Crossfit SOCO - Colorado Springs, CO Aug 22!

Hi Everyone - I hope the WOD's are going well for you and wanted to share with you a WOD that I did while on business in Colorado Springs, CO.  The location is called Crossfit SOCO and is just about a mile from downtown Colorado Springs.  I jogged there from my hotel and I was a bit early for the 5:30PM WOD, I did check it out online and it looked like a good one.  Here are some pictures of the WOD and it was a doosy, the last 3 pictures are with me in them, Parisjat suggest that I have someone take pictures of me during the WOD instead of just snaping photos of the location, hope you like them.  The warm up was good and plently of stretching as well.  We also did snatch grip deadlift pulls 3-3-2-2-1, this was a great exercise for me as well cause I dont do them that much.

Not sure if you can see exactly what the WOD was so here it is.

"Anerobic Beast day"
In 2 minutes
3 to 5 Wall Climbs - lying on the floor in push up position with feet against the wall, climp up the wall using your feet and hands until your chest is flush with the wall.
10 squat thrusts - just like a burbee without the push up
10 pull ups
10 BB Squat jumps with 45lb bar bell
10 explosive push ups, basically a clap push up
200 meter run

Rest for 5 minutes
5 rounds

SO, if you could not finish this in 2 minutes you had to modify the reps so that's what I did.  There was only one person who I saw doing RX, I had to modify to either 7 to 8 reps per exercise which worked pretty well for me.  As I said earlier this was a killer and I mean killer workout.  At the end of each round, I could barely breathe, I think it was that I was exhasted, plus the altitude gets to you, Colorado Springs is about 6K feet up. 

Everyone at this box was super nice and very friendly.  The facility was huge and they had tons of equipment, pull up bars, rings to do muscle ups, and much more.  I will definately be back to this location.  See you next time at a Crossfit in your neighborhood!   SAU.

Crossfit Greenlake - Aug 16th

Hey All you Followers(2) and other crossfitters - I was up in Seattle recently and had time for an afternoon workout so decided to visit the Crossfit up in Greenlake.  This is actually owned by another Crossfitter who also owns Belleveue and one more in  Ballard so I might have to make the trek to see these as well. 

Well, getting there was fairly easy but when I got there I parked in what I thought was there parking lot but after checking in with Ashley, She told me that I had to park in their parking lot around the corner, not a big deal but you know I had to go out and do that which was a pain in the @%$%^%SS. 

Anyway when I got back I got ready for the WOD.  Oh well, this one is not one of my favorites as it had 50 DU's, 25 burpees 12 power cleans and then a 200 meter run, 4 rounds called "stack em high"

starting weights

95/65
110/77
135/95
155/110

Since power cleans were not my strong point, I started at 75 and did 2 rounds then moved to 95 for the last 2 rounds, this turned out to be a good idea because the last round was a killer!  This turned out to be a pretty good WOD for me but I still struggled on the DU's and power cleans but at least I know what I need to work on.  My time was 29.43 which for me is pretty darn good.  Could I improve on my time?  Certainly but I have to be a bit more patient on the DU's, but it is very frustrating to see so many other crossfitters doing these and doing them well, so I will continue on and practice more and more each and everyday cuase I know its just something that will come with time.  Overall Crossfit Greenlake is an OK box, I did not get the warm and fuzzy welcoming feeling here but that might just be who they are.  Oh well the trainers Ashly and Tyler were very nice and did a good intro on form for the power cleans but not much of a warm up.  That is all for now, and I will bid you good bye and report back to you from another Crossfit location sometime very soon!  SAU

SFO Crossfit - one more time

Ok, I have not written about a crossfit twice in a row but I was in SFO again and so I was able to blog about this location again.  This time I went to the 4:30 pm class on Monday Aug 8th and Tuesday morning 6 am on the 9th.  The 4:30 pm WOD was lead by a guy named Angel but he was not an "angel" to those who were partisipating.  II was there a bit early and had time to practice my DU and he told me to keep that jump rope with me as I will get to practice much more during today's WOD.  This is good for me cause you know that I currently struggle with DU's.

The really nice of this box is that they always do a nice warm up and really good stretching. 

200 meter run
50 DU
200 meter run
50DU

Then we did the normal stretching but then we did some group warm ups.  Everyone had to hang from a bar and hold their legs at a ninty degree angle or some modified version for 20 seconds for 5 rounds, then we practiced hand stand walks which only 2 of the 30 people there could do so, instead we had to hold a plank position for 5 minutes with our feet on a box or in a hand stand position with your feet against the wall, lastly we did "ab" work.  Everyone had to hold a bow position with hands outstretched and rock back and forth for 30 seconds for 5 sets, then when we thought that was over, we had to do 20 more sit ups, not so much fun.

Finally to the WOD.

Forward Lunges with 95#
DU's

15 reps
12 reps
9 reps

So, overall a very good workout and especially great for me as I need the help on DU's and now happy to report that I was able to do 16 in a row.  They use the Buddy Lee magic JR and I just ordered 2 of them for Parisjat and I to use. 

2 WOD at 6 am on Aug 9th.

The only reason I am doing a second entry is because Kelly the owner of SFO Crossfit was teaching and I have to say, he is quite an amazing teacher.  We did a similar type of warm up but right after we did the warm up we went into a metabolic workout, very dynamic and he showed me so much about really using our core in many of the workouts especially the dead lifts which we did for this work out. 

The WOD was

Dead lift - Use your body weight
burbee box jumps

12 reps
9 reps
6 reps

5 rounds for time

When we got started with the dead lifts Kelly immediately came over to help me with form, I thought I was doing pretty well but really not so well.  My bad was curved and I really needed extra help on keeping my back very straight.  This was very frustrating for me but very good for me to hear and I was able to correct it.  Kelly had to correct me 3 times on my dead lifts which tells me that I have been doing dead lifts incorrectly all this time, oh well at least I have the correct form for next time.  That's not all, Kelly told me that when I was doing burpees that my feet need to land competely flat and not on my heels or toes.  According to Kelly landing on either your toes or heels could result in a torn ACL or other knee issues.  So, moving forward I will be focusing more on form and techique instead of time when doing either of these two movements.

I have included some extra pictures of the view from their location on clear days and their restrooms...thou shall not comment or complain about your bathrooms facilities unless you have portapotties as well.

All for now, see you at the next Crossfit somewhere soon........SAU

Crossfit Boise - Refinery - Aug 3, 2011

Hello Fellow Crossfitters - I am writing today from Boise, ID after a pretty killer WOD at a great Box.  Crossfit Boise Refinery is located downtown in a large warehouse space.  As you can see from the pictures, they have tons of space with all the typical Crossfit gear.  The instructor was Sun and he lead us in a nice warm up stretch and then to the warm up and WOD.Here was their warm up and WOD.

I went to the 4:30 pm class and there were about 15 people there, a pretty good showing for an afternoon class.  They also have several classes throughout the day starting at 6 am.

Warm up - 2 rounds
10 pull ups
10 sit ups
10 push ups
10 Overhead squats
10 back extensions

For time
5 rope climbs
5 C & J
4 rope climbs
4 C& J
3 rope climbs
3 C& J
2 rope climbs
2C&J
1 rope climb
1 C& J

The suggested weights were

145
165
185
205
225

WOW that is a 20# gain for each set.   SO, I started with 95# and then to 115# and no further.  Clean and Jerks are one thing I currently struggle with right now so I wanted to keep form so I stuck with the lower weight and did extra reps.

As for the rope climbs, this was a treat and I actually liked the first 5( not like the I like my cold stone ice cream but you know what I mean) cause after the first set of C&J they became a challange for a couple of reasons.  It was hard to keep the intensity and after the first five I started to get a rope burn on the lower part of my left shin and so you know that rope and exposed skin rubbing together does not go well, just like when I don't glide up before sit up days, same thing...Ouch!  The shower afterwards didn't feel any better.  Oh well, I finished in about 11 min, so not to shabby, but no RX.  I finished up with 10-15 of DU practice cause I need it.

Thanks to all the Crossfitters in Boise and to Tyler and Casey for letting me workout with you guys! 

Crossfit San Fran

Crossfit San Francisco July 28, 2011- Next up on the list was a Crossfit that I was looking forward to seeing, San Francisco on the Presideo.  My hotel was about 3 miles from the box so i ran there for the 6 am class and took a taxi back, you will understand why I took the taxi back after you see what we had to do.

The location is quite nice, right on the water with a fantastic view of the Golden Gat

e Bridge, however it was foggy this morning so couldn't see much.    This is a location that is located completely outside and in the back loading dock of a outdoor retail store, and looks like there gear was stored in 20' freight containers.  They had 3 climbing ropes attached to the stairing leading up to a second store floor.There was some cover but not much so I suppose you just workout in the elements? 

I was the second to arrive and soon there were 21 people there for a 6 am workout.Everyone was either practicing DU's or some type of warm up before the WOD began.  The warm up was as follows;

run 200 meters
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 walking lunges
run back to the box

running jump ropes 200 meters
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 walking lunges
running jump rope back to the box.

WOD
Sled pushing - 130# - some others did 180# but I was happy with our weight.
We were in groups of 5 people and we were to push the sled about 40 yards and back and do it a total of 5 times each.  Sounds not too bad but after you do the outbound push you realize that you are in for a long WOD.  It tooks us about 40 minutes to finish this one, mostly becuause the last 2 seem to take forever.  Now you know why I took a taxi back to my hotel instead of running back, I was toast!

Thanks to Corine who was the instructor and to Juliet the owner for allowing me to workout at you location,   See you next time!