It’s day 5 of 30WOD, which with the additional work I have been doing is actually day 7. So far here is a breakdown of what has happened…
Monday, 05/04/2015 30WODD1 – 5R 5PClean 10BoxJ 5OHP 10KBSwing
Tuesday, 05/05/2015 30WODD2 – 6 min plank and 5 min each of skips pushups stepups and situps
Wednesday, 05/06/2015 30WOD2D3 – OHS 2-2-2-2-2 4R of 400m run & 12 strict chinups
Thursday, 05/07/2015 Coaching – 80 free dips and 80 drop set curls
Friday, 05/08/2015 41 30WOD2D4 3R 50DU 20 boxj and 15 t2b
Saturday, 05/09/2015 Bench Heavy day to 365lbs – 190 reps
Sunday, 05/10/2015 30WOD2D5 5R 20 Wallball and 15 hang cleans
Conspicuous by it’s absence is any handstand practice or work of any kind. I have (mostly in vain so far) been trying to get my weight to come down and although I seem to be gaining vascularity and losing some body fat my weight is not moving much. I am currently around 252 which is only 8lbs down from my announced start of cut. I seem to have slipped out of cutting mode which is OK since now I am back into HIIT it should serve the same purpose. I am settling into the 30WOD thing OK, my abs are no longer sore from their rude awakening last week and I am noticing that my heart is responding a little better already which just means I am not still gasping when I get upstairs from working out.
However, I am not so far in that I feel any more mobile. I am going to have to start some mobility work again I think since I have lost a degree of flexibility since the last heavy round I did at the end of last year. Most noticeably my hamstrings are tight, my hips are tight and my general feeling is not one of mobility and agility but rather of brute strength and stability. I like both, but when I feel mobile I feel young and strong not just strong.
This week I commit to trying some handstands, against a wall, in private… Cartwheels are next!!
It’s gymnastics competition time of the year, so my life becomes exponentially more busy when we are ramping up for actual competitions. We have a mock meet tonight and then our first competition of the year this weekend. This time of year reminds me just how much competitive sports have contributed to my successes as an athlete away from the gym. Learning how to handle competition is as much about learning to contain your self as it is beating other athletes. The ability to perform under pressure, to get things right each and every time and to rely on your ability to adapt to failures are all skills that my kids are learning and that I myself still use on a daily basis. Some of them hate to compete, they hate being put on show, they hate the pressure to perform and they hate the stress that accompanies the pressure to win. Others, however, take time to appreciate the opportunity to show what they have learned, the chance to be rewarded for their year long efforts and the now unfashionable opportunity to beat other kids. I was one of those kids. I wanted to perform, I wanted to keep pushing, to compete against others and to prove myself. To this day, and occasionally to my detriment I have that mentality, always trying to push harder, to improve and outperform where I already stand. Oddly enough, this is a skill like any other, I have found over the years that you can change an athlete’s approach enough that they can learn to appreciate (maybe not like) competition as an opportunity rather than a punishment. It’s an important skill too because even during training, far from competition season it’s important for them to have pride in their accomplishment and to continue to drive forward. Once they quit whatever competitive sport they have and are unleashed into the world to look after themselves their own sense of competitiveness and drive is the only thing that is going to keep them going. Not everyone can afford to go to a Crossfit box to get camaraderie, some people like me just can’t take that uber happy idiocy while I work out but it’s OK, I have a fire inside me that keeps me going. That is the thing I try to instil in my kids because I would say that even in this day and age of fitness awareness and healthy living almost all of my girls who I have coached have dropped out of activities once they quite gym. It’s actually really sad, because of course once they drop out they usually continue to eat like they are training 9 hours a week which ends quite badly. then they go off to university with little to no self discipline which is the very cornerstone of a successful first year. University is a success for those who have learned self reliance before they get there.
