The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Today’s workout called for seven sets of one deadlift, aiming to find out max lift. Unfortunately, I don’t have an Olympic weight set at my house, so I had to use this one as a supplemental to practice my form on the deadlift with dumbbells and kettlebells. Since I have seven sets of dumbbells and kettlebells, I used those. In about 8 minutes, I did 10 reps on each of them, totally 20 lb, 30 lb, 35 lb (kettlebell), 40 lb, 50 lb, 53 lb (kettlebell), 60 lb.

Someday, I shall have to go to a local CrossFit gym and see if I can do these for reals. I’ll work like this for a while, building myself up. I’ll definitely feel this in my back and legs, and that hike all over.

My results: 7:55; HR: 144 avg, 165 max; 95 cal

Today, Ozreiousn, her friend Adam, and I wandered into the Santa Cruz Mountains to hike an epic set of trails in a loop more than ten miles long. We started out fairly early, coffeed up, and headed up into the mountains. Our destination: Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the oldest state park in California, full of old growth redwoods that were large trees when Columbus found land in the West Indies. After winding through more than eight miles of an extremely windy highway 236, which becomes one lane for about seven of those miles, we arrived at the beautiful park headquarters on the highway, explored the visitor’s center, and used the bathroom before a long and grueling journey.

The trail is marked “strenuous” for a reason. It is certainly not for the faint-legged. Huge climbs show off beautiful views inside the forest, which give way to ledged trails cut out of the hillside and through fallen trees. After a few miles, we hooked to the right and started a hard climb northward. Before long, we found the first of three waterfalls. Climbing past the falls was tricky, steep, but well worth the effort. After a quick snack, we connected with Sunset Trail for the journey back. My new GPS unit, the Garmin Vista HCX seemed to be unable to track our progress on the trip computer, the speed box on the compass panel showed us at 0.0 mph quite often, and the map seemed to only grab us every 80 - 100 feet. When we returned exhausted to the park headquarters, the trip computer showed us at 6.25 miles (which is 4.15 short). On saving the route, the GPS calculated the route distance correctly.

The last half of the hike over Sunset Trail was less scenic, but it might have been because we were getting tired of climbing. The first trail we had taken had allowed us to drop in elevation by more than 500 feet. We braved the uphill climbs and allowed for frequent catch-our-breath breaks. That was certainly a strenuous hike, but well worth the effort.

My results: 10.40 miles in 5:24:35; HR: 114 avg, 158 max; 2515 cal (55% fat) => 1383.25 cal fat.

We certainly earned our dinner at Tandoori Cafe this evening. Whew.

Today’s workout was a choice of two “girls”: Cindy or Mary. I picked Cindy. Cindy is the name of a workout (CrossFit workouts are named for girls or soldiers killed in combat) that consists of doing rounds of five pullups, ten pushups, and fifteen air squats against a timer set for twenty minutes. As many rounds as you can, if you please, Mr. Apollo.

I’m not fully down with full pullups (I have maybe two, if I’m lucky). So, I do a jumping pullup, where I jump until I’m over the bar, then let myself fall back to full arm extension, resisting my downward movement as much as I can. I haven’t been doing very many pushups or pullups lately, so I’m weak in those areas.

I managed to complete six sets, but stopped the clock at 18:28. The first minute or so of the exercise involved me fiddling with my heart rate monitor. It’s been having some issues lately where the contacts don’t pick up the correct heart rate for some reason. For example, I walked 4.30 miles this afternoon at a pace of almost 4 miles an hour and the heart rate monitor had me at 105 bpm most of the time (that drives me absolutely crazy). Once I started, though, I could tell this one was going to be rough.

I’m not very good at pushups, which means I need to do a lot more of them. My wrists pop and crack and my hand position is always screwy. I get tired very quickly. After a few of the sets, I had to subdivide the ten rep sets into threes and twos and singles. There were a few times when I was pushing from the floor and I just didn’t have it and collapsed back down.

Six sets is far less than I expected to do, but I’m going to improve. But, wow. I am really weak. That’s only 30 negative jumping pullups, 60 pushups, and 90 squats. Next time, let’s shoot for ten sets.

I am 20.5 pounds lighter today than I was 64 days ago. I’m making progress. I now have 10.5 pounds to my goal of 165 pounds. I’m also working on increasing my overall fitness level by an exponent. I’ve been walking back and forth to the train station to work (I got a new job a month ago in San Francisco), which is almost two miles each way (my backpack weighs about 25 pounds). And eleven days ago, I started doing CrossFit workouts.

I’m really excited about the progress I’ve made and I look forward to chiseling myself into a well-oiled machine. Some of the workouts I do, even scaled back to 45%, make me feel like the feeblest weakest thing in the whole world. But, there’s a nice satisfaction with realizing that muscular soreness means progress. It just takes time.

29 Sep: 175.5 pounds (79.61 kg). BMI: 25.18. Overweight by 1.27 pounds
27 Jul: 196.0 pounds (88.90 kg). BMI: 28.12. Overweight by 21.76 pounds
Change: -20.5 pounds (-9.29 kg). BMI: -2.94.

Onward!

Today’s workout was a timed exercise: Do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of a 400 meter run, followed by as many pullups as possible. Right now, as I work on my upper body strength, I’m subbing jumping negative pullups for the real deal. Instead of pushing super hard with residual soreness in my arms and upper back (workout soreness, not injury soreness), I decided to see if I could muster up four rounds with ten negative pullups per round.

Part of the difficulty this evening was the run. My 400 meter runs were across a dark grass field and back, then onto the bar. Unfortunately, the bar six feet above the ground rolls around. So, I worked on the five foot bar. I finished five rounds in all, one more than I expected. That’s 50 negative pullups and about 2100 meters running back and forth across grass. Not bad.

Splits (complete rounds): 3:42, 7:32, 12:10, 16:05, 19:27.

My results: 5 complete rounds in 20:00; HR: 174 avg, 189 max; 341 cal.

Today’s workout is really simple. Run 5 km for time. It’s been years since I ran any such distance. Usually, when I’m running, which has been less often lately than it was a month ago, I do two miles. I decided to go for the whole distance in one kick. My goal was to keep my lap time under 2:30 per lap. That’s not very fast, but it’s a good start at a 5 km distance. Since I had no way of accurately assessing a tenth of a mile after the 3 mile mark, I decided to go a little longer than the prescribed distance.

Thirteen laps came and went. I had a little tangle up with my retractable headphone cable (it doesn’t like to stay where I set it). But, even when I was starting to die of thirst, I just decided to relax into my steps, drop into the music, ignore the beeps of the heart rate monitor, and try to keep myself at a steady pace. I didn’t get on the track until well after sunset, but it was still about 75° outside. I bumped the pace up a little bit in the last lap.

My results: 3.25 miles (5.23 km) in 32:06; HR 175 avg, 196 max; 552 cal (15% fat)
Split average: 2:28. Fastest: 2:14 (last). Slowest: 2:34 (first)

Tomorrow, more running and more pullups.

Today’s workout called for five rounds for time of: 95 pound sumo deadlift high pulls (15 reps) and 95 pound thrusters (15 reps). I’ve been working at 45%, so I’m using 20 pound dumbbells today (for 40 pounds total). Sunday’s pullups and dips were quite brutal on my weak soft body. In fact, the hardest thing for me to do today, after a rest day yesterday, was to lift my arms over my head. My upper back, obliques, shoulders, and triceps are really sore. But, sore is good. Sore is progress.

It took some time to hammer out all five sets of thirty reps. I am quite certain I’ll feel this tomorrow. The middle set was the roughest. I had a much easier time with the sumo deadlift high pulls than the thrusters. For those not in the know, here’s a short description:

1. Sumo Deadlift High Pull: Legs shoulder width apart, squat down, grab the dumbbells, open to a stand and pull the dumbbells up to your collarbones, keeping your elbows above your wrists.
2. Thrusters: Starting with dumbbells at the collar bone, do a squat with the dumbbells, open to a stand, and press the dumbbells above your head (squat to push press).

My results: 22:05, 6:18 hard zone, HR: 165 avg, 182 max; 339 cal (25% fat).

Thankfully, tomorrow’s a running day. Time to charge up the iPod Shuffle.

Today’s workout called for 30 muscle ups. A muscle up is an exercise where you false grip a pair of gymnastic rings, pull your body up and over the rings until you’re on your hands in dip position. Oh, there is no way I can do that. Watching videos of that is hard enough. The subsitution suggested is 4 dips and 4 pullups per assigned muscle up. This makes 120 of each. I’ve been working at a multiplier of 45%. So, that makes 54 of each this evening.

After nearly four hours of hiking this afternoon, I just wanted to go out, do a few sets of a few reps at a time, and trudge home dragging my knuckles. Trying strict pullups—yeah, two. Two? Is that all you have, Apollo, you weak piece of crap? Okay, pullups in CrossFit speak are kipping pullups, unless designated as strict. Try as I might, I cannot get the rhythm down for those types of exercises.

So to build up to that, because I have no upper body strength at all, I did a bunch of jumping negative pullups. This is where you grab the bar, jump to where your chin’s over the bar, and lower yourself to full extension, fighting gravity. I grunted out 40 of those before my arms could handle no more.

From the bar, I headed over to the parallel bars to see if I had any dips. I had two of those, too, at full strict extension, no leg movement and full arm extension. Okay, let’s not go down all the way and see if we have a few more. After an eon of doing the ones where I’d go down less than six inches, I had finished 40 reps and could no longer hold my own weight on the parallel bars. Wow. Weak. Embarrassingly weak.

It’ll come. I just have to push as hard as I can, keep doing what I’m doing, and I’ll get stronger. Onward!

My results: 20:53; HR: 156 avg, 144 max; 289 cal (30% fat)
Today: including the hike and the warmup walks and today’s pullup/dip fiasco, I burned 2344 calories. That’s not a bad day at all.

This morning, I headed up to Castle Rock State Park with Ozreiousn. She’d never been up there before, but I have. So, off we headed, once I laced up my boots.

It was a little cloudy at the Saratoga Gap and, in fact, it drizzled on us a little near the end of our hike. We hiked into the Campground, 2.8 miles in (further than I’ve been on any of my previous visits). After jumping around at Castle Rock and climbing all over everything, I noticed that I’d forgotten Clif Bars about the time we reached the campground. Turning around, we climbed hard along the trail to try to put some distance with a strangely mooing couple. After a mile or so, we let them pass us and wander away. When the hike was finished, we’d hiked about 6½ miles over some astonishingly beautiful ridges and through mossy, ferny forests. Castle Rock is such a beautiful place in the fall, when the leaves are changing.

Afterwards, we swooped by REI to upgrade my GPS and replenished our expended calories at La Fiesta in Mountain View, a superb Mexican restaurant. I’ve been watching my diet lately, but I’d budgeted in a big after-hike meal. I burned over 1600 calories on the trails and I’m 19 pounds lighter than I was two months ago. Oh, La Fiesta, how I love your cheese enchiladas.

Today’s workout, named “Isabel”, was fairly simple: Do 30 reps of 135 pound snatches. Lacking an Olympic weight set, like yesterday, I opted to use my 30 pound dumbbell and follow the example of a video entitled “Dumbbell Snatch tri-panel.” So, let’s go for 15 on each side.

Rep 1: 30 pounds, left side. Uh, no. Not like this. Maybe your balance is just off — you’re a beginner, after all. Reset, try again. Let’s do this thing. Nope. That time, I had a hard time keeping my balance. So, I grabbed a rubber 15 pound dumbbell and tried the entire set again. That was a little more manageable, but I often had a hard time keeping my balance with what seems a very simple move. I should seek form correction from a professional as soon as possible.

After knocking out fifteen on each side, I felt like I wasn’t done yet, so I grabbed my new 16 kg (35 pound) kettlebell. The kettlebell is really awesome—and not just because it says “APOLLO” on the side—because it provides dead weight with a handle that can be used in a surprising variety of ways. I opted to supplement today’s workout with a set of thirty Sumo Deadlift High Pulls.

My results: 9:45, 5:04 in Zone (147 - 164 bpm); HR: 156 avg, 180 max; 136 calories (30%) fat

Tomorrow will be the super killer. 54 pullups, 54 dips, and a hike in Castle Rock State Park with my buddy, Oz.

Today’s workout was very simple, but it required special equipment. Do thirty reps of the Olympic Clean and Jerk at 135 pounds. My level in the CrossFit program (on my own) is 45% reps at 45% of the weight. But, today, I thought I’d push myself a little harder and go for all 30 of them.

Unfortunately, the classic clean and jerk requires a barbell. I decided to substitute dumbbells for the normal equipment. 45% of 135 pounds is 60.75 pounds. Ah, so I get to clean and jerk with 30 pound dumbbells, following the example of a video entitled “Dumbell Split Lifts” (sic) on the exercises guide. The woman in the video has good form. I do not. It’s very clear to me that I could benefit from instruction. I’m quite tempted to drop in and visit one of the local CrossFit-endorsed gyms (I already talked to the 24 Hour Fitness people and was not impressed much by a room full of treadmills and TVs) and see if I can attempt some of these lifts with dumbbells with my current form. Certainly, someone would have to pity the world enough not to allow me to unleash my ugly ass form on the innocent eyes of other people.

It was good work, despite an interruption of someone walking through. I slowed down quite a bit (I’m self-conscious when I’m working out). But, I finally ground out the last few in the set and my form got uglier and uglier. The 30 pounders were quite hefty and it looks like there’s more of the same tomorrow.

My results: 14:43 (15:31 including cool to 147 bpm); HR: 169 avg, 180 max; 251 cal (20% fat) burned.

I can only keep getting stronger from here.

Also, there’s this exciting result:
Today’s Weigh-in: 178.0 pounds (80.74 kg) => 25.54 BMI.
Eight weeks ago today, I was 18 pounds heavier than I am right now.

Onward!

Today, I went to a post office in San Francisco to apply for a new passport, since my original passport expired many years ago. It was a significant ordeal that surprised me by its ferocity.

Despite having made an appointment and located my birth certificate, I was unable to find a printer to print off the application (I recently bought a printer from my housemate, but it’s still boxed in the quagmire that is my bedroom). So, first, I had to grab the application, fill it out on the counter, and go on my next errand.

The location I was at had cameras that were broken, so I had to wander to a nearby drugstore, get two photographs taken, and hang out for half an hour. Finally, I headed back to the post office, waited in line for 15 more minutes, and submitted my documents. Finally, all done.

Or was I? I got back to work nearby and found a message on my cell phone’s answering machine.

“Hi, I’m calling from the post office. We didn’t have you sign the passport application. Please return to the post office to do so today.”

While scrambling to unbreak a number of work-related retardation issues that I caused, I scrambled away to the post office, getting the panic halfway there that my checkbook had fallen out of my wallet on the streets of the SOMA. After waiting in line for another 15 minutes to sign my application, I was finally done with my passport application procedure. The heart attack about the checkbook festered until I got to my desk, looked around, and found it stowed correctly in a drawer. Passports, thankfully, last ten years. In 2017, I can renew by mail!

<whew />

This morning’s weigh in has me at 180.5 pounds (81.87 kg), so I’m not losing weight as quickly as I was. This means I simply have to work harder. Let’s keep on the CrossFit for a while and see where it gets me.

Today’s workout is named in honor of a Navy lieutenant who died in Afghanistan in 2005. As per yesterday, I’m doing reps and weights at 45% (until a subsequent APFT test I’m putting on my calendar for September 29). Here’s the official “Michael” with my substitutions in parentheses.

Michael:
Three rounds for time of:

1. Run 800 meters
2. 50 back extensions (23 standing weighted back extensions - 15# dumbbell)
3. 50 situps (23 situps)

I think I did fairly well, considering my newness at this. I was frankly surprised that my average 800 meter times were 4:20, 4:30, and 4:40, which isn’t much, but it’s as fast as I have gone at the track (2:20 laps lately have been the minimum standard) and I managed to catch cross traffic every single time I reached the only place I have to cross a road. Situps are much more difficult when you count them aloud one by one. Not focusing on the ground and then the ladder nearby during the back extensions prevented me from losing my balance.

23:23 (24:00 including rest to 147 bpm); 4:56 Zone (147 - 164 bpm); HR: 172 avg, 187 max; 402 cal (20% fat)

Onward!

Over the past seven weeks since the shocking weigh-in, I’ve lost 15 pounds. Starting on September 1, I’ve meticulously tracked what I eat and how much I exercise, thanks to my heart rate monitor. I’ve been doing a burpee weight workout over the last couple of weeks to prepare myself for what seems like the ultimate fitness regiment — CrossFit.

Yesterday, I decided to switch from my same-thing-every-day thing I’ve been doing recently to a scaled back version of the CrossFit program (so that I can get myself into “Ready for Anything” condition). So, that first day was this evening.

Since my recent APFT attempt, I have cut a significant amount off my two mile run time, but I haven’t completed another informal test since. So, I decided to start the CrossFit workouts in my own house with my own equipment scaled back.

How did I scale back the workout? For now, I took my APFT score over three events (in this case, 136) and averaged it. That makes my starting point 45% of the prescription. 45% of the reps and 45% of the weight.

Today’s workout was this:

For time:

1. Row 2 km (substitute 200 reps of the sumo deadlift high pull @ 45#)
2. 50 Wall Ball shots, 10 foot target, 20 pound ball (Substitute thrusters @ 40#)
3. Row 1 km (or 100 sumo deadlift high pulls)
4. 35 Wall Ball shots, 10′, 20#
5. Row 500 m
6. 20 Wall Ball shots, 10′, 20#

Applying my multiplier (45%) to the workout, it comes down to:

For time (all exercises with a pair of 10 pound dumbbells to total 20 pounds of weight):

1. 90 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
2. 23 Thrusters (Squat to Push Press)
3. 45 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
4. 16 Thrusters
5. 23 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
6. 9 Thrusters

Okay, uncle. I had to stop a few times, recover a little bit, drink some water, consider the fact that I’m a weak bastard, and go for it some more. I will certainly feel this tomorrow.

My results: 13:12 (14:19 including cooling down on the floor), 4:08 in Hard Zone (147 - 164 bpm), HR: 168 avg, 184 max, 226 cal burned.

This program is totally going to obliterate me.

Yeah, I will be predating some posts coming up, particularly about a recent trip and some of my fitness stuff. Just not today. I’m exhausted.