A look back at 2009

What a year it has been. I moved to CA, joined CF Sunnyvale, resolved to try to qualify for the CF Games, and got myself into the best shape of my life. I had fun going through my workout journal and seeing some of the improvements I've made:

Squat: 315 --> 405
OH Press: 165 --> 195
Deadlift: 405 --> 455
OH Squat: 165 --> 205
Power clean: 215 --> 265
Snatch: 135 --> 195
Consecutive kipping pull-ups: 30 --> 40
Consecutive air squats: 50 --> 100
Consecutive sit-ups: 60 --> 100
Fran: 5:58 --> 3:20
Murph: 40:01 --> 32:29
Cindy: 22+ rounds --> 28 rounds
Angie: 22:04 --> 16:28

2009 goals: how did I do?

Looking at my 2009 goals, they can be broken down into 4 categories:

Success
Squat 365, deadlift 455, press 195, 1000lb CFT, OH squat 205, snatch 185, clean 275, 40 consecutive pull-ups, 100 consecutive sit-ups, 100 consecutive air squats, 3:00 Fran, 28 round Cindy

Did not attempt
315 bench press, 100 consecutive push-ups, split jerk 250, 150lb weighted pull-up, King Kong

Failure
Run 400m in 1:00, run 800m in 2:30, run 1600m in 5:45, run 5000m in 20:00, Murph in 30:00

Looking at the above, the pattern is pretty clear: my CF strength/power hybrid routine did a great job of developing strength, power, muscular endurance and conditioning in interval/circuit style CF workouts. There were a few items that I never attempted due to a shoulder injury (bench press, push-ups, split jerk) or a lack of equipment (don't have a dip belt for weighted pull-ups and I was supposed to try King Kong this week, but don't have access to bumper plates). Finally, I failed on all the tasks that involved primarily monostructural cardio - in particular, running.

Treadmills are evil

I think a lot of my troubles with running can be attributed to over-reliance on treadmills, which caused a number of issues:

1. POSE technique on a treadmill is different than outside so I have a lot of form errors to fix. This is probably the biggest issue.

2. I never learned what different running speeds "feel" like since the treadmill controlled the speed for me and now I often run too fast or too slow outside.

3. I never developed the mental toughness to maintain a difficult pace and often slow down without the treadmill's constant speed to keep pushing me.

4. I thought my times were better than they really were as running on a treadmill is a lot easier.

Looking to 2010

The good news is that my weaknesses are now clear and I know what I need to do in the coming year to eliminate them. I should be able to run outside a whole lot more in CA, so I'm going to try to fit in more monostructural cardio (running and rowing) a few times per week until my technique, pacing and mental toughness improve. Given how much I hate running - which, of course, is probably the biggest reason of all why I suck at it - my workout plan for the next few months can be summarized as:

"Beatings will continue until morale improves."

Will I improve enough to stand a chance at the CF Games sectional qualifier? Meh, probably not, but it'll be fun as hell to try.