My Midlife Crisis

[Benjamin R. Greene]

This morning I was running late for court with a demanding judge, so I felt it better to run the last 400 meters from my parking spot to the courthouse rather than walk. I had to do it holding my (fairly empty) briefcase, but it was no sweat. I am impressed that my metcon cardio has improved to the point where it barely raised my breathing level to have to do that. Functional fitness, indeed.

I made it to the courtroom on time, by the way.

[Stephen R. Lampl]

Originally Posted by Benjamin R. Greene

This morning I was running late for court with a demanding judge, so I felt it better to run the last 400 meters from my parking spot to the courthouse rather than walk. I had to do it holding my (fairly empty) briefcase, but it was no sweat. I am impressed that my metcon cardio has improved to the point where it barely raised my breathing level to have to do that. Functional fitness, indeed.

I made it to the courtroom on time, by the way.

That is just awesome and amazing, Ben! It is so cool when you realize you are doing stuff you couldn't do as efficiently before, and you don't even really recognize it!

[Benjamin R. Greene]

I am taking my third day off in a row. I am just tired and don't feel like hitting it today. This weekend I will go at it hard.

[Benjamin R. Greene]

The act of writing in my log that I was going to take another day off motivated me to do something. So I did:

Ring dips, full ROM: 7, 3, 4

Day three of week two of the Recon Ron program

[Benjamin R. Greene]

I tried to add another day of Recon Ron, but my elbows were hurting and I thought it more prudent to skip it before I develop a chronic injury.

I did two 500 meter rowing sprints, with full rest in between. The first one was at 1:52, but I knew I had a little more, so I dug deep and did the second one in 1:44. A PR by 1 second.

That was the single hardest thing I have ever done since I started CrossFit. It took me approximately 5 minutes to get up off the floor. I had extreme forearm and leg pain, and my heart was about to rip itself out of my chest and run down the street. I was vomiting dry heaves. Half an hour after the workout, my heartrate was still elevated.

When I used to read about Kevin Johns doing 500 meter sprints in 1:35 or 1:32, I used to marvel and wonder. I still do.

[Benjamin R. Greene]

On 6-5-10, I tried to run a 5k and ended up walking about half of it. I finished it in 39 minutes. Today, I managed to jog an entire 5k in 34:53. On the plus side, this is the first long run I have been able to complete in forever. I would have liked a faster time, but I guess since this is a recent PR of about four minutes, I should get out the dancing pepper icon and celebrate.

My cardio was decent, but my feet and calves were killing me. I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers shoes, and boy, was that a mistake. Next time I am sticking with the regular shoes and saving myself some agony.

I always push myself very hard. I am happy that over the last two months my long distance cardio has improved. I always have to fight a sense of frustration that my performance is not better, but the goal of CrossFit is not specialized outstanding performance in any one area, but rather general functional fitness. By that measure, I am certainly improving, and improvement is the goal, not perfection.

[Benjamin R. Greene]

I have huge blisters on beeth of my feet from running in the VFF shoes, so today is not a running day.

Instead, I decided to make use of my home gym's equipment. I tried for new PRs at 165 in the push press and 205 in the clean and failed. But I was pretty close in both.

I did make new PRs in the full ROM ring dip of 8 and 50 lb dumbell presses of 12 reps and a new 500 row PR of 1:43!
Before I started CrossFit I could only do five reps of the 50lb dumbell presses. The 500 meter row personal record is a whopping 20 seconds faster than my first attempt on 5-19-10.

Overall, a great day. One of the nice things about CrossFit is it allows you to test yourself in a range of modalities which provides many opportunities for personal records.

If I feel better tomorrow I am going to try the "mile-KB-mile" triplet. I know I can get a new PR in that.

[Marcus Allen]

Strong work sir- allow me to present you with a PR dancing veggie!



keep up the good work!

[Benjamin R. Greene]

Thank you very much.

I took the day off on August 9th to recover. August 10th I tried to get a new PR of 11 on the pullup bar. I got to ten pretty easily, but I wasn't sure whether I got over the bar for number eleven or not, so I won't count it as a new PR. I then finished up by doing 6, 5, 5 for a total of 26.

Then I tested myself on the deadlift, which I haven't done in a while. I was only able to do one rep at 365, wherehas when I started CrossFit I could do three reps followed by two singles. Very disappointing. It just goes to show how hard CrossFit is. I have been concentrating on pullups, rings, metcons and long runs because those were my worst areas. I have therefore lost a little ground in powerlifting because I haven't been doing it. It is just really hard to concentrate on everything, all the time. And I haven't even touched a jump rope to try the dreaded double unders in forever.

Then I tested myself in kb swings. I did swings with a 54 lb kb for 1:50, full rest, then 1:35. I was really disappointed because I remembered doing them for a lot longer when I started CrossFit until I checked my log and realized that before I had been using a 35 lb kb. A big difference.

It just goes to show how important it is to keep accurate written records of your workouts. Memories fade and can easily be mistaken.

However, overall it was a very disappointing workout. I didn't accomplish my goals in any area.

I am very fortunate, however, that I have a gym at home. This week is going to be pretty crazy, and it make it very convenient for my to stay consistent with my workouts. I will not let failure or disappointment frustrate me. I just need to hit the globogym for a few weeks of back squats to work on my leg strength and I will regain the power in my legs I used to have. I will also keep focusing on upper body bodyweight exercises and running for the Marine competition on October 2nd.

[Benjamin R. Greene]

I started off by testing myself in the deadlift again to see if yesterday was an aberration. It wasn't. I failed at 365, then barely got it.

Since I work out at home mostly and I don't have a back squat rack, my legs have definitely lost power since I started doing CrossFit.

I was feeling exhausted and down from a long work day, so I decided to just work on the snatch, a lift I have never tried before. I did:

3x 95
2x115
3x135

I got them all, but the 135s I had to press out the final inch or two on the left. I quit because my arms and shoulders were exhausted, particularly my triceps. I know I am not strong enough to do "Isabell" as Rx'd.

I really had to force myself to do anything for a workout because I felt so tired, so for even trying something.