The sweet taste of 3-a-days and rowing seminar taught by Olympic and World Champions

What a fun Saturday. I haven’t done three a days since 2001 back when I competed in Tae Kwon Do tournaments………and yes 2001, we get it I’m old. Erin and I are training with everyone getting ready to compete at Crossfit Regional’s and those getting ready for the Affiliate Cup. We don’t plan to be on the main team this year but if they have a second Affiliate Cup team we may do that. Our goal is to see how our body reacts and what leaps in our progression will come from doing training. Plus it’s just fun to hang out with everyone, have a reason to get into sick shape and make sure we’re in beach body shape for the summer :-)

WODS and notes::

1st WOD @ 0900 - Three rds, 15 thrusters and 100 meter sand bag run (upstairs, wall to wall). M135, W95.

It took me forever to get warm and excited to work out. It’s 9am on a Saturday but once I got into it, this was the right way to start off our day. I can do 135 pound thrusters but I can’t link enough of them together yet so it was suggested I modify and do a lighter weight, so I did 105 pound thrusters and Erin did 60 pound thrusters, Erin should have and could have done more weight but it’s our first workout of our first 3 a day so she and I were playing it a little conservative to see how our bodies will handle the extra work.

I will point out what isn’t included with our WODs times is anytime we do a run of any sort we have to go down 2 flights of stairs then run back up them, so our times seem a little slower but that’s because we’re running hills and stairs instead of a flat level surface. I say that because we ran down the stairs, picked up 65 pound sandbag then ran them wall to wall which is about 100-150 meters, then put them down, run up the stairs and hit more thrusters. This works your legs so nice it will give you serious J-Lo booty.

Doing 105 pound thrusters, stairs, sand bag run I wound up finishing in 8 minutes 36 seconds.

Erin did 60 pound thrusters, sand bag run finished in 10 minutes 12 seconds

Matt Wrecked this WOD and finished at 7:21 finishing more than 40 seconds ahead of the next fastest person.

2nd WOD @ 1100 - 2 rounds for time of: 500 m Row, 15 Oh Squats 95/65 lbs, 500 m Row, 15 Toes to Bars.

Good WOD except there is rowing in it, but not every WOD can be perfect for me. This WOD I pushed pretty hard too, the only reason I had to slow down and break up my toes to bar was because my baby hands tore during this WOD. I moved my toes to bar to the rings during the last round and was able to link them together.

My Finish 15:29

Rowing Seminar at noon:

I forgot today is the day for the Rowing Seminar taught by Bob Cummins who is a World Champion Rower and Anna Cummins who has won an Olympic Gold and Silver medal. If these two people can’t make me fall in love with the rower then nobody can. http://www.cumminschiropractic.com/about_us.html

The seminar was great, I didn’t realize how horrible my technique was and how lazy I’d let my body get during the strokes. This made me very inefficient wasting a lot of energy. I wasn’t getting the power some others were getting but after completing the seminar I am getting the same power as I was before but expending a lot less energy, so that’s a good start and hopefully more power will come. I’m not in love with the rower yet but this seminar put me on better speaking terms with the rower and hopefully our friendship can blossom from there.

We wound up rowing 5-6000 meters during the seminar, with one more WOD to go to end our day.

3rd WOD @ 1300 - Row 1000m, Run 1 mile.

The 1000 meter row was my standard time but I did notice I focused on my technique a lot talking to myself “legs, body arms, arms body legs, legs, body arms, arms, body legs….” I looked at Jon in the rower next to me, he’s still beating me by 30 seconds per 500 meters but just focus and work on my stroke. I finished my 1000 meter, before I’d be exhausted, but this time I jumped out of the rower and thought I could catch up to Jon and Matt who finished the row far ahead of me. I caught up to Matt really quick, he isn’t the fastest runner and I think his back was bothering him (note to self if or when I challenge Matt to a WOD make sure there is running in it) Then as I head down the first hill I see Jon in my site. I can catch him! He finished the row so far ahead of everyone I swear I saw him running with his arms extended to the side swerving from left to right like he was an airplane and making engine noises……vroooooooommmmm. He made the first turn looked back and saw me, that stopped his airplane imitation and he put it in Jon gear. I finished less than a minute behind him which means no rowing in our WOD challenge but running is still going to be in it.

I didn’t win the WOD but took a nice second place.

1000 meter row, 1 mile run, climb stupid stairs to finish in 11 minutes 21 seconds.

Erin did great on this WOD too, top female time of 13 minutes 16 seconds.....She has more fist pumping victory laps than I do.

First week of 3 a days and our bodies feel great, sore but great.

Functional Movement for Functional Application

One of the best things of Crossfit are the movements and exercises help build strength, speed, explosiveness and flexibility. So your day to day activities are easier and most importantly when you have to challenge other families, you can go out and DOMINATE!!!!!

This Dominating performance is brought to today by the letter C for Crossfit.

Random: Boobies is a funny word

So last night I attended a meeting at my oldest daughter’s school to receive an overview of the schools upcoming Sex Ed curriculum. This was an opportunity for parents to ask questions or opt their child out of this.

My concern isn’t about whether sex education should be taught in the school, what I’m worried about is when we were receiving the overview they showed us part of the video they’ll play in the class. It was literally made in the early 1990’s, the three kids looked like Vanilla Ice, Kid from Kid-n-Play and an early version of J-Lo when she was a dancer on In Living Color. You can’t make this up, it was RADICAL.

When I saw the kids being early 90’s cool I almost fell out of my seat laughing, but I held it together because I’m surrounded by other parents that are obviously more mature than me. The video was good, it will get the job done for what the class needs, but then they start talking about hormones. They break away from the kids, show a cartoon and when they say you’ll feel different, they had sparkles and stars circling around the cartoon boy and cartoon girls genitalia. As they showed that the first thing that popped in my head was "hehe boobies is a funny word". I started giggling like a school girl and couldn’t stop. I look around and nobody else is smiling, they are taking notes and really taking this video serious. I tried to hold it in but couldn’t so I had to fake that I’m receiving a phone call then I get up and leave the class. I giggled it out in the hall, grabbed a drink of water and regained my composure. Those other parents must be lame because that video was funny.

I do know that if I receive a note home from her school that she was removed from the class because she kept giggling during the video, I’ll try not to be too upset :-) Chances are that won’t happen because my 11 year old daughter is much more mature than me.

Another challenge on the table

Sometimes I’m put into situations where my mouth isn’t to blame. I blame Gabe this time, he’s one of the trainers at the CFBV. He posted a workout he was planning to do, from that a conversation came up regarding a previous WOD, then somehow in there Gabe say’s “hey Ron why don’t you challenge Jon to a WOD” I’m still not recovered from the Mess with a Navy Seal Day workout. But of course since he said I should challenge Jon, now I have to. I can’t look like I’m scared or look as if I don’t think I’d win…..because the truth is I’m Ron Onyon and with the right WOD I should be able to beat anyone. So I posted a challenge to Jon but never heard back.

The next day I asked Jon if he was up for it since he didn’t reply online and he said “Oh I thought it went without saying I’d accept any WOD anytime against you”………HOW IS HE NOT SCARED OF ME???? Didn’t he see my business card that says “I’m Ron Onyon Bit**”. Now I’m going to make sure this happens.

There are two criteria with this challenge:

1. I pick or create the WOD
2. I pick the time.

The truth is Jon has been training very serious for Crossfit sectionals and regional’s, he’s younger, peaking physically, he’s about a foot taller than me, at least 40 pounds heavier of pure muscle, plus he is a great athlete so I need to be more strategic with the WOD.

Jon made a good point when we talked, he said our strengths in Crossfit are similar, unfortunately that’s true and he might be better at them…….I said “might be” not he definitely is better at them. Since my strong points are similar to his and my weaker ones are similar too this is going to be a bit more difficult than I originally thought. I need to create a legitimate WOD where I can edge ahead of him rep by rep.

I think I’m faster with short quick reps. For example if we did 5 pull-ups, I’ll beat him in every set of 5 pull-ups, however if you said to do 50 pull-ups then he’d beat me. So in the WOD I need to break up reps in short fast sets. Also, since Jon is 6’6 and I’m a few inches short of 6 foot, that ground to overhead exercises would benefit me. I also think a run would be good because I can knock out a fast run and there is no chance in hell I’m rowing against him because Jon is a sick rower and the rower really doesn’t like me, so no rowing. Then I was thinking of putting in an exercise at the end that can either help me or blow up in my face. I think at the end of the WOD finish with a plank. I don’t know how long he can hold it but figure he has a lot more weight to hold up. So the plan would be to finish the WOD then however long you hold the plank position that time will be subtracted from your total time in the WOD. It can help if Jon beats me so I have a last chance to make up for it or it could blow up in my face for that exact opposite reason.

So far thinking:

Challenge WOD
4 rounds of (5 pull-ups & 5 ground to overhead at 135 pounds)
Run 400 meters
4 rounds of (5 pull-ups & 5 ground to overhead at 135 pounds)
Run 800 meters
4 rounds of (5 pull-ups & 5 ground to overhead at 135 pounds)
Run 400 meters
Plank

This WOD isn’t set in stone, it’s just a starting point but I like it so far.

Plus before I do this I have to finish up “Mess with a Navy Seal Day: the rematch”

These challenges have had me thinking of a fun fundraiser/challenge for the gym. Let people challenge others in a WOD. The challenged person has to be interested and accept, then the challenger has to pay 10, 25, or 50 just a set amount of money to do the challenge. Then the WOD has to be approved by one of the trainers at the gym to make sure it’s fair, competitive and reasonable. You can have the money go to a pool for the Christmas celebration at the end of the year. Plus we can track people’s records on the board. See if anyone can stay undefeated or who has the longest win/losing streaks.

Just a thought plus there are many people I’d like to take down in the gym, guys and women :-)

Daniel & Rhinestone Cowboy Up!!!!! March 18, 2010

WOD: Crossfit: In honor of SFC Daniel Crabtree, "Daniel" 50-pull-ups, 400 run, 21-thrusters, 800 run, 21-thrusters, 400 run, 50-pull-ups.

I’m so sore from the WODs this week that the thought of doing Daniel has me cringe, but the reality is I need to do it in order to workout the soreness.

Erin is doing the fully prescribed level 3, so full pull-ups and the prescribed weight which only a small handful of women are even attempting to do today. She finished in 40 minutes and was really disappointed with her time but I tried telling her that she did 100 pull-ups, the prescribed thruster weight and the runs. She needs to stop sounding like me and be happy. The times will come as you’re getting stronger. It took her 8 months in Crossfit before she completed her first non-banded pull-up and now at her 10th month of Crossfit she’s doing 100 in a WOD. Giddey Up!

This was an ok day for me too. I got a really nice warm up in which worked out a lot my soreness. As I got ready for the WOD I notice that Jake used some hand protection during the pull ups. Since I injured my shoulder my hands aren’t tough anymore and they rip really easy. I hate tearing my hands because it makes things miserable, since Jake already completed the WOD he let me use them.

Well we are about to start and I’m putting on the protection when Janice notices. She’s laughing walks over and asks why I’m putting maxi pads on my hands, then asks if I need to be packed in bubble wrap to make sure I don’t get an owie going up and down the stairs. Nothing feels better than a 95 pound woman that can back squat more than you calling you out for being you soft. I would have said a clever comeback but she can do Daniel running backwards and still beat me, plus it was funny. I can’t get mad at funny tough chick.

It should be noted that after the workout my hands didn’t have any tears and they were still baby soft. I like the maxi pads.

______

I must be having one of those weeks. First I get called soft by woman that’s less than half my size. Now I’m about to head to the gym to work on my shoulder and do some of the strength exercises I missed during this week at Crossfit. I grabbed my gear and accidentally picked up my wives baby blue rhinestone headphones. I need music but I can’t wear baby blue rhinestone headphones.

My thought is it’s Friday so I am hoping there isn’t anyone in our office gym. I will walk in with the full intention of leaving if anyone is in there.

Sweet!! Nobody is there so I get dressed, get my music and plug in the rhinestone headphones. Part way through the workout a woman walks in to use the treadmill, I don’t think she notices me so I Rhinestone Cowboy up and keep working out. I just grunt a little louder to let her know how tough I am.

Rhinestone Giddey Up!!!!!

No-Neck Meathead Jock, the pursuit of a lifelong dream but is it wise to mess with something so gorge-nificent

I’ve always wanted to be a meathead. Now my father and brother might disagree because they think I was a meathead jock when I was younger but I always wanted to be the supersized bulked up meathead that has to walk bow legged because his thighs are so big they rub together. The guy who’s back and arms are so large that he can’t reach around to scratch his own butt :-)

I’ve been doing national and international Olympic Style Sport Tae Kwon Do competitions from 1986 until I retired from competitions in 2001. But with tkd tournaments I always had to watch my weight very close. The main weight divisions I fought in was feather weight which was 147 back in my day, in fact in 2001, my last year of competition I fought bantam weight which was 135. (I need to find the picture of the first time I made weight at 135) I was so skinny and dehydrated I literally had to go to bed the night before the weigh-in with ice bags all over my body because my body wasn’t able to regulate it’s temperature properly.

I went to long camps, tried out for teams, made some teams, did 3 workouts a day, peaked myself through the year with moderate lifting because my focus was fighting and speed. So I went years watching my weight and diet extremely close. My lifting was very limited back then. Still no regrets I got to do some cool stuff, had an opportunity to be an athlete for as long as I did and traveled around the world fighting. I still wish I could have spent some time as no neck meathead jock. I would look at the football lineman that would show up to a restaurant and order a plate of chicken legs, put one in their mouth and clean all the meat from it to the bone in one bite. That’s awesome!!! Be the guy in the weight room that you hear screaming at the top of their lungs when they are knocking out reps, people come over to see what is going on and walk away slowly when they see you’re bench pressing a Volvo. Ahhh to be the guy that stares at the weights, takes 15 minutes to wrap the wrists and knees, then walks back around yelling at the weight then drops down, knocks out 2 reps, screams at the top of my lungs gets up and high fives the 3 people spotting him. Oh yeahhhh to be that guy :-)

I was a gym rat when I retired from competition for a little while but never bulked up. I just couldn’t see the value in lifting so much for so long, what was the purpose? So I continued to work out with my goal to be fit, tone and very pretty.

Now I’m in Crossfit, YAY!!!!! You can be athletic, functional and a big meatheaded no neck jock. Sure sure someone will say that it is better to be a normal size and strong so you can be more functional and versatile, buttttttt If I bulk up to eventually deadlift 800+ pounds, I’ll be the barbell freak at the box……I’m ok with that. As long as I can still run, row, do pull-ups, muscle ups and all the other exercises decent enough, then focus my specialty in Crossfit to be uber strong with deadlift, cleans, snatches, presses, etc….. I think this is my opportunity to fulfill a lifelong goal and be the Crossfit version of “The Thing”

I need to spend some more time thinking about this, discuss the pros and cons with my family and friends. I need to go to a mirror, take a good look at myself and decide if I really want to mess with something so gorge-nificent.

I can definitely use any feedback and opinions.

Stay pretty people

The Hangover to Mess with a Navy Seal Day

I walked in the gym and everyone starts laughing and all eyes are on me.

Dan looks at me laughs and in a darth vadar voice goes "hahahahaha oh yeah little doggie it's ON!!!!!"

I thought I challenged Dan to Grace later in the week but nope he was ready to do it last night. That was so wrong because I showed up to the gym with a bottle of jack in one hand, a cigarette in the other and just finished eating a dozen donuts...the last thing I was ready to do was compete :-) Dan had a look in his eye like I took his last beer, so I got myself mentally ready.

WOD: 10 rounds: 15 deadlifts (135 pounds) and 15 pushups

The truth is, I actually needed something like this to help get me over the mental wall I've had lately working out. I've been taking too many breaks and not pushing as hard as I can since I injured my shoulder, so hopefully this will be the push I needed. When I hit round 5 I started breaking up my deadlifts but I saw Dan right in front of me, very serious and focused so I decided after that not to break up my deadlifts anymore. That felt really good and made a huge difference; I was completely exhausted at the end.

I wound up winning the WOD faceoff and Dan graciously posted on the site that I won buttttt I guess that wasn't the whole story.

OMFG I had the most painful car ride home after the WOD. Let's build up to why which gives the whole story to Dan and my face off.

Now when the WOD started, I heard everyone yelling, giving directions and giggling since there was a challenge and bragging rights on the line, so I didn't know what was real and what was talk just to mess with us so I ignored it assuming I had perfect technique because I definitely felt a huge burn :-)

I finished in the WOD 9:28 but for some reason erin won't even make eye contact with me and keeps shaking her head, so now we're at why the car ride home was the LONGEST IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!

These are pretty much exact quotes from my wife as soon as we got in the car:
-You know that win doesn't count
-It doesn't count because you didn't lock out at the top of your deadlifts
-Your pushups didn't go all the way down
-Your pushups never went all the way up
-If you're going to talk shi* you have to have good technique otherwise nobody will ever believe any of your times
-seriously that doesn't count, if you had good technique your time would have been much slower.

UGGGGH my head hurt so bad in the car, isn't your wife supposed to be on your side no matter what? Erin and I have been with each other almost 10 years and i've never been nagged by her, until this car ride home. My kids even got in on the action, next thing you know I hear my oldest daughter saying "daddy you weren't going all the way down on the pushups"......luckily I can ground her.

I heard that the last few rounds is when my technique wasn't perfect, especially in the pushups, and I also heard that it was clean enough from other trainers but ultimately a rematch is in order to make sure it's a clean win.

I will say that I didn't really expect Dan to want to compete tonight. I know he hasn't deadlifted in months and his back's been sore lately so what I can't believe is that even after that, he hung with me almost rep for rep the whole way until the end, and Im in there 3-4 times a week. And according to the peanut gallery, had I focused on my technique more, we could have very well tied :P. I still think it's more reasonable to do a "Super Grace" 50 reps at 135 pounds for time. We'll get less trash talking from the bystanders because they can't criticize us too much with getting the bar from the ground to above your head.

My body feels like it has a crossfit hangover. That push and extra intensity I had from going against Dan has made my body so sore that it hurts when I smile. I've been pretty vocal about how sore I am from my face off vs. Dan then Dan goes on vacation the day after and schedules "Daniel" as the WOD of the day for my next day in the gym. He should have just posted as the WOD of the day to "Punch Ron in the stomach 100 times".

Ok point taken Dan. But I'm still looking forward to our Super Grace face off.

So coming soon:

Mess with a Navy Seal Day: Part 2