Weekend Catch-Up: Achey Saturday and Struggle Sunday.

This weekend was hard.

It was hard in several ways. I was missing a weekend 'treat' of some sort. It felt as though there was a little less to look forward to. I don't think I ask for much. An hour or two in Further North with a couple of pints. Maybe bit of cafe lounging, couple of flat whites... maybe a little piece of cake.

Nothing like that this weekend. Somehow, whatever I could conjure up meal-wise was never quite gonna hit that spot.

And then there was the aching. A chronic, cumulative tiredness that had crept up over a number of days. More achey each day, not quite recovering from training as well as usual. I slept loads on Friday night, but ached all day on Saturday. I slept loads on Saturday night. I skipped training for a rest day on Saturday, but still ached on Sunday morning. I know that sometimes a bit of activity can ease things off nicely, but I was feeling way too broken for Hill Sprints. So I rested again on Sunday.

So, no training, but hard in other ways.


Saturday Food
Super Recovery Shake: Protein powder (chocolate flavour), a banana, 1/2 an avocado, a raw egg, almond milk.
Late Breakfast: 4 rashers bacon, two eggs (double yolkers!!), grilled mushroom, tomatoes.
Afternoon FruitFest: 2 apples, 2 plums, a satsuma, a fig.
Dinner: A very large, very rare sirloin steak, a couple of sweet potato wedges and a little baked sweet potato, rocket leaves and roasted veg (courgette, aubergine, peppers, tomatoes, red onion)
Later: Another protein shake with a banana and almond milk and a raw egg.

Sunday Food
Late Breakfast: Plain omlette (3 eggs).
In Leeds Centre: A coffee (aeropress from La Bottega Milanese - nice, but was a little overbrewed). 
Then I got hungry / desperate and ended up in Holland and Barrett's looking at treats. I came out with a Nak'd bar and 2 9Bar things. On reflection, the Nak'd bar was ok. The 9Bars, with their honey and 'raw palm sugar' and vegetable oil (and one with a carob topping!) were mistakes. Regardless, by the time I went to bed I'd eaten all 3.
Dinner: We roasted a chicken for a later Sunday dinner. I had a leg, a wing and a shit load of the bad stuff that crisped up a treat on the bottom. And some crispy skin. I had this with roasted veg (very similar to last night's) and some steamed broccoli. It was dee-lish... 

I've given myself 2 black marks for the 2 9bars and another for having 2 consecutive rest days. That's now 7 in total....

Choosing sleep over blogging!! A 4 day catch up...

Soooo..... Long time no see!!

It's been a pretty busy week for me and the only time I've really had to update the blog has been late evenings. And I've been tired - far more tired than usual. So face with the choice of sitting and diligently writing my blog or climbing the wooden hill and getting my head down.... SLEEP WINS!!

Here my food and training for the last few days...

Tues 8th (day 7).

Less good sleep. 6 hours. Black mark.

6:30am, pre-training: 1/4 cantaloupe melon, espresso.
8:30am, post-training breakfast: 3 egg omelette, tortilla style, containing 1/2 baked potato, 1/2 red onion, 1 lge flat mushroom, 1 tomato, a chilli and smoked paprika. SO good!!
10:30am, snack: Apple
1:00pm, lunch: Salad with leaves, tomato, cucumber, spring onion, a small avocado, a thick slice of beef and 1/2 a chicken breast. Dressed with olive oil.
5:00pm, snack: 1/4 cantaloupe. Espresso.
6:30pm, pre-squash match dinner: A large piece of smoked haddock, baked with 1/2 a tin of tomatoes and lots of fresh herbs, 1/2 sweet potato, cauliflower rice. I couldn't eat all of this, so kept some for later...
9:30pm, post-squash match something: what I didn't eat at 6:30 with another 1/2 of a sweet potato.

7am CrossFit class: Rope climbs and handstand / HSPU practice. 12 min AMRAP: 10 box jumps, 10 reverse crunches, 10 burpees, 10 sit ups. Score: 4 rnds + 5 burpees. Tough one for me, all body weight stuff. I'm putting more core work in at the moment though, so the rev crunches and sit ups fitted well with that.
During the class, I did a few pull ups with a red band, which felt good, despite the red band feeling like nothing. So after the class I tried some unassisted and got one out. Then another. Then two more. Not the prettiest, but hey..!!

8:15pm, Squash match. This is my regular Tuesday night team game in the Harrogate League. We played the other Chapel A team in our division, so we put out our strongest side (the captain sat out!) which meant I played at 3rd string this week instead of 2nd. It's a shame that the other team weren't able to do the same, as this gave me a pretty straightforward 3-0 win and a relatively short match. Still had to run a fair bit and work for it, though. The team won and we're still top of the division. 

After a  relatively easy match!

Weds 9th

Really good sleep - 8.5 hrs. 

Food

8:30am, breakfast: 3 eggs, scrambled with a tsp coconut oil and a small piece of chicken breast. Espresso. 

9:45, fuddle:  Nuts and pumpkin seeds (lots!) with strawberries. See below.

2:15pm, lunch: Broccoli soup, chicken breast, apple, satsuma.

5:30pm, pre-training: 1/3 sweet potato, tomato, 1/2 chicken breast. Espresso. 

7:30pm, post-training: 2/3 sweet potato, tomato, 1/2 chicken breast

9:00pm, boredom snack: 1 tsp almond butter.

Training: 6pm CrossFit class

Strength: shoulder press 3x8 / pull ups 3x max

I used 40, 45 and 50kg on my 3 sets of presses and only got 6 reps on the last set. For the Pull ups I used a purple band and worked strict, doing 8, 7, 6 reps. Not getting too carried away after yesterday!!

So, this morning at work we had a fuddle. One of my long-standing staff members (and someone I have a lot of time and a great deal of respect for) was leaving. As usual it was a massive carb-fest with every type of bad food choice you can imagine. So much cake and crisps and crap and being told "you can have this, surely" with someone waving a 'healthy' plate of syrup encrusted oats and dried fruit in your face (flapjack). I passed on everything but the strawberries and the nuts and seeds that I'd taken in. I did feel a bit of a spoil-sport but I after a while, people seemed to get it....

Thursday 10th

Good sleep 9 hrs. 

Funny day today as my appetite seemed to just do one.

I was working from home all morning and skipped breakfast. I know this isn't the best idea ever, but I got stuck into some work and just couldn't be arsed. 

9:00am: Espresso.

12:30pm lunch: 3 egg omelette with chicken, beef spring onions and red onion.

2:30pm, snack: Apple, satsuma.

5:00pm, pre-training snack: Apple and some nuts

7:30pm, dinner: Thai Green Curry (chicken thigh) and cauliflower rice

Training todays was Ferino's Fab Abs at 6pm

A cauli the size of my head. From Lincs, so it was awesome! 

Ingredients with no unpronouncables

Friday 11th

Decent sleep again,  8 hours. 

Not really feeling much in the way of an appetite again today and ended up skipping breakfast again.

Food

11:00am snack: Apple, satsuma, small piece of chicken breast.

2:00pm lunch: Broccoli soup with beef.

5:30pm, pre-training snack: Half a sweet potato, tomato, small piece of chicken

7:15pm, between WOD and Strength training: Half a sweet potato, tomato, rocket, half an avocado, half a chicken breast.

11:00pm, very, very late dinner??: Thai Green Curry (chicken thigh) and cauliflower rice

Training

6:00pm, CrossFit class: Clean and Jerk tekkers, inc 10 min EMOM, 2 hang cleans. I worked technique on this, rather than trying to max out, going from 40 to 60kg through the 10 mins. 7 Min AMRAP: 5 x deadlift, 30 x double unders. I chickened out of the Rx weight on the deads, scaling from 100kg to 80. I opted to go 50/50 doubles and singles, so 15 DU's and 30 singles. Still fucked them up, especially the last to or three rounds. Score: 6 + 50su's.

8:00pm, Barbell Club Pure Strength: Basically, an hour of pain doled out by the smiling assassin that is Sam Henderson. Box squats, seated box jumps, weighted step ups, stiff leg deadlifts, jumping back squats and some insane hamstring torture so painful my mind has erased whatever it was called. And to finish, 100 glute bridges in as few sets as possible (2). I could hardly stand up after...

Lifting & Eating. At the same time...

Quick entry tonight - I want my 8 hours!

Loads of sleep last night as I had a day of and didn't get up til 10:30am. Hahahaha! Never meant to sleep in this late, but there ya go.

11:00, Breakfast (?brunch): 3 egg omlette with 1/2 a red onion, a pepper and 4 or 5 chestnut mushrooms.

Mantra. Mmaaantraaa!

Throughout the day I've been grazing. Not too bad though, I hope.

12:30 - 5:00pm, snacks: 2 apples, a plum, a nectarine, 1/4 of a cantaloupe melon, a thick slice of beef (from a joint), half a chicken breast and (out of sheer boredom and wanting to taste something different) a protein shake (Chocolate flavour. Mmmm).

Training.
As I wanted to do the weightlifting Barbell Club class at 8pm, I went to the 7pm CrossFit class, which was the busiest class I've ever seen!
Back squat 4 x 8 (60, 80, 90, 80kg). I only really intended for the 60kg to be a warm up, but with 5 of us rotating on one bar, we ran out of time. I pulled back from 90kg to correct my form.
Then we did Helen. 3 rounds of [400m, 21Kb swings, 12 pull-ups] for time. I used the Rx 24Kg Kb but can't do pull ups so scaled to a green band. I've been using a purple band recently for pull-ups when doing sets of 5 - 8. I can't do any more unbroken with a purple band. I don't know if there are some new green bands with a bit more spring in them, or if I've got much better at pull-ups since I last used a green band, but there was too much assistance to the point where I felt I was bouncing around, did some chest to bars for fun, etc. Time was 10m 25s.
I genuinely think there are some new, more resistant green bands!!

Weightlifting class was snatch practice.

Evening food:  I took along a lunchbox to the box which contained 1/2 a large sweet potato, a thick slice of beef, a third of a chicken breast and one of my breakfast muffins from yesterday. My intention was to stuff my face between classes, or at least get the sweet potato down.  Well, that didn't happen!! Managed (forced down) a piece of SP (I had cut it into 4). Couldn't get the rest down straight away. I kept my luchbox with me and got through the sweet potato and the beef by the time the Barbell class had finished and ate the rest in the car. Not ideal, but didn't want to be eating at 9:30/10:00pm.

At home I had some mixed nuts (6 almonds, 3 walnut halves, 3 cashews and 2 brazils).

I've been drinking carbonated water a lot. I do anyway - I like a bit of fizz!! Is this ok?

Right, off to bed...

Sprints, Muffins & Rice!!

Just about scraped my 8 hours last night before the alarm went of for hill sprints this morning... 8:40am, Pre-training: 1 Plum, 1 fig. Espresso.

9:00am, Training: Hill Sprints.

Always easier to get out of bed when rays of sunshine are bursting through the bedroom curtains!! Great session at Roundhay today. Loved it !! Got muddy, too...

10:30am, post-training: 1 banana, 1 fig.

12.30pm, brunch: Donna's egg, bacon and mushroom muffins* x 2, tomatoes (baked).

The muffins are made by lining around a muffin tin with bacon, pushing a mushroom to the bottom in the middle, today we had a slice of tomato in there. Then crack an egg into the remainder of the hole. Then bake!                                                           

Double Yokers!!

Astonishingly, 5 of the 6 eggs we used for the 'muffins' were double yokers. Get in!!

This afternoon I've done a few jobs around the house that the trouble has been keen for me to do. Watched most of West Brom v. Arsenal match. We've also been watching Homeland series 1 and have got a couple of episodes in today.

3:00pm, Snack: 1 plum, 1 apple

4:30pm, Snack: Another brunch muffin!

7:00pm, Dinner: A Barnsley chop, leftover slow cooked beef (from a couple of days ago) and lots of cauliflower rice**.

Another Homeland or two before bed, I think. And a day off tomorrow!

*not actually muffins!

** not actually rice!!

Cider Day!!

First things first - I've had a great day today. Felt pretty awesome all day. Bagged over 8 hours of sleep last night, maybe nearer 9, and it's made a big difference. Today could potentially have been really tough... And if the title of today's blog has got you thinking I've been drinking... well, we'll get to that!

I decided yesterday (before I knew today's WOD was Filthy Fifty!) that today was a rest day for me.

I got up just after 9am and headed off to Russell's Farm to pick up eggs. Lots of eggs! I was just hoping they'd have enough, but there were plenty. After a bit of banter with the proprietor, I'd payed for 270 eggs and was happy that they were securely in the car and I drove carefully to to the box to drop most of them off for people that wanted them.

Fithy Fifty was about to kick off  when I arrived. It was fun watching the class and, although I really needed the rest day today, part of me wished I was smashing out the reps with everyone else. It's really fucking addictive, this CrossFit malarkey, innit?!

11:30am, Breakfast: 4 rashers of smoked back bacon, three fried eggs (fried in coconut oil), half a tin of tomatoes. Espresso.
Cider Day...

The big press being loaded with 'cheeses'. I made those!

So a while ago, I was invited to an annual celebration of the apple harvest. I was invited  last year, but couldn't make it, so made sure I was going this time. I'd stripped the apples off the tree in our garden to contribute. These were a drop in the ocean really, as in total there were around 4 tons of apples contributed. It was a real community event, with everyone getting involved in the work. The apples were pressed into nearly 200 gallons of apple juice! The vast majority of this is now fermenting into cider. Can't wait to try some.

The press in action

A smaller, but highly effective press

It was all a lot of fun. I sipped a tiny bit of apple juice (it would have been terrible not to try a sip) but no more than 50ml (fifty) or so. It was delicious (shop bought stuff is far too sweet for me). Last year's cider was being quaffed, but I resisted this temptation, as I did with the apple pie, the almond and apple cake and even the (delicious smelling) curried apple soup, which would have been fine if it weren't for the addition of cream to the recipe! I took my lunch with me...

3:00pm, lunch: Salad with leaves, tomato, spring onion, a small avocado a carrot, 2 rashers of smoked bacon and a chicken breast. Dressed with olive oil and chilli sauce.

Snacks (eaten throughout the afternoon, 12:00 - 6:00pm: A fig, a plum,  2 apples (well, come on!) and a coconut water.

7:30pm, Dinner: A nice big sirloin steak with two eggs (fried in the pan the steak was cooked in, no oil added), loads of broccoli, some tinned tomatoes and a small salad (leaves, tomato, spring onion). I had some mustard. presume that's ok, as it's a seed thing.
Dinner. Was. Splendid!

A splendid dinner

                            

Up & Down Day? ABSolutely!

So I woke up this morning and was able to sit up in bed and walk around with any problems. I wasn't necessarily expecting that after Ferino's Fab Abs last night!

I have felt pretty hungry today, from pretty early on and to the point of distraction at times. It started with that hollow feeling in the stomach that just feels like it needs to be filled, getting worse through the day until it almost felt like more of a pain than a pang... Oh... Hang on... That'll be Ferino's Fab Abs!!

Eggs on the run...

Poor quantity of sleep again last night. 6 hours. That's 17 hours in the last 3 nights and 3 black marks. Hopefully I'll get some catch up this weekend.

8:30am, breakfast: Espresso. 3 eggs, scrambled with 1tsp coconut oil and a third of a sweet potato.


I was a little behind schedule this morning, so threw this in a lunchbox and ate it when I got to work. The egg was still warm! The sweet potato was cooked last night. I forgot my supplements as I was rushing around.

10:30am, snack: A large (organic) carrot. 

1:30pm, lunch: Homemade Broccoli soup and a tin of Brunswick sardines.

3:00pm, snack: A well rounded teaspoon of cashew butter!

5:00pm, snack: 1/4 of a cantaloupe melon. Espresso.

I stopped in Chapel A on the way home to pick up some fruit & veg from the young bloke who has a stall on a Friday. Good local stuff at decent prices. I picked up some bacon from the Neil the butcher, too, but I'll pop back tomorrow for the rest of my meat, once I've had time to think and plan ahead a bit.

Tiredness today was fucking with my decision making centre, particularly regarding training. I wanted to go and do some heavy deadlifts. But they are heavy. And I'm a bit tired. I definitely wanted to do the Pure Strength session.... In the  end I managed to decide to go for the 7pm class and stay for the strength session, but by the struggle made me 10 mins late. I hate being late for a CrossFit class.

6:45pm, pre-training snack: 1/2 baked sweet potato, 1/2 baked (normal) potato. Coconut water (I have Tropical Sun CW - it comes in a can, but is 100% natural, no added anything and is not from concentrate). 

So, deads 2x5 and 1 AMRAP at 70%, or if you managed 10+ reps last time, add a bit to that.
I used 120kg last time and got 13 good reps on the AMRAP, so this time used 125kg and hit 15 good reps. Happy with that.

Could've killed and eaten a mammoth today

WOD: 7 min AMRAP 
7 Goblet squats
7 Burpees
25 DU's
Couldn't string my DU's together tonight and refused to do singles, so 3 rnds + 12 DU's. Pretty bad.

Strength session: Started with pull ups 3 x 5-10 reps. I still use the thick blue/purple band for these.
Then guess what? The focus of the strength session was on the core!! Joy!! Thought I was probably going to die, but in the end it was ok. Weighted plank holds super-setted with face pulls, then a Dmitry Klokov inspired combo.

I felt great afterwards - best I've felt all day, in fact!! 

Protein shake in the car on the way home, then smashed straight into the slow-cooked beef from yesterday with half a baked potato. Well, I think I'd earned it!!

Will remember to have night time supplements straight after posting this. Then sleeeeeeep!!!

Mmmm.... Autumn

It's definitely Autumn today. The murk has descended, everything's wet and there are leaves all over the lawn. It's Donna's favourite season. For me, it's a constant reminder that summer is over and it's a bloody long time til the next one. I can appreciate the colours of Autumn, of course. Donna likes digging out the hats and scarves and the coats. I just wish it was 10 degrees warmer.

But colours aside, there's something special I do like about Autumn... The FOOD!!

I got the slow cooker out this morning and threw in a pound and a half piece of beef (topside rump, without the block of fat) a punnet of mini portobello mushrooms*, half a dozen beetroot (quartered), a couple of sticks of celery (fine sliced), a red onion (sliced), 3 cloves of smoked garlic (smashed) and two tins of tomatoes. I had a large round courgette from Donna's school gardening project, so that got roughly diced and thrown in, along with half a dozen chillis what we grew. Seasoned, then added the (hopefully) killer ingredient, smoked paprika. Left it on while I'm at work today... Can't wait to open the door and smell it later!
*mushrooms are High GI?! Who knew!? Well, not me until it was a little too late...

Beetroot fingers - a great way to start the day.

7:30am, Breakfast: 3 eggs, scrambled with 1tsp coconut oil and a bit of chilli sauce. Espresso.  Morning supplements (as yesterday).

11:00am, snack: Apple (an autumnal gift from the garden)

12:30pm, lunch: Salad with leaves, a small orange pepper, two tomatoes, half a medium avocado and a piece of grilled chicken breast the size of my hand (fairly big!). Dressed with olive oil, balsamic and chilli sauce.

Hippy tea. Rank.

I had a cup of organic jasmine tea with my lunch. I'm a coffee person. The tea smelled like hippies. I've never tasted a hippy, but imagine that if you boiled up a hippy's jumper and drank the juice, it would taste no worse than this. Tea sucks. Coffee rocks!

I was hungry this afternoon. I turned down biscuits and snack-a-jacks that were offered to me, choosing to tell colleagues that I "can't" eat these and telling them about the challenge and what it means and why I'm doing it. Ramping up the accountability. They've decided to call me Captain Caveman.

Instead I had the following:

3:00pm: Apple
4:00pm: 2 celery sticks with 2tsps cashew butter
5:00pm: Nectarine
5:30pm: 6 Almonds and an espresso with 1 tsp coconut oil

Workout (active rest?)
5:50pm: Rolling my knackered legs and some couch stretches
6:15pm FERINO'S FAB ABS!!

This was my first time at Fab Abs. I was kinda looking forward to it, but also kinda thinking it might just be a whole new world of pain. It was fun... and a bit painful!!

7:40pm: Came home and got tucked straight into* the slow cooked beef and veg. Had a bowlful. And it was good!

*due to the high GI mushrooms, obvs!

Crap photo, good food.

My one criticism of this concoction is that it was a bit 'thin'. Ordinarily, I might have used the cornflour thickening trick, or opted to throw in some lentils to the recipe. Any ideas on how to thicken would be appreciated!!

I've not supplemented with protein powder today. The only other thing I intend to have is another coffee with coconut oil and my evening supplements (as yesterday).

Things to work on: shortening my blog entries...!!

[smileyface]