CrossFit Paul

I had a restless night of sleep (or what sleep I got) for the first time in as long as I can remember. The first song I heard on the radio this morning was “Blue Monday” by New Order. How appropriate. “And I still find it so hard | To say what I need to say | But I’m quite sure that you’ll tell me | Just how I should feel today”

I’m about to say what I need to say, but don’t tell me how I should feel today. You have been warned. It’s my blog, so I’ll say whatever I want to say. Now is your time to surf to another site if you so choose.

I, like most everyone (except Jeff), was obsessed with following the 2012 CrossFit Games since this past weekend. I was truly impressed by the skills and abilities of the athletes, and found myself cheering most for Kristen Clever. It was a foregone conclusion that Rich and Annie were going to win the men’s and women’s competitions, so I found the final event somewhat anticlimactic.

I also watched some of the Master’s competition, and honestly enjoyed it as much as the Opens; because I could imagine myself completing many of the workouts. I could not imagine myself doing many of the Open workouts.

I vacillate between longing to compete and having absolutely no interest in doing so. I’ve set my sights on attempting to quality for the 2014 Regionals. That gives me a year and a half to prepare. I’ll need that much (or more) time.

I made a spreadsheet listing strengths and weaknesses. For example, muscle-ups are now a strength, snatch is still a weakness, and sled push is an unknown.

Again, it’s my blog so I’ll say whatever I want to say. I’ll need to complete 2 to 3 doubles a week, and I fear that there may not be the opportunity to conveniently do so. Even if I were to do so during a regularly scheduled WOD, I fear that I’ll get in the way of my fellow CrossFitters. I am also concerned that my current box doesn’t have enough accoutrements for me to effectively prepare to compete. I need more shit, including but not limited to tires, sledgehammers, sandbags, atlas stones, etc. I may have to talk to Dave and come up with a plan where I could possibly once again coach a couple of times a week in exchange for use of CFD… I think I just did talk to Dave.

I’ll also need to find a balance between working my full-time job, having a personal life, coaching, and working out.

Whew. I’m exhausted just thinking about all of this. Maybe I should set my sights on 2015…

Strength
Low Bar Back Squat
15 minutes to work up to a heavier set of 5 than last time.

On the way to work it dawned on me that I may not be correctly increasing the weight each week in that I should probably be going heavier. I’ve only been increasing the weight by 5 pounds. I warmed up and then lifted sets of 5 reps @ 165, 175, & 180#. All lifts felt solid, including last set. Shouldn’t I be struggling? 180 is just 80% of 1RM.

Partner Glute Ham Raise
3×8

I had the honor and pleasure of partnering with Michelle this morning. Faithful readers know she’s one of my favorite CrossFitters. I most admire her positive attitude. And damn, girl, your body is rock solid!

Conditioning
“Karen”
For Time:
150 Wall Ball, 20#

I was not looking the least bit forward to this workout. To add insult to injury, by the time Michelle and I finished glute ham raises all of the 20# wall balls had been claimed. Tim was kind enough to say, “Paul, I have your wall ball. Here, you can use it.”  Tim, it may be my wall ball (yes, I have an orange 20# wall ball that I keep at CFZ), but it’s on loan to the box; thus, first come, first served. Burt, who’s always a gentleman, was kind enough to attempt to hand me an 18# wall ball. If I’m going to throw the damn wall ball 150 times, I want it to be 20#. Michael Kelley was kind enough to suggest that I go the first round, as I was likely to complete the metcon faster than some others. Again, first come, first served, and as everyone had already staked their claims to a wall ball and a location, I most certainly wasn’t going to ask them to wait.

Again, it’s my blog, so I’ll say whatever I want to. While I can’t quite describe the emotion I feel when this happens, for the time being I’ll say it’s anger. It angers me when people compare themselves to me. “Paul’s time is around 7 minutes, so that’s a good goal for you.” Really? I’m 48 years old, a whopping 5’6″, and weigh 145 pounds (when I’m soaking wet), and I’m who folks are comparing themselves to and, in essence, competing against? And don’t tell me it’s a compliment, because I’m not buying that shit. Given my past history, I know damn well that if someone beats my score, time, weight lifted, etc., they typically gloat. “I beat you, Paul! Look at how awesome I am!” Congratulations, you’re 20 to 30 years my junior, you’re 3 to 10 inches taller, and you weigh 10 to 80 pounds more than I do. If you’re a middle-aged, short, skinny male than by all means, compare yourself to me. Everyone else should aspire to beat someone comparable to themselves.

Whew, I yet once again got that off of my chest.

I began the metcon at the 12-minute mark, when most had already finished. I wiped down the wall ball that Chad had used, wrote “12” in my notebook, set the wall ball on the floor, and counted down while looking at the clock. I wanted to make sure I began with the wall ball on the floor.

My goal was to break the shots into manageable sets so as to avoid missed reps. I wore my weightlifting shoes for added stability.

My fellow 6amers were doing glute bridges as I was doing the metcon, and I was keenly aware of them the entire time. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, so I held in as many sounds as I could.

I felt like everyone was staring at, or at the very least, listening to me.

I never ever want to do this metcon solo again – unless I am the only person in the box. Michael Kelley did say, “Rest the ball on the wall. Don’t let it drop to the floor.” I wasted precious time and energy flipping him off – with both hands. My strategy was to allow the ball to drop to the floor, count down, pick up the ball, and go. I completed in reps of 25, and then 10 until I reached 130. I finished by completing in reps of between 8 and 3 — 3 being the last 3 reps. It was a miserable way to end, but again, I feared that I’d miss if I didn’t rest for a moment. Oh, and somewhere near the end I really didn’t know if I had 9 or 8 reps left, so I did 9 just to be sure.

I had a very, very difficult time keeping track of time. I know, I know, I should be able to quickly add up from 12, but I just can’t. I wasted still more precious time counting up on my fingers. “Twelve, thirteen, fourteen and sixteen. That’s three fingers. Three minutes and sixteen seconds have passed.”

Vacillate. There’s that word again. I vacillated between wanting no one to be there to wanting those that were there to provide some encouragement. Again, I would have preferred to complete this metcon along with others, so that attention was not drawn to me.

To those of you who ignored me, I thank you. To those of you who cheered for me, I thank you. To those of you who ignored me, that was rather rude of you. For those of you who cheered for me, you know me well enough to know that I didn’t want or need your encouragement.

I think my personality vacillates. True story.

I completed the metcon in a very disappointing 7:36, 6 seconds slower than my PR.

One last closing thought…

While watching the final event of the Games, Elizabeth, Isabel, and Fran for a combined score, I thought, “Dear God, now every fool is going to attempt this workout. This should truly only be done by elite athletes. Anyone who’s not a well-conditioned, fit, and strong athlete is likely to injure themselves if they attempt.”

Tags: "Karen", benchmark WOD, glute-ham raises, low-bar back squats, wall ball shots

This entry was posted on July 16, 2012 at 6:25 pm and is filed under CrossFit, Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.