Grinding Through

June 10 2015

Woke to the 4:15am alarm feeling tired & sleepy but not exhausted like yesterday. Sunghee also had to rise early for set. Breakfast & then a walk to work. Sunghee left early too.

Coached the morning classes through the tough Pistol & Ring Dip WOD. Dangers & Magnum were the only two men to complete RX’d today. And then there was Bruiser who was finished in a mere 13:30! 7 minutes ahead of Magnum! Keeping in mind it took me 18:33 just to get through round 1 with a band assisted pistol, it was almost offensive how fast she blasted through that WOD. And impressive.

Called Kaelin to make sure he was awake for school as he headed off on his own.

Coached Fundamentals then the 9:15am class. Worked until noon getting through the day’s to-do list while The Touch struggled through CrossFit HeroWOD Servais. A gruesome preview of what awaited me at 1pm.

1.5 Mile Run
8 Rounds of:
19 Pull Ups
19 Push Ups
19 Burpees
Then:
400m Sandbag Run
1 Mile DB Farmer’s Carry @45#

First the math: 3.6KM running + 152 pull ups, push ups & burpees. In the hot Vancouver afternoon sun.

As The Touch said, in the gym, the burpees were the worst! I did most of the push ups in sets of 2 or 3. What really impressed me though is my pull up progress. While 5 at a time used to be my pace I did the first 4 rounds in 2 sets each! Then 3 sets per round until the finish. I used the butterfly kip through the first 5 rounds which was mostly core. Then when that fatigued I switched to regular kip which taxes the arms more. Very, very pleased with my pull up progress!

Thankfully Benevolent was out back watering his garden and the fan blew in the cool mist from his hose as I did burpees. A Godsend! It freshened me up as I dragged myself through the late rounds. Sipped coconut water throughout.

Shot from the burpees my legs were wobbly through the sandbag carry making it more of a sandbag shuffle. It wasn’t fast but it was the only part of the WOD that I felt certain I could finish. Then the farmer’s Carry.

I thought I could go 200m at a time but actually I could only go about 50m before putting the dumbbells down. My shoulders and forearms were screaming. 1600m? Are you kidding me? I was about 500m in when I wanted to just quit. Mental toughness. That’s what most of these Hero WODs are about. Forget about speed. 50m of agony at a time. I kept going. Crossed the finish line at 1:28:58.

A couple minutes faster than The Touch but honestly only because I had a target to shoot at. Guaranteed if our order was reversed and I had gone first he would have beat me by a few minutes.

Tired as I was I was content to flop down in front of my laptop and get more work done. A productive day thanks to Sunghee’s sister picking up Kaelin from school for us. Otherwise I would not have had time to WOD or get work done.

In the evening: group classes, an advanced assessment and a rookie-filled 8pm group class to close out the day.

Walked tiredly home along Dunbar.

Sunghee & Kaelin arrived soon after. He had just received another rank promotion in cadets. A long day for everyone. Got ready for bed.

Breakfast
Pulled Kangaroo & coleslaw, berries & coconut milk