For some reason, my CrossFit trainer (Jordan Holland) decided that I merited inclusion in a select group of eight nominees for our gym’s “member of the year” competition. Given the other seven people, I’m tremendously honored. This is a video interview Jordan put together; there’s also a website for the competition, including Jordan’s flattering (if hyperbolic) comments and my own written testimonial. 

Something very tasty I ate somewhere, something like six months ago. I think it was a buffalo burger (sans bun and cheese) with sweet potato fries at the restaurant that used to be called Table 219. 

PUSH:
  Level I: 10 push ups
  Level II: 30 push ups, bench press 1 x bodyweight 

Ten push-ups is easy. 

I think I could do thirty. Let’s see. (Imagine sounds of grunting).

Okay, I can’t do thirty unbroken. I can do twenty-three. So, close. I’ll work on it.

Bench press I have no idea about. I haven’t done a bench press in more than a decade; we do them rarely at my CrossFit gym and I always seem to miss them.

  Level I: press 1/4 bodyweight
  Level II: press 1/2 bodyweight, 1 minute handstand hold 

My last 1RM press was 54 kilos, well above the 43 needed for half my bodyweight. 

Handstand hold … I can’t kick up into a handstand reliably. The first time I seriously tried, I fell and dislocated my right pinkie (as it, it was bent about 30° outward at the first joint). So that’s limited my handstanding confidence. I can do a walkup, buit I don’t know about a 60 second hold.

  Level I: 3 dips (parallel bars)
  Level II: 20 dips, 1 dip with 1/3 bodyweight 

Again we run into the quirks of my gym … for us “dips” means always and only “ring dips”. I’m pretty sure I could knock out more than three and less than twenty dips on bars. One dip with 29 kilos seems … I don’t know. Maybe doable? 

Conclusion

Many unknowns here, but in general I think I’m a ways away from Level II. Assuming I can do a bodyweight bench press (that’s a big assumption), I still need to work on stamina for hitting the high-rep pushups and dips. 

So. The CrossFit Athletic Skill Levels. My goal was to hit Level II by the end of the year. 67 days to go, and I’d say that’s not likely to happen. But let’s review where I’m at!

The Skill Levels are broken down into six categories, each with three or four functional movement classes that increase in difficulty or performance level as the levels increase. They are Hips, Push, Pull, Core, Work and Speed, and I’ll go through each in turn over the next few days. For reference, since many of the weights are measured as a function of bodyweight, I’m currently at 86.5 kilos (190 pounds and change).

HIPS
  Level I:  50 air squats (unbroken)
  Level II: 100 air squats, back squat 1x bodyweight.

I think I’m in good shape here; I’ve done 100 unbroken squats as part of “Angie” (100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats), and I’ve done 80 kilo back squats for multiple reps. I haven’t done a heavy single on back squats in many months, so I don’t technically know for sure that I can back squat 86 kilos, but I’d be very surprised if I couldn’t.

  Level I: Deadlift 3/4 bodyweight
  Level II: Deadlift 1 1/2 bodyweight

My latest 1RM deadlift was 145 kilos, which is 1.68 times my bodyweight, so I’m well past Level II here.

  Level I: Vertical Jump 10”
  Level II: Vertical Jump 18”

I actually have no idea; this isn’t something we regularly measure. The closest we’ve come is (I guess) single-leg box jumps, which don’t allow for much lifting of the legs; I can do 17 or 18”, and that’s jumping with a single leg. Optimistically I have this, but realistically I’m probably a few inches short. 

Conclusion:

For Hips I’m in good shape; I may have to work on my vertical jump, but aside from that I’m likely at Level II for all movements here. This will not be typical of the other five categories, I predict.

So it’s been a while, and I have some catching up to do.

I’ve been busy, of course; I’ve changed jobs, which led to me being out of town for a week, yadda yadda yadda.

Big changes on the exercise-and-eating-right front. To wit: I now do CrossFit five days a week. I ride my bike twelve miles a day to and from work. I get fed breakfast and lunch at work, and for the most part it’s paleo-friendly. I’m smaller that I’ve been in years, and stronger, fitter, and faster than I’ve ever been. 

More details to come. I don’t think I’ll keep up with the daily flood of food pics, though.

Lunch, day 89.

Leftover jerk chicken and Danish squash, with a pile of Chinese broccoli, and a whole avocado. 

Breakfast, day 89.

I skipped breakfast before CrossFit this morning for the first time.

Naturally, we did Fight Gone Bad. 

So I left the gym feeling pretty goddamn hungry. My initial plan was to go into pone of the nicer hotels nearby and partake of their breakfast menu, but there was a by-the-pound breakfast place that had some decent-lloking stuff. 

Thus: Cajun egg scramble (with little bits of andouille), bacon, eggs baked in ham cups with cheery tomatoes and pesto (will totally try that at home), broccoli, peppers, onion, a small sausage, some walnuts, and three melon pieces.

Verdict: Eh. Hard to do good egg dishes that don’t fall apart in some way (too dry, too soggy, bad texture) under a heat lamp.

But: I’m totally into the workout-then-eat business. It also means I can sleep nearly an hour later! 

I’ve been reading various Paleo books, including (of course) Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution. He recommends, for those interested in weight loss in particular, exercising in the morning (which I do), and on an empty stomach. Now, I’ve been (up to now) trying to cleave to Tim Ferriss’ advice to get protein into your body shortly after waking up. Clearly I can’t do both, so for the next few weeks (if not longer) I’m going to try running and CrossFit on an empty stomach, then eating breakfast afterwards.

(It helps that in a few weeks I start a new job that provides free meals including breakfast, so my plan will be to bike/walk to CrossFit, work out, bike/bus to work, then eat. I hope I won’t immediately need a nap).

Anyhow, I ran this morning on an empty stomach. Felt fine. Four hours after eating breakfast, I’m pretty hungry again. Hopefully this means I’m actually using the food I ate for muscles and other good stuff.

The run was good. Really good, for the most part; I kept well under 10:00 pace for most of it, and it was really only a long hill that slowed me down. That and futzing with my phone to skip a track in my playlist that was too slow (which ended up shuffling through my whole library). But I beat my previous best time on the same 9KM route by 2:50, and my overall pace was 49 seconds/mile faster. 

(Yes, I’m mixing metric and imperial. Sorry.)

Breakfast, day 88

Shitty picture, tasty food. Took some steak trimmings (with tasty fat) from the beef I used for last night’s curry, fried ‘em up in a pan with some fancy mushrooms and a sliced tomato, added a couple of eggs and a kimchi chaser. 

(The beef was pasture-fed, so I don’t feel too bad about eating the fat).

Dinner, day 86

Slow-cooked jerk chicken (nummy! Thanks, sweetie!), Danish squash.