Pandemic Lessons Learned, Week 3

Is it weird to say that week 3 was worse than week 2, but not quite as bad as week 1? Woof. Work was a bear this week and I hit some serious motivation issues in the middle.

But I managed to get in a few workouts.

Monday, 30-MAR-2020

It was my Dad’s birthday! Whee! Got in with AJ and did back squats and deadlifts.

• Back Squats: 155# x5, 180# x5, 205# x7
• Deadlifts: 195# x5. 225# x5, 255# x6

Wednesday, 1-APR-2020

Made it in with Ev and we did strict press and bench press.

• Strict Shoulder Press: 90# x3, 105# x3, 115# x8
• Bench Press: : 140# x3, 160# x3, 180# x5

Saturday, 4-APR-2020

Made it in with Ev again for back squats and deadlifts.

• Back Squats: 165# x3, 195# x3, 215# x5
• Deadlifts: 210# x3, 240# x3, 270# x6

Sunday, 5-APR-2020

And then today Ev and I did the “Support Your Local Box” fundraiser, workout 1:

• 10 minute AMRAP
• 10 air squats
• 9 dumbbell snatches, right arm
• 10 push-ups
• 9 dumbbell snatches, left arm

Used a 30# dumbbell and made it through 5 full rounds + 7 reps.

Tired now. 🙂

Lessons Learned

My Uncle Fred famously says “LIfe’s lesons will be repeated until learned.” Well, I learned a few.

At the end of the week, I learned that I should look at my schedule the night before. On Friday morning I somehow managed to ignore my alarm and miss a meeting I was slated to do a brief presentation at. Thankfully a coworker stepped up.

It’s been at least 25 years since I slept through an important meeting, so it doesn’t happen very often. That said, it has become harder and harder to get up in the morning during the stay-at-home order. Every day blends into every other very quickly.

So this week I’m going back to an old technique I used to use.

At the end of every day, I’m going to write down the things I have to focus on for the next day. Important meetings. Tasks. Anything I should do to move forward.

We’ll see if this helps at all, but it gives me something to review. I’m already using Evernote for the majority of my task tracking for work, so this is just another layer above that in Google Sheets.

It’s just too damned easy to lose track of time. And if it’s possible, now I’m even busier. Work has stepped it up a notch and this week I’m going to start running a second online game (Aliens & Asteroids!). That brings me up to an insane three games a week (two I’m running, one I’m playing). We’ll see how long I can keep that up.

I’m doing my best to give myself permission to do what I can each day. Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s less. We’ll see how that goes.

Pandemic lessons, Week 2

What a long strange year March has been… Though the pandemic started weeks ago in China and parts of Europe, it really didn’t “hit home” until the 12th or 13th here. It was then that the precautions began rolling out, with spring breaks extended. And things only ramped up from there.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Last week I think we were all in a bit of shock. I did get a walk in and even managed one workout (see Week 1 Lessons here), but for a person who dislikes change it was rough on the system.

This week was better, though worse in a lot of ways as old habits for me began to creep back into my life. Managed a bit more:

• Tuesday, 2.5 mile walk
• Wednesday, chat with Coach Drea about nutrition/exercise
• Thursday, 2.5 mile walk
• Friday, strength training with Coach Marilee

Bad habits include:

• Skipping breakfast and just drinking coffee
• Less water consumption
• Easier to just hunker down and work (I already worked from home before the crisis, so it’s almost a refuge to just chug along if I’m making progress on work items)
• More regular alcohol consumption (not a lot, but more than I’d like)
• Less healthy eating (more wraps or sandwiches, less salads and veggies)

The usual suspects.

Photo by Frank Busch on Unsplash

On the plus side, I think I’ve only hit Starbucks once in the last couple of weeks and I’m sleeping in later because I don’t have to make sure the girls are up for school.

But just like with everyone else, I am getting a little stir crazy. That’s why I was thankful I managed to get out for a workout with Marilee today.

Strength Day – Upper Body

My wife and girls have been doing intermittent strength training with Marilee for a couple of weeks. Today was the first time I got into the cycle.

Warm-up: Three sets of 10 banded pull-aparts then 10 banded overhead presses (kneel on band, press band upward like doing a strict press), then 10 push-ups.

From there, we looked at some numbers for strict press and bench press. My current one-reps are:

• Strict Press: 145# (set back in February)
• Bench Press: 230# (set many many moons ago), so I used 225# as a number for now

We used those numbers to figure out the following:

• Strict Press, sets of 5 at 95#, 110#, and 130#
• Bench Press, sets of 5 at 130#, 150#, and 170#
• In both cases, the last set of 5 is really 5+ to see how many you can get

So how’d it go?

Strict press got sticky quickly. Sets of 95# and 110# were ok, but showed I needed to tighten my core for each rep more consistently and watch elbow position.

My last set, I did three very ugly reps at 130# and my body wouldn’t go further, so we dropped 5# and I did the last two at 125#.

Bench press wasn’t too bad. 130# and 150# went well. And I got to 7 reps at 170#.

Apparently we will focus on deadlifts and back squats next week and work on some accessory work as we move forward through a four week cycle alternating between upper and lower body movements.

We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

I’m hopeful that I can continue to get some walking in, plus add in the strength component next week. Just want to take it a week at a time for a bit, though I suspect we’re stuck at home at least through the end of April.

Lessons Learned

The biggest thing? Old habits die hard.

Before starting Crossfit and getting into the box regularly, I was a pretty big homebody. I spent a ton of time at my desk or in front of the television.

I thought I was over that, but apparently I was wrong.

Getting out and about to walk around or get a workout in at a friend’s house is great, but it’s not normal. So I shouldn’t be surprised that some of my oldest habits would return with me NOT escaping on a regular basis.

But the social thing… that’s killing me. ME… A huge introvert. Damn the luck. Apparently I need some people time too.

There are some good Introvert memes here

So I’m glad that I have had some gaming opportunities (tabletop RPGs) that have enabled me to “meet up” with the folks that we normally would meet up with anyway. I have a regular Tuesday night group that now meets via Skype and my D&D group that meets intermittently is now meeting more regularly over a messaging app (GotoMeeting) and using Roll20, which is a virtual tabletop that you can get to in a web browser.

It’s not enough, but it’s a start. I know my wife and girls are really feeling it because they have always been much more social than I am. But we’ll slowly find a new normal I hope.

If you’re feeling the pressure and stress, don’t think you’re alone. We’re all struggling to find a “new normal” — and it’s going to be a while before things settle again.

Do your best. Give yourself and others some slack. And we’ll get through this.

Pandemic Lessons Learned, Week 1

Why does it feel like I’m Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks stranded on a desert isle all of a sudden?

Day 8 of Isolation

Seeing the workout is not the same as doing the workout. Doing the workout alone is not the same as doing it in a class setting. Surviving the social isolation is not the same as living…

What a weird time we live in.

I am not ashamed to say that I fell into a deep dark hole as soon as we were locked down for social distancing. My last actual workout was a week ago — a team workout at Continuum with Caleb and Larry.

Note: I miss the madness at the box.

Since then, I have felt guilty day after day watching as our own Coach Drea has done her absolute best to loop in people with technology. Remote coaching via Zoom chats and Facebook broadcasts. Yoga from Yogi Vanessa via the same channels. And I have done nothing. Maybe a little stretching here and there, but that’s it.

The streets are abandoned, just like in this photo by James Genchi on Unsplash

Add Energy to the Equation

Today my wife and I worked out with Coach Marilee in her garage, which is about 800m from our house. She asked if I wanted to go and my gut reaction was no. Thankfully the sane part of my brain stepped in and told me that’s why I should go. So I did.

This body had been at rest for several days with little motivation. According to Isaac Newton, I needed to inject some energy into the equation.

We went over, warmed up a bit, and did about a 30 minute team workout. Three stations:

• 30 minute AMRAP:
  • One person did three rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats)
  • One person rowed
  • One person did planks or plank variations
• Repeat until each team member did two rounds

Due to equipment and just generally being a lump, I did jumping pull-ups, but everything else I did pretty much as written. My planks became variations of high planks, low planks, downward dog, and child’s pose.

And I think we were done in maybe 27 or 28 minutes (timer on the phone cut out at 20 minutes).

It was good to move. I owe a big thank you to my wife for dragging me out of the basement today (and Marilee for letting us play in her garage).

Lessons Learned

I work from home, so the “stay home” orders going nationwide didn’t really affect me much — or so I thought. Turned out I had forgotten how much I thrive on routine. And when my routine escapes from home were no longer an option, my world shrunk a ton.

That includes working out. And though I appreciate everything our coaches are doing at Continuum, that approach simply doesn’t work for me. I need to get out of my house and interact with people away from the computer. I need to get on my feet in a place that isn’t home.

When you spend 24/7 at home, it becomes less a home and more incarceration. And I haven’t found a new routine yet.

I tried going for a walk early this week and was gone for maybe 45 minutes, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. And then we had weather changes throw me for a loop on top of simply being home all the time.

Maybe working out with my wife and Lee not far from home is the answer. Maybe it isn’t. But at least I got out one time this week.

We shall see.