Front Squats and then Fran

Fitness overload this week. 7:29 is more than a minute off my PR for Fran. But given this week, my first cold in a year, and heavy front squatting this morning and back squatting just days ago - I pushed through and I am happy with that.

Some nice efforts. I love the spirit at CFOT.

4 minute intervals - Pain, pain and more pain

4 minutes each of:

C&J (I did 150#) - I got 24

1 min rest

3 C2B pullups & 3 burpees - I got 10 rounds

1 min rest

500m row, max D/Us - only 23

I feel awful

Back Squattin'

265. A 20 lb PR and legit depth.

Truly I am learning. I now know that my limiting factor is not my power (really) but my flexibility. I am one tight dude and need to stretch it out. Get those hips to open, shoulder to allow for better rack, and so on.

A step in the right direction today.

Sick Day - Really

For the first time in over a year - I have a little bug. My daughter kindly shared a respiratory virus that she picked up at school. Given that today is Metcon interval -all out effort kind of day, I cannot do it.

Yesterday during the runs, I had some wheezing, and today I feel much worse. Luckily I have a mini vacation planned for the rest of the week. See you Monday.

Sue Bannerjee and I both will be in Vegas - we plan to visit CF-LV on Sat. All of my favorite things.

Overhead squats

My worst barbell lift. It puts all of my faults on display. During one early rep, I heard popping all the way down my back, as in - I am not flexible and this is unnatural to me.

Chad N looked good and worked close to 150 - nice. Me 105 and not even deep enough.

Power Cleans and pull ups

On Sat - I was messing around after the WOD and hurt my right forearm. It was hard to make a fist, etc. I think I strained or pulled a muscle. So today was no bueno. Grip strength faded quickly and I had a lot of misses on the cleans. I went 165 - which was Pro, and still had 1 or 2 misses every round.

Good news. Pull ups. I challenged myself to get all 10 without getting off the bar. I chose the highest bar at the end, and did all 5 rounds. It really is a mental battle as much as fatigue. But again, grip was tough.

A good one.

50 weeks of Crossfit Oldtown

It has been almost a year now. I am still as inspired as ever, if not more. The more I learn, the more I do, and especially the more I see others that are better than me - makes me want to work harder everyday. And there is certainly no shortage of that at CFOT.

While I am still pleased with my progress, I am ever more awar

e of and annoyed by my deficiencies - slow running, metcon endurance ability, overhead squat weaknesses, no muscle up, I could go on for a long time. I see others that can go all out and seemingly never stop. I see others that have better technique. I see others that are stronger than me. I want what they have. So year 2 is going to be even more intensity and effort. If you see me slacking, call my ass out.

But then again - I have to give myself a break sometimes. Here is a set of before and after pictures - about 50 weeks apart. Clearly I have made progress despite my self criticisms. Why do I put half naked pictures of myself on my blog you ask? So that others can see what is possible, so I can see what I have accomplished. But more importantly, if I slack, I will know it. Others will know it. So anyway:

About 12 months ago. (187 lbs)

and sweating just playing with kids

Today - (162 lbs)

& inspired to work even harder

Push ups, runs, etc

A nice Sat WOD. sets of 30 of pushups, wall ball, burpee, ring dips and more pushups ups. Runs of 400,600,800,600 and 400.

Time 28:11.

I note that people pass me on the runs. I either have no technique, run out of wind, or both. More running is in order. I did however sprint the last 100 like a champ and finished strong and completely gassed out. Felt nice.

Helen-tervals

5 rounds of Helen with a 2 minute break between.

Just what I needed. But I am wheezing now, and hit the wall during the WOD. Round 3 was my slowest time. Luckily in round 4 I was inspired by Maggie, who started 5 seconds after me, and I really did not want her to pass me on the run. On round 5 she passed my in the first block and I could do nothing about it. So thanks Maggie. That helped. Otherwise, I may have just coasted.

Times:

309

314

339 - Boo

330

329

Side note, I completed the first 3 rounds (including the 2, 2 minute rests) in a total of 14 minutes. That is a minute and a half faster than my first actual Helen.

CrossFit SF - Update

My travels bring me to san Francisco and I am going to stop in for a visit to CF. Even more than that, I made an appointment for chiro guru and CF SF coach and owner Kelly Starrett to take a look at my shoulder. I am very interested in hitting a WOD and being looked at. btw - CFSF was the 5th CF affiliate. Kelly mentioned that when he started, they had yet to start doing kipping pullups, and did Cindy with dead hangs for his first ever WOD.

So recall on Monday that CFOT WOD was super-heavy squat cleans. Tuesday, at 4:15 am I left my house - stopped by to say hi to Jerry since he is the only human I know awake that early - drove to Dulles and then flew cross county. With little sleep, a 5-hour flight, and one day removed from super heavy squat cleans I was dragging. Then, Kelly announced the WOD - heavy back squats. Fail!!!

I mustered all the motivation I could, but the power was not there. 225 was my top end. But Coach Kelly was right there and had tips, encouragement and knowledge to share. I wish I had more in me. I really like this place.

Even the set up is very cool. Golden Gate bridge and open park make up the background to the running trail. How cool is that.

I hung around and after our WOD, and watched as the CFSF coaches did the WOD together. What an inspiring thing to see. Diane did 285, and Angel and Kelly battled up to 365 plus the 135 total added force of the dual resistance bands they rigged between the bar and the rack. Squatting that way is a different experience - use a box at the bottom, different force over the range of motion, but it looked intense. At the end of his last rep, coach came over to me and asked me to critique. I was afraid to say anything, but I suggested that his knees were not pushed out. I was pretty careful to say that, but he lit up and said "exactly right" - So here I was, giving Kelly Starrett squat tips.

Above, Kelly was still warming up. This is 225 on the bar, plus the bands add 135# at peak tension. It teaches you to continue to recruit more muscle fibers as the weight is getting heavier throughout the movement. They added another 140# to this - which was insane. You need super explosive power to get back up.

Later he worked over my shoulder and I will not bore you with that. But overall a great day.

Squat cleans - go heavy

12 minutes of 2 squat cleans per minute as heavy as you can go.

\

I do not think that I have done squat cleans of more than 95# before. So I was not sure what weight to do. I remember clearly how 155# front squats crushed me at the Hopper, so I wanted to be sure to do at least that much. Jerry encouraged us to go heavy, so I started with 165#.

After 3 rounds I missed a few, and dropped back to 155. That was still feeling like a real chore, but I was able to finish. Wow. Pain.

Push Press & I need more time together

We had a 20 minute time limit to get a 1 rep max snatch grip behind the neck push press. Well that was not enough for me. With three people on the bar (Me, Chad and Chad) we started slow to get those shoulders warm. As I got to 135 and 155 I started feeling really good. A powerful dip and drive and the bar was flying up. All I had to do was lock out at the top. No press at all. 185 took a little press. Then we were out of time. I rushed to add 20 more pounds and tried 205 before I was ready. Close, but no. I would have preferred a few more minutes to try 195 and then 205. Not today.

Walking lunges the long way of the box with 45# overhead and 12 pullups for 4 rounds. By the end my legs were aching. Ouch. 6:22.

Ring Dips and Cleans

Every minute on the minute for 15 minutes perform 5 Ring Dips then max reps Cleans 155#. Record total Clean reps.

Elite is 5 reps or 75 total!!
Pro is 4 reps or 60 total!!
Pack is 3 reps of 45 total!

This was tough. First of all, if you were on the wrong side of the room from the ring dips, you were screwed. It took 5-10 seconds each way if you did not hustle, which ate up a big chunk of each minute. I gave up and started hitting the deck for 12 pushups.

I also wore down and had to drop from 155# to 135# after 5 rounds. Like Soni says, it is equivalent to dropping trou in front of every one, but I had to.

Ended up with 15 at 155# in 5 rounds and then another 50 of 135# in 10 rounds.

Did a 2,667m team row with Dennis afterwards. A minute on and then a minute rest. Funny how the rest minute goes so fast and the work minute takes so long. We did 10:04.

Back Squat 5x5

I don't love this, but I respect it. So I powered through. My shoulder messes up my rack position, which messes up my stance and angle, but you need to squat deep and squat heavy to get stronger. And I love stronger.

sets

95, 135, 185, 205, 225 (not quite deep enough) 215 (better)

I am sufficiently gimpy 8 hours later to know that I gave it a good effort.

Happy New Year Pukie

Today killed me.

Jerry talked about how this taxed and tested 1) cardiac power output training and 2) lactate capacity training - two objectives on your path to Elite fitness. Well, I am not good at one or both of these. I was sucking wind. After round 1, my runs were slow, my C&J output low, and my stamina completely gone.

I even had a visit from Pukie in round 3/4:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=230961493228&ref=mf

This is the same feeling I get during FGB, so clearly I need to keep hitting these. As hard as they are on me.

Optomistic spin:

I did not quit. I wanted to, thought about it, but kept going. Score one for stubbornness.

2009 check list

I thought this would be fun to look at in a year. At December 31, 2010 where will I be compared to:

Weight - high 1/1: 187

Low Aug 160

End 166

Fran 5:30

Grace 3:44

Diane 7:40

Helen 12:44

Barbara - 23:20 (not including the rests)

Strict Press 180

Push Press 205

Push Jerk 185

Clean 201

Snatch 120

Clean & Jerk 185

Deadlift 336

Back Squat 255

Front Squat 220

Overhead Squat 100

Row 2k 8:31

Row 500m 1:47

Ok - Time to get to work