Take no prisoners

16kg of all all her glory...Tatiana will not be my master...I will be hers.


Training on monday I went through some finer details of working on my kettlebell snatch...mainly because I 'punch' through on the bell too late and let the darn thing whack me. Let me tell you...the bruised wrists from last week were not acceptable. So working on technique was welcome. The beautiful thing about this was that I knew once some of these details were worked out various things would happen a)12kg snatch would become effortless and b)snatches with the 16kg wouldn't freak me out (with my left hand) quite so much. As predicted, I knew once we went through some technique stuff when I got to trying my left hand, 16kg was do-able. HEAVY...but do-able. Training today I'm still a little sloppy on the arc on the downward swing with the 16kg...so the bell is still trying to swing me around (and not the other way around), but the right hand is so much better and the 12kg is wicked easy. No bruised wrists and I feel more confident I could whip through 100 in 5 mins with the 12kg if my left hand wasn't torn up right now. Still work on needs to be done on the down swing so i'm not beating up my left hand, but it will get better with time and attention.

Lately I have been doing with kettlebells what I do with many sports...put it in terms of physics. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine tonight at dinner about knowing now what you know...and trying not to say "i wish i had know XYZ...earlier"...because if I knew now what I know...I definitely would have done more with newtonion physics in undergrad. Right now I am fascinated with the angular momentum, torque and the amount of 'work' (in physics terms) of the kettlebell swing and snatch. Nerdy I know...but hey...that's me. Although the downside is I had the WORST physics teacher in undergrad and at the time I think I slept through newtonian physics and while my grad degree I did a whole heap load of physics, totally not related to this type. What I find funny is that when i take up a sport the ways I like to 'understand' them are in terms of physics. The number of articles (including journal articles) I read on aerodynamics, drag, and power with respect to the bike is sort of silly...but that kind of thing is bizarrely interesting to me.

But things are coming along as they will. The strength needed to get through all of the RKC requirements will take some training, but I can tell it will happen with time, and perfect practice.

trying to find my groove

mmmmmmmm...tasty KALE smoothie. Tastier than it looks.
Ingredients:
Water
A bunch of kale...as in a FULL bunch you buy at the supermarket
1/2 cup of raspberries (more because I put them in first forgetting I was going make a kale smoothie. They don't have the strongest flavor, so can be omitted)
1 banana...this is necessary as bananas cover the strong bitter flavor of the kale
1/4c of pineapple
dash of lemon juice...help with the bitter
dash of agave.
1 scoop of egg protein "jay Robb" brand protein powder
1 tsp flax seed oil

Things I learned in this process: put the kale in first without any other ingredients. And put it in the blender in batches. You might need to add more water.

Kale is a vegetable that is a bit on the bitter side. Lemon juice does help with that but in the end i needed it a little sweeter for my taste and put about 1tsp of agave in with it. I think I would also then add the flax seed oil and egg protein and lemon juice and then the banana. Then I would see if the pinapple was necessary or not. I'm looking forward to trying this with spinach as spinach is a little on the sweeter side compared to kale.

I'm still in that 'futzing' stage with Paleo. My main limiter the past few weeks are I haven't taken the time to do some food prep during the week or prior to the week so that makes paleo a more challenging way to eat. But as eating paleo is pretty extreme in our overly processed society (no grains, no legumes, no dairy) because of my personality I thought it was better to just take things out while giving myself a bit of grace in it. Go for 80% of the time at the moment and then attempt to eventually get to about 90-95% by the end of Feb. So far...so good. Seems I have lost a few pounds without focusing too much on it too and since I am focused on a better than pre-sick/OTS 2010 %body comp by Sept, I am headed in the right direction.

The thing so far with paleo is this...I feel better. I'm not even 100% on the paleo wagon as far as cutting out all sugar, and being SUPER nit picky or even eating it 90-95% of the time, but I just feel better. So...i'm going with that. This week will try to be more prepared.

RKC training...met with my trainer last week. I had a Functional Movement Screening and got a 13/21...you want to be at least at 14/21...so I'm decent as far as movement is concerned...some dysfunction, but ok. There is a hilarious test (OK...it was hilarious to me since I can't do it and it SEEMS so easy) in part of it. You have this board that is about 6 inches wide and you have to put your hands on either side of it and grip it with your knees too...you are in a 'tabletop' yoga pose with your hands and knees on the ground. THEN...lift both your right arm AND RIGHT leg out to the side. In Yoga...a lot of times they make you do opposite sides (i can do that fine)...but on my right side with both my right arm and my right leg I promptly topple over. Left side isn't great, but not as severe. Being the scientist that I am...I find it rather curious and wonder what underlying issue is causing that. Probably my stupid psoas who hates me on that side.

My trainer then looked at some of my kb moves...Swing is ok over all. He's nit picking on it, but I'm the personality type that I WANT nit picky, perfect form. Since I have enough time between now and RKC in Sept, I want all my form to be correct before adding the volume. Also when someone nit picks on my form, it helps me learn how to teach something. Granted my TGU (turkish getup), and kb snatch form needs a lot of help. TGU...I can't seem to roll onto my opposite arm correctly so that I am able to keep my opposite leg down. And the KB snatch...the punch through is too late and I'm WACKING my forearms. For awhile I thought I my form was alright, and then I started doing higher reps...um...notsomuch. Bruising still with wrist bands. Bruised wrists/forearms is not the best look, but at least I can wear sweaters to cover my arms at the moment.

The only thing that really annoys me at the moment about KB training...my hands. I know it is all about training your hands to grip correctly and holding the bell with your fingers like a hook, but like most people I develop callouses on my non-dominate hand more severely. It's about holding the bell looser...and I know its about holding it looser on the down swing (either the snatch or the swing), but trying to convince your head to do that...good luck. And this week in an effort to keep my callouses small...using a scary callous shaver I managed to CUT my hand...right in the spot that is one of my 'hot spots' on my left hand. Nice...just call me Grace...thanks. Fortunately the hand dermal layer regenerates at an amazing speed. Keeping it as bandaged and out of infection's way as best as I can.

Here are my 2011 goals in order of focus #1 and #2 are really my primary:
1)100 x 16kg kb snatches in 5 mins (my RKC requirements) by Sept
2)Pass the RKC in Sept
3)Get to lower than pre-sick/2010 %body fat levels by Sept. I was about 5 pounds away from that goal %body comp pre-spring 2010 sickness.
4)100 push ups...consecutively...and yes...the standard type of pushups.
5)one pullup


This should keep me busy. :-)

She's here!

Tatiana showed up this week. 16 kg, or 1 pood of beauty and brutality. I did a fun little workout today with my family of kettlbelles. I started with 15 minutes of half turkish getups with one 12kg...yes...me and my pathetic getups. I think I need at least a 10kg, because while I can sorta do the 12kg, on my left side my right leg I cannot keep down. I have trouble keeping my opposite leg down partly because I'm not rolling onto my arm correctly. I think this is a pretty good demo of the getup




And from there I progressed to double 12kg clean and presses. And in 15 mins achieved 12 sets of 3 reps. Things to work on: when i get tired I do let the 'bells slap my wrist harder than I should. I don't tame the arc very well.

And then 10 fun minutes of 20sec on/40sec off of swings and snatches. I pulled in my 20kg for the swings at the end and attempted one set of snatches with my 16kg and the rest with 12kg.

So about that 16kg...um...yea. Really what I did was high arm pulls with the 16kg on my left and and did manage 3 on my right side, but I'm going to be honest (like I was in my last post), 16kg still scares me a bit. I'm meeting with an RKC instructor on monday to have a movement screen and I will work with him towards my RKC this year...so I'm also feeling a little bit of a 'maybe I'll just work with him a bit more to get over this mildly irrational fear first'. I believe the way to move through this is found in the hip snap and the rest is mental.

What is interesting is lately I'm still reading (not commenting much) triathlon blogs and i love to hear what people are up to...what they are training for, what they want to do...but I don't have that 'pull' at the moment. But I do miss my bike (and bike fitness!!)and I do hope to visit the track this year.

The interesting thing I reflected on today is how 'easy' it is for people to come to triathlon or really anything with no background and no foundation for what they can do and what they are able to do. You sign up for your first race. You download a training plan (maybe). You follow it. You complete your race and you are all grins. Next step: new race, new training plan...and it keeps going. What you don't account for are the things that sideline you or taking a lot of time off.

I trained with my new kettlbell gym from July through the end of Sept when they closed. 3 months. Not a lot, but I had a good program that keep progressing every week. And I got stronger. And then the gym closed. And Oct when crazy, and November came around and I had my life back and I trained some...and sort of haphazard...and then there was December of more chaos in lack of focus for any kind of training and now I'm in January and I have lost that beautiful strength I had back in Sept. And what is hard for athletes is that constant thought of 'I used to not be here'. So I am letting it push me forward. I want my strength back from Sept but I also want something akin to 2009....I don't need to be in HIM shape...but this RKC certification process will put me in something equivalent. But this must happen without my body rebelling again like last year.

Forward!