this morning HD and i split the session up into two parts: (1) lifts and (2) a timed workout.
click me
i was extremely happy with my last set on deadlifts. according to percentages, my 1RM should go up by 23lbs. but of course, we won't know if that's true or not unless i actually put up that weight when the time comes... the 5 sets of burpees were a good warmup for the timed workout that follwed.
next, 5 rounds for time
5 bench press (135lbs)
5 power cleans (115lbs)
here are my entire rounds:
that WOD was inspired by seeing one of Rich Froning, Jr.'s workouts in preparation for this year's CrossFit Games. we actually started the couplet with the wrong exercise, but that's ok... anyway- at the time of filming, he weighed 195lbs and did the bench presses & cleans at 205lbs! since we're not at that elite level just yet, we did the bench presses close to our body weight and the cleans at an even lesser weight... eventually, in time, we'll get there.
results
HD: 5min 38sec DV: 3min 58sec
here's the short version of the Rich Froning video i was talking about:
and here is the long version... if you have an hour to spare:
we have a rest day tomorrow, then running a 5K on sunday morning. i am going to meet HD around noon for TD 66, following the race. i'm pretty excited for this week coming up- i've already written up all of the days' workouts (and we'll adjust accordingly); plus this is the heavy week (week #3) in the 5/3/1 program... so we'll see if we've had any gains or not. i feel stronger with only 2 weeks of 5/3/1 underneath my belt and it seems that my body responded well to this type of programming! until then...
we didn't have too much left in the tank this morning, so HD and i just performed two supersets:
click me
here is my 6th set of presses:
it was our 4th day in a row training and i think it's wearing down on us. we're going to take a rest day tomorrow and hopefully we'll be fired up for friday. i felt pretty sluggish this morning, but a big contributing factor to that was a lack of sleep... easy fix- just have to stop working/staying up on the computer late at night.
as for this weekend, MV and i have the Susan G. Komen 5k on sunday. a week after that, i'm attending the CrossFit Level I Certificate Course. i definitely have to study a little bit over the weekend prior to the course.
only had time to split the session up into two parts this morning: (1) lifts and (2) timed workout.
click me
i was pretty happy with my effort on the 6th set of squats. based on those those numbers, my 1RM should've increased by 6lbs. we'll find out next week... the 2nd superset, specifically the toes to bar, were taxing. that couplet fort of felt like a metcon even though we were resting between sets haha.
next, for time
rounds of 15-12-9-6-3 reps
hang power clean (85lbs)
bar facing burpees
results
HD: 7mins 21sec DV: 5min 9sec
i didn't really want to talk after that haha. i wanted to go to sleep.... speaking of which, it's getting late... another training day coming up in a few hours.
this morning was a great training day and we definitely earned the right to watch football in the afternoon. we split the session up into 3 parts: (1) lifts, (2) moderate treadmill work, and (3) an AMRAP.
we didn't expect the hang clean & jerk to be taxing, but it was, since we did all the sets unbroken. by the time we got on the treadmill, we were dreading the run, but it wasn't so bad and 7.2mph truly did feel like a jog. as we got off the treadmill, we weren't looking forward to the last part of the training day.
13min AMRAP
7 hang power snatch (75lbs)
7 front squats (75lbs)
7 push press (75lbs)
picked up a really great breakfast afterward & watched football. the Giants won and 3 out of 4 of my fantasy football teams look like they're going to hold up after monday. looking forward to a challenging week.
before totally signing off tonight, i want to shed light on a few things. AM, TS, and i are considering doing a (1) GORUCK Challenge NYC sometime in spring 2012 and (2) the next Tri-State CMC: May 19th, 2012. might as well keep the ball rolling with all of these races...
next Sunday, MV and i are running a 5k in The Race For The Cure. my family has been participating in this race since '95 when my mother first found out she had breast cancer. she survived two encounters with it and continues to raise money here and there for cancer research. she's such an amazing woman... i can definitely trace my philanthropic roots to her.
also, here is a compilation video of TS' TDs 50-54:
we've accomplished a lot since may and are going to continue to work hard and be ready for tm tri-state 2011!
the unspoken goal for this blog was to post at least 60 training days before toughmudder tri-state 2011. and here we are... nearly two months ahead of schedule. i'm not going to lie, i was pretty worried two weeks ago when i fell behind on posting the workouts on september 11th, but now i'm caught up. i hope at this point, it was helpful to follow HD's and my progress since may. we plan on continuing to keep at it with this journey and we'll see where this takes us past tm tri-state. who knows?
for next week, i'll try to get more media up. because i was catching up, i was giving you bare minimum. no promises. what i do promise is not to take a two week break like that again. only until we decide that the lifetime of this blog has lived to its potential.
without further ado, TD 60- split up into two parts: (1) light run on the treadmill and (2) lifts.
the run felt great and HD agreed that this could possibly be our jogging pace.
then,
click me
was pretty happy that my lower back didn't act up. after one week of 5/3/1, not to sound cliche, but i feel stronger and am looking forward to the next 7 weeks. HD has definitely shown a lot of gains...
two weeks from now, i'm attending the Level 1 CrossFit Certificate Course and need to start reviewing the materials and studying up. i've also started classes at NYU on wednesday for continuing ed... october is overly-booked with The Living Dead and Men's Health Urbanathlon to end off the month... back to being super busy, but like i said in the previous post, i'll get the training days up ASAP....
here is the vid from the Urbanathlon: Chicago winner, Shane Logan... his 90 miles a week training schedule is far different than a CrossFit Endurance template. let's see if he wins again.
i need to work on being more efficient with my pullups. i armed 99% of the 72 pullups and could barely move them afterwards. try this one out and see for yourself.
this week HD and i are going to incorporate the 5/3/1 method for the next 8 weeks of training. this morning, we split up the session into two parts: (1) 5/3/1 w/accessory work and (2) timed workout. you'll start to notice that we end up doing 6 sets of the main lift. the first 3 sets are the warmup.
if this is too small, just click on it to view a larger version
split up into two parts: (1) 2 supersets and (2) timed workout. i was unable to perform the timed workout because of my lower back. however, HD still conducted it.
now, i'm actually catching up on posts- so from here until TD 58, i'm just going to show the sequences of exercises as we did them with as little commentary as possible. i apologize for the delay, got really busy... you know how it goes. this sessions was split up into two parts: (1) lifts and (2) abs.
also for time
11 box jumps
11 thrusters (rx is 125lbs, we used 85lbs) - 125 deaths at the pentagon
11 burpee- chest to bar pullups
11 power cleans (rx is 175lbs, we used 105lbs) - AA flight # 175 (south tower)
11 handstand pushups
11 kettlebell swings (rx is 73lbs, we used 25lbs)
11 toes to bar
11 deadlifts (rx is 170lbs, we used 135lbs) - flight 77 & flight 93
11 push jerks (rx is 110lbs, we used 75lbs) - number of floors in each tower
i remember when i was little, one of the things that stood out to me about nov. 22nd is that people around my mother's age could recall where they were and what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated... today is similar to that day. we are able to recall the conditions we were in and how we felt during those moments. everyday from my office building, i look across the water to that empty space and think about how much it changed everyone's lives.
so much has happened in a decade. what did you do since then? were you a person of action? did you join the military? were you active in the community? did you volunteer to help out the state/federal government? or are you one of those that just had opinions with no solutions or actions since 2001?... just stood by and criticized/complained about everything, caring only about yourself and the next party, while some worked and continue to do so to this day?... well today is a reminder that you can get up and do something to help at any point- it's never too late. so what are you going to do?
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this morning HD and i did a recovery workout, post-CMC, splitting up the session into 3 parts: (1) light cardio on the bike & elliptical, (2) a few movements, and (3) a light run on the treadmill.
warmup
10mins on bike at level 5
total: 2.22 miles, approx. 60 calories burned
immediately, 10mins on elliptical at level 5
total: 1.65 miles, approx. 104 calories burned
active recovery (done sequentially and at an easy pace)
situps- 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps
hip extension- 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps
kettlebell swing (25lbs)- 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps
bench press- 12 reps/95lbs, 3 reps/275lbs, 15 reps/135lbs, 10 reps/135lbs
pullups- 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps
as i stated in the last post, i took friday off... my body felt great the morning of the race and i felt a little soreness in my lower back. nonetheless, that soreness didn't hinder my performance and i was able to run up and down camelback mountain without fear of risking injury. i'm labeling this a training day because i conducted the race with AM and TT (even though he's not an official 4TWC member, he has trained with us before). we were in the 4th heat (last) at 11:30am , so we got to watch everyone go. i'm thankful i went skydiving last weekend, because my nerves did not play a factor at all when it was our turn to bat.
so basically the format was split into two parts: (1) "the pit" and (2) a 7 mile run. before you entered the pit, race officials went over scoring the first part and how the actual running course was. when i gathered a better SA of what the run was really going to be like, i thought it best to slightly hold back in the pit. read on & you'll see why...
the pit consisted of 4 stations. you had a 90sec prep time to get to your first station. mine went as such:
(1) kettlebell swings (50lbs)
30sec recovery
(2) burpees
30sec recovery
(3) thrusters (75lbs)
30sec recovery
(4) box jumps
here is a vid of the first heat ever conducted in the history of the CMC:
my total score was 102. AM's score was 106! and TT's score was 112! i felt that i conducted the exercises at a challenging pace, but i definitely wasn't taxed for the run (thank God). we then had 3 minutes to recover, then conducted a 7 mile run through camelback mountain:
to be honest, the up-mountain was unforgiving. we were barely able to get a jog on the incline. we were expecting to negotiate the run and obstacles in less than 90 minutes (from what i remember, i believe the fastest time ended up being 1hour and 23 minutes)... that was wishful thinking. we didn't receive our official times yet, but i estimate it took us about 130 minutes possibly a little less. when we get the race results, i will be sure to share.
anyway, i'll have to say that the run portion was way harder than toughmudder tri-state last year. in englishtown, it took about less than 3 hours to complete 12-13 miles... so you do the math... i was really surprised and definitely plan on doing another CMC when it returns to the east coast! i'm going to have to incorporate heavier squats and more hills to train for a course similar to camelback! a truly humbling experience and when we crossed that finished line, we definitely felt that we earned our t-shirts haha.
the finish line.
me & AM. we started together. we finished together.
we hung out for a beer, i bought the Murph Hero WOD t-shirt, then rushed back to nj to drop TT off and make it to my friends' wedding reception:
congrats Carrie & Joe!
life is a beautiful thing.
all in all, saturday was another lesson that emphasized to always keep striving to get better. it showed me that when you settle and think that you're in shape, are you really? i'm glad for kicks in the pants like these; for opportunities to learn more about myself and to share the experience with like-minded individuals who understand hard work and welcome challenges... i believe in these people and because of them, i believe in our country. that's basically the short of what went down on 9-10-11.
i'm basically catching up on posts because it was such a hectic weekend (rehearsal dinner, then driving to camelback for the CMC the night before, conducting The Race For Tomorrow, then driving back to the wedding reception, then the first sunday of football).... yes, a lot of excuses, i know. so although this is dated for thursday, september 8th... i'm really writing this on monday, september 12th.
moving along, i would like to call this training day, "the lost training day," since i can't find the piece of paper our results were written on. so here goes... i believe HD and i split that morning up into 4 parts: (1) basketball set shots, (2) helen @ 70%, (3) muay thai pad work, then (4) light jog on the treadmill.
warmup
we conducted 60 set shots in under 5 minutes. i believe i hit about 50% of my shots... i will continue to state this until it gets done, that i wish we had a third party to shoot this drill... not that we're anything special, it's that i want to show the rest of you how we warmup.
then, helen @ 70%
you really can't quantify then actually perform exactly at 70%, but basically, we didn't time it. we did perform our rounds unbroken, didn't stop moving, and just a slightly lower effort than our max speed:
run 400 meters (we measured 50 meters in the gym, so we did 8 laps)
21 kettlebell swings (25lbs)
12 pullups
then, muay thai pad word
we did a ten minute round each, focusing on the following combination:
1, 2, 3, right leg kick, reset, 2, inside leg kick
and to finish, treadmill work
10mins @ 7mph, 1.0% incline
total: 1.16 miles, approx. 140 calories burned
i took friday off. my lower back was a bit suspect, but by race day morning, it didn't fail me. on to writing about saturday.
this morning HD and i decided to rest and take it easy. i honestly think it was beneficial and i could feel my body responded well to the rest. here's some food for thought:
i can't wait! this is television worth watching. moreover, my books came in the mail today!
i am more than ready to start digging in. hmm, what else? 2 more days until the CMC!
haha i wish training day 50 was as provocative as a 50th of anything should be... however, it wasn't. boo tapering! i honestly can't wait until next week to get back after it. i guess the light training this week is really getting me hungry for saturday. anyway, HD and i split up the session into 3 parts: (1) light treadmill work, (2) muay thai pad work, and (3) swim.
next, muay thai pad work
10 minutes each
focused on the following combo: fake right leg kick into switch left knee, 2, 3, 2 rear kicks
last, swim
250m
we intended to conduct "helen" at 70% this evening, but the weather wouldn't allow for it. we'll try and sneak it in tomorrow morning if possible. at the end of the day, my back feels a little better. hopefully it'll continue to do so and will be close to 100% by saturday.
it's really interesting to see a template for people who are unable to do the 3 days on 1 day off due to work or family obligations and are in need of a set schedule. so far this journey has been sort of a science experiment where HD & i are the lab rats and i'm loving every second of it. i'm hungry to continually learn and get better. yesterday, i invested in "Fit" by Dr. Lon Kilgore and "Practical Programming for Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and Dr. Lon Kilgore. i also ordered a couple paleo diet books, along with the new Thomas Friedman book and Dick Cheney memoir... i'm really anxious to see what they all have to say and the books should get here tomorrow... thank God for amazon prime!
sorry for not having that much for you guys to look at. will have good stuff up from the weekend and next week- that's a promise!
on this labor day, HD and i split the session up into 3 parts: (1) slow elliptical work, (2) lifts, and (3) abs. since it's a holiday today and i didn't have to work, it definitely would've been ideal to squeeze in a lot of exercises and movements. however, i have to stick to tapering off as best as possible without overdoing it... i tend to be pretty stubborn and pay later. all in all, i think we managed to do a good job this morning.
as you can see, i've PR'd on the bench press three times today. i figured since i put up 245lbs 6 times last tuesday, i'd try to shoot for 265lbs. it went up 3 times and i told HD that i feel like i have a 4th rep in me. on the 3rd set, 4 went up and it still felt like i had more gas. so for the 4th set, HD told me that i might as well try 275lbs. if i worked out by myself, i would've never taken myself this far and i'm so grateful to have a buddy that i can trust to go to the gym with. lo and behold, i set another PR.
with that said, it kills me that my legs are weaker than my arms. i wish i had worked out legs in high school and college. haha it's really upsetting, but eventually if i stick with it, my legs will catch up. as opposed to last wednesday, 215lbs felt a lot smoother going deep then pressing back up. squats just remind me of things that i would've done differently in the past, like maybe took up wrestling and gymnastics instead of waste my time with basketball... at least i ran cross country. in the end, regret is pointless and, for me at least, it's all about what can i do todayto make progress and get better?
last, we did abs
3 continuous rounds
15 weighted situps (20lbs... perhaps we should bump it up at least another 5lbs?)
30sec modified straight plank
15 bicycles
and that's basically it. was thinking about squeezing in a tabata, but held myself back. maybe i might go for a light jog around noon today, without overexerting myself, just to keep the blood flowing. would that be a bad idea? anyway...
although today is a holiday, i have a lot of catching up to do with work and knock out some reports, so haha that is how i'm going to spend the next couple of hours before my jog.... CMC in 5 days! my lower back is a little stiff, but overall, i feel good.
it wasn't my idea to jump today, but i'm glad i got invited to do so. earlier this afternoon, i had the opportunity to conduct my first tandem jump in long island. definitely a smooth experience and i plan on returning for more... perhaps taking on the advanced freefall program. who knows? if you have the funds, if you have the time, i recommend checking out Skydive Long Island. below is the video of my first jump:
now back to business... there are 6 days left before The Race For Tomorrow. based on the multi-sport taper suggested by CrossFit Endurance, i plan on conducting something similar to the following schedule this week:
monday: heavy lift 5x3, back squat @ 70% of 5x3 max
tuesday: swim in the morning, Helen @ 70% effort in the evening
wednesday: rest
thursday: brick run-bike-run 800m/1.5mile/800m
friday: rest
saturday: The Race For Tomorrow
i'm pretty anxious to get back at it, even though it's going to be a fairly light week.
just got back home from a very disappointing playoff game. my company's basketball season is over. oh well- definitely had a great time, but the way we lost was really bad. haha despite that, welcome to september! we are in season and my first series of adventure races (out of three) is next saturday. i'm not sure whether to be excited or afraid... i have a pretty eventful weekend lined up as AM, TS, and i are participating in the 31heroes WOD this saturday and i am skydiving on sunday. this labor day weekend should make up for tonight's loss.
this morning, HD and i split up our workout into 3 parts: (1) set shot drills, (2) lifts, and (3) light bike work. i'm going to have to digress for a second (because sportscenter is on) and talk about Kerry Collins... i can't believe the man is 38! i remember him talking to the media about how there should be a playoff system to determine the ncaa national champ when he was at penn state... wow, a time before the bcs.
warmup
the usual 50 shot drill in under 5 minutes. i shot 60% in the morning and shot poorly in the game. i did score a few points and make all my free throws... haha there's always next season. another digression... anyone check out Aquille Carr? this young man is about my height, but just commands the games he's in.... and is only 16! these young athletes are getting so elite early and are really inspiring:
next,
performed dead hang pullups and didn't kip... felt really strong & perhaps it's about time to start working on my form with kipping pullups. i felt that i could've done more with deadlifts, but was too scared to overwork myself before the game. i probably should've tried to beast like HD did. he hit 225lbs 11 times in his second set.
lastly, we hit the bike
10mins at level 5
total: 2.14 miles
and that's that. we're talking about taking a rest day tomorrow... i may run with MV in the evening.
