Training for Thursday, May 18

As you read earlier, reader, I took a planned week off (turned out to be six days) from training. No cycling. No running. No lifting. Nothing. They tell you not to do any of that kind of stuff after having a vasectomy, so ...

Anyway, I felt good enough to hit the gym today. I didn't cycle in (the boys are still a little too tender for that), but I spent my lunch hour at the U of M's Active Living Centre throwing some (body) weights around. Prairie CrossFit's WOD was the perfect workout for me to do considering my time off and my current limitations.

Today's training:

Lunch hour

A. Push Press Cluster; 5.5 x 3 sets; 2 min rest (worked up to 135 lbs)

30 min AMRAP
30 Cal Row
30 Walking Lunges (used 25 lb KBs)
30 Hand Release Push-ups
30 Sit-ups
30 Air Squats

I made it through 25 minutes. It was tough, no doubt, but I felt a little bit of pain down there so I decided not to push it. I probably won't train again until Tuesday (I'm on solo dad duty for the next four days), but you never know.

No training, as I've said a billion times here, means no food. So, it's been no food for the last six days. Well, I did get Five Guys after my surgery, so there was that. But, I stayed pretty razor sharp over that stretch. It was nice to eat again today. I weighed in at 179 lbs. Makes me think I won't switch to cut 2 after all next week. I might give it another seven days of consistent training before making that determination. 

Now for a few quick hits:

• I posted an inspirational quote on Instagram late Sunday. I was hoping it was going to set the tone for the rest of the work week. To be honest, I don't really have hard, grueling days at work. I really love my my job. But I really do like motivational quotes and find myself somewhat inspired by some here and there. Anyway, this week was a gongshow. One of the most challenging stretches I've had in a loooonngg time. I just couldn't break through. I kept my composure though and didn't act on emotion. As things tend to do, everything worked out. I actually ended up having one of the more productive/creative weeks I've had in awhile. So, I don't know. I'd like to spend more time sharing some of the philosophies on work/life I've been thinking my way through over the last year. Getcha' popcorn ready for that.


• Eff it, maybe I'll share some stuff now. I do two things pretty much everyday: talk out loud to myself, and crossword puzzles. Both, I feel, have helped me immensely in my day-to-day operations. I feel I've become much more of a quick thinker and more prepared for various situations and encounters. This blog, too, has helped ignite some creative sparks at work as well. I sort of knew it would. It's that's a large reason why I decided to do personal writing again. If you want to be a good writer, you gotta write, right?
  
  
• Chris Cornell killed himself today. I was up early, briefly, at 5 a.m. when I saw the news. Gutted. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 19. Audioslave was a huge band at that time, and a lot of their songs from their debut effort lived glorious lives on my mix tapes. Anyway, the first time I hit the road after passing my driver's test, I popped in one my cassettes knowing full well Show Me How To Live would be the first song to play. I cranked it full blast as I sped down Fermor Ave. Great memory. I wasn't a huge Soundgarden fan, but I always respected CC's haunting vocals. Another legend gone too soon.

Training for Thursday, May 11

I'm just going to cut to it: I had a small/more-painful-than-I-expected surgery on Friday morning (see what I did there?).

I won't be doing any training for about a week while I recover. 

I'll probably write a post about the surgery one day (don't worry, it was nothing even remotely life-threatening). I haven't told many people about it yet. Even though no one reads my blog, it would be wrong to share more about it here first. 

Thursday's training was pretty great, though. I've been killing the CrossFit game lately. I'm not totally where I want to be: I still can't do a muscle-up and I haven't really tried handstand push-ups. I actually had a dream last night where I was completing multiple MUs. It was glorious.

My elbow seems to be finally getting better. As you'll see below, I was able to snatch without it feeling like my elbow was going to burst out of my arm.

Thursday training:

Cycle and to U of M and back: 10 km

Lunch hour:

University of Manitoba Active Living Centre

1.5 mile run on track
I'm definitely still running the Manitoba half, but I'm not going to focus tons on training for it. It's just too time consuming and a bit boring. I'm going to aim to run between 3-10 miles a week. 

WOD prep: shoulder press complex (combo of snatch pulls, snatches, presses, push presses)

More shoulder work: 4 sets of 7 KB cleans, push presses, swings

CrossFit


A. Snatch Pull. Power Snatch, build to a max single (worked up to 65 kg ... I'll take that as PR)

30 – 20 – 10 reps of:

Shuttle Run

BJ overs (24/20″)

Toes 2 bar
Hand Release Push-ups
 
I finished the metcon at 15:49. Not bad. The box jumps and T2B were killers. Running and push-ups are my bread and butter.

Again, I won't be training this week ... which sucks but I have to recover. Renaissance Periodization is going to be a merciless beast the next seven days. As I've written before, no training = no food. It'll be a good challenge though.

I'm also having trouble accurately measuring my weight. I tend to do official weigh-ins on Wednesday. I tipped the scale at precisely 181 lbs. I was hoping to be below that. I weighed myself the next day and the reading was 178 lbs. I weighed myself at the doctor's office Friday and it was 183 lbs. Weird, I guess?

Anyway, I'm going to stay at cut 1 this week and then move to cut 2 regardless. I know weight isn't an accurate measurement for me (and how could be it be based on those fluctuations).  But I still want to adhere to the RP cutting principles of moving cuts when weight loss has plateaued.

 

Training for Wednesday, May 10

Legs are still sore to the point random people are coming up to me asking "are you OK?" I went into the gym today with the sole purpose of focusing on my core. Do deadlifts count for that? Because for some reason I was inspired to be as many as I could to start things off.

No cycling

Lunch hour:

University of Manitoba Active Living Centre

6 sets of RDL at 135 lbs, 3-6 reps
5 sets of DL, 1-5 reps. Worked up to one rep at 354 lbs

4 sets of 10-15 GHD sit-ups, focusing on full extension
My lower back was feeling a little strange going back that far, so I modified my last set to not go below base 

Every 90 seconds, 4 rounds: 

• 6 Around the world with plate above head (15kg, 3ea) 
• 20 Russian Twists and then hold the Hollow Rock position for 20-30sec

I'm getting really good at this workout. I've done it now almost 10 times. I increased the reps on the last set and used a 45 lb plate. 

I also watched the rest of the Road to the Games video. Man, I'm so impressed with the content CrossFit.com puts out. That video is perfect. Music, footage, editing. It's a vision. Also, Brian Chontosh tho? Sweet Jesus. I'm pretty sure that man is the executive producer of every nightmare I've had in my life. 

Training for Tuesday, May 9

Acronym for the day is DOMS, which stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. As I shared with you yesterday, reader, I did a whole pile of squats and literally prayed to not be sore. The aches and pains didn't truly set in until about 2 p.m. today. I've been walking with a noticeable limp since then. Oh well. I hope to cycle to work tomorrow so god willing it all works out.

Also, it's Timbits soccer season currently. And, if your kid is anything like mine or a few other kids I know of, it's also drink-too-much-water-or-gatorade-at-soccer-and-wet-the-bed season. Ugh. The worst.

Anyway, here's today's training. I didn't follow anything specific. I felt like working on my presses (both strict and dip presses). And I wanted to work on some pull-ups.

No cycle

Lunch hour

University of Manitoba Active Living Centre

6 sets of strict barbell shoulder presses x 4-6 reps (three seconds up; one second down; pause; three seconds up). Worked to and maintained 135 lbs.

5 sets of push presses x 3-5 reps. Worked up to 175 lbs. 

10 sets of pull-ups x 5 reps.

Some quick hits:

• Going to weigh myself tomorrow. If I'm at 180 or lower, I'll continue with cut 1. If I'm 181 or higher, I'm going to change it up to cut 2. I haven't been keeping a firm grasp on my weight, but I'm fairly certain I've been losing around a pound a week since starting.
   
• With all the spring/summer activities popping off (softball, soccer, hockey) it's been getting a little more difficult prepping food. It's still happening ... but I'm staying up later than I want to. Going to try better moving forward with my nighttime routine.
• Sara Sigmundsdottir (spelled that without looking) posted an RP cookbook on her Insta-story today. That was pretty cool to see.
• Speaking of her, I checked out most of episode one of Road to the Games (I think that's what it's called) on the CrossFit website. So good. Her, Tia, Davidsdottir, and Julie are featured quite heavily as they train together at CrossFit Mayhem (home of Fittest Man in History, Rich Froning) in Tennessee. Other than them being actual beasts (the women were EASILY throwing 200 lbs-plus over their heads), the thing that struck me the most was how competitive they were. Through all the smiles and jokes was a palpable sense of fear, curiosity, defensiveness, and cockiness from the athletes. There are probably a few reasons for that. Unlike any other sport, it's hard to pull a rabbit out of your ass in CrossFit. You are who you are. You can't hide behind anything or fake your way through a lift or movement. And that can suck in that ultra competitive world.