Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Fifth day

This time Laura met us for breakfast and we all went to the Ramona Cafe. The waitress was amused that I'd started out on my own and each day was incrementing the number of women I brought with me. She was waiting to see how many I brought the next day, but we spoiled that for her; The next day we started our run on Denny's. Laura had Tabasco sauce on her eggs, something she'd talked about in emails, but that I'd never actually seen anyone do and certainly never for breakfast. So she wasn't joking after all!

I had my picture taken by the Brand X sign, fulfilling another longtime ambition.
From BrandX

We did the WOD – Cindy was running this class and Andrea had this morning off

75 power snatches

Cashout
Max pull ups
Max push ups

I fell off the straight bar trying to adjust my grip to find a place that didn't hurt with torn hands. I still got a PR with 11.

Jeff arrived as the class finished to coach Nichole (Nichole811) DeHart.
She's a lovely person, so nice and very friendly. Nichole training with Jeff is a laugh, she complained constantly and then would switch it on and do some fantastic lifts.
She has the most beautiful squat form.
From The_amazing_nichole
From The_amazing_nichole
Nichole lives in Portland now and Jeff never let her forget that lapse in judgement. Nichole was struggling to get under the bar as she warmed up and complained "Jeff, my muscles are too big. My arms are to big to get under this bar!" Jeff while laughing managed to squeeze out "Those arms? Those are Portland arms, those are the arms you get when you move away from a  real gym".
Partway through Nichole's training Jeff discovered a humming bird had found its way into the gym overnight.
From The_amazing_nichole
We'd never seen one before.
Deadlifts were a struggle for Nichole that day, she couldn't stop dragging her shoulders back to finish instead of pushing her hips through. Jeff was using his best material trying to explain what she was doing wrong and then Cyndi pointed out that it was like doing a kettlebell swing and it clicked. Jeff accused Cyndi of holding back cues from him. Cyndi really knows her stuff.

We wandered off down Main street again and bought a cheapy pre-pay phone from k-mart so we weren't fighting over the unlocked one we brought from NZ. Lunch this time was Rubios and I had, wait for it, fish tacos! Oh my goodness those things are nice! Lynette discovered refried beans are really good as a dip for tortilla chips, she hadn't liked them until then.

We walked back to the motel, calling into a few shops, as you do. I bought a belt buckle. As I do.

We had a swim while we did laundry, yes, real laundry Anita and then went back to the gym with Andrea. The SS & DA show isn't on on Wednesday's so we had a bit more time to fill in. Andrea had a couple of private clients and when she was done she took us to her house for dinner. I shuffled money around between bank accounts on one of Hans' computers and caught up a little with what TP had been saying on the forum while Lynette helped with dinner. Andrea and Hans had kicked the kids out for the evening. We'd taken a small sample of some NZ candy we'd brought over with us for the kids, oh alright, and the adults and we left that there, along with some bone carvings in maori designs, one for each kid. The carvings went down much bigger than we expected apparently. But anyway, I'm missing the most important thing; the food. Andrea and Hans cooked Carne Asada and Pollo Asada. We had no idea what that was. Andrea tried to fob us off by saying it was just a store bought marinade, but I'm considering lobbying for an international pipeline for that stuff to NZ. It was absolutely fantastic, the perfect thing to have at a summer barbecue and a flavour I'd never experienced before. I restrained myself and only had one beef and one chicken taco or burrito or whatever the resulting assembly is called (I confess I don't really understand the difference still). It was all I really had room for but left to my own devices I would have forced a lot more in. Man that stuff was good! Oh and they have avocados all year round there. In NZ it's a narrow season so we make the most of them while we can. For us they're a luxury.
I took a look at a revamped XFitmom site Hans is working on as I was familiar with the CMS he's using for it. I helped with a couple of points he was getting stuck on, but which he would have worked out himself given time. Hans is a bright guy and he's doing a great job on the site, getting ready for when Andrea becomes a Crossfit affiliate and can use the Crossfit name for her ante and post natal programming. Have you seen it? Go take a look at http://www.xfitmom.com/ if you haven't. Brilliant stuff.

It was a great evening with two great people.

On the way back we picked up two mountain bikes from Laura's. We thought they'd help us get around Ramona but as it happened they never left the hotel room. It was a very kind offer from Laura and John though. It took me half an hour of fumbling around in the dark to eventually find out how to disconnect the brake cables and get the front wheels off to load them in Andrea's people mover. Bradley eventually rescued me by getting a torch.

I may have to do a catch-up post, I know we'd met Debbie by then, I missed Dan out and I'm sure we met Steve by this point. Mary was a regular at the 0900 classes, so we must have met her. There are all these great people at Brand X and I hate to leave any out.

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Fourth day

It's been pointed out that a trend is developing in my descriptions of Brand Xers; They're all short. So from here on I'll stop talking about the people shorter than me.
So, umm we met Large Lefty and saw Sven again, and, then we came home.

It's not my fault everyone was shorter than me! I really don't think of myself as tall and it genuinely surprised me to find I was taller than people I'd been admiring so much for so long!

Anyway, on to the real post. :-)

I took Lynette with me to the Ramona Cafe for breakfast. This becomes important tomorrow, trust me.
Andrea picked us up again and we made it to Brand X in time to be late for a WOD Jeff had programmed especially for us. What a nice man!
Buy in
50 toes to bars.

21-15-9
Burpee box/tyre jumps
Burpee pullups

Cash out
2 min total L-sit

I did my burpee pull-ups under the high straight bar and ripped the skin off my right hand this time. At least my hands matched I guess.
Lynette struggled with L-sits and Jeff helped her scale the WOD. He was impressed that she kept plugging away and refusing to quit. It makes me so proud that she won't give in and always gives her best.

We wandered to K-mart again, and bought more stuff, again, while the trainers had their pre-cert meeting and rehearsal. We had lunch at the Nuevo Grill, scene of many a Friday night post-kenpo meal according to Laura. I think that meal completely turned around my opinion of mexican food. Here in NZ it's hard to find mexican food, it's just not common. What I'd had was not at all nice, what I had at Nuevo Grill was fantastic! I think mainly because it was fresh and not as stodgy as what was passed off as mexican cooking here.

While I was there I sprayed my ripped hands with New-Skin as recommended by Connor. My left hand was partly scabbed over and when I sprayed it first it stung pretty bad, but I could handle it. When I sprayed my right though, freshly torn, it hurt like crazy! I gritted my teeth and kept my lips tight while using every bad word I knew. Christ that stuff is painful! Thanks heaps Connor! Of course he was totally sympathetic when I told him about this. Yep, just like his dad. Laughed his head off.

Connor's a great guy by the way. Very strong and a great athlete as everyone knows from his WOD results. He's mad keen on Crossfit and for a start talked about the Crossfit Games almost constantly. Later he slowed down a little and I found out what a genuinely nice and caring person he is. Sorry to spoil your rep. Connnor, for me that's a good thing. I tried to follow him on one WOD but while I got tired he just kept motoring on and left me way for dead. He looks just like his Dad when he lifts heavy. Stick that bit of fluff that Jeff has on his chin and you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart in profile.

We got back to the gym to find the mats being cleaned. I'm sure it was no coincidence that it happened after I'd sweated huge puddles into them in the morning. I suspect an emergency call went out to the carpet cleaners after we left. Sven was there waiting for Jeff to turn up and we had a very nice chat getting to know him a little better. He's a total loon and again a super nice guy. Very much a big kid most of the time, but like Jeff, Dan and some others there, there's a strength of will and a hardness that is not far from the surface. The shaved head and tattoos just mean you don't have to stretch your imagination very far to see it. Or at least I assume it's shaved, maybe he's just bald? He did have a birthday recently and he's getting on a bit. :-)

Jeff and Sven did a workout that included the completely ridiculous roll-out and snatch combo. I mean it was just plain stoopid! Sven's idea as I recall and I hope he's suitably ashamed of himself.
From SS_and_DA
From SS_and_DA
From SS_and_DA


I think we met Tony (TMoney) that day. If not he was one of many people I missed mentioning meeting the day before. I'm sorry to all of you, it wasn't a deliberate omission. Jeff had Tony doing a workout comprising dragging a sled the length of the building and back, medicine ball cleans and one legged squats on a box. Sort of pistols, but without having the leg in front. Poor Tony came in after the first sled drag and told Jeff " I don't like you, you are not nice". Jeff and Sven were appropriately contrite. Yep, laughed and jeered all through the rest of the workout. Told you Connor took after his old man.

Jeff took Lynette and me through deadlifts and we learned how to do "angry gorilla backs" to set up correctly. Love that cue, works every time. Mikki came out and told Jeff "That's not your angry gorilla pose", and he had to show us the face that goes with it for the kids class. While Jeff went home to get cleaned up we did a workout to set the positions correctly, comprising runs and deadlifts. Hill sprints for me to make TP happy, which Andrea gleefully recorded
From BrandX
We watched the evening's classes and eventually stopped sweating.

Jeff and Mikki and the boys came back and we all went to the Kenrick's? sushi restaurant. It was supposed to be a chance to chat with Jeff and Mikki, but after answering a few questions about New Zealand we pretty much shut up because we discovered that after two beers the normally taciturn Mr Martin becomes extremely loquacious. And that he has such cool stories and is so funny! We were having such a good time listening we forgot to say anything. We felt guilty afterwards that we hadn't contributed more, but honestly Jeff and Mikki are fascinating to listen to. Oh, and that's where we first started to get to know not-worried-Mikki a little more, and she's great company too. That dry sense of humour really comes out when the frown stops. I hope that they didn't find us too boring because we had a fantastic evening. Loved the food too. I found out ahi is tuna and california rolls are big sushi and both taste really good!

We texted Laura to set up breakfast the next morning as it was obvious from her schedule we weren't going to see much of her any other way. Lynette and I are both in I.T. and understand all too well the schedule Laura has to live with. Having to do a lot of your work when everyone else isn't means for some anti-social hours.

Monday, 21 July 2008

Third Day

This is the post that Jeff and Mikki aren't going to like, or one of them at least, because here you get to find out what Garddawg and BlueBugofJustice are really like. The difference between the forum and real life personae of many of the people I met is going to be a recurring theme for me.

I know you're all dying to find out the truth behind the legends, but you'll just have to wait, some other stuff happened before we met them.

First off food. Food is going to be another recurring theme, so deal with it. We love food and we were in a place with a whole new cuisine to try, not to mention being the home of junk food. We embraced both, unfortunately.
I had breakfast at the Ramona Cafe, a short wander from the Motel. It was fun seeing the aviation decor and seeing so many people who were obviously regulars come in and sit at their usual tables. One guy wandered through from out back (I think there's parking out there?), said hello then wandered out the front door to get a paper. While he was outside the waitress poured him a coffee at an empty table which he came back in and sat at. Obviously a routine. The food was good, nothing outstanding, just good. I can't remember what I had, even looking at the menu online, I know it featured egg beaters as I didn't know what they were. Laura explained them later.

Andrea "Marla Singer" Nitz met us at the motel at 0830 to take us to Brand X. I wasn't at all nervous about meeting her. Yep, lying. All the threats and in fact downright glee about the prospect of making me run "TP's hill" had me rather worried about her intensity. I needn't have. Andrea is a lovely lovely lady. Fantastically kind and one of those happy relaxed people you love to be around. There were elements of the "treehugger" she describes herself as about her, she was so laid back. Oh and I got my hug from her. She kept apologising for the mess in her car, saying it was a kid carrier and I kept thinking that she should see our cars. Or the car of another Brand Xer we met the previous day. ;-)

She got us to Brand X and the nerves were back full force and then some. I was wondering if I was going to have to bypass meeting people and dive straight into the toilet. I'm not sure of the exact sequence, but I'm pretty sure Mikki came out of the office pretty much as we arrived and said hello.
First impression in person? Mikki is a pretty little lady with a lot more freckles than I expected and a perpetual slightly worried look that probably comes from raising 3 sons. Except when she smiles, then the worried look disappears and she's just lovely. No, I'm not worried about Jeff knowing I think his wife is lovely, he already knows she is. Mikki showed us around the corner to where Jeff was training, deadlifting I think. He shook our hands wetly, it was already warm and whatever he was training he was working hard. I don't think he knows how to train any other way.
Jeff's shorter than I thought, despite knowing his height, but you don't think of him that way. The man has an air of authority about him and just a presence that constantly made it a surprise when I'd reach up to a pull-up bar he jumped to grab and realise I was taller than him.

OK, time to spill the beans about Jeff and Mikki and stop playing games.
From the forum I guess I had this impression of Jeff as a rather fierce, tight lipped person and Mikki as a strict school-marmish type. I knew they both had a wickedly dry sense of humour, but in both cases thought the martial arts and fighting aspect of their lives had had a very profound impact on their personalties. It had, but not in the way I had expected.
The word that comes to mind when I think of them now, and indeed all of the people I met at Brand X, is "honourable". There is a sense of dignity about the two of them that makes it impossible for me to imagine either of them doing anything underhanded or mean-spirited. They can both set aside that dignity and be very funny, or in Jeff's case plain silly (more on that later and yes, that's where you come in Sven), but at no time does it disappear completely.
They are decent, extremely kind, phenomenally generous and quite frankly, nice. I've said several times in the past that I know nice is not fashionable these days, everyone seems to be trying to be badass, but I like nice. There should be more of it.
Jeff and Mikki are the sort of people you hope will find you worthy of being their friends. I've honestly met very few people I respect as much as I do those two.

Another note about Mikki before I get back onto "what we did on our holiday" and stop embarrassing them both. They're going to hate all this BTW, they're not the sort of people who take praise easily. I'd had reason to ask a little about Mikki of a Brand Xer I'm not going to name (not Laura this time) before we came over and was rather surprised to find that they said the most dominant part of her personality was her maternal side. I can now confirm that that is completely accurate. Mikki puts everything she has into caring for her family and given the nature and antics of the three boys (and Jeff) I'm not surprised she looks a little worried most of the time. She extends that caring to Brand X as a whole and that's where that school-marmish impression I had comes from, or as it really is, an aspect of caring for Brand X as a responsible parent. And she is funny, had I mentioned that? I had? Good.

Somewhere in there we met Connor "Top Dawg" Martin and Cyndi "Go_Irish!" Rodi. I think when Cyndi came in to run the 0900 class that we sat down to watch, feeling a bit too intimidated by being at Brand X to feel confident about joining in. Not long into the class Jeff rounded us up and had us toe a line to check our squats. I finally found out what "send your hips back" meant, I'd been breaking at the knees first for all these years. Lynette had a few issues that Jeff quickly attended to and he was impressed that she picked up what he was saying so quickly. Jeff could have been saying what he was saying for the hundredth time that month but you had no impression that he was delivering Squat correction speech 43, version E. He was very clear, very concise, extremely accurate and very professional. Oh and quite entertaining. He explained how he would teach the movement to kids and quite frankly it's those cues I remember most, which might say something about my mental abilities. I had a problem with not fully extending my hips at the top of the squat and the cue he mentioned (and demonstrated) was telling the kids to "stand up like a superhero". When someone with Jeff's dignity does it you don't feel embarrassed to do it, so we did, hands on hips, chest out and all. During my Level 1 cert I found myself muttering "like a superhero" as they ran us through squat practise and decided I would do the hands on hips bit, but that I'd perhaps better drop the muttering in case someone heard what I was saying and thought I was big-headed.

Jeff also checked us out on push-ups and offended Lynette by suggesting she could do her push-ups with her hands on an elevated surface. I think she should have taken him up on it, I would have if he'd offered it to me, as he then sent us out to do a lap of the building, 10 perfect squats and 5? perfect push-ups and repeat until he told us to stops. Brand X takes up two units of a one of two long industrial buildings. Other business are in other units and the two buildings make up one long length with a road/carpark separating them. A lap of the building is about 200m I think and we took, oh about an hour for each one? I hadn't run much in a loooong time and Lynette wasn't any better. I was pleased that I made it and didn't blow a calf or achilles tendon out again. My calves did tighten up pretty badly and fortunately came right with some stretching. I thought I was in trouble for a while there though.

Once I'd got my breathing down to a steady gasp Jeff had me demonstrate my kip while Andrea showed Lynette through Overhead Squats. My kip was ugly as hell, but my joy at doing pull-ups on a round bar that was high enough I could actually hang from it was enormous. Even with my technique sucking I was able to get a swing going and get at least equal what I'd managed to do before. I wasn't counting reps, I was having too much fun playing on the bars. Jeff made me get off (spoilsport) and showed me that I was using all leg and not getting my shoulders into it at all and how to fix it. It was watching him jump up to the bars when I first made the realisation I was taller than him, as silly as that sounds. Jeff showed me how he'd teach the kids to kip and again I filed that method away as the best way I'd heard to explain it. I'm getting worried in hindsight at my affinity for these kids cues. Back on the bar a few times and very quickly it seemed to me Jeff had me kipping for real. Not perfectly I grant you and I still think I can get more hip into it than I did while I was there, but well enough so that on the angled bars I was touching my lower chest to the crossbar. I lost a lot of skin off my left hand in the process, but who cares? I could kip!


Andrea dropped us back at the motel as the trainers had a planning and run-through session for the Kids cert I was technically there to attend. She picked us up again to get back at Brand X at 1400 and that's when things went from awe-inspiring to awe-inspiringly stoopid. That's right, this is your bit Sven.
Sven "SuperSwede" Hestrand is the reason there is a Swedish flag hanging amongst the collection to which we added an NZ flag. I wasn't sure whether Jeff and Mikki accepted flags from just anyone, but their delight at receiving ours assured me it was welcome. Anyway, back to "Stoopid Swede" and "Dumbass" aka the Sven and Jeff afternoon stoopid workout show.
At approximately 1400 most weekdays when Sven is in town these two get together and plan, and I use the word loosely, and execute the most ridiculous workouts I've ever seen. Actually it's not so much the workouts that are ridiculous as the "planning" process.

The Stoopid Swede/DumbAss brain trust in action, and the resulting nightmare.

What happens loosely is that they both turn up at 1400 with something they have in mind and they throw those ideas into the pot. That apparently achieves some kind of a critical mass because what then ensues is a display of something between one-upmanship and brainstorming hat sees these two intelligent, careful, sensible men (one of whom has two degrees in this stuff for crying out loud!) feeding off each other's enthusiasm in a frenzy of gleeful delight at discovering new ways to attempt to damage themselves. At some stage the dust settles, they warm-up (neck crank, shoulder roll) and they're off. And sometimes people join them!
The workouts tend to follow the buy-in;WOD;cash-out model Jeff is using these days but in most respects look like a mini painstorm. And Sven is fond of throwing in "dessert".
There are a bunch of photographs from a couple of these insanity sessions at http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/SS_and_DA. I haven't tried to caption them because words fail me.

Update; I have been asked by no less than The Stoopid Swede himself in this post http://www.crossfitbrandx.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/4839/P45/#66779 to say that
"There is a lot more sophisticated planning going into the SS & DA WOD’s then what you explained in your blog....
There is a measurement of metabolic output, muscular endurance range, cardio respiratory funcions, VO2 Max etc etc. You didn’t get that part since we decided to call them: “Suck Factor”, “horribleness”, “pain level” and more...cooler words."
I still think he and Jeff are just big kids who should be separated until they learn to play together nicely without hurting each other.
End of Update

We watched the Monday afternoon and evening classes, Kids Kenpo, Peewee kenpo? (may have been Tuesday), Crossfit Kids, Crossfit and Crosspit. Peewee Kenpo is so cute!
I got to see Laura doing Crosspit and finally got to keep the promise I'd made long before to take photos of her if I ever watched a Crosspit class. Sorry I didn't get any video Laura.

I found the amount of activity in the gym a little overwhelming. I train at home on my own and unless Lynette joins me I never even see anyone else doing Crossfit. At Brand X there are the classes going on, private training sessions happening and people doing individual workouts all at the same time. A few days alter I was fine with it, but that first night seemed like chaos.

I thought Lynette was getting bored so I accepted a ride back to the Motel with Laura after Crosspit. It turned out Lynette had wanted to watch the adults Kenpo class which I would have enjoyed too, so I goofed there. I'm sorry!

We had dinner at Sizzlers which is right next door to the Ramona Valley Inn.

I haven't talked about Big D, Justin, McKenna or Adam and I've glossed over Cyndi and Connor. I'll come back to them all, honest.


The photos in this post are from the following albums, feel free to browse around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/SS_and_DA
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Other
Some will feature in posts yet to come, others will not.

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Second Day

We abandoned our initial plan to bus to Union Station and caught a taxi from the hotel. We'd never seen an unmarked taxi before and I wondered if the guy at reception had just rung a mate with a nice car he knew was cruising nearby.

We arrived with a lot of time to spare and retrieved the tickets we booked online while back in New Zealand from the machine. I sat around reading, but Lynette got bored went for a wander and discovered something was going on across the road. With about half an hour to spare we headed across and watched some dancers and then wandered down part of what we discovered a week or two later was Oliveira Street. Lynette is definitely the brains of our family, certainly when it comes to playing tourist.

Lynette kicked her present shopping off with the first of many "Dora" themed acquisitions for her 5 year old niece. Alright, I admit the Dora Lucha Libre mask was cute and I'd have bought it if she hadn't seen it first.


We made it onto the train and wandered for ages carrying our packs trying to find two seats together. I discovered later that if we'd gone a couple of cars further we could have had a whole carriage to ourselves. Everyone was energetically cramming into one end of the train and staking out their turf while there were about 3 carriages at the other end completely empty.

Me on the train. Lynette did the "tourist taking photographs of everything" bit very well.

The train journey to Oceanside where we were meeting Laura takes about 2 hours, but at least half of that is getting out of LA. Anaheim to Oceanside is about an hour. Train food on a short trip is no better than it is at home. Edible, but that's about it. We saw our first nuclear power plant. We're notorious for not having any of those things here, so we didn't even recognise what the big dome things on the coast were. And they're not signposted, funny that.

We were texting Laura with updates on where we were and she was telling us where she was until we pointed out that we had no idea where the places she was talking about were as an indicator of her progress from Ramona. Equally I confused her by texting we were someplace I saw on a billboard that isn't anywhere near the coast. I got off and dropped some rubbish in a bin and when I turned around I saw my first genuine Brand Xer.
They're not very big are they?
Actually Lynette and I both said later that Laura looks taller than her 5 foot flat, from a distance. Up close she's definitely hobbitlike.

While she was waiting for us Laura got Lynette coffee and twinkies. She had texted that she was looking for a place to buy flowers but I replied saying Lynette couldn't see the point in flowers and that twinkies would be better. We can't get those here and Lynette may have had one or two while she was there, and brought a box back with us.

The scenery on the drive to Ramona was fascinating. So different than any place back home.

Lots of marvellously twisty canyon roads that were later to freak out Anita "FirmDancer" Tyler in a big way, but which had me wishing for a nice 750 or bigger bike to throw around some corners. Except I'd probably have thrown myself right in front of a truck. I didn't really relax on the drive because all my instincts were that we were on the wrong side of the road and we would at any second round a corner and be facing some behemoth coming the other way. And that's just the utes (pickups to Americans). Those suckers are big! What do they get, 4 gallons to the block?
We didn't realise how long Laura had to drive to meet us and felt quite guilty when we did. That willingness to run us around was something we encountered time and again from many people and we were enormously grateful for it every single time.

Laura talked a lot and laughed a lot, a pattern we were to become very familiar with. She packs a lot of personality in that little frame! I can still hear that laugh now.
We checked in to the Ramona Valley Inn and found to our relief that the room was very satisfactory indeed. Quite simple, but clean and comfortable. We'd had conflicting reports on the Inn, but could not really afford to stay anywhere else. I handed over the sculpture of Dan Silver that Laura had commissioned me to make for her to give to him and again was relieved when she liked it. Phew!

We ran through Kmart for shampoo and stuff,

then went to dinner at Denny's (yes, Denny's, TP!) with Laura's family.
A choice of the locals, not ours TP, although we certainly had no objection to finding out how American Denny's differed from NZ Denny's. Laura's family were very nice and we had fun watching Bradley, Laura's son, open the presents we had brought him. The bag of "kiwi poo" had him very worried, I don't know that he picked up that it was only chocolate coated raisins for a start, but I wouldn't put it past him. He's a bright kid.
Lynette was surprised that when what appeared to be scones turned up, everyone put whipped cream on them. I think the scones were "dinner bread" and the "whipped cream" was definitely butter. Here butter is yellow and it's not whipped, perhaps because our cows are all grass fed? Or is the butter processed to death over there until its colour is gone?

We picked up a few more supplies at Albertsons (supermarket) on the way back to the motel, after reminding Laura that we needed to, she having already driven past Albertsons. Laura's memory and attention span being something else we became very familiar with. "Ooh, shiny! Sorry, what were you saying?".
And we briefly saw Brand X from the main road. There was a brief frisson of terror at what we would encounter there the next day.

We texted Andrea to set up our ride with her to Brand X the next morning and wnet for a walk to settle the Denny's. We didn't know it, but by the time we'd gone "one more block" and "to the next set of lights" a few times we were most of the way to Brand X.

Tomorrow, our first day at the controlled chaos that is Brand X on a Monday. We meet lots of Brand Xers and of course the fierce Garddawg and stern BlueBugofJustice (I didn't know!). Stoopid stuff is committed and I sacrifice skin to learn to kip.
That's likely to be a big post folks, we had lots of info to process!

The photos in this post are from the following albums, feel free to browse around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Union_Station
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Other
Some will feature in posts yet to come, others will not.

Saturday, 19 July 2008

First day

The plane flight was nowhere near the ordeal I remembered long distance flights to be. I slept for 2 hours at a time twice I think, helped by having got up at 0300 and going like crazy all day to get ready.


I was trying to get some sculptures finished to take over as presents, but didn't make it, so they'll be completed when I get back and mailed across. "Speed sculpting" is an interesting exercise in carving away the non-essential to focus on what you really need to capture. Shame it's so stressful.

LA is having a cool spell so it's just pleasantly warm here. We went for a couple of wanders to 7/11 stores near to the Motel 6 we're staying in. We also bought a pre-pay card for our unlocked NZ cellphone, so we have a US number to use. Lots of new junkfoood to try at the 7/11. I resisted some of it, gave in to others. I don't think it will be too hard to keep my falls from grace to a minimum as it makes me feel like crap to eat that stuff.

I did 30 burpees before we headed to Panda Express for dinner. I didn't like the food a lot, but I suspect that was partly due to poor choices. I got my first fortune cookie, something about "You have only just begun to live the life of success you will have". I'm tired, it's been a long day, details like that are hard to hang on to, stop picking on me. Are you supposed to eat the cookie part of fortune cookies? I have no idea, so didn't.

I did another 40 burpees poolside and then had a little swim while Lynette used the internet. We found out how to get the train station and after a myriad of top-ups, managed to print the various bus numbers and changes out.

I'm blogging this using up the extra credit.

Tomorrow we meet our first real live Brand Xer when Laura picks us up from the train station.
It will be to much to hope that the cool spell follows us to Ramona and it's been nice to have it here. The temperature isn't a big deal, the hardest part is getting used to it being light at 1950. Mid winter at home so it's dark at 1730.

Off to bed I think. Another big day tomorrow, and then it really gets tough when I submit myself to Jeff's tender mercies, although it's Andrea and her apparent desire to kill me with hill-sprints that really worries me.

The photo in this post is from this album, feel free to browse around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/metric.nz/Flight_over

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

HSPU and L-pull-ups 080713

For time:
15 Handstand push-ups
1 L Pull-up
13 Handstand push-ups
3 L Pull-ups
11 Handstand push-ups
5 L Pull-ups
9 Handstand push-ups
7 L Pull-ups
7 Handstand push-ups
9 L Pull-ups
5 Handstand push-ups
11 L Pull-ups
3 Handstand push-ups
13 L Pull-ups
1 Handstand push-up
15 L Pull-ups

18:30

Down from 22:19

HSPU; Piked, feet on a 20" box
L Pull-ups; Supinated grip. L pull-ups were my usual "lower case h" sub for the "L". Hamstrings too tight.

Sunday, 13 July 2008

"Smokey"

Did the Pack version of

"Smokey"

30 Bear Complex for Time:

Deadlift from floor
Hang Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press
back to floor
= 1 rep

*bar must touch floor between each rep

Big Dawgs
95/65
Pack
65/45
Puppies
45/25
Buttercups
15/PVC
30kg
12:08

I went back and did 5 extra front squats because I caught myself missing them in one round and wasn't sure how many other rounds I'd done the same thing.

And that's the end of my knees for a few days. Tuesday may be Helen if they're feeling better, or I may do Muscle-ups for time and leave Helen for Thursday or Friday.

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Michael

Pack/Puppies

3 Rounds
400m run
35 abmat situps
35 x 20kg good mornings


20:32

I tried to use what little I knew of Pose running technique and did fairly well at getting my heels up behind me according to the shadows from the street lights, but completely dropped off the tempo. I didn't remember my watch with the tempo pacer in it unfortunately, but I'm not
sure that would have helped, I just couldn't move my legs faster.

Situps etc were a struggle only because I was puffing so much.

They're going to cream me at Brand X.

But.
I ran.
I ran all of a WOD.
I didn't hurt my ankle.
I didn't hurt my knees.

While not impressive by most people's standards, that's extremely satisfying to me.

Friday, 11 July 2008

Crossfit Games deadlift and burpees workout 080705

Pack
5 Rounds for time
5x 90kg Deadlift
10 burpees

11:20

I tried 100kg to see if it was going to work, but it was a bit dicey and fell back on Pack weights.

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

135 pounds of death 080702

Did 30kg of death, the pack version of 135 pounds of death.
Five rounds for time of:
65 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
65 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
65 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
65 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

13:25
Didn't bother with the splits this time.

My back was rounding a bit in the early rounds of the front squats. I think I fixed it toward the end.
Front squats to a 12" box. Missed reps were repeated.

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

5k run 080623

Cherry picked the 5km run.

I walked 3 laps of our 1 mile block and ran 2 sides of the last lap when I was nice and warm. Ankle twinged a little on the last run.

I wanted to stretch my legs a bit and persuade my spine to uncurl a little.