Wednesday Ramblings

I figured if Meg can do posts like this, then maybe I should try one! Disclaimer: mine probably aren’t going to be as funny/good as hers, but I’m going to give it a shot!

1. I need more sleep

This week has been rough. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about Daylight Savings Time, and I really don’t like complaining about it because it happens every year people! Get over it! But, for whatever reason, this year it has hit me harder and I’ve been playing catch-up on my sleep all week. It has resulted in me missing CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance (CFE) on Monday, and me skipping CrossFit and my CFE class today too! That has guaranteed that I’m not going to hit my March goal of 5 CrossFit classes and 2 CFE classes each week, as now I can only get to 4 CF and 1 (MAYBE 2) CFEs this week. But I don’t regret sleeping in – I have been dragging this week!

Stanley doesn’t like Daylight Savings Time either!

2. I might be getting sick

I never get sick. I have taken 1 sick day in over 4 years, and the last time I was seriously sick was right after we got engaged (foreshadowing?). But the last few days I have been feeling more nauseous, congested, and just groggy. I think it might have to do with my sleep issue, or maybe my sickness is causing me to feel more tired? Either way, I haven’t been feeling great lately, but I’m hoping I can fight it off before it actually knocks me out of commission.

The last time I was really sick – two days after I proposed to Meg!

3. I’m becoming a coffee snob

For a while I stopped drinking coffee during my Lurong Paleo challenge, but since then I’ve decided to reintroduce it to my diet in moderation. Unfortunately, I no longer drink the coffee at work. To be polite, the coffee at work tastes like medieval swill combined with laundry water. I used to drink it because I needed the caffeine, but now that I don’t need the caffeine I’ve become more of a coffee snob. I had a bunch of gift cards to Starbucks that have lasted me this far, but now that I’ve run out I’m in a quandary, because I don’t want to spend $2-3 a pop for a cup of coffee. So, today, I brought our french press to work, and I’m going to keep it here. Yes, I’m going to be that guy who brews coffee in his office using a french press. I’m not ok with this yet, but I’m also not ok with setting up a new savings account to get Starbucks on the mornings where I go to work from the gym (other mornings I just brew coffee at home first).

The french press on a filing cabinet in my office. Maybe I should turn the area into a coffee bar? Get some coffee mugs, coasters, napkins, etc.?

4. I love floor hockey

I’ve written before about my love of team sports, and in particular my floor hockey league, but I just have to reiterate how much fun it is. We started our new season two weeks ago, and I am the captain of one of the eight teams in the league. I’m really happy with how my team looks so far, and I truly believe we have the best chance I’ve had so far to win the championship (so far, in the 4 prior seasons, I have 2 playoff wins. I’m only marginally better than Tony Romo). But I don’t love floor hockey just because I have a good team – I play with such a great group of guys. For a small league run through a local YMCA, we have a lot of commitment to this league. I write a weekly column analyzing the teams and breaking down stats. Someone keeps stats every night. One of our league members owns his own photography business, and he did portraits of all of the players. Another guy is a graphic designer and designed our t-shirts and is creating customized team logos for playing cards. Another guy is a software developer and has created our own website (still under some construction). And lots of other guys spend their own personal time contributing to various aspects of the league. Is it silly how involved we are in floor hockey? Yes. But it also makes this league special, and something I truly look forward to.

My portrait this season, taken by Kurt Brownell (http://www.kurtbrownell.com/)

5. I can’t get enough team sports

See above. But seriously, in any given week I’m playing basketball twice a week, floor hockey once, and ultimate frisbee once. And I really want to try to get some pick up football games going again. I just love team sports. I have no idea why I’m so infatuated with them, but I honestly believe I would play them 7 days a week if I could. Even CrossFit workouts, when done as a team, are just more fun and interesting to me. Last Saturday I did a “partner WOD” where we were set up in teams of 2 to complete the workout. It happened to play to two of my strengths: kettlebell swings and rowing (the third component, sadly, was wall balls and I hated every second of that torture). My partner and I posted the best score of our class, and I am always more proud/more motivated when I’m working as a team than I am individually. Maybe that is why I hate running so much?

My team this season, the Redhawks! Taken by Kurt Brownell (http://www.kurtbrownell.com/)

6. I hate being humbled

I’ll be honest – I’ve been feeling pretty full of myself lately with my athletic accomplishments. Between playing ultimate and actually being decent, to finishing toward the top of my class a few times at CrossFit, I’ve been feeling a little cocky. The beginning of the CrossFit Open should have humbled me a little, but I turned it into an opportunity to gloat about how far I’ve come. Well, yesterday morning was a cruel reminder that I’m not as awesome as I thought I was. The funny thing about CrossFit is that it has the incredible ability to either make you feel good about yourself (like when you PR) or to completely crush you into the ground. Yesterday’s workout had 3 movements, 2 of which I’m terrible at: box jumps and thrusters. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good workout for me, and I was absolutely gassed at the end of it, and still had one of the lowest scores. Then I went to play basketball afterward, and had more turnovers than points. By a lot. It is good to be reminded that I’m not the best thing since bottled beer, but it is still a painful lesson.

I don’t think I was the only one humbled by the WOD yesterday, it was “Rahoi” – a hero WOD. (Photo by Aaron Smykowski at FCCF http://www.flowercitycrossfit.com)

7. I really don’t understand protein powder

I understand the benefits – and I’m big on using it now because I’ve noticed that my recovery is much better when I have protein immediately following a workout. But there are so many different choices! There’s whey and soy, there’s isolate, casein, blends, combinations, and words that are really long that I can’t pronounce. There are a million different brands, all claiming to be the best. And it seems like everybody I talk to swears by the powder that they use – but they’re all different! I just don’t know which ones to trust, which ones are good and which are bad, or if it really doesn’t matter at all. I know Progenex is often the CrossFit protein supplement of choice, but at almost twice as expensive as alternatives, it’s hard for me to justify buying that brand. It’s frustrating for me that I don’t know if I’m using the right supplement, and we’re in the midst of switching again (I just bought a new one that I think is making me feel more bloated!) Any advice out there?

Those are my Wednesday Ramblings. Not bad for my first one probably, but still not as good as Meg’s!

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Great Start to the Week

Meg and I decided that our new Monday routine would be to go to the 5am WOD together and then be able to relax and eat breakfast together before we start our work week. This sounded like a great idea to me, but I did not want to get out of bed this morning! I had a rough night’s sleep, complete with some wacky dreams, and when the alarm clock went off at 4am I did NOT want to get up. Luckily Meg was going to CrossFit with me this morning, so the accountability of her actually getting out of bed, and her resisting my pleas to stay in bed, ended up forcing me out.

Today’s WOD was one of the benchmark WODs from the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge, and I really wanted to improve my time on this, especially due to my recent failure. The WOD this morning was “Christine,” and previously it took me 17:27 to complete it. Christine is 3 rounds of: 500 meter row, 12 bodyweight deadlifts, and 21 box jumps (24″ box).

I ended up posting a 15:01 this morning, an improvement of 2:26, or a 14% reduction in time! Some of you may have already seen this on Facebook, but there was a funny story behind my time this morning. On my last round of box jumps, with maybe 3 or 4 jumps left to finish the WOD, I rushed my jump, trying to get it over a 2.5 minute improvement. I basically didn’t jump high enough and therefore I missed the box and landed with my left shin on the corner of the box. It hurt quite a bit, and it caused me to unleash a series of profanities. After I composed myself I finished my last few box jumps and still ended up beating my time. Afterward I grabbed an ice pack and was looking at my new wound when Meg came up to me and said something along the lines of “I’m glad that you hurt yourself, because I was worried that you were swearing because you didn’t beat your time.”

Yes, it was actually a preferable outcome that I was hurt and not that I didn’t beat my time. Granted, a bruised/cut shin is a small price to pay, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have said the same thing if I was seriously injured. I still found it funny how both of our mindsets have changed. I don’t think that would be a normal thing she would say to me, but during this challenge these improvement scores have been extremely important to me.

Speaking of shins, I pretty much bang my shins at least once every single time there are box jumps in the WOD. Ironically enough I had just picked off the scab on my right shin from a few weeks ago when one of my burpee box jumps had gone awry.

Right shin – almost healed

Left shin – brand new!

I joked to one of the trainers that I’m going to start wearing shin guards during WODs with box jumps. Now I’m not quite sure that’s such a bad idea. . .

I had another angry workout today. It wasn’t just being WOD drunk angry, but I was actually angry while working out. Do you ever get like that? Where it’s a good workout, you’re beating your goals or your time, but for some reason you’re just angry. That was me this morning, and it made for a funny ride in the car back to the house. I was excited and happy about getting a good improvement in my time, but I was also still in my angry mood. Needless to say it was some interesting road rage and conversation on the way home.

My great start to my week only continued as I mixed up some green protein smoothies for Meg and I. These green protein smoothies are amazing, I think Meg got the original green smoothie idea from our friend Traci, and all we did was add some protein powder to them.

My favorite combination is:

• A couple handfuls of kale
• 1-2 cups of vanilla unsweetened almond milk (whatever ends up giving you the consistency you like). We’ve also just used water instead.
• 1-2 scoops of vanilla protein powder (I like something very low in sugar, you get all the sweetness and flavor you need from the rest of the smoothie)
• A handful of frozen strawberries

It tastes like a strawberry-vanilla milkshake!

We got ready for work and then we made some scrambled eggs with spinach, tomato, peppers, and onions, and washed it down with some delicious Godiva (paleo-friendly) coffee. We were able to enjoy our breakfast together before we set off for work for the week. I absolutely love our new Monday tradition of working out together at the 5am so we have enough time to spend quality time together afterward. I really feel like it puts me in a good spot emotionally and mentally to start my week. No “case of the Mondays” for me today!

Is there something you can change in your routine to make you actually look forward to Mondays? Why don’t you try it out this week?

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