Basement: Memo from my legs - "This isn't helping."

I was a little stiff after yesterday's activities at B-Squad.  (I'm not going to hyperlink.  Just scroll down a bit.  C'mon, don't be so lazy.)

I thought I'd hop on the AirDyne for a bit just to loosen up as I watched some cagefighting on our shitty old TV.  I ended up pedaling semi hard during the five-minute rounds, then resting during the breaks in action.

I didn't record it, but I did at least five rounds (25minutes) worth of pedaling.

Then I spent the rest of the weekend hobbling around

B-Squad: Squats and other terrible things I did to my legs

A. Back Squats 3-3-3

Yay!  They do squats on Fridays at B-Squad.  It's been a while since I've done a weighted squat.

That was readily apparent when I struggled with the 255 triples.   I feel like it shouldn't have been quite so hard.


B. Metcon

Five rounds of
30 seconds of Wall balls
30 seconds rest
30 seconds box jumps (24'')
30 seconds rest
30 seconds burpees
30 seconds rest
30 seconds of sit-ups
30 seconds rest
30 seconds single skips.

(Rest an extra two minutes between Rounds 3 and 4)

This was a good, tough workout.  The emphasis on the rest really allowed me to keep a consistent pace during the working portions.

Wallballs    16, 16, 13, 14,  14
Box Jumps 13, 14, 13,  13,  13
Burpees      11, 12,  9,   10,  10
Situps         19, 21, 20,  17,  18
Skips          69, 68, 65,  70,  75  

Total =        635

VolkeFit: Danger Zone

Warm-Up

2 x 10 inverted sit-ups "like Top Gun."

Like Top Gun?  That makes me feel like I'm on a highway ... to... the... DANGER ZONE

Workout

5 rounds of:
25 box jumps (20")
25 AirDyne calories
15 pull-ups

Resting as long as the previous round took.

3:22
2:48
2:48
3:30
3:12

Basement: "Morning Quickie" with the Wife

This was less fun than it sounds.  Because this was actually a rowing workout and not... y'know... what you were probably thinking.

Tracey and I woke up a bit late, but she was still determined to get some exercise in. She knows what she wants, that's for sure.  She hopped on the AirDyne while I went to town on the rower.

We didn't have a lot of time so I decided to do a couple of semi-fast 500m sprints with about a minute rest in between.

1:48
1:45

It was mildly satisfying and over quickly.  Afterwards, she commented that I made a lot of noise, with all my weird grunting, and it kind of weirded her out.

So there were some parallels, I guess.

Basement: 10 Minutes of Rowing

My beautiful wife has determined that she will be getting up several times a week to hit the AirDyne first thing in the morning before work.  I'm inspired, so I thought I would use the rower as she is doing that.

The idea occurred to me Wednesday afternoon after her first go on Wednesday morning.  Even though she wasn't going to get up until Friday, I thought I'd give it a shot today.   My alarm went off at 6am.  I stumbled downstairs in shorts and shoes, (no shirt, no socks = no problem at home) and hopped on the rower.  

10 minutes of rowing = 2570m  

That is... not great, really.

But the number is kind of beside the point.  I felt pretty good about myself after doing it.  It actually was beneficial to my morning routine, compared to me hitting the snooze button for 40 minutes.

We'll see how long I can keep this up.  Getting up, I mean.

Apparently my wife wants to watch "The Young and the Restless" on PVR as she exercises in the morning.   I prefer the "Rap Anthems" playlist from Songza.

This morning, it featured this modern classic from Beyonce's husband:

VolkeFit: I'm About To

21-18-15-12-9

Bell swings (overhead) - 70lbs
Calories - Assault bike
Wall balls
Calories - Assault bike

23:51

During the Workout, "Jump" by two-hit wonder kiddie rap group Kriss Kross came on.  Their other hit was "Warm It Up," so between excercise-induced wheezing, I told Steve and Ryan the following exchange between my wife and I:


Tracey :"Okay, for the kids' lunch tomorrow, take this soup, put it in a pot, and warm it up..." 
Me: "I'm about to." 
Tracey: *glares* "I said warm it up..." 
Me: "Cuz that's what I was born to do."

B-Squad: You can't spell "rowing" without OW

A. Rowing sprints

Row 500m three times, resting as needed in between.

God, this was bad.

Part of the reason was that I felt that I should be able to set a new 500m PR.  I own a rower, which I do now use on a fairly regular basis (which is an improvement over its dust-collecting first year in my house), but I never really do hard-ass 500m sprints on their own.  I've never challenged myself to make a new PR.

So I went completely  balls-out on the first round.  At the start, I was doing short, hard strokes  About halfway through, I was exhausted and switched to longer pulls, sacrificing explosion and a bit of speed for sustainability.  I took LONG rests between each round, laying on the floor trying to work up the nerve to get back on the rower and wondering why I don't just do Jazzercise or hot yoga or something. 

Round 1 1:34 PR (I didn't set the rower for a countdown from 500m, so this is via Nolan's eyeball).  My previous best was 1:37.7.  

Round 2 1:38

Round 3 142.3


That was all that was programmed for the day, but I had eaten what was -- even for me -- a ridiculous amount of candy and donuts at work.  Prior to rowing, I told Nolan I could actually feel myself getting fatter as I was talking to him. 

I felt I should atone for that.   Nolan suggested another little bit of fun.

B. DUs and PPs

For time:
100 double unders and 10 push press (95lbs)
80 and 8
60 and 6
40 and 4
20 and 2.

Took me 10:23.    I was still a little baked from the rowing so this went as well as could be expected..  When I first started the DUs, I only did 5 in a row.  Thankfully, I was able to string together some bigger sets after that.  I did most of the DUs in sets of 30s and 20s.  I may have done the 40 unbroken. 

VolkeFit: "Hotter and Shittier"

I could provide some context for the title, but it's funnier if I don't.  Besides, the only other person who reads this blog anymore is Steve Volke, and he gets the reference.

A. "Knees to Elbows? Aw geez. Hell no."

10 rounds:
8 calories AirDyne
6 knees to elbows
8 calories AirDyne
rest one minute, talk about "The Bachelor."

The ten rounds of work and 9 minutes of rest took me around 23 minutes.

My God, that two on one date to the Badlands when Chris dumped BOTH Ashley I. and Kelsey was AMAZING.


B. Thrusters and Burpees AMRAP

4-minute AMRAP:
6 thrusters (75lb)
6 burpees over bar.

Basement: "Volke Hates Me"

Steve sent me this workout a couple weeks ago as something I could do on my own on a night I was stuck at home and couldn't come to his garage for a workout.

Instead of taking some initiative and working out, I ended up playing video games and eating chocolate.

But I finally got around to trying the WOD he came up with:

1000m row
100 KB swings (shoulder height, 55lbs)
75 calories on the AirDyne
50 burpees
25 deadhangs
1000m row

28:20ish

B-Squad: Potpurri

First workout in nearly two weeks.

A. Every minute on the minute:

• 5 burpees
• 5 air squats

No problem.


B. AMRAP in 5 minutes:

• 6 walking lunges
• 6 shuttle runs (length of the pool) 

My legs sure enjoyed that.    5 rounds, plus 6 lunges and 2 runs

C. Sit-ups

Do 50

Rest for time equal to the work

Do another 50

First 50: 1:42

Second 50: 2:20ish.