Chug-A-Lug

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It sucks to not be able to do workouts with heavy weight like I so love to do, but I am almost recovered. Still, I am keeping weights light on workouts that could possibly cause my elbow to flare up again. Patience… patience…

Last Friday (5/7/2010) was heavy metal night again. For me it was like, soft rock night, I guess. The real WOD was to do 10 muscle snatches, 10 burpees, and 10 pull ups, but that was too much of a risk for me given my elbow pains. Deric modified it to the following, which still sucked.

3 rounds, not for time:

10 snatch balances (95lb)
10 burpees
20 GHD Sit Ups

I did mess up a few of the snatch balances. It really is a lot about focus and core strength. You can’t really let your mind wander on these.

Saturday (5/8/2010), I helped judge and coach the Epic challenge preliminary round. It was great to see people push themselves and make really awesome break-throughs.

Tuesday (5/11/2010) Endurance WOD for distance:

Run/Rest

4 min/3 min
2 min/30 sec
1 min/3 min
2 min/30 sec
4 min

I named this WOD “Chug-A-Lug” because that’s how I felt while doing it. Running sucks… blah blah yadda yadda.

Wednesday (5/12/2010), still recovering on the elbow:

4 rounds

400m run
7 Barbell complex (dead left, hang clean, push press, back squat, push press)

Man, I wanted to go Rx on this one SO badly (135lb), but I tried a hang clean with just 95lb and I could see how it could start getting to me when I am tired and form goes to shit. I decided to play it really safe and go with 65lb. It was still a great WOD and I finished in 14:50.

One thing in particular that I noticed was the my first 400m was really easy. That’s REALLY abnormal. The rest of them weren’t too bad either.

Today’s endurance WOD looks horrible, but I guess you can’t cherry pick =)

Scaling Down

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In my last post, I mentioned that I didn’t work out on Saturday b/c my left elbow was bothering me. It seems to still be doing that, so I had to scale last night’s WOD. When I came in, I tried doing a clean with 95lb, a light weight for me, and my arm said there was no way.

The WOD was a team AMRAP. There were 4 stations:

C2 Rower
Box Jumps
Squat Cleans
Sit Ups

For this one, everyone works at their station until the rower has rowed 500m, then you rotate. I had to run instead of row (400m) and I did medicine ball squat cleans instead of using the barbell. They counted at a 2:1. Dave was nice enough to count my run as a row =).

Our team numbers look like this:

	Box Jump	Squat Clean	Sit Up	Row/Run
	33	10	47	500
	27	12	57	500
	26	7	66	500
	47	8	55	500
	26	5	55	500
	38	10	50	500
	32	10	70	500
	35	6	52	500
Totals	264	68	452	4000

I don’t remember who did what. I just remember that I started with the run, so the top, right “500” is mine and V started on box jumps, so “33” is hers. You can figure it out. Out grand total team score was 4784. Pretty good and, no pain!

Endurance. I haz none.

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Today, a bit late in the week, I will admit, I got to my first of 2 endurance WODs. I have to admit, while I am trying to stay positive while doing these WODs (hell, it’s better than doing nothing, right?), I get REALLY discouraged while doing them and after when I review my performance.

I don’t know if I will ever be any good at this stuff, but I guess I will keep trying.

This morning’s WOD was:

4x5min run with 3min rest in between rounds.

I chose to just run around the block. Then, I measured it. I think I got a total of about 2.17 miles. I did 7 laps + to the corner (I started running to the left of the green marker). I think that is roughly a 9:12 mile pace. Not TOO bad for a little fat-guy running in the morning.

Quick Recap

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Can’t really write too much right now, but just wanted to get this down.

Last Friday (4/30/2010) we went to OLY night, which is always a blast. We worked on some overhead squats as well as more OLY technique. The WOD was “Grace” which is 30 clean & jerk’s for time.

I did it in 4:15.

I think had I not eaten crappy Mexican food for lunch, I MAY have gotten a sub 4:00 time. I had to take a few seconds here and there because I felt my stomach doing back flips. Not fun.

Saturday (5/1/2010), Nikki came up with something that looked fun, but I couldn’t do it. She did a 21-15-9 of thrusters and burpee box jumps. I had to skip it because I have been having a good amount of pain in my left elbow when I try to lift something.

I talked to Mike Tillman and he gave me some stretches and exercises to do to rehab it. He did advise me to stay away from pulling type things for a week or so. Oh well…

Endurance and Power Cleans

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This week, per Dave’s suggestion, I am adding in two CrossFit Endurance WODs. Monday (4/26/2010) was the first one:

10x Row 125m / 1 min rest

My set times were:

1) 22.9	6) 23.7
2) 23.0	7) 25.3
3) 23.0	8) 24.3
4) 24.1	9) 25.1
5) 25.2	10) 24.6

This was harder than I had anticipated. The willingness to push hard was gone by set 4. Still though, my last set was less than 2s different than my first.

Tuesday (4/27/2010) night, I had originally planned on skipping, but then saw the WOD and thought it looked fun, so I went. It was:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Power Clean (135lb Rx) with 200m run after each set

My time was 18:11. As usual, the running sucked. I just feel like a huge lumbering fool whenever I run any distance. Maybe I just should just accept the fact that I will just always suck at running. It just doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Sigh.

At Wladi’s suggestion, we followed the WOD up with a Tabata Row. I went a total of 868m. This is the first time I have actually tracked how far I have went. Pretty interesting.

5k and the Filthy Fifty

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Last Saturday (4/17/2010), we had the finals for the 5k challenge that we had been participating in at CFCP. When we ran this one the first time, four weeks ago, my time was 32:31. This time around, I did it in 30:50. That’s 1:40 in savings. Not too much of an improvement, but at least I didn’t go backwards.

The most hilarious part of the whole day was that I won 2nd place for men in my age group. The fact that I won anything that had to do with running is straight up sad. There must have been only 2 of us =)

Over the CFCP group did really well! V got 2nd place in her age group as well, so, now we have matching prize mugs that we toast with while we drink tea. I also won a snazzy marathon towel as a door prize.

There were a few things that really got to me about this run. The first was that I had not even seen “Mile 2” yet when I could already hear that people were starting to finish. Wow, LAME. Next, after “Mile 1”, I didn’t see a marker for a while. When I saw another one coming up, I thought, “that’s GOT to be mile 3”. When I got up to it and saw that it was “Mile 2”, it was like someone took the wind out of my sails. Still, I pressed on. Running is mental and it’s a battle for me every single damn time.

Yesterday (4/21/2010), we had the pleasure of doing the “Filthy Fifty”. This WOD is a horrible “chipper” which means that it’s just a long list of stuff that you “chip away” at. This list consist of:

50 Box jumps
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
50 Walking Lunges (50 steps)
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

My time was a slow and horrible 36:44. Everything was great and went really quickly until I got to wall balls. I think it took me 15 minutes to do the wall balls and burpees. By the time I got to the double unders, which I already suck at, I couldn’t really lift my arms. I don’t want to do this one again for a LONG time.

In other news, I talked to Dave last night about how I’m progressing. I am noticing that my pants are all tighter! What? I eat paleo, almost never cheat, and workout 3x/week at CFCP. What the hell is going on?

My body IS changing. I am noticing that I am more solid in lots of spots and even my stomach is a lot less fatty, it’s just, bigger. Maybe there’s muscle growing under there and still fat on top… I don’t know.

At any rate, Dave suggested that I add in Crossfit Endurance 2x/week when I’m not at CFCP. I am excited about starting this and to see if it helps to increase my results and performance.

Snatches and Soreness

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Last night at CFCP was awesome. I really love the Friday evening class. The Olympic lifts that we are learning are SO much and even more fun when you know how to do them correctly.

We worked more on the Snatch last night and got into doing more of the exercises with weight (presses, snatch balance, heaving snatch balance, etc). The WOD was “Isabelle”. I did this one on Monday in Albany, but I didn’t go with the Rx weight. Last night, I did.

Again, “Isabelle” is 30 snatches for time. They don’t have to be full squat snatches with the OHS, they can be power snatches if you are strong enough.

Last night I got this done is 6:16… almost 3x longer than it took me with 95lbs on Monday. Whatever, I am happy with that.

After the WOD, I wanted to try to go a bit heavier on the snatch. I was able to get 155lbs. I quit there as I was tired.

This morning for open gym, I was on the fence as to whether or not I wanted to work out. I am sore as hell, tired, and well, just not really feeling that hot. When we got there, the WOD was:

3 rounds 1:30 on, 0:30 off of:

Dead lift (225lbs)
KB Swings (24kg)
Pull Ups

I didn’t count my reps on this and really just did the best I could with how I felt. After the first round, I really didn’t want to do any more. You can’t stop though, unless you want to be the target of endless ridicule, so I just kept going.

We did some grocery shopping after open gym, then got home, ate and took a really long nap. Almost 3 hours, I would say. We had a goal to clean the rest of the house today, which we did some of, but not all. It’s been like 2 months that we are trying to do this. Maybe before we leave for MS, it will get done. Who knows.

Tomorrow, we have the finals for the 5k challenge. I am really tired and sore, so, this will be an interesting experience, for sure.

Albany

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Albany was a pretty nice little city from what I saw of it. I guess I really didn’t see TOO much, though. At the very least, I found one good place to eat (The Barnsider Restaurant). The people that I came here to work with were really nice. I know I posted a rant about offices just a few days ago and, for the most part, I do really feel all of that stuff, but I didn’t really mean for it to reflect on the people there. They were really a pleasure to work with.

Big thanks to Crossfit Albany for letting me drop in while I was in town. Here are the WODs that I got while I was visiting…

Monday (4/12/2010)

30 Snatches for time
1 Mile Run – Untimed

We started out with some Bergner warm up, which is always good. I got the 30 snatches done in 2:26. The Rx weight for this was 135lb but I opted to go with 95lb instead as I wanted to work on my form a bit. I have never tried to snatch more than 105lb. Last time I tried that much, it went up easy, but I still think I can get better on my lifts. Getting that down is more important to me than throwing around 135lb at this point in time.

I know you will be surprised to read this, but I felt very sluggish during the run. I started out sort of quick then died off. I never really got into that groove where it became easy. I tried to focus on pose the whole time and I think I’m getting better at it. Still, though, it came and went. At least now, I know when I am swinging my legs with my hip flexors.

Wednesday (4/14/2010)

Before I left the hotel for the office, I hit up the “workout room” and used the treadmill for some Tabata Sprints (Slight Incline 10 mph)

Later, at Crossfit Albany, we did the following:

3×5 Strict Presses

Followed by:

“Running Cindy” (AMRAP in 20 minutes of {400m run, 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 air squats})

Followed by:

3×10 Hang Squat Clean with no dip (45lb Bar)

Starting off with the presses was pretty cool, actually. It was fun to have a little strength WOD built in before the actual WOD. My weights were 95lb, 115lb, & 135lb. They were all easy. I guess I had no frame of reference as I haven’t done much strict pressing since starting Crossfit. It reminded me of the old gym days doing military presses. At least now, I know for next time, I can probably start with 135lb.

Incidentally, the warm up for this WOD took it out of me, a bit. It was 3 rounds of {7 (ring rows, lunges, ring dips)}. When I woke up this morning, I was sore in my upper back and chest… I think this is why. Ring dips kill me every time.

Anyway, moving on.

Running Cindy went well for me. I didn’t take any breaks, which makes me happy. Well, it didn’t really make me happy during the workout, but thinking about it now does. I am getting to the point, I think where I am starting to rest less. Sometimes you need to just keep moving even if it’s not at the pace you really want. I didn’t take any walk breaks on my runs, which is kind of amazing to me. In total, I got 6 full rounds + 200 meters. When you think about it, in 20 minutes, I did:

6 – 400m runs + 200m = 2600m … that’s 1/2 a 5k, which is a little over 1.5 miles.
30 pull ups
60 push ups
90 air squats

Pretty good…

The last part of this workout was what they referred to as the “tall clean” drill which is basically a hang squat clean but without the “dip & shrug” part. The object of this is very similar to a “snatch balance”. You have to get under the bar without moving the bar very much, if, at all. Obviously, this is more difficult as you have to get under the bar when it’s at your waist as opposed to getting under it when it’s racked across your back. It took me a few tries to get the idea, but eventually, I got it and could see how this could really help with the squat clean technique. This was particularly challenging too as I was really worn out from all the previous stuff.

Regarding the rest of the stuff about the trip… mostly, it was pretty good. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express which was really nice and very comfortable. They had a hot breakfast every morning which is always good for someone like me. My rental was a Hybrid Toyota Camry. I had never driven a hybrid before, so it was pretty interesting. Honestly, the best part about this car was that it had bluetooth integration. It’s so great for your car to just be your hands-free device the moment you get in.

The trip home… well, that didn’t go so well.

If you were reading any of my Facebook posts yesterday, you could probably tell that I was in a bit of a mood. All of the problems stemmed from missing my connection in Newark. I was supposed to fly from Albany – > Newark, then Newark – > Austin. The flight coming IN to Albany was 1.5 hours late. That means, no connection for me, and that’s the LAST flight coming out of Newark to Austin. Awesome. All I wanted to do was be home.

Anyway… at the desk in Albany, I asked the Continental rep what the best thing to do for my baggage was. It was clear that I wouldn’t make my connection so, he recommended “short checking” the bag so that I could pick it up at the baggage claim in Newark.

When I got off the plane in Newark, I hauled ass to the continental desk where I got a bit upset. They informed me that they would not cover my hotel as the plane delays were due to ATC (air traffic control). I had a few words for the woman behind the desk, but then realized that their policies are not her fault. Oh well. Turns out most of the hotels in the area were booked as this whole volcano thing caused lots of flights to be cancelled which, in turn, results in, you guessed it… people getting stranded in Newark and needing a hotel.

Luckily for me, I am on business travel, which means, (sorry Ben) my company gets to pay for continentals incompetence.

Back to the lady at the desk. She called a few hotels in the area and they were all booked. Finally, she called the Hilton and they had rooms, so, to the Hilton I would be going. I asked her, then, what would be best for my bag. She said to leave it and it would be on the plane tomorrow morning. OK.

Now, I take the monorail thing 3 stops over to P4 which is where the hotel shuttles do their pick ups and drop offs. I wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, I call the hotel at which point, they inform me that they pick up at the bottom of the hour. It was 9:10. Awesome.

Just for grins, I called Continentals baggage services to see what was up with my bag. I had a feeling that it was spinning around the carousel back in Terminal A (4 stops away on the monorail). I was right. I asked if they could pick it up and re-route it back onto my flight for tomorrow. The rep said that I could NOT and that if I didn’t go and pick it up, I would have to file a lost baggage claim when I got back to Austin, and that they would send it.

Argh.

So I get back on the damn monorail and go back to Terminal A where my bag is in the baggage services center WITH A TAG ON IT THAT HAS INSTRUCTION TO RE-ROUTE IT FOR MY FLIGHT IN THE MORNING. I am about ready to scream at this point. Also, it’s past 9:30pm and if I don’t get back to P4 (4 stops away, remember?) in time for the shuttle, I will have to wait another hour for the next one.

At this point, I just took a cab to the hotel. I was done dealing with people’s gross incompetence at well, everything.

I got to the hotel, checked in, ordered room service, talked to V for a bit and went to sleep. No, my room service was NOT paleo. No, I don’t care. It was the only time on this trip whe
re I didn’t make a great food choice and I’m OK with that.

Now, I am waiting to board my morning flight. I had better not have any more problems.

P.S. My flight landed 35 minutes early! It’s good to be home…

Offices

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Going on business trips always makes me remember all of the things that I absolutely DON’T miss about working in an office:

Public bathrooms i.e. no privacy.

I hate when you have to time your bathroom visits based on complicated statistical studies of “bathroom peak usage time”. It sucks. I’m happy my hotel room is literally a 2 minute drive from this place.

Wearing uncomfortable clothing.

Business casual clothing sucks when you are skinny and the clothes look good on you. When you’re a fat bastard like me, business casual just looks bad. Couple that with the fact that I haven’t really upgraded my business wardrobe in while, well, it’s just not pretty. Don’t get me wrong… I am not a slob or “not presentable”. I just feel like I exude “I shouldn’t be wearing these clothes”.

Awkward elevator talk.

There’s nothing fucking worse than getting into an elevator with people who feel like they need to talk to each other. Why are people so uncomfortable with silence? See, if you KNOW someone that gets onto the elevator, feel free to engage in shitty small talk without involving everyone else. But, for God’s sake, why do you need to make a comment then look around the elevator to see who else cares. NO ONE CARES. SHUT UP.

Not being able to make faces when people (managers) request absolutely ridiculous things.

I will be the first to admit that if you ask something completely absurd of me, I will make a face. Sorry, can’t help it. Managers seem to do this a lot. I guess it’s because they, most of the time, don’t really understand how shit works, so, they ask completely absurd shit of people. When I have to go to an office, I have to exercise quite a bit of restraint to not make faces at people.

Cubicles.

Cubicles just suck. The mere site of a bunch of cubicles in an office gives me chills and makes me want to puke. I don’t know how I worked in that kind of environment for so long. I don’t know how other people do it either. To be surrounded by little grey walls all day is just fucking depressing.

Not being able to see outside.

There’s something about being able to see outside that makes you feel better. When I work at home, I can look out my windows to see what’s going on. Even if I never actually step food outside, it makes me feel good just to know that “outside” is right there.

People that don’t know how to end conversations.

People that don’t know how to end conversations make things so uncomfortable. If you need me to do something, walk over to where I’m sitting and ask me if I can do it. If I can do it I will. If I can’t I will tell you why. When the conversation is done, you can just say “Thanks! Bye!” and walk away. You don’t need to do that weird talking to yourself mumbling thing then slowly back away from me. What the hell is wrong with you?

People who repeat things ad-nauseam.

Yes. You told me. Yes. I got it. I got it the first time. Yes. Yes. I got it the second, third, and fourth times you told me in order to re-word whatever it is you are saying. I got it. I got it. Please don’t make me stand around at your desk any longer when you have told me what needs to happen five times five different ways when I have a ton of work to do. I. got. it.

Not having access to a kitchen which leads to me not being able to eat whenever I want to.

Yes, I work at home. Yes, I am spoiled. I can eat whatever I want whenever I want. If i need to make food because there’s nothing available, I can. If I need to run and pick something up, I can. Why? BECAUSE I’M AT MY HOUSE. Having to be at an office all day is just … soul sucking.

Thank goodness this isn’t normal.

This week’s stuff…

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This week has been busy. As it’s getting closer to the wedding, I am finding that more and more of my “free time” is taken up with planning, making decisions and really, just trying to figure stuff out.

Today, Sunday (4/11/2010), I am flying to Albany for work. Although I hate traveling for my job, I am a little excited about this one as I will get to visit CrossFit Albany! Also, today, I am finding myself to be REALLY sore in almost every body part due to this week’s workouts.

On Wednesday (4/7/2010), we did this:

50 ring dips
400m run
50 push ups
400m run
50 HSPU
400m run

My time was 21:51.

This workout sucked. Really. It sucked. It was really hard. I tried a few HSPU before the WOD started and planned to try to do SOME of them as Rx’d during the WOD, but that didn’t happen. I was able to do about 25 of the ring dips Rx’d before I could no long hold myself up. I had to put one foot on a box at that point.

I went out for my run. On the way back, I was thinking “Ok, 50 push ups… this is cake… bust â€˜em out”. Yeah. That didn’t happen either. I came back in, got down and did about 6 at which point I looked my coach and said “I’m not even out of breath! My chest is just shot.”. She laughed. Ha ha. I ended up doing 2-3 at a time until I eventually got to 50.

Another run, no problems.

I’ll bet you can guess what happened with my HSPU. =)

They didn’t really work out. Dave came outside and told me that I could do negatives. I tried that and made it until about 10 reps. At that point, I couldn’t hold the handstand anymore, so I moved over to using the box in the pike push up position, thing. That sucked. It sucked hard. I am still sore.

Friday (4/9/2010) was another awesome heavy metal night at CFCP. We essentially did a repeat of the first week, working on the Bergner warm up and snatch, but then we did the Bergner warm up and skill transfers with weight. That was SO much fun! Dave had us do a really short WOD consisting of the following:

5 muscle snatch
5 snatch balance
5 overhead squats

This one wasn’t for time so I didn’t time it or push hard to finish fast. This was strictly to work on form on all three of these movements. Also, I didn’t use a lot of weight, just 65lbs. It’s nice to do these WODs where you can focus on the form and learning the movement.

When we got home, we were both itching to do something else. Victoria came up with a terrible fast WOD. We jokingly called it “sorta-bata”. It’s basically Tabata sprints based on the 20/10 interval/rest, but instead, you 3s of rest. The caveat is that you have to do 4 burpees before you can rest. So, sprint, burpee, rest, repeat 8x. The faster you do your burpees, the more rest time you get. I wanted to puke by the 3rd round.

Saturday (4/10/2010) we came to open gym at CrossFit Cedar Park and did the following partner WOD:

Red stripe run (~200m)
100 burpees
Red stripe run (~200m)
100 squats
Red stripe run (~200m)
50 of those things where you lay on the grown, raise your legs, and your partner throws your feet down

This was a partner WOD. The rules were:

You could split the work any way you want to.
You can’t do any work without your partner. Meaning, if your partner’s lagging on the run, you have to wait for them to get back before you can get to work on your next thing.

Me and V finished in ~13 minutes (somewhere between 13 and 14) which I am pretty happy with. I thought we did a great job, actually. We split the burpees and squats by alternating 5 each. That worked out really well. I think we were a little more haphazard with the last ab thing, but we still finished quickly,

I said to V this weekend “do you notice that you’re not always last anymore?” and she said she did and noted that we have quite a few new people. So, after being at CrossFit Cedar Park for almost a year we have definitely made gains. We finished this WOD sort of middle of the field. What I love about this group is that everyone hung around when they finished and cheered on the people that were still going.

After this WOD we went back inside and Dave the destroyer made us do planks. At that point in time, my upper body didn’t really have much left to give. We did three 1-minute holds. I was able to do the first one all the way through. The second and third had at least 2 drops. There was nothing left there. Oh well. Maybe a few days of recovery are in order.

So, now, right this second (1pm on Sunday) I am on a plane headed to Albany (well, DC to get a connection, anyway). I got lucky on this trip and got 1st class tickets on the way there. Honestly, I didn’t even realize they were 1st class when I booked it but here I am. I don’t know if I will be able to go back to coach again. =)

The main difference I notice is in food service and quality. Sure, the seats are bigger and more comfy and you get to get on and off the plane first, but the food is noticeably better and served on actual real plates. It’s really weird to me. Also, there’s one flight attendant dedicated to the 8 seats in first class, so you can get what you want when you want it. Weird.

Anyway. When I land in DC, I’ll have about an hour to get connecting flight to Albany. Once there, I need to get my car. I decided to go with Hertz this time. After renting from that P.O.S company last time, I won’t use a little guy anymore. Usually, I like to patronize small businesses, but that last rental company was just horrible. Just horrible.

I am trying to decide what day to go to CrossFit Albany. Truth be told, I am leaning toward Tuesday and Wednesday as I am really freaking sore. Yes, even my hands are sore. Go figure. My only argument for going on Monday would be to talk to some of the people there to see if they can recommend any good places in town to get some paleo food. That’s really the worst thing about traveling for work.

Trying to stay paleo on the road is relatively difficult as you really can’t be sure of lots of ingredients when every meal is prepared by someone else. Sure, you can stay “low-carb” but avoiding grains, bread, pastas, potatoes, but to be truly paleo to the degree that WE do is hard. Good luck finding grassfed, free range, or even just “organic” meat out in restaurants. Lame. Hopefully the guys at CF Albany will have a few suggestions.