Where I've been

It's been a year of milestones. My wife and I bought a house, we had a daughter, I finished massage school, and I'm weeks away from taking both the national board certifications and the NASM certified personal trainer exam. I'm not looking for a career change, per se, but I've been laser-focused on my interests.

And, thus, it's been a year tumult and a year of tremendous personal growth.

But to renew my dedication, I've returned to Olympic lifting after taking some time off to get my literal and figurative house in order. I'm back on track with eating Paleo and I've tabled my other hobby, for now (climbing and baseball), to really primarily on being the best competitive O-lifter I can be.

My 1RM snatch and clean and jerk are close to PR (80/100 kg) and I seem to be back on track, assuming that injury management stays in check.

I tell you all this because I've decided to compete in November for the Masters comp in York, PA. Goals: 91 kg snatch and 115 kg clean and jerk.

I also dream of the days ahead when I hang it up to coach Stella in her pre- and off-seasons.

Injuries really do suck

I've been out since my last post with tennis elbow. I've been on a steady diet of physical therapy, mobility exercises, and stretching.

It's been a brutal experience.

2nd Lt. Anna WOD

I got to set the WOD for Primal Fitness yesterday.  My friend wanted to celebrate her 1 year CF anniversary with a WOD.

I came up with this:

Franna (2LT Anna)

1 rope climb*
21 thrusters (95/65)
1 long city block

2 rope climbs
15 thrusters
1 short city block

3 rope climbs
9 thrusters
200 meter sprint

*Sub rope climbs with jumping pull-ups (21-15-9)

Set vacation reminder

This was supposed to be reminder to myself to do just that but the auto-fill took charge in my email client. So instead, it posted my note here.

Beijing Olympic Lifting party at my place coming soon. With at least one of my coaches coming over, 1080i HD + DVR will definitely make it fun and instructional on the sickest lifts.

Then we can celebrate with fire and dead cow and regale one another with Dimmas stories on YouTube.

Choizilla Local DC Blog Press

My press secretary informs me of the following:

I get mentioned on the Primal Fitness site about my Olympic lifting competition at the Keystone Games. And here at Capital Barbell Club.

CrossFit Level 1 Certification at VA Beach.

Rest Week

63kg Snatch attempt
Originally uploaded by Choizilla

I took a much needed rest week after training for 10 weeks straight before the Keystone Games on July 26 in York, PA. The only work I've been doing is external rotator cuff work, reverse wrist curls, and PVC dislocates and overhead squats.

A few months earlier I showed up at Capital Barbell Club to improve my Olympic lifting for CrossFitting and found that I really enjoyed it not only as a training modality, but as a sport. I've got a lot of work to do increasing strength, and certainly technique, but it has all the things I love to do:

* technical movements
* speed elements
* displacing weight
* intense concentration

Thanks to the folks at Primal Fitness, CrossFitDC, and Capital Barbell Club for your support and encouragement. It was amazing fun and I'm definitely continuing on in the sport.

Comp results vs goals
Snatch: 66kg (63-66x-66) -- Goal: 72kg
Clean & Jerk: 87kg (77-83-87 PR) -- Goal: 92kg
5 for 6 successful lifts

Injury report
Both of my wrists and forearms are really sore. Some of that is some mild tendonitis that I'm addressing. I emailed Performance Menu and received this advice for injury management:

* Continued icing and high-dose ibuprofen for a week or so
* Upper arm and forearm massage
* Cold laser and/or ultrasound through physical therapy
* Narrow snatch grip temporarily for less wrist strain until healthy again

July 12-13 Certification

I signed up for the Level 1 certification in Virgina Beach. No refund policy. I'm committed now.

Rest

Today is just a list of my fitness strengths and weaknesses. I'm forced to acknowledge that there are things I'm good at, and things I'm not so good at.

I'd like to add Olympic lifting, pistols, and muscle-ups to the 2009 list of strengths. There's a lot of work to do.

Weaknesses:
- lower body strength
- general endurance
- squats for endurance (20+ / set)
- front and back lower core
- muscle up, hspu, sit-up/v-up
- 200+ meter sprint
- walking lunges (ugh!)
- quad busters
- back/front squats
- DB C&J
- KB swings
- general fear of lead falls... still

Strengths:
- upper body strength
- pushup, pull-up, bar dip ladders
- handstands
- benching, thrusters, push- and military press
- flexibility
- sprinting <200M
- short, powerful movements

Doing Box Jumps at Crossfit DC

Being short and doing high box jumps have both advantages and disadvantages. Hard!

Teaism in Dupont has an amazing cilantro scrambled eggs with smoked salmon breakfast. Wash it down with an iced green tea and you'll get the stuff your body craves after a WOD. Beware of the pretentious hipster set who will give your eyeballs a workout as you roll them.

* * *

Warm-up: (3 sets)
30 squats
10 push-ups
10 scorpion stretches

(Rest)
10 Overhead DB lunges (20#)
10 DB Cleans (20#)

WOD:
50 Jump rope
4 x 20 KB swing (1/5 pood)
4 x 10 Box jump to burpees (18")
3 x 30 V sit-ups

Rx: 100 Jump rope, 4 sets each

3 attempts kipping MU (more like front uprise) - fail

Athlete or Crossfitter?

I've had a standing difference of opinion with my friend. I contend that Crossfitters are not "athletes" just because they train. Let me be clear--I am not denigrating Crossfit in any way. It's the most effective collection of training modalities I've ever come across and I'm a koolaid-drinking, card carrying believer.

Having said that, I don't believe that completing an Rx-ed Fran with a head-exploding time necessarily makes you a complete athlete (or an athlete for that matter). Translating those functional strength gains into athletic achievements does. For example:

• throwing a baseball from right field to home plate on one hop to save a run


• dunking over three taller defenders late in the game


• getting a first ascent climbing a steeply overhanging rock face


• throwing a devastating roundhouse kick for KO


• sprinting 100 meters faster than your opponents

Mark Twight -- a man whose gym I am not fit to sweep -- agrees with me.

We train in preparation for sport-specific tests or work-related challenges, we do not train for the sake of it or because conditioning is our sport or hobby. We don't do this because we want to look a certain way or to lose weight (these are consequences). We suffer during training to improve ourselves physically and psychologically and we measure those improvements on mountains, on frozen waterfalls, in burning buildings, facing cunning adversaries, on the battlefield, on the mat and in the cage. Because these tests occur outside the gym we don't compete in the gym, we work hard, and we work together to make the sum greater than its individual parts. Cheating here won't help us get where we are going so we enforce all quality all of the time.

That's our yardstick, how long is yours?

For many that train, this distinction is meaningless because they train to compete in sports. But let's also not minimize what they do because some dude can do a lot of pull-ups. And let's not forget that much of Crossfit comes from the best of what elite athletes were already doing, not the other way around.

---

* * *
In the above referenced article, Twight discusses quality versus quantity and how honor translates into true athletic gains. His discussion of Quality makes me examine how I train and how cheating myself is the cruelest deceit.

Another game at Barcroft. I went 2-5 with a game-winning run. With only limited play, I forced the one out on a fielder's choice to second.

This game will be remembered for a comically long slide I took from 15 feet from third, on the force--a slip-and-slide attempt. I was out be a country mile.

We're not a very good team, but these guys are fun to play with. In two double headers, we're 2-2.

Hitting stats: 4-10

If you're wondering, this is not very good for softball.

Climbing:
First climbs in 4 months. Met up with my old partner and good friend EL.

5.5
5.6
5.6+ (what's a 5.6+?)
5.8

WOD
Easing back into it.

5 x 20# dumbbell thrusters

WOD

I played in a new softball league today, which is by far the most competitive I've ever played. I just can't believe that grown men in their mid- to late-thirties can be so good.

I went 2-5 scoring one run in the double header. Took my first stab at playing second which ended in me being sent back to my natural position of right field. Made a couple good plays at each position.

WOD
5 x 10 push-ups
20 squats

Pretty pathetic for someone who was doing between 1500-2500 body weight movements a week. And believe me, my level of play has definitely decreased since the great slack off of Summer 07. Lesson: neglecting Crossfit leads to less enjoyment of any sport one plays. And the soreness the next day. Oh, god, the soreness.

Crossfit Total

It's been a while but I returned to CFDC today. We did Crossfit Total, a measurement of weight lifting maxes:

Deadlift: 305 lbs.
Press: 165 lbs.
Squat: 225 lbs.

300: The Movie

I just saw 300, the Frank Miller movie about 300 Spartans who held back the tyrannical hordes of Persia over three days.

It was OK.

But I did want to come home and do 300 push-ups afterwards, then spear my enemies, pulling them closer through the shaft to watch the light in their eyes extinguish. But, I did neither. I thought about it though. It was that sort of day at work.

Injury Report: Turf Toe

Turf toe is a strain, partial tear, or full tear in the area around a toe joint (commonly the big toe), so named for pro football players who are often afflicted with this injury. In football, it happens when the knee is down and the toes are bent on the ground. One or more players fall on a player's calf, thus hyper-extending the toe joint.

This has been a chronic nagging injury for me, first happening in Boston while climbing overhangings. On small holds, you can only put your big toe on a jib or hole, while propelling yourself upward.

The tenderness comes and goes, but lately it's been hurting from baseball. I changed my swinging leg mechanics to pivot on my right foot toes, then explode towards first base on contact. My cheap cleats are, no doubt, way too soft for everyday playing.

Climbers and baseball players, who have almost nothing in common, but often suffer the same injuries. So far I've had tennis and golf elbows, hammer finger, and now turf toe.

Remedies:
* 6-8 weeks of rest
* Ice or alternating hot/cold treatments
* Buddy taping toes together
* No weight for severe injuries

Google Search: Turf Toe

Slacking Off on Grease the Groove Makes CrossFit WODs Harder

Don't let your Grease the Groove (GTG) regimen slide as I have since I started working contract in Virginia. Find the time to do easy sets of push-ups, squats, sit-ups, pull-ups, and dips. When I do them regularly, it makes WODs so much less painful at CrossFit DC.

CrossFitters Don't Let Other CrossFitters slack

Jen: Hey, Mike, is there a reason why you're stepping up instead of doing the box jumps?
Mike: No reason, because I'm a wuss.
Jen: Oh.

... so I started doing them right.

My partner, Andrea, kept pushing me on the run. The other parts weren't bad because I recover quickly from the strength components, but I really, truly suck at the running piece. I might have walked the last two laps if not for the encouragement.

Also, that cigar last night was, again, a terrible idea.

Correct kipping pull-up form

I checked with Tom B. and less a minor form tweak, everything looks to be in order. With a straight body, I arch forward (belly out) and then explode backwards while throwing my arms downward for the pull-up movement. At the top, I push out hard, falling back into the arch-forward position and setting myself up for the next pull-up.

The whole thing reminds me of a marionette puppet. When done correctly, you exert relatively little energy to a dead hang pull-up, but you reap the benefits of a well-rounded compound movement. On the CrossFit website, you'll see a lot of people bending their legs, but I like to keep mine totally straight like on high bar, keeping form, with toes pointed. Just like the old days.