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 :)