Pull

Big Lou is in town until the 8th of January so we are taking advantage of the time we have together by doing what we do, training.

AM: Weighted Pull ups
We wanted to work to a 3 rep max today
1x3 25 lb
1x3 35 lb
1x3 45 lb
1x3 55 lb
1x3 65 lb
1x3 70 lb

I am not sure if I could have got 75 lb for three. We decided that this was a good place to stop. The third rep on 70 lb was tough enough.

PM: 5 rounds
2 muscle ups
5 deadlifts, 315 lb
run 400m on the treadmill

13:54

Pretty satisfied with this. The muscle ups were cake. For the deads I did the first and the last set unbroken. The three sets in between were broken into 3-2 reps. I ran on the treadmill at 8 mph for the first round. Halfway through my second round Stephanie chirped in my ear "go faster!!" so I bumped it up to 8.5 mph. For my final round I ran at 9 mph pace.

Weekend

I felt pretty fresh on Saturday after eating way out of the Zone and definitely not Paleo (thanks to the sweet potato pie and tub of vanilla ice cream I polished off with the help of my brother). I decided to only do one workout today but make it tough.

Saturday

"DT"
5 rounds
12 deadlifts, 155 lb
9 hang power cleans, 155 lb
6 push jerk, 155 lb

13:22

Since I did this WOD at the gym in Columbia I was unable to use bumper plates. That, and I was forced to listen to the seven or so fat bodybuilders with weight belts on, alternate incline bench press sets on the smith machine. Can you believe they actually spot each other and max out on the smith machine? It was hard for me to concentrate with their yapping about muscle milk and UFC video games, but I think I did a pretty good job. Getting more comfortable with heavier weight is my goal and it is working. With bumper plates and a better environment, I am sure I could have shaved off some time.

Sunday

AM: Snatch
1x3 power snatch, 95 lb
1x3 full snatch, 95 lb
1x3 full snatch, 115 lb
1x3 full snatch, 135 lb
1x1 full snatch, 145 lb
1x1 full snatch, 155 lb

This workout went teriiblely. I am so out of practice with the full snatch. My timing is way off. I have been doing power snatches for the past several months and I couldn't seem to get my second pull in sync.

PM: Chipper
15 squat cleans, 155lb
30 toes to bar
30 box jumps, 24"
15 ring dips
30 dumbbell push press, 40 lb each
30 double unders
15 thrusters, 135 lb
30 pull ups
30 burpees
90' walking lunge with 45 lb plate overhead

20:58

This WOD was slightly modified from the final workout at the 09' games. We were unable to do muscle ups at the globo gym and didn't have enough room or balls to do a 300' walking lunge. It was plenty hard this way. Unfortunately, I have issues with my knees. Sometimes, depending on the amount of use, worse then other times. Today was pretty bad. My knees felt like they were going to explode during the squat cleans and thrusters. As if this workout wasn't hard enough without extra pain. My plan, rest tomorrow and hit it hard on Tuesday regardless of how my knees feel. Why? Because I am like a g dam navy seal wrapped in body armour. The burpees were reminiscent of the Filthy Fifty. I got 28 double unders in a row only because at 20, my pants began to fall down and at 28 they were at my ankles, I was forced to stop. The easiest part was the ring dips. Other then that, everything was hard.

Some Strength and Some Lack of Strength

This is my fourth day on but I feel great. I have been getting accupuncture cus my headz aint right yo! It has been making me feel better mentally and physically. My knees are feeling better, especially after high volume use of them.

Back squats:
185x5
225x5
235x4
250x3
270x2
285x1

My low back squat is so comfortable now. I can basically take my hands off of the bar at the bottom of the squat. I am also going so low that the bar taps the safety rack on the squat cage. 285 was nice and deep and felt great. Just a couple months ago, 285 gave me nightmares, now I am convinced that I could do a set of three.

About 15 minutes later:
AMRAP 10 min:
5 bench press, 190lb
15 pull ups
25 double unders

5 rounds in 9:40

When I got to round 4, I went into the squash court where I had been jumping rope, only to find someone playing squash. I improvised and did my set in the sitting area of the court. It was much smaller and forced me to break my set up into three because I was cramped. For set five, I went back to the sitting area only to find a little girl playing with my jump rope. I wrestled it away and pile drove her into the floor. In my haste, and regret for what I had just done, I started my set in the hallway. BAD IDEA, my hands were hitting the walls. I found an empty court and finished the round there. The first three sets of double unders were unbroken along with all five sets of bench press and four sets of pull ups. My fifth pull up set was 10-5. I think, in perfect conditions (i.e. at Balance), I could have got six rounds.

Two-A-Days Are Fun

This afternoon Collin and I wanted to get a row WOD in. The flavor we had trouble deciding. We originally thought about doing a 5k, but, 5k's suck and for some reason I prefer to do a short sprint then a long trot (that is of course, until we start!). We searched Crossfit Endurance for a workout and agreed on this one:

Row 100%
6 min on, 3 min off
4 min on, 2 min off
1 min on, 30 sec off
30 sec on, 15 sec off
15 sec on

JMo
Distance/avg watts:
1612/251
1103/272
309/386
162/441
88/442

Total:
3274/358

CMo
Distance/avg watts:
1531/215
1088/261
291/323
152/367
87/362

Total:
3149/306

Well, just as I expected, this was pretty killer. The bottom line is the same, rowing sucks! Everything was burning during each of the rounds. The worst part was, when you are doing a timed row, no matter how hard you row, the seconds tick away at the same pace. On the contrary, when rowing for time, you finish faster the harder you row. I prefer rowing for time!

PM:
3 rounds:
5 rope ascents, 15 ft rope
21 ring dips
50 squats

18:16

I think I did pretty well on this WOD. There were only 4 people in the gym when I was there last night, including me. One of the four of us was Jim, of Beast Skills, training someone, so only three of us were actually occupying equipment. OF COURSE, the equipment Jim chose to use with his client was the rope! I had to wait a couple of times, probably longer then I would have if the rope were not occupied, but, to make up for this, I would climb twice in a row. My rope climbing technique is improving immensely. I wore my athletic shoes instead of my "Five-Fingers" this time, a wise decision. I also chalked my hands, which, for some ignorant reason, I avoided last time I climbed. I pretty much "flew" up the rope for most of my ascents, breaking each round of five into two sets of two climbs and one set of one climb. The ring dips were pretty tough. I was able to split the rounds up into 3 sets of dips for the first two rounds. On the third round I just kept going up and dipping as many as I could, sometimes 5, other times 2 or 1. I didn't completely lock out on my last rep so I re-did it. This is a part of my training that I am really going to start focusing on, avoiding short-cuts for the sake of making a better time. Finally, the squats were terrible, I went all the way down to a Dynamax ball and the sets were split like this:
round 1: 25-15-10
round 2: 30-10-10
round 3: 50

Also, ever since the interview of Mikko Salo, where he says he never lays on his back after a WOD because it is a sign of "surrendering," I have not laid down no matter how much I wanted to! After 50 squats unbroken at the end of a brutal WOD, not falling to the ground was a workout in itself!

Time To Build Strength

I have decided that I am going to start increasing the rx'd weight for some of my workouts, regardless of what Maiko says, to try and get stronger. I plan on doing this a couple days a week to the main site WODs and see how I feel. Today I was planning on doing Diane. The main thing I wanted to work on was "head to ground" HSPU's. There are 45 reps of them for Diane, I lowered the reps of the deadlift and increased the weight significantly, from the unwanted suggestion of Steve O, and kept the 45 reps of HSPU's the same.

"Heavy Diane"
5-4-3-2-1 deadlift, 365 lbs; alternating with
15-12-9-6-3 "head to ground" HSPU's

17:04

Well, the deadlift was heavy! My fingers are sore as shit from gripping the bar. The sets of 5-4 and 1 were probably the worst. The set of 3 and 2 were the least difficult. The set of 1, as Steve O warned me, felt similar to a one-rep max. The HSPU's were significantly better today. I did a set of 9 to start and then several sets of 4 and 3 with some sets of 2 and 1 mixed in of course.

At the end of the AMRAP Crossfit Games video, Tommy Hackenbruck says he used to come off of the wall on his HSPU's during training, he wished he was stricter with his form. That interview and the below parallel requirement at the games forced me to be just as strict on myself. I didn't count about 5 reps because I either came off the wall or didn't touch my head to the ground. Overall, I was satisfied with the workout, even if the time was slow.

Legs

Monday is usually a rest day for me but I decided to rest Sunday after my BDay.

AM: 5 rounds
15 thrusters, 135 lbs
400m row

30:03

Well, I wouldn't say I went 100% at this. Probably more like 85%. Don't get me wrong I went hard, but the damn thrusters are just so heavy! It takes so much cunning to start my next set. I broke them up like this: round 1= 8-3-4, rounds 2,3,4= 5-5-5, round 5= 6-5-4. I definitely did not go all out on the row, my legs were burning. This raises the Crossfit question about pacing, if I would have went harder on the row, would that have slowed my thrusters down even more? You got to find that perfect medium. Or, you could just be Jason Kahilpa and then you don't need to even know the definition of pacing. The combination of it being early (8am) and the fact that thrusters suck at 95 lbs and I had 135 lbs on the bar really hindered my motivation. Regardless, I got it done, I pushed myself and I am glad its over!

PM: Two alumni hockey games. One was for High school and one was for club hockey.

My legs were pretty tired when I got home last night.

Weekend Update with JMo

I was in NYC this weekend and unable to update. The lack of updates has become a trend over the weekend. Here is what you missed!

Friday

"Lumberjack 20"
(subbed rowing for running due to inability to run at globo-gym)
20 deadlift, 275 lbs
row 400m
20 dumbbell swings, 70 lbs
row 400m
20 overhead squats, 115 lbs
row 400m
20 chest to bar pull ups
row 400m
20 burpees
row 400m
20 box jumps, 24 inch box
row 400m
20 dumbbell squat cleans, 45 lbs each hand
row 400m

29:19

Not only did we have to row instead of run but we had to run up and down stairs and around useless machines and hallways to get from the weights to the rowers. Apparently, mixing endurance training with bodybuilding is frowned upon. This may have added a minute to my time, couldn't have been much more. None of the exercises were really much harder then another. The burpees and dumbbell cleans sucked but only 20 reps made them tolerable. It was a great workout all around.

Saturday

Birthday WOD!

We woke up this morning to snow and more snow in New Jersey (where I was). The gym wasn't open and Big Lou and I were forced to make due with creating a workout inside the apartment complex where he lives.

10 rounds:
10 push ups
run 6 flights of stairs
20 sit ups (unanchored)

JMo: 17:50
Lou: 17:24

I haven't run stairs for a workout.....ummmm...ever. They were fun, the hard part, for me at least, was the sit ups. Louis is the sit up god. He did every set unbroken and it is surely where he increased the gap between us.

To RX or Not RX

On Tuesday I was reminiscing about the Hopper event, thinking about where I could have done better. There are several obvious places. In the first WOD, my unfamiliarity with OH squats slowed me down because I was unsure of my ability having never done a high amount of reps before. My pushups were extremely weak at the time and I had never done a single bastard. For the deadlift, I know I could have pulled more weight then I did. With all those people around your adrenaline alone is good for blowing a PR out of the water. I would have planned my attempts differently. For the third WOD, I was still getting comfortable with double unders, I had never done a single push jerk (only split jerks) and I forgot to kip on the toes to bar.

Since the Hopper I have done high rep workouts with OH squats, my push ups have improved immensely and I have done many bastards. My deadlift is still right around where it was, but I have a better idea of how to compete with it. My skill level on double unders has probably increased the most since the competition along with my ability and comfort with the push jerk. I am confident that I could have dropped a few places if I were to compete in the condition I am in now.

With that being said, during my reminiscing, I was trying to imagine lifts that I am not, at least, comfortable with. I feel pretty confident that I can complete any workout I am faced with as rx'd. Except, probably, below parallel HSPU! Don't get me wrong, I am a slightly old, slightly rusted, in need of an oil change, MACHINE at 3/4range HSPU. When I am forced to go the extra two inches to the floor, well, then I become, embarrassing. My max head to floor HSPU's is 12. From there my sets quickly go down to 4, 3, 2, 1 and of course 0's. Muscle fatigue sets in fast for me on "dome to floor" HSPU. One of my strongest weaknesses (its a play on words), and something I surely need to work on.

So, Tuesday evening, after having this conversation with myself during my car ride home (sometimes out loud), I checked the already updated Crossfit.com website. The workout for Wednesday was a whole shit ton of HSPU's (weird right?). My debate from the time I looked at the workout until the time I arrived at the gym (about 21 hrs later), was, to RX or not RX???

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of:
strict dead hang supine grip pull ups
head to floor HSPU

41:00!!

I hope whomever is reading this (besides myself) gives me enough credit to realize that I decided to do this WOD as rx'd. I am confident that I could have done this workout sub 20 without going dome to floor on the HSPU's, hell, I have done 21 in a row before. I decided to focus on a weakness and not worry about the time. All 84 reps were done with my head touching the floor and no kipping. All pull ups were done strict dead hang with supine grip. They were actually quite enjoyable due to the amount of rest I got during the HSPU's. Many times I experienced complete muscle failure. I barely even broke a sweat, I just couldn't physically push myself up on some reps. I failed on at least three HSPU's. I had to take my watch off during this because I was so embarrassed about my time. Whatever, now that I look back, I think I did the right thing. I am much better at dome to floor HSPU's having done this workout rx'd. Although, I am still have a long way to go!

Morning Runs Are Fun Until We Start

AM: Sprints
2 rounds
800m sprint
(rest as needed)
400m sprint
(rest as needed)
200m sprint
(rest as needed)

1) 800m- 2.50 4) 2.52
2) 400m- 1.13 5) 1.13
3) 200m- 0.32 6) 0.31

To be honest, this was really hard. The combination of the early morning, fog and cold weather really made it hard for our bodies to wake up and breath. I felt so heavy, like gravity was trying to bring me down. As the rounds went on we got less groggy but all in all it was brutal. During my second 800m I thought I was going to make a bad time. My body felt tired and slow. When I finished and found out I was only 2 seconds off my previous time, I was surprised. In better conditions I think I could run 800m much faster. As for the final 200m sprint (I use the term sprint loosely, a sprint for me is equivelant to a backwards jog for most athletes), I can't go any faster then I did at my current fitness level. I ran as fast as I could the whole time. I never let up. I am just slow. To decrease that time I would have to work on my technique, which, definitely needs work!

PM:
5 rounds of "Cindy" (5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats)
10 clean and jerks, 135 lbs
5 rounds of "Cindy"
10 clean and jerks, 135 lbs
5 rounds of "Cindy"

17:11

Yikes. During this WOD I wanted to quit, after it I was so proud that I finished. Its a smasher, hands down. No way around it. There is nothing in this WOD that you can fail on, nothing too heavy, nothing that requires a lot of rest. You're just constantly going.

I went first and had to endure the filthy stench of a large black man or his sexy latina girlfriend's flatulance. It screwed up my breathing. My brother went after me. The whole time this dude wass using leg press machine after leg press machine after hamstring machine, acting like he was advanced, giving his girl pointers and knowledge on proper ways to lift. Around Collin's fifth round of "Cindy", the dude loads up 4 or 5 (does it really matter??) plates on each side of the leg press machine (let me do the math, subtract the amount of weight that is supported by the machine and ground....he is essentially pressing 150 lbs on a guided machine with no use of stabilizer muscles, while sitting down of course), he is screaming
"ONE....TWWWWOOO.....THTHTHTHHHHREEEE......FFFFFFFFFOOOOOUUR" are you kidding me? He is breathing all heavy. Then he says to his girl who is on the other leg press machine (we all know one is certainly not enough)
"honestly, these two machines (pointing to the leg press machines) are the best exercises for your legs."
Wow, if I had a gun, I would have shot myself, and then, it got bad. Collin finished up his first 5 rounds of "Cindy" and began his clean and jerks. He was on rep 5 or so and Captain Ultra-Novice interupted him to give advice
"you want to make sure you exhale and breath when you press or you'll pass out, I learned the hard way." First of all Black Dyna-might be the dubbest mofo I have ever encountered, I guarentee you have never A) lifted enough weight to pass out from B) lifted weight that is not connected to something C) used a barbell D) pressed anything over your head, and E) that is incorrect!!!! How do you keep a tight core if you are exhaling on the way up? Wait, maybe you should coach Mike Burgenor because he has it all wrong! He says the opposite! You flipping retard, don't stink up the gym hopping from MACHINE TO MACHINE and feel it necesary to preach to people who are actually functional and fit. I did everything I could to stay silent. Thank goodness he started to sweat and had to leave.

The Weekend

The plan for this weekend was to focus on "Linda" on Friday and plan Saturday and Sunday according to how we felt.

Friday

"Linda"
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of:

JMo- Bodyweight 190 lb

1-1/2 bodyweight deadlift (285 lb)
bodyweight bench press (190 lb)
3/4 bodyweight full squat cleans (142.5 lb)

30:24

CMo- Bodyweight 180 lb

1-1/2 bodyweight deadlift (270 lb)
bodyweight bench press (155 lb)
3/4 bodyweight full squat cleans (135 lb)

30:42

Another benchmark workout that went well. Of course, I am always going to look back and feel like I should have shaved some time off, maybe next time. This workout, more then most really takes a lot of mental strength. After getting through the pain of round one, you think, "I really don't want to do this anymore!" You start to feel like, it may never end. The weight continues to get heavier until you get to the round of 5 reps. Then you can see the light. Before I started I was worried about how my grip would hold up on the deadlifts, if I could even bench 190 once and how terrible the squat cleans would be. The result. My grip held up fine, it was a little tender around the round of 7 but became less of an issue in the later rounds. The bench press, wow, I am amazed that not only could I do 190 (without having benched in several months), but I could do it well! It was actually the easiest part of this WOD. Round 7 through 1 were done unbroken on the bench press. The squat cleans, well, they sucked. I probably wasted the most time here. Luckily, due to lifting heavy weight for the other two stations, 142.5 lbs felt relatively light, unluckily, I had to squat with it 55 times. Basically, I would bang out 5-6 cleans real fast and put the weight down. Then I would have to do sets of 2. I failed on one rep resulting in a sound that none of the bodybuilders had ever heard, the dropping of a loaded barbell. I could see it in their eyes when I had to bail, they were thinking "that dude should really wear some wrist straps so he doesn't drop the weight, or at least sit down when he does the exercise." By this time all the novice lifters had taken a rest from their rest to watch CMo and I murder "Linda." We tried not to get any sweat on the machines, we were unsuccessful.

Saturday

The soreness started to kick in my lower back about 30 minutes after we finished "Linda" yesterday. By the time we got to the gym this morning, it was fully kicked in my back and creeping to my pecs.

5 rounds:
5 hang power snatch, 95 lbs
10 pull ups
15 dumbbell swings, 52.5 lbs
20 sit ups

10:13

We had to think of a WOD that wouldn't require the full use of the muscles we utilized yesterday. Like I said, our focus for this cycle was "Linda," the rest of the weekend was to recover and maintain. This WOD was pretty good, not too difficult. I was able to do everything unbroken, and pretty much not stop. The only brief rest I took was to chalk my hands or, one time, my normal sit up station (the leg press machine I use to anchor my feet, at least its good for something!) was taken by man who thinks the leg press machine is a good way to build muscle, I became a little flustered but ended up doing one round unanchored. The swings were probably the hardest part.

Sunday

Soreness has completely set in my lower back, my chest and every muscle in my trap and scapula area. What should we do today? Use the only part of our body that doesn't hurt! Our legs.

Squats:
135x5
185x3
225x2
245x2
250x2
250x2
250x2

10 minutes after:

50 double unders

21-15-9
dumbbell push press, 40 lb
GHD sit ups

50 double unders

5:08

Well, the squats were fine even though I was sore as hell and pretty tired. Should have gone heavier but frankly, I didn't want to! My body just didn't feel like working efficiently. It took me a few sets to really get stretched out. For the met-con, I did the first 50 double unders unbroken, all of the push press and sit ups unbroken and the last set of double unders 35-15 just because I was tired. If I wouldn't have been such a pussy and just finished them all, maybe I could have got sub 5 minutes. Either way, today was as taxing as it needed to be. Time for a nap.

Late Update for Wednesday

So I left my Workout Log at my place yesterday and didn't have my stats. Its late, but its here.

AM: Tabata Row
2.5 rounds of 8 intervals (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off)
Round 1:
1. 103m (382 watt)
2. 98m (329)
3. 108m (441)
4. 101m (361)
5. 95m (300)
6. 95m (300)
7. 99m (340)
8. 105m (405)
Total: 804m (357 avg watts)

Round 2:
1. 104m (394)
2. 110 (446)
3. 107m (429)
4. 101m (361)
5. 99m (340)
6. 94m (291)
7. 95m (300)
8. 103m (343)
Total: 813m (363 avg watts)

Round 3:
1. 115m (532)
2. 109m (453)
3. 101m (361)
4. 105m (405)
Total: 430m (438 avg watts)

Total for 2.5 rounds: 2047m (386 avg watts)

Absolute hell. So exhausting. Ten seconds isn't even enough time to put the handle down. I couldn't find a good game plan here. I tried to start rowing at the 9 second rest mark to get the rower going before it starting keeping track of the interval. This seemed to help with evidence from my last round, but, it left me more tired. Bottom line, rowing sucks.

PM:
50 double unders

25 pull ups
5 ground to overhead, 155 lbs
3 rounds

50 double unders

8:13

I saw this workout done by Tanya Wagner's husband Josh before the 09' games. I always wanted to try it but never felt ready. I have been working a lot lately on my pressing, cleaning and double unders so it was time to give this one a try. Josh Wagner did it in 6:01, a stellar time, I was shooting for sub 10. I was most worried about the ground to overhead which turned out to go much better then I imagined. I wouldn't say that I was worried about the double unders, but, in the back of my mind I was thinking "what if I start screwing up and can't get a rhythm??" I didn't let that bother me much because my comfort level with them is at an all time high. They went well. The first set was stopped at 31 because my rope hit a bench, I did the next 19 no prob. The final set I did 40 before I had to stop and rest. At about 25 I was in pain but dragged it out as long as I could, 15 more. Completing these so efficiently is a victory in itself, especially the second round because I was so fatigued.

The pull ups gave me the most trouble! I did the first set unbroken, the second set 15-10 and the third set 5-5-5-10. There was significant resting in between as well. Funny, the part I was least worried about ended up being my kyptonite.

The ground to OH went as well as they could. I felt strong on all of them. I tried to use my legs as much as I could, this helped me with the cleans but it burned. If I had to do any more then 5 reps a set, I think I would have been in trouble.

Jerking and Extensions

AM: Push Jerk
JMo
135x5 155x1 165x1 175x1 185x1 195x1 205x1(PR)

CMo
135x5 155x1 165x1 175x1 185x1 190x1 195x1 (PR)

We are still working on our technique for this lift but it is getting much better. Our issues still lie with the catch at the top, we were a little off balanced for a couple of reps ( I guess this could be caused by our press, either way, practice is the solution). I know I am good for around 225lbs. We decided 7 sets was an acceptable place to stop considering we still had a met-con in the evening and we both set PR's. Following this WOD we worked on handstands for about 20 minutes. It was the first time either of us really just focused on holding ourselves up properly. Anyone who trains knows that the more novice you are the faster your ability increases. As we grow into advanced or elite, our progressions slow.
PM:
Run 800m
30 hip/back extensions
30 GHD sit ups
30 hip extensions
30 knees to elbows
30 back extensions
30 Ab-Mat sit ups

11:36

I am very happy with my performance on this workout. I guess I can say that these are strengths of mine (except for running). The 800m was run in 3:52, kinda slow, but if I may use an excuse, the route around the gym is hill after hill. I felt like I ran it with good pace. I had to break up the hip/back extensions and the knees to elbows into 20-10 but everything else was done unbroken. The Ab-Mat sit ups were not anchored but I did have my feet against a machine, we can call that, half anchored.

Post "Cheat Night Gone Right"

Last night will go down as one of the most successful nights in the history of the Paleo-Zone diet. We all woke up this morning feeling fine and ready to get in another WOD before football.

10 rounds:
5 HSPU
20 double unders

9:33

We only had two jump ropes and were a bit worried, since there was three of us (Lou, CMo and I), that we may have to wait for a rope. This was not the case. Somehow no one ever had to wait. I was able to do 8 sets of HSPU's unbroken and 7 sets of double unders unbroken. The majority of the HSPU were "hair to ground" while towards the end I got tired and went down as far as I could. Just like I say with every double under workout, my comfort level again went up. Not necesarily that I can do more in a single set, although this may be the case, but I use so much less energy. My elbows are in, arms are stationary, rythym is consitent and my knees barely bend. It is very exciting to progress.

I have to give a shout out to my main man Grainz Loudubbs Sarry the 1st. This man has a lionheart and once again proved it. Two weeks ago Louis could not do a handstand. After some practice post WOD in Columbia, he was able to hold himself up in one. Pre-WOD CMo and I posed the idea that he do handstands or inverted burpees instead of the HSPU's. His response was "pfffftt pleeeasse, son, yesterday I thought 155lbs was going to be too heavy to clean 63 times, but I did it, did it well and looked damn good doing it, I am doing HSPU's today!"
"Pardon me?" I responded
Lou didnt even humor me with words, he just went up in a handstand and willed out 5 HSPUs! Amazing. Never has this kid let me down, he just continues to impress. He preceded to storm through a WOD that showcased two weaknesses of his, producing 2 PRs on his way. His previous consecutive double unders was 14, his new record is 17 which, I might add, he set in round 10! As for the HSPU's, he went from 0 to 50 in one workout, setting a PR of 5 in a row. This was such a great way to finish off a perfect weekend. Thrive on Lou.

Heavy Day

AM: Squats
Back Squat
1x5 135 lbs
1x5 185 lbs
1x3 225 lbs
1x2 250 lbs
1x1 285 lbs
1x1 315 lbs (PR)
1x1 325 lbs (fail)

Front Squats
1x3 135 lbs
1x3 165 lbs
1x3 195 lbs

Well, anytime I get a PR its a great feeling, especially since I exceeded my previous PR by 10 lbs (305). However, I was a bit disappointed because on my attempt for 325, which I thought I was gonna get, I started my squat incorrectly (bending my knees first instead of leading with my hips), immediately ruining my attempt. I just brought the weight down and put it on the rack. This upset me but I got over it.

PM: 3 rounds
800m run
21 power cleans, 155 lbs

21:50

Tough workout. I feel my time was a bit slow due to a few factors. 1) We ran on treadmills that A) probably slowed my running down due to the fact that a speed must be designated making it hard to speed up or slow down and B) the gym was packed and we were forced to wait at least once during the WOD, for about a minute, for a treadmill to open up. 2) Our barbells were set up downsatirs (about 50m away from the treadmills with a flight of stairs to scale), without bumper plates and a gym employee chirping in our ears "please don't slam the weights," this forced us to use energy to cautiously lower the bar to the ground on every rep, during 63 reps, this takes a toll on the ol' body. 3) The WOD was just flat out difficult. 155 lbs is pretty heavy and I predict that there is a chance that I could have got sub 20 minutes in perfect conditions, i.e. at Balance. Regardless, we were soaked, we all (CMo, Lou and I) did it rx'd and were drained at the end. My runs were about an 8 minute mile pace for the first round, a 7:30 mile pace for the second round and a 7 minute mile pace for the third. The cleans were approximately broken up 11-5-3-2 in round 1, 11-4-3-3 in round 2 and 11-8-2 for round 3.

These workouts were followed by "Cheat Night Gone Right" that included but was not limited to pizza, carne asada, fro-yo, pastries, pie, cookies and a Caps 8-2 victory over the Fagadelphia Cryers. Probably the best cheat night to date.

Back to Reality

Well, I can walk today with limited soreness. Glad that is over with. CMo and I are off to Princeton tonight to chill with the one and only Grainz Regis.

AM: 2 rounds
800m row at 100%
rest as needed
400m row at 100%
rest as needed
200m row at 100%
rest as needed

JMo
1. 800m- 2.54.2 (271 watt) 4. 800m- 2.51.2 (285 watt)
2. 400m- 1.16.5 (399 watt) 5. 400m- rower shut off as I finished 1.17ish (351 watt)
3. 200m- 0.35.8 (486 watt) 6. 200m- 0.36.1 (475 watt)

CMo
1. 800m- 2.55.3 (266) 4. 800m- 2.52.0 (282)
2. 400m- 1.22.1 (324) 5. 400m- 1.20.9 (339)
3. 200m- 0.37.7 (415) 6. 200m- 0.36.5 (460)

This wore us out. I would have to say that these short intense workouts are harder then the 5k rows. Not sure which one I prefer. I don't exactly look forward to either.

PM:
25 knees to elbows
25 box jumps, 20 inches
25 dumbbell swings
25 push press, 95 lbs
25 pull ups
25 burpees

JMo: 6:25
CMo: 8:31
Big Lou: 8:58

We arrived in P-Town, went to the store and then hit the gym. Going into this workout I felt I could do 25 reps of all of these exercises unbroken. I took a little bit of extra rest before the push press and pull ups to assure that I would be able to do them without stopping. My strategy worked, everything unbroken. The worst part for me was probably the box jumps or the burpees. The pull ups got tough around 15 because I was pretty tired by the time I got to them. The push press went better then expected. Overall, I was satisfied with my effort.

My Dogs Are Barking

LEGS. ARE. SORE.

Took it easy today with hope I would regain my ability to walk, sit, stand or move. When I woke up the thought of taking today and tomorrow off was in my head. As time passed, I began to feel better, well enough to scratch my original plan of doing "Linda" and inserting my new plan, thanks to CMo, of attempting a much shorter, lighter WOD.

3 rounds with 30 sec rest in between rounds:

AMRAP 4 min
10 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
10 Sit Ups (with Ab-Mat)

1000m row once rounds are completed.

9 rounds + 10 C2B + 5 push ups
1000m in 4:42 (My legs are stupid dumb sore and I am a girly man, give me a break)

I think I did this WOD wrong on top of the fact that my performance was not anything to blog about (no one writes home anymore, get with the times). Instead of starting each round with the C2B, I decided to start where I left off on the last round. I made this decision in the middle of round 1 because I didn't want to have to remember where I left off, get it? This probably allowed me to do more total reps. Either way, I went pretty much as hard as my broken down, feeble, pale body would allow. Ironically, the sit ups were the most difficult. C2B pull ups really force you to use your abs. I had never done 100 C2B in one workout (maybe not ever in my life), I was really feeling the fatigue on my abs while trying to get the last few reps of each set. Bottom line, I got a good sweat on, I was tired and now I get to rest tomorrow. By Friday I should be refreshed and ready to smoke some WODs with C-to-the-Mo and Big Lou-Dubbs Unnessa-Sarry in P-town.

Monday and Tuesday

Sorry for the delay, I was out yesterday and did not have time to update. I will do double duty this morning.

Monday

AM: 400m walking lunge

9:44

PM: Shoulder WOD
Shoulder Press: 135x1 145x1 155x1 165x1 170x1(PR)
Push Press: 135x3 145x3 155x3 165x3 175x3
Push Jerk: 135x5 145x5 155x5 165x5 185x5(PR)

Well, if I would have known that the 400m walking lunge would have A) been absolutely awful and B) ruined my week, I don't know if I would have done it. I cannot stand, sit, walk or move without pain. On the other hand, my time was very good, I even beat Fit Mom's (Kim Malz) time, although I am sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I am much taller then her. The shoulder workout went awesome. CMo and I both PR'd on our shoulder press which was long overdue, we had failed our PR attempts the last two sessions.


Tuesday

Okay, so my legs don't work.

AM: 5k

22:52

Mid-Day: Helped my sister move into her 2nd and 3rd floor townhouse

PM: "Joshie"
3 rounds:
21 right arm snatch, 40lb
21 L-pullups
21 left arm snatch, 40lb
21 L-pullups

24:09

Well, I am not sure if I will ever walk again. If I were a horse, they would have to kill me. DAMN YOU 400M WALKING LUNGE!
The run went well considering my condition. I watched some videos on proper running technique and I was able to apply it for the first mile of the run. It was very cold out and we were happy to finish. The rest of the day did not go well. I limited myself when helping my sister move. My dad did the bulk of the work. I felt bad but I had no choice. I left work at 2pm, went home and took and hour snooze. This gave me enough strength to get to the gym. "Joshie" was done at 65% with power snatches and sloppy L-pullups. I basically took a break whenever it started to hurt. I also talked to Steve O for about 2 minutes in between an L-pullup set. Glad I went in, sad that my body is broken.

Thanksgiving Day WOD

I was starting feel a bit sore when I woke up but real excited to do the WOD that my brother and I made up. Its chilly and raining out, its going to be awesome.

5 rounds:
6 ring muscle ups
9 below knee to overhead, 100 lbs
12 bastards over a ladder folded and laying down, about 1.5 feet width
block run, about 560m

29:20

We were not sure how this was going to go. Our motivation was to think of a good extended WOD that we could do with the equipment we have. It met all of our expectations and turned out to be quite a strategically brutal workout. It was chilly out and I opted against getting in a full warm up. I got the blood moving and did some stretching, but, my plan was to let the first round get me warm. My strategy for a 5 rounder: I pick it up in rounds 1-3 respectively, round 4 is usually the slowest as I conserve enough energy to go all out in round 5 which is typically my fastest. This was successfully accomplished today. It wasn't really until round 3 that I felt warmed up. The muscle ups were the easiest, rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 were unbroken, during round 2, I slipped off the rings and was forced to break them up to re-chalk. The below knee to OH were the hardest for me. We only have 10 lb plates so going all the way to the ground was annoying and overkill. We decided that starting each rep just below the knee would suffice. For the first 3 rounds I did power snatches unbroken, for rounds 4 and 5 I did clean and jerks, unbroken. The bastards were just annoying. They drained whatever energy I had left from the barbell lifts. Plus, the ground was wet and muddy which added to my discomfort. The run, which has become significantly easier for me, was a challenge. The bastards left me drained as hell. I spent the first 120m catching my breath and the last 250m speeding up. Overall, very satisfied with my performance.

* * * * *

About 30 minutes after the WOD my body started hating me. My legs are getting sorer by the nano-second. Yesterdays high rep squats have have greatly decreased the accuracy and efficiency of my motor skills. I plan on overdosing on meats and pies tonight with encores Friday and possibly Saturday. I think I am going to take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off to let my body recover. Then it is back to a heavy workload to be ready for The Superfit Games in January and Sectionals in early March.

Regret is....

...the feeling you get halfway through a WOD that sucks as much as the one today. You can replace the word regret with pain, remorse, anguish, defeat, overwhelming or sexy.

Deadlift:
1x5 225
1x3 265
1x3 285
1x3 315
1x3 330

15 minutes after

AMRAP 20
25 Bastards over unloaded barbell
15 Bodyweight barbell squats, 190lb

4 rounds + 15 bastards

Hole-y Swiss cheese Batman, this was rough.
The deadlifts were a nice warm up but they always end up wearing me out more then I plan. I don't necessarily feel beat after a deadlift workout, but whenever I do a met-con following, I seem to get fatigued faster. I did lighter sets today hoping to avoid this trend. On Tuesday, when envisioning this WOD, I thought I would be able to get 5 rounds plus some bastards. I certainly underestimated the energy that the squats would require. They absolutely took everything I had. The words I listed in the beginning of this post were going through my mind as the sweat dripped off my forehead during every squat attempt. It was the word "sexy" that kept me going. I knew that once I was finished, I would feel sexy as hell. A pro from this WOD was the improvement I noticed in my low-bar back squat. Since I was forced to will most of the squats, the bar tended to shift to on my back, I stuck with a lower position across my shoulders, this increased my efficiency. Regardless, there is no way I could get sloppy on squats. During most met-con's your form breaks down and you are able to complete reps by just muscling the weight or completing reps with bad rhythm. With 190lb squats, for me at least, I could not get sloppy. Every rep from 1 to 60 was strict, below parallel and agonizing, this is the main reason that my legs are now jello and my body is sore, especially my trunk. This WOD kicked my ass and I am glad its over. I feel like I have grown as a Crossfitter after enduring it.

HSPU's Are Your Friend

So I am pretty sure I have developed tendinitis in my left knee. Ever since the Oly lift meet it has been giving some level of discomfort, 24/7. It gets worse when I squat a bunch and better when I rest (shocker). I am trying to just put it out of my head during workouts. It has not slowed me down much, it has just been a nag and forced me to sacrifice good form on some reps. During "Fran" I could feel myself leaning a bit forward and maybe to my right to counter the pain. Its whatever though, I am not going to dwell on it. Just do what I do and hope it heals.

Today was a WOD I had never tried before, I was unsure how it would go. HSPU and weighted pull ups seem like they could give me fits.

21 HSPU
400m run
21 weighted pull ups, 47.5lb
15 HSPU
400m run
15 weighted pull ups, 47.5lb
9 HSPU
400m run
9 weighted pull ups, 47.5lb

16:47

Wow, talk about feeling fresh. I sure did tonight. Even though I did not touch my head to the ground on a single HSPU I couldn't have been more then an inch from the ground on every rep. My ROM was damn near full. Going into this workout I was scared about the HSPU and the weighted pull ups, which I will get to in a moment. The first set of HSPU went 7-5-4-3-2, next set was 8-5-2 and the final set was 9. I was flying through these, up-down-up-down-up-down. It felt great! For the first time in a while I actually enjoyed HSPU's. The runs were cake. They were right around 400m down a hill and back up it. I was running significantly faster then I usually do. The pull ups, these were tough. My original plan was to use 25lbs, but, after checking the message board, I noticed that 45lbs seemed to be the standard. I strapped 45lbs on about a 2.5lb chain, could be a 5lb chain, I will have to check, around my waist for the pull ups. I used a supine grip, otherwise I would never have finished. About 10 reps throughout the whole workout were not deadhang, all the rest were. I was able to get a slight kip for some reps but once the weight started swinging, I either had to step down or hang there and test my grip. I thought this workout was fun. I felt fresh the whole time. It is certainly one of those workouts where I became strength fatigued and not endurance fatigued.

The Weekend

I apologize for the lack of posting this weekend but I stayed at my boy Loudubb's Sarry's moms vacant crib. We were limited in the fact that we had no Internet and only a couple stolen cable channels but unbounded by our will to thrive, cook, listen to Audioslave and sleep in really comfortable beds. I will catch you up on our extremely successful and relatively brutal weekend of fitness.

Friday

AM: Squats
Back Squats
135 lb x 5 reps
185 lb x 3
225 lb x 3
250 lb x 3
250 lb x 3
250 lb x 3
275 lb x 2

Front Squats
5 sets by 3 reps of 190 lb

This was fun. I love the low bar positioning. Never thought I would enjoy squatting 250 lbs. The 275 went up with no sweat. I could have done another rep. I really want to get 315 lb soon. Bodyweight front squats were kind of heavy. Partially because I was a little fatigued from the back squats, mostly because they were bodyweight front squats.

PM: "Grace"
30 ground to overhead with 135 lbs

4:11 (PR)

Not the easiest WOD to do after a heavy day of squatting but it was short enough that I did not have any lingering effects from the AM workout (I think). I definitely feel like I could get sub 4 minutes....right now. I ended up losing track of my reps, really confusing myself twice during the set. I am pretty sure I did 31 reps if not 32. Trying to think of what rep I was on also effected my time. I am still satisfied with what I got and I was smoked at the end. My legs started to burn during the last ten reps or so. Next time I will have someone count for me.

Saturday

Last night we had "Cheat Night Gone Bad." I think we overdid it. I wasn't feeling to hot at the end. This in combination with the fact that Grainz was very sore, put limitations on the movements we could do for our morning met-con. After some deliberation, groaning, coffee drinking and a lot of sitting we decided on:

400m row
21 knees to elbows
21 push ups
21 dumbbell swings, 52.5 lbs
400m row
15 knees to elbows
15 push ups
15 swings
400m row
9 knees to elbows
9 push ups
9 swings
400m row

14:53

We thought we would take this as an active rest routine, that was, until we started. Once we got the blood moving our pride took over. I wasn't going to let myself do anything unbroken. It was good to sweat out some of the sugar.

Sunday

Its here, the day I have been thinking about for the past week, repeating this workout in my head, over and over again.

"Fran"

21-15-9
Thrusters, 95 lbs
pull ups

3:38(PR)

Well my plan was to do everything unbroken. I did not succeed at this, I had to drop for about 2 seconds on my set of 15 pull ups. My grip was just gone. Everything else was unbroken. Honestly, I thought I had done it faster. The break literally added 2-3seconds to my time, otherwise, I had very little rest in between sets. If I want to improve I will have to pick up the pace of my thrusters. Not something I am looking forward to doing. Regardless, I got sub 4, my last PR was 4:15, I am happy.

I think it is interesting that I can do 90 reps (Fran) 33 seconds faster then I can do 30 reps (Grace). Thats Crossfit.

Run, Pull, Push, Sit and Squat

I woke up bright and early to meet my brother for a 5k at 7am. Slammed a Zone Bar and got to his place right on time. We ran a course that we had run before to see if we had improved.

AM: 5k

24:43

Well, did we get a faster time? No, actually slower by 23 seconds. Did we improve? Yes, and I will tell you why. For the last 400m we damn near sprinted the whole way. After the run was over we didn't feel nearly as tired as we had from the previous attempt at this course, plus I smoked my PM WOD that I will get to in a minute. I realize that, since I am so untrained in running, I am not very good at pacing myself. I tend to run at the same pace for the whole time, every time. Now that I am in better running shape I should pick up the pace during the run. Since I was able to sprint at the end, it tells me that I could have used a little more gas to get my speed up in lets say, the first two miles. Regardless, this run is mostly uphill, especially the last mile and a half which is nearly all uphill. We were satisfied with our result.

PM: "Angie"

100 Pull ups- 4:36
100 Push ups- 5:57
100 Sit ups- 4:07
100 Squats- 2:34

Total time: 17:14 (PR)

Nothing like improvement. My push ups were the story here. I was (4) seconds faster on the pull ups, (3:43) faster on the push ups, (27) seconds slower on the sit ups and (30) seconds slower on the squats. These slower times are understandable due to my improvement on the push ups. Although, I think I could have gone faster on the squats. My pull ups were broken up 20-15-10-10-10-10-13-12, Push ups were sets of ten until the last 40, then they were more like sets of 5 and 3. The sit ups (with Ab-Mat and anchored feet) were very erratic sets. Some sets of 30 other sets 0f 10. I just tried not to rest for more then 3 seconds. The squats were 50-10-10-30. My overall improvement was (2:50).

Groggy

Today I woke up completely out of it. I don't remember ever really feeling this way. I forgot to brush my teeth, bring an avocado to work and move my fish from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw. I was in slow motion all day. I cant really pinpoint the reason. I felt healthy and rested, maybe I was still feeling the effects of a 44 min shitfest from Sunday. Who knows?

5 rounds
15 95lb push jerk
15 L pull ups

13:51

Well, needless to say my workout was not done with my usual vigor. I wasn't really concerned with form today, just about completion. The L pull ups were very sloppy and not strict. I finished every rep in an L position but I basically brought my legs into a pike on my way up, using it as a kip. They are a technique that is certainly a weakness of mine. I did most in sets of 1, some in sets of 2 and I started off with a set of 5. I used the supine grip for 80% of the pull ups. The prone grip became to difficult as I got tired. I did all of the push jerks unbroken. I think my performance would have been even worse (although it wasn't bad) if I did not get a good warm up in beforehand. I rowed 500m at 85%, then did 100 double unders in 2:09 and a set of 5 HSPU's, dome to floor. My double unders have come so far and I really feel comfortable with them. Although, I seem to consistently lose my rhythm around the 25 rep mark. I think this is probably around the time where fatigue sets in enough to break down my form. I have noticed in the past that as I continue to do double unders, they get better as I get warmer. Today was not the day to test that theory.

"Eva"

I did "Eva" once before and it took me a long time, it was real sloppy and I regretted it after.

I think Coach Glassman thought of this workout one day when he was pissed off. There is no reason this should be more than three rounds and it wouldn't be unrealistic for it only to be one round. But no, it is five grueling rounds of pain and anguish. Last time I did this workout, probably in May, the running was a real factor in decreasing my endurance. I hope that since my running has improved, I will be able to use that time as a bit of a recovery from the swings and the pull ups.

"Eva"
5 rounds
800m run
30 kettlebell swings, 2 pood (70lbs)
30 pull ups

44:00 (PR)

I am A) glad it is over and B) very satisfied with my time! I PR'd by 6 min and 34 seconds (last time was 50:34). I was shooting for sub 45 and I accomplished my goal. This is one of those workouts that it is really hard to stay focused in rounds 1-3. Knowing that there is so much left really puts doubt into your head. I just kept a steady pace. The run was not nearly as bad as it was in the past. The route I took was around the gym (800m and change) and is pretty hilly. There are two long gradual down hills, one gradual uphill and one 50yd steep uphill around the 600m mark (not to mention all of the oblivious people taking up the whole sidewalk, staring at me with a look of either confusion as to whether or not I am coming towards them or confusion as to whether or not I am going to run in the grass. MOVE THE FUCK OVER! SHIT SON!). Sorry, but I just don't get the inconsideration of society. I feel like pulling a Josh Everett and just running through them. ANYWAYS, the swings scared me the most, 70 lbs is a lot to swing over your head. These will make or break your time. They are taxing on the legs, grip, mind and core. I split the first three rounds up 15-15, the fourth 18-12 and the fifth 22-8. Pull ups are usually a non-issue but I knew they would give me fits today. I could really notice the fatigue in my core after the swings, plus, my grip was struggling. I paced these out as well, for the first three rounds I did 10-10-10, the fourth 12-10-8 and the final round 15-6-9. To be honest it wasn't as bad as I remember, this is obviously due to the fact that I am in better shape. Don't get me wrong, it was awful, but I felt worse during the Filthy Fifty. It really requires a lot out of you mentally. Thinking about how much more you have left can drive you insane. Focusing on the task at hand is key.

I have to give a shout out to my main man Ben, all 145 lbs of him. When I walked into the gym before starting "Eva," I sat down with the CFDC crew who had just finished class and chatted for a minute. I jokingly asked them "who wants to do "Eva" with me?" I damn near got slapped by Maiko #2, and then, from over in the corner, Ben racks his bar that he had just finished using for back squats, and says "I'll do it with you." I was shocked. I have a lot of respect for Ben, he has good form and skills. My respect rose after he decided to join me (FYI a 70 lb kettelbell is about half of his body weight). Ben had never done "Eva" before and it was a real struggle for him but he finished in a little over an hour. Mad props to that man. It took me 3 days to get my cunning up enough for this WOD, it took him 3 seconds. Thrive on brother.

Legs Are Tight

As I expected, yesterday really took a toll on my body. I feel pretty run down, my legs are real tight and getting sorer by the second! Today I am going to take it easy, I need to save something for "Eva" tomorrow :o

Power Clean & Jerk
10x1 185 lb

21-15-9
Deadlift, 185 lb
Ring Dips
Double Unders

5:32

I wanted to work on my push jerk so I decided to take my time on the skill work. It went well although I failed the jerk on two reps. It was a combination of fatigue and poor form. Following this I did a short met-con that was just enough to get my heart rate up. The DL's and the double unders were unbroken, the dips were split into 12-9, 8-7 and 9. Time to foam roll and rest for the remainder of the day. Gonna attempt "Eva" tomorrow which is really gonna suck!

Doomsday

***DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS DAY IF YOU ARE UNTRAINED***

Not to sound arrogant but today was probably the second most physically demanding day I have experienced to date, just behind the Hopper, and the worst part, I sure as hell wasn't expecting such a high level of brutality!

CMo and I have been rowing 5k's once a week. We decided to change it up this week and do a "less taxing" (so we thought) routine from OPT's site. The prescribed workout was 7 rounds: 300m row at 100% with 3 minutes rest in between each round. CMo had the great idea of increasing the rounds to 10, when I asked him how much rest in between he said "I don't remember, either 1 minute or ninety seconds, lets do a minute of rest." We compromised on ninety seconds of rest. If only CMo would have remembered the prescribed rest time.

AM: 10 rounds 300m row at 100% with 90 seconds of rest in between rounds (time/avg. watts):

JMO- CMo
1. 0.59.9/352- 1.01/322
2. 0.59.9/352- 1.01/333
3. 1.00/341- 1.01/327
4. 1.02.5/310- 1.02.5/310
5. 1.01/319- 1.03.5/291
6. 1.01/325- 1.03/302
7. 1.03.2/299- 1.04/274
8. 1.01/328- 1.03/297
9. 1.01/333- 1.01/331
10. 57.4/400- 1.02/308

This workout was extremely demanding! A great way to wake you up at 7:30 am. I was not expecting 300m to be so difficult. I am still improving my rowing efficiency and working on my technique. For my last three rounds I focused on driving through my toes on the pull. Like I was jumping for a rebound. On the last round I tried to keep my back straight, I was successful for about half of my pulls, this extended my stroke and therefore immensely decreased my time. Using my legs also took a lot of stress off of my upper body.

PM: "Cindy"
AMRAP 20
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

JMo: 21 rounds + 5 pull ups and 3 push ups (PR)
CMo: 19 rounds + 5 pull ups and 7 push ups (PR)

Obviously, this was also very tough, even with the 8 hours of rest in between WOD's. CMo went first and tore it up, really set the bar for me to try and reach. Halfway through we had an audience of narcissistic "bodybuilders" admiring our cunning. I was surprised that they could take time away from maxing out on their barbell curls and the deep conversations about their excitement for the new Boondock Saints movie. I think they would have attempted "Cindy" if they didn't fear stretching out their wife beaters or perspiring through their sweatpants. Either way, CMo and I earned our epic cheat night that you can check out on Facebook. Tomorrow will be an active rest day with some skill work and a short met-con, thank God.

Day and Night

The weather today was crappy. I was reassured every hour of the crappiness by my co-worker who loves to complain about any and everything. I don't blame her, she had to stand while smoking her cigarettes because the rain prohibited her to sit on the bench outside. Can you believe that? She actually had to burn a calorie or two standing while her sole purpose was to shave years OFF her life, not increase them! What a hypocrite.

When I first woke up, knowing that I was going to run today, I was disappointed in the rain. CMo and I exchanged a couple texts debating on whether or not to run. We decided to go for it.

AM: 5k run

21:56 (PR)

Well, what can I say, the run today was great. I can really tell that our running ability is improving. Not once did I feel as bad as I had felt on the previous runs. The cool weather and light rain made for pleasant running conditions. The uphills were not as taxing as they were even a week ago. When we finished (strong I might add), I was not as drained as I have been. Clearly, we are getting in better running shape!

PM: Shoulder Press

1x10 100 lb
1x8 110 lb
1x6 115 lb
1x6 125 lb
1x6 130 lb

This workout was just difficult enough to have me struggle to get rep or two on some of the sets. It forced me to stay tight in the abdomen to take pressure off of my spine. I am not used to doing a high volume of shoulder presses with significant weight. I had to stay strict and focus on form.

Filthy Fifty

Well, today was the day. Time to actually give a good performance. I have improved my fitness significantly since the last time I did this workout. I believe, going into today, my PR was 30+. I just remember bonking out before the wall balls. Today was different. I have a different mentality now, a better diet, a stronger will and most importantly, I am in better shape!

Filthy Fifty

50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

22:40

A I told Vadim last night, my disappointment was only outweighed by my satisfaction. I was really hoping for sub 20, this would have completed my life. Am I upset with my time? Not in the least, I am very proud of myself. Looking back now, I think that was the best time I could have posted in the current shape I am in. I really left it all out there. Yes, there was a lot of resting, but it was because my body stopped working! This WOD is set up so perfectly! It is like physically abusing poetry. Let me explain.

Jumping pull ups are a joke if you ask me, there is no reason one can't do these for hours on end, that is, until you put 50 box jumps before them. This actually takes away from your jumping ability and forces you to use more of your upper body.

Before starting the WOD you think, 1 pood (35.2 lbs) kettlebell swing, are you serious? How about I just raise my arms over my head 50 times? Well, thanks to the box jumps, my shoulders are now fatigued from the pull ups. This 1 pood actually has some weight to it!

Walking lunge, strategically placed to give you somewhat of a breather, for, the hard part is still 150 reps away, deep breaths, deep breaths.

Then comes the knees to elbows, these are just demanding as hell, you could put these anywhere in any WOD and they will always suck. I just tried to get ten at a time. Some sets were fifteen, others were five. Just get through them is all that is on my mind.

Next, push press with 45 lbs. 45 lbs??? I crap 45 lbs! Your kidding me right? No Jason, I am not kidding you, the difficulty of anything after knees to elbows is increased, you know this! Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Now, this is where the workout gets hard. Probably the best placed exercises of all. Starting with back extensions. Note, these are called back extensions and not fuck-up-your-hamstrings-and-quads-so-much-that-standing-becomes-an-affliction-extensions! Many people, like myself, can do 50 back extensions in 1-2 sets. This is great for shaving time off of this exercise, but I actually think it increases your time because of the following exercises.

By this time the 20 lb wall ball feels like 50 lbs, and you feel like 500 lbs, whatever, here we go. One.... holy shit, I can't squat. My legs are done from those......back extensions!?!?!?! This is the time in the workout where you really have to dig deep, you have a mountain to climb. Just keep on going, squat and throw, squat and throw.

Once the wall balls are done, you are running on fumes, this is okay (or is it)because you only have two exercises left, unfortunately, one of the exercises, burpees, requires more cunning then any of the preceding movements. Here is how I attack them, every time you feel like stopping, drop down and do another burpee.

Finally, we are at the end, 50 double unders. You can double or triple the length it normally takes you to do 50 double unders for this set. Your body doesn't work very well right now for some reason. Just breath and bang out as many as you can at a time. Your shoulders are on fire, your vertical resembles more of a horizontal and your you lungs are not working as efficiently as they were this afternoon. Just keep going, it will be over soon.

The Fifty is as great as it is terrible. It really tests your will and ability. You go in with a game plan and come out with no game and no plan. I held back puke 3 times. I don't usually feel sick during workouts but I did today. Stopping made it worse, this helped during the burpees. My advice, don't kill yourself on any one exercise. Save something, very little of course, in the tank. Minimize rest maximize reps.

WOD x 2

I thoroughly enjoyed the Crossfit seminar with Coach Glassman yesterday. Getting to listen to and meet him is an experience I will never forget. Not to mention, getting to see and workout in a gym like CF Fairfax! I was absolutely in love with their layout!



Please notice the pull up bars that extend the full length of the gym along the left hand side, the olympic lifting platform floor and the amount of rings! Not pictured are the 20+ barbells, 10+ racks, kettle bells and hundreds of pounds (maybe over 1000lbs) of bumper plates. They had about 6 stacks that were each 3+ ft high.

Overall, it was a great experience, but you know me, I was hoping to get in a little tougher workout. I was expecting Fran and instead I got 200 reps in 20 minutes. I didn't even work up a sweat. I felt I needed to make up for it by doing two WODs today.

AMRAP 20
12 snatches, 65 lbs
10 push ups

14 rounds + 4 snatches

What a "sneak-tip killer" this WOD was. On paper I see 65 lb anything and I think "hmmm maybe I should increase the weight?" Then I thought, "well, I can probably get 20 rounds, I cant see myself not doing all the snatches unbroken." then I talked to my brother who informed me that this WOD really knocks you down a few pegs. He said when the 20 minutes ended, he collapsed in a pile of his own sweat and vomit (minus the vomit). He told me to shoot for 15 rounds, I did. Right off the bat this workout sucked, I got to 8 snatches and I started to doubt myself. It was pretty pathetic. I don't think any of the sets of snatches were done consecutively. I squeezed in some sort of rest throughout. All of the push ups were unbroken, which always makes me happy. This WOD was totally serial.

***15-20 minutes after***

Continuously running clock pull ups. Increase amount of reps by one with every consecutive minute.

18 rounds + 11 llups (PR)

Needless to say, after 100+ pull ups on Saturday and a AMRAP that just kicked my ass, I wasn't particularly excited about attacking this WOD. Although, once I started, I knew I had it in me to PR. I really thought I was going to get 20 rounds, and I think I could have if it wasn't for my hands/skin failing me. After my 11th rep in the 19th minute, I looked at my hands and decided that it was enough. Two of my callouses were hanging off. The pain then started to come. I am sure if I wouldn't had looked I could have possibly got 20 rounds, but I am still satisfied. I feel like I have been hit by a train. I am really looking forward to tomorrows rest day!



Vadim, feel free to comment on the hairy ape chest or the Jaredesque double chin.

Coach Glassman in the Box

Today I woke up at 7am on a Saturday to catch the metro to the absolutely stunning Crossfit Fairfax box for a free Crossfit 101 seminar with Coach Glassman! It was pretty surreal seeing the man who have created a way of life that dictates mine. We basically sat around for several hours asking him questions about Crossfit. He was extremely knowledgeable, funny, informative and interesting. He spoke a lot about being a trainer and I cant wait until it is my turn. I was introduced to all 5'7" of him during the break, got to shake his hand and chat for a bit. At the end of the day I went up to him alone and thanked him and told him how Crossfit had changed my life. He thanked me and said "your Jason right?" He remembered my efffing name which tells me that he is going to personally make sure I get my Level 1 cert. comped and he will provide a box for me to open my own affiliate! We're best friends!

The skill level at the seminar was below average. We did a team workout and lucky me, I got paired with the four most below average CFer's there. This actually turned out to benefit me because I was forced to do most of the workout. Unfortunately, due to the fact that three of my teamates were "unexperienced" girls, they put us on the 6'5" pull up bar!

Team Workout:
300 wall balls 20 lb men/6! lb woman
300 pull ups
20 rep max per set (once you did 20 you had to let someone else go)


I did 100 wall balls and 100 pull ups (not very evenly split). One woman in my group could not squat nor throw a 6 lb ball ten feet in the air. Not a single rep should have counted but I think our counter gave her credit. She also elected not to do pull ups, don't worry, Jason will do them! I also thought it was funny when one of the girls said to me "can you take my turn, I am tired?" "haha sure, I know how tough those jumping pull ups can be." I was forced to basically do the splits for every pull up since I was nearly banging my knees on the ground on every swing! It was a lot easier then I originally thought it would be but I would have loved to use one of their 9' bars!

Good Day

Yesterdays rest day was great, definitely needed and I would like to think well deserved.

This morning CMo and I met at the gym before work to do a 5k row. I had extra incentive to beat Lou's aka "Endurance Man's" time from last week. I was successful but not by much and it wasn't easy!

AM: 5k Row

20:04
200 avg. watts

PM: Crossfit Total

Back Squat
305 lb (PR)

Shoulder Press
165 lb

Deadlift
440 lb

CF Total: 910 lb

A couple of weeks ago I did a squat workout with my dawg Henry at Balance. The man is strong as hell, 5'10" 175 lb and he did 5-8 sets of 5 reps with 275 lb, very impressive (followed by heavy C&J). He uses the low bar placement on his squats. I have never attempted it but after witnessing his impressive lifting I decided to try it today and see how it felt. As I increased the weight, moving towards my ultimate goal of 305 lb, the low bar placement felt more and more comfortable. After getting 275 relatively easy, I decided to try 305. My first attempt was a failure because I was too far forward, I had to bail and drop the bar on the rack, I was confident that I could do it if I focused on staying on my heals, and I was right. I entered the 300 club today and I would be lying if I said I wasn't ecstatic! Low bar is the shizz and I would recommend trying it if you don't already use it. After I was successful, regardless of the rest of my lifts, I was going to leave the day satisfied. The press was/is tough. The tendinitis in my shoulder still bothers me a bit on the press but I doubt I would have pressed 170 in perfect health, I failed on it again today. Just another thing I need to improve. The deadlifts went well also. CMo crushed 400 lb with ease. He looked so comfortable with it but failed on 405 lb, regardless, he was happy, as he should have been. I have pulled 445 lb before but doubt I could have done it today, I was content with 440 lb. It was a long rep! My goal today was to break 900 lb and I did. Cant wait to get stronger, 1000 lb, here I come!

Today's training was followed by an epic cheat night where my brother and I made guacamole bacon burgers from scratch. 50% sirloin and 50% chuck ground up in my food processor, cooked medium rare. We also indulged in a couple cupcakes, pumpkin spice bars and peanut butter cup ice cream and java chip frappacino ice cream. Pics to be posted this weekend on Facebook.

Active Shoulders

Today I was excited.

...and nervous

The Hopper increased my confidence with my overhead squats. I had never done a high volume of them in a WOD before the Hopper. I keep replaying my overall performance in my head, picking out what I should have done to place higher in each event. In the first met-con I noticed that Tuba-Steve, who was in front of me, was flying through the OH squats. He cut a lot of time out with this method (not to mention his speed on the basterds and push ups, but that is currently irrelevent). Since I was not sure of my ability to do a high rep volume of OH squats, I decided to slow my pace and make sure I did them all unbroken. The first 21 and the last 9 were unbroken, I broke the set of 15 into 10 and 5. This cost me some precious time, I wasn't going to make that mistake today...

5 rounds

(3) snatches, 95 lbs (power)
(15) OH squats, 95 lbs
400m run

15:17

Its performances like these that give me the smallest bit of hope, that there may be an outside chance, that I could possibly, by the hair on my chinny chin chin, squeak into a qualifying position in June. My running is rapidly improving. I did all of the OH squats unbroken and most of them were up and down fast (like Steve, I am not going to lie, I was picturing his technique throughout; thanks Steve). My original plan was to do at least the first two sets of OH squats unbroken, once I got through round three of unbroken squats, I wasn't going to allow myself to drop the bar. My wrists began to get a little sore and my palms a little sweaty, but not enough to stop me. The snatches were easy, the running was tough. The first three rounds were just under 3 minutes each, the fourth round was about 25 seconds over 3 minutes (I slowed on the run) and the fifth round was my fastest, 10-15 seconds under 3 minutes.

Running Sucks?

I'm Ron Burgundy?

So, after my second 5k in as many weeks, I can honestly say it is getting easier. My brother and I have been mapping out different 5k runs around Columbia and plan on tackling a new one every week. Running outside is great because of the scenery and difficulty. Going on a run through a new, or fairly new area is so intriguing to me. Anything that can take my mind off of the fact that I have to do this for 20+ minutes. The course we ran yesterday was, in the words of the late, great, Chris Farley, "down by the river!" 60% of the run was through dirt paths. The last 35% was nearly all uphill. It was brutal and harder then last weeks run for sure.

AM: 5k

23:39 (PR)

PM: Skills

100 double unders

2:53

5 below parallel HSPU's on parrallettes (un-timed)

25 head to ground HSPU's (un-timed)

100 double unders

1:45

Okay so, I am not going to lie, I was pretty tired. The run in the morning took some gusto out of me. My original plan was to do 5 sets for max reps, 4-6 inches below parallel on the parrallettes. When I realized that I could only do one at a time following these standards, I not only got upset, but I lost a lot of motivation. I just can't stand being bad at something. I decided to save the parrallettes for another day and work on my head to ground, which is also weak. I was playing with some different hand positions (mostly spacing them out from my ears as far as I could). I ended up finding a pretty comfortable position that not only decreases the ROM for my Mr. Fantastic arm length, but increases my ability to consistently go head to ground. I did 25 more HSPU's, in way too many sets, I don't exactly remember how many, but it was more than 1 and less then 10. My body was pretty achy, tired and sore. I went home, ate a meal and got minimum of 8 hours of rapid-eye-movement sleep. This morning I feel great.

I'm back, back again

Sorry, I am starting to understand Dave Chappelles reasoning as to why he didn't want to continue with his show. When you keep producing gems (like I do with my blog and he did with his show), the pressure to continue to impress becomes a burden. Okay, so maybe my arrogance has clouded my judgement of the level of astonishment my entries actually produce. To counter my hesitation, I will be updating my blog with my workouts and comments along with any banter I feel necessary, like I have been before. Just don't expect too much people (all 4 of you), my mind is fragile, I get anxiety in crowds, I am shy around adults and I am scared of cold water. I will do my best to keep you all entertained.

Let me catch you up on a some days that you have missed, there have been (11).

10-20-09

My first WOD back from the Hopper: "Tyler"
5 rounds
7 muscle ups
21 SDHP, 95lbs

18:40

I was still sore as sheet doing this one but the pain subsided as I got into the workout, it was hard as hell. I failed on a many muscle ups. Did (7) in a row for the first round but struggled in getting (2) in a row each round following. Overall, my time was decent.

10-21-09

"Tabata Something Else"

20 second on, 10 seconds off, for (8) rounds each of Pull ups, push ups, sit ups and squats.

Pull ups= 89
Push ups= 66
Sit ups= 99
Squats= 125

total= 379

Body weight stuff is not really my strength. My pull ups continue to improve after that disgusting display of "Angie" I had a little while back. This was my first time keeping track of my tabata score, and I can honestly say that I am not disappointed in my effort. Still a lot of work to do. That is the theme to my training.

*****After the Hopper my brother and I got a completely new drive to at least give ourselves every opportunity to qualify for the Crossfit Games. Is it likely? No. Possible? Maybe. Regardless, we decided to incorporate a vast amount of two-a-days that work on weaknesses and strength, while still following the main site. Our new program started in the next workout*****

10-22-09

AM: 4 rounds
50m walking lunge
50 sit ups (anchored)

10:50

This went well, I did not stop. The only way I could have gone faster was if I were to some how speed up my sit ups. Even then I could only see myself shaving off a maximum of maybe 25 seconds.

PM: Weighted Pull ups

1x1 45 lb
1x1 55 lb
1x1 70 lb
1x1 80 lb
1x1 90 lb
1x1 101.25 lb
1x1 105 lb (fail)

This went as expected. I threw the 1.25 lb magnet on the plate just so I could one up Big Lou who had pulled 100 lbs the day before. Jason = asshole.

10-24-09

"Tommy V"
21 thrusters, 115 lbs
12 rope ascents
15 thrusters, 115 lbs
9 rope ascents
9 thrusters, 115 lbs
6 rope ascents

32:25

(10) minutes after, 100 push ups: 6:45

Okay, this sucked. I have climbed a rope maybe (5) times before this workout and my lack of skilled sure shined through! It was a learning experience for every climb. Halfway through the workout I was just concerned on finishing rather then setting a good time. I knew what I was trying to do on the rope but I was only successful in doing it about 45% of the time. The sweat from my body was dripping down to my Vibrams causing my feet to slip regularly, this in turn forced me to use more upper body then I wanted/should have used. I have never looked forward to thrusters so much in my life! I am glad I finished.

10-25-09

Deadlift
1x5 225 lb
1x3 315 lb
1x2 365 lb
1x1 405 lb
1x1 435 lb (fail)

(20) minutes after

4 rounds
155 lb from ground to OH (clean to split jerk)
15 pull ups
15 GHD sit ups

11:00

It wasn't my day for the deadlift. I wasn't in it mentally, I was thinking about the met-con following. Once I tried to pull 435 and it was hard I decided against giving my all so I could save something for the next WOD. Disappointing, but I got over it. The WOD was cool. I need to work on my non-split jerk to save time.

10-26-09

AM: Run 5k

24:20 (PR)

PM: Back Squats
1x5 165 lb
1x5 195 lb
1x5 205 lb
1x5 210 lb

Front Squats
1x5 145 lb
1x5 160 lb
1x5 170 lb

(10) minutes after, 100 push ups: 5:58

This day was good. CMo and I are going to run and row a 5k every week. They are both weaknesses of mine. I plan on making them strengths.

10-28-09

AM: Power Clean
1x5 155 lb
1x4 165 lb
1x3 185 lb
1x2 195 lb
1x1 205 lb
1x1 215 lb (fail)

PM: "Nate"
AMRAP 20
2 muscle ups
4 HSPU
8 KB swing, 2 pood

12 rounds + 1 muscle up (PR)

I was satisfied with both of these performances. My previous "Nate" PR was 11 rounds. The HSPUs are what gets me. The first third of the workout my head is to ground, the 2nd third its hair to ground and the final third is just go down "some." They just wear me out! I will add them to my weakness training. The MU's are relatively routine, I didn't fail any, and the KB swings are cake, all unbroken.

10-29-09

AM: Push Jerk
1x5 135
1x4 155
1x3 165
1x2 175
2x1 185

PM: "Annie"
50-40-30-20-10
Double Unders
Sit Ups

6:40

The push jerks were a learning experience. I have always done split jerk. The Push jerk definitely saves time and effort. Towards the end I was feeling much more comfortable. There are a lot of moving pieces/bodyparts, and I will continue to work on my technique. "Annie" was okay. It is a minute off of my PR of 5:42. My double unders have improved since my PR from a technique stand point, but I had a lot of breaks in my sets. When I set the PR I was only broken a couple times, but, I wasted a ton more energy doing tuck jumps to assure the rope would go under. Now I am almost to the point where I can do them well without flailing all over the place. The next "Annie" will be best!

10-30-09

Row 5k

20:30 (PR)
Avg. Watts: 188

This was good. I definitely feel more comfortable on the rower. It was not an agonizing time like it has been in the past. I know I can go faster but I did a good job at maintaining a relatively good pace throughout.

10-31-09

AM: 150 push ups where any time you rest you sprint 50m.

10:05
15 runs= 750m

PM: OH Squats
1x8 65 lb
1x8 85 lb
1x8 95 lb
1x2 135 lb

***Before we started our met-con some dork came down and told everyone that the gym was closing in 10 minutes. We improvised***

3 rounds
5 basterds
7 185lb deadlifts
10 toes to bar

about 6 minutes

***outside***

3 rounds
10 strict tree branch (6 inch diameter) pull ups
15 jumps over 16" tall x 16" wide cement hedge
30 sit ups (unanchored)

6:54

This day was awesome. The morning WOD was done outside in the rain. We were absolutely drench and wearing about 3 lbs water during it. Lou beat me by 5 seconds. His approach was go to exhaustion each round. He started with a round of (50) push ups followed by many rounds of (10), (7), (5), (3) and even (1). I decided to break the rounds up and did (15), (15), (10).........(7) and (3). The OH squats were more a comfort WOD. They felt good and strong. The first met-con was tough! We were racing against time! Since the gym was closing it forced us to go fast and not stop, our grips were shot after. When we left the gym, we completed the day with another short met-con. I had to do this with my shoes off because I wasn't about to wear my Oly lifting shoes out in the mud and rain. It just added to the rugged factor! Lou is a beast at sit ups and he beat me again by like 20 seconds, twice in one day!

11-2-09

25-50-75 reps of
squats
push ups
pull ups
sit ups

25:49

WOW. This was killer. My push ups have definitely become better. I tried to break the reps up in this one also. The squats were never an issue. The push ups and the pull ups were tough as hell and the sit ups, which I thought would be my strong point, were hard as hell during the round of 50. The first round of 25 were unbroken for everything. The round of 50 were unbroken for squats and divided up into 10's for push ups. Pull ups were (15), (15), (10) and (10). The sit ups were killer. All done with an Ab-mat and my round of 50 had sets of (5) at times. Once I was done the round of 50 I realized that I was only halfway, that was not very uplifting. The squats burned, the push ups wore me out and the pull ups were sloppy as hell! I was having trouble keeping a rhythm in my kip, it was kind of funny actually. I was able to split the sit ups into (15) and (60). I just wouldn't let myself stop. Knowing the end is near went a long way in this WOD.

Preparation For The Hopper

This last month has been pretty busy for me. Two competions and a string of ailments. I still have some nagging tendinitis in my shoulder, at this point I am prepared to deal with it for the rest of my life. After the weightlinfting comp, and my poor/untrained methods of warming up, my knees have been sore. Each in different places. Too many warm up reps with too much weight and poor form has come back to annoy me. As of right now, both my shoulder and knees do not limit me in any way. A little sore here and there but once they are warmed up the pain nearly disappears.

To prepare for this Hopper I wanted to get back into some met-cons. I had been working on my Oly lifts and nursing my punk ass shoulder. My endurance level had definitely decreased. I was at the top of my game before the tendinitis and I got dropped right back down to "human status" after all the time off. I feel I am currently back to my "sub fire-breather status" (which is the highest status I have reached in my lifetime). My met-cons are solid and the Oly-lifting has increased my strength and ability, even if I still have A LOT to work on. My pull ups were probably my best skill, they had dropped off significantly with this injury, I believe they are back to semi-pro status (which is the second highest level they have been at in my lifetime).

For the final week of preparation I wanted to hit the gym pretty hard. I haven't had a real solid schedule of met-cons lately due to the obstacles I stated above. I wanted to test myself, see where I was at, improve a bit and become comfortable with my ability again. I want to be confident that I can perform to my potential at this competition. If I didn't have these speed bumps in my training I feel I would be at a level that I have yet to reach. Currently, I feel I have got back to the level I was before my issues, and that is fine and exciting for me. Instead of taking time off and resting, I did the opposite. I have had plenty of rest lately and felt like I needed to wake my body up again. With the exception of the 30 muscle ups for time workout that is a night I have erased from my memory, thanks for bringing it up again asshole.
You're welcome. Relax
Are you talking to yourself?
Maybe and/or yes

Anyways, I feel good. My performance this week really built my confidence that had previously been at its lowest point in a while.

Wednesday and Thursday I wanted "earn my raisins" with a couple short but demanding met-cons. I chose to let my knees rest this last week. I have never wanted to do a high rep squat workout so badly in my life, another good thing with the Hopper among us.

Wednesday WOD:

21-15-9

Pull Ups
185lb deadlift
GHD Sit Ups

I tried to time this workout but I guess I hit the stop button on my watch during my first set of pull ups, either that or I did it in 2.7 seconds. I am pretty sure it was sub 7 if not faster. All of the pull ups were unbroken. It was really important for me to see where I was with my pull ups. The set of 21 felt effortless, that is the feeling I had before my shoulder troubles. It is the feeling I wanted to have at this time, it is a great feeling. The deadlifts were broken into 15 and 6 for the first set and the following sets were unbroken. GHD were 11 and 10 for the first set (I always forget to adjust the machine before I start, I had to break my first set up to slide the foot pads down a couple pegs), the next two sets were unbroken.

Thursday WOD:

500m Row
30 burpees
10 from the ground to overhead any way, 135lbs

6:05

This workout was cool. Just what I needed. I started to get a bit nervous during the row, not my typical "set a PR" nerves but nerves I had never felt before, more like "The Hopper is Saturday" nerves.
Two exercises that I wanted to test this week with regards to my fitness and injuries were pull ups and burpees. The pull ups are just where I want them to be, 20-30 feel reletively simple. I haven't done a burpee in what has to be two months! This was one exercise that really gave my shoulder fits. I decided to cut them out completely. Needless to say, I was anxious to see how I would perform. One word, SPLADAHHHH! That means it went well. All thirty were nearly unbroken, I did fifteen without stopping then three sets of five with (3) second breaks in between. The ground to over head were a great finish. I did it without bumper plates so I couldn't drop the weight. This added to my fatigue as I was forced to lower the bar to the floor in a rather controlled manor. I did about (5) reps as split jerks and (5) as push press. The clean was simple, the press was a bit more challenging. Good workout, I am ready.

Wednesday 10-14-09

Alright, I suck, I have been busy with work, traveling and sheet. I will use this entry to catch you all up.
I was in Chicago for work Sunday evening through Tuesday evening. Here are some interesting/disturbing/down right pointless tidbits of info from that trip.
- One thing I never remember to do before I board a plane until I take my jacket off and reach to adjust the air vent above my head, is, put on deodorant. I did remember gum, does that cancel it out?
- I ate a tomato and a pear like an apple. The tomato was not so enjoyable because it got all over the place, the pear however tastes better that way.
- There was a hot tub across the hall from my room in the hotel I stayed at. I used it twice, both times in my boxers, one time to warm up. I left the job site early because I was so damn cold. Some guilt crept up on me while I was in the tub, but I just acted like it was the jets.
- I tend to see these people dressed like the Amish at airports frequently. They are obviously not Amish but they dress the same. I thought I heard the guy reading Hebrew aloud. I can't be sure. What I do know is he had a wide brimmed top hat on his head and one in his wide brimmed top hat carrying case. Like a case one would put a guitar in but in the shape of a hate. I could tell it was felt inside, must be a nice hat.
- 90% of the people eating at the airport eat McDonald's. It makes me sick. Other types of food I saw, in order of amount were pizza, ice cream, candy bars, a pop tart, one guy was eating wheat thins that he brought and another a sandwich. What did I eat? I act like you asked. I made a paleo kit with half a bag of assorted dried fruit, jack links beef jerky and some almonds I had. It was delicious. I also ate a powerbar during the flight.

Here are some recent WOD's

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of:

Hang power cleans, 95lbs
pull ups
sit ups
hip extensions

15:41

This was my first WOD back from my Gold Medal winning only man in my weight class performance at the weightlifting meet. It felt great. I felt a little heavy on my pull ups but I did everything unbroken except for the round of 18 pull ups, I split those up into 9 and 9.

AMRAP 20:

250m row
21 SDHP (95lbs)
15 pull upS

6 rounds in 19:40

I was happy with this. Not sure if I could have done much better. The SDHP were easily the most difficult. I couldn't find anyone who got over 5 rounds on the main site, which, surprised me.

Chipper:

25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35 pound dumbbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
3 Rope climb ascents, 15ft rope

18:16

I think I smoked everyone on the main site with this time. I like chippers the most. My knee was giving me some fits before I started which almost made me chicken out. I decided to go through with it, once it got warm it was alright. This was also the first time I had actually done real rope ascents in a workout. It was the toughest part. When your grip gives out on pull ups you just let go. When your grip gives out on rope ascents you have to keep climbing, then when you get to the top, you have to CLIMB down. My forearms were throbbing.

This weekend is the Hopper. Big Lou, C-Money and yours truly are representing The Athletic Club! We are all excited as hell. 3 WODs in one day. Should be tons of carnage! Oh, and cheat night will follow, I may need a bath afterwards.

Thursday 10-1-09

I would like to take a minute to write about the upcoming season for our nations team, The Washington Capitals. What can I say? We are going to be amazing. One of, if not the most feared teams in the league. Our offensive firepower is unparalleled. We have the most explosive, pure goal scoring, hardest working, most entertaining, biggest hitting and mindest boggling force in Alexander Ovechkin aka The Great 8, The 8 Train, Alexander the Great and of course Ovy. This man is leaps and bounds ahead of every player in the NHL when it comes to the complete package, like you didn't know. To compliment him we have quite possibly the most offensively talented player in all the league in Alexander Semin. He is not as big, as fast, as strong or as defensive as Ovy, but his hands, oh my, they are as good as they get. With these poetic phalanges, Semin is able to do things with the puck that don't seem physically possible and when he shoots, here is some advice, GET OUT OF THE WAY! I feel bad for the back of the net...laser rocket cannon shot he has. To finish this line off (yes, they are on the same line, this is where the question of fairness comes into play), is again one of the best in the league at what he does, Niklas Backstrom. What does he do? Well, lets first focus on what he doesn't do. He doesn't lose the puck. He doesn't make a bad play. He doesn't make a bad pass. He doesn't fall down. He does rank among the top five every year he has played in assists. He does make passes that I cant even see on replay. He does know exactly where Ovy and Semin are at all times. He does know exactly where to put the puck. I do have a man crush on him.

Before I get too carried away and go over every player on our team, I will sum it up with a few more notes. We acquired Mike Knuble from Philadelphia and Brendan Morrison from Vancouver, both are solid players who know how to make plays and finish them, solid additions to our lineup. We have the best minor league team in all of the land in case we get hit with the injury bug again. We do have the most offensively talented defensemen in the NHL in Mike Green (I am not lying, we have some of the best proven players alive, no joke). Finally our goaltenders. This season was a fight for starting position between three excellent netminders. The verdict, two starters, Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlomov. I believe that these two goalers will split time until one outshines the other or one begins to play poorly, which may never happen. God forbid anything happens to either, we have Michal Neuvirth down in Hershey. He is currently good enough to be a starter in the NHL and nearly made the team if not for injury. He is only 21 (like Varlomov), expect to hear about this kid in the future. Three is better then two.

WOD:

10 squat cleans (from floor), 135lbs
50 GHD sit ups
8 squat cleans
40 GHD sit ups
6 squat cleans
30 GHD sit ups
4 squat cleans
20 GHD sit ups
2 squat cleans
10 GHD sit ups

12:30

This was my last WOD before the competition on Sunday, which is a good thing since I am already sore from "Angie" and plan on getting more sore as time passes. This went well, I was able to do all of the cleans unbroken (not super fast, but nor real rest, hands never came off the bar). The GHD went surpirsingly well even after 100 sit ups the day before, my split was as follows: 50 (25, 5, 10, 10), 40 (10, 10, 10, 10), 30 (15, 8, 7), 20 (20), 10 (10). Now I plan on resting Friday and Saturday and performing my best on Sunday.

Wednesday 9-30-09

I had planned on doing "Angie" yesterday but my C&J&Staring at Maiko's butt session ran long and I didn't have time, so I bumped it to today. My brother got 19min and change, Big Lou got 21:15, I found out just before I attempted that Dan, the dude that I did the WOD "Daniel" with the other day (and beat him by 4 seconds, mind you), got 14:30 something. I was shooting for certainly under 20min, more likely around 15min. I figured if I could maintain a 4 minute pace per exercise, I would be fine considering squats would not take me 4 minutes. It sounded good, that was until my kryptonite slowed me down.....

WOD:

"Angie"
100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats

My mindset going into this WOD was "alright, I can bang out pull ups, sit ups and squats no problem, push ups on the other hand, for some reason, are my kryptonite." I don't know why it is, but I am a below average push up...per... Yes, I go chest-to-floor and many non Crossfitters claim to be strong at push ups when they only go to a 90D angle with their arms. But, my ranking with people who go chest-to-floor, sucks. I can't figure it out, I used to be a pretty strong bench presser guy, and I can ring dip forever, but something with push ups kills me, see for yourself.

100 pull ups: 4:40
100 push ups: 9:40
100 sit ups: 3:40
100 squats: 2:04

Total: 20:04 (PR)

Ridiculous right? If only I could have shaved off some time. My brother made a good point, Maybe my problem is that I am trying to push the earth away from me instead of pushing myself up from the earth. I think, 170lbs of my 190lb body is in my over sized head, making every push up more difficult than humans who have their weight evenly distributed. Whatever the reason, it blows, I blow, that time blows and if you will excuse me, I am going to go blow my nose.