Good Workout, Bad Dinner

After the workout on Tuesday, yesterday was almost a rest day at CrossFit.

After our warm-up, we went straight into some strength work on strict presses. But, every fourth week of the Wendler cycle is a de-loading week (low weights), so that work was fairly easy. The only hard part was some chest-to-bar pull-ups the day after we did 90 pull-ups.

After the strength work, the MetCon was not too bad:

8 minutes, as many reps as possible

8 reps - sumo deadlift high pull - 75# for me (between Rx and Level 1)

8 burpees

I got through just under six rounds and I was tired, but not beat up. After the workout, I saw the chiropractor who has been working on my shoulder. He is very happy with the progress we've made and he didn't even pull out the Graston tools yesterday. He did some active release work, and worked on the biceps tendon a bit. After the biceps tendon work, I did my first fully pain free push-up in quite a while. So, the shoulder is probably 80%-90% there. I am going to see him just every other week for a while now, and hopefully let my body complete most of the remaining healing on its own.

I rode home after the workout, beating an approaching rainstorm. As I went through the kitchen, I found four ingredients for dinner: a locally made Mexican-style chorizo, fresh spinach, eggs, and cream. That was a perfect primal meal waiting to happen, and I cooked the sausage first, added the spinach, cooked that, added the cream, and finally some eggs. I also added some salt and pepper. And, I cooked everything well enough - none of the ingredients were under-cooked.

I ate dinner while I watched the Red Sox game and did some laundry. By 10:00, the Sox had lost and I was in bed. My alarm was set for 5:15 as usual. But, I woke up about 4:30, feeling terrible. One of those ingredients in the dinner was tainted somehow. Since then, it's been a rough morning, but I'm finally feeling better. Hopefully, I'll feel up to doing CrossFit later today, assuming I can get to the gym.

Michelle Obama is in town today, and I normally take a low-traffic shortcut through a hotel parking lot on my bike at 5:00 or so. But, Michelle Obama is speaking at that hotel at 5:00 today, so I probably not be allowed to use the short cut, so I need to fight through some much nastier traffic on my bike to get to the gym.

Badger

Yesterday's CrossFit workout was Badger.

I had never done this workout before and didn't know its history until I Googled it later. After reading a bit about the workout, I feel like I certainly didn't do it justice.

Here is the prescribed level for the workout:

3 rounds for time:

30 squat cleans, 95 pounds

30 pull-ups

800 meter run

One of the first clues that a workout is going to be difficult can be found when you walk into the gym. We have a number of large whiteboards on the wall. One shows our warm-up for the day. The next board shows our strength work for the day. Then, the next four boards show the four levels available for the main workout. Last night, the strength board had no workout. Instead, there were some comments about the main workout, and about how hard it was. Next, I started looking at another set of whiteboards where the previous groups from yesterday had posted their times. Almost every time was over 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes isn't a long time to be running, or cycling or swimming at a steady pace. But, 30 CrossFit minutes can seem like an eternity because you are going hard the entire time.

And, squat cleans are not easy. Well, they're not really difficult. But, they wear on you. You start as if you are going to do a light deadlift, but suddenly, you're doing a front squat instead. There is a lot of movement and it gets easy to cheat - just don't drop down into a full squat for each rep. As you get tired and start to cheat a little, squat cleans can start to look more like power cleans, a much easier movement at light weight.

So, with all of those excuses lined up, it's pretty obvious I didn't have a great workout. That's the interesting thing about CrossFit. I've had some good workouts recently. I've been doing the Rx'd workout more often. I've been passing people during running segments. I'm getting stronger. Feeling confident. And then, bam! I got humbled big-time last night.

For level 1, the only change was to drop the squat cleans to 65 pounds instead of 95. But, I also use assistance on pull-ups. If I had tried to do 90 unassisted pull-ups, the clock would still be ticking on my workout.

As we started the workout, it took me about 10 squat cleans to know I was in trouble. I started breaking the squat cleans into smaller sets - 5s and then 4s. After I finally got through the first round of the cleans, I started my pull-ups. I soon found myself doing them in sets of 5. That would eventually drop to 3 and even a couple sets of 2. By the time I headed out on my first run, I knew that level 1 was going to be too much. My legs felt terrible for the 800 meters and I hadn't run since Saturday.

I knew that level 2 used only 20 reps rather than 30 for the cleans and pull-ups. I decided to drop to 20 reps for the next two rounds.

And, it still sucked. Or, I sucked - however you want to look at it.

Finally, after almost 37 minutes, I staggered back inside, done with a very humbling workout.

One of the ladies from our gym recently placed first in the CrossFit Northeast Regionals. She finished the workout in just over 26 minutes and made it look easy. But, I think everyone else was over 30 minutes.

After the workout, I hopped on my bike and headed home. I immediately hopped into the swimming pool to try to cool off. I then drank at least 8 glasses of water before I went to bed. And, this morning, I got up at 6:15 instead of 5:00.

I know that part of tonight's workout is strict presses from the Wendler cycle. But, it's a de-loading week, so the lifts are fairly easy. I'm hoping the main workout isn't another grinder like last night.

Sometimes, it's just time to rest

All day yesterday, I felt tired. Sleepy. Lethargic. Not motivated to work out.

Going into Friday, I had worked out 13 of 14 days and 26 of 30. Due to weather, I took a rest day on Friday. I did some interval work on Saturday, and then rested again on Sunday. But, it still didn't appear to be enough.

I left work at 4:00 yesterday, and got to my rented room about 5:00. I had already decided that CrossFit wasn't going to happen. I went to my room, turned on the AC, and took a nap for 90 minutes. Then, I got up and had some dinner, and went back to bed.

This morning, I felt a lot better. My bike ride to work normally takes 35-37 minutes. This morning, I was in the big chainring most of the way, feeling strong, and I made it in 32 minutes. So, the rest must have done some good.

Tonight, I'll do CrossFit.

But clearly, I just needed some rest the past few days. I need to make sure I'm paying close attention to how I feel, and getting rest days when I need them.

Thirteen Days Until the Marathon

This past weekend, I pretty much goofed off. I was supposed to run with my wife or do heavy deadlifts on Friday. Instead, we were both tired and we took a rest day.

On Saturday, I did 6 quarters with long rest between each repeat. My wife did the workout with me, and we ran in the rain. We let the dogs sit this one out, although they could have used the exercise. I averaged about 1:45 per repeat - pretty slow.

Sunday was supposed to either be a long hike or a long run, but instead, I slept in. I spent a lot of the day doing nothing, and never really did anything useful other than mowing the lawn and cooking dinner.

So, I'm now 13 days from a marathon. To be honest, I don't really feel like running a marathon at my current weight and my current (lack of) fitness level. I am sure I can finish the event under the time limit (6:30), but I'm not sure what the point would be. I don't have to prove to myself that I can finish a marathon, after doing more about 125 marathons and ultras in my life. I see no reason to truly slog through a super-slow marathon either, unless I can honestly say that I'll enjoy the experience. And, I don't think that I will.

I'm trying hard these days to train hard, but have my training days be fun. I don't mind working hard, but I want to be having fun when I work hard. I don't know if doing a marathon right now will provide me with any fun.

So, I'll think about it. I might be able to drop to the half marathon.

I could run long today after taking a rest day yesterday. But, I'd rather go to CrossFit. And that preference feels like I'm answering my own question about running the marathon.

If it's not fun, why do it?

Just another CrossFit Thursday

I've used this title for a blog post before. Chrome just told me so. I hope it doesn't screw up every search engine in the world. Maybe if I used the title "Gay Pride", I'd get a little temporary rainbow icon attached to my post. If that comment made no sense, go to Google and enter the term and look at your results. Do it quickly before the brouhaha subsides or Google changes the "catch me if you can" doodle.

Anyway, yesterday was a pretty typical day. I spent most of the day fighting with Windows 7. Actually, for ten days now, I've been fighting Windows 7 (64-bit professional). On two different hardware configurations at work, from two different manufacturers, the Windows updates from those days have caused all kinds of problems. My cloud-based shared drive and back-up service have been interrupted, and my config files were trashed, rendering some old backups unusable. I have probably been through 40 reboots of my own computer. I have had to purchase some software for a co-worker because Windows got so corrupted that his computer barely worked. He still has to attempt to re-apply the Windows updates now that he's repaired the OS. I can't imagine that we are the only two people who have had these problems, yet I've seen very few complaints on the web. As the IT director for our little company, I've now had to "decree" that Windows updates no longer be automatically applied. This, in turn, makes our anti-virus software unhappy, as our vendor there expects every Windows update that is security related will be applied immediately. Sometimes, I hate computers. Well, I really should just work on Unix/Linux. Or maybe a Mac.

After I finally got out of here yesterday, feeling very frustrated with computers, I took it out on some iron at CrossFit. After a more vigorous than usual warm-up, we worked on overhead squats for a while. We were supposed to use heavy weights, but my shoulder got really sore the last time I tried heavy OH squats. So, I kept the weight lighter and really focused on my form and good depth in the squat. I have some issues with shoulder and hip mobility that really make this a tough lift for me, and I am getting better, but I have a long way to go. Given my strength in other lifts, I should easily be able to do 135 pounds or more for an OH squat, but that just isn't the case.

After the OH squats, the MetCon was pretty straightforward:

12 minutes, As Many Reps As Possible:

Row 250 meters

10 DB Split Snatches, right hand (35#)

10 DB Split Snatches, left hand (35#)

The DB split snatch was a new movement to me. From the name, I instantly knew what the lift was, but I'd never done it before. I could tell that my form wasn't very good because the left side was much harder than the right. Yet, this lift should derive its strength from the hips rather than the arms, so if my weaker arm was limiting me, my form was the issue.

I made it through four complete rounds plus 95 meters on my fifth rowing round.

Today, I am scheduled to do Wendler cycle deadlifts. But, my current plan is to run with my wife instead. We really enjoy our hour-long runs when I get off the commuter bus on Thursday or Friday evening. We might get thunderstorms, and if that happens, I'll do my deadlifts instead.

Tomorrow, I want to do some 400 meter repeats on the track, and Sunday, I'll do a long run or a long hike.

And then it's back to work. I wonder what will go wrong with Windows next week.

Mt. Mansfield hike, Paleo Challenge, More CrossFit

My friend Jeff commented yesterday that I should put up some pictures from the Mt. Mansfield hike on Sunday. I only took two photos on the hike, one of my wife and one of my son on the summit. My wife probably doesn't appreciate that I got a photo of her eating an energy bar, but I was the person with the camera. My son was really tired at this point, but held up pretty well in his first real workout in quite a while.

Here is our hiking route, produced using my Garmin Forerunner, Garmin's Connect software, and Google Earth:

The mileage I got from the Garmin doesn't match the guidebook mileage, and one "lap" isn't even a "Garmin" mile because I hit the lap button by mistake. One thing that I really liked about the Garmin Connect site is how it corrected the elevation numbers that the unit recorded during the hike. The Forerunner told me we'd climbed 4690 vertical feet, while I suspected the actual elevation to be closer to 3000'. The software took the GPS points and corrected the vertical to 2964'. All in all, it was a fun day and my son now needs only Killington to have summited all of the VT 4000 foot peaks on his own power. We may do that one this weekend, and we might even throw in Pico, the highest peak in VT that doesn't hit 4000'.

On another subject, the winners of our month-long Paleo challenge at CrossFit were announced yesterday. I didn't know about it until I got to the gym and a few people congratulated me. I wasn't sure what they were talking about at first. Rather than repeat the details, they can be found here. I'm not sure if I like Jade's comment about "Damon rounding out the top 3." I am spending all my time at CrossFit so I can be a little bit less round.

Since really working to reduce the carbs in my diet in mid-April, and moving to a Paleo-style diet, I've lost about 18 pounds so far. I was at the highest weight I've ever been, and I still have plenty to lose, but things are moving in the right direction. From June of 2008, when I was in great running shape for the Western States 100, until April of this year, I had gained 52 pounds. Not all of that was body fat, but it was still the biggest weight swing I'd ever had in my life, and I'm working hard to revert those bad changes. I'll probably never again be as light as three years ago unless I give up lifting, but I'd still like to lose another 25 pounds or so. Working for a start-up software company for the past few years, plus a serious hamstring injury and a love of good beer has been a bad combination for my weight.

My eating was right where I wanted it to be yesterday, including local rabbit roasted with rosemary, garlic and olive oil. I had that with the fresh-from-the-garden chard and a salad.

That dinner came after this workout:

Biking: 14.2 miles for the day, most of it in a light rain

Strict presses

5 x 95#

3 x 105#

1 x 120#

Push press:

4 x 120#

Close grip bench press:

5 sets of 10 at 85# (still protecting my shoulder a bit)

Pull-ups - 3 sets, max reps, and I dropped to a lower strength assistance band to make it more strength work rather than endurance: 8, 7, 7

Finally, the MetCon was as follows:

10 minutes, as many reps as possible

15 power cleans at 95#

30 lateral jumps over the barbell

I did this one at the RX'd level rather than level 1 (65#). I knew I'd get fewer reps, but the AMRAP workouts are a good time to push the weights to a higher level. On the "as quickly as possible" workouts, using a weight that is too high results in a long, slow slog. On an AMRAP, you just do what you can and you're done when time expires. I did 3.5 rounds in 10 minutes.

Today is more bicycling in the rain and CrossFit. Tomorrow, I'll switch my focus to running for three days - my final real runs before the marathon in just over two weeks. I need to break in a new pair of shoes this weekend.

Tired of being tired?

Sometimes, I wonder what all of this training stuff is really about.

This morning, I woke up feeling tired and old and creaky. I thought briefly about putting my bike on the bus and getting a ride to work. But, as usual, I put on my cycling clothes and pedaled to work. It's not a hard ride; it takes me 35-37 minutes every morning, and there is one big hill, but it's not that big a deal. In the evening, I ride another 45 or so minutes, with the ride split up by CrossFit. Those 75-80 minutes on the bike are way more fun than 2 hours in the car. And I have to think they are better for me and the environment than driving.

But, I was tired from CrossFit this morning. At CrossFit yesterday, I was tired from lifting on Monday. Monday while lifting, I was tired from hiking on Sunday. On my ride to work this morning, I was thinking about being tired. Maybe I was thinking about feeling old too, but that wasn't the main train of thought.

I really enjoy CrossFit. I like the improvements in my strength and my stamina. I enjoy the people I train with. I have no intention of competing in CrossFit, so that sometimes leaves me wondering "why?"

But, even if I was competing, like with running over the past 25 years, the "why" question doesn't go away. Since April first in 1985, I have made training of some sort or another a top priority in my life. I've race hundreds of times - road races, track races, trail races, triathlons, duathlons, relays. I've done running races from 800 meters to 100 miles. I've been elated at times and frustrated at others with the training itself and the races.

I've skied hundreds of days in the past 12 years. I've taught skiing for 300 or more days over the last decade. I'm always moving, always training, always trying to "improve". But, improve what? Why? When will I arrive and be done improving? And if I do arrive, then what? Do I just stay "there" until the realities of old age take me away?

If it's all about being healthy, I should place most of my focus on my diet and put less time into training. I definitely train (exercise - whatever) more than I need to for my overall health. If it's fear of being fat, well, that hasn't been a raging success. If it's to avoid getting old, that doesn't seem to be working. If I'm trying to stave off the effects of getting older, why do I feel old and creaky right now?

Why have I endured a torn ACL, numerous bouts of Achilles tendinosis, a rotator cuff injury, bike crashes, broken ribs (twice), broken toes, plantar fasciitis, and other assorted aches and pains all of these years?

I don't know if I have any answers to these questions. I do sometimes think about Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach. When it was time for him to retire, he recognized that fact and told everyone that the team deserved better coaching than he'd provided. He was asked what he would do now that he was retiring and gave a simple, seeming throwaway answer: "Probably croak in a week." In less than a month, he was dead.

Maybe that's what I'm doing. Training because I'm afraid I'll croak the second I stop. And, for the most part, it's fun. It's challenging. CrossFit is especially challenging because the goal is to constantly change things and force you to learn new things and adapt to new stimuli. It's not like training for ultras, where you can spend hour after hour doing the same thing, slowly building a huge endurance base. As soon as you think you have something down at CrossFit, they change the rules on you.

So it goes. I'm tired. I'm somewhat tired of being tired. And yet, I don't want to quit, or at least I don't think I want to quit. And I don't know why I don't want to quit. I don't feel ready to croak quite yet.

Yesterday:

13 total miles on the bike.

10 x 2 sumo deadlifts at 275#, every minute on the minute

10 x 5 kettlebell swings at 53#, every minute on the minute

12 minutes, as many reps as possible:

10 band-assisted pull-ups

200 meter run

Completed 6 rounds, but the last 200 meters took me past the 12 minute mark