Love At First Strike

FML…

Five rounds for time of:
15 foot L-rope climb, 1 ascent
5 Parallette handstand push-ups
45 pound barbell One-legged overhead squat, 10 reps

For the rope climb, begin seated on the ground. For the handstand push-ups, the ears should dip below hand level. For the one-legged squats, alternate legs.

Rick and I drove out to Portland last night (Friday) so that we could get a good nights rest for the first day of our CrossFit Level 1 certification.  The class started 9am sharp at CrossFit HEL which is located at 4830 NE Martin Luther King BLVD, Portland, OR.  The CrossFit HEL facility was amazing.  They had tons of pull-up bars, barbells, medicine balls and just about everything else one could ever dream of.  I will take some pictures of the facility so you all can see it’s amazingness…  My only complaint about the entire day was that it was COLD COLD COLD.  This CrossFit place, like many, is basically a warehouse.  That said, there was no heat.  Any heat that was provided was due to our own body movements.  The first hour was a general fitness talk.  They went over what CrossFit was, how it was developed and why they do the things they do.  Next half hour was dedicated to going over and demoing the Air Squat, Front Squat and Overhead Squat.  Sounds easy but it’s hard… All form and to have good form you have to have good flexibility which is not a strong suit…

The next block of time was devoted to another fitness/heath talk and then we moved on to the next three CrossFit movements; Press, Push Press and Push Jerk. I did well with the Press and the Push Press.  Had a bit of trouble with the Push Jerk because it involves a jump.  I think I got it down by the end of the time we were allotted for going over the move but I still want to work on it a ton more to really get it down.

After that we had a break for lunch.  Rick and I went down to Red Robin where he ordered a salad and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger that halfway though, I noticed had a long woman’s hair in it.  After removing that and the cost from my bill, the kind folk at Red Robin were nice enough to comp me a Cesar salad.  Free lunch…

After lunch we went into another classroom session where we learned more about the mechanics and nuts & bolts of CrossFit.  From there we had a 20 minute lecture and demo of the last three of the CrossFit movements; Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift High Pull and Medicine Ball Clean.  I did pretty well with these movements.  They came around and made minor adjustments to my foot spacing and how I raised my butt.

After we completed the last three movements we went right into our WOD… the wonderful, the amazing, the horrible… “FRAN.”  They had about 30 barbells laid out and we went in 4 groups.  Each group had up to 10 minutes to complete FRAN.  FRAN consists of the following two exercises: Thrusters and Pullups.  FRAN is three sets of the two exercises, first set has 21 reps, second set has 15 reps and third as 9.  So in total you are doing 45 reps of each exercise.  21 Thrusters, 21 Pullups, 15 Thrusters, 15 Pullups, 9 Thrusters, 9 Pullups.  You do this all for time.  The top time from anyone in our group was 3:38 seconds… THAT IS CRAZYYYY.  I completed FRAN in 5:40 seconds.  I had to stop a few times to catch my breath and at times I felt like I couldn’t move but I got it done.  I think I came out of the gate way too quick which kinda gassed me out for the long run.  I got it done but I had never been that physically exhausted ever.  After FRAN I felt like I had been shot in the chest.  Crazy feelings, a bit scary but I didn’t die so I guess it will make me stronger, right?  I was in the first group.  I wanted to get it done and get it out of the way.  Glad I did because then I could just sit back and watch while my lungs recovered.

Overall it was a great day.  I was freezing cold 80% of the time but besides that the class was great, the instructors were great and I learned a ton.  I am excited for tomorrow and even more excited to bring it back to Bainbridge and help all the people I know lean CrossFit.  I am off to watch the rest of the UFC TUF 1o Finally fights and hopefully pass out.  Wish me luck.  If you have any questions let me know and I will tell ya everything I know.

Thank you for all these opportunities God.

First Batch of Ear Juice

So… About 2 weeks ago I noticed my ear was a bit swollen and the first thing that came to mind was, “I am not going to get cauliflower ear.” After a few days the swollen part of my ear (top of ear)  did not seem to be getting any better so I played around with it a bit and noticed that there seemed to be fluid in it.  I went on a trip to Texas the next day and that week got my girlfriend, Adriana, to try and poke it with a safety pin.  I don’t think we stuck the pin in that much because all we got was a tiny bit of blood.  When I got back to Bainbridge I picked up a medial needle and syringe and poked it and sure enough, lots of pretty clear fluid came out and a touch of blood.  I thought, great, glad that worked.  About 24 hours later the ear seemed to be filling back up with fluid so this time I drew the liquid out with the syringe rather then just poking a hole and squeezing my ear.  As you can see by the picture I took, there was quite a bit of fluid and that was only half the amount from what I was able to get out of my ear just 24 hours previous.  Over the next couple of days I went on a trip to NY and sure enough, the ear filled back up with fluid.  I was able to acquire a insulin syringe and needle from my long time friend June who had just gone though a bout with cancer and had some unused ones in her medicine cabinet.  I got back to my fathers house and was able to draw about 2 CC of fluid out of my ear.  This is when I decided to do some research on Cauliflower Ear.

Here are two articles I found.  I have post the links to the original sites as well as excerpts from each of the articles. Looks like a trip to the Dr. or a bandage on my ear is in the near future.

Medicinenet.com Article on Cauliflower Ear

http://www.medicinenet.com/cauliflower_ear/article.htm

KidsHealth.org Article on Cauliflower Ear
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/cauliflower_ear.html

I worked out today folks… It has been a few days but my Dad was going to the Kingston, NY YMCA and I tagged along with him and hit the gym.  Little did I know that I would be roped into playing 6 games of handball with him too.  So this morning, the day after, I have two sore hands, my shoulders are sore, my back is sore, I have scrapes and bruises on my elbows, forearms and legs but I feel like a million bucks.

First I hit the free weight room and did 50 reps of thrusters and squats. Those thrusters really made me aware that I had not lifted weights in a week and how I felt this morning when I finally got up at 11am EST only cemented that fact in my head.  I also did some pullups, dips and cleans but didn’t really keep track of them.

After the weight room I walked up to watch pops play some handball with the other senior league members… HAHA, Just kidding Dad.  Kinda…

They needed some youth, speed, strength and agility so naturally they looked out to me and asked me to come play a few games.  I thought about showing them up and then decided I did not wish to steal my fathers thunder since this was his home group game.  I decided to play as if I had never played before, because I have never played before.  I made sure to keep their mental toughness and egos strong by completely missing shots, falling on the ground, hitting the ball to the opposite court and knocking into other players for no reason.  I am happy to report that I fully succeeded in making them feel wonderful about their ripe ages.  In all seriousness, I had a great time.  I think I played pretty well for someone who has never played a game in his life and it made me want to play more.  My hands were so red and hurt that at times in the game I didn’t think I could hit another shot.  Tons of fun and I will play with them every time I come back to visit.

Great overall workout and even though I am sore this morning I feel healthy and great.

In staying with my whirlwind life the past couple weeks I got home Wednesday night, had Thanksgiving dinner and then flew out to NY to see my family on Friday night.  I did not sleep on the plane so when I got to NY at 6am I was pretty spent.  Got Upstate by 8 and didn’t make it to a bed till 7-8pm that night.  Then my sleep was broken but hey, you can rest when your dead right?  Anyhow, it is now Monday and I am here for one more day.  I love seeing the fam but can’t wait to get home to my normal schedule and routine of working out, working and then more working out in the form of MMA.  See you guys then.  I plan on going for a 5 mile job today.  Wish me luck…

Today I did half of the Filthy Fifty.  I was a little loaded up with turkey, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, green beans, etc…  I was surprised that I went to work out at all but I had not really done anything in the way of working out while I was in Texas and I knew that it was gonna be the same when I went to NY the next day.  Here is the workout I did:

WOD: Filthy Fifty
50 Box jump
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings (35lb/26lbs)
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows

I was a bit slow during the workout but it was nice to get something under my belt.

From Friday November 20th through Wednesday November 25th I was on a mini vacation.  I just happened to be meeting up with my future wife too.  I did not do much in the way of working out besides a 5 mile run one day and some situps and pushups on another day.  It was well worth the break and I will be on a NY trip from the November 28th-December 2nd so there will not be much in the way of workout posts then either.  I will keep you updated but I think this is a good time for my body to rest.

Stay tuned because when I hit Bainbridge December 2nd it is gonna be on like DONKEY KONG again.  That very same weekend I go for my CrossFit Level 1 certification with Sifu Rick and shortly after that we are going full bore with CrossFit Bainbridge.  Exciting times.  Right now is like the calm before the storm.

Yeah… It’s been more then a week since my last post and I have no frickin idea what I did for a normal workout this day.

I know I went to MMA and we drilled ground and pound as well as did some light sparring where I was teamed up with Sifu Rick.  It is the best working with him because I know that he will not really hold back and give me my monies worth every single time we roll or spar.  I noticed when I was sparring with him how quick and accurate he was with his punches and shots.  On the other hand I was very telegraphed and slow because it is not second nature to me.  I felt like he could probably land shots on me at will.  It was actually a good feelings to be able to assess some of these things because it really helps me to be aware of where I am at and what I need to work on to get to that next level.  Great night.  I loved the sparring and I feel like I am getting better even though I have a long way to go.

Thanks MMA…

MMA Tuesday was just that.  I did not have a chance to do a regular workout with it but I was feeling pretty good from my workout on Monday.  We worked guard passing and clinch work today.  It was really nice because we got to do a few rounds of live MMA training with hits.  When we do this, depending on our training partner we usually do not go all out.  I am personally respectful that different people are at different places in their training or even wanting to do certain things in MMA like get punched…  Not everyone is a gluten for punishment.  As for myself, I don’t think that I enjoy getting hit, however… I do really like getting hit and seeing how I react.  I also like seeing what I can do or will do to defend myself.  Many of the most martial arts teaches are very cool and nice, but not many are very practical when there are no rules.  Example… I love playing guard.  I like to have people in my guard when playing jiu jitsu because I feel it is a pretty safe place, I have pretty good control and I can attack for submissions or a sweep.  Now when you are playing guard in MMA guard isnt such a wonderful place because there is a very real possibility you will have someone throwing punches in your face.  When we are playing MMA rules I want them as close to me as possible which means I have to break down there guard completely or I want them as far away as possible so they can’t sneak a punch through and clock me in my snot locker…

Anyhow, the training was great.  I really love it and I had a great workout.  I did about 15 minutes of jump rope and a couple of Tabata sets before practice but not a full workout.    See you all tomorrow…