Day 353: CF Armoury: Three weeks and no post... What the....

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted.    Many things had occurred.  So let's do a recap of what's happen in the last 3 week (21 days) since my last post.

Week of May 9th, 2016:

I got sick, started to feel it on the evening of the 9th and by the 11th; it hit me like a sack of hammers.   It took me a few days before I could make it to a Medicentre as the OTC medicine weren't working.   

My goto OTC (over the counter)
medicine; usually fixes me up

Went for blood work and a chest x-ray; and it was determined that I had Bronchitis. 

Doctor prescribed antibiotics, and an inhaler.  Great!!! Not!

Cough medicine (OTC)

Never wish this on anyone, and it took me out..  Not just out of the gym, but from work for 7 days.   Fuck!   Took two more weeks off from the gym to allow my system to heal, specifically my lungs.   Waited until my antibiotics were finish, and then tried to ease myself back into things.  

I knew I was in trouble when I went up two flights of stairs on my first day back to work (I choose to do stairs instead of the elevator, it's only two flights of stairs for god sake!!).  Anyways, I almost passed out when I got up to the top of the stairs.   Fast forward it two days later, the passing out was not as prominent, just winded.   Every day I tackled the stairs, I felt my lungs were getting stronger, less coughing and wheezing at the top of the stairs. Yet, I was still having the occasional coughing fit.   Cough drops and inhaler in hand was my remedy when at work.  


Obviously because I was sick; I ended up missing some big events.    Crossfit Armoury held a bbq to support our athletes going to the regionals.   And at the same time, it was a great chance to meet the members from the south location.   The event was called, "South meets West".  A lot of fun activities were scheduled, one of which  included dunking the regional athletes in water.   Overall, I heard this event was a great time for everyone in attendance!

South Meets West BBQ - May 15th, 2016
(Champ City Crossfit, now known as Crossfit Armoury - South)
<picture credit:  Jonathan Fong>

In addition to the bbq; there was a 50/50 draw to help with some additional fund raising. 
Along with that were Crossfit Armoury Regional 2016 T- Shirts.   The one on the bottom is a T-shirt from Optimize Physiotherapy, I can't help but add to my collection of tee shirts.  There is never too many!!! 

Regional 2016 T-shirts, and Optimize Physiotherapy T-shirts
<picture credit: Clem Ho>

May 20 - 22, 2016:

Crossfit Regionals in Portland (May 20 - 22, 2016); watched our athletes give it all via on-line streaming.   Crossfit Armoury sent 9 athletes, competing in the the West Regionals.   Canada West.   A bit different this year from the past as it's called, the Super Regionals.   Previous year, it was just Canada West competiting.  But this year, they put Canada West + North West together.

From Crossfit Armoury Instagram account - 9 Athletes representing Crossfit Armoury
(Top Left to bottom right:  Curt Manning, Megan Sargent, Kyle L'arrivee,
AJ Facendi, Alex Parker, Amy Speed-Andrews,
Carter Diederich, Catherine Fortuna , Franky Wood)

Some pictures from the event, again from Crossfit Armoury's Instagram:

Great Looking Team; arriving in Portland

Competiting was fierce, but I'm am so proud of these folks with their final results.  

Final Standing for Crossfit Regionals (West Regionals) - 2016

Week of May 30th:

Today was my first day back and of course, the WOD was "Murph".  Not just any wod, but a benchmark WOD.  

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Not feeling like running or attempting to cause more issues; I've opted to start myself on a new programming strategy.

Some of the members from the group, formally known as the #7amstrong has started to focus on building up strength, for their base.  As well as working on shoulder stability, which they are using Crossfit Symmetry.

For our strength, we are using the Wendler (5-3-1) program.  The strength program focuses on four lifting movements; Bench Press, Press (Strict/Military), Back Squats, and Deadlifts.
The guys had suggested I download an app called, "Big Lifts 2" to my phone.  The app is available on both Android and iOS.   Android has a nice extra feature which will show you which plates to use to build up to your percentage.  This is a big bonus for me, as most of the regular blog reader knows that my "Plate Math" sucks!

Big Lifts 2 - on the Google Play store
(Android).  It's the same icon on iOS.

The nice thing about this app, is it calculates out you percentage, and also shows you what you use for your warm-up sets, and the actual reps and sets for when you lift.   I like easy, especially when it comes to lifting.   And with me starting this early in the morning, 7 am..  soon to be moving to 6:30 AM; easy is nice!   #630isthenew7am

Today, I started with Back Squat and Press (Military/Strict), following the program.   Prior to this, we did some stretches and warm-up.   The warm-up was holding an empty barbell over our shoulder at the bottom of our squat for two minutes.  Clem, who I'll refer to as  "Coach Clem" was giving us directions/guidance as we were in this position.   Suggestions included keeping our spine neutral, chest upright, knees over the toes (an area where I need work), heels and toes down.  It was a very long two minutes.   I'll do my other two lifting movements (bench press and deadlifts) on Wednesday (giving myself some time to recover).

I'm still working on some cardio, and the group opted to do 10 Minutes EMOM, skipping.
For me it's a great way to exercise my lungs without over doing it.    We broke it down to 40 second of work with 20 seconds of rest.   I started with 40 singles for the first two minutes and then adjusted it to 50 singles.   At set 9, I did 70 singles to balance it out to an average of 50 reps per minute.    Total number of singles, 500 in ten minutes.    

Next, we worked on Crossover Symmetry - http://crossoversymmetry.com/
I had used this before, a few months back.. but didn't stick to it as I had planned.  Too many things going on, and not enough time.    I suspect with the change in schedule, starting earlier; I'll be able to incorporate this into my routine.   This will help with the shoulder stability.  

And again, thanks for one our regional competitor, Curt Manning for purchasing this equipment and leaving it here for all of us to use!    


Prior to leaving for home after a good workout; Lightweight Foods - http://www.lightweightfoods.com  was just making their weekly delivery of food.   
I opted to spoil myself and picked up a Beef Sliders (and the fact that I didn't meal prep the night before).

My choice for the post workout meal

Upcoming changes in programming at Crossfit Armoury.   Some exciting times and changes starting in the month of June.  Will update with more detail soon...

Remember to stay consistent in your training and tackle one WOD at a time!!