..a stream of consciousness..

sometimes, I wonder… I mean, it’s not like I post that often, or have insightful or hilarious posts… if I post what I really think, there’s always a chance that someone reads it that I’m not sure if I want to read… but then if I’m posting something like that, why should I post it?  it’s putting it in writing, and making it pretty clear, right?  Then there’s the question of who’s really reading this stuff… who REALLY cares?  and if it’s someone I really care to care, shouldn’t I be just talking to them?

I don’t know.  Maybe it’s like a diary, maybe it should be kept to yourself… bleh.  whatever, maybe it is just to have random ramblings, right?  Maybe updates on my life for those who don’t keep up with me that often?  Maybe as an alternative to FB (which is taking over the world, especially with how easy it is to post from phones nowadays)… then there’s the fact that no one really will be reading this… I mean, who REALLY wants to keep track of me anyways?  Lol.  This is what happens when I’ve had a couple drinks and get some time in front of a computer…

ANYHOW…

I’m in Austin right now, just drove with Debs out here for her foray at UT for grad school in advertising.  It was a long drive, but Texas isn’t nearly the boon that everyone says it can be.  Austin is pretty fun – they have some LEGIT bbq, good places to drink, and a seemingly decent corporate scene for those who aren’t fully in a new age mode… I really like the food, and the people are super nice, even if they all think Texas/Austin is hands down the best city in the world.  period.  no if’s and’s or but’s.  I mean it – don’t bring it up, they all drink the kool-aid.  Not that there’s anything wrong with being proud of where you’re at… it’s just that they almost feel the need to bring it up incessantly.  Again, these are the ramblings of a tipsy man given a keyboard…

it’s hot though.  seriously hot.  there are tarantulas around the house, deer running around, grass-fed, damn healthy for you food that we can’t get in socal just b/c we’re so population dense.  i won’t lie, some things about austin really make it appealing… i’d just have to figure out a way to deal with the heat and the lack of a beach

ok, as I continue to ramble on… let’s recap what’s happened since January 2010…
– fixed my left shoulder’s posterior cuff tightness
– competed in the Crossfit Games so-cal sectionals… was some drama about tap-outs, scaling & competing, but whatever.  I competed, I’m happy with how I did.  It was def a sweet experience @ Drake…
– met an awesome girl who happened to have plans to move to Austin for school and potentially for much longer than grad school… (DMW, I’m talking about you, and yes, you’re awesome).
– tore my right shoulder’s labrum i believe doing ring-pushups
– competed in the Crossfit Games southwest regionals as a part of the affiliate cup team.  Again, a great experience – but need some time to heal and get back to it.  Don’t know if I’ll be able to stay competitive for next year’s cup competition…
– watched my boy DAVE WU graduate from Marshall business school.  I bet he never reads this blog or this post, but yep, he did it (and his liver survived!!)
– explored countless new food places, drink places, beer places, wine places with said awesome girl.
– went to game 7 and watched the Lakers rock the Celtics at the end of game 7 to take the title.
– made more compromises than I thought I would – perhaps opened up to more new things…?
– did my first beer to bear to beer run… made Leon drink a Murphy’s Stout prior to the run…
– little drama here and there, but whatever.  got people together and went to big bear again for a boat trip.  first one in years, it was a blast.  epic quarters at the cabin.  no, seriously… it was epic.
– watched Burpy James chug a St. Bernardus, followed by some others, and he burp/barfed on some girls.  it was hilarious.  he was embarrassed, but I don’t think it was nearly as bad as he thought it was… in fact, it was kind of funny!
– drove out to Austin to help said awesome girl move.  sucks.  cool, but sucks.

ta da… caught up on all the major parts that I can remember in the state that I’m in.  Maybe I’ll come back and edit more updates from the beginning of 2010 until now… I’ll mark them as updates though (with some *’s).

anyhow.  I linked my old blog to my training page… wonder how many people will stumble onto this… and how many people will care.  I’m betting I have less readers than the joke about Robb Wolf’s podcasts (he jokes he’s in single digits, I’d be curious if there’s even one digit, lol.)

btw.  vegas for my birthday again?  lol.

as my shoulder gets cleared more and more from the torn labrum, i’ve finally started working out for real in the past couple of weeks… I can now do power cleans, strict pullups, pushups, benchpress, etc.  I’ll start tracking again to see my progress on recovery…

Monday 7/26
– 10, 9, 8… 2, 1 – Power Cleans (135lb) + ab mat situp: 6:4x? came out the gate too hard…
– 135lb benchpress 4 x 8

Tuesday 7/27
– 400m run; 800m row; 1600m run; 800m row; 400m run – 19:59.  terrible run…
– strict pullups – 5 x 5
– TGU – 5 in a row, each arm x 3 (green, green, blue KBs)
– Pushups – 4 x 10
– pistol work

Wednesday 7/28
– Clean – 5 x 1 – worked up to 185, could have gone more, but keeping it easy for now
– AMRAP 10: 5 x 275lb DL, 20 x DoubleUnder – 7 complete rounds.  Damn deadlifts.

Th – rest; Fr – missed 6a;
Saturday 7/31
– PS + PS + S x 4 @ 60kg (felt good).  Messed around with 75kg and got it w/o a problem
– 3 x 1 C&J @ 60kg.  Felt ok.  receiving felt tight.
– pullups – 4 x 6.  felt good, was fatigued by the end

Sunday 8/1
– Garcia Trail Hike

Monday 8/2 – only did 75% of what the 85% ended up being, just to get back slowly…
– BS 85%  x 2 x 4 (did 90kg)
– SDL 103% x 3 x 3 (did 80kg?)
– Push Press ?% x 4 x 5 (did 50kg)
– (pullup x 6 + AMRAP GHD w/o fail + rest) x3 – pullups got to white kb 2nd & 3rd rd
– 500m row sprint – 1:30.2 – new PR.

it’s slow, i suck, but with a good shoulder, hopefully it won’t take me too long to get back (once i can go overhead, that is)

–> btw, moved to http://www.amlap20.com/tracking – to provide a tracking specific blog.  However, this will mark the beginning of the week back

Details on the comp – as referenced in the last post:

The academy is searching for it’s top 3 men and top 3 women to compete at the Crossfit Games SoCal Regionals.  It’s doing so by scoring 16 workouts similar to the games for each of the men and each of the women, and taking the lowest 3 point totals for each gender.  The workouts are:

n/a (11th)- Nate: 5 RFTO: 7 Muscle-ups + 21 burpees
*11:19 (1st)- DT: 5 RFTO: 12 DL, 9 HPC, 6 Push Jerk (155lbs)
n/a (11th)- Ryan: AMRAP 20: 2 Muscle-ups + 4 HSPU + 8 x 2 pood KB Swing
3:04 (1st)- Grace: For Time: 30 x 135lb C&J
12:55 (1st)- Nancy: 5 RFTO: 400m sprint + 15 OHS (95lbs)
8:42 (1st)- Elizabeth: 21-15-9 135lb Clean + Ring Dips
n/a (11th)- Diane: 21-15-9: 225lb DL + HSPU
17 (7th?)- Cindy: AMRAP 20: 5 Pullups + 10 Pushups + 15 Squats
n/a (11th)- Chelsea: Until Failure, on the minute: 5 Pullups + 10 Pushups + 15 Squats
*23:51 (6th)- Barbara: 5 RFTO: 20 Pullups + 30 Pushups + 40 Situps + 50 Squats
300lbs (5th?)- Back Squat: Max
185lbs (8th)- Shoulder Press: Max
230lbs (3rd)- Clean & Jerk: Max
195lbs (1st)- Snatch: Max
n/a (11th)- 1 mile run
n/a (11th)- 5k Row

As of this morning, I am in 3rd, 1 point behind 2nd, 2 points behind two tied for 4th.  It currently looks like Brian Flavell is a lock, and Lawrence, myself, Eric and Dan Z are in a battle for the last 2 spots.  I have a couple things I haven’t done yet, but then again so has everyone else.  almost 1 month in, and the top 3 are nowhere near clear.  Like I said before – everyone seems to think I’m much more of a lock than I do.  It’s nice to have people having confidence in me, but I really need to live up to these expectations. 

Outside of an occasional cheat, I’ve started reigning in my diet again… moving away from fruits, trying to increase vegetables.  My shoulder is still a major PITA – I need to continue working on strength and control before I get to HSPU’s and the Cindy/Chelsea deal.  I’m also doing sprints once a week w/ Saskya, constantly working on different things trying to get a muscle up, and to top it off, both bball leagues started up again (I hit the game winner in the first game @ westwood – 3 pointer at the top of the key running a pick and pop with Dave.  just like old times.  classic)  Ummmm – can you say BUSY??

I PR’d on 2 workouts this month – which doesn’t seem like a lot considering everything else.  I’ve starred them up above before the time.  DT I likely won’t have to do again (it actually wrecked me for 4 days – and I mean WRECKED), since I don’t think anyone will come near that time anytime soon.  I will need to do Barbara again after doing more bodyweight work.  The pullups and squats were straight through, the pushups had some breaks in it, but it was the situps that really destroyed me.  I have two major weaknesses that are being exposed in this competition… Muscle-ups and Situps.  FML.

===========ANYHOW===========

In other fun news, since the last post – We did our annual out of state boarding trip, this year was Park City again.  Stayed at the same place, but boarded at Canyons 3 of the 4 days we boarded – we did all 4 days in a row, btw… Loo, Jose, Jonathan and I also crossfitted over at CF PC w/ Eric O’connor and Chris Spealler on the 3rd day (we boarded after) and on the 5th day (our ‘rest’ day).  Running in 8 degree weather is something else, I tell ya!  However, as great as the snowboarding and the crossfitting and breaking from everything was – there were a few mishaps.  Joe broke his collarbone, and Ed broke a couple ribs… ouch.

I also went to Beavers for the first time (a heavy construction annual awards banquet) and had to put on a tux for the first time since high school, went auto-x in the rain, and went back to mammoth for a turnaround trip.  Not a bad month!! I’ll have to come back w/ pictures when I get home.  Although… internet has been shady at home – I’ve been relegated to the wireless card for my notebook.  a.k.a. i’ve gone back to slow-speed internet.

And this is why my old blog is called ‘a stream of consciousness’ hahaha.

Ok, maybe ‘underslept’ isn’t a real word, but you get the point.  I am pretty certain that I’m overtrained.  I’m not getting enough sleep, I’m developing bags under my eyes, my recovery time has gone up, I’m not able to hit weights or times that I was able to 2 weeks ago, and my shoulder is getting sore(er) and tight(er).  My hips and knees ache, and I wake up in a daze, regardless of the amount of sleep I’m getting.

I should listen to my coaches more.  I’ve told myself that I was overtrained for the last week or so, yet I try to get in and do stuff anyways.  Try to get it in, try not to lose my position on anything… but at what point is holding on holding me back from making gains?

Yesterday I wasn’t fully able to snatch or C&J b/c my shoulders were tight, and when I switched to the TCA option A and did a max back squat, I couldn’t get my old PR, even though my real PR should be well past that at this point.  OK, so we’ve got the competition coming up, but man, I feel wrecked.  I’m taking a week off (sorta) from Monday until Saturday (where I’ll be in Park City working out over there – maybe).  I’m boarding on thursday and friday, so we’ll see how that works out… Hopefully a week’s worth of rest will help me out.

It seems counter intuitive to stop training so I can hit more weights harder and faster, but sometimes that’s what it takes.  I should be thankful that it’s not some serious injury, but still… it’s annoying.

Next post? details on the 90 day competition to compete at Regionals with the team…

(Cliff notes at the end)

Over the last 2.5 months, I’ve lost a little of my edge and slipped into a bit of complacency.  Why? a few reasons… I was getting burned out from interning in the AM, interning after work, and working out after interning… so I cut it back to just interning after work and lifting afterwards.  I took my nutrition a lot less serious after the closing of the paleo challenge, and my performance dipped slightly with it.  I lacked a goal or focus to keep me sharp outside of just wanting to be generally fitter… I had to give my back about a week off b/c it was not feeling well – then I got sick for a week, and was literally kept out of work and was stuck in bed for a week, which set me even further back… I was still training relatively hard, and eating decent, but… nothing like before.  I was in a routine, and not pushing the limits as much as I should have been.  Then a few things happened…

It started with not hitting a PR while doing Nancy at the track… Brian F was right on my ass going into the last round – and I ended up missing my PR by 1 second.  Then Dan Z absolutely obliterrated my Isabel time.  I mean crushed it.  He took almost a minute and a half off my time.  I’m not trying to say that I am better than them and that they shouldn’t be even close to me – but rather that I need to stay sharp or my peers will all leave me in the dust.

Then I noticed one morning that my lack of eating discipline had gotten me softer around the edges.  Yes, part of me is guilty of going to the gym b/c I want to go look naked.  So sue me.  So I started cleaning up my diet again – and started upping the vegetable intake while decreasing the fruit intake so that I’d be consuming less fructose and sugars, and getting more vegetables.  I could almost see an immediate difference.

The kicker was the announcement for the crossfit games.  I realize that I’m not going to the games as an individual.  On top of being at a disadvantage because I sit behind a desk all day, I also realize that I am not athletically gifted, overly strong, fast, or powerful, and that I am generally not a freak of nature (and I mean that in the most F*CKING awesome way – with a touch of jealousy) like those who will be competing individually.  Doesn’t mean I don’t want to go to sectionals and try to make regionals… and doesn’t mean that I don’t want to go to the Affiliate Cup.  Last year left a bad taste in my mouth, and I can’t wait to get out there and compete.  But first…

I have to make our team.  Over the past year, a lot of things at the academy have changed.  We have new members that are top performers.  Top performers and those close to the top from last year have all subsequently improved.  Weaknesses have been determined and subsequently worked on.  As an academy, our level of performance has increased, and thus competition at the top of the boards has increased.  However, I have not fixed all my weaknesses.  I know what they are.  I still can’t get a muscle-up.  I’m still deficient strength-wise compared to MANY of our athletes.  I am not a strong runner, or with anything of endurance for that matter.  I can only do so many HSPU’s and RD’s.  I have a hard time w/ hanging knees to elbows.  My deadlift sucks.  I can’t double-under properly.  Should I continue?

Those around me seem to have much more confidence in me making the team than I do.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not insecure about my work capacity, merely I have the utmost respect for those who I will be competing against at the academy.  What does that mean?  it’s time to get focused.  Nutrition will be dialed in (daily and PWO).  Goat skills will be appropriately worked on pre and post workout.  I will continue to try to work on my rest, and go back to limited alcohol consumption.  New limits for my mind and body will be set.  It’s time to get some.

(Cliff notes – I slacked off, but now it’s time to get serious.  It feels good to rant and get that off my chest, so if you read it, cool.  if not, no worries.)

So this past Saturday marked the completion of the first strength cycle that the USAW team went through.  At the end of it, I found PR’s all over the place – and I also found a new respect for rest and sleep.  Almost the entire Bulgarian and Strength cycle, I’ve been operating on a lack of sleep due to early morning interning and late night lifting.  That combined with a complete lack of rest days (the academy / USAW ‘rest’ days happened to be bball league days) left me utterly destroyed by the end of the 3rd week.  The 4th week had a solid monday, and the rest of the week was either rest days, or days where I scaled back on the lifts/efforts.  I tried to get more sleep, skipped one or two of the AM interning sessions, and tried to hit it hard on Saturday during the max testing to close it out.  Here are some maxes that I put up Saturday, or the Saturday before… and the corresponding pre-strength cycle weights.

Back Squat – 285lbs to 300lbs (300 AFTER max Snatch and C&J attempts)
Overhead Squat – 185lbs to 215lbs (215 AFTER max Snatch and C&J attempts)
C&J – 220lbs to 230lbs
Snatch – 175lbs to 185lbs (would have had 190 if I got another attempt or two)

I probably should test out some more, but I’d say that’s pretty solid for 4 weeks of work.  Granted, I’m sure some of that was technique based, but improvement is improvement.  I don’t know how my metcon has held up outside of the 1 second, explosive lifts, but we will find out shortly.

I plan on going to a hybrid of several of the academy programs.  I’d like to spend 4 weeks or so knocking out ALL or as many of the benchmark ladies and warriors as possible, while mixing in sprints once a week, and o-lifting every now and then.  I haven’t settled on a particular schedule yet, but perhaps 1x a week of sprints, 2x a week of o-lift, 2x a week of benchmarks?  we will see…

now if only I could get a muscle-up.

and I am noticeably sore-er than after a typically 3-day on stretch.  None of it is new, just it’s all a little more than I’m accustomed to.  Especially my triceps, which feel like i tried to do 100 bodyweight tricep extensions for time or something stupid like that. 

Got Loo and my brother to join the USAW team – can’t wait for them to really start to make progress.  Loo hurt his back a week ago jerking weight off the ground on his max clean attempt, and as of this morning, is still bothered by it.  Hopefully some rest and ice will do him good, and he can jump back on w/ us next week.

So the o-cert was a blast.  Meeting and working with Coach Burgener, Coach Takano, Fred Lowe, Trish, Erin, Ashley & Stephan – it was very informative watching them critique and work on other people’s form.  Not that I was perfect or anything, but for the majority of the basics, I was solid.  It was a certification to teach o-lift, so it was great in the sense that I got a feel for looking at gross form faults.  What will continue to help is that this weekend is the Crossfit NLP developmental meet.  Will probably see Bob Takano and Pat Colin-Carroll there.  A lot of O-lift as of late… hopefully I can hit some new PR’s again =)

I wonder who exactly is going to be at the meet, and who I can convince to give up a chunk of their sunday to come with…

BTW!!!!! – all stats are going to be mirrored on beyondthewhiteboard.com – i’ve been given admin priveleges and will be updating the site with TCA’s WODs on an ongoing basis.  As far as nutrition goes – I’m still doing paleo at 1/2 to 2/3 the carbs, subbing in 3x fat for each carb deleted.  I’m still getting leaner, and my body seems to be getting used to utilizing fat as a fuel source.  I am eating a LOT of fat nowadays… almonds, cashews, mac nuts, pecans, walnuts, pepitas, avocados, olives, etc… I also seem to be noticing that I’m becoming noticeably more insulin sensitive… interesting…!

So tonight I’m heading down to San Diego for the Crossfit Olympic Weightlifting certification with Coach Mike Burgener.  After doing the 1 day clinic with Sage, I can’t wait to see what I can learn from the man himself.  It will be a great weekend, and I will likely come back sore and destroyed.  I hope to get some good insight on technique that I can use to help everyone I train with on our USAW team.  Excited? you bet.

Starting Monday after I get back – we’re actually moving away from the Bulgarian Cycle and will be doing a lot more strength work.  We will be starting a 4 week strength cycle that incorporates some high heart rate post-practice mini-wods.  It’s exactly what I’m looking for, and should be a blast to go through it.  The one ‘downside’ is that my Fridays are programmed, which means no Happy Hour.  It’s frustrating to see my times get caught, whether they’re older or newer, b/c I always feel like I can do better and reclaim or come close to reclaiming my spot wherever it was on the board.  However, for the next 4 weeks, it’s pure strength cycle.  The intention is to come back with a vengeance, and smash all my old times anyways. 

So on the monday after my birthday, a few of us started a gluten free paleo challenge, with consequences so dire that we would understand, even in completely drunken stupor, that gluten shouldn’t be touched until Halloween, the day which we will eat and drink like gods.  Poor, beer drinking gods.  It was originally Pat (Voltron), Danae, Chris L (the Loo) and myself… and has spread to include Katya, San Nicolas, Jose, Shelly, Kristanna, Shannon, Perla, Babs, and… I know I’m missing others. 

The rules are:
– no gluten until halloween.  period.
– dairy once every other week is allowed during the week’s cheat meal
– one cheat meal a week to include severe disproportioning or sugar
– alcohol is allowed in the form of liquor, wine or gluten free beer (GFB), but
     only if it’s counted against your carbs – which you should be monitoring
     to make sure that overall, you stay relatively balanced

Punishment is – 30 min of six-count burpees, with the non-cheaters counting the numbers.  I will post a video of a six-count burpee and what it entails later.  It will be continuous and on video.  If the cheater can’t continue, we will allow up to a five-minute break in which the clock stops before resuming the remainder of the 30 minutes.

If you’re interested in joining, but want to know more about the diets – Pat’s name (above) contains a link to his blog, under which he posted some useful links related to paleo and the detriments of gluten.

wow – so it’s been a month since i’ve updated my blog… things have changed in the last month – nothing insane, but changed nonetheless.  Where to start…

OVERTRAINING – The last week of July, the academy began a 2 week period in which everyone was to do max testing to switch over to a Relative Intensity program.  After the first week, I was noticeably more tired and exhausted than ever before, and waking up became a chore, working out had gotten into my head b/c I was clearly weaker than I should have been.  My thought on that? overtraining.  It had been a full 4 or 5 months since I had 2 days in a row of rest with the exception of the crossfit games (I had that saturday and sunday off), though I was right back at it on Monday morning.  Figuring that we were doing maxes and I knew pretty much all of them or what they should have been, I decided it would be a perfect time to take a break for a week and get some more rest and stay dialed in on my nutrition. 

What a difference it made.  On that wednesday, just messing around while interning, I grabbed a 155lb bar w/o warming up and snatched it no problem.  I think that and working on handstands were the only things that I did the entire week up until Friday.  That Friday morning, I did Elizabeth (which I had done the previous Friday) to see what one week of rest would net me.  I went from 10:xx to 8:52 i believe… SOLID.  And I felt better, more energized, etc, etc.  It was a short but valuable lesson: listen to your body, and GET YOUR REST!!

TCA USAW team – The academy now has an officially sanctioned USAW olympic weightlifting team.  I’ve decided to join despite the rest of my commitments to basketball, crossfit, an occasional sprint workout, and still wanting to ride my bike every now and then.  I could really use 36 hour days at this point.  Anyways, there were a few requirements, all of which I met, but now the previous o-lift classes are all now dedicated weightlifting team practices.  The first competition is Sunday, August 23rd.  That’s my first competition as well, we’ll see how it goes. 

Sage Burgener seminar – I, along with 11 other academy members, spent 7 hours with Sage on Sunday the 16th going over O-lift technique.  It was a ton of information, and invaluable refinement of my technique.  Immediately, I PR’d on my snatch and c&j, even at the end of a full day of PVC work.  Amazing.  I think I could still do more, but I’ll wait until the next time we do testing at O-lift, or at the competition…

BOD POD – signed up for the bod pod at CFLV and did it on the 15th of August – measured in at a (fasted) 168.7lbs, 10.5% or 17.7lbs of bodyfat.  Being that I hadn’t done a bod pod test yet, it was more of a benchmark than a result type of thing (prior caliper test at 13% back in… May? June?).  We’ll see where I am the next time the pod comes around

WESTWOOD REC – we are starting up again at Westwood Rec on thursday evenings… it’ll be fun to get back out on the west side to hoop again.  Slightly different squad with one of the guys in the surety interesting, but it’ll be fun.  It’ll also give me an excuse to go out that way to eat and get some CCC. 

Future events:
Aug 22 : Hooverball Tournament (Santa Monica)
Aug 23 : USAW meet (TCA)
Sept 5-6 : Crossfit Olympic Weightlifting Cert (Univ. of SD)
Sept 19 : KStar Mobility Seminar & Pink Martini concert (?)
Sept 26-27 : USAW Club Coach Cert

I need to update my calendar and all the widgets on the side…