12.3 Open WoD

The CrossFit games workout this week was an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of three movements, the Box Jump, the Push press, and Toes to Bar.  This WoD was an interesting combination of upper and lower body strength, stamina, and muscle endurance.  I would say this type of WoD is why I enjoy the suck of CrossFit.

The workout as prescribed is below:

MEN – includes Masters Men up to 54 years old

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 24" box
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar 

WOMEN – includes Masters Women up to 54 years old

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
15 Box jumps, 20" box
75 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar

You can watch the video for the games standards at the link below; they have disabled embedding so I can’t embed it here anymore. 

The way this workout was scored was based on number of reps, done in order, so if during any round of work wherever you stop doing a particular movement, or weight your score is capped there, for instance I was able to finish 7+ rounds of work, which came out to 277 reps, but my official games score was a solid…27.  I am unable to do toes to bar, I lack the flexibility, upper body strength, and to be honest am a bit scared of holding onto the bar with my weight against my hands in that manner.

If you are unfamiliar with toes to bar, watch the video last years Female Winner, does the demonstration.  Is it weird the fact that I’m sure she can back squat more than me is turn on?

Here is video from the 6:30 AM Class of doing the 12.3 WoD.  For some reason Jay, one of the coaches appears in more than his share of videos, it might be that I think he’s a great guy, or I was trying to find the right moment to call him a shit kicking mick, that was doing box jumps like old people fuck.

Paleo Hot Wings

The one food that I miss the most now having gone paleo, or ancestral diet, is fried chicken.  I love me some chicken from Popeye’s, and I had my fare share of it, my aunt owns a Popeye’s.  Crispy, oily, hot, spicy fried chicken, can turn this angry into a happy one for a few short minutes.

So I found this recipe online for Paleo Hot Wings.  It uses almond meal instead of flower to batter, and is baked in the oven.  It actually turns out tasting pretty good, and the crispiness is close enough to make you forget that it’s not flower.

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sage
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I used cumin instead of nutmeg)
• 2 teaspoons lemon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 package of fresh chicken wings- found with the other fresh chicken at your local grocer
• olive oil (or grape seed oil) spray

I usually brine the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and a poultry seasoning for at least 2 hours, but typically do it overnight.  Right before I start mixing the above concoction, I’ll drain the water and the chicken to let the chicken dry out, and come to room temperature. 

Take all the powdered ingredients and mix them in a big bowl. 

I found that using a cooking spray is the easiest way to get adequate coverage of the batter on the chicken, and not have the mixture clump up.  I’ve tried it with an egg wash, which had eggs, and coconut milk but the batter became to thick quickly, and when it cooked it didn’t stick to the chicken the way it does with just a spray.  If you don’t want to use a spray you can spritz just regular water on the chicken before you dip into the batter.

Once you’ve coated the chicken place them on a baking pan with aluminum foil on it, and place them on the pan.  You want to leave enough space between wings to make sure you don’t boil them, and expose enough of the surface area to make sure it gets crispy. 

If you want to add a ranch type dip, I used the following one which actually turned out pretty well…

Ranch Dressing

• 1/2 cup paleo mayo

• 1/2 cup almond milk (or coconut milk)

• 1 Tbls dry dill

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp lemon juice

Mix together and refrigerate in the bottom of the fridge, and it will get the texture and consistent that you want, 
and surprisingly there is no coconut taste.  For the Paleo Mayo, there are 100’s of paleo mayo recipes you can find online.

For some people like me a true hot wing isn’t just battered, it’s drenched in some hot sauce.  
I used the following recipe:

• 1/4 cup your favorite store bought hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the above ingredients in a bowl, and toss your wings in the bowl, this will give you that spicy, crispy goodness, 
and to make you even fatter dip in the ranch dressing.  You won’t miss restaurant hot wings anymore.  

Two a Days

This was week was the start of CrossFit Endurance.  Tuesday we ran a time trial, where I finished in 7:09, the fastest mile I’ve run since I was 18-19.  I am proud of this time simply because a year ago today, I could not have run 10 meters, let alone 1600. 

Thursday’s CFE class was the first of two weekly interval workouts.  Not a big deal, at least that’s what I thought, four 400 meter sprints within set split times, and 2 minute breaks between runs.  Based on my mile run on Tuesday I was supposed to keep my splits somewhere between 1:28-1:33.

After the first 400 meter run I had finished in 1:41.  I could feel the weakness in my legs from the AM open WoD, you do 120 box jumps at my size, and your legs will let you know.  The second one was 1:43, the third 1:45, and the final at 1:47. 

When I was running the third 400 meters, I felt like I was dying, and I was shocked to learn that the time was only 2 seconds off the previous one.  During the final run I really thought I was taking way too long, I could have sworn it was going to be a 2:00+ time, I was breathing hard, and for about 10 meters of the run I felt something I have been longing for, the dark place.  That moment where it would be easier to quit, then continue and I powered through it.  My reward was a complete surprise a final split time which was way off the first but only 2 seconds off the third. 

It made me realize that trying to do 2-3 two days a week is fucking insane.  I am going to have recalibrate my weekly CrossFit schedule, so I don’t alter the performance in either workout.  My only concern is that trying to do 5 days of CrossFit, and 3 days of CFE means that I will have 0 days off during any given week.  If I follow Tess’s recommendation this is what my schedule would like…

• M-CF
• T-CFE
• W-CF
• TH-CF-CFE
• F-CF
• Sat-CFE
• Sun-CF

The alternative which is what I initially had planned:

• M-CF
• T-CF-CFE
• W-OFF
• TH-CF-CFE
• F-CF
• Sat-CFE–CF
• Sun-OFF

I’m going to have to find a happy medium, because either schedule doesn’t look appealing to me, there just isn’t enough time to recover between intense workouts. 

I am going to have to figure this out as I go, and make my decisions based on how I feel at any given time.