Whiteboard for 3-12-2010

Worked on trying to get inverted on the rings this morning. I was screaming so loud some people thought I was giving birth. It’s hard to explain how it hurts to pull myself up into the inverted position but I really have to use my hips and they are just not having it this morning. My arms were also fried from yesterdays pull ups.

Because I have to work so hard to get myself inverted that creates a swinging movement so I really look the part of a swinging side of beef. When Will does it he just kind of floats up and there is no swing. I guess we just have different styles.

Will brought his new weight vest and loaded it with 12 pounds and is going to wear it all day. Anxious to see how he feels tomorrow.

There is a free workout tomorrow and Charlie, Lisa and Brian are going to be doing some extra workouts in the morning so I will be watching them workout.

What hurts today—It’s been a tough week and I am feeling it. Hips and arms are toast.

Eating—Well, got on the scale again even though I said I would not. 234. Got to find a way to get to 231 by Monday.

One Year Ago—Team Workout

One year ago the date for the NEO CrossFit Challenge was announced. It was June 6, 2009. Have not heard anything yet this year. I really have mixed feelings. It was really fun, I had a great time but it damm near killed me. It took me three weeks to recover.

Whiteboard from 3-11-2010

Worked on getting inverted on the rings this morning and on the foam roller trying to roll my right hip into submission.

Some more clips from Sunday.
Joe’s Fourth WOD

Ben’s Fourth WOD

Eating—The scale showed 235 again today so I need to stop getting weighed, it’s becoming counter productive at this point. The scale is just playing with me now. I really want to be at 231 for Monday so I will just keep doing what has been working. I know that sooner or later it sill show a loss and the loss will stay there.

What hurts today—Hips continue to be really tight. Really frustrating.

One Year Ago—Tom met pukey.

Whiteboard from 3-10-2010

Worked on shoulder press with Dave, Steve and Noreen and also worked on my headstand.

Warm up was really tough. The TGU’s and Windmills were not happening this morning. My hips were not letting anything move.

The WOD was a continuation of the suck fest. The Row went well and my KB Swings were solid. I asked Will if I could use the 45 lbs KB which forced him up to the 55 pounder. The Lunges were a mess. The window wipers were passable.

The lunges really messed with my time.

With the weather changing it looks like running will be back. Not sure how that is going to work with my heels and ankles but I will need to at least try and see what happens.

Had fun in Self Defense Class last night. Had a new kid start. Trey is in the 9th grade. Mark had me work with him on block/pass/pin and we did not kill each other. We also did some punching drills for Trey and stick striking drills for me.

Mark and I worked on some intense stick work and Dave and I worked on some drills incorporating elbow strikes. It all gets better each week.

Could not resist the call of the scales aging this morning and got 232….just one more pound for the 25! No one is going to be able to beat me for percentage lost. Joe C could possibly come from behind and beat me on pounds but he better get busy if he intends to do that. Only 19 days left in this tracking period.

Eating—On track, just trying to keep things the same because what I am doing is working.

What hurts today—Really bad hip pain this morning during the WOD but once the WOD is over I am OK and feeling good.

One Year Ago—

Whiteboard for 3-9-2010

Worked on back squats prior to class. Still able to do a headstand. I try to check every morning to make sure I can still do it.

Rope climb was in our warm up. Total fail. Wayne got his first trip all the way to the top!

Worked on my own doing front squats Overhead was a no go. Worked up to 170 with a little bit of depth. After that I went down to 135 and was actually able to get some good depth.

Metcom was total suck. Sub’d 5 squat thrusts for the double unders and used 14 pound med ball for the med ball cleans.

My hips really let me down this morning. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

The buzz in the box is still about the Sectionals over the weekend and planning for the regionals in May. It’s going to be a busy two months.

Tom weighed in and stayed the same. Brandon was up 2 but that was great based upon the traveling and higher stress levels for him over the last month.

I had to jump on the scale and saw 233 again. I am hoping that this week I will get a couple more pounds. I need to make 231 to get my 25 pounds. The only wild card at this point is Joe C. He has not had his weigh in yet this week.

Eating—On track. Tried a Star Fruit last evening. It was OK but it’s not going to be a favorite.

What hurts today—Bad morning for the hips. Sometimes it just turns into a time issue. It takes me so long to get loosened up that the activity is over before my hips have kicked into action.

One Year Ago—Breakfast Buffett

Click for full size whiteboard 3-10-2009

Check the whiteboard.

Here are clips from the first WOD:
Dan
Joe
Harvey
Aaron
Brett
Justin

I actually misidentified Dan in this video. Who would have thought that the only two guys with headbands would be next to each other. Dan is actually in the white shirt to the left of the guy I identified as Dan.

Whiteboard 3-8-2010

Exciting morning at the box talking about the weekends events. I will do my regular blog now but will be talking more about the CrossFit Sectionals in another blog. I will take a minute to show the two photos below. Can you see what is similar in the Male First Place and Female First Place? The female, Lisa, is wearing her CrossFit Legacy T Shirt and Dan, the Male First Place is holding his. Both first place spots were won by CrossFit Legacy! That means we will have three people (Lisa, Dan + Charlie) in the regionals in Logan Ohio on May 8-9. This really opens the possibility to have someone from the box going to the games in Ca!

First Place Woman

First Place Male

This mornings WOD went better than expected. I was surprised I could even get out of bed this morning. My feet and back hurt so much by the end of the day yesterday from standing for so long that I thought they might have to take me out on a stretcher.

Steve, Dave R, Noreen and I worked on our back squats prior to class.

Our WOD this morning was based on the final WOD from yesterday. Yesterday the men used 155 lb for the clean/jerk, did chest to bar pull ups and very strict box jumps and after the 12,9,6,3 they pulled in a sled from about 200′ away.

I would never have been able to complete that WOD as Rx’d. My window of opportunity is shut and the shutters drawn on that type of workout..

Brian set the Rx’s weight for men at 135 pounds for the clean and jerk. That’s easy, just a 45 pound plate on each end of the bar. I was feeling good about doing the WOD Rx’s when I saw that Eric went with 145. I resisted the urge to add 10 more pounds to my bar before the WOD started and kicked myself afterward for not chasing him on the weight.

Overall I was really happy with the WOD this morning.

Bad news all around on our 6AM guys weigh in. Maybe we need to change our name to the 6AM Gainers.

I was up 2, back to 235. Not concerned. I have stuck to my plan, even through the Arnold and have been working hard. My performance has improved. I think the 233 from last week was a fluke and by next week I should drop a pound or two. I really want to get to 25 pounds total by end of month.

Eating—On plan.

What hurts today—Yesterday was a real trial for my feet and back but I survived. Once I got going this morning I feel fine. I still feel a slight headache on and off. Maybe it is just the change in the weather.

One Year Ago—This was the day one year ago that I started tracking what hurts today. One year later and it is pretty much the same.

Whiteboard 3-5-2010

Steve, Noreen, Dave R and I worked our back squats prior to class and I worked in several headstands.

The downside to doing the headstands is that because my skin is so fair and thin, being on my head is breaking tiny blood vessels under my eyes and beside my nose. That sucks but it is still fun.

I felt much better after today’s WOD than yesterday. Not physically, because I was near death, but mentally because I know I did a good job.

There were several toes to bar that Will would not count and he kept me on pace with the rower.

I was really excited when we both came in with the lowest times. Especially when I knew I worked as hard as I possibly could and my scaling was appropriate to my abilities. Thanks for the push Will.

The excitement is in the air as the CrossFit Games Sectionals get closer. Sunday is the day.

Eating—The scale has me back up to 236 which is a concern. That’s up from 233 on Monday. I don’t think I have changed my eating and I have sure been working hard. I just need to tighten up the diet a little bit and be prepared for Sunday. I am going to pack my backpack full of stuff I can eat all day to avoid any goodies and also have stuff for the way home. The real danger period will be on the way home late at night, passing McDonalds after McDonalds. I will just have to be prepared to stuff my face with carrots and grapes all the way home.

What hurts today—Slept until the alarm went off. Just the usual morning aches and pains. Overall feeling much better than in the recent past and my performance and attitude in the mornings really reflects that.

One Year Ago—I did not make it to class one year ago today. It was my 6 months dental check up.

Class cools down / Click for larger image

Whiteboard 3-4-2010

Steve and I worked on our back squats prior to class.

I went for the RX’s weight of 275 on the deadlifts. It was hard but I was able to complete the WOD with the 275. For the wall balls I used the 20 pound med ball for 40 and 30 rounds.

When I went for the round of 20 wall balls there was a 14 pound ball setting there……and I picked it up. There is a huge difference between 20 and 14 pounds when doing wall balls. I did the 20 and 10 wall balls with the 14 pound med ball.

I could kick myself now because I could have completed the WOD with the 20 pound med ball but I took the easy way out. I did go up to the board and write down that I used a 14 pound ball for part of the WOD. The result, as it should be, is that Brian rubbed out the Rx’d by my name.

That stung as much as taking away a gold star from a 4 year old.

The reality is that this was one of the few WOD’s I could have actually completed as RX’d.

So, knowing that fitness requires failure, this was an example of a mental failure vs. a physical failure. Hopefully this experience will help me the next time I am in this position.

Kudos to Eric for completing as RX’d. I know that deadlifts are not Eric strong point so he clearly had that mental edge to work through anything this morning.

Looks like we are going to hold off Will’s completion of his 100 days of burpees for Monday. This is good for me because as long as he is thinking about those burpees he is not thinking about making me do pull ups.

Excitement continues to build as we get ready for the weekend in Columbus for the Sectionals. Most of the guys are going down on Saturday but I will be there early Sunday.

Eating—On track. Still looking for 232 or less on Monday.

What hurts today—Slept until the alarm went off. Just the usual hips and heel/ankle stuff. Still a lingering headache, like background noise in my head.

One Year Ago—Wall Balls sucked last year, just like this year. Some things don’t change.

Click for full size whiteboard 3-5-2009

At Crossfit at 6AM. I was the only one this morning. Brian and I did the workout together.

Rather than the original schedule Brian had developed for warm up and skill we did Kettlebell walks, clean, swings and snatches.

For our WOD we did 20 Wall Balls and 10 (each arm) snatches (35lbs), AMRAP for 20 minutes.

Brian completed 10 rounds with 4 extra Wall Balls and I completed 7 rounds.

Too bad Eric was not there. Wall balls are his favorites.

My six-month dental checkup is at 7AM tomorrow morning so I have to miss tomorrow’s class. This works out OK because there is a class on Saturday morning and having the break in between will probably be good for me.

Eating is still going really well. No major screw ups. I have settled into a routine with lots of chicken (it’s on sale this week) as my main protein. I am anxious for the next weigh in on Monday morning.

Joe H, one of our competitors from CrossFit Legacy has decided he does not want to know the WOD’s until Sunday morning so, just in case he might check my blog, I am just providing the link to the WOD’s and not printing them here. Feel free to check out the WOD’s our guys will be doing Sunday morning.

The WOD’s

Whiteboard 3-3-2010

Had a good morning in the Box. Brian gave us somewhat of a break from the heavy WOD’s we have been doing. Everyone agreed that yesterdays WOD was a real trial.

We did some gymnastic moves this morning on the rings and I tried a tripod head stand and was actually successful, to my surprise and to the amazement of my fellow CrossFitters.

Being able to do the headstands really made me feel good because it reminded of things I was able to do as a child. For those of us who are more well seasoned in life I think we just forget how to do some of these things, like jumping or running or standing on our head. I think if we just keep doing things like that we should always be able to do them. It’s also fun to do things like this with your CrossFit buds because you get such great feedback and support, regardless of the result of your effort.

We also worked on inverted ring holds and Will and Joe H were trying 1 handed hand stands against the wall.

The actual WOD was a 2,000 M Row. During the row Brian said I needed to come in under 9 minutes and I did. I looked back at my previous times and was really pleased. 12/30/09 time 9:12, 1/7/09 time 8:54, 3/3/10 time 8:28. Another example of why keeping records is so important. I might have been disappointed in 8:28 but looking at the previous numbers tells me I am improving each time I do a 2,000 M row. Joe H was working with me during the row and helping me keep the idea of a deadlift in my head. There is clear room for more efficiency on the 2,000 M row.

Had a great Self Defense class last night. Mark was instructing and the class was made up of Dave, Jason and myself. I worked on stick combat drills with Dave and did some punching and kicking drills with Jason along with some free hand block, pass and pin. Mark and I worked one on one on sticks. I did much better than I did on the previous Sunday afternoon.

Eating—On track. Had to do another OCD weigh in and came in at 234. I need to be at 232 or lower for Monday.

What hurts today—I was a surprised I was not all beat up from Self Defense class. Hopefully I am getting use to the different movements that are required. Just the usual hip and heel/ankle issues. My headache continues to linger. At this point is it sill just in the background, not impacting activities but the moment my mind is not occupied I can feel it. I don’t think it anything I am eating. The best reason I can come up with for the headache right now is the weather.

One Year Ago—We worked on Turkish Get-Ups for our skill this morning. I worked with a 35 lb Kettlebell. Normally I don’t go that heavy on a TGU but it worked ok this morning, my right shoulder was able to take it.