Link to an awesome article

Thank you to Erin for pointing this out. Blair Morrison eloquently writes here about some things that I believe, and some that I had not even thought of yet.

Fitness is.....

Shout out to Jeremy Moss

Team B Awesome teammate Jeremy Moss has undertaken an huge challenge to row 100,000 meters over a 30 day interval. Day in and day out he is putting in over 2k, with some days of 5k.

That sounds just miserable, and also just crazy enough to do some good. I bet that his technique and time improves greatly.

Very impressive.

Back Squat 5 x 5

I am still sick and my lungs particularly are not up to par. Case in point. I was gasping for breath in between sets of back squats. I worked up to 205 for 5 with 2 sets of chains. That is close to my max, so my strength is hanging in there. But I did not have speed anywhere close to what I normally have. Plus, my joints hurt - shoulder and knees, which limited my rack position and overall enjoyment today.

Took a pass on the met con wod due to lung capacity and worked on some band stretching and back extensions. I was winded just from that!

Hoping to recover soon.

Clean Up

I am a little under the weather. Doc was not sure what it was a prescribed a general antibiotic. He was mostly impressed with my weight, which even on an unexpected visit was 162 after years of creeping towards 190. So my weight is stable now for over a year. Pulse 56. BP 90/72. All nice to see.

Anyway, I feel week and short of breath. So max effort clean and jerks did not go great. I did not have the speed, enthusiasm, or anger needed to do much. Although, I got 195#. Not too bad considering.

Sat 11/27

Once through:

800run, 30 toes-2bar, 400m Overhead Plate carry(25lb W, 45lb M), 30 dips, 200m walking lunge, 30 burpees, 100 double-unders.

Between the cold, and the Thanksgiving gorgefest that occurred, this was tough. I finished in 33:16, wheezing and hacking. Carrying the 45# plate to the mailbox and back was tough. I got 100m at first, but ended 10 at a time. Breathing really heavy in the cold is bad for my asthma and I am still suffering.

Good to be back though.

Back Squat then Row, d/u's

2 workouts from the recent Mid Atlantic Hopper individual competition.

225# back squat - max reps in 3 minutes
I got 17 reps. Started in sets of 5 and continued down to sets of 2. I was toying with using less weight, cause this is a bid chunk of my 3 rep max (90%+). Especially after yesterday, when I wish that I had gone heavier, I was pleased with my choice and the results.

500m row, then 44 double unders
3:47. Still doing double/single etc.


Overall - my efforts place me in the lower bottom half of the participants in the Hopper.

But it was good work to do.

Melissa's 33rd BDay WOD

2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2 = 34 of
Muscle ups, thrusters and snatches

This was brutal. 34 muscle ups in a wod is tough. Adding thrusters and snatches is 3x the pain. Suggested weights were between 95# and 135#. I chose 95# due to the snatches - 135# is my PR. But they were easier than I expected at 95#. I should have gone 115#.

The muscle ups were tough. At one point I got 5 in a row, which is a pr. But then fatigue set in, and I was failing. Overall, I was gasping a lot and trying to get over the failed reps - so I waited around a little.

Time 18:59.

If I had gone 115# I suspect it may have added 1 minute.


Melissa gamely tried some of this with a vest. She is a bad ass and a trooper. That seems nearly impossible. I think she got half with the vest and half without. She is the coach for most classes I take, and I owe her a lot. It was great to suffer through this in her honor.

Sat 11/20

The aftermath

I wanted to go to the sat am crossfit. They are always fun, and this one looked even better. But I am really sore, and I have a painter at the house. And my wife is out of town.

Any excuse I can think of to avoid running this morning. My legs are very sore.

So lucky you. I spent the hour updating my blog for the past week.

I may take a light jog later.

Friday 11/19 - FS, bottom tabata squat, 1 mile "run"

Pure evil.

Back home to CFOT. Front squat x 3 with Vinnie and coach Melissa. Vinnie is so strong, and never seems to tire. His wrists hurt limiting him slightly. I try to show him how I position the bar so that it does not hurt. He proceeds to out squat me by 45 pounds for 3 reps. I got 205 x 3. DId 225 for 1 and then failed on rep, that is my PR so I was happy to match it. But really felt it in my butt/quads. I was sore already from that max effort.

Too bad. Cause then tabata squats. And rest at the bottom. Are you kidding me! I do not have what they call muscular endurance. I was in serious pain. Maintained 12, but fell to 10 in round 7. Back to 12 in the last round. I was on the floor. I think a tear came out.

Too bad. Go run a mile - immediately. Vinnie was out the door and running as I was picking myself off the floor. He was way out ahead. I limped home in 10:17. For the first time ever, the limitation was not my cardio, but my legs that were on fire.

I have skinny legs, and they are not strong. This destroyed me.

Thurs 11/18

Flew to NY on Wed night. Had a huge steak which was good as I regained my strength. But I drank very little and went to bed by 11, which is not what my coworkers did.

Getting to bed early allowed me to go to CF NYC (Black Box) in the morning at 7:15. Not my time of day, but my only chance. Note this cycle of choices and how it can effect your fitness. Be moderate at night and you can exercise early. And then as an aside, I presented to our Board of Directors - a stoic group of Japanese men - and absolutely nailed it. A 10 minute presentation that left them with no questions and actually smiling. I was energetic and did not forget a single point we wanted to convey.

Or, I could have raged at night on the company dime, and gotten in little sleep and no workout, and had a head throbbing presentation. Not afraid to say I have done dance that before.

Taking the better choice over the long term makes a big difference. I thought of that as I saw one of my NY coworkers for the first time in a few months. He is 40+, goes out late, drinks in empty calories and does not exercise. He looks like shit.

Sure once in a while I like to let loose, but the level, frequency and definition of that has changed over time.

Anyway, back to CF NYC. They follow the main site. Hang Power cleans x 3.

My lats were killing me from the prior day, and my stamina was still recovering. After a self warmup, they spent 10 minutes doing the Burg warmup and some drills. Then 1 person per bar and start the cleans. I liked the warmup and learned a cue or two in the into. Otherwise, I could have done this in the hotel gym. Not a single word of coaching. Worked up to 145, limited by my wrists and forearms tiring out.

Wed 11/17

All better. But down under 160 pounds.

Back to CFOT.
Shoulder press x 3 - worked up to 165.

Then onion skin - 3 rounds of max pullups in one set - rest remainder of 3 minutes.Max strict press of 95 pounds in a set, and rest remainder of 3 minutes. Repeat cycle 3 times.

One of my recent goals was to crack 30 pullups, and of all things, I was able to get this today. 15 were easy, a little pause hanging on the bar and, then maybe 5 or 3 more at a time until I was getting just 1 at a time.

This hurts your grip and lats terribly. So the rest of the sets suffered greatly from this first effort. But happy to hit 30 and looking up that soon.

Tues 11/16

Awake at 7 am - 12 hours of sleep. Ready for work...NOT

Back to bed for another 6 hours.

Then - recovery kicked in. Think I had a nasty 24 hour roto virus. I will spare you some of the other clues.

Mon 11/15

The sickness.

Started to catch a headache at the end of the day, which got worse and worse. It was stressful at work, but alas this was no migraine.

Monday night saw me vomitous and chilled. And in bed by 7pm.

Time to catchup

But not quite yet. I will fill in details of the past week or so as soon as I can.

Oh my

So if I was going to pick a day to come back, overhead squats was not my best choice.

Any lingering pain that I had from the hopper, mixed with tightness from being inactive all week messed me up good. Worked up to 115 x3 overhead squats. But was not feeling it.

The burner afterwards was 10 ohs, 10 burpees, 10 c2b pullups. I used 85# on the squats and finished in 8 something. I could not get all of the sets unbroken. The snatches felt nice, but it was only 85#.

Not feeling it

A few days into my planned week off from Crossfit - something interesting happened. First of all, in addition to not going doing the workouts, I have been eating like shit too. In other words, like I used to and like 95% of Americans do. Including the world's largest Reeses PB cup that was brought back for me by my daughter from the M&M store in NY. I ate the whole thing, and it was good.

But now, I feel like crap. Lethargic and putting on a few pounds already.

So I am going back in. My body is used to the intensity and I miss it. Eating lunch with the guys, not going to the gym...kind of sucks.

Really?

Yes, as I alluded to in a recent post: Next Up? , I am actually taking a break from Crossfit. Don't worry people, it is not going to be a long break - I am thinking a week.

Coming off the Mid Atlantic Hopper, I really need it. Cause if you look at this picture, there is one thing to note.


And that important thing is, that Danya is a professional trainer and dance instructor who has competed and been athletic her whole life. And she is 8 years younger than I am. And after that, Jeremy and Laurie are 12 and 15(?) years younger than I am. So while they are all back at it, I am in more pain than I like to admit. I am proud of what we all did, but I am also secretly proud of the fact that doing this at 41 years of age, is pretty damn impressive. There are more than a few people I can think of that started to train for this event, and never made it due to injury.

Word of advice to those getting older and wanting to compete: It is great to be still standing on game day, but expect to be limping for the next few. Especially if your weekend consisted of a lot of max levels of rowing and deadlifting. I credit the mobility wods with allowing me to make it all the way to game day. Cause I really upped my intensity and could easily have overdone it.

But also, clearly Crossfit is the secret fountain of youth that many have searched for, and few are willing to endure. But think about Jeff Tincher, Jerry Hill, Tony Blauer, and you dont think that these guys are in their 40s or 50s. You think 20s. Jeff is 45+ and won the brutal final individual WOD. It is hard to fathom that.

So there you go. I have had a taste of competition, and I want more. And in about a week, I plan to get back after it harder than ever.

Team Event #3

Row 8,000 meters as a team

Early Sunday morning we had to return for WOD 3. They had announced it the night before, row 8,000 meters as a team.

Team Awesome is not really your ideal rowing team - you know (tall, large people.) We may be tough as nails, but put us on rowers and we have a lot of making up to do. No surprise that some of the team that had tall women, tall and or heavier men did very well.


So that is it. Only the top 5 teams got to complete the 4th WOD. Also known as - the WOD with bodyweight movements and Olympic lifts that I would have loved to do. We are going to do that one in the gym sometime soon, and I will report back on the results then.

Thanks to all that came out to watch, and those who gave us support. And thanks to my teammates. They were in a word: Awesome.

Team Event #2

For time:
2 people working at a time:
each member of the team completes
30 double unders - wait for last person to finish
30 GHD situps - wait for last person to finish
20 double unders - wait for last person to finish
20 GHD situps - wait for last person to finish
10 double unders - wait for last person to finish
10 GHD situps - wait for last person to finish

Guess who sucks at double unders. Thats right, I do. We knew this going into the Hopper, but took solace in the teamwork concept, because Danya is about as good as you can be at them, Laurie very good, and Jeremy also good. But because of the format, we did not get to use our little strategery.

It was a vicious cycle. I took so many attempts to get 30 or 20 or the 10 double unders that I was exhausted when I had to do the GHDs.

But it is no ones fault but my own. It is a skill I have had almost 2 years to work on, and I blew it.

Here's me suffering on the GHD. Laurie is not only better at Crossfit, but she has an awesome hair flip going on.

The Hopper - Event 1

I have a ton of thoughts about the Hopper. Some good, some bad, some frustrating. But if you know me at all, you know that I am a positive person. So despite not being happy with the way the Hopper was administered, I am not going to dwell on that. I would have loved to have the opportunity to show some of my skills, but I did not really get to. What I got to do, was to push through on some of the very worst things that could have come up. I am a short, light guy so rowing is not for me, and it came up not once, but twice in three events. And while I may be strong for my size, deadlifting 172% of my bodyweight for high reps in a short timeframe is also not up my alley. But if nothing else, I did not give in, and I did not quit on my team. So there is that. Enough bitching. Cause if I was stronger, smarter or more skilled, I would have done better. And next time I will be all three.

Team WOD #1;
two parts:
1 guy and 1 girl work at a time and then switch. So you are either resting in minute 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. Alternating with a minute each of
Row for calories
Burpee Box Jumps
Then right into:
Part 2:
100 deadlifts for time
275#/185#

Time limit 6 minutes. Share 1 bar. Load it yourself and switch weights yourself.

Sadly we came up short. 96 reps. So, another 10 seconds and we would have finished. We came in 1st among teams that did not get all 100 reps, or 11th overall. Hindsight is 20/20, but the first 4 minutes of the wod did not matter as much as finishing the deadlifts. Going all out on the row was not smart, cause I was tired before deadlifts #1, and would have liked to been able to do more. Live and learn.

The other CFOT team benefited from our knowledge and was able to pace. That and Adam Murphy's Performance gave them a 4th place finish in that event.

Hoping next year it will be a pushup, handstand pushup, push press, pull up medley - and I can show some of those punks how it is done.

Final countdown

Feeling MUCH better this morning. Walking down the stairs test was a solid improvement. Felt almost no discomfort at all.

Did 30 min of rolling out, lax ball, and other stretches. Some ring rows, and 1 single muscle up. Then done.

Starting to jump out of my skin with all this accumulated energy. I am REALLLLY fired up.

More pre-hopper cont.

The one minor concern I have is my knee has been sore. I have been told by my support team that I have tight satorious muscle which can cause that. A few weeks back I had an incident, and it has been tight since. But only recently did I connect the knee pain with the tight muscle on the inside of my quad. So I have been icing and stretching, and fish oil and rolling and anything else I can think of.

Including a massage from Olga. That is a painful ordeal. Not a relaxation type of massage but I am feeling better, my test is the basic - how does it feel to walk down the stairs in the morning. Hoping for a betterg tomorrow.and even better Sat.

Back up

My blog has taken a back seat to other pressing matters. Not really sure what those are, but I have been busy.

It is Hopper Week. Team BeAwesome is ready to go in the BWI Hopper. I have followed Jerry's game week advice and worked out moderately Mon/Tues even less on Wed. I have been rolling, stretching, icing and relaxing like crazy. I have been eating well, and I am skipping alcohol this week. Since Sunday at least. And believe me, that is tough. I like one beer most nights. Usually I drink half and dump it, but I like that half.

The combination of not working out and no beer is making me antsy, jumpy and angry.

Perfect Hopper attitude. I don't know what they are going to pull out of that Hopper, but I am mostly healthy and at the top of my game. My game is not all that, but I am going to give it my all. More later.