Crap Parenting: Tattoo You

On the way home from Mother-in-Law's house . . driving by a soon to be open 24 hour fitness

Daughter: "Daddy, when we go to 24 hour fitness can I have tattoos . . . "

Me: "Sure."

This will likely come back to haunt me . . . .

Of course, if she ever goes to the crossfit games . . . she will need them. I think it gets you a discount or something. Maybe some extra reps.

30 Muscle Ups

30 muscleups for time:

seated muscleups

7:14

Just needed that little hop through the transition. So it was 30 good ring dips . . . ;-)

Also need a lot of work on grip and form, because I seemed to lose my false grip right off. Multiples are hard.

I'll have to work on getting 2 consecutive now. Of course the deal is: 2 down, 30 to go . . .

deads 'n burpees

45 burpee warmup

5x3 deads @ 210

30 burpees after

When they came for Starbucks, I didn't speak up . . .

because I did not drink frapachii'mreallynotgaynotthatthere'sanythingwrongwiththatnos, but when they came for Bennigan's, I had to speak up, because I did like those weird Irish Nacho things, you know, potatoes and cheese, because potatoes are well, Irish, obviously, and cheese is Mexican . . . or should I say queso? Hmmm? So long Bennigans . . . say hi to Montgomery Wards for me . . . .

Catchin' up--Push Jerks

Push Jerks 5x3

95-105-115-125-135

Because cleaning this from the floor was the hardest, part, in fact, missed the first 135 power clean . . . , I might do more if it was up off the floor.

I also don't know that I had a benchmark for this wod. I think 135lbs is a pr (probably so for a split jerk as well), but I'll have to review. If nothing else, I know the next one is.

Kettlebells yay.

Crossfit Plano Kettlebell Class:

3 rft

50 meter sprint
20 snatches
50 meter sprint
5 burpees (which didn’t count for the burpee challenge . . . )

When finished, do Russian swings until the last person is done with their burpees . . . thus punishing hard workers . . .

then . .

2 rft
5 pistols
10 snatches
5 pistols
10 pullups (dead hang, ctb otherwise at least neck to bar)
20 russian swings
10 pullups

then . . .

1 round

50 meter run
5 burpees (which didn’t count . . . see above)
100 meter run
10 burpees
100 meter run
10 snatches
200 meter run
20 snatches

all at 16kg.

I know there was a time, but it was per event . . . wasn’t last . . . wasn’t first . . . and didn’t barf, which was about all I was worried about at 102 in the sun . . .

Need more work on pullups (don't we all pal, don't we all). It's like I am an advanced beginner.

Then again, hitting a ctb standard is har-ard. It's JUST like moving the goal posts . . . ;-) Ah well, there are chin over bar wods and gold standard wods. It's a progression.

Like I needed anymore justification . . . .

Man, I love junk food justificatin! Thank you, Mens Health!! I'm off to the pork rinds store . . . .

Have ya' been to Blockbuster lately?

The problem is this: I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that 70% of the shelf space around the perimiter, where they put the new releases, is full of "straight to video". I mean, I'm not particularly against some low budet or maybe some overlooked gem . . . but it was nearly impossible to find: movies that were actually in theatres.

I read a lot of movie reviews, since we don't get out to movies much. So oddly, I end up with lots of knowledge about movies I've never seen. Blockbuster, however, seems intent on making sure I don't step into their stores and worse, that once I get there, that there is no way to do anything but go through the chaff, looking for wheat. And considering that I probably only want to see, at most, 50% of the movies that actually HIT the theatres and were reviewed, that means I spend most of my time looking at things like "Venom Warriors!- - - When a rogue herpetologist studying martial arts discovers an ancient evil, it's up to him and his lissom lab partner . . "

I mean, they know it's crap, I know it's crap . . . why can't they just put it aside. All I can think is that they make more money from the crap even on a random basis than they do from the stuff people actually want to see.

The Kiwi(s) has/have landed . . . (subject verb agreement is so vital . . . )

Security Cam Footage:

What is it with you people?

I have it on good authority that there were Kiwis at a Denny's last night.

:-) Now, Denny's is okay I guess . . . I suppose it's a known quantity.

True story(why do I say that? Makes you wonder about the ones that don't come with a disclaimer, right?): Told my wife that we ate at Denny's like every morning before the Crossfit Games. She said "Denny's? Why?"

So I told her about the cafe in the parking lot of the Motel Six and how I wasn't sure about it . . . until I saw it was where the Sheriff's department ate their breakfast. She said "You should have taken them there!!" She knows. It had the critical "local law enforcement seal of approval".

:-)

Pushups-Ring Dips-Push Press

Did the Brand X scale of

AMRAP 20 minutes:

15 pushups
12 ring dips
9 push press 115 lbs (scaled to 85 lbs)

4 rounds +15 push ups/12 ring dips/5 push press (5 rounds in 20:23)

Not the Brand X scaling . . . because I only had 85lbs for my new oly bar. So instead of more like a Pack WOD (95lbs for 20 min) or a Porch (15 min 115lbs), I was basically a big dog girl . . .

I can live with that . . . the big dog girls spanked my BUTT at the games . . . I mean you can see individual hand prints . . .

For instance, Julie (LRH) . . . did like 93 lbs (42.5kg) and did 4 rounds plus 15 press ups. So a touch behind, but more weight . . .

Pullup Bar

Here's the infamous "pullup bar of excessive whining . . . " Note: That cross beam is the main beam on my kids' swing set.

It wasn't a bad first effort. But two things are problematic: I can grab it while standing flat footed. I can kip, but every time I drag my toes on the ground seems to make me think I'm going to catch a toe. But that's not nearly the problem that having a 3/4 diameter pipe presents. It's just too small to get a good grip on. You can do a lot of pullups (deadhangs seem to be better), but it tends to pinch your hands from the get go, so grip actually seems to go fast, as does the skin on your hands . . . .

If the setup isn't clear it's this: flange plate on a 1" section of pipe, attached to an elbow, attached to the main pipe. This is secured to the 4x6 (actually two 2x6s) by an eye bolt through the 4x6.

I can think of a couple other ways to set this up, but input would be helpful to achieve two goals: Higher (6-8 inches would probably do the trick), and absolutely need to get a 1" section of pipe.

Deads

5x5x205

Went pretty good. Felt like I was maintaining form. Then again, don't we all?

Crap Parenting . . . idiot . . . whatever . .

Tucking the girl into bed . . .

She asks: "For Halloween, do you want to be like Idiot on ET?"

Me: "You mean Elliot?"

Her: "Yeah!"

Crap Parenting-one upped by a maestro!!

Man, is this the way to embarrass your kid or what?

Crap Parenting . . . I wish I'd had this sooner . .

Oh man . . . it's like a cornucopia of all things crap-parenty . . . . just wait till you read the one that reminds you why siphoning gas is always a bad idea . . . . though the Metallabies . . . . those, those . . are genius . . .

Shoulder Press

I wanted to get a heavy lift in, deads are out, don't have enough weight, so i did shoulder presses

5x5x75

I didn't recall that I had a baseline for 5x5 so I put these up.

Every one went relatively easy. At the end some slowing but not enough to even reach some level of effort. I thought about bumping to 85lbs, but that ruins the point of the wod. But next time I will go to that.

And all burpees . . . day 62 of the challenge . . . . only 38 days and something like 3000 burpees left . . .

A girl named LRH and a boy named Kempie . . .

Don't know why I just thought of this (oh yeah, the radio . . . ) But I think one highlight of the road trip up and down California was playing "A boy named Sue" to the Expat Aussie and the Hill Stormin' Scot . . .

Man, talk about the wrong way to argue something . . .

I understand the argument literally and I think logically they are right on the merits, but man does it read kind of funny. It just seems that arguing that guys with assets valued at nearly a billion dollars are not the sympathy gainers you might hope for. The closest the editorial comes is basically requireing you to infer from the discussion that if the team moves, some hot dog vendors (or maybe those guys who let you park at their house for $20) will lose their livelyhoods.

Regardless of the right or wrong (and there's a fair argument to be made on both sides, I happen to think confiscating property particularly business property so the government can pay corn farmers a subsidy is um, well, malarky) you need to pick oh, SYMPATHETIC examples . . . not you know bazillionares . . .

Besides . . . why weren't these guys worried about this a touch sooner? There are all sorts of things they could have been doing up to now to minimize the estate tax due. So while I favor a lower estate tax I really can't cotton to someone with the ability to hire top flight counsel and advice coming up to the end of the road and shouting "Unfair! I don't get to keep stuff I didn't necessarily earn!" If you want to keep it you better have stewarded it and then planned to move it along.

Michael

Crossfit Plano WOD

Nice warmup:

500 meter row

Then practiced turkish getups, 16kg.

Then warmup kb swing practice. Yesterday I learned hth swings so I grabbed a 24kg to practice and did some w/u swings then some hth with 24kg. The 24kg makes me grunt. Yay.

Then "Michael"

3 rft 800 meter run/50 back xtn (subbed supermans)/50 abmat situps

18:00. Compare to 19:41 on 2/26/08.

PR. Nice.

Hell's KBells . . .

25 power swings (Russian swing, then pull down hard . . . )
50 alternating one armed hand to hand swings
5 burpees (puh lease . . . )
20 front squats
40 bottom up cleans
4 burpees 15 power swings
15 power swings
30 alt. arm hth swings
3 burpees
10 front squats
30 bottom up cleans
2 burpees
5 power swings
10 alt. arm hth swings
1 burpee

10:19 with a 16 kg bell.

I finished first. So i need to move up to a grown up weight. Ugh. If I don’t grab the only 20kg, I need to Connor/Kalista up and do the 24kg.

I can do a 24kg for Helen, I probably should just take the hit on alternating WODs. I just feared two things, 1) the hand to hand in mid air with a 55lb iron ball . . . . 2) the bottom up cleans were much harder than they looked, simply for grip and stabilization.

We have like on 20kg bell in the class, but it gets picked up pretty darn early. I've even set it down and had it horked . . . you know, like it wandered on over to it's spot by itself . . .

Had a spot of the kettlebell nausea but kept pushing past it. I don't think I broke any sets for any other reason than to give my other hand a chance to hold the weight. There were also some set downs between exercises because there was so much to do I couldn't remember all the stuff coming up so it would be say 30 hth and then set the bell, read the next exercise . . .

Oh and they had all just come back from a kettlebell cert so that's why we were all doing crazy stuff . . . . really good workout though, just not quite challenging enough. It is funny how after a year or so of this I'm like "eh, this ain't enough" where a 16kg would have killed me (and did on numerous occasions) previously.

Also, the lower back is sore from Burpees . . . yay burpees. I don't know why, but it is. So it's funny because when I took the first couple of swings on the bell I could tell I wasn't doing it right . . . because of the sore . . . .

And another in the "why classes are better than a garage gym . . . " Had a couple instances of forgetting to completely open the hips and at one point Troy pointed out I was twisting my left side on the one arm swings, but not on the right. Took the pointer and kept chest up, and arm back. Viola!

And I wanted to see if my muscle up was a fluke so I went in the back and got one of the ugliest muscle ups in the history of ugly muscleups. No really. At one point my head was scraping against the wall and I was actually using my head and my shoulder to push away.

I think I'll use that as my warmup instead of pullups and dips . . no wait. I can do that now, but need more pullups . . .

Crossfit Games: Recap

The games were a blast overall. For starters, it was funny to see all the crossfit stars out and about. Additionally, you ccould tell that they'd put a lot of thought into how to move all the athletes through the events as smoothly as possible with as little fuss as possible. I think that's ultimately why they opened up more competitor slots: when they figured out how to run it, and how many athletes they could accommodate, they probably realized how many more they could support.

It really did run well. Start times were very close to the mark of every 20 minutes (12 minute cut off, 8 minutes to prep the area again). Now at first we were confused by the run having a 20 minute cut off, but, that was simply because it's a run. If you're not finished in 20, it doesn't hold up the next batch of contestants.

The events basically consisted of a hard "Fran". Instead of the normal "chin over bar" standard, the games threw in a loop: chest to bar. I.e., chest must touch bar. I had the good fortune of being with the Brand X folks and had a bit of help on the strategy. It's funny, but Jeff Martin's experience coaching and his assessment that if my one round max shoulder press was 110, then I should be able to do 95lb thrusters was dead on. They weren't fast, but they weren't the problem. It was the ctb pullups. I missed the cutoff by 6 pullups. Even with the brand x team yelling at me to get back on the bar. One funny thing is that I could hear them yelling at me. Which meant I was slogging. Normally I don't hear folks all that well if I'm really busting out a WOD. I just get a bit of pain tunnel vision where I can't see/hear much but what's in front of me.

The run was my next WOD. To describe this run as tough isn't good enough. You need to know why it was a complete b****. Not only was it uphill (both ways!! In the snow!), but there was lots of loose and shifting sand which made you burn your quads out. Also, there was the issue of one of the worst downhills in recorded history. As steep and sandy as the up was the down was hard and dusty and good lord was it a grevious effort to keep your balance. That down was followed by a bit more up and then the finish. It was 750 meters and it took me 5:03. And I'm one of the faster (not fastest) runners at my crossfit gym. I was about middle of the pack here. My legs were complete jello by the time I was done. I've run three marathons. On one of those, I went into it knowing I was slightly undertrained due to an injury but was really more unprepared than I thought. I started fading at mile 15 and finished after a friend of mine to whom I just don't lose to. Not being arrogant, my friend has stumpy legs, and no grace, and usually outweighs me by 20lbs. He's stronger, but not as fleet. He beat me. Even after that run, where my legs would cramp whenever I stood still, I was never in danger of falling down. After I crossed the finish line of the run I sat down for a minute, then got up to go down the hill, promptly about fell on my arse three times and so went and sat back down till my legs came back.

And i still had deads to do . . .

The deadlift burpee combo went surprisingly well. I probably should have done the run last, but I mistakenly thought I was "good" at that. Ha!

The deads were surprisingly okay. Then again, I did the girl weight. Ha! So there was that. Had some touch up pointers (although Jeff may argue I needed more than that . . . ) from Jeff and Kempie the couple days before (love the fact that the Martin family has bumper plates and bars out back of the house . . . you know, like everyone does . . . ).

I sprawled out on the burpees to get down fast, but I jumped those things as high as I could back straight up. Only lost one rep to failure to fully lock back the shoulders and that was a fair enough call. At least I didn't drop the bar and have to pull more reps that way. Saw lots of that. That effort was a 6:30 or so. Still not near what the girls do nor what the big dogs did moving even more weight.

And the atmosphere was fun. I just generally like participatory events (5ks, etc.) Because they're like parties with a purpose. Not that I don't like me some full on alchohol fueled nonsense, but this was more like fitness meets a skatepunk ethic. The music was cool and rocked the house while the workouts went on. It wasn't quiet and somber, but buzzing with excitement. Most of the folks were generally good natured and were having a great time.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat but don't know if I'd do the drive over (even though my car mates were dears). Because then I'd have two more days to do something else. I'd also hope that next year they don't put the games so close to the 4th of July, but that may be the way things go.

135# of DEATH!!!

DUM dum DUM!!!

135lbs of death . . .

More like 75lbs of Doh!!

5 rft
15 deadlifts
12 hpc
9 front squats
6 push jerks

20:18

3:47/4:04/3:38/5:12/3:37

Lord only knows what was happening in round 4 . . .

This seemed more a grip workout than anything. Hard, but grip failure kept speed low . . .

Another thing, was choosing rests to minimize picking up the bar . . . ha!

Resting during the deads (which was kind of dumb since they weren't hard) meant picking the bar up once more. No big whoop. Resting during the cleans meant picking the bar up when you didn't have to. Resting during the front squats meant deadlift and clean when you didn't have to and same for push jerks.

It really was the grip though that made me set the bar down. I'm curious if a heavier weight wouldn't have been the right move. I really liked this workout.

I knew it!!!

Pringles are not subject to tax because they are not potato chips . . . always knew those things were sui generis . . . so why is it the weird stuff that's tax free . . .

This isn't gonna be pretty . . .

Many bars of death . . . and one big arse hill . . .

Furriners loooove Denny's

Road Trip!!!!

Will head out this morning to the Crossfit Games site.  Off on a road trip with two funny talkers . . . :-)

Arrival at Brand X

Got into town, Kempie picked me up, and then we went back up the hill to Ramona to the Martin Residence.  We got some lunch, then took a 'wee little hike' as Julie the Scot would say.  Then we had chance to stop by the Brand X gym . . . 

Okay so it was 

1 hill sprint 

15 thrusters (65lbs)

15 box jumps (24")

15 hspu (progression)

hill sprint

9 thrusters/box jumps/hspu

hill sprint

6 thrusters/box jumps hspu

hill sprint

20:22  That was not pleasant.  But at least I had TWO trainers on either side of me critiquing form . . . . 

On the plus side, got my first muscle up and my second . . . since no one saw the first.  Cool.  Now I have to do 10, then 20, then 30.  Ha!

Oh NOES!!!

I guess there IS one on every corner. However, I must point out that decreasing the amount of caffeine available to me is not a good thing . . .

Poor no earnin' a tip but puttin' out a tip jar Baristas . . . personally, I think we need to bring back some old names: if pourin' soda made you a Soda Jerk . . . well, how about Coffee Jerk? I mean, at least the guy at the 7-11 sells me lotto tickets and smokes. And I don't tip him.

All a Barista ever did that made an impression on me was correct my pronunciation of a made up word (way to go!! get a top SAT score? No? Oh yeah, you're an Artiste! and thus cast off my bourgeois ways!" )