Fear

"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

I have been drafting a post on my three year CrossFit Anniversary which happened this month. It's going slowly. You get this instead.

We don't have many opportunities in our modern life to face fears. We can avoid them pretty easily. I could probably go most of my life without really making myself uncomfortable unless I made an affirmative choice to do so.

I was scared when I went to Iraq ... probably even more scared to tell my family and loved ones that I was going than I was to actually set foot in the sand. That was a long time ago. Now, the only thing I fear that I face on a consistent basis is the fear of my workout.

This isn't meant to scare people. It's just exercise. It can be pretty uncomfortable, but the fact is that the fear is a good thing. It means you expect excellence from yourself and don't want to disappoint. It means you are working hard, which people often forget is the BEST WAY to actually improve their fitness. But I think there is something beyond fitness here. It is good to make yourself uncomfortable. Do things you're bad at. Take yourself out of the routine and the everyday. Try something different.

Make a mental list to yourself of some of your favorite people. My guess is that the people who are scared (or hostile, which is often a cover for fear) of new things, embarrassing situations, a little personal discomfort are easy to separate in your head from the people who seek out new experiences. These people are often not easily embarrassed. They can't be since they try new things at the risk of failure or pain, looking foolish or unskilled. They are often people we want to be more like. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is basic distinction between personality types, and I am not as much like the latter as I would like to be. My workouts are not just a means of fitness, but one small step toward becoming the type of person I want to be.

Thrill seeking is the wrong phrase, but you do learn something about yourself when you stand on the metaphorical edge and leap off. Into a painful workout, into a new job, into a new country. I may collapse after 10 minutes of a workout. I may have to reduce the weight or slow down. I don't know how hard it will be, but I know it will be difficult and I choose the pain over the feeling I get when I have an opportunity to test myself and accomplish a painful but worthwhile task.

And in case you were wondering what brought this little bit of philosophizing up, it's that I recently did my scariest workout. It takes me more time to psych myself up than to actually do it. It was easy when I wasn't good at it. The better I get the harder it is.

Fran (check out the strongest version of this I've ever seen here thanks to CrossFit.com):

21-15-9 reps of

Thrusters (95lbs Men, 65lbs Women)

Pull-ups

Better late than never!

Some Costa Rica Pictures as promised.

But first ...

So these new workouts I've been doing take a long time. I will probably have to limit them to a single gymnastics and O-Lifting movement per session unless it is a session dedicated to that discipline. Still fooling around with the programming. It'll come together. Today

Front leaver work

C&J working up to three sets of 1 rep at 175lbs

Front squats working up to singles at 245lbs

5 Rounds of 10 DB Swings (65lbs) + 10 pull-ups (chest to bar)

By the way, chest to bar is a big difference. I’ve been too scared to try the Fran version with chest to bar.

I don't want my blog to be just a workout log, though that seems to be what it is turning into. I will try to do a better job of posting deeper thoughts ... if I have any. To make up for it I will torture you by showing some pictures of my trip to Costa Rica. They are marginally relevant.

One of them was taken immediately after I finished my only CF style workout of the vacation (5 rounds of 20 push-ups and 40 squats). My other workout ... Swimming in the ocean.

Being healthy is more than exercising. Vacation and time off are important ... seriously.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

So, I mentioned that I was fooling around with more power based workouts looking to improve my strength. As is inevitably the case, focus on one thing may distract from other aspects of fitness. I have always been very focused on endurance and stamina (metcon) and want a change. Hopefully my long training history with endurance sports and the incorporation of shorter metcon workouts (sub 10 minutes) means I won't lose too much while I improve my strength.

There are three great tools for improving strength and power: olympic lifting, power lifting, gymnastics. I am debating whether to include sprinting. I probably should. So this last three day cycle I changed things up. These are cut and pasted from my log, so sorry if it is a bit difficult to decipher. Not really meant for other people to read.

Monday:

Handstand Practice


Squat: 3x225, 1x245, 3x275, 3x295, 3x315, 1x315, 1x315, 3x295, 3x295

Press: 2x135, 3x135 (PP).


3x10 L-Pull-ups: Decent form, broke 3rd set up.

50-40-30-20-10 Double Unders + 25-20-15-10-5 Push-ups

6:56

Tuesday:

Gymnastics: Planch 60 sec (knees) Handstand 60 sec (wall) Front Lever 60 seconds (tuck)


Weightlifting: Snatch 105lbs Clean Skills Work 155lbs

Power Circuit:
3 Rounds 5 reps
Highbar Squat 225lbs
Dips (45lbs)
Pull-Ups (45lbs)

9 minutes

Wednesday:

Weightlifting: Snatch Warm-up Jerk Practice Clean and Jerk: 155lb push jerk 185lb split jerk.


Deadlift: 3x335, 345, 350

Circuits:4x250m Row Sprints 45, 45, 47, 49. Then 4x tabata push-up

The general goal with gymnastics is to work up to 60 seconds at each progression and then move to the next. I marked 60 seconds, but that was 60 seconds total with a few breaks. When I can do it unbroken I'll go to the next more difficult step.

Weightlifting is obvious. I will be doing more dedicated work and more assistance exercises (power version, tall version, etc).

For waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy more information than you need on this type of training, check this thread out.

Now, it would be pretty unacceptable for me to drop in workouts that mean a lot to me. If my Fran or Helen time suffer, I may have to stop this. If my Cindy rounds drop below 24, I will probably stop. If my 5k goes above 20 minutes, I'll probably stop. If they maintain or improve, that is all the metcon capacity I need.

I'll know I have enough strength when I get my DL to 400, squat to 360, press to 175, C&J to 225, and can snatch without embarrassment/fear of hitting myself in the head. I don't care about the actual gymnastics skill, I just want to get stronger. The test for me there will be in muscle-ups and handstand push-ups.

OK, that was way to long. I'll keep you posted.

Strength, Schedules, and Competition Training

This is variety post, so sorry if it is jumbled with different ideas. Let me just start by saying OUCH!!!!!!! I'm sore. I guess it just doesn't matter if I workout all the time, get some exercise in on vacation (once), and stay active. Not doing a CF workout for five days and then jumping back in (even something that seems like it should be easy) will make you sore. And I suppose the type of exercises you do that make you most sore are ones that bring you to muscular failure over a decent set of reps. Probably wasn't too smart of me to choose 225lb deadlifts for high reps or 100 pull-ups in a row. Live and learn.

So, doing a self evaluation I have decided that what I need most is improved strength, particularly overhead. It also wouldn't hurt if I got my pull-up max set to upwards of 40 and push-ups to upwards of 80. Got plenty of practice with the high rep bodyweight stuff yesterday (100 pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, squats) so wanted strength today. Schedule will prevent me from getting to the gym. What to do?

I'm thinking some intense uphill runs, pistols (one legged squats), and handstand push-ups. I can do it at home, I need the practice, and they are strength builders. So today's workout is

5 Rounds

1 min run at 12 degree incline (or just a one minute sprint)
10 Handstand Push-ups
20 Pistols (10 each leg)

Potomac CrossFit

Exciting news about Potomac CrossFit. They are close to settling on their rental space and opening up the gym for business. Stay tuned to the website for more information. They are great folks with great coaching skills and the motivation to match. If you can get ME out of bed on Saturday morning to workout in the park then you must be good.

You should all check out the free Saturday workouts.

And We're Back!

A week on the beach was great and just what I needed to recharge. Not only that, but I had the CF games to look forward to when I returned. I thought about competing this year, but it was on my birthday and we had this trip planned for some time. So yesterday the training started for CF Games 2009!

I'm serious. I am training for the whole year in preparation for this event. No, stop laughing. It's true. I think having a goal in mind will do wonders for my training. It will also FORCE me to work on weaknesses so I don't show up and have to sub. Not just stuff I'm bad at (bodyweight benchpress) but things I basically can't do: more than 5 handstand push-ups, more than 1 muscle up at a time, a snatch over 75lbs, overhead pressing with any real weight. The hope is that I will not only improve these things but that improvement in those areas will crossover to other skills.

My first workout when I got back was just to loosen me back up. Ironically, I have been getting more sore as the day progresses. So much for taking it easy. I did

3 Rounds

15 overhead squats (45lbs)
15 push-ups
15 sit-ups
15 pull-ups
15 back extensions

In other words, the full CrossFit warmup which I RARELY do. Then I did the real workout

21-15-9

Deadlift 225 lbs
Dips

Took me about 6 minutes. It would normally take me about 4. Today is the CF mainsite WOD

100 pull-ups
100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 squats

I'll do this one as my pull-up endurance has faltered in the last year and I need the practice. I am also always looking to improve sit-ups.

And for inspiration today, check this video out from the games. Keep in mind, she's clean and jerking 100lbs and she weighs 103. They are talking about making it its own WOD of 30 bodyweight C&J's. The problem is most fit crossfitters couldn't even do that. I weigh 185lbs. I can clean that pretty well (max is closer to 215-225). But my overhead is weak. I would have to split jerk and my guess is I would miss a few times which means I would have to clean it more than 30 times in order to get all the jerks. I may simply not be able to finish. My version of the Kalista workout will be 30 C&J's at 155lbs which was the men's RX'd workout that Kalista did. The women's RX'd was 100lbs.