Spartan Sprint 2013

Here I am, feeling good.  Thumbs up!

Right of passage

Friday's WOD was the following:

5 rounds of:

7 muscle-ups

run 400 meters

Now, as anyone who has been reading this blog knows, I have only been doing crossfit since the beginning of February   On top of that, I came into CrossFit with about 20 years of inactivity attached to my midsection.

So needless to say, I can't do a muscle-up.

No problem. One of the greatest things about CrossFit is the fact that it can be modified or scaled to any fitness level.  So, the scaled version of a muscle-up is a band assisted muscle up.  i tried, and couldn't do those either.

So the next step down in difficulty is 3 pull-ups and 3 dips.  Since a muscle up is simply a pull-up and a ring dip, this substitution made sense.

But since 1 muscle-up = 3 pull-up & 3 dips, 7 muscle-ups = 21 pull-ups & 21 dips.  That is a lot more work.

So my Friday WOD looked something like this:

5 rounds of:

7 pull-ups

7 dips

7 pull-ups

7 dips

7 pull-ups

7 dips

Run 400 meters

Luckily, Blake put a 30 minute time cap on this beast, or else I might have been there all night.

In that 30 minutes, I completed 4 rounds.  So that is 84 pull-ups, 84 dips, and 1600 meters of running, all told.

The 84 pull-ups is the kicker, as I experienced my first major CrossFit right of passage.

That's right, I tore my palm open doing all those pull-ups.

Diane is a bitch!

Diane kicked my ass.  As a reminider, Diane is:

21 - 225# Deadlifts

21 - Handstand pushups

15 - 225# Deadlifts

15 - Handstand pushups

 9 - 225# Deadlifts

 9 - Handstand pushups

Now, there is no way I could do this workout as prescribed above.  I have only been doing CrossFit for a couple of months afterall.  So here is how i attempted it:

21 - 185# Deadlifts

21 - Resistance Band Assisted Handstand pushups

15 - 185# Deadlifts

15 - Resistance Band Assisted Handstand pushups

 9 - 185# Deadlifts

 9 - Resistance Band Assisted Handstand pushups

But alas, my box put a 12 minute time cap on this workout.  Here is how far I got in 12 minutes:

21 - 185# Deadlifts

21 - Resistance Band Assisted Handstand pushups

15 - 185# Deadlifts

 9 - Resistance Band Assisted Handstand pushups

So, not only did I not finish Diane, but I also threw up a little bit.  It was my first time to puke from a CrossFit workout.  I would rather not do that again.

 

Been a while

Howdy, folks!

It has been an eventful week or two (almost a month?!?) since I last posted.

My bodyweight hasn't really changed since going up to 260-262.  But, the transformation is still happening, because I am still losing inches, so all is good on that front.

Some of these workouts are real beasts.  Just last week, I did the following workout:

Stationary Row 500 meters

20 GHD Situps (this was my first time doing these, only went down to parallel)

Stationary Row 750 meters

40 Toes-to-Bar (scaled to knees-to-elbows for me)

Stationary Row 1000 meters

60 Situps

That was an "ab-tastic" workout, let me tell you.  However, because of that workout and what it did to my abs, I ended up with very painful back spasms for the next three days.

 Tonight, I am facing my first named WOD since I was in On-Ramp, and it is Diane.  For those who don't know, Diane is:

21 - 225# Deadlifts

21 - Handstand pushups

15 - 225# Deadlifts

15 - Handstand pushups

 9 - 225# Deadlifts

 9 - Handstand pushups

Now, I am not currently able to do a handstand, much less a handstand pushup.  The last few workouts that have come up that included handstand pushups, I have scaled to using resistance band assistance to hold a handstand for a minute at a time.  I am looking forward to trying actual assisted handstand pushups tonight.

We will see.

My first "real" WOD

On Monday, March 4th, I attended my first full, non-OnRamp CrossFit class.  I was excited to really get going.  

Not that the On-Ramp wasn't taxing, because it certainly was, but I had seen such improvement in those first twelve On-Ramp sessions, that I felt I was ready to get to work.

Well, the workout I got didn't disappoint.  The workout was three rounds of the following:

Run 200 meters

Walking Lunge 100 meters

50 Bodyweight Squats

I fully inteded to do all three rounds.  However, intentions don't carry you through those walking lunges.

Bad news, I didn't finish all three rounds

Good news, I did finish two complete rounds before I collasped.

I tried to start the third round, but on my first step of the running segment, my legs crumbled.  I was done.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 12

Baseline take-two.

For those of you who don't remember, the baseline workout is the following:

500 meter Row

40 Bodyweight Squats

30 Situps

20 Pushups

10 Pullups

For those who remember, when I did this workout on day 1 of the On-Ramp, I did all of the pushups as knee pushups, and I used the black resistance band to assit my pullups.  I finished in 11 minutes 35 seconds.

Well, tonight, I crushed this workout!

I did all of the pushups as regular pushups.  Also, I moved up from the black band to the green band for pullup assistance.  

Not only did I perform harder versions of a couple of the workouts, I also finished in 8 minutes 17 seconds.

Hell yeah!

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 11 (Helen)

* I've been a little lazy lately.  This post should have been posted on 2/28/2013*

On the penultimate day of my On-Ramp classes, I got another named workout.

Helen

Helen is three rounds of the following:

Run 400 meters

21 kettlebell swings

12 pullups

This was another one of those workouts that doesn't sound like much, but is way harder than it sounds.

But I made it through.

I am pretty excited about re-doing my baseline on Friday.  I am anxious to see how much I have improved in these last 4 weeks.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 10

After the last two workouts being really pretty easy, it was nice to get back to some challenging activity.

This night's workout was as follows:

Run 400 meters

21 dead lifts

21 push press

Run 400 meters

15 deadlifts

15 push press

run 400 meters

9 dead lift

9 push press

I finished in 16 min 31 sec.

I went pretty light on the weight, because I wanted to make sure I was performing the exercises with good form.  So 95# on the dead lift and 65# on the push press.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 9

After this workout, I am through three of my four weeks of On-Ramp.  Good stuff.

This was another easy night, as we just recieved instruction on the proper technique to do the bench press and the back squat.  Then we did the following workout:

3 x 5 back squat
3 x 5 bench press

I look forward to my last week of On-Ramp and then joining normal classes.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 8

After three "named" workouts in a row, I was feeling pretty spent.  Not to worry, Day 8's workout was a lot easier.

Row 2000 meters (that is 1 1/4 miles)
I finished in 8 min 46 secs.

Easy Peasy.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 7 (Fran)

Welcome to week three of CrossFit On-Ramp.  For the third night in a row, the On-Ramp class got to do a named workout.

Tonight, I got introduced to Fran.

Fran is:

21 Brabell Thrusters

21 Pull Ups

15 Barbell Thrusters

15 Pull Ups

9 Barbell Thrusters

9 Pull Ups

My time was 8 min 57 sec.

I got nothing else to say other than my arms and legs both felt like wet noodles when I was done.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 6 (Kelly)

After doing my first named workout on Wednesday, I didn't expect to have see another one the very next session.  But lucky me, tonight I got to do "Kelly".  Blake was generous enough to let us all know that Kelly is generally regarded as the most hated workout in CrossFit.

Kelly is the following:

Run 1/4 mile

30 box jumps (24 inch box)

30 wall balls (16# medicine ball)

repeat 3 times for time.

I finished in 27 min 55 sec.

Next time Kelly and I meet, I will be faster.

I learned tonight, that I hate wall balls.

Ugh.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 5 (Cindy)

Tonight I got to perform my first "named" workout.  For those who don't know, a lot of the most legendary CrossFit workouts are named after people.
Tonight, I got to do "Cindy".
Cindy is the following:

5 pull ups

10 push ups

15 bodyweight squats

Repeat as many times as possible in 10 minutes.

Now, the way I understand it, in the normal classes, Cindy is 20 minutes, but for the On-Ramp class, we only have to do 10 minutes.
Lucky us . . .
I got a score of 146 on this.  That score is generated by counting the number of reps that I completed in the time limit.
I did a total of 25 pull ups
i did a total of 50 push ups (knee push ups after 20)
i did a total of 71 bodyweight squats

25+50+71 = 146

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 4

Welcome to the second week of Crossfit.

Tonight, we learned how to properly do an overhead squat.

Then we had to do the following workout:

 

Run 1/4 mile

15 overhead squats

repeat 3 times

 

Sounds easy enough.  But man, that third set of overhead squats was really hard.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 3

Friday.  I am still sore.

Tonights activities include flipping a gigantic tractor tire and then hitting it with a sledge hammer.

First, we learned how to do a deadlift properly.

So, for clarity's sake, here is what I had to do:

 

Flip the tire

Jump into the "hole" in the middle of the tire

Jump out of the "hole" in the tire

repeat 7 times

 

Then:

Lift a 10 pound sledge hammer over head

Swing it down and hit the tire.

 

Repeat both of those 3 times.

 

Hardest workout of my life.

I was a star high school football player.  I was a walk-on collegiate football player.  I still say this was the hardest workout of my life.

 

Thank God I get two days off after this one.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 2

The word of the day is "Sore".

I am so sore.  It hurts to walk.  It hurts to move.  It hurts to breath.  Everything hurts.  I'm not sure how I made it through Tuesday, but today is Wednesday, and I have to go back to the torture chamber called CrossFitNTX.

Tonight's workout is referred to as the "Tabata Workout".  

So, the workout goes like this: 20 secs on, 10 secs rest. Repeat.

The task at hand was to do 6 sets of each of the below exercises with as many reps as possible in the 20 seconds.

pull ups

push ups

sit ups

air squats

 

So, just to be clear:

20 secs of pull ups, then 10 secs of rest.  Repeat 6 times

20 secs of push ups, then 10 secs of rest.  Repeat 6 times

20 secs of sit ups, then 10 secs of rest.  Repeat 6 times

20 of bodyweight squats, then 10 secs of rest.  Repeat 6 times.

 

Then done.  

 

And. I'm. Spent.

CrossFit On-Ramp Day 1

Tonight, Monday February 4th, was my first night at CrossFitNTX.  I was pretty nervous, as I didn't really know what to expect.

We started out with "the burgener warm up & skill tranfer drills".  We were using 5ft long pieces of PVC.  Just doing this warmup had me breathing hard and sweating.  That is when I started to know how far out of shape I had gotten.

Afterwards, Blake (the trainer who is running the On-Ramp class) instructed us on the proper technique for air squats, push ups, pull ups, and sit ups.  Once Blake felt we were ready, he set us loose on the "Baseline" workout.  The Baseline workout is as follows:

 

500m Row

40 air squats

30 sit ups

20 push ups

10 pull ups

 

Time to complete: 11min 57 sec

 

This workout nearly killed me.  I had to sit in a chair for 10 minutes before I could actually walk, and then had to sit in my truck for another 20 minutes before I was able to drive.  The point of the baseline workout is to record the time it took you to complete it on the first night of On-ramp, and then repeat the workout and record the time it takes you on the last night of On-Ramp.  That way, you can see how much improvement you have made in the 12 sessions of  On-Ramp.

The beginning of this transformation

[The first couple of weeks worth of these posts are all being posted on the same day.  I was recording these thoughts elsewehere and just moved all of this information here to Blogger]

Today is Monday, February 4th.

On Friday, February 1st, I decided that it was time to make a change.  So I signed up for the On-Ramp program at CrossFitNTX.
So, tonight I start my CrossFit journey.