A Whole Lot of Random: Cleans, Mr. Big, Sled Drags & the Green-Eyed Monster

Yesterday, I went to the Fort and we were doing cleans as a part of our strength workout. As far as my cleaning ability goes, I am better with a vaccum than I am with a barbell; however, I'm trying to be positive (Yay cleans!) and improve my form so that I can cross cleans off my list as something that I am less than stellar at. It would actually make me really happy to be good at cleans. Lucky for me, I have Bill and Jennie there to pinpoint my exact problem and then outline the correct steps to correct it. Also, lucky for me, Mr. Big came on the satellite radio yesterday in between sets so that Jennie and I could have a sing-a-long. I realize that Mr. Big is the atypical workout song but it helped lighten my mood in my otherwise frustrating situation.

Unfortunately, Mr. Big had to go away with the rest of the 80's (of course, that is otherwise very fortunate in many cases), and I was immediately brought back to present day to complete four sled drags across the drive. I'm kind of weird, but I like sled drags, even when Mrs. Yundt is beside me and kicking my ass. (She is speedy, people... and super strong and looks fantastic. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd hate her if I didn't want to be like her.) Regardless of Speedy beside me and the green-eyed monster gnawing on my quads, I only remember the time of my last sled drag, which was 20 seconds to drag the tire across the driveway.

Overall though, it was more of a successful day than not. I got some great advice on correcting my clean form, did fairly well during handstand practice (yeah... we did those too), got to drag a tire behind me (which oddly enough I enjoy) and was able to listen to some Mr. Big. If that's not a good Monday, I don't know what is.

Tom Cruise Cra - I mean: "Tom 'Mohr' Crazy"

Tommy Mo invited me to go on a little field trip to globo gym this past weekend for an early morning Saturday WOD. I had been planning on attending "Team Saturday" at the Fort but then decided that stretching out my punch card for as long as possible may be a good idea. Besides, I knew that Mr. Mohr probably had something equally intense in mind so I would still be getting in a great workout. I was right on both accounts. Here's the WOD the madman himself came up with:

Tom Mohr Crazy

500 meter row

30 bench press (bodyweight)

1000 meter row

20 bench press

2000 meter row

10 bench press

Geez. Feel like you're going to row the Mississippi? Because I did at 6:15 in the morning this past Saturday. This was a tough workout. Lucky for me though, Tommy was right there shouting advice and pushing me the whole way, and even luckier for me, I scaled accordingly so that the whole ordeal was over in under 25 minutes.

On a side note, I should mention that the best thing about Saturday wasn't that Tommy Mo provided me an awesome workout and some great coaching - but he also made an amazing breakfast for some of our other CrossFit Fire family members and I. Thanks Tom for a great Saturday. You're. The. Man. Always a pleasure :)

Check us out: "Hi Globo, this is what results look like."

...Of course, we are both wearing CrossFit tshirts.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Contrary to my posted image, I do not hate yoga. Actually, I quite enjoy yoga because it is calming and it does help develop some body strength and flexibility. On the other hand, I am not the biggest fans of yoga instructors. I realize that the yoga philosophy and practice is to release tension and to focus on balance and healing the body; however, I find it difficult to find equanimity while I'm trying to twist my body into human pretzel. So... as far as aligning my inner chakras goes (or whatever that means) - I think I'll leave that to the yogis - but for other reasons, I don't believe I will abandon yoga just yet.

In terms of comparison, CrossFit and yoga are polar opposites. They are the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of exercise: "Hello Intensity. Meet Calmness." Arguably though, I believe that my yoga practice has, in some cases, helped me with my CrossFitting. For example, like I mentioned before, yoga increases flexibility. Increased flexibility will help you correct form on certain lifts and other exercises. Also, yoga helps build strength, particularly in your core and your back. In fact, the only reason I can do planks well is because I used to do them constantly as a part of my yoga practice. Regardless of my own plank ability, a strong core is necessary for so many of the exercises we do as CrossFitters. In addition, yoga helps you increase your grip strength, endurance and joint-range of motion as well as helps improves some of the following:

• Cardiovascular efficiency
• Depth perception
• Reaction time
• Sleep
• Balance
• Integrated functioning of body parts

There are whole lists out there advocating the psychical and psychological (yes, here we get back to that whole idea of "equanimity" thing) benefits of yoga, which I will not get into or bore you with. Moreover, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you need to make yoga a regular part of your CrossFitting. Some parts of yoga are already a part of your CrossFit workout regime (think planks, handstands and other stretching exercises - granted, it's not a lot but it's something). Regardless, if you are looking to increase your flexibility on a large scale, adding some yoga to your regular workout regime may be the way to go. (I used to be about as flexible as a piece of concrete and yoga has helped me considerably.) However, if you do decide to give yoga a try, just remember that you have no right to get angry with me because I warned you about the aligning of your chakras mumbo jumbo. Besides, if you try yoga, you're not supposed to be mad anyway. Unleash your fury in standing tree position - don't direct it towards me.

Nicole's Revenge

Remember last week, how I tried to do a variation of Nicole (aka Nikki) only to realize that I had incorrectly measured the length of my run? Remember then how I tried to make up for my error by completing that horrendous walking lunge, sit up, pull up workout in order to practice my pull ups? Well apparently, Nicole didn't appreciate my dissing the latter part of her workout. Apparently, she is very protective of her shins and so she, like any evil villain, waited, biding her time before seeking revenge. In fact, she waited until I was completely oblivious before she pounced. It was much like the video below:

See how horrific the experience was for me? Well, it wasn't exactly like the video but you could imagine what it would be if it was. Regardless, the experience was still rather traumatic.

So when I walked into the Fort and saw Nicole there, I was nervous. Okay. I admit it. I was kind of scared. My pull ups aren't strong and I (honestly) didn't want to spend the whole twenty minutes running. I know I can run. I want to get better at things I'm bad at. Of course, I realize that Nicole was there for that very same purpose but the whole "max pull up thing" freaked me out. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

In the end, the video was not too far off: I did run pretty fast; however, in regards to pull ups, I only did 43 on the red band. My only consolation was that I somehow cranked out fifteen reps on my first round and that I didn't ever drop below five. Lucky for me though that I can still run fast, because had Nicole been able to catch up to me in her hockey mask and chainsaw while I was on the pull up bar, I would have been a goner.

On another note: Jennie, I am really sorry I kicked you in the head (she was helping me get into the band). It was an accident and I wasn't trying to get back at you for making me do the workout. Promise. Please don't come after me like Nicole.

Miss Productivity

When I woke up today, I decided that it was necessary for me to be productive. For one, school is quickly approaching and the more prep work I do now, the more time I have for life. For two, I was supposed to meet a friend in the afternoon for a little joint birthday celebration. (I told her that we could just celebrate her birthday twice, but she was not having it.) The combination of these two circumstances led me to a conclusion that I needed to quickly decide on a WOD to do and get after it. As a result, I decided to go with a workout that I had seen on the CrossFit headquarters discussion forum sometime last week:

• Run 1 mile
• 80 burpees
• Run 800 meters
• 40 burpees
• Run 400 meters
• 20 burpees

Well, when I added up the burpees it didn't make sense to me just to do 140. If you're already doing 140, why not just add the extra ten and do 150? Or maybe I'm the odd one and just have this thing about numbers. Who knows? Regardless, I did change the WOD slightly so that it would calm my apparent OCD and came up with the following:

• Run 1 mile
• 75 burpees
• Run 800 meters
• 50 burpees
• Run 400 meters
• 25 burpees

I'll just tell you outright that I don't know how long the WOD took me. When I finished I was disgusted when I realized that I had apparently failed to activate the button on my iPod stopwatch like I thought I had. (Okay, I was kind of pissed off as I laid there, sprawled out on the grass with sweat dripping down my face). Either way, it was a good workout and probably one I'll have to do again in the future, just so I can add my time to my record book.

Monday Thing(s)

CrossFit Thing(s):

Complete the following for time:

• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 21 pull ups
• 21 sit ups
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 18 pull ups
• 18 sit ups
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 15 pull ups
• 15 sit ups
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 12 pull ups
• 12 sit ups
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 9 pull ups
• 9 sit ups
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 6 pull ups
• 6 walking lunges
• 100 ft. walking lunges
• 3 pull ups
• 3 sit ups

= 29:21

Good Thing(s):

• I finished under 30 minutes, which was my primary focus, albeit my time is far from impressive.
• At least it was and still is nice outside.

Bad Things(s):

• I was distracted by the various people walking in and out of the school by the park.
• I wore gloves and I still messed up my hands, although this time I have torn blisters on my fingers rather than on my palms.
• On that same note, I spent too much time being a baby about my hands.
• I can't kip or do deadhangs for s&%t. My timing is off on the kip. Advice please on either. Anyone? Please...
• Because my attitude towards my progress with working out, especially regarding pull ups, is something to be desired at the moment. I have been feeling very unmotivated lately, which is problematic on a number of levels.

Other Thing(s):

• If pull ups were a person, I'd kick him or her in the shins and then run away.

A Field Trip to Globo

I have cabin fever. Strange, I know, considering that it is August and am able to spend plenty of time outside; however, my occasional pop-ins at the Fort over the past two months have not seemed to be enough lately. (They are a tease if anything. It's like hanging a cookie in front of a diabetic.) For one, I feel like I keep doing the same workouts and movements over and over again - just in different order. Sure, my push ups are getting a lot stronger, as are my burpees, pull ups (which I would continue to work on religiously, even if I was at the Fort on a regular basis), sit ups, air squats, jumping pull ups, etc. I'm not complaining about this, on the contrary. I'm very happy with some of the progress I've made on these basic movements because CrossFit is essentially built around these movements. But something has happened, something I never ever ever thought would happen in all my CrossFitting days: I am bored.

Yes, I said it: I am bored. So when it was raining the other day and I realized I wouldn't be able to beat myself up outside, I was at a loss of what to do. Yeah, I could do more burpees, but wait - I did burpees on Monday and on Wednesday; I could do sit ups, push ups, squats, supermans and pull ups but I did those every day this week too as a part of either my workout or my warm up; I wasn't about to go running (even if it hadn't been raining), or use my homemade wall ball in the house (I'm just guessing that would not go over too well). So... What to do? How about a field trip to globo? *Hangs head* Okay...

When I arrived, I paid the day fee and began meandering around the gym checking to see what kind of equipment they had. I wandered around for about ten minutes before I found the glut/ham machine hidden amongst rows of other useless machines; I also found an interesting version of a dip/chin up machine. I used both of these machines as well as did push ups and air squats during my warm up and then began wandering around again, trying to decide what to do and ignoring the slew of high school boys and other guys who were in the gym who occasionally gave me the odd glance.

Finally, I decided that I would work on my push press because they had done these the other day at the Fort; however, instead of brawling over the bar with various teenage boys, I decided to use dumbbells. This decision was also inspired by the fact that they did dumbbell push press at the Games this year in the Stadium WOD. I had heard that they were supposed to be more difficult because the weight is no longer necessarily evenly distributed on either side and the dumbbells made it more difficult to stabilize your core. Regardless, I decided that I would do five sets of five and then move on to a short metcon.

Side note: To be honest, I felt kind of silly while I was doing the push press with the dumbbells. Not only did I feel like I was being watched (I was unfortunately the only female in the entire facility), but I was worried about my form and so I was trying to watch myself in the mirror. Granted, I wasn't kissing my biceps after each rep, but I kind of felt like a meathead even watching myself in the mirror.

Once I completed the push presses (I stopped right after 80 lbs - my hand was hurting and I bitched out), I began wandering around again, contemplating what kind of metcon I wanted to do. Originally I had hoped that they would have a rowing machine so that I could do the 500 meter row, 21 burpees, 400 meter run WOD; however, I was out of luck. They had no rowing machine, and I was about two steps from substituting sumo deadlift high pulls before I realized I had no idea how many reps I should do or what weight I should use. In the end, I decided that I should quit meandering around and just figure out what the hell I should do. I was tired of being there and tired of feeling like a weirdo; however, I figured since I felt as such, that I should also confirm my either imaginary or actual oddness in the minds of the teenage boys around me. So I did 21-15-9, burpees and box jumps.

The metcon was nothing spectacular by any means but it sucked in its own right, and when I was finished, I got out of there as quickly as possible. I had an icky feeling. It wasn't pleasant. Moreover, the whole experience, made me kind of sad for two reasons: 1.) It made me miss the Fort even more; 2.) Those globo regulars have no idea what they're missing.