the cojones are in the mail

I had to take a break, dear reader, after partying with the MilkManX and J. I'm just as pretty as I was as a youngster but it takes me longer to bounce back from a few pints. Ah well. At least I enjoyed the company and the food (Blue Smoke BBQ).

So before partying it up with my buddies I did a kb breathing ladder: 1-20-1 kb swings, resting one breath per swing. Between reps 10-20 I limited the resting breaths to 10. This workout will put a hurt on your back if you're not prepared and will burn up your forearm flexors. Ay chihuahua! This took 23'12. I rested the next day. My business stayed glued.

10-29-10

-3x15 db hpc/burpees

I'm going to call this the "got cojones" routine, so the next time you hear it you'll know what I'm talking about. Grip is no longer a problem. I held on to the db's throughout every set. The problem is now in my quads. The combination of the cleans and the burpees turns my legs to jelly.

The rate of progress is diminishing. Whereas before I was taking off a minute per, I'm now advancing in fractions of a minute. Today's time was 6'31. I told myself I'll add more weight to the db's when I crack 5'. It might be later than I hoped.

The no-mas-ometer reads 3.7.

4,257

got cojones?

Nothing like some CrossFit women to inspire you to prove you've got cojones. Jury's still out, but here goes.

Lately, I've been doing the 3x15 hang power cleans/burpees workout that I lifted off the CrossFit main site a few days ago. The guys were doing it with 130 lbs barbells and the women with 95 lbs barbells. I'm doing it with my default 2x54lbs db's.

The first time around it took me an excruciating 9 minute+. I had to do the HPC's in sets of 5. The second time around, my time was reduced to 8 minutes and change. On Saturday, 7'10 and today 6'43. Each workout had me fearing that my time would be slower than the previous one. Happily, I am progressing. As soon as I break 5 minutes, I'll add some man weight to the db's.

No-mas-ometer reads 3.8 today.

4,212

bag o' rocks

I was all set to do another round of Hilde, when I spied my neglected Bulgarian bag gathering dust in the corner. The bag is a truck tire inner tube filled with 40 pounds of pea gravel and tied of like a humungous sausage link with zip ties. This thing is a beast. Swing it around your head and it will take down passers by and low flying aircraft if you lose your grip.

10-21-10

-5 min burpees (52)

-10 min BB around the worlds (130)

-dips w/Fe (15,16)

-pull-ups w/Fe (2x6)

-1 min bent arm N sit

It's been a while, since before Paradise Island, that I did a 5 minute burpee test and it showed. Bleh. The Bulgarian bag atw's smoked my grip. Lucky thing I built safety straps into it as my left hand grip almost betrayed me. I was hoping for 200 revolutions in 10 minutes, but barely eked out 130 in sets of 10.

The no-mas-ometer reads 3.7.

4,117

familiarity breeds efficient neural pathways

So I revisited the CrossFit wod that had me doing 3x15 hang-power-cleans + burpees, and I improved. This time around I held on to the weight for the first 2 rounds, losing steam in the third round when I had to break up the 15 reps into 8 and 7. The burpees still hurt.

10-20-10:

-3x15 (hang power cleans + burpees), 8'09

-dips w/Fe (15,16)

-pull-ups w/Fe (2x6)

-1 min bent arm N-sit

The no-mas-ometer reads 3.7.

4,065

-Dips w/Fe (14,15)

-Pull-ups w/Fe (2x6)

-10 minutes of thrusters (40)

I wish I had some new revelation, but I don't. Well, I do notice that I am gradually building reps on the dips. Cool, the shoulder is holding up. Thrusters continue to be difficult and the pull-ups are stalled. Otherwise, nothing much to write about.

The no-mas-ometer reads 3.6.

Intermittent gorging

You might have noticed I took a few days off from training and posting. Or maybe you didn't. In fact, I was on Paradise Island in the Bahamas from Saturday until Wednesday with my wife and kids and it was great.

We signed up for the breakfast plan, which comprises an all you can eat buffet. Since lunch and dinner were optional, we opted to gorge ourselves at breakfast and scrounge around for the other meals. A typical breakfast for me on the island included bacon (or corned beef hash), eggs, pineapple, juice, muffin, and coffee. Lunch and dinner were usually the same portions as we would have at home. The end result is I am now 4 pounds heavier. Yeeha!

It's not as bad as it might seem. According to my bathroom scale (one of those electronic thingies with bioelectrical impedance sensors), I did not gain a bit of body fat. . . Hmmn. Of course there is always the likely chance of equipment error. But the lazy, wants-something-for-nothing side of me harbors the hope that my regular, albeit short workouts, and usually meager breakfasts (coffee and 2 slices of almond butter toast) have built up a calorie and protein deficit that was only met this past weekend. 4 lean pounds in 4 nights, could it be possible? If so, I'm putting out a DVD called Intermittent Gorging.

I'm waiting for reality to clothesline me. The scale probably needs new batteries.

Anywho. . .

10-14-10

-5 min burpees (54)

10-15-10

-3x (15 hang power cleans and 15 burpees)

Got this straight off the CrossFit main site. The first set was easy. The second set, not surprisingly, had me wishing I started out slower. I got my second wind during the last set. I'd like to do this workout at least once a week. I finished this one in 9'20.

The no-mas-0meter reads 3.7.

4,020

Here's a blog to follow.

http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/

I became familiar with Kelly Starrett through the Crossfit main site. Every time Starrett appears he's always got something interesting to say about flexibility and mobility. With so many pain, prehab and rehab issues of my own it's hard not to pay attention to this guy.

row slow

So I dusted off the 'ol C2 and settled in for a 20 minute piece. My aim was to have a steady stroke rate of about 18-19 strokes/min, which I did. The thing about rowing this long for me, actually long for rowers can be 90 minutes of mind-numbing hell, is fighting off the demons in my head that want me to quit. I've got a ways to go from 20 to 90 minutes, but it's a start.

Besides improving my burpee efficiency, I've long had the ambition of getting my 2K time on the C2 down to a respectable number. Something like 7'45 is kinda lame. Tabatas just ain't going to cut it. I figure that by building a decent aerobic base, I'll be able to improve that time as well as the 50 and 100 burpee times.

Now I have to figure out how to program more rowing with the other stuff.

10-5-10:

-20 min row

-pull-ups w/Fe (2x6)

-dips w/Fe (12,13)

The low stroke rate, even though I was pulling explosively and driving with the legs, gets this a 3.3 on the no-mas-ometer. It was boredom I had to fight and not so much toxic fatigue.

10-6-10:

-5 min burpees (59)

-10 minutes of hang squat-cleans (40)

-N sit dead hang (1'15)

I'm going to eat-up anything that resembles a thruster until Fran is mine. Standing up numerous times with db's at the shoulders were on the menu today and they were satisfying. The N sit dead-hang, where you hang from a pull-up bar with thighs to chest, takes the lordosis out of the spine while working the grip and abs.

The no-mas-ometer reads a 3.7.

3,921