Definitely something going on with my blog

I swear I'm posting new stuff but it's not showing up online. WTH?

Yeah well, let's keep trying anyway. Who knows, it might all come back all at once or something.

Sooo, my legs are hurtin today.

We did a nice mix of overhead squats and a 200 meter run on Wednesday and I was walking funny in the office the next day.

I did about 6 rounds in 10 minutes. Gary did 9 rounds. I was a little beeyotch.

Actually I was just glad my back didn't seize up again. It was during overheads last time that my back spazed out and I had to stop in the middle of the workout.

Didn't happen this time. Oran and Bumper were watching me like hawks and got rid of some weight when they thought I might be overdoing it.

Can I just say how awesome it is to have personal trainers involved in every workout. I used to be all, "Trainers? I don't need no stinking trainers." But man, there ain't nothing wrong with someone checking to make sure you don't hurt yourself.

I never would have even attempted to bench again if it wasn't for RFM. It still feels weird when I bench on my right side, like all my muscles are curled up in a ball on what's left of my chest. But at least I'm benching again. And I might even get back up to 225 lbs.

We've had a couple of great workouts this week by the way. Pullups and dumbbell snatches back to back along with kettlebells and situps back to back on Monday and Tuesday.

But the Paleo diet thing isn't happening. I've got coworkers making blueberry cream cheese pie damn it. Just yesterday someone brought in some pastries from Komoda's Bakery.

The 9th floor of the County building is an evil evil place for those trying to stay away from sugar and starch.

But I suspect things will be easier once I get paid (finally). I'm heading over to Whole Foods and buying a crapload of protein and veggies and making lunch for a month.

Effing Komoda Bakery. Are you kidding me? Damn it.

Missing more than Crossfit this week

So, when I started this fitness blog I told myself I'd try to keep my personal life out of it.

But what happens when my personal life intersects with my workout? Gotta blog about it I guess.

So . . . my grandma died this week.

It was Tuesday when they called me at work. I was in a meeting and took off to Hale Makua as soon as I got the text from my cousin. Her oxygen levels were below 20 percent, whatever that means.

They had already sedated her with morphine so I'm not sure if she knew I was there. 

Later she took her last breath and she was gone.

I wanted to workout that evening. It's not odd, I did the same thing when my grandfather died in 2002. I was living in Honolulu and they called me from Maui and said he died. It was too late to catch a flight that night so I drove up to a friend's house in Kaimuki where they held "Fight Night" in their garage. Basically they take turns putting on gloves and pounding each other.

I put on the gloves that night and got my face smashed in. I didn't tell anyone, I just wanted to suffer physically so I wouldn't have to think.

I wanted Crossfit to punish me Tuesday. I wanted thrusters and burpees and squats of all sorts.

But my brother had flown into town and we did what we usually do in this situation. We drank alcohol.

So I didn't work out Tueday, and Wednesday we didn't go either. Thursday was an off day and my brother left that night.

Then came Friday, and I was waiting. Shoulder press I lifted 145 four times, a new weight for me. Next we did three rounds of 10 thrusters and as many toes to the nose lifts that we could do in what remained of our two minutes.

I lost myself in pain for a while. Oran yelled a rare, "SON OF A BITCH" after the first round so you know it was hard.

Afterwards my forearms felt like Popeye's. I was tired and hurt but it felt good in all the right places.

Crossfit continues to help me in all areas of my life. More specifically, the good people at Raw Fitness Maui and their desire to push ourselves has helped me. Thank God because if I didn't sweat I think I would cry.

Still might.

Okay, this is weird. I could have sworn I wrote my blog update earlier

Kinda disappeared or something. Huh. Well, I guess I'll just write it again.

Soooo . . . it's round two of my two job life. Thank. God. For. Crossfit.

I have no money because I don't get paid until the end of the month.

Thank. God. For. Crossfit.

And my back is still tightening up.

Thank. God. For. Medical insurance.

Yep, it's about that time to take a visit to Kaiser Permanente.

You know, I really really miss that place. I was with Kaiser since I was a kid and then later on as an adult working on Oahu. But then I moved to the mainland and they didn't offer it in Washington State or in New Mexico.

And let me tell you, once you get used to Kaiser you get spoiled. Everything is under one roof. The medicine is cheap. Hawaii medical insurance pays for everything.

I can't wait to see a doctor about my back. Just like I can't wait to go to the dentist.

I'll probably go get glasses too, just because I have a vision plan now.


Lovin these options.

Because once I get this back problem licked I'm out of excuses. Today I held back on benching more reps because my lower back tightened up. I feel like I'm not running as fast as I should be because my back tightens up. I had that episode a couple of weeks ago not being able to finish my overhead squat workout because my back gave out.

My back is causing me to back out. It's pissing me off. I feel like punishing it.

Maybe some power cleans will teach it a lesson. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Anyway, for bench I did 145, 185 and 215. For the timed workout I did 5 rounds and 6 reps of the following: six upsidedown pushups, 10 pistol squats and a 200 meter run.

Tired of this crap. I want to compete with my gym buddies at the next Crossfit competition damn it.

No more excuses. That's the motto of 2011. Let's go people.

See you at Kaiser. I'll be the guy with the clean teeth and new glasses.

Sigh, I want to compete too

Over the weekend the Crossfit RFM crew headed down to Lahaina to compete in a workout against other gyms. I kinda wanted to go but had two concerns: money and work.

I had zero cash and didn't feel like mooching off my gym buddies. That and I was afraid to go anywhere because I knew I was probably going to get a call from the media about weather clean-up.

Sure enough, I did. So I had to go into the office anyway on Saturday.

Both of these problems should clear up towards the end of the month when I finally (1) get paid and (2) get my county Blackberry. That way I can access work email finally and write stuff from wherever.

And it's not like the County is having payroll problems. It's just the way government jobs work or so I'm told .You take a whole month to get processed or something like that.

Whatever. Back to the competition. I promise, here and now, that I will enter the next Crossfit workout competition. I was feelin the power cleans finally last week and saw that it was on the competition list and was wondering how I would have done.

Okay, next time. I'm hittin it. Yea.

Anyway, we had our MLK Day workout which wasn't bad. First some bench presses, 145, 185 and 215 cranked out bam bam bam. I could have done more than 5 reps for the last set (of 215) but my back gets tweeked when I do that funky four points of contact thing on the bench. I wonder if Bumper will let me just lay my back down flat. I think it'll work better or at least hurt less. Either that or I'm just making excuses because bench still freaks me out. We'll see I guess.

Then our main workout, 6 upside down pushups, 10 pistol squats and a 200 yard run, as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. I did 5 rounds and 6 reps. I was doing well at first and ahead of the pack but of course Derek and Bob start rippin it on the run at about round 3. Damn it again, I've got to figure out this back thing because it just tightens up and screws me on every workout. Ah.

And freaking pistol squats are a problem too. My legs need to get stronger. Period.

But hey, I'm getting the hang of ring dips, conquered kipping pullups and am less afraid of power cleans so . . . this shouldn't be a problem either, right?

Yeah, 2011 is already a great year.

Now if I could only get paid, that would make it even better.

Rod

Shoutout to Iraq, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Greece

First off, sorry for the delay. Work has been crazy and it's getting harder to keep this blog up. But I guess that just means I'll have to make this post a good one.

That said I just took a look at Google Analytics which helps track data for my website and surprisingly I've had hits from the countries of Iraq, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Greece (as mentioned above). Don't know what they're doing here but "Hi!" Next time post a comment, I love visitors.

I've also had four visitors from Canada and 124 from the United States. We're making progress here.

So let's go over the last couple of days. Wednesday we did shoulder presses. Good stuff. It's about that time where I start putting some pounds on my overhead press. Maybe 145.

I remember once when I was lifting in my college days I saw a guy shoulder press 315 lbs. Yeah, that's right. 3-1-5. That's three 45 lbs plates (sorry to you foreigners who use the metric system) on each side.

I'm not saying that's my goal, but I'm thinking 175 lbs by the end of the year is possible.

Then we did 3 rounds of double-unders, 10 walking lunges and as many push ups as possible in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. We were judged by the total number of push ups we did. I did around 70 something. Pitiful. I should be cranking out at least a hundred of those bad boys by now. Gotta work on that too.

Then on Friday we deadlifted, and I hit a personal best of about 275 I believe. Only did six reps though and I really should be able to do more before I go any heavier.

But after the weights came a weird little workout, 3 power cleans, 6 ring dips and 9 toes to the nose lifts. The reps were low but that's because these were high degree of difficulty exercises (for me at least).

That and I hate power cleans.

HOWEVER . . . I might have to revise that statement.

I threw on 35 pound plates on each side of the bar bringing it to a total of 115 pounds to power clean. Usually I wouldn't do that but I figured three reps should be okay. I might go higher next time because they were actually kind of easy. Bumper was watching and said my form was good, or at least better than usual. Progress is good.

That and I actually managed to crank out some ring dips. Finally right? My time on the bar dips will be limited I'm sure. Kehau better watch out, I'll be taking that strongest woman title from her soon.

Speaking of Kehau, she's been ripping on me for being on my cell phone at the gym. Well girl, tell all your CO-WORKERS IN THE NEWSROOM TO STOP CALLING ME WHILE I'M AT CROSSFIT. Damn media.

Actually I'm waiting for the day that a Maui News reporter or Wendy Osher from Pacific Group Radio come and find me at Raw Fitness Maui. I'm going to allow them to quote me only if they do three rounds of 7 burpees and 7 thrusters first. Ha.

Alright gang, I've got a ton of work to do and Saturday errands to run and a Paleo diet to stick to so . . . I'll talk to you later.

And seriously, say hello on my comments page if you drop by. I used to think I wasn't getting many comments because I wasn't having many readers but now I know you're out there.

So say hi already!

Rod

I'm beat, and it's not from Crossfit

So this week was my first week trying to juggle two jobs. One at Maui County and the other at Maui College.

Today is only the second day but it feels like the fourth. Thank God for Crossfit.

I couldn't work out on Monday because . . . okay, scratch that. I DIDN'T workout because I wanted to watch the national championship game which I correctly predicted Auburn would beat Oregon.

But on Tuesday I was ready, and it was a great day to go. An 800 meter run, followed by sets of 12, 9, and 6 hang snatches and hanging pull-ups.

The hang snatches weren't bad at all, and the pull-ups were tough but I wasn't the only one having a hard time. By the time I got done with my last set of pull-ups I felt good to go on the run. I don't even think I was breathing too hard at the end.

And after the workout I took off my shirt and took some "before" pictures. We're doing a contest at Raw Fitness Maui which involves the Paleo diet. I jumped on a scale today for the first time and saw that I'm about 10 pounds lighter than I was when I started.

So here's hoping I stay the course and train hard. Because it's going to suck if my "after" pics look exactly the same.

Yeah yeah, and I'll post them up here at some point. Sheesh.

I miss my chest muscle

Today I am writing my blog from my blackberry for the first time. Why? Because I'm beat and lying down as I type.

My chest is aching where my pec tear happened. Between that and my lower back it feels good to lie down.

We were doing pushups then benching then dips. That's a lot of chest.

And my poor right side is working hard even though it's not whole. It's literally half a chest now.

Sometimes I feel bad for it, my chest that is. Making it work so hard after it was my fault that I tore it in the first place.

He's a trooper though, and we still manage to bench a decent amount, 205 today.

I wonder sometimes if it's worth it to go through surgery and reconnect my muscles.

But then I'd have months of rehab and it would be like starting Crossfit all over again.

Nah. Besides, I've still got to bench 225 20 times this year.

It's good to have goals, keeps you on track.

Say goodnight. Rod and his sore bodyparts are going to sleep.

Total. Effing. Failure.

Wow. Just wow.

Today I just couldn't do it. Today I couldn't finish the workout.

Hell I couldn't even finish the second set.

I've never given up before, not even in the beginning. But this, this was me waving the white flag.

This was my back not just giving up but giving in.

Guess I should explain.

Today the workout was four rounds of 10 overhead squats, 15 kettlebell swings and a 200 meter run.

Not bad right? I've written about worse workouts for sure.

But when I hit the run on the first round I felt my back tighten up like someone was twisting screws into the muscles around my lower spine..

Maybe it was because I got to the gym late and didn't properly warm up. Maybe it was the deadlifts beforehand. Maybe because I started my new job today and sat around more than usual. (Not that I was very active when I worked from home, I still sat around all day). Or maybe because I took a week off from the gym while my son was here last week.

Whatever the reason, when I started doing overhead squats for the second round I found that my back wouldn't bend anymore.

See, when you do overhead squats you have to put a little curve in your back in order to hold the weight up above your head right. But I couldn't bend my back at all, which meant the bar was a little more forward than it's supposed to be, meaning I was off balance, meaning there was no way to get the weight up and down without falling forward.

Damn it.

The thing is this isn't the first time I've felt this way. A while back when my brother was living with me on Oahu (like in the late 90's) we decided we were going to surf every weekend. Neither of us were "surfers" but we could go to Waikiki and longboard at least. We just wanted an excuse to take our shirts off and walk around and carry the boards like we were real surfers. (Hey, I was skinnier back then).

Anyway, it was a great idea and we were having fun, getting a workout and getting more tan. That was until my back started feeling tighter and tighter and after 2 hours of surfing I tried to stand up to catch a wave and couldn't pop up any more. You know, that "pop up" you do from the lying down position to stand up and surf. Yeah, my back like just gave out and instead of popping up I just fell forward into the water. I tried catching waves like six times after that and just couldn't do it.

Well tonight was exactly like that afternoon surfing, except it didn't take two hours for my back to give in. It only took a couple of minutes to do that first round.

Damn it damn it damn it.

I don't know what to say except I'll be back on Friday. And if my back messes with me again I will kick its ass.

Which would be weird because my back's ass is my ass. But you know what I mean.

Right?

It's been a while

About a week actually since I worked out and updated this blog.

That doesn't seem like much but missing a Crossfit workout is like aging in dog years. You gotta multiply by seven.

So since I missed 7 days it felt like I missed 49 workouts. Mainly because my favorite friends, power cleans and burpees, were on today's menu.

That and I got off the plane from Sacramento and literally just went straight to the workout. Wow. It sucked but I needed to move around after sitting in a plane for 10 hours yesterday and today.

And I definitely got to workout today. We did descending sets of power cleans while doing ascending sets of burpees. So we started out with 10 power cleans and one burpee and ended with 1 power clean and 10 burpees. Yes it did suck and I think I had a heart attack in the middle of the workout.

But I'm back baby. This year, 2011, is going to be a great year all around. I feel and look better physically already.

Now if only my hair would start growing back that would be great. Can't have everything I guess.