Spring is in the air

Was on my way out to the Y to meet Johnny, but as soon as I stepped out the door I knew that plan would be a mistake. Around here, the first warm weather in March means the beginning of mud season - nothing so glorious as a proper spring. There are no flowers busting out (although the crocuses should show soon now); there are no girls in short skirts; and the yard and hiking trails are a veritable quagmire. Even my garage still had a coat of ice, but that had thinned (down from 4-inches in February) and softened enough that I could rip a floor mat free and set it out in the sun. A quick call was made to John to change plans to a driveway workout, where we could enjoy the first day of temps in the upper 50s since at least November.

It took a while to sweep things out and reassemble the equipment that had been scattered about from a winter of working out elsewhere, and with the sun beating down on us my kids hanging around, the day didn't have any sense of urgency. In the end, it took us almost 2.5 hours to get in our workout (not counting the requisite porch-sitting, post-workout malt beverage). As much as I love winter, it's hard to argue with days like this. The Spring air even brought out my inner city schoolgirl double-dutch skills, as I PR'd on double unders on my first attempt, after months of no progress whatsoever.

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Warmup
Jump rope 5:00 - 21 consecutive DUs (PR, previous best 13)
Star-pattern squat sequence 35x2 each
Shoulder mobility drills

Skill work
Push press 45x5, 95x5, 125x5

(looking better; John gave me a nice cue that helped with form, although I don't think I was generating as much power as possible)

Heavy stuff
Deadlift 125x5, 185x3, 235x2, 285x1, 305x1, 310x3, 325x3, 340x3 (new 3RM)
250 x 12-9-6 with 1:00 break between sets

Last rep of heavy sets and endurance sets were getting into uglyville, although the very last one was probably more laziness than lack of stamina. Here's the heavy set. Not beyond acceptable, but it's definitely time to drop weight and work sets of five for a while.



Metcon
AMRAP 10:

3 power cleans, 155#
6 box jumps, 30"
9 C2B pullups

6 rounds plus two PCs

Got this metcon from Elizabeth Terris and her San Diego affiliate. It really puts a demand on explosiveness. I loved it. The chest-to-bar modification was consistent with that theme but it slowed things down considerably. I could probably generate a muh bigger metcon hit with standard pullups (or a better pullup bar, where I could string the C2Bs together reliably). Still, I felt it. Great to be back in the home gym.

Overtraining, part 1 - How much is too much?

I've been meaning to write about for a while. In fact, I started writing a blog post over Christmas. My recent schedule of undertrained weekdays and full-bore weekends was the nudge I needed to start putting my unfinished thoughts out there. Today's workout, where I combined elements of two day's training, seemed as good a point as any to start the series.

I guess I should start with an explanation of what I'm talking about. Put simply, overtraining is what happens when you push yourself beyond your physiological capacity to recover. Give this a little thought, and you’ll realize that there are some fuzzy edges to this definition. If you do Diane today, you’ll probably do fine with shoulder presses tomorrow, but you might struggle with 400m sprints, because you won’t have fully recovered from the DLs and won’t perform optimally. Does this mean you’re overtrained? If you’ve got a track meet it does. If you’re hitting the next WOD, it’s just overload by design.

Physiologic overload is necessary to produce adaptation. In the simplest setting, you put more weight on the bar or perform a greater number of reps than you have previously to stimulate your muscles to get stronger. You rest, and then you do it again.

CFers as a group are driven. As such, we’re prone to believe that a little extra work after a WOD or an extra session in the gym is what we need. But mainpage Crossfit as Rx’d is powerful medicine. Many of the top athletes at the Games do nothing other than warmup, practice some light skill work, and hit the WOD as hard as they can every day. They get their rest, they eat well, and they come back and do it again. They are as dedicated to their recovery as they are to their workouts. It’s not as glamorous, but it is just as important, especially when you start pushing your limits.

Don’t underestimate that middle step in the process – rest. Adequate rest and nutrition is essential to getting the most out of your training. To paraphrase Rip in a way that I've said so many times, I could put it to music, we don’t get fit from training hard, we get fit by recovering from training hard.

I have some experience with overtraining. Last fall, I had a series of injuries trying to fit just about everything into my hybrid training program each day. I've gotten smarter about it, and I've been glad to have the benefit of the resarch that Jeff Martin put into the CrossFit Strength Bias program to get a sense what a reasonable hybrid workload looks like. I've been making reasonable progress on the program, but haven't been at it long enough to get everything dialed in right. This past week, I've put up some strong numbers, but I think that has to do with working too much to train properly. Essentially, I've had an involuntary deload period, like I might use before a competition to maximize performance at that competition.

My goal, however, is to maximize my performance in late May. I honestly don't know if my off week was good or bad for me. We all need rest once in a while. However, some pretty sharp coaches (Greg Glassman, Bill Starr, John Gilson) believe that the best gains are made when you're in a slightly overtrained state. You won't win any competitions that way unless you have a deload period, but by being continually overtrained, you force your body to adapt. The trick, of course, is figuring out how to balance that equation of necessary overload versus necessary rest. That I'll leave for another day.

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Warmup
Row 500m 1:52 (took it slow this cold morning)
Air squats, goblet squats, lunge & hip flexor stretches
Shoulder mobility drills
Burgener warmup

Heavy stuff
Back squat 45x5
Box squat 45x5, 135x3, 155x2, 175x1, 175x2x5, 180x2x5 (work sets done on the minute)
Shoulder press 45x5, 95x3, 105x3, 115x3, 125x3, 130x2, 90x10-7-4 (1:00 rest b/w sets for 10-7-4)

Skill work
Snatch 65x5, 95x2, 115x2

Metcon
5 rounds:

Snatch 115x3
Squat clean & thruster 115x3
Hang power clean 115x3
2:00 rest between rounds

?, 0:52, 1:12, 0;54, 0:47

Core work
30 abmat situps

This workout left me positively smoked. That's a good thing. Tomorrow's deadlifts probably won't go as well as last Sunday, but I think, I think that it was the right way to attack the weekend. I'll probably know by midweek. I'm my own guinea pig.

Traveling man

Finally got around to posting up a banner picture. In retrospect, it was an obvious choice. This photo was taken more or less from the spot where I decided I needed to go back and check out that CrossFit website again. I was 7.5 miles into a 9 mile, 5,000 vertical-foot alpine tour on skis that took us up Mount Washington. We came up from the left just to the near side of the second-to-last summit visible, headed out of sight over the ridge for ~1,200-foot ski descent into the Great Gulf, climbed up to the summit (the descent into and climb out of the gulf are pictured here), skiing across the west face you see - including a 500-foot descent down the little gully in the center left (which ended in a melted-out ice/waterfall), and climbing to the summit of Mount Monroe (just above where I'm standing), before descending 2,000 feet back to where we started.

It remains one of my absolute best days ever. It started out rough, though. The 18-year old kid, and 45-year-old mountaineer I was travelling with positively dogged me on the first climb. Sure, I was carrying the extra safety gear (some of which got put to use by necessity), but the fact of the matter is that I was at my typical early-Spring lull in fitness and those guys just about disappeared over the hill on me. They yo-yo'd me a few times on this ascent and the trip to the summit, but by the time the day got to here, my natural stamina (accumulated from years of bike riding, I'm guessing) had me feeling the strongest of the lot. Still, it was painfully clear that I needed to broaden my fitness, so I looked up that strange website that another ski mountaineering friend had pointed me to a couple years previous. (At the time, the mainpage had some chipper of exercises of which I'd never heard, so I ignored it but saved the link.) This time, it was something understandable, if brutal - Angie. It took me over an hour, but I was hooked.

The rest is more or less history. CrossFit is what I do. I've missed several ski days to get in a workout. (I'm not sure this is the best prioritization, but it is what it is.) Today, I figured that if CrossFit is my thing, I should make like a real CrossFitter and get in a workout with out a gym, so this morning, I moved the furniture about in my hotel room and got after it.

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Warmup
CFCC dynamic mobility drills
Hip mobility drills
3 rounds:

10 squats
10 pushups
10 supermans
10 situps

Metcon
AMRAP 20:

10 burpees (two hands touch ceiling at top)
10 reverse burpees (hold FS handstand for a 3-count)

5 rounds + burpees and 3 reverse burpees

I like this combination of skill and metabolic conditioning. Next time, it will be 20 burpees though. Handstand holds got easier in rounds 2 and 3 and started fading toward the end of round 4, although I did manage a good 10-second hold as the timer was going off.

Extreme prejudice

There's something about the barbell I simply love. Whether it's the explosiveneness of a heavy single clean & jerk, the slow grind of a 20-rep set of squats, or the agony of thrusters, I feel like no workout is complete without a session with that seven-foot-long machined piece of steel. I know better, of course. Murph, Kelly, Helen, or Fran with dumbbells don't lack for anything as a WOD. Still, the routine of warming up, heading to the barbell to lift something heavy, and then cranking up the metabolic engine is a routine I adore. It's not cherry picking. I beat the living tar out of myself this way on regular basis, hitting things that brutalize me, like push presses, high-rep deadlifts, good mornings, thrusters, etc. What can I say? I'm biased toward my strength bias.

Still, when I go to an affiliate, I like to get a taste of whatever random stuff they're feeding to their own athletes, but when I walked into CF Central CT today and saw the 30-minute mainpage WOD of pullups, dips and situps, my enthusiasm for the hopper model faded. All I could say was "That looks grim." I'm no fan of muscular stamina sufferfests, so I had to decide whether I would be cherry picking by skipping this one today. I could stand to work a 30-minute metcon, but that was going to be more a question of endurance of things I could do without a gym than a metabolic challenge of the sort that only a CF gym could deliver, so I decided to do what I could to keep a semblance of my strength bias program going. Thankfully, Tom was happy to accomodate, since he and a few of his athletes are doing the same thing these days and hardly anybody showed up for the 7am session on this rainy morning in an affiliate that had the power out.

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Warmup
CFCC Dynamic mobility drills and warmup
(toe raise walk, trw with knee pull, trw with ankle pull and knee out, trw with foot to butt, toy soldier walk)

3 rounds:

shoulder triplet
pushups
10 mountain climbers
10 supermans
30 jumping jacks

500m row 1:36 (nice rower - close to my PR without pushing my max)

Heavy stuff
Front squat 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 200x1, 200x5, 210x5, 220x5 (new 5RM)
Back squat 220x20 (new 20 RM)

Metcon
1/2 Mary

AMRAP 10:

5 HSPUs
10 pistols
15 pullups

4 rounds + HSPUs and 2 pistols

Core work
6 Ft2Bar + forgetaboutit

I was listing something fierce after that workout. My back was toast from the squat and pistol combination and the pistols were brutally difficult to complete. The rest of that metcon was done in unbroken sets, but I was staggering my way up on some of those pistols. That's almost a full round slower than my PR, but after all the squats, I can't complain about my performance.

The heavy lifting went well, although I wasn't sure about jumping 10 pounds for the last set of front squats after fighting for the last rep of the second set, but I spent less time standing about on the last set and got through it pretty handily. The back squats were brutal, of course, starting with the 6th rep. When the reps get into the teens, the brain starts working against you. I didn't see Ghandi walking through the halls of CFCC, but thoughts like "You're not in a cage. Are you going to be able to bail safely if you fail with this weight on your back after all the squats you've done?" found ways to pop up and try to convince me to end the pain. After that, the pistols positively sucked - a serious struggle and a nasty goat that was overdue for a feeding, and they had me for breakfast. This was by no means the easy way out.

The weekend warrior

Two days in a row in the gym; it must be the weekend. Still no time to tarry. Deep thoughts will have to wait for another day. Had fun watching an intro-to-globo gym session while I did my workout. This 250#+ guy was being introduced to the various ways to use the furniture, er, pieces of equipment to work out. He was doing a 95# bench press, and his trainer was all over the bar. Enough with the inappropriate touching already. It was downright disturbing. It's bad enough he's got the guy doing seated "military" presses and three kinds of bench press. Let the guy lift the damn weight.

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Warmup
Agility drills (dot drill, triangle drill x3 x2, W-drill x3 x2)
Shoulder mobility drills (CFCC shoulder triplet and wall slides)
TGU 45x3 each, 60x2 each

Skill work
Push press 45x6, 95x5

Heavy stuff
Shoulder press 45x5, 95x3, 110x3, 120x3, 130x3, 90 x 13 + fail (could not lock out left arm)

Metcon
6 rounds (21-18-15-12-9-6)

100-foot walking lunge
Ring pushups
Slantboard situps

16:59

Ring work
STC to dislocate pike to L-hang 3x3

Cut short my sets on the shoulder press, deciding to settle for matching my 3RM. I'm looking to be in PR territory all next week. We'll see how that goes. Shouldn't have pushed for that 14th rep, as I let my core go all wonky and could feel it in my L1-T13 afterwards. Not bad, since it was light weight and I wasn't grossly hinged, but it's still bad form.

Loving the agility drills as part of the warmup. Really get the blood flowing and my bad ankle could use the extra footwork drilling. Played around with some little parkour jumps between two bollards this afternoon. Something I used to be decent at (by happenstance, not as a traceur) and would like to be again.

Not the fastest metcon. I might have pushed harder to to make the lunges faster, but I was focusing on driving through the heel and getting a good ROM vertically with every step. Anyways, more time was lost managing muscular fatigue on the ring pushups. Not every metcon need be a blazing, heart-pounder. This was a stamina sessionb, but I need a short, intense wind-sucking metcon to get me really going.

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Morning update:

DOMS is kicking in. Felt the abs as soon as I climbed on the rings at the end fo the workout. Today, my ass is trying to convince me that DLs should wait until tomorrow.

Something had to give

Summer and fall were easy. Work was reasonable, days were long, and if I wanted to spend more time with my family or was pressed to squeeze in a workout, I'd use a couple of hours of leave time and have at it. My time has gotten much tighter after Christmas and these last couple of weeks, work has exploded on me. I won a project that wants to eat me alive, and it's on a schedule that exactly parallels my preparation for the Games Qualifiers. I'm hoping that time spent now in the planning phase of the job will allow the rest of it to flow smoother and me to get back to my routine. For now, however, something had to take a back seat to the new job, and that something was, well, everything - less time for workouts, less time for family, less down-time for reading or surfing or blogging.

Actually, this is a fitness blog, and in that name fitness comes first, so if I don't have a workout to report, there won't be a blog that day. Conversely, if you don't see anything posted here or see only one post in 10 days like this latest stretch, it's simply because I'm slacking off (at least in the gym). On that note, enough talk, I actually got something done today.

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Warmup
Air squats
Bear complex 45 x 7
Hip mobility drills (an old floor bar routine from my days as a dancer)

Skillwork
Push press 95 x 7 x 2

Muscle-up progressions (Tuck's pull to toe-assisted transition and dip)

done from knees with rings at chest height, shoulder height, head height
3-3-3 up and -3-3 down (more of a jumping MU at head height)

Heavy stuff
Back squat 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2 (felt heavy), 245x1, 250x5 (ugly), 260x5 (not pretty), 270x5 (solid)

That matches my old 5RM, and I had more in me. Looking forward to my next heavy squat day. That 5RM has stood since last fall.

Core work
Barbell getup-situp 45x10

Metcon
Mini-Chest-to-Barbara
2 rounds:

20 C2B Pullups
30 Pushups
40 Situps
50 Squats
3:00 rest between rounds

4:01
4:52

Started a 3rd round, but after my first 12 pullups, I was positively cooked. I simply could not get the last inch of the chest-to-bar pullups. After missing 5 consecutive (with rest between), I pulled the plug on the workout. I've got more pullups tomorrow, and after the MU progressions, my pull was pretty worked. Tomorrow might be a good day to play with butterfly pullups instead of the C2Bs.

Did a little video analysis of my push press. It's getting better, but at speed I still revert to quad-dominance. More practice. More practice. Also caught a video of my second work set of squats. Third set was much better and would be fun to show off, but it's probably more useful for me to catch my errors on film than my successes.

Gone Skiing

Haven't been in the gym for almost a week. Landed a big job last Thursday, and all semblance of normalcy has disappeared from my life and training. As an added bonus, it's a fast burn project with a completion date about a week after the Games qualifiers. Ah well, it sure gives me a reason to stay on top of my stuff. However, if this first week is any indication, my training is bound to suffer.

My family and seven of our friends rented a ski condo for the weekend. This is one of those things you plan months in advance and hope the weather works out. With ski conditions the best they'd been in years on Tuesday, we were hopeful, but Friday's rain and the weekend refreeze did us in. Still, the sun was shining Saturday and we could see Mount Washington clear as a bell from Sugarbush, about 80 miles away. Knowing what the day was going to be like, a bunch of us broke out the files and sharpening stones the night before and got our skis ready for the formica skiing surface. The order of the day was scary fast skiing on the sunny side of the mountain, not a great workout, but definitely some solid technique practice, since losing an edge at those speeds in those conditions would likely mean a trip to the emergency room. It was good fun, but one day of it was enough. The rest of the time was spent relaxing, eating well, eating not so well, and bulding a pile of bottles for the redemption center.

Had plans to make amends with some backcountry skiing in the foot of snow that fell overnight when I got home, but work and a sick family kept me closer to home yesterday. Today, I finally got back into the gym, courtesy of CF Central CT's convenient location near the office I was visiting today and tomorrow. They had a max DL day going, but some guys were following the CFSB, so they had no issue with me following my own programming and hitting the mini-metcon they also had programmed.

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Warmup
Jump rope 3:00, 7 consecutive DUs
Shoulder triplet mobility drill
TGU-Windmill drill 20K x 3
10 pullups
10-sec static hold
10 dips

Skillwork

2:00 handstand practice - a couple stable 5-second holds

Heavy Stuff

Deadlift 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x1, 305x3, 320x3, 335x3 (new 3RM), 250x20 (PR)

Metcon

3 rounds:

10 burpees, Burgener-style
20 box jumps, 20"

5:01

Deadlifts felt remarkably easy, considering the double PBs. I guess hitting DLs after 6 days off leaves a lot more in the tank than a day after 20 box squats. Metcon was weird with the strict burpees, especially after the deadlifts. Ended up being more about muscular fatigue (and missed box jumps) than by the lungs. Good to get back after it.