The Banana Stand

So this equation pretty much sums up CrossFit (this is a pretty simplified version, see here for the more accurate version). The aim is to maximize the amount of work completed and minimize the amount of time it takes to do, thus maximizing power. As the amount of time it takes you to do a workout decreases, your generated power will increase accordingly. Pretty cool stuff.
So let's see, since last week what have I accomplished...
Last week I did some sort of push-press/squat/row 250 m combination. My times are getting better, which makes me think I'm making some strides in the cardio department. I'm not sure how my strength is doing.
On Saturday I did the WOD from Friday that ended up being pretty rough. I scaled to the following:
-Box jumps at 25
-Deadlift x 15 @ 135 lbs
-Jumping pullups x 15
for a total of 3 rounds.
The last round of box jumps was at a more significant height than the first two because some dude took my box to use for something else while I was on deadlifts. I can't remember the time it took to complete.
Sunday was a rest day. I grabbed lunch with Qua at BWW in Plymouth which is always a good time. Capped it off with an epic game of Big Buck Hunter. I think I won by less than 100 points. Also watched my fantasy team do alright. Pretty much all my players played in the early games which was kind of unnerving, but they ended up doing well enough to put me in the PFL super bowl next weekend. Good news is I'm in the money now, runner up gets 75 with potential to get 200 if I can pull off an upset. The big question is the following: Do I play Donovan McNabb or Kurt Warner next week? Warner has been falling off a little lately and McNabb has heated up. Yes I'm soliciting advice.
The rest of the day was spent watching the first half of the Vikings game, sleeping the second half, doing laundry and eating sushi for dinner. The typical do-nothing Sunday that I appreciate so much.
Today kicked off the last full week of work for the next 3 weeks. After this week, we've got Christmas vacation, then the following week, New Year's day, and the week after that is Park City already. Hard to believe it's coming up that soon. Unless the weather changes I won't be getting a chance to get out on the slopes around here before we get on that plane. Ah well, it will be interesting to say the least.
Hit up the grocery store after work and stocked up. I was surprised I spent over 80 bucks on basically produce! What the heck. Maybe that's not entirely accurate, but it felt like I didn't get a whole lot for that 80 bucks.
Hit up the gym afterward and did the WOD for today. I scaled it as follows:
-Deadlifts @ 165 x 5 reps
-10 burpees
for 5 rounds. My time was 7:29. Man my heart was pumping afterward. I'm sure everybody else around me was wondering what the hell I was doing. Kind of funny. Did a few Tabata sprints on the treadmill after that. There was a super cute girl a couple machines over that I'm sure I frightened with my near falling off the treadmill by the final set. Haha. Finished up with some ab-work and worked on some skills. I just cannot get the kipping motion down. I was just trying to swing back and forth on the bar and couldn't do it. I don't think it's a matter of strength I think it's a matter of coordination or lack thereof. After a while I got frustrated and attempted a few Knees to Elbows. I was pretty happy that I was able to do 5 of those without too much trouble. Man that is an ab/back killer. I need to start slipping some more of those into my workouts. Went home in the -whatever degree weather and cooked up some chicken breast and peppers. I threw some salsa on top and a little cheese. It was sort of fajitas sans tortilla. Finished things off with a bowl of diced apple and some berries. The good news is I now have mostly pretty healthy stuff at home so hopefully I'll be able to slim down a little bit more. I think I can be both strong and lean at about 170, maybe a little more. I'm currently around 177 or so.
Well after deadlifting 2 out of the past 3 days my shins are hamburger. They are sore to the touch, but apparently that means I'm doing something right according to everything I can find on the internet. I think I tweaked my back a little bit towards the end of the workout tonight. The bad part is when you get tired with the deadlift, your form suffers and that's when problems can arise. I'll see how I feel in the morning. The good news is that I won't have to do deadlifts tomorrow! Yay! Tomorrow's WOD is a strength day, so that will be a nice break. I'll probably jump on the C2 rower for a while too to get some cardio in.
Joel is headed home on Friday for Christmas so the whole family is looking forward to that. Hopefully this time I'll see him for more than a few hours (his doing, not mine). He always spends a lot of time with his friends, which is important, but it'd be good to hang out too.
I still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. So that's still on the docket of things to accomplish in the next 9 days. I can't believe Christmas is already that close.
The rest of the week will be spent at work during the day, at the gym at night, and who knows after that. Everybody I know is finally done with school this week, so hopefully people will be up for stuff next weekend.
Also check out the following two joints:
Cafe Maude
moto-i
I checked out both these places this past weekend. On Friday, Dave, Mark and I went to moto-i and got some home brewed sake and awesome Japanese bar food. I highly recommend it. Saturday morning I met Jamie and one of her friends at Cafe Maude for brunch. It was phenomenal. I splurged and got the Eggs Benedict with spicy lamb sausage. Totally delicious.
Hopefully this week Girtz and I will make it to Buster's. I have heard good things. I think he's looking to celebrate being done with the semester. It sounds like it was a pretty taxing one.
Anyway, until next time, thanks to Zach for the current recommended track:
Austin Lucas - Go West (demo)