Virtuosity

Stopped by CF Virtuosity before my private clients came in and grabbed a quick class.

Warm up dumbell presses: 25# x 10, 30# x 10,
3 x 10 of #35

Workout: 30, 20, 10
25# situps
24" box jumps
4:23

Haven't had a chance to stop by the library, so I picked a book off of Melissa's shelf. I will use the "People's History of the United States" as my back up book when I am between library books. So far, it is a look at US history from the eyes of those who were fucked over by rich, white male Europeans. Understandably, given the size of that underclass, the book is rather large.

Marriage of Figaro and Front Squats

Did Barbell front squats for the first time in 2.5 months. Was glad to see I could do them without undue wrist pain.

Front Squat 5 X 3
Warmup 45 x7, 95 x 3, 115 x 3
145, 155, 165F(1), 155, 155

Then did 10 count Sissy test with 1.5 pood weight in 9:28

Shows: Went to Lincoln Center to wait 2 hours for Rush tickets to Marriage of Figaro. Got the tickets, met up with my sister and went to the show. It was really enjoyable, with the typical Met production budget. Had a great time and was happy to introduce Lara to Opera. Next time, will pick up ballet tickets, since she is probably more into that.

Reading: Finished "All the Shah's Men." Solid book with an appropriate level of detail and explanation for someone of my knowledge regarding Iran (none). It is obviously pro-Mossedegh and anti-American involvement in foreign coups, but still presents an interesting background on where mideast terror, particularly Iran-sponsored terror,comes from. Increased my already existing desire to read a good biography of Eisenhower.

Linda

On Saturday, I was still halfway crippled by soreness from the lunges. Feels good to be doing CF again at full strength.

Saturday was Linda with lower weight. Rep scheme is descending from 10, 9, 8 etc. to one of each of the following:
Deadlift 205# (107% of body weight)
Bench Press 155# (82%)
Clean using 2 x 1.5 pood kettlebells (55%)

Rx weight would be 150%, 100%, 75%. Deadlifts were the hardest, as my legs were still shot and mostly no help to getting that weight up.

While I did that, Melissa practiced for her performance on Wednesday. After practice, we had a romantic date at Fairway. This included grocery shopping and then sharing 2 for 1 clearance sandwiches in the parking lot, while looking at the statue of Liberty. Was fun, if a little silly.

Thanksgiving

Busy few days:

Tuesday night: Crossfit Endurance in Central park: 30s on/30s off of shuttle runs about 15 meters apart. 10 minutes. 7,8,9,9,8,8,7,7

Wednesday: 400m walking lunges. 14:15. Finished out with some yoga with Lara.

Thursday: 5 rounds of:
~350m
10 pushups
10 squats
20 situps
14:48

Thanksgiving itself was fairly typical with stuff breaking, dad yelling at people and good food. Nice to see everyone and to not have to rush home for work.

Finished playing the campaign in Modern Warfare 2 last night. That was depressing. Great game, but really depressing.

1st Day of Freedom

Last day of work as an in house counsel was yesterday. I am now, at least for the forseeable future, away from the office. It feels damn good.

With the restart, I will add some things besides just workouts. First, some recent PR's.

Fran, subbed 2 x 1 pood kettlebells: 4:43. This is a 4:17 improvement off of my last Rx attempt.

Deadlift 315, up from 305 and I was so very close to 325.

Helen 9:27 as RX. This is about 90 seconds faster than the last PR.

Today was:
5x1 press
5x3 push press
5x5 push jerk

115, 135, 140F, 135, 135
115, 125, 135, 140, 145
115, 115, 135, 135, 125


Reading:

Just finished "G-Man" which is the story of Assistant Director of the FBI Mark Felt, more commonly known as Deep Throat. Depressing story of a virtuous man who spent almost his whole life serving his country only to be attacked, sued and have his family break apart.

Just picked up from the library "All the Shah's Men" the story of the CIA sponsored coup in Iran.

Will be cooking thanksgiving dinner this week for the family. Should be fun and a good time to see everybody. Melissa, of course, will spend turkey day by herself watching awful TV and eating high end mac and cheese. Should be great.

Murph

It has been a long time, but finally Murph came up again in the rotation. Again it is:

1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
1 mile run

Finished in 40:50 (PR), a little less than 4 minutes faster than last time a more than 3 minutes faster than my prior PR. Unfortunately, I am still not fast enough, particularly on pull ups and pushups, to do this as fully RX, which includes wearing a 20# vest or equivalent in body armor.

Generally feel pretty good physically and I am looking forward to the weekend, which will be an adventure in knife making.

2009 Goals

After having a few weeks to mull it over, I have come up with a draft of the 2009 goals. I am looking for suggestions on these, especially subjects/books for reading.

Fitness:
1. Complete Marathon
2. Win Urbanathlon
3. 5 Second free standing handstand
4. 750 CFT (sum of back squat, deadlift, overhead press)
5. 60 second 400m Run
6. 5 minute mile

Travel
1. Gencon 2009 (Indianapolis, IN in August)
2. Tucson, AZ
3. Montreal or Toronto

Adventure:
1. Swim under a natural waterfall
2. Speed hiking and camping
3. Skinny dipping in lake or ocean

Cooking
1. Successfully bake a loaf of bread
2. Make sushi for Melissa

Learning
1. Read 12 non-fiction books on subjects I am not familiar with
2. Get certified as a Level 1 Crossfit Trainer
3. Learn (very) basic Blacksmithing and fashion my own knife

Career
1. Apply for a different career
2. Get a job I hate less
3. Finish NJ CLE

Relationship
1. At least 2 date nights a month

Gaming
1. 1500 point fully painted Menoth Army
2. Sell unused models (FOW + Everblight)

Financial
1. Complete taxes by end of March
2. Have $15,000 in savings by YE

I will almost certainly add more, but I think this is a good beginning.

2008 Goals or why a job half done doesn't feel too bad

In the first quarter of last year, I sat down and came up with a list, subdivided by the part of my life it relates to, of the goals I wanted to achieve last year. After tallying the successes and failures, I had a 50% compliance rate for the 32 goals. Some of the remainder are partial successes, but like a partial pull up or pushup, it doesn't actually count. Here is the list:

Fitness:
1. Muscle-up DONE
2. 5 second perfect form handstand FAIL
3. Run Urbanathlon 10 minutes faster DONE
4. 300 or better score in Fight Gone Bad DONE

Travel:
1. Visit 2 Major U.S. Cities for the first time San Francisco 50% Compliance
2. Visit a foreign country DONE
3. Visit Montreal or Toronto FAIL

Adventure:
1. Ice Climbing DONE
2. Skydiving in a different landscape FAIL
3. Swim under a natural waterfall FAIL
4. Climb a mountain DONE
5. Go Camping DONE

Cooking:
1. Prepare 5 course meal for 4+ people DONE
2. Make hand stuffed ravioli again DONE
3. Make 3 course meal w/ rabbit for entrée DONE
4. Take another knife skills course FAIL
5. Successfully bake a loaf of bread FAIL

Learning:
1. Basic Conversational Spanish FAIL

Career:
1. New job as in house counsel FAIL
2. Finish all NJICLE requirements FAIL
3. Get company to pay for subscription to corp counsel periodical FAIL
4. Read business/economic news periodical at least once a week 50% Compliance

Relationship:
1. Take Melissa to Mesa Grill DONE
2. Tango Lessons DONE
3. Dance in the rain FAIL
4. Take non-couples dance class w/ Melissa FAIL
5. Get a few good pictures of her and us DONE

Gaming:
1. Only buy for one faction at a time DONE
2. Don’t spend more than $35/month on miniatures DONE
3. No more than 3 total video games this year DONE

Financial:
1. Fund trip to another country and to 2 major U.S. Cities 66% Compliance
2. Set up a budget Partial Compliance
3. Pay Access loan down to $2,000 FAIL
4. Have Taxes done before end of March. DONE


Some of the failed goals will be moved into 2009 as continuing quests for improvement. Some will be dropped altogether, as priorities change. It was a good year and I was blessed with both fortuitous success as well as the much more invigorating kind that comes at the end of sweat and determination.

Stair sprints and Jerks

Did a short run WoD at Manhattan box, as there were too many people at work to use our much larger stairway.

3 rounds for time of:
run to 5th floor and descend
6th floor and descend
7th floor and descend
rest 90 seconds

14:31. Nice quick workout. Then did a split and push jerk seminar with our o-lifting coach, Brian D. Learned a lot, but form still sucks.

Fat, Fatter, Fattest

The Christmas holiday was a celebration of eating, family and friends, all held in the warm, comforting glow of the Xbox 360. Fallout 3 is that special kind of awesome that enourages whatever tendancies you naturally have and allow you to play them out without very much in the way of serious reprecussions. Video gaming at its most cathartic.

However, this did put a hurt on the training, so here is the log of how it went down:

Christmas day: Ate
Next day: Ate and Ate
That Saturday: Yup, still eating
Sunday: parents bought me a 5 gallon tub of raw cookie dough, which is my kryptonite. Assuming, of course, that this metaphor allowed superman to stuff a tub of Kryptonite filled with raw egg goodness down his maw while slobber and half-melted chocolate chips smeared his animal-like countanence.

Monday: finally back on track with Michael, for the first time as RX.
3 rounds of:
800m run
50 GHD back extensions
50 GHD situps

I have done this a number of times before, subbing good mornings for back extensions and anchored ab mat situps for the GHD. Prior times were in the 17 min range. This time: 26:48. A good portion of this was the agony of the last 50 situps, most done in 3s and 2s. Totally different workout that crippled me two days later.

Tuesday: CF virtuosity team workout that seemed like fun version of gym class. Practiced handstands then ran home from downtown manhattan. The view, at night, from the manhattan bridge on crisp clear night was breathtaking. Or maybe that was the 25 degree weather. Not sure.

Wednesday: Rest day. Melissa's comment- I now know how you will walk when you are 70.

Thursday (New Years Day!): Murph. First time as RX:
1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run

Pullups were almost entirely dead hang, as my abs still didn't really function correctly. 44:40. This is almost exactly what I got last time, but I am stronger now as I was pretty beat up even before the workout. Ran to and from the gym for a total of 5 miles

Friday: 135# Clean and Jerk minute ladder. One C&J on the first minute, 2 on the next and so on until you fail.

7 rounds plus 5 at 115#. Felt punked when Martin, who I outweigh by 20#s, beat me by a whole round.

Saturday: Desperately needed rest day, both for my body and my relationship with Melissa.

Sunday: Ran to and from the gym (5 miles). Deadlift 5 sets of three, peaking at 288# (a PR 13 pounds above even my last 1RM). Then did a Snatch clinic for instructors. Useful, but I missed part because I was late.

Monday: 7x1 Hang power cleans. Maxed out at 155. Form got better, especially with the extra clean seminar afterwards, but still not good.

Tuesday: 4 rounds of:
400m run
15 Handstand push ups
2 15' rope climbs

subbed 1:1 HSPU negatives to one abmat and 2:1 brooklyn rope climbs (10' rope) from a standing position.

Started Zone diet again Wednesday morning with a target use until the marathon on 7 Feb.