Site was a bit messy so I went out and arranged some of the material in an orderly fashion, like this wee steel beam.

Getting there with the foundation for my current project, a five story building in NY’s Chelsea neighborhood.

Last week I did pullups everyday. My shoulders took a beating and were really sore on the weekend. This week we did overhead pressing movements Monday and Tuesday. Today another over press was scheduled and I thought a day of rest was in order so I didn’t go in to the gym. Normally after CrossFit in the morning I take it easy biking in to work (5 miles). Mostly because I don’t have the “gas” to push myself. No gym this morning gave me an opportunity to really push hard this morning biking in. Full sweat by the time I got in. Thankfully I work in construction and just looked like everyone else when I got in. I believe this is what they call active rest. Preferable to couch potato rest of not doing anything.

Every CrossFit gym has an individual name, ours, The Black Box.

Here is Sara training a man that comes really early every morning (like 5:15AM early!).  Sara is the coach/trainer Tues-Fri in the morning.  She has been a major part of my CF experience so far.  She’s very into the whole CF thing,  fit,  gritty and no nonsense. She looks out for us to make sure we are lifting properly and not being too  slug like. I can read her mind and have heard her say to herself many times, god, Andy the slug better start working over there or he’s going to get it!!!

Wil standing at the front desk.  He both lifts with us sometimes and assists Sara.  He recently got certified to train (I think that’s what he got certified for).  Because of his encouragement I got my best deadlift a few weeks back.

Center of the Box where most of the “work” is done. By now I have left more than a few puddles of sweat on the that floor.

Today’s WOD at CrossFit was the power clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1, which means we were supposed to do 7 sets of 1 rep each for a max weight. Trouble is the power clean is a pretty technical move. You start from the floor, back, hips, chest all in perfect position, slowly lift the barbell up, dragging along the front of the legs and when you reach the “hang”, a position where the back is erect, legs still slightly bent, you do what’s called a hip drive, like jumping up. The weight will naturally go with the arms that are being pulled by this upward thrust. Best is that the weight is thrust up, you squat down under the weight in mid flight and grab it as it lands on the front of your shoulders. Sounds good. Hard to do. I moved up in weight to 135lbs which I got but felt sloppy. Another of the skill movements that need work. Here is a shot of my ever scraped shins from these olympic and power lifts.

In CrossFit the workouts are varied everyday. There are workouts that are repeated but only infrequently, something in the order of months or even years apart. There are countless exercises and many are a main stay, repeated frequently in the workouts. Jumping rope is one. Not just any ole jumping rope though, it has to be double-unders. That’s getting two revolutions of the rope on a single jump. When I started CrossFit my ability to jump rope was lacking, like 10 rounds and I missed. I have been working at it a few minutes every morning. Now I have a 100 continuous and decided to start working the double-unders. Not easy. Only on like the 3rd or 4th day into it I finally got my first one. This is going to take some time to figure out.

This morning we had another high volume pull up WOD. Prescribed was for 150 in all. I scaled down and got 100. It was a good workout in that I have been practicing the kipping pull ups and got a good rhythm this morning. Yet, at about number 87 I tore open another callus.

Sorry for the gross photos but, it’s all I got.

The WOD for me then was; 40 pullups, 10 burpees, 30 pullups, 20 burpees, 20 pullups, 30 burpees, 10 pullups, 40 burpees all for 22:14.

Todays WOD (remember workout of the day) was an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) in 15 minutes. The exercises were 15 chest to bar pull ups (which I was forced to scale to throat to bar) and a 30 second L-sit on the rings.

I have been waiting for it, the workout that would end up tearing one or both of my hands open. Today was it. I use a lot of chalk to dry the hands out which stops the skin from folding as you pull against the bar. This helps mitigate the tearing but as I found today doesn’t stop it.

My hands have developed a fair amount of callusing from the workouts which helps too but it was just too many pull ups today. Including the warmup I did more than 100.  Most of those were not strict, dead hang pull ups but rather the CrossFit kipping pull ups. I think they are like gymnastic pull ups. There is a little swing and hip thrust that gives momentum to assist the arms pulling up. That swinging is what did it. Luckily it was at the end so after the skin tore I only another 6-7 pullups and the session ended.

Today I got 5 rounds and 3 extra pull ups for my total.

Lucky us, we finished 5 minutes early. That means we got a cash out. The extra “lets see if we can make someone vomit” workout. We partnered up and had to do 100 burpees between the two of us in 10 rep increments. So I teamed up with Jeremy, a fairly new guy and he started. When he got to 10 I jumped down for mine and so on. We did them in 5:04. I was dizzy and a little faint at the end. Didn’t have my heart rate monitor on but am guessing it may have been the highest I have had yet. I had 173 a few weeks back when we had to run up 8 flights of stairs three times. The third time at the top I broke that 170 mark but didn’t feel quite as dizzy as I did today.

The fair with which I began the blog are missing, India travel, Buddhist monasteries and Tibetan language study. Currently in the work phase of my yearly routine. One aspect that has been of interest to me is the fitness I am working at attaining. I began going to CrossFit in Febuary for an elements class that lasted into March. This was basic instruction and not anything close to the full on workouts that the full gym members carry on with everyday. March 11 was the beginning of the full on WOD’s (workout of the day). I will post some bits here as a matter of interest to those who might be inspired or benefit in some way by seeing a middle aged guy do the most ridiculous and difficult exercises this organization can cook up.

For starters, here’s the gym I am going to: CrossFit

Slowly I will elaborate on what it all means to be going there. Today for example, the WOD was meant to be 5 rounds for time of, 50M swim and 25 pushups. We don’t have a pool. The place is the most basic kind of gym. No mirrors, no fancy paint, no machines save the rowing machines. Just barbells, gymnastic rings and pullup stations and a few tortuous odds and ends, like medicine balls. So to replace the swim element the 6:15AM class did 12reps of 16kg kettlebell snatches per arm and then the 25 pushups for 5 rounds.

Every day we warm up prior to the workout. I in fact get in about 15 minutes before that and do some mobility work and jump rope (I could not jump rope at all when I started and we do a fair bit of it so I practice most mornings).

Then today was Day 1 of Sara’s (our coach) gymnastic style warmup. 5 hand stand push ups (I scale and use a 3″ plate instead of getting all the way to the floor), 5 ring dips (newly aquired strength allows me to get these now), 10 overhead squats with a 45lb bar and then 10 kettlebell deadlifts with a 32kg kettlebell.

The workout was hard. I have 30 pushups right now straight. 5 rounds of 25 on top of another movement that has fatigued me is out of my league. I had to rest several times. Plus in an attempt to reserve energy for those pushups I used a 12 kg kettlebell which proved really useful.  My total time was 18:16. I sweated like no other WOD yet. I think the humidity was to blame. I left a puddle on the floor. I heard, as I joked to one friend who also goes to CF, that they named it Slug Pond (cause I am a slug among real athletes there, hahaha)

Home in Minnesota for a few short days. Love it, cold or warm. Wish I had more time.

Spent five hours out in the shop tonight. Giles caught me eating dinner again. That makes about five or six times straight. He thinks all I do is eat out there. Got some small pieces cut that are fussy and crucial and I was being a bit lazy about doing. Here’s a almost inconsequential dovetail joint that was made tonight.

I did get to put the shelving roughly on the plywood back with the cabinet shell and see what it will look like. I am very pleased with it so far. It’s got a strange layout that is appealing to me.