Author Archives: bgoldstein

Back to CFCP

Thank goodness we are back. We really missed CFCP, in case you haven’t noticed. Working out in other boxes really drove home the fact that CFCP is totally awesome and really, the best place you could ever go to work out.

Last night’s fun consisted of:

25 burpees
50 squats
25 burpees
50 back extensions
25 burpees
50 push ups
25 burpees
50 sit ups

Originally, the burpees were supposed to be 500m rows, but Nikki made an executive decision to sub them. I am assuming probably because we didn’t have enough rowers. This took me 21:18 to do.

What went well?

The squats and back extensions were OK.

What needs improvement?

My sit ups always need improvement. My push ups were OK, but I was running into a lot of muscle failure, so I could only get 1-3 push ups at a time. Sandwiched between 25 burpees, it was rough.

Really though, what needs improvement is my “keep going”. I took lots of breaks and did the burpees pretty slowly.

Overall feel

Not too bad. I would have liked to break 20 minutes on this one, but really, after the month we just had, I am happy to be back, sweating, moving, and going in the right direction. I was definitely breathing hard, but I found that the weak link was my upper body just giving out.

Last NYC WOD

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I forgot to blog this one…

Friday, June 25th, 2010

40 double unders
30 box jumps (22″)
20 KB Swings (1.5 pood)

My time was 26:20.

What went well?

The swings were great. I did the first round unbroken but then needed to split them up after that.

What needs improvement?

Box jumps for sure. I always tell myself that I am going to jump, then do whatever the first exercise is (in this case double unders, which are coming along…) then pretty much just step the whole time.

Overall feel

I felt better on this WOD that I had on some of the previous ones while we were away, but I think this a good one to illustrate how what you eat really does affect your performance. I got really tired really fast on this one. I gassed out pretty quickly and just did my best to keep going. I think it would be interesting to try this one again after a month or 2 back on paleo to see if I can do any better.

Weights and Measures

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As promised, here are the measurements that I have taken. I will take them again on August 1st, 2010 to see where I stand.

Bust (right at the nipple line): 44 14/16″ (44.875″)
Chest (just under bust): 41 5/16″ (41.3125″)
Waist (smallest part above belly button): 40 4/16″ (40.25″)
Hips (biggest part): 42 7/16″ (42.4375″)
Thighs (biggest part): Right 26 7/16″ (26.4375″) | Left 26 1/2″ (25.5″)
Calves (biggest part): Right 16 5/16″ (16.3125″) | Left 16″
Upper Arm (biggest part above elbow): Right 14 9/16″ (14.5625″) | Left 14 12/16″ (14.75″)
Forearm (biggest part below elbow): Right 12″ | Left 11 12/16″ (11.75″)

Body Weight: 221lbs

Body Fat Analysis (caliper test)

Chest: 26mm
Abdomen: 34mm
Thigh: 25mm

Total Body Fat: 24.4%

Fat Mass: 53.9lb

Fat Free Mass: 167.1lb

The Price We Pay

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We are back in the great state of Texas after being gone for about a month. It was a fantastic tour of weddings, receptions, CrossFit boxes, our honeymoon, lots of site-seeing and visiting with family and friends. I wouldn’t trade the last month for anything in the world.

If I HAD to make one complaint, it would be that our paleo eating habits went out the window. Really, really far out the window. We had lots of plans for trying to stick to it as much as possible, but well, that didn’t really work either for a variety of reasons which I will not go into because really, it’s just a bunch of lame ass excuses and laziness. Granted, you only get to honeymoon one time (hopefully) and sometimes you just need to do whatever it is that you want to do. But, there’s always a price.

I am back from this trip finding myself feeling like I have gained weight. My clothing is not really as comfortable as I would like and really, I am feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin. I hate this feeling.

Being that I have amazing tools at my disposal to help deal with this sort of thing, for the next 30 days, I will be doing my own paleo challenge. That means that I will be on a strict paleo diet doing my best to not cheat at all except for maybe a paleo dessert here and there, but definitely not often.

I will be doing a CrossFit WOD 2-3x week along with WODs from the CrossFit Endurance site at least 2x week. I will also be food logging. I know… I know you would love to see a picture of every single thing that I eat, but sorry, I am using plain old pen and paper this time. I will be submitting my food log to my coaches at CFCP and reviewing it with them to help tweak my diet.

I imagine that somewhere along these 30 days, I will start weighing and measuring my food to get a better idea of exactly how much of what I am eating. I have been very hesitant to do this in the past as I think it’s sort of neurotic, but at this point, I want results and I will do whatever I need to do to get them.

I am tired of feeling like this and tired of feeling like I will never have a body that I can be proud of.

Speaking of weighing and measuring, I will also be weighing and measuring myself. Tonight, before I go to sleep, I will ask V to take my measurements. Next time I am at CFCP, I will take my weight ( I don’t have a scale at home ) and get my body fat assessed. I have put off doing this as well as I am REALLY afraid of the result. I am guessing that I am somewhere between 30% – 40%, but we will see.

On August 1st, I will retake all of the above (measurements, weight, and body) and post whatever the changes are. It may work and it may not work. Whatever the results, at least at that point, I will know what I need to do to tweak my program.

It’s time to pay the piper.

R.J.

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Whoa! R.J. (a Hero WOD) is really tough. When I looked at the main site last night and saw this WOD, my first thought was literally “fuck that shit, are they serious?”. Yeah… I’ll tell you what I really think.

Here’s the WOD… do you think the same that I did?

5 rounds

800m run
5 – 15ft rope ascents
50 push ups

Riiiiiigght.

DNF’d. My first one. I only did 2 rounds and it took me 27:something. I say “something” because the “coach” (more like, the guy running the class) had to run across the box to get his stop watch as they don’t have a large red LED clock. I also say “something” because I really just didn’t have it in me this morning and I am just happy I got to move around a bit.

I wanted to start a new format for how I write about my workouts. I know most of you who read this don’t care what I write. I write this for myself mostly to track what I do and look back on it. Who needs books and writing, right?

So here goes…

What went well in this WOD?

My 2 800m runs went well. I didn’t feel too much pain and I didn’t have to stop for walking breaks. Taking the stairs back up to the 3rd floor after each really sucks though. My push ups were OK as well.

What needs improvement?

My pull ups are definitely not where they used to be. I am having quite a bit of pain on my hands from all of the ripping lately and I just don’t seem to be getting the rhythm of the kipping pull up back as quickly as I would have liked. I think it’s time to buy some gloves as my elbow is no longer hurting.

What was the overall feeling for this WOD?

Tired and sluggish. We have been eating really poorly so this is expected. Garbage in, garbage out. I am SO ready to get back home, eating quality paleo food. I can’t wait to start food logging, tweaking, dialing, and basically feeling better again.

The pizza, burgers, bagels, and whatever else are all delicious, but they are killing me. Am I being lazy about it? Absolutely. The truth is that I don’t really feel like hauling groceries up to the 4th floor then cooking everything in a tiny, uncomfortable kitchen that doesn’t really have the cooking equipment that I need. So, we have been eating out a lot. It’s really hard to stay on track when there are so many options that are novelties (i.e. stuff that I can’t get in Austin). No, I am not saying “I can’t live without my ____________” (shout out to Mark), I am just saying that I will not have the chance to eat this stuff for a while, so I’m living it up.

But… everything comes with a price.

That price is feeling like absolute crap.

CFCP coaches, you will have your work cut out for you when we get back.

Missing Home

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NYC is great. Our wedding, reception, other reception, and road trip honeymoon have been fantastic so far. I love being able to see my family and friends that I don’t ever get to see in TX.

V and I have gotten to do lots of fun things while spending a lot of time together.

Still though, this tiny, warped apartment in NYC is making me realize all of the things that I miss about living in Texas. Yes, the apartment is ever so slightly bowl shaped. I never thought that one of the questions I would need to ask when picking an apartment to sublet would be “are the floors level?”. It’s crazy. I feel drunk sometimes when I’m walking around and I have barely drank on this trip! Back to what I miss about TX… I miss things like:

my cats!
level flooring.
my HUGE kitchen.
my HUGE living room.
having 2 bathrooms.
my functioning internet.
my office.
my bed.
not having to walk up 4 flights of stairs every time I get home.
not having to carry groceries up 4 flights of stairs every time I go shopping.
the ability to cook my own food because I didn’t have to carry everything up 4 flights of stairs every time I go shopping.
my shower that is able to maintain the same temperature for a like, your whole shower regardless of what anyone else is doing in the house.
driving (?? really, I didn’t think I would miss driving so much).
not paying so much for every damn thing that I have to buy.
not having to walk miles or get on public transportation with the rest of retarded humanity.
nice people. Not that everyone here is mean, they just don’t have time for you.
PALEO FOOD. Sure, we can get it here, but it’s a huge pain the ass to cook your own food, see above.
CrossFit Cedar Park, the WODs, the awesome coaches, and all of our friends. Seriously, no box that we have been to yet has been better in any way.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I DO love about being here, like:

family and friends that I really miss.
restaurants open after 10pm.
so many things to do that I don’t know what to do with myself.
random street fairs.
pizza.
bagels.

I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t really think of anything else right now.

Whirlwind WOD Update

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Here’s all of the workouts that I missed blogging since my last depressing update…

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 @ CrossFit 2717 in Jackson, MS.

3×3 Hang Snatch (Ended with 135lbs)

Then…

5 rounds:

10 KB Swings (1.5 pood)
200m Sprint

Rest 1 minute between rounds. Total time was 9:10.

Then…

Run 400m
Row 500m
Run 200m
Row 250m

My time was 7:10.

I felt really good during these WODs. The 1.5 pood KB didn’t seem hard to swing at all! Maybe a little bit of time off was good b/c I felt really happy with my performance here. The only bad thing that happened was that my hand ripped during the warm up while I was doing pull ups. Since I hadn’t been doing them for long (due to my elbow), they were easily ripped. OUCH!

The owner of CrossFit2717 was incredibly nice. Their box was great and it was a lot of fun to work out with them. If you are ever in the Jackson, MS area, check them out!

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 @ CrossFit 215 in Philly, PA.

3×5 Push Press (Ended at 135lb)

20 Min AMRAP:

7 pull ups
10 box jumps

95lb snatch on the minute no matter what you are doing.

10 full rounds plus 4 pull ups.

This was a really hard WOD. Again, pull ups. Argh. My OTHER hand ripped here and my rip from Jackson, MS, just got worse. It was 20 minutes of constant hand pain. Yes, I know, get some gloves.

Don’t want to sounds like a broken record here, but the people at CrossFit 215 were really nice. The owner was a great guy who was very welcoming and helped me and V through the warm up as it was mostly gymnastics based and unfamiliar. I apologize for the mental picture of me doing anything gymnastics related. I would highly recommend checking this box out if you are ever in the area.

The following 2 WODs were at the Black Box in NYC.

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 Deadlift

I got 375lbs up 4.5x, but my last successful 5 reps was at 315lb.

These kinds of workouts make me giddy. I had really high expectations for this WOD. Although I didn’t completely meet them, I am still happy. I really wanted to get 375lb and I think I made too big of a jump from 315lb to 375lb. Despite the fact that “technically” my 5 rep max is 315lb, I still think that getting 375lb up 4.2x is really good and shows that I am getting stronger.

Sunday, June 13th, 2010 (this was outside and was not affiliated with CrossFit NYC)

4 mile run for Colon Cancer in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. My time was 43:27, in Vibram Bikilias.

I made some bad decisions right before this run. I don’t think I got enough sleep and well, I ate an entire huge ass bagel like a hour before the race. I felt heavy, weighed down, and sluggish through most of the race. My first mile was awesome though, because it was at a slight decline. Really easy to run.

There were lots of long, slight inclines too which don’t really agree with me. I had to take about 3 walk breaks too. Oh well. Maybe I’ll skip the bagel next time.

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Clean & Press Ladder

Do a 10 min AMRAP of 1-5 clean & press ladder (1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5). Rest 3 minutes, then repeat with a countdown of 10 minutes. You must reproduce what you did in your first set. For every 5 seconds over 10 minutes that it takes you to finish, you have to do a burpee pull up.

I got 3 full ladders plus the first 2 steps on in the first 10 minutes, then 3 full ladders plus 4 steps the second time around. I used 95lbs.

This was a FUN WOD! I loved this one! I think it was intended to be done with strict presses, which the coach told me about 3 minutes in. Since I had started with push presses, I just stuck with push presses. I really didn’t want to do any burpee pull ups, so I worked really hard to meet/beat what I did in my first set.

I have to admit that I am somewhat disappointed with CrossFit NYC. A WOD is a WOD, so we are still getting that but, well, the experience there is somewhat underwhelming. The coaches aren’t really THAT involved or, well, as involved as I have seen in the other boxes that we have visited. We met a woman there who went to the games that was REALLY nice. Probably the nicest person we have met there… anyway… she said that if we wanted better instruction, we probably needed to go to one of the other affiliates in the city or come to the morning/lunch class. I would like to that, schedule permitting.

Declining Performance

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The past week has been really hard for me. Everything seems to be closing in and I feel that my performance in all areas has declined as I continually try to keep up with everything. I have been mentally and physically exhausted for what feels like weeks. This is blatantly apparent in my workouts and in my mood.

Friday (5/21/2010)

I was expecting heavy metal night, but got to do Fight Gone Bad. Ugh. I was not mentally prepared for this. Here’s how my numbers broken down:

	1	2	3	Total
WallBall	15	13	12	40
SDLHP	18	13	10	41
Box Jump	12	10	11	33
Press	18	18	14	50
Row	23	17	14	54
Total				218

You’re gonna hear this a lot during this post. I felt like crap during this entire workout. I did the best I could, but that really wasn’t all that awesome. Maybe next time.

Saturday (5/22/2010)

Open gym… Kindel decided that we should do “Murph”. Most aweful WOD ever. It is:

Run 1 Mile
100 Pull Ups
200 Push Ups
300 Squats
Run 1 Mile

I think, for the sake of time, she told us to not do the pull ups. Everyone ended up doing them anyway but me. I didn’t think that doing 100 pull ups on my almost recovered arm would have been a good idea.

Anyway, I don’t think I have ever mentally quit something so many times before. As soon as she said “Murph” I wanted to leave. I then mentally quit at various times throughout. What really bothered me was that I didn’t do the pull ups and there were people that finished right around the same time that I did. I was sort of depressed about it for the rest of the day. I felt fat, slow, tired, and just done. My time was 56 something.

Tuesday (5/25/2010)

Dave had us do a 2 for Tuesday deal. WOD #1 was 2 rounds of:

Row 500m
25 Burpees

I didn’t feel like going to begin with. 20 seconds into the first round of rowing I just had no energy. Nothing. I was running on fumes the entire time. I felt like I was going to pass out during burpees. What the hell is wrong with me?! My time was 9:10.

The next WOD was worse. It was 3 rounds of:

50 lunges
50 sit ups
50 back extensions

Ugh. Again, just nothing left. I don’t know where I was pulling from, but I guess I pulled it out from somewhere. My time was 13:47.

I guess overall, I am really unhappy with how I am handling things lately. I feel like everything is getting to me and I don’t have the capacity to deal with it all. I am really hoping that things will start to turn around in a few weeks when I am less stressed and spread so thin. Until then, I will keep doing the best I can even if that’s really not so good.

In the end, this stuff is still just working out. I can’t help but remember what Lance told me one Saturday. He said that it doesn’t matter to your body, heart, muscles, etc your time or how you did compared to anyone else. They don’t get any less of a good workout b/c you came in last. All that matters is that you push and work.

Modified Murph really sucked, but it was still a great workout.

Row, row, row…

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…

V and I did a quick endurance WOD today. Unless I can get one in tomorrow morning (unlikely, but we shall see), I don’t think I’m going to make my two for the week.

Anyway, today’s pleasure was 2-8 minute intervals with 2 minutes of rest.

Suck.

My distances for the 2 intervals was:

1870
1820

Total: 3690 (or 2.29 miles; whoa! wait… I row faster than I run? what?)

As much as this sucked, this really helped me get my stroke down (unfortunately, it didn’t get me off any faster haha). I think the next time we have some 500m’s in a WOD I will kill them.

More workouts…

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I haven’t been great about writing workouts the day of. There has been a lot going on here and blogging has been the last thing on my mind. Sorry, no one’s perfect, but then again, I am sure that maybe only like 3 people read this.

Friday (5/14/2010) Heavy Metal Night

5×3 Squat Clean
5×3 Jerk
5×3 Clean & Jerk

This WOD was a LOT of fun for me, but I couldn’t use the Rx weight due to my still healing elbow. I used 65lb. It was not timed. Later, I tried some heavier clean and jerks with some higher weights and it felt OK, but I didn’t want to push it.

Saturday (5/15/2010), we took the Yoga class at Lululemon as we (Perfectly Paleo) were invited to bring food and talk a bit about our business. Yoga is rough and the class was pretty challenging for me.

Last night (5/18/2010), we had the pleasure of “Elizabeth” which is:

21 – 15 – 9

Squat Clean
Ring Dip

I didn’t Rx this one either. I used 95lb on the bar which wasn’t really all THAT tough. I also had to sub push ups for ring dips as they hurt my elbow. Thanks to some really good coaching from Chad, I finished in the 7:50ish range. I don’t remember my exact time, but I pushed really hard.