The Most Loathed

I think it's totally fine to stop doing six week challenges. You could either just maintain a battle log (Assuming you want somewhere to write) or you could sign up for challenges but say your's doing a coule two week mini challenges in the thread.

bump, still here?

sometimes holding on is the most important thing. Keep going, you're doing great.

I was just rereading your thread, how do the kettlebell movements feel?

A lot of people struggle with snatch at first and turkish get-up can be a sneaky little movement.

That looks like a solid week. Keep it up.

 Is it bad that I increased the pace and ran a bit further than I planned because I didn't want to talk to one of my neighbors?

LOL, just LOL

congrats on semester wrap up.

It looks like the lifts are going great!

You mentioned meal planning, I've had a lot of success with sitting down once a week and planning meals for the week with my wife, then we go grocery shopping. We throw out less food and eat higher quality. She sometimes chafes under to rule of the menu so I try to be flexible on occasion but we're both better for it.

The ice cream experiments sound great!

I thought of you last evening, I did the monkey bars twice. PR!

how's it going piddip?

Awesome about the flight lessons

I've jacked up my wrist multiple times hitting the bag. I recommend wrist wraps whether you use gloves or not. If you go long enough without gloves you'll tear up your knuckles but at least you won't hurt any tendons or ligaments.

good luck with exams

That is fantastic. I think that you are singlehandedly promoting kettlebell sport better in your area than I see in all of the twin cities.

I just looked it up and the twin cities has about 1/4 the population of all of the Netherlands in 1/300th the space.

Welcome back. Sorry to hear that the joints threw a party that was far more disruptive than the kids.

Already said above but that entire post is what you tell. I captures what happens but also how it makes you feel. 

Honestly, I'd share it with your girlfriend too. She'll be pissed she'll make snide comments each meal thereafter for a a few meals but it is a clear statement of intent and that behavior from here will either change or pass a clear message.

Week 4 recap

• Bodyweight - good numbers here. I' confident that I'll be 90kg or less by the end of the six week period.
• Kettlebells - two workouts that were pretty solid. I'm looking forward to getting all three in this week.
• 10km training run - four mile run. I feel ready to do a 10K but I'm trying to not overextend myself and leave myself too sore the next day
• post regularly - done
• L-sit - no work done although last night dips will contribute
• 5 meals out - with family here we blew this out of the water, way more than five.
• RPG challenge - dropped
• I felt like I did a better job with skills practice this week and with handstands specifically, I had a couple holds of a couple seconds.

Week 5 Plan

• Monday: soft tissue, row and maybe a circuit indoors (rain today)
• Tuesday: 24 kg long cycle - will I finally have it in me to get 4:00 X 3?
• Wednesday: May struggle to fit this one one, Barbell training outside
• Thursday: Pilates
• Friday: 28 kg long cycle 0:45/0:15
• Saturday: Other potential struggle here, barbell or aerobic, not sure
• Sunday: 20 kg 12:00 is the goal, conditioning

Other notes:

Not much additional to report. This week looks like it will be a fun week. Nothing out of the ordinary to report going into it other than I'm skipping games tonight because we had family all weekend so Laura asked that I hang around. Next week will be weird schedule-wise because I'm helping set up at a local charity walk on Sunday. Then on Tuesday we will be seeing Elbow in concert (Spoiler for music video next week).

I'll try to get started on some blend of what Chris and Rabbi were talking about.

Music

This video is likely only funny if you recall the original work by Fergie

Bonus music video since the above requires so much context. The guy talking is Carl Sagan, and amazing astronomer who was popular in the '60s and the video is auto tuned clips from a popular TV series he did called Cosmos

Awesome! Most Loathesome! Keep up the great progress!

Thanks Rabbi

Suggestion...

 

I keep a record ("CrossFit Journal") of every workout that I do, every day, including notes about how I felt. Every few months, I look back in the journal, pull an old workout from 3-12 months ago, and redo it to see how I've improved. Changes in fitness and progress are measurable and are truly far better measures of success than the silly number on the scale that we all obsess over. (Well, at least I obsess over it.) Many of these are the official CrossFit benchmarks ("The Girls"), or the CrossFit Open workouts, but others are just random workouts that I liked (or didn't) that I pull out and repeat to retest.

 

Now you don't have to be as detailed as I am, but at least record one each week, or one benchmark each month, or something that you can repeat, retest, and measure to see your progress...

This sounds exactly right. I do need to keep a few benchmarks handy but I also could stand to just keep a few of the circuits, that have worked, in the hopper. Not all made up circuits are created equally. I've built a few duds and a few studs.

I could stand to keep a few more notes but I've found that there is a a burnout point on note keeping I have to keep an eye on. When my note taking gets to the point where it feels like a chore, I stop noting. I keep working out but record nothing. Without these gaps I would have an unbroken chain of workout notes going back to 2005. So, I have to watch myself on that balance.

Chris, I will attempt to:

05/11/2014

weight: unknown

workout:

Barbell Snatch 30 minutes.

Barbell Squat 100K

ring pull up 

5 X 5

Toes to Rings X 25 (whatever groupings I wanted)

Ring dips 10

Notes:

• Carb loaded today. We went to a brunch at the Danish American Institue and I ate some sweets, hoo boy did I eat some sweets. Skipped supper as I'm still pretty full
• In-laws left this afternoon, so that's done
• I decided to work snatch today, I've never done that before. I think I'll have sore traps tomorrow. I videoed a few successes and few misses, they've not uploaded but I hope to review and share them later to hopefully improve myself.
• I decided that it's time to start doing some barbell squats and opened with a very easy and doable 100K 5X5, I'll need more next time.
• Tomorrow will be fun. I took the day off from work and have very few chores left from my guests so I'm going to get some extra me time which will include soft tissue work, buying a boardgame expansion, hanging out on NerdFitness and all manner of other things.

Have you read Mistborn?

A. Lee Martinez - modern, humorous fantasy

Terry Pratchett's discworld series - probably the best know and loved humorous fantasy

Neil Gaimen's American Gods - Modern fantasy with classical gods

Jim Butcher' Dresden Files - Wizard who lives in Chicago and solves crime

Jim Butxher's Calderon Series - elemental fantasy

Piers Anthony's On a Pale Horse - guy has to fill in for death

Piers Anthony' A spell fo Chameleon - everyone has one spell except the main character, he seeks to discover his

Anne McCaffery's Dragon Rider series is a classic

Hard Magic by LArry Correia - in an alternate 1940's US where magic is a thing

Warded Man by Peter V. Brett - monsters rise each night and everyone must hide behind wards for their own protection

This just sounds like fun. I want in.

Thanks Twilight and Teros

05/10/2014

bodyweight: unknown

workout

28kg long cycle 0:45 on/0:15 off X 6

Handstand practice 10 minutes

circuit

  row 500 m

  burpee X 20

  snatch 24kg 20/20

2 2/3 rounds in 20 minutes

pistol practice 10 minutes

notes

• w00t - workout while in-laws are here
• had designs on second circuit but that one took all the wind out of my sails.
• I had some great handstands today, well, great for me. I hit a couple where it felt like I was up forever, it was probably not even five seconds but it felt really good. More practice is in order.
• Got some awesome shoes to replace my crocs that I've worn holes in the toes. 
• I also got this amazing t-shirt through a t-shirt exchange. If you can't see in the image, it's space invaders with kettlebells and barbells as the sprites. It's from spreadshirt.com
• Tomorrow will likely be a barbell workout. Monday will likely be some cardio. 
• Week four of the six week challenge is almost over. I've learned some important things about how to handle these challenges. So far though, things are going well. I'll like hit most of my goals for the six weeks. 
• I need to sit down sometime and write up a couple of these WODs (circuits) that I've come up with and felt like have been a good challenge so I can come back to them and look for improvements. I'm thinking that I should name them after fictional characters: Kvothe, HAL 5000, so on

 

NOTE: I cannot believe I managed to make it this far.

Keep going, you're doing great.

I almost forgot. We had to take before and after shots for the weightloss challenge. Here you go:

Before Front

Before Side

After Front

After Side

Enjoy the dinner.

I've not tried that park yet.

Try out Nerstrand this summer if you get a chance. It's beautiful.

Excelsior!!

 

Wow, your thread got away from me. Congratulations on the 22lbs!! Love the music you've been posting.

Thanks. I've never been very good at actually compiling music I like. I just find neat stuff an listen to it for a while. It makes for a fun and interesting challenge. Last week I went on a 90's kick and started a YouTube playlist that I'll work on for a while.

Congratulations That's a nice number! You really seem to know what you're doing there.

 

It's a bit of a dilemma that those heavier bells also get more expensive, isn't it? And just wait, soon you'll want to have some in-between weights.

I have lots of practice at losing weight. I recommend not trying it. Laura and I are going to have a chat, am I done or do I press on for 5 more kilograms. Then I can get some new pants finally, the ones I'm wearing are getting baggy.

I got really lucky on my 24 and 28 kilogram bells, I bought them used for $20 per bell. I'm going to see if I can get the same deal on the 20 and 32 bells. If/when I want intermediate steps I'll have to go full price. That will be sticker shock.

Family visit is going well. I've not worked out for two days and I have a 50:50 shot tomorrow but I should be be good for Sunday. I've been eating less because they like bready meals. Tonight I grilled asparagus and meats, I cooked a couple extra servings of meats and I'll eat them tomorrow between meals. I may come out of this stay a little lighter.

They had "leaderboards" for the weightloss challenge but they took them down yesterday. I was looking forward to seeing how people weighed in this final week so that's a bit of a bummer.

If you like hard Science Fiction, I'm almost through The Martian and it's great!.

These guys nailed it.

I am at the end of a 60lb journey and it took me a full three years but that was because I would do all my losing in the first six months then work to maintain for six months then start again. I had other goals so I spent the second half of the year working on getting stronger and training for events. I tell you this just so you see that there are other successful options but not because I think my approach is necessarily better for you than theirs.

I do recommend allowing yourself to occasionally reset your graph. If you fall behind in your first month, you don't need that hanging over your head for eleven more months, maybe two. By contrast, if you have huge success and lose 10lbs your first month, maybe you want to adjust your start point for month three or four so you don't get too comfortable coasting.

here's my graph: