Fran PR

Well today was Fran, and I'm disappointed in myself. Not because I lowered my Fran time by a mere :03, but because I think I really dropped the ball mentally on this one. Around midpoint, I was really sucking wind, and I think I started to get down on myself. It seemed like everyone was going way faster than me, and I felt like I was going really, really slow, which led to some frustration with myself. However, I looked over at the clock and saw it was 8:something, and given that my Fran pr time is 10:55 I saw an opportunity to get a sub-ten Fran. The pullups were easy, although the hands gave out after 5 reps or so, causing me to break up my sets. The thrusters were really hard, driving with the hips became difficult as I started gasping for air. Anyway, my new Fran time is 10:52, but I know that I am capable of such a lower time. During my last set, Jerry offered some words of encouragement, and I've been thinking about what he said for some time now. I feel like there is a mental block with my workout, perhaps I still don't realize how strong I've become. Regardless, I wanted to end on a more positive note, so I decided to work on...

...Muscle ups. This was like the fourth time I've worked on muscle ups, and I think I've got a knack for them. I haven't done one yet, but I came awefully close the few times I tried. I'm going to work on jumping MU's and see if I can transition to a full-out MU. My goal is to get one by the end of next week. This is something I feel like I can do, and once I get this out of the way I'll feel a lot better about my physical abilities.

Lots of running

Jerry's been having us run a lot. Since I've switched over to Vibram Five Fingers, my running seems to have slowed down a bit. I'm also willing to bet that my week off didn't help either. Anyway, the workout:

3 rounds
15 pull ups
30 kb swings @53 (I did 45#)
400m sprint
15 Wall balls
30 Jump lunges
400m sprint

Good news is that I got a PR of pullups on the fixed bar at 10 before my hands gave out. Bad news is I managed 33:03, hope to do better next time. Thinking back, the areas that needed improvement the most were wall-balls and running. I really never took a "breather" until the last round, but overall everything was just slow. Need to up the intensity, that's the game plan.

...I'm back to being sore everywhere, feels good.

Strict Press and Weighted Chins

Today was like an onion skin prep day:

Strict Press
3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
Weighted Pull ups
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,

I got:
Press
53, 58, 63, 68(f)
Chins
53, 58, 63, 68(failed)

I don't know why I didn't try the chin one more time, guess I thought I was done. There was a finisher as well

5 rounds
350m row
15 db jump press (25#)
15 burpees

I was the only one who did 5 rounds, and the 6:00 class was giving me crap about taking a long time. I didn't have a timer, so I'm not sure how long it took, but I never really paused to rest, except in the last two sets of burpees, and even then I didn't wait long. So with that, I'm happy.

It's good to be back

So I finally got back in the gym, and it was great.

WOD:
5 rounds
15 dl @ bodyweight (I did 105#)
30 sit ups
400m sprint

Driven by the fact I was using a really light weight, I was aiming for a 15-16 min time. Unfortunately, my running sucked so I did it in 24:03.

Tried using the Pose method I learned from Chriss, it somewhat worked the first lap, but after that I was done.

Banged up my shins pretty bad with the DL's, I have a problem bending my knees over the bar too much. However, I didn't seem to have a problem with my back, although keeping my core tight isn't as easy as it was a while back. I always like the first day back from a break, I can easily see where I need to improve.

Bit of a speed bump

Ok, so I packed my exercise clothes, was pumped to go workout in the afternoon, and then I checked my Outlook calander. Appointment with DO, 10:30 am. This is a shame because after an adjustment I can't workout for the day of or the next day. Every time I've tried working out the next day the result is an inflamed hip until the next appointment (usually a month). So it looks like my return to working out will have to start on Wednesday.

I'll admit I was frustrated at first, but I reminded myself of my resolve to bring a positive attitude, and so I decided that if I couldn't workout, I'd return to studying the zone diet, as well as examine whether the meals I make need any tweaking. Basically the same approach of when I tore my rotator cuff muscle last July.

It is requiring all of my patience to not workout today, but I know that if I did I'd be in pain for the next four weeks. Resting is something that doesn't come naturally to me, I feel like I'm being lazy. However, I think last November/December when I was crossfitting 5-6 days in a row I was overtraining, as my gains slowed down when compared to my 4 days a week beforehand. This week I'll crossfit Wed-Sat, but next week I'll get to implement my plan of 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off.

Hopefully, later today I'll post about living in the now, something that helps me deal with my attempt at becoming a top crossfitter. But for now, work is calling.

So pumped for getting on the wagon

So I was gone last week in Miami for Spring Break, and while I had a great time I am so ready to get back in the gym and hit it hard. I really hope the rest has allowed my back to completely heal, so I can start lifting some heavy weight again. It will also be great to get back to where I can control what I eat, albeit I wasn't eating horribly this past week, it wasn't strict zone.

So good to be back, I'm going to bring the best I can to tomorrow's workout, and after reading this article about mental fatigue, I think it'll help. I have been guilty of occasionally looking at the whiteboard and groaning to myself. My new resolution is to bring only positive lookout to the workout, this should help.

Met con day

Today's wod:

5 rounds
400m sprint
300 row
20 kb swings (I did 53, 35, 45, 35, 35)
20 sledge strikes

My time was 33:00, not the fastest, but not the slowest. My back started to bind up a little, but I noticed if I really, really focused on keeping a tight core my back didn't hurt, but as soon as I released, even when not bearing weight, it felt a little tight. Actually, I think it felt the tightest after a period of keeping my core tight. This would go with the DO's guess of my illiospoas being the root of the problem. Regardless, I felt good afterwards and practiced some cleans with Danny after the 6:30 class ended. Still working on transistioning from my first pull from my second. Also tried the snatch, and it seemed really difficult, so I need to get back to practicing that movement.

Elizabeth

Although I'm still sore from the weekend, I've been coming in to go over what was covered at the oly cert. Today was Elizabeth, and since my back is still a little untested I went with a light weight and did 5 rounds of 7 squat cleans, 7 ring dips. I was going to do 7, but near the end my form was getting sloppy and I felt my back twinge, so I stopped with 5. The back is feeling better all the time, but I can't wait for the that it goes away completely.

I will be observing spring break starting Friday, where I'll be in Miami until Wednesday. I'm pretty excited, might actually be not so pale after the break.

I plan on tomorrow being a rest day and finally rest my legs, but I'm looking forward to Thursday and Friday's workouts.

Olympic lift cert at CFOT

So I've finished the certification class, and it was a great time. I got a chance to work with some extremely talented individuals, including two Olympians. The snatch, clean, and jerk are really some incredible exercises, and you don't really get to appreciate them until after some training. Coach Burgener is a great coach and likes to keep things simple, and the other trainers were incredible, like I said before.

I'm still a little overwhelmed by all the information that was provided over the weekend, but I plan on instituting what he taught us, and work on these lifts as a warm up every day for quite a while. My only really big problem with these lifts is my elbow speed with the clean. This was improved when I learned that maintaining the hook grip throughout would slow me down, but I still earned the nickname "slow elbow Adam".

The clean is definitely where I need to focus on. However, when we were practicing clean and jerks I accidentally did a split clean. I was focusing on bringing the bar off the ground, and suddenly there I was, in a split stance and the bar perfectly racked. Sage Burgener, my trainer at the time, had this kind of "wtf?!?" look on her face (I think I did too), and then it morphed into a big smile and she started applauding "the prettiest split clean I've ever seen".

To be honest, the split clean comes so naturally to me that I'm tempted to switch over to it, but I also feel that I should spend more time to master the regular clean so I can teach it to others. And that is what this weekend was all about, taking my first step towards being able to help others reach their fitness goals.

For all of the oly cert pics, click here.

Friday open gym

So I thought Friday was finding our power clean max, but it wasn't. Being the first Friday of the month, it was open gym. After looking through the list, I decided on Barbara because there was no weight involved. After telling people that I chose Barbara, the response was typically, "wow good luck with that." Didn't really understand until afterward:

5 rounds for time
20 pull ups
30 push ups
40 situps
50 squats

Time was a paltry 49:26. My weakness was the push ups, by the third round I was banging them out 1-2 at a time, so that really slowed down my time. I didn't really wait between sets, and I didn't have to really break up anything except the pull ups. Todd did it in about half the time, 25:something, so that's my goal, to get so good at push ups that I can get a 25 minute Barbara.

Today a friend tagged me...

...on facebook as this guy, at first I laughed because it's true, then I felt sad because it's true. Don't know why I'm so injury prone, but all I can do is address each issue as it comes up.

Almost threw up at work today, but the nausea passed as quickly as it showed up. Hopefully the third day of antibiotics will get rid of my fever and I'll feel good enough to work out. I've packed my workout clothes just in case I get to feeling better. Sadly, that hasn't really happened yet. Really looking forward to the oly cert, I'll get a chance to wear my new h streets!

Down with the sickness

Well, I've been feeling under the weather for the past four days so I finally went to find out if anything was wrong.

Turns out I have a sinus infection. Never really noticed, but it also turns out I've been sporting a low-grade fever. The infection would explain why I've felt so tired lately.

Anyway, today I felt pretty light-headed from the sinus pressure, and with the fever I decided working out today was not in my best interest. Today I started taking some powerful antibiotics, so I should start feeling a lot better shortly.

It's a shame too, as it looks like today's WOD was an awesome one.

overhead squat

Well, today was my introduction to the overhead squat. Never had a chance to do it before, but it seemed pretty easy. I mean, it's a squat while keeping active shoulder right? Anyway, today's WOD was a heavy one:

OHS
1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1

Started out with 95, then 115, then Jerry reminded me about my back. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about my back. But thankfully Jerry did, so I backed down to 95, and did a couple sets of 5. Then I started to feel my back being used, so I switched to 5 rounds of 7 pullups, 7 ring dips.

I can not seem to do more than 5 pu's at a time, and it's starting to annoy me. My hands are still the first to go, so hopefully they'll get a little tougher and I'll be able to get back into banging out 20-30 reps.

...Still want to get the butterfly kip.

Saturday team workout

Saturday was Chriss' last programmed workout, and it was really cool. It was a team workout, and these can be really fun, a great team builder. The highlights for me were a farmers walk where I didn't have to let go of the blocks at all, and then I rowed 125 calories. I'm also excited to say that my back feels great, it doesn't feel like I've been working out or anything. Now I haven't been really doing any heavy lifting, so I'm going to try to introduce that in little by little. I feel like once this element gets added back into my wod's I'll really start to feel like I'm crossfitting again.

There were some pretty sweet pictures of people working out on Sat, and after seeing the two pictures of myself I'm thinking I need to change up my hair. I've been growing it out to see what happens, but I think now I just look really shaggy. My hair is just too damn thick and straight to sport the hairstyle that I'd like to eventually get. I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to the short, spiky hair I used to sport, but we'll see. I would also like to state here that I'll try to shave more often, look less homeless.

I'm also getting excited for this weekend, where I will have my olympic lift cert. I'm not sure how it's going to work with my recoverning back, but we'll see.

First 5k Friday

Well, Friday was our first 5k. Back in the blue room we didn't have a 5k route. Now that we've moved to the new place, Jerry figured out a nice route. It has some nice uphill/downhill components, so it's a little more engaging than just on a flat track. It's been a long time since I've run over a mile, but this was somewhat enjoyable, although I was having a hard time pushing myself throughout the whole time. On the last stretch, I finally got excited enough sprint to the finish. All in all the time was 26:42, and I remember my first lap was 8:08.

Did some of the conditioning and strength work after that. I did a dead hang pull up with 36#, and then I think I did one with 52#, but I'm not so sure if that was the weight or not, so I'll just stay with 36 for the record/PR.