90 Days

Today was a complete 180º difference from yesterday.

First off, I had my last foundations class in cross-fit this morning. We continued working on correct form and technique for the mid hang power clean and mid hang power snatch. I improved a little bit on the front squat position, so that made me happy. But what really made my day was our WOD…a repeat of the workout from our first class. I’m happy to say that I crushed my original time of 12:45 by over 3 minutes! 

I had a great breakfast, got to work early, and had a really productive day. I also got hired for another editing gig that starts in late October / early November and will keep me employed until May of next year! In the freelance world, that’s pretty huge. Plus, it gives me at least a week (maybe two!) off before I start my new job. Which, by the way, is in the same building I’m working at now, and for a show I worked on earlier this year (hint hint).

On top of all that awesomeness, I stayed below my calorie budget with healthy food. The only thing that can make this day better is a solid night of sleep. 

FOUNDATIONS 8 WOD

RUN: 270 meters

• Air Squats 
• Sit-Ups
• Ring Rows

RUN: 270 meters

Time: 9:22

BTW - I’m so excited to continue cross-fit. I feel like it’s something that I am going to do for a long time. Now I just need to incorporate more running into my regimen and build my endurance back up for distance running. 

__________

Food Calories consumed: 2,032

Daily Calorie Budget: 2,010

Over/Under: UNDER

Cross-fit really kicked my ass today. I haven’t been sleeping well the last few nights, so the idea of powerlifting at 7am was a little tough to accept. But whatever, deal with it and get healthy, right?

We learned two new techniques today, both of which are complicated and I am having trouble performing correctly. The first was the Mid Hang Power Clean , followed by the Mid Hang Power Snatch. We just learned the basics for these movements, and didn’t really perform them separately. Instead, we incorporated the power clean into our WOD, which was a power lifting circuit (see below). 

I am having a really hard time with the Front Squat bar position. I knew something wasn’t right because there was a tremendous strain on my wrist, pointer, and middle finger tendons / muscles. The bar is supposed to sit snugly on the front part of your chest, with raised shoulders for support. However, because of either tight muscles or my long forearms (this is what my coach said), I am not able to raise & extend my elbows out far enough to comfortably hold the bar in that position. This really messed up my WOD because we were supposed to get into our front squat position using the power clean movement we just learned. But after a couple of rounds, I wasn’t able to hold that position and we had to cut that portion from my circuit…in the middle of the WOD.

So my time / reps got all screwed up, but that doesn’t really matter to me. What’s more important is that I need to focus on stretching the muscles in my arms, and practice the front squat position with a wider grip. If it comes to it…I may even have to go to a clean position for front squats. But, as my coach said, “It’s not the end of the world. Let’s take it one step at a time.”

FOUNDATIONS 7 WOD

AMRAP DT

• 9 Dead Lifts 
• 6 Front Squats (only first 2 rounds)
• 3 Push Press

Time: 12:00 (2 full sets with 65 lbs, 4 modified sets with 55 lbs)

__________

Food Calories consumed: 2,026

Daily Calorie Budget: 2,012

Over/Under: OVER

A very well rounded day yesterday, topped off with a nice dinner at Patsy’s near Union Square with my lady.

FYI - It’s not hard to go over budget, even on high calorie days, when pizza is involved.

Cross-fit set the tone for a good, productive day, as per usual. After learning how to properly do overhead squats and front squats, we launched into wall ball and burpees. Yesterday’s WOD was tough, but oh so awesome. 

FOUNDATIONS 6 WOD

3 Rounds

• Run 275 meters
• 10 Burpees
• 10 Wall Ball (14lb)

Time: 10:08

__________

Food Calories consumed: 2,925

Daily Calorie Budget: 2,874

Over/Under: OVER

Lots of pull-ups and kettle bell swings at Cross-Fit yesterday. I felt like a sorry sap because I couldn’t even do 1 pull-up without a resistance band for support. So I made myself feel better by kicking ass during the WOD.

FOUNDATIONS 5 WOD - “HELEN”

3 Rounds

• Run 400 meters
• 21 Kettle bell Swings (35lb)
• 12 Ring Rows

Time: 11.51

__________

Food Calories consumed: 1,996

Daily Calorie Budget: 2,007

Over/Under: UNDER

Looooong fucking day yesterday. Up at 5:40a for cross-fit class at 7a, work from 10a-7p, then more work on a different project (feature length documentary that’s about to be finished once and for all) until 11p. By the time I got home, had a late dinner, and wrapped things up for the day it was close to 1am. 

I’m pretty sure I didn’t reach my high calorie budget either. I was about 500 calories under my low calorie budget before my dinner of saag paneer and naan around 8p. I added to my calories with half a bison burger on whole wheat bread around 11p. But I don’t think that those two meals put me over budget…but they probably got me pretty close.

But enough with the boring “I’m so tired and this is what I ate today” shit.

I had a great WOD in the morning, filled mainly with power lifting, and a big breakfast to start my high calorie day off on the right foot.

Our warm-up today included 3 sets of the following:

• 5 dislocates
• 10 push-ups
• 15 overhead squats (with a light PVC tube)
• 20 sit-ups

Yes…that was just the warmup.

After we got the blood flowing, we learned the proper technique for performing the barbell press, push press, and the push jerk. I kept it light, since I wanted to focus on getting my body used to the movements, and didn’t add any weight to my 45lb barbell. We then moved on to a dumbbell variation of thrusters.

After all that, we finally started our WOD

FOUNDATIONS WOD 4

• Row 300 meters
• 15 dumbbell thrusters (15lb)
• Row 200 meters
• 9 dumbbell thrusters
• Row 100 meters
• 6 dumbbell thrusters

Time: 5:28

__________

Food Calories consumed: ????

Daily Calorie Budget: 2,868

Over/Under: EVEN?