Back to the Badass

Once...I was fat. Then I became a badass and lost 107 pounds. Then I got comfortable and put 50 pounds right back on. Then...I took the Badass back!

[back2thebadass]

Some Time Off

I don't post much on here anymore...and I hate having to say this part.  Due to back problems and a need to heal and possibly seek surgery after 13 years of dealing with this, I've just had to walk away from Crossfit and anything strenuous until I figure out a long term solution for this ongoing problem.   This is one of the worst things I've had to do in a while and I've fought enough internally with it this morning already but the decision had to be made. Signing off until brighter days come around.

[back2thebadass]

An Update

Good morning.  I can't write much today except to update you.  The back pain I've been dealing with has not exactly cleared up yet.  I have not been back to Crossfit since January 16th.  Part of this is due to the back pain, part is due to my car undergoing major repairs and I just haven't had a reliable way to get there every day. I haven't given up.  I continue my 10K training with some light walking each day just to keep things moving while my herniated disc continues to be angry and swollen.  I'm icing a lot during work and at home and I've almost run out of my leftover hydrocodone from the surgery I had in 2013.   I'm stretching, I'm foam rolling.  I'm trying.  I want to make it my goal to get back to Crossfit  one week from today with things heavily modified down until this disc aggravation is gone.   For now, I've made a decision to unplug from Facebook, social media and certain relationships for a while as I was just feeling overexposed again.  It's definitely a funk.  I remember how I climbed out the last time and I'm trying to focus on me and pushing in closely to the people that raise my spirits and care most about my well-being. Thanks for understanding about the recent lapse in posts and I hope to update you on the completion of my first 90 days of Crossfit when I'm feeling well again.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 54 - Let The Bodies Hit The Floor

One rep in to the WOD today and I realized I'd pulled my back during the strength portion. I dropped the barbell and knew instantly that there was no chance of doing any further attempt at the WOD. I spent the remainder of the class on the floor stretching my back in various ways and using a foam roller to massage the area. No glory story today. Not even a story of how I tried hard and failed. I'll be stretching and taking it easy over the weekend. This is pretty much all he wrote.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 53 - F@#!&?!!!!!

The lowest.  Today was my lowest day without a doubt.  The f@#!&? LOWEST!!!! I had a WOD that did not feel beneficial one bit today.  It just felt frustrating.  Do you care to know why?  Because today's WOD was... The WOD 18 minute EMOM

7 Pull-ups (every even minute)

20 Double-Unders (every odd minute)

THIS!!!  You want to know what happens when the WOD consists of the two basic movements I can't even come close to doing?   What happens is 9 minutes of me screwing up the coordination of moving the jump-rope and jumping...getting it tangled around one food...trying my best to do single-unders because there's no chance of double-unders but screwing that up too. In addition to that 9 minutes of frustration, you get to witness 9 MORE minutes of me trying to do pull-ups.  Fumbling with resistance bands, burning and shredding my palms trying to keep my weight up on the bar without falling to the floor.  Falling to the floor anyway.  Chalking my hands but not getting much help from that...and in the end you'd see a callus surface on my right hand and rip wide open all in the same workout.  I didn't even know it was there until the end when I looked at my palms expecting to see the normal shred but, instead, finding this fun little piece of skin flapping back and forth in the wind exposing a burning layer beneath.

I was highly frustrated and dropping F-bombs left and right under my breath throughout the WOD.  I profanely cursed the jump-rope when it got tangled, I cursed the pull-up bar when I fell from it and I cursed myself for my inability.  I also cursed the gloves I decided not to buy last week.  I'm buying them.  End of story. I've been working on the pull-up motion with Steve and continuing to practice a few on my own when I'm in the gym.  I've heard several people mention not using gloves to get a better grip on the pullup bar but, you know what?  I'm getting some gloves.  I feel that if I had a better grip on that bar and my palms weren't slipping that I'd be a whole hell of a lot closer to achieving my goal of one pull-up before I hit the 90 day mark.  I don't care if I'm using bands for assistance or not.  I just want to get one pullup where my chin or chest gets level with the bar.   Sooooo, there it is.  For all this muscle gain and hard work, today felt like the first damned day again.  Maybe that's an exaggeration and I need to go back and read the first ten days of this blog and see for myself that today was not as bad as I'm making it out to be. Tomorrow. Please Note: If a very sweet, very caring, very considerate friend offers you a skin glue called "New Skin with pain relief" to seal up the open callus...kindly decline that shit!!!  It burns like the fiery pits of hell!!!

...but the hole in my hand is nicely patched up now that I've stopped being such a pu$$y about it.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 52 - Wall Of Doom

Yup.  That's exactly what today's WOD felt like.  I got to the gym at 4:30 a.m. and did my second day of 10K training.  Six times around the block jogging/walking intervals for six laps.  I completed it in 26 minutes and 9 seconds.  Not bad considering the 1-mile distance from yesterday took 20 mins and 20 seconds.  The run intervals kept me around a 17 minute 20 second mile.   I was pretty worn once I got in the gym but was determined to do the WOD. The WOD: 8 minute EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute)

5 Power Cleans

5 Bar-over Burpees

20 wall balls

Within one minute, we had to do 5 power cleans, 5 bar-over burpees and 20 wall balls.  With my elbow in the shape it's in, I used the 35-lb barbell today with two 10-lb plates for a total of 55 pounds.  I'm happy that I'm jumping higher now but I'm only doing well at it when jumping straight up, a slight bit forward and landing on the box for box jumps.  In trying to do a few bar-over jumps to the left or right, I found myself not getting the momentum to go far to the left or right and wound up tripping on the bar.   Tom had me modify my burpees so that after completing a burpee I would just jump as high in place as I could and then do the next rep and so on.  It honestly didn't make the WOD any easier for me. 

As far as wall balls go, I used a 10-lb ball and practiced throwing a few up to the target and catching it in a squat.  I had my doubts about getting 20 per round and you're about to see that my prediction was correct. I got through the first minute with 5 Power Cleans, 5 Burpees and 2 Wall Balls.  Yes, two.  We had to move fast if we wanted to get closer to 20 on those.  My burpees slow me down so bad that the rest of the WOD, I didn't manage a single wall ball.  In the second minute through the eighth minute, I would get all 5 Power Cleans but only between 2 and 4 burpees per round.  It takes my fat ass a while to transition from standing  to the ground and back to standing.  That was the cause of my fail today. The score that went up on the white board today was the total amount of wall balls you were able to pull off in the 8 minutes...ugh. Pat - 2 There it is.  Oh well...I pushed to get through the other movements the best I could.  The warm-up and skill today were difficult and I was cramping in my sides again during those activities.  I'm hydrating my ass off so I have no idea what's causing the cramping lately.  I cramped in the first week but went through a good 35 days or so without that happening and now it's going on again. Well...there it is.  I don't know what else to say about it.  I've still got four more miles to cover this week in my 10K training.  I'm looking forward to getting a little better at the running before March 1st rolls around.  I'd like to finish the 10K in a time that's under 1.5 hours.  We shall see. See you tomorrow.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 51 - Fitting in the 10K Training

I don't know if this is crazy or not but I'm going to try hard to do a 10K on 3/1/14. It's called the Best Damn Race(http://bestdamnrace.com/orlando/).  Over this past weekend, I did The Color Run 5k with my 6-year old daughter beside me and we had a good time!  Here's a picture of us just before crossing the finish line below.  I wish you could see how happy her face is for making it through a 5k with her daddy but, as this is a public-facing blog, I'm protecting her identity like a good dad should.

My routine is already packed and the only way I can imagine fitting in the run training days is if I do it BEFORE Crossfit.  So I started today.  I'm using the coaching plan from the Nike Run App on iPhone.  Today was just a brisk 1-mile walk.  Brisk, for me, is apparently around a 20-minute mile today.  I woke at 4 a.m. today instead of the usual 4:30.  I left the house by 4:30 and was at Crossfit Tire Factory by 4:45 a.m.  I got out of the car, started the app and walked four laps around the block that surrounds the gym.  I got done right around 5:17 a.m. giving me just enough time to get inside, mix my Spark (more on this at the end) and put down some water.   Who knew that today's WOD would also include running?  Not me.  I'm going to skip past a detailed story telling you about the skill to find our 3-rep max on overhead squats.  In the end, I wound up with 105 pounds total but was quite wobbly in the arms.  The squat portion of it was no problem but my arms were not fully stable over head. The WOD:

400m run (2 laps around the gym)

30 overhead squats (Male RX was 95 pounds.  I lowered to 75.)

If we broke the reps (which everyone did), we had to do 5 toes to bar.  For me, this is knees to chest.  That means hang from a pull up bar and bring my knees up to my chest 5 times then do more reps. We had 20 minutes to do two rounds of this for best time possible. I got through the 400m run slowly as I typically do.  My legs are feeling stronger when running lately in short 1 minute intervals with some walking in between but for the WOD, I tried to stay running the whole time.  It didn't exactly go my way.  I finally got the 2 laps done and got into the gym around the 9 minute mark on the clock. I started my overhead squats and got 10 of them knocked out.

5 knees to chest

5 overhead squats

5 knees to chest

3 overhead squats

5 knees to chest

5 overhead squats

5 knees to chest

7 overhead squats (this was a push to just be done with the 30 reps)

As I was running out the door for the second round run as I heard Hannah yell "Four Minutes!!!"...and I ran but wasn't fooling myself or anyone else.  I was getting a big, fat DNF for today.  I got through one lap (200m) and just went back inside with no hope of finishing the WOD.  I was spent with a max effort given today.   I don't want my run training to interfere with my Crossfit.  I'll see how this goes as I increase my run times on training days.  If I have to, I'll move the run training to evenings but I'm the kind of person that likes to do all the exercise together at the beginnning of the day. A quick note.  I started distributing and taking Advocare products this week for a 24-day challenge.  I'm in the first 10-day phase so there's an herbal cleanse, omega oil pills and vitamin/energy drinks mixed in with my exercise and VERY lean, paleo eating that I intend to do.  No alcohol, no grain, no dairy. I'm going to be strict for 24 full days and see what results I get from the incorporation of the product into my Crossfit and run training.   I'm starting off today with weight at 328 and these measurements.

I'll report results again in 24 days.  In the meantime, stick with me to see how the story ends.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 50 - Handstand Heartache

After the stretch and warm-up today, Hannah spent a good deal of time showing us technique for kipping handstands.  This was a cool technique I got to spend most of the time observing.   You're on the ground on hands and knees.  You put your head on the ground so you can see your hands in front of you and walk your feet toward your hands and sending your butt up.  Then, since your elbows/arms are just about at 90 degrees now, you put a knee on each elbow.  Once you have that stabilized and supported on the arms and not the head, you send the feet and legs skyward.  It was really cool to do...except...well, I couldn't do any of it.  My stomach gets in the way and I couldn't get my knees anywhere near a position where I could rest them on my elbows.   So, like I said above, I spent most of the time observing the others and listening to Hannah explain the hows and whys for the technique. I tried doing some of the handstands I did a few weeks ago by walking my feet upward on the wall and was surprised to be able to get my hands in closer to the wall and feel like my back was supporting my upside-down position better.  It's going to take some time to work on doing a true handstand but for now, I think I'm ready to stop doing modified handstand pushups.  I'll work on walking my feet up on days where we have to do them and getting my reps in on the wall instead of the bar like in the past. After that, we did the WOD.  Yesterday, someone told me that they thought WOD stood for Wall of Doom and, after today's WOD, I couldn't agree more.   The WOD 15 minutes AMRAP (reps)

100 deadlifts (75 pounds for me)

100 burpees (bar-facing/jump over)

Just a quick explanation.  After you finish the deadlifts, you face the barbell, do a burpee, jump over the barbell, turn and face the barbell and repeat for 100 total reps. To make a long story short and less descriptive, I'll just tell you that I got to about 80 deadlift when Hannah came by to ask where I was.  I told her 80 but my barbell was on the ground and I was catching my breath.  She told me to get the last 20 done under the 10 minute mark.  She also stood by me shouting out how many reps I should try and do at a time.  "4 and then 3", which I did not do exactly as she suggested.  "Give me 8 and 7 more and you're done".  I think I did like 5 and 4 and then something else and then finally 2 final reps.  I did get the 100 deadlifts under 10 minutes.  I started the burpees but they were modified down.  My back was already a mess.  So I drop to put hands on the ground in a squatted position and put one leg back then the other so I'm in a pushup position.  I drop to the mat, come back up and walk my feet in to my hands.  I could not jump the bar.  I tried but caught my toes under it.  Hannah suggested stepping over it instead and, to reduce risk of injury, that's what I did.   When the time ran out, I had only done 15 modified burpees.  For those that completed it under 15 minutes, their score was their time.  For those who didn't get the entire 200 reps done, their score was the total amount of reps. My score: 115. Not terrible, not my best. So, there it is...50 days of Crossfit behind me.  I am still feeling a massive transformation.  I recently signed up as a distributor for Advocare and will be starting a 24-day challenge next week using their product line.  I continue to be concerned about the weight staying the same and even increasing a little on some days.  I need to see some fat shedding off quick to lighten up my body so I can progress further with some of these movements.  The March 2014 10K is coming up so I think I'll see some fat loss as I incorporate walking/jogging intervals back in to my routine along with 5 days of Crossfit per week.   Stick around to see how the story goes.  Talk to you later.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 49 - Amaze-Wall-Balls

Look...I'm not going to get too long-winded today.  I woke up to 37 degree temperatures.  I put on sweats and went in to Crossfit Tire Factory.  It didn't take long before I got warm.   We did 20 minutes of stretching/mobility followed by the warm-up.  The warm-up consisted of three rounds of:

250 meter row

Some complex thing I can't remember the name of but it was:

One Airsquat

One Pushup

One Situp

One Superman

One Air jump (bringing knees up while in the air)

10 Box Jumps

I got through two rounds at the same time as everyone else finished their third so Tom had me stop there.  That's when the sweatsuit came off.  I was burning up.  Heat.  Flames on the side of my face.  We took a second for water and went into the WOD. The WOD 12-minute AMRAP

150 Wall Balls

90 Double-Unders

50 Ring Muscle-ups

So, right there you can see how I wouldn't be finishing this in my wildest dreams.  I honestly didn't think I'd get through the Wall-balls.  I went with the 10-lb ball to keep the stress off my herniated disc when catching it.  It was the perfect amount of weight for an all out effort today.  Tom said to modify the double-under jumproping to single-unders if we couldn't do doubles.  Who were we kidding?  I wasn't making it that far anyway.  Right? Wrong! Melody was to my immediate right and once the clock started, I just went as fast as I could trying to keep up with her pace so I could get between 12 and 15 per minute.  After minute two, that number decreased but I was still doing 5, 8 and 10 reps at a time.  I really pushed myself on this today.   On one rep, I took a ball to the front of the face in the mouth.  A few more reps and I caught it with the left side of my face.  Not my finest coordination with catching the thing but that was it for injury.  There was a good deal of pausing here and there to relax my arms.  I'd let the ball hit the floor and then move my arms, pick it up and go again.  I hit 138 reps around the 9-minute mark.  I picked up the ball one last time with the intent to knock out 12 and be done.  I got six.  Dropped.  4 more. Dropped.  Two more and dropped it.  The clock was at 10 mins 30 seconds and I went for a jumprope.  I quickly got to a space where I could start.   Today was great on jumprope.  I was getting two consecutive jumps like the last time but then in the last 30 seconds I got two sets of 4 consecutive jumps.  When the clock ran out, I'd jumped the rope a total of 16 single-unders.  Not bad.  I'm glad that's getting better.   Melody was the only other person that got through all the wallball reps and even her 90 double-unders.  I know my weight on the wallballs was less than the rest of the class and that's the only reason I made it through.  Some were using 10 and 20 pound balls for the WOD and that's definitely why they didn't finish and I did.  My only excuse is that the weight and speed of that ball coming down can easily aggravate my back/disc so I need to scale down until my strength is way up.   So there you have it, folks.  That wasn't long-winded at all.  Let's talk more tomorrow!  IT'S GOING TO BE MY 50TH DAY OF CROSSFIT!!!!

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 48 - Looks Like We Made It!

Yes...I quote the great Barry Manilow in my title today.  I originally thought I wouldn't make it in today since the monkey (my six-year old) is out of school one more week.  As luck would have it, I just made a last minute decision to take her to the 8:30 a.m. session and let her play in the kid's area while I did the WOD.  I worked out under Shayne's guidance today and it wasn't a near-death experience like the last two times I did a WOD with him. The WOD 9-minute AMRAP (rounds as possible, not reps)

10 - 20 - 30 - 40 Double Unders (jumping rope)

5 - 10 - 15 - 20 Push Press

I had to modify the double unders to singles and, in doing so, also had to double the reps.  So, for me, the WOD looked like this

20 - 40 - 60 - 80 Single Unders

5 - 10 - 15 - 20 Push Press

It wasn't entirely terrible.  I was worn out after but not near death.  My jump roping isn't getting a whole lot better.  I really do need to buy one and start practicing my coordination at home.  I'm having no problem jumping off the ground.  I'm having no problem swinging the rope.  When I put these two actions together, I fail terribly.  I will say that I was making successful single jumps for the first several rounds.  By the third round, I was able to get 2 consecutive reps in a few times before my wrists pulled the rope right into my feet on the third.  I guess that's a little better but it still slows me down. In the end, I got through: Round 1: 20 single unders and 5 Push Press Round 2: 40 single unders and 10 push press Round 3: 45 single unders and... the clock ran out.  Frustration as usual but, hey, I managed a total of 105 jump rope reps today and that's more than I've done on earlier attempts.  Had the jump rope not slowed me down, I could have at least gotten through more of the push press reps. That's all I've got time to write for today.  Thanks, as always, for reading and I'll talk to you more tomorrow.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 47 - Clean Up Your Mess!!!

It was not my best day.  Due to being really sick, having family and friend commitments, singing gigs and holidays, I was unable to get in to Crossfit Tire Factory since 12/23/12.  Today was my first day back.  It did not go well. Had Steve as a coach today!  We had a good stretch and skill/strength portion.  I need help with The WOD

50 Pullups

40 Box Jumps

30 Overhead Snatches (from the ground)

20 Handstand Pushups

10 Overhead Squats

Just looking at it, I knew I wouldn't finish it.  Even if I cut the reps in half I wasn't going to finish it in time.  My main concern was that my current level of skill would not see me past the 50 pushups.  My hands, wrists, arms and shoulders just can't keep my body weight suspended long from that bar without pausing between every few reps.   I asked Steve if I could cut the reps in half. He agreed but said not to modify the pullups to ring rows. I didn't want to anyway.  I want to spend the remainder of my 90 day challenge getting better at strict pullups. I used a couple of resistance bands for assistance.  It helped some but during the WOD, I still found my hands sweaty and slipping off the bar.  I used some chalk and that helped my grip some but ended up shredding the skin on my palms and fingers in the end. In the time limit, I was only able to achieve

25 Pullups

25 Box jumps (I did five extra because I wanted to)

15 Overhead Staches

10 Handstand pushups (modified for me)

I didn't get to the 5 overhead squats because

Time ran out

I couldn't do one more thing if I tried

In fact, my head was so out of it that I made a horrible error in cleaning up my equipment.  I put away the box I used for box jumps.  I put away the bumper plates.  Val came over and took my barbell and but it away.  I walked across the gym with the big box I used to step up to the pullup bar.  Then I went toward the white board to tell Steve I got a DNF but he already had it written up there.  I grabbed my keys and walked out the door to hear Lucy yelling "good job with the box jumps, Pat".  I thanked her and drove home. On my drive in to the office, I was met with this terrible realization from Steve via Facebook

Well, shit!  I forgot to untie and put away the resistance bands.  I suck at burpees but the final comment about box jumps makes me not care about it.  I'll just try to get 15 burpees in tomorrow before the warmup and 15 in next Monday before the warmup. Talk to you more tomorrow!

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 46 - Clean Snatch

No...wait... Switch that.  Snatch Clean.  Sorry...my mistake.  I want to share some brief words of wisdom.  There are some things you just can't undo.  Can't unsee.  Time you can't get back.  Now I would not give up the good company of a close friend last night but I cannot get back the time wasted on seeing Anchorman 2.  I'm not even sure what I watched last night.  The decision to see it at 9:30 p.m., getting out of the theater at 11:30, driving 30 minutes home and not being able to fall asleep until 12:30 was not my finest choice.  Especially not when I planned to wake at 4:30 for the 5:30 Crossfit session.   This was me at 4:30 a.m. trying to make up my mind.

I went. The WOD 15 minutes to complete 21 - 15 - 9

Snatch Cleans @ 60% of max (65 lbs for me)

Ring Dips

I modified to doing dips on these metal bars with assistance from a resistance band.  It didn't offer much assistance but I was doing actual dips and have never done them before now.  My arm strength continues to surprise me as it gets better. I only made it through the full round of 21 reps, 15 of the snatch cleans and about 12 of the ring dips in the second round before time ran out.   This WOD was a struggle for me.  I was out of breath for most of it after the first round and my arms strength did not last very long.   There's a WOD at 10 a.m. tomorrow that I'm going to try to squeeze in before getting on the road to visit family for Christmas.  After that, there's nothing available until Thursday morning.  It's just as well.  I'm working hard.  It's time to rest and relax with family over the next two days.   Talk to you in a few.  Merry Christmas!

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 45 - Half Way There!

As of this morning, I'm half way through my 90 day transformation with Crossfit.  To clarify, I'm not stopping crossfit after 90 days.  I'm just going to lay off the daily blog posts and switch to once or twice per week as I achieve new goals. Today was a great day considering I only got about four hours of sleep last night.  We did our stretch. The warm-up was 3 unbroken rounds of

10 Front Squats (45-lb barbell only)

10 Overhead Push Press (45-lb barbell only)

The skill today was working on getting our front squat max.  We were supposed to start at 60% of our current max but I honestly don't have one.  I've never lifted more than 65 pounds on a front squat and that's where I started.  Brandon wanted us to do 5 rounds of 3 front squats while increasing weight between each round.  This was at our own pace and we needed to hold the lowered squat position for three seconds before coming back up.  I feel like I really did great with this today and I could have done a little more weight if my wrists didn't hurt so much.  My arms do not allow me to get the elbows up high and so I can't correctly rack the bar on my chest and shoulders.  What ends up happening is all the weight on the bar is transferred to my wrists and ends up being stressful and a little painful in the end. I did my best to be careful. Going through each set, I had increased weight from 65 to 100 lbs.  I finished the 5th set and others were still working on their max efforts.  I decided to do a sixth round.  Then I rested.  Brandon came around. "Where are you at?" (I'm right behind that preposition. Ha ha!) "You said to 5 sets?", I asked. "Yes", he replied. "I did six.", I said with a smile and overly confident.  My dumbass mistake. "Do another round.", he smiled and laughed back then walked smugly away to another person. So I did a seventh round.  Then, for my own personal reasons, I did an eighth round. The girl to my left, Kerry, started talking to me. "Pat, I've been noticing your transformation this whole week.  You can really notice it in your arms and you're looking slim." I had my typical response.  I thanked her and told her how the clothes are fitting more loosely and my body and muscles feel amazing but the scale isn't budging.  She assured me it was coming. The girl to my right...ugh...I forget her name.  She told me my form was looking good on the front squats.  I talked about this being my new max and about the wrist pain and being unable to get the elbows up to properly rack the bar.  I'd say "I can't get my elbows high enough." and she'd simply respond with "yet...".  Point taken. So I'm blabbing but I wanted to share all of that.  Let's get to the WOD. The WOD 8 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of:

10 pullups

10 pushups

10 air squats

Since I achieved the box jump this week, I talked to Brandon and we decided it's time for me to stop doing ring row modifications.  If I keep doing it, I'm only going to get better at ring rows and never get better at pullups.   I put a green resistance band (strongest one) on the pull up bar, put my right foot in and tried a few.  I can only pull myself half way up but it's feeling easier to hang from the bar without the feeling of my arms being ripped from their sockets.  So Brandon told me just pull up as much as I could and hold it a few seconds for max effort then do another rep. There was nothing I did that was modified this morning.  I finished a total of four rounds in the 8 minutes.  Not my best amount of rounds but I gave an all out effort.   Today feels great!  In my head, it's hard to believe I've been doing this for 45 actual days.  Then I start feeling my arms and legs and chest and what seem to be abs starting to surface and I'm amazed and proud of myself for making it this far. I like the feeling.  I like the compliments.  I like that people are starting to notice. I can't WAIT to see how I feel in 45 more days!!!

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 44 - Getting Intimate with Grace

I got to see Steve this morning for the workout.  We spent 20 minutes on stretching and mobility and then 10 minutes working on form with Clean & Jerks.  After finding an adequate weight that we felt we could complete 30 reps of, we started the WOD. The WOD GRACE - Another of the many women of Crossfit.  I admit she's not as much of a bitch as the others I've been with.  Grace is 30 clean and jerk reps for best time. Steve set a 12 minute maximum and told us all we should be finishing in a time that's considerably less than that.   Rx for men was 135 lbs Rx for women was 90 lbs Only one person in the class was fit enough to achieve Rx and that was Tom at the full 135. He finished in some ridiculous time like 7 minutes.  The next highest guy was at 115 and he also finished in just over 7 minutes.   My elbow is still sore but my back and pretty much the rest of my body have jumped on the sore train now.  Yesterday and Tuesday really wore me down.  I haven't felt this sore in a while. During the skill, I realized the max I could achieve with the amount of soreness and ache was 65 lbs.  So that's what I did for the WOD.  I'm all about making sure I don't injure myself or aggravate my back and knees.  I kept the weight low but it was enough.  I was sweating all over the place. I managed a few reps at a time.  This one was from the floor so I was able to drop the bar from chest height to the floor between reps and then raise it up over again from the floor for each rep after.   6 reps     catch breath 4 reps     catch breath 4 reps     catch breath 5 reps     catch breath 1 rep     catch breath 5 reps     catch breath 5 reps 9 minutes and 3 seconds to get 30 reps.  Most people finished in between 7 and 9 minutes.  Only one finished after me but she was lifting about 20 pounds more than I was. I feel okay about the weight.  I think next time around, I'll try it with 75 or 80. Tomorrow is Day #45 and the half way mark to completing my first 90 days of Crossfit.  I'm pleased with how far I've made it already.  See you tomorrow.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 43 - If Steve Could See Me Now!

Going right into it.

The WOD 5-4-3-2-1 Rope Climbs alternating with 2-4-6-8-10 Burpee Box Jump Overs

I can’t rope climb. Brandon modified me to 10-8-6-4-2 Ring Rows alternating with 2-4-6-8-10 Burpee Box Jump Overs

I set up a stack of two 55 pound plates and one 35 pound plate. I put the women’s modified box next to it. The height of the stack was so close to the top of the box. Maybe a 2 inch difference. I wondered if today would be the day I’d make it to the top of the modified box.

The WOD started. No problem with ring rows. I did my first two Burpee box jumps on the plates. I asked Brandon to observe and see if I was clearing the top of the purple box. He felt I was when I jumped on the plates.

For round two I switched to the box. First jump and I barely landed it on my toes and stumbled over it to the ground on the other side. I did the Burpee and turned to jump the box again with a little more effort.

SUCCESS!

Again…ON IT!!! Again…SHIT! I WISH STEVE HAD BEEN HERE!!!

I got through the entire WOD having done 28 total box jumps on the actual box and only the first two jumps on the bumper plates.

I have wanted this day to be here for a VERY long time. This is my biggest fitness leap to date (pun very much intended).

BOX JUMPS!!! HELL YES!!!

As I was putting the box away after the workout, Daniel came over. "You know this is Steve's doing. He pushed you to get this far." and he had this smile and a bit of a laugh like he was happy for me. I like that kind of encouragement and warm feeling from the others that bust their asses every day with me.

I hope Steve is there to train tomorrow. I can’t wait to share the news. Maybe offer up a live demonstration for him!

More to come tomorrow! Stay with me!

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 42 - Snatches

Not my favorite lifting exercise.  I'm just having some trouble getting the fluid motion down.  I only really have time to give you the WOD today.   The WOD: 15 minutes to complete 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

Overhead snatches from the floor

Toes to Bar (hanging from pull up bar and kicking your toes up to the bar)

I modified to Knees to Chest (hanging from pullup bar and raising my knees to chest height). Today was the first day I was able to hang from the pull up bar without my arms feeling like they'd rip from the sockets.  I did the WOD as quickly as possible with 65 pounds total on the barbell for the snatches.   15 minutes later and I only managed to get through the sets 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 and 5 of the reps.  I did not finish rounds 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 and got a DNF on the board.  It's okay.  I gave an all out effort and I achieved the ability to start doing the knee raises on the pull up bar. More tomorrow.  Sorry it's so short today.  I'm swamped with work.

[back2thebadass]

Crossfit: Day 41 - Back Squats Again?

Hannah's last words as we left Crossfit Tire Factory this morning: "Good luck walking tomorrow!" No shit!  We did our stretch, a 10 minute EMOM of 3 back squats per minute at 80% of our one rep max.  Mine is 155 pounds now so 80% of that was 124 so I loaded 125 on the bar and spent the next 10 minutes really working hard to push that weight up 3 times per minute.  My legs were dead but that was only the skill.  We still had to do the WOD. The WOD: 10 minutes AMRAP(rounds) 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 30

Back Squats at 50% max (77.5lbs for me. I set up 80 pounds total.)

150m Run

So we basically start and do 5 reps of back squats and then run.  Then 10 reps of back squats and then run. Then 15, 20, 25...you get it. I only made it through the set of 15 and the run.  It was 48 degrees in Florida today.  Add the temperature to my already sucky running skills and I was just too slow.  Plus, by the time we got through the skill segment of back squats, my legs were useless. During the WOD, it made that 80 pounds feel like a ton.  Not my best day, not my worst but another day behind me and moving on to being better. I decided last minute to go in for a Crossfit session on Saturday morning.  I just woke up feeling like I wanted to go.  That was a tough day too.  I won't get into detail but I worked hard. Talk to you more tomorrow.

[kryptoniangradegains-deactivate]

"I will fail, I will waiver, I will doubt.

I will not relent, I will not be beaten, I will never give up!”

[kryptoniangradegains-deactivate]

This was my first attempt at a motivational post and I’m really happy people are enjoying it.