Just need to post!

I went to visit the in-laws this weekend, and I didn't really workout at all.   However, all of us (wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and I) ran in a 5k on Saturday morning.  It was absolutely beautiful, and I set a PR.  I ran it in 20:54.9, which is 6:45 miles.  My previous PR was around 22:00.  It was a very small race, and my pace was enough to earn me second overall in the 5K.  The kid who won ran sub 6 minute miles.  He was just plain faster than me.  After congratulating him, I told him I would see him next year (in a very friendly way of course). 

Kiplinger Report

Yes, the title is a pun. And, no, I won't apologize for it because it is awesome.

Monday was just a great day, and I want to savor it. 

I have been having trouble with my kip since I started at Friendship.  As I have written before, my right shoulder is a little unstable, and it will pop out a bit/be a pain.  I had a breakthrough on Monday.  I crushed the kip.  My shoulder didn't pop.  It didn't hurt at all.  I felt the best I have ever felt practicing that skill.  Jay told me that I was coming close to breaking the plane of the bar without even pulling.  I'm particularly excited about that because there was a part of me that worried I wouldn't be able to correct those past injuries.  I wondered if my shoulder was going to hold me back.  It sounds like such a little thing, but to have shaken off that artificial limitation has made me feel great. I feel in control.

We also did some overhead squatting, and that has improved as well. I'm excited to get stronger.  I can't wait to be working at 95# overhead squats. 

#Pumped

A Man and His Workout

     I have been taken to task for my lack of consistent posting.  So with the looming threat of burpees if I don't post, here is a new one for my fan(s?).  Ha!

     First, anyone who will look at this post around the time I post it already knows that my ice hockey team won the championship, but I want to record some of the details here so that I can remember them later. The game was extremely exciting.  It was back and forth the whole way.  Yours truly scored our second goal.  Blake took the puck in the zone to do some work in the corner by the far boards.  I reported to my office at the front of the net.  Blake started as if to go behind the net to the other side, and the goalie reacted by sliding over to cover that side. Instead, Blake sent the puck straight to me, and with the goalie off balance I sent it where he wasn't.  I was pumped. 

     Then it continued back and forth.  We were tied 4 to 4 with three minutes left, and they went ahead by a goal with 2:57 on the clock.  We struggled until there were around 30 seconds left, and we tied it up 5-5.  I thought we were going into overtime.  Just as the game was about to end, their D-man had the puck and Blake attacked knocking it loose and almost losing his footing.  But he held on and used his wheels to beat their guys and send it through the 5 hole.  He struggled to find the net all night, but he turned it on at the right time.  As he said, "It was the best miss he ever had."  He wanted to go top shelf, but he didn't get enough of it.  You might say he was lucky, but I say that chance favors the prepared.

Created by Ben Morhac (laying in the front).

     The name of this post came from my workout on Tuesday.  I have had a bunch of great workouts between my last post and this one, but Tuesday's workout was fun.  We practiced some Olympic lifting by working on our Hang Squat Snatches.  Anything involving overhead weight is a weakness for me.  I'm just not totally comfortable with it yet.  I am gaining confidence in my shoulders though, which is helping.  I just have this irrational fear that my shoulder is going to give out or something, and as a result, I'm really tentative when I attempt these movements.  It was good to an improvement in my comfort level from the first time I attempted them when compared to Tuesday.

     Our WoD was a max effort row on the rowing machine for 2 minutes followed by 70 wall climbs.  70 wall climbs is a lot.  I think I might have uttered a curse word when I heard that even though I do love wall climbs. The trick was that you could deduct the total amount of calories burned on the rower (the rower has a calorie counter on it) from your total amount of wall climbs.  So, if some intrepid young athlete burned 46 calories on the rower, he or she would have to do 24 wall climbs after.  This workout is devious because it actually makes you want to row really hard.  Rowing is wonderful.  I love it.  But nothing gases me like rowing. 

     We have 2 rowing machines, and we paired up to get started.  I was the odd man out this time, so I was on my own.  That is where is the name of this post came from.  Jeff let me know I was last, and he said it'll just be "a man and his workout."  And I told him that would be the name of the post.  It is almost like he planned it...

     Well, if you haven't guessed, I burned 46 calories with the rower and did 24 wall climbs, which are a lot of fun.  Well, the first few are fun anyway.  I fell like Spiderman when I do them well.  But then you get tired, and it is a fight to keep good form all the way through.  They are awesome for your shoulders though, and that really makes me like them. 

#Can'twait to see what they have in store for us tonight.

My first PR.

            I had a great day yesterday.  It was great for many reasons, but I'll focus on the workout.

            On Monday, we found out our CrossFit Total.  In order to figure out what your total is, you must find your one-rep max for the Strict Press (shoulder press), Back Squat, and Deadlift. Your CrossFit Total is the total of the three one-rep maxes on those exercises.  This was my first time trying this, and I have to say it was a lot of fun.  We were given 15 minutes for each exercise to use in order to reach our max.  At first, I misunderstood and thought we only had 15 minutes total. I started to rush through it, but we had a total of 45 minutes.  Rushing is not good because (as I learned) you need a minute or two between reps to allow yourself to reset.

            I started with the strict press, and I got up to 115#.  That rep did not seem too bad.  I struggled a bit, but I definitely felt like I could do more.  I only added 5# though, and I tried again.  Heck, I tried a few times, but I could not get that weight up.  The 2.5# plates are so small, and it seemed so silly that I couldn’t lift it.  But it would not go.  The trainers gave me some tips to help me on my form, and I moved onto the back squat.

            The Back Squat went well, and I got up to 205#.  I need to work on keeping my back strong though.  I was trying to use the bounce at the bottom to help, but with the heavier weight and the greater momentum I create, I cause my back to flatten out a bit.  Then I hit 245# on the deadlift, and my first total was 565#.

            Yesterday, I went to the County gym with a buddy, and I decided to work on the press and squat.  My plan was to work up to a heavy 3 and put some work in.  As I was working up, I focused on practicing my form (i.e. pushing my head forward as I was pressing the weight up).  Once I was up to 105#, I felt pretty good.  I wasn’t going to attempt a max, but I thought I could beat my 115# from Monday.  And I did.  I hit 125#. 

            After being frustrated by those two little 2.5# plates, it felt good.  The squats went well too, and I’m definitely sore today.

            So, that was my first PR. 

  

Where there is a will...there are still limitations

     I have neglected this blog.  No excuses.  I should've been posting.

     Here is what has been happening.  Over the course of my training, I developed posterior shin splints.  I didn't know that I had shin splints though.  My leg caused me a little pain, but I figured it would only hold me back if I let it, and I continued to run.  I probably did myself in on my last long run, which was 14 miles.  I was in pain the whole way, and I considered stopping halfway through.  But I told myself just to start down the path and see how far I got.  If I had to quit, I would.  I finished.  That was a terrible idea, and I'm lucky I didn't train myself into a stress fracture, which would have thrown everything off track.

     That run was on a Saturday, and by my softball game the following Thursday, just running onto the field to take my position was pretty painful.  Only then did I actually start to research shin splints and ask the guys at the gym about them.  I found out that I needed to back off, and I was a little frustrated.  I was willing to put in the time and work to attain my goals, but my body was making it difficult. 

     I needed to realize that I was just doing too much too quickly.  My weeks consisted of hitting crossfit 4 or 5 days, running 3 to 5 days and covering a lot of miles, rucking 1 or 2 days, ice hockey...it was too much too quickly.  I wasn't giving my body time to adapt.  So, I backed off of the running for a week, and gave myself a break.  I'm only going run the half in October, and I'm already in shape for it.  I just need to maintain it at this point.
 
     I’ve been icing it, and last night I did my first sets of double-unders since this speed bump.  My leg didn’t bother me at all.  Jeff and Jay got me to commit to icing it regularly, and I started ice massages last night.  I woke up feeling good and feeling excited.

     So, I've been a little frustrated, and I kind of disengaged mentally from my training.  But I'm back BABY!!

P.S.  I have discovered the worst part of ice massages.  As the feeling slowly returns to area you are massaging, it itches like crazy.

P.S.S.  I want to thank my wife, Katie, for helping me make good decisions.

Two things that I'm excited about and a few workouts

     If I had to order things according to magnitude of excitement, I'm the most excited about my hockey game on Sunday night.  It can be hard to get guys on the ice during the summer.  There is a lot to battle.  There are golf courses, cookouts, vacations, and hangovers that all cause our numbers to dwindle.  Well, we had six skaters Sunday night.  That means that you have 5 on the ice, and only 1 sub.  Only 1 person gets to rest at any given time, and the others have no choice but to skate.  I'm not complaining mind you.  That means that we get a lot of ice time, which is what we are all there for anyway. 

     It isn't the ice time that I'm excited about though.  I'm excited because I skated hard the whole game, and rarely needed to hit the bench.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that I thought CrossFit has helped my on ice endurance.  Sunday night proved that it has.  I think I could have stayed on the ice for just about the whole game, but I didn't want anyone to get stuck on the bench.  If the one person on the bench looked ready to come out, I was happy to oblige.
    
       Most (well maybe all) of the guys on the team are at least as good if not better than me, but I get out there and grind hard every game  We won 10-3, and I have to note that it felt good at the end of the game when my team complimented how hard I worked.   They calked it up to the marathon training, but I know better. 

    The second thing that I'm excited about involves my lungs.  I got back to running on Sunday.  I had to run 12 miles.  I did the first 7.2 outside, but it was way to hot to finish out there.  As I'm sure everyone knows, it is HOT!  I felt like the sun was cooking me.  So, I finished on the treadmill.  And I'm going to break my rule here, but I hate running on a treadmill.  Anyway, I'm excited because I noticed that my lungs weren't limiting me in any way.  They weren't any where close to fully engaged.  And I can remember a time when a run of any length would have me huffing and puffing.  Now granted I was going a little slow because of the heat and distance involved, but it is still a huge improvement.   

     I have a couple of workouts to log.  The other day Bobby, Tommy, and I had to finish a team 5K on the rowing machine.  We took turns on the rower, and we could only row 250 meters at a time.  In order to get onto the rower, we had to do 10 burpees, which we could only start doing once the person on the rower was finished.  We did this for time, and we ended up around 28 minutes.  That wasn't quite fast enough, so we had to do 20 Turkish get ups with a sand bag.  The workout was diabolical. 

     Finally, Jay held a pull-up class on Saturday morning, and it helped a lot.  I'm happy to report that my shoulder didn't pop out once, and my form improved.  I'm going to take that as a sign of improved shoulder stability.  I did tear the hell out of my hands though.  Let me tell you that peroxide on the hands post pull-up seminar does not feel good.  Oh and I was being lazy while doing box jumps and scraped my shin on the corner of the box.  I have the distinction of being the first person to need the first aid kit at Friendship Crossfit.  However, people have told me that I need a cooler story about how I hurt myself.  The official story is now that I was saving a litter of kittens from a burning home.



    

Fran and Sweat

     I have a couple of nights to catch up on.

     Monday night we did Fran (giggle).  The trainers told me that it would be fun, and it was.  There's something about thrusters (giggle) that makes for a good time.  I think it is just throwing the weight around that I enjoyed.  Fran is three cycles of 21-15-9 reps.  You start with 21 thrusters, and then you do 21 pull-ups.  Then it's 15 reps of each exercise, and then 9 reps of each to finish.  You are going for time.

     I also learned a little about "Fran Lung."  It gets really hard to breathe when pushing through the reps.  On breaks, I was panting like a dog.  I only used 65 lbs, which was enough, and I think I finished around 10:08.  I'm sure that's slow, but I expect to improve it.  We worked on our pull-up form, and I felt more comfortable with it.  Although, I still have work to do with my shoulder.  The rhythm was easier to pick up, but I know I'm still engaging my arms a little, which is limiting me.  It was the last few pull-ups that slowed me down because I was only doing one at a time.

     Last night we practiced double unders with the jump rope,  and we worked on shoulder presses to start.  We worked to find a weight that we could do 10 reps of and be struggling on the last rep.  I went as high as 95 lbs. on one set, but stayed at 85 lbs. for the rest. 

     The workout was sets of max rep push-ups with 30 24" step ups onto a box with a sandbag on your back in between sets of push ups.  I think my sandbag weighed 50 lbs.  We had to do as many repetitions (amrap) as we could in 18 minutes.  To complete a push-up we had to have our arms locked at the top, and our chest on the ground with our hands off of the floor at the bottom.  You were done as soon as you hesitated in any portion of the push-up.  I think I ended up 98 push-ups in 5 rounds, but they were definitely sloppy at the end.

      It was a good time, and I'm excited to see what they have for us tonight.