69 Years Young

Who says you have to get old?

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Friday's Workout

I woke up at 3:15 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. But because I'd turned in early last night, I still managed to get 6 hours of sleep. Granted, 6 hours ain't sufficient for optimal health, but at least I was rested enough to keep from dropping a barbell on my head or chucking a kettlebell through some drywall.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Pull-Ups (3 sets of 3, 2 sets of 1)

I fared better than last week, but I'm still not matching some of my previous efforts. I wish I could chalk it up to still being sick, but I suspect that the real culprit is my lack of practice.

Metcon:

For time:

• 500-meter row
• 30 burpees
• 10 shoulder-to-overheads

Yes, more rowing -- but it went surprisingly well (or, at the very least, not altogether shitty) today. I kept up a decent speed while maintaining a low stroke rate, and finished relatively quickly. I usually view the erg as a medieval torture device, but not today.

The burpees were a different matter. Normally, I'm not a burpee-basher -- in fact, there's a part of me (a very, very small part) that gets a sadistic kick out of 'em. But the rowing had injected enough lactic acid into my thighs to make the burpees extra-painful. Instead of reeling off 20 -- or even 10 -- in a row, I had to stop after every few reps just to shake out my legs. (It didn't help, by the way.)

By the time I hobbled over to the barbell, my quads, glutes and hammies were fried. Sadly, my legs weren't yet off the hook: I needed 'em to help jerk the loaded bar overhead. Even with a 115-pound weight (instead of the RXed 165 pounds), I still had to set the bar down twice before completing the set of 10 reps. (Nonetheless, I'm going heavier next time -- even if only to make myself feel like less of a wimp.)

Result: 5:52. This workout may not look like much, but my legs are still feeling it.

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats

Every time I descend into a front squat, as if to remind me to get all the way to the bottom of the movement, the theme song to "The Wire" (a.k.a., the best TV show of all time) automatically plays in my head: "Way down in the hole..."

Squat deep.

Metcon:

For time:

• 10 push-ups, 1 pull-up
• 9 push-ups, 2 pull-ups
• 8 push-ups, 3 pull-ups
• 7 push-ups, 4 pull-ups
• 6 push-ups, 5 pull-ups
• 5 push-ups, 6 pull-ups
• 4 push-ups, 7 pull-ups
• 3 push-ups, 8 pull-ups
• 2 push-ups, 9 pull-ups
• 1 push-up, 10 pull-ups

Result: Simple, straightforward bodyweight-oriented WOD. But it still took me 5:20 to finish.

Saturday's Workout

I normally rest on weekends, but this morning, when my wife started getting ready for her kickboxing class, I felt like a slacker. So I trudged into the garage to give the "Tabata This" workout a try:

• Tabata Row
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Squat
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Pull-up
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Push-up
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Sit-up

Each exercise is performed as a Tabata set: 8 intervals of 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest. After doing all 8 intervals of one exercise, rest for one minute before moving onto the next exercise. The entire workout (including breaks) takes exactly 24 minutes.



Your "Tabata This" score is calculated by totaling the least number of reps you were able to crank out in any of the 8 intervals (or, in the case of the row, the least number of calories burned during any of the eight intervals).

Results: Hoo boy. Here's how I did, round by round:

• Tabata Row: 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5

• Tabata Squats: 18 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18

• Tabata Pull-Ups: 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3

• Tabata Push-Ups: 20 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13

• Tabata Sit-Ups: 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15

My score: 5 + 18 + 3 + 13 + 15 = 54

The row and squats made my legs burn, but the pull-ups and push-ups were the moves that really did me in.

Monday's Workout

I have no idea why I showed up for the 5 a.m. class this morning. Our kids spent the night at their grandparents' place last night, so I didn't have to finish my workout before little feet came scampering down the hall. I could (and should) have slept in 'til 6:30 and then dragged my ass over to the CrossFit box for the 7 o'clock session.

Habits are hard to break, I guess. After my eyes popped open at 4:20 a.m., I was on cruise control. (And M was working an overnight shift at the hospital, so she wasn't around to talk sense into me.) It wasn't until I was at the gym, warming up with sets of wall balls, that I realized I should have been in bed.

Strength Skill:

• Turkish Get-Ups

We did ladders: a set of 1 rep on each side, a set of 2 reps on each side, and a set of 3 on each side before repeating the sequence again.

Nothing too difficult, though the get-ups started wearing down my grip strength towards the end. Which, by the way, wasn't such a great thing given today's metcon.

Metcon:

"Fran" -- for time:

• 21 barbell thrusters
• 21 pull-ups
• 15 barbell thrusters
• 15 pull-ups
• 9 barbell thrusters
• 9 pull-ups

This may not appear to be much of a workout, but believe me: It's a monster. There's a reason why Fran is arguably CrossFit's signature WOD: it's deceptively simple, and insanely challenging. As my coach put it: "Fran never gets easier. It just gets faster."

I first tried Fran a few months ago, during my first week of CrossFit. Back then, I scaled it significantly, lifting a lighter load and using a band to assist me. But even with all that assistance, it took me more than eight and a half minutes to finish.

These days, I wouldn't think of using the band for pull-ups during a WOD, but part of me still blanched at the thought of trying to blaze through 45 thrusters at the RXed weight of 95 pounds. But a bigger, bossier part of me was itching to do Fran as prescribed -- even if it took me 10 minutes to finish the workout.

Thankfully, it didn't. I finished in 7:58, shaving off more than a half-minute from my previous time. Still nothing to crow about -- I'm certainly no Spealler -- but I'm happy to see some improvement!

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

Handstand Push-Ups

I did 30, in sets of 5. What's odd is that I always manage to do more at the gym than at home. They feel easier, too.

Metcon:

"Jackie"

• 1000-meter row
• 50 45-pound barbell thrusters
• 30 pull-ups

Result: 9:28. The row was (surprisingly) quick and easy, and I got through the first 25 thrusters just fine, but thereafter, I kept taking a few seconds to catch my breath after every five or six reps. I could (and should) have done better on my pull-up time, too. I'm happy I shaved 35 seconds off my previous Jackie attempt, but I'm determined to kill this the next time around.

Saturday's Workout

After a few days off from my Power to the People routine, I'm back at it:

• 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

To that, I also added a few handstand push-ups, toes-to-bars and knees-to-elbows.

Later today, I'm going to catch up on the Mobility WOD stretches I haven't yet done. But after that, I'm just going to plant myself on the couch and read Greg Everett's book on O-lifting: