Time To Get Gangsta Wit It

Forgive me, father, for I have eaten my weight in Christmas cookies. Wow. After spending a wonderfully relaxing Christmas eve, day, and day after with the family, I looked forward to cleaning back up my diet and resuming my training. The 2011 CrossFit Games Sectionals process has not yet been announced or explained- but it's gonna be here sooner than later- and with that in mind, I'm ready to ramp it up! Today was an exceptionally productive training day with my good buddy and CrossFit SOMO owner, Rodney Hamby making a guest appearance at CFS! This morning at 11pm, after having the always enlightening opportunity of visit Jenny's lady-parts doctor and listening to our tadpole's heart beat (HR was 162- don't know if that means boy or girl...I forget the wives tale but I guarantee it will surely be one or the other) I did Hang Squat Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. In all reality, for me it was hang squat snatch one meeleeon x 1 because I wouldn't stop attempting 205lb until I made the lift...And, alas, on the meeleeonth attempt, I made the lift. Exhibit A (please note David Helfrecht's exhuberent scream after I successfully completed said meeleeonth attempt):


At 1pm myself, Rodney, and Grant took on 5 Rounds for total reps of max consecutive reps 115lb Overhead Squat and max reps pull ups. You could not rest longer than 3 minutes between any effort (aka "dealbreaker clause"). Oh. My. Goodness. I would literally prefer allowing you 5 opportunities to punch me square in the face as hard as you can than to do that WOD again anytime in the immediate future (the immediate future being now until the Detroit Lions have a winning season). Max efforts are great because of their ability to force you into a serious gut-check scenario. Add the fact that both Grant and Rodney are stellar athletes and also the friendly competition factor and your weather forecast will be that of serious PAIN with a good chance of vomit. Regardless, we all got better today, and most importantly, fun was definitely had by all. After 5 rounds of action, here's what our scorecards looked like:

As you can see, I kind of bet the house on the first round of OHS and Pull Ups- not sure if that was the best strategy or not. I do know that by round 3 I was having some serious "suck it up, buttercup" talks with myself. By round 5, I was questioning my ability to do another set of anything. If you give it a truely honest and legitimate effort, max consecutive reps of anything is gonna SUCK. Like Rodney once so elequently put it: "If you wanna find out how much ball's you've got, try backsquating your bodyweight 'til failure."

Author's Note: This same guy once did just that...for 5 rounds...on one of his rounds, Rodney literally puked mid-set and then continued on until failure. Now THAT'S gangsta.