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.

  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:

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.

My 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? 

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.

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.

Happy Mother’s Day all you mothers!

I am not a mom but I still plan to have a nice day. I am finally taking a day off from working out – mostly because our gym is closed but also because I promised myself I would not run myself into the ground like last time. Seven days of CrossFit in a row is a lot. Compared to Friday’s workout, yesterday’s was not unbearable (although still ridiculously hard as always):

8 rounds for time of:
4 dead lifts @ 195# for girls / 300# for boys
150 meter “sprint”

The word “sprint” is in quotes because after a few rounds it is not much like a sprint anymore. However, I did get a sudden burst of energy on the last one knowing I was almost finished. That happens a lot.

Anyway, I was happy to be able to keep up with a few of our more elite boys on this one (they are really amazing so that almost never happens) but it isn’t really a fair comparison. They had a lot more weight to handle. I am willing to bet they were closer percentage wise to their 1 rep max than I was.  In retrospect, knowing I can handle 195, I probably should have tried 205. Next time…
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From time to time someone asks about the title of my blog. It is a pretty grand title for someone who mostly talks about working out. It comes from a famous epitaph and you can read that here. The main point is that you do not necessarily have to dedicate your whole life to a political cause or to create an anti-gravity device to make a mark on the world. It is about the sphere of influence that every person possesses. If you work on being a better person it will influence those around you and they will influence others and so on (like chain mail). Self-improvement is infectious.

The change I have initiated on in my own life is to overcome a fundamental flaw in my character. When you are as impulsive as I am it is very hard to follow through on promises you make to yourself and others. You are easily distracted by… well, everything. This can make it very difficult to meet goals. So I decided I need to learn to follow through on my goals despite distractions and set backs – to push through when its hard or when I suddenly feel unmotivated. Some of my personal goals just happen to be fitness and health related but there is a bigger picture.

For those who DO have grander plans the title can also have a more literal meaning. For example, I have a soft spot for three major life issues: people with problems related to their weight and eating habits, people living in poverty, and the environment. For this, the title can be read like a task list. First I need to change things about myself to make me better equipped to then tackle issues outside my own life. (In the meantime, I still pick up groceries and go to the dentist now and then).

This is a very young blog and I am still working on the Change Myself part. Obviously I don’t believe that improving my performance in CrossFit is going to change the world. I am just hoping it will change me and that someone will notice. It will take some time. There are no shortcuts to building character. But just because I haven’t built an orphanage in Africa yet doesn’t mean I won’t.
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Overhead squat. My nemesis. The one thing that could have prevented me from making our affiliate cup team and the one thing I could not have contributed at Regionals.

Our workout today looked like this:
3 rounds for time of:
500 meter row
12 overhead squats @ 75# (115 for boys)
50 double unders (jump rope)

My time was 13:59 which is not terrible except I didn’t earn it. For one thing I did 65# instead of 75#. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with doing less than the prescribed weight if you are doing the most you can do. But I have both the arm strength and the leg strength to do at least 75#. It is just technical problems (and probably mental) that keep me from doing what I know I am otherwise capable of.

Grrr. I hate the feeling of knowing I didn’t work as hard as I could have. It feels like a missed opportunity. Even at a lesser weight the depth of my squats was questionable. My arms were bent and sloppy. Worrying about the squats had me holding back on the rower and frustrated on the double unders. Overall it was a mess. In my mind there is only one option. I am going to fix this problem so that by the time we go to California I will look forward to workouts that include overhead squats.

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