CrossFit is having an impact. I nailed a CrossFit workout on 6 of the 7 days of this past week. I kicked it off with the Dark Horse CrossFit group on Sunday hit four in a row on Wednesday.
On Thursday, recovery from Diarrhea and my evening attempt to get out of jury duty caused me to miss both the 4:30pm and 5:30pm classes. I did an old-fashioned bike/elliptical workout for 45 minutes, netting 617 kcal, so Thursday was not a day of rest.
I went straight back to work on Friday 5:30pm, nailing my best workout of the week. I was back in the gym 14 hours later for the 9:30am class this morning. Unfortunately, today's workout was the worst of the week. My own personal jump rope snapped on the first exercise of the "Buy-In" phase. This was an ill-omen. In the workout phase, we attempted to perform hand-stand push-ups. This advanced calisthenic was categorically out of the question. It killed my right shoulder. I might need Dr. Bachner to O-Scope my shoulder before I can do a workout like that.
Easy come, easy go. You win some and you lose some. This morning's travesty was one bad workout among many good ones.
The upshot is complicated:
- I am working out a lot less than in past months. The clock-time of the WOD seldom exceeds 20 minutes, and is often less.
- The intensity of that workout is vastly higher than in past months. A typical WOD is more intense than even a full-cycle ROM workout. If you work hard at it, you will be out of gas by the end of those 20 minutes.
- I spend a lot more time in recovery than working out. I need to spend time cooling off, stretching, warming up, on the roller, in a hot shower, in the sauna, getting a foot massage, etc.
- I was forced to begin a second cycle of LG Sciences Trifecta stack. This is a prohormone stack that is the next best thing to illegal steroids. It should be noted that Trifecta is totally legal and over-the-counter at your local Vitamin Shoppe. It works almost as well as Dianabol, according to some experts I know. Pink Magic wasn't cutting the mustard. It just wasn't possible to recover between workouts, and sustain the intensity of CrossFit without Trifecta. I really appreciate what Trifecta did for me last summer now.
- Even with Trifecta, the aches and pains are rife. No pain no gain. Usually, where there is pain, there is gain. I must be doing something right. I am absolutely improving in all of the different exercises, especially the 200 meter and 400 meter sprints.
- The girlies are checking me out in the CrossFit gym. I caught two of them examining me as I was doing pull-ups the other day. Pull-ups really show my wing-span. Both of these girls looked away with a degree of embarrassing when I caught them. There were big glowing smiles on their faces prior to that moment.
- This morning, the ambient air temperature here in Woodland Hills/Canoga Park was around 50 degrees. I felt the cold very sharply. In fact, I felt it all night long. I now lack the insulating fat layer that used to protect me from such mild cold weather. This reminds me of my time in Europe, immediately after Army Basic and AIT. After dropping to 192 pounds, I found myself in Mannheim West Germany (when there was a West Germany) right around the time when the weather began turning cold. That first winter in Germany almost killed me. You take a California kid, strip him of his protective fat layer, station him in the snow, and I guarantee you he will freeze.
I hesitate to even mention this, but the guys at work decided to roll out the Halloween video from 2010, and they were showing it yesterday. The court room was dark this Friday, so I was back at work for a single day. This video captured me in all my glory at 330 pounds. That was more than 140 pounds ago.
A certain Pisces dude named Eric (3/12/1981) decided to show me the video on his iPhone. Just as many have commented, he said I am now unrecognizable. Although I have known Eric for some four years now, he mentioned that it is hard to believe I was ever that large.
Looking at the video sent cold chills down my spine, and made my hair stand on end. How did I ever live and survive at that weight? I don't know how I was able to move around at all and carry that weight on my bad knee. No wonder I can run now.
Someday, after taking some high def video of me performing a CrossFit WOD, I may put that Halloween video up for display here. I'll put it side-by-side with the CrossFit video so you can get a before and after look. You will find it shocking, I am sure.
