10/31 - Happy Birthday Tim and Jack! Oh, and burpees...

First off – Happy 21^st Birthday Tim and Jack… Halloween twins – and finally legal in all(?) of the world.
Coach Match had programmed the day for them though when looking at the board I laughed at the ‘Jack’ WOD as it’s the one that he always gives me when I go on vacation, but we’ll get to that. 

Warm-up 
Forward, backward, sides and grapevines across the box – 5 or so times each (there and back)
Walking lunges/ bear crawl across room
Partner sprints (with resistant bands)
I partnered with Kayla for the sprints and it’s pretty amusing – takes everything I have to (barely) hold her back and she can (if she wants to) keep me entirely from moving at all.  It definitely makes me work hard in both directions though.  As a note – while I don’t have this as part of the warm up I don’t see the need to do it every.single.day – or at least three straight days.  Alas. 

Tim & Jack's 21st Birthday WODs!

TIM - 10-10-10 barbell walking lunges
40kg-40kg-40kg

Let’s talk about Tim…  Tim loves walking lunges and he is a beast when he does them (100kg).  They are really good however for really hurting everything.  We did these last week and it took most people several days to recover from them – I started at 20kg and then jumped to 40kg for three sets.  Kayla and Jeremy went up from 40 which was awesome but I just didn’t have it in me.  Need to start working on getting stronger/ going heavier in my lower body now.  These went fairly quickly and I think most of us were really just focused on the main attraction which was coming up next.

JACK - 100 burpees for time
6:04 (PR)

Let’s go back to earlier in the day here…  everyone at the box obviously do the same workout throughout the day and it seems that this week with many PR’s set on Monday  and the love of the WOD yesterday that there was a lot of extra posting on facebook so there was no way not to know the WOD in advance.  I give huge credit though to those that did hear about what it was and still decided to show up – I mean 100 burpees? There really isn’t much fun in it is there?

So, I’ve done this WOD now 4 times and my time keeps dropping, significantly this time too.

November 20, 2011 – 11:06

January 1, 2012 – 9:03

September 3, 2012 – 7:29

October 31, 2012 – 6:04 (PR)

It wasn’t that long ago that I did this, just about two months in fact though last time it was a choice I actually made – pick something from the PR board and do it – Stimo and I chose burpees (yes, we are insane) especially after doing Fran as a ‘warm-up’.  My time then was solid and a huge improvement so I wasn’t too sure how much I could shave off of that but knew that aiming for 17 a minute was reasonable (this would be about six minutes) though wasn’t sure I could sustain it.  I did 50 straight the first set, I just kept moving and I think I had somewhere between 20-25 in the first minute (though new that this pace wasn’t at all sustainable).  At 50 reps I got serious, the shirt came off (overheating) and that’s when Coach Match asked how many I had done – I was half way and close to about 3 minutes in.  In my head I also knew this was where the pain would really start – the first 50 go quick enough but as you near halfway they start to get really hard and you still have to do it again.  I accepted this – accepted it really right from the start and just started eating through the second half – I was counting in sets of 5 but going for 10 and then I’d take a quick breath and keep moving.  I just didn’t want to stop and kept telling myself that if I kept going they’d be over sooner because there really is no recovering in the middle, no matter how long you stop and breath the next rep is still going to suck just as much so might as well get it over with.  I know, I’m inspirational.  Ha.

I really wanted to crack 6 minutes on this one and gave it my best effort but just missed.  That being said I definitely did not leave anything in the tank.  I collapsed on the floor to recover and even after a bit when I tried to sit up to cheer on those still going I couldn’t, back to the floor it was.  Eventually after a full minute of recovery I got up but as I cheered Jeremy on for his last 10 reps I still had to take a knee, that WOD took everything out of me, it was good and even better once it was over.  I know I’ll do it again but I need to let my mind forget about just how hard it was, especially as I aim to crack 6 minutes then.

As a note, when we did the 7 minute AMRAP of burpees for the Crossfit Games Open #1 I got 81 reps.  If I were to repeat this now I’d break 100 and I’m astonished by the improvement in just under a year.  I love that Crossfit is making me into this person that is so much more capable than I ever was before.  

Burpees, not something I hate anymore...