The holidays are a busy time for all of us, but things are especially hectic in our household. Both of our kids have December birthdays, as do both of my parents. And my nonagenarian grandmother, too. There's a lot of celebrating (and gift-wrapping) to do.
Also: I'm taking on a new role at work, which means a lot of learning and juggling -- and prepping for international travel. (Hello, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hong Kong. I'll be seeing you soon.) And I'm interviewing and hiring someone new for my team at work.
Oh, and we're in the thick of working with our developers to prep a new update to the Nom Nom Paleo iPad app in time for Christmas.
And the kids are sick. As is Michelle.
So it's kind of nice to enjoy the luxury of an extra hour of sleep on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Our class is full to bursting, but working out at 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. has made me feel a little more human lately. Here's what we've been up to at the gym:
Result: 4 rounds + 10 reps.
Result: 6 rounds + 2 reps.
Result: 1 round + reps.
Unfortunately, my right wrist is still -- STILL!!! -- giving me fits, so I'm nowhere near back to RX form. I have to be honest: My patience had been wearing thin, but now, it's completely gone. It pains me to watch my classmates crank out snatches and cleans while I sulk in the corner with a couple of kettlebells. I know I should just relax, chill out, and recover, but I'm going stir-crazy over here.
I've written about Mike Murphy before, so I won't repeat myself except to say that the WOD we did today was one of Murph's favorites, and it's also one of mine. Doing this workout was a perfect way to honor not just this fallen SEAL, but also to remind us of the sacrifices made by all the men and women in our armed forces who are serving on our behalf. They do what they do so that we can enjoy the privilege of grilling meat on the backyard barbeque on a sunny spring holiday.
So here's what was in store for us today:
For time:
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
Although you have to start and end with one-mile runs, you can partition the pull-ups, push-ups and squats however way you want. Most folks break up the 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats into 20 rounds of Cindy (a 20-minute AMRAP of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats). I planned to do the same.
The first time I did Murph was on New Year's Day, and I loved it. I did it as RXed, and finished in just under 38 minutes, so I was pretty happy with my time. Nonetheless, I did by myself at home, and it just wasn't the same. Sure, I saved time by being able to do my push-ups and squats right underneath my pull-up bar, and didn't have to waste any time transitioning between exercises. But it simply wasn't as fun without the company of others next to me in the trenches.
That's why I was excited to see over two dozen folks show up at the gym at 9 a.m. to get our Murph on:
It was awesome.
We staggered the start -- half of the group began running first, and as soon as they returned, the rest of us took off. M (a.k.a. Nom Nom Paleo), who had (FINALLY) made up her mind to do Murph just the night before, was in the first group. I was in the second. Waiting for the first group of runners to get back was probably the most nerve-wracking part of the workout.
Once I started running, all the nervous energy got channeled into the effort. For me, the first mile wasn't bad at all. I kept up a good pace, and tried to stay true to the POSE method as much as possible.
The pull-ups, push-ups and squats went by pretty quickly, too. I started with 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups and 30 squats, and then did 16 rounds of Cindy before finishing up with another round of 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups and 30 squats. The push-ups wore me out after a while, but the pull-ups were smooth and quick. And although I had to pause with every 5 or 6 squats, I was able to crank 'em out at double-speed.
That's not to say there weren't some hiccups. I'd taped my palms to try to stave off ripped calluses and bloody hands, but (stupidly) forgot to tape my thumbs, so I ended up tearing chunks of skin off my thumbs midway through the WOD. And despite the tape on my palms, the skin underneath tore anyway.
I wasn't the only one who left DNA on the bars; here's Kyle's hand post-Murph:
The worst part? The final one-mile run. My legs were jelly, and POSE went right out the window. I ended up just lurching and stumbling the entire way. I watched as Carmela passed me, running with perfect form. "I was just telling your wife that I read your blogs!" she called out cheerily. I tried to say something gracious in response, but managed only a wheezy grunt as she zoomed past.
Result: 38:26 as RXed. Not bad, but not a PR; I was a half-minute faster in January. Nonetheless, this morning's Murph was infinitely more fun -- especially 'cause I got to share this experience with my wife. She'd been waffling about joining us for Murph this morning, and I'm glad she finally decided to take the plunge. Like me, M had a blast, and reported that she had a great time exchanging friendly obscenities with R. as they passed each other while running.
What? You somehow missed the fact that my wife has a potty mouth? I mean, this is the woman who ran the last 50 meters of Murph with a big grin and an upraised middle finger, people.
What’s the first thing you do after finishing a heart-pounding workout at your CrossFit box (other than making sweat angels on the floor and gasping for air)? You give high fives and fist bumps to those who’ve suffered through the WOD with you, right?
If you don’t, you’re kind of a butthole. And there’s no better time to start slapping the damp, upraised hand of your fellow metcon warrior. After all, today’s the third Thursday of April, which means it’s National High Five Day. (Really.)
But what exactly is the point, you ask, of violently striking the palm of another human being? How did stinging hand pain come to signal camaraderie or congratulations? And what about the germs?
Here’s the backstory:
Before the high five existed, there was the handshake -- a sign of peace (bare hands = no weapons) dating back to ancient Greece.
In more recent centuries, the expansion of the British Empire popularized the use of handshakes as a form of greeting, celebration, and farewell.
But handshakes weren’t cool enough for the musicians of the Jazz Age. They came up with what we now call a “low five,” which soon made its way into blues and other musical genres. At the time, this was known as “slapping skin” or “giving skin” -- but celebratory low fives were viewed as a gesture used only in African American communities.
Case in point: In the 1941 Abbott & Costello movie “In the Navy,” the Andrews Sisters sing this little ditty:
If you want to shake my hand
Like they do it in Harlem,
Stick your hand right out and shout:
Give me some skin, my friend!
Over the years, the term “giving skin” evolved into “giving five,” and with greater exposure to black culture in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s, Americans of all racial backgrounds began slapping each other’s hands. Even Bob from Sesame Street got in on the action.
More after the jump, including gay baseball players, child endangerment, terrorism and cartoon superheroes...
His story is an incredibly harrowing and tragic one. In the summer of 2005, Murphy led a SEAL team on Operation Redwing, a mission to kill or capture Ahmad Shah, a Taliban leader. While on the mission, the four men on the team -- Murphy, Marcus Luttrell, Danny Dietz and Matthew Axelson -- were discovered in their hiding spot by local goat herders. The team initially detained the herders, but after some debate about whether the herders might betray their location, let them go. But within the hour, the four SEALs were pinned down in a fierce firefight against upwards of 150 Taliban fighters. The herders, it appears, betrayed their location.
During the firefight, Murphy exposed himself to enemy fire to reach higher ground to call for backup with his cell phone; he was successful, but was shot in the abdomen during the conversation. He returned to the fight, but did not survive the night. Dietz and Axelson were also eventually killed in the course of the next two hours. Luttrell was the sole survivor. Despite severe injuries, he managed to evade capture and crawl and walk seven miles until he was taken in by Pashtun tribesmen who protected him from Taliban forces until he was rescued by U.S. forces a week later. (Luttrell later wrote a book, "Lone Survivor," recounting the battle and its aftermath.)
Murphy was the first person to be awarded a Medal of Honor (posthumously) for actions in Afghanistan, and the first member of the Navy to receive the award since Vietnam.
According to the CrossFit main site, "[t]his workout was one of Mike's favorites." It's now one of mine, too.
For time:
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
You have to start and finish with the running, but you're allowed to partition the pull-ups, push-ups and squats however way you want. (Optional: Wear a weight vest or body armor -- Mike Murphy-style.)
I decided to break up the 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats into 20 rounds of Cindy -- which, as you may remember, is a 20-minute AMRAP of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. Although I've not yet encountered a full 20 minutes of Cindy, we've done a 1/2 Cindy (10 minutes) and a 3/4 Cindy (15 minutes) in class. Each time, I'd managed to crank out about one round per minute.
Figuring I'd lose a little steam as the workout progressed, I estimated that 20 rounds would take me approximately 22 minutes to complete. I'm not a speedy runner, so I assumed my two mile-long runs would take 8 minutes each. And 22 + 8 + 8 = 38 minutes.
So how close was I to my guesstimate? Ten seconds off. I finished in 37:50. (Or thereabouts. The clock actually said 38:05, but I'm subtracting the roughly 15 seconds it took me to haul myself up off the floor, stagger over to my stopwatch, fumble with its buttons and finally stop the time.)
Nothing like a long metcon to kick off a brand new year, right?
December is chock-full of awesome holidays -- and I'm not just talking about International Ninja Day. That's right, people: Today is Bacon Day.
To celebrate, I whipped up some bacon and avocado "sandwiches." All I needed was five minutes and four ingredients:
4 strips of thick-cut, nitrate-free bacon
1 medium-sized Haas avocado
1 lime
Kosher salt to taste
It's ridiculously easy to cook bacon in the microwave oven. (Clean-up is simple, too.) Just wrap a few slices between some sheets of paper towel, stick it all on a microwave-safe plate, and nuke away. I set my microwave at 70% power and zapped the bacon for about two-and-a-half minutes. If you find that your bacon's not yet crisp, just nuke it a bit longer.
The filling for these "sandwiches"? Chunky homemade guacamole.
Mash up the flesh of half an avocado, and cut up the other half into half-inch cubes. Then mix both halves together in a bowl to get a nice blend of chunky 'n creamy. Flavor it with a squirt or two of lime juice and a generous pinch of Kosher salt.
Finally: Plate 'em up. Doesn't get any easier than this, people.
Just because it's Christmas Eve doesn't mean I'm skipping my WOD today. And it was a doozy today.
Last night, M and I started watching the video of Mat Lalonde's Nutrition Seminar (which he delivered back in June at CrossFit Academy of Lions in Toronto). (I'll post a review soon, but suffice it to say that I'm learning a TON. You can check out a 10-minute preview of the video here.) At one point (close to the 6-hour mark), Lalonde discusses the benefits of fasted training and his conclusion that post-workout carbs aren't necessary -- provided you're not doing a super-long session of metabolic conditioning work.
So what did we do this morning at our CrossFit box? A super-long metcon.
This is atypical for our gym. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we stick with a strict Max Effort Black Box program, with our time split between warm-up, strength work, and a short (sub-15 minute) metcon. But once in a while -- usually near holidays -- our coach decides to "work a different metabolic pathway." In other words, he beats the shit out of us with a meat grinder of a workout.
22 overhead kettlebell swings (I used a 53 lb. kettlebell, but RX'ed is 70)
22 plyo box jumps (24" box)
400 meter run
22 burpees
22 wallball shots (20 lb. ball, 10' target)
In other words, 440 heavy reps of explosive, full-body movements. Plus, a mile run. As fast as you can.
Seven other masochists showed up for the morning class today, so we had a full house. A few folks scaled the workout down, using lighter weights, fewer reps and/or shorter distances. For example, one person used a 16-inch plyo box, and another ran 200 meters each round instead of the full 400. Half of the class used wallballs of less than 20 pounds, and aimed for an 8-foot target.
The Terminator and I, however, tried to do the WOD as close to RX'ed as possible -- though after trying out the 70 pound kettlebells, we ultimately decided to go with 53 pounds instead. I matched his pace for the first couple of rounds, but he pulled ahead during our third set of wallball shots, and I never quite caught up. I'm getting better at wallballs, but due to my short stature and light bodyweight, I end up having to jump off the floor with every rep in order to heave the 20-pound ball ten feet up the wall. With my shitty hand-eye coordination, this is no easy task.
Result: 42:51. The Terminator beat me by a minute and a half. Everyone was hustling; with proper scaling, even the slowest among us were done by the 52-minute mark.
As soon as I was finished, recovery was on my mind. I did this metcon in a fasted state, and by the time I wrapped up my last set of wallballs, I'm sure my muscle glycogen stores were at zero. So after a quick pitstop at a nearby supermarket, I drove home to gobble up a bag of carby, starchy chestnuts. And for good measure, I chased 'em down with a plate of M's breakfast frittata and some broccoli.
Festivus ain't over until the head of household is pinned down, but if you have other Feats of Strength in mind for today, hit the comments and share your plans. (And your grievances, for that matter.)
With everyone and their mother making health-related New Year's resolutions, the media's gearing up for its once-a-year full-court press on fitness before abandoning the topic for the rest of the year. A perfect example is People Magazine -- the American hausfrau's periodical of choice -- and its "Look Great in 2010" feature. The whole thing is kind of a mixed bag, including an inspirational slideshow of before-and-after shots of formerly-chubby regular folks (including one guy who used P90X to help get himself fit), some common sense workout tips from Hollywood trainers (Do strength training! Schedule your workouts!), and the useless celebrity inanity typical of these publications (Kourtney Kardashian works out naked! Julia Louis-Dreyfus loves bacon!).
I suppose that annually shining a spotlight on exercise and diet is a good thing, but my inner pessimist tells me that by February, most readers of People are going to let their gym memberships lapse and shift their focus back to the type of ice cream cake ingested by some C-list singer/reality show winner.
Over the course of one holiday weekend, I downed about ten cookies (this one's my favorite) and three slices of cake, not to mention pizza, dim sum (ugh), a huge helping of homemade mac & cheese, and a big-ass Christmas dinner.
And yet I feel like I almost -- almost -- redeemed myself with one hard session of Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.
Unfortunately, the workout also made me hungry, and now I'm eying some leftovers in the fridge. (God, that flank steak looks good.)
Everywhere I turn, I see articles, news stories and blog posts about how to keep fit during the holidays (like here and here and here and here and here), so I thought I'd weigh in with my own two cents.
Without further ado, here's my super-awesome list of incredibly helpful tips for keeping the pounds off in December:
," recounting the battle and its aftermath.)
