Gone Fishin'

I came down with a cold on Sunday, but with a steady infusion of bone broth and a couple of long stretches of sleep, I got (mostly) better in record time. This morning, when the alarm went off, I was ready to go.

After a relatively long break from the gym, it felt good to be back -- and it was also a relief to learn that the workout wasn't a grinder, but rather a skills-focused session that brought us back to basics.

Post-warmup, we worked on handstand holds and hollow rocks. Specifically:

8 rounds of:

• 20 seconds handstand hold
• 10 seconds rest
• 20 seconds hollow rock
• 10 seconds rest

Ow. I'm kind of terrible at hollow rocks. I'm no Carl Paoli, sadly.

Next up:

Kettlebell swing practice, followed by band-resisted kettlebell swings. Band-resisted swings look like this:


Amazingly, once the bands were removed and we did regular old swings again, the kettlebell felt like it was floating up in the air. Seriously: FLOATING -- almost like there were enormous helium balloons attached to the bottom of the kettlebell.

Last but not least, we pulled out the ergs and played some Fish Game.

I'm not very good at Fish Game, but when I play, I forget that I'm rowing. And that's a very, very good thing. I got a score of 795, which is a new high score for me.

Naturally, I went and rang the gym's PR bell.

Charley Horse 4, PR 0

We had another packed house in the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto today, where we were treated to a variety of gymnastics movements (we practiced tumbling, handstands, ring L-sits, skin-the-cats, etc.) before Tim scrawled on the whiteboard:

• Loooooove 2K row

To paraphrase Tina Turner: "What's LOVE got to do with it?"

After all, I both fear and loathe the erg. There are few workouts I hate as much as this one. Rowing 2000 meters invariably leaves me feeling totally wrecked -- and today was no different. Plus, my track record seems to indicate that I'm getting worse and worse at this towing stuff.

My previous 2K row times? 7:45 (July 2010), 8:04 (October 2010), and 8:07 (July 2011). Suffice it to say, I'm not exactly blazing fast on an erg. In fact, I seem to be getting slower rather than faster -- despite throwing myself fully into the rowing each time.

So it came as a but of a surprise when, for the first three-quarters of today's workout, I was actually feeling decent. The first 500 meters flew by without incident, and the second 500 was bearable. The third 500 was a kick in the pants, but I still had some fuel in the tank. "Just keep that split under 2 minutes," I heard Tim yell from behind me.

But as I entered the home stretch, my feet painfully seized up in cramps. Both arches were on fire. And immediately thereafter, I developed charley horses in both thighs, too. Ah, muscle spasms. Racked with spasming body parts, I forgot all about proper erg technique. My pulls slowed, and my head bobbed back and forth. It was ugly, folks. REALLY ugly.

As soon as I was done, I collapsed on the floor, whipped off my shoes, and tried to stretch and massage out my lactic-acid engorged appendages. I must have stayed on the floor for a good 5 minutes before staggering to my feet.

On the plus side:

• I learned that it takes me approximately 260 strokes to row 2K.

• I got my second-best 2K row time today. I rowed 7:54 today -- 9 seconds off my P.R., but 13 seconds better than my P.W. (Personal Worst).

• I didn't get sick afterwards. (Knock on wood!)

• This probably means we won't have to row 2K again for at least a little while.

I have no idea if what I just wrote makes any sense. Pretty sure I passed out a few times while typing this post tonight. Must...sleep...now...

Monday's Workout: Fat Gripz & PTP

CrossFit Palo Alto's closed for Turkey Week, so for the first time in a long while, I got to play around in my garage with some of my toys. Some of them -- like my Fat Gripz -- have been sitting in a box for a month, waiting for me to get off my ass and try 'em out.

Now that my back's feeling better, I want to work on getting it stronger -- and so my plan is to start doing some low-rep sets of deadlifts and strict presses, mixed with some super-short metcons. Sound familiar?

Yep -- I'm revisiting the Power to the People protocol.

Dallas and Melissa of the Whole9 have a PTP template from their CrossFit 603 days, so I decided to jump right in with their programming for Day One. First up: the "Buy-In":

3 rounds:

• 20-second handstand hold
• 15 Russian kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 10 box jumps (20″)

This was a fun way to kick off the morning and get the blood pumping rushing to my head. Once I was nice and toasty, I was ready for PTP.

Deadlift:

• Warm up: A few reps at a light weight
• Set 1: 60% of 1-rep max, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1 weight, 3-5 reps

Just to keep things interesting, I decided to wrap the Fat Gripz around my barbell -- I figured I might as well work on my grip strength, too. (Yes, I know that some folks say that increasing open-hand grip strength isn't necessarily going to help with support-grip moves like deadlifts or pull-ups, but I'm happy to settle for just generally increasing the strength of my hands.

I had trouble wrapping my thumbs around the width of the Fat Gripz -- my grip felt much more awkward than I expected -- but the starting weight was light, so I managed just fine. We'll see what happens as the weight on the bar starts creeping up.

Press:

• Warm up: A few reps at a light weight
• Set 1: 60% of 1-rep max, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1 weight, 3-5 reps

I used the Fat Gripz on the strict presses, too, though I don't think it made much of a difference. Presses don't rely much on finger strength, so I'll probably skip the Gripz for this movement next time.

Cash Out:

3 rounds for time:

• 30 double-unders
• 15 knees-to-elbows

This sounded easy, but the KTEs rocked my world. I cranked out the double-unders without much trouble, but they wiped me out enough to make the knees-to-elbows a royal pain in the butt. Also, to be consistent, I'd stuck the Fat Gripz on the pull-up bar, too -- and it didn't take me long to start regretting it. Getting a handle on the bar was much more challenging than I anticipated, and my hands kept slipping off. Ugh.

Result: 4:27 as RXed.

I need bigger hands. My teeny little baby hands aren't cutting it.

Monday's Workout

I hate it when my body quits on me.

It's the final week in our strength cycle, and I wanted to join the rest of the 5 a.m. class as they practiced overhead squats today. But thanks to my pulled groin, I still can't properly squat without pain.

Grudgingly, I sat this one out. I certainly don't want to tear up my adductors even more, but being sidelined annoys me to no end. I tried to stay productive by working on my handstand holds this morning, but it wasn't the same.

Thankfully, our metcon today didn't require any squatting:

• "Grace" - 30 clean-and-jerks (135lbs / 95lbs) for time.

After my last encounter with Grace (when I used a too-light 95-pound barbell), I'd promised myself I'd go up to 115 pounds the next time we faced this workout. But I already got a good taste of my stupidity on Friday, so to be safe, I went up only to 105 -- in other words, just a few pounds more than 17-year-old Kallista Pappas clean-and-jerked during the "Heavy Grace" event at the 2008 CrossFit Games.

During the WOD, I felt slightly more tentative and restrained than usual, and babied my right leg more than probably necessary. Still, the power cleans felt good, and my lockouts overhead were strong. I finished in 4:41 -- a half-minute slower than the last time around -- but frankly, I was just happy I got to play.

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

Handstand Push-Ups



These are incredibly (and surprisingly) fun -- even with all the blood rushing to my head and my eyes bulging from their sockets. I've been practicing handstands at home, so incorporating a push-up wasn't too difficult. I'm looking forward to the next couple of Fridays to see if I can (eventually) work my way up to more challenging variations, like doing HSPUs using parallettes or rings:



Metcon:

For time:

• 30 Kettlebell Swings (overhead, using a 53-pound kettlebell)
• 40 Abmat Situps
• 50 Double-Unders
• 40 Abmat Situps
• 30 Kettlebell Swings (as before)

Result: 7:15

The double-unders slowed me down, but I managed to pick up the pace with my situps and swings, and ended up with a fairly decent time. To improve, I'm going to have to spend more time jump-roping. I recently read Buddy Lee's book on jump-rope training, but still need to noodle over how to best incorporate his program into my workouts.

Tuesday's Workout

Power to the People!

• 2 sets of deadlifts
• 2 sets of side presses
• 2 sets of weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

Also:

I did Ab Ripper 200 and the first half of P90X X Stretch. Ah, Tony -- I'd missed your crazy-eyes, helmet-hair and dumb jokes.

Saturday's Workout

M and I didn't get home last night until almost 1 a.m., and I was ready to collapse before we managed to open our front door. I'd been up since 4:20 a.m. (CrossFit class waits for no one), and I desperately needed my beauty sleep.

Thankfully, the kids spent the night at their grandparents' place, so we got a couple of extra hours of shut-eye before dragging our asses into the garage to exercise.

"Isn't it pathetic?" M mused. "For once, the boys aren't here, and we could have gone out to brunch or the Farmer's Market or something. We could have gotten a ton of stuff done. But instead, we decided to work out in the garage."

Answer: Yes, we are pathetic.

M worked out to her Chalene Johnson DVDs while I did another day of my (customized and expanded) Power to the People program:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

And then, for no good reason (other than because we weren't in danger of being interrupted by a five-year-old demanding food), I pulled out my Insanity DVD set and did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit routine.

Big mistake.

At the time, it felt nice to get reacquainted with the pace and exercises in Shaun T's workouts. Having not done an Insanity workout in weeks, I even felt a wee bit nostalgic about the pulsing, mildly-annoying background music. The moves were just as challenging as I remembered, and I certainly broke a sweat.

But did I overextend myself today? Definitely. I'm zonked. After dinner, sitting beside my two-year-old as he watched a cartoon, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I realized that I'd collapsed on my toddler, and was using a small child as a pillow.

Thursday's Workout

More strength-building, Power to the People-style.

• 50 air squats
• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 push-ups
• Handstand practice

Turns out that prior to today, I was doing side presses incorrectly; I was doing basic shoulder presses, without really engaging my lats. Yesterday, Coach T showed me the proper movement, which looks like this:



Needless to say, I currently suck at this.

Thursday's Workout

Out of the 22 tasks I have to accomplish to achieve Level One status at my CrossFit gym, I have only 3 left: a 800-meter sprint in less than 4:20, a 2000-meter row in less than 8:10, and 25 unbroken Wallball reps using a 20-pound ball and a 10-foot target.

The sprint should be a piece of cake, but I'm worried I won't be able to pull off the other two. Wallball throws are more difficult than they look, especially when you're as uncoordinated as I am. And I'm a terrible rower -- and short to boot, which exacerbates the inefficiencies caused by my poor technique. I'd be lucky to finish a 2000-meter row in 10 minutes.

The good news is that I have two more weeks to get this done. So I'm going to try to practice Wallball throws and row at home on each off-day (i.e., each day I don't go to my CrossFit affiliate for a workout). With luck, I'm hoping to quickly progress to the point that I can eke out enough Wallball reps and sufficiently increase my rowing efficiency/power/speed to pass these last two hurdles.

So today, my garage workout consisted of:

• 1000-meter row
• Handstand practice
• Wallball practice (using a 20-pound ball, but only an 8-foot-high target)
• 1000-meter row

I hope this works. My fingers are crossed.

Tuesday's Workout

I took it easy today, and just did a bunch of stuff in the garage while M worked out to her TurboFire DVDs.

Here's what I did:

• Ring Dips
• Muscle-Up Progressions
• Barbell Push Jerks
• Handstands

No metcon, no cardio. I was done in a half-hour, and focused mostly on learning and practicing movements rather than taxing myself to exhaustion.

There's definitely something to be said about scaling back your workouts on alternating days. I feel a lot less wrecked today, and I'm confident I'll have a lot more energy tomorrow morning when I'm really going to need it.