The Writers Block

One thing about Crossfit is that it’s meant to get to high levels of intensity.  My impression is that for some athletes this means “abnormally” high levels.  Being able to maintain the intensity is where an individual’s discipline is revealed.  Which is not to say “fail” or “succeed” so much as it is to say over time the more discipline that is applied the more improvement. But I have no idea how to measure “intensity” or even “discipline” on a day-to-day basis.

To help me measure the work (and manage it) I started to think about “mean time between failure” (MTBF), which really just means not allowing myself so much rest time.  After all the rest time is reducing the intensity, and I don’t want to lose too much of that opportunity.  In practice this means do a certain number of intense reps, stop for a predetermined number of breaths (for example two) and then get back to work.  In other words I need to make a very conscious effort not to rest.

Yesterday I decided I needed another formalism, an “exhaustion ratio.”  So during the Open 12.5 WOD, I reached what I think is 99.99% of my ability to work — at the end of the WOD I was completely exhausted.  It took me several days to totally recover.

Yesterday I did a WOD that required 3 rounds of 10 box jumps, 20 kettle bell swings, 30 ball slams, and 40 walking lunges. I used a 20 inch box, a 35# kb, and a 25# ball.  I was working with a partner (PJ) and we got to rest while the other person did a round.  I had a total time of 13:45, with an average round rate of 4: 38.  PJ was a bit faster, so my rest time was around 3 minutes.  I figured I got about 90% of that workout.  I took too much rest time during the ball slams — I did sets of 10 with a 2 second rest.  The idea behind the WOD was to not break the sets up — it was supposed to continuous.  I’m guessing that no rest at all during the ball slams, and a 10 minute total time, would have got me to 99% of the workout.

I need to get closer to the edge of exhaustion.

Cheers.

The other day I was working on hang power cleans, trying to do 10 at 95# without putting the bar down.  I’ve been at CFES for about 15 months, but I hadn’t really internalized very much about the Olympic lifting techniques.

After a few reps Justin said, from across the gym, “it would be easier if you used a hook grip!”  So I started using a hook grip.

After I had been at it for a while, Justin stopped what he was doing and said it would be even easier if I got under the bar before I caught it on my shoulders.  He said what I was doing was a “muscle clean”, and there wasn’t any such thing.  So the point here is that I was doing it really badly.  The link to the video (in the first paragraph) shows someone doing it the right way.  And when I started doing it right, it was easier.  Just get under the bar.

Justin and I talked briefly about being able to do 10 at 95# without dropping the bar and how much variance is allowed (in other words, how sloppy could I be and still get a rep). I mentioned that 95# is a large part of my body weight (about 2/3).  He said that it was not the 95#, the age, or body weight that was the problem.  It was form.  Being sloppy is inefficient.

Today I went in to work out, and the WOD was 3 rounds of 10 box jumps, 20 kettlebell swings, 30 ball slams, and 40 walking lunges. I did not want to be there.  I was really tired from the two previous workouts.  Not only low energy, but really sore.  It hurt just to get out of bed.

So I did the warm up (stretching, 24 pullups, 24 pushups, 24 squats).  I kept looking at the board thinking, man this WOD is going to take forever.

But I did it.  This was a partner WOD (my partner was PJ) and we decided to use 35# kb and a 20 inch box.  PJ is quite a bit stronger then I am, but he was in the same situation: very sore.  I did 3 rounds at: 4:19, 4:47, and 4:39.  Total of 13:45.  PJ did slightly better by about a minute.  It was a tough workout.  I am capable of a 53# kb swings, 24 inch box jumps.  But this was not the day to focus on maximums.

During the ball slams I kept reminding myself to squat into the slam; during the kb swings I kept reminding myself to open the hips to drive the weight upward.

So I’d say it’s progress when I can actually monitor my own form.

Cheers.

Blair Morrison has a quote on his blog: “If you’re not on the edge, you’re just taking up space.” I’m not sure I had seen it before today or not.  I know I’ve used the phrase “If you’re not on the edge of your ability, you can’t improve” in a previous post.  I actually like my version, because not everybody wants to be on the edge all the time, and some people perhaps never.  And I’m not the one to pass judgement on their desires or abilities.

A couple of years back Morrison posted a blog titled “Fitness Is…Potential” dated September 2010.  I just saw it today.  It’s meant (I think) to be inspirational.  Mostly it is. It does betray a certain bias towards survival of the fittest, which I suppose comes with the Crossfit territory.  I once saw a tee shirt that read “stronger people are generally more useful, and harder to kill” which I thought was pretty funny.

In any case I do think that the hardest lesson in Crossfit, or I suppose any really, really hard thing, is to learn not to give up too early.  I confess I am afraid of failure.  Or I used to be.  Now I’m on somewhat more friendly terms with failure.  Or more accurately stated, I’m learning how failure can be accomplished in a controlled environment.

Learning how to reach the current potential and getting beyond it requires a certain attitude about fear.  I’m learning how to not fear the weight, just to fear doing a poorly executed lift (which will cause injury, which I should avoid).

If you want to get past your current ability, sooner or later you have to get to the edge.

Cheers.

The way CFES is set up there are two levels of workout: “On-Ramp”, “Foundations” and “Level 1.”  The On-Ramp is a month long orientation.  Foundations is where new people end up after On-Ramp.  Level 1 is for those athletes who have demonstrated proficiency and have a minimal fitness level.

I didn’t pay particular attention to the Level 1 test because I figured it was a proficiency test (for Olympic lifting mainly) and my stats are pretty low compared to other athletes.  I already scale my workouts quite a bit, so in Level 1 it would be scaled down even further.  I  didn’t think my numbers were not going to improve just by changing classes.

But the other day I took another look at it, and decided to treat it like the CF Games Open. In other words a challenge.  And it’s not actually a given that I can do it.  Among other things I need to do 10 hang power cleans at 95#.  Plus run 400 in less then 2:05.  I had never done either of these.  My best time for the 400 was 2:05.

So I went in to see what the hang power cleans would feel like at 95#, and a 400m run.  I did the run at 1:39, which was a nice surprise.  In theory that means I could run a seven minute mile.  I tried the hang power cleans, didn’t get 10 but I’m convinced it’s due to poor form.  A few more practices sessions and I should have it.

But I was really happy with that 400m run!  Cheers.

One of the things that surprised me a bit when I starting working out at CFES was that shoes are a big deal.  I am told that weightlifting shoes are a real advantage; it’s been explained to me.  But I still don’t have any.  Maybe when I start actually getting some bigger numbers I’ll buy a pair.  I do have a very nice pair of Puma low-tops.  Inov-8 seems to be popular.

I see lots of really colorful socks. T-shirt graffiti is popular too.  I see lots of clever remarks on tees — like “Prebok” for example (as in “I was crossfit before Reebok.”)  The majority of the tees have the name of an event.  I have some of these too.

In fact a few CFES people got together and started their own company,   HIPFIT.  I have one of their shirts.  It has a guy doing a handstand on a keg.  There is also a web site devoted to reviewing Crossfit clothes, The Crossfit Clothing Review.

I don’t suppose I’m a slave to fashion.  But I do think having a shirt with a guy doing a handstand on a keg is a good thing. Cheers.

Today we did dead lifts as part of the warm-up.  When I first started crossfit I was afraid of deadlifts; as in so scared I would cross to the other side of the street.  But at some point (I really don’t recall when) I did 135#.  Then shortly after I did 165#.  A couple of months later I was balking at 175# and the trainer (TC) stopped what he was doing, came across the gym to where I was standing, and said “you have to to this.” He said this in such a way as to make me understand that I did indeed need to do that.

So I did. Lifted it right up.  Eventually I got up to 215# which is where I’m currently stalled out at.  I’m backing off a bit, down to 195# so I can get the form 100% correct.  But sooner or later, that 220# bar is going to have to come off the floor.  Otherwise I can’t get to 300#. But that moment when I did that 175# was an important moment for me.

Now here’s the hard part: not being able to move those heavier weights is embarrassing, because I see lots of other athletes who can easily pick up much more weight then what I’m struggling with.  About a dozen of them are women.  I see their names on the whiteboard. So you can add gender bias to the mix of emotions at my Crossfit workout. It takes about all the discipline I have not to be jealous, or angry, or spiteful or just generally cranky about that.

Add that to the fact that even though I know I’m getting stronger, I’m not even close to where I’d like to be.  I do a 15 minute workout and there are several people at 10 or 11 minutes for that same workout.  I think I need to work harder.

I also think that ego is not the right trainer.  Leaving nothing on the table during a workout does not mean being stupid, or greedy.  There are always going to be athletes who are stronger then me.  Somewhere in all of this there is a lesson about patience, resolve, and discipline.  Just right now I’m not sure what it is.  I’ll be at the box tomorrow and maybe I’ll find out.

Cheers.

Today we did a set of 21-15-9 db thruster/push presses and lateral jumping burpees.  I used a 25# db.  For the second day in a row I had workouts that (ahem!) gave me the opportunity to apply some discipline.  Which is another way of saying the workout challenged me to not give up to early.

Thrusters require a lot out of me anyway, a set of 1 thruster + 1 push press = 1 rep is really hard.  Think of it as double the workout.  After the first 21 thrusters I didn’t have much left and had to pace myself during the burpees.  The second set was where the mental had to force the physical to keep going.  Short quick sets of three, put the dbs down, take two breaths, pick the dbs back up, and next set. Third set same thing.  I think I got 98% of the workout.

I’ve got a bit more to give.  But I’m getting there.

Today was my first day back after a week (had the flu or something). They must have seen me coming.

The workout was a 20 minutes amrap of 500m row, box walk handstands, and max pullups.  The final score was the number of pullups. The “box walk handstand” involves getting into a pushup position with your feet on a 20 inch box and your hands on the floor, getting as vertical as possible (to mimic a handstand) and hand-walking around the box.  The requirement was four times around.  What it does is exhaust upper body strength really fast. When you combine this with a 500m row and pullups and a time boundary for max reps it’s tough.

I was fighting failure in the first two minutes, so I had to scale down the box walks — instead of four I did two, and I had to use my knees.  This was a partner workout and I was alone. So the timing was a bit confusing. I got 25 rx pullups.  Those last few pullups took a lot of willpower.

The thing I learned here was that the scaling was not a retreat.  The only way I was going to get a full workout, once my upper body gave out, was to scale.

More importantly (for me) I discovered that it’s not so much the failing, it’s the recovering. It sounds easy to say when you’re sitting in a comfortable chair, but managing the process of scaling so you can fail faster and recover faster and do more work is tricky to do in real time.  So I was failing quickly – but not giving up.  I call this the “mean time between failure” or MTBF.

I didn’t quite get to 100% exhaustion, but I’m learning how to get there.

That’s it for now. Cheers.