Ut oh, 1 more week

to go before the Tough Mudder. What did I get myself into. I'm already freaking out and it's 9 days away. I think training wise I've done just about as much as I can. Physically I'm ready, mentally, well, thats another story. The mental aspect of any workout is usually the most difficult to work thru. We all know that. Sometimes you'll see a WOD and think, shit, this is going to suck and it usually does. Sometimes you think, eh, that doesn't sound so bad, but it's much worse. I know this, any CrossFitter knows this. Looking at the tough mudder video and course map is scary. I'm pretty sure I can handle 90% of the obstacles. It's the other 10% I'm worried about. It's the crawling on my belly thru a tube filled with mud and water that frightens me the most. I'm claustrophobic, and like most people I'm afraid of drowning. I know I won't drown since I'm a pretty decent swimmer, in a pool with a bathing suit. In mud, fully clothed who knows what will happen. But I can't dwell on it. I'll look at it as a 'chipper'. Just take my time, go thru each obstacle and do the best I can. The mental part for me other than claustrophobia is the cold and wet. That will be my downfall. I'm always cold. And running in wet clothes and shoes is no fun. I did it a few weeks ago during one of our training runs. Like anything else, I dealt with it because I had to. So hopefully that mentality will pull me thru the race. We found out we take off at 8am, the first wave of teams. Looking at the bright side of being the first team, is maybe the water won't be as disgusting. I've heard terrible stories of all sorts of shit floating in the water. Maybe the obstacles won't be as caked with mud and there won't be too much of a bottleneck at the obstacles. That could work to my advantage or not. Waiting in line to complete an obstacle would give me a much needed rest, but if not that means we could get thru the 11 miles at a fairly decent pace. Bare with me, my control freak is trying to organize the day. Thats what I do, can't help it. I'll move on.

My 50,000 word novel is coming along. One of the reasons I haven't posted in 3 days. I'm up to 7 pages, almost 4,000 words. I have the story in my head and it's all I can think about. My problem is that I'm not a writer. I'm not sure what the correct format is at times. If only I can rough draft it then have an actual writer clean it up. The contest is more about just writing though, just using this opportunity to try something new and thats how I'm looking at it. I am a little shocked at how violent I can be at times. I've seen too many horror movies I guess.

The workouts have been decent this week. I'm a little sore today, thank god it's a rest day for me. My shoulder has been acting up a little more than usual for some reason so I need to take a real break today. Well, I'll do my pull ups, but I swear, thats it! For anyone who is struggling with unassisted pull ups, the Recon Ron pull up program seems to be working. I actually did 13 dead hang pull ups yesterday. First time I've ever done that. No, not 13 consecutive yet. The most I had to do in a row was 4. The rest I took a 30 second or so break in between sets. Feel good about it. Although I have to practice using the  overhand grip rather than 'underhand' which is easier for me. Bob said it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that I get full extension each time and I'm doing them every day. That alone will make me better.

So here we go.

Wednesday
warmup:
stretching/mobility
10 burpees
squats

CFSB w4/d4
Shoulder Press - deload
5x30, 40, 45#

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 5: 4-2-2-2-2

WOD (From CrossFit Phoenixville)
200m
3 thrusters (135/95) - 65#
200m
6 thrusters
200m
9 thrusters
200m
12 thrusters
200m
15 thrusters
*200m

14:22
*I did the last 200m by mistake.

Thursday
warmup:
stretching/mobility
squats

WOD (made up)
3 rounds for time:
10 dumbbell cleans - 20#
10 step ups - 17” 20#
10 renegade rows - 20#
6:57

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 6: 4-3-2-2-2

*Notes - Pull ups getting easier. Thruster wod was tough. Last 2 rounds of thrusters had to break up into 3-4 sets. Dumbbell wod was good. 20# was tough on the cleans for me but all unbroken. wanted to try the whole wod without putting the dumbbells down but couldn't do it. The knurling on the handles killed my hands, and it was cold in the garage. Hands were killing me. Body is a bit sore today, abs still hurt from the kte 4 days ago. Must be doing something right. 

Recipe: Found a good recipe the other day. Baked rigatoni w/brussle sprouts, figs and blue cheese. No, not paleo friendly but for those of us who eat a little pasta and cheese every so often, this is a good one. Two improvements I would make, add chopped bacon, pancetta or proscuitto (if you can afford the extra fat and sodium that day), and put the blue cheese on top instead of mixing it in the hot pot like he says. It melted too much. I think the chunks of blue cheese would work better. And cover the dish with foil if you top with cheese otherwise it will burn. Remove cover for the last 5-7 minutes or so just to get golden. It was really good last night, but next time it will be awesome. 

Have a good weekend.