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We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day here in Tahoe. My friend Mike was anxious to try out my rope for a workout. So we walked across the street into a beautiful alpine meadow. We quickly found a place to hang the rope from and got to work. The w.o.d. was two parts and went like this The first part I borrowed from an amazing athlete Blair Morrison of http://crossfitmobile.blogspot.com/

Rope progression ladder, Climb 17 ft of rope: Every minute on the minute perform one rope climb. In the first minute climb the rope one time. In the second minute climb the rope two times. The third minute climb the rope three times , the remainder of the minute is your rest. Continue until you are unable to perform the required reps.

I finished with three full rounds plus one full rope climb in the fourth minute. This was so much harder than I had expected. For some reason I thought that I would be able to cruise through five minutes. Ummm No! In the fourth minute I knew I would not be able to finish , so I just tried to steal one more rep before my time ran out.

The second part of this w.o.d. was a great one as well. Three rounds for a time of 50 double unders and 25 overhead lunges with a 15kg log. I finished in 6 min 9 secs. The double unders were kind of an issue. I am still dealing with the altitude. So I got tired really fast. I did the first round unbroken, and the last two rounds only broke set once at the same mark of 28. The lunges were great. My legs are pretty sore from the sprints and bear crawls in the sand. But 25 was just about right. The over head portion of the lunges was a great addition. My shoulders were really getting blasted from the double unders and holding this log over my head.
Over all I had a great time training outside with my friend in this beautiful alpine meadow. The w.o.d. was a good one as well and I expect to be plenty sore in the morning.

Summer in Tahoe

I have been doing so much traveling lately. Now I am finally in one place again. I am really looking forward to getting back into my routine. Summer is not quite here in Sierra's but it is coming and soon. With summer, my priorities will change drastically. I am a rock climber first and foremost and an avid crossfiter second. If you would even consider me a crossfiter. I mean technically I have only trained at a crossfit box a couple of times.
What I mean by my priorities will change is simply that I will prefer to go climbing first and any specific crossfit training will come second if I have any energy left at all. You could argue that I will have more energy if I consistently crossfit, gaining in endurance, strength and recovery. I would agree with you. However, what I enjoy most about climbing is climbing and what is better than climbing? More climbing!
As of lately I have just started to get back into a routine of regularly training. My last couple of workouts have gone something like this

Deadlifts
3 sets of 15 @ 80kgs still focusing on strict technique.

5 rounds for a time of
5 Push Press 154 lbs
30 double unders

I finished in 8 min 56 secs.

I have a close friend that has really dedicated his life to fitness in the last year. I have not seen him in 9 months. I can tell you that his fitness has dramatically improved. This guy is motivated and it is exciting. That is a great help to me. To be around someone who wants to get better in every way of his life. He has drastically changed the way he eats and is eager to learn more ways to improve.
Yesterday the weather was not perfect. A little cold and a little snowy. Like I said , summer is not quite here in the Sierra's yet, but this was my second day in Tahoe and I really wanted to go to the beach to get a workout in. And it was a great one. My friend mike was motivated and wanted to get in on the action.
10 rounds for a time of
10 gassers ( sprint 50 meters in the sand and back, 100 meters total)
50 meter bear crawls

My time was 20 min 32 seconds. Mike finished just behind me with a time of 21min 8 secs.

The major issue here was the altitude. I am now at 6,300 feet above sea level. I was at just a few hundred feet above sea level. This change is no joke. I came out in the beginning going pretty hard. Just the same pace I would give any work out of this kind. I totally gassed out on the fifth round. Literally just sitting in the sand completely finished. Or so I thought. Mike , thank god he was there. He came crawling by me and said to me " Come on man , we need to do 10 rnds". I did not appreciate it then but I do now. So I dragged my but up from the sand and got back to work.
I let this little negative thought creep into my head and it controlled me for a minute. I started to tell myself that this is good enough 5 rounds. Ya , we can call it a day. Like I said Mike is motivated and that helped me out so much. After finishing the w.o.d. I was so much happier and felt great. Like I just climbed this big mountain of defeat in my head. I pushed through it and I am truly greatful to have had a friend there to push me. We even snapped a couple of great photos.
I am really looking forward to tomorrow because we have a good one planned. Going primal!

Go climb a rope!

A fellow Crossfit enthusiast and unsurpassed fitness guru Blair Morrison of Anywherefit, http://crossfitmobile.blogspot.com, has used a rope in his training for as long as I have been following him. I have always been amazed at how simple but effective this skill can be for developing a upper body strength and endurance. I have not however had access to such a tool. Until now!
A couple of days ago I made a trip to a local farm supply store and purchased about 30 ft of 1 1/2 inch rope. So I put together a little routine for this morning. The wod went something like this
5 rounds for a time of
Run 500 meters
15' rope climb
25 sit ups

I finished in 20 min and 47 seconds.

Originally I had thought I would do a 20 min amrap of the same cycle. So I set the clock up for 20 min and went to work. So technically I finished with four rounds plus a 500 m run and one rope climb just as time ran out. But I sat down and busted out the 25 sit ups to make it a five round workout. Honestly my intentions were just a 20 min workout. I thought that 5 rounds was possible in the beginning. And I still think that I should have finished with five rounds in under 20 min. But climbing the rope was more of a mental challenge than I had anticipated. So every time I finished the running I would stand under the rope procrastinating on the climb. Grip strength was an issue for me mentally. I lost precious time in the amrap by letting this mental doubt creep into my head.
Climbing the rope was way more taxing on my core than I would have ever guessed. Coupled with the sit ups I definitely felt the fatigue in my abs on the last rope climb. Overall I had a great time with this wod. I am really excited about the rope and I am really looking forward to adding this new skill to my training.

Traveling

I have been traveling allot lately and with that I have not had the Internet available to me. That is the main reason I have not been posting in the last couple weeks. I am back in the States now and I am in my home town of Carthage MO. I will be using some of the resources that were available to me when I was younger and training for wrestling. In addition I will be using many of the tools I have learned from Crossfit.
The last couple of training sessions have been really great. They went something like this.
10 gassers ( Sprint 50 meters one way and 50 meters back)
10 push ups
X 10
I had a very long travel day returning from Europe the previous day. Something like 17 hours of logged travel time. My body was in for a bit of shock when I attempted this workout. I just made sure that I spent a full 20 minutes getting a good warm up prior to this wod. This was just about enough for the day.

The following day I felt great and decided to get a little more in. I packed my rings and some water into a day bag and ran down to the high school football stadium to do some work in the bleachers. The wod went like this
2,000 meter run
12 minute amrap
broad jumps up the bleachers( skipping every other)
bear crawl down the bleachers

I finished with something like 13 rounds plus a full round of broad jumps

2,000 meter run home

While I was at the stadium I was planning on doing some work with my rings after the amrap. Then I noticed a large tractor tire sitting on the practice field. Obviously a tool the high school coaches use for their athletes. I decided I would save this for another day.
Going back to the high school I wanted to get some work done with that tractor tire. I brought my rings with me again and got to work. The wod looked something like this.

5 rounds for a time of
5 muscle ups
10 tire flips
I finished in just under 12 minutes.
During the muscle ups, the first three sets went unbroken. I was so happy with that. It wasnt until the fourth set on the 5th rep that I failed the muscle up. I was devastated. I really thought that I would be able to get 5 rounds unbroken. The fifth round wound up with me doing 3 and then 2.
I am progressively getting better and better at this skill. Which is strange to me considering I do not work on it as much as I really want to. Either way I was happy with this wod for sure. Everything felt great.

I feel really sore today and decided to take the day off and rest. I went down to a local farm supply store and purchased some really thick rope. About 15 meters. This gage of rope is a quite a bit more expensive than I had imagined. So I plan to put this to work in the next couple days. Really excited about it. Rope climbing is a fantastic upper body exercise.

Bear crawls and box jumps

Today I joined my friend for another good workout. I can not tell you how great it feels to have someone to train with. Someone to laugh with and share the pain with. It definitely makes the work out more enjoyable.
So we warmed up with a quick mini wod.
4 rounds of
30 double unders
15 box jumps
15 kettle bell swings
15 GH extensions

Then we got down to the business.

As many rounds as possible in 20 min of:
15 dips
20 meter weighted bear crawls with 20 kg dumb bells
30 single leg box jumps 15@R/L
20 meter weighted bear crawls with 20 kg dumb bells

I just finished the bear crawls at the bell for a total of 7 rounds. My friend got 5 rounds, very impressive performance from him. This was a great wod not requiring too much strength and not requiring too much cardio endurance either. Definitely a great workout.

After some rest we worked on a new core exercise I discovered earlier in the day. Stir the pot man, Check it out.

Old school and effective

Today I went old school. Back to the old days of training for wrestling. Buddy carries, We used to carry each other up and down everything. Very grueling but super effective. So I invited a friend of mine over for some very evil buddy carries. The gut wrench, the fireman's carry, and the classic buddy carry on the back. It went something like this.
6 rounds of buddy carries up a rather steep hill about 40 meters, plus 5 2 for 1 burpees at the top and the bottom of the hill. 2 for 1 burpees are a regular burpee with an extra push up thrown in the mix. So you drop down to the ground do a push up, then down again and back up to finish the burpee. So
Round 1
5 2 for 1 burpees
Forward gut wrench carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees
Round 2
5 2 for 1 burpees
Backward gut wrench carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees
Round 3
5 2 for 1 burpees
Forward fireman's carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees
Round 4
5 2 for 1 burpees
Backward fireman's carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees
Round 5
5 2 for 1 burpees
Forward buddy carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees
Round 6
5 2 for 1 burpees
Backward buddy carry 40 meters
5 2 for 1 burpees

I finished in 14 min 21 secs. My friend Momo put in a good three rounds in 8 min 56 secs. He did an excellent job. We were both totally unprepared for how difficult this was actually going to be. The hardest part of this wod was walking backwards up a steep hill holding 85 kgs in your arms. This workout was primarily quad dominant with the burpees and the hill climbing. But walking backwards up the hill totally smoked my hamstrings and my ass. A perfect combination and a great training session with a good friend.
After some rest and water on my front porch we decided to take a few rounds climbing underneath the steps leading to the second floor apt. Climb up the steps and then back down. I posted a few photos of the gut wrench carry, the fireman carry and us goofing around on our neighbors steps.

Deadlift & Incline bench press

I started the day warming up on the stationary bike. About six or seven minutes to get some blood in the legs. I wish we had a rowing machine but we do not so this will do for now. I loaded the bar with some weight and progressed until I felt like my back and legs were good and warm up. I did 3X15 @ 85 kg's .
I injured my lower back a few months ago. A really unfortunate injury that has forced me to withdraw from the crossfit games european qualifiers as well as not letting me train in some of my favorite lifts, like the Power clean and heavy squats. Getting some advice from some friends I am trying to rehab my lower back by dead lifting. I will continue this until hopefully everything gets better.
After the dead lifts I set up a lift that i have not done in such a long time. Not sure why. I suppose I have completely given up Bench pressing heavy at all. But I felt like doing something a little different today. So incline bench press it was 5X3
I warmed up with a few sets of lighter weight moving up from there making sure the shoulders were good and ready for the heavy loads to come.
The weights were 80 kg,90 kg, 100 kg, 105 kg, and 110 kg. I really felt like I could have done another heavier set and probably should have but I was happy with this so I let it be. I honestly could not tell you the last time I did a heavy bench press lift of any kind so I was pretty happy with this total. I felt like 110 could have gone up for 5 , so I think I should have added more weight. Next time!