Went back to my Mecca; CrossFit Diamond State. Good place to go... good to be back where it all started. Got a few hugs and high fives. I'll be upfront and honest, this wasn't a good workout for me... I mean I did ok tonight, but it was more about the date, and getting back to "my roots" as it were. Tax day will always be special for a whole different reason than taxes. I do those in Feb anyway.
Roxanne... if you're not familiar with the warmup, or part of a workout... you should be. Old song by the Police. Every time Roxanne is belted out, you drop an do a burpee. I knew this was coming, so I did some research, 26 times. I hate burpees, but this was fun. I screwed up my like 4th burpee, my shoe caught in between the mats on the floor, and I missed that one completely. Other than that, I got... idk, between 18 and 22 of them. There were some at the end that were too close together, but it's a warmup, I don't feel too bad, not with having hit some may and jumping up like I did. Getting better my friends, getting better.
We did more warmup activies, some empty bar work to get used to the movements, and then it was go time. This is apparently a hero wod with a twist. Don't know which one, I'm just repeating what I overheard. 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, 6 push jerks, and 15 HSPU's... why it couldn't just be 3, I dont know. I went with 95lbs, remembering the struggle from Monday with hang cleans... Kinda wish I'd go a little lighter. For speed sake you know. ;)
Deadlifts were a breeze... the whole first round of barbell movements was quick... clean, and looked pretty... oh, and I didn't drop the bar. The HSPUs... I tried something new... I got up on a taller box, and tried to get over my arms, more like a HSPU, and not like a deficit pushups. I failed... I mean I did 5, barely, got up... did 5 more, barely, and was going to stop at 10.... and I held up 10 fingers to Andy P, who was coaching tonight and was like "thats what I've got"... implying that that was all I wanted to do. I don't know if he didn't hear me, or didn't like the answer, he was asked me something... I couldn't tell... sounded like "how many left?"... point taken. I had to go 3, 2. It was like going to failure -1... I think had I done one more, I'd have fallen off the damn box.
Segues into a nice little poem I thought up after the WOD.
Some of my coaches read this
Some of them don't
I'll bust my ass for some
For others I wont.
All of my coaches have my respect, and if I'm not deep enough in a squat, doing something wrong, or otherwise lolly gagging, I want them to tell me about it. Some of these coaches, I'll go run a mile for, and give it everything I've got if they asked, and wanted me to actually run a mile from where I'm at physically now. Others, I'd haggle with, and ask about the rower instead. Not the best example, I'll see if I can come up with something better tomorrow. Back on track...
At this point, after 1 round... I'm in trouble. I mean deep doo doo. My shoulders are already smoldering and I've got 4 more rounds to do. I'm not going to talk about the deadlifts anymore... they were easy. I got lazy, and a tad breathless in the last two rounds, dropped the bar when I didn't need to, just to rest before the cleans... but thats it, no big story there. The cleans... my goodness... I thought they were ugly on Monday... form was gone. I mean a few times I'd have a solid pull, fast elbows, and an otherwise exceptional clean, but for the most part these were quasi muscle cleans that I just wanted to get over with. The push jerks we're ok... went about like you'd expect with HSPU's at the end of each round. I still need work on my jerks, I don't feel I do enough jerking, like I need to get lower, faster. Just re-read that sentence... the adolescent in me is chuckling.
The box HSPUs... by round 2, I... it was bad, ok? I mean one to two. I got to 5, and had had enough, it took me almost a minute to do 5. I went over and grabbed a 12" box. Damage was already done from the 20 (I think). I got through this set, with decent "form"....and I feel these are harder, and better (truer) to HSPU's the the planks I did. Round 2 passed without further incident. 3, 4, and 5 got harder each time... more stops, less of a HSPU look... it was ugly. I'm happy I went with the larger box first, and that I tried to do this at a difficult level for me... turns out I'm not quite ready for THAT, at least I wasn't today, but I tried, failed, "changed the weight" and finished the WOD. 21:08.
Thats all I've got for now, I'll have to gussy it up a bit in the morning, it's probably riddled with errors. The second half of this is going to have my first coaches interview, we'll see how I'm going to proceed with them after this one... Do they get their own page? Do I continue adding them to posts? How do I present this awesome stuff... Also need to get to work on getting the domain setup and getting a real site (not just a .blogger.com one) up. Need to talk to Coach Randi from CFDS...
Going to use this here pic of myself with the Pallers as the break before "the interview". I do find myself wishing I lived in DE with every day I spend with CFDS and Unlocked. Tight bonds. Anyway, before I write another lovely dovey novel about my affection for the CrossFitters of Delaware...
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Alright... this is about 6 days later than I intended to have it done. I got busy, what can I say? Without much further a due, here is the first of what will be many coach interviews. I might get fancy at some point and make this official vlog type posts, but not this first one, this one is going to be transcribed from a vid I made that looked at the heavens or floor as much as at Coach Andy. I started with some softball questions, then worked on some "harder" ones. Might as well put it here, if you have something you want to know about, whether it's from my coaches (who may be one of yours), or you're curious what a CrossFit coaches answer to X might be, feel free to ask in the comments below.
How long have you been CrossFiting?
"Coming up on 5 years this summer, so we'll say 4 and a half"
What about coaching?
"About 3 and a half"
So, what got you into coaching?
"My job is... or was teaching customers for Siemens, and I guess I had a pretty good way of interacting with people in training, had a way of making things simple. A lot of people were like "you're really good at this, you should get certified". So I put it off for a about a year, and finally thought it was a good idea, plus (he's smiling now) it was kinda a way to get a free membership too, so for the last 3 and a half years I've been coaching."
Makes sense. So what is your favorite movement, and why?
Mmmm... Hand Stand Pushups, cause I'm good at it (another smile, I laughed, cause, well, I'm awful). I like to tease you with them, and I have good endurance with them too."
Whats the movement you hate the most?
"Snatches, cause I've still never gotten over 200lbs. I got to 195 as my best ever, and then ever since my back has been tweaked, it's just been... no (he kind of trailed off there... feel like there is some unfinished business for AP).
Anything you love, or hate to program?
"I love making programs that look very simple, so like a minute on (going/moving), or rounds with rest built in them, because people think they don't need to rest or something, but the output is SO tough, that the workout surprises them"
You mean like Tabata?
"Yeah, yeah"
What have been some of your top moments as a coach and/or athlete?
"Uh, I have two. One top moment was the second time I help coached Gia at regionals, and just being able to go back and see her progress over the year from the regionals before. And the other was the toughest athlete I've had to coach, who was Oliver who was in here earlier. His movments have been on point, and it challenged me to find the fine tuning for his movements."
Has he done CrossFit before, I saw him when I showed up tonight and he was just slaying this workout like it was... fun, almost easy.
"Yeah, he was at regionals twice, and would have gone to the games if he wasn't in PT school"
Oh.. Awws.... so he's THAT kind of athlete huh?
"Yeah, he challenged me".
(editorial comment, this dude was doing this WOD Rx at 155, at he didn't look like he we struggling one bit. To top it off, he doesn't look like you're stereotypical CrossFit regionals level athlete... at least not with his shirt on.)
Alright, I know you'll have something here. What are some of your pet peeves at the box?
"Uh.... my biggest pet peeve is when I go to give somebody a good piece of advice, and they pretend to listen to me, and then they go right back to what they were doing before."
What's the sideways look for?
(headshake and a smile)
Oh ok, I was about to be like "what are you saying? "
*laughter*
Ok, two more, if you could only have one recovery item, what would it be?
"Probably Progenex. I had a good weekend, SuperFit, first weekend I used that stuff, so Progenex Protein... Chocolate".
One thing, good or bad, that not enough people know about or do.
"Hmmm, one of the things I think a lot of people don't do, is take care of their hands. Simple hand manicures, so they rip, constantly. They don't understand that simple shaving of their hands will take care of that. I've only ripped two times, and they were both in competitions."
Ok, last question, what is music that you absolutely can't work out to?
(no hesitation) "Country, I can't get down with country"
You know your boy Jeff (Peet) loves to workout to country?
"I do, yes."
Everyones gone, he turns on country, and I gave him this look like really?
"If I'm listening to music while I'm working out, I'm probably not working out hard enough"
Fair enough. Alright, well this will be going up for posterity, anything else you'd like to share?
"No man, I just like to see that you made a full year of working out, that you're still around"
Are you surprised (I've got a big smile now). You can be honest.
"Uh, no. After meeting you, seeing your mentality, no."
There you have it, the first interview with one of my favorite coaches. I wanted to interview Gia first, since she was my gateway into CrossFit, but she just got a new house, and had some things to do, so I got to interview my guy Andy. AP falls into a special category of person for me and frankly, I wish I lived closer, I'd like to see him, Laura...and really all of my peoples more. Many thanks to Andy for agreeing to be filmed while answering some questions.
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