Crossfit log for Monday, December 24th

A bit delinquent on posting

Wednesday was a Hero WOD called "DT"
5 rounds of 12 dead lifts, 9 hang power cleans, 6 push jerks, I think I did 105# I think I was 18:35. Brutal.

Friday was two back to back bench mark WODS:
Isabelle (30 snatches for time) followed by Grace (30 clean and jerks for time) with 5:00 min rest between.
Did 75# for the snatches (because I can only power snatch and that's a weight I can handle)
Did 95# for the c&j. Rough, shoulder's need work, it was easier to push press the weight than jerk it. it was ugly.

20:06 (finished the snatches in 6:40, 5:00 break, so almost 10:00 for the clean and jerks)

Maddening seeing as I got my PR in the clean and jerk only a couple of weeks ago. Oh well. Marathon training has been hurting my Crossfitting for sure.

Did the test run in my super suit on the treadmill at the Y amid stares and funny looks, but it was successful. Heat dissipation may be an issue but with a 5am start and the possibility of splashing water on myself. No chaffing. I'll definitely wear it for the half, we'll see about the full.

Ran 31.3km Sunday. Glad its over. Taper starts now.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 17th

Marathon training is taking it's toll.

Another sh!tshow at Crossfit this morning.

Strength was snatch balance followed by back squats. 4x3 snatch balances I think, I wouldn't really know I didn't do them. I can't. Maybe I should've done split snatch.

Back squat was okay, 4 x 8 reps did 135#-135#-155#-155#

WOD was 4 rounds capped at 12 minutes
-10 hang power clean 115#
-12 box jumps 24" box
-15 ball slams 12# slam ball

Made 3 rounds plus 8 cleans. Not fun. DFL. Box jumps the day after 30km long run just ain't happening. Looking forward to this Goofy nonsense to be over with.

Crossfit log for Friday, December 14th

Not my finest hour at Crossfit today.

Shoulder is sore and tight, I should've done a better warm up.

Started with everybody's favorite: Thruster: 1 rep max. I stopped at 135# wasn't feeling the love.

The WOD naturally had thrusters.
5 rounds of
7-7-7-7-7 UNBROKEN Thruster 95# (I sneakily used a women's bar and did 85#)
50-40-30-20-10 double unders

Dead last I was on my 20 double unders and everyone was finished. Just wasn't my day. Two things I'm not very proficient at plus a nagging shoulder. At least it's done.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, December 12th

Crazy Wednesday WOD

18 minute AMRAP:

4 lengths of gym burpee-broad-jumps (yes you read that right).
15 box jumps 24"
10 push press 85#
1 rope climb (to the beam: an extra 2 or 3 feet from the tape where I normally climb to)

Made 3 rounds. Brutal. I was so winded the entire time. Glad it's over.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 10th

Advil is my new best friend. I know the studies show you shouldn't use it during exercise, and I always felt that even for recovery, it is essentially impeding you body's ability to heal itself, but I could hardly walk last night and this morning I was functional.

What I'm finding is that running really shakes out the soreness from Crossfit and Crossfit is really helping my recovery from running. After 3 sets of 4 moderately heavy front squats my ankles, legs and feet felt way better. Did 115#, 135#, 135#

WOD was a nasty bit of business.
4 rounds for time
-10 push press (first and fourth round 75#, second and third round 85#)
-20 abmat sit ups
-12 tricep dips

I had taken out two 5# plates but the clock was started before I put them on, the coach was nice enough to add them during the first round, but round three was really rough, so I peeled them off for round 4).

The dips were horrible. My triceps will be non function tomorrow and Wednesday for sure! I can't remember how I broke them up. I think I got to 8 the first round. The last round was like 4, 3, 2, 1, 2. Brutal.

Goofy Training Log for Sunday, December 9th

Ran 30km.

Bagged.

Legs hurt. Ankles hurt. Feet hurt.

This Marathon training is killing me.

Crossfit log for Saturday, December 8th

We had a weightlifting competition today at Crossfit.

Each of the 4 waves took 16 minutes to reach or beat their PR in the snatch, then then they had 16 minutes to reach or beat their PR in the clean and jerk.

So not quite the same as an Olympic lifting competition where you only get three lift in each. It was much more free form and I probably did 5 or 6 lifts of each

I PR'd both lifts, snatching 115# (my previous was 110#) and 160# clean and jerk (the previous best I can find in my log is 135# which at the time felt easy but I failed at 155# without trying 145# first) so huge PRs.

The jerk at 160# was a fight, I didn't quite get under it and didn't lock out my arms, so I stood there red faced fighting to get my arms locked inching it up for a good 10 seconds before I managed it. I knew I didn't have enough time on the clock for another attempt and I had already missed my first attempt at this weight. Everyone was screaming and cheering me on and when I finally locked out, I felt like a rock star. It was awesome.

Of course a minute later Ann lifts a 165# like it's nothing. But that's okay, I'm used to getting chicked (both at running and at Crossfit). Only 2 girls beat me on the snatch and 2 on the c&j. I was 15th in each event out of 28 competitors

I'm very happy with this.

Crossfit log for Friday, December 7th

Strict Press. Tried for a PR at 115#, not happening. Topped out at my existing PR of 105#

WOD was 3 rounds for time of
-40 wall balls 14# medicine ball
-10 power cleans 95#

Had a little bit of a race with Adam, one of the young studs that's been there since day 1. We get along very well, but trash talk a lot too.

I finished the first set of wall balls (unbroken) and he was still going, so I looked at him and asked "did I miss count" he said "no, I stopped", 'You stopped?!?!", but by the time I recovered from my shock he was done, so on to the cleans, which we finished at the same time. So now it was game on.

At this point we were breaking up the wall balls in sets of 10, he'd invariably get there ahead of me as I'd falter at 7 but recover to get to 10 before taking a break. I only allow myself three breaths before pickup up the ball, much sooner than Adam had decided to allow himself, so I'd catch him on his heels and we'd even out.

Same on the cleans, which we'd do 5 and 5, but I'd take shorter breaks, but was slower. At the end he had more staying power to pound out the last 5, I was 1 reps and 4 seconds behind him.

We both thanked and cursed each other for pushing the other so hard.

9:11 (he was 9:07).

Crossfit log for Wednesday, December 5th

Team WOD for WOD Wednesday.

5 rounds:
4 rope climbs
10 Hand stand push ups or 10 kick ups + push up.
2 "trap cage" carries (length of gym) 185#
20 burpees (jump onto a 45# plate)

Even with the rest while Andrew, my partner was working, it still took us 22:04, looking back I honestly can't say what, if anything, really slowed us down. We were the first ones finished though.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 3rd

Tough workout this morning, but as the hours pass, it doesn't seem as hard when I think back to it. Probably why I keep going back!

Strength, back squats 3 sets 3 reps, 90% of max
Warmed up with empty bar, 115# and 135#, first working set was 185#, then 2 sets at 195#

WOD (12 minute cap)
6 rounds 18-15-12-9-6-3 of
Thrusters 75#
Kettle bell swings 16kg

Rough. First round made it to 12 thrusters before putting down the bar, then 6 more. Kettle bell was unbroken. Was hoping to make 10 in a row on the second set of thrusters, but it wasn't to be, 5, 5 and 5. Round 3 went 4, 4 and 4. Round 4 was 5 and 4, Round 5 was 4 and 2, and finally round 6 was 3 unbroken!!!

Kettle bells were all unbroken.

Finished with an unintentional salute to George Lucas with a time of 11:38 (22 seconds shy of the time limit). Was glad it was over.

Goofy Training log for Sunday, December 2nd

Yesterday's 13 km on the treadmill was okay, today's 26 km turned into a 19 km suckfest in the freezing rain.

When does taper start?

Crossfit log for Friday, November 30th

Almost didn't make it this morning. Turned off the alarm at 5:00am (which I had set half an hour earlier when I woke up at 4:30 and realize I hadn't set it!) rolled over, closed my eyes, got up and it was 5:36am. Supposed to be at the gym at 5:30am!!!!

Not much of a warm up.

Clean and jerk complex. 4 sets at 70%-75% of 1 rep max of:
1 power clean
1 hang clean
1 clean
2 jerks

did 85#, 95#, 115# 115#

Work out was a good over all work everything type workout
12 AMRAP
10 alternating 1 arm kettlebell clean and jerks 16kg
10 goblet squats 16kg
10 ring dips

Made 4 rounds plus 1 c&j, thought I'd be closer to 5 rounds but the dips really slowed me down, even with kipping. I'm good for 5, but the extra 5 each round took it's toll.

Goofy Training log for Thursday, November 29th

Another solid interval session.

Didn't think I was going to make it but I toughed it out.

1 mile warm up at 9:30/mile
6 x 4:00 on 1:30 rest
4:08/km
4.05/km
4.03/km
4:00/km
3:58/km
3:55/km

The last one was tough, I was like 1 minute in and wanted to quit but I was at 4.66 miles, and I really really wanted to quit, so I said to myself try and make it to 5 miles, and suddenly it wasn't so bad, the time goal of 3 minutes seem so much longer, at 5.0 miles I had like 1:15 to go, so I said, come on, you can do 1:00 and change! And I did!

Felt awesome.

40:15 for 8.15km

Crossfit log for Wednesday, Novermber 28th

WOD Wednesday.

8 bloody rounds
12 overhead walking lunges
1 rope climb
12 dead lifts 135#

Warming up my dead lift was told quite bluntly that my upper back and shoulder were a total "shit show". I guess I need to anchor my shoulders back and puff out my chest, but it's hard. Too many years of bad posture. Good to be aware of it so you can focus on correcting it.

First 4 rounds were okay, 5, 6, and 7 not so fun. 8 was just get it over with already.

Finished in 20:14.

Goofy Training log for Sunday, November 25th

25km done in the cold and wind.

By 8km I was feel much better than when I left. Had to hurry the last bit, was getting late to go to Le Nordik spa with Kiza for her birthday.

2:26:00

Goofy Training log for Saturday, November 24th

10 km this morning. First half was rough, second half was solid.

54:20

Crossfit log for Friday, November 23rd

Rough one this morning. Only a handful of us finished before the 20:00 cap.

7 rounds (14-12-10-8-6-4-2 reps) of
-kettle bell taters 20kg
-split snatch 75# (dropped to 65# after the first 6 reps)
-knees to elbows.




Brutal, just brutal.

Goofy Training log for Tuesday, November 22nd

Another solid run today.

1 mile warm up at 9:24/mile
5 x 4:00 at 9.0 mph

What does all that mean you might ask?

1.6km @ 5:50/km
5 x 1km (approx) at 4:08/km on 1:30 rest (12:00/km)

Felt great. Had a 6th interval in me, but was pressed for time.

Feeling back on track.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, Novermber 21st

Ugh. WOD Wednesday.

5 rounds for time:
8 Dead lift 185#
8 pull ups
8 handstand push ups

20:18

That was rough.

Goofy Training log for Tuesday, November 20th

Finally a good quality run!

Frog for 28:00 3.57miles

Felt good from the get go, just didn't have the mental to finish the last 2:00. Better than I've had in nearly a month!

Crossfit log for Monday, November 19th

Back squats: 4 sets of 8

Did 95#-115#-135#-135# and then 2 reps at 185#

The WOD was a 21-15-9 triplet:
Box jumps 24" box
Kettle bell swings, 20kg
Over head squats 75#

I decided to use my lifting shoes, I could manage the box jumps in them, but they'd be huge on the overhead squats.

I did 3 squats with the 75# bar, but it was just too hard. You really have to lock out your arms and really really engage you traps to pull you shoulder blades together to stabilize the weight overhead. I dropped it to 65# and did a couple more, but it still wasn't happening. So empty bar it was. But I was doing them. It was hard, but I did 45 over head squats. Some weren't pretty, but better than ever before.

One of my 2012 goals was a good overhead squat. I feel that I accomplished that today.

Goofy Training log for Sunday, November 18th

Well that wasn't so bad. 20km done. Seemed really long though, despite being under 2hrs.

10km yesterday morning. Tried to go fairly easy. Garmin died. Ended up around 55 min.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 16th

"Jackie"

1000m row
50 thrusters 45# (empty bar)
30 pull ups

10:44 - 0:20 slower than my PR.

Didn't break the thrusters efficiently.

On Sep 14th, I wrote:Decided to do 5 sets of 10 for the thrusters, but I was feeling so good I kept going, but thankfully I caught myself on #11 and took a break, the second 10 was just as easy, the 3rd, not so much, the 4th ended up being 2 sets of 5, but I was able to string together 10 to finish it out. Although I felt really strong for the first 20, you deteriorate very quickly, even with only 45#.

The above is from my PR. Should've done this again. Started with 20, and just couldn't sustain it. Next time I'll remember. I have a sub 10:00 in me, I'm sure.

Did strength afterwards, we had the choice, but I was voluntold to do the WOD first. Strict press after thrusters, not so good.

Was supposed to do 3 x 8 reps, it was more like 8 - 5 - 5 @ 75# should've dropped the weight but was too tired/lazy. It'll do.

Goofy Training log for Thursday, November 15th

7km run along the canal done.

No watch. Estimate 40 minutes ish.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5738744

Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 14th

WOD Wednesday!

Skill work: Rope climb.

OMG!

Thankfully only 2 rounds of
10 heavy thrusters 105#
1 rope climb
20 kettle bell snatches 16kg
15 thrusters 75#
20 kettle bell swings 16kg

Finished the first round in 7:16, total time was 17:22, took a whole 10 minutes for round 2. Heavy thrusters sucked second time through.

A 15# plate on either side made the difference. Some shared two bars and started at different spots in the round. I really didn't want start with rope climbs and end with heavy thruster so I went alone. I suggested to those sharing to start at the light thrusters so you would end with the kettle bell either way. A few took my advice.

Guest Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 14th

Kiza wrote:I'm using James's journal to brag about my workout last night!

As I left the house, he said "unbroken!" I wasn't sure what he meant.

Strength work was 3x3 heavy push jerks from the rack (not the floor) : (go to about 45 seconds in, and mute your volume - guy's voice is annoying).

I managed to do 85 lbs which is by far my highest weight for a push jerk!

The WOD was 4 rounds of:

10 wall balls(Rx women - 14lbs, blue was lighter, green was light) (about 1:34 into video)
15 push press- UNBROKEN (blue was 55 lbs - not sure what Rx was)
15 push ups (red was 20) (video to show the hand release)

So, the unbroken part meant that once you pick up the bar, you can't put it down, or, it doesn't count. Holy crap. It was hard....

....but, I did BLUE! It's the first time I was able to do a full workout in the blue category.

I think it was a breakthrough workout for me - in that I felt strong and that I belonged there.

oh, time was 13:57 or something like that.

We were in partners, so, if your partner was still using the push press bar, you had to wait - which was probably a good thing, since once you picked up the bar, you had to get the 15 push presses in without putting down the bar!

I'm so proud of you. You are strong.

Oh and the annoying voice is only MIKE BURGNER, they guy who basically wrote the book on Olympic lifting for Crossfit. If you ever do the Burgner warm up, he invented it. 

Crossfit log for Monday, November 12th

Ugh. No runs this weekend.

Day four of strep and my throat isn't healed, and I'm still tired and achy. Amoxil doesn't even seem to be putting a dent in it.

I went to the gym anyway, planning to go easy.

Did somewhat okay at the back squats.

The WOD was interesting.
5 rounds of:
5-5-5-5-5 dead lifts (blue was 185#-225#) I opted for 185#
30-25-20-15-10 double unders

At 185, is wasn't too hard and I somehow managed to string together a lot of 10 or more double unders. In my lifting shoes no less!

Finished first! 5:02 (granted other went heavier, but still).

It didn't leave me half dead, which was nice, and it felt good to workout again. Hopefully my lunch time run tomorrow will be good.

Crossfit log for Wednesday November 7th

Fight Gone Bad.

3 rounds for score: 5 minute (1 min at each station) 1 minute rest between rounds.
-wall balls 20# med ball 10' target (1 rep = 1 point)
-sumo dead lift high pull 75# bar (1 rep = 1 point)
-box jumps 24" box (1 rep = 1 point)
-push press (1 rep = 1 point)
-row (1 cal = 1 point)

July 20th, I wrote:
Last time I did this was the end of May and scored a huge PB at Rx weight (75# bar, 20# med ball) of 234 (up from 182, although I'd scored 250 @ 55#/14# between those two efforts).

Today I went 217. Not sure where I lost time, the wall balls sucked, and the sumo dead lift were rough too. Did fairly well on the push press and rower. Box jumps saved me, just cranked those out.

Anyway, can't PB every time. Coming off Fran, I'll take it.

Strangely enough, we did Fran on Monday.

Today I scored 226. Even starting with Rowing, which gives you an advantage as you don't lose time getting setup, I still didn't come close to my 234 PB.

P.S.

I guess those aches and pains weren't from Fran and Fight Gone Bad!

Looks like I might have strep throat again! Third time since last Christmas! Unreal.

Goofy Training log for Tuesday, November 6th

Did the frog run today.

Started at 6.4mph increasing by 0.2mph every 2:00. Had my new Wave Universe shoes, looking cool, feeling fast.

First 12 minutes didn't feel great, but I kept at it, by 20:00 I was in a good groove.

At 24:00 I committed to making it to 30:00, until the stupid treadmill went dark at 26:10. Unreal. I only needed 30 minutes and it couldn't even give me that. Grr.

Any, it was a solid 26 minutes, better than I've had since PEC, so I'll take it.

Monday, November 5th

To warm things up we did power cleans plus 2 thruster, building to "heavy". Heavy for me turn out to be 125lbs. I'll take it

Then we did Fran.

On July 18th, I wrote:Fran.

Previous Fran efforts:
Sept 2, 2011: 13:22 @ 75#
Oct 8, 2011: 9:44 @ 75#
Nov 19, 2011: 13:35 @ 85#
Jan 23, 2012: 8:12 @ 65#
April 6, 2012: 9:16 @ 75#

Today: 7:24 @ 75# !!!!

In November after my fiasco, some athletes that used lighter weight and band-assisted pull-ups had times close to 6:00. Francois said they needed to up the weight and us less assistive bands. They were getting too fast at their current effort.

Previously he had said, over 10 minutes and you aren't getting the metabolic conditioning. In fact he sometimes caps the workout at 10:00.

So I think that's my plan. I'll go back to 75# to get back under 10:00 and work until I can go sub 7:00 or sub 6:30 before I increase the weight again.

I went unbroken the first round at 65lbs in January, but I made it to only 16 of the first 21 today, so I also want to be able to do the first 21 thruster unbroken before I move up. I think next time might be the last at 75lbs. We'll see.

So at the very least, I got a good plan out of today's workout.

Plan is working. I think I'll add to that plan, that the first 21 thrusters have to be unbroken before I move up to 85#. I went unbroken the first round at 65# in January, and I made to 16 of the first 21 today. So I think next time might be the last at 75#. We'll see.

I broke up the work, round 1, thrusters 16 + 5, pull ups 15 + 6, round 2 thrusters 5 + 5 + 5, pull ups: 5 + 5 + 5, round 3: thrusters 5 + 2 + 2, pull ups 9! I was going to break them up, but coach Isabelle was standing right next to me yelling "UNBROKEN! UNBROKEN! DON'T STOP", makes it hard to drop off the bar with that going on!

Very pleased with this.

Well I lied.

I felt that it had been a long enough time since the last Fran that I was sure to under 7:00 at 75#, and the year is running out, so my goal of decent Fran Rx is slipping away. There may have been a bit of ego involved, but I felt strong, I had my new lifting shoes and 3 and a half months of training since the last time.

I did 85#

First round, unbroken, in 1:52. Broke the 15 thrusters into 5s, made to 9 pull ups straight, then added the remaining 6. But I was already at 5:12 on the clock. The last 9 thrusters went 5 and 4, at 6:38, so I tried to hammer the pull ups to go sub 7. Made to 6 and looked at the clock: 7:02, CRAP! Took a few deep breaths and jump back on for the last 3 and finished in 7:17

PR plus 10# heavier!

Goofy Training log for Sunday, November 4th

Yesterday's 13km went well but today's 26 km not so much. Took 45 minutes to find kind of groove and it did last long enough. Bailed at 21 km. Terrain was too hilly for what I had in the tank.

Still a step in the right direction. Next weekend well be better.

I'm sure it's due to a number of factors. I haven't gone over 22km in a long time. Even though I've done 10km/20km weekends as recently as a month ago, I haven't done much since the race. For some reason I thought I would be able to just jump back into the Goofy training schedule immediately.

Plus Friday's WOD left my feet sore from the sudden starting and stopping of the shuttle runs, and my glutes and quads sore from the snatches and walking lunges.

I also probably went a bit too hard on the Saturday 12km run.

I'm reducing my Crossfit load this week to Mon/Wed/Fri, with short runs on Tues and Thurs., I'm sure next weekend will be much better.

Shoe shopping.

So the shoe gods smiled at me on Wednesday. After discovering that Asics made lifting shoes I had a really hard time finding any in Canada, and the USA won't export here anymore. So I called Asics Canada (since they have no Canadian web presence) and found the Sports Experts at Bayshore and At Rideau had some. I called both asking if they had any in size 11 or 11.5

Rideau had them at $89 but only in size 12. Bayshore had an 11.5 and a 12 but on for $109. I knew the 12 wouldn't fit, but I put them on hold at both places just in case. That evening I met Nat Connors, a fellow Crossfitter on the bus on the way home and talked about lifting shoes. She informed that I should be looking for a half-size smaller, because you don't want any wiggle room. Crap.

I didn't even bother going to Rideau. I took a lunch time trip to Bayshore. (okay side rant, how is it possible that there is no direct bus route from Downtown to one of the biggest Malls in the city. Place d'Orleans, St-Laurent, South Keys all on major expressways, Bayshore? Milk runs. Good grief!)

I tried the 11.5 and they fit, but not snug at all. Bummer. "And you have nothing in 11?", after a quick trip to the back room the saleslady said the next size I have is only 10 1/2.  Bring those out please! I normally wear 11, so 10.5 might just work. As I'm trying them on I mention that the Rideau location has them on for $89, to which she replies, I just call them up and if they are, we'll price match them for sure! Sweet. I finish lacing them up and they fit perfectly.

I thanked the shoe gods and began the "amazing race" back to the office.

Now, apparently there is a price to be paid when the shoe gods grace you with favour. Thursday I didn't go to Crossfit, (Kiza did and they did clean and jerks) and when I went this morning, there was no strength work, so I have had these awesome weightlifting shoes for 2 whole days and not one opportunity to use them, with no prospects until Monday!!!!!

Oh well.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 2nd

Today's WOD was ... interesting. Once we figured out how it worked. (thanks to one of the athletes, the coaches couldn't decipher head coach Frank's machinations)

Every minute on the minute until failure
15' shuttle run
# of laps: 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14
1 min rest
one arm dumbbell snatches (alternating arms) 30# dumbbell
# of reps 6 - 8 - 10 - 12 - 14 - 16 - 18 - 20 - 22
1 min rest
overhead weighted lunges 25# for first three rounds, the upped it to 35#
# of steps 6 - 8 - 10 - 12 - 14 - 16 - 18 - 20 - 22

So not through each exercise once per round, the shuttle runs first (to failure, or max 14 laps), then rest, then snatches, rest and lunges. They shouldn't have capped it, it would've been a bit longer but not much. We ended up all finishing the run at 14 laps, and all but two made it to the end of the snatches and a few seconds to spare. I failed at the 18 lunges with 35# overhead. (I might have made it to the end if I'd stayed with the 25# plate).

It was a sweat fest.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 31st

Workout for day 1 of the paleo challenge

The paleo challenge has ended (not that I actually participated. I already eat paleo enough, and i refuse to track what I eat), so we repeated the workout from day 1. On top of not really pushing my paleo habits to extremes, a friend came over last night with cake and ice cream for an impromptu belated birthday celebration. So on top of the m&m's I had on the bus ride home (once in awhile I feed this craving), I had a substantial amount of chocolate smarties ice cream 12 hours before the workout.

Despite all that I did quite well.

I was able to match my PR of 205# back squat (which I failed last time) and I finished the WOD in 16:19, 24 seconds faster, and with 75# on the bar instead of 65#.

A lot of recent work on snatches may have played in my favour. I'm happy with this.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 30th

Did the Olympic lifting class last night. Worked on snatch. Since I still can't overhead squat, they had me doing split snatch, which worked fairly well. I was able to snatch 110lbs. I'll take it.

This morning we did strict press, 5 sets of 5. wasn't stellar, worked up to 85#, but had to go back to 75# for the last set.

The WOD was a 15 min AMRAP of
100 wall balls 14# ball
80 double unders (I did 100 for some reason).
30 pull ups.

I did one complete round (with an extra 20 double unders) and 27 wall ball into round two. Not bad at all. The double under really slowed me down. I did the wall balls in sets of 10 with planned breaks, and zipped through the pull ups in 2 sets of 15.

Good workout.

Crossfit log for Thursday, October 25th

Today's workout was snatches.

Drill, from hang, snatch balance, power snatch.

Then work up slowly to 1 rep max.

I'm getting closer, but I still can't catch a snatch in a full squat. Everything else is pretty much there. I think I'll book an appointment with the physio to get a new set of exercises. There's light at the end of the tunnel, but it's hard sometimes to tell just how far away it is.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 24th

WOD Wednesday (aka put the strength work in the WOD day)

16min cap, 4 rounds

4 chest to bar pull ups or 8 regular chin over bar pull ups
10 double unders
10 dead lifts 185#
15 double unders
15 knees to elbows
20 double unders

10 was a lot of dead lifts at 185#. I actually did quite well at the double unders, surprised myself. The problem became grip strength between the pull ups, dead lifts and knees to elbows, the forearms were mush well before the end.

Made to almost to the end of 4 rounds before the buzzer (like 10 double unders to go). (maybe I should've gone lighter on the dead lifts, but the point was to go heavy).

Glad it's over.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 23rd

Great morning at Crossfit.

Strength work was cleans, full cleans, catching is a full front squat. Working to a 2 rep max, so 2 in a row, but still heavy.

The catch has been my weak link, I've been able to lift 150# high enough to get under it, but when it lands on my deltoids, cradled at the end of my fingers, I usually either panic, or am off balance and have to bail. Once I've caught it there's no problem, I can front squat a lot more than I can clean.

So today as I worked up I really focused on the catch, even with lighter weight. As it got heavy around 135#, coach Isabelle corrected my starting position. I was in more of a dead lift start and need to lift my chest more, and lower my hips (still above the knee, but lower than a dead lift), I kept everything tight and initiated with my knees (as online Crossfit coach Mike Burgener says to do).

I landed the 135# quite easily, for two reps, but my back was rounded and my weight forward when I caught it. I was able to hold it so when upped it to 140#, I really focused on the catch again, given the new starting position. I nailed it. Wasn't gonna stop there, did 145# (my previous best), twice in a row. So I had to try 150# for at least one rep. Sure enough, bang! Well naturally I had to ride the success and went for 155#.

Usually I says to my self "man this is heavy", today I said "I can do this. I'm Superman", and I nailed it. It was awesome. It just felt right.

The WOD was not so fun.

5 rounds of 3 minutes AMRAP on 1:00 rest
- 3 power cleans, 115#
- 6 push ups
- 9 air squats

I think this is one of the ones we'd done wrong before, because the 1:00 was left out, and we couldn't figure it out.

It sucked just as bad with the rest. Got 4 rounds the first time, then 3 the rest. The scoring makes no sense, since if you are close the begining of a round with little time left there's no motivation to get more reps. Either score should be reps or you should start where you left off the previous round. But I'm not telling the coach that, it sucked enough as it is!

Crossfit log for Monday, October 22nd

A nice treat today. With Kiza's mom in town, so we both went to the this morning's class. Kiza has asked me to remind her never to do a 5:45am class on a Monday ever again.

It was a good workout too, but so soon after her half marathon, it was rougher on her than me.

Strength work was sumo dead lifts to 1 rep max. I don't know what my previous 1rep max was, but last time I hurt my back trying (back in May, just after the fire, Kiza will remember).

Managed 235# (20# less than my regular dead lift max, which is to be expected). No problem with my back.

The WOD was a 15min AMRAP
2 reps increasing by 2 reps every rounds (2-4-6-...)
-thrusters 75# (blue was 95# but that wouldn't have been pretty)
-kettle bell swings 20kg
-ab mat sit ups.

Did 6 complete rounds (12 reps) and made it to 6 sit ups of the round of 14 reps.

Kiza was right behind me. She's relentless.

Goofy Training log for Sunday, October 21st

I guess Goofy training has officially begun.

Haven't really felt like running this past week, but finally got out for a real run. Was scheduled for 19km, but I hadn't even left yet and was working out ways to cut the route short.

Once I got going, it wasn't so bad, but I still cut the corners I thought about. I figured I'm still in recovery mode, 19km was probably ambitious to begin with, so I added a loop of my block to make it 17km even.

Not much of a difference, but I'm happy with it.

Crossfit log for Friday, October 19th

Did Back squats yesterday at the Y and as luck would have it, strength work yesterday was back squats! So yay! They did 5 sets of 8, but I worked up to my 1 rep max of 205#.

I think I would have at least tried 210# (and quite possibly succeeded), but I was too scared to drop the weights at the Y.

At Crossfit, if you bail on a lift, it's not a failure, it's a different mentality because everyone does it, all the time, but at the Y, the perception is that I bit off more than I could chew.

Maybe it's just in my head, but that's the point. It's just not the same.

Today was 1 rep max push press. Been doing a lot of overhead stuff this week, which is good, definitely one of my weaknesses.

Made to my existing 1 rep max of 140#, just couldn't get 145# up. Not enough hip drive. Need to work on that.

The WOD was brutal. I don't think I've ever found a WOD so challenging, maybe because on the whiteboard it looked so easy.

Row 800m
followed by 3 rounds 15-12-10 of:
-pull ups
-power clean 105#

I'm really good at kipping pull ups. I can power clean 115# with ease, not just once, repeatedly, 105# should've been a snap. I don't know if it was the strength work, or the rowing, but after the first round of pull ups, I went to clean that bar and "holy crap" it weighed a ton. I had to drop it almost every rep, I couldn't chain more than two or three together. It was horrible. 13:41

Maybe the flu shot had something to do with it.

Goofy Training log for Thursday, October 18th

Ended up running 20 minutes on the treadmill for 2.13 miles

Felt surprisingly good. Nothing planned today, I'll go to the gym and do something. Either mobility or lift something heavy.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 17th

That's funny, I didn't post yesterday. I thought I had.

I went twice yesterday, the regular morning class, then a "skills" class in the evening, where we learned progression to muscle ups.

The WOD was crazy, after working on split jerk for strength (did 3 sets of 3 jerks @ 75#-95#-95#) we did 75 push presses. Followed by double unders AMRAP, the cap was 7min.

I didn't even make it to the double unders, I got to 67 presses at the buzzer.

The muscle up progression went pretty well, the whole "false grip" thing wasn't intuitive, and the jumping into to transition and "ripping off your shirt" went surprisingly well, but I lack the back strength to pull my sternum to the rings to make the transition while hanging from the rings. Learned a lot. Need to practice.

Today was WOD Wednesday.

Thrusters 80# and box jumps 26" couplet 5 rounds 15-12-9-6-3

10:14.

Glad when it was over.

I think Crossfit is helping my run. PEC 1/2 Marathon

My goal was simple: beat my previous best from NCM 2008 at the height my my Ironman training (1:37:38)

I've run 4 half marathons since then, but as the 1:50 pace bunny. I haven't race one since. I've raced a good number of shorter distances and a couple of Around the Bays, but not the half.

My strategy was simple too: go hard to the finish line, or explode along the way.

I did pretty good. The last 5km were rough, but I dug deep. I finished in 1:38:23, 45 seconds off my PB. I'll take it.

The real story however is the training I put in.

These are mileage totals for the 6 weeks of training I put in.
27.82 km - 2:26:02 Pace: 5:15s /km
36.79 km - 3:25:47 Pace: 5:35s /km
36.50 km - 3:13:44 Pace: 5:19s /km
29.66 km - 2:41:52 Pace: 5:28s /km
30.59 km - 2:42:09 Pace: 5:18s /km
32.16 km - 3:01:58 Pace: 5:40s /km

My long runs were 12km, 19km, 12km, 19km, 23km and 10km

This is after a summer of virtually no running, but almost daily Crossfit.

I think it's safe to say Crossfit has helped my run. To get within 45 seconds of my best time (a time I got when I'd been training all winter gearing up for Ironman) on less than 200km over only 6 weeks says a lot.

We stayed with Erin McDougall, who lives nearby, the night before the race. A truly wonderful family and very gracious hosts. Just stay out of those two back rooms!

The biggest challenge was getting the kids to sleep. Race morning was early and not too stressful. Erin and I drove to the finish to catch a bus, leaving the women and children behind. Stood in line in the misty rain for quite a while before finally boarding a bus to the start line, arriving with maybe 40minutes to spare. Got my bag checked and went for a warm up run just shy of 10 minutes out, found a tree for a quick pee break then ran back with about 10 minutes to spare.

It was a small field, when the horn went off it was barely 6 seconds to get over the mats. I settled in to a groove right away, just under 4:30/km. Felt good, didn't feel like I was pushing it. Played leap frog with a couple of girls for the first 5km before dropping them, and one guy who really didn't want me to pass him.

He was funny. All over the road, like the anti-tangent, he'd pass people really wide, spontaneously switch sides of the road, it was weird. I stayed with him most of the run.

After I took my first gel at the 7km marker, the markers started to show up far more quickly than I was expecting them km 8, 9 and 10 went by in the blink of an eye.

I was mostly within 7 seconds of 4:30 up until 15km, it started to get harder at that point.

At 15km one of the girls I had dropped at 5km passed me, so she became my new focus. Around this time, weird guy stopped to pull down his compression socks and 20 steps later stopped to pull them back up. I figured this was a fatal mistake, so I took advantage and passed him aggressively. Leapfrog girl was still holding a good pace and I was fighting to stay as far under 5:00/km as possible. Not long after that, compression sock boy passed me again, he really didn't want me in front of him.


The hill at 16-17km was expensive, but I still managed to pick it up a bit compared to 15km and 16km splits.

The hill slowed everyone down, but it broke weavy compression sock boy. At the top of the hill he started walking, I blew past him with less than 4km to go, trying to hold to leapfrog girl and never saw him again.

After the big hill, with the help of some down slopes and my rabbit leapfrog girl, I was able to get a couple of splits around 4:45 and the last km I put everything I had to try and catch her before the finish. I made it to within 10 feet, but ran out of road. I congratulated and thanked her for a great run and for pushing me to the end.

I friend of mine, Heath gave me my medal! Thanks Heath!

Looking at my splits, I definitely faded progressively but held pretty constant for the first 15km and was able to dig deep to the end.
1- 4:29
2- 4:37
3- 4:20
4- 4:32
5- 4:25
6- 4:32
7- 4:35
8- 4:34
9- 4:35
10- 4:37
11- 4:42
12- 4:37
13- 4:35
14- 4:36
15- 4:52
16- 4:54
17- 5:16  (the hill)
18- 4:46
19- 4:45
20- 4:52
21- 4:41
21.1 0:38 (169m) 3:45/km

I'm very happy with this result. In a couple of years, when the kids are older and I've got more Crossfit under my belt I plan to start a more conventional training cycle (not sure if it'll be for triathlon or just running), and I expect to see some serious improvements. For now, this seems to be working really well for me.

Thanks Kiza, I appreciate your support in these crazy endeavours. And thanks Erin for your hospitality.

ETA: 10th out of 46 in the men's 40-49 category (top 21%), 32nd male out of 195 (top 16%) and 35th out of 695 over all (top 6%). Not too shabby.

Crossfit log for Thursday, October 11th

Just finished the relay race for Government Workplace Charitable Campaign.

Wow, middle distance running sucks. I thought my chest was going to explode! Then I had to do it a second time!

We finished 3rd out of 14 teams (well 11, there three walking teams). Not bad. No official timing so I don't know how we did individually. It was just hard. (The event raised over $6000, $990 from my group).

I'm just glad it's over, I can focus on the County Half.

This is the first year I've done the relay. I was voluntold to organize the corporate services team. Herding cats is not really in my skill set, so it's been an even more stressful week (as if the daycare issues weren't enough).

It was fun though. More spectators than I expected. The loop is just shy of 600m.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 10th (part 2)

Before last workout done, one more before the Prince Edward County half marathon.

Olympic weightlifting class, with Dan Robitaille, Canadian national level coach. Went through power clean and power jerk series.

Since I couldn't do a the jerk very well he told me to do a split jerk but very shallow, so that you aren't dropping so much under the bar as powering it up over your head and just locking it out.

It was good. I felt solid even though we didn't go heavy.

Tomorrow after noon we have a relay race for the United Way, 2 loops around the front lawn at the parliament full tilt. Can't wait.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 10th (part 1)

Good one today. Hard. No strength work, but the strength work was in the WOD

5 rounds for time:

3 rope climbs
5 clean and jerks 85#
3 rope climbs
4 clean and jerks 95#
3 rope climbs
3 clean and jerks 115#
2 rope climbs
2 clean and jerks 125#
1 rope climb
1 clean and jerk 135#

Red Rx was way heavier (I think it started at 115# and ended at 225#!) and the number or rope climbs match the number of c&j's the whole way through. I had no problem cleaning the weight but putting it over head was hard the last 2 rounds. I'm so weak in the shoulders.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 9th

Thanks!

Today was double-unders day.

We started with 5min to find our max unbroken number of double unders (made it to 19)

Then strict press and weighted strict pull ups
- Press 4 set of 8: 65#-75#-75#-75#(5)
- Pull up 4 sets of 2 or 3: 15#(2)-15#(3)-15#(2)-15#(2) (done with a dumbbell between my legs).

The WOD was "Megan"

3 rounds: 21-15-9 of:
-burpees
-kettle bell swings 20kg
-double unders.

Just before the WOD started, after I'd warmed up my kettle bell swings, I gave the double unders another go and shocked my self with 27 in a row!

Didn't go so well during the workout. I think my longest streak was 6. But I did the rest unbroken (although the last 9 burpees were kinda slow).

7:44

PEC half marathon training log for Monday, October 8th

I am race ready.

10km @ 4:34/km avg pace. Only started to get uncomfortable at the very end. Looking forward to PEC.

Crossfit log for Friday, October 5th

Big PR on bench press today. 165# (which according to this chart, is just above Novice for my body weight, but it's progress).

I think I'll use the intermediate level as my new goal for all my lifts (bench, dead lift, press, power clean, power snatch and squat), they are for the most part less aggressive than the arbitrary goals I set for myself in 2012 (dead lift twice my body weight, squat 1.5x my body weight, clean my body weight).

The WOD was interesting.
4 rounds of
- run 400m (340m)
- 2 rope climbs
- 20 push press 95# (dropped to 85# after first 5 reps of round 1)

21:24 (or maybe 22:24, I don't remember)

The push press really slowed me down, the running and rope climbing was a snap, maybe I should've gone 75# like the other two guys, but I felt moderately ashamed of dropping below blue Rx, which is unreasonable, I know, but sometimes you can't help feeling that. It was harder and took longer, but I did the work and I'll be stronger for it.

Revised weightlifting goals. Derived from intermediate level for my body weight at www.exrx.net
(most of which will not likely be attained in 2012):

Lift / % body weight / actual target weight (rounded) / current PR
Bench / 112% / 190lbs / 165lbs
Dead lift / 177% / 300lbs / 265lbs
Press / 77% / 130lbs / 105lbs
Power Clean / 109% / 185lbs / 145lbs
Power snatch / 84% 140lbs / 95lbs
Back Squat / 150% / 255lbs / 205lbs

Crossfit log for Thursday, October 4th

Glad I went today.

The class was full and I was first on the waiting list so I took more effort than usual to roll out of bed at 5am. I decided I'd go anyway in case there was a no-show and maybe just do the strength portion and not the WOD.

When the class started at 5:45 after the warm up, there were 4 no-shows. Coach wasn't too pleased with that, but I was!

We did hang cleans. I like doing cleans, my technique is getting better and I'm on the verge of a breakthrough, I can feel it.

We did 5 sets of 3-3-3-2-2
Did 95#-115#-125#-135#-135# (x1) I can do more, I know it, I have to work on dropping into that squat to catch the bar low, I can power clean 125# without squatting at all, so I can get a heavier bar high enough, I just need to catch deeper. I'm so close.

WOD was 7 rounds of cleans and hand stand push ups
7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 cleans (from the floor)
3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 hand stand push ups.
or
14 - 12 - 10 - 8 - 6 - 4 - 2 push ups

Made it through 4 rounds before I had to resort to regular push ups.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 3rd

A sneaky Wednesday WOD:

Every minute on the minute for 20min. No score.

1 heavy dead lift 80% of 1 rep max (195#)
3 chest to bar pull ups or 4 regular pull ups
4 burpees.

The first third I was consistently 35sec. I'd finish the burpees and look up 0:24 left on the clock. By half way the chest to bar were really costing me (0:10-0:12 left on the clock) so I switched to 4 regular (which brought me back to 0:21-0:22 left). But that just kept getting shorter and shorter with each round. The last two I went over, but no matter.

Eye made some progress

Well so much for that writing catalyst.

Not one single post in the entire month of September.  Ouch.

Last Thursday I waltzed into the Riverside Hospital and let retired Colonel W. Delperro sever some over zealous muscles controlling my left eye.

The results have been less than miraculous.  All this time of my brain ignoring the left eye has left it unable to synchronize with it brother.

The recovery, as usual, not as trivial as advertised.

Granted, it is still early in the healing process.  I only missed 2 workouts, and the abrasion on the eye was unpredictable, so I should be, and really am, thankful that it went so well.

My eye no longer shoots up and in, which is good.  I still have double vision (which I've lived with for 35 years and can manage quite well), but now the images are parallel, whereas before the left images was slightly rotated (about fifteen degrees).  On the rare occasions when the image from the left eye asserts itself it is less disorienting than before, which is a bonus.

The muscles are still in spasms according to the good Colonel, and will take a couple of weeks before they settle into the new normal. So things may yet improve. At that point we can measure the difference in angle and decide where to go from there.

There are only two choices. Corrective glasses with prisms, that would correct both vision and angle. Since I'm farsighted, I'd need glasses for reading for vision and angle, but I'd also need glasses for driving with only the angle correction.
The other option is corrective surgery to permanently alter the angle of the left eye to match the right when looking straight ahead, leaving me with regular reading glasses. 

Having committed to this course of action, I suspect I'll be returning to the Riverside Hospital over the winter to see this process to it's end.

My brain will decide on it's own whether turning my head to maintain stereoscopic vision, or reverting to discarding the image from one eye will be the best approach when not looking straight ahead.



I really should have done this years ago.

PEC half marathon training log for Tuesday, October 2nd

Another treadmill disaster today.

Thought I was smart, did the warm up, 1 mile at 9:22/mile, stopped the treadmill and immediately started my first interval with a fresh timer. at 4:08/km

2 minutes in the treadmill just stops. Screen still says I'm going 9.0 mph but the carpet ain't moving. Reset, get back up to speed go another 30 seconds, dies again. Gah!

Thankfully the treadmill next to me had just freed up so I jumped on that one, got it up to speed and started over, did 4:00 @ 4:08, 2:00 rest, 4:00 @ 4:05, 2:00 rest, 4:00 @ 4:03 and then I was done. So almost 4 intervals if you count the first broken up one.

Grrrr.

Crossfit log for Monday, October 1st

Day one of the paleo challenge (which I'm not doing since I refuse to track my food intake), and we had a special WOD which will be repeated in 30 days to gauge the impact of the paleo diet on performance.

After back squats to 1 rep max (managed 195#, couldn't repeat my max of 205#) we did this lovely set:

9 rounds of 2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2
-snatch 65# (blue Rx was 95# but I can't power snatch 95#)
-double kettle bell swings - 16kg each hand
-knees to elbows

16:43

The middle three rounds were really rough. Kinda glad I can't snatch, it was rough enough at 65#

PEC half marathon training log for Sunday, September 30th

Eye is feeling much better.

Ran just under 23km with the Running Room, even though I was only scheduled for 20km. Since I didn't do my 10km yesterday I'm okay with it.

Ran slower than normal, but the trade off for good company was worth it.

23.53km in 2:16:06 with sporadic walk breaks, since no one had a 10 and 1 timer.

PEC half marathon training log for Saturday, September 29th

Did my first post-eye-surgery run yesterday evening on the Treadmill at the Y while Kiza and the kiddies were in swimming lessons.

The pain in my eye was substantially less while I ran. It got somewhat worse afterwards.

Did 14:00 @ 5:19/km and 13:00 @ 4:54/km

It was good.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 26th

Rough WOD today

30 minute cap
35 reps of each of the following:
- dead lift 75#
- kettle bell swings 20kg
- push ups
- clean and jerk
- kettle bell taters
- pull ups
- box jumps
- wall climbs (wall walks)
- knees to elbows
- double unders

Made it to the wall climbs (did 1). Clean and jerks, even at 75# was still rough. 35 is a lot of reps.

PEC half marathon training log for Tuesday, September 25th

Solid run on the treadmill.

My go to for those lame treadmills is the frog workout. Decided to start at 6.6 instead of my usual 6.4

Pace progression every 2:00 (5:39, 5:29, 5:20, 5:11, 5:02, 4:54, 4:47, 4:40, 4:33, 4:26, 4:20, 4:14, 4:09, 4:03, 3:58)

The last 4 minutes (4:01/km and 3:58/km) were really rough, but I think Crossfit it helped me to know that I can gut it out and push hard to the end.

Crossfit workout for Tuesday, September 25th

Worked on split jerk, from a back rack position to enforce a more vertical body position. 4 sets of 3 at 70% of max, superset with feet elevated ring rows. Did 85#-95#-105#-115#. 115# was too heavy, position was poor.

WOD was no fun.

10 min AMRAP
-10 unbroken push press 85# (started at 75# but took the time to add 5lbs plates, should've stayed at 75#!)
-8 burpee pull ups (suck)
-12 abmat situps.

managed 3 full rounds and 4 push press. Not spectacular, but I'll take it.

Crossfit workout for Monday, September 24th

Good workout this morning.

Strength: Max out full clean + 2 front squats.

Matched my 1 rep max clean of 145# (the squats were easy at that weight). Tried for 155#, no go. Close, but just couldn't catch it.

Workout:
Every minute on the minute:
3 power cleans+
4 kettle bell snatches and 4 air squats.

Each round add 1 snatch and 1 air squat. Once you can't complete withing the minute you're out. Max rounds for score.

Made 10 rounds (13 snatches/squats). Started cleans, but was sluggish and knew I'd never make it, so I bailed. What a sweat fest.

Crossfit log for Saturday, September 22nd

Team WOD Saturday.

Teamed up with Pat, we are fairly evenly matched, he's a bit stronger, I'm a bit faster.

20 x 1:00 rounds + 0:10 rest (well really 5 rounds but give me a minute to explain)

1 - 5 hang cleans + 8 kettle bell swings (buy in)
2a) Bear complex (clean, front squat, thruster, back squat, back thruster) for points
2b) Man-maker (dumbbell burpees, squat clean, thruster) for points
25lbs dumbbells, 20kg kettle bell, 95# bar.

Team member A does # 1 then member B does 2a) then team member B has 10 seconds to rest and set up for #1, then member A does #2a
then start over doing 2b instead of 2a. So 1 complete cycle is 4 rounds, once each member has each done a set of bear complex and man-maker.

So 5 complete cycles. The bear complex and man-makers were for points, the hang cleans and kettle bells were just to tire us out.

We averaged 2 or 3 bear complexes each round and 4 man-makers. Total score was 65, middle of the pack.

PEC half marathon training log for Sunday, September 23rd

A completely unremarkable long run of 19km

Took 1:45:09.   Not bad considering how little running I've done this year.

PEC half marathon training log for Thursday, September 20th

Screwed by the YMCA once again.

My usual treadmill was taken, and the one I chose apparently had a 30:00 limit. so 30 seconds into interval #5 it just stopped and I couldn't get the speed back up even in "cool-down" mode. Left cursing. Wrote a bold red note on the comments form. Waste of time really, but I needed to vent.

Stupid TV Imperial speed only no pace treadmills.

Did 4x~1km on 2:00 ri
4:14, 4:11, 4:08, 4:05 and 30 seconds at 4:03

Grrrr.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 20th

Snatch progression
15 min of
- power snatch
- hang power snatch
- hang snatch
- snatch

WOD:
5 rounds for time:
5 dead lifts 205#
35-30-25-20-15 double unders

No idea what my time was.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 19th

"Helen"

3 rounds for time:
-run 400m (actually 372m)
-30 kettle bell swings 24kg
-12 pull ups

12:33

Isabelle started the clock while I was still untying my shoe to tighten it, so lost some time there. First round was unbroken, second and third had to break up the kettle bell both cases doing 17, 8, 5 and last round I had to break the pull ups 6 and 6.

I'm happy with this result.

(note: kettle bell swings should've been 21 reps. Oops).

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 18th

No strength Tuesdays??? What is this?

WOD was another, "do we really understand what Frank was going for here"?

So with a 12 min cap do 3:00 AMRAP, 1:00 rest, 6:00 AMRAP 1 min rest. That adds up to 11min... and when do you ever end on a rest.

20 wall balls 20#
30 box jumps 20"
20 kettle bell sumo dead lift high pull 20kg
30 burpees
20 shoulder to over head 105# (dropped to 95# after 5 and lost a ton of time)
30 double unders
20 sit ups
30 push ups

made it to 3 sit ups. Meh.


Run at lunch   4.06km in 20:30 along the canal.

PEC half marathon training log for Sunday, September 16th

Spent half an hour in bed talking myself into going for my run this morning. Was out the door in the dark at 6:00am, didn't see my shadow until 10 to 7.

Wasn't so bad once I got going. 18.9km around Orleans. Better than last week, that's for sure.

PEC half marathon training log for Saturday, September 15th

Mandatory 10km Saturday run in preparation for Goofy, but really for PEC.

56:53

Crossfit log for Friday, September 14th

Solid workout today.

Close grip bench press again (yuck, at least give me regular bench press)!!

Made it to 1 RM of 155# this time on my second attempt. New PR!

Then we did Jackie:

Row 1000m
50 thruster @ 45#
30 pull ups.

My previous best was 13:55, I smashed it! Finishing in 10:26.

I paced my self well on the row, starting at just under 2:00/500m and holding almost to the end (instead of my usual first 300m at 1:45/500m and fading to 2:10-2:15 for the rest), so my time was same as usual but my legs weren't destroyed for the thrusters.

Decided to do 5 sets of 10 for the thrusters, but I was feeling so good I kept going, but thankfully I caught myself on #11 and took a break, the second 10 was just as easy, the 3rd, not so much, the 4th ended up being 2 sets of 5, but I was able to string together 10 to finish it out. Although I felt really strong for the first 20, you deteriorate very quickly, even with only 45#.

Same deal on the pull ups, 3 sets of 10. First two, no problem, then I got to the third set and there was 9:40 on the clock. I thought for a minute I could break 10:00, but after only 5, it was already 9:55, so I dropped of the bar, regrouped and hammered out the last 5.

Solid. 2 PRs.  Halo in place. Now for two days off Crossfit (just a couple of long runs).

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 13th

Strength work, back squat 4 sets of 8 reps working up to "heavy" whatever that means.

Did 95#-115#-135#-155#

WOD was 5 rounds of 15-12-9-6-3 reps
-wall balls 14#
-snatches 95# (I did 65#, I was able to power snatch, since I can't catch in a squat, hence the lower weight),

Did good, 12:19

Run at lunch on the treadmill:
5 x 4:30 at 4:20, 4:17, 4:14, 4:11, 4:08
on 1:30 rest

Felt good. Last 0:45 on the last one was a bit rough.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 12th

WOD only Wednesday.

Run 2km (1.9km)
- 20 kettle bell swings 20kg.
- 15 shoulder to overhead 75# (choice of: press, push press, push jerk, split jerk, whatever gets that bar overhead)
- 10 ring dips
- 15 shoulder to overhead 75#
- 20 kettle bell swings 20kg.
- 1 rope climb.

Finished the run in 8:46, total time was 18:19. Ring dips were rough, and the second time through the push press was really rough.

Good workout.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 11th

Worked on split jerk today, but instead of racked in a front squat position, the bar was across our backs like the start of a back squat, and we just did the dip and drive into a split squat. This way is supposed to provide a straighter vertical motion that the front rack often compromises in beginners.

Did okay. I've made lots of progress in my should mobility, but I still a ways to go and this kind of work really makes it apparent.

The WOD was rough.
4 x 3min rounds on 1 min rest
- 2 handstand push ups (or 6 hand release push ups) I opted for the handstand variety
-10 kettle bell snatches 16kg (5 each arm)
-12 ball slams 16lbs ball

Did 2 full rounds the first 3:00, then made it to 8 ball slams of the 4th round on the second, then I was only halfway the kettle bells of round 6 by the third and finished round 7 and just started the handstand push ups for round 8 when the timer rang.

So score was 7 + 1. Would've been faster with regular push ups, but I liked the challenge of the hand stand ones.

PEC half marathon training log for Tuesday, September 11th

Did the frog workout last night at the Y in Orleans. The lame imperial speed only, no metric, no pace TV screen treadmills are okay for this workout.

Started at 6.4mph (5:49/km) and incremented by 0.2mph every 2 minutes
(5:39, 5:29, 5:19, 5:10, 5:02, 4:54, 4:46, 4:39, 4:32, 4:26, 4:20, 4:14, 4:08, 4:03)

Made it the full 30 minutes, I think that's a first. Not sure where to take this.

Should I start at 6.6mph, or try to go 32 min?? Or I could start even slower like 5.8 or 6.0 and increment by 0.3mph every 2 min...

I'll have to think about it.

PEC half marathon training log for Sunday, September 9th

Thoroughly unenjoyable run late yesterday evening.

Did my obligatory 10km yesterday in 50:17.
Had 12-15km on the schedule.
Didn't get up early to go before Kiza went to run the race course downtown.
Didn't go run when Kiza got home at noon.
Didn't go run when I got back from errands at 3:00.
No, instead I sat in bed at 7:30 after the kids were down and tried to reason my way out of running altogether.

If I run today, I wouldn't go to Crossfit in the morning.

(M)e - I could get up early and run in the morning instead of going to Crossfit.
My (C)onscience - Who are you kidding, that won't happen.
(M) - I could just skip this run, go to Crossfit, then I could take the garbage out in the morning.
(C) -Great way to start a training schedule, skip the first long run.
(M) - How about I run tomorrow evening?
(C) - The point was to run back to back days, plus Tuesday is speed work, you don't want a long run in your legs from the previous day.
(M) -There has to be a solution that doesn't involve me going out on this chilly evening.
(C) -Yeah, there was, if you'd gone earlier in the day you moron.
(M) - Do I have to do this?
(C) -Just go already.
(M) -Fine.

Took me until almost 5km to feel comfortable. After that is wasn't so bad. I did the bare minimum. 12.42km @ around a 5:30/km pace. Took the garbage out when I got home.

At least it's done.

Crossfit log for Friday, September 7th

Excellent day at Physics Crossfit today.

PR'd my push press at 140lbs (up from 135#), almost made 145#.

WOD was made for me.

4 rounds
2 rope climbs 15'
8 dead lifts 185#
run 320m

11:45

Finished first for once! Yay me!

PEC half marathon training log for Friday, September 7th

Finally ran. Crazy week, with new day care, Delilah starting school, and coming down with a fever, I've been home from work a lot, walk-through the house with the new adjuster and the contractors for the rebuild, I haven't run since Monday's 19km.

Thankfully I had a solid speed work session on the lame treadmill at the Y.

10:00 @ 5:33/km
4:30 @ 4:26/km
1:30 rest 10:00/km
4:30 @ 4:23
1:30 rest 10:00/km
4:30 @ 4:20
1:30 rest 10:00/km
4:30 @ 4:17
1:30 rest 10:00/km
4:30 @ 4:14

Had the treadmill at 0.5% incline. Couldn't do actual km repeats, since I didn't know my pace, I couldn't go by time, and the distance was in miles so I couldn't go by that. So I made all the repeats 4.5 minutes so each one was a bit longer than the last, and thankfully all over 1km (I wasn't sure at the time because I didn't know if 8.4mph was faster than a 4:30/km pace or not.

It all worked out.

PEC half marathon / Goofy Training plan

I think I'll be using this plan as a basis: http://www.runningroom.com/hm/inside.php?id=4802

I will definitely be tailoring it to remove hill repeats and add focus speed work instead of fartleks, and I may reduce it to 4 runs/week, likely Tuesday speed work (400m, 800m, 1km or mile repeats) and Thursday Tempo (or progression) and drop the Wednesday... but I digress

PEC would be at the end of week 5 of this program. So I'll take a week off (well not completely off) and resume on week 7.

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 6th

So no strength today, I guess with labour day, today was "Wednesday"

We did a variation of "fight gone bad". They called it "football gone bad", whatever.

5 stations, 1 min each followed by 1 min rest, times 3.
- dumbbell thrusters
- box jumps
- push up
- double unders
- row

Scored 254. (72, 96, 86). Second round I got a good string if double unders.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 5th

Not my favorite workout.

Worked on Power Jerk. Did fairly well, as I'm working through my mobility issues. 5 sets. Reps 5-5-3-2-2 did 75#-75#-95#-116#-116#

WOD was Grace (30 clean and jerks for time)
Rx is 135# - yeah, not happening
Blue Rx was 115#, opted for 105#

There was a 10 min cap, I made it to 27 reps. Meh.

PEC / Crossfit training log for Tuesday, September 4th

Ran yesterday. 19km. Felt really good. Tried really hard to keep the pace slow, and managed 5:50/km average.

Glad to be essentially be "half marathon ready" with a few weeks to go before PEC. I'll need to look at a Goofy training schedule to figure out when to start building the serious mileage.

Crossfit today:
Strength, back squat 2 rep max.
Managed 2 @ 185# without problem (I had done 3 reps at that weight in the past). My 1 rep max was 205#, so tried that. I was good for one, but not the second. (Likely could've done 195#)

WOD was called Modified "Seven" (I have no idea what an unmodified "Seven" is).
4 rounds for time (12 minute cap)
7 hand release push ups
7 thrusters 95#
7 knees to elbow
7 power cleans 95#
7 burpees
7 kettle bell swings 24kg
7 pull ups

Didn't quite make 3 rounds, 2 + 2 burpees, thrusters were the limiter again.

PEC half marathon training log for Saturday, September 1st

12km 1:04 and change.

First half @ around 5:40/km second half around 5:00/km pace.

Crossfit log for Friday, August 31st

Good workout today.

We did narrow grip bench press to 3 rep max.  Wasn't stellar, succeeded at 135lbs, failed at 155lbs, called it a day.  We only started doing bench press in the last few months, and I kinda laughed.  Crossfit being so different than most gyms and bench being the ubiquitous gym benchmark, I'd jokingly call bench press days "Goodlife days" (but not in front of Frank, the owner/coach).  I've since learned the value of bench, as it helps the other Olympic lifts, especially the second half of the clean and jerk.  That being said, I like the regular bench press much more than close grip. Bench doesn't come up often, so when it does and it's close grip, it's a bit of a bummer, because I know it'll be that much longer before an other regular one comes up. Oh well.

The WOD was an interesting one.

1000m row
plus three rounds of:
- 20 dead lifts @ 135lbs
-15 wall ball sit ups  (for a demo see this video: http://vimeo.com/41059872)

My time was 13:35

I was satisfied with that.  The row really made the first set of dead lifts difficult, but after the the first set of wall ball sit ups, it was a bit easier.  By then I'd caught my breath from the rowing. The third round of dead lifts got hard again because my grip strength was almost gone, even using a hook grip I still had trouble hanging on to the bar. I tried to use my breathing to help brace for the dead lifts and it seemed to work. Albeit the weight wasn't very high at 135lbs, my form was good for all three rounds and my back wasn't the limiter, my grip strength was.  I was glad when it was over.

Goofy's race and a half

Now, what's this Goofy nonsense you might ask? Well, every January for the past twenty years, Walt Disney Worlds has put on the Donald Duck Half Marathon and the Mickey Mouse Marathon.  Somewhere along the way they decided to offer the option of doing the Goofy Race and a half, where essentially you run both and get a third medal, jut for being Goofy enough to do it.

So you guessed it, I'm Goofy enough. In an "OMG, what have I done" moment I registered for the Goofy (and registered Kiza for the Donald Duck Half Marathon), so it looks like we're going to Disney World.

Now it looks like I'm doing the "Dopey", since I appear to be running the  Disney Family Fun Run 5km with Clarisse.  "Dopey" being the unofficial name the reserve for the nut cases that do all three!

Now I just have to put in the training.

PEC half marathon training log for Thursday, August 30th

9km today along the canal to bank. 46:41. Was getting hot at the end there.

Stripped to the bone

One week and three months have passed since the fire and the demolition is just about complete. They are applying the smoke seal on the skeleton that used to be my home. The smoke seal is white, which surprised me, taking the skeletal metaphor a good step closer to reality.

Three months, yet it seems like ages ago. We've since settled into our temporary existence and are making the best of our situation.

But I miss my house. I miss my room, my closet, my shower, everything really.  I liked my house.  I hope I'll like it still, even after the renovations. We are meeting the contractor this week to go over what we want to do. It is just overwhelming.

Much of the house had a very seventies feel, which both Kiza and I loved. It reminded us of the houses we grew up in. I want to maintain that feel, but given carte blanche, it's hard not to imagine the possibilities.

Granted we want to stay within the budget and not spend on frivolous upgrades, but removing a wall here, moving a closet there, subtle changes can have dramatic effects.

It's going to be interesting to say the least.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 29th

No strength Wednesday.

3 rounds for time:
- Run 330m
- 2 rope climbs
- 12 kettle bell snatches (6 each arm)
- 8 ring dips

12:44

Dips were sometimes assisted with a foot on the ground. Rope climb was more difficult than usual, because I had my running shoes instead of my minimus "barefoot" shoes. I was really suprised by the difference, it was far more difficult to get a good clamp on the rope between my feet with the running shoes.

PEC half marathon training log for Tuesday, August 28th

Training has officially begun. Ran 6.8km. Yay.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5149460

Crossfit log for Tuesday, August 28th.

Today we did "Turkish get ups". Ugh. We had 10 minutes to find our 4 rep max. I managed 20kg, but it cost me, with two minutes left, I couldn't even sit up with the 24kg kettle bell.

The WOD was unclear.

It was 4 three minute rounds of
-3 cleans at 135lbs (not long ago this was my maximum for 1 rep)
-6 handstand push ups (just learned to do these a couple of weeks ago)
-40m sprint

Isabelle is the morning coach and doesn't do the programming, her brother Frank does. At first we thought it was 1 round then rest for the remaining time, but we were finished with half the time remaining, and noticed it said "for max reps" on the side. So round two we did as many rounds as possible, but there was no indication of rest between rounds. We just slugged out the rest as an 8 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible).

I look forward to finding out what it was supposed to be.

I really enjoyed the cleans. They were hard, but I'm must've done fifteen of them. Considering they were my max a couple of months ago, I take that as a sign of progress.

Turns out it was 3:00 AMRAP + 1:00 rest for 4 rounds. That's what I had figured.

Writing catalyst

Clearly I don't post regularly.

Although I do log my workouts daily.  I've decided that must subject my readership to my workout log as an intro to my blog posts as a last resort to get me writing.

To my RunningMania.com peeps, the workout portion of my posts here will be identical to my Crossfit log on the forum (but with unrelated bonus material)!

I have a lot to post about lately, so much so that I've shied away from posting at all for lack of ability to prioritize it all.

There's the house rebuild, there's Fan Expo this last weekend, our new car (new to us that is), my upcoming eye surgery, Dexter developing an attitude, Delilah starting school, Clarisse starting highschool, Caleb learning to drive

I'll just have to work my way through it all.  So here we go.

Yesterday's workout left me exhausted (which the runningmania crowd already knows), which is unusual.  My workouts usually energize me for the day.

I guess two days on my feet at Fan Expo in Toronto with Caleb, plus four to five hours of driving each day, took a lot out of me.

Today was a different story. I got a good night's sleep and the workout was a good one.

Well not the strength part.  We did "Turkish get ups". Ugh.  We had 10 minutes to find our 4 rep max.  I managed 20kg, but it cost me, with two minutes left, I couldn't even sit up with the 24kg kettle bell.

The WOD was unclear.

It was 4 three minute rounds of
-3 cleans at 135lbs (not long ago this was my maximum for 1 rep)
-6 handstand push ups (just learned to do these a couple of weeks ago)
-40m sprint

Isabelle, the morning coach, doesn't do the programming, her brother Frank does. At first we thought it was 1 round then rest for the remaining time, but we were finished with half the time remaining, and noticed it said "for max reps" on the side.  So round two we did as many rounds as possible, but there was no indication of rest between rounds. We just slugged out the rest as an 8 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible).

I look forward to finding out what it was supposed to be.

I really enjoyed the cleans. They were hard, but I'm must've done fifteen of them. Considering they were my max a couple of months ago, I take that as a sign of progress.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 27th

Deficit dead lift. Done standing on a 2" plate, so the bar is lower when you start. Not a fan. Struggled with 255#, but the I tried from ground level and didn't have a problem.

WOD was brutal. (Or I'm exhausted from my weekend, Crossfit usually picks me up in the morning, this one just drained me)

4 rounds for time.
10 burpee pull ups (yuck)
12 dumb bell thrusters 25# dumb bells
15 kettle bell swings 20kg

I was dead at the end.

Crossfit log for Thursday, August 23rd

Alarm went off at 5:00am as usual. I put my head back down on the pillow as usual. I fell back to sleep. NOT as usual! Woke with a start at 5:30am, class was starting.

Hightailed it to the gym in 10 minutes and did a quick warm up. (row 500m some stretching).

Strength work was back squats 3 sets of 12 reps @ 65% of max extending only to 95% (so not full extension at the hips), no pause, right back down for 12 reps. My legs were shaking.

WOD was challenging.
10 minute cap
5 rounds
- 3 burpees
- 6 pistols (3 each leg) - basically a one-legged squat
- 9 ball slams
- 12 one armed kettle bell snatches (6 each arm)
- 15 air squats

Made it to 4 rounds plus the burpees. pistols and snatches were rough.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 22nd

WOD Wednesdays

WOD was 4 x 3 min AMRAP with 1 min rest. Resume from where you were at the end of the last round.

- 9 Thrusters 95# (did 81.6# ~ 75# + 3kg)
- 15 double unders
- 5 pull ups.

Wasn't bad.
Tried 95# on the thrusters but it just wasn't happening. Dropped to 75#, but that seemed like sand bagging, so I added a couple of 1.5kg plates (3.3# each) for 81.6# Challenging but not slowing me down excessively.
Double unders were also manageable at 15 reps. Made 10 straight more than once.
Pull ups weren't a problem.

Made 5 rounds + thrusters and 11 double unders. It was good.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, August 21st

Ugh.

Snatch balance for strength, not my strong suit. Worked on overhead squat instead, not much progress there.

WOD has power jerk, also not my strong suit. Did what I could.

10min AMRAP:
-5 power jerk
-8 hand release push ups
-12 knees to elbows.

Scales blue was 115#, started with 95#, and quickly dropped to 75# it was brutal.

Only made 3 rounds + up to 5 knees to elbows.

Meh.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 20th

Friday I was unable to straighten my arms. Looked like a bad case of DOMS or an acute tendonitis in my bicep/forearm. I iced it and took Advil and it got progressively better. Today I was finally able to straighten my arms completely, with only mild discomfort in my left arm, right arm was normal.

Weird.

Did front squats for strength. I've done 175# before, but form wasn't great. Made it to 165# today without losing my back, bumped to 185#, but on the way down, I'd start to lose my back, so I bailed both attempts. That's fine.

The WOD was interesting.

Run 2km
20 Hang cleans (115#)
30 kettle bell swings (20kg)

Run was rough as I had to keep up with the young pup just out of high school guy (around 4:00/km), did the cleans in groups of 5, expect the last group was 2 then 3. Kettle bell was 3 sets of 10.

Took me 15:11 in all. Cleans really slowed me down.

Crossfit log for Thursday, August 16th

Back squats 3x8reps, did 135#, 155#, 165# last set was tough. Still sore I guess.

It was a staggered start because there are only 3 rowers and the WOD started with an 800m row.

Row 800m
4 rounds for time
- 10 thrusters 95#
- 10 kettle bell swings 20kg

When I put down my bar for the WOD I felt a pull in an aductor in my right leg, felt really tight despite being warmed up and post squats (during which I felt no discomfort, well not there anyway). Felt like I was inches away from an injury. I was particularly worried about doing the thrusters. Planned to bail on the WOD.

Rolled around on a lacrosse ball while the two first waves started. Decided to try the row and see how it went. It wasn't an issue. One of the girls from the first wave had finished just as I got off the rower so I figured I'd try with her 65# bar, and grabbed a kettle bell and did my best, being cautious and ready to bail on the first sign of a problem.

No signs. Finished the WOD in 12:08 but with women's Rx on the bar. I'll take it. I'm glad I tried. I'll take a break tomorrow though.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 15th

Today's WOD would've been really fun if I wasn't so sore from yesterday's

10 rounds
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
-wall balls 20#
-push ups
-power clean 60% of body weight (105#)

Was really happy to get past the round of 7, started to go by faster when the number got lower. Cleans were rough.

20 minutes

Crossfit log for Tuesday, August 14th

Oh boy, am I going to be sore tomorrow and Thursday!

Today we did a "Death by ..." medley.

Death by burpees, death by dead lift and death by pull up, on 1 min rest between

So first part, every minute on the minute r x 3 burpees (where r is the number of the round, so first round 3, second round 6, and so on), you are done when you cannot complete the required number of burpees in the 1:00 allotment.

Rest 1:00

Same deal, do one heavy dead lift (225# for me), on the minute, add one dead lift every round, until you can't finish with the minute.

Rest 1:00

Same deal with pull ups, add one each round to failure. They don't need to be unbroken, just complete the number before the minute runs out.

Burpees went okay, made 5 rounds plus 16 on the 6th round (of 18 required).

Deadlifts were brutal, made only 6 rounds and 3 of 7.

Pull up were my strong suit, made it to 13 rounds, and 5 of 14.

So doing some quick math that's
- (3+6+9+12+15+16) 61 burpees (in 6 minutes)
- (1+2+3+4+5+6+3) 24 225# dead lifts (in 7 minutes)
- (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+5) 86 pull ups (in 14 minutes).

Ouch. Nearly 30 minute workout, one of the longest I've ever done.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 13th

After nearly 2 weeks off it was back at it this morning.

Today was Olympic day. We had an Olympic lifting competition.

3 snatches, 3 clean and jerks, best lift in each are added for score.

I was able to do something of a snatch, thanks to physio, although I can't seem to lock my arms overhead. I managed a lift of 75#, then tried 86# and managed to force it overhead. Tried 95# and failed.

Clean and jerk surprised me. Warmed up at 95#, since it was already on the bar and it seemed hard, but I knew I had done better. Then tried 115# and it wasn't bad a tall. I was worried about the jerk, but it was easy. Bumped it to 125# for my first lift and it was still pretty easy. Shockingly easy. Tried 135#, again not a problem, even the jerk. Should have tried 145# but was stoked for making 135# so easily and went with 155#, but I couldn't clean it.

So my score was 221 (86# snatch, 135# clean and jerk). Too bad it was in pounds instead of kilos.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, July 31st

Rough day. Last day before vacation. I think I'm due for a break. A lot of progress and PR's over the past few weeks but it's taking its toll.

Shoulder press for strength work. 3 sets of 10.
-first set was 65lbs. Hard but doable.
-second set was 75lbs, succumbed to peer pressure.
-third set at 75lbs made it to 5 and I was done.

Should have stayed at 65lbs. Oh well.

WOD was a slugfest.
Called the "Quarter gone bad" (same idea as "Fight Gone Bad", but fewer exercises, but more rounds)

5 rounds for reps
15 seconds - thrusters 95#
45 seconds rest
15 seconds - weighted pull ups
45 seconds rest
15 seconds - burpees
45 seconds rest

Couldn't get the thrusters going. only managed 3 per round (except round 1, the clock started and I wasn't at my station).
Can't kip very well with dumb bell between my feet, so this was rough.
Burpees are burpees, they just suck. Managed 6 each time. Tried for seven, last 3 rounds, couldn't get it.

Total score 72.

Crossfit log for Monday, July 30th

Fantastic morning at Crossfit and physio.

1 rep max back squat. Don't think I've ever done this. The best I can find is a 3 rep effort that I only managed 2 reps at 185lbs.

Today I back squatted 205lbs. Finally over 200 pounds. Only 50lbs to go to meet my 2012 goal of squatting 1.5 times by body weight.

Another running WOD. Did heavier weight than called for.

4 rounds for time:
-run 200m (165m)
-10 dead lifts 155# (blue scaled + 20#)
-10 box jumps 30"

8:46

Very solid on the dead lifts.

I had it in my head that 45# plates on the bar added up to 125# (when in fact it adds up to 135# which was what blue scaled called for), so to go from 125# to 135# I'd have to add 5# to each side, but we don't have 5# plates, so I added 10# plates to each side, which in my flawed logic totalled 145# (when in fact it was 155#). Barbell math sucks.

Rx was 185#, I was doing blue. Their box jumps were 39" (but they only had 5 per round), so I was happy to be between blue and Rx for weight.

Physio was great, lots of progress. Hamstring flexibility went from 50º to 70º, medial hip rotation at full hip extension went from 20º on both sides to 45º (normal) on the left, but only 25º on the right (so something else going on there, more exercises prescribed). Shoulders improved as well, over head from 105-110º to 150-160º, internal rotation also improved dramatically, but I don't remember the numbers.

I guess with my added mobility I'm actually engaging my glutes, which would explain the squat PR and the solid dead lifts in the WOD.

Crossfit log for Friday, July 27th

Physio is definitely working.

I've never been able to do handstand push ups.

Almost a year ago, I wrote:
Anyway, then we worked on hand stand push up skills. I have none. Managed to get a handstand going, but as soon as I locked out my shoulders it would push my body forward away from the wall.

I haven't had any success since and have always resorted to doing them with my feet on a box in a pike position.

You need proper shoulder position to keep your balance when locked out at the apex. Because of my poor mobility I've always fallen away from the wall when I lock out because my shoulder drives my torso forward. I lose my lumbar spine as my back arches to allow my arms to reach back enough to be in line with my centre of gravity.

Not today. After a week and a half of physio, working to get my shoulder in a proper position for rotation, we had handstand push ups in the WOD, so during the skills part before the WOD I figured I was due to try them again. Well. I just walked up to the wall, got into a handstand and belted out 5 in a row as if I'd been doing them my whole life.

This brought mixed emotion. I was very excited by this accomplishment, but I knew if Isabelle saw, she'd make me do them in the WOD. Excitement won out.

After strength work of finding 1 rep max close grip bench press (146lbs) it was right into the WOD

3 rounds for time:
- 10 knees to elbows
- 5 handstand push ups + 5 hand release push ups
- Run 400m (330m)

Did toes to bar first round, but after that, stuck with knees to elbows for the handstand/regular push ups did 5 + 5 first round, 3 + 7 second round and 4 + 6 third. I'll take it.

Time: 9:56

Crossfit log for Thursday, July 26th

Did 1 1/4 back squats. Some fancy new strength move. Squat down, recover to just above parallel, back down to full squat, recover to full extension

Supposed to be 4 sets of 3, read it wrong, did 3 sets of 4, oh well.

WOD was a birthday WOD (Sue turned 35 today)
2 rounds:
35 wall balls 20#
53 double unders (because 35 wasn't enough)
35 sit ups
35 kettle bell swings (to eye level) 20kg

Round 2 sucked.
Time was in the 12 to 13 minutes range I think, waiting for confirmation.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, July 25th

WOD Wednesdays.

WOD was a good one.

5 rounds
-10 push press 85#
-run 200m (184m actually)
-1 rope climb.

Blue scaled for the push press was 95#. I wanted to do 75#... so I split the difference and went 85#. It was hard but I did it. First two rounds were unbroken, three and four had one break. Last round unbroken again.

Felt pretty solid with 85#, looks good for my next Fran.

Time was 12:45

Crossfit log for Tuesday, July 24th

A week of Personal Bests.

Last Tuesday I PR'd my dead lift.
Last Wednesday I PR'd Fran.
Last Friday I Rx'd the overhead lung WOD
and today I PR'd my clean.

145lbs, did it twice. Solid. Pretty good progress from 120lbs just this past April 23rd. Only 25lbs to go to meet my 2012 goal of cleaning my body weight.

The WOD was challenging. 15min AMRAP
-5 power cleans 105lbs bar
-10 air squats
-15 ball slams 12lbs ball

Made 8 full rounds + 13 (5 cleans and 8 squats).

Solid workout.

Hamstring are sore from yesterday's good mornings, and traps are sore from, everything else, including the physio I've been doing, but I'm making progress. I did something that resembles an overhead squat with a practice bar (another 2012 goal). Progress is good.

Crossfit log for Monday, July 23rd

It may be the placebo effect, but I feel like I'm already noticing a difference thanks to the physio exercises I've been doing.

The bottom of my squat feels easier since I've been working my hamstring, and my shoulder feels better than ever.

So today we did "good-mornings" for strength.

Worked up max for 5 reps. Made it to 117lbs. in 4 rounds.

WOD was 4 rounds for time:
-15 dead lifts @145#
-12 burpee box jumps 20" box
-10 rings dips (assisted with blue rubber band)

14:52

Not much fun. A real sweat fest.

In the mood for paleo

I started eating paleo (aka the caveman or hunter gatherer diet) last October.

There are a couple of reasons I decided to give it a try:

• after 10 years of running, triathlon and nearly a year of Crossfit, I still had a gut and weight close to 190lbs.  
• It seemed like a very popular diet among Crossfitters and I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.
• I won't do diets (or lifestyles or meal plans or whatever you want to call it) where I have to measure, weigh, count, calculate or account for what goes in my mouth.
• and finally, (this was the clincher for me) I saw this video of Dr. Terry Wahls on feeding your body the nutrients it needs to stay healthy, and how through diet she reversed her symptoms cause my multiple sclerosis.  Her diet, it turns out, is essentially paleo.

The premise behind the paleo diet is to feed our bodies what the human body ate during the hundreds of thousands of years of it's evolution before the agricultural revolution.  So basically meat (including organ meat), fish and shellfish, leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seaweed, insects, etc...  (now before you go all "gross"! on me, I'm not strict paleo, I don't eat bugs, in fact I don't know of any "paleo" eaters that do, but it wouldn't be incompatible with the diet). So no processed foods, no food with sugar added, no gains or rice, no legumes including peanuts (other nuts are fine) and no dairy. Potatoes seem to be a point of contention among paleo aficionados, I eat them on occasion.  I also eat dairy, but as I mentioned, I'm not what would be called "strict paleo". 

I like the idea of eating what our bodies ate as we evolved as a species, so I guess that's a fifth reason.  My sister asked, wouldn't we have evolved in the last ten thousand years to adapt to bread and grain? And I thought she had a point. But once I really thought about it, we probably had, to a certain extent. Anyone who could not process wheat, barley, oats and whatnot, would've died at a young age, and those incompatible genes would've been removed from the gene pool, but any effects that manifest after child bearing years, like hardened arteries, disease from years of nutrient weak diet, or effects that weren't fatal, would still be around today. 

Without bread or pasta to fill my belly, my vegetable intake has skyrocketed. I lost ten pounds the first month and five more over the following two months.  Now I've stabilized at 170lbs and I feel great. My gut is all but gone, and for the first time in my life, I'm seeing some definition in my abs.  *glee*

The other interesting side effect is this.  Before, every once in a while, like every month or two, I'd fall into a sad mood, a kind of melancholy that lasted a three or four days, sometimes more. When I got this way, nothing seemed worthwhile, nothing seemed to have a point.  I had become used to it and was aware of it, so I knew if I just coasted through it (and made no decision during it), it would pass and I'd be fine.

Kiza pointed out to me that it hasn't happened since October.

Until last Monday after the family reunions that is.  Coming down from the excitement of two reunions (the Sauvé side on Saturday and the much smaller Dubeau side on Sunday), I was a bit sad that it was over.  More than a bit sad, it was that familiar melancholy settling in that I hadn't felt in over half a year.  But then I realized, I ate cake (well mostly icing, and not just a little) at the Sauvé reunion, and ice cream cake and dessert pizza at the Dubeau reunion. 

I returned to my regular diet and by the end of  Tuesday the feeling had gone.

I think the combination of the emotional down turn of the big weekend being over, combined with the sugary food in my diet threw my hormone response out of balance.

I think I'll just stick with paleo.  It seems to be working for me.

Crossfit log for Friday, July 20th

Fight Gone Bad.

First we did shoulder press to 1 rep max. I lifted my max of 105# easily, but then jumped to 116# and couldn't do it. Should have tried 110lbs, but instead tried 115# (like that would've been sooooo much easier!)

Then we did Fight Gone Bad.
3 rounds for score: 5 minute (1 min at each station) 1 minute rest between rounds.
-wallball 20# med ball 10' target (1 rep = 1 point)
-sumo dead lift high pull 75# bar (1 rep = 1 point)
-box jumps 24" box (1 rep = 1 point)
-push press (1 rep = 1 point)
-row (1 cal = 1 point)

Last time I did this was the end of May and scored a huge PB at Rx weight (75# bar, 20# med ball) of 234 (up from 182, although I'd scored 250 @ 55#/14# between those two efforts).

Today I went 217. Not sure where I lost time, the wall balls sucked, and the sumo dead lift were rough too. Did fairly well on the push press and rower. Box jumps saved me, just cranked those out.

Anyway, can't PB every time. Coming off Fran, I'll take it.

New guy's second day and it's fight gone bad. Poor guy. His first day was Fran!

Crossfit log for Thursday, July 19th

On October 19th 2011, I wrote:

WOD:
4 rounds for time
-24 overhead walking lunges (2 lengths of the gym) 25#.
(Rx was 45#  yikes!)
-20 burpees (my favourite)

13:42.

My poor hamstrings and glutes.

Revisited this WOD today.

Did Rx. Took me 15:45, but I Rx'd it.

Went to see a physio therapist. Yikes. I got issues. But now I know about them and am taking steps to correct them. The future looks bright. 

Sau many Sauvés

I have forty first cousins on my father's side. (Edit: that's a lie, I have 39. Including me, we are forty first cousins).

Of the thirteen siblings in my dad's family, only eight remain.  They were all present for the family reunion this past weekend.  This year would've marked the one hundredth birthday for both their parents, Joe and Audrey, who were born six months apart in 1912 (Audrey being the older).

These thirteen produced forty grand-children spanning 36 or 37 years.  All but six showed up. Most have kids of their own, many are grand-parents themselves.

There were a lot of Sauvés. It was somewhat overwhelming.  My godmother, Aunt Irene, my dad's oldest remaining sister organized it with the help of my uncle Ken, dad's younger brother, and as family reunions go, it was pretty good.

We arrived about halfway through the event, which ran from one o'clock to seven in the evening, so we were only there about three hours. The room was big enough, but the air conditioning wasn't able to keep up.  It wasn't unbearably warm, but it was warm.  I might have a different perspective if we'd been there the whole time. The food was excellent

I got to meet a few people for the first time, and many I hadn't seen in ages.  My cousins from Prince Edward Island made the trip, I'd only ever met the oldest, Joel and he wasn't much more than a toddler, now he's a grown man, with such a genuine smile that shines through his eyes, it's contagious.  His little brother Logan, whom I'd never met, isn't so little and according to my older daughter looks like he should be a model for Hollister (whatever that means).   Sadly I didn't get a chance to talk to their sisters, Marla and Leah.  I guess I'll have to plan a trip to the little island.

Some cousins we see more often so I tried not to spend too much time with them as I'll likely see them at Christmas, or sooner.  I tried to focus on those that came from out of town, like Uncle Gerry and Aunt Georgette and the other James Sauvé (when they named their son, they thought, as did everyone, that my name was Jamie), who made the trip from Calgary.

Spoke with my cousin John, who has always been something of a role model for me. It's really too bad he is so much older than I am, I suspect we would've had some great times in our youth had we only been a few years closer in age. I finally got to meet his husband Chris, who had a keen sense of observation and a quick friendly smile.

Shared some quick words (too quick, but there were so many people) with the Lagacé clan (Richard, Robert and Laura; and Uncle Lionel and Aunt Mary Lou), and my cousins Keith, Erin, Megan, Uncle Ken and Aunt Ann's family (somehow missed Shelly). Briefly spoke to my Uncle Alan and his sons Darren and Greg, finally met Greg's wife Corrie; Saw Uncle Jim, Aunt Anita and her kids Peter and Theresa, and so many of my Uncle Ron's daughters (Judy, Cheryl, Debbie, Kylie and Stefanie), many of which are friends on Facebook, but I was meeting a couple for the first time in person. 

The group pictures were pure mayhem, but it was fun. We got a shot of the second-cousins, so all my children and the children of all my cousins. It was staggering, and not all of them were there!  My older daughter wondered why there were adults in the picture.  At 11 years old the age ranges involved was hard for her to grasp.  Being the middle child of the middle child, there are plenty above and below me in the age chart,  many of the older are grand-parents, but many of the young have not even started their families yet.  So there will be more!

I think the most important thing was for the kids and Kiza to meet my family.  They had met bits and pieces before, but this really showed them that we are part of something incredibly big.

There were way too many people that I didn't get a chance to chat with. I guess we'll have to do it again next year!