3 on

I actually was not late for a change on Monday and was able to do a good dynamic warm up and some rolling out before hitting the wod which was:

20min AMRAP:
400m run
10 burpee pullups
400m run
10 burpee pullups
15 squat cleans, 95#

i Rxed and finished with 2rnds+50m. the burpee pullups were consecutive and i didnt let go of the bar during the squat cleans and every run was brutal for me but i felt that i went at max effort - so i was happy with the wod. coaching went well and had the privilege of a 1on1 with one of my llocfme and she did not disappoint as it was very fulfilling for me as a coach to see her get PRs on her 1RM for deadlift and back squat! Tuesday's wod was:

5 Rounds:
14 barbell rollouts from knees
5 thrusters, 135#
then:
1RM clean

originally this was slated for 7 thrusters at 155# and that had me thinking that i would have to scale it to 135# anyway so i was happy to see the change once i got to the lunchtime class. i Rxed and finished in 10:37. i did the heavy thrusters unbroken once again - which is huge for me - and im fairly certain i was consistently rolling out to the same spot everytime - so i was happy with this wod as well. i followed that up with a clean at 185# - heaviest ive done so far but i was concerned about my form. however Mike D said i was getting to full hip extension and my turnover was quick - so while i could have gone heavier i didnt feel the need to do that at the risk of ruining my mechanics. Coached the evening classes (Mark put up a 225# clean - impressive!), got to give my intensity speech to the onrampers who are graduating this week and endu was fun as usual. Wednesday's wod was:

2 Rounds:
2 min each, Max reps/ Calories/ Climbs:
Back Squat, 195/125#
Rope Climb
Row
Rest

i knew the back squats were heavy for me but i wanted to Rx and i was going to wod with Jared before the 630 class so i figured i would tough it out. i only got 14 the first round and 10 the second. my rope climbs were solid as i got my foot technique down and my row was solid as well - i didnt even have to strap into the erg. total reps/calories/climbs was 97. (i know im not in the same league as Jared but by comparison he got 136 - i wanna be like him when i grow up)

i was happy i finally got to wod three days in a row after such a long CF wod drought - great start to the week. got chrio-adjusted soon after the wod, went home to see my niece and nephew and friends, and had a relaxing evening. basically a happy ending to my first 3on in a while. taking thursday off to recover was going to be my gift to myself.

Today i got to coach the lunchtime class and had another fulfilling moment as i got to see Brian get his muscle up and rx the entire wod. took a nap after work (clearly a good day if you get a nap in) and helped out with the final onramp for this month. endu class went well and I am very excited to see everyone get new 1RM on their deadlifts and box squats in the coming weeks.

also excited about finally getting to post about this week's activities and to see that Jared is going to keep up with his blog as well! ok jared - now you've got the millions of people who read my blog made aware of the existence of your blog - don't let them down - how's that for accountability?

I never learn

If i start writing a blog and save it as a draft, the post date will show as the date i started the draft - so i need to cut and paste in the future when i save drafts and post them days later - hence the fuzzy math of wishing my sister a happy bday after 5days - since i actually posted it this morning (9/27) - when it shows i posted it one day after (9/24). i think ive done that before but didnt remember.

also, in another fine showing of lack of intelligent comprehension - i did not roll out after FGB and im certainly feeling it today. i would have liked to have done todays wod before starting tonight's coaching duties but im leaning more toward taking the time to work on recovery. its frustrating bc i want to start wodding again after basically two weeks of tapering (for the half and FGB) and start the week off on the right foot with a good wod but i should listen to the advice i give all my athletes and keep in mind that recovery is why you get better - not more work (and especially not more work when you can't perform at the required intensity). hopefully, i can do both - but im usually late to everything so im not holding my breath.

im still waiting on the final numbers to see how i did (no pressure Karianne) but i think the SDLHP and box jumps are, to quote Kings of Leon, why "my hamstring's on fire..."

Bueller?

Happy Birthday Xiomara! (9/23) You're such a beautiful little lady at just 14 years old. I love you!

And im not a bad brother and telling her happy birthday 5 days late - im just finally getting to post about it. In this picture, we were both a little tired after having long days, respectively. Her with school and birthday festivities and me with my first CF wod in close to two weeks. 3 rounds of 3min on 2 min off. 3min on was an amrap of 3 burpees, 6 HPC @ 135#, 9 air squats. i modified it to 3 burpee box jumps (24" box), HPC @ 95#, and 9 wallballs all while being done with a 20lb weight vest on. in general, if i know what the prescription of a wod/wodding event is going to be beforehand, i find that going heavier in workouts prior to the big event makes those weights that i would be lifting during the big event feel light. considering FGB was the next day (ill post about the results when i get my final numbers), i was hoping my strategy of doing heavy fight gone bad a few weeks ago and this wod (that i modified to be heavy components of FGB) would work mentally (and physically) for me. I ended up with 7rounds+3burpee box jumps+1HPC - i was happy with my effort and the results.

I've got the rough draft of my half marathon day antics set up. i did start writing it as soon as i just got back from NY traffic court where the judge dismissed my 2 point ticket for "allegedly" driving on the shoulder. she told the cop it was being dismissed because he filled out the ticket wrong (i love the smell of burnt bacon in the morning) - and the best part was that i didnt even have to say a word - so i was pretty stoked at the time! but now im realizing that ive been building up this "half marathon post" like it was the second coming when in fact it is just going to be a regular post... so don't expect much but do expect it to be posted soon.

Lazy

Past few nights, ive turned on my computer with the intent to type about the events on 9/19/10 but got sidetracked reading current event articles online - next thing you know its midnight and i tell myself that i really should be getting to bed. i'll be in traffic court tomorrow so i'll probably have a lot of spare time on my hands - i'll try to write a draft while i wait.

11767

im in philly watching the history channel (awesome sniper special) in room 420. definitely tired and should be sleeping within the hour. am i nervous? not really. im more anxious. anxious to see what the feeling is like as im waiting in the corral. anxious to see how i feel after mile 8. anxious to see if i want to take a break from distance running or do another half marathon next weekend after im done. stay tuned...

Isn't she lovely?

CF: I did a 20min tempo run at lunch where i tried to hold 75% RPE but i rushed out too fast and covered my first mile in 7:50. I'm kind of concerned as i really can't do this come Sunday. I need to start my playlist off with the perfect song (and unfortunately i forget which song one of the llocfme told me to get - cave something...?)

Personal: My sister is a champ! 36 hours of labor and 15 minutes of pushing - out popped Cecilia Lucia Marques!

And now my dad shares his birthday with his first granddaughter! Happy Birthday Papi!

Almost

CF: Decided against doing any wod today because at this point I feel that its too close to the race to be productive to my taper week. But i did have some grass fed skirt steak from Mini Mac farms and it was delicious!

Personal: Well my other sister's water broke today but the baby is just not ready to come out yet. So it looks like it's going to share the same birth date as my dad. And since i'll prob be posting pictures of my newest niece or nephew tomorrow - here is one more of Noah:

Brevity

I cant believe i have posted since before my last 5k. Here's an uber brief (sorry) recap from what i can remember:

09/09

PRed the 5k by 5 seconds to 23:03 - but it may have been a 13 second PR as i heard rumors that the clock was delayed for 8 seconds at the start. Whatever the case - it felt good - but i need to come up with a group warm up next time for my endoers (just made it up while i was typing and im trademarking it). arthurs was fun afterward.

09/10

Actually worked on a friday - and out in the field no less on a nice day! Came home after a long day of watching contractors work at a snails pace and watched Legion. Just realized i wanted to designate it a 'wait' in my movie rating system - but that specific designation really only applies to movies still in theaters (wait = wait for it to come out on dvd) so i need to come up with more correct nomenclature for movies. ill work on that rating system and include it in another post (or maybe i'll just start that darn website already) but my final verdict is that i wouldnt spend any money to rent it. only good thing was that i used frozen berries as the ice in my jack (had hennessey but thought that it wouldnt mix well with the berries) and it was delicious!

9/11

do you remember when we all would observe a moment of silence at 8:45am and 9:03am and silently think about all those lives that were lost when those planes hit the towers? while i was cognisant that it was 9/11, im ashamed to say that i only realized that i didnt stop at those times until after the fact.

endurance cert went well - did death by 10m wod again and got a PR of 19 rounds*. while that was a PR by two full rounds, i didnt have to touch the line everytime - hence the asterisk.

came home after a long day very tired, got hoodwinked into constructing some furniture and finally got to bed at 2am.

9/12

second part of the cert went well. afterward, went to church and heard a solid homily (which is always cool), went to my parents house, stuffed my face with rice and cake (not physically at the same time but might as well have been) and got this gem of a picture of Noah while he was sleeping on my mom's lap:

went back to my 9-5 office to get plans, concepts, reports printed out for my project managers (since i knew i was going to be out in the field again all day monday) and finally got to bed at 2am .

9/13

lack of sleep definitely catching up but i knew i had a long night ahead of me before i even started my day - i was going to the Home and Home tour (the first concert at the new yankee stadium).

after a very very long day inspecting contractors, driving into the Bronx during rush hour, standing for over 4 hours in the yankee outfield (concert was amazing though!), driving back to nj and dropping everyone off , i finally got to bed at 2am (slept at my parents house for the evening.)

9/14

i was so tired from the past three nights that i did not feel like waking up this morning. (im sure knowing that tuesday's are my long coaching nights didnt help much either.) due to the length of the wod programmed for today, i didnt feel i had enough time to do yesterdays wod prior to class starting. im trying to determine if i should try and get the wod done at lunch tomorrow even though it goes against my taper schedule big time...

I wish i had more time to explain the "kinda" from my droid does post below and my movie rating system [again, id like to apologize for my non-descript daily recaps. i would love to elaborate more on my days, but i need to get to bed tonight at a reasonable hour.] but just know that my first blog from my phone literally posted like this:

% ??2H n?@I? f?A??? ???$h?~??d?? ???ey?} ??d??<~?????? %?l ?


j?A??? ??Ab??

???q ???n

And that clearly not going to work because, depending on how you look at it, im either compulsive or consistent - and that topic will most definitely be the subject of another post at a later date and time.

Droid Does

First post (kinda - more on that later) from my phone. Its been another crazy week - I havent been in bed before 2am the past 3 nights and I should be tapering and recovering. Ill do my best to post a recap blog later. Here's one reason for a 2am evening...

Noah Week

I did Tuesday wod which consisted of two parts: first part was 3-3-3-3-3 power snatch. i started at 65# and wanted to go up 20# each set to end up with 125# but a failed attempt on the first rep of the last set had me stay at 115#. this was unfortunate bc i had wanted to use the rx weight of 115# for the overhead squats in the second part of the wod and would have been very comfortable with it had i snatched 125# three times. the second part of the wod consisted of 10min to do as many OHS after first completing 15-12-9 T2B + 200m run. got the couplet done in less than 5 min (which i was very happy with) but struggled big time with the OHS at 105# mainly due to my wrists being on fire from not being set up in their proper neutral position. Only ended up with 20 reps. although it wasnt as a high a number as i was shooting for, i am happy that im now mentally comfortable with snatching and OHS 105# in a high rep scenario.

i usually do the endu wod at night but with the new endu session starting, ive decided that i can no longer wod with the class or the llocfme :( so i had wanted to do the wod prior to coaching the newbies at their first endu wod but the track was being used by the morristown high school football team at 5pm (the nerve) and i was way too tired to do it after the endu class so that unfortunately meant that i would have to do it by my lonesome. on a positive note - there were a lot of new faces there and im very excited to see everyone make great strides (...) in their running as the session progresses.

wednesday i took my sister to the track by my parents house so that she could be my personal timer while i did tuesdays minute ladder endu wod. we get there and this track has zero lights. the wind is really picking up and my sister was cold so i had her stay in the car but she was having a hard time making a loud whistle - something i needed as i would be, at times, a whole football field away from the car. running in to a head wind by myself in the pitch black while not being confident that i would actually hear exactly when my rest started and finished didnt exactly make me feel like doing it - but i finished with exactly 7 laps - and i was happy with that. my pose was off but my intensity was consistent throughout. another positive thing that happened wednesday was that i went to the chiro beforehand and apparently i was way out of whack. i do feel a little better and hope that all the adjustments made will help me get a 5k PR later today.

Awesome picture of Noah for Noah Week

Say Uncle

Wow - what a crazy week - Jared and I were working hard putting the finishing touches on the new endurance session and it seemed as if the emails just didnt stop. here's a quick wod recap for last week:

MON
Got to the gym early and was mulling over whether to do 90% (which would have been 305#). looked on the whiteboard and saw Pete R started with 305# and went down to 285# - so i just did 285#. then waited only 1 min and did the second part of the wod which was 3rounds of 20 KB swings, 5 KB squat cleans with the left arm, 5 KB push presses with the left arm, 5 KB squat cleans with the right arm, 5 KB push presses with the right arm - rx was 1.5 pood but i did it with 1 pood and finished in 6:18. I was very happy with my time and my all out effort considering the non-existent wait between the strength (deadlift) portion and the met-con (kettlebell) portion of the wod.

TUES
4 person team wod of 5rounds of 120' sled pull (135#), HSPU, Box Jumps (20"), Push Press (95#) with the sled pull being the time keeper. The sled pull got old real quick since your legs were shot from everything else - including getting up for the HSPU - but i had an awesome team at the 545p class and i was glad that i got that wod in before the endurance wod of Death by 10m. I completed 17 rounds and got to 16 in round 18. Great dinner afterward!

WED
Off from wodding but came up with some sweet, perfectly appropriate slogans for CFME during the day and then at night i visited my abuelita who had just flown in from her vacation in Colombia and was staying at my parents house - so i got a good home cooked paleo meal - cauliflower mash is amazing!

THURS
Only did the endurance wod but in my defense it was Tosh. my splits for each of the three rounds were:

200 - 0:36, 0:39, 0:40
400 - 1:24, 1:34, 1:34
600 - 2:23, 2:31, 2:26

I was really happy with the consistency. big thanks to jared for keeping the pace throughout.

FRI
Did HEAVY FBG (95# for the barbell weight, 24" box, and everything with a 20lb weight vest) and was shooting for a score of at least 200. Ended up with 205 so i was really happy with that. my effort throughout was all out and i felt as if i wasnt as fatigued as the last time i did FGB in february - and i'll chalk that up to CF endurance.

SAT
I became an uncle! Say hello to my first nephew Noah Luis Gallic

Please note that im exposing him to CrossFit at a very early age.

SUN

I became Noah's godfather! Here are all of his stats!

Went to my friend Bean's "surprise" birthday party in Toms River where many non paleo mixed drinks were consumed. ("surprise" = both the birthday boy and the guests were surprised to find out it was a surprise party.) so much for doing my tempo at 8am sunday morning

MON
Visited my nephew/godson again. i tried getting a shot of him with his eyes open - since now he is looking around a lot - while holding him but this is the best i got. i think he was doing his best elvis impression

I was supposed to run a 60min tempo at 75% but i averaged a 9:55 mile which meant i ran it at more like 67%. The silver lining was that i went out and did the run period - since i was not in the running mood by the time i finished mowing my lawn at 745pm.

An overall solid week for my wodding and personal life. nutrition was good during the week but then fell off for the weekend - so i need to focus on that these next two weeks prior to the half marathon. Found out that this month's on ramp has 8 people in it - and right after will be the start of the new endurance session - looking forward to a good tuesday!