Enough is enough

My body hurts. Twenty-one rounds of Cindy is no small task, as it turns out. It was all I could do to stay away yesterday afternoon. Of course, when I went to bed, I couldn't sleep easily. I had a lot on my mind...and maybe I'm training a bit too hard.

We decided to for-go this morning's strength session in the name of Time and Energy. I tried an air squat - ouch. My adductors are really sore, not to mention the rest of my legs. My shoulders hurt, my calves are sore. Everything hurts.

So, what better time to try the recently-famed Fab Four workout (as named by Shana Alverson of CF East Decatur)? Admittedly, the only part of my shoulders that didn't hurt were the muscle responsible for HSPU. My pull-up muscles were pretty sore, but there's not a ton of pullups in this WOD. Deadlifts - eh, usually they are okay. 135# felt unusually heavy today. My box jumps I thought were pretty good, until I saw Shana jump.

I warmed up with a LOT of box jumps. I was trying to get faster. I can't seem to link my jumps very well without an extra hop between jumps. That was definitely slowing me down.

3 Rounds for time of:
4 HSPU
8 Chest-to-bar Pullups
12 Deadlifts, 135#
16 Box Jumps, 20"

6:08

If only I hadn't rested in my last set of deadlifts...I could have been sub-6. (There's a goal right there - have no more workouts where I think "I could have been faster if only...").

I am pretty pleased with this time. I really wasn't feeling well. I'm not particularly good at any of those movements, except for maybe the pullups, and usually my DL is at least stronger than it felt today. I'd love to hit this WOD again, when I am a little more fresh. But then again, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to beat Jolie/Caity in this one workout. I'm pretty sure if I had been doing this WOD side-by-side with these girls, my time would have been faster.

I also really don't think there are going to be box jumps at the games or the qualifiers. They're just so hard to judge - most people don't stand up all the way at the top. I was reviewing the video of me doing the WOD and I wasn't standing up enough on some of them. I was trying to go faster and faster, and even though I thought I was standing up all the way, I apparently wasn't. (You can see for yourself when I post the video - probably Thursday).

Food yesterday:
I fell a couple of hundred calories short of 2k yesterday, so before bed I had a nice big spoonful of peanut butter. Yum!

• Calories: 2006
• Protein: 123 g (20.6%)
  
• Carbs: 79 g (13.28%)
  
• Fat: 175 g (66.11%)

I definitely like this better in terms of macronutrient ratios. That's a LOT of fat - I'm surprised it didn't add up to more calories. Protein is good - close to bodyweight. Carbs are nice and low, despite the fact that I started out the day with a banana!

Yet another girl

No time for the shoulder press today, and I was thinking of skipping it anyway due to my planned Metcon: Elizabeth. My shoulders have been on the verge of being overworked lately, and I have also been doing a ton of HSPU work, ring dips, muscle up, and even working in some push jerk practice. I have probably only done the shoulder press 2 of the times I was supposed to. I might continue to add in some shoulder press when this CFSB is done (next week!), or I might just continue all of my HSPU work.

WOD 090404

Buy-In:

• OHS
• HSPU practice
• Push Jerk
• Clean and Push Jerk, working up to 95#

"Elizabeth"
21-15-9 reps for time of:
95# Squat Clean
Ring dips

13:16

More than pleased with this. It's my first time doing "Elizabeth" as Rx'd. Last time it took me 8:47, with 85# and the red band. My ring dips were slow, and I never got more than 3 in a row. I probably could have, but I didn't want to wear myself out. I was afraid of reaching muscle failure. I think I have sort of a mental block against ring dips though...I can do sets of 5 pretty easily, but when I get to them in a WOD, I never seem to get more than 3, and I quickly have to go down to sets of 2 or 1.

My cleans today felt spot-on. I could easily do several in a row. 95# just isn't heavy anymore. I feel like my form is really improving. I think I am still jerking the bar off the ground some, but I am working on that.

I'll continue to work my ring dips, now that my left shoulder is doing better.

Oh, I have been keeping track of food a bit better, but then today I ate brunch out (Huevos Rancheros - lots of eggs/cheese/beans. Probably the best choice of where I was, but I should have just eaten at home.). Dinner will also be out. It's a celebration for my cousin's birthday. Yay more mexican. I should be back on track tomorrow, hopefully. I think I've just been over-eating a tiny bit. Not much, but I feel sluggish, so maybe if I can knock it down a couple hundred calories (i.e. a couple of spoonfulls of peanut butter) a day, I will feel lighter/faster/stronger.

I think my brother got some good footage of me during the end of Elizabeth, so I should hopefully have a cool video tomorrow :)

And I thought Fran was bad

Woke up with a terrible sore throat this morning. I had planned on working out between 6:30 and 9 (not for the entire time, but in that time frame!) but ate breakfast, then decided to come home and take a nap before the 9 a.m. class. To my surprise, I fell asleep almost immediately upon laying down, which I can almost never do so early in the morning (it was about 7 a.m.). I slept so hard, that between the time my alarm went off the first time at 8:20, and the second time at 8:25, I had an entire second dream.

I decided to work out this evening with Meriah. I had been working on greasing the groove all day for HSPU - and I actually got my first static HSPU! My brother and good friend Lauren were spotting me, but they didn't help at all! I think I must have had a lot more confidence with 2 spotters, so I went for it. I got a total of 5 or 6 HSPU today, static. I also spent some time doing sets of 2 with the purple band, which I think will help me A LOT.

Anyway, here's the workout:

Front Squat 3-3-3

• 45x5x2
• 75x5
• 95x3
• 135x1
• 140x3
• 150x3
• 160x3

I think I had more in me. But, my recent 1RM is only 165 (all time 1RM is 198 aka 90kg) so I thought this was a pretty good showing. I'll go for 170 next week, and then my Strength Bias cycle is over and it's time to go for a 1RM again!

Skill work: Ring Dips. I did 2 sets of 5. It feels good to have these sort of back. My left shoulder is still kind of bugging me, but not bad. After seeing that the qualifiers happening this weekend had both HSPU AND Ring Dips, I am a little worried. Time to get to some serious work!

Metcon:

21-15-9 Reps for time of:
65# Thrusters
Burpees

6:15

Very, very happy with this. Makes me think that sub 4-minute Fran is possible after all. My goal was to do all my thrusters unbroken, but there was no way I was doing more than the 1st set unbroken. My shoulders were toast from those Burpees. I felt slow in the burpees, but I tried to keep moving. I need to get faster in these.

I think I am eating a little too much. I haven't been doing very well with keeping accurate track of calories. I am going to start measuring again. Not "dieting", per se, but at least keeping accurate track. It's hard to do, but I at least need to be doing my best. I think I have been eating too much in general. I feel....big. Too big. Hard to say. I wish I could see myself from the outside.

Week 2, Day 1

It has been more than 1 week since starting the CFSB-ish program I am doing, but since I was in Utah and not doing my own programming last week, I didn't count it.

I have so much to do here at the gym, and so I haven't really gotten enough sleep/rest/food the last couple of days. I woke up feeling exhausted this morning. Luckily, Meriah came in at 6:30 to workout with me. She's the greatest :) I definitely would not have pushed as hard if I were working out alone.

Metcon - "Mary"
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
5 Handstand Push Ups (HSPU)
10 Pistols (one legged squats), 5 each leg
15 Pullups

Meriah and I decided to scale this back. She was worried about 15 pullups each round, I was worried about 5 HSPU each round, so we both scaled it back so we were doing the same WOD.

"Mini-Mary"
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
2 HSPU
4 Pistols
8 Pullups

16 Rounds + 1 HSPU

The HSPU felt great today. I can't believe I got through as many as I did. They definitely felt stronger than ever before. I did them to 1 Abmat, but I don't just touch and go - I rest on the abmat and then pushup (with a kip usually). I figure I compress the abmat enough that it's almost like doing them to the floor.

The pistols were easy - I should have done more per round. I could have handled 10, but then the rep scheme would have been all messed up!

I did all 8 pullups in a row each round. Most of them were chest to the bar, but towards the end my hands were starting to get really sore and feel like they might tear, so I didn't kip as hard.

Food yesterday:

• Calories: 1824
• Protein: 90 g (20%)
• Carbs: 67 g (15%)
• Fat: 131 g (65%)

Hmmm, weird. The calories seem low, carbs seem low, protein seems low. It all seems low. I was really hungry this morning, even after breakfast, so maybe I need to up the calories a bit!

Playing with HSPU from Jenna Rettenmayer on Vimeo.