Four Men & a Lady

This past Saturday Pete, Matt L., Garth, Tom and I (along with the coaches) all woke up a little earlier to compete in a three WOD extravaganza in order to help us prepare for sectionals. Bill took the three workouts for the day from a competition that had been done earlier in Utah. The workouts looked a little like this:

WOD #1
For time:

500 m row
440 m run

TIME: 3:57

WOD #2
For total reps:

:90 clean and jerks (35 kg)
:30 rest
:90 ring dip push ups
:30 rest
:90 front squat (35 kg)
:30 rest
:90 burpees

TOTAL REPS: 65

WOD #3
For time:

440 meter run
10 deadlifts (65 kg)
20 box jumps (24")
30 kettle bell swings
40 wall ball shots (14#)
50 meters of OH walking lungs (10 kg)
400 meter run

TIME: 12:52

Overall, it was a great experience. Although I wish another female would have been there, it was great to workout with the guys. They're uber competitive and really pushed me to do better. (I was only disappointed that I wasn't able to show them all up in the last WOD when I was in the lead for a good ten seconds. ) All in all though, I did okay. When Bill calculated the final numbers I would have finished eleventh overall out the the 27; moreover, if I hadn't messed up on my final run (I was so excited I was in first place I forgot to run around the cone), I probably would have finished somewhere around sixth place, which is kind of exciting.

I'm not a player; I just crush alot... (Part 2)

Us with the Chamber and the big scissors before the WOD. Congrats guys!

If you read my previous post, you know that I did two named WOD's this past week: Nancy and Helen. While my Nancy experience was not as exciting as I hoped, my time with Helen proved to be well spent.

I went to the Fort Wednesday morning to attend a special moment in CrossFit Fire history: The Chamber of Commerce was coming to the Fort to officially welcome Bill and Jennie's business to the community. It was a celebration of sorts, for all of us (We love you guys!) and to celebrate (and impress the hell out of the Chamber members), a group of us were going to do a workout.

Originally, we were going to do a WOD that included seven rounds of body rows, push presses and something else (I don't know what it was - I didn't do it); however, after seeing the turnout (there were about ten or so of us), Bill decided that we were going to do Helen instead.

Helen

3 rounds for time:

• 400 meter run


• 21 kettlebell swings (16 kg)


• 12 pull ups

Immediately, I was nervous and excited. I held the Fort record with a time of 11:18 and was now put in the position to defend my spot. Regardless, I kept my nerves in check, promised myself that I would beat my old PR, and then focused on channeling those nerves into the workout.

Once everyone and everything was set up, we lined up at the edge of the building to begin the first run. Bill called the 3-2-1-Go! and I was off.

My first run felt exceptionally strong. I was the second one back into the Fort right behind Pete and cranked out my kettlebell swings. I finished them unbroken and then moved onto my pull ups. Surprisingly, I was able to complete eight in a row before I needed to drop off the bar. I then quickly did the remaining four and turned to my second run.

Although my second run wasn't as strong as my first, I still felt okay with it. I knew I was making good time and as I re-entered the Fort for my second set of kettlebell swings, I felt even more confident about beating my old PR. When I got to my pull ups, I had to break them up more than the previous round, which slowed me down a bit; however, I still able to complete them and then set off on my third round.

Overall, my third round was continuation of the second. I completed my run, did all my kettlebell swings unbroken and then broke up my pull ups, finishing my last three one at a time. But when I dropped off the bar my final pull up and fell to the floor, sucking air, I felt great. Really freakin' tired but great, and when Bill called out 10:29, I was both amazed and elated. I beat my old PR by almost a minute. I crushed Helen like I didn't crush Nancy.

After everyone completed the WOD, I was sitting there writing in my book, still excited about my time and particularly about my pull ups. For those of you who know me and my struggle with pull ups, then you know its been a long and trying war (and unfortunately, the pull ups have won more battles than I have); however, that seems to be changing. Who's the bitch now, pull ups?

At Least it Wasn't Kalsu

This morning I woke up to complete the following evilness:

1000 meter row

5 rounds for time:

• 10 pull ups
• 15 OH squats (40/30 kg)
• 20 kettlebell swings (20/16 kg)

1000 meter row

I finished this WOD in about 29:00. I don't recall the exact time because I started 5:13 later than the first group and I couldn't remember how many seconds followed my 34 minutes. Regardless, I did finish under 30, which is good, but we can both agree that my time is far from impressive, especially with scaled OH squats.

All in all, I kind of hated (and was absolutely terrified of) this WOD. I saw Bill put it on the board last night before I left and then spent the night dreading the next morning. It was kind of a mind f*&%. It also didn't help that I was tired from all my busy-ness yesterday. I will admit, that even though I did kind of hate this workout, I was glad that I didn't have to do Kalsu.

Long Stories, Short

CrossFit-wise, here's what has happened to me this week:

On Monday we worked on our clean and jerks before moving onto burpees on the minute. My clean and jerks my reps looked a little something like this: 45-47.2-49.6-52.4 (EPIC FAIL). I'm still having (weird... who would have thought?) trouble dropping under the bar. Trying to work the split jerk helped a little, but I was still having issues with my knees and such. As for improvement - I think I'll just have to keep practicing because I'm not really willing to eat a whole chocolate cake like Boyd did (this apparently helped him).

As soon as we finished the clean and jerks we moved on to burpees. Now, I was not one to be deceived by this workout. I remembered all too well when we did pull ups on the minute (that WOD was like the bane of my existence) and how quickly the "suck factor" entered into the picture. Oh no. I was not one to be deceived and so, my game plan was just to do as many burpees as possible. Oh, and try to beat Garth by one rep because he apparently quit during the morning class (this obviously did not work - but you can give Jennie and I credit for trying). In the end, I did fourteen rounds plus seven burpees. During round fifteen, my ankle went all haywire on me and this prevented me from cranking out a few more at the end, that and the fact that I wanted to be done.

On Tuesday, we did some deadlifts (yay!) and "Helen." For the strength portion we were to complete four, three rep sets leading up to 75% of our one rep max (100 kg for me). Well, after completing my 70, and Jennie informing me that it looked too light, I decided to complete another set at 80. It felt good and I smiled.

As for "Helen," I really wanted to beat my previous time of 11:18; however, I was not able to do so. I would like to attribute my lack of PR to the deadlifts and the 45 mile per hour wind that we had to run in. My "Helen" time was 11:34. As we can both see that is not better than 11:18, and as much as I would like to blame deadlifting and the wind, I begrudgingly admit that I just didn't get it done. Oh well, maybe next time...

The Safe Word is "Banana"

This past Saturday I encountered a new spin on an old favorite: Red Rover. When I was a kid, I used to love playing Red Rover. As a result, you can image my excitement (or fear) when I saw the following posted on the board:

In teams of 3, AMRAP in 20:00:

Person A does 10 burpees

Person B does 10 kettle bell swings

Person C sprints 50 meters

One point is awarded for every successful sprint. The sprinter cannot run until both the burpees and the KB swings have been completed. Person C can only switch tasks with A or B when standing next to them. (KB swings and Burpees were set up at either end of the parking lot.)

Bill divided up the teams. I was placed with Brian and Matt (L.). As Matt went to set up some kettlebells, Brian and I were discussing strategy. I suggested that we come up with a code word for when we were either done with our reps or when we wanted to switch movements. Brian immediately came back with a scene from Family Guy and suggested the word "banana." Although I do not watch Family Guy, I figured I could work with that. It was much more original than holding up your arm to indicate that you were done with your reps, which is actually what we ended up doing... Which is fine, really it is... Boring... But it worked... Anyway....

The WOD went relatively quick. I started out at the kettlebells and stayed there for nine rounds before sprinting to the other end to start burpees. After that my poor counting skills came back to haunt me, so I simply focused on finishing my ten burpees as soon as possible until the boys wanted me to sprint back to complete more kettlebell swings. I would tell you how many burpees and how many kettlebell swings I did but I wasn't paying that close attention (remember the lack of counting skills?). I did, however, only complete four sprints in those twenty minutes.

In the end, Team Safe Word "Banana" completed 27 rounds. Unfortunately, two other teams also completed 27 rounds. As a result, Bill called for sudden death. One, ten kettlebell/burpee/sprint to the end of the driveway.

Once again, I was sent to complete kettlebell swings, while Matt did burpees (he is a burpee machine) and Brian ran (hello Señor Lightening). I did the kettlebell swings fairly quickly and then Brian and I waited for Matt to complete the burpees. We looked on as Tommy Mo cranked out his burpees just a little ahead of Matt and waited for the signal (the raised hand... ugh). Regardless, Matt's hand shot up within due time and Brian darted to the other end of the driveway, leaving everyone else trailing behind him.

As soon as he reached the other end of the drive, I threw up my hands, victorious, and yelled: "Banana!" I'm not sure if either of my teammates heard me, but it just felt right.

A Brian Pyramid: Congrats on your first win, Brian.

The Rundown

It's official: School is taking over my life. As a result, I have not had a lot of time to write my blog. So... here's the rundown on this past week:

Friday, I did "Helen" prescribed for the first time. I completed the WOD in 11:18. Needless to say, I was very excited.

Team Saturday, we did 200 meter partner carry and then three rounds of 2:00 of muscle-ups, power cleans (bw), and air squats and then another 200 meter buddy carry. Lisa and I teamed up for this and she was nice enough to carry me for about 300 meters. In the end though, we did not come out on top but we did get 200 reps. Yay for us.

Sunday, I played with my new toy I received for my birthday. My toy, the iPod+Nike chip, fits within my new kicks and measures my pace, calories, distance, etc. It even lets me play a power song to get me going (bet you can't guess what it is...) Anyhow, I decided to jog a 3K, which I completed in a little less than 15 minutes. After running my 3K, I decided that it wasn't enough and then jogged for an extra 20 minutes. According to Phil (the voice on my iPod), I ran 2.5 miles. I'm not going to argue with him.

Monday, we did two rounds of 500 meter row and AMRAP pull-ups. Essentially, we were paired with someone and competed against them. While one person rowed, the other did pull-ups and vice versa. Jennie and I were partnered up (guess, who won?) My rows were far from impressive (around 2:00 each) and I was able to crank out 20 pull-ups both rounds (which I was fairly happy with considering pull-ups are my arch nemesis).

Tuesday, we first did overhead squats [OH squats] (3-3-3) before moving onto "Karen." True to form, while OH squatting, I nearly dropped the bar on my head and fell on my ass. However, I did OH squat 25-30-35 kg. I'm not even sure if 35 kg is a PR or not. Personally, I was just glad that I was able to practice my snatch form.

Onto "Karen." Also true to form, I lost count, got confused, and I'm almost positive that I did at least 10 extra reps. Regardless of my counting ability, I did manage to crank out the workout (however many reps I did) in 10:00, which was 1:46 better than my previous time.

Finally on Tuesday (Tuesday was a big day for me), I did a rowing WOD. I completed three rounds of 1:00 on, 1:00 off, 1:00 on, 1:00 off, 1:00 on, and 1:00 off. All in all I rowed 2252 meters (or something like that).

Today (Wednesday), I took a rest day. I wanted to workout in the morning but, like I said in the beginning, school has taken over my life. Instead, I decided to read student papers rather than CrossFitting. Of course, I would have preferred to do the latter but you can't always get what you want.

Feeling Dirty?

When I looked at Tommy Mo's blog yesterday and saw that they did "The Filthy Fifty" at the Fort, I decided it was time for a little visit. Despite the fact that "The Filthy Fifty" is a tough workout, it is actually one of my favorites (I know... Crazy, right?). I enjoy chipper workouts though because once you finish that movement - you're done with it. There are sometimes when I'm going through however many rounds in WODs and the last thing I want to do is 21 more burpees or 30 more cleans, but I digress. Here is the outline for yesterday's WOD:

"The Filthy Fifty"

• 50 Box Jumps (24")
• 50 Jumping Pull-Ups
• 50 Kettlebell Swings (16K/12K)
• 50 Walking Lunges
• 50 Knees to Elbows
• 50 Push Presses (20K/15K)
• 50 Back Extensions
• 50 Wall Ball Shots (20LB/14LB)
• 50 Burpees
• 50 Double Unders

Well, let me just tell you how this went down. I completed the WOD as prescribed. My pacing throughout the box jumps went well and it was similar in regards to my walking lunges. I flew through my first 25 reps of my jumping pull ups and then nearly repped through the remaining 25; it was a similar situation in regards to both my push presses and back extensions. I did rep through my kettlebell swings (heck yes!). My double unders were okay, but I needed to push through them faster. Then there was the knees to elbows (K2E), wall balls and burpees.

Remember that wall I ran into before during that other WOD? Well, I bumped into it on my K2E, ran straight into the damn thing on my wall balls and then did it again on my burpees. My form on K2E's could have been a little better; they were decent but I wasn't focusing on laces to bars as much as I should have; instead I was focusing on not swinging (I'm not sure which is more important, but it's most likely the former). As for the wall balls, I don't know what happened except that I hit a wall at this point in the WOD last time. Guess, I need to focus on my wall balls, especially the pacing, because I unfortunately cannot rep through those beasts like Tommy Mo. As for the burpees... Well, I think Matty-Lo was absolutely right when he said: "Those are the worst 50 burpees you will ever do." And just like Forrest Gump said: "That's all I have to say about that."

In the end I finished in 32:19, which I felt okay with since I improved from 33:05. I had wanted to reach 30:00 mark but it may have been wishful thinking. Next time though, next time things will really get dirty.

The CrossFit Continuation of Awesome

Three things:

1. I went to the Fort this past Saturday for "Team Saturday."
   
2. We did the Stadium WOD from the CF Games.
   
3. It was awesome.

We started out with a short 800 meter run, mobility drills and some burpees because The Garth Show failed to introduce himself to Darryl, a visiting CrossFitter from Buffalo, New York. We then we all waited anxiously as Bill determined the teams.

I turned out to be pretty lucky that The Show failed to introduce himself to Darryl because I ended up being on a team with him, and I wouldn't have remembered his name otherwise. Jeff and Stephanie rounded out the rest of our team, and I was feeling pretty confident about our chances. All the teams seemed pretty evenly matched.

After everyone was sorted into their respective teams, set up began. It took longer than I think anyone anticipated; for some reason there were mix ups with where teams were competing and so on. Regardless, we got it all sorted out and were soon in our places to begin the workout. Just as a reminder, the Stadium WOD consisted of:

Stadium WOD

30 Wallballs (20lbs/14lbs)

THEN

• Row 300m
  
• 30 Box jumps (24")
  
• 30 KB swings (24kg/16kg)
  
• 30 Push press / Push jerk (40lbs/25lb)

THEN

30 Deadlifts (225lbs/135lbs)

Since there were a limited number of 20 lb wall balls, we did a stagger start with the teams. My team was one that started later; however, when we got the 3-2-1-Go!, Stephanie was off, repping through those wall balls like a mad woman. I was the next to go, then Jeff, and then Darryl. We were all there cheering each other on throughout, driving each other to do better. It was your typical CrossFit continuation of awesome.

After finishing the wall ball portion of the WOD, we moved onto our respective stations. I went from rowing, to box jumps, to push presses, to kettlebell swings. Out of all the exercises I was most pleased with my kettlebell swings and push presses. I almost repped through both exercises. I was less pleased with my box jumps and rowing. I was able to get a good string of about 12 box jumps in and then ended up having to stop every so many reps rather than pushing right through. As for the row, I'm not sure what I was doing there, but I know I could have rowed faster. Then came the deadlifts.

I love deadlifts. They are by far my favorite lift, and I felt pretty good about my pacing throughout, especially since I hadn't done them in awhile. I only had to stop twice and it was due more to my grip rather than feeling overly tired. Stephanie, on the other hand, was like "Psh. Who stops on their deadlifts?" and then repped right through all 30 of those beasts.

When we called "time," I was proud of my own and especially my team's performance. Stephanie had been a deadlift machine; at one point, I saw Jeff popping that kettlebell up like it was nobody's business, and I remember looking over at Darryl while I was rowing and thinking, "Daaaaaaaaaammmmnnnn." Let me tell you, Darryl took out those push presses faster than a mugger in Central Park. It was awesome. What made it even better though was that these were the only things I witnessed from my own team. The other teams were equally intense and focused.

On other teams, I saw Zach, Jennie, Beth and Stacy all crushing the deadlifts; I witnessed Tommy Mo and Super Dave flying through the wall balls, and got to watch Jessica and Garth cranking it out on the rower. All around, everyone did a phenomenal job. It was great to see such intesity and hard work from everyone.

After all was said and done though, it wasn't until I was writing down the WOD on a stolen piece of paper (my book is at home), that I noticed that my team had won with the time of 18: 12. I do believe that my response was: "Wow... We won." All nonchalant and such. It felt good though, and I must admit, we look pretty good holding that belt too.

Jeff, Stephanie, Me, & Darryl