One Month Down

I've been eating really well lately. I've been pretty danged disciplined for the last month actually. Giving myself one cheat day a week, I have lost 10 lbs. total. This month is a whole other story. No more cheat days for me. Our gym is doing a nutrition challenge. I don't have the money to do it, so I will do it in the shadows. I will be a ninja nutritionist. Here are some recent pics of my progress. Lets see if I can get back down to 185 lbs!

Back On The Wagon

I hit the breaking point a few weeks ago. I stepped on the scale and it read 215 lbs. It's time to get back on the wagon and start eating right. I started eating badly over the holidays. Granted it was phenomenal food, but I gained 15 lbs. over the course of a month and a half. Long story short, I never cleaned up my diet and I kept the weight on. Now I'm dedicated like you read about. I'm back to eating healthy and allow myself 1 cheat day a week. Below are the before pictures I took at 213 lbs. I'll post some at the end of every month to show my progress.

Final Workout Of The CrossFit Open

The last workout of the Crossfit Open has been completed. It was the same final workout from last year. I did a lot better this year and I'm pretty excited to see how much I had improved. The workout is 3 thrusters at 100 lbs. then 3 chest to bar pull ups. Then 6 of each, then 9, then 12 and so on for the full 7 minutes.

Last year I hit myself in the chin with the bar on the third thruster of the first set. Needless to say, I was very angry and over the workout as soon as it began. The end result was 45 rep effort. This time, I knew I wasn't going to qualify for regionals so I just wanted to have fun with it. At the end of the day I ended up with a 68 rep effort the second time.

The only athlete from our gym that made it to regionals is Katie Brown. The regionals are located in Denver, Colorado. We are packing an RV full of CrossFitters and driving out there. Its going to be an insane amount of fun and you better believe that I'm going to document everything.

CrossFit Open Workout 12.4

This head cold couldn't have come at a worse time. It was one of those head colds where the inside and the outside of your head and face are completely consumed by mucus. That in itself is no fun. And this workout made it significantly less fun. I was able to wait until the tail end of the head cold to complete this workout.

The workout was as follows. 150 wall ball with a 20 pound ball. 90 double unders with a jump rope. And 30 muscle ups. You were only allowed 12 minutes to complete as much of these movements as you could. Let me tell you, I wanted to get to the muscle ups. Bad. Really bad. But alas, I did not. I made it through all 90 double unders with only milli seconds to spare. I am happy with the result. As a result of the head cold, I was fatigued immediately and couldn't breath properly even sooner then that. I missed my old PR of 150 wall ball by only 10 seconds or so. All in all, I'm pleased with my performance. The final workout of the CrossFit Open will be announced this evening. I'm excited to complete the Open and resume my normal training schedule. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Below is a video of Neal Maddox and Jason Kahlipa completely destroying this workout. Enjoy!

CrossFit Open WOD # 12.3

This workout was easily one of the toughest WODS I've done in a really long time. It was as many rounds as possible of 15 box jump at 24 inches, 12 push press at 115 lbs. and 9 toes to bar as you could do in 18 minutes. And as I said before, it was absolutely brutal. I had to make up all my time on the box jumps because I was able to turn them over fairly quickly. I was really slow on my toes to bar because my kip didn't meet the standards and, as a result, 3 out of my first 6 didn't count. And the push press got very heavy very quickly. At one point, around minute 12 my friend and teammate Ryland was yelling at me to get back on the pull up bar for my toes to bar, right when I looked up to jump, everything started to fade to black. So I decided that it would be in my best interest to rest a few more seconds instead of passing out. I ended up with just over 7 rounds. I was really happy with that result and had absolutely no desire to re do that workout.

CrossFit Open WOD 12.2

Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting. I'm about 2 weeks late on this one. This has been a really busy couple of weeks for me. It all starts with WOD 12.2. This particular workout was all about the snatch. And it quickly separated the men from the boys. You start out with 30 snatches at 75 lbs. This was easy enough for just about everybody. Then it became significantly more difficult when the weight jumped to 135 lbs. for 30 reps. This is where the real athletes get separated from the pack. 30 snatches at 165 lbs. Getting through 30 snatches at 165 is an accomplishment if you are capable. Then comes the real deal. As many snatches as you can get at 210 lbs. This is an unreal weight that I can't even fathom snatching over my head. Did I mention that you only had 10 minutes to get as many as you could?

I tried this work out twice. The first time I blew through the 75 lbs. within about 2 minutes. Once I got to 135, I had a lot of problems getting the weight over head. I had 4 missed reps and 2 of them were because I got it up but just couldn't stand up out of the squat. I ended the 10 minutes with a total of 47 reps. I was pretty disappointed, but I didn't think I could do any better. The next day, I had a revelation. The split snatch. It was incredible. I did the workout again, and blew through the 75 lbs. in 2 minutes just like last time. Then I put my new found skill to work. I got all 30 reps at 135 lbs. to get a total of 60 reps. I was completely satisfied with my score. Below is a video of Dan Bailey and the 2011 Games champion Rich Froning crushing this workout. Rich ended up getting 8 reps deep at 210 lbs. and that is phenomenal I assure you. 

Open WOD #1

The CrossFit Open WOD # 12.1 is in the books! It was an amrap in 7 minutes of burpees. I'm not going to lie to you. It was pretty awful. I remember starting and going and going and going, then somebody shouts "Half way!" All I could think to myself was "Oh my god, I could die out here." Right around the 5th minute my heart and my mind were still in it to win it. My body had other ideas. I would be screaming in my head "Drop to the floor!" I don't really know what my body was doing, but it wasn't that. "One minute left!" At that point I gave it everything I had, but it wasn't much. I ended up with an 87 rep effort. I could redo the WOD, but I honestly don't think I could do too much better then that. That would be an incredible amount of work for an extra 4 or 5 reps. So I'm pretty happy with my score. Considering that Katie Hogan is one of the best CrossFit athletes in the world and she got 91 reps, I don't feel to bad. Looking forward to next week!