TWO DAYS ONLY!

Hard C2 intervals sunday.  10 x :42 1:00 r  200 MTG.  Missed Monday for travel.  Good check up in Boston.  Wasn't sorry to miss the reverse 50.  Have missed a couple choice wods recently by dumb luck.  I fear the retribution.  Today, "GWEN"  I was really stumped by what weight to try.  Won't bore you with the back and forth.  But you should know your choice is critical.  Went with 115 and at rep 8 of the set of 15 I was deeply sorry I had.  Honestly, don't know how I finished.  I was all but sure I could not.  Just kept doing one more.  I found this wod terribly painful and demanding.  Good test.  115.  Matt dumped out of 185 after 9 reps, did all three sets at 165.  His last set of 9, went 7 and 2 so fast that I think he could have done 20 reps in 5 min being able to put the bar down, which was an open wod a couple years ago.  Of course you cant put the bar down and it's like being kicked in the crotch while trying to move heavy weight.  Dawn, 83, made it look easy.  Check out the mainsite vid of a woman doing 140.  Have someplace for your jaw to drop.

Tomorrow and the next day to row.  If we can't get it from here, we dont deserve it.  Everyone still owes 4k a day.  Some of us already made that deposit (and MUCH more).

Sparks fly on E Street when the boy prophet walks it handsome and hot.

Mortimer the mortiser

About three days after we moved into our house a broom fell snugly between the hinge-side of the coat-closet door and jamb.  Of course the door was quickly closed and the broom handle became a very useful fulcrum against which to pry the hinge away from the door with a  tearing, twisting force.  Welcome to your new home.  I attempted a fix that involved (I'm not proud of this) liquid nails.  IE: Glue.  It was fugly and cheapass but the door closed and my son was learning to walk, so, meh. Pick up on the door when you close it, what's the big deal?  About a month ago, similar scenario, something in between the jamb and the slap-dash hinge.  Add a 5 year old determined to shut the door like she'd been told.  Liquid nails were kinda brittle at this point.  Now the door is off the top hinge completely and just way trashy looking even for us.  I contemplated it for a couple weeks.  This is carpentry above my pay grade.  For starters: Um, it's door hanging.  I dont know much but i know the tolerances aren't that great.  Second, I gotta REHANG the door.  Third: not phillips, not, regular, not hex or torx.  But something called a Roberson screw, its a square in the screwhead.  Sometimes called a square screw or screwlox. They are quite popular in Canada.  Fella at the True-Value very helpful on these points. Fourth, the hinge is mortised not on the door which would be tricky but at least you could move your elbows.  Deep Breath.  Collect all the tools.  Dont let it get you down.  Plenty of people dont know how to fix a door.  They all wear tu-tus and leotards but whatever.  Using my big primate brain and opposable thumbs I elected to just shade the hinge down and expand the existing mortise to accomodate.  I was flying solo so there was lots of colorful language, holding the door with my foot, awkward positioning of neck and elbows but not a ton of chiseling.  Yeah, chiseling.  When you're using a sharp object and blunt force to affect changes in the 1/4 inch range, you are just way beyond my dexterity and, more importantly, patience.  But, it worked.  Robertson screws and all.  Until four days ago.  Heather closed the door really quite normally, though I was inclined to see it differently in the moment.  Tearing, cracking sound of wood being mangled.  Robertson screws dropping neatly, ting ting ting.  The problem with the small-move-of-the-hinge-idea was that the wood at that part of the door had been too severely compromised to hold the (robertson) screws, well or eventually at all.

Once more unto the breech.  Bite off more than you can chew and then chew it.  New mortise, hand-chiseled, painstakingly measured and remeasured.  Turns out the hinge and the door and the jamb all like to be plumb which comes from the Latin word for lead which is another way of saying: dead solid perfect.  Unless you don't mind not being able to close the door.  All the way, I mean.  This can take some error and trial.  But who's counting? and it's so fun to learn new things under the gun.  I am now more or less conversant on the theory if not the practice of door hanging.  Some of you may be wondering why not just get a new door or hire a carpenter and to you I say, don't you know anything?


Missed the hero wod for sickness.  Got two 10k's however.  Today: 3-3-3-3-3 Deads.  Calculations based on 5x put me at 280 for three (5x).  I was almost beat psychologically from the jump.  Thats the most ive picked up in well over a year.  Started at 265, got some confidence, 275, put on a belt, 280, 285, 290.  At 280 I had to decide if to pull two more at theoretical max or go higher.  I think I played it right; two above make up for two below.  I didn't have a pound or rep more.

If you don't like Hank Williams, honey, you can kiss my ass.

MVP

In case you missed this (I almost did): LPotter posted a 1:52:36.8 half-marathon time (21,097m).  That puts her in 10th place in age group world-wide.  Number one in our hearts.  WOW.  I mean, WOW.

In our 40's

H cleaning something, someplace found this little gem.  May 1990, Carlisle PA.  Denim shirt? Check. Collegiate ball caps?  Triple check.  Bud Dry?  What the. . .  I think the 40's were malt liquor.  Does anything else come in 40oz doses?  No pizza guys were roughed up in capturing this picture.  No Sheets Dogs (2/$1.00) embezzled.  Maybe some Sega hockey, more than that I cannot, will not say.

Notes on the programming:  This is called no rest days.  Hard but not as bad as it sounds.  I know, I know, been around this barn before.  Just want to make sure.  We do something every day.  Every day.  In general we follow the main site.  Three on, one off.  M.S. off days we try to achieve some sort of "active recovery."  Light load, super strict movement standards.  Concentric actions only if possible.  Rowing, Sled pulling/pushing e.g.  Followed by mobility work, stretching, maybe an odd skill session.  Yesterday, a "rest" day, I did a semi-hot 2k row (7:59) and then a loping 2k.  Took the voodoo floss and the foam roller to lower legs until I wanted to cry.  Called it a day.  Matt really believes in the sled work and I do too, but I'm captain of the USS Potter and it looks like I might have to go down with it.  So active recovery has been code for rowing for me in Jan.  When this godforsaken, lightless, barren month is over with, I'll be a sled guy again.  The idea is to do a touch of something and don't just go through the motions.  Obviously, hard mobility work is strongly encouraged.  The thought behind the concentric stuff is you dont get sore.  Done well it really can aid recovery.  Exercise version of the hair of the dog.

On full training days we do this:  10-20 min warm up.  (yep, rowing for me)  I don't stop until im actively sweating and quite warm.  Quick mobility, checking important ranges of motion.  You know your own bugbears, address them.  I usually work on ankles and lower leg, do 10 to a dozen strict wall-facing squats and spend sometime upside down.  Finally, I get comfortable with the wod movements that day, whatever they are.

After the warm up we start every sesh (excepting Heavy days like 1-1-1-1 or 5-5-5-5) with 2 x 5 of a Wide leg box squat and a bench press or a Dead lift and a shoulder press.  We do these with a weight that we can control with exaggerated deliberation and perfect form but which also probably couldn't be done for a 6 certainly not a 7th rep.  In the second set we come down 10% and do it again.  Short, taxing, maximum attention to form.  The versions of the lifts change session to session, banded, deficit, push etc. The next time that particular version of the lift comes up, try to bump up 5 pounds.  It can take a while to get these weights sorted out.  Be patient, write them down. Today, for instance I did 2x5 DL at 225, very slowly.  I didn't drop weight in the second set b/c it was too easy.  225 again felt about right.  Next time conventional dead comes up, I'll try 235 or 40 for the first five.  Bench went 155 then 145 and it felt right.  I had my doubts to begin.  I doubt everything. But I think there's something to it.  The box squat especially is quite demanding and almost everyone could use the reps at lightish loads to perfect that movement.

Often we will do a ten minute skill piece next.  Muscle ups, DU's, anything that can benefit from true practice.  Don't scald yourself, just practice.  Set a timer and practice.

Sadly, it is time to wod.   Do it.  Work hard.  Keep your movement standards and your intensity up.

If you have anything left, ab training never hurt anyone.  Lots of times we skip the skill session.  Lots of times we don't.  We probably need to be a little more diligent about the ab training, but lately it's seemed the wods took decent care of core training for us.  When the wod calls for a heavy lifting day. We scrap the template and train HEAVY as we can as long as we can.  Save your spinal fluid.  Do the heavy days right and you will need it.

TODAY:  dumbbell snatches/GHD/T2B.  Three rounds.  I allowed myself power snatches followed by one-armed OHS when needed.  I needed them early in the first round, figuring the balance out, and again late in the third round looking for a place to hide. Did enough smooth and legit true squat snatches to be happy about.  They are much faster but risk much sloppiness.  Be careful with your shoulders.  17:54.  Badass Dawn didn't back down from the 35 lb dumb.  Totally impressive and with a "women's" weight she would have dusted me.  20 and change.

If you have 88k or more meters in your logbook you are pulling your weight.  If you don't, you are not.  You all struck me as rugged can-do types who would cut off a finger before not simply doing your fair share.  The bright light of our star rower is illuminating smooth skin where one might fairly expect to see some calluses.  I have this daydream of all of us faced with another's mother, arms full of groceries, laundry whatever.  You know, and we look at said women in her 60's (the new 30's BTW) clearly working and we go. . .What?  Good luck with that Mrs. Copeland.  Looks heavy.  Is that what we do?

Sorry for playing the mom card.  Fucking ROW would ya?

Sorry for the F-bomb.  No Im not.

Now I got a job, but it don't pay.  I need new clothes.  I need somewhere to stay

PR!

FGB:  266


Anybody else miffed about the 10 seconds and oh, .75 calorie you lose pulling the rower cold in minutes 5, 11 and 17?  What's the best fix for this?  I tried a version with "undefined rest" today and cost Dawn (288!) and me way more than if we'd not had a "solution."  I was also wrong about the order of operations and the women's weight.   Hat trick.  Makes me wonder what the opposite of virtuosity is.  Something common done remarkably poorly.  Virtue has a moral sense to it...thinking out loud here . . .  Vice could be a place to begin.  Vice comes from Latin VITIUM-- fault or blemish, though not necessarily sin.  Then again a VIRTUOSO isn't necessarily saintly.  Opposite of Virtuoso?  Buffoon?  Scaramouche? (do the fandango.  You never looked it up did you?).  I say we make up VITIOUS, botched and bungled to an alarming degree when even average would have worked or was reasonably expected.  VITIOSITY.  The polar opposite of virtuosity.  You heard it hear first.

sdhp THEN box jumps


speaking of average: +4K



I pawned my Smith-Corona and I went to see my man.  He hangs out on Alvarado Street by the Pioneer Chicken stand.

HEELS DOWN

For your edification, three front squat vids.  Matt (red shorts) is pretty legit, especially considering he is moving a metric ton.  His heels are pegged to the floor so we know that's where he's pushing.  CJP (cuffs rolled to give you a little ankle), has a serious case of the mid-foot.  Im not on my toes, exactly, but I'm not as far back on the heel as one should be.  You're stronger over your bones, in this case calcanei, than over gaps in bones, or arches.  At it's worst, the mid-foot problem becomes an inward drifting ankle or a toe-weighted front squat.  Un-uh.  Finally, D (tights) fights the dreaded knee drift and in subsequent lifts she was successful and claimed it was for squeezing abs.  I believe her b/c this just happened to be her worst effort.  The camera always adds 10 pounds or catches you knees in.

I should also say that all three of these are very near max load.  Problems are just going to be exposed at the limits.  At least one reason to train there.  Today was a classic CrossFit 7x1 heavy day.  Typically, I would use three or four of those sets (reps really) to get used to something heavy, but well within assumed capability.  Matt recent attended a Coaches Prep Course wherein they suggested that the idea is to do 7 maximal or as near as you can get to maximal, efforts.  Think about that for a minute.  It's hard and it's scary (in the exercise sense) and well, I'm just gonna say it, emotionally draining.

So that's what we did.  I knew from a recent Clean max that 155 was makable but only barely so front squat for me.  I started there.  Partners similarly started work sets very near pr's.  I ended up sticking at 165 for five reps b/c it was an open question if I could be successful for that rep.  Approaching the 7x1 this way was eye opening and a CNS boiler.  I urge you to give it a try.   D got 150 a bunch of times, only 10lbs off her pr.  Matt stood up with 320 in the rack.  It was something to see.

One last bit of editorial content before I let you get back to your rowing:  This paragraph was gonna be about how I used to front squat TWO-65 and, wow, how humbling and gosh isn't 165 kinda shitty and golly Copeland now deadlifts more than me, and it's hard to face how much I've lost bla bla blech.  If I'm getting tired of hearing this dreck, you must be too.  Enough.  It's true, I used to be able to do more.  But I guess that's true for most of us in different ways.  No one really cares.  What have I done for you lately?  What have you done for me? For yourself?  You're a workout away from making it better.  Go make it better.  Used to be stronger, but I was a much different person then.  Hell, I was O-positive, and pissed 40% of the time and only strong in very conventional ways.  Now I have wave in my hair and my wife cant keep her fingers out of it.  Well thats always been true.  But Im funnier and more patient, kind and generous of spirit, and really such a deep pleasure to be around on the computer.  And think of all the books Ive read now that I hadn't back then.  So now this paragraph is about being as strong and fast as we can be.  Today.  Not back whenever.  Time to burry the old exerciser, he's starting to stink up the place.  Keep it light and fresh.  Keep it playa' y'all.  Excelsior: Latin for onward, upward, ever more, ever greater.  Higher.  I only have one set of PR's from now on.  These ones here.  Some of them aren't, uh, none of them are impressive, but they are mine and honest and hard won.  Just like yours.

Carry on.


Honky tonk women give me (give me give me) the honky tonk blues.

60,500m

If Sant's standing around and Naughton's standing around and Copeland's standing around, THEN WHO THE HELL IS ROWING??  Team:  your team needs you.  Our goal is One Million for the month.  Today is the Ides of January.  We are shy 500,000m  You need an average of 4k/day.  If you have less than 60k (60,500m more precisely), drop and do your heavy lifting, pull what you need to get there.  Good thing we drafted LPotter or our boat would be sunk.

The carrot:  Million Meter Team Patch!
The stick:  anyone not up to par by 1/21 will be brought up for team expulsion vote.  There are several alternates dying to add their meters to our team effort.  No one's starting spot is guaranteed.  Okay, Linda's spot is wrapped in neoprene and wearing a PFD.  But no one else.  No Spitting.  No Fighting.  This means you.

gripe about the coach in comments.


It's alright if you love me. It's alright if you don't.

Modus Ponens

Lynn's always been one of my favorite's.  Used to do 225 for 50 or so reps and about 8 dead hang pull ups.  In the salad days, can remember doing 190 for a boatload and a not-shameful amount of pulls.  Today I started with a bodyweight bench (180) but it just wasnt the stimulus I needed.  Scaled back to 155, got some reps, swept my pride under the horse stall mat.  Dead hangs, no knee lift, super strict, palms out.  If P then Q.  P.  Therefore Q.

                        

You want muscle.  I'll give you nerve.  You want sugar.  I'll give you honey.  You want romance. Would you settle for love?

And it makes me wonder why

Olympic total today:

Snatch: 125
Clean & Jerk: 145

About 35-40% off tops.  Meh.  First time seriously weightlifting in well over a year.  Gotta start somewhere, just wish it wasn't at the bottom.

+ 10k

You know what he says? He says, Daddy you're a fool to cry.

FILTHY

FIFTY:  33:54  rx'd.  pretty happy.  This is the wod that punched me out.  Twice.  I have it from a reliable source that when this awfulness was dreamed up, they had no idea people would someday finish under 30.  Now 15 is routine for elites.  My first burpee didn't count b/c i tried to go right from Wall ball to burps, went down, up and had NO jump.  COULDNT jump.  zero.  that's zero burpees.  down, up, zero.

Yeah it's my skateboard.  So what?

Peekaboo

Look who did Fran.  11:35.  Not a good Fran time, but it's MY Fran time.  As RX'd. The path before us clear.  Loneliest 6ft on earth:  space between a 95# barbell and a pull up rig during Fran

I was just gonna hit 'em, but I'm gonna kill 'em now.

S to my M

Strict rowing Helen sounds like a bondage mistress or something, but that's what I did.  500m row (for 400m run)/21 1.5p KB swings/12 ultra strict dead-hang pull ups.  Those are the only kind of pull ups allowed on my pull up bar (pictured below.) Way, WAY worse than the bar at Crossfit Garfield. Pulls turned out to be quite a challenge simply b/c the space is so narrow and short and shallow that even cycling dead hangs is next to impossible.  There was also quite a distance between the C2 and the KB: one down in the basement, one upstairs, outside.  Meh.  Keep 'em guessing.  I knew it was going to be a headache, so set only one goal:  all rows under 2:05.  Easily done, probably should have made it 1:57.  17:55  A wod + 10K.  Not a trifling amount of work

In school yeah, I fooled ya.  Now I know I made a mistake.

Attention: this is your captain speaking

Billy makes us 8.  If each averages 4 km's/day for the month, that will put us a hot breath away from one million and we can just pass the baton to Birdie who will bring us home.  Or knit us all something nice.  Either way, we win.  I like to win.  Fell a teensie bit behind b/c of the wods I've been doing and trying to figure out how to handle both.  Mainly, I think, it involves doing them both.  11k today (a "rest" day: NB) puts me back in the mix.  But not ahead of the Turbo in Turbotville, or Lut who's quality is going up along with quantity.  Rowing Hellen tomorrow.

You poor take courage, you rich take care.