I've been eyeing up my olympic weightlifting shoes for the last little while and wondering if they could push me over the edge in terms of being able to hold the bottom position of a squat. As we approach six months of injuries that have kept me from being able to do full squats (with my hamstring/meniscus/whatever injury in November, and then my ankle in January), my hips are definitely feeling it. Waiting on my ankle mobility to allow me to hold the bottom barefoot has become, IMO, counter-productive. With that in mind I threw them on and stuck the bottom of a squat. And then accumulated 10 minutes in the bottom. Which took...more than 10 minutes.
My hips, adductors and anterior shin were definitely the tightest, with the anterior shin being the one that surprised me (though it makes sense given my ankle injury and mobility issues). I've added the 10 minute squat accumulation to my goals for the week and I think it's really going to make a difference for me.
Having held the bottom of an air squat, the next big milestone to tick off the list was an actual, weighted squat. I started with a front squat with just the bar, and that worked out well enough. From there I went to back squat with a safety squat bar (side note: I am the only person at CFSP that uses the SSB...guys, you are missing out). I finished off with old reliable, the back squat. I didn't go heavy (stopped at 105), but it felt good. I'm happy with my positioning in the bottom, and I'm activating pretty well out of my bottom. And...I get to squat again!
Yesterday was day 99 post-injury, so I kind of wanted to do something pseudo-special to commemorate. I settled on my favorite CrossFit workout, Grace, which is 30 95-pound clean and jerks for time. My (incredibly old) PR was 3:10 and I finished it yesterday in 3:15. I hadn't actually done this WOD since 2011 and healthy I should easily be able to do this in 2:30 or so (my PR for 30 95-pound snatches is 2:55 and the snatch is a more challenging movement). But I was happy as (i) I had just finished press work immediately before doing the workout; and (ii) my ability to drive through my toes to push the bar overhead improved as the workout went on.
After we got home, I was watching hockey and trying to decide whether I was at a point where I should start trying to run again. My ankle felt pretty rough on Friday after football practice (I suspect the primary culprit was actually jumping ladders before football) and I was swollen both Friday and Saturday before returning to my normal swelling size on Sunday. I finally decided fuck it, and went downstairs to hit the treadmill and see where things were at. I started by doing a couple intervals at slower jogs (4mph, 4.5mph, 5mph, 5.5mph) at minute on/minute off, before getting to 6, which is pretty much your standard average everyday speed for a 5k. (6mph = essentially a 30 minute 5k). I did a minute on, sucked wind, and called Marlies downstairs to check how limpy I looked. She watched my next interval and said I looked pretty good (some favouring, but not enough to be like HOLY SHIT STOP), so with that I decided that it was time to buck up and start trying to get my legs back. It was very humbling to do Day 1 of a 5k program - which is 9 1:00 running intervals with 90 seconds walking in between) and have my legs be burning at the end of each interval. It's not like I've ever been the greatest runner to begin with, but this is a new low. :P But on the bright side - I completed all the intervals, my ankle didn't feel terrible, and I don't feel awful this morning.
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