CrossFit Influence Again

I didn't go to the office yesterday due to snow. We got hit by a small front wave of today's big storm - just enough to make driving treacherous.

After work, I went to the gym. I started with heavy front squats - 5 sets of 3 reps.

After that, everything I did was something we do at CrossFit, although in a more set-oriented fashion:

6 sets of 5 pull-ups

5 x 10 push-ups

5x5 box jumps

3x10 dips

And then, I did a mile on the treadmill - my first running mile of the year. I did a quarter mile warm-up, pushed hard for half a mile, and then a cool-down.

Given that I'm signed up for the 100 on 100 relay in August, I should probably start running again.

I wish I was skiing today, but work is a bit too busy, and I took a day off to ski last week.

Proposed Modification to the Definition of a Week

If I was thirty again, this wouldn't be an issue. But, I'm not. I'm old. I'm working 5 days per week at my real job. Working out after work as often as possible.

Then, I teach skiing to some energetic "tween" girls all weekend. When Monday rolls around and it's time to go back to my real job and the gym, it's just not working. I think I've come up with a solution, but I don't know how to get it implemented.

I can work Monday through Friday. I can handle that. I've been doing it for years. I can teach skiing on Saturday and Sunday. I've been doing that for years. But suddenly, I seem to need an eighth day, just like a Hobbit needs a second breakfast. So, I'm proposing an additional day between Sunday and Monday. I don't care what we call it. I could suggest "Damon's Rest Day", but naming it after myself is a bit pompous. Perhaps just "Restday" or something basic.

I could sleep in, do nothing, and be much more ready for the other seven days if I had that rest day. Or maybe not. I'd probably find something to do that day as well.

But for now, I feel old and tired. We skied hard this weekend, skiing in trees most of the time. It was fun, but I could still feel the after-effects of the Cindy workout all weekend. There has to be a way to get Restday into the calendar.

Cindy is not my friend

Yesterday was another classic CrossFit workout: Cindy.

But, before we even got to Cindy, we did some other good work. I got to the gym early and worked on stretching for a while. Then, we did some group stretching as well. My favorite was squat walking; we looked like a bunch of ducks waddling around the gym, but I could feel how it worked on hip mobility.

Then, we moved to deadlifts - one of my favorite lifts. The plan was three heavy sets with a rep pattern of 5-5-3. I warmed up at 135 and 225 and then did my first set at 255. That felt easier than I expected, so I went to 275 for my second set. That also went well, so I moved to 295 for my 3-rep set. I still felt good, so I decided to do a few single reps to see how it went. I did one rep at 315 and then another at 325. A few weeks ago, I had failed at 335 and 325 (despite a PR of 355 a year ago), so hitting 325 felt pretty good. With Cindy looming, I called it quits there.

Cindy: 20 minutes, as many reps as possible:

5 pull-ups

10 push-ups

15 air squats (bodyweight squats)

Twenty minutes is longer than most of the metabolic conditioning workouts we do. In some ways, it seemed easier than some because it wasn't a sprint. On the other hand, it seemed like it would never end and I am tired today.

I did a modified version of the workout. I can't do 5 legit pull-ups in a row right now. There was no way I could do many sets of them. I can do regular push-ups pretty easily, but I knew I'd be well over 100 reps there in 20 minutes. So, I did knee push-ups instead. The goal of these workouts is to keep moving, not hit complete muscle failure. If I'd done regular push-ups, I would have hit muscle failure.

The coach estimated that we should do 15 or so rounds in 20 minutes. I must have selected the correct band for pull-ups and the right approach to push-ups because I got 14 rounds plus 5 pull-ups.

That's a total of 75 assisted pull-ups, 140 knee push-ups and 210 air squats. I hurt all over today, but it was a good workout.

After the workout, I stopped at a nearby restaurant and had a salad, asparagus and a steak for dinner.

I was originally planning to do CrossFit again today, but I know I need a rest day if I'm going to ski well this weekend. Getting older kind of sucks sometimes, but at least I've learned to recognize when I need a rest day.

Good timing

After skiing relatively hard for three of the four previous days, I was a bit nervous as I got to the CrossFit gym last night. I was hoping we wouldn't have a really intensive leg day in the gym, and I got what I wanted.

We started with mobility work for about 15 minutes. The toughest part was 3 minutes in the "poop" position. I was afraid I'd end up stuck there, but I survived. Next was sets of box jumps - 10, 10, 8, 6, 4, 4, 2, 2. The goal was to do each set without a break and incrementally increase the height as the sets got shorter. I usually do box jumps with an 18" box, but they have been getting a bit easier at that height. But, 10 straight at that height, with no rest, is challenging, so I started at 12". Pretty weak, I know.

I then moved up to my standard 18" and eventually got to 22" for the last set. I hope to soon be doing the more standard 24" jumps for some of the Workouts of the Day.

Then, it was all arms: 8 minutes, as many reps as possible:

3 assisted ring dips

6 strict DB press (2x25# for me)

9 knee push-ups

This was the level 2 workout. The Rx'd workout included handstand push-ups and unassisted ring dips. I'm just not there yet.

I'm sure tonight will be a killer leg workout after arms yesterday.

I ate according to the paleo challenge rules yesterday, after a few days of less than stellar compliance while skiing. I'm hoping to make it to CrossFit after work today and then again tomorrow morning before work. Working out tomorrow morning will give me 24 hours of recovery before skiing on Saturday.

Skiing Epiphany

I had a great weekend teaching skiing. Despite cold temperatures, I had a good turnout of students, and we skied a lot. I also taught quite a bit despite the cold. Over the course of two days, we skied over 40,000 vertical feet, which is somewhat remarkable considering the conditions. A year ago, I was lucky to get my group to ski 16,000 vertical feet in nice weather. This year, the group has really stepped it up and they are skiing more than ever. I felt like the girls learned a lot and improved their skiing and I was also happy with how I was skiing.

On Monday, I took a rest day, knowing that I would be skiing (in a group) with a world-class instructor all day on Tuesday. The Professional Ski Instructors of America organization has its own "team" - people who are the best of the best of instructors. There are currently 14 members on that team, all selected through a very rigorous and competitive process.

On Tuesday, I was in a clinic with other instructors and a member of the national team. I told Matt that my primary goal for the day was to get feedback on how my skiing is progressing towards the PSIA level 3 standard. There are three levels of PSIA certification and I am currently at level 2. I attained level 1 about 8 years ago and level 2 about 4 years ago. Since then, I've been wondering if I will ever ski well enough to achieve the third level.

So, I wanted input yesterday to see if our clinic leader thought I was close.

And then, all morning, I skied like crap. We had a task from our clinic leader, and while the task made sense in all of its variations, I seemed to regress in every other aspect of my skiing. By lunchtime, I was really frustrated.

On our last chair ride before lunch, I talked to a co-worker who is a level 3 instructor. I told her that I find it frustrating to care so much about something and then do it so poorly at times. No matter how well I teach or ski, I never seem to do it as well as I wish I did. I truly love teaching and skiing, and I want to be the best I can at this part-time job. And when I struggle, I get frustrated. My co-worked admitted that she feels exactly the same way. And this is years after she achieved her level 3 certification. So, maybe I'm not the only crazy one.

At lunchtime, I told our clinic leader that I was frustrated. I told him that I thought I'd been skiing reasonably well just two days ago, and now I'd lost it all. He told me to stop thinking about the morning's tasks, and go out after lunch and just relax and ski. So, I did. And after a couple runs, I felt better. Our coach acknowledged that I was doing better.

Then, we went to some steep bump runs. I felt OK, but struggled with my form on the bumps. I was able to ski aggressive lines, but I knew that my form wasn't pretty. But, everything was better than the morning, so I wasn't feeling too bad.

Partway through a really tough bump line, the coach skied up beside me. He asked me an interesting question about how my feet were positioned in my boot. Where was my weight? Where was my heel? Where was my foot when I started to dorsiflex my ankle? He suggested a small change to my stance. I made a few turns. I felt an immediate difference. The coach skied back up to me and said "Follow me." And I did. Right down an intense bump line, at a high speed, in control, and feeling great. I got some great compliments regarding my skiing from others in the group.

We took a short break and headed for a different part of the mountain. Our coach wanted to watch my adjusted stance on groomed terrain. He liked what he saw there. I sought out some bumps. And skied them as well as I've ever skied a bump line. I had to ski it again. It felt great. I got more great feedback from everyone in the group.

And then, the clinic was over. We skied over 25,000 vertical feet of challenging terrain and everyone was tired. After changing out of our ski clothes, most of us headed to the pub for an adult beverage, including our coach. I asked him about taking my level 3 skiing exam. I told him that I was thinking of taking a prep clinic targeted at that exam and then taking the exam next winter. He said that seemed very reasonable.

So, after years of wondering if I would ever even try the exam, I'm now really excited about the challenge. I'll spend the rest of this season doing as much skiing and training as possible. During the off-season, I need to improve my conditioning and drop some weight. That will make the skiing easier.

Next December, I'm going to take a week-long early-season clinic with a complete focus on the exam. And then, somewhere around my 50th birthday next year, I'm going to take my level 3 ski exam, confident that I belong there and that I will pass.

As we were leaving the resort last night, my buddy Jay asked me if I knew where the biggest change in my skiing had come from. I thought about it for a second. I assumed it was something technical that had changed. Instead, Jay pointed to my head. He thinks that a lot of my skiing is simply a matter of being relaxed and confident, rather than dwelling on the things I don't do perfectly. He's probably right. But, for right now, I feel like a decent skier again.

It's all relative. I know I'm a solid skier and I think I'm a good instructor. But, I want to be better. All the time, I want to be better.

Another good day

For the first time since I started CrossFit, I've gone to the gym four days in a row. I expected to feel exhausted today, and I am tired, but also somewhat exhilarated.

Yesterday's workout was a CrossFit classic: Fran.

I didn't do it exactly as prescribed, but did 45 pounds for the thrusters rather than 95, and I used bands for assisted pull-ups. It was 6:21 of hell. We'd already done a good mobility warm-up, some form-work on overhead squats, and some core/strength work. I pushed hard and my stomach rebelled at the end of the workout. While I was outside trying to get my stomach to calm down, people were putting away the gear. I came inside just in time to hear someone say that someone had left a "residue"on some pull-up bands. It was me, regretfully. My stomach had rebelled on the very last rep and I'd lost it a bit.

The coach was talking to me later about why I end up getting sick in some of the workouts. I explained to him that I've always been a competitive person and I don't do workouts half-assed. So, right now, when I'm in over my head, fitness-wise, on some of these workouts, I don't do the prudent thing and back down. The coach then started talking about running and mentioned that the competitiveness is probably leftover from my running/racing days. He mentioned ultras, and all of a sudden, all the people in the gym wanted to know about my racing past. They were amazed at some of the stuff I've done running (I'm amazed by what they do in the gym, so we're even, I think). Maybe they won't just see me as the fat old guy in the gym anymore. I'm catching up to some of them.

Today is a rest day, although I'll do some stretching at home tonight before skiing three of the next four days. It's going to be bitterly cold for the next few days, so the skiing, at least the teaching part of it, will be a challenge.

Eating was good yesterday - chicken and a salad for lunch, and grass-fed burgers for dinner, served on lettuce rather than bread, with veggies and some avocado.

For tonight, I'm making a Mexican style beef soup that is cooking in the oven while I work today.

Paleo Challenge - Day Three

Not again. He's not going to write about this stupid challenge again, is he?

Well, it's pretty much the focus of my fitness regime and my diet right now, so it's what I have to write about. I could write about politics, but that would cause my limited readership to go somewhere else, I imagine.

Yesterday, I ate a salad with some tuna for lunch, after having only coffee for breakfast.

After work, I went to CrossFit and had a great workout. After some stretching and foam rolling, we started with work on Snatch Balances. Because I'm still dealing with some mobility issues that affect my overhead squat, and the bottom position of overhead squats the same as the finishing position for the snatch balance, I focused more on overhead squats. I did 7 sets of 5 OH squats, at 45 and 55 pounds. That's pretty lame, but a few months ago, I couldn't do this lift at all due to mobility problems.

It's easy to look around the room and see that my older body is nowhere near as mobile as many other bodies there. I also know that my lack of mobility (42K+ running miles in 25 years probably had something to do with this) affects my skiing adversely. So, I'm taking the mobility part of CrossFit very seriously and I'm making progress.

The MetCon (Metabolic Conditioning) portion of the workout was a spin on the Tabata protocol. Instead of doing just 4 minutes though, we used two lifts and did 8 minutes. We started with deadlifts and then moved to medicine ball slams. Basically, it was deadlifts for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, med ball slams for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, with a total of 8 rounds.

The prescribed weights were 225# for deads and 20# for the med ball. I knew I could do the workout at that level, but the goal was to do lots of reps. So, I opted for level 1 and dropped my deadlifts to 135#.

I did a total of 150 reps, with over 80 of them being deadlifts. I remember the first time I did a 135 pound deadlift. I looked up the date and it was June 19, 2007. That day, I was very happy that I'd made enough lifting progress to play with the "big wheels", the 45# plates in the weight room. (I've since gone on to do a 355# deadlift, but that's another story.)

Last night, I did over 80 reps at 135#. I don't feel sore today.

For dinner, I ate roasted chicken thighs and a salad with a homemade vinaigrette.

I got a good night's sleep and had some eggs for breakfast this morning. This afternoon, for the first time since I started CrossFit, I'll do a CF workout four days in a row.

Tomorrow will be a rest day with a weekend of teaching skiing approaching.