Crossfit WODs and THE GAMES (aka the thrill of competition!!!)
First of all, the boring stuff - my last two WODS. I was out of town for 5 days so another lite week.
A partner WOD, which I usually hate, because I'm so much slower/weaker than everyone else. But my partner this time wasn't too far ahead of me and she was nice about it.
400m run, with each partner running backwards for 200m, then switching. (actually fun!)
100 Russian Kettlebell swings, 50 each. (we actually used 35# - my first time at that weight! Woot!)
100 Kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (50 each, 26#)
run again
100 abmat situps (50 each, did fine)
50 thrusters (25 each - I hate these (squat movement, everything squat I suck at). Rx was 85#, we went with my partner's suggestion of 45#, after the first 10 I had to go down to 35# (pitiful)).
run again
Time was 30:56, I think.
Overall not bad at all, especially coming back from a week-long break.
I had to go to 8:30 class (C had a church thing at 10:00) so my choices were Endurance or Core. I like Endurance, but the workout was run 2 miles, do a bunch of box jumps and stuff and run 2 more miles. I just wasn't up for that (plus it would take me way more than an hour and I had to take C!), so I did Core. Ten minutes of repeating 3 different core mvts, and 10 more minutes of another set of 3. Nice variety, and the only thing that really killed me was Mountain Climbers. Afterwards I felt nicely slightly sore not just in my abs, but sides and back and hip flexors too. Nice workout!
Has anyone every done Hot Yoga? I'm trying to find a time to go this week and try it out!
Now the exciting stuff: It's Crossfit Games Week! One guy from our box, Dave Hippensteel, was competing in the Master's competition (Men 55-59) earlier in the week. He went into the final event in 5th place overall, and got 2nd (nearly first - it was tenths of a second!) in the final. I was hoping he could get on the podium with 3rd, but the other top men finished right behind him so the point spread wasn't enough to make up ground and he stayed at 5th. Still, not bad to be the 5th fittest 57-year old in the world, eh?
I posted earlier about Rich Froning, what a great guy he is and how he's trying to win the CrossFit title for the 4th year in a row. He started well on the first day - he has just won everything for so long that it's basically expected. But the next day, there was an event that ended with a 3-mile run, and he just crashed and burned. He did the run/walk thing for a good portion of it. Everyone was stunned - what was wrong? We'd never seen him like this. He finished *37th* (out of 43). Unheard of! So, we all thought he'd bounce back in the next event, but not so much. In the next 3 events he did ok, but he was still finishing on either side of 10th. Which is not bad, but is just not RIch Froning. Last night they had a fast and heavy lifting event, which he should have done really well at, but he didn't even make the final heat. I actually got really sad seeing him sitting on the sideline watching the others. :( The good news was that the men winning the different events were a really wide variety of people, so the points were very close. After the lifting Rich was still, amazingly, in 5th overall and less than 20 points from first.
Then, the last event of the night - handstand pushups and heavy sled pulls. Kinda resigned now to another mediocre Rich result, everyone went crazy when he flew through and got SECOND right behind Josh Bridges (another guy I really like, a perpetual underdog at only 5'5"). Josh was being interviewed as the event winner when the crowd erupted so loudly they had to stop talking -- the overall standings had just been posted and Rich Froning was in first place! (Josh didn't mind - he and Rich are good friends.) Rich is only holding on to first by a measly 5 points, but, at least for now, all is as it should be. I was inordinately happy! :)
If you want to get in on the excitement, The Games conclude today on ESPN2. They're on at 1:00 and more at 7:00 (Central time). Go Rich!
A partner WOD, which I usually hate, because I'm so much slower/weaker than everyone else. But my partner this time wasn't too far ahead of me and she was nice about it.
400m run, with each partner running backwards for 200m, then switching. (actually fun!)
100 Russian Kettlebell swings, 50 each. (we actually used 35# - my first time at that weight! Woot!)
100 Kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (50 each, 26#)
run again
100 abmat situps (50 each, did fine)
50 thrusters (25 each - I hate these (squat movement, everything squat I suck at). Rx was 85#, we went with my partner's suggestion of 45#, after the first 10 I had to go down to 35# (pitiful)).
run again
Time was 30:56, I think.
Overall not bad at all, especially coming back from a week-long break.
I had to go to 8:30 class (C had a church thing at 10:00) so my choices were Endurance or Core. I like Endurance, but the workout was run 2 miles, do a bunch of box jumps and stuff and run 2 more miles. I just wasn't up for that (plus it would take me way more than an hour and I had to take C!), so I did Core. Ten minutes of repeating 3 different core mvts, and 10 more minutes of another set of 3. Nice variety, and the only thing that really killed me was Mountain Climbers. Afterwards I felt nicely slightly sore not just in my abs, but sides and back and hip flexors too. Nice workout!
Has anyone every done Hot Yoga? I'm trying to find a time to go this week and try it out!
Now the exciting stuff: It's Crossfit Games Week! One guy from our box, Dave Hippensteel, was competing in the Master's competition (Men 55-59) earlier in the week. He went into the final event in 5th place overall, and got 2nd (nearly first - it was tenths of a second!) in the final. I was hoping he could get on the podium with 3rd, but the other top men finished right behind him so the point spread wasn't enough to make up ground and he stayed at 5th. Still, not bad to be the 5th fittest 57-year old in the world, eh?
I posted earlier about Rich Froning, what a great guy he is and how he's trying to win the CrossFit title for the 4th year in a row. He started well on the first day - he has just won everything for so long that it's basically expected. But the next day, there was an event that ended with a 3-mile run, and he just crashed and burned. He did the run/walk thing for a good portion of it. Everyone was stunned - what was wrong? We'd never seen him like this. He finished *37th* (out of 43). Unheard of! So, we all thought he'd bounce back in the next event, but not so much. In the next 3 events he did ok, but he was still finishing on either side of 10th. Which is not bad, but is just not RIch Froning. Last night they had a fast and heavy lifting event, which he should have done really well at, but he didn't even make the final heat. I actually got really sad seeing him sitting on the sideline watching the others. :( The good news was that the men winning the different events were a really wide variety of people, so the points were very close. After the lifting Rich was still, amazingly, in 5th overall and less than 20 points from first.
Then, the last event of the night - handstand pushups and heavy sled pulls. Kinda resigned now to another mediocre Rich result, everyone went crazy when he flew through and got SECOND right behind Josh Bridges (another guy I really like, a perpetual underdog at only 5'5"). Josh was being interviewed as the event winner when the crowd erupted so loudly they had to stop talking -- the overall standings had just been posted and Rich Froning was in first place! (Josh didn't mind - he and Rich are good friends.) Rich is only holding on to first by a measly 5 points, but, at least for now, all is as it should be. I was inordinately happy! :)
If you want to get in on the excitement, The Games conclude today on ESPN2. They're on at 1:00 and more at 7:00 (Central time). Go Rich!