CrossFit WOD: "Nancy"

This was the first time I've attempted the benchmark "Nancy." She was not fun, but what a great combo of exercises! I'm quite exhausted and I'm glad today I get to rest.

For the skills, we worked on overhead squats (OHS) in the following:

12-10-8-6-4 reps

"Nancy" is the following:

Run 400M
15 OHS (95 lbs)

x 5 rounds for time!

My time was 13:07. I couldn't believe how tired I got (well, I can). The combo of legs and then having to run after just made me feel silly and like a newborn baby who didn't know how to use his legs. It was fun though!

Here's a video of me I think on my fourth round, completely exhausted:

CrossFit WOD: Met-con BURNER!

Today's skill work involved the shoulders.

3-3-3 Press
3-3-3 Push Press
3-3-3 Split jerk

We did them consecutively, from the press to the jerk for a total of 9 reps for three sets.

Afterwards, we did an amazing met-con that taxed me abundantly.

40 Double-unders
30 Box Jumps (24")
20 KB swings (1.5 pood)

x 5 rounds for time!

My time was 12:00 even! Very challenging and I really focused on pushing through when the workout was getting unbearable. I need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable!

Best,
Tyler

The Amazing Race: CrossFit Style!

This weekend was amazing and I'm so glad I got to compete. I'll link to the post, which says it better than I can!

The Amazing Race: CrossFit Style

The flyer

Traveling WODs and my own made up chum...

I've been traveling so I haven't had time to hit up the gym. But, that is no excuse to stop my workouts.

Tuesday was as follows:

Sprint 200M
10 Thrusters (95 lbs)

x 4 rounds.

I felt good, but didn't time myself. Purely for preparing for this weekend's CrossFit event!

Wednesday was as follows:

Run 800M
Max Pushups

x 3 rounds + 25 burpees at end.

Again, no timing today but I was WIPED! I need to get back into perfecting my bodyweight exercises.

Thursday was a follows:

Sprint 200M on a VERY STEEP hill (up and down)
50 pushups
Sprint hill
50 squats
Sprint hill
50 burpees

This one drained me. The hill is amazing and reminded me of basketball days where we'd run 16's on them.

All in all, these were good met-con WODs that involved NO equipment (except the first day). I'm happy with my determination this week to continue my quest of mastering my weaknesses.

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: "Fight Gone Bad" for my Fathers Day?

We all know what FGB is about and it's history. A crazy hard WOD that challenges even the best of the best. Today brought pain and suffering, but what a great way to celebrate Fathers Day -- kind of.

Skill Lift: Press 3, Push Press 3 for 3 sets

WOD: Fight Gone Bad
Wall Balls
SDHP summo deadlift high pull
Box Jumps
Push Presses
Row

Count reps at each station for one min, except for the row- count calories expended.  One minute rest between each round, perform 3 rounds.  Your score is total reps and calories in all 3 rounds.

This was Amy's first time going at it and she got 279! Very proud of her! For me, I got 23 reps lower than last time with 349 and I know why -- the transitions to my stations were longer and I wasn't counting myself. The next time I do this WOD, I'm stopping at 15 seconds on all the lifts except the last one (row) so I can push harder right away on the next one. Great day otherwise! Loved it!

Best,
Tyler

Here's a pic of the FGB crew:

CrossFit WOD: Saturday morning 'chipper'

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="493" caption="Me running (on right) - our 400m includes a steep hill!"][/caption]

I love chipper WODs. It's almost like I'm crossing off a to-do list and with each successful task completed comes great satisfaction. Today was as follows:

Skill Progressions: double-unders, hand walking, pistols

WOD:
- 30 pull-ups, run 400m
- 30 push-ups, run 400m
- 30 air squats, run 400m
- 30 KB swings (2 pood), run 400m
- 30 double-unders, run 400m

*For Time*

I worked on the hand-walking as I'm good at the other skills. My time on the WOD was 13:15. My pullups got me as my hands were rolling the calluses. Great burner though!

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: Deadlifts and abs

Nothing like deadlifts to make you sore the next day. Yesterday's WOD was a fun one, although not too challenging. My only hangup was my grip on the knees to elbows. It was as follows:

7 deadlifts (250lbs)
14 knees-to-elbows

x 5 rounds for time!

My time was 4:25 and did all the deadlifts unbroken. I had to break up my knees-to-elbows due to my grip failing me. But all in all, I'm happy with the time. My wife got 6:55 scaled down obviously. She's doing very well and keeps getting better.

Best,
Tyler

PR on power clean! 225 lbs.

I'm still working on my cleans, but this was improvement. Actually, this was the first time I've tried to do heavy cleans. I think I'll be able to do more next time. But here's the video:

CrossFit WOD: Crazy eights...

Wednesday's WOD involved something a lot of people don't do too often: dumbell snatches.  But before we started this, we worked on front squats with reps of 5-5-5-5.  My weights were 135-185-205-225.  Need to work on my leg strength some more and this helped.

The WOD was as follows:

8 dumbell snatches (55lbs - left arm)
8 burpees
8 dumbell snatches (55lbs - right arm)
8 burpees

AMRAP in 12 minutes!

I got 6 rounds. It starts off easy but then brutality sets in. Burpees kick my butt so that was my main challenge.  Amy got 4 rounds. I'm so proud!

Here's some video:

Run for fun? I did...

I'm not a runner. But on Tuesday, I found out that I came in 2nd place for my age group (25-30) in the 5K event a week or so ago. It made me realize that my long stride may be of some use! ;-) To parlay on this success, I went for a long 25 minute, fast-paced jog with my dog. I had to stop a few times because my dog was getting tired! Unreal. The dog is a German Shorthaired-Pointer and hunts birds all the time with no trouble. But he overheats VERY easily due to his all liver color coat. Either that or he is just out of long distance shape! He's amazing at sprinting though. Ok enough of that.

It was a splendid run and just what I needed as a "rest" day. Tonight should be heavy and I can't wait!

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: "Elizabeth" kicks my butt.

I've done the benchmark "Elizabeth" before, but it was different this time around. My previous gym did not have the real rings hanging from the ceiling, but rather, had them hanging on a bar where I could, if I wanted to, touch my feet to the ground with ease. This time around, not a chance. The rings are about 8 feet in the air and I have to use a box to get to them. That is good and bad. "Elizabeth" is the following:

In reps of 21-15-9

Squat cleans (135lbs)
Ring dips

For time!

My time was 10:14. Last time I got 8:15. It just goes to show that I was not doing the full extent of this workout. The ring dips really screwed me, but it showed that I'm needing work on them. A very tough benchmark and I look forward to improving. My wife got 9:20 scaled at 35lbs - she's doing well, working on form first and foremost.

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: Brother's first WOD!

My brother was in town on business and after work, I decided to bring him up to Utility and let him have at his first CrossFIt workout. He's in good shape already and most of the stuff CF entails is what he did during his college basketball days so it's nothing too extreme for him.

We worked on clean & jerks for our skill. The WOD involved C&Js and was:

10 C&Js (135lb)
400m run

x 3 rounds for time.

My time was 7:30. My brother was 9 minutes and Amy was 12 minutes. A decent first WOD and a good introduction to what CF is about. We had fun! Until next time!

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: "The Seven" - BRUTAL!!!! Hardest so far.

Tuesday's WOD was just brutal. There are no other words. Here are the details of this WOD:

7 Handstand push-ups
7 Thrusters (135lb)
7 Knees to elbows
7 Deadlifts (245lb)
7 Burpees
7 Kettlebell swings (2 pood)
7 Pull-ups

x 7 ROUNDS!!! For time.

My time was 28:12. I was seriously gassed. I did this to Rx up until the 5th round when I started doing inclined pushups. I couldn't do anymore, my body started to fail me. I consider this the hardest WOD I've participated in to date. But, I have nothing to complain about. Here's the story behind this "Hero WOD".

Best,
Tyler

CrossFit WOD: OHS and PUs + 500m row finisher!

Today involved the skill work of sumo deadlifts. We did a 12-10-8-6-4 rep scheme to get things going and with the goal of doing heavy weight at the end - to work on form, I only ended with 315 lbs.  Great leg and butt work for sure!

After the skills, we did the following WOD:

21-15-9 reps of

Over-head squats (115 lbs Rx) - I did 95 to work on my technique
Pullups (chest to bar for me)

My time was 5:35 - not bad considering I failed 3 times on the OH squat portion. It's definitely a weak point of mine and it came through today. I will be working to correct that. I know that my 6'8" wingspan does not help things either ;-) But this WOD was very tough - I believe Doug indicated that it was a WOD at the Northeast Regionals (Rx was 135lbs though).

After the WOD, they had us do a finisher that is brutal. Anyone that has done a 5oom row as fast as possible knows this. But even after the torturous WOD, I set a new PR on the row with a 1:33 row! Super happy I got it done!

Until next time,
Tyler

Akron Children's Kids are Number One Run & Family Fun Day!

What a lovely day for the local Children's Hospital's 5K run - one of the best hospitals in the country for children. In fact, this is where our son was transferred after he was born 1 month premature. He spent 5 days in the NICU and TLC centers and I could not have asked more a more loving, compassionate and caring group of women/men at a hospital. Everything was top notch.

To support this fantastic place, we decided to participate in the 5K run and the Paws for a Cause walk, which is a one mile walk with our dog called the Miracle Mile. It was great to see so many people!

Lots of guys from our gym showed up today and we all made this our WOD. I finished the 5K in 21:45 - the official number is TBD but you can see in the video below:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/12347437]

A perfect day for a perfect cause! We had a great time with the whole family!

CrossFit WOD: Wife's 1st official WOD!

Yesterday was the first day that my wife did a WOD at a CF gym (non-team WOD) and I'm so proud! She really likes the atmosphere, the music, the sweat, the no-nonsense of it!  She did really well too!!!

Yesterday we did the following WOD:

Sprint 100m
6 shoulder to overhead (any way - push press, press, push jerk) - Rx was 135lb
6 burpees
6 box jumps (24in Rx)

x 6 rounds for time!

A good WOD! I did well, but I was so tired that I only counted 5 rounds (I think), so I gave myself a 2 minute penalty and did another round for good measure. Oh well! Amy did great as well with the scaled version. She's tough!

Here she is doing work:



Here are the times:

CrossFit WOD: The Bear Complex! Rd. 2

My first "official" WOD at CF Utility was on Friday. I am now a full member there instead of at Catamount. It was also a great way to get back into the swing of things. I did this WOD before, but today was a bit different in that we only rested 2 minutes between each set.  Also, the first 4 complexes were done as a group, meaning we had to pause at each movement. This was much tougher as the momentum was not there.

I ended with 135 lbs and was wiped after! My neck and back have the marks to prove it! ;-)

[caption id="attachment_485" align="alignleft" width="448" caption="In the middle of the complex!"][/caption]

CrossFit WOD: Burpee mile!

Ok, so I took a week off of CrossFit because I went up to Wisconsin to visit family and celebrate Memorial Day. The time off helped repair my shoulder, as I'm now back to normal. But, given that I was off and on "vacay," my diet was terrible. To celebrate coming back to reality, my wife and I did the following WOD in the street:

Sprint/run 400m
25 burpees

x4 rounds!

So 100 burpees and a mile. I was exhausted! So was she. But a great way to get back into the swing of things!

Best,
Tyler