XMAS week workouts

Did well before XMAS with workouts up in Massachusetts at my sister's Gold's Gym with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (xmas eve) workouts. They were all a random hodge podge of work with each starting out with my rowing 500 meters on the rower followed by a Jeremy (21-15-9 of Bodyweight squats and buprees). Worked in shoulder press, push press, lunge walks, deadlifts, DB squat cleans, push ups, and plank holds.

Good power workout on Thursday night at crossfit class.

30 Thrusters (45 pound DB)
50 deadlifts (185 barbell)
6 rope climbs (6 pullups or 12 jumping pullups count for a rope climb)

Finished in 6:11.



Hurt my lower back early in class this morning. I did a one rep deadlift of 275 before I was properly warmed up. Bad move. dropped weight and did some more deadlifts and push presses before bagging out of the second half of the workout. Applying ice and taking it easy tonight. Want to be well enough to go out for New Year's and to crossfit at noon on Tuesday.

Sunday crossfit and chorizo cooked in sparkling apple cider

5 rounds, done for max reps:

1 minute deadlifts (145 lbs)

1 minute DB thrusters (35 lbs dumbells

1 minute box jumps (high box)

1 minute rest

in a group with Steve. O and Paul

I finished 52 reps the first round (14 deadlift)

48 the second

43 the third

38 the fourt

22 the 5th

next up:

one minute of jumping barbell squats with a 45 barbell over the shoulders

We finished off with :

1 min. of push ups

1 min. of mountain climbers

1 min of plank holds

1 min. of burpees

1 min of plank holds

1 min. of high knees in place

1 min of burpees

as for the chorizo:

poor enough sparkling apple cider to cover half of the sausage (cut in to 1 inch long slices) and cook over medium high heat for 20 min.

Thursday night crossfit class

Max reps completed of: 1 Hang Clean1 Thruster1 Push jerk 2 Burpees
4 sets of 5 minutes

1st round 10
2nd round 11
3rd round 10
4th round 10


I used 40 lbs. DB. I am trying to up the weight and work on form. My cardio and lunges seem to be my strength. Need to keep up the work on explosive power and flexibility.

My form is getting better but I need work work on the shrug portion of the hang clean and on getting my elbows out wide during the shrug. Also need to work on getting my burpees more explosive. Still being gentle on hitting the ground (neck) but need to push it a bit more on the jump up.

Tuesday Night Crossfit - power bar work and tabata

Tuesday night crossfit class:
Heavy barbell work is an essential aspect of CrossFit, and we will be doing a lot more in the future. Getting that started was the "BEAR" complex. We did seven reps without putting down the bar, and tried to increase weight each of 4 sets.
One rep consisted of:
1 hang clean
1 front squat
1 press
1 behind the neck squat
1 behind the neck press

I started with a 75 pound BB for the first set and progressed to a 95 pound barbell for the next 3 sets.

This was good as I need to work on my explosive movements.

After that, we did a Tabata session. 8 rounds of 4 exercises, one minute rest between them. pushups, squats situps, burpees. We were scored by the lowest amount we completed any round of each exercise.
My low scores were:
push up: 7
squat: 14
situps: 7
burpees: 4

Sunday crossfit - chaos 50

50 of each in any order and broken up in any way you choose.

I paired up box jumps and burpees - high pulls alone and push ups- KB swings and situps - push press and lunges- single db snatch alone- sand bag alone.

BURPEES
BOX JUMPS (knee high)
AB MAT SITUPS
DB PUSH PRESS (25 lbs)
KB SWINGS (20 kg)
SINGLE DB SNATCH (40lbs)
KB SUMO HIGH PULLS (20kg)
PUSHUPS
LUNGES
SANDBAG CLEANS (50 lbs)

37:50 for time


did it on 3 hours sleep after a bit of vodka on Saturday night. Want to try again fresh and compare time.

Peposa and Monday Turf workout.

Tuesday night cooking - Peposa

This recipe is very famous since it was used when they were building the Duomo in Florence. They raised this meat sauce up to the workers in the scaffolding so they wouldn't lose time. Peposo is a specialty of Impruneta, a town near Florence that's famous for its terracottas. The stew is a fiery exception to the rule that Tuscan cooking is bland, and is also one of the few dishes to have provoked a general strike. According to legend, Brunelleschi tried some while he was scouting tilemakers for the roof of the Duomo. And asked the cook to come to Florence, with a boy agile enough to climb the scaffolding to deliver bowls of stew to the workers building the cathedral (this way they wouldn't loose time climbing down, going elsewhere to buy food, and climbing back up). Brunelleschi's workers went on strike to get their lunch hour back. Had he merely asked the cook to set up a catering stand, the idea would have been a success.

2 lb of beef stew meat

1 small yellow onion

2-3 baby carrots

2-3 garlic cloves

1 celery stalk

2 red peppers

2 T. flour

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

2 1/2 cups of a dry red wine (such as Chianti) - don't skimp.

Olive oil Heat oven to 375

Makes about 6 servings

Chop up vegetables and saute in olive oil for about five minutes. Add vegetables to a large pot/dutch oven, add meat (one could also brown the meat also, but I find this works just as well), salt and pepper, tomatoes, wine and flour (1st mix in about 1/4 C of cold water).Cook for 15 minutes uncovered. Reduce temp to 325 and cover. Cook for about 2 1/2 hours, stirring ocassionally. Sauce should be thick. Uncover if needed.Serve over large slices of toasted Italian bread. Could also be served over large, tubular noodles.

Freeze leftovers.

Monday night workout on the Georgetown Turf. It was very and windy outside. Antother Hour of Power workout. Basically 60 minutes non-stop work.

Warm Up: 2 laps

Box Run: 20X20 box, jog the perimeter, sprint thediagonal. 15 minutes - no rest.

sprints are at 75%- work on burst and cut from jog

2 minute rest

21-15-9 of

burpees

sprint out 20 meters and back 1 time

bodyweight squats

3 minutes rest

80% sprint work. Form sprinting
Rolling Start 3 x 50

Face Down 5 x 35

On Back 5 x 20.

1 minute rest

Baltic Fitness Station: repeat circut 3 times

1 minute of high knees in place

1 minute plank hold (arms up)

1 minute bicycle kicks

30 seconds rest

quick 50 crunches

1 minute rest

quick rotation

1 time through of 100 jump rope

push ups (while Joe did jump rope)

mountain climbers (while Dave did jump rope)

100 jumping pullups on the soccer goal (that sucked) broeken up into 2 sets of 30 and two of 20.

Weekend workout

SUNDAY MORNING CROSSFIT CLASS AT BALANCE
Super Jeremy Plus" warmup. 21-15-9 of PVC OHS and Burpees, with 2 lengths of bearcrawl, 2 sprints, one crabwalk, and one length of walking lunges.

After the "warmup", we went into team tabata circuits.
4 rounds at each station of DB thrusters, pushups and Mountain climbers.
4 rounds at each station of KB Swings, Situps and superman.
Finally, everyone did 4 rounds of bottom to bottom tabata squats.

SUNDAY EVENING COOKING FOR THE WEEK

Spanish White Beans with Vinaigrette Sauce

Amount to serve 4
1 cup dried white beans1 red or green pepper ( I used a mix of both)
1/2 medium size onion
6 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt
Olive oil
Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

Drain and bring to a boil in 2 liters (7 cups) of water cook at low heat, until they are tender. Drain well and mix with the vinaigrette sauce which is prepared separately.


Vinaigrette Sauce: Mince the onion and the pepper. With a wooden spoon mix both vegetables with the olive oil, the vinegar and the salt. I added in an extra half of a roasted red pepper and a slash of red wine. a dash of black pepper to taste.


SATURDAY WORKOUT

500 meters on the rowing machine at level 5
1 minute 40.06 seconds

1 pull up the first minute
2 the second minute
3 the third

I made it to 9. will benchmark that workout .

3 x 90 seconds plank hold

stretching and forearm stand


Saturday night: company party at the Air and Space museum. Thankfully, I only gave out a few unwanted maulings to female coworkers.


FRIDAY:
NO WORKOUT

Friday night. Birthday party for an old roommate at some turkish tapas bar on U St.














I took the photo in Madrid last summer.