"Lil Barb"

Felt great to get back in the swing of things today. Both diet and workout wise. I read a great article by Machine about over training, and I am rethinking my approach in that regard. I think there are two limiting factors right now in my health and fitness. One is diet, which I'm on the right track I think to correcting (though I'm going to take down my protein blocks a bit) and the second one is recovery. I love to train but doing the two a days or the long sessions at the gym is likely hurting me not helping. I am going to continue what I'm doing until I get my body fat to where I want it to be which is likely 180# and then I will ratchet up the strength lifts and recovery and see how my body addapts.

Workout: Lil Barb
warmup: some weird Popeye ladder, but it was a great warmup
Tech: L-sits and leavers.
Workout out for time:
20 pullups
30 pushups
40 situps
50 squats
take a two minute break and repeat 3 times (normal barb is 5 rounds...not really sure why we did little today but I won't complain)
13:43
I continue to do chest ups for my pullups but it was weird people were asking my time and I felt the need to say what my time was and that I was doing chest-ups. As if I was justifying my slower than usual time. Really stupid. From now on the chest up is my standard for pullups and I won't add in that point to people...except on the board where I will mark it down. I hope if enough of us start doing them all the time that it will stick as the standard for the gym and crossfit. In my opinion if you can do 20 kipping pullups you should be doing chest ups. It just makes all the results on the board legit. We have all seen many pullups in the gym and on the videos where peoples chins are barely making it over the bar or not at all.
B: protein drink, orange, 6 peanuts
L: tuna salad
L: 1.3 turkey burgers, trail mix
PW: protein drink, creatine
D: Chicken caesar salad
S: turkey, 1.5 oz of cheese
I also had two glasses of champaign and 1.5 light beers on the boat last night for the fireworks.

Chelan and I got Engaged!!!!!!

Trainig has taken a bit of back seat this weekend and the beginning of this week. I proposed to Chelan Monday in Whistler and she said yes. Everything turned out perfect. To try and surprise someone who knew that I was going to pop the question any day now was quite a challenge. To those that don't know Chelan is an actress so I staged a reason to get her up to Whistler, which is a place we both love. I got her agent to tell her that ET Canada was wanting to do a health and fitness up in Whistler spot with her. Once she heard about this and also heard I couldn't come because I was away on business in Calgary she was suspicious. So I knew I had to take it a step further. I went to Lululemon and bought her a gift card and told them what was up and that they were now "sponsoring" the shoot. Her agent then called her and told her she had to be at Lululemon on Saturday after 1pm and they would be outfitting her. I also got someone to call her and pretend they worked for ET Canada and was finalizing the details on the shoot. With these two things she was sold. She actually told me she thought I was setting her up but then the lululemon thing made her realize it was legit. Hilarious. So I left Monday morning, decked the room at the Fairmont in Whistler with Flowers and was on one knee when she came through the door.

Workout:

Saturday

60 yard sprints x4

Muscle up work

dumbell complex with 35# db

5 rounds for time:

10 hang squat cleans

10 overhead lunges

10 thrusters

18:00 flat... I ate a shit ass cheat meal about 2 hours before this and felt terrible. However so glad I got it done.

Played squash on Monday morning.

Diet and training get back in track starting today. Very excited to keep the momentum going forward.

Jerking it at the Barn

Went to the barn today, missed it like hell from not going in three days. Went in there thinking I was going to do the .ca wod today which was 10 reps 135# bench, 1 rope climb. Rounds in 20min, however Andy Sac was not into doing that because his hand was cut up (what a bitch). Neither of us did the Clean Jerk workout from Monday so we hit that. This is a mad hit. Toughest round was round 8. I started round 7 thinking this was my second to last round. I hit it really hard because I thought there was only one round to go. There was 3. Mother F*cker.

Workout: 95# Clean and Jerk. Only stipulation is that the bar touches or begin on the floor and is fully locked out overhead, both hips and arms. As many reps as you can do in 1 min, 1 min break for 20 min. Basically 10 rounds.
1. 15
2.14
3.14
4.14
5.14
6.14
7.14
8.12
9.14
10.15
total: 140
Now I believe that is best in gym, though Remington Steele has not done this wod yet. Hot Toddy put up a number of 154 but it is under question. On Monday Duke led the charge with a 135.

B: protein drink, 1/2 orange, trail mix
L: Tuna Salad
L: 1 turkey burger, apple, 6 peanuts
pw: 1/3 elevate bar, 1/2 protein drink, creatine
D: 5 oz chicken, 10 baby carrots, 8 blocks of trail mix
S: 2/3 elevate bar, trail mix, 2oz chicken
S: apple, trail mix, 1oz chicken

Cock and Throw

Was going to hit the barn today but work forced me over to the North Shore so I just went up to the gravel track up the road from me and did a workout there. My original plan was to do some sprinting and then do max reps hang power clean and jerk with my 35# db. 1 min of work, then 1 min of rest for 20min. However once I got to the track I thought of a much more interesting workout.

Workout: 3x100m sprint, full recovery. Really worked on relaxing my body through the sprint. I am going to start to do much more of this. I enjoy sprinting.
Workout: 400m dumb bell tosses. I used my 35# dumbell and clean and jerk threw them as far as I could for 400m. There is a dry grass/gravel area in the middle of the gravel track so it was perfect. 10:02 was my time. I did the first 180m or so without any break. This workout was lots of fun and a killer.
Workout: 1 max hanging L-sit. 6 rounds of 10 sec on 10 sec off hanging L-sits.

B: protein drink, trail mix
L: Tuna Salad
L: Turkey burger, Banana
D: 2 turkey dogs, 1 corn on the cob, 6 baby carrots
S: 1/2 protein drink, trail mix, apple

Mon -- Tues -- CHEAT ALERT!!

Monday was a rest day for me. Even though I wanted to go in and try the clean and jerk wod that we were doing, the body was screeming for a rest. Checked out Dark night with my dad Monday night after we went and hit some golf balls. Wicked movie.
B: protein drink, apple, trail mix
L: chicken thigh, 4oz, greek salad
L: Tuna Salad
S: elevate bar, trail mix
D: chicken breast with bbq sauce, esparagus, carrots
S: Turkey dog, trail mix, pickle

Tuesday:
I golfed during the day and planned to go to the gym right after gold. Unfortunetely I let myself get too hungry and thought it was a better idea to go home and have a monster shit meal instead. I don't mind that I didn't work out as I probably could have used the additional day off but the cheat meal was not good. Okay here we go.
B: ham and chees omelette, fruit, tsp peanut butter
L: hot dog, no bun
L: 2 turkey dogs, pickle, large bag of cheese chips, large bag of peanut butter m and m's, bag of jube jubes, .75 L of coke zero.
D: chicken breast, 7 patatoe chips, 2 small pieces of chocolate.

Safe to say I didn't feel very good this morning. Not a big deal however as I'm back in the swing today with diet and am looking forward to hitting the gym later on tonight.

Sat -- Sun

Worked out both days before heading down to the docks. Saturday I did Popeyes Wod, though I didn't read it propertly and did it with a 1.5 pound kettlebell instead of a 1 poud. Obviously that made the workout a little more challenging. Sunday I went in and did Nasty Girls. In hindsight I should have taken Sunday off as my body was sore but.... Ate well both days and had a cheat meal both nights.

Saturday Workout:
back squat, 185x5x3. Found I was squatting with too wide a stance. Felt much better when I narrowed it. I think the same thing will go for my Oly lifts
Shoulder Press: did two sets and realized my shoulders were fried from all the snatch and overhead squats I did on Friday so I cut that short.

For time
500m row, 10 kettlebell swings (1.5 poud)
400m row, 20 kb swings
300, 30 kb
200, 40 kb
100, 50 kb

18:13. Absolute Murder. Great workout

Sunday:
power clean doubles at 185# x 3
shoulder press: 135#x3
Nasty Girls:
3 rounds for time:
50 squats
7 muscle ups
10 hang power cleans @ 135#
11:23...20 seconds better than my last time and I think if my body was fresh I could have pushed sub 10min.

Monday Off, I'll be back at it with a double on Tuesday.

Friday -- July 19th

What an awesome day I had today. Did if not the hardest, top 5 most challenging workouts today. Best atmosphere I've worked out in. Good diet today and everything felt great, though I'm writing this on Sunday so I'm going to do my best and remember what I ate.

Workout For Time:

1 hang power snatch, 1 overhead squat, 1 ring dip

2 hang power snathc, 2 overhead squat, 2 ring dip

keep going all the way up till you hit 10

800m run

10 hang power snatch, 10 overhead squat, 10 ring dips

9 hang power snatch, 9 overhead squat, 9 ring dips

keep going till you hit the 1's again.

weight is 30% if bodyweigh. I did mine at 75#.

The overhead squats were challenging as the numbers rose up but really what held me back was the ring dips. I was onto to doubles for those pretty quick. I did come screeming out of the gate on this one and was leading or right there for the first 4 rounds and then the rings dips started to come into play. I really think my form on ring dips is what is hurting me. I have to go back to square one with them. I don't feel like my range of motion is where it needs to be. I think my weight might be too far back.

Rest Day -- Sorta

Played squash in the morning. Had an epic battle that I ended up losing at 9-8 in game 5. Worked very hard on the court and I knew entering game five there was no way I was going to Crossfit that day. I was already on the fence since I knew I had done 5 workouts in the last 3 days and I am so glad I did. I almost went in after work just to row but instead dragged myself home and took a much needed nap after work.
Workout: squash, 50min of actual game play. I lost 3-2.

B: half protein drink with creatine
B: 4 oz of chicken breast, 1/2 a small bottle of bolthouse fruit smoothy, trail mix, 3 fish oils
L: 2 oz chicken breast, trail mix
L: salmon, chicken thigh, greek salad(not a lot)
S: half protein shake, greens plus (which I've been taking once a day but haven't been putting it in. I will from now on. Same with the rest of the supplements I take).
D: 5 oz chicken breast with bbq sauce, caesar salad. Lots of cheese and some bacon in caesar sauce. Tasted great however.
S: apple, cheese, 1 oz chicken, trail mix

Wed -- July 16th

Felt good today. Went to Costco today to stock up on meats and good lord is the quality good and prices fantastic. I used to be out on it feeling the meats and cheeses and veggies wouldn't be good but they are just as good as IGA Marketplace below my place. I picked up a wack of chicken and steak and also picked up a large bag of pre-cooked chicken breast. The ingrediants look pretty good outside of a little too much sodium and its so convenient. The picture below is of the rider that just got his whole team kicked off the the tour de france. How can these idiots continue to dope when there sport has turned into the biggest joke. I posted the picture because this is what most people consider fit. He looks like an alien, with a tiny body and a massive head. This guy couldn't press 95 pounds if his life was on the line.



Workout 1: Squash. 40 min of game play. Had one of my better games ever. Felt great moving around the court and was hitting all my shots. I won 3-0.
Workout 2:
warmup: dynamax ball throwing
Squat Cleans: worked on form and did doubles: worked up to two sets of 155#
Workout:
rounds in 20min:
2 static pullups
4 knees to elbows
6 pushups, with grip on a d-ball
8 20" box jumps. Land with one foot on top of box and alternate.
20 1/4 rounds.
Great workout. Knees to elbows are what really slowed me down. I worked hard to keep my form and make sure I was hitting the knees to elbows on each rep. I placed 4th and was so close to second.

By the way I weighted in today at 188. I think 180 is a perfect weight for my size and I'll curious to see how I do at that weight again. I am very happy with the body composition change especially since I'm also taking creatine right now which causes you to retain water.

F*cking Red Robin

I finish my workout, head straight home to pick up Chelan so we can grab a quick bite at red robin. Believe it or not they have an awesome tex mex salad there which is why we went. I am absolutely starving post workout and we sit down and the b*tch waitress forget to submit one of our orders. It takes 40min to get my food and I'm surrounded by burgers and fries and the biggest godamn pieces of cake I have ever seen. Normally I would get up and leave but I knew if I did that I was going to go get bad food so we toughed it out. They ended up giving us our food for free which was nice.

Workout:
Snatch, 95,95,135,135,135,135
Then I did the 5 o'clock class with Sheppy
Warmup: 8 rounds of 5 L sits and on the 5th L sit you have to hold it till the 30 seconds is up. The clock starts at the beggining of your first L sit. 15 sec break between rounds. My abs were completely at failure. They were still sore from the ghd work I did on Sat. Awesome workout.
Push Press: work up to max, 6 sets, got 215#, failed on 225#...I will get that next time for sure.
Workout: Popeye vs Brutus. Go against a partner. One runs 400m while the other rows. total meters rowed wins. I lost this battle but it was a killer workout. My poor rowing has to improve. there is no reason why I am not a stronger rower. I need to work on this.

B:Protein drink, apple
L: Chicken Caesar salad, trail mix small
L: elevate bar, trail mix, deli turkey 2 oz
S: banana, trail mix
D: tex mex salad, got it with no tortilla chips and double the chicken
S: elevate bar, 8 peanuts, 2 oz breakfast sausage

Probably ate a little too much today but still didn't cheat.

Hard not to Cheat

Holy god I was so close to eating bad yesterday. Having that really bad meal on Sunday night is not a good idea. It leaves you with that hard sugar craving and always makes Monday's really challenging. I'm going to try Saturday cheat meal and see how that goes from now on. I was literally in the grocery store about to get chips or have pasta and instead bought asparagus. I am so glad I did.

Workout 1: Squash in the morning. 35 min of game play. Won 2 games to 1. My toe was really sore during play and limited my ability to break on the ball. I saw the doctor last night and he pretty much told me what I already knew. Go get x-rayed, looks like there is some damage but no matter what the x ray comes back with there isn't much you can do about it. I am now going to consistantly wear the gel spacer between the baby toe and the second toe. It takes away the pain substantially.
Workout 2: I was going to go into the gym but my doctors is on the north shore so to go back over town wasn't going to happen. Turns out the .com workout was perfect for the track anyways.
4 rounds for time:
400m run
50 squats
13:53
awesome workout. The legs were screaming the whole time. This is one I am going to repeat on a quasi regular time frame.

B: protein drink, apple
L: tuna salad
S: elevate bar
L: 1 turkey burger (by the way when I write turkey burger it is always just the patty, same with a dog. I am eating no grains on the weekdays right now), trail mix.
PW: protein drink
D: 1.5 large italian sausages, bbq, 8 pieces of asparagus
S: 1 apple, 1 oz cheese, trail mix small

Weekend Update

I am doing one post for Fri, Sat and Sunday. Friday I did a 6k run and really worked on the pose technique. I didn't feel great out there but I know if I keep at it my running will improve. I am really learning how much I prefer to sprint as apposed to distance running.
Saturday morning workout:
back squat 185x3, 225x2x3. I took a video of my back squat and I realised the bar is not moving in a straight line. Its dipping forward at the beggining and a half way through the up movement. I have to work on that.
Press 135x3x3
Rounds in 30min
12 lunges
15 ghd situps
15 hip extensions
5 muscle ups.
7 rounds.
GHD situps were murder but I was really pleased with my muscle ups. I was mostly getting 3's and two's.
B: 2 eggs, 1 turkey burger, apple, orange
L: salsa salad with Turkey and chicken
L: chicken caesar salad
D: Cheat dinner...Pasta and veal, half little wine
S: chips and cookies
Sunday, day off...but I did do a bunch of L pullups at work.
B: protein drink, apple
L: chicken, veggies and dip
L: chicken, veggies and dip
D: cheat meal...turkey sandwich, chips, jube jubes...that is my cheats done till next sunday.

July 10th

Had a great workout today. Almost got myself up to do a 6k in the morning but thank god I decieded against because I needed everything I had to do the wod today. I will run 6k ish tomorrow. Nice and easy and work on my pose running.

Workout: 2 min defense

Power Clean,3xhang squat clean, 2 jerk, 100m run

repeat 5 times than take 2 min break and repeat again five times.

10:00, minus the 2 min rest. total time 8min

Bench Press: 185,205,205x3

B: protein drink, grapefruit, small handful trail mix

L: tuna salad

L: 1 turkey burger, banana, trail mix

PW: half a scoop of protein

D: 60z salmon, corn on the cob, 4 large pieces of bbq peppers, tsp of butter for the corn

S: 1 small turkey dog, trail mix, 6 cherries

July 9th

For the first time I really felt my body start to work off of the fat as apposed to carbs mid workout. I felt I was able to recover better and keep hitting it. Can't wait to see how it is doing 3 weeks or so from now. Very excited.

This is me after the 155# squat clean and jerk x 30 reps workout at the games. My time was 10:48

Workout:
Clean + Jerk: 185,185,205,185
Press: 135x3x3

5 rounds for time:
10 back squat @135
15 ring dips
20 24" box jumps
14:52

B: apple, 6 oz turkey burger, handful of trail mix
L: Tuna Salad
L; 3 oz turkey burger, elevate bar, handful trail mix
PW: Protein drink
D: 5 oz chicken breast, caeser salad
S: 1 small grilled turkey dog, mustard, half orange, trail mix

weight: 190

July 8th

I am entering into week two of my new nutrition plan. It has been very difficult teaching my body to look for fat as an energy source as apposed to starchy carbs and sugar but I am hopeful I am starting to turn the corner. My new plan is to eat nothing but meat, fruits and veg and nuts, Monday-Friday, Saturday have zone proportion meals with some starchy carbs and Sunday as a cheat day (or at least one cheat meal). This is much more of a anabolic diet than the zone Monday - Friday but I am going to try it out and see how my body reacts. So far my energy levels are good but it is harder right now to draw on anything mid workout. I hope that changes.

B: Grapefruit, protein drink, 3 fish oil pills
L: Tuna Salad
L: 3 oz turkey burger, nuts, greens plus drink
D: 5-6 oz of seabass, 8 asperagus, half orange, 3 cherries, 3 rasperries
S: protein drink, 1 pickle, trail mix

Workout: Subbed Rope Climb for 3 ring L pullups, both my hands got busted up at the games.
rounds in 20min:
5x225 deadlift
15 pushups
3 ring L pullups
200m run

8.25 rounds.

The Crossfit Games

I got back late Monday night from one of the best weekends I have ever had...and I didn't even perform well. The games were so much fun. I came in 88th out of 200 competitors. That is about where I expected to finish though I must admit once I started workout one I thought I would be even further back. It was great to be a part of the event and I can't wait till next year where I guarantee I will be in much better shape to compete and try and get into the top 50 or better. I will be posting some more pictures and videos of the games and our team in the future.