Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general. -- Mark Rippetoe

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Makeshift workout at Heathrow?

So I am on my second full day in London and have managed to avoid dietary disaster for the most part.  Unfortunately I've been up til almost 4 AM both Monday and Tuesday nights between work on another case and still being on Chicago time.  Haven't been able to get to the hotel gym yet, but I've done extensive walking around with the co-workers.  Monday night's "workout" was a 20 minute haulin' ass speedwalk through Heathrow (including a flight of stairs) from the gate to customs.  Instead of a weight vest, I had my purse as well as the trusty backpack filled with workpapers and my laptop.  I made it my mission to beat everyone in front of me, and I am proud to say I prevailed.  I guess no one else in Business Class was a CrossFitter.  I win!  Granted, most of the other folks in line at customs gave me odd looks when I arrived flushed and panting but victorious.  The border patrol agent also told me to "behave" after he checked my passport and cleared me to enter the UK.  Not sure how he could have gleaned that much insight about me from my ID, but oh well.

In other news, my knee is still getting back to normal after the flight.  Transatlantic flights really affect my ACL knee, and it doesn't start feeling right again until a few days later.  It must be the changes in pressure combined with not fully extending it for most of the trip.

I'm hopeful that I will get a workout in at the gym tonight or tomorrow morning.  At the very least, I'll work on push ups, sit ups, and squats in the hotel room. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

So Anxious

I'll be working in London from January 18 - 29, and I am petrified.  I know that sounds bizarre, but my fear arises because every trip I take to London ends up hurting my progress.  We end up working long hours which precludes trips to the hotel gym or the London CrossFit boxes, and the food choices in the UK are, in a word, horrendous.  Perfect recipe for Sectionals prep, right?

1/12/10 Workout: 6 AM

January 12th marked my embarking on my 6 AM Odyssey, in which I will try to fit at least 2 6 AM classes into each week.  Rudy challenged me to make the commitment and to post it, so here it is.  My work schedule has made consistent attendance at the 7 PM classes next to impossible, so the only way to keep up training is to throw a couple morning classes into the mix. 

2k Row

8:39.4

Pathetic.  My previous 2k row times were 8:16 and 8:06, so this is terrible for me.  My CNS was fried from the CrossFit Total less than 12 hours before, but I still shouldn't have sucked so badly.

1/15/10 Workout: 6 AM

Snatch Balances
53 x 3, 73 x 3, 83 x 3

3 Rounds (3 min rest in between)
20 pull ups - 30 push ups - 40 sit ups  - 50 squats
Time: 3:34 - 11:03 - 18:17
Breakdown per round: 3:34 - 4:39 - 4:14

The most pull ups I was able to string together was 17, which isn't great but was better than what I expected given that this was my first pull up workout in over a month since battling the bicep injury.  Push ups were broken up, but I made sure every one was legit (chest to ground -- freaking slamming the ground if need be). 

As for diet, I'm keeping my food log in a notebook and will probably add periodic posts to this blog, but the blog won't be the primary logging point since I can't update this at work.

Fingers are crossed that the London trip isn't a big step backward...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

CrossFit Total!

Day 1 of the Paleo+ Challenge started Monday, and we also had our CrossFit Total to set the benchmark for the challenge.  My last CFT was back in March I think, so I was really looking forward to seeing how my numbers changed.

Prior CFT (March 2009)
Squat: 210
Press: 85
Deadlift: 350
Total: 645

Since then, I increased my squat max to 225, but I had stagnated on both the press and deadlift.

1/11/10 Workout -- CrossFit Total

Going into the workout, I really wasn't sure how I would do.  I had eaten paleo during the day but hadn't gotten enough to eat, so Kerry graciously gave me a spare ThinkThin protein bar.  As it turned out, my energy and strength really felt great once I started the workout.

Squat: 135 - 175 - 200 - 215 - 235 - 245f

Squats felt easy.  235 went up pretty quickly, and I was able to get about 2/3 of the way back up to vertical with 245, but I just couldn't stand all the way up.

Press: 70 - 80 - 85 - 87 - 90f - 90f

FINALLY broke through the 85 lb barrier.  I know it's only by 2 pounds, but I feel like I conquered a huge frustration of mine.  90 almost went up both times, but my right arm hindered me.  I got the bar up with the left side relatively easily, but I got all lopsided with the right arm still much more bent.

Deadlift: 185 - 205 - 240 - 305 - 325 - 335

This is 15 lbs shy of my CrossFit PR (best all time was 370, but I was heavier then and used a belt, too), but I wasn't too upset that I didn't try for it.  I used a lot of energy on squats tonight, so I was not surprised that deadlift suffered.  I have eliminated the arm jerk at the beginning of the lift that I used to do, but I am still struggling with the lockout at the top.  What concerned me was that 335 felt SO damn heavy to get off the floor.  Getting the bar off the floor isn't usually my problem.  It just messed with my head, but I need to get over it.

New CFT (January 11, 2010)
Squat: 235
Press: 87
Deadlift: 335
Total: 657

12 lb improvement over last time.  Still room to get more!

1/11/10 Nutrition

I haven't decided whether I will track every day here or what, but here is what I did for Day 1:

7 AM: 6 cashews, 2 shortbread triangles (finishing off the Christmas cookies...bye bye refined carbs)
11 AM: 16 oz hot tea (vanilla almond), black -- not adding cream or splenda was a massive accomplishment for me
1:30 PM: spinach salad w/ organic chicken, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, red onion, sliced almonds, cherry tomatoes, EVOO, balsamic vinegar
3:30 - 4 PM snacking: hard boiled egg, carrots, broccoli, 1 tsp organic ranch dressing
5 PM: 12 oz vanilla black tea
5:45 PM: 1 hard boiled egg
7 - 8 PM: most of a ThinkThin bar (Kerry had a bite)
9:30 - 10:30 PM: 6 cashews, 1 dark chocolate square (90% cacao), 1 fried egg, 4 slices natural salami, sauteed peppers, 1/2 sweet potato (cut into chips and baked in oven with EVOO and cinnamon)



Monday, January 11, 2010

Last Week's Recap

I was swamped at work and wasn't able to keep up with the daily posts last week, so I'm using this mega-post to recap the workouts and feelings associated therewith (oh wow, that was blatant lawyer-speak) in a nutshell.

As mentioned before, I was battling the remnants of an ugly cold last week along with a stupid bicep strain that was interfering with a lot more movements than I anticipated. Pressing, jerking, etc. all felt great going up, but it was the returning the loaded bar to starting position at my shoulders that caused a ton of pain and eventual imbalance and failure on the right side. I took it relatively easy in an effort to avoid doing more damage to the muscle, so I can't help but feel like it was a bit of a waste of a week. On a better note, my diet continued to improve. I had my last hurrah of cheat meals pre-paleo challenge over the weekend and am rarin' to go now that the challenge is in full swing.

Here are my workout summaries from last week:

1/4/10 Workouts

PART I: CFC
Jerks 3-3-3+
98 x 3, 112 x 3, 126 x 3 -- was supposed to go max reps, but the landing of the bar back onto my shoulders hurt too much each time. I started coming down really imbalanced and the pain in my arm was radiating up to my shoulder, so I called it quits after 3 reps.

4 Rounds: 15 KBS (20kg), 15 push press (53#)
5:38
1st 2 rounds were unbroken for both movements. KBS were a sub for pull ups since I couldn't do them due to the arm.

PART II: Quads
After the 7 PM class ended, I was too frustrated to go home, so I went to Quads to meet Dave for another workout. I'm really glad I did this because I was able to work through some of the anger developing regarding my arm, lungs, and general shitty schedule.
Bench Press
Bar x 10, 65 x 10, 75 x 8, 85 x 5, 95 x 5

"Clean" Deadlifts (deadlift with clean form rather than deadlift form; used oly shoes)
60kg x 5, 70kg x 5, 70kg x 5

Hang Snatch Drops (another accessory lift recommended by Roger; start position is legs barely bent)
20kg x 5

1/5/10 Workout

3 x L-Sits for max hold on parallettes (1 min rest)
33s, 30s, 29s

20 Rep Squat @ 140 lbs
Rudy suggested I work on strength endurance and a mentally challenging workout since my arm and lung capacity had me so hindered.  I had heard about the 20 rep squat program, and if anyone's looking for something mentally taxing, that is IT.  Good grief.  Here's the progression of feelings: Around rep 8, you decide you're not having fun anymore.  At rep 11, the legs get very tight and protest every descent, so you try to "fix" the bad feelings by shifting the bar alternately higher and lower on your back.  When you complete rep 14, it dawns on you that the end is near and you're actually capable of finishing the set.  Reps 16 - 20 are all singles, each time willing yourself to stand back up with the weight.  Then, you're done and you can admire the developing bruises on your back and enjoy the lightheadedness.  I finished the set pretty quickly, I think.  My longest breather was about 3 seconds, and I stayed under the bar the whole time.  Phew...

1/9/10 Workouts

PART I: WCS w/ Roger (and Mandie!)
(All weights in kilos here)
Snatch
25 x 3, 30 x 3, 35 x 1-0-1, 40 x 2, 45 x 1, 45 x 1, 45 x 1, 47.5 x 1, 47.5 x 1, 47.5 x 0 (too slow), 47.5 x 1 (good, fast)

Clean & Jerk -- arm felt OK for awhile, but then I had to stop
35 x 3, 40 x 3, 45 x 2, 50 x 2

Jerk -- the upward movement felt great, but bringing the bar back down hurt too much to continue much higher in weight
55 x 1, 60 x 1

Hang Snatch Drops
15 x 3, 25 x 3

Dynamic Start Snatch Work -- Roger is trying to get me to move to a dynamic start on my snatches to avoid losing my power by sitting at the start of the lift for too long
25 x 5, 25 x 3

PART II: CFC
OHS (trying to find 1RM -- previous was 125#)
Bar x 10, 83 x 5, 103 x 1, 123 x 1, 133 x 0 (couldn't get bar up overhead to start), 133 x 1!
Took the bar from the high rack for the successful 133 attempt at Alison's suggestion, which made it much easier.  I need to get better at getting the bar overhead.  It's ridiculous that my OHS has been limited by my ability to get the stupid bar up into position.  IMPROVE THIS.

Pull Ups -- arm was feeling a bit better, so I maybe pushed these farther than I should have
10 kipping, 5 CTB, 5 CTB, 5 CTB (last rep took 3 attempts), 15 kipping (broken into 3s as the arm started fatiguing)

1/10/10 Workout

Bench (find 1RM -- previous best was 135# more than 2 years ago)
Bar x 5, 86 x 5, 105 x 2, 115 x 1, 125 x 1, 135 x 1, 140 x 1 (woo!), 145 x 0, 142 x 1 (woo!), 145 x 0
Lots and lots of thanks to Mandie, Amy, Kerry, and Rick for helping me through those later attempts.  I was shocked by how easily the 135 went up to match my previous best, which, as I recall, was a hell of a struggle back when I made it (weighing a fair amt. more than I do now).

500m row
1:55
I can comfortably row sub-2:00 on a regular basis now, so I'm pleased with that.  Now that I'm all recovered from the cold, it's time to jump back into those metcons.


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Another day, another injury

I'm profoundly frustrated right now. I'm sitting here with a cold that won't go away because I work too many hours to get a decent night's sleep, and I also have a strained bicep that has effectively paralyzed me when it comes to several of the fundamental movements that make up most of the workouts. Who knew the damned bicep would come into play so much in a workout philosophy that scoffs at the bicep curl?

The injury happened on Sunday, so I'll recap that day's workout below:

1/3/10 Workout

Warm up consisted of the usual jumping jacks, T push ups, butterfly sit ups, etc., and then we got into a few rounds of pull ups. Because butterfly pull ups are a skill I've been trying to develop, I did several of those. My right arm was particularly sore afterward, but I brushed it off.

Power Snatch 5-5-5+
67 - 78 - 88(5)

Form really deteriorated doing multiple reps at 88, so I stuck to 5.

RDL 3 sets of 5
137

Clean & Jerk Max in 4 min
120 x 5

The general "arm pain" that I had felt after the pull ups came right back with a vengeance on this. On my 2nd or 3rd rep on the c&j metcon, I started feeling a sharp pain when the bar came down onto my shoulders for the clean. I managed to get 5 reps in, but with a minute left, I attempted 2 more cleans that both resulted in "dead arm", and the bar crashed back down on a weight that I should have been good for at least 3-4 more reps on. The dead arm was also a bizarre feeling. My arm started bruising a bit, which indicated it was most likely a bicep strain.

This put one hell of a damper on the rest of the day, but Rudy worked with me to find substitute exercises. All I could keep thinking about was how much this stupid injury was going to impact all the goals I had set for myself, not the least of which was to get back into doing high rep pull ups.

OHS
83 x 5
83 x 10

Banded HSPUs (to get full ROM)
Green band
5 - 10 - 8 - 7

Ring Dips
3 - 2 - 1

Wall Ball (20# to red line)
5 - 5 - 5

KBS (55#)
5 - 5 - 15

It was helpful to train with the 20# med ball since I know it will make it easier when I'm using the women's rx'ed ball in future workouts.

Diet was decent on Sunday. Probably didn't eat enough, but what I ate was clean.

1/3/10 Diet

Breakfast:
1 cherry pie Lara bar

Post-Workout Snack:
6 oz coconut water

Lunch:
Leftover chicken & avocado salad from Angels & Mariachis

Snacks During Football:
Split some zucchini bread with Dave
Cashews (handful)
4 pieces of dried mango

Dinner:
Shrimp, pepper, and tomatoes over quinoa
1/2 sweet potato (sliced into chips and baked with EVOO and cinnamon)
2 glasses of wine

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

1/2/10 Oly Lift Training Recap

I've been training with Roger Nielson up at WCS Gattone Sports Performance on Saturdays since November whenever I've been in town. He is an amazing weightlifting coach, and I've improved a ton on my snatch and clean & jerk with his help. This Saturday, I decided to go heavy and see what I could do. I hadn't tried one rep maxes since the Windy City Weightlifting Meet, which didn't really go particularly well since I didn't plan my progressions well enough. Winning the weight class was fun, but since 1) it wasn't the weight class I belonged in, and 2) I didn't get a PR in either c&j or snatch, I know I could have done a hell of a lot better.

Note that even though I list reps after each lift, these weren't quick rep progressions or anything. There was a lot of getting re-set and ready between lifts. I just wanted to record how many times I did the lifts. All weight is in kilos, since that's how we roll in oly lifting...

Snatch

30 x 3
35 x 3
40 x 2
42 x 2
45 x 1 - barely moved my legs and apparently made the lift through sheer will. Roger said it was impressive that I got it up. I just felt goofy.
47 x 0
47 x 1
50 x 0 - didn't commit to the lift
50 x 0 - got under the bar but couldn't stand up from the bottom
50 x 1!!! PR! Finally hit the 50kg threshold (110 lbs). So happy!

C&J

35 x 3
45 x 2
50 x 2
55 x 1
60 x 1
65 x 1
70 x 0 - got the clean, but it was such a battle that I failed the jerk
70 x 0 - got to bottom of the clean, but I couldn't stand up with the weight and my right knee (the ACL knee) kinda bowed inward, which demonstrated that there is still a strength imbalance in that leg.

70kg would have been close to my previous 1 rep max on clean and jerks, which was 155 lbs back in September. I'm a little confused as to how the hell I was hitting the PR then and not now, but there were a couple London trips in between, which wreaked all kinds of havoc on my training.

Hitting the 50 kg snatch was thrilling for a couple reasons. First, I'd obviously never succeeded at that weight before, so that's always fun during a time when I have basically stagnated in a lot of my lifts (cue the frustration). Second, it felt easy. It really left like the two failures before were at a completely different weight because the third attempt went up so easily. I am finding myself getting really addicted to this type of lifting because of the technique and challenge. Don't get me wrong; I'll always be a deadlift girl first, but I'd love to really push this olympic lifting stuff as far as I can take it.

Roger also told me to compete in their weightlifting meet on January 30, too, so I am viewing that meet as a nice "midway" competition to get my mental game in gear for the February Sectionals.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year!

I'm not going to bother with the food blog for 12/31 through the rest of the weekend because, let's face it, it's not pretty. Despite the cheat eating the last few days, I'm feeling good regarding workouts lately and am really looking forward to the start of the Paleo challenge at the gym.

12/31/09 Workout

Although deadlifts are by far my favorite lift, I have managed to miss every deadlift strength day since the Games due to a combination of ridiculous work schedule and bad luck. So, I decided to make up for lost time and finally do some heavy sets.

Deadlifts 5-5-5+
65-75-85% of 90% of 1 rep max
1 rep max = 350

205 - 236 - 268(10)

The last 4 reps of the max-rep set were a grind. I wasn't getting the glute activation on a couple and really had to throw my shoulders back to finish off the lift. It was a hell of a challenge, though, and I'm glad I pushed through to get that many reps.

I was still congested from being sick, so instead of a metcon, I worked on items from my "Suck List."

Muscle Up: finally got one again after losing it for about a month

Butterfly Pull Ups: 5 - 3 - 3

Double Unders (just trying to string some together): 6 - 3 - 5 - 8