"Ride the Lightning"

5 rounds for time of:
200m medicine ball run – 20/14lb
9 Ring Dips (4 for women)
12 Pull-ups
15 Wall Ball – 20/14lb

In my case, it was more like being "Raped by Lightning." Man, that was awful. I worked out beside Kelly, and kept up with her until the third round of ring dips. She ended up finishing a whole round in front of me, and that's not just because women had to do fewer ring dips. I was sucking wind early in the second round.

Time was 20:45.

The good: I did my last two sets of wall balls unbroken. Hey, I realize that's not a momentous feat, but I'm trying to stay positive here, okay?

The not-so-good: Plenty of things to choose from, but I'm going to have to go with ring dips. After taking them down for the winter, I am putting my rings up in CrossFit Creekside TONIGHT.

Partner workout

I can't remember the name of it.

With a partner, AMRAP in 25 minutes:

50 wallball
40 double unders
30 55 lb bell swings
20 push-ups
10 pull ups.

I was actually in a trio with James and Nathan, so we just increased all the required numbers by 50 per cent (75, 60, 45, 30 15). The good thing was that any two of us could be working at the same time.

We got five rounds done, plus James and Nathan got an extra 10 wall balls.

The Bear - Aw... F**K!!

The Bear calls for five rounds of seven repetitions of this sequence:
Power clean
Front squat
Push press
Back Squat
Push Press

It's not done for time. You go for max weight. The weight cannot rest on the ground, just touch and go.

I started with 95, and increased to 105, then 115.

Of course, looking across the gym at Blair and Shae tossing around 165 with ease made me feel like Kung Fu Panda on his first day of training with the Furious Five. Shae was shirtless and shoeless because, as he said, "I feel stronger when I'm naked." I guess he's eventually going to replace his gym shorts with a loin cloth.

Round four with 125 was going well and I had visions of 135 dancing in my head. Then I felt a strong pinch in my lower back. I ignored it and went down into my front squat in the sixth sequence repetition, and felt it again, worse, and knew that I had messed up what was apparently a still-healing back.

DNFF. You can probably guess what the other "F" stands for.

Saturday Happy Fun Time

I can't remember what this WOD was called.

I partnered with Nathan and we split the non-running stuff, one partner working at a time.

21 pull-ups
200m run
21 push-ups
200m run
21 135lb squat clean and jerks
200m run
21 burpulls
200m run
21 handstand push-ups
200m run
21 calorie row
100m run.

The 9am class did this solo. I would like to give it a shot when I get my mojo back. It doesn't seem that much harder on paper, but then you remember that you get far less rest time and are doing a lot more work.

I couldn't get a smooth rhythm going for my pull-ups, so I probably looked like a spastic monkey up there. Thankfully, I only had to do 11.

I was a bit worried about how my back would handle the C&Js but it was good. My first three reps, I didn't get under the bar with a squat (I basically power cleaned it, front squatted, then jerked), but I got my shit together for reps 4-11 and it felt awesome.
Burpulls were better for my second set than they were for my first. I think I was just trying to keep up with Kurt and John.

My HSPUs have fallen off a bit, but I can still do them. Kipping ones anyway.

Time was 18:07 or 18:09. Can't remember.

DUs/PLUs

I was getting sick of being so inactive while waiting for my back to feel better, so I went out to CrossFit Creekside (my garage) to do a little workout while my kid had a nap.

For time, four rounds of:

50 double unders
15 pull-ups.

Took about 11:30.

I did manage to get 45 DUs in a row for my first set. I had originally written here that I thought that was a new record, but the sidebar tells me that I did 50 in a row in December.

Strength - Workout B - Well, sort of

Went to CrossFit Regina on Saturday morning to attone for a week of ice cream cake eating.

I'm not sure what happened, but when I was doing some warm-up squats at 225lbs, something didn't feel right in my lower back. It hadn't been bothering me before then, and I didn't squat any differently than I otherwise do.

I decided against doing heavy squats. Harlan suggested doing a lighter weight at more reps so the work would be the same. I agreed and instead did:

Three sets of 10 x 140lbs.

It wasn't easy, but I can't say it was nearly as challenging as doing three sets of 5 x 275 would have been.

Afterward, I did bench press:

Three sets of 5 x 140lbs.

And that was pretty much it. Lame, huh?

The worst part is, my back is still bothering me as I write more than two days later. Fuck.

"Angie"

100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

The last time I did this, it took me 22:20-something. Today, I was about a minute slower with a time of 23:24. It's sort of disappointing, but could be chalked up to a number of things:

-I'm heavier than in November, which is more weight to pull over the band or push off the ground
-decreased metcon capacity due to strength training focus
-less-than-ideal nutrition over the last couple of days
-a shitty night's sleep last night
-stress

I actually don't feel bad about my efforts today. I don't think I took a lot of breaks or half-assed it, and I got a new PR for consecutive pull-ups (32). Although, now that I think about it, I should have held on and done a couple more, since it's my 34th birthday. Dumbass.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 270 lbs

At the risk of sounding like a total dork... Yay!


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 125 lbs

This was a do-over from last time, when I failed. This time, I got 5, 4, 5.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 305 lbs

Only got one up. Switched the grip and got another. Tapped out.

“The 16 Ton Toolbox”

As a team, members must accumulate to a total number of reps, calories, and pounds in the following exercises:
Pull-ups 120
Burpees 160
Rowing 200 calories
Deadlift 32000 lbs with 185lb bar

I teamed with Christian, James, and Jordan. I dubbed us "Team SexyFuck" for reasons I can't quite explain.

I came up with the idea of splitting the work into four rounds of:

-8 or 7 pull-ups
-10 burpees
-11 deadlifts
-12.5 calorie row

The advantage to this is that we were able to work in short bursts, with rests built in, because the rowing always took the longest.

We finished in 14:01. It was my fault that we didn't break 14 minutes, because the way that the rotation worked, rowing was my final station. I was the shortest guy, which is a slight disadvantage when you're rowing.

Afterward, we did a tire-dragging relay. Wow, did that suck.

Spirit Away

The backstory on this one is that I did it last year on my birthday and was considering requesting it for this year. As it turns out, it came a week early, so my scheduled rest day was put off.

Five rounds of:

15 overhead squats (115 lbs)
25 burpees
20 weighted sit-ups (30 lbs)
10 snatches (115 lbs)

Last year, I did it with 95 lbs in about 45 minutes. In what is still one of my all-time favourite CrossFit memories, I was the last one still doing the WOD, and had a bunch of fellow CrossFitters cheering me through the last reps. (Update: here's a picture of the final snatch from last year, provided by Robin)


Tonight, I rx'd the fucker and it took me 50:43. I would have liked to get it done around 45:00, and I did spend a lot of time resting, but this is just a nasty little bitch of a workout.

Oh, and once again I was the last person done, and once again, I had a bunch of CrossFitters cheering me on.

That's one of the (many) things I love about CrossFit.