Kaizen.

In the spirit of some old-fashioned New Year's Eve reflection, I've been thinking recently about what I have and haven't managed to accomplish in 2009. On balance, it's been a pretty good year: I quit a job I didn't love and have spent the last 9 months getting much closer to actually applying to grad school. I got engaged in September and finally feel like my fiance and I have time to plan for the big day. I joined Potomac Crossfit in February and over the last 11 months--despite a few self-inflicted setbacks--have become a fitter, healthier, and happier person. I've made some mistakes (overscheduling my life and not prioritizing my well-being being chief among them), but I've learned a lot about nutrition, fitness, and self-motivation, and am looking forward to continuing to improve and learn in 2010.

Now, onto a few short-term goals. As I mentioned, I signed up for sectionals, which will take place at the end of March. Like I said, I have no illusions about doing well, but I think that I can make a reasonable amount of progress from now until then, and I like the idea of having something to work towards. In any event:

First, January 1 to February 16 I will conduct my own personal Paleo Challenge: Zone-proportioned lean protein, no caffeine or artificial sweeteners of any kind, 2 or fewer servings of fruit a day, and a daily dose of Carlson's fish oil. I'll take before and after photos for the sake of having an additional metric for comparison, and I'll look for support from the other PCF folks doing the real challenge.

Second, except for during my overnight ambulance shifts, I'm aiming for 8-9 hours of sleep every night. Except for a 10-day period a few weeks ago, I was pretty close to this goal in December, and my spring schedule will be even more conducive to making it happen.

Third, I am shooting to average 4-5 WODs per week, and I plan to periodically evaluate whether I need to cut back on other commitments if they start to interfere.

Last, each month I will choose a goat (or goats) to work on, with an aim for raising my competence in a few critical arenas. I have 2 goats for January: stringing kipping pullups together (5 is my goal) and doing the same with double unders (25 is my goal). Both are technique-dependent moves that would be perfect for me to work on at the 1100 skill hour at the box several times a week.

Ok, if you've made it through this post, it's your turn. These seem like reasonable aspirations, but I would love to hear thoughts, comments, and suggestions if anyone has any. Happy New Year, everyone!

Push jerks weren't good today. I managed to get 100 up before failing on 105 two times, egh.

Metcon afterward was

42 wall balls (8 ft, 12 lb)

21 pullups

30 wall balls

15 pullups

18 wall balls

9 pullups

8:27 as Rx'd, really am looking forward to learning how to string kips together, as that would greatly improve my time. Broke the wall balls once in each round more than I wanted to.

Did a modified version of gymnastics warmup 1:

5 rounds

3 HSPU negatives

5 pushups

10 sec tripod/frog stand

and

3 rounds

10 squats

I then went down to the treadmill and farted around on it for a bit before doing a fast-as-I-can-manage-two-days-after-Christmas mile. My treadmill math is a little fuzzy, but I think I ended up in the vicinity of a 7:30 pace. I didn't expect much more after what I've eaten the past few days, and it'll be interesting to see how I might improve after a few weeks on a clean diet. Stretched a little afterward, and did some myofascial release this evening while watching the Redskins get stomped once again.

The overeating and drinking to activity ratio has been pretty pathetic the past few days, but I can report that I did about 5 hours of downhill skiing the day before Christmas Eve and today I did

50-40-30-20-10

Squats

Pushups

Situps

in 18:45

A few hours later, I then did 5 x 1 minute (unbroken) handstands.

Felt pretty crappy throughout the morning's workout, I'm sure as a result of the carb-fest that's been happening the past two days, but I was glad to get moving. Sleep has been for the most part fantastic for the past week - I think I have finally eliminated any sleep debt that may have accumulated during exam time.

Signed up for sectionals a few days ago. I have no illusions about placing well (or even finishing, for that matter), but I like the idea of having something to work toward over the next 90 days. More on this later.

Wednesday was an all-day study fest, Thursday was a 16-hour work day, and Friday and Saturday were spent travelling and spending time with family. Not being able to do anything but stumble from obligation to obligation is not the way I was hoping to spend the last week, but sometimes life happens. In any event, I am now caught up on sleep and am hoping to regain some sense of routine (or at least personal time) in the coming days.

This morning I did

5 rounds

100 m sprints on the minute

Then

Tabata handstands and Tabata situps (94 situps)

I was hoping I could finish my exam in time to make the 7 pm WOD, but that was not to be. Alas. Instead, later I did a modified gymnastics warmup 2 (only 3 sets of pullups) and the WOD from a few days ago:

5 rounds

Max reps bench press (65 lb 1st round, 75 lb for the rest)

Max reps pushups (with no rest after bench press)

Totals were 18/7, 10/10, 8/7, 6/10, 5/10. This was pretty hard, especially considering I have no idea what my 1 rep max is.

Wasn't feeling it on the way to the box today, but I'm glad I went in. Group warmup today, and WOD was

Find 1 RM Back Squat

Rest

3 rounds

1 min DU

30 sec rest

1 min box jumps

30 sec rest

1 min row

30 sec rest

I ended up with 170 lb on the back squat, which is a 10 lb PR! Props to Dan for pointing me toward an actual low bar position, which I think helped. Oddly enough, I feel like I maybe could have thrown 5 to 10 more on, but I'm happy with what I got considering my crappy mood before the WOD.

Met con was another matter. I ended up with 155, which is extremely low considering my rows were solid for me (even though the damn damper kept falling from 6 to 4) and I got about 20-24 box jumps per round. In retrospect, it would have been better for me to do single-double-single-double; I likely wasted a lot of time regrouping after each failed set (of which there were many).