Monday, Dec 31st

Happy New Years Eve!

Right now is a convenient time for me to set out some dietary plans and workout goals not only because of the new year, but because crossfit competition season begins soon (sign up for the Opens is Feb 3rd I believe)!

Here's what I've got in mind for myself for the 2013 Opens Season as far as making sure my diet is on point. I want to follow this progressively, so that I'm not on hardcore lockdown for an entire 4-5months, but each month's restrictions will flow into the next (with the exception of the low carb cycle).

January - No grains or refined sugars. Dark chocolate or honey in small quantities, but not after dinner as I have noticed a tendency for my sleep to be affected if I eat them in the evening.
February - 4 week low carb cycle to gain lean muscle mass, alcohol limited to 1 social beverage in an evening (important to finish this before the opens start, and before my PE study class starts Feb 25th)***
March - No alcohol
April - No dairy or sugars of any kind (with the exception of a slice of homemade cheesecake on my birthday!)
May - No coffee/caffeine leading into Regionals

***For the low carb cycle, I plan on reading The Ultimate Diet 2.0 beforehand. I have done this cycle twice. The first time it didn't work well (mostly due to life stresses I think) and the second time it worked great. The idea is to lean out the first two weeks and then add more lean muscle the second two weeks. However since I was working with a coach the first couple of times I tried this and now I'm not, I want to make sure I'm on the right track and maybe do some fine tuning. I have also learned from experience that my brain does not operate at peak capacity during one of these cycles, and since I'm also taking on another round with my Professional Engineering test on April 12th, I need to get this out of the way before the intense studying begins.

As for my workout/ability goals...I don't expect all of these to come before Regionals. Some of these will be longer term:

• Consecutive Muscle Ups (3 in a row - currently can only do 1 at a time)
• Strict HSPUs (5 unbroken - right now can't even do 1 but have done them before)
• Improve Snatch Technique (which I believe will lead to snatching bigger weights - specific numbers goal is #135, currently sitting at #118)
• Improve speed in light-moderate weight chippers, esp the 12-20min range and esp AMRAPs (Good tester - Opens WOD 12.3 - 288reps)
• Squat Clean 200lbs (currently sitting at #175)
• Run a 5k in sub 25min (current best is ~27mins)
• 85% Squat Test - 7reps or better (current best is 4 reps)
• Improve double unders - would like to be doing sets of 50 unbroken regularly and be able to complete the Aviator(?) wod

So that's that...and now on to today's workout!

A. Snatch grip deadlift x4/Power snatch x3/Hang power snatch x2; rest 2 min x6 complexes

B1. Weighted back extensions 10-12x5; rest 60 seconds

B2. Seated neutral grip DB shoulder press 10-12x5; rest 60 seconds

C1. Good mornings @33x1 6-8x5; rest 1 min

C2. Ring push ups 22 for time x5; rest 1 min

A. #53, #73, #73, #73, #73, #83
B1. #20, #30, #40, #40, #40 (all x 12)
B2. #25's, #27.5's, #30's (10), #30's(10), #30's(5) then finished the last 5 reps with #25's
C1. did all #45 bar x 8 reps. Back is still pretty tight from deadlifting over the weekend so I took this more as a mobility drill. They were still tough...
C2. 1:27, 2:01, 2:01, 1:58, 2:21

I worked really hard on not letting my hips rise too fast on the snatch complexes and the consensus is - I did better! Though, i had to think really hard about it. Hopefully a good few weeks of thinking really hard turns it into something more natural.