CrossFit - 28Feb (pm)

7 rounds for time of:
- 10 Sumo-deadlift high-pulls, 95-lbs
- 10 Ring dips

Felt alright. I really focused on opening the hips on the SDHPs which really seemed to get the bar moving. The dips were really the limiting factor as I was reduced to doing doubles and singles in the last few sets.

Time: 9:50

Rest Day - 27Feb

CrossFit - 26Feb (pm)

5 Rounds for time

- Run 400-meters
- 50 Squats
- 30 Back Extensions

The gym was PACKED tonight. There were major hang-ups at the roman chair to do the back extensions. I most likely would've been sub-20 if it wasn't for all the waiting. But that's fine...I tried to compensate by hitting each exercise extra hard.

Time: 25:05

MEBB - 25Feb (pm)

Starting Strength "A" Workout

- Back Squat: 305 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed good)
- Bench Press: 220 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed slow)
- Deadlift: 335 x 1 x 1 (Wrist didn't feel good with the heavy weight)

The squats felt good and solid. The bench was rough but manageable. My right wrist was tender from yesterday's DB swings and didn't feel good when the weight got heavy on the DLs, so I backed off to not injure anything.

CrossFit -24Feb (pm)

"Eva"

Five rounds for time of:
- Run 800 meters
- 2 pood Kettlebell swing, 30 reps (Subbed 70-lbs DB)
- 30 Pull-ups

How appropriate, Helen on steroids...

This was pretty brutal. I broke the DB swings and pull-ups into sets of 15, which was awesome for the pull-ups - I think "Lynne" was a mental breakthrough for me on the pull-ups.

Total Time: 46:11

Rest Day - 23Feb

Wow, chest and back sore today! It'll only get worse I'm sure... :-)

Gotta love working in Escorts though, getting LOTS of good sleep!

CrossFit - 22Feb

Pre: Overhead Squats

135 x 15

"Lynne"

5 Rounds, Max reps

- Bodyweight Bench Press,185-lbs
- Pull-ups

1) 12/23
2) 11/25
3) 11/26
4) 9/23
5) 8/25

Total: 51/122 = 173

MEBB - 21Feb

Starting Strength "B" Workout

Back Squat: 300 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed OK)
Shoulder Press: 120 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed good)
Power Cleans: 165 x 5 x 3 (Bar speed good)

Great day in the gym. The squats were heavy but manageable. Maybe there's something to this sleep thing... :-)

CrossFit - 21Feb

Randy Simmons, 51, a 27 year LAPD veteran and SWAT team member was killed February 6 in the line of duty. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Simmons' wife and two children.

"Randy"

75 Reps, Power Snatch, 75-lbs

Time: 8:34

Rest Day - 19Feb

Resting...

CrossFit - 18Feb

"Annie"

50, 40, 30, 20, 10 rep rounds

- Double Unders
- Sit-ups

Time: 14:38

MEBB - 17Feb

Starting Strength "A" Workout

Back Squat: 295 x 3 x 5
Bench Press: 220-lbs 5/5/4
Deadlift: 325 x 1 x 5

Great day today, the squats felt really solid, a bit slow, but solid. The last rep on the bench was a G-R-I-N-D! I pushed for a solid 7 or 8 seconds to finish the rep, needless to say, I didn't even bother trying the 5th rep. The Deadlift was OK, I just really need to focus on driving my knees out.

Monster Mash - 16Feb

Monster Mash

- Swim ~500-meters at Windmill Beach
- 50 Push-ups
- 25 Flutter Kicks, 4-count
- 50 Push-ups
- 25 Flutter Kicks, 4-count
- Run ~3/4 mile (to Camp America)
- 25 Pull-ups
- 2 Rope Climbs
- 25 Pull-ups
- 2 Rope Climbs
- Run ~800-meters (to Buckeley Gym)
- 15 Thrusters, 95-lbs
- 10 Bodyweight Bench Press (185-lbs)
- 50 Burpees

Today was awesome! With Brian Cook, Ken, Stephan, me, and 2 other guys from the new company that are BUD/S Phase 2 drops (pool comp), it looked like it would be a great day for some competition.

I was the last one out of the water (surprise, surprise) in about 10:18. Everyone then put on boots and utes and started the push-ups/flutter kicks. I managed to catch up a bit and got out of last place on the run. As always, the rope climbs slowed me down, but I was able to complete all 4 climbs...a big step for me. In the gym, I really kicked it in and passed everyone but Brian who finished in around 47-minutes. My time was about 18 minutes faster than last time!

Total Time: 51:30

Rest Day - 15Feb

Rest day.

CrossFit - 14Feb

"Fran"

21, 15, 9
- 95-lbs Thrusters
- Pull-ups

Not a good day today. I couldn't seem to get a solid grip on the pull-up bar and it really affected me. My head just wasn't in it again today.

Time: 6:18

MEBB - 13Feb

Starting Strength "B" Workout

Back Squat: 295-lbs 5/5/3
Shoulder Press: 115 x 3 x 5
Power Cleans: 160 x 5 x 3

Need to go after the 295-lbs again on squats. It felt more like a lack of focus than a lack of strength.

Cleans felt really good.

CrossFit - 12Feb (pm)

Another fallen brother, Chief Petty Officer Nate Hardy was killed Sunday February 4th during combat operations in Iraq. Nate is survived by his wife, Mindi, and his infant son Parker. Godspeed Chief!

"Nate"

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:

- 2 Muscle-ups
- 4 Handstand Push-ups
- 8 Dumbell swings, 70-lbs

Total: 9 Rounds

Running - 12Feb

Did 3 x 2-minutes with 6-minutes of recovery between intervals. The bought the iTunes Fearless Zoom Jasari workout playlist and listened to that as I ran. There was a stiff headwind on the way back, around 15+ mph.

Distance: 3.8 miles
Time: 30:00

Rest Day - 11Feb

Today was a really stressful day at work. I managed to not get to eat lunch and stuff for my transfer package is messed up.

Had a healthy dinner of pizza and beer and not nearly enough sleep.

CrossFit - 10Feb (pm)

Did Test #3 from CrossFit's How Fit Are You? Test:

- 8 Rounds of Tabata Squats
- Max Muscle-ups in 4 minutes

The scoring is your lowest set of squats multiplied by the total number of MUs.

Squats: 8 x 20
Muscle-ups: 22
Total: 20 x 22=440 points (Level 3 of 5!)

As a side note, HERE is a video of Greg A. doing this workout and completing 21 x 25...that's my goal for this next time...525 points!

MEBB - 9Feb (pm)

Starting Strength "A" workout

Back Squat: 290 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed good)
Bench Press: 215 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed slow)
Deadlift: 315 x 1 x 5 (Speed good, Lumbar good)

Felt really good today. The Squats felt really solid, the 5-lbs increase was a good choice instead of going up 10-lbs. I probably should've done the same with the Bench, but I was pumped up after the squats and the last few reps on each set were a real struggle. I stayed with 315-lbs on the Deadlift because last week was too slow. GREAT day!

CrossFit - 8Feb (pm)

For time:
25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35 pound dumbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
3 Rope climb ascents

Subbed 45 Towel pull-ups for the rope climbs (1 pull-up/ft @ 15ft)

Time: ~29:00 (Forgot my watch again...ugh)

Rest Day - 7Feb

Finished putting together my parallettes. They're awesome!

I just fooled around with them and did 5 sets of 100 single-under jump ropes.

"Whenever you meet difficult situations dash forward bravely and joyfully."
- Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure

CrossFit - 6Feb (pm)

Still at 1/2 intensity for MetCon workouts this week.

1/2 "Joshie"

3 rounds for time:
- 15 Dumbell snatch, right arm, 30-lbs
- 15 Tuck-sit Pull-ups
- 15 Dumbell snatch, right arm, 30-lbs
- 15 Tuck-sit Pull-ups

Time: 18:48

Went rep for rep with Brian until the last set of pull-ups. This is a brutal workout, it kills my right shoulder everytime I do it, but that's cool. No worries, gotta keep working on those muscle deficiencies.

MEBB - 5Feb (pm)

Feeling better today. Still some residual side effects, mainly congestion, but all in all I feel 100% better.

Starting Strength "B" workout

- Back Squat 285 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed slow, almost missed 3rd rep in 2nd set, but pushed through it)
- Shoulder Press 110 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed good, felt easy)
- Power Clean 155 x 5 x 3 (Felt OK)

CrossFit - 4Feb (pm)

Yep, I'm sick. It only seems like a headcold and isn't slowing me down much. I'm just congested and have a bit of a headache. The sore throat is pretty much gone.

1/2 intensity week so....

1/2 "Cindy"

Max rounds in 10-minutes
- 5 pull-ups
- 10 push-ups
- 15 air squats

I tried to pace myself at the pace that I would a full "Cindy." Ended up with 13 rounds...right on pace. I felt good once I got started, nothing like a shot of endorphines to clear out the sinuses.

Rest Day - 3Feb

"There is one thing more wicked in the world than the desire to command, and that is the will to obey."

Great quote for you military types out there who live to buck the system... ;-)

I'm pretty sore today. Tough week, and I'm starting to get a bit of a sore throat...getting sick? It looks like the next CrossFit cycle will be at 1/2 intensity.

CrossFit - 2Feb (pm)

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

The plan was to go 9's for the pull-ups (I don't know what happened on the 1st set...too excited I guess), 15's on the push-ups, 13's and 17's on the sit-ups and squats. Next time, I'll stick with the 9's on the pull-ups and I'll try dropping down to 14's on the push-ups and see where that gets me. The sit-ups were pretty much time-limited since I was doing hands behind the head and all the way up to the knees. I'd love to get to 20's across the board for the squats, but that's gonna take some work!

Pull-ups: 10, 9 , 9, 9, 9, 8, 6, 6 = 66
Push-ups: 15, 15, 15, 15, 9, 8, 6, 5 = 88
Sit-ups: 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14 = 108
Squats: 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 20, 18, 17 = 140
Total: 402

MEBB - 1Feb (pm)

Starting Strength "A" workout

Back Squat: 275 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed OK)
Bench Press: 205 x 3 x 5 (Bar speed good)
Deadlift: 315 x 1 x 5 (Slow but Lumbar curve solid)

I felt much better today than on my last Black Box day. It's nice to go into the gym knowing you're going to hit all your reps. Today was a major milestone because 275 was my 1RM for squats 7 weeks ago...and now I'm hitting it 3 sets of 5 solid.

My hamstrings are pretty sore from yesterday's suckfest but once I got going I felt fine.

Running - 1Feb (am)

Run 4 x 1K w/ 2:00 rest

- 3:59
- 4:11
- 4:08
- 4:01

It was windy today, but I felt pretty smooth overall. Now I just need to decide if it's better to drop the recovery time or make the reps faster.