Done, Done, on to the Next One

It's almost embarrassing, the ego this whole BCCC thing has given me.

Funny story. This weekend I was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends. We ordered our (super-cute) dresses back in August - at that point, I had been eating paleo about 80-90% of the time for a month or so, and I was down a little bit of weight, but not much. On top of that, I'm pretty hourglassy, and as usual, my bust size fell two sizes about my waist size on the chart. Long story short, I ordered a size 14, which had plenty of room to accommodate my chest, and I figured I'd just get it taken in.

Fast forward through five more months, two 30-day challenges, quitting diet soda and other artificial sweeteners cold turkey, and a whole lot more consistency. I waited as long as possible before I took my dress to get altered. My lady took that shit in FOUR INCHES in the chest, and as much as possible in the waist without messing up the pockets (yes, a dress with pockets - so fabulous). And still, on the wedding day, when I put that dress on, it hung off of me, somewhat like a sack. As luck would have it, one of the other bridesmaids ordered down a size, and wasn't loving the fit of her dress either...so we switched. And her size 8 was still too big for me.

So, yes. I've been channeling Ron Burgundy. "HEY EVERYONE! COME AND SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK!" And now that I'm close to where I want to be, body composition-wise, I'm ready to shift my focus.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I've signed up for a good old-fashioned strongman competition.

("You people have held me back long enough! I'm going to CLOWN COLLEGE!" "...I bet none of us expected him to say that.")

In less than two weeks, I will be carrying a keg, walking with a yoke over my shoulders loaded with 320lbs, heaving a 130lb Atlas stone, and - gulp - clean & jerking 145lbs. Which, incidentally, is 27lbs more than I've ever cleaned OR jerked before. So, my focus has shifted away from fat loss and to maximizing my strength. Which could really use some maximizing.

I've loosened things up a bit, but am still keeping my nutrition pretty strict while I train. I'm having cream in my coffee regularly now, but am limiting chocolate (or other sugary treat) to the weekends only. I'll probably be OK with more fibrous veggies (cauliflower and green beans and whatnot), but recently I've been having only greens (spinach, kale, collards) out of sheer laziness, so that might continue. I'm also trying to include more lean meats, since I have a tendency to eat mostly pork chops and red meat, but I'm not actively avoiding them.

Example: my post-workout dinner last night.



Two salmon burgers with mustard, small sweet potato nuked and topped with cinnamon, chipotle chili, paprika and salt, salad with raw spinach, cherry tomatoes, handful of bacon crumbles, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and granulated garlic. Side of food and workout log.

Speaking of workout log...boy, it's been a while since I've caught this blog up.

Thursday 2/2: Greasing the groove with supinated strict pull-ups, on the minute for 10 minutes. Started with 2 each minute, failed on the second starting with the fourth minute, so backed down to one. 13 total. Split jerk, up to peak of 1. 55-70-85-100-110 push press -110 (PR!)-115 (PR!). Metcon: 4 rounds for time, 8 push press with 75% of max (for me, 85lbs), 8 toes to bar, 8 single leg squats to a box. 11:35 as RX'ed. Push press could have been faster, but I felt strong and never failed, so that's good.

Saturday 2/4: Gymnastics skills class, handstand pushups. Strict with bands - up to light bands for a couple reps. Kipping - REAL CLOSE. Need to learn to push with my arms. Stayed around for regular session. 3 rounds for time of 10 deadlifts at 65% of max, 50 doubleunders. 16:04 as RX'ed (165lb deadlifts). I could have lifted 50 more pounds and still taken just as long, since my DUs go to shit when I'm fatigued.

Sunday 2/5: Oly. Snatched up to 68.4lbs (weird weight due to combo of pound and kilogram plates); cleaned up to 49kg (about 108lbs).

Tuesday 2/7: Skill work with strict muscle ups. Bodyweight false grip ring pull up (god, that shit is SO HARD) (TWSS). Band assisted muscle ups with two mini bands. SO HARD. Metcon: "Sammy's Day Off." AMRAP 12 minutes, 4 chest-to-bar pull ups, 4 ring dips, 4 handstand pushups, 4 kettlebell snatch (1.5/1pood). 4 rounds + 2 pull ups; scaled with mini band for pull ups, light bands for HSPUs, and push ups for ring dips.

Thursday 2/9: Greasing the groove with supinated pull ups. Same as 2/2 - two for first three minutes, one for last 7. Split jerk - warmed up with 45x3; then 65-85-105-115 push press -115. Metcon - 21-15-9, overhead squats (95/65) and wallballs (20/14). 8:37 as RX'ed. Wallballs super slow, but squats great - did first 21 unbroken and split into 4's and 5s for the rest.

Sunday 2/12: Gymnastics fun - cartwheels, roundoffs, iron cross ring work. Oly: snatched to 73lbs (PR!), clean & jerk to 118lbs (PR!). My form REALLY started to come together for me this week, particularly with the snatch. SO HAPPY.

Monday 2/13: Greasing the groove with pronated pull ups, one bodyweight each minute (up from 2 with mini band last time). Legit. AMRAP doubleunders in 5 minutes: 54 (FAAAAAARK - last time we did this I got about 120). I knew then that the metcon was going to be ugly for me. "Big Jim:" 3 rounds of 400m run, 9 thrusters (135/95), 12 box jumps (30"/24"), 15 double unders. A whopping 26:06, as RX'ed - and the last 15 DUs took me SIX MINUTES. SIX! I bet I spent 12 minutes of that workout on double unders. Like I said...they go to shit when I'm fatigued.

Home Stretch

And we have officially entered the last week of this season's CFCC BCCC.

Like last time, it's now time to crack down and eat only the cleanest crap imaginable. Lean meats and greens only, baby, other than my up-to-thrice-weekly leptin refeed. No more snacking in the afternoons (this will save me about $20-30 in buffalo jerky).

What's a leptin refeed? To borrow a great explanation from Mark Sisson:

"The purpose, as I see it, of carb refeeds is the restoration of leptin levels in the dieter. As we know, caloric restriction reduces leptin levels. With lower leptin comes increased hunger and reduced adherence to a diet. Cravings arise. Energy wanes, immunity suffers. The lack of leptin elicits the cascade of hormones that down regulate metabolism and energy expenditure. Your muscles use less energy and become more efficient – but weaker and less effective. Menstruation and fertility become issues. Dropping calories even more just makes the problem worse. You need to restore leptin, at least for a bit, to right the path. A carb refeed can help you achieve this."

The rest of Mark's post and the comments are very informative - I highly recommend you check it out.

Anyway, what this translates into for me, at the recommendation of my oh-so-wise coach, is to have something starchy on the same day as a longer metcon - over ten minutes. Usually, this is a sweet potato with cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika and salt - no butter necessary, and it's goddamn delicious. Last night, I had about 3/4c of baba ganoush (eggplant, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, paprika).

(Incidentally, I had that baba ganoush, together with chicken shwarma meat over a salad, around 9:15 after a 24-hour fast AND a 12 minute metcon that kicked my ass. Nothing has ever tasted so good.)

So, here we go. Until next Tuesday, I'm suspending my love affair with all kinds of red meat (steak! lamb! ground beef! pork [no, contrary to what the Pork Council's ad campaign would have you believe, this is NOT white meat]) and replacing it with plenty-o-smoked salmon, fish, chicken, shrimp and scallops (most of which I have in my freezer). My love affair with collard greens and kale will continue. Bacon...I'll miss you this weekend, but we'll be back together soon.

And you better believe I'm going on a bender at Sweet Freedom bakery when I'm done.

Workouts:

- Monday, January 30: greasing the groove with pull ups. 2 strict pronated grip pull ups, with mini band, every minute on the minute for ten minutes. 20 pull ups, easy. Next week, bodyweight for these. Back squat, peak of 20 (yes, 20). I did two sets - 115 was really fast & easy, so I took my second set at 125. Still pretty fast, and while it got tougher for the last 3 or 4 reps, I didn't see Jesus, so if we ever do this again I'll start higher. Doing 20 reps with 66% of my max doesn't suck.

- Tuesday, January 31: strict muscle-up skill work. Couple false grip ring pull ups with mini band and with no band - not there yet unassisted. Couple band-assisted muscle ups - these feel REALLY weird. Light + mini easy, light band less easy but still up. Metcon: 12 minute AMRAP of 3 forward rolls, 6 burpees, 12 double-unders, 15 air squats. Lesson 1: when you do a lot of squats Monday, air squats on Tuesday are kinda painful. HOLY CRAP. Lesson 2: my double-unders go to crap when I fatigue. 5 rounds + 6 burpees, as RX'ed.

Too Cold to Bike

I don't know how I managed not to mention this on here, but last month - after five and a half years of living in the city - I FINALLY got a bike.



(Pictured: the bigass Victoria's Secret freebie bag my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas two years ago, since it came for free with the multiple pairs of sweatpants she bought me. It's the best grocery bag I have.)

Recently, I'd started to feel like my digs in G-Ho were just too freaking far from everything. I work at 18th and Market, I work out at 13th and Locust, I go to the grocery store at 9th and South. You get the picture. The worst was rushing out the door from work around 6pm to rush into the house, walk the dogs, rush them back upstairs, rush to change my clothes, rush to get them fed and back into their crates so I could rush right back out and make the 7:30 class at CFCC...and then either walk home (getting me in around 9pm) or cab it home (getting me home closer to 8:45, but at $10 a pop).

This is life-changing. I don't love the hot pink handlebars, but whatever. At first, it was a little weird getting used to riding a bike regularly for the first time since I was about twelve. For real, on my first ride, I had an overwhelming sensation that I was supposed to be wearing a seatbelt (um...what?). And it was a little freaky to get used to being passed by cars. But I got accustomed to it pretty quickly, and WOOHOO! It no longer takes me 25 or 30 minutes to walk from home to CFCC, or 20 minutes to walk to work.

However, there are certain things I'm still learning. Like my regular winter gloves, which do a great job of blocking the wind, don't really do a great job of actually keeping my fingers warm when I can't put my hands in my pockets. Last night, when it was about 25 degrees, I thought my fingers were going to fall off on my ride home. Note to self: buy puffy gloves for bike riding, even if you look like an asshole.

So, when I woke up to walk the dogs this morning and saw that it was 14 degrees, with a zero degree wind chill, I made a very quick and easy decision NOT to ride my bike today. And to go out at lunch and buy some puffy gloves.

Cosmo was not pleased with his morning walk in the cold, and immediately jumped back into bed when we came back in.



Recent workouts:

- Sunday, January 1: couple of pronated-grip jumping pull ups in my guest room. My forearms and elbows were REALLY sore from Saturday's toes-to-bar/clean & jerk extravaganza, so these HURT.

- Monday, January 2: one pronated-grip guest room pull up to start the day. Elbows still sore, so I left it alone after that. I went to the 4:30 class at CFCC, which was a fun change from my usual late evening sessions. Started with some box jumps - Amber and I made it to 30", which I'm happy with. Would have liked to get higher, but mentally I have issues jumping onto a single plate - the surface seems too small, so I get all weirded out. Back squats for a peak of 1: 85x3, 115x2, 135x2, 155x1, 175x1, 180F. Got stuck just out of the bottom. I suspect I may need to push harder. Still sticking with my goal of 185 for the total in a couple weeks. Metcon was really embarrassing. 3 rounds for time of 15 box jumps (24/20), 30 double unders. 11:43. FAAAAAAAARK. I don't know what happened to my double-unders - I had gotten pretty good at them (easily able to do 10-20 unbroken), but the last couple of times we've done them in a metcon, I've barely been able to eke out one or two at a time. I was incredibly frustrated with this one, but whatever - I finished it.

- Tuesday, January 3: weighted pull ups! light band x3 to warm up, followed by singles: light band + 5lbs, LB+7.5, LB+10; mini band; MB+2.5; MB+5, MB+7.5, MB+10. I sort of regret not just going for a bodyweight one at the end, but since I can JUST manage to do one, I was worried that the lighter sets beforehand would have been enough to tax me out of it. Metcon was tough but enjoyable: "liquid cocaine." 5 rounds for time of 5 clean & jerks (155/105), 10 chest-to-bar pull ups. 13:11, with 85lbs/light band. I should have warmed up with 65 first, because that first 85lb clean felt REALLY heavy, but I'm happy with my time (and with the fact that I can do 50 chest-to-bar pull ups with the light band, even if most of them were one or two at a time).

Happy Wednesday. No gym for me tonight - evening classes are cancelled for a nutrition seminar. I wish I could go, but there's no chance I can make it there by 6:30...so instead, I'm spending the evening coming up with some specific goals for the next CFCC BCCC, which starts on Monday.