Air squats

Limited to a crappy Holiday Inn Express gym that has a couple of treadmills and absolutely ZERO weights, I decided to do air squats for my WOD today. Fits kinda nice since the regular WOD was back squats. Anyway, I did 300 air squats. I wasn't going for time but I did see how long it took me: 11:59.

Looking at the numbers, 300 squats are what you do for 20 rounds of Cindy or the squat portion of Murph. I think I'll use this piece as one of my "on the road" WODs and look at knocking that time down. I'll work up some other body weight only WODs for the rest of the week and see how that goes.

burpees x 61

Burpee catch-up

Sitting here in Miami, Florida for work. Long days standing outside in the sun and rain. Not sure if I'm gonna get an opportunity to check out any of the local affiliates here as my free time is pretty limited. With the FGB fundraiser, travel, etc I've slacked on the burpee challenge, so I've made up the numbers that I've missed over the last few days.

for Saturday: 58
for Sunday: 59
for Today: 60

Ugh, I have got to stop missing days. Stringing them together like this sucks!

Fight Gone Bad

Today was the FGB fundraiser for "Athletes for a Cure" and "The Wounded Warrior Project." The short version post is everything went great and I want to give a big thank you to everyone that came out to participate and/or assisted in making things run as smoothly as they did. I enjoyed myself and hope everyone else did as well. I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

30 muscle-ups

Spent most of the day cleaning up the gym and getting things ready for the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser tomorrow. Not sure how many people are going to show, but we're estimating somewhere around 20. I'll be surprised if we have more than that.

30 Muscle-ups for time: 17:58. Not a PR by any means. Actually missed 5 attempts, so that was 35 tries, 30 successes. I'm sure those 5 misses cost me at least 3-4 minutes, which then would have been a PR. Yea, yea, whatever.

burpees x 57

B-day

Had every intention of doing this WOD today, subbing the runs with rowing of course, but the day got away from us, then it was Julia's b-day today so this evening we did that. Dymphna and I will make it up tomorrow, so today is our rest day.

Still did burpees: 55

Shoveling

Started the day out with an easy row, 1k @ a 2:10 pace. Total time 4:19. I'll keep this up to increase my rowing volume.

For time 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 rep rounds of:
virtual shoveling
Push-ups

Yea, that wasn't fun at all. I loaded up the bar with a 45# plate and after watching everyone else do it, grinded away with a time of 16:04. As much as I tried to prevent it, my lower back was feeling the strain. My grip was also a bit weak in my left hand. Push-ups were the easiest thing about that WOD. The HQ site said the last time that WOD came up was in 2005. Lets hope it's another 3 years before we see that one again.

burpees x 54

Isabel

mobility
cfwu x 1

"Isabel" For time:
Snatch 135 pounds, 30 reps

Time: 7:23

burpees x 53
kte x 10

The big surprise this evening after the WOD was that I checked my records and discovered that this is the first time I've attempted Isabel as rx'd. A few of observations:

- I'm sure helping everyone throughout the day work on their technique helped me some when it was my turn.

- I used the thicker bumpers and just dropped the weight after each rep to conserve strength (instead of controlled lowering each rep). They bounce considerably more than the thinner bumpers and I used a few seconds each rep to get the bar to stop bouncing and settled. Next time I will use the thinner bumpers for less bounce and possibly try to control some of the descents for a quicker turn-around time. We'll have to see.

- I wasn't as winded as with Grace, but then it took me almost twice as long, meaning I had a lot more rest breaks. I'll see about trying to trim that down next time, but I have no illusions I'll get anywhere close to Grace.

- Overall happy with this first rx'd attempt. Sub 7:00 next time!

Rest Day

Very nice rest day.

burpees x 52

Filthy Fifty

Yet another metcon WOD that I'm sucking at. Really didn't want to do this one but such is life. Certain portions I powered through pretty well, others I was dragging to no end. It broke down like this:

- 50 Box jump, 24 inch box: Slow and steady. Definitely could be faster.
- 50 Jumping pull-ups: Powered through. Couldn't go much faster if I tried.
- 50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood: Two sets of 25. Needs work.
- Walking Lunge, 50 steps: Non-stop but got slow at the end.
- 50 Knees to elbows: Horribly slow. Sets of 5, then 2 with some singles in there.
- 50 Push press, 45 pounds: Two sets of 25.
- 50 Back extensions: 5 sets of 10. Need to boost up to sets of 25.
- 50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball: Another horror. Sets of 5 with way too much rest between.
- 50 Burpees: Same as wall balls. I suck.
- 50 Double unders: I was all fuzzy on this. Sets of 10. I'm a weak performer!

Time: 35:16. More than 5 minutes off my PR. Room for improvement? Obviously. Final words? Glad tomorrow is a rest day.

Burpees.
Made up yesterdays 50 with the WOD.
For today: 51

5km row

Today was actually a 5km run, but due to the knee issues I rowed instead. Looking at the board I saw Joe row a 19:30 and wanted to try and get close. Of course I didn't look at my old PR to see what it was but set the pace boat option on the C2 computer to row a 19:50. I figured if I could keep pace, I could pour it on the last 500m and get close to Joe's time. Not even funny how much that sucked and how far back my boat was compared to the pacer.

I maintained a 1:58 pace for about 600m, then crashed. I struggled to keep it under a 2:10, fluctuating back and forth from as slow as 2:12 to as fast a 1:56. In the end I clocked 20:45, which is only 7 seconds slower than my PR set back in July '07. Not bad for not rowing for more than a year. Like all the other stuff I need to work on, rowing is one of them. Not sure how I'm going to do that.

I've been just going along with the daily WOD with no real plan of attack but sitting here typing this I think I'll give the Level III skills a go. Going to start at the top and work my way down, focusing on an event until I crack it, then move on (skipping the running for obvious reasons). Not sure the frequency of working the deficiencies, but plan on shoe-horning them in among the regular WOD schedule. Should be interesting.

Grace

So today was Grace, which is 135 pound Clean and Jerk, 30 reps for time. This is actually one metcon that I have a relatively decent time for. Not stellar, not crazy Oak fast sub 3 minute time, but not too bad at 4:20. Initially I was going to try and pace this one out so that I could crack 4 minutes, pulling 4 c&j's every 30 seconds. Right after the first pull that was out the window and I just tried to hang on and grind though as best I could. The stars must have been aligned because I ended up with a 10 second pr and a time of 4:10. Even though I couldn't breath I was pretty happy. Until…

Dymphna said that I had ZERO technique. I was basically ripping a stiff leg deadlift to a minor push press. Ugh. Obviously the last strength phase did something! I'm guessing with a bit of work on my technique I could crack 4 minutes and get into the mid 3's.

As I took a real rest day yesterday, had to make up the burpees.

For yesterday: 48
For today: 49

While getting my Grace time down isn't a high priority for me, getting the technique down is something that I do need to work on. Decided to do a light 55# Grace, really focusing on technique and keeping a nice steady unrushed pace for the full 30 reps. Technique grace w/ 55#: 2:46. I'm guessing my form wasn't too bad (according to Dymphna), but the funny thing is that time is still slower than Oak's PR w/ 135#.

Michael

cfwu x 1

"Michael"

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

time: 24:30 (rower)

burpees x 47

Was dragging today. Rowing is definitely harder than the elliptical. I was so ghetto using that but no other option, oh well. For a comparison:

05/16/08: 16:04 (elliptical, anchored sit-ups)
07/26/08: 21:37 (70% effort on elliptical, unanchored sit-ups)

Damn these metcon WODs! Glad tomorrow is a rest day.

Fran

"Fran"

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

As rx'd: 7:00

Like I posted in the comments, I broke up all the sets of this seeing how I would feel. I wasn't completely dying by the end so I know I still had some gas left in the tank. That time is about 35 seconds off my PR (6:25 back in July). I really need to figure out how to crack the times on these metcons. I know I'm working with a physical handicap, but seems like I've been able to make gains in the other areas of crossfit when I focus on them, so guess I need to put some energy into getting metcon times down.

Fran, you are going down!

burpees x 46

Gatlinburg weekend

Went to Gatlinburg this weekend for Drew and Kat's wedding. Because of that I missed Friday and today's WOD, plus the burpees, which I'm making up today.

burpees
for friday: 43
for saturday: 44
for sunday: 45

That no fun at all. In case you are wondering, I did break them up into manageable chunks.

Randy

75 x 75# snatch. 8:14

I'm definitely feeling beat down from yesterday, ugh!

burpees x 42

Lynne Plus

Interesting WOD today. Basically Lynne with the body weight back squat added.

Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups
Body weight back squat

Post reps for all three exercises in all rounds. It looked like this for me:

12/20/12
12/20/12
12/20/12
12/17/12
10/14/12

As I said in the comment section, I was gaming this WOD. My last Lynne sucked, so wanted to see if I could up my numbers a bit. I picked a rep count that would give me a better Lynne score if I could stay consistent across the board. While I ended up crashing towards the end, I was successful in bettering my score. On the squats I could have cranked out more, so lesson learned for next time this one comes up (or we get some more body weight squat WODs).

burpees x 41

Rest Day

Enjoyed a leisurely rest day. Got some chores around the house done and of course my burpees x 40.

3k row

Finally back home. Well the rest week is over. Felt good to take the time off, both from the WODs and well as the AD. Yea, I just ate whatever I saw in front of me. Had to get my fill of Starbucks! Anyway, back on the AD. Gonna see about trimming a bit more of this belly I have and get my bf down into the single digits, then maybe hit a mass phase so Dymphna doesn't think I'm too skinny!

The barbell cert was a good learning experience and we'll have to see about incorporating those techniques into our teaching as well as our own technique. Haven't made any decision about what focus for this WOD cycle I want to do, so just following the main page for now.

CFWU x 1

3k row: 12:08.

That was pretty tough, especially since I haven't done any serious rowing for 16 months. Yea, I was sucking.

Burpees:
For yesterday: 38
For today: 39

Barbell Cert, Day 1

Down in Longwood, Florida for the Basic Barbell Certification being held at CrossFit Evolution.

Lots of good lifting cues learned from Rippetoe. The day lasted from 8 am to 6pm, with lots of hands on instruction and cueing work. Today we covered the back squat, the press (overhead press) and bench press. Looking forward to applying the material once we're back home in CrossFit Clarksville.

Missed burpees yesterday so made them up today. I need to stop missing days as it sucks to double up!

For yesterday: 36
For today: 37

Burpees

Ugh. Missed doing burpees yesterday, so made them up today. Yes, it's official. They suck.

For yesterday: 34
For today: 35

Good job to everyone in the gym today. Everyone was moving a good chuck of weight!

Back home

After a very long day plus of travel, I'm back home in good old Clarksville. I'm beat down so just writing up the burpees.

Burpees made up from yesterday: 32
Burpees for today : 33

Travel day

Left the camp early this morning in order to out process at HQ. From there to Kabul airport, then a 2.5 hour hop to Dubai, U.A.E. I'm on the last leg of the 6 hour layover before boarding the Delta flight to Atlanta. What's all the detail for? To explain why I didn't get to do my burpees today. I'll make them up Tuesday, which is gonna suck. Lucky this is my down/rest week so I won't be sucking too bad from a WOD to do them.



The flags from the camp looking out towards the ranges and training area. No, I don't think I'll miss that view. ;-)