Archive for May, 2010

Still can’t walk

I can still barely walk around normally with my sore calf muscles so instead of running sprints like I had planned to this morning I maxed on shoulder press at 24 Hour Fitness. Shoulder Press is the one on the left in this video:

I was *really* close to getting 85# but… no deal. 1 Rep Max: 80#. Afterward we normally do sets of 12, 9, and 6 reps at about 65% of whatever our max was. Since I was so close to 85, I went ahead and did 55# for 12, 9, 6. Afterward I felt like I hadn’t worked very hard so I wandered around the gym doing some dips, push ups, leg raises, etc. It wasn’t very satisfying. Next time I have to go to a regular gym I need to have a better plan. It will also help when I can walk again.

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Two valuable lessons on one sucky day

frustrated Yesterday sucked. I guess sometimes you learn your most valuable lessons on your worst days…

First of all, my manager at work had a project in mind that I finally got a chance to tackle. I know next to nothing about that area of our product but somehow managed to get it working last Friday. On Monday, it was completely broken. I tried many ways to figure out what I had done to break it but all I found was new problems. At 9:30 last night I realized the breakage was caused by product bugs and not by my incompetence in the area. I went to bed frustrated for what felt like an incredible waste of time. But in the end, the process of troubleshooting uncovered several product issues. Why should I be frustrated about that? That is the whole point of my job!  I need to remember that sometimes the process is even more valuable than the end result.

Then, of course, I was reminded of the importance of taking care of my muscles after every workout. I can work through some pretty bad soreness but my calf muscles are beyond that. Today’s workout includes box jumps again so I can’t go. I hate missing box jumps. After all, if I didn’t like jumping then I picked the wrong sport to play year round for most of my adult life. I am missing wall balls too which I really want to work on before the games. I feel pissed. Yesterday I sat around all day sulking because I could barely walk and couldn’t go in to work on my Olympic lifts. Today, I am going to do a workout on my own. It is infinitely harder to get the same intensity when you are by yourself but I will just have to find it in me to do exactly that.

Today’s workout:
100 pull ups (kipping)
100 push ups
100 sit ups

Time: TBD. I’ll post it after I do it.

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Ouch! I can’t walk…

 calfmuscles Between doing 130 box jumps on Tuesday and maxing on squats yesterday my calf muscles are so sore I can barely walk. When you workout really hard and then go home and sit down all day the stress on your muscles is compounded. What I should have done was sat in an ice bath when I got home but its too late for that now. The best thing I could do now is another workout – if I can, that is. I may have to go swimming or maybe go for a nice long walk.

Here is a picture of me biting my lower lip while squatting 215:

squatmax

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The Schedule

schedule It took some convincing but I have scaled back a bunch on my original workout plan to make sure I am getting the proper rest. It is less than an hour a day 6x a week and one of those will be a light day. The new schedule actually makes me feel like a major slacker but I will just do what I am told and get over it. Here is my workout schedule for the next couple months.

Sun – Day off
Mon – Lift/CrossFit WOD (workout of the day)
Tues – CrossFit WOD
Wed – Lift/CrossFIt WOD
Thurs – Olympic lifting technique and/or CrossFit endurance
Fri – Lift/CrossFit WOD
Sat – CrossFIt WOD

For the next couple weeks I still have volleyball on Monday and Tuesday evening. My last tournament until late July is this Sunday. After that I will be taking Sundays totally off to relax.

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Max on Thrusters

What is fun about CrossFit is that if you work hard you surprise yourself on a regular basis. Yesterday we did 1 rep max on thrusters. Having no idea what my max would be I was hoping I could get at least 100#. Adding weight on each rep I didn’t fail until 125! I backed down to 120 and failed again. After another attempt I finally got 120 and figured I was finished. I started to put the weights away until Tim said ‘You’re done? You’re not done. Keep going.’ So I gave 125 another try and what-do-ya-know I got it!  So just for the fun of it I tried 130. I got that too! That is close to my body weight and the most weight I have ever had over my head for any reason. I tried 135 a couple times and was *really* close. I did not get it but I am glad I tried. It’s true, the only way to guarantee failure is to never attempt.

This is a thruster:

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My Rest Schedule

sleepy_bear I am putting together a workout schedule for what needs to be done between now and the CrossFit Games in July. Often when someone puts together a workout schedule it is to keep from skipping workouts. In this case I need to keep from skipping days off which makes it more of a rest schedule. On one hand I do not want to go to California feeling like there was more I could have done. Every missed workout feels like a missed opportunity to get better at something. On the other hand I do not want to burn myself out or even worse to get sick or injured. I need to find the perfect balance between working at full capacity and getting the proper rest. Not an easy thing to do.

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People are so interesting…

teacherMy friends at work have had many discussions about how amazing it is that you can work with someone every day for years have no idea that she is secretly a trapeze dance artist (a real example of a former co-worker). You may see people every day in just one setting and never know the interesting things they do or want to do. One minute you are chatting about the weather and the next minute they tell you they have to go out to the ranch to feed their buffalo (another real example).

It is for this reason I am finally taking an interest in other blogs. People can be so creative and interesting and fascinating and their lives so different from each other. Over there on the right I just added links to the very few blogs I currently read but I am hoping to add more. I follow the blog from the Flatirons CrossFit blog since our daily workouts are posted. The Paleo-Zone blog is from another guy at our gym named Steve who posts amazing Paleo recipes. And of course Todd always has interesting things to post.

If you get a chance you must check out KnitFit. It is truly unique. A very dedicated CrossFitter named Amy from our gym also really likes to knit and has combined the two interests (plus others) into one blog. The whole concept of the blog is a reminder of how multifaceted people can be. In many of her posts she will discuss an interesting knitting pattern and then go straight into what it felt like to do 100 kipping pull ups in today’s workout. Fascinating.

That picture is of a professor at the University of Mexico, by the way. Wouldn’t the world be boring if everyone was the same? 

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Paleo Progress

scale So I finally overturned the backslide I had in April after the photo shoot. (I was so thrilled it was over I was eating brownies in the car on the way home). Now I have managed to stay away from the junk food for almost 2 weeks. Interestingly on this Paleo Diet I have gained 2 more pounds. I have been eating way too much fruit and too many nuts so that could be the reason for the gain. But I have been told not to worry about pounds and notice instead how my clothes fit, how I feel, and my performance. I am not sure my brain can process what it means not to measure the success of a diet by my weight. Now that I am eating the right foods again, regardless of whether I can figure out how to stop worrying about gains and losses, I do still need to pay attention to getting the right balance.

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Shopping For Workout Clothes

workoutclothes I desperately need to go shopping. When you workout 6-7 days a week and then work from home you go through sweats like a sick person goes through Kleenex. I went through my closet and tried to put together a few nice workout ‘outfits’ and realized I don’t have any. I have been wearing raggedy t-shirts and mismatched shorts that should never leave the house. If fitness is going to be my hobby I need to be better equipped.

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The Row Machine

You would not think rowing for 2 minute would be so difficult even when you have to do it 3 times. That is only 6 minutes. But try it. I don’t mean sliding up and down the base tugging on the rope. I mean really pushing your speed. Ugh!  Last time we did this my first 500 meters took only 1:46 but the next one was 2:30 and the third one was about 2:45. This time I wanted them all under 2:00 so I kept it a little more steady.

Row 500 meters / Rest 3 minutes
Row 500 meters / Rest 3 minutes
Row 500 meters

My times:
1st: 1:57.9
2nd: 1:57.4
3rd: 1:54.9

Last week we rowed 2000 meters. Andy did this in about 6:55!!!:

photo5

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