Friday, April 11, 2014

Hitting a Wall

After my run-ski-run on Saturday-Sunday-Monday, I returned to CrossFit on Tuesday.  The schedule called for some Olympic lifting, but I opted for some squat work that others had done on Monday.  I did 3x5 of back squats and front squats at moderate weights.  Then, a bunch of rope jumping and pull-ups.  I screwed up a bit, not realizing I was supposed to be doing some burpees in each set,

Wednesday, we started with 7 sets of bench presses in a rep scheme of 5-3-3-2-2-2-20.  I was happy with my weights here, hitting 165 for the last set of 2, and easily getting 20 reps at 105 to finish.  My lifetime PR in the bench press is 190, and I've done that weight once in each of the last 2 years.  My goal for this year is to finally crack the 200 mark.  That's really a pathetic bench press goal, but after 25+ years of being a runner and many years as a skier, my legs are way stronger than my upper body.  At my age, it takes a long time to make progress on some of these power lifts.

We followed up the bench presses with deadlifts, wall balls and an assistance lift for rope climbing - laying on the floor and pulling on the rope to get to a standing position.  One of these days, I'll actually do rope climbs like the real athletes at the gym.

Yesterday, I felt tired when I got to the gym.  My plan was to do burpees and practice rope jumping "double unders" before the main workout of rowing and kettlebell swings.  I ran half a mile to warm up, and I realized I was just exhausted.  I had gone 5 straight days and 9 out of 10, and I was just shot.  So, I decided after the half mile that I'd take a rest day.

I'm only working half a day today, and I'm planning on a short run at lunchtime.  Then, my son and I are heading to Middlebury for the weekend to fish in the Otter Creek Classic fly fishing tournament.  We have no illusions about winning anything, but it will be fun to be on the rivers again.  And, I get to hang out with my son for the weekend.  If I'm lucky, this year I won't get shut out.  Last year, neither of us caught a fish.  Neither of us hooked a fish.  I'm not sure if either of us even had a legit strike.  I caught my first fish of the season on May 1st last year, and opening day is often a very slow fishing day.  The water is high and cold and often off-color.  But, the weather looks good and I'll be fishing at first light tomorrow morning.

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