2 Miles of Sprints

Fridays WOD was an absolute cardio killer.  It was 4 x 400m sprints with 2 minute rest between each sprint.  Then 4 x 200m sprints with 1 min rest in between, 4X100m sprints with 30 secs rest in between, then finally 4x50m sprints with 15 seconds rest in between runs.  This was physically and mentally challenging.  It was hard to know how hard to push yourself on each round.  I went all out on about every sprint only bested by the guy in the gray t-shirt and green boardshorts.  He was an absolute machine, he has an insane work capacity.   This is something that I don't work on often enough.  Sprinting is an extremely beneficial exercise.  It can be done on  different surfaces to soften the load on your joints like on grass or in the sand.  It can also be done on a bike or in a pool.  Props to everyone on this WOD it was brutal for us all.

Deadlifts & Burpees

Today’s workout was a grueling Metcon which consisted of 10 to 1 Deadlifts at 225lbs and Lateral Burpees.  For each burpee you jump over your barbell and do a burpee.  The first round is 10 deadlifts and 10 lateral burpees, then 9 & 9 etc. etc. until you do 1 deadlift and 1 burpee.  It’s a total of 55 deadlifts at 225 lbs and 55 lateral burpees.  We started with a strength session of deadlifts.  I only worked up to 315 since I knew the Wod had a ton of deadlifting.  This was a flat-out grueling WOD, I contemplating quitting a few times.  The 12 o’clock class was petty empty just three other guys.  We were all covered in sweat and gasping for oxygen.  I got my second wind after the round of 5.  This was probably because the rounds were really short now and I really started to push myself.  I think I finished around 9 mins.  I had the fastest time which I was only proud of since the other guys weighed at least 220 and I was getting through the deadlifts faster than they were.  I thought I would pull away on the burpees since I weigh less, but these were just so taxing.  Everyone posted a good time and really pushed it hard.  Overall a really exhausting workout and I was wrecked afterwards.

First WOD

I walk into the gym for my first WOD at Crossfit Grand Strand and I’m a little unsure of what to expect.  The WOD today was instructed by Kelly and was an intense one to say the least.  “Hotshots 19” was the workout, which was a tribute to the brave firefighters who lost their live battling the massive wildfire in Arizona.  This workout consisted of 30 air squats, 19 Power Cleans, 7 Strict Pull-Ups and a 400m run.  Oh yeah and that’s only round one; 5 more rounds to go, or a 30 minute time cap whichever comes first.  The Power Cleans called for 135lbs but I scaled it to 95lbs.  I should have gone heavier since they weren’t much of a struggle.  The air squats were tiring after the run legs were filled with lactic acid.  The strict pull-ups got tough in the later rounds after all the power cleans.  I finished five rounds plus 10 air squats.  Not bad for my first WOD at the box!  Nobody finished all six rounds inside the 30 minute time cap but a couple came close.  This workout was really tough and grueling but that comes with most tribute WODs.  You don’t really have an excuse to dog it, just toughen up and keep moving.  My motivation also came from our coach Kelly who was also doing the workout and still yelling motivation to all of those struggling.  I was pretty wiped overall it was a great WOD.

Labor Day Weekend

         My two boys from Maryland Scoob and Brian were coming to visit me in Myrtle Beach for Labor Day weekend.  We go down to the beach early on Saturday with a cooler full of beers and play cornhole and toss the pigskin around.  We hit the local beach bar and have a couple pitchers of margarita and listen to a dj playing reggae.  We went back home and were going to eat dinner, then shower and head out to show them a good time.  We get back eat and decide to lay down and digest(bad idea).  We all passed out for about three hours.  I guess we were a little over-ambitious and decided to call it a night.

We wake up the next morning early and decide to hit a little gym sess at the gym in my neighborhood.  My buddy Brian is nursing a shoulder injury so he decides to do a little rehab and watch a WOD that I made up for me and Scoob.  I came up with 21-15-9 with the round of 21 being Deadlifts with Pull-ups, the round of 15 being Power Cleans and pull-ups, and the final round of 9 being Push Presses and Pull-ups.  I decide the weight for me to use is 135 and tell Scoob to use 95lbs.  We start simultaneously and off we went I ripped through the Deadlifts unbroken and very fast, same with the pull-ups.  Then I grab the bar and realize there is no way I’m doing 15 Power Cleans with this weight so I  grab Sccobs bar and get through my set of Cleans while he is on the Pull-up bar.  Then I hit my pull-ups and finish my set of push-press at 95lbs unbroken and finished my pull-ups and my time was around 6 minutes.  I felt pretty good about my performance.  Scoob has never experienced Crossfit and was really feeling it.  He is bent over trying to catch his breath and I start encouraging him to finish.  He gets his second wind and finishes strong around 12 minutes.  He is wrecked and can’t believe the workout was that hard and honestly neither could I. We finished with a partner WOD of Rowing and Sit-Ups.  Scoob and I leave feeling good about the workout. 

We decide it’s time to eat and grab some beers and head down to the beach.  We paced ourselves a little better today and got back ate dinner and showered and were ready to go out.  We get out there and the bars seem pretty empty.  I was thinking this might be a dead night but not realizing that not everybody had been drinking for 8 hours like us.  It wasn’t even 9pm we meet a few people at one bar and decided to head over to a bar with a large dance floor and nobody’s in there except us.  We sat around talking and decide to start dancing anyways.  My buddy Scoob gets the dance party started as usual.  An hour later there is probably a few hundred people in this place.  It was a pretty fun night!
I had a good time and I feel relieved to know that so did they.  It’s Monday and we wake up feeling extremely rough and grab some Chicken Egg & Cheese Biscuits from Bojangles(Southern hangover cure).  This helps us a little bit with the hangover and we all took a nap.  We arose and Scoob and Brian now had to make a long trek back to Maryland.  Great Weekend!