Back on the Wagon

After 10 days off, it felt good to get my blood moving again. There is something about being at my in-laws' that just really causes me to drag. Some of it is the cold weather and snow, which makes me want to stay curled up indoors. And there's something about my MIL's house that just makes me tired. I don't know if it's the temperature in the house (about 72) or what, but it really has a sedative effect on me. Even after 9-10 hours of sleep, I spent most of the days feeling like I'd been drugged. Maybe it was a combination of the heat and all the food I consumed. Number One Son felt it as well - he said "Being at Grandmother's makes me want to sleep all the time."

Anyway, it was great to get back home and start trying to get back into a routine.

Buy-in: Arm swings, shoulder dislocates, hip and knee rotations
5:00 rowing (1019m)

WOD: Strength work

Back squat 5 x 5

• Warmup sets @ 45#, 65#, 85#
• 5 @ 95#
• 5 @ 95#
• 5 @ 105#
• 5 @ 105#
• 3 @ 105# fail Last two reps were not full depth

Push press 5 x 5

• Warmup sets @ 45#, 55#
• 5 @ 65#
• 5 @ 65#
• 5 @ 70#
  
• 5 @ 70#
• 5 @ 70#

Thoughts: After the bar-dumping episode from my last squat workout, I thought it might be prudent to start a little lighter (95# vs 105#). It turned out to be a good idea - there's so much to concentrate on during the exercise. Chest up, knees out, lumbar curve, etc, etc. It's easy to tell which reps had everything working, because I just seemed to pop up out of the hole on those. By the last set, though, you could stick a fork in me. Fail for the last two reps.

I have no 1 RM for the push press (I know, I need to get one), so the 70# was a SWAG based on my 1 RM for the push jerk. It seemed to be about right, as the last few reps were quite ugly. I need to get KAD or Son to take some video of me - using my spiffy new camera - so I can get some feedback on these lifts. I know, I keep saying that...

Cash out: 3 rounds of:
5 pullups
15# DB snatches (10 ea arm)
10 pushups

Also got my first piece of unsolicited advice from a gym rat. He approached me in the middle of a set, while I had 105# of weight sitting on my upper back, and waved to get my attention (I was wearing headphones). I just glared at him and said, "Do you MIND?" He waited until I finished the set and re-racked the weight and the said, "You're going too deep on your squats. You're going to tear up your knees." I went off on him for interrupting my workout - it's the Y, so no F-bombs or other choice words, but I think I got my point across.

He said, "I was just trying to help. I don't like to see anyone get hurt." He then proceeded to load up the Smith machine with 6 plates across and do about 15 quarter squats.

Dude, where's your clue?



Options for tomorrow are looking slim. Y is on holiday hours and we have dinner with the folks right after work. Might be time to break out the awesome new KB.

The End of Food-a-palooza...

...which is also known as "the Christmas Trip to the In-laws."

Major accomplishments:

1) Consumption of at least my body weight in steak, ham, potatoes, cookies, cake, alcohol, etc, etc, etc.

2) Acquisition of a kettlebell (kudos to sister-in-law), a new digital camera (yay hubby) and new work-friendly clothes that look good (claps to mom-in-law and sis-in-law)

3) Awesome pictures of kids in snow.

4) Survival of all family members after a week cooped up together. Heck, we all even still like each other.

Failures:

1) Did not acquire Starting Strength.

2) Did not find an affiliate to visit within reasonable distance - this means there wasn't one in town and I was not willing to drive to Ann Arbor, even if it hadn't been snowing.

3) Did not complete a single WOD.


Time to climb back on the wagon. Will post pics when I get around to getting them off the camera.

It's a "Bear"

After racking my brains for "heavy" metcons, I decided to torture myself with a Bear Complex for time. No thanks to Melissa Byers for this crazy idea. :p

Warmup: 3 x CFWU (pushups instead of dips, no Sampson)

WOD: "Bear Complex"

One round = power clean, front squat, thruster (or push press), back squat, push press
AMRAP in 10:00 @ 65#

Total: 16 rounds + PC

Thoughts: If I had the energy, I'd bitch-slap whoever came up with this waterboard of a WOD. Of course, that means I really like it and will probably do it again before too long. Maybe not a good idea to do it the day after a press session - getting the weight overhead was the limiting factor here. I tried to do as many of the rounds with a thruster as I could, but I'd guess I did at least 4 with a push press after the FS, just because I didn't drive up from the squat hard enough to get the weight overhead. I looked like this after this - just lay on the floor in the rack for a good 5 minutes after I finished.




Cash out: 2:00 plank, 10 x swiss ball rolls to quasi-handstand position. Anything more than that was completely out of the question.

Deadlifts and presses and a much better day

After my meltdown last night, it really wasn't too difficult to have a better day.Of course, the fact that today was my last day at work until the end of the month helped my mood immensely. I got off an hour early and went to Y to beat the crowd.

Warmup: Arm swings, shoulder dislocates, hip and knee rotations, air squats, walking lunges.

Buy-in: 5:00 rowing (967m)

WOD: Strength

Deadlift 3x5

• Warmup sets @ 65#, 95#, 115#
• Work sets 3x5 @ 132# (80% 1RM)

Press 5x5

• Warmup set @ 45#
• Work sets 5x5 @ 52# (80% 1RM)

Cash out: Short metcon - 3 rounds of 15 DB swings (25#) and 5 pullups
Time - 3:17

Thoughts: This workout went a long way toward helping me figure out some things about form, especially on DLs. Since I didn't have to worry too much about actually getting weight off the floor, I was able to concentrate on some of the pointers I picked up at the Starting Strength wiki. Mainly I worked on starting with my shoulder blades above the bar, keeping my lower back arch and driving through my heels. I also tried to work on keeping the bar close to my shins. Note to self - long pants or long socks on DL days! I could tell when everything was clicking, because the weight seemed to come up more easily.

The press was pretty much the same. The weight was not extremely challenging, and allowed me to concentrate on a tight core and full extension at the top.

Overall, much better day today. I'm going to try to get some videos up before too long, to get feedback on form.

Three Days In, and Already Glitching

Today was one of those days where nothing, I mean nothing, seemed to go right. I couldn't work out at lunch because of our office Christmas party. After work, I had to feed KAD then take Number One Son to High Point for soccer practice. After dropping him off, I went to the Y in High Point to work out. When I got there, I realized that I had left all of my cash in my jeans - at home. No money for the guest fee. Shit. No lifting.

I was irritated, but not angry. It's not the first time it's happened. So back to the soccer park I went, with the idea that I would just run around the field. No go there - the only part of the place without any standing water was the part Son's team was using. Deep breath, because now I'm starting to get a little upset. Then I spotted the playground and thought, "Well, I'll just do a Tabata Something Else."

Jackpot! The playground, unlike the field, was mostly dry (amazing when you consider how wet the weather has been here lately). So I warm up and...well...

Warmup: 5 minutes of jogging around the playground. 2 rounds of 10 picnic bench jumps (~18") and 10 bench pushups.

WOD: Tabata Something Else

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. One minute rest between exercises.

Pullups: 9 5 6 5 5 6 5 5 Low - 5 Total - 46
Pushups: 16 15 11 10 10 10 10 10 Low - 10 Total - 92
Situps: 20 20 19 19 19 19 19 19 Low - 19 Total - 154
Squats: @&#*$*@&!***

Thoughts: I was in the middle of the last situp set when the field lights went out. Apparently the coach decided that the conditions warranted moving the boys indoors to practice.

Cash out: Grabbing my stuff and sprinting from the playground to the main gate of the field to keep from being locked in.

At that point, Son informed me that he needed to go home early because he has an English essay due tomorrow. And I decided "Fuck it. I can't even finish a fucking Tabata today." It's been one of those days. I'm going to bed.

Fran, Programming and Goal-setting

I was a little leery of trying Fran the day after back squats and bench presses, but I figured if I'm going to start down the strength path, I need to get used to doing heavy metcons after strength days. I'm glad I did, because it helped bring some things into clearer focus - I'll elaborate more on that in a bit.

Buy-in: Arm swings, dislocates, hip/knee rotations, donkey kicks (basically anything to loosen up my DOMS-racked body). Three rounds of 10 squats, 10 situps, 10 pushups, 10 supermans.

Skill: Medicine ball cleans: 3 x 5 @ 20# (I suck at these - add to goat list)

WOD: "Fran"

21 - 15 - 9 of:
Thrusters (45#)
Pullups

Time: 6:25

Last Fran time (9/16/08) was 7:31.

Thoughts: Ow. This hurt. A lot. I was surprised I went so much faster than last time, given how tired I was from yesterday and the fact that I was pushing more weight on the thrusters this time (45# vs 40#). Pullups needed an assist from my toes after the first 10. I actually did the CrossFit Flop^TM afterwards, and someone came over to make sure I wasn't dying. Paperwork, you know.

Cash out: Not much. 3 x hollow holds (:23/:22/:27)

Okay, so how does this tie in to my programming needs? Obviously I'm not doing Fran as Rx'd, even for women. I can probably do several 65# thrusters, but 45 of them? Nuh-uh. Not happening right now. Ergo, I need to be stronger if I ever want to do Fran as Rx'd. Not to mention Diane, Linda, Grace....yadda, yadda yadda.

That brings me to goal-setting. What are my strength goals? What kind of weight do I want to be able to toss around and why?

Well, f*** if I know (just kidding). I want to be stronger. But "getting strong" is not a good goal - not specific. Maybe it would be better if I just deferred to Melissa's recent posts on the importance of strength. She says it way better than I can. Short version - being stronger makes everything else easier. And it lasts longer.

Here's where it gets tricky for me. I suck at setting specific goals, at least for something like this, where I'm not sure what's realistic and what's not. Swimming goals are easy - I want to go 1:11.83 in the 100 IM, because that's the qualifying time for Master's Nationals for my age group. It's a tough goal, but also attainable if I work my ass off for it. Lifting goals I'm not as sure about. What's tough but attainable? Should I use the Athletic Skills benchmarks laid out here?

Melissa was kind enough to share her programming with me, and I'm using that as a starting point as I try to figure out my own specifics.

1RM as of 12/15/08:

• Back squat 135#
  
• Shoulder press 65#
• Deadlift 165#
• Power clean 95#
• Push jerk 95#

Need to get 1 RM for the following: Bench press, push press, front squat, OHS, weighted pullups, weighted dips.

Back to some strength...maybe

It occurs to me that it's been damn near a week since I last worked out. Last Wednesday I did about 4-5 hours worth of dragging a ladder around to various points in a building and climbing it (strangely enough, I will do that WOD again tomorrow, except this time I will drag the ladder around the outside of the building). That's very functional, as CrossFit is supposed to be, but not really much fun. Especially the part where insulation and ceiling tile shit rains down on your head.

Anyway, it looks like the whole "sneaking out at lunch" thing is going to be the only way I get in any workouts for a while. Christmas is really putting a crimp in my schedule. :p

Buy-in: 2 x 500m row (2:31/2:11); 1 round CFWU

WOD: Back squats 5 x 5

• Warmup sets @ 45#, 65#, 85#
• 5 @ 105#
• 5 @ 105#
• 5 @ 105#
• 4 @ 105# Couldn't get out of the hole on the last rep and had to dump the bar
• 5 @ 95#

Bench Press 5 x 5

• Warmup sets @ 45# and 65#
• 5 @ 85#
• 5 @ 85#
• 5 @ 85#
• 5 @ 85 #
• 5 @ 85#

Cash out: 2 rounds of 10 hanging KTE, 15 back extensions.

Thoughts: I need to get going with Starting Strength. I got myself into the mindset that I was going to pile on more and more weight every time, and that's a recipe for injury even if my ego does enjoy the constant PRs. I believe I have form issues that I need to address. 105# is not even 80% of my 1 RM for back squats, but when I concentrated on proper depth and form, I went to failure fairly quickly. The 5th rep of each set was a real struggle to finish, and that's the first time I've had to dump the bar. That got me some unkind looks from the training staff even though I was in the rack. Warming up with the rowing was probably a dumb idea, because it made my legs a little tired even though I felt really loose. My strength training needs some sort of structure, although I hate to give up too much CFE and metcon work.

Birthdays and sleep deprivation.

My workout for Friday/Saturday was much more tiring than my normal WODs and thankfully only comes once a year. KAD's birthday. The WOD? Feed and entertain a group of 10 and 11 year-old girls for 17+ hours. A long slow distance, to be sure, and very bad nutrition along the way.

KAD's not happy I'm making her wait for the picture:




The gang at about midnight. I think the last one finally dropped off to sleep about 3 AM:




I'm still making up for the sleep I lost that night. It didn't help that KAD, Hubby and I had to roll out at 5 AM Sunday for KAD's swim meet in Rock Hill. It may take longer to recover from what we ate - we still have cake, ice cream and soda left over. I can't even get Number One Son to finish eating it!

Back to the Main Page, kinda...

Missed working out Sunday and yesterday due to family commitments, but was determined to hit the gym this evening. Then I find out that Number One Son has a scrimmage tonight, and I am going to have to drive him to Greensboro.

(Side note: I've gotten used to him being able to drive. Now I'm ready for him to be allowed to drive after 9:00 PM. That will cut back on my chauffeur duties immensely.)

Anyway, I skipped lunch today and went to the Y, determined to get at least some kind of WOD done. This was actually the WOD posted for yesterday. Well, half of it is, anyway.

Buy-in: 2 x 500m row (easy/medium pulling) - 2:41/2:14
2 rds of CFWU

WOD: Clean & Jerk 1-1-1-1-1

• Warmup sets 5 @ 45#, 5 @ 55#
• 1 @ 65#
• 1 @ 75#
• 1 @ 85#
• 1 @ 90#
• 1 @ 95#

Weighted pullups (max reps each weight)

• Warmup sets 5 @ 10#, 5 @ 15#
• 4 @ 20#
• 3 @ 22.5#
• 3 @ 25#
• 3 @ 25#
• 8 @ no weight

Thoughts: I'd like to claim PR for both these exercises, but since I've never done weighted pullups at all and never done C&J for a 1-rep max, I'll call these baselines. Before I read Melissa Byers' post today, I probably would have called them PRs. Since I am really in still in Newb-land, I'll go with baseline. Next time I'll call it a PR. Maybe.

I did enjoy the sidelong glances being sent my way during the weighted pullups. Guess I looked pretty funny with a dumbbell stuck inside the belt around my waist. Especially because the belt came from the weight-assisted pullup machine.

Cash-out: 2 rounds of 10 Russian swings and 10 hanging leg lifts.

Star Wars Geeks Rule

You know, I've been working with Cisco switches for years and I just now noticed this:



My membership in the Jedi Order could be revoked over this failure on my part...

Mistletoe 5K

Yeah, I know I kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a few days. Seems no matter how hard I try sometimes, I can't keep to a consistent posting schedule. Or workout schedule, for that matter.

But anyway. Number One Son and I ran in the YMCA's Mistletoe 5K on Saturday (there is also a Mistletoe Half Marathon, but that's farther than I want to think about running anymore). Kick-Ass Daughter had originally said that she wanted to run the 1-mile fun run, but upon finding out that it was starting at 8 AM on a Saturday morning, she changed her mind. Which also gave Hubby an excuse not to get up and do the Fun Run.


These ladies dressed the part!



Here is Son trying to stay warm before the race (start time temp was 30 degrees):



Starting line. The guy in the blue tank top must be impervious to the weather...



Being the polite (and honest) person that I am, I started the race back in the middle of the pack so that the faster runners would not have to dodge me at the start. I started my watch when I crossed the starting line in order to get an accurate time. The course was great. The start was flat to slightly downhill for just long enough to get loose. Then there was about a 3/4 climb, which was not as steep as I had originally feared. The course flattened out just before the halfway mark, which meant the last half of the race was mostly downhill. I had a strong kick at the end, which made me wonder if I had started out too easily. My official time was 27:02. My watch time was 26:47. I was expecting to run about 28:00 - 28:30, so I was very pleased with the race! Not a PR, but certainly the fastest I've run in a long time.

Number One Son and I after the race. He finished well ahead of me, and as you can see, he doesn't even look tired!



Afterward we gorged on pizza, fruit and cookies inside the Y, and listened to the Wake Forest Men's A Cappella Christian Chorus (sorry, forgot to upload their picture) while we waited for the awards to be announced. As close as I can figure out, I finished 5th in my age group. The 3rd place finisher's official time was the same as my watch time. Lesson learned - screw politeness and get your ass up the starting line so you can race!

Death by Pushups

I've wanted to try one of the "Death by..." WODs since I read about Daniel and Rebecca's "Death by..." week at CFEB. Having recently done Lynne, I wasn't in much of a pullup mood, so I decided to go with pushups instead.

Warmup: 3 rounds of 10 OHS w/dowel, 10 incline situps (ow, I still have DOMS from floor wipers), 10 back extensions, 10 pullups.

WOD: "Death by Pushups"

With a continuously running clock do one Push-Up the first minute, two Push-Ups the second minute, three Push-Ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able. Use as many sets each minute as needed.

19 rounds + 16 pushups (Total 206)

Thoughts: Argh, I wanted that 20th round so bad! My arms just gave out completely and I almost fell on my face. By the last few rounds, I was down to sets of 2-3 and form was shaky, but I managed to avoid doing any cobras. Otherwise, though, I can't complain about this at all. Pushups were my PT test goat when I was in the Army, and now I can knock out almost as many in one set as I used to be able to do for the entire 2-minute pushup test. I may not be able to raise my arms tomorrow, but damn, it was worth it!

Cash-out: One mile run (8:35)