Realizing Limitations
One thing I'm being forced to realize in programming for myself and in selection of my weights, is that I am not a super-human (yet). This is frustrating and humbling. My original goals of strength + metcon workouts back to back, every day, 5-6 days a week might be a goal I should strive for, but implementing that as reality in my current state is unrealistic and a tad arrogant.
Today I successfully combined a strength + metcon training session, but in doing so I had to scale back both of them. Could I have snatched and clean & jerked more? Yes. Would I still have been able to do the metcon? No. Could I have done a "harder" metcon? Yes, but not after a strength training session.
Rich Froning, Dan Bailey, or Mark Bledsoe might be able to train three times a day and combine some serious strength training with some serious metconning, but I, sadly, cannot. I have to realize that and be realistic about expectations I can put on my body, taking into consideration: 1) my current state of training, 2) work demands, and 3) family demands. If I were more "in shape," worked less, and was willing to spend more time away from my family, then perhaps I could indeed push myself similar to elite athletes. Perhaps even if I just worked less and was in better shape, I could still increase my training demands without sacrificing family life (Rich Froning seems to do this just fine).
But ... I'm not an elite athlete, and I cannot think of myself that way when I program my training sessions.
Today's workout is a case in point: Originally, I wanted to train strength 10x3 with snatches and 10x2 with power clean and jerks, followed by my metcon triad with 30 reps of each using 135lbs. I quickly realized 135lbs was way too much, so I decided on 95lbs. As I was power clean and jerking, I quickly realized that push pressing/jerking 95lbs for 30 reps was beyond my strength-stamina conditioning, even if my heart and lungs could keep up with it.
So I cut the reps in half. And, as you can see, I couldn't even do straight sets of 15 reps all the across.
As I continue to learn my limitations, I can build a strength and conditioning base, and then I can expand my limitations to do then what I can't do now. But if I constantly am over-reaching I will end up exhausted, injured, frustrated, and disillusioned. I might even blame it on "metcons don't work for me," or "I can't train that way without X or Y." But the cold hard reality is that I am an average human with a small base of strength and conditioning.
Enter Baby-steps
This is, in CrossFit terms, called scaling. I like baby-steps. It makes me think of a hilarious movie called What About Bob? (1999) with Bill Murray, but it also very easily illustrates my idea. Small goals, achieved over time, will result in larger goals being achieved.
To say I want to lose 20lbs is a big goal, and one that won't happen overnight. If every time I get on the scale and get depressed that I haven't lost 20lbs yet, is that realistic? Or even helpful? No. Losing 20lbs is a great goal, but its a big goal for me - right up there with squatting 315lbs, or snatching 135lbs. Every time I squat I cannot expect to squat 315lbs and become frustrated or disappointed. That's unrealistic.
More realistic is to say "hey, I'm going to lose 1lb this week." At the end of the week - did you? Didn't you? If not, you reasses: ask, why not? Maybe you ate too many Snickers, or the night before you weighed yourself you went to Olive Garden and ate a bowl of salad, a basket of breadsticks, the entire chicken alfredo entree, and then had some tiramisu afterwards.
Setting small goals lets you build the psychology of success. You lose that pound, or add 5lbs to your squat, and it reinforces that you CAN do whatever you set out to do. If I'm 225lbs, and next week I'm 224lbs, and the week after that I'm 223lbs, am I failing at my quest for a leaner, healthier self? Not at all. But if I want to lose 10lbs this week and half-starve myself, and then after the week is over I binge on pasta and bread and gain 12lbs, what have I accomplished? Nothing.
All this rambling to say: Baby-steps are sustainable and reinforce good (or appropriate) behavior. Big goals are good to have, but set small, short-term, attainable goals for yourself. My ultimate goal is to perform my triad (I'm naming it "Blazin" in honor of my good friend in the USMC who's won 5 purple hearts and is currently in the hospital) with 135lbs and 30 reps of each. My baby step goals: 15 straight reps of each at 95lbs, 30 straight reps at 95lbs, 30 straight reps at 115lbs, and finally 30 straight reps at 135lbs. To accomplish this could take me a year, two years, or even longer.
For me, I have to break things into bite-size chunks. And speaking of bite-size ... Its time to eat! But first, here's today's annotated training session:
9.4.13
Today's workout was fairly barebones - snatch, (power) clean and jerk, and then a triad: front squat, push press, romanian deadlift (RDL).
The Workout
Warm-up:
Overhead Squat: 45lbs 3x5
- this is essentially part of my snatch warm up. My snatching weakness is catching it in a full squat. I have very poor strength in the bottom of the overhead squat position. You could say my whole snatch is weak (you'd be right), but I can power snatch usually about twice what I can full snatch simply because I can't come out of the bottom.
- the first set felt hard, heavy, and uncomfortable. Sets 2 and 3 were easy, smooth, and very groovy.
Power Snatch 45lbs 3x5
- part 2 of my warm-up.
Strength:
Snatch: 45lbs x3, 65lbs x3, 3, 2, 3
- Second rep of second set with 65lbs was crap. First rep third set with 65lbs was crap, and I lost the third rep in the bottom. My catch form was way off - feet too wide, knees caved in - and I dropped the bar in front of me. Set 4 with 65lbs was iffy all around - not crisp technique, a lot of wobble in the bottom position. I called it after that set due to form breaking down.
Power Clean and Jerk: 65lbs x2, 2, 95lbs x2, 2, 115lbs x2, 2
- Might not be getting full hip extension with 115lbs.
- Power clean (instead of full clean) so my legs can get a break.
- 115lbs felt heavy. Form was OK (minus potentially not fully extending my hip), but after set 2 with 115lbs I felt it'd be best to not increase weight or continue my sets as my form breaking down was likely.
Metcon:
Front squat, Push Press/Jerk, RDL - 15 reps of each with 95lbs, for time.
Reps: 10, 5 / 10, 5 / 15
Time: 4:07:39
- Originally I had thought of doing 30 reps of each with 95lbs, but then I realized there was no way I could push press/jerk that without slowing the metcon too much. Front squat and push press were broken into 2 sets (10 and 5), more due to aerobic limitations and not strength limitations.
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