Friday February 26th

WOD @ CrossFit Central
5 rounds for time:
5 barbell deadlift @ 275lbs
10 burpees

My time was 5:41 scaled to 225lbs. I scaled to keep the intensity up and maintain good form since I'm working on losing the 'ol "stripper deadlift." Form felt solid throughout, only got two small corrections from the Mikes. Still tough. The bonus work today was tabata alternating knees-to-elbows and plank holds, followed by 3 minutes of tabata squats.

My squats were: 20, 18, 15, 13, 14, 14. Score = 13

This was a 2008 CrossFit Games WOD. The bad-asses of course turned in bad-ass times:
Dutch Lowy 2:50
Jason Khalipa 2:37
Jeremy Thiel 2:56
Chris Spealler 2:41
Pat Barber 2:49
James "OPT" Fitzgerald 2:53
Josh Everett 2:55

(crossfit.com photo)
Pat Barber and Chris Spealler mid-burpee in the 2008 games.

Happy Friday y'all!

health "care"

That's right, I'm getting political on this one. Apparently the healthcare bill is ba-aaack, this time with a $950 billion dollar price tag. Yep, that is billion with a B. No matter where you stand on government controlled healthcare, it behooves you to be informed. I tend to lean libertarian in my politics, so I often agree with the folks over at the CATO Institute. I like 'em because they don't shy away from being critical of both the left and right.

Their latest on the subject: Evading Structural Reform in Healthcare Markets.

So, check out their healthcare section. I hope it'll inform you, and maybe challenge your current stance on the issue.

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."
- Winston Churchill

snow day!

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."
- Andy Goldsworthy

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there really is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
- John Ruskin

I dig the perspective of the last quote. On the subject of perspective - go check out Erika's post: Recognizing Opportunity. Good stuff!

22 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central

AMRAP in 20 minutes

3 handstand push-ups

9 pull-ups

12 "pistol" one-leg squats

3 shuttle runs

I completed 5 rounds + the HSPUs, pull-ups, pistols, and one shuttle run as rx'd. Well, I ended up kipping most of the HSPUs. Good one today!

The BentProp team is back in south Pacific for their 12th annual trip. You can follow their progress reports here.

rest Saturday, lifting on Sunday

I took Saturday as a rest day.

Still annoyed by my poor performance on Elizabeth, I went down to Play It Again Sports and bought some used olympic plates on Sunday afternoon.

It's linear progression time! Since 115lbs was a weight that I sucked at on Friday, I decided that was good place to start.

WOD

front squat:

5 x5

115-115-115-115-115

back squat:

5x5

115-115-115-115-115

I rested approx 3-4 minutes in between every set.

got my ass kicked by a girl

Her name was...

"Elizabeth"
for time:
21-15-9
barbell clean @ 135lbs
ring dips

My time was 18:06 scaling the clean to 115lbs. This one put a bright spotlight on my weakness: strength. I knocked out the ring dips as rx'd and unbroken!! The barbell work however, rocked my world... I was doing single rep cleans entirely too soon in this one. Smoked me.

actions speak louder than words

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave."
- Gandhi

I realize that the quote by Gandhi and the photo of Yoda are incongruous, but they accurately represent my feelings about today's terrorist attack in our hometown.

I'm sure all of you reading this is aware of the coward that crashed his plane into a building and that he left a rambling suicide note to "explain" why he did what he did. Why do cowardly looneys always have a long diatribe of excuses for their actions? That's what pisses me off about this particular coward (because no matter what anyone claims, he is a coward): there is no rationalisation that excuses killing people to make a point. It's called terrorism!

ter·ror·ism [ter-uh-riz-uhm] -noun

1) the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature

I was further pissed to learn that some idiots actually support the claims of this pathetic excuse of a man. I wasted about 20 minutes of my life and read his little diatribe, and if you have a similar inclination, you will notice it contains the classic tenets of narcissistic personality disorder.

After reading it, the saying "actions speak louder than words" popped in my head. Indeed today is an example of it. This guy achieved nothing but bringing death, injury, and danger to a lot of innocent people on an otherwise beautiful day.

photo courtesy of flickr

If you look at the following photos you'll see some of the people whose actions exhibited love for their fellow human beings today.


photos courtesy of flickr

The only upside to today's attack that I've been able to come up with is that none of the first responders were injured. Peace.

17 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central
5 rounds, approx 3 minutes rest between rounds
max parallette decline push-ups w/feet on box
max pull-ups
*score is total reps

I completed 207 total reps.

I got 41 push-ups and 31 pull-ups first round, then 14 push-ups and 14 pull-ups the fifth and last round. I don't remember the middle 3 rounds, but the trend was down! You can really feel the extra range of motion on the parallettes. Good one today!

Happy hump day y'all!

anything is possible

"I put the wheelchair in the corner of my room, and decided that I'd just get up and fall down until I didn't fall down anymore. That's how I learned to walk again."
- Tyler Mosher

I found this posted on the TriggerPoint blog. Outstanding!

the "bird"

"I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end."
- Larry Bird

Rest day!

15 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central
for time:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3
medicine-ball clean @ 20lbs
American kettlebell swing @ 32kg

16:33 rx'd. This was a butt-kicker of a workout. I was just wrecked afterwards... so of course we did L-sit holds to wrap things up! Good and tough start to the week!

restful Saturday, Fran on Sunday

I didn't train on Saturday.

While at Eric's Sunday PIT class at Pure Austin I jumped in with everybody and took on "Fran."
for time:
21-15-9
front-squat to press @ 95lbs barbell
pull-ups

My time was 7:19 rx'd. It's a PR (haven't done this WOD in almost a year) but I started the WOD not prepared mentally for it, and ended up taking too many breaks. The upside is that all but 3 of my pull-ups were butterfly. So despite myself, improvement feels good.

my train of thought on training

While doing some catch-up reading of this post at Mark's Daily Apple, I remembered a conversation that I had with Anna about a post on Tim Ferriss' blog about how he gained 30+ pounds of muscle in 4 weeks. My first reaction was, well, I'll just call it negative. But after reading his post, a lot of little nuggets of info I've read and seen elsewhere started popping into my head.

The first is that anything is possible. And secondly, he followed what roughly equates to a linear progression heavy lifting program. He very likely experienced what Mark Rippetoe calls The Novice Effect, as in: he had never before done a serious lifting program, which accounts for the large gains he made in such a short time.

He also focused on his recovery. He ate large amounts of protein (key for us skinny folk trying to get bigger), and even though he did a fair number of bodybuilding "exercises" - he also says he did deadlifts, the overhead press, and dips.

So, while my initial reaction was to wave the BS flag, I gotta say he's probably not full of it... and he should've done squats. ;)

The more I learn about fitness training, the more I find there is to learn. However what has stuck with me the most is that there are no secrets. You have to work hard, and make sure you focus as much on recovery as on training - that means actually doing what you hear (and see our) coaches at CrossFit Central talk about every day.

Climbing off my soapbox now. Have a great weekend everybody!

12 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central
for time:
21-15-9
front squat @ 115lbs barbell
push-jerk @ 115lbs barbell
push-up

My time was 12:39 scaled to 95lbs. Legs felt good once warmed up... should've gone rx'd. Still a tough workout, but I think that not going rx'd was a bit of a mental cupcake.


On the upside, I'll be training tomorrow! Happy Friday y'all!

internet break, weekend update, and DOMS

Been light on the blogging lately... took a little break from the internet. I enjoyed not being "plugged in" so much.

On Saturday my WOD was: 400 meters walking lunges with 25lbs weight vest. My time was 17:11 at 351 lunge steps. Sucked.

On Sunday I could barely walk, did the trigger point thing, and stretched but come Monday it was hellllooooo DOMS. DOMS is an acronym for delayed onset muscle soreness. We're talking glutes and hammies tender to the touch, painful to walk, and all that jazz. No rhabdo, just really really really really really freaking sore. So I took Monday as another rest day. Then I took one on Tuesday as well...

Since I woke up this morning and was back to a "normal level" of sore, I tucked in my skirt and went to the gym. I'm not gonna lie, I was less than enthused about today's WOD:
4 x 800 meter run
*approx 3 minute rest interval

This is one of those that you're supposed to get better times as you progress through the rounds... not I. I was fairly consistent though. My times were 2:54, 3:03, 3:03, and 3:02.

Maui wowee that sucked. It's good to be back ;)

05 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central
"Helen"
3 rounds for time:
400 meter run
21 kettlebell swings @ 24kg
12 pull-ups

My time was 9:39 rx'd. PR by 20 seconds. Feeling good!

Check out this excellent post on technique from Dallas Hartwig over at Whole Nine Life.

04 February 2010

"In times of stress, be bold and valiant."
- Horace

Rest day. Just saw the primal shakes post on Mark's Daily Apple. Oh yeah - grocery store, here I come!

03 February 2010

WOD @ CrossFit Central
"tabata did me wrong"
8 rounds (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest) of each movement
*score is round with lowest number of reps
wall-ball with 20lbs medicine ball
hang-power snatch with 45lbs barbell
pull-ups
burpees

My scores: 5 wall ball, 10 snatch, 6 pull-ups, 5 burpees. Ouch.

Here are some hump-day links I gotta share:

I found a complete summary of Gary Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories in point form online here. The author talked with the copyright holders and was cleared to post it online, but it may not be up for long. Go download it! If you've read the book, it's a great refresher. If you haven't read it, it's a great overview.

Team Rubicon shuts down their Haiti operations. Here's an excerpt that covers why:
Organizations such as the UN and Red Cross have finally reached full speed in their logistics and medical employment; as such, Team Rubicon can no longer operate within the scope of its mission in Haiti. Food and water are being delivered, acute and traumatic injuries have been treated and hospitalized, and operating rooms are working at capacity. The continued employment of small, self-sustaining Team Rubicon elements is no longer a cost effective solution; our dollars spent per life saved will now exceed large NGOs for the first time since the earthquake.
Keep an eye on these outstanding folks for updates and continued no-BS accounts of the Haiti response as they post after-action reports and media interviews.

Gotta go, but happy hump-day y'all! It's dinner time:

light blogging and food poisoning

I've been away from the blog lately. So here's the quick version...

Saturday I got in a 3 mile run on the trail -didn't time it- just had fun. Felt great!

Sunday morning about 4AM I woke feeling horrible and dashed to the bathroom to kick-start Puke Fest 2010 (and no, it was wasn't booze induced). I either ate something that got the last laugh, or caught some kind of stomach flu. Either way, Sunday pretty well sucked. As did a fair amount of Monday.

Anyway, I'm all good now. I'll see y'all at the gym bright and early tomorrow!