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Crossfit:

Warmup:
Couch stretch, samson stretch, shoulder openers

“Schmalls”

Run 800 meters
Then two rounds of:
50 Burpees
40 Pull-ups (16 strict pull-ups, 64 kipping)
30 One-legged squats (used short box for pistols)
20 Kettlebell swings, 32kg
10 Handstand push-ups (touched head to rolled up yoga mat for each one)
Then,
Run 800 meters

Time: 20:11

I didn’t prepare as I usually do for this event, because of shin splints that have been getting progressively worse this season. I hadn’t really done any runs longer than about 6 miles for 8 to 9 weeks. So, I was pleasantly surprised with my time of 1:31:48.

Since I knew I probably would not PR, I focused on my running form a lot during the race. I wore my CrossFit Nanos which have a much shorter heel, and tried to toe-strike during the whole race. I think I succeeded for the most part because after the race I had no hip soreness, and minimal knee tightness. However, my calves were screaming 🙂

Looking forward to the NYC marathon and the Trenton Half marathon this fall, when my shin splits have completely healed.

Today the Sconzo family ran the Action Karate 5k in Tyler State Park. The weather was just about perfect. It was just a little windy which made it feel cooler than it actually was.

The race started at 9am and there were about 150 competitors. At the start, Matthew ran out in a full-out sprint ahead of me. He held third place for about 600 meters. Once my shin splint numbed up a bit though, I gained on him and tapped him lovingly on the shoulder as I passed him. I was hoping he would keep pace with me and beat me, but the hills were tough on him. Also, he has not been training hard this season, while I have been doing speed workouts.

The first mile was blazing fast, with much downhill. I clocked it in under 6 minutes (about 5:50), but then the inclines came 🙂 I could really feel those hills chewing up my pace, but I kept pushing.

Jeannie started toward the back, with a goal of finishing. This was a really tough course for her. In retrospect she said “If I had known about these hills, I would have sat this one out.” Kudos to her for completing the whole course, with a pretty respectable time considering the difficulty.

Unfortunately, Peter couldn’t run with us, though he was registered to. He needed to stay home and work on his awesome zebra art project. He spent so many hours through the weekend trying to fit in this project that demanded so much focus and dedication. I’m happy to say he finished the project and it looks awesome. Anyway, Matthew’s friend from Fisher Middle School joined us to take Peter’s spot. He finished just ahead of Matthew.

My time was about 20:10. Like I said, the hills were challenging. This put me in third place overall, and first in my age group. The two leaders were almost 2 minutes ahead of me. This is the kind of thing that happens in a new, small race. I wish I could run these all the time 🙂 Matthew finished in about 23 or 24 minutes. The results are not posted at Pretzel City Sports yet. I think Jeannie finished in about 35 minutes.

Matthew placed second in his age group and took home a nice medal, as did I.

Nice race, and the mascot for Action Karate, a shark, chased us at the start of the race. I’ve done other races hosted by Pretzel City Sports, and they do a good job managing them. And that was the case with this one. Very well organized.

Karate:

Met Tim 1/2 hour before class to get in some extra sparring.
Worked on two-on-one attacks, semi free, and niju-shiho with some bunkai.

Crossfit:

Warmup: couch stretch, samson stretch, hip opener.

WOD: Will You Still Love Me When I’m 64?
4 Rounds for Time:

1 Mile Run
16 pull-ups
16 push-ups
16 sit-ups
16 air squats

Completed this in 38 mins, 52 secs. Looked like one of the fastest time of the day. Grueling workout, and the pull-ups were my achilles heel. After the first two rounds, I could no longer do dead hang pull ups. I resorted to… hate to say it… jumping pull ups. Alex caught me doing this and told me I’m getting no benefit from doing them. So, after the workout, in my depleted state, I started working on kipping pullups. It requires a certain amount of finesse. I’m still not sure they are better than dead hang pull ups. Sure, they’ll get your workout done faster, but I need to figure out why they are better than jumping pull-ups. Perhaps it’s more about training the timing of your hips, shoulders, arms and legs for the kip than improving strength for the pull-up? I’ll be sure to ask for Alex’s assistance next week as I work more on this. It will be a focus point for me.

Ultimately, aside from the pull-ups, this workout was made for me. Thanks to Donna who came up with the original idea of 1 mile run, 64 pullups, 1 mile run, 64 pushups, 1 mile run, 64 situps, 1 mile run, 64 air squats. I suggested the modification to break each round of 64 reps into sets of 16. And Happy 64th birthday to her!

Epilogue:

32 burpees, 32 mountain climbers, 32 jumping jacks.

I didn’t run to crossfit today, because I needed to get to work earlier than usual.

Crossfit:

Warmup
10x thru Down Dog to Cobra
Foam (PVC) Roll
Ankle Mobility
10 each 3x thru  ring rows, box jumps, push ups, sit ups, couch stretch, samson stretch

Strength
7×3  Alternate between the two movments
Deck Press and Bent over Row

Deck Press: 95#, 95#, 115#, 115#, 125#, 135#, 145#

MetCon
Three 4 min AMRAP Couplets, one minute rest between

4 Ring Dips and 8 KB Swings (24kg)
4 Ring Push Ups and 8 Hollow Rocks (make sure to hyper extend elbows in with a twist at the top of each ring push up)
4 HSPU and 8 Air Squats (HSPU=hand stand push up)

After:

1 mile run, more PVC rolling, stretching, couch stretch again (left knee is still very tight after running)

A friend sent this video to me, which was pretty inspiring. Check it out, but if you’re short on time, here are the choice quotes from the motivational video:

How Bad Do You Want It (Success)?

CrossFit Games Open 13.5

The open competition states: Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 4 minutes of:
100 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups

However, at CFM we just made it a 12 minute WOD. And I had to scale this by using 75 pounds instead of 100. Dolph didn’t want us constantly resting. I did dead-hang pullups until failure than finished each set of 15 with jumping pullups. I completed six sets, and started the seventh with 11 of 15 thrusters.

Note: my wrists were killing me from holding the bar in the clean position with my elbows out before and after the press. Guess that will improve over time.

Lunch:

30 burpees, 30 jumping jacks, 30 mountain climbers
3 minutes of jump rope, playing with double unders again
10 handstand pushups, 30 wall ball squats and 30 slam balls
2 sets of parallette holds.

Track Work with HATRs at Robbinsville HS Track:

Speed work – 800, 400, 200 and 100 meter intervals.

6×800 @ 2:56 (best was 1st one @ 2:48)
4×400 @ 1:20 (best was 1:19)
4×200 @ 0:38
4×100 @ 0:17 (best was last one @ 0:16)

In the end, it was just Brad Colbeck and I. Good job to Brad for sticking it out through his whole workout. I’m glad I stayed as well.

Crossfit:

Warmup
Squat therapy 3 minutes
Couch Stretch
Ankle Mobility
20 air squats
20 walking lunges (hold the lunge for 5 seconds at the bottom and create torque by pushing the knee to the outside)

Strength

Low Bar Back Squat
7×2 (45, 45, 45, 65, 65, 85, 95, 115)

MetCon

4 RFT
400 Meter run
9 Power Cleans  135/95 (I did 135, which was a challenge for me but I got through it. 2 failures, so I had to repeat twice)
12 Box Jumps