Unbreakable Fitness

I've changed websites!!!!!!!

2009-04-29T14:39:00.003-04:00

And I'll probably change again shortly! For now join me at me at my NEW SITE!!!!!!!

Training and Tapering

2009-04-14T15:18:00.001-04:00

Now this is an interesting concept. How do you stay sharp, avoid injury, get rested, and stay at the peak of your ability for a competition. The answer is … I don’t have the answer. If I did, I would have millions of dollars coming in from all of the terrible runners out there who are convinced if they taper properly they will turn their 28 minute 5k into a 27 minute 5k. And good for them.

But I believe the truth is that there still is not a great deal known about tapering and rarely is it scientifically investigated. Complicating this is the fact that we deal with different sports and events which have different demands on the body. How marathoners taper is different than power lifters, is different than football players, is different crossfitters. It is left to a great deal of individual preference, superstition, placebos (which is not to say those are not important).

Ben Johnson (a fast man whether he juiced or not … he did), thought heavy bench press was a perfect workout before a 100m race. Ummmm, ok. Marathoners will run 400m repeats in the weeks out. They could tell you why, but it wouldn’t make any more sense than the marathoner that only runs at race pace or does light jogging in the week before.

With all the conflicting advice, I will throw in my own. However, I will be so basic that hopefully the tenets I lay out will be a floor of the things all people should and shouldn’t do. These are the basics. Try to not violate them and you should be ok. Here my thoughts on what to do in preparation for the regional qualifiers.

(As an aside, I am treading a fine line here because I am basically saying overthinking this will kill you and then I am thinking enough about it to write a blog post. I’ll try to tread carefully).

First, do no harm. If you injure yourself two weeks out, that sucks. And it was probably unnecessary. Why? See point two.

Second, it is highly unlikely you will significantly improve your fitness in two weeks if you have been steadily training for any amount of time. In other words, don’t trick yourself into thinking if you work extra hard in the next two weeks it will greatly change your fitness level and put you at your peak. It takes many weeks for adaptations to occur in the body usually, especially if you are a regular trainer. The progress you made was in the last year, not the last week.

Third, don’t wear yourself out. I’m not talking injury, I’m talking that feeling where you’re on your ass and can barely move because you are so fatigued. Now is not the time to get a mild Rhabdo case. It will leave you drained for the competition, suseptable to injury, suseptable to sickness, and generally sap your energy.

Fourth, don’t sit on your ass. Taking two weeks off, though preferable to getting hurt or sick, will leave you rusty, achy (one great irony of taking time off is that you notice aches and are convinced something is wrong … this is largely paranoia), and sluggish. If you perform complicated moves in competition, those can get sloppy.

You’ve noticed a lot of DON’Ts so far in this post. I’m glad that is not lost on you. It is much easier to do something stupid than find the magic and greatly improve your performance. So what should you do?

Do rest more than you usually do. Not sure how much as it depends on you. But your level of rest should be higher than when you are usually training.

Do continue to practice important movements. Stay sharp by practicing your snatch, for example, without going super heavy or doing a stupid number of reps.

Do eat a little better than usual (or a lot if you don’t eat well), but do not make significant changes to your diet that have unknown effects. Now is not the time to start taking new vitamins, experimenting with creatine, exploring the wonders of Indian food (unless you eat that all the time now). Eat as you usually do … only better.

Do sleep. Sleeping the night before is not only insufficient, it is improbable. You will have enough nervous energy you will sleep like crap. Accept it. Luckily, one bad night of sleep won’t kill you if you have been sleeping well for two weeks.

Similarly, do hydrate. Drinking a bunch of water the day of/day before will do you little good. Hydration happens in the weeks before.

How am I implementing my own advice?

I have been a little achy lately so I will take extra rest, preferring to feel healed than injured. I must remain rational and recognize that even cutting my training volume in half for two weeks will have little effect on fitness, but it may help me feel better. This is on top of the two extra days of rest programmed, the planned easy days, and total rest the day before game day.

My workout schedule for the next two weeks should have no workouts over 10 minutes, some heaviness, but no 1-5 rep maxes, and I am avoiding things I know make me sore for a while.

I eat pretty well, but I am cutting out most drinking and not being afraid to eat a little extra. I will purchase my Easter candy now and eat it as a reward post-games. I love Robins Eggs … seriously, they are like the best thing in the world. I’m glad we shared that little moment.

I am practicing things I think will come up in the games and have set aside two days to practice movements once the events are announced. Practice, without killing myself. Not even necessarily incorporating them into a workout.

I will, however, have at least 6 days at the gym in the next 10 or so, so it’s not like this is all rest and no play. You have to stay sharp.

That was way to long. I have no cool pictures to include. I am intensely curious how this will all turn out. Next year I will probably plan this for a much longer time. If I find a good picture I’ll include it later.

Back Online!

2009-04-09T13:49:00.003-04:00

I was having technology difficulties, but I think I have them worked out and you may soon be seeing a new website from me. In the meantime, an update.

200lbs was not what I thought it would be. The day after I wrote that post I was 198. The next day I was 195. The next day I was 192. I seemed to have stabilized around 193. Hopefully what that means is that I gained 3lbs of hard earned muscle. At least that's what I hope.

Other updates include ort little competition last Saturday. Getting judged and working out with a bunch of folks right around your fitness level is pretty exhilarating. Doing it twice in one day can beat you down, but that's what we'll be doing at regionals, so best to know what it feels like. I did about as expected. On the heavy overhead plus ring dip workout, plenty of people did better than me. I caught up on the burpeee/pull-up/row workout (shocker), but certainly not enough to catch the guys in front, and still only the third fastest time. Hopefully the overhead stuff went a little better than usual because of a few extra pounds and some focus. I'll test that theory more. I have focused less on my press and more on my dynamic push-press and push-jerk since I really only care about getting weight over my head and not how it gets there.

My shoulders are also feeling better (knock on wood) and my chest to bar pull-ups didn't suffer too much from the lay off. I'll be hitting those pretty hard for the next couple of weeks since it is one of the only things I am more that 50% sure we will have to do at the games.

I've also got some good pictures coming. Well, not good pictures, but pictures nonetheless.

Workouts we've done lately that I like:

3 Rounds
10 Clean and Jerk (135lbs)
15 Ring Dips
20 KB Swings (53lbs)

21-15-9
Burpees
C2B Pull-ups
Row 500m (each round)

5 Rounds
Row 200m
5 Hang Squat Clean (155lbs)
10 Burpees
Rest 2 minutes

This last one was brutal. The inclusion of rest makes you go that much harder. 2 minute bursts of MAX POWER.

Topic for next time: how to make rowing matter when doing doing WODs. Ricki Frausto has a good idea.

Finally, 200lbs. Now What?

2009-03-17T10:59:00.008-04:00

Well, after many months of hard work and big eating, I have made it to 200lbs. Some of this is clearly fat as Erika has pointed out the return of my double chin (an unfortunate artifact from my mother's side of the family). Here is a quick rundown of how this progressed.

Last summer I was quite lean, tipping the scales at about 183. I found I was not only hitting walls on my strength stuff, I was gassing during metcons as well. I had been doing some intermittent fasting, eating pretty clean, and probably drinking a little too much. Since part of my goal for being lean was to improve on those metcons, I decided I needed to do something about it. The video below is of me a little leaner and lighter. One would have though I would be moving a little faster given my size. Notice that I am NOT, in fact moving faster. The 1:30 to 2:30 mark is a good example.

I still have trouble embedding video, so here is the link:

http://vimeo.com/1286882

Oddly, people said I LOOKED bigger at this time which I assume is the result of my muscles being more prominent, though less useful. My solution to this was to increase the amount of food I was eating, paying little attention to blocks and just trying to eat as much meat, veggies, fats, and fruit as a could. I IMMEDIATELY gained about 7lbs and stabilized at 190lbs. It was a decent place to be. This also coincided with PCF feats of strength month. I improved on my big lifts increasing from something like 870 to 915 on my CF total, and set Fran PRs as well. My Cindy did not improve as much. People may have mentioned I looked a little bigger, but not that often. i didn't feel much bigger.

This is more representative of how I looked at this point.

Because of the trouble I was having with overhead lifts, I decided to take it to an extreme. I tried to eat 5x fat (nearly 300g of fat a day) and up my total calories to as close to 5000 as I could. I usually topped out at 4300. I drank milk, though no where near a gallon. I did not resort to eating bad foods, so still little sugar/bread/starch, though I may have cheated a bit more often. At this point people said I LOOKED bigger. My BF% went up and I made a bit of progress on my lifts. Not a ton of progress. I tried to lift heavy a little more often. Where it really helped was in being able to maintain at a higher pace when I was dealing with heavy weights, so high rep squat cleans improved as did moderate rep 155lb overhead stuff. I don't feel like there are great pictures to demo this stage other than a few in which I just look like I have a fat face. I guess you can tell I'm not as lean in this one.

So now what? Hopefully I put on about 4-8lbs of good muscle over this experiment and can keep it as I shed some fat in prep for competition.

I will do a lot of updates on this though they may be short. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Hopefully I stabilize at a LEAN 193-195lbs. We shall see. maybe next summer it is time to try a gallon of milk a day!

Shoulders and Progress?

2009-03-06T15:42:00.004-05:00

I am having a hard time testing myself lately. My shoulder is bothering me which means two of the things I want to improve on I can't really do: chest to bar pull-ups and overhead pressing. It is feeling better so I'll probably ease back into it. You can see in the picture above how I switch my grip to protect my shoulder. The sore shoulder has a suppinated grip to avoid too much movement back behind my head on the downward portion of the swing. Now I have to switch my arms to protect the other shoulder and it will take some getting used to.

In the meantime I am doing more strength work and FEEL good but haven't maxed out in a while. I am carrying 5-10 more pounds around on me and that probably helps. I haven't noticed a drop off in bodyweight workout performance yet, but we'll have to see if that remains true.

The next few workouts should be good tests for me. I have about 3 more weeks of big eating and then I am going to cut back and really think about practicing for the games rather than working out to get in the best shape, if that makes sense.

I need to post more pictures. I am lacking.

Strong Enough

2009-02-24T15:58:00.003-05:00

I stole that phrase from Coach Rip, but it's not like he'll ever read this blog so I'm not too worried.

Well, as Jon Welborn (our crossfit football expert/player) said, it is always better to be bigger and stronger. I tend to agree with his assessment. However, I'll ask this question: how does one measure strength. What I have decided is that I am willing to sacrifice some of my 1 rep max for a given lift. I still hope this will improve, but I am not focusing on it and it will probably go up more slowly than if I trained like a power lifter.

I am instead focusing on upping the number of times I can do a given weight very near my limit. Again, I am not one of those people who thinks it is not important to get strong or who does not recognize that improvements in the one rep max crossover to higher reps. However, I also know (and work by CF coaches much more experienced than me like Jeff Martin at Brand X) that CrossFitters are compressed at the upper end of their strength. Our 5 rep max is closer to our 1 rep max than most. We recover from a max effort faster than most.

This only makes sense. Given the amount of high rep work we do, we are bound to see improvements in muscular endurance. Jeff Martin has done some work to bring a kind of organizing principal to this in his strength program. One of its defining characteristics is the inclusion of a max effort set of 15-20 reps. I don’t see this as an abandonment of the quest to get bigger and stronger. Nor have I determined that I am “Strong Enough.” This is another way to attack my weakness which is, ironically, weakness. I want to get better at CF workouts. If my max jerk only goes up 10lbs but I manage to go from breaking sets of 5x155lb jerks to doing them unbroken, I am happy.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

In other quick news, I have set a big PR in Elizabeth. I bring this up because it is a good example of improving my endurance at moderately high weight. My 21-15-9 of 135lb cleans went much better than last time when I almost DNF’d due to extreme back pain. I probably should have stopped. The rest of you should NOT follow my lead on that one. Also set a Fran PR at 3:09 and a weighted pull-up PR at 117lbs. Pull-up was solid and no doubt. Fran was very good, but I notice that even when I'm all the way up and you can see my ear past elbow, I have a slight crick in my elbow. This is a product of shoulder flexibility more than anything else and does not really shorten the range of motion, but is not clean and leaves more doubt than I would like. I will address it.

Random thought for the day: squat clean thrusters are an awesome exercise and I want to do more of them. Discuss.

Progress

2009-02-17T05:55:00.002-05:00

I have been neglecting the blog lately, but since I got the link from the PCF website, I figured I should update. Anyone out there link to me from that site? Let me know if you did.

This is short, just to let you know I'm alive. I'm making progress on the training trying to focus on things I'm bad at and doing a high number of things I can really improve on (chest to bar pull-ups, heavy cleans, heavy jerks, squat clean thrusters). I have been focusing less on limit strength. I don't care if my one rep max isn't so high so long as I can do pretty heavy weight for higher reps. So if my clean stalls at 245 I don't care so long as I can do 175 10x in a row without stopping.

I also added some of the elements of the CrossFit Strength Bias program. I'll be rotating through back squat, deadlift, front squat, and press doing heavy sets of 3 and 5 as well as moderate weight high volume (think sets of 1x20).

I am also trying to eat 5x fat. It is very hard and two weeks of eating 4000-5000 calories with 60-70% fat, I have gained no weight. I may try drinking milk again and hope my stomach handles it ok. I did, however, notice that I was much skinnier in my profile picture to side there than I am now. And I mean that in a good way.

Final Exam

2009-01-03T14:38:00.002-05:00

The 2009 CrossFit Games. In all honesty, the 2009 Mid Atlantic Qualifier to the CrossFit Games approaches. I have been thinking about it since last year when I considered going, but missed for a variety of reasons to include a trip to Costa Rica over my birthday (totally worth it).

They have thrown in a wrinkle that, quit frankly, I like a lot. Last year it was open admission with no minimum to qualify. Now, we have to compete for a very limited number of slots just to go to Aromas. This is the big one. The best in the world will be at both the regionals and the national games and I want to be among them. Quite frankly, I don't think I'm there yet. Close, but I have a few chinks and if those come out of the hopper, I don't qualify. I hate to leave it to chance like that.

So I'm changing my training. I know I need to get stronger, especially in terms of strength endurance (not just one rep maxes, but the ability to do 80% 30 times). Is it worth it for me to spend ANY time on things I'm already good at? What would the marginal return be? Should I spend hours on the rower to go from a 90 second 500m to a 85 second 500m? Should practice Fran to go from a 3:28 to 2:59? In the grand scheme, I say no. My challenge over the next several months will be to figure out how minimally I can train my strengths so they remain steady while I greatly increase my PRODUCTIVE training on things that need work.

A great deal of the challenge will be mental. I like competing against people at the gym and I like finishing first. Unfortunately, if I am finishing first (which at Potomac CrossFit is pretty good since we have a few beasts) that means I probably shouldn't be spending time on it. I should be spending time on the movements that result in my finishing last. It's hard to finish last a lot, but it will be for the greater good. I hope.

What will this training look like?

Everything heavier
More overhead work in all of its forms (strict, push, jerk, handstand, snatch, OHS)
Heavy cleans for reps.
Lower back endurance
Push-ups
Sit-ups
Chest to bar pull-ups
Burpees

You can see the list is long. I may also have to include more dumbbell work. Now, what will this not include that I am already good at or good enough at.

Running
Light to moderate load, high rep movements
Heavy singles
Chin over bar pull-ups
Double Unders
Lots of traditional workouts that test this (FGB, Fran, Helen, Jackie)

One of things I did was look at what other people were posting as their stats on a thread on the CF message board. These were people prepping for the games and I saw some monster numbers (sub 3 frans, 400+ FGB), but part of what I thought was that these were things they were already good at. And usually, there were a lot of the same time and power domains. No one who put up a 1200+ CF Total put up a 5k time ... or even a 400m time. If I have any shot it will not be as the guy with the highest total or the lowest Fran, it will be the guy who can put up a number for EVERY workout and have it be in the top percentiles.

Like I said, I have some work to do.

Core Strength

2008-12-31T14:41:00.005-05:00

Not Swiss balls, not crunches, not anything that you see advertised on television. Your abs are designed to stabilize your trunk and you should train them as such. There's nothing wrong with a little flex sometimes (the occasional GHD sit-up or ab mat sit-up) though I like those more as metcon exercises. But I can guarantee that if you get good at the overhead squat, the clean, the deadlift, and the jerk you will have a strong core. You've got to practice these regularly, and the beauty is that this kind of training improves your other workouts. This is how you keep a strong core during your runs and even your pull-ups! So practice!

Now, there are two ways to go about this. The first is the longer higher rep version that I'm doing. Take a moderate weight that you can do for at least 20 reps in a row and throw them into a workout as part of a couplet (OHS and Runs or OHS and pull-ups).

The second strategy is actually a better test of core strength than a way to build it, though I think it is valuable for both. Jack up the weight to something you can only do a few times, or even once. The big goal is to get to your bodyweight. And then your bodyweight x15. I am FAAAAAAAAAAR from this, but it is something to shoot for. Check this guy out to see what it really looks like.

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BWx15OHS.mov

Backsliding

2008-12-29T12:21:00.002-05:00

It takes some effort to not freak out when you have a couple of bad workouts. I have recently had two workouts that were significantly slower than my previous efforts. In both cases it was my lower back that went on me. It was strange. My metcon was good, but I just had trouble lifting and holding the weight because of the burning/spasming in the lower back.

But I am not going to overreact and change everything because I had two bad workouts. I am going to take my rest days like I should, do some lower back conditioning exercises (lower weight/higher rep), and just keep at it. I'll let you know (and by you I mean the two people who read this) how it goes.

This is not my sob story though. I want to make a larger point. Progress is very rarely linear. There are injuries, set backs, bad performances. We will not set PR's every time we train. If you freak out and give up/change everything every time something feels a little off you will not make progress. Stick with it and ride out the bumpy patch. If you notice a steady decline, start making smaller changes.

This of course assume that you are already doing CrossFit, eating right, sleeping right, and resting enough ... but I am sure we are all doing that ... right?

If not, scratch everything I just said, stop what you're doing, and CrossFit/eat Zone paleo/sleep. What are you waiting for? Don't be one of those posers who waits and then makes it a New Years Resolution. No one can take that seriously! If you start today it will be much more legit. Trust me.

Another Test Approaches

2008-12-18T16:17:00.002-05:00

I began writing this yesterday before I got distracted. Since I started, I actually finished the workout I was writing about preparing for. I'll leave what I wrote yesterday in quotes, maybe add some of what I was planning to write, and then give you the post-mortem on the whole thing.

Yesterday I wrote:

"I haven't done Fran for several months. It consists of 21-15-9 Thursters (95lbs) and pull-ups. For those unfamiliar with crossfit it is the "whatcha bench" of our community. It is less meaningful than we make it, but serves as a convenient ranking mechanism amongst crossfit athletes. I have a better than average, but far from elite Fran time at 3:57."

What I was going to go on to write:

I was completely wiped the last time I did this workout. Like on the floor in a puddle for a good 40 minutes. And it was a PR. I didn't see a lot of improvement ahead. Combine that with the fact that I was going in on the heels of a couple sub-par performances, a sore back, and torn up hands, and I figured I would be happy to get under 4 minutes this time around. I'd change some things up so I had a pocket full of excuses for why this wasn't the big PR (hands, back, tired, 3rd day on, first time in lifting shoes, first time with tape on my hands).

And here is what happened:

Pretty big PR. I went down to 3:28, which, when you are already under 4:00, is a fairly significant drop. I think it can really be attributed to getting stronger. The thrusters didn't hurt me as bad as usual. Possibly unrelated, possibly not, I also took fewer breaks on pull-ups. I think that was just a product of having been doing a lot more of them a lot more consistently. Since I figured out how to change my grip and save my shoulder some agony, I have had months of uninterrupted pull-ups. In the past I would feel good, hurt my shoulder, and stop doing them for a month. Not a surprise that this came on the heels of a 1 set max reps pull-up PR of 32.

And this time I was not in a puddle ... well, that's not true, but I wasn't there for very long. I feel like I can improve in a couple of places. First, move to NO breaks on pull-ups. This time I took one break in the second round and one in the third. That's two less than last time, so I'm moving in the right direction. Second, butterfly kip. Not sure I'll ever be able to do this because of my shoulder, but I'll try. Third, shorter or no breaks on thrusters. As it is I don't put the bar down, but I'll take a couple of rests in the rack. Maybe more important is maintaining my turnover rate. My first 21 reps were in 40 seconds. We had people go faster, but our fastest through the first 21 in 9 inches shorter than me, squats over 400lbs, and presses 225. So I was happy with a 10 second difference. But in later rounds I do slow way down.

All in all I'd say 3:00 is in reach, but it will be hard. Still, after emerging from the haze of my last Fran I thought there was nowhere else to go. This time I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

That was a long, slow, boring recitation of one workout. Sorry about that. I'll try to be more interesting in the future. On the bright side I should at least get some video out of this one eventually that I can post.

Data

2008-12-15T16:50:00.003-05:00

One quick data point: I hate bench pressing.

But that's not really the point. The larger issue is that I don't bench press very much. My numbers show it. They are pretty average. That said, not having benched in about a year, I managed the same numbers I had when I was doing it a bit more consistently. That, combined with improved pull-ups, got me a PR on Lynne (max weight body weight bench plus max pull-ups).

The short version of this analysis is that my bench press stayed the same without benching largely from overhead pressing, push-ups, and dips. My pull-ups improved. That is bigger news since I spent the last month doing lots of low rep barbell work and not a lot of body weight work. I also gained 5-10 pounds and still managed to PR with a first set of 32. And I never dropped below 20. Now we'll see if my bench actually gets better if I devote some time to it.

Feats of strength month still seems to produced improvements across broad times and modal domains despite working mostly in the short duration/high weight range. Nice to know. I'll let you know when I find chinks in that programming strategy.

More Data

2008-12-12T11:30:00.002-05:00

We spent the last month at Potomac CrossFit doing feats of strength. The hypothesis was that higher levels of limit strength (as measured by heavier weights done at low reps with ample rest) would translate to increased max limit strength, but would also carry over to improved metcon and performance on non strength dominant workouts. Or at least it would not hurt metcon and would allow people to approach doing workouts as RXd.

Since I can do most workouts as RX'd , I took the opportunity to see if I could increase my limit strength without hurting my metcon. I also want it to improve my times on some of the WODs that I can do as RX'd but that feel heavy to me. Grace (30 reps clean and jerk 135lbs for time) will be a perfect test. I haven't done many workouts since we ended feats of strength month, though I set several PR's in metcon workouts DURING feats of strength month. I will try to collect the data over the next month and let you know.

So far I can tell you that my CrossFit Total went from 900 to 920. I did, however, feel weaker on push-ups than before we did feats of strength month. I think it is because I just didn't do them very much and they are something I improve on by doing them a lot. We'll see.

Topics to come:

Why Aaron can't gain weight?

Can Aaron get better at push-ups and thus improve his Cindy score from it's 1 year plateau?

Did Aaron spell plateau correctly?

That last one might be kind of slow.

Wow!

2008-12-09T13:11:00.004-05:00

It's been forever since I posted. Since I want to make sure I don't deter myself from posting more often, I will keep some of these posts pretty short in the hopes of getting new content up with some regularity.

First, I managed to pass the big test!!!! The goal was to run a competitive time in a distance race without training for distance. With only one run per week, almost all of which were interval repeats and only two or three of which were long slow distance (by long I mean 3-5 miles when the race was 10). My PR for this was 65 minutes in great conditions on an easy course with few people around. That's 6:35 per mile. This one was less than perfect weather, tons of people and a slightly harder course. I did it 68 minutes or about 6:52 per mile. So there you have it. The difference between pounding pavement 5 days a week and losing all your strength and power and not doing that but doing CrossFit instead is about 3.5 minutes over 10 miles. Good times. And for proof look here (that's me in 54th place) and here (that's me in 786th place ... it was a much bigger field).

All that while I have improved pretty much every score I have gotten in all of the CrossFit benchmarks, most importantly setting a CrossFit Total PR of 920lbs. That's the accumulated weight of my one rep max for the squats (350lbs), overhead press (155lbs), and deadlift (415lbs). If I had just been running, I might have gotten 65 minutes, but I bet my CFT would have been between 700-800. And I would look skinny and soft rather than having some muscle mass and not looking sickly.

Exciting.

For future posts, I also want to putting up more pictures. the real reason for my lateness in posting has been working at the Potomac CrossFit. It takes up some time, but mostly it takes my attention. I want to do a better job combining the two efforts (this blog and PCF). Wish me luck!

Approaching the Test

2008-09-26T12:46:00.002-04:00

Anyone that has read back a little way in this blog know I wanted to see whether I was going to be able to run a competitive time in a distance race while training almost exclusively with crossfit. My few runs since doing this have felt ok, though not as good as when I ran everyday. This was to expected.

So, two good tests coming up. First, there is an endurance workout Potomac CrossFit today. 5 rounds of run 400m and row 500m. This is a great endurance workout because it will punish people whose cardio is confined to single modality. Little do people know that being a good long distance runner has almost NO carry-over to be a good cyclist. Endurance gained through single modes of exercise have terrible transference to other modes. That's why CF likes endurance workouts that require continuous activity over 20 or more minutes in various modal domains (20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats or thrusters and running or rowing and push-ups, or the Filthy 50).

This workout requires little to no real strength, so it will only be a test of whether you have any real endurance. Should be fun.

Next week is the Army 10 Miler. That's the real test. If I can go sub 70 minutes, I will be very pleased. The best I have EVER run in a race was 65 minutes in a 10 miler, so this would be slower than that but still quite fast. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Quick Reminder

2008-09-19T09:09:00.002-04:00

Sorry to the two people who read this, but this post is mostly a reminder to myself to log my workout for today when I get back from NY. I think I set a PR doing squats 5x285, 305, 305. It was hard. Then press at 5x115, 125, 1x135 with very little rest between sets.

Eating big seems to be working. Made it to the last rep on the last set before I came close to failing.

I like PR's, though the eating is almost uncomfortable. Kind of looking forward to cutting weight next spring.

Good Workouts!

2008-09-17T16:24:00.003-04:00

Me Coaching!!!!

Things have been going well lately. Spending a lot of time at Potomac CrossFit and my performance is the better for it. Being with a group, having people there to cue you, having some competition is all great. There is also something nice about synergy between coaching and exercising. Cues I give others spring into my mind during my workout. I take coaching better because I understand what someone is telling me to do. I expect great efforts from myself because I expect them from the people I train. Now there is NO excuse.

And I was proud last night when two of the people that I train--one more than the other--beat me in a workout. When scaled for gender and body weight, it was legit. I do Clean and Jerks slowly, it appears.

So I've done a few good workouts and got some good PR's.

Murph
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run

34:26 (PR!!!!!!!!)

Did an extra round that I subtracted out to get that time. This is too much work. It tears you up. Not great for getting in shape but great for a test of physical and mental toughness. More on over-programming and what it means later.

21-15-9
Clean and jerk (135lbs)
Pull-ups

This is a great workout. Took me 20:05. I'd like to play around with it. Just do 45 C&J or do 30 C&J at a heavy weight. If I keep the pull-ups in I would probably change it to a Grace style power clean and overhead anyway. If you do that you would probably shoot for closer to 10 minutes.

Good stuff and more posts to come. I need more pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!

Training With a Group

2008-09-08T15:45:00.004-04:00

The Crew

For the first time in a long time I am looking forward to doing Fran. Looking forward to is the wrong word. I dread this workout. It destroys me in under 5 minutes. In fact, I dislike it so much, I often skip it.

So why is this time different? This is the first time Potomac CrossFit prescribed Fran. I coached the workout this morning and watched our athletes grind it out and collapse when they were done. They all had a story about what they need to work on, how they set the PR, how they almost dropped the weight in the second set. I wanted to share in the story. I haven't done Fran next to someone in a long time. A solitary Fran is a daunting thing. No one there to let you know you are not the only one striving and pushing. So today I will do it at Potomac CrossFit. Encouragement, competition, war stories beats the hell out of collapsing amongst a bunch of strangers who have no appreciation of the fact that you just broke 4 minutes.

I've posted it before, but here is the most impressive Fran I have ever seen. Notice the dude doing dips in his lifting gloves behind Speal. How could he watch Speal and think that what he's doing is working. Oh well.

Random Thoughts

2008-09-05T15:08:00.002-04:00

Are my attempts to get stronger and put on a little wait just an excuse to eat whatever I want?

I am continuing to set some PR's but I feel like I am falling backwards in terms of total fitness. I think it is all in my head and indicates an over-reliance on appearance as a measure of fitness.

Since my last post my favorite workouts have been Nasty Girls, heavy clean and jerk, and a half filthy fifty (with some mods).

I am going to drop down my deadlift weight since I got the PR and work back up to get a bigger PR over the next month or two. In the meantime I hope the lower intensity on the DL will open up the possibility of PR's on my squat and shoulder press.

My shoulder still hurts but I no longer feel like it will really hold me back. I did 25 strait pull-ups in the half filthy fifty and it felt easy. I think I can still do 30 which is my PR anyway. As long as I can do enough to be under 4:00 in Fran and knocking on the door of sub 8:00 in Helen, I'm happy.

Big goals before the new year:

7:59 Helen
225lb Clean
200lb Jerk
200lb Clean and Jerk
145lb Snatch
900lb CFT
1:29 500m Row
10 HSPU

Of all these, the HSPU seem the least likely.

Getting Stronger

2008-08-26T21:10:00.002-04:00

Was that last post a little too weird? Probably. I recently finished watching the Twin Peaks series (created by David Lynch, the director of Dune) and if you know anything about his films, you'll understand.

So back to normal. The strength workouts are working ... I think. I put up 185lbs in a push press today which I think is a PR ... it at least ties a PR. More importantly, I GOT A 400lb DEADLIFT!!!!!!!!! You read that correctly. I had been stuck in the 360-370 range for a while. Last week I did 380 with Brian. Pretty excited. Today I was planning to work up to 3 sets of 3 heavy deads. As I was working up everything felt so good, I decided to go for it. First try, success. And let the record show it was actually a 403lb deadlift (stupid 20kg plates robbed me of two pounds).

Excited, I dropped down to finish my 3x3 deads that I wanted to do at 385 ... WRONG. Couldn't lift it once. I dropped down to 375 and did one set of 3, then stopped. Nothing left for me. To make up for it I did Karen.

Now this is important. Doing less metcon in order to focus on strength could end up hurting me on metcon workouts. Well, not so bad. On Saturday I did Daniel in 18:17, on Monday I ran 4.5 miles at a 7:45 pace (which was pretty easy feeling) and after the push-press and deads today I did Karen (150 wall ball shots) for the first time in 8:30. And none of the sissy wallball. I used the big D-Ball and moved to the back of the box where the ceilings are 12 feet so I could do it legit. 8:30 is no stellar time, but I feel like I haven't lost metcon yet and I am building strength. Eventually I'll take that strength back to the metcons and set some PR's.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Thoughts for next time: I need more pictures.

The Sweet Pain

2008-08-22T14:00:00.003-04:00

Elite performance in CrossFit requires a state of mind, the ability to enter place where your relationship with pain and discomfort mingle amongst conflicting feelings of fear, excitement, exhilaration, pleasure, and addiction. You can't ignore the pain ... if you can you aren't working hard enough. You can't enjoy the pain, not in any healthy way. As your vision blurs and you taste your lunch in the back of your throat, you are not enjoying yourself.

"What's in the Box?"
"Pain."

There was a great article that explored this on the CF Affiliate page that is worth a read.

There is something nuanced at work. You fear the pain but you can't let your fear control you. You don't ignore it, you acknowledge it's presence and stare at it. It doesn't pass around you it passes through you. Lance Armstrong called this the "Sweet Pain." It's a way to be in touch with your body on a very intimate basis and that is the pleasure. To know your body, to know yourself.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

This is the pleasure we discuss. The pain is vicious but it lays us bare. Scream, grunt, cry, puke, expose feelings and abilities you never knew you had until the pain uncovered it. Stripped of pretension and superficiality, only the true you remains.

I don't care what a great number of the CrossFit community think about extreme endurance athletes. I still think Lance Armstrong is one cool dude. He wasn't a CrossFitter, so many will dismiss his accomplishments as those of a freak operating on the margins of the fitness spectrum. But I would venture a prediction: if he WERE a CrossFitter, he would be a monster.

The Grand Opening of Potomac CrossFit: The Greatest Gym in the Universe?

2008-08-19T12:57:00.005-04:00

I say yes. And not just because I coach there. This place has it all, is in a great location, has great trainers, and world class equipment. I can't wait for everyone to see it. You should stop by sometime now that we're open.

Here's how it works. You sign up for the Elements Class. This will introduce you to or improve your basic CrossFit skills. Everyone needs these. Even if you already do CrossFit, polishing these skills will improve your efficiency and your overall times. We all probably could have used something like this a while ago, but it is hard to set aside the Daily WOD to improve on the basics. Now you have an excuse to do it. Don't worry, you can still get in a workout at the elements class and you can attend WOD classes that are not elements when you are signed up for the elements curriculum. It's a win-win.

Then you come to your WOD classes. And get to take full advantage of this!

20080805 Gym Tour from Potomac Crossfit on Vimeo.

I know what you're thinking. Where's the pull-up bar? Have no fear, we have enough pull-up space for the entirety of CrossFit Nation.

Bottom Line: Sign up for your classes now. Spots are filling up fast and you want to be an inaugural member!

Back from the Country

2008-08-14T14:10:00.002-04:00

I just took a whirlwind trip back to my roots in Southern Illinois. A great time and great food was had by all. Unfortunately, I didn't eat so well. Fortunately, I actually did a good job of exercising. I got in three god workouts of different varieties and intensities.

Workout 1

Run: 5k total with three BRUTAL hill repeats thrown in. Like this thing took forever to get up.

Workout 2

Deadlifts and Jerks: Got the DL up to 3 sets of 3 at 355lbs. Not bad. i think it helped with the PR I got yesterday. 380lb Deadlift wooohoooo!!!!! Then I did some split jerks that climbed up towards 160lbs. So-so.

Workout 3

Went to CrossFit Carbondale and got smoked. Great place you all check out if you happen to be Makanda Illinois. I don't want to write out the whole workout, but it was 20 minutes of 95lb thrusters, pull-ups, GHD sit-ups, and back extensions. My hip flexers and abs are still sore.

Workout Design and Improv

2008-08-05T16:24:00.002-04:00

Ring Work is Important!!!!!! Who Needs Bench Press?

So today was a good example of making minor changes in a workout in order to get the desired stimulus. As you know (the two of you who read this) I am looking to increase my strength/power and I am willing to trade some of the time I spend on metcon/endurance in order to do it. I don't want to totally abandon metcon, just make it a second priority.

One way to do this is to scale weights up. It's still metcon, but the heavy weight slows me down. I'm not moving as fast, but I'm focusing more on strength while still doing a circuit type workout.

Trying to decide what to do at the gym today I had two decent ideas. There is a CrossFit video from a while back that was 10-9-8 ... 2-1 of dumbbell clean and jerk and weighted pull-ups. Well, I don't want to do heavy C&J with dumbbells. I prefer barbells, my shoulders are sore from doing push-press on Saturday, and I just wasn't in the mood for the repetitions. Then I saw Coach Rut had a workout that was rounds of dumbbell clean box jumps (don't ask for a picture or video, there isn't one so I think I did it right) and pull-ups. Now we're talking. I combine the jumping dumbbell cleans in with weighted pull-ups. Power and strength. Throw in one of my goats--ring dips--and I had a pretty good workout. Mix and match to get the desired effect.

Because I couldn't do it that fast, I had a little left in my tank at the end. I practiced my ring supports (holding myself at the top of the dip) and then discovered what may become one of the most torturous workouts ever! But that will be another post. I want to experiment with it.

More Potomac CrossFit!!!!!

2008-08-03T10:09:00.004-04:00

So all you people that wouldn't join a gym unless you had beautifully painted weights, you're in luck! We spent some time at the new Potomac CrossFit box yesterday cleaning and painting weights, putting rowing machines together, and drawing highly technical dry erase board diagrams on where to place the lifting platforms. This place is huge! Check out the pictures again here.

The best part is the all-glass front so the general public can look in as they walk by with expressions of confusion and shock on their faces. But we also get police officers stopping by and curious locals that seem excited. My favorite is when people walk by on their way to the HUGE globo gyms that are within a block of us. This probably looks a little different than what they're used to. It was the first unofficial Potomac CrossFit WOD and it was BRUTAL.

20080802 First Wod from Potomac Crossfit on Vimeo.

Notice my poor rowing form ... I am working to address it. I'm built like a rower. I really should be better at it. Too much time spent running on dry land. And the best part, I'll not only be training other people here (private sessions and classes) it will be MY gym as well. I predict a great year. Lots of new athletes to train and a string of personal records for everyone (including me).

You want to join or know more? You can contact me or better yet, you can contact Brian.