Uneven Metcon

Late afternoon

4 Rounds for time (82#):

15 Thrusters
15 Deadlifts
15 Push Press
15 Power Cleans

* an extra 5 pounds was added to one side of the barbell. I switched sides for each round.

21:48

Avg heart rate during the workouts: 153 BPM

Workout comments: no energy for this workout. Nothing else to report.

Intermittent Fasting

Another rest day. I stopped by the hardware store and bought some materials to make some paralletes. After about 1 hour and 2 separate trips to the hardware store, I finally finished. It wasn't that difficult to make, although one of them seems kind of wobbly. Unfortunately, I waited for the glue to dry before making sure they were level on a flat surface. No matter. I'm sure they'll work just fine for my purposes. I didn't try them out yet. Just wanted to give them a chance to fully dry and set. Here they are:

On another note, this extended rest period may give me a chance to try out an idea that I heard of from Kathy who teaches boot camp and CrossFit and my office. It's called Intermittent Fasting and it's supposed to help rewire your brain to correctly understand the sensation of hunger and not just respond to various advertising stimuli or the normal eating time cues.

By no means am I going to implement this as a full time excursion, or even pretend that I am going to do so. But I figured I would test out this practice, see how my body feels after a few days, and take it from there. I believe in the benefits of eating clean above all else. When it comes to the Paleo Diet, the Zone Diet, and Intermittent Fasting, I think that imposing too many rules on how we eat takes the joy out of something our society has come to thrive on. By this I mean that food (meals in particular) give us an opportunity to come together as family and friends. Just think of how many events are centered around food. While I haven't attempted some of these diets, I have read about the various benefits they can produce. I am planning on attempting some of these, but with my mind focused on training, food intake might just overwhelm me with too many restrictions this early in the game. For now, I'll stick with intermittent fasting: trying to go 12-18 hours without eating at least 2-3 times this week and see if it has any overall effect on hunger sensations, weights, mood, etc.

Fish Oil

General comments: Found a pretty good article today on the benefits of fish oil. Apparently, the same sort of inflammation that occurs whenever we get an infection, a cut, etc., is also occurring constantly in our own blood vessels. While most of our cuts and infections eventually heal, the result of our immune system's response against an external threat, some internal inflammation points have a tougher time "cooling down". Even from a young age, our blood vessels form small lesions, which become inflamed and theoretically healed by our body's immune system. The "cooling down" portion of this inflammation process is caused by Omega-3s, a compound found readily in fish and fish oil supplements. Without an adequate supply of Omega-3s, our blood vessels remain inflamed, with macrophages constantly being deployed and ultimately hardening the vessel wall leading to atherosclerosis.

http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=1150

The full journal article is available here:

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/rapidpdf/fj.08-112201v1.pdf

Many doctors and researchers, including Dr. Barry Sears (The Zone Diet) have touted fish oil and Omega-3s as a miracle drug. It's ability to reduce inflammation can single-handedly reduce many of the country's ailments, from Alzheimer's to biopolar disorder to diabetes. Of course you can't get something for nothing in this country:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/truth-fish-oil-concerns/story?id=9994049

Many of the fish oil supplements out there are loaded with above-average levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl compounds), the same junk that polluters were dumping into our nation's waterways. Filter fish would ingest these compounds and PCBs would work their way up the food chain to its ultimate stop: humans.

Be sure to read your labels and do a little research.

Rest, Kipping practice

Late afternoon

20 minutes of kipping pullup practice. Used a pullup bar at Miles Park in Lafayette Hill that was made out of some plastic material that ripped up my hands. Could only get 5-6 in at a time but I felt I was getting it down by the end. Next I'll have to try butterfly pullups.

General comments: Decided to seriously take some time off for the next few days. I might incorporate some upper body workouts or upper body skill work just to maintain some consistently, but I'm going to seriously stay off my legs until next Tuesday. This should give me a solid week of rest. I have been chasing doctors for the past few weeks trying to get some sort of relief, but John W. suggested a week of rest. I haven't honestly tried this yet, so what's the harm? I'm going to keep the brace on at all times and try to avoid seriously time spent walking, standing, etc. Lots of fish oil, protein, and water to speed recovery. We'll see if it works.
Body: Tired, feeling fatigued but no standout soreness anywhere. Been having some trouble getting a decent night's sleep the past few days and having a hard time getting out of bed.
RHR: 48 BPM

Boot Camp

Early afternoon

WU: light jogging, high knees, heel kicks, shuffling, caterpillar walks with pushup and mountain climber, and 20 air squats.

Workout: AMRAP in 20 minutes

10 Suitcase Deadlifts (50# DBs)
10 Front Squats (77# BB)
10 Push Press (77# BB)
10 Double Unders

10 rounds + 30 reps

AMRAP in 3 minutes: situps

104 (previous best was 105)

Workouts comments: After the 4th round, I switched from the 50# DBs to the 77# BB for the deadlifts. I have tried doing these sorts of deadlifts in the past and don't like the outward angle they force my shoulders to maintain on the lift, in addition to the closed stance you have to take in order to compensate for the wide grip. Maybe that's the point of this exercise, but I don't feel comfortable doing them this way. Maybe if I had longer arms.

Once I did switch to the barbell for the last 6+ rounds of this workout, the other exercises became more fluid (with less breaks). There were about 10 people in the class, all with various weights pertaining to their various levels of fitness. In the last few months, there have really only been two people who have consistently beaten me or finished within seconds of me during these workouts. Andy, who uses similar weights as me and trains at Central Bucks Crossfit twice weekly, wasn't there today. Maureen, who uses the heaviest weights of the all the women (and a few men) was there. I was 7-8 reps behind her the entire time. I was doing double-unders and she was doing singles (60 vs. 10). This unevens the playing field slightly, but it was still motivation I could thrive on. I think I edged her out by a few reps at the end, but I couldn't really hear what her total was. She beat me on the situps by 3, though.

Body: Sore in the legs and lower back. This is becoming somewhat of a pattern.
Nutrition: Good

Back Squat, Complex Movement Trifecta

WU: Shoulder dislocates
21 Thrusters (45# DBs)
21 Pullups

3:10

Back Squat: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Loads: 195#, 235#, 265# (questionable form), 245#, 255#, 265#

3 Rounds:
7 Thrusters (97#)
7 Power Cleans (97#)
7 Push Press (97#)

4:14

Late afternoon
2 miles, easy pace

18:30

Night
300 Squats: 8:40

Workout comments: Despite my improvement on the thrusters portion of Fran, pullups continue to be a weak spot for me. The back squat was done using a Smith machine, because that's all I have access to. I was a little to over-zealous attempting a 265# on the third rep. I guess I had misread my previous PR and was shooting a little too high. I dropped the weight and tried to dip low enough that my quads definitely parallel.

I added the trifecta workout because I have come to the realization that my ankle is definitely not going to be fully healed before the 50K. Even if it does feel normal again, that will leave me with minimal time to get enough training miles in to fully prepare myself. I am going to start seriously overloading my lower body workouts, while trying to control the recovery periods to mimic a long distance race of this sort. I'll have to start paying attention to nutrition in terms of what I'm eating before, during, and after workouts. For the first round of thrusters, I got into a rhythm and performed 10 reps instead of 7.

The afternoon workout was supposed to be a 15K tempo workout, but within a mile from my house, I could tell that it wasn't going to happen. My ankle could not take the pounding even with the brace. With each passing day, my hopes of attempting the NorthFace Challenge 50K become more and more bleak. The amount of frustration I kept feeling was overwhelming. Whatever my motivation was to run: competition, serenity, fitness, etc...I never imagined I depended on it so much until I could not physically do it anymore.
Body: Overall fine, no soreness.
Sleep: Not good. Only about 6-7 hours last night.

Basketball

An old friend from college, Mike, emailed me the other day to play in a SJU Hawks alumni 3v3 basketball tournament. Back then, we played on the same team that won the intramural league when I was a junior at St. Joe's. On my way out of the house, I grabbed a T-shirt out of Brigid's room (she tends to steal a lot of mine). On the way over, I realized it was the same shirt we got for winning that tournament back in college. I felt like a tool for wearing it, but I laughed when I got there and saw that Mike was wearing the same one. I didn't know the third guy, Chris, but was told he was actually pretty good. I hoped so, because the day before he sent out an email saying he was going to be at a bachelor party and didn't know how "alert" he would be the next day. At least he showed up...

The event wasn't very organized. 10 teams of 3 showed up, and played at various courts in what seemed to be meaningless games. If you won, you moved up in the heirarchy of courts. If you lost, you moved down. They also had games of knockout and a shooting competition. After about an hour of this, SJU coach Phil Martelli showed up and gave a brief talk about the status of the team and the scope for the future. Honestly, I think he woke up that morning and grabbed the wrong speech, because he sounded like he was addressing the Future Hawks of America. SJU didn't really have a good season, and they have a long way to go if they plan on making a splash next year.

After Martelli's speech, the event organizer (a sassay undergraduate girl with serious attitude) explained how the final tournament would shake down. We hadn't reported any of our wins, although we did win about 2/3 of the games and beaten every decent team there at least once. We figured we had a pretty good shot at winning. We played our first game and won fairly easily and had to sit out a game before playing our next. Our next opponent was someone we hadn't seen before and they looked pretty rough. It was ugly, and we ended up losing by a few in poor fashion, almost getting into it with one of the guys on the way off the court. That was it. No big talk to end the day, just a small mention that there was food, drinks, and a TV somewhere off down the hall to watch the NCAA tournament.

All things said and done, it was poorly organized, but I still had fun playing with Mike and hope he makes the trip back up from Delaware more frequently. Maybe I can recruit him to play on a Manayunk Sport and Social League.

Like riding a bike...

Workout: 24.5 miles of road biking: 1:34


A long tempo run was scheduled for today, but since I had done hill repeats yesterday, I decided to give myself an extra day before attempting it. I got a text last night from Santoro asking about a long ride, and since I haven't ridden my bike in almost 6 months I figured why not. I've gotten away from road biking and swimming during the last half year in favor of trail running and Crossfit. I forgot how much fun it can be to ride. Of course I also forgot how much it drains your quads, especially if you haven't ridden for a while. Regardless, the weather was pushing 75 degrees and it was worth every minute. Santoro showed up with his shiny new tri-bike and I would be lying if I said I didn't want one. It looks so much more comfortable than the conversion I made out of my road bike and T2 handlebars. I told myself I wanted to get back into longer distance triathlons, but haven't had the motivation so far. The races are so damn expensive and there is often a bit of traveling involved, especially if you want to get involved in the longer distance races. I made myself promise not to get any more gear until I've entered (and done well) in at least several races in a single season. For now I'm just content to get out there in this great weather. I got a great farmer's tan as a souvenir.

Along this course:

• Body: Generally fine. No more lower back soreness, although I was expecting it for sure after the deadlift workout. My quads and hamstrings are definitely feeling tired after the ride today.

Deadlifts and Pushups

Early Afternoon

WU: 1 mile run, Shoulder dislocates, Samson stretch, 2 X 10 Deadlifts (117#)

Workout: Deadlift (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)

Loads: 277#, 297#, 307#, 317#, 327#, 337# (failed 1st attempt but made second), 347# (failed first attempt but made second attempt)

200 Pushups for time: 11:23

Late afternoon

WU: About a mile of trails before starting the hill repeats.
Workout: 8 X Hill Repeats

30, 28, 30, 30, 30, 27, 29, 26

My workout was going to be 30 seconds on, 20 seconds off using the treadmill, but who wants to rot away on one of those things when the sun is out and the trails are begging to be traversed. I made my way to a monster hill at the intersection of Bells Mill Road and Forbidden Drive. I took the first interval for about 30 seconds at my max pace and tried to lower my time on each subsequent interval.

• Workout comments: A new PR for the deadlift. I wouldn't say my form was great on the last two repetitions, but I tried to keep my back as flat as possible. I realize this will become the major limiting factor as the weights increase, so I'll try and work on keeping myself as "in-line" as possible. I can feel my form start to fail as soon as I move through the first few inches of the move, probably a sign that I need to strengthen my legs a whole lot more before I can expect any significant gains.
• My workout was going to be 30 seconds on, 20 seconds off using the treadmill, but who wants to rot away on one of those things when the sun is out and the trails are begging to be traversed. I made my way out to a monster hill at the intersection of Bells Mill Road and Forbidden Drive. I took the first interval for about 30 seconds at my max pace and tried to lower my time on each subsequent interval. Rest time was between 60 and 90 seconds, closer to the latter just before the last interval.
• Gear: iPhone, Vibrams, tech shirt/short
  Body: I felt some slight soreness in my lower back this morning but defintely better than I have most of this week.


• Nutrition: Good

Active Rest Day

Late afternoon

Workout: Some miles in the park. 64 minutes

Workout comments: It was time. It had to be time. I took off from the Northwestern parking lot on my traditional loop. The loop isn't finished because I stopped my GPS prematurely to take a picture of this monstrous uprooted tree:

The root structure was a good 2-3 feet taller than I was and it wasn't the first one I had spotted. I had read a report a few months ago of a woman dying after being struck by a falling branch. She had her iPod playing and the music was still playing when emergency workers arrived. Sadly, she had already died. I can't imagine what it must be like to wander through the trails and witness trees like this giving way. It's just one example of what all this precipitation has done to the ground. I was moving along at a relatively slow pace, not pushing too hard on the uphills and trying to maintain control on the downhills. This is something I think is particularly difficult, even if you're not a fan of blindly bounding down trails trying to avoid rocks and roots with less than a second's notice.

With the extremely nice weather we have been having this week, it was no wonder that I couldn't even find a parking space and Forbidden Drive was packed with runners and walkers. The trails too were flowing with mountain bikers, which is surprising because I have no idea how they can power through so much mud. Regardless, these are all signs that spring is coming. I have no complaints about that.

Nutrition: OK

Body: Lower back still sore, but generally OK.

Central Bucks Crossfit

Late Afternoon

WU: Ladder agility training, Parallete practice: 3 rounds max hold L-sit, 3 rounds max reps pushups, DB Squat clean thruster practice

Workout: 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3

Dumbbell Squat Clean Thrusters (45# X 2 = 90#)
Renegade Rows (45# X 2 = 90#)
Situps X 2

• Workout comments: This is like the 4th or 5th workout in a row that I have done that has lasted at or over 30 minutes. It was hard to tell whether the DBSQT were taking more out of my muscles or lungs. Both were burning like a Southern California wildfire. It's tough to gauge whether I am doing these in a respectable time or not, since most other people are finishing before me, albeit with lighter weights. Either way, I don't think I could have physically taken less rest during the workout. Mike made a comment that using those weights and finishing the workout in under 15 minutes should be my ultimate goal. I hope there's no one out there that can finish that workout that fast.
• Body: Tight hamstrings, Sore lower back
• Nutrition: Needed improvement

Boot Camp, Afternoon Run

Early Afternoon


Workout: Weighted Pullups (5, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1)


Loads 30#, 30#, 30#, 50#, 55#, 70# (failed this rep)

Boot Camp

Partner workout: One person does a finite number of reps on the first exercise, while the partner works continuously until the first person is finished those reps. 3 rounds of each exercise before moving on to the next station.


20 HSPUs (Lateral lunges)
20 Wall Balls-20# (KB Swings-40#)
40 DUs (Walking Lunges)
20 Box Jumps (Pushups)

20 Throw Downs

Total Time= 31:24

Late Afternoon

An easy run along this route. About 3.6 miles. 32:46

• Workout comments: A few milestones today. First, I got 10 consecutive HSPUs in a row, which I have never gotten before. It's defintely the adrenaline of being in a competitive atmosphere. Second, I got two sets of 40 DUs in a row, both after doing about 30-40 walking lunges without rest. I have been doing these usually in front of a mirror, because I thought keeping my eyes up and focused on form would help out. Wrong again.


• General comments: ankle is starting to feel much better. After the hill workout on Saturday and the spring/wall ball workout yesterday, I'm feeling pretty solid on it. Walking around doesn't hurt very much, although I still feel a twang every now and then. I went for a run after work, probably something I shouldn't have done. I even decided to go out without the brace. I took the Vibrams with me because they force me to land on my forefoot and I have to say, I didn't feel so bad. The pace was under 9 min/mile, and this included a few walking breaks I took just to make sure I didn't over work things. I think things are finally starting to pick up.


• Nutrition: Good
  
• RHR: 46 BPM

Bench Press, Running/Wall Ball Metcon

Morning

Bench Press 5 X 3
Loads: 175#, 195#, 215#, 225# (failed 3rd rep), 215#

AMRAP
Run 0.25 miles
40 Wall Balls (20#)

5 complete rounds + 0.14 miles run

• Workout comments: I added a 2% grade to the treadmill during this workout because it helps me focus my landing on my forefoot, which helps take the discomfort out of my stride. I felt good during the wall balls, but most likely because my pace was not as fast as I would have liked it during the runs.
• General comments: After watching a short blurb on crossfit.com about the benefits of stretching (along with the mountains of othe reports out there) I'm going to spend more time actively stretching in an effort to increase overall flexibility. I've seen a few articles published over the years, including one from the New York Times, that reports stretching adds no substantial benefit to fitness or health. But the question becomes: Does it hurt?
• Body: I felt pretty good today. No soreness.

Hill Repeats

Morning

WU: 1 mile


Workout: 3 X 0.20 mile hill repeats (avg. 7.1% grade)

1.13, 1.20, 1.18, 1.18

3.5 miles total

• Workout comments: Felt pretty decent during this workout. I wasn't sure what to expect from the pace. The only time I've ever attemped a workout similar to this one was a few months ago when attempted several different hills in Conshohocken, including the one done with repeats today. This hill was my first attempt during that workout, and I was slower on that first repeat than on any of the repeats done today? Have I somehow gained running fitness over the past month without running at all, and with a slightly injured ankle? I'm not sure. I think the combination of strength and metcon work focused on my lower body has added an unexpected amount of endurance, particularly over short, fast distances. I hope it translates well to distance running.
• General comments: It was raining, windy, and overall miserable today. I had to wear a cap to keep the rain out of my eyes, and a jacket. I got some pretty weird looks from drivers when the wind almost knocked me down a few times. I felt bad for the people that I saw moving today.

WU: Shoulder dislocates, Samson Stretch

2 X 10 Front Squats (135#)

Workout: 3 Rounds for time:

30 Double Unders
25 L-Pullups
20 Dumbbell Squat Cleans (50# X 2)

30:45

1 mile job with 3% grade: 9:22

• Workout comments: I was feeling pretty exhausted through this workout. I was knocking out L-pullups in 3-4 rep sets, which is better than what I thought. My hamstrings are pretty tight, so they looked a little less than perfect. Still they weren't bad. I was having a hard time keeping a straight upwards line during the cleans. From the ground, my arms have to strain to bring the dumbbells in line, and as a result my traps and arms were fatiguing first.
• General comments: I just realized that the Bear Mountain 50K is less than 2 months away, and I am still nursing this ankle. I don't know what I'm going to do. I had intentions of going out there and giving it my all. I didn't want to approach the race with the intention of just finishing. But that may be what it comes down to. We'll see.
• Body: Lower back still a little sore. Otherwise feeling pretty good.
• RHR=46BPM

Deadlift Pushup Metcon, Push Press, Uphill walking

Late afternoon

WU: Shoulder dislocates, OH Squats

Workout: 10 Rounds

10 Deadlifts (135#)
15 Pushups

Only made it through 5 rounds. 6:25

3 X 10 Sets Push Press

Loads: 135#, 135#, 135#

1 mile uphill walk at 15% grade: 17:42

• Workout comments: I had absolutely no energy for this workout. I got about 8 hours of sleep last night and ate fairly well during the day. I had yogurt and an apple for breakfast and a salad and soup for lunch, with a Clif bar right before the workout. I had about 50 oz of water throughout the day. I cut the metcon short because I was feeling too much tension on my lower back, even before I started the workout. I tried to watch my form in the mirror. I don't know if it's really smart to attempt deadlifts as part of metcon. It's so easy to let form fail and try to muscle through it.
• Body: Quads and lower back were pretty sore throughout the day.
• RHR: 46 BPM

Boot Camp, Basketball

Early Afternoon

WU: light jogging, shuffling, toy soldiers, 20 squats

Workout: Boot Camp

50, 40, 30, 20, 10 reps of

Squat thrusts
OH Lunges (45# plate)
DB Snatches (Alt-50#)
Renegade rows (#20 DBs)
Situps

39:10

Late Evening

45 minutes of basketball

• Workout comments: This was one of the workouts where the weight I chose was clearly too heavy for the intended workout. It took me well over 30 minutes which I think should be the maximum time limit for any sort of effective metcon. It's long enough to the point that it is seriously discouraging to attempt another rep, because you know how many you have left. Kathy (the instructor) suggested that anyone with more than 2 rounds left cut the workout short, because she had to get back to work.
• Only had 5 players against a pretty decent team (with 9 players) so I was pretty exhausted by the end of the second half. We were up 9 at the start of the second half and watched helplessly as the lead slipped away by the end of the game. Pitiful.
• Body condition: felt pretty good yesterday. Ankle felt decent during the game, but defitely a little sore afterwards. Put some ice and felt fine the following morning. Quads were also a little tight following the game.
• Resting heart rate: 46

Running again

Workout: 3.1 miles easy



28:12

• Workout comments: Tried an easy run around Conshohocken to test out my ankle stability. Still felt some slight discomfort when landing on my heel and rolling foward to my forefoot. Not perfect running form. Oddly, the discomfort forced me to land on my forefoot, which is something I should be working on anyway. It's amazing how one injury can force the body to compensate in other areas to maintain the same level of performance. The only problem is that this overcompensation usually doesn't occur in a gradual fashion, but all at once. This usually just creates more problems down the road. Either way, it's progress.
• 3.1 miles along this route.
• General comments: As if there weren't enough things going wrong, I was attempting 3 X max rep pullups after I was done running on the pullup bar attached to my doorframe. Of course, it came loose and I dropped about 2-3 feet onto my knee caps. Nothing serious, except it sent a shock wave up my spine and my knees got pretty bruised. That in addition to sore back will probably call for a rest day tomorrow.

Short Cindy, OH Lunges/Burpees

Morning

WU: Short Cindy
5 Rounds:
5 Pullups, 10 Pushups, 15 Squats

3:57

Workout: 5 Rounds
OH Walking Lunges 40 steps (45#)
20 Burpees

21:15

• Workout comments: Didn't have a 45# plate so used a recycling bin with various weights piled into it. Backyard was pretty short. Honestly think the walking lunges would have gone much quicker if I didn't have to stop and turn around so many times. Getting into a rhythm in this kind of workout is essential. My shoulders were defintely the limiting factor during this workout.
• General comments: Legs and glutes were defintely shocked quite a bit during this workout and for several hours afterwards.
• Body: Feeling pretty good. Legs were only slightly sore.

Grace, Pullups, Uphill walk

Late Afternoon

WU: 2 Rounds
10 Deadlifts (137#), 10 Pushups
Samson Stretch
Shoulder Dislocates
Clean and Jerk practice

Workout: Grace (137#-anyway overhead)

3:57

Every minute on the minute:

3 Strict Chinups
3 Knees-to-elbow
3 Strict Pullups

Made it through a measly 6 rounds

1 mile walking uphill, treadmill 15% grade

17:06 (HR=160BPM)

• Workout Comments: I think in the past I was doing Grace as a strict squat clean. I just found out that it is generally done from ground to overhead in any fashion you choose. This makes a a big difference, as my previous PR on February 3 was 7:59, using only 117#. Maybe I'll just continue with this WOD as if they were strict squat cleans and try the actual workout again in 6 months.
• I continue to struggle with pullups. I'm going to have to make a serious effort to learn how to kip, and then find a location that allows me to do so. The pullup bar in my gym and the one I wedge into my door frame just aren't going to cut it anymore. Regardless, I should have seen some improvement in my strict pullups, considering the volume that I have been performing over the past few months. I was seeing a bigger return when I was "lifting" several months ago.
• I was also very surprised by the amount of effort it took to walk uphill at a 17:00 min/mile pace. This brings to light my times during the past several Pretzle City Sports trail races in Reading. The effort of running on trails really cannot compare to the effort of running on asphault. You may think that you are moving at a brisk pace, only to get home and find out that you ran 75% of the distance that you thought you ran.
• Body: the soreness in my quads, hamstrings, and lower back has considerably subsided since the boot camp workout on Tuesday (Thank God). My ankle has also felt much better since I have been wearing the brace. I'll give it another few days before wearing it for workouts only.

Rest Day

Scheduled rest day

• Body condition: My lower back was pretty sore when I woke up this morning from yesterday's workout. As the day bore on, I started to feel the fatigue and soreness increase in my quads and hamstrings as well. My ankle was sore when I first woke up but I have not felt any pain since then.
• Sleep: 8 hours
• Resting heart rate: 48 BPM
• General comments: Nothing new to report.

Thrusters, SDHP, Push Press, OH Squat

Early Afternoon

WU: Toy soldiers, OH Squat practice (30#)

Workout: 4 Rounds

20 Thrusters (77#)
20 SDHP (77#)
20 Push Press (77#)
20 OH Squats (77#)
5 Burpees

29:26

• Workout comments: This was one of the hardest MetCon workouts I think I have ever done. None of the movements were done to muscular failure, but my lungs were burning so bad that I could hardly breathe through most of the workout. I have been physically drained for the past few hours following the workout. This morning I consumed cereal, skim milk, a banana, and orange juice, but did not have a chance to consume much water before this workout.
• General comments: I originally stopped by to see the workout, with the intention of participating only if the majority of the movements focused on the upper body. I took one look at this and couldn't resist. I had the ankle brace on and it hadn't hurt once during the day. It didn't hurt at all during this workout, but I'll keep off of it during the rest of the week as well.
• Sleep: 7.5 hours
• Body condition: I felt physically fine prior to this workout. Maybe slightly tired, but that was it. Following the workout, I feel fatigued, but nothing is overwhelmingly sore.

Bench Press 5 X 3

Early Afternoon

WU: 2 rounds

Shoulder dislocates, 10 left legged pistols, samson stretch, 10 pullups, 10 dips, 10 situps

Workout: Bench Press 5 X 3

Loads: 235# (1st rep failed, a little over zealous. Did not count towards the workout)

195#, 205#, 225# (failed second rep), 215#, 220# (failed second rep)

Workout comments: Used a Smith machine to do this workout. Approximately 3 minutes rest between each set.

General comments: I was lured over the SuperFit in Conshohocken with a $10.99/month sale. Since my work gym is somewhat limited in the equipment they offer, I figured I could use the equipment here and sort of set up my own little corner. The facility is huge and they have tons of space...empty space. Which is why I was surprised when they attendent told me that they had just gotten rid of all the squat racks and heavy lifting equipment. Apparently, they don't want to attract the menacing juicers that scream and grunt and scare everyone off. Rightfully so, but it still stinks that you are operating a gym that is run without basic fundamental equipment. Didn't stop them from buying about 178 treadmills and twice as many elliptical machines. I guess you cater to your clientel.

On another note, I finally went to an orthopedist about my ankle. He took X-rays and said they were negative. Ligament, tendon, and muscle sprains of this nature can often show symptoms for 3 months unless properly rested. But since he didn't know exactly what was sprained, I'm not sure how long this thing will keep aggravating me. I will try to stay completely off it (no lower body workouts) for at least a week and see if there is any reduction in pain. He did suggest that I wear this ankle brace in the meantime to prevent reinjury. Still makes me wish I went to a sports medical doctor.

Having an injury really puts things into perspective. On any normal day (and especially on weekends) I would have difficulty dragging myself out the door for a long run. But now I feel trapped in my own body, wanting so badly to get outside. Nothing seems to be helping. Do you know how few cardiovascular workouts you can accomplish with only your upper body (swimming excluded)?