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.

Jumping muscle ups and young kids

This week my son is visiting for Christmas break and my brother is here visiting as well so I wanted to make sure I had enough time today to do stuff and hit the 6 a.m. class at RFM for the first time.

I half expected it to be totally empty but man, there were like six people there not including Kristi the trainer. Guess everyone felt as gross as I did after eating a bunch of crap during the holidays.

Strength today was bench, which has been scary since the pec tear last year. Everytime I want to go heavy and push it I end up freaking out and racking the weight if I feel even the slighest bit of strain on my right side. Push-ups for me thanks, but I do want to reach that goal of 20 reps of 225 so I've got to keep trying.

Then it was time for the workout, as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of: 2 muscles ups, 4 upsidedown pushups, 8 kettleball swings and a 200 meter run. For those who don't know, the muscle ups are dips on those gymnastic rings. They are hard as hell, mainly because you have to stablize yourself while dipping. Your arms shake and it's a bitch. Plus just pulling yourself up to get in position is more than half the battle. That's why I did "jumping" muscle ups today. I tried pulling myself up from a standing position but there was no freaking way. As they say, leave your ego at the door and just do what you can do. So jumping muscle ups here I come.

To add another twist to things there were two new guys at the gym this morning, a couple of young fellas who of course went out drinking last night. Still, they were in good shape, especially one of them that looked like a local surfer. They said this was their first Crossfit workout but they were in good shape to begin with and of course I was thinking that I need to at least keep up with them.

This was not the case however, the younger surfer guy was ripping through the workout and his friend was right behind him. I did well with the first three and didn't even break a sweat until the 200 meter run. Even that wasn't bad. In fact I think I need to really increase my freaking speed on that thing. I could have easily rested while doing muscle ups and USDPU and kswings. Ahhhhhh damn it.

It's going to be one of those weeks where I hit Crossfit everyday. Hopefully for the Saturday workout too. And someone please please please give me incentive to do Paleo again. I really need it.

Light weights are good, very good

So after the brutality of the burpees yesterday, Bumper decides what we need are more squats. Wonderful.

Of course, these are overhead squats which means we get to hold the bar above our head as we go up and down. Even more wonderful. Throw in some pull-ups and it's a happy day.

Wait, did I say what our reps were? 21, 15 and 9. Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaawwwww.

I didn't mess around or act macho today, not with this workout. I threw 10's on each side of the bar and that was it. To hell with that.

Everybody else went heavier. Lori, Kehau, Oran and Luke. Once again, I did not care. I was just looking to survive the workout. Ever do 21 pullups? Unassisted pullups by the way, no rubber bands to help.

Tomorrow is our last day for Crossfit this week until after Christmas. For my gift I would like to choose my own workout. Please I'd like to do four rounds of:

10 handstand pushups, 5 L pull-ups, 10 pushups and a 400 meter run.

See? No squats whatsoever. Thank you Santa.

Whether you jump forward, back or to the side, I. Hate. Burpees.

Today I had some complications before getting to the gym. Two different reporters wanted to meet with the mayor this afternoon, one at 4 and the other at 4:20 p.m. The area was Old Wailuku town which was perfect because Raw Maui Fitness was just a couple of blocks away. I parked the car at the gym and ran to the location.

Things wrapped up nicely at 5 and I ran back, a good warm-up before the workout. I shouldn't have bothered. Bumper had it all planned out. Damn him.

We started out doing stretches and all that then he had us partner up. One of us sat on the ground and stretched out our arms. The other had to jump over the outstreched arms 10 times, then reverse and go the other way. It wasn't brutal, but it was punishing.

But see, that was just the set up. We cranked out some deadlifts then it was time for the real deal, four rounds of five power cleans and jerks followed by 10 burpees which involved us jumping sideways over our weightlifting bar instead of straight up.

You folks reading this might be confused about the workout, but that part doesn't matter. What does matter is that none of us had any leg strength for burpees anymore after that stupid jump-over-your-partner's-arms routine in the warm-up. I did one burpee and felt my legs tremble during the first round and said to myself "Ah crap."

It was brutal and punishing and turned my legs limp. I looked around and saw my fellow gym members collapsing on the ground for the burpees and then barely making it over a bar only two or three inches off the ground.

The whole clean and jerk thing was nothing. I used 115 and could have probably done 20 pounds more. Sure Bumper said I reversed curled the first set of five but after that you have to do good form. There's no other way to get that much weight up underneath your chin. But whatever, that's not the painful part. I'd rather do 50 clean and jerks in a row than 10 burpees again, especially after the jumping we did beforehand.

You know, I'd better be able to block my brother's shots if we play basketball again with all this jumping that we do. I think when he visits for Christmas I might just invite him out for a game at the park. Maybe if I swat a few shots of his I'll feel motivation to jump again.

Otherwise I'm going to continue to hate burpees.