People Look at You Kind of Crazy... - Park WOD - September 18, 2010

It's true... They look at you kind of crazy when they see this big medicine ball being tossed over a volleyball net. You hear comments like, "I wonder how much that weighs?" and " That looks heavy!" Sometimes they just shake their heads in disbelief.

We spent another day at the park -- different park, same heat. It started with some hooverball to warm up, this time with a lighter ball -- 8# instead of 14#. This allowed the ball to be more easily caught, thrown, etc.

After hooverball was the WO.

Today it was:

3 rounds for time of:

200M spring

20 KB swings

20 push ups

Results:

Alexa - 10:48

Crystal - 9:16

David - 8:17

Jen - 6:30

Jill - 10:24

Lauriel - 7:26

Tony - 17:47

It Is What It Is - Park WOD - September 17, 2010

It is what it is... We talked a little about that phrase today. The WOD is the WOD, no matter what environment. No matter what you are feeling, no matter how you have eaten. It doesn't matter what day it is, what time or day it is, or what the temperature is. It doesn't matter who you are working out with, whether it is sunny, hot, cloudy, cold... Whether you are tired, hungover, hungry, preoccupied. The WOD is what it is... You're results are what they are, for that given moment in time... That given situation... Good... or bad... it is what it is. Did you finish? Good. Did you do better than you thought? Good. Did you persevere? Good. Did you do your best? Good. Did you just DO??? Good. It is what it is...


Today's WO

4 rounds for time of :


400M run
50 squats



107 degrees...
outside...
sunny...
hot...
4pm...


It is what it is...

No one gave in...
No one stopped...
One rep at a time...
One round at a time...

Results:
Alexa - 15:35
David - 14:35
Jill - 17:03
Tony - 22:26

It is what it is...

Park WOD - September 14, 2010

I will keep posting and adding to these, as we do the workouts in the park while CF PHX is temporarily closed.

Today's WO was created by the devious Ms. Jen Roberts! Thanks J!!!

21-15-9 of

DB Hang power snatch (R)

DB Hang power snatch (L)

DB thruster (R)

DB thruster (L)

Everyone worked with appropriate weights, from 20# through 40#.

Times and weights were:

Alexa 20# 13:07

Derek 40# 8:35

Jill 20# 12:??

Lauriel 30# 10:10

Tony 35# 17:37

David 30# 12:56

Jen 25# 8:38

CrossFit Phoenix Hits the Park!

Time to get caught up...

With the head coaches on vacation, CrossFit Phoenix continued workouts -- in the park. Posts will continue from this point forward, so we can track our efforts while the coaches are away. Below is a run-down of workouts thus far.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Hooverball Fun!!!

We did away with the rules and just played for fun. We threw tha ball over the net and caught it. We switched teams and rotated so that people were faced off against different people throughout the game. If you dropped the ball 3 times you had to draw a penalty exercise out of the "hat" to perform. The # of penalties went to 5 penalties, as we got tired. But I don't think we ever laughed as hard as we did this morning.

After Hooverball, Jen put us through:

AMRAP in 10 of

15 kettlebell swings

10 goblet squats

5 push presses (each arm)

If you set down the kettlebell you had to perform 5 burpees (no one set down the kettlebell!!!)

Total complete rounds (I know some of you got more but I don't know how much):

Alexa - 6 rounds

Alexia - 4 rounds

David - 4 rounds

Jill - 6 rounds

Lauriel - 6 rounds

Tony - 4 rounds

Saturday, September 11, 2010

9/11 WO on your own (Lauriel and Derek at CF Scottsdale)

Friiday, September 10, 2010

Rest day

Thursday, September 9, 2010

ShuttleRun in the Sun

Sprint to 1st station, complete 25 burpees

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 2nd station, complete 50 kettlebell swings

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 3rd station, complete 50 squats

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 3rd station, complete walking lunges to 4th station

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 4th station, complete walking lunges back to 3rd station

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 3rd station, complete 50 squats

Sprint back tp start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 2nd station, complete 50 kettlebell swings

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Sprint to 1st station, complete 25 burpees

Sprint back to start, complete 25 double unders

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Warm up

30 second handstand hold into 30 second bottom-of-squat hold

5 rounds

Workout

200 push ups for time

Every time you break, perform 5 squats

Monday, September 6, 2010

Tony's Playground

Teams of two

One person performs 10 sandbag squats, sprints to next station and performs 10 more sandbag squats, sprints back.

Second person perfoms 5 kettlebell swings, runs to 2nd station and perfoms 5 box jumps, runs to 3rd station and performs 5 burpees. Follows stations back

At 5 minutes, switch positions

Friday, September 3, 2010

3 rounds for time of:

20 kettlebell swings

40m sandbag sprint

20 thrusters (bar)

40m sandbag spring

20 box jumps

40m sandbag sprint

Thursday, September 2, 2010

3 rounds for time, rest 1 minute between each round

5 stations, work 1 minute at each station. At end of minute, rotate to next station.

Stations:

Kettlebell swings

Walking lunges

Push ups

Clean and jerks

Sit ups

“Save Money, Live Better”

Let me start by saying that this is not necessarily a rant against Walmart. Walmart doesn’t come up with their advertising campaigns and slogans, they hire some huge company to create the campaign and the slogans and ads that go along with it. This is really a rant about the irony of the slogan, “Save Money, Live Better”

It’s a tagline, “Save Money, Live Better”. It is a part of their brand. You will find it under their name on their website. It’s on the radio, and on TV. On their corporate website, they say, “In everything we do, we’re driven by a common mission: Saving people money so they can live better."

I get the “saving people money” part. They sell things at price points considerably less than other places. People can save money by shopping there. Yet, here is the irony… the issue I have. The rest of the tagline says “Live better” – “Saving people money so they can live better”. When I first heard a Walmart ad on the radio this week, it used the tagline after talking about the discounts being offered on Ruffles potato chips, Totino’s pizza rolls, Campbell’s chunky soup, and Pepsi. I ask you this… How is eating the crap going to help me, or anyone else, live a better life??? Seriously! The next ad I heard said, “Walmart is helping people save money so they can live a better life”. It advertised Doritos, Wonder Bread, and something frozen. Again, I ask… how is eating this crap going to help me, or anyone else, live a better life?

I started to investigate, like I usually do. Walmart has a website set up called savemoneylivebetter.com. They are posting testimonials from customers on how they are “living better”. They are “living better” because they are saving money, and using that money for different things. They are “splurging” on things, buying “fun” things, “eating out more”. They are repurposing the money. But are they “living better”???

Stay with me…

They are repurposing the money saved – for other things, things that they would not normally purchase or do. But perhaps, they should be using that money to buy or do healthier things. They are saving money by purchasing a bunch of crap – processed food, junk food, frozen food. UNHEALTHY FOOD. How is purchasing unhealthy food going to help anyone LIVE BETTER? Is it possible, that in the long run, by purchasing all this crap and saving money, that they would ultimately not be living better? That they may gain weight? Get sick? And therefore, be unable to do things that they would otherwise do? Is that living better? Would they be better off spending more to get the things that are less processed, healthier, natural, etc. and potentially be healthier, and have a better opportunity to truly “live better”?

Do you see the irony???

Let me know your thoughts. Post to comments!!

On Accountability

Who are you accountable to? Are you accountable to those around you or to yourself, or both? What about when no one is looking, or when no one would know. Are you accountable? Do you need to be?

During a WOD, who are you accountable to? Are you only accountable to yourself, or are you accountable to others as well. Obviously, if someone is counting for you, you are being held accountable. But, if you were not accountable to anyone, if no one is counting, watching, or paying attention, who would be cheated? Think about it.

Ultimately, you are only accountable yourself. You are only cheating yourself if you keep an inaccurate tally of your reps or rounds, if you write you time incorrectly, or don’t write your time at all, if you perform incomplete movements, or movements less than what you’re capable of. You are only cheating yourself.

As I previously posted, 99% of the time you are competing with yourself, not others. This makes you accountable only to yourself. When you cheat a movement, don’t complete it as you are capable of doing, miscount your reps, or weight, you are only cheating yourself. We are all accountable to ourselves.

I was recently impressed by personal accountability. Miranda Oldroyd of CrossFit 801 was recently in a video of Isabel (30 power snatches at 95#) on the CrossFit main site. Mary Lampas, Chris Stowe and Miranda did the WOD. Upon completing it, they were asked if they ever lose track of their reps. Miranda said that she does her best, but it could be 29 or 31. 18 hours later, she reviewed the unedited video, only to discover that she only did 29 reps, not the required 30. This video was to be posted on the main CrossFit site. Everyone would have seen it, but no one would have known that she only did 29 reps. It is an edited video. No one would be counting, and no one would know. But Miranda knew. She wanted to set a good example -- take advantage of demonstrating accountability.

She went back in to the gym 18 hours later – the next day, and did the missing rep, calling “time”. 18 hours later. She then redid the entire WOD, this time completing 30 reps in 2:13, a faster time than she did the day before.

All of this was on video. The second WOD didn’t need to be. Miranda could have left everything as it was, and no one would have known except her. But she knew. And because she knew, she had to do the right thing, and be accountable. To herself. And in being accountable to herself, she showed the CrossFit community what it means to be accountable.

Miranda demonstrates her accountability in Isabel

A similar subject of Cheaters: Life AsRX posted to their blog

Who are you accountable to?

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Special thanks to Miranda Oldroyd for her help with this post.

You Compare Yourself to Who???

In CrossFit, we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. We have benchmark workouts, we post results on public web sites, and we have PRs. We compare how we do, to how others do, to see how we rank – Beyond the White Board automatically ranks you against others. We wonder, “Am I as good as him? Am I as good as her? Could I have beaten the best?”

I completely agree with what Andy Petranek, of CrossFit LA recently posted:

One of the things that makes us different is the way we constantly compare ourselves to others who do CrossFit. We have leaderboards. We keep score. We post results of workouts up on whiteboards. We do this to create context for training, so that we all have a framework within which our training can exist... goals, expectations of performance, belief of what is possible, etc. Comparisons are good - as long as they are NOT used to make you feel bad about what you are doing... remember, the competition, 99% of the time, is just with yourself!

Wait, what was that??? “…Comparisons are good – as long as they are NOT used to make you feel bad about what you are doing… the competition, 99% of the time, is just with yourself!” Let me expand on that… You should never feel bad about any CrossFit workout, no matter how you compare to others. It is NOT about the comparison to others, it is about how you did, at that given moment in time, for that workout, at that hour of the day, during that temperature, with those people, on that amount of rest, and that amount of fuel, etc. That given moment in time. Did you do your best? Did you leave nothing behind? Did you leave nothing behind?

A while back I blogged about Going After the Big Dog. It was a post about motivation – something that motivates me. There is a definite difference between going after the big dog, and comparing yourself to others via leaderboards. Going after the big dog should motivate you to do better, make you push yourself further than you thought you could go. To challenge you. To motivate you. To help you better compete against yourself.

Every person is different, and every experience is different. It is not appropriate to compare yourself to anyone other than yourself, because you are NOT that other person. You do not have their experiences, their strengths, their weaknesses. We are all put together differently, made up differently, which means that our abilities are different. The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself. And in doing so, you will find that you will sometimes do better, and sometimes do worse than you previously did. It is the nature of CrossFit. It is, what it is, at that exact moment in time, and each moment is going to be different.

So don’t feel bad about what you are doing. Don’t feel bad about your performance. In CrossFit, no matter what your level or ability, your capabilities, at that given moment in time, for that workout, at that hour of the day, during that temperature, with those people, on that amount of rest, and that amount of fuel, you are doing things that most people cannot do. You are doing things that most people cannot do.

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