Monday, May 9, 2011

Monday's Workout: Flock of Seagulls


To make sure I didn't kick off the week with another set of penalty burpees, I arrived at the gym a few minutes early this morning. But I wasn't the only eager beaver. As I got out of my car, our two favorite CrossFitting Marines pulled into the space next to me. And the Terminator was already inside the box, stretching. All in all, a dozen sleepy souls made it to CrossFit Palo Alto at 5 a.m. to shake off the weekend cobwebs.

Strength Skill:
  • Jerks (2 sets of 3, 3 sets of 1)
I maxed out with a jerk just slightly (ten pounds) above my bodyweight. Unfortunately, I still had two more single (max) rep sets to go. Adding more weight didn't seem to do much, though, except bruise my ego and make loud noises when I was forced to dump the bar each time. Still: I hit my goal for this cycle -- and notched a new PR to boot.

After the jump: Monday's metcon, and some barf.


Metcon:

A fun one.

5 rounds for time:
  • 5 deadlifts (275lbs/185lbs)
  • 10 knees-to-elbows
  • 15 box jumps
Being similarly matched in terms of strength, three of us -- me, Kyle, and the Recon Marine -- have started consulting with each other about the proper weight to use before each metcon. For today's WOD, we collectively decided to scale down to 225 pounds (about 1.6X my bodyweight) for our deadlifts. It seemed heavy enough to pose a challenge in the WOD, while not killing us in the process.

Everybody shot right out of the gate. In front of me, XFitMama -- almost eight months pregnant now -- was the first to finish her set of deadlifts and start her knees-to-elbows. The Recon Marine, too, was on the bars in a flash. I struggled a bit with the deadlifts, and it took me a while to find a rhythm with the knees-to-elbows, but as usual, I made up time with the box jumps.

I got through the first three rounds at a decent clip. But at the start of the fourth round, I hit a wall, and started dumping the bar at the top of each deadlift. "STOP DROPPING THE BAR!" Tim shouted from across the room. Busted.

Result: 9:13. Five rounds was perfect: Enough to start punching you in the gut a little, but not so much that you end up puking all over the floor.

Speaking of vomit, I wanted to share with you something that only a handful of us post-workout caffeine junkies got to see while on our way to Starbucks in the wee hours of the morning: Seagulls in a parking lot, breakfasting on someone's regurgitated Sunday night dinner.


Morning is such a special, special time.