Short & Sweet

What a slacker I have been with keeping up on the blog.. Life's busy and that's just the way it roles sometimes.. As I contemplated the excuse I was going to use as to why I had not updated in a bit, I thought of a conversation I had a few months back with a good buddy about his CrossFitting.

This guy has been crossfitting a little longer than me and has always been in pretty good shape (unlike me when I started a year ago). He's a dang successful guy in his career, has a few kids, and lives in a bustling suburb of Chicago. Anyway, he was talking about how little time he has to actually get in a WOD..I can totally relate. In fact, it wasn't a month before this conversation I had been trying to figure out how to get in my WODs and yet not take forever to do..

I had started a little collection of quick and/or no equipment wods that on days I could bust out and move on down the road. When he told me about his dilemma I shared with him some of the short workouts I was doing and how it was working out great.

A few weeks role by and I talk to him again and he mentions that our talk about what I was doing with short WODs was working for him great and he was back to CFing like always.. That was pretty cool.

So, in that same spirit I thought I'd post up some of them bad boys so the excuses can end!! :) JOKE.. Excuses are good.. I use them all the time.. "Honey, the longer the grass gets the more healthily it becomes as it is able to take in more sunlight..I'll mow it in another few days." GOOD STUFF! Oh ya, and "Yes, I took care of that!" (doesn't matter what the questions is) That's a good one too!

Anyway, here are a few..

For Time:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Burpees
Sit-ups

5 Rounds For Time:
100 Single Skips (jump rope)
50 Air Squats

"Helen"
150 Wall Ball Shots

2K Row

3 Rounds For Time:
21-15-9
Box Jump, 24"
Kettle Bell Swing, 1.5 pood
Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 95#

Tabata ___________ (sprints, push ups, air squats, pull-ups, whatever)
8 Rounds:
20 Seconds of Work
10 Seconds of Rest

5 Rounds For Time:
30 Wallball Shots
10 Burpees

For Time:
25-20-15-10-5
Pushups
Air Squats

Run 400 Meters +
Three Rounds:
#45 Plate Cleans x 15 reps
15 Pushups +
Run 400 Meters
(this is a cool one!)

On Nutrition...

Look, I'm just going to throw it out there.. I ate 4 (FOUR) Mrs. Baird's Fried Cherry Pies last weekend, a hamburger, breakfast burritos, some chocolate doughnuts, 5-6 cokes.. I think I can go on and on.. I went freaking crazy... AND it was AWESOME!

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Until I had to workout on Monday.. Oh man.. 7 rounds of 75# Shoulder Presses x 21 reps and 21 back extensions.. Embrace the suck you say.. How about embrace the chuck as I was super close to tossing my cookies so to speak.. Ya, its all fun and games until someone throws up..

Everything comes at a price I guess.. It had been months and months since I had a coke and even longer since I had a fried pie. I try to eat as clean as I can throughout the week and when I go off on a binge it jacks me up for days. More importantly it hurts my performance.

Its Thursday and I'm just now feeling like my body is getting back in shape from that "criminal episode" I pulled off over the weekend. I've heard a few CFers say they crossfit as hard as they do so that they can eat.. I guess I'm not there.. I CrossFit because I have such a long way to go to be as fit as I'd like.. Eating junk in that quantity sets me back..

Now, this would be a good time to talk about moderation.. But, I know nothing of the topic so your on your own.. Its obvious I have no self control.. :)

I took this photo of Eva T chowing on a doughnut at the CF Science of Exercise cert.. I didn't take it with the thought of catching her eating junk but it does go to show you even Olympic level athletes can enjoy cop food.

I will say that Zoning/Paleo rock..Hard to live there for weeks at a time but nutrition does make a huge difference in everything so I stick with it as much as I can.

Everyone eats bad sometimes and you might as well do it and move on down the road..Get it out of your system..

A Damn Rest Day.. Finally!

For whatever reason I've been super motivated to train over the past three weeks. I mean I've been doing two WODs more or less a day 4 days a week. Really I have been trying to increase my endurance as well as shed a few pounds off so I've added a row almost every night that I work out which is typically 4-5 days a week, taking the weekend off.

Well, yesterday I finally hit a little bottom and decided to call if good for a few days..It mentally sucks when your motivated by the results you get from CrossFit and you have to shut it down..But, you do sometimes and I knew it was time yesterday because when I went to squat a 5x5 I got to 285# and my hamstrings told me to screw-off.. In fact what they specifically said was "F*** You, I Quit!" and I had to dump the weight..

I've never had that happen to my hamstrings but they knotted up pretty good so I chilled out and didn't row my regular 2k last night.

All that leads me to say, TAKE A REST DAY, Jamie...

Speaking of rest days, I have been fortunate to get to workout every day in Guyer High School which is just across the street from my office..The coaches and staff have been amazing letting me lift there and man do they have a nice set up for lifting (see the photo). Now that school is out I'm not sure whats going to happen with me working out there but hopefully they will keep it open some for the athletes and I can still get in.. Guess we'll see..

Constantly Varied Rowing = CRUSHED!

Have I ever mentioned I HATE running? Well, I do.. Not with a passion but certainly with disdain.. Which is a bit ironic considering I used to love it. In fact when I was in college I played a bit of club lacrosse as a middie and ran my ass off. I had no problems with it then.. But something about running must have pissed me off cause I just don't like to do it now.

Being an expert at the easier, softer way I picked up on the fact you could sub rowing for a run.. ROCK ON! So, I hit the rower at CrossFit Wichita Falls the next time a 5k run came up on the CrossFit main site.. And guess what.. It sucked! I mean it gassed the hell out of me in really short order..

Its a funny thing about getting your ass kicked (for lack of any better description) in a way that makes you want more.. I mean its almost like a sick abusive relationship and your trapped in a cycle of violence.. I don't mean to make light of domestic issues..Soon I will throw your ass in jail for that crap.. But there is something addictive about taking a pounding.

Anyway, my point is the rower will rock your world if you want it to. I try at least 3-4 nights a week to hit a 2k row of some sort (that's in addition to my wods I do at lunch time). Last night for example I did four rounds of 500meter sprints with one minute rest in between. It took me about 9 minutes and when I was done my wife kept asking me if I was ok because my breathing looked like a fish on land...

So if you hate running, give rowing a go..

PS.. rowing is not the easier, softer way.. but if your going to get your ass crushed you might as well go all the way..rowing can get you there!

Yeah Burpees!

One of my favorite programmers is Freddy C. over at CrossFit One World.. I try to pick programming on one site and stick with it as much as possible and I usually default to the main site. But, lately I've been finding myself doing the programming from One World and its been fun..Sometimes it sucks but its fun- especially if it's something I've never done.

So a few days back Freddy posted up 100 Burpees for time and then a few days later busted on his people for not showing up to do it. Who the hell wants to do that many burpees!!! I should have prefaced the story with hearing on a CrossFit Radio episode how Coach Burgener makes folks do burpees every time he says burpees and someone doesn't yell "Yeah Burpees!"

So, because I indirectly got my ass chewed by Freddy for "cherry picking" and the motivating thought of the consequence of not yelling "Yeah Burpees" I put out a not so record performance of 100 Burpees in 11:24.

*As a side note the trail of sweat leads to what looks like a dead body to the point I'm not posting the actual photo of me after the WOD! :) lol