CFF Day 90 – Team Challenge Saturday

Saturday July 18, 2009 9:00 AM

Another Saturday, another Team Challenge. Another Victory. I’m getting good partner draws these days, I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing! Came to the gym in a hurry, but still feeling good. Had T&O with me and they behaved very well, so that was nice! We started with an 800 run, and I was the last one to start since I was late, so I did it fairly fast, it felt good! I need to get a watch like Tom so I can figure out my splits!

Saturday team challenge – we did the Stadium Workout from the CrossFit Games;:
5 Teams of 4 – Our team was Daryl (from CrossFit in Buffalo), Brit, Stef, and Me

WOD:1 Round of the following – whole team has to finish individual station before anyone moves on:
30 20lb wallballs
300 meter row
30 x 24″ box jumps
30 x 30k push press
30 x 16K kettlebell swings
30 x 60k deadlifts

Thoughts:
Wallballs – Dang that’s heavy! I had a few that didn’t hit the plate so I had to redo them, that sucks! I don’t think I’m quite ready to be doing this weight, but as I’m right on the cusp, I thought I would give it a shot.
Row – I was pretty comfortable on this, 300M was really no problem
Box Jump – Had a good rhythm, but have to get faster.
Push Press – These were hard, shouldn’t have been that hard, but I was sucking wind pretty good when I got here
Kettlebell swings – I like these, difficult but manageable
Deadlifts – I repped out the first 15 then stopped – that was when my form went to hell, I went to repping 5, could only do that once, then repped 3s and 2s from there out. Form turned brutal by the end.

Reflections: Everyone wants to win the team challenge. My team was flying, I hadn’t worked out with Daryl or Stef before and I underestimated them, Brit is a superstar, so I knew that she would be pushing, it turned out I was the last person to finish just about every exercise. Since you can’t start the next exercise until everyone is done, that added a ton of pressure. In response to that pressure, I went for speed and not form, this was especially true for the PP and the DL, two exercises I’m pretty good at. I have to get better at slowing down, making sure the movements are right so I don’t injure myself. My lower back was not happy with me Sunday or today from those bad deadlifts. I think our team won the challenge by a minute or two, which really makes me kick myself for not taking more time to make sure I had good form.

Team Challenge Champs

Crossfitter of the Day: Daryl – this dude was a beast, he looked strong, but not ‘pick up my VW and throw it across the street, then run and catch it’ strong! One of the things that I enjoy about CF is that the really elite athletes don’t look like crazy musclehead bodybuilders, obviously they look fit, but not all roided out. It’s a testament to being an athlete vs. just being able to lift heavy stuff.

CFF – Day 71 – Ride Over Row Jump Push

Monday 6/29/2009 5:30 AM

I got a nice new bike about 4 or 5 years ago, and have rode it about 3 times. Now that I’ve dropped some weight and am feeling stronger, I thought it would be a good idea to ride it in to the gym. Actually it was Season’s idea, but a good one, so I stole it. I pumped up the tires yesterday and made sure everything was ready for this morning. It was a nice ride over, but I had some issues with the route, I had to hop over a fence and go under a gate, so that was annoying. It took about 20 minutes in all, about 5 minutes more than I thought it would be, I’m sure that will get less as I hammer out a good route. It was a beautiful ride nonetheless.

I got to the fort and everyone was about halfway done with the warm-up. I double timed it and caught up by the time we were ready to start the strength.

Strength: OH Squats – 5,5,5,3,3,3 @20K,20K,20K,30k,30K,30K

WOD: Nicki

3 Rounds:
500M Row
30 Jumping Pull Ups
30 Push Ups

18:56

Thoughts:
Strength: I dislike OH squats, I don’t feel strong at all at them, mainly b/c my squat sucks, but it’s not a comfortable movement for me. Nevertheless, I graduated to a heavier weight for the sets of 3, and experimented with a closer grip, so I guess that is progress.
WOD: I was a touch slow on the rower, trying to work on form too much, about 2:05 on each row, need to get that faster. Jumping pull-ups sucked, they made me very tired very quickly, I was pounding out sets of 3-5 and those were hard, I’m not sure why, but they drained me. The pushups are where I saved a bunch of time. I used the blue band and I used both on the first round, that was like not even working. I just used one the 2nd and 3rd time, but still felt really strong on them. The thrid round I didn’t stop at all, 30 straight.

++Good pushups, perhaps I should graduate to no band pushups.
—Need more strength and better stamina for the jumping pullups, they really hurt me today.

Ride home: I was dreading this, but it was really really nice. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to start riding my bike.

Weight: 203.4
OMG, I’m like shedding now. Its very crazy. I had a really intense weekend as far as “daily activity exercise” goes, and I ate very well, so its not super suprising, but I was expecting a bit of a plateau around now.

CFF – Day 58 – 50 times the pain

Well, after a decent nights sleep, this is what I come into at the gym. Originally the # of reps was going to be the same number of Broad Jumps it took you to go 200ft. I think we really lucked out in not having to do the broad jumps, and I think it may have taken me more than 50, so, 50 is just fine for me…
or is it?

- 150 Single Unders (supposed to be 50 x Double Unders, but 3xSU is the scaling)
- 50 Dead Lifts (60K)
- 150 Single Unders
- 50 Box Jumps (20″)
- 150 Single Unders
- 50 Ring Dips (Blue Band)
- 150 Single Unders
- 50 Calorie Row

I’m normally a sweaty dude after I workout. Today, my sweat was sweating, I litearally had layers on, it was awesome. So, going through each exercise:
150 Single Unders – I really struggled with the first set for some reason, just getting timing and intensity just right so I could go through them.
50 Dead Lifts – O.U.C.H. – these were really tough, I think I loaded my bar thinking I would do about 25-30, and thought about scaling midway, but pushed through them and was happy about it
150 Single Unders – Much Better 50-50-50
50 Box Jumps – I used the 20″ and really worked on swingng my arms up, which helped, if I did it over again, I would use 24″
150 Single Unders – Fast 50-50-50
50 Ring Dips – HA, you thought the Dead Lifts were hard….these were killer, even with the blue band! Sets: 12-8-5-5-4-5-3-2-2-1-1-2
150 Single Unders – Tired but okay 50-34-66 – pushed a little harder on the last 20 of the 66 with Tommy Mo cheering me on, thanks TM!
50 Calorie Row – This had me intimidated a bit, so I think I paced more than I should have – next time I have rowing at the end I’m going to go so hard that I will allow myself to stop if I have to and take a breather. Note on this: I stayed up cheering for Nate and OMFG, he really killed the row, it was really powerful, very impressive!

++ Got through a hard workout, was very happy with my jumprope, when I started here, I had trobule with the timing on just getting 20 in a row, its just jump rope, but it feels good
–Intensity on the Row – get after it, make that row your bitch!

No Weight Taken Today, but ate great yesterday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, had a few mini homemade oatmeal and raisen cookies from Krissy – they were y-u-m-m-y!! No softball last night as it was pouring.