Progression Ladder and "Annie"

Every minute on the minute perform 1 pull up.

In the first minute do 1 pull up, in the second minute do 2 pull ups, the third minute 3 pull ups and so on until you are unable to perform the required reps in the one minute.

I finished with 12 rounds + 7.

I woke up this morning not feeling so great. I feel a cold coming on. So I just wanted to take it easy a bit today. I like these sort of progression ladders. You get a nice warm up in the early sets and get blasted in the end. Not my strongest effort in this sort of workout. I was doing the pull ups on a bar that was about 6 inches away from a wall. So this made my pull ups very strict. I could not get any kip out of them.

After the progression ladder I wanted to have a go at "Annie" a crossfit wod that is short fast and effective. 50-40-30-20-10 reps for a time of Double Unders and Sit ups. I have only done this one time before and I think I did it in a 7 min and some change. This time I finished in 6 min and 47 secs. A bit faster. I did not even think to anchor my feet for the sit ups. This would have made it way faster. The double unders were pretty easy. I did every set unbroken. No problem there. I think the best way to improve on this is to have my feet anchored for the sit ups.

I am just going to rest up the next couple of days and hopefully I will feel better by turkey day. I hope to get a good Thanksgiving day workout in. Then I wont feel as bad about all the food and beer I am going to consume.

Demolition Wod

Demolition Wod

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of

5 heavy ass stone lifts

10 sand bag thrusters

20 lateral jumps over junk pile

A building had been demolished on my street earlier this week. I noticed a few heavy items lying around the demolition site while coming home. A few heavy ass concrete blocks. I really wanted to lift something heavy so I played around with the different size concrete blocks to see which one I could lift safely. I found the right one. I couldn't really say how much it weighed but it was a gigantic effort to get it off the ground. I found a few sand bags that weighed about 30 lbs. The sand bags were perfect for thrusters and I just piled up some other crap to give me something to jump over laterally. The lateral jumps were a good twist to doing box jumps. I finished with 6 rounds with just a few seconds left. Everything in this wod felt good. The best part was lifting the heavy concrete blocks. I left a nice hole in the ground were I kept dropping the stone.

30 Burpee-Pull up-Toes to bar

30 Burpee-Pull up-Toes to bar for a time:

I came across this quick wod sometime ago on Ricky Frausto's Strength Development Inc. website. Ricky is the owner of Crossfit Omaha and has several sites that I visit regularly for information on nutrition @ Nutrisimple or strength training advice and or inspiration and competition on the Crossfit Omaha main site. I thought this one looked really fun and simple and I figured I could bust this out just about anywhere.

I had plans to go climbing in Eldorado State Park so I figured I would get a nice fast work out in this morning. I just jogged a few blocks up the road to a park that has a few swing sets. I figured I would use the top of the swing set for my pull ups. I could just barely jump and hold on to the top of the set. The ground was also wet so when I did the burpee and then jumped up grabbed the bar It felt really insecure and I couldn't really get any momentum. This one factor made this wod just that much harder. Which was for the better. Everything else was pretty easy. I finished in just under 8 mins. I think 30 reps might have been too little however since I was planning on getting worked over climbing in Eldorado SP this was just what I wanted this morning. In the future I might try to do 100 of these for a time. Overall this was my first time performing a burpee pull up combo and I liked throwing in the toes to bar. Fun, Fast and Effective.

Here is a quick video of a bad ass doing 100 burpee pull ups. Imagine throwing in the toes to bar. Sick, Bluh!

The Flat Irons

The Flat Irons are these monolithic rock formations that tower over the city of Boulder Colorado in Chautauqau State Park. They are the back drop of the city and loom over your head no matter where you are at. The park has so many trails that you can hike or jog on skirting the base of these enormous pinnacles.

Today I decided to run the Flatirons trail. From my apt it is about 3/4 mile up hill to the park. Then easily another 3/4 mile up a steep hill to a sub vista over looking the park and the front range. I made it to the top of this vista in 16 minutes and 34 sec. This was a very steep and continuous run. Legs, calf's and lungs were burning after five minutes. After reaching this vista the trail can go up higher to the base of the flatirons and on to another vista where one can see Denver 37 miles away or meander on down through the park back to the start. I was really tired at this point so I decided to take the trail down and through the park and back to my apt. Finishing in 30 min 57 secs. The trails had snow on them in some places and were not to bad to run on so I am optimistic that I should be able to run this trail a few more times this winter. Hopefully getting my time down and improving my over all work capacity. Such a beautiful park to run in.

Boulder Colorado

After spending 9 weeks on the road visiting friends and climbing in 5 different states I have finally landed in Boulder Colorado. I had an amazing fall traveling and climbing. Now I feel it is time to get back to a routine and I am psyched.

Yesterday the sun was out and we had nice temperatures in the low 40's. Though it felt like the 50's. When I went outside I had an idea of what I wanted to do for a workout so I just had a look around the neighborhood for some useful objects. I found a pillar of some sorts that weighed about 65 lbs. I also found a cinder block that I wanted to use for KB swings. I busted out my rings and put this together.

5 rounds of

5 over head squats

10 ring dips

sprint 150 meters

rest 1 min

Tabata KB swings with cinder block

rest 1 min

5 rounds of

5 over head squats

10 ring dips

sprint 150 meters

I finished in 27 min 35 sec. A great workout and a great day to be outside. I was really tired after this one. The Over head squats were kind of a challenge because of the odd shape of this pillar. The pillar was round about 15 inches in diameter on one side and 10 on the other. This made it a little off balance and difficult to hold in your hands above your head. I had to really concentrate as to not drop it on my head.

The ring dips were just ok. I seemed to be tired the whole way through but still managed them unbroken. The sprints were pretty good. About 75 meters from my rings was the end of the street. So I sprinted to the end and back. The best part was it was down hill to the end and up hill coming back up. So I had 75 meter hill sprint that left me gasping for air before starting the over head squats again.

The tabata cinder block swings were fun and a little challenging. Hardest part was holding on to the block. I had gloves on which helped but my forearms were getting a serious workout from me trying to hold on to this block. I managed 9 every round except the last. I only managed 8 in the last round.

I finished the last five rounds in 10 min 37 secs. Tried to push my self hard. Just wanted to get it over with. This was a good one . Should be plenty sore tomorrow.

21-15-9

21-15-9 for a time of:

Box jumps

knees to elbows

double unders

sit ups

I finished in 7 mins and 1 sec. The major issue here were the knees to elbows. My friend and I were doing this workout in my front yard. We were using a little kids swing set to do the knees to elbows. The bar was a fatty making it that much harder to hold on to. As well the bar was only a few feet off the ground so you had to keep your legs bent behind you the whole time making it impossible to get any momentum. So i suppose you could say that these were strict knees to elbows.

For the box jumps we used a retaining wall that was about 3o inches high. The box jumps were never an issue. The double unders and sit ups all went smooth and unbroken as well. The first set of 21 on the knees to elbow I completed unbroken. The second set for 15 I broke at nine. The grip was going and my abs were tired as hell. The set of 9 all went unbroken.

By doing this outside in my yard using a few things like the swing set, instead of a pull up bar in the gym made this that much harder. Same thing with the box jumps. Could have gone to the gym and set up a bench or a box to 20 inches , instead all we had was the retaining wall and it was just high to be really hard and slow you down. Plus exercising outside is the best way to start the day.

Cindy round 2

"Cindy"

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of

5 pull ups

10 push ups

15 squats

A crossfit benchmark workout. The first time I did this wod was about one year ago and I finished with 24 rounds. A very challenging workout mentally and physically.

This time around I was shooting for 28 rounds. I finished with 26 and 2 push ups. An enormous effort. Not a huge jump up but I will take it. I know for sure I was very sore going into this workout from the two previous workouts. I tried to spend about 20 minutes going through a thorough warm up. This didn't really help much. Starting out I was moving really slow in the squats. I think allot has to do with my diet and my sleeping habits. I need to make a few adjustments for sure. From the 10 to the 15 th round I was moving pretty slow and taking time between each round. After 15 I started moving pretty fast. The last couple rounds were an enormous mental challenge. Overall I am happy with the slightest improvement.

I am looking forward to the next couple days. Going climbing.