Whatever Mix - Oct 31

A warm up round of 10 ring dips/10 pull ups/10 Ov squats/10 1.5 pood Kb swings. Then three rounds of the same, but with thrusters instead of the squats.

Feel like dirt. It's a week-long cortisol overdose.

8 - 3 hours/4 days. PE: 6. 213/12.

Cl - "Jeremy" - Oct 27

Opened with 4 calves on the A-frame, then 4 leg curls and a couple extensions. Then Walker showed up. Let's go!

3, 2, 1 - the 95# Overheads were death. My arms didn't loosen up until the warmdown set. heh. Burpees just suck, even in small doses. 10.59. Sub-eleven first effort.

Gonna work on Overheads now. Those and feet/knees to bar. And some other stuff. Yah.

9.5 hours/25 hours. PE: 7. 214/14.

Wa - All about the Cleans - Oct 26

An approximation of today's workout. Took the weekend off, save for the grieving process for Spook, and still felt like something's not there today.

3 knees to elbows/hyperextensions, 4 chin ups/pushups (13 with 25# on the gravitron/20 reps), then what was supposed to be 21/15/9/5 clean and presses. 95#, squat cleans and presses - I'm only up to 9 before I dump on the first set. 4 x 8 calls it a day.

Hey, at least they weren't hang cleans and thrusters. I at least have that to hang my hat on.

Spoke too Soon - Oct 24

This was the Saturday "M" day, right? Took yesterday off to do the Hideous 92 miler today. 7 miles and a broken spoke later, I get to shop at Target, buy bacon at Green Frog, and then do jack shit all day.

Broken spoke at least explains the hard day I had chasing Paul and Walker around Round Mt. last ride. Scrubbing brake for the consolation prize. I'm a stud and didn't even know it.

20 minute world's-shortest-Spooktacular ride for 7 miles before the SAG car picked me up walking it home. FML.

Catch as Catch Can - Oct 22

Some 5 sets of push press on the new bar and tires (read: 95#) in the backyard before the Marine band at the Civic. Cortisol levels through the ceiling as I just grind my teeth and wish I was dead.

Sometimes life just gets in the way ... of my freaking life.

PE: 5.

Wl - Blowing Off the Schedule - Oct 21

Not at all what the schedule called for today, but feeling like I needed it. Bought in with 4 KTE/back extensions. 4 extensions/5 curls. Then deads 4x5 with 235# - losing grip more than anything. 3 A-frame calves/seated calves.

... having trouble sleeping, didn't need another PM metcon. Bears or Badger? I'll plug the Bears in soon.

9 - 4 hours/72 hours. PE: 6.

AR - Oct 19

Got a couple of 12" wheels to use as the cheapest 22.8# bumpers possible. Fighting with the lockjaw collar was the WoD. Otherwise, just stretching as CC read to me. I needed a day after 3 pretty stiff ones in a row.

21/15/9 As We Brew - Honey Brown - Oct 18

Trying to blam out a quick metcon with what's on hand as we let the hops boil in our Honey Brown Ale for the second 30 minutes of an hour-long protein break.

23.23 for me to grind out 21-15-9 ring dips/pull ups/OH squats 50#/KB swings 53#. We're dubbing this one the "Honey Brown."

First push on the new rings (repping in the 8's/9's), first WoD on the new bar and KB. A nice day to break 'em all in with Walker and White. Really felt funky afterward, but hey, I guess that's what a few beers before the WoD can do to ya.

PS, this one rocked Walker for a couple of days, so my honey brown haze for a few hours was no big deal. Still, basic and four-squared workouts can rowk the howse.

9 hours/32 hours. PE: 7. 215/14.

Honey Brown Ale

What would happen if you augmented the slightly dry, caramelly and roasty character of a smooth, mellow English brown ale with the sweet floral flavor of clover honey? What if you added the honey at the very last possible minute to maximize its presence in the finished beer? What if it was delicious? Something with a little backbone, but still smooth.

So, the stuff came from Northern Brewer, who calls this "A light, clean fermenting ale modeled after the "cream lagers" of the northeast United States. Low in gravity, long on flavor, this beer is a pale thirst-quencher, great for brewing and enjoying in the summertime. Dingemans Biscuit Malt gives our Cream Ale a warm, toasty flavor that complements the light hopping." Bring it. We've got some Cream Stout that needs some pairing for Black n' Tannage.

Steeping: .5 lb. Simpson's Chocolate, .5 lb. Dingemans Special B, .5 lb. Dingemans Biscuit, .5 lb. Briess Special Roast
Extract: 12 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
Honey: 2 lbs. Clover
Bitters: 1 oz. Cluster pellets (7.5%) at 30 minutes into boil; .75 oz Cluster at 50 minutes in, then .25 oz pellets and 1 oz Cascade leaf (8.7%)
Yeast: Safbrew S-33's, started on honey water 12 hours prior

Steeped the grains for 30 mins from 80 degrees up to 125, drinking up the last pitcherful of the Cream Ale. Hey look! We've got a corney of the Cream Stout in the fridge hiding behind that Ale. And it's good!
Took 30 minutes to get the 10 gallons up to a rolling boil, the first hops going in then. The biggest long chain bread crumbs floating around in their after the protein break that I'd ever seen.

Added the second Cluster, and let the boil go, thinking we'd get in a quick WoD during the half hour before the next batch of hops to go in, but it all took longer than we thought. Boiled 7 minutes longer than the 30 planned, put in the final Cascade and shut off the heat.

Oh, yeah, that honey stuff.

Fired up the gas again, started stirring, poured it in, then just shut it all back down. No honey boil. This ain't mead. heh.

Chilled and really took a long time to get back under 100 degrees. Two full corneys (not much head space) but a lot of yeast in there workin'. Corneys in the garage, should be at an optimum temperature of 59–75° F. It'll run a little warm, but let's git 'er done.

No real mishaps, everything tasting, looking and smelling good. Thinking that the normal OG would be in the low 1040ies, but we're at 1050. Rock the house.

Day 4: Fermentation stopping at 1011 for both corneys. Into the chiller wid' ye.

Three weeks later, we had a sweetish light brown liquid with an alcoholic sledgehammer hidden within every glass. Dry. 11.5% octane.

Six weeks later. It's smooth, smooth. The hammer's still within, but softened with a layer of brown velvet. It's a win, but don't drink it on an empty stomach.

Metcon in the Park with Crossfit Bako - Oct 17

Started out lacking some zip today. Doing things when you don't want to do them. If it ain't step one, it's one of the first steps in the right direction. Gonna do it anyway and see what's what, I say as I get out the door. Just glad to be spending the morning with my CCgirl too.

Run to Woodys' with Boogie on the bike, 34 mins just cruisin'. Nice little warm up, then

4 rounds:
400 m run
21 push ups
21 lunge walk
21 knees to elbows

1st round: 4.41; 2nd 5.10; 3rd 5.42; 4th 5.16: 20.35. Man, I was gassed most of the time. The runs were slogs, the push ups were like nothing, the lunges were just there to do long term damage, but the knee ups ... I was forced to partition into three 7's just to get through them.

29 minutes home, then a tour of the neighborhood with Kon on the bike for another 7. 100 minutes total work. But that 20 minute metcon. I'll be doing Ghd/Feet to bar each time I enter the gym or back yard for a while, until I get this core weakness settled.

8 - 1 hours/18 hours. PE: 8. 214/13.

Wa - Thrusters FTW - Oct 16

Buy in: 3 reverse push ups - 20 reps each. Then the Thruster fest begins: 115#; 3 supersetted with chinups (8 reps), then 4 more for good measure (6/8/7/8ish). Was feeling the leftovers from the 6 sets of Thrusters on Wednesday. Sometimes it just stacks up. 30 mins total, change to change.

Spent some quality time with the foam roller in the PM. IT band is there, fo' sho.

8 hours/33 hours. PE: 7. 214/12.

S - Run with the Rocks - Oct 15

24 mins out and back with 4 .1 mi accelerations, grabbing the river rocks at the halfway point. 11.18 on the negative-split return (with the rocks, no less).

Right achilles felt good out of the gate today.

8.4 hours/13 hours. PE: 7.

99 and a Bunch of Other Stuff - Oct 14

Mid-week make up day. Just wanted to get into the gym and throw some iron. The weather's clean and nice after a rain, wanted to get out and breathe it on the run too. Instead I did some medium weight couplet metcon.

I owe a Cindy, today called for a long M day, but I'm opting forward for tomorrow's "99".
5 rounds for time of 9 Pull ups/(9 HSPU) 9 Push press with 135#. 14.42. The Presses were all 9 for the first couple of rounds, then 4's, then 3's. It's a nice weight.
Then what was the Buy in - 6 Thrusters at 50% BW, I opted up for 115#, and super setted them with 3 A-frame calves/seated calves and 3 leg curl.

8 hours/96 hours. PE: 7.

Dave Tate on Powerlifting, Kinda

• Calves: I've torn both of them, leaving a huge indentation in each.

• Right Knee: Back in the late 80's I strained my ACL and that left me on crutches for two weeks. I've had three other similar strains since that time.

• Right Hamstring: I tore this hamstring so badly that I nearly needed surgery to fix it.

• Left Knee: I've partially torn my patellar tendon. This wasn't bad, pain-wise, but it did mess up my squatting for four months.

• Quad: I pulled my right quad in the early 90's. It was so bad that it turned my entire leg black.

• Groin: I've injured my groin on both the right and left sides. This was a year of hell where there was nothing I could do to get it fixed. So I just wrapped it up and dealt with it. After a year it got better.

• Lower Abdominal: I tore my lower abdominal muscles seven years ago. I did this while squatting and it was perhaps the most painful injury I've ever had.

• Spine: The following discs are herniated: L4, L5, C4, C5. C4 and C5 left my hand numb for a few months. L4 and L5 occurred over 14 years ago and required me to take two months off training

• Intercostals: I've strained two on each side over the past ten years.

• Left pec: I tore this muscle at the tendon and needed surgery to repair it.

• Right pec: I tore this muscle in half but decided to not have surgery since the tendon was still attached.

• Both pecs: I've torn each at least 20 times and each time caused the entire pec to turn black and blue. All of these happened before the above pec injuries.

• Right shoulder: I've had a torn supraspinatus, bone spurs, and now have arthritis. I had this shoulder cleaned up with the AC shaved down to allow more movement, but am now experiencing almost all the same ailments in the same shoulder. Doctors are talking replacement.

• Left shoulder: This one also has arthritis, but isn't as bad as the other.

Anyone wanna go heavy, just sign on the dotted line.

M - 4x4 & stuff - Oct 10

36 mins total running. 4 mins AT with 4 min recoveries, picked up a couple of honkin' river rocks after the first interval. Cashed out with 3 sets of ring dips (5-6)/pull ups(7s-12s). Throw in a pair of bar-only Ov Squats and we're golden.

7.5 hours/15 hours. PE: 6. 215/12.

Wl - Stay Overtrained, My Friends - Oct 9

AR day yesterday for the save. Missed 4 hours of sleep the night before last with racing metabolism and racing mind - blaming Monster, too many irons in the fire, and PM WoDs. But after a day off, slept like a bambino. If you told me you could get overtrained on 30 minute workouts, I would have laughed a year ago. Now, it's no laughing matter.

Sunday's workout on Friday, shuffling to get it all in this weekend. 4 of all: Feet to bar, A-frame calves. Ext/Curl. 115# Squat cleans, 7 or 8 reps per. Another 30 minute hamburger hill.

I swear I had something to say about this workout, but it's escaping me now that I'm logging it later. In retrospect, it's just another sweatfest. Cleans always suck.

9 hours/48 hours. PE: 8. 214/15.

Three Hall of Fame Workouts.

From Crossfit Journal
These three workouts can each be used to quantify your capacity in a manner that reflects the CrossFit model for fitness.

What these three workouts have in common is that each is complete in that they are simple, demanding, and effective. We can't think about them without laughing. (They also each use the rower.)

The first is our famous "Fight Gone Bad" workout.
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. We've
used this in 3 and 5 round versions.

The stations are:
1. Wall-ball ­- 20 pound ball, 8 ft target.
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull -­ 75-pounds
3. Box jump -­ 20" box
4. Push press ­- 75 pounds
5. Row ­for calories

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," all athletes must move to next station immediately.
One point is given for each rep, except on the rower, where each calorie is one point.
With this workout we can give an integer value to metabolic preparedness for mixed-modal high intensity efforts matched to professional fight parameters (UFC).

The second is the "Tabata This" workout where the Tabata Interval of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times is applied in turn to
the squat, rower, pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups with a one-minute rotation break between exercises. Each exercise is scored by the weakest number of reps
(calories on the rower) in each of the eight intervals. During the one-minute rotation/rest time, the clock is not stopped but kept running. The score is the total of
the scores from the five stations.
This workout stands the Tabata interval concept on its head, but is so potent in impact that it stands remembered as a favorite by our crew.

A third classic CrossFit workout is the elegant "row/thruster/pull-up" workout featuring a 1,000-meter row, 45 pound ­ fifty-rep thruster (deep front squat/push-pres), and 30 pull-ups. This pit bull of a workout is scored by the time to complete all exercises. Play with different orders of the three exercises and compare times.

Methinks this WoD deserves a name.

Happy Birthday to Hedge ... WoD

Every affiliate has a Happy Birthday WoD for (whoever - insert "We LOVE you *name* here), where they throw some hellacious chipper at the poor guy. Here's one designed as an actual workout; instead of a hodgepodge of all the exercises the birthdayboy hates. A short/medium metcon, doubling up on pull/hip drive components. The birthday thing is secondary; mostly it kinda scales for age, and just for fun. Power to the (old) People!

Kipping Pull Ups (bodyweight, heh)
Overhead Squats (50% bodyweight)
KB swings (25% bodyweight)

Max reps at each exercise, count up your reps from station to station. Your total reps must equal or surpass 100 minus your age (ie. Hedge is 45 and must bang out 55 reps).
If you fail to meet the rep count, you foul and must penalty-spell "Happy Birthday to Hedge" in burpees ... <20>. Insert your name or your birthday-chile's ... Hope your name's short and your age is long.

3 rounds, rest 2 minutes between rounds, or after your burpees.

Don't scale the weight or the reps, just pay the friggin' price.

Cl - Tabata Bag Work & The Chief - Oct 7

Couldn't decide between Tabata and the Chief, so we did both. 2 rounds of each left/right palm strikes, right/left, left kick, right kick - the fastest 4 minutes in sports. Left kicks feel a lot stronger than rights, go figure.

Last time I did the Chief, was fighting for 4 rounds per round, this time I got 5's the first two rounds and 4's the last three (I'm pretty sure. I could really use a counter/timer). Still, that dawg is a gasser.

9 - 3 hours/36 hours. PE: 8. 218/12.

And I Thought My Math Skills Were Weak.

Just when I was beginning to wonder if my perception of the CF business model was faulty, Byers posts this:

Monday, October 5, 2009
Redefining the CrossFit Affiliate

First, the 603 hasn't had a physical training space since August. The space we were "borrowing" in Tilton, NH didn't work out, and Dallas and I frankly weren't in a hurry to look for new space. We both have full-time jobs, and coaching nights and weekends wasn't going to provide us with enough income to actually rent or lease the kind of space we would want to set up. So we put the idea of a box on hold for a month or two, but we continued to program for those that followed our WODs on line. However, without any actual clients (and not offering any classes), spending tons of time and energy on programming for a gym that didn't exist wasn't very fulfilling, and didn't make a lot of sense long term.

Point is, we're still a CrossFit affiliate, but we don't actually have a gym, don't offer any classes, and don't do much actual hands-on coaching and training. What we DO offer is a service that the CrossFit community needs (clearly, based on the volume of emails I've been getting) - help finding the right balance of diet, training, active recovery, sleep, stress management and a whole host of other factors that all add up to optimal health and fitness.

Weird, right? An affiliate without a gym? We're sort of going out on a limb redefining ourselves here. However, two things make me confident that we can carve this niche out for ourselves. First, it's been done before. Jon Gilson built Again Faster around his CrossFit affiliation without owning his own gym or running his own programming. He pulls from the CrossFit community, and gives back in the form of equipment sales, motivational and educational articles and training tutorial videos. He's redefined the place an affiliate holds within the CrossFit community, and we think we can do the same.

Two... there is room for us here. There's a NEED for us here. CrossFit is growing and expanding and changing on a daily basis, and we'd like to push those boundaries and expand the definition of an "affiliate". We won't run you through "Linda", but we'll help you nail down your nutrition and recovery so you stomp that bar heavier and harder than you've ever thought possible. We won't teach you to overhead squat, but we'll give you some ways to reduce inflammation and get those overworked shoulders to open better. We won't customize your Starting Strength program, but we'll share with you why we don't love the concept of a gallon of milk a day. So my assertion is this - while we don' t have an actual gym, what we're doing IS CrossFit, and there is a place for us within the community.

At least, I hope there is.

Do you see the value in this shift in paradigm for us, or do you think without actual coaching and physical training, an affiliate isn't really an affiliate at all?


My take is that the CF affiliate system, where people are paying more for less equipment, group training sessions, and random WoDs, is doomed.

I understand the Globo Gym concept; a thousand people at $29 a month with a $100 sign up. You start with 100,000 bucks and have cash flow of 29,000/month. You have one-time on your equipment, and monthly on rental space, utilities, some small overhead, and the pittance you pay your out-of-shape know-nothing "trainers." Of course, you don't want or expect 10% of your thousand clients to show up - ever. When they do (January 2nd, anyone?) your model takes a dump. But March 2nd, you're owning.

I don't understand how the numbers work on the CF affiliate concept. If your box can handle 10 at a time, and you're running (let's be generous here) 5 cycles a day, your 50 clients who show up every day can pay what? $100 a month? You're running a box on 5k/month. You can pay rent and overhead, but you have to keep your day job.

Because Globo down the street is only asking $29, how can you get 100 bodies through the door at $290 a month to get yourself to a cash flow of 29k/month? Expand your box and get 290 peeps at $100? What would those 290 be getting for their 3x payment that they couldn't get at Globo? Gymnastic rings? Because rings only cost 75 bucks, delivered.

I'm not seeing how the business model works outside of the (a.) metrocomplex where dingleberry attorneys will be willing to pay $300+ for training, or (b.) the garage gym, where the equipment cost is your only cost.

I have an idea, and it's not to offer nutritional counseling, no box, and no classes. I'll let you think about it first though.

Wa - You Can Bill Me - Oct 6

So it's 4 sets of Ceiling stompers/ghds to buy in, then 5 sets of chins/inclines down with 60# dumbs. Then 4 sets (7, 9, 10 and 8 reps) of squat cleans gone thrusters with 95#. Not exactly the world's worst imaginable workout, but enough of the worst to make me think I wanted to be anywhere else doing anything else. Cash out? You can bill me.

Got in the car and couldn't see out of my right eye. Let's hear it for intensity training.

9 hours/18 hours. PE: 8. 215/14.

Ca - "Helen" - Oct 5

13.45 with a treadmill set at 1% incline, a 50# db, and a greasy pull up bar at Calloway BodyX. 3.57 first round, 4.36 second round, 5.11 third round.

Cashed out with some dips and Ghd extensions. Just kinda taking it easy as I'm feeling funky today; get to make up for it all with Wa day & Squat Cleans tomorrow.

9 - 2 hours/60 hours. PE: 6. 216/11.

M - Bike "Just Dun't Have It" - Oct 3

Round Mt with a trip up Alfred Harrell for good measure on the way back: 160 minutes. 24 minute climb up the North side from the cow sign to the berm, just feeling like the old bike (automatic transmission skipping gears) and the old man (simply unable to generate torque, and pedaling between gears all day) weren't up for this one. Sumo high pulls on Thursday were haunting the legs a bit, or China Palace dehydration from last night ... or, just dun't have it today.

8/36 hours. PE: 7.

Ca - Sweet Humble Pie - Oct 1

Barely squeezed in the PR here with 9 rounds today. Set the watch to repeat at 2 minutes, so if I could handle one every 2, I'd be doing 10. Things broke down a bit at 6/7. Still, previous best was 8. Maybe 10 next time. Grip was giving out, thrusters were quick but costly, hang cleans were a cinch, but high pulls were just hell. Was trying to bang all three out without dropping the bar, but I would need to re-grip during the high pulls at 7. Later, I was taking a 30 sec blow between the cleans and the high pulls. Later than that, well, it all broke down.

Round 1: 1.55
Round 2: 1.50
Round 3: 2.11
Round 4: 2.20
Round 5: 2.17
Round 6: 2.13
Round 7: 2.58
Round 8: 2.53
Round 9: 1.55

Was tempted to go on a nice-weather evening bike ride today, but that's oxidative, and I'm all about testing stamina. Time will tell.

7.5/24 hours. PE: 9.