Brick walls. Southington CrossFit is full of them. I threw a 16lb medicine ball at one 50 times this morning. I like to do handstands up against them. What I don’t like is feeling like I hit one when going up in weight and gunning for a new PR. A week after setting my new mark at 120lbs, I only managed to max out at 105 doing a 5-3-1 5-3-1 rep scheme of power cleans on Monday. Lame.

Quick rundown of everything cool and CrossFit-related that’s gone down recently:
Logged onto the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge website last night to see if overall scores were finally calculated. Finished 2nd overall of the SCF crew! Then I checked the points breakdown. Apparently I made more progress on my benchmarks than 90% of the 7000 people who took the Paleo Challenge. In fact, I finished 481st out of 7183 overall. That’s like… in the 93rd percentile. Fist pump.

Now for the really exciting news that I probably won’t stop talking about until January: Southington CrossFit is hosting its first ever competition on January 19, 2013!

Details here… sign up today if you’re a CrossFitter in the CT area – the field is limited to the first 100 athletes to sign up, and I believe we’re more than half full already.

Therefore, since the paleo challenge has concluded and I’m on my own with this whole ‘self control’ thing when it comes to food, I shall now direct my focus on getting ready to compete in my first CF competition ever.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a dry run of the planned WODs for the competition on Thanksgiving, and let’s just say I was 100% DRAINED from doing all 4 back to back. I’d post my results here, but then you’d know what kind of fun is in store before they are officially released. I am in no mood to be one of those TMZ/Reality Steve ‘spoiler’ schmucks. Or, you know, our mastermind trainer Matt may change all the workouts before then… and then the joke’s on all of us. Me included.

I can tell you this – only a person who is indeed, fit, fast and freakishly good at it won’t be tired by the end of the day.

For these next 2 months, I most certainly am going to train to be one of them.

I ran a mile with a 30lb sandbag on my shoulders in 8:23 yesterday morning. It was fun. I ran a slower mile with no sandbag last week. I’m strange.

Saturday 11/24
“Barbara”
5 Rounds for time:
20 Pull Ups
30 Pushups
40 Situps
50 Air Squats
(Rest 3min in between rounds)
My time: 42:42… R-freakin’-x

Monday 11/26
Power Cleans: 5-3-1, 5-3-1
8min – 1000m row, Work to 1RM Front Squat in time remaining
8min – 1000m row, Work to 3RM Push Press in time remaining
8min – 1000m row, AMRAP DB Thrusters (25lb DBs scaled up from 20lbs Rx) in time remaining
My results: 105lbs, 3:53, 125lbs (matched PR), 3:51, 105lbs (matched PR), 3:52, 20 reps.

Tuesday 11/27
Run 1 mile with a 30lb sandbag on shoulders
AMRAP 10
6 strict pullups (Banded… no kipping = I still need help)
8 clapping pushups (Lucky to get my hands off the ground)
10 kb swings (35lbs… finally something doable)
PLUS 20min of core work I’m too lazy to type.
My results: 8:23 mile, 5 rounds +6,8 & 3 kb swings

Wednesday 11/28
Back Squats 7-5-3-1
5 Rounds for Time:
10 Hang Cleans (75lbs Rx)
10 Wall Balls (16lb med ball, Rx)
*Rest 1min*
100 Lateral Jumps (12in hurdle, Rx)
*Rest 5min*
600m Sprint
30 Dead Lifts (150lbs Rx)
*Rest 1min*
100 Double Unders
My times: 145lb 1RM (Focused on depth today, not weight. Not upset about not meeting my PR on this), 9:07, 1:44, 6:11, 3:13. Ugh. I sucked at jump rope today. Hardcore.

Ladies and gents, I just wrote far too much. SORRY.