A sneaky one, climb a rope wod #4

20 ft rope climb, 5 ascents

Push a Ford Focus 150 meters

20 ft rope climb, 4 ascents

Push a Ford Focus 125 meters

20 ft rope climb, 3 ascents

Push a Ford Focus 100 meters

20 ft rope climb, 2 ascents

Push a Ford Focus 75 meters

20 ft rope climb, 1 ascent

Push a Ford Focus 50 meters

This was one of those really sneaky workouts. The kind that sounded fun and easy in the beginning. At the end left you wasted and tired thinking what the hell happened. Two things, I really love to train outside and I really enjoy climbing the rope. Especially now that someone has taught me how to get it down easier.

My friend Mike and I cruised around looking for a place to hang the rope and push my car. I have pushed my car several times in the past as sort of a prowler simulator. I am somewhat used to this. My friend Mike however has never experienced this kind of effort before. At the same time I have never pushed my car this distance before either. As well as the most I have ever climbed my rope in a single work out session before was 7 times during the climb a rope wod #3. Now we were looking to up the stakes a little or a whole bunch actually doubling the most we have ever done before to 15 rope climbs.

I finished in 16 minutes and 51 seconds. Mike finished in 27 minutes and 39 seconds. Climbing 300 ft of rope and pushing a car 500 meters. A great effort by the both of us. For me the first five rope climbs went really fast. Pushing the car went by way too fast as well. I remember feeling pretty leveled after that first round. I moved through the next four rope climbs trying to stay consistent. The third round of rope climbs is where I bonked. That little bit of doubt creep ed into my head. I remember thinking "will I be able to do this ", " This is way harder than I expected, what was I thinking". I just wanted it to be over with and fast. I kind of went out of my head a little and just kept going trying to not focus on the pain.

In the end I felt very satisfied that I kept with it and finished the workout. That is a difficult thing to do when you have this doubt in your head telling you it is to hard. So I am satisfied there. My friend Mike was up second and let me tell you this was inspiring to watch this man struggle as I did and keep on pushing. A couple of times mike would fail on the rope climb nearly making it to the top but reaching failure so close. This is extremely difficult because you loose a ton of mental energy. He stayed focused through the pain and disappointment and finished with style. Very inspiring indeed. A great workout and a very sneaky one. I actually thought this was going to be easy. Funny!

" Weakness doesn’t respect proper equipment or hours of operation"

I recently came across this article, Free of the gym, by Blair Morrison of Anywherefit. Check it out man.

Grace

So today I felt really good in the lower back area. I figured I would have a go at a Crossfit wod titled Grace. I have never actually done this before and I was really curious where I would finish. Especially since I have not performed any power cleans since November of last year.
Grace is 30 repetitions of ground to over head with 135 lbs. I have only done a wod similar to this on November 1st of Last year during the Scandinavian crossfit challenge I participated in in Halmstad Sweeden. During this competition each competitor had to perform 50 double unders and then 30 ground to over head with same weight ( 135 lbs) and then 50 more double unders. I finished this wod during the games in 4 min 45 seconds. At the time I thought my time was not very good. As it turned out it was good enough to give me second place in this event. The winner beat me by a full minute. Stud!
Anyway I warmed up on the rowing machine doing 2000 meters in about 9 mins. Went through the Burgener warm up. Added some weight for a few quick sets of five then I got after it.
My time was 2 min and 23 secs.
I am really pleased with this time and a little more motivated. I am confident I can get this in under two minutes. The first ten felt great. I probably should have kept going. However I decided to put the weight down and rest for ten seconds. Should have made it five. Then the second set of ten were OK . One rep was a little sloppy at the top that made me step forward and back and then reset in the bottom that I felt lost momentum. This second set of ten gassed me. I paused for another 15 or 20 seconds before going again. I did a quick set of 6 and then 2 and 2 to finish.
Power cleans are my favorite Olympic lifts to perform. I love the feeling of cleaning heavier weight off the ground. I really enjoyed doing this wod Grace. This is my first time and I am confident that the next time I do this wod I will get it under 2 mins.
Shortly after I did a two minutes of as many toes to bar as possible. I finished with 36. Grip strength was the limiting factor here which was surprising to me considering how strong I have felt climbing lately.
I have had some other really cool workouts with some friends lately photos coming soon. For now I am off to Yosemite for four days of bad ass climbing.

The most challenging workout this year

Run 150 trail stairs
21 KB thrusters using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
21 KB swings 45#
Run 150 trail stairs
15 KB thruster using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
15 KB swings 45#
Run 150 trail stairs
9 KB thrusters using two 45# Kettle bells
Run 150 trail stairs
9 KB swings 45#

By far the most challenging workout I have attempted this year. I finished this in 29 min and 4 secs. I actually thought that I would be able to do this in under 12 minutes. Ya, ummm way off. The stairs going up the trail to a vista over looking Emerald bay were random heights and distances apart. This made the stairs so challenging. Some steps had to be very powerful and others had to be quick. The trail was very steep as well. In the beginning my times for the stairs were around 40 secs, towards the end they were more like 1 min 15 secs. I thought that the first set of thrusters were really difficult. Just to finish them unbroken was a challenge. My friend Dan was working out with me today and he was the extra inspiration to keep me going. The swings were never an issue. Running the stairs were the most challenging part of this exercise, coupled with the swings and the thrusters made this one of the hardest wod's I have done this year.

19:36

Row 5K for a time
I tried something I have never done before. Row 5,000 meters for a time. The longest distance I have ever tried before this was only 2,000 meters. I finished with a time of 19 min 36 secs. I really have nothing to compare this time too. I know that going into it I expected this to be a huge mental challenge. Huge is an understatement. My strategy was to keep track of my progress 500 meters at a time. I wanted to keep each segment of 500 meters under the 2 min mark.
I managed this only barely. I think a couple of them were just slightly over by a few seconds. This work out required a ton of concentration. I needed to focus on technique to maximize each pull. As well as to keep my ass on the little seat. I needed to focus to make sure I did not slow down my pace. My grip started to bother me only after 2000 meters so the rest of the way my hands were completely pumped. I just figured this would be great accessory work for rock climbing. The last 500 meters were an all out sprint. At least that is what it felt like. It may not have looked that way. My goal was to finish under 20 mins. So the last 500 meters I was pulling hard to make sure I reached my goal.
I think overall I will chock this one up to a huge mental success. From this point forward on the rowing machine no other distance will compare.
Tomorrow I am meeting up with a friend to go out to Emerald bey to get in a great workout outside. I am really excited!

Rock climbing at Lover's Leap and a great met-con

Today was an amazing day. I met a couple of friends to do some multi pitch climbing at Lover's Leap. We were up and ready to go early , unfortunately many other people were as well. We got crowded off the first climb but that did not stop us. We headed straight for another classic. This worked in our favor and we enjoyed several hours of great free climbing amazing weather and stunning views in every direction.
After the climb my friends headed back to San Francisco and I headed over to the Sierra Athletic club to get some more training in. After yesterday working with the gymnastic rings I wanted to do something that I could incorporate the muscle ups with. This is what I came up with.
3 rounds for a time of
10 muscle ups
10 front squats w/155#'s
10 burpees
I finished in 15:01
This was a great wod. I finally got more than 5 muscle ups in a row. In the first round I did 6 consecutively. Not a huge improvement but I am happy with it. Then four more again. I finished the first ten pretty fast. I was really happy with that. The front squats were not bad. I did every one unbroken in each round. The burpees were not a problem either. The major factor in this wod were the muscle ups. The second and third rounds smoked me. I could not manage more than three and then I would just chip away one or two at a time. The last ten seemed to take forever. I really thought I would do this in less than twelve minutes. Not even close. :-) I probably should have done more weight with the front squats. I feel really good about this workout today. This is probably one of the most fun workouts that I have had in awhile and I love it when the sessions are fun. Tomorrow I am going climbing again and a BBQ and slack lining in my front yard after. Tomorrow will be a great day.

Angora lakes

After watching the world cup soccer game today I was extremely motivated. We are having such amazing weather here in Tahoe. I felt really guilty for spending the first part of the day inside watching the world cup finals. However after watching the celebrations it was worth the time spent.
My friend and I were eager to get outside and enjoy the day after the match. We came up with the plan to run Tabata sprints to Angora Lakes. 20 secs sprinting and 10 secs walking until we reached the Lake. The distance from the parking lot to the lake is not really that far however there is plenty of steep incline and elevation to make this a challenge. The best part of this workout session was that no matter where you were on the trail at the end of the 10 secs rest you still had to pick up and move your ass.
To me it was really amazing how fast the 10 secs rest went by compared to the 20 secs of sprints.
The total rounds to get to the lakes was 13. That is a little over four minutes of sprinting. Just before we left for Angora the original plan was to do tabata sprints to the lakes then go cliff jumping off of the many high cliffs surrounding the lakes. In the parking lot I noticed I had my gymnastic rings in the back seat. We decided to take them with us and work on doing muscle ups.
My friend Mike has never performed a muscle up before let alone see one done. So we worked on them for about thirty minutes. I just decided to do as many sets of 5 unbroken muscle ups as I could during this time. Not a very stressful workout. I finished with 7 sets of 5 unbroken muscle ups. After this I put what I believed to be a 15 lb. stone in my back pack and did a quick amrap of ring dips. I finished with 24. I really thought I was going to hit 30 but that was not the case.
We spent a few more minutes contemplating whether or not we should jump in the lake or not. Decided against it and trekked back to the car and headed home. The tabata sprints were amazing and when I reached the lake I felt like I was going to throw up my lunch for at least five minutes. The muscle ups are so much fun for me. I really love to do them. I just don't feel I do them enough. I will work on that. My goal for the rest of the summer is to be able to do 10 unbroken muscle ups. Tomorrow I am going climbing. So excited!