Leonardo A. Muñoz

Bigger and Better

2012-02-01T21:06:00.001-05:00

I feel like I've been going non-stop this week but bigger and better things are on the horizon. Hope to post about them soon!

Everyone vlogs

2012-01-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

Good news:

Hit a new (10#) PR in the back squat: 265# Shooting to get up to a more respectable 300# by the end of the year - its going to be tough as squatting isn't my strong suit but I know it will help in my overall wodding once i get stronger.

Bad news:

took so long getting it up (stop right there) that i ran out of memory on the video camera before i stood up all the way.

In the way

2012-01-25T12:22:00.006-05:00

Took the day off from wodding on Monday bc I had piss poor form on the OHL on Sunday. Yesterday was a long day starting from my new wake up time of 455a, w/ class times of 545a, 645a, 930a, 11a, then a paleo cheat lunch for my sister's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIDA), meant to wod at 530p but a person came in to ask about CF, then class at 615p and 715p. Got home to eat food i picked up at smashburger (dont worry - no bun or fires) around 900p, watched another episode of The Walking Dead (hooked) and went to bed exhausted to wake up today at 455a again.

Can't let life get in the way - need to make more time - anyone have a working Delorean they aren't using?

Paleo Challenge: Version 3.0

2012-01-23T07:16:00.003-05:00

So I'm one week into my third (in earnest) paleo challenge. With the holidays and my birthday last month, I felt I had a hall pass to eat whatever dessert ended up in front of me. Not the case this time around. My extra motivation is Vegas for a bachelor party at the end of March.

In any case, the paleo challenge is going great so far - I've stayed away from my usual vices (french fries, cake) and I've even cut out my heavy cream! I can already see the results: body composition is changing and I've had the energy for 4 wods last week - unheard of!

Louie Simmons back squat strength day: this last one was rough. Need to focus on keeping the knees out in the bottom of the squat. Going for a new PR in the back squat this week - I'm a little nervous about this one.

Louie Simmons deadlift strength day + metcon: DLs always go well but I hope the 1RM deadlift goes up - i didnt incorporate DLs much more than the strength days... Metcon went very well!

On the min for 12min: 3 C2B, 5 HPS, 3 OHS. Was supposed to use 95# but used 65# instead. got all 12 rounds in but will probably switch to the OHS for my next Louie Simmons strength cycle.

Death by pullups: almost got through round 13. I was a little disappointed but know i need to add dead hang pullups to the list of things i need to work on. HSPU penalty went well too.

3 Rounds: 15 PP 85#, 20 OHL 45# + 2 Burpees every 30 Sec. Fastest male time was 7:58. I finished in 6:50 but I could have gone faster. The list of things I need to work on grows again: OHL

When you're sliding into first

2011-12-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

Stomach bug. Threw up last night for the first time in over a year! it was awful - i didnt realize how much my stomach actually holds - felt like gallons! I could go into more details but I will spare you.

Im trying to think of some goals to set for CrossFit for 2012 so far i have:

Do king kong by the end of the year

...maybe a triathalon in the summer...? but not sure if i can work on both :/

1RM

2011-12-14T12:24:00.001-05:00

Finally got up to 365# on my deadlift on monday - went for 385# but that sucker did not budge. I really wanted to get double body weight (380#) badly but that will have to wait until next month.

Got eh news at the end of last week that there will be no C300 in my future anytime soon:( Still kinda bummed about that but taking it better than expected.

I've skyped with my sister and Noah a few times already since they arrived in Bagledesh - all is well and apparently Emirates Air is the way to travel to Asia.

Christmas party tomorrow for CFV - hoping for a good turnout and a fun safe time for all!

Back at it

2011-11-26T08:19:00.001-05:00

Having a very nice Thanksgiving weekend - bitter sweet bc this will be the last holiday that we are altogether as a family for a while as Pat, Rebeca, Noah and Bella will be heading off to Bangladesh on Wednesday :(

Wodding was great at the beginning of the week but then I tweaked my back from sleeping on my parents couch so much - since I'm trying to get max time in with the Gallic clan before they go (and I don't feel like driving past my gym late at night only to be there for a 545a class the next day)- and let's not even get into nutrition.

Box ownership is going fairly well so far - up to about 25 people on memberships and a few regular drop ins - so total 30 and I'm happy about that. I'm shooting for 40 by the end of the year so I need to make a bigger "marketing" push.

Here's a pic of half the table from Thanksgiving dinner - yum!

Should be sleeping

2011-11-18T00:17:00.001-05:00

- and i will be very soon - but I'm happy to report that I was finally able to get three wods in a row (thanks for rounding it out tonight KDPI) and im looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.

Also took my very first hot yoga class and it was awesome - i should see some improvement in my flexibility in no time!

Other life

2011-11-08T23:30:00.000-05:00

I'll get back to the 50miler - just wanted to give y'all an update on my life in general.

it's been great having noah and cecilia and bella at the house. they bring so much joy and i love going home to see them and their smiling faces :) how cute is this:

wodding has been inconsistent - did this wod on sunday - my legs are still sore! i hope to get at least three more wods in this week...

50 Miler - sta 9

2011-10-25T14:42:00.000-04:00

I get done with the 4 mile loop in 1:20 - which i was ecstatic about bc I literally dominated ski slopes. Its about 7pm when i leave the lift aid station and dusk is ending. I have a little more than 9 miles left in the race - if i can keep my pace i can finish before the cutoff time of 1030pm. So i start the last 9+ miles climbing this hill:

50 Miler - sta 8

2011-10-21T23:57:00.004-04:00

I was three minutes past the cutoff time. she said, "if you think you can finish the next loop in under four hours, ill let you go" i thought to myself there is no way that i just ran 37 miles to stop now. i go for it. by the way, this was the ski slope loop again...

50 Miler - sta 6 and 7

2011-10-17T22:58:00.004-04:00

I didnt have a gps so i just was estimating my distance traveled by doing the simple math of dividing the distance between the stations by the time it took me to get to the next station. my knee had not been cooperating since mile three and it hurt very badly to walk downhill (let alone run downhill - which is what one is supposed to do) so I was averaging about a 20min mile. about 20min from the midway station - im approximating it was mile 26ish - my stupid grin and all my good feelings that went along with that were gone. i just did not want to be in the woods anymore - i would have rather been at my old job than to be there - and that's saying a lot.

my knee was killing me - of course its my luck that it would hurt on the downhills and be ok on the uphills - therefore causing me to make up for lost time by running up each and every hill. i get to the rock pile station again and take a little more time eating the chips and getting my camelback filled. its the long 6.1 miles to the next lift station but once i got to it i would be less than 15miles to the finish.

i get to the lift station at 5:20pm - almost 12hrs of running at this point. the person who checks me in says "i have good news and bad news. good news is you look good (and no she wasnt hitting on me). Bad news is you missed the cutoff time by 3minutes"...

50 Miler - sta 5

2011-10-17T14:44:00.002-04:00

The halfway point - not gonna lie - i had a stupid grin when i got there. 25+ miles at 7:40min. At the rate i was going i was going to finish under my 16hr projection. I don't spend too long at this station bc im halfway done and, to quote me and coaching catch phrase, "it's all downhill from here"...

50 Miler - sta 3

2011-10-15T20:03:00.003-04:00

This was the longest distance between aid stations: 6.1 miles. The Rock Pile (cleverly named after the pile of rocks it was set up near by) marked 20 miles in. This would also mark the farthest i had run - ever!

In general - all the volunteers at the aid stations were extremely nice - this one was no exception. Got some very kind words from the guy who refilled my camelback and then it was off to the halfway point.

about 2miles in i see my ffl. she is on her way back. It was great to see her and that she was happy. i, on the other hand, was none too chipper. by this point i had come to realization that i am not a natural born runner and could think of nothing else but finishing the race so that i wouldnt have to run another race in my life - i was clearly getting cranky. a 30sec hi and bye and off i go again.

50 Miler - sta 2

2011-10-13T22:47:00.001-04:00

So I get to station one and my knee is hurting. took the first mile way too fast, did not preserve my shoes (really couldnt because the whole trail was muddy), and felt i was holding my ffl back. so i told her to leave me. next mile i was able to slow my pace down and get to the second aid station called the lift.

this is why:

if you zoom in, you'll see there is a guy in a red shirt on the hill that we had to climb. the hill was part of a ski slope (hence the station being called the lift for the ski lift). that was an awful way to run miles 10-14. off to the next station...

50 Miler - sta 1

2011-10-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

Finally got my timer hung on my wall at the box (thanks bean) and got to cook some food at my house tonight! so what did i do new on race day:

first time running with a camelback
first time running with a hip pack
first time running with a full hip pack
first time running in the dark
first time running without my self-created warm up

its raining at the start of the race saturday morning at 6am. its been raining since wednesday. one mile in, we hit mud.

first time running in the mud.

i always told my ffl during our runs to 'preserve the shoe' - good luck with that happening.

Dinner

2011-10-12T09:03:00.002-04:00

Had a good dinner with Jared where we commiserated about our respective 50milers - sometimes its good to just complain. here it goes.

the most important piece of advice any runner usually gives is: don't do anything new on race day. I knew that yet that's not the way it worked out...

1month

2011-10-11T09:01:00.001-04:00

Starting your own business is not for the faint of heart. It'll be a month this week that 615 Morris Ave (i.e. CrossFit Veracity) has been open and there are good days (when I have full classes and people pay me without asking) and bad days (when one person shows up and/or people skip classes because they haven't paid yet). Overall a rewarding experience - especially when a new person comes in, does their first wod, and afterward says, 'that was great!' Let's see how month two goes :)

Thank You

2011-09-14T23:48:00.002-04:00

Could not have done it without you guys - THANK YOU!!!

2 weeks

2011-08-25T11:18:00.001-04:00

LM - sent from my Droid

Sub 40?

2011-08-22T08:14:00.003-04:00

Dog Day 5 Mile Run in Surf City this past Sunday went really well! I hit the 3 mile mark at 23:08 - which would have resulted in my best 5k time since last year's half marathon training. Hit the 4 mile mark in 31:20 and then picked up the pace. Figured i could easily finish within the 39min mark. Got to the finish line at 40:18...

I remember these things because that was a great run for me - especially considering my lack of wodding and my hip issues the past two weeks. Got to the print out and expect to see a sub 40 and see 40:25?!? Either the timer on the road was off or i will lose faith in the compuscore system. The llocfme did great as usual - ffl got 3rd female overall and in only one week of training, the head of KDPI breezed in under an 8:40 pace :) Fell asleep at the beach for a little bit and had a productive Sunday evening.

Family comes home this week - and now my big 'day' is Thursday not Friday - as none of the principals will be there on Friday. Big changes ahead :)

Good News

2011-08-20T11:00:00.001-04:00

Meeting went extremely well on Wednesday night - they are going to recommend my change of use application for approval to the Planning Board on Sept 7! (Have i mentioned that Sept 8 cant come soon enough?) Went home to see Rebeca, Pat and Noah and saw Noah take not only his first step, but his first three steps! They were so confident - from the couch to his father sitting on the floor - we were all so shocked that he just.did.that. So we tried to get him to repeat the feet (haha) and this is the best i got:

ill definitely get better video next time i am home. Went out with Mike for some gimlets to finish off a very cool wednesday.

Thursday was pretty solid - went out to an awesome cuban dinner and paleo beer with the llocfme and while i couldnt exact my bowling revenge, i did whoop them in banagrams (and had i not received a "z" as my last letter in the second game, it would have swept the series that night). brain over brawn i guess ;)

Friday morning was interesting - on the way home from inspecting a new job site in newark, i saw a certain someone driving a certain german car and my heart stopped. first time in 7 weeks. couldnt really get into work mode when i got back to the office, so i went to my gym instead and got it ready for the upcoming week. overall it turned into a productive day.

hip has been out of whack since august 9th. (paleo hasnt been much better so im getting a fresh start on monday.) recovered and felt comfortable with it by tuesday night to do the endu wod:

5min on, 5min off
4min on, 4min off
3min on, 3min off
2min on, 2min off
1min on

i took it easy the first 5min and only got ~1050m. picked up the pace on the second round and got ~950m in 4min (i guess i took it really easy on my first 5min) third round ~750m ( i was really happy with that round) fourth round got ~525m. last round got 350m - slipping sweet! got to talk to a dad, who was at the track "coaching" his 10yr son to a 6:24 mile, after my wod about the benefits of cf and not LSD training. always spreading the good news :) overall i was very pleased with the evening - but my hip has paid the price since :/

i was supposed to do tabata treadmill this week - but pushed that off. need to get this checked out. i'll be sure to update on how my 10 mile time trial goes this sunday - if it gets done at all.

Photoshop Plug

2011-08-17T11:00:00.001-04:00

clearing my phone and was saving this picture to try and figure out what the heck this photo was:

tried inverting colors in paint - nada. enter photoshop:

(and after checking the timestamp) - its the only photo i took at Jason's wedding. my PI skills are getting better ;) but now it looks a little creepy so... im not saving it anymore.

Quickie

2011-08-16T14:34:00.002-04:00

Got to spend some quality time with the niece and the nephew (when he finally woke up that is). he's just about ready to walk! Weekend went fairly well starting with Friday night, then 4 newbies at the Sat class, then helping Bean and Sue pick out counter top for the kitchen in 'my shore house', then a housewarming party at my ffl's new place, and then a productive sunday that ended with me starting to watch TLOTR trilogy again :)

Big town meeting tomorrow that i got a phone call this morning about - seems like i will have to lead a discussion about the town's concern with my apparent lack of parking - keep me in your prayers!

Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising

2011-08-10T00:32:00.001-04:00

Bean and his dad Bob have been indispensable to me at my box - I can't thank them enough - but i attempt to by feeding them every time they help! As you can see, the final (major) wall came down today and the vision of having the room for more than two people to wod became a little more clear.

It may not be that clear to the naked eye - but i can see it!

I really tweaked my hip yesterday during the endu wod warm up - to the point where it hurts to walk. im taking tomorrow off from wodding (but ill still be cleaning up the above mess) so i hope to be healed and ready for my double session on Thursday.

Half of the Munoz clan came home today so i after the demo, i drove to Hillside to see them. Even though it was only a little over two weeks - Cecilia looks so much bigger! Can't wait to see the already ginormous Noah!

Filler

2011-08-08T23:55:00.002-04:00

Its the same day in, day out - wake up, engineer civily, coach, work on box, sleep, repeat - Sept 8 cant come soon enough. im clearly confused when i mix up a dc inspired tshirt with some marvel accesories

(see im slowing going nuts) Need to jot a few things down though.

going back on my definition of strict paleo for 30 days. told myself that 1.5 weeks ago but just finished the carrot cake that i bought this weekend before coaching today - so now its official since ive blogged about it.

why am i so good at the car game (the one where you can tell what make and model the car is from as far away as possible) and why does every car have to be a C300? its like Mercedes is giving them away - dont they know that hurts my feelings :/

tonight was an endu wod was 16x200m, 90sec rest with my ffl. we started it at 930p. averaged 38sec and stayed within 3sec of that (even though we were allowed 5sec deviation) so i was pretty happy about that. hope to get a reg wod in soon but i need to work on mobilizing my lower back more.

a small portion of my family returns from Portugal tomorrow - so it will be nice to see the nice and nephew again!

here are some in progress pics of the box:

front room before

front room after

back stairs before

back stairs after

shower may be the next big project...

The Book Rises

2011-08-03T01:14:00.002-04:00

Yup - i went there.

Saturday was a not as much of a recovery day as i had hoped for as i ended up being woken up at 1000a (less than 4hrs of sleep) and not going back to bed until later that night.

Hung out with the fam on Sunday as they all were leaving for Portugal and Spain for the month on Monday - must be nice :)

I volunteered to help transport them to the airport Monday night at 400p sharp (for an 800p flight that up until Sunday afternoon everyone thought was a 1000p flight) as i had to be back in summit to coach my CFV class. I show up at 440p and no one is even ready. That was hectic to say the least. Get a call from my dad the next day from his cell (didn't think it was a global phone...) and he informed me that he was unable to get on his plane due to administrative errors on his travel documents. wow. that is my family going on vacation in a nutshell.

Spent a good portion of the week starting the demo work on the box. even got some help from my friends:

reg wodding was relatively nonexistent but i kept up with my endu wods thanks to my ffl. i like the structure that being busy provides but looking forward to a break some point soon.

went to bean's house again on the weekend and took down four cabinets to put them back up closer to the wall (long story - dont ask) but i think we are finally done with the main parts of his kitchen

now all the married couple needs to do is pick a countertop already!!! (oh and they got a dog this weekend too)

this is week has been more of the same - but at least i am making killer progress on CFV. I finally got some coaches shirts

and the new stairs at the box should be done Thursday! not posting any more progress pictures online (figure its more prudent to not invite unwanted attention from the town that will mar my progress with inspection after inspection) - just a physical album at CFV once everything is done. now i need to go through and post new pictures on the CFV FB page

The Book - Part Deux

2011-07-27T00:17:00.001-04:00

Fri (cont.):

After getting my hair did, i spent some time at my parents house playing with Noah.

and that snazzy blue ensemble that he is wearing was something that i wore when i was his age (my mom's reason for saving EVERYTHING)

get back to Motown and start prepping the two outfits im going to wear to the wedding. Its a outdoor ceremony on the hottest day of the year. I start sweating peeling an orange (thanks Kevin James) so bringing a backup shirt was a prudent decision. however, there were plenty of other reasons beside the 100+ degree heat index that would cause my sweat glands to go into overdrive: im 99% certain this wedding was the cause of the Downhill and Sudden Stop phone call, my ex who was the indirect cause of me turning to CrossFit back in 2009 was going to be there, and one of my very good friends was going to give his own vows and he cries a lot. long story short - ceremony was hot but beautiful (he cried), reception was awesome (check out the dj station)

and got back to motown at 632am - which beat my previous best of 607am

Check back tomorrow for the epic conclusion to this trilogy...

The Book - Part One

2011-07-26T00:33:00.000-04:00

Ive been trying to post for the past few days but ive been a bit preoccupied - with what exactly (see title) i don't know...

Wednesday:

Did the following endu wod in the ridiculous heat wave at noon (thanks ffl):

3x 7min
3min rest

1400m, 1350m, 1375m. that's all i want to say about that because it was hot.

Then Pat, Rebeca, and Noah arrived in the states later in the evening! while only here for a bit (Pat left the next day for Bangladesh and Rebeca and Noah are going with my family to Europe) it was so great to see everyone together again!

KDPI figured out what my cryptic message was (servers did not crash however)...

Thurs:

Did a morning wod with my ffl:

14min AMRAP

7 push jerks, 115#
4 jumping lunges
3 clapping pushups
1 shuttle sprint

I think we both got 8 full rounds in but since we were not sure, i'll say officially it was only 7 rounds. the push jerks got heavy faster than i wanted them too. spent the evening re-writing my lease that i was going to hand in the next day. had a nice dinner at Molly Maguire's and came home to finally find my sport video camera that i was scouring the earth for about 1month for - suhweet!

Fri:

the big day - work was pointless as i was itching to meet my new landlord and get the keys to the place. my plan was to meet him at 1130a in Summit but of course i didnt leave work until 1140a. I get there and he had also re-written the lease (there goes 2.5 hours that i spent thursday night down the drain). we compromised on a few things... and i finally got handed my keys at 1240p!

Kurt's Kitchens is.... MINE (cue the maniacal laughter)! Now off to salvage what was left of my hair cut appointment at 1230p.

Ana - the one who has been dealing with my cowlicks since 2001 - asked if i was excited about signing my lease and i honestly said no. my practical side was regulating my emotional side (what else is new) and kept reminding me that i basically signed up for an extra mortgage payment for two years :/ but i was relieved that my search was finally over.

its getting late so ill post the wedding details in part two tomorrow...

Resting

2011-07-20T07:43:00.000-04:00

Went back to bed after i posted and didnt get to work until sometime after 9am. So much for wodding at 630am. work was work, i was dead tired all day, and it was extremely hot. Coached Nate at the 600p CFV class, went to food shopping and and came home with some Trader Joes Carne Asada - which i immediately cooked and was pleasantly surprised at how delicious (and nutritious - only herbs and spices added) it was for a supermarket brand.

i would say it was an unremarkable day but i just remembered i did something that i never thought i would do. (im being cryptic on purpose because i want to see who the real PIs are out there) if you do figure it out, keep it on the DL - i wouldnt want any servers to crash due to the rush of traffic.

Good Morning

2011-07-19T06:08:00.003-04:00

Not only am I apparently temperature sensitive, but I am light sensitive as well. In my defense, they could use the digital display on the air conditioner in my room as a search light atop a lighthouse. Nevertheless, here we are, in the 4am hour again. Got a request from an anonymous reader to update my blog so she has something to read during business meetings - so I figure might as well be productive while not being able to sleep.

Tues 7/12

Good class at Briant Park and had a great (hanger steak) dinner after - need to have more of those more often!

Wed 7/13

Lunchtime wod with the ffl.

4x800m
3min rest in between

This is ffl's shtick - she excels at running anyway - but especially at anything over 400m. I was dreading this for various reasons including knowing that I would be running 800m instead of 800 yards. I finished my first one in 3:27. I turn to ffl, knowing she averaged a consistent 2:51-2:52 when we did these last week at the park, and go to reaffirm her in case her time dropped and say:

"Keep in mind we ended up running more than last week - what was your time?"

"2:48"

In as calm a voice as I can because I'm trying to catch my own breath:

"OK (but I'm screaming 'Say what?!?!?' on the inside) - nice job keep it up!"

"What can I say, I have a lot of frustration and I'm taking it out on the track."

Did I mention she excels at running?

I wait my 3min and leave for my next 800m. I feel comfortable leaving my stopwatch on the track this time and already hurting after the first lap look down to see 1:49 on the watch - doesn't look too good for matching 3:27. End up with a 3:40. Discouraging but more motivating as I finish my last two rounds at 3:33 and 3:34. Ffl's worst round was 2:54 - outstanding!

Guest coaching at CF Motown went well - however I'm doing this to help them out by giving my time so other people can have actual days off but every single coach ended up showing up anyway. Albeit it was for a "coaches photo shoot" but still - it's a bit frustrating as I thought "why am I here?" I go home to remember its one week after rock bottom. Awesome. Decide to run some shopping errands and on the way home found out Tiffany's has late night happy hour with half price appetizers. Watched a movie to end the night.

Thurs 7/14

Woke up and paid the piper for the late night appetizers. Then met ffl for our reg wod:

24-18-12-6

KB Swings, 1.5/1.0pd
Dips
K2E

Only did 1.0pd as I am tepid about doing 1.5pd (I need to get over it at some point) and my rings had not come in yet so the dips were done on a bench that wasn't very comfortable. Finished in 9:17. I'm definitely programming more K2E as I feel they are much harder than T2B - if you actually get the knees to the elbows or above. I ended up doing 30 K2E my first round as I couldn't in good conscience count some of my reps.

Work was extremely frustrating as architects have no clue how changing the building footprint affects civil engineering design. (BTW - it does - and a lot too!)

Rings came in for the evening CFV class so that was cool. Afterward, visited my parents (and got to see Cecilia!) and stop at Chipotle's on the way back to Motown - only to cook more chicken once I get home. Something felt off (not my stomach again) though ...

Fri 7/15

Felt really rushed in the morning and email conversations once at work pretty much confirmed the prior night's uneasiness. Get through work, head over to put a deposit on CFV's new space and have to return to work (see above comment concerning architects) until 6pm. I was late for my 5mile time trial on a trail with ffl. Run was tough and I felt it in my knees a bit once we came in after about 59min - so next longer run, I really need to focus on proper running mechanics. An Arthur's burger after and Wii domination followed. Go to bed knowing a bad conversation was coming the next day...

Sat 7/16

3 Rounds:

15 Wallballs, 20, 14#
10 Burpees
5 HSPU

Had little motivation to do this wod but trudged through it finishing in 10:03. Lost a lot of time on the HSPU. Awful conversation on the curb afterward. Even more awful conversation on the phone.

I was supposed to meet a group of friends for a guy's beach day / jersey shore night but couldn't really find the motivation for that either. So I just go to Bean's house early (who by the way will be coming to his first CF class tonight!) to help install the stove and dishwasher. Just his luck though, his brandy new dishwasher leaks (and no, not from installer error). It's literally the never ending project. Sushi for dinner. Take some melatonin after the meal and its lights out within 30min - much needed rest.

Sun 7/17

Start the day with a great homily from a priest on loan to the church that I go to in Toms River when I visit Bean. Go to the beach for a few hours after church - my tan is (finally) getting solid. Spent a few hours talking to good friend of mine that I haven't been in contact with for over a year - so that was nice. Printed out some materials for CFV (see below) and happily had a quasi-back to normal Sunday evening.

Mon 7/18

Work was monotonous and the highlight of the day was getting to hang these up

:)

Then a endu wod with my ffl.

4x400m
3min rest in between

I was mentally shooting for sub 1:35 per 400m but we blazed through the first one at 1:17. Rounded up the remaining rounds 1:22, 1:23, 1:23. I was happy with my efforts. Gary the Bartender was entertaining at Scotty's for the post-wod meal - overall good day!

This is the (Circadian) Rhythm of the Night

2011-07-12T05:38:00.003-04:00

my chronobiology must be off - its 4:20a (no jokes please) and ive been wide awake for over two hours. (been doing some online CFV shopping and now its 500a.) since i last posted i got a call back from one of the places i saw on friday and set up an appointment to check it out around 730p and thats all i thought about at work. coached my reg 600p CFV class and then did the endu wod with my ffl.

10x200m - 90sec rest

we (I) had to remeasure our distance from last time as i was using a feet to yard conversion instead of a feet to meter conversion :/ first 200 was 41 sec - down from 36 sec last week - ugh. picked up the pace on the second round to 40 sec. even though we were running a longer distance - still not good enough. by the third round we got down to 38 sec and then managed 37 secs (with one 36 sec round in there if im not mistaken) for the remainder of the wod. I was pleased. then i went immediately to go check out this place.

I was going to post a video of the inside and the view (location, location, location - so good!) but i dont want to count my chickens before they hatch so i'll wait until i have something in writing from the landlord. needs some demo work but it looks very promising and im very excited! (also possibly why i couldnt really sleep tonight). next update tomorrow - hopefully after a full nights rest - and a contract in hand!

Treading

2011-07-11T10:58:00.009-04:00

Paleo was going well but i forgot to mention in my last blog that i had some questionable items at roy's going away dinner - by 'questionable' i mean not paleo at all and by 'items' i mean the mashed potatoes on my plate, this delicious garbanzo bean puree thingy from two other people's plates, and namely an apple berry cobbler (with vanilla ice cream on top) for dessert.

friday was crazier than i would have preferred. my plan: leave work at the typical half day friday time, go to 1210 mass, construct some more plyo boxes, go to my haircut appointment at 230p, help my brother-in-law with some pre-party set up, leave my parent's area by 400p and drive home looking for a location for CFV, then relax the rest of the evening. actual events: got to church only to be called back in the office until 220p. accordingly i did not leave my parent's house until close to 600p. no plyo boxes done. kind of stressful rest of the evening.

saturday did the wod with the regulars at CFV:

4 Rounds:

1min Box Jumps
1min KB Swings, 1pd
1min Abmat Situps
1min DU
1min Rest

Score is total number of reps after 4 rounds

i lost score after the first round but i remember getting around 20 step ups (ground was wet so no jumping), kb swings, situps, per round and 40 du per round. spent the rest of the day at the pool and then went to another going away dinner at night. party enchiladas = not paleo day two.

Sunday ran a 5k with my ffl. my dad and my two youngest sisters show up and my sisters immediately say that this is a very hilly, tough 5k. i dismiss their comments only to find out they were not exaggerating. clock time said 27min. I felt my chip time was quicker than that but compuscore has not updated it yet so im stuck with the 8:40 avg mile for now.

go home to help my dad get a new cell phone only to have him kidnap me to look at potential moving sites for the Muñoz fam. He is stuck on finding vacant land and building on it and it being move in ready in 3 months. having dealt with property development the last 7 years, i try to tell him that getting final approval from the township may take at least 3 months and he would still have to take into account the time from initial offer to closing PLUS the design/build time frame. its frustrating that he still wants to deal with that hassle (and i wonder where i get my stubbornness from).

go to tony's 30th bday party in his backyard. it's hot so im am extremely anti-social and basically spend half the time inside. my sister orders Lechon - which would have been paleo if it hadn't been pre-prepared within rice. add that to some birthday cake and its day 3 of no bueno paleo.

this morning my ffl came over and did a forthcoming CFV wod with me. i bust her chops a bit about having to spend all this time with her due to our 50miler training - but she is such a blessing to have as a friend - especially while im treading water with everything right now. i guess i really dont mind seeing her at 630a full knowing that ill have to see her again at 630p tonight for the endu wod :)

8-6-4-2-4-6-8
one arm kb power snatch into overhead lunge, 1pd/0.5pd

we both finished at 9:17 - probably both should have gone heavier

spent this morning at the office writing this up and looking up all the info on the possible locations i found for CFV on Friday - uber productive!

Guten Tag, Eh!

2011-07-08T11:42:00.003-04:00

So blogger has a new interface that give us bloggers cool stats - and apparently ive got a few more people reading my blog than i thought and there is a fair amount of traffic from outside the US - who knew.

Doing better today. I had some visitors from south Florida come specifically to check out CFV last night - pretty cool in and of itself - and then I overheard a compliment from Steve telling one of my regulars that I was a good coach and that he has visited a lot of CFs and is therefore qualified to make that statement. Immediate pick me up.

After class, went to Roy's going away dinner/get-together in Bville - good times with a great guy and I wish him and his family nothing but the best as they begin a 3-yr stint in London. The UK will now have one of the most ardent recruiters for CF that I've ever met.

geek out moment - while i missed my beloved veedub reaching the 222,222 mileage mark, i did manage to get this gem of number.

simple pleasures

Sudden Stop

2011-07-07T12:46:00.002-04:00

Woke up at 530a wed morning and since i couldnt go back to sleep i did an 18min amrap of:

3 strict pullups
6 deadlifts, 145#
9 medball cleans, 20#
200m run

was about 150m short of 7rounds - i was happy considering i had to go in and out of my front door in between rounds to get to the pullup bar. did some much needed stretching after the wod, got to work, and it was a fairly productive day at the office. after work, started my month long stint of guest coaching at cf motown on wednesday nights to help out my ffl's husband so that he gets to actually go home instead of basically living there. It was nice to be back. got home, watched part of the dark knight on bluray and finally got that pet peeve inducing delayed response - more on that later though.

another inconsistent night of "sleep" but managed to get out of bed in time to meet my ffl for an endu wod at 630a this morning:

4x800m
3min rest in between

3:13, 3:20ish, 3:30, 3:35

the best i could do was only 'meh' today - i didnt really stretch / warmup, i was just going through the motions (combo of waking up that early and lack of overall motivation), my mechanics were off, and to top things off, im not really sure what my time for my second round was. let me explain.

i come back from my second 800m run and see/hear this guy about 150 yards down the path beyond our starting/stopping point flailing his arms and whistling. i figure he's just trying to get my ffls attention - she's done before me every round (avg 2:52 per 800m) and she's extremely good looking in those lulu shorts (and any other article of clothing), so i initially thought nothing of it... until i cant find my timer.

so i jog over (during my rest mind you - and no need to meet my halfway or anything dude) and see this elderly gentleman swinging my stopwatch by its cord. apparently, he decided to pick it up ("no one leaves things in the path" - uh, sorry sir, but it was in the grass on the side of the path) because it never occurred to him that someone may actually be using it. i dont know, maybe the fact that there is nothing but runners / joggers / walkers using the path at that time in the morning, we sprinted past you, and that it was showing less than 2mins of elapsed time should have given him a clue that there was a slight possibility that someone else may have been in the process of using a timer on the side of circular path to, i dont know, TIME THEMSELVES - but maybe im just grasping at straws.

anyway, back to last night. so i finally hit the bottom of the hill that i started tumbling down on Thursday - per that return phone call. dont get me wrong - part of me is glad that i dont have to guess anymore - but the convo knocked the wind out of my sails. im trying to put a positive spin on it by focusing on the fact that i was honest and true to myself and the situation but it just stinks big time. i feel plain deflated. the night is always darkest before the dawn (yes, im that movie dork), but the serenity prayer is in perpetual repeat for the time being.

Downhill

2011-07-05T21:45:00.001-04:00

Blogging to you live from my bed - I'm too pooped to go to the next room and turn on my computer. That and my ac feels nice.

Did an 8x200m with 90sec rest in between each round with my ffl. Averaged 36sec. ok considering I find myself unable to focus recently. been saying the serenity prayer a lot as ive got a lot of crud going on :/ (Side pet peeve note - don't ever not respond to someone - send something!!!) I'm a thinker and I tend to let my imagination run wild with various possibilities - no bueno - I'm not at 100% and been really going downhill since thurs.

Went to my friend bean's house in toms river this weekend to help out install his new kitchen cabinets (see picture below). Fairly productive overall. (Ill share the story of diarrhea (sp?) of the mouth another time). Fam came over for a bbq and saw some cool fireworks yesterday. Work was eh today. Tomorrow is another day.

LM - sent from my Droid

Bumper Time

2011-06-29T11:55:00.004-04:00

I usually dont get the mid-afternoon lulls anymore since being at a standing desk now but yesterday was awful. Coached class after snoozing through work and then I had the pleasure of doing my wod with my ffl in Briant Park:

7 Rounds:

14 Deadlifts, 135/85#

7 Burpees

Shuttle sprint at the top of every minute

overall went well considering it was my first time actually deadlifting in a while. finished in 11:54. I am very excited to be using my new bumper plates - definitely going to start the Louie Simmons program again (great results last time) at home now.

Saw Super 8 - super good movie - i'm giving it a "solid" rating.

Dont go toward the white light

2011-06-28T11:50:00.001-04:00

Wed 6/22

Did the CF Motown wod of

Three rounds:
800m run
50 sit ups
25 medball cleans

the llocfme were there and they killed it with times of 19:57 and 21 something. I finished in 24:21. My situps went much quicker than i thought they were going to go and i flew through the medball cleans, it was my runs at around 5:00min after the first round, that really slowed my overall time down. I had a relaxing evening after.

Thurs 6/23

met my family for lunch at Friendly's and it was nice seeing everyone. (had a salad so Paleo still going great) at night i had a decent showing at CFV, cooked muffins for Griffin's going away party, went to bed after and then proceeded to die in my dream. i blew up actually. with a bomb that was planted on me disguised as a shirt button. i knew it was there and i knew it was a dream (ever since seeing the amazingness that was Inception - especially with the great company - ive been more cognizant of when i am in a dream... and its awesome!) and when the bomb went off i heard this loud WHOOSH sound followed by a blinding light only to wake to the soft hum of the fan in my room. it was trippy

Fri 6/24

still coughing but could finally breathe out of both nostrils in the morning. half day fridays at work are crucial to maintaining my sanity nowadays - really helps getting through the week. take a three hour nap once i get home from work, drive to Flemington for another going away party, then meet my ffl - bowling showdown time! long story short, I now need to make a batch of muffins for the winning team (yes it was 2 vs 1) but I'm going to suggest a double or nothing rematch though. Had some Raul's Empanadas at the end of the evening - first real cheat of my Paleo month. it was great to get the founding members of CFME together again!

Sat 6/25

Did an upcoming CFV wod of:

12min AMRAP
60m Walk w/ Barbell Overhead
7 HSPUs

HSPUs are a huge goat of mine and i usually do them with a band but alas there was no such place to attach a band at the wall in Briant Park and i ended 5 HSPUs short of my 5th round.

Drove straight to Lancaster, PA (sweat and all) to pick up some bumper plates, medballs, kettlebells, and recovery bands. $1800 later, im driving the 2.5 hour trip back. take a nap (two in one week is unheard of) and have a great rest of my evening.

Sun 6/26

home for church, had some Colombian food (a Paleo friendly combination of steak, plantains, and salad), went shopping, saw Green Lantern. unfortunately im giving it a wait on my movie rating scale - which was very disappointing considering it was one of the summer blockbusters i really wanted to see.

Mon 6/27

had an important lunch meeting for securing a location in Summit - didnt go as i was hoping (and had people praying for) but its a step in the right direction. it added another possible scenario to my list of existing scenarios and that only gives me more to think about (like i really need that). good news is that my ffl and her husband made it official and signed their new lease in motown - they'll be here 08/01 - its going to be bananas!

Measure Twice

2011-06-21T09:27:00.002-04:00

Did a wod yesterday with my new equipment:

21 Pullups
42 DU
400m Run

30 Pullups

15 DU

400m Run

9 Pullups

18 DU

400m Run

took me 13:58 - a little slow to say the least but i figured it was because i was breathing through my mouth the entire time (since my nose is still stuffed). Then i measured it this morning and the 400m i ran was actually 580m... so ultimately not horrible. Still need sleep/rest though

607am

2011-06-20T08:09:00.000-04:00

Got to the suite at the Borgata at 445pm Saturday afternoon and we didnt get back until 607am Sunday morning. the bachelor party was going great (if i could include details i would) until i had to deal with a belligerent best man - took the wind out of my sails after that - but the Jman (and all 16 of us) had a great time! For the most part I'm feeling a lot better but I really need to catch up on sleep though - today started my coaching 3x per week and i know that's going to take a toll...

Neti Pot and Nyquil

2011-06-16T20:36:00.000-04:00

Took some Nyquil about a half hour ago and I'm finally feeling sleepy - need my rest for a big Bachelor party weekend in AC :) However, its been a rough few days notwithstanding me feeling sick and being unable to wod: a couple of my regulars at CFV had work come up and couldnt make the wods and Noah and Rebeca left for Nicaragua. And even though Noah got me sick before he left, it's worth feeling miserable if he was around - I miss him a lot already.

Take me out to the ballgame

2011-06-13T21:41:00.001-04:00

Blogging to u live from yankee stadium. Jeter got hit 2,993 but the yanks are down 1-0

I'm having a good time with all my sisters - especially rebeca as she loves the yankees! We found out that her, patrick, noah, and the other one on the way :) will be moving to Laos for 2 years at the end of the summer - hopefully we get another game in before the even bigger move

Last week was fairly nonstop - stating with a mon visit to dr. Chris, a Tues visit with the folks, a blur until Sat when I finished building the remaining 5 boxes (and restarted my xbox live gold account), and Sun was another family dinner

Paleo has been going great with no cheats (though close, mashed sweet potatoes are not a cheat), work wants me to put in overtime (in all my spare time of course), and I'm still actively looking for a place for my box to call home... but hopefully there will be really good news about it by week's end though :)

LM - sent from my Droid

Google Leonardo Munoz

2011-06-13T15:09:00.004-04:00

Knowing that i don't have an account on facebook, my sister (who graduated high school last week - YAY) once again remembered that i have a blog after i mentioned i was posting pictures of Noah and Cecilia online. in typical smart alex.p.keaton fashion, i refused to forward her the link to this blog (and played the 'im the older brother who so often gets forgotten - woe is me' card as long as i could) and told her to find it herself. google came to her rescue** and she has been pestering me to post about her graduation ever since. i blogged about it (see bold words above) so i think she can stop pestering now :)

Here is the picture i was going to post of my niece and nephew taken at a BBQ (actually, it was at the more appropriately termed cookout) i attended last Wednesday - where they were looking adorable as usual.

though im going to yankee game tonight - ill do my best to post recaps for the past two weeks from my phone (bc droid does) during all the downtime that occurs when watching baseball...

**try it yourself - some of the more humorous information i found out about myself was that i:

apparently like flexing my lats

have two parents (...really spokeo?...)

need to update my LinkedIn profile (feel free to add me and my sweater to your professional network though)

First Class

2011-06-06T21:42:00.001-04:00

So this week is the first week i'll have to do two early morning classes so in the interest of keeping things short, i'm just going to give my extremely quick review of Xmen: First Class. (that and blogger wont allow me to post pictures so i wait to write about the weekend until tomorrow). Very very solid movie with some great cameos, K-Bacon was a great casting choice, and while over two hours long, it did not seem like it dragged at all. unfortunately it wasnt a superhero movie. It was a james bond movie that happened to have superheroes as the main characters. overall, i liked it better than Thor and it should have some legs carrying it throughout the summer- next up GL on 6/17!

Always use spellcheck

2011-06-03T08:04:00.001-04:00

First day of classes went really well. I got back into the role of coach - the main issue that was giving me ajeda the night before - more easily than I expected. So i treated myself to an arthur's burger - sans bun of course - which brings me to my next point that my paleo challenge has been going extremely well too!

unfortunately all this good news got coupled with a bit of bad news. In the middle of the evening wod, the landlord that i was expecting the lease from sent me an email saying she signed a lease with someone else. This after many phone calls and emails since the middle of May asking her to send me a lease that I could sign. Inconsiderate and spineless are two words, among others, that come to mind - overall it was and is very frustrating. Reminds me of the process that i had to go through when i was buying my house. The first one that i really wanted slipped right through my fingertips - twice... before I found the house that i am currently in - witch (that is what that word means right?) is way better than said original house.

I'm hoping this means there is a bigger better place for CFV to call home in my near future :)

Wide awake

2011-06-01T22:58:00.001-04:00

I am really, really, ridiculously nervous about tomorrow. I have a few confirmed attendees for my evening class and I'm hoping that my early morning inst just me doing the first official CFV wod by myself :/ but maybe thats an appropriate way to start considering how everything has gone so far. im experiencing so many thoughts and feelings right now - some great and some not so great - that i feel like my brain will not shut down for the evening. i hope that my nightly prayers give me the calm that i need so i can get my rest tonight.

im going to make it a policy that I will not post the wods until the day after they are done - so here's a first and last sneak preview:

4 rounds
200m sprint
12 alternating lunges
50m bear crawl
12 air squats
50m bear crawl
12 burpees

Arch Enemy

2011-05-31T11:26:00.000-04:00

There it is. Both a highlight and a bane of my existence. The carrot cake.

I started with a little over half of the cake left but I managed to inhale of quarter of it in one sitting. This is, to quote my wanna be hispanic ffl, no bueno. hopefully you readers (all 2 of you) - will help hold me accountable to my commitment that starting today - May 31 - I'll be doing a one month paleo challenge.

What's in: heavy cream (in moderation) and alcohol (no sangria = sadface). alcohol will be limited to 3 drinks per calendar week starting monday and ending on sunday.

What's out: definitely my three big sticking points - cakes (ie any dessert), french fries, and rice (no sushi = sadface) - and of course all other non- paleo food (pizza, pasta, etc).

Fyi - i finished the rest of that carrot cake yesterday.

Weekend update to follow shortly.

He's Back!!!

2011-05-25T01:10:00.001-04:00

Was contemplating doing the cf motown wod all day monday:

5 rounds
5 deadlift, 305#
10 t2b
20 du

i was a bit weary because of my mental block concerning my back (having decimated it back in the end of january) and just having done a deadlift wod on thursday - but i opted to go for it anyway. decided on 185# and finished the wod in 6:41. All my deadlifts were tap and go and my double unders were for the most part unbroken - which was awesome. my t2b left something to be desired - but ill chalk that up (womp womp womp) to having dainty hands from not consistently wodding in a while.

more importantly my sister and noah came home to visit from nicaragua - and I got another project off my desk at work - so far a solid beginning to the week. Now its picture time!

Here is me seeing my godson in person for the first time since January:

On top of having 6 teeth, he's crawling now so this is him in motion:

Clearly this is Noah in his pensive mood:

This is a picture of the whole fam damily (minus brother in law Pat who will be joining us this saturday) at dinner:

And finally a Happy 28th Birthday to my sister Angelica (5/24) - I love you!

My first box... sorta

2011-05-23T10:12:00.003-04:00

quick recap for the past few days

Thurs:

did the cf motown wod of:

9min AMRAP
4 Snatch grip deadlift
5 clapping pushups

i was paired up with lauren's brother - a first timer - and it was nice to actually coach someone through a wod again. he was getting frustrated that he wasnt doing it right but i wasnt going to allow him to injure himself - he ended up getting 11 rounds though.

Rx was 205# but i went with 185# and a regular grip. I felt strong and was able to really focus on maintaining the form especially when bringing the weight back down. and i did all my clapping pushups unbroken so i guess my at-home work on legit pushups is paying off. Apparently i ended up with 17 rounds - but i wasnt counting so i'll take that really high number (in comparison Griffin, who Rxed, only had 15 rounds) with a grain of salt.

Then it was ffl time - which i always look forward to (and she never disappoints). as an added bonus, it turned into LLOCFME time and as usual it was awesome!

Fri:

it was nice to have that sore feeling from the week's wods. had a nice relaxing evening and tried out Molly Malones in Whippany for the first time - great atmosphere and solid burgers too!

Sat:

Wanted to print out postcards for the Lululemon Deadlifts and Downdogs event that morning so i got into work at 630am, set the alarm off, and broke the printer:

please note the disassembled printer covered in blue (not supposed to be blue btw). Left with nothing except a visit from the cops for setting the alarm off. Fast forward to the event and it was so nice to coach with Mike D again. I'm a little rusty but i think overall all the yogis (they call themselves that and I'm running with it) had fun and that's what was important! Wedding later in the evening in pennslytucky was interesting.

Sun:

Partially recovered from the wedding and built plyo boxes with my good friend jason.

long day but very productive - thanks again bud!

Doran

2011-05-18T08:45:00.000-04:00

Already two days into the week and two wods in - wahoo!

21-15-9
Dips
Squat snatch

Rx for the snatch was 95# - I did 65#. Griffin was coaching and I finished in 14:10. I can't express how highly I think of Griffin as a coach - he's always composed and extremely knowledgeable - just great guy all around so if you have an opportunity to be coached by him - go for it and you wont be disappointed. I wasnt, however, as thrilled with my time of 14:10 - the wod was designed to be finished in sub 12 min... I fell once, failed two other reps and that was only at 65#. My form was off at the beginning and that really tired me for the rest of the wod. Also, i never underestimate dips as one of my biggest goat is the closely related pushup (I am up to 47 unbroken LEGIT pushups however - 60 is my next mini goal) but by the end of the wod, i was doing sets of one :/

next wod was:

5 rounds
60' bear crawl
5 push jerks
200m run

Rx was 135# and since i think my jerk technique is solid, i Rxed it. I wanted to go all out and not check times, but the way mike d lined us up in a stagger start for the bear crawl i was put right by the white board. I saw the madden brothers' times of 9:35 and 8:14 Rx - something to shoot for. I really focused on keeping my midline stable during the jerks and felt as if i pushed the runs more than usual - finished with 9:47 Rx. I felt good about my performance. Unfortunately i then saw the 615a class times: four beasts had sub 7min times! I really gotta get back on the wod wagon!

Happy Birthday Kristen! Your domination knows no bounds!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-05-16T13:03:00.000-04:00

So i was suppose to go to pennslytucky but i decided to sit around my house and do nothing on Sat - i read some, changed my blog around a little (maybe you noticed), did some work outside - overall fairly lazy. i was probably so zapped from using my new standing desk all week at work. I tend to stop using/doing things cold turkey - fruits for my first paleo challenge, cushion heeled nikes for inov8s, cocaine, sitting at work - and every time i give up something cold turkey, i am reminded that while my motivation for the change is good, my impatience to get to that good place sometimes gets the best of me. in summation: it's a workout to stand up (maintaining good posture mind you) literally all day - try it if you have a job where you sit down at a desk or in front of a computer and you dont believe me.

during the week, i was talked into running the motown half marathon. decided on doing half of the half as a relay with my dad. i woke up at 600am Sunday morning to a torrential downpour. i was really hoping that my dad would not want to run so i called just to check but i knew what his answer would be before i even dialed his number. luckily the rain stopped, we get to the race, but my dad, being the runner that he is, decided on running the entire half by himself so i ended up running half of the half with my youngest sister - go figure. end my day out with a bbq a jareds for his bday - fun time and saw his garage gym - sweet!

i was only kidding about the narcotics - drugs are for bugs. truthfully - ive never even inhaled actually - scouts honor.

Smallville Finale Party!

2011-05-13T19:29:00.002-04:00

Got some great news on Tuesday! Looks like I'll be co-coaching a Lululemon event with Mike D at Briant Park in Summit! Can't wait to coach with him again! Picked up the packet for the morristown super hero half marathon im running as a relay with my dad on Sunday and got two wods in this week so far:

10, 9, 8..3,2,1
Squat cleans
30 double unders

Rx was 155# but i only did 115#. finished in 21:51

Partner wod: 8 rounds (each)
200m
Dumbbell push press

Maggie partnered up with me (she didnt really have too much of a choice) and we both used 25# and got 377 reps in 18:45

hoping to pick up some equipment tomorrow- however, its in pennslytucky... so if you dont hear from me by monday, come find me in the sticks - please

and yes - im that dork in the title

Steering Rack

2011-05-10T09:02:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have never had the privilege of driving a car without power steering - you're not missing much. It happened to my beloved VW last week sometime and came to a head on Cinco de Mayo. Something as simple as making a right hand turn became an all out arm wrestling match with a 2000lbs of steel - it's funny what you take for granted. Exercised home last night to switch cars with my brother-in-law and now I'm driving the polar opposite of a hatchback - a Ford Expedition with the added bonus of a super real time gas gauge that I can see decrease as I'm driving to the end of my driveway. Oh well - I'm going to be using it for a while to lug all my CF equipment to and from the park until I get my box set up. Hess is going to see an increase in business from me - even though it doesn't matter where you get fuel.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T10:39:00.007-04:00

Yesterday went extremely well for Jared and Rebekah. First 50 mile distance for both - and on a (very technical) trail no less - and Rebekah came in at 12:35 and Jared at 14:08. I was honored to pace Jared between the Camp Lanowa Aid Station (27.7) and the Tiorati Aid Station (34.2). He really gave it his all (this is after already running more than a marathon), decreased his mile split, and made the cutoff time to be able to continue the last 16 miles with less than one minute to spare! The longest run for either of them (using CF and CFE of course) was less than 10 miles and they were in high spirits the entire time - so proud!

Also, my obsessive compulsive behavior can subside a bit as I am finally on the CF main site - WAHOO! Look for me as the first affiliate in Summit, NJ :)

And a very Happy Mother's Day to my Mom (Mami) and my sisters (Angelica and Rebeca) - I love you all very much.

About CFV

2011-05-06T09:27:00.002-04:00

It's been a rougher road than expected but it's getting very very close. I've hesitated posting as I didn't want to be premature (...) in any way shape or form but I've gotten the email from Kathy Glassman herself that my site is approved to be on the main site. I've been checking incessantly - it's borderline obsessive compulsive behavior. Hopefully CFHQ does what they have to do soon - for my own sanity.

In the interim I'll be part of Rebekah and Jared's crew for Saturday's endurance challenge. Reading the description here i second guessed me pacing them. I want to be as motivating as possible and I'll only be doing at most 9.7 miles (compared to the 50 they are each doing) so I hope to be able to help. I figure if i sing during the run along the mountainous terrain, they'll want to finish as quickly as possible.

Fran 2011

2011-01-19T00:02:00.001-05:00

Hit two good wods last week as i eased back into things after two weeks of doing a total of three wods:

4 Rounds
25 Med Ball Clean Wall Balls
50 Double Unders

16:03

Team Wod
400m row Timekeeper
Box Jumps, 24"
T2B
Rings Dips
Rest

31:28ish

I was feeling good until i saw Fran come up for yesterday. it was supposed to be my New Years Eve wod and i hadnt done it because i was under the weather so i was a bit hesitant about doing it at all. my PR was 6:18 and that was at my Level I cert exactly 364 days prior. I decided to do it and just aim for sub 7min as i had been eating 95% paleo (up 94% from the entire period between Thanksgiving to New Years Day) for a solid two weeks and because i was egged on by some fellow crossfitters. I also remembered that i felt pukie during the MBCWB/DU wod - and that was good thing because it meant i was finally getting past that semi-comfort zone and pushing until it really really hurts - which is what needs to happen in order to get a good fran time.

as Coach Mike D is giving the final instructions, i kept telling myself "its just less than 7 minutes of hard work, its just less than 7 minutes of hard work..." i didnt look at the clock until i was done - new PR of 5:11! I can neither confirm nor deny that i did a tiger fist pump. Sub 5min is right there if i can work on keeping my butterfly pullups consistent!

So im eating very very well recently and wodding seems to be getting back to normal - next goal is to start seeing Dr. Chris on a regular basis again!

Anew

2011-01-07T18:42:00.000-05:00

I started feeling a little under the weather the day after Christmas. (I totally attribute it to my horrible eating habits starting on Thanksgiving.) New Year's Eve went well enough - although i didnt get to wod - and then things really went downhill fast. I'm finally feeling better after taking some antibiotics and today off from work for what appears to have been a sinus infection. Needless to say i only got to wod once this week and that was on Monday:

15min AMRAP

5 deadlifts, 255#
10 C2B pullups
25 Double unders

I finished with 5 rounds plus 3 deadlifts - not too shabby. some even better news though is that i managed to beat Karianne in a wod before 2010 ended!

500m row
5 rope climbs
25 ring dips
50 air squats

6:48 to her 7:23 :p

Looking forward to next week (when i can wod healthy) although my sister is leaving to go back to Nicaragua with Noah after being in the states since Christmas Eve. I'm very happy that I got some quality time with her, her husband, and my nephew/godson this Christmas season. It was so awesome to see the whole family together again and I got some good pictures too:

it took a while for Cecilia and Noah to both smile at the same time - so i just had to force a smile while i waited to catch this gem (definitely worth it!)

Blizzapolis II

2010-12-27T21:50:00.002-05:00

On the way home to Motown after lunchtime, there were no less than 4 cars STRANDED on Route 78. i felt like i was driving through a disaster movie - i mean who literally leaves their car (overnight mind you) on a US expressway?!?!?

When i got to my abode, i was greeted by this lovely gesture:

please note the mountain of snow directly in front of (and therefore blocking) my driveway. its not a snow drift. Merry Christmas to you too neighbor...

got to the box early to wod before the 630p class but it wasnt early enough. luckily Krissy was able to wait around for me to do the wod after the 715p class before she gave me a ride home (thanks again). Did:

21-15-9
SDLHP, 75#
HSPU

Rx for the SDLHP was 95# but i had been shoveling snow at my parents all day so i didnt feel like throwing out my back for the week. also, i still need to use bands for the HSPU. Finished in 7:58. though not a stellar time - i was glad i did it.

Blizzapolis

2010-12-27T10:34:00.000-05:00

So im stuck at my parents house and as you can see from the picture below:

there is not one, but two cars blocking the road - effectively preventing our street from being plowed. I hope to get to the gym tonight to coach...

100% for today

2010-12-21T00:10:00.001-05:00

Finally fixed my BSOD by doing a clean install of xp sp3. SO... i should be back to posting regularly (as i made a commitment not to do too much CFM or CFME stuff at my first 9-5 anymore).

Did today's wod:

500m row
3rnds
15 Pullup to K2E
15 Deadlift, 225#
500m row

finished in 20:28 as rxed - slow but it was the best i could do for today (still frustrating though). ripped up my left hand (but i did it actively working on my grip strength) and had to deal with a 23 person class (again). Long day but i went home to see my mom for her birthday (I love you mami) after coaching and had a delicious almond, coconut cake with cream cheese topping. looking forward to bed!

Outkast

2010-12-08T21:35:00.001-05:00

went out with the endoers for dinner/drinks and played trivia at Sona 13 until after midnight last night (crazy!)

Did an endu wod today: teams of 3 - one person does 200m at a time - each person must complete six 200m sprints - it didnt end up being timed but it felt good to be on the track again. did the pullup iso holds in the gym after - very humbling - i was shaking like a polaroid picture.

Festivities

2010-12-06T22:12:00.001-05:00

While i didnt get the opportunity to take pictures at the wedding (lighting was way to dim for my droid) i can assure you it was an awesome time with plenty of dancing.

did the wod today:

100 Double unders

90' bear crawl

80 Air squats

70 box jumps, 20"

60' Rope Climbs

50 1 arm KB swings, 55#

40 Sit ups

30 Burpees

200m run

10 HSPU

Took me 25:27. i didnt check the clock but i swore i was done with my run before the 20 min mark which means my 10 measly HSPUs (which i tried rxing but ended up with one of the "thinner" white + blue bands for a few reps and then some without bands but head to two abmats) took over 5mins :/ hopefully i can get in a good wod tomorrow but i just found out im coaching the 615a class in bville so it looks like a long day – Where in the world is Manny Rolon?

Read

2010-12-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

last night at the rehearsal dinner for a friend of mine whom i've known since grammar school, the almost newlyweds put on slide show. i need to get that incriminating picture of me from them. think of a st. pattys day green sweatshirt and sweatpants ensemble on me when i was maybe pushing 85#... oh the horror.

told myself i was going to wod this am but my back is still sore from the improper deadlifts - i may show up at the competitors wod on sunday as ive really slacked this week. just got back from the beautiful wedding ceremony where I was asked to be a reader - everything went great. off to the reception now - ill post pictures later if i can.

Early

2010-12-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

Went to Jodi's surprise 40th party last night and had a great time seeing and chatting with everyone (literally) outside of the crossfit box - especially all the bville people that i havent seen in a while. took the day off from wodding as i was still sore since my 8:07 Wednesday wod:

5 rounds
15 deadlifts, 135
15 box jumps, 20"

my deadlift form went to crap fairly quickly as i was trying to bang out the 15 deadlifts unbroken - i think its bringing the weight back down that throws me off so i should practice negatives. Griffin is the man as he finished the wod in 4min and change - i think he weighs 135# soaking wet!

Been a while

2010-12-02T07:48:00.000-05:00

Can't believe its been over a month since i last posted. Nothing terribly new to report - my sister is doing great in Nicaragua, my enduers did awesome at the Philly half, finally getting settled into a 5day work week again. looking forward to completing the CF Motown 25day challenge (and telling myself to keep the posts short so i blog everyday).

Push Up

2010-10-26T00:29:00.000-04:00

Good times all around on Saturday evening - definitely made up for Wednesday night about ten-fold. Went to church with the fam on Sunday and we all went out to lunch at one of our usual Colombian spots in Elizabeth. i specifically ordered the platter with the rice and beans. Not sure if this article had to do with my recent string of poor nutritional choices, but i hope to be better motivated so i can perform at my best during the wods.

I think my rating system for movies that are already out on dvd is going to adhere to the following: buy it, rent it, wait for cable, avoid at all costs. I determined this as i watched Rob Zombie's Halloween II. My rating - rent it. while it was very good, i just couldnt give it a buy it rating due to the brutal way most of the victims in the movie "bought the farm" - watching once is fine but its not something that i would want to own to watch over and over and over again.

Mon 10/25/10

Got to work early with the intent not to leave until i finally got this project (which involves requesting a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection for a routine culvert replacement) that has been sitting on my desk for months submitted for review. Mostly administrative stuff but it needed to get done. Left the office at 545p.

due to some new guidelines at the box, i did not have the requisite amount of time prior to class starting to do the wod - so i was going to have to do it on my own after everyone left. Great.

15-12-9
Thrusters, 115#
Clapping Push-Ups

Watching everyone go through it revealed that the wod was a lot tougher than it looked. Double Great. After the last class, I warmed up really well - and I guess should sport a goatee more often as I had a small audience to cheer me on (thanks for staying everyone) - then 3,2,1.. go and banged the first 15 thrusters unbroken. i was feeling really good. the next 15 clapping push-ups smacked me from the small pedestal i had just put myself on. Push-ups are such a goat for me - i just fatigue so quickly. I had to do sets of 3. Overall i finished in 6:54 and that was with two missed lifts, a fall down, and doing 1 clapping push-up at a time in the third round. the last few push ups did not have the greatest form either as my shoulders were coming up before my hips - but it is what it is. Even though the fastest times were sub 5 minutes, I never deceived myself that i would get below 5:45 - so i was extremely happy with my effort.

Went shopping after my wod - unfortunately Walmart rolled back its rollback price for its no sugar added applesauce from $1.50 to $1.78 - but i found some skirt steak at the supermarket that i made immediately when i got home. Delish!

Recovery

2010-10-23T15:20:00.001-04:00

Thurs 10/21

Glad i had a friend come over after the miseducation of LM on wednesday night who was able to bring to my attention, on thursday afternoon, that i (among other things - dont ask - really) threw up around 330a that morning. a proverbial light bulb finally turned on and it reconciled why i felt so awful while at work that day with the events of the previous night- i was working on a completely empty stomach and less than 5 hours of sleep. Thank you for being, to quote my alleged repeated phrase from the hennessey, jack, vodka, and gin session, "so good to me" and for cleaning up so i wouldnt have to the next morning - i owe you HUGE.

Needless to say Thursday was not the most productive day at work, i skipped the wod, and barely made it co-coach my endu class with Jared. It was the endoers new 1RM day and i was excited for them as they had been doing really well during the louie simmons powerlifting series. everyone posted gains of at least 10# in their back squat and 10# in their deadlifts - which is awesome - everyone except one llocfme. she was fighting a huge mental battle that cost her any gains that day. as a coach i should have been prepared to handle that scenario that day and i should have intervened sooner but i wasnt thinking properly since i was handling my own scenarios (which i had determined by that point that my scenario has never actually happened in real life and only occurs in rom-coms and so effectively it didnt really happen to me). My life needs to have its ducks in a row at home in order for me to be the best that i can be for the people i'm servicing - and i like to provide quality full service that people can depend on. moral of the story: i learned not to be an idiot and set myself up for drama, especially mid week.

Friday 10/22

Woke up refreshed, ate well throughout the day, finally got word from my sister and noah (YAY!) that they are settled in their new home in Nicaragua and thats its nice and warm down there. the prospect of a vacation in the near future is extremely high! decided i was healthy enough to do the wod at the 545p class:

For time:
1000m Row
200 Double Unders
1000m Run

i finished my row in 3:44 and i was able to string mostly 15 doubles unders at a time but could/should have gone through them a little faster. i didnt check my time as i left for the 1000m run but it felt fast and i finished with a time of 14:36. im happy with that considering the best time for the day was 13:16. went home - had some organic chicken breasts and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sat 10/23

Met the endoers who weren't going to The Hunt for a wod at the track and they all went at max effort. Spent the day at home doing various chores and looking forward to a fun evening out in NY.

Bittersweet

2010-10-21T08:49:00.002-04:00

Had a crazy day at work on Tuesday so i couldnt get to the lunchtime wod and i barely got to the gym before the 545p class that i had to coach so i didnt get to wod. Classes went well (it seemed as if everyone liked the new 800m run) but for some reason my onramp ran very late and i didnt get started with the endu class until 850p. right there i knew that getting up early was going to be tough - even though i had to get up early because i need to take a long lunch from my regular 9-5 to see my sister off at the airport the next day.

Next day: I get to my parents house and my mom is crying. Not a good way to start the trip to the airport. Got to hold Noah and put him to sleep before helping my sister zipper close all of her bags. it was surprising that she only had 6 pieces of luggage considering she was leaving for the year but then i remembered that only a little less than 2 months ago the fire in their apartment pretty much destroyed everything - then i was really surprised that she had 6 pieces of luggage to take. It was mostly noah's stuff though. did my best not to tear up - but it happened anyway. Im not going to lie, i thought i was going to be the tough guy but it went a lot worse than expected as the whole family was helping her bring all the bags into the airport. i was consoled by the fact that she was happy/excited about starting this new chapter in her life - and that i saw the econfirmation ticket for her return in mid january.

didnt get a chance to wod because i took a long lunch and stayed at work late. I was looking forward to a nice evening (rented Minority Report on bluray) but then got schooled in my own kitchen - subject: douchebaggery. Night did not end well at all. i drank with the hope that today goes better. just got up and finished typing this blog. note to self: the day will not be better when you finish a whole bottle of hennessey and you have to work the next day...

Blustery

2010-10-18T23:39:00.001-04:00

Well official results are still not posted online for the 5k from saturday - but based on my playlist, i did not PR. Its not as heartbreaking as i would have originally thought as it was very windy and i didnt properly hydrate the night before / day of (so part of me wasnt expecting a PR), but I probably could have gone a bit harder in mile 2 - i dropped off my targeted pace by over 30secs - i dont know what happened so that's my only regret. I'll post the time once i know exactly what that was. The endoers took the nifty little surprise (after the 5k, rest 4min then run 2miles, rest 2min then run 1 mile) like champs. i felt bad when they said they thought the nifty little surprise was that they were finally going to get their shirts - to quote coach mike, sadface. read here for more on the 5k.

After the 5k, I went to my church in Hillside for Cecilia's baptism (she didnt even wake up when the priest was pouring the holy water on her head) and her party (below is a picture of us dancing there).

I love her - she is so easy to hold! Saw the new Bruce Willis movie Red - it receives a designation of wait. Sunday i went pumpkin picking with the family and had them over my place for an impromptu bbq. It was bittersweet because it's probably going to be one of the last family functions - where the entire family is there - for a while since Rebeca is leaving on wednesday for Nicaragua for a year - and she is of course taking my godson Noah. Im going to miss them both very much and im not looking forward to wednesday at all.

after the family left, i went out to watch football and drank more than i was planning - being hungover is not the best way to start a Monday in case anyone was wondering. I skipped out of work early today - in part due to my lackadaisical attitude stemming from my hangover - to do my CF Total and went up 20# in my back squat but went down #20 in my deadlift for a total of 715#. (In comparison, i watched a video of Dave Lipson get a total of 1400#.) I should have gone up in the deadlift but i didnt check my previous 1rm and went way too heavy on my first attempt. this just further motivates me to start the louie simmons powerlifting so that next time i can break the 750# mark. Everyone in the classes i coached did really well. Then i did a short little metcon wod at the coaches meeting:

10-8-6-4-2
Front Squat, 115#
Burpee

First one to break three minutes with 2:54. I was happy with my time and effort and most importantly that it was a productive coaches meeting. Was given some more work to do in terms of organizing the program for a incoming group of cyclists - which is cool but only adds to the list of things i need to do. now all i need are more hours in the day :)

Keep on Truckin'

2010-10-15T23:08:00.001-04:00

Thursday started off well enough - productive at work, i was fairly good nutrition wise, and i was excited about doing the wod.

5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5
Muscle Ups
Deadlifts, 315#

I wasnt underestimating it - i was definitely nervous about doing 29 muscleups and i had already decided that i wasnt going to Rx the deadlift and go for just 285# - i was excited because it was going to be a good, challenging, technique intensive workout. I also "liked" the fact that the 9 rounds descended down the ladder only to ascend it at the end - a very different component that we dont usually encounter. one of the many great ways to constantly vary things.

I wanted to go to Bville to do it because i hadn't seen Griffin in a while but decided that in order to help Jared out for onramp at 715p (so we could both be on time for endu at 820p) that i needed to do the 630p motown class. I get there and its a full house - about 13 people and we only have 4 sets of rings where muscle ups (for taller people) can be performed. i decided to do the bar muscle up to not further clog the rings up. first two rounds went fine - i was really paying attention to my form on the deadlift as i ended up doing 295# - got to round three of the muscle ups and i just couldnt get that third one done. I must have had over 10 failed attempts. very frustrating to see people get two, three, four rounds ahead of you and i seriously contemplated stopping once i got to round 5 (the 1 muscle up / 1 deadlift round)...

i figured no one would notice - i would be way more coherent when helping jared coach - and i did at least half the workout - which, according to the rationalization that was going on in my head, was nothing to be ashamed of. luckily i reminded myself of the only time that i quit during a wod (first month of crossfitting in bville - did 4 rounds of something instead of 5) and how much i still regret not being able to say that ive never quit a workout. i thought about leading by example and how disappointed i get when im coaching and people just stop putting in the effort. i decided to drop my deadlift weight to #275 after round 5 - and i ended up going to jumping muscle ups in rounds 8 and 9 - but i kept on truckin through the wod and while everybody was wrapping up their cool down stretching and jared was starting his onramp class - i finally finished with a time of 24:42. i was as happy with not quitting as i was appreciative that most of the athletes stayed to cheer me on until i finished. and im pretty sure it was 24 minutes and something - i wasnt really paying too much attention to the time as i was tired. oh, that and during the jumping muscle ups i clocked myself in the face with the rings and gave myself a slightly blackish eye

For the remainder of the onramp class and the endu class - i was walking around with a cold beer can compressed to my face. since then ive come up with better stories that sound believable and are more masculine in nature than getting roughed up by gymnastics rings - clearly not to be confused for the more user friendly gymnicetics rings that i should have been on... Had a good time at Tashmoo after.

Friday was terribly unproductive at my other 9-5 as it was the first official friday back at work and i was still on "fridays off" mode. came home took a nap (awesome!!!), went to the box to get one of the llocfme caught up on her speed powerlifting (tight form = great job), had some chipotles for dinner (always good times), and i am looking forward to getting a PR in the 5k tomorrow. im also anxious about the nifty little surprise jared and me have in store for the endoers afterward...

Things not to do by yourself

2010-10-13T23:54:00.005-04:00

A) Mountain Climb - make sure your belayer is paying attention though
B) Get Married - that's just akward on so many levels
C) Wods that have 6 rounds in them

Holy moly was the lonely component a factor for today's wod:

6 Rounds
20 SDLHP 95#
15 T2B
10 Burpee Broad Jumps

Other components included getting less than six hours of sleep the night before, not eating for over six hours before the wod, thinking about the heavier SDLHP all day - but it was the fact that i was by my lonesome that made it so easy for me to rest that much longer in between sets as I didnt have anyone to directly compare my effort against - especially with this type of wod where there needs to be a certain level of pacing involved (and pace i did). However, i was happy that i didnt do sets of less than 5 for anything - and i was really happy that i was able to hang onto the bar for the T2B in sets of at least 5 and that i further vaired my workout time as i took a late lunch and did the wod (did i mention by myselft?) at 130p. Finished in 28:49.

Went to a lululemon design meeting after my other 9-5 and that was very informative and it was refreshing to see a company that actually listens to the people who are buying their clothes. Visited my nice and nephew. Tried to get a picture of Noah smiling but this is the best i got:

told my sister that Cecilia looked like a movie star

paint her green and she is a shoe in for Yoda - that didnt go over too well.

Had a great dinner with Jared talking shop to finish out the evening - glad to have you around buddy!

Three K

2010-10-11T23:41:00.008-04:00

Got to church late, had lunch and played games with the fam, picked up a three piece suit, and ended up at home last night without further plans so I sifted through my entire DVD collection and chose to watch Serenity. If you like sci-fi and/or Joss Whedon then definitely rent it. (Geek out alert - Im so glad he is at the helm for The Avengers.) Minus getting to church late and the lack of plans - it was a good end to a good weekend.

Got to work this morning and there was carrot cake in the kitchen. the carrot cake never stood a chance. I had to restrain myself from going for a fourth piece (in my defense, as im sure anyone who works in a cubicle will attest to, Monday mornings and cake are a dangerously tempting combination) as the wod was a 3000m row and on top of never having rowed that distance, i knew i really wanted to get sub 12min. luckily i reasoned with myself that having carrot cake did not amount to a nutritionally valuable fuel source and followed up my dessert after my regular bfast with a solid salad for lunch.

Stayed a bit longer after work and finally photoshopped the images for the CFME shirts and sent them to the shirt printers (resized and at the right resolution) and so i got to the box to coach right before my first class. as expected only a few people showed up. either crossfiters must really love Chris of ocean blue fame or they saw the wod and thought "i dislike rowing, its a long row, im choosing today as my day off". i have a strong suspicion that it was the latter - which is disappointing from a coach's perspective mainly because it goes against one of crossfit's three main components - that i know we hammer home every day to our athletes - "constantly varied". By training in a broad, general, and inclusive manner, we become better prepared for the unknown and/or the unknowable - it puts us in a more capable ready state to be able to mentally and physically handle whatever life throws at us. so anyone reading this post that skipped out on today's wod for the aforementioned reason (and you haven't named any of your daughters Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria) - i urge you to get comfortable with being uncomfortable next time. i promise i'll help you.

i wodded after the 715p class and after chatting with coach Mike (who apologized for being sleepy and leaving early on friday night) - much later than usual for a monday but in a prime example of my constantly varied diatribe above - life happens. ive got to thank Pat and Chip for all the great pointers they gave us at that rowing seminar back in August - i paid attention to my s/m and my feet were never strapped into the erg and i finished in 11:40. Sweet! I worked on some grip exercises after and it wasnt until i was pulling into my driveway that i realized that i missed a good opportunity to start my Louis Simmons powerlifting / do any Bergener skill transfer exercises - boo to me. Overall solid day.

Finally, a big up top to my llocfme who rocked longer distances this weekend - way to crush it!

Sounding Board

2010-10-10T11:56:00.003-04:00

Thurs 10/07

I couldnt fully extend my left arm - it was as if my bicep was sore but i really hadn't done anything bicep intensive. This was my much needed day off. Co-coached onramp and had the endoers do their second speed strength day as well as what i dub the Crazy 8 wod. Had a delicious cobb salad topped with a buffalo burger to finish off my day.

Fri 10/08

Still really couldnt extend my left arm but Jared said he was going to the 1215 class so i couldnt not go. wod was:

20min to find my 1RM for the snatch then

3Rounds
5 clapping pushups
15 wallballs, 20#,10'

let's just throw this out there from the offset - I can't even begin to express my love for the snatch. with that being said, i only got to 115# - which was disappointing because i had previously done 125# (and that was after 5 sets of 3 reps each) and i was shooting for 155# and would have settled for 135#. i think it boils down to me thinking way too much about not being comfortable with that weight overhead. i was still a little nervous about tweaking that transition point in my spine. so i cleaned 125#, snatch grip push jerked it overhead and attempted to squat it thinking that if i could overhead squat it - i should be able to snatch it. well the overhead squat didnt go as smoothly as i wanted it to and in typical mind over matter fashion, i failed on three separate attempts to snatch 125#. i would really like to start implementing the louie simmons weight training outline again (with the focus this time being the OHS) as it worked so well for me during the Be Crossfit Challenge. Additionally, i know that implementing the Bergener skill transfer exercises would be helpful as well - i just need to commit to a schedule and do it - so ill start posting about when i do that and how thats going from this point forward. the short metcon went really well - 1:48 which was third fastest at that point of the day (im moving on up in the world).

Met up with some CF peeps at the Frog later that evening and that was a lot of fun. I always tell myself to take pictures - whether its during wods or when im just out with friends - so considering both those worlds combined at the Frog, i actually remembered to (although i wish i got around to more of the people there) and got this (rather adorable) shot of Jodi and me. i appreciate her for her honesty and accordingly she's becoming a consistent sounding board in my CF life. that and she's a lot of fun to hang out with.

BTW - that was post car bomb.

Sat 10/09

Ugh. drinks are so good during but not the morning after - especially if you dont hydrate before you go to bed. literally shuffled into the box at 820a for the 800a endurance class. the endoers are doing really well during their wod when i see Lynn shuffle in. Lynn very awesomely came out with us hardcore partiers to Sona after the Frog - and even though i was barely comfortable standing up - i decided that if she managed to make it there, i have to do the reg wod.

15 AMRAP
200m run
20 steps overhead walking lunges
15 situps
10 pullups

3,2,1 go and im off. Completed 5 rounds (and 10m of the run on the 6th round) and it felt surprisingly good! i kept up with Billy and Derek (to their credit they were using a weight vest and the ghd respectively but i think that only makes the playing field a bit more level anyway), my runs didnt feel as sluggish as they normally do, and i did butterfly pullups for each round so i was extremely happy with my performance - and im not even making reference to the fact that i did it hungover - it was a solid performance due to my unbroken effort throughout. good way to start my day (except for waking up so early).

Just hung around the rest of the day - my sister and her bf came over and i get my lawn mowed (so it no longer looks like im living in a jungle) - played some video games - got some house chores done (like putting that first coat of paint on the spackle around the sliding door to my deck that i built... last summer) - went food shopping - played some more. it ended up being a very good saturday.

Sun 10/10

Hopefully the llocfme finsihed their tempo runs by now. Heading to church and going to spend time with the fam for the rest of the day.

Partners

2010-10-06T23:27:00.002-04:00

With a partner, alternating work/rest for each round:

5 Rounds:
12 snatch deadlifts, 205#
9 T2B
6 burpees

Wednesday is workout-with-Jared-day and the third day of my beginning of the week 3on wodding cycle. while we rxed (something i was apprehensive about when i saw the snatch grip requirment for the deadlifts) and finished with sub 14min - i really feel Jared would have had a faster time with a different partner - and that just shouldnt be the case. my grip was nonexistent and id like to blame it on the kb swing workout from last week but thats just lame. you cant lift what you cant hold on to and in my case during this wod i could not lift my toes to the bar more than three times consecutively because i could not hold on to the bar - and that really slowed each one of my rounds down. new goat of mine: grip strength. if i dont get motivated to get better for me - i should do it so i dont let my partner down in workout scenarios like this.

work was very productive, nutrition was good (minus the maggie moos ice cream i had as an undeserved consolation prize), and i watched gladiator on bluray - i was entertained for the day.

Keeping up with the Dicksons

2010-10-06T01:19:00.005-04:00

FRI 10/01:

Did the 20kb swings every min for 10min. Rx was 2 pood but i chose 1 pood and was happy that i did as every set was unbroken and i got all 10 rounds in. My forearms are still a little sore even today - so i cant even begin to imagine what they would feel like had i held on to even a 1.5 pood kb. After the evening class that i coached, i had my smokehouse Arthur's burger (you know how i feel about Arthur's burgers) and saw The Town - which was phenomenal! a very good evening indeed and i need to have more just like it!

SAT 10/02:

Xiomara is a member of her school's cross country team. She needs a bit of help in the running department so i was going to run this 5k that my dad was helping organize through his Souls for Faith running group with her - hopefully looking to get her to her first sub 30min 5k. I get to the park and she informs me that she would not be running. So here i was mentally preparing myself to coast and now my reason for coasting has backed out last minute - constantly varied at its finest. im not a big fan on running 5ks all willy nilly so i knew i wasnt going to PR (although im really hoping to on 10/16 with my endoers) but i get a good warm up in, trot over to the starting line and go to start my ipod only to find that its dead. grr. i do my best to keep a solid pace once the race starts but unfortunately my knee started to bother me at the beginning of mile 2 and i finish in 24:59. respectable considering the circumstances and im happy that i didnt keep myself in a mental funk throughout the race but still off my PR by about 2 min. my dad was happy that i was there supporting him so it made it worthwhile.

I was supposed to participate in a cornhole tournament with my sister in the afternoon but my mom hurt her back that morning and was unable to babysit for my sister so after visiting with my niece and nephew i just end up just going home and doing some much needed house cleaning for the rest of the day saturday.

SUN 10/03:

Finally rebuilt my massive desk in my basement and then headed off to church with the family. i wanted to do a new CF total in the afternoon but never got around to motown until much later in the evening due to a groom's party (bridal shower for dudes) for a friend from grammar school and an impromptu house warming party. nutrition was very poor due to all the parties (and my inability to turn food/beer down).

MON 10/04:

Couldnt wait to do the 10min amrap wod as soon as i saw it posted:

10min AMRAP
6 squat cleans, 125#
12 pullups
24 double unders

however due to my poor nutrition the day before, lack of sleep and poor nutrition the day of, i decided that going for the rx weight was unwise; so i only set up my squat cleans for 115#. i feel that not rxing is sometimes a suitable punishment for poor nutrition - and consequently i find it very motivating to get my nutrition back on track by rewarding myself with the privilege of rxing a workout. I was able to wod before the 630 class with one of the llocfme and finished with 4 rounds + 4 squat cleans. my last set of double unders were atrocious as i couldnt string more than 2 together at a time but i was able to string at least 4 butterfly pullups in each round - so i would consider the pro/con assessment of that wod a wash. highlight was not wodding by myself for a change. coaching went well and after class i watched the The Fourth Kind - i wouldnt spend any money to rent it.

TUES 10/05:

4 Rounds:
500m row
9 ring dips
12 shoulder to overhead, 135#
15 box jumps, 24"

i saw the shoulder to overhead at 135# and immediately thought no way. the middle of my back - on the transition point between the lumbar and thoracic regions of my spine - has been hurting recently. ive been to the chiro the past few weeks and have determined that it gets aggravated during heavier cleans and gets overloaded when i do heavy overhead work as i tend to overextend my back to compensate for not maintaining a stable mid line due to fatigue during a wod. i felt that 115# was still a challenging weight that allowed me to maintain proper mechanics while not setting me up to tweak my back.

Karianne was hanging around all class and coach mike is about to start the wod when suddenly she decides to throw her hat into the ring and wod with us lunchtimers. hot diggity dog! i was feeling good from my wod yesterday, ate well the night before and this morning, the shoulder to overhead weight was no longer uber heavy so it wasnt going to slow me down tremendously, and while one of karianne's stronger movements is the box jump, this wod also had a row in it - something clearly in my favor. so as Karianne was taking off her shirt - to reveal an even more form fitting shirt with the slogan "throwing up isnt just for supermodels anymore" - all i could think about was rick moranis. let me explain with the following video:

we start on the row and as expected i get off the erg first. finish my dips first. finish my push jerks first. get done with box jumps and im out the door first to start round 2 before her (as we had to alternate 500m rows with 400m runs because we only have 4 ergs). head over to round 2 of the rings and we get done at the same time. she ends up finishing the second set of push jerks before me and heads onto the box jumps. As expected, Karianne gets to the rower first to start round 3 but i am not worried. about 20 seconds later i hop on the rower and overtake her to head over to the dips. im a quarter of the way done with the third round and im still ahead of Karianne! Im thinking this is my one time.

i have 3 push jerks left by the time Karianne gets to the box jumps on our third round - and she just takes off. if you havent seen her do box jumps - its amazing. think about how quickly you lift your feet up when you're walking on hot sand and she's even quicker getting her whole body up to the top of the box - jump after jump after jump. now it was my intent to jump off the top of the box instead of step off but the push jerks took a lot out of me. by the time i start my fourth round with the 400m run - she is 300m ahead of me. She finishes in sub 19min (she was also using a 24" box) and i finish with 20:28. my runs were terribly slow and my fourth round of push jerks was broken into sets of 2 but overall i was very happy that i kept up with Karianne through about three rounds. next time (especially if there are rows involved).

i had a larger, challenging group when i coached in the evening but i managed, the onrampers this month are a great group, and i got to post on my blog today - good past few days.

3 on

2010-09-30T23:03:00.010-04:00

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

2010-09-27T10:22:00.000-04:00

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?

2010-09-24T13:28:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-18T21:26:00.000-04:00

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?

2010-09-16T23:58:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-15T23:35:00.001-04:00

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

2010-09-14T23:31:00.009-04:00

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

2010-09-14T15:54:00.004-04:00

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

2010-09-09T00:48:00.001-04:00

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

2010-09-07T00:03:00.004-04:00

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!

uno dos tres quatro

2010-08-29T21:24:00.002-04:00

took the day off on friday - didnt do much but go to the beach and relax. but i follow the boy scout motto so i did end up thinking of crossfit in so far as i told myself that i need to purchase an extra set of headphones for my run since my sweat caused a "Johnny 5" on my previous backup set of favorite running headphones - and please tell me that someone gets that...

Saturday i was determined to do last mondays wod (800m-50 pushups-800m-100supermans-800m-200situps-800m) since i wasnt going to go to the box. did my first 1/2 mile in: 4:14. hmm that was a bit slow. again pushups are a goat of mine and i struggled after 30. next 800m split was 4:30. really? supermans must have looked funny to the couple who saw me doing them face down on the lawn as they walked out of their house. finished everything in 39:17. ouch. i rechecked my distance and it was over 900m but i think the fact that i had laid in the sun for about 2 hrs prior to wodding and did the actual wod in the high noon heat were what played a role in my subpar time. im happy i did the wod, i wish the time was a better reflection of what i thought my effort was during the wod.

sunday was my 10k time trail. i started at 8am - as im going to do for the next few weekend tempos. i want to prep myself for running the half marathon first thing on a sunday morning - clearly earlier than i want to get up and therefore clearly out of my comfort zone. ill spare you the inner monologue but my mile splits were 7:42, 8:00, 8:08, 8:13, 8:15, 9:12 and the home stretch was 2:01. i thought i kicked it up a notch during the last mile and home stretch so i was surprised with that low a split but i was really happy with my overall time of 51:31. i felt really good after that tempo and now i know i can easily get under 50min for a 10k and that is very encouraging for my half marathon prospects.

had my favorite arthur's burger when i got home - as an aside, if anybody ever wants to go just let me know and ill be there, i can have their smokehouse burger multiple times a week - and looking forward to this upcoming week.

here's a muñoz fun fact o' the day that i cant help but share: found out this weekend that my dad has pitbull and will smith on his ipod on-the-go playlist. that's right - a) he's got an ipod and b) he has "i know you want me" and "getting jiggy with it" among other atypical songs any father would have let alone on a playlist that he specifically made for being in the car. im incredibly impressed that he knows how to make a playlist and im ok with the fresh prince - even though its a little dated - its the fact that he likes blasting pitbull - and sings along to it. now we all know pitbull isnt the most couth artist (and i quote: "mami got an (gluteus maximus) like a donkey") - and although my dad only sings along to the spanish chorus - im not sure if my dad picks up on the nuances of pitbull's flow nor how uncomfortable it is for me and my sisters to hear him signing along period. i can only imagine that its a similar feeling to when you were younger and sang the lyrics to "oh what a night" and your parents had to suffer through you singing about a one night stand before you had even gone through puberty - again this is only speculation but still uncomfortable nonetheless and therefore i just felt the need to share - enjoy.

Need for Speed

2010-08-26T22:04:00.000-04:00

Didnt have a great sleep last night (probably due to the sugary confection that was sangria) so i got up early this morning, wrote my blog, went to work and immediately proceeded to kick myself for not bringing a pillow with me bc i could have easily passed out at my desk. luckily gmailsations kept me going in the morning, lunch was provided as we went over better drafting techniques in our monthly ACAD meeting, and i got out a little early to do todays wod - 3rounds of 5 rope climbs, 21 dips, 50 air squats. coach mike was there and let me know how that wod fared for him. taking his advice i decided to not waste any excess energy/time on the dips and focus on doing just one at a time - which definitely helped as dips (or pushups for that matter) seem to be a goat of mine. the rope climbs got hard at the end of round 2 but i finally figured out that i needed to lock my bottom foot in the im-letting-off-of-the-gas-pedal-to-shift-my-manual-transmission position so that my other foot can press down on top of the rope, which would then allow me to use my legs more during the ascent. finished with a time of 19:14 and im happy with the performance - i just wish i figured out the heel-toe thing a little earlier.

endu wod (8rounds of 30sec on 20 sec off) was fun - one of the llocfme brought her cousin to try her first endu wod (and she did an absolutely stunning job for a newbie) - and in four minutes i ran 1220m - and all of us were within 75m plus or minus of that. Two solid days in a row!

Oh Sangria, how i love thee! let me count the ways...

2010-08-26T08:09:00.000-04:00

I was able to get out of the office and be the intrepid engineer inspecting as-built conditions at a somewhat contentious development in Bridgewater - so the work day went by rather quickly which is always a nice thing. I also ended up getting a pity wod out of my post yesterday - wasn't expecting it but it was definitely appreciated. So Jared and I attack Tuesday's reg wod - partners alternating 155# thrusters, 5 weighted box jumps AHAP, 5 weighted pullups AHAP for 5 rounds each. I choose 135# for the thrusters, 45# for the weighted box jumps, and 25# for the weighted pullups. Jared - being the beast he is - 155#, 55#, 35#. I ended up going first, which is a huge mental plus for me, and while i was originally concerned with the heavy thrusters, i was able to do each set unbroken. only truly struggled on the last pullup and i felt the weighted box jumps were the toughest. We both finished with a time of 16:28. The wod wasnt easy but I'm not sure if i was feeling really strong bc i was able to channel some of my frustration from tuesday into the wod on top of it going really well at work or if i could have gone heavier on weight. Based on what everyone else did for that wod though - I'll just say its a 80/20 combination of the two. overall, I felt very happy with my performance - and great job Jared - you move heavy heavy weight as quickly as guys lining up to meet CLB.

While my original dinner plans were canceled due to mysterious circumstances - i was then able to meet up with my best friend from home. so i get in my car and the first three songs of the car ride are throwbacks to jersey shore summers! i may not be the best singer but i was belting out those tunes like my life depended on it (luckily it didnt). throw in good conversation with a couple of pitchers of sangria to top off the evening and im happy to report it was a really good day!

All in a day's work

2010-08-24T23:41:00.002-04:00

So Monday night, the coaches had a preview of the upcoming rowing seminar to be offered by two of cf motown's members who are expert rowers: Chip and Pat. i chose not to do the reg wod for the day - even though it was something i was interested in doing - bc i knew that there was going to be a wod during this seminar. I take a relatively nonchalant approach toward rowing - that is, i dont especially love doing it but i dont dislike it either bc as someone who is not vertically challenged, rowing ends up being a movement im relatively efficient in. well when Pat announced the wod for the evening - 11min of rowing - i nearly sharted myself. in the end, it didnt end up being that bad and i rowed over 2700m - which i was happy with seeing as the farthest i had rowed prior to yesterday was 2000m. after all is said and done - i get home at 1030p - a fairly full day. do i regret not doing the reg wod - we'll get back to that later.

i had this grandiose idea to try and wake up extra early and wod during the 6am class today bc i knew i wasnt going to make the lunchtime wod. surprise surprise - that didnt happen - so i was mentally preparing myself all day to do the reg wod during the 545 class. there is a small contingent that shows up to this class and im sure they wouldnt have minded if i sneaked in a workout with them. i had who i was going to be paired up with in my head but unfortunately an even number of people showed up so i was relegated to strictly coaching duties. the 630 class strolls in and i chose not to wod with them either - even though its was a smaller class with an odd number of people - bc its just getting too close to the endurance wod that i need to do bc im training for the half marathon. recovery is why you get better - not more work - and i need to focus my energies on giving these endu wods the intensity that they demand so i can perform well for my first half marathon. do i regret not doing the reg wod - we'll get back to that later.

both classes did great and i finished the on-ramp class early so i was actually going to get to endu on time when a prospective on ramper shows up. so i send bryan to get everyone started at endu and get there late myself. im already second guessing my choices not to do the reg wods two days in a row and trying not to think about how that affects my final three weeks of training and also trying to not worry so much about being a bad example and showing up late when one of the first things that gets brought to my attention after showing up is general disappointment that i didnt do today's wod - not what i wanted to hear right then and there. sure i could have gotten up early, or sure i could have been productive at work the week prior and gone to the lunch wod today, but i just dont think that very many people realize that as a coach, i make time for cf motown above and beyond what the schedule shows and bc of that choice - and the fact that i do have another job and i try and have a life outside of that and crossfit - sometimes i have to choose whether or not i realistically have the time to do all the wods that i would like to do or just do the wods i need to do to keep up with my training and still function at an acceptable level day in and day out. do i regret not doing the reg wods? quite simply, yes - but for pete's sake i definitely dont need reminding of that. what makes today's scenario even more ironic is that i was just speaking about being positive in everything you say bc negative words/thoughts have a way of sticking with people... unfounded disappointment is definitely not positive.

trudged along through the endu wod, 4:15, 4:17, 4:27, 4:25 for my 1000m splits - i was happy with staying so consistent with my mind not focusing on pose. get home after 4 classes at 945p - a fairly full day and i still need to go food shopping and write my blog. tomorrow is another day.

Inner monologue

2010-08-22T20:31:00.002-04:00

So i calculated that a run at 75% meant i had to maintain a 9:20 pace. here were my splits (and my stream of consciousness at the time of each split):

Mile 1 - 8:30 (whoa - slow down buddy - and you thought you were crawling - i know it was downhill but still - SLOW DOWN)

Mile 2 - 8:54 (ok, you were skeptical of the llocfme when they said it was hard to slow down and now you can see first hand how hard it is. better but still you need to try and hit that pace.)

Mile 3 - 9:21 (i do believe a fist pump is in order due to being right on the money (and i proceed to fist pump). feeling real good and strong - then next 5miles are nothing.)

Mile 4 - 8:58 (hmm - maybe im just in that great of shape that physics will not allow me to go any slower than 9:20...)

Mile 5 - 9:54 (wonderful - thats what you get for stroking your ego. not only did i lose sound from my left headphone - no doubt due to it being water logged with sweat - now you have to make up some time too.)

Mile 6 - 9:11 (good - way to bring it back down. dont think about your calves tightening up and keep that pace)

Mile 7 - 9:53 (not again - and now i have the last mile coming up and its uphill - fight for it)

Mile 8 - 9:15 (good job - strong finish uphill at the end - half marathon is very very doable)

Total time 1:14:01 with avg 9:15 (flippin sweet! i was shooting for sub 2hrs for the half and now i can say thats very doable - but my right nipple is feeling a little raw - next run im putting on bandages - but i've got hair on my chest - taking them off is going to hurt - ill need to manscape first...)

im feeling good (minus my slightly raw nip) so i check what the qualifying times are for the boston marathon. 3:10 for a full marathon. so that means a 7:15 pace for 26 miles. wait - a 7:15 pace?!?! baby steps leonardo, baby steps.

Weekender

2010-08-22T12:01:00.001-04:00

So my Friday was fairly productive - i went to work and finally got our CFME flyers designed :) decided to do the reg wod at 545p which consisted of as many rounds as possible in 25 min of 5 deadlifts @ 225#, 10 db cleans @ 45#, and 20 double unders. i ended up with 10 double unders shy of 9 complete rounds. when you're that close to the next round you immediately go back and review where you could have made up for lost time. the db cleans were brutal as Coach Mike D said - but i was happy that after the first two rounds - i only broke down the set of 10 into no more than two sets of five. i knew that my grip would suffer from the dl and db cleans, but i underestimated how much that would affect my double unders. so they could have gone better but overall i was happy with them as well - it was the deadlifts that got to me. again it was a mental thing - the rx weight isn't entirely light for me - i consider light less than 50% of your 1rm and 225# is 65% of my 1rm. i knew i was going to rx but since i was going more for the strength aspect of the workout i knew my total rounds would suffer. first two rounds were good as i did 'tap and go' with the dl - again something i rarely do bc i feel as if i cant focus on my form as much when i 'tap and go' - but after that i broke down each set of 5 dl into 1-1-1-1-1 - a lift and drop essentially. had i kept my hands on the bar, i would have easily broken 9 rounds - next time.

saturday morning i did thursday's endu wod (9rnds:1min on – 1min off) - got a total distance of 2510m. (fyi – I wouldn’t wish doing endu interval wods alone on anyone!) averaged 300m the first 3min - 275m that next 4min and 250m the last 2min. while the drop off wasnt what i was hoping for, i was happy with my effort as i knew i was going as fast as my legs could move for each round. updated my FGB5 page and went to a bbq in the afternoon - complete with 4 beer pong tables (yes, my team from last week and i redeemed ourselves), an ice luge (didnt partake as i like being disease free), and a pig roast (so amazing i didnt care i was literally pulling meat off of a carcass). all would have been fine if not for my ex-gf showing up blitzed beyond what i deem medically possible. I forgive my reconnaissance team for letting me down big time. I immediately thought i would have rather had a simultaneous case of diarrhea and vomiting while traipsing naked through a poison ivy patch than to have been there to witness her in that setting. I did some LSB and that intense feeling wore off and im glad I stayed at least a little while longer and im happy that she is happy.

heading to church now. ill update how my tempo run goes later.

XYZ

2010-08-19T23:25:00.000-04:00

something was just off all day. even though i did have more gmailsations than yesterday, my regular 9-5 was horrendous - so unproductive that i told myself before lunch that i needed to come in on my day off to finish work - maybe that's what started it. or maybe it was that my legs were immobile all day. I get so mad at myself for not stretching out properly after working out - recovery is why you get better not more work - it was one of my goals during the Be CrossFit challenge and i still havent learned. i dont hate very many things but i hate it when im not at 100% - physically or mentally. i think most guys are the biggest babies when they are sick or injured - and im no exception. (in fact, i think im on the far end of the bell curve in that scenario.) i tried talking myself into doing the endu wod, especially bc i got out of work late and couldnt warmup, stretch, do the reg wod - and i started with the llocfme and bryan but there was no way that the way i started out round 1 was anywhere close to the intensity that cfe requires so i stopped - ugh. (and as i type, i just realized i didnt give my endu wodders a riddle to think about during the wod and now i have to do the wod tomorrow by my lonesome- double ugh.)

but i think my biggest problem today was that i did not think that i was a 1480. i should always focus on thinking positively instead of negatively. there are so many things that i should be thankful for (i.e i have a job that pays me well, i am in the best shape of my life, i have wonderful gmailsations, etc) that there is no need to beat myself up about anything - missing wods, or needing to go into work on my day off, or anything. so much of life is mentally positioning yourself in a better place considering the situation you are given - it just plain works out for the best if you do that. sounds a lot like the advice i gave myself yesterday - "i make note of this to make sure that from now on i should remember to set up my stations in the optimal positions to get the best time during the wods"

I was trying all day to figure out a way to tie in blogging about my daily activities to the following video (a big thanks to my endurance co-coach Jared for finding this for me - and, no Jared, i do not have a man crush on batman) but i think after reflecting on today (and listening to some Jackson 5) - it can be best summarized like this: Today was supposed to be as easy as 123. as simple as do re mi. its my friday for crying out loud - but instead of ABC it was the exact opposite - it was XYZ. something was just off all day - but just because something was off, doesnt mean that i should have let that dictate how the rest of day progressed. XYZ doesnt have to be bad at all. in fact, XYZ should be viewed as the exact opposite - absolutely awesome!

Twofer

2010-08-19T01:11:00.004-04:00

So i was waiting until the 19th of the month to register for the philly half bc they have this "Brotherly Love" promotion where you win something if you are one of the first 19 registrants on the 19th day of the month - well guess what - today is the 19th and the prize for august is a PF Changs gift card - ok, im game. i got all the online forms filled out and waited until my computer clock hit 12:00 (i even double-clicked on the clock so i could watch the countdown via the secondhand) and hit the submit button. next page said 'this may take several minutes'. Fiddlesticks! there will be hundreds of people registered in a few minutes - i mean who wouldnt wait until midnight to sign up for something free - i've been out and about on black friday - people are insane like that! suddenly the webpage refreshes - ive signed up within seconds not minutes. i laugh at the City of Brotherly Love's Mainframe and its erroneous estimation of time only to realize it shows me as registered on 8/18 at 9pm - the registration system appears to be on west coast time - something that clearly could have been brought to my attention yesterday! i try to console myself by saying i was going to be up anyway as i had planned on seeing The Expendables later in the evening (LM rating: between solid and wait but closer to wait: 2.25 stars) but i know deep inside that had i not watched The Expendables, i would have set an alarm. City of Brotherly Love's Mainframe: 1, Last Cup Leo: 0

Let's go back to better times. I went to go post Tuesday's shenanigans on Tuesday night but my computer was acting up and i got lazy and went to bed - hence the double dose y'all get today.

Tuesday is a double session day. go to the lunchtime wod and reaffirm that the wod should be sub 5min. 5rounds with each round consisting of 1 power snatch, 2 ohs, 3 push jerks, 6 ring pullups. now i love me some snatch but im leery of the heavy snatch - and the rx of 125# is heavy for me. decide to go 95# and feel good about it. finish with 5:37. eh. snatch felt real good but i should have positioned the bar closer to the ring pullups - i lost a lot of time in the transition going back and forth. speaking about transitions, as a quick aside, for those from bville who post on the cfmotown blog that our run is easier - please note that on top of our run also being uphill one way, our run is automatically 30m more than the bville run bc its 15m from the pullup bars to the door and another 15m from the door to the pullup bars - everytime. i make note of this to make sure that from now on i should remember to set up my stations in the optimal positions to get the best time during the wods.

The endu wod was 10x100m on the minute. i knew better than to underestimate this short workout as i thought it would get hard starting on minute 3. it was hard after minute 1. the three of us consistently kept it under 17 secs/100m for each of the 10 minutes. i dont normally feel like puking but this is the first time in a while where i felt like it. i probably would have if i ate something - but i hadnt had anything since lunchtime. Karianne finally got back to me about my nutrition and pointed out that i am very inconsistent with my eating habits - her response to a review of my food log, and i quote "Some days you barely eat, others you are chowing down." owwie.

i hadnt gone food shopping so i had nothing at the house but i was determined to eat. after taking a 20min shower (bc i could barely lift my legs into the tub let alone the requisite movements to take a shower) it was past 10p and all normal restaurants were closed. i open the fridge again - surprisingly nothing materialized within the past 20min - but i was still determined to eat something before i went to bed. so i go driving around and ended up at a diner. looked at the "food" choices and settled on a bacon omelet. i think about it for a second - i didnt have to leave, i have eggs at home. Last Cup Leo: -1

Wednesday morning had the potential to get hump day off to a great start - an early morning wod - but alas the wod was not meant to be. since i wasnt going to wod, i decide that sleep is more important bc i had a dream where i needed to be somewhere at a certain time to impress someone with my punctuality so of course i keep waking up hourly during the night to make sure im not late (i.e. i did not have a good night's rest). i finally get back to bed at 715a but unfortunately that means i got to work after 9a - im in for hectic day as i need to get stuff done in the engineering world bc im clearly not impressing my bosses with my punctuality. unfortunately, getting actual work done means that i cant have my gmail conversations that i normally have during the day. i genuinely missed them yesterday as they always do a good job of putting a smile on face. (here's hoping that today is full of gmailsations)

anywho, I take the day off from wodding, eat well (and consistently), pick up an outdoor bar for my patio (party soon - who's in?), go see The Expendables - and here we are back at the beginning of the post. Memento much?

Unbroken

2010-08-16T23:04:00.001-04:00

So last night I had a glass of Jack (don't worry, i picked up some Hennessey today) and watched Defendor (a Woody Harrelson flick) and it was a phenomenal movie. I'm a huge superhero fanatic and this was up there with Batman Begins in terms of content and character arcs. And much like Batman Begins (and of course The Dark Knight) its a movie that girls would enjoy as well. So fellow geeks - grab you ladies and watch Defendor if you havent already - its got my approval. im stilll coming up with a rating system (i.e. my approval = two thumbs up) for the movie review website that i've been telling myself to start for the past 10 years. maybe phenomenal, solid, wait, and skip could be four stars to one star respectively. but then what to do with the half stars... baby steps i guess. Then i got into work this morning and a coworker told me that my favorite Lara Bar (Tropical Fruit Tart) was on sale for $15.20 a box - great way to end the weekend and start the week if you ask me. alas i always look for coconut cream pie and have yet to find it on sale. ill always keep looking though.

I like the reverse ladder wod. today's was 10 down to 1 of toes to bar while simultaneously going from 1 up to 10 of 115# (rx) front squats with a 200m run after every round. I really felt that i was going to crush this wod today even though i knew that my legs were going to be shot for each 200m run but i went into it saying that i would do each exercise unbroken - and i did. i was shooting for sub 18min but i ended up with 19:47 (take that Jodi) but i am really happy with it because i didnt look at the clock once, did kipping toes to bar everytime, never dropped the bar (i think my best CF movement is the front squat), and literally did not stop. i didnt sprint from the door to the pullup bar (gallop might be a better word), maybe if i was chasing a $100 bill i would have gone faster on each 200m run, and i also usually wod by my lonesome so there is the possibility that i could do better when with others but again - baby steps.

nutrition was good today. and it seems as if im going to bed before midnight. not too shabby

Bullseye

2010-08-15T19:39:00.002-04:00

Saturday was a huge debacle on so many levels. first, i went to a graduation party and got roped into playing beer pong in three person teams with 21cups each side. didnt find my stride until the last few cups of the first round and single-handedly brought my team from the brink of defeat into two overtimes thereby earning the moniker "last cup leo". unfortunately a team member left the cup he was trying to finish way too open and someone sunk a ping pong ball into said cup in his hand and we effectively lost the game. after over 36 cups - it was a crummy way to not pull out with a win. secondly, way too many texts were sent out for my own good.

Went for a 40min TT in the rain today and only got to 4.66miles - in my defense it was more hilly than i had thought it would be. on a positive note, im getting to explore motown - having been here for over 3 yrs already i am ashamed to say i cannot give directions with street names to people who ask - so during these tempos i am taking mental notes and trying to memorize which street names go where.

so as im finishing my wod, im about to go into my house and rogue bird manages to strike from an unknown altitude - taking out my right shoulder and forearm. it escaped into the cloud cover before i could identify it but from the size of the payload, it must have been a condor. supposed to be lucky right?

Rub-a-dub-dub

2010-08-14T02:11:00.000-04:00

So im going to make a commitment to myself to get into bed early every day next week (i.e. - hopefully i wont be posting my day's activities after midnight anymore.)

Only did the endu wod today (5min on, 2.5 min off, 6min on, 3min off, 7min on). i say 'only' because attempting to schedule a meeting place, time, and activity with the llocfme is like trying to get two dogs in a bathtub - its nearly impossible - but i got'er done. We managed to get together around 5pm - our first run in the sun in a long time. not sure if it was something that we ate (i had beef empanadas for lunch and one who shall remain nameless had a boston creme donut - egads woman!), or if we all mentally checked out because it was friday - but the intensity just wasnt there today. i am glad we were able to change it up a bit (usually its nighttime track running with free entertainment) and hopefully we all re-realized how important constantly varied workouts truly are. my pose felt way off today and i finished the 18 minutes of work with a distance of 2.4 miles.

Happy 34th wedding anniversary mami and papi - you are a great inspiration to me, my sisters, and many other people for the loving relationship you have cultivated over the years - keep it up!

SATs

2010-08-13T01:57:00.000-04:00

So the rest of my day wasnt going any better - no additional sleep and the llocfme both canceled on me so no endu wod today - to quote dane cook - unbelievable! however i was able to watch a video on the the CF journal that had a great story which lit a little fire under me to get me through the day - paraphrased it goes as follows:

the ceo of a major magazine, when younger, was going to flunk out of high school. he promises his mom that he would take the SATs in his junior year. doesnt study, as usual, but when he gets his scores he ends up gettting a 1480 out of 1600 his first time. he decides to apply himself senior year (since he is apparently very smart) and graduates high school, gets into a community college, transfers to a university, goes ivy league, and long story short, ends up being the ceo of this major magazine. he gets a letter from the princeton review years later while he is ceo. doesnt think too much of it until his wife gets him to open it. it reads that during their regular review of past tests, that he and some other students that year got scored incorrectly and in fact he only actually got a 740 out of 1600. wow! his life was changed for the better bc he starting thinking of himself as a 1480. i immediately chose to think of myself as a 1480 as well!

Did elizabeth - ended up with 11:10 rx - i was happy with the fact that i linked some 'tap and go' cleans (i dont do 'tap and go' usually). and i had cheesecake when i got home - not too bad.

4:01 AM

2010-08-12T04:34:00.000-04:00

Yes - its 4am. No - it was not that awesome of a night. On average, i get 8hrs of sleep a night. However, if for whatever reason, i wake up within that first half of my normal slumber time, its a wrap - just can't go back to bed. Chalk up today's early morning doings to miscommunication - the main source of the world's problems. that and money - which in turn has terrible implications for women everywhere - ask me to show you how and i'll prove it mathematically within 6 steps.

So im at work wondering when i can go back to practicing being an oneironaut. I hope my regular 9-5 bosses realize how dedicated i am by the plot stamps on the plans im producing right now. work is less than 0.5 miles from my house, so its not that big of a deal to drive over. i did so hoping that i get tired sooner by being productive here, instead of lying in my bed staring at the ceiling, so i can go back to bed before coming back into work around 8ish. i can always count on work to put me to sleep :)

looking forward to "elizabeth" at lunch - havent done that benchmark wod yet - hoping to rx under 8min.

Double workout

2010-08-11T09:57:00.003-04:00

So yesterday i did the reg wod at lunch (1000m row, 800m run, 30 hspu, 800m run, 1000m row) with the intention of really focusing on getting each row and run done under 4 minutes. i knew it would be tough but i did it and finished up with a time of 18:11 - which i am really happy with. however i usually use two white bands for the hspu and today i used one red band and one white band so im not sure if that single red band made the hspus that much easier (i was able to link 18 straight to start off my hspu).

two asides: not sure what it is but i get red speckles on my face (looks like dirt but im sure its actually blood collecting and coagulating since im upside down) whenever i do hspu so on top of needing to go to see a doctor i should really focus on making sure i breathe while im upside down. also i got made fun of for being uber motivating while i ran (i.e. i can talk and run at the same time) i'll just chalk that up to almost always being in 'coach' mode. roy - next time we're chatting about the economic states of the various countries in southern africa...

then i did the endu wod at night (2x800m, 1mile tt, 2x800m) and held a consistent 3:35 for my first two 800s (real happy with that), a 7:22 mile (really happy with that), then dropped to 3:45 for my penultimate 800 and 3:50 for my last 800 (not too thrilled with those drops). i tend to let the llocfme start 5 secs ahead of me so i have a good pace to follow - not that i ever think i can catch them but its good to try. also did the wod without music and it went well. overall a good wod day.

nutrition was way off after lunch (only snacks) and my planned dinner that i was looking forward to was unfortunately non-existent. going food shopping today and taking a rest day.