Monday's Workout: Home (WOD) Alone

M's in the middle of her week of night shifts, and without a sitter, there was no way I could (legally) leave the kids at home to hit the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto this morning. Silver lining: I got two-and-a-half hours of much-needed extra shut-eye.

Later in the day, Tim shot me an email entitled "Today's WOD" with a link to this video from CrossFit Central:

It looked awesome, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I had to do it.

Metcon:

• 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:

• Toes-to-bar
• In-and-outs
• Jumping lunges

After dinner, I tucked the boys into bed, took out the garbage, changed into some raggedy shorts, and set up a pair of homemade parallettes. By the way, here's a handy tip: If you're making your own parallettes with PVC pipe, use a racheting pipe cutter instead of a hand saw. I got one at Home Depot for $10, and it made pipe-cutting a lot easier (and less messy, too).

But first: Warm-up. I got my 15-foot Rogue climbing rope in the mail today, so after securing it to a rafter in the garage, I clambered up and down a half-dozen times.

I love new toys.

Anyway, once I got loose, I started a timer and got going.

The pull-up bar in my garage is mounted a bit too close to our washer and dryer, and I kept banging my heels against the door of the washing machine, but otherwise, the toes-to-bar were fine. The jumping lunges, too, flew by quickly. (They brought back not-so-fond memories of doing endless "Mary Katherine" lunges from P90X Plyometrics a bazillion years ago.)

The in-and-outs, however, proved more challenging for me. I'd underestimated their difficulty, or perhaps I'd overestimated my level of physical coordination. Either way, by the middle of the WOD, I found myself struggling to keep my legs and body straight once my heels hit the ground. But despite my wobbly legs, I kept moving, and managed to get through all the reps without stopping.

Result: 9:10 as RXed.

Friday's Workout

Is it just me, or do we tend to do tougher metcons on days we mess around with gymnastics stuff?

Strength Skills:

• L-Sits
• Pass-Throughs
• Skin-the-Cats

I need to work on my L-Sits. A few months ago, I was able to hold an L-Sit for 30+ seconds without too much effort -- but today, my arms began trembling just ten seconds in.

Good thing I have a pair of parallettes at home, though the kids are constantly perched on 'em. M want to use them to practice her L-Sits, too. Looks like I may have to go pick up some more PVC pipe.

Metcon:

A barbell complex is a fine way to kick off the weekend.

7 rounds for time:

• 3 power cleans
• 5 front squats
• 7 deadlifts

When Tim first wrote this workout on the board, I was annoyed. I knew I couldn't do this one using the RXed weight of 165 pounds. The rate-limiting move, I figured, was the power cleans. On my best day, I might be able to power-clean 25 pounds in excess of my bodyweight for one or two reps (if that), but certainly not 21 times. I was stuck with a 115 pound barbell.

"But that's too light a weight for the front squats and deadlifts," I whined to Tim.

Smiling, he replied: "I'll remember you said that."

At the time, I didn't register what he was trying to tell me -- namely, that I was insane to think that the weight would feel at all "light" once the clock started. And of course, he was right: Even as I began my first round of front squats, I was regretting my choice of weights. Throughout this WOD, the only thing that kept me from setting down the bar during the front squats was the knowledge that I'd have to clean the damned thing back up again.

Result: 9:22.

Crafty

Following instructions in the CrossFit Journal, I managed to construct a pair of parallettes out of PVC pipe, primer and cement, and they’re surprisingly sturdy. (Usually, the stuff I make falls apart pretty much immediately.)