Tabata Something Else

October 20th

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Its been a while since I’ve done this workout. I dug myself a grave with this one. I went hard. Unfortunately I lost my sheet with my rep breakdown. I know that I hit a PR with the pullup segment. The numbers looked much higher than I am used to. I dont know how I did with the other exercises comparatively. In the end I finished 345 reps. This is a PR over my previous high of 330 reps. I completed 118 squats. I feel like this was a high number for me…at least thats what the feeling in my legs is telling me. I’m writing this 4 days later and my legs are still super sore. I’m much better now but 2 days ago my legs were sore to the touch. Walking down stairs felt like my quads were tearing.

I’m happy that I got in such a good workout. I had to teach Beginners Class afterwards. It took me about 20 mins to compose myself after I was rolling around on the floor in pain trying to recover from my effort.

Crossfit Football

October 17th

So I opted for the CF Football workout today. I was away in Vegas this week. I havent worked out in a few days. I’m still a little tired from my trip. I knew that I should go for a workout that would give me the best bang for my buck, especially since it was likely that I wouldnt get a chance to workout again for a few days. Deadlifts! Today’s CF Football workout was just that. The workout was:

Complete 5 rounds for time:

7 Deadlifts 315 lbs
21 Double Unders

I scaled the deadlifts down to 275lbs. I finished in 7:19. Man all of the work that I have done on Double Unders for the past many months seemed useless. After doing the deadlifts, my coordination for the double unders was toast. Its always eye opening how things that you are proficient in during isolated practice fall to crap once you compound it with something else demanding.

Elizabeth

October 12th

Elizabeth

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

8:12, this was a big PR by 1:36 over the last time

Team Rides

October 10th

We had another great ride today. It was just the team today. We’ll have recruits out tomorrow. It was good to get some movement going. I’ve been resting since the 300 workout. My body really took a good beating on that one. Its great, now my body feels really strong. The problem is also that I feel really tight too. I’ve begun researching a place to go to get a regular deep tissue sports massage. Today we did ride out to the Spoon and back. Thats the routine these days. We switch it up with different routes but always stop at the Spoon. I hurt a bit on the ride back today. I was feeling those 300 muscles.

Duration 2:42
Norm Power 255 watts
1823kJ of work

October 11th

Today we had another team ride. Good showing today as well. We had one recruit join us today. The team is really motivated right now. This morning it was a bit cooler but still nice. We have to cherish these days with the thought of the cold weather that is ahead. We rode pretty casually on the way out. I put in an effort at State Line. Flubbed the sprint but had a great leadout. Our new guy Sean is a tank. I was overgeared. I hit 1530watts with 30secs at 975watts. These numbers made me want to compare my latest rides. When I looked back at the recent files, I just noticed that I hit a new PR 2 weeks ago. On September 26 team ride I hit 1709watts with 30secs at 1116watts. That 30 second number is solid.

So we hit up the spoon and then came back. I got dropped on the State Line hill again or I should probably say as usual. We chased back on once the road flattened out. I hurt at some points on the way back. Fortunately I was able to execute a good sprint at the end. Brian snuck up behind us and beat me in the end.

Duration 2:17 (I didnt start my file until the bridge)
Norm Power 283
1513kJ of work

I’m a Spartan

October 6th

I made today a Crossfit day. My knee feels strong again so I was ready to go and “get some”. Todays workout was the 300 workout.

Complete the following:
Pullups – 25 reps
Deadlifts with 135 lbs – 50 reps
Pushups – 50 reps
24-inch Box jumps – 50 reps
Floor wipers – 50 reps
Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 36-lbs Kettlebell – 50 reps
Pullups – 25 reps

Torch said that to make the cut and be a Spartan you were required to finish within 18 minutes. I told myself that I was definitely going to try to make “the cut”. I flew through the 25 pullups, 50 deadlifts and the 50 pushups. I began to start to feel the pain setting in on the 50 box jumps. I drove myself through the box jumps on mind control. Just making sure to focus on the effort and not the pain. Next up…

Floor Wipers. Shit man! 50 Floor Wipers with 135lbs. Wow. This was my first time doing this movement. Talk about core killer. Stabilizing the 135 lbs overhead along with the torque of the twisting leg lifts to kick the weights was insane. The feeling that I felt while doing these was far greater than any GHD situp, Knees to Elbows routine I’ve ever done. I did the first 10 reps unbroken. Then after that it was sets of 5 reps. I was moaning like a woman in labor. I kept making jokes during this part of the workout. I think that the humor kept me going. The toughest part was holding the barbell up. In between reps I would drop the bar then roll it over myself down to my hips. Then hip pop it up in order to press above. I was so hurt that I was struggling to bench press the weight up. I kept thinking, shit each of these presses is eating into my strength for the 50 kettlebell clean and presses that I had to do next. The KB C&Ps were tough but not so bad after those damn Floor Wipers. At this point completing the reps was more about mind control than anything. I finished those then jumped on the bar for my last 25 pullups. When I walked to the pullup bar I yelled,”I wanna be a Spartan.” I did 5-5-10-3-2 reps. DONE. 16:20!!!! I’m a SPARTAN. Man that workout sucked. I was delirious for a good 20 mins after I finished. My brain was just not right.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night at one point. I couldnt help but notice how weird it felt to just take a deep breath. My torso was fried. My core muscles were destroyed. I was crazy sore for the next couple of days.

Team Ride

October 4th

Today was beautiful. It was damn near 80 degrees. We had a team ride with a number of new recruits joining us. I had the most fun than Ive had on a ride in a really long time. We had a large number of guys and everyone was motivated. Unfortunately I dont have a power file for this one. I had my SRM pulled in to the charger but foolishly didnt know that the charger plug had fallen out of the outlet. Oops. So all I have is a great memory, no data file

Still Rehabbing

October 3rd

I’m still rehabbing my damn knee. I would have loved to go to CF today. Todays workout of Pistols would not have gone over well with my knee still aggravated. I chose to do a workout at home. I have a small 12kg kettlebell at home.

I did a 20 mins of

10 L arm KB swings

10 R arm KB swings

10 L arm KB snatches

10 R arm KB snatches

10 squats with the KB

10 L arm KB clean and jerks

10 R arm KB clean and jerks

I didnt count the rounds. I definitely had a good workout. Great cardio. I broke a serious sweat. The back of my ribs on each side got killed. This workout requires a lot of core stabilization due to both the unbalanced nature of the kettlebell as well as the independent left and right arm movements. I finished up with a 2 hour walk around the neighborhood. My knee felt good during the workout but a little funky during my walk.

Snatches

September 29th

Snatches 7 sets 1 rep max

My sets went as follows. 125, 135, 145, 155(f), 155(f), 155(f), 155(f)

The 155lb was not happening. In hindsight I should have reduced it down to 150lb but I was not going to give up on the 155. I struggled to get under the weight fast enough. Snatches are a complex movement that I dont do that often to get good at them. I just need more work on em.

Rest Day

September 28th

Today was a CF restday. I had intentions on doing a workout but was unsure of what I wanted to do. My knee is still finicky. It feels better but it definitely isnt great. I went to Duane Reade and purchased some bullshit knee wrap thinking that it may help. I’m sure you can guess about how effective it was by looking at the word that I used to describe it in the previous sentence. I did a lot of warming up for my knee. Jumping rope, bodyweight squats, situp squats, overhead squats with weight. I jumped on the rower briefly. After the rower, my knee was not good anymore. I finally settled on doing 2×20 of deadlifts at 225lbs. I cranked those out and then called it a day.

Team Ride

September 27th

I spent the last few days resting my knee. I’m so surprised at how fast I began healing. I was in some serious pain right after I hurt myself. The following morning much of the pain was gone. I walked with a limp and had some pain but nothing near what I experienced the day before. Great!

I began doing some body weight squats in the house to loosen up and keep my joints flexible. I’ll be keeping a diet of squats daily until my knee is back.

This morning the team got together for a ride. It was just a ride to Nyack and back. We had some potential new recruits out with us. We sprinted at State Line, stopped at the Spoon for coffee and socializing and road back. On the way back some guys turned it up a bit. I had no interest. My legs were on fire. Everytime we went hard I was swimming in lactic acid. I’m pretty sure that it was lingering fatigue from the squats. It was great to get out with the guys. As I write this I dont have access to my power file but I do remember hitting 1700watts in the sprint.

Bad move

September 23rd

Todays CF workout was

Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups
Body weight back squat

I did not want to do the bench and pullup portion of the workout. I just wanted to focus on the squats. My squats have been poor lately. I need to build back my squat strength. I got out of work late today. It was too late to make the trek to Brooklyn. Instead I went to the Harlem Y. Its right around the corner from me.

I was excited for the opportunity to do some squats. I did some warming up with body weight squats. Then I did some sets of overhead squats with the bar and 75lbs. Got on with my work sets. Verdict, my squats suck these days. I completed 5-6 reps per set. On the last rep of my last set I made a big boo boo. I was concerned with getting the weight up. I didnt have spotters and the last thing that I wanted to do was have to dump the weights. I dropped down too quickly into my squat with foolish thoughts of getting a good bounce out of the bottom. I finished the set, racked the weight and took a step back out of the squat rack then…ooo shit what the hell did I do to myself? I was in crazy pain when I put pressure on my left foot. I limped home angry at myself for making a mistake that may force me into a vacation from training. I got home popped a couple of fish oil caps and an ibuprofen for the inflammation and strapped on an ice pack. This is one mistake that I’ll definitely learn from…

Shoulders

September 21st

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

The last time I did this workout was in April. It was good to see how I progressed. Today my reps were:

Press: 125-135-145-155-165

Push Press: 155-165-170-175-180

Push Jerk: 170-175×3-165×1-160-155

In April they were:

Press – 1 rep – 115, 135, 145, 150 (fail), 155 lbs
Push Press – 3 reps – 145, 145, 140, 155, 160 lbs
Push Jerk – 5 reps – 135, 145, 145, 165, 175 (4 reps), 185 (1 rep)

I had a very nice improvement over the last attempt at this workout. I probably could have gone heavier on the Push Jerks but by then my shoulders were cooked. This is a long workout. It took about an hour and 15 mins. I’m happy that I had big increases on the Press and Push Press.

Deadlifts

September 22nd

Today’s workout was 7 singles of Deadlifts. I sucked today. I did some warmup sets and then began. My back was a little off to begin with. I’ve been sleeping weird and waking up with a sore back. Despite the soreness I went ahead with plans of completing a solid workout. I loaded the bar with 385lbs for my first lift. I picked it up off the ground. About halfway up, something wasnt feeling right. I put it back down. My back did not like that much at all. For the second attempt I dropped the weight to 365lbs. I could barely get it off the floor. 3rd attempt, I dropped to 355lbs. I got that up no problem. Even though I completed the round, something didnt feel right. I aborted the workout. I didnt want to hurt myself. My back was quite irritated. I could feel that it was inflammed. I made the smart decision of calling it quits instead of injuring myself.

Team Ride

September 19th

We had a team ride today. Its recruiting time of the year. So we got together as a team along with some new recruits. It was just a simple trip to the Spoon for coffee and back. A little sprint at State line and some light efforts on the way back. It felt like it has been a long time since I was on the bike. I did a short ride on Thursday but my legs were feeling it from the football workout that I did on Tuesday. I’m beginning to shift my training focus now that my season is over. My aim now is to do Crossfit during the week and long rides on the weekends for the next month or so. I have a lot of travelling coming up for work. This will definitely disrupt my training consistency. After that training phase I will begin to incorporate some Crossfit Endurance workouts during week.

2hrs 44mins

250 norm avg power

Crossfit Football

September 15

Today’s Crossfit workout was 5 x 3 Front Squats. After my recent Crossfit Total…failure, I know that I could use some work on squats. But instead I opted for Crossfit Football today. It looked like an interesting workout.

5 reps Get 185lb barbell overhead with arms extended any way possible

7 pushups

9 GHD back extensions

As many rounds as possible within 12 minutes

 

I scaled the weight down to 135 lbs. 185 was an absolute bear. I tried a couple of reps with it…no thanks. I would have been lucky to complete 2-3 rounds. This workout was really tough. I didnt realize how bad it would be. I used split jerks to get the weight overhead. So split jerks and pushups back to back toasted my shoulders and wrists. I made a mistake with the GHDs. I did situps instead of back extensions. No big deal, except that GHD situps are tougher for me than GHD back extensions. It seemed like the other exercises went by too quickly. After each round I was like no not split jerks again. The killer was that once I couldnt do the split jerks in a row, they became clean and split jerks. I was too cooked to hold the weight so I had to clean it each time.

I was able to complete 6 rounds and 5 clean and jerks in the 12 mins. What a great experience for my first Crossfit Football workout.

Barbara

Sept 11th

Barbara

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

This is a really nasty workout. Simple movements but its the volume and interval format that gets you. Unfortunately I cant find my results for the last time that I encountered this workout. This time I did quite well. That certainly doesnt mean that it hurt any less. Again the pushups are my limiter. I often suffer through body weight exercises like pushups and pullups (but you regular readers knew that already).

My times…3:27-11:43-21:00-30:38-39:10 including rests

I’m sure that is a huge improvement over the last time. I dont remember my times but I vividly remember the face plants that I was doing when my arms were failing during the pushups. This time my pushups were markedly better.

500m Row

Sept 9th

Well today was a rest day. I wanted to test myself and hopefully add my name to the “whiteboard”. For those that dont know the “whiteboard” is a dry erase markerboard or chalk board that is basically our own little hall of fame. The best times for particular workouts are posted on the whiteboard. Theyre up there for all to see. Not only do they inspire congratulations, they also inspire ambition for someone to break that record.

I chose the 500m row. I’ve never done the 500m row for speed. My buddy Luke had the fastest time on the board with a 1:29. I knew that that was a tough time to beat…but what the hell. I gotta try it anyway. In my mind I wanted to break 1:25. I just missed my goal. I finished in 1:25.4. God damn, I didnt realize how bad that effort would mess me up. I felt like I had done a long hard workout. Brain was foggy, my glutes felt like they ripped and my back was on fire. I got pissed at the row at the end of my effort. I just threw the oar handle back to the catch. I was scared that I almost broke the computer on the rower. The battery cover and battery popped off. Fortunately Torch was able to get it running again.

I started nicely. I got up to speed quickly and held around 1:18 pace for the first 100m. I held around 1:22 for the next 200m. With 200m to go, I ran straight into a wall. I felt like I was moving in slow motion. My pace hit 1:25 and then fell to 1:30 at the end. At this point my form was horrible. Next time I will make sure to focus on the form when the pain gets overwhelming. I think that I gave the pain to much credit and it allowed me to loose my concentration on my form. But…I’ll be back and next time it’ll be a sub 1:25

Crossfit Total Failure

Monday Sept 7th

Just back from a wonderful weekend of partying, late nights, and way too much alcohol. Happy Labor Day!

I decided to dedicate my day to returning to normalcy. I did some chores, prepared things to return to work tomorrow and went to Crossfit. I was really excited to do the total today. I was hoping for some improved numbers that would reflect my progress. I know that I’ve definitely progressed though today my numbers did not reflect it.

Today was my Crossfit Total Failure. Mentally I was there. Physically I was in party recovery mode. During my warmup sets on the squats I knew something was wrong. I felt less than sturdy. In fact I felt quite rikkity. I began my 1st attempt at 240lbs and failed. I subsequently failed on the following two attempts. I was really upset. I guess I dove in too deep. Per the Crossfit Total rules if you fail an attempt you can not reduce the weight. Per the Crossfit Total Failure rules you are to (load the bar with a weight that you know you can do, rack it, back off the rack, set position, dip with the weight into a deep squat, start to rebound it, get stuck in the “hole”, dump the weight, feel dizzy, curse yourself, and get really pissed with yourself, repeat 3 times. Next time I believe that I can do without the Crossfit Total Failure rules.

Press. I did 165lbs on my 1st attempt. Moved to 170lbs on the following two and failed them both. Not too bad considering this was better than my previous CF Total press of 155lbs. Note: at this point I’m still upset.

Deadlift. 1st attempt 350lbs, complete. 2nd attempt, 385lbs, complete. 3rd attempt, 405lbs, failed. I know that I could have done the 405lbs but by then I was cooked. The total taxes your system quite nicely. It would be interesting to know how much of an effect my emotions had on draining my energy too.

In the end my CF Total was  a failure. I would be lying if I said that I wish that I didnt party like a rockstar over the weekend. I’ll definitely do it again. Anyway, how many rockstars do the Crossfit Total anyway?

Elizabeth, you again

AFTER - Elizabeth today, hmmm well on second thought...

BEFORE - Elizabeth in January (yuck)

Wednesday Sept 2nd

Elizabeth
21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

I still have a passionate hate for Elizabeth. This is the first time that we have met in a while. Truth be told, I like her a bit more than last time. She still has a major character flaw, ring dips, that I’m learning to just deal with. Yes, back then, I called her a bitch. I dont regret it. Sad to say that she still is. Through life I’ve learned that you cant change people. You must just accept them as they are. Flaws and all. On the bright side, she’s definitely starting to look much better now.

In January I spent 19:01 with her. Today I spent 9:48 with her. Thats nearly a 10 minute improvement. Another great thing to note is that in January I did 115lb cleans. Today I did it rx’d with 135lb cleans.

Tuesday

I took Monday off and decided to head back to CF today to “get some”. Today’s workout was a modified Fran with a row or run thrown in.

For time:
Row 1000 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 21 reps
21 Pull-ups
Row 750 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
15 Pull-ups
Row 500 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 9 reps
9 Pull-ups

I opted for running instead of rowing. Today was not a good day. On my first set of Thrusters I tweaked my groin. I dropped down into my squat and felt a pop. I dropped the weight and walked away from it to regroup. I tried again. Again, the same thing happened. FUCK. I deliberated for a few seconds about what to do. Kelly yelled at me to pick up the bar. She didnt realize that I had hurt myself. I had to think fast. Okay. Instead I’ll do clean and jerks. So I completed the rest of the workout with clean and jerks. My running was pretty labored but I finished. 16:33

I was a bit sore afterwards but fortunately I didnt hurt myself badly. On another note I met a fairly new member today. A woman who races bikes and kicks ass in Crossfit…doesnt get much cooler than that.

On another note, today’s Vuelta stage was friggin insane. Lots of rain, slippery and dangerous roads and mad carnage. Between the rider running full speed in to the back of a truck and the mass pileup in the run up to the finish, I’m sure the guys were freaked out. Sad news, Horner is out. He broke his wrist in the big crash. He is having a tough season but he’s the man he’ll be back to wreck shop next year.

See the better recap here, though its not in English…pictures speak for themselves

Club Race

August 30th Club Race

Just as I left home it started raining. I actually considered turning around and going back to bed. I was a little cold. It was only 64 degrees but it was raining. Instead I reached in to my pocket and turned up my Master of Puppets album and continued riding.

My stomach was killing me this morning. Must’ve been the slice of carrot cake that I had for breakfast. I scarfed it down 30mins before race time with a glass of kefir…not the wisest dietary choice.

Off we went. I suffered today. My last couple of days workouts were talking to me. The race wasn’t exceptionally fast. There was a lot of up and down that put the whip ass to me. The field did not want to let a break go up the road. I haven’t suffered like that in a race in a while. Hmmm was it the 1.25 mile run, the 75 snatches or the 4.5 hour ride? My hips, quads, and hamstrings were so sore. But look at the bright side…I didn’t have any cramping issues. Thinking about it, I didn’t drink nearly as much as I should have.

I got popped on the “two to go” lap. Harlem Hill, oh Harlem Hill. I made sure to start that one near the front of the field because I had trouble on the two previous laps. It didn’t help. I fell backwards through the field like a pinball. I would fall back a couple of slots and then hang on for a couple of seconds and then fall back a couple of slots, hang on for a couple of seconds, and repeat…you understand. Though there wasn’t the pinball flapper to slap my ass back up through the field. I fought hard to stay in the field. I got dropped on the two previous laps and chased back on. On the last lap I never made it back on.

After the race I had the worst stomach cramps. Its now 6 hours later and they just went away.

Check out the graph. I plotted a gridline at 400 watts to see how often I went above it. My overall average power was low for the race. I’m sure my training fatigue and the surging got the best of me today. I’m happy I did it. That was some good suffering to aid me in being better at life.

Snatch and Run

August 29th

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Power snatch, 15 reps
Run 400 meters

I couldn’t miss this one. I was feeling full of energy and wanted to do something physical. The rain was coming down in the morning so I didn’t want to ride. Its been a while since we had a workout that included running. I figured lets go do this thing. I’ll just scale the snatches down to 75 lbs. I had a long ride yesterday and a race tomorrow morning.

This was an awesome workout. The snatches do a good job of gassing you. I concentrated on really jumping up the weight and exploding from the hips. A few of my reps got a little sloppy and I quickly learned the importance of proper form. Doing a snatch without a good hip pop makes it a pure upper body movement…not so good. This is a great workout for sprint power. The snatch requires great jumping ability. So you are basically doing a 95lb plyo jump 15 times followed by a 400m sprint.

I was really breathing hard throughout the whole workout. I was really focusing on suffering through it. I finished in 14:37.

Can you do a plyo jump with 460lbs?

Long Ride w/ Climbs

August 28th

I had the day off today. I planned on doing a long ride with a friend who has recently gotten in to cycling. I woke up this morning and it was raining outside. There was a forecast for rain all day. I was so excited to ride a little rain definitely was not going to stop me. I rode for 4 hours and 17 mins. We hit up every climb that I could pile in to our ride. I had my 44T ring on the front so I was getting in some nice grinders going up some of the climbs. Lots of strength work. Ash was pure bike wrestling. It’s a climb at 12%. I fought hard to keep that gear turning over. I did a couple of short sprints for fun as well. It was a fun ride. I haven’t done a long climbing ride in months. It felt great.

4:17
254 watts norm power
At a super low 74 rpm

Thrusters, Cleans and High Pulls, yuck

August 25th

Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

Wooo man. This workout was brutal. I feel like I sweat a gallon of water during this one. The thrusters killed me. I was quickly partitioning the reps. The cleans were good. I was able to bang them out unbroken. High pulls, I did them 5 at a time. This workout murdered me. I completed 7 rounds and 5 thrusters.

Makeup workout

August 23rd

Today was a Crossfit rest day. I opted on making up the 7 x 1 rep of Hang Power Cleans. My previous PR in the Hang Power Clean was 175lbs. Today I got a new PR of 205. I was going for 210 but no dice.

175-195-205f-205f-205-210f-210f

Check out this dude doing 30reps at 225. Insane

Mengoni

Aug 22nd

Mengoni Grand Prix

The roads were wet from bad thunderstorms throughout the night. This race was set to be nasty, dirty and dangerous with lots of flats and mechanicals sprinkled in for good measure. The first lap was pretty civil, just a couple of light accelerations here and there. A couple of guys tried to get off the front. All in all everyone seemed to want to get in a decent lap to see how the race course was. Plus everyone was too fresh and ambitious to let the race go up the road in a breakaway on the first lap.

The 2nd lap brought some more action. Still nothing that looked threatening. I sat back and just kept watch on who was doing what. By the end of this lap the rain started again. I didnt have glasses on. I couldnt wear them. They were so fogged up. My eyes were getting pelted by the driving rain and overspray from other riders wheels of dirt and horseshit.

Lap 3 a group went up the road with guys that I knew should not be given a chance to get away. I was not content with allowing the race to go up the road with such a strong group of riders in it. I attacked to bridge across to the group. I made it close but I was not going to give a free trip to the 3 guys that were on my wheel. I flicked my elbow to get the guy behind me to do some work. He wouldnt do shit, so I sat up. Fine if youre not going to work I aint dragging your ass up there. Eventually someone else picked up the slack but by then the field was back together.

Lap 4 the rain was definitely coming down. I kept hearing this voice in my head,”when its raining, attack!” Though I was waiting for the right move at the right time. Riders take extra caution on the downhill by the pool in CP. I knew that this would be a good place to get a gap. I moved to 5th wheel and jammed it into the downhill while the field was on their brakes. Once we hit the bottom of Harlem Hill the field was single file. Luck would have it that we were about to pass the womens field. This would disrupt the group. I railed it up Harlem Hill. A small group of us crested the top and then railed it over the following roller. On this roller I yelled to the group that the field was split. Lets get it together and breakaway from the pack. Only 3 or 4 of us did any fuckin work. I was so pissed. We would have shelled nearly every sprinter in the race. Most of them were sitting in the back of the pack. There was only myself and one other sprinter in this group. Everyone was too busy looking back. Fuck looking back, look forward and GO. Damn just thinking about it irritates me. Those efforts cost me 441 watts for 5 mins. Son of a bitch. Too many matches with nothing good to show for it. Back to the field to recover.

Two laps to go. I was all about sitting in the field and trying to reserve anything that I had left for the sprint. I kept safe for the sprint. Unfortunately 2 guys jumped off the front late in the race. One of them made it and won. The rest of us sprinted. I finished in 9th place. Not so great but good considering that I didnt just sit in and wait for the sprint I was happy with it. Compared to the other fields today, we were pretty safe. We only lost a handful of guys. There was some major carnage in the other fields. Most of that took place during the last lap. There were definitely some fireworks during that lap. Also a crash during the sprint too.

1 hr 24 mins
320 watts norm power
158 bpm
90 rpm

Week Recap

August 18th

Push Press 7 sets, 1 rep
I finished 135-145-175-185-205-225f-215f. Lesson learned, jump into higher weight earlier. The sets at 135 and 145 should not have been done. I could have definitely gotten the 215. I was rushing instead of focusing. Today was my first day teaching a Crossfit Beginner’s Class. I wanted to make sure that I finished my workout in time. Well class was great. We had a big crew today. 10 people showed up.

August 17th

Double-under for 2 minutes
Sit-up for 2 minutes
Double-under for 90 seconds
Sit-up for 90 seconds
Double-under for 1-minute
Sit-up for 1-minute
Double-under for 30 seconds
Sit-up for 30 seconds

My score:
120 DU’s
253 SU’s
373 Total

I need help at Double Unders. I got better at them as the rounds progressed. Higher jumping allowed me to be smoother without fatiguing my arms so much. Situps were good. I think that I did a good job of those. So essentially these scores are per 5 mins of work or 300 secs per movement. I averaged a Double Under every 2.5 secs. I averaged a situp every 1.19 secs. I feel it already. My abs are gonna be cooked tomorrow.

For a cash out we did a pullup/pushup ladder. 1 pullup and 1 pushup for the first minute, 2 pullups and 2 pushups for the second minute, 3 pullups and 3 pushups for the third minute, etc. I died at 9 completed rounds plus 10 pullups and 7 pushups. That whooped my hands.

August 15th

Club Race. 7 laps. I felt good. Kept good position. I was concerned about how I would ride since my Tuesday workout was still with me. My hips were very tight and still sore. My quads were still feeling it. At the end I was in excellent position for the sprint. My teammate Brian lead out the sprint by himself for damn near a mile. He’s awesome. I was sitting 3rd wheel. I jumped a couple of different wheels once he pulled off. Starting the sprint I was on the wheel of the sprinter who won the field sprint. I was so sure that I was going to smoke it. Then my fucking left hamspring completely seized up. Bad, bad cramp. I fell backwards and was passed by like 6 guys. After the sprint I pulled over and began my whimpering routine from a Prospect Park race earlier this season. On that day it was also oppressively humid. My teammate Aaron was next to me after that race and thought that I was gonna cry. Words cant explain how painful those cramps were that day. This time they werent as bad but they were definitely bad.

1:33:46 at 309 norm power
avg cadence 90rpm
avg heartrate 162 watts

August 12th and 13th

I pussy footed through Central Park on a recovery ride. Nice and light with a large social component. Just chatting with other riders and keeping it light. 30 mins max. My quads really needed it.

August 11th

THE BEAST!

As many reps as possible in 20 minutes:

Men take a 95# barbell and women take a 65# barbell and do the following:
Deadlift
Hang Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Lower behind the head widen your grip
Snatch Grip Push Press
Overhead Squat
Lower behind the head
Back Squat
Behind the Neck Push Press
Rack and
Reverse Deadlift to the floor.

That’s ONE rep.

Post number of reps completed to comments.

This workout was aptly named. The Beast, shit man…yes it was. I scaled my workout down to 75#. I wanted to get in a tough bike workout the next day so I wanted to keep it light. Oh well. This workout still trashed me. I was able to complete 35 rounds in the 20 mins. My quads were cooked. I felt like they ripped during the workout. My shoulders were trashed too. Once I was done I knew that there wouldnt be any hard bike workout happening tomorrow.

Recap

Havent written in a while. Hmmm. I feel like I’ve said that before. In fact, I’ve said it recently. So I decided that I would try to rebuild for the Mengoni Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.

In preparation, last week I went to Crossfit on July 30th. I did the following workout:

With a continuously running clock do one 135 pound Clean and Jerk the first minute, two 135 pound Clean and Jerks the second minute, three 135 pound Clean and Jerks the third minute… continuing as long as you are able. Use as many sets each minute as needed.

This was tough. It was my first time doing such a workout. It is pure anaerobic suffering. I lasted 9 mins. Afterwards I was gasping for air. During the workout I was so focused on completing the movements that I did not realize how asphixiated I was.

On Saturday August 1st, I went out for a team ride. I felt really good. We had our usual sprint at the state line. I hit a new 30sec wattage PR, 1019watts. I tt’d the way back solo thinking that I was going to catch up with teammates that were ahead of me. Unbeknownst to me they were behind me after stopping to check on another teammate. I missed everyone on the ride home but I was still fortunate to have a great ride. 2:32 at 271 norm watts

Sunday Aug 2nd, I did the club race in Central Park. It was fun. Lots of attacking and moves being made. A break went up the road early in the race. On the 2nd to last lap, we were close to catching them. Some assclown crashed out a bunch of guys on Harlem Hill. I got caught behind it and wasnt able to catch back up to the front group. The ironic thing about this is that the assclown’s teammate won the race. I was very happy with myself. This was the best club race that I’ve had this year. I didnt place though I kept good position and rode more intelligently than I have all season. 1:30 at 283 norm watts

After spending another week of cross country travel I was able to get to Crossfit for a workout on Friday. I did the Row, Burpee, Run workout. It consists of:

Three rounds for time of:
Row 500 meters
21 Burpees
Run 400 meters

The last time I did this workout, I killed it. Today it killed me. I finished in 15:34. I think this was like 3 mins slower than last time. Dude, I almost fuckin died. I was hurting baaaad. After finishing I fell to the floor and was writhing in pain. My body was hurting everywhere. My eyes were closed because it hurt to look at things. I blame it on my travels. I was really spent when I returned from Denver. So much so that I left work early the day after returning. I rarely have a physical problem that requires me to deviate from my regular daily schedule.

Saturday August 8th, I went out for a short ride. I just wanted to warm things up for my next day’s race. 1:40 at 260 norm watts.

Sunday August 9th, Governor’s Island race. This was fun. Govenors Island is an underutilized parcel of land off the southern coast of Manhattan. I finished in 6th place today. I was happy with that considering how little I’ve been training. I logged less than 5 hours on the bike in the month of July. I’ve done just under 6 hours so far this month. CF must be a great tool for maintaining and building my bike fitness. Under normal circumstances I would definitely not expect to have increased my power output and be in the position to place in a race if I was not training on my bike. 1 hour at 301 norm power.

The sprint was tough. I never really had a peak power output. The graph doesnt look like my typical sprint graphs. There many efforts necessary to get into position to sprint. I included a graph of the last 2 mins of the race. I added a gridline at 700 watts. Its interesting to see how many times I exceeded 700 watts in those 2 minutes. I exceeded 700watts 11 times before even sprinting.

CF East Sacramento

Hmmmmm, I think that I'll turn right...

July 21st

life and work are becoming my biggest limiters to training consistently these days. This happens at this time every year. Not too many suprises there. So I was in Sacramento on business and decided to visit some Crossfit cousins that I’ve never met. I stopped by CF East Sacramento for a workout. The venue is pretty nice. Large, open, column less space. Tons of great equipment and an awesome crew. The photo above is the sign in the parking lot. I thought that this was so cool. Being from NYC, I’ve never seen a sign like that at a Crossfit location…excuse my ignorance, lol. There’s like space and parking and trees and all this crazy shit

So we did a warmup of a 300m row followed by 3 rounds of Samson Stretch, 15 GHD situps, 10 front squats, and 10 behind the neck push presses. The workout as rx’d was 5 rounds of (5) 155lb thrusters, (10) 36″ box jumps, (20) double unders. I scaled down to 115lb thrusters and 32″ box jumps. I finished in 12:24. Excellent workout. As a cash out I did some heavy deadlifts up to 385 and called it a day.

Big thanks to Travis, Brooke, Dusty and Mitch. It was a pleasure working out with you all. There a couple others whose names I dont remember. Dont hate me for it.

Im baaack…

Im baaack…after a good little break. Part of the break was due to lingering hangover symptoms. I definitely did a good job of celebrating the 4th of July. Hard partying on Friday night until 530am and then partying on Saturday until 430am…i think? (dont remember too much).

I attempted to race track on this past wednesday. It was my worst day at the track ever. I took off work with the expectation that I would have a good day of racing. I choose to ride my bike out to the track (never done that before). Well my track bike is set up to be ridden on the track…only. I flatted twice on the way out there. I did my 1st race. It went well. I finished 4th but was cooked afterwards. My 2nd race was painful. I flatted again in my 3rd race. Game over.

So after another weekend of late nights, its time to get back to business.

July 13th

I hit up the park tonight. I wanted to get in a good 2 hour ride at a nice effort. Unfortunately I lost a bit of time because I need to stop at the bike shop. Instead I rode for 1:40. My average norm power was 300 watts at 164 bpm. I’m happy with my numbers. I wanted to get into a strong and steady pace. It went according to plan. I rode with a few others near the end of the ride. Opened up a nice sprint to finish things up at Cats Paw. It hurt like hell but felt great.

Eva

June 30th

Eva
Five rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
2 pood Kettlebell swing, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups

Killer volume. Today it was pouring rain. Shit its been pouring rain for the past month. No surprises there. This is one nasty workout. The volume is insane. I scaled it down to use 1.5 pood kettlebells and 20 pullups per round. My hands were pretty torn up after this one. This is definitely one of the longer workouts. I finished in 41:37