5.29.2011

Workouts this week:

Thursday evening:

WOD: 15min AMRAP:

5 Clean and Jerks (135#)

5 Strict Pullups

5 Ring Dips

I subbed 5 muscle ups in for the strict pull-ups and ring dips... Finished with 8 rounds and 4 Clean and Jerks. The muscles ups were not too bad, surprisingly enough. I'm starting to learn to pace myself through heavy WODs like this and stay consistent. By going slower, with better consistency, I am actually able to push out more work! 

Friday Afternoon: 

I wasn't in the mood for a WOD especially after Thursday's WOD being rather heavy, so I did some skill work and heavy bench. The box jumps had to be unbroken (10 in a row) in order to count. Surprisingly, I survived all the sets! After the box jump non-timed WOD I decided to see what my 1 rep max height box jump was. I increased by one 45 each jump until I got to 3, then went up by a 25 each jump. I finished with 4 45s and a 25 - approximately 3 inches above my nipple line! 

Saturday Morning:

This WOD was simply brutal. I couldn't think of another way to describe it. The first 1000m row was interesting, my legs started to cramp up around 500m, but luckily cleaned up somewhere just past the 600m mark. The OHS, SDHP and K2Es went well, I split the OHS and SDHP into 6-5-5 and did the K2E unbroken. The last 1000m row was terrible. Absolutely, positively terrible. I wanted to quit multiple times but forced myself to keep pulling, finished, then collapsed. Fun stuff! :)

Sunday: 

Rest Day.

Monday:

 'Murph' speaks for itself, but I will say this: CrossFit proved itself to me once again... I ran a 6:54 on the first mile WITH a 20# vest! The amazing part is, a few months ago, my best mile time was a 7:30 (NON-vested)!!! Again and again, CrossFit training amazes me. It works!!

Thoughts for the day:

I've been attempting to explain the undeniable importance of consistency and a well thought out plan with finite, well defined goals. From what I've seen so far, everyone who has done CrossFit consistently for 2.5 months has seen noticeable results - Consistency and determination provide these results! I have seen these qualities garner results in more than just CrossFit and fitness, they have helped me in my relationship with God as well. Staying in relationship with Him through prayer and the word is unbelievably important! There have been more times in my life than I can count where I was able to survive and continue pushing forward through difficult situations or make the correct decision because I had been staying close to Him. I think Paul, in this following passage from Corinthians, is emphasizing the need to take what were are doing in this life seriously. 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (New International Version)

The Need for Self-Discipline

 ²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

I know I can't just go floating through life aimlessly. Honestly, I would go nuts! I need to have goals, challenges, and obstacles to overcome. I think God puts these challenges and obstacles in our lives for a reason. He wants to help us grow stronger and grow closer to Him through them! I know every challenge I have faced in life, whether or not it seemed like it at the time, has brought me closer to Him and I am incredibly thankful for that fact. Paul challenges us to think about our life and make sure what we are pouring our energy, time, and emotions into will be of eternal value and not just further us in this life. Sometimes its difficult to differentiate between what is of eternal value and what isn't. When I come to these situations and decisions, I try to dig into the word, pray, talk with other believers God has blessed me with in my life, and really search out what I should do. By doing this I have been able to continue to be sure I'm headed in the direction He has planned for me. Most time its a direction I haven't expected and simply had to trust Him it was the right decision. Sometimes, I've gone one direction, which was completely wrong, just to find him tugging on my heart to turn around and head in another. All we need to do is keep our relationship with Him strong and at the center of everything we do. He'll be there for us and support us through everything! So cool. :)

Also, some legit Oswald I stole from J. Hill (thanks for this!) and www.utmost.org:

Lord, I will follow You, but . . . —Luke 9:61

Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.

By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

5.26.2011

Here is a quick update of my workouts this week so far:

Mon 5:30am:

Monday Evening:

I've been rather busy since Tuesday with life, work, coaching, and planning for this summer semester starting on Monday.

God's been rocking my world these last few days as well.. I'm really feeling the pull to keep chasing Him! I have such an undeniable peace about everything going on in life. The more I learn to trust Him, the more peace I have.

Mathew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Also, here is some AWESOME reading, I pulled it from www.utmost.org -

Pray without ceasing . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:17

Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing . . .”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “. . . everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But . . . , but . . . .” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.

5.22.2011

Quick weekend synopsis:

And Saturday after the community WOD we did:

21-15-9
CTB pullups
KB swings (63#)
Air Squats

My time was 4:47 and my arms felt like they might fall off!! Great quick wod.

5.19.2011

The last 14 days have been insanity.. I ended up surviving finals, miraculously pulling an A in Heat Transfer and a C in Thermodynamics 2 (one person was passing with a 61% going into the final -_-)! Sometimes I look back at where I was, both physically and spiritually, almost exactly a year ago and it amazes me. So many things have changed. I was introduced to CrossFit a year ago by Chris who randomly asked me to work out with him and Cune the upcoming Saturday. I had never tried CrossFit and couldn't deny the challenge, so I decided to go. The workout was Cindy - a 20 Min AMRAP of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats. I was summarily annihilated. I was able to squeeze out 22 rounds and almost caught Chris who did 23. I then proceeded to fall over attempt to catch my breath and grasp on reality. The workout was killer! I hadn't experienced that sort of a challenge in a workout since back when I was swimming competitively. I absolutely loved it and have been hopelessly hooked ever since then. Physically, I am close to the being in the best shape of my life - stronger, faster, better endurance, more flexibility, less aches/injuries, and on and on. Its amazing what a high intensity, full range of motion, constantly varied program can do! CrossFit works! On the other side of the coin, through CrossFit, I made many close friends and in alot of ways, family. After joining I started going to bible study and then church with many of the people from CrossFit and getting connected with other believers and through these relationships, God challenged me in more ways than I thought possible. He put the right people in my life at the right time in order to challenge, support, encourage, and bring me closer to Him. CrossFit allowed me to see God work in other people's lives and challenge me to let Him do the same with mine. It still amazes me how close we all end up getting through a crazy workout that leaves us on the ground hoping the pain will subside so we can get up and do it again. I need to delve deeper into everything that has changed over the past year, but I thought I would start with a quick overview and start digging over the next few weeks. As for the last few weeks, I actually didn't record my workouts but instead just did my best to survive them. With the lack of sleep and time, I was just happy to be able to get in the box when I could! Sometimes life gets extremely busy and time is a rare commodity. These are the times I try and squeeze in workouts when I can and look forward to the luxury of upcoming free time when I can get back to a normal training, sleeping, and normal life schedule. Starting tomorrow at 4:45am I should be back on track!

Heres some great stuff to munch on:

Psalm 46:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

5.7.2011

Friday afternoon I felt like getting back to some heavy weights after sectionals. The last 6 weeks I've avoided doing anything too heavy so I could stay fresh for the Open WODs. I've been looking forward to adding some significant strength into my training again! After work, I did:

16min AMRAP of:
3 Deadlifts (315#)
13 Box Jumps (24")
3 Muscle Ups

I did 6 rounds + 1 deadlift. I REALLY focused on form. Had I let my form go, I think I could have finished a few more rounds. But, I'm sticking with what I've tried to always do - back down on the weight if my form is not where it should be and work my way back up with perfect form. By doing this most of my life through athletics, power-lifting, etc, I have avoided ever having a significant injury. It's hard to do this, especially when competing. I want to push myself beyond my limits, but I know I have stick with good form. It pays off in the end!

Today (Saturday) I went in and did some skill work.. started with 5 sets of 200m row sprints with 45 seconds of rest.

1st set - 20% intensity, 2nd - 40%, 3rd - 60%, 4th - 80%, 5th - 100%. I ended up holding a 1:29 on the last one!!

Then I worked on getting a better CTB butterfly. I was trying to figure out how to do CTB butterflies and make a significant separation in form in comparison to regular pullup butterflies. There is a fairly large difference between the two. It seemed like CTB butterflies work better when I keep my body more vertical through the whole movement. With regular pullup butterflies, I have a much larger angle with respect to the ground. I also realized how much more important my legs were in CTB butterflies.

After this, I worked on my strict press form followed by a set of 7 reps done in singles, 20 seconds rest between each single. I used 125#.

I finished the day off with 3 X 1 min wall hand stand holds and 15 minutes of stretching.

5.4.2011

Ridiculous performance of 11.6!! Check it out:

http://pd.crossfit.com/games/video/Games2011Open_DanBaileyWOD11-6.mov

I found some time to sneak into the box after work tonight and hit:

"Karabel"

10 Rounds of:
3 Snatches (135#/90#)
15 Wallballs (20#/15#)

My time was 18:32RX - The snatches were nasty until I really focused on splitting my deadlift out of the movement.. deadlift--hit my knees and EXPLODE into the shrug and snatch. It really helps. Once I figured that out (around round 4), it was more of a matter of lungs than weight.

I took the last 4 days off to rest after sectionals as well as out of necessity from work and school requirements.. 4.75 hours of sleep doesn't really make WODing a great idea! I can always notice a significant difference in my output when I don't get enough sleep (e.g. 6-8 hours a night). It seems like my fuel runs out much quicker and the weight always feels heavier! The weeks when I do get the sleep I need, I'm usually able to hit my 'second wind' halfway through a WOD and keep a consistent pace. Sometimes though, when you don't have a choice when it comes to sleep, I do find even if the WOD was terrible and I felt like I was going to fall over and most likely not get up for a week or two, I generally feel much better afterwards. 1.5 weeks and this semester is over!!! I can't wait to tear through some non-stress-relief WODs!

5.1.2011

I read a fairly interesting article on SICFIT earlier about people cheating in the Open because of loose judging from some affiliates. This has been based on people who know the output of some of these athletes from competing side by side with them recently etc.. and saw impossible  submissions from the same athletes.. Personally, I have always been impressed with the honor system of CrossFit. I've watched many of our coaches and athletes no-rep themselves in wods, which yes, is frustrating, but if we want to judge our actual athletic output and progress, we have to have a static set of standards we follow. If we cheat and sneak a few wall balls too short of the line, a clean a jerk without full extension and our head through, a shallow squat, or a few less burpees, we are undermining the whole idea of CrossFit and just hurting ourselves. The essence of CrossFit is forcing those wall balls to the line, rocking out solid form on the clean and jerks, breaking parallel on our squats and sweating, screaming, and muscling out those last brutal burpees.... The reward for honesty is recovering on the floor writhing around waiting for the pain to stop, stumbling to the wall and writing your name and time on the white-board and knowing that EVERY REP counted. 

Here is a quote from the article on SICFIT by Ronnie Teasedale I thought described why we do what we do really well:

"“The magic” of the WOD happens not when you finish, but in those final moments when you are in a territory you have never been in. You know this because you might barely be able to stand, or breath, or keep your food down,…. You might be faced with putting a barbell over your head that you are barely holding on your shoulders. It is in these situations that you don’t know,… and… against all other wishes your body may have: you keep going. You gather all the strength you have, both physically and mentally. You might think back to a time you were strong to get you through this current dilemma. You might take a second to tighten up every rep,… Whatever it is, and however it plays out you get through it,… you were in a place you never have been before,… and you push through it. You gained access to that territory. You got your 4 min Fran, or you climbed the rope with no feet all the way to the ceiling, or you got 400 reps on Fight Gone Bad…. Whatever it is,… it’s yours."


Here is the last few days workouts:


Friday: 
I had been really busy this week with school, 2 tests this week and finals coming up in 2 weeks. so, Wednesday morning at 5am I did 11.6 which is -


11.6:
7 Min AMRAP
100# Thrusters
Chest to Bar Pullups
Rep Scheme - 3,3,9,9,12,12,15,15,18,18,21,21,etc,etc...


I finished the sets of 15 and got 14 thrusters into 18 for a total rep count of 104.


I'm re-naming this WOD "Death By Fran"... 


I followed 11.6 with some mobility and foam rolling..
Fri (morning) - warmed up, mobility and foam rolled
Fri (afternoon) - 1.5 mile run + 1000m row (split into 200m sprints, no time domain, just until I caught my breath)


Then Saturday I did 11.6 again during our sectionals at Premier and attempted to "strategize" the wod. I figured I'd pace it and try and just stay consistent. I ended up with 98 total reps. 7 minutes was too short to attempt to slow down, I went all out on Tuesday and had 6 more reps!!


Overall rank in the region is 73 (as of 12:31pm).. On the bubble!!! I dropped quite a few from 92 last week, but not enough. Time to start training for next year! I met my goal of being in the top 100, but no regionals bonus round. 


I'm excited for the next few months - training with our athletes who qualified and pushing them to rock regionals, adding more strength into my training, ASRX tour event in Dallas in August, Olympic Lifting Cert sometime soon after that, should be fun!



Also...

Watch more video of The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games on sicfit.com