Thursday, August 26, 2010

Today's WOD

Been a little lazy for the past week, but got in to do the main site's WOD today:

For time:
21 Pull-ups
21 Handstand Push-ups
18 Pull-ups
18 Handstand Push-ups
15 Pull-ups
15 Handstand Push-ups
12 Pull-ups
12 Handstand Push-ups
9 Pull-ups
9 Handstand Push-ups
6 Pull-ups
6 Handstand Push-ups
3 Pull-ups
3 Handstand Push-ups
Handstand push-ups are "nose to floor" and pull-ups are "strict" or non-kipping.

I found that my HSPUs are weak. I did this as RX'd, but it took me 41:40 to do it. The pull-ups were no problem, even dead-hang strict, however, once I got about 2/3 of the way done with the round of 18 HSPUs, there was only once or twice where I did as many as 5 HSPUs in an effort before having to break my handstand. I have my parallette raw material at home, so I will have to get those together and start working on some full ROM HSPUs.

I started this off with a different warm-up than usual - 10 minutes on the rower (2306 meters) followed by 10 dips and 20 air squats.

incommunicado

So I have been out of touch for a few weeks. I was on duty for the military on a base that somehow still doesn't have internet capabilities - just entirely out in the boonies.

Fortunately, they did have a gym, which was about the only thing to do for the 2 weeks I was there, so I didn't do any slacking. I was on post for 14 days and worked out for 10 of them - twice a day on 3 occasions. These 3 occasions were days on which we did morning PT, which consisted of a 2 mile run at a relatively slow pace. There were different running groups and the first day I did this in "B" group, which was for people that typically run their 2 mile in the 14-15 minute range - but the pace was more like 18 minutes for the whole shebang.

The other two days I upgraded to "A" group which was for sub-13 minute runners - not me, but I was able to hold my own. One day with this, we actually extended the run out to 2.3 miles. The pace was only moderately faster - probably 16:30-17 minutes for the 2 mile time - but the cool thing was the end. We started off on top of a hill and ended in the same spot, running around a loop - which meant up hill at the finish. To my happy surprise, I found that once we got to the bottom of the hill (1/4 mile or more coming from one direction, slightly shorter from the other) the person leading the formation let us loose to finish with a sprint/race to the finish, which is an enjoyable way to finish the run. So I got to do some explosive sprinting toward the end.

The other workouts consisted of a 1 mile run/warm-up to the gym and then various exercises there. I largely avoided CrossFit while there, as the environment itself was not very well set-up for a CrossFit workout. The gym was basically like any high school gymnasium with a basketball court. Around the courts, there were various rooms that were only about 10 feet wide and stacked full of equipment. One room was just ellipticals; one just treadmills; one a speed bag/heavy bag with an inversion board for inclide sit-ups, and a nautilus set-up with a rower, chin-up bar and the crossover cables (you all know the set-up I'm talking about); another room had all the free weights; lastly there was a room with just nautilus equipment.

Since the equipment was spread out in this manner, it made it difficult to do a typical CrossFit workout, so I made due. I did however stay with the basic CrossFit movements in all or most of my workouts. I did manage to get in a day with a couplet of pull-ups and heavy thrusters; I was able to use the stage (about 42") for plyometric jumps, which I tripled with 50# KB swings and push-ups. Also at the end of a "leg day" I managed to do a workout that was posted on the main site a few days later. I'll go ahead and explain that one...

I started off with squats, doing a 5x5. There was a lot of people working out and not many plates available when I got started, so I started low at 135 (yup, I know! However, I wasn't going steal the weights from the guys that had 1 100# weight and 5 or so 45# plates stacked on the single arm rower...). After stealing weights as people finished with them, I managed to work up to 5x415.
After this, I did 3x10 lunges, making my way up to 185#.
Next, I moved out of the free weight room into the gym. I got a 50# KB from the staff (they kept these in the office) and did alternating 1 Rd max reps of jumps on to the stage and then matched the reps for KB swings. I did about 4 rounds of this before one jump wasn't high enough and I bumped my shin hard enough on the stage to make it bleed in 2 spots (caught my toe on one foot) on about the 6th rep. I pulled out one more good rep, then did my KB swings and then got paper towels to keep the blood contained.

After the bleeding was under control, I moved onto 1 arm snatches with the KB and once the blood started pumping, it started gushing out of my leg again, so I decided to call it quits.

I started my 1 mile run back to the barracks and about half way there, I realized I didn't have anything to drink when I got there. The local base store (PX) was about 1/4 mile short of the barracks, a little out of the way, and since I had a couple dollars on me, I decided to go there and stock up on water. I did that and decided that since I cut my run short, I should do something else. This is where the WOD comes in. The August 22, 2010 (Sunday) WOD was 400m walking lunges. I hadn't seen it (it hadn't happened yet, I was only on post until the 20th), so I decided to finish the same hill that we used at the end of our morning PT run, which cooincidentally started at the PX and ended at the barracks to do a walking lunge all the way back.

This hurt. And I mean a lot. For a couple days. Well, couple means two.. so lets call it 5. Note to self: Don't do walking lunges AFTER having done a leg workout and already having run nearly 2 miles.