The obvious use for that spare steel pole

that was lying around in the basement.

I probably should post a picture that indicates the method of construction for our home pull-up/chin-up bar. Alas, I didn't get a picture of that sort, being distracted by the hot guy doing pull-ups on my back porch and all.

First date

Intrigued by Thursday's 'Cindy' on crossfit, and Ms Heddas report on it below, and peeved at missing a few days of workouts due to, well, work, oh and birthday obligations at the office, I thought I would try Cindy at home today.
I did have to install a chin up bar for this...I called in Macgyver.

Cindy is: 5pull-ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats (body weight) as many rounds in 20 minutes.

I did 10 in 20:07. I was happy about that. It was really hard. Really hard! Maybe harder than the fast mile. Anyway, I was proud. Until I looked on the crossfit site and saw reported rounds of 14, 17, 20, 25! I suck but at least I can spell.

Little Miss Loo Who

"Cindy"

My version:
1 chin-up
10 pushups
15 squats (with 12 lb body bar)
as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

Result: 11 rounds plus one additional chin-up in the dying seconds of the circuit.

I did the whole thing with a pencil and paper, so I didn't miss anything (including noting the start time on the clock.) I am a nerd.

Breakdown:

Chins: 2 chin-ups on the first set, and one each subsequent round (plus that one extra at the end) for a total of 13. The last few of which I completed with much grunting and kicking.

Pushups: Full pushups* for the first 5 rounds, then split with girlies (5/5, sometimes 6/4), for a total of 82 full, 28 girlies.

Squats: 165. Easy, compared to the other stuff.

The gym is so small: I felt a bit conspicuous in front of the fella and lady on the bike/elliptical trainer, who had front row seats to my Gruntfest ...

* I probably don't go down far enough. 90 degree elbows is about it, but better than nothing, right?

Fast & loose

Nice day indeed! So nice that my friend of the fast 5K decided to join me to do it again, in the form of a fast mile on the canal.

Mile results:
McPie: 6:17 (very consistent! Especially after the "warm-up" run earlier in the day)
Hedda: 6:39 (best yet! It was encouraging to be able to stay so close to Monsieur Buttkicker for so long...)

These runs are so hard! But we both agreed that form-wise, this run felt the best yet.

Cool down: 100 walking lunges (30, 30, 40), on the way back to the car. Feel the burn.

(Our canal miles work out to about a 6 km run, out and back. The non-mile part is pretty slow, sometimes even walking a bit.)

Sam-o same-o

Outdoor 5k for time, with a fast mile in there too. Its a gorgeous day!

The all too familiar times: 6:30 on the mile, 22:30 on the whole 5k, including a short 30 sec rest after the mile part.

Back at the Goodlife...stretch and 20x10x6x4 dips. Mmmm, dips. Reminds me of Dairy Queen.

Wee payoff

At long last, some forward momentum on the press front! (Not so much for the chins, but I'll take what I can get.)

chin-ups: 2, 2, 2, 2, 1

presses: 45 x 9, 6, 5 (+ 2 push presses on the last set) And this after chin-ups! Previous PB was 7, 4, 3 and I had regressed since then...

face-pulls: 60 x 10, 10; 70 x 7

back extensions: 15

sit-ups (one-legged on the ball): 24 + 20

v-sit ball tossed (4 kg): 45

push-ups: 13 full, 10 girlie (consecutive)

beach blanket

All beach all the time:
100 sit ups (2 x 50)
30 extensions
press; 10,8,5 x 80lbs
with
weighted pull ups; 7,5,3,1 @25lbs
bar-b-q press; 7,5,5 x 135
with
flys; 8, 7,5 @20lbs a side.

Frisbee pain almost done. Need more!

perseverence

while my fellow bloggers are on vacation, I continue on.
press: 100x1, x1, x1
chins: 20x5, x5, x5. This makes me happy and makes up for my sense of worthlessness following the press.
barbell row (with actual good form): 115x5, x5, x5
cable chest press: 60x5, x5, x5
finishers: alternating face-pulls (60x40, x5!, x3) and barbell rows (45x30, x10, x10)

I think my press suffered because my arms are still sore from Wednesday's finishers. hmmph.

mcpie nickname anniversary today!

good luck this weekend, my erstwhile bloggers.

abs

not much today, just some abs on my way out the door.
circuit:
95 lbs roll-outs x5
20 back extensions
20 sit ups
95 lbs roll-outs x5
20 back extensions
20 sit ups
95 lbs roll-outs x5

mirror muscles

I'm still leery of my knee so I'm working only the upper body today.
chins: 20x5, x5, x3, x2, x1
press: 100x3, x2, x1
barbell row: 135x5x3 - I think I cheated at these as I was not getting the full range of motion (hitting the bar on my sternum -- I need ms hedda to check Starting Strength for what Rip says about this. I did go back and do some with stricter form 105x5)
cable chest press: 60x5, x5, x3
finishers: alternating sets of bench dips (15, 5, 4, 2) and presses (45x10, x3, x3, x2).
call centre training: barbell curls 45x16, dumbbell curls 20x8 a side, 15x30 a side

Strapped

For time, that is.

[Skipping: Clint Eastwood],

Chin-ups: 4, 2, 1.5, 1 (regressing, apparently... I could have kept doing one at at time, but I was - as I mentioned - strapped for time)

One-legged sit-ups on the ball: 20, 20

Back extensions (ball): 15, 13, 11 (why are these so hard? I always go until by back seizes)
alternated with
Face-pulls: 50 lb x 11, 10, 10, 10 (I like these!)

Box jumps (16-18"? Step bench with 4 risers): 2 rounds of 30.

J-Boss is the new Sarah. Go figure.

Later. Kids in bed, groceries gotten, dishwasher emptied:
Push-ups: 19 (six over pb)

debacle

my first outdoor attempt at the mile was awful. I ran slow. My gps screwed up the 4th quarter. And I spent about 15 minutes on the way back fighting off puking. All in all, 3 miles in 32 minutes-ish with about a third of that walking (the walking was planned). Hoping for better on Wednesday . . .

The "Housewife"

My first Monday "off" (work that is), and I'm home sans gym. (Okay, McPie refined this one on the weekend, and my version is scaled, but I started it!)

Ran to park (direct route 1.3 km, 6 min).

Very Steep Hill:

3 sets of 5 sprints = 15 minutes.

Rested 2-3 min between sets. First round took 3.25 minutes. Third round took 5 minutes. I attribute this to longer rests - the sprint up the hill was a fairly consistent 9 seconds. (McPie says his sprints were 10 seconds - I assume he started further back?)

Figure this is something like 3 points of ulti (5 hard cuts per point with a couple minutes rest between). You think?

Unlike our hero, I had nothing left for additional runnings, so I jogged home (took a longer 2 km route).

Total: 32 min of running at various speeds and grades.

Conclusion: TUF is gonna hurt.

Edit: I haven't yet done my daily push-ups. I've been getting "down and give me 10!" commands at random intervals around the house that last few days. I'm up to 13 push-ups in a row. +1 a day or two might give me a respectable consecutive total before the month is out. ;-)

Pistols

are becoming my friends.

Core work: 2 sets 50 sit ups on a ball. 2 sets 15 slowwwww back extensions.

Pistol squats w/ 35lbs: 10/10, 7/7, 6/5
rolled those with bent over rows: 55 lbs x10/10, 8/8/, 6/6

Deadlifts: 225 x 5, 5, 5
rolled those with the lie on your side shoulder -arm ups with 15 lbs, 10/10, 7/7, 6/6

Mile run: 7:20 at 1%

Big stretch. Needed that. Not going to do too much more this week TUF is this weekend.

Sprintz

Finally, stretching the old legs.

Run to park (2.5k- 10 minutes)
Sprints up the very steep hill: 3 sets of 5, each set in 3 minutes or under. Completed 3 sets in 12:50 (took two 2 minutes rests).
Then 15 yard there and back sprints (cuts). 5 only. The grass was slippery.
Then 5 Full field sprints. All in under 12 sec. There were a lot of complaints from the Hip Flexors.
Then 10 Basket ball jumps.
Jog back.

Report: Legs feel pretty strong, actually, but need serious stretching. Recovery time is surprisingly good (short). Yay! A benefit!

Also ran

Ran to the Very Steep Hill in the park (1.3 km).

Sprinted full-tilt up the Very Steep Hill (@ 25-30 m) x 6.
(Or maybe 7. Counting is not my forté.)

Ran to the school to rescue the children (1.1 km).

Performed 2 chull-ups* on the schoolyard play structure. Impressed stepchild.

*Neither chin-up nor pull-up, this hybrid maneuver requires one to grasp two separate parallel bars such that one's palms are facing each other (neither towards nor away from the body), and hoist one's body upward thusly.

Smurph

Fast circuit today:

4 rounds of: 400m, 10 65lb thrusters,10 pull ups for time.

Ran the 1/4 miles at 10mph, 1%, did 15, 10,10,10 thrusters, did 10, 10, 5+5, 5+3+2 pull ups. 25:00 exactly.

Like the thrusters!

Run 'n' thrust.

Title makes it sound almost fun, huh?

[skipping: 20 Dollar]

In anticipation of TUF and in the face of inclement weather, I dropped the distance and upped the speed for this circuit.

Five rounds of:
320m run (1/5 mile) + 30 lb thrusters (db)

speed @ 1%/reps
9.5/15
9.5/15
9.5/15
9.5/12
9.5-9.2/12 (Dropped the speed partway through to avoid a messy dreadmill situation.)

HR: 245*

Total 18-19 minutes. Or maybe it was 23-24 minutes? Well, at least I kept track of the rounds. (No watch to speak of, and without my specs, I have to get up real close to the gym clock to check it.) Yes, there were breaks between everything - 20-45 seconds.

Finished with alternating bench dips (10, 7 , 7) and knees tucks on the ball (12, 10, 10).


* Kidding. I have no idea, but my face is still pink.

Flurry of activity

Yesterday I ran outside. In a snow squall. WTF?

Anyway, 5k with 1 mile of it for time. Result was:

1mile -6:33
5k -22:33
One traffic light cost 20 seconds, BUT, I think the rest did more good than harm. at least, it may have been an equalizer.

Nothing today. Feeling like this cold is hanging around too long.