Never Fail Again

What a week. I decided to take off a week from work and see what I could get done towards commencing on with my new life.  Boy am I in trouble!

While I was pretty good keeping up with my new commitment to Crossfit, my diet wasn't nearly as good. Too many carbs, too much beer! Organizationally I'm also having problems due to my lack of hard cardio and the subsequent lack of focus. While the week was far from a complete bust, I'm seriously concerned with achieving my new goals.

I'd decided that I want to keep up with running, rowing & swimming as my "active rest" throughout the week and I really want to continue getting up early to hit the gym. I really like the discipline, the people and the routine. I've therefore decided that I can add "skill sessions" to my regular Crossfit regimen. By skill sessions, I mean working on the many fitness disciplines that elude me. Many of these skills involve many of the 10 elements of fitness that I lack and that are core to the Crossfit methodology:
1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance- The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility - The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the body's center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

These are ideal because I can do these skill sessions no matter how sore I am from the weeks Crossfit workouts. In may respects, getting up at 4:00am, knowing that I'm going to face a tough 30 minutes on a Versa climber, was easier than knowing I'm going to have to focus on my weaknesses and concentrate on refining skills. I find that I'm way too much of an all or nothing type of guy and I'm having a REAL hard time limiting my workouts to Crossfit & Skill Sessions ( along with the regular easy run/swim/rowing sessions).

Some of the skills I'm working on ( and failing miserably at) are:
Swimming - 20 or less strokes per length.
Swimming - Addition of the flip turn on all laps.
Speed Bag - Trying to perfect several different striking methods
Jump rope - double unders
Pull Ups - Performing a proper kipp ( one that does NOT resemble seizure or electrocution!)
Proper form when performing Deadlifts, Squat Cleans, Snatches and Overhead Squats.

And these are just the tip of the ice burg. In any event, I'm finding I need to pull my "Ace in the hole" when I get up early in the morning by simply telling myself that this is simply "what I do". If there is any reasoning with myself whatsoever, I'll simply go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.

Whenever I find myself amidst a greater percentage of recent failures than successes I have to remind myself of my previous successes and I have to lean on my unshakeable belief that the only real failure is when a person totally quits trying. Two examples of this in my own experience are related to weight and smoking. In regards to my weight, my struggles were never a constant battle but there were times when I'd lose 10 pounds only to gain 20 after I'd "fallen off the wagon". The attached photo is one of me "in between". We were on vacation in Washington DC and I can remember half heartedly trying to watch what I ate (very unsuccessfully). I didn't give up even though I think I added another 15 or 20 pounds to what I had, but just upped my game on the next serious attempt.

I think the best example of what I'm referring to deals with my many attempts to quit smoking. I'd smoked on and off ever since I was 16 years old and I'd venture to say I'd quit 1,000 times. When I was younger, I even had friends tell my to resign myself to a life of tobacco addiction! Whenever I see someone trying to battle either of these formidable challenges, my most adamant and valuable advice to them is to never quit trying. With that attitude, the only way you can possibly fail is to quit trying. Every time you try, add to your "quitting/weight loss" skill set and continually build up your arsenal of tricks and strategies. Every failure will bring you the lessons that will eventually deliver you to success. I very certainly expect to conquer the above skills by the end of the year but if I don't, you know I'll be trying in 2012.

btw - I haven't smoked in about five years and I'd finally managed to quit at around 4 months into my successful 9 month campaign to lose the 90+ pounds.

I've been pretty good at logging my diet and workouts and I'm probably about 80% accurate. Details can be perused, as usual at:
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/diary/who/Stairclimber_D/

Crossfit Workouts:
#1
4 rounds of: 400M run 10 Deadlifts (125) 15 Wall balls (20)
#2
Crossfit - 65lbs 20 Thrusters, 20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls, 20 Push Press, 20 Deadlifts + 4 burpees on the minute.
#3
w/u 10 min speed bag / run 2 miles - WOD 15min. amrap 200m sandbag run/10 sandbag situps/20 sandbag squats (5 rounds + run) / Cool Down 2 mile run.
#4
WU/Helen (3rds. 400m run/21 kb swings/12 Pull Ups) / Cool Down Team 1,500m Row(750 each)  /200 situps (approx.)