Deconditioned again

I don’t know what to do about Crossfit. In order to swim better, I have to swim a lot, and lately that’s been five days a week, rather than doing Crossfit five days a week. I simply don’t have time for both. But I realized I hadn’t lifted in almost three weeks, which is also not good. So I did three pitiful lifts and called it a day:

BS:

45×5
115×5
125×5
135×5
135×4(F)

My legs were gassed. After THAT.

Press:

45×5
65×5
75×5
80×5
85×4(F)
85×3

Clean:

45×5
65×5
75×5
85×5
95×5

Meh. Finished with some one-armed handstands. At least I can still do that. And push-ups.

I’ll probably go to doing Crossfit 2x/week and jamming all my lifts in over those two days and trying to get my metcon in the pool. I have been doing interval training in the pool, and working up a sweat (yes, it is definitely possible). Swimming is hard in a completely different way and I still don’t have the endurance to do what I need to do. At the same time, I can’t lose all my strength, otherwise it will be post-Katrina all over again with no baby to show for it.

Swimming is Hard Barbie/Rowing

Yesterday was pretty bad. My back is not helping at all; I can’t really do much of anything. I tried to back squat, which was 3s, only got to 115×1 and it hurt too bad, so I stopped and tried to think what I could do. So I rowed a 2K at 8:00, pretty slow. I didn’t know what else to do.

Today, I had help in the pool from a work buddy named Kristin. She has been doing triathlons for a while, doing them well, the sprints, which is 750m swim, 5k run, 15 mile bike ride. She also rowed in college and maybe high school too. She’s 5’10″ and we have a similar body type. She taught me how to kick and says that I am too in the water and need to flatten out. I need to use my quads more kicking and go elbow first out of the water on the stroke. Those two things made swimming much more efficient already but really tiring, and I thought I was in good shape.

I really need to re-vamp my training to accommodate things that will help swimming because I need all the help I can get. Maybe the Crossfit Forum has some ideas.

Swimming/Bear Complex

My lower back is not so great. But, I have an appointment with the chiro next Friday, so hopefully all will be well soon.

I did a swim yesterday, which was not timed; I was just trying to get from one end of the pool to the other. Not so easy when you suck at freestyle. But I persevered, even though I was frustrated and I can do one lap of freestyle without stopping. That’s down, but not back. More practice is needed.

Today, I did a 5×3 press, which was a pretty poor showing:

45×5
75×3
80×3
85×3
90×3
95×3
65×8

Got the 95 up just barely. Finished with a Bear Complex that was actually pretty good, five rounds for weight of:

-7 HPC
-7 PP
-7 FS
-7 PP
-7 BS

I did 45-55-60-65-70, 10# heavier than last time and 5# from my PR. Not too shabby.

Swimming/”Fly, you fools!”

Yesterday, I swam the distance again, this time without breaks. I did breast stroke the whole time, because I need to learn how to do freestyle, and I wasn’t really going as fast as I possibly could (I really do need to learn freestyle); I was just trying not to hit 1.) the wall next to me and 2.) the elderly lady who conned me into swimming next to the wall as we shared the lane. Anyway, I did it in 24:12, which is pretty fracking slow. But I really just wanted to see how it felt to swim that distance. And I didn’t get any water up my nose although I did get a good gulp of it around lap 12 or so.

Today was technically a rest day, but I ended up exercising not once, but twice. I got to hike in the very beautiful Hammond Hill Forest, which is clear across the county from where I live but I did day camp there as a kid, and haven’t really been back there much since. There are fields of flowers and a whole section of pine trees in the forest with moss on them that look like a cathedral. Very pretty. Katrina dug it too. And my dad, who walked with us.

My second workout was an unplanned WoD called Beat the Storm. Here’s how that went down:

1920 hours
Jeff: I’m going to try and mow the lawn [with his dad's riding mower] before dinner, OK?
Me: OK

1940 hours
Me: [gesturing to Jeff on the riding mower that dinner's ready by waving frantically, pointing at my watch and mimicking stuffing food in my mouth]
Jeff: [thumbs up]

1943 hours
Jeff: Wouldn’t you know it? Just as I finished up by the road, the mower ran out of gas. Hey, did you do any swimming or Crossfit today?
Me: Nope.
Jeff: Well, we might have to push the mower, ha ha ha…
Me: OK, but I need to put on my good sneakers.
Jeff: I was kidding; I’ll just go out after dinner and get some gas for it.
Me: Whatever.

1948 hours
Jeff: These salmon cakes are really good, honey.
Me: Thanks. Hey, it’s really dark all of a sudden.
Jeff: Yeah, we’re under a big cloud that’s moving fast.
Weather: [menaces]
Me: So we might really have to push the mower.
Jeff: Yeah maybe…
Me: Like, stat, or like, after dinner.
Jeff: [looks outside] Probably after dinner.
Weather: Rawr.
Me: Um, I think we have minutes, if we’re lucky.

So, I put on my shoes, and Jeff puts on his shoes, we drop our forks and sprint outside. There’s this sort of pinkish light to the northeast and this big black cloud directly over head and haze to the south. We sprint to the mower, parked by the road and Jeff puts it in neutral and we push it from the road to the back of the warehouse, where it’s kept under an overhang. It was freaking hilarious. Jeff’s like, “We’re almost there, keep pushing. A little bit more.” And I’m thinking that this is no different than most Crossfit workouts. So, it’s starting to sprinkle and we get around the side of the warehouse and get the mower safely under cover. I say, “Run, run, RUN!” And I go tearing towards the house like a maniac, my quads fried from pushing the stupid mower. Jeff saunters back in like I’m a crazy person.

Not two minutes later, it starts pouring and about a minute after that, hail the size of ping-pong balls. Seriously, have never seen hail that big in New York. It sounded like machine gun fire and woke up the baby. I held her for a while, but she was more intrigued than scared, so I took her to the window.

In the end, the mower was OK. Could we be bigger rednecks?

Swimming the distance/Front Squat/Burpees

Yesterday went much better. I got up 15 minutes early, and had help with feeding and changing Katrina, so I had much more time at the gym than usual. That said, I decided to swim yesterday. I actually swam the distance of the race, 750m or 16.4 there-and-back laps. I took breaks, it’s true, but a lot of it was because my goggles were fogging up. I did breast stroke too, which is the least efficient but the one that I know a lot better than freestyle, which I hate. It wasn’t too bad, a good workout, really, but I wish I had some music and waterproof headphones.

Today, I did a fairly horrible front squat:

45×5
95×5
115×5
125×4(F)
125×3(F)
95×6

It just was not good and I probably shouldn’t have attempted it.

Finished with yesterday’s CFNYC WoD of 14 minutes of:

-30 Box jumps 24″
-10 Push press 95/65
-20 Box jumps
-20 Push press
-10 Box jumps
-30 Push press

Use the remaining time to do as many burpees as possible; final score is number of burpees. I got 36. This WoD is brilliant in its way but sucky because you feel like it’s sort of unfair to have to do burpees after what is actually a pretty tough WoD in its own right.

Albany

Yesterday was a bit frustrating in terms of scheduling and I know I’ve complained about this before, but something’s gotta give and it’s mostly my fault for managing my time badly. On mornings I work and try and get to the gym, I have to take Katrina so my husband gets to run errands etc. before having to watch her for, like, 13 hours straight, so I have to change her, pack her into her snowsuit if it’s cold, pack her into her car seat, drive to the gym, park(kinda far away), unpack her, check her in at the front desk, take her to the daycare, unbundle her from her snowsuit, and sign her in. After my workout, I do everything but in reverse, change her diaper, pack her back up, etc., etc., etc. The point is, I often spend more time getting her and myself to the gym and back than actually working out, and that’s just not working.

Anyway, so I was running late yesterday, so I only had about 15 minutes to work out when all was said and done, so I did a scaled version of a Crossfit Albany workout, which is three rounds for time of:

-10 C&J 135/95
-50 ABMAT sit-ups (I did regular)

All with a 15-minute cap. I did it in 11:45, but I wouldn’t have made it, probably, if I had been doing ABMAT sit-ups. I really like this WoD. I certainly will do it as Rx’d at some point.

In the meantime, although I hate to do it after going to bed at 0030 on most days I work, is get up earlier, like 0645. Maybe that would help.

DL/Triplet Hell/Swimming Class

Today was a double header for me, gym-wise. I started out with a morning workout with a 5×3+20 DL, so-so:

45×5
135×3
155×3
175×3
195×3
215×3
225×3
155×20

Although I didn’t do as well as last time, I really like the +20. It’s hard! I finished with a mash-up of two other WoDs that I will call triplet hell, which is three rounds for time (when I have more time, I’ll probably make it 5) of:

-5 Thrusters 65#
-7 HPC 65#
-10 SDLHP 65#
-30 DU

I did it in 9:24.

My second foray to the gym was for an hour-long swimming class, and it’s a good thing I went because, as stated in the last post about swimming, I don’t know what I’m doing. So, it was a really nice, low-key sort of set of drills. Mostly, I just need to get in the water and be comfortable there. That’s all. And do more long-distance stuff. The swim in August is 750 meters, which is 16.4 there-and-back laps in the pool at Island. So that’s a good thing to shoot for.

Now I am freezing, starving, and exhausted. But in a good way. Also, this would be a great time to razor down my calluses.