You ain't got squat

Warmup: ME, run 800m, hip openers, medicine ball drills

WOD:
For time:

100 jump squats every 8 minutes on the 8th minute for 24 minutes.

Results:
< 5:00, 5:21, 5:51, 6:46

Comments:
I did jumping squats for the first 20 squats of each round, and then switched to regular squats for the remaining 80. In the last round i discovered "hopping squats" - which wasn't quite jumping, but it was standing up powerfully enough to get my heels an inch or two off the ground. I found myself doing them without even consciously thinking about it, so i don't even know when i started doing them that way.

In the first round I got to about 15 jumping squats in the first set, and then had to do them in sets of 1 after that up to 20. the second round was 9 or 10 consecutive, the 3rd and 4th round were 2 or 3 consecutive, with singles after that up to 20.

for the last 80 of each round I tried to do sets of 10, with minimal shaking out as necessary mid 'set' and then once i hit an even 10, i could take a slightly longer break - walking around a bit as necessary to shake out my legs enough to do the next set. I was able to do this pretty consistently through abou rep 70 for all rounds, and after that, rests started getting longer.

Ultimately, this workout went much better than i thought it would. I wasn't even sure, before it started, given the brutal difficulty of the workout a couple weeks ago with the high volume of squats, whether I would be able to complete the whole thing, but while my legs WERE complete jello when i was finished, I was not a complete wreck when i was done, either.


Sleep:
12:10 - 8:45. Got up once around 4:15, and was in and out of sleep after 7:45 or so - but I was determined to try to get at least a full 8 hours of sleep. The cats were blessedly well behaved.

Food:
10am - 4oz black coffee.
1:30 - Bacheesos smorgasbord - meatloaf in large quantites, salad in small quantities, some eggs with cheese and spinach, some chicken sausae a bite of turkey, 2 cups of coffee with half n'half
5:00 - .5 oz spiced cashews, 8oz coffee 2/3 cup 2% milk. 1 multiv, 4 omega-3, 2 glucosamine
8:30 - 1 large steamed artichoke, 1 cup roasted cauliflower & brocoli, 1 veggie sausage. 16 oz milk
9:15 - 3 oz beer
9:45 - 2 omega-3
12:00am 2 zma

OMG! I got my first pullup!!!!!

So before anything else - HOLY COW I GOT MY FIRST PULL UP TONIGHT!!!!!!!!! kinda took me by surprise during the warmup. It was a funky kip/deadhang hybrid, but i started from hanging, and i got my chin ALL THE WAY OVER THE BAR. Happy DAY!!!! The only sadness is that it was not captured on video. I was working my kip attempts, and got pretty close on one, and decided to see if I could muscle my way up the rest of the way, and I did! I was so surprised. Fortunately, I had witnesses :-)

Ok. Back to our regularly scheduled workout blog.

Warmup: ME, 800m (fell and twisted my ankle a little bit in the last 50 meters - stupid hole in the sidewalk - i had to limp the rest of the way back, but after walking on it a bit, and finishing the warmup, it wasn't really bothering me much any more.), 20 air squats, 20 hip openers, 10 burpees, 1 Pullup(!!!!) a few more pullup attempts, 8 pushups.

WOD:
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

5 Pull-ups *kip attempts
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Results:
12 Rounds + 7 pushups (PR by a WHOLE ROUND)

Round	Time	Elapsed
1	40,36,47	2:03
2	1:35	3:38
3	1:40	5:18
4	1:41	6:59
5	1:59	8:58
6	1:48	10:46
7	1:37	12:23
8	2:01	14:24
9	1:41	16:05
10	1:36	17:41
11	1:38	19:19
7 pushups	0:41	20:00

Comments:
I'm super excited. I got a complete extra round in - and I definitely could have gotten a full 12 done if I hadn't wasted a full 30 seconds at the start due to a less than optimal pullup setup.

My pushups actually stayed fairly strong throughout - I was able to keep the rep scheme to 5-3-2 for most rounds. Though starting around round 9 i had to switch it to 4-3-3.

My real weak spot was the pullups. The attempts I managed to knock out were not very pull up like for the first few rounds, and I had to repeat quite a few reps trying to get a little more height out of them. I think the pullup that I did get kinda burned out those muscles for the workout. Not that I'd opt to not have gotten it. Ironically, the attempts started getting a bit better towards the end.

All in all a very good day!

Sleep:
12:05 - 7:55 - was awakened at 2am by wounded cat trying very hard to scratch his wound through his collar, and he just wouldn't stop, so I got out of bed to try to sooth him. After tending to him, watering him, letting the other cat out as long as I was up so Daniel wouldn't have to do it later, and then laying awake in bed for a while it was probably half an hour before I got back to sleep. Made me wish for a bedroom with a door we could lock the cats out of.

Food:
Fasting 10:30pm - 2:30pm
2:30 - coffee 12oz w/ 2/3 cup milk, 2 cups cottage cheese, 4 oz slivered almonds, 2tsp cinnamon., 1 multiv, 2, glucosamine, 4 omega-3
4:00 - 1 oz spiced cashews
8:00 variety of chinese food dishes - veggie mongolian beef, veggie chicken w/ broccoli, veggie mu shu, kung pao veggies, and tried a cashew prawn - it was ok.
11:00 2 zma

Cindy and climbing

The daily WODs are beginning to take their toll this week - I was feeling pretty beat up when I awoke this morning, and contemplated skipping Cindy to just climb. By the time I'd had my coffee, though, I was feeling better, and since I arrived at Ironworks well before Tor, there was plenty of time to do the workout and get some rest before jumping into climbing.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

13 rounds w/butterfly kips (on rings)
(splits - 0:49 | 0:55 | 1:05 | 1:25 | 1:29 | 1:44 | 1:43 | 1:52 | 1:43 | 1:51 | 1:57 | 2:10 | 1:31)

Dammit. I wanted 15 rounds, and wound up with the same score I got in September. I'm pretty sure my form was better this time - every push-up touched the floor. It's really the push-ups that are the limiting factor - I can't do 10 consecutive after the third round or so, and I just need rests in order to complete the full ROM. It's like this with any high-volume push-up workout - I just have puny pecs, I guess.

Otherwise, the workout went great. I really love the butterfly kip - it feels so FAST (although in reality my first round was just 5 seconds faster). The butterfly form held pretty well for the first 10 rounds, then started to degrade - I was doing them one-at-a-time in the last couple rounds.

EDIT: Tonight I got some video of my butterfly kipping - first on the rings and then my failed attempts at the bar. Clearly I've got some work to do. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Climbing: 10a(o), 10c(f), 10c(f++), 10c(o)

It was pretty clear from the first 10a that I did not have a great deal of gas in the tank. By the time I got to the third 10c, with two roofs and a small traverse of nothing but pinchers, it was really clear I was out of my depth. The last 10c was slab on the wall, which was more my speed.

Diane

I was quite wishy-washy about this WOD all day. The high-volume 225# deadlift fiasco last week loomed large in my memory, and a small, reasonable voice in the back of my head said "maybe you shouldn't go so heavy again so soon."

Yeah...I never really listen to that voice.

21-15-9
Deadlift 225#/155#
Handstand Push-Ups

10:29 (DL at 225#, HSPUs with foot in ring) - PR

Last time I did this, I was either 35 or 75 seconds slower, and did the deadlifts at 205#. So that's progress. I'm still too chickenshit to invert reliably for the HSPUs, and I like my sub with the foot in the ring - but I don't kid myself that it's anything like as hard as a real HSPU.

After class we went to Pyramid Brewery to celebrate Jim's completion of the Bar exam, which was really nice. The CFEB crew is just a lot of good folks, fun to hang out with. And I won't lie: the beer was fantastic.

I can, in fact, Salsa.

Salsa:
Going into this evening, I was greateful that this was the last class of the series. I finished up dancing on sunday slightly frustrated, and with a less than confident feeling about my dancing abilities. I ended the evening tonight feeling very confident about being a solid, intermediate dancer with a good ability to follow a good lead, and more confidence that I do, in fact, know what I'm doing out there most of the time.

I got to dance several dances with the instructors (who obviously lead well) and tonight, for whatever reason, they seemed to recognize that i was capable of doing more than just the small handfull of steps we'd gone over in class, so I got to actually really dance instead of just going over the same 4 steps over and over. But the really fun part was that - with a very few exceptions, I was able to do everything they threw at me - whether it was familiar or not - which was a fantastic confidence booster. And on the few occasions where I didn't get it, they'd just show me again, and I always got it the second time. I also think that, becuase it was a class session, it didn't feel so embarassing when i missed something.

I won't be signing up for another series of classes right away. Maybe in a couple months I will look into taking their "Turns and spins" class because that is far and away my weakest manouver, and there are lots of them, and the more advanced your partner, the more of them you have to do - but i think it's on wednesdays and that is bad timing. Also, in general, I think I'm happier just doing salsa every so often - but it was nice to end it on such a positive note.


Sleep:
11:43 - 8:20 Only woke up once or twice - TOTALLY overslept. I was dreaming -vividly - that i was awake, and trying to clean up after my wounded cat who had somehow managed to get his protective cone collar off and bled allover the house. I was relieved to wake up from that. I was also relieved to wake up from a dream in the middle of the night where the Decepticons (scarier live action movie version - not cartoons) were totally kicking our ass and about to blow us up. Apparently Daniel was having a dream at the same time of us going out to look for enormous scorpions on the beach. We were both glad that Oscar woke us up. Dunno what was up with the unusally vivid dreams, but it was good to get over 8 hours of sleep.

Food:
9:15 3 egg cheesy scramble w/veggie sausage, 12oz coffee w/2/3 cup milk.
1:30 1.5 cups cottage cheese, 2oz slivered almonds, 1 tsp cinnamon
3:03 2 oz spiced cashews
6:30 8oz chicken (some chile verde, some teriyaki, some tikka masala) from whole foods, 2 Tbs spinach paneer
9:45 turkeyburger w/ swiss & guacamole, tomato & onion - no bun sweet potato fries, 16oz beer
11:30 2 zma

Kettlefran

Since I would be leading the classes this evening, I went in to the gym in the morning to do the workout myself. I'm pleased to get the opportunity to try my hand at leading classes for a whole week, but it is going to be a bit of a challenge squeezing in my own workouts around class times.

21-15-9
2P KB Swing
Pull-Ups (Men C2B)

9:53 (pullups were on rings - don't know if that's RX or not)
(splits 2:48 | 4:14 | 2:50)

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what this workout would be, and I was right: it's Fran with a kettlebell. The weight is lighter and the movement easier than a 95# thruster, so I know I'm still nowhere near a 10 minute Fran RX'd (no surprise there, really).

I killed the first round - the swings were unbroken, the pullups were 7-7-7. This vigor did not last into the second round, clearly - I had to take three rests in the swings and the pullups were 5-5-5. The last round was done 5-4 each.

I'd like to think I could have done better in the higher pressure of a class setting, but can't be sure. My pullups would have been on a bar, which would slow me down.

All week, I'm going to be substitute-coaching the CFEB classes in Max's absence. Tonight was the first two, and they went quite well. I'm constantly impressed by how hard our veteran CrossFitters push themselves - I exhorted them to push their intensity as hard as they could, and they did. They're so experienced at this stuff that all a coach really needs to do is start the stopwatch and then yell at them a bit. The newbies were a bit more challenging - evaluating what weight to recommend to someone you don't really know is iffy, so I erred on the side of safety and tried to get them to watch their form as much as possible. The first class was a walk in the park - only 9 people, none of whom were completely new. The second class was more challenging - 26 people forced me to break it into two groups, but thankfully the workout was so short that there was still time afterward for some easy stretching. I'm nervous about tomorrow - Diane - and the number of available bars for deadlifting if the class is crowded. I've done it with Max before in, I think, three or four waves - hopefully it won't get that crazy.

Going Heavy

Warmup: ME, partner Squats & hip openers, 20 V-ups, 20 pushups, pullup practice, KB swing practice.

WOD:
21-15-9

2P KB Swing *1.25P
Pull-Ups (Men C2B) *kip attempts

Results:
7:31

Comments:
I totally failed at watch management today. I didn't start it until I was waiting for a spot on the bar for my first set of pullups, I hit the timer once, after my first set of pullups, and only remembered to stop it when I was in the locker room long after the WOD ended. So no data re: rounds.

Due to the low volume of reps, I decided to go for it and try to do my swings with the 1.25P (grey) KB. Not the Rx Weight, but closer than the 1P. Unfortunately the swings were so heavy that it was hard to get a real metabolic hit with them; Daniel told everyone not to take more than 5 breaths if you absolutely had to put the weight down, but 2-3 breaths always felt like plenty - i just had to wait for my hips to be ready to fire again. My best reps (and there were only a few per round) were nearly eye level. most of my reps were about rib cage level. So - not anywhere near full ROM for full american swings, and even a little short of russian swings, but it felt like the right decision to try to work with heavier weight.

I also feel really good about my kip attempts. My first set (once I finally got a spot on the bar) was 15 unbroken. One or two were REALLY close. I probably need to sacrifice some momentum and consecutive attempts for trying harder to get higher up on each rep. I feel like i have the kip movement down really well - but either I'm not getting enough power out of opening my hips (and my powerless squats lead me to believe that this is entirely possible) - or(probably 'and') I am just not strong enough to pull myself that last bit up to the bar. But I think I am closer on these than I was a week or two ago.

Overall I was happy with the way thiw workout went.Also, I really liked stetching out after class. I think it makes a big difference. Thanks sweetie ;-) *AND Daniel makes an awesome coach.

Sleep:
11:45 - 7:50 - only woke up once on my own, but was awakened several times by cats - one who was trying his damnedest to scratch his abscessing cheek through a plastic collar (which is damned noisy), and the other one who wanted to be let outside since the collared kitty can still get outside with his collar on if the cat door is open. Stupid cats.

Food:
8:45 1 multi v, 2 omega-3, 2, glucosamine
8:50 8 oz milk
10:00 12 oz coffee w/2/3 cup 2% milk
1:15 1.25 cups cottage cheese with almonds & cinnamon
3:30 2 oz spiced cashews
4:30 2/3 svg of green curry w/ chicken & cashews.
8:15 Regular Carnitas burrito w/ cheese, black beans & guacamole, 16 oz milk
9:00 2 omega-3
11:00 2 zma

Keeping up with the details

Hooray for rest days!

I was able to to get my chin over our pullup bar at home twice today and relatively close a few times after that - which I haven't been able to do for a few weeks now. So those seem to be coming back. Daniel's working on a post talking about embarking on a hybrid strength program. I will definitely be joining him. Strength is far and away my limiting factor on all exercises. I am not genetically built for strength, and I will admit to some envy of those who just HAVE strength, but I am sure that if I just keep working at it it will come - some will, some already has (I am certainly stronger than I was a year ago), I just want more. I just have to be focused ... and patient.

Sleep:

12:22 - 8:08 only woke up once around 4:30 - slept really soundly the rest of the night. Was not ready to get out of bed when the alarm went off.

Food:

9:00 3 egg cheesy scramble, 2 pieces veggie bacon, 12 oz coffee w/ 2/3 cup 2% milk

2:20 1 cup cottage cheese, 2 oz slivered almonds, 1 tsp cinnamon

3:30 1.5 oz spiced cashews
8:30 1 bowl green curry w/ chicken, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, broth & coconut milk, 16 oz milk
10:30 1 multiv, 4 omega-3, 2 glucosamine
11:15 2 zma

Climbing and squating

Climbing:
5.9 (o), 10a/b (o), 10a(f), 10a (f++)

Tonight's climbing went pretty well. It felt strong. All of these climbs were new to me. The setters have been busy in IW since the last time i climbed there. It was great to get the first two climbs clean. The 5.9 was pretty straight forward. So was the 10 a/b. It had one slightly tricky sport, but I had watched Ynez climb it first, so I had a good sense of how to get past it.

The first 10a was a green one facing west on the first pillar. It's a little slabby to start, but about half way up it gets pretty negative incliny. It had one really tough move right in the transition from slab to -incline where I had to hang and think about how to do it, but after that I didn't hang again. Though i sort of speed climbed my way up the last half trying to get to the top before my arms failed.

The last climb was on the first pillar facing south. I've never climbed on this part of this pillar before - the climbs set here are usually more advanced climbs. This one had two little overhangs, and a small bit of negative incline, too. There was one part just before getting to the first overhang that stumped me and I had to try a bunch of times to get past it - and then i fell a couple times after that - but it was mostly due to pumped arms ... I don't think there was another spot that would have stumped fresher muscles.

Squats:
After climbing, I decided to work just a little bit on back squats. The dismal thrusters and front squats from saturday are fresh in my mind, and i figure the only way to find the power in my squats is to do a lot more squats. I did 5 or 6 sets of 5 with the empty bar. On rep 4 of just about every set I had to really struggle to complete the rep ... with the EMPTY bar. I know there was probably some fatigue from the climbing but ... honestly ... that was just embarassing. Once I stood and took a couple breaths, rep 5 was usually easy enough.

One thing that seems guaranteed to bring my power and momentum to a grinding halt is the thought of and the act of pushing my knees out. I suspect weak adductors are a major cause of the lameness of my squats. I think my form has gotten pretty good, and my knees don't wobble as much as they used to - though the still will if i don't constantly think about sending them out - but I still have a long way to go. *sigh* i'm thinking maybe I'll try to thrown in a set of 10-15 squats whenever I get a chance during the day. Can't hurt as long as I'm using good form.

Sleep:

11:53-8:05 - only woke up once a little after 1 am.

Food:

9:15 12 oz coffee 2/3 cup 2% milk

12:30 1 cup cottage cheese w/ 2 oz slivered almonds and 1 tsp cinamon

2:20 1.5 oz spiced cashews

4:45 1 svg (1.75 cups?) kale & veggie sausage & black beans w/ walnuts and parmesean, 8 oz water

10:00 2 Tbs Almond butter
10:30 1 multiv, 4 omega-3, 2 glucosamine
11:30 2 magn/zinc/calc

Didn't really get a chance to eat dinner - not quite enough food today, but tomorrow is a full breakfast day so I should get plenty of calories tomorrow.

Keeping it fun.

Salsa: 2.5 hours of aerobic Latin (mostly) fun.
Went dancing with Ev and Elisa @ Allegro. I can dance pretty well with the right partner. With the wrong partner I am absolute crap. I need to learn how to turn better. I think I am better at it than I used to be, but not enough to keep it together if I'm having a hard time reading the leader's signals, and/or they're not good at keeping me over my center of gravity. It's probably worth taking a class on turns and spins - but not soon. I think I need a break from salsa because I can feel my "GET IT RIGHT" tendencies surfacing. Maybe in a month or two.

Sleep:
1:05 - 9:50 only woke up a couple of times - though once was with a bad foot cramp around 2:45. Fortunately I got it to go away without having to take a bath.

Food:
10:30 am- cheesy 3 egg scramble with veggie sausage patty, 12oz coffee w/2/3 cup milk
2:30 2oz spiced cashews
3:00 12 oz milk
5:00 - 3 Tbs peanut butter on a low carb tortilla with cinnamon, 6oz coffee w 1/3 cup milk
7:30 - 1 oz spiced cashews, 1 multiv, 4 omega-3, 2 glucosamine
11:00 - 2 magn/calc/zinc

Fail

I've been in denial, but this afternoon I came to accept that I overdid it on Thursday. The DOMS that it gave me negatively impacted the next three workouts, including today's - which was pretty horrible. It's been useful in a philosophical/programmatic way, however, and sparked an interesting discussion over at PMenu.

My takeaway from this lesson is that there is a time and a place for intensity. Heavy deadlifts for time is not it - I would have done and felt vastly better if I had done the workout at 185 instead of 225, I think. In general, I think that shorter (under 25 mins), low-and-bodyweight metcons are ideal for working on intensity (Helen, Cindy, FGB), whereas heavily weighted workouts should be treated with more respect and attention to form and safety. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and come back and try again next week.

Deadlift 1RM: 225-275-285(f)
Bench Press: 135x5, 140x3, 140x4, 140x3, 135x2

I've been trying very hard to recover in time for today's workout. I've gotten more than 10 hours of sleep each night, been downing Omega 3's and animal protein like crazy, and have taken it easy on the last two workouts...it still wasn't enough. The warmups were OK, but the lift at 275 was scary. After dropping the weight, I fell to my knees and grabbed the bar to steady myself, as my vision tunnelled and a very loud buzzing completely took over my hearing. This freaked me out. I gave a half-hearted attempt at 285 (even just pulling it a little gave me a headrush), and gave up. So my score is 25 pounds lower than the 1RM I scored just two weeks ago.

It had been my intention to do the bottom-to-bottom tabatas that CFEB did this morning, but I was feeling lousy and Gita suggested I avoid high-volume work if I felt in danger of overtraining. So I joined them for 5x5 Bench press instead. I thought I had gone above 140 in my 5x5's, but looking back through my blog posts, it looks like no, that was the highest I ever got. So I don't feel so bad about not being able to finish a full set of 5 at this weight today. My bench is definitely weak - I should get this up to 175 for level II, but it's hard to work on by yourself. Maybe I could rope Jim into doing it with me once a week.

Good intensity - bad squat power

Warmup: run 800m (got a side stitch today :-( hasn't happened in a while) test thrusters, front squats, cleans

WOD:
Four Rounds

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The stations are:

1. Thruster 95#/65#(Reps)
2. Power Clean 2p/1.5p KB (Reps)
3. Front Squat 2P/1.5P (Reps)
4. Clap Push-Up (Reps)
5. Pull-Ups (Reps)

Subs:
1. 45#
2. L 1P, R .75P
3. 1P
4. hopping pushups
5. kip attempts

Results:

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
45# Thruster	6	5	6	5	22
1P/.75p Clean	10/4	8/7	6/6	5/10	29/27
1P Front Squat	9	8	5	7	29
Hopping Push-ups	14	13	14	13	54
Pullups	11	11	12	14	48
Total	54	52	49	54	209

Comments:
I worked really hard to get this score. I feel very good about my intensity/effort applied on this workout. Regardless. My thrusters and my front squats suck. I have no power coming up out of the squat. I need to find that. I thought I might be able to do my thrusters at 55# maybe even 60# - 45 was about all I could manage. And the thrusters were really more like front squat/presses. (see note re: NO POWER).

I don't think I've ever done cleans with the 1P before, so it was cool to be able to do those for at least one arm. I couldn't QUITE get them up with my right arm yet, but the .75 one was pretty easy so the 1P should be close.

The hopping pushups went pretty well ... I can't get enough height to warrant a clap yet, but I don't think they're too far off either. Maybe a month or two. Hopping is far easier than clapping, so I really made up in numbers here what I was missing in thrusters.

My kip attempts were ... pretty good. I think I really have the kip mechanics nailed - and I can string 5 or 6 together pretty easily, I just lack the strength to pull myself up the last few inches. The frustrating thing is I feel like I had that about a month ago. I don't know where it went. Not enough GtG? Need to work SDHP or rowing or ... something to get my pull strength up.

Sleep:
12:50 - 8:40 - only woke up 2 or 3 times.

Food:
10am coffee black
12:30 20oz 2% milk
1:20 8 oz chicken fried steak with 3/4 cup gravy and 2 eggs over easy. 1 small bite buttermilk biscuit. 12 oz coffe w/ 3oz half n half
3:30 2 oz spiced cashews
4:00 1 multiv., 3 omega-3, 2 glucosamine, 1 magn./zinc/calc.
8:15 1 svg/bowl veggie sausage w/ beans & kale, 16oz 2%milk

Fight Gone Sandbag

I had a difficult time getting out of bed this morning. My entire posterior chain, from hamstrings to traps, was screaming at me. After staggering and wincing around for a while, I forced myself to do some stretches and deep breathing, and felt more functional. I wasn't sure how to approach today's workout, but in the interest of not damaging myself further or rendering myself incapable of motion, I decided to take it really easy.

Four Rounds
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The stations are:

1. Thruster 95#/65#(Reps)
2. Hang Clean 2P/1.5P (Reps)
3. Front Squat 2P/1.5P(Reps)
4. Clap Push-Up (Reps)
5. C2B Pull-Ups (Reps)

208 not-at-all-RX
(I did the women's weight for everything, and did regular pushups and pullups)

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
Pull-ups	10	10	10	12	42
65# Thruster	10	10	10	10	40
1.5P Clean	10	10	10	12	42
1.5P Front Squat	10	10	10	12	42
Push-ups	10	10	10	12	42
Total	50	50	50	58	208

So I sandbagged the shit out of this one. The last round WAS hard, and I did have to push myself, but the first three rounds were only moderately uncomfortable, and since I could do all the reps unbroken, I usually wound up with ~30 seconds of rest between exercises.

I don't know how guilty I should feel about this. What is the appropriate level of intensity for a workout when you're already really sore? I still need to figure this out. My hunch is that it's better to absolutely kill yourself once or maybe twice a week and spend the rest of your time recovering than it is to maintain a doable rate across the entire week.

After showering I did some butterfly practice on the rings - I can consistently knock out a set of about five butterfly kips before my form fails and I lose the momentum. They are tiring and harder than regular kips, but they feel really good and FAST.

I am a beautiful butterfly

...or at least I will be.

I'll get to today's workout in a bit. First, I want to relay something that I find very exciting: I think I'm starting to understand the butterfly kip.

Aaron apparently went to CF Oakland, where they gave him a lesson in the butterfly, which he passed on to the rest of us after class. It took a few tries (it's difficult not to relapse into a regular kip), but eventually I started to get a feel for it. I can't yet get high enough on the bar - I get freaked out by the metal bar speed directly towards my face - but I was able to string a few together on the rings.

This is exciting to me for a couple reasons. 1) If you can do it, it's MUCH faster, but more importantly, 2) your legs stay bent the whole time. This means that the Ironworks bar, where I do the majority of my pullups and which is a bit too low for me, could stop being the frustrating kip-killer it currently is. My plan is to practice these until I can get my chin over my bar, then switch to doing them for the WODs. It will mean losing a few as-RX workouts, but it's my hope that with time and practice, I'll be able to do these C2B as well. I know it's possible, and those that can do it swear it's easier. I suspect this is because, done properly, the butterfly kip enables the vast majority of the power to come from the hip, and lets the arms do less work.

Anyway, on to today's workout. Max took pity on us for two difficult workouts (I've been pretty wrecked today), and gave us something quite low-key:

Floor press 5-5-5-5-5

135-145x4-145-150-155x4

An entire workout spent lying on the floor. Perfect. It's a weird lift - the ROM feels all wrong, but having the floor stop your arms prevents any bounce from the reflex action of the muscles, so you have to start the lift in midair. I didn't hate it, but it didn't feel super-useful to me.

Lifting weight/ improving mood

Warmup: 20 pushups, 5 hopping pushups, 15 parallette dips, 5 kip attempts

WOD:
Floor Press 5x5

Results:
(5) 5-5-5-5-5
(45) 65(f r5)-60-65-65-70(f r3)

Comments:
This was a strange night of lifting. The warmup at 45# felt heavy. I failed 65# on the 5th rep. I went down to 60 - it was hard but doable. I went back up to 65 - it was hard but doable. I stayed at 65, it was EASY, i moved up to 70, i got it up solidly with good form twice and couldn't budge it on rep 3.

But the main thiong is that i was in a FOUL mood before the workout (it was a particularly stressful and irritating day at work), and I was in a much better mood afterwards, so I will say the night was a success.

Sleep:

11:50 - 8:02 only woke up every 2 hours. Had to get up around 5:30 to herd annoying uninjured cat outside while keeping injured can inside. Headache on waking up. Third time since monday.

Food:

8:30 Multivitamin, 2 glucosamine, 1 magnesim/zinc, 4 fishoil capsules

9:30 Coffee w/.75 cup 2% milk

10:30 .75 cup cottage chese, 1.5 oz slivered almonds, 1tsp cinnamon

11:45 2 oz spiced cashews
1:30 1/2 a chicken patty sandwich on multi-grain bread w/ lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, mayo mustard (this was billed as a chicken breast sandwich but it was a gross processed patty - i couldn't eat the other half - no idea what was in that thing)
4:30 2 oz spiced cashwes
8:00 1 fried imperial roll, 1 bowl yellow chicken curry with carrots and potatoes and okra, .5 cup cooked brown rice, 12oz iced green tea
12:15 2 Magnesium/calcium/zinc tablets

Well, I asked for it.

"Performance is directly correlated to intensity.
Intensity is directly correlated to discomfort."
-Coach Glassman, founder of CrossFit

In case you didn't read the comments, Max read my complaint about lackluster effort from yesterday, and suggested that, just once, I push a workout hard enough to puke. He suggested tonight's class as a potential. I actually hadn't intended to go to class tonight - the logistics with the car are a bit tricky - I was going to go to Ironworks after work and do my own 5x5 deadlifts. However, deadlifts were the heart of the WOD, and I'd be sure to get a better workout at class, so I figured, "what the hell."

Four Rounds for time:
Run 400 Meters
21 Deadlift 225#/155#

21:15 RX. or so I'm told.
splits: 3:22 | 5:44 | 5:21 | 6:47

I didn't puke. It wasn't really that sort of workout, at least for me - the weight was a bit too heavy (75% of my 1RM) to just slam through, and I wasn't willing to let my form slip into 'F' territory and risk injury (my form at the end was atrocious, and I'm grateful that I didn't do any real damage besides what's likely to be a fucking massive case of DOMS). I did, however, nearly black out and fall over on a couple of occasions, and came fairly close to just...crying when it was over. I also essentially lost my mind, apparently. In the third round, I slammed down the weight and Max said "OK, you're done. Go run." To which I looked at him with furrowed brow and gasped, "No. That was only 14." He said, "I've been standing here counting. That was 21. Go run."

Now, one of us miscounted - unless he was concerned enough that I'd injure myself that he intentionally stopped me early. Normally, I'd be willing to bet it was him. I've gotten pretty good at counting my reps, and he had a whole class to coach. In this instance, though, I really can't be sure. My brain was, to put it simply, diminished. Talking to people afterwards, I realized I was slurring my speech and, like a drunk, I had to talk slowly and with great concentration to string words together. It was surreal. My hands were shaking and my throat was burning from gasping for breath.

So, regardless of whether I hit 21 every round or not, I got what I wanted: a workout that pushed the limit of my capabilities. Thankfully I brought 20 ounces of milk to class, and that helped revive me somewhat afterwards, and I came home and had a double helping of tuna. I'm shooting for 9 hours of sleep tonight.

One more week of beginner salsa.

Salsa was fine today. Not exciting, not horrible. I do like my new shoes - although the snap on elastic bands are a little tight. I need to get that remedied. I've started looking forward to the class being over. I enjoy helping the confused new leaders try to figure out how to signal what they'd like me to do - up to a point. It's a lot more fun to dance with someone who really knows what they're doing though - and I'm just not going to find that at a beginner class. One more week. I'm looking forward to just going dancing, and not taking a class beforehand, so all the newbie leaders feel like they know me, so I am a safe target to ask to dance later. That sounds horribly selfish doesn't it? Well. Sometimes I am.


Sleep:

11:48 - 7:48 - woke up nearly every hour on the hour starting @ 1:42.

Food:
Breakfast: 3 egg scramble with cheese & butter, 2 strips veggie bacon, 1 cup coffee w/2/3 cup milk
Morning snack 12:20: 1 cup cottage cheese 2 oz slivered almonds 1 tsp cinnamon

Afternoon Snack 2:30: 1.5 oz Spiced Cashews
Lunch 4:2o 1 helping of Tofusagna
Dinner 6:20: 2 slices of Meat lovers pizza from wholefoods.
Post Dancing snack 9:45: 12 oz glass of 2% milk

IMPROVE, dammit!

I get frustrated sometimes. You know that fantastic feeling you get when you compare your current level of progress with a previous version of yourself, and can measure how far you've come? Yeah, that's great.

I don't have that tonight.

100 Squats
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
75 Squats
25 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
50 Squats
50 Push-Ups
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
25 Squats
75 Double-Unders
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)

43:56 not-quite-RX (about 25% of the pullups were not C2B)

I went into this working knowing that it was going to be a high-volume slogfest, but I made a promise with myself to PUSH, dammit. To not rest so much, or for so long. Clearly, that didn't happen. Things went pretty well until the push-ups, and then they went to shit. I had to take breaks frequently with the push-ups, pull-ups and double-unders, in order to keep my form above a B. And my form WAS solid - until the last round of pull-ups, when we were running out of time and I just had to get them done. I wanted a time in the mid-30's, so I was about 8-9 minutes off the mark.

Rationally, I realize that I should really only compare myself to myself, and not to others. Other people have more training, better genes, smaller levers, etc. Emotionally, however, I find this difficult to do. Part of what motivates me is the mild competition of identifying someone who is a little better than I am, and striving to beat them. The trouble comes when they improve faster than I do. Grrr.

It's not that big a deal. I'm pretty used to it, by now, and I'm not going to go turn the lights out, put on some Morrissey and obsess over my receding hairline (that one's for you, Ynez). But that is where I'm at tonight: frustrated. I want more. to go Faster. Stronger. Longer. NOW.

More fuel for the fire, I suppose.

Just finish it.

Warmup: 5 squats, 10 jumping squats, 5 burpees, 10 KB swings.

WOD:
For Time:

100 Squats
25 Pull-Ups* (Men C2B)
75 Squats
25 KB Swing* 2P/1.5P
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
50 Squats
50 Push-Ups
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
25 Squats
75 Double-Unders*
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)

*subs:
pullups - some jumping - whichever box was available, some kip attempts.
KB swings = 1 pood.
DU = 4x single skips

Results:

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
100 Squats	4:50	4:50
25 Pullups	2:01	6:51
75 Squats	4:51	11:42
25 KB Swing	5:10	16:52
25 Pullups	2:14	19:06
50 Squats	3:59	23:05
50 Pushups	6:07	29:12
25 Pullups	7:53*
25 Squats		37:05
300 Skips	4:21	41:26
25 Pullups	5:10	46:36

*I forgot to hit my lap time until I was on skip #60 so 7:53 is the time for 25 pullups, 25 squats and 60 skips.

Comments:
This workout REALLY REALLY sucked. By the time I was done with the second set of squats, my knees were quivering so bad I had a hard time standing. It made the KB swings stupidly hard. It made jumping pullups near impossible. I alternated between kipping attempts and jumping pullups ... there's a funnk click or pop in my back when i do the kip attempts that makes me a little nervous. I actually looked forward to the pushups because it would give my legs a bit of a break. Everything was so so hard with the wobbly knees that I often didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. I did a good bit of both.

I knew going in to the workout that it was going to be brutal. I usually get one intense day of PMS where my hormones rule my reason, and workouts on these days usually bring frustration and tears. Today was not an exception. I tried to do everything I could to mitigate - I made sure I ate sufficiently and regularly throughout the day, and I even managed to get a relatively decent amount of sleep (7h 40m). I was even very nearly on-time to class (only a few minutes late instead of 10). Frequently, historically, I've used the hormonal onslaught as an excuse to do 50%. Today, I was determined to soldier on, and get the damn thing done, regardless of whether the performance was a poor one. I did make a very conscious effort to keep my form as clean as possible, though I suspect it suffered some towards the end.

When class ended I only had 10 pullups left, but there was a yoga class that gets very putout if we go over, so Max kicked us out. That really sent me over the edge, but I pulled myself together, got myself over to the pneumatic gravitron in the weight area, waited for the damn thing to pressurize, and did my last 10 reps. I was NOT going to accept a DNF after all the work I did.

Food:
9:00a 8oz coffee w 3/4 cup milk
11:30 1.25 c small curd cottage cheese w/ 2oz slivered almonds & 1tsp cinnamon
4:00 left over mongolian beef 1.25 cups?
4:30 1 oz spiced cashews
8:10 regular chile verde burrito & 12oz milk

Sleep:
12:27a-8:05am

A new Resolution

I've been frustrated lately feeling like i get overtrained really easily. I feel like i am consatntly doing a half volume week to try to get my energy back up, and I don't really know what the cause is so I've decided to make a conscious effort to a) get a full night's sleep (which I am currently failing at as I write this), and b) start using fit day to track what I eat, and my moods and my sleep to see if I can find a correlation between what worksto help keep me feeling strong, and what does not. Fit day is also not going to help me get to bed on time, especially if I take the tiem, as my OCD tendencies want me to, to set up all the custom foods I eat. SO i'm going to try to deny the worst of those tendencies, and approximate where I can to begin with and just add stuff slowly as I can when I have time. Although with my approximations it looks like I ate about 2100 calories today and 55% of it was fat ... which seems like a lot of calories and a lot of fat ... so ... I have no idea.

Last night I managed to get into bed @ 12:05. It is 12:05 right now - so I guess tonight will be a little bit later. (But not much - signing off)

Social Climbing

10a/b (time cop) (f+), 5.9 (sasquatch)(f), 5.8(west wall)(f), 5.9 east wall north of stack)(o), 5.9 (return fog)(f+)

Not my greatest climbing day. I did better when I was sick! My forearms were pretty pumped before I ever got on the wall from Saturday's hopping pushups and my abs were a bit tender from Annie - so I didn't expect to do great, but I struggled on climbs I've done totally clean before. But then there was also my monthly headache that was doing its best to try to beat me down. It finally stopped knocking somewhere in the middle there. At least it was nice just to be back on the wall after missing a week, and spending the time with friends.

Annie - new DU sub

Warmup: 1000m row

WOD: Annie
For time:
50-40-30-20-10
Double-unders
Sit-ups

Results:

Round	TJ	Skips	Situps	Elapsed Time
50	1:49	0:32	1:52	4:13
40	1:59	0:43	1:39	8:34
30	1:51	0:17	1:21	12:03
20	0:51	0:31	0:53	14:18
10	0:32		0:24	15:14
Total	7:02	2:03	6:09

Comments:
I used a different sub for the DU this time than last so it's not exactly apples to apples. I used yesterday's tuck jumps + single skips instead of last time's 4x single skips. I think this sub was a good bit harder. My situp time is 36 seconds shorter, so I am going to call this an improvement over last time, even though it is 7 seconds longer.

Hey Sweet Annie

I used to be embarrassed by my press. I thought it was the weakest of my lifts (except maybe for bench), and did not anticipate doing well for today's 1RM Firebreather. And...well, I didn't do well. My press IS weak. However, looking at the spread of other people in class, I fall in about the same place (DFL among men) as I did for the squat, so I suppose my press is not actually relatively weaker than my other lifts. I'm just weak all over. Yay. :\

Press 1RM - best of 5 attempts (Press 1-1-1-1-1)

95-100-105(f)-105(PR)-110(f)

So my new 1RM for shoulder press is 105, or 60% BW. I don't think I'm far off with 110 - I could really just stand to do this more often to really nail the form. My point of failure is the inch or two directly over my head - which, I think, is a bit higher than where most people fail.

Max as much as told me not to go to the metcon class this morning, as it would diminish my 1RM, so we resolved to do something after Firebreathers (half-volume week is over, and I was eager to do something for realsies). We couldn't do the AMRAP from the morning because Max had a private client, so we grabbed jumpropes and headed up to the yoga room for Annie.

"Annie"
For time:
50-40-30-20-10
Double-unders
Sit-ups

12:32 RX
(splits: 3:37 | 3:18 | 2:55 | 1:49 | 0:51)

This was my first time with Annie. I quite liked it, and it felt really good being back in action for a full workout. My double-unders are not yet chained together, but I can fairly consistently knock out a dozen or so skip-double-unders at a time, so I'm not as useless with them as I've been historically. I actually lose most of my time in resetting the jumprope when I screw up. My situps were fast, and nearly entirely unbroken.

Better Intensity

Warmup: 800m, ME, 10 Rock n' Rolls, 15 pullup-attempts, KB snatch drills ... forget if there was anything else.

WOD:
For time:

50 Double-unders
2 Pood/1.5 Pood Hang Snatch, 50 reps
50 Clap Push-Ups
50 Double-unders

Subs:
50 DU = 50 tuck jumps (TJ) + 50 skips
snatches: alternating reps 12kg L -> 8kg R
Pushups: "hopping" pushups.

Results:

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
50 Tuck	2:34	2:34
50 Skips	0:50	3:24
50 Snatch	7:07	10:31
25 Hop PU	3:37	14:08
25 Hop PU	4:14	18:22
50 Tuck	3:39	22:01
50 Skips	0:38	22:39

Comments:
When I woke up this morning the worst of my DOMS from the past few days was thankfully gone.

We got to class a few minutes early today - a very rare occurence for me. While I had the room mostly to myself, I decided to try to get some pull-up practice in, but stopped when i couldn't even pull my shoulderblades down my back or get a decent kip going. So I got some jump roping in instead which helped me pre-warmup a bit. However, the run still felt really sluggish.

The rock n' rolls felt good. I actually really love this warmup exercise - it definitely loosens up my perpetually tight hips and hamstrings. I also tried a couple of the reverse burpee motions (basically jump/kipping to a standing position from lying on your back) that Ev said helped her figure out the kip And then I really surprised myself with 15 really decent pullup attempts in 3 sets 8-5-2. I managed to get a really good kip going - I just don't have the strength to complete the pull. Max actually said (half-jokingly) that maybe doing some work on the stupid pull down machine might actually help me. For all I know it actually might. I wish resistance bands weren't so difficult to get in and out of ... I can't really imagine using them on either the BIW or the GWPC pullup bars in a WOD. But maybe I could use them at home ...

Anyway. the WOD:

It was hard.

Max decided the sub for DU would be 50 Tuck jumps plus 50 skips instead of the usual 50 tuck jumps - which suck plenty all on their own. I was somewhat taken aback that he felt he needed to make the sub harder. In reality 50 single skips is nothin. I think I did them in two sets the first round and continuously unbroken for the second. The tuck jumps were still ridiculously hard. I am just not a bouncy or springy person. In the second round I saw some people doing TJ-little hop-TJ-little hop (like doing DU-skip-DU-skip) instead of the TJ-land-reset-TJ-land-reset that I was doing, and I decided to try it. Although my second time was slower than my first, I think it made it easier to string TJ together. Although aerobic capacity took a bigger hit that way too - which might be why it took a little longer - i had to keep stopping to catch my breath.

The snatches were a little dissapointing. I had this movement dialed like 1-2 months ago. But I haven't done them since then, and whatever I had figured out has gone away again, although they were definitely feeling a bit smoother somewhere in the middle after I warmed up but before i got really tired out. I opted to use the 12kg on my left and the 8kg on the right because these were supposed to be HEAVY and not particularly fast. Unfortunately I can't really stabilize the 12kg with my right arm, but the 8kg is a little lighter than I'd like. I started with my left and did as many as I could before my form started to get scary - somewhere between 5 & 8. Then I moved to the R and got to 15 total snatches, at which point I decided to do 10 per side, regardless.

The timing for the hopping pushups is in two segmentsonly because i accidentally hit the lap button on my watch when I collapsed after #25 - I was just lucky it was right in the middle.

I was pretty quickly reduced to only being able to do these 2 at a time, but I did hopping pushups for the whole 50 pushups.

Overall I think my intensity was better that it has been recently, and that's something to be happy about.

(I started this post on saturday and got through the paragraph about the snatches. Now it is tuesday and I just want to get this post finished ... so that explains the abrupt switch from verbose to terse.)

Hardly worth mentioning

Today is the last day of my half-volume recovery week. I also (rather conveniently) came down with a cold for the bulk of the week, but that's nearly over. I can tell I'm better because I'm resenting the low volume, and feel like I'm slacking. I've gained two pounds and hardly done anything that feels worth blogging about. I'm ready to go back to doing it for real.

I keep reminding myself of why I decided to do this to begin with. I was feeling consistently beat up, deeply sore, and plagued by many small, recurring injuries. All the little things are gone. My ankle is much better (I can walk on it in the morning), but it's still a bit sore. Rather than dreading workouts, I'm looking forward to them again, and my interest in attaining goals has come back. So mission accomplished - tomorrow I can play with the big kids again.

Today, however, was a bit of a joke.

For time
50 Double-unders
2 Pood/1.5 Pood Hang Snatch, 50 reps
50 Clap Push-Ups
50 Double-unders

7:16, half-volume
(subbed 1.5 pood snatches, and most pushups were just "hopping")

I was too apprehensive at the start of class to do the green 1.75 pood, but I was able to do five or so right-handed snatches with it afterwards, so I should have used that one - especially since I only had to do 25. Only James C. and Polly were able to do the RX weight - that's a lot of weight to stabilize overhead with one arm. Double-unders are getting closer, I think. I wish I had a place and time to practice these at home.

DOMS ate my shoulder press

Warmup: a few minutes of trying to jump rope with cold feet and tangled ropes. Air squats, OH squats with a dowel, pushups, burpees, B2B tabata squats (score 6).

WOD:
5x5 Shoulder press

Results:
45-45-45-50(fail rep 4)-45

Comments:
These were so much harder than they could have been. I have pretty significant DOMS in my shoulders and arms from Wednesday's Cindy, and I think partially from yesterday's salsa - but mostly Cindy. High volume pushups do that. The pushups and the burpees in the warmup really hurt, but by the time I finished the burpees they hurt a little bit less.

I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't even eke out 1 set of 50#. Back in December I managed to achieve a 3RM of 55#. But given the DOMS and an overall feeling of weakness in my shoulders I'm not really super surprised, either.

Tomorrow's going to be brutal.

Of meat and leading

So I came to a realization today: eating meat and lead climbing are actually quite similar experiences. As I put it to a friend: suddenly there's a wealth of choices that weren't there before, and at least once between starting and finishing a meal/climb, I have a surreal moment of "oh shit, I can't believe I'm doing this."

Today was my first full day of climbing since getting my lead card, and Tor and I were back on home turf at Ironworks. After the spectacular failure of the 10B last week, and keeping in mind that this is supposed to be recovery week, I resolved to keep the numbers fairly low.

L10a(o), L10a/b(o), L10a(2f), L10b(o), 10b(o)

The first two climbs were quite straightforward, and I tackled them with deliberate movements that belied my inner "oh lordy." The third 10a, however, was the long, LONG and extremely overhung 10a in the cave. It's just ridiculous calling this climb a 10a. Yes, there are nothing but big buckets the whole way, but it's also entirely upside-down and insanely pumpy. I had to take two rests, and when I finally came down, I landed 20 feet behind where I started. After that, the shorter 10b's seemed both easier (since they were short) and harder (because my arms were pumped). The last 10b was toprope, and the entire time I had this sense that A) it was SO easy! and B) I was forgetting something important.

Tonight's WOD was simple 5x5 shoulder presses. At my strongest with these I managed 95#, and I did not do that tonight:

95x3 - 95x2 - 90x4 - 90x5

It was partially weakness from being sick, I think, but mostly just being out of practice with the movement (and, likely, not quite as strong). I didn't really go at it 100%, anyway, since it's half-volume week.

Oh, and we did bottom-to-bottom tabata squats, which was (I think) the first time I've done this. I played conservatively and scored 10. I think I could have done 12, but it would have been much, much more painful.

Salsa + Cindy = pain

So tonight was 2 hours of salsa - just like last week - only this week, I did Cindy the day before, and by 1.5 hours in I was DRAGGING. I finished out the class, but by the time I left I almost felt like I was drunk just from tiredness. Also, It's too bad many of the men there feel the need to wear cologne. I might need to start showering when i get home so I don't have to keep smelling it all night.

I need better shoes. My feet are killing me from more sock issues - and I thought I had chosen well, but apparently not. Andmy legs are seriously protesting most kinds of movement (though that probably has more to do with Cindy's squats than bad dancing shoes). I am very glad tomorrow's class is presses.

I think maybe next week, if the Wednesday workout is a killer, I might only attend the last half of the beginner class instead of the whole thing. I'd rather be fresher for the intermediate class.

In other news, we tried our first Tuna steaks tonight ... with mostly good results. Fish is pretty much a totally new thing to me, too. So I am very little help in saying how it should be prepared.

The recipe's instructions to just sear it and leave it very rare inside weirded both of us out. Daniel made it through his - I had to have mine cooked a little more. But ultimately, we both feel they have promise :) I quite enjoyed the cooked parts.

Cindy

Warmup: 600-800m power walking to the gym with heavy gym bag, purse, lunch bags and an umbrella. Otherwise - not much because I was late. THere was 90 seconds of hollow rocking - and that was ROUGH - especially since my abs JUST stopped being sore from the knees to chest we did on Saturday.

WOD:
Cindy
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Results:
10 Rounds + 7 pushups - no watch malfunctions!

Round	Time	Elapsed
1	1:23	1:23
2	1:30	2:53
3	1:43	4:36
4	1:53	6:29
5	2:34*	9:03
6	1:29*	10:32
7	2:24	12:56
8	2:09	15:05
9	2:14	17:19
10	1:47	19:06
7 pushups	0:54	20:00

*I forgot to hit the time until a couple pushups into the next round so round 5 is long and round 6 is short.

Comments:
Ok - here is why I love having this blog. I finished this workout, and thought. Meh. I've done better - this really wasn't that great. I get home, I check my last score, and find out that at the very least I matched my PR, or possibly exceeded it by an entire round (there were round counting difficulties last time - though looking at the math, i probably matched my performance from last time). So - hardly the 'less-than-stellar' performace I thought it to be, and I know for sure that this time, my form on all exercises was a heck of a lot better.

For the pullups, I was jumping from a lower box(the second smallest), so my pull-ups had to have a lot more pull in them, and there were a couple rounds where i repeated my last rep to make sure i got my chin to the bar. Therefore, in general, they took a bit longer than last time. Last time, the pullups were much more of a perfunctory: jump up 5 times and get on to the pushups.

Last time, i had to resort to knee pushups for the full last round or two to get it in under the wire. This time, I did not. I had a few knee pushups sprinkled through the sets when I tried to eke out a last rep before resting and just didn't have the juice to get back up, but on the whole, all pushups were full ROM. Last time My sets were generally 4-2-2-1. This time, they were generally 5-3-2.

I think my squats generally took a bit longer this time because I was trying very consciously to have good form and good depth, and if my knees were wobbling or i wasn't getting deep enough I'd stop and take breath and reset, instead of just continuing with half-assed reps.

So, all in all, I'm much more pleased with how I did tonight than I thought I would be. I don't mind having the same round time since I was making a conscious effort to be deliberate about good form, and while I was moving at a pretty good clip, I know there's room in there to go faster and be better once I have my form nailed.

Half-Cindy meets Crankypants

I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but apparently my body got the memo that I was planning a half-volume recovery week and decided, "what the hell, might as well get that cold out of the way, then." I'd been holding strong against Rebecca's little beasties, and thought I was in the clear, until my throat started hurting on Sunday.

So now I'm sick. Not SUPER-sick - I'd rate it a 3 or a 4 out of 10 - but that doesn't mean I'm not pissed about it. I've dubbed this "the cranky cold," as it seems to come with a generous helping of foul temper. I snapped at my boss yesterday, and thought it better to take the day off today. Then I proceeded to completely fritter the day away, rather than being productive and getting shit done, as I'd hoped. This just made me crankier.

I hope it ends soon. I'm ready to move on.

At least I'm not trying to push through full-volume workouts, since I'd already set aside the week for recovery. At first I was sad to see Cindy on the board for today, as I'd be curious to know what my score is, but two rounds in I was glad I wasn't in it for the full ride.

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups (C2B)
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

6 rounds RX in 10 minutes.

This SUCKED. I figured I would shoot for virtuosity, though, since I wouldn't be shooting for a good score. My chest touched the bar on every pullup, and the floor on every pushup, and I did the squats with great deliberation in form. I ran out of steam very quickly, though, and spent a disappointing amount of time sucking wind (and just generally sucking). This is not a good pace - I don't know if I'll ever get a good score at this with the Ironworks pullup bar, but it's easy enought to test on my own with the rings.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 5x5's, and I'm not sure how helpful that would be at half-weight, or if I should just skip them. At the moment, I'm thinking maybe I'll go down, do the light deadlifts, and then do goblet squats or something to work on my non-GM back squat form.

Insert Witty Title here ...

Warmup: Run 400m, 10 Rockn' Roll, 10 Sun Salutation Burpees, 20 V-ups, ... something else but I can't remember what it was.

WOD:
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 250 meters
Kettlebell Sumo deadlift high-pull 2P/1.5P, 28 reps (1P)
Pull-ups 15 reps (Men C2B) (*Jumping Pullups)

Results:
3 rounds + 10 pull ups

Comments:
I forgot my watch, so I don't have any split information, which is a little sad. I think it would have been a bit similar to yesterday in that later rounds were a bit faster. The beginning round(s) were feeling out what was ok.

I did decide to go with the lighter weight for the SDHP becuase of my back, and I tried to be realy consistent about using mostly my legs. I just thought about standing uop hard by firing my hamstrings, and the rest more or less took care of itself (when it worked right). These were still surprisingly hard given the relative lightness of the weight - i think maybe 8 was my maximum set - and most sets were between 5 and 7. I don't know if that was a function of the soreness of my back, or what. My abs are now also ridiculously sore (i think from the KTC yesterday), so that might have been part of it too.

Everything else was pretty straight forward.

Bad Mornings

Woke up with a sore throat this morning: bad sign. Rebecca's just getting over a cold that knocked her out for a week, and I was thinking I was fortunate to dodge that bullet, but perhaps I didn't. So I'm throwing back the Wellness Formula, and, after today, am taking a recovery week. Until next Sunday, I'm doing half-volume workouts. I'm telling this to everyone I know and asking them to help me enforce it, because I'm not very good about being disciplined in this regard.

This morning:

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

• Run 250 meters
• Kettlebell Sumo deadlift high-pull 2P/1.5P, 28 reps
• Pull-ups 15 reps (Men C2B)

4 rounds
Not all my pullups were successfully C2B.

This was a good WOD, but the length of the rounds makes for a fairly small window of options. 4 rounds seems solid. Gita got 5 rounds, but nearly killed himself doing it. Most people got 3 and change. The runs were a nice rest, and I didn't find the SDHP to be terribly difficult. The real killer for me was the pull-ups.

With the help of some classmates, I've discovered why my pullups suck so much at Ironworks: the bar is too low! I can stand solidly on my heels and grab the bar, which means that when I kip I have to bend my knees to avoid hitting the floor, and this kills my momentum. If I take off my shoes and use the (slightly) higher part of the bar (by the whiteboard), I can kip much more easily. I hope this knowledge will come in handy in the future.

Afternoon:

The firebreather workouts this month are all one-rep max lifts. Today was back squats. We were all sharing one cage, which made it SLOW, but I was grateful for the opportunity to get feedback on my form. Max and Eric agree: it's cringeworthy. Apparently I'm pitching forward at the bottom of the squat, and then basically good-morninging the weight up. This puts insane amounts of strain on my lower back, obviously, and if it doesn't injure me, it will ensure that I will never get much heavier than I got today.

Back Squat 1RM - best of 5 attempts (Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1)

175-185-190(PR)-195(f)

So my new PR is 190, or 109% bodyweight. Pretty weak sauce. I brought the camera, so here's some video of 175, 190 and the failed 195 - you can see what I'm talking about with the poor form coming out of the hole.



Polly pointed out that one of the Squat Rx videos deals specifically with this problem - in fact, it's common enough that they address it in video #2. There are a number of good stretches and assistance exercises in this video, which I intend to incorporate into my 5x5 nights (with lighter weights):

• Goblet squats
• Wide-stance Squats
• Good-morning Squats
• Box Squats

Hopefully, once I can correct this fault in the form, I'll be able to knock out some higher numbers.

Back in action (if somewhat gingerly)

Warmup: run 800m, ME, kb swings, situps, supermen, ktc

WOD:
Five rounds for time of:
2 pood Kettlebell swings, 25 reps (8kg KB)
25 Sit-ups
25 Supermans
25 Knees to Elbows (knee raises as close as possible to chest)

Results:

Round	Swing	Situps	Super	KTE	Round	Elapsed
1	1:22	1:26	1:07	4:26	8:22	8:22
2	1:39	1:02	1:26	5:09	9:16	17:38
3	1:32	1:04	1:05	4:01	7:42	25:20
4	1:14	1:22	1:09	2:27	6:12	31:32
5	1:18	1:22	0:48	2:56	6:24	37:56

Comments:
I guess I am officially recovered from my cold. Too bad I tweaked my back as a welcome back present :-p I don't think it's "Injured" just a little strained.

The first couple rounds of this were slow mostly because i was just feeling out what my back would accept. I was able to pick up the pace at the end when it was thoroughly warmed up ... although I'm afraid i might pay a price for my enthusiasm ... I was also using an extremely light kettlebell to make sure my back didn't get unnecessarily abused.

I forgot to hit the timer between the situps and the supermen in the first round until i was about 6 supermen in, so those two times are a little skewed.

The KTE (or knees to chest, in my case) were definitely the biggest limiting factor. My grip kept failing - in addition to my core muscles just giving out. I think the height I was able to get my knees was a bit negatively impacted by my back. I think I've had better ROM on them in the past.

Mostly it was just really nice to complete 100% of a workout. Tomorrow is a lot of KB SDHP, and I might have to go light with those as well, which is sad, becuse i really like them. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

Fat DNF

I was really not feeling it today. Although I wasn't sore from the deadlifts, just the prospect of this workout filled me with dread.

Five rounds for time of:
2 pood Kettlebell swings, 25 reps
25 Sit-ups
25 Supermans
25 Knees to Elbows

DNF in the third round

I stopped because something funky was happening to my right wrist on the swings. It was clicking, and hurting on the downswing - I think the yanking from the KTE's plus the swings was stressing it out. With ~75 more reps of each to go, it did not strike me as a good idea to keep going. I went through the typical spiral of self-doubt and criticism afterward, but I so rarely DNF that I don't feel too bad.

Deadlift don'ts

Warmup: ME, run 800m, buch o pushups, situps, burpees, squats, DL drills with a PVC

WOD:
Deadlifts 30-5-5-5-5-5

Results:
85-115-125-130(f rep 5)-130(f rep 5)-120(f rep 2 - just nothing left)

Comments:
I wasn't sure whether I was really recovered from my cold, but the run actually felt really good.

I did the first 30DL in about 2:35.

My sets at 115 and 125 felt really strong. Max watched ... one of them, don't remember which, and said it looked really solid. Somewhere around rep 3 or 4 of my first set of 130 my form died and I started pulling with a rounded lower back and getting stuck, and instead of backing off and going lighter to maintain form, i tried again (not really realizing until much later that it was form and not strength that was failing me). Frustratingly (with both sets of 130) the first rep was great, the second was good, the 3rd was fine - the 4th I muscled through and then the 5th just got stuck. Now, given, it wasn't very long ago that this weight was my 1 rep max.

I knew something wasn't quite right when I got stuck half way up - because when the form is right, as long as I get it off the ground, i can pretty much get it all the way up, but it's really hard (for me) to put 2+2 together in the middle of a heavy DL set. I'm a littte irritated that no one called me on my bad form until rep 5 of my second set of 130. I was in a group of 3 other girls and we were all watching each other's form so ... I don't know what happened. The other girls were fairly new, so maybe they just didn't know what to look for, or just didn't feel comfortable saying "stop". It was only when another girl came over from another group and mentioned that I was really rounding my back that I finally made the connection. I tried moving the weight down for the last set to try to get the form right, but the bad form reps had sapped me, and I wasn't able to get the bar up with good form, so I decided to call it a night.

Today my lower back is saying FU for being a bone headed dumbass.

Carded

I finally got my lead card!

This is cause for great celebration and personal satisfaction. No longer will routes mock me with their empty toprope pulleys and "lead only" warnings. Now I can finally play in the cave! Where things are REALLY hard! It is my passport to climbing adulthood, like a driver's license for the wall.

I took the test at the Power Company with Tor. They were setting in the cave, so at first the guy behind the counter, Mike, wasn't going to test me - but he relented when I asked if he couldn't pick a route somewhere else. He chose a stemmy 10b that I think I've done before, and truth be told it was very easy - plenty of opportunities to rest, easy clipping stances, etc. The end was a bit scary: after I clipped the last draw and kept climbing I was trying very hard not to think to myself, "every foot I climb I'm going to have to fall past in a second." I made it to the top, took a quick breath and just let go - less thinking the better. My heart was pounding, but Tor caught me (of course) without any trouble. The belaying portion went very smoothly, though (keeping in mind the notes from last week) I intentionally kept more slack in the system, so when Tor fell he generated a good amount of momentum and pulled me up about 3 feet.

Mike passed me, and confessed that he had been hoping to be able to fail me, but couldn't find anything wrong with what I'd done. Apparently his pass ratio has gotten too high, which reflects badly on him as a tester, so he's looking to get a bit more strict. But not me!

ML10a(o), L10b(c), L10b(dnf), 10d(f+)

So, after my triumphant ascent of the stemmy 10b, I chose as my first real lead climb the 10b across the way, with a tricky-looking roof about halfway up. Clearly, I am not yet fully proficient in analyzing climbs from the ground. What looked "tricky" on the floor turned out to be "really fucking pumpy" on the wall, and leading is a different animal. It was about 10' off the ground that I came to the realization that I was really actually leading this climb, and there was no safety rope, and no instructor, and if I fell, it would not be a comfy toprope fall. This rattled me somewhat. I failed spectacularly getting over the roof, and took a small dive into thin air. Untying at the bottom, Mike came over and graciously informed me: "that's the worst 10 lead in this gym. It's a bitch." I thanked him for not testing me on it.

I decided to call it quits for leading after that, and toproped a very crimpy 10d on GWPC's "slab" wall with two falls.

The evening was simply deadlifts, which I'm always happy to do:

Deadlift 30-5-5-5-5-5

135-205-225-245-255-265...275 x 1-295 x 1-300 x 1 (PR!)

I was lifting with Gita and new guy Aaron, and we were having fun so we opted to keep going with singles when we were done with the 5's. 300 pounds is a PR by 15 pounds for me, though it's been a long time since I've tested my 1RM deadlift. I felt like I could have done a little more, but my form was starting to fall apart, particularly on the first third, and I didn't see any reason to push it. In general I feel quite solid with my deadlift form these days. I wish my squats were anywhere near as good.

Vegetarian no more

A bit of history: when I was five, my mom became a vegetarian. When I asked her why, she explained (in relatively kid-friendly terms, I assume) what a factory farm was. I was horrified. So I became a vegetarian, too. She was afraid that I would grow up stunted without protein (ironic, in retrospect), so mandated that I choose one form of meat to keep eating. I chose fish, but (since I was still a kid) what this really meant was that I chose tuna fish sandwiches and sweet-and-sour prawns. I didn't really like other fish. I remember being annoyed and a little disturbed by all the bones.

This continued until I was 13, when, on a layover in Hong Kong after 18 hours on a plane, I ordered the only thing on the hotel menu that looked at all familiar (steamed prawns). They were alive when I ordered them, and didn't look much different when the waiter set them down in front of me. Covered in feet and feelers and beady little black eyes, they were a far cry from the impersonal little fried-dough-ball shape I was accustomed to prawns taking. Feeling sick, I passed the untouched plate to my dad, and never ate fish again.

Until today.

For weeks, now, I've been teetering on the edge of my vegetarian resolve. Despite going through four dozen eggs, a large tub of cottage cheese, three gallons of milk and countless nuts a week, I am constantly hungry. And it's not a normal kind of hunger. I've caught myself lingering by the tuna at Trader Joe's, checking protein labels. Gazing with envy at the meat entrees at restaurants. Making unflavored-whey shakes (not what you'd call tasty) after the really hard workouts. I've been pushing hard with my training, and my body is trying to keep up, but I've been refusing it the building blocks it craves: animal protein.

After 25 years, an eating pattern is more than a diet. It's an identity. Being a vegetarian has been, for me, simply like being tall or being male: it's just who I am. So while rationally I could present all the arguments that I do believe -- humans are omnivores; I'm doing more harm than help to my body by not eating meat; I eat fish oil every day, how is that different? -- I still couldn't bring myself to take the final step.

This afternoon, I bought a can of tuna fish for $1.49 at Trader Joe's. It felt like the time in high school when I drove to the convenience store the next town over and bought a porn mag. I felt ashamed and guilty, and embarrassed that I felt that way. Buying it was actually harder than eating it, oddly enough. I mixed it with some mayo and pickles, and put it between two toasted slices of Ezekiel whole wheat bread.

It was really good. And it tasted exactly like I remembered it, making me feel like I was 12 again. I ate the whole thing. The vegetarian community is full of horror stories of people getting very ill after eating meat, but I'm not too concerned: it's not like I haven't been eating animal protein in the form of milk and eggs in massive quantities lately. I guess we'll see if my body rebels or not. But for now, I'm not hungry anymore.

So that's it. My plan is to stick to seafood for now, and see where things go - that may be the limit of my tolerance for eating animals. But I've always been of the mindset that a vegetarian who eats fish (or chicken, or only occasionally steak) is not really a vegetarian, and "pescetarian" is just too fussy, difficult to spell and tedious to explain. I like to keep it binary: you either are or you aren't.

And I am not.