Countdown Day 47 – Air Wudchuk

Tuesday September 1, 2009 6:30 AM

Sadly, I have to take some time off of Crossfit, it isn’t going to stop me or become an excuse for not making my goal. I went in to the other gym after helping Julie get out of the house with the rugrats this morning. The guys were playing some ball, so I joined in. We got at least 4 games in, not much to say, I had one good steal, 2 good three’s-including a game-winner and about 75 fouls. Our team was pretty over matched the last two games and we pulled it out. Lots of great running today! Hopefully, I will be able to get back to the Fort by next Monday – I gotta make sure I get back by Oct. 1 at the latest…Nate has a bet to pay off, and I want to be there to see it!!!

Weight:196.8 – Yeah!!! Pretty good diet this weekend and yesterday, and it paid off. If I keep it up, it will be very difficult for me NOT to hit the 175 goal by my bday!

Countdown Day 51 – A Scaling we will go

Wednesday August 26, 2009 5:30 AM

Enjoying a juicy grassfed ribeye with my honey

Went to bed early, but 5:00 still came too soon. It didn’t help that the baby decided he was hungry at 1am and my lovely bride was dead to the world. No worries, still had time to get all my stuff together, do a pre workout weigh-in and get to the box ontime. Also, here is a pic from my meal last night:

Warm up: 500m row and lots and lots of stretching

WOD: “Nate” – AMRAP in 20:00
2 Muscle Up Progressions
4 Hand Stand Push Ups
8 Kettlebell swings (24K)

10 Rounds

Want Mohr:
40 Sprints

Thoughts:
Muscle Up Progressions - these were difficult, but since they were only two, it was easy to pound through them every round. I need to raise the rings next time.
HSPU – Since we had the rings out for the MUP – we had to do these on the wall, so instead of a push up, it was a controlled lower. The hardest thing was having to kick back up every time!
KB Swings - I used 24K for the first time today, and OMG is that heavy, after my second set, I wanted to scale lower, but pushed through it and am happy I did.

++Really challenged myself on the KB swings. Getting faster on my sprints – can feel my hip movement as I run, not sure how I should handle that, should I work to move them more or less, I’m guessing more, but if you have an idea, weigh in!
—Keep practicing those handstands!

CrossForter of the day:
Barbie – she was a madwoman today, it was like a blur trying to watch her, she really pushed herself on this. She realized that she was using a lighter kettlebell than she should have, but she definitely made up the difference in picking up her pace! Great work babs!

Weight: 200.8 (Pre-Workout) – not bad, NEED TO KEEP EATING GOOD!! Next weigh in will be Thurs night after CFF. Hope to be around 197

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CFF Day 93 – CFF Nasty Girl ‘Jennie’

Tuesday July 21, 2009 5:30 AM

Came to the fort in a good mood, awake on a nice sunny morning. Zach pulled up with the bike on his trunk and I should have known something was up. Last time he did that, we ran a mile as part of the WOD. He told us to go warm up, double unders or rowing. I chose rowing b/c I need to get more powerful. I set to go 1000M, but only ended up doing 500 b/c it looked like we needed to get going. Get going to what? The 5k…the what?????? But but but I’m doing that on Thursday!! We had to partner up, I wanted to choose Season, we did the mile on the same day and she paced just a little slower than I did. But Super Dave had already partnered up with her, so Nate and I partnered up. This was a partnership that I was unsure about, I know Nate runs a lot, and we are pretty competitive with each other. Those are the ingredients for our hero burning himself out before the first step of the Terrapin 5K. Alas, because of his running experience, Nate was an expert pacer, we set out on a 10 minute mile pace and kept it the whole way through. When Pete and Zach passed us about 2/3 of the way through, I turned into Scrappy Doo, “C’mon Nate, let’s get ‘em, c’mon c’mon c’mon!!!” He had the cool head and we kept our pace. We really picked it up the last 400 and finished with a sprint. It was a great run and I felt great afterwards. We finished in 29:50 – Great pacing Nate! It was a PR for both of us! Had it been me by myself, I’m sure I would have gone out too fast and died at the end!

Let me at 'em, I'll splat 'em!

++Until the sprint, I was not winded at all. Wow, I’m really happy about that, was even able to hold a conversation.
—No Negatives today, great workout.

We were going to try to keep the workout a secret from Jennie, but she already knew it. Background is that she is a terrific athlete, but has a strong distaste for running. It would have been fun keeping that secret from her all day! But, Tom thought of something even better. Check it out!

Crossfitter of the Day – Coach Zach – we pressured him into doing the workout with us by using everything from asking, begging, cajoling, and eventually straight up taunting – regardless of what he was or was not wearing, he did great, we ran behind him for the better part of the workout and he developed a pretty good limp by the time we got back onto Wegner. He totally gutted it out and increased his pace all through the last stretch, it was very obvious he gave it all he had by the end. Great job Zach, the best way to lead is by example, and you’re doing a fantastic job!

CFF Day 86 – Not Giving up the Belt Yet!

Tuesday July 14, 2009 5:30 AM
Woke up and told myself that I was going to take a rest day. I somehow even justified it in my mind and tried to go back to sleep. But my inner crossfitter wouldn’t let me, he dragged me out of bed and to class, I hate that guy, and I love him. Big Class this morning so the WOD was converted into a team workout, which only affected me in a positive way…will explain later. Had a long warm-up with lots of OH Lunges, some double under practice and some mobility drills. Then, straight into the WOD

WOD – Teams of two
5 sets of:
Row 500M
Run 400M
One person starts the Row, the other Starts at the Run. You can’t start the other activity until your partner is back.
TIME: 26:07

Thoughts:
My partner was Tommy Mo, he is a running and rowing beast, so I had to do my best just to prevent him from having to wait around too much. We had a lot of really good competition in Super Dave and Garth, Nate and Brandon, Season and Audra, and Leslie and Lisa. I started out running and immediately was behind Nate and Garth. I did my best just to keep Nate within 10 seconds so I could try to get him on the row. I couldn’t do anything about Garth, as he is crazy fast. I was able to catch Nate by midway through the 2nd Run, he doesn’t know it, but he pushed me the whole way, I know how fast he can be so I was very worried about him catching me. Garth was doing something crazy on the rower which was allowing me to nearly keep pace with him, he wasn’t strapping in his feet. It took me about 5 extra seconds to do that, but it was definitely worth it! The last run was really hard. I got out before Garth and foolishly tried to keep pace with him over the first 150. That gassed me for the last 250. The last row was about as fast as the first one because I knew Super Dave was coming around the corner any second. I sprinted the whole thing. I had a great advantage – I had a clear vision of the entrance to the fort and would be able to see him coming. I was able to finish about 4-5 seconds right before him to give Tommy Mo and I the win! I’m continuing to feel really good about my running, I think that definitely carried me today. I need to get better at rowing, perhaps I will alternate my warm-ups with double unders and rowing from now on. Since I never had to wait for my partner on any of the exercises, our time was my time, which I’m proud of, I don’t think I would have got there if it wasn’t a team workout, but that is the beauty of crossfit- there is always reasons to keep pushing, keep going!

5k with a bunch of Dead Heads...wonder if I should run with a Hepa Mask?

Other Stuff:
Glad my running is coming into form because I’m doing a sweet 5k with my buddies Bones and Q. (maybe Krissy) a week from Thursday. It’s the Terrapin 5k in Grant Park. None of us are dead heads (my wife is though), but they have a very sweet wicking tie-dyed shirt as swag, which is awesome. I’m not really sure where or how I want to finish. I think I would be happy if I could somehow come in 27-30 minutes. I’m not sure if I’m setting my goal too low or high, but I don’t really have a good benchmark on this run. I will after this!! I’m not going to have my gps watch to help pace me, which sucks, but hopefully I’ll find it next weekend when we clean the garage.

Weight:
After the disaster that was my weigh in yesterday, I ate really good and had a great workout. I was rewarded with my new low!!!
202.3! I’m pretty psyched. I’m thinking by the end of the month at the latest I’ll be going down to Papa Joe’s and eating some tasty tetrazzini!