Back At It

So, umm, remember when I used to update this thing regularly? Yeah, me too. Sorry that I've gone off the grid. I've kind of stopped caring about my training and was just doing it. 

That's not to say that things have gone off the tracks or anything. I've been doing some decent things since last I updated. I ran a Spartan sprint. I power snatched 200lbs. I back squatted 385. I've been riding my bike in the bloody freezing cold temperatures. I've competed in an inhouse throwdown at our gym. I went on vacation in the Caribbean and got fat and then came home and realized I suck at being fat. 

But, it's time to get back into it. A buddy at the gym is starting up a Catalyst Athletics weightlifting cycle, so I figured I'd join in. I have my old 3 day adapted programming from the last cycle I ran, I'm just going to run that on a weekend sprint. I've taken off Fridays for the rest of the year, which gives me a pretty good run in the gym of "leave work early on Thursday" through Sunday. 

I'll add a link to the spreadsheet in my google drive, for anyone who is interested. I'll do Day 1 on Thursdays, Day 2 on Friday, rest Saturday, and then Day 3 on Sundays. Monday-Tuesday will be optional CrossFit metcon days and we'll see what this gets me, or how long I can keep with it. 

Should be fun. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18jkZqDOj3SQOg_4thP_knUKdkMVRiVaUuuHe8x8VAmQ/edit?usp=sharing

General Check In

Back in the swing of things. Finally settled in enough to the new place that I'm starting to get a routine going. Things have been moving pretty smoothly as we're almost finished unpacking and figuring out where everything goes. We're about a month in now, and I think it's finally like 95% finished. 

The lifestyle change has definitely started to affect me. I'm down to the low 190's now and eating a bit healthier. The two cheat meals a week are definitely being used to their fullest extent and I'm probably drinking a bit more than I'm supposed to. But, a few beers on the weekends is just what we need to keep things kosher in the new place. 

I've been biking to work 2-3 days a work now, it's pretty nice. It's a 2 mile trip to the office from the house. It's about 1.5 miles from the office to the gym. And 1 mile from the gym to home. So, I get in about 5 miles a day. Not a whole lot on a bike, but it's fun and it's just the slightest bit sweat inducing. 

Body recomp is progressing. My love handles are still prominent, but the front of my stomach is leaning out. I think I'm seeing more definition in my arms and shoulders as well. Can't complain, overall. 

Why You Listen to Your Coach

So, I haven't been able to walk much since Monday. Yeah, one of those kind of squat days. I hadn't done a heavy 5x5 day in a long time and it took a lot out of me.

Coach said to take it easy as we'll be doing this cycle for 4-5 weeks straight. Start light. What did I do? Not light. And I payed for it. 

Next time, I need to put my ego behind me. I've been thinking that I'm training the same way that I used to. 5x5 was my bread and butter for so long, I think I can still do it. I can't. I'm old and decrepit now. 

Your coaches are smarter than you. You should listen to them. This isn't much of a ramble. It's more of a "stop being an idiot" note to myself. 

Good Bail

An interesting thing happened tonight. No one hit any huge numbers, no one got seriously injured, nothing spectacular happened. But still, there was brilliance. 

I finished my set in the rack, turned around and watched two people chatting behind another girl struggling through her set of squats. The girl was quite obviously stuck in that spot we all get stuck in sometimes on the squat, you've finished your bounce, you've made it up a good couple inches to the hip hinge, and then.. it all falls to shit. 

Rather than freak out or look for help, she nonchalantly opened her hands, shrugged her shoulders and let the bar fall. She then turned to the two people chatting behind her who asked if she was okay and informed them that they were in more danger than she was because they weren't paying attention.

I walked over, cleaned her bar off the floor for her and back into the rack before giving her daps on a good bail. If you're going to lift, you better know how to fail correctly and she did just that. 

Sometimes you have to pay the iron price when you're going heavy. You've got that weight on your back, but you can't let it keep you pinned down. Always know the fastest and safest way out. If you don't respect the weight enough to build a contingency plan, then you're not ready to get underneath it to begin with. 

Always know your escape route. 

Pre Competition

It's the day before my competition. Trying to take it easy, thankfully I'm not exactly nervous. I've been through a few cross fit competitions, so I'm used to the idea of competing in front of people. I'm not entirely sold on the idea of competing in my singlet, but I'll get over it.

I'm no where near my weight limit, so I'm not at all worried about that. I'm at like 200, and the weight classes are 187 and 207. There was no way I was dropping so much to get to 187, pretty easy decision.

I plan on going for 88/90/92 kilos for the snatch and 108/112/116 for the clean and jerk. Nothing ground breaking there. I keep hearing that you should shoot for making six of your six attempts at your first meet. I kept thinking that I'd go for it and chase some big numbers, but I think that the safe bet is the best bet here.

So. Go in. Strap into my singlet. Hit my 200 kilo goal. Then go eat some celebratory ice cream. Should be a good day.

What Ails Me

I hurt more nowadays. 

There, I said it. I'm not okay with the notion that I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm not okay with the idea that I can't go home, take a couple grams of fish oil and a cups scoops of ice cream and wake up at 100% in the morning. 

My knees have been aching for the past few days. Since those heavy thrusters on Monday, both knees have been pretty shaky. I've taken to wrapping them with some simple ace bandages. It holds everything in place and adds just a little stability. 

Here's the problem, I don't plan on stopping at any point. I have a mock meet tomorrow, a real weightlifting meet in 3 weekends, and then a few weeks later I have a CrossFit competition. 

I hurt more, nowadays, but I'll keep doing it. 

High Rep Complex Movements

This topic comes up from time to time on CrossFit and weightlifting blogs. How the CF community takes a very complex movement, mainly the clean and jerk/snatch, and then have people do a lot of reps of these movements. People say it's an awful idea and I for the most part, agree. I say for the most part, because I do have some reservations about it.

I hate trying to do a workout RX when it's a rather large weight and a movement that I think is unsafe at high reps... like today's. If I had known that the workout was going to take such a downward spiral, I would have dropped the weight and approached it differently. This was a bit of hubris and a bit of it being far too early to think properly.

So, the main reservation I have about the approach of high reps of complex movements, is that I subscribe to the idea that you need to complete 10,000 reps of something to truly master it. It's a common enough idea, you do something 10,000 times and you're probably going to be pretty well versed in it. It changes from person to person, some say 10,000 hours. 

There's an obvious flaw to this logic though(don't mind me if I tend to talk in circles and disprove myself when I ramble). If you're doing 10,000 reps incorrectly, you are mastering something incorrectly. But I'm thinking that if you do something over even a 1000 times, you're not doing it incorrectly. You're inherently going to fix your form. Sure, you could do Isabel with shitty form(Isabel is 30 snatches for time). You could definitely throw your back out doing such a workout. But, if you want to get good enough that your times are starting to be competitive, I'm positive that you can't do so with bad form. 

Your body is going to figure out how to do that movement correctly. Is it "perfect" by someone else's standards? Doesn't have to be. I'm sure Coach Pendlay has some issues with Jason Khalipa's snatch form, I know I do. But you know what, he does it sub 2 minutes. Is it pretty? Nope. But, his body has figured out how to do that very complex movement safely and efficiently.

So, the take away. Go lower weights. That's what I should have done this morning. In a workout where there is something that is complex(read: C&J, Snatch, Deadlift, etc.) drop the weight and get your reps in. Figure out the movement; listen to your coaches and listen to your body. If you're ever going to master a movement, you need to get your reps in. Just be smart about it.