Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 29th: Oh Cindy, how I love to hate thee

Progress is progress.

Cindy, for any non Crossfit types, is a standard workout, like a benchmark.
In 20 minutes, do as many rounds as possible of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. Sounds deceptively easy, but when you get to 15 minutes you are wishing it was over 5 minutes ago, and you still have 5 minutes to go!

Last time I did this was in October, I managed 11 rounds plus up to 10th squat in round 12. Today I did 14 full round, plus 2 pull ups.

Progress.

If my arms weren't sore enough from the 60 push ups in Mondays WOD (workout of the day), they certainly are now!

Man date

Had supper with my buddy Dave yesterday at Stella in the market. It was good to catch up.

The take home was that I need a new job. He was clearly a happier man no longer working at PCO.

Putting out fires continuously for 15-20 years takes it's toll on a guy. And I've been feeling the strain for a while now.

The Filet Mignon was delicious, as was the Pinot. The company was the best.

P.S. I totally guessed the age of the one and a half month old baby at the next table.

Self-sabotage or just over tired?

Granted a had a great night's sleep last night. (despite the 5:00am wake up from a freaky dream), so I really have no excuse for forgetting my gym bag.

My lunch time run is out the window now. Grrrr.

This is the second week in a row I've done this and it costs me at least a day of training.  So now I either have to run tonight or skip another day. 

Maybe a rest day is a good thing.....

I really like volleyball

Friday last I reluctantly volunteered to attend my daughter's grade 6 volleyball tournament at a neighbourhood school. 

I should have known.  I loved every minute of it.  

It brought me back to my days as a volleyball player in high school. The one sport I was ever any good at. 

I brought the best from my coach to the court side.  Encouraging, forget that bad play, focus on the next one, be ready, get into position. Praise the opponents for well executed plays.

My daughter was embarrassed at first because I was so vocal, especially to the "strangers" on the other team, but when my enthusiasm became contagious and was praised by her peers, she came around, and started being more vocal herself.

Over lunch I told them that the best game they had play during the morning session was the one they had lost.  This piece of news shocked them.

I explained that sometimes it's better to lose to a stronger team than beat a weaker one, as long as you give them a run for their money, and play your best, which was what they had done.  I told them they should thank the other team for pushing them to play their best and congratulate them for a hard won victory.

I think they got the message. Or at least the gist of it.

They tied for first among the 4 schools in attendance.  They were pretty pumped about that.

Facebook was abuzz with celebration and a couple of posts mentioned me. 

"I hope he comes back"

"It's because of him we won"

"He really help by saying - it's okay" [when they missed], to which one of the boys replied "You're lucky, madame just yelled at us". ;)  

So now I have to go back. 

I can't fathom how I was ever reluctant to go in the first place.

Crossfit log for Monday, February 27th

Crossfit this morning was good.

Legs were tired from yesterday's run.

We did snatches again. Resorted to the split snatch once we added weight.

Started with the drop snatch, basically with the bar on you shoulder like for a back squat, start on your toes, like you are at the apex of the pull, and drop down under the bar in to a squat. Needless to say I suck at this, it's essentially a speed overhead squat. One day.

Then we added weight and I went to the split squat, which I can do. Started with 55#, and went up to 65# and finally 75#

The WOD was 6 rounds for time:
10 "plate" push ups (hands on two bar bell plates, alternate hands on plate/floor)
10 wall balls 14#
10 v-snaps

10:50

Then we did some box jumps for height. Managed 34" before i had to leave. I think I could do 42".

Running log for Sunday, February 26th

Ran with the Running Room, needed to be 6:00/km or faster to be back in time to pick up Irondaughter at gymnastics.

The two lead runners seemed to be going at a pretty good clip. I don't normally do the walk breaks, and after we completely missed the first one, I figured I was with the right group. We did take some walk breaks, but they were sporadic, and usually at a milestone, top of hill, next light, at the corner, whatever, just take some water and what not.

Started out with an average pace of 6:12/km after few km, then despite looking at Garmin and regularly seeing 5:4x managed to drop the average pace to 6:18/km. By 16km were down to 6:08/km, so I was in good shape. Around this time the ladies were planning to stop at a gas station to refuel, so I decided to keep going on my own. I picked up the pace and got the average down to 6:01/km.

Not bad. I was only a few minutes late picking up Irondaughter.

It was a tough run. I honestly can't remember how I ever ran a Marathon!

29.14km 2:55:41 Done.

Crossfit log for Thursday, February 23rd

No WOD today.

We did skills work on the snatch and strength work on the squat.

The bulk of the time was spent on the snatch. I did what I could. My lower back is still a bit sore from yesterday's dead lift, plus the fact that I can't snatch, made for an interesting workout.

Some minor improvements were seen though, so good on me.

Did two sets of front squats 95# and 125# then I was done.

Running log for Thursday, February 23rd

Did the "Frog in a pot of boiling water" workout. At 1% incline, start at 6:00/km increase speed every 2:00 by 0.5km/h (or in my case since the TM does only 0.2 increments alternate 0.4 and 0.6 kph) made it 18:00, same result as last time.

Went from 10.0kph to 14.0kph. (or 6:00/km to 4:17/km)

I thought I might make it to 20:00, but at 18:00 I was done. Next time.

Lack of sleep?

My back is sore. My kids are whiny. Three mornings in a row of early morning Crossfit. Bullshit at work. Divorce agreement. Life insurance. Medical appointments. School and extracurricular activities. Not to mention all the stuff I don't even know about that Kiza takes care of.

The tunnel seems long, the light at the end seems faint and distant.

I'll rest when I'm dead.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 22nd

No run yesterday at lunch. Seems I forgot to back a gym bag to bring to work.

This morning's Crossfit was a busy one. On top of the WOD we did skills work and strength work.

Skills: Snatch balance.
This is basically like a push press or maybe more like a push jerk (see youtube if you are curious), except you start the same as a back squat, with a wider (snatch width) grip. You dip with hips and knees and drive, then squat under the bar to receive the load, the stand to finish.

Since I cannot overhead squat this was an exercise in frustration. Did what I could until my shoulders told me to stop.

Strength: Dead lift.
Long story short, new PR of 245lbs, a small step towards 2x body weight (360lbs, one of my goals for 2012), back was rounded though, but I did it

WOD: 4 rounds for time
5 ring dips
10 v-snaps (hand to toe/shin sit ups)
15 kettle bell swings 20kg

I just realized I have no idea what my time was.  hmmm. I went hard, finish last, but only by seconds. We were all pretty close (except Jodie who was in beast mode today, I was just starting round 4 when she finished!)

Running log for Wednesday, February 22nd

Tabata at lunch

10 min warm up at 5:39/km 1% incline

4 min 0:20 4:20/km 12% incline, 0:10 rest.

6 min cool down at 5:39/km 1% incline.

Thought I was going to toss my cookies.

My back will hate me

Well it wasn't pretty, but I did it. My previous best dead lift was 235lbs. I don't really remember, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't pretty either.

Today I lifted 245lbs. A small step towards my goal of lifting two times my body weight (350lbs).

At this weight I lose integrity of my spine. Both lumbar and thoracic. My back is the weakest link.

Hips  hams, quads and even glutes are there, but my back just isn't keeping up.

Isabelle got some footage she can show to Francois, maybe he'll have some suggestions.

For now I'll be happy with a new 1 rep max, even if my back isn't very happy with me at all.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, February 21st: First aid day

So last week's long run left me with pain in my arch of my left foot and this weeks long run left me with pain in either my Adductor Magnus or my Gracilis.

I rolled my foot on a ball last week and that helped. I haven't done anything yet about the adductor pain. But at Crossfit this morning squatting, burpees and box jumps I had no issues.

I'll see how running is today at lunch, and then do some stretching to see how it feels.

Slight oversight at the Crossfit gym, they had no first aid kit. I guess that's a testament to the lack of injuries they've seen.

Luckily I had mine in the car. Jodie wrecked on the box jumps and took a good chunk out of her shin.

Doc James to the rescue.

She'll live.

Workout:
Strength: clean and jerk
3 rounds increasing weight
-3 cleans,1 jerk
-1 clean, 3 jerks
Started at 75# added 4kg each round

WOD: 10 min cap
6 rounds off 1+2, 1+2+3,...1+2+3+4+5+6+7
1- 3 pill-ups
2- 6 burpees
3- 9 sit-ups
4- 12 box jumps (30")
5- 15 double under
6- 18 kettle bell swings
7- 21

Made it to round 5 and too the double unders of round 6.

To blog or not to blog...

... that is the question.

I kind of already blog, on RunningMania, in my training journal, but I figured some more, I don't know, mainstream, common, generic, more about "me", would be better.

I not really sure. I've thought about having a blog before, but never really bothered.  Now that blogger is integrated with Google+ and my android phone, I figured the time was right.

What will it be about, you are no doubt asking yourself.  On the edge of your seat are you? Well I won't keep you guessing then, I'm not that cruel.
It's about .... nothing! Ta Da!

Well, not quite true, mostly I figure it'll be about my training, Crossfit, running and triathlon, the things I do to keep myself sane. A bit about my kids (all 4 of them). Maybe even a bit about my Kiza.
We'll see. All this assumes I don't abandon the whole thing within days (a very likely possibility).  So here we go.

Hello cyber space, nice to finally meet you.


Footnote:  Previous posts to this one were added later and back dated, as I migrated my training journal from RunningMania to this blog.

Running log for Sunday, February 19th

Cut back week. Ran 17.5km in 1:31.

Very hilly.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5306221

Next week back up to 28km.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 15th

Sunday's run took a lot out of me.

Then the kids waking up in the night seriously hampered my recovery. Finally last night I got a good night's sleep and made it to Crossfit for the first time since Friday past.

It was good.

Strength word was press again (and I again I teamed up with Jodie, who is slightly stronger than I am), we did 3x3reps at 77#, 88#, 99# 75%, 85% and 95% of her max of 110# (I don't know what my max is, but it is probably less than 110#).
Solid on the the first two sets, only managed 1 rep on the last, (so maybe 99# is my 1RM).

Skills work was the Clean.
4 rounds of A- Hang power clean, B-Hang power clean + front squat, C- Hang power clean + catch into front squat and D- Hang Squat Clean.

First 2 rounds at 75#, second 2 at 95#. This was a breakthrough, my front squat is much better and I was able to do what essentially looked like a squat clean at the very end. (a skill I will need to meet my stated 2012 goal of cleaning my body weight). So I'm in a good position to meet that goal by year end. Yay!

The WOD was a good met con:
12 min AMRAP
-8 pull-ups, 25 double unders (did 75 singles), -8 hand release push-ups (clap over head when down).

Managed 6 full + pull-ups and started skipping (4) on round 7.

Feeling good.

Running log for Wednesday, February 15th

Solid run at the RR tonight.

Not a complete ego fest but I still pushed the pace and because the group leader didn't want to get passed, the planned 5:03/km didn't hold. There were more than a couple of km splits under 4:50 and I saw the pace drop under 4:40 a couple of times.

So I'm happy with it. Including my warm up to the store @ 5:15/km, the total 13.6km took 1:10.

Running log for Sunday, February 12th

Really rough, really cold, really lonely 26km run.

I started with the unofficial Running Room  ATB (Around the Bay) group, but they were running 6:07/km and taking walk breaks, I had to be back in time to get Clarisse at gymnastics so I dropped them between 5 and 6km, after the 3rd walk break. I checked my pace at just over 7km and was nearly at 45min! I cranked it to around 5:30/km and abandoned the walk breaks.

I was done at 23km, but still had some good hills to go. It was hard to keep going at 23km because I was really close to the store, and my last 3km would take me further away, which is always mentally tough, especially near the end of a run.

But I did it. Legs are sore, still not fully recovered from the box jumps I guess. But it's done and I'll be stronger for it.

Oh... that's why I'm so sore!

It dawn on me why my run yesterday wasn't stellar, in the middle of the night when I got up get some medicine for a coughing Delilah, my legs were really sore and tight.

I tallied up all the things I'd done lately to figure out why, no hard runs, no squats.... oh, maybe those 80 box jumps have something to do with it!

ETA: and I just went back to add the Ring Rows to my workout from yesterday morning. my upper back and shoulder and in the same shape as my legs!

Crossfit log for Friday, February 10th

Good workout this morning.

Strength work was strict press (one of my many weaknesses)
3 sets of 5 70#, 80#, 90# (only managed 3 at 90#)
ETA: super set with Ring Rows to failure.

WOD was a 15min AMRAP
16 kettle bell snatches (8 each arm) did 12kg to try and keep the intensity up, but could've gone with 16kg
15 box jumps 28.5"
10 abmat wall ball situps with a 14# medicine ball

Managed 5 full rounds + snatches and box jumps.

Very satisfied, virtually no breaks, was consistent all the way through.

Running log for Friday, February 10th

Mediocre run on the TM today. 5km 25min. Wasn't feeling the love.

Hamstring are still a bit sore from the dead lifts on Wednesday.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 8th

Went to Crossfit again this morning. Don't normally do 2 days in a row but since I missed Monday I figured I should go.

It was a good workout. We did dead lifts (which I love), 3 sets of 5 at 65%, 75% and 85% of max. (165#, 185#, 205#) Solid, better core control.

WOD was neat.
5 sets of 1 clean + 3 push jerks on 1:00
3 sets of 1 clean + 5 front squats on 1:00
4 sets of 15 wall balls (20#) on 1:00

I under estimated how much break we'd get in the first two. I could see myself having only a few seconds, but in reality the work was short (like 15 sec) so the break was like 45 seconds.

Consequently I went a bit too light (75#, probably could have easily handled 95#), but it was still a good workout, and it was all about the wall balls, the rest was just to tire out your hips and practice technique. The wall balls were brutal, in this case it was literally a few seconds rest before starting up again.

I liked it.

Running log for Wednesday, February 8th

Yet another poor treadmill workout.

The goal was a "frog in a pot of boiling water" workout. Started at 6:00/km (10kph) with a goal of getting to 15kph (4:00/km), a 20:00 workout.

Gallantly gave up the only treadmill in kilometres to my beloved Kiza in the middle of the first increase (10.6kph) and started over at 7.0mph (which turns out to be 11.3kph) and went from the in 0.3mph increments every 2:00

So did:
10.0 - 2:00
10.2 - 1:20 ish
11.3 - 2:00
11.75 - 2:00
12.23 - 2:00
12.71 - 2:00
13.2 - 2:00
13.7 -0.40 ish

So in the future if I'm on imperial I need to go (6.3, 6.6, 6.9, 7.2, 7.5, 7.8, 8.1, 8.4, 8.7, 9.0, 9.3) so start at 6.3mph and increment 0.3mph every 2:00 for 22:00

Running log for Tuesday, February 7th

Another frustrating run at the local Y. I hate those treadmills, and took the time to fill out one of the comments forms to express my disappointment.

I had a plan, I had chart with mph and min/km, I'd do a 10:00 warm up at 6.4mph (~5:50/km) then 5 intervals at 8.2mph, 8.4mph, 8.6mph, 8.8mph and 9mph (4:33, 4:26, 4:20, 4:14 and 4:09 per km respectively) with 2:00 rest at just under 4mph.

Well the stupid touch screen was so unresponsive it took nearly 2 whole minutes to get it up to 8.2mph from 6.4mph, so there was no way I was playing with the speed, I'd just get off and do nothing for 2 minutes. It was looking good, but then with 10 seconds to go it starts to slow down "No Runner detected", f*ck! Thankfully tapping the screen in the vicinity of the QuickStart button, brought it back up to speed. So decided 1:30 rest, since it was complete rest, would have to do.

Now I had to do time math because I couldn't us the distance for 1:00km repeats because it was in miles, so I had to add 4:26, 4:20, etc... to my time at the start of each interval.

Then the kicker, I get 1:30 into my 4th interval and the things stops. It was at 30 minutes, apparently the limit for a workout. I was livid. I spewed a string of profanity a mile long (since I couldn't do kilometres).

I didn't take it out on the staff, since they really have nothing to do with it, but I was not a happy camper.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, February 7th

Skills: Snatch. We did snatch balance, which I suck at because I can't do an overhead squat. Did the best I could.

Strength: Strict press, 10 sets of 3 reps in rapid succession, 45 sec rest. did 75#, challenging but not too challenging.

WOD - 8min AMRAP of :
20 Sumo Dead Lift High pull 16kg
10 knees to elbows
10 push ups (clap behind head at the bottom).

Managed 3 full rounds an up to the 9th knee to elbow on round 4.

Running log for Sunday, February 5th

23km done.
Just over 2 hour. Felt good.

Hilly route again, very similar you last week with a couple of extra hills thrown in.

Was at the half marathon point at 1:58, that was nice.

Swam for the first time in ages.

Only 15 minutes while the kids were in their swimming lessons.

Wow. Shoulders aren't used to that! Yikes.

Did somewhere in the vicinity of 600-800m

Crossfit log for Friday, February 3rd

Today's workout was something of a train wreck.

Strength part was good, strict press superset with strict pull ups
3 rounds of 5 reps press @ 75#, 85#, 85#, 5 reps pull unassisted. It had been a while since I've done strict dead hang pull ups. I would have never been able to to 3 sets of 5 before.

WOD was 12 round on 1:00 of 3 reps of the bear complex.

Bear Complex = 1. Power Clean (from ground), 2. front squat, 3. push press, 4. back squat, 5. push press, back to floor.

There's no way I can do that at the Rx of 115#, not enough shoulder strength, even 95 was too much for more than a few rounds. So I opted for 75# (10# less then women's Rx)

After 3 rounds I couldn't complete 3 reps within the minute, and it just went down hill from there, I think I may have gotten 12 reps total, it was brutal.

Hindsight being what it is, I really should stripped the plates off the bar and just did 45# as high intensity as I could manage, the heavier you go the more it becomes about form and not intensity, I need the intensity. Next time.

Running log for Friday, February 3rd

Tabata on the treadmill done.

9:00 warmup @ 5:52/km
1:00 rest
8x0:20 @ 4:36/km 12% grade, 0:10 rest
1:15 cool down @ 5:52/km

Total 3:00km 16:15, heart rate through the roof!

Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 1st

Good workout today.

Strength work was the clean complex. 4x increasing weight : 1 power clean, 1 hang power clean, 3 front squats (85#, 95# 105#, 115#)

The last round at 115# wasn't pretty on the power clean, the hang power clean was better, the front squat was fine, I'm getting much better at holding a good rack position on the front squat, I may be able to do full squat clean soon (which I'll need to do if I hope to meet my goal of cleaning my body weight).

WOD was interesting, 1 round for time of:
Row 500m
2 rope climbs (had to pass on that, need practice)
40 wall balls 14#
30 box jumps 28"
20 V-snaps (hand to toe sit-ups or v-ups)
10 burpees

10:10

We started at different points since there are only 2 rowers and there wasn't time to stagger the start, so I started on the box jumps (and smashed my fingers against the edge on one jump, gonna be sore for a few days). Almost puked after the rowing. Wallballs after rowing suck.

Running log for Wednesday, February 1st

Well 12km easy turned into 14 km tempo thanks to the ego driven Wednesday night run club. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day.