Posts Tagged ‘Better Than Yesterday’

Sunday Status Update 3/11/18

Posted: March 11, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Here’s last week’s recap and my goals for the upcoming week.

Last week:

  • Fitness
    • Week two of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open is over.
    • For workout 18.2, I retested and went over one minute faster than my first go-round, and hit the same weight on my clean. I worried that I wouldn’t hit the last rep, so really glad I did.
    • This week for 18.3, I’m actually pretty happy with how it went. I only had one round where I fumbled with my double-unders, and hit everything else pretty much according to plan. The only thing I would improve if I decide to retest tomorrow would be to consider hitting muscle-ups in 3 sets instead of 4. The risk there is if I’m more out of breath, the double-unders might suffer more… and this is definitely a double-under workout. We’ll see what I decide.
  • Friday hit and I was absolutely crushed. My body and brain had a long week, so when wifey told me we were staying in (even though I argued) I ended up getting in bed at 9:00. Yep, you read that right. I went to sleep at nine o’clock on Friday night. Needless to say, it felt good to get more than 8 hours of sleep for the first time in a long time… even though my body naturally woke up at 4:30 thinking I was late to coach somewhere!
  • Last week I was proud to announce that drywall in the garage was done! Yesterday, the pegboard in the garage was finished, too. A project that took MONTHS to make the time to complete is finally done! All it took was a full weekend in the 60’s and nothing but sunshine. Proud of this one!

This week:

  • I plan to record my strategy video for the fourth workout of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open. People are still responding well to them!
  • Last week, amidst all of the stress of life, I didn’t eat quite as much as I should have. After running to Costco this morning, I have no excuses to not prep and have meals with me this week to fuel my body. A concept that a lot of people can’t fathom is that for most of us, eating MORE (predominantly healthy things, of course) will help you lose weight, burn fat, have energy, etc. I’ve known so many people who will INTENTIONALLY not eat when they’re trying to lose weight or perform better, then wonder why they don’t get the results they’re looking for out of it. Give your body fuel and it will thank you! (I just need to make meals that are more conducive to eating on the go, and don’t require a fridge or microwave.)
  • I’ve been (kind of secretly) wanting to get into DJing for the last….. 20 years of my life. However, the cards have never all fallen into place at the same time for this to happen. Last week, I finally upgraded my computer, so the gates have been opened to allow me to play a little bit. After a few more days of software downloads, cable and speaker connection work, and carving out a bit of free time, I might finally be able to start a hobby that includes one of my first passions (music) and does not include the need to practice scales for hours per day (yet, at least). No, this does not help my already-struggling prioritization of reading more this year…. but we make time for what’s important to us though, right?!

Alright, your turn. What’s going on with all of you?

The pic of the week comes from my Thursday morning. As most of you know, I do NOT love waking up at 4-something in the morning 4 days per week. However, the line of work I’ve chosen calls for it, and the people I get to see at then are RAD. At least the sunrise that morning, coincidentally on the first day we’ve been able to run outside in what feels like months, was incredible. I hope you all have a great week!

SunRise3.8.18

Be Patient.

Posted: February 28, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

We’ve all heard that saying, and for most things in life, I agree with it. When it comes to fitness, it’s almost always true! People who buy magazines, download ebooks, and perform google searches with titles like, “Shredded Abs in 4 weeks” and “Arms Like Arnold By Summer,” likely hate hearing that though. There’s a time and a place to be “Type A,” and situations that require patience usually aren’t at the top of that list!

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“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is…”

The human body (and mind) should be viewed as a canvas. One, that through years of proper care, maintenance, and training, can develop into an incredible and useful vessel to get us through a long and happy life. Can I help a client lose 20lbs in 20 days? Probably. But will that weight loss be sustainable, and will it be done through healthy means? Probably not. So come because you want that six pack in time for your vacation, but stay to work towards physical independence long into your 70’s and 80’s!

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“Incremental Progress is STILL Progress”

A lot of the movements we do in CrossFit make up entire disciplines by themselves. For Running, Rowing, and Cycling, there are thousands of professionals around the world who devote their time to improve at just ONE of those skills. For professionals, a ONE SECOND Personal Record on a half-marathon can represent a huge success due to hundreds of hours of training! Olympic Weightlifters squat, snatch, clean, and jerk 5 to 7 days per week. During their competitive careers, it can sometimes take years to attain a one kilogram PR! Yogis work on balance and breath control constantly in hopes of improving their practice. It could take months of dedication to improve enough to finally get a single new pose. Climbers work on pull-ups and strengthening their grip in order to be more effective at getting up their mountain or wall. So then here we come, CrossFit athletes extraordinaire, and we want to get better at all of the things. All of the time. Forever. It’s simply not realistic.

Have you ever heard of an athlete going on a Strength or an Olympic Lifting Cycle? Maybe a phase during their training geared towards improving Aerobic Capacity? What about a Deloading Phase, where weights and volume stay fairly low to allow the body to rebuild and recover! There is a reason for these cycles. When an athlete is new at a sport, it can be easy to improve “all of the things” for a while since you’re just learning proper movement patterns. Once basic proficiency is gained, it will take more focus and specific training to continually make large improvements. As I said above, CrossFit can basically include ANY physical activity. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, and since most of us should also devote time to eating, sleeping, working, and anything other than CrossFit, it is literally impossible to improve everything forever. I’ve talked about it before, and will bring it up again, but there are people out there who need regular reminders!

Pick a few things to improve, devise a plan of attack, and most of all… Celebrate every victory!! If you’ve been working on Handstand Walking and take two extra steps, that’s an improvement. Are your knees caving in less when you squat because you’ve been thinking about it, well then great job! And do you want to put 50lbs onto your Deadlift 1RM? That’s a great goal to have, just make sure you’re happy when you “only” PR by 5lbs along the way.

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It really is a marathon. By taking care of your body, training smart, and giving yourself a pat on the back when you deserve it all along the way, you’re likely to be able to keep playing for a long time.

Sunday Status Update 2/25/18

Posted: February 25, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Here’s last week’s recap and my goals for the upcoming week. Not a particularly successful week by “bullet point” standards, but it happens.

Last week:

  • Fitness
    • It wasn’t a particularly great week of training for me as I was “forced” to take an extra rest day because of an insane work schedule, but it’s alright. I moved when I could, and sometimes that needs to be good enough!
    • If I had to pick one thing, it’d be not missing a snatch up to 200lbs on Wednesday, but that’s really it.
    • The first workout of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open is in the books! I don’t think I could have done much better, and the energy around the internets will be crazy for the next four weeks. Good luck to everyone competing!
  • Sleep was alright, but certainly not great. I need to be more consistent.
  • My busy weekend of training clients didn’t allow me to get to the drywall in the garage. But due to a really successful Saturday of coaching, I added a class to train junior athletes to my weekly schedule, so that’s really positive!

This week:

  • I plan to record my strategy video for the second workout of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open. I got some really positive feedback from people on the one last week, and that always makes me happy!
  • I reflected on the goals that I set for February earlier today, and believe I hit NONE of them! It’s so crazy to realize how quickly time flies. Since this is the last week of the month, I plan to spend some time thinking about how to set more realistic short term goals for myself. Long term goals are important, but in the few days and weeks in front of my face, I think it’s possible to set mini milestones to help keep encouraging progress.

Alright, your turn. What’s going on with all of you?

The pic of the week comes from a concert we saw at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO. The DJ’s name is Defunk, and if you’ve never heard him before, you should check out his Defunk Presents “The Funk Trunk Mixes” on Soundcloud. They’re great!