Truth be told, I never really "left"... my focus since last year's Canadian Regionals has always been to get there again and perform better... but sometimes it's the pressure of the proximity of competition that fully ignites the fire.
The latter part of the summer was filled with more "fun" acitivities and a relaxed approach to training. I spent more time biking with Michelle, playing pitch and putt (with not a lot of improvement in skill...), and just having fun doing regular WODs at Crossfit Zone.
In the fall I transitioned into a strength and mobility focus... which in hindsight don't really work well together. The mobility component focuses on relaxing muscle tissue and de-tuning the nervous system whereas heavy strength work relies on just the opposite. I think I wasted a couple of months trying to achieve both but in the end did result in more hip mobility and reliable squat depth.
Also, due to lots of stresses with working a ton, I found more success with doing sessions by myself with less pressure of competition. In a later blog, I'll discuss my "stress cup" hypothesis and how that interacts with one's ability to train or just generally tolerate stress in general.
In the end through December I was able to make some decent gains on my lifts:
Press up by 15lb to 165
Deadlift up by 20-25lb to 420
Squat up by 10-15lb to 320
Bench press up by 10-15lb to 260
Most of my conditioning came in the form of the prowler sled - a big change from last year when I spent a lot of time running through the fall. The end result is that I am heavier and stronger in bigger weight metcons but less strong as a runner and probably in overall aerobic power.
This has been changing over the last few months as my running has picked up, along with adding a host of conditioning sessions each week... more on that later.
I'm going to start back in by recording my training as it happens and then add in other topics as the weeks and months pass. Here is my training this week so far:
Sunday Feb 6: 30min easy run (65% effort) - broken into chunks of 7-10min with 1-2min of stretching work. This session was from OPT's blog - more on THAT later too!
Monday Feb 7: Heavy workout at CF Zone: 4 min for as many rounds as possible of: 4 deadlifts @ 325lb, 4 muscle ups, followed by 75 pullups for time. I got 4 rounds of deadlifts but with just under a minute left couldn't get another muscle up. Also tweaked my back on the first lift but since then it has been getting better very quickly.
Tuesday Feb 8: early afternoon: 1min @90%, 1min @50% x 15 sets on airdyne (aka deathbike). Went fairly well, started off easier and finished by building significantly in the harder intervals.
evening: workout at CFZ: "Classic" - 3 rounds of: 400m run, 15 thrusters (95lb), 15 knees to elbows, finishing with a 400m run. great battle in this one with a crew of "big dawgs" out in the 630 class. I paced the first run a bit too much but could have made up time on the thrusters if I had dug in a bit more... live and learn :). In the end I had the third best time of the day with 11:37.
Wednesday Feb 9: Pretty sore all over today, going to do some mobility and work on some technique bits with the snatch.
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