Friday, February 27, 2009

Links

Here are a couple of links, just to keep you going this weekend.  I'm off to a vegan restaurant with my fiancee (my computer doesn't think that "vegan" is a word therefore it must be a bad idea) and a movie.  Work this week was awful, but without my boss there for the last two days I can't complain, well, actually, I can, and I do, but it could've been way worse.

Anyways....


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Week for the Weak

It started on Monday; "Boom!"  340 pounds hits the floor.  That's weird I think to myself.  330#, goes down and then up, but it's a struggle.  Something's off.  I finish my sets of back squats at 330# instead of the prescribed 340.  After a little bit of time on the wheel of death I had back to the squat rack determined to figure this shit out.  I put on an easy 135# and grease the groove.  I hit nice easy sets of 6 reps.  My technique feels good.  I ask the trainer about my back angle, am I straight up and down?  "You bet" he replies, "any further back and you'd lose the weight behind you."  He knows what I do so I trust him.  I reluctantly place 225# on my back and do a couple easy sets of 4.  Same thing, my technique is solid (I would say impeccable, but that certainly is not the case).  Oh well, maybe it's just an off day I think to myself as I leave the gym and head to get some milk and other groceries.
Tuesday, I can't hit my front squats at 290.  They're supposed to be at 300, but I can't even force 290 up.  I do what I can at 275.  Wednesday, today.  Front squats again.  Can't even get 280 once.  I settle for 275 again, confused, befuddled and a little worried.  
Did I hurt myself?  Impossible, I don't feel any pain (except when I jerk, but that's a whole other story).  It then dawns on me that I haven't had a real rest day in nearly two weeks.  While I haven't lifted heavy every single one of those days, but I have been in the gym, hitting my workouts with the same intensity as I always do and that has taken its toll.
What will happen now is, I will go tomorrow, as I always do.  I'll try to lift as best as I can, grind it out and hope that good things happen.  I'll push myself to be better, stronger, faster than the day before.  That's the ultimate goal, afterall.  I'll try to work my goat, I'll try to get a metcon in.  No matter what I will be there making sure to get the most of the time that I have in the gym.  It helps knowing that I will rest, completely tomorrow.  I won't lift more than myself out of bed and up the stairs and out the door.  I will try to eat right with lots of protein and fats to help my body recover and hopefully, by the time Saturday rolls around, I'll have some of my strength back.  Sunday's a rest day too, so there's hope at the end of the tunnel that this week of being weak is only a fluke and not the beginning of a trend I hope to not see.  We'll find out on Monday.

(me missing 205# snatch)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Weakness

We all have weaknesses.  There's no doubt about that.  Some people call them their "goats."  These are the moves or even the types of workouts that make you queasy, say things like "ya know, I haven't had a rest day in a while," or mess with your mentality to the point where you become less intense about your workout.  Everybody has one, at least one, I cannot begin to count mine.  It used to be anything with strength.  I was a tall skinny kid, 170 pounds and the pullup master.  Now, I'm still a tall kid, but not so skinny, standing tall at nearly 200.  Needless to say, I have gotten stronger, and have worked that "goat."  It's not in submission yet, but it's at least been improved.

With the "fixing" of an old goat, new ones don't approach, rather they show their ugly heads as if to say, "Hey, I'm here and I'm going to keep you from being the best."  My new goat?  Chest.  My chesticles are weak.  I can't bench worth a darn, my pushups have become atrocious, the drop is my nemesis on burpees.  However, I do have a plan on working on it.  I can't waste my rest days to go heavy on bench and I'm certainly way too tired to hit it after my mikesgym WOD.  But, I can throw some into my quick intense metcon's.  For instance, I threw down with some alternating DB Bench, Pullups and KTE's in a 5 minute AMRAP.  While the DB's were only 45# it was still enough to kick my ass.

The point of this rant is that you ought to keep working on your goats.  New ones will approach but never forget the old ones, because they will rear their ugly heads if neglected.  I will always struggle with strength more than endurance, it's the way I was built, but I can focus on strength to help me become a better athlete and allow myself a better chance at the qualifiers in May.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A Long Time Comin'...

Wow.  It's been a long time since I've posted last.  Things have been going well.  I'm still lifting heavy, working on some things, even doing a metcon here and there.  I've discovered that getting strong is pretty hard work.  I have to lift heavy, day in and day out, focusing on strength, technique, speed and very importantly food.  All but the latter has been easy for me to do.  I enjoy picking things up off of the ground.  I even went to Brooklyn on Sunday to work on my snatch technique, but also to see some of my buddies.  The food part though, just this weekend became increasingly difficult...  My fiancee up and decided to become a vegan.  That's right, I'm marrying a vegan.  How could this have happened?  What planets aligned to cause such a catastrophe?  Luckily, she doesn't do any of the cooking, so this won't be too bad.  I don't think.  For instance, I was able to stay on my paleo kick (minus my moo juice, of course) with Beef stew, but also could please her with some veggies with edamame's for protein.  She's looking to qualify for the Boston marathon and I'll be damned if I'm going to let her carb load and not get enough protein in her diet, even if it's of lesser quality, it will be there.  You may think that I'm being a jerk by judging on her eating habits and force feeding her protein, but here's the deal; I know how much qualifying for Boston means to her and I only want her to be happy.  She is running for the LLS and she would feel awful if her times were not of her best quality.  If this works out of the best, then I will take back every word.  If her times to continue to improve, I won't say a thing about meat and the lack of animal protein in her diet, but if she should slip from an 8:09 mile to somewhere in the 8:30's then I will be forced to passive aggressively place Paleo articles around the house for her to read.

The lesson: Girls, don't go vegan, especially if your boyfriend, husband, brother, roommate is a red blooded male who eats a lot of meat, it'll torture him, especially if he should care for your athletic performance.  There are other ways to get the carcinogen's out of your diet.


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentines Day

UGH.  It's this stupid holiday again.  A day forced down our throats by Hallmark and Kay Jewelers.  The most ridiculous reason to spend money.  My fiancee love me and knows that I love her, end of story.  Why do I have to get her a teddy bear or some chocolates that she won't eat to prove it?  Shouldn't I be involved and thinking about her everyday rather than try to make up for a year of neglect in one day?  That being said, I ran to CVS today after my workout and grabbed what was left from the shelves (a card and some "word hearts."  Hopefully that will be enough.

On to more important matters, such as today's workout.  After a solid rest day filled with burgers and ice cream and sweet potato fries I felt good and strong.  96% of both of my lifts (225 and 280) went up relatively easily.  Post heavy, was 100 doubleunders just because it seemed like a good idea before I got to about the 20 jump mark.  It was pretty tough.

Anyway, give your loved ones a hug and a kiss, tell them how much they mean to you.  It's a day to show off your "baby girl" and to shower him/her in unneccessary gifts, but most importantly is the fact that you have somebody to share the day, the week, the year, maybe even the rest of your life with.  Tell them how they make you feel, but I sure hope you told them that yesterday.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Metcon

It has been some time since I've done a metcon.  Not that I have anything against them, I don't, I just don't like long ones, which, comparatively speaking, I'm much better at.  So following my max effort snatch and C&J I followed it up with a WOD from the crossfit main site, only with a slight variance.  

AMRAP 10 min
Row 250 meters
SDHP 21x @135#
Muscleups 15x

I ended up getting an even 2 rounds in which I couldn't tell if it was a solid effort or needed a bit more oomph.  

I'm not sure what brought the metcon on.  It couldn't have been that I had extra energy, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's rest day like it was the second coming (although, if I did the research, I'm pretty sure I'd find out that the second coming is probably not a good thing).  The conclusion I have come to is vanity.  I enjoy looking good, having a 6-pack, and all-in-all being sexy.  Don't take me as conceded, I'm trying to make a point.  There once was a time when I had 3% body fat.  It wasn't on purpose, I swear.  Force feeding myself roughly 7000 calories a day was all that I could do to fuel two sports at a time, swimming and water polo, both of which require me to be well conditioned.  I've gotten bigger, from 170 pounds to somewhere in the 190's, and not too much is body fat, 9%, but there are times that I  wish to have my abs show through my shirt when I'm struck by a brisk wind, just like the old days.  
With that said, strength is where it's at.  Even at a little paunchier, my athletic numbers are ridiculously better than they were before.  That's not to say that I don't love a short, painful metcon that leaves me heaving on myself, but I'm glad that I don't spend 6 hours a day in the pool any more.

Update

Monday: 
Power Snatch 2x2 @180
                          1x2 @155
Pwr C&J 5x1@ 230
                 1x2 @200
Front Squat 1x1 @ 285
                       1x2 @ 245

Tuesday:
Snatch 1x1 @ 215 - hit the 3rd attempt
             1x2 @ 170
C&J 1x1 @  265 - 2nd attempt
        2x2 @ 215
Back Squat 1x1 @ 331
                     2x2 @ 315

Wednesday:
Pwr Sn 5x1 @ 185
              1x2 @ 180
              2x2 @ 175
Pwr C&J 5x1 @ 245
                 1x1 @ 215
Front Squat 2x2 @ 265

As you can tell, it's been a very busy and tough week so far.  One more day until my rest day on Friday, thank goodness.  I'm stuffing myself with half a dozen eggs and about 1/3 pound of ground bison right now to recover.  I need my fats and protein.  

Work this week has been such a chore.  I've become such a Debbie Downer there and I can't even help it.  The only respite I get becomes the gym.  It's my sanctuary.  It's where I have "the ability to let what does not matter, truly slide."  The gym becomes so simple: see the weight, pick it up, put it down.  There are no gym politics between you and the barbell.  It does what you make it do.  The barbell will eventually win, just one more pound can break you, but the ability to have total control over something is certainly therapeutic.  It certainly beats and is cheaper than seeing a shrink to talk about how much I dislike building helicopters.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Another Week

Training today, overall, went really well.  Mostly because it was some sort of an easier day than I've been having in the past week or so.  Power Snatches at 80%, Power Clean and Jerks at 80%, core work, not too bad.  Afterwards I did do OHSx30 @135# in 2:01.  That felt good to get a little metcon in, even if it was just a little.  

Currently, I'm waiting for my chicken and asparagus to cook through.  Since I've been designated in charge of the kitchen this week, Carlee and I have been eating paleo, even if she doesn't know it.  I'm sneaky like that.  

Work, however, was a bitch.  It's the same old crap day in and day out and it's getting a little old.  Not going to lie.  It's hard enough staying awake as it is, but this week, we got a whole lot of numbers "moving in."  Which means, simply, that parts that were not supposed to be due instantly became due.  This does two things: 1) it makes me look bad and 2) it means that I'm going to have to hear it from all angles... my boss, his boss, our customer, our vendors...  Eff!!!  But whatever, there's little that I can do except get my "hot" parts in and keep production moving.  

Just because I love you guys here's what I'm cooking:
Chicken, smothered in olive oil, almonds, garlic and lemon juice - Sauteed
Asparagus - sauteed as well
Salad with Olive oil and lemon juice dressing (it ties the meal together, giving it cohesiveness) with almonds (cohesiveness again) and raw craisins.  
The chicken is a little bit of an experiment but oh well if it doesn't turn out.

For extra motivation, one of my favorite pictures...









Sunday, February 8, 2009

Instruction




Here are a couple of clips that I thought would help any people reading this blog who might be interested in giving the lifts a try.  They are fun and they work.  Just ask Ivan Stoitsov


Ramblings

Yesterday was a not so good day at the gym.  There was not enough time, I felt weak, I couldn't help but think about pancakes.... the usual.  I've been following the workouts from Mike Burgener who is one of the best oly lifting coaches in the country.  He's very enthusiastic and very smart.  Back to my point.  I hit my goal of 94% (218#'s) not too bad, however on the work going back down I missed two out of the next four lifts at 88% (205#'s).  77% went fine, but missing at 88 is nothing short of annoying.  Then, to further problems I had no time for the Clean and Jerk because of the pancakes I was talking about.  I did get to work on the technique of two of my favorite workout buddies Pam and Marianne who were more than receptive of coaching in between lift attempts.  That was nice.

Carlee's out on a run right now with TNT, a group that helps raise money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.  We've been working together to get letters out and CD's mailed to people who have donated money.  Also we approached a couple of local businesses for sponsorship for her race.  Her goal is to raise $1,700 for the LLS by May 24, the Vermont City Marathon.  

Since this post has no rhyme or reason I thought that I would let you all know that the Crossfit Games Qualifier is in Albany, NY and should bring out some great competition.  Getting to the games is going to be tough but that's the point.  That's why I train to get strong: because I like to win.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Rest Day

Two posts!!!  In one day!?!?  That's incredible.  Actually, no, it's a rest day.  I've got some extra time, although I should be working on mobility and maintanence as recommended by Kelly Starett.

I think this could be a time to let the readers (plural, singular, null?) of this little project get to know me:

1.  I'm 23 year old, 6'1" and anywhere between 180 and 210 pounds, pretty sexy right.
2.  I do the olympic lifts.  Snatch and Clean and Jerk.  My PR's are 232 and 295, respectively.
3.  I am training to compete (and win) the Crossfit Games.
4.  I used to spend an inordinate amount of time swimming back and forth, silly me, now I train at The Power Barn.
5.  I am engaged to a wonderful little lady who has a great blog of her own.
6.  I am a Mets fan and think of Gary, Keith and Ron as some of my best friends.
7.  My callouses have a life of their own.
8.  UVM is my alma mater.
9.  My brothers are younger but taller than I, however, I can still beat them up.
10. I work at Sikorsky Aircraft and get parts for Blackhawk helicopters.

I think that just about covers it.  Anything else you'd like to know, please just send me a note.

Keep lifting heavy

Welcome

Hi everybody!  My name is Eric, welcome to my blog.  In this, I will chronicle (that makes it sound epic) my training.  I am training for the Crossfit Games, in hopes of being named the "fittest person alive."  That's a pretty lofty title.

I have a very different view of what makes fitness than most people.  If you were to ask my fiancee she'd say running marathons and such but I believe it's the combination of strength and speed and all else falls into place after that.  For these reasons I do a whole mess of Snatches and Clean and Jerks, the two olympic style weightlifting lifts.  There are arguably no other moves to improve strength, coordination, power, speed and even endurance if done right.  

Well welcome, today is a rest day, which is nice, I need one.  Hope you enjoy!