Quit yer bitchin'

Max has resolved to work at keeping a more positive mental attitude about his workouts. I think that's an admirable goal, and one I need to adopt myself. In general, I try to be a positive and supportive person, but I have in the past had to consciously retrain myself to be less sarcastic, and I think this is similar: negative thinking begets negative emotions and leads to urges to give up, sandbag or make excuses. As addicted as I am to this fitness thing, I have noticed a tendency on my part to whine about the workouts (usually right before I have to do them), make sarcastic quips and in general be negative. There is a place for such things, but it's dangerous to get habitual about it. So here I resolve to accept and embrace the difficulty of the challenges facing me, and to quit bitching about them.

Speaking of painful...yesterday I joined Max, Ynez and Hodges at the track above Clark Kerr for some running practice. Unfortunately a section of the track was fenced off for construction, but we were able to use half of it, so we did 4 x 400 sprints, turning around halfway through (yuck).

400m sprints, every 5 minutes:
1:23 | 1:25 | 1:28 | 1:32

Then, at Ynez's behest, we did 3 x 100m sprints up a STEEP hill (top of Dwight).
0:38 | 0:33 | 0:34

The 400m times are pretty terrible. I attribute this to feeling a little sick (think I'm getting a cold), being a little heavy, coming back from a trip where I ate pretty poorly, and having to turn around.

I don't have a baseline to compare the sprints, but they were probably a bad idea - they hurt my ankle quite a bit, and I was limping the rest of the night and had to take some ibuprofen before bed. Frustrating.

Beach Burpees!

The weather got nice, and Daniel convinced me to get out of the house to get active. I was feeling super sluggish and had had a low grade headache most of the weekend, but knew I would feel better if I got moving. Daniel got on the internet and found a park about .5 mile away that looked like it probbly had some lawn as well as some actual beach,so we headed down there.

We jogged there as our warmup.

Once there we discovered the lawn was prety much taken so we opted for a beech workout:

AMRAP in 20 minutes of approx 200m sprint + 15 burpees.

I got 8 full rounds (in 20:30)

Round	Sprint	Burpees
1	0:32	1:50
2	0:31	2:10
3	0:38	2:06
4	0:35	2:05
5	0:33	1:56
6	0:32	2:07
7	0:31	2:04
8	0:32	1:48

Super Fun (in that major suck fest sort of way) :) I was very impressed with myself for keeping up with Daniel so well. I kept expecting him to lap me - but I figured out by round 3 that using the same burpee angel every time was helpful while he kept trying to make new ones, and i think that probably made a big difference. Also - I am pleased that all of my splits are so consistently in the same time range.

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.

Happy Independence Day!

WOD 7-4-08

400 Meter Run X 4
- Run 400 meters every 5 minutes on the fifth minute.

Followed immediately by your choice of Pull-Up or Push-Up Ladder:
- With a continuously running clock do one rep the first minute, two reps the second minute, three repss the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Results
Run 1 2:16
Run 2 2:16
Run 3 2:06 PR!
Run 4 2:16

Made it almost through round 9 with the pushups, but didn't quite make it.

Comments
We finally made it up to the track about .5 miles from our house - it's up a pretty big hill to get there so just the process of getting to the track in something of a warm up. But it's set on a hill side with lots of eucalyptus and redwoods and actually has some pretty fantastic views of the bay, so it's a great place to run. The only down side is that the central field is completely gated off with a high industrial fence, which makes for a slightly less 'friendly' environment, but there is a little pach of grass with some bleachers and a set of bars - some high enough for short people to do pullups - 5' - 6.5' high or so, and some quite low to the ground .75-3.5' or so- the only use i could think of for them was for doing pushups - or maybe some sort of modified bench dip.

I'm shocked that three of my four runs were exactly the same. I was sure my last run was going to be a LOT longer cause i felt like i just had nothing left after run 3. RUN #2 probably should have been shorter - I was the official time keeper, and i got tangled up with the process of starting the 5 min timer, and hitting my lap button, so i was still fiddling with my watch when i started running. In retrospect i probably just should have set the timer for 20 minutes instead of trying to restart it every 5. But all in all i am really psyched about run #3. Definitely a PR - and, sadly, just 2 seconds shy of the level 1 benchmark . So close! Next time, for sure.

I was doing my pushups full ROM, on the low bar that was about 2' off the ground. Before we started I tried the different bars and was planning on using a slightly higher bar about 2.75 feet up because i had a really hard time with the 2' one, but once i started i decided that 2.75 was too easy, so I moved down to the lower bar, and was having a much easier time with it than i did pre-run.

I got 6 & 7 pushups pretty easily, unbroken even! Then kind of struggled through 8, but only had 1 small rest @ #6, and then just completely failed getting through 9. I was surprised how quickly that happened. I probably should have moved back up to the higher bar to try to finish out the set, but I was also the time keeper, and was a little distracted.

All in all, though I thought this was a fun workout, and I'm glad we decided to take the extra time today to do it before we head off for our two day outdoor climbing clinic which we are both REALLY looking forward to. It'll be a really nice mini vacation. We'll bring our camera and post some pictures when we get back.

Be Back on Sunday!