Fitness and Nutrition Update-1/22/10-muscle ups

Friday

Today is Friday and I've been on another miniature hiatus from blog land. This was an "active recovery" or "de-loading" week in our programming as we prepare for the CrossFit Games and I took full advantage. I took 4 straight days off, Sunday through Wednesday. My nutrition was near perfect throughout, the only slight being a few glasses of red wine in that span. I fully intended to blog my fuel but a busy week and unusual meal timing due to not having to plan around workouts hindered me a bit and so blogging got dropped to the bottom of my to-do list. But again, rest assured, my fuel has been top notch. I'm even down a couple of pounds since Saturday's big output. Next week I'll return to the blog and regular meal timing so stay tuned in that regard.

As for fitness, I stepped back into the gym yesterday (Thursday) ready to get some work done. After 4 full days off, my body felt fantastic. I went in just to work some lifts and a couple of skills. I worked the press, clean and jerk, and the front squat. I ended up frustrated as I thought I would hit some bigger than normal numbers after all the rest but my body wasn't having it. Everything felt heavy:

Press

-3 x 125

-3 x 140

-4 x 155

Hang Squat Clean and Jerk

-3 x 170

-3 x 195

-3 x 220

Fronts

-3 x 220

-5 x 245

Every set felt like I was lifting the world and my reps were down from the same weights a couple weeks back but sometimes you just have off days. The one bright spot was the last set of cleans. 220 felt heavy coming out of the hole but the jerk was butter. Which is promising because I've always had trouble transitioning to the jerk out of the front squat and I think I'm starting to own it. Looking forward to more c+j work.

Even with the positive jerk work I was still a bit dejected with my performance, especially after expecting so much more as fresh/recovered as I was. Fortunately, CrossFit is a lot like golf. You can be having the worst day on the course, balls going everywhere, but all it takes is one good shot, one pin-seeker, and the worst day becomes the best. And yesterday, just as I was about to call 'er a day, I made a hole-in-one. Enter the muscle-up.

Nailed my first muscle-up yesterday after many failed attempts, lots of work and much frustration over the last few months. And after I hit one, something clicked and they started coming in droves. At one point I was able to cycle 2 of them almost hitting a 3rd. Straight stoked about sums it up. Turned into quite a day at the little gym.

I'll rest today. Tomorrow I'll snatch, dead lift, bench and work on some more muscle-up and hspu drills with a short burst/quick wod thrown in. I'll rest Sunday and then fire the engines back up for a return to gnarly programming come Monday. I'm pumped.

Fitness-1/16-snatch, deadlift, bench press, snatch/row, burpees, hill-run

Saturday

Saturday was a big day of activity. Here it is:

Snatch

-5 x 125

-5 x 145

-5 x 165

Deadlifts

-5 x 275

-5 x 320

-5 x 355

Then, went after 6 rounds of the following AFAP:

7 x snatch, 135#

250m row

time=12:25

Was a pretty decent time here. The snatches could've been a little quicker but I never really rested longer than a breath or two. The only thing that made them slow was dumping the bar and having to reset between reps. Otherwise, I never stopped.

Rested for 15 minutes then went after a max rep burpee test in 5 minutes:

score=80

Not bad here but should've been closer to 100. Never really stopped but my pace was wicked slow toward the end. I needed to "embrace the suck" a little more during this one. Next time.

Took a 4 hour rest and then came back into the gym to hit a quick bench press and followed that up with a short burst hill run (under 10 minutes). Was a heck of a productive day.

Nutrition-1/16

Saturday

sleep-7 hours on the night

My nutrition on Saturday was pretty fantastic aside from my weekly cheat meal. I didn't keep a journal for the day but can tell you I was fueling damn well (until said meal) as it was a big day in the gym with three workouts and my performance was solid from start to finish. So, since the prime consumption is fuzzy now, I'll give just the details of my cheat meal. Transparency is powerful.

7pm (El Gitano's)

-1.5 baskets of tortilla chips w/house salsa

-2 jalapeno poppers

-super nachos w/chicken, cheddar cheese, refried beans, jalapenos, tomatos, sour cream, guacamole and house salsa

-1 shredded beef chimichanga w/lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and house salsa

-1/2 of a grilled pork chimichanga w/the same as above

That was a big outing last night, definitely too much food, but enjoyable. Good to get it out of the system and I'm (especially my body) already stoked to have returned to solid nutrition.

Fitness-1/15-"Twenty-five", rope work

Friday

Was a quick but intense one at the gym today. "Twenty-five" was 5 rounds of the following triplet performed AFAP:

20 x wall-balls, 20#/10ft

5 x ring-dips

20 x double-unders

time=5:51

Not too much to say about this one, absolutely crushed it. Never stopped moving and was sprinting from exercise to exercise. I did come off of the rings a couple times because I was getting out of control, but was right back up and on. Good show.

Finished the day with 3 x 12ft rope climbs w/no feet from sitting. In and out in a flash but with much accomplished=a great session at the gym.

Nutrition-1/15

Friday

sleep: 8.5 hours on the night

10:45am

-app. 24 oz. organic brewed coffee, black

-large link isernio's extra lean all natural chicken sausage

-2 organic hardboiled eggs

-large banana

-2.8g epa+dha

3pm

-6 oz. baked salmon

-app. 8 oz. mixed vegetables (broccoli, carrots)

-4 oz. strawberries

-4 oz. blueberries

5:30pm (post wod recovery)

-"Recoverite"-15g prot, 49g cho, 4.5g glutamine

8pm-1am (out with a friend)

-1.5 oz. laphroaig single malt, 15yr

-pint belgian brown ale

-pint porter

-large salad w/grilled chicken (6 oz.), romaine, spinach, 1 oz. blue cheese, carrots, walnuts, craisins, and with app. 1 tbsn of balsalmic vinnagrette.

-110 oz. water on the day

Fitness-1/14-press, barbell complex and run, ring work

Thursday

Tough but productive one at the little gym today. Started with some press work:

press

5 x 115

5 x 130

8 x 145

My strength in the press keeps inching up there. I felt stronger today and will continue to improve. This is one way I can supplement my hspu strength and I plan to continue to work on it.

Next up was a heavy barbell complex and running wod that beat me up pretty good. The workout was 6 rounds, w/1 minute rests between rounds, performed AFAP of the following:

5 x deadlifts, 205#

5 x hang power cleans, 205#

5 x front squats, 205#

run 100m

time (including rests)=17:45

This workout called for 155# on the barbell but I went after it with Jthom, a fellow coach and stud who weighs about 175, so I decided to go at his percentage of bw. I performed the first round unbroken, rounds 2-3 w/1 drop, rounds 4-5 w/2 drops and round 6 w/3 drops. Came out strong for two rounds but the weight got heavy quick. It was unbelievably hard to find your legs on the run. I sure would like to have finished this one faster, I didn't think I'd be over 15 minutes. But heavy met-cons take some getting used to. I'll keep at it.

I finished this one with a good bit of l-sit/l-hang work that felt great, really engaged the core. After the workout I coached for 3.5 hours and then went and played in an intramural volleyball match. The body's been sufficiently worked today, looking forward to rest.

Nutrition-1/14

Thursday

sleep: 8 hours on the night

7:15am

-2 organic hardboiled eggs

-1 large link isernio's extra lean all natural chicken sausage

-large banana

-1 cup organic whole milk

-1.4g epa+dha

-650mg ca, 250iu vit d3

9:30am

-app. 20 oz. organic home brewed coffee, black

12:15pm

-4 oz. beef petite sirloin

-1/3 cup walnuts

-1 cup blueberries

-large organic braeburn apple

-1.4g epa+dha

4:30pm (post wod recovery)

-"Recoverite"-15g prot, 49g cho, 4.5g glutamine

-4 oz. beef petite sirloin

-1/4 cup walnuts

-1g epa+dha

11:15pm

-4 oz. beef petite sirloin

-2 organic hardboiled eggs

-1/2 cup walnuts

-12 oz. chopped butternut squash prepared with evoo, garlic, chile pepper and sea salt

-2.8g epa+dha

12:45am

-1 cup organic whole milk

-1.2g epa+dha

-140 oz. water on the day