The thighs have it....

I may be the genetic recipient of Kong thighs. Honestly, I have not stepped under the bar (for a work set) since November and felt seriously challenged. I always have one warmup lift that suddenly feels really heavy, but I hit it and go for the next one and its better. The work set is usually better yet. Tuesday my last warmup lift was a single at 427, which felt better than the previous one at 397. My work set, 450 x 2, was a PR and felt, frankly, fairly light. 

Not much to complain about here from my perspective, other than my gut. Definitely receding but at about the same rate as glaciers. No real strain on the legs either, one and two days on. Last week's rest did me a bunch of good.  

At the moment I don't know where my weight is. I was at a 'record' low a week and half ago when I weighed in with Judy, although my morning weight had bounced up a couple of pounds from where it had been for days. The next night we ate out at a Moroccan restaurant and while the food was really good, mine was loaded with salt and my weight bounced like 6 lbs. 

Judy wants me to change things up and get serious about adding cardio volume. I'm dropping Tuesday wods out of my schedule to allow me to do only cardio during the day although I'll still hit CE in the evening to bench and either squat or do accessory work. 

Today is Tuesday and I haven't ridden yet. Need to get on the KK and do it.

Last week I hit 432.5 x 3 for my last squat set. I wouldn't say it felt light but it didn't feel really heavy. The 3rd rep was the cleanest and fastest of the set. I did box squats on Sunday and the weights weren't as heavy as last time at CE but they felt really hard. Yesterday we did Kalsu and my legs were shredded. Today the tendons feel a bit sore so I doubt that I'll squat heavy tonight.



  

January wrap up.

Well, my weight is holding at about 230 which isn't bad. Staying strict on the nutrition side so I know the numbers will creep down. I didn't do a lot this weekend but I certainly didn't rest either. 

Saturday I worked power cleans and squat cleans. I didn't come close to 190 but I did start to make headway on technique at a light weight. Did 5 sets of GHRs and 6 sets of good mornings up to 185. The surprise of the day was the 2 k row Chris W and I finished up with, 7:46 for me. Not easy but cool to get the entire first half at sub 2:00 pace. 185 felt like too much and sort of strained my back although I didn't hurt afterward. Read on though...

Sunday I came in for kettlebell conditioning. 10 x 5 R+L presses done @ 20kg. 5 x 5 doubles done alternating 16kg/20kg. This sucked. Started off w/ TGUs which felt good.

Monday we partnered on split jerks from a floor rack/ Warmed up and hit (5 x 1) 185/195/200/205/210. Then Diane done rx weight and HSPUs (inverted scaling thing) PUs were good, DLs were horrible, strained my hips flexors/low back on set 2 #14. Hurting a bit now but managing...

Tuesday. Lots of couch/butterfly stretching. High bar squat day to a 1RM. Warmup: 135x5/225x3/315/365 --405 (easy) then a miss at 430. Quads a bit taxed from yesterday and the session was too fast. We'll see what happens later at CE. The metcon was 3 rounds of {100 SUs(scaled)/15 burpee over bar/10 hang cleans } 14 + minutes.

Good session tonight at CE. My bench press felt a bit better than last week but still not great. Planned double at 248 was a complete bust. Next week I may have a whole new program from Dyke, or I may finish with board presses or camber bar presses. 2nd squat session went well. Good warm up. 135x5/225x3/315x1/365/390 then 420 x 2. New pr and a double. Estimated new 1 RM ~460 in briefs.

Wednesday: 228 after the wod! 
3 x 5 push presses 140/145/155
Isabel @115 in 4:39 
5k row in 21:08

To make post workout refueling just a bit easier I went back to using ON whey + almond milk (mostly) and a tbsp of cocoa powder.


Taking Thursday off to recover. Did a couple of sets of close grip benching and a few sets of club swinging.

Friday. Snatch day. Progress was not great today, but not horrible. Was supposed to do 5 heavy singles. warm up was a bit rushed. 135/145/155(3 misses)/152(2 misses) and out of time. 10 minute amrap of 
5 ground to overhead: clean & push jerk @135#
7 wall balls @20# 
9 ring dips. Scaled this to a position low enough to put my toes on the floor w/ legs bent & keep the torso upright. Hard, good choice. Got 4 rounds + 8.

5k row. Slack start for 1st 1k. 500m @ < 1:50. Recovery @~2:05-2:10. Blew up. Pulled stronger for the last 1500. 20:59 & 315 calories.

Post wod weight 229.5. My nutrition was not so good yesterday. Got into some wheat and sugar...  

Kelvin, Farenheit or Celcius, it's cold outside mofo...

Highlights from the preceding week:

Today was really productive. Again the routine on Friday has been centered around the snatch. After running through the Burgener warm up we went on to do 5 x 5 from a high hang. I went a bit lighter than the recommended percentage at 95 lbs for the entire session. I was able to concentrate on a quick hard pull with extension and drop into a very low squat to receive the bar. I don't think I was extending to my toes, so I wish I'd shot video. Next time. After some ab work then a short and futile attempt at double unders I moved on to row. Without really meaning to I started out at a pace, 2:05, that would have been too hard to hold and actually held on to it for most of the distance. I finished up with a time of 20:39. I'm not sure whether I'm more fit, using better technique or because I pulled at a higher resistance setting (6 1/2). 

Thursday I just did the kettlebell class.

Wednesday: Partnered on 5 x 1 push press to 175 for sure, maybe 185. 

Tuesday: Squats at ACF. 3 x 8 @ 225/255/375. Nice metcon of 8/4/24
power cleans @155, 4 HSPUs (scaled) & 24 calorie row. 

Another week of f**ked up bench press program as my shoulders were hashed from Monday and Tuesday. Squat work out of the monolift continued to rock as 
I put up 401 for 4. My original intent was to do it raw, but at 360 my knees were and quads were feeling the work from previous wods so I put on squat shorts. All 4 reps were fairly easy and I definitely had the juice for a fifth. 

Monday: Hang power clean & hang squat clean. Cool! Felt good but here is a suck. Target this for immediate attention. Wod was Cindy. Only got 10 rounds, pushups slowed me down but I got them all strict. Managed 1 kipping PU on each round followed by ring rows.

Early in the week my weight was around 229. My official weigh in this morning was 232.0, lowest yet on Judy's scale. 

Big plans for tomorrow. I need to start scaling up my total cardio volume.

On another note, the temperature at 0545 when I start my car has been around 0 degrees F.  

Bench press fail

Had another disappointing experience on the bench last night. The coach at CE (Dyke) suggested I back off and do a set of 4 at a .5 to 1 lb over my last set of 4. That was 216 a few weeks ago. Naturally I told myself, "too light, I'll go heavier" and wrote 220 x 4 in my logbook. After deciding to try the same work set after a rest and wearing a shirt I backed that off to 217.5.** Well I only got 3 raw and managed a fairly easy 5 with the shirt. I decided to skip the leg workout as the strength component prior to the wod was enough to fatigue me. This made two workouts in a row where I haven't hit my planned work sets. (Last week I missed at (both) 248x2) It dawned on me as I pondered my aching delts and traps, that I hit pull up development after the morning wods. So I think I'll skip that stuff on bench days or do it last.

Today Chris was back in the house and we partnered up for strict presses. 5 doubles, last set was at 135. The metcon was an interesting 20 minute amrap of 14/10/6 OH lunge (65), ring rows (scaled), inverted burpees. One thing I don't think I'm too concerned with for now is HSPUs or derivatives. I lost count. Yesterday's wod was pretty fun. 5 rounds of 10/10 ring rows/pushups. (scaled from MUs, another thing not on my radar) 15 kb swings (32kg) and 50 SUs (scaled from DUs) all done at 1:1 work:rest. I shortened up my rest cycles by 30 seconds and was still able to hit each round pretty hard. Finished in 15:30. Monday was a mixture of fun & horror. First, a barbell complex of power clean, push press, hang squat clean done EMOM for 7 rounds. I went 4 @ 155 and 1 @ 165. Good weight, challenging but maybe a bit conservative. The squat clean was the limiting factor and needs to get addressed on my suck list. the metcon was pretty awful, 

3 rounds for time of:

25 ring rows (scaled from HSPUs), 

20 ball slams @ 20#

15 burpees

10 T2B, I just did kipping pikes. 

I have no idea how long it took me now because I didn't log it. 10? 12? An hour?

Post wod weigh in today, 230 lbs. Yikes, it has taken a long time to get here. I hope the next 10 come off faster.

**At CE, Dyke has gotten incredible results from his (drug-free) strength athletes by constantly incrementing the weight of every work set, even if only by a fraction. It works, it's what we do. You may not do it, so be it.   

Half week off.

Had a busy week. I needed to go out of town on family business Monday through Wednesday so the first workout I could hit was the Thursday morning wod. And it kicked my ass. First time doing Filthy Fifty which I scaled to 40 reps and 20 inch jumps, 14# wall balls and single unders. I did the back extensions on the GHD though. Got through it in 23:30.

Friday I hit the morning wod and CE in the evening. Great progress on the snatch from a hang position and a challenging metcon. Cardio only on Saturday & Sunday.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Houston with my sisters for a funeral. Tough trip supporting my oldest sister. Diet was pretty good but I had too much wine and scotch. I didn't suffer too badly in the wods so I must not have gone too far astray.

Friday's PL session was a mix of good and bad. My bench work was horrible but the squat work was very good.

Here I am banging out 405 for a fairly easy triple. Why video myself? Critique. Notice on rep # 2 my left knee deflects inward a bit coming out of the hole. On rep # 3 I have some weird oscillation of the bar on my left side. That kind of crap needs to be trained out if I'm going to keep going up and not get injured. I can also see I'm hitting depth ok but I'd like to be a little wider and just a bit deeper. 

I meant to update my starting benchmarks after completing Fran and forgot, so here they are.


Starting weight: 238

Fran

95# & ring rows

6:44 (PR!)

1 RM Squat

415 (PR!)

10k Row

44:07 (PR!)

1 RM Snatch

150 (PR!)

7 min AMRAP burpees

75

Game time.

Had my first weigh in with Judy today and it wasn't pretty. 239. F%@K@!

She cautioned that it may not be a 6lb fat gain, the sugar causes a lot of bloating so it may be a lot of water. We'll see. We talked a lot about the effects of eating crappy after having been fairly clean and also some strategies for getting past the impulse eating. It worked today and tonight. More on this later.

I took yesterday off entirely so I missed Fran. I'm planning on making that up on Saturday. This morning we worked up to a 1RM squat. Really, the 20 minutes available for this just isn't enough for me to be comfortable pushing the limit, so I warmed up with doubles and singles to the weights I hit last week for reps and took a single at 415. That made for a 5lb PR and I called it quits there. Saving everything I have available for the end of the challenge.   

The wod felt pretty horrible but not as bad as the other day:

5 rounds of
{
     10 T2B (or anything up on the bar)
     10 Power snatch (75/55)
     10 wall balls (20/14)
}

I only scaled the T2B, swing my legs up to (mostly) parallel. Finished in ~ 12 minutes. Not quite thoroughly shattered however, added a 2k cool down row at ~2:30 pace, pretty slow and some practice pulls up to 315. Not feeling any deadlift love yet.

I still need to take "before" pics and measure my neck, waist & hips. Height and weight are already determined. 

I've also added something to my 2013 To Do list. I've signed up for a goruck challenge, set for April 20 in Albany. Really looking forward to doing this with some of the ACF buddies.

Had a decent bench session tonight. Worked up to another triple, this week at 238. Rep 3 was pretty damn ugly but I got it. That computes to roughly a 262 1RM. 

Tomorrow is the 10k row, so I need to refuel and recharge.

Farewell 2012.

New Year's Eve. Well, I have made zero progress since my last post although I did hit some workouts and (over)ate like shit. Enough.

I'm starting the "new year" right now. I hit the 630 wod this morning and paid for my culinary indiscretions. The warm up made me feel horrible and it didn't get much better. Hang power cleans went ok, if not uninspiring. The metcon was a near disaster. 

3 rounds of
{
    12 burpee box overs
    9 C2B
    7 Deadlift (315/225)  
}

The DLs should have been easy, instead I couldn't get 315 off the floor for one! I settled on 275 and scaled the C2Bs to ring rows, and box overs to climb overs but at least over a 24 inch box. Took me 12 minutes to finish and I was finished.

I do have one interesting thing to add for now. I got a pair of these for Christmas. They're 10lbs each and came from Ageless Strength

I've used them for a couple of hours now and I really like them. Most likely will post some video when I stop clonking my head.

I also wanted to post some information about my nutrition planning and the food journal my coach has me using. This is from this morning, after breakfast and before lunch. Some of this is scientific and some is an approximation. 

On the right side of today's entry you'll notice "2400 BMR". This was measured by my coach using a CO2 monitor/inspired air flow meter. I can post details another time. I researched the equipment and it is pretty damn accurate. Below that is "200 wod". This is an estimate I made today on the calorie expenditure for today's workout. Today I only did the wod, nothing extra, and the number is based on an estimated maximum of 400 kilocalories. From the sum of those values I decrement 500 to provide a dietary deficit. The balance becomes my food budget for the day.

I am following a plan that calls for 5 meals throughout the day and a 40/30/30 nutrient distribution. I plug my daily budget value into a spreadsheet formula I cooked based on values provided by my coach and I get the following 5 sets of values. I round these off to make meal preparation easier. The 1st value is the total in kilocalories for that meal and is followed by the protein/carbohydrate/fat subtotals. 

Meal 1 is breakfast, 2 is lunch, 3 is a mid-meal snack, 4 is dinner and 5 is a small snack taken an hour or two before bed. The goal is to never go more than 4 hours without eating. Foods are chosen from a list, loosely based on Paleo Diet for Athletes.

I try to weigh all my food, journal all my food choices, and, here's the hard part. Make entries for the unplanned stuff. Like cookies and that piece of cake. That part is harder than weighing and calculating. It just sucks. Which is the point I think. I've slacked some on the journal, but no more. This is all part of my 90 day challenge and beyond.

Another year is drawing to a close and it's time to focus on the upcoming one.  I have a couple of things planned for the new year and I'll use this post to start declaring some others.

My current weight is 232. I'm not happy about this as I've fought over this territory several times before. I'm still working with Judy Torel and I will definitely be continuing. My weight loss goal is to get to 12% body fat then re-evaluate. Judy calculated this at 209 lbs. I want to be at that weight or lower by May. To help get there I will continue to keep a food and exercise journal. I'll try to add interesting benchmarks here as often as I can.

I have committed to doing the Tough Mudder in May. I'll be ready. My two co-conspirators had better be as well! 

I've also entered the ACF/CCP 90 Day Challenge. 
     Benchmark WODs:

•     Fran(95/65)Scaled(55/35)
•     1 RM Snatch
•     7 minute AMRAP Burpees
•     10k Row
•     1 RM Squat

Some other 2013 Crossfit goals:

• Pull ups. I want them. I will have them.
• Rope skipping. I look like a spazz now. I will master this.
• Oly Lifts. Mine suck because I don't practice them. I respect these and I want better numbers. I will dedicate training time and improve them. I want my 1 RM numbers > my body weight for each lift.
• Current rowing PRs are 10k/46:55, 5k/22:10, 2k/8:06. Goals are; under 40/under 20/under 7:30. 
• Improve the quality and frequency of the mobility work I perform.

General fitness:

• 5 hours of cardio/week! 
• Hit certain areas daily as able that may be excluded in wods, accessory work, etc such as...
• triceps, abs, posterior chain.

Powerlifting:

• Please no injuries. Please.
• Bench Press. PR is currently 245 and am ready for at least 250. Goal is 300 for a single.
• Squat. PR is currently 410. Goal is 450 at a body weight < 210.
• Deadlift. PR is currently 440. Goal is 500 for a single, 455 for a triple and no hamstring injuries of any kind. Please.

Cycling:

• 20 minute average power > 240 watts.
• Sub 5 minute ascent of Lainhart Rd.
• 9 lap TT at NYS Campus < 60 minutes.

That ought to do it for now. If you were here and read this, please leave a comment. 

I need to get caught up here between workouts. To recap:

Last Thursday's kb amrap. I was smoked from the morning wod and I barely got 12 rounds in. 20kg for 5/5/5/5: R/L press,R/L snatch. Previously I got 13 + 10 and 13 + 16. Although I claimed to have gotten 15 rounds with Amir one night, I suspect that represents an off-by-one error.

Tuesday's strength session at Cutting Edge; I worked only on my bench as I got some impromptu coaching. I warmed up with:

95 x 5 x 2

115 x 5 x 1

135 x 5 x 1

Work sets:

144 x 3

163.5 x 3

185 x 5

Singles:

205

220

230 (PR)

240 - miss, blown bar path.

Worked on high arch, foot position closer to bar end of bench to support the arch, bend bar down/up during eccentric (down)/concentric (up) phases, lowering bar slowly to the solar plexus. 

This week we've been doing a sequence of wods with opposite gender partners. Today we 15 minutes to get to 1RMs of DL/Squat/O-head press (5 minutes each). Short version: get sweaty,partner up,grab plates and...it didn't go too bad. Ran out of time on the DL & squat, getting 365/345 with seconds left. So, bonus points for me for going 365 and not ripping anything and also, the squat felt super. Went very deep, no bounce and came up out of the hole quick and strong. Today makes me very optimistic for a 400lb+ squat very soon.

Tonight the kb amrap went better than it has in a while, 14 rounds + 5. No idea what day 4 of the throwdown is yet, not posted. As long as it doesn't have a run, I'm good.

Sumo is King

It's been 2 weeks since I tore my right hamstring while deadlifting. The bruise is fading and the swelling and tightness is greatly diminished. After the injury I continued to train but babied the leg quite a bit. What I found pleasantly surprising is that I could squat decently even on day 1 after the injury. Swinging kettlebells has been a bit dodgy though, as well as anything that causes my leg to straighten fully. So this morning when I looked at the WOD I felt some hesitancy as we were scheduled to work up to a 2RM on the DL. 

After the warmup (500m row/spidermans/inchworms), Chris W and I partnered up as usual. The idea was to take a few minutes to warm up the movement, then the balance of the time to hit 3 sets of heavy doubles. If I was uninjured I would have targeted 345/365 but I had no idea what to aim for and try not to tear this again. I decided to follow Chris as I guessed he'd be a bit under where I'd normally be. We pulled 135 and 225 for warm ups, then began adding weight. Doubles at 255 & 275 felt like nothing. Work sets at 295/305 also felt very light and that's where I packed it in.

The next part of the WOD was a 6 minute amrap of 3 hang cleans/9 kb swings. I would have preferred to use the prescribed 32kg kb, but I couldn't find one so I used a 24kg. Prescribed weight on the cleans was 155 but I went light at 115 and that was heavy enough by my last 2 or 3 sets. I finished with 6 full + 10 and I definitely should have pushed harder with the selected weights or sucked it up and gone heavier.

Last set was 3 minutes in plank position on the rings which felt pretty good. (60/60/30/30).  

While Chris was pulling I watched from the front and side as he tried to assimilate the coaching from Dean. First, I think Dean is great and I liked what he had to say and second, I think Chris was doing a good job putting the input into practice. In light of all the above, I think most people, maybe everyone, should spend some time learning to pull from a sumo stance. The plus side is that it is easier (I believe anyways, and it certainly is for me) to get the back more erect. This is more efficient and safer. Everyone I see pulling conventionally (although I do need to pay attention to the more seasoned lifters) has a deficit where their hips rise several inches before their shoulders do. Often the lifter's back comes close to parallel before the bar begins moving. Some video work and self-review would likely help here as well. 

For me, the sumo stance is King during the DL and squat and anyone in Crossfit aspiring to lift 1.5x body weight or more should give it some attention in favor of the conventional stance.

For reference, here are 2 images of Julia Ladewski. These are screencaps from a video on YouTube (Ultra-wide deadlift 225x5). 

Monday 6/25.


Missed out on 3 days of perfect riding weather doing prep work for a home improvement project. Strangely enough I felt like shit over the weekend, following feeling like shit on Thursday and barely surviving kettlebell class. 


I was hoping to feel better today but it wasn't great and I didn't have much energy. Bummed too because I went to bed at 1030. My arms and shoulders still feel beat up from last week, but I managed to squat snatch 135 x 1 x 3.
During the AMRAP part of the WOD I dropped down to 95 for power snatches but only got 6 to 7 reps/minute.


Upper body felt pretty sore afterward but it passed quickly. Skipping Monday night spin to work on the house and sleep. 


Hopefully I'll have some energy post-WOD tomorrow to bench or do some lower body work. The weather is supposed to suck so it seems unlikely I'll be hitting the campus in the evening.

Jim and I took a nice ride yesterday and enjoyed some of the best weather we've had this year. There was quite a bit of wind but it was sunny and mild. We were both a bit sore and tired going into it so we poked along easy and only did about 32 miles. Saturday I rode over at the campus before hitting the gym to work shoulders for a little while. I'd planned on riding < 90 minutes and keeping the effort hard. The warm up felt crappy, no power, no speed and sore legs. On lap 5 I started pushing harder up the climb, all out of the saddle, 10 - 15 pedal strokes at a time. After that my power came up and speed increased steadily. I managed to finish out the workout with an avg speed of 17.1, which while not impressive was the best I've delivered in a while.  




WODs


Monday 6-18. Overhead squats! EMOM (20) x 3. This was fantastic. Partnered with John, went with 75#. Got the lockout dialed, got the depth dialed dropping onto a medicine ball.


Tuesday. Ring rows, row hard for 20s, jump rope. Meh.


Wednesday. Burgener warm up. Work up to 3 tough sets of 1x hang squat snatch, 3 x OHS. For 6 minutes, EMOM, 2 x 90% front squat from the floor racks. 3 x 50 unbroken wall balls. This is how it went down. Partnered with Chris Williams on 1 and 2. For the FSs we picked up a 3rd guy. Started at 65# and went up by 5s, ended with last 2 sets at 85 & 90. PR. Worked up to 2 sets at 155# in the front squat. Front rack position getting better.




Creatine. Been using this pre- and post-workout. No verdict yet but I am cautiously optimistic.


Weight loss. Slow. 

Interesting week so far. The weather has been cold and rainy so I'm not getting much extra time on the bike. Last Sunday Jim and I rode ~32 miles and had to wait for an icy T-storm to pass. Luckily we were still in the lot because there was a bunch of hail as well. I've still felt very slow on the bike with no real power. Towards the end of the last ride my upper back was hurting a bit too. 

It was a really shitty looking day, very cloudy and little sun. Amazing how amber lenses can change your entire perspective.


Off the bike I've had some great WODs. With Dean Leber's help today I managed to get a good front rack position and was able to front squat for real for the first time. The last 2 days have really tired me out though and I need extra sleep and better recovery. Going to try hitting the rack at 10 and also going to pick up some creatine monohydrate and try supplementing my post-workout shakes with it. Maybe it will help lighten my mood as well. 

I really enjoyed this morning's WOD.


1. Push Press, 4 x 6
2. 10 rounds for time
    5 handstand push ups, scaled to a. get upside down, b. 8 hand-release push ups
    10 American KB swings (24kg)


I held back just a bit on the push presses as I want to have good shoulders for tomorrow's bench session.


I've met with Jim R. and Chris D twice and really had great workouts.
Week 1: 5x5 @180, finishing with board presses and db presses.
Week 2: 5x3 @185, finishing with floor presses (?) and tricep ext/rows. 
I need to write down the content of the works sets! Jim is working up a schedule to build towards some big singles. I'm looking to top out over 250 at the end of the next couple of cycles and hit 300 in the early fall.


I went over 300# doing triples and doubles in the back squat last Thursday and felt very good. I could use more depth and I should set up the GoPro to analyze my depth and posture coming out of the hole. Based on how I felt after a good warm up and topping out at 335, I think a 1 rep max around 400 is possible.


All continues to go well with the diet. last Friday's check in with Judy went like this, down a total of 10 lbs, but lean muscle mass is up 10 lbs. So I've shed 20 lbs of fat. 

Last Friday I met with Judy for a 2/3 week weigh-in. The final number was actually a net loss of 7 lbs, with an increase in lean muscle mass of ~2.5 lbs. I'll take that. One of the important topics we talked about at this meeting was pre-/during and post- workout nutrition. The plan is to not alter the 2400 cal/5 meal per day template, but feed each workout. At the moment I don't have a strict plan for pre-workout fueling, but for workouts lasting longer than 90 minutes I will shoot for around 300 calories per hour (total food & drink), plus 30 ounces of water** (water/energy drink) and 600 mg of sodium. I'll post more here about the products once I've picked them up and tried them. for post-workout, I'll either make my own or use a commercial product. For post-cycling I may pick up a container of Accelerade or Endurox, but for WODs, lifting, etc I've been experimenting with Myoplex and a shake made from water, almond milk, ON whey protein and fruit. Time will tell if I feel strong from one workout to the next.    


The eating plan continues to be easy to follow although sometimes still hard to get all my calories in. I also continue to be relatively free from the desire to go out to the kitchen and binge.


I inadvertently got 2 heavy deadlift sessions on successive days. Yesterday's WOD had 5x2 heavies between a warmup and the AMRAP and I'd already worked a few sets of speed pulls into 3 singles on Monday before going to spin. Still, after going easy for a few I pulled 385 on the last set and missed rep 2. 


Today I finished a 3-3-3 set of push jerks with 2 shaky reps at 175 and missed #3. Something to look forward to ;)


Tomorrow ought to be very interesting. Jim R invited me to join he and Chris D at his garage to start bench press sessions.  

I finished up with OnRamp last Friday and my impressions were really positive. I like the workout structure. I like most of the content. I'll save any commentary on philosophical differences for later after I have some time logged.


I signed up for 3 months on Monday and am looking forward to seeing what I can do. I hit the 7 am WODs on Tuesday and Wednesday then Viv's kettlebell class tonight. So many thoughts.


Some early positive reactions.


I've spoken to several coaches now and I feel really good about having so many sources of information right there. I know I'm going to have questions about fitting in WODs/extras into a week, especially around cycling, and it'll be great to have other ideas rather than coming up with all that on my own.


There is an emerging focus to include powerlifting techniques into the Crossfit gyms. Since that is already familiar to me and something I like doing it should provide some enjoyable stimulus. I also I'm excited to learn and work on the olympic lifts. Had a great time on Tuesday with the split jerk.


There's a really good energy in the place with a bunch of faces I already know. 


The paleo diet focus coincides nicely with Judy's input. 


Some self examination:


My core is really weak. My aerobic power is only ok, not as good as it was, but I feel like I'm improving. I'm really going to need to be serious about recovery work because I was very stiff and sore this morning and I know I can do something about that.


I should keep a list of things I really suck at and work up a schedule to spend extra time on those. 


My strength is off in the snatch and C&P. Presumably detraining effect. Maybe I'll do some low reps with bigger bells and see what happens.


-----


Other business. 


Paleo eating plan is going well. Daily weight bounces a bit, but I'm down ~13lbs  
in 2 weeks. That's not the whole story though. I feel pretty damn good. I think I'm drinking too much coffee, but the fatigue is largely gone (may be from working out too...) and I haven't felt dizzy/spacey. Blood sugar? I dont know but I'm obviously to keep on doing the same thing.


Jim and I finally got out for a 25 miler on Sunday. The weather was great and I felt pretty decent. Fat, but decent. I'll have to make a decision soon about the MDD ride in August.

Started Crossfit on-ramp Monday night and attended the second session tonight. Monday we reviewed ring rows, push ups, air squats and burpees. Tonight we went over wall balls, the back squat, using the foam roller and some fitness stuff. No real hard workout yet. Toughest part of tonight was 30 wall balls. I did mine in about a minute but my form sucks. 


One of the instructors wanted me to go with a narrower stance when squatting but I'm sticking with my wide(ish) sumo stance.


I could not believe how effective the foam roller is! Holy crap it made me gasp for breath it hurt so bad. Gotta get me one of those.


I'm thinking I'll try going back to Viv's kettlebell class tomorrow. 

Well, I've been back in New York since March 7th. While it feels great to be back and working at Genius Industrial Solutions, I managed to pack on ~35 lbs since the 1st of the year. Dear God.


I haven't been back to kettlebell class yet, but I anticipate doing that soon. I had my first session this past Friday with a trainer and she is going to help me me with diet and workout planning. Here is her website. Judy would like to see me on the paleo diet, which is a nice coincidence because I am starting the crossfit on-ramp session on Monday.


Judy measured my RMR at ~ 3100 kCal/day which surprised the hell out of me. Just goes to show how badly I was overeating to pack on that much weight so quickly. 


Not much else to report. Will check back in soon.

Fall Update.

Back again after a long lapse in writing. No time off from the workouts though and here is the latest.

Saturday I met Jim at the club for a short one. I spent just under 25 minutes on the Concept 2, doing a bit over 5k (24 minutes) then a couple of sets of easy squats @225 just to wake up the legs. Sunday I hit Viv's Sunday morning kettlebell workout. I was anxious to test myself because I've only done 2 short kb workouts in the past 3 weeks with only a 16kg bell, because I relocated to San Juan, PR 3 weeks ago and my schedule is a bit chaotic.

Yup. Quit my job at PBS/PBBI/PB MapInfo/MapInfo to go work for Thaddeus.

[another lapse]

Back again. Having a quiet moment here in the office at the end of a day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Dennis closed the office at 1. It's now 5.

I've been here a month and I still have very mixed feelings. Professionally I am convinced this is a great move. Personally, it feels like a term of service. Like I volunteered for a deployment. I know I don't have to be here, part of me wants to and part of me does not. Perhaps more accurately, at times I really want to be here and other times I can't wait to leave.

So a synopsis of the past month.

1 week prior to departure, mounting anticipation, tension, anxiety.
Departure day; anticipation, separation anxiety
1st week. Wow. Work was good. Evenings got progressively worse, pretty depressed. Couldn't wait to book my flight home for the planned 3 week visit
Moved in with Thaddeus and Stephanie.
Week 2 was better. Felt a bit awkward about a bunch of things. Really feeling negative about the city.
Week 3 better yet, but reactions still cycling from "ok with this" to "this blows." Flew home at the end of week 3, back to work on Tuesday.
Week 4, work settling into a routine. Work is good, hours are too long but what else would I be doing? Sitting around the apartment on the computer wishing I was doing something I enjoyed?

The riding is ok, but I always feel stressed before and largely during, especially the first and last 9+ miles. Not really comfortable doing my kettlebell thing in the garage. I have a large internal debate raging over whether to get my own place or stay where I am, and whether to get a car or not.

More later...