The Bank is Paid in Full

Just put the 400th wall ball (or salt bag thruster, in this case) in the bank. Now I just have to make it through the next three weeks.

AMRAP in 20 Minutes and Tyler's Wall Ball Math Idiocy

The GHD sit-up

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 Wall ball shots to 10' line
10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Back extensions

I did this as rx'd on one of the new GHD things. 11 rounds, plus 10 WB, plus 10 GHD sit-ups, plus 6 back extensions. Only four short of a 12th round.

The GHD situps were the hardest part. I was a little nervous because a while back I did a self-designed workout of 50-40-30-20-10 GHDs and box jumps and it completely messed up my back for more than a month. But things seem to be holding up okay.

Back extentions are fun, because once I start sweating, I end up flinging sweat on the upswing about 7-10 feet away from me, in a sort of Christmas tree pattern on the black mat flooring we have at CFR.

I love workouts that help me complete my Wall Ball Challenge obligations. Today is day 77, and I like to work a day ahead.

For some reason, I did the math wrong and added up days 76 and 77, and figured that I needed 143 to fulfill the quota for my f**king wall balls. I also thought that I had done 110 (11 rounds) during the workout, forgetting that I went into the 12th round. So, with my incorrect thinking, I did 33 post-workout WB.

As I was walking into my house, I realized I did 120 during the workout, and I was happy that I had an extra 10 to throw in the the Wall Ball Vacation Bank. Hey, at this point, I'll take every one I can get.

But, I didn't realize until I started writing this that, in actuality, I needed to do 155 for the day (77 + 78 = 155). So, I had really needed to do 35 at CFR. I still owe two more.

Damn!

Great article on the CrossFit Games

The whole thing is good.

Some of my favourite lines:

Crossfit is a cult, or a fitness movement, and possibly a sport. It could be all three, or if you throw in a lifestyle, all four.
...
It is all done very quickly, and with great intensity, and if you are not prepared, it will kindly help you remember what you had for lunch by forcibly reintroducing it to you. If that doesn't happen, then you will likely end up on the floor praying for oxygen.
...
It looks like the setting for Of Mice and Men, but with an encampment of tents and RVs surrounding it. It's beautiful, really, as long as you're not running 7.1 km across its most hill-acious parts. Hey, wouldn't that be fun to make people do? Crossfit's mysterious HQ thought so.
...
...then a good bleeding, a dose of water torture, some strappado, and whatever other torture you'd like to throw into the sequence. The competitors would have eaten it up happily, and the 3,000 plus who showed up to drink the $3 beer and enjoy what has become, in only its third year, the surprisingly entertaining mutant hybrid of the World's Strongest Man and the old Survival of the Fittest.
...
Andy Petranek, the oldest male competitor at 42, a former Marine, and owner of a Crossfit Affiliate in Los Angeles. He's in unreal shape, can run for days, and he didn't make the cut for the final event of day one, the horrible turning point in the day when the spectacle of struggle turned into outright sado-masochism.
...
I asked him if he was happy with the results as the last round of the day began and the remaining competitors balled through the fifth and final round of punishment. He laughed, and said "Yeah, I am. Being cut means I don't have to go through the rest of it."

The End is in Sight

I added another 90 f**king wall balls to the vacation bank.

It's now at 325.

Hero Workout "DT"

Hero workouts are named for fallen soldiers and are designed to be, as CFR trainer and UFC fan Paul says, "superhuman."

Five rounds for time of:

12 Deadlifts
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Push Jerks



The prescribed ("rx'd" in CrossFit lingo) weight on this is 155lbs. The "intermediate" weight is 135lbs. I'm probably at the bottom end of the intermediate scale in most things CrossFit.

I'm sure glad we did the HPCs recently. When I first saw this, I was harbouring delusions of doing it as rx'd. HAH! I've only done one 155lb HPC in my life, so 45 in one workout might be a bit much.

Then I thought I'd do 135, but Paul psyched me out by saying that another trainer Chris T. did it at that weight and it was really tough on him.

Chris = much stronger than I and with better technique.

I warmed up with 95lbs, and it felt fairly heavy on the HPCs, but I knew I could do more. I was originally set to go with 115lbs, but at the last second, I threw a couple of 5lb plates on the bar to get it up to 125.

That was probably a good weight. I may even have been able to do the WOD at 135, but it would have doubled my time, and I had to do some f**king wall balls. As it was, I was still the last person finished. Toward the end, I was doing it more efficiently than at the start. I would do 11 deadlifts, set it down, do one deadlift and 8 of my HPCs, set it down, HPC it, then do the push jerks.

16:59.

151 wall ball (today's and tomorrow's) doing 10 per minute. Harlan and Mark just did that instead of the workout, and they caught up. I think Harlan did 900 WB in two days that way. The guy is a monster.

F**king Wall Balls

The one thing I know about these 100-day challenges is that you do NOT want to fall too far behind. I'm sure that's what eliminates more people from them is missing a few days and then the amount you have to do to catch up is just ridiculous.

That's what happened to my buddy Harlan. He hurt his back and missed a bunch of days, and before you know it, he was over 800 in the hole. To his credit, he never quit them. He was mentioning it to me, and I suggested that the next time he goes to CrossFit, he should skip the workout of the day and just do 10 WB per minute for, say, 40 minutes. It's a slow enough pace that you can keep it up, but it's enough of a workout that you feel it. I did it when I was behind 265 or something and I sweated like a pig. He e-mailed me this morning:

That suggestion for wall ball was awesome! 502 this morning at 10/minute. I will do the same thing tomorrow to get myself back out of the hole. Thanks for the suggestion. It is too daunting to think "holy shit I almost have 1000 wb to do" but if you keep doing just 10 they are doable.

And sweat, fuck me do you sweat! Also like you mentioned.
Have a good day.

HB

On Friday, I did enough wall balls to cover Saturday, so on Saturday, I added 50 to the vacation bank. Sunday was the Boy's birthday party, so I couldn't sneak over to CrossFit Regina to get my daily allottment in. My next scheduled workout isn't until Tuesday, so I was facing the prospect of having to do three days' worth (around 220) the next time I go. Screw that.

This morning, when Tracey got back from her 6am workout, I went out to the garage to do Sunday's 73 WBs with the official subsitute, 45lb salt bag thrusters (which I find more strenuous). I did 75, plus I added another 35 to the vacation bank which now sits at 235.

I'm going to try to do Monday's 74 (minus the two extra from this morning) tonight before bed. We'll see if I can get that motivated. Maybe I should take a salt bag to Ultimate Frisbee tonight and do them on the sidelines when I'm not playing. That wouldn't look dorky at all, nosiree.

UPDATE:
I had to stop by CFR to drop off something on my way home, so I just did them.

Fight on Friday

Today, we had the chance to make up Fight Gone Bad if we missed it on Saturday. I did it again, though wasn't nearly as psyched or as warmed up this go around.

We had to keep track of our own reps, so my final self-tallied score was 288. I'm sure the real number was different, but I'm not sure if it was more or less. Neither would surprise me.

I started on the rowing today, instead of the wall ball as I usually do. That might be the way to go in the future.

I only did a total of 42 wall ball in FGB, so I needed to do another 30 post-workout. Then I did the 74 for tomorrow, so I won't have to interrupt my drinking and garage sale holding.

Handstand Hold

I swung by CFR to do the remaining 35 wall ball for today.

On my way out, Robin asked me to do the challenge of the day, a handstand hold.

We faced off. I lasted 1:05 and Robin, who may be the most quietly competitive person I know, lasted 1:10 to set a new personal record.

120 Pull-ups and Assisted Ring Dips

The official workout was 30 muscle-ups for time. Sub is four pull-ups and ringdips for every MU.

I can't do ringdips (gotta work on those) so I did them assisted.

24:20.

It's day 69 of the Wall Ball Challenge so I did those, plus half of tomorrow's.

104 WB

Why do I bother...

...doing Crossfit if I follow it up later the same day with four beer, potato salad, a hot dog, ice cream AND cheesecake?
Oh yeah, my tendency to binge eat like that is why I need to go to Crossfit

Hang Power Cleans then Russian Twists/Wall Balls

Hang Power Cleans 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

65, 85, 95, 115, 125, 135, 145.

Thought I would keep going.

155f, 155f,

Aaron gave me a tip about getting under the bar more

155, 165f, 165.

Then, seven rounds of ten:
Wall balls and Russian twists

6:25. I love metcons that help me fulfill my daily wall ball quota.

Wall Balls

Did the 67 today. Thanks to FGB and the Friday WOD, I was paid up until Sunday.

Also added 25 to the Vacation Bank, which now sits at 150.

Beer, trampoline fitness, and the wall ball bank

Due to an extraordinarily busy social calendar, I've had at least two beer, and usually more, every night since Tuesday. I'm also carrying about five extra pounds from where I was at a few weeks ago. I wonder if the two are related? Maybe I could just pretend it's extra muscle from the CrossFit Regina 100-Day Wall Ball Challenge.

Speaking of which, I know that I won't be able go to CrossFit Regina for days 95-98, so I'm banking those ahead of time, by doing salt bag thrusters (the official substitute) in my garage in small increments. I've now banked 125 of the approximately 400 that I'm shooting for.

Other than the 50 thrusters today that I've already done, and maybe another 25 if I feel like it later, I'm also getting fit the Dennis Stamp way.

Fight Gone Bad

291 as rx'd.

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. The score, I mean. The workout was total hell. I think the reason they only do them two or three times a year is to give people time to forget how much this sucks when you're doing it. There were plenty of times when I felt mentally broken, especially during the second round. Fellow Crosfitter and party games enthusiast Brad Fo was a huge help with the encouragement, as were the counters at each station.

Going in, I didn't set a goal for myself, other than beating my score from last September of 255 (which was also a fair bit higher than expected). I did this because I didn't want to get caught up in worrying about how I was doing numbers-wise during the workout. Well, I couldn't completely mitigate that, but I wanted to do my best.

If someone had asked me for my best guess as to how I would do this time out, I would have probably guessed in the 270s. I would have been a bit disappointed if I only went up by 10, but a jump of 20 would have satisfied me.

My 291 was actually the highest rx'd score of the day, briefly, before BathMatt from CF Saskatoon was all like "Fuck, let met show that glove-wearing Queen City sissy how it's done," and obliterated it with a 346. Franz, who had been like a caged animal all morning, followed with a 345 on his first FGB ever.

Crazy. Robin posted pictures of the event here.

Cross-promotion

Even though I'm pretty passionate and somewhat obsessed with CrossFit, I intentionally tried to keep my other blog, Tyler Has Nothing To Say from being about CrossFit too much. However, some Crossfit-related content would occasionally sneak in. Here's a link to the handful of THNTS CF posts.

Fight Gone Bad tomorrow

It's probably not a good sign that I'm already shitting bricks, is it?

Deadlifts and Wall Ball Fran

Did 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 deadlifts today. I don't really know what my max DL is because I've never done single reps, so I took it kind of easy.

115-135-185-205-225-245.

I think 245 is a PR for me, but only because I've never attempted to lift anything heavier. Considering my body type and experience, it's not all that much. That's my fault and my fault alone, by the way. I haven't put as much focus into improving my strength as I have other areas. One day, I've gotta see how high I can really go.

I was paired with Young Chris, who is still fairly new and like 17 or 18. That kid is going to be a CF monster in like six months.

Wall Ball Fran (21-15-9 WB and pullups) 4:53. I thought it would be a little quicker than that, to be honest, but my pullups continue to be hampered by my sissy hands.

Since I already did my WB Challenge wall balls, these 45 (actually 46, because I did one before starting) are going in the WB bank for this weekend. Nice!