5/29/2009

REST

DT/Sports Massage this afternoon to increase circulation, mental clarity, and flexibility for my date tomorrow with Elizabeth.

5/28/2009

REST

Andy mentioned that his body felt like it was hit by a truck the day after Murph… I had a delayed onset of hit by a truck-itis… 8 hours of glorious sleep last night. My wife thinks I’m insane. I’m not insane, just determined!

Elizabeth beckons.

5/27/2009

God I desperately want to do today’s workout, but it hurts just getting up out of my chair. I think three days of rest, with some intermittent skill work, and maybe a massage will get me where I need to be to introduce Elizabeth to the new and improved Z.

I will do today’s WoD on Sunday.

REST

5/26/2009

Mid-Atlantic Qualifier WoD #2

6:54

My 3RM for Deadlifts is 225, so I figured that 185 would be a good weight for this workout. Baby steps. I was practicing my double unders before the workout and they just clicked. I got my first consecutive double unders ever and proceeded to do about 40 of them in the first round. This CrossFit stuff really works.

SmartVest and SmartShorts integration ~2.5% LBM (2 pounds in vest, 2 pounds in shorts) 8 hours.

I told Andy that I was beginning to prepare my body to wear the SmartVest and SmartShorts on a daily basis. He laughed, looked at me like I was crazy and told me that I was “a bigger CrossFit geek than Burch”. Aww, thanks!

5/25/2009

Murph

61:27

POSE’d through roughly 90% of the runs, did it straight through without partitioning “Cindy” style or anything other way, and had a fantastic time with my friends and fellow CrossFitters. Thanks to all of our service men and women past and present!

I was told I had a silly smile on my face during the squats… that was because I got done with the pushups and I was ecstatic to be doing something I was good at! Plus, I was enjoying the masochistic madness of Murph and loving life. Good times.

5/24/2009

REST.

5/23/2009

Workout #1 at PF with Armen and Ara (Becca coaching)

24:47

All handstand holds unbroken, POSE’d throughout runs, the dumbbell thrusters were tough.

Great workout, Shirley!

Workout #2 with Chris at Gold’s Gym

Chris called me and asked if I wanted to workout with him, so I thought I’d join him as his workouts are usually heavy ones. Turns out he was doing arms… vanity workout!

4 supersets: skullcrushers 12 x 45#, standing bicep curls 12 x 20# dbs
4 supersets: tricep cable 12 x 50#, machine preacher 12 x 45#
4 supersets: arm extension 10 x 90#, the “bisolator” (no, I’m not kidding, that is what the machine was called) 10 x 100#
1 “century” set: 20# hammer curls x 100

Plenty of admiring myself in the mirror. :p

5/22/2009

Globogym with Firefighter Ara

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squat

185, 205, 225, 235 (miss), 230 (1)

All squats below parallel.

5 rounds
20 bicycles (4 count)
15 pushups
10 pistols (below parallel)

12:46

45 minutes basketball.

Also just got my SmartVest and SmartShorts, beginning integration with ~2.5% of lean body mass (2 lbs. in vest, 2lbs. in shorts). Did not wear this during the workout. Climbing up three flights of stairs was interesting… sitting here typing is interesting!

6 hours in SmartVest/SmartShorts.

200 Standing Poses (back toward wall) per leg

5/21/2009

AMRAP in 24 hours

REST

And a double-header of city league softball thrown in for good measure.

5/20/2009

“I do want to make something very clear for all of you CrossFitters: I obviously like to talk and yell and cheer, but if it gets annoying, please feel free to tell me to shut-up, tone it down, go away, etc. You will not hurt my feelings! I sometimes get over-excited and I assure you that I’m not trying to be annoying…” -Z 12/13/2008

Dirty South Qualifier WoD#3

17:33

Okay, so despite having seen this workout a thousand times (and I just wrote it from memory), for some reason it wouldn’t stick in my head during the workout and I had to keep asking what the next movement was (because I couldn’t see the board). Andy patiently told me each time until I asked about the last 200m run when something to the effect of “!@#$!@#$!@#$@!#%$!@#%!@# Z! Q@#$!@#%$!@#$%@#$” came out of his mouth. I was tired, so all I heard was “You’re doing great Z, go get that 200m run!” Yeah, funny how the human brain works.

Seriously folks, tell me to the zip it if I’m yapping. I honestly don’t realize it.

POSE Homework

200 Standing Poses (back toward wall) per leg

5/19/2009

5x 3RM Snatch Balance

45#
65#
85#
105#
115# miss

Need to work on those.

Dirty South Qualifier WoD #2

AMRAP 8 minutes

4 rounds

4 rounds on the dot… didn’t think I was going to make it in time. I may have displayed a bit too much exuberance, though. Sorry, I was excited!

POSE Homework

200 Standing Poses (back toward wall) per leg

5/18/2009

WoD#1 PF 1830

5 rounds
20 double unders
10 wallballs (20#, 11.5ft)
1 rope climb (15ft)

12:34

Did only the first rope climb sans legs. I was not feeling well yesterday, but that went away during the workout.

Sprint Plyometric Work with Ben SMC Track 2000

4x 20-25m High knees
4x 20-25m High knee butt kicks
4x 20-25m Quick step high skip
4x 20-25m Karaokes (Grapevines with exaggerated front leg movement)

Pull-outs 40-50m 2x straightaway, 2x turn

Thanks Ben!

5/17/2009

POSE Seminar/REST Day

Fantastic experience with Michael Collins, learned quite a bit. Now I have to practice.

5/16/2009

WoD #1 PF 0830

20 second flexed arm hang
10-8-6-4-2 Deadlifts
200m run

12:39 (175#, 195#, 215#, 215#, 215#)

Workout #2 Gold’s Gym 1300 with Chris

Incline Press (dumbbell): 15x 70#; 12x 110#, 11x 110#, 10x 110#, 9x 110#
Bench Press (barbell): 12x 115#, 9x 115#, 10x 115#, 10x 115#
Cable Cross: 10x 40# (each side); 11x 40#, 11x 40#, 9x 50#

Seated hack squat machine calf raise: 15x 140#, 15x 190#, 12x 230#, 12x 230#

Significant improvement from 3/16/2009 workout with Chris!

5/15/2009

24 Hour Fitness “Super Sport” Glendale

Finally convinced a friend of mine, who is a Glendale City Firefighter, to try some CrossFit with me. The caveat was that we had to workout in Globogym central. This is a ridiculous Globogym, three stories, with a full basketball court, swimming pool, and racket ball courts. Annoying music and announcements, and people who love to preen…

Warm-up from Max Mormont’s site

6 rounds
20 burpees
10 shoulder-to-overhead (115#)

24:06

So I was interrupted twice during the workout… once by hairy powerlifter guy in a one piece, camouflaged spandex thingee who asked me how long I was going to use the barbell (on my first round). Ignore the fact that there was a perfectly good barbell about thirty feet away sitting unused… I guess he was just marking his territory. He then proceeded to give me “advice” on my split-jerks, saying that I should be going from behind the neck. I smiled and dived right into my round 2 burpees. He got the message and walked off to do his 3 rounds of 6-8 “presses” (from behind the neck, about half ROM… he would push press the bar up, slightly bend his elbows from the locked position, and then straighten his elbows again. The bar moved about 6 inches up and down!)

Anyway I digress… the second interruption was about midway through round 3 burpees by a “helpful” Globogym trainer, who decided to give us (Crossfitter and Firefighter) burpee instruction while we were doing our burpees. She cheerfully explained how a proper burpee (mind you, I’m still doing my burpees here) requires the hips not to touch the ground and a true plank position throughout, blah blah blah, and we could do less burpees and get better “results”. I “thank you ma’am”-ed her (note: nothing ticks off women self-conscious about their age faster than “ma’am”), which immediately stopped the free personal trainer burpee instruction and allowed me to peacefully start on my third round of push jerks.

Good workout. We then played basketball for 45 minutes, which seemed ridiculously easy after that workout. Good times!

I think I convinced him to come and try out the open class in June. His text afterward was: “I’m 100% down… For the first time in a long time, I’m dead bear! Good stuff!”

5/14/2009

REST

Damn, today’s workout looks like torture… I guess Andy got some ideas from Freddy’s Revenge! This is 20# lighter on the overheads, but more than twice the work! Holy crap.

I do have a softball doubleheader later this afternoon/evening, so it will be a bit of an active rest day.

I’m planning on beginning to really focus in on training for the next year (starting in June), with regularly scheduled skill work daily (afternoons if I work out in the morning and mornings if I work out in the afternoons). O-Lifting (Burgener WU, Skill Transfers, O-Lifting Flexibility); Gymnastics (Inverted, L-Sits, MU transitions), Double-Unders, and POSE homework. I figure this will help me curb those feelings of “I can be doing more” while actively working skills that are necessary in becoming an elite athlete. I’ve already warned my wife that I may become a tad bit obsessive over the next year… her reply was “Wait, you’re not obsessed already?”  Touché.

5/13/2009

5(.37)k run

26:26

Just after the half way point, coming back down the hill Jonesy said “Nice 6-pack Z!” which I assumed was him humoring me, but damned if I didn’t bust my ass the rest of the way. Thanks Jonesy!

I can definitely do this in sub-25 now that I know what it feels like and what the length is… This is a great short distance run course… good find, Andy.

5/12/2009

18-15-12-9-6-3 Snatch Balance (75#)
9-8-6-5-3-2 Strict Pull-ups

26:14

Meh. I need to work on my Snatch Balances. Subbed .5x strict pull-ups for kipping pull-ups to spare my 80% healed baby hands.

Spoke to Andy after the workout, because I felt like I’ve had two consecutive sub-par workouts from a strength and metcon standpoint. I also explained that I’ve been really hungry the past week and that I’m getting sleepy about 30 minutes after some of my meals. He suggested that I either a) up my prescription by a block or two or b) go to 1.5x fat. I also read that sleepy feelings following meals may mean too many carbs, but I’m not sure how to rectify that without throwing myself out of the Zone.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.