Audible at the Door

My plan when I went to bed was to join the 6:30 class for the WOD.   That was until I woke up and felt the day after jet lag drag.   I got ready to go to open gym and was just about to walk over when I changed plans to just stay home and row.  

WOD 30 Min easy row

7039 Meters
avg pace 2:07.9

Reality

Landed from the red eye at 6:30am and plowed through the day.   No workouts.   Not much else other than work and a break to pick Jack up from Skiing. 

Choices

Woke up at 4:30am and started going thru email and work stuff.  Kept debating whether it was worth it working out given the lacking rest.  Decided that I would go to LaLanne and hope for the best.   Turns out I made an excellent choice.  It was a double conditioning wod. 

We did a warm up of 2 rounds of 

400run

10 dislocates

20 lunges 

15 push-ups 

Burgner warmup 

Snatch drills 

12-9-6-3

Power snatch @95

Burpees

This wasn't bad at all. Left me sweating but not destroyed. 

4:50

12 min amrap

1 rope climb

15 pull-ups

This was a fun one as my rope climbing technique has improved so I am now conserving a lot energy.  Totally jacked after this wod. 

7 rounds 

Rest Day and West Coast trip

Rest days seem to always fall on travel days.   Flew Monday night got in around. 1:30am est and had to be in the office for a 6am meeting. Cranked thru the day and had a dinner meeting that got over past 10. 16 hour day no problem!

Lightweight Macho Man

 I was looking at some of my fellow Craic head athletes blogs as I was very curious to see what Danny Deroma (see his blog here - tinmansdirtylaundry ) would have to say about getting into the 2nd round of 13.5,  He has been training like a beast and he absolutely crushed the wod.

Well he hadnt posted on that wod yet but what I did find was a  a link to Eric Thomas' "How Bad do you want to succeed" video.   Eric is a renowned speaker delivering high energy messages that encourage people to live up to their full potential by breaking the cycles of crime, hopelessness and despair that many face daily.  It was a version that I hadnt watched before and it really hit home for me once again but in a completely different way.    I totally agree with his message so it wasnt about that it really help me understand why I am not going to do the opens this year. 

In the video Eric states that you have to be willing to sacrifice everything to succeed.  Well I  did that last year, I prioritized everything around my training including my family.  So the result is that I still fell short. I never said it or really thought about it but declined to get as singularly focused.   So as the Opens approach it would be hard to go into them and just do it for fun.   Its not something I can do at this point, Im just not wired that way.   Its best if I just keep training and keep on the current course.  Anyone who might read this and have a different opinion or thought please share either by commenting or sending me an email/text etc...

So on to today's training.  Texted Anthony to see what his plan was and he as already at the gym with Steve M getting ready to do a wod of rowing and swings.  Since I rowing tomorrow I opted to do the EMOM I had planned on doing.   I was pretty frightened of doing another balls to wall wod made worse by the fact that Richard Johnson posted he didnt even get 6 rounds.  I warmed up but it was really just procrastination at its finest.

WOD - "Macho Man"As I understood it at the time the RX version is
10 Min Cap
OTM for as long as possible: @185lbs (I SCALED to @155lbs)
3 Power Clean
3 Front Squat
3 Jerks
*If you fail a round rest a round then begin again

Was hoping to make it to 5 rounds and blew past that.  Did the whole 10 minutes. Most rounds I had about 20-25 seconds of rest. 

After that I did 2 rounds of max Muscle Ups and got 8 and 5.

I discovered tonight through the help of Google that there are different versions of MACHO MAN including one with a 20 min cap @165lbs.  A Might try that one next before I jump to 185lbs.

Here is what I found on the floor after I finally was able to stand up. Can you make out the Reebok? Cool huh.  Sara Mcevoy thought I was taking a photo of Bruins hair that you can see in the upper left.

Testing 1,2,3

Retest of the "Bergeron Fit Test".  Absolutely more fun to do it with a group.  Dennis and Anthony signed up for a trip to the pain game.  I was hoping to improve on Wednesdays performance. Anthony went first and absolutely smoked the first 3 rounds.  He made it look like a warm up.  This gave me a bit of confidence.  I went after Amthony and felt good till round 3 and then it started getting real hard.  Managed to get though the round of 5 and spent too muh time looking at the bar.  It's possible to get 6 but you need to get right after it.

Here are the stats:

9am class was next. The wod was 7 min Amrap burpees.   I was feeling a bit smoked while we mobilized.  Not a good sign. My plan was to go to 4min to get a score for masters wod testing page. I hit the 4 min mark at 66 and sat down for what seemed like 30-44 seconds. Then decided to hop back in. Not a bad second effort but way off my total for 12.1 from 2012.

The stats as captured by Dennis:

A punch in the heart

I was looking forward to today's rowing wod when it was posted last night.   It looked simple enough, a few more rounds than last week but 100meters less.  This was going to be way easier than last week.   When I walked into Craic and noticed everyone looking a little worse for wear I brushed it off as the result of a long work week.  I was still in denial when Dennis2 told me it was way harder than last week.   

10 Rounds (EFT)
250m Row
Rest (3-5mins)

I was still not convinced it was going to be too bad until about round 3.  Then I knew I was in for a serious beatdown.

Round	Time	/500m pace
1	43.3	01:26.6
2	42.8	01:25.6
3	44.7	01:29.4
4	44.9	01:29.8
5	45.3	01:30.6
6	47.8	01:35.6
7	48	1:36
8	46.9	1.33.8
9	48.4	01:36.8
10	46.8	01:33.6

As I finished each round I felt ok and then about 45 seconds later my legs and lungs were burning.  Weird delay.  It would be great if I could put it off for like a day.   That wod really messed me up. It was really like a punch in the heart.

Rest Day

Rest Day was what it was!

What I already knew

Snow storm so no trip to West Coast.  No desire to do 13.5 which is what the gym had programmed.  Redoing open wods is like calling some girl you finally got over.  Why in the world would put yourself thru that pain again.  New wods you don't know how bad they will hurt.  I'm not even talking the physical pain.  The mental stress of the 5 weeks is brutal. 

I would consider doing this years open only under complete in the dark mode.  Meaning I never look at the wod until I do it.   I have someone else enter my scores.  I log off all social media where opens might be discussed and no one talks to me about opens or Crossfit for that matter. Realistic? No of course not.

On to today's wod.  The Bergeron Fit test. Used it to confirm what I already knew!

EMOM

7 thrusters @ 75lbs

7 Pull-ups 

7 burpees

First round finished with 10 seconds to spare and then I lost 2+ seconds a round.

5 rounds plus 

Took a 5 minute break and tried again.  First round felt good, 2nd round not so much. Failed half way thru 3 round.  I will do that one again. 

EMOM not what I expected

Warm Up

Skill Drill = Snatch

95, 95, 115, 115, 135, 135


TODAY'S WORKOUT
21min OTM
1) 2-Full Snatch
2) :30-AD (tough effort)
3) 12-Sit-ups

So when I read this last night I thought it was all that in 1 minute.  Once in class I realized it was each in an EMOM.   Totally different workout.   I think it would have been cool to have 1 & 3 with more situps on the EMOM.  


Since we had the time we could increase the weight so here is what I did

round 1 - 135lbs
round 2 - 145lbs
round 3 - 145lbs
round 4 - 155lbs
round 5 - 155lbs
round 6 - 155lbs
round 7 - 155lbs


Did the first round of situps with 12lb KB and then switched to 26lber

Swing Rope Training Post WOD

A) Back Squats
Rx:5x (4-6)
Warm-ups - bar@15 reps, 10@135lbs

5 reps @185lbs
5 reps @225lbs
5 reps @275lbs
5 reps @295lbs


B) Pullups
Rx: 5x5 UB C2B
Plus 5 bar muscle ups.


I wish we had some ropes in the gym so we could do swinging rope training.  Here is a video of me getting creative in the gym.  Had to scale it though.

CFMK - Crossfit Mt Kisco

Great box - coaches are always friendly and welcoming.

Good dynamic warmup

Ladder drills

Calisthenics

Wod

4 rds

20 KB Hi-Pulls (53/35)

20 KB Goblet Squats (53/35)

20 Burpee Box Jumps (24/20)

The first round is never bad.  2nd round burpees got real hard!  I was hoping to be around 15 minutes but my legs were dust.  It's been a tough leg week and even with a day off the were not recovered.

16:35

Love the lounge @CFMK complete with Ping Pong Table

Finding Balance

Although the last 2 days of wods don't look like they were too hard I'm feeling it. Not sore but feeling fatigued. I thought it would be best if I just did a recovery wod, squeezed in a workout before my 8am meeting. 

 3 rounds not for time

15 bench press @135

15 KBS @53lbs

15 GHD sit-ups 

15 GHD back extension

15 pull-ups 

Super busy day at work.  Susie and I had a nice chat about CrossFit programming competing etc on the drive to NY.  In quite content just training right now and doing the Saturday pre class throwdowns . 

Last year I enjoyed the training and lead up to the games but then it became a 5 week slog.  More like work than a fun outlet.  Sadly the CrossFit world gets ready be tilted on its axis for the opens very soon.  5 weeks of non stop obsession and talk about the wods.  I personally will check our until my regular program returns. 

Row till Anoxic

I never knew what Anoxia meant until the good Dr Gold posted on No Bread he couldn't write because he was Anoxic.   Well during and after today's WOD I was Anoxic.  In fact this wod was so hard it hurt to have my eyes open.  Opening then didn't hurt but trying to focus sure did.   A very simple workout.

WOD

8 Rounds (EFT)
350m Row
Rest (3-5mins)

I partnered up with Dennis and tried to get mentally ready for the pain that was about to come.  Even then I think I underestimated believing that 350m couldnt possibly be as bad as 500m.  Completely wrong.

 

Round	Time	/500m
1	01:01.5	01:27.8
2	1:03:00	1:30:00
3	01:06.3	1:35:00
4	01:06.6	01:35.1
5	01:16.9	01:49.8
6	01:10.5	01:40.7
7	01:09.8	01:39.7
8	01:13.8	1:45:00

 

 Round 1 felt great.   Good start felt strong till 100m left.   2nd round a lot harder.   Round 3 and 4 really hard when 150meters to go.   I was taking around 4 minutes or 4:30 minute breaks up to this point and then Jarrod turned off the timer and I had no idea how long I had been resting. I still felt very fatigued but at this point your body and mind are in a complete argument making logical thinking impossible.  The wheels came off in the 5th round.  Probably as much mental as physical.   Came back and was strong until the last one.   I was the last one still to go and it was already 6:30am so I probably didnt use up every ounce.   Was it negative splits - nope.  Was it FLY AND DIE as the good people at Concept2 call it...Probably.   See their rowing strategy page here - rowing-for-specific-goals/competition   The good news is that I was able to find a pace that was nearly sustainable for most of the rounds after.  But damn it hurt.

By the way Dennis' writing is worse than mine. Maybe he was anoxic and I was only hypoxic.  

Back on track

Hotel wod in NYC.  Still feeling very tired but I thought that I getting in the gym and moving would be a good antidote.  My logic may seem rather flawed but sometimes I find the spark when I get my heart rate up.  Today was not one of those days.  

3 rounds of 

50 air squats

40 sit-ups

30 push-ups

20 burpees

10 ground to OH - 45lb DB snatch

Fairly consistent from round to round.  

Total time 20:09

Travel and rest

The alarm went off this morning and I was still very tired and thought that I would benefit from taking the rest day versus going 4 days in a row.  In NYC for the next few days so I will be doing a bit of scrambling to find a gym and do a wod.  

A few shots of the sky as we approached NYC

Sleep & Row

The last 2 days of wods caught up with me.  I felt really spent Saturday and spent the day laying low. Aside from a short walk at Wilson Mountain in the pouring rain and lightning.  Jack and I really enjoy being out in that kind of weather. Seeing Mother Nature at her worst/best is always inspiring. 

Felt good to get some sleep.  Didn't accomplish much at all today which was the plan. 

Wod 30 minutes on ERG.  Goal was to be consistent.  Hard not to chase as I closed in on 5k.  Here are the final numbers and splits. 

Unofficial 8am Class New tradition

Opted out of the 7am class as they were doing a Open Workout.   No open workouts for me. I wouldnt have been in any shape to do it - last nights birthday celebration was too much fun.

I had convinced Anthony to join me for some kind of partner wod, change of plans when I discovered that Dennis Mahoney was in the house.  He had thought there was an 8am class.  I had planned on doing the partner wod that Crossfit Reebok 5th avenue programmed on Wednesday but that wouldnt work with 3 people so we opted to all go head to head.

“Cooler then Ice Cold”

Teams of 2, one partner works at a time  ****Reprogrammed as SOLO ****

3 rounds
15 OH Walking Lunges (45/25) single count
7 Power Snatch (115/75)

Then- We didnt set up the rowers but agreed who ever finished first on lunges and snatched they would pull the rowers out.  I was last so my rower was set up,

2 Rounds
500 m Row
35 Air Squats

Then

15 Wall Climbs

This was a great combo of workouts that taxed legs and shoulders.  First one was a combo to soften you up and then the 2nd was all legs and last all shoulders.

Anthony flew through the row and squats but I was able to catch and pass him on the Wall Climbs.  

 JFD - 16:26

Anthony - 16:37

 Dennis - 17:33

 So much fun!  Its great to have an old guy crew.  I had considered just going home but as athlete after athlete poured into the box and the energy level amped up I was in for another wod.

We had to do two heats as there were about 26 people.  Anthony and I were partnered up and I went first .  Susie was in my heat and she was crushing it.

15AMRAP
9- Deadlifts @155
12- Pushups
15- Box Jumps 24”/20”

Just tried to keep moving.  Did 9 rounds.  Amazing atmosphere.   Ben did an excellent job managing the group given the size and multiple movements.

Press and Pull

Sweat Angel - Heart was beeping so hard it was outlined

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Shoulder mobility warm-up

A1)Push Press 2-2-2-2-2

95,135,165,185,195,205

A2)Pullups 2-2-2-2-2

15,25,45,55,55

+

15AMRAP using 2 35lb dumbells

10-DB Push Press

10-DB Lunges Alt Legs

30 Double Unders

6rounds 4 reps

On paper this didn't look too bad but it quickly turned into a suckfest.  More just overall fatigue versus muscle failure

Late vs not at all

The Craic website posted 2k row last night.  Well that is a brutal workout and has a pain factor of 50 when done early in the morning.   I was up but really tired so blew off the class and decided to do it at home at the end of the day.   Full busy day but at 7pm I went into the room of pain and did a 500m warm up. Stretched a little and got ready to enjoy the pain.   I really tried to pace it and not go out too quickly and things were looking great until the 1200 meter mark and then everything started to go south in a hurry. My legs and lungs were burning and I couldnt muster any back up reserves until about 300meters to go.  I dug in and did a 15 seconds burst with my arms and started to drive the numbers down.   Too late to do a sub 7.   7:09 a PR for me but bummed out I couldnt break the 7 minute barrier. Need to stay after this one.   I was able to break the 1:30 barrier on 500m so I know I can get this one as well.

I just found a post of Anthony Demusis crushing the 2k like a boss.  I wish I had the energy to yell like him. I cant even do that before we start let alone after it.   Tip of the hat to Anthony.  In case you missed it on ESPN you can find it on Facebook.  Sad I cant link up to it - Facebook fail.

Travel Day - Rest Day - Tired Day

On Tuesday flew down to NY for work.  Shaved the beard off as I didnt want to take any slack and I was not fully committed to keeping it anyways.

After

Before

Full day and then we had a client event in the evening.   Small group reception before Neil Young concert at Carnegie Hall.   Nice reception and I really enjoyed the concert.   By the time the show ended and we collected our coats it was close to 11pm and I was absolutely starving.   Went to dinner with some colleagues I have nt seen in awhile and it was a good time even though I was exhausted.

Neil Young - Yeh thats him

Got back to the hotel about 1am  and had to get a few things done before I crashed.   I remember editing a document and then next thing I knew I was waking up an hour later with my laptop on my chest and absolutely no idea where I was and whether it was the weekend or weekday.

Clearly couldnt answer the crossfit bell after 4 hours of sleep so I ended up taking two days off.  Not sure I would classify them as rest days.

Monday 5:30am

5:30am class Monday morning - great way to end the vacation and begin the real week.   All of the COD All Stars were present - Anthony, Klein, Steve M and the new Craicers - Dennis Mahoney & Tom Gormley.

WOD
30 OTM
A1)High Hang Snatch x3 @95lbs
*you pick #*
A2)Burpees x10
A3)Pullups x5

We partnered up the this wod so I went a little lighter on the High Hang Snatch than I might of and it was a good idea because it felt a lot heavier than it really was.   I spent the most energy going head to head with Eric Kleinon the 10 burpees.

Kettle bell Class

I told Rita here class is brutally hard and that she is bring a whip as she is a Dominatrix.  Good group for sure.  Dennis, Anthony and Steve were all there.

Warm up

2 rounds of

10 Halos 

10 push ups

10 downward/upward dogs

Skill: TGU

EMOM for 5 min: 20 Unbroken Russian Swings @70lbs

EMOM for 5 min: 10 on Bells Pushups

4 min active rest: complete AMRAP getups @44lbs

EMOM for 5 min: 24 Russian Twist 

EMOM for 5 min: 10 Double Bell Cleans


This was hard and by the time I got the cleans I was only getting 9 in  within a round.

Double Wod - DT and Chipper

They just announced that Registration will open January 15th for the 2014 Crossfit Games Open.    There was a post up on the main site expanding the qualifying for the Masters -

"New in 2014 is the top-200 Masters athletes in each age division in the Open will be invited to compete in an additional round of qualification. There will be multiple workouts announced prior to Regionals and athletes will have one weekend to perform the workouts, have them filmed and submit their results. The top-20 athletes in each division will then advance to the Games."  

Later that day it was taken down.  I had a number of people text me who were enthusiastic about the plan.  For me it falls short. I think they should just run a super regionals for the masters - East, West and Central EMEA and Asia for instance.  Masters who want to compete have the disposable income to travel.   At this point I am not planning on competing this year.

Opted not to do the advanced class today as the planned workout although very interesting was a bit of a beat down and would have hurt my training for the next week.   Opted to do Friday's programming and then jump in with the 9am class.

Power Clean Heavy Triple (20mins)  Messed this up as I was doing this from memory and could have sworn this was:

 Heavy Triple - Clean and Jerk. Probably would have been smarter to do just the clean as the combo took a lot more out of me.

Warm-Up  - 95lbs, 125lbs, 135lbs, 

 3@165lbs

 3@185lbs

2(1 fail) @195lbs

3@195lbs

I think these touch and go movements are good stimuli.  Need to ask John Mcevoy what he thinks.  

+
“DT”
5 Rounds For Time
12-Deadlifts
9-Hang Power Cleans
6-Shoulder to Overhead
(15 Time Cap)
Rx- 155/105
Its been just over a year since I did this wod.  Here is the link for comparison.  DT from Dec 2012
My plan was to try to keep the first rounds as close to 2 minutes a round.   Didn't record any splits but probably should have.

Total time - 12:26

Then I joined the 9am class.  Some good mobility as directed by Ben.  Not surprising the longer the time between DT and the next WOD the worst I felt as my body got a chance to realize what I had done to it.

For Time:
50 Burpees to Plate #45
40 Wallballs 20/15
30 KB Swings 70/53
20 Situps
10 Pullups

Anthony was ahead by at least 15-20 seconds after the burpees.  He really crushed them.  I couldn't really make up any ground as much as I tried.

Total time - 8:09.  Would have liked to have done sub 8.

Red Line

Had a few work calls so didn't get to class until noon.  Pete ran us thru a short warm up and then we partnered up and got after it.  Barb F and I matched up.  Great to have someone encouraging you the whole time .

Wod 

6 Rounds

:15 AD 100%

:45 Row 100%

Rest (3-5mins)

Did the first 3 rounds with 3 minute rest then 2 at 4 minutes and the last with 5 minute break.

Round 1- 255

Round 2- 249

Round 3- 245

Round 4- 248

Round 5- 245

Round 6- 244

My Favs

Rest day.  That went out the window when I went to the gym to keep Susie company and Anthony asked if I was doing the 2014 New Year wod.  Not one to say NO to Anthony I jumped in.  Not to mention it was a fun group - Steve M, Rob Potash, Jim Costa, Eric Klein. Rita, Anthony and LJ.  

2014 New Years wod

20 double unders

14 pull-ups 

20 double unders

14 KBS 

20 double unders

14 box jumps

20 double unders

14 deadlifts

20 double unders

14 T2b

20 double unders

14 sit-ups

20 double unders

14 Front Squats

20 double unders

14 Cleans

20 double unders

14 push press

20 double unders

14 dips

20 double unders

14 air squats

20 double unders

14 burpees 

14:36

I checked my time in case we didn't have to do the last 20 double unders.  With last 20 it was 15:05