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.