3 rounds of:

• 10 unstable pushups
• 10 hamstring slides
• 10 KB swings (35lb)
• 10 goblet squats (35lb)

2 rounds of:

• 60sec Wall Sit
• 10 Pullups
• 10 AbRoller + Legs-on-Ball Pushups
• 10 V-Ups
• 5 SLDLs
• 5 35lb KB Press per arm
• 5 35lb Goblet Squats

Ran around a little at woodbridge. I mostly wanted to see how my knee felt after taking several months off. The good news is that it doesn’t hurt, but the bad news is that its pretty sore and does not feel ready yet. Gonna up my PT and workouts at home.

Got through 8 minutes (36 pullups). Then in the 9th minute, did two super-slow negative pullups.

10min AMRAP:

• 5 pullups
• 10 pushups
• 15 hip thrusts

6 rounds + 8 reps

• 10 DB renegade rows @ 12lb
• 5 ab rollouts
• 5 leg slide pikes
• 3 DB Press @ 35lb
• 5 SLDL @ 35lb
• 10 slow squats @ 35lb (5 seconds down)
• 10 DB renegade rows @ 12lb
• 5 DB Press @ 35lb
• 6 pullups @ 12lb
• 5 slow squats @ 35lb

After a long 3-month hiatus, my knee doensn’t hurt just from thinking of squatting. So it’s time to ease myself back into shape.

Tabata:

• Pullups: 4,4,4,4,2,3,2,3
• V-Ups: 8,8,8,8,6,5,6,6
• Pushups: 8,8,8,8,4,3,3,3

Note to self: never take so much time off again. This sucked.

What an epic nationals! We came in seeded 8th overall, the 2nd seed in the pool of death. We had the overall 1 seed (Amp), a severely-underseeded Blackbird, and Ambiguously Grey - a team that finished 6th last year after starting out in the bottom half. Rockford, IL was very windy on Thurs and Fri, so the games were very upwind-downwind.

Our first game against Blackbird was super-close the whole way. Our D got many chances to score upwind, but we couldn’t convert any of them. Blackbird broke us twice in the first half, and was sitting pretty with the lead. In the second half, we started playing some of our stronger throwers on D, and finally got the upwind break, then the downwind break. The cap went on, and we were pulling upwind on universe point. Miraculously, we got the D and worked it all the way upwind to score the break and pull out the win 12-11.

After this amazing win, we kept rolling. We crushed AG 11-6 in a very windy second game, then faced off against Amp to earn the bye into quarters. This is the game I had been looking forward to. Amp was the 1 seed, but we had beaten them before and knew they were not invincible. We started out really strong, scoring the first 3 points. Then we quickly gave up a few breaks to let Amp close, before breaking to take half 8-6. In the second half, we broke twice more, taking the win 12-9. They showed our game on Ultiworld, which was really cool for my family. Even the Germans got to watch me play.

Winning out on Thurs earned us a bye into quarters, and the right to play only one game a day until we lost. It also put Amp on the other side of the bracket, together with Drag’n Thrust, Slow White, and Mixtape (who lost to Mischief). This means we had the easiest road to finals of any of the other teams. In quarters, we stomped Noise 15-7, sending us to semis (my first time playing in semis). There, we faced a tough Mischief team. The wind died down, but we still made a lot of mistakes (dropping the very first pull, throwing several miscued dumps, etc). We also had several great plays (including a Callahan from John G). The game was very close throughout. We started down, clawed back to take half 8-7, went down 8-9, then scored 3 breaks in a row to basically seal the deal. We ended up winning 14-11, and making the big game - finals against Slow White.

Slow is definitely the team I wanted to play against in the finals. They were very good all around, but we had proven we could beat them if we played well. I also have a lot of friends on that team, so playing against them is always fun. We started off the way we always do - by giving up a few breaks. Slow broke us 3 times in a row. We regrouped and a few points later, broke them 3 times back. They broke again at 6-5, we broke at 7-6 to take half 8-6. Being a second-half team, we were knew we had them right where we wanted them. However, tight subbing really drained our stars, and we started making mistakes. They broke us at 8-7, then again at 9s to take the lead. Finally, up 12-11, they broke us 3 times to win it 15-11. In retrospect, we definitely had the ability to win that game and I wish we had played it a bit differently. On the other hand, what’s done is done, and I’m still very happy with the outcome. I played well all weekend, improving throughout. I played my best game in the finals, throwing two assists (one a half-field breakside huck). If someone had told me on Thursday that we were gonna take 2nd place, I would have been psyched. Losing in the finals stings, but that was the only sad part of an otherwise incredible nationals.

Final stat line: 0 goals, 3 assists (2 in the finals), 1 D, 1 turnover (against Blackbird).

We’re in Pittsburgh this week, which means Rodu is on the menu. Sadly, Rob is closing the gym in a week or two. But on the plus side, I got one more workout in before he’s gone.

KB Warmup:

2 rounds of:

• 10 Bottom-Up KB Screwdriver
• 10 Bottom-Up KB Press
• 2 Turkish Getup

Snatch Work

10min EMOM:

• 1 Snatch-grip Deadlift
• 1 Hang Power Snatch
• 3 Overhead Squat

5@65lb, 4@75lb, 1@85lb

AMRAP

3 x 4min AMRAP:

• 5 Strict Pullups
• 10 Burpees
• 15 KB Swings @ 24kg

2min rest between rounds (or maybe 3 min??)

2+15, 1+21, 1+23

An exciting weekend for Metro North. We won the region, beating Slow White (the top seed, and #2 in the country) 15-13 in the finals. That game was one of the cleanest and most focused games I’ve ever played. Our O line only had two turns, and only let Slow convert one of them. Our D line converted two breaks (I caught both of them :-) ), and had a chance to convert at least one more. I felt like I was completely in the zone and focused on the game. I did talk to people on the sideline, but I barely remember what I said.

Before the finals, we had a few close games with 7X and Wildcard. I played fairly well in those too, though I had one or two turns on Sat and missed some D opportunities.

Strength / Skills

14min EMOM:

• Odd Minutes: 3-position Power Clean (upright, knees, shins), building
• Even Minutes: 8 Box Jumps, focussing on speed

Cleans: 2@75lb, 2@95lb, 2@115lb, 1@125lb

Box Jumps: 2@20”, 2@24”, 3@30”

WOD

3 Rounds for Time:

• 5 Power Cleans @80% of EMOM
• 5 Box Jumps at 24”
• 4 Power Cleans
• 5 Box Jumps
• 3 Power Cleans
• 5 Box Jumps
• etc

Rest 2:00 between rounds. Target time for each round is 1:45-2:15. If you’re way over that, drop weight or box height.

My rounds: 2:04, 2:05, 2:02 with a 100lb clean.

Practice 3-6 Saturday and 10-1 Sunday. Worked on a lot of things, talked about mental toughness, played lots of slap cup.

As far as ultimate goes, I did not play that well. A lot of turns - rushed throws, bad decisions, just not there mentally. I need to focus on taking an extra second before every throw, even the easy ones. It may feel slow, but I think it will up my percentage. And NO HUCKS unless its obviously the right throw.

Off the field, I killed it at slap cup.

Strengh/Skill

16min EMOM:

Odd Minutes: 3 Deadlift @ 165,185,185,195,215,215,225,235lb

Even Minutes: 5 Weighted Pull-ups (or eccentric ring rows) @ 10,5@0,2@rows

WOD

6:00 AMRAP

• 3 RKBS @ 70lb
• 2 Pull Ups
• 6 RKBS @ 70lb
• 4 Pull Ups
• etc

I did 6 full rounds, finishing with 18 RKBS and 12 pullups

Strength/Skill Work

4 rounds of:

• 4x5 Front Squats, building: 125,135,155,165lb
• 4x8 Reverse V-Ups (leg sliders)

WOD

For time, with an 8min cap:

• 21 Burpee Plate Jumps
• 21 Front Squats
• 15 Burpee Plate Jumps
• 15 Front Squats
• 9 Burpee Plate Jumps
• 9 Front Squats

The RX weight is 95lb. I started off with 85lb, but dropped down to 75lb about 3 squats in. Even with that, I was 4 squats short of finishing in the 8min cap. I attribute this to some combination of going hard in the first half of the workout, and not eating that well the last few days.

Spent a good amount of time rolling my glutes, IT bands and calves. Also stretched my legs and back.

I stayed with Miriam on Sunday night after Pro Flight, and she invited me to play goalty with her team. At first I thought I’d be too tired and sore to play, but I decided to come out and see how it went. I ended up playing the whole time and had a blast. The people were fun and we had the right number of subs - enough to feel fresh but not too many to stand around a lot. I’m still learning goalty, so I made a bunch of mistakes, but I did mack a disc for a goal and throw a Rochester for a goal that was dropped. Overall I noticed that people have a tendency to all hang out in and around the goal, which makes scoring extra hard. I think more discipline to stay away from the arch would create more space and make scoring easier.

6 games across 2 days. We didn’t have many players, and lost some to injury as the weekend went on, so I got a lot of reps. I tried out KT tape for my knee, and am happy to report that it did not bother me at all on Saturday and only hurt a little on Sunday (whether this correlation implies any causation or not, I still don’t know). I had more turns and less Ds this weekend than I did in Colorado, but I also had to handle more since Lucas wasn’t there and Liz is out for the season. I esp played poorly against Amp and Drag’n Thrust, with several turns in each game that were caused by rushing a throw - my main problem area. If we converted just a few more breaks, we could have won those games (or at least kept them competitive).

I threw the longest huck for a goal of my life - an 80-yard endzone-to-endzone huck to Mari. To be fair my mark was slow to get set so I had a wide-open backhand, but it’s still a nice achievement.

Skillz

4 Rounds for Time:

• 1 Rope Climb
• 8 Box Jumps @ 24”
• 6 Power Cleans @ 135lb (dropped to 115lb after the first round)
• 4 Renegade Rows @ 30lb
• 1 Rope Climb

Rest 3:00 after each round.

My times: 1:52, 2:02, 2:05, 1:55

The rope climbs were tough but pretty fun. I burned my shin pretty hard on the first round. After that I found a wrist wrap and wrapped that around my ankle. This really helped me from tearing up my shin any further, and let me come down faster on the climb down.

WOD

CrossFit Games Open 12.1 (AMRAP - Reps)

AMRAP in 7min of burpees. On each burpee, touch a target 6” above your reach.

Got through 55 burpees . I really focused on pace and breathing, but still came out a little too fast. I could have probably gotten more if I tried harder to go slow in the first round. Then again, I was pretty beat from the first part of the workout, and I’m pretty weak on pushups in general.

Strength / Accessory Work

4 rounds of:

• 12 Dumbbell Shoulder Press @ 15lb db
• 12 Barbell Russian Twist, building to 65lb

WOD

4 4-min Rounds (for reps):

Each round, do 3 sets of :20 on, :40 off of a movement. Then rest 1:00. Score is total reps for each movement.

• Thrusters @ 75lb
• Russian Twists @ 35lb KB
• Pushups (or scale down to Shoulder Taps)
• Burpees (or scale down to Reverse V Ups)

9,9,8 thrusters, 28,32,32 twists, 16,4+26,0+46 pushups+taps, 3,6,6 v ups.

Went on a 3-day, 2-night hike in the mountains by Mestia, Georgia. The plan was to hike up to the Guli pass (Гульба), look over the edge, then come down. But we started our hikes fairly late both days, so we missed the summit by about an hour or two (had to turn back in order to make it down in time). I’d never been on an all-out hike like this. We carried all our food and gear with us. We camped on the glacier both nights (first night on the rocks embedded in the ice, second night on the snow/ice itself). We used helmets, crampons, harnesses, and ice picks. It was pretty intense, but a lot of fun. The views were magnificent and the camaraderie was really gratifying. Plus it was great to see my dad and his friends relive the good old days of “extreme hiking”, and to meet the next generation of explorers.

By the time we came down on day 3, I was thoroughly exhausted. I hadn’t slept well for 3 nights (due to the cold, the snoring tentmates, and the late-night partying). The descent was pretty challenging, and since I got down first, I went back twice to help the rest of the crew with their packs. On the upside, my knee hurt a lot less than I expected. Maybe I need to reevaluate what triggers my tendonitis.