Z-Health Seminar, Back Squats and Running Cert

Well, just like my mom told me as a kid, if you run in the rain, chances are, you will get sick. Sure enough, I am feeling a little under the weather. However, I did make it out to the free Z-Health seminar at the Box last night. It was a really cool presentation by the guy who developed the systems and he showed us some basic movements to open joints in the foot and spine that really helped my ability to stretch. Have to really try it out and see how it works in practice.

Today was 5X5 back squats, but after the seminar last night that consisted mostly of "form first" commandments, I decided to just go light and see how my body felt. The stretching helped and I feel much better now (but for the cold).

Also signed up for a CF Running and Endurance Cert in Topsfield Mass in November. Excited about this as it should be a good chance to really learn POSE and learn how to teach others about it. Should also be a fun weekend away and Melissa is coming with me for a chance to visit Boston.

Urbanathlon!!!

Finally, the best race of the year came up. With a start time of 7 am, I got up at 4:30 ready to get going and more than a little nervous. I had committed to cutting 10 minutes off my time from last year before really thinking about what that meant. After breaking down the times, it looked like I would have to run consistent 7 minute miles, hit the obstacles hard and still finish climbing and descending a 52 story building in less than 17 minutes.

The race started poorly, with fog, light rain and tight calves. The wet course slowed everybody down and lead to one incautious racer to fall and then tumble down a set of stone steps right in front of me. Finished the first set of obstacles without problem, but breathe was hard and erratic. The middle leg was the hardest, as I just felt outclassed in terms of actual running ability. If this wasn't a wake up call to get off my ass and learn POSE, I don't know what is. The low crawl, monkey bars and marine hurdles were fine, but I couldn't wait to end the distance running and hit the stairs. It was here that I knew I would shine and pick up some spots.

Sure enough, people started gassing around floor 30, allowing me to pass 15-20 people in the building. A hard mile run to the end, quick jump over the taxi and wall climb and the race was over.

Best part, I finished 24th out of ~950 individual runners with a time of 1:12:31, almost exactly ten minutes faster. Even with terrible run form, I picked up the time, pushed hard and made it happen. It was awesome!

Snatches and Shovels

Isabel (30 Snatches for time) was yesterday. I am still not comfortable with Snatches, so I did ~40 snatches @ 65 to practice form. Still not confident, but better.

Today was virtual shoveling and pushups. This is essentially an Olympic bar with a 45 pound weight on only one end. The athlete lifts the weight (no just bar) over an object of a certain height, here 24”. Workout was 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 of shovels and pushups. One rep of shoveling is touching both sides of the obstacle. My time was around 16 minutes, but I wasn’t into it. Just dragging ass worrying about work. Got to get back in the game, especially for the race this weekend.

The Weekend (5K)

Less than a week to go before the Urbanathlon. Still feeling Michael in my hamstrings and doing a lot of stretching to relieve that. As a pacing run, I did a 5K on Friday at the McCarren track. First time running a 5K on a track, especially one filled with the children of intermural soccer players. Good pacing for the upcoming race, as I got a feel for a 6:15 mile, 7 min mile and 8 min mile. Did a warm up mile, run to track (.75 mile), 5K in 21:02, run back to Box, run home (2.5 mi.). Felt good to go middle distance, even if it was broken up.

Saturday was spent studying for my PADI Open water diving cert (SCUBA) with some other BS. Also bought new training shoes, which pissed me off to spend $60, but I will use them a lot. Sunday was a 15 mile bike ride and hanging out with friends. Good stuff and I am ready to begin the taper this week to the race. Crossing fingers for good weather.

The Chief and more Stairs

Two WoDs yesterday. Lunchtime at the Manhattan Box, made up the Chief, which is:
5 intervals, each interval is As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 3 minutes of:

3 115# power cleans
6 push ups
9 squats

Hit my mark of 4 rounds in each interval, although just barely making the last interval by a couple of seconds. Didn’t realize how tough it would be going from squats to power cleans.

That night, I stayed late at the office and did a modified Crossfit Endurance WoD on the stairs.

3 rounds of 20 seconds on/20 off, 30 on/30 off, 45/45. 60 on. The rest periods were pure rest, the end of each round was an immediate descent to the bottom at the fastest safe speed. As soon as I hit the bottom, the next round started.

Climbed 24 stories, 25, 25.5 in the three rounds. Not bad, but will have to do better at the Urbanathlon. Really looking forward to a race where my friends and family can be there to cheer me on and celebrate the finish. Should be a great time.

Michael (again)

Well, for the third time this summer, we ended up with Michael, which is:
3 rounds for time of:
800m run
50 back extensions (sub 45# good mornings)
50 sit ups

I pulled in 17:32, which is a PR, but only by 12 seconds (17:44), not the almost a minute that I thought it was (the PR before that was 18:26, so that would have been correct). Sit ups were unbroken and GMs only had a total of three breaks, all of them two breathes long. Looks like the running is where I am going to make the improvement. Hopefully enough to pull it sub 17. My end goal being a 15 min, with each run taking an average of 3 minutes and each other exercise taking 1 minute. Considering that my 800 best in high school was in the 2:20s, that is probably a pretty tough goal, but still one to reach for. Also, if we ever do get a GHD, I could finally do the actual back extension and have a real time for this. I am curious how much that would add.

Fran

After a tough day at the office, I managed to make it to the gym around 8:15 and get in a Fran: 21, 15, 9 of 95# thrusters and chest to bar pull ups. PR on this was 9:50. Despite being tired already, I managed to hit 9 minutes even, although it took the last of my will. The bike ride home was lonnnng and the collapse upon coming home was fast.

Looks like Michael today, a WoD that I normally do pretty well on. Will have to do it out in Brooklyn, as you can actually run out there.

1 year anniversary

Today is my one year anniversary with Melissa. In addition to a pleasant couple of days and a first date redux, this weekend has afforded me an opportunity to look at some of my goals, accomplishments and failures over the last year.

First, it would be difficult to disagree with the statement that I am in the best shape of my life. I can lift more, run farther, recover faster and have the highest level of confidence in my own physical ability than at any other time. Moreover, I feel like I have climbed to the top of a mountain, looked briefly around at how far I have climbed and then immediately started to look for more mountains to climb. I want to continue to feel that drive to do more, faster, better and have fun while doing it.

To that end, I have been trying to also find the appropriate training/living balance, which seems to work out to 5-6 days on and 1-2 days off, usually weekends. Sadly, some days, like today, get in the way and I have to stay late at work. Will hopefully continue tomorrow.

Jerking around

WOD today was 3x5 clean and jerks. After warmup and a little form work I ended up with this weight breakdown for sets: 95, 115, 125, 135, 125. The 135 set was crap form, especially on the jerk portion. The jerk is such a powerful movement that it is lost on an amount of weight that I can shoulder press, much less push press. The clean ended up being more of a power clean than a squat clean.

This should be a link to understanding the different types of cleans, for those that are unfamiliar:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CleanCatchHeight.wmv

And this should be the jerk: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_PushJerkDaveOpensHip.wmv

Lastly, this is what we did, which is essentially putting them together (except I did a push jerk, rather than a split jerk): http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/josh_everett_lift.mpg

Follow up on the Sprint Triathlon

On August 23 I took on my first Triathlon. It was an off road Sprint distance which meant:

800m swim

11 mile trail bike

5K trail run

Since I am best described as a safety swimmer and had never swam more than 50m until that weekend, the first part was the most difficult. It took me 26:39 to get out of the water and I was tired, disoriented and sore from using my abs way too much. Unlike kayaking, mountain Biking and running, you can't fake swimming with athletic capability. You either swim or you don't.

I was 150th out of the water, but pulled ahead on the bike and run to 117th. Not impressive, but I will take it, since I was obviously unprepared for the swim. Not sure if I like the tris, as the events are poorly sequenced(mass swim start is dumb) and not particularly interesting. Adventure racing seems like a much more interesting competition and much less able to be tech'ed for prior to the race. AR punishes those who don't have GPP and that is what I train.

We all like what we are good at, I guess.

Here is the ghetto photo of the finish (yes I am too cheap to buy the $30 print):

Approaching the Anniversary

Still missing posts, but will try to catch up.
(Sunday) Tried Lynn over the weekend: Body weight (BW) bench, 1.5x BW deadlifts, .75 BW cleans. I weigh 177 Done in sets of 10, 9,8, etc. for time. I completed the bench (185)in sets of 3s and 2s, deadlifts of 265 in 2s and 1s, and didn't even try 135 pound squat cleans, as that is just downright dangerous with my current form. I only made it through the ten round, before running out of time and realizing that I am too weak to complete this workout.
Also carried 27 inch TV home from Spanish Harlem.

(Monday) Did FGB at regulation weight and finally made it to 300! Workout is 3 rounds, 1 minute per exercise, 1 minute break between rounds and no breaks between exercises. Count reps for score. Exercises are: 75# push press, 75# sumo deadlift high pull, box jumps, 20# wallball, row (calories). Very pleased with this performance.

(Tuesday) CFE stair WoD, did 3 rounds of (2 min on/2min off, 2 min on/1 min off). Climbed 60 stories, descended 45. Not happy with the setup, but can adapt later. Probably always descending during rest periods so work sets are always going up.

(Wednesday) Did BW benching again, with pull ups and back squats. Workout was terrible and reinforced my own weakness. Then did CFE wod of 16 rounds of 10 sec work/20 sec rest at sprinting. Went a total of 1025m, but on a 100m course requiring back and forth. Will probably just do 100m sprints next time.

(Thursday) REST DAY!!!!!