• Back Squat
• Shoulder Press
• Deadlift

We videoed our activities so we could analyze our form and also laugh at our “failures”, enjoy!

• Colm’s Successful Squat (112.7Kg)
• Colm’s failure at 115.2 (poor technique)
• It’s just not happening!
  
• Shane false squat – You’ve got to break parallel Courtney!
• Shane ain’t strong
• No wait, he is!
• Colm deadlifting 117.5Kg
• Colm doing an UGLY deadlift (and failing) at 122.5Kg
• Shane deadlifting comfortably
• Shane sets a new Deadlift Personal Record
• Jim screams as he busts out a 100Kg deadlift!
• Jim lifts with a little more grace
• Jim finds his limits

Wednesday I ate relatively little, two or three pieces of fruit, a wrap, an egg and some pork for dinner. A Crossfit WoD and training. Thursday, I was 71.0Kg. Nice, down 1.5Kg. If I kept this up, I’d make weight easier. But Thursday was the start of the severely restricted eating to drop weight. I ran into work (about 11.5Kg) and did a modified WoD. I was really feeling sick on Thursday, just cranky and nauseous all day. I feel asleep at 7 in the evening and woke at 8.30 only to go back to bed at 10.30.

Friday I was only 69.8Kg on my scales, and 70.2Kg on the competition scales. Damn! I was really hoping to be lighter. Drastic measures were to be used. Dehydration to the extreme. I didn’t drink at all that day. For lunch, I spent 30 minutes in the sauna. Not a great experience! But the weird thing was I didn’t feel like I was losing weight or that I was suffering. In fact, I felt great! Granted I was about as useful as a small brick. It took me so long to walk anywhere, and my legs ached when I climbed the stairs or had to face a hill. Worrying (as I tend to do when making weight) I bought plastic bin bags, the great weight loss tool, and through in on while I sat in the cinema – the gits in Cineworld installed a Ben & Jerry’s stand just to tease me. Putting out the mats on Friday night I lost buckets and tasted nothing but salt in my mouth.

But Friday night I checked my weight – 67.9Kg! Wahoo! I’d made weight.

Saturday – the competition. Up until this point my aim was just to compete, not do too bad and hope the weight loss didn’t effect me too much (I’d just had a cold before I went to Greece). I in no way expected to medal or place. But, when I looked at my pool, I began to think, “Yeah, I should qualify from this group.”

My first match was against Ryan Smyth. This match didn’t get recorded, or if it did, I lost in transferring it over. I shot and he pulled guard and I felt I could pass. I know I passed and looked for a chicken lock, my goto move. It eventually finished with me triangling him. I remember thinking he was stubborn, because the triangle was on like Donkey Kong, so why was he being stubborn. When I got up afterwards, I was surprised at how breathless I felt (I had pretty much forgotten to breathe all the way through my match!) and how much my arms felt pumped and used. Ahh that old familiar feeling.

My second match was against Halaigh. I figured I could beat him. Somehow, even though my legs felt sore, I wanted to shoot in all my matches. So I shot and again he puled guard. I managed to catch him in a quick near side arm ba. I never really felt pressured in this match, and this time I remembered to breathe!

Match here. Youtube link here.

Finally, the Roddy matchup. Now, Owen Roddy is just plain better than me. He trains harder, and up until quite recently, would have had the attributes (speed, flexibility, agility, co-ordination, balance) to stay ahead of me. Right now, apart from the degree to which dehydration and a lack of serious rolling over the last while, I’d have the power and strength to hold him.

Since I didn’t expect to win, and the pressure was on Roddy, I threw caution to the wind. I tried a flying… whatever! Triangle or armbar, whichever caught. None did, so I switched to a kneebar attempt. Then a toehold. Somewhere around the kneebar/toehold I began to think I could actually beat Roddy. I shot again and he tried a guillotine. Some scrambling ensued and the caught me with a wristlock. It hurt! Well done Roddy.

Video Here. Youtube link here.

Amazingly, I’d enough points to progress to the semi finals. I was due to face Nick Brooks, a purple belt panamerican champion from England. Fortune smiled on me and he had to retire. From a sporting point of view it would have been great to see him and Roddy duke it out in the final. Maybe next time. I was to compete against Joe Ruddock from Next Generation. I knew I could beat Joe. He’s extremely tight defence but I reckon I could beat him in the takedown. As the match started I shot and he pulled guard. I dominated for most of it but made a mistake which allowed Joe the reversal. I knew he wouldn’t catch me so I waited it out for the take down. Certainly not the ideal thing to do, but a decent strategy to give me another crack at Roddy. I won the takedown with a high school double leg Stokes had shown me a few weeks earlier at our cross training with Fianna Gym.

Video here. Youtube link here.

The Crowd were to see another Riley-Roddy match up! I thought I’d try a flying mare but Roddy was too smart for me. Now, I was told later Saturday night that I pulled guard and I vehemently denied it but the video evidence seems to show it! Roddy quickly looked for an armbar and I remember thinking “No, it can’t be over this soon!”. Luckily we’d covered the arm bar defence on Wednesday

Right after I escaped I had an armbar opportunity myself but figured I wouldn’t get it so I let it go. When Roddy turtled up I just had to suplex. Why? Because they look cool. I began to seriously gas after that. My left calf cramped up right after that and I was in agony.

When Roddy took knee ride I was just suffering. He was so heavy on me (Roddy of all people) and I found it really hard to breathe. It was only half way. Could I hold on and get a takedown again? A cheap way to win but there’d be bragging rights! But Roddy was too slick for me and caught a well deserved armbar win.

Video here. Youtube link here.

The Absoluto match against Tim Murphy: I just had no power. I took top for a while and felt I could dominate Tim if fresh, but I was running on fumes. I made a few poor mistakes which gave Tim top. Again I did the cheap thing and waited it out.

For once, someone shot on me. I countered easily and got double unders and got my hips in, even taking Tim’s back. I rolled him down but he got to his feat. For some bizarre reason, I decided to jump up and take his back. Instead, I just jumped clean over Tim and he landed on top!

Video Here.

Oh well, always next time!

Last Monday was fun,

21-18-15-12-9-6- and 3 rep rounds of:
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell swing
Pull-ups

Even though I didn’t have a kettlebell, I was more than happy with the dumbbell. My pull ups were weak but I justified it with having been away at the weekend. But as the weekend continued I just felt increasingly lethargic. For the first time since I’d started, I was dreading the workout ahead – feeling like I wasn’t up to it. My shoulders felt heavy and my enthusiasm wasn’t there. Strangely enough, I had the feeling that I was no longer pushing myself and selling myself short.

Tuesday:

Push press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps

It took me one set longer than I wanted to to reach heavy effort, but I did: 35Kg, 45Kg, 50Kg, 55Kg, 57.5Kg, 60Kg, 62.5Kg. Although at the time I thought the bar was 20Kg (turns out it’s 15Kg) so learning this post workout bummed me out a little. I was happy after round 4 that I was pushing myself. But there’s a funny thing about max lifts for me. You recover quickly enough, even though at the time you can barely budge the weight.

Wednesday was when things got really tough. I could barely lift the weight for the deadlift, even after the scaling I needed to drop the weight. And along with dropping the weight came the guilt that I wasn’t really trying. I was just going for a light exercise that would work up a sweat. Had I reached the point where I expected to breeze through the workouts and only have a light sweat at the end of it? Was I pussying out and reverting back to hang around the gym mentality? I completed the workout of the day in 15:30.7 which made me feel like I was – but my form with the deadlift, particularly on the descent, was putting a lot of strain on my back. Add one more thing I need to work on.

Thank God Thursday was a rest day, I was really feeling the strain when I was coaching and sparring Wednesday. I’d have moments of power (even managed to lift Adam off the ground for a brief second) but it would only last long enough to start a move, not to complete it! Strangely enough on Thursday, even though my timing was off completely, I still held the same anxious desire to get back into it Friday.

Friday didn’t help me much either, a severe lack of sleep and a hangover meant I sweated buckets for what seemed like very little effort.

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
65 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
21 Jumping pull-ups

I decided to do 10 regular pull ups but even asking this was a lot. A pathetic 7 rounds, but really it should have been higher, I know it should have.

On Saturday, I was called to do:

Power Snatch 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps

Another toughie for me, and once again it highlighted massive flaws in my lifting technique. I don’t employ my hips enough and so the bar decelerates from the knees instead of getting quicker. My weights were: 40Kg, 50Kg (fail – arms bent, then re-extended), 45Kg, 47.5Kg, 47.5Kg, 50Kg, 50Kg. I’m a long way off snatching 100Kg! Afterwards I went for 30 laps (600m) – 15 front/15 breast. The rest of the day was spent in a slumber. I couldn’t even go out Saturday night.

Sunday came, and I was still feeling tired. Drained to pieces. But as much as I felt knackered, I didn’t want to fall into exusitus. It’s too easy for me, and I didn’t want to do that again. Sunday, the God’s of Crossfit had decided, was a chance to redeem myself for Friday:

Complete as many rounds as you can in twenty minutes of:
135 pound barbell Thruster, 7 reps
Weighted pull-up, 50 lbs, 7 reps

Ouch! This one hurt all over. I was just unable to lift the bar and do 7 thrusters. BTW, I’d dropped the weight to 50Kg on the bar, and started with 18Kg on the weighted PUs, but quickly dropped to 14Kg. Even then I was counting anytime I got my arms to 90 degrees as a success, getting my chin over the bar was just not happening!

Sweating buckets, I did 5 rounds, 7 thrusters, 3 PUs. I slept the rest of Sunday, exhausted.

Even though this week sucked, and to a degree I let my diet slip and felt like I let myself down to a degree, on Monday I went for a relaxing run, just to keep the engine ticking over.

Today Crossfit prescribed a 10K run. Despite my best efforts, this was just not happening. I’m going to go for a 5K now. If I manage 30 minutes, I’ll be happy.

Friday I was given Lynne, which was

Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups

It was like the anti-Riley workout, I’m not strong enough to BP my bodyweight and pull ups are my enemy.

Funny anecdote: I was in Limerick, so I went to the University’s gym. I slapped on 75Kg. One, Two, Thhhhreee, Fo- and I maxed out.I didn’t have a spotter so I just had to wait until someone came along.

Monday brought another 105 pull ups as part of it’s routine, and Tuesday brought Linda, aka three bars of hell. From Linda, my back was aching all day Wednesday. In fact, when I went to coach Clever Little Monkeys on Wednesday it spasmed and I had to lie down for twenty minutes. Even still, on Wednesday (my rest day) I was looking forward with giddy anticipation to Thursday.

Thursday – 120 pull ups, 120 dips. Or just 30 Muscle Ups. Of course, I can barely do one Muscle Up so it was pull ups and dips for me. Time 35:36.19. Ouch

So yesterday, I was just exhausted. I had felt great from Thursday’s WOD, if a little burnt out, but I’d had the energy to do a tough training session out in UCD. But Friday morning it was a struggle to get out of bed, and I prayed for Crossfit to give me a 5K run. No such luck, as I found out

omplete as many rounds as you can in twenty minutes of:
65 pound Hang squat clean, 12 reps
7 Pull-ups

More pull ups!!!! Would my back survive the Cleans? Was it back to full strength? Should I scale down the weight?

Instead of doing this one at lunchtime, I left it until the end of the day. So from 7 until 3 I thought about how I could possibly complete this WOD. I was tired, lethargic, my body battered from an intense week, my mind unable to focus for very long.

I spent longer getting ready for this WOD when I made it to the gym. I decided I could lift the 30 Kg so I would be doing a real WOD instead of a scaled one. (The whole real versus scaled one is just for me, I have a goal of being able to do Crossfit fully and with decent times in three months. I fully support scaling workouts if you can’t lift the prescribed weight, so long as you are stretching yourself and not selling yourself short)

Round one went well enough, and I was pleasantly surprised when the first seven pull ups came with ease and in one burst. But I knew I had a long way to go. On Round 2 I dropped at 4 pull ups. A temporary slip I reminded myself, but by round 3 I fell after 3 pull ups, and was forced to complete the round in 3, 2 and then another 2.

Then the mental anguish started kicking in, and the thoughts of weakness and self pity. The bar begin to tax my grip, and grate the scab on my thumb left by Linda on Tuesday. I completed the twelve in one set but there was someone at the pull up bar. A steely glare informed him I was doing a WOD and he needed to move on. He obliged, but I still felt the pressure. Surprisingly, I busted out 5 pull ups in a row, and instantly jumped back to complete the other two before returning without pause to the bar.

Around Round 5 the bar’s heaviness became apparent to me and I completed the twelve in a set of 8 and 4. My form was severely diminished and try as I might my hips wouldn’t respond properly. My catch and dip weren’t in sync. I prayed for sweet release but the only release from the cleans were pull ups, which had become a joke. I was stopping for water, taking more and more deep breaths, exhaling sharply and painfully with each one. There was simply nothing in the tank, nothing.

Back to the pull up station, and I completed the 7 in a series of 2’s and 1’s, adding in another reverse pull up just to compensate for the pull ups. I loved the clean but I simply couldn’t do it. The pain I felt was letting down someone you truly cared about. I knew the clean was meant to be done right with care and affection, yet I just jerked the bar around.

2.43 to go, I can get one more round in, but the bar is heavy and I my forearms ache, my fingers unwilling to close. 6, then 6, 20-30 second break in between. One minute to go and I attempt the pull ups. By now, they’re just series of ones, and try as I might, I can’t jump back up quick enough. The timer goes with one pull up left to do. One pull up short of 8 rounds.

I complete the pull up, then do five reverse pull ups by way of atonement. I lie down for a few minutes and berate myself, the Post WRI doesn’t look to good and the cycle home is slow and arduous. I fall into a heavy sleep.

So what positives can we take from this? For me anyway, it’s the mental tenacity of not listening to your inner wussy, the guy who always wants to quit. If you commit to something, see it out, even if it means you limp home, which I did.

Secondly, and this is a broader lesson I’ve taken from my Crossfit commitment, is that you’re tougher than you think and can push yourself harder. So do it, go for that extra rep, that extra kilo, that extra mile, or get that heart rate higher. So what if you fail to reach your goal, pushing yourself to the max is the important part. It’s what will reap the most rewards in the long term and provide the biggest emotional payoff in the long term.

Enough! Inspired by The Shane’s fanaticism, I decided I’d give Crossfit a try for a while. See if I could de-tubby myself. Whatever the Crossfit WOD (Workout of the Day) was, I would do it as best as I could. If I needed to I would modify the weights, times or rest periods. After all, I’m not Crossfit fit.

Monday 070416

“Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

OR

“Mary”
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups

Cindy I reckoned I could do. 5 pull ups is within my reach, though I might suffer towards the end. Yeah, I can do this. I sent Shane a text in my eagerness. His reply was less than inspiring:

A tough wod to cut your teeth on.

Cindy was tough? I thought this would be a nice way to ease my way in. The questions started: What rest should I take if I fail? Do I aim to give it my all even if I stop at 12-15 minutes? Should I rest between sets? I was informed I’d work for 20 minutes, and that quitting was not allowed under Spartan Law, so I decided to push ahead. A heightened sense of awareness of the WOD ahead stayed with me throughout the morning, and it even looked like I might miss it at one point, allowing somebody to distract me for half my lunch.

Feck the meeting. If I’m late, I’ll tell them I was crossfitting, that’ll shut them up.

I set the timer, looked around, turned on the headphones, and began.

Round 1 was handy enough and before I knew it I was back on the pull ups. Pull Ups have always been my weak point. I feel so pathetic and puny near a pull up bar. Ten in a row at times feels like an impossible dream, and the thoughts of doing possibly fifty (I’d set myself the goal of 10 rounds after much toing and froing) filled me with doubt.

Some old guy and his personal trainer began to hang around the bar after Round 2. Another excuse to take a breather, tell people I only got in 7 or so rounds because other people wanted to use the machine and I had to be polite? No. I starred at them until they moved. No one messes with a Spartan workout.

By Round 4 the Pull Ups began to fade. I could only do four. I jumped straight back and did my last one, the words of The Shane echoing in my mind (Just rest enough to get the next one in)

A note should be made on time. At Round 3 I checked my stopwatch and noted the time was only about two and a half to three minutes in. God! How was I meant to keep going? I knew tiredness was coming.

Pushing on, the pull up pain began to make it’s presence felt in the push ups. A stinging pain penetrated through my left shoulder, not doubt a result of trying in vain to get one more rep in. Should I quit? I don’t want to cause myself another injury or anything? No, keep going. Do this!

Somewhere around the ten minute mark I received a pat on the shoulder and some dude (definitely not a Crossfitter) tell me I was doing well. I’d just fallen off the bars again and I replied “I don’t think so, it’ s a twenty minute workout!” Immediately I scorned myself for taking the liberty of responding to him and the waste of oxygen it had caused. Is this what Crossfit does to you?

The Rocky Theme Song came on at the right moment, I was building hurting bombs. Inspired as I was, my Range of Motion on the Pull Ups decreased drastically. I tried jumping up into them just to get out one only to fail at the next one. I noted the time it took to get into the push up position became longer and longer and my ability to count a full fifteen for the squats seriously diminished. Even though the squats were technically a rest I couldn’t avoid the pain in my arms and the mental taunting of the next exercise so close, in just 5 more reps, 4 more, 3, 2, 1…

There was only 3 minutes left, but it might have well being forever. Could I squeeze in two more rounds? Could I get 11? The Pull Ups were nothing more than jumps with barely controlled descents, the Push Ups a robotic action, having moved through the shoulder pains, the squats a reminder of how later this would hit me.

The Pull Up bar again. I loved Crossfit for making me return to face my Demon when I didn’t want to. It wasn’t my place to deny the bar, another power had decided I would continue to attempt pull ups. Another 5 single reverses, another 10 pull ups, and then the bell.

I didn’t even stay to pose, I headed back to the shower room. I was done, but I’d done it. Aru! Aru! Aru! My mind turned towards the pain I’d feel later (and which I feel now) and the warped pride I’d feel in having earned it (which I feel now).

What will Crossfit have for me tomorrow? What will I have for Crossfit tomorrow?

Colm

-Almost Converted