hmmmmmm.

Four day weekend?  Yes, I think I will.

Hoping for some of these:

over this

I LOVE SPIEDIES.

Been thinking hard about my training lately and where I want to take things.  I've made my back squat goal already - and I know I have more in me.  I pulled 265 for two deadlifts today and it felt decent - I'm hitting 300 next week.  I've brought my Fran time down substantially.  I can run much faster than I could when I was running all the time.  I look pretty damn good in little-ass shorts and knee socks.

(Not quite as good as Sly does though).

I feel happy and healthy and lean and focused.  So now what?  Get super-SKRONG?  Try to lean out and get super-fast?  Switch my focus to oly and maybe do a competition?  Run another half?  This whole "being athletic" thing is still relatively new to me, you know.  Aside from high school cheerleading, I haven't done any kind of competitive athletics since I was a kid - and when I was a kid, I was pretty slow and fat.  When I went to college and got in shape, it was very different - it was an hours-on-the-elliptical, eating-fat-free-cheese kind of "in shape."

So...food for thought on this long holiday weekend.

PhillyGuy and I had planned to go to the 8am session at CFCC this morning and then head to the new Green Eggs Cafe on 13th Street for breakfast afterwards.  But then I woke up, looked at my clock that said 7:19, and said "F this noise."  The pups and I went for a nice leisurely walk and I chilled in bed with my laptop and coffee for a couple hours, before we finally got moving and headed to breakfast around 9:45.

Beef bacon and blue cheese frittata:

PhillyGuy's steak and eggs and side of bacon in the background.  He had the far superior breakfast this morning.  The frittata was pretty disappointing - it wasn't bad, but it was very bland.  The blue cheese was very mild and had almost no tang, and the bacon-to-frittata ratio was unacceptably low.  Iced coffee was tasty, though, as were PG's rosemary potatoes (I stole one of those and a piece of his [meh] bacon).  I'd probably come here again on a gluten-binge to try their red velvet pancakes, but it's definitely not worth the crazy wait on the weekends for eggs.  Give me Mixto any day.

Log:

Thursday May 24: clean & jerk. 63x2-83x2-93x2-103x1-113x1-118F (uh why?)-118x1-123x1-128F-128F-128 clean only - failed the jerk twice, since I just couldn't seem to keep myself from trying to push press it, and, well, I can't push press almost 130lbs.  5lb PR for the clean and the jerk.  No metcon (yaaaaay).

Friday May 25: deadlift, peak of 2. 145-185-215-245-265.  posterior chain for days.

Fran - 21-15-9 thrusters (95/65), pull ups.

6:30, as RX'ed.  16-second PR.

Morgan and I battled that shit out - she is a squatting machine and absolutely beasted through the thrusters.  Glad she was there, honestly, because I probably would have been much slower without her in the corner of my eye.  I was COMPLETELY certain I was going to spew mediocre frittata everywhere mid-thruster, but I kept it down.  Note to self: at LEAST two hours from eggs to working out.

happy long weekend everyone.

Bad Habit

...in more ways than one. 

When I first got my bike back in December, it was a little unsettling getting used to riding around.  I hadn't even been on a bike at all in the better part of 15 years, except for one quick ride to return a bike my family rented on vacation in Edisto Island back in 2009.  And I'd definitely never actively ridden in traffic before.  I had no sense of what it felt like to be passed by cars or how wide a space needed to be in order for me to ride through it.  And god, what I must have looked like the first time I had to figure out the best way to lock my bike to one of those little bike-posts-with-a-circle-on-it they have on the sidewalks.  Spatial reasoning, she is not my strong suit.

But I got used to things really quickly and within a few weeks or a month or so was zipping around - between stopped traffic and parked cars, on streets without a dedicated bike lane, all kinds of fancy shit that terrified the bejeezus out of me at first.  And during the last month, I've developed kiiiiiind of a bad habit: listening to music while I ride.

I know, I know.  I keep the volume down and make sure to be extra-attentive to what's going on around me.  I don't blow through red lights or stop signs, and I certainly don't commit PhillyGuy's number one bike annoyance of riding between lanes of moving traffic.  But still. 

The other day, when I was riding, the Offspring's "Bad Habit" came on.  Smash is a great album, and back when I actually ran regularly, about eight songs from that album were on regular rotation in my running mixes.  This particular song, though, will ALWAYS bring me back to the summer of 1994 or 1995 - I was at Camp, old enough to have a "boyfriend" and young enough to think it was fun and scandalous to curse.  I had a friend who I was convinced was the coolest person I'd ever meet -  he was short, incredibly witty and a badass drummer (and has, actually, since gone on to have a fairly successful music career out in California).  Like most 13 year olds in the mid-90s, my knowledge of the Offspring was pretty much limited to the song "Self Esteem."  He made me a copy of the full album (on a cassette tape!), and my love for the Offspring was born.

(Incidentally, he also introduced to me to Rush.  I have a bootleg copy of 2112 somewhere in a shoebox, I'm sure of it.)

So, yes.  Hearing "Bad Habit" now takes me back to being a newly-minted teenager in the grunge era, walking through the woods with my friends screaming "YOU STUPID DUMBSHIT GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKER!" at the top of our lungs.  Because we were fucking awesome.

And then yesterday, I'm on my way home from the gym and I hear "All-Star" by Smashmouth.  Come ON.  I cannot hear this song without instantly being transported to the late spring of 1999.  I was a junior in high school, had a license and my very first car (a 1991 two-door Nissan Sentra with power nothing and no tape deck, let alone a CD player), and remember blasting that song while I drove out to camp (yes, god, camp AGAIN) to pick up my materials for what I didn't realize at the time would be my very last summer working there.  I clearly remember having my windows down, leopard print fuzzy dice bobbing around, and wearing a really, truly awful black spaghetti-strap, slightly cropped tank top with some tribal-ish design on the front and super-wide-leg khaki cargo pants (think JNCOs).  You have to understand that I thought I was really, REALLY hot stuff then - I was different! and UNIQUE! and SO INTERESTING!  God, I miss the 90s sometimes.

Anyway, that's that.  I wish I hadn't gotten rid of my JNCOs - particularly the sweet Hypnotix with a 32" leg opening and a red and white swirl down the side - but it's more fun, on balance, being a grown-up.

Workout log:

Wednesday May 16: practice with kipping pullups. Stringing them together is my weak spot, but I'm working on it.  Pronated grip chest-to-bar strict pullups, peak of three - OY, these are tough. Light + mini bands; light band for two sets; light +2.5lbs.  Metcon: Four rounds of 2-minute AMRAP 4 box jumps (30/24"), 8 toes to bar, 12 american kettlebell swings (1.5/1pood). As RX'd, 1 round + 2 KBS, 1+7 T2B, 1+8T2B, 1+5T2B.  Stayed for gymnastics; worked on pressing up to a handstand from tucked, straddle and piked positions, and bridge work with kickovers.  I usually don't do two metcons in a day, but this looked fun: 5 rounds of 5 touch-and-go straddle handstands, 7 bridge ups, 9 piked v-ups.  8:40 as RX'ed.

Thursday May 17: clean & jerk. 53x2-73x2-88x1-98x1-108x1, pressed out-108x1-113x1, power cleaned but easy.  Felt much better than last week.  Metcon: 6 minute AMRAP of 60' bear crawl, 20 air squats.  I totally ate it TWICE during the bear crawl when my legs outran my hands.  Squats slow as shit.  5 rounds + 30' bear crawl.

Friday May 18: FRAN FRIDAYS.  Deadlift, peak of 3.  Didn't feel as strong this week - 135-165-195-215-235.  Attempted 255, but it felt REALLY heavy on my first pull so I called it at one.  Fran, 7:08 as RX'ed.

Gettin' better at this.

woof.

I've been sick.  It's been a long week.  My productivity at work wasn't great last week and I feel like I'm super behind.  I've eaten my weight in kimchi and some full-fat yogurt here and there, but the antibiotics are still kicking my ass (and my digestive system) a little bit.  We traveled up to visit the inlaws this weekend and my diet wasn't ideal - I ate far more dried apricots and almonds than was necessary, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, gorging myself on dried fruit and nuts in a movie theater beats the many, MANY other things I could have gorged myself on. 

Pretty sweet theater, though.  Why doesn't Philly have one of these?

I don't have a ton to say, except that I want to curl up in bed with a bagel or maybe some nachos.  Instead I'm going to drink a buttload of water and do my best to force myself to be a workhorse today.

Training log:

Tuesday May 8: strict press, peak of three. 55-65-75-80-80.  Yep, tripled my prior (and honestly, probably current) max.  This is not my strongest lift, but my shoulders feel like they're a little stronger than they were.  Metcon, 5 rounds of AMRAP 60 seconds wallballs (20/14lbs), 60 seconds handstand pushups.  Half-assed the wallballs.  Total reps 87, as RX'ed.

Thursday May 10: clean & jerk. 63x2, 83x2, 103x2...and then I started pulling with my arms. 103x1, 108x1, 108x1...and then two sets of 5 clean pulls at 108lbs.  Woof.  15lbs under my max.  I went to a morning class and had to rush to get to work, so I wasn't sad to skip the metcon (50 bar facing burpees for time).

Friday May 11: deadlifts, peak of three. 145-185-215-235-255.  Fast and easy to 255; 255 was heavy but still fast enough out of the bottom that I was satisfied.  Fran (21-15-9 thrusters (95/65) and pull ups): 7:40 as RX'ed.  54 seconds slower than last week's time.  Like last time, broke the 15 thrusters up into 7 and 8 - but I failed THREE TIMES to squat clean the bar for my 8th rep, which ate up a bunch of time.  Post-Fran I felt awful - sick and nauseated - not sure if it was due to the workout or to the nasty shot of antibiotics I got in my arm earlier that day, but I had a coconut water and ginger Larabar afterwards and felt much better.

Monday, May 14: another morning class. back squats, peak of 3.  85-115-135-155-175 easy.  Could have gone up to 185, but I decided to skip it and planned to take two sets in today's metcon - 20 rep back squat.  Last time we did this I did 115 and 125 and remember it being fairly easy, so I planned to do 135 and 145.  Should have done the extra work set instead, because I wore a belt and FRIED my lower back on the 135.  Easy weight for my legs, though.

Somebody's Getting STRONGER

It's only Thursday - which means I'm only three workouts into the five-day peak week - but I couldn't resist.

Operation: Get Strong Without Getting Fat seems to be going pretty damn well.

Monday, April 30: front squats. 85x3-115x2-135x1-150x1-160x1-170x1.  PR.  Previous PR was 155 for two.  Fond memories of when I couldn't get 115 out of the hole...now I'm front squatting over my bodyweight. Metcon: tabata burpees (laaaaaaame).  Score - 55.  Meh.

Tuesday May 1: snatch. 53x2 ugly, 53x2, 63x2, 73x1, 83x1, 88x1.  Pressed it out because I didn't get all the way under, but PR nonetheless.  I have added 20 pounds to my max snatch in the last couple of months - I was stuck at 68 for a while, and then stuck at 73 for what seemed like forever.  I am still FAR from good at this, but am feeling things come together.  Metcon: 5 rounds for max reps of 60 seconds single-arm snatching (30 seconds strong arm/30 seconds weak arm) with 30 seconds of rest.  Implement was up to us.  I really dislike kettlebell snatches, and I find it awkward to hold a dumbbell with plates on it, so I decided to use a barbell.  My first round was a little awkward while I settled into a rhythm, but then it got kind of fun.  35lbs (training bar with bumper 10s) - 67 total reps.  This was a good training move for me, since it forced me not to pull with my arms and to use my hips instead (you know, like you're supposed to).

Wednesday May 2: deadlift day. I was looking forward to this all day long. 135x3-175x2-215x1-245x1-275x1 (PR)-285x1 (PR!).  285 was a little slow and I could feel my back rounding JUUUUUUUST a bit, but there was no doubt in my mind I was getting it up.  SO HAPPY about this. I have 55 days, give or take, to add 15 pounds to that number.  Metcon: 21-15-9 american kettlebell swings (1.5/1pood)/pull ups. 6:53 as RX'ed.  Kettlebell swings were really fast and easy; grip and forearms were destroyed and my pull ups were STUPID slow, since I did them in sets of 1 or 2 and dropped off the bar in between.

So...I'm three for three in terms of PRs this week, and I'm really fucking happy with my deadlift.  But I know why you all come here.

For pictures of dogs in raincoats.

CFCC BCCC AGAIN

You know, I wasn't going to do this again.  I've learned so much from the last two BCCCs - how to eat for leanness and for maintenance; how certain foods make me feel; how eating to cut fat is NOT helpful to my strength levels; how fantastic greens are; how a tablespoon or so of grassfed heavy cream in my morning coffee is unbelievably delicious AND makes me a very, very happy person.

So when I saw that the BCCC (Swimsuit Edition) was coming up, I really didn't think I'd do it again.  Especially since I'm not really feeling the need to lean out more.  I mean, if I woke up one day with another inch off of my waist and hips, I wouldn't cry about it, but I'm happy with how I look, and I'd rather have cream in my coffee and chocolate on the weekends than drop more weight.

But...PhillyGuy is doing it this time.  And it's supposed to be all new and improved and stuff.  And when everyone started posting pictures of their meals in our facebook group...I just got too jealous.  So yesterday over brunch at Cafe Lift...

(prosciutto frittata. baked eggs with roasted peppers, prosciutto, onions and gorgonzola cheese. side of hot sauce.) ....I bit the bullet and decided I was in again.

So here's my goal for this one: meet my primary strength goals of a 300lb deadlift and 200lb back squat by June 30, WITHOUT getting fat.  I took a couple of my own measurements this morning and then met Meghan at the gym before classes today to get measured, both of which confirmed I'm just about the same if not a touch leaner: just under 29.5 inches at the smallest part of my waist (my tape) and 30.25" a little higher up (Meghan's tape); 38 and 1/8 inch hips (Meghan only - down almost 2 inches from my post-winter-BCCC measurements, but that could be just due to tape placement).

(For the sake of convenience, I'd also like to keep my weight below 150 so that my 300 pound benchmark will also be a 2x bodyweight deadlift.  But I don't actually care how much I weigh...I just want to deadlift double whatever it is.)

So...those are my goals for BCCC, round 3.  I'm REALLY, REALLY hoping to meet my strength goals.  With just about 60 days to go, it's time to train hard.

Log:

Thursday, April 26: cleans. 63x2, 83x2, 103x2, 113F (WHAT) - rested 30 seconds and power cleaned 113. Took 113 again for a single and got under it this time.  Ended with 118, which got up really easily, but again I barely got myself under it in time. Woof.  What happened to that magical week I just had where I PRed both of my oly lifts?  Fark.  Metcon: 60 yard shuttle runs - 6 total, rest 90 seconds between. Rounded to seconds, since we don't have a clock with smaller increments: 16/16/16/16/15/15.

Friday, April 27: beach muscle Friday. Bench press, peak of 2: 65-85-100-110-115-120.  Definitely a PR, since we never bench and back when I did, I always did sets of 8.  Metcon was REALLY fun - a team workout where everyone on the team had to do at least one 30" farmer's walk with the handles, plus the entire team had to get 100 strict pull ups. 15 minutes total.  Score was our average farmer's walk weight, based on everyone's heaviest carry.  I realized we cannot do math - we initially thought we killed this, but then someone realized we were counting the handles as 50lbs each, rather than 50lbs total.  Womp womp.  (This means that last week, when I thought Amber and I carried 320lbs, we actually only did 270.)  Still - I walked with 230 and then 290.  Tried and failed to get 330 off the ground.  Also contributed 10 pull ups.  I LOVE partner workouts.

Sunday April 29: double-session Sundays.  Started with gymnastics, doing some skill work for the muscle up. Ring dips (1 bodyweight; 4 or 5 with a mini band...these are still really hard for me); jumping muscleups; band-assisted muscleups - 2 or 3 with light band; 2 or 3 with two minibands, plus a couple of failures where I couldn't get up out of the dip all the way.  Metcon: 15 minute AMRAP of 5 jumping muscleups, 7 burpee tuck jumps, 12 hollow rocks.  7 rounds total.  

Regular session: turkish getups.  Having a lot of fun with these now that I'm using a barbell.  33lbs, 43lbs, 53lbs.  I shared a bar with Amber and told her my goal was to get bumpers on there because it looked cool.  We succeeded.  I had planned to skip the metcon but then got peer-pressured into doing it anyway.  Karen - 150 wallballs for time (20/14), with an 8:00 cap.  I kind of half-assed this, using a 10lb ball and completing 133 wallballs at the cap.

And then I ate steak and eggs.

Mixto - skirt steak, two eggs over easy, mixed greens.  Fabulous.  Here's to challenge number 3.

Vietnam, Varga, Vici

so I'm a big fan of LMFAO, at least while I'm working out...but seriously, "I'm runnin' through these hoes like Drano" is disturbingly vulgar.

Just...ew.

We headed to Chinatown for dinner with some friends last night.  I love Vietnam, but the last time I was there was the night before the Broad Street Run back in 2010.  I remember carb-loading with a crap-ton of rice with my usual salt and pepper squid.  My, how times have changed.

Started with an extra-dirty martini upstairs at Bar Saigon while we waited for our table.

It's pretty easy to stay generally Paleo here.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out the sauces contain a decent amount of cornstarch and soy, but I'm just not strict enough to worry about something like that when I'm only eating it once every couple of months (or, in this case, once every couple of years).  I didn't snap a pic of my appetizer, but I started with grilled octopus (topped with crushed peanuts...see previous sentence).  Entree was the pork claypot.

That shit was fucking delicious.

After a short and overwhelming stint a couple doors down at Yakitori Boy (holy seizure-inducing lights, batman), we headed home...since I had an early date for a double session at CFCC, followed by an essential refeeding session at Varga.

Steak and eggs for protein, potatoes for leptin refeeding, bloody mary for essential horseradish replacement.

I've spent most of the rest of the day lazed the fuck out on my couch.  I just watched three episodes of Khloe and Lamar (not even remotely ashamed of this) and am on my second King of Queens now.  Something about the rain makes me plant my butt under a pile of fleece and refuse to move...except to do this.

Judge away.  Matching yellow raincoats may be undignified, but it beats the hell out of trying to dry Sophie off before she runs upstairs and rolls around on my beautiful silk rug.

Workout log:

Monday April 16: My quads were very sore and tight after the 80 medball slams at the Rumble, so I spent an extra 10 minutes or so before class making sweet love to a foam roller and lacrosse ball.  Box jumps for height - worked up to 33" - which may not seem like much, but it's more than half my height, so I'll take that.   Front squat for a peak of three. 85x5 to warm, then sets of three: 85-115-140-155x2, dumped the bar on my third.  Metcon: 100 American kettlebell swings for time.  My left shoulder is still a little wonky, so I did russian swings instead.  With a 24kg kettlebell, 4:27.  I don't suck at kettlebell swings.

Tuesday April 17: snatch.  Getting much, much better at this. 53x2, 53x2, 63x2, 73x1, 78x1, 83x1 (PR).  I still pull with my arms a little bit, but I'm actually dropping down under the bar, so that's a big improvement.  Metcon: Four Leaf Clover. For time, four rounds of 20 jump squats/250m run.  My legs were still sore and were absolutely screaming for this.  6:44.

Thursday, April 19: squat cleans. 73x2, 88x2, 103x2, 118x1, 128F, 128F, 128F.  GAAAAAAH.  I was so close on this - it would have been a five-pound PR - but I just CANNOT stop myself from cranking with my arms.  Next week this is mine.  Metcon: For time, five rounds of 30 walking lunges with a plate overhead (45/25), 15 burpees to a plate.  I started this barefoot, since I just ripped off my oly shoes.  Surprisingly, the burpees and the lunges were kind of murderous on my toes, so I wasted a good minute after finishing my second rounds of lunges putting my other shoes back on.  15:23 as RX'ed.  Woof.

Friday April 20: beach muscle Friday.  Bench press, peak of 3: 45-75-90-100-105-110F (two reps, then stuck at the bottom of the third).  Metcon: 5 rounds of 30 unbroken double unders followed immediately by max strict pull ups.  Lynne-style, so no time component, and score was total pull ups.  Uhhh...yeah.  I intended to do this RXed, but after being unable to complete more than 20 unbroken DUs during my first three attempts, I decided to call it a day and scaled to 15.  Score - 15 total pull ups (supinated grip; 3/3/2/4/3).

Saturday April 21: Mindy.  20 minute AMRAP, 3 strict handstand pushups - 6 strict pull ups - 9 pistols.  Scaled with partial range of motion HSPUs and single-leg squats to a white box.  8 rounds plus three pull ups.

Sunday April 22: gymnastics followed by regular session.  Gymnastics - handstand walking.  I don't really do this well, but I managed to get a few steps a couple of times.  Metcon: 

15 minute AMRAP of 20' handstand walking, 5 toes to bar and 5 candle rolls to tuck jump. 

Score: 5 rounds plus four toes to bar.  

This was fun, but I was saving it a little bit for the next metcon.  Regular session - farmers walk.  My grip was a little weak from the toes to bar, but I completed three 30' passes - 200lbs, 280lbs and 320lbs.  I dropped the right handle twice during the 320lb walk, which is frustrating, but whatever.  

Metcon:  

Took a third crack at the Open WOD 12.5 - an ascending ladder of thrusters and chest-to-bar pull ups.  On my first date with 12.5, I no-repped a crapton of pullups, mainly because I got high enough but didn't touch my chest to the bar.  On our second date, I figured out that the tiny amount of energy I expended doing a second kip to make sternum-to-metal contact was far more efficient than doing extra pullups, and got 51 total reps, or through the round of 9, plus 12 thrusters and 3 pull ups.  

Today?

I managed to beat my actual score from the open by four reps - making it to 7 pull ups, for a total of 55 reps.  I earned my brunch, bitches.

Poconos Weekend

i spent this past weekend here:

doing a lot of sitting and relaxing and hanging out in the hot tub and watching the boys grill lots of meat.

It was awesome.

I really needed it - I've been super burnt out lately and my work was starting to show it. So, four days off - it's not quite as good as a "real" vacation, but it sure did the trick. We got a four-bedroom cabin in the Poconos and had a few friends come and hang out with us. Even though Mike had to work Thursday, I booked it for the extra night, and spent the day catching up on some errands.

Like taking Cosmo to the vet. Not even the fabulous seasonal window display could distract him.

Poor dude hates the vet.

But anyway - I highly, highly recommend the random long weekend. I actually felt recharged when I got back in on Monday. Fancy that.

Training log - lots to catch up on here:

Friday March 9: sumo deadlift, peak of 2. 135-165-195-225-245. Metcon: ten minute partner row for calories, alternating on the minute. Total calories - 159.

Saturday March 10: CrossFit Games open WOD 12.3. 18-minute AMRAP of 15 box jumps (20"), 12 push press (75lbs), 9 toes to bar. 4 rounds + 3 toes to bar. Fuck me, that was rough. Toes to bar destroyed my forearms.

Sunday March 11: intro to oly. Snatched up to 73lbs - I'm getting much better but still so far from being good. Clean & jerked up to 113lbs. Jerk is getting really strong.

Monday March 12: Overhead squat, peak of 1. 45x5-65x4-80x3-90x1-100x1-100x1-105x1-115x1. Having never worked up to a max on my overhead squat before, this was an automatic PR. Metcon: grip destruction. 4 rounds of 60 seconds each barbell overhead (135/95), farmers' carry with kettlebells (2/1.5p), plank. Score is one point for each time you dropped whatever you were holding, and NO CHALK ALLOWED. 1 point, as RXed (dropped the kettlebells with less than 10 seconds left in the last round...womp womp womp).

Tuesday, March 13: strict band-assisted handstand pushups. These were TOUGH this week - I worked up to a couple with light bands and one with light + mini band, with plenty of fails in there. Metcon: Nate.

20 minute AMRAP of 2 muscle ups, 4 handstand pushups, 8 American kettlebell swings (2/1.5p).

Scaled with strict pullups instead of muscleups and average & light band assisted HSPU's - 10 rounds + 2 pull ups.

Thursday, March 15: CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.4. Fuck this WOD. AMRAP 12 minutes, 150 wallballs (14lbs, 9' target), 90 double unders, 30 muscleups. I mean, FUCK. I hate wallballs but plugged through these OK - after about 30, I started breaking them into sets of 5 and just chipped away. I finished the wallballs with about 4 seconds left and couldn't make it to my jumprope in time. Also, I could barely walk for three days afterwards.

Tuesday, March 20: muscle-up transition work - I did four or five with a mini band. Metcon: 21-15-9 front squat (75lbs)/pull ups. As RX'ed, 8:53. Happy with that - front squats were easy and I only failed one pull up, right at the very end. Time for me to work on stringing more than 2-3 together - I'm going to get much faster at these.

Wednesday, March 21: intro to oly. Snatched up to 79.6lbs (weird mix of pound and kilogram plates); failed at 81.8. regardless...PR! Clean & jerked up to 51kg (about 112lbs); failed three times at 53kg (about 116lbs). One day, these lifts are just going to come together for me, I'm going to keep my chest up and not pull with my arms and drop under the bar...and I will do a bodyweight snatch and PR my clean by like 50lbs.

Crack Veggies

so, these?

they're like crack. I found them in a little store in the sketchier portion of Suburban Station (per the label..."Nutty World") that sells, well, mostly nuts. And dried fruit, and other snacky things. And these? Like crack. I'm worried that they're soaked in sugar or something, but whatever.

Good training week for me.

Saturday, 3/3. Crossfit Games Open WOD 12.2, attempt number 2. 7-minute AMRAP of 30 snatches at 46lbs, 30 snatches at 75lbs, 30 snatches at 100lbs and max snatches at 120lbs. First attempt, I got 44 reps total. This time, I blasted that away with a total of 55 reps. If you're keeping track (and I clearly am), I did my max snatch 25 times. Baller. And then I got a massage. REAL baller.

Sunday 3/4 - intro to oly. Not much snatching - just up to 63lbs and mostly from boxes. Clean & jerk up to 103lbs for a double, and then backed down and did a whole bunch of hang cleans at 73, 83 and 88lbs to work on my form.

Tuesday 3/6 - strict band-assisted handstand pushup work. Did a set of 3 with an average + light band, then a few sets of two with two light bands. Probably could have managed one with light + mini but I just...didn't try. Next week, I guess. Metcon: 20-minute AMRAP 1 strict muscle up + 1 extra ring dip, 2 skin-the-cats, 40 double-unders. Scaled the muscle-up/dip to a bodyweight pronated grip pullup + dip with mini band. Pull ups got REAL hard. 5 rounds (I think) + 5 double-unders.

Wednesday 3/7 - intro to oly. Snatched mostly from boxes again, up to 67.5lbs. More form work on the clean & jerk - doubles at 35kg (77ish lbs)-40kg (88lbs)-45kg (about 100lbs), then failed 50kg (about 110lbs) three times and backed down to a bazillion hang cleans and 55/65lbs, followed by a few hang cleans and full cleans from the floor at 35kg.

Friday 3/9 - sumo deadlifts, peak of 2. 135-165-195-225-245. Felt good. Far better than 245 felt at the Total in January. Feeling good about PRing during peak week, and hoping that we do conventional deadlifts next cycle.

I WON!

(clearly we're not talking about the Hybrid Strongman competition here.)

no - for my second stint at the BCCC, I came in third place. While I'm very, very happy with my prize (which included tiger-print socks, a whole mess of Primal Pacs, and a $25 lululemon gift card), I'm much happier with THIS...

So a long time ago, I started P90X with PhillyGuy. We both loved it and saw some results, but I never really got my nutrition in check, so I didn't see the super-intense results I was hoping for. Hence, I never took "after" pictures with P90X. But...I sure did take before pictures.

That's me - in March 2010, just about two years ago. While I lost about 7 pounds, I put them all back on during the fall of 2010, so this is roughly what I looked like when I joined CFCC in late June 2011, and when I started eating paleo in July.

Now, after (i) starting to eat paleo, initially about 90% of the time; (ii) going through a BCCC in October 2011 where I really got consistent, gave up artificial sweeteners, and stopped eating fruit, almond butter and Larabars every day; and (iii) going through another BCCC in January 2012, where I really worked on being strict, by omitting all chocolate, nuts, cream in my coffee, and even limiting fat and fibrous/cruciferous vegetables, here's where I am now (or, where I was in early February).

Um...BAM. That's 18-ish pounds down, four inches off of my waist, a couple inches off of my hips, and so, so much healthier.

And the reality is that today, as I sit here in my bed typing this up, I'm down another couple of pounds from THAT picture, even having loosened my restrictions a bit (hello, daily coffee with heavy cream, and weekly bar of chocolate).

I kind of struggled with putting these pictures out there, since this blog isn't exactly super-anonymous, but the fact is...I'm proud of this shit. I'm REALLY proud of discovering what works for me and being consistent with it, and I'm REALLY proud that I've become so strong and kind of jacked.

So I used my $25 gift card to put towards some real colorful Wunder Unders...

...which I wore last night to work towards my goal of pulling 300lbs by June. We're getting there.

Last night involved a lot of steak, a lot of scrabble, and a lot of this:

SO GOOD.

Workout log for my post-Hybrid week:

Monday, 2/27: overhead squats, peak set of three. After a set of 5 to warm up with an empty bar - 65-75-85-95-100. 100 felt pretty good and solid, so I'm happy with that - I haven't done an overhead squatting cycle yet, so I have no idea what my max might be. Metcon: tabata ab wheel rollouts followed by tabata hollow rocks. Score is your lowest number of reps of each workout - 6 rollouts + 8 rocks = 14. MEH.

Wednesday, 2/29: oly. Snatched to 63lbs, mostly off of blocks to work on the second and third pulls. Clean & jerk to 115 - felt REAL GOOD on this. I got some new cues from Jim, the olympic lifting coach, at Sunday's lighter session, regarding keeping my arms straight and "snapping the bar like a pencil," which have helped me get my elbows around faster.

Thursday, March 1: two-a-day. I went to the gym at 7am to do the second Crossfit Games Open WOD, which was a snatch ladder of sorts. AMRAP in ten minutes, 30 snatches at 45lbs - 30 at 75lbs - 30 at 100lbs - max at 120lbs. Since my max was 73lbs, I was just hoping to get one or two at 75. Killed it - 44 total, 30 at 46lbs and 14 at 76lbs (weird loads due to working with the ladies' bar). Repeating this one today now that I know I can move the weight for so many reps, and shooting to bring my score up to 50.

Second workout: regular CFCC session. WAY more fatigued from 12.2 than I realized. Hang squat cleans, 2 on the minute each minute for 10 minutes. Started with 83lbs for the first 3 or 4 rounds, up to 93 for the rest. I could have gone up but didn't want to - holy hell was I tired. Front squat, peak of three. 103-123-143x1, failed on the second. WAY TIRED. Metcon - three rounds for time, short loop run, 25 box jumps (20"), 50 doubleunders. I scaled this to 100 singles and used the jump rope time as my recovery, since I just wanted to finish this. 12:20.

Friday 3/2: DEADLIFFIN! sumo deadlift, peak of 3. Sumo deadlifts are more difficult for me than conventional, but this day felt strong. 135-165-195-205-215-235. Happy with pulling 235 for 3 - I'm feeling better about my goal of pulling 300 (conventional) by June. (Also, my other goal of pulling 2x bodyweight is now down to 296. Woot.) Metcon: tabata row for calories. I want to punch rowing in the face, even when I'm only doing it for 20 seconds at a time. Score: 53.

happy Saturday!

NO I WILL NOT BE SICK

this morning, I did something I've never done before and may never do again.



Attended a 6am session at CFCC.

So, here's the thing. This week I'm tapering for tomorrow's Hybrid competition. Last week, I worked out six days, and between messing with strongman stuff and the fact that I've been fighting off a cold (GODDAMMIT), I was absolutely exhausted come Monday. So, I took Monday off. I was planning to go Tuesday, but had to stay home and prep for a deposition that night. And then I went Wednesday and planned to go last night, but - thanks to a text message from my brother at 5:30 - remembered that I needed to meet my future sister-in-law at 7 to try on bridesmaids dresses. So...last night was out.

That would have left me with one workout this week, and even for a taper, that's just not going to do it. So, since I'm leaving for Stamford tonight, and since the competition starts bright and early tomorrow morning, it left me with no choice but to wake up at butt o'clock and get to the gym for the 6am session.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad - but not something I'd want to do regularly. Now it's 7:30 and I'm in the office, eating an omelet, nice and awake, having done a bunch of deadlifts already. Meh.

This cold, though. This is some bullshit. It probably explains a lot about my lackluster performances at oly on Sunday and Wednesday, but, you know...probably also suggests I'm in for a lackluster performance tomorrow morning. Which I'm not having. As soon as I started feeling the cold coming on earlier this week, I chugged water with oil of oregano, made it a point to be in bed real early, made sure to eat well, and generally did everything I could to stave this shit off. Like staying hydrated and drinking my veggies.



That brown concoction includes kale, celery, parsley, carrots, beet and (I think) an apple - which was the first fruit I've had in a while.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm coughing and I have some congestion in my throat and swelling in my sinuses, but I don't FEEL shitty...so there's that. The tapering is fucking with me, though - I went from feeling really strong and really happy with my body composition to feeling like "AH! you're not ready! you cut too much weight last month and haven't trained hard enough to recover your strength! you're not going to be able to move anything! you had chocolate three times this week and should have had chocolate ZERO times this week and you're going to end up gaining ten pounds and having to move up a weight class!" Mentally, I know it's how these things go - I had the same struggles before every double-digit race I trained for - but it's still hard not to let that shit take over. So...WISH ME LUCK! And strength enough to lift that atlas stone.

Logging:

Saturday 2/18 - strongman stuff. Unloaded yoke walk (~175lbs), yoke walk attempts at ~355 or 365 - couple steps. 125lb farmer's carry, felt good once I got stabilized. Atlas stones - 43-63-93-115 up easy, several fails with 135. Later that night, about 30min of dumbbell clean and push press with a pair of dumbbells - apparently, the dumbbell ground to overhead at Hybrid will only be a single, so I feel good about that. 30-35-40-45F, followed by 4 or 5 successful cleans and failed presses with the 45s. I got them overhead but couldn't lock out both arms at the same time.

Sunday 2/19 - intro to oly. Snatch, warmup with 53; 53x2, 58x2,63x1, 68x1, 68F, 68x1. Felt OK - tired. Clean and jerk - 73(1C, 2J) - 83(1C2J)x3 - 93(1C2J) - 103(1C2J) - 103(1C2J) - 108x1 - 113F (didn't commit at all - for some reason I went into this assuming it was a given, which is silly since it's 5lbs under my max) - 113x1 (real ugly. ELBOWS DAMMIT. jerk was fine). I was very tired after this and my elbows were unusually sore, so I iced them when I got home.

Wednesday 2/22 - intro to oly. Snatched 53x2 warmup, 53x2 loose/sloppy, 53x2 high but better, 53x2 F, then high; 63x2, 68x1, 73x1F, 73x1 (pressed out), 73x1 (pressed out - HEAD THROUGH!) - 73F. Clean & jerk: 73C&2J, then switched to kilograms. All sets of one clean, two jerks: 42kg-45kg-49kgF/49F/49F/49 (YAY) -57kgF (OOOPS)-47kg-47kg. So, funny story - after several fails at 49kg (about 108lbs - so ten pounds UNDER my max), erin told me to back down to 47kg (about 103). I loaded up the bar and then went to clean, and was absolutely shocked at how heavy it felt - I pulled it fairly high but was so surprised at the weight that I didn't even try to get under it. Um...I accidentally loaded it with 57kg, not 47kg. That's about 125lbs instead of 103lbs. Uh, yeah. This was an ugly night.

Friday 2/24 - sumo deadlifts, fast peak of 5 - required to rep every set out, no dropping from the top. 95-115-135-155-175. My last set didn't really feel heavy, but I did feel myself rounding a bit, which Tim confirmed. I feel it in my upper back now as I sit here in my office. Meh. Skipped the metcon, which involved a lot of rowing.

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.

Burgers & Greens & Whining

First some pictures of something delicious, and then some whining.

I had been neglecting the 10ish pounds of ground beef that came with my cow share - it was a lot more exciting to make, say, a t-bone steak, or a roast, or fabulous green curry with beef cubes, than it is to start something with ground beef. Especially when you ALSO get 10ish pounds of pre-shaped burger patties, which are tremendously convenient.

BUT, rumblings have started about it being high time to get a second cow, and so I need to be more diligent about using up what I have so that I can re-up when everyone else does. So, the other day, I pulled out two pounds of ground beef in the morning before work, so that I'd be forced to make something with it when I got home that night.

I settled on burgers. First, I sauteed up an entire onion in some grassfed Icelandic butter.



While the onion cooked down, I seasoned the ground beef. There's no fat percentage on the cow share labels, but I'd guess it's around 80-20, maybe 85-15.



My old go-to burger recipe called for soy sauce and brown sugar...neither of which are among my current nutritional choices. So, I scoured my favorite new cookbook...



...and used the spices from their recipe for buffalo burgers. I tried to keep the patties relatively small, and I ended up with more than ten burgers. I cooked them in the same pan I sauteed the onions in, after taking out the onions. Didn't need to add any extra fat - the first round of burgers may stick a tiny bit at first, but they'll release more than enough fat to cook in without an issue.



I set the burgers aside to rest while I sauteed collard greens in the drippings.



Tasty. Two pounds of beef yielded dinner for PhillyGuy and I, plus three or four leftover patties for lunches and dinners that week.

And now, as promised, the whining.

This round of the CFCC BCCC is a little draining. It was discouraging to not perform to my expectations at the Total last weekend, and I reassured myself by trying to focus on the fact that I'm going to cut the last bit of body fat. However, as I'm entering my fourth week of black coffee, no dark chocolate, weekday salads without that handful of bacon bits or avocado, and rationing my sweet potatoes to long metcon days...it's getting a little old. Other than the occasional 30 minutes of cravings here and there, I haven't felt too deprived, and it hasn't been HARD...but I'm struggling because I'm not seeing the results I feel that I should be seeing.

Part of this is because I had so much success with the first challenge. Fat seemed to just melt off - the scale consistently went down, and by the end of the challenge I had lost two inches off of my waist. Two inches! In 30 days! The first challenge also wasn't as restrictive for the entire time. I had chocolate a few times a week for the first two weeks and had cream in my coffee until the last ten days.

This time around, I'm just not seeing that same progress - and I understand that it's a different ballgame to lose pure "vanity pounds." This time, the scale's just not moving. I'm consistently within a 151-152 pound range, having started the challenge at (by my scale) 153.X. I don't actually care what I weigh, but I'm definitely not putting on muscle mass (as evidenced by my inability to PR two of my three lifts at the total), and I still have enough body fat that the scale should go down as I lean out. I took a quick measurement of my waist last night and I think I've gone down about a half inch - but I'm not sure, since I didn't take my first set of measurements.

All this to say - if I'm going to keep NOT eating that bar of Green & Black's 85% dark that's been sitting in my pantry, I want to see something from it. I try to keep reminding myself that my bodyweight stuff is getting stronger - pull ups continue to improve and all that - but damnit, if I can't have cream in my coffee 5 days out of the week, I'd really like to be a size 0 for my troubles.

Whining over. Workout recaps:

Monday, 1/23: Squat Elizabeth. 21-15-9 squat cleans (135/95), ring dips. No option to scale dips with a band - if not RX'ed on ring dips, sub push ups. 19:06 with RX'ed weight and pushups. My squat cleans continue to improve, in that I was able to actually squat clean most of these instead of power cleaning and doing a front squat, which is SO.MUCH.HARDER.

Tuesday, 1/24: strict muscle up work. False grip ring pull ups with mini band; close w/o band but still not there. Metcon: 10 rounds for time, 1 muscle up/5 handstand pushups/10 pistols/15 unbroken double-unders. 25:05 with strict pull up (bodyweight), inverted pushups from a box, single leg squats to box, 15 unbroken DU's. Shit, this was hard.

Wednesday, 1/25: intro to oly. Spent the entire 90 minutes working on my snatch (FNARR FNARR, as Modern Paleo Warfare would say). Lots of drills, followed by sets of 2-3 at 53 and 60lbs. Snatched from blocks at 53 and 63lbs. Drilled the overhead squat at 53-73lbs. Not my strongest performance ever.

Thursday, 1/26: split jerk, singles. 45x3 to warm up, then 65-80-95-115F (oops, this was supposed to be 105)-105. 2lb PR from prior max of 103. Metcon: 10 handstand pushups, 20 pull ups, 30 kettlebell snatches (1.5/1pood), 40 wallballs (10'/8'). Option was to RX everything or scale everything - I don't do HSPU's yet so I chose to scale. 6:25 with inverted pushups from a box, pull ups with mini band, American kettlebell swings and regular wallballs. I went through the first three movements very quickly and then took the wallballs unnecessarily slow.

Sunday, 1/29: gymnastics followed by intro to oly. Back extension rolls to plank; bridge work; handstand limber. Skipped metcon to save my shoulders for oly. Snatch drills; back and overhead squatting; snatch balance; hang snatch. Snatched from boxes the entire time and worked with kilograms for most of class. 53lbs/24kg up to 66.2lbs/30.2kg. Clean, also in kilograms: 66.2lbs/30.2kg up to 45kg/99lbs for doubles, then singles at 49kg/108lbs, 51kg/112.4lbs (2.4lb PR over prior max of 110 and VERY easy). I tried 55kg (121.25lbs) three times and was SO CLOSE - first shot my elbows were too slow; second try I got under it, but got stuck at the bottom; third try my jump was huge and I should have had it, but those slow elbows get me. Next time I'll get this.

Fran.

Fran is pretty much THE crossfit baseline workout. 21-15-9, barbell thrusters/pull ups. RXed weight for women is 65lbs, for men it's 95. Ridiculous people do this in under three minutes. Really jacked people do it in under 5. Most others are somewhere in the 6-11 minute range, with appropriate scaling and all that jazz.

Before tonight, I had never done Fran. I've done Sandy Fran, which was an unmitigated disaster (over 13 minutes with an average band and a 40lb sandbag). I've done Heavy Fran, which was...well..heavy (15-12-9 of thrusters (135/95) and deadhang pull ups (+45 for men, bodyweight for women).

Since the last time we did any variation of the deadly thruster/pull up combo, I have been working REALLY hard on my pull ups. Every single day, I do at least one or two pull ups on my guest room closet door mounted bar. At first, all I could do were jumping pull ups. They got easier and easier, and I started messing around with my grip. Now, chin ups are almost easy, and I can do a couple pronated grip pull ups. And that, my friends, brings us to today's Franathon.

This may not be the most flattering picture anyone's ever taken of me, but it's fast becoming one of my favorites. In my last couple reps of thrusters:

YOU SEE THAT TIME?

10:24, 65lbs/mini band. MINI BAND. That's over three minutes off of my Sandy Fran time - and I used a substantially stronger band for Sandy Fran. I am so happy with this. Fran, you and I are going RX'ed next time. Promise.

Post-Fran, I was ravenous. (OK, PRE-Fran I was ravenous. The last of my BCAAs staved off the "I'm going to barf" hunger headache, but that shit is NOT food.) Observe the laziest dinner ever: 4 ounces of smoked salmon and an entire avocado (halved and sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper) over a "salad" comprised of the last of my container of baby spinach, a bunch of grape tomatoes, a little handful of crumbled bacon, delicious olive oil, rice vinegar and granulated garlic. Served right in the container, so as not to dirty a dish.

And after I inhaled this and I was still hungry, I ate a leftover pork rib. CFCC BCCC, day one down.

Yesterday's stuff: gymnastics (! hooray), followed by intro to oly (frustrating!). Gymnastics was freestanding handstand practice followed by iron cross ring work. I'm getting much better at ring support, and was able to move my hands out the tiiiiiniest bit. Skipped the metcon to conserve energy for oly, where I spent the entire hour and a half working on my snatch. (I don't even have the energy to make a joke there, because the third pull of the snatch is such a source of frustration for me. it's my latest nemesis.) Couple sets at 53lbs, a whole bunch of sets at 63lbs, and then a lot of drills (snatching from blocks and snatch balance) with 53lbs.

Cow Share Beef Green Curry

Back in October, a bunch of us at the gym split a cow.

No, really. I thought I posted about it, but I skimmed my posts and I guess not - but there's not really much to it. A fellow CFCC'er organized a cow share through Philly CowShare. For just under $350, I got an eighth of a cow - about 50 pounds of beef total. I'd estimate half of it is ground beef, whether in patties or in one-pound blocks. The rest of it is a split between roasts, steaks, and stew meat.

I will definitely do this again. I was worried initially about freezer space, but once I got rid of a lot of the freezer-burned shit I had in there (ancient steam-in-bag veggies, a sad caving-in box of Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers (incidentally, as much as I WANTED to like those, they were really kind of gross and soggy no matter what I did to them), a Costco-size bag of bagel thins from god knows when), I had more than enough room for everything and then some.

But the best part is that it's forced me to have a lot more variety in my diet. Which is not something that comes easily to me.

The other night, I took advantage of something I'd normally never have - beef cubes - and made something I'd never made before - Thai green curry.

I got the inspiration from Modern Paleo Warfare (by the way, if you don't read him, you absolutely need to). Since I had pretty much none of the necessary ingredients on hand, I perused a few other sources (Nom Nom Paleo and good old Google) and added a few things to my shopping list.

Not all of this is new to me - fish sauce has been a pantry staple for me since the first time I went to Vietnam (the restaurant, not the country) about five years ago, and I've been using coconut oil since sometime in October. However, this the first time I've ever bought coconut milk, and I recently swapped out my dusty bottle of soy sauce for this new, shiny bottle of coconut aminos. And, of course, the star of the show: green curry paste.

And the fresh stuff: about a pound of cow share beef cubes, red pepper, snow peas, and (lazy) pre-shredded cabbage.

This is only the third or fourth time I've had the chance to use my beautiful Le Creuset 5.5 quart dutch oven, but holy crap do I ever love this thing. I snagged it at the Le Creuset outlet, and it's worth every penny of the seriously-reduced price (about $130, I think).

I browned the beef in coconut oil with some salt and pepper.

Once the meat was browned, I put it aside and added a tiny bit more coconut oil to the bottom of the pot. I fried a couple tablespoons of green curry paste in the coconut oil and beef drippings for a couple minutes ("until fragrant" - or at least until MORE fragrant, since I think this stuff's pretty fragrant to begin with). I added the coconut milk and whisked thoroughly until it was completely combined, with no chunks of cream or curry paste, before adding the fish sauce and coconut aminos.

Once the sauce was mixed, I added the veggies (including half an onion that's not pictured), except for the cabbage, and the beef back to the pot.

I combined everything well and ended up adding about half a can's worth of beef broth so that there was sufficient sauce to cover. Next time, I'd probably get a second can of coconut milk and just make more. I brought the entire thing to a boil before covering and popping into the oven for an hour at 300 degrees.

When there was about ten minutes left, I pulled the curry out, dumped in the cabbage, and put it back into the oven. The remaining time was enough to soften the cabbage without it getting mushy.

Dinner is served.

This shit was BANGIN'. And so, so easy. I ate two bowls, which was just about half the batch. I just got done eating another bowl of leftovers for lunch, and let me tell you, it (like most soups/stews/chilies) just gets better and better as it sits.

Recent workouts: Not too much.

As I mentioned, Wednesday's classes were cancelled for a nutrition seminar. Thursday my office was incredibly stuffy, and I was just dragging and exhausted. I ended up deciding to skip deadlift night (!! my favorite!) in favor of this curry, which was clearly a good choice.

Friday, January 6: Strict press, peak of one. 45x3 - 55x1 - 65x - 70x1 - 75x1 - 80x1 - 85F. So frustrating, because 80 goes up without TOO much trouble, and then 85 I just can't get past my nose. GAH. Still shooting for this at the total. Metcon was 21-15-9 American kettlebell swings (1.5/1pood) and burpees. This flew by, though I wish my burpees were a little faster. 4:52 as RX'ed.

Saturday, January 7: some skill work on the squat clean and the ab wheel rollout. I was lucky and snagged one of the good ab wheels - with actual handles, not just a bunch of electrical tape wrapped around a thin piece of metal. Metcon - 21-15-9 squat clean (135)/ab wheel rollouts. I used 85pounds, which blew. Or, to be more specific, my oly technique blows. Since I have SO. MUCH. TROUBLE. pulling under the bar, I ended up power cleaning and then doing a front squat...which is pretty much twice the work. So my 21 cleans took for-freaking-ever - I was the last one still going. I decided to switch to power cleans for the 15/9 rounds, which I (as usual) now think was stupid. I should have just finished what I started, even if it meant being the last one moving. Oh well. At least I can do ab wheel rollouts now, which I couldn't do without band assistance before. Anyway - 16:33.

Got measured in this afternoon for the next round of the BCCC. While my weight was back up a couple pounds (to 157.4 from my recent low of about 152), I'm very proud to say that my waist is down another inch from the end of the last BCCC, and three inches total from October 1. THREE GODDAMN INCHES. DO YOU HEAR ME, PEOPLE? EAT PALEO!

...and on that note I'm off to get ready for a birthday dinner tonight. Happy weekend! And do yourself a favor and MAKE SOME CURRY.

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.