Archive for May, 2009

Moving day + “Fran”

Posted: May 24, 2009 in CrossFit
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Well, I have been slacking on the posts seeing I’m moving across the country. Also, I haven’t had much time to workout. So what do you do after a full day of moving boxes and you still want to get some more work in?? Well, you do Fran of course…

So I marched down to our empty gym at 8 o’clock at night, turned AC/DC up to eleven, did a quick warm up and had some fun.

“Fran”
21-15-9 of:
95lb thrusters
pullups

I finished it off in 3:51, a new personal record (4:20 old pr) and after a full day of moving and drinking coffee! And then I went out and got shit faced with all my buddies. Now, I’m paying for it with a houseful of crap to pack and I feel like throwing up everytime I bend down to pick up a box. Sweeeet!

Go Heavy

Posted: May 24, 2009 in CrossFit
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I’ve noticed the weeks that I feel best is when we have a heavy/max lifting day earlier in the week, followed by a metabolic conditioning workout. When I say best, I mean not only do I feel very strong (which is evident in my kicks among elsewhere) but I perform very well in my sports. This week we did not have any heavy max lifting. Therefore, after taking Thursday off, I decided to do a 3×5 workout with heavy squats. After not having gone heavy in 1 1/2 weeks, my squats were shit. I think I maxed at 245, full range of motion. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t take much time to rest. All I really wanted was to get something heavy in. Mission accomplished but the end result felt pitiful.

Around noon I had my last class at Taekwondo where I was the only student there! Great class, Master Juong really worked me hard, it was a good way to go out.

Pose with some squats…

Posted: May 20, 2009 in CrossFit
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and by now my stomach has been feeling better. Today was a light snack:

Four rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
50 Squats

I’m still working on my pose cadence. Comfortably I can hit 96-102 cadence. By comfortable I mean sustainable over x amount of distance. Running 1/4′s the cadence jumps to 108 comfortably. However, it still takes concentration. Running is a skill and like anything, takes time to perform properly.

Tuesday WOD

Posted: May 20, 2009 in CrossFit
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was a make up from Sunday:

Four rounds for time of:
100 ft Walking lunge, carrying 30 pound dumbbells
24 inch Box Jump, 30 reps
30 pound Weighted pull-ups, 20 reps

Besides almost chunking in my pants, the workout went suprisingly well. Monday was off, but I figured I would still feel some effects from Helen and the tempo on Sunday. Box jumps went unbroken and fast. The key was achieving maximum muscle elasticity combined with ground reaction which is just another way of saying, hit the ground and pop back up as fast as possible. I finished the workout in 13:21, leaving quickly for home and bee lining it straight to the commode.

Evening session was Taekwondo and legs were very tired. I was also due for my chiro appt and I knew I was a little out of alignment when my periformis and IT band started hurting. I made it through and passed out immediately returning home.

N.O. Explosion supplement…

Posted: May 20, 2009 in CrossFit
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lives up to it’s name. I purchased the GNC NO/amino acid supplement over the weekend, stoked to try it before my workout on Monday. The only explosion this supplement created was an explosion in my pants…I literally spent the whole morning on the shitter. In fact, I was so messed up, I didn’t start recovering until noon, after a 7am workout.

I should have known something was wrong from the beginning. As soon as I mixed it up, it immediately started bubbling and spitting at me, I think it even looked at me funny and called me a derogatory name. When it was time to drink the fizzing red elixir, it was like sipping jet fuel…jet fuel that tasted like kool aid. It was weird and awesome at the same time. I started getting shaky, only one of my eyes could stay open and my teeth started to itch. I wanted more!! This shit was awesome! I thought, “I’m not sure what’s going to happen during this workout, but whatever does, I’m going to rip shit house.” Of course, I meant this figuratively speaking. I didn’t think I would literally be ripping shit house in the shit house. Within 15 minutes I had major stomach pains along with my diarrhea. The WOD was lunges, box jumps, and weighted pullups. I silently hoped I wouldn’t take a dump in my pants during the workout.

Long story short, I survived the NO explosion. The rest of the day I felt oddly wired. I did have good energy, but I was still jittery and the energy seemed “fake”. My heart rate was elevated higher than normal through out most of the day. One thing is for sure, I woke up the next morning absolutely ripped, like 3lbs lighter. Whatever was in this stuff not only cleaned out my system and dehydrated me, but also burned some serious fat…so I decided to try it again this morning, only half strength this time. Surprisingly, the same problems occurred! It only takes me bashing my head against the wall 2x to understand not to do it again.

So am I done with supplements? No, I like the idea of amino acids before my workout. I’m going to try to find something a little more pure without the caffeine and see how that works. I’ll keep some extra tp in my shoe.

Inov-8 shoes…

Posted: May 19, 2009 in CrossFit
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rock my muddy world. I got a chance to test drive a pair of flats from this specialty off road racing shoe company. Inov-8 X Talon 212 They are called the X Talon 212′s and they will literally rip your face off. This past Sunday, after heavy rains, I ran them through the muddy Georgia clay trails of the Chattahoochee River Park. These shoes performed remarkably. Not only are they very light and quick but their super sticky rubber cleats helped me claw my way through the slippery single track trails, up and down steep ascents, without a fault. The low profile of these shoes made them very responsive to the terrain and kept my foot firmly planted. This is particularly important to me due to the fact that I have rolled my ankles so many times, they resemble rubber bands more than anything else. The shoe laces tied up very nicely and most importantly, stayed tied. The shoe itself felt (as it should) like a racer; tight, responsive, light weight, and all around performance oriented. I completed the loop, roughly 5 miles, in 25:30, feeling exhilarated and invincible. The X Talons were just the ticket to flying high on the muddy trails at the Hooch.

Slappin’ Helen

Posted: May 16, 2009 in CrossFit
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…and she slapped back. This morning I completed the “Helen” WOD in 6:31.45, a new record for the CrossFit books. Immediately following the workout, I collapsed off the bar and crumpled to the ground. If I never have to do that workout again, it would be too soon. That doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. Here’s what Helen looks like:

3 Rounds for time:
400m
21 Kettle Bell swings #55
12 Pullups

As if that wasn’t enough, I came back 30 minutes later to rabbit Lawson through 600m of an 800m time trial in 1:29. The run actually didn’t feel too bad. I guess the feeling may have been akin to running with cement shoes on, then taking them off…and then putting them back on once you hit the 1/4 mark, that’s pretty much how it felt.

On a side note, I think I literally destroyed a “gene pool of chickens” today with all the damn wings I ate. Have you ever wondered how many damn chickens have to die just to eat some wings? I thought about it for a second, then I read this quote from Mark Rippentoe:

On the ethics of meat eating:
Okay, have you ever been around chickens?
They are stupid, uncooperative, inconvenient, ill-tempered creatures.
They get what they deserve. Fuck chickens.

Quick update

Posted: May 15, 2009 in CrossFit, Rest
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So on account of the fact that we’re moving next week to San Francisco, I’ve had pretty much no time to do anything. I don’t even have time to sleep. The key has been my diet, which has been overall good.  Here’s the breakdown of my week, thus far:

Monday: Morning was rest day, evening was tae kwon do. Excellent class, better than last week where I was still tired from lack of sleep. Leg’s were tired from previous day of running + 300 squats…but still felt strong.

Tuesday: Morning I worked on the cleans, but it was a pretty pathetic “try”. Dan took a video of me, pulling early, knee caving in, all out of whack and shit. I did a few cleans @ 155 and called it a day. Def feeling sub par and tired. Lack of sleep is starting to catch up.Evening session, instead of running, went back to taekwondo. Light class, felt ok. Didn’t kick anyone in the head unnecessarily, so that’s good.

Wednesday: Did a modified version of “Mary” 5 HSPU, 10 pistols, 15 pushups. Did 10 rounds while juggling my daughter. Felt better today. Evening session was off.

Thursday: Morning session was a snap. Finally felt my legs getting back underneath me w/ 5 rounds of 30 GHD’s, 25 Back extensions in 9:11 or so. Felt easy. Didn’t do anything in the evening.

Friday: Took the day off and my body feels absolutely primed.  Anticipating “Helen” tomorrow morning which will be immediately followed by an 800m time trial. You may ask me, “Brendon, are you high or just plain dumb?”  To which I would respond, “Yes, have some.” My belief is that coffee will play a major role in tomorrows activities.

Looking back through the past 2 weeks, I may have timed everything perfectly to have a “mini” peak tomorrow. Aside from sleep, which has been absolute shit, I’ve got a few pretty good lactic acid tolerance workouts under my belt (2 weeks prior), strength work has been at the beginning of my week (creating testosterone jumps for later in the week) runs have tapered to once this past week (where I felt very good). All in all, my body feels very good for a maximal effort tomorrow.

After all this, me and Doback going to kick it on my yacht:

Paleo in full effect!

Posted: May 11, 2009 in CrossFit, Paleo
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This morning it was 5 scrambled eggs with half a bell pepper, half an avocado, few tablespoons of salsa and  5 slices of bacon. Washed it down with coffee….mmmm coffee, I need some more coffee….

Lunch was left over fajitas and it looked like: 3-4 oz of steak, 1/4 cup of cheese, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, half an avocado,  couple tablespoons of almond butter, handful of cashews…I think that’s it.

Since going on Paleo fully about 1 and 1/2 months ago, my energy has become MUCH better. My body has noticeably recovered quicker and I have leaned out by about 2-3 lbs while gaining about 2-3 lbs of muscle. Body weight is 165, dripping wet.

Also, I have included more Omega 3′s in my diet. That means 6 fish oil pills, which is 2 @ 3x per day with a meal. Since doing all of this I don’t have the noticable aches and pains or the terrible tendonitis in my right knee. In fact, this past week was the first time I’ve been able to do push jerks in over a year!! That’s how bad my knee was. Every time I woke up, walking down the stairs, walking up the stairs, getting in my car, out of my car…shit you name it, my knee hurt. Now, no more! It’s crazy to think how much diet can effect things like this. Of course, I had always been active about healing it properly, seeing my chiro, icing, heating, stretching, rolling, massage…still nothing helped as much as changing my diet. It’s totally insane. I used to have a nagging shoulder injury…also, gone!

If you’ve ever wondered about Paleo, I’m telling you, jump on the train, cause this shit works!! The first 2 weeks your body will hate you, almost akin to going through detox. You’ll have almost uncontrollable sugar cravings, which is caused by the habitual insulin response that it has needed when you were eating 50-60% grains/carbs. Your energy will totally suck, like someone “punched you in the face and you can only see out of one eye”, kinda suck. Afterwards, you’ll find your energy leveling out, as you introduce more fats and the body becomes more efficient at burning it. Soon you’ll be humming along scared shitless of anything with sugar in it. I know I am. The fact is, your body becomes very sensitive to sugar. As soon as it’s ingested, you will crash big time. It’s a good reminder of why you should stay away from it, after going on the Paleo diet.

Here’s a great read by Robb Wolf on the Inuit diet and how this hunter/gatherer society ate:

http://robbwolf.com/?p=423

Today my diet has been for a total of 1588 calories:

Fat (67

%)
Carbs

(

10

%)
Protein

(

23

%)
Alcohol

(

0

%)

Never too late…

Posted: May 10, 2009 in CrossFit, CrossFit Endurance
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Today was spent mostly drinking coffee and having fun visiting my family and celebrating Mother’s Day with Jillian and my mother. I didn’t get a chance to workout until 9pm. Here’s what I did:

Starting at the back of our neighborhood, about 1/2 mile, I practiced some CFE drills, working on falling and pulling my foot up quickly with my hamstring. The hips work in unison to creat a “rolling wheel”. Each time you land, think of a figure 4 and your form will be money. Hips carry you through. My cadence was over 200/minute (counting both feet).

3 Rounds of 1 mile sprint, 100 squats. Last round was only 1/2 mile sprint. (Total time just under 20:00)

Working on my stride, it’s amazing how much more efficient I have been feeling. I can power up hills much quicker without the usual fatique in my quads and hips. Overall, I felt amazing thinking I would feel the total opposite, considering the little sleep I’ve gotten lately. The human body is an amazing thing! Woop!

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