My Story

Before stumbling into CrossFit, my entire life had been a long journey spent doing nearly everything possible wrong. My sport of choice as a child was soccer (one of the most dangerous sports, measured by injuries per hour played), leaving me pretty tyrannosaurus rexish (all leg, no arms). Numerous knee and ankle tweaks later, my legs were also prone to injury, despite their size. I compounded that with ultimate frisbee in college, more running (and shin splints, and twisted ankles, and sore knees)! Let's not even begin to talk diet. I ate like a power-lifter trying to pack on muscle, but without doing any of the work.

Mmmm.... nom nom nom. Sta-puft marshmallow man lurvs ice-cream cake!

I made excuses for myself, that although I was heavy, I was strong. And while that was true, it didn't make me feel any better about my body. I couldn't hang with the team when they went on their warm-up runs, and whenever the shin splints acted up (almost constantly), I was relegated to the sidelines, calling out plays, maybe subbing a point or two to let someone in better shape catch their breath. That point's worth of play would usually leave me panting for 15-20 minutes...

Out of college, responsible for my own shopping and food intake, I ballooned up to 230+ pounds. The one upshot was that I was still pretty strong, especially through the legs. Need someone to lug the drummer's bin of hardware into the club? I got it. Need someone to dance and jump around playing bari sax? I got it. At least for one song... However, I was even MORE unhappy with how my body looked and felt.

My first attempt at fixing the mistakes of the past was to go on Weight Watchers. In fairly rapid order, I dropped about 40, maybe 50 pounds (from 230+ to 180+), but again, without doing any work in the gym (or at home). I shed fat, and for damn sure I shed muscle. By the time I was done, if I ran into someone I hadn't seen in a while, the question I was asked was "Wow, have you been ill?" Yeah, that was the goal... The weight went right back on when I fell off the wagon.

Skinny sax man. Strong? Kinda. But not as strong as yesterday... 

I was finally introduced to CrossFit around 2008 or so. I started picking and choosing workouts off the main site WoDs, eventually bringing in CrossFit Football and Endurance WoDs that looked fun, or (more usually) played to my strengths. However, as the workload increased, so did my food intake. I got stronger, I got faster, but I also got bigger. I tried to eat clean, but was nowhere near what could be called "paleo." Pasta was still a staple, milk still made its way into my smoothies (which were based on whey protein anyways...). I also learned that programming is an art, both for a single workout AND in the log term. I co-created, with the guy who introduced me to CrossFit, a plyometric-based Tabata workout we ended up calling 'Beef Tips Gone Bad.' A funny reference ('Friends') for a workout that basically crippled me with a scorching case of Patellar Tendonopathy (or patellar tendonitis... I never had it officially diagnosed... I just had a lot of trouble walking up and down stairs for about a year...)

After a stressful move to Connecticut, which involved LOTS of time in the car on weekends, time away from my family during the week, the utter inability to find a move-in-ready house in a good school district (with one daughter prone to allergen-triggered asthma-like symptoms, and another little one on the way, there was NO thought of a fixer-upper)... I joined Elm City CrossFit, and have never looked back. Suddenly I had coaches fixing all my self-taught stupidities. Suddenly I had a given WoD to do, and couldn't pick what I wanted from the past week or so. Suddenly, I started seeing real improvements in my strength and endurance. Both are still completely shot from the Weight Watchers era, but they're coming along...

 Along the way, my wife has joined the box and fallen in love with CrossFit, both with the exertion AND the community; my daughter is a constant at the Elm City CrossFit Kids classes, which I co-run and co-coach; and the littlest one, now nearly 2 years old, runs around the gym with a 1# dumbbell throwing down squats like a champ. I've started trying to shed my multiple layers of accrued insulation, and trying to regain the strength I so casually took for granted in my youth.

In the run up to the 2014 CrossFit Open, ECC provided programming specifically designed to make us bigger, stronger, and faster. Opting into the program meant I was at the gym nearly twice as much for my own workouts, not even including coaching the Kids classes. Instead of a few hours a week dedicated to my own fitness, it was nearer to 10+ hours a week. More strength work, more olympic lifting, more endurance, more of everything. I tried to maximize rest time as well, but that part was harder with the kids and work schedule to work around. No child cares how much time you put into the gym that day, or how much rest you need, when they wake up from a nightmare at 3am. And neither do you... until the real alarm clock goes off, and its back to the gym, this time on 3-4 hours of sleep, rather than the intended 6-7 (which would still not be enough...)


The Open came, and for each workout I tried to map out a goal (with good, better, and best outcomes included) for each. I surpassed many of my own goals, got crushed on at least one workout, and in general felt better than I have in years. I certainly look better than I EVER have. Its nice to finally have pecs, rather than moobs (man-boobs), pushing out my shirts. I very nearly have abs showing, so THAT'S exciting. I don't think I've ever had visible abs! The weights are still going up, the cardio/endurance capacity is still inching up little by little. All in all, its been a good ride.

Additionally, the gym also hosted a Paleo eating experiment: three months of strict paleo, requiring food logs, before and after pics, benchmark WoDs, the whole nine. While I most likely would have fallen off the wagon pretty quickly left to my own devices, I managed to sign the wife up for the challenge, too. She was absolutely my salvation. When the smoke had cleared and the final scores were tallied, we had tied with another couple in a four-way tie for 2nd place! I can't speak for too many other Epic Eating Experiment participants, but we've kept our diets as clean as possible, and are continuing to see Epic results. I just recently bought a few new pairs of shorts, as the potato sacks I *had* been wearing were getting to the point of looking ridiculous. With a waistline reduced by three inches, and still setting PRs in all the major lifts, and just getting stronger and healthier, I'm in better shape in my late 30s than I was in my teens and 20s!

The upshot of the early part of that story is this: I own every part of my fitness now. The coach isn't responsible for my gains or struggles, I am. The person doing the programming is doing it for the entire gym population, not just for me. If I have a weak-point (goat), its up to me to address it. The complaints about CrossFit are myriad, and some actually carry a fair amount of water...if you're lazy and just do what you're told to and don't bother to take responsibility for your own goals and performance. You have to take responsibility for your own rest and recovery. You have to make sure YOU'RE feeding you enough calories so that you're building (or at least preserving) muscle while burning the fat. It all comes down to you. The best program in the world won't work for someone who doesn't OWN the process... and someone who
OWNS even the worst program will probably still get solid results out of it. Its all down to you, just as its all down to me.

No one can make you do it, and no one should waste their breath trying to make you. Either you're happy with your life, or you need to work to improve it. Everything else is inertia, self-deception, and laziness.

What's it gonna be, punk. Do you feel lucky?

Recommended reading:

•  CrossFit's What Is Fitness? - Greg Glassman
•  Strong Enough? - Mark Rippetoe (This may be the greatest fitness article ever written. EVER. You might need to "subscribe" to the Journal to read it, but its free now, so no worries there.)
•  Be Alive. Be VERY Alive. - Mark Rippetoe (yes, I man-heart Rip.)
•  A Letter to Young Jim Wendler - Jim Wendler
•  A Way of Life - Dave Tate
•  Armor Building - Dan John

Other crucial authors: John Welbourne, Martin Rooney, Zach Even-Esh, Robb Wolf, Greg Everett, Tim Ferriss, Kelly Starrett, and probably a BUNCH more I should be including here.

13-06-15: Increasing the Solution Set

CrossFit Kids: How getting fitter increases your "solution set"

It's easy to break life into separate categories, "work," "family," "gym," "sleep." It's easy to forget that skills gained in one area can easily transfer over into another. Improving negotiation skills at work can have surprising impacts on our family life. Improving our attitudes at the gym can have impressive carry-over into our work and family life, most likely improving sleep, too! All of this takes place in our younger athletes, too.

However, there is another more immediate benefit to be granted by having children participate in CrossFit Kids: while increasing the number of options physically available when presented with an obstacle, we are also augmenting mental problem solving skills, as now there are multiple solutions to choose from. Improved body control, upgraded mental toughness, increased experience in varied environments... all of these serve to enhance a child's (or grown adult's) ability to cope with whatever life manages to throw at them.

When first encountering a new obstacle, there are those elements that are fixed: usually the environment (classroom, park, playing field) and the nature of the obstacle itself (tests, jungle gyms, coaches/teammates). The variables are mostly contained in the person facing that obstacle, their strengths, their experiences: their innate possible solutions to the problem to be overcome. A stronger child, with more experiences, more awareness, more capabilities will obviously have an easier time dealing with the obstacle than a child lacking those improvements. Whether those obstacles are artificial (rope climbs in gym class), recreational (climbing a tree with friends), or serious/real world (climbing down a rope ladder in a home fire drill) in nature, extra skills, extra strength, extra mental fortitude will ALL come into play.

After only a few months of working with us, our athletes MORE than held their own at a CrossFit Kids Throwdown at a neighboring box. With family and coaches supporting them, they dug deep and showed what they were truly made of, and it was EPIC. (crossfit.com and superclearyphoto.com)

Like everything in CrossFit, everything is infinitely scale-able. Regardless of the size of the 'Original Solution Set,' improvements can always be made. The smaller the original skill set, the greater the gains to be made. Factor in an atmosphere where those who complete a task first immediately start helping everyone else, through support, cheering, or even tips, and we end up with the ultimate win-win situation. Everyone improves, and everyone has a great time. As the solution set grows... so too does the enjoyment of trying to tackle new obstacles, or old obstacles in new ways. Body weight exercises, gymnastics, external weights, running, jumping: These are just a few of tools at our disposal as we work to increase the solution set of every athlete who enters into our gym.

11-01-10: FRAN!!!

CrossFit Garden City WoD for Monday, January 10th, 2011

"Fran"

21-15-9 reps of:

• Thrusters
• Pullups

Scaling:

• Thrusters: Choose weight that allows for completion of workout in under 10 minutes
• Pullups: If 45 regular pullups is outside your abilities or will cause the workout to last longer than 10 minutes, scale to jumping chest to bar pull-ups

Chosen weight 65# (same as the last time I did this workout, December 17th at my Level 1 certification, giving me a time benchmark to beat (7:26)).

Jumping Chest-to-Bar pull-ups. New to me, but a cool skill to learn (rather than just clearing the chin, which is MUCH easier.) Did them, as ever, on the frame of the Smith machine.  Not just a door-stop anymore! ;)

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The overhead portion of the thruster should be generated with the initial hip explosion. If you are pressing the weight overhead, you're either not un-squatting hard enough, or mis-timing the transition into the press. (crossfit.com)

Chest-to-Bar pull-ups. Note that the head and neck are WELL above the bar, meaning most people's reps on pull-ups wouldn't even count. Even doing the jump version of these was tough, with a couple of missed reps that needed to be redone to finish each round. (crossfiteastbay.com)

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After warming up with some jump rope (lots of single bounce, running steps, LR and FB hops) and active stretching, I experiemented some with the jumping C2B pull-ups.  New, different, and kind of hard. AWESOME.  It's true... as you start to conquer certain skills, the fear associated with trying new things starts to evaporate.  The number of things that are now in my rearview window and shrinking in the distance that USED to be insurmountable obstacles is constantly growing.  With that number, so increases my confidence. Sweetness.

As noted above, I scaled the thruster weight to 65#, just to compare/contrast with the last time I did this workout, a little less than a month ago at my Level 1 certification.  There, I had a good friend, several new friends, as well as the always impressive and commanding training staff, screaming support, praise, and threats of physical violence if I didn't "pick up that f--king bar and get going!!!!!"  Truly, inspirational. (It really was. It made me miss CrossFitting in an actual CrossFit gym with other crossfitters, rather than doing it on my own.) However, that time, I did the first round of pull-ups as real, albeit pathetic, pull-ups, with the 2nd and 3rd rounds done jump-style.  This time, it would be jumping pull-ups, but with the added variable of 'chest to bar.'  So, a fair comparison, but not a great one.  Plus, other than eating too much over the holidays, and not working out as much as I might have liked, its not like I would have progressed all that far in less than a month... still... ;)

Chalked up a bit (love it!  more good stuff from the cert.  I had never worked with chalk until then. It's nice not having *every* barbell/pull-up workout completely devastate my hands...), set the timer, and got going. 21 unbroken thrusters. 15 jump pull-ups c2b, followed by another 6.  Straight into round 2 of the thrusters. 11 reps, followed by 4 (bar resting on the floor between... i was so pissed at myself...).  10 jumping pull-ups, followed by 3, then 2. A quick water break (the sound of my gasping for air had turned dry, and it was starting to really hurt to breathe... as usual), then into the final 9 thrusters. Unbroken. Somehow. I really wanted to die.  Unfortunately, that came at a cost.  It took me probably about a minute to get my gasping ass back on the pull-ups.  I spent about 30 minutes just gasping, then another with my hands on the bar, ready to go, and unable to will my legs to actually jump. Total brain fail. Body was good to go. I BANGED through the final 9 reps of pull-ups, so I couldn't have been *that* wiped prior to hitting them. No good.

Total time: 7:00


That minute or so gasping for breath really cost me a way better time.  True, if I was an efficient pull-up kind of guy, that would have shaved off even more time, but spending THAT much time gasping just sucks. But, it'll come, if slowly.  Sigh.

After recovering for a few minutes, I set-up the rings on the back of the Smith door-stop, and did some control hangs, a few dip negatives, as well as other movements to just get used to them.  Spent some time with my legs up on the smith 'barbell,' hanging upside down from the rings. Clearly, if I'm to get better at handstands and ring work, I need to get more comfy inverted. The Smith machine has found another good use, so I'm starting to like it a little more... just not as a weigh-lifting device!

10-12-13: Post certification Keeping Loose and Coaching

I wasn't going to workout. I was tired, I was sore, it was officially a CrossFit rest day. So why would I workout?  I had brought in my gym clothes, but I went down to the gym expecting to read, to merely moderate, and let it go at that.

CrossFit Level 1 certification, December 11th and 12th, CrossFit Virtuosity

Turns out watching a bunch of guys using absolutely terrible technique is kind of inspiring.  Inspiring to go do something else (I realize I just did training for being a coach, but as the moderator, I'm just a warm body in case of emergency. Most of those kids are uninterested in anything that wasn't just featured in Muscle & Fiction, and I've stopped banging my head against that particular wall...mostly.).  So, I got changed, put on my kick ass CrossFit t-shirt, grabbed my jump-rope, and put in some fairly serious skill work, at least compared to what I've been doing lately.

Ever since working jump-rope back into my routine (after the Patellar Tendonopathy Affair), I've gone fairly light with it.  Enough to work up a quick sweat, but not a ton of skill work, and certainly not for any extended periods of time.  I opted to go for a good 8-10 minutes, first trying to get a really fast turn-over on the single bounce, jumping as little off the floor as I could, before moving on to as fast a run step as I could manage. I did a little work with cross-overs, but found that skill both rusty and a bit painful from the soreness in my pecs and shoulders from the weekend.  I did some left-right and forward-back single bouncing, and then finished up with 20 double-unders.  Most all of which were either singles or chained together with 2-3 single bounces in between.  Which is to say they definitely still need a bit of work... sigh.

After that, I decided to try out the rowing machine.  Watching two of the trainers, Keith Wittenstein (CrossFit Viruosity) and Karianne Dickson (CrossFit Morristown), go head-to-head on a pair of rowers in a 5K race, I was struck by how slow their cycle time was, and by how *strong* their pulls were.  Even if they were averaging 7-8 fewer strokes per minute than I usually do, they were both going MUCH faster than I usually do, so I have to imagine it was in the efficiency of their strokes.  I set up the rower to just go, and practiced slow, powerful strokes, and for awhile definitely had an improved 500m split time.  However, I wasn't able to maintain that kind of output for more than about 260-275m, so my overall time was a bit slower than usual.  Still, I think *this* is the key to going fast... and strong, controlled burn.  Must to increase my cardio...

After that, I decided not to push my luck with anything else. I was nice and warm, my shoulders and chest had unlocked a bit, I could leave some in the gas tank for tomorrow.  At that point, I was presented with the opportunity to coach a few kids in the squat and deadlift. It turns out that trying to coach kids with absolutely ZERO proprioceptive feedback (ie, they don't know where their bodies are, or what their bodies are doing) is a lot more difficult than working with a whole bunch of people who've been CrossFitting for any length of time. 

Many of the guys, we were able to get going with basic air squats fairly rapidly.  There are a fair number of points to watch out for, especially for the uninitiated (weight in the heels, arched back, big chest, knees track over toes, hip crease below top of knee), as well as a fair number of cues and coaching points, and most of the guys picked it up pretty quick. Sure, they need more work with their depth, or pressing their knees out, but they understood what they were supposed to be doing.  However, the problem was trying to work with one guy who either didn't get it, didn't care, or frankly has NO body control whatsoever.

I don't mind if someone doesn't understand a cue.  If I say "arch your back hard" and you press your back out like a cat doing the Halloween stretch, that's fine, that's just a miscommunication.  If I say it again, pressing my chest out and really arching my back into a nice S curve, and point out the chest and showing how it should go, and the guy hunches over even harder.... what do you even say?  We tried several cues, with a hand on his lower back trying to help him see which muscles to clench to attain the arch, to trying to get him to squeeze his shoulder blades together, to trying to get him to just do a muscle-man "chesticles" pose.  Nothing. Nada.  Zilch.  Niente.

I've been racking my brains since then trying to figure out what else can work to get the idea across.  So far, I don't have much.  We'll try it again tomorrow, I guess.

10-12-12: Officially certifiable

Day 2 of the CrossFit Level 1 certification. There's a good chance that some of this is out of order, as my recollections of what happened when are all a bit fuzzy a few hours later...

Still a little sore and creaky from our dozens of reps of the nine basic movements from the day before, as well as a killer rendition of Fran to seal the deal, we sat down to some more theoretical work. After another "classroom" section, we split off into groups to either learn the kipping pull-up OR do a work-out. And then we switched!  I got to learn the kipping pull-up first, as well as (more importantly) the tips to getting good at it. Now, if only I had somewhere to practice it... quite possible that putting enough weights/sandbags or whatever over the base of my pull-up/dip tower in the garage might allow me to do it there. I should probably try that out before i forget how...

After that, we swapped with the tired and sweaty bastages who were working out, and faced our doom: Tabat medley.  Basically, every Tabata I've done to date has involved staying with the same movement for several rounds at a time, usually 8 rounds.  Since the action is 20 seconds of all out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest, 8 rounds is only 4 minutes.  Do that over 4 stations, and you've just annihilated your body for 16 minutes in ways that most cardio-only fitness buffs can't even begin to comprehend...

In this case, after each 20 seconds of work, we would transition to the next exercise.  We did this across three stations (air squats, push-ups (deck to full arm extension), and kettle-bell swings) for 5 rounds.  Since that works out to 15 sets, for a grand total of 7.5 minutes' work.  Sounds simple, right?  You try it... and make sure you're squatting so that your hip crease goes below the top of your knee, and make sure your hips, chest, abs and chin all hit the ground at the same time, and that you come back up to full extension on every rep.  Basically, the first few sets were "ok" which quickly devolved to "ARGH!!!"

After that, we went back to the classroom to learn about the applications and uses of the glute-ham developer, most of which was review for me, but some of it was exciting and new.  After a lunch break, we came back for anther classroom lecture, this one on nutrition (which was probably before lunch...seeing as how some of the lecture dealt with food in my bag that i hadn't eaten yet, but decided to anyway...). Then we went back to our large "small" groups to work on our squat snatches and muscle-ups.

I do not have a muscle up on the rings. I can barely get to a control position on the rings. I need to get some rings, because they target muscles I didn't even know I was ignoring. Lame. Still, it was cool getting the pointers on how to approach the problem, both as an athlete, and as a trainer who wants to work with athletes who will undoubtedly struggle as well. Squat snatches (with pvc pipe as our "bar") seemed to go easily enough. I have to work a bit on footwork and opening the hip more explosively, but those are both common faults and easy ones to fix (hopefully) with some dedicated practice.


After one last classroom session on programming workouts and scaling, it was time for the test. (which sounds like I'm glossing over the classroom material.  I'm totally NOT, its just that there's waaay too much good info to try to squeeze into a "basics" post like this!  The test?  It was easy.  I swear to you, if you do the reading and pay just a little bit of attention in the classroom sessions and small group coaching environments, you almost CAN'T fail. I passed with flying colors, and did well enough that I'm actually a little bit bugged about those few questions missed.  Right now, I like to think I made extra marks on the scantron, and that I actually got everything right. Sigh...

So yeah, I'm all certified and shit.  Show me your squat!  Do it NOW!!!

10-12-11: CrossFit Lvl 1 Cert: Fran

After spending some time learning about the theory behind CrossFit, we learned about the nine functional movements (squat, front squat, overhead squat, shoulder press, push press, push jerk, deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull, and the medicine ball clean).  All of that took several hours, and by the end we had all air-squatted or flung around a pvc bar (or a 95# bar, in the case of the deadlift) several dozen, and perhaps a few hundred times.
After ALL that, we geared up for our shared WoD.  I was excited and petrified.  Would it be something I could kick ass at like... um... ok. Well, would it be something that terrifies me, like Fran?  As luck would have it, it WAS Fran.  3 rounds of thrusters and pull-ups, 21-15-9 reps of each, for a total of 45 each.
The bar I selected was loaded with 65#, which was a good scaling after the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to ask to do jumping pull-ups, even though these were offered and encouraged. (I are an asshole to myself sometimes...).

Round 1 was mostly unbroken, I think for 15 reps.  By this point, I was already pretty smoked leg and back-wise, but as usual, it was my craptastic cardio that gave out first. Shocking.  However, it got worse when it turned out that after an initial burst of 5-6 reps of pull-ups, I couldn't get more than one or two at a time. These eventually turned into jumping pull-ups, but from too far away to do much good.  That round KILLED me.

I made it back to my barbell, asked (panted, really) that a few plates be put under the pull-up bar. I started cranking out thrusters, thankful and elated to hear pointers being fired at my by coaches who know how to fix form faults on the fly (a goal of mine!). However, some things just weren't going to be fixed quickly, like my inability to get the barbell onto my shoulders during the squat part of the thruster.  Soon enough...

Rest of the workout passed in a sort of panicked, under-oxygenated haze.  It was definitely fun, and more than worth it when I even finished before a few other guys and gals in my heat. Granted, the guys were doing thrusters with far more weight, and they probably knocked out their pull-ups in a fraction of the time... but still. I think that counts for something.

I spent the next heat just trying to breathe through the pools of acid and liquid metal that seemed to live in my lungs after all that. However, for the third heat, my friend Lee was finally up, and I was going to coach/encourage her as much as she had me. One of the women from my small group was lined up behind her, so I opted to do what I could for her, too. My coaching was limited to "deeper!" on the squats and "lock it out!!" on the top of the thrusters, and providing a count (where I managed to keep one) on the exercises.

Exhaustion is setting in. Must... sleep... before... day... 2!

Fran total time: 7:36 (i think... i was a bit woozy.)

10-12-09: Power Snatches, Wall-balls, K2Es

CrossFit WoD for Monday December 6, 2010

21-18-15-12-9 rep rounds of:

• 115# (105# for the final 10 reps) Power snatch
• Wallball shots, 20# ball
• Knees to elbows (new favorite CrossFit vid... not sure how I never saw that one before!)

Crystal McReynolds 14:01 (75lbs, 14lb ball), Austin Malleolo 14:05, Carey Kepler 14:08 (75lbs, 14lb ball), JC Nessa 15:24, Kevin Montoya15:34, Mat Frankel 16:24, Lance Cantu 17:11, Heather Bergeron18:55 (85lbs, 16lb ball), Stacey Kroon 19:23 (85lbs, 16lb ball),Kristan Clever 19:47 (85lbs, 16lb ball), Laurie Galassi 19:48 (78lbs, 14lb ball), Mel Ockerby 19:49 (85lbs, 14lb ball).

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WOD Demo at CrossFit Santa Cruz - video [wmv] [mov]
Austin Malleolo on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]
CrossFit New England on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]

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Natalie Burgener Woolfolk preps for a snatch attempt. And since her dad is Coach B, she'll probably hit it, too. (crossfitfootball.com)

Wall-balls. Depth of squat is important, hence the med ball as a guide. The target is another 3-4' above his hands, so that ball better be booking.  Best way to do that? Drive with the hips, baby. (crossfit.com)

Variations on the theme. Left is as prescribed, center is harder, right is easier. The amount of muscles this hits is hard to overstate.  Probably your toes don't get a good workout... probably. (crossfit.com)

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This was my last workout prior to (hopefully) getting my CrossFit Level 1 certification this weekend, and being all allowed to train others and stuff.  As such, I wanted it to be an ass-kicking that I would totally own. Instead, I got totally pwned by it.  Ah well, it happens.

First mistake: No scaling on the weight on the power snatch.  Now, I can power snatch 115# pretty easily, even with my probably craptastic form. However, that doesn't take into account the necessity of doing so 75 times during the course of the workout. Crap, it barely took into account doing it 21 times in a row to start this thing out!  Basically, this should have been 95# or even 85# for me to stand a chance... Did the first set, broken into about 4 sets. I think there were 10 unbroken, but I could have just been delirious and dreaming. After that, headed over to the wallball station.

UNBROKEN. I love wallballs. Probably means my med-ball is too light (the heaviest one lost its cover or something, so you can't tell how heavy it is), or I'm not throwing them high enough.  That said, its pretty heavy, and I throw it between 10-12' feet up on the wall. So, maybe the weight is low, but the height is enough, and I LOVE WALL-BALLS.  Especially now that I got rid of the chairs I was using to gauge the low end of the squat, and just started squatting as low as I can go.  Definitely lower than with the chair.

Knee-to-elbows.  In the picture caption, I mentioned that every muscle in the body gets worked, right?  Well, it turns out that 21 power snatches and 21 wall-balls have pretty much already annihilated lots of muscles, so the fact that this targets those and more makes them an evil addition to this triplet from hell. I think I got 12 unbroken, and from then on, I think 5 was my max at a time.  Given where I do them (frame of a 7' tall Smith machine) theres not really room to fully extend at the bottom. I did what I could for most of the first round, but found myself touching down with my feet after awhile, but I made damn sure I wasn't jumping up into the top position the whole way through, so while not ideal, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Round two was just a grueling slog through a ton of short mini-sets on each exercise... except for wall-ball! Stormed through 18 of those like I was just starting out.  My lungs nearly exploded when I was done, but hey, whatever.

Third round was even uglier. I mean ugly.  Basically, it nearly didn't happen, but I decided I had to at least begin to finish what I had started. Snatches were by now just ugly variations on a theme, though dropping 10# helped substantially, the wall-balls were awesome, and I could barely grip the bar to do the K2Es. By the time I finished the 3rd round, I was already at the 30 minute mark. I had to cut it there, since I workout at work, and taking another 30 minutes to finish the last two rounds probably wouldn't go over well with the people in charge. ;)

So, 30 minutes in, I gave myself a DNF. Final workout before certification. The ego has officially taken a beating.  Which is probably good, since I can't imagine walking into a CrossFit certification thinking I'm a big bad-ass would work out so well. Now I can just be polite, and learn a crap-ton of information! Woo