Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 6th

After a week of inactivity following my eye surgery last Wednesday, I finally got back to Crossfit this morning.

They say 1 to 3 weeks of recover.  So yeah.  1 week it is. 

It was a great workout.  I couldn't have asked for better.

The warm up was a 5 minutes AMRAP of 5 strict pull ups, 10 hollow rocks and 30 second plank hold.  Went well.  Especially the pull ups.

The strength work was 3 sets of 5 deadlifts, touch and go, at 60%.  which would've been 210#, but I opted for 185#.  That worked well.  I likely won't hit prescribed weight until next week or the beginning of the following week.

The WOD was a partner WOD, 21 minute AMRAP of
- 21 calorie row
- 21 step down box jumps 24"
- 21 dumbbell snatch 70#/50#
- 21 chest to bar pull ups

I didn't feel like I'd be pulling my own weight in my condition and we were 9 this morning so I volunteered to shadow Kamil's replacement partner Jocelyn.

We alternated who went first each round, whoever was first did the extra rep/cal.

We split the calories in half (11/10), the box jumps in 4 sets of 5 (first person did 6), same for the snatches and at first chest to bar pull ups were 7 sets of 3, which didn't work so well.

They used women's Rx dumbbell and I opted for one of the new 45# ones, only 5# difference, but whatever.  50# wouldn't have been a problem.

Turns out I did hold my own, and totally kept up with Jocelyn (who is relatively new) at worst I was two reps behind him on the box jumps at one point, but caught up quickly.

I think we did 4 full rounds and 50 reps (the 50 reps I'm sure, the 4 rounds i'm pretty sure, if not it was 5 full rounds, but I don't think so).

There was just enough rest and just enough work.  I worked hard the whole time and didn't fade.  Felt good.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, May 26th

Got my ass handed to me at Crossfit this morning.

Although I did match my current PR on the cleans.  We did 4 heavy singles, if it felt good, go for a PR.  It didn't feel that good.

I hit 185#, 195# and 205#.

I accidentally did the 195# without my belt.  Man that was hard.

Need to figure out the timing of full extension then pulling myself under the bar quickly.  (high hang work in my future).

The WOD was much harder than I thought.  Maybe yesterday's Y workout affected me.

Chipper for time:
- 15 toes to bar
- 20 shoulder to overhead @ 95#
- 15 toes to bar
- 20 overhead squats @ 95#
- 15 toes to bar
- 20 thrusters @ 95#
- 15 toes to bar.

Scaling options were cut t2b to 10 instead of 15 and scale weight. Should have done both.

Everyone was done as I started the thrusters.  The OHS has killed me, I even used Lana's bar  at 65# for the middle 9 reps.

Called it quits at 15 thrusters, I had nothing left and everyone was done.

Closed up with an 8 minute AMRAP of lateral box jumps and pull ups.

I was so done.

I got that feeling in my throat again, like there is something back there that I can't cough out.  I may bring it up with my doctor.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, April 7th

Wow.  After a week and a half of recovery from bronchitis, I finally got to the box this morning.

That was much harder than I expected.

We started with a jerk/overhead squat combo for 4 sets of 2.

Limited by my OHS, so did 3 sets at 95# and one at 115#.  Jerk was easy, OHS was not. 3rd set was probably the best one.

The WOD was a 10 minute AMRAP of
- 10 shoulder to overhead @ 135#, scaled wisely to 115#
- 10 over the bar buprees, yuck.
- 10 pistols alternating leg (scaled to 15 air squats)

First round I took off like a bullet. Second round I sucked wind, third round was better than the second, but not as good as the first.  Fourth round I made it through 7 push press.

I watched a ton of Crossfit videos during my recovery, so I was itching to go, but man I tanked so quickly.  First day back, had to make it worth it, no?

Part two was a 5 minute AMRAP of sets of 5 pull ups.

Made it to 10 sets of 5, ending with the last two sets as 1 set of 10 reps.

Started doing 5 every 15 seconds, which lasted for 5 sets.  Then I took 30 second, and did two more sets, on 30 seconds instead of 15.  Waited until there was 30 seconds left to bust out the set of 10.

I was so done.

I expect I'll be very sore for a couple of days.

Strength log for Tuesday, December 9th

Back squats.  Goal was 3 triples at 90% or 265#, so naturally I had to push it and tried 275#.

Didn't workout so well.  First set, second rep was a fight, third rep I had to bail.

That wasn't part of the plan.

Regrouped, peeled back to 265#, the original target and things went way better. 

Started over, so I got my 3 triples plus a double to start at 93%.  I'll take it.

I'm going to blame it on recovering from whatever bug I've had.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 8th

Bailed after strength work.

Either the flu shot is having side effects, or whatever I had Friday/Saturday is lingering or I'm starting something else, but after each lift I felt weaker and weaker.

That hollow feeling you get in your chest, like you are hungry but you have no appetite. Anyway.

Started with 3 sets of 4 thrusters, light, focusing on bar path and as a warm up for the clean and jerks to come.

Did 95#, that was fine.  It was when I started the c&j that I started to feel off.

Did 115# and 135# and that was okay, even the 135# felt off.

We were doing 4 triples at 75%, so 155# is what I chose, but on the second rep I didn't even try to jerk it.

I knew the WOD started with a 60 calorie row, which I knew would finish me.  So packed up, wished the crew good luck and went home.

Oh well.

So these are the lifting standard for an intermediate lifter weighing 198lbs (as I do) along with my current records and the difference.

Lift	Target	Current	Diff
Bench Press	215	230	-15
Deadlift	335	365	-30
Press	145	145	0
Power Clean	205	195	10
Power Snatch	160	140	20
Squat	285	295	-10

That being said, my focus is still on strength, not power.  The two outstanding lifts may have to wait until later in the winter before I seriously tackle them.  Although the power clean may well be within my reach sooner.   We'll see.

I'm just putting it out there, in writing, so that I'm clear on my secondary goals.

Health log for Friday, May 16th.

Strep again.  Should have known during yesterday's workout, feeling so sluggish.  I always thing I'm overtraining or not gettng enough sleep when I have a workout like that, then the next day the sore throat starts. 

Quick trip to the clinic, for a rapid strep test and bingo.  Erythromicin this time. Don't think I've ever had that one.

Advil taken.  At least I've developed a skill for detecting it early.

Crossfit log for Friday, April 25th

Started feeling unwell after Wednesday's workout, so I took yesterday completely off. 

Stomach was in a knot, but unlike every other member of my family, I didn't toss my cookies at all.

Feeling much better today.

Good workout.  Coach slept through his alarm today, but there was no way I was missing another workout, so I waited for the 6:30 class (after getting the okay from Kiza that she wasn't having a disastrous morning).

Glad I did.

Strength was pause squats.  3 sets of 5 pausing a full three seconds at the bottom, no bounce. 

Did 185#, 185#, 195#.  I wish I had started at 195# and gone up to 205#, because 195# felt the same as 185#, the first ones were easy the last ones really hard.   Which is the point of strength development.

The WOD was something new.

5 rounds for time of :
- 500m row
- 15 bench press  Rx 135# (did 125# first round, 115# 4 subsequent rounds).


What a full body workout.  I feel it from head to toe. 

The first row I went out like a bat out of hell, finished in 1:40.  Did the bench unbroken, but the last reps were rough and I new I wouldn't be able to sustain that for 4 more rounds.

2nd row was much more conservative, 2:05 or something, did 11 and 4 on the bench.

All the subsequent rows were similar to this

3 round did 8, 4 and 3 on the bench.  4th was 7, 5 and 2 and finally 5, 5 and 5.

Took 23:21  gassed at the end. 

Crossfit log for Wednesday, April 23rd

Deceptively difficult WOD today.  Leaving very little in the tank for the strength work afterwards.

It started innocently enough with a 60 calorie row.

Rowing for calories is different than rowing for distance.  Distance is measure by the flywheel's rotations, calories are measure by tension on the chain. If you don't pull hard, the calories go up slowly, even if your distance is climbing at a good clip.

In fact it's better to increase the damper setting to ensure more tension on the chain when rowing for calories.

This morning I felt lethargic.  No amount of warming up was getting me warmed up. Just couldn't seem to get going. My stomach seems out of sorts, which may just be my liquid morning diet, but there's a sliver of fear that I got whatever bug Dex and Kiza got resulting in each a single bout of violent vomiting. So far I'm not even what I would call nauseated, or even queasy, just not quite right.

But when you hear 3, 2, 1 Go! you just go.

WOD:
- 60 calorie row
followed by 3 rounds for time of:
- 50 double unders
- 25 pull ups
- 15 dumbbell snatches  50#

The row took less than 3:00, double unders to 6 or 7 tries, then the pull ups, ugh, took forever.  Did like 5 reps, the got off the bar. Wasn't looking good.  Dumbbell snatches were tedious. They were 70# Rx, and thankfully we had no dumbbells between 70# and 50#.

Second round went much better, I guess I was finally warmed up.  Did the double unders in 2 sets, 30 and 20.  Pull ups went much better too, 10, 10 5. Dumbbell snatches were tedious.

Last round was better than the first, but not as good as the second. Double unders went 28, 18, 4.  Pull ups went 7, 11, 7 and dumbbell snatches were tedious.

Finished in 25:07, wiped.

Then we had to do 3x3 front squats, but the WOD took way longer than expected so we rushed it.

Ended up doing 3 sets at 155#.  That was plenty.

Mobility log for Wednesday, April 9th

I was all over the place today at the Y.

Not quite feeling 100% after my strep diagnosis I decided to work on physio homework.

Had to find a bench high enough to rest my knees on while in a handstand position making sure my hips were over my shoulders and my shoulders were over my wrists. 

First step was to get my butt and shoulders against the wall. Took a few tries to get the right height of box. Ended up with a 2' box and three 45# plates.

Next step was to move away from the wall and find that same position. Very challenging.

Did some toes to bar between handstands. 

Two of the Y guys, Duane and Seb, were doing some squat work with a sandbag. Draped on one shoulder without holding bag, drop down into a deep squat, then onto your knees and finally sitting on your heels, then back up. Gave it a try. Almost, but not quite able to. Still need work I guess.

Afterwards I stretched out my hamstrings.

Felt productive. Hope I feel better tomorrow.

Strength log for Monday, April 7th

Quick trip to the Y yesterday at lunch, to do some strict shoulder press

Planned 5 sets of 5 at 115#.  Mustn't have reviewed my number properly.  Did three sets, of 5, 4 and 3, because that's all I could muster.

Granted I was coming down with strep.  Penicillin prescribed.  Yay!

But I need to remember that there are weights between 95# and 115# I should be working with.  105# and 110# are where I should be doing my 5x5, 3x5 and 5x3 and using 115# and 120-5# for 3x3 and heavy singles.

Lesson learned.

Today, I'm feeling like crap, but I caught the symptoms early, so I should be good to go tomorrow.

Parental panic

This has likely been the most terrifying experience of my entire life.

I've lived through four children with a variety of ailments including, but not limited to croup, asthma, bloody lips, kidney infections, strep, ear infections, vomiting, diarrhea and then some.

I've thankfully never had to call 911. Until today.

Delilah was up half the night throwing up, so I stayed home with her, since Kiza was leaving for an overnight trip to Toronto.

We watched some television and she slept a lot which wasn't surprising since she slept very little over night. 

As I was about to start making supper, she was waking up slowly when I heard her fall to the floor. When I went to see if she was okay I found her still on the floor, her head tilted strait up, eyes blinking rapidly, fists clenched, breathing erratically. 

She was having a seizure.

I picked her up and cradled her in my arms and tried to get her attention, but she wasn't there. Her eyes were open but she was unresponsive. 

Even after the seizure passed and her breathing stabilized I couldn't get her to talk. If I asked if she could hear me, she's nod, but that was the extent of her communication abilities. 

Start panic mode. I knew I should call 911, but what about Dex and Clarisse? I called my dearest friend Christyne to see if she could be on stand by if I needed her. Then I called emergency services and waited for an ambulance to arrive. All the while Delilah is still unresponsive.

I began shouting instructions to Clarisse and kept trying to get Delilah to talk.

It wasn't until the paramedics had attached a bunch of medical devices that I finally got a single word response to a question.

The plan was for me to follow the van, but as I frantically tried to pack snacks and whatnot, one of the medics came back to say she wasn't coping well and I should ride with them. 

So now I'm not even sure how I'll get home. In my panic I completely forgot to bring Deliliah's glasses, boot and coat.

By the time we got to the hospital she was almost back to normal.  So I felt really bad that Kiza cut her trip short and flew back almost as soon as she landed. But being a mother, she had no choice but to come back. Although this solved my ride home problem. 

Luckily for Kiza, the doctor showed up minutes after she arrived in our room, so no 3 hour wait for her.

Febrile seizures are benign, but man they are scary. She is completely fine now, sleeping soundly in her bed. Ordeal over. My adrenalin is just coming down now I think.

I didn't know they were benign, so I'm think I handled things fairly well.  Although there was no hesitation when the paramedics said we were going to the children's hospital, I don't think a hospital visit was entirely necessary.

Strength and mobility log for Monday, February 10th

Amoxil is taking it's time to kick in.  Advil and Tylenol are helping. Didn't go to Crossfit this morning.  Heard they worked on snatch and power snatch.

So I worked on power snatch. Tried a couple of overhead squats but it wasn't happening. 

I would've tried some split snatch but I was feeling kinda weak, so I did some power snatch from the floor and some from the hang. 

Worked up to 115# from the floor, dropped back to 95# from the hang.

Snatch need a lot of work.

Then I sat in my deep squat for 10 minutes in my racing flats (4mm drop) and was very comfortable.

I did an extra 5 minutes in the steam room afterwards.

This day 12 for me, although some days I only did 15 or 20 minutes, but it's definitely helping

Health and mobility log for Sunday, February 9th

Well it had been almost a year since I may had strep throat, hopefully this is a one off and it won't bug me again for many moons.
Although we are starting with plain old Amoxil, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. We'll see how it goes.

I still managed to get 25 minutes in a relaxed squat (8.5 minutes, 6.5 minutes and 10 minutes) 5 to go for the day. All barefoot, but my heels are on the carpet and tired on the floor. Gives me about half an inch grace.

Hoping I'll feel better by tomorrow. morning

Strength and mobility log for Wednesday, January 29th

Well maybe it wasn't the doubling up of strength work that killed me Monday.

I woke at around midnight that night, after crashing at 7:30pm, shivering. My skin was burning to the touch. I didn't even have the will to get some Tylenol.  (my go to: Advil, doesn't mix well with creatine).

After about an hour I was able to fall back to sleep, but kept waking, I just couldn't get comfortable.

I stayed in bed all day Tuesday, stirring only to get the kids at daycare, make a pitiful supper, which I ate none of, and give some quick baths before I was back in bed for the night.

No fever (without Tylenol, I was willing to risk it, to see if the symptoms had resolved themselves, which looks like they had).  But I still woke up in the night and took a couple of hours to fall back to sleep.

This morning I tackled the day as any other, following my routine as much as possible (minus Crossfit, plus a planned trip to Delilah's nephrologist). 

Took my nutrition, went to the gym at lunch.

Yeah, that might have been a mistake.

I wanted to try my new lifting shoes and missing a whole 24 hours of training, is like craziness.  

So I did a short front squat/back squat workout and I was wiped.

4 sets of 2 front squats 4 back squats @ 185#.

Was way harder than it should have been.  Oh well done is done.

I tried to hold a squat for the 30min/day 30 day squat challenge it sucked. Badly.

I'll try again tomorrow, I'll work up to 10 minutes and then start by doing 3 sets of 10 minutes throughout the day.

Surgery Day.

4:48am - awake before my alarm. Dreaming of quite the adventure getting to the hospital, running through a rain soaked triathlon sidewalk sale, through an old drunk couple's living room, and a construction site. Only to find the hospital overrun by mutants (not the x-men kind).

5:51am - on a bus. Must remember to get off at Hurdman and not go into work. Reading Dance with Dragons.

6:16am - half an hour early at the hospital. Oh well. I'll read some more. 

6:47am - check in. Meet Linda one of the nurses. Go through the questions and info about how things will proceed. 

7:04am -  change into gown.  Take the time to remove my long underwear for the bus ride here, don't want to be that toasty once I'm on the stretcher.  Stow my lunch and clothes.

7:20am - blood pressure is nice and low  124 over 68.  Then the waiting begins.

8:40am - Listening to the patients brief the nurses about their conditions was sobering.  I was easily the healthiest person on the floor.  High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, back spasms were just a few of the ailments that had to be considered going into surgery. Thankful for my health.

8:55am - Karin, the nurse from my pre-op briefing last week shows up. Had a quick chat, she hijacked my care from Linda. 

9:15am - Dr. Wilson, the anaesthesiologist finally shows up, likes the look of my throat, easy intubation.  A few minutes later an orderly comes by to wheel me to the pre-op area.

Here I see Dr. Delpero.   He's a soft spoken mild mannered former Colonel, with a very calm demeanour.  I like him.  A good role model for the students under his wing.  I hope they appreciate him.

I also meet a different Linda and Marie-Eve, two french nurses who go through the usual identify verification questions as Dr. Wilson put the IV in my hand.

Next thing I know, I'm being wheeled into the OR and I hardly had time to take in the room and I was out.

Next thing I know I'm waking in recovery.  Nurse Karin is there, taking my vitals. Helping me sit up. (She noticed my Superman tattoo and ask to snap a pic)!

Rested for a little while and before noon I was with Kiza, headed to the car.

My eyes were sore, but not unbearably.  Vision was same as before.  The images from my double vision were much closer than ever.  Remains to be seen how close once the muscles settle.

The car ride was rough, I began to feel nauseated as we arrived home and was thankfully able to make it to the sewer grate before tossing my cookies.

I spent the rest of the day in bed, mostly sleeping.

So a fairly uneventful experience, truth be told.  I hope the results turn out good.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 8th

I should have stayed in bed.

Part one:  4 rounds to establish max weight for
- one length of gym farmer carry, 1 minute rest
- weighted dips 5 reps. 1 minute rest

Part two:  4 rounds to establish max weight for:
- one length of gym (12 steps) front rack axle walking lunges, 1 minute rest
- weighted pull ups, 2 reps.  1 minute rest

WOD:
7 minute amrap 
# reps = # rounds  (round 1, 1 rep, round 2, 2 reps, etc...)
-handstand push ups
-clean and jerk 135#

The farmer carry bars are 25# each. To keep the things balanced you have to put 4 plates of equal weight on.  front and back left, front and back right. On my first round had 35# plates, so 95# each side. Marageable.

Round 2 they added four 25# places. Yeah that's an extra 100#, that's 90#, not happening.  So for round 2, I peeled of the 25# and added 10# plates. 230#, much more manageable. 

On the last one I added four 5# plates to make it 250# total, 125# each side.

First set of dips was with a 12kg kettle bell chained to my waist.  Not too bad.
Jumped to 20kg and did all 5, last one was rough, but I got it. Tried for 24kg on the last set, but could barely get one rep.  Called it quits,  time was running out.

It went downhill from there.

Lunches with the axle at 80# in the front rack position were horrible and with a 12kg kettle bell I could only muster 2 pull ups, so I didn't try further, we had to get ready for the WOD.

Which sucked.  Hand stand push ups were okay, the first rounds were very low rep, but I had trouble cleaning the 135# bar.  Jerking it was worse, couldn't brace my upper back. It was just horrible, I think I finished 4 rounds, or maybe during the 4 clean and jerks, I bailed with about a minute to go.

I just felt weak.   Maybe I really need this massage I'm getting today.  Or maybe I'm coming down with something.  Or maybe I just need a good night's sleep!

Sinus infection update.

Treating with a cortico steroid nasal spray and advil/decongestant has been effective at making me feel normal, but my instructions were if it isn't better 7 days after onset (aka tomorrow) start the antibiotics. I guess that's the next step. I was hoping to not have to resort to more antibiotics.

On the good side, I'm loving my home gym setup. I made it for training my son and his buddy to earn my Olympic Weightlifting Coaching certification, but a fringe benefit is that I get to use it myself.

Worked on snatches last night in anticipation of this evening''s Olympic lifting class where we'll be aiming for a 1 rep max in the snatch. Wednesday will be 1 rep max Clean and Jerk.

Sick again, sinus infection this time!

Well now it looks like I have a sinus infection. Will there be no end to this?!?!?!?

More blood tests ordered, appointments made with family doc to go over options.

Amoxil-clavulin again.

Aie caramba!

Sick again, but not the same old, same old...

Well now I have a kidney infection!  Ciprophlaxicin prescribed.

Explains Friday's run.

Still had some pretty solid workouts.

Maybe when I'm actually healthy I'll kick some ass!

Gah!

Sitting at my desk this afternoon, my condition deteriorated so rapidly I thought I had a kidney stone or something.

I had to leave work and make my way to the nearest clinic (well nearest that didn't have a 2 hour wait), which was several blocks away.  So I bused it most of the way. I was really worried I might pass out on the way, I was in so much pain.

In hind sight I should have asked someone from work to come with me.

In the waiting room I very nearly asked the receptionist to call an ambulance. But at some point the pain began to subside.

A quick urine test revealed blood and bacteria in my urine.  Got yet another course of anti-biotics and went home with Kiza, who had arrived just after I was brought in to the examination room.

I need this like I need a hole in the head.

Leaving the physio nest.

Interesting day.

Started off a physio to assess and adjust my treatment to be able to perform an overhead squat. His first question was: "so, are you able to do an overhead squat". I was honest with him, I hadn't tried. I was terrified that all the hard work I'd been doing would have been for nothing. If everything was flexible and mobile enough, I'd have no excuse, it would be just me that couldn't do it.

So we walked out to the exercise area and he laid down a length of wooden two by four. (which is only 1.5" by 3.5",  carpentry gah!), I stood on it with just my heels. He handed me a wooden dowel which I held over my head and proceed to perform a nearly flawless overhead squat, upright body, hips below knees, arms locked out over head. I laughed out loud. (yes the evasive literal LOL)

We tried with a hockey stick and I couldn't do it. But with some practice I was getting close. It's now an issue of neurological muscle control, I have all the range of motion, flexiblity and skills necessary, I just need to practice, with very little weight, moving my center of gravity back and forth while in the deepest squat I can get to train my muscles how do do it. I can practice with something under my heels at first and work my way down to barefoot.

But I don't need him anymore. I'm on my own. I've left the nest.