I want to be full strength and completely muscle-pain free for the weekend. Had a massage Tues night and am coasting through the weekend.

Today was the named workout, GI Jane.

I don’t see it in the main crossfit FAQ, but the “GI Jane” workout is reasonably common knowledge amongst crossfitters. It’s popped up as the WOD for crossfit.com a couple times and Crossfit Verve down in Denver did this one last week.

“GI Jane”
Do 100 burpee pull-ups.

My time 13:02, just 7 seconds behind the leader.
I went at it with a steady pace and it served me well.

Today was a heavy lifting day at AICCrossfit.
We did push-press for maximum weight at two reps (seven rounds)

Then we did some core work after the lifting was done.
8 Rounds (each)
30 seconds sit-ups
15 second break
30 seconds of wipers.
15 second break.

My push-press max today is 145 lbs. That is probably better than before.

Today’s free saturday workout at AICrossfit.com was another success.
AMPRAP (As many rounds as possible) in 15 minutes:
    20 lunges
    15 push-ups
    1 suicided (shuttle run, down and back, down and back… about 30 yards each leg)

It was a bit nippy to be running, but the garage doors are really nice for entering/leaving the building. At the old gym location we had to go through a normal door and it was easy to criss-cross with people.

Mark: 7 rounds + lunges + push-ups
Katy: 7 rounds + 15 lunges.

We were supposed to do the named workout “Kelly” but had to modify it due to overnight snow and slippery roads. Out with the running, in with the pull-ups and one fewer rounds.

Five FOUR Rounds For Time Of:
    400m Run (slippery roads) 30 pull-ups
    30 Box Jump (24/20)
    30 Wall Ball (20/14)

Mark: 26:18
It was sweaty and really leaves you feeling drained.

The workout of the day (WOD) was: (link to official WOD)
7 Rounds For Time Of:
   7 Power Snatch
   7 Snatch Balance
   7 Over Head Squat
* All movements done at #95/#65 *

Mark: 18:something at 65 lbs.

Times varied right around there. It’s not a workout you can speed up easily. On the snatches it is in your best interest to lower the weight carefully. In the snatch balances you have to lower the weight into a back squat position slowly or bruise that one vertebrae that sticks out. And all that wide-grip overhead work makes the wrists angry.

Todays workout at my crossfit gym.

4 Rounds of:
   10 hanging squat cleans (95 lbs/65 lbs)
   30 sit-ups
   15 kettle-bell swings (35 lbs/53 lbs)

The warm-up for this workout was two rounds of some box jumps, 5 muscles ups, glut-hams and back extensions, some light kettle bells swings (35#) and some practice hang squat cleans with just the 45# bar, no weights on it. Feeling a bit playful, I tried jumping forwards onto the box and then off the other side and then a backwards box jump. At backwards box jump number two I missed, and nearly crashed onto nearby equipment… backwards box jumps – bad idea. I got both of my rounds of 5 muscle ups continuously without dropping off! Hooray! That’s one of my mini-goals. (What is a muscle-up? Video from crossfit.com) Then right at the end of the warm-up on the final practice hang squat cleans, I accidentally pulled the bar way too close while my hips were pushed a bit forward and pinned and squashed my unmentionables with a not so manly yelp that turned heads. “Did you just hit yourself in the nuts?” My red-faced silence confirms.

Starting the workout a little nasea and a healthy fear of squat cleans…
Mark: 11:35. I feel good about it. I stayed mentally strong and kept a nice steady pace (although a bit slow)
Most of the best times were right around 10:00 with the exception of Tess at 8:44. She is a machine.

On the final set of kettle bell swings, my grip strength was waining but I was determined to hold onto that chunk o’ metal and finish all 15 reps without setting it down. The internal dialog went just like this:
(rep 5) “With a good hip-pop, you don’t even need arm strength, you just have to hold on”
(rep 6) “Yeah! good pop. I barely even had to lift it. 10 more of those please.”
(rep 10) “Ooo, my forearms are burning, getting tough to hold on. Only five more.”
(rep 12) “Dammit, I’m a rock climber, if there is one thing I got, its strong grip”
(rep 11) “Hey, I can relax my grip a little at the top”
(rep 12) “Whoa! Not too much relaxing up there. Might drop it on my head”
(rep 13) “I… am… climber. Will not LET GO”
(rep 14) “Must… hold… on…. Is there anything breakable in front of me? No… good.”
(rep 15) “Don’t let go. Don’t let go. Don’t let go. Please don’t let go.”
(lowering/dropping the weight away from the toes) “Whew, that was a close one”

Katy and I went bouldering at the rock gym for a little over an hour.

Lots of Int+ problems got the better of the both of us. My fingertips are raw.

Another named workout from the c-fit main website, Jackie
And here is the shout-out to the best crossfit gym in the Front Range (my gym).
   1000 m rowing
   50 thrusters at 45 lbs (men and women)
   30 pull-ups

Mark: 9:35

It was a really good time for me. I had the shakes when I was done and I had given it everything I had. I realized at the end of it all that my breakfast consisted of 2 coffees and a handful of almonds. Oops. This was maxiumum effort from me even if I didn’t eat sensibly. It will be a tough time to beat when we encounter this WOD again.

My pacing wasn’t bad. I rowed at about 2:00 pace (per 500m) till my breathing got going and then punched it up to about 1:45 pace and drifted back to 2:00 when my breathing kicked from long deep slow breaths to double-time. A good amount of the speed-up to 1:45 pace was from longer pulls on the rower, not necessarily more exertion. On the thrusters, I did my rests in the back squat position, never putting down the bar(OK, maybe once… other people were doing it). Then on the pull-ups, I broke them up into 7-8-7-4-4 taking deap breaths roughly equal to 2-times the number of reps I just finished (14, 16, 14, 4).

The minimum time for anyone today was right around 8 minutes flat, so I do have room for improvement. I might gain 20 seconds just by having a proper breakfast!