Hanging at the gym

Today was a main site rest day, so there wasn't anything too organized at the gym. I had decided to run there and back (about 5.8 miles), so I just did a basic warmup, helped fold flyers, fixed some stuff and practiced deadlifts. My form on deads feels better, but I haven't lifted heavy in a long time. Hopefully, the climbing rope I ordered will show up tomorrow and we can start messing around with that. I am also looking into patching up their damaged heavy bag and hanging it from the rope hardware as an additional source of post-WoD entertainment. We'll see.

In less positive news, I have been eating less well recently and not getting enough sleep. This has begun to effect my performance at the gym and at work. Need to really step up my game on this as diet has a way of sliding back into crap mode.

Slosh pipe fun

Quick update for Monday and Tuesday:
Monday was just Sam and me at the Box, probably because the WoD was a 5K and partly because a new NY crossfit opened and some of the people went to check it out. Sam wanted to work deadlifts, but I had a desire to check out the slosh pipe. For those not familiar, a slosh pipe is essentially a pipe of varying diameter and length that is capped at both ends. The pipe is half-filled with water, making it very difficult to keep stable, as the water continously shifts the weight as you move the pipe. It usually ends up as a good whole body workout, but reduces the explosive power generated, as going to fast can be counter productive.

21-15-9
16kg KB swings each arm
Clean, Press and OHS the "Bone"

The "Bone" is a long, thin (compartively) pipe made of PVC. It is slick, as PVC is not porous, and makes for a good grip workout too. Difficult to do more than a couple in a row without stopping to re-chalk my hands. Finished in around 17 minutes. A little longer than normal because a couple of people stopped by to out our gym and I helped discuss what the gym was about.

Tuesday, we happened to get a med ball in the Box, so added that together with my abdominal weakness to do:

3 rounds
20 Wall balls
50 situps

8:13. Definitely slower than anticipated as my abs decided to protest the stability work the day before. Yesterday was Fight Gone Bad, a workout I really wanted to do, but I needed a rest after 3 days of work and had to go to league night for Warmachine anyway. Also went to Havana Central for a farewell dinner for one of the CF people leaving for college.

It was an Adventure, alright.

Yesterday was my first Adventure Race, which is something I didn't even know existed until about 2 months ago. Had a great day and very happy with my time (2:05:29) and place (5th in division, 10th overall counting three relay teams that beat me). Event included the following:

1 mile run (parts of it in the lake, up to waist deep water)

2 mile kayak

100 yard portage up the beach to the road

11 mile bike on trails, mostly single track with some tight turns and elevation changes

Challenge course (Low crawl, pushups, situps, jump rope, balance beam, foot ball toss, wheelbarrow run, word scamble, word search, math questions)

Had a good time, especially the first run, which left me in 5th place. Lost about ten places in the kayak portion, as I had a rented kayak and it was only my third time using one. Made up some with the run to the bike transition area, but lost some during the biking. That was tough, as single track riding actually requires some bike handling skills and trust in your equipment. I have neither and it showed. Didn't help that my brakes and wheels are not tuned correctly, meaning that the brake rubs on the wheel during normal use. Sucks.

The challenges were easy, but the word search was tough. Not enough energy in my brain for that kind of thing. The run at the end started well, but the last mile and half, right after coming out of running in the water for the last time, was brutal. I passed three or four people during the run and managed to hold it through to the end. It was a good time and I was plenty tired afterwards. Definitely looking forward to the Off road sprint triathlon in August.

Friday Night...er...Wednesday Afternoon Fight

Took my lunch hour at CF and did the Friday Night Fight WoD. Nice to get a little sprawl training in, which I haven't done in a long time.

3 rounds for time of:
30 Sprawls
30 pushups
30 situps
30 squats
30 sprawls plus 2 count combo

1 minute rest between rounds

I ended up with 23:38, which was best in box, but none of the A-listers had showed up yet, so that won't stand. Hamstrings are still sore and the sprawls put some pressure on my hips, something that is also chronically tight. Really need to work a yoga or stretching session into my weekly or bi-weekly work. Happy with my time as it works out to be about 7 minutes a round, not bad for 150 reps. Looking forward to tomorrow when I get to go to the evening WoD at Brooklyn.

As a side note, lamb butchering class last night was awesome. Interesting, informative and had fresh kidneys sauted in butter. Fantastic. Got home and grilled acouple of sirloins and ribs, which tasted like hot sex. Meat is great.

Pressing and Extending

Joined the afternoon crew for a little press work with the following workout:

7 rounds for time of:
21 reps of 65# shoulder press
21 reps of back extensions

Rx weight was 75, but I think I made the right call to drop the weight a little. Probably would have been better at 55#, so it could have been a better met con, but definitely feel it in my shoulders. Tough, but not impossible. Looking forward to the lamb class and grill some of the take home on Friday for Opera in the Park. God I love the summer.

First Muscle-up!

As the title states, I was finally able to punch out my first MU. Everything just came together and I felt like I just floated up, no real effort at all. Then I couldn't repeat it. Guess that is why I have to keep training it.

Also did the sit up WoD:
50 abmat sit ups (ASU)
50 Double unders
50 ASU
50 walking lunges
50 ASU
50 burpees
50 ASU

15:50. Double unders suck as usual, but my weekly goal of 25 minutes of jump rope has already begun to pay off. I can consistently do sets of singles and occaissonally a double, but that is followed by immediate failure. Pathetic, but better than last week.

Sadly, tonight is the lamb butchering class and tomorrow is Warmachine league night, so I will probably be hitting up the manhattan box at lunch and try to bang through a workout or at least get some good skills practice in. Really looking forward to the class, but it is inconveniently timed. Not that this will stop me from signing up for the pig butchering class if this one is good, but I can still rail against missing my favority gym time.

Lazy weekend

Had a good weekend, but a little light on the training. Saturday was 20 minutes of kayaking, which showed me that I really suck at kayaking, but not as much as the average NY'er. Also got the chance to talk to a rep at Osprey, who recommended a backpack for short adventure racing. Will have to try it out at EMS and maybe use the 15% off coupon they gave me to get a new backpack. I could definitely use a new backpack for general use, as mine is falling apart.

Rest of the weekend was mostly destination biking. Not taxing, but certainly useful for getting my ass used to the saddle. BBQ went well and it was good to drink too much and hang with cool people. I rarely do the former and it is difficult to get too much of the latter. Now I am ready to get my crossfit on.

Finishing up the week

Haven't had time to log the workouts recently, most of which have been a muddle of biking, running and crossfit. Just bought a new moutain bike, which I desparately need for my adventure race next weekend. Excited, but also a little nervous considering I have only kayaked once before in my whole life and have never done a 12 mile off road bike trek. Definitely need to log some more time on the new toy, if only to get used to the saddle.

Had a good day today and not just because it is Friday. "Michael" came up again, so I got a chance to measure myself against a benchmark. As I wrote in my last post about this workout, it is three rounds of 800m run, 50 back extensions and 50 situps. My last time was 18:26, which is respectable, but I knew I could do sub-18. We had reset the distance for the 800m, so I ended up running an extra 40-50 meters, but still managed to bring the time down to 17:44.

Definitely happy with the improvement, although much less after watching my fellow CF'ers bust out a crazy kettlebell workout. I really need to work on my swing, as the last time I did a workout with it, I ended up with a hyperextension of my spine.

Looking forward to the weekend, as I am hoping to get some kayaking in tomorrow in preparation for the race. Also want to do some biking, cooking, running and investigate the possibility of buying a whole pig directly from the farm. Good stuff.

Running in the Heat

Weekend was great, got to see Alvin Ailey at BAM, went to the Museum for first Saturday's, went bike riding and running. No real official work out, but did do some heat training on Saturday with a 5 mile run in 95 degree weather. Sunday had some jump rope practice and shoveling, but nothing too official either. Looking forward to actually getting back to the gym today.

Teams of 2

Took it back to Brooklyn tonight, as the Manhattan location is currently overpopulated and underventilated. Since there were only four of us and limited equipment, we broke into teams and did the following:

400m run/KTE (Knees to elbows)
100 walking lunges/KTE
200 situps and 200 squats (total for the team)

For the first two, one team member does one and then switches when the other team member comes back. Do the Situps and Squats together. Took about 15 minutes. Really like the team element, as it makes for a great push with the twin drives of competition and potential shame (letting your teammate down). Good stuff.

Since I have tickets for a dance performance tonight, I went to crossfit instead of going out for lunch. We did:

3 rounds for time of:
250m Row
5 burpees
10 SDLHP 75#
20 pushups
10 KB swings 1 pood
20 situps
10 DL 95#

Finished with a 12:54, which seemed like a good time, as I didn't rest that much during the exercise. I used a lighter weight with KB, as my back still feels a little weird from the hyperextension I put it through at the beginning of the week.

2 hours until the weekend!

Hotboxing it

So the new "temporary" Manhattan location opened yesterday. Looks like an old clothing store, complete with hanger rakcs covering most of the back of the small space. Unfortunately, it is both small and doesn't appear to have working AC. This resulted in high temperatures and even higher humidity. The clamouring for the re-opening of the Brooklyn gym was loud.

Nonetheless, we did the rest day homebrew WoD below:
500m row
40 KB swings
30 pushups
400, 30, 15
300, 20, 10
200, 10, 5

Time was around 14:30 with a 24 KG bell. However, my form was fucked up on swings and resulted in repeated hyperextension of my back. I worked on it after my WoD, but it did a number on my back. Still hurts today, but I don't think anything is busted. Nonetheless, in an effort to remain healthy, I am taking both today and tomorrow off from the gym. Thankfully, today's workout is a series of high weight snatchs, so I am not missing much.

I'll have a Mini-Cindi, hmm, make that on the Rocks

Ran to the gym on Sunday for the 11am class, but the gym was closed. Still wanting a workout, I ventured to the nearby park and found that they have a faux playground rockwall. I decided I could have some fun and make up a workout based on that:

Mini-Cindi:
AMRAP in 10 minutes of-
5 pull ups
10 pushups
15 squats

On the Rocks- All exercises must be performed off the ground and on the rock wall while retaining their prior orientation to the ground. Essentially, pullups and squats have your body vertical and pushups it is horizontal. Grip strength and stabilization are incredibly important. Fun workout (4 rounds) followed by the run home for a total of a little over 5 miles.

Take this Double Under and Thrust It!

Time for a back dated post. This workout was on Saturday and was a real bitch of alternating 95# Thrusters and Double unders in the following groups

10/50
8/40
6/30
4/20
2/10

My time was around 17:30, but I subbed the last 50 DUs with Tuck Jumps as spending 10-15 seconds per double under was both frustrating and interfering with the met con nature of the workout. I hate DUs!

Steak, Shots and Bull-Riding, Yeah, it's a Crossfit Party

Friday was Hari's, a trainer at the Black Box, birthday and that meant that 30+ fitness freaks descended on Roth's Steakhouse on the Upper West Side to feed like a plague of locusts on their tasty meats. Many diets went on hold, mine included, with the promise of Filet Mignon with Bernaise sauce and three flavors of gelato. After the party, a younger group of 7, basically mean and a bunch of 24 year olds, piled into a car meant for four and went down to the lower east side to Mason Dixon. There, we ordered up some vodka shots, beers and got our drink on. After sufficient fueling, I decided to lead the group in the main event of the evening- mechanical bull riding.

Normally, I would say that the idea of me riding a mechanical bull, strap in one hand, leapord print cowboy hat in another is ridiculous. Now, picture that, except I am wearing my $500 designer suit as I went to the party straight from work. What can I say, I don't really have much dignity left. Pictures will be posted as soon as I get them.