I don't think I've ever done a workout at CrossFit Palo Alto that hasn't been scored -- until today.
Here's what we did:
4 rounds of:
3 minutes to complete a 12-calorie row, 10 overhead kettlebell swings, and 10 ring dips; and
3 minutes to complete a 12-calorie row, 10 wallballs (I did thrusters instead), and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups.
The faster you crank 'em out, the more rest you get before the 3 minutes are up. And going balls-to-the-wall obviously yields a more intense interval workout. But after the first couple of rounds of this 24-minute workout, I finally figured out that it probably made more sense to pace myself, and to strike a better balance between speed and form. Knowing there was no score to target made it easier for me to focus on what I was doing.
But to be honest, I was still trying my damnedest to finish as fast as possible.
I still can't put any weight on my flexed wrist, which has put me in a sour mood. It's been more than a little frustrating; I can't even lift the strap of my work bag over my shoulder without discomfort, let alone clean a barbell up to my shoulders. I've done what I can to keep pressure off my wrist -- recovery requires rest -- but I'm also determined to keep going to the gym. After all, just because I can't perform certain movements right now doesn't mean there aren't a host of other things I can still do to stay active.
For example, last Friday, while the rest of the class at CrossFit Palo Alto practiced barbell cleans, I worked on bottoms-up kettlebell cleans. I had to modify the metcon, too. Here's what everyone else did:
21 chest-to-bar pull-ups
15 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
Run 400 meters
15 chest-to-bar pull-ups
12 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
Run 400 meters
12 chest-to-bar pull-ups
9 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
Run 400 meters
No chest-to-bar pull-ups for me -- too much wrist flexion. Instead, I did chest-to-ring pull-ups, using a set of Olympic rings set high. I didn't have to twist my wrists to get all the way up, though generating any sort of momentum was a challenge. (You can't push off the rings horizontally like you can with a bar to start a big kip.)
Result: 11:36.
I rested on Monday (mostly because I didn't have a babysitter to watch the kids in the morning, but also because everyone at the gym did "Nutts," and I was too damned tired to attempt it in my garage).
On Wednesday, the strength skill was weighted pull-ups. My doctor said that pull-ups are a good exercise for my wrist, so I did 'em, though I didn't load up with as much weight as I did in previous sessions. Better safe than sorry.
The metcon:
4 rounds:
10 overhead squats (95lbs / 65lbs)
12 hang power cleans
14 lateral bar jumps
No barbell for me. In place of the overhead squats and hang power cleans, I did single-arm overhead squats with a kettlebell, and double-kettlebell cleans. It bugs me that I can't do the same workout as my fellow 5 a.m. nutjobs. It's weird how much I miss being able to just grab a barbell and clean it. Yet at the same time, I was happy to be able to join the gang in doing something -- and feeling just as exhausted and sweaty as I normally do after one of our workouts. The kettlebell OHSs and cleans were surprisingly good approximations of their barbell analogs, and I enjoyed a fine, ass-kicking workout without exacerbating my wrist injury. Win-win, right?
I woke up achy and cranky. After spending two days moving back into our house, I probably should've slept in, but didn't.
Strength Skill:
Kettlebell Clean & Press (5-5-5-5-5)
Wow. I think I'm in love. From what I can tell, kettlebell cleans and presses -- done correctly -- are incredibly efficient (and effective) at developing power, strength, and coordination. Starting with your feet about hip-width apart and a kettlebell on the floor, you grip the handle with one hand, flexing your hips, knees, and ankles, and then use your legs to drive the kettlebell up to rack position in a straight line. "It's like zipping up your jacket," Tim cued us. With our core and lats engaged and elbows down and in, we were able to quickly and forcefully transfer the kettlebell up to a rack position before pressing it up into the sky.
Twenty-five reps with each arm were enough to get me toasty this morning, but I'd like to work this movement into my home workouts. They were fun, and deliver huge bang for the buck.
Metcon:
3 rounds for time:
10 hang power snatches (135lbs / 95lbs)
15 chest-to-bar pull-ups
20 box jumps (24" / 20")
I scaled today's workout way down, snatching just 75 pounds and -- in light of my problematic left Achilles -- doing step-ups instead of box jumps. I could do the chest-to-bar pull-ups as RXed, but by the tail end of the workout, I had to bust them out one at a time. I can't imagine how long it would've taken me to finish the WOD if I'd gone heavier with the snatches and/or actually did some jumping.
Result: 10:11.
On another note: As of today, the Nom Nom Paleo app has been available in the App Store for two months -- and it remains one of the top paid Lifestyle iPad apps! As of this moment, it's in the number 10 spot:
You can read more about the app here (and you can download it here), but for those of you who are interested in the backstory, I'm working on a series of blog posts about how Michelle and I created the app, from the inception of the idea and recipe development to working with a team of programmers and all the unexpected post-launch drama. Stay tuned...
I wrote about the history of the "Health Lift" yesterday, and lo and behold, deadlifts were on today's menu. I must be psychic.
Although I still harbor a bit of skittishness stemming from my back issues, I really enjoy deadlifts. I love the straightforwardness of the movement: Load your hammies, tighten your midsection, grab a heavy barbell, and stand up with it.
After a couple of sets, I took of my shoes and did the rest barefoot. I find that as I add more weight to my lifts, my knees tend to cave inward instead of bracing outward, and going shoeless helped remind me to push off my heels and avoid shifting my weight towards my instep. It worked, and I managed to keep my knees from buckling in.
It's weird to reflect on how much joy I derive from little things like that.
Metcon:
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
10 Games-standard push-ups
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
9 Games-standard push-ups
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
8 Games-standard push-ups
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
7 Games-standard push-ups
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
6 Games-standard push-ups
5 chest-to-bar pull-ups
5 Games-standard push-ups
4 chest-to-bar pull-ups
4 Games-standard push-ups
3 chest-to-bar pull-ups
3 Games-standard push-ups
2 chest-to-bar pull-ups
2 Games-standard push-ups
1 chest-to-bar pull-ups
1 Games-standard push-ups
Stupidly, at the beginning, I thought this workout was going to be too easy. After all, I love fast bodyweight workouts. I ended up cranking through the first two rounds of chest-to-bar pull-ups uninterrupted, and gutting out all the push-ups without taking any mid-set breaks.
Still, there's a world of difference between pull-ups and chest-to-bar pull-ups, and between push-ups and Games-standard push-ups. The delta may be a matter of just a few inches, but those few inches are murder. Sweet, sweet murder.
No, this isn't about crunchy milk chocolate candy bars.
Years ago, when I was still working at a law firm, one of my clients was a company that developed video games. They introduced me to the concept of "crunch time" -- a concentrated period of endless work and sleepless nights immediately prior to the launch of a new product. Workers essentially sleep at the office for days on end, subsisting on stale junk food and cleaning themselves with baby wipes. Yum.
I'm sort of in that mode right now. My days are crammed with meetings and the responsibilities of my "real" job -- i.e., the one that pays -- while my nights are spent pounding away at the final phase of the Nom Nom Paleo app. Whoever said that the last 10 percent of a project takes 90 percent of the effort wasn't kidding. Every time we think we're done and we can finally get a decent night's sleep, we discover another pending issue or task. Even after the app itself is ready to go (and we're so, so close now -- just hours away from giving it the final sign-off), we have a crapload of work to do to get ready for the launch. I've spent every spare minute of the past three days working on a demo video of the app, for example. (You'll see it soon, I'm sure.) And we still need to finalize the web page for the app, and get our marketing materials in order.
I am pooped.
I missed the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto last Friday because we were up late dialoguing with our development team. But today, I was determined to get into the gym. And I'm glad I did, because it was a good one.
Strength Skill:
Cleans (3-3-3-1-1)
I still need practice, but my cleans are feeling stronger. I'm cleaning more than my bodyweight now, and think I have more in me. And I like the sensation of sticking an explosive, solid clean. If I can free up some time at home (ha!), maybe I can sneak in more sets in the garage during the week.
Metcon:
AMRAP in 10 minutes:
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
2 badger crawl laps
Chest-to-bar pull-ups are self-explanatory. As for the badger crawl laps, we basically got down on our hands and feet and scurried across the length of the gym and back for each lap. I like badger crawls -- in small doses. But after a few laps, they're murder on the shoulders and wrists.
I blazed through the first round, cranking out a set of unbroken pull-ups and racing around the gym on all fours. But by the third round, I had hit a wall with my chest-to-bar pull-ups, and couldn't string more than three or four together at a time. By the fifth round, I had to wind up with a huge kip in order to touch my chest to the bar.
Result: 6 rounds + 3 reps as RXed. It was ugly, but it was awesome.
The CrossFit Palo Alto community's been doing the Open workouts together every Saturday at 1 p.m., but Big-O's Little League season opener was scheduled for the same time. And although I've thoroughly somewhat enjoyed getting my butt handed to me by the Open WODs, I have my priorities straight. (Usually.)
So yesterday, after packing down a big bacon, spinach, and mushroom scramble and a couple of cups of coffee, I packed the kids in the car, and got ready to watch a bunch of first- and second-graders slide around a muddy field for a couple of hours. (It had been raining, but according to the city's Little League rainout hotline, the games would go on as scheduled.)
But of course, the game was canceled by the coaches upon our arrival. I don't think anyone wanted to spend an afternoon in the rain.
So I turned the car around and drove to the gym to watch people do 12.5. But when I got there, I knew there was no way I could resist joining the fun, even though I was dressed in a button-down shirt and a pair of slacks. Thankfully, I keep a pair of Oly shoes at the gym and a do-rag in the car. I rolled up the cuffs of my pants, took off my button-down, pulled on my lifting shoes, and threw my lucky sweat rag on my head.
I was ready to go.
Result: 64 reps. In other words, I'm still terrible at this. I took too many breaks, I'm still way too weak, and I completely lost my chest-to-bar pull-ups by the end. But with minimal warm-up, a churning stomach full of food, and a pair of dry-clean-only pants on, I managed to beat my score from last year by a few reps. Progress!
(Honestly, I'm just happy I didn't vomit all over the barbell.)
Sorry I've been M.I.A. -- we're down in Austin for the inaugural PaleoFX conference (a.k.a., the Gathering of the Paleos), and our schedules have been jam-packed.
Clad in Nom Nom Paleo socks, about most of our house's residents -- plus George of Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations -- visited CrossFit Austin today. The box is just five minutes from our house, so even though we got a late start to the day, we managed to hustle over there for the noon class.
I've been under the weather for a couple of days, so I wasn't feeling super-awesome as we pulled up to the gym. But I was hoping a good workout would knock the cold right out of me.
After a directed warm-up (very similar to what we do at CrossFit Palo Alto, down to the lunges and punter-kicks), we got down to business.
Skills Practice:
Kipping Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
Ring Push-ups (3 sets of 10, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
Lateral Step-ups (3 sets of 5 per leg, with 45 seconds of rest in-between)
These were fun. I enjoy the rhythmic motion of kipping pull-ups, and chest-to-bar pull-ups were a nice change of pace. The lateral step-ups and push-ups were a pleasant way to knock some rust off, too.
But then came the metcon workout.
Metcon:
2-3 Person Team Workout - 20 Minute AMRAP of:
500-meter row
200-meter farmer's walk (55lb / 35lb in each hand)
Sumo Complex: 10 sumo deadlifts and 10 sumo back squats (135lb / 95lb)
In this workout, each person starts at a different station, and you can move onto the next station only after your teammate has finished that movement. I was on a team with George and Spence -- two incredibly strong guys -- so my only goal today was to avoid slowing them down...too much.
I started with the sumo complex, and had Spence on standby in case I couldn't hoist the 135-pound barbell over my head and onto my back. But I managed to get through all the squats, deadlifts, and the rowing without too much trouble.
The farmer's carry, on the other hand, was rough. We carried 55 pounds in each hand, and it felt like our wrists were going to explode. Here's Diane, expressing how all of us felt:
I managed to get two-thirds of the way through my third round. Spence and George got through three rounds each, so we ended with a score of 8 -- almost 9! -- full rounds as RXed.
We were pretty wiped by the end of the hour, but still had enough energy to pose for photos.
And one of us (*cough*Diane*cough*) had enough left in the tank to climb a rope using just her arms.
[Note: The crappy photos above are mine; the good ones are by Bobby Gill]
I know you've been waiting with bated breath, so before I conk out, here's a quick recap of today's WOD.
Strength Skill:
Strict Pull-ups (5-5-5)
Kipping Pull-ups (10-10-10)
I enjoy pull-ups, so this was a pleasant way to start the morning. At Tim's suggestion, I finished by practicing some chest-to-bar pull-ups. They felt a little awkward at first, but got a lot easier once I wrapped my thumbs around the top of the bar.
Metcon:
2 rounds for time:
22 see-saw presses (45lbs / 30lbs)
Run 400 meters
22 box jumps (24" / 20")
Run 400 meters
Back when we last did this workout in August, I wrote that 35-pound dumbbells were too light for me. So today, I hoisted a pair of 40-pound dumbbells -- and ended up finishing almost two minutes slower than I did a few months ago.
It may seem crazy that M and I got up before the crack of dawn -- WHILE ON VACATION -- to get ready for the 6 a.m. class at Kauai CrossFit this morning. But hey: 6 a.m. in Hawaii is 9 a.m. in California, so we actually got to sleep in. Besides, how could we possibly pass up a chance to WOD in paradise?
Open since last October, Kauai CrossFit is the only affiliate on the island. Owned and run by Jerome Hromiak, a recent transplant from the Bay Area, the gym has physical features resembling that of San Francisco CrossFit (which makes sense when you consider that Jerome was introduced to CrossFit by Kelly Starrett). Members exercise under a large waterproof tent and a wooden pull-up structure that offers some extra protection from the rain -- but otherwise wide-open to the sea breeze and sunshine. It's perfect, given the jaw-dropping tropical setting.
We showed up a few minutes before 6 a.m. to sign some waivers and learn a bit more about the gym and its programming. Since February, Kauai CrossFit has followed the workouts posted on CrossFit.com, though the WODs aren't necessarily done concurrently with the Main Site. And, of course, Main Site WODs tend to lean towards long metcon beat-downs -- something we do at CrossFit Palo Alto only one-quarter of the time. "People here like the 30 to 60 minute metcons," Jerome said. Holy hell.
And just to drive home the point, he warned us (with a smile!): "We have a really hard one planned for today."
But first, he led the eight early birds in the 6 a.m. class through a directed warm-up, and then three rounds of:
But honestly, I knew nothing of the context when the WOD began. I just knew I wanted to survive the damned thing. Even at six in the morning, the air was moist and warm. Rain had soaked everything around us, and as I loaded my barbell with plates, I started getting worried.
And in fact, it took a while to get through this one -- not because it was technically challenging (aside from the overhead squats), but because there was a ton of stuff to complete, and a lot of running, too. I had little-to-no difficulty with the deadlifts (though I scaled the weight down to 225 pounds), kettlebell swings, burpees or chest-to-bar pull-ups, and the first few 400-meter runs felt good. (Probably because I was so dazzled by the view from the running path.) The overhead squats were a killer, but at least they came fairly early in the WOD. I was proud of myself for snatching the barbell overhead, even though I'd scaled the weight down to 95 pounds.
It wasn't until the last two rounds that I really hit the wall. Box jumps at 24 inches are typically one of my favorites because I can whip through them quickly. Today, though, I was slow as molasses -- and even took a tumble off the rain-slicked surface. The dumbbell squat cleans seemed impossibly heavy. And my ragged running looked more like stumbling -- though whenever I felt tired, I just stared out at the blue of the Pacific and imagined I was stretching out on a beach towel instead of hustling back to the box to lift more heavy stuff.
Result: 30:12. Seemed like a lot longer, but I had it better than M, who -- because she didn't have her contacts in -- didn't see that the WOD kept going after the burpees. I'm sure she silently mouthed some expletives before powering through the rest of the workout.
The folks we met this morning were pretty kick-ass. They're clearly used to regularly grinding out long metcons, and all of them tackled the Lumberjack 20 with an unbelievably cheery, can-do attitude. For the first three rounds, I did my best to keep up with the leader of the pack. While we ran, she shared with me that she's currently recovering from knee surgery -- but by the end of the WOD, she'd lapped me. In fact, the thing that impressed me most was everyone's running prowess; even after over a hundred reps of fairly heavy lifts, these folks could still hustle like jackrabbits.
During the WOD, Jerome calmly walked around, helping us strip our bars to transition from deadlifts to overhead squats, and helping folks with squat clean technique. Even with all the clanking bumper plates and grunting CrossFitters around him, Jerome maintained a friendly, low-key approach that's perfectly matched to the environment.
As M and I gobbled down our post-workout purple sweet potatoes, we agreed that a good butt-kicking was the perfect way to start a morning on Kauai. To be frank, though, I don't think I could handle a bunch of Hero WODs three times a week on an ongoing basis. I think my head would explode and the cortisol would erupt like a volcano from the top of my neck-stump and slowly ooze down the front of my shirt, mixing with the briny sweat and blood. I can't help but have mad respect for the members of Kauai CrossFit, who throw down like this regularly.
In January, my cousin D asked to borrow my dog-eared copy of the P90X Nutrition Guide. "Sure,” I replied, “but I’m not a fan of it - especially now that I’ve gone Paleo.” I directed her to M’s food porn site, too, but didn’t figure D would go for the caveman diet. After all, we were raised on rice and noodles. She wouldn't give it up these staples based on our inane ramblings, right?
But here we are, three months later, and D’s not only thrown herself into Paleo eating with gusto, but she’s also dumped P90X for CrossFit. Oh yeah -- she’s also launched a Paleo food blog with an emphasis on Asian recipes. How’s that for jumping into the deep end of the pool?
D -- a.k.a. Fit Daffy -- is now a regular at Mad Dawg Fitness in Redwood City, but dropped in for our 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto this morning. She picked a good day to visit.
Strength Skill:
Weighted Ring Dips (2 sets of 5, 3 sets of 3)
I love these. I didn’t even try to load up with the same amount of weight that I did back in December, but I’m looking forward to a new PR attempt by the end of this cycle.
The chest-to-bar pull-ups did me in, along with my inability to count to 9. It wasn't hard getting my chest to touch the bar, but I had difficulty finding a kipping rhythm, and ended up muscling myself up instead of using my momentum. Worst of all: At one point, I hopped off the bar and trotted over to my barbell before realizing that I’d miscounted. I was supposed to do 9 pull-ups, but had only done 7 (‘cause 7 comes after 6, right?). “Aw, crap,” I groaned. I turned around and stumbled back to the pull-up bar to crank out two more.
Result: 60 reps as RXed. I finished the round of 12 thrusters and pull-ups, but time ran out before I could clean the bar up again. The frustrating thing is that I know I can do better. (Not by much, but still.)
After our workout, the A-Team arrived to show us how it’s done. Tim, Maddie, Blake and Sean wrestled 11.6 to the ground and then beat it senseless. It looked awesome and miserable and glorious, all at the same time.
