Love At First Strike

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.

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.

Not much spooky about this Friday the 13th.  Went to town on some MMA sparring on Friday afternoon with Tony and before that did a CrossFit WOD with Darrick at Station 23.  Here is the CrossFit WOD I did:

Warm-up:
Suicide Drill w/ 3 burpees
7 rounds

WOD
For time:
800m Row
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of:
Wallball
KB Swing
800m Row

After the CrossFit workout I went to Bainbridge Family MMA and sparred with Tony a bit.  We also did some jumping and diving drills with the kids.  The sparring was great.  We are trying to amp it up while at the same time get some good hits in so we can work out fitness conditioning as well as condition ourselves to live movements and reaction time.  Hope to spar some more on Monday after the Tabata Class.

Today tony and I had a little mma training session after our WOD.  We had a great workout at Station 23 and then another great sparring session after.  He was a bit sore after but we are gonna get him into tip top shape.  We are both improving in leaps and bounds and the increase in sparring is only going to help us both a ton.

Today was a good day for a workout. I was well rested and good to go when Darrick and I met up at the gym and rocked out the Workout of the Day.  During MMA we worked on guard work from both top and bottom like we had done in the adult class the day before.  Nothing new to report with the exception that we did a few rounds of jitz with hits.  I love when we live spar.  LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!  Here is the WOD from today!

Warm-up:
3 rounds of “Cindy” (not for time — go slow!)
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats

WOD:
500m row
9 burpees
12 pull-ups
15 box jumps
3 rounds for time

Today Darrick and I met up at Station 23 at 5pm to do the WOD. We got yesterdays WOD from www.kingcrossfit.com because we did the Killsport Kettlebells WOD yesterday.  Here is how it went down:

Warm Up:
500m Row
15 Push Ups
20 Lunges
2 RDS

WOD:
40 Double Unders
15 Knees to Elbow
15 Burpees
10 Thrusters (95lb/65lb)

20min AMRAP (as many reps as possible)

The workout was pretty hard.  Those Thrusters are the butt kicker for me.  I got em done and did it well though so I am getting better.

Today I rocked out the CrossFit workout solo and then went to MMA training right after.  Here was the WOD for today.

Warm-up:
1000m row

WOD:
5 rounds for time of:
2 muscle-ups or 15 pull-ups
20 wall balls
8 Sumo dead-lift high pull (115 for men / 52lb KB for women)

When I got to class we were working with the Thai Pads on some kicks.  We worked a series of 9s and 10s/ lefts and rights both mid and low.  All in all we did about 115 on each side.

We also drilled a few combos:
single knee/double knee/jab,cross,knee/jab,cross,knee, right round kick.

After those drills we did some light sparring.  We sparred the combos we learned as well as a few 4 minute rounds of full kick boxing.

I love MMA.  I had such a good time at practice.

Today was one of the best days I have had in a long time.  I felt so great and so motivated during my workout with the Baker Brothers at Station 23.  We did the WOD from www.kingcrossfit.com.  It consisted of the following:

WARM UP
3 rounds of:
30 double unders (4:1 singles)
15 knees to elbows
15 air squats

WOD
-10 KB swings
1,400m run
-20 KB swings
700m run
-30 KB swings
400m run
-40 KB swings
300m run

After each run we would peek in on the Yankees/Phillies World Series Game.  Godzilla, AKA Hideki Matsui was a monster.  He carried the Yankees on his back in game 6 and we Yankee fans are grateful and want you back next year.  World Series MVP.  The workout was great.  The warm up was a workout in itself but we did the swings and running too.  I went home after the Yankee game and it was close for a while so I did not go to MMA training.  I mean hey, how often is it that the Yankees win the World Series right?

I am excited to workout tomorrow and spread my Yankee vibes.

Today we rocked out to one of the famous CrossFit female named workouts… CINDY.  A bunch of us from the FD went up to Station 23. Darrick, Chris, Jer, and myself.  We did a great job.  I had a total of 15 sets and I went about 45 seconds over.

“Cindy”

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats

AMRAP for 20 minutes

After the workout I went up to Bainbridge Family MMA and rocked out my MMA training.  We worked guard passing like we did in the Adult class the night before.  We also drilled the takedowns we have worked on the past few weeks.  Good time.  We finished off the night with some dodgeball.  haha!