It begins

As the select audience who will have interest in this blog probably already know, I started doing crossfit about 3 1/2 years ago, and it's made a huge difference in my life. I've also been eating the zone diet for about 3 years, and that's been another major positive change. However, I've felt that my progress in crossfit has been limited by my physical strength and muscle mass, or lack thereof, so after being inspired at the Basic Barbell Training certification I attended in Reno a few weeks ago, taught by Mark Rippetoe, co-author of Starting Strength and a number of other excellent books about weight training and getting strong, I've decided to take a bold step. Starting today, April 7, and for as long as I can stand it, I'm going to try Rip's program of three days of heavy lifting a week and drinking a gallon of whole milk a day, in addition to my normal 19-block zone diet. I'm going to cut down to two crossfit metcon type workouts a week, and I'll drop them if I'm feeling really wiped out. My goals are a bit nebulous, but are basically to put on a lot of muscle mass and get much stronger. I tried a similar program last year with my friend Max Lewin, and it definitely worked, but this time I'm going even simpler.
Some starting numbers: age 35, bodyweight 179 (it's all going to be in pounds, I'm too American to fuck with kilos), crossfit total as of 4/5/07: squat 245, press 100.5, deadlift 385, total 730.5.
Today's workout was as follows:
squat
45x5x3
95x5x1
135x3x1
165x2x1
195x3x5
bench press
45x5x3
95x5x1
115x5x1
135x5x3
dead hang chinups 7, 7, 6
I started a bit light on the weights, as I always want to fight for perfect form and full range of motion. As of today I'm up to 3 quarts of milk a day, with no digestive troubles yet. We'll see.
I'll post my starting pictures soon - it should be interesting to compare once I've put on some beefcake (and some lard).