Austin's log

[austin]

L1D1: 38 rounds

I have to say, Im at least moderately impressed with myself. Normally pull ups are a challenge for me. But I suppose the 1 rep-at-a-time range and the rest time I got while performing push ups and squats were enough time to recoop. I stuck out the whole 20 minutes without quitting. I am interested in Crossfit and did two of their WOD's. But the first one I performed left my lower back quite sore, then i found this website. Im staying here until A) Im under 200 lbs, and B) Im in your more advanced levels. Looking forward to it.

[volleyball_man]

Hey Austin,

Welcome! I used this program as a launch pad into crossfit. Enjoy!

[austin]

oh cool. well thank you.

[Bri3626]

Hello and welcome.

Kinda same thing for me. I was amazed at how quickly I moved up on the levels. I will be started from scratch soon because of a shoulder injury but I look forward to hitting it again.

[austin]

L1D2 Total Time: 2:31
Breakdown:
Rd1: 0:32.64
Rd2: 0:31.25
Rd2: 0:27.72
Rd4: 0:30.06
Rd5: 0:31.61

Rest Time between rounds was about a 1.5 minutes. About the time it took to walk from the pull up bars, through the gravel, and to the picnic table under the only light in the school, and then back to the pull up bars.

**Note: It should be noted that I actually did this tonight, Fri 01-02-09, after my L1D3 WOD. Couldnt fit this into the night of new years eve, lol. And yesterday I had to work and felt too shitty throughout it to want to go out and train.

[austin]

L1D3 (After L1D2, lol) Total Time: 3:15.18
Breakdown: I remembered how well I did with the breakdown of rounds from L1D1, so I tried to apply it here. Push ups Im fine with in small increments at a time (under 10), squats Im even better with, its pull ups I need to work on the most for CF. So it went something like thiiiis:
7 Rounds of:

1 Pull up
3 Push ups
3 Squats
+ 3 Extra pull ups after

Went easy. So easy in fact, after I completed this in only 3:15, I decided I wanted to go ahead and hit up L1D2 that I missed on account of New Years. Even after that, I STILL wasn't quite worked enough (I took 2 scoops of NO-XPLODE 40 minutes beforehand lol (for the first time consuming it EVER LOL)), so I decided to do some sprints at a nearby empty parkinglot with a lightpole. Sprints are something I really want to work on a lot too. I dont give a shit if I can run a marathon, that idea seems retarded to me. But being able to outrun something for a short to good-size distance, might be able to save my life. So I made up something I called 200 yard Half-and-Halves. It was about 100 yards to the light pole from my truck, and 100 yards back. Since I want to focus on sprints more than distance running, I decided on a short and simple program for the night: 10 - 100 yd hnh's, walking there and sprinting back. I was definately gassed by the end of that, even though it was only moving for a total of 13:43.27 lol. Laptimes went like this:

Lap# Time
#1 1:15.69
#2 2:39.02
#3 3:54.66
#4 5:16.24
#5 6:40.48
#6 8:06.83
#7 9:33.57
#8 10:56.51
#9 12:20.95
#10 13:43.27

Then a full 200 yard cool off lap and back home to report.

** Oh, and a quick update on my goals. I decided that since Im aiming to go through all this site's levels to attain the ability to follow CF's WODs, I need to have a longer-term, CF fitness goal. Im going to gun for making my way through these fitness ranks in 2-2 1/2 months time, then following CF's WODS to the best of my abilities, then signing up for the CF regional Nor-Cal Regional Qualifier on May 2 and May 3 in Aromas, CA (just south of Santa Cruz, where CF started). All of Nor-Cal plus Hawaii only get 10 spots open to go to the CF games held also in Aromas, CA just a few months after the qualifier. Im at least crossing my fingers that I can make it THROUGH the qualifier lol.

[austin]

L2D1: Endurance
Max Rounds in 20 minutes:
1 Pull Up
3 Push Ups
4 Body Squats (Jumping)

Total Rounds: 31

Phew! I swore to myself I'd get over 30 rounds or I'd do this again tomorrow lol. You may notice I did this a day ahead instead of Monday. I decided I really dont need 2 days rest between SF training days, not to be cocky. Im kind of in a hurry after all, by my count I have about 118 days until the Crossfit Nor-cal and Hawaii regional qualifiers. So I really need to amp this up. Im going to avoid overtraining by still only training SF every other day. So next time I train SF will be Tuesday. I figure this can at least save me 1 day a week of the 8 week SF schedule, assuming I pass EACH day. Im also sprinting every day. Ive been sprinting every OTHER day, and seeing progress but not quite fast enough I believe. I hate jogging, I love sprinting. Today I went to my local High School and went around the track 5 times total, something like a mile. I sprinted all the straights (something like 200-220 yards per lap), then I'd walk to rest on the corners. Kept track of each corner and straight. I'll do the math to get the number of secs per sprint/walk later because the gf needs the laptop for now.

Lap times: (Each 4th time was a full lap)
1) 1:04
2) 1:28
3) 2:40
4) 3:06
5) 4:23
6) 4:49
7) 6:15
6:43
Interupted, had to move truck or get locked in school
1) 1:12
2) 1:37
3) 2:54
4) 3:19
5) 4:41
6) 5:04
7) 6:29
6:55
9)8:20
10)8:43
11)10:09
12)10:31

By my math, that's something like a 17+ minute mile, ouch. Gotta work on that. I'll do the math while im off the pc. I'll break it down later.

[austin]

Broke down the sprint lap times into seconds:

Lap 1 Corner 1: 64 s
Lap 1 Straight 1: 24 s
Lap 1 Corner 2: 72 s
Lap 1 Straight 2: 26 s__Lap 1 Time: 186 s / 3:06
L2C1: 77s
L2S1: 26s
L2C2: 86s
L2S2: 28s___Lap 2 Time: 217 s / 3:37
L3C1:72s
L3S1:25s
L3C2: 77s
L3S2: 30s___Lap 3 Time: 204 s / 3:24
L4C1:77s
L4S1:23s
L4C2:85s
L4S2:26s____Lap 4 Time: 211s / 3:31
L5C1:85s
L5S1:23s
L5C2: 86s
L5S2: 22s (fastest sprint)____Lap 5 Time: 216s / 3:36

Total Mile (Anyone know if its 4 laps on a track around a football field or 5?) : 17:14

Terrible if that's really 1 mile. But I have to start somewhere. Cant wait for another chance at my mile time tomorrow, my Girlfriend just ran a friggin 15 minute mile on the treadmill (damn it lol). Oh and tomorrow Im also running an extra lap, so 6 instead of 5.

Also using the USMC's bodyweight calisthenics strength training program. More details on that later. Im going to start doing the USMC's program on my off SF days, should be fun. Should see lots of numbers going up and times getting faster, woo! 118 days

[volleyball_man]

Generally a High School track is a 400 meter track.
1mi = 1609.344m, so 4 times is just a tiny bit shy of a mile.

Try measuring your success in meters - CrossFit usually does.

Go to this link: http://www.crossfitseattle.com/Skill%20Levels%201-IV%20spreadsheet.pdf to see how you fare. A lot of CFers use this as a measuring stick.

[austin]

But im an american, lol we HATE the metric system. JK, i actually just cant ever remember the metric system well. A yard is just a bit short of a meter right? iunno, i'll take your advice though with the measuring in metric at every possible juncture. thanks. im off to the school today for the track and the jungle gym. running the usmc's bodyweight exercise improvement program. cant wait. more info in just a bit on it.

[austin]

Noted Fitmate! and thanks for the info, that must bring my mile time down to around.....13:38, not as bad as I thought at least. Well I WANTED to go on another similar straights and corners session today, but winter break just ended and it was raining just a bit too much for me to want to run outside. Even though I despise treadmills, my gfs' dad has a great one out in the garage so I decided to use it after I trained the USMC's thing down at the school as fast as possible. It goes like this:

Exercise Rd 1 (15 seconds) RD 2 (20 secs) RD 3 (25 secs)
Tri Dips 15 16 20
1/2 Situps 16 19 23
Mtn Climbers 7 10 13
Dmd Pushups 11 14 20
Neg Pullups 5 8 11
Crunches 16 30 26
Bnd + Thrust 5 8 10
Wide Pushups 13 20 18
Sit Ups 11 13 14
Flutter kx 9 12 17
Pull ups 3 Maxed out 4 Maxed out 2 Maxed out
Hanging Rows 13 17 25

Actually, this was the first time I've completed ALL 3 ROUNDS. Its really a lot harder than it looks! It actually includes body squats, but I was normally getting in around double the reps as there were secs in the round, so i removed them. I also added negative pull ups and Hanging rows to help improve my pull ups. I need to rearrange the order I do these though. I know I need to put the hardest things earlier in the round. And the numbers speak for themselves. I also want to have a pulling motion exercise right after every pushing motion. Pull ups should be the first of these I believe. I'll have to adjust it for wednesday.

In case you cant tell how it works, which I dont blame you i didnt when i first saw it: You move from one exercise down the list at a time for the specified amount of seconds per round and mark your reps on a piece of paper. After the first round is up, you rest 1-3 minutes. Then start the 2nd round for 20 seconds each, then rest, then the 3rd 30 second round. If your reps per rounds stay the same or go down, you definately need work in that area because you're at least doing them a lot slower. If you max out before the allotted time, same thing. Its a pretty good judge of what you need to work on. I'd say that when I can make it up to one rep per sec (except the 4 counters: Mtn Climbers, Bend and thrusts, and flutter kicks) I'll add 5 seconds to all the rounds and after that, I'll invest in a weighted vest and start adding a few pounds here and there. I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. Cant wait for tomorrow, woo! L2D2

Oh yeah, the running situation. I used the treadmill out in the garage. I hate treadmills, even though this one is a very nice one. I also hate jogging long distances, but want to improve my cardio endurace. So i swore to myself I'd walk/Sprint as best as I could on the treadmill until I made it 3 miles. Let's just say I "moved" a total of 3 miles in about55 minutes. Wasnt painful, got a good sweat, stretched a lot after. Meh....Feel good overall though. Today was day 117 until the CF Regional Quals.

[austin]

L2D2
5 Rounds for time of:
3 Pull ups
8 Push Ups
13 Body squats (I did the jumping variety)

Time: 3:50

Not bad, I think. I thought I was going to have a lot more problems with the 3 pull ups in a row x 5, but it didnt give me a problem until the 5th round actually.

I started thinking today as I wrote down today's SF WOD, though Im definately seeing progression in my pull ups and all exercises, the total times are more or less starting to bother me, you know? My daily strength training I think should take up more than under 5 minutes. I know strength-wise, Im definately not ready to move up much in the levels....So I started looking into the advanced WODS, just as a secondary challenge after my initial SF wod. I tried it today after L2D2, I tried L1D1a. I probably would have made it okay, but i was working in a gravel jungle gym at a middle school and didnt want to get all my bodyweight onto the palm of my hands in the gravel, so i figured I could try to parallel bars perpendicular to the pull up bars. that didnt work. i brought myself controlled down to eye-level with the parallel bars, started pushing up and was just a bit too gassed. So now Im kind of frustrated. Stuck between a rock and hard place, it would seem, in my training. I was giving the idea of some simple oly lifting program might be a nice challenge, but that would take up 30-40 minutes of time. Not really sure how I should time my sprinting, my SF wods, and weight training all in the same day. Hmmmmm. I was looking into the stronglifts 5x5 program, because I made huge strength gains through a 5x5 stronglifting in HS...

I went to run at my old HS, but I fucked it up twice. I use the stopwatch on my cellphone and record lap times and such by clicking a little button. The first 3/4 lap went by okay, but I started jogging when I would normally be walking just to get my mile time a little faster, and wouldnt you know it, my instincts kicked in and I hit the button an extra time. So instead of having 4 times for a lap, the first would have had 5, ugh. So i decided to restart the whole thing. I started walking my first 100 meters around, then started sprinting, then looked at my cell's stopwatch and it read 00:00.00. I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO HIT ANY BUTTON THAT TIME! AGHGHGHGHGHHH! By the time I realized that, I looked up and the sun was down. The temp was quickly dropping below 55. I decided making up my run in the form of a 3 mile walk back on the treadmill at the house would be smarter than getting a cold and setting back training. Soon as I got home though, had a lot of family errands to run. So i didnt get to do that either. UGH!

I still saw progress today though still. So its not all bad. Im really psyched I managed those 5 rounds of 3 pull ups at a time, really suprised. Tomorrow Im back to the USMC's thing to see if any of those numbers go up or down. Thanks.

Today was day 116 till the CF nor-cal and hawaii qualifier[/u]

[jasonb]

Hi Austin,

I came to Simplefit on a similar note - I looked/tried CF and knew that I wanted to be better conditioned before attempting more CF. I like that SF has a few core exercises to focus on and a similar thing as CF with the times.

I saw you're doing sprints too. I was thinking something along those lines, but might wait until I drop down to about 215 lbs (~225 now). I am looking at doing some rope jumping, however. I liked what you said about the idea of a marathon seeming retarded - ha! It's impressive that folks can do it, but I don't myself ever doing one.

Anyway, great postings in the workout log.

Jason

[austin]

Thanks jason. Actually man, Im currently sitting at around 220-225 myself. Albeit, my legs are pretty sore after some sprints, I can feel the difference in my cardio and that makes it worth it. I dunno about you, but in most social circles growing up, I was the fatter kid lol. I always had to carry everyone's stuff up hills on hikes, always had to be the wheelbarrow-er for us when we made dirt jumps for our bicycles, even to this day, im the one they call when someone needs a couch or a fridge moved. To be honest, its a title ive grown into and am a bit proud of it. I've always been known for having these stronger legs because I always shifted between heavy set for my age, and average weight. So at this point, 2-10 sprints really feels great on my legs on a flat surface. as long as the rest period is as long or longer than the sprinting distance, i couldnt see why you wouldnt be gravy. sprinting i think is a very cool thing because i think it has a lower probability for injuries as opposed to just jogging for miles and miles. I'd say maybe start out at like 50 meter sprints, 100 meters walk. maybe only one or two rounds of that, see how it feels. Iunno, im not a doctor. and im certainly not a sprinting expert. But i do know that sprints are pretty inclusive. I mean, most people are capable of running as fast as they can even for only a short distance, from danger right?

[jasonb]

Cool. Sprints sound fun and challenging. All the way up to when I turned 30 I weighed between 175 - 185. Once I turned 30 it seemed like I magically gained 30 - 40 lbs. About 5 years ago I think I got up near 240, which is scary. Now since I'm turning 40 this August, I want to drop my spare tire. Plus, getting more fit will make me feel a helluva lot better, I figure. How much do you plan to lose? My goal is 175, but if I can at least get to 185 I'll be damn happy.

Jason