Positive reinforcement

So I go to my quarterly meeting with the Allergist, and I see the Nurse Practitioner:

NP: So what is it that you do?
Me: I'm a patent Examiner
NP: Oh right right, I thought I knew that when I saw your chart but when I walked in I didn't recognize you.
Me: Really?
NP: Yeah, well, you look really different, there's a big change in your... *Flexes*
Me: Physique? *Sits up straighter and also flexes*
NP: Yes, you've changed a lot since last time.

It's always nice to hear I'm progressing.

Ab workout with running and climbing

So I finally got up this morning, it was a rough one for me, and I showed up 15 minutes late. Halfway there I knew I was going to be late, but I was going to no matter what. Here's the WOD:

3 rounds
3 rope climbs
50 GHD (I did one round of this, and then went down to "pack" level of 30)
800m run

Time was 21:13, a seemingly fast time looking at the other times. When I looked over the White Board with Jerry before the workout, I commented on the 50 GHD's and he commented on how it was a lot, and that I should be careful not to hurt myself. I felt like I was ok, so I went "elite" with the 50 GHD's.

This one was nice, albeit I had no time for warming up so the first set of rope climbs was rough. I went through the GHD's fairly easily, and then I tried really hard to push myself in running. Given that is was something like 28 degrees and I wasn't wearing the warmest of clothes, I had a lot of motivation to run as fast as I could.

During the second round, I was really starting to struggle with the GHD's (that I still love). At around rep 23, I had flashbacks to Jerry saying I should watch out so I don't hurt myself. Thinking I might push myself a little too hard if I did all 150, so I dropped down to pack level.

I'm kind of happy I didn't do the whole 150, because my stomach is already sore, and it hasn't been more than 13hours.

Done with the Holiday break

So I spent the past week in Chicago, and had decided that I should take some time off from working the shoulder so I didn't exercise at all, although I was hoping to pay Crossfit Arlington Heights a visit yesterday. My schedule didn't allow me to, but I'm ok with taking the week off given the circumstances.

However, I have very little self control when it comes to eating anything close to healthy when I'm surrounded by cookies and pie and all kinds of carbs. I was constantly full, always snacking.

Anyway, when I was leaving for Chicago last Tuesday I weighed 208, this Tuesday I weighed in at 216. So that's an 8 pound increase in one week, quite the feat. I'm not mad at myself, I'm not even really disappointed, because what good would that do. Instead, I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly I'll lose this weight just getting back on track.

Tomorrow I will see Olga for the fourth time, one step closer to having relaxed hip muscles. Every time I see her she notices marked improvement, so I know I'm not just spinning my wheels here.

Cleans and AMRAP workout

Tuesday's WOD:

3 Squat cleans every minute on the minute for 10min (around 80%)

rest 5 min

AMRAP 15 min of 6 Dips, 9 box jump(24"), 12 ghd Situp

So I came into CFOT in the morning, and showed up a little behind schedule, so I was unable to really warm up. Because of this, and because I haven't done a real squat clean for a while, I used 95#s. I really wish I had had a chance to do a proper warm up, because my 1 rep max is 195, and 80% of that is 165. However I still had plenty to work on.

I was still needing to work on pulling the bar straight up, still needed to work on preventing the bar from crashing down on me, and I still needed to work on landing in a proper squat position. All in all it wasn't heavy enough to really push me, but the second part of the workout fixed that problem.

The dips were really rough, and I started to feel my shoulder start to tingle. The box jumps were fairly easy, and the GHD's were not a real problem. I would like to take this opportunity to say that I LOVE GHD's, they work my core in a way never before. Just when you think there isn't an exercise that will quickly render you sore, you find something like the GHD.

Can't remember how many rounds I did, but I was very glad to do this before my week long stay in Chicago.

Snatch work and interval wod

Two parts, part A:



3 snatches a minute for 10 minutes



Today I did real snatches, ones where I recieve the bar in a squat position. Historically I've had a lot of problems with this, so I went light with 95#'s, treating it like a skill day.

The first couple were pretty rusty, and my hip didn't appreciate going all the way into the squat. However, I might have been going lower than necessary, as I have a tendency to do that. I really tried to dive under the bar, but not go as low as I can possibly go (which is like three inches below parallel). After the third or fourth set, I started to find the right position.

However, I was still a little unstable when coming up with the bar. Andrea pointed out that after recieving the bar I should wait a second, stabalize, and then stand up. I started doing this and while the extra core strength effort really sucks the life out of you, it is effective.

Near the end I think I really started to catch the bar in active shoulder after flipping out my hands. Usually I feel like moving my hands around the bar takes a little bit, and in the process I move the bar around my hand, instead of moving my hand around the bar. Well, for the last couple of set I was really starting to get a nice snap out of flipping out my wrists, and I could tell I wasn't pushing or pulling the bar forwards or backwards. At the end I really felt like I've improved on the snatch, even a year after I attended the Olympic lift certification class.

The second part, an interval wod, was hell.

3-5 rounds

350m row
25 push ups
15 pull ups

The 25 push ups were deadly, I don't know why but those random sets of push ups I'm doing don't seem to help too much. Also, I'm afraid that my shoulder is starting to feel that twinge of pain that is tendonitis. I'm an idiot and ignored the pain (since it is so slight) and pushed through. On the third set Andrea started setting goals for me, like "Now do 5 push ups" then "rest for three breaths". I was dead tired on the third set, but Andrea's breaking the wod down was extremely helpful.

Appearently, doing sub-max reps and resting a bit will get your farther faster than doing max reps. For example, if I do pushups until failure (say 19), I'll be so exhausted that banging out those last six will take forever. However, if I broke it up into 5 sets of 5, I won't push my body to the breaking point, will recover faster, and will accomplish the goal of 25 push ups in less time.

I'm a little concerned about the shoulder, but I have a week of rest/holiday ahead, not to mention I will meet up with Olga tomorrow, so she can work on my shoulder for a bit.

Saturday, SNOW DAY!!

There was supposed to be the hopper final this weekend, but due to 20" of snow in one day there was NOTHING BUT FUN!! Never really experienced snow, and definitely nothing like this. Made a giant snowman, dude's about as tall as I am, and that itself was a workout.

Moving 7000 lbs

So today was moving 7000#s over one's head for time.

I was going to try to lift 135#s for 52 reps, but I talked to Mellisa and she recommended I go for 74 reps of 95#s. I think this was a better strategy, as I was able to go touch-and-go for the first 15. I was over half way done when it hit 5 minutes. However, I had to slow down considerably after that and finished it up in 11:43 (or something like that).

This was very easy with regards to my glutes, hams, and traps. But what really slowed me down was my lack of breath and my quads. My quads were really barking at me for the clean and screamed at me for the jerk.

I loved this workout, it was awesome. There were some crossfitters who managed this in under 7 minutes, but it's a goal to strive for, right?