some experiments i'm conducting

My close friends know I have a little habit of conducting experiments on myself, and less delightfully, upon them.   One memorable experiment was intended to be dinner, and instead resulted in a new form of plastic.  Luckily, they keep me around for reasons other than my culinary delights.   And yes, I'm absolutely dying to have a reason to try out one of my holiday gifts, so I can post a picture of it.   I promise, you will love it too.

Anyhoodle, I am presently conducting two three experiments to see where they take me.  They are:

1.  Get my ass back into CrossFit fighting shape

This starts with the process mentioned in yesterday's post re: dead butt syndrome rehab, but while I get that in order, I'm also thinking I should work on rebuilding my endurance/lungs.   The challenge is doing this without running, as it's actually a prime causal factor in DBS, and it's one of the things I least enjoy doing anyway.  I'm hoping that a few months of DBS rehab combined with endurance work, overlaid with skill work and heavy lifting as my body tolerates, will leave me in a place where I can start hitting WODs again regularly this spring.  By the end of 2012, I'd like to achieve the following goals:

• Back squat 200 vs 165 today...but 165 is with sub-optimal muscle usage (dead butt syndrome)
• Front squat 165 vs 135 today, ditto
• Deadlift 300+ (please GOD) vs 275 today, ditto
• Overhead squat: 125 vs 105 today, ditto
• Clean & Jerk: 150 vs. 135 today
• Bench: 150 vs 115 today
• I'd also like to get a muscle up, figure out how to string double unders, and get HSPU with full range of motion.
• Stop faffing around with losing that last 10#, and just fucking do it already.  The next 2.5 months will be pivotal in moving toward that goal, while I'm ramping up the cardio/rowing/endurance work, and staying off regular heavy lifting for now.  This is at least as much about performance gains as it is about aesthetics...doing pullups and HSPU gets easier with less body weight.  Am I going to pretend I don't want to see more ab muscles in the mirror?  Hell no.  I'd like it a whole lot--I'm not going to lie.   It's not the *only* thing though, and to be sure, as soon as I start going heavy with weights again, I'm going to gain muscle/pounds back.  I'm cool with muscles though--very damn cool.

This plan will push me further into the hole relative to WOD and strength performance for now--but it's the best I can come up with until this DBS thing is fixed.  As I'm fond of telling the people at the box about deadlifts, dropping weights to rehab bad form habits hurts the ego in the short term, but when you break through and start consistently nailing PRs again, the sting will abate.  Time to take my own advice.

2.  The "No Spend" Experiment

I'm presently "funemployed".   December 30th was the last day at my previous job, and now I'm taking some time to figure out what the next move should be.  Feel free to make suggestions!   But, in the interim, I've decided to roll back the spending and see how much I can take down my lifestyle.  To that end, I've instituted a "No Spend" experiment.  Short of essentials (food, etc), I will not make any unnecessary purchases for myself this year.   I'm not going into deprivation mode--I'll still visit my favorite sushi joint, for example--but I'm not going to buy a new shirt just because I want one.  If I don't strictly need something, it's staying in the store.  Since I didn't lead an extravagant lifestyle already, I think this will be an issue of mindfulness.

3.  The "Be On Time" Experiment

This one terrifies me, and I'm certain I just heard at least three people say "holy shit!" when they read this.  I have a near-lifelong issue with being on time.  I have heard every explanation for why I am late, and I honestly cannot tell you why this keeps happening.  I swear I do not think I'm more important than anyone else, which the most common reason I hear for chronic lateness.  I do think, to some extent, I'm guilty of being overly optimistic about how long things take, and I do try to cram 10# of life into a 5# bag, but no matter.  It's all excuses.  I'm going to try to fix it.  Starting now, through the end of March, if I am late for anything at all, I owe you a 15 burpee penalty whenever I finally get there.  I don't care if I'm wearing an evening gown.   I don't care if there was a major accident on the Sure-Kill Expressway.  I don't care if it was raining, snowing, hailing, or all three.   This is a zero tolerance policy.  I fucking hate burpees.  Let's see if I hate them enough to stop this insanity.

Am I really going to post this?  Fuckkkkkkkkkkkk yeah.