Tabata be kidding me!

Quick post recapping tonight's WOD at Oceanside CrossFit. It was ri-donk-ulous! I would say that this was definitely the hardest Tabata workout I have ever done. Tonight's WOD consisted of:

Tabata
Push-ups
2-count Burpees
Burpees
Zero Count Burpees
GHD sit-ups
sit-ups

Because of the class size and the limited number of equipment, I started with the GHD's. That was a mistake. I was smoked when it came to the regular sit-ups after that. In retrospect, it probably didn't matter where I started, this wsa a ass-kicker regardless.

To score the Tabata, you only count the lowest number of reps achieved during your 20second intervals. For example, if on push-ups you hit 20, 17, 15, 10, 8, 8, 6, 5, your score would be 5. Then total the score for all the events.

My total score was 51 with individual scores of 11, 5, 7, 9, 9, and 10 respectively. I was dizzy after the GHD sit-ups and the zero counts. I'm sore as all get out already, can only imagine what tomorrow and Wednesday will bring.

Carnitas Salad

Wish I had taken a picture of this meal. It looks almost as good as it tastes. We had to divert a bit from our usual carnitas salad. When we looked in the veggie drawer it appears that waited a bit too long to make this salad cuz the 2 bags of shredded cabbage were not looking so good. Time to improvise.

If you haven't had carnitas before...man...you are missing out. The carnitas we used are from Del Real Foods and we get them at Costco. A quick search of their website shows that you can get their products at Von's if you don't have a Costco card. You're not going to get all those good samples at Von's though. Bit of a warning, these are fairly high fat, great if you are a 2-5x fat Zoner, not so great if you are following the blocks in a 1:1:1 ratio. This salad is so good and the carnitas are so tasty, I think it's worth the extra fat in this meal, but then again, I'm not a big fat gram counter. Anyway, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 head(?) of Broccoli chopped (normally we use shredded cabbage)
2 Bell Peppers thinly sliced
3 cucumbers sliced
5 or 6 cherry tomatoes quartered
a whole mess of cilantro (you really can't overdo it with cilantro, can you?)
Avocado (if you can afford the extra fat)
3-6 oz of carnitas (3 oz = 13g fat, 10g protein)

Put a big pile of the veggies in a bowl, top with 3-6 oz of carnitas depending on how many blocks you get. I put an additional half of an avocado on mine, told you I didn't count my fat grams much. Then top with copious amounts of cilantro, really heap in on there, its damn good stuff. I also added a bit of Organicville orange cranberry viniagrette to mine.

This was clearly a super high fat meal for me, but again, I'm not that concerned. Amy doesn't get to eat quite as much fat as I do, so she skipped the avocado and she squeezed the juice of an orange on her salad and was equally as pleased with her meal.

Therapeutic Lifting

Well, I'm not doing as well keeping up with this blog during this Zone/Paleo challenge as I thought I might. Started off with a ball of fire and kind of fizzled over the last week or so. Overall, the nutrition challenge has been going well. I haven't stuck to the no-grain/no-sugar like I wanted to. I have broken down a bit and have had a piece of bread here and there and some oatmeal, also had some white rice when Amy and I went out for Middle Eastern food one night. I am still controlling portions pretty well and I'm not eating rice like I would have in the past...small victories. On the sugar front, my breakdown has come in the form of bars. Some poor planning left me with very few snack options, so I found myself resorting to the Clif Builers, Think Thins and Purefits. I'm not eating pure white table sugar, but sugar none the less. Time to refocus and get a bit more stringent on the challenge. Looking around the gym, I'm seeing some good results come out of this, people are really leaning out and performances are still moving forward.

Now, onto the title of this post. You'll recall on the 5th I posted that I had hit a PR in the CrossFit Total, but in the process I tweaked my back a bit. Wasn't mindful of my midline stabilization during my shoulder press and I felt it as soon as I leaned back a bit and pushed the weight up. Well, that's been over two weeks now and I'm still feeling it. If that isn't enough motivation to make sure you are hitting good form, then I don't know what is. Fortunately it's not a significant injury. I'm not limited in my activity at all, just notice some soreness and discomfort throughout the day.

Yesterday's WOD was max effort push jerk. I knew that I had to be very mindful of my form because my back was already sore due to poor form with an overhead lift. I did pretty well, I thought. There were a couple of reps where I could have been tighter, overall my push jerk needs more work. I did hit a new PR with 170#. Later that evening though I felt my back tighten up again. It was actually more sore than it has been over the last couple of weeks. I was a bit uncomfortable throughout the night, which is unusual for me.

My plan was to get up this morning and go hit an early WOD. I knew what the workout was before I went to bed, so that probably gave me a bit of anxiety to start with, heavy deadlift and burpees (5 rounds of 5 deadlift @ 275# and 10 burpees). When I woke up at 4:55 I, of course, didn't want to get out of bed and I used my sore back as an excuse to stay in bed. I laid there for several minutes and realized that I wasn't going to fall back to sleep, so might as well get up and hit the gym. Told myself that I would take it easy.

Once I got a good warm-up in I actually was feeling okay. I started loading up the bar to warm-up my deadlift and it was feeling not too shabby. I quit loading the bar at 241#. My back felt fine, but I didn't want to push it and 241# is a good weight for me during a met-con WOD. I hit the workout pretty hard and finished in 5:30. Immediately afterward I noticed that I was no longer noticing my back pain. Actually the rest of the day I felt great.

Over lunch I went for a run, 45 min Time Trial on the road. I covered 7.15 miles and my back was still feeling good. Then for shits and giggles I headed over to the gym to perform a lift I haven't done in a very long time...the bench press. After CrossFitting for over a year, I wanted to see what I could do with that lift. No idea what my PR is for the bench press, last time I tried to max was about 19 years ago. Suffice it to say that anytime I have performed this exercise I probably have never ventured much over 155-160# and eaked out a few reps. Today I was able to press 195# without pushing myself to failure. I don't think I was too far away from my true max, probably within 5-10 lbs, but it felt good. It actually felt pretty easy, guess that's what happens when you take the stability factor out of the picture and only have to worry about pushing the weight. Who knows when I'll ever bench press again, but I do have a hankering do to the WOD named Linda (aka "The 3 Bars of Death")

My back is actually starting to stiffen up a bit this evening. Probably too much sitting around. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I think I'll try to hit some active recovery stretching and maybe go to the sauna. Long live the rest day!

Meat is murder....

...but it's damn tasty! Not to mention good for you.



Several leading nutrition/health "authorities" and pseudo-authorities (think the Skinny Bitch gals)have led an all-out assault on the consumption of meat. Posting several arguments that are intended to tug at our heart strings or make us sick to our stomachs, they ignorantly posit that continued meat consumtion will lead to a second ice age, worldwide famine, pandemic cancer and heart disease outbreaks and possibly even armageddon. On the surface they make a convinging argument, but once you begin to examine the evidence you quickly realize that their conclusions are baseless and often times laughable.

Hey, don't take my word for it. Check out this article I found the other day. It's a bit long, but it's easy to read and well worth the effort, especially if you have any inclination toward eliminating meat from your diet. Read this while gnawing on a hunk of tasty beef jerky.

The Myths of Vegetarianism
by Stephen Byrnes, ND, RNCP

THE EVOLUTION OF A MYTH

Along with the unjustified and unscientific saturated fat and cholesterol scares of the past several decades has come the notion that vegetarianism is a healthier dietary option for people. It seems as if every health expert and government health agency is urging people to eat fewer animal products and consume more vegetables, grains, fruits and legumes. Along with these exhortations have come assertions and studies supposedly proving that vegetarianism is healthier for people and that meat consumption is associated with sickness and death. Several authorities, however, have questioned these data, but their objections have been largely ignored.

(click here to read the full article)

Today's Log:
Oceanside CrossFit WOD - Made a rare morning appearance at the gym. Hard to get warmed up, but that was a good WOD. Total time was 10:05

Breakfast
1 cup Fage 2% yogurt
1/2 c Trader Joe's Chunky Apple Sauce
handful peanuts
1/3 medium banana

Snack
1 oz deli chicken
1 cheese stick
1 banana
handful of nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts)

Lunch
4 oz Ground Turkey
a heap of shredded brussel sprouts
some leeks
Tomato sauce
(all that combined into a yummy baked dish...full recipe to follow)
1 1/2 c sauteed broccoli
1/2 avocado
1 apple

Snack
2 hard boiled eggs
handful of baby carrots
handful of nuts

Dinner
Approx 4 blocks of that ground turkey baked dish
1/2 avocado
A couple sips of Sudwerk Marzen Premium Lager

Snack
medium apple
peanut butter
2 oz grilled chicken

Misplaced Mojo

Seems today I hit a bit of a stumbling block. Not sure if it's from a lack of quality sleep, slightly over indulgent dinner last night, a poor breakfast this morning or what, but I was definitely not firing on all cylinders today.

Last night we went out for a Korean dinner. It was my Mom's last night in town, so we celebrated a bit. The food was fantastic and for the most part it would not have been difficult to strictly follow the guidelines of my current dietary challenge. I actually held off on rice for the first half of my meal, but eventually the spice got to me, that and my deep-seeded love for rice. I think in general I kept things within a zone-friendly ratio, but I just consumed too many blocks. I was still feeling it a bit when I woke up this morning.

The real indicator that I wasn't "feeling it" today came during my lunch time workout. Today marks the first official training day in my preparation for the Pacific Crest Trail 50 mile ultramarathon. I'm going to train for this following the principles of CrossFit Endurance. I'm a bit nervous about it, but I'm going to put all I have into and see what happens. Life is an experiment. Anyway, today's workout was just supposed to be a short 35 minute Time Trial run. From the warm-up I could tell that my legs just weren't there. I did the run on the hilly trails behind the battalion and the hills just smoked me. I had to pause momentarily a couple of times to catch my breath and let my legs recover, but I made the whole run.

After lunch I was shot. I desperately wanted a cup of coffee, but the only thing available at work was the overcooked, nasty-to-begin-with Folgers. I was desperate but not that desperate. I struggled through the afternoon and then on my way home shot through McD's for a cup 'o joe. Then it was off to the gym for an evening of heavy deadlift.

Again, just couldn't get into it. My warm-up was downright worthless. Everything I tried to do hurt, I'm pretty sore from last night's WOD. So, after struggling through my warm-up I just jumped right into the deads. I ended up lifting 302#, which up until Monday would have been a new PR for me. So, I guess it wasn't a terrible performance, but I really felt kind of weak. Thinking maybe I should take tomorrow off, but Jeff just posted the WOD for tomorrow and it looks like a good one. Hmmm....what is that they say about discretion being the better part of valor?????

Breakfast
2 eggs over easy
1/2 avocado
(note light brekkie and no carbs)

Snack
1 oz deli turkey
1/2 c cottage cheese
1/2 c blueberries
handful of baby carrots
handful of mixed nuts (apricot kernels, walnuts)

CF Endurance WOD - 35 min trail TT

Lunch
4 oz roast sirloin tip
2 c broccoli (raw)
1 large red pepper
handful of baby carrots
1 c green grapes
handful of nuts
Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette

Snack
1 cheese stick
1 oz deli turkey
mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans)
strawberries and grapes

OCF WOD - Deadlift 302#

Dinner
4.5 oz Trader Joe's tilapia citronette
1.5 oz grilled chicken
sauteed broccoli
1/4 c brown rice
handful roasted peanuts

Hitting PR's

Today was a good day for me. My Mom is in town, so I decided that I would not go to the gym tonight. Instead, I decided to crunch all my workouts in over my lunch period. Gotta love being in the military and getting the luxury of 1.5 hour lunch breaks. It has been a while since I have done any running and also since I have done any significantly heavy lifting. So, I decided to hit both today.

I started off with a Tabata run. That's 8 rounds of run as fast as you can for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest...oh, and don't forget that the treadmill is jacked up to a 12% grade. Yeah, that changes things a bit. I did the run at 10.5mph for all 8 reps, which is my typical tabata run pace.

Immediately following the run, well, when I was able to breathe again, I went over to the gym and did CrossFit Total. CF Total is a max effort of shoulder press, back squat and deadlift. Your score is the total weight lifted for all the lifts. My previous best was 666.5, today I hit 685. I did 135# in the shoulder press. It was an admittedly ugly lift, did not maintain midline stability very well and my back is a bit sore right now because of it. My back squat was 235. I felt that I could have lifted more, but I did not have a spotter and I didn't feel like pushing my luck. I have been thanked by my wife for that moment of clarity. My deadlift was 315. Both the press and deadlift weights were single lift PR's for me. I was pretty surprised by this result, especially considering that I had just finished that very intense run. Hope to continue to see results like this throughout the rest of this challenge and beyond.

Breakfast
2 oz rotisserie chicken
85g sugar snap peas
1/2 c cottage cheese
1c blueberries
chopped almonds

Snack
2 oz deli turkey
grapes and strawberries
apricot kernels and walnuts

Lunch
4 oz grilled chicken
carrots
celery
1 small cucumber
kimchi
grapes
strawberry
mixed nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds)

Snack
2 oz rotisserie chicken
apple
mixed nuts

Dinner
4 oz roast pork
sauteed asparagus
salad (lettuce, tomato, celery, cucumber, avocado)
Orange Cranberry vinaigrette
small handful of macadamia nuts

Snack
1 Stone Ruination IPA
handful of peanuts
1 cheese stick

2 days in, holding steady

Day 2 of the Zone/Paleo challenge...going well. Still going mostly with paleo-esque guidelines, although I have had cheese sticks and one beer. I'm not really weighing and measuring like I should with the Zone, but I can almost guarantee that I am not over eating on my blocks. Have been pretty hungry today and I'm quite sore from yesterday's Fight Gone Bad.

Breakfast
2 eggs over easy
2 oz left over sirloin roast
1/2 avocado
1/2 banana
Clementine Orange


Snack
Cheese stick

Lunch
Grilled Chicken Breast (marinated in olive oil, lime juice, garlic, thyme & rosemary)
Salad: cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, celery
Sugar Snap Peas
2 large strawberries
Asian pear
handful of macadamia nuts

Snack
1.5 oz rotisserie chicken
apple w/ peanut butter

Dinner
Dungeness Crab
Salad: spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery
sauteed napa cabbage
clementine orange
handful almonds
small handful of toasted coconut

New Year, New Challenge

Happy New Year to all, can you believe it's 2009 already. With the new year, I will embark on a new nutritional challenge. I'm not doing it alone, I'm joining a big crew from Oceanside CrossFit, and we are doing a 60-day Zone/Paleo challenge. The idea is to do either a strict Zone or a strict Paleo/Zone diet for 60 days, starting January 3rd (today) and finishing on March 3rd.

My plan is to go serious Zone and mostly paleo. I will resurrect the no-sugar/no-grain challenge that I struggled with last month. Now, I am saying this, knowing full well that at the end of the challenge I will be cheating a bit. Let me say that again, I WILL be cheating toward the end of February. In mid-February we are going to Keystone, CO for 5 days of skiing at my Mom's condo. I think I will be able to stay mostly Zone and probably even mostly Paleo there, but I'm sure there will be some mild cheating going on. The real issue is the 3 days that we will be in Solvang, CA meeting some friends who are coming in for some California Wine Country fun and to watch the Tour of California. This will not be a Zone-friendly weekend. I have resigned myself to that fact, and I actually am embracing that fact. I will enjoy this weekend in February.

So, because I know that I will not actually make it through a full 60 days of staying strict to the challenge, does that mean I shouldn't embark on the challenge? Absolutely not! The whole idea of this is to improve my diet as much as I can over the next 2 months and hopefully develop/strengthen dietary habits that will last a lifetime. I wholeheartedly believe that this will be a great challenge and that we will all learn a ton during it. I also believe that at the end of it we will be amazed by the results and encouraged to continue down this path.

Good luck to all that will be joining me. I hope to keep this blog updated as much as I can. i will also be trying to post to the OCF blog as much as I can. I encourage those of you who are also doing the challenge to post comments to the OCF blog and/or my blog. Tell us your frustrations/successes/favorite recipes/whatever comes to mind. It's going to be a good 60 days.

Today's weight: 157.4 (ugh, rough holiday season)

Breakfast
2 eggs poached
1 apple
handful of almonds
1 cheddar cheese stick

OCF WOD: Fight Gone Bad - 335 (new PR!!!)

Lunch
Spinach salad
4 oz Rotisserie chicken
Tomatoes
Feta cheese
Almonds
Kalamata Olives
Roasted Red Peppers
Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette
1/2 banana smeared with peanut butter

Snack
handful almonds
1 clementine orange
Turkey Jerky

Dinner
4 oz Sirloin Tip Roast
spinach salad (tomatoes, celery, carrots)
Sauteed Broccoli
Kimchi (homemade...mmm)

Snack
1 oz turkey jerky
handful macadamia nuts, 6 almonds
1 Firestone Walker Pale 31