R7D52 – Supposed To Be Resting. 2 Days To Crossfit Games 2011

I hesitate to call myself a crossfitter, since although I can functionally do all the exercises, I don’t attend a crossfit box and due to lingering weaknesses from my past avoid some of the Olympic lifts like the plague. It would not be appropriate to claim myself as a crossfitter because I think a great deal of what makes someone a crossfit athlete is their participation in the culture of crossfit, their integration into their location’s family of athletes and that feeling of camaraderie that they get from relying on and sharing with other like minded people. It’s really exactly the opposite of everything a big box gym is about, the crossfit athlete is the antithesis of the gym rat. Anyway, my interest in crossfit has led me to integrate it into my workouts from time to time and to inflict crossfit pain on my kids at gym and in doing so my interest in this year’s crossfit games is at a high. I am even thinking of adding some crossfit type olympic lifts into my next “round” as long as the summer holds out long enough for me to clean the garage or get a bar to keep out on the deck.

Last night even though I scheduled a day off I joined in with the girls at gym and did 100 pullups. I just feel lazy taking 2 days off out of 3 at the start of the week, plus rest week and I have never had a normal relationship. In fact, I have never done Max Recovery or Cardio X as a workout, I always had something else to do. This week I’m committed to getting enough done so if I have to take 3 days off this weekend firstbeat won’t downgrade me when I get back for being a bum. Hard to reconcile that with rest week so maybe I will give Max Recovery or Cardio X a shot today instead of Cardio Recovery that I have scheduled. Either way, it’s workouts today and Friday and hopefully Saturday morning. We’ll see.

I may even try the Full Monty P90X Yoga…

..and by the way, did you hear about Tony Horton’s injury? Check this out…

 

R7D50/1 – Round 7 SuperHybrid Rest Week 2

Surprise! When I took a look at my schedule I realized it was time for rest week again since I am already done 7 weeks of my superhybrid. I have to admit though I was so put off by the I:A that I have not done a single Insanity:Asylum workout since I started this new round. I promise I will, I have to suck it up and stick with it next week to at least get an idea of what doing all 3 of the workouts simultaneously is like. Also, I need to make sure I don’t go too easy this week, I want to make sure that I exercise every day and don’t get lazy like I feel I did last rest week. Especially since I will be going away for the long weekend to Niagara Falls and probably will only be able to take the kettlebell to do some RKC while I am there.

Last rest week was a dogs dinner as indicated by this excerpt:

The plan, as it was, looked like this:

3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches
Core Synergistics
3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches
Cardio Recovery
Core Synergistics
Cardio Core and Balance
Yoga X

I think the revised plan will look like:

Monday: Off, coaching
Tuesday: Hills and Sprints
Wednesday: WOD with gymnastics girls
Thursday: Cardio Recovery
Friday: Core Synergistics
Saturday: RKC
Sunday: RKC

In reality, the week looked like this:

Monday: OFF
Tuesday: Hills running
Wednesday: Part of ARX
Thursday: OFF and went to North Bay for Camping Trip
Friday: 5 RKC Ladders 34543
Saturday: 100 pullups, 100 box jumps (24″), 100 Push Ups
Sunday: OFF 5 hour drive home

The following week I was off work sick for 3 days with a 40 degree fever and then did the Warrior Dash on the weekend.

Rest week, then, as it has been in the past, is often an unwelcome break from the schedule and a pathetic excuse to get out of doing much of anything. So I am resolving right now to work the schedule as promised:

3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches – Skipped! Actually scheduled rest according to my new Firstbeat Coach.
Core Synergistics – Done!
3×3 Clean and Press Ladders Plus Dice Roll Snatches – Probably will do Crossfit or shceduled rest.
Cardio Recovery
Core Synergistics
Cardio Core and Balance
Yoga X – Probably will do Tony Fountain of Youth, I can take my patriot box with me to Niagara and do yoga in the room.

R7D47-9 – Picking Up The Pace (and a shocking statistic)

It’s funny how a little thing like a new heart rate monitor can affect your whole attitude and approach to your workouts. At some time we are all guilty of getting in a rut and forgetting that topping up your motivation is as important as topping your salad with avocado. Also, rewards play a really big part in the improvement process and I am not including taking days off or having a “cheat” meal as a reward. I am talking about something outside your usual activity, something tangible, something you can look at and which will remind you of how far you have come. For me, my new Suunto T6D is a constant reminder of what I have achieved. I have been thinking about a reward for myself ever since I hit the 60lbs mark and until a couple of weeks ago was at a loss, and not only that, I fell into the trap of thinking that I didn’t need a reward, I was fine without it, after all, I know what I have done. That’s just wrong. The whole reason for having a reward system is so that you can learn to accept the rewards of your hard work, psychologically if you don’t reward yourself you are actually subconsciously telling yourself that there is no reward for hard work.

Back to the point. The small device has caused me to stick steadfastly to my schedule this week. Not only because I am fascinated with my movescount.com results or my firstbeat analysis but also because I feel good about doing what I need to and even better about getting rewarded for it. So to end off the week I took Friday off, my legs and back were sore and I was feeling a bit tired, and knowing I would be working out all weekend and taking Monday off it seemed like it would be OK. Saturday for some bizarre reason I decided instead of doing Pure Cardio like I was supposed to I thought I would go for a run despite it being over 40 with the humidex. In reality I wanted to check out the GPS and the foot pod on my new watch so off I went. It wasn’t far, I think my total distance was only 3.6km and total time was 37 minutes with warm up and down and so on. But I was in my vibrams and the ground was so hot my feet were on fire, not to mention that I did the hills that I had done before Warrior Dash as a change which was easier since they have actually mowed that area since I did it last. I was happy with the run, and couldn’t wait to see my route all mapped out on Google Earth. It wasn’t until I had spent several minutes on the Suunto site and various forums that I discovered that although the watch uses GPS to log distance and speed, it doesn’t actually map your route. Apparently the points data is in the watch or the pod somewhere they just don’t choose to use it. I find that puzzling and a little annoying to be honest. I am happy that the reason I got the watch was for fitness not for distance or GPS enabled tracking. I don’t recall reading anywhere in the literature that you can’t map with the Suunto GPS unit. It almost seems ridiculous in fact that you can’t. I wonder if in the future they will be coming out with an updated GPS unit you can download from or add that functionality to the watch. Anyway, I was disappointed on 2 fronts, the foot pod didn’t seem to work either but that could be a dead battery. I am glad I got this used for cheap, if I had paid for the runners pack I would be packing it up and returning it! But, to be honest, I am really not interested in the GPS function or the foot pod. I got the watch for the thing it is best at, running the HR monitor.

Sunday I paid for the run. My back was sore, my legs ached and it took a good couple of hours until I felt anywhere like exercising. However, I sucked it up and decided to do the Back and Biceps workout I had skipped on Friday. I modified it a bit and took my 35lb dbs outside and did a circuit of 3 pullup types and 3 curl types.

10-7-5-3-5

Wide front pullups
double bicep curl
Reverse grip pullup (or deadlift grip)
French curl (or Hammer)
Narrow grip pullups
Single arm bicep concentration curls

The total came out to 95 reps for back, 95 for biceps.

My Shocking statistics…

In putting together my statistics today I added my latest body composition numbers and I was shocked to look back at where I started. At my heaviest back in 2008 (on my 1st wedding anniversary!) I was for all intents and purposes 295lbs at a whopping 30% fat. That meant I was approximately 200lbs of person and 100lbs of fat.

If I wasn’t disgusted enough at myself before I sure am now!

My latest numbers are a little more encouraging but still a little off base. I am down to approximately 18% fat at around 235lbs which means I am 195lbs of man and 44lbs of stored energy 😉 Given those stats and knowing I should be about 12-15% fat, I should be aiming at a goal weight of around about 218lbs-224lbs. Just knowing that I am only about 15 lbs away from my goal weight is mindblowing! But realizing that I have lost around 56lbs of fat and only around 5lbs of lean mass is an incredible statistic. It shows that I am doing things right and not just becoming a smaller fatter person like so many people do.

For those who believe the numbers for the “average” male are lower, I grant, being 10% would be great but being 215lbs is just not realistic of a goal for me to set at this point. I have my mind set on being 225lbs by the end of the year and I think that may be a challenge to reach especially given that I am currently struggling with a plateau of 235lbs. But it is only the end of July, there is a lot of life left in this year and a lot of workouts to be done!

 

 

R7D46 – Crossfit Wear, Insanity Plyo and Other Updates

 

<– You don’t need to qualify to wear this… and what’s he smiling about? He obviously didn’t just finish Chelsea or death by pullups.

I read on Fitbomb this morning that Reebok have come out with a line of Crossfit wear which is “specifically designed” for the crossfit athlete. I suppose they are assuming that Crossfit athletes are so wound up in their own self importance that they will miss the fact that it’s just rebranded Reebok stock with the Reebok Crossfit “Delta” stamped on it. I’m going to guess that it will be a feeding frenzy and just as you now see every fat out of shape loser wearing MMA clothing, pretty soon everyone will have something with Crossfit and Elite written on the front and back. I suppose it is inevitable, and it means two things, one that Crossfit is now mainstream (don’t read that as negative) and also that Crossfit has officially jumped the shark. The second part may be the saving grace for the community since very often there is a public uprising of support and acceptance that attracts all the wrong people to an activity, and I think we can agree that has happened. Once the market is saturated with shoes, shirts and tote bags the same people who made it artificially popular will sense the shark and move on to something else. What you are left with is an increased awareness and acceptance of the activity without the dross. So for those of you who think I was being cruel to  your beloved sport, please believe that this is the best thing that could happen to Crossfit. In 6 months, probably a couple of months after the Crossfit Games the excitement will die down, something else will come along to distract the ADD generation and they will leave Crossfit to the rightful guardians. After all, what is worse that proudly wearing your new Crossfit duds after crushing the morning Murph only to see some fat pasty loser eating a slice of pizza wearing the very same shirt you consider a badge of honour.

last night was Insanity Plyo, according to my Firstbeat Athlete coach I was supposed to go a little easy, but since we just met, I am going to have to do what I am used to for a while until he gets a chance to get up to speed. It’s interesting to see the effort level of each of the different workouts to see if my perception of the effort is accurate. So far the big surprise has been the RKC workout which has kicked all the other butts in the room. Last night came in at a 50 minute 3.2 TE (TE stands for Training Effect and is a measure of the amount of effort, basically) and for the moment at least my efforts seem to far outweigh the coach recommendations. Of course, this may change as time goes along, I am not sure how the coach determines what you should be doing other than it analyses the R-R data of your heartbeat (which I don’t fully understand) to see if you are over or undertraining. I think after a couple of weeks of my regular workouts I should be able to see if the coach and I are on the same page! So far the efforts look like this:

Chest Shoulders and Triceps 3.0 @ 44 min
RKC Variety workout 3.5 @ 28 min
Insanity Plyometric Circuit 3.2 @ 50 min

In other news, it’s been 3 weeks of standing at my desk and I am slowly getting used to it. I move around a lot more than I used to and although my legs and feet are tired at the end of the day, by the time I get home I am fine to work out. I have also noticed that running shoes don’t help at all and in fact wearing crocs or my VFFs are best for being on my feet all day.

R-R Data seems to be something that lots of people want but not many people understand. Here is a basic summary I found from a forum contributor:

R-R data at rest is used to measure heart rate variability (HRV). Search kubioshrv in the forums for how to perform the analysis. It’s helpful for estimating overall training/heart fatigue and how much rest is needed before starting the next training schedule.

R-R data during stepped exercise is used to determine that point at which your heart goes from “idle” mode (bouncing around a lot) to “workout” mode (consistent rhythm). That point versus your level of exercise can be used to determine your fitness level and is used by some watches to create personalized workout zones (OwnZone).

R-R data during a run at a consistent pace and compared over laps can give you information on HR rise and heart fatigue during a long race.

R-R data at rest for seniors with heart conditions can be used to estimate life expectancy.

The KubiosHRV that is mentioned is a software designed to gain some understanding of heart rhythms and biomechanical measurements of heart health, load and therefore fitness. It’s pretty difficult to find any simple and concise information as to what the R-R data is and how it is measured and used. That’s why most software that comes with HR monitors takes that data and converts it into easy to understand numbers or acronyms like EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) to give a simple indicator of what the R-R is telling you. Simply put, your heartbeat, specifically the time between each individual beat can tell you not only how hard you are working, but also if you are fatigued, if you should be resting more or even if you should be changing the workout schedule to optimize your Training Effect.

I also managed to get the GPS module and the foot pod for the T6D but I have yet to try them out. Not being a big runner, it may be some time before I get those parts working for me!

..and finally I missed my 2 year anniversary! My first post was back in June of 2009 and I have now been here for 2 years and a month. Thanks for reading! Wish me a happy anniversary!!

R7D45 – Surprise Workout! Suunto Movescount and Firstbeat Athlete

It’s been hot, I know, I keep saying that but last night was so hot they cancelled training at gymnastics. Probably wise, it was a real scorcher! So I was left to ponder what to do, luckily though I have a plan so I pulled up the schedule and got to work. I was scheduled to do 5×4 clean and press but since I have tended to kind of free form my RKC workouts I ended up doing the following:

10 min warmup pumps and halos and KB Squat
3 rungs C&P with pullups
20 2 hand swings
3 rungs C&P with pullups
20 1 hand swings
3 rungs C&P with pullups
20 snatches with rack pulldown (after snatch, bring KB to rack position then down)
20 snatches with arc pulldown (snatch up and straight arm arc back between legs)

Thanks to Suunto I know this was a decent workout, it rated a 3.5 TE and a whopping 44% of time in my VO2 max training zone. Not only that, it was over 40 with the humidity and I was out on the deck since the last RKC workout I did I dented the basement ceiling a little! It was a good workout, and a refreshing change not to be in the gym with the kids making them suffer the heat. I have got hold of the Firstbeat Athlete software and it is some serious data manipulation. Probably far more than I need, but I am loving the complexity of calculations it can do regarding your workout, intensity, energy burn type and duration of different training zones. When I plugged my watch in this morning, it also automatically logged my workout into Movescount.com for me. Sometimes, and I really mean only sometimes, technology surprises me in a good way!

 

R7D44 – C,S&T and Suunto T6D

Another boiler of a day today, especially given I am indoors but right next to the walkout basement french doors and doing wallball shots out on the deck in the evening sun. I am enjoying this workout I have to admit, like Tony says it’s good old fashioned weight training. The good news is that I managed to scam buy a Suunto T6D from a sucker coworker to replace my old and fading Polar F11 HR monitor. In effect I got the T6D for the price of a T3C which considering the differences is an amazing deal. The great thing about the Suunto watches is that they have so many functions and gather so much data it’s just mind boggling and for a stat monkey like me that’s awesome. It was pretty easy to set up, even without software to assist and I was up and running in no time. Today’s workout was a great way to start, to see if I am indeed working as hard and as smart as I think I am. Once I get more familiar with how it works and what it means I will post more information but for now my workout last night was a 44 minute, 3.0 TE event. All I know is that I was very hot, very tired and scrapped ARX in favour of laying on the floor in a pool of sweat. Apparently the T6D will be able to tell me if I am overtraining or, I suspect, underachieving. Wednesday will be a day off, I think it may be too hot to do proper conditioning at gymnastics too but if not I may just do a quick 15 minutes with them like I did Monday. I’m pretty excited about my new toy, I just hope it doesn’t turn on me and tell me I am in fact just a lazy ass!

R7D43 – Getting Hot In Here

It was 40 degrees today with the humidity, and Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be even hotter with a humidex of 46 on Thursday, that’s 115 degrees for those still stuck in the 70’s. That means today was a hot one in the gym and at these temperatures you really have to be careful of overtraining, overheating and cramping. That is the greatest challenge of summer training in facilities without air conditioning, and before I go on let me state I am not in favour of air conditioned gyms, either for gymnastics or for your recreational weight lifter. Summer does present unique problems though and the work rate is significantly impacted due to the heat. That said, we are still going 3 hours a night and did manage to do a Death By Chelsea workout tonight as follows:

1 chin up
1 push up
1 squat

Add 1 rep each minute to 20 (or max). We managed to get to 10 before it was over 60 seconds to completion so we started again at 1 and got to 5. It meant a 15 minute workout of the three things they need most, arm strength, back strength and leg strength. We still need to develop some plyo workouts but at these temperatures that is asking for trouble.

It’s a smoking hot monday night and at least we all did something productive!

R7D38-42 – Pure Cardio. Pure Hell Part 3 (and the worlds worst excuse).

I just realized that through the evolution of my workouts from my first days with Tony to my divorcing ShaunT, albeit temporarily, I have stuck to one notion when it comes to the Pure Cardio workout. After typing the entry heading I thought it looked familiar so I went back and checked. I already have 2 entries entitled Pure Cardio, Pure Hell. I guess that speaks volumes about how I feel about this particular workout. You want to know what the problem is? It’s the fact that you get so used to doing 30 second stints that when you are confronted with the notion of doing 15 full minutes it is a touch overwhelming. Possibly also because you forget (at least I do) that it’s 60 second intervals until the workout is already started and there is no getting out of it. I hate the bait and switch!

Getting through the workout however is a great feeling of accomplishment and leaves you knowing for sure that your choice to get to work that day was the right one!

To end the week, I managed to finish back and biceps for the first time, yet again confirming that once you take some time away from P90X it can be just as good as it was the first time around! I thoroughly enjoyed the workout even though I voluntarily cut it short, realizing that there really isn’t enough you can do to your biceps in an hour that you can’t get done in about half that time. I do still enjoy the workout, regardless of whether I choose to modify it a little or not. The weekend was not good to me, I was supposed to do something, anything, but didn’t quite make it. I am thrown off my game by not having a heart rate monitor at the moment and I used that as possibly the worst excuse in the world not to work out.

Speaking of which, I am hoping to get my hands on a Suunto T6D for the price of a T3D tomorrow. If not, I will have to order the T3D online and pay the ridiculous shipping. Too bad my local MEC store doesn’t have stock, as I found on the weekend after driving to Barrie. If anyone has experience with the Suunto T6D please let me know your feelings. My plan is to use it in conjunction with the Firstbeat software to give me a much better idea of my fitness and if I am working hard enough to meet my fitness goals.

R7D37 – Still Tired. Chest, Shoulders and Try, Try Again.

Chest, shoulders and tris again last night and I decided to sub some wallball shots instead of some of the more useless shoulder pieces but at several points during the workout I found myself truly struggling. I realize I am not quite recovered after the weekend, my sleep is not great because of my painful throat infection and I am still standing all day at work. At least it wasn’t as painful as last time with the weighted vest, but next time, I will try both the vest and the wallball. Anyway, enough bitching, I made it through and am making great progress through the workouts. I seem to be keeping to the P90X pieces and don’t really recall having done an Insanity workout for a while. Today is supposed to be RKC but I will most likely do some WOD work with the gym girls instead. On Monday I did 10 minutes of pullups during their break and they were probably wondering why, when they came back from their snack, that I was drenched in sweat. Any possible way of getting something done on Mondays and Wednesdays should keep me going. It looks like I am supposed to do Pure Cardio with Cardio Abs and Vertical Plyo this week so I should be able to get my fill of Shaun T by the weekend.

As for the work thing, it’s been really tough after Warrior Dash being as sore as I have been but I am still going. Not sure that it has the same allure as it did when I started but it’s still working OK. I’m finding that I get more distracted as the day wears on and so I get itchy feet, but I guess it beats falling asleep at my desk like so many of my coworkers seem to do around the 2pm mark. I think my wrists hurt less too, although I am not sure it’s the standing, but I certainly rest my hands on my keyboard more standing up than I did while I was sitting.

Something interesting before I go, check out the graphic above related to abs… it’s an interesting tidbit with your afternoon pick-me-up.

 

 

Warrior Dash Part 3 – The Epilogue

It’s your just reward for a job well done. A $7 turkey leg and, if you like, a free beer for turning in your timing chip. Immediately following the race we were greeted by a finishers medal, a couple paper cups of water and a mountain of bananas. From there we wandered, dazed and exhausted to the “showers” which, I have to admit, I had thought would be like the misting booths at Canada’s Wonderland but were, in fact, two firemen taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in spraying the participants with massive fire hoses. The water was freezing cold and the only thing that really didn’t work for me. It could have been done equally well by feeding the hoses into an overhead tanek and just letting the water cascade down over people like an open shower. The way they did it was inefficient and borderline barbaric which I suppose fits with the theme but was a bit of a harsh ending to an already taxing event. The mud wouldn’t come off without the water and so changing was really the only option. None of these ‘complaints’ dampened my enjoyment of the day I have to admit. The pride I felt in finishing was enough to make me happy no matter what and I think has led me to a new chapter in my life.

Although every male in the 60-65 age category was quicker than me!

That said, if you are going to do this at age 60 or above my bet is you are pretty confident in your ability! This weekend did open my eyes to one thing though. For the last 10 years I have been the guy who had back surgery. I have often used it as a reason, occasionally an excuse and, very rarely, as a crutch. However, the reason for it is only because of the fear of a repeat performance in the hospital. I was never really sure that I had recovered and even though my legs are different thicknesses and probably always will be, it seems that is the only legacy of the event. I can no longer claim that I am not capable of the same things a person who hasn’t had surgery is and although I may still occasionally get sidelined by a careless shoe tying incident, I think I am just as capable and resilient as I ever was.

If this weekend left me with scars, and it definitely left it’s physical mark, then I am also left with an indelible mark on my psyche. It’s the kind of boost no person could ever give me, an undertone of confidence that no fit test could ever provide. It is a shot in the arm for my physicality that could only have been gained by facing up to an epic challenge and regardless of the pain, the exhaustion, the bruises and scrapes, getting up every time I fell down. It’s the raw adrenaline rush gained from crawling through mud to the finish line, getting up and standing proudly over the body of my felled opponent.

It’s a sense of pride that will replace that little piece of herniated disc they took from me so long ago. I’m no longer the guy who had back surgery, I’m proud to call myself a Warrior!