Let's DO This!!

Alrighty.. Let's just get right to it, shall we?? Looks like I haven't checked in since last November.. I perused the last entry and it was a super read, if you care to look over it! Highly recommended reading, for sure.. So I think we can officially call this a 'CrossFit Blog', at this point. Not a whole lot of triathloning or even running left in my life these days, but that's completely a choice I have made and feel great about. I've slowly decided.. kind of without really 'deciding', that my goals for the moment all lie within achieving new things in CrossFit. I feel like it is a really good fit for me at this time, and I just want to see how much longer I can train this way and continue to see improvements. My body happens to be handling the volume, lifting, etc quite well, so...why stop? Especially when I enjoy it so much. I know this may sound silly, but I get excited to go to the gym.. I look forward to seeing what the workouts will be for the week and then look forward to getting in to the gym to see how it all plays out. I have felt that before, so I know I have this crazy capability for loving..well..pain??.. Pushing myself?? But right now my focus is on making the most out of this crossfit thing! So since November? Too much to cover everything, probably.. I should have blogged about the Open.. and Regionals.. And the other competitions I've done.. That's my hope for re-starting up this gig. That I can do a better job of logging how those things go through this year. I've always used this Blog as my way to remember the activities we do and family things.. So I need to get back to that. I'll just hit the highlights.. So we went to Regionals again! It was fun.. A great experience. I learned a lot and was proud of how I did and how our team did. We had high expectations and I guess we fell short of those, which is a little disappointing, but it really only makes sense to move on from that..ya know? We all worked hard and did our best. We didn't have any major issues.. the workouts just simply didn't suit all of our team members, so ultimately we just weren't ready for the 'next level'.. That 'next level' being the CrossFit Games, of coarse.. Like I said.. We had some high expectations! And honestly, I feel like we are on the right path.. Our coaching is on point. We just need to have a crew that is ready to put in the work all year.. Oh, and the fortune of everyone staying healthy in the process, too.. So we shall see, yes? Only time will tell.. This year, so far, (and I'm counting the 'new year' as being post regionals building up to the next Open season, which is in February.. I, for sure, am elbows deep into my crossfit nerd-dom) I have done an individual competition, which was a first for me.. It was a smaller competition up near Ft. Wayne, IN. I'm not honestly sure how I chose it as my first individual comp.. I think it caught my eye because it was about the time I wanted to compete and I knew someone from our gym that had done one of their comps before, so I figured it would be a good fit? I managed to talk a couple friends into joining me, so I had Jaclyn (who was on our Regionals team) and Nick (who has also been on our regional team) to keep me company through the day! I was especially excited to learn that the first workout would be a ridiculously short swim to a pretty short run.. Perfect, right?! Well... the swim, which was probably 60-80-ish meters?..in a stupid small little puddle of a pond. I'm pretty sure it was more goose poop than it was water.. Oh, man.. Let's just say I canNOT believe I agreed to swim in that.. But I was already 'in', so I just tried not to think about the filth and just focus on the task at hand..which was to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE FILTH!!! It wasn't really a long enough swim to separate out the 'good' from the 'ok' swimmers.. I suppose any 'not so good' swimmers were probably left back a bit, but most of us were just kind of clawing through poop to the other side.. Where we would get to put on our shoes and move on to a 1.3mi run. 1.3?! Yup.. Anyway. I have no idea what place I was in out of the water.. it didn't matter because the whole thing was the workout, so there wasn't a time for the swim..or a place.. But I was a quick second out on to the run, which I was able to take over first pretty quickly and then just held on.. So a first place on that one! Next was a deadlift/box jump over ladder.. it went fine.. I wound up getting the 285# bar up just fine (3 reps at each wt), but 305# was a big NOPE! I had no idea what to expect there, because I don't usually max out my deadlift.. Not a fan of max effort DL given the fact that most folks nearly break their backs when they make that attempt. We'll say I stick with a maximal 'good form' effort on that one.. The next workout was a chipper, of sorts.. 80 double unders, 60 kettle bell swings, 40 over the bar burpees, and 20 shoulder to overhead (95#). I was able to plow through that pretty quickly.. 6 minutes and something? I think? So took another 'W' on that. The finals included some interesting 'skills testing'.. throwing a med ball, jumping for distance, and tire flipping.. I think I lost focus a bit there and didn't do so hot in a couple of those.. That's where the lesson part of the day came in.. If you want to win/do well, you have to take every part on the competition seriously and try your best.. Even if the event/skill makes you feel silly and you just want to joke around about it.. It could end up costing you the whole deal. So anyway, we did those and then had one last workout.. In the heat and the sun.. Did I mention this was all outside? That was a new one for me! I have quite the tan lines as a souvenir..they are special, indeed! So the last workout was a 1500m row, which I was proud of how I held my pace.. I've been working quite a bit on that!.. Then 30 hang snatch (75#) and 30 thrusters (75#)..which weren't heavy, but the snatch was hard to hold on to with Men's bars and the thrusters were.. thrusters..which are always pretty rough.. Then, to cap it off.. one of my other weaknesses, which I'm not sure why it's a weakness? I like to think my grip is decent, but maybe not? It was a farmers carry! and it was a long one.. I got to carry those 35# dumbbells forEVER! But we got it done.. I came in second on that one and was able to wrap up the overall win, which was great! A good start at my attempts at seeing how flying solo could go. Leaving Team??! Not necessarily. I've always been focused on going with my team to Regionals and I still enjoy Team competitions and, if we have a team ready to go for Regionals and I could be a contributing part of that team? I'd love to do it. We will just have to see how the year plays out; who stays healthy; who is around and ready for the Open and Regionals come game time. For now, I just focus on making myself as strong as I can and as good a competitor as I can be..whether that be for a team or as an individual.. At this point it doesn't really matter.. Just getting better at anything and everything will prepare me well for either. I have some other competition things going on that I'll hopefully write about another time.. Some things I'm focused on and training for.. I plan to talk more specifically about my training, in case anyone reading.. mostly me.. is interested in that kind of thing.. My family?? Really. You guys are too sweet for asking.. Mason just turned 6?!! He finished up Kindergarten and is anxiously awaiting the start of first grade, which, apparantly is highlighted by not having your mom walk you to the bus stop?? Who makes these rules?? We'll see how that goes.. Miles is coming up to the 2 year mark pretty quickly. He's a hilarious little guy. Talking a LOT. Getting in to everything. All that good stuff. Matt is good.. His running has taken a bit of a hit, but I think for a good reason.. He got a big promotion and has been working truly ridiculous hours, but is doing well with it, so I guess it all balances out. He has set his sights on a fall half marathon again, so I imagine running will pick up again at some point. I think that's all we'll do for now! I'll mention my training for today, to end on a 'doesn't everyone want to know all about ME?!' note.. today was focused on front squats, if I had to guess.. started with 5x1 front squats at 95% of my 1 rep max (which is currently 195#, so did 190# today..felt good!) then some sets of cleans..did 125#, 135#, 150# and 160# (current max is 180#, I think? I know I've hit 175 and pretty sure I hit 180 at some point.. it's been a while since we maxed that..) Next up was Clean High Pulls.. yay? I actually like them, but not very exciting, I suppose.. Then Glute/Ham Raises, which are always a treat! To add to the excitement, we went ahead and made these a 'slow decent' kind of deal.. so take 5 seconds to lower down, then come back up.. The workout was 12 minutes of: 1 Muscle Up, 1 Front Squat (145#) 2 MU, 2 FS 3 MU, 3 FS etc.. until time runs out I finished the round of 6's and made it through 5 of the 7 MU, which I will call a success, since both movements are things I have been working on and both felt good and moved well today.. I'll take it! Since I'm focusing on improving things and doing lots of crossfit, I've been doing '2-a-days' and going back in to work on another lift, or a skill, and usually doing the gym's workout for the day.. So, I went back in later (with the boys.. they have fun at the gym and Mason was actually pouting as we left because he wasn't able to do a work out for himself, since the gym was too crowded for him to get in there and mess around) and worked on jerks.. I did doubles, focusing on good form, from 85#-155#. Then backed down to 125# and did 1 split jerk every 30s for 5 minutes to continue to work on perfect form and footwork.. Then I did the gym's workout, which was: 4 rounds of 10 snatch (65#), 15 toes to bar; *after rd 1 and 3, do 20 box jump *after rd 2 and 4, do 20 calorie row It took me a little over 10 minutes and was a good opportunity to push my pace, work on unbroken sets of lighter barbell movements, and continue to work on that darn row! Finished it off with some core work of 3 sets of 15 hollow rocks and 3 sets of 15 arch rocks. Good day! Tomorrow is kind of an easy recovery day with just a 5k run on the plan.. Happy 4th!