Category Archives: Uncategorized

Kelley

Leave a reply

Wow, this WOD sucks.

I am here in Nashville (again), so I decided to drop in at CrossFit Music City. Boy, did they have a nice welcome gift for me…

“Kelley”

5 rounds

  • 400m run
  • 30 box jumps (18″, I think)
  • 30 wall balls (20# medicine ball)

My time was 35:45.

The good.

I kept moving. I took breaks here and there, but I kept moving the entire time. Whether I was walking or stepping up, I tried my best to keep moving.

The bad.

I took lots of walk breaks after the first 2 rounds. After finishing 30 wall balls, I could barely catch my breath to start running again.

Overall.

The WODs with 5 rounds are always mentally challenging for me. When you are exhausted after the first round, the rest of the WOD just seems insurmountable at times. I am proud that I finished this one and didn’t give up in the 2nd round like I really wanted to.

I was completely wiped out after the WOD.

After talking to some of the people there and paying my drop in fee, I sped over to Whole Foods and got a delicious post WOD meal. I should have taken a picture of it because it was beautiful, but it was about 1/2 of a sweet potato along with a plate filled 2/3 with meat (1/2 taco beef and 1/2 taco chicken), and 1/3 sautéed peppers and onions.

Thanks CrossFit Music City! Your people are really nice and I am looking forward to coming back next week.

More Workouts

Leave a reply

Saturday 9/4/2010 – CFCP (CF Total Challenge)

I can say with a high level of certainty that I totally did not feel like doing this WOD. I was really tired from being up the night before and honestly, I didn’t feel like I “got going” until we got to dead lifts. During the squats, I felt like I was going to fall asleep between attempts.

I am really happy with my numbers. I think that if I focus on technique, I can bump my squat up some. Also, I didn’t hit my PR on the press, which is 175#.

Here’s how the numbers came out:

Squat 335#
Press 165#
Dead Lift 445#
Total 945#

Monday 9/6/2010 – CFCP (Labor Day Free WOD)

Ah, the baseball WOD. I have heard about it, but never actually did it. This was a slight variation, but still fun and actually a hell of a lot more work that it looks like.

  • 10 pull ups
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 squats
  • 10 sit ups
  • 400m run

I ended up with 4 total rounds as I started my last run right as the clock had about 10s left.

Wednesday 9/8/2010 -  CFCP

I was looking forward to this WOD all day. I love barbell stuff and this one looked right up my alley. The WOD was very 90 seconds, do 2x of:

  • 3 hang cleans (155#)
  • 3 box jumps

I was really apprehensive about Rx’ing this one as 155# is a lot for 60 hang cleans. I think I did really well for the first 4-5 rounds. After that, though, I started lapsing on the 90s round limit and just proceeded as needed. There was supposed to be a strength WOD after this one, but I had nothing left and didn’t do it.

Thursday 9/9/2010 – CFCP

I was itching to do a WOD today. Life’s been so incredibly stressful and these WODs are literally keeping me sane. I saw this one on the CFE blog and thought I’d give it a whirl. It was 4 rounds of:

  • 10 KB Swings (1.5 Pood)
  • 25 double unders

This took me 8:45. The swings weren’t really bad. Most of my crap time was spent on double unders. They are getting better, but they still are not my best skill. I am starting to be able to get strings of 4-8 at a time.

After the above, I did a quick little strength WOD to help work on my total:

  • Strict Press 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 (95, 115, 135, 155, 165(F))

Friday 9/10/2010 – CFCP (Heavy metal Night)

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE heavy metal night? Granted, by about 4pm on Friday, I am ready to pass the hell out, but I always have this to look forward to. Over the course of the night we did:

  • 5x 1 minute OH Squat Hold
  • 2x 3 Split Jerk @ 70% (135#, 155#)
  • 5x 3 Split Jerk @ 75% (185#)
  • 6x 5 Romainian Dead Lift (185#, 185#, 225#, 225#, 225#)

Saturday 9/11/2010 – CFCP (Open Gym)

My heels and the inside of my calves right above my heels have been hurting quite a bit lately. I think it’s from my shitty form on double unders. You know, your feet constantly smashing into the ground probably isn’t a good thing.

At any rate, this was a team WOD, but everyone had to do everything.I partnered up with Paula for a strategic fireman’s carry. Hehe.

Jason made this WOD to honor the 411 first responders that died at the World Trade Center 9 years ago today. He called it “The 411” as there’s a rep/meter for every one of them that perished on that day trying to help people. He gave a great speech before the WOD. It was:

  • 50 wall balls
  • 100 double unders
  • 50 box jumps
  • 200m fireman’s carry
  • 11 HSPU

Paula and I finished this in 23:<something>. I don’t know the exact time. My lower legs started hurting so badly after the double unders that I could barely do the box jumps (I stepped) then, the run… well I couldn’t. I walked as fast as I could after Paula. She used a med ball for her weight. I don’t think she could carry me if she wanted to. When I finally caught up to her, I carried her back. There was no running. How in the hell these guys pull people out of burning buildings is beyond me.

After the WOD, I talked to Mike for a bit about the pains I’m having and he recommended that I lay off running/jumping for a week or so plus do lots of stretching/rolling in the calf area.

Workouts for the Weak

Leave a reply

These past few weeks have been rough to say the least. While I am ecstatic to be having a baby, the amount of stress that I have been under both at home and at work with just the amount and then the traveling really is making me just fucking miserable.

I got my body fat assessment done again tonight and it was back up to what it was in July when I got back from my honeymoon (22.4%). What was weird was that there was a 6mm increase in one of the measurements. We are going to do it again tomorrow morning just to be sure.

I am not quite sure as to what has been happening. I have been continuing eating as normal, but in the past few months, I’ve seen the following:

  • inordinate amount of stress (read: cortisol)
  • excessive work travel (read: not idea food, but still as best I can also, not as much working out)
  • most likely not enough protein in my diet
  • not sleeping well. I can’t think of many nights that I got good, complete night of sleep.

This month, I want to focus on getting enough protein and finding a better way to deal with my stress. What I’m doing right now… it’s not working.

On to the workouts.

Monday 8/30/2010 – At home

I, for some reason, wanted to do something with my kettle bell at home. I decided to do a “Helen”-like workout. It was 3 rounds of:

  • 400m run
  • 21 one-handed kb swings (21 each arm, 12kg)
  • 12 burpees

I clocked in at just under 16 minutes at 15:59. I didn’t feel great during this one, but I did it. Eh.

Wednesday 9/1/2010 – CFCP

I thought this one looked fun and would give me a chance to work on double-unders, the bane of my CrossFit existence. It was 4 rounds of:

  • 10 ring push ups
  • 25 double unders
  • Red Stripe Run (200m)

I got the worst time of the day with 13:15, completely due to my inability to double under. They still make me really fucking mad, but I am working hard to not get frustrated with them. Trevor tried to help me out a bit after class, and really, I just need to practice.

Friday 9/3/2010 – CFCP

Heavy metal night… we did snatches, 6×3. I started with 95#, the 135#, then 155#. I felt really tired an sluggish. I was falling asleep at my desk around 4pm, so I wasn’t feeling stellar to begin with. Once I got the body fat assessment done, I was just really discouraged for the rest of the night… and still am.

Back Squats & Thrusters

Leave a reply

I’ll keep this one short. Last night, heavy metal class, we did the following:

  • Max Back Squat 5×1
  • Thruster Breathing Ladder (45#)

My back squat lifts came out like this:

  • 135#
  • 225#
  • 315# (Not technically a fail. I came forward and had some bad form, but still got it.)
  • 335# (PR)
  • 350# (F)

The breathing ladder wasn’t so bad. Thankfully, I was able to remember my Yang Chi breathing from KF which REALLY helped. If you are unfamiliar, a breathing ladder is where you do pyramiding reps and get the number of breaths in reps that you just did.

Example:

  • 1 rep, 1 breath
  • 2 reps, 2 breaths
  • …
  • 10 reps, 10 breaths
  • —
  • 2 reps, 2 breaths
  • 1 rep, 1 breath

This was not timed.

Unplanned Suckage

Leave a reply

This past week has been very stressful. All sorts of stuff is going on between my work life and my home life. By the time I had gotten off of work yesterday, I really just wanted to go to sleep. V had been sleeping all day and was getting ready to go help coach the 530pm class over at CFCP. She asked me if I wanted to come with her. Initially, I said no, that I just wanted to relax. Shortly after though, I changed my mind. I knew I needed to do something other than mill about the house all stressed out and agitated.

There were only two of us in the class (myself and Rochelle). Fio was planning on doing some weighted stuff, but after hearing us both bitch about being sore, he opted for a met-con. As much as I love weights, I think I need to get more met-cons in.

To warm up, we worked on rowing. We did some exercise called “6 strokes to heaven” or something like that. Basically, you get the thing spun up with 3 little pulls, then you pull max effort 6 times, do a quarter pull, the 5 times, quarter pull… all the way down to 1. So, you end up pulling 21 times maximally. We did this two times. I went 218m the first time and 222m the second.

We rested for a bit then did the same exercise starting at 10. I gassed out around 8, but kept on going. For a total of 55 pulls, I went 490m. 930m total for a warm up.

I really like this strategy because it really helps to mentally deal with rowing 500m and how much that really just sucks. It’s the same concept as doing a 21-15-9 and breaking your reps into 7’s or 3’s. I tried it out during met-con that we did which was 4 rounds of:

  • 400m run (I did a 500m row b/c I was wearing my converse and HATE running in them)
  • 21 double unders
  • 14 GHD sit ups

My time was 20:16.

The good.

Hmm. My first three rounds of double unders were better than I had done in a really long time. I was getting strings of 3-5 before I would have to stop to catch my breath or reset.

The bad.

Rows and GHDs. Man they killed me. The rows became a game of just keep going and pulling. I wasn’t even pulling hard by the 2nd round. I just had no more get-up-and-go. The GHDs were particularly challenging, but Fio helped me break them up to be a bit more manageable.

Overall.

My energy level sucked throughout this WOD. I felt like the air was water and I couldn’t breath. My head also wasn’t really in it due to all of the day’s stresses. Still though, I am glad that I got the workout in. I guess you can’t kill every WOD.

Game Changer

Leave a reply

Do you ever have things in life occur that you would call game changers? Sure, I’ll bet everyone does. There was a great example of this yesterday at CFCP.

Yesterday was a particular stressful day for a number of reasons. I wasn’t planning on working out, but when 5pm rolled around, I thought it might be good to relieve some stress.

Earlier in the day, I had checked the blog and saw the WOD. It looked short, quick, and fun. When I got to the gym and saw the board, well, that was a game changer. See, whoever wrote the blog (DAVE), didn’t mention that the WOD was THREE ROUNDS… not just a straight through mini-chipper thing.

Review. One round, quick, fun. Three rounds, horrible.

Ay.

Immediately, the thoughts of “I don’t want to do this” and “this is WAY more work that I was expecting to do today” started. I tried to squash them. The actual WOD was THREE rounds of :

  • 50 push presses (65#)
  • 40 kb swings (1.5 pood)
  • 30 sit ups
  • 20 push ups
  • 10 ring dips

Imagine one round. Sprint, just get it done. Now, imagine three rounds. 150 push presses? 120 kb swings?! That’s a lot of work. It took me 27:05 to get this done and I was sucking wind the entire time.

What went well?

I think that I kept a pretty good pace throughout. The weights weren’t really that heavy.

What sucked?

Took lots of breaks, but tried to keep them short. The first 15 sit ups every time were horrible for me. It was like my body was overloading from the KB swings, then I lay down and it took a few to re-stabilize.

Overall.

My energy level was pretty good until about the end of the second round. I am not sure where I pulled the third round out of, but, hey, at least I finished.

 

Prior to this, we did a 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 strict press. My weights were:

  • 135#
  • 145#
  • 155#
  • 175#
  • 185# (F)
  • 180# (F)

So, a 175# strict press is pretty good for now.

Week Ending Workouts

Leave a reply

Thursday 8/5/2010
I didn’t go to CFCP, but V thought it would be a good idea for me to do this one at home. It was 5 rounds  of:

  • 400m run
  • 21 burpees

This one took me down in 22:59.

The Good.

I can’t think of a single good thing that happened during this WOD. Maybe that I didn’t have to walk at all.

The Bad.

Pretty much everything. I was slow as hell on my runs and on the burpees. It was hot as fucking hell outside and really, I’m lucky I even finished this one.

Overall.

Terrible. Just terrible. My energy was gone about 5 minutes in.

About an hour later, I decided to go to the Free class at the new box with V to work on whatever. When I got there, Fio had them doing a WOD that I couldn’t really pass up… another 5 rounds of:

  • 7 Dead lifts @ 225#
  • 21 Double Unders

Although I was really trying for a better time, I finished this one in 9:05 .

The Good.

The dead lifts were cake. They got a bit more challenging in rounds 4 and 5, but they weren’t bad. I did 3 rounds unbroken, then took 1 break rounds 4 and 5.

The Bad.

Double unders… ah double unders… They are starting to get better. In the beginning, I was stringing 3-5 together, but as time went on and I got more tired, they started being 1-2 at a time.

Overall.

Eh. Really good on the deads, really bad on the DUs, so it’s sort of a wash.

 

Friday 8/6/2010 (Heavy Metal Night)

There was no WOD for this class. We started with the Burgner warm up, as usual, and then moved into working on just muscle snatch, then hang snatch. I got up to using about 135#, but quickly dropped it back down as I got fatigued very quickly.

 

Saturday 8/7/2010 (Open Gym)
Carson had us start open gym out with some “Bottom to Bottom Tabata” squats. This sucks every time. I got 100 on the dot.

After that, we split up into 6 teams for the WOD. Everyone had to row at least 500m for a total of 7k. When you weren’t rowing, you had to do 7 squats. The total number of squats was one score and the time to row the 7k was the other. I think between the bottom to bottom Tabata and the main WOD, I ended up doing somewhere around 350 squats.

“Hell”en

Leave a reply

Ah “Helen”… the last time we did “Helen” I didn’t Rx the KB swings and it took me just under 13 min. This time around, we started with a challenging warm up (our warm up is YOUR workout, right?) which was 3 rounds of:

  • 30 double unders
  • 10 push ups
  • 1 min hand stand hold

We then went to “Helen”. At the request of one of the coaches (the cutest one, by far), I started off with the 2 pood big boy. If you don’t know what “Helen” is, it is 3 rounds of:

  • 400m run
  • 21 KB Swings (2 pood RX+ (1 round), 1.5 pood Rx (2 rounds))
  • 12 pull ups

My time this go round was 17:44.

After this, we did a strength WOD of:

  • 5 – 5 – 5 push press

My weights were 95#, 135#, and finally 155#.

The good.

I did a little bit better at the double unders than I thought I would. I also did all minutes of the hand stands without breaking. The push presses went pretty well. I would have liked to have tried 165#, but I was really just done by the time we got there.

The bad.

“Helen” was rough. By the time I swung the 2 pood 21 times, I pretty much felt like I was DONE. After that first round, I went down to the 1.5 pood, but still came in just about 5 minutes longer than my previous “Helen” time. Suck.

Overall.

I felt really good up until I finished those 21 KB swings. After that, I was mentally finished. I am not sure how, I even finished the WOD.

Hotel Bear

Leave a reply

I have a love/hate relationship with working out when I am on the road. I hate it because you are subjected to what most hotels think is an “exercise room” with little no actual equipment aside from a treadmill and a bike. I love it because it’s fun to come up with WODs that don’t really use much equipment. Also, sometimes you get looks where people are clearly thinking “what the hell is he doing??!”. That’s kinda fun.

Anyway. This hotel actually had some dumbbells, so for some terrible reason, I decided a “Dumbbell Bear” was in order. Why, oh why?

I decided to do a 15 minute AMRAP with 35#. I tried a round with the 40’s and it wasn’t really pretty.

I got in 10 full rounds on the dot and was breathing hard the whole time. I don’t want to do this again for a while.

Hotel Bear

Leave a reply

I have a love/hate relationship with working out when I am on the road. I hate it because you are subjected to what most hotels think is an “exercise room” with little no actual equipment aside from a treadmill and a bike. I love it because it’s fun to come up with WODs that don’t really use much equipment. Also, sometimes you get looks where people are clearly thinking “what the hell is he doing??!”. That’s kinda fun.

Anyway. This hotel actually had some dumbbells, so for some terrible reason, I decided a “Dumbbell Bear” was in order. Why, oh why?

I decided to do a 15 minute AMRAP with 35#. I tried a round with the 40’s and it wasn’t really pretty.

I got in 10 full rounds on the dot and was breathing hard the whole time. I don’t want to do this again for a while.