Rest Day

CCL round 2...

Workout of the Day:

5 x 5 sumo deadlift

5 x 6-10 good morning

3 rounds for time partner WOD:

40 OH squat (55 kg)

50 pullup

60 box jump

70 double under

400 meter run

(I wore 20 lb vest)

Made it back in to London today. I spent an hour or so in Hyde park with a friend of mine from the States, then headed over to London Bridge to meet up with Dellus from CrossFit Central London. He’s an Osteopath working in the city and after last nights work he offered to see me today for a once over. This was great. Not only did he work out some kinks, but we chatted at length about CrossFit, the role of his practice therein, and our experiences in general. Afterwards he walked me through a bit of old London, including Borough Market, the Clink, and some great neighborhoods between the bridge and CCL.

When we got to the gym it was seething again. Brian was teaching a foundations course with 3 new members and there were a handful of others doing the workout of the day (as described above). Dellus, Rob, and I started in on some strength work, doing 5 x 5’s of sumo deadlifts (dead stop in between repetitions) followed by 5 x 6-10’s of weighted good mornings. The deadlift sets were 120 kg, 140 kg, 150 kg, 160 kg, and 170 kg. I felt pretty strong with these, the biggest limitation being the grip. The last set at 170 was a struggle, but in a good way. Never was there a chance of it not getting up. Del looked strong the whole way and Rob made it look easy. Kid is built to deadlift.

We transitioned to weighted good mornings from there, an exercise neither of my workout partners had done much of. I’m interested to hear how they’re feeling tomorrow. We worked at 60 kg for the first few sets, then bumped it to 70 kg for the last 2. I got at least 7 every time, with a few 8’s mixed in. Loved this for strength building in the lower back and hamstrings. Hoping to do a lot more of it as we head towards Sweden in May.

The partner WOD was tough. Rob and I paired up, with me wearing the 20 lb vest for a little extra umph. As the workout progressed the weight vest felt heavier and heavier, my compressing more and more. We necessarily split the workload based upon our strengths, so I wound up doing 60 % of the OH squats, Rob doing closer to 70% of the pullups, splitting the box jumps, me doing 60 % of the double unders, and obviously both doing the run. In total the workout took us 26:07 to finish and it was a burner. The first round felt real easy, but the rest was not fun. The weight vest took its toll on me, especially on the pullups and the run. I was able to get through the OH squats without much trouble on any of the rounds and the double unders didn’t feel much different with the extra weight. Overall, though, I was pretty kicked afterwards.

After the guys locked up, a group of us headed around the corner for a few beers and chatted til 10:30 or so. It was a great finish to the night and I genuinely enjoyed the company. Brian got some great pictures and I’m hoping to get my hands on them as soon as he posts them on Flicker. Hopefully this is not the last time I train at CCL. Great spot.

Run Forest...

Workout of the Day:

In the morning…

5 rounds for time:

1200 meter run

200 meter weighted run (40 kg)

In the evening…

Establish a 3RM front squat

3 rounds for time:

12 ground to overhead (40 kg)

15 pullup

21 kb swing (32 kg)

Even after taking yesterday off to rest, I was feeling stiff this morning. My quads and ass especially. I also felt a general soreness in my shoulders, but nothing big. Still, I was excited to get back outside and build on the momentum I created Tuesday.

The morning workout was designed to be long, mentally grueling, and to challenge the cardio vascular conditioning that I’ve neglected in Paris. Just down stream from the Bourne End bridge there’s an open farm plot with telephone poles dotting down it’s center spaced just under 100 meters apart. This was my spot.

The first run around the perimeter felt great. I kept my pace under a 7 minute mile (with the exception of the couple mud puddles I had to navigate) and I got back to my starting point in 5:15. I used the same log I had the other night for the OH squats for the weighted carry today. It felt light. Definitely had a Rocky moment running with it across my back through the field, only my field wasn’t covered in snow. The second run was a little tougher, but not too bad. By the third I was wishing I hadn’t set out to do 5 rounds, but I pressed on only dropping my pace a little bit. The weighted runs never really got hard, to be honest. This has to be thanks to all the sandbag stuff I’ve been doing the past 6 months. Surprisingly, it’s much easier to handle the huge log than it is the lighter sandbag.

The 4^th and 5^th rounds were gut checks. I tried to pick up my pace on the home stretch and dropped the log with the clock reading 30:19. I had set 30:00 as a goal after I saw the time on my first leg, so I was a little pissed I had come so close. This was still a cool twist on doing a distance run and I recommend people give it a try. Next time I will pick a location with some hills for the running portion.

The evening session took place at CrossFit Central London, the city’s first and largest CrossFit affiliate. Brian, the gym owner, had invited me in months back and today was the day to take him up on his hospitality. I went in to the city around 2 to do some sightseeing. No pictures though, because my camera has failed me yet again. Sadness. I walked around the town, saw the standard sights, was super impressed with the Parliament building even though I’d seen it a million times in movies and on television, and made my way over to CCL by 6 pm. The location is beyond perfect, in my opinion. On the south bank in the old city of Southwark, CCL is tucked in a converted arch of the railroad line passing overtop. The address actually reads: Arch 57. Not kidding. Apparently the railroad company decided the space was too valuable to go to waste and converted about a dozen of these arches into storage facilities for rent. Down the row there’s a boxing gym, an Astin Martin dealership, and a custom framer.

The interior is tall and huge. They’ve actually taken up two arches, giving them (by my estimate) around 2000 square feet of usable space. At the moment they’re only using half of it at comfortably supporting 50 regular members. Tonight I was training alongside 12 other people and didn’t feel crowded in the least. These guys have a great situation here. I’m jealous.

The Workout of the Day called for heavy front squats followed by a short metcon. Perfect. I hadn’t done any heavy in what felt like forever so I was excited to see those front squats. By sets looked like this: 100 kg x 3, 110 kg x 3, 120 kg x 3, 130 kg x 3, and 135 kg x 2. Barely got the second repetition on the 135 and thought better of attempting the 3^rd. Had no chance of getting another. Pretty happy with this result considering the morning’s activities. I don’t remember any previous numbers for a 3RM, but I’m sure this is my best. I think my best 1RM might have been 135 kg before, so tonight wasn’t bad at all. This is my chief weakness when it comes to cleans and I don’t do it enough. But it felt good to see the numbers going up anyways.

The metcon, 3 round for time of 12 ground to overhead (40 kg), 15 pullups, and 21 kb swings (32 kg), I was excited about. I knew the limiting factor would be the grip, something that tends to be an Achilles heal of mine from time to time. The prescribed weight for the kb swings was actually 24 kg, but we ran out of kettlebells. I was happy to bump it up, remembering all too well the way the 32 kg bell crushed me in Copenhagen 2 months ago. I started off snatching the ground to overheads—felt super light. The pullups went quick as well. The swings felt heavy from the start. I didn’t break the set, but I knew that I would have to in the rounds to follow. I picked the bar up for the 2^nd round of GTO’s and it was like someone slipped an extra 50 pounds on there when I wasn’t looking. Where the first set I had really just been flipping it up with my wrists, this set I was power snatching it with my entire body. The pullups I broke after 8 and finished in two go’s. The swings were tough but not unbearable. I did them in 3 sets of 7. The last set of GTO’s I did clean and jerks instead of snatches, and broke the pullups in 5’s. Coming in to the last 21 swings I knew it was going to be rough. My forearms were exploding and the grip was starting to go. It took me 5 sets to get to 21, with a final time of 6:52.

I feel great about today overall. I pushed myself hard and got a lot out of being in a group setting again. Hoping to see these guys again tomorrow night if I can get myself back into the city.

Fitness is...

Outside.

Go find it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned during this trans-national adventure of mine, it’s that there is nothing like training out in the open. Urban environment or rural environment, city street or barren trail… get outside and train without walls.

Some might argue that cities, by their very nature, don’t lend themselves to physical exploration. They’re lazy. Some say the countryside encourages accessibility, freedom of movement, and an exploratory eagerness that cities do not. Maybe it’s not our environment that cultivates these characteristics in us, but we that find it in them. There are no objects in nature whose equivalent can’t be found in a city if you’re looking with open eyes. Mountains are just nature's staircases, trees are her climbing walls. Carrying a bag of cement is the same as shouldering a fallen limb, and lifting a stone is, well, you get the picture. The point is, just because most of us live in cities doesn’t mean we are bereft of outdoor fitness potential. Usually it just means we’re addicted to air conditioning and the comfort of what’s habitually easy. But I digress.

The main objective of this post is not to argue the pro's and con's of the urban/rural life, but to highlight the importance of forging a connectivity with our surroundings wherever they may be. That, more than anything, is what fitness boils down to in my opinion: How capable are you of engaging and mastering challenges in an unpredictable physical world?

Answering this question in the current climate isn’t so easy for many of us. After all, a great challenge in someone’s physical world could be changing the filter in the coffee machine. Most people proudly spend every ounce of their energy avoiding physical challenges, as though that were the rightful culmination of the experiment known as modern civilization. Here we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors so that we no longer have to stand. Let us, for the sake of my sanity, disregard this perverted idea of evolution as the purest form of rationalized lethargy and, instead, engage with a world where physical challenges must be overcome by individuals whether they like it or not. What then?

First, there’s the problem of gyms: people measuring their fitness by a standard that has no practical authenticity. Gyms are a simulation of reality. A very valuable simulation, I grant you, but a simulation nonetheless. They plug the gaps when the weather is bad, help to build bases of strength and conditioning for athletes and the de-conditioned, and assist in training specific movements that must be practiced again and again to perfect form and technique (rehab/sport). These are all great uses, and if this is how you see your gym I have no objection. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people view their gym as a fitness mecca, the only place where their quest for beauty, strength, and discipline can endure and be validated. The image of a dog chasing its tail comes screaming to mind. In reality, gyms are a crutch on which we lean too heavily and quickly become dependent upon. Largely, this is because they are controlled environments and are grossly convenient. They’re also expensive, sterile, and largely devoid of practical usefulness once you leave. Globo Gyms, CrossFit Gyms; every kind of gym is merely a tool with which we build fitness for a life outside their doors, a life filled with broken elevators, dead car batteries, and the occasional evasive maneuver. That life is variable, it’s non-linear, and it rarely comes with chrome-plated barbells. If you never train strength, speed, agility, balance, power, accuracy, etc. in the environments for which they are necessary, what good are they? Life, as it were, happens everywhere. Act accordingly.

Beyond the logical reasoning outlined above, there’s also this: training outside is a far more satisfying experience. Remember that connectivity I mentioned earlier? It’s real and it only happens when you get out and start interacting with the rest of the physical universe. I cry for the individual who runs 5 miles a day, 5 days a week, and never gets a sunburn. I pity the man who does endless pullups but never gets to see anything above the bar. It’s the totality of the experience that makes outdoor training different, and it’s something you cannot simulate. When you’re outside there’s endless sensory input: wind, noise, temperature, visual space, etc. There’s constant variation in the tools you use, be it bags, beams, bridges, walls, ropes, hills, cars, or people. An environment with this much possibility literally stimulates creativity and breeds confidence in the individual’s ability to overcome all things. The more stuff you use and the more tools you touch, the greater the connectivity you create and the greater the belief in your own ability to master your surroundings. Such is the ultimate brand of fitness.

In short, these thoughts boil down to this: Be it urban or rural, fitness is only as measurable as it can be applied to overcoming challenges in the randomized physical world around us. And, while controlled environments are useful, even necessary to preparing us for this world, they are not the most critical proving grounds. The extraordinary satisfaction we get after conquering natural obstacles and the totality of the experience in general are proof of this fact.

Don’t believe me? That’s okay. Keep chasing that tail. I’ll be out back whenever you’re ready.

Bourne End Bridge

Workout of the Day

In the morning…

20 minute AMRAP:

5 Handstand Pushup

10 Atomic Situp (knees to chest)

15 Walking Lunge (ea)

In the evening…

For Time:

30 Muscle Ups

then

30 Ring Dips

Every broken set do 10 thick bar OH Squats (40 kg)

Incredible day. Off the charts good, in fact. I didn’t find anything heavy to lift, but I had so much fun doing this stuff instead that it didn’t matter much. I was up and out by 7:30 am, heading to the Bourne End Bridge just outside of town near the field from last night. The walking bridge that parallels the railroad crossing has high banisters on each side, making handstands doable without any danger. I used the length of the bridge for the walking lunges and just started my next round wherever I finished my 30^th step. Surprisingly, the handstands were no problem at all. Neither were the situps. The only real challenge in this WOD was the lunges, and those were really just because of how long they took. At no point during this workout was I significantly out of breath, reaching muscle failure, or losing focus. I finished 13 rounds plus 5 pushups, 10 situps, and 2 lunges, bringing my totals to 70, 140, and 197, respectively.

Afterwards I did a little bonus, ala the Butcher’s Lab in Copenhagen. 4 sets of pseudo iron crosses on the banisters, playing with L-sits and different leg positions while holding. This was really tough. The handrails were at my limit width wise, really forcing me to squeeze down and out to stay suspended. Great exercise though. I wanted to include a video clip, but blogger was being a bastard and I couldn't get the thing to load. Oh well.

After joining Colin to his sound studio for show and tell (he works as a audio mixer on motion pictures, TV, etc… so cool), I headed back to the bridge for the second part of my training day.30 muscle ups and 30 ring dips, with 10 thick grip overhead squats every time a set is broken (I found a huge log nearby that did the trick nicely). By this time my butt was starting to feel the lunges and my calves were feeling the hill from the night before. Whatever. This workout kicked ass. It was a perfect night, no one was around, and the exercises meshed seamlessly. I began by ripping off 10 muscle ups—feeling strong. The log was incredible, but it wasn’t centered weight so balancing was a challenge as I pitched forward and back trying to keep it steady. The second set of MU’s I got 5. The squats were actually better, but because it was so thick my forearms and hands were doing a lot of work. The third set of MU’s I only got 4. Just 3 on the fourth. Now the rest of my arms were feeling it on the squats. Keeping my balance front to back was getting tougher as my shoulders tightened up… technique was at a premium. I got 4 the fifth set and finished with 4 on the last. The clock was at 10:41 by this point. Strategically I had been taking my time between the squats and the muscle ups, trying to give my arms a chance to recover.

The ring dips were much easier—I got them in 3 sets: 13, 10, and 7. But the OH squats were murderous during this last stretch. I was squeezing for all I was worth trying to keep the thing from sinking onto my head or falling forward. My final time was 15:53, and while that’s not super fast, I couldn’t help but feel great afterwards.

I hung out for a little while afterwards and enjoyed the best hour of the day. Hoping to do something strength related in the morning and save up for a real tough endurance effort in the afternoon. Weather permitting, of course. Should be another good one, but I can’t imagine it will top today.

Winter Hill

Workout of the Day:

3 rounds for time

20 box jumps

300 meter hill run

5 meter legless rope climb

Alison took me and the dogs on a walk today up to Winter Hill, a ridge running along the edge of yet another wide open space of public land. In addition to being beautifully green, this place was completely empty. It felt like I was on an episode of Man versus Wild and had just been dropped in the middle of nowhere with Bear Grylls. On top of the ridge I found a perfect tree from which to hang my rope. It had a branch 5 meters up that hung away from the rest and looked over the field below.

The idea with this workout was to get as out of breath as possible. Box jumps, hill run, rope climb, repeat. First of all, the hill was STEEP. I made it up the first time pretty quick. The second time I was breathing fire and my legs were cement but I still got to the top without stopping. The third was half walk half run and I felt like death. I concluded afterwards that the lack of trails in Leiden and Paris have taken their toll on my aerobic capacity. I used to do 5 mile trail runs consistently in Washington before I left and the benefits were enormous. Now that I’m back in an environment suitable to this I will be doing it again.

I used a bench for the box jumps, no problems there. The rope climbs weren’t so difficult either. The hill was everything in this WOD. I finished in 13:21 but I should've be able to do it under 10. Heading out tomorrow morning for some exploration...maybe find something heavy to lift.

English Easter

I am just a few days into my English residency and already I’m loving the experience. I’m currently staying in Bourne End with family friends Colin and Alison Chapman, two people whom I’ve just had the pleasure of meeting but have accepted me into their home with the utmost graciousness and hospitality nonetheless. The surrounding area here is beautiful. The Thames runs right past their town and cuts a wonderful swath through the countryside, much of which is open to the public for walking, jogging, dogs, etc. I aim to get out there tomorrow and utilize this to its fullest.

Today was a FEAST. We ate with Alison’s sister and her family around 1:30, but Colin was up early preparing pork loin, roasted potatoes, cooked leeks, carrots, onions, parsnips, broccoli, and some other vegetables I’d never heard of. There was gravy, some special English rolls, all kinds of cakes and tarts, and, of course, Cadberry eggs. This meal lasted at least 3 hours and I’m not exaggerating. It felt like Thanksgiving. I stayed away from the cakes, had only a few bits of chocolate, but crushed the rest. There’s no way I’ll be eating like this once classes start and I’m over at Oxford, but if I could, I’d be putting on good weight without question. Made me realize how little I normally eat compared to what’s possible.

Since tomorrow is a bank holiday, Colin, Alison, and I are taking advantage of the day off and heading over to Windsor Castle to see the Queen. Well, we probably won’t see the Queen but maybe we’ll see her window. I’m just excited to get out and see my first real English historical sight. Tomorrow is also my first day back training and I couldn’t feel better after this week of rest. Tons of energy and motivation to carry me through this next month.

Oh yeah. Go Butler.

Riding with Courage

Today is the first day of Josh Courage's month long trek across the United States. ON A BIKE. Josh has been a great friend and training partner for the past 3 years and to say the man has a big heart is an understatement. In an effort to raise awareness for the Children's Miracle Network, he is going to ride roughly 3700 miles in 30 days, stopping where he has local connections, where there are CrossFit boxes, and at pre-designated campsites to rest and re-fuel. I've known Josh through more than a few of these creative physical endeavors, all benefiting some cause bigger than himself, but this is by far the most impressive. I've told him many times how much I wished I was in the States to take part in this amazing adventure, but alas this is the most I can contribute. If any of you are along his route and have the time, please get out and support him. He'll be the one dripping in sweat and towing a mini bike trailer filled with camping gear.

As for me, I'm packing up my life and getting on a bus tomorrow for Oxford. Close the book on Paris, baby. See you all in the UK.

Rest Day

In the midst of moving myself from Paris to Oxford, and I am at the 6 week mark to boot, so this is a week for recovery. Hoping be primed for my romp through England and Wales next week. Only a month and change til qualifiers. Ramp it up.

Isle Saint Louis Video

This video is from last weeks workout down on the Isle Saint Louis with Niels.

Pullups across the Pond

Workout of the Day:

50 double unders

1 to 10 ladder: pullups and burpees

50 double unders

10 to 1 ladder: pullups and mountain climbers

50 double unders

For the second installment of this series with my friend Frank from Steelfit Strength back in the States, we chose a format that would really test capacity and recovery in the upper body. I also did this outside on a thick piece of fence piping (above), making butterfly kipping impossible and really challenging my grip. It was definitely a tough sequence that tested my limit with arm strength, not to mention overcoming repeated psychological failure on the bar. The entire second pullup ladder I was doing singles. The double unders, burpees, and mountain climbers weren’t major obstacles, but they didn’t offer much of a break for the muscles I needed to be fresh either. My final time was 15:13. My friends across the pond finished as follows:

Ori – 13:13

Frank – 18:54

Erik – 21:07

Graham – 28:32

Props to Ori for smoking us all. I took some video footage, but it didn't turn out so well. the angle cut off the mountain climbers completely and only got the top half of the burpees so I didn't think it would be worth it to edit it together for a full video.

Rest Day/French Roadtrip Day 4

Nice

Heading to the beach Sunday morning I had every intention of doing a workout in the water. I had imagined a swim coupled with some sort of sand running and lifting a heavy stone. Unfortunately, Nice is a rock beach and the cloud cover never lifted long enough to make swimming a non-hypothermia situation. Still, the promenade was impressive and it stretched the entire length of the bay. I took an exploratory jog towards the east end where my friend Kasper had told me to look for a set of stairs and war monument to France’s fallen. Sure enough, just as the coastline ended a huge set of stairs emerged. After climbing them and admiring the incredible view, I stumbled upon this incredible waterfall overlooking the bay. To one side there was a low hanging tree perfect for a set of rings… Bingo.

I headed back to the beach where I’d left my friends to grab my bag and get started. The workout was simple, but very challenging. 2 rounds running up the stairs (385 of them), the first carrying my 12 kg bag and the second without, followed by 10 muscle ups, the first with the bag the second without. Maurice got some great footage of me as I reached the top level of the climb and during the muscle ups. Sadly, Eva’s film of the actual climb did not come out, so you’ll have to take my word for the severity of that portion. So beautiful but so tough.

In total the routine took me 12:59 to complete. The best part about this was the muscle ups with the pack. It’s about the same width as my back so it didn’t get in the way at all, just made things heavier. I’ve attached the video link below.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and wandering around the town, which reminded me a lot of south Florida. There were tons of retired people and tourists everywhere, giving it a much different feel than the other places we had been on the trip to that point. I can only imagine how packed it must be in the summer when the majority of the workforce takes their holiday.

The next morning we were up and off before 10:00, trying to hit the road early to lessen the pain of the long drive back to Paris. Along the way we stopped and saw the Chateau de Rochepot, an unbelievable castle nestled in the central French countryside. Before we left I tied up my rope to a nearby tree and did 12 sets of climbs. I was trying to work some foot technique and to be more efficient up the rope to save strength in my arms, so this workout didn’t necesarily take the form of a WOD.

After that it was nothing but asphalt the rest of the way. We made it home just before 10 pm. What a great trip. I really didn’t want to come home.

Workout of the Day:

Superset the following using a single dumbbell (32 kg), resting as needed between sets but not at all between exercises:

Unilateral bench press 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

Weighted pullup 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Rest 30 minutes

5 x 1 minute sets:

200 meter run

AMRAP handstand pushups

Moderate workload today. I was feeling little to no residual soreness from the early week activity when I got up today, leaving me ready and willing to kill it. The strength sets went well, but my single arm press is significantly stronger than my ability to pull with extra weight, hence the 12-5, 12-4, 12-3, etc. Interesting note here: holding a dumbbell between your feet with legs straight beneath you is tough. I could feel the weight pulling all the way into my obliques and transverse abdominus. This leads me to believe it’s more beneficial and certainly more challenging than weighted pull using a belt.

Although the strength sets were challenging, they were fairly low intensity. Such was not the case during the second half of the workout. The distance and time limitations were short enough to encourage sprinting, therefore the heart rate was jacked up immediately. Muscle fatigue was a biggest factor on the runs, believe it or not. My legs felt great during sets 1 and 2, but terrible after that. Hamstrings, calves, quads. All of it was heavy coming down the back stretch. The handstand pushups dropped from 12 the first set to 9 the second, 8 the third, 4 the fourth, and bounced to 6 on the fifth. My total count was 39, which I don’t think is too bad on this. My speed on the 200’s dropped from :26 to :28 to :31, then held at :33 the last two sets. I loved this interval structure because it was short, sharp, and didn’t allow you to dog it during any portion. 1 minute of rest is enough to pull your tail from between your legs, but not enough to really have you standing tall. And, of course, you can do it anywhere with a wall and some space.

I’ve attached a video below.

French Roadtrip Day 3

Avignon and the road to Nice:

We got up early on Saturday to go explore the Palace of the Pope and the renowned Avignon bridge before hitting the road for Nice. Good thing, too, because the Palace is built more like a medieval fortress and is every bit as large. (For more read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_des_Papes). We walked through ancient prayer chambers, 60 meter long dining rooms (above right), frescoed chapels, and beautiful courtyards where cardinals used to cloister. We even saw the papal kitchen (essentially a huge brick room tapering to one giant chimney above). But the staggering thing for me was the number of stairs in the place. NOT wheelchair friendly back in the day. It seemed that between every room there were either steps up or steps down to the point where it felt like the place had about 10 different levels, few of which matched up with any others. To think that those stairs were climbed for over 350 years by the succeeding heads of the Catholic Church, albeit controversially designated at times, was mind blowing.

After a few hours of Papal history we strolled down to the Avignon bridge, famous for its abrupt incompletion halfway across the Rhone River. Apparently, years of flooding and debris kept corroding the pillars, forcing the inhabitants to habitually rebuild the structure with substandard materials. Finally they decided it simply wasn’t worth the effort and abandoned the cause in the late 17^th century. (For more read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon_bridge). About halfway across the existing bridge there still remains a chapel built into one of the columns. Mostly a home to pigeons now, this has to be one of the more unique places of worship I have ever seen. It’s strikingly simple and plain, but its location gives it the impression of floating above the water. Very cool.

The bridge also offered plenty of opportunity for a little physical adventure, though the fact that it was a museum left me a little hesitant to do anything too sacrilegious. I did, however, find a doorway over which a stone could be used for close grip pullups, so I did a few sets of those (video below). The bridge itself would make for a really fun bodyweight/swim/climbing routine because of its sheer drop into the river. I imagined a scenario where one would do 50 burpees on the top, jump off the bridge into the water (30 feet or so) and swim to the opposing bank (maybe 600 meters), do 50 burpees, swim back to the bridge, climb the exposed bricks (very easy holds), then finish with 50 burpees. Obviously this would never fly with the citizens or curators of the bridge’s museum, but it was fun to think about.

After lunch, we headed off towards Nice on the French national roads and quickly reached the coast just East of Marseilles. From there we drove along the Mediterranean through Toulons, Saint Tropez, and Cannes before reaching our destination. Wow, what a drive. Very reminiscent of coastal routes in California, just with a much older, less suburban dubdivision feel. We stopped a number of times to soak up the scenery that was, in a word, stunning. Particularly beautiful was Pont de Layette, a random pull-off along the road between towns that featured stairs down to the rocky coast below (above left). There was a small sand beach facing west where a handful of people and their pets were enjoying the sunset, and a beautiful bluff point with a 300 degree view of the mediterranean. We probably spent an hour relaxing here while dusk settled over us. There were trees to climb, tidepools to explore, and endless rocky shoreline to admire. It has to rank as one of the top 5 prettiest places I have ever been.

We arrived in Nice around 8 that night, somewhat reluctantly after our wonderful experience along the coast, and hit the town for some sushi and a few drinks. We didn't stay out too late, instead crashing at the hotel in anticipation of a long Sunday at the beach. While the weather had less than ideal plans in store, I did find an incredible location for a workout thanks to a recommendation from a buddy in Copenhagen. Still putting that together, so stay tuned.

Snatch Rhythm

Workout of the Day:

Snatch 3, 2, 1, 1, 1

10 minute AMRAP

20 calorie row

10 OH squat (65 kg)

10 toes to bar (strict)

Was feeling pretty sore still today, both in my lower back from Tuesday’s deadlifts and in my calves from Wednesday’s fireman carries up the stairs (I swear Niels weighs more than 83 kg). But I was feeling excited and ready to get it going, regardless. In fact, I spent probably 10-15 minutes just watching old Olympic weightlifting footage to try and visualize what those guys do. Something I noticed right away was the tempo of their motion. There’s a discernible rhythm that each man approaches the lift, usually unique from that of others but always the same for him. I focused on this today and could feel a difference. My motion felt smoother, I was more relaxed, and the weight felt lighter. Unfortunately, because my back was pretty beat up from earlier in the week I couldn’t push my weights too high. I finished with a top set of 95 kg and just kept working the timing there. Would have loved to see what I could’ve done fresh, was really feeling great about technique.

Afterwards, I loaded the bar with 65 kg (143 #) and prepared for a short, maximum intensity metcon: 20 calories on the ERG, 10 OH squats with the weight, and 10 toes to bar on the gymnastic stretching rack against the wall. I really didn’t know what to expect here. I pulled the first 20 calories at around a 1600 cal/hr pace, did the squats unbroken, and banged out the toes to bar without any hesitation. The 2^nd row was down closer to 1500 cal/hr most of the way, the squats still unbroken but now burning in the quads, and the toes to bar took a second set after 7. At this point my heart rate was starting to jack up good, and the temptation was to linger around before getting back on the rower. This is what I heard Chris Spealer call the point of panic for most people. You haven’t reached true failure, but your body is sending up warning signals and your brain starts to get nervous. I fought this urge and continued on without any rest, felt pretty horrible while rowing at 1470 cal/hr but still managed to get the squats unbroken. I broke the toes to bar between 6 and 4, dropping to the ground with 2 minutes to go in the WOD. Again, the rower felt awful. The OH squats felt good til 5, bad from 5-8, and seriously shaky on the last 2. I finished them without dropping though and made it up on the bar for 1 repetition before the clock hit 10.

A few things I learned from this workout. 1^st, 10 minutes is too round a number. I’ve been using it as a timeline too often and should vary it much more. When I was approaching 10 minutes my body was giving out. Not sure how well another 2 minutes would have gone keeping the same rotation. 2^nd, strict toes to bar continue to be a bear of an exercise. They were the most limiting factor here, even though they appear to be the most harmless. Last, the point of panic is a mental hurdle that you have to expect during metcon workouts. Expect it to be there so when it happens you know how to respond.

Rest Day/French Roadtrip Day 1/2

Orleans and Clermont-Ferrand

We hit the road Thursday evening around 5pm heading south from Paris towards Orleans. Our original plan had been to stop in Chartres to see the Cathedral there, a building famous for its asymmetrical towers, massive height, and for housing the Sancta Camisa (the tunic Mary wore when giving birth to Christ). Unfortunately, we had to forego this leg of the trip in the interest of time and pushed on towards Orleans without delay. Driving in France is a bit different than driving in the States, mostly because the signs don’t tell you which direction the road is going, only towards which city it’s headed. Also, the highways all require tolls if you want to be on a road with a speed limit over 100 kph. We tried to avoid the toll and take the national roads during this first leg but quickly realized that the national roads hit every town along the way and were poorly marked if marked at all. Needless to say it took us longer than expected to reach our destination.

When we did arrive, however, we were treated to a mid-sized city with full-sized charm. The city center was immaculately clean, with beautiful gray stone buildings extending in all directions. We came across a giant fountain honoring Joan of Arc just in front of city hall, most likely because Orleans was the site where she led the fight against the English during the 100 years war that gained her fame. Towering over all was the gothic monolith of Cathedral Saint Croix (above right). I was thinking we were about to walk up to it, but its proximity to us kept getting distorted by its size—same effect that makes walking the strip in Vegas seem so easy when in fact it is not. When we finally did reach it, the square was literally empty (a far cry from the square at Notre Dame in Paris this time of year). If I hadn’t been so tired from the day of driving I think this location would have been ideal for a bodyweight WOD. As it was, though, we just walked around and enjoyed the view.

In the morning we hit the road early in the hopes of reaching Avignon before dark. According to the map we would be driving through a lot of countryside, so I anticipated getting a workout in somewhere along the way—perhaps utilizing the rope I had packed in the trunk. Unfortunately, during our lunch break in Clermont-Ferrand our car got towed by the shockingly efficient French parking police. Apparently we left the Citroen in a space it ought not to have been and because we had to retrieve it from the local towing agent after paying our fine to the commissariat. 90 euros. Ouch. The bigger issue was the time we lost. This meant that we would not be able to stop on the way to Avignon. While waiting to get the car I climbed around on the side of a highway overpass that featured a strange circular design with little ledges (above left). Not much of a workout, but fun physical activity nonetheless.

We ended up making it to Avignon after dark, but it was probably better that way. The views of a medieval walled city lit up at night are pretty priceless, after all. More about that in the next post.

Workout of the Day

3 minute AMRAP fireman carry upstairs

3 minute rest

3 minute AMRAP reverse bear crawl upstairs

3 minute rest

3 minute AMRAP fireman carry upstairs

I was out touring today with Niels and Sasha down on the Isle Saint Louis, among other places. We found a staircase and did this workout (Sasha filmed while Niels and I alternated carrying each other). The toughest part of this sequence was definitely the reverse crawls. The flight of stairs totaled 40 steps, which is a lot to carry someone on your back, but even more to continually support your own weight and propel your body upwards against gravity. The first set of fireman carries, I finished 5 rounds plus 18 steps. Niels finished 5 exactly. On these, muscle failure was the main culprit. My legs, calves, and back were burning by the end of the 4^th round. To continue climbing was an exercise in mental fortitude and physical stamina.

For the reverse crawls I finished 2 rounds plus 7 steps, but was completely dying. Niels did 2 rounds even. The first time up I didn’t even break rhythm. The second, however, I was fighting the entire time. The huge disparity here leads me to believe that some sort of coordination was lost due to fatigue and concentration. Either way, this wiped me out.

The last set of carries I finished 5 rounds before time expired, feeling much the same as I did during the first set. Only this time, my pace was significantly slower and the fatigue set in much more quickly. Carrying people in awkward situations is no easy task, so props to those life savers out there doing this sort of thing every day. I have video footage of this workout that I hope to have access to over the next few days if I can get the appropriate cable for Niels’s camera.

Rest day tomorrow, getting ready for the weekend.

Workout of the Day

Deadlift 3, 2, 1, 1, 1

First, Congratulations to everyone that competed in the European Sectionals in Milan, Stockholm, Iceland, and the UK!!! The workouts and scores looked incredible and the correspondence is consistent in its praise for the organizers and participants. Hearing the stories gets me excited for the Regionals in May.

Today’s workout was short and sweet. I wanted to test my strength off the floor—hadn’t done so since the competition in Copenhagen 6 weeks ago. I felt pretty decent, maybe a little fatigued from the long hours of driving the past few days but overall not bad. I lifted 185 kg and 195 kg for my first two singles and decided to go for 205 kg for my last. Previous attempts at this weight hadn’t even really budged the bar, but today I had it. I ha d it. Then I lost it. A little slip in the grip and that was it. Too bad, but confidence-wise it was a big step up for me.

As for my weekend, unfortunately internet in southern France is no guarantee unless you’re in a McDonald’s and I wasn’t willing to detail the trip by stopping at a series of drive-through windows. However, enough happened that is worth recapping, so I will do that here over the next few days. I’m going to divide the post into multiple parts in the interest of avoiding a long, rambling diatribe about castles, vistas, and beaches that will inevitably grow repetitive. I’ll tell as much as I can about the cities we visited, the things we saw, and where opportunities for workouts presented themselves while including pictures, videos, etc.

5 Runder

Workout of the Day

5 rounds for time:

20 DB sumo deadlifts (32 kg ea)

10 chest to bar pullups

Rest 5 minutes

4 x max repetitions DB bench press (32 kg ea) w/ 60 seconds rest

Today’s workout was great! Even in a massively over-crowded Cite gym (smelling like hell to make matters worse) Niels, Eva, and I were able to get a really good session in. The DB sumo deadlifts were a nice deviation from standard deadlifting styles. By pinning the two dumbbells against one another it was possible to get full depth and full extension while keeping good body posture and tilt. 32 kg are the heaviest dumbbells I have access to, but I think that was actually a perfect weight. I’d say do it with 2 pood kettlebells, but I don’t think the depth would be low enough so stick with the DBs.

The first set of 20 felt pretty good. My ass and hamstrings let me know they were there, but I managed to get them out unbroken. The chest to bars offered little trouble as well, so I was feeling pretty confident. The second set I had to break at 14 because now my ass and hamstrings were doing more yelling than telling. And the pullups got tougher as well because my grip was now starting to tire. Coming into the 3^rd set the clock was just past 3 minutes of total time elapsed. Here, the grip and the legs were big factors, as they would be the rest of the way. It took me 3 sets to get the 20 repetitions and I could really feel my lower back starting to ache—a testament to high repetition deadlifting for the first time in a while. Also, my arms were failing to cooperate past 3-4 pullups at this point. By the end of the 3^rd round, 5:30 had passed; by the end of the 4^th, 8:30. The last round I got a burst of strength on the deadlifts and got through them in 3 pretty quick sets. I also decided to do one pullup at a time instead of trying to string them together and blowing up my already exploded arms. This worked really well. I definitely did the 10 c2b’s faster than set 4, and maybe even faster than set 3. My final time was 11:23.

Niels is really looking stronger as well. He finished in 13:20 with 20 kg dumbbells and was much improved on the pullups. It would be fun to see what he could do if he worked out more than twice per week…

We rested no more than 5-6 minutes, then hit the bench. This was meant to be an exhaustion exercise tacked onto the end of the routine to see how tertiary muscle groups would respond under fatigue. My totals for the 4 max rep sets were: 20, 11, 8, and 9. The rise on this last set was because I got caught explaining an exercise to another patron of the gym and incidentally received an extra minute of rest.

Overall, I really enjoyed this program. The dumbbell deadlifts were especially fun, and all the exercises challenged parts of my fitness that could not be considered strengths.

Tomorrow I’m embarking on a 4 day roadtrip through southern France with a few of my classmates. Hoping to find some cool spots along the way, in addition to the places in Nice my friend Kasper has already recommended. Not sure what the internet situation will be at the hotels, but I will try to post pictures/videos/etc. when I can.

Just out of Curiosity

Workout of the Day:

Establish a 1RM Clean and Jerk

The Air Force WOD:

20 thruster (45 kg/99# for all)

20 sumo deadlift high pull

20 push jerk

20 oh squat

20 front squat

4 burpees at the top of every minute

Felt fresh and ready to get after it today. Walking over I couldn’t decide whether to do the heavy clean and jerks and the Air Force WOD, or just do the latter. I had seen some results from a sectional competition back in the States and wanted to see how I would fare. I decided that it was more important to get the heavy Olympic work in while I had the chance and just deal with the fatigue during the metcon. Never fear, I paid my pound of flesh for this hubris.

The cleans went really well. I got 125 kg again without too much trouble, and I had 130 kg racked comfortably moving upwards. I hit a sticking point though and didn’t have the balls to push through it, as the video will indicate. Now when I watch it I really hate myself for not finding a way to get it up. Oh well.

I didn’t take much time between the cleans and the metcon. I wanted to get it over and done with. In retrospect, a 10-20 minute break would’ve been nice. My goal going in was to get through the routine in 4 minutes, meaning I would have to average about 1 ¼ rounds per minute. At the end of the first minute I was on track, having finished 20 thrusters and 5 sumo high pulls. The second minute was even better, as I had finished the remaining high pulls and 8 push jerks. Things were right on track. At the 3 minute mark I had slowed a bit, finishing the push jerks but only getting to 8 oh squats. At this point, I knew 4 minutes wasn’t happening but I still felt okay for something close to it. The 4^th minute was where I lost things. My shoulders died with 2 oh squats and 10 seconds left before the changeover. I literally couldn’t keep the bar locked out. This meant I had to go to burpees and then do 2 oh squats before moving to the front squats. Because of this delay and having to switch bar positions, I was only able to get to 12 front squats before the 5^th minute expired. I finished in 5:42 when it was all said and done.

The wave of exhaustion I felt afterwards was total body—somewhat reminiscent of a workout like Fran. I completely underestimated the toll this would take on me, and got what was coming as a result. I think I will try this one again sometime without the heavy stuff before and see how I do.

That said, it did the job. If there was one exercise that would pre-fatigue the muscles needed to perform this WOD it's clean and jerk. I had to fight through failure and pain the same way I will have to in May if I want to qualify from what will be a very strong field. Workouts like this are what I need more than anything, I think, and they’re worth their weight in motivation.