Running Weightless

Hi, my name is Brian, and I am not a fan of running. Never have been. I’d rather stop and fight the bear or zombie when push comes to shove. So why did I find myself running three miles this morning?

Damn fine question.

Didn’t make it in yesterday for a 4:45 workout, but I thought about it briefly before getting distracted. I do need the double-under practice. 🙂

But this morning, I made it for the 8:30 class with the whole Fitzy clan. Coach Lara was impressed that we all made it in for a running WOD, and I told her we all started complaining about it about 10pm last night so we got most of the really vocal bitching out of the way. 🙂 We were joined by Dave, KB, and Melissa.

Started with a 200m jog and then some of the Hinshaw Warm-up (what I call the Ministry of Silly Walks) before choosing a weight vest and starting today’s fun.

Today’s workout was for time.

• 

  Command Sgt. Maj.Martin “Gunny” Barreras

  Gunny

  • 1 mile weighted run
  • 50 push-ups
  • 50 sit-ups
  • 1 mile weighted run
  • 50 push-ups
  • 50 sit-ups
  • 1 mile weighted run
  • Competitor: 50# vest
  • Performance: 25# vest
  • Fitness, reduce to 800m runs, 20# vest, and 30 push-ups and sit-ups in the same form

“Gunny” is named for Command Sgt. Maj. Martin “Gunny” Barreras, 49, of Tucson, Arizona. He died of wounds during an attack on his unit in 2014. He was most well known for his contributions to the successful rescue of Jessica Lynch in 2003. You can read a bit more about Gunny in the post at the CrossFit main site.

There are a few key things here.

• Running is not my thing, but I’ve been getting better at it.
• I’ve never worn a weight vest.
• I’ve never RUN in a weight vest.
• 3 miles is almost the length of a 5k.

So how’d I do?

• Mile 1 – wore a 20# weight vest and ran/walked a mile in 11:05
• Did normal push-ups slower and slower in sets of 10 and then 5. Sit-ups went fine
• Mile 2 – wore a 20# weight vest and walked the whole thing
• Did a mix of knee push-ups and regular push-ups in sets of 5 and 10. Sit-ups went fine
• Mile 3 – stripped off the vest and ran most of the mile
• Total Time: 49:09

I’ve never gone that many miles as part of a workout before and honestly I’m very happy with my time. Actually that’s an understatement. I’m thrilled with my time, but that just may be the endorphins talking.

How’d the rest of the clan do?

• Mickey – 44:37, 10# weight vest and knee push-ups
• AJ – 51:10, 10# weight vest and knee push-ups
• Ev – 52:16, 20# weight vest and knee push-ups

Long story short, that’s 12 miles for the Fitzy family today. I think I am done running for now. 🙂

Great work 8:30 class and thanks for the encouragement Lara!

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Dang That Was Heavy

My weekend was quite full. After being bribed into the box on Friday by AJ, I headed in on Saturday for team WOD with Ev. We were joined by a good group of folks and led by Coach Larry. As my fifth workout for the week, I have to say I was a little sore!

We warmed up with a similar warm-up from earlier in the week with two rounds of:

• (we may have done a 200m run as well)
• a 30 second squat hold
• 10 PVC passthrus
• 10 jumping squats (ugh!)
• 10 Spider-man crawls
• 10 scap push-ups

And then we divvied up into pairs. Ev paired up with KB. And I had fun with Caleb. We started with a pairs deadlift, so I was a little concerned. 🙂 We started out with our own barbell, but dropped it in favor of using fewer bars and sharing more weights with Nick and Brent.

We took 10 minutes to establish a 3 rep max team deadlift. And I have to say — I was reluctant to know how many pounds of weight were on the bar. But by the end, we lifted 585# off the ground three times. Singles, not touch and go, but still – I was impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a bar with that much weight on it, let alone picked it up!

From there, we took off with the 25 minute AMRAP:

• for 25 minutes, one partner jumps rope (50 doubles or 150 singles) or runs 200m while the other does max reps at whatever activity it happens to be – then the partners switch
  • Pull-ups and jump rope
  • Box jumps (30/24″ prescribed, but we mostly did 20″ and 24″) and running
  • Push press (115/85#) and jump rope
  • Sit-ups and running
  • Squat cleans (115/85#) and jump rope
  • Burpees and running

We started with box jumps because there were quite a few folks on the rig when we started. And it went like this:

• (Me/Caleb) 20 20″ box jumps and he did 12 (ran 200m)
• 15 push press, he did 25 (150 single-unders took longer than it should have for me!)
• 31 sit-ups, he did 39 (ran 200m)
• 6 squat cleans and he did 12 (150 singles were a bit better here)
• 12 burpees and he did 28 (I was damn slow running at this point)
• 15 pull-ups and he did 15 as well (150 singles)
• — so that was one round and we started the next, with less than 5 minutes to go
• 15 step-ups for me and he did 25 box jumps (another slow run)
• 7 push press (damn the bar was heavy) and he did 13 (150 singles)

That was a full 25 minutes. Ran 800m and walked/ran 800m, and singles got easier as I got more tired. Hopefully I didn’t slow Caleb down too much!

When we were done, we ended up going to my 30 year high school reunion and I was surprised to say that most folks didn’t think I changed at all. 🙂 But I was glad we got in a workout ahead of time — because we definitely didn’t on Sunday!

Great work Saturday folks!

Gasping on the Floor

It’s been a while since a sprint workout has left me gasping on the floor. That happened TWICE during today’s workout. Geez!

Had my yearly physical this morning (spoiler alert: I’m still alive!), so didn’t make it in for a morning CrossFit class – but was able to squeak it in at the end of the day. So Ev, AJ, and I went in and WERE Coach Larry’s 4:45 class today.

We started with 2 minutes on the bike or rower (I chose rower and did nearly 500m), and then we did two rounds of:

• 20 mountain climbers
• 10 lunges with PVC pass-throughs
• 5 dumbbell windmills per side (started with a 10# dumbbell in the first round and dropped it in the second)
• 10 goblet squats (35# kettlebell)
• 10 kip swings

From there we did some Sumo Deadlift High Pull and Push Press warm-up with a PVC pipe and an empty barbell before setting up for the workout:

• 3 rounds of:
  • 1 minute of sumo deadlift high pulls
  • 1 minute of GHD sit-ups
  • 1 minute of push presses
  • 1 minute of GHD sit-ups
  • Rest 1 minute
• Men 95#, Women 65#

We scaled a little for Performance level:

• 75# bar
• 1st minute of GHD sit-ups to parallel on GHD
• 2nd minute of GHD sit-ups I did on the floor with an abmat

And let me tell you… by the 2nd rest, I was on my hands and knees on the floor, gasping for air. By the end, I was back on the floor again, thankful it was over. This one kicked my tail.

• Round 1 – 26 SDHP, 16 GHD to parallel, 22 push press, 26 abmat sit-ups – 90 reps
• Round 2 – 17, 13, 16, 20 – 66 reps
• Round 3 – 16, 12, 11, 18 – 57 reps
• Total: 213 reps

I came out too fast in that first round and paid for it in round 2. 🙂

Ev and AJ kicked butt however…

• Evelyn: 269 reps (55# SDHP & PP, all abmat situps)
• AJ: 181 reps (45# bar for first round, 35# after, full GHD sit-ups for 1 minute, 1 minute abmat sit-ups)

We were supposed to shoot for that 200 rep mark… Without that first round, I don’t think I would have managed to do that. 🙂 Great work everybody!

Thanks for the encouragement, Larry!

A Rare Thing

Today I saw a unicorn. Or a four-leaf clover. I saw the mythical day occur that hasn’t happened in a long time – I did better than I expected. I exceeded my own expectations. Gasp.

Went in for an 8:30 workout this morning with my wife. Second day this week I got to work out with her, so it was a good way to start the day. We arrived to find Coach Bill getting ready for us and were joined by Todd, Melissa, and Lisa G. A good little crew.

We started with the same warm-up we did on Monday, so I’ll spare you the details. We did a bit of banded work for shoulders again, which was good. Only thing that was sore on me today was my quads and hamstrings – been that kind of a week. But I discovered that jumping rope in my No Bulls is a bit clunky, so I need to play around a bit to see what’s going on there.

As we finished up, we talked about the workout itself:

• 25 minute AMRAP
• Competitor
  • 20 push-ups
  • 30 sit-ups
  • 40 calorie row
• Performance
  • 10 push-ups
  • 20 sit-ups
  • 30 calorie row

We did a trial run with:

• 5 push-ups
• 10 sit-ups
• and whatever calorie option we were going with – I chose 30

The idea was to see how much time we would need on the bike to approximate a 30 calorie row. I sprinted and did 30 calories in less than 90 seconds. (That was the only time that happened for the entire workout btw.) So we decided that if I had to get on the bike, it would be 90 seconds or 2 minutes there. Thankfully I never had to test that. 🙂

I was shooting for 5 rounds plus a bit. I got into the row of the 7th round, so I am thrilled with that. Managed 6 full rounds plus the push-ups and sit-ups and got through 1 calorie on the rower (6+31). All of my rows were pretty consistent, between about 1:45 and 2:05. Definitely slowed down a bit as we moved on.

Shockingly though my left bicep was getting a bit tired from the rowing, my push-ups felt good and I was able to bang out sets of 10 each time without stopping. That was a first. Usually that’s one of the first things to go. 🙂

Ev did the Performance level as well, with knee push-ups and a combination of rowing and biking – and got through 6+10, so she was moving right along as well. I think everybody kicked some serious butt and continued to move through the whole thing.

It was a good day. I’ll take it. 🙂 Great work everybody!

Team WOD Chaos

Team WODs have been hit and miss with the craziness of soccer this season, but AJ and I made it in today despite the chaos.

The day started with my writing “seminar” at the box, with an attendance of one. 🙂 Drea, AJ, and I had a great chat though that lasted a good hour. It was wide ranging, covering everything from writing to podcasting and social media. Though I was prepared to talk about the writing and blogging portions, I was surprised at how much AJ contributed to the conversation around social media, YouTube, and podcasting. It was eye opening. 🙂

After that though, it was time for a crazy team WOD. We had a small turnout – a few more than a dozen folks maybe. We started with a fun Indian run where we all ran in a line and the first person in line had to jog backwards to the back of the line over and over again. We only went 400m, but it was a casual pace and entertaining from start to finish with a mix of kids and adults running forward and back. 🙂

Back inside, we did a combination of PVC pipe pass-thrus, air squats, burpees, and some push press skill work before breaking into teams of three.

I worked with Steve & Mike (Lisa Grant’s husband who joined us this morning), and AJ worked with Karen & Lisa Stamos. I think there were 4 or 5 teams all together, and Jimmy put together an entertaining WOD for the day:

• 3 person teams, 15 second AMRAP for 80 cycles (20 minutes)
• Working one at a time, each team member worked for 15 seconds at a movement. When they were done, the next team member did the next movement in the sequence. And when the 2nd person was done, the third member would do the next movement… the 1st person would then do the next one in the cycle.
  • Push-ups
  • Wall Balls (we did 20#)
  • Assault Bike for calories
  • Push Press (Mike and I did #75 and Steve did 65#)
  • Ab-mat sit-ups

I have no idea how far we got and I will admit to getting lost a couple of rounds in, but eventually I got back on track. Mike started with push-ups, which meant I did wall balls and Steve did the bike and then we were all over the place.

Honestly, everything felt fine (even 15 seconds of the assault bike), but push-ups were the hardest part of the whole thing for me. I think I was shooting for 8-10 reps on everything but the assault bike (couldn’t read the display and wasn’t paying attention to how many calories).

I will say that 30 seconds of rest after 15 seconds of work was an interesting set-up. Reminded me a bit of a Tabata (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, for four minutes). Definitely sweating pretty good by the time we were about halfway in!

I didn’t mind a short team WOD today – was a nice change of pace from some of the 30-45 minute workouts we’ve had in the past!

Thanks Jimmy! And thanks Drea for a good chat before. Hopefully it helped!

And now for something a little different…

Since February 2013, I have been going regularly to CrossFit Continuum a few times a week. That’s not going to change any time soon. But occasionally it’s good to step outside the box, if you’ll pardon the pun, and try something different.

Last year we met Coach Nicole and her family, new to Colorado Springs but definitely not new to CrossFit. She coached at Continuum for a while and had to leave for personal reasons to go do a few other things. Well, now she’s doing a little personal training on the side.

Two big things about why we kept in touch with Nicole. One, she’s an amazing lady and just fun to work with. Two, Ev’s schedule has been preventing her from getting into the box at regular class times, so we’ve been looking for ways to supplement our Continuum time with a little extra training. She’s been working with Nicole now for the last couple of weeks after work and in the middle of the day on her day off to try and stay on track.

Today is the first time I was able to hop in and join her for a session with Nicole and it won’t be my last. 🙂

And before anybody gets worried. No, we’re not leaving Continuum. I look at this as supplemental work. Extra things to slip into the schedule here or there to help with some areas I need to work on and want to attack from a different angle. So once or twice a week we’ll hop into a workout with Nicole to add to the fun we’re having at Continuum.

So… back to today.

These sessions will be in Nicole’s garage and she’s got it all decked out with a couple of squat racks and other things so it’s an intimate little home gym. She was working with a nice guy today when we arrived (a little early), so we just hung out until she was ready for us and chatted a bit. But we quickly got into the swing of things.

We warmed up with:

• 20 side-to-side squats
• 1 minute standing pancake
• 30 second side hold (each side)
• 1 minute standing figure “4” (each side)
• 45 second plank to pike (sort of a plank to downward dog)

Most of it was fine, but the side holds got a little spicy and the figure fours — oof. 🙂

Once that was done we did three rounds of:

• 8 dumbbell floor presses (think DB bench press), 20#
• 30 second handstand hold (or angled/inverted pike push-up off a box for Ev)
• 8 reps of the “victory” movement from crossover symmetry
• we also did a little forearm smashing to help loosen up my wrists for the handstand hold, which helped

We were good and warm after that, so we moved on to part two:

• 6 sets: behind the neck strict press
• every two minutes we would do a number of reps
• reps: 6, 5, 4, 6, 5, 4
• I did 75#, 85#, 95#, 85#, 95#, 100#

I looked nothing like this. 🙂

Finally, we did a little metcon:

• 5 rounds
  • 25 sit-ups
  • 50 single-unders (or double-under practice or box step/holds for Ev)
  • 100 ft overhead walk with dumbbells (20# DBs)

Now… this got a little spicy in spots. Sit-ups and single-unders, fine. OH walk with DBs by round 3 was starting to get a little hairy with the left arm on the return trip, but we straightened it out as best we could and kept on moving.

In round 4, Nicole asked me to do some double-under practice. So I did a few attempts and then did 50 single-unders for rounds 4 and 5. I did my usual, calm (apparently too calm) approach to my double-under attempts. Made my first attempt, failed a few, moved on.

In round 5, Nicole urged me to try and put the same kind of effort in that I would for a PR attempt. Push the speed and intensity. So I tried that. Not sure I made any of my attempts, but she was happier with them. She doesn’t think it’s the hand speed of the rotations that’s really the issue, but instead it’s the way I don’t attack each rep.

And in retrospect, she’s probably right. I still think the speed comes into play, but I’m comfortable with single unders. Very comfortable. TOO comfortable, one might say. So attacking these double-unders with more fire or intensity is probably a good thing.

Ev finished ahead of me in 12:04. And I finished in 14:14 with my 50 singles and doubles attempts in those last two rounds. Not too bad. She kicked my butt in the sit-ups, as always! I’m not there to be competitive. I’m there to learn new approaches and shake some things up. 🙂

So there will be other sessions with Nicole in the weeks to come. We’ll play with things and see if I can get over a bit of my left side/right side issues and some of the head games I play with myself. Nicole has a unique way of pushing and pulling differently than some of the other coaches at Continuum.

I’ve grown comfortable with the laid back approach we apply at our box most of the time, so I’m glad to inject something new into the equation to shock my system a bit.

Thanks Nicole and great work hon. 🙂

No Bear Walks Like THAT

Um. Some days you look at the workout and say “sure, I can do that.” Other days, you look at the workout and say “um, maybe?” And the rest of the time. it’s just me wondering how badly I’ve neglected some of my biomechanics over the years as I stumble through movements that should be easy.

Maybe it’s just me, but today was definitely in the latter category.

Headed in with AJ for an 8:30 class with Coach Bill, Jonathan, and Logan. And we had fun, as per usual, even if we did grumble during the warm-up and the WOD more than a little. 🙂

Talk to the Paw

Warm-up today was:

• 2 rounds
  • 100m run 
  • 10 inchworms
  • 30 sec hollowbody hold
  • 10 single leg deadlift with dumbbell
  • 30 sec archbody hold
  • 10 pike push ups
  • 30 sec handstand hold

None of us was all that keen on running, but 100m wasn’t awful. First set of inchworms were rough. The holds were both rough. Well, honestly everything was a bit rough. Right elbow was annoyed. Shoulders were sore.

Second round of the warm-up was better, but not by much. 🙂

After that, we looked at the GHD for a hot second. I was all set to do today’s workout there until we did some hip extension practice and Bill had me shift the position of the GHD so it was squarely in my quads. To say that I didn’t appreciate the pain of that particular position would be an accurate statement, so I decided (wisely, I think) to adjust my lofty goals.

• Performance:
  • 4 rounds for time of:
    • 20 GHD sit-ups
    • 20 hip extensions
    • 50-ft. handstand walk, 10 attempts max
• Fitness:
  • 4 rounds for time of:
    • 15 sit-ups
    • 15 good mornings
    • 100-ft. bear walk

I adjusted the workout slightly:

• 4 rounds for time of:
  • 20 sit-ups
  • 20 good mornings
  • 100 ft bear walk

So let me talk about that bear walk for a minute. This is not the traditional bear crawl that we’ve done in the past. I can do that pretty effectively. This was something else entirely. Bill wanted us to use opposing hands and feet and try to get the rocking motion of a handstand walk into the mix.

This bear is walking the way I walk like a bear…

Um. Yeah, remember how I said earlier that sometimes I wonder about my own weird physical limitations of biomechanics? My brain and body don’t connect like some folks do. We have a bit of a rough relationship in fact. This was one of those times where we had a full on argument.

On all fours, move your right hand and your left foot. Now move your left hand and your right foot. If you’re anything like me, you can do it – albeit slowly – if you think about it. As soon as you stop thinking about it, you go back to right hand/right foot, left hand/left foot. Or at least, I did.

I would go maybe 3 or 4 “strides” and then suddenly realize I’d shifted back to my old habit. I had to consciously think through every… single… step… and even then I ended up left left right right more than half the time.

Frustrating. Definitely frustrating. And I’m not sure how much of that is brain and how much is body, but there you have it.

How’d we do?

• So we got going and I blew through the sit-ups and good mornings each round in around a minute. It took a LOT longer to get through the bear walk. By the time I was done, I finished in 18:57 and it was a struggle.
• AJ did 4 rounds of 15 hip extensions and GHD sit-ups on the GHD machine, plus the bear walk, and finished in 23:20. She did great and hung on to the end.

Definitely not one of my favorite workouts of recent days, but hey. I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned somewhere. 🙂

Great work folks and I hope the 9:30 class (another big class today) had a great time with it too! Thanks Bill!