Countdown to D-Day: T minus 51

TRAINING

Workout 1: 0930 h
Combat Charge
With a partner, AMRAP in 25 min of:
20 L/R Punches
20 Pad Pushups
20 Knee Strikes
20 Squats
20 Roundhouse Kicks

Workout 2: 1115 h
Instructor WOD
"Murph"
1 mile Run
100 Pullups
200 Pushups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Time: 34:16

Performed "Murph" sans 20# weight vest; partitioned "Cindy"-style (20 rounds of 5/10/15).

45-minute Spin @ 1200 h

Workout 3
With a 20 kg KB, perform 3 rounds of 10 reps each:
Snatch (R)
H2H Pushup
Snatch (L)
Situp
Clean and Jerk (R)
American Swing
Clean and Jerk (L)
Figure 8 Upper Cut

***
NUTRITION
Meal 1:
4 oz grilled chicken breast (4P)
3 oz mixed salad greens (1C)
1 oz goat cheese (1P)
Total: 1C, 5P

Meal 2:
4 eggs (4P)
3 oz mixed salad greens (1C)
1 c mushrooms (1/3C)
Total: 1 1/3C, 4P

Snack 1:
Oasis lentil dip (2C, 1P)
4 c broccoli (2C)
Total: 4C, 1P

Snack 2:
1 apple (2C)
1 oz string cheese (1F)
Total: 2C, 1F

Snack 3:
2 Laughing Cow cheese wedges (2F)
3 oz whey protein powder + liberal sprinkling of cinnamon + water (3P)
24 almonds (8F)
Total: 3P, 10F
***

Countdown to D-Day: T minus 52

TRAINING

45-minute Spin @ 0930 h

Workout 1: 1045 h
NavySEALs.com CrossFit WOD
4 rounds of:
800 m Run
21 Box Jumps (24")
21 Deadlifts (185#)

Time: 39:10

Deadlifts at 185# felt heavy today. Had to break them up into sets of 6,5,5,5. I attribute that to the CFSB strength work I did yesterday -- d'oh, I deadlifted.

Workout 2: 1345 h
CrossFit Evolution
7 rounds of:
10 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#)
10 Knees to Elbows
10 Double Unders

Time: 11:32
***

NUTRITION
Today was a more forgettable day, eating-wise. I met a friend whom I hadn't seen in ages at a Chinese restaurant for dinner, since she had an intense craving for all-you-can-eat crab legs. I valiantly attempted to eyeball portions and remain in the Zone, and I think I did pretty good save for ingesting some battered chicken pieces in a goopy sauce. Here's what I had (approximate amounts):

2 c mixed salad greens
1 c broccoli
1/2 c stir-fried tofu w/ vegetables
1/2 c beef with green peppers and onions
1 c aforementioned battered chicken pieces in goopy sauce
1 pc egg foo young

I have absolutely no idea how to convert those into blocks. I suppose it didn't really matter, since I felt sick to my stomach after eating that (I think it was the grease and general nastiness of the food), and went home and headed straight for the bathroom.

I feel significantly better now after clearing all that crap out of my system. Lesson learnt.
***

Countdown to D-Day: T minus 53

TRAINING
Workout 1: 0730 h
3 rounds of 30 reps each:
Double KB Racked Walking Lunge (2 x 30#)
KB Burpee to High Pull (63#)
KB Flip Squat (44#)

Time: 30:16

Workout 2: 1130 h
With a 16 kg KB, perform 5 rounds of :45 on/:15 off:
H2H Swing
Snatch L/R
OH Walking Lunge L/R
Goblet Squat
Chest Press to Rocking Chair

Workout 3: 1315 h
CrossFit Evolution
"Ivan"
AMRAP in 10 min of:
2 Muscle-Ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 KB swings (32 kg/24 kg or 70/55)

No. of rounds completed: 9 + 1 Muscle-Up

"Olga"
AMRAP in 10 min of:
4 Pullups
6 Pushups
8 KB Swings (16 kg/12 kg or 35/25)

No. of rounds completed: 11 + 4 Pullups

I basically did both workouts back-to-back (so it sort of evolved into an AMRAP in 20 minutes workout).

Notes:
"Ivan": M/Us started from kneeling position, HSPUs were performed down to a 25# plate for full ROM, and I performed 32 kg Russian KB swings.

"Olga": Performed as Rx'd, with 16 kg American KB swings.

CFSB Programming
Strength:
Deadlift
3 x 185#
3 x 195#
3 x 205#

20 x 165#
***

NUTRITION
Meal 1:
4 oz grilled chicken breast (4P)
3 oz mixed salad greens (1C)
1 oz goat cheese (1P)
Total: 1C, 5P

Meal 2:
3 oz grilled chicken breast (3P)
3 oz mixed salad greens (1C)
1 tsp sunflower seeds (4F)
Total: 1C, 3P, 4F

Snack 1:
Oasis lentil dip (2C, 1P)
4 c broccoli (2C)
Total: 4C, 1P

Snack 2:
1 navel orange (2C)
1 oz string cheese (1F)
Total: 2C, 1F

Snack 3:
2 Laughing Cow cheese wedges (2F)
3 oz whey protein powder + liberal sprinkling of cinnamon + water (3P)
Total: 3P, 2F

Snack 4:
2 Laughing Cow cheese wedges (2F)
4 tbsp peanut butter (12F)
24 rice crisps (4C)
Total: 4C, 14F

(And the question is, when did Laughing Cow wedges ever develop such winsome appeal? Damn, they're sabotaging my attempt at being Paleo!). Hungry today -- maybe I ought to up my fat blocks. That explains the peanut butter shoveling and rice crisps (not quite Paleo, again).

Grand Total: 12C, 12P, 21F
***

Countdown to D-Day: T minus 54

TRAINING
Workout 1: 0600 h
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of:
Ring Dips
Wall Ball Shots (14#)
Situps

Time: 13:13

Workout 2: 1415 h
NavySEALs.com CrossFit WOD

Phase I: Preparation
Run 1 mile

Phase II: Intensity

Fight Gone Bad V 2.0: 4 rounds:
20 Wall Ball (14lb)
20 SDLHP 55lb
20 Box Jump 24in
20 Push-Press (75lb)
Row for 20 calories
rest 1 minute between rounds

CFSB Programming
Strength:
Back Squat
5 x 145#
5 x 150#
5 x 155#

Skill Development:
30 HSPU (to 25# plate)
***

NUTRITION
Meal 1: 1830 h
4.5 oz salmon (3P)
6 c mixed salad greens (1C)
Total: 1C, 3P

Meal 2: 2030 h
Produce Station makes a mean grilled steak salad! It's even got bleu cheese (non-Paleo, but WTF) and grilled veggies. If only it didn't burn such a hole in my pocket.
4 oz beef (4P)
6 c mixed salad greens (1C)
1/2 c cherry tomatoes (.5C)
1/2 c mixed grilled vegetables -- onions, peppers (1C)
1 oz bleu cheese (1P)
Total: 2.5C, 5P

Snack 1:
Oasis lentil dip (2C, 1P)
4 c broccoli (2C)
Total: 4C, 1P

Snack 2:
1 gala apple (2C)
12 almonds (4F)
Total: 2C, 4F

Snack 3:
3 oz whey protein powder + liberal sprinkling of cinnamon + water (3P)
24 almonds (8F)
Total: 3P, 8F

Grand Total: 9.5C, 12P, 12F
***

SLEEP
7 hours
***

Eat to Thrive

From "World-Class Fitness in 100 Words":

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

I'm leaping on the Paleo-Zone bandwagaon. The Zone Diet is a restricted-calorie diet (as Nicole Carroll put it succinctly, we tend to overeat, and by overeating we fail to thrive -- we'd do better on threshold calories) and so I'll be using an Intermittent Fasting (IF) protocol to make it slightly more manageable. My fasts will range from 16-18 hours in length (10 p.m. to 2 p.m.-4 p.m.).

I've had success using a cyclical ketogenic diet protocol (a la the Anabolic Diet). High fat, moderate protein, almost negligible carbs. So why fix something that ain't broke?

I'm not seeing gains of the magnitude that I'd like to see, by doing the AD alone, and weekends are kind of a free-for-all. If you know me well, I can be quite immoderate at times. So I'd like to bring it back to basics for two weeks or so and then black-box my diet from then on. To be honest, I've never given the Zone a fair shot before -- one of the things that irks me about it is coming up with a halfway decent meal based on block prescriptions (which is the foundation of the Zone Diet itself). A selection of various foods does not equal a meal, in my opinion. For instance, a 4-block meal might comprise 4 oz turkey breast, 12 almonds, and 2 apples. Hardly close to something you'd find in a gourmet restaurant. But for the sake of performance I'm going to suck it up and partake of several such food selections. And I've discovered several good Zone recipe blogs which I fully intend to peruse over the next couple of days.

While I'm going to stick by the block prescriptions, I'm going to be a little looser when it comes to other aspects of the Zone -- i.e. my topmost goal is to hit the targeted number of blocks by the end of each day, so I'm not too concerned about perfect macronutrient proportions at individual meals. In fact, doing Zone on an IF protocol is counter-intuitive to Zone principles themselves, since you should never allow more than 4-5 hours to lapse between meals.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but it looks as though I'll potentially tweak my nutrition by dropping some carb blocks and upping the fat to reach and sustain an optimal state of performance. Based on the 11-block Zone recommendation that I came up with using the block calculator, I've already tinkered a little with the plan that I'm going to experiment with for the next two weeks, and come up with this:

Daily Zone Block Intake
Protein: 12 blocks
Carbs: 9 blocks
Fat: 12 blocks

So basically I've upped my protein and fat blocks by 1, and taken 3 blocks off my carb total, which will give me an approximate macronutrient ratio of 36% C/33% P/33% F. Not too far off the golden Zone ratio of 40% C/30% P/30% F.

The common refrain in the CrossFit community when it comes to a nutritional protocol is that Zone is for quantity, and Paleo is for quality. According to Nicole Carroll, maximizing performance in CrossFit lies on a continuum -- starting out with Paleo is good, going Paleo-Zone is the best.

So for the Paleo aspect of things, I'm going to adhere to Paleo guidelines as far as possible, which essentially means cutting out grains, legumes, and dairy from my diet and dosing up on lean meats, copious amounts of fibrous, non-starchy vegetables, some fruit, and nuts to round out my healthy fats. That being said, I won't sweat it if I have an ounce or two of cheese on my salads once in a while (an ounce of cheese = one block of protein), as well as supplementing with Optimum Nutrition whey protein as a quick source of protein, but other than that, I intend to stay on the Paleo straight and narrow.

Whew. That's quite a bit to digest (pardon the pun)! I'll report back daily on how it goes. I need the accountability, so thank you for reading!