CGO 14.5

for time:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3
thrusters 95#/65#
burpees-over-bar

28:45

I knew beforehand that this one was going to suck. If this was a normal workout, I definitely would not have done the thrusters at 95#, but since I was registered for the Open, I did not really have the choice. The annoying thing about thrusters is that I find the front squat part rather trivial, but the overhead press part, even with the momentum coming out of the squat, is rough. At least, doing 80+ reps is rough. I tried to break up the rounds into three parts (e.g. 7×3, then 6×3, then 5×3, etc.) but I could not keep that up and eventually just did the thrusters in sets of three. The burpees themselves weren’t so bad, I really used them to get my heart rate down from the thrusters.

All in all, this was the hardest workout I have done in a while. My shoulders locked up maybe thirty minutes after I finished, and I could not raise my arms (right was much worse than left). I had an unpleasantly funny moment when I could not get my cold sweat filled shirt off when I got home. I had to use my left arm to move my right arm around.

Three hours later, my right shoulder is feeling better. At least I can raise it a bit. ARK is very concerned. “You only have catastrophic health insurance! It might cost $10000 if you get admitted to the hospital!” She is especially concerned with my kidneys since I am on an ACE inhibitor. I am not that concerned at the moment. ARK: “Well, what do I know? It’s not like I am a highly trained health professional, right?”

My time sucked. I did finish though. I basically kept a constant pace throughout, mainly because I wanted to be sure I did not completely exhaust my shoulders during the workout and then not be able to finish.

I have been doing ten minutes of squatting each day this month. Basically that means staying in a “resting” squat position (hip crease below knees and heels on the ground) for ten minutes. They don’t have to be consecutive. I had started doing them with shoes or boots on and found them to be pretty easy; I could stay squatting for thirty straight minutes. I did get the light-headedness, though, and some soreness in the hip flexors. A week or so ago I dropped the footwear and started doing them barefoot which really cranked up the difficulty as the slight rise in the heels makes a big difference. Possibly an ankle flexibility issue. I could only do one or two minutes at a time. And I needed a minute or so to warm up. And my hip flexors really did not like it.

Tonight I managed to do ten minutes straight. Woo. Guess I am getting better.

weighted strict pull-ups 6×3 (7.5# max)

3 rounds for time:
100m farmer’s carry 2×53#
15x DB shoulder-to-overhead 2×35#
15x DB lunges 2×35#

13:22

I have only done single rep weighted pull-ups recently, so the additional poundage was much less that previous efforts due to the 3x reps. I had to wrap my left hand because my palms are still ripped.

The metcon wasn’t that bad; in addition to the cardio, it was more of a forearm workout. The last time I did the farmer’s carry I used 2×70# kettlebells, but BC (RB wasn’t there for some reason) said that we should be able to go the distance without dropping it, so I went with the 53# ones. After the first round I still had to stop because my forearms were burning. In retrospect, I should’ve used 45#-55# on the DB stuff, as they were difficult only because my forearms hurt from the farmer’s carry. I probably would’ve finished those exercises in the same amount of time.

The workout didn’t thrill me all that much, but I definitely sweat a lot and it was apparent my forearms need work.

It was 65 degrees today… the hottest it has been in six (or was it eight?) months. Also nice and sunny. Confusing.

The scooter has been at the townhouse all winter. I went over and reinstalled the battery but forgot the keys, so I had to come back later. It would not start via the electric starter, but I was eventually able to kick-start it. I had hoped to ride it back home, but I could not get it started again. Err. I think the ignition and/or the engine kill switch is mucked up. Dunno how we are going to fix this. I suppose we can have someone pick it up eventually.

J told me what she wanted for lunch by bringing an egg from the egg skelter and a frying pan. She was very excited watching me make her scrambled eggs. She also had peas.

Time to go do my 10 minutes of squatting. I have been doing 10-30 minutes of squatting a day since the beginning of the month.

2014 MAR 22 : SATURDAY

LK spent the night over his grandmother’s house, so ARK went off in the morning with J for bfast while I slept. ARK was going to workout at 9am, and I was going to go down to the gym as well so we could workout together, but I ended up fixing things on the computer and therefore did not make it in time for class. I walked down to the gym as was surprised it was only a mile. It was also the first time I had ever walked on the section of Rainier Ave between Dawson and Meade.

ARK as a little wasted at the gym, but that was understandable since she hadn’t been in three weeks due to mucking her back up during a deadlift. I did get some squatting in with the 9am class, though.

Afterwards, we retrieved the children and went back home. I went to Olympic Lifting at noon. Afterwards, all of us went to Jefferson Park to let the kiddies run around.

We had a date night later. J spent the night with her grandmother, while LK was watched by S our neighbor. We went to Luc in Madison Valley.

We both got the four course “menu du jour” with wines. My dinner consisted of:

• Lucatini (tasty!)
• baguette topped with some sort of house made cheese and carmelized onions
• smoked salmon and trout, potato salad, salad of pickled veggie things (sparkling rosé)
• pink peppercorn halibut with, um, other stuff (pinot noir)
• apple crisp thing with some sort of creamy stuff infused with basil (port)

Amanda’s dinner:

• same baguette
• arugula + some other green salad with these cool potato “crouton” things
• pasta with mushrooms, squash, plus other stuff
• some chocolaty dessert

I thought the food was good, if not mind-blowing. It was definitely a good deal at $28 for the food. The wines were another $22, which was alright. There was only one set of wines, and since there were a few choices for each course, the wine may not have been ideally matched with the food. My dessert would have been much better with an icewine or a Sauternes or rum, for instance.

Regardless, it was a fun time. We were only gone maybe two-and-a-half hours.

2014 MAR 23 : SUNDAY

The rest of the family went to Geraldine’s while I went off to the gym. Amanda actually dropped LK off at the gym while she and her mother and J went clothes shopping (ARK at least was looking for clothes). After the workout, LK and I had a snack at Tin Umbrella. We then headed off to Lowe’s where I got granite cleaner, a replacement doorbell button for the townhouse, and some hardware to fix the chicken wire around the henhouse. On the way back home we stopped at Safeway because LK really wanted paper clips for his paper airplane kit and I wanted treats.

The afternoon consisted of yard work… cleaning up the backyard… and futzing around with the henhouse. ARK wanted to move the run so that it was flush with the coop which would eliminate 16 square feet of bokbok space. So I did that. I also started tacking down the chicken wire to prevent bokbok escapes. They are casuing too much destruction when they get out and they poo everywhere. I also finally took down the holidays lights we had out front.

We had pizza dinner at AC/MC place. Yummy.