Mediocre Runners

Here’s what I’m shooting for for Labor Day week.

M, Tu, Th, F – CrossFit

Tu, Th, Sat – CF Endurance supplemental

This schedule gives me 2 days of complete rest, 2 double-ups, 2 Dedicated CF workouts, and 1 day of dedicated CFE.  Brutal, but it’s go time!

I just finished a mediocre Jackie and realized I did 4 workouts of the day this week. I usually shoot for five workouts a week and tend to get three in, so this is sort of a big deal.  I just notice there were a lot of metabolic conditioning with thrusters and pullups this week, so maybe next week I will focus on some more strength and heavy weights.

Jackie was a tough one, especially since I smashed my nose with the knurled part of the bar during the thrusters.  At least I didn’t get a bloody nose.  I almost did this one as RX’d, but just couldn’t power through the pullups. I got about 15 done in the beginning, hit the pullup assist for about 8, did a couple more unassisted and then finished on the machine. So here’s the breakdown:

Jackie: 16:08
Row 1000 (4:04)
50 reps 45 lbs Thrusters
30 Pullups (half with 85lbs assist)

My other WODs this week:

20090901:

For time:
Row 1000 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 21 reps
4 dead hang Pull-ups
Row 750 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
15 assisted Pull-ups
Row 500 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 9 reps
9 assisted Pull-ups
26:26

20090902:

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 65 pounds
Assisted dips
12:00 minutes or so

20090905: Helen

I did a modified Helen workout yesterday and tweaked my back from a bad kettlebell swing.  But I still have a lot of love for the kettlebells.  By far, my favorite Crossfit exercise is the Kettlebell swing.  Even though I’m still working on my form, I can’t help but have a good time swinging the KBs.  The fun sometimes masks how f-ing hard doing 21 kettlebell swings can be after a 400m spring on the row, especially on the last round.  I hope my back gets better soon so I can swing away soon.

My stats for Helen were mediocre at best.  Keep in mind at the Globo gym, each station is on a different floor.  Also, we have escalators at my gym and people actually just stand there. Isn’t the whole point of the gym to exercise? They are probably on there way to the ellipticals.

• 400 meter row
• 35 Kettlebell swing x 21
• Pull-ups 12 reps (85 lbs assisted)
• 21:08

Jess is running the Rock ‘N Roll half marathon today in Virginia Beach.  Good luck Jess!  We here a MR are wishing you well.

In an effort to get back on track, I’ll post this morning’s WOD and breakfast.  This morning’s WOD was Jackie which consists of

• 1000 meter row
• 45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
• 30 pull-ups

Since I used up my 3x/week CF classes at Crossfit Diesel, I too had to hit up the globo-gym.  This makes times interesting because I not only had to find where to find a barbell for thrusters, but had to wait while some donk finished up on the chest machine so I could do pull-ups.  The first time I did Jackie (on July 17), I finished in 11:28 but used the red assist (lowest assist) band for pull-ups.  Today I finished in 13:33, almost 2 minutes slower, BUUUUT I did it as Rx’d!!!  I love that I can do pull-ups now.  Just a few days ago, I did 15 in a row during the warm-up.  I feel I could have done a few more, but the warm-up only called for 15.

For breakfast, I stopped by our new favorite grocery store and bought some eggs, fresh salsa (only 5 calories!!), and a couple avocados.  I cooked up the eggs with some EVO, mashed up the avocado, and threw some salsa in the mix.  Top it off with a glass of chocolate milk.  Mmm…it was really good, filling, and only 470 calories for everything.  Remember, chocolate milk is the new sports drink!

I’ll top this off this evening with a CFE WOD.  Not sure what I’ll do, but I’m sure it’ll kick my butt!

Today’s run was amazing. I don’t know if it was the fact that I haven’t worked out in about five days or the combination of sun, breeze, and lack of humidity, but I pumped out 6 miles wayyy faster than I have ever run at any point this past summer. I am in the final phase of training for the VA Beach 1/2 Marathon, which is this Sunday, and today was a big boost to feeling ready for the race. I felt so awesome today that at the end of the run, I sprinted to my gym and finished it up with a 15 min. abs class. In other news, looking forward to joining these two mediocre gentlemen in their CrossFit journey. Post-race I’m going to get a membership at a CrossFit gym and start training for a FULL marathon in Dec. More on that soon, gotta pull together these goals in a coherent fashion.

I completed my first WOD at the local globo-gym.  I recently cancelled my membership at the local CF box and have begun my experiment in CFing on my own.  So today’s globo-gym WOD was:

Warm up: 10 minutes on the elliptical

10 sets each of bicep curls, lat pulldowns, and  tricep presses.

Just kidding! I did an honest to goodness CF WOD there and it was a breeze despite the personal trainers and towel service.  The WOD was as follows:

5 Rounds for time:
Row 250m :56. :56, :57, :56, :58. 1 min rest between rounds
Rest 5 minutes
“Tabata Mash-up”
4 Alternating rounds of each exercise:
Push-ups
Situps

I’m pretty sure I was supposed to do 8 alternating rounds rather than 8 rounds total. My high for the pushups was 19 and my low was 13.  For the situps I did a consistent and mediocre 10. Cool down is typing the post with a very warm cat on my lap nibbling my arms.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

Pretty well said.  I think that’s about what we here at MR would like to do?  But how can we adapt this motto to fit MR even more?

And the Gods of Crossfit will probably curse me for it.

But I have an explanation. It was getting very hard to commit to the schedule at my local box.  I was finding it harder and harder to show up in Clarendon for a pre-scheduled WOD. I also never really clicked with the crowd there, especially the dudes in brown flip-flops “teaching” POSE running techniques.  I will maybe try to fit in a few more WODs over there before the end of the month. I am also going to a what I hope is a real POSE seminar at the box this weekend.

So why the globo-gym? The fact that it is across the street really helps.  Also, their training philosophy is pretty sound to my mediocre mind.  The foundation of their regimen is good nutrition, followed by an emphasis on general cardio, then strength training.  This is topped off by stretching and recovery techniques. I doubt I will ever do personal training with them. Their general philosophy is something I can agree with.

My goal with the globo-gym is to try CF-style workouts in a mainstream gym setting. I may also take a few yoga classes here and there to improve my flexibility.  I’m scheduled for a fitness “assessment” with a trainer on Saturday. I’ll let all you MR fanatics know what that is like.

Are we cool here at MR?  Well of course not!  What about crossfit?  Is that cool?  Well don’t take our word for it, take a look at what a very popular celebrity thinks.  I know I voted for her, twice!