Wednesday May 1, 2019

5AM - "Nate" 

 AMRAP-20
 2 Muscle Ups
 4 Handstand Push-Ups
8 Kettlebell Swings (70#)

( 14 Rounds, workout PR)

My third time trying this particular wod. This is a hero workout, meaning it's named after a fallen soldier, usually someone who died in the Middle East around the time that CrossFit was becoming more of a popular military workout tool. Specifically, this one is named after Nate Hardy, a Navy Seal who passed away in February of 2008. As a general rule of thumb, Laura and I usually designate 5 AM Wednesdays for something long, shitty, and with particular attention paid to a movement or two that we both want to test, like the muscle ups today. The challenge of "Nate" is not in the load or the rep scheme, but instead with the time domain. 20 minutes is a long time to do anything with intensity, and with a training partner you don't want to lose to, the rests can be few and far between on a workout like this. My goal was to complete 12 rounds, but Laura pushed me beyond that today. I was half a round ahead of pace and ahead of her for most of the allotted 20 minutes, but the wheels fell off in Round 13. I slipped through the rings on one of the muscle ups and ended up needing to find a drier pair of rings, completing my set of 2 as singles. I failed an attempt in round 14, but eventually completed both reps..again, as singles. During this flailing around, Laura who is slow but steady on the rings, gladly passed me for the win.

 5PM 

5 Rounds for Time
20 Ball Slams, 30 lbs
30 Sledgehammer Strikes
Burden Run, 30 lbs, 200 m

( 15:46) 

This was the workout I wrote for Chester Springs CrossFit today. They don't always fit my own training schedule, but whenever possible, I like to test the workouts that I write. Gotta eat your own cooking from time to time just so you know it doesn't suck. Every other Wednesday at 5 PM I have the opportunity to train with our gym's owner, a CrossFit Games Open Qualifier this year in her age bracket of 50-55. She regularly hands me my own ass, and today was not different. It was one of the nicer days of the year so far, so it was good to get outside and take out some work frustration on a tire, but running with a 30 lb ball felt like I might as well have been pulling a car.