Monday's Workout

On top of a weekend packed with kid-oriented activities (two Halloween parties, a martial arts class, soccer practice), I spent hours decorating the front of our house, putting up cobwebs, skeletons, torn plastic sheeting, fog, sound effects and spot lighting. It was exhausting, but our neighborhood trick-or-treaters should have awesome nightmares for weeks to come. (Our kids? Not so much. "Scarier, dad. Make it scarier! Add a mummy with hair. It's not scary enough!")

After a festive night of watching baseball and scaring small children, I didn't really feel like getting up at 4:20 a.m. to go exercise. But I did it anyway, because I knew I'd kick myself later if I skipped class.

Strength Skill:

• Cleans (3 sets of 3, followed by 3 sets of 1)

I don't mind doing cleans when the barbells are relatively light, but once it creeps up to my bodyweight (135-140 pounds), I start to struggle a bit. I need to work on developing a quicker, more explosive hip drive to help me get the bar up to rack position.

Metcon:

• Run 200 meters
• 50 plyo box jumps
• 40 overhead kettlebell swings (using a 53-pound kettlebell)
• 30 burpees
• 20 dumbbell shoulder-to-overheads (using a pair of 35-pound dumbbells)

I was fine until the burpees. Normally, I can fly through 'em, but not today -- especially not after doing all those jumps and swings. And the shoulder-to-overheads were much more challenging than I anticipated; post-burpees, I struggled to get my shoulders to do what I wanted them to.

Result: 9:37. Not terrible, but I know I can do better.