The moment of truth

I may not have trained the hardest this past month, but I came to the Qualifiers fresh. Being in the first men's heat, I got a quick reintroduction to what CrossFit is all about.

12 minutes of:

5 Thrusters, 135#
10 Burpees

I don't know if it was not being ready for this or the combination of burpees and thrusters, but I only manged 5 rounds. I must have missed a half-dozen reps - not fouls, simply being unable to lock it out, starting in the third round. Every rep was a push jerk, and every pull was a squat clean. I was as efficient as I knew how to be and kept moving on the burpees, in no small part because I was so well rested after standing around staring at the bar for so long. I thought for sure I'd be DFL in my heat. I simply could not get those thrusters going. Most heats were won in 8 to 9 rounds. Top score was 10 plus a thruster, better than twice my output (unless you count those last three almost thrusters).

After the expectation the first ugly workout, having the row, a comfortably known workout (if not a strength) was actually a relief. After screaming some friends through the thruster-burpee workout, I settled down and took a 5-minute nap, which really helped me reset.

The atmosphere of this workout was amazing. The rowers all had coxswain/coaches urging them on, and the judge's job was simply to hold up a color-coded card when each rower got to 1500k, 1000, 500, and 250m to go. Jason Ackerman was running around with a microphone calling out the leaders distance in even finer detail. The spectators kept creeping closer and closer, shouting encouragement, and despite the open-air arena, it felt like a crowded stadium.

After watching Melissa Mulligan, whom I met at my cert, win the first heat with her boyfriend cheering her on, I decided maybe it would be best if I found a coxswain of my own. I recruited Erin Davidson of CF Tribe & Center City, who had just finished telling me about this rowing class they've been going to down there. She got me on the rower quickly, glad to see my form had improved since I posted a video to the Digital Coaching forum on the Message Boards. She also had me try the strategy that they'd been working, start hard for 10 pulls, settle in, and go hard (long, fast pulls) every 500m for 10 pulls. I figured, what the hell, it sounds better thought out than setting a pace and seeing what I had in the tank at the end.

First, I have to say that Erin is an awesome coach. It was obvious from the Message Boards that she knows her shit, but she also had the sharp eyes and toughness to not let me get away with a single short pull or loss of form by letting my chest cave and back soften. The hard (fast, long) pull worked like a charm after the first 500m, but the one at 1000m cost me pace afterwards. It wasn't until after the hard pull at 1500, where the end was in sight that I was able to get my pace back properly, and then I bombed the last 200m. I was really glad to be able to dig down and crank the pace for those last 20 pulls. Despite the morning thrusters and burpees, I managed a good time. (I thought it was a PR, but apparently I was in pretty good shape in February and pulled an even better post-workout time.)

2000K Row 7:25.5

Much more to talk about. It's a spectacular experience, but it's time to crash. Tomorrow:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1:

155# power clean
C2B pullups
1.5-pood KB swings

The kicker: there's a 15-minute cap. If I finish that puppy, I'll be beside-myself thrilled.

My hormonal milieu

As you probably know, my training has been irregular with weekday workouts getting pushed aside by the working world pretty frequently. I've spoken about the slippery slope with respect to diet and carb cravings. However, I find that there's sometimes an equally dangerous slide when the workouts don't come regularly.

It's not any one thing I can put my finger on, but the loss of routine hurts in more ways than you might expect. Not only do I miss out on valuable training time, but I lose my training mentality. The notion of a Running Grace still sounds cool, but motivating to do such an ugly metcon does not come as easy. During the week, my body is adapted to resting comfortably in the evenings (even though that resting is usually me working on the computer). It takes some planning to convince my body to get off its ass. The other problem is my planning. I've had this nice CFSB program going - squats Saturday, deadlifts Sunday, metcon Tuesday, front squats or cleans Wednesday, and press Thursday. However, that neat little schedule hasn't been kept since the third week in March, and it was only kept once prior to that. Being off schedule isn't bad in-and-of itself. (Y'know, constantly varied and all that.) The trick is to not get thrown by it, to keep training when the opportunity presents itself, to not say because there's only a half-hour available that there isn't time to train. However, that's exactly what happened - too often. I got so wrapped around what my next workout would be that I'd put it off for a day, so I'd have time to do the workout I had planned, and then wouldn't have any time the next day. It's something I've been known to rant at others about - to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good - whether we're talking training or diet. Forget about 3-on, 1-off or 5 days a week; in March, there were many more days I didn't train (18) than there were days I did train, and I'm barely breaking even this month. (The scary thing is: I'm supposed to be getting ready for the Games.)

So, I've missed a bunch of training days. It happens to all of us at one time or another. My timing is particularly bad, but somebody doing a bad job of squeezing in workouts isn't something new. What I find interesting is how quickly my energy levels changed as I reduced my activity level - how comfortable the couch would look when I'd get home at 730 at night. That's the time I most often start my workouts, but after a long day at a desk and a few days without a workout, my body was fully adapted to inactivity and pretty happy with stasis.

The weird thing isn't that the body adapts to the easiest form of existence it can. That's the way we evolved to minimize stress. Unfortunately, it's my stress levels that cause the most trouble. It's not the stress of a high-pressure job. There's lots to do, but it's pretty interesting, and the long days come with comp time that I'm sure to put to good use. However, the travel and the associated diet, the disrupted schedule that has me working some nights and weekends, nights with too little sleep, and the challenge to find time for myself and my family amidst the increased workload, produces a classic physical stress response. My cortisol levels shoot up; I get inflammation of joints and tissues; and my work capacity suffers. It's like I get all the problems of overtraining without any of the benefits of the training that got me there. I'm doing a strength bias program, where I'm trying to encourage anabolic metabolism, and the rest of my life is telling my body to catabolize itself. Thus, some of my reduced training load is simply a sign that I'm listening to my body, doing what I need to do to keep putting up PRs when I do train, but but that doesn't mean I haven't also been slipping into some bad habits.

Part of the stress response is that I found myself craving carbs - more ice cream, dried fruit, chocolate-covered espresso beans (yum), a beer or glass of wine; even the bread looked good at Easter dinner. Fortunately common sense won out on that count, and I settled for a modest dessert of cheesecake with syrup-laden strawberries and a side of ice cream. Yes, this was a deliberate indulgence - an admission to myself that I'd slipped and might was well enjoy it, because it was high time I cleaned up my act. While this sounds like the classic case of giving up on discipline altogether because I slipped up a bit, it worked. My diet has been dialed-in these last two days - starting with an 18-hour fast from cheesecake until late Monday morning, done with the express intent of getting my insulin levels back under control. This is a strategy I've employed of late, when travel and a hectic life get in the way of a sound diet, I work in a fast to help get myself back on track, and then I return to the strategy of Just Eating good food.

I had every intention of working out last night - hitting that lovely row-burpee-run WOD that is just the sort of metcon Rx that my I need. Unfortunately, work kept me going until far too late, so today I ducked out of the CT office in time to visit CFCC and suffer whatever WOD Tom had cooked up for everyone.

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Warmup
Dynamic mobility sequence (hips and ankles)
Shoulder mobility drills
3 x 10 of supermans, mtn. climbers, situps, lunges
30 jumping jacks

Skill work
Power cleans 75x10x4 - focus on efficiency of movement and finishing with elbows up and active hip

Metconnish
50 squats - 2 16K KBs in rack
250 single unders
10 floor wipers

5:33

Metcon
Tabata rowing

925m

Tom actually had the fish game programmed for his athletes. I took on the tabata myself. Needless to say, it sucked. I really lost it on the last three rounds. (I was on a 960m pace before that.)

A pretty short session when you get right down to it, but I needed to just be given a workout and do it. I had my rings, jump rope and DBs with me, but figured the external motivation and a workout partner would do me some good. Good to see Tom's new place. It's in the back of a kickboxing place with a climbing wall. I could make good use of those facilities, if I get there earlier in the day before the kickboxers show up. They've even got a climbing wall. Hopefully, however, my travelling days are numbered and within a couple weeks, I'll only be down here occasionally. While I'm here, however, I might as well make the most of it. On that note, I was too tired to shower and then head out to dinner, so I stopped at the grocery store and made a nice dinner - tuna steaks in coconut milk with an arugula/spinach salad. Maybe not the most impressive workout, but I got the most out of my day.

Hey, this CFSB shit works

I'm certainly not the first to say it, but it was the first time I got to test it myself. I'd gotten "PRs for reps," while working through the program, but I hadn't gone after a 1RM before this week. Thursday's shoulder press test was unsatisfying, due in no small part, I'm sure to the inconsistency with which I worked it (5 times in the last 7 weeks and not at all for the 5 weeks after I set my PR in December). My squat, on the other hand, has been getting lots of love and attention from ME sessions, to DE box squats, to sets of 20, and a handful of new 5RM efforts, but I hadn't done ME sets of less than 5 since January. Today, I got to see how those lighter weights translated to the truly heavy stuff. As you might guess by now, the anwwer is: quite well, thank you.

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Warmup
Row 500m D6 144.5
Hip mobility drills

Heavy stuff
Back squat 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x1, 295x1, 305x1 (PR), 315x1 (PR), 320f

A little more aggression and I would have had that 320. I got stuck halfway up with my form locked in solid and held it there for a couple of seconds, but couldn't push through. If I'd hit it harder to begin with, I'm pretty sure that would have gone up too. Still, I'm very happy with this.

Skill work
Handstand practice 8:00

Need to do some shoulder mobility work ahead of time next time. I'm getting pretty solid, but I just don't have the range of motion to lock everything out where it needs to be to make these easier.

Metcon
3 rounds:

Row 500m
50 squats
25 DB swings, 55#

13:56

That was rough. The swings were hard, but unbroken. The squats got broken every round. I was really feeling the heavy stuff. Still, the performance wasn't half bad. I'm planningto give metcon more attention between now and the Games, and hope to have this workout under 12:00 by then.

Core work
GHD 2x15

Overtraining and under-recovery - Two sides of the same coin

I really have no desire to become the poster child for my subject matter, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from squeezing in an evening workout, despite my lack of sleep and crazy work schedule. I really haven't had the time to pile up the volume in the gym to get overtrained. However, I have had enough stress and bad night's sleep recently that even with a more-than-reasonable workout volume, I have plenty of potential to be under-recovered.

There are those who say that there's no such thing as overtraining; there's just under-recovery. While that may be true in a literal sense (you're overtrained if you can't recover from your workout), I think there's some benefit to maintaining the semantic distinction. Just remember that the two are inextricably related.

I tend to thing of overtraining as a failure of programming and observation. You eat great, you sleep 10 hours a night, you take time to stretch and do soft-tissue work, but you simply pile on too much work to maintain performance over time. This happens to elite endurance athletes like cyclists, who get too far "out on the razor," leaning out in response to training and being able to positively rip up a mountain pass early in the season or at the beginning of a stage race, but then finding they lack the reserves to recover. They're eating all they can; they're getting daily massages; and they're sleeping as much as they can, but they peaked too soon and trained to hard early on to succeed later in the season or the race. They are a classic example of someone who is overtrained. For them, the fall from grace is swift and hard. They are so specialized and up against such severe physical challenges that they can't rely on a different energy system or a different group of muscles to help them compete. They, as they say, start to go backwards quickly.

In the CrossFit world, we don't load ourselves up with such specialized training, where the same muscles and energy systems get hit day-in and day-out. As a result, overtraining is not as obvious to us. The programming of CrossFit, in fact, is designed to maximize intensity while minimizing the potential for chronic overtraining. There's enough variety of exercise and workout duration that broad, intense stimulus can be delivered day-in and day-out with a less severe risk from overtraining. Still, working like a dog three days out of four will catch up to just about anyone eventually, no matter how disciplined you are with your recovery when you're not working out. That's the reason that the conventional wisdom for following the mainpage WOD is to do it on a 12-week cycle where every 4th week is performed at ½ intensity and every 12th week is taken off from training entirely (or similar variations on that theme).

Don’t underestimate the value of those ½-intensity sessions. These are prime opportunities to dial in form refinements that will lead to improved performance down the road. Alternately, the light weeks provide an opportunity to learn new skills that can’t yet be performed at an intensity that might inhibit recovery.

Bill Starr says that when people get overtrained, it’s almost always because they do too much work on their light days. They throw some isolation exercises in to get those beach muscles pumped up or they add a metcon to work up a sweat. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with incorporating a variety of activities into a program (heck, CF is grounded in such variety), doing additional work without rhyme or reason is the surest way to interfere with recovery and inhibit progress.

Missing workouts every week makes it easy for me to avoid overtraining. However, that doesn't get me off the hook. The things that keep me at work until after the gym closes produce their own form of systemic stress that can produce the symptoms of overtraining. In this case, however, it's related directly to under-recovery, rather than my workout programming. I don't have time to foam roll; I don't eat quite as well; and I wake up at 3:30 every day thinking about what I have to do today. Still, I have to make the same adjustments to my programming as if I found that I piled on too much work the previous few days. Therefore, I bagged catching up on the much-needed chipper I missed yesterday, in favor of something that while difficult, wouldn't beat me down so much that I caught the family head cold (at least that's my hope).

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Warmup
Row 1,000m 3:41.6 (D6, 28spm) - sped up my stroke rate and this felt much easier, like a warmup even
Hip mobility drills
Goblet squats

Heavy stuff
Front squat 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x2, 205x1, 205x3, 215x3, 225x3, 235x2 + fail
Back squat 45x5, 225x17

Metcon
Tabata rowing 1,017m (D8)

Core work
2 rounds:

15 Glute-ham raise
15 GHD situp

The 225x3 front squats felt strong, and I was really close to getting out of the hole on that last rep at 235. I probably should have fought it out a little more. My 3Rm is 230, which I did last fall on a day when I popped into the weight room in jeans and sneakers while my kids were in gymnastics. While it's fun to have that as a benchmark, it's also time for that mark to fall.

The high-rep back squats were surreal as always. I staggered forward after the 16th rep and ended up with my right foot a good 8 inches in front of my left. I tried to put it back to parallel, but I just kept picking up my foot and placing it down in the exact same spot, like a horse counting to three. It wasn't that I didn't have the strength left to adjust my feet. I quite simply had lost control of my extremities, like some elongated character in a Dali painting.

The tabata rowing was a first and a suprisingly good showing. I did add some extra meters on there, because I needed to do a soft-pull to get the timer to keep going for a full 10-second rest, but I'm sure I've still got a 1K row with stricter timing. I think the form work is paying off. Thanks to Tom Taylor, Erin Davidson, and Kempie for some helpful tips.

AMAP 24 hours

The clock is always ticking these days, it seems. Whether it's work, workouts, family, or that stupid commute, I never seem to have enough time. Finding time for proper recovery, whether it's eating, sleeping, or SMR is almost a joke. My wife doesn't consider it quality time when we're talking while I'm on the foam roller. Might be the involuntary gasps of pain I sprinkle into the conversation. (I can see how this would be disconcerting.

Margaret: "I signed Cassidy up for dance today."

Me (in anguish): "Oh my god, that sucks."

It sort of spoils the free flow of ideas.)

So when work had me down in CT for the last couple of days, I figured I should take advantage of what little time I did have to check-out CrossFit Central Connecticut. I've got a job site around the corner from them and keep meaning to stop in, but I've never managed to drop in for a class. Of course, when I arrived in CT, the combination of two hours in the car, a poor night's sleep, and the weekend's sets of 15-20 squats and DLs on consecutive days left me in a less-than ideal physical state.

Things took a turn for the better, however, as soon as I arrived. The sign greeting me as I entered the lobby of our CT office building said "Chair Massages, Monday 10-2." Salma Hayek could have been there to greet me with a hug and a kiss, and I wouldn't have been any happier. So, 15 minutes before the dry run of our big Tuesday presentation, I snuck out for a quick physical therapy session. I didn't have great hopes for the chair massage, figuring on a gentle, user-friendly once-over. However, I was pleasantly suprised by the masseuse's willingness to inflict pain. Elbows were driven into spinal erectors, traps were pinched mercilessly, and fingers pried there way under my scapula. Before long, the lacrosse ball I use for SMR seemed like a cottonball. It was just what the doctor ordered.

A bad night's sleep later, where I woke up before 5am to go over my part of the presentation, I got myself out to CFCC with a bit too much caffeine in my system. Tuesday is my long metcon day, so it was only natural to throw myself at the programming mercies of Tom Taylor, the owner of CFCC. Add some nervousness regarding my afternoon presentation, and it was clearly the right choice to start my day off with the mental flossing of a brutal workout. Still, I got there and wanted no part of it.

Maybe it was accumulated nerves between work stuff, not knowing what WOD lay in wait for me, and the normal jitters associated with visiting an new affiliate. I've mostly worked out on my own and spend an inordinate amount of time talking CrossFit with like-minded people in the virtual CrossFit world, so when I make a rare affiliate visit (this is my third), I want to put in a good showing. I walked in, said hello to Tom, and scanned the wall of white boards for the one that would tell me what flavor of suffering I'd get to enjoy.

Before I get to that, let's quickly review the CrossFit recipe: "Constantly varied (if not random), functional movements, performed at high intensity (and practiced with virtuosity)." (That first aside is Coach G's - the second is my own addition as the takehome message from my Level 1 Cert.) The whiteboard showed a recent mainpage WOD:

4 rounds:

Row 500m
115# Push press, 21-18-15-12

Totally random, my ass. The hopper knows. It sought out my weaknesses and issued me a swift kick where it counts, or actually, it issued a butt with the horns of my two worst goats - push presses and mid-length metcons. Like I said, I wanted no part of it.

Thankfully, nobody else showed up for the 7am class. I don't get much coaching, and I was happy to have an experienced coach see if they couldn't cue me to a better push press. As I warmed up the movement, Tom had no magic bullets, but after some time with me, he did see deeper into my issues with the PP than I caught in my video self-analysis. I'm fighting both quad dominance and shoulder inflexibility, while trying to learn a new motor pattern. It works OK up to about 95#, but beyond that my form issues shine through. I dip, leaning forward too much as I push my weight onto my heels, I tip back to get my head out of the way of the bar, rocking me forward onto the balls of my feet, and I drive. The solution isn't magical. It's just more practice at light weights, like I've been doing. Thankfully, having Tom's focal points, and a new shoulder mobility drill to take home, I expect the battle will be won in the next month or so.

The actual workout looked like this:

Warmup
Row 500m 147ish
Lunges with sampson and psoas stretch
10 C2b pullups
10 pushups
Shoulder triplet
(10 each of
PVC press with emphasis on pushing elbows forward,
behind the head press with emphasis on active shoulders,
dislocates with emphasis on a tight full-hand grip.

Push press 45x10ish, 95x10ish, 115x10ish

115 was inconsistent, so I scaled weight on the WOD.

Metcon
4 rounds:

row 500m
95# push press, 21-18-15-12

16:12

That rep scheme is mean. It doesn't drop off fast enough. I held form together pretty well for the first two rounds, but things started slipping later on, as I tried to work faster through the shorter rounds, despite being gassed. For the record, if you're unclear on the notion, rowing on the front end of any metcon is quite simply nasty. Tom gave me some pointers on that, but he was shy about coaching me through it, because I'm an experienced CrossFitter. If you're reading, I appreciated it, Tom. I was just too busy and too gassed to offer much thanks midworkout.

Tom was also kind enough to point out that a bunch of the reps toward the end wouldn't count at the qualifiers, but I knew that already. After 50 or 60 reps, I was really struggling to get to lockout, even at 95#s. Spending another 5 minutes standing around trying to get the reps right when I was already cooked wasn't going to help yesterday, but now it's practice, practice the push press.

The muddled middle

Ever go into a workout all fired-up and ready to set a PR and have it all go horribly wrong? You've got a goal in your head, say a 5-minute Fran, a 300 FGB, or a 20-round Cindy. Setting a goal like that can be motivating and help you pace your workout right, but it can also turn into a trap. You get halfway through the second round of FGB and that 300 is getting further away or you get to the 12th round of Cindy and see that your one round-per-minute pace is off by 30 seconds. You know then and there that you're not going to make your goal today.

How do you respond? Do you dig deep and try to charge for that goal, flaming out gloriously? Do you break into analysis mode and figure out a new pace and a new goal? Do you hang your head for a second and muddle through dejectedly falling further behind? How you respond to this point in the workout says more about the quality of your training than your sub-3:00 Grace, your BW snatch, or the muscle-up that you just can't seem to master. That mid-workout point is the place where you really need to dig deep and take the measure of yourself. Tony Budding calls the mid-workout crisis the place where times are made and broken. Anybody can kick it in for the last round or last couple of minutes to finish strong, but to maximize your output when you're in the depth of the WOD, wishing you would hurry up and die so the pain might go away and having no hope for release anytime soon that the true firebreathers are made.

I have a Bad Habit of fading in the 8-12 minute range on AMRAP 20 metcons. It's a reason that I put long metcons in general at the top of my list of goats. The tricky thing is that the mid-workout crash comes from a different direction with different workouts. In Cindy and Murph, it's the pushups that ultimately catch up to me, leaving me balancing intensity against impending muscular failure. In FGB, the metcon hit causes my technique to go to hell until my shoulders are screaming at me to stop in that second set of PPs. In Elizabeth, the heavy hit of the squat cleans just saps my confidence in my ability to complete another rep. The worst, however, are those workouts with running and something simple like burpees. There's nothing really keeping you from doing the next rep, even if it's going to be slow, but still you stop and stare at your shoes, unable to convince yourself to perform the next rep. It's a naked failure of will and is supremely humbling.

Regardless of the specific physical challenge that forms the critical point halfway through the workouts, I need to learn how to push through that point - risking failure right there to find out what I can do. As Coach says, the best race car-drivers crash their cars testing their limits. Even when muscular failure is at hand and doing one more rep might add minutes to my time, I'll never know my capabilities if I don't test my limits. The score today doesn't matter. The score only matters on game day. This is training. The point of training is to get stronger. I can pace myself to maximize performance at the Qualifiers, but right now I need to push through the sticking points, even if it leaves me wrecked before the workout is done. Tonight, I tackled a recent mainpage WOD, one of those naked tests of will, and these thoughts were front-and-center in my mind.

Warmup
Row 500m - 151.4 (felt super slow and weak and had to fight back the excuses already)
Hip mobility drills
Burgener warmup

Skill work
Tall clean 45x3, 95x3, 115x3x2, 125x3 (little sloppy on the last set)

Metcon

3 rounds:

Row 500m
21 Burpees
Run 400m

19:16

Core work
Waiter's walks 3 x 75 feet each arm, 55#

That was just the type of test I needed. I got off to a slow start when the first treadmill I grabbed wouldn't get up to speed, and then when it finally hit the 10mph mark, it stopped working altogether. By the time I got another treadmill up and going, I'd lost 30 seconds to a minute. As a result, the second round didn't feel as bad as I'd expected it to. That 3rd row, however, was the moment of truth. I ended up skipping a stroke to breath (I absolutely hate that), but somehow I kept the pace up well enough to finish that round in under 1:48. However, that really brought the wrath of the metcon devil down on me. I had to take a few seconds just to stand up and get off the rower. I don't know that this was a failure of will, so much as it was a failure of equilibrium. After that I staggered my way through the rest of the workout with some slow, but mostly steady zombie burpees and a painfully slow run. The post-workout laydown wasn't the same painful wallow as after Fran, but it was a while before I stood up and took stock of things again.

C'mon, all the cool kids are doing it

Inspired by my friend Melissa Byers' excellent blog and the blogs of firebreathers like Jason "Rhabdo" Kaplan and Shana Alverson tracking their training for the Crossfit Games, I've decided to join the fun and put together a chronicle of my own training for the Northeast Regional Qualifiers. The difference with my blog is that I have no realistic expectation of qualifying for the CF Games. I signed up for the qualifiers, both to back-up my encouragement of some athletes from the CF message boards who I was encouraging to sign up themselves, and because Sean "Dammit" Manseau of Pioneer Valley Crossfit goaded me into not letting him be the only old guy at the Northeast qualifiers.

The fact of the matter is I'm a thoroughly average CFer. By the time the NE Qualifiers come around in late May, I'll have been at it with some pretty good consistency for two years. I took up CF to aid in conditioning for backcountry skiing and to ward off a midlife crisis associated with feeling old as I turned 40. Now, at 41, I'm pretty close to the best shape of my life, but by Crossfit standards, I'm nothing special. I have my strengths, but even those aren't exceptional:

CFT 795
200# C&J
Fran 4:46
Helen 9:16
FGB 281 (not really a strength, but it illustrates where I'm at)
Kelly 25:19
Murph 36:43

While those stats may be adequate to bring to the Qualifiers, I've got a host of weaknesses to address. Personal bests like

Grace 6:58
Diane 14:54
Angie 23:11 (although that was with ring pullups)

won't get the job done. I also have some pretty fundamental problems that need addressing. There are exercises where my technique is sorely lacking (e.g., snatch, muscle up), several more where I cannot consistently apply proper technique, (e.g., clean, push press, and push jerk), and some which defy my attempts to bring intensity to bear (e.g., deadlifts, handstand pushups). The Crossfit formula for development of exercise is to first master the technique, then develop consistency, and lastly to apply intensity. While the snatch probably won't appear at the Qualifiers and the muscle up and handstand pushup might not, the rest of my weaknesses almost certainly will appear. Thus, my preparation for the Qualifiers is going to be as much remedial physical education as hardcore training.

You may ask, "Then why the hell are you signed-up for the qualifiers?" I signed up for the same reason that I train. In the words of Jon Gilson, "I train to train." I have no illusions of becoming an outstanding athlete at this stage of life. I have no major worries about my body breaking down if I don't push harder in my training. I certainly don't expect to impress the assembly of discriminating eyes at the Qualifiers. However, by training for the Qualifiers, I am forcing myself to focus my training. I can't afford to chase PRs on workouts that I already do well; I can't afford to pace myself comfortably through metcons that last longer than 10 minutes (another major weakness of mine); I can't work muscular strength at the expense of muscular stamina, and I can't afford to push through workouts like Grace with substandard technique. In short, I have forced myself to program my workouts intelligently to address my weaknesses; I must push through my workouts with intensity; and I must invest myself fully in my nutrition and recovery.

There is no settling for strong enough, fast enough, enough stamina, etc. Once I look in the mirror and decide that I look good for a 40-year-old guy and let that be enough, I start to slip. The numbers don't lie. I'm not good enough. Improving my weaknesses won't be what makes me good enough. I may not get several muscle ups; I may not develop a super-strong deadlift; but I can train intelligently and diligently and leave everything I have on the ground at the Qualifiers, and that will be good enough. I may finish DFL, but that puts me miles ahead of DNS. Signing up for the Qualifiers is as much an investment in mental training as physical. It's time to see what I can do when put to the test.

Since this is a training log, I guess I should post a workout. Here's yesterday's effort:

Warmup
Goblet squats
Hip mobility drills

Skill work
Handstand practice
managed three 0:05-second free-standing handstands
1:00 wall handstand hold
walk on hands 4, 9, 9, 10 & 6 feet

Heavy stuff
Back squat 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 245x1, 255x5, 260x5, 265x5
Good morning 45x8, 95x8, 135x5, 155x8, 160x8, 165x8

Core work
10 STCs (on rings)

Metcon
5 rounds:
Row 250m
8 Hang C&Js, 40# DBs
11:59

That metcon was positively brutal on my grip. I desperately wanted to go to a lower weight on the dumbbells and simply hanging on to the rower in the last round was Hard. Pushing through that was definitely good for me and my willingness to endure discomfort.

The squats were solid, but were definitely hard work. My 5RM is 270, but I'm just getting back to a proper LBS from a hybrid LB position/HB torso squat that I'd been working on this past fall. The LBS is definitely the right tool to help me build strength through the posterior chain, but that's a topic for another post.

Thanks for reading.