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Workout 03/11/2013

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Karate: flexibility
Push-ups: 65+
Sit-ups: 65+
Side plank: 65+ sec ea side

3 mile run with 100m striders

Crossfit:

Warmup: 3 min jump rope
Couch stretch
Shoulder and wrist mobility: hold 10 lb plates in palms like cup and saucer then twist them behind back and above head

Strength:
Deck Press
3 x 5, moderate weight; 95#, 115#, 125#
3 x 3, heavier weight, 145#, 155#, 155#

WOD:
4 rounds:
400m run
12 kettle bell swings; 24kg
12 ring row push-ups
12 box jumps; 24″
Total time: 14:20
Then I did one extra round and finished at about 19″

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Workout 03/08/2013

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Ran 4 miles (in the snow) to crossfit

Crossfit:

Strength

Roman Deadlift 7×2 95, 115, 135, 185, 205, 205, 205
Ring Rows 7×3

WOD Two 5 min APRAPS

30 seconds x 10, alternating:
Tire flips
Box jumps onto tire

30 seconds x 10, alternating:
Stone to shoulder (95#)
L holds on ring rows

65 pushups

Ran home, 4 miles

Workout 03/06/2013

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

Strength

Practice snatch, 35 mins

WOD

50 situps
50 double-unders

40 situps
40 double-unders

30 situps
30 double-unders

20 situps
20 double-unders

10 situps
10 double-unders

Hannibal King – Barstarzz

Monday, March 4th, 2013

My buddy Rich Conte (who really wants me to run the Athens Marathon [in Ohio] with him) pointed me to this guy, Hannibal King, who is phenomenal on the bars. Here’s a video where he visits with Rashad Evans and the Blackzillians training camp for a pretty wild training session.

Hannibal’s website is Barstarzz. The group is an international workout team put together to inspire the world to workout. Barstarzz train their bodies through Creative Calisthenics, which is a much different workout than most people are familiar with.

 

 

Paleo Recipes from Scappa Trattoria

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

On Sunday March 3, some of the CrossFit Mercer crew went to Scappa | A Brick Oven Trattoria. Chris Stevens, the owner and chef, prepared Fish Cakes and Paleo muffins for us. I have to say, both the fish cakes and the muffins were fantastic. The muffins had sugar on top for texture, so that part is technically not paleo. I scraped it off, but the recipe doesn’t include the sugar topping. Instead of honey, you can use agave syrup.

Chris is also a member of CrossFit member, so he has an interest is what we are trying to do.

Fish Cakes with Lemon Caper Aioli

Ingredients:
  • 6 ounces Flounder of white fish
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tbsp real mayonnaise (or home made mayo) [avoid most conventional oils: canola oil, veg oil, seed oil, peanut oil]
  • 1 tbsp parmesan cheese (skip this if you are not doing dairy)
  • 1/2 tbsp flax meal
  • 1/2 tbsp almond meal (ground up almonds) or almond flour
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp dried minced onions
  • 1 tbsp olive oil (or coconut oil) for frying
  • aioli sauce: 1/2 cup real mayonnaise, 4 cloves garlic minced, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp grated lemon zest, 2 tbsp capers, 1 tbsp fresh parsley, 1 pinch sea salt, 1 pinch black bepper
Cooking Steps:
  1. Fresh flounder or white fish (ground up)
  2. Combine all ingredients, except olive oil and sauce ingredients, in mixing bowl
  3. Heat olive oil in frying pan on medium high heat
  4. Form patties with hands, and drop into fry pan
  5. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until browned and crusted
  6. Make sure it is browned before flipping over
Aolio sauce:
  1. mix all ingredients in bowl
  2. cover and refrigerate
  3. can be made in advance, so it can chill while patties are cooking
Notes:
  • You can use tuna or white fish, crab, shrimp or scallop (he used day boat flounder) grounded up.
  • If you are going to get fish, get it from Whole Foods or Wegmans. You’ll pay more but definitely get a better product.
  • When you puree fish, it will congeal well (it won’t fall apart).
  • Be careful with Almond milk unless its unsweetened. Blue Diamond unsweetened is pretty good, and ShopRite sometimes has it on sale. (Thanks Delaney).
  • The oil he used is half extra virgin olive oil and half coconut oil. The issue is coconut oil changes color when you bring it to a certain temperature. Also, the smoking point is higher, so it doesn’t burn anything.
  • You can also bake the cakes in the oven, but Chris’ opinion is it tastes better with a little fat with it.
  • Sear the cakes off, then put them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 7 or 8 minutes
  • Salad prep trick: If you are making salad, don’t douse the greens with the dressing. Best thing is to put it on the side of the bowl, then toss it against the side of the bowl. It doesn’t drown the lettuce, and it spreads it out evenly.
  • You can also make the fish cakes smaller as an h’orderve, or larger like a crab cake.
  • Next week he will post another recipe, figs wrapped in bacon.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips (Whole Foods or Wegmans have organic dark choc chips)

Cooking steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. line a muffin pan with muffin cups
  3. In a large bown, mix together coconut oil and honey. Whisk in eggs until combined. Add in vanilla and mix.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together coconut flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda
  5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.
  6. Fold in chocolate chips and fill the muffin liners 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Miscellaneous stuff we chatted about:

  • I asked if sweet potatoes are paleo or not. Avoid regular yellow and white potatoes. Sweet potatoes in moderation are fine on Paleo, and I need them because of my endurance events. I found this article which defends sweet potatoes on Paleo. They have a lower glycemic index than regular potatoes.
  • It was recommended I check out Brian MacKenzie’s blog, since I do endurance events.
  • 3Fuel – try it for endurance events while on Paleo. Keeps you fueled on long, endurance runs.
  • A few people recommended Aqua Hydrate performance water. Apparently this was created by Mark Wahlberg and Puff Daddy (working with John Cochran from Fiji water), haha.
  • Take a look at Beach Plums from Jalma Farms, high in antioxidants.
  • Check out the burpeessuck.com website for CrossFit-related t-shirts.
  • Make Kale Chips on your own. It’s easy and much cheaper than buying them. Make them crispy enough, and add a spicy hot sauce. 350 for 10 to 20 minutes, flipping them around half way (thanks to Katy).
  • If you do the 30 day whole food challenge: Don’t try to re-create junk food with paleo ingredients because you want to eliminate the desire for sugar.

Workout 03/01/2013

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Crossfit:

Warmup
800 meter run
Burgener warmup
Couch stretch

Strength
Snatch Balance
7×3
My form in olympic lifting is still poor. So, I started with an empty bar and did extra in each set.
45, 45, 65, 75, 75, 85, 85

WOD
12 min AMRAP
3 Dead-hang pullups
5 bent-over rows (65#)
7 push-ups

The pull-ups got much more difficult in the later sets, and ate up my time. I started out at a 40 second pace per set, but that dwindled. I finished 13 sets.

CASH OUT

30 toes to bar

Thursday’s Meals

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

The Paleo Diet saga continues…

Lunch included a whole bag of spinach with peppers, etc, and dinner was a recipe from Civilized Caveman for grass-fed beef burgers with avocado, sundried tomatoes, lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper. It was great.

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Banana Bread Sans Sugar and Bread

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

A recipe I will need to try, posted from Just Eat Real Food by Donna on Facebook:

No Sugar, No Grains, Easy and Amazing Banana Bread
Source: http://www.primallyinspired.com/no-sugar-no-grains-easy-and-amazing-banana-bread/
(There appears to be lots of good stuff on primallyinspired.com).

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup coconut oil or grass-fed butter, melted
4 free-range eggs
1tsp vanilla
1½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup organic coconut flour
1 heaping tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
optional add-ins: 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, slivered almonds, raisins, etc.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Combine everything together in a medium bowl and mix.
  3. Grease a bread pan with coconut oil or butter
  4. Add to pan and bake for ~45 min or until center is set and top is golden.

* Bananas should be extremely ripe (brown). If they are not overly ripe, your bread will not be as sweet and probably not taste as good. If you don’t have non-ripe bananas, add about a 1/3 cup of maple syrup.

** Purchase coconut flour here: Organic Coconut Flour 3 Lbs by Nutiva

Workout 02/27/2013

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Crossfit:

Warmup
Establish Front Rack position, band stretch
PVC
20 air squats
Couch stretch
Ankle mobility
Hip mobility

Strength
Push Jerk
7×2
3-3-3-2-2-1
75×3, 105×3, 105×3, 125×2, 125×2, 135×1

WOD
5R
10 KB Snatches right
10 Ring Dips
10 KB Snatches left
10 Frog situps

Total time: 8:51
Timed splits (situps took the longest):
001: 00:01:35.31
002: 00:01:43.95
003: 00:01:45.17
004: 00:01:51.58
005: 00:01:55.44

Cash Out
100 DB Unders: I may have gotten 100, but only managed to get two consecutive double-unders. I had to keep starting over after whipping my shin with the open wire on the jumprope. I have some nice welts now 🙂 Need to work on these – where’s Rocky Balboa when you need him?

Workout 02/26/2013

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Crossfit

Warmup
Couch Stretch
3 minutes Jump Rope
400m run with jump rope

Strength
Good Mornings (start with barbell on shoulders, bend forward almost into a starting deadlift position. bend knees slightly)
5×5
35 x 5 – empty bar
55 x 5
85 x 5
105 x 5
145 x 5

WOD
Cindy – 20 minute amrap
200m run
5 Pullups   (or scale up, SU, C2B or SD,  ring rows or jumping pullups)
10 Pushups, SU ring pushups
15 Air Squats, SU goblet Squats or jumping air squats

I did 10 rounds. I timed and tracked my splits with a free iPhone stopwatch timer:

Round 1: 01:43.7
Round 2: 01:50.5
Round 3: 01:56.5
Round 4: 02:02.2
Round 5: 01:57.1
Round 6: 02:05.4
Round 7: 02:06.4
Round 8: 02:10.6
Round 9: 02:10.6
Round 10: 02:02.5

Make sure there is quality in the movement