Team WOD!

After two weekends with too much soccer, we had a break this weekend — so it was definitely time to fit in a team WOD at Crossfit Continuum. Though Mickey had to work, 3/4 of our family had the opportunity to get in. And we were definitely not alone. We had an amazing turnout.

Ev worked with Danielle. AJ had a chance to work out with Kaila. And Jonathan and I partnered up and Isaac joined in the fun as well. As you can see, we were just a small part of the madness. 🙂

Started with a light 400m jog and then did a strange little centipede crab walk race. Guys on one side. Gals on the other. And it was a disaster. We had enough guys that we almost made it the whole length between cones without moving, but moving was hilarious. The person in front of you had their hands on your feet and you were supposed to do the same with the person behind you, then somehow move forward.

If I’m being honest, the gals made it look easy. And we were awful. 🙂

With all that done, we grabbed equipment, found space on the floor and figured out how to make the insanity work.

• Score Type: In Teams of 2, Competing for Total Time
• Partner 1 performs 50 KB Swings 55/35# (each partner does 50 reps)
• Partner 2 holds Handstand
• **handstand broken=5 burpees
• Partner 1 performs 50 Box Jumps (each partner does 50 reps)
• Partner 2 holds 45/25# plate overhead
• **overhead position broken=5 burpees
• Partner 1 perform 50 sit-ups (each 50 reps)
• Partner 2 hold bottom of squat with KB
• **squat position broken=5 burpees
• Partner 1 complete 200 meter run (each partner will complete 2 runs)
• Partner 2 hold plank
• **plank broken=5 burpees when runner returns

With a box, a 55# kettlebell, and an abmat, we got underway.

We started with the run at the end instead of the kettlebell swings to avoid the madhouse inside. I ran 200m with Isaac while Jonathan planked, then did the reverse, and went through the whole thing one more time.

The KB swings were interesting. Jonathan did really well holding a handstand on the wall, but we broke it up a few times, and I was right there with him.

As far as the box jumps (24″ jumps for Jonathan or 20″ step-ups in my case), the 45# plate didn’t feel too bad overhead honestly. Jonathan may not agree. 🙂

And then the sit-ups. The squat with a KB was interesting. We basically sat at the bottom, put our elbows on our knees, and held the 53# KB at the bottom. I held all the way through Jonathan’s 50 sit-ups, but only barely. And I had to break up my sit-ups (26/24), so that slowed us down a bit.

I have to say that we only did two sets of 5 “penalty” burpees with the KB swing and box jumps rounds, but we didn’t during the sit-ups (though we should have done some there too). But the rest of the movements were plenty I think. 🙂

By the time we were all done, it took 29:20 for us to finish up. Not too bad. Definitely a lot of reps. Both AJ/Kaila and Ev/Danielle were done before us (24:17 for AJ/Kaila and under 26 for Ev/Danielle), which was great. And I heard that at least one team (Dan & Adi) was done in 20 flat, which was fantastic.

So great work everybody! It was a fun one — a great mix of movements to keep things hopping. And an amazing turnout!

With soccer season starting, we’ll make as many team WOD Saturdays as we can, but it’s definitely going to be hit and miss. They’re always a fun challenge!

Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Hello Annie (Updated)

We haven’t done many benchmark workouts lately. And I don’t mind that, really. But when they pop into a given day it’s always interesting to take a look back and see how we did the last time.

Today Coach Jimmy had his hands full with the lot of us… Ev & I, Brent, Nic, Carrie, Jenny, and Melissa. We started with:

• 1 minute of single-unders
• 1 minute of something else (more jumps)
• 1 minute of double-under practice

Then we did 2 rounds of:

• 10 push-ups
• 10 hollow body rocks
• 10 3-second Superman holds (I made a point of singing the Superman — Christopher Reeve/John Williams version — theme song)

After that it was a series of steps to work on double-unders. Like most days, today was not a double-unders day for me though I did try. I need to work on my jumps. Need more height apparently. And it wasn’t my calves, but my ankles that were the limiting factor. Plus my knee (esp. the left one) was angry.

So maybe once my left knee is happier I’ll try working on the jumps. We’ll see. I’d like to figure out this double-unders thing eventually.

After all that, it was time to tackle Annie.

• for time
• 50-40-30-20-10
• double-unders
• sit-ups
• (for level I, do double singles 100-80-60-40-20)

It’s been a while since Annie has shown up in a workout. Jimmy said we should shoot for 7 minutes or less. So I automatically doubled it to 15 minutes. 🙂

Ev and I did the singles version, so we doubled the 50-40-30-20-10 each round for our single-unders, but kept the rest intact. Brent did GHD sit-ups and Jenny was doing inverted sit-ups. So there were a few overachievers. 🙂

I had to look back a ways to find the last time we did Annie…

• July 2016, it took me 11:10 (double singles)
• September 2013 it took me 14:38 (not sure if it was normal singles or double singles)

Today it took 10:43. PR! Woot!

My wife on the other hand blew my time out of the water and did the singles version in 8:08. She was flat out flying.

Great work 8:30 class! Thanks Jimmy for the encouragement – I’ll keep working on the jumps.

Update!

Forgot about the fun handstand skill work we had AFTER Annie.

This was a challenge. We did it a few weeks ago with another workout and it fried my wrists more than my shoulders, but it was still a challenge.

Today we did it three times around clockwise and three counterclockwise. I had more issues going counter than I thought I would.

Then we did wall walks, which were awful. That stressed knees, shoulders, and wrists, I think I got through three and we were supposed to do six.

And once that was done, Ev and I worked at the wall. I did 30 second handstand holds on the wall… maybe they were 20 seconds… maybe they were 25. But shoulder stability made that a bear. Ev kicked onto the wall from a headstand a couple of times and straight armed once. I helped her get her legs to the wall but she held really well.

I joked with Jimmy that I was almost sweating more from the skill work than I did during the workout. 🙂

Ok… Now I’m done. Have a great day folks!

And I would do 500 reps, and I would do 500 more…

… just to be the team that’s falling down outside your crossfit door… (apologies to the Proclaimers!)

I may be a little loopy at the moment. Just a little.

Today’s team crossfit workout was brought to you by Coach Clare and involved a little bit of everything I think. The joys of the Filthy 50 times 2 with a partner. Once again, Jonathan was my partner for this lovely little workout and my wife and his wife teamed up to kick our collective asses. Go figure.

We weren’t alone either — there were easily 18-20 people milling about today.

Our warm-up? A fun competition between four teams with 4 or 5 people each. Clare set up four assault bikes facing one another with a line in the middle. A foam roller would be set on the line and the two athletes facing one another would try and blow the foam roller with the force of the fan on the assault bike, so the roller would stay on their opponent’s side of the line.

Not to brag or anything, but our team dominated. We went Five for Five (Jonathan, Me, Sarah, Michael, and AJ). It was fun. Supposedly the team would have to do 2 burpees for every bout they lost (bike for 20 seconds and see which side it ended up on).

After that we set up equipment for this lovely workout:

• Score Type:: Total Time
• Teams of 2 For time:
• 100 Box jump (24/20)
• 100 Jumping pull-ups
• 100 Kettlebell swings (35/25)
• 100 Walking Lunge steps
• 100 Knees to elbows
• 100 Push press (45/35)
• 100 Back extensions
• 100 Wall ball shots (20/14)
• 100 Burpees
• 100 Double unders

If it looks familiar, it’s because it’s 2x the Filthy Fifty (see right).

Jonathan and I pulled our stuff together and did:

• Jonathan (24″ box jumps), me (20″ step ups)
• Jumping pull-ups
• 35# kettle bell swings
• walking or in-place lunges
• knees-to-elbows
• Jonathan (45# push press), me (45# strict press)
• good mornings with a 45# barbell
• 20# wall balls
• Jonathan (burpees), me (sit-ups)
• 100 single unders each

Honestly I was pretty fried after the good mornings. And it took us a bit under 44 minutes to complete all of that. 1000 reps. We either split the 100 for each movement or Jonathan did more than I did. Just depended on where I was at.

I felt bad about doing sit-ups instead of burpees, but honestly I didn’t think I was going to get off the floor if I went down. My shoulders were screaming. My knees were pissed. Even as it was, five rounds of 10 sit-ups each was a damn challenge.

But we finished. And scaling is not the enemy. It’s what happens when you realize your body doesn’t want to keep moving and decide to change things up so you CAN keep moving.

I don’t think we were last. But we were damn close. And I feel like hell afterwards. It’s awesome.

Jonathan, thanks for being my partner in the madness. You kicked butt. 🙂

And good work everybody who came! Thanks Clare for a good challenge!

A Better Day

So… this week has been a struggle. Whether I’ve been stuck in my head or dealing with mobility limitations, something has slowed me down every day so far. Today however, I finally got a good workout in and felt the happy endorphins flooding my system. Took long enough. 🙂

Made it into Continuum for an 8:30 class with my wife. She’s been working every day this week, so it’s been the only day we’ve had an opportunity to work out together. We had Coach Bill and a great group of folks – Clara, Sarah, Carrie, Jenny, Caleb, Nic & Nichole. Nine of us in all.

We started with some foam rolling and banded shoulder work, then a lovely pair row of 1500m. Ev and I finished that in a bit over 6 minutes. And then we did an interesting little 3 round warm-up:

• 6 strict shoulder press with a light dumbbell while in a lunge on the ground, each arm (I used a 20# dumbbell)
• 6 one-legged box step-ups, each leg
• 8 sit-ups

And once all of that was done we started working on some dumbbell push jerks for the workout and sorting out who would be doing regular, regular weighted, incline, or GHD sit-ups. I tried a 30# dumbbell and decided it was too light, so switched to a 35# dumbbell. My worry, as always, was my left arm.

The workout was pretty straightforward:

• 15 minute AMRAP
• 21 GHD/weighted sit-ups
• 14 one-arm dumbbell push jerks – single, heavy dumbbell and alternate arms each rep

I used a 35# dumbbell for the push jerks and went with a 20# medicine ball for the weighted sit-ups. And I made it through nearly 7 rounds. 6 rounds plus 31 reps — only 4 reps from finishing the 7th round.

Though the grip in my left hand began to go by about the 5th round, I was able to fight through those next couple of rounds a rep at a time with the dumbbell. And I was quite pleased with the result, considering I expected only to get through 4 or 5 rounds.

Ev finished the 7th round and used a 25# dumbbell and 20# medicine ball. I was just happy that I kept up with her. She’s damn fast on those sit-ups!

When it was all through we did a few yoga pose holds to try and stretch out our shoulders a bit and that seemed to help. I don’t feel bad yet. The sit-ups will hit me on Saturday. 🙂

Felt much better today than I have for a few days, so I’ll take it. 🙂

Great work 8:30 class! And thanks Bill!

Some Days YOU Are the Barbell

Now that the CrossFit Open is over, I suspect we’re going to get back to the staples of crossfit workouts… metcons and strength days jumbled together to keep our minds and our bodies guessing as to what’s next. And honestly I’m good with that.

This week we’ve had some issues with the box software and though it’s been frustrating on one hand not to have easy access to scheduling and the rest of it, it’s been kind of a nice change of pace to not know what the workout is until you walk through the doors. Don’t tell my coaches I said that… (too late) But the surprise factor makes it even more interesting for me in some respects.

I walked in this morning for the 8:30 class with Coach Larry. We had Bri, Nic & Nicole, JJ, and Jake today. A great mix of folks, as per usual.

We started with a 400m jog and then came back for 3 rounds of:

• 10 sit-ups
• 10 air squats
• 30 second plank hold

And from that point on, it was all the “Deck of Cards” workout:

• Each suit in a standard 52-card deck is assigned a different movement. Draw a card. The suit dictates the movement and the number on the card (or fixed # for face cards) indicates the # of reps. Lather-rinse-repeat until you get through the deck.
• Oh and Jokers = 800m run

In our case, we had air squats (diamonds), sit-ups (hearts), push-ups (clubs), and burpees (spades). If it was a face card, it was 10 reps. And the number of reps for some movements (squats & sit-ups) were doubled. We had a 2 minute break after every 14 cards or so.

We got through about 2/3 of the deck by the end of the class and only hit one Joker, thankfully. But we hit a good mix of movements, which meant Larry shuffled pretty well. 🙂

The killer combination was push-ups and burpees. I have to say I’m still sore from 17.5. My quads, knees, and calves are still annoyed. I had a couple of sequences where I had to drop to knees for push-ups and I had quite a few burpees that were slow as molasses. Even my air squats were compromised. We had a few sets where I was leaning way forward trying to get more depth as opposed to keeping my torso upright and Larry caught me.

Sit-ups weren’t too bad, but I’ll feel them in another couple of days. That was a solid 30+ minute workout and I’m sure I’ll feel it all much sooner than I want to. 🙂

The run was entertaining. I ran half of the first 400 and half of the last 400, and walked the rest. I’m not sure if it was the pace I set or my brain getting in the way, but the whole “running” thing is still not one of my favorites. 🙂

Unless you are built like a light, flexible gymnast, body-weight exercises simply means that you’re using your body weight as a barbell. For me these days it varies between 225 and 230 pounds. That’s a good chunk of weight.

Then I think about some of the folks I was working out with. Jake is about 6’5″ and another 50+ pounds of muscle, so things like burpees where you’re throwing your body to the floor and then getting up and jumping must be even tougher for him.

I’ll take my body weight, thanks. 🙂

Great work 8:30 class and thanks Larry!

A Bunch of Jerks

I did a bunch of push jerks today. I didn’t push a bunch of jerks today. Isn’t English fun?

That said, I was in a very low spot this morning before I made my way to the 8:30 class. After putting down our old pup over the weekend, it’s been rough few days. I knew that my routine, especially the endorphins that would come as a result of working out, would probably be my best bet at getting through my day.

I arrived and worked with Coach Drea, Stacie, Brent, Sarah, Tionne, and the nice military guy whose name I still can’t remember. (Good guy though.) And we even saw Bill.

We got going with a bang. Our warm-up was our eval workout…

• for time
• 500m row
• 40 air squats
• 30 sit-ups
• 20 push-ups
• 10 pull-ups

We had to waterfall in (4 rowers), so I started at 3:10 on the clock. And I finished at 9 minutes. That’s 5:50. My previous fastest time was 5:53 on 8-NOV-2016, so I’ll take 5:50. Definitely.

From there we did some warm-up with an empty bar for our behind-the-neck jerks and our push jerks. We could do our behind-the-neck reps as either a split jerk or a push jerk, so I opted for the push jerk. I’m more controlled there.

And once we were through that, we started going through the first part of the workout:

• Behind the neck jerk — 1-1-1-1-1-1

We were supposed to start at 80-85% of our 1RM, which turns out I don’t have a push jerk PR, so wasn’t sure. I was a little sore even after working with the empty bar however, so I started slow.

• 95#
• 115#
• 125#
• 135#
• 145#
• 155#

Not awful. From there we moved to the second part of the workout. These were from a front rack however, not from behind the neck:

• Push Jerk — 10-8-6-4-2

We were supposed to start around 50% of what we did for our behind-the-neck, but I did a very similar progression:

• 95# x10
• 115# x8
• 135# x6
• 145# x4
• 155# x2

And then I was done. The last rep on my x6, x4, and x2 were a bit rough but I did ok. Good thing I didn’t have to squat much underneath it however. 🙂

I definitely felt better when I was done. Thank goodness for brain chemistry and exercise.

Thanks Drea & Bill and good work 8:30 class!

Open Gym

So the first workout of the year happened to be on an Open Gym day at CrossFit Continuum and another first. I’ve not been into the box on an Open Gym day before, so that was kind of fun. There were people all over doing fun things. Jimmy & Drea, Kelli, Dee, Clare, Brent, Andrew & Ashley, Lisa & Nick, Hillary and her son, and a few others. The place was hopping.

We went in with the girls. They did their own thing – an 8-10 minute WOD they put together themselves. And Ev and I did a modified Annie.

Annie is one of the named “girls” workouts for time –

• 50-40-30-20-10 reps for time of
  • double-unders
  • sit-ups

We did:

• 100-80-60-40-20 reps for time of
  • single-unders
  • sit-ups
• with a 1000m row at the end of each round

So it was Annie + a 5k row. My wife came up with it and about 3 rounds in I was wondering why I said “sure” when she asked if I wanted to do it with her. 🙂

She did it in about 40 minutes. I did it in a bit more than 45. My row times got consecutively slower – I started in about 4 minutes and by the last round was over 5 and closing on 6 minutes.

My biggest issue was my grip on my right hand. My right forearm blew up and turned into a rock pretty quickly between gripping the jump rope handle and pulling on the rower. By the end even Drea was like “yeah, you need to ice that and roll it out.” Guess I’ll be working on that over the next couple of hours. 🙂

That said, I don’t think 45 minutes was too bad. We weren’t exactly pushing for time – just pushing to finish – and I was ok with that.

Plus it was fun to see everybody! Happy 2017!