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.
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).
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.)
I'm all kinds of miserable living in this hotel. The bed is lumpy, the kitchen's the size of a shoebox, and I'm allergic to the industrial perfumes that permeate everything in the place. We've been staying here for almost a month, and we'll be here for at least another month yet.
One of the only times I feel normal? When the alarm goes off at 4:20 a.m. and I throw my stuff into a gym bag and head out to CrossFit Palo Alto.
Strength Skill:
Jerks (3-3-3-1-1)
I love starting the day with my lifting shoes on. My final rep wasn't pretty, but I managed to successfully lock out with 155 pounds overhead -- a new (non-split-jerk) PR.
Metcon:
AMRAP in 10 minutes of:
20 kettlebell swings (10 with each arm - 24kg / 16kg)
10 toes-to-bar
20 air squats
I shot out of the gate on this one, blazing through the swings and squats, and did my best to stay in the lead -- but ultimately, my less-than-efficient toes-to-bar technique slowed me down. By the fourth round, my grip strength was gone, and the Terminator shot past me. The guy is relentless, which is why I love the challenge of chasing after him.
I've been dragging all week, but I was looking forward to class this morning. The reason: Handstand push-ups.
Strength Skill:
Handstand Push-Ups (5-5-5-5-5)
Handstand push-ups are fine, but what about doing 'em from Olympic rings? After Tim demonstrated ring handstand push-ups, a bunch of us attempted ring HSPUs . Kyle gutted out a rep, but the rest of us failed miserably. I gave it a shot, and managed to get myself into the starting position without snapping my neck in two. But even after trying so hard that my eyes felt like they were going to blast out of my skull, I couldn't achieve liftoff.
Looks like I have a new goal to work towards...
Metcon:
For time:
100 air squats
1K row
800 meter run
Cardio. Gah!
Before the workout began, I already knew how it was all gonna go down: I'd kick ass at the air squats, I'd do okay on the row, and I'd completely suck at the run.
Lo and behold: I wasn't wrong.
I quickly ripped out the air squats, and was the first to finish and get to the erg. As usual, the rowing was...unpleasant. But I kept a decent pace, and successfully avoided looking at the monitor (I hate being reminded of how slow I'm going) until I was over a hundred strokes in. I was the second person off the erg -- but as I stumbled out of the gym to start my run, I couldn't get my legs to do more than shuffle. Within seconds, a few of my classmates passed me from behind. Damn. I found little solace in correctly predicting the outcome of today's WOD.
Instead of our third Wednesday of pistols, we were treated to a longer metcon today. Over the past couple of weeks, the coaches at CrossFit Palo Alto have been deviating from the routine; rather than strictly adhering to the template of a three-week strength skill cycle followed by one week of longer metcons, everything's getting blended together. It's not random, but it's definitely getting more varied.
On today's menu:
In 6 minutes, run 400 meters, then as many rounds as possible of 5 pull-ups, 9 kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg), and 13 squats.
Rest 1 minute, then repeat the cycle.
Rest 1 more minute, then repeat the cycle once more.
Score = Total number of rounds and reps.
The pull-ups went by in a flash, and my short little legs pumped out the squats in quick succession. In fact, I loved everything except the running; try as I might, I couldn't get my feet to turn over as fast as I would've liked. Still, this WOD was sufficiently Cindy-like to put a big smile on my face, even when I was flat on my back post-workout.
The air squats felt fantastic. I got through all of them unbroken, and quickly transitioned to the kettlebell swings.
The swings felt a little less awesome. Swinging the 24-kilogram kettlebell, I managed to only get through 25 reps before having to take a breather. After that, I didn't manage more than 15 swings in a row before having to set down the kettlebell and wheeze.
The walking lunges were exhausting. After the squats and swings, my legs were like jelly, and my brain turned to mush, too. I was keeping track of my lunges by counting backwards from 60, and with 12 left, Tim asked me which rep I was on. I tried to do the math in my head: 60 - 12 = ?
"51," I sputtered. "Uh, wait, no -- um, 48?"
The toes-to-bar weren't horrible, but then came the headless horsemen. I'd performed this movement in a WOD once before, back when I had a bad back. I didn't try the RXed weight of 24 kilograms that time, and I didn't think I could do so today -- especially after fifteen minutes of an ass-kicking chipper. On the other hand, all that stood between me and the completion of an RXed workout was 20 one-armed ground-to-overheads. How hard could that be?
Pretty hard, it turns out. I couldn't do it. After several attempts, I think I managed just one completed rep at 24 kilograms with my right arm, but I used my left hand to support the handle of the kettlebell. Clearly, the quest for RX today was going to be futile, so I traded in my kettlebell for a lighter one (I had a 16 kilogram kettlebell on standby) and finished the WOD. So close, and yet so far.
For weeks, I'd been looking forward to revisiting Murph, the CrossFit "Hero" WOD named for a Navy lieutenant killed in Afghanistan. I've done Murph twice before -- on New Year's Day and Memorial Day this year -- and developed a special love for this grinder of a WOD:
For time:
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
The one-mile runs must bookend the workout, but the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats can be broken up in whatever manner you choose. I've typically done 20 rounds of Cindy -- 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats -- and intended to do the same today.
CrossFit Palo Alto was packed this morning for New Year's Murph -- so much so that the 9 a.m. session had to be split into two heats so that there'd be enough pull-up bar space for everyone. I was in the second heat, and paced impatiently while the first wave took off running.
When I finally got going, I took off on a dead sprint. The first mile felt great; I hadn't exercised in a few days, and I enjoyed stretching my legs. Likewise, my six or seven rounds of Cindy flew by without any problems. My pull-ups and push-ups were fast and fluid, and I was cranking out air squats as fast as I could.
My pull-ups and squats remained strong throughout the workout, but my push-ups broke down sooner than expected. I'm used to being able to get through a good 10 to 12 rounds of Cindy before my arms turn to jelly, but before I was halfway through the WOD, I hit a wall. Suddenly, I couldn't perform more than a handful of push-ups at a time, so I ended up changing my approach. Instead of doing 10 consecutive push-ups in Cindy-like fashion, I started breaking them up: 5 push-ups, then 15 air squats, then back on the ground to finish the push-ups.
I need to be more like this little guy:
When I got back on my feet to complete my final one-mile run, my dead arms dangled loosely at my sides. The last half-mile was painful -- I had a side stitch (which I never, ever get), and stopped to double over a few times. Ugh.
Result: 41:30 as RXed -- three minutes slower than my previous effort. I still love Murph for its bodyweight-focused movements, and I had a fantastic time working out with some of my favorite people at CrossFit Palo Alto -- but I'm a bit disappointed in my time.
Thankfully, there's always next year. And next year starts tomorrow.
It's good to be back in the gym -- even if it was at 5 a.m. the morning after Christmas. But don't look at me like I'm crazy; I wasn't the only nutjob at CrossFit Palo Alto before the crack of dawn despite not having to work today. Four others showed up for class (and for CoffeeWOD afterwards).
Okay, maybe we're all crazy.
Strength Skill:
Deadlifts (3-3-3-1-1)
I had a shot at matching my previous PR today, but failed to hoist the bar off the ground. I could've given it another yank, but although my back's feeling fine these days, I thought better of it. Good thing, too -- I needed the gas in my tank for today's metcon.
Metcon:
3 rounds for time:
50 double-unders
30 air squats
15 pull-ups
This looked easy when Tim wrote it on the whiteboard, and for the first round, it was. Most of our metcon workouts are designed to be 10 to 15 minutes long, but after flying through the initial round set of double-unders, air squats and pull-ups in 2 minutes, I thought to myself: I have a shot at finishing sub-7.
But in the second round, I had to take breaks after every dozen double-unders or so, and my pull-ups weren't unbroken. It took 3 minutes to finish that round.
Still, it was the last set of double-unders that did me in. My forearms felt numb from the one-two punch of pull-ups and rope-flinging, and my feet began snagging on the slowing rope. It took a whopping FOUR minutes to complete the final round.
I'm a little exhausted. Work has been crazy, and the holidays (and multiple birthdays in our family) have ratcheted up my stress levels. Vacation's still a week away, and my to-do list is as long as my arm. To top it off, M and I have been insanely busy cooking up some Nom Nom Paleo-related stuff. But I'm keeping my priorities straight: Come Monday morning, I'm at CrossFit Palo Alto.
Strength Skill:
Deadlifts (5-5-5-3-3)
My back's feeling fine, but given how I felt just a few weeks ago, I was much more tentative than usual. Rather than shooting aggressively for a new PR, I started light and stayed light, lifting just a fraction of my personal best. I'll eventually work my way back up, but for now, I'm going to play it safe, and settle for watching my classmates set new benchmarks. (Jake's new deadlift PR: 405 pounds!)
Metcon:
Row 500 meters
50 air squats
40 Games standard push-ups
30 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
20 pull-ups
10 toes-to-bar
Despite my antipathy for the erg, the 500-meter row wasn't too bad. I quickly settled into a steady rhythm, and finished with enough pep in my step to get through the air squats unbroken. (High five!) The push-ups proved to be a bigger challenge; try as I might, I couldn't string together all 40 in a row. I had to break the last 15 or so into mini-sets of a few at a time.
The kettlebell swings weren't any easier, but I was determined to blaze through 'em. After 20 or so, I desperately wanted to drop the kettlebell, but didn't. I hit my goal of 30 swings in a row -- but as I grabbed the pull-up bar, fully intending to crank out the last two exercises, I realized that MY GRIP STRENGTH WAS GONE.
As a result, the pull-ups took a bit longer than usual, and so did the toes-to-bar. My forearms were on fire by the end of the WOD.
Result: 9:07 as RXed.
Later in the day, I popped into a local health center for a much-needed massage. My masseuse spent a good chunk of time on my forearms, kneading them with her (insanely strong) hands and knuckles.
"Your hands and wrists and forearms are all knotted up," she said. "You're spending too much time at the computer. Try doing some exercise -- it might help."
I woke up less sore than I thought I'd be, so I headed back to Lahaina CrossFit to squeeze in one last workout before leaving the island.
Warm-Up:
Row 500 meters
20 kettlebell swings
20 air squats
20 push-ups
20 push-presses
20 wall balls
20 pull-ups
20 lunges
We had fifteen minutes to complete the warm-up, which was plenty of time to finish all eight of the warm-up exercises. I was pretty sweaty by the end, though. And while I've never been a huge fan of the "Your Workout Is My Warm-Up" line, it felt apropos this morning.
Strength Skill:
Push Jerks (5-5-3-3-1-1)
"We're not aiming for a one-rep-max today," Anthony said at the start of the workout. "We're just working on technique."
Nice. My form is rusty, and I couldn't remember my PR anyway. Once I got close to jerking my bodyweight, I called it a day.
Metcon:
"Baker's Dozen" - AMRAP in 13 minutes of:
13 kettlebell swings (53lbs / 35lbs)
13 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (53lbs / 35lbs)
13 toes-to-bar
13 burpees
Lucky thirteen. This was a doozy; after ripping through the kettlebell swings and SDHPs, trying to hang on for the toes-to-bar was a special kind of hell. It was enough to make me almost -- almost -- look forward to the burpees.
Result: 4 rounds + 40 reps as RXed.
After class, I lingered to chat with S and K, a super-fit couple in the 8 a.m. class at Lahaina CrossFit. We ran into them last night at the Old Lahaina Luau, where they work. Our family was wowed by S's beautiful hula dancing, and bowled over by K's gregarious charm. (Photos from our luau experience are on M's blog.) They're also two of the most friendly and inviting folks we've met on an island full of generous, warm people, and it was great getting to know them better.
You wouldn't ever know it from looking at him, but K told me that not too long ago, he was over 40 pounds heavier. Then, he and S started doing P90X (8 rounds!) and Insanity, and then moved onto CrossFit. Now, they're looking into Paleo. Sound familiar? I wish I could say that I'm just like S and K, but that would be wishful thinking; I could only hope to be as fit and strong (and nice!) as these two.
Maybe it's something in the water here. Or maybe I should move here to Maui and see if some of the mojo rubs off on me.
After three days of lazily snorkeling, sitting by the pool, and stuffing my face, I was glad to get back into a CrossFit gym.
Lahaina CrossFit sits on a hill just east of the little shopping area around the Cannery Mall on Honoapiilani Highway. It's smack-dab in the middle of a number of spots that we regularly hit when we visit Maui: Star Noodle, Mala Ocean Tavern, Aloha Mixed Plate, the big grocery store that used to be called Lahaina Farms -- West Maui's version of Whole Foods -- but was later sold and is now just a gussied-up Foodland. Hence, getting to the box from our place in Ka'anapali is no sweat.
Anthony Bianucci founded Lahaina CrossFit about a year-and-a-half-ago, and for me, the timing couldn't have been better. I had started doing CrossFit at roughly the same time, so when we made our annual trip to Maui, I was on the hunt for the closest affiliate. I found Anthony's place -- at the time, the box was so brand-spankin' new that it didn't even have bars and bumper plates yet -- and threw myself into a number of WODs during my vacation:
In four workouts, we got the kitchen sink. It was fun and challenging, and Anthony's positive energy helped get me through the humid weather and ass-kicking WODs. When I finished my final workout at Lahaina CrossFit last November, I knew I'd be coming back.
This November, we're revisiting time trials right before my vacation. I think I prefer it this way; instead of ending a nice, relaxing beach holiday with a butt-kicker of a workout, I'm starting it with one.
With time trials, the name of the game is to 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:
400 meter run
500 meter row
50 pull-ups
50 push-ups
50 Abmat sit-ups
50 air squats
Last time, I did 'em in order, which meant I was so gassed from the running and rowing that I could barely muster the energy to do the rest of the bodyweight movements. Today, I decided to tackle the squats, pull-ups and push-ups first. Given that I'm not yet 100 percent, I certainly didn't want to start with a heart-pounding sprint and row, only to struggle through my beloved bodyweight exercises.
My strategy worked -- sort of. Relative to a year ago, I did better on my squats, pull-ups, and Abmat sit-ups, and my overall time improved. I was happiest about shaving my pull-up time in half. (It obviously helped that I didn't try to do 'em right after rowing.)
On the flip side, my running was a lot slower this time around, which wasn't a total surprise. To begin with, I'm kind of a terrible runner. But I also made a conscious decision to hold back juuuuust in case a sprint might exacerbate my back and/or ankle issues. I lost 13 seconds.
Next time, I'm going to do the run before the push-ups; that way, my arms'll have more time to recover from the pull-ups, and I might have more pep to my step during my 400-meter dash. (That's what M did today. Smart girl.)
Believe it or not, I managed to rein in my appetite this morning. It was a "50% off" kind of day.
My back felt okay as I stepped into the gym at 5 a.m., but I reminded myself to fight the usual urge to push myself. My goal over the course of the next month is simple: To recover. I'm going to focus on mobility, and resist the temptation to go heavy on strength work and metcons. Think I can do it?
Strength Skill:
Deadlifts (5-3-3-1-1)
Instead of loading up the barbell, I cut my normal weight in half and did bodyweight deadlifts. And instead of five sets, I just did three sets of three. In other words: Super-light, super-short. It was just enough to get me moving a little bit, but not nearly enough to strain anything.
Metcon:
"Half-Cindy" -- in 10 minutes, as many rounds as possible of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
I'm a huge fan of bodyweight workouts, and Cindy's the queen of 'em all. We've done a number of different variations on Cindy -- including Murph -- and I've loved all of them. And today, with doctor's orders not to go heavy, a short 10-minute bodyweight metcon couldn't have been more perfect. Before the clock started, I gingerly tested out each of the movements. None of them bothered me in the slightest, so I happily joined the rest of the class.
The workout was fun -- my pull-ups were strong and smooth, and the push-ups felt good and fast, too -- at least for the first five rounds or so. Towards the end, I had to take brief pauses after every 4 or 5 push-ups and squats, but my pull-ups never slowed.
And best of all, my back felt looser afterwards than it has in days.
As a birthday gift to myself, I was going to treat myself to a blogcation tonight, but my obsessive-compulsive side won't let me take a break from posting this morning's workout. As a compromise, I've promised myself that I'll keep this post super-short.
Strength Skill:
Strict Weighted Pull-Ups (3-3-1-1-1)
Felt fine at 45 pounds + bodyweight. Need to go heavier next time.
When we last did this workout (over a year ago!), I was just a few weeks into CrossFit, and power cleaned with a light weight. Today, I went RXed just to see if I could do a bunch of cleans with a barbell loaded with the equivalent of my bodyweight. It was a struggle (especially doing 'em immediately after finishing a set of squats), but I pulled it off.
Next: I want to see if I can establish a higher 1 rep max.
Result: 13 rounds + 10 reps as RXed.
One last thing: At the end of the WOD, a police office showed up in response to a noise complaint by a neighbor. Fitting, I guess. Every birthday should include a cop telling you to keep it down.
My ankle continues to improve (I was able to run on it today -- kind of!);
I got to work on squat cleans; and
Today's metcon was bodyweight-focused -- my favorite!
But in part due to my exuberance, and in part due to the fact that in my rush to get out of the house, I forgot to put in my contact lenses, I screwed up the workout anyway.
I'm a big fan of Cindy, the CrossFit WOD that calls for cranking out as many rounds as possible of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats in 20 minutes. It's pure sweetness.
What explains my fondness for this workout? It consists exclusively of three fundamental bodyweight movements -- and all three are right up my alley. I love kipping pull-ups, and can whip through 'em without pause. The pull-ups and air squats get more challenging as the WOD progresses, but in the early rounds, I can dash those off fairly quickly, too.
My affection for Cindy extends to the many different variations of this workout I've tried. I've done a task-priority Cindy, a half-Cindy, a three-quarters Cindy, and a full Cindy -- all of them were fun. And my favorite Hero WOD is Murph, which is basically 20 rounds of Cindy sandwiched between two 1-mile runs. Each time I've done a Cindy-esque workout, I've averaged about one round per minute -- not elite by any means, but not too shabby, right?
So imagine how happy I was to see Tim write this on the whiteboard this morning:
AMRAP in 20 minutes:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 pull-ups
...but he didn't stop there. He added one more line:
20 double-unders.
Holy moly. I should have known. After all, we'd kicked off today's class with some double-under practice, during which I clumsily tripped all over myself and my rope. But hey: There's no time like the present to squeeze in more double-unders -- even if it means doing them in a WOD.
Here's how the workout went down:
Pull-ups: Great! They came fast and easy, and I went unbroken with each round. Bonus: No torn skin!
Push-ups: For the first four rounds, the push-ups weren't a problem -- I got through each set of ten quickly and without much of a struggle. But by the fifth round, I was pausing after every few reps, and Tim was reminding me to make sure my chest touched the floor. And by the end of the WOD, my shoulders were utterly fried. In a good way.
Squats: The squats didn't bother me much (at the time -- my legs are incredibly sore right now, though). I broke them down into three sets of 5 reps per round, and just pounded them out.
Double-unders: They went surprisingly well. Shocking!
For the first few rounds, Tim had to keep cueing me to keep my elbows tucked in close to my sides ("T-REX!" he yelled, reminding me to whip the rope with little itty bitty baby dinosaur arms instead of violently jerking it from my shoulders). During our pre-WOD practice, I'd failed to implement this advice.
But during the workout, the pulling, pushing and squatting were so exhausting that I couldn't help but relax a bit and settle into the double-unders. Frankly, I was too tired from the pull-ups and push-ups to flail my arms around, so I had to rely on my wrists to move the rope. And because my legs were burning from the squats, I didn't (couldn't!) rush my jumps, resulting in a much more sustainable double-under pace.
By pacing myself, I managed to fly through most of the double-unders. Yes, I got tripped up an average of once or twice per round, but for the most part, I was able to reel off at least 10 or 12 in a row each time.
My proudest moment: With a little less than 60 seconds left in the workout, I did 15 squats, 20 unbroken double-unders, 5 pull-ups and 1 push-up. As soon as the clock beeped, I collapsed on the floor, but I was happy to have finished strong.
Result: 11 rounds + 6 reps as RXed. Cindy plus 220 double-unders equals magic.
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.
Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.”
Not surprisingly, those who had eight hours of sleep hardly had any attention lapses and no cognitive declines over the 14 days of the study. What was interesting was that those in the four- and six-hour groups had P.V.T. [psychomotor vigilance task] results that declined steadily with almost each passing day. Though the four-hour subjects performed far worse, the six-hour group also consistently fell off-task. By the sixth day, 25 percent of the six-hour group was falling asleep at the computer. And at the end of the study, they were lapsing fives times as much as they did the first day...
Americans average 6.9 hours on weeknights, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Which means that, whether we like it or not, we are not thinking as clearly as we could be.
And Gretchen Reynolds surveys a bunch of talking heads in order to find the BEST EXERCISE EVER.
Other than Taubes' piece, this article was the one that piqued my interest. According to the exercise physiologists interviewed, three movements -- all of which are familiar to any CrossFit enthusiast -- stand head and shoulders above the rest:
Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you’ll get a dozen wildly divergent replies. “Trying to choose” a single best exercise is “like trying to condense the entire field” of exercise science, said Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles. It builds endurance.” He paused. “But it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying” an all-burpees program, “or sticking with it for long.”
Squats:
“I nominate the squat,” said Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and an expert on the effects of resistance training on the human body. The squat “activates the body’s biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs.”
...The squat, and weight training in general, are particularly good at combating sarcopenia, he said, or the inevitable and debilitating loss of muscle mass that accompanies advancing age. “Each of us is experiencing sarcopenia right this minute,” he said. “We just don’t realize it.” Endurance exercise, he added, unlike resistance training, does little to slow the condition... Most physiologists believe that only endurance-exercise training can raise someone’s VO2max. But in small experiments, he said, weight training, by itself, effectively increased cardiovascular fitness.
“I used to run marathons,” he said. Now he mostly weight-trains, “and I’m in better shape.”
Intervals:
High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. as it’s familiarly known among physiologists, is essentially all-interval exercise. As studied in Gibala’s lab, it involves grunting through a series of short, strenuous intervals on specialized stationary bicycles, known as Wingate ergometers. In his first experiments, riders completed 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the volunteers repeated the interval several times, for a total of two to three minutes of extremely intense exercise. After two weeks, the H.I.T. riders, with less than 20 minutes of hard effort behind them, had increased their aerobic capacity as much as riders who had pedaled leisurely for more than 10 hours...
The only glaring inadequacy of H.I.T. is that it builds muscular strength less effectively than, say, the squat. But even that can be partially remedied, Gibala said: “Sprinting up stairs is a power workout and interval session simultaneously.”Meaning that running up steps just might be the single best exercise of all.
(What's your poison? Burpees, squats or intervals? Something else entirely?)
So what have we learned from just one issue of the New York Times Magazine?
Meat is tasty, but skip dessert.
Sleep a lot.
But when you’re up, don’t sit: Do burpees instead.
I'm still coughing up a lung over here. But I went to bed at 9 p.m. last night, so I got 7+ hours of sleep, which felt awesome.
Strength Skill:
Snatches (3 sets of 3, 2 sets of 1)
The hook grip hurts. But after Tim pointed out that my hands were too far apart on the bar, I narrowed my grip, and it felt better. Not Palmolive-good, but better.
Metcon:
For time:
25 pull-ups
50 air squats
800-meter run
50 air squats
25 pull-ups
"This is right up your alley," Tim said to me. He's right: I love bodyweight workouts like you wouldn't believe. And we hadn't done pull-ups in a WOD in a while, so I was excited about getting up on the bar again.
I'm stoked (holy crap -- I just realized I haven't written the word "stoked" in at least 15 years) that I was able to peel off the first round of 25 pull-ups without stopping. I'm less stoked that I had to hop off the bar five times during the last round.
On another note: My torrid love affair with my new shoes continues. This was the perfect WOD for my New Balance Minimus -- they didn't drag me down on the pull-ups, they gave me a sufficiently solid heel base for air squats, and they were awesome for running.
Result: 7:34 as RXed. Not too shabby, but I think I can do better next time.
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