Yeah Baby, 2 Weeks

Oh man, it's been a long time coming. The Furious Fundraiser is only 2 weeks away. I was ready to rock and roll a month ago! Don't worry dear readers. It's all good. Why is that? Because I am crushing everything in my path right now. Everything. In my path.

Way back in the day (spring) I lost about 20 lbs. of body weight. As I lost the weight, I lost a lot of strength as well. My back squat went down from 325 to 315. It was very upsetting. The biggest loss was my deadlift. That poor bastard went down from 400 lbs. to 365. Gross. This is right around the time that we started following CrossFit New England's competition team programming. Since that time, I have gained 5 lbs. with my body fat being roughly the same. My metabolic conditioning has shot completely through the roof. And yes, you guessed it folks, my much beloved strength has returned. Not only has it returned, it has grown as much as my conditioning. I am pleased to say that my backsquat has not only come back, it has surpassed my previous pr and gone up 20 lbs. to a much appreciated 345 lbs.! I've been fired up for over a month now and I'm only getting stronger and faster. I'm looking forward to this test to see what I'm capable of.

The best part about this years Furious Fundraiser is the team format. I have a perfect teammate for battle. His name is Ryland and together we will conquer anything and everything. I'm really excited for this competition. More as a test to see how far I've come. Don't worry my friends, I will keep it real and keep you updated.

Fury Is Fast Approaching

The CrossFit Fury competition is right around the corner. And I feel like our teams are as prepared as we can be. We have been following CrossFit New England's competition team programming and boy can I tell a difference. There are only 50 teams allowed to register for the comp. CrossFit Flagstaff is sending 12! 12 teams! We are going to be there in force. And I'm really excited to see how we do and what we are capable of.

I'm just getting over being sick. I can't stand it when that happens. I feel like I'm being completely un productive. Especially when I'm training for something. Thats when it catches up to you though. It happens all the time. Right before you're about to peak. Boom. It hits you. Right at the point when you're training as hard as you can. Thats when it hits you. Your body might be strong, but your immune system is taking a beating. The harder you train, the more nutrients you lose, and then the body can't keep up. I did pretty well though. I only lost one day. I was able to train through it.

More posts will be coming the closer we get to competition time. I'll try to start posting everyday once we are a month out. Until then, I'm going to bed. Good night, and keep it real!

The Furious Five: Unite

It's the beginning of August, and the date has been set for the CrossFit Fury competition. This year they switched it up on us. This year it will be a team event. Teams of 2 will conquer 3 workouts in one day. The first is a SWAT style workout in honor of the Phoenix Police Force. The second will be a Fire Fighter type workout for the Phoenix Fire Fighters. Last but not least will be a CrossFit style workout. I'm not entirely sure what any of that means. And it makes me a little nervous. Although I'm pretty sure I need to practice rope climbs.

The new Jiu Jitsu school is nothing short of phenomenal. I've only been there a month and I've already noticed a significant improvement in my game. I am completely obsessed with Jiu Jitsu again and it's a great feeling to have that particular drive boiling inside of me again. I'm on the quest to get my purple belt and I'm pretty sure it's not a long way off. The hard part will be patience. I know I won't get it right away, but I'm pretty sure it will be less then a year before it will be mine.

It is the end of month 3 on my new diet. I feel amazing. I'm working towards being in the best shape of my life and the diet is making a huge difference. I've lost a total of 20 lbs. and gained a little bit of muscle mass in the process. Thank you for the support and I will keep you updated on everything!

The Highland Games

Let me tell you a secret. The Highland Games are very interesting. The best thing about my first Highland Games experience was that I didn't prepare for it. I had no idea what I was doing or how it worked. All I did was follow my friend Scott around because he had the most experience. When I say the most experience, I mean he competed in his first event just a few short months ago. So based on the fact that I didn't train for it, and that I had no idea what I was doing, I had a lot of fun! There was no pressure on me what so ever! I'm not going to lie, it felt pretty good.

All of the throws were new to me. We practiced for a few hours a few days before the event. One of CrossFit's selling points is that it will prepare you for anything, including the unknown. I'm pretty danged confident that my level of fitness has prepared me for the unknowable. I believe it showed this weekend. I felt like I did very well considering the level of un preparedness I had. I really enjoyed testing myself and seeing what I was capable of for such an event.

This was the hammer throw. It was very awkward. You spin the hammer over your head like the picture above. When you feel that there is enough momentum all you have to do is let go. As long as it's behind you!

When I asked Scott what to do for this event, he said "Remember when you were a kid and you threw rocks all over the place?""Yeah.""Make sure you do it just like that.""Oh, ok, got it."

One of the best things about The Highland Games is that all the events are pretty self explanatory. This one is called weight over bar. I was pretty good at this one, I use my hips a lot in CrossFit with kettle bell swings, snatches, and cleans. The tricky one was the weight for distance. I was astounded by how much effort I would put into it for it to not go very far. 

Last but not at all the least was the Caber toss. This was the one event that I was the most nervous about. Where do you get a 20 foot pole to practice with for crying out loud! My goal was to get it off the ground and on to my shoulder like the picture above. I succeeded in that goal for all 3 attempts although I did fail to throw it on the 3rd one. 

All in all I had a great time and now that I own my own kilt, I will be competing next year as well. Our CrossFit Flagstaff team is fired up for next years event and I assure you dear readers, we will train for it next year!

Never Die...Shoes?

Yeah buddy, I designed these on the Reebok site. They are the new Reebok CrossFit shoes and I can't wait to order them. I have to wait until the fall semester starts, so I should have them by the CrossFit Fury competition. I'm pretty excited about them. Check them out!

The End Of Month Two

It's the end of month 2 here in the beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona. I have, somewhat successfully, completed a months worth of a nutrition challenge. I had no problem whatsoever with sugar, or breads and pastas. My weakness? Chips. You read that right. Chips. If you put the most amazing chocolate cake ever created and a bowl of the best guacamole ever created directly in front of me, I would go for the guacamole. Do you remember a blog post ago when I told you about the amazing chicken enchilada stew I made? Said stew is absolutely incredible with Tostidos brand whole wheat chips. The best pizza that man kind can possibly imagine? I'll take the chips and salsa please. I stayed away from dairy but those chips got me. I have my first cheat day on Sunday. Pizza from NiMarco's and pasta from Oregano's will be my reward.

I lost 10 lbs. in my first month with one cheat meal a week, adding a few cups of great tasting coffee during the week as well. This last month, with no cheat days, I only lost 7 lbs. Needless to say, I feel like cheat days are the way to go for me. I will be going back to the marvelous world of amazing food once a week starting in July.

July is a big month for me. I'm going to start training at a new Jiu Jitsu school starting on the 3rd. It's ran by a black belt. This is a good thing because all of my hard work will be recognized and promotion to purple belt is eminent. I'm going to start seriously training for the Furious Fundraiser Competition at CrossFit Fury in October. The team that won last years CrossFit Games, which also looks like the team to beat at this years annual event, has a blog of their daily workouts programmed by Ben Burgeron. This team goes by the name of CrossFit New England. And they are known for the phenomenal programming and training regimen that Mr. Burgeron puts together. Much to my surprise, the rest days for the team fall exactly in to line with my rest days. So it feels like Ben is programming workouts just for me! If you want to know what my extra workouts will be for the day, you can follow along here www.competitorswod.blogspot.com.

Here are the pics of my progress. I will post some more at the end of next month.

Getting Back To The Grind

The workouts of the day are as follows.
1K row followed immediately by 10 muscle ups.
Wendler bench press phase 1.
5 rounds of heavy back squat (250 lbs.) followed immediately by as many chest to bar pull ups as possible.

I was supposed to go to Jiu Jitsu tonight and I assure you I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, my muffler fell off. Needless to say, I needed to handle that situation. I will be back to Jitsu full time next month. Until then, I'll be doing as much work as I can. Much needed rest day tomorrow.Victory is eminent.