World O’ Hurt

I’ve been jotting down notes about my workouts the past few weeks, but I haven’t yet sat down to go in depth about any of them. That’s odd because I’ve set several important milestones for myself the past few weeks, and it’s well worth taking a moment and patting myself of the back for a job well done. If six months ago, someone had told me that I would be doing some of the things that I’m doing now, I would not believe them, and yet here I am today, constantly exceeding what I thought were my limits.

It’s been a busy and stressful few weeks for me, yet I have largely been able to continue my diet and workout routine, and I’m healthier, more productive, and stronger/faster/more flexible than ever.  This might not sound like a big deal, but it’s Crossfit and the desire to constantly improve that has given me the mental strength to overcome situations that might have broken me just a few short years ago.

I’m about to go into a period of time that’s going to be very difficult for me emotionally, and it will be the things like Crossfit, Kung-Fu, and the healthy, nurturing way of life that I’ve chosen for myself will form the bedrock of my life while it changes.

Monday (08/03)

For a month or two after I started Crossfit, on my drive from my house to the Gym, I would get a knot in the pit of my stomach. It was a foreboding feeling, like I was heading into a trap. I believe that it was my body’s homeostatic system attempting to dissuade me from doing such foolish things as putting myself under extreme discomfort in new and awful ways, or exceeding my limitations, or putting myself “out there”, or preparing to fail. It was my ego’s attempt at self preservation before it got crushed time and time again in my quest to remake myself.

I remember one workout where I was hit with a particularly acute bout of this feeling. I remember standing on the box, preparing for the start of the workout, listening to JDP count down from three to one, and literally thinking to myself :

“Oh my god, this is really happening. This is fucking brutal, but I’m already standing here and it’s too late to do anything about it. I’m really going to do this.“

Well, times have changed. Now I look forward to almost every workout with a sense of perverse glee and I anticipate competing against the lesser part of me that urges me to rest (and who still too often wins). However, there are still some workouts the fill me with that same sense of dread, and those are the monthly benchmarks.

It’s not so much that Crossfit Central’s monthly benchmarks (Total, Angie, and Fight Gone Bad) are incredibly difficult (well, Angie and FGB are true beasts. I find Total enjoyable as hell), it’s that the first class of the month is time to prove myself, to apply what I’ve learned and apply the improvements I’ve made to myself over the month. And sometimes it’s scary having no one but myself to hold accountable for my improvement.

This month’s benchmark was one of my favorite workouts: Fight Gone Bad:

Three Rounds:

• 1:00 Row
• 1:00 Wall Ball
• 1:00 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
• 1:00 Box Jump
• 1:00 Push-Press

The score is the number of calories burned on the rower plus the number of completed reps on the other four exercises. My very first Fight Gone Bad turned out very well, with a score of 259 over the three rounds (as RX!). The past few times I’ve done FGB, it was two rounds, due to not having enough time or equipment, as well as schedule changes at the gym. Don’t worry though, just go more intense.

Long story short, my score was 239 over two rounds. This was the first big milestone for me this week, and it puts me on pace for a score well over 300 for the fundraiser in September! More impressive to me was almost attaining my 3 round total in two rounds. Now THAT’S improvement! What made me prouder was the fact that it was the best score made that day up to my class time. Anyone wanna bet on a 300+ two rounder for me next time?

Wednesday (08/05)

Ah, now I remember why I didn’t blog this week in depth; it was the week that crushed me to dust with my worst exercises and skills, and the followed up those brutal workouts with brutal followups.

Overhead squats are probably my worst skill, and workouts ladders (where the reps go down but the exercises stay the same) probably exhaust me more than anything else. How about a WOD that combines them both?

For Time:

• 10 Overhead squats: 95lb, 30 Knees-to-elbows
• 8, 24
• 6, 18
• 4, 12
• 2, 6

I am not particularly good at high volume output of things like K2E or Pull-ups, and I’m bad at Overhead Squats. At 95lb I didn’t get anywhere near the RX weight of 135 on the squats, and ripped my hands terribly on the K2E. This was not a good day for me! I finished in 11:40 which was ahead of most of the field, but not exactly elite. However, it was the heaviest sustained series of overhead squats that I’ve done (my previous best was 65!) Therefore, my second big milestone of the week!

As if that workout were not hard enough, the followup sucked out of me any energy I had left: an 800m run followed by three sets of Burpee Broad Jump Relays (up and down the gym floor).

Thursday (08/06)

The Texas Hand Skin Massacre continues with a pullup-centric slice o’ hell:

The clock continuously runs; each minute do:

• ‘n’ pullups during minute ‘n’.
• On pullup failure, do ‘n’ kettlebell squats during minute ‘n’.

I got to n = 11. The heart and body were willing, but the hands said “fuck no”. Starting at the 12th minute I did kettlebell squats and gassed on minutes 19 and 20, completing minute 18. I still owe JDP 39 kettlebell squats.

I feel that had my hands not ripped, I could have gotten to round 15. I felt strong, but I was bleeding like a stuck pig on the bars. Nasty.

Of course there was a followup; It was more bodyweight relays:

• 3x Rabbit relay
• 3x Spider relay

My martial arts and kata training came through for me again; The rabbit relays were trivially easy for me. It seems that on at least two or three of Crossfits 10 physical skills, I get high marks (agility, coordination, flexibility).

Monday (08/10)

Another killer. The volume has been relatively low lately but the weight has been high.

5 Rounds for Time:

• 21 KB Swings @ 24kg (32kg RX)
• 14 Burpees
• 7 Back Squats @ 155lb

My time: 18:42, one of the better finishers that day (almost no one did it as RX. It seems that given my time and the 20-minute cutoff, 24kg was just right for where I’m at. I’m impatient to move on, but smart enough to avoid injury. I have my whole life to do this).

Wednesday (08/12)

A truly horrendous WOD.

3 Rounds for Time:

• 10 Man Makers @ 45lb
• 500m Row

The order was originally inverted, but because we didn’t have enough rowers, some of us started on the Man Makers. This marks a personal record on weight for the Man Makers for me (for those of you playing at home, that’s three milestones set!)

18:45 RX (how I love typing “RX”!)

Thursday (08/13)

Deadlifts are my favorite movement. They just feel right and powerful and I love the big numbers I’m able to put up, yet today I just didn’t feel strong at all. The 225 I pulled felt more like 350, and I felt sluggish in general. Yet I showed up and persevered. When I saw the workout, I groaned inwardly; Muscle-ups are one area where I just don’t feel competent. I feel like a fish out of water, and like the muscles required to do them just don’t exist on my body. Meh! Well, I surprised myself…

For time:

• 25 Deadlifts @ 225lb
• 500m Row
• 15 Muscle-Ups
• 25 Deadlifts @ 225lb

My Time: 15:59 Almost-RX.

What does “Almost-RX” mean? Well, it means that on that day, I did more muscle-ups in a single WOD that I had cumulatively done previously in my 30 years of life. That is a huge milestone and I was thrilled to have done what I did, which was 10 real, genuine muscle-ups! I did 5 by scaling various ways (knees, jumping), but 10 muscle-ups was a huge achievement for me. I still have form work to do (such as locking out fully between reps, and doing some reps unbroken), but I am very happy with what I accomplished.

Friday (08/14)

As fellow Crossfitter and Kung-Fu instructor Cindy came to my class, I decided to make the workout Crossfit’s benchmark “Cindy”, which also happens to be one of my favorite workouts in general:

AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 5 Pullups
• 10 Push-ups
• 15 Squats

A workout deceptive in its simplicity. and devastating in its effect! My record is 12 rounds with bar pull-ups, but all we have at the Kung-Fu school is the ability to hang rings for pullups, etc (more difficult!). I did 13 full rounds and one scaled round (jumping pull-ups). That’s yet another milestone set for this series of workouts! I am not sure what inspired me, but in spite of being tired and stressed, I’ve felt like a million bucks and ready to take myself on. What will tomorrow bring?

As a last note, we should always appreciate the special people who add color and meaning and beauty and happiness to our lives, and let them know how much they mean to us. We sometimes take them for granted, and when they depart, their absence is palpable.

Monday

A pure strength day. I need these the most, especially for my upper body. I am satisfied with almost all my lower-body movements except my squat. It’s time to meet some goals here!

• Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1
• Push-Press 3-3-3-3-3
• Push-Jerk 5-5-5-5-5

This was good for me. For some reason my shoulder is feeling awfully good lately, so I decided to cautiously step on the accelerator today. My reward was a 20lb PRs in the shoulder press!I am sure that the other two movements would have resulted in PRs as well, but I don’t think I have ever done them as part of a weight tracking workout. I’d have to say that I’ve probably never push-jerked more than 135, so I’ll consider that one a hefty PR as well!

• Shoulder Press: 85-115-125-135-140 (fail) (up from 115)
• Push-Press: 115-125-130-135-140
• Push-Jerk: 130-135-140 (ran out of time at 3 sets)

This workout again revealed a weakness of mine. At this point I would like to have at least a 145 shoulder press and 155 push jerk. At least now I know where I stand in relation to those goals, and at least I’m getting stronger.

Wednesday

I thought I was safe, since my birthday had actually been on Tuesday, not a workout day for me. However, JDP let my birthday workout age like fine wine, albeit only for one day. I was actually looking forward to the day’s workout (a beastly combo of pull-ups and C2 Rowing), but instead to celebrate my birthday we did the ‘30 Candles’ workout. For Time:

• 30 Deadlifts (135lb)
• 30 Burpees
• 30 Front Squats (135lb) (PR)
• 30 Pull-ups
• 30 Push-Jerk (135lb)
• 30 Calories on C2 Rower

I finished in 18:27. This was a brutal fucking workout, since two of those three lifts (deadlifts are my bread and butter) are two of my worst movements. The front squat puts the bar square on the acrimons that I separated (shoulder is doing better every week!), and the push-jerks were the heaviest I’ve done in a sustained matter (and exposed my upper body weakness yet again). I will go ahead and call the 135lb front squat a personal best, even though I’m pretty sure I’ve done heavier, and could do heavier. This is just my ‘official’ Personal Record.

All in all I pushed myself very hard on this workout, maybe because it was custom made for me. However, I have noticed that I am able to more comfortably push myself to my limits on a daily/weekly basis. That’s what tracking workouts has done for me. Every workout I get a sense of satisfaction from increasing what I do a little bit more, and also a sense of having been able to do more. It presses me onwards.

Thursday

A workout that seemed to hone in on several of my weaknesses. For Time:

• 800m Run
• 10-8-6-4-2 of:
  • Dumbbell Squat Clean (45lb)
  • Dead-Hang Pull-up
• 800m Run

My time was 16:24 as RX. The best time in my class (and I believe almost the best of the day) was of a very well-balanced athlete who got 13:00 straight.

As I’ve said other places, I consider my overall upper body strength to not match that of my lower body. It makes sense; 20 years of martial arts has trained my flexibility, static strength, and dynamic strength (if not absolute strength) of my legs through katas, stances, kicks, movement, etc, while doing not-too-much for the strength of my upper body. Of course since starting Crossfit, I’m far, far stronger in every way, but my upper body is still lagging behind somewhat.

The squat cleans were not very hard at all (I still give up too easily though!), but I found myself doing the pull-ups in 2 rep sets, and even had a few incomplete reps. Seeing as I can do 26+ kipping pull-ups in a row, it is easy to see that it’s the lower body movement and impetus that’s propelling the success of that endeavor! The secret then: do more strict pull-ups!

To add to the thoughts of a previous post: That’s another reason that timing one’s workouts is useful. It lets you know (with coarse granularity) what you need work at, and that really is the interesting thing about all these workouts. Depending on the skills and movements involved, one person can get the best time on one day, and fall far behind the pack on the next.

Friday

No class on Friday; I am attending a good friend’s wedding!

My shoulder is feeling significantly better. The swelling in my AC joints is significantly less, and I am feeling pain only when I pull my arms across the centerline of my body. I am a few short weeks away from being able to do full WODs again. No need to rush though, JDP has been giving me plenty to work on without involving my crippled shoulders

Monday

Shoulder is feeling a little wonky today; Better than in the past. It doesn’t hurt per se, it just feels weird. My entire body is tired and crappy from all the bad food I ate. It is amazing how it affects me!  I actually felt worse after 4-5 days off than I did immediately after my last workout! My Psoas has been bothering me a little too. The WOD was another ass kicker:

Four Rounds for Time:

• 400m Run
• 50 Squats
• 30 Box Jumps (24″ Box)

My Time: 24:33. not the best time in the world, and not the worst time in the world. It is a supremely difficult workout, and seemed to work the aerobic and both anaerobic systems. I am not sure whether to attribute my exhaustion to the workout, the fact I was on a fast day after half a week of carb fests, or the fact that I actually felt a little dehydrated. At any rate, I didn’t perform my best, but I did the best I could!

I went to Kung-Fu and taught class as well, and did quite a bit of Warton active-isolated stretching. I am trying to make my teaching more engaged and hands on. When I got home, I did Triggerpoint, which seemed to have somewhat of a magical effect on my psoas. Weird.

Tuesday

A Kung-Fu day. I mainly hung out in the back room. I did a full compliment of Wharton stretching, and a nice long Triggerpoint session, and a little mini workout with pal Andy:

135lb Deadlift x 25, 20 Ring Rows, 185lb Deadlift x 15, 20 Ring Rows, 205lb deadlift x 5, 20 Ring Rows.

Just a little diversion.

Wednesday

When will I learn? My shoulder hurts a wee bit more from all the ring exercises I did on Tuesday (I admit to doing some ring dips). Anyway, another day another dollar. At Crossfit:

For time:

• 2000m row
• 2″ rest
• 1 mile run

My time: 20:04 including the rest period. I had an 8:14 (or so) split on the row, where 7:30 is considered pretty good. I admit to phoning in the run somewhat, but I also admit to my legs being paralized after the row. Whatever that muscle is on the front of the shin, it was numb. Yikes!

The rower is a beastly contraption and I hate it (but in a loving way).

Thursday

Guest torturer coach, Lance Cantu! What a bad dude he is. Everywhere you look at Crossfit Central, there’s someone to look up to.

For Time:

• 50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 Kettlebell Swings @ 1.5pd/Situps

My Time: 11:51. This was the first time in quite a while I’ve done the recommended WOD, and it felt good to do so. I scaled down to 1 Pood because of the kettlebell, but also scaled up to my new AbMat. Not quite making up for the half pood difference, but it’s something

There was also a supplementary workout:

Five Rounds:

• 25 Air Squats
• 100 yard farmer walk with two 1.5pd kettlebells

I initally thought that we’d have to do the squats with the kettlebells, so I picked out 1pd kettlebells. After receiving clarification that they were air squats, I upgraded Mark and I managed three rounds before time ran out. That is an exercise that truly challenges the grip strength!

Friday

Conditioning class time! I continue to inflict primarily lower-body workouts on my class due to my shoulder. I will likely discontinue this in the next few weeks and start inserting upper-body and core workouts into the programming of the class, and just not do those exercises. My shoulder NEEDS to get better and I am not helping out the process.

For Time:

• 250 Squats
• 250 double-unders

My time: 11:40 (I think, didn’t write down times today. I will do it and update Monday)

Tabata:

• Farmer Walk (selection of 55lb dumbbells and 35lb kettlebells, as well as 20lb dumbbells)
• Body Blasters
• Medball Slams
• In-Outs (paralellettes)

The Farmer Walk is a truly excellent finisher. I will keep that in the rotation regularly!

This is going to be a good week, I can feel it. I suffered a slight setback with my shoulder on Monday, but it actually feels a little stronger. It’s only a matter of time!

Monday

I hope my shoulder gets better soon, since my substitute workouts are harder than the actual ones!

Three Rounds for Time:

• 50lb Kettlebell Swing (1pd)
• 25 Goblet Squats (1 1/2pd)
• 500m Row

My Time: 24:48. JDP let me finish past the 20 minute cutoff. This was an incredibly difficult workout. I think it was much more metabolic than the prescribed workout. The Goblet squats hurt my shoulders a little bit, but didn’t set me back to square one. I will be more careful. They felt OK at first…

After Crossfit I taught class at Kung-Fu. Everyone is looking incredibly sharp and skilled. It’s always that way after a tournament/test. Everyone steps up to the plate, especially those people who tested!

Tuesday

Some Wharton-style active-isolated stretching, along with a test run of my new Elite Rings II at the Kung-Fu school! I did some body rows, and a few pushups, which did not do my shoulder any favors. The good news here is that I have provisional permission to put rings up in the school! I need to figure out a plan to have them accessible and easily moved out of the way/dismounted, as well as purchase them. This is a mid-term project that I will probably implement in August.

My shoulder is bugging me again. I need to just let it rest.

Wednesday

Crossfit day! JDP offered me up an incredibly shitty (in terms of absolutely destroying me) midline stablilization workout:

Five Rounds for Time:

• 15 Kettlebell Deadlifts (2pd each hand = 64kg = 141lb wow that is a lot of weight now that I calculate it out)
• 30 Hip Extensions on the GHD
• 30 AbMat Situps

My time: 18:4x. This was a motherfucker of a workout. Maybe even harder in some ways than the real WOD (5x(5 HSPU, 10PJ, 400mrun)). My hamstrings have been aching in a “you really really challenged yourself” way ever since (I’m writing this on Sat). It’s hard to explain how much I look forward to the Crossfit WODs, even though when I’m doing them, it feels like absolute hell. I am greedily awaiting my shoulder to return to normalcy, so I can do the great lifts again.

I had my second body composition done as well. You have to take these things with a grain of salt; things like hydration and fasting can really throw off the measurements, but it gives a good general feeling of progress. Anyway, my stats (calculated via scale weight, calipers, and tape measurement:

• 187lbs (+3)
• 8.0% Body Fat (-.5%)
• 4″ muscular gain circumference-wise across my body:
  • +.5″ each bicep
  • +1″ across shoulders
  • +.5″ waist
  • +.5″ each thigh
  • +.5″ chest

All-in-all a successful month; I can imagine what would have happened if I had been able to work out my upper body at all! Moving my shoulders, there is still a lot of clicking and popping, but the pain is less and less every day. I have to be careful though. I think I set myself back almost a week or so on Monday (Goblet squats are hard on the shoulders!).

Thursday-Sunday

I am going to give myself a rest for the rest of the week. I am also thinking about taking off Monday’s Crossfit as well. It is important for me to slide back a few squares on the fitness gameboard than risk chronic injury. I want to be 100%.

Ch-ch-ch-changes: I’m going to start posting workouts in a weekly digest as opposed to one post per workout. This will keep things nice and tidy, as I plan on writing more on general subjects.

Monday 03/02/09:

Back to Crossfit after a much-needed break. My shoulder is feeling better, but I can’t use that as an excuse to go full tilt boogie again. I’mm just injure myself more! Today was another benchmark workout, this time the first part of Crossfit Total. One rep max of:

• Deadlift
• Shoulder Press

The previous week I had set a personal record (PR) of 300lb even on my deadlift, a weight I considered enormous at the time. Nevertheless, I was pretty hellbent on shattering that record, considering that deadlifts are one of the few things that don’t really bother my shoulder! I made a number of attempts:

• 185 x 8 – 255 x 5 – 305 x 3 – 365 x 1 – 365fail – 370

Wow, beating my PR by almost 1/3. I wonder what my real ceiling is! I am pretty much overjoyed at my progress.

I didn’t very well want to leave the shoulder press blank on the progress sheet, so I decided to do some light weight:

• 45 x 5 – 95 x 3

So a fairly light weight for a PR of 95 on the shoulder press. It kills me, because I know I could have put up 135 easily.

The last part of the Total, the Back Squat, we will do Wednesday…

Tuesday, 03/03/09

As I have injured shoulders (type 1/2 ACJ sprain) I’m finding it necessary to take it easy for a while. the only thing that is absolutely intolerable is pushups. I can’t do them at all. Other things are possible but why risk it? Today I went to my Kung-Fu school and did a full body stretch routine using the Wharton active/isolated method.

Even when injured, there’s always something you can do.

Wednesday, 03/04/09

The shoulder is getting better. As much as I want to, I can’t use that as an excuse to start working it hard again! John was nice enough to modify the workout (which had shoulder presses and squat cleans in it) for my special needs (man that sounds bad!)

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps:

• Deadlift at 50% bodyweight (95 lb)
• Back squat at 50% bodyweight
• Also, 10 box jumps (24″ box) each round.

completed in 17:29. Not bad, fairly difficult! My lower back was incredibly sore during the deadlifts, but within 5 minutes of finishing, I was perfectly fine again. Once again, I think I have far more headroom in my performance than I am utilizing. In addition, I will now sub in the 24″ box whenever possible for box jumps.

Thursday, 03/05/09

More Crossfit fun! My shoulder is in that dangerous territory where it feels well enough to almost, kinda-sorta do stuff, but I know if I do I’ll jsut injure myself more. So John, the kind soul that he is, put together a workout that seemed more difficult than the recommended WOD (which was):

“JT”: 21-15-9 Reps:

• Handstand Pushups,
• Ring Dips
• Pushups

The substitute was less strength and more metabolic. Kudos to JDP for realizing the leg-strength focus on the previous day’s workout, and subbing in core/endurance work:

Three Rounds for Time:

• 500m Row
• 400m Run
• 30 GHD Situps

Done in 19:43. This was a fucking killer. The GHD situps are incredibly brutal things that work muscles in places I didn’t know I had places. Has it ever hurt your abs to fart? If not, you should try doing 90 GHD situps and experience the phenomonon first hand.

Friday, 03/06/09

My Friday class returns after a two week hiatus! It was a special class tonight, the first re-appearance of a benchmark primary workout. It was time to see if the exercise protocols I had enstated had caused a significant improvement in the performance of the students. The Benchmark workouts will be ones that I feel are gold-standard in terms of difficulty and practicality. The “Beinedämmerung” (Twilight of the Legs) is one of these. It’s a four-round version of Mountain Athlete’s “Leg Blaster” with some double-unders thrown in:

“Beinedämmerung” (Twilight of the Legs). Four Rounds for Time:

• 20 Squats
• 20 Lunges
• 20 Jump lunges
• 10 Jump squats
• 20 Double-unders (or 60 single-unders, or any combination thereof)

I believe my time on this was about 9:25 or so (I didnt write down the numbers as I was in a hurry; I’ll accomplish it this week). I shaved around 30 seconds off my previous time, which I was satisfied with. This is a very difficult workout!

What I truly was impressed with were all the folks in class that were shaving well over a minute off their times, and at the same time, increasing their range of motion and intensity. No one in my class “phones in” a workout, and I’m very proud of that fact!

Saturday, 03/07/09

Helped out as a volunteer at the Crossfit Central Fittest Games Challenge, and wished I could have competed.

Today was one of the more brutal Crossfit workouts I have had. I know, I say that every week. I think it’s because every week, I gain a little more capacity to be a little more brutal. And that’s a good thing.

For Time (limit: 25:00):

• Three Rounds:
  • 21 Dumbbell Snatch (RX 45lb)
  • 15 Burpees
  • 300m Row
  • 200m Run

My time: 22:54, using 35lb dumbbells. I thought this workout was going to be MUCH harder, and apparently they scaled it down somewhat from its original iteration in the morning class. the 21 dumbbell snatches were divided between the two arms. As my left arm is weaker, I did 11 on it and 10 on my right . I’m still having quite a bit of form trouble with the snatch. Apparently I do not open up my hips enough before the shrug and high-elbow. I’ll work on it this week at Kung-Fu!

Burpees are a fantastic exercise and I love them. The rower, as usual sucks the marrow from your bones and leaves you a lifeless husk. Running is running. I don’t have to like it but I do have to get good at it

After the workout, my coach, John, his girlfriend Cassie and I decided to do the Crossfit “dot com” WOD:

With a continuously running clock:

• Do one pull-up the first minute.
• Two pull-ups the second minute
• And so on and so forth.

I actually got to round 8, and felt pretty damn good! The wrench in the gears were my about-to-rip callouses. Personally I feel that I could have gotten at least to round ten if not a few more. I want to try that workout again, with solid hands

Crossfit today was, perhaps for the second time, something that catered to what I was good at, at least partially:

Two Rounds for Time:

• 100 Double Unders
• Two Minutes Rest
• 1000 Meter Row
• Two Minutes Rest

As jump rope work, and particularly double-unders are some of my favorite things to do, I was curious at my times on each of individual components of the two rounds:

• First Double Under Set: 0:54
• First Row: 4:11
• Second Double Under Set: 1:00
• Second Row: 4:06
• Total Time (including rests): 16:14 (I fumbled a bit with the rower computer my second set).

I believe this to be a pretty darn good time, and look forward to my rowing power output increasing. The interesting thing to me was that my second set of what I was good at (DUs) was slower, and my second set of what I was bad at (Row) was faster. I saw a video on the Crossfit main site regarding the 2″ Double Under challenge. I intend to beat that time. It would be purely a personal challenge as the guy who did the video was a monstrous 6′7″, making it quite different than me doing it, but it would still make me feel good to meet the challenge!

The first workout of the month at Crossfit Central is a “benchmark” workout. Roughly translated, this means that they will really kick your ass, but it’s for your own good. In an act reminiscent or grade school, they will hand you a report card of sorts to write down your score for the workout. Don’t worry, you don’t have to get your parents to sign it. It’s a way to let a few standardized workouts track your progress through the Crossfit program. This is an awesome idea that underscores the commitment of the CFCentral crew to the betterment of their clients.

This month’s benchmark was “Fight Gone Bad”. It apparently simulates the strength and cardiovasular load of a typical three-five-minute-round mixed martial art fight. To a first timer like myself it also felt like it simulated pretty well the “getting the shit kicked out of you” aspect of a typical three-five-minute-round mixed martial art fight:

Three rounds of five minutes, one minute each of:

• Row
• Wall Ball with 20lb medicine ball
• Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 75lb
• Box Jump, 20″ box
• Push-press, 75lb

Plus one minute of rest at the end of each round, to give you time to purge your stomach of that pesky food, or just let you dry heave until you feel better.

The scoring is one point for each of the rep-based exercises, plus calories burned on the rower. My score: 259 RX. Not bad, considering my goal was to get above 200 RX! As usual, I left feeling challenged, but excited because I felt I actually could have gotten 275 with a little more oomph.

The Concept 2 rower is an amazing thing. Deceptively simple: A metal frame, a sliding seat, a handle and chain, and some sort of friction device attached to a computer. Decidedly low-tech apart from the computer, it is a beastly monster that sucks the life out of you. One minute full blast and you feel like a husk of your former self, drained of all vitality and ready to stagger and stumble to the next station.

The push press is probably my favorite, as I found it much easier to get into a rhythm (even in the last round) than for the others. The deadlift high pull… Needs work, and we’ll leave it at that. Overall a challenging and awesome experience. Next time I want to break 300.

Today’s Crossfit WOD: AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 150m Row
• 10 In n’ Outs (An exercise on the Parallelettes, not tasty hamburgers from the Western-US-only (Much to my chagrin) chain. Trust me, halfway through the allotted time, you’ll wish it was the burgers. Although if it WERE the burgers, you probably would vomit. But, I digress)
• 15 Box Jump (20″ Box)

Completed 8 Rounds plus the Rowing and In-n’-Outs of the 9th.

Wow, rowing, jumping, and playing on parallel bars! An 8-year-olds dream workout becomes an adult’s nightmare. Yes, you little bastard, once you weigh more than 30lbs these movements will seem difficult to you, too!

I was really pleased with my performance today. I think that today’s WOD played into whatever strengths I had when I joined Crossfit. I have done acrobatic type stuff such as the In-n-Outs and, of course, lots of jumping from the katas for years now. The difference is, as I’ve said before, that of degree, not kind!

Once again I upped the intensity and actually beat my goal of 8 rounds. I stayed afterwards to practice the kipping pullups, and reached a personal record of 8 consecutive.

Baby steps…

Well that was eye-opening…

Even more so than the two Crossfit workouts that I had done the other week, this one kicked my ass, even though it was relatively simple as far as those things go. I don’t know what to chalk it up to. Not having eaten? Having been sick? The bone-dry air? I felt like crap, even given the relative ease of the workout:

• 500m Row
• 400m run
• 30 Air Squats
• 20 Pushups
• 10 Pullups.

I felt less than great after this workout. I’m inclined to give myself a pass, since I had previously completed two much harder Crossfits already! Now, I don’t want to be Negative Nancy! I learned a great deal about the Crossfit movements today, and it looks like this is just what I needed to push me past that comfort zone and up into dizzying new heights. Getting there is gonna be hell, but being there? Ah, it will make it all worthwhile.

Dinner was a delicious treat. Sam and I grilled up 1.5lb of london broil that I’ve been marinating for three days now. We sliced it up and tossed it over a salad. As usual, I did not exactly measure any of the ingredients:

• Mixed greens and Spinach
• 1 large Hass Avocado
• 2/3 Red Bell Pepper
• Thinly sliced steak
• Ample Walnut Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Fresh-cracked black pepper

I felt like a million bucks after devouring that beast! My next update and Crossfit Elements tomorrow!