Run Lift Row

Taranis 3D

2011-11-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Friday November 4th marked the beginning of the third annual Taranis Winter Challenge, a competition which has grown in popularity and competitiveness since the first edition back in 2009. This was my third TWC, making me one of the few individuals who have competed in all three (I know Alicia Connors has also... maybe Ian and Maren Chapman as well?).

From humble beginnings (there were only 9 of us and three events in the Advanced Men's division in 2009) the Taranis crew of Dan, Reed, and Chris have sculpted a multi-day, innovative and comprehensive competition that this year catered to 59 individual men and 31 women, in addition to 20 (?) teams.

The multi-day format brought forth a number of different options - namely being able to test more components of fitness while allowing for more time between events. This format also mimics the Regionals setup and is an important part of any athletes' prep for those bigger comps. Practicing one's recovery and regeneration both immediately after events and overnight as well as learning how to deal with the stress of the environment are both highly beneficial.

By creating 6 events that expanded to 9 scoring opportunities, the TWC crew put out a pretty comprehensive test of both skill and fitness. A competitor who comes out on top after that number of opportunities is arguably better able to claim the "fittest" title than if there were only 3 events. By allowing for self-selecting of weights for the max snatch and front squat widowmaker, the TWC crew managed to reward the strongest while not punishing those athletes who were a bit lower on the strength scale.

I think my favorite events were the 5k run and the kb pulley/thruster wods. To me, running is a fundamental fitness skill and is about as primal as you can get. I relish the opportunity to get "outside the box" and this run was great - rolling hills and a tailwind/headwind made for a great challenge and measure of aerobic power.

The pulley-thruster was a brilliant combo and it was all about just doing work... as evidenced by some of the "working man" competitors (John Langard and Ian Chapman) doing very well. The pulley and rope have formed the foundation of many of humankind's greatest architectural achievements so the use of these implements really pleased my nerdy mind. Definitely myself and others were frustrated by decaying grip strength through the wod but it can be easily claimed that grip strength endurance is an important fitness component.

I also liked the revealing of the wods 1 by 1. Psychologically it was easier not knowing what was coming up and really, as crossfitters we should be prepared for anything!

I wouldn't have minded seeing another longer wod pop up somewhere and I do feel that the shoulders were beaten down a bit too much over the wods but I cannot fault the ingenuity and effort of the TWC team, amazing work all round.

I will close by saying that this is an event NOT to be missed... Even if you are in "offseason" shape, the TWC is a great learning experience, tune-up event, test of fitness, and chance to crush wods with some really great people.

I for one will definitely be back for my 4th TWC next year.

Thanks for the great weekend!

Cam

Notes on Training Intensity - Part 3: Submaximal Weight Training

2011-08-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

It is a well known fact that once an athlete has progressed to a reasonable level of strength, maximal strength levels can only be improved by lifting heavy weights (>80%1RM). Beginners and early intermediate strength trainers can see improvements with much lower percentages due to the novelty of the stimulus for their body. Once someone has passed that early development stage, training with moderate weights (50-70% 1RM) may allow them to maintain their strength in the short term but not improve it. Continued training at these lower percentages will soon result in a loss of strength.

So what value then would submaximal weight training offer for experienced individuals looking to improve maximal strength? It would at first seem like not much, especially if by nature the weights would be quite a bit below the 80% threshold. My belief is that although submax weights won’t directly make you stronger, they will provide the structural and technical foundation necessary to maximize strength work performed later. This will occur primarily through allowing a high volume of work to be done, which has the following (potential) benefits:

1. Psychological and physiological break from high intensity work

2. Preparation of connective tissues, muscles, and bone for heavier weight training

3. Increased contractile mass

4. Possible technical improvements

The first point is self – explanatory: any type of training will become psychologically and physiologically monotonous if practiced for a long enough duration. This represents a drop in the stimulus to adapt and also in motivation to push towards the same type of goal. Vladimir Zatsiorsky, in his landmark text “Science and Practice of Strength Training” suggests that training stimuli should be adjusted before they become stale in order to maximize adaptive response. By switching from high load, low volume work to moderate load, high volume sessions, the physiology and psychology of the athlete are stimulated.

Inherent to lifting weights in the 80%+range are large forces throughout the system with relatively little blood flow increases. There are certain people who can tolerate these stresses in perpetuity and have no issues however I believe most athletes and especially older athletes can benefit from a break from lifting heavy weights.

High volumes of work are associated with larger changes in blood flow to muscles, creating a more efficient network for delivering nutrients and extracting waste products. Connective tissue properties change with the type of work they are exposed to, with submaximal volume loading being associated with an increased elasticity of tendons and ligaments. These properties will lend themselves well to high load lifting by strengthening the platform the muscles have to operate from.

Hypertrophy (increase in contractile mass) of muscle tissue is typically achieved not through maximal weight loading but through submaximal weights lifted many times. The goal is essentially to maximize muscle protein breakdown by a balance of load and volume. In most literature (Zatsiorsky’s included), the range of repetitions given for maximal muscle size gain is between 6 and 10, corresponding to approximately 65-75%1RM. However there are multiple other programs out there, such as the popular German Volume Training that rely on lower percentages of 1RM and higher volumes of work for increasing contractile mass.

For all individuals, increasing muscle cross sectional area results in a greater potential for muscular strength. This potential must be realized through appropriate (high intensity) training however creating a better starting point through submax work is a reasonable goal. For CrossFit in particular, unless an individual is quite large already (i.e. average height and in the 200lb+ range), most could benefit from having more contractile units to engage.

*Note: like all things in strength training, this is not a new concept… Charles Poliquin has been a long standing advocate of accumulation-intensification (building potential – converting potential) and this idea has been in Eastern Bloc theory for at least 40 years.*

Much like rhythmical submaximal running, using higher rep sets with moderate load can help embed consistency of technique through multiple repetitions. In CrossFit terms, this might lead to an increased ability to hold form with fatigue – enhancing the ability to deliver more reps faster towards the end of a WOD. For novice and intermediates whose form deviates from rep to rep, allowing a large amount of practice without having to deal with a heavy load would be very beneficial.

Lifting weights is a skill, and admittedly lifting heavy weights is a different skill than lifting light weights although there is obviously some crossover. Training submaximally in the back squat for example involves the same muscle groups, positioning, and sequence of movement as performing heavy sets in the same movement.

Keep in mind that I am not suggesting continually training at submax effort for months at a time, as that would necessitate to long a departure from heavy load adaptations. What I am suggesting is that submaximal weight training can have several benefits that will enhance strength development when that becomes the primary focus.

In the next part of the series, I’ll discuss what submaximal weight training looks like and how repetitions, load, and sets combine to create a volume stimulus.

Notes on Training Intensity - Part 2: The Value of Submaximal Work?

2011-08-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

A lot of my recent reading has been in the area of training for middle distance running. I find these races (800-1600, even up to 3 and 5k) intriguing for their combination of both raw speed and incredible stamina. It is very hard (maybe impossible?) to find a successful middle distance running coach who doesn’t employ a large volume of submaximal work in their program, and for good reason.

The value of submaximal work for middle distance running is threefold:

1. It creates a solid platform of aerobic adaptation

2. It conditions bones, connective, and muscle tissues to deal with the stresses of high and low velocity running

3. It re-sets the body to a calmer state in between bouts of high intensity work

Aerobic adaptation for runners is one of the Holy Grails (the other is of course speed) and there is no better way to develop it than high volumes of work. Various programs will disagree (such as CrossFit Endurance) but those are programs that – a. have not been tested in the long term, b. have not shown to be effective at the highest level of performance, or c. involve individuals who already have a massive training base from years and years of higher volume work. Developing the aerobic system enables the athlete to perform a higher volume and greater quality of intensity work later in the year, leading to more performance potential.

Conditioning the structures of the body through lower intensity work also makes sense – we get a stimulus for adaptation that is (if progressively applied) gentler than if we were to utilize high intensity methods right off the bat. Hundreds and thousands of repetitions condition and perfuse tissues (increased blood flow through capillary formation), creating a stronger platform that is faster to recover.

Lastly, the calming effect of “easy” work is often underestimated. Easy work is typically more enjoyable and less stressful on both body and mind than high intensity work, which is by nature uncomfortable. Two of the most restorative training sessions one can participate in are an easy session of trail running or a relaxing swimming session. Research suggests that the nervous system benefits from this type of session through a relaxing of the nervous system and re-setting of the body to a homeostatic state (versus a body that is in a continual state of stress-adaptation).

Surely it makes sense for running, but what about CrossFit? Well, since many CrossFit events are in the 2 – 10 minute range (i.e. running 800 – 3k), I think the concepts of training for middle distance runners are directly applicable to our sport also. Of course, we have the necessity of not only having to develop the energy system pathways but also high levels of connective tissue and muscular strength – so our submaximal base work should contain two components – submaximal aerobic and submaximal weight training.

In Part 3, I'll look at submaximal weight training and the potential benefits it can have for CrossFit and other sport athletes.

Notes on Training Intensity – Part 1: High Intensity all the Time?

2011-08-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is part 1 of (potentially) a 3 or 4 part blog series. Read and enjoy, feel free to comment!

There are a lot of simple statements about training that just make sense. They tend to get overlooked by virtue of their simplicity and logic – overshadowed by more outrageous claims and marketing hype. The truth is that if you can keep your training philosophies as simple as possible, you will progress. In this blog I’m going to discuss training intensity, and by “intensity” I am referring to the level of effort/discomfort/stress of a training session. In support, I will supply two basic statements that if followed, will provide the guidance to higher and higher levels of physical fitness.

1. You can’t train high intensity all the time

2. Never underestimate the value of submaximal training

I’m sure to some of my CrossFit crew the first statement might seem like sacrilege, but give me a shot and I think I’ll convince you that I’m on the right side of the law. For those of you involved in other forms of training for sport, these concepts will resonate immediately.

Firstly, here are my observations of what happens to people who train to maximum (or close to maximum) too regularly:

1. They experience massive initial gains (GOOD – sort of)
2. After 3 months to a year they start to accumulate muscle and joint pain
3. They begin to get nagging injuries
4. Their “maximum” effort becomes, over time, a lower and lower percentage of their actual maximum capability
5. They burn out

So what exactly is happening here? Definitely the process of training to maximum is a powerful stimulus for adaptation – hence the very rapid gains in strength and overall fitness we often see in programs like CrossFit. Depending on the initial fitness level of the individual who starts such a program, they may progress very well for up to ~2years following a high intensity training program (generally, the lower the initial fitness level, the longer the person will progress in this system). After that point, there is a stagnation and then regression in performance and ability to tolerate high intensity work (increase in injury and symptoms of overtraining). For some individuals, this process may only take 6 months and is also dependent on the frequency and structure of the training they are performing (i.e. Crossfit.com versus a more progressive plan).

The main issue for both performance and overall body health is that by nature, high intensity work is low volume. Low volume work (either high or low intensity) does not inherently provide enough of a base level of development from which to progress from. High intensity work exposes muscles, joints, and connective tissues to aggressive stresses repeatedly – stresses that those tissues are not adequately prepared to deal with.

High intensity work is also high stress. This has both physiological and psychological impacts. Physiologically, too much intensity leads to a pervading environment of stress on your both your nervous and musculoskeletal systems. This stress leads to excessive muscular tension and alters hormone balance. Psychologically, high intensity is a fatiguing objective to obtain at every session, and can lead to lower interest in training and less motivation to push harder when the workout requires it.

These factors combine to create the situation I outlined above – “high intensity” becomes “moderately high intensity” over time by virtue of the inability of the body and mind to support true high intensity work. The fallacy is that the individual who is undergoing this performance decay will feel that they are executing at maximum output when in actual fact they are well below their potential.

In part 2, I'll discuss the value of submaximal training in support of high intensity activity. Comments, retorts, and questions are welcome!

Day 1 from the Games... Quick Update!

2011-07-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Short update from Day 1 at the HDC…

The day dawned chilly as fans and athletes gathered by the iconic Santa Monica Pier for individual event 1. A massive crowd gathered but was eerily silent as the heroes of our community gathered facing the Pacific ocean. The men lead off, and were fortunate to avoid the heavy breaks that battered the women 90 minutes afterwards. Both women and men were pushed to the limit in a WOD that extended into the 40-50min plus range. 14 hours later, three individual events were in the books, the temperature had shifted by about 20 degrees and back again, and the Zone crew were exhausted but in high spirits.

The reason: our very own Lucas “Scoots” Parker sits in 22nd position after battling with the top names in the Crossfit world. It was an amazing sight to see him trot out with a bunch of excessively lean mesomorphic robots for WOD 1… and put in some awesome performances in events 2 and 3. One of Lucas’ best assets is that his fitness and strength seem to be adaptable to almost any circumstance – testament to his excellent preparation – which serves him well in a contest format in which there are more unknowns than knowns.

At the end of Day 1, a 21 year old (but 3 year Games veteran) Ben Smith, sits in first, with Rich Froning and Chris Spealler in close pursuit after some incredible finishes in the rope climb - clean and jerk WOD. Unfortunately one of the favorites for the title, Mikko Salo, ruptured an ear drum when he was kicked in the head during the WOD 1 swim. Like a true champion, he finished the event, but looked very ragged on the last run as Scoots passed him. He is apparently doing okay now that he has been fully checked out by the medical staff.

Three other athletes have recieved DNF’s – all by way of the open-water swim difficulties – but have been allowed to continue to participate while not recieving points.

The venue is amazing, the crowd is great, and our Zoner crew is doing its best to support our boy and our buddies from Taranis. It will be an early start tomorrow morning again but we’re all looking forward to what the day will hold.

Hope you all are able to access the live feed and enjoy getting together at the gym to check it out – should be fun!

Remember – keep fit and have fun!

Cam

PS. I touched Chris Spealler’s shoulder!!! OMG.

Getting "published"

2011-07-19T23:18:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

So part of my “day job” is to help provide educational opportunities for high performance sport coaches through provincial (NCI-BC) and national directives. As part of fulfilling those duties I wrote an article on designing interval training circuits for targeted performance goals… and it’s finally been published. The HP Sircuit is an online magazine directed at high performance coaches in Canada and is sponsored in part by Own the Podium (OTP). It’s got a pretty neat layout with interactive videos and features (some of you may recognize Dana Agar-Newman from PISE and the weightlifting group that used to train at the Zone in the videos).

Take a peek at it online here: http://issuu.com/sirc/docs/hp-spring-2011

It’s a fairly basic rundown of the process of creating circuits but it gives a step-by-step process towards understanding each component and how to put them together.

Thoughts, comments, and questions are welcomed.

Cam

Back at it...

2011-02-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Every second, repetition, and pound counts!

2010-06-02T00:19:00.001-07:00

the Zone team in Okotoks on Day 1

Hello all,

I'm back from the Canadian CrossFit Regional Championship. It was an epic challenge of both my physical and mental strength and a weekend I will remember forever. I faced some very tough workouts, made many new friends, and shared triumphs and tragedies with the Zone crew and the other competitors. While happy that I gave 100% effort and finished strongly, I'm not satisfied with the result and know that I can perform at a higher level. I placed 34th in the end out of about 55 athletes (only 52 made it through to the end), an improvement over my finish at the BC's and ahead of some very legit Crossfitters. I'll write a more in-depth review soon with pics of the competition, there are many stories to share :)

Thanks everyone for your support leading up to and during the championship - I appreciate it immensely and it is through the strength of that support that I am able to achieve great things.

Here's a blog that I wrote for our crossfitzone.ca website about the importance of seconds, reps, and pounds in daily crossfit workouts and in the context of competition.

Enjoy,

Cam

Every second, every repetition, and every pound, counts!

“Every second counts” is a familiar saying in CrossFit since so many of our workouts revolve around achieving a best time. Some workouts are scored by weight achieved or repetitions performed, so one could say that every second, pound, and repetition count. They count because our workouts are competition – CrossFit is the sport of fitness and your score for the day reflects your ability to display your fitness through performing work recorded by time, weight, or repetitions.

Your score is compared to the last time you did a given workout, to the performance of your peers on that day, and against our online and in-gym top 5 times. Humans are by nature competitive and will strive to improve with the motivation of beating one’s best or the best of others. Many improvements you see in your times will come in the form of seconds rather than minutes and the more you progress, the more this becomes the case. With our online and in-gym leaderboards a few seconds, reps, or pounds are all that separate 1st from 5th and from 5th to 10th.

Time is lost easily – it accumulates all too readily with extra breaks between repetitions or exercises or when you hit the wall after going too hard at the start. Pounds are often elusive in that for some exercises, a 5 pound improvement may take a few months or more to gain. Repetitions are earned by hard effort towards the end of workouts when body and mind revolt against picking up static barbells.

The recent Canadian Crossfit Regional championship provides a good example of the power of reps, time, and weight in deciding the success of a competitor. With athletes from across Canada having to qualify to attend the competition, the quality of the competitors was assured and the variance in ability quite narrow. The fact that athletes were competing towards a spot at the Crossfit Games added to the push for points and placings, further drawing fine lines between competitors.
Here are a few examples of how much seconds and weight mattered over the past weekend.

In the women’s competition of 46 athletes,
• In the final event (Tire flip - clean and jerk – run workout) 10 seconds was enough to go from 7th to 4th and 11 seconds would have taken a competitor from 33rd to 28th. In a workout of 14 minutes duration, this is the difference of running slightly faster or performing two reps quicker.
• In the double under-burpee event, 20 seconds separated 18th place from 11th place and 1 second was the difference between 1st and 2nd.
• In the snatch event, a 5 pound increase (from 95 to 100lb) would have taken a competitor from tied for 20th (with 12 other athletes) to tied for 15th.

In the men’s competition of 52 athletes,
• A 10lb increase in the snatch weight (from 155 to 165lb) represented the difference between being tied for 30th and tied for 20th spot.
• In the wallball-pullup event, 5 consecutive competitors had times separated by just ONE second (13:12, 13:13, 13:14, 13:15, 13:16 – representing the difference between 33rd and 37th place). At the top, the difference between 9th place and 5th place was only 9 seconds.
• In the double under-burpee event, the difference between 5th and 20th place was a mere 23 seconds.

Keeping in mind that every placing in each event was worth an equivalent amount of points (i.e. 33rd place = 33 points), each second and pound possessed huge value to the competitors. Many final placings for athletes were determined by a spread of 3 or fewer points, so 1 second here or there and an extra 5 pounds could have represented the difference between a chance to compete at the Crossfit Games and going back home to plan for next year.

Effort is a part of our training plan – it’s a given factor by nature of the way we train. Rewarding that effort comes in the form of improvements over time in one’s performance as measured by the metrics of the workout. Seconds count. Repetitions count. Weight counts.

Experience with different types of workouts and efficiency of technique help you secure precious points towards your score. Effective pacing and strategy can help you improve your score by governing effort and directing it in the most energy-efficient manner. Solid technique at the start of the workout minimizes unnecessary energy expenditure and holding it through the WOD maximizes your potential for adding important reps under the duress of fatigue.

Keep in mind these points in your next workout as you try to achieve your best performance. Celebrate the winning of seconds, reps, and weight, no matter how small the improvements... because as you now know, they ALL count!

Bring it on!

2010-05-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

Once again playing catch up here with documenting my training but today is sort of like the Christmas eve before Christmas eve... well, read on and it'll make more sense.

The Canadian Regional Crossfit champs are one of the final two opportunities to qualify for this year's Crossfit games. Qualifiers have taken place through Asia, Europe, south america, Africa, and through various regions in the States to select the competitor group thus far.

As the competitions have unfolded, crazy workouts performed, amazing scores recorded, and many many inspirational stories told, the nerves have ramped up for those of us waiting to compete this weekend. It will be a test of all our physical skills over 5 events starting Friday evening and running through til Sunday evening.

What will the exact workouts be??? No competitor knows at this point. With Friday looming three days away, not a word has been spoken about the content of the challenges except that skipping ropes will be provided. The workouts are scheduled to be released tomorrow, which I'm sure will result in most of the competitors repeatedly refreshing the crossfitgames.com mainpage on a 30second rotation until they pop up. That's why today is like Christmas eve - the anticipation of the challenges, triumphs, and tragedies that will surely emerge from the hardest of workouts bubbles and tingles on our nerves. It will surely interrupt several sleep cycles tonight.

Rest assured, these will be tough challenges. The "wide funnel" that was the sectional competitions has narrowed significantly in order to filter through only the most complete crossfit athletes out there. Expect the hardest of exercises - overhead squats, muscle ups, squat snatches, rowing, running, handstand pushups etc etc, and the most devilish of combinations. Expect it to be smartly organized though - different time domains will be tested from very short, maximum force output to longer duration, aerobic power efforts. Expect the unexpected also, as it is very unlikely that any of us will have done the specific challenges that will be laid out before us this weekend.

It will all unfold tomorrow, as the genius programming mind of James "OPT" Fitzgerald (winner of 2007 games and top 16 in 2008 and 2009) reveals the workouts. I await the challenge, and look forward to challenging the hardest of tasks. Let no one's weaknesses go unchallenged, no one's strengths left to submaximal efforts.

Give me the hard stuff. Bring it on.

Training Update:

Friday May 21 - CFZ – “Gandalf” – rounds begin every 4 min – 4 rounds of row 250m, 6 c+j (135lb) then 4 rounds of row 250m, 15 wallballs. Combine worst time for each for score (1:20, 1:25, 1:31, 1:33 then 1:30, 1:37, 1:43, 1:40) = 1:33 + 1:43 = 3:13. Rowed too hard, gassed for the second bit :( learned from this one though about pacing, will have to look hard at this in workouts this weekend - how fast can I go to not lose ground but also conserve energy for the other challenges!

Saturday May 22 - Wts @ uvic – squat snatch – 40x3 , 50x3, 60kg x 2. 60kg x 1 rep every 30s for 6 total reps. Deadlift 2’s – 100, 120, 150, 160kg (352lb) then 100kg x 6 fast, 130kg x 2, 100kgx6 fast
Push Press 3’s – 115, 165, 185lb then 165x 6, 165x6
Circuit – 15ghd situps, 20 double unders unbroken, 10 pullups x 4 rounds untimed - this was a good circuit to push my tolerance of ghd situps and to get some practice in on the double unders. Calf felt good after this which is a good sign!

Sunday May 23 - took a day off, was going to run but decided against it, body needed a rest day!

Monday May 24 - CFZ – cl+J 5x1 (185, 195, 205, 215, 215lb), felt good, jerks were really strong. back squat 4x3 ( 225, 245, 245, 225lb) didn't feel so good today, Half Fran (9-7-5 thrusters at 95lb, pullups) time - 1:17, thrusters a bit wonky. Muscle ups – 4 x 4 reps, pull-ups – 23 reps

Run Uvic – 7 x 1 min fast/1-2 min walk/jog. This was my first real attempt to run fast, started strongly and maintained pace well in the minute intervals. Fitness felt fine, no problems there but calf tightened towards the end. Quite sore (6-7/10) today (Tuesday), not happy about that. Hoping for no real "sprint" stuff in the wods or I could be in trouble as i can't run very strongly off my right leg...

Tuesday (today), a bit sore from yesterday in the hamstrings and upper body, hoping to hit the UVic gym in a bit to get some deadlifts, rowing, and skill practice in!

Another update tomorrow with the details of the competition!!!

Cam

Finding Inspiration

2010-05-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

At the right time, in the right place. Motivation to train consistently hard and to endure physical discomfort oscillates on 2-3 week periods for me. I wrote previously about how a "why bother" mood had come over me about a week and a half ago and how that affected my training and general mindset going into the Regionals.

Setting a good PR in the Grace workout bumped me up from bottom but a couple of pieces of media really stepped up my motivation to finish off this phase of training and go into the Regionals fired up and ready to take on any challenge.

The first is a video of a runner from the States who sets the American 10k record on the track on his debut at that distance. The announcers and music set the tone of the importance and excitement of the occasion but don't overshadow the amazing running of Chris Solinsky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbaj2-_VNMs&feature=player_embedded

To keep that run in perspective, that is 25 laps of the track, averaging around 64 sec per lap and finishing with about a 55sec lap. Very very few people can run a single 55 sec lap, let alone do one after 24 consecutive 64sec laps.

The opportunity presented itself to Chris and he took it wholeheartedly, allowing himself to be excellent. He could have held back, thought "I can't do this in my debut race" or "I'm not supposed to win", but he didn't. He felt the push to go and trusted his body to carry him into the record books.

Just like the first sub 4-minute mile, preconceived notions of what is physically capable can be shattered by the will to seize the moment and remove mental limitations.

The other video is from a recent Crossfit regional competition. It's of the women's competition, from which 4 competitors will advance to the international Crossfit games. The video follows their triumphs and downfalls but is culminated in another display of absolute mind-over-matter power.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/video/Games2010_NorthCentralWomen.mov
OR
http://library.crossfit.com/free/video/Games2010_NorthCentralWomen.wmv"

Again, an individual who looks to be in a challenge over her head does not give up and perseveres against a very tough workout. She could have given up and no one would have blamed her but she chose to be excellent. She chose to show everyone at that competition that size is not a barrier and strength is not dependent on outward appearance.

Seeing both of these stories unfold has renewed my drive and refreshed my view of the upcoming competition. Instead of looking at it as a forum for me to be beaten by guys who are "better than me", I look at it as an opportunity for me to show myself what I am truly capable of. I look towards next week with optimistic eyes and a confidence that no matter what the challenges are that lay ahead, I will complete them to the best of my ability.

At the end of the day, we have a choice to be average, to be afraid, to not accept challenges OR we have the choice to believe in ourselves, push beyond comfort zones, and create situations in which we can be excellent.

9 days til "go time".

Training update:

Monday - Run @ PISE – run flats/ downhills @ 10k pace, walk uphills ~ 20 mins, felt pretty good all things considered

CFZ – OHS 5x3: 75, 105, 125, 145, 155 PR! “the Rabbit” (second go at this one) – 5 x 400m row, 15 burpees, 12:17 PR!

Tuesday - CFZ – “Jordan”
4 rounds for individual time of each round. Each successive round starting on 4 minute intervals. rounds consisted of: x 10 hang squat snatch (95lb) and 15 pullups – times were: 50s, 49s, 55, 56, all sets unbroken

Wednesday - Recovery Run - ran flats and downhills @ 5k pace, walk uphills x 25min. Calves a bit tight but felt pretty good, worked on reliability of stride.

Weights tomorrow and some rowing, then down to 7 days til competition! WODs will most likely be announced this coming Sunday.

Keep fit and have (the) fun!

Cam

Run in with Ronin and a few PR's

2010-05-16T22:46:00.001-07:00

Lucas and one of his friends having a discussion

Michelle and I at "the wedding"

Last week was a tough one. Four early mornings (either 530 or 6am wakeup) and full days all the way through til closing the zone at 730/8pm, as well as trying to get through my last true "hard week" before the Canadian champs. That on top of a few stressful things at work made me really happy that I reached Saturday afternoon relatively unscathed and with a few new PR's in my back pocket :)

I think that the forced break I've had from running is making me gain strength more easily, which makes sense - less time spent on low force high volume activity in favor of high force lower volume activity. Looking forward to next year's plan I will be mapping out sections during the year to focus on strength development with maintenance running so that I can maximize my gains. It's brutally hard to gain in all areas at once but if focused work is put in on one or two areas while others are maintained, one could reasonably expect better overall gains through the year... this is of course the idea behind periodization (i.e. the planned organization of training in a progressive manner aimed at developing peak performance during certain phases of the year) and more and more CrossFit athletes appear to be adopting this strategy as the focus on elite competitions increases.

Anyhow, that's probably a topic for another blog, so on to my update of my recent training.

Run in with Ronin

"Ronin" is one of the nicknames of our Crossfit prodigy, Lucas. His other names are Scoots (for his fondness of scooting his body around on a foam/pvc roller), little monkey (for his simian abilities), and my favorite, pumpkin (for his charming demeanor and orangey fur). As I've taken to naming workouts after people in our gym or experiences that I've had, it was only appropriate that I develop a nasty, heavy WOD in honor of Lucas.

Vital components of such a workout would have to be two of the most feared components of wods - heavy thrusters and muscle ups. Lucas excels in both strength work and gymnastics so this was a perfect fit. In most Crossfit workouts, the standard men's thruster weight is 95lb, occasionally going up to 115 or 135 for the heavier ones. I figured this wasn't heavy enough to challenge Lucas, so I made the thruster weight 155lb. Muscle ups are tough but usually most good CF male athletes can rattle off 3-5 in a row during a WOD. Again, this wasn't quite challenging enough and so I decided to have 7 muscle ups per round to test Lucas' ability (and everyone else's of course) to go unbroken. So the full workout ended up looking like this:

"Ronin"
4 rounds for time of:
7 thrusters at 155lb (115lb for the women)
7 muscle ups (14 chest to bar pullups for the women)

One of our best all round CF athletes, Tom, trains early in the day and gave the rest of us a benchmark time (15:58 or so) to chase in the evening. I was highly motivated for this workout and figured on around 12 minutes or hopefully better. I hit the workout in the 430 class alongside a real raw beast, Shane, who will probably be top 4 in our gym if he continues to develop his skills. The workout was tough to say the least, I got to a point several times where I just couldn't complete thrusters or muscle ups but managed to rest appropriately and finish with a decent time - 12:27 or so. My shoulders and legs were rubbished but I was happy with my performance. In competition circumstances I figure I could knock about a minute and a half off that time. Shane did really well finishing in 15 or 16 min.

Lucas popped in later, with all of us anticipating his destruction of his namesake wod. he came in tired and sore from a heavy session earlier that day but after about 45min of "scooting" he plucked up his chest and got into the workout. Set after set came unbroken as Lucas rested perfectly in between thrusters and muscle ups. Towards the end he had to break a bit but we urged him on to get sub 10 minutes. with a few muscle ups to go it looked like he would make it but just missed, finishing around 10:15. A tremendous effort and well worthy of the name Ronin.

I'm looking forward to seeing Lucas and the rest of our gang take on the best in Canada at the Canadian Championships. Lucas has got his training dialed in and is looking good in WODs (no pressure pumpkin if you're reading this!) and the rest of us are well prepped to compete strongly in Okotoks in about 10 days. Should be a great time.

Here's the rundown of the rest of the training I got in this past week:

Wed - "Ronin” – 4 rounds for time of: 7 thrusters (155), 7 muscle ups – 12:27
this wasn't quite fatiguing enough ( ;) ) so after a break of about 10 min I followed it up with some hard rowing - (W/R) – 2/1, 1/1, 2/1, 1/1, 2/1 (1:45ish), 4x 1/1 1:40ish

Thurs - my first venture back into running - very cautious, but felt good - Light run: 50m flat or downhill jog, 100m walk for 20min (10k pace)

Fri - 2 PR's today - first workout at PISE - Wts: snatch 3’s + 1 snatch balance: 30, 40, 50, 60kg. Snatch: 60kg (132lb) x 11 single reps. Deadlifts 3’s: 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170kg (374lb) PR really happy with this as I don't deadlift heavy very much!

2nd workout at CFZ - really tough metcon, meant to work on some key skills (handstand pushups - hspu; toes to bar - ttb; heavy kettlebell swings - kbs) and my second go at running at a moderate pace. This wod was named after Heather B's dog, who is a stunning and friendly beast - Tupper: 4 x 10hspu, 15 ttb, 20kbs (unbrkn, 2pd/70lb), 200m run: 18: 56 tough! first set of handstand pushups were strict and a full 10 reps - a PR by 1 rep, but I'll take it!!

Sat - rested, really tired Fri night and all Saturday

Sun - 1st workout at UVic, another personal record! - Wts – cl+j to dmax: 80kg, 90, 100, 105 PB C+J PR!, 85kg x 1 cl, 2 jerks x 5. Bench Press – 3’s 165, 185, 205, 215, 225 x 1 x 4. Back Squats – 3’s 185, 225, 245, 265, 275 x 1 x 4
GHD situps – 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 alternated with 20 du’s, good to test the calf, it feels really good so far :)

2nd workout - 1.5 hour mtb ride at Hartland, forgot my seat, so it was tough! Lots of little lizards scurrying around, all nicely colored and a very beautiful black and yellow garter snake, about 12-14" long. Pretty neat.

That's it for now, another more serious run workout tomorrow morning and a rowing/burpee metcon at the zone in the PM.

Cam

Some Pics from the BC's

2010-05-13T13:26:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd post some pics from the championship, I like to look at them from time to time to get myself psyched for the upcoming Regionals... sometimes I remember the pain though :( haha.

405 deadlift

the Zone team

running with that fricking ball :(

my friend Christoph leading the run

Deanna mid-clean

Lucas big squat

Friend/old rugby foe Garth limbering up

Big Jer dropping 415 (after he lifted it!!)

Krista swinging a KB like it's nothing ;)

in the mix

another one of the gang

Heather swinging the KB in the second wod, Donald and I will her on

Steve "the Beast" in recovery mode

Happy days

My coach and manager

600lb deadlift? No problem...

More memories, triumphs, and sweat to come in a couple weeks!

Swimmers, CrossFit Whistler, Grace

2010-05-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

Spent the week of May 3-7th up at Whistler with some of our top National Team swimmers, including Beijing 08 Olympians Ryan Cochrane (bronze medal) and Alexa Komarnycki. My purpose up there was to warm them up pre-swim, watch and learn at their swim sessions, then challenge them with some outdoor adventure activities...

As you can imagine, the latter task was the most fun and gave me lots of insight into how fit these athletes actually are. Tuesday dawned bright and crisp and the chosen activity for the afternoon was mountain biking. I had a trail map of the lost lake trails and info on rental bikes (although Michelle had brought along her awesome specialized fsr-xc and I had my trusty RM Fusion). I wasn't sure what to expect on the trails but once the gang had hooked up their brand new specialized 2010 rentals, we were all in for a real treat.

The start of the ride on the day was Tin Pants - Donkey Puncher - Tommy Moore - Hooktender... and boy were those trails sweet. Usually you wouldn't hear me praise crushed-gravel trails but these were/are the sweeeeetest crushed gravel singletrack trails you would ever wish to see. There were some vicious climbs but the gravel allowed for pure expression of fitness as very little skill was required... no scrambling over roots or rocks to get in the way of steady pedal cadence.

Of course when you have a pack of athletes used to 4+ hours a day of aerobic and anaerobic interval training breathing down your neck, the focus is just on keeping the legs moving to stay ahead! Fortunately the gang didn't have a whole lot of technical riding experience so I was able to get some separation on the flowy twisty downhills :)

At the end of Hooktender, which is a massive descent, the choice is to either head back to the village via paved flat trails, or turn around and head right back up from where we came... this being a "fitness" activity, I selected the latter, so we pointed our bikes uphill and started to hammer. This time, Ryan Cochrane was on my rear wheel and let me tell you that bastard has capacity!! All the way up the grind I could feel his front tire about 6" behind my back tire and in spite of screaming quads and heavy breathing, I pushed and kept ahead to the top of the climb (in hindsight he probably could have passed me easily but seeing as I was the "guide" I think he held back haha). From there a nice up and down then descent to Lost lake beach via Molly Hogan ended the ride for the bulk of the gang.

On a $100 bet, one of the swimmers stripped down to his Aspen style biker shorts and swam out to the dock and back... bananas! A few of us, Michelle included, headed back up to try a few more trails, and in spite of severe fatigue through the legs and sore crotches all around, we made it up Tin Pants and then down some slightly more challenging routes.

All in all a great ride and if you're in whistler, an activity not to be missed. I will mention also the power of crossfit in that context - Michelle and I were both able to keep up with some very talented athletes and the lactic acid tolerance and leg strength we always work on through crossfit is one of the major reasons why we could do so... yeah budday!

The other activities included indoor rock climbing (terrible gym up there, sucked except for the boulder routes), Wildplay adventure course (absolutely awesome while scaring the crap out of me, we should do a crossfit trip to this), and two visits to Jordan G's CrossFit Whistler.

Jordan's gym is tucked away under the marketplace in Creekside and is a sweet little box that is so emblematic of crossfit roots. Imagine the same floor space as at the zone but arranged in one long corridor about 12-15feet wide. Interesting space but nicely arranged with in-ceiling pullup bars.

Jordan is an awesome guy and was really accomodating and helpful in getting the swim group in there to crush some wods. I trained at CFW myself on their open gym night (Thursdays) and met a few members who were all cool people. Anyone who is up in Whistler and wants to train should look up Jordan and CFW... on a side note, Jordan competed really strongly in the BC sectionals and will be out in Calgary cheering on and supporting a friend of his, Steve Howell, a legitimate contender for a spot at the games.

lastly, I programmed Grace in for Monday of this week as part of the process of moving towards WODS that focus on a high rate of work as we approach regionals. I've been feeling a bit out of it training-wise recently with some disruptions to my regular routine and have even had a few "why bother" moments... you know those moments when you think about how tough the competition is going to be so why bother training hard since I'm not going to be able to compete with the top dogs. It's a bad way to think and I'm not proud that I had those thoughts but I'm getting through that and re-focusing on the task at hand.

Sometimes the best way to get rid of those thoughts is to lay down a super-solid, legit time on one of the big WODs. Grace was an opportunity then for me to show myself that I belong with the big guns that I'll be facing at the Regionals. I set my goal at getting under 2:30 for the 30 floor to overheads (i.e. power clean to push presses) that I would complete in the workout. I knew the rep splits I needed to achieve and I had a decent enough warm-up. Blasted away out of the gate but unfortunately missed my first rep target of 15 consecutive without letting go of the bar (got 13). From my research, anyone who hits 20 in a row is going to go about 1:30, so I figured 15-17 would be in the 2-2:30 range.

I got a bit herky jerky through the late teens and early 20 reps and reduced down to doubles to finish, 2:35. A PR by 38seconds, which is a big jump in such a short workout, but I have more in me. The good news is (besides it being a PR) that I wasn't all that tired overall, it was just the muscular endurance in my grip and shoulders that kept me from going faster.

With that time under my belt, I feel better and although a faster time would have been awesome, I know that I'm sitting in a decent position going into the last two and a bit weeks of training.

Here's a summary of the last 10 day's workouts:

Tuesday May 4: 2.5 hour (hard!) mtb ride in tha whis - killed us all off for the rest of the afternoon/evening and even into the following days!

Wed May 5: Clean+J 3’s then singles up to 100kg/220lb (105kg/230 x miss x 2). 2 x 80kg c +3 jerks. BS 3’s 80,90,100, 120/264lb, 110kg, BP 3’s 185, 205, 225, 215

Light climb in evening

Thursday May 6: at CFW: Snatch to daily max: 95, 110, 120, 132, 143lb good and easy.
4 x 10 hang squat snatch and 10pullups back to back, 90% recovery between pairings (3-5 min), 1 x 14 hs snatch and 12 pullups to finish. Felt really good on the snatches, dropped into the groove consistently well throughout. Grip was the limiting factor.

Friday May 7: 60 min mtb ride with Michelle - some tough bits but we were tired!!!

Saturday: rest

Sunday: Row intervals: work/rest - 1min/1min, 2/1, 3/2, 2/1, 1/2, 3/1, 2/1, 20 max srokes to finish.

Monday: CFZ - work up to heavy single power clean + pushpress/ jerk: 165,185, 205, 215lb
Grace: 2:35 PR!!
Pull-ups: 10, 15, 4x20 (full rest) - 105 total, added up quick
OHS: 5x5 up to 2x5 @ 115lb

Tuesday: Wts at PISE - Front Squat 5’s then 3’s 40, 50, 60, 80, 90kg/198lb x 3reps x 4sets BP 3’s 165, 185, 205 x 3 x 4, GHD 4x12 (worked on speed), GHR 4 x 6 assisted

That's it for now gang, hoping to double tomorrow with some rowing and a really tough heavy metcon at the zone in the evening...

Cam

Catch - up, Injury, the Rabbit

2010-05-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a while so this will be short to document my training over the past couple of weeks. I've got 3 weeks and two days until the Canadian CF Champs so am starting to get half nervous half amped up!!!! Have had a few interruptions as follows:

1. Did my calf in while running some fast intervals, pulled it just below the lateral head of the gastroc, really painful but no bruising. It's been 12 days and it's really starting to come along since I've not been doing any running, jumping, hopping or skipping. Getting advice from my AT as to the best return strategy from here. I've been keeping the cardio through regular exposure to my friend the rowing erg as well as the usual mix of crossfit metcons - just need to regain the stride efficiency of running so that I can capitalize on my running focus of the past 6-8 months!

2. Three trips and a wedding. Needless to say, all were good (especially the wedding!!!) but gave me a bit of trouble with scheduling workouts. I'm on the third trip right now but it's with a group of National Team swimmers (including three Olympians) and I'm leading them on various dryland training excursions in Whistler. Needless to say, I'm trying my hardest to stay at the head of the pack! Hoping to pop in to CF Whistler for a WOD this week.

The Rabbit.

One of the best things about having a girlfriend that is fit and likes CF is that she will WOD with you and push you when you're tired. Michelle is great at this and is equal parts coach, motivator, and training partner. She's really hitting her stride with training and has kept her goal of getting in three CF wods per week for the past month - as we all know, 3 WODs executed well is a pretty powerful stimulus! She's hitting PR's regularly and her technique is improving steadily.

Competition in training is a key motivating factor and when in and around CFZ, this competition comes easily as there are many talented and fit guys/gals to compare with. When traveling and training in globogyms, it isn't as easy to motivate oneself to hit burpees and rowing and thrusters etc. This is where the rabbit comes in.

Last Sunday Michelle and I visited william griffin rec centre in North Van (a great rec centre with bumpers and lots of squat racks and rowers etc... a rarity!). The goal was a two part wod - strength work first ( I did 4x10 thrusters and 5x3 deadlifts, she did 5-7x3 clean and jerks and 5x5 deadlifts). We both hit respectable numbers:

Me: Thrusters - up to 152lb for 10 unbroken reps, up to 335 x 3 in the deads
Michelle: up to a PR of 93lb in the C+J, up to a 5 rep PR of 165lb in the deads!

Then it was metcon time. I wanted rowing and burpees, Michelle was awesome in that she instantly agreed to get into it with me. I wanted a WOD in which we could compete directly with each other so we came up with this idea:

"The Rabbit"
Me: 5 rounds of 400m row, 15 burpees
Michelle: 5 rounds of 300m row, 10 burpees
(in hindsight we should have either done the same amount of burpees OR the same distance of rowing, but as my brother often says, hindsight is 20/20!!)

Since I outweigh Michelle by about 50lb, rowing should be easier for me. Burpees aren't easier but I felt that having had quite a bit of exposure to the rowing erg I would be less fatigued going in. I was wrong of course.

Michelle took an early lead with a quick 300m row and went right into the burpees. The start was as close as I ever got as she stayed consistently ahead of me in spite of having a battle with the "I want to quit" demons early in the second round.

When the dust and sweat droplets settled, Michelle came in around 11.5 minutes, with me about a minute behind. In spite of the difference in times, it was a great motivator for me to keep trying to catch her up and for her to keep ahead of my hulking, sweating, worm-burpee-ing bod.

I wouldn't have trained nearly as hard without her and this was not the first time that that was the case. She has been and I'm sure will continue to be my closest and most consistent supporter and workout partner, and I couldn't be more happy for it :)

Other training of note:

Tuesday April 20 - Back Squat 3’s- 225,245, 265, 225; Floor Press 5’s- 165,185, 205, 215 then did "Franata", tied Lucas (aka pumpkin aka scoots aka ronin). wrecked quads for about 4 days.

Wednesday April 21 - Snatch tech and strength in the AM, hang power cleans and rowing in CFZ wod (RowBots) in the pm. Awesomely fun 3 min "extra" row at the end as part of games prep

Thursday April 22 - 4x3 min running intervals, did calf in at end of 4th interval. Limped painfully home

Friday April 23 - CFZ wod – Mutiny – 4 rounds of 500m row, 15 pullups, 15 burpees, 15 wallball (18:10) need to get faster on burpees!

Saturday April 24 - Wts: squat clean +push press – up to max (50,60,70, 80, 90, 100kg clean, 95kg (210lb) clean + pp big PR (by 15lb) on the push press!, 3 x 80kg sclean combined with 3 push presses), deadlifts x 3 120, 140, 150, 160kg (352)x2, bp 3’s 165, 185, 205, 215, 225, 185x10

Sunday April 25 - Cfz wts: snatch balance and ssnatch – 75, 95, 115, 135, 150 PR!!! Good tech
Heels over head – 5 x 5hspu, 10 ttb: 5:36.

Monday April 26 - Cfz wod: Fsquat 5x1 (up to 225, miss 240), Baseline 3:47 PR!!, 4:07 second one, big stimulus as it absolutely wrecked me for a while - more on this later

Tuesday April 27 - Cfz wod: The complaint – 10min amrap: 3muscle up’s, 7 thrusters @ 135 (5 rounds +4reps) then 10 min 10pullups, 10 wallball’s – (7rounds +10reps) 204 total - great WOD to cover a lot of bases prior to a short trip away!

Wed and Thursday - rest while at a conference in Calgary

Friday April 30 - Wgriffin RC in north van: BackSquat 7x3 up to 2x130kg (286), Push Press 7x3 up to 90kg x 1 then 3x3 @ 85. BP 3’s up to 195 then 205x6. Wtd pull-ups 3’s to +60lb then 6x45lb.
Row: 6x 2min on/2min off (1st warmup – 520, 578, 573, 573, 568, 566, 4x10 ghd mixed in between the last 4 row intervals). Rows crushed me in this workout :(

Saturday May 1 - my bro's wedding - lots of standing, talking, eating, and general good times :)

That's it for now, going to make it more regular as I approach regionals.

Keep fit and have fun

Cam.

"the will to win is nothing without the will to prepare" - OPT

A minor setback, time to get back on track...

2010-04-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Update update update...

After a tough week of squatting heavy and training hard, my hip decided it had enough and shut down on Saturday morning. I had a weird arcing pain through my glute, groin, and all down my left leg... must have pinched a nerve or something. It hurt to sit down and pretty much move in any direction, which was none too nice.

Sunday was the second go around of our Affiliate team tryouts - we're putting a team into the Canadian regional crossfit championships for a chance to get into the crossfit games team competition. I was really looking forward to the workouts (there were 3 in the span of as many hours) but my hip kept me on the sidelines, or more correctly, in the role of head judge!

Everyone hit the workouts really well, with PB's all over the place. Check http://crossfitzone.ca/crossfit-affiliates-watch-out for more of an in-depth look at the events of the day.

After helping Michelle move and forcing my body to lift, twist, and bend, my hip was starting to feel better. I hopped into the hot tub for a good 45min for some stretching and woke up Monday morning feeling ready to go!! I guess it just needed to settle down a bit or maybe the nerve got back into place...

So that meant two days completely off training, which then means I have some catching up to do.

Monday was a running day - I wanted to get 8x300m repeats with 2min rest in between done. I feel that's a good distance for me for speed endurance work without being super taxing. After a nice 15 minute warm-up through some trails by PISE, I got a solid 7 reps in before my right calf tightened. I finished the session with a good 8 min tempo run.

The plan was to do a double workout and get down to the zone in the evening but I got home after work and crashed. I figured that wasn't going to happen so I stayed away from the gym for the first day in about three weeks!

Today I hit the 430 workout (called "KyleNESS" after one of our prominent members) at the zone and combined it with the workout from Monday. The result was:

Back squat 4x3 reps: 225,245,265,225
Floor press 4x5 reps: 165,185,205,215

then from Monday's workout - "Franata" - which is alternating work periods of thrusters (front squat to press) and pullups, on a ratio of 20s work, 10s rest for 4 complete work intervals each. It went really well, a lot better than the last time I had gone through it:

Thrusters - 9,9,8,8 reps @ 95lb
Pullups - 16,14,11,10

Immediately after that, I hit another four work intervals of bodyweight squats, getting 16-18 per round.

My Franata score ties me for first on the leaderboard, which I am pretty happy with since it's Lucas (the guy who came 2nd in the BC Champs) in first and he is a beast at both thrusters and pullups. I have a feeling he'll get a few more reps next time though!

Tomorrow I'm looking to do a double workout - snatch, clean+jerk technique, handstand pushups and overhead squats in the early afternoon then the rowing portion of the workout at Crossfit Zone in the evening. It's much easier to get the rowing work done in a group setting so I'm looking forward to it!!

That's it for now...

A Date with Diane, New Ergs, Clock Malfunction

2010-04-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh yes, Diane... one of the very few ladies I had yet to attempt to conquer. Monday was my first real opportunity and I'll admit I had a small amount of trepidation. Diane consists of 21-15-9 rep rounds of 225lb deadlift and handstand pushups (hspu). Deadlifts I can do, and the goal was to get all reps of them unbroken. HSPU on the other hand are not my strength - after a certain number of reps my shoulders just seem to lock up. Fortunately I have learned how to "kip" with the legs out of the bottom position, which if you time it juuuuusssst right, it makes the hspu infinitely easier.

That being said, I was never going to come close to hitting 2 minutes-ish like Pat "the Manimal" Barber (CrossFit superhero) but the benefit of doing a WOD for the first time ensures that you'll hit a PB no matter what!!

I started strongly, hitting 21 straight reps of deads then right into the hspu. The key for me is to conserve energy on these and not go to failure. I ended up getting through the 21 fairly well, then got 15 deadlifts unbroken. At that point, the wheels kinda fell off on the hspu and I had to chip away at 1-3 reps at a time. 9 more straight deadlifts, then what felt like 30 min to get the last hspu done. time:
13:23, not blazing by any means but I've come a long way since only being able to do 1 hspu about a year ago. Something to improve upon.

Other Monday training - earlier in the day I hit one of my favorite running interval workouts (I've pretty much dropped all steady state running in favor of short to long intervals). It's a combo of 3,2, and 1 minute intervals:

3 min @ 80% effort, 1min rest, 2min @ 90% effort, 1 min rest, 1min @ 95ish effort, 2 min rest. I usually do three cycles through that sequence although this past Monday I had to squeeze it in between some appointments and only got 2 cycles plus another 3 min done. I like this workout because each cycle builds on the speed of the 1 mins and pushes the intensity up each round.

Tuesday was an unintentional rest day, but a great day for the Zone... I managed to swing 6 ergs from Rowing Canada at bargain prices!! Michelle and I took them apart, bundled them into the CSCP truck and my trusty Cavalier, and shipped them down to the Zone. Now our erg fleet is up to 8 machines, with possibly 2 more to come. This is awesome and awful at the same time - we now can do more rowing as a group, and we now have no excuse NOT to do more rowing.

There is power in unified rowing and we found that out on Wednesday night when we lined up all 8 ergs for 8 repeats of 30s on, 30s off for max total metres. This was part of a WOD named after Olympic gold medallist, Andrew Byrnes, and also included working up to a 3 rep max in the front squat and push press. One of the ergs we brought in is actually the very same machine that Andrew trained on leading up to the Beijing Olympics, which is pretty cool to say the least. We also have an erg that Doug Vandor (perennial top national team lightweight rower) trained on before Beijing.

Being that some of us are in "games prep" mode for the Regionals at the end of May, we got the special treat of doing the 8x 30/30 TWICE! For the duration of the workout, I was spurred on by Steve "the beast" Solely, whose effort in training is second only to his rapier wit ;). For the second row, I had on my right the "delicate flower" herself, Krista Kitson, who was putting it ALL into those row intervals... we should have made an audio tape of the second row - sounded like the "monkey house" at the local zoo.

I managed only to drop off by 72m from the first to the second row, which wasn't too shabby, here's a summary of the day's training:

11am: Mobility work and Snatch tech
Snatch balances (3 reps) alternated with squat snatches (2 reps) from the floor: 7-8 sets from 40kg to 60kg

530pm: CFZ "andrew byrnes"
4x3 front squat - 165, 185, 205, 215
4x3 push press - 135, 155, 175, 185 (should have pushed this more, probably had 195/200 in me)
8 x 30/30 #1: 1480m total
Overall Score: 1880
8 x 30/30 #2: 1408m total

1880 was good enough for second on our leaderboard - big Jer Bear destroyed the row with a monster 1549 total m, surprise surprise. This is the same Jer who owned the 2k row at the BC sectionals with a 6:29.9 clocking... deadly.

Thursday was a chance to catch up on the wod I missed on Tuesday - the Helenator. Based off the classic crossfit workout "Helen" (3 rounds for time of 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings (55lb), 12 pullups), my version was geared to a bit more running and a few more pullups:

5 rounds for time of:
15 kettlebell swings (55lb)
200m run
15 pullups
200m run

I had intended on most people wrapping this wod up in around 14-17 minutes but most spirits were crushed with the majority of people being over 20minutes (one person at 29!!! that's savage). Tommy J had the best time on Tuesday with a bit over 15 minutes and I figured I could top that by running fast and staying really consistent with my pullups.

The rest of the class was doing snatch technique so I looked at the timing clock and when it hit 5 minutes I started my workout. It went well, all kettlebell swings unbroken, first three rounds of pullups unbroken (then 10/5 after that), and I kept a decent pace on the runs, picking it up on the parking lot and trying to keep the legs stretching on the downhill back to the gym. Unfortunately, I had set the clock earlier for 16 minutes so when it hit that time(at beginning of my 5th round) it stopped, much to my chagrin. I figured I had four rounds done at 16 min on the clock (11min total time of my workout since I started 5 min in) so can only guess that my time was around 14 minutes... but i can't on good conscience record that on the leaderboard! Oh well, bad luck, I'll have to do it again - and faster!!

All in all, the week has gone well with training so far. I'm looking to do a double tomorrow - cleans, back squats, bench press, ghd's tomorrow midday and a tough metcon tomorrow night (4 rounds for time of 5 muscle ups, 30 double unders, 20 double crunches). Rest on Saturday (or a light row) then affiliate team tryouts on Sunday... good times!

Keep fit and have fun...

Cam

Exercise tourette's syndrome, 500 row pb, lying down for time

2010-04-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

Pic of me just post 500m row

Catching up on the weekend of training...

Saturday mornings I train a triathlon group at PISE from 830-930am, which unfortunately conflicts with Sat am classes at the zone. I usually can get down there for 10am, which is the second class, and help run that plus run the "Intro to CrossFit" session at 11. This Saturday, it was the "post" part of the Kelly workout challenge, so I figured I'd catch up on the row + pullup/burpee workout from the day before... I hadn't done a 500m in a while so thought that would be a good one to hit up.

I warmed up for about 15 min while cheering on my friends and was ready to try out a shortened stroke rowing technique I'd seen on youtube a while back. Basically for a short distance like the 500, if you're fit enough, you can do away with the "length" part of the rowing stroke and just hammer away at 40-50 strokes per minute. Note the disclaimer - if you're fit enough! I've seen a lot of "fly - and - dies" using this technique so you still have to control your energy output.

Anyways........ my previous personal best was 1:28.5, not too shabby but I knew I could do better. I got myself amped up, blocked the front and back of the erg with some weight plates, then 3,2,1 GO I hammered off the start. I was hitting 1:18 and 1:19 splits early on, a good sign. I eased off a little but kept the splits at <1:25>

I end up either just yelling with exertion, or better yet, swearing at the bar/exercise/whatever I'm doing. I figure it's got something to do with pent up emotions, but fortunately in CrossFit we let each other do all sorts of crazy things, so it just helps me fit in better ;) In my Saturday row, the yelling started at the end of each stroke from that 250m mark and got progressively louder and louder. I tried to suppress it but just couldn't. It felt like I wasn't pulling hard at all but I was still sitting 1:31-1:33 towards the end.

With 10m left, my "exercise tourette's" kicked in even more and I let out a very loud "F**K YOU!" to the rower and sailed into the finish.... 1:25.9. Everyone had a good laugh as apparently they had stopped to watch me when the yelling started mid-race. I apologized for my obscenity, which drew even more laughs. Good times overall though, a nice PB and incredible lung burn that lasted a good 30 min.

My recovery period took a bit too long and I had to run the intro (which also went long as the guy who did the baseline tapped out at the pushups and laid down for 28.5 min - I timed him in true crossfit fashion haha). I headed home disappointed that I didn't do the remainder of the workout (50 chest to bar pullups followed by 50 burpees).

Fortunately, later that day Michelle and I finished test driving cars and i felt inspired to do the rest of the wod.... well, actually I had just intended on doing the pullups when I first showed up. Quick 10 minute warm up, chalked up, hit the bar for the pullups, looking to put in a decent time. These were chest-to-bar pullups, so just like it sounds, my chest had to physically contact the pullup bar on each rep, which demands a much stronger pull and can be tricky to coordinate. Didn't start well with my arms still fatigued from the row experience early in the day but paced well through the middle and finished the pullups at 3:30 ish. With michelle urging me on, I got right into the burpees, ending up finishing the whole deal at 6:38, a 1:12 improvement over my last time and just :01 better than my buddy TeeJ!

Also trained Sunday night LAAATE (get 'em in when you can!), so here's a summary of the weekend's workouts:

Saturday 1030am: 500m row, damper at 6.5, 1:25.9 (PB by 2.6 sec!!!)

Saturday 6:30pm: OPT pullup and burpee wod: 50 ctb pullups, 50 burpees - 6:38 (PB by 1:12!!)

Sunday 9:45pm: Squat Snatches - 3x65, 3x75, 3x95, 2x115, 2x125, 1x135, 1x145 miss, 1x150 miss, 2 x 125

Front Squats - 3 x 135, 3x185, 1x205, 1x215, 1x235 (belt), 3x190, 3x190

All in all, not a bad weekend, til next time!

Cam

Training Friday April 9

2010-04-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

Had to work on some strength and power work today, it's been a while since I worked on squat cleans, jerks, back squats etc. These movements are foundational to my training plan as they develop the raw physical ability to produce force.

With the addition of conditioning work across several time domains, as well as power endurance exercises, I can transfer this raw ability into good performances in crossfit workouts. The goal of these sessions then is twofold - firstly to increase my capability to produce force in basic structural exercises and also to hone technique for the best efficiency of movement.

Training:

Squat Clean and Jerk - 3x40kg, 3x50kg, 3x60kg, 2x70kg, 2x80kg, 1x90kg x 3 sets

Back Squats - sets of 3 reps - 80kg, 90kg, 100kg x 3 sets

Close Grip Bench press - sets of 3 reps - 155lb, 185lb, 195lb, 205lb

Overhead Squats - sets of 4 reps - 30kg, 40kg, 50kg, 60kg x 2 sets

This workout is easing me back into strength work, I will look to really ramp up the poundages as soon as possible, with the goal of hitting 105-110kg in the clean and jerk, 135kg for 3 in the squat, 225 for 3 in the close grip bench, and 80kg+ for a single in the overhead squat.

Training Thurs April 8

2010-04-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

I always like when crossfit workouts recur. It gives me a chance to gauge my improvements in fitness and gives me targets to beat. I scheduled "Road Runner" for today, a workout that we've done twice before at CrossFit Zone but that I had not yet done. I knew it would be a good one to test myself with as some of the guys who had done it before had put up some pretty good times.

I decided to try my new New Balance shoes out... they're much lighter than my Adidas trail shoes plus the Adi's are showing significant wear. My right calf has been giving me trouble when I run and row so maybe a change in shoes will help?

Anyhow, here's what went down:

Road Runner:
Run 800m
30 sumo deadlift high pulls (sdhp) @ 95lb
run 400m
20 sdhp
run 200
10 sdhp

I ran the first 800 a little too easy, came in at 2:45 or so, with my PB on the street course being 2:30. Aside from that, hit it all pretty hard, found the anger on the second round of sdhp's, started throwing the bar around, good times.

Finish time: 7:38, all time rank - #1 as seen on www.myfrantime.com ... short but sweet, good lung burn and arm pump

Felt good to put up a good time, sub 6:45 is definitely possible though - target for next time!

Daily Training

2010-04-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

So... it's been a few months and I've only posted one blog so I figured at the very least I should post my daily training just to keep the blogs flowing a bit more regularly. I placed 14th in the BC CrossFit sectionals a couple of weekends ago, which means I am now training for the Canadian Regionals that will be held in Calgary at the end of May. I'm hoping to put up a blog about my Sectionals experience with pics soon.

Moving forward, I have a little over 7 weeks to prepare for regionals. I feel that the most important thing for me to work on is developing more power in workouts - the ability to do the work of the wod quicker. I feel my ability to sustain a submaximal pace is pretty good but I really need to have the ability to put the pedal to the metal in some of the shorter metcons. My strength was shown to be a bit of a weakness in the sectionals, so I'll also be focusing on a 4-week block of some pretty heavy strength work.

Training from Wed April 7:

11:30am - Rowing - 4 x 1000m, 5 min rest interval. DF - 125

#1 - 3:36 sr 28

#2 - 3:34 sr 29

#3 - 3:28.6 sr 30

#4 - 3:34 sr 30

followed by: GHD situps, 4x8 (just to get back into these)

As per usual, my stroke rate drifted up over the intervals. All intervals were done with a race start but no ramped finish.

6:30pm - CrossFit Zone WOD - "the LIZ"

3 part workout - 5x4 Deads for top weight, 4x4 hang squat snatch for top weight, 4 min max double unders

Deadlift - 315 (just didn't feel right so didn't go heavier)

HSS - 115 (grip limits pull)

DU's - 240

total score - 670. Not a bad little strength stimulus, worked on accuracy and getting under the bar in the HSS.

Cam

Welcome

2010-01-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

hmmmmm the inaugural post, what to write? it's so pivotal, setting the basis for all that's to come... well in reality probably not since no one will bother to scroll back so far to the first post unless they have way too much time on their hands. so here goes.

fitness and life to me are intertwined, and have been for a long time. from soccer and baseball at a young age, to basketball in high school, to rugby for 13 years, to drop in and pick up sports, to mountain biking, bmx racing, golf, tennis, ping pong, climbing, trail running, crossfit, and to the millions of random challenges my brother and I will compete in, fitness and sport have always been there.

in times that weren't so happy, times of frustration, anger, depression, sadness and mental strain, exercise has been there for me. the wind in my face, the sweat on my brow, the beat of my heart, the straining of my lungs, and the contraction of my muscles transport me away from daily troubles with splashes of endorphins and focus on the task at hand.

exercise and the pursuit of athletic excellence and fitness have taught me many things about myself. physical challenges have told me I have limits, then have turned around and convinced me that my abilities know no bounds. exercise has torn my body down and then built it back up. it is true that the body really is the only machine that gets better the more you use it.

likewise the mind thrives in a healthy and vibrant body. mens sana in corpore sanum. sound mind in a sound body. the higher my fitness gets, the more clear, creative, and numerous my thoughts.

we are built to move. we are built to think and create. this blog will share some of my expressions of how we should move, in addition to some of my thoughts on training and life.

hope you enjoy your stay.

Cam