Tabata Sell out and too many rest days

So for only my second workout of the week I got to do Tabata Sell out. I managed to get a score of 304, think the work on the push ups is starting to pay off. I'm now getting in 6-8 sets of 20 pu's a day.

I started off with push ups due to the large 1230 class. Started out on push ups instead. Got like 23 the first set, but died after that, should've paced myself a little more. The ab-mats easy at a 1 second-a-sit-up pace, but I was finding it very difficult to push through to a faster pace. The squats were interesting in that this was the first squatting I've done post Euflexxa injection. I could still feel some pain, but it's been reduced. Given that I'm to get three injections over the course of three weeks, this is a positive sign. I tried my kip, but today my core wasn't as tight as it usually is, so I'm a little bummed that I sacrificed form for intensity, but I wanted intensity today.

Was totally gassed after squats, had very, very little left in the tank for pull ups. I conjured up the Hopper experience, how if I had been able to finish those last five toes to bar I would've placed so much higher. That helped me some, and I was able to bang them out two at a time. While standing on the ground I just stared up at the bar and told myself to take one deep breath and jump back on there. I didn't want to end this workout with any doubt that I laid it all on the floor.

I think I was a success in that regard, because after wards I couldn't really stand (my quads and lungs were killing me). As you see in this picture, even after a minute or so rest I really wasn't up for standing.

With pull ups I noticed the improper mechanic with my left shoulder showed up again, and worked on being symmetrical, am VERY happy that I've responded so well to the massage therapy, I've almost forgotten what the shoulder pain felt like. Definitely feeling positive concerning my physical ailments, seems like everything is falling into place for me to be able to do this pain free. Well, at least free of the bad-injury kind of pain.

I'm trying not to be frustrated that I've taken so many days off. I had to take Fri/sat/sun off because I was on the road the whole time, and I had to take Wednesday off because of the Euflexxa injection. But if I had figured out how to wake up earlier on Tuesday I could've made it to a morning class, and if I had done a better job of scheduling at work I would've been able to attend the 12:30 class instead of having to forgo crossfit for the sake of shower curtain shopping. Now I'm going to have to miss tomorrow's class because I the missus and I need to go dresser shopping in the morning, not to mention I'll be out of town for the later half of next week, and I'll have the second Euflexxa injection to deal with as well.

It's not that I feel like I'm getting fat or lazy (I'm getting better and better at push ups and still keeping with the zone), and it's not like I need my crossfit itch scratched. What's bothering me with all these misses is I'm not getting stronger. If I want to improve, I have to put the time in. I've never missed a crossfit class for the reason of "eh I didn't feel like it" I've always been out of town or on doctor's orders not to workout a day here or a day there. I've been pretty damn consistent, and every day I try to give it my all because I'm never going to get this day back, so I only have one chance to make it count; and I want it to count. I want to continue this progression I've started, becoming stronger and faster than ever before. I want to master all of the crossfit movements, and I can't do that if I'm not putting the time in. This is where I need to walk the walk and just not talk the talk. ...I think tomorrow I'll make sure to have a detour to Sports Authority so that I can get a jump rope. That way I can work on double-unders no matter what time it is or where I'm at.

This crossfit-master dream of mine is obtainable. One thing I've learned is that no dream of mine, or anyone else's is out of reach. Heck, there was even a point in time where I held a CFOT record on the whiteboard. But for me to achieve this dream I will have to continue to make it a main focus in my life. Only through dedication will I really be able to get where I want to be. It all comes down to choice and priorities, and if Crossfit really is as important as I make it out to be, then I need to make the proper choices and priorities. If you're not going forward your going backwards, and whenever I miss a couple days of crossfit I fear that I'm starting to head in the wrong direction. The only thing that can stop me from getting to where I want to is myself, and I don't plan for that to be an issue any time soon.

Euflexxa injection and moving

So on Tuesday I got an injection of Euflexxa into my hip joint. Took the docs a couple of attempts to finally get the needle into the capsule, once they did I swear they were going to chest bump, lead aprons and all.

Had to take two days off from crossfit, still doing pushups though. I've gone from doing sets of ten to sets of twenty, I can really start to feel how a pushup is supposed to feel, establishing a stronger neural pathway to the pecs.

Today I had to forgo Crossfit to shop for shower curtains and pack/move with the gf, felt like Frank the Tank's tank in Old School, "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

Hopefully will be back in the box tomorrow. My hip muscles are a little tender from the injection but the joint itself is pain free. I almost dare to hope this treatment could render me asymptomatic of the FAI, which would be awesome.

Snatch, pullups, and running

So the drive from Chicago to DC didn't really leave me any time to workout, but I think rest and self massage were what was needed to work the kink out of my neck/back. I was itching to get back to crossfit, and I'm glad I did:

15 pullups, 9 snatch (115#), 400m run
12 pu's, 12 snatch, 400m run
9 pu's, 15 snatch, 400m run

Time 23:57. I attempted to do chest to the bar pull ups, but after about three I started having trouble, and with memories of the last time I attempted chest to bar, I figured I should just do regular pu's. I don't know if I just didn't have the strength, or if I don't have the technique down (I still attempted to get my chest to the bar with each one, and even though I could get the height, I couldn't bring my body close enough to the bar to touch.

The snatch was pretty solid, Andrea told me to lean back more so I didn't have to re-bend the knees as much (if at all) and that seemed to work. I'm having a bit of difficulty catching the bar in active shoulder, but I had no problem diving under the bar, and the speed strength is what I really want to work on. I was fearful of hurting my back on attemptind touch and go, so that slowed down my pace considerably. I think next time I will try it because resetting the bar does eat up a lot of time.

I still need to figure out how to improve my speed with pose style running. I try to lean forward, but my lower back really tightens up and starts to feel pain. After the wod I worked with Chriss to see what muscle is really really tight. Turns out it is the illiopsoas on my left side, which makes sense because the illiopsoas on my right side also tends to be really tight but on the front. I plan to start stretching and seeing if that helps at all.

Working on the snatch

Today we were to find our one rep snatch max. However, Melissa said I needed to ride every snatch down to a squat, which made things a little more difficult. My speed strength just wasn't there for diving totally under the bar, but I got up to 115 which is 5#s short of my PR.

My technique is very rusty, only now as I'm writing this do I realize I totally forgot about the rebend after the bar clears the knees. The snatch is the most technically challenging lift to me, but I love it. My biggest problem is getting proper hip extension (which involves the knee re-bend), after that, I think I'll have a better time getting under the bar.

I also have a HUGE knot now in my right shoulder blade. I saw Dr. Bills and he gasped in surprise at the size of the trigger point.

I'm flying up to Chicago tonight and will be driving back to DC. I might get a chance to re-visit Crossfit Bloomington, should be interesting to see how those guys are doing.

Double unders Galore!!

I approached today as more of a skill day, I'm still not fully recovered from Saturday, but I really, really, really want to work on double unders.

5 rounds
400m run
30 double unders
10 toes to bar.

I see some definite inspiration here from the hopper challenge. I decided to force myself to do this exercise Rx'd, so I had to learn the double under or die trying. I have had some recent success, so I'm hoping to keep it up and get proficient at it in no time. The clock read 1:45 when I finished my first run, and by the time I finished 30 DU's I think it read 12:something. So it looks like it took me about ten minutes, or 20 seconds a double under. ...I'm glad I scaled it for the last workout Saturday! I was starting to get a good pattern of one on, one off, with DU's but when I messed up it would then take me like 10 tries to get back into the groove. I kept getting whipped on my forearms by the rope when I messed up, and sometimes (ok, many many times) the metal tip of the rope would bang against my left hand's knuckles. It's like getting rapped in the knuckles by a ruler but more painful. Afterwords I iced my hand to try to reduce any swelling, but as you can see I've got some nice bruises now on my hand. Seems like I need to find myself another type of rope, one that doesn't hurt as much.

After the third round it was 33 minutes, and I had had enough of this "skill work" workout. My shoulders were shot, and holding the rope in the right place was starting to be simply too painful. Not pain as in injury pain, but as in muscles burning pain. My shoulder hasn't given me any trouble since like last month. Yay for recovery!!!

I also figured out how to hold onto the bar and bang out a lot of toes to the bar. That movement is a tough one, and caused many athletes problems in the last workout at the Hopper.

First wod post hopper

After taking Sunday and Monday off, I was only slightly sore in my quads and shoulders, and thought it might be a good idea to return to active duty. So here's a wod that I was looking forward to:

21 pullups, 9 hang clean and jerk (95#), 400m run
15 pullups, 15 hang clean and jerk, 400m run
9 pullups, 21 hang clean and jerk, 400m run

Coming off of two DNF's I think I've found some mental game plan to really push myself. My goal was to try to get it under 15 minutes, and I was able to harness some of Saturday's urgency to really push myself on that last set of 21 C&J's. Near the end I felt my stomach muscles really start to weaken, causing my back to bend back kind of funny, so I racked the bar for two breathes and really tightened the core for the last couple of C&J's. I think this is something I really need to work on, and will be the secret to getting a great six pack.

My run felt very slow, I keep trying to figure out how to go faster, but my pose style still needs some work. I was very happy with my pull ups, I taped up nicely so there were no tears, and I am starting to really figure out what I need to do for keeping a good grip on the bar after rep 5.

I also noticed some asymmetry with my shoulder mechanics on the pull. I think this stems from the tendonitis preventing me from really using my left shoulder, so I really focused on working both equally and I think I succeeded at that.

My time was 17:30, over my goal of 15, but I can say that I never really stopped for breath on this one, and I was very successful in pushing myself.

Mid-Atlantic Hopper Challenge: Epilogue

This story may require a little back story so bear with me if you already know this stuff. I have femur-acetabular impingement, which basically means there is a bump in the femur head that rubs the hip socket the wrong way. The impingement causes pain when I'm active (such as squatting or running), and the condition may eventually lead to osteoarthritis and may require a hip replacement way down the road. I saw the same surgeon I talked to earlier a few weeks ago, and he said I should stop doing stuff that hurts while I do it (deep squats). I told him about the MAHC and asked if he recommended participating or not.

He said it was probably not a good idea, and wrote up some doctor's orders prohibiting me from competitions. This wasn't done because he actually thought I would hurt myself, but was done so I could back out of the competition if I wanted to and could possibly recoup the registration fee.

So here I am a week before the competition. Nervous as hell and fairly certain that I will be one of the weakest/slowest there, and I have a get-out-of-jail card, a medical reason for bailing out at the last minute so I wouldn't seem like a wuss. The idea of just going and playing camera man is tempting.

Now here I am a few days before the competition. I'm now no longer nervous but excited. Even if I earn last place I earned it. I worried about looking weak, but to not show up due to nerves is to be truly weak. I'm no longer concerned with how I do relative to others, I just want to give these three workouts everything I have and see how I respond. I joke about my goal, "I just don't want to be dead last."

Finally, it is the day of the competition. I start to truly understand how crossfit is designed to expose any weakness in an athlete so that they may improve in every aspect of fitness. I start to really understand what it's like to workout with a clock counting down, working out with a time limit. By seeing how I "failed", I start to see what it takes to succeed. To be honest there are moments, right after the time expired, where I feel disappointment, but I have nothing to be ashamed of.

So I'm done, I've done three very difficult workouts and have come out stronger. After everything I have found some motivation/focus that should help me keep the intensity up for these crossfit workouts. I want to prepare for the next crossfit competition, and I guess that just means keep doing what I'm doing.

I've been waiting to post this peice until after the hopper's final results were posted online. Turns out I did reach my goal. I didn't come in dead-last: I came in second to last. If I had been only 5 reps faster on the toes to bar I might've moved up by like ten spots, but if you get a DNF you can't place higher than anyone who finished the workout, scaled or not. I was one of three guys who DNF'd both time workouts, but I was middle with regards to deadlift.

As I see the results over a week after the competition, I just kind of mentally shrugged and said, "Oh well, gotta start somewhere." And I am only starting. I've been doing this for only a little over a year, and I forget that I'm still considered a noob relative to all that is crossfit. Since I'm considered a "vet" by many in the pm classes it can be easy to forget that I'm still new to all of this. I mean, in January '08 if you had told me that I'd be able to do a muscle up in about a year I wouldn't have believed you. ...Well, my real reaction would've been "What's a muscle up?"

It's also easy to forget how much stronger I've become. My deadlift max has increased by about a hundred pounds in a year, and I think there's a lot I can do to improve in that area. My olympic lifts are much sturdier now, especially after attending the oly cert back in March. I've been unknowningly trying to push through tendonitis in the shoulder, and now I've figured out what's wrong, got the necessary treatment, and now I'm pain free and the sky's the limit. Everytime the girlfriend comes to visit she notices an improvement in my musculature. If I keep improving while working out the kinks in my body, I should be in a position to place much higher in next year's competiton: like third to last :)

Mid-Atlantic Hopper Challenge, Part III

So I'm done with the first two, and now it's one last workout, comprising of seven different exercises. After some discussion, this is what the last one turned out to be:

30 double unders (ugh)
7 back squat (135#)
30 GHDs
7 snatch (135#)
30 wall balls
7 push jerk (135#)
30 toes to bar

Well, I doubt I can do 30 double unders in 30 minutes, let alone 15 minutes, and my 1 rep snatch max is 120, so I doubt I could muster 7 reps of 135#. This meant I had to scale the workout. Scaling is difficult to admit because it means admitting that you're not capable of doing the workout as is. Scaling is also hard to admit to because in the competition the best scaled time can not be scored higher than an RX'd time.

However, I can't do double unders yet or snatch 135, so scale it is. This is what Crossfit, and especially crossfit competitions, is all about: exposing your weaknesses and showing how you suck. To be a great crossfitter you have to be great at EVERYTHING. Great runner, great olympic lifter, great rower, great with body weight exercises, etc. etc. etc. If there's one chink in your armor, crossfit will find it.

I, however, don't have a chink, I have all kinds of chinks. I have chunks. I was the only one at the hopper that coudln't do double unders (my feet still showed the lashing marks from the learning lesson three days earlier). Guess I will have to put in a lot more skill work into muscle ups and double unders.

Back to the workout. I did singles instead, and thank God my judges forgot that I had to do 120 singles because when I hit 30 they said I was cool to go to the squats. Squats were easy, the GHD's made me light-headed, the snatch was a piece of cake, and the Wall balls were hell. The wall balls were simply awful, requiring a lot of power from my body. The push jerk was easy (thank you DT), but I had a real tough time with the toes to bar.

I looked up at the clock, 14:50, with ten more toes to bar left. I gritted my teeth, tried to summon the energy, grabbed the bar, and tried to will my feet up to the bar. Everyone was cheering me on, trying to help me.

..As time expired, I was only 5 reps short. Chest heaving, I sat down on the nearest box jump, leaned back, and breathed/panted while waiting for life to re-enter my body. I felt that sense of shame start to creep back into my mind, but again, I felt like I gave it my all, I just wish "my all" was more. I guess the shame comes from the thought that I haven't been training hard enough, that my DNF of a scaled workout is the result of not zoning strict enough, or not pushing myself hard enough in the gym. It makes me question my commitment to crossfit. I try to stay as close the zone as possible, I measure everything out for every meal I eat. I try to attend CFOT as much as humanly possible, and have been consistent for quite some time now. Perhaps it is my mental game that's been keeping me back, I don't know. But I was definitely feeling some frustration.

As I was trying to recoup, Jerry came over and gave me a fist pound. I feel that I made him proud, and that motivates me to try to do better for the next competition.

Mid-Atlantic Hopper Challenge, Part II

So after the first workout, I had to participate in the strength workout: 2 rep deadlift. There was no specific time to do this, but I had to do it before noon. After finishing the first workout at 8:35, I had plenty of time to recoup and snack on some wonderful (paleo?) cookies (Shout out to Laurie who provided all kinds of snacks and wonderful things. She made us feel like sponsored competitors!)

I think it was around ten where I decided to go for the DL. I wasn't worn out from the first workout, but I wasn't cold either.

I warmed up a little with some light weight. The rules concerning the 2 rep deadlift was we could Touch-and-go; meaning we could not let go of the bar, and could use the bounce off the ground to assist with the second repetition. Jerry doesn't really approve of this because the bounce renders the second rep a non-deadlift, so I had to learn how to do a heavy touch-and-go. With like 175, I learned how to breath while standing up straight, hold my breath, and then drop the weight and bounce the weight back up.

I figured I didn't want to really wear myself out, and there was a long line for deadlifts, so I stopped after I figure it out with light weight. Once I got a chance to lift, I decided to use the first set as a get-used-to-heavy-DL (300#), the second to tie my one rep max (345#), and if that worked then go for a PR (365#). Like Chriss always says, if you trying to find your max, then you should try to go for a weight you might fail at.

The first set was easy, the second set was doable, and the third was just right. For the third set, the first rep was fairly easy, but the second rep was very tough. I felt my back bending all kinds of bad ways, but I focused on keeping the core tight and held my breath against my stomach as hard as I could, and I got it.

The judge (who was uber-cool) commented that he was worried when he saw my back, but I told him I just kept the core tight and "although my back did bend, it did not break."

I was very happy with the new PR, even though I knew it wasn't going to get me very far. That's one aspect about these crossfit competitions. It really is all about what you do, and not what others do. There might have been a guy who deadlifted 595 twice, but who cares because I just beat my 1 rep PR by 20#s!

I should also note that Sean was lifting at the same time, and he managed to lift 405 once. Damn, looks like he won the bet and I owe him some Chipotle now. Congrats Sean!

After this there was a definite lull in the CFOT group. Many of us were finished with both workouts early, and just sat around and napped/ate/meditated. It was also at this point in time I learned that Adrienne owns and uses a Snuggee. Pure Awesomeness.

It was also around this time we had the most supporters. Judy, Nikki, Hazen, Patrick, Rachel, Lauri, and a few others were there to see how we were doing. Not only did CFOT had one of the largest showings with regards to athletes, but we also had the largest support group.

I got to see (and record) Harold's first workout, and it was a great performance. I like to try to help the group out in my own way, and that includes being the gym's historian.

By this time the intimidation factor of the hopper had worn off, and I was just wanting to get this thing over with. Again, I just prayed it didn't have muscle ups, hand stand push ups, or double unders.

The Mid-Atlantic Hopper Challenge, part 1

At 7pm on Friday I took some Tylenol Simply Sleep, allowing me to fall asleep at around 9:30. That, in turn, allowed me to wake up comfortably at 4:50 (a full 10 min before my alarm was set to go off). Showered, did my hair, dressed, made my typical Oatmeal dish, and put all the food I made last night into a cooler. Drove over to CFOT and actually got there at 5:45 am! I viewed this as my greatest challenge, everything else was downhill.

Drove with Stuart and Blain, and after a starbucks stop we showed up at Crossfit BWI at 7:05, and they have a nice new box. They moved in the night before, so it took them a while to set everything up. I was starting to get nervous, but I was with friends and there wasn't anything else to do now except to wait. They announced the wod, and after a little confusion they finally decided on the first workout. Lo and behold, what I like to call the "MAC Attack":

3 rounds, 21-15-9 of
Overhead Squat 95#
Lateral Jump burpees (BWI called them Bastards)
Pushups



At first I was excited because there wasn't an exercise I couldn't do, no double-unders or muscle ups or handstand push ups.

I didn't bother to think about the fact that pushups and burpees are my weak points, but that was illustrated quite clearly to me as I went through the workout.

...Those 15 minutes were a real wake up call. I don't know if I can accurately describe the pain that went on during that workout. Near the end I was breathing so hard I was slobbering on myself and the ground. My shoulders simply did not have anything left in them. Once when I attempted a OHS I dropped the bar on my neck (thankfully I didn't hurt myself). I ended up having to step down to the plank for the burpees. I look at the video and I am amazed that I was unable to do this workout. My chest is so weak, this is something that I've always known, but the hopper really brought this to my attention.

Near the end, I could hear everyone cheering me on. As I heard my name being called, I tried to draw strength from this, and I think it helped some. But I could not find a way to push any more than I did. As I heard time expire, I just felt sad, like I had let myself, and everyone else, down. I know that I gave it my all, and I am proud of that. I am simply not satisfied with where I am, I want to be strong enough so that I can be proud of not only my effort but also the result. I want to be strong enough to be satisfied with my performance, and right now I'm not. There is a simple and beautiful truth to these contests. Either you are strong enough to do these workouts within 15 minutes or you are not. Currently, the truth of the matter is I am not, and while that may not be what I want, I do take comfort that it is the truth. Also, this situation can change. I believe I have the ability to get strong enough to do these workouts, and I really don't feel anything will stop me until I do get to that level of the playing field.


After time expired, I tried to turn to the crowd to show my appreciation, and after that I just needed to get off the competition floor and collapse and recuperate. This was only the first workout, and I needed to get my act together and prepare for the next two.

Another Fran, another PR

So today was Fran. Andrea advised that I make it my goal to never drop the bar for the thrusters to prevent excess energy being spent in cleaning the bar up unnecessarily. Her reason was sound, and for the first set I did it unbroken. Squats are still really, really tough for me in the thruster position. I attempted to keep my wrists straight to remove a movement (a discontinuity between the weight and my center of gravity), but it resulted in the sensation that the bar was too far forward.

Near the middle I jst went blank mentally, I had nothing in the brain tank to really drive myself, but during the third round I regained some composure and finished it up fairly quickly.

I managed to cut my time by almost a full minute, down to 8:23. Now I'm starting to feel like my goal of having a respectable Fran time (a sub 7 [EDIT] 5) is within my reach.

It's hard to believe that 15 months ago my Fran time was 19:43, a full 11:20 longer than today. I've only done Fran six times in my life, but every time resulted in a lower time.

This is a great feeling, and a great way to end the week before the Hopper challenge. I plan to later post about why I crossfit, and a look back at today in the context of watching friend's first encounter with Fran (Hint: they didn't like her).

Strict press 1 rep max PR and double unders

Simple, but not easy:

Strict press:
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

So I knew my pr is 120, but I also knew I hadn't really used my shoulder for six weeks while recovering from the tendonitis. I ramped it up to 120 pretty quickly, and it was tough but I did it. ...The strict press feels different now, post tendonitits treatment. I feel like I have more control now over my left shoulder, and can thus push it harder. I attempted 125, but failed. Then I did 121 and barely got it. then tried 125 again, and failed. It is amazing how little a pound can make.

After that I worked on double unders. My approach was the same as when I used to practice the string bass. Start slow with little increments, and once you achieve some success don't stop until it becomes second nature.

First let me say that one should never do double unders in vibram five fingers. They leave the top of your feet exposedI went from not being able to get one to starting to get one occasionally. I then started to get one on command. I then started to get one double, then one single, then another double. I then got it up to a set of three alternating sets. I would take a few brakes, and when I came back to the double under I would have to go through the progression again each time, but I would get back to the set of three alternating faster each time. Near the end I just got too tired to keep going.

Later that night after I showered I looked at my feet, and the tops of my feet were both bruised and cut. Guess I really do need to work on the jump rope. Very excited though because tonight was the first night were I felt like I made some real progress. Now I'm not as scared of them coming up in the hopper.

Columbus day, but no vacation

So I showed up and the wod was another challenging one:

4 sets
9 muscle ups
9 squat cleans (I did pro at 135)
400m run

did the first round with the mu sub, then where my hands are starting to heal they cracked open and started to bleed again. The pain was a huge distraction with my pull ups and the squat cleans. During the second round of squat cleans I couldn't hold onto the bar and basically ended up throwing the bar up and catching it in the rack position. Andrea saw me do this twice, and then told me to call it a day.

The dnf sucks, but I honestly couldn't focus out the pain in my hands, it's like there are seven knives stabbing me in the palms/fingers.

I attempted a MU a couple of times, and was no where near getting it. Looks like I'll need to start completely over, and will have to work on technique/progressions.

I am very excited about the hopper challenge this weekend, but am realy, really sad to hear it will start at 8:00 am. That is nowhere near what time I'm used to waking up (10:00), let alone up and have been on the road for an hour. If I want to be there at 7:30, then I'll have to leave at like 6:30, which in turn means I'll have to be up at like 5:45 to meet up at CFOT to then take off. Jesus, just getting there will be the greatest challenge for me. I was tempted to just stay up all night, but that's just asking for disaster. Looks like I'll have to try to get into a morning routine this week.

This bais towards morning people is a little annoying, but hey, maybe morning workout people are just better athletes. Of the nine CFOT competitors, I'm the only one who regularly works out in the PM, and I consider myself to be the weakest link on this team (except when it comes to rowing, I own that biatch).

Trying to step it up a notch for the Hopper

I came in for the 5:15 class a little late, so I decided to wait for the 6:00 class and take the opportunity to work on double unders. After working on them for about 30 min, I only got two in a row once. Hopefully I will find my rhythm soon, because I'm getting a little tired of not getting these suckers.

So we had a tough wod, and Jerry called me out on being a competitor for the Mid-Atlantic Hopper.

7 rounds of:
3 deadlift (started out at 275, then dropped to 225)
6 lou burbees (double push up)
9 C-2-B pull-ups

The DL's were not that tough, but I couldn't figure out how to keep my spine straight. Again, I kept tension in the core, but they really were ugly so I took the 25's off and kept going. I don't think lowering the weight really helped speed me up, but they felt less dangerous.

the burpees were ok, I never really waited more than a second between reps, if at all.

The pull ups are what got me. Jerry said that if your chest doesn't touch it doesn't count, especially for me since I'm preparing for the Hopper Challenge. I didn't have too much of a problem for the first 4 rounds, only like 4 or 5 fails. However, the fifth set had about 7 failed attempts, and the the sixth round it took about 9 attempts before I got my chest to touch the first time. I probably ended up doing 25 pull ups to get nine C-2-B's. My hands also gave out this round, tearing in about seven different places. For the seventh round, mostly everyone was done, so Jerry and Harold kept telling me to go for it, and even though my pull ups didn't result in my chest touching the bar, Jerry counted them. I wasn't going to argue.

My hands are shredded now, and at the end I just felt like I had failed everyone, and had let them down. I knew that wasn't the right attitude to have, so I started to think about in a positive manner. I might not be the fastest or strongest, but I'm not doing to beat other people. I'm competing in the Hopper challenge to have fun and to gain experience. There are so many exercises that I can't do (muscle up, hand stand push up, Double Unders) that it is inevitable that one of the WOD's will have one. I'm not sure what will happen then, but I will give this my all, and focus only on myself.

Running like the wind, and finding a kip to the air squat.

A simple wod, but it's as tough as you make it to be.

5 rounds
400 m sprint
40 air squats

My time was 17:06, and I think I did a good job of constantly pushing myself through this workout. During my run I still can't figure out what to do to increase my leg speed. My lungs felt fine, I just could figure out how to move my legs fast enough to really feel like I'm sprinting.

I know the idea of not figuring out how to move my legs sounds retarded, but I'm still figuring out the POSE stride. I can feel myself lean forward, and I can really feel my hamstrings pull me forward as I run "downhill", but there seems to be a limit on how fast I can get my legs moving.

I've also figured out how to do a kip for air squats. Most people throw their hands up as they go down. This is done to help teach core tension and proper squat technique, but the movement isn't necessary (I think) to actually having a good squat. I think my squat is good enough that I can have my upper body work independently of my lower body, and I've found that if your move your arms bent and move them in a circle with your body, it's like a butterfly kip. Another way of looking at it is I try to incorporate the upper body movement that people use in a box jump to lift me up to the standing position. I started to figure this movement out last time we did Murph, and I have to say it really helps. Mentally, I think I'm holding two big scoops, and I need to scoop water out of a bucket in front of me. As I descend into the bottom of the squat, I dig deep into the water, and as I start to stand I have to thrust the water high into the air. This really does seem to minimize the use of my legs, and made this workout that much easier.

So much easier, in fact, that I feel like something is inherently wrong with it. I must talk to one of the coaches and see if this kip is legit or not.

Wednesday

Had to be a rest day because I saw Dr. Craddock yesterday. For those of you that don't know, Dr. Craddock is my Doctor of Osteopath who works on my muscles to make sure everything in my skeleton is in alignment. After an adjustment, he doesn't want me to work out the next day. It's tough to obey this (especially when the wod is find your 1 rep jerk max), but I've found ignoring this advice leads to a lot of discomfort.

Cleans, L-sit, dips

This was an intimidating wod:

10 ROUNDS of 3 Cleans (heavy), 5 L-sit Pullups, 7 Dips

I went "pro" with 135# clean, but the hard part was the L-sit and dips. During the last two rounds I broke down and had to kip up, then do negative L-sits, I also ended up using the floss for the dips on the last two rounds. I decided that using the floss and getting full rom was a much better option than doing half-ass dips without assistance. This is the second time I done dips in like six weeks, so my ego is ok with using the floss. ...I'm not 100% confident that my decision to use the floss was correct since I relied only on intuition, but I plan on trying to look up any source that has an answer.

Another thing with this WOD is I find it very difficult to keep mental focus for that long. Dayna caught me just standing there in front of the barbell. I was in a kind of a daze, and hearing her voice snapped me out of it. I really need to figure a way to push myself through long workouts.

I was DFL again, with a time like 39:23. I really need to walk into these things with a mental game plan, or else I wind up not pushing myself as much as I could.

Inadvertent rest day

Was too busy with seeing the surgeon and meeting up with friends to get to crossfit, kind of mad at myself because usually I can plan this stuff out.

Sunday, lap swimming

Did some lap swimming today, it felt awesome to get back into the pool. I can't seem to string 400m together without resting. I can't believe I used to do this stuff so easily. Really am thinking about trying to add in swimming into the mix, hmmm.

Saturday, Rest day

Felt bad missing today, but my body was exhausted from doing CFOT four days in a row.

First Friday, DT

Did DT again. I love the wod because I like the deadlift, hang clean, and push jerk.

My first weight/time was 115/16:23, then I did an almost magical 125/13:58, and while recovering from the tendonitis in my shoulder I went back down to 115/17:something.

This time I upped the weight significantly, scaling DT to 135#s. The hang cleans were a lot harder, but the biggest issue was my back tightening up. It was already tight from the ugly deadlifts this week, and the deadlifts today didn't help. However, I did it in 21:23. I remember feeling my legs quivering during the last set of push jerks, I really was trying to jump that weight up.

Strict Press 5 rep max

Got up to 113, but only got five reps of 115.

This felt great because the asymmetry of strength that I usually experience was not there. The asymmetry stemmed from the tendonitis in my shoulder. The muscles were already tight, so I couldn't tighten them any further. Now that the tendonitis is under control, I can push the muscle more. This is very exciting, as now I may be able to really improve in my upper body strength.

I used to have almost no upper body strength whatsoever, and def no shoulder strength. I then met a friend, Mike, who was a big meathead. Mike is a great guy, and he gave me a workout to try, and it included the strict press (something I had never done before). The workout was also novel to me because it was 5 sets of 5 reps (I usually did 3 sets of 10). I went from being able to do 45#s to 95#s pretty quickly (I was like 21), but that was as far as I could take it by myself.

I'm really, really hoping that someday I will be able to do a handstand push up.

So here are my current goals:

Get back to doing Muscle ups
Get 10 Double unders in a row
Get a Hand stand push up
Get really proficient at push ups.
Deadlift 400#s

Funny, only one of these goals is lower body.

Wednesday, Heavy Met-con

This wod had muscle ups, and while I'm feeling better and better with my shoulder, I still haven't done dips in like two months. So I decided to do the "pro" version instead of the "elite" version:

15 pull ups, 15 ring dips, 9 front squats (135#), 600m run
12 pull ups, 12 ring dips, 12 front squats (135#), 600m run
9pull ups, 9 ring dips, 15 front squats (135#), 600m run

My time was 29:53.

I'm ok with the time, although I really wish I had a faster run, I just feel really slow. I was also having problems, as usual, with keeping my grip to do extended number of pull ups. I still have issues being able to do more than six pull ups. I know it's my grip and not anything else. For goodness sake, over a year ago I was able to get 27 pull ups in a row on the swinging bars of the blue room. On the last set I ended up pulling myself up hard enough to be able to re-grip the bar in mid air, and i was able to do all nine uninterrupted. I will have to try to remember this little trick because resetting myself for pull ups takes up a lot of time.

The squats were tough, I tried, and succeeded, in keeping a tight core throughout. I took my shirt off in the last round, and that really helped me focus on sucking in my stomach. I also tried very hard to keep mid-line stabilization, but it is very difficult with the pain I experience in my right hip. I see the surgeon, again, this Monday, so we'll see what he says after looking at the MRI with contrast.