Enjoying the Biology Lessons!

I'm enjoying the back to back biology lessons about Metabolic Pathways and the Burn. Keep 'em coming coaches! The diagram above is actually something I remember from high school... but what it all means? I had no idea until now.

Sometimes, I wish I knew more about this stuff. I love reading about the "why" of things though I might not understand it all. I had a bad biology teacher in high school and having to memorize things like parts of mitochondria, without learning the "why" did not make this topic interesting, unfortunately. Instead, I chose a life of math and look where that has gotten me ha! I think I need to do some more biology learning!!

Interval Baseline at CFCE today.
4 x 400m run (2 min rest): 1:40, 1:40, 1:42, 1:39

I am surprised and happy that I stayed within 5 seconds! I knew I was too slow approaching that cone where I had to turn around on the 3rd round... got mentally lazy. Powered through that last one as my foot was feeling okay and well, I didn't have another round after that. Almost bulldozed two girls who were at the cone when I turned around haha.

Biceps and back tightening up from Monday's workout. Not much progress on foot though it did not worsen from the run. Ice and fish oil.

So it's JJ and my anniversary week. Last year, we went to Alinea for our first anniversary dinner and this year, we're making a whole week of eating out out of it (intentionally and unintentionally). Last night, we had Serbian food at Restaurant Sarajevo. Man, that was good. Tonight, all you can eat sushi at Shiroi Hana and I'm still stuffed. No, not doing so good on the paleo front this week but should be back at it next week... if I don't end up on a traveling project for work...

Working with injuries

Eileen's story is something I can relate to. What worries me is that I am not even in my 30s and this year has been more injury prone than ever. My body breaks down when I don't get enough rest/recovery and even when I do, I just don't know how to use the correct muscles to perform a movement properly.

Here is the list of mild/serious injuries from this year:
- Left hip (bad back squat form)
- Left shoulder (fell on it snowboarding)
- Left wrist (either from keyboard or HSPUs)
- Left foot (as described in yesterday's post)

Okay, it's gotta be some weird coincidence that it's all left side right?? I'm beginning to think that it's an imbalance in my strength. I never really trained for sports when I was a kid and when I did, it was skewed towards right-dominant racquet sports. Maybe my left side never caught up and it is struggling to keep up with CF. Maybe this is all just wild theories though it just seems plain bizarre.

Another thing I've noticed is that my brain can't seem to tell my muscles what they're supposed to be doing as weird as it sounds. People go to rehab to retrain their muscles... I never understood why the muscles never worked properly to begin with. Anyways, I think JJ has experienced this while re-teaching me tennis strokes. He's mentioned how he doesn't know how I don't hurt my elbow hitting a forehand the way I do and also with learning how to overhand serve in volleyball, my body never understands the power zone on contact with the ball.

DL 5-5-5+: 135-155-175(8) (1RM 220)

Death by Pullups (red): 11 rounds + 7 (73 pullups wow)

Post WOD – 3 x 20 cal row sprints (2 min rest): 1:19, 1:21, 1:21

Started icing my foot, which I will make an effort to do every night. Back on the fish oil. Hands are unhappy right now with the blisters. Back and shoulders are sore today but thank goodness they don't feel destroyed!

New week

Haha same title as E-Diesel's but hey, it IS a new week.

No WODs Friday, Saturday, or Sunday... well, guess we had some food/alcohol/rock band WOD Saturday night. Thanks to everyone who came over! Great housewarming party :) Pics to come.

It seems I am battling some metatarsalgia. Still suspecting the jumping into a clean got it but standing and walking around a lot on Saturday night may have aggravated it a bit. Might head to the box to get in DLs and work on some pullups but doubt I'll be hitting the metcon. We'll see. I want to make sure I rest up for Urbanathlon training week 2!

5K PR!

Before we get too deep into Urbanathlon training, ran the 5K today.

11/9/09: 28:36 (last time I ran a 5K)
8/26/10: 27:50 (PR!)

Sprinted the last 200m to get it in under 28. Pretty happy considering I hadn't been training for it at all. I think I can pace better.

3 years ago, I couldn't run ONE mile without training for it. Being able to run 5K cold is a real accomplishment for me and I have CF to thank for that!

Time for a row

Yesterday, we had our beach volleyball championship double header. Man, it was an epic battle with us falling in the last 5 points. Tough loss but great game. We really pushed it when it came to close games but we were getting it together in the end, in the dark. I want to blame it on the poor lighting that didn't turn on until around 8pm but that's not everything. I mean, the other team did have better lighting where they could actually see the ball sometimes.
Oh well. It's over. We came in second.

Lats finally pain free today. Left foot still feeling bruisy. I've been picking back up on the fish oil intake so maybe it's helping.
Sectionals WOD week at the box and I just wasn't in any condition to do any of it. Didn't want to risk aggravating anything so I made up mod CFCE WOD on the rower tonight.

8 x 250m (60s rest)
1:02.7 / 1:02.5 / 1:03.1 / 1:03.4 / 1:04.1 / 1:04.8 / 1:04.6 / 1:03.9

I could have easily pulled below a minute on the first round but decided to slow down b/c I needed to pace. Worked out pretty well. Quads got pretty sore around the last 150m of the last 4 rounds. Lungs and legs burning in that last round to keep it under 1:04.

I only did 8 rounds in order to compare against my time from July 6 when I had been off the wagon and before I got back into CF.
1:01.8 / 1:00.4 / 1:02.3 / 1:03.0 / 1:06.6 / 1:08.7 / 1:09.4 / 1:07.5

You might say I did a bit better with some consistent crossfitting (about 2-3 times a week) and better eating over the last 3 weeks :)

Hopefully, foot's ready for the 5K tomorrow!

Pain

I don't remember the last time I was in this much pain... my lats were killing me Sunday and the soreness actually woke me up. I spent much of the day moving as little as possible with almost no raising of arms overhead.
I think I need a few more rest days... muscles are taking a while to recover as my back and foot are also still tender to the touch.

However, looking forward to the CFCE training for the Urbanathlon that is starting up this week! Doubt my foot will be in a condition to sprint but hopefully, can do the 5K on Thursday.

Baseline

Friday, I did Baseline for the first time since I started CF. I always meant to do it on a rest day or something but I just never did. I got to a point before the injuries where I could have done it Rx'ed. Now, I'm back to the beginning so at least it's not a bad place to start.

Baseline: 5:52
Knee push ups, red-banded pullups.

Man that's slow. Pushups were extremely tough especially since I was still hurting from the AMRAP where I subbed pushups for burpees. The pullups I had to fight through a bit b/c of sore lats. Row is still not as efficient as I like... I think I might have rowed a 2:06 or 2:08. I also don't know how to do situps fast like everyone else does it.

Saturday, JJ and I did City Chase and we teamed up with Jason, Steph, Jonny, and Lauren. Pretty fun but tiring day! We did a 5 person pyramid, ran around in Flintstone carts, drummed on buckets, crawled on the beach, did some football drills... all lots of fun and topped off with a stop at Urban Burger Bar. Considering we didn't eat the whole day, we wolfed down burgers and beer/shake. Fun times.



Lats are paying for it now. Can't raise my arms without pain. And all the walking didn't help my foot which continues to be sore. I think I pulled something doing cleans on Monday.

Pull!

My back is STILL sore from Monday. On top of that, left ball of foot didn't get any better so no CFE for me yesterday. Instead, I decided I'd tackle Wednesday's WOD. It would be my first pullup WOD in forever...

No snatch balance. Rudy said work on FS instead so I decided to try out FS 1RM. I was working on it thinking my 1RM was 145# but looking back I am surprised that I actually never did it before. It turns out 145# was some BS 3RM a long time ago. Oops.

FS 3x1: 83-103-125

I loaded on 140# since it was feeling okay though heavy. I took it off the rack and started to squat down and gave up without even getting half way. I didn't think I could get out of the bottom and didn't have weightlifting shoes. My wrist started to hurt with the 140# racked on my shoulders and I just mentally bailed. FS doesn't bother my hip but I still got scared. Excuses excuses...

Metcon: 9 rounds.
First 4 rounds with red band, then switched to blue band. Subbed pushups on knees for burpees (I hurt my foot from DUs on Monday). Just locked out the last pushup as time was called.

I promised myself that I would use the bands and do deadhangs but when it came down to it, I did do small kips just so I can save my arms/grip a bit to get 7 in a row. I think the bands do help take some stress off my shoulder though because it changes the angle of my pull so they're a little more like a ring row angle. Shoulders are holding up okay and no bad soreness.

I am actually enjoying these elbows in, narrow pushups. Even though I am still doing them on my knees, I think it's developing some strength in different muscles and it's saving my shoulder a bit too. By the last two rounds, it was tough getting 7 in a row.

After talking to Rudy post-WOD, he gave me a goal of trying to hit 8 unbanded deadhangs. I don't think I ever managed to do ONE before injuries so this will definitely be a bit of a journey but nice to have something to work on. I'm thinking I'll start with the blue band and do 3x10 as my post-WOD that doesn't involve arms. Otherwise, maybe try 10 in a warm up.

Mark Sisson discusses proper strict pullup/chinup technique. He makes some good points to remember.


Overall feeling pretty sore today but probably have enough to do baseline!

My back!

Back's super sore today. Ball of left foot seems to have sustained some impact from cleans or DUs so that's sore too. Hammies sore. Hopefully can get better by tomorrow, if not, definitely by Saturday for the City Chase!! Go team two tone!

Damn you GHDs

DLs, DUs, cleans! All movements I like!
DL 3-3-3+ @ 143-165-187(5)
Metcon @ 65#: 8:40
Post WOD: 1 GHD and 40 sit ups

Worked off max DL of 220# and they felt good and heavy. Back’s going to feel it tomorrow. I think that's a PR on the 5RM by 7#! DLs weren't as good today as max DL. I felt myself coming on my toes for 1 rep which I almost never do.
Metcon felt good other than 1 clean where I leaned forward and lost it. Minimal breaks but did catch a breath here and there to make sure I can string at least 5 DUs together before starting them.
Okay, GHDs are nasty! Some ab muscles that I didn't know existed are still sore from the 3×10 GHDs I did over a week and a half ago! Did 40 sit ups instead just to keep those other ab muscles working.

Volleyball tomorrow and Paramore/Tegan & Sara on Wednesday. Will get back in on Thursday!

Things I learned while camping

Last week, JJ and I camped at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in TN/NC. It was a great trip but we're starting to put a lot of things into perspective.

Things we learned:
- We need 10 hours of sleep a night. No joke, we went to sleep at 10pm, woke up consistently at 8:30am for like, 5 days in a row. T.S. Wiley might be on to something!
- We can't have the jobs that we do and still average 10 hours a night.
- Our bodies can live on way less food than we currently feed it. This I knew already but pretty impressed on how little food we were eating and still have the energy to hike lots.
- Camping in the forest with the birds, bears, and bugs gives you amazing mental clarity.
- I still don't like bugs but at least I can learn to get used to them... maybe.

Things we did over the last week:
8/8: Hiked up the monument at Monument Circle in Indianapolis
8/10: Hiked the Alum Cave Trail at GSMNP (11 miles, some 2500+ft elevation gain)
8/12: Hiked the Appalachian Trail at GSMNP (almost 9 miles, some 1000ft elevation gain) from Newfound Gap to Charlies Bunion

We also ate a lot of bad-for-you-but-delicious food. Stay tuned for pics. Back at it this week!

Side note: GHDs from the previous week had my abs hurting for a whole week. Note to self - don't do 30 in a row after months away from it. Traps took half a week to recover.

Max DL

Max DL day
DL: 175-200-220
Metcon: 6:48 with 70# HPC
Post-WOD: 3×10 GHD situps.

DL PR is 225# from back in mid January when we did CFT and also it was pre- hip and shoulder injuries. First time doing 1RM in months so pretty happy that 200 went up easy. Rounded back on 220 so cut it even though I probably had 10 more in me.

Traps still has some residual soreness from FGB on Monday (RKBS/row) but HPCs felt good. Burpees much faster than last week which is nice. First GHD situps in months also... feeling them today!

Post-WOD thoughts:
Upper traps continue to be sore. Left hip felt some weakness right after WOD but feeling okay today. Must've landed funny while catching the bar on the HPC or something.

Peach Ice Cream

Non-paleo and indirectly related to CF post today. As you probably may have guessed, I'm not doing strict paleo but even though I eat butter, cream, and even drink an occasional half-glass of milk, I still watch how much I take in of that stuff.
Last night, I made peach ice cream with our brand new ice cream maker (from Costco - where else?). Erin's Mango Coconut Ice Cream inspired us to finally pick up one of these nifty machines (yeah, nifty). We didn't do the chill part as I didn't really have a lot of time but most of the ingredients were straight from the fridge anyway. This was what went in:
- 1 cup of grass-fed whole milk (Tradespoint)
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (Organic Valley)
- 2 cups of chopped peaches mushed with a bit of lemon juice
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Mix it all together, pour it in machine, watch it churn for 25 minutes. Man, that was easy. I don't have a picture because it didn't look particularly interesting but it was pretty good even without any sugar.

It bothered me a bit that the cream I used in my ice cream was ultra-pasteurized and non-grass-fed but Kilgus Farmstead ran out of cream at the Green City Market this past weekend. Next time, my ice cream is going to be made with all grass-fed dairy!

For those of you who know me, food has always been near and dear to my heart. You can call me a snob if you like but high quality food that tastes good and is properly priced is important to me. It has always bothered me when chicken wings regularly had broken bones, eggs can cost less than $2 a dozen, bananas that look and feel like a banana and yet, doesn't quite taste like the bananas I knew from my childhood. The tipping point came when Crossfit and Omnivore's Dilemma resulted in a perfectly timed one-two punch to kick me out of conventional wisdom. Crossfit taught me to question whether conventional forms of exercising (running, ellipticals, etc) were really effective and Michael Pollan made me realize how far removed we are from our food sources. This led me to question all sorts of conventional wisdom as a whole and so I dug deeper...
Robb Wolf
Mark's Daily Apple
Criticisms of the China Study
Animal Vegetable Miracle

There is so much to learn out there and so much material that I am still trying to grasp what little material I have read so far. We currently buy most of our food from the farmers' market or Costco (I know, total opposites right?) and this summer, we started growing our own tomatoes and some herbs to try to eat as local as possible. I think I can ramble on more about why we are choosing to eat locally or why we will pay premium prices to buy eggs, meat, and dairy from the farmers markets but I think I will have to save that for another post.

Fight Gone Bad!

Modified FGB a la Zack

20" box jumps: 33/24/23
Knee push ups for PP: 21/15/12
Row: 11/10/9
WB: 12(10#)/15(6#)/12(6#)
20kg RKBS for SDHP: 16/15/17
Total: 245

Game plan going into this was to get as many reps as possible on the box jumps so I started with it. Achieving that made me pretty happy! With the push ups, focused on keeping elbows in though I felt that coming out when I got tired. Row efficiency still not very good but better than it used to be. Might have pulled with some traps but made an effort to keep those down. WBs were a bit of a disaster. I thought I could do the 10# WB but in my first 5 reps, I either missed the wall or came up short on 3 of them. It was a battle through that first round so I downgraded to a 6# WB for the remaining rounds. RKBS were about the right toughness though having that last, I was just pretty winded overall.
Got a pretty nasty headache right after this WOD. Maybe it was because I was on the ground trying to breathe for a good 2 minutes after I was done. Didn't quite recover really until the 2nd round in the next heat.

Post WOD thoughts:
Surprisingly, other than being completely winded during the WOD, muscles all held up okay. Today, my back is a bit sore from the RKBS. Left hip is a bit weak feeling and tight from the BJs and WBs. Upper traps a bit sore too but not sure what got them... probably the RKBS. Shoulder held up okay. I really think the WB weakness was from the hip and not the shoulder. Triceps sore from the push ups but a good sore.
I've always been right-side dominant but since the injuries, I can feel the physical weakness in my hip and shoulder post workouts. I find myself pushing/pressing/pulling/throwing more using my right than my left in terms of upper body. Maybe that's something I need to work on?

Hopefully, the 1 hour of volleyball I played in the friggin humidity today helped loosen some stuff up!