Month: August 2013

WOD 22-24-26 August 2013

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On Monday we did the exact same workout that I did on my very first CrossFit class six weeks ago. So it was a nice way for me to measure some progress.

It was Fran (21-15-9 thrusters/pullups) and during the first class I did it in 10m13 seconds with 10kg on the thrusters and using the black band for the pull ups. After six weeks I was able to do it in 8m08 seconds with 5kg more on the thrusters. Still using the black band though.

But still, I managed to bring my time down with 2 minutes while adding some weight. So I´m happy :).

I also set a personal record for the Front Squat. I managed one good one. In my last set my coach told me I wasn´t going down far enough and when I finally did boy did I notice the difference! I wish he had told me a bit sooner though.. I feel like I´ve probably been doing it wrong all this time. Anyway, I did mange to do one good one with a 20kg bar + 70lbs in weight on it so that´s..  52,2kg!! Getting close to my body weight!! :D

Last saturday we had an awesome WOD at the box. Normally saturday mornings are at the beach, but for some reason it wasn´t possible this week. I was a bit disappointed at first, because I love the workouts on the beach, but this was sooooo coool. Rich has just bought some new toys for the box and that includes two huge tires. So part of the workout was flipping tires :D.

The workout was:

2 teams of 4, per team:

180 clean & jerks
40 hill runs
8 distances of tire flips (I don´t know what the distance was)

So that was 45 clean & jerks each, 10 runs each and the tire flips we just did however it worked out. Which worked out in me and one other teammate doing 2 and the guys doing 5 and all four us doing the remaining 1 together.

The hill run was basically running up a hill and then jogging/walking back down.

The clean & jerks I did with 8kg.

Here are some pictures of the morning. It was so cool!!

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The Thursday before that I brought my friend Mirella, who was visiting me from Holland. (She came on Monday as well.) She was really scared to come with me haha, but now she signed up to the box in Amsterdam because she loved it so much!! :D

The workout on Thursday was in pairs for time:

100 wall balls each
100 burpees each
100 sit ups each

The med ball was not allowed to touch the ground after start, so one of the pair had to hold the ball at all times. There was a 25 minute time cap and Mirella did really good for her first WOD. She finished the wall balls and sit ups and did up to 16 burpees I think. I finished the wall balls and sit ups too and got up to 65 burpees.

Before that workout we had to do  7 minutes of alternating Turkish Get Ups. Yes, that is an exercise. They are quite heavy! But I liked doing them. I think I did 3 on each side, so 6 total (with 8kg kettlebell). The exercise looks like this.

Before Thursday I hadn´t been to the box for a week!! :O I don´t know what happened, but lets say life got in the way :p.

This week I´m not going 4 times as I wanted to do either. I think maybe I should stick with 3 times a week. Not because I don´t want to go more often, but more because I just don´t really want to make the time for it. It gets in the way of other fun stuff (plus some much needed relaxing time) too much. Anyway.. we´ll see. I´ll go 4 times if I can and try to stick with at least 3 times a week no matter what.

On another note. I signed up for a run next Sunday! It´s a 10km run for a good cause. I´ve never run 10km in my life before so that´s going to be a challenge. I haven´t been running at all since I moved to this area so I´m a little out of practise too. And it´s going to be hot. It starts at 10am on the Marbella paseo and you get 1.5 hour to finish. I hope I make it!!

 

WOD 15 August 2013 and 1 Month Progress

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When I went to the box I had no idea what DBB meant. But when I arrived the 7pm group was just about to start it and Rich asked me to join them as my warm up.

DBB stand for Death By Burpees. And that´s exactly what it is. It starts of very slow and easy, but very quickly it becomes very hard. The way it works is that you start with doing 2 burpees in one minute. When the minute is over you have to do 4 burpees in one minute. Than 6, 8, 10 and so on. Until you can´t beat the clock anymore. The problem with this is that at the end you just about finish within the minute, meaning you don´t get any rest time before starting on the next set. I got up to 12 burpees in a minute. And then failed on the next one. In total I did 50 burpees. Nice warm up ;).

1st min: 2
2nd min: 4
3rd min: 6
4th min: 8
5th min: 10
6th min: 12
7th min: 8
Total burpees: 50

The WOD was 30 single handed kettle bell swings, 20 pistol squats and 10 hand stand push ups. AMRAP in 20 minutes.

Pistol squats are basically one legged squats. If you can do them it looks like this

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Not necessarily on a kettle bell though. But this picture is too awesome not to use.

When I saw pictures of these squats before I didn´t think it was that hard. But try it! I can´t do it…! But, luckily, crossfit has a modification for everything, so also for this. What I did was stand on a box with one leg hanging from the side. And then try to squat, not bothering about having to put my hanging leg up. Like this:

The kb swings I did with 12kg. And instead of hand stand pushups I did the dreaded wall walks (I REALLY need to practise a handstand!!). Instead of 10 I only had to do 4 each round.

I only completed 4 rounds in 20 minutes. Which is not very good I think. But the wall walks are really a struggle for me.

Oki. So, like I said in last post, I took some pics before I started Crossfit and then exactly one month later. Find the differences! :p

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I didn´t take a picture of my arms before I started. But I took one a couple of days ago. So will have to look again after another month.

I did tone up a bit I think. Which is nice :). It´s not just the crossfit though, I also started eating much better. It´s a struggle for me, because I´m horrible at cooking and I also don´t really have much knowledge on what is right and wrong. But I try and I do feel that I´m getting better at it every week. And that I´m learning more. I read a lot about the paleo principle, as a lot of people in crossfit are on a paleo diet. But I don´t really want to restrict myself too much, as I don´t really think it´s necessary to completely stop eating some types of food. But, I do think that the paleo lifestyle is probably the most healthy one. It´s all based on eating natural, real, unprocessed food. Loads of meat, fish and veggies. No sugar, starch, grains and dairy.

For me that means that I try to base my meals on meat, eggs, fish and veggies. But I do still eat dark chocolate, which has sugar. I do still have oatmeal for breakfast sometimes. I do still eat a bag of crisps or popcorn when I feel for it. And if I´m out for dinner or lunch I won´t think twice about ordering a sandwich.

But, I do try to eat less bread, less crackers (I changed my daily cracker with peanut butter to just a spoon of peanut butter haha), less sugar (no more cookies), less pasta and rice.

And, I must say, it´s starting to be easier. When you eat a lot of the stuff that is good for you, you have less cravings for the stuff that is bad for you. My breakfast is now much bigger (I used to eat 2 toast with chocolate spread every morning and now I eat two egs, bacon and a bunch of veggies for breakfast on most days) and so is my lunch. Dinner used to be my most important meal, but now it seems they are all equal.

When I started working out I didn´t care about my food habits at all. And I really didn´t want to get into it. It all seemed like such a hassle. And it is. A hassle. It´s not easy. But I noticed that it´s too important to ignore. If you want to work out and get fitter you will simply have to be aware of (and probably change) what you eat too.

WODs and Nutrition

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Whupsie. I haven´t been updating properly.

Last week was a tough week for me. The WOD on Thursday (August 8) was again really hard for me. I struggled a lot last week.. not sure why. This week is going better though :). But lets go back to Thursday. The WOD was like this.

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It´s a “hero” WOD. We had a 40 minute time cap and I made it through .. wait.. I don´t remember!! I do remember that I only did 5 thrusters each time and that I did them (and the deadlifts) with 24.2kg (5kg less than the Rx). The first round I did 10 deadlifts, but changed that to 5 as well from the second round on. For me those (heavy) lifts are still very new to me and I don´t want to overdo it and hurt my back or something.

I think I did 3.5 rounds.. not 100% sure, but yea I think so.

Then, the beach WOD on Saturday. That one was really fun and hard. But fun. The WOD was run from one point to another (on soft sand) at about 30m distance. When there do 10 pushups and 10 squats. Run back and do 10 kb swings (8kg) and 10 burpees. Then run to the sea and go in up to your middle. Run back out to first point. That is one round and we had to do 10.

When everyone was long finished it was me and another Dutch guy that still had to do two full rounds. I don´t know how they can be so fast!!! They must be cheating :p.

After the WOD we went out for breakfast with some. They have been doing that for a few weeks now. When I used to come with Luke I couldn´t go as I had to drive him back to Calahonda, but now I can join :). And it´s the best breakfast ever! It´s at a place called Pan y Mermelada in Marbella and I don´t know how their breakfasts normally are, but they have a special “CrossFit” breakfast, which basically means you can get anything and everything for €12. Sandwiches, veggies, fruit salades, fruit juices, coffee, pancakes, bacon, more fruit, more veggies, more yummies. It´s delicioso!

Anyway, back to the WOD´s. This week I started going on Monday as well. On Monday the WOD was like this.

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The squats I worked up from 20kg to in the last three rounds 43kg. I kind of last my form in the last round though.. didn´t go all the way down with my squat. I was afraid I wouldn´t be able to get back up again!! I think I can do heavier though.. If I don´t have to do 6 reps :p. Should try it next time. The walking lunches I did with 2kb swings of 8kg.

After that it was 3 rounds for time of kb swings and runs. (More running!!! GRRRR!!) I wanted to take the 8kg kettlebell again, but they convinced me to take 12kg. Which, when trying out, I had a hard time with from the first go. Butttt, I did manage!! In the end I did 90 kb swings of 12kg and 3 400m runs in 14:58 minutes! It felt awesome!!

Then.. yesterday..!

When you see this on the wall you know it´s time to be scared!

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He called it the Tamburello. As Luke Tamburello (one of the box members) turned 30 yesterday. Hah! Let´s hope nobody turnes 40, 50 or 60 soon ;). In 35 minutes I got up to 18 wall balls. I did real push ups (instead of from the knees) for the first time in a WOD and made it through all 30 almost in one go :D. Box jumps I did 20″. Pull ups with black band.

I found the roll outs really hard.

BB Roll Out

You´re supposed to roll out all the way to a vertical position, but I can´t come back up when I try that. So I just go about halfway and pull back.

Double unders I don´t know how to do yet (they´re rope jumps where you jump once but the rope goes under twice) so I did 60 single jumps instead. And I did all of them in one go as well, which made me happy. The handstand pushups I did from a box. Basically you put your toes on the box and make sure your body is in 90 degrees so your upper body is straight up in the air and your legs are vertical. Then try and push up.

Handstand push up from box

Looks easy. Is not easy.

Sit ups were a piece of cookie (because a cookie is so much nicer than cake). The kb swings I did with 8kg (yah I know I should have taken the 12kg but trust me after doing all those other things my arms were already like jelly). Then the friggin burpees, which always make me dizzy. The push press is something I had never done before. I did them with 2 kettle bells of 8kg. It was quite heavy!! I had to do reps of 5 so I spent a lot of time on it.

DB push press

There was 1 minute left on the clock when I started the wall balls. I used a 10lbs ball and got 18 in there when the time was up.

It was a very nice workout!!

Today I´m feeling it though. Happy that I have a rest day ;). Tomorrow I´m going again. Today it´s one month since I started. I made some pics on the first day and some this morning as well. Maybe I´ll post a comparison picture later. Although I don´t think there is much difference to be seen yet.

I wanted to post something about my food habits as well. But don´t have time!! Will try and update soon!

WOD 6 August 2013

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It´s full on summer here in Spain now and it´s crazy hot because of it. I think that´s why I really struggled yesterday. I think on paper this WOD wasn´t as hard as some of the other ones I did, but I struggled a lot with it.

The workout was 21 minutes ascending ladder of

Burpees
Kettlebell swings (I used 8kg)
Handstand pushups
Box Jumps (20 inch)
Pull ups

We started with 2 reps of each and the ascending ladder means that every round you add 2 more reps. So first round is 2 of each, second round is 4 of each, etc.

I substituted the handstand pushups for wall climbs. And because wall climbs are a bit more straining we started them with 1 and then add 1 every round. But even that turned out to be too hard for me.

I really struggled a lot this workout. Black spots.. out of breath. Dripping sweat.

I did a total of 6 rounds, but I didn´t multiply to wall climbs. I just did one of them each time. I couldn´t handle more :( (I should really practice the hand stand!!). So in the end I did a total of 6 wall climbs and a total of 42 of each of the other movements.

After finishing the workout we got 3 minutes of rest and then had to run 1 mile, which was 4 laps around the building.

I thought I would be ok on the run as I´ve been practising running for a while now, but it was horrible! I started out too fast so I burnt out after the first lap and had to walk a short bit on every lap after that. The first lap I came in as one of the fastest, but in the end I was the last one to finish. Lesson learned ;).

I switched to another time. I used to go at 7pm as I went straight after work. But this week I moved apartments and I now live much closer to the box. So now I go home first and go to CrossFit at 8pm. It´s a bit quieter at 8pm so I think it´s nicer (7pm class is always fully booked with usually some extra people there as well). But it felt so much hotter today than last week. Not sure if the temperature is so much different or if it just gets more hot in there every hour. Because then I might switch back to 7pm :p.

Beach WOD 3 August 2013

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I had to skip the WOD on Thursday because of a splitting migraine. So it was a bit of a slow week for me. But the beach WOD yesterday was a lot of fun. Much more fun than last week. I had trouble getting up for it again though. Luckily it was the last time that I will have to get up so early on a Saturday morning to be able to go. Because yesterday I moved apartments and I now live very close to the beach where the WOD is. And also to the box. Once my bikes are fixed I will be able to bike there!! Much better :D.

For the beach WOD we got divided into two teams again. This time everyone had to take a plate (mine was 10lbs) and had to walk a course with it. It started with throwing the plate from the chest, as far as possible. Because you had to cross a certain distance while doing this. And every time you threw it, where it landed, at that place you had to do 7 push ups and 7 squats. So the further you could throw it, the less exercises you had to do. When you reached the end point you had to take the weight and lift it above your head and walk/run to the next station. At that station it was time for 25 burpees and 25 sit ups. After those were done you had to take the plate up above the head again and walk into the sea until the water was waste up. Then from one point in the water walk to another point and then back on shore and walk/run back to begin point. All with the plate above the head. That was one round and we had to do three. You could only start with the second round if everyone in the team finished the first. Had to wait in plank (or run laps) while waiting.

I was one of the last ones to finish each time so I didn´t have to do any planking :p.

I think I´m going to try and add an extra CrossFit day to the week… since I live so close now it´s easier for me to as it will take up less time. And I feel that I want to do more. So I think starting tomorrow I will go on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Maybe I won´t start this week though, but next week. Because Murphy still has  to get used to the new house, so maybe not such a good idea to leave him alone too much this first week.