Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Where You Find Weakness, You Find Room for Improvement

Tuesday: day 1 of the next ".com" cycle. The workout was:

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

We switched to regular sit-ups with an abmat though because there were too many of us and glute-ham sit-ups are much tougher. I finished in 24:13. I was pretty happy with this workout because running is my biggest weakness so I took it pretty easy on the runs but the sit-ups weren't too tough and my deadlift is definitely improving.

Today we did:

15 Handstand push-ups
1 L Pull-up
13 Handstand push-ups
3 L Pull-ups
11 Handstand push-ups
5 L Pull-ups
9 Handstand push-ups
7 L Pull-ups
7 Handstand push-ups
9 L Pull-ups
5 Handstand push-ups
11 L Pull-ups
3 Handstand push-ups
13 L Pull-ups
1 Handstand push-up
15 L Pull-ups

I finished, as Rx'd in 22:something. The handstand push-ups were great and I didn't have much of a problem with them. The L pull-ups, on the other hand, were horrible. For those who don't know, an L pull-up is where you lift your legs to a 90 degree angle to the rest of your body and perform a strict pull-up. I had to kip a bit to get my legs high enough on most of my reps and I doubt, that in a competition, much more than half of them would have counted; chalk those up as another weakness I need to work on.

Outside of CrossFit I have decided to take on a personal challenge. It has always been a goal of mine to be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups and I found a site that give you a 6 week program to get there. I started on Monday with a max of 37, I could have done a few more but I gave in too early. Nevertheless, that is my base line and I am excited to see my improvement.

On a dietary note, I have been pretty good about sticking close to the Zone so far this week. And if you take away the small bowl of ice cream the past few nights, I have stayed away from sugar too. My meals for tomorrow and Friday are already planned and Saturday is going to be my "off" day. All I am hoping for is for the will and the desire to not drink a lot if I go out. Wish me luck!!

Monday, January 19, 2009

I Hate Running

Friday was the start of the next cycle of CrossFit mainsite WODs and I was excited to get back to hitting it hard after taking a rest day Thursday. I was pretty nervous for Friday's workout because there were a lot of reps and some pretty big weaknesses of mine all tied together in a brutal workout. It was,

For time:
10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 30 reps
50 Pull-ups

30 GHD Sit-ups
30 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 20 reps
35 Pull-ups

50 GHD Sit-ups
50 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 10 reps
20 Pull-ups

The GHD situps were killer and the last 50 took me forever to do. I ended up not finishing (DNF) in the 25 minute time limit Ricky gave us. All I had left were the last thrusters and pull-ups though.


Saturday we were supposed to run a 10k. I don't think I have ever run a 10k and I can't even remember the last time I ran even a mile. I am terrible at running, I get shin splints easily and my arches start to hurt after awhile. I know a lot of it has to do with my old ass shoes but I don't want to get new ones cause I want to train to use my five finger shoes. BUt you have to slowly ease into running with them otherwise you can easily overtrain and end up starting all over. So on Saturday I ran about 2.5 to 3 miles with a couple people from the gym. It wasn't too bad but my shins were starting to hurt and my calves we on fire the whole next day.


Sunday we did full squat cleans and I got to 208 pounds. It is a PR for me but I know I should be able to lift more. I just need to continue to work on my technique.


Today was another rest day so I am excited to hit it hard again tomorrow. The WOD looks tough but I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Monday, January 12, 2009

Week 2: Struggling a Bit

I started last week by shopping for my Monday - Saturday meals. Sunday night I prepared a bunch of things so I could make breakfast and lunch fairly easily. Monday I dove right in and started Zoning. This wasn't the greatest idea since my body wasn't used to that much food, especially broccoli. Tuesday I felt like I had a minor fever and had an uneasy stomach all day. Needless to say I didn't eat any more broccoli last week. The rest of the week I kept pretty close to my Zone guidelines but I decided it would be best to ease into it. This weekend was bad though. I had a wedding on Saturday and had no food at home on Sunday so I ate out twice. Plus, I still haven't gone shopping this week. I really need to make sure I go tomorrow.

In terms of training, last week was pretty good. I set a bunch of new PR's in some of my strength lifts and I learned that I need a lot of work on my technique on some of the other. And since we had 5 straight days of strength, we took the weekend off to rest up for today.... Today we started following the main site workouts. In order for us to be able to compete with the top atheltes in our region we are going to have to step it up in terms of load and intensity and the ".com" workouts are the best way to do so.

Our group that is training for the regional qualifier for the CrossFit Games is going to be put through some pretty rough times. I'm nervous as hell for what each day's WOD is going to be and I worry that I won't be able to stay on top of my nutrition plan, but I get excited just thinking about competing! I know that the desire to be the best that I can be will motivate me to eat right and push myself to the limits of my physical capacity. And to help keep myself accountable I am going to make an active effort to write here at least 4 times a week about my progress.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Day 1: The Start of Something Great

I have been debating it for a while and I finally decided this weekend that I was going to train to compete in the CrossFit regionals in Denver this May. I am relatively new to CrossFit (7 months) and I have never been in a competition that is as taxing to your mind and your body as CrossFit is, and that scares the crap out of me. But then I realized that it doesn't matter if I come in first or if I come in last at the games, as long as I put my heart, blood, sweat and tears all in. Now I have a clear cut goal, a couple of great coaches and an amazing group of athletes all working together towards elite fitness. No body can stop us!

Today was Day 1: my first day of being in the Zone (even though I cheated because a co-worker brought in home-made cherry cheesecake, but I only had a small piece) and the first of 5 strength days at CrossFit Omaha. Today was back squats - 3 rep max. I built up to 262 pounds (PR) and barely got through the second rep, but with Ricky and the others encouraging me, I pushed through on the third. I am starting to sense where I would normally give up when it comes to strength days and I was able to push through that point today. I hope I can soon get to that point with MetCon workouts too.

Great Day 1 - definitely looking forward to tomorrow!