Work Capacity

”I put all my genius into my life, I put only my talent into my work.”

- Oscar Wilde.

3 pm – WOD

A. WU – 3 Rounds: 3 Skin the cat/10 Bridge Ups
Inspired by crazy cat Carl Paoli who suggested 3 * 30(!) of each…

B. Technique – 5 * on ze minute with 52 kg:

• 1 Snatch High Pull
• 1 High Hang Squat Snatch
• 1 Snatch Balance

C. Work Capacity – 5 by 5 of both excercises:
120 s b/t excercises.

• Power Cleans, 79kg
• Ring HSPUs

D. Death by, 32 kg Unbroken KB-Snatches (1/1, 2/2, etc..), then keep on going with singles of KB-Swings, (8, 9, 10… in this case)

Result –  Snatches: 7/7, KBS: 8 to 14.

E. Extra: 3 * 20 Reverse Hypers (90s rest).

Think the low volume/rest week did good, felt really strong today. Did first two sets PC with resetted reps, last three touch n go-style. Technique, not so pretty. Weight, felt quite light. Ring HSPUs felt so good, I have really gotten stronger here! However, I (as everybody else?) really need to work on my hollow body positioning here. Did 5/5/5/4/1 in the rings and 4th set I did 2 HSPUs with nose facing the wall, again after Paolis recommendation. Last set my calf(!) cramped up in the rings so I finished with 4 noce-wall reps here.

KB-snatching and KBS was ok, think I sold my self short on the swings, no way I could have finished off the 8th round unbroken for snatches though.

This is an indication of how my programme will look like the coming weeks. 5 by 5′s to increase work capacity, one main excercise that will stay the same but with increasing weights, (Power Cleans, Front Squats, Over Head Squats, Push Press) and one ”assisting” excercise that might change. Felt good today, hope it feels good tomorrow…

Look at that, I managed to cut a video and write a blog post in less then 10 mins – Efficiency was the word of the day!

Namaste!

Efficiency

Useful work per quantity of energy.

- Wikipedia

Pic from Roland!

9.30 am – Lions Head for time @ 90%: ˜32 min.

Decided to keep my blogging shorter, in a time when my training volume will be bigger it feels like the right thing to do.

Didn’t push my self to exhaustion when getting up to one of my favourite place this morning, pretty satisfied with the time. Spend some time on top, yoga, stretch and then light jog down in approx. 20 mins. This will be my morning workout on Mondays from now on, goal is to get down to 25 min up and 15 min down, think the latter is going to be harder.

Plan for morning workouts:

• Mondays: Lions Head
• Tuesdays: Swimming
• Wednesdays: Hike, (active rest day).
• Thursdays: Beach workout
• Fridays: Swimming

Namaste!

A Double Yoga on the Rocks

The most pathetic person in the world is one who has sight, but has no vision.

- Helen Keller.

Mixed and done!

Been feeling off this weekend, both mentally and physically. Took some time on my own and both yesterday and today I re-connected with one of my facourite places, the rocks in Bakoven.

Body is feeling better by the hour now and soon I will be putting some grassfed T-Bones on the braai, so as a new week opens up, I expect to be back in full hunting mode again tomorrow!

Namaste!

Feeling off, but a PB nonetheless.

Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.

– Shaquille O´Neal

9.30 am – Hike @ The Pipe Track, 2h Total.

5.30 pm – Cape CrossFit WOD

A. Power Clean, 2-2-2-2-2:
43kg/2, 61/2, 84/2, 93/2 PB!

(B. ”Elisabeth” – Did not start..).

Brought Jobst with me on my scooter this morning, and of course we had an awsome time. Fresh blueberries, dried mango, raw organic nuts and obviusly some dark chocolate made up for a perfect cave breakfast!

However, already on the hike I felt a bit off in my body, and that did shine through when it was time to work out. Started out very light and technique felt ok considering I haven´t been doing any Olympic lifting this week. Not so surprising that 93kg was a PB, it was like 2 years old..
Anyway, body felt stiff, elbows started to aich a bit and altough the 93 lifts where light (think I can easily do this with 100..), I did wrestle around the bar a bit so I decided to play it by ear and stop. Finished off with some pancaking and revers hypers instead and since this is suppose to be my deload week, I feel like I did the right thing.

Gonna see how body feels tomorrow morning, knowing that the box wod tomorrow is awsome and something I could really benefit from I really hope I can do it!

Oh, not to forget!  Today I got to coach the very first ”Advanced Competition Class” at CCF and that was just awsome! Focus on perfecting technically hard excercises and maybe prepare some of our more experienced athletes for competition is something that I just right away can tell I will love doing.
Today we focused on the strict muscle up progression, whitch everybody improved a lot, and then finished it off with doing ”Elisabeth” where I asked the members to look into their strategy, (we had touch based on that in the intro), and then scale the weight enough to make the 12 min cap I put out there. Everybody did an awsome job and I must say I was very pleased with how much the ring dip positioning improved after all the muscle up work!

Already looking forward to next weeks advanced class as I am sure we will progress to a better concept each week!

Namaste!

Back in the pool

The water is your friend.  You don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.

-Aleksandr Popov

Could think of worse places to getting some active resting in…

9.30 am – Active rest: 500m mixed swimming

Ok, that russian swimmer is clearly delusional, and trying to call this ”active rest”, apparently so am I. Didn’t spend much time to warm up, but still one should think I should be able to handle more than one lap in the 50 meter pool before panting hard and taking a sitting break on the break. After 6 laps in that fashion, trying out both my free style and breast stroke, we went for 200m ”unbroken”. Yes, I’m a CrossFit nerd, the rest of you would probably just call it a 200m swim. Anyway, went really slow and tried to make each stroke as long as possible and really ”glide”. Went ok actually even though I was quite pumped when finishing. 500m was more than enough considering I haven’t been in the water for quite a while now…

However, the setting at the outdoor pool in Sea Point is so amazing! Can’t believe I have never gone here before, but from now on the plan is to get here at least one morning per week. What you can’t see on the picture above is that the pool is litterally located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, pinned in between that and Lions Head makes the scenery more than meditational if you ask me.

I am one of those who think that the now regurarly coming posts in the CrossFit Journal about swimming technique should be taken as a hint. It probably wont come up in neither the Sectionals nor Regionals, but I’m guessing we will se some half drowning athletes in the CrossFit Games this year. My plan is to try to get in the technique sessions from the Journal and add some volume a la CrossFit Endurance the coming weeks. Even if I would be wrong, I don’t think it will hurt me to become a better swimmer, and even as much as I suck at it, I actually enjoy it.

Namaste!

I don’t wanna be a rower no more.

Sometimes I do what I want to do, most of the time I do what I have to do..

- Cicero, Gladiator.

Morning WOD felt pretty much like this...

9.45 am 7 Rounds of 250m Row/90s rest:
43.8s/45.1/46.1/47.6/49.1/49.5/47.8

Total Time: 14’29 min – (1750m rowing, 5’29 min).

Luckily enough, the things I don’t want to do, somehow turns into the things I do want to do. It’s all about getting better, so I should welcome my goats as my friends since they’re bringing my physical chain’s total strength up, right?

Dream level for this one would have been to keep every round sub 45 sec, survival mode helped me to at least not drop over 50. Should definitely be able to go faster in the first 2-3 rounds, but just as last time, my legs just gave up. Think I was somewhere around 20s after Jobst, who kept every round except one sub 45!! As smoked as I was after this, arms screaming, head spinning, etc, I still like this weeks setup. Low volume, kind of low impact and short workouts.
If I feel totally recovered on Friday, as I should, I will however up the ante a bit and join Friday’s and Sat’s CCF-wods. Two benchmarks that is totally out of my comfort zone should be the perfect finisher for a deload week!

Meant to do the Pipe Track to ”my” cave today, but woke up to a fully covered Table Mountain. Hopefully the overcast, that now has vanished, will stay away tomorrow so I’ll get another chance.

PS. Pretty cool that they now have announced some more details about The 2011 CrossFit Games Open Qualifyers and finally has given us all some dates to look forward to! As much as I might have my doubts about the format this year, there’s nothing more to do then to prepare as good as possible and make sure to get to those Regionals. I feel pretty confident that my programming plan from next week and on will get me in a very competitive state, so bring it on!

 

Namaste!

Challenge Time!

He who waits patiently, can always do today’s work tomorrow.

– Just made that one up…

8.45 am – Lions Head, relaxed hike.

1.30 pm WOD

A. Paleo & Challenges #3, 5 rounds for Time:

• 3 Backward Rolls
• 3 Bar MU’s
• 3 Forward Rolls
• 20 Double Unders

Time: 5’02 min

B. 5 * 20 GHD’s, (120s rest):
39s/37/37/37/36

Haven’t been up on my favourite mountain peak for a while, perfect setting with beautiful weather and a small group of friends this morning made it even better then I remembered. Crazy Roland had some weird idea that a 18 kg weight vest would be a nice thing to bring!? Needless to say he wasn’t excactly Speedy Gonzales on the way up, quite impressive that he actually made it all the way to the top however! Pics from the morning at the bottom.

Challenge, superfun! Not every workout have to be as heavy as possible and leave us dying on the floor. Suitably, I have a lighter week and thought of sharing that philosophy with the guys doing the challenges. I know Dave won’t like the rolls so that might be a bit mean. No worries, he can always get back at me next week..

Haven’t done GHD’s in a while so thought they would fit today. Surprised that I could keep quite a high tempo throughout, just need to do this all unbroken for a good ”100 GHD’s for time”, hehe.

After training I went to Superstar Masseuse, Meggie, who once again fixed my tight muscles really good. One more session with her this week will hopefully help with the effects I’m looking for with this deload. Tomorrow morning’s rowing with Jobst will probably not be easy to define as light in any way however…

Roland and his vest!

Erik on the very top.

On the way down.

He actually survived...

Namaste!

Deload & Technical Difficulties…

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.

- Mary Jean Iron

3pm WOD

A. Snatch Max for Day – DNF…

B. Deload: 5 * 5 High Bar Back Squat 1+1/4 @ 84 kg

C. Metcon – Meant to be a Challenge but filming failure forces me to postpone it til tomorrow…

Time: 6’39
Should end up somewhere around there with the changes as well, so you know what’s coming!

Ok, not the best of days in the gym, except for teaching a couple of groups witch, as always, was a blast. Already in the warm up my shoulder hurt in the over head position and as soon as I added some weight it felt like I got a huge impingement in my teres minor area around the back of the armpit/back of the shoulder area, (Dave?).. Let it go and decided to do tomorrows planned back squats instead. Will be changing to the double dip version for the back squat next week so this was just to get a feel for it, and it felt good.

Metcon.. I’m so stupid some times. Managed to start the camera focusing on me standing 1m infront of it, ending with the entire movie being completly blurry and nothing you can make a video of, zzz. Well, for you waiting, I can only appologize and at least comfort you with that I think that the small changes I will make to it for tomorrow will be for the better good, making the Challenge more fun!

PS. So, +100 people clicked on my last post about the moral dilemma I faced this morning. Is it such a no-brainer or just not interesting at all, since not a single one has given me any kind of advice?

Namaste!

 

Sensations and a Moral Q for you!

You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.

- Walter Hagen.

 

From Clifton Beach yesterday

9.30 am – 15 min Light Beach Running

Woke up and scootered over to Camps Bay for a light morning run. Love the feeling of getting over the Kloof Neck and feeling how the temperature drops a few degrees instantly, love the sound of the waves and the cold Atlantic Ocean to my feet while just keeping a light pose stride. I obviusly love the feeling of the hot sun on my skin while just letting my heartrate rise slightly. Only did four side to sides in a very moderate tempo to just get my body moving, a bit stiff in ankles and lower back, no big problems however.

So, here’s the question for you, try to imaging being in the same situation and give me a serious answer:

After finishing your light beach run you head up to your favourite cliff to do your morning yoga, let’s pretend you are all yogis now. On the way up you smile at the beautiful woman who’s not ashamed of ”European style” sunbathing, neither should she be, but not smiling anymore when you reach the top of your cliff. Approximately ten meters away lies a man face down on the edge of the cliff, you can tell he’s obviusly homeless by the way he’s dressed in way too warm and full covering, dirty and broken clothes. He lies perfectly still and you can’t really tell if his chest is moving at all. So, what do you do? I’ll give you some options:

1. You pretend you didn’t see him and move over to another spot to do your yoga. It’s not your problem.
2. You walk over to one of the police officers or security guards that are frequently patrolling the beach walk. This is South Africa after all and he could be dangerous.
3. You act in another way, how?

If you give me some honest answers I’ll let you know what I did, witch I’m by no means is sure was the right thing. After all I got rewarded with finding my protein shake totally spoiled in the trunk of my scooter because of the hot sun so if that’s any kind of sign, I should’ve apparently picked anoter option..

Namaste!

 

 

Featured at the CF-Games Site!

Now I just have to earn that spot as well to make the feature justice…

Quite a shock when I woke up and found my self pictured on the Official Games site!

Not that it’s any secret that I do aim to participate and make a serious attempt to get a top spot in the African Regional. Also, I did know that Jobst did get an e-mail from HQ asking for any ”up and coming athletes in the region”, just not so sure I would call my self that. I just hope to keep on improving enough to have a decent shot at it.
Also if you look at the competition here, it’s because of obvius reasons, (CrossFit is still very new in South Africa), not as hard as it would be in Europe or USA of course. That said, I do spend most of the year down here and my aim for the last year has been on this Regional. So, if I don’t screw it up in the filming version of the Sectionals, I do think that I have every right to try out for the games down here as well?

Anyway, fun way to start the day, as any other serious CrossFitter out there, I’ve always dreamed of getting good enough to be seen in bigger events – now it’s just time to start performing well enough to earn that kind of exposure in terms of accomplishment!

On another note: Here are som pics from yesterday’s awsome Beach WOD, (courtesy of Cape CrossFit). I had such a fun time coaching and after a chilled but productive Sunday with Jobst down by the beach, it looks like I will be doing more of that in one way or another soon enough!

 

Coach Chris

Show them how it's done...

And make them repeat!

So what's your excuse for not training..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Namaste!