10/29/2008

6:00 am at Rancho Park less than 11 hours since my last CrossFit workout…

Warm-up

4 rounds
4 Turkish Get-Ups (~20 lbs of sand in a nifty bag)
5 Burpees (I’m sure you’re all beginning to see that Becca runs a benevolent dictatorship* by incorporating Burpees into the warm-up…)

The Turkish Get-Ups were actually less scary than I thought they would be. My left side was actually easier than my right, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I am used to locking joints on my left side to compensate with being naturally weaker on that side. As an Armenian, mentioning “Turkish” anything is a no-no, so while telling my mother about the workout, I had to convince her that in my case the exercise was called “Armenian” Get-Ups and you simply changed the modifier based on your ethnicity/nationality. Riiiight… moving forward.

Workout

20-16-12-8-4

Flag Push-ups
Pull-ups
Sit-ups

13:57

I can’t do that many pull-ups, so Becca modified my pull-ups into starting with fully extended arms, helping my pull-up with a jump (until my chin was over the bar), and then going back down to a full extension of the arms. I realized about halfway through the first 20 that this modification was beginning to seed the foundations of a kipping pull-up as at the bottom I felt my shoulders open up and my chest extend forward. I also had to push a bit away from the bar in order to avoid banging my chin into when coming back down. Nice!

The Flag Push-ups (imagine doing a push-up and then at the top, extending one arm towards the sky while rotating your hips… think Cirque d’Soleil except without the rotating platform and the tiny, impossibly agile girl balancing at the end of your outstretched hand) were really helpful both in terms of a core workout and a stretch.

I can’t wait to see how I feel tomorrow morning as I’m still feeling the afterglow 10 hours later… also I still owe 18 burpees from Monday and will pound those out tonight.

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*That being said, I’m sure after reading this post she’ll incorporate a tiger and a tennis ball in our next warm-up just to disabuse me of that notion… I can just see it now:

Becca: Hey guys, Z is a smart ass, so today we’re going to warm-up with my friend Montecore.
Montecore: *Roar*

I profusely apologize to Siegfried and Roy (especially Roy) for that grossly inappropriate reference.

10/28/2008

Warm-up

400 meter run
400 meter run backwards

3 rounds
10 dips
10 1-leg squats
6 Burpees (+1 at the end)

The 1-leg squats were difficult for someone my size (Becca made the demonstration look like it was easy, but she hadn’t run the 400 meters backwards!) I must say that Becca is getting better at feigning sympathy when someone in the class unintentionally whines about the difficulty of a given exercise or the conditions surrounding it.

Example:

CrossFitter X: *Slight Whine* These [insert exercise here] are really hard because [insert environmental variable outside of Becca’s control]...

Becca: Awww, I’m sorry. You’ll live…

Z: Hey everyone, don’t slip in that puddle of sarcasm!

Workout

AMRAP in 20 minutes

250-meter run
25 double-unders
25 squats

4 and a half rounds

I enjoyed this particular workout and I may go far as saying I enjoy the AMRAP exercises, because I like the race against the clock counting down. Cardio wise, I felt really good on Monday. The double-unders are a great coordination exercise as you need to stay relaxed while maintaining a stead rate of breathing and quickly whipping the jump-rope with your wrists. I think I’m going to pick up a jump-rope for work on my “off” days. I felt so good in fact that I told Becca that I would see her Tuesday morning (am I nuts?!).

Less than 11 hours later (at 6am this morning!) I was back in the park for another workout…

TO BE CONTINUED *Dramatic Music*

10/27/2008

An unintended rest day as I had to deal with a business issue late Sunday evening, early Monday morning. I know what I’m about to say will shock (sadden, anger, disappoint, etc.) many of you, but I am a purveyor of fat, a prince of paunch… I am a franchisee for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. Trust me, it is insanely difficult to put together a Popeyes Zone meal. Anyway, an employee left the fryer on (but of course they turned off the hood) which resulted in the store filling up with smoke. Good times. (That being said, anyone who wants to cheat for a meal, let me know, I’d love to hook you up with some Spicy Chicken and a side of Red Beans and Rice… You cannot resist!)

I woke up at 5am after getting about two hours of sleep and decided that if I didn’t get a bit more sleep I would be useless for the rest of the week, so I emailed Becca in my semi-delirious state and gave her the written equivalent of a tap-out.

I carried my Burpees from Monday to Tuesday. Stay tuned for Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s fun.

10/25/2008

Rest Day. Tight hamstrings and a general need to laze and lounge caught up to me.

10/26/2008

33 Burpees

3:25

Today was the first day that I carried Burpees over from one day to the next. I did it for a couple of reasons: First, I’m a lazy bum and didn’t want to do anything on Saturday. Second, I wanted to see how I would fare with 33 Burpees both at the time of the exercise and the next day. I was very happy with how quickly and smoothly I was able to get them done. My 100 Burpee time was 21:42, so I’m pretty sure that I can crush that time right now, less than three weeks into the challenge. I’m also feeling pretty good about the upcoming days, as I don’t think I’m going to be ultra-sore from the 33 Burpees tomorrow. We’ll see how I feel after tomorrow morning’s workout in the park.

10/23/3008

14 Burpees with my Mom.

I convinced my mother to get in on the Burpee Challenge (by convinced I mean coerced), by intimating that I thought she was far too old to do a high impact exercise like a burpee. Despite her knowing full well that I was shamelessly goading her, she proceeded to time herself for 100 burpees the day before and she is now fully committed to finishing the challenge. Just for context, my mom is old enough to get a discount on her movie tickets (although if I put it that way to her, she would probably castrate me).

Good times.

10/24/2008

Happy 40th Birthday Greg! Thank God you’re not 50.

Peanut Gallery: What a mean thing to say, Z!

Z: Reserve judgment until you read the workout, Peanut Gallery.

Warm-up

800-meter run
15 burpees (Thanks again, Becca)
Pushing Becca’s car around the parking lot… wait what?

You read right; we got to push Becca’s car around the parking lot. Thank goodness she doesn’t drive an Escalade.

Workout

40 squats
40 yard dash
40 push-ups
40 yard dash
40 bicycles (2 count)
40 yard dash
40 walking lunges
40 yard dash
40 sit-ups
40 yard dash
40 good mornings
40 yard dash

It was fun, we were excited and I got through it in a respectable 11:27. Wait one second… 11:27?! That isn’t long enough for Becca to laugh at us and get pictures of us looking like we’re going to blow chunks! The sun hadn’t even come up yet… so Becca started talking to us about the merits of timing exercises in order to have a baseline and idea of what is possible. She then informed us that we would get to run through the same workout again… yeah, Happy Freakin’ Birthday Greg!

We ran through it again, with a couple of members of our group actually getting through it the 2nd time faster than the first time. Talk about negative splits! I finished my second round in 12:45... just for reference’s sake that is 10 minutes and 14 seconds slower than Josh Everett completed THREE ROUNDS of a 455 lb. deadlift, two muscle-ups, 3 255lb. cleans, and 4 handstand pushups. Yeah, I’m not obsessed or anything.

Hi everyone,

I started my CrossFit journey at Rancho Park on 9/18/2008. A little more than a month later, I guess it is time to start logging my workouts for all to see. I’m 6’2” and I currently weigh somewhere between 210-215 depending on which scale you ask. I haven’t started the Zone diet yet (I love food something mighty), but I will soon.

We’ll start with yesterday’s romp in the park:

10/22/2008

Warm-up

A quaint little jog through the park with little packets of joy sprinkled throughout. The packets of joy included:

15 knees to elbows (with an unpleasant bar digging into my forearms)
13 burpees (Thank you Becca for incorporating that into the warm-up!)
2 200-meter sprints
20 birdpickers

Workout

“Kelly” (modified because I’m a newbie)

3 rounds
400-meter run
30 bench jumps
30 wall ball (10 lb. ball)

22:43

The goal is to eventually do this for 5 rounds and with a 15 lb. ball.

No puking today, but I did feel kind of bad as I think I could have probably trudged through a fourth round. Throughout the entire workout I couldn’t stop thinking about Josh Everett and “King Kong”. Wait… that sounds kinda weird.

Kudos to Jennifer and Devin for doing an extra round and getting an extra 8 minutes of butt-kicking.