Burning Off Thanksgiving Joy

I think I had way too much fun with the other two of the Three Musketeers plus our little buddy!  It wasn't too spicy of a workout because we were a team of 4, but that being said, it was still a pretty good challenge!  Did I mention I would rather run 2000 meters than row 500 meters?

This was us post-workout with A. Gray-Baker photographing us.

And here are the Three Musketeers plus our little companion!  When we're together, we produce mayhem! Coach T learned the hard way during CrossFit Open 20.2 that when I combine forces with T. Harris and A. Gray-Baker, explosions will ensue as we crush everything in our way.

And I also added a bit of music for fun afterwards because my fingers needed a little bit of relief and I'm feeling unusually musical.  I blame my doppelganger at the gym (aka Coach J) for invoking the music bug in me!

Musical Fun

So I had a bit of time to kill before going off to enjoy a Friendsgiving dinner with the Alpha Wolves and a huge chunk of the CrossFit Iron Legion gang. The fuzzball is giving me a much-needed block of solitary time, and it looks like the materials I'm supposed to go over for when school starts back up are a lot more straightforward than I expected.  I don't think I need to spend quite as much time rehearsing scripts such as "repeat this sound with me..." or "point to the brown dog" or even simply reciting the alphabet as I would for a more complex class.

First there was the Rondo Capriccioso, which has been a bit of a technical challenge for me, doubly so on this darned keyboard.

And then there was the Seven Good Humored Variations on a Ukranian Folk Song by Dmitri Kabalevsky.  This one, I put my own interpretation on each of the variations because I thought I'd have a bit of fun experimenting.

Muscle Drills

So with buggered up knees courtesy of a critical fumble, it's rather hard to really get any running or squatting done, so of course, creativity has to come into play. Thank goodness for the insane mastermind in the form of Coach J to help me come up with adaptive drills to help build up my strength, muscle mass, and neural connections while my knees are healing up!

Friday, I was working on Soviet muscle snatches.  What's NOT shown is the massive amount of feedback and insights from Coach J between videos, as he is spread very thin between several athletes with completely orthogonal needs and skill levels.  One interesting bit of insight I got from him is that I am much smoother at the top without my glasses. I do have some issues with getting my knees back under the bar after I get the bar "around" my knees during the initial part of the pull.  What sets the Soviet muscle snatches apart is that there's not supposed to be any contact at the pocket, and if needed, I can press the bar out at the top.  It's a movement that's more supposed to help build strength and muscle mass, which I desperately need. 

Today was work on no-contact block cleans with push presses in the absence of a coach who is particularly familiar with the no-contact cleans. Thankfully, I do get a lot of feedback online from my mentor as he gets a chance to watch what I do.  I went relatively heavy for this type of drill after getting the general ok about my form on muscle cleans aside from working on getting my knees back under the bar.

And then there were the heavier singles...

And then I worked on heavy clean pulls to get used to pulling the heavier weights because I do struggle with my form on pulls when I anticipate the weights.  The trick for me will be to drop under the weight quickly enough and then stand it back up.  I'm trying to be more of an efficient squat cleaner, as I *don't* like power cleans very much.  There's much less bruising from squat cleans than on power cleans.

Paines Prairie: A Walk Through Ecological Contrasts

So I managed to bugger up my knee last week, and at the recommendation of my fellow athletes and mentor, I decided to not do too much flexion, running, or anything else that has a significant risk of tearing or inflaming my already torn knees any further.  That being said, I can't sit still for too long, or I risk losing everything I have worked for!

My first stop was Paines Prairie State Park, which I had visited previously, but it was hard to get any real exploration in during the heat of summer at the peak of mosquito season with family. However, as a soloist in the winter with a grand total of a dozen mosquitoes to annoy me, it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy some desperately needed solitude.  I do have many amazing folks whose company I enjoy and would have been honored to have had with me, but at the same time, I need my solitude first and foremost before I can handle any human interaction.

And then there was an intermission for lunch before I went to the Sweetwater Branch Park, which is an artificial wetlands ecosystem to help treat water prior to its release back into the ecosystem.  It's at the south end of Gainesville on the northern edge of Paines Prairie.  I didn't move particularly quickly because it was so darned people-y there, but it was certainly worth the visit!

My third and final location was the Boulware Springs entrance of the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail, which brushes against the northern borders of Paines Prairie and the eastern borders of the Sweetwater Wetlands.  This is also where I can catch the La Chua trail, which has finally re-opened, and I had some extremely rare opportunities to get very close to wildlife as well as watch the early stages of a sunset.