So my health has been spotty the last 2 weeks but I think I'm finally back to normal and now can resume hitting wods hard. 1st I got sick and had the chills, runny nose, and a general lack of energy a few weeks back. Then I hurt my groin (still don't know how) and squatting was a no go for about 3-4 days. Then pneumonia hit me and I was out of it for 2 more days.
Through it all I survived and have now worked out for 2 days in a row and feel like I'm ok. I can feel that my capacity isn't what it used to be so I'll have to suffer more than usual for a few wods while it returns and we still have a good 50 days til competition so it was a good time, if there is such a thing, to have some health issues.
I didn't take it for granted before but now that these issues are fully behind me hopefully, I will value being a healthy 100% more than ever as it's one thing that makes life & crossfit easier to be better at and I'll hit each wod like it's my last because it could be.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Where Do We Go From Here????
I did a tremendously horrible job in my Midwestern Sectionals Reflections series and covered about 10% of what I wanted to so at the pace I'm going it'll be Regionals by the time I finish so I'm going to move on & try to be more consistent again in posting as now Affiliate Cup & Regionals training is now en vogue.
So I got 3rd place out of 135 men at Sectionals. Before I went I told my coach Michael that I wanted to treat Sectionals like Regionals (where the top 4 advance on to the Games) so my goal going into Sectionals was top 4 which we were able to achieve. No better feeling than accomplishing what you set out to do especially considering the quality athletes that competed against those wods in addition to myself & all the hard training sessions that came leading up to Sectionals.
So what's next??? Only what is sure to be the greatest test of my fitness yet out in Colorado at Regionals. Never one to rest on my laurels I have quickly turned the page and am now focused on becoming a "Games athlete" of which there will only be 50 (men) in the world this year. My deficiencies must become competencies, my strength must be STRONG, my work capacity - elite (fatigue doesn't happen anymore. Every round in a wod is a duplicate of the 1st), my mental toughness must be my x-factor - the thing that gives me better results than an athlete of similar physical traits.
I'm thinking that the top 10 athletes at Regionals have a shot at qualifying for the Games so I need to put myself in that 10 and let the wods determine my placement in terms of them having movements I can excel at or struggle with. Already the 5 men who went to the Games last year from our Regional can be placed in the top 10 so basically out of the 60 men who qualify via Sectionals I need to be in the top 5 of those athletes. There's no real way to test if I am before Regionals but theoretically this is what I tell myself I'm up against.
Now whenever things start to get tougher in a wod I just tell myself in my head that I'm a Games athlete and SNAP I get new motivation to stay the course, don't let up, & to maintain a standard of excellence in performance that a 2010 Games athlete will need to have. The intensity of my training sessions has gone up, my attention to nutrition a little tighter, stretching more often, listening to my body & testing it's limits - all of these things are a part of my evolution and in about 50 days I look to search & destroy whatever the wods are and let the placing determine itself. I can only compete against the wods not the other guys there. I like my chances....
So I got 3rd place out of 135 men at Sectionals. Before I went I told my coach Michael that I wanted to treat Sectionals like Regionals (where the top 4 advance on to the Games) so my goal going into Sectionals was top 4 which we were able to achieve. No better feeling than accomplishing what you set out to do especially considering the quality athletes that competed against those wods in addition to myself & all the hard training sessions that came leading up to Sectionals.
So what's next??? Only what is sure to be the greatest test of my fitness yet out in Colorado at Regionals. Never one to rest on my laurels I have quickly turned the page and am now focused on becoming a "Games athlete" of which there will only be 50 (men) in the world this year. My deficiencies must become competencies, my strength must be STRONG, my work capacity - elite (fatigue doesn't happen anymore. Every round in a wod is a duplicate of the 1st), my mental toughness must be my x-factor - the thing that gives me better results than an athlete of similar physical traits.
I'm thinking that the top 10 athletes at Regionals have a shot at qualifying for the Games so I need to put myself in that 10 and let the wods determine my placement in terms of them having movements I can excel at or struggle with. Already the 5 men who went to the Games last year from our Regional can be placed in the top 10 so basically out of the 60 men who qualify via Sectionals I need to be in the top 5 of those athletes. There's no real way to test if I am before Regionals but theoretically this is what I tell myself I'm up against.
Now whenever things start to get tougher in a wod I just tell myself in my head that I'm a Games athlete and SNAP I get new motivation to stay the course, don't let up, & to maintain a standard of excellence in performance that a 2010 Games athlete will need to have. The intensity of my training sessions has gone up, my attention to nutrition a little tighter, stretching more often, listening to my body & testing it's limits - all of these things are a part of my evolution and in about 50 days I look to search & destroy whatever the wods are and let the placing determine itself. I can only compete against the wods not the other guys there. I like my chances....
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Midwestern Sectionals Reflections Part 3
Let's get right into it today. 1200 seconds or 20 mins was the time cap on the Air Force 1 wod and in getting through all 100 reps of that wod (if we're not counting the burpees) it took a lot of athletes to the brink of their physical limits. Many didn't finish in the 20 min time cap but Heather did. And she used 1199.43 of those 1200 seconds to get it done.
This performance was something else to watch and I only wish the video in my mind could be put in a camera. When she got to the overhead squats and I saw her struggling to get depth, reps taken away by her judge I thought to myself "damn it looks like the overheads might knock her out (in terms of finishing the wod)." Active shoulders weren't there, the legs were weakening from the burpees, and 65# just looked like too much to handle for her at that point in the wod.
I literally looked up a few minutes later and I'll be damned she was knocking them out by the 2s! She figured it out I thought to myself and now it was clicking. Active shoulders in place, squat depth perfect, & this fml expression on her face on each burpee told the story of the struggle.
The seconds ticked and she finally got thru the overheads, now on to front squats. The burpees must've taken 30 seconds to do as she was done physically but she had just enough time to get the squats in I thought. And so she pushed, perservered, & got through the burpees, picked up the bar and got after the front squats when she assuredly had nothing left in the tank. The crowd was totally behind her, helping her spring up out of the bottom of the front squats and peel herself off the ground after each burpee. When she picked up the bar for the last time there was no other alternative but to finish the 20 reps and before the time cap. And of course she got it with time to spare.....57 seconds to be exact.
In talking to Heather in the weeks leading up to Sectionals she once told me that she was mentally tough and that the physical strength will come. Not that it wasn't proven to me before, but now a broader audience has a greater appreciation for how strong this woman is mentally. We all can learn from that performance, I know I did...O and of course she backs it up with a 1 rep max on the clean & jerk that drove the crowd wild again in wod 2.
Heather this ones for you...showstopper
This performance was something else to watch and I only wish the video in my mind could be put in a camera. When she got to the overhead squats and I saw her struggling to get depth, reps taken away by her judge I thought to myself "damn it looks like the overheads might knock her out (in terms of finishing the wod)." Active shoulders weren't there, the legs were weakening from the burpees, and 65# just looked like too much to handle for her at that point in the wod.
I literally looked up a few minutes later and I'll be damned she was knocking them out by the 2s! She figured it out I thought to myself and now it was clicking. Active shoulders in place, squat depth perfect, & this fml expression on her face on each burpee told the story of the struggle.
The seconds ticked and she finally got thru the overheads, now on to front squats. The burpees must've taken 30 seconds to do as she was done physically but she had just enough time to get the squats in I thought. And so she pushed, perservered, & got through the burpees, picked up the bar and got after the front squats when she assuredly had nothing left in the tank. The crowd was totally behind her, helping her spring up out of the bottom of the front squats and peel herself off the ground after each burpee. When she picked up the bar for the last time there was no other alternative but to finish the 20 reps and before the time cap. And of course she got it with time to spare.....57 seconds to be exact.
In talking to Heather in the weeks leading up to Sectionals she once told me that she was mentally tough and that the physical strength will come. Not that it wasn't proven to me before, but now a broader audience has a greater appreciation for how strong this woman is mentally. We all can learn from that performance, I know I did...O and of course she backs it up with a 1 rep max on the clean & jerk that drove the crowd wild again in wod 2.
Heather this ones for you...showstopper
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sectionals Reflections Part 2
Today I wanted to cover one of the more inspirational athletes that we took down to St Charles with us this past weekend. Before I get into it I don't want to offend anyone that competed this past weekend by not including them as I go down the list in the coming posts with great moments and people because everyone did something this weekend that inspired me literally and just because I don't post about you does not mean that I forgot about what you did or don't think it was worth getting some notariety, so please don't hate me for it.
Today I wanted to talk about the big man Adam C for all he did this past weekend and in particular in wod 1 the Air Force Wod. I may be wrong but the end result officially for Adam in that wod was DNF or did not finish. In watching him first hand go through this wod I would beg to differ and say that DNF stands for Did Not Fail.
That wod, for those of us that endured it, was a tough cookie and when you get to the end having done over 50 burpees and 76 if you hung around the whole 20 mins, it's difficulty grows exponentially. In spite of that fact Adam kept fighting through the indescribable amount of pain he was in and watching him grind out those overhead squats near the end was pretty cool. A few of the judges were watching in the last few mins and I could see how impressed they were with his depth at the bottom of the overheads and there was no mistaking the fact that every rep was legit.
In watching this effort I think of the progress this guy has made in the last few months and it's definitely a testament to the hard work and consistency he's put in at the box and in the kitchen. Weight loss, strength gains, increased mental toughness and more are all byproducts of Adam's work and we were all witness to that this weekend and as he fought hard in the Air Force Wod.
I won't go on too much longer but Adam this one's for you. Solid work this weekend and there's a lot more growth left in you so keep workin hard and great results will happen.....
Today I wanted to talk about the big man Adam C for all he did this past weekend and in particular in wod 1 the Air Force Wod. I may be wrong but the end result officially for Adam in that wod was DNF or did not finish. In watching him first hand go through this wod I would beg to differ and say that DNF stands for Did Not Fail.
That wod, for those of us that endured it, was a tough cookie and when you get to the end having done over 50 burpees and 76 if you hung around the whole 20 mins, it's difficulty grows exponentially. In spite of that fact Adam kept fighting through the indescribable amount of pain he was in and watching him grind out those overhead squats near the end was pretty cool. A few of the judges were watching in the last few mins and I could see how impressed they were with his depth at the bottom of the overheads and there was no mistaking the fact that every rep was legit.
In watching this effort I think of the progress this guy has made in the last few months and it's definitely a testament to the hard work and consistency he's put in at the box and in the kitchen. Weight loss, strength gains, increased mental toughness and more are all byproducts of Adam's work and we were all witness to that this weekend and as he fought hard in the Air Force Wod.
I won't go on too much longer but Adam this one's for you. Solid work this weekend and there's a lot more growth left in you so keep workin hard and great results will happen.....
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sectionals Reflections Part 1
He's BAAAAAACK! Finally back to posting here after a good week off. A lot has gone on so it'll take a few posts to get caught up. First of all last weekend at the Midewestern Sectional in St Charles, Missouri CF Chicago tore it up and represented VERY well. The athletes, judges, volunteers, and spectators all were a part of something special. We had some athletes do things they've never done before, set new pr's, push their physical and mental boundaries like never before, and in general grow as athletes, crossfitters, and people.
Our sport truly is different than most others in the camaraderie it has as we also got a chance to meet, compete with, and watch some other great athletes destroy the wods we were asked to complete. For all of us these competitions serve as learning experiences and launching pads for the future as it's easy to get caught up in the small world of our individual boxes day to day. When we go out and see who and what else is out there we gain a new perspective on our training methods and also new ideas from others who do the same things but may be getting different or better results. Never stop being a student of the game and you'll never plateau. I think that statement reigns true in all aspects of life because if you think you've mastered something (especially something as complex as crossfit) then you truly don't know what you don't know.
I could probably go on for the next 30 mins here but like I said it's going to take a few posts to get all caught up so we'll chip away at it. Good to be back and next up we'll start getting into some of the more inspirational moments/performances from this past weekend, the wods themselves, and then where we go next. Stay tuned we're just getting started....
Our sport truly is different than most others in the camaraderie it has as we also got a chance to meet, compete with, and watch some other great athletes destroy the wods we were asked to complete. For all of us these competitions serve as learning experiences and launching pads for the future as it's easy to get caught up in the small world of our individual boxes day to day. When we go out and see who and what else is out there we gain a new perspective on our training methods and also new ideas from others who do the same things but may be getting different or better results. Never stop being a student of the game and you'll never plateau. I think that statement reigns true in all aspects of life because if you think you've mastered something (especially something as complex as crossfit) then you truly don't know what you don't know.
I could probably go on for the next 30 mins here but like I said it's going to take a few posts to get all caught up so we'll chip away at it. Good to be back and next up we'll start getting into some of the more inspirational moments/performances from this past weekend, the wods themselves, and then where we go next. Stay tuned we're just getting started....
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
FIGURE IT OUT!
So now you've seen the wods, maybe seen others do it, or actually done them yourself. Do you have a plan in place for how to attack the Air Force Wod? Will you try to squeeze all 20 reps of each movement in 1 minute intervals? Will you try to go for broke and continue to move with the burpees as your only break? Will you try sets of 5s or 10s on each movement or your weakest of the 5? No right or wrong answer to these questions. At this point in your training you ought to know which strategy will work best for you and play to your strengths. Just be sure to stick with that plan of choice come game day.
As for me because I know myself, my tolerance for pain, my commitment to the journey to eliteness, and because of my ego I will probably be employing the go for broke method whereby I just hit the wod as hard as I can and stay in the "Red Zone" until the wod finishes. I usually save a little bit of mental toughness and physical exertion for competition environments so I do not want to practice going there often especially a few days before the event because it is not an enjoyable place to be, but the results that come from it are very pleasurable. I think the last time I really there was last September for Fight Gone Bad 4 when I set a big time pr. I had all these people watching me, expecting great things of me, and I was dealing with pain that was greater than usual as I wanted to stop moving on several occasions but the mental coach in me propelled me to go where I hadn't gone before physically. I hope the same result comes this weekend in the most intense and energetic of environments. If you know me or see me workout you don't usually see or hear much emotion from me but in these type of situations I do get extremely fired up but only when I go to that dark place and come out victorious
Almost time to unleash the beast within....
As for me because I know myself, my tolerance for pain, my commitment to the journey to eliteness, and because of my ego I will probably be employing the go for broke method whereby I just hit the wod as hard as I can and stay in the "Red Zone" until the wod finishes. I usually save a little bit of mental toughness and physical exertion for competition environments so I do not want to practice going there often especially a few days before the event because it is not an enjoyable place to be, but the results that come from it are very pleasurable. I think the last time I really there was last September for Fight Gone Bad 4 when I set a big time pr. I had all these people watching me, expecting great things of me, and I was dealing with pain that was greater than usual as I wanted to stop moving on several occasions but the mental coach in me propelled me to go where I hadn't gone before physically. I hope the same result comes this weekend in the most intense and energetic of environments. If you know me or see me workout you don't usually see or hear much emotion from me but in these type of situations I do get extremely fired up but only when I go to that dark place and come out victorious
Almost time to unleash the beast within....
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Gameday Routines and Rituals
So now that game day is approaching do you have all of your routines set to go? Have you practiced your rituals pre & post wod so that you're in a state of comfort when all of the madness is going on around you? Have you mapped out your pre-wod & post wod meal for competition day? At this point you probably should have a good idea of what you're going to eat pre-wod and immediately post wod on Saturday. If you've tested the 2 a day format you know how your body feels after the 1st wod and before the 2nd, so do you know or have you tried to find the optimal foods to keep your energy level at it's best so that you have everything still in the tank for both wods?
Adrenaline will for sure be a part of the picture but it will only last for so long. If you don't have a clue what your pre/post wod nutrition will be then you've still got a few days to think about it and test it out. The 2 wods will probably be 3-4 hours apart so again make sure you have the correct nutrient timing and such to maximize your a) recovery from wod 1 and b) your preparation for wod 2. When in doubt concentrate on carbs/protein both immediately before and after wods and without getting overly specific fruits/vegetables and lean meats are the way to go although there are exceptions (ahem - I'm a confessed protein-bar-aholic so don't mind me opening my "candy" bar in front of you). If you find solids tough to swallow either before or after wods go to liquids like smoothies, shakes, protein powders etc which are easy to digest and give you the nutrients you need in the most crucial moments for your body.
No two athletes will function the same from the same foods so just continually experiment to see which mix works best for you and when you find it stick with it.....
Adrenaline will for sure be a part of the picture but it will only last for so long. If you don't have a clue what your pre/post wod nutrition will be then you've still got a few days to think about it and test it out. The 2 wods will probably be 3-4 hours apart so again make sure you have the correct nutrient timing and such to maximize your a) recovery from wod 1 and b) your preparation for wod 2. When in doubt concentrate on carbs/protein both immediately before and after wods and without getting overly specific fruits/vegetables and lean meats are the way to go although there are exceptions (ahem - I'm a confessed protein-bar-aholic so don't mind me opening my "candy" bar in front of you). If you find solids tough to swallow either before or after wods go to liquids like smoothies, shakes, protein powders etc which are easy to digest and give you the nutrients you need in the most crucial moments for your body.
No two athletes will function the same from the same foods so just continually experiment to see which mix works best for you and when you find it stick with it.....
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