Off Day / Travel Day

Well, at the airport now waiting to board a flight out to Arizona to hang with Lindsey for a few days.  Along with that, I have been able to confirm visits to to CrossFit affiliates out there and I am excited to meet some more CrossFitters and get some good workouts in.  And even better: Lindsey and I are planning a fun little escape out to the wild for a long hike and workout the way nature intended, no bars, no dumbbells, no kettebells, nothing like that.  Just rocks, cactus, trees (though trees will be spars out in desert Arizona), crazy terrain and anything else we can scrounge up as we wander around.

Yesterday was an interesting experience.  I got some structured deadlift support work in.  This means I put a two supersets together, one of cable pull throughs and hip thrusts, and one of RDL's and rollouts.  The goal was to work on better recruitment of the posterior chain and work on strengthening my core muscles.  I worked specific rep and rest counts and honestly, the RDL's felt like they helped the most.  I was able to really focus on keeping proper arch in the lumbar spine, keep my shoulders set, and most of all, to really get my glutes involved in the movement.  Getting 245# for 6 felt so strong and excited me for my next deadlift session.

I then got some 5x5's, with incline DB chest press and weighted pull ups.  I was able to get all five rounds of chest presses comfortably with 85# and started with 45# additional weight on the pulls but had to decrease the weight to 40# on the 3rd set and 35# for the ast two.  I then had to wait an hour for my "short" metcon (thanks to my poor planning on getting started with the workout before my clients came in).  The challenge: 3 ronds of 10 muscle ups, each timed, with 2 minutes rest between sets.  And all hell broke loose.

I expected it to be a little rough seeing how I am no muscle up expert, but seriously, I got two straight right off the bat, then missed 7!  After 18 minutes had elapsed I finally finished the first 10, wrists ripped wide open and my emotions overwhelming.  It was so frustrating to just not be able to do something that you would expect to be able to do.  I know it's a stretch, but it's like deciding you want to jog all of a sudden and every time you attempt to, you just fall over.  You keep trying and trying, and maybe get a step or two into it, maybe even string together five or six steps.  But ultimately, you just can not do it.  I hadn't felt that frustrated or demoralized since I got smoked by Fenty and crew on the bike, and when I gave up a walk off home run at the end of my second season of pro ball.  There is just nothing you can do in those situations, you are stuck, blocked out completely from success and it happens right in front of your eyes.  Pretty annoying all around.

So, today, I'm away from the gym, breathing it all in, enjoying the journey to a new place and the excitement of seeing my girl.  In retrospect, it truly is a great experience to put everything you have into something and fail.  It keeps you grounded, keeps you wanting more and sparks something new deep inside the body to make the proper adjustments and push on.  So, I can not wait until I get to workout again.  Overcome my own physical and mental blocks and just, get, better.



Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage