08/22/2011 Vacation Recap Day 2

Started off the morning with another walk on the beach, starting your day off watching the sun rise on the Atlantic, as the ocean water goes from a dark olive, to a bright shimmer as the rays of the sun opens its arms across the horizon, the warm summer breeze tickling the whiskers on my facial hair, walking with a smiling with my white furry best friend, I can’t help but feel a sense of quietude.

In marching to the beat of my own drum these last few days, I am truly at rest for the first time in a long time.  Even with my workouts, I have not been obsessing about my weight this week.  I thought about adding a bit of cardio but decided it’s not fun to do off vacation, so it’s probably even less fun on vacation.  My eating has not gone off course, but as you do on vacation you tend to eat more with idle time. 

In the gym this morning I was sticking to my plan of doing the daily Potomac Crossfit WoD.  Today’s WoD focused on squats.  Like most partially configured gyms this particular one does not have a true squat rack, but does have a Smith Machine.  I used to think these machines were great, but now realize they are useful as cleats on boat shoes. 

I know it supposed to help act as a self spotter, but by fixing the bar to a set of rails it prevents your body from properly developing he support muscles which not only help bare the load, but provide stability in any athletic endeavor. 

I warmed up using the straight bar which was available to make sure I am sticking to proper form.  I was happy to see that in the mirror at the bottom of the quat I have gained about a quarter of a inch in depth which means I am getting more flexible. 

I did another warm up set on the smith machine with just the bar doing 5 reps, then another 5 reps with two 45 lbs.  My work sets broke down as follows:

• 225 lbs 3 reps
• 225 lbs 3 reps
• 235 lbs 3 reps
• 245 lbs 3 reps

The actual prescribed squats for today was to do 80% of your 1 rep maximum, and then add 5 lbs.  My one rep max is 265 lbs, 80% of which is 212 lbs roughly, so I would have had to work at 217 lbs.  I figure 225 lbs on the Smith Machine gets me closer to the true weight I would have felt at 217 lbs in a real squat rack. 

I also found that the Smith Machine when doing squats makes it hard to get the bar in the proper position just below the shoulders, and makes it easier to squat with the bar on your neck which can’t be good. 

The Metcon was a good one, which involved doing 6 hang, squat cleans, 8 ring-dips, and 10 toes to bars.  For my big fat ass I had to scale the ring-dips and do push-ups, and the toes to bar I had to do knee raises while hanging from a pull up bar, the Metcon was done for four rounds and done for time.

I used 75 lbs for the first 2 rounds, and then did 85 lbs in the last two rounds.   I should have just done 95 lbs from the start, but I think I was able to use really good technique in an unbroken fashion with the lighter weights, which I think is what they wanted.  I was amazed at how fast I got underneath the bar.  The metcon took me 5 minutes and 19 seconds. 

After my Crossfit workout I wanted to do some more chest work, so I did a couple of mini circuits. 

Circuit one:

• 55 lbs dumbbell Chest Press on a resistance ball, 15 Reps
• 10 Sit Ups
• 5 V-Sit Ups
• Kettle bell Swings for 2.5 minutes 1 arm alternating combinations
• Jump rope for 45 seconds
• Two Rounds of the Above

Circuit Two

• 70 lbs Dumbbell Chest Press 10 Reps
• 21 lbs Medicine Ball Slam 10 Reps
• 70 lbs Dumbbell Chest Press 8 Reps
• 21 lbs Medicine Ball Slam 15 Reps
• 80 lbs Dumbbell Chest Press 4 Reps
• 21 lbs Medicine Ball Slam 15 Reps

After the gym, I spent the rest of the early afternoon driving around Avon, and Hatteras Island.  I ended up visiting a couple of shops and buying stuff we need or wanted with my sister.  When we got home we had a group dinner, I made appetizers, and served wine.  I think my boring parents both got drunk.   We then had desert on the front patio and watched the sunset. 

There were some low hanging clouds so as the sunset you watched it evaporate into the clouds, but clouds being clouds an opening appeared just above the horizon which revealed an orange eye, peeping through the cloudy peephole.