Friday, November 26, 2010

"Cobra Kai" tackles Event 3 at H.O.A 2.0

Here's a video of team "Cobra Kai" during event 3 at H.O.A II (with BONUS false start footage). Huge thanks goes out to Paul Elmer for capturing the action in all it's night-vision splendor! The WOD was:

-Each team picks 2 runners to complete a shuttle run. Half of the distance will be completed wearing a #20 weighted vest.
-Once both runners are finished, the team will work to complete 60 deadlifts, 50 power cleans, and 40 power snatches. Scaled teams will do deadlifts, burpees, and thrusters.
-Only ONE athlete can be on a barbell at any time.
-Teams must strip weights when changing movements.
-Rx'd loads are #275/#185 deadlift, #185/#95 power clean, #135/#65 power snatch.
-Once ALL barbell work is complete, the 2 athletes who did not run to start the workout, will complete the run.



I believe our time was something like 10:02, placing us 2nd overall in this event. Great job, team!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

An Ocean Of Grace

I sit here, uninterrupted, staring at this screen waiting for elqouent words to crash land in my brain and I swear I've lost them. Somehow, someway, after bearing witness to and competing within the 2nd Annual Heart of America CrossFit Affiliate Challenge I'm left speechless. But there must be a reason. There has to be. And then it comes to me: All the emotions, the fighting spirit, the urgency, the pleading, the close-calls, the pain, the glory, the heartbreak, the elation, the love and the hate, the planning, the gut-wrenching expressions, the tears of joy after victory and those from having just survived a WOD, and the unity that occured over the course of 2 days and 4 events in St. Louis at HOA 2010...all these factors which make up a truly epic competitive event cannot be given full justice with words alone. No. These portraits of the human spirit you must experience first hand to fully grasp and comprehend their impact, their magnitude, and their worth. God graces us with the opportunity to take part in rare moments such as these. He graces and blesses us with the ability to overcome that which seems insurmountable. If God's grace was an ocean, HOA 2010 just sank into it. I'm honored to have gone down with that ship and her crew.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

In The Beginning...

Ahhhhh...it's been nice taking a bit of a blogging break. With all of the November challenges and CFS's big upcoming move (woohoo!) taking up lot's of time, I've made a conscious effort to spend as little time as possible staring at the computer (aka "the devil's eyeball"...kidding...but, seriously) and as much free time as possible hanging with Jenny and Vin. Me and Vin made a rediculously awesome music video the other night. You can check it out on my facestalk page and MTV...Well...VH1, probably not MTV. Everyone knows MTV doesn't actually play music videos- their genius programming only allows for reality shows starring fake-tanned, sparkly-hat and/or shirt-wearing drunk people with VD.

Speaking of "Girls Gone Wild", that's exactly the WOD I re-tackled today after first doing the CFS WOD at 7am where I bench pressed 300lb for the first time (which surprised the heck out of me since I rarely bench press and, more accurately, have a history of really sucking at it). This time, I did the GGW workout with a little bit of a twist: 10 minutes to complete the GGW WOD (10 C & J @ 135lb, 50 DUs, 50 Sit Ups, 21 Thrusters @ 95lb, 21 Pull Ups, 10 C & J @ 135lb) THEN with any remaining time, perform AMRAP of "Cindy" (5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats). It was a beautiful disaster. 4:54 on the GGW WOD and 4 complete rds plus 5 pull ups and 10 push ups with the remaining time. It was a productive day. I love the feeling I get when I teeter on the edge of "I'm pushing it hard enough" and "I'm pushing it too hard". When the line between the two becomes blurred, I know I'm in my ideal training zone. It's not necessarily the "unload your clip" pace or the "everyday I MUST go all-out...or else..." mentality I attempted to maintain from January through May during last year's CrossFit Games season, but for me it's a realistic and optimal place to be day-in and day-out when my objective is to maintain conditioning and prevent burn-out by protecting my sanity.

Yesterday, we took on WOD 3 from Melissa's South Central Regional Qualifier for the 2010 Games: 100 DUs, 3rds of 10 Deadlifts @ 275/185lb (no dropping) & 200m Sandbag run @ 75/50lb (we used 90/60lb sandbags...uphill...both ways...in the snow) and then 1000m Row (we did 1000m run because the row class was rowing). My time was 13:35. Good times. T minus 4 days 'til HOA...until then...

The End.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I Got It, Daddy!!!

Got a couple of great workouts in today. At 11am I did 3 rounds of: 15 Front Squats, 135; 150ft Prowler sled push (255lb), 15 Pull Ups staight into 3 round of: 15 Push Press, 135lb; 150ft Prowler sled push (255lb), and 15 TTB. Good WOD- didn't keep time but I think it took around 20 minutes. The "5k Gone Bad" judges/volunteer practice run was tonight at 4pm. Around 40 of the 50-60 judges and volunteers participated with local media (KSPR) covering the evening. It was a great time and a tough run! I took it on after having eaten a late lunch just 45 minutes prior to launch and paid for it the during 1st 2000m. Once my body reached steady state and cruising altitude all was well with the world. This event, which will be held on November 27th, is shaping up to be an extremely positive experience. Can't wait to see how things shake out! Afterwards, a group of us watched my 2 year old son, Vin, as he put on a deadlifting clinic. He's pretty much got his routine down: If its a drum, he beats it; if it's a guitar, he plays it; and if it's a bar, it's gonna get lifted. Good boy.

My training has continued to go well, I've worked with more moderate loads and intermediate time-domains recently just to give my SI joint a bit of a break. I've had some hip/pelvic issues lately so I've been trying to not force the issue. Overall, Im feel great going into next weekend's 2nd annual Heart of America Challenge in St. Louis. With 32 teams competing, the competition should be stacked with some great CrossFitters from throughout the Midwest. I'm thrilled to have 9 teams from CrossFit Springfield represented at this year's event!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

How Much Snatch Could A Good Snatch Snatch If A Good Snatch Could Snatch Snatch?

SO, guess what I did today? That's right, Clean & Jerk practice. No. The CrossFit Main page Snatch WOD: Perform 1 snatch at the top of each minute for 15 minutes. Post highest and lowest efforts. My goal going into the WOD was to pound technique an stay fairly conservative with my weight progression. My hope was to have no missed reps within my 15 minute time-frame. At the start of my 15 minute time period, I came in at 175lb and nailed it. I continued to successfully snatch 175 four more times and at minute 6 progressed to 185lb. I hit 5 consecutive 185lb lifts so for minute 11, I up'd the load to 190lb. For minute 12, I snatched 195lb. On minute 13, I jumped to 200lb and at minute 14, I hit 205lb, Going into minute 15, I jumped 10lb to finish with 215lb (previous PR). My first 215lb attempt failed, but I regrouped and managed to successfully snatch 215lb prior to time expiring. My range for the WOD was 175-215lb. After time ran out I attempted 220 twice but missed on both attempts and decided to call it quits.

At 11:30am Chance and myself took on WOD 3 for CrossFit Springfield's Fighfighter Challenge this weekend...

WOD 3:

One team member (A) must hold a 95/65lb barbell front racked while the other team member (B) runs around the building (285m).

Then Switch.

Team member (B) holds a 95/65lb barbell front racked while their partner (A) runs around the building (285m).

Partner (A) then picks up and front racks a 95/65lb barbell as well. Both athletes must then perform 30 Push presses each - HOWEVER – for either of your reps to count, while you perform your push press reps, your partner must simultaneously have their bar on their shoulders in the front racked position. Only one person may work at a time. While one teammate is accumulating reps, if the other partner lowers their bar from the racked position, the working persons reps will not count.

Once both athletes have completed 30 reps of push press each, both athletes will, one at a time, complete a 300ft prowler sled push (255/185lb).

Once both athletes have completed the sled pushes, the athletes will take turns performing a 150ft buddy carry or drag.

Once both athletes have completed the buddy carries, they will simultaneously complete a 300ft farmers carry (55/35lb in each hand)

Finally, Both partners must perform 15 Burpees each (both may work simultaneously)

Score = team time to complete the WOD. This WOD has a 17 minute time-limit.

We did the WOD dressed in full firefighter turnout gear with liners minus boots (except that I actually tried it in the boots and it was rediculous- so we're nixxing them and alowwing tennis shoes for the event). Our time was: 10:30. It's a tough WOD- full of just enough variety and suck factor that it will surely make for an interesting competition when winning and losing is on the line.

Saturday...12pm...CrossFit Springfield's 2nd Annual Firefighters Challenge!!! Come on out and cheer the 12 teams on!!! It's gonna be a battle, fo sho!!!