Breakfast was 3 eggs in olive oil and my usual americano w/ HWC

Glory somehow talked me into going for a dip in the ocean, so I did. 15 minutes in 57 degree water…a little shocking at first, but it felt AMAZING! And, funny thing, my neck hasn’t bothered me nearly as bad since that dip.

We went for coffee after and I had another Americano (decaf this time) w HWC and a bag of nuts and fruit.

Ended up skipping lunch, not on purpose, but just ran out of time.

Coached 4PM with some awesome athletes, then did my own little workout. I decided to do the 10 Minute Capacity Test that Steph was redo’ing today. Here’s what it is:
As many reps and calories as possible in 10 minutes:
4 minutes cals on the rower
3 min pullups
2 min back squat at 0.75 body weight (110# for me)
1 min Shoulder to Overhead (95#)

This was pretty brutal…hardest part for me were the pullups. Here were my totals:
64 cals
42 pullups
17 Back Squats (could have done more here, just being a wuss and resting too much)
11 Jerks (could have probably gotten a few more here too)

Then, dinner at, yep, you guessed it, Urban Plates!!
Urban Steak Salad
with a green tea

Then I cheated a little bit…
1/2 pint of sea salt caramel gelato…yep, i did…shhhh

Then, nibbled on some of Glory’s roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli…hopefully she won’t notice some of it’s gone…

Off to bed, resting up for the big morning tomorrow…can’t wait!

Breakfast was 3 eggs, americano w HWC

Went to see Tamer to work on my neck…good session, neck is still stiff, but ROM is much better.

Trained Oly at Invictus today:
PSn (pause) 50/4×2 60/3 65/3 70/3 75/2 80/2 85/2 90/2×3
Sn Pull (pause 1st rep) 80/4 90/4 100/3×3

My numbers were:
23kg/4×2
27kg/3
30kg/3
32kg/3
34kg/3
36kg/3
38kg/2
40kg/2×2

Sn Pull
36kg/4
40kg/4
45kg/3×3

Felt really good today, despite the agonizing neck pain that was slowly subsiding.

Really focusing on keeping my balance on my midfoot, not toes, not heels, but both, and driving my knees back before coming in for that second dip. All the practice is feeling really good.

Then, stopped by Urban Plates and had my favorite Urban Steak Salad. Yum!

Snacked on a few mac nuts and then had a Greek yogurt w/ honey as a snack

Decided to lift a little this afternoon since I was feeling good.

Did Coach Dave’s Squat programming for this week…

50/8 (95/8)
60/5 (115/5)
70/5 (135/5)
75/3 (145/3)
80/3 (155/3)
85/3 (165/3)
90/2×3 (175/2×3)

Steak for dinner on the way to Toastmasters

Glass of red wine when I got home…

Bedtime…10PM

Worked out with Jo at 7AM

2 mins of Row (cals)
2 min rest
2 mins KB Swing
2 mins rest
2 mins Burpees
2 mins rest
2 mins Situps
2 mins rest
2 mins Row (cals)

Rowing machine monitor was broken, so can only assume I got around 35-40 cals
63 KB Swings
32 Burpees
64 Situps

Lunch was early around 10:30, had some hangar steak and Mac nuts.

Feeling a little down and just mentally exhausted, so took a Mid afternoon nap for 2 hours

Snacked on some mac nuts and SFH fortified shake with coconut milk just before pm workout.

Push Press
Started at 85(3),95(3),105(3),110(3), then failed on the 2nd rep of 110, so 110(1), then one more attempt and failed on 3rd, so 110(2).

Then worked on Headstands and balance. Rolled out, a lot.

Dinner:
Steak
Mac nuts

2 pieces of salami w. cheese

Bed around 11:30PM…

Breakfast was 2 eggs cooked in olive oil.

Had a quad shot americano with HWC then went to see Tamer to work more on the neck/upper back.

Trained Oly at Invictus today…overall felt really good with my progress in fixing some of my flaws. Felt strong today.

Here’s what I did…

Sh + Cl (HB) 50/4×2 60/3 65/3 70/3 75/2 80/2 85/2×3
Cl Pull (pause 1st) 80/4 90/4 100/3×3

Used 69kg for 1RM so…
50/4×2 (35kg)
60/3 (42kg)
65/3 (45kg)
70/3 (49kg)
75/2 (52kg)
80/2 (55kg)
85/2×3 (59kg)

80/4 (55kg)
90/4 (62kg)
100/3×3 (70kg)

Then, went and grabbed a salad from Urban Plates…yep, the Urban Steak Salad…yum!

Coached class, car broke down, home for dinner…
Hangar steak and broccoli (more steak than b)
glass red wine

Breakfast was 3 eggs and a couple of cups of coffee.

Lunch was Salmon with balsamic veggies, and two dark chocolate squares with sea salt (sodium’s important, right?!?)

Went to Invictus to train with Steph
Did a good bit of mobility beforehand, then did

Weighted Pullups
10#(3),15#(3),15#(3),20#(2),20#(2),30#(1)

Front Squats – low back wasn’t feeling good during the warmup, so I went super light and just worked technique
110#(5);110#(5),110#(5),110#(5)

Rushed over to CFA and got a rowing workout in just before class…snacked on some almonds on the way…

5 sets of 350m row with 2 mins rest
1:16.3
1:18.0
1:20.2
1:19.9
1:20.4

This sucked pretty bad…

Worked on Handstands and did 2 sets of 20 GHD Situps after class was over.

Dinner was a Urban Steak Salad from Urban Plates…I love that damn salad, soooo good.
small glass of red wine
6 dark chocolate squares

Bedtime…g’night!

Breakfast:
2 eggs w/ 3 slices bacon

Quad shot Americano with Heavy Whipping Cream

Went to see Tamer about my neck…he worked on it for a good hour or more. Definitely my little levator scapulae that’s causing me all of this grief. Resting it and returning back to see Tamer on Tuesday.

Mid-afternoon snack:
4 strips of bacon
steak and broccoli

Dinner:
Glass of red wine

Trained at Invictus with the Competition group this AM. We retested a workout we did the first day I started training with the Invictus Competition group back in December. Started out rough, but ended with 2 pleasant surprise PR’s.

A.

Complete as many reps as possible in 4 minutes of:
1 Clean (power or full)
1 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up
2 Cleans
2 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
3 Cleans
3 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
4 Cleans
4 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
. . . and so on up the ladder
Men = 205 lbs, Women = 135 lbs.

Only made it through 3 rounds + 1 clean (Score = 13). Wow, 135# felt HEAVY!!!! I started failing on the cleans alot. I think I failed on 6 or 7 cleans at least. I’m pretty sure yesterday’s workout had something to do with this.
December 3 my score was 20 (4 rounds even).

Rest exactly 8 minutes, and then:

B.
Complete as many reps as possible in 4 minutes of:
1 Clean (power or full)
1 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up
2 Cleans
2 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
3 Cleans
3 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
4 Cleans
4 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
. . . and so on up the ladder
Men = 155 lbs, Women = 105 lbs.

Finished with 5 rounds + 6 cleans and 2 Pullups (score of 38). December 3 my score was 27!! (11 more reps since Dec!) I think the improvement was definitely in the C2B pullups, I started to alternate grips towards the end, but overall, I felt a bit stronger with them.

Rest exactly 8 minutes, and then:

C.
Complete as many reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
250 Meter Row
25 Kettlebell Swings (32/24 kg)
50 Double-Unders

Finished 3 rounds, 250m row and 3 KB Swings. Dec 3 I completed 3 rounds exactly!!

Overall, a great finish to a slightly shotty beginning.

Breakfast at Zanzibar with Steph:
Greek scramble with veggies
Hammerhead coffee w/ espresso

Snacked on Macadamia nuts most of the afternoon

Went to bed at 5:15PM…slept til about 8:30.

Woke up and made 5 strips of bacon and had some coconut milk to go along with it.

Watched a movie and then went back to sleep around 12AM. Slept til 8:30AM.

A.
Four sets of:
Bulgarian Split Squat x 4-6 reps @ 41X1
Rest 3 minutes

65(6);85(6);85(4);90(4)

B.
Three rounds for time of:
50 Double-Unders
25 Air Squats
400 Meter Run

10:31 Rx’d

went to Oly at Invictus, but just worked on positioning and technique…used no more than 77 kg. Some notes to take away:

Setup Position:
- Midfoot
- Hips Down
- Gaze straight ahead

Pull:
- Weight transfers from Midfoot -> Heel (but toes stay on the ground)
- Knees back (maintaining contact of toes with ground)
- Chin Up (not tucked)

Worked on some MU transitions in between sets

Overall, good active recovery day.

Here’s a snapshot of some of my best lifts, as well as numbers for the other athletes here at Invictus.

A.
Four sets of:
Push Press x 3-5 reps
Rest 2 minutes
L-Sit Tuck to Extension x 7-10 reps @ 1212
Rest 2 minutes

Went 85(5);95(5);100(5);100(3) – shew, that got pretty heavy, pretty fast…

Noticed some tightness in my upper back/base of my neck after these…

B.
“JT”
Complete rounds of 21, 15, and 9 reps of:
Handstand Push-Ups
Ring Dips
Push-Ups

At first thought, now that I can at least kip HSPU’s and do a few Ring Dips in a row, I thought mmmaaaayyyybbbbeeee I could tackle this WOD as Rx’d. Ha, think again…got through 8 HSPU’s and had none left…went to doing HSPU negatives. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, had nothing left for any of the ring dips, so used legs to assist as needed on those. The only thing I could barely do As Rx’d were the pushups, and they were tough…some were one at a time.

Finished in 21:02…brutal.

However, the worst part was the pain that I felt and still feel (as I post this on Saturday, three days later) in my upper back/lower neck. This pain has never been quite like this and it will not go away. Waking up every morning it’s been stiff and uncomfortable. It feels like my spine is all knotted up right between the base of my neck and in-between my shoulder blades. Luckily, I’m going to have Tamer do some of his magic on it tomorrow. Hope that does the trick…