10 rounds of 10 push ups/10sit ups/10 squats

Aka Eva T # 2. 13:43. It did not sound hard. But turned out to impress upon me the inestimable potential my shoulders have to get stronger. How do you post photos to this thing? At the coffee shop there's a bookstore next door, and the owner has a minature Aussie named Kota. Blue merle with lots of brown too. A sweet dog, and a little crazy like they all are.

More runs? AAAAAAAGH

Today I came in and Nicole was on the board (AMRAP 20 min 400m run and max pull ups), and I was not so thrilled.  Dan asked if I wanted to do another workout, and I said sure, thinking I would be getting away from those 400m runs.  Again, not so!  

I did:

AMRAP 20 min

400m run

25 squats

I managed 5 rounds.

It's the runs that kill me.  I had to walk a part of each one of them, I think.  But I think I am slowly getting better at sticking it out.  Afterwards, Dan gave me some pointers on form which I think will help a lot once I can do them without (1) thinking too much about them and (2) looking ridiculous.

Seriously though

I have reflected on CF a lot these past few weeks, and I've come to realize that it's the best thing I've ever done for myself.  Screw vegetarian, screw the elliptical machine, CrossFit and paleo are where it's at.  I look so good and feel so level-headed...plus, I know all about Tabata and metabolic pathways, and there's pretty much no way anyone will catch me ever again on any machine except the Concept 2 or in the upstairs fitness center at Williams.  It's kind of liberating.

Sumo?

As I said, I took a rest day yesterday because my mom and I visited The Tortefeasor in Birmingham.  Today was back to CrossFit Atlanta...  It's considerably harder to wake up at 6:30 and CF when you don't have someone else who is doing it with you, making you get out of bed and such.

Dan has started a new beginner class after using us as guinea pigs for a week or so.  I joined in their class today and learned some new moves.  (I have a feeling I won't quit learning CF moves for a long, long time...!)  Today was deadlifts, sumo deadlift high pulls (SDHP), and med ball cleans.

3 rounds of:

10 deadlifts (10 kg + 15 lb bar = ???)

10 SDHP (same bar weight)

10 med ball cleans (#6 med ball)

Time: 9:25

It was the med ball cleans that really tired me out.  I'm still not sure if I have the SDHPs down...I don't think I do.  Practice, I guess.  It also helps to have Heidi, Brent, or Dan doing it right in front of me while I'm doing it...ha.  I had a mental goal of being the first one in the group to finish, and that helped me to power through without taking too many unnecessary breaks (and thinking about those med ball cleans too much).  The others started out pretty fast and tired out, again, pretty fast.

It turns out that the beginner class continues into next week, which means that dad and I unfortunately miss it.  We'll be missing the nutrition, GHD work, and Olympic lifts.  I really wish I weren't missing the nutrition and the lifts, and the GHD actually...okay, I wish I weren't going to be away from CF at all, but personal life calls.

Linda, the lady who cleans our house, is threatening to drag me out and teach me to ride my bicycle now.  I guess it wouldn't be useful to use an argument such as: "But riding a bicycle doesn't help me train my phosphogen and glycolytic pathways, and I don't need to train my oxidative because I've been doing that by training the other two!  GOOOOSH!"

Guerneville Eva T WOD

So after an uneventful flight to Sacramento and threading the back roads through Napa valley slavishly following my GSP over to Sonoma, I check into the motel in Guerneville and decide to check what Eva T says I shd do for a workout. The first one on her list is 3 rounds of 1/2 mile run and 50 air squats. I head down the road and turn right up a mountain road I know in the redwoods, and with Tiesto on the iPod I instantly forget where I am and what I am doing, and already have gone a half mile up the hill. So turn around and head back down, into my room where I am using a trash can as substitute for medicine ball depth gauge. The cool air and the smell of the redwoods gives me lots of energy, and it's over before I know it. Even with the clock running on myself, this seems a lot less stressful than working out with a trainer timing me, and is a great workout in a more focused, kind of less panic/manic way, more ability to be aware of my muscles pulling my body through the workout. Also more fun running around in the redwood trees than under constant view of the high fructose corn syrup tank. My time is 25:47 with the extra 1/2 mile thrown in.

Dinner with Ante at a Thai restaurant last night, high protein load, and discussing what I have in mind with the gargoyle idea, including my plan to hang it off the house. Ante raises the idea that one reason people put gargoyles on buildings back in the ages was to ward off evil spirits. The conversation gets around to the case I am working on that involves the 3G/UMTS/GSM cell phone telephony, and the things I have learned from talking with the European inventors who were involved building this technology back in the 90's, how it's kind of like archaeology trying to dig up the past as a way to understand the technology and ultimately have to explain it to the judge and jury. I explained that it seemed to me to be the case that this technology, which is too complex for one company to produce, came about in part as a function of the social practice in Europe of having standards institutes where the participants from various competitors meet every three months in nice places in Spain, Italy, sometimes Switzerland, coast of Ireland to report, and work on their part of the complex project underway in a spirit of cooperation and goodwill. Same way the airbus got started. The conversation gets around to paying attention to the social and aesthetic aspects of doing complex technology, gratuitous beauty in architecture, how that contributes to progresss, to St. Pancras station, and back around to the gargoyle there with the fierce body and wings of a dragon but the face of a middle age businessman. Then the idea comes out of a gargoyle with a cellphone stuck on its ear. That is where it's at right now; not sure whether the gargoyle is going to be yacking mindlessly or looking off into the distance with a perplexed expression. More thought about what kind of spirits I am trying to ward off, and other things, I guess.

Today is rest day.

The WOD that sank a thousand ships

Today's WOD was Helen, 3 rounds of: run 400 m, 21 kettlebell swings, 12 pull ups.

As we drove up to the gym this morning, I said, "Good!  There's nobody running around the parking lot.  Means we won't be running."  The board had everyone doing a clean and jerk progression, so I figured they'd have us do something strength-related as well (when can we do deadlifts again?!).  Nope.  Instead we did Helen.  The real kicker here is that I thought, "well, they won't have us doing pull ups in a WOD two days in a row, so sure, I'll do all 20 in the warmup."

Dad and I definitely have different strengths when it comes to this workout.  Dad can just run along without any apparent problems, but I usually have to walk part of the run.  I actually kind of wonder what my strength was in this workout; I can't run fast or far (yet), I can't do unassisted pull ups...  I guess the KB swings were okay, but that's because I was only using .5 pood (8 kg).  Not my favorite WOD, but it helps me know what I need to work on (namely, pull ups and running, ha).

Dad just did Helen last Saturday, and he's already shaved 2:00 off of his time.  GO DAD!

My time was 14:08.  My back muscles are sore.  Time to eat some red meat and maybe make myself a kale/almond butter/frozen berry/coconut milk smoothie.

Hello there

I guess I should introduce myself.  I'm Jen, Jenni, Jennifer, and I'm a CrossFit addict.  As my dad mentioned, we started up two weeks ago today, and neither of us have looked back since.

I am a former "cardio monkey," as they say, but I always found myself hopping off the machines before the standard 30 minutes were up in favor of manhandling free weights.  I was always kind of bored, and I never felt like I was doing anything significant to my body.  Well, Crossfit has changed this: I am bored no longer, and I am sore after every workout.  Something must be going right.

I will be talking about eating Paleo more than my dad will, as I have adopted caveman-style eating with open arms, whereas he likes his bread for breakfast and ice cream for dessert.  In fact, after a huge cheat dinner at the OK Cafe last night (milkshake, fried cheese grits, fried chicken breast, assorted onion rings and french fries), I still feel fuzzy and, well, hungover.  And my performance was affected this morning (sure, that's my excuse for having to use two resistance bands for pull ups...)  So back to Paleo it is because I know that Paleo has been making me feel great.

This morning was Cindy.  I managed 10 rounds and an additional 3 pull ups.  For the longest time (probably 2 minutes or more), I tried to do my pull ups with just a green band, but I couldn't get that last one before I moved on to pushups.  I was standing there fuming, and Dan told me to add another band.  There went my pride, but I managed to catch up to Jim and the other girl, so I'd say I did okay.

Well, it's already past my bedtime.  I cherish sleeping in, so waking up at 6:30 as a college student is more or less repulsive to my being; the more sleep I get, the better!  Plus, gotta get those 9 hours for adequate muscle recovery...

Today we did the so-called "cindy" which is AMRAP, as many rounds as possible (practicable?) of this cycle, in 20 minutes: 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. I have to use the biggest elastic band there is for pullups. I have to do pushups on my knees. That said, I was able to get 10 rounds in 20 minutes. Jen and I have been at this for 2 weeks, as of today. There is less pain in the quads, relatively speaking. We go to CrossFit Atlanta which is a great place to work out. It is across the street from a sizeable soft drinks factory where stands a tall silo labelled "high fructose corn syrup."