Friday's Workout: Feeling Chipper?

A long chipper today -- and I almost managed to complete it as RXed. But almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and not CrossFit.

For time:

• 100 air squats
• 80 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 60 walking lunges holding a bumper plate overhead (45lbs / 35lbs)
• 40 toes to bar
• 20 headless horsemen - a variation on kettlebell palm presses) (24kg / 16kg)

The air squats felt fantastic. I got through all of them unbroken, and quickly transitioned to the kettlebell swings.

The swings felt a little less awesome. Swinging the 24-kilogram kettlebell, I managed to only get through 25 reps before having to take a breather. After that, I didn't manage more than 15 swings in a row before having to set down the kettlebell and wheeze.

The walking lunges were exhausting. After the squats and swings, my legs were like jelly, and my brain turned to mush, too. I was keeping track of my lunges by counting backwards from 60, and with 12 left, Tim asked me which rep I was on. I tried to do the math in my head: 60 - 12 = ?

"51," I sputtered. "Uh, wait, no -- um, 48?"

The toes-to-bar weren't horrible, but then came the headless horsemen. I'd performed this movement in a WOD once before, back when I had a bad back. I didn't try the RXed weight of 24 kilograms that time, and I didn't think I could do so today -- especially after fifteen minutes of an ass-kicking chipper. On the other hand, all that stood between me and the completion of an RXed workout was 20 one-armed ground-to-overheads. How hard could that be?

Pretty hard, it turns out. I couldn't do it. After several attempts, I think I managed just one completed rep at 24 kilograms with my right arm, but I used my left hand to support the handle of the kettlebell. Clearly, the quest for RX today was going to be futile, so I traded in my kettlebell for a lighter one (I had a 16 kilogram kettlebell on standby) and finished the WOD. So close, and yet so far.

Result: 18:49.

Monday's Workout: Filthy

I showed up to class a few minutes before 5 a.m. Tim was already at the whiteboard, writing out today's workout.

I exchanged sleepy hellos with The Marine and the Terminator, and started stretching. One by one, the others arrived, and the low hum of morning conversation filled the gym. But Tim was noticeably silent. I looked over at the board.

He was still writing.

"You can put the pen down anytime," I yelled out. He laughed and kept scribbling.

For time:

• 50 box jumps (24"/20")
• 50 jumping pull-ups
• 50 overhead kettlebell swings (35lbs/26lbs)
• 50 walking lunges
• 50 knees-to-elbows
• 50 push-presses (45lbs/35lbs)
• 50 supermans/back extensions
• 50 wallball shots (20lbs/14lbs)
• 50 burpees
• 50 double-unders

When Muscle & Fitness profiled CrossFit a few years back, it filmed Andy Petranek’s CrossFit L.A. crew doing “The Filthy Fifty,” and described it this way:

Ten up-tempo exercises, each more demanding than the one before it, each requiring 50 near-perfect repetitions. Today, Petranek leads the way and finishes in 20:43 -- besting his previous record on this by nearly eight minutes -- then crumples to the floor struggling to catch his breath.

Yeah, these long metcons are kind of crazy -- but they're also sadistic fun. Once you throw yourself into the workout, the trepidation and pain disappears, and you end up focusing like a laser only on the immediate task at hand. In a way, it's kind of zen. Only sweatier.

I'm not saying I killed this workout. My knees-to-elbows were slow (I desperately need to work on my grip strength) and the wallball shots took forever. By the time I had to launch into my set of 50 burpees, I found that I couldn't string more than four or five together at a time.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed just about everything else that "The Filthy Fifty" had to throw at us. There's nothing like starting a morning flat on your back, making sweat angels on the gym floor and laughing about the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Result: 29:37 as RXed.

Child's Play

When your kindergartner complains that he's bored, what he really means to say is that he wants to do a long chipper in the garage.



Can you tell I'm a proud dad?

[Link]

(Crossposted from The Five Tribe)

Saturday's Workout

Chipper time! I'm going to call this one "2010":

• Pull-Ups: 20 reps
• Barbell Thrusters: 10 reps
• Single-Arm Kettlebell Swings: 20 reps
• Ring Dips: 10 reps
• Ring Rows: 20 reps
• Medicine Ball Cleans: 20 pounds, 10 reps
• Plyo Box Jumps: 24" box, 20 reps
• Barbell Hang Clean & Press: 10 reps
• Push-Ups: 20 reps
• Renegade Rows: 10 reps per arm
• Sit-Ups: 20 reps
• Hanging Knees-to-Elbows: 10 reps
• Row: 500 meters

I was going to make it a 2000-meter row, but I think I would have collapsed and expired. And even with just a 500-meter row, this workout took me a whopping 17:45 to finish. 

Thursday's Workout

I wanted to put my CrossFit toys to good use (without killing myself in advance of tomorrow's workout), so I did a little bit of everything I could think of, and put together this mini-Chipper:

• Jump Rope: 3 minutes
• Kettlebell Snatches: 1 pood, 10 reps per arm
• Jumping Muscle-Ups: 3 reps
• Ring Dips: 10 reps
• Medicine Ball Cleans: 20 pounds, 10 reps
• Dead Hang Pull-Ups: 5 reps
• Wallball Throws: 20 pounds, 8-foot-high target, 10 reps
• Barbell Thrusters: 10 reps
• Plyo Box Jumps: 24" box, 10 reps
• Push-Ups: 20 reps
• Ring Rows: 20 reps
• Air Squats: 50 reps
• Kipping Pull-Ups: 10 reps
• Abmat Sit-Ups: 30 reps
• Barbell Hang Clean & Press: 10 reps
• Renegade Rows: 10 reps per arm
• Hanging Knees-to-Elbows: 10 reps
• Row: 500 meters