the girdle

No, not a piece of women's clothing, the shoulder girdle or the group of muslces around the shoulders, back and chest. It hopnestly felt like someone knows me and said "lets make an impossibly hard workout that will just smash Chris' shoulder girdle." Yeah, I'll be sore tomorrow....

Today's workout, JT

21-15-9

Handstand pushups (I did 35# DB presses, cause I'm a wimp)

Ring dips (regular dips for me!)

Push-ups (yay! I did what I was supposed to!)

11:39

I decided to work on my coordination and work my still-stiff calves for a bit. 4 min AMRAP of double unders - 67

Lets Race!

My first ever bike race went well. I learned more than I expected, finished faster than I'd hoped , and generally had an awesome time.

Highlights:

1) Passing people on uphills is the best feeling in the world. Particularly when their bike cost more than my bike AND my car combined.

2) Beautiful weather! Cold and sunny is my favorite!

3) Great atmosphere! Everybody seemed like they were having fun.

Lessons learned:

1) I'm a salty salty sweater. I cramped up twice, almost perfectly 1 hour after I had taken my most recent electrolyte supplement. Water + another shot of electrolytes= no more cramps. So, next time I just need to stay ahead of that curve

2) Race smart. I had a really nasty crash early on because I was racing too aggressively on some less than ideal terrain. I was fortunate that my right hip absorbed most of the impact and I didn't get run over. No major muscular or structural damage to report but the bruise is a sight to behold! The lesson is to race smart, you can't finish first if you don't finish

3) Gear taller (for this race) The added adrenaline really helped me crush the climbs, but a 32:17 ratio was a little low for the flats and downhills. . A 32:18 may be in order next time.

4) Use Aid stations. My hydration pack froze (guess it breathes "too well" on the back panel) so I wound up carrying 25 oz of water that never got used. I was able to use the aid station, but I should have just planned on it being there and used it accordingly.

squats!

5-5-5-5-5 Back squats w/ 2-3 min rest

135-165-185-205-225 (PR!)

5-5-5-5-5 weighted ring dips - subbed regular bar dips due to upper body strength limits

I started low with the squats since I wasn't sure how my legs would feel after the weekend's thrashing on the bike. That 225 was tough but I really wanted it today and I just went for it. I'm pretty sure I scared the other guy in the heavy weight room when I yelled.

???

So, yesterday was an enforced resst day due to an overwhelmig school schedule. Today was supposed to be a lung-burner of a workout (at least I think it was......) but due to my own lack of strength, it turned into just trying to hold onto the pullup bar and complete the pullups 2 or 3 at a time.

For time :15-12-10-9 of

70% 1RM overhead squat, #65

Chest to bar pull-ups - just did reg. pull ups since I can't do Chest 2 Bar yet....

9:47

Felt pretty good afterward since the limiting factor today was grip strength. So, I grabbed a jumprope and did 50 Double Unders for time. I did it in 2:02 with up to 8 unbroken double unders.

Intervals:

8 rounds of 30 sec on, 20 sec rest.... yep, that sucked

Dropping the hammer

In cycling, "dropping the hammer" refers to cranking up the power output for an extended period of time. I realized today that I only have 5 more weeks of class.... so it's time to drop the hammer academically and finish strong for the semester. 3...2...1... GO!

Workout:

4 "Full" Cleans at 60% 1rm (#115) on the minute for 5 minutes - It's hard to force myself to do a full clean when I can power clean it so easily.

Rest 5 mins

30s on, 30s rest of knees to elbows for 4 minutes

7,6,7,and 6 reps. Yep, still hate how much those work my lats and abs....

Intervals:

2 x 10 min. w/ 5 min recovery: 2.89 miles and 2.84 miles ,

2 x 2 min. w/ 1 min recovery: 0.66 miles and 0.67 miles

Fruits of Labor

Well, aside from being really sore from yesterday's workout, today has been a really, really good day.

This morning I drove out to Island Lake State Rec area to do a shakedon run of my prposed race plan. Everything went amazingly well. I rode for about 35 miles on the pavement (the trails are still too soggy) and it only took me 2:20. I was planning on it taking almost 3 hours. I've gighlighted some of the key observations below:

1) Pre and post ride weight was almost identical.This means I'm right about on target with 25 oz/hr of water. I'm sure this number will creep up when it gets warm out, but for the time being it is really encouraging to know I'm close

2) 32:16 seemed to be the sweet spot today. I'm planning on racing the Mohican with a lower gear, but for the rolling hills I was on today, man I was able to MOVE. I even caught a guy on a road bike; that was the best feeling I've had all week.

3) Hammer Perpetuem seems to work. I was taking in about 270 cal/ hr and my stomach was fine. I did start the ride with Hammer gels , but those were a pain, were really thick in the cold, and only tasted "ok". The thought was to give my body what it needed nutrient wise throughout the ride, but I think next time I'm just going to start with the perpetuem. Calorie wise it seemed pretty good. I wasn't even hungry an hour after I finished. Normally I'm famished within 20 minutes and could eat an entire pizza on my own!

*** I also was taking one salt-stick electrolyte tablet every hour starting 1 hour into the ride. I don't know if this is necessary since Perpetuem contains some of the same ions. I will play with this more as it begins to get warmer out and my sweating increases.

4) This is the big one; it appears Crossfit Endurance is working. Knocking 40 mins ff of my expected time, and feeling good for most of the ride was awesome. The infamous "Mile 3 Hill" at Kensington Metro Park got beat 3 times today. In fact, not once did I burn out on a longer climb. Sure I slowed down, but I didn't feel a need to stop and rest which is a first ever, even with a geared bike.

I did notice that I was feeling pretty gassed at the end of the ride. I'll have to play with some things to see if I can't beat that.

So the last 3 months of sweat, sore muscles, and research seem to be paying off. Today is a good day.

Cindy is still a bitch

So today I did "Cindy". Cindy is one of crossfit's benchmark wods and consists of:

20 min AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

5 pull ups

10 push ups

15 air squats

I managed 9 rounds + 1 pullup. That's only a couple rounds off from my best ever Elite level athletes can achieve rounds in the 20's. The bruise on my palm really hurt during the pushups, but I the real reason I only got 9 round sis that I'm slow. No, really, I am just not strong enough to just rip out push ups and pull ups till the sun goes down. By the end of the workout its a strength issue because my heart and lungs are having no problem keeping up. My legs were fine.... 135 air squats is pretty easy compared to some stuff I've been doing.

Interview and a little sweat

Had an interview this morning. It went well considering that the interviewers seemd more nervous than I felt.

I always manage to sweat profusely in interviews, but nowhere near as much as I did this morning with the following workout.

Jump Rope 5 min., mixing in variables of DU’s, Cross Overs, single foot, running.

5 – 7 wall walks - I've never tried a bridge, so I tried the wall walks. The bruise on my palm hurt like hell so I only tried 4 times.

Rest 5min

4 Rounds for time: 9:13

6 Hang Power Snatches 115lbs Unbroken - I did 75#,85#,95#x2

25 Unbroken Double Unders- Mine were broken. I can't string much more that 7 or 8 DUs at the moment

Rest 5min

Hollow Rocks 2min,

Rest 1min,

Superman’s 2min

Update: Interval training, felt like puking when I was done.

Hold Maximal distance/Speed/Watts on each interval

5x2min, 3min Recovery between intervals

Then:

4x1min, 1min Recovery between intervals

2 min intervals (distance in miles): 0.71, 0.63, 0.65, 0.65, 0.65 really struggled on last one

1 min intervals: 0.35, 0.33, 0.35, 0.34 THAT SUCKED!

Good Morning!

Good Mornings 5-5-3-3

65,75,95,135

Press 5-3-3-1

75,85,95,115

Un-scared

Feeling unscared today, I pushed hard on the weights.

C&J 95#x2, 105#x2, 115#x2, 125#x2, 135#x2 (matched PR for 1RM!)

Front Squat 155#x2, 175#x2, 185#x2 (matched PR for 1 RM!)

4 min. AMARAP: Double Unders -52

Skipped 5 min of MU practice due to time

Japanese Bears

Yesterday - The bear complex 5 times , can't put the barbell down until all 7 cylcles through the complex are complete.

"The Bear" 65-75-80-85-90 (weight for each set of 7)

Power clean

Front Squat

Push Press

back squat

Push Press

x7

Today - Tabata sprints (Damn Japanese researcher who discovered these....)

20 seconds on, 10 seconds off of all out sprints on the bike trainer.

It's been awhile

I looked at my last post, Feb 23rd about overtraining. Apparently my break from training also included an exteded hiatus from the blog.

The week of Feb 23 (whatever day that was) I trained M,W,F. Last week was spring break and I took the whole week off. I didn't do a darned thing when it comes to exercise.

So , it was back in the saddle again this week. Saturday I went for a 9 mile ride that was a mix of pavement and 6 inches of snow on top of ice. Took me an hour and most of that was spent slogging through crappy snow/ice. Yesterday I started to get back into it. I cut the session short beccause it was clear that I was going to overdo it by jumping in head first

Monday 3-7-2011 :

Front Squat: 95# x 7, 115# x7, 135# x5 , 135# x5. I was sore and tight this morning so I'm glad I didnt do the power cleans and other stuff yesterday

Today:

On th eminute for 7 minutes: 245 (80% 1RM) x3

30 Pullups and 30 dips for time ~ 10 min because I forgot to look at my watch.... damn.

Things felt good today and I fee rested and ready to tackle the demands of training again. Watch out!