POSE Cert, drills and 10,000 challenge

Officially registered for the run and endurance cert on Nov 8th and 9th. Looking forward to that and, in preparation, I bought a POSE book for triathletes and have finally gotten through the intro (100+ pages) and am into the drill section. Will start learning POSE so that, when I actually get to the cert, they can correct my form, rather than teaching it whole hog.

On the walk home last night, which, because I forgot a key ended up being about an hour of walking and 20 minutes of biking, I was considering the 100 day Burpee challenge. I failed out of it early on when I couldn't so much as walk for 10 days without pain. It is now day 80 and people have gotten much stronger and better at burpees, but are complaining of repetitive stress injury and lack of recovery. With the idea of using the constant working of an exercise, I modified the challenge and have developed a my own, using pushups.

So, today will be the first day of the 10,000 Pushup challenge. Rules are simple: Do 10K pushups in as few days as possible while avoiding injury. No limit or quota for each day. Just get them done. Pushups done as part of a WoD count and I will endeavor to keep a counter at the bottom of each post to track how many have been completed. Should be fun.

Pushups completed: 0

Z-Health Seminar, Back Squats and Running Cert

Well, just like my mom told me as a kid, if you run in the rain, chances are, you will get sick. Sure enough, I am feeling a little under the weather. However, I did make it out to the free Z-Health seminar at the Box last night. It was a really cool presentation by the guy who developed the systems and he showed us some basic movements to open joints in the foot and spine that really helped my ability to stretch. Have to really try it out and see how it works in practice.

Today was 5X5 back squats, but after the seminar last night that consisted mostly of "form first" commandments, I decided to just go light and see how my body felt. The stretching helped and I feel much better now (but for the cold).

Also signed up for a CF Running and Endurance Cert in Topsfield Mass in November. Excited about this as it should be a good chance to really learn POSE and learn how to teach others about it. Should also be a fun weekend away and Melissa is coming with me for a chance to visit Boston.

Urbanathlon!!!

Finally, the best race of the year came up. With a start time of 7 am, I got up at 4:30 ready to get going and more than a little nervous. I had committed to cutting 10 minutes off my time from last year before really thinking about what that meant. After breaking down the times, it looked like I would have to run consistent 7 minute miles, hit the obstacles hard and still finish climbing and descending a 52 story building in less than 17 minutes.

The race started poorly, with fog, light rain and tight calves. The wet course slowed everybody down and lead to one incautious racer to fall and then tumble down a set of stone steps right in front of me. Finished the first set of obstacles without problem, but breathe was hard and erratic. The middle leg was the hardest, as I just felt outclassed in terms of actual running ability. If this wasn't a wake up call to get off my ass and learn POSE, I don't know what is. The low crawl, monkey bars and marine hurdles were fine, but I couldn't wait to end the distance running and hit the stairs. It was here that I knew I would shine and pick up some spots.

Sure enough, people started gassing around floor 30, allowing me to pass 15-20 people in the building. A hard mile run to the end, quick jump over the taxi and wall climb and the race was over.

Best part, I finished 24th out of ~950 individual runners with a time of 1:12:31, almost exactly ten minutes faster. Even with terrible run form, I picked up the time, pushed hard and made it happen. It was awesome!

Snatches and Shovels

Isabel (30 Snatches for time) was yesterday. I am still not comfortable with Snatches, so I did ~40 snatches @ 65 to practice form. Still not confident, but better.

Today was virtual shoveling and pushups. This is essentially an Olympic bar with a 45 pound weight on only one end. The athlete lifts the weight (no just bar) over an object of a certain height, here 24”. Workout was 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 of shovels and pushups. One rep of shoveling is touching both sides of the obstacle. My time was around 16 minutes, but I wasn’t into it. Just dragging ass worrying about work. Got to get back in the game, especially for the race this weekend.

The Weekend (5K)

Less than a week to go before the Urbanathlon. Still feeling Michael in my hamstrings and doing a lot of stretching to relieve that. As a pacing run, I did a 5K on Friday at the McCarren track. First time running a 5K on a track, especially one filled with the children of intermural soccer players. Good pacing for the upcoming race, as I got a feel for a 6:15 mile, 7 min mile and 8 min mile. Did a warm up mile, run to track (.75 mile), 5K in 21:02, run back to Box, run home (2.5 mi.). Felt good to go middle distance, even if it was broken up.

Saturday was spent studying for my PADI Open water diving cert (SCUBA) with some other BS. Also bought new training shoes, which pissed me off to spend $60, but I will use them a lot. Sunday was a 15 mile bike ride and hanging out with friends. Good stuff and I am ready to begin the taper this week to the race. Crossing fingers for good weather.

The Chief and more Stairs

Two WoDs yesterday. Lunchtime at the Manhattan Box, made up the Chief, which is:
5 intervals, each interval is As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 3 minutes of:

3 115# power cleans
6 push ups
9 squats

Hit my mark of 4 rounds in each interval, although just barely making the last interval by a couple of seconds. Didn’t realize how tough it would be going from squats to power cleans.

That night, I stayed late at the office and did a modified Crossfit Endurance WoD on the stairs.

3 rounds of 20 seconds on/20 off, 30 on/30 off, 45/45. 60 on. The rest periods were pure rest, the end of each round was an immediate descent to the bottom at the fastest safe speed. As soon as I hit the bottom, the next round started.

Climbed 24 stories, 25, 25.5 in the three rounds. Not bad, but will have to do better at the Urbanathlon. Really looking forward to a race where my friends and family can be there to cheer me on and celebrate the finish. Should be a great time.

Michael (again)

Well, for the third time this summer, we ended up with Michael, which is:
3 rounds for time of:
800m run
50 back extensions (sub 45# good mornings)
50 sit ups

I pulled in 17:32, which is a PR, but only by 12 seconds (17:44), not the almost a minute that I thought it was (the PR before that was 18:26, so that would have been correct). Sit ups were unbroken and GMs only had a total of three breaks, all of them two breathes long. Looks like the running is where I am going to make the improvement. Hopefully enough to pull it sub 17. My end goal being a 15 min, with each run taking an average of 3 minutes and each other exercise taking 1 minute. Considering that my 800 best in high school was in the 2:20s, that is probably a pretty tough goal, but still one to reach for. Also, if we ever do get a GHD, I could finally do the actual back extension and have a real time for this. I am curious how much that would add.