08/17/2011

I am seriously debating whether or not to get involved with Fight Gone Bad.  FGB is a Crossfit sponsored charity event.  For more information you can visit http://sportsgrants.org/fgb6/. 

Like most charity athletic events participants have to raise money in order to compete in the event.  It’s 15 minutes of work, I think it would be a good short term goal, and give me something to focus on over the next 30 days.  The day of the event for Potomac Crossfit is September 24^th 2011. 

The workout involves doing three rounds of the following each excerise done for 1 minute, with a 1 minute break between rounds.

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

While I am fully capable of doing each of these exercise and doing the workout I think I have some reservations about performing this outdoors in front of a group of people.  I am still very much the uncomfortable fat guy, and doing this in the safety of a gym is one thing, but doing it outdoors in a big group is something completely different.

Perhaps I will, I need to commit to this within the next week in order to have ample time to raise money. 

Who knows, it’s one of those things were the mental barrier is higher than the physical one…

08/17/2011 Daily Recap

This morning I went to the 6:30 AM Crossfit session.  This seems to be a popular time, as it is almost always full of people.  What I find amazing is that the 5:30 AM class seems to have an equal number of people in the class.  I think it takes serious dedication to get up at 4:30-5:00 AM and get your ass over to an intense workout.  At least I assume most people are getting up at least half an hour before the session, I would think you would have to just to get the blood flowing through your system.

Today’s WoD involved doing overhead presses.  Now that I’ve done the CFT, I’ve got a good working barometer of the weights I should work with, it felt good arriving at the gym with at least an inclining of where I need to do my work.

I did the warm-up doing 5 reps each first with just the bar then 65 lbs, and then 75 lbs.  I did one more set of three at 65 lbs before I started my work sets.  I did all three of my work sets at 95 lbs. 

After my third set of five I realized that I should have gone up in weight.  I’m absolutely sure I could have handled a heavier load.  It felt good doing the presses; I think my technique is relatively sound. 

The metcon portion of today’s feature broadcast utilized the Tabata method.  To recap the Tabata method which is a type of High Intensity Interval Training, was discovered by a Japanese scientist who found that people who were involved in ultra high intensity training for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 8 cycles achieved higher gains in their VO2 max over a group who worked at a steady state.  The research further found that the Tabata group achieved their gains doing exercise one day less a week over the steady state group; he also found that the Tabata group gained in their anaerobic capacity.

In doing today’s WoD the Tabata workout involved two exercises, rowing and box jumps.  The metcon would be scored based on the number of calories you were able to burn according to the rower, and the total number of box jumps.  For purposes of scoring we doubled the number of calories shown on the rowers computer. 

Rowing I’ve found I’m getting better at, and overall I feel stronger with my stride.  The first four rounds were a breeze.  Starting at round five just getting the rower started was difficult.  By the final round my legs felt like mush, which is not a good place to be because you have 10 seconds to get right into the box jumps. 

I started my box jumps a second after the time started; I was averaging about 6 box jumps per round for the first 4 rounds.  I got angry and started to push myself doing 8 box jumps each of the next two rounds.  At round 7 I did 10 box jumps, with the final round I went for broke and started right when the clock started, doing 11 box jumps for a total of 61 box jumps.

My total score for the workout was 173.