Blahs

The second week has started tough, real tough. I'm not feeling great, questioning my eating strategy and not recovering the way I want to from my workouts. Despite that, I've tried to not change too much other than adding a recovery drink with more protein and carbs immediately after my morning workout.

Unfortunately, I slipped a bit yesterday although in retrospect it wasn't all that bad and it did involve having a nice dinner with my kids! We made homemade pizza with a thin wheat crust, chicken and spinach meatballs, onions and cheese. It may have partially been a result of the way my body has been feeling with workouts as well and the fact that I skipped yesterday to recover. It gave me a blah feeling all day long but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run. I have read a bit about a tough lag a week or so after starting Paleo, and it has certainly worked out that way for me. I'm still determined to work through it though, the goals that I set are still well within reach for the month and that feels like the most important thing.

Taking a day off certainly seems to have helped me this morning, I set a new P.R. in both the bench press (230lbs) as well as with Jackie (1000 meter row,50 -45lb thruster, 30 pull-ups: 10:35) Last time I did Jackie it took me 10:37, but the key difference is that I had to scale the pull ups (jumping pull ups instead of regular). Very happy to say that pull-ups have ceased being a complete limiter for me. Still tough, and pretty hard to do 30 in a row, especially after the rowing and thrusters, but it feels great to really do the workout as prescribed!

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Winter Race Report! +

I actually have a race report during the winter... and it's a triathlon! Last Saturday I did an indoor tri with an interesting twist. Instead of the traditional swim, bike and run for a particular distance, it was a time event. We swam for 10 minutes (score was number of laps), biked for 30 minutes (scored by mileage), and ran for 20 minutes (miles). Then results were calculated by distance covered. I did pretty well, felt good throughout and enjoyed the day. I was hoping to have a better result on the bike, but since they didn't count resistance it became a spin as fast as you can on light resistance workout which wasn't really my strength.

You can see the results here, I competed with a friend from work and members of his family. His wife Jen won the women's competition with an outstanding swim and then solid bike and run numbers.

The good news is that I felt good even considering that I haven't specifically trained for the race. My theory has been to use Crossfit to get into great shape and presume that the event would take care of itself. I've been feeling better and better and definitely getting leaner so it's been good progress and the race has validated my approach to some extent. I got the results I would have gotten had I trained specifically without having to slog through long, slow workouts. Long-term, I'm convince this is going to help me...

Plus I get to do really fun stuff like lift really heavy stones. The bottom picture is the 150 lb stone, and the top picture is after I got the 175 lb one up on my shoulder! Fun stuff! Thanks to Merle at Crossfit Relentless for pushing me and taking the photos. There's a few more of me working out on my Facebook page.

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Hell Week and "finally" a breakthrough...

Quick blurbs...

One month of Crossfit Relentless training, and I've been feeling great. We started Hell Week yesterday which is Merle and Glen's attempt to kill us...

It's actually been kind of fun, they've taken metcon style wods and make us go longer. This morning we did 20 rounds of 5 knees to elbows, 10 sit ups and then 5 burpees, for time... It took me close to 30 minutes to finish and I was pretty drained. The situps were really tough, my abs were killing me by the time we got done. Highly recommended!

Holidays are over, and I've not gained weight! Actually, here's the breakthrough... I'm finally under 220, at 218 for two weeks in a row. It's been a bit of a mental plateau for me, so it feels pretty good to me. I've probably added quite a bit of muscle too, especially upper body since that's been mostly neglected for the last few years....

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Crazy week planned

I'm headed to Virginia tonight with the family for a "vacation". The reality is that I will be spending the whole time in the hotel room working remotely for about 10 hours a day, but after that it will be fun!!

The good news is that once again I was able to find a Crossfit affiliate within driving distance and I'm hoping to get to work out a few times with them while I'm down there. My elbow goes back and forth, but the new strap that my uncle got me to brace it seems to be working much better. Hopefully it will hold up to a few workouts while I'm away and then I can be back at it.

To make the week crazier, once we get home this weekend we're supposed to go to my aunt's place in Vermont for the holiday weekend. Maybe I'll get a nice bike ride in though... hoping that Memorial Day is nice enough for me to head out for a few hours.

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Musings

Lots of thoughts...

Tough to get injured, especially since I don't seem to heal as fast as I used to. My volleyball season has potentially two more nights, tonight is round one of the playoffs and if we make it then the finals are next Monday. I clearly can't play tonight, but if we win I suppose next week would be a possibility. I've been mulling around heading down tonight to watch, and perhaps get some sort of a workout in...

Along those lines, I'm hopeful that I can back to at least some form of Crossfit workouts this week. If I get to the gym tonight I'll try some of the movements and work, but most of the Workouts have at least some portion of lower body involved. I'm not real stable with a weak ankle at the moment and don't want to have a setback, so I'm a bit mixed about trying too much.

Finally, it was nice to get track season started again. For the last few years I've been an assistant coach with our town's youth track program. Mike, the head coach, has made some interesting changes this year and I'm excited to see how it plays out. We had our first practice on Saturday and have about 70 kids signed up at this point. I suspect we'll get a few more, we've peaked out at 115 in the past. I couldn't do much with the group, but helped a little with some core exercises as a warmup and then stretching at the end. My two oldest daughters are participating, and I may get my youngest to come out occasionally.

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Long Overdue

Lots has happened...


Less than thrilled with my Hockanum river race results, we were 5th.

Went 1-2 at Volleyball, not particularly good considering we weren't playing a very good team

Got a brace for my elbow, but it didn't completely help for Racquetball... I did get a new racquet though!

Leaving for Florida on Thursday! Hoping to get to a Crossfit affiliate near Naples.

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Racquetball form et al...

I've been spending quite a bit of time playing Racquetball lately, and although I suspect it's at least partly to blame for my sore elbow, I can see it improving both my game and my fitness.

I was able to play for almost 2 1/2 hours yesterday, mostly with my uncle and cousin, but a bit of 2 on 2 with another gym member. Reading the ball of the wall correctly and maintaining footwork have become the keys for me. My tendency in the past was to overrun the ball a bit instead of reading the bounce and letting it come to me. That typically would result in not only a poor hit, without good extension on the swing, but likely putting me in a poor position to get to the next ball. This ties in directly with good footwork, reading the ball and getting set lets me set up the swing and take a smoother and harder swing. Focusing on footwork and good follow through really helps you take advantage of each shot and allows you to put the ball in the right area to make your opponents work.

The corollary to Crossfit or any other activity is clear: Form is critical to developing mastery. Reading Starting Strength lately, I've come to realize some of the form issues I have with Squats and Deadlifts. I suspect that I'm not going to be able to correct all of these issues without at least some coaching if only because I can't always "see" what I'm doing while I'm doing it. In any case, I need to continue to focus on form if I truly want to see some big performance gains.

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Quick week report...

It's been a crazy week, things have been pretty busy at work...

I didn't get a chance to play Volleyball on Monday night as we had plans for a family dinner. My team went 0-3 without me, which either means that I'm a better player than I thought, or we played a good team... I'm going to go with "they must have needed me"!

I've also been pretty good about doing Crossfit this week, although my elbow is killing me now at the end of the week. I did the Murph workout, which resulted in a whole lot of pullups, pushups and squats and about did me in. Still feeling pumped about the routine, and I'm disappointed that I couldn't do it today because of my elbow.

Hopefully, I'll be back on track tomorrow.

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Crossfit Perservere

I did my second workout at Crossfit Perservere, and my 6th crossfit workout overall this morning, and it was just as tough as the first!  

Went through the standard crossfit warm-up, then hit a main W.O.D of 5 rounds of 100 skips over a jump rope, 20 - 20kg kettleball swings, then 10 knees to elbows.  The toughest part was the jump roping, not a skill I'm particularly good at, and I quickly went anaerobic.  I became pretty fatigued, pretty fast, especially since I was starting with pretty sore arms after paddling down the Hockanum for a few hours yesterday...

Still, another good experience, and still wanting more!

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Crossfit

I've hesitated a bit to post about this, because I had starting and stopping stuff... but its been a whole week now.  I've been doing Crossfit which is a weight lifting and training philosophy that I could really identify with!  

It's most easily described as high-intensity weight training with gymnastics and other varied workouts mixed in.  The most important thing has been the fact that its constantly changing, and so you don't get bored and your body gets challenged all the time in new and different ways.  Every day, a WOD is posted, or workout of the day.  It's been challenging every time so far and I've had to scale back either the weight, or reps or both but I've tried to stay true.  For instance, today I did 7 rounds of 5 pull-ups, then 10 dips, and then 15 sit-ups, as fast I could and finished in 20 minutes.  Very, very tough workout, but I felt great when I got done... shelled, but great! 

Crazy thing is that after you add it all up, it comes out to 35 pull-ups, 70 dips and 105 sit-ups!!  It's been a long time since I've done that kind of workout.  Not sure how this will ultimately impact my triathlon season, at the very least I should be in general all around shape.  That's really the goal after all, to look and feel good... if I get faster in a Tri race, even better!

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