Friday, October 29, 2010

One Silly Monkey Jumpin' On The Bed...

A whole crazy week of fun and excitment has ripped right on by and I've blogged about none of it. Commense Operation: "Catch Up"...Vin continues to punish the drumset I bought him a couple of weeks ago. He actually beat the thing so badly that we had to take him to the guitar center to buy a new cymbal to replace the one he broke in half. We've been doing the potty training thing for the past week and Vin has surprisingly taken to the whole "Big boys must empty their bladder and bowel contents in the elmo potty" coaching quite well. We've only had one or two accidents, but fortunately for me, I'm a pro at doing burpees with poop in my pants. Family-time has been wonderful as of late. With Vin getting a little bit older, it's been nice to have some sweet father/son bonding opportunities with him...Such as: Watching Vin jumping up and down and screaming on his bed, watching Vin when he falls off of said bed, getting fake red dragon tattoos, getting real red dragon tattoos (kidding- or am I?), rockin' out to Green Day's Know Your Enemy (Vin on the Drums, me on the guitar & vocals- oh, trust me- it's HOT), and of course there was getting Vin to go for a 55lb deadlift PR...20lb over his bodyweight...OH, YESSSSS!!! He got it. I don't think he really knew what happened but I thought it was pretty frickin' exciting.

My training has gone well over the past couple of weeks. I feel good enough. I feel strong enough. I feel conditioned enough. For right now. With alot of the met-cons I'm doing right now, I'm playing around with my pacing and work/rest management. My weaknesses have tended to present themselves in WODs with 15-25 minute time domains, so lately, I've been trying to practice WODs within that time-frame more often. I've kept mostly to my "S.E.M" rotation, gotten at least one new PR (OHS x 3 @ 245lb), and most importantly, had a crap-ton of fun. I'm really trying to focus on the fun right now, mainly because I know the rigorous grind of training for next year's CFit Games competition season will be here before we know it. Come next January, there will be nothing fun about the programming I dish out to myself...Spinach, Broccoli, Chicken, and Pain. Mmmm...mmmm...GOOD.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Highway To The Dangerzone

With the hustle and bustle of life smothering my face off as of late, blogging has been at the bottom of my "to-do" list. Monday's 1pm CFS WOD was a brutal 5 round couplet of 100 ft Overhead walking lunges (95lb) and 15 Ring Dips. My time was 14:53 and I haven't walked straight since- the ole' B-double-Oh-Tee-Why is SORE. Tuesday I must have done something forgettable cuz I've now forgotten what I did...but I know without a doubt I did do something. I think. It was a strength WOD of some sort I believe. Yesterday (Wed) was 3 rounds of max reps HSPU, max reps chest to bar pull ups, and max reps backsquat @ 165lb- 40 minute time limit. Anytime you have a max effort WOD, you go into it knowing it's gonna pretty much be like having your brain and your body knifefight each other to the death. So needless to say, the workout was awful- and the scary part: It would have been even more awful if I'd have allowed myself to fly into the doomed "6th gear dangerzone". If you're a crossfitter you know exactly what I'm talkin' bout'. It's the deepest realm of unfathomable SUCK. Unfortunately (and fortunately), for me I went there on Monday so yesterday my transmission was still BROKEN-OFF sumthin' fierce. As my mind screamed, "Mayday, Mayday!" and ordered my body to "Commense Operation: Crush This WOD!", my body replied in a calm, yet resolute tone, "Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full." C'est la Vie...I live to fight another day. I got 208 reps on the workout. Then Maverick put a quarter in the jukebox, played "You've lost that lovin' feeling", kissed Charlie and they both drove off into the sunset on his motercycle.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Power Cleans & Burpees Makes Jack A Dull Boy

I did the crossfit.com daily WOD on Friday evening...3 rounds of 15 hang power cleans & 15 burpees. It was a killer. My time was 3:40. The burpees on the 2nd and 3rd rounds were just awful but I moved through them pretty well I suppose. I hate burpees. Demolition and infill begins tomorrow at our new facility! I'm still in awe that it's only been 11 months and CrossFit Springfield will yet again be moving into another space. This will be our 5th home since July of 2008. The size difference (from 5000 sq ft to 12500sq ft) is overwhelming and the A/C'd locker rooms, childcare area, and office will be a huge God-send come next summer. Our initial hope was to be operational by November 27th for the CFS "5k gone bad" event, but with all of the permitting and inspections that go along with construction it's looking like we won't be fully moved in until early December. This evening, prior to a CFS coaches meeting we did 10 minutes of: 1, then 2, then 3 reps and so on of: Snatch grip deadlift, Squat Snatch, and OHS. After each round perform 5 Ring dips. Reach the highest possible round in the 10 minute time-frame. I made it to 2 OHS reps shy of round 8. Looking forward to a great week!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Baby Whisperer

So today I went with Grant and Melissa to visit Jessi, Ashley, and to greet their newborn son, Gaines, at Cox South. I've been so excited for the Groves and the arrival of this little guy and I couldn't wait to meet him. Knowing full well that the rest of the CrossFit Springfield family has been on pins and needles waiting to see pictures, I asked Jessi if I could take a couple of pics of their bundle of joy with my iphone. She said it was cool so I busted out the camera and right as I hit the button to take the picture here's what Gaines gives me:

It's just the perfect moment captured, right? He looks so sweet and peaceful...Here's the craziest thing: As I stood in the Grove's hospital room, staring at the image on my phone of this beautiful little miracle I couldn't help but be reminded of one of the first pictures we ever got of our own beautiful little miracle, Vincent, 2 and half years ago (don't forget the half, dang it - Vin gets pissed when you forget the half):

Now if I could only learn how to get kids to obey me as well I can get'em to smile...THAT would be really impressive :)

As for my ongoing workout adventures, today I did the CFS WOD of 2-2-2-2-2-2-2 Overhead Squat and 21-15-9 OHS @ 95lb and Ring Rows. My best 2RM OHS was 265lb and my time on the OHS/Ring Row couplet was 3:11.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Whatever My Lot...

I feel like I've been in cruise control for the past couple of weeks. It's not inherently good or bad it just is...going all out in a WOD or two during the day has helped to relieve me of alot of mental and physical stress. We recently finished getting our house ready and put it up on the market which has taken alot of time and energy but it's been well worth the effort to rid ourselves of a lot of clutter.

Another life-issue as of late has been praying for a close family member of mine who's been dealing with some medical issues. Quite frankly, the suddeness of the situation has shaken me a bit, but I remain confident that God's will will be done and prayerful for His peace and protection over my loved one.

A few nights ago, as a healthy dose of confusion and fear raced through my mind and spirit, I prayed for God to speak to my heart and to give me comfort. Awesomely enough, the next day I had planned to meet a buddy of mine for what I like to refer to as our weekly "Iron-sharpening" session- which basically boils down to us consuming gallons of coffee, eating breakfast and solving the problems of the world, all the while managing to interject as many biblical principals as possible into our conversation about disciplining our boys for acting like nutless monkeys...it's actually quite spiritually uplifting (however, it could just be the gallons of coffee). At any rate, I was supposed to have read the second half of Ephesians 3 and hadn't done it, so I figured I'd bust out the Good Book and see if God would drop some calming knowledge on my heavy heart. Here's what I got:

(Ephesians 3:14-21) For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell ...in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I've had times where I have felt as though God had just grabbed me by the shirt collar and said, "LISTEN UP, MOWHAWK BOY! I'm talking to YOU!" This was indeed one of those times. Though, the coolest thing is that not only did God speak volumes to me through this passage when I read it- it more importantly spoke volumes to the individual who is confronting said medical issues when I shared it with them. Wonderful, powerful, non-accidental stuff.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Punk-in Patch Kids




...doesn't get much better than this.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Chasing Perfection, Catching Excellence

Coached some great group WODs today at CrossFit Springfield. The WOD was Row 500, 400, 300, 200, 100m, each for time resting 2-3 minutes between efforts. Everyone showed up ready to rock and throughout the course of the day there were some excellent times posted in each class. I never cease to be encouraged by the level of effort given by the athletes who participate at CFS. I loved watching as partners cheered, pushed, and pleaded with each other to keep fighting through each row to the very finish. Energy like what we experieced in the box today relates quite well to a quote by Vince Lombardi who once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." Today I witnessed, many times over, our members not just striving to perform to a standard, but rather, striving to set higher standards of performance. We are truly blessed to function within a community of people who genuinely wish to see each other be at their best.

2010 CrossFit Games Champ, Kristan Clever sums up what many CrossFitters often realize early on in their CrossFit experience (scroll down the main page to view the video): "I Can Totally Do That" with Kristan Clever - video

I tackled the 500m portion of today's CFS WOD with the sole purpose of besting my previous 500m row PR of 1:29. With the coaching and ultra-motivating screams of the noon crew I was able to, rowing 500m in 1:27 for a new (and quite painful) PR. Wanting to still do the 1pm WOD of Push Press (no push jerk) 2-2-2-2-2-2-2, I stopped while I still had some gas in the tank and went through the push press progression as follows: 155/175/195/215/225/235f/235. Wish I would've tried 245 but ran out of time. Afterwards, I did a met-con of 20-10 Push Jerk @ 135 & Burpee Pull Ups. I'd done this one back in January fresh and did it in 3:56. Today, with a higher burpee pull-up bar and after two short WODs my time was 3:59. I didn't worry much about my time as I was going, mainly just getting through it- that task alone was pretty greuling.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Stinkerpotamous

It feels like I've slept many, many moons since my last post and unfortunately also since my last workout! On Thursday of last week I did the CFS partner WOD with Coach Chance- the WOD (one person may work at a time- partition the reps as you wish) was:

Run 100m
30 Deadlift, 185/115lb
Run 100m
50 KB Swings, 55/35lb
Run 100m
20 Hurdle Burpees over 12″ Parallette
Run 100m
20 Tire Flips
Run 100m
50 Single Leg RDL’s, 55/35lb
Run 100m
30 STRICT Pull Ups (From A Dead Hang)
Both Partners Run 400m Together

I love team workouts. Whenever you're training alone, it's so easy to feel sorry for yourself and let off the gas; do the same with a partner or in a team setting and you let other people down as well. That ain't cool. Chance definitely didn't disappoint when it came to his performance and giving it his all- our time was 11:01.

After taking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off to get some chores done around the house and eat like a pig, I looked forward to training like a psycho today. At noon, with a great push from Seabiscuit and Grant, I did the 10/4/10 CFS WOD: Row 200m, then 5-4-3-2-1 Squat Clean & Jerk @ 155lb & Muscle Ups, and finish with 400m Row. Going into this one, my strategy was to hang onto the bar and the rings and get as much of the squat cleans and muscle ups done unbroken or consecutively as possible. I'm not really sure if it was the best strategy as after getting the first 5 of each, my body started to reject the work I was trying to impose on it. I had one missed muscle up that Grant said may have cost me 20 seconds. Regardless, after what felt like the LONGEST 400m row ever, the end eventually came. My time was 6:40 and my lung function now feels like it's hovering somewhere in the vacinity of 30-40%. It's probably the combination of the WOD being a gasser and the cooler weather.

To make sure I sufficiently punished myself for crashing the CrossFit Springfield "Girls Night Out" outing this past Saturday (Jenny figured that I'd be more than metro enough to hang...and boy was she right), I followed up today's noon session with none other than "Murph" at 1pm. Not the smartest thing I've ever done for myself when it comes to my training, but I figured, "Don't be a weiner, dude. You deserve this." The conditioning was great but there was nothing glorious about my time. It took me 40:31- which is somewhere around 6 or 7 minutes slower than my PR- which is prrretty slow to begin with :). Should sleep excellently tonight.