J.T. Kalnay's Blog, page 2

#10 Becomes #42, First African American Drafted #1 in Women’s Hockey

 

News reports compare Blake Bolden to Jackie Robinson since Blake is the first-ever African American selected in the first round of the CWHL Draft.  Being from Cleveland, perhaps Blake ought to be likened to Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians.  Having met Blake, it is hard to imagine her being compared to anyone, she is unique and outstanding in her own way.  Regardless of the comparison to be made, Stow Ohio’s Blake Bolden was drafted #1 by the Boston Blades of the CWHL.  Congratulations Blake.

Here is a link to the story about her being drafted, and her appearances on the US National Junior Team.

http://allowhertoplay.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/blake-bolden-emerges-as-the-jackie-robinson-of-the-cwhl-draft/

Here is a link to her player profile at Boston College, including a description of her Second Team All-American status.

http://www.bceagles.com/sports/w-hockey/mtt/blake_bolden_481965.html

Best of luck in the CWHL Blake.  We will all be cheering for you!

Dear CrossFit, Digging Metcon Holes With Goats

Today was a goat day.  We all have goats.  We can choose to ignore them, and then be humbled when they appear in a WOD, or we can choose to address them, over days, weeks, months, years, until we tame them.

“Digging Metcon Holes With Goats” is the generic name for a WOD where you pick two or three of your goats and build a couplet or triplet.  For example, today I did 5 rounds of 10×24″ box ups and 10xT2B.  Then, after the metcon, I worked on HSPU and rope climbing.  You can do this at home or when your box has Open Gym.

Goats.  You have them.  You know it.  They know it.  Your coaches know it.  Your friends know it.  Your competition knows it.  Deny them at your own peril.  Or embrace them, and work towards the ultimate satisfaction of acquiring a new skill through hard work, perseverance, coaching, and pain.  I don’t have a HSPU but will get one soon.  By openly acknowledging it, CrossFitters have rallied to my aid.

http://youtu.be/_8BJyVjBdKM      

                       

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

 

Dear CrossFit, PTSD and the Long Walk To Sanity

Dear CrossFit,

Stay calm and walk the dog.  A lot.  In the past 32 days Captain (ret.) Medric “Cous” Cousineau has walked over 770km with his service dog Thai.  I had the great honor and privilege to walk with him the past few days.  

Part of today’s route: 

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/375640193?fb_source=708

Part of yesterday’s route:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/374557231?fb_source=708

Today was a picture postcard day at the Sandbanks Provincial Park.  Bright blue skies, gentle breeze, warm but not hot, almost no humidity, perfect in every way, except for the Veteran who wrestles with PTSD every moment of every day.  Just the sound of the shells crunching underfoot transported him back to a beach and talking with a Silver Cross mother about her son, lost to PTSD.  Even on this most perfect of days, when we who are more sane delight in the lyrical lapping of the waves on the miles-long white sand beach, the Veteran with PTSD is always just one thought, one sound, one smell, one word from the edge.

Yet Cous has been transformed in the past year from a 200kg+ self-proclaimed “toasted marshmallow” to a guy who now exercises with a passion that we CrossFitters can understand, and with a passion that earned him that starting spot on the d-line.  Cous walks, a lot, sometimes up to 6 hours a day.  And he swings kettlebells and does body weight exercises.  His RA prevents him from re-engaging with the heavy lifting he did as a defensive lineman “back in the day”, but he does an amazing amount of work, and the results are dramatic.  While there’s still room to go, there is no comparison between where he was last year and where he is now.

So I’m sitting here still sweaty after todays walk Cous (with whom I played football all those years ago) and trying to figure out what it all means.  Cous is currently on the “Long Walk To Sanity” to raise awareness and money for Veterans who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Cous was injured during a naval rescue in 1986.  You can read about Cous and the Long Walk to Sanity at http://www.pawsfurthought1.com

During our long walks over the past few days, we had plenty of opportunities to talk about football, fitness, and how Thai (his dog) saved his life and changed his life.  Thai is trained to smell the middle of the night screaming nightmares and to wake Cous before the terror arrives.  Thai is trained to smell the chemical imbalance that precedes dis-associative moments during the day, and to intervene before things go south.  Thai is trained to keep people from approaching Cous from behind, which prevents the disastrous consequences of a profoundly hyper startle reflex.  Thai is an amazing working dog.

We all understand how a service dog helps a blind person, but now, having seen it first hand, I understand how a service dog helps people with PTSD.  Not only do the service dogs change and save the lives of the patients, they save tens of thousands of dollars for the medical providers.  A service dog costs about $7,500.  One patient’s meds may cost up to 25k/year.  After acquiring a service dog, a patient’s meds may drop to 1k/year.  There is a lot to be learned about PTSD and service dogs and Veterans and other things, but one thing is clear, Cous is now functioning at a level where he wants to and can help other Veterans with PTSD.  One of the reasons he is functioning at this level is because of the devoted work of his amazing training partner Thai.  Thai walks all those miles with Cous, and puts aside being a dog while her vest is on to be a tireless worker.  Next time I want to bail on a WOD, I am going to bring Thai to mind, and channel her boundless energy and selfless dedication to her wounded Veteran.

Please consider checking out the website http://www.pawsfurthought1.com, or learning more about how service dogs can help with PTSD, with epilepsy, with diabetes, and with other issues.  I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes.  But now that I have, I get not only what Cous’ life is like every moment of every day, but how integral Thai is to this astounding recovery.  Cous may never be the athlete he was when he was punishing running backs and quarterbacks from 1979-1983, but he’s an athlete again.  Make no doubt about that.  And so is Thai.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, Masters Competing With Young Firebreathers

I was reading a thread about Master’s athletes training in the Games-prep classes with the young fire-breathers.  Here’s what I added to the thread:

Master’s compete doing the same movements as every other CrossFitter.  Just like master’s marathoners run the same course as the Olympians and master’s triathletes swim/bike/run the same course as the Kona champs.  Yes it can be discouraging (at times) to always come last in the Performance Class.  And yes it can also be thrilling to not come last in the Performance class.  Unless you’re in a big community that has several boxes that pool their master’s in a rotating Master’s Night (which I embrace as an excellent idea for Master’s specific training) you are going to end up training with the young fire breathers.  This is an excellent opportunity to train your mind as well as your body.  Write down the time for the position you aspire to in the Open.  First place?  Write it down for your age group.  100th place? Write it down for your age group?  1,000th place?  Write it down for your age group.  Get it on the whiteboard at the front of the box.  Let everyone know that THIS is the time that YOU have to beat.  They have their own goals and the other athletes to compete with.  You have the clock and the goal time.  Once everyone else, especially the coach, knows what your time to beat is, then everyone can embrace your challenge and support you in your challenge.  This is also a great way to “compete” with the young ones. Make them write down the 1st, 20th, 100th, and 1,000th place times for the WOD for THEIR age group too.  Then the winner is the athlete who comes closest to their time.  Want to see some different looks in the box?  Check out those looks when your time would have placed you 20th in the Open and their time would have placed them 2,137th. 

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, Fifty Shades of Supple Leopards.

The stretchy bands are digging into your wrists.  Your shoulders are pulled back behind you.  You want to scream in agony but can’t because you are totally exposed in front of a dozen other people similarly tied to the rack and don’t want to show weakness.  A fit dominatrix-like woman casually strolls back and forth in front of the rack, a six foot long piece of PVC hanging menacingly from her hands.  What did she mean by “strict” pullup?  Yet you know this is just the beginning, and that unimaginable intensity awaits you.  What is this?  Fifty Shades of CrossFit?  Nope, it’s just your every day mobilization after your pre-warmup and before your intense warmup and WOD.

Kelly Starrett thought he was writing a physical therapy book.  What he actually wrote was the second edition of the Kama Sutra.  You want to perform better?  In CrossFit?  Then you simply have to move better.  Want to move better?  Then you simply have to improve your mobility.  Want to improve your mobility?  Then you’re going to have to get into new positions, with restraints, and with toys, and work and work and work those positions.  Yep, that sounds like the Fifty Shades version of the Kama Sutra of CrossFit.

I was at a rowing cert over the weekend, and after five minutes of easy warmup, Erin Cafaro showed us several excellent Supple Leopard mobility poses and actions to get ready to perform (on the ERG).  She made us pair up.  We tested.  Then one person would use the rubber band while the other person used the lacrosse ball.  We took turns stretching and mashing and opening from head to toe.  We mashed the bottom of our feet, we opened our shoulders, we mashed our scaps, we opened our hips, we mashed our gluteus to the maximus.  We retested.  Everyone was more open, more ready to perform through a greater range of motion, able to achieve a longer more powerful stroke.  Yeah there might be some other application to this supple leopard thing after all…

Kelly’s book shows you how to stand and it shows you how to sit.  It shows you how to plank and pushup.  It talks about torque, a lot.  Torque?  Whatcha talkin’ ’bout Willis?  Torque?  So much of CrossFit is linear motion.  But before you can perform that linear motion properly, you have to create certain tension, often by using torque to screw your shoulders into their sockets or to screw your hips into their sockets.  Once again the parallels are legion, creating tension, getting into position, and then performing.

I highly recommend Supple Leopard.  But if you’re going to read it, you have to be ready to accept delayed gratification.  If you really want the benefit, there’s going to be no more just jumping right in (to a WOD).  First you’re going to have to do some nice slow and easy warming up to get ready to stretch.  Then you’re going to have to get tied up and twisted.  And then finally you’re going to have to embrace someone getting their hands on you for that tactile feedback.  “Straighten here.  Get tight here.”   But if you do it all, the gentle warmup, the restraints, the coaching and tactile feedback, then you are going to get into positions you never have and experience performance like never before.  Supple Leopards = Fifty Shades, who knew?

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, In Memory of Hotshots 19

CrossFit Hotshots 19 (52:19, scaled) at CrossFit Tiffin. 

In memory of:

Jesse Steed, 36
Wade Parker, 22
Joe Thurston, 32
William Warneke, 25
John Percin, 24
Clayton Whitted, 28



Scott Norris, 28
Dustin Deford, 24
Sean Misner, 26
Garret Zuppiger, 27
Travis Carter, 31
Grant McKee, 21
Travis Turbyfill, 27



Andrew Ashcraft, 29
Kevin Woyjeck, 21
Anthony Rose, 23
Eric Marsh, 43
Christopher MacKenzie, 30
Robert Caldwell, 23

Thanks Jared and Justin of CrossFit Tiffin (Ohio) for hosting this WOD.  If you’re in the Tiffin area, please consider stopping by to meet Jared and Justin at their new box.

http://crossfittiffin.com/

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, On The Erg With Erin Cafaro, Two Time Olympic Gold Medalist

Erin Cafaro, two time Olympic gold medalist teaches rowing technique in hands-on seminar.Family, friends, and regular readers know one of my mantras is “surround yourself with excellence.  Seek it out.”  Today was another opportunity to practice what I preach.  Erin Cafaro took time out of her busy schedule working at a start-up to teach a beat-up old CrossFitter how to move better on the “erg” (rower to CrossFitters…)  Like I’ve written before, when you get the chance to go on stage with Karen Kain or Mikhakl Baryshnikov you pull on your tights.  When you get a chance to shoot baskets with MJ, you lace up the high tops.  When you get a chance to climb with Lynn or Lisa you put on your harness and find the sticky rubber.  When you get a chance to hit a bucket with Jack you do it.  There is no substitute for working at arm’s reach with the best in the world, and getting hands-on instantaneous feedback.  I’ve been moved by watching athletes perform before, and Erin moved me profoundly today.  Every cell works towards producing power in the horizontal plane to move that boat.  It looks effortless, and then you hear the flywheel spinning and watch the meter numbers change in a blur before your very eyes.  You know you are witnessing mastery and virtuosity and the best in the world.

Erin, is not only a gifted rower, she is also a gifted teacher.  She refers to your rowing flaws as “potential power”.  She explains why moving vertically doesn’t help translating power in the horizontal plane.  She explains why over-reaching or over-pulling are “junk distance” that bleed power rather than producing power.  She demonstrates, gets you to do it, video tapes you, then lets you see the “potential power” you aren’t generating and helps you figure out how to generate it.

Erin even found a way to get me to understand the mysterious damper, through a particularly devious Tabata WOD where we had to go through a range of wattage output with the damper at different settings.  After a great analogy featuring Jan Ulrich and Lance Armstrong and experiencing the feel and wattage with the different damper settings and then retrieving the interval data from the memory that she showed me how to program, even I was able to figure out where to put the damper.   This is equivalent to a miracle…

If you ever get a chance to get on an Erg with Erin, do it. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Cafaro

http://erincafaro.com/

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, Technique and Second Chances

Technique.

One word, infinite ramifications.

For the past two weeks Ctown has been offering extra technique classes in the evening. They’ve always offered training camps and on-ramps, and now they’ve taken this extra step, which reflects the commitment of our head coach Carl Sandridge and long time coach Larry Crooks to moving properly.  After classes, after competitions, after the Open, after Regionals, Carl and Larry are most proud of how their athletes have moved.  Their committment is reflected in the fact that they’ve had world class athletes (e.g., Julie Foucher) providing technique classes. 

I’ve attended all the classes.  Why?  Here’s the algorithm I used to guide my reasoning.

1. Is my technique perfect?  If yes, go to class and practice so it stays perfect (or to help others).  If no, go to class and learn. 

2. Is there are a class available?  If yes, go to class.  If no, find a class to go to.

3. Are you going to go to technique class?  If yes, go to class.  If no, goto 1.

(my apologies to Dykstra for the goto, here’s the equivalent C code with no goto)

main ( )

{

     int i;

     for ( i = 0; i < 1; i = 0)

     {

          attend.technique.class()

      } // end for

} // end main

 

I need technique class, you need technique class, we all need technique class.  If you think you move okay and you don’t need technique class, then you really need technique class.  CrossFit is about a lot of things.  It’s about community, it’s about doing work, it’s about having fun, it’s about getting strong and limber. It’s about realizing what you do well and what you can do better.  It’s humbling, yet it’s profoundly liberating to admit that you don’t do something well and to seek help for it.   

If you move better, everything else is easier.  Trust me, easier is better.  I have some experience in not being able to move so well.  Arthritis destroyed my left hip to the point where I could not move.  Life was hard.  Every step hurt, until walking was impossible.  Through the miracle of orthopaedic surgery (thanks Dr. Peter Brooks) I was given a second chance.  I want to learn to move properly before age and arthritis take it all away.  So when Julie and Dani were scheduled to offer the technique classes, I said yes.  The following quote from Edison (from Milan, Ohio) appears on Julie’s twitter handle:

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease” ~ Edison

Technique can help you avoid having to spend more time receiving medicine and after-the-fact repairs (e.g., hip replacements).

So thanks Julie for taking so much time over the past weeks to help me move better.  The hour you spent last night working on just the air squat and then the OHS following up on Dani’s squat clinic last week were extremely valuable to me (producing a 100% PR on the OHS (2x PVC)).  It’s excellent to see this young generation of doctors recognize the value of instructing “in the care of the human frame”.  Consider following Julie’s blog here: http://juliefoucher.com/

So thanks CrossFit for giving Carl and Larry and Julie and Dani and all the other passionate teachers a vehicle to share their vision.  Thanks CrossFit for giving me a community that understands about this second chance.  Thanks CrossFit for the friends and training partners who suffer right there alongside, and cheer me home, and who help in ways they may never comprehend.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

 

 

Dear CrossFit, Expectations and Turning Off The Brain

When today’s WOD appeared on Wodify, I have to admit that I threw up a little in my mouth.  It looked awful.  We are currently in a “test week” at the box, before embarking on a strength phase, which will be followed by retesting.  Which means we’ll have to do this same WOD again in about three months.  I am already feeling the bile return.  But expectations may not agree with reality.

The WOD was listed as: 500m row for time.  Okay, rowing 500m all out sucks, but it’s over pretty quick.  Rest 2 minutes.  Row 2k for time.  Not so okay.  Rowing 2k for time sucks, and it’s not over pretty quick.  Rest 2 minutes.  20 minutes to find 1RM for both snatch and deadlift.  Can someone please explain to me how we’re supposed to lift while lying on our backs in a puddle of sweat after rowing 2k for time?  This was not looking good.  But it didn’t end.  I was certain the coach had combined two days of WODs into one.  When I asked him he just smirked.  So, after the lifting (assuming you were able to swim up out of your puddle of bodily fluids), there was four minutes AMRAP burpees, 1 minute rest, 3 minutes AMRAP pullups, 1 minute rest, 2 minutes AMRAP body weight back squat (I can’t clean my body weight yet so I knew this would be a 2 minute rest) followed by 1 minute AMRAP STO where you picked your own weight.

My expectations were that I would get about three or four tries at the snatch, but would seriously underperform after getting gassed on the rowing.  Same with the deadlift.  I’m approaching the mythical, unofficial, perhaps only in my own mind world record for the deadlift for ex-patriate Canadians living in Ohio with hip replacements whose names start with J, but I figured today would be an under-achieving day after the rowing and then flailing at snatches.  Then the AMRAPS?  Oh this was really going to hurt.  Like the dentist ran out of novacaine and has the DT shakes hurt.  So, as an exercise I decided today would be the day to experiment with “turning off the brain.”

Turned out that turning off the brain was pretty easy to do.  The rowing handled it quite nicely thank you very much.  Luckily there was someone else to help write down the numbers, which I am surprised, thrilled, and extremely confused to report were much better than I expected.

PR on the 500m row (1:42)

not a PR on the 2k row (8:55)

PR on the snatch (165, this was a split power snatch that got pressed out at the end)

not a PR on the deadlift (455)

well below expected numbers of burpees (30)

well above expected number of pullups (24)

as expected zero reps of body weight back squat (had to clean it from the floor, no racks).

1 STO at 185#.  The room was still spinning from the pullups, so this wasn’t wise.

What’s the lesson learned?  Your expectations can destory your performance if you let it.  Turning off the brain may be just the thing to do when faced with the fear of your expectations.

The really sad, painful, and hurtful afternote to today’s WOD is that I hit a PR on the sntach after rowing and, given a few more attempts probably would have PR’d on the deadlift.  Does this mean that I have to row to exhaustion before lifting from now on?  That’s bollocks, total bollocks.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, A Sample of Photos

Just some pictures.

A prize to the first person to correctly identify all the people depicted.