November 29 2011
Started the morning WODs for my triathlon training. The hardest part about this is not the workout but getting up in the morning. I have had to adjust my sleep schedule for this. My body will not fall asleep anytime before 10 and having to get up at 5:30 leaves me with little time to rest. I think over time as my body tires and adjusts to the new schedule I will be able to start sleeping at 9.
As I was planning my future morning WODs (MWOD from now on), it occurred to me that I am actually spending less time training. With no more than 20 minutes of MWOD and maybe on average 30 minutes of evening WODs (EWOD) I'm probably training no more than an hour. That is half of what I used to do when I trained for the Ironman, where I was putting in at least 2 hours a day. After a few weeks I will evaluate how much time I spend and see how it compares with my previous training.
December 12 2011
Here is how I feel so far. Morning workouts are hard. Really really hard. Peeling myself out from bed at 5 am and going to the gym is not the first thing I look forward to every morning. I'm at 60% of my capability that early in the morning. Normally the weights have to be scaled down by that much. My cardio is still good though, it gets going after a good 5/10 minutes warmup. BUT, I have felt stronger since I first started this 2-a-day workouts. I'm being optimistic that my body will start getting used to these early workouts.
Now to the how I look part. While I can't deny that my main goal here is to get stronger, the narcissistic part of me also notices that my body has changed. Not just from this 2-a-day workouts, but just starting Crossfit and shying away from high volume low intensity workouts. I went from the fat little kid in school, to the pudgy collegiate who discovered the "Freshman 20 (instead of 15)" the hard way, to the skinny triathlete. Since I started Crossfit and weight training I have shed my body fat down to about 10%. The muscles in my arms are getting more defined and my abs are showing. I used to think that abs are only for those who are genetically gifted but I have proved to myself and hopefully anyone reading this that you can have abs. They are just hiding behind that layer of fat. While the chiseled physique is nice to have, I think muscles play a far more important role. Even for female athletes. Muscles help protect our bodies, its our natural body armor. When I fell from the mountaintop back in September I should have broken my ribs, arms and legs. But I truly believed that muscles help minimized my injuries. Vanity reasons aside, muscles, specifically the core, help prevent injuries. I feel healthier and stronger. Now my next secret goal is an 8 pack.
January 6 2012
Coming back from a back injury, I've been laying off on the strength stuff. But doing a few workouts, I realized that I need to get stronger. Its not that I know it, but the more WODs I do with the other guys it is so apparent that my weakness is my strength. Being smaller and lighter definitely do not help but I don't need excuses. In addition to that the morning WODs are not helping me the way I need it. Firstly I can't workout in the mornings and I always need to scale down. Scaling down the weights don't help my strength gains. While it will help my overall conditioning, I need to get stronger not my endurance.
So I will pick a good date to start Wendler's strength program. It is a little different from Rippetoe's. The jist is still the same since I am doing the same type of lifts. The only difference will be the reps and way I schedule it in.
Here is generally what Wendler's 5/3/1 program looks like. I start a 4 weeks cycle assuming I include 4 days of strength in a week. I will only do one major lift a day with the reps and percentages shown below. I have also included my current 1RM and 5RM numbers. Hopefully those numbers will go up after 1 or 2 Wendler cycles.
Calculating all my numbers here is my first week of Wendler's:
December 12 2011
Here is how I feel so far. Morning workouts are hard. Really really hard. Peeling myself out from bed at 5 am and going to the gym is not the first thing I look forward to every morning. I'm at 60% of my capability that early in the morning. Normally the weights have to be scaled down by that much. My cardio is still good though, it gets going after a good 5/10 minutes warmup. BUT, I have felt stronger since I first started this 2-a-day workouts. I'm being optimistic that my body will start getting used to these early workouts.
Now to the how I look part. While I can't deny that my main goal here is to get stronger, the narcissistic part of me also notices that my body has changed. Not just from this 2-a-day workouts, but just starting Crossfit and shying away from high volume low intensity workouts. I went from the fat little kid in school, to the pudgy collegiate who discovered the "Freshman 20 (instead of 15)" the hard way, to the skinny triathlete. Since I started Crossfit and weight training I have shed my body fat down to about 10%. The muscles in my arms are getting more defined and my abs are showing. I used to think that abs are only for those who are genetically gifted but I have proved to myself and hopefully anyone reading this that you can have abs. They are just hiding behind that layer of fat. While the chiseled physique is nice to have, I think muscles play a far more important role. Even for female athletes. Muscles help protect our bodies, its our natural body armor. When I fell from the mountaintop back in September I should have broken my ribs, arms and legs. But I truly believed that muscles help minimized my injuries. Vanity reasons aside, muscles, specifically the core, help prevent injuries. I feel healthier and stronger. Now my next secret goal is an 8 pack.
January 6 2012
Coming back from a back injury, I've been laying off on the strength stuff. But doing a few workouts, I realized that I need to get stronger. Its not that I know it, but the more WODs I do with the other guys it is so apparent that my weakness is my strength. Being smaller and lighter definitely do not help but I don't need excuses. In addition to that the morning WODs are not helping me the way I need it. Firstly I can't workout in the mornings and I always need to scale down. Scaling down the weights don't help my strength gains. While it will help my overall conditioning, I need to get stronger not my endurance.
So I will pick a good date to start Wendler's strength program. It is a little different from Rippetoe's. The jist is still the same since I am doing the same type of lifts. The only difference will be the reps and way I schedule it in.
Here is generally what Wendler's 5/3/1 program looks like. I start a 4 weeks cycle assuming I include 4 days of strength in a week. I will only do one major lift a day with the reps and percentages shown below. I have also included my current 1RM and 5RM numbers. Hopefully those numbers will go up after 1 or 2 Wendler cycles.
Calculating all my numbers here is my first week of Wendler's:
