Author Archives: bgoldstein

Intervals and Starting Strength #3

Yesterday I did intervals. 8×30 second all out intervals on the C2 to be exact. I rested about 2.5-3 minutes in between each to recover fully. I averaged about 175m on each round. It really tired me out.

Today was starting strength #3. I rushed through this today as we’ve got a bit of a family emergency to tend to. I super-setted the bench press and back squats, then moved on to deads. All in all it took about 25 minutes. I also didn’t do as many warm up sets. Shame on me…

Weights were as follows:

Back Squat: 217# – felt good. After talking to Chad about the bar position on my back, I was able to adjust today and it felt a lot more stable and a lot LESS painful on my upper back.
Bench Press: 180# – this also felt good. No other comments here.
Deads: 325# – good and heavy but doable. Thank goodness these are only 1×5.

Weight after workout: 223#

Starting Strength #2

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Squats

Went up 3lb to 268# on 3×5 back squats. Felt good.

Strict Press

WOW, I have lost a lot of strength here. I test 135# and decided to keep it there for the 3×5.

Power Clean

Just like the strict press, I feel like I lost a lot of strength here as well. I used to be able to clean 155/165 with no problems. I test 145# for this and decided to stay with that to keep my form looking good.

Weight after workout: 223.5 (-1.5)

Tuesday CF WOD

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2 days in. I am sore and right now, I feel like I could eat an entire small animal. Today’s posted CFCP WOD was:

3RFT

7 weighted step ups (7 each leg)
14 pull ups
21 burpees

I used a sandbag for the step ups. I think the weight on it is 60#, but I am not sure. Also, I used a 22″ box.

Time: 14:24.

Back To It

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Well quite a bit has happened since I last posted here. I will write about brenna in a separate posting but I just wanted to quickly post about getting back into caring about my health.

See, for about 8 weeks, we have been at the mercy of a beautiful little baby girl. While I enjoy doing anything and everything for her, taking care of ME has pretty much fallen by the wayside. It started with bad sleep. Horrible sleep. Then, we add in the very bad food choices due to severe tiredness and mostly a bad case of “I don’t give a shit” or “I am too damn tired to care”.

8 weeks later, I have gained almost 10 pounds and I feel like chewed up spit out crap (except for when Brenna smiles at me…that’s the best but it doesn’t make me loose weight).

Ms. Brenna has been sleeping a lot better at night and recently V and I have tried to set a schedule for getting back into working out. I have long felt like 4 CF workouts per week wasn’t really the most ideal thing for me. I have seen other people that benefitted from a more strength (and less met con) biased program, so I am going to give that a shot. So, I will doing a strength based program (Rippetoe’s Starting Strength) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the 2 CrossFit workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.

I started on the strength program tonight. Here are some notes that I took as I was getting started:

Squats
Did 1×5 @ 300 and it was really heavy. Dropped to 265 for form.
265 was challenging but good. I think is a good starting point

Bench
155 feels too light for the working set. Upping to 175.
175 feels good.

Dead lift
315 was a good starting weight.

Weight after workout: 225

Since my diet has been atrocious lately, I am posting in a food blog again to get some public accountability out there. I don’t care if anyone reads or follows it. I just need to know that the world can seer what I am eating and that alone will help keep me honest. If you’d like to follow it for whatever reason, the address is http://food.familyofgoldsteins.com.

Kettle Bells, 11.5, Jacked Annie…

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It’s been harder and harder to motivate myself to get into the gym this past week or so. By the time 430/5pm rolls around, my energy feels pretty much zapped. Thankfully, Nikki runs an 830am class over at 609, so I am going to try to get over into that one while I have energy in the morning.

Thursday, 4/21/2011

Ah, kettle bells. So much fun every time! This WOD was quick, but ouch, it had me breathing hard…

1 Turkish Get Up
5 kb snatches lt side
1 Turkish Get Down
Repeat other side
1 Turkish Get Up
5 kb clean and jerks lt side
1 Turkish Get Down
Repeat other side
1 Turkish Get Up
5 kb OH squats lt side
1 Turkish Get Down
Repeat other side

Time: 3:34 with a 1.5 pood KB.

Friday, 4/22/2011

Ah, 11.5… this crap is almost over… can’t wait.

AMRAP(20)

5 power clean @ 145#
10 toes to bar
15 wall ball @ 20#

I managed to squeak out 5 rounds + 15 reps. The toes to bar ate up most of my time as I am still learning the skill. Good times.

Wednesday, 4/27/2011

WOW, it felt much better to work out at 830am. I had energy and was able to be fully engaged (rather than “I am tired and want to go home”…). At this point, with the way life is @ home, I think that this time might work a lot better for me.

Before we got to the WOD, we did 25 strict ring pull ups. Not fun, but love that fact that we are building some strength.

“Jacked Up Annie”

50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 {Double Unders / Jack knife sit ups @ 20#}

This took me 11:54. Not a great time, BUT, I did my first set of double unders unbroken!!! I have never done that many before, so that was a huge plus.

After the WOD we did some back squats. I had a hard time with these as my left elbow is hurting. I need to have it looked at… sigh. Don’t leave your 20’s kids. It’s no fun.

In other news, we are SO ready to have this baby! V’s due date was this past Saturday (4/23) and my parents only have a few more days here (leaving 4/30). I know that the little guy/girl will come when he/she is ready, but waiting like this has been the hardest part of the entire pregnancy. Hopefully, he/she will decide that they would like to come out and meet everyone sooner rather than later.

Snatches and HSPU

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Well, it’s Thursday and I have only gotten one workout in this week so far. I was busy Monday, I got one in on Tuesday, and yesterday (Wednesday), I felt like I was going to fall asleep around 4:30pm.

Tuesday, 4/19/2011

12 snatches @ 95#
6 hand stand push ups

Time: 23:08. This didn’t look so awful written on the board, but man, 7 rounds of this was nasty. 5 was a struggle. I have no idea how I gutted out 2 more rounds. I quit several times during the WOD only to get right back to it to keep plugging along. I know that we always say that CrossFit makes you a better person. This is exactly why. It’s an allegory for life. When things get hard, do you quit? Even if you do “quit”, do you come back to it anyway? This is why I want my kids to do this. It will make them mentally strong.

I went the whole time without scaling, which I am proud of. I will say though, that if this were competition, none of my HSPU would have counted. I still need depth and ROM there.

If this were competition… those word make me think of something I saw recently. Web Smith (of SICFIT fame) recently posted a link to an article where a CrossFitter was quoting Blair Morrison. You can read the article for yourself, but boiled down, here are the main take home points:

This dude is already burnt out on the CrossFit Open.
It seems like some competitors are too.

In the quote from Blair Morrison, he says “Well… I am officially “Opened” out.”. He goes on to talk about why, but I have to say, somewhat reluctantly, that I agree with him.

I really don’t want to come off like I am complaining here. There is a really bright side to all of this in that I have been forced to work on some skills over the past weeks that I would likely otherwise brush off or leave for “another time” like heavy cleans, 24″ box jumps, etc.

It seemed like a great idea and something that would be lots of fun at first, but for me, it has been anything but. It’s been a pain in the ass to find times to get to the gym to do these workouts since they are not part of the regularly scheduled programming. It’s been stressful to think about how I am going to get my normal programming FOR HEALTH in so that I am not sore for and able to even attempt these WODs. I sort of miss the days when I could go to the gym, feel competitive if I wanted to, and really just have fun.

A few weeks ago, the term “Leader boarding” came out… where you check the leaderboard constantly to see where people are ranked. I can’t say that I suffer from this. In fact, I barely remember to submit my scores. If I am over this whole thing already, I can’t imagine what someone who has to check the scores every 5 minutes must feel like.

It’s almost over and then we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming. The worst part of all of this is that I actually feel bad for wishing that this were over with already so I could go back to “just working out” and having fun.

By the way, I realize that the second half of this post completely contradicts the first part. Mostly, I am feeling just burnt out on it and ranting…

This Week

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I didn’t get to be nearly as active as I wanted to this week. I usually try to get 3-5 workouts in. Great if I can do 5, but this week, I only hit the minimum of 3. Oh well. I felt really tired this week like my energy has just been sucked out of me.

We (my company) recently moved all of our equipment into the new datacenter, so Jose, Anar, and myself have been spending a lot of time there to work on the servers and configure them. Hopefully, soon, we won’t have to go back there so much. I think being in that windowless, loud server room all day zaps my energy.

We are still waiting on little Baby G to make his/her appearance. I don’t know who wants it out more, me or her, but it would be an understatement that we are ready to not be a pregnant couple anymore.

Monday, 4/11/2011: Skipped. Exhausted. Went to visit my grandmother while V was out with Paula.

Tuesday, 4/12/2011

Back Squats: 10 – 8 – 6 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 6, then 20 @ 50% of 1 rep max

Weights: 220# – 240# – 270# – 290# – 300# – 310# – 220# – 175#

I was pretty happy with this, but I was really sore for the rest of the week!

Wednesday, 4/13/2011

Dragged myself into the gym. I felt like it was a good day to face one of my fears, the 24″ box jump. The WOD was:

5 rounds:

15 box jumps
7 push jerk @ 155#
Rest 2 minutes

I have to say that I debated using 155#, but it turned out OK. I ended up getting faster on each round. My first round was the slowest b/c I messed up cleaning the weight, had to drop, then re-clean. After that round, though, I did all of the push jerks unbroken. The best part of it all is that now I can cycle my 24″ box jumps without fear! Added bonus, I beat the lunch class =)

Thursday, 4/14/2011: Had to go grocery shopping. No time.

Friday, 4/15/2011: Got to the gym, hung out with V for about 30 minutes then realized I could barely keep my eyes open. Looked at the weights and realized that this wasn’t happening. Sorry, Fio!

Saturday, 4/16/2011

WOD 11.4 for the CrossFit Open. Yay.

10 minute “AMRAP” (LOL, are you fucking kidding?!)

60 bar facing burpees (have to jump over the bar after each burpee)
30 overhead squats @ 120#
10 muscle ups

I took the burpees at a moderate pace so as not to gas myself out. I knew wasn’t going to get to the muscle ups, so I just tried to get as much done as I could. I ended up with 84 reps total. If I could do it again, I would focus more on squat snatching the weight after I dropped. Still though, I am happy with this.

I spent the rest of the day working on things that needed to get done around the house. I hung a little shelf outside out back window for the cats to use when they go outside through the window cat door, I cleaned our shower, I weeded out flowerbeds, and lastly, I built an HDTV antenna on the cheap that works WAY better then the crappy one that I PAID for. Check it out:

Maker Workshop – DTV Antenna & Steadicam on MAKE: television from MAKE magazine on Vimeo.

More WODs

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Don’t have a lot of time, so this will be quick…

Tuesday, 4/5/2011

DeadliftsÂ and Double Unders

15 dead lifts
25 double unders
12 dead lifts
25 double unders
9Â dead lifts
25 double unders
6Â dead lifts
25 double unders

Time: 6:15. After “Cindy” on Monday, I was tired and really sore.

Wednesday, 4/6/2011

Again, I was really sore from “Cindy” on Monday, so I did the WOD (“Running Grace”), but scaled it and didn’t do it for time. I did:

10 Clean and Jerk @ 95#
500m row

Again, no idea what my time was. I wasn’t going fast. I just needed to move around and loosen up.

Friday, 4/8/2011

I got off of work a bit early so I headed over to the box. No kids showed up for V’s class, so she offered to judge for me on the CF Open Games WOD 11.3.

5 Minute AMRAP – Clean and Jerk @ 165#

I completed 13 rounds. Fun.

After that, I did the day’s posted WOD which was:

15 front squats @ 95#
300m row
10 KB Swings @ 1.5 pood

I wasn’t pushing or going fast. I wasn’t really even paying attention to the clock. I took a water break, and helped Fio get into some stretching contraption. I guess my time would have been somewhere between 12 and 13 minutes, but either way, I wasn’t trying to break any records. I finished in 14:34.

“Cindy”

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I was admittedly apprehensive about going to class last night, but sucked it up and dragged my ass there. It was actually kind of cool because one of the other guys who goes to the gym owns a media company and was taking video of a bunch of us working out. This will eventually be part of a commercial, I am told.

Anyway… if you don’t know what “Cindy” is, it’s a 20 minute AMRAP of:

5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 air squats

According to my last blog about this (about 1.5 years ago), I got 15 rounds, which I am pretty sure isn’t right. I think I got 17 rounds, but whatever.

Last night, I got 18 + 4 pull ups. Here’s the math (geeky, I know):

18 * 5 + 4 = 94 pull ups
18 * 10 = 180 push ups
18 * 15 = 270 squats

OUCH! That’s almost a MURPH (20 rounds)!!

The kicker is that the pull ups were almost all butterfly kipped which is a huge accomplishment for me. Kindel was there helping Fio to coach and she really helped me out. It’s interesting how different coaching styles can help or hinder you.

There are some coaches that I respond really well to. They tell me to do something and my inner dialog says “yes, I will do that”. There are some coaches that just get tuned out. I don’t do this on purpose or out of disrespect, it just happens.

Anyway, I am really happy with my results last night. Even though I didn’t make the board (or even come close), I think I put forth a really good effort. Plus, I am really sore today =)

CF Open WOD #2

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I have to admit that this weekend, I was really struggling to figure out why on Earth I signed myself up for this thing. I was feeling pretty OK Saturday morning when I woke up. I knew that this WOD would be tough for me b/c of the 24″ box jumps. See, I NEVER jump that box. If that height is Rx’d for the day’s workout, I just step b/c I have always just thought that I would bust my ass.

Anyway, WOD 11.2 was a 15 minute AMRAP of:

9 dead lifts @ 155#
12 CF games style push ups
15 box jumps @ 24″

I was in heat three and saw most of the guys getting in the 7 round range. I guess that I developed the expectation of getting in that range as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t even come close. I got 5 rounds plus 9 deads and 5 push ups. Meh.

I had to take the box jumps really slow and one at a time out of straight up fear that I was going to bush my shit open.

Here’s the part that I’ve been running through my head over and over. If I had done this WOD in class, I would have thought nothing of my score. For all intents and purposes, I got in a GREAT workout. Hell, it’s HUGE for me that I jumped every single time onto a box that is a height that I previously thought was no possible for me. I would have rang the bell!

Within the context of the CF games “sectionals” though, man, this threw me for a loop as I got one of the lowest scores in the box. I can see why certain people in the gym enjoy this. If you are good at it and kicking ass, it’s sort of nice to see how your rank COMPETATIVELY with everyone else that is doing this. For me, well, it’s a little different. I don’t really enjoy seeing how close to the bottom of the barrel I am. I was pretty bummed about this for most of the day even though I told myself that I wouldn’t do that, that it really doesn’t matter, and that I don’t care.

Victoria did a great job of putting it into context and adding some perspective which logically, I completely get, comprehend, and understand. I guess I just don’t truly believe it, otherwise I wouldn’t have felt so bad.

It’s funny, all I could think about was “great, way to bring the rest of the team down with a crap score”. Oh well.

I love this community, this sport, etc, but I am really starting to think that competing is really just not for me until I can figure out how to just suck it up, say I did the best I could, and let it go.