Back on the Horse

Other than going on a run* every other day while vacationing in Hawaii, I've been laying low to give my wrist the time it needs to recover. It's still not 100 percent, but there've been signs of improvement, and I've been slowly reintroducing some light barbell work in the past week. Last Friday, I did a workout at CrossFit Palo Alto that involved overhead squats (I used an empty barbell), and yesterday, I practiced light (very light) split jerks before cranking out "Helen."

For what it's worth, the OHS workout consisted of:

• 50 reverse lunges (or jumping lunges)
• 20 overhead squats
• 20 toes to bar
• 50 reverse lunges (or jumping lunges)
• 15 overhead squats
• 15 toes to bar
• 50 reverse lunges (or jumping lunges)
• 10 overhead squats
• 10 toes to bar

It was my first workout in a couple of weeks, and I felt a bit more sluggish than usual, but was happy that I was able to get a barbell overhead without discomfort. Result: 13:03.

Yesterday's "Helen" was an eye-opener, though. Helen, as you'll recall, consists of 3 rounds of a 400-meter run, 21 kettlebell swings (24kg), and 12 pull-ups. In August of last year, I completed this workout as RXed in 10:14 -- a new PR. No such luck this time around. Instead, I finished in 11:23 -- more than a minute slower. I'd like to blame my less-than-healthy wrist, but the truth of the matter is that I'm de-conditioned right now -- I was out of breath sooner than expected and got a side-stitch for the first time in forever.

This doesn't feel good. I need to jump back into the saddle.

*One time, I went running with Michelle. Before heading out, I asked her if she wanted to grab a pair of earbuds and listen to music while we ran. She said no. "I want to talk to you while we run," my wife said. I shrugged and we began our run through Kilauea. Michelle spoke throughout our run, but the only words that came out of her mouth were: "I HATE RUNNING. I HATE RUNNING. I HATE RUNNING."

Bottoms Up

I'm still here.

This past week has passed me by. I've been meaning to post, I've been busy with the kids while Michelle was at the 2012 Weston A. Price Foundation Conference. Blogging is fun and all, but so is running around the house playing Batman versus Iron Man and singing Weird Al Yankovic tunes at the top of our lungs.

Anyway, here's the latest rundown on my gym activities.

Friday

Strength Skill:

• Bottoms Up Kettlebell Cleans (5-5-5-5-5-5, one set every 3 minutes)

The rest of the class continued working on barbell cleans, and I wish I could've joined 'em. I've been feeling sharp pangs of envy whenever I watch other people practice cleans. So I did my bottoms-up kettlebell cleans in the back of the gym, and tried my best not to watch my classmates heave their barbells around.

Metcon:

• "Jackie" - for time:
• Row 1,000 meters
• 50 thrusters (45lbs / 35lbs)
• 30 pull-ups

It's only been a few months since we last did "Jackie," though this time around, I wasn't able to do the thrusters with a barbell. Instead, to ease the pressure on my wrist, I did double kettlebell cleans and presses, which approximated -- but didn't equal -- the experience of thrusting the barbell overhead.

Jackie still wrecked me (per usual). But the first squat after getting off the erg is the hardest, and once I pushed through the KB cleans and presses, the pull-ups went fairly quickly.

Result: 8:22 -- significantly faster than my 9:51 from June, but I did it RXed that time.

Monday

Strength Skill:

• Back Squats (3-2-1-1-1-1)

I was happy to hit a new PR at 245 pounds -- though I suspect I had some left in the tank.

Metcon:

• 21 burpees
• 21 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 21 Abmat sit-ups
• 15 burpees
• 15 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 15 Abmat sit-ups
• 9 burpees
• 9 overhead kettlebell swings (32kg / 24kg)
• 9 Abmat sit-ups

Pretty straightforward stuff -- and a workout I didn't have to modify to accommodate my wrist injury! (Well, I did have to do the push-up portion of the burpees from my fists, but that doesn't really count, does it?)

The overhead kettlebell swings slowed me down a bit. Seventy pounds is half my bodyweight, and every time I swung that iron ball, it threatened to pull me off my feet.

On the plus side: No Abmat ass-crack rash!

7:49 RXed

Wednesday's Workout

In the five days since my last workout, the pain in my right wrist has persisted. It's more than just sore, and I'm beginning to suspect that I may have mildly (or not-so-mildly) sprained it. I can't do push-ups with my right hand flat against the floor -- though I can do 'em fine with my hands balled into fists. It hurts to clean a barbell right now, and I can't throw or catch a medicine ball worth a damn. Still, I was itching to get in the gym and get sweaty, and figured there was other stuff I could do.

Like pull-ups. And renegade rows. And dumbbell snatches. And double-unders.

It turns out I could do all of today's movements (though I scaled down the weight of the dumbbells in the metcon). We did one set of 5 weighted pull-ups every three minutes, which was a great way to keep us moving and in the groove. And the metcon was nice and fast; I got through everything without pausing (except to disentangle myself from the jump rope a few times). 

Result: 8:09. Or 8:15. I think. Oh, hell. I think my brain's melting.

Bloody Good

I didn't know what to expect at the gym on Friday. Tim kept saying that I was going to "love" the workout, but I can no longer tell when he's being sarcastic. (Especially after he once promised a workout I "LOOOOOOVED" -- only to spring a 2K row on us.)

Still, love it or hate it, I knew I'd have a strong reaction to the WOD, so I showed up hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Thankfully, it was indeed a good one:

"Mary" - As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

• 5 handstand push-ups
• 10 pistols
• 15 pull-ups

All bodyweight stuff I genuinely love -- even if I still favor doing pistols on my right side over my left. I was so excited, in fact, that I completely overlooked the following pertinent details:

• There are a crapload of pull-ups in this workout.
• I hadn't been keeping up with my hand care.
• The last time we did "Mary," I entitled my post "Bloody Mary" for a reason.
• That reason? I ripped my hands open and bled all over the place.

Without bothering to tape up my hands, I jumped right in with gusto.

Now that I'm doing a one-legged kipping handstand pull-up, I wasn't getting fatigued on the wall, so I expected to do better than my last attempt. After flying through the first four rounds unbroken, I glanced at the clock and saw that only a little more than seven minutes had elapsed. I can complete 10 rounds, I told myself.

The pistols betrayed me first. After five or six rounds, I was losing steam, and my weaker left leg was buckling. To complete the workout as RXed, I'd have to do the majority of the one-legged squats on my right leg.

With a few minutes left in the workout, I still felt fresh on the handstand push-ups and pull-ups, but my sweaty hands were starting to snag on the bar. I chalked up before my ninth round of pull-ups -- but realized too late that I'd over-coated my hands. I felt the skin of my right palm rip. The skin on my ring finger followed. A few pull-ups later, I felt the wetness of blood on the bar. Distracted, I slowed my pace to a crawl.

Result: 10 rounds as RXed. I hit my goal (and PRed!), though I'm kicking myself for not taking better care of my hands.  Despite taking care not to kip wildly, I'd neglected to file down my calluses or to tape up to prevent rips. I need to be better about practicing what I preach.

Still: I love Mary. Bloody or not, I can't wait to meet her again.

[Previously: CrossFit Hand Care]

A Long, Long Time Ago...

Friday's workout seems like a lifetime ago, but I've been so swamped with work (and, frankly, sick with a bad cold) that I haven't been able to summon the motivation to post about it. Still, I feel like I ought to jot down what we did before the details are completely lost to the fog of memory.

As I recall, we did a bunch of weighted ring dips as our strength skill before moving onto a quick-and-dirty metcon:

3 rounds for time:

• 12 power cleans (95lbs / 65lbs)
• 400-meter run
• 12 pull-ups

Result: 10:15 as RXed.

The power cleans were fast and fluid, as were the pull-ups (which I did unbroken). My running, though, was another matter entirely. Every time I hit the run, I was passed by several of my fellow 5 a.m. nutjobs.

I've never been much of a runner, though my gut tells me that in the past year, I've gotten a lot worse. When we lived in San Francisco, Michelle and I used to run regularly (okay, semi-regularly) through Golden Gate Park or around Lake Merced, and just a few years ago, I was logging as much as ten or fifteen miles a run. No, I wasn't fast or light on my feet, but I'd built up enough endurance that I didn't feel like keeling over every time I ran for a few hundred meters.

But these days, it feels like I'm dragging.

So my new goal? Run more. Not a lot more -- but enough to get my butt in gear again.

Of course, all of this is going to have to wait until I get over this damn cold. I hate, hate, HATE being sick.

Monday's Workout

On Saturday, I hitched a ride with Kevin down to Catalyst Athletics for the gym's drop-in Olympic weightlifting class. (Much to our embarrassment, Michelle had texted Aimee Everett the night before to alert her of our plans to go lift in her gym. It's like telling Michael Jordan that you're going to be shooting hoops in his driveway.)

At Catalyst, we met up with Steph, and proceeded to snatch away for the next hour. There's about five gazillion things I need to work on before I snatch proficiently, but with helpful pointers from my friends and Coach Steve Pan (the King of Fast Food), I definitely felt like I sucked a bit less at the end of the session. Best of all, the drop-in class made me want to lift more. 

Thankfully, back at CrossFit Palo Alto on Monday, we had power cleans on the menu. As with my snatches, I really need to focus on keeping the bar close to my body during the first and second pulls. Tim pointed out that I was initiating the second pull too early, and that I was leaving the bar too far in front of my body. This, in turn, was causing me to muscle up the bar rather than using my legs to help drive it up. Not good.

Once I made these corrections, my cleans felt a lot more...well, clean. I even matched my previous PR -- though I failed to set a new one.

The metcon of the day? "Helen."

3 rounds for time:

• Run 400 meters
• 21 kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 12 pull-ups

Even with my Achilles tendon feeling much better, my running was pathetically slow. Otherwise, I got through Helen without too much trouble, though I didn't manage to hit my goal of going unbroken on all three rounds of the swings and pull-ups.

Result: 10:14 as RXed. A one-second PR!

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Handstand Push-Ups (5-5-5-5-5)

My new favorite way to do handstand push-ups: Kip with one leg. Kipping keeps me from fatiguing too quickly, but I've found that when I kip with both legs, I tend to lose my balance and fall away from the wall. Keeping one leg up against the wall and kipping with the other leg is the perfect compromise: I can generate some additional pop with a strong kick while still maintaining a good amount of stability. Also, I've found that placing my hands a few inches outside of shoulder-width makes it a lot easier to push off without exhausting myself.

Between sets of HSPUs, we played around with rope climbs. A number of us were able to pull ourselves up to the top of the rig using just our hands, though it was murder on our skin.

Metcon:

6 minute AMRAP of:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...! burpees
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...! pull-ups

Rest one minute, and then:

6 minute AMRAP of:

• 200-meter row
• 20 dumbbell push presses (10 with each arm, 45lbs / 35lbs)

I sped through the first six-minute AMRAP as fast as I could. My goal was to go at a quick, steady clip and avoid pausing, and finished with 10 complete rounds for a total of 55 burpees and 55 pull-ups.

But then came the rowing and push-presses.

The rowing wasn't bad, but the 45-pound dumbbell was too heavy for me, and slowed me down immensely. I finished only two rounds of the push presses, for a total of 40 reps.

Result: 150 total reps as RXed.

Time And Again

After a long trip to the East Coast (in which I ate too much and slept too little), it was time I got back to the gym. I got up early (4 a.m.), pulled on a shirt and a pair of shorts, warmed up with a nice, long row on the erg in my garage, and drove though the silent streets to CrossFit Palo Alto.

For the past week and a half, I'd done next to no exercise, other than schlepping the kids and assorted pieces of luggage from place to place. I knew I was rusty, but I figured I could go easy on myself today and ease back into my routine at the gym.

Wrong.

We were scheduled for time trials. It's been nine months since I was last put through the paces of this workout, in which we go all-out in each of six different exercises -- with a few minutes of rest in-between -- in order to establish benchmark times.

On the menu:

• 50 pull-ups
• 50 push-ups
• 50 Abmat sit-ups
• 50 air squats
• 400 meter run
• 500 meter row

Here's how I did today, compared against my results in November of 2010 and November of 2011:

So let's review: 

Suckier at sit-ups. Better on pull-ups. About the same on everything else, but I managed to shave 13.5 seconds off the whole shebang from the last go-round. Yes, I was fresh and (somewhat) rested from vacation, but I'll take it.

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Overhead Squats (5-5-3-3-3)

It's been a while since I last practiced overhead squats, but they felt good. I kept the weights relatively light, and focused on keeping my knees out, chest up, and armpits forward. I wouldn't have said this a year ago, but I'm looking forward to doing more overhead squats this cycle.\

Metcon:

For time:

• Row 500 meters
• 21 pull-ups
• 21 box jumps
• Row 400 meters
• 15 pull-ups
• 15 box jumps
• Row 300 meters
• 9 pull-ups
• 9 box jumps
• Row 200 meters
• 6 pull-ups
• 6 box jumps
• Row 100 meters
• 3 pull-ups
• 3 box jumps

On the whiteboard, this workout looked like a fast one. In real life? Not so much.

Despite my dislike of rowing, I got on and off the erg fairly quickly. And I cranked out the first couple of sets of pull-ups unbroken. But a few minutes into the workout, my grip started to weaken, and I had to hop off the bar a few times. On the plus side: My Achilles is getting better. It's not yet 100 percent, but I got through the box jumps without any painful twinges. Win!

Result: 13:29 as RXed.

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Strict & Kipping Pull-ups (6 sets of 5-10)

I mistakenly thought we were supposed progress to successive sets of weighted pull-ups, but the name of the game was to concentrate on form: Corkscrewing our arms to engage our lats, and driving our elbows straight down. When it comes to strict pull-ups, I've been sorely out of practice, so it was good to focus on technique rather than strain for maximum weight.

Metcon:

• 21 shoulder-to-overheads (135lbs / 95lbs)
• Row 500 meters
• 21 power cleans (135lbs / 95lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 21 front squats (135lbs / 95lbs)

I went with 105 pounds, and decided to row 500 a second time rather than running. (My Achilles is still in less-than-spectacular shape, unfortunately.) But despite scaling the workout, I got smoked. Cranking out power cleans and front squats after a stint on the erg was mighty painful, and I ended up taking more mid-set breaks than I would've liked.

Result: 12:24. Molasses-slow. Argh.

Wednesday's Workout

A great one today.

Strength Skill:

• Kettlebell Cleans & Presses (5-5-5-5-5)

Still love these, even though I could still use some a lot of practice. I slowly worked my way up to a 24 kilogram kettlebell without compromising my form, but I think I'm going to stick with 16 or 20 kilograms at home for now.

Metcon:

As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:

• 6 pistols
• 9 pull-ups
• 12 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)

I was tempted to do all the pistols with my right leg per usual, but decided against it. My left leg needs the practice, and besides, I'd prefer to be moderately sore in both butt cheeks than to be extremely sore on one side.

Result: 6 rounds + 8 reps as RXed.

Friday's Workout

For time, three rounds of "Barbara":

• 20 Pull-ups
• 30 Push-ups
• 40 Abmat Sit-ups
• 50 Squats

Between each round, rest precisely three minutes.

That doesn't sound too bad, right? After all, it's only three rounds -- not the full five. Plus, it's all bodyweight stuff -- my favorite.

I got off to a quick start, finishing all the movements unbroken in the first round. At the 3:15 mark, I paused to take my first three-minute break.

Weirdly enough, three minutes of rest felt like an eternity. Part of me wanted to just jump right back onto the pull-up bar and keep cranking, but instead, I paced around, feeling my energy sap away as the seconds ticked by.

By the time I started the second round, my momentum was slowing. Although I did my pull-ups, sit-ups and squats without stopping, my push-ups were...problematic. (In other words: SLOOOOOW.)

In the third round, after another three-minute pause between rounds, I was even more beat. Mentally, it was tough to get back to the pull-up bar and will myself to complete the third and final round. I did it, but once again, the push-ups were slow going. Although I was in the lead for most of the workout, the Terminator edged past me as I repeatedly paused for air during the last set of push-ups. I raced through the sit-ups and squats as speedily as possible, but the cyborg beat me by a few seconds. Argh.

Result: 19:13 as RXed (including 6 minutes of rest time).

Hoo, boy. I'm going to feel this tomorrow.

Wednesday's Workout: "Daniel"

It's strange, but I have no recollection of doing the "Daniel" Hero WOD before yesterday. But according to my blog, we did Daniel at CrossFit Palo Alto on July 4th of last year, and finished in 20:22. I must've either: (1) blocked it out because it was so traumatic, or (2) forgotten about it because I'm getting absent-minded in my old age.

Here's what the workout looks like:

• 50 pull-ups
• 400-meter run
• 21 thrusters (95 lbs / 65 lbs)
• 800-meter run
• 21 thrusters (95 lbs / 65 lbs)
• 400-meter run
• 50 pull-ups

I didn't make it to the gym at 5 a.m., but showed up for the noon class, where I was joined by two other hearty souls with no July 4th lunch plans. After warming up, we set up our barbells and got to work.

My first 50 pull-ups went fine. I did 30 in a row, and then broke up the remaining reps into sets of 10 and 10. And the first 400-meter run wasn't too bad, either. I finished the first set of thrusters without much trouble.

But as I finished the 800-meter run and started cranking out my second set of thrusters, the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks. My quads and hammies were burning, and I had difficulty ripping out more than 4 or 5 thrusters at a time. And when I headed out for the final 400-meter run, I was reduced to shuffling slowly out the roll-up door. Yeesh.

The 50 final pull-ups at the end were a sight to see. I think I did the last twelve as singles; not surprisingly, it took forever to get through them.

Result: 21:11 as RXed -- 49 seconds slower than last year. 

Crap.

Wednesday's Workout

Why did I hold off on posting about yesterday's workout?

(a) I was busy

(b) It kind of slipped my mind

(c) I was embarrassed by a subpar performance at the gym

(d) All of the above

(p) :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Yes, it's been crazy busy around these parts lately. There's been a flurry of activity at our house this week, with all of our furniture and belongings moved into storage and the floors sanded and finished. Work has been insane, with multiple projects and lawsuits exploding. Big-O's going into surgery in a few days. I'm assisting Michelle with the Nom Nom Paleo side of things. And we're still stuck in a hotel.

It was a relief to escape to CrossFit Palo Alto at the break of dawn yesterday for some me-time.

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats (3-3-1-1-1)

I went for a PR...and failed. What's funny is that my first four sets of front squats felt almost too easy. My penultimate set was at 195 -- 10 pounds below my PR of 205 -- and it didn't feel like much of a struggle. So for my final rep, I thought I'd shoot for 210. 

And I had to dump the barbell.

For a split second, I contemplated giving it another shot, but by then, Tim had written the day's metcon on the board.

Metcon:

"Jackie" - for time:

• Row 1,000 meters
• 50 thrusters (45lbs / 35lbs)
• 30 pull-ups

I was first off the erg, but I had two knots in my quads, and spent too long rubbing my thighs and staring at the barbell before I got started with the thrusters. Then, instead of just powering through the lifts, I kept setting the bar down to catch my breath. Although the pull-ups went (relatively) smoothly, I'd already wasted a ton of time standing around, doing nothing.

Result: 9:51 as RXed. Utterly shameful, considering that I did Jackie 45 seconds faster last time. Ugh.

Memorial Day Murph

Along with scores of CrossFitters everywhere, the crew at CrossFit Palo Alto did Murph today.

For time:

• 1 mile run
• 100 pull-ups
• 200 push-ups
• 300 squats
• 1 mile run

The workout must start and end with a one-mile run, but the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats can be broken up and done in whichever order you choose.

The usual strategy is to do 20 rounds of Cindy -- 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats -- but I decided to take another approach today. I inserted some squats between the pull-ups and push-ups to give my arms a breather, and also told myself I'd pop up and do more squats once my push-ups began to fail (rather than waste time struggling to eke out singles).

Did it work? Sort of. It felt good to keep moving, and it helped stave off the frustration that comes with trying (and failing) to string together a few push-ups. On the other hand, all the transitions between movements were a huge time-suck.

Result: 41:20 as RXed. Or was it 42:10? Either way, my time was several minutes slower than my last go at Memorial Day Murph, which is disappointing.

Still, this workout is one of my all-time favorites -- especially given that it's one that everyone at the gym can experience together.

(Note: I may be singing an entirely different tune when I wake up tomorrow and find myself unable to move.)

Wednesday's Workout: Relief

I missed class again this morning.

As readers of Nom Nom Paleo know, we hit a bunch of rough patches this week, and the upshot was that I wasn't able to indulge in my usual early-morning workouts with my fellow 5 a.m. nutjobs. Monday's workout was Cindy plus double-unders (a 20 minute AMRAP of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, and 20 double-unders), and I've been kicking myself for missing it. I really didn't want to miss another sweatfest at the gym.

So today, after finishing up a series of meetings at work, I sped down the freeway from San Francisco to Palo Alto in time for the 5 p.m. class. While I was on the road, I got a call from Michelle and the kids, who gleefully filled me in on some big news:

The Nom Nom Paleo iPad app got approved this afternoon by Apple! (Look for it in the App Store this Friday.)



I'm not used to working out in the early evening, but I was still on a high when I arrived at CrossFit Palo Alto, and knew I was going to enjoyed thrashing around in the gym.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Pull-Ups (5-3-3-1-1, with sets of 10 varying types of push-ups between sets)

On my last rep, with a kettlebell chained to my waist, I struggled to clear my chin over the bar -- but I was determined not to crane my neck. Trish, who teaches the 5 p.m. class (and does a fantastic job of putting us through the paces), had told us to keep our heads level and eyes ahead. "It doesn't count if you're facing the ceiling." Under this rule, I'm pretty sure most of the weighted pull-ups I've done in the past don't count.

Metcon:

"Christine" -- 3 rounds of:

• 500-meter row
• 12 bodyweight deadlifts
• 21 plyo box jumps (20")

This was a fun one -- the deadlifts felt fast and smooth, and the rowing didn't get awful until the final round. It's amazing how a few days away from the gym made me antsy enough to get a kick out of a metabolic beat-down. And although I missed exercising alongside my 5 a.m. buddies, once the clock started, it didn't matter who was in the room. My only goal was to kill this workout.

But although I didn't suck, I didn't exactly murder Christine, either.

Result: 11:58 as RXed -- a few seconds slower than the last time I did Christine. No PR today, but I still have a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I don't know whether it's because I finally got my butt back into the gym or because the app we've long slaved over is finally ready for release, but I suspect it's a little of both.

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Pull-ups (5-3-3-1-1, with 10 push-ups between sets)

I think I've pinpointed the reason why a dull ache still plagues my upper arms. It ain't 'cause of the gazillion push-presses from last week. It's from those damned diamond push-ups I did in-between sets of pull-ups last Wednesday.

This morning, my bad case of DOMS was finally subsiding, so despite my chronic lack of sleep, I happily drove to the gym for our morning beatdown. I enjoy doing weighted pull-ups, and was looking forward to doing more.

But just like last week, we did 10 push-ups between each set of pull-ups. Tim allowed us to pick the types of pull-up variations we wanted to do, so I did some decline push-ups, some medicine ball push-ups, some spiderman push-ups, some parallette push-ups, and some more of those nasty diamond push-ups. They didn't feel bad in the moment -- but a few hours later, I could feel the creeping ache in my triceps. And reaching way, waaaay back in the recesses of my brain, I pulled out a vague memory of how I used to do diamond push-ups as part of my P90X regimen, and how my arms always felt wrecked afterwards.

I've come full circle.

Metcon:

• 21 box jumps (24")
• 21 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (32kg / 24kg)
• 21 kettlebell swing - catch - squats (32kg / 24kg)
• 15 box jumps (24")
• 15 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (32kg / 24kg)
• 15 kettlebell swing - catch - squats (32kg / 24kg)
• 9 box jumps (24")
• 9 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (32kg / 24kg)
• 9 kettlebell swing - catch - squats (32kg / 24kg)

What's a swing-catch-squat, you ask? Good question. It involves swinging a kettlebell up, releasing the handle and catching the kettlebell upside-down, performing a goblet squat, and then pushing the iron ball away from you and catching it by the handle to start another swing. It's both easier and harder than it looks.

On the one hand, this movement isn't altogether unfamiliar. It feels a bit like a barbell clean.

On the other hand: Holy crap. I'm not very physically coordinated to begin with, but ask me to perform anything technically demanding at 5 a.m. and you're in for some entertainment.

For today's workout, I used a 24-inch box for my jumps, but I scaled down the kettlebell weights. I used a 24kg KB for the sumo deadlift high pulls, and a 20kg KB for the swing-catch-squats. (You know who else used a 20kg kettlebell? XFitMama. She's a beast.)

It wasn't exactly a cakewalk -- I had a helluva time trying to catch the damned kettlebell -- but I got through the workout okay. Frankly, I'm just happy I didn't cave in my face with a big-ass metal ball.

Result: 8:34 as RXed.

Wednesday's Workout

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. this morning, and couldn't get back to sleep. After another half-hour of tossing and turning, I got up, made myself some coffee, turned on the laptop, and started emailing our app development team in Bangalore. And in just a few minutes, I was hopped up on caffeine. By the time I got to CrossFit Palo Alto, I was wide awake.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Strict Pull-Ups (5-5-3-3-3, with 10 pushups after each set)

Even with just a 20 pound dumbbell jammed into my crotch, I struggled to get my chin over the bar this morning -- kind of pathetic given that my PR is almost three times that weight. I'm going to blame it on the lack of sleep, but the real culprit is my lack of practice. I used to do pull-ups whenever I walked into our garage, but I haven't even glanced at the pull-up bar lately.

I need more hours in the day.

Metcon:

J.Ho: This picture's for you.

AMRAP in 6 minutes of:

• 16 medicine ball snatches (20# / 14#)
• 16 medicine ball V-ups

Rest 1 minute, then:

AMRAP in 6 minutes of:

• 16 wall balls
• 16 medicine ball twists

It didn't look so bad on the whiteboard. I'd never done med ball snatches before, but they looked doable. So did the twists -- despite the fact that they reminded me of this unholy business:

The first 6-minute AMRAP was tiring, but I felt good. The V-ups slowed me down, but I quickly got the hang of the snatches.

The second 6-minute AMRAP? Horrible -- mostly because wall balls continue to magically suck the energy out of my body. Still, I was able to make up some time on the twists, which came fast and smooth (for the most part).

Result: 7 rounds plus 17 reps as RXed.

Wow. I just spent 30 minutes writing this post. My brain is shutting down. Time to sleep!

Friday's Workout

Sandbags, sandbags, sandbags!

The last 5 a.m. sandbag workout we did at CrossFit Palo Alto was in August of 2010 -- eighteen months ago. In that time, I'd forgotten how challenging they could be.

4 rounds for time:

• 400 meter sandbag carry
• 10 strict pull-ups
• 15 sandbag sit-ups
• 20 bear-hug squats

The sandbag sit-ups (done while clutching a sandbag on one's chest) and bear-hug squats (done while cradling/hugging a sandbag) were fine -- I got through 'em without any trouble. But the sandbag run was all kinds of awful. Regardless of the position of the sandbag, I felt like it was dragging and twisting me to the side. My shuffle was slow as molasses.

As for the strict pull-ups, I'm a little embarrassed by my final two sets. Super-ugly. I'm just glad I got 'em done (eventually).

Result: 24:27 as RXed.

Monday's Workout

A good day. After practicing snatches (5-3-3-1-1), we were treated to Fran:

For time:

21-15-9

• Thrusters (95lbs / 65lbs)
• Pull-ups

Last April, I finished Fran in 6:32 (and in August, hampered by a groin injury, I did it in 6:56). We don't encounter Fran very often, so I reallyreallyreally wanted to establish a new personal best.

The first round was awesome. I got through all 21 thrusters without pausing, and despite my forearms catching on fire, I made it through the pull-ups without any problems either. But after a couple of thrusters in the second round, I had to drop the barbell and take a breather. My legs felt like they'd been smashed with a two-by-four.

In the end, Fran wrecked me -- I had trouble getting up off the floor afterwards -- but I PRed by more than half a minute today! Of course, there's plenty of room for improvement: I took too many mid-set breaks, and I'm pissed off that I failed to clear my chin over the bar on my final pull-up of the workout. By forcing myself to re-do the rep, I missed my shot at finishing under 6 minutes. There's always next time, I guess.

Result: 6:00 as RXed.

(Bonus: This afternoon, I dropped by the Firehouse -- Tim's workout space away from CrossFit Palo Alto -- and learned to climb a rope. I've now decided I want need one for my garage.)