“Grace”
The greatest high I had ever felt was when I was visiting my friend Colby in Vancouver in August 05. On the last day I was there I took a trip to the local Crossfit facility there Crossfit Vancouver. I got there a little early and found the place closed and proceeded to wait around for it to open. Finally someone showed up and I went in asking to join today’s class but found out that it was cancelled because all the regulars had called in. I then mentioned that I had been doing the Crossfit Workout of the Day for about 11 months back home in Edmonton and the guy’s face lit up. Patty was his name and once he heard that I was doing the WOD for last year he was all ears and eager to have a workout. We started up with a light warm-up and he proceeded to ask me what my weaknesses were and where I’d like to improve. I told him clean and jerks and snatches were my weak points ( big mistake) and wanted to work on them. We played around with clean and jerks for a awhile with him critiquing my form and giving me pointers. From there we were ready for the workout, which is when Patty broke the news to me that since my weakness was clean and jerks, we’d be doing 135lbs/60kg clean and jerks for 30 reps as fast as we could, a workout also known as “Grace”. Now I weighted in at about 150lbs at the time and throwing 135lbs over my head was a bit a task so the prospect of doing it 30 times as fast as I could was a bit daunting but excuses were for the weak and we setup two bars across from one another. We got set, Patty started the watch and the insanity began. He finished his 30 off in like 5:00 minutes by which time I was around rep 11 but just kept on grinding away all the while the clock ticked away and Patty rooted me on, giving me pointers as my form and strength slowly gave way. We were using bumper plates there, which we could drop; we were going so hardcore slamming the weight against the ground that the people next door came over to complain that the pictures on the walls were about to fall off. The lady that came over walked in and stood there with a dumb-founded look for a couple seconds as she walked into a room with two guys picking up weights and dropping them over and over again. When it was all said and done I clocked in at 20 minutes and change and I was turned into hamburger but the high I experienced afterwards was amazing. I could feel the endorphins and chemicals being released into my body and felt like a machine, the high was like nothing I had ever felt before. It took me like 5 days to completely recover from the workout and I ended up getting really sick afterwards but it was all worth it.

09/13/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 69.9kg
120 pull-ups and 120 dips for time
Time 17:36
Scored 20:15 on 07/04/06 so a 2:16 increase and another huge PR. Fuck I’m going to miss this.

09/12/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 69.6
OHS 10x1
40/50/50/52.5/55/55F/50/55/60/62.5PR/65PR/67.5PR/70PR
BANG! PR central. Felt like I could have even gone heavier but I was having problems taking the weight out of the rack, I bet I could get 75kg if I had a set of pillars of poverty and bumper plates to drop the weight. Started off bad and failed on 55kg, Andrew then gave me some pointers of how to step out of the rack with the weight over my head and from there it was eazy-peazy but I couldn’t have done it without Andy there who managed an 80kg OHS at 70kg. Dam.
Weighted Pull-ups x3/Ring Rows x5/Head Push-ups x5 circuit x 7
1arm DB Press – alt arms 10-5/12.5-5/15-5x2/17-3

09/11/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
500m row – 1:49.4@28 – would have hit a PR but lost my grip in the handle and let it go
1000m row – 3:53.3@23
50 Box Jumps
50 Jumping Pull-ups
50 Swings, 1 pood/15kg
50 Walking lunges
50 KTE
50 Push Press, 45lbs/20kg
50 Back Ext
50 Wall Ball Shots, 8kg
50 Burpess
50 Double Unders – subbed with standing wall jumps
Time 27:05
Scored 31:42 on 03/20/06 at Kate’s place. KTE held me back big time, push press started the metabolic downfall, wall ball had no explosion and burpees were pitifully painful. Good fun.

09/10/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 69.9kg
500m rows – 1:54.9@25/1:55.2@24/1:52.0@25
1000m row – 3:53@24 PR
2500m run
Stretch, rehab work and clean practice

09/09/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 72kg
“Cindy”
As many rounds in 20 minutes of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
Total Rounds 18 + 5/10/3
Well this was a bit of a shit show; my previous Cindy was back on 04/19/05 with 20 rounds. I was on a decent pace until about the 15 minute mark where I was on round 16 and from there it hit me and struggled the rest of the way through. Part of me says I missed writing down a round but I don’t think so, 18 and change it is. I felt pretty good on the push-ups until the about round 15 and from there started to break it up, squats were a bit slow as were pull-ups which I’m sure can be associated with the 10km I rowed the day before. As for other excuses, I munched out a bit the night before on some ever so good Lindt Chocolate, cashews and veggies and came into the gym weighting 72kg so that didn’t help. I’m terrible when it comes to nuts, I can’t have them in the place or else I’ll eat them, a lot of them, 750g of cashews in 2 nights is not good. Also, I did share the pull-up bar and it was on a crappy bar at that. Now for the science part of it; perhaps my bodyweight work has gone down a bit while my weighted work has gone up big time, would like to try this again though on a good bar and not feeling sick in the stomach.
5x5 of:
OSH 35kg
Deadlift 100kg
Bench Press 50kg

09/08/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 70kg
Row 10km
2500m = 10:75.7@18
4 min rest
5000m = 22:12.9@17
4 min rest
2500m = 10:44.3@19
This one was tough but not as tough as I anticipated, should have gone 5000m/5000m, still left me in a sweaty mess though.

09/07/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
BW 69kg
Back Squat 10x1 – 60/70/80/80/90/95/100/105PR/107.5F/85ATF/80ATF

Clean – 40-3/45-3/50-2x2/55-2/60-1/65-1x2PR/60-1
Military Press – 30-5/35-5/40-5x2/42.5-5
SDHP – 40-3/50-3x2/52.5-3x2
His a pretty nice PR on the back squats at 105kg but failed on 107.5, will get that next time around, if there is a next time around…Also had a great showing on the cleans; those snatches from the other day have really put my form into new perspective and I hit a PR at 65kg no problem, could have probably gone 67.5 or even 70 but backed off a bit. Solid.

09/05/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
“Diane”
21-15-9
100kg/225lbs Deadlift
Handstand Push-ups
Time 8:00 w/ assisted HSPU
I was feeling like shit walking into this one from the last two WODs but I stepped into this one and destroyed it doing the first 21 deadlifts unbroken and then going 8/7 and 9 on the last two sets. Did the HSPU assisted with Andrew pulling on my ankles, which I must say I think is harder than doing them normally or unassisted against a wall, you get way more depth and having someone else there yelling at you helps out too.

09/04/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
3 Rounds for time of:
95lbs/43kg Power Snatch, 21 reps
Run 400m
Time 17:45 w/ 32.5kg/71.65lbs & 500m rows
Damn, went hardcore on this one and had that moment of Zen where I could “See Through Time” as I like to refer to it, on the last 500m row. Felt great on the snatches and could have even gone a bit heavier, felt I had a bit of a break through form-wise in regards to the snatch and clean on this one.

09/03/06
Cook & Philip Aquatic Center
30 minutes for rounds adding 5 reps per round of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
Total Rounds 7 + 40 pull-ups & 23 push-ups
Another shocker that left me soaked; could hardly do the pull-ups towards the end cranking my chin a couple times and was just pitiful on the push-ups doing them in 3s at the buzzer. Was a grinder during the WOD but felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach afterwards with that pukie feeling. Finished off with some cleans, DB DL, front squats and calf work. Knee a bit sore this morning, which I’m sure is in part to yesterday’s run and long hours at work, didn’t feel too good at first on the squats but recovering well.

09/02/06
Stretch
Leisurely run at about 5km at around 30 minutes. First REAL run that I’ve had in months and my knee felt great, a bit sore the next day though but I think that’s also from being on it for 8 hours at work and sleeping on it awkwardly.
Hold/yoga circuit in the park