Rest Day!

Sleep:
11:40 - 8:10 slept pretty soundly but had lots of dreams - not particularly restful. Woke up at about 4:15 because of achy muscles. Took some advil, went back to sleep.

I currently have the worst case of DOMS I have had in several weeks. This past weekend was particularly heavy on the Deadlifts, and it was a lot of work in general, but I kinda think that the main reason I am so sore is that I did not have my PWO milk after the OPD workout saturday morning because I was trying to fast, and it wasn't time to break the fast yet. As it was, I didn't eat anything until a couple hours after that workout. I think that was a mistake. In the future I will remember that PWO milk > fasting.

Food:
9:00 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 1 piece turkey bacon, coffee w/milk
9:25 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
12:15 - 1 oz mixed nuts
1:45 - Cottage cheese, etc. not as many almonds today :-(
3:20 - 1 oz mixed nuts
6:50 - 8oz whole milk
7:45 - spinach salad w/ walnuts, feta, dried cranberries, chicken quesadilla, 16 oz milk
11:00 - 2 zma

CrossKitchen: Post Workout Nutrition

crossposted at Crossfit EastBay

So now we know that a double espresso before a workout works wonders, but what about afterward? The topic of post-workout (PWO) nutrition is a hotly-debated one over in the bodybuilding territories of the internet. Over there, the debate is typically not whether one should have anything post-workout, but rather which super-mega-extreme frothy tanker of aspartame and diheximethylcrapalose* (now in Fruit Punch flavor with real Acai!) will get you totally shredded (or pumped, I guess, depending on your goals). Bypassing the hype, though, is there anything that sets the post-workout window apart from any other time for nutritional benefit? Turns out, there is.

The Why
I'm going to geek out on you here for a second. As you may or may not know, the body provides three separate pathways for generating and burning energy: ATP/CP, Glycolitic and Oxidative. In the first, the body burns adenosine tri-phosphate for extremely brief (under a second), maximum-effort movements. In the second, the muscles burn through their reserves of glycogen at about 90% effort, which lasts about 12-15 minutes. The final is the domain of the endurance athlete, in which the body combines oxygen from your lungs with bodyfat reserves to allow you to work at about 50-70% for, essentially, hours on end. CrossFit metcons specifically target the second pathway, focusing on intensity rather than strength or volume. We will focus on strength (Max Effort) sometimes, and will occasionally dip into volume (Murph or a 10k), but the heart of CrossFit is the short, painful metcon (Fran is a classic example). It is here that PWO nutrition is the most useful.

You see, immediately following a punishing workout, the muscles are desperate to replenish their spent glycogen stores. The body can supply their needs by mobilizing body fat or by converting protein to glycogen, but these processes take time! And your muscles are thirsty! They need their glycogen NOW, dammit! Here's where the magical non insulin mediated glucose transport comes in. In the period of time immediately following a workout, we can fly in an emergency shipment of nutrients and amino acids directly to the muscles in a sugar airlift. It's the most direct line from mouth to muscle you'll ever get, so it's a good idea to take advantage of it.

Why? RECOVERY. As you all know, 5-6 workouts a week is brutal, and there's nothing like a bad case of DOMS to wreck your day. And it's not just about soreness: faster recovery means you're able to hit the workouts harder more often, thereby providing greater stimulus and growth to your muscles and central nervous system. Faster recovery means fewer injuries, and less likelihood of illness or overtraining. Remember: we do not get stronger in the gym. All we do in the gym is controlled damage to ourselves. We get stronger as a result of our body's response to that damage, so it is in our best interests to maximize our recovery by as many (legal/safe) means as are available to us.

The What
Hopefully by now I've convinced you that PWO nutrition is a good idea. "But what," you're asking, "should I EAT? Which is better, Gatorade or Muscle Milk?" The answer, of course, is neither. Sure, you could lay out $50 for a tub of chalky-tasting chemicals specially formulated by marketing agents with a penchant for the letter "X," but why bother? There are cheaper, healthier and tastier options.

When considering your choices, these are the things you want to keep in mind: a generous amount of carbs, a small amount of protein, and as little fat as you manage. Now, normally I'm not a very big fan of the carbohydrate, but in PWO-land all the rules go topsy turvy, so now they're good - and the higher their GI, the better (I know, right?). As for protein, the ideal ratio of carbs to protein is 4:1, so about a quarter of the carbs. Fat slows digestion/absorption, so while most of the time I'm huge fan o' the fat, this is not its time to shine. So what fits the bill?

• Chocolate milk. As crazy as it sounds, lowfat chocolate milk is just about perfect for post-workout recovery. It has that great 4:1 ratio and is quickly absorbed by the body. In clinical studies, it performed as well or better than the highly processed fancy supplements. If I were to get really nitpicky, I'd advocate one made with sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup, but whatever.
• Regular milk. Rebecca's drink of choice. Organic is better than not. Lowfat versions have less fat, but whole has more nutrients, so I put that choice down to personal preference.
• Kefir. This is what I drink. I have my reasons.
• A sweet potato and a little jerky or salmon
  
• An apple or banana with some skim mozzarella or deli slice
• Applesauce with a little cottage cheese and cinnamon
  
• Lowfat yogurt or rice pudding
• Mix a little unflavored/unsweetened whey with some juice
  

You get the idea. Eggs, tofu/legumes, brown rice etc are suboptimal, as the fiber and/or fat makes them slow to digest and absorb. For 30-40 minutes of your day, fat and fiber are bad and sugar is good.

The When
Note that this little trick only works if you've pushed yourself hard enough to deplete your body's glycogen stores. So your special PWO meal/drink will only be effective if taken immediately after a hard metcon - the harder you worked, the better it will work, and the more immediate the better. The window is only open for about an hour - after that, your body has returned to business as usual. This is not to say that nutrition after a Max Effort workout would be bad for you, just that it wouldn't be any different from any other time of the day.

The How
This is not rocket science. Obtain a portable drink container and/or some tupperware and make it happen, Einstein. Try it for two weeks and see how you feel.

Personal Observations
For the last month or so, Rebecca and I have been following up our workouts with 16 oz of milk or kefir. We have both noticed a decrease (not an elimination - this ain't voodoo) in DOMS, and a greater level of energy in our workouts through the week. It's great stuff. If you have questions or your own PWO nutrition strategy, please share in the comments.

Note that if your goal is weight loss, you might consider intentionally NOT eating in the hour after a workout. In the absence of glycogen and and food, the body's response to a difficult workout will be to mobilize fat stores to replenish its immediate energy reserves. The downside of this, of course, is that you're missing out on the benefits of increased recovery, so you need to be very careful about walking the line between healthy and overtrained - if you push too hard, you'll spike your cortisol and your fat won't be going anywhere.

*As far as I'm aware, there's really no such thing. Not that any of us would know.

I am not a dietician. CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

Social Climbing

Sleep:
12 - 7:45 Pretty good. no obnoxious cat incidents that I can remember. Wasn't quite ready to get out of bed though.

Warmup - Double under practice. I can still do them! I even managed to get 3 in one "session" once. 1 headstand. Got up after several attempts, getting down was - again - less sthan graceful.

Climbing GWPC:
3 10a climbs - none clean. I was tired. ALl climbs I would like to try again when fresh. Particularly the last one. (Light green tape on southern end of east wall) We had to leave early because I still had homework I needed to get done.

Food:
8:45 - 5oz black coffee
1:40 - Cottage Cheese, etc.
2:00 - Coffee w/milk
4:40 - BBQ Chicken, half a yam.
5:30 - 8oz milk, 1 multic, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
7:20 - 8oz milk
8:45 - Chicken parmesean concoction, salad, 16oz milk
11:20 - 2 zma

Strength and Filthy 50 Gone Bad

My ass was SORE this morning, from yesterday's deadlifts. And my calves from POSE practice. And my abs from Friday's little ab-blaster warmup. I was not in terribly great shape. But we hauled ourselves down anyway, because it's Sunday and that's what we do on Sundays.

Workout 1: Strength Cycle - Week 4, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 225- 245 - 270 (PR)
Deadlift x 21: 200 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 65- 75- 95
Press x 21: 65 (20-1)

Whoa, Nelly, those deadlifts were not fun. I'm glad that the deadlift is no longer a back exercise, but rather a butt one - this is as it should be. But my butt was not in the mood to be lifting any more heavy shit. I took a thirty-minute long, comprehensive warmup (2k on rower, squats, hip openers, pushups, situps, etc), and warmed up in 50# increments all the way up to 225. Tedious. The 270 was not as bad as I feared it would be, but according to Rebecca my lower back popped up on a couple reps, so I've got to work on keeping it tight and firing from the legs.

The presses went better - the 95 weren't actually that bad, but I think I'm going to go up to 97 next week - five pounds is just too big now. I was PISSED to fail on the last rep of the superset, after so many weeks of trying to get 21 at 65. Next week!

Next Week: DL 275/205, SP 97/65

Workout 2: Filthy Fifty Gone Bad

As wrecked as I was feeling, I expected to completely fail this one. Turned out to be not THAT bad, which I guess means I wasn't working hard enough. I basically went for five reps on each exercise, at the end of which I'd have an idea of a goal to reach by the 90 second mark. I'd get to the goal, and then try to crank out a couple more. I didn't get the 300 I hoped for, but 270 isn't too shabby - Matthew got 274, and doing as well as him is nice.

AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Box Jump 24"/20"
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Jumping C2B Pull-Up
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Kettlebell Swing 1.0P
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Walking Lunge Steps
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: KTE (Knees-To-Elbows)
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: 45# Good Mornings
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Push-Press 45#
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Wall-Ball 20#/14# 10" Target
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Burpees
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Double-Unders

In this workout you move immediately from station to station for good score upon a call of "rotate" from the coach. There is no rest between movements. You may start at any station.

270RX

I started at Wall-ball, figuring to get the hardest stuff over with first. This worked pretty well.

WB: 32
Burp: 15
DU: 32
Box: 17
JPU: 26
KB: 38
Lunge: 27
KTE: 15
GM: 24
PP: 44

Double Unders!

Sleep:
11:45-9:00 ... MMMm sleep :-) Had some trouble getting comfy with DOMS settling in, but generally slept very well.

WOD 1: Strength week 4 part 2
Warmup: Hip openers, air squats, adductor stretches, situps

Deadlift:
10 x 45#

5-5-5
100-125-135(PR)

21 x 100# (f@ rep 18)

Shoulder Press
10 x 25#

5-5-5
35-45-55 (f@ rep4)

21 x 32# (f@ rep 7, 12, 15,18 - this was just UGLY)

Comments:
The new DL x 5 PR was nice - but this session was just HARD after yesterdays ass kicking. DL actually went surprisingly well - on the set of 21, I was ddoing great until about rep 14, and then my muscles just stopped firing and quit @ rep 18.

The shoulder presses were bad. I lost my good form on these. I ALMOST got that 5th rep on 55, but the set of 21 was just so so so bad. I don't know why they felt so heavy and awful. I think my core was just too tired to support the weight. Better luck next time.

WOD #2 Filthy Fifty Gone Bad
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: KTE (Knees-To-Elbows)
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Back Extensions
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Push-Press 45#
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Wall-Ball 20#/14# 10" Target
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Burpees
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Double-Unders
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Box Jump 24"/20"
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Jumping C2B Pull-Up
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Kettlebell Swing 1.0P
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Walking Lunge Steps

Results:
13-13-14-2-11-3(!!!)-0-29-17-28

Comments:
Max let us kip the KtE so I actually managed to get a fair number of them. Wall ball SUCKED - i tried several more reps than this but just could not get that sucker high enough. My poor tired arms were fried from the earlier presses and the push-presses I'd just done. Probably just should have taken it as a rest round. I did pretty well on the burpees - I tried to do as many as I could as quickly as I could because I thought the DU round was going to be a rest round.

And then .. the DU ... I knew the Box Jump was for sure going to be a rest round, so I decided to just go ahead and TRY the DU - the worst that would happen is that I wouldn't get any. First i tried straight from standing and that didn't work, and then I tried it after a couple single skips and damn if that rope didn't go all the way around twice!! Shocked the hell out of me. So I tried it again, and it worked, again! I got one more before the end of the round, and it was AWESOME! They just worked!

The rest of the exercises were pretty standard, they went fine.

After the WOD I continued to work my DU - and they still worked. The first couple times, I kept stopping after I got it - just I don't know - because I couldn't believe it actually worked. But after a few more practice tries I even managed to do DU-skip-skip-DU a couple times. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to start stringing them together pretty quickly (either that or they'll dissapear completely - and that would be sad). But it felt really natural. SO EXCITED! It completely made up for my crappy crappy presses and made my entire day.

Food:
10am 3 egg cheesy scramble with veggie sausage, coffee w/ milk, 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
3:30 - bacheeso's smorgasbord. - lots of beef kabobs, lots of eggs w/ chese and spincha, some turkey, some tomatoes, 1 glass tasty iced tea
4:30 - iced coffee (11 oz milk w/ 5 oz coffee)
8:00 - Indian food - daal, paneer tikka masala, chicken palak, more chicken, 16 oz milk.

OPD

Today, in lieu of our regular CFEB class, we attended CrossFit Oakland's special community fundraiser for the families of the four Oakland Police Officers who were killed in the line of duty this week. It was a very cool event. We've only been to CFO for a WOD once before, for an affiliate throwdown, and we were scared off by the overwhelming testosterone being displayed (that and the workout was way out of our league). Today was much friendlier, and there was healthy representation by CFEB, so we had our friends around us. A captain of Oakland SWAT and some of his team members came to express his appreciation, and they stayed around to coach and cheer on the participants. All told, over 60 participants contributed an astonishing $1800 and more than a small amount of blood, sweat and tears.

"OPD"
Run 400m
40 deadlifts @ 275#/185#
40 box jumps @ 24"
40 push presses @ 115#/85#
Run 400m

The number 4 is prominent, in honor of the four who were killed in the line of duty: Sgt Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sgt Daniel Sakai, and Sgt Ervin Romans.

16:10 (225# DL, 2x35# PP)

They changed it to dumbbell push-presses due to a shortage of space/bars - RX was 2x50#, which was way beyond me. Rebecca, Allen, Andy, Raph and I all went in the third heat. Only Andy, Max, Brandon and Polly did it RX (though Raph came pretty damn close). I did everything in five sets of eight. The deadlifts were far and away the hardest part, and killed the rest of the workout. I probably spent too much time lollygagging on the box jumps, but the DLs and PPs felt about right. My vision blurred and my body went into full "what the hell are you doing to me?" mode in the last 200m, so I know at least I worked hard.

OPD - a fundraiser workout.

Sleep:
11:30 - 7:45 Good nights sleep!

Warmup:
ME, Hip Openers, Air Squats

WOD:

"OPD"
Run 400m
40 deadlifts @ 275#/185# *(115#)
40 box jumps @ 24" *(step up to 20" box)
40 push presses: 2 dumbells @ 50#/35# *(15# dumbells)
Run 400m
*Scaled

The number 4 is prominent, in honor of the four who were killed in the line of duty: Sgt Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sgt Daniel Sakai, and Sgt Ervin Romans.

Results:

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
400m	2:11	2:11
40 115# DL	9:11	11:22
40 Step-ups	3:04	14:26
40 PP (15# x 2)	5:05	19:31
400m	2:32	22:03

Comments:
This workout was HARD - but satisfying. The Deadlifts were definitely the hardest part of the workout. I had to do them pretty much 1 at a time after about rep 15. They took a LONG time. The box step-ups afterwards were so much harder than they otherwise would have been. They were clumsy and slow. The push-presses weren't so bad ... I probably should have used a 20# dumbell for my left side so that they were equally hard. After the first 10 my right could only get through 5 reps at a time; my left was still ok. The runs were not that bad - my first run was somewhat faster than the time above - i didn't hit my lap timer until i was in front of my deadlift station - which was probably 10 - 15 or seconds after I finished the run - which would make the first run one of my faster times in recent memory. The secod one was definitely harder - but it was great cause it meant i was nearly done. I started out relatively strong, kinda lost steam after the turn around, but my CFEB peeps were cheering for me at the finish line and I was able to put on a little extra gas for the last 50-75m or so.

One of the OPD officers who was there cheered me on for much of the workout. He was wearing a very cool CrosFit OPD t shirt. I, unfortunately, did not learn his name, but I really appreciated his support.

It was great to be there among such a great community of supportive people.

Food:
8:30 black coffee
1:30 (ish?) - 3 egg cheese scramble - w/ turkey bacon, 10oz coffee 2/ milk
7:00 (ish) - cheesecake factory - avocado rolls, thai lettuce wraps, crab wontons, 1 pint sierra nevada
7:45 - 4 omega-3
8:45 - 2/3 bowl kale sausage & beans, 16 oz milk

HIIT and ME

Morning:
Sprint-8 on rower - 3,375m
30 minutes POSE practice on treadmill, 6MPH
20 minutes excruciating stretches in sauna

Evening:

Five rounds for max reps of:
Ring Dips
C2B Pull-ups

3/10 - 3/10 - 2/10 - 2/7 - 2/6 = 12/43 RX

Yep. Ring dips still suck. However the handstand/HSPU practice afterwards went well. Kicking up to the wall is easy and reliable now, and I've started playing with targets to find the right depth for HSPUs - I can't go all the way down yet.

Dips & Pullups

Sleep:
11:40 - 8:05 - mostly good sleep - except when the cats got me up once in the middle of the night. But it was "Let one out, refill dry food bowl, outside cat heard that came tearing back in, back in bed 5 seconds, cat scratching to get outside again, let cat out again. Wheee.

AM Commentary: I really managed to bruise my neck and shoulders with last night's back squats. I do not want to do that again. More form work necessary. Maybe "Elbows to the ceiling" will help me keep them tight through the whole squat.

Warmup:
Mobility, 5 Min static Plank Holds, 40 unanchored situps, 30 v-ups, 20 hollow rocks, 10 KtE. Ow.

WOD:
Five rounds for max reps of:
Ring Dips
Pull-ups

3 minutes rest between each round.
*Subbed Parallette Dips, and several different pull-up subs

Results:
19/1 - Legitimate pullup
17/0 - tried and failed to get a real pull-up
17/14 - switched to jumping pull-ups - didn't like this sub
18/6 - tried kip attempts - focused more on rhythm than actually trying to make it up to the bar - didn't like this sub either.
14/4 - switched to strong kip attempts where I made an active attempt to pull myself up over the bar after each attempt - should have done these all along.

Cashout:
20 minutes of stretching

Comments:
The Parallette Dips were probably too easy of a sub. Should have put my feet up on a ball. I need to work on my stabilization skills on the rings so that I can actually do a sub on the rings when ring dips come up.

Food:
9:00 - 6 oz black coffee
1:05 cottage Cheese
1:50 - coffee w/ milk
3:30 - BBQ chicken w/ 1 little yam
4:00 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
7:00 - 16oz milk
8:00 - unsatisfying Thai food.
11:00 - 2 zma

Strength Cycle, week 4 part 1

Back Squat x 5: 115 - 145 - 170
Back Squat x 21: 125
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 145(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 110
Handstand/Forward roll practice

Although I was not sore today from yesterday's Karen, it still had an effect on tonight's workout. My muscles felt fatigued, and my form on the squats felt decidedly unpretty. 170 matches my previous PR, though, and I think I should be able to manage 175 next week. The superset was painful, but I made it through only taking extra deep breaths on reps 7 and 14. The bench also felt tight and suboptimal, but I pushed through. The superset was brutal - I expect to start failing on that any week now.

Rebecca, Ynez and I spent way more time than we really should have on handstand and forward roll practice, but we were having a lot of fun. I was practicing primarily "jumping rolls," kicking up to pass through the handstand position, then breaking the legs and arms and rolling out. I have a really hard time bending my elbows, resulting in a big flop forward onto my back that, were it not on a giant blue mat, would really hurt. I managed a small handful with decent form, I just need to figure out how to do it consistently. I also, basically by accident, got a freestanding handstand for like two whole seconds before I freaked out and rolled out. That was exciting.

Next week: BS 175/130, BP 150/110

Forward Rolls!

Sleep: Fail
1:00 - 8:00 Super restless night. had a very hard time falling and staying asleep until 2 or 3, and for once it wasn't the cats' fault.

Warmup: ME, Hip openers, lugging Ev's 1.5 pood KB down stairs. That was awkward and heavy.

WOD:
Backsquat
Warmup: 10 x 45#
5-5-5
55-60-70(PR)

21 x 55 made it, but it was ugly. I have some serious form work I need to do, so I think I will keep this weight next week.

Bench
Warmup: 10 x 45#

5-5-5
55-60-70 - failed after rep 4 - still one more rep than I accomplished last week.

21 x 52# - made it. barely. and not without whimpering.

Cash out:
Forward roll practice. I finally got this! I got a lot of them! I even managed to get enough momentum that most of the time I could stand up at the end without using my hands. It was very cool. Apparently the trick to conquering the dizziness was keeping my eyes open. Not even really focusing on anything in particular, but just being able to see made the dizziness entirely manageable. Thanks for the idea Ynez!!!! I did great as long as I was focusing on only doing a somersault. As soon as I tried to think about getting any hang time before rolling, I got everything all wrong, and ended up in a tangle of arms and legs on the mat. Hooray for the cushy blue mats @ iron works though.

Also - while I was waiting for Daniel to get out of the dressing room, I successfully did a pulldown of 120# - twice! - I've never been able to pull down that weight before. 110# was my max. Soon soon soon I will have a deadhang pullup. (I weight about 125)

Comments:
I was not at all sore today from Karen yesterday. I was, however, fatigued, and squats were a lot harder this week than they were last week. There's a good chance that I will be sore tomorrow. I did not have post work-out milk, and I did a lot of stuff that was new for me.

I'm pretty excitied about my backsquat PR - 70 pounds was absolutely doable. I don't think there's any reason I won't get 75 next week. However, Daniel said I am holding the bar in a haigh bar position, but squating a low bar squat, so I definitely have some form work. Something else I need to work on is keeping my shoulder girdle tight all the way down. THis leaves the bar sitting on the vertebra of my neck instead of the meaty musles that should be supporting it, and that hurts - and will only get worse as the bar gets heavier. Right now that spot is very sore.

I think my adductors and hamstrings are too tight to let me use a wide enough stance for a proper high bar squat. I need to work on getting those lossened up ... though we spent so long on our handstand/forward roll practice that I didn't get a chance to do any post workout stretching.

The bench also just didn't feel super solid today. I did reasonably well with it, but it was a struggle.

Anyway, I am determined to get a full night's sleep tonight, so I am off to bed.

Food:
8:45 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 12 oz coffee 2/3 cup milk
9:00 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 0mega-3
3:30 - 1/2 or maybe a little less a serving of North African stew. not quite as much left as I thought. Was still hungry.
5:50 - finished off the last of my spiced cashews. 1.5 oz?
9:10 - SUPER gordos carnitas burrito, 16 oz milk. Finally feel full... and then soome. Urgh.
11:00 - 2 zma

Karen

Wow, over a year of CrossFit and this has never come up for me.

For time:
150 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball

9:55 RX

There were too many people to all go at once, so we went in heats. I coached Eric through the first one, where he wound up getting the top score of the day at 9:43 with the strategy of 15 every minute, on the minute. When it came my turn I used the same strategy, but while he started falling apart after 100, I started breaking down after 75. I managed to keep it together until the second-to-last round, at which point it was just 10 or 5 at a time. I really wanted to match or beat his score, but came up 12 seconds shy. Oh well. It's still the second-best score of the day, I think, which makes me happy.

Karen

Sleep:
11:45-7:45 Slept very well until cone-head cat started pitching a fit around 7:40. Decided to just get up

Warmup:

• 500m Row - 2:10 - incidentally, my best time ever is 2:07 - and I only really started pushing hard in the last half of the row or so, so I am sure I can do better - though this WAS supposed to be just a warmup,
• ME
• 2 lame kip attempts (still a little winded from the row, i think)
• 1 pullup - ugly but legit. Another kip DH hybrid. I got up pretty far with my kip, but really had to fight for that last 4-6 inches.
  
• 1 headstand. got up on my first try, but completely lost my sense of up and down on the way down and crumpled over to the side. bad dismount.

WOD:
"Karen"
For time:
150 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
*subbed 10# ball

Results (sets of 10):

Reps	Time	Elapsed	.	Reps	Time	Elapsed
10	1:17	1:17		90*	1:50	12:40
20	1:10	2:27		100	1:27	14:07
30	1:27	3:54		110	1:32	15:39
40	1:28	5:22		120	1:40	17:19
50	1:22	6:44		130	1:26	18:45
60	1:23	8:07		140	1:09	19:54
70	1:17	9:24		150	1:17	21:11
80	1:26	10:50

*stopped for a drink of water

Comments:
Well, it was only a 10# ball, and while I am sure I was good about going low enough for the launch, my knees were all over the place, and, worse, my catching form was atrocious. I cannot seem to catch the ball in such a way as to be able to link 2 together, so I spent a lot of time resetting. But I did 150 wall ball today. And, as Daniel pointed out, it wasn't all that very long ago when I couldn't do any, and it was my goal just to be able to hit that stupid X once. So - there has been plenty of progress here - but there is still a long long road to go before these are anything like decent.

It's interesting that my 2nd and my 14th rounds were the best time-wise. Once again, this was a workout where my strength capacity gave out well before my aerobic capacity. I had to stop and rest because I had to wait for my muscles to regenerate the ability to produce force. I rarely felt truly winded. At some point, I'd like to try these with a very light ball - like a beach ball or a basketball or something - just to work on the form of being able to string them together.

Food:
9:00 - 6 oz black coffee
12:25 - cottage cheese w/ non roasted slivered almonds. substandard :-p but still tasty. 12oz coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk
4:40 - 1/2 serving North African CHicken Stew - with Almonds
7:00 - 16 oz milk
8:30 - BBQ Chicken - leg, thigh, back, 1 medium sized yam, 3.4 cup sauteed spinach with walnuts.
9:00 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
11:45 - 2 zma

I am feisty.

Sleep:
12:25-7:50 - pretty restful.

Rest Day!


Food:
8:45 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 1/2 piece turkey bacon, 10 oz coffee 2/3 cup milk
1:00 - 2oz spiced cashews
3:30 - 1 cup of North African Chicken stew. :-) Sans Almonds :-(
7:00 - I am abundant, I am Festive, I am Perfect a la Mode. We took an out-of-town friend to Cafe Gratitude. They have the best pecan pie in the whole wide world (I am Perfect). It is pretty much just nut and date paste instead of the sickly sweet syrup that most real pecan pies are made of. It is divine. And the Macadamia Nut crust is so good!

Introducing CrossKitchen

NOTE: Cross-posted at CrossFit East Bay

Hi guys! Max has generously agreed to give me weekly space for a feature on nutrition that I'm dubbing "CrossKitchen." It is my intention to use this space to provide you with some of the information that I've picked up in my nutritional research - things like recipes, DIY tips, articles and anything else I can think of to help fuel your fire. If you have any ideas or requests, please let me know! -Daniel

Trimming the Fat

Good weather is just around the corner, and like all good CrossFitters and Rockclimbers, we will all soon be stripping down to our skivvies in public at the faintest pretext. It is what we do. But if the long, cold, harsh California winter has left you with an unwanted layer of fat to protect you from the elements, you may be looking to tighten up a little before emerging from your Polartec cave. I'm here to help.

The Number One Rule you must Always Obey

"Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not too much." - Michael Pollan
"You can't shit in the tank and expect good mileage." - Coach Glassman

Get used to hearing this, 'cause I'm going to harp on it a lot. If you're into needlepoint, you might want to stitch it up and surround it with little broccoli flowers: EAT REAL FOOD.

Everything else I'm going to go into here is a technique, but this is the bedrock on which it all rests. If you ignore everything else I say, listen to this. It makes all the difference in the world. More on this at a later date.

All diets boil down to two things

All successful diets cover two bases: caloric deficit and hormone control. Most people know all about the first and nothing about the second. OK, yes, it is good to take in a little less than you burn. But it is far more important to keep your insulin in check and to maximize your HGH response. Two advantages of high-fat, low-carb diets is that they increase satiety, thereby causing you to eat less, and they decrease insulin sensitivity, the greatest cause of obesity. If you can keep your insulin and cortisol levels down and your HGH and glucagon levels high, fat should just melt off your body. The trick is figuring out how to do it.

For more information:

• http://lifespotlight.com/fitness/2008/2/25/fat-loss-101-master-the-basics/ (HIGHLY recommended read)
  

Diet Round-up

Here's a quick rundown of the pre-packaged diets that have seen success across the CrossFit community.

The Zone

If there is an official diet of CrossFit, it is the Zone. The basic premise behind it is that if you can eat all your meals in portions of approximately 30% fat, 30% protein and 40% carbohydrates, you will put your body into an optimized performance "zone" that burns fat and builds muscle. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the Zone (I can't be bothered with all the weighing and measuring it requires), but I cannot argue with its record: many athletes around the world have seen appreciable performance gains and fat loss when zoning, and nearly all of the CrossFit superstars (Nicole, Greg A, OPT, etc) zone.

For more information:

• http://www.zonediet.com/
• http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
• Max has a lot of experience with the Zone - if you have any questions, he can steer you to the right answers.

Paleo

Brainchild of Professor Loren Cordain, the basic premise of the Paleo diet is this: humans evolved over many thousands of years on a fairly specific hunter-gatherer diet. The relatively recent advent of agriculture has introduced a whole new generation of foods that our bodies are not "designed" to eat, and which consequently do us harm. Grains and sugar are strictly forbidden, dairy and legumes are discouraged. Basically, if you can't pick it up or chase it down and eat it, you shouldn't. This is probably the second most popular diet among CrossFitters, particularly those who find the Zone fussy (although it should be noted that you can do both Zone and Paleo at the same time - many do).

For more information:

• http://www.thepaleodiet.com/ (in particular, Paleo for Athletes)
• http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/
  

Intermittent Fasting

More philosophy than diet, IF can be boiled down to this: "Eat. Don't eat for a while. Eat." This particular topic is near and dear to my own heart, so (again) I'll go into it in more detail at a later date. But the basic premise is this: occasional fasts of 16-24 hours are highly beneficial to the body in numerous way, including (but not limited to) insulin control, calorie control, increased recovery, performance and mental acuity, etc etc. Fasting means FASTING - nothing with more than 5 calories passes your lips, and intermittent means INTERMITTENT - some folks do it five days a week, some just one, and some whenever they feel like it, but you should definitely not do it all the time. It is possible to do Zone, Paleo AND IF all at once, but at that point I'd start accusing you of being orthorexic, and the mockery would commence.

For more information:

• http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/02/27/intermittent-fasting-101-how-to-start-part-i/
• http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/08/11/part-1-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-fast-energy-production/

The Anabolic/Ketogenic/Velocity/Warrior/Atkins Diets

There are minor variations among them, but they all follow a consistent theme: by lowering your daily input of carbohydrates to under 30g, you will put your body in ketosis, whereby you are no longer deriving your energy from glucose like the rest of us, but rather from ketones manufactured from fat by your liver. This also has the effect of turning your body's focus to its fat stores for energy, particularly since all that fat and protein you're eating has increased your satiety such that you're on caloric deficit. Some people report remarkable success on these diets, but they seem (to me) to be in the minority. They also tend to be really heavy to begin with. Personally, I think these diets can work well in the short term, but are not very sustainable and tend to kill your metabolic conditioning. There's also a danger of yo-yoing with such an extreme diet. And if you're vegetarian, forget it.

For more information:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet
• http://stronglifts.com/anabolic-diet/
• http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=35868

Diets that suck

You know this already. Any diet that requires you to buy their branded "food" (ie, slim-fast). Any diet that pushes the old-fashioned high-carb, low-fat philosophy (yeah, ok, it works for some people, but they are few and far between). Any diet that relies on limiting your choices so severely that you could never hit caloric surplus ("I can eat whatever I want, as long as it's pickles and muenster"). Any diet that uses fancy chemistry to bypass food's inherent natures (ie, sugar-free soda, no-carb pasta, etc). Any diet that focuses exclusively on caloric deficit with no regard to hormone control (this can work, but isn't great for athletes). Any diet that promotes starvation.

You are a beautiful snowflake

Everybody is different. What works for me may not be the best option for you. It will take some experimentation and documentation for you to determine your own optimal method of weight loss. Since everyone needs to do it from time to time, and it typically sucks, it's in your best interest to figure out the most efficient method for yourself. That said, here are some tips and tricks from my own experience:

• Eat real food. Quality trumps quantity.
• Write it down. Keep a food log. Fitday is an extremely useful tool, but it can be a bit high-maintenance. The easiest thing is to add a food component to your own workout log (you are keeping a workout log, right? RIGHT?). Blogger is free and easy, and if you give us the link we can all leave snarky comments when you break down and eat an entire box of Thin Mints. A notepad and pen is also cheap and easy. Just the simple act of writing down what you eat will make you more aware of what you're putting in your body, which is invaluable.
• Set reasonable goals. Don't crash diet. It never works. You might knock off ten pounds in one punishing week, but you'll burn yourself out and, in a fit of drunken rebelliousness, gain back twelve pounds in one night of gluttonous self-mutilation. Plus, you'll mainly be losing water, and the elevated cortisol will burn your muscles and kill your performance. I recommend a goal of ONE POUND PER WEEK. It's nice and maintainable, and easy to remember.
• Find a metric that works for you. If the numbers on the scale send you into a panic of doubt and self-recrimination, don't use them. Get a tape measure and use your waist measurement. Stand in front of a mirror naked, grab your bouncy bits and jump up and down - less jiggle, more better. Learn how to use bodyfat calipers, or get yourself tested.
  
• Cheat. You will get out what you put in. If you are 90% strict with your diet, you can expect to reap 90% of the reward. 90% is really, really close to 100%. If that 10% difference is the difference between sticking to it and dropping it for being too hard, I'll take it. When you cheat, cheat hard, but be aware that you're setting the rules aside for this one meal, and get back on the horse when you're done.

My own snowflake story

Before CrossFit, I lost 40 pounds by simply eating less and cycling more. I bottomed out at 12% bodyfat, though, and couldn't get below that for about a year. Ultimately, I found that the following plan works extremely well for me, and can get me below 10% whenever I want it to:

• A diet that is approximately 50% fat, 30% protein, 20% carbs, ~2500 cal/day
• Fasting 4-5 times/week, 16-20 hours per fast
• Morning workouts while fasted:
  
  
  
  • High-intensity intervals (either Sprint-8 or sets of 10 burpees), followed by ~30 minutes of very mild cardio (ie, running at 6mph)

I'd be happy to share more info with anyone who's interested.

Whew! That was a mouthful (so to speak). I hope you found something useful in there - if not, hopefully next week. If you have any questions or notes from your own experience, please share them in the comments.

I am becoming Super Woman! (at least a little)

Sleep:
1:30 - 8:15 no more afternoon coffee. Damn cats got really restless at about 7. Fortunately Felix's wound is finally looking just about healed. Hopefully only another day or two of the cone. We will ALL be grateful.

WOD - Strength Week 3 Part 2
Warmup - ME and hip openers

Deadlifts:
10 x 45#

5-5-5
95 -120-130(PR)
(meant to start with 100 - just forgot the 2.5 # plates until rep 3 - decided to skip it)

21 x 100# - failed after rep 18. Could not keep form good enough to progress without possible injury to my back. Same weight next week. I've decided music is great for the 5 rep sets - but I don't like it for the 21 rep sets.

Shoulder Press:
10 x 15#

5-5-5
30-40-50(PR)

21 x 30# - Next week 32 or 35

Pretty pleased with how this went, overall. 130# was essentially my 1 rep max not all that long ago. It's pretty exciting to be able to complete a 5 rep set at that weight. And last week I was close to but absolutely failed 5 reps of 50 presses. Today it was pretty easy. I am confident that next week I will be able do 55.

WOD 2 - Climbing:
I didn't have a lot of time for climbing once I finished my strength stuff, but I did manage to get in a couple climbs.

I warmed up on a friendly 10a/b on the back wall. Climbed it clean. Although I must have clocked my right knee at some point because after I belayed my partner up the same climb, when I went to walk away, I could barely bend it. It was like a weird delayed funny bone reaction. Very bizarre, because it didn't hurt immediately. I massaged it for a few minutes and it felt better - though still not quite "right".

My second climb was a 10a across from the cave. It had more overhang/negative incline than the first climb. It wasn't entirely clean, but it was pretty close (after I started over after falling completely off at the very beginning of the route). My knee behaved itself.

My third climb was barely even half a climb - it was a strengthy 10b to the right of the 10a I did. There was a dyno/strength move just after the start that I really struggled with, but was finally able to accomplish once I convinced my right foot that it really did want to bear my weight, and decided that I wasn't going to clock my knee again on those really large holds hanging out by my knees ... Sadly, I was not able to make it up much farther once I reached my goal, but I was pretty happy to have made that move. Daniel was impressed. He said he had thought that I didn't have the strength yet to haul myself up and lock off long enough to reach the next hold. Yay for being stronger!

Food:
9:00 - 6oz black coffee
1:15 - cottage cheese, etc.
5:20 - 2 oz spiced cashews
9:15 - 16oz milk & 1.5 bowls of north african chicken stew. Hooray for the crockpot having dinner all ready to go when we get home!! :-D
9:45 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
11:15 - 2 zma

Strength and "Idea Gone Bad"

Workout 1: Strength Cycle - Week 3, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 225- 245 - 265
Deadlift x 21: 185 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 70- 80- 90
Press x 21: 65 (16-5)

Oops. That DL superset should've been 195 or 200. No wonder it felt relatively easy. I'm going to start including NEXT week's numbers in each post, since it's tricky to go back a week later and figure out that day's goals.

The deadlift at 265 matches my previous PR, and was the first time during the strength cycle I've pulled the weight off the ground and thought "oh, shit that's heavy." Welcome to the front lines. Everything else went fairly well, although the press superset was UGLY - I blame yesterday's push-presses, which I'm a bit sore from.

Next Week: DL 270/200, SP 95/65

I went and joined the 12 o'clock class to practice some snatches, but I really didn't need to do THREE back-to-back workouts, so I mainly just used it for a little form practice and to try and stay warm for Firebreathers.

Workout 2: Idea Gone Bad

Jim gets the credit for coming up with that name. Other contenders: "Fight Gone Awkward," "Fight Gone Codeine," (Max is sick and Alex theorized that he came up with this while high on cold medicine) and "Fight Gone Fucking Bizarre." Basically, Max tried to come up with five high-strength, low-rep things we never (or almost never) do. Well, he succeeded.

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.

1. Wall-ball: 20/14 pound ball, 12 ft target. (Reps)
2. 180 degree 2P/1.5P Kettlebell Swing
3. Double-Under/Burpee Complex
4. 1.5PX2/1.0PX2 Push-Press
5. Run 50 meters (complete passes only)

107 RX

It definitely hit the "constantly varied" element, but was somewhat questionable when it came to functionality. I mean, 12-foot wall-ball, sure, but doubleunderburpees are just weird.

Exercise	1	2	3	Total
Wall-Ball	17	18	17	52
180 KB Swing	8	7	7	22
Burpee/DU	6	7	7	20
Push-Press	0	0	0	0
50m Sprint	4	4	5	13
TOTAL	35	36	36	107

I tried a two-fisted push-press before class, with fresh arms, and it was not good. I didn't get it up, and nearly crushed my foot when the bells came crashing down. Rather than try and accomplish that insanity while exhausted, I just sat that round out. Which worked out just fine, ultimately. Jim coached me through it, and was an excellent coach - soft-spoken, but intense and motivating, he squeezed a few more reps out of me in every round. I really wish I'd done as well by him, but mostly I let him set his own pace. Next time.

#@*#&^ homework.

Sleep:
1:30-9:45 There was some restlessness from me and the cats in the morning - but I was determined to stay in bed for at least 8 hours.

AM Commentary:
I am not going to the gym today :-( I got no homework done yesterday, so I have to get it all done today if I want to go climbing tomorrow. With the strength and the FB and lunch that's a lot of hours not studying. Also, my right shoulder is letting me know how unhappy it is about being made to actually work. It kinda hurts. So I will try to catch up on the strength stuff tomorrow.

PM(AM) Commentary: I actually managed to get all my homework done, so I don't have to rush home from climbing tomorrow to complete it. YAY! I had a weird pointy pain in my side - on the right just under my ribcage for some of the afternoon, and the again, a little bit worse, in the evening. I looked up they symptom, and it looks like it could be anything from a pulled muscle to gall bladder to colon to a collapsed lung. It happend after eating both times, so I am guessing it has nothing to do with my lungs. I guess I'll just see if it comes back. I hope not.

Food:
10:30 - 3 egg cheesy scramble w/ veggie sausage, 10 oz coffee w 2/3 cup milk.
11:30 - 1 strip turkey jerkey
3:00 - 1 cup lefover indian food, 16 oz milk
3:45 - cheese and mustard wrapped in deli slices of turkey (2), spoonful of peanut butter, 10oz coffee 2/3 cup milk
6:00 - 5-6 oz rotiserrie chicken w/ BBQ sauce
8:30 - Kung Pao Tofu with peanuts & 16oz milk.
Forgot to take my vitamins. Damn.

Oh right. Metcons.

It's true that this strength cycle deprecates metcons, particularly very long (over 30 minute) ones. Still, the way this week has worked out, we haven't done anything metconnish since Sunday, which is a pretty long time to go without. So it was good to get the heart racing today and feel a bit of the old familiar sensation-of-suck.

For time:
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 42 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 36 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 30 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 24 reps

16:34, 1.25P

I don't scale workouts much anymore, particularly the kettlebell ones. Although it felt disappointing to do this non-Rx, I feel like I made the right choice. I CAN push-press the 1.5P bell, but not well and not frequently - when we did Fight Gone Bell, the best I could do was five push-presses in a minute. Even if I'd been able to maintain that pace the entire time (dubious), I'd still be at ~30 minutes just push-pressing. It wouldn't have been much of a metcon, with all the resting that would have been required. As it was, I finished at around the same time as the other folks, and it definitely FELT like a metcon, so I'm happy.

Carrying an even load

Sleep:
12:45-9:00
The cats were blessedly undisruptive (... that's a double negative ruptive?), and I got 8.25 solid hours of sleep. Hooray!

This morning I tried a couple pullups on our PU bar. the first one i tried from a bent arm position, and i just went right up to the top - it was like an ELEVATOR - Wooop Ding! Penthouse! Then I tried a couple from a dead hang, and I actually made it about half way up. I could feel that I had finally gotten past the catchy place I've been stuck at for a while, but it took everything I had to get that far, so I still got stuck with my elbows @ 90 degrees. I just need a little extra strenght to keep puling the rest of the way. I managed to get my elbows to 90 degrees about 4 times. It was awesome.

Warm up: 2 min jump rope, ME, hip opening strethces, head stand practice. I got my first headstand all by myself today! The trick is apparently NOT being right on top of the wall, but a couple inches out from it.

WOD:
For time:
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 42 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 36 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 30 reps
Run 400 Meters
1.5/1.0P Kettlebell Push press, 24 reps

Results:
using the 12kg KB

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
400m	2:21	2:21
42 KB PP: 22R 20L	5:59	8:20
400m	2:35	10:55
36 KB PP: 20R 16L	6:20	7:15
400m	2:31	19:46
30 KB PP: 15R 15L	3:58	23:44
400m	2:50	26:34
24 KB PP: 14R 10L	4:31	31:05

Comments:
This took for-frickin-ever. I'm fairly certain that my time was by far the longest one in either class today. But it's because I insisted on making my right arm do most of the work. I only alternated arms on every fifth rep, and the right arm always went first, so it got most of the reps. The form was not always pretty, and while I did redo some reps, I did not redo all the ones that I probably should not have counted. By the end I could only get 1 to 2 reps in before having to set the KB down and regroup. But I feel good about forcing it to try to catch up. It was tempting to let my left do more of the work so I could get a better time, but I'll even out faster if I make it work harder.

I wish I could school my right leg that way. Maybe if I take the weight WAY down on my squats I can try to focus on lifting more dominantly with my right leg than my left. Otherwise, except for the step-up work I've been doing (and pistols which are a bit out of my league atm), I can't think of an exercise off-hand where you only work one leg or the other.

The runs felt pretty brutal, too, but with the recent lack of m,etcons that's only to be expected. I was happy I didn't have to walk any part of them, but I did have to stop and pant for about a minute to get my breath back after each one.


Food:
9:30 - 4oz black coffee
12:00 - 16oz milk
1:15 - Bacheeso's smorgasbord: Beef Kabobs, Eggs w/ cheese and spinach, chicken sausage, turkey, some awesome tomatoes, and coffee with half n' half
4:00 - 10oz coffee w/ 2/3 cup milk
4:30 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
8:30 - BBQ and Terriaki chicken, salad with almonds & blood oranges & pears, 3 slices of bread with some fabulous soft cheese, roasted mushrooms, cauliflower and potatoes
9:30 - 1 slice of sugarless pumpkin pie with a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream, 1 glass of wine.

Who needs thumbs, anyway?

AM:

Sprint-8 on rower, 3350m
No climbing today. :sadpanda:

PM:

Snatch setup x 3: 135 - 155 - 185 - 195
Snatch-grip deadlift x 1: 225 - 245 - 275

Hook grip HURTS. Actually, I think it's a lot like false grip: exceedingly painful at first, but necessary. These were awkward and painful, but good practice for developing a proper snatch.

And the PR's just keep rolling on. :-D

Sleep:
11:45 - 8:15 but very little sleep was actually had after about 6am. DAMN CATS between the two of them, it was horrible. One kept wanting to be let outside and then changing his mind, the other one kept meowing and clawing at the covers because he isn't allowed out side right now. I swear it will be a happy happy day when he finally gets this cone off his head. This must be the all time slowest healing wound. It's a little worrisome. We did some serious wound maintenance this evening - and it looks much better. Fingers crossed we'll be done with the cone in just a couple more days.

Warmup: Dowel Drills: burgener warmup, snatch parctice, OH Squats

WOD:
Snatch Set-Up 3-3-3-3

Snatch Deadlift 1-1-1

Results:
Warmup - Snatch Setup 10x45#

Snatch Setup: 55-65-75-95
Snatch Deadlift: 115-125-130

Cashout:
Regualr Deadlift x 1: 145-150!!! (PR!)

Comments:
Snatch grip deadlifts are definitely harder than normal deadlifts. I fell like I did pretty well overall with them. I didn't realize we only had three sets of the !RM, and probably could have pulled 135, but 130 was plenty challenging. However, lifting that 150# was AWESOME. Lifting 145# was practically easy - I knew I could do more. The 150 was hard - it went up very slowly. I know my right knee was not solid. But with just a little practice, I know I can do more than that. It's very exciting to see results from our strength focus training paying off so quickly. What's not exciting is the body comp changes I am seeing as a result of doing only 1 to 2 metcons a week and not reducing my caloric intake. I am trying not to dwell on those. I've never had too much trouble making weight come off, and clearly the focus on strength is paying off in spades.

I was in a FOUL mood when i got to the gym. The day at work was extremely packed and frustrating and I am TIRED TIRED TIRED of having too much to do in the 8 hours I am allowed to put in. The backlog just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and I see no end in sight as to how I am going to catch up with all the things that are not getting done. I barely managed to get a report put together that was due to the bank today just as I was leaving.

But it wasn't long after I got to the gym and got moving and helping the other girls in my group with their form before I was able to completely let go of work and the frustration and just be there in the moment.

When Daniel and I first started getting fit, we were in the middle of planning our wedding, and taking time to workout was a great escape from the pressure of putting that together. And unlike using video games as an escape which was our MO before, no one could justifiably say "You were absolutely wasting your time doing XYZ instead of wedding related 123." And as work has become crazier and crazier, gym time has become more and more important because it really helps me find my equilibrium - most of the time. The endorphin high of a good workout works wonders in the short term, and knowing that I am in the best damn physical shape of my entire life works some magic between workouts.

I <3 Crossfit.

Food:
9:00 - 6oz black cofee
2:30 - cottage cheese with almonds & cinnamon, 10oz coffee w/3/4 cup milk
6:00 - 2oz spiced cashews
8:00 - Cheeseburger w/ sauteed onions & Mushrooms and avocado - no bun, 2 cups green salad, 16oz milk
9:30 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3

Yeah no real lunch, today (FAIL) - it was a CRAZY day at work. I was lucky to find time to scarf my cottage cheese down

Strength Cycle, week 3 part 1

Back Squat x 5: 115 - 145 - 165
Back Squat x 21: 120
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 125 - 140
Bench Press x 21: 105
Weighted Pullup (on rings) x 1: 45 - 45 - 45 - 45 - 45

Had a minor breakthrough on the squats tonight. Due (once again) to the midline stabilization series of videos, I focused on tightening my core as much as possible in the squats. It helped. It didn't SOLVE my "good morning" problem, but I think I am making slow progress on that. Let's go to the video:



My hips are still rising proportionally faster than my shoulders out of the hole, particularly on the third and fifth reps. At this rate, I'm not going to fix the issue before the weight gets too heavy for me to rescue it, and I'm going to start failing, I'd guess in three weeks or so. I'm wondering if more practice doing air squats against a wall would help - I'll try and do more of that when I can.

That said, I feel like I AM getting stronger. The bench felt downright easy, and I can remember when this weight would scare the bejeezus out of me. I just wish my squat would hurry up and work.

More PR's! (Strength week #3 Part 1)

Sleep:
11:45 - 7:30 - got very little sleep after 6am - 2 very restless irritating cats made sleeping difficult.

Warmup:Many many hip flexibility drills - a few air squats, some stretches, some lunges, some hip openers, some overhead squats, some dislocates for the shoulders. I was nice and warm when i started.

WOD:
Back Squat:
10 x 45# bar
5 x 50#
5 x 55
5 x 65# (PR)
21 x 50# - 55# next week

Some headstand work while we were waiting for a bench to open up.

Bench Press:
10 x 45
5 x 50
5 x 60
3 x 70 - failed on rep 4 - Still a PR!
5 X 65 (mistake! - I was intending to try for 70 again, but we'd moved the 2.5's to Daniel's bar, and forgot to replace them. We didn't realize our error until after the 5 reps. I was super excited while i thought I'd just whipped through 5 70# presses, and then I was a little ticked off.)
2x70 - failed on rep #3
21 x 52 - lost it at rep 13 and again at 18. same weight next week. - might be able to pull it off without extra sets beforehand.

Cash Out:
10 Step-ups R
10 Step-ups L
10 Step-ups R
*17 inch box

5 KB High-Pull L
5 KB High-Pull R
5 KB High-Pull L
5 KB High-Pull R
*1P KB

10 Min Stretching

Comments:
So remember last week how I said "Someday I will figure out this damn squat!"? Turns out things actually started to click into place this week! The midline stabilization videos we watched have performed magic on my squats! For whatever reason, I finally finally got the cue about keeping my core TIGHT through the squat.



The first set (from the side) is 55#, the second set (from the back) is 65#. My form issues are MUCH more apparent from the back than the front. I'm willing to bet that my knees were moving around nearly as much on the 55# as the 65# - it's just not apparent from the side. Also - my butt is uneven. I think that's probably because I'm still doing more work with my left leg than my right leg.

Still, these felt SO much better than last week.

Both benches were full when we went to use them, but one guy only had 2 sets left, so we decided to go use the empty yoga room to practice our head/hand stands. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake, because it really tired out my shoulders, and I think my bench really suffered for it. I still did not manage to successfully kick up on my own, but I was able to hold it once Daniel helped me get my feet up.

The past couple weeks, the bench is where I've had good progress, not so much so today. My warmup felt hard, and every set felt harder than it should have (except the set of 65# that I thought was 70# - that felt awesome). Still. I got three reps of 70# which is more than I have ever benched before, so that's still exciting. 5 Reps was pretty much out of the question.

I expect that I will be able to do 52 or even 55# x 21 next week without too much trouble, as long as I don't throw in extra sets beforehand.

I raised the step up box a notch from where it was yesterday, and they were harder again - I think they felt easy yesterday because the box was too low.

And I actually managed to get the KB highpulls pretty high on both the L & R side. No where near snatching height, yet, but definitely at least boob height for most reps.

Food:
8:00 - 3 egg cheesy scramble w/2 pieces turkey bacon, 10oz coffee 2/3 cup milk
11:00 - cottage cheese w/ almonds & cinnamon
2:30 - 1 svg chicken Marsala w/ Asparagus. Tasty! The crockpot is possibly the coolest invention ever.
7:00 - 16 oz milk
7:45 - Gordo's regular carnitas burrito 2/ cheese & guac. 16 oz milk

More Oly

The roulette table is coming up Oly more lately, which is just fine by me - my form on these lifts improves at a glacial pace, and I need all the practice I can get. A great deal of my problem is, I think, related to functional flexibility - my front squat, overhead squat and shoulder flexibility are all lacking, which makes catching heavy weights in midair both terrifying and, well, unlikely. I'm working on it. I'm going to start incorporating Coach Boz's warmup into my warmups to try and work these points, as well as doing some of K-Star's PNF don't-call-it-stretching after workouts.

(Side note: If you don't subscribe to the CrossFit Journal, you should. And if you do, you should go watch Kelly's midline stabilization series NOW. It's far, FAR more informative and interesting than anything I have to say).

Clean & Jerk x 3: 95-115-120-125
Clean & Jerk x 1: 130(f) - 135(f) - 130
Clean & Jerk x 10: 95

Odd, how I was able to knock off three reps just five pounds shy of my 1RM. But really, these are not Jerks. They are push presses, with an emphasis on "press" for the last 4-5 inches. When the weight gets heavy I don't bend my knees and I don't get under the weight in either exercise - they're really muscle cleans and push-presses. I wish it was not this way. I can do proper cleans and jerks at lower weights, but 115 really seems to be my limit for this - after that I just get way too tight.

This matches my PR of 11 days ago, but when it finally went up it felt much smoother than that day. The technique is hit or miss. More practice!

Speaking of which, while the 6 o'clock class did their thing I went back upstairs and practiced handstands. These are getting MUCH easier and more reliable. I was able to knock out at least a dozen of increasing grace and stability, and at the end I was getting them on the first try more often than not. The secret, for me, is hands not too close the wall (about 5-6 inches seems to work), being careful to push UP and not FORWARD (thereby avoiding smashing my back into the wall), and to get my right leg up to the wall ASAP so it doesn't linger overhead.

These are not good, hollow handstands though. There's a huge arch in my back as my butt and legs touch the wall. I spent a good amount of time upside down trying to tuck my pelvis and straighten out, which is quite hard. This is the next step. Handstands facing the wall would be better for this, but I need to learn to roll out gracefully. I also need to work on coming down from back-to-wall handstands without whacking the back of my head against the wall, as I did frequently tonight.

Clean PR!

Sleep:
11:45-8:25. Ack! Overslept. It was nice to get good sleep though. Only woke up once or twice, and very briefly - neither time was disruptive to the overall quality of sleep.

Warmup: ME, hip stretches!, and handstand practice! (or headstand practice for me)

WOD:
Clean & Jerk 3-3-3-3-1-1-1

Results:
Warmup 10x45#
50-55-55-60-65(f)-60-65!(PR)-70(f)

(There were hang cleans and push-presses)

Cash Out:
10 Step-ups R
10 Step-ups L
10 Step-ups R
*18" (ish) box

Comments:
I FINALLY got he 65# clean I've been chasing down for the past couple months. And I even managed to get it overhead once I got it up. Woot! 60x3 is also a PR :-)

I spent a long time doing extra warming up - hip openers and drilling with the PVC dowel - I really wanted to try full - from the ground - cleans, but I just can't seem to get the movement right, so I am stuck with hang cleans for now. I have a real tendency to fall on my ass when i try to drop under the bar. Not real graceful. I expect this is due to a lack of flexibility in my hips, and I hoping that the PNF non-stretching I have added in post workout will help address this.

I had limited time after the WOD for cash out activities, but I did manage to get my step-ups in, and they genuinely felt easier tonight than they have, so that was exciting, too. I barely had to use my hands at all except for balance.

The headstand practice was fun(-ish). It was a lot less scary than full handstands, and was definitely something I can envision practicing on my own. I still couldn't successfully kick all the way up and stay there, though i could stay up if some helped me. I got close several times, but i lost my balance and toppled over sideways a couple times too. I think my propriaceptive issues are working against me here. I have a very hard time telling what's straight. Hopefully with more work, I'll be able to figure it out.

Food:
12:00 10oz coffee 3/4 cup milk
1:15 - cottage cheese w/ almonds & Cinnamon
3:45 - 2 o spiced cashews
4:30 - 2 bbq drumsticks, 2 tiny yams - DELICIOUS, 2 oz milk
7:15 - 16oz milk
8:30 - 1 bowl chicken marsala, 15 asparagus spears, 16oz milk
10:50 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3, 2 zma

St. Pat-who?

Sleep:
12:45 - 8:10 - slept pretty soundly, just not enough hours. Tired and grumpy today - but that has more to do with work than sleep, i think.

Rest Day!!! ... I must not be irish - St. Patty's day just passed me by.

Daniel and I spent a large chunk of the evening watching the 'Midline Stabilization' videos of a Seminar with Kelly Starret (from the CF Journal). They were awesome, and incredibly instructive.

Food:
9:00 - 3 egg cheesy scramble w/ veggie sausage mixed in, 10oz coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk
1:45 - cottage cheese w/almonds & cinnamon
2:45 - 2oz spiced cashews
5:00 - 1 srving (1.5 cups?) of tempeh, sausage cauliflower marinara caserole, 16 oz milk.
8:00 - 1 large artichoke, 1/2 cup chicken sausage, 1 c. roasted cauliflower & broccoli, 16oz milk

Upside-frickin'-down

I have made my first resolution for 2009. Yeah, I know it's March, but I was focused on March 1st as my one-year anniversary, so there's hardly been any time at all. OK. So you ready? Here it is:

A free-standing handstand.

I have a block against handstands. I've realized I just hate going upside down. It freaks me out, in a way that nothing else we do in CrossFit does. Of course, this means I need to face it down, figure it out, and - in the words of Robb Wolf - embrace it and make it my bitch.

This is a long-term project. Tonight I took some first steps and finally managed my first completely unassisted handstands against the wall - three times. It took half an hour of hops and bouncings OFF the wall before I made it stick, but once I got it I was able to get the others fairly quickly. Of course, the wall is a crutch that most gymnasts recommend AGAINST using, as it trains you against using proper hollow form. I want to be able to kick up to a wall handstand easily for HSPUs, but for this project I'm going to be working freestanding progressions. Forward rolls of varying heights, then handstands facing the wall and rolling out of, then tons and tons of practice figuring out how to kick up into thin air.

Baby steps.

Oh, and I also did a little climbing. Two Jim climbs: a 10b arete that was a nice little puzzler, and a delicate-as-all-hell 10d that involved a great deal of liebacking off holds that really didn't feel substantial enough to lieback on, and shoving my nose into a corner while inching arms and legs up to tiny holds. I fell several times. Definitely want to try that one again.

Climb on!

Sleep: 12:53-8:06 did not wake up much but had a lot of tiring dreams. Tired this morning. Stiff, too, but not as bad as I had feared.

Social Climbing: It was PACKED & climbs were hard to come by and I didn't have much time because I had to get home and do homework. I got to do a 5.9 and a pumpy 10a. Both went really well, although I did not make it up the 10a without resting. Daniel said that it seemed to him like I had made a real breakthrough in my climbing - I am steadier and more confident, and I really feel that that's true. I am much more comfortable moving myself through space and relying on my limbs to do what I tell them to do. I think this is probably a direct result of the strength gains I have been making lately.

I did not have the time to do any of the cash out stuff I would have liked to do - although I did try a couple handstand kick-ups before we started climbing. Just testing what it was like to kick up and put weight on my arms. I am still too scared of the dismount (or the inevitable crash) to try to get up into a real handstand - but ... baby steps, right?

Food:
9:00 - 6 oz black coffee
11:35 - 1.25 c cottage cheese w/ almonds & cinnamon
12:45 - 1oz spiced cashews
1:00 - 10 oz coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk
2:50 - 1 oz spiced cashews
3:20 - 1 multiv, 3 wellness formula, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3, 1 serving (2 cups) cooked kale, veggie sausage walnuts, black beans, parmesean.
8:00 - 3 BBQ chicken legs, 2 baby yams, 3/4 cup sauteed spinach w walnuts. 16 oz milk - SOOO YUMMY
12:00 - 2 zma

Strength and Fight Gone Worse

Boy, Sundays are just gonna suck for a while, as long as we try to keep up this madness.

Workout 1: Strength Cycle - Week 2, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 185 - 225 - 245
Deadlift x 21: 195 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 65 - 75 - 85
Press x 21: 65 (15-7)

Heading towards previous PR territory now - next week we'll get there. According to the CFSB gurus, the deadlift superset is "unbroken" provided you A) keep your hands on the bar, and B) maintain approximate starting position. So by that standard, my deadlifts were unbroken - but I did have to stop and take a few breaths around rep 14. No such luck with the presses, though I did get them in two sets this week instead of 3. I also think I should go to 90 next week, instead of 95 - I haven't hit 5x95 in a long time, and my form on the 85 wasn't great.

And then, right after that:

Workout 2: Fight Gone Worse

Another brilliant idea from Gita: a five-round Fight Gone Bad.

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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

376 RX

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5
SDHP 75#	15	15	15	15	15
Box Jump 20"	20	21	20	20	20
Push-Press 75#	10	10	10	10	10
Row	15	15	15	15	15
Wall-Ball 20#	15	15	15	15	15

This is the exact same pace as the last RX FGB I did, nearly 6 months ago - just with two more rounds. The improvement is palpable. It didn't start getting truly painful until the fourth round, and a number of exercises are FAR easier than I remember them. The push-presses are still the hardest part, but 10 is quite doable. The SDHP is a cinch, and I was shocked to discover I could consistently get one calorie PER STROKE on the rower. The box jumps and wall ball were about the same as I remember them.

Adding 5 reps per exercise would get me to 300 for a real FGB. I don't know if I could maintain that, but next time it comes up, I think I'm going to try.

Mighty Wings

Sleep:
12:20 - 9:00 Slept VERY soundly. Apparently remembering fill the kitties' food bowl before heading to bed makes a difference - or maybe I was just that tired. Only got up once.

AM Commentary: Ow my shoulders! So sore. Guess that even though I tried my best to use my hips as much as possible for those KB swigs, 100 KB swings will take their toll (especially when combined with 50 burpees). Presses are going to be "fun" today. So is FIVE rounds of FGB ... *whimper* not sure about whether I am going to subject myself to that yet ...

Strength WOD
Warmup - ME, stripper stretch, hip openers, 20 air squats, 30 situps, dislocates.

DL 5x3
Warmup - 45# x 10
95-115-125
95# x 21 - finished consecutive set! Woo Hoo! - 100# next week

Press 5x3
Warmup - 30#x10
35-45-50(f x3 on rep 2,3,4)
30# X 21 - had to rack weight on rep 17 - finished last 4 unbroken

Comments:
The right music can make an unbelievably HUGE difference. When we got to the gym I was in kind of a foul mood, and I was NOT in the mood to pick heavy shit up. My shoulders were really achy, I was tired, worried about getting my homework done, blah blah blah.

I almost never work out with music. If I am going for a long run, I'll break out the iPod - but generally it just sits, neglected, in my bag. Today - out came the iPod. Daniel made some half-snarky/half-sincere comment about getting my groove on with the Top Gun soundtrack, and damn if when I hit the random play button, I didn't get Mighty Wings off the Top Gun soundtrack, and it made everything all right. Suddenly, I was happy and excited to be there. I got in a really good, thorough hip-centric warmup, and I killed those deadlifts dead! I was very excited to be able to knock out the full 21 rep set of DL @ 95# this week when I only made it to rep # 13 last week. Green Day:American Idiot is awesome lifting music.

The presses were a slightly different story. They were not the unmitigated success that the deadlifts were. But I think I learned a lot about how not to manage a set of 3 x 5. I think using 30# as my warmup set of 10 was too heavy for a warmup, and 45# was too heavy for my second set - it burned me out for my attempt(s) at 50#. For the next few weeks I will stick to 20 or 25# as the warmup weight set. It probably should have looked like 20# x 10, 30-40-50 (x5), 30#x21. Next week I will do something closer to this.

Despite my mismanagement I still ALMOST got 50x5. If my shoulders had not been so fried that holding the bar in a racked position tired me out as much or more than actively holding the weight I probably could have eked out that 5th rep. It was interesting that of the three attempts I made @ 50# on each set i got one MORE rep.

I am pretty sure that I will be able to get 21 x 30# next week too. (Tired shoulders, 3 attempts @ 50#, etc.)

Daniel said that my form on these is really great, which was nice to hear. It's a good confidence booster to have one or two activities where my form doesn't suck.

Fire Breathers WOD (yep, I did it):
Warmup: 20-ish air squats

WOD:
Fight Gone Bad - five 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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 14# ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 55 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 18" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 55 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Results:

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total
Wall Ball	6	7	6	4	4	27
SDHP	9	11	12	12	12	56
Box Jump	0	0	0	0	0	0
Push Press	6	8	7	4	5	30
Row	12	13	13	13	13	64
TOTAL	33	39	38	33	34	177

Comments:
So - 177 100% RX. The reason I did not do any box jumps is because I cannot jump up to the regulation size box (or any box, for that matter), and since I could not do it RX I decided to just take the extra minute of rest, and see what kind of RX score I could get.

Wow. This was HARD. I thought FGB with 3 rounds was rough. It was crazy getting through 2 rounds and thinking I still had a whole FGB ahead of me. I don't know how the people who didn't get a whole extra minute of rest while not doing box jumps managed it.

Looking at my last FGB score where my box jumps were step ups, and my push presses were 45# instead of 55# ... if I take just the first three rounds of this time (110) and subtract the box jump score from last time (108) - I still did better this time. :-) Or at least I did better overall at the exercises I actually did. On a exercise by exercise comparison, my wall ball has gone completely to pot, my SDHP has improved substantially, I did not get as many Rx PP (but part of that may have had something to do with the workout of presses I had just completed), and my rowing was consistently a little bit better.

I like rowing - it's one other thing that I am pretty consistently good at.

With the exception of my dismal wall ball results I feel pretty good about this performance. It's really nice to be getting scores on workouts Rx - even if there are still portions of them that I can't do.

Food:
10:00 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 2 pieces turkey bacon, 8 oz coffee w/ 2/3 cup whole milk
2:45 - 16 oz milk
4:00 - 5:30 - some amount of cheese and hummus - somewhere between 3-5 oz maybe? 2 crackers, 1 piece chocolate birthday cake
7:00 - approx 1/2 serving: daal, chicken Palak, chicken tikka Kabob, paneer tikka masala, 14 oz chai tea
7:45 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3, 3 wellness formula
12:10 - 2 zma

Short and sweet

After leading two classes through a thirty-minute slogfest that earned me my share of dirty looks, I opted NOT to join the fun and do it on my own - Rebecca was waiting for me, neither of us had eaten, and greater-than-twenty-minute metcons are supposedly off the menu for a while. So I made up this quick n' dirty little sweetheart:

21-15-9
2 pood KB swing
Burpees

7:17 RX

Now that was a long seven minutes. I like the workout, but for a class I think I'd make it a down-and-up ladder (21-15-9-15-21), to add that extra je ne sais quoi of awful and bring it to the 20-minute metcon sweet spot. Sadly (or perhaps not so sadly), that did not occur to me until well after I had done the workout.

Form over volume

Sleep: 12:30-9:00 slept pretty well.

Warmup: a little jump rope, ME, 400m, 20 air squats & 20 hip opener swings (kip w/o pullup), 10 burpees

WOD:
3 rounds:

Run 800 Meters
50 Kettlebell Swings 1.5P/1.0P
25 Burpees

Cash-out:
10 Step Ups* R
10 Step ups* L
10 Step Ups* R

*18" box

KB high pull practice mostly R arm
15 min or so stretching - primarily legs and hips

Results:
2 Rounds RX 36:02

Round	800m	50 KB Swing	25 Burpees	Total
1	5:08	5:52	4:43	15:43
2 (0:47)	5:36	7:34	6:21	36:02

Comments:
So - Ok - I DNF'ed this workout. But I seriously considered doing only 1 round (the 47 seconds at the beginning of round 2 was me making up my mind to begin round 2) so I did ... twice as much as 1 round ... but most importantly, I did it all RX. Every swing was overhead and driven with the hips as much as possible, and every burpee was full ROM - jumping back, full ROM pushup down and up, jumping forward, and an 'enthusiastic' jump and clap at the end of every rep. Keeping good form takes for frickin' ever. At least right now it does becuase I run out of steam quickly. I really need to work on building up muscular endurance (my cardio is ok - better than my musculat endurance anyway). I'm hoping the strength program we are working will help with that. At any rate, walking the line between intensity and good form is really hard. It's very easy to tell yourself "just a couple more breaths" more often than you really need to.

Daniel told everyone, "If you run out of burpees, do one, take one deep breath, do the next one." So after about 5 burpees, when they were all gone, that's what I did, and for the most part I managed to stick to it. For the swings it was 3-5 breaths between sets of as many as I could mange before I was using my shoulders instead of my hips to get the bell up - which after the first 10 was anywhere from 2-5 - but usually about 4.

Astonishingly, my first run was actually a pretty decent time for an 800m @ BIW for me. Not a PR - but not all that far off my BIW 800m PR. My second run ... I was just happy to finish it without having to stop and walk. I had this running conversation in my head "this workout sucks, it's so hard!" no! "I love running, running is fun!" but "damn, I am tired, and wow 50 KB swings really sucks", no! "This workout is not the boss of me! I am the master of this workout - it will get done!" ... on and on back and forth. But I made it through.

When it took 36 minutes to get through two rounds, I knew that it would probably take at least another 20 minutes to get through a third round, and as long as we're working this strength program, we're supposed to be keeping our metcons to around 20 minutes or less. So, I decided (with some relief) to call it at round 2.

Other than the not finishing part (which is a little like a little pebble in my shoe - irritating but not painful) I actually feel really good about this workout due mainly to my consistent attention to getting through the exercises with a minimum of B+/A- form. I really feel like I earned the Rx at the end of those 2 rounds. (Although I know that real Rx would, of course, be all three rounds).

Food:
10am 4oz black coffee
12:05 16 oz 2% milk
2:45 - 2-3 oz rotisserie chicken, 3 egg scramble w/ basil pesto sausage, 8 oz coffee w/ 3/4 cup whole milk, 1 cup raw spinach w/ 1 oz walnuts, 3 oz dried cranberries, 2 oz feta cheese
4:00 - 8oz 2% milk, 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
6:15 - 16 oz milk
8:15 - 1 serving tempeh, sausage cauliflower mainara caserole thingy, 16oz milk
9:00 - 16oz milk
12:15 - 2 zma

Three small workouts

Got to the climbing gym a bit early today, so figured I'd hit some HIIT while waiting for Tor to get there. I hadn't done Sprint-8 on the rower in a while, and that seemed more appealing than 50 burpees.

Sprint-8 on rower: 3,375m
Climbing: 10a/b(o), 10c(f+), 10b(o), 10b(o), 10b(o)

Well, the good news is that I went about 200m further than I ever have on a Sprint-8 before - the sprints were consistently between 1:34 and 1:37 pace, the rests were usually around 2:30.

From the first 10c, it was clear my grip was totally shot. I don't THINK that's the rower's fault - I've rowed before climbing before and never noticed a problem. I more inclined to suspect last night's false-grip static hangs. Rather than spend all my time falling off the wall, I worked 10b's and just focused on getting to the top before my grip failed.

Max programmed a light WOD for today, since he and a bunch of other folks are going to the "Royal Rumble" affiliate throwdown at CF Diablo tomorrow, and he wants everyone to be rested (I'll be leading the regular classes at Ironworks). He also literally had Milk and Cookies for everyone.

"Milk & Cookies"

• Run 400 Meters
• 25 Squats
• 25 Push-Ups
• 25 Burpees
• 25 Squats
• Run 400 Meters

8:06 RX

I was keeping pace with Alex fairly well until the Burpees, when he smoked me. I was having a hard time with them on this one. I suspect my general conditioning is going south with this emphasis on strength-building. Oh well. Provided the strength stuff WORKS, then that's fine - I can always get the conditioning back later.

Virtuosity

Sleep:
12:15 - 8:00 super restless. woke up 3-4 times. partially from cats, prtially from just waking up.

No Kitchen Calisthenics today - i failed to make it to eating lunch.

Warmup:
Not quite enough (again) because I was late. 20 jumping ring dips, 20 20# med ball cleans

WOD - Results:
"Milk & Cookies"

Run 400 Meters - 2:36
25 Squats - 1:06
25 Push-Ups - 1:42
25 Burpees - 4:35
25 Squats - 1:09
Run 400 Meters - 2:26

Cash Out:
15 minute stretching hammies and hips, 17 Step-ups Right leg, 12 step-ups left 20" box.

Comments:
This felt a lot harder that it probably should have. I was sucking wind most of the time. I made a conscious effort to try to keep rests to a minimum, take a couple breaths and continue on, but I also was aiming for good form for every rep, and that's a very tough line to walk. I probably could have done a little better but it's a lot harder to do a squat or pushup or burpee with good form when you're winded. My ankles did not feel warm for the first run - and it was slow. Burpees after pushups is hard since the pushup muscles are more or less already done for. my legs were wobbly after the squats for the second run. But every squat was low enough, every pushup was full ROM and every burpee has a fully extended jump with a clap.

All in all a pretty mediocre performance, but I believe that focusing on doing the exercises as quickly as i can do them right is going to serve me better than just doing them as quickly as I can.

The cash out steps-ups were ... humbling. I can't do one on a 20" box without significant help staying balanced and getting started - either by jumping off my standing leg and/or pulling/stabilizing with my arms. But I'm sure they will improve with work.

Food:
8:45 6oz black coffee
1:40 cottage cheese, almonds & cinnamon, 12oz coffee w 3/4 cup milk
6:45 16oz milk
7:45 8oz beer, cepe vine "el Barron" no bun, sub salad for potatoes. I don't know why, but this was just DELICIOUS tonight. I put the avocado on the burger, and ate the mushrooms and onions more as a side dish, and everything just tasted exceptionally good tonight.
Meant to drink more milk and take my vitamins when we got home, but i forgot.

Strength, week 2 part 1

Spent a lot of time warming up today, with plenty of active stretches and assistance exercises, trying to open up the hips and loosen the hamstrings.

Back Squat x 5: 115 - 135 - 155
Back Squat x 21: 115
Bench Press x 5: 95 - 115 - 135
Bench Press x 21: 100
False grip static hang: 4 x 15 sec.

The 155 started to feel heavy. I wasn't pitching forward, but I do use my left leg more than my right in coming up. Need to watch that, and figure out how to come up more symmetrically. The bench press was fine - I knocked out the 21 unbroken, though it did burn somewhat.

The static hangs hurt like a sonuvabitch. HOW do people maintain false grip? It's inhuman!

Someday, I will figure out this damn squat.

Sleep:
11:30 - 8:00 - only got up once, i think. very restful night.

Kitchen Calisthenics:Heating Lunch - 1:30
45 seconds hands together counter pushups: 23
45 seconds hands apart counter pushups: 25

Warmup:
ME, 30 air squats, 30 situps, adductor stretch (not enough, but I was afraid I'd lose my squat rack)

Back Squat:
10 x 45# bar - really struggled with form - probably due to not being warmed up enough.
?? (10?) x 15# - needed to sort out some form issues with minimal weight
5 x 35#
5 x 50#
5 x 60#(f rep 4)
5 x 60#
21 x 45#

Bench Press:
10 x 45
5 x 50
5 x 55
5 x 65
21 x 50

Cash Out:
1 minute static hang w/active shoulders x 2
some right legged step ups to a 14" (or so) box
a few weak attempts at L sit practice in the captain's chair - but my shoulders were too tired to hold myself up.
10 minutes or so of stretching

Comments:
Daniel assures me that my squat is better than it used to be. And if I take a step outside myself and look at it objectively, I can see that is true, but better isn't Good - it's just less bad. It is frustrating to have been working on this movement for so long and to have come such a short distance towards consistently good form.

I am hoping that if I commit to working on stretching out my ridiculously tight hips and adductors thereby allowing freer ROM in them, that will help my fix some of my problems with the squat. The other piece of it is the weakness of my right side and its unwillingness to bear weight. I'm hoping to address that more quickly by adding right-legged step ups as a cash out at the end of all my workouts.

My bench press is satisfyingly strong. At least, I do not have the same funky form issues with it as with the squat. My right arm really is the weak link here, too, though - particularly in the set of 21. I think that it's going to be great work towards helping it catch up.

Just on a whim while I was waiting for Daniel to get out of the locker room, I set the pull down machine for 120 pounds to see if I could pull it down, and I couldn't but it confirmed the problem that I've been having with my pullups. My left arm was ok, but my right arm just couldn't go from straight to bent against that kind of weight. I tried 110# and my right arm still couldn't 'convert it', but if I 'kipped' the weight down to a point where my arms were bent, I could pull it the rest of the way down. Just further proof that my right arm is the limiting factor in a deadhang pullup for me. (Like I needed any more).

I'm pretty gratified that I was able to do full 1 minute static holds with active shoulders, and the first 40-45 seconds felt pretty easy. Several months ago - after we discovered the Crossfit Fitness Level standards, the Level 1 30 second hold was one of the first things I tried. I thought - just hang for 30 seconds? That's EASY. And I got it, but only just barely. And I feel certain that my shoulders were anything but active. So that's progress I can see, anyway.

Food:
8:45 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 2 pieces veggie bacon, 12oz coffee 2/3 cup whole milk
3:20 - cottage cheese, almonds & cinnamon
3:50 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
4:30 - 1 serving chicken Marsala - YUM
5:00 - 20oz water, .5 oz spiced almonds
7:20 - 16oz milk
8:00 - chille verde Burrito w/ guacamole from Las Palamas Taqueria & 16oz milk

Dismal failure

Man, I don't know WHAT went wrong this morning, but it was a train wreck. We had plans for the evening (more on that later), so I decided to try and knock out the WOD in the morning before work at home.

Complete as many rounds as you can in twenty minutes of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 L Pull-ups
15 Steps, Walking Lunge

THREE FUCKING ROUNDS

It was bad from the get-go. While warming up, I couldn't even squat without falling over. Everything was tight and sore, and I had a nasty headache every time I bent over (the HSPU's were a joy). Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was too early in the morning and my body was just too tight, I don't know. But nothing was working, and when the phone rang 16 minutes in, I basically said "fuck it" and picked up the phone. Chalk this one up as one that got away.

More stretching necessary!!!

Attended a Hip function seminar at CFO with guest speaker Kelly Starrett. He is charming, and extremely knowledgeable. Learned a lot of ways to stretch the areas around the hip, and basically got completely dressed down for not stretching often enough. It was a good seminar.

Kitchen Calisthenics:
40 couter-top pushups; 20 hands together, 20 hands shoulder width apart

Sleep:
12:05-8:07 the cats were restless last night. I think I got up three or four times - once was to let the healthy cat out (because he was scratching furniture in our bedroom which generally means "let me out") who proceeded to stand at the door and then changed his mind about wanting to go out. Shit head.

Food:
8:45 - 6oz black coffee
1:20 - 1.25 cup cottage cheese, 2 oz slivered almonds, 1 tsp cinnamon, 6oz coffee with milk.
1:40 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
4:00 - 1 serving ma po tofu w/ ground turkey and broccolini
8:15 - 1 bowl AWESOME crock pot chicken Marsala. YUMMY. 16 oz milk
9:00 - 16oz milk

Only tuesday?

Lunch time calisthenics:
40 coutertop pushups while waiting for my lunch to heat up.
first 20 were with hands together in middle, 2nd 20, hands @ normal 'shoulder width' position

Sleep:
11:50 - 7:45: got up 3 or 4 times - mostly due to restless cats. We advantaged them this morning - serves them right!

Food:
8:30 3 egg cheese scramble with veggie sausage patty, 12oz milk 2/3 cup milk
1:20 - cottage cheese w/almonds & cinnamon
3:30 - 1/2 serving kung pao chicken
5:30 - 2oz spiced cashews
8:00 - 1 bowl, kales, walnuts, blackbeans & veggie sausage, 16oz milk
8:40 - 1 multiv, 2 glucoasime, 4 omega-3
8:45 - 16oz milk
11:25 - 2 zma

QOKAD

By now, the Gallon-of-Milk-a-Day (GOMAD) has become synonymous with Starting Strength and Mark Rippetoe, though the two are actually quite distinct. Rippetoe prescribes GOMAD to skinny adolescents who need, more than anything, to pack on some bulk, and whose metabolism is such that they can afford to take on far more calories than they likely will actually consume in a day. So what is the nutritional content of a gallon of whole milk?

Calories: 2344
Fat: 128g
Carb: 204g
Pro: 124g

On top of everything else you're supposed to eat, that's about a 5k-6k cal/day diet. Not to mention the carbs, which are over twice my daily limit in the milk alone. Yikes! It's no wonder that Rippetoe says, in his own ineffable style:

Older adults using milk for weight gain may find that they get a little chubby on this program. This is because as growth hormone and testosterone levels diminish with age, the ability to easily build muscle on a heavy training program diminishes as well. This means that less of the nutritional input can be converted to muscle in response to stress, and consequently more fat will be deposited.

This is rotten, shitty fact. I personally am offended every time I contemplate this. But the fact remains that older lifters cannot grow as efficiently in response to training as younger lifters can because of their inability to recover, and the efficient conversion of nutrition to muscle is a major factor in recovery.

(By the way, the forum thread that this comes from, a Q&A with Rippetoe on the Strength Mill forums, is well worth reading in its entirety both for the quality of the information contained therein, as well as the hilariously cranky comebacks he fires off.)

Well, I don't want to fork out $7 a day to choke back glass after glass of room-temperature whole milk so that I can gain a little muscle and a lot of fat. Not to mention the logistics (and mockery) involved in hauling around eight pounds of milk all day, every day. It's my hope that there's a better way.

Introducing Kefir

Kefir is fermented milk, invented bajillions of years ago by tribes in the Caucuses and Eastern Europe. You can buy it ($2.69/quart at Trader Joe's), but it's even better if you MAKE it. I've been making my own for a few months now, and it's about as simple a task as you can do in the kitchen:

1. Pour milk into container
2. Add kefir grains
3. Wait 1-2 days
4. Strain out grains, decant kefir into container(s)
5. Repeat
   

But...why drink a quart of the stuff a day?

So many reasons.

COST: Homemade kefir is about $1.75/qt using organic whole milk. I haven't found anything remotely like that in the store.

TASTE: It's goooooood.

EASE-OF-USE: It's a helluva lot easier to down a quart of kefir than a gallon of milk. You can drink that much with dinner, or bring it to the gym as an all-natural post-workout drink.

NUTRITION: I know this will shock the Rippetoe fans out there, but kefir is superior to milk, nutritionally speaking. First, the nutritional profile is somewhat better:

The majority of digestible carbohydrate of kefir is milk-sugar [lactose], of which at 24 hour fermentation followed by 24 hour storage seems to be approximately 3.5%, going by the figures available. This is about 50% reduction of the original lactose content in fresh milk.

Second, kefir is a probiotic (meaning it contains bacteria beneficial to digestion)

Kefir contains live active cultures of normal flora which is made of vary strong strains of microorganisms that help to over take pathogenic organisms, repopulate the digestive tract and aid in digestion. The microorganisms predigest the protein that enchanting protein digest and absorption and also use the lactose thus many people whom have lactose intolerance problem can be consume kefir.

Kefir has the complete proteins that are partially digested and in this respect the body easily utilizes them.

...Not sure whether that's a translation or an English-as-second-language issue in there, but you get the idea. At any rate, the second part is the money quote, and the reason I'm doing this whole experiment. Basically, the hope is that by drinking (somewhat) pre-digested proteins, the bioavailability of the protein in the kefir should be higher, and therefore translate more effectively to muscle repair and growth than regular milk.

Who knows whether it will work. I'm not doing a very scientific introduction of the plan, since I'm also introducing meat into my diet, and I'm sure it's all throwing my inner system for a loop. But I plan on trying it out over the course of this strength cycle, and will have a better clue at its efficacy in about eleven weeks.

Social Climbing

Just a little rest-day Social Climbing at BIW with the CFEB crew.

9(o), 10d(f), 10d(f), 10c(o)

The first 10d was an arete climb with a roof about 3/4 the way up, on a steadily increasing negative. The second 10d was...an arete climb with a roof about 3/4 the way up, transitioning to some negative stemming. Both climbs were marked by small, pumpy holds and awkward stances. At one point on the second one I found myself pulling down on the wrong side of a small undercling, as it was all there was. The last 10c was...a negative arete climb that moved to face climbing about 2/3 up. Again, small holds - my forearms and fingers were sore at the end of the evening.

Mostly Rest day - of the unwilling kind.

I did not manage to get all my homework done over the weekend, and it was due today, so I had to come home to finish it instead of climbing. In order to facilitate transportation for both me and daniel, I drove my bike down to work, daniel rode his bike down to the gym, I gave him the car, and rode my bike home. It was all the exercise I got today, but it was (embarrassingly) plenty.

Riding my bike home is always humbling. No matter the strength gains and the improved metcon conditioning, I am ALWAYS done in by riding my bike home; it's not that far, and it's really not that steep. It's a heavy, old fashioned 3-speed schwinn cruiser, and it's possible that the seat on my bike is at the wrong height. It's definitely the wrong geometry - it's one of those huge "comfort" seats - but it hits me in exactly all the wrong places, and is anything but comfortable. I should get it replaced, but a) I don't actually ride my bike that often and b) my bike would look pretty funny with a modern seat. But, whatever the reason, I am always toast by the time I make it all the way up the hill from work (or the gym) to home. And even with the bad seat and the heavy bike, I'd think it would get relatively easier the relatively more fit I am. (it's definitely easier to get it into the car!)

Ah well. I really should ride my bike more often. Now that it stays light later, I will endeavor to do so.

Sleep:
11:30-7:45 - woke up once on my own, twice by the cats.

Food: (not a good remembering to eat day)
12:05 12oz coffee w/3/4 cup milk
4:00 cottage cheese w/ almonds & cinnamon
5:30 1.5 oz spiced cashews
6:30 16oz milk
9:40 1 bowl Ma po tofu with ground turkey and tofu - served over 3/4 cup broccolini, 16oz milk
11:00 2 zma

Strength Cycle, week 1 cont'd - and Fight Gone Bell

Today was an experiment, to see if Rebecca and I could do our strength workout directly before the Firebreather WOD. The answer, for today at least, was yes - we'll see what happens when the strength weight gets heavier. The CFSB protocol calls for short and heavy metcons (~10 mins) after lifting, so I'm thinking this could be similar.

Deadlift x 5: 185 - 205 - 225
Deadlift x 21: 185
Press x 5: 65 - 70 - 75
Press x 21: 65

The deadlifts were pretty much fine, although my back was surprisingly sore - maybe from Friday's 3x7. I was able to knock out the 185 unbroken, though, with only medium discomfort - I'll go up next week. The 21 shoulder presses, however, were 12-5-4: I'll keep it at this weight until I can do all of them.

Following that, we got to go outside on a gorgeous sunny spring day for the Firebreather WOD.

Fight Gone Bell
3 rounds, one minute each movement (1.5 pood) with a minute of rest in between, of:

• Swing
• Clean
• Goblet Squat
• Push Press
• Snatch

225 RX

My first thought, looking at this, was that 300 would be a good goal: 20 reps of each movement. Upon further reflection, I altered it somewhat to 25-25-20-15-15 per round. I almost managed to actually do that for the first round, too.

Exercise	1	2	3	Total
KB Swing	25	25	20	70
KB Clean	25	16	14	55
KB Goblet Squat	20	15	10	45
KB Push-press	5	4	4	13
KB Snatch	20	10	12	42
TOTAL	95	70	60	225

Clearly, push-presses were my downfall. (Well, that and my vaulting optimism that I'd be able to maintain that pace for three rounds.) I'm sure the press workout beforehand did not help, but 1.5 pood push-presses have never been particularly strong for me (in fact, doing them at all is a pretty recent phenomenon). This was a good workout, overall - not as nausea-inducing as Gita (who designed it) hoped, but a good combination of many key ways to torture yourself with kettlebells.

Baby Fire Breather

Strength WOD
Warmup - ME, stripper stretch, hip openers, 20 air squats.
DL 5x3
Warmup - 45# x 10
95-115-120
95# x 21 (had to break @ rep 13 and every 3-4 reps after that to keep form safe)

Press 5x3
Warmup - 25#x10
35-40-45
25# X 21 - unbroken - 30# next week

Fire Breathers WOD:



Warmup: run 400m, ME, 25 situps, 10 pushups, WOD skills practice KB(swing, clean, goblet squat, PP, snatch)

WOD:
FGB Rules
Men 1.5P/Women 1.0P

Swing
Clean
Goblet Squat
Push Press
Snatch

Results:

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
KB Swing	15	14	12	41
KB Clean	9	3R 6L	1R 8L	27
KB Goblet Squat	6	6	7	19
KB Push-press	0	2	1	3
KB Snatch	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	30	31	29	90

Comments:
Well - first of all, I can't believe my math was so bad. I originally though5 - for some unknown reason I cannot now figure out- that my score was 61. It was actually 90. Still less than half the next lowest score, but much better than 61!

I am extremely excited that I got 4 cleans total with the 1P with my right arm, and a couple PP with the 1P with my left. Both firsts for me :-) I think my form with the goblet squats was a bit better than on Wednesday - I did better at keeping my chest up.

In the first round i did some PP & Snatches with the 12kg KB, but in the second round Max told me just to focus on the stuff I could do Rx and to just rest for the rounds i couldn't get anything, so the reps that were done with the 12kg are not listed above. In the last round I was not ready to just rest for the whole last round, so I worked on KB highpulls (snatch progressions) with the 1P with my right arm (I didn't keep count). On a really good rep I could get it shoulder high, on a less good rep I got it a little less than boob high. I think this could be a really good exercise for me to practice to work on really strengthening my right arm & shoulder (and hip drive). I'll try to remember it whenever I am looking for "cash out" or even warm-up options.

Sleep:
12:54 - 9:45 Hooray for extra sunlight! A pretty sound night's sleep - think I woke up twice, but they were brief. Woke up with congested ears though :-( DO NOT WANT DANIEL's COLD. :-P

Food:
10:30 - 3 egg cheesy scramble w/ 2 pieces turkey bacon. 12oz coffee w/2/3 cup milk
11:00 - 1 multiv, 3 wellness formula, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
2:15 - 16 oz milk
3:35 - 1 bowl orange curry, 16 oz milk
7:30 - House of Curries: Approx: 1 8oz cup chai tea, 1/2 order each of daal, chicken w/cauliflower, tandoori chicken tikka & paneer tikka masala.
11:15 - 2 zma

Clean and Jerks

Simple 1RM C&J today:

Clean & Jerk x 1: 95-100-105-115-120-125-130(PR)

I got them all up, but that last jerk was UG.LY. Left arm went up, right arm stayed behind to press up to the top with excruciating slowness. Good thing there were clips on, or it would have been a disaster.

I can't find any record of trying for 1RM C&J before, so this is a good benchmark to know.

My buns are burning!

WARMUP: Run 400m, crazy 6 card warmup - hearts = squats, spades = pullups, clubs = pushups, diamonds = situps. This was fun.

WOD:
Clean and Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Results:
Mixed - didn't really keep very good track of efforts. I did a lot of reps at 45#, 3-5 @ 55#, I got 1 @ 60. Tried several times for 65# but I could not clean it. Which was disappointing because that was my goal for today, but whole posterior chain was pretty fried from yesterday's deadlifts and 100 squats. (and probably the back squats from the day before that, too.)

Sleep:
12:33 - 8:45 - woke up twice

Food:
10:15 6 oz black coffee
12:15 16 oz milk
1:30 16 oz milk
2:45 4 egg scramble w/ cheese and 1 basil-pesto chicken sausage, 16 oz milk
3:15 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
6:30 hummus and veggies, glass of wine
8:00 bowl bouillabaisse w croutons, watercress salad with slivered almonds, and 1.8 slices of YUMMY cheesecake.
11:30 2 zma

Nice.

I'm still feeling sick, particularly in the mornings and evenings for some reason, but during the day I feel mostly fine. Usually evidences itself as a persistent cough. Annoying.

This morning, however, it was nice to get in some climbing with Tor that was not pre-exhausted. I decided to take the opportunity to work on harder climbs.

10b(c), 10d(o), 10d(f), L10a(o), L10b(o), 11a(f++)

It was going GREAT up until that last 11a, which was a fall-fest. The first 10d looked interesting from the ground, but was too easy. The second 10d, a new orange one in the back that goes right up the arch, is very likely the craziest, shake-your-head-in-disbelief climb I've ever done. It starts off well by forcing you to do a huge backwards brace and step on the opposite wall of the arch, then has a series of increasingly difficult stemming moves, some of which make you do some no-foot stemming, bracing yourself off two holds with your arms while your feet dangle. It looked so insane that Tor had to try it, and he agreed it was a fantastically crazy climb. Obviously, it's my new favorite. I led a couple easy climbs to stay in practice, then finished up with an 11a slab that I was too tired to do - I kept peeling off it over and over, and flat-out cheated one sequence. I'd like to try that one again.

Tonight was deadlifts at CFEB. So it's shaping up to be a strength-oriented week, which is probably best for my cold. The workout was 3x7, and Max suggested it be 93% of 1RM straight across. I ballparked that to be about 275, which was more than I had intended to do. But after ramping up the first couple sets, it felt appropriately challenging.

Deadlift x 3: 255-265-275-275-275-275-275

Nice to see my deadlifts coming back after the horrible 1RM experience a couple weeks ago.

More Strength work

Warmup: run 400m (no side stitch), ME, 40 wallball in and 40 1P kb swings in alternating sets of 10. Wallball sets were with 14# ball except 2nd set was with 10#, DL skill practice. I still can't string them together at all, but they regularly get high enough. Also, my 1P KB swings are getting SO Much stronger. The first few reps of a set really easily get overhead now - i think I even managed to get my first 10 consecutive today, though the last few reps were much weaker.

WOD:
Deadlift 3x7
Warmup 10 x 45#
115-125(f r3)-115-120-120-125-125

Cashout: 100 air squats

(3 x 30sec static hold w/ active shoulders once we got home while Daniel made dinner)

Comments:
Well - I am definitely stronger than I used to be :-) Not too long ago, doing this workout at 100# would have been a challenge. Though there is something about this movement that just occasionally eludes me (usually around rep 3).

I was trying to be really good about form today, and I ditched any rep that felt like it was coming from my back instead of my legs. If I were being strict about it, I really failed more sets than just #2, because for several of them I had to make several attempts and shake things out a bit in order to get rep 3 to go up. I generally never had a problem with rep # 1 or 2.

Ironically set 7 was the best set I had all night. I finally decided to try the reverse grip, and all three reps went up, no problem. Made me want to try again with more weight, but I was already one of the last to finish.

While I was hanging around keeping nez company while she finished her set, I decided to work my air squat - keeping my form as clean as possible. So I did 100 squats - not for time, just slow and steady. My form on these has really improved. As long as I am being conscious about it, my knees hardly wobble at all now.

When we left, Max said he was planning on making us do something evil - but it's only 1RM clean and jerks. I'm a little disappointed it isn't a metcon-y thing since we've done straight strenght the past two days, but we did just embark on a "strength cycle" so we might as well take it where we can get it. I'm hoping to finally manage to clean 65# or more tomorrow.


Health:
I got my Direct LDL test back today - and the number was better than the calculated - but not much. 138 instead of 145. I was stressed about it at first, but I've done a little research, and there are definitely questions out there about whether high cholesterol really has the causal relationship with heart disease that current medical thinking says it does. And there are even some studies out there that say high cholesterol has some beneficial effects. Looking at it from a "whole picture" point of view: I am in the best shape I have ever been in pretty much every aspect - strength, aerobic conditioning, and body composition. As long as my good cholesterol stays high, I am not going to worry too much about the total or the bad.

Also - I assume this is completely unrelated - my right hand felt particularly numb/tingly this morning - it's better now, but still different than it usually is. No idea what that's about. Last night when I was finished with the 21 bench press reps of the empty bar my right arm really did feel as if it was going to give out on me - I wonder if it's related to that.

Sleep:
11:34 - 7:45 I got up around 5am and did not manage to go soundly back to sleep for the rest of the night. I know I slept some, because I remember a few dreams, but it was not restful sleep. I had a low grade headache (maybe dehydrated?) when I woke up, and I think that is the reason I was not able to get back to sleep. When I finally took some advil around 6:30, i had better luck getting back to sleep.

Food:
9:30 coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk.
11:45 cottage cheese with almonds & cinnamon - 1.25 cups
3:25 1 bowl "magic slowcooker chicken soup/stew" w/ almonds. It was delicious!
7:45 16oz milk
8:00 2.5 mango chicken sausages, 1 cup sauteed spinach, 2 oz walnuts
8:30 16oz milk
12:00a 2 zma
forgot to take my vitamins today - DOH!

Strength Cycle, week 1

Today was the first workout in our experimental, 12-week strength cycle. I'm starting easy for the first couple weeks, aiming to hit current PR weights in the third week (80-90-100%) before moving on to true PRs. Even so, this felt good.

Back Squat x 5: 95 - 115 - 135
Back Squat x 21: 100
Bench Press x 5: 95 - 115 - 130
Bench Press x 21: 95
Forward rolls: 10 x 3

I warmed up with Good Morning Squats and Stripper Stretch (never knew that was what it was called), and worked hard to keep my chest up throughout the squats, with moderate success - of course, it isn't really heavy yet.

The supersets after the strength set certainly give the neuromuscular hit I hoped they would - I felt woozy and quite worked after the squats, like I'd just done a max effort deadlift set. I wasn't able to do all 21 without stopping for breath a few times, though I didn't have to rack the weight...I'm not sure if that counts as unbroken, or if I should be able to knock out 21 without pause - I'm kinda thinking the latter, but will need to do a little more research into the matter.

The forward rolls were fun. I got quite good at rolling straight back up to my feet without using my hands, and the big blue crashpads at the gym made it all totally painless. I'm thinking next time I should just use the regular climbing pad floor. They sure made me dizzy, though! It felt really good to work a gymnastic skill that didn't fill me with fear, though - baby steps.

In the pursuit of strength

Warmup: ME, airsquats, 30 situps, 10 pushups.

Workout:
Back squat:
5 X 45# warmup
5x3:45-50-50
21x1:30#
5x1:60#

Bench press:
10 x 45# warmup - plus 4-5 extra to work on grip placement.
5x3: 55-60-60
21x2: 30-45

cashout:
a couple forward roll attempts, a handstand attempt, some static hold work, some single leg box steps, some knees to chest/elbows work.

Comments:
Today was day one of the new strength cycle. It was supposed to be a 'warm-up' week, but I really wanted more of a workout today, so I didn't take it as easy as maybe I could/should have.

Despite being light, my squats are still crap. I'd say my form is better than it was, but it is still not solid. I'm not really sure where I'm losing it. There are just a lot of moving pieces, and my compromised nervous system has a very hard time keeping track of everything all at once. Knees out, chest up, core tight, keep the lumbar arch, use both legs equally, get to the right depth, don't plunge into the hole, etc. It's a lot to hold onto. Sometimes I keep it all straight (rep 1). A lot of the time one thing or the other falls apart(rep 2-5 :-p ).

I probably didn't go heavy enough with my set of 21. I probably should just have used the empty bar, but it seemed kind of ridiculous since I was struggling to get a solid 5 reps with 50#. At any rate, once I was finished with it, I wasn't quite ready to be finished with back squats, so I did an extra set of 55#. It actually felt pretty solid and went pretty well.

Bench press is different. This movement actually feels pretty strong, and I can clearly see the gains I have made in my arm strength. I warmed up with 10 reps of the empty bar. It went very well. It seemed silly to be benching more than I was squatting, but other than that strangeness, there was no reason not to work with 55 or even 60# on the bench. I started with 55, and it was easy. Round 3 was 60# and it was challenging, but still solid. I stuck with 60# for round 3 and it was much more challenging, but there was no danger of failure.

I definitely did not go heavy enough for my set of 21 the first time through. I opted to use a 30# body bar, and for the first 10-15 reps it felt as if it weight nothing. The last 5 or 6 reps felt a little burn-y, but it was too easy. So Daniel convinced me to try it with the 45# bar. "Just see how many you can get". I (barely) managed to get 21! :-) That felt good - or at least it did once I was done. My right arm was threatening to just quit pressing for the last 4 reps. If I hadn't just done 21 of the 30# bar it would probably have been no problem. But it's great knowing that I managed to do 21 consecutive reps tonight of a weight I could barely even lift a year ago.

Afterwards, I tried a few forward rolls as a progression exercise for handstands. These make me SUPER dizzy. uncomfortably light headed. I hate them. The last time I tried them I was fending off a migraine so i thought that's what was causing the dizziness, but I have no such excuse today, and it's disorienting and uncomfortable, and it makes me angry. I did not have the wherewithal today to push through the discomfort and the fear, so i left Daniel practicing them and went to work on other stuff.

Sleep:
11:23 - 7:45 - over 8 hours! Only got up once - around 5:15, and even thought to let the cat out before he could start getting obnoxious. I can, in fact, learn from past experience ;-)<

Food
8:30 - 3 egg cheesy scramble with 2 pieces turkey bacon. yum! 12 oz coffee w 2/3 cup 2% milk.
1:15 - cottage cheese, almonds & cinnamon
failed to eat lunch again - damn inventory should be done soon, i hope)
5:15 - 2.5 oz spiced cashews
8:00 - 1 bowl orange curry - w/ chicken, and cashews, 16 oz milk
9:15 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
11:00 - 2 zma

Drinking from the Goblet

Max learned a new trick in New York, and couldn't wait to share it with us:

AMRAP in 20 minutes

• 5 Honest Push-Ups
• 10 2P/1.5P Kettlebell Swings
• 15 2P/1.5P Goblet Squats

5 rounds + swings RX
(splits: 1:57 | 3:20 | 3:51 | 4:24 | 5:27)

I've been feeling a little sick the past couple days, since Helen. Nothing major, just a scratchy throat, but I have noticed a corollary: push extremely hard on a workout, then proceed to catch a cold. Tonight I decided that I wasn't going to do half-volume or anything, but neither was I going to kill myself. Which felt good, and a little bit like sneaking chocolate on a diet. I'm happy with the work that I did, though, as my back was feeling like it might cramp up immediately afterwards. And my rounds are surprisingly close to the average. (I just think there's probably an upper limit to the number of goblet squats we can do at this weight right now.)

Those goblet squats are hard! I'm happy we're doing them, as they're an assistance exercise to help me with my "good morning" problem on my back squats, but they were definitely the pain in the ass for this workout. Never have push-ups felt so luxurious, and the swings weren't even that bad - they were all unbroken. I was never able to do 15 unbroken squats, though - my arms and grip just couldn't hang on that long. And breaking these guys up sucks, because you've got to pick up the weight again and get it into that awkward position. I'm hoping my back won't be too sore tomorrow.

Pullups #2 & 3 and a world of goblet squat pain

Warmup: 2 min jump rope, ME, 10 squats, KB swing practice, 10 KB cleans, 10 KB snatches, practice goblet squat

*Got 2 more pullups before the workout started!

WOD:
AMRAP* in 20 minutes

5 Honest Push-Ups
10 2 P/1.5P Kettlebell Swings*
15 2P/1.5P Goblet Squats *

*subbed 1P

Results:
4 rounds + 14 squats

Round	Time	Elapsed
1	3:06	3:06
2	3:38	6:44
3	4:41	11:25
4	4:56	16:21
14 squats	3:39	20:00

Comments:
Um. OWWWW. Goblet squats SUCK.
but first ... pullups #2 AND #3!! so #1 was not a fluke! Woo hoo!

And now back to the evil that is goblet squats. oh boy. i think these might have to have knock down drag out fight with burpees to decide who's more sadistic.

I have never in my life had a workout where i looked forward to pushups, and in fact, wished that there were MORE pushups. Until tonight. I will even admit to deliberately lingering over my pushup - becase it was an extra few seconds I wasn't holding a kettlebell.

The swings actually went pretty well - I don't think i ever got through them in fewer than 3 sets, but they were all well above eye level and many of them were fully overhead. I just had to rest and wait for my hip drive to regenerate.

The goblet squats were killer. I think they're a great exercise for working exactly the thing I need to work - more powerful squats - but man are they hard. I found a great way to get the bell into position was a SDHP, and while the bell is weightless, just change the grip. It was just keeping it there, and maintaining the lower lumbar arch that were "tricky". I know my lower back is going to be irritated with me for the next day or two. Back squats tomorrow should be interesting.

Sleep:
12:00 - 7:30. only got out of bed once. Some restless tossing and turning - but a relatively good night's sleep.

Food:
10am - coffee w/milk
1:45 - cottage cheese w almonds & cinnamon
3:10 - ma po tofu
4:30 - .5 oz cashews
6:45 - 16 oz milk
7:45 - regular chile verde burrito - black beans, salsa, guacamole, 16oz milk
10:45 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3, 2 zma

A Year of CrossFit

A year or so ago, at the recommendation of somebody from the HST forums, I started CrossFit. I think it's fair to say that it has changed my life in some substantial and surprising ways.

The reason this person recommended CrossFit was because, up until then, my training regimen was somewhat schizophrenic - though in my naivete I didn't know that. The foundation of my weightlifting program was a half-hour introduction to the machines at the Y by the shift trainer and whatever contradictory information I could glean from bodybuilding sites. I had completed about a year of regular workouts in the gym, and didn't have much to show for it. In retrospect, this is not surprising: I wanted muscles like a bodybuilder, but did absolutely nothing "lower body" in the weight room - deadlifts and squats frightened me because I have bad knees, and I figured I was getting enough leg work in my regular long-distance cycling and spinning sessions, which I did frequently. My diet, while healthier than the average American's (what a yardstick), was full of crap supplements. So, like SO many other mis-and-unguided people out there, I was putting forward what I thought was substantial effort and getting little in return.

I lurked the CrossFit national site for a few days before I mustered the guts to actually try a workout. Cindy, I thought, seemed relatively approachable - only 20 minutes long! So I huffed and puffed my way through nine rounds of jumping pullups, half-ROM pushups and half-squats, and after a few minutes of rest, tottered off to spin class. But I was definitely intrigued.

I continued with it for the next month or so, doing three or four workouts a week at the Y, cherry-picking the ones that didn't seem too intimidating and assiduously watching the videos from the site to try and understand the unfamiliar motions, while continuing to spin and take yoga classes. When a friend from spin-class who was also a climber asked why I didn't just take one of the new CrossFit classes down at Ironworks, I couldn't believe my luck. I'd checked out CrossFit Oakland, but they were insanely expensive and I already had two gym memberships - now I could attend the fledgling CrossFit EastBay at no additional cost!

Max and the CFEB community introduced me to a level of intensity that was completely unfamiliar to me. Over the next year, one kettlebell swing at a time, they would push and pull and mold me into a new, stronger and, yes, better person. I will always be grateful.

What about the numbers?
Here are some firsts and lasts - most of which are not actually a year apart, but it gives an idea.

Movement/WOD	First	Last
Cindy	9 rounds (jumping pullups, half-ROM pushups and squats)	13 rounds RX
Fight Gone Bad	184 RX	239 RX
Helen	19:38 (40# swings, gravitron pullups)	11:15 RX
Kelly	37:00 (14# ball and reduced jumps)	33:53 RX
Murph	72:00 (gravitron pullups, half-rom pushups)	56:56 RX
Diane	14:01 (185# DL, pike pushups)	10:29 (225# DL, feet in ring)
Filthy Fifty	56:19	40:14
1RM Squat	135	190
1RM Press	85	105
1RM Deadlift	200	300

Climbing
My rockclimbing has improved as well. Last April I was a 10b climber, now I can climb 11a. I've also gotten my lead card and started lead-climbing.

Body Composition

One of the things that I really like about CrossFit is its emphasis on performance rather than looks. I stopped caring about getting big muscles and started caring about getting a big muscle-up. However, as embarrassing as it is now, I did come to this from bodybuilding, and still have a bunch of the pictures I took then - including the disappointing "after" pictures that drove me to try CrossFit in the first place. Out of curiosity, I recreated the poses to see what changes had occurred. I'm pretty happy with this. I know Rebecca is. :D

In general, I know that there are more dramatic results out there both in numbers and body comp, but what I have is hard-won, and more substantial than anything else I've ever done. Not too shabby, in my opinion, for a 32-year old vegetarian former couch-potato.

Looking Forward
I'm excited about this year. Although I'm happy with the results from the first year, I feel like I keep figuring out more and more pieces to the puzzle - diet, scheduling, intensity, skills. The last six months were a huge leap over the first six months, so hopefully a year from now I'll have even more reason to be proud. One kettlebell swing at a time...

One step closer to a deadhang.

I ALMOST got a deadhang pullup this morning. Or at least I got a hell of a lot further than I ever have before. My major block has always been my right arm's inability to go from straight to bent and keep pulling - so I've only ever gotten about 3-4 inches up fgrom a dead hang. Today I got half way up before my pull strength died. I made it past whatever muscular or strength related block was keeping me from completing the starting movement, to a point from which I have, historically been able to get my chin over the bar. That means all the pieces are there, and I just have to string them together.

Sleep:

1:00a - 8:09. Only woke up on my own once about 3:45. was awakened about 20 minutes later (4:10)by healthycat being an obnoxious prick about wanting to go outside. Should just have let him out when i was already up.

Food:

9am egg cheesy scramble with veggie sausage patty. coffee with whole milk 4 rabbit pellet herb pills and 3 wellness formula so i don't get whatever daniel seems to be coming down with. forgot to take my other vitamins.

2:30 - 1 cup cottage cheese w/ 1 oz slivered almonds 1 tsp cinnamon
4:30 - 1 oz spiced cashews
8:30 - 1 bowl kung-pao chicken. I helped cook it :-), 32 oz milk
9:30 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
11:00 - 2 zma

Tune-up?

Climbing:
5.9(c), 10a (f)

I was pretty tired tonight, and the gym was packed, so i only got in two climbs. The first was an exceptionally friendly 5.9 that I only did a fair job of getting up. It was clean, but it was cot graceful. Then I got to try a new 10a. I had a rough spot at the start, but it was smooth sailing after that. Daniel said I looked really strong - with a few moves, in particular, that I would not have been able to pull off in the past, and it felt good.

Blood Test:
I went to the dr. for a checkup today, and asked to get a blood test done. Here are my vital statistics:

Blood Pressure: 98/66
Weight: 125
Lipid Panel:
Cholesterol: 237
Triglyceride: 32
HDL: 86
LDL Calculated: 145

Fasting Glucose: 87

I have no idea what any of it means. I'm a little concerned about my cholesterol and LDL levels - they're both listed as "borderline high" levels, but my HDL is 26 points higher than than the bottom of the "extremely healthy" range. so maybe it is the reason the total cholesterol is high, and positively offsets the high LDL cholesterol. I read on one site that a ratio of Total Cholesterol to HDL Choleserol of 3.5:1 is good, and lower than that is better, and this is a ratio of 2.76:1.

Sleep:
11:40 - 7:55 - slept pretty well. minimal waking up. some overheating. daniel thinks i may be experiencing gluconeogenesis (big long funny word that essentially means overheating) due to the increased intensity of my workouts and decreased carb intake.

Food:
Fast 9:30pm - 1:07pm
1:07 coffee w/ 2/3 cup milk, 1.25 cup cottage cheese, 1.5 oz slivered almonds, 1tsp cinnamon
1:30 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
5:30 1.5 oz spiced cashews
8:30 1 bowl magic crockpot chicken. 16oz milk
9:20 16 oz milk, 2 little squares chocolate

Never quite got around to eating lunch.

Getting Programmatic: 12 week strength hybrid

Six months ago, I started an open-ended experiment in Intermittent Fasting, designed to cut off all the fat I gained in a relatively unsuccessful "bulking" cycle. The IF was a great success, taking about 10 weeks to get down to ~10% bodyfat. It was also burning me out tracking everything so diligently, so I decided that I would just "coast" a bit with my CrossFit programming, going to my affiliate (CrossFit EastBay - CFEB) regularly but turning my focus to developing my climbing technique and trying to finish off the Level II skills.

Well, I'm now climbing 11a and finally got my lead card, and I've knocked off several more Level II's, so I think it's time for another change in direction. I feel as though the limiting factor in most of my workouts is still my strength, so I intend to embark on a 12 week hybrid strength cycle.

From past experience, I know that I don't like the rollercoaster methodology of weight training (ie, bulking and cutting). I hate feeling fat, I hate dieting, and I hate watching my climbing and met-con performance plummet from carting around a bunch of fat. In this cycle, I hope to achieve some increases in strength without gaining a lot of weight and losing a lot of conditioning. To that end, I will combine low-rep strength routines out of CrossFit Strength Bias (CFSB) with regular metcons, as well as combine a high-protein, high-fat diet with intermittent fasting.

GOAL

• A higher CFT: increased 1RM numbers in Deadlift, Squat, Press and Bench.

PROGRAM

• Five workouts a week. two strength, three affiliate, plus regular climbing.
• Strength days: each day will either be Deadlift and Press or Back Squat and Press. The rep scheme can be either 5x3 or 3x5 (basically depending on mood), ascending sets with the goal of raising the max weight in each lift each week (2-10 lbs). These Max Effort sets will be followed by an unbroken, up-to-21-rep set of the same movement at a lower weight. Once I can do 21 reps at a given weight, I'll go up the following week. It's my hope that this will provide additional stimulus to the CNS and help translate the raw strength gains to the kind of volume you see more often in a CF WOD.
• As time and energy allows, the sessions will finish off with gymnastic practice - primarily handstand and muscle-up progressions.
  
• Affiliate days: whatever the scheduled workout with CFEB is. Typically a metcon, could also be strength. If an affiliate strength day too closely overlaps with a strength day, I'll do a short metcon on my own.
• As much as is possible, I will avoid super-high volume metcons or chippers. My ideal metcon would be 8-20 minutes long and no more than three movements.
  
• Sample schedule might look like this:
  Wednesday: CFEB - Helen
  Thursday: 5x3 Deadlift & Press, followed by campus board and forward rolls
  Friday: AM Climbing, PM CFEB - 3 rounds, 400m , 21 thrusters, 15 KB Swing, 9 Pullup
  Saturday: CFEB - 100 KB Snatches for time
  Sunday: 3x5 Squat & Bench, followed by false-grip pullups
  Monday: Climbing
  Tuesday: Rest day
• Weeks 6 and 12 will be half-volume, back-off weeks.
• Additional rest days as necessary to prevent overtraining.
  

WHERE TO BEGIN?

• Current 1RM numbers: Squat 190, Deadlift 300, Press 105, Bench 160
• Current 5RM: Squat 170, Deadlift 265, Press 95, Bench 140
• Based on these numbers, it seems like I should start here:
  Squat: 135
  Deadlift: 225
  Press: 75
  Bench: 130
  

DIET

• Daily goal: 2500-3000 calories, 50% Fat, 30% Protein, 20% Carb
• Not paleo, but all real food. Plenty of dairy, VERY limited grains and sugars
• Meat.
  
• Fast at least 16 hours, four days a week
• Quart of Kefir a Day. Homemade from whole milk.

SUPPLEMENTATION

• 4 x Fish Oil/day
• 1 x Multivitamin, Glucosamine/Chondroitin, and ZMA
  
• Creatine Monohydrate? I'm on the fence about this one. I'll try it and see what happens, since I have it lying around.

To Helen with You

Crappy, rainy day today. Led the two regular CFEB classes in the morning, then rushed off to GWPC for the Firebreather WOD:

Bench Press x 1: 135-145-155-160-165(f)

And that concludes February Firebreathers. 160 is 91% of my bodyweight, and actually closer than I thought I'd be able to get. It went up fairly steadily, and I don't think 165 is far off. Hopefully this upcoming strength cycle will get me to 175, and one of my few remaining level II skills. My cumulative score for the month is 417%, and although the results are not completely tabulated yet, this should put me DFL for men. I could make excuses about tall & skinny and blah blah blah, but that's really all they'd be - excuses. The rock doesn't care about ape indexes, watts and joules or bodyweight percentages. The rock just needs to be moved (assuming a scenario in which there is a rock that needs moving, of course).

A few of us stuck around afterward to do Helen in the rain.

Three rounds for time:

• Run 400 meters
• 1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings
• 12 Pull-ups

11:15 apparently not quite RX
(splits: 2:55 | 3:44 | 4:40)
(previous PR: 3:50 | 4:27 | 4:37)

I've been aiming for <11:30 on this workout for months, and was not going to be denied today. The joy over finally getting the benchmark score is somewhat blunted, however, by Rebecca's discovery that we were not running quite far enough. It's hard to tell, but it looks like I was maybe 30-40m short per round. There were a few other obstacles to slow us down, though - several corners and puddles to run around (and through), as well as a 180 turnaround.

I pushed, though. The first round was totally unbroken, the second KB swings were unbroken and pullups were 6-6, the last round was much worse. I felt truly horrible, afterwards, and it took quite a while to return to feeling human. I had a sharp, acrid metallic smell in my nostrils that I found somewhat alarming, and looked it up tonight. The internet is full of theories on this score, but a fairly common one seems to be that the alveoli in the lungs, overstrained to get the CO2 out of the blood, actually pass some number of high-iron blood cells through the membrane. These become airborne during exhaling, causing a metallic, bloody taste in the back of the throat. Ew. Diagnosis seems to be that it is relatively common during very hard anaerobic workouts, and not something to worry about overmuch.

Today was the end of my week subbing in as the CFEB trainer. I led 10 workouts and a total of 103 people (some, obviously, counting multiple times). I learned a LOT, and by and large really enjoyed myself. It is more tiring than I expected it to be, having to be "on" through the whole hour and really focused on the athletes, driving them to push harder while keeping them safe. It's also a lot lonelier than I expected - not getting to participate in class meant doing the workouts on my own, which can be nice in the not-having-to-share kind of way, but definitely is not as much fun or inspiring as doing it in class. Keeps you honest, though.

The feedback I got was universally good, which is satisfying (though I'd have to be pretty horrible for someone to actually TELL me I sucked). Many people asked when/if I would be getting a cert and if so, would that mean more classes with two trainers available to teach. That would, of course, be ideal for me - a combination of leading some classes and taking others - but the decision is ultimately up to Max and the folks who run Ironworks and GWPC. Max has said I should look at getting my cert sooner rather than later, so I'm keeping an eye on the calendar. There's one in San Diego in May that looks promising - we have friends that live down there, and maybe would be able to stay with them.

Helen

Warmup: ME, row 1000m

WOD:
"Helen"
Three rounds for time:

Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

Results:
18:44

Exercise	400m	KB Swing	Pullups	Total
Rd 1	2:52	1:31	0:58	5:21
Rd 2	3:17	2:26	1:04	6:47 (12:08)
Rd 3	3:11	2:23	1:02	6:36 (18:44)
Total	9:20	6:20	3:04

Comments:
I dunno how to compare this to my previous Helens. The 400m mark at GWPC is not clear, and I didn't think the place where everyone else was turning around was far enough - but i think the place I picked was too far. That or my running has REALLY gone downhill. Which is actually possible. Or probable. I mapped 200m (656ft) at google maps and it looks like i did run about the right distance. So wow - my running has gotten horrible. - It definitely felt horrible. My problem with side-stitches is back :-(

The big improvement here is - well mostly reduced transition time - but KB swings were better - they took less time than last time, and the majority of them were fully overhead instead of just a few. ALthough there's still lots of room for improvement - except for my first round where i got 6 or 7 in my first set, I was only able to get through 1-4 reps at a go. Of course, while my legs were astonishingly not as sore as i thought they certainly would be after yesterday's squats - the only real casualty seems to be my aductors - which is actually great, cause they need the work - , I am not at all surprised that my hip drive was somewhat lacking today.

The pullups seemed relatively strong. I had a pair of rings set at a fairly high height for jumping pullups. I would like to have had them another inch or two higher, but folks were impatient to start.

My warmup was very insufficient, and round one was terrible. My body just wasn't ready to hit anything with any sort of intensity. Round 2 was a bit better, and then I was just totally gassed on round 3.

This time is nearly 3 minutes better than my last Helen, but there are so many discrepancies ... I'm going to count it as my new benchmark time, but I don't know whether to count it as a PR.

Sleep:
Terrible. Fitfully from 12:10 - 9:00 or so. I woke up several times during the night, and couldn't go back to sleep for anywhere from 15-45 minutes.

Food:
10:20 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 1 piece veggie bacon, 8 oz coffee 2/3 cup milk, 3 omega-3
3:40 - 12oz milk
4:30 - 1/2 rotisserie chicken 3 oz coffee & 16 oz 2% milk - 3 squares of chocolate - 1 each of three different degrees of darkness. the 77% surprised me by being my favorite - because while i do love dark chocolate, there is definitely such a thing as too dark. Thanks Alex :-D
8:45 - 1 bowlMa Po Tofu with Broccoli and 16oz milk
11:20 - 2 zma