If Coach Rippetoe and Stumptuous had a baby.....

...I would propose to it. ;)
I found Stumptuous recently. She's a strong chic who puts up some seriously, seriously good information for women who train. She has training information that will make you go, "Oh yeah, I forgot about those, they're good" or "That's a great order to do those in" or "That's a good plan to start with". She has rants that will put you in an "Amen, sister" mood. The tone is not just conversational, it's chick-locker-room, hence my increasing girlcrush. She feels, to me, like a teammate. Probably the parity of our values and beliefs about the role of training in the health, sanity, and self-esteem of women. From her 2010 predictions "Get some big garbage bags — real or metaphysical — and start throwing shit out, whether that’s energy vampire people who don’t support you, crap “food” that poisons you, or assumptions and mindsets that are fundamentally self destructive." Amen, Sister!! And, her training stuff isn't just for the girls, her advice is sound and relevant to anyone who trains; lots of cool guys read too, as evident in the comments. But, if "Our Bodies Ourselves" had offspring, one of them would be stumptuous.com.

Next, to Coach Rippetoe. I read Starting Strength a few months ago and now I just carry it with me to the gym. If you Oly lift and you haven't read it, seriously, go get it. I mean it's got like 67 pages on just the squat. Proper mechanics, anatomy, tips while learning, ways to check yourself. The tone is conversational and includes such gems as, "If your gym makes a lot of money selling gloves, you have another reason to look for another gym. and if you insist on using them, make sure they match your purse." in a paragraph about the importance and utility of chalk.
Because Starting Strength was so ridiculously awesome, I bought Practical Programming for Strength Training. I read the first 30 pages and I put the book down when I got to "Hydration" so I wouldn't get sucked in and stay up all night. It starts with the Introduction which includes a lot of info about Periodization and how "Periodization is practiced widely in track and field and is used by a majority of NFL and viturally all NCAA strength and conditioning programs...The idea that the practice of a sport itself was sufficient conditioning for the sport became inadequate for preparing high-level athletes many years ago." Now, granted I am a very, very low-level athlete, but I agree with this completely. This is exactly what I'm thinking right now in terms of my Jiu-Jitsu. Well, it's two-fold. One, a strong fitness base (specifically a strong core) will protect me from injury (and further Lumbar compression). Two, a strength base will allow me to absorb and enjoy the technical details more fully as I'll be able to put my attention to the details instead of my lack of fitness (which is followed by self-loathing and negative self talk).
Off to the treadmill and a circuit including Turkish Getups (thanks Dagny...grrr)...

CrossFit works...

I have no idea how this equates in the real world, but I've been struggling for months to break 28 minutes on my treadmill 2 mile time (at 1.5 incline). The other day I hit 26:46 and this morning 26:36, but I haven't been putting in a lot of mileage. I am convinced it is the CrossFit that is improving my run time. Yay for one little stepping stone and yay for CrossFit. I followed that up with my P.T.'s circuit of strength exercises for my back and I'm experiencing the anti-depressant properties of the a.m. workout right now. :)

CrossFit Clean (with the ball) / working to get back to jits

I had that little tiny moment in CrossFit this morning of finally feeling the basic concept of a Clean. Granted it was with the ball only. I think that my shoulder is finally loose enough to actually get a shrug and the ball seemed like an easier way to learn it. I have had little to no luck learning it with the bar.

It feels great when you've shrugged it enough to get that moment in time where the ball is at the top of its arc and you're able to get under it cleanly. It was awesome. And the timing was perfect because I was just starting to feel too uncoordinated to ever succeed at some of the Oly lifts. :)

I'm in this phase where I REALLY want to go back to Jiu-Jitsu, but I've really got to strengthen and stretch my back and tighten up my core first. I don't want to have a stutter-start at jits. I just want to do the work to make a good athletic foundation and then go back. Impatient.

Recovery

Recovery
I recently learned the value of Rest & Recovery.
Before vacation, I was doing CrossFit on Monday and Jiu-Jitsu & CrossFit on Wednesday,Friday, but I was not honoring the sleep cycle. Frankly, I was starting to feel pretty beat up, tired, and burnt out (mentally and physically). On vacation I had alot of activity in the ocean and I had alot of really deep sleep and pretty clean diet. My joints started to feel better and all my weird little muscle *tweaks* cleared up. The day after I returned from Hawaii, My Fight Gone Bad score improved by 17 points (approximately 8%) , but most importantly I felt very strong, totally repaired, and mentally relaxed and ready. Vacation showed me that I wasn't supporting my Recovery with the same thought process or care that I was investing in the WODs.
Now, I'm trying to have some discipline for Recovery too. To carve out the appropriate amount of time for sleep to promote Recovery is difficult, but now I respect how important it really is.