Friday, August 10, 2012

Can't Stop me now... Diesel!!!

This week has been very busy and very hectic.  HOWEVER!  I have Smashed through some PR's and I feel like I am ON FIRE,  Like I am UNSTOPPABLE!  it's a great feeling.   everyone knows that the gym keeps you on ups and downs...  For a while you feel like you're in a slump, not performing quite like you want, then all the sudden the tables turn and a hot streak emerges!

So my week looks a little something like this, and trust me, I'll let you know which workouts and loads were busting my old PR's.

Monday
Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1
115,135,135,145,155F
Push press 3-3-3-3-3
115,125,135,145,155
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5
115,135,155,165,175 (175 x5 is a PR!)

then 5 rounds of
Snatch @ 115 x 5
OHS @ 115 x 3
 then
Max Pull ups - 41
30x Toes 2 Bar

Tuesday
15 rounds of:
power snatch immediately into 5 OHS

90,90,90,90,90
110,110,120,120,120
135,145,145,155F,145

Wednesday - Rest day (had to go out of town for the day)

thursday
Double unders
3 sets of 50 (stretch between sets for warm up)

Push jerk 5x3 @ 135#
Split Jerk 5x3 @ 135#
Push jerk 5x2 @ 176#
Split Jerk 6x2 @ 176#

Double unders
5 sets of 25 (stretch between sets)

Friday
OHS 1-1-1-1-1
155,165,175,185,198(NEW PR, SMASHED THE OLD 190# PR LIKE A BOSS!!)
Front SQT 1-1-1-1-1
220,230,240,250-255
Back SQT 1-1-1-1-1
265-265-275-275-285

So,  Ive been working hard and eating right, gained about 8 pounds in the past few weeks(and it aint fat)  And even though Ive been training for a pretty good while.  seeing hard work pay off is the motivator of all motivators!!  My Over Head Squat PR of 190 was from just a few weeks ago, and today I smashed it by OHSing 198.  Everyone around me could tell i had busted a PR  as soon as locked out and threw the weight to the ground, jumping around and doing some sort of ridiculous "victory dance".
Ok, thats fun and all, but really it comes down to this.  Measurable progress is what its all about.  keeping track of loads, times, rounds complete or what ever it may be, and then "retesting" at a later date to compare the results, and when the result is in the positive, well it just feels good to see hard work pay off.

How do you track/measure your progress?  What is your motivator?  How long can this "Hot streak" stay HOT??

Maintaining a sufficient carb intake (enough for fuel and recovery, but not so much that it promotes storage for fats), high protein intake, and a recently introduced higher caloric intake(I found that I was not taking in enough calories daily to build, I was barely taking in enough to maintain and recover)
This has been my most recent "trial by paleo" and so far so good!!!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Destruction!

So, me and my guys were out in the field training Wednesday morning through Thursday afternoon.  We did the normal AM training session Wednesday before leaving for the training area, and I was able to make it to the gym Thursday afternoon, as well as one good AM training session today (Friday) which leads into the weekend rest days. (No PM training today unfortunately.  I had shit to do.)

So It looked like this...

Wednesday AM- "CrossFit DESTRUCTION"
and holy shit  was the name right on the money...
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 45 minutes of:
2x 25ft rope ascent
25 chest to ground push ups
run 800m

You'd think this one wouldn't be quite so bad...   yea right. I started off strong and then it hit me like a freaking brick wall.
8 complete rounds + 2 rope ascents + 25 chest to ground push ups.( there was 5 seconds left at this point and I didn't even make an attempt to start into an 800m run.

Thursday PM training -
Clean and Jerk
3-3-3-3-3 (For 3 rep max)
135#,155#,175#,175#,180#
then
muscle up improvement
5 sets of 5 with minimal rest between sets, just enough rest to maintain unbroken sets

Friday AM Training - "Gumby Legs"
10 rounds of:
10 Overhead squats
then immediately
loaded sled push 25m down and back
(this workout is done with a partner or with two partners, first athlete does one round and second athlete begins overhead squats when first athlete returns with the sled.)
*My freakin legs are DONE!!!  but I like it!

Diet:  I'm going to start talking about diet on a weekly basis as opposed to a daily basis.  I feel that micro managing each individual meal is too much pin pointing and too picky, I think looking at a week as a whole is going to be a much better control measure in maintaining as strict of a paleo performance diet as possible (for my level of nutritional knowledge, which i would say is moderate at most).

So this past week my diet has pretty good, considering the time we spent in the field training, where there is only one option and that option is to eat what is available (MREs, Hot chow that is brought out at meal times) and neither of these provide a paleo friendly menu. However they DO provide one with fuel for high work out put, just not really the type of fuel I (or any athlete or paleo follower) would prefer.  Its high calorie, high card, high sodium chow that isn't made to taste too great but is made to keep you going for the work being done, long, low intensity movements that lead to short, high intensity periods, followed once again by long low intensity movements.
Chili Mac, MREs, corn and Lima beans, chicken cordon-blue, just a few examples of typical field chow.

But other than the field days, I managed to maintain a relatively strict paleo performance diet, with my recently increase calorie intake, slightly increased card intake (not too much though) and consistent protein intake.  I've been feeling pretty good this week.  looking forward to next week.  Hard at it once again!

"How can you expect others to be confident in you, if you aren't confident in yourself?"