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."

Change-Up

I still can't put any weight on my flexed wrist, which has put me in a sour mood. It's been more than a little frustrating; I can't even lift the strap of my work bag over my shoulder without discomfort, let alone clean a barbell up to my shoulders. I've done what I can to keep pressure off my wrist -- recovery requires rest -- but I'm also determined to keep going to the gym. After all, just because I can't perform certain movements right now doesn't mean there aren't a host of other things I can still do to stay active.

For example, last Friday, while the rest of the class at CrossFit Palo Alto practiced barbell cleans, I worked on bottoms-up kettlebell cleans. I had to modify the metcon, too. Here's what everyone else did:

• 21 chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 15 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 15 chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 12 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 12 chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 9 dumbbell thrusters (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 400 meters

No chest-to-bar pull-ups for me -- too much wrist flexion. Instead, I did chest-to-ring pull-ups, using a set of Olympic rings set high. I didn't have to twist my wrists to get all the way up, though generating any sort of momentum was a challenge. (You can't push off the rings horizontally like you can with a bar to start a big kip.)

Result: 11:36.

I rested on Monday (mostly because I didn't have a babysitter to watch the kids in the morning, but also because everyone at the gym did "Nutts," and I was too damned tired to attempt it in my garage).

On Wednesday, the strength skill was weighted pull-ups. My doctor said that pull-ups are a good exercise for my wrist, so I did 'em, though I didn't load up with as much weight as I did in previous sessions. Better safe than sorry.

The metcon: 

• 4 rounds: 
• 10 overhead squats (95lbs / 65lbs)
• 12 hang power cleans
• 14 lateral bar jumps

No barbell for me. In place of the overhead squats and hang power cleans, I did single-arm overhead squats with a kettlebell, and double-kettlebell cleans. It bugs me that I can't do the same workout as my fellow 5 a.m. nutjobs. It's weird how much I miss being able to just grab a barbell and clean it. Yet at the same time, I was happy to be able to join the gang in doing something -- and feeling just as exhausted and sweaty as I normally do after one of our workouts. The kettlebell OHSs and cleans were surprisingly good approximations of their barbell analogs, and I enjoyed a fine, ass-kicking workout without exacerbating my wrist injury. Win-win, right?

Result: 7:15.

I'm Hating My Wrist Right Now

I don't know what I did to my right wrist, but for over a week now, it's felt like crap every time I flex it. On Friday, we were supposed to work on touch-and-go cleans at the gym (five sets of five, one set every three minutes), but when I attempted to warm up with just an unloaded barbell, my wrist started screaming at me to stop.

Tim suggested that I ditch the barbell cleans and work instead on bottoms-up kettlebell cleans to help rehab my wrist. I kept the weights light -- this was the first time I'd attempted bottoms-up cleans, and the last thing I wanted was to exacerbate my mysterious injury. It was a bummer that I wasn't able to practice touch-and-go barbell cleans, but on the plus side: New skill!

Next up: The metcon.

3 rounds:

• 1 minute max effort calorie row
• 1 minute max effort toes through rings
• 1 minute max effort wall balls (20lbs / 14lbs)
• 1 minute rest

The calorie row and toes through rings weren't a problem. With my right wrist wrapped tightly with a wrist strap, the calorie row and toes-through-rings weren't a problem. Neither required much wrist flexion. I actually had a fantastic time with the toes-through-rings -- I found 'em to be much easier on the hands than toes-to-bars, and it was pretty easy to maintain a good kipping rhythm throughout.

The wall balls, on the other hand, were murder. I plodded along slowly, relying on my left (weaker) arm to toss and catch the medicine ball. Note to self: One-armed wall balls are not a good idea. Each minute yielded fewer than 10 wall ball shots.

Result: 123 as RXed.

I was hoping a weekend of R&R (and a mind-blowing meal) would fix what ails me, but alas: No dice. My wrist isn't any better. When my alarm clock started buzzing at 4:20 a.m., I briefly considered turning over and going back to sleep. But I thought better of it: There would be something I could do at the gym that involves no wrist flexion. And after a sedentary weekend, I was ready to get off my butt again.

The strength skill was front squats. To save my wrists, I did back squats (five sets of three, one set every three minutes) instead. Again, I took it easy, going only up to 185 pounds. I focused instead on maintaining proper form -- in particular, keeping my knees from collapsing inward during my ascent from the bottom.

More good news: The metcon didn't involve a whole lotta wrist action.

For time:

• 10 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 240 meters
• 20 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 30 dumbbell burpees (45lbs / 30lbs)
• Run 800 meters

Before the workout, I'd planned to go with the women's RXed weight, but Tim gave me a skeptical look. "Way too light," he said. He was right. I went with a pair of 40 pound dumbbells, but I probably would've done fine with the 45s. In fact, the dumbbell burpees were more fun than I'd anticipated, though my quads were burning by the third round.

Even all that running felt good in the cool, misty darkness.

Result: 13:23.

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.

Bonehead

I must not have been fully awake today. You'll see why in a sec.

Strength Skill:

• Zercher Squats (5-5-5-3-3)

It's been half a year since we last practiced Zercher squats, and I'm feeling a little rusty. Nonetheless, I love strongman exercises (despite being the very opposite of a strongman), and it makes me happy to pull out the thick bar and squeeze it in the crook of my elbows.

I got nowhere near my previous PR (of 225 pounds) today, but by the time I finished the last set, I was feeling solid, and think (hope?) I have a shot at besting my previous record by the end of this cycle.

Metcon:

• "CC Flyers" -- 3 rounds for time of:

• 400-meter run
• 12 overhead squats (95lbs / 65 lbs)
• 21 box jumps (20")

I watched Tim write the workout on the whiteboard, and studied it before I changed out of my weightlifting shoes. But for whatever reason, I transposed the "1" and the "2" on the overhead squats, and thought it said TWENTY-ONE overhead squats instead of twelve.

"You're going RXed, right?" Steph asked. "You just did twenty 95-pound overhead squats during Air Force WOD, and you won't be doing all the other lifts."

"Uh, no," I replied. "Too many reps today." There's no way I'm doing 63 overhead squats at 95 pounds, I thought to myself. I'm sure Steph thought I was nuts.

So I scaled down to 75 pounds. And did 21 overhead squats per round. And finished slower than a sloth on pot.

Result: 12:57.

It wasn't until an hour after class -- after we'd returned from guzzling coffee and I cracked open my log book to enter in today's workout -- that I realized I'd misread the workout.

Perhaps I need to drink coffee BEFORE my workout instead.

Monday's Workout

The one thing that got me out of bed this morning? Knowing that we're starting a new four-week cycle at CrossFit Palo Alto. Plus, after everyone in the gym did a crapload of rowing on Friday, I kind of figured the erg wouldn't be playing a major part in today's metcon. See? I'm using my noggin even at 4 in the morning.

Strength Skill:

• Kettlebell Snatches (5-5-5-5-5 per side)

It still amazes me how much I can perspire while doing just a few brief sets of kettlebell work, and with plenty of rest in-between to boot. Still, I'm pleased to report that I'm no longer terrible at kettlebell snatches. "Not bruising my forearms" used to be my primary marker of success with KB snatches, but today, I actually got to focus on cleaning up my form.

As usual for the first week in a cycle, I kept it relatively light, but I managed to work my way up to 24 kilograms. Already drenched dewy with sweat, I would've been happy to pack it in for the day, but there was the little matter of the metcon.

Metcon:

3 rounds for time of:

• 20 lateral tuck-jumps over a parallette
• 15 handstand push-ups
• 400-meter run

This looked fun (except for the running, which never looks fun). The tuck-jumps reminded me of stuff I used to do in my garage back when I was bouncing around to P90X and Insanity DVDs -- and just like the good ol' days, my jumping was less than graceful.

Having just finished a cycle of HSPUs, the handstand push-ups flew by pretty quickly -- especially now that I've discovered the one-legged kip. For the past couple of years, I've been doing strict handstand push-ups, and finding that once I ran out of gas, I was done. With the extra little oomph provided by a single-legged kip, though, I felt like I could keep cranking out HSPUs for a good, long while. I was thisclose to finishing all the handstand push-ups unbroken, but right before my forty-fifth (and final) rep, I fell away from the wall. D'oh!

Let's not talk about the running. Suffice it to say, I remain sluglike on the running path.

Result: 9:12 as RXed.

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!

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.

Monday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Cleans (5-5-5-3-3)

When the going gets tough, I evidently lift more slowly -- the exact opposite of what I ought to be doing. Note to self: Stay aggressive on the bar. I need to turn off my brain and just lift angry. Like this:

Metcon:

For time:

• Run 400 meters
• 15 burpees
• 30 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 45 wall ball shots (20lbs / 14lbs)
• 30 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 15 burpees
• Run 400 meters

It took a while for me to decide whether to run or row. For the past few weeks, I've been subbing in a 500-meter row every time a 400-meter run's been programmed, but my left Achilles has been feeling better of late, and to be honest, I just hate rowing. I chose to run.

And you know what? I was fine. That's not to say I flew like the wind; this was no Forrest-Gump-shedding-his-leg-braces kind of moment. Instead, I slowly, gingerly trotted out the gym to the marker and back. But: No pain!

The first set of burpees and kettlebell swings were smooth and fast. When I got to the wall balls, though, I crashed and burned. It took me forever to get through all 45 reps, and I was pretty cooked after that. I'm pretty sure the neighborhood retirees out walking their dogs could've passed me during my final 400-meter "run."

Result: 14 minutes flat 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.

Monday's Workout

A cardio-heavy workout today:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

• 400-meter run
• 50 double-unders

This doesn't look like much, but believe me: It was plenty -- especially for cardio cowards like me.

Knowing I'm still hobbled by my left Achilles, Tim instructed me to substitute 500-meter rows in place of the running, and to do 150 single-unders instead of the double-unders. It's frustrating to have to do single-unders instead of double-unders, and I'm no fan of rowing, but ultimately, I'm glad I scaled today's workout. Running would've wrecked me. My goal was to keep a steady, sub-two-minute split pace while rowing, and to go unbroken during the rope-jumping. I tripped up a couple of time while jumping, though, and my final stint on the erg was painfully slow, but I got through this one without having to curl up on the floor afterwards.

I did sweat a lot, though.

Result: 5 rounds plus 400 meters on the erg.

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.

Monday's Workout

The pros of being back home after two and a half months of living in an extended-stay hotel due to a flood-damage:

• New floors that give our abode a "new house" smell!
• The joy of sleeping in our own bed and cooking in our own kitchen.
• The relief of being back home in time for our seven-year-old to recuperate from surgery.
• The fact that the WiFi connection is a bazillion times stronger here than in the hotel.
• Being reminded that bathroom towels aren't crispy like the ones at our hotel.
• No overpowering odor of powdered "eggs"in the morning, and no industrial cleaner smell in the hallways.
• No surly desk clerks!
• No de-magnetized hotel key cards that bar your entry to your room when you have two kids and three heavy bags of groceries with you.
• The dishwasher in my house actually works.

The cons of being back home:

• The sawdust.
• Having to devote two solid days moving everything -- clothing, electronics, kitchen supplies, food, books, etc. -- back into the house after it had all been thrown haphazardly into storage.
• The sudden realization that we are pack rats, and that we accumulated an embarrassingly vast amount of utterly useless crap over the past six years -- all of which needs to be donated or thrown away.
• Not remembering how to hook up the speakers to the receiver to the TV to the cable box to the wireless router to the phone jack to the whatever.
• Paranoia about scratching the new floor.
• No more daily housekeeping.
• No free breakfast in the morning. (Of course it was crap, but IT WAS STILL FREE.)
• Being so exhausted from moving that I can barely type, let alone remember yesterday morning's workout.

(See what I did there? Nice transition, right?)

Strength Skill:

• Pistols (5-5-3-3-3)

I was happy to see pistols in this cycle -- I need the practice. When I'm doing 'em with my right leg planted, I can crank out pistols like no tomorrow, but I've always had trouble with my left (weaker) leg. Like a lot of other folks, I need to clutch a counterweight (like a kettlebell) to keep my balance when doing pistols from my left left. I suspect it's an ankle mobility issue for me, and it didn't help that I had -- and still have -- a left Achilles tendon that's been bothering me for a couple of weeks. That said, after massaging it with a lacrosse ball, I felt good enough to push through the sets.

Here's how I know I did 'em right: My butt cheeks are sore.

Metcon:

For time:

• 400-meter run with a medicine ball (20lbs / 14lbs)
• 45 medicine ball sit-ups (20lbs / 14lbs)
• 45 medicine ball overhead squats(20lbs / 14lbs)
• 400-meter run
• 45 Abmat sit-ups
• 45 PVC pipe overhead squats

The most challenging movement? Hands down, the med ball OHS. With your hands on either side of the ball, your shoulders and arms are in a much narrower position than with a barbell OHS, and you're pressing in on the ball instead of punching up on a bar. It's crazy-awkward, and I kept having to fight the tendency to bend my arms and let the medicine ball rebound off the top of my head.

The Terminator and I kept pace with one another until the very end. Although I started the final movement (PVC OHS) before him, he turned on the afterburners and zoomed ahead right at the end of the workout. He beat me by one measly second.

Dammit.

Result: 11:22 as RXed.

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.)

Ow Ow Ow

Ow ow ow ow ow:

5 rounds for time:

• Run 400 meters
• Row 500 meters 

Ow.

Result: 22:57

Ow ow ow.

It felt just like the last time I did this workout. In other words:

Ow ow ow ow ow.

Wednesday's Workout

The badger crawls from Monday did a number on my shoulders. I was surprised at how a quick little workout completely wrecked me, and hoped that today's workout wouldn't require much use of my arms. A Tabata squat workout, perhaps? Or box jumps and sit-ups?

No such luck.

3 rounds of:

• 400 meter run
• 21 jerks (95# / 65#)
• 500 meter row
• 12 handstand push-ups

As you know, rowing and running aren't my favorite activities in the world, but at least I got through 'em without stopping. The jerks and HSPUs? Not so much -- especially with fried shoulders.

Result: 23:32 as RXed.

I wonder if the Turkish get-ups on Friday are going to exacerbate or alleviate my shoulder misery.

Wednesday's Workout

Alright -- let's break the good news first:

I got a new Zercher squat PR today (225 pounds)! (It's about time -- my previous PR was set way back in December of 2010.) It made me puff up my chest for a few minutes -- that is, until...

The bad news: Today's Tabata-style metcon. It knocked me on my ass.

• Tabata grasshoppers (6 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest)
• Tabata shuttle runs (6 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest)
• Tabata dumbbell snatches (40# / 25#) (6 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest)
• Tabata ring rows

Take the lowest number of reps in any single 20-second round at each station. Add 'em up, and that's your score.

The first round of grasshoppers wasn't too bad -- I cranked out 30 of them in 20 seconds, and felt pretty good about myself. And then the second round came, and I managed only 23. The next round: 22. It was a struggle to stay above 20 -- and by the time my three minutes of grasshoppers was up, I was panting like a dog.

The shuttle runs and dumbbell snatches were interminable.

Finally, we came to the ring rows. By the time we started our second set of rows, Jake and I were loudly grunting and groaning in pain. My arms were on fire, and I never managed more than 10 per set.

Ugh.

Result: 47 as RXed.

Monday's Workout

The boys were up all night crapping their pants. M knew I was still recovering from a cold, so she looked after our sick kids, generously allowing me to sleep through the worst of the ass-explosions so I'd be (relatively) well-rested for the 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto. I know I don't say it often enough, but my wife is all kinds of awesome.

Strength Skill:

• Single-Leg Deadlifts (5-3-3-1-1)

I'm tightening my gut and keeping my hips down low. I'm pushing off my heel, and I'm keeping my head in line with my body. But I still suck at one-legged deadlifts -- especially when I do 'em while balancing on my left leg. I'd make a horrible evil one-legged space pirate.

Metcon:

2 rounds for time:

• Run 400 meters
• 20 ground-to-overheads (75# / 55#)
• 15 box jumps
• 10 toes-to-bar

This was reminiscent of this year's Open WOD 12.3 -- you know, the one that murdered me. Thankfully, today's version was a lot more sane, but it was still a kick in the pants.

I'd like to say I held back because I'm not feeling 100 percent, but the truth of the matter is that I simply got my butt handed to me. The ground-to-overheads weren't a problem (I did a mix of snatches and clean & jerks), but the box jumps knocked the wind out of me today.

Result: 10:12 as RXed.

Monday's Workout: Balls to the Wall

First up at CrossFit Palo Alto this morning: Single-leg deadlifts. We hadn't done 'em since November of 2010, and in that time, I've evidently lost all ability to pull off this maneuver. Sixteen months ago, I was able to pull the equivalent of my bodyweight off the ground while balancing on one leg; today, I struggled to get even 115 pounds up while wobbling back and forth on my unsteady left leg. I'll just chalk it up to the rust that needs to be knocked off.

Metcon:


3 rounds for time:

• Run 400 meters
• 15 burpee-balls-to-the-wall (20# / 14#)

The balls-to-the-wall move entailed doing a burpee with one's hands on a medicine ball, and then doing a wallball shot by popping the weighted ball up to a 10-foot target.

I only have two things to say about this workout:

• I am a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad runner.

• I should've initiated each of my wallball shots from a deep squat, but instead, I stood up after each burpee and did this awkward push-press-like movement to get the ball up to the target. It was inefficient and exhausting. I would've generated a lot more power had I started from a full squat.

Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

Result: 10:42 as RXed.

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.