ups (reg kipping no buttefly)
3:42 about :30 seconds slower than the last time I remember.


Pretty funny the first 21 didn't even feel good but didn't break any thrusters. First 21 pull ups unbroken!, took a long pause in the top of the 15 thrusters, 7,8 on the second pull up set, 9 straight on the last. I told myself I'd rather slip off the bar and fall on my head than break it up.


In the last 8 out of the last 10 days, I've been on the damn rower. Although I want to get better on the erg. I need some variety! I headed to Sports Authority for some cold weather gear. I did some research on-line and seen the good shit was expensive. I bought some UA Illumination Pants, UA neck gaiter/hood, Nike gloves (and a couple pair of socks). $180 bucks ouch! What's worse is I left my $50 Gift card at home. Anyways, I got home and could wait until tomorrow to test it out...or return it if it sucked.


17 degrees and getting dark out. Here's the gear, dry-fit type shirt, thermal shirt, Burton soft shell jacket, UA pants, long socks, Puma shoes, UA hood thing and beanie over it. 


5:00pm 
CFE wod 2xby time: 2x12min 2 minutes rest in between intervals
1st interval 1.48mi
2nd 1.37mi
(Distances calculated by mapmyrun.com)
I figure if it got too cold I was going back in and hitting the row. The outcome...
Fucking awesome! The pants well worth the $80, Hood well worth the $20, Gloves well worth the $25 even the key holder worked well! I was never cold! 


The first issue I had was it's hard to breathe out of fabric compressing your nose and mouth, first I slid it off my nose, then about 5 minutes in I brought it under my lips...much better. Still not cold. I really like how easy it is to breathe in the cold (when fabric is not covering your breathing passages). The only other issue I had was cramping in the left VMO at the end of the first 12 minutes during the rest. I figure I'd just work on pulling the pose way and hopefully my hammies would tire... no such luck, by the last 3 minutes I was cramping really bad in both VMO but there's no way I would stop because if I did I wouldn't be able to stand. Fun Stuff. Fatigue management right. Anyways, did the last minute on my block so my neighbors could hear me scream for Mandie if I needed. Came inside and it was about 10 minutes before cramps subsided.


Looking forward to more CFE wods outside, but I will continue to work on the rower also.

Haste makes waste

Stayed up until about 330am last night and only had about 3 hours of sleep. Glad Zack was a-coaching because I made a last minute decision to do the metcon with the last heat of the 10am class.

10:50am

As many reps as possible in 4 minutes of C&J.
5 reps

I wasn't sure if I got 5 or 6 in so we'll call it 5 for not being able to count. I was suppose to have 195 on the bar but in my excitement and haste I ended up loading the bar at 205 (about 85%). Doh! Anyways, still thought it was a good workout. I had about 4 reps in around the minute marker or a little past but jerks fatigued really quick! Had a fail getting under 6, a really bad catch and didn't even attempt the jerk on 7, on my 8th squat clean I was trying to get myself to split jerk it but just couldn't get under it. Not sure how much of this had to do with the fatigue of yesterdays front squats or just the weight being heavy. The mind said yes, the body was like "go f*ck off" (Wow, does that sound like a "Big man" Eric thing or what!?")! The good thing is I'm getting more stable at having the weight overhead. Bad thing is I suck at jerks. I noticed this when watching the videos from the WCCF Winter Oly Meet. I have no idea how I did 109kg with barely getting under the bar. Just watching myself, I would even be like, "if that asshole had a bit more technique he should be able to do a minimum of 20-30 more lbs".

I was super hungry, but knew if I ate, I'd be pushing off the CFE wod until tonight. So at 11:30ish did the CFE Lactate Shuttle wod. Brett joined me for this one.

11:30am
5min on/2:30 off, 6min on/3:00 off, 7min on/stop

1275m/1433m/1736m

I was consistently behind Brett about 200m per row but still sticking with forcing myself into this "correct" form. First row felt in the forearms, second was mid-back, third was mid- and lower-back. Still having a hard time pacing on these but the biggest benefit is that I'm able to up the pace a little sooner every time. Highest number I seen was a 2:10 and that was on a butt adjustment.

It's nappy time!!! I guess if you plan on sleeping more than 3 hours it's sleep. Time to get my mid-day sleep on!

Happy New Years

Cheated for dinner yesterday but it was so worth it. Fondue! Had some BREAD, some cheese, and tons of sugar, a few tequilas! The Melting Pot was awesome!

600pm

3 Rds:
24" box jumps, 25 reps
145# front squats, 15 reps
8:26

I was mentally ready for this one at the get go. I was figuring sub 6 since JohnG finished in about 530. I forgot he did it at 105... I felt like I smashed the first round. Got back to the box jumps and holy shit my legs had nothing. I even missed one to lack of jump height. I had to use really big arm swings to get up on to the box. This was a great metcon for me! It has been a really long time since I've been sitting and looking at a weight not because I was breathing hard but because my legs were completely cashed. I think I broke the first in 10,5 but the rest were 5,5,5. Really wanted to settle for sets of 3. Only in the last set did my back start to whine also. Really wanted to try and stand up after this one but legs said "no thank you".

Had a late dinner (930pm) but I told myself I had a CFE wod to do. I was originally suppose to do the lactate shuttle but I figure it was late and I'd do the shorter one.

11:10pm

30:20x8
154m
146m
145m
140m
145m
141m
139m
139m

Only downfalls on this wod. Didn't have a paper next to me until rd3 to write down splits, and rower was moving all over the place.

Really starting to get used of this "correct" rowing form. Still is not faster but is definitely more efficient as I don't feel so physically spent when I all out sprint.