Topic: Chronicles of M2

[Mark Toorock]

41.324 (Monday)

Over the weekend - Several mini-hikles as part of my shelter building experiment
2.18 Mi 1,485 gain
.85 501 gain
2.41 1,620 gain
1.63 477 gain (downhill)

Monday - Break Dancing class at Primal - 1 hour practice - and my first battle what up yo?

[Mark Toorock]

41.325 -Tuesday

Indoor Rock climbing - got there after 9 so less than 2 hours

5.7 (easy)
5.7 - step - twist reach - hard!
5.7 - step - twist reach - hard!
5.8 - Flashed - easy
5.8+ - Flashed - easy

[Mark Toorock]

41.331 (Monday)

5-6 Flip training - made a small breakthrough in my level of fear on going straight back over my head today. It was definitely a small but noticable gain in my confidence that I think has come about because I have been more consistent. My form is terrible and my approach questionable, but this way does seem to be working for me.

7:00 APK Academy class - fun warm up with dips - I need to do more dips!! Then good class on striding, two foot and stride combos, and rolling to dive roll to dive roll over obstacles onto obstacles progression - fun!

8:00 - made it through 40 minutes of breakdancing class - learning the three step - very similar to capoeira cocarinha! Was too tired to continue!!

[Mark Toorock]

41.332 Tuesday
Didn't get to train till 8 but made it work. good warm up with qm, kong qm, squats, jump muscle ups, pullup rows. Then worked on back tucks - kept at least 50% from the night before. was going fairly straight over but pretty far back, but getting to my feet with hands still hitting. Setup was 2 sections of soft vault on top of red mat with blue mat doubled on red mat.

[Mark Toorock]

41.333
Warmup with strides and stride to crane and cat, some running jumps and some precisions. Circuit with Mel and Josh.
Then worked on tucks again - Setup was 2 sections of soft vault on top of red mat with blue mat doubled on red mat.
Kept less from yesterday, started ok, went to really bad, and worked it back up to at least where I was yesterday, but then was too tired to really advance.

I feel like I need to work to get quickly back to where I was the day before, and then have enough energy to work at that level and beyond for another 20 minutes to really make any progress.

Being scared is tiring!

[Mark Toorock]

41.334

Worked on back tucks again - definitely seeing a lot of progress by working consistently. Today worked on advice from Tony - through back layouts to chest to get straight over - did that for a while with some success - then went back to tucking, was able to go more straight back today more easily than before.

Also did some handstands.

[Mark Toorock]

41.335

Friday Night Freerunning at APK Academy

Worked on punch fronts, K to P, cat-backs, and then, of course, back tucks. Started pretty well but couldn't hog the mats

[Mark Toorock]

41.341

Last Friday I pulled a hip flexor in Freerunning.

Saturday the PA guys came and I trained lightly on the bars

Sunday I jammed at Georgetown for maybe 20 minutes - then went for an awesome hike / run with Winnie - mile of off trail on steep ground, mile of brisk jog on trail, 1 hour of balance work on downed tree

Monday - 5:00 bit of training on bars and rolling

Tuesday - rest day

Wednesday (today) - 40 minutes on backtucks - 20 to warm up, 20 to practice

Had to go back to the side and that was pretty bad so I used the back layout / whip back practice to get me straighter - got to a couple of decent ones, then made a slight push forward as I drove from my legs (which have been throwing me off axis throughout) and drove them straighter back.

The additional height I was able to get form Mike Metze's suggestions of my arm timing played a big part in getting the confidence to do "jump, then tuck" vs the whip back try to tuck flying donut" approach.

Did one fairly good "jump, look forward, tuck by pulling legs over head" landed about on knees still tucked but facing forward not down. This was about 10% improvement over previous.

365-341 - 25 days to get this down.

[Mark Toorock]

41.355

Worked on back tucks with Travis spotting. Set, lean, look, tuck. Got a few good "over the shoulder" ones.

Indoor climbing 2 hours
Fall practice - fall on the rope from every height - this did an amazing amount for my confidence and allows me to do maybe 30% more moves / effort and be relaxed
5.6 F
5.7 F
5.8 F
5.9 Fail
5.7 F and repeat in 1:45
5.8+ F

[Mark Toorock]

41.356

Did my first good sideflip today. Stop of fear =- stop of drifting.

Focus on what can go right, not what can go wrong.

[Mark Toorock]

42.3

did not do a backtuck on my birthday. Did not let that stop me, trained more today and got pretty close. Should have it by the end of the week or 2 weeks at most. Every year I got to my BD, failed, and stopped. I have learned this year that failure is not when I don't do it, but when I stop trying. I know that this is a common saying, but I now feel a very sound connection with this statement.

BD - headache, slept till 2:00.

9/10 - camped out - woke up at 3:30 and clibed Old Rag, ate breakfast at the top at sunrise. Hike down, ran last .9 miles in 9 minutes. Wish it was faster, rocky trail, but downhill.

9/11 worked on back tucks - more progress. straight over many times, fairly good tucks, still not jumping up very high or tucking very well, used extra section of trapezoid to get more height and made it around to hands and feet instead of hands and knees. Happy with the day's progress and proud that I did  not stop working towards this goal.

[Mark Toorock]

42.17 Rock Climbing - Indoor climbing at sportrock

This past Sunday I was at Crescent Rocks and did a solid 8 outside, scary, but cool.


did two 6's to warm up - easy. Then an 8 - easy.

Then a 9 - 1 long take, and done
Another 9, 1 long take and done

On the Slab 5.10+ = fail
Slab 5.11- success! (Flashed)

5.9 (black one in the corner) Flashed!! My first ever I think?

Anyway, climbing felt good even though I was tired I was climbing better on harder stuff. I didn't give in and made moves that I wouldn't have completed before.

[Mark Toorock]

42.18

Back to the tucks

It's been a while since I practiced - last Friday night (42.13) but before that a full week as well as I was working on a project and couldn't train.

Made a small progress today in that I went off the wooden box instead of the trapezoid for the first time. Took a while to get back to straight, and I never got quite to where I had been 2 weeks ago, but I got close and I'm back on it. I'll be away this weekend so will miss some practice, but hit it hard next week.

[Mark Toorock]

42.43
Hey friends!
It's been a while. I've had fun training in Movnat (Got certified) and went to a 1 day in DC.
Went to the Auburn Jam and had a blast with those guys. Thanks Cody and Alex for being so awesome!
This weekend was the VTPK jam and I really didn't get to train much, but got to hang with good friends in a really tight community!
Haven't done my back tuck practice in what seems like over a month ... will get back on that.
Tonight did split foot training with good success by envisioning it as a dive roll takeoff which comes very naturally.
Did some fun kongs using a vault box on it's side as a launch ramp.
Did some fun twisty should pop moves off a wedge with Tony and Josh.
Did a few fly-aways - been a long time for these too so I am not as comfortable as I once was - will aim to do a few a day to build that back up.

Oh, and been eating like crap. Getting fat. I'm probably a good 5 pounds over where I was as all belly fat. Worse is that I feel like crap, low energy. not how I want to feel, need to start eating well again.

[Mark Toorock]

42.58

For a while now I have been eating and feeling like crap and not exercising.

Did grappling last Tuesday, and I think 1 parkour class.

Time to get back to it.

Breakfast
3X Fish oil
3 eggs
100g corned beef hash
6 almonds
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cauliflower
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 pink grapefruit
16 oz water
12 oz coffee

Lunch:
6oz italian sausage
1/2 onion
can olives
2 strips bacon
1/3 jar spaghetti sauce

Late snack:
1 can white tuna in water
1 can olives
3 strips bacon
1 romain heart
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Need to drink more water!

Workouts:
Row 500 in 1:43 (haven't rowed in months if at all this year!)
back squat 135X5
185X5
205X3
some pullups

Breakdancing class - 1/2 way through and the double vision got me.

[Mark Toorock]

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Ugh!!

Ok, so like 4 posts since my birthday in septmenber - pretty bad.

right after xmas I reached an all time high - weight that is - 174.8 - a full 10.6 pounds heavier than my low last year of 164.2 (same scale, sae clothes, after climbing both times)

so, now I've lost about 1.2 that weight but still am way down on muscletone, energy, stamina, etc.

I did recently complete the course in the Fight or flight competition, so I was happy for that.

Last night was travis' birthday workout, which for me turned into:

25 vaults
25 pullups (10 with band - bitch!)
25 inverted burpees - deck squat to handstand
25 box jumps
4 lengths of QM
18 burpees. - pretty sore right now.

have been "back" to climbing about 4 times

starting to eat better - let's see how this goes

[Mark Toorock]

42.140

Last post was 42.131 for reference

42.135 - Climbing - 5 9s! 2 flashed, 1 with 1 take, 2 failed at the last hold!! Ugh!!

42.137 - climbing - Holy Frustration Batman - all 5.8's - did some clean, some not clean and even failed one - what happened? Monday was my best day ever and this feels like my worst. Did get up at 5:30 AM and probably didn't eat too well.

42.138 - parkour class - wayyy out of shape - worked on top-outs and felt pretty good at the movements but the warm-up was hard on me and my endurance sucks!

42.140 - climbing - a good day - did every 8 in the gym (7 of them) with only 1 take on one route. also did a 9 with 2 takes as my second to last. 5.6 5.7 5.8X6 5.9 5.8

[Mark Toorock]

42.162 (yesterday 2/18)

rock climbing is going pretty well lately, I have done nights of doing all 8's(except 1) clean and done nights of attempting just 9's, I think I've even done  few 9's clean and flashed one or two now.

My fatass problem has not gone away - down to 173(ish) from 174.8 high earlier this year (which is a 10 year high since I quit smoking!) but definitely putting on a bit of muscle compared to a month ago. Long way to go.

Last night - 1st CrossFit workout in as long as I can remember.
Warmup - 2X Row 200M , 16 lunges, 15 kettlebell swings, 10 T push ups
Hamstring stretch, hip flexor stretch, IT / glute stretch
Deadlifts - 70%, 80%, 90% - 3 @ 175, 3 @ 205, 5 @ 235 (way off my previous capabilities)
Good mornings - 4 straight sets of 10- did 2 with PVC and 2 with 15 pound bar
Ab roller - 4 X 10 with 1:30 rest between (did from knees not feet)
3 rounds for time:
40 double Unders
15 slam ball (20#)
15 pushups

took 14:27 (longest in the gym) but didn't count subs on double unders, so did 2X as much work, 240 singles and 120 doubles - was out of breath most of the time.
good to be back.

[Mark Toorock]

42.170
Have started the stretching and it's going well!
Sunday (42.169)- Hike billy goat - lots of jumping and rock scrambling - crappy cardio-respiratory fitness level

Today-
Crossfit tonight - "I'm not dead yet, I'd like to go for a walk"
warmup - 2X: 20KB Swings, 10 DB PP, 10 JPU, 10duck Walk, 2X Samson
Hip flexor, hamstring, and IT stretches X 1 min each side
strict pullups: 10,8,8,7,6
Pushups 2,1,X,1 - 14,10,9,8,7
Overhead Press - 45X8, 65X5, 95X3, 105X3 (max about 130?)
3 rounds for time:
15 DB Power Cleans (25# each)
15 Push ball - 20# 10'
15 slam ball 20#
5:31 - mostly breath limited.

[Mark Toorock]

42.171 Rock Climbing

didn't warm u0p well and went too far over my paygrade

did a 6 and then Killed an easy 7
Failed a 9+
failed a 10
did a 9 with 2 long takes
did a 9 clean - flashed
failed a 9
did an 8 with 1 take that I didn't need

sore today, all over my upper body!