and i'm back in the game!

so i took it relatively easy last week... i think my body has needed some prolonged rest and recuperation. last tues. and wed. were WOD days, followed by Bikram on thurs. and fri., another yoga class on saturday and nothing on sunday. yesterday i hit up CrossFit Central to take on Angie! now it's all about recovery, rest, and preparation for the Fittest Games Challenge Championship this Saturday!

Angie:

100 pullups; 100 pushups, 100 situps; 100 squats.

Time: 19:22.

not bad considering it was my first Angie Rx'd.

are you a sheep, a wolf or a sheepdog?

"If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed."

Excerpt from LTC (Ret) Dave Grossman's Blog: 

"On Sheep, WOlves, and Sheepdogs"

http://crossfitoneworld.typepad.com/crossfit_one_world/2009/03/rest-in-peace.html

gotta get mah mind right!

lately i've felt tired... not performing like i think i should at this point. some of it is definitely mental. i have to start getting my mind back in it. the other part is physical: i definitely peaked at the right time for the Fittest Games Challenge. but now i have to do it again for the Championship. and then again for the big one: the XFit Games Regional Qualifier. i just found out the event will be sold out! holy fuck. really gotta step up my game and dial in the diet. no more pussyfooting around. strict diet and killing the WOD's. 

today was max squat. 3 months ago i maxed out at 305 lbs.

Today: 275 lbs. I'm definitely more fit, but I've lost some brute strength...

Daaaaaaaaamn...

sucking wind

First workout after vacation: 

3 rounds for time of:

400 m; 

10 push ups; 10 sit ups; 10 dead lifts @ 45 lb. 

dumbbells; 10 power cleans @ 45 lb. dumbbells; 

10 push press @ 45 lb. dumbbells;

400 m.

Time: 14:40.

Today's WOD:

50, 40, 30, 20 box jumps;

50, 40, 30, 20 walking lunges;

10, 10, 10, 10, renegade rows @ 35 lbs.

Time: 15:07.

Less than 2 WEEKS til the Fittest Games Championship... gotta go gotta go!

ahhh the great outdoors

just got back from a 4 day vacation to Big Bend National Park and Terlingua -- a much-needed get away!  lots of driving, lots of hiking, 2 nights in the middle of nowhere with nothing to look at but the stars... nice.

last WOD was last Wednesday:

5 rounds for time of:

400 m run; 20 kettlebell clean and press @ 24 kg.

Time: 16:20.

gotta push past this plateau

i'm not performing where i think i should be at this point... i've hit a small physical/mental barrier due to lots of super intense training sessions stacked one on top of the other. 

i'm going to double my intake of fats to up my energy during the WOD's to see if that helps. gotta crush the WOD's... especially the one like today with lots of running...

WOD: 

800 m run; 

4 rounds of: 25 push ups; 25 deadlifts @ 135 lbs; 25 double unders; 25 sit ups;

800 m run.

Time: 21:13.  Needs to be 19:00.

late night WOD

I felt tired tonight... a little dehydrated perhaps.

3 rounds for time of:

25 burpees; 25 sit ups; 400 m run.

Time: 12:44.

"Set yourself on FIRE and they will come from

 all over and everywhere to watch you BURN..."

tah

tough as hell...

03-14-09 WOD:

5 rounds for time of

9 hang squat cleans @ 135 lbs; 25 pull ups.

Time: 20:50.

An interesting observation by Mr. London:

As for the primitive, I hark back to it because we are still very primitive. How many thousands of years of culture, think you, have rubbed and polished at our raw edges? One probably; at the best, no more than two. And that takes us back to screaming savagery, when, gross of body and deed, we drank blood from the skulls of our enemies, and hailed as highest paradise the orgies and carnage of Valhalla. - JACK LONDON

dang

...something about this song. i like their stuff. different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2YnDlEMXiU 

the WTF?!?! WOD

Yesterday I took my "rest" day by going to Bikram... then we took a road trip to San Antonio to watch the Lakers stomp the Spurs - but unfortunately didn't get home until midnight, which didn't give me much time to rest up for...

So I show up this morning @ 6:30 to CrossFit & Fearless down south, and my good friend Jeff thinks it would be nice to give us a super WOD.

Warmup: 

10 min on rowing machine, then: 

40 air squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups, 10 pull ups (x2);

15 glute-ham situps, 10 shoulder press @ 45 lbs (x2).

Workout:

50, 40, 30, 20, 10 of:

Push press @ 65 lbs;

Box jumps @ 36 in;

Overhead kettlebell swings @ 1.5 pood (24 kg). 

Time: 28:34.

Longest MetCon workout I've had in a while... but I needed it.

Shoulder Smolder

my shoulders are toast...

WOD: 5 rounds for time:

5 hand stand push ups; 

10 push jerks @ 115 lbs; 

400 meter run.

Time: 16:17.

Gonna sleep like a baby...

Saw this on Lance's blog and like it...

“Go heavy. So instead of chasing an improvement in your Angie time of 4 seconds, try performing a workout you know and rock–at a load where your time begins to significantly drop off. Can you perform 30 clean and jerks with 135 lbs in under three minutes? Shame on you.That load should be 155 or 185 pounds. Go out and start failing all over again. And this time make it heavy, because everyone is getting good at runnin’ and chinnin’.
After all, in case you’ve forgotten, 225 is the new 135.”       --Kelly Starett

... and the results are in!

The Fittest Games Challenge took place this past weekend here in beautiful Austin, TX --  the competition was a little bigger (pun intended) than I thought it was going to be, but I did well, placing 13th out of 31 Elite Male Competitors. 

Good enough to get me into the Fittest Games Challenge Championship April 4th.

1st workout: 7:49.

2nd workout: 11:04.

Total: 18:53.

I took Sunday and Monday off because... I needed it. But I'm back on it -- strict zoning and crushing the WOD's. 

Today's kettlebell WOD: As Many Rounds As Possible in 15 minutes of:

10 Box jumps; 10 KB snatches @ 16 kg; 100 m run; 10 KB figure 8's with uppercut.

Rounds completed: 10.

Looking forward to April 4th and May 2nd and 3rd. Big stuff coming up! 

It's on like Donkey Kong!

YEE HAW!!!

The workout has been announced for the Fittest Games Challenge!

WO#1: 4 Rounds for time (20 min. cut off) of:

10 Deadlift @ 225 lbs.

10 Push Ups

15 Pull Ups

WO#2: 5 Rounds for time (20 min. cut off) of:

7 Any Way Overhead (shoulder press, push press, push jerk) @ 135 lbs.

400 Meter Run.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost. 
Jean-Paul Sartre 

Another monster WOD...

"Alexander the Great, when he sailed into Asia, 

disembarked his infantry and then set his entire 

navy ablaze in the harbor. The only way home 

meant a march across land and through 

the enemy: victory or death." 

CrossFit Central WOD (workout of the day):  

"Linda" A.K.A. The Three Bars of Death...

1/2 body weight (I weigh 172 lbs; I used 90 lbs) for:

10 deadlift, 10 shoulder press, 10 full squat cleans...

then 9,9,9 - 8,8,8 - 7,7,7 - 6,6,6 - 5,5,5 - 4,4,4 - 3,3,3 - 2,2,2 - 1,1,1.     

Time= 13:10.

And to finish up: 25 situps, 25 body weight russian twists, 100 m sprint...

then 20, 20, sprint - 15,15, sprint - 10, 10, sprint - 5, 5, sprint. 

Time= 5:00.

Let's see if I can recover in time for Saturday :-) 

The Fire in the Darkhorse...

The Fire is UNPREDICTABLE.

This is the ace up my sleeve...  

Workout today:  

1 Rep Max Deadlift: 325.

1 Rep Max Shoulder Press: 155.

Getting stronger by the day, but still a lot of work to do!

Fittest Games

 “Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will 

come for miles to watch you burn.”                     

 --John Wesley

This Saturday is the Fittest Games Challenge at CrossFit Central. 3,2,1...

                                                

Today (03-02-01): Rest Day.

Yesterday (03-01-09): Bikram Yoga... ahhhhh...

Success!

I started a program 8 weeks ago through CrossFit Central called "I Am Crossfit."  The premise of the program was to see what kind of results one could attain following a strict diet (The Zone, of course...) and training as much as their body would allow (I followed a 3 on, 1 off schedule).  I have never followed a "diet" per se, but have for the most part always eaten more or less healthy foods (minus the 4 years abusing my liver at Stetson U)...

I had no expectations when I started January 3rd.  I wanted to use the 8 weeks as an experiment - an experiment with my body - to see where I could get and what kind of results I could achieve.  I have been an elite athlete at the college level: I went into my freshman year of college at 190 lbs., able to bench press 275 lbs. and squat 1 1/2 times my body weight 20 times.  I could run 2 miles in 10:30. I was in shape!

But those days have long since come and gone, and at the beginning of 2009 I was not where I wanted to be physically or mentally.  The "I Am Crossfit" opening workout and body assessments (lots of measurements were taken, but these are the most telling): 

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 182.4

Body Fat: 9.4 %

Waist: 33.5

Workout: 3 rounds of: 400m run; 15 pull-ups; 7 hang cleans @ 95lbs = 11:45. 

Blegh.

So started the diet and the workouts... They were both frustrating at first (my body had to adapt to the new foods and quantities I was giving it) and the workouts were brutal.  But by week 3 I could already see results.  I was getting a little more definition (I could see my abs for the first time in 6 years) and I was getting stronger.  

Fast forward to 28 February, 2009. 

"I Am Crossfit" Finale and Results:

Height: 6'0" 

Weight: 172.6

Body Fat: 7.6%

Waist: 30.5

Workout (same as above, but increased hang clean weight from 95 lbs. to 135 lbs.) = 9:23.

I was impressed.

I dropped 10 lbs. and 2% body fat, increased my weight by 40 lbs. and knocked over 2 minutes off my workout time.  No time to stop and think about it though. I've got The Fittest Games Challenge coming up this Saturday, March 7th, and the CrossFit games qualifiers May 1st, 2nd and 3rd. 

Time to go --- dial it in!