Four Months to a Lack of Fitness

I have discovered something about myself. A little over 6 years of CrossFit has allowed me to feel fit for about 4 months of inconsistent and not super intense exercise. That window has just about closed now, and I’m itching to feel like I am in shape again. I probably shouldn’t have waited this long, as we are heading to Africa next week to climb Kilimanjaro, and even at our best that would likely push us to our limits. Still, better late than never as they always say!

While I have leaned out quite a bit since leaving Virginia, mostly due to not eating as much or as often, I have lost an alarming amount of muscle since we don’t lift heavy anymore. I think I have lost at least 2 inches on my quads alone based on how some of my pants have changed in the way they fit. Enough complaining and lamenting though, what am I going to do about it?

For the two weeks we have been here in Greece, we are doing our best to work, out pretty hard. While visiting the Peloponnese and staying at the beach we did a quick burner in the morning of burpees, box jumps on the wall by the beach, and flutter kicks in the morning and some sprints in the sand and squatting each other in the evening. Another day we went for a longer run along the seaside road down to the next village and back, probably about 4 miles round trip. We also did a long hike of about 5 hours round trip up to a monastery and back down to the beach.

Here are a few more of the workouts we’ve done lately:

5 rounds: 40 double unders, 30 squats, 20 pushups.

Original P90X stretch series followed by squatting each other (Jeff 6x5, Cara 6x4)

Tabata: Double Unders, Squats, Pushups, Lunges with a 100 double under cash out added as we finished by Cara. Went from feeling kinda awful to really bad.

2 hour hike across the island

Tabata plank followed by 3 rounds of 50 double unders, 30 jumping lunges and 10 burpees. Later in the same day we squatted each other, sets of 3, 5, and a max set in which we both hit ten.

I know I need to hold myself accountable, but I’m putting these goals out there so that hopefully I’ll feel more pressure to work towards them and keep myself motivated:

1.       Climb Kilimanjaro

2.       50 pushups unbroken, chest to deck, no worming or breaking at the hips

3.       Freestanding handstand for 30 seconds or more

4.       150 unbroken air squats

Hopefully I’ll put up some workouts and updates on progress about every two weeks here, but right now it’s a beautiful sunny day in Greece and I’m going to try and fix my farmers tan.