Pompa WOD - Wed 7/9

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Workout

Deadlifts 95lbs x 10 reps

Front Squats 95lbs x 10 reps

Burpees x 10 reps

Repeat above with 9 reps, then 8 reps, and so on until you do 10 sets.  The last set is only one rep per exercise.

First few 3-4 sets are rough, but as the reps go down it becomes less painful.  This also works out nicely since you're fatigue level is consistently going up as reps go down.

Personally, I did the entire routine and gave up at around set 8.  I could barely breathe and I had to stop.  Fuckin' burpees.

At the end of this there was a 2/3 mile run which I half-assed and walked a good portion.

Stay motivated team!

TM training so far

This week I hit up crossfit on Monday and ran a couple of miles last night.  Gonna take today off to work around the house but back at crossfit Thursday and running Friday. Weekend workout schedule is still TBD but wanted to keep you guys in the loop.

How's everyone else doing?

Pompa/Team - Workout Log - Various Dates

It's been a busy work week.  Tough Mudder training on my mind, and more importantly, missing two workouts early in the week.  Nonetheless, the following is a summary of my training this week, somewhat unconventional, but got it done.

Monday and Tuesday
Fully consumed with work.  No opportunity for much really.

Wednesday
Another late night at the office.  Got home at around 9pm.  My new bike, which I usually keep at my girl's house, was taking up space in my apartment.  I had been meaning to drive it back over for a few days but hadn't gotten a chance to.  So I geared up and rode the bike 5 miles back to her house.  That leg of the trip took me about 25 minutes.

After dropping off the bike and taking a water break, I started a nice 5 mile run back home.  That leg of the trip took me about 50 minutes.

Learning to use the Garmin site, I deleted the running portion of the workout, so bike stats only here:
Bike to Jess's House by pompiviri at Garmin Connect - Details

Thurday
Not a damn thing.

Friday morning
Trying for another long run, but it was too cold for me and I was too tired.  My plan was 6+ miles.  Ended up doing 3.

Full stats here: Morning Run - 3 miles by pompiviri at Garmin Connect - Details

Saturday morning
Tennis for about an hour plus.  Good cardio, worked on ankle pivots, had a nice competitive morning.  Felt great to be out swinging the racquet again.  Ankle is now beyond healthy, just tight tight tight.  Two knees and an ankle that now require warm-up before any physical activity.

THIS MORNING - TEAM WORKOUT
Emilio, Frankie, Brian, Jared, and Pompa.  6.5+ mile run from my place, over the Key Biscayne bridge, and back.  Some slight cramping for Emilio, Brian's first run of more than 4 miles, Jared consistent with his pace, and Frankie holding strong.  I felt really good on this run.

My stats here: TM Team Run by pompiviri at Garmin Connect - Details

It was a solid team run.  I felt the camaraderie today and the approaching event date now feels very real.  We are all working towards a common goal throughout the week, all in our own way, but coming together once a week for a long run feels good.

Everyone came ready to work and we kicked that bridge's ass.  Next week we push the 8-mile mark.  Will we be Tough Mudder ready in less than a month?  I think so.

Peace.

-Pompita

Pompa - Workout Log - 01.12 weekend

Greetings,

Here's my update for the weekend:

Saturday I swam for about 25 minutes.  My cardio from a swimming perspective is atrocious and I had to stop and start quite a bit.  In total I swam about a third of a mile which I think was about 12 laps in my building pool.  Felt like a strong workout, which I'm guessing it was.  Still need to do it more to truly test myself in the water.

On Sunday I went for a 2.5 hour bike ride through the Gables/Grove/Key Biscayne.  Total distance was about 14 miles.

Peace out.  Pompa.

Pompa - Workout Log - 01.09.13

Did the following workout this morning:

1. Warm-up with 600 meter run and basic exercises (jumping jacks, groiners, etc.)
2. Core-workout as follows:
1. 20 seconds of fast sit-ups with 10 seconds of rest.  Repeat 4X.  Followed by 1 minute of jump rope.
2. 20 seconds of bicycle kicks with 10 seconds of rest.  Repeat 4x.  Followed by 1 minute of jump rope.
3. 20 seconds of supermans with 10 seconds of rest.  Repeat 4x.  Followed by 1 minute of jump rope.
4. 20 seconds of high planks with 10 seconds of rest.  Repeat 4x.  Followed by 1 minute of jump rope.
3. 600 meter run followed by 10 barbell deadlifts followed by 10 ab crunches (hang from a pull up bar and bring up my knees to my chest), then 9 barbell deadlifts followed by 9 crunches, etc...all the way to 1.  10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Keep you posted on future workouts.  Ankle feels better, but still not 100%.  It's hard to leap up off my toes.  That still gives me some pain.  Doctor said it would be another month or two before I'm 100% but in the meantime I need to keep it moving and training.  Boo-ya.

Right now I only see David Mui as a team member.  If you are doing the mudder with us, please please please join the team.  Go to www.toughmudder.com and join an existing team.  The team name is United Mudders and I believe the password is the same (or maybe UnitedMudders without the space).

I will try and send out invites to those that I know intended to join.  Also, I think there are people I need to invite (for the 10th time) to this blog.

Peace out.

March mudders??

Where are the March tough mudders at?? Blog is too quiet!

7 Muscle Gaining Exercises

I am a big fan of mixing up workouts, so I would think of a muscle building routine as one of various types of workouts to seek out for the Tough Mudder.  Clearly a structured running program is critical and we should discuss everyone's approach to this on some other post.  

But if we're talking about resistance training, I'm also a fan of Cross Fit and muscle confusion exercises.  I've actually distanced myself from the type of routine in this video and haven't done a heavy weight routine in quite some time.  However, I do think that all of the exercises described herein are effective and I would maybe through in lunges of some sort as well.

A heavy resistance day is awesome for generating that power you want out of your movements and is complimented well with a strength training routine that focuses on explosiveness versus heft.

Anyway, just FYI.  Knowledge is power.

Midweek Update

Ok, about to hit the sack, but here's the latest on my end:

1. Last week I ran 4 miles and hit up two CrossFit classes.
2. Ran 7 miles with Stitz on Saturday morning.  It was a struggling type of run, really slow I think for both of us.  Took us almost 1.5 hours, but it got done.
3. Hit up a hard Crossfit class yesterday (Monday night).
4. Just got back about an hour ago from a very fast, but brutal 6 mile run over to Key Biscayne.  It was extremely dark and super windy.  The whole run up the bridge headed into the Key was against a solid 20 mile per hour wind.  Seriously like running on a treadmill...exhausting.  Despite this I posted my fastest run time in a long time...6 miles at a 9.60 min/mile pace.  Not too shabby for the team gimp!

Hope everyone is generating personal training success out there.  We have a run scheduled for the weekend of 11/19.  10 miles...get ready for it.  We'll do it super early so Dave can make it to work this time...lol.

Nite.

Good (Almost) Team Run

Unfortunately Mr. Jared Stitz couldn't make the run on Sunday, but oh what a run it was.  Although we didn't get an accurate Garmin pace, it took us over an hour to complete the 6 mile run.  Not to mention the exhaustion push-ups we cranked out half-way through.  Good work gents.

Thanks to Denny and Dave for coming down to my neck of the woods.  From our conversation, it sounded like at least one more team workout/run will be possible in November before the event.  I have a 10 mile run on my training calendar scheduled for the weekend of November 19th.  Any takers?  We can replicate our run from Sunday and extend it out into Key Biscayne a bit more, or we can continue down Bayshore Drive into the Grove.  So, a few options.

A couple of other points to discuss are what we are doing regarding transportation / accommodations.  Denny, I'm guessing you will probably drive from your place the morning of.  I think Jared and I will have to find someplace to spend the night up in Tampa.  Dave, you're welcome to join although I know you've crashed at Denny's before so perhaps that's an option.  Second point is regarding team attire.  Something simple like all of us wearing the same Under Armor shirt.  There are some older posts on this blog if you go back to the very beginning of it (before Dave or Jared joined the blog) where Denny and I were posting ideas on gear.  I'll try and repost those this weekend.

Also, some other things to think about with respect to gear are gloves (see older posts since Denny and I did a good amount of research into gear early on) and whether we want to carry camel packs.  I already bought the gloves I'm going to use for the event and I was reading on Facebook that there are limited water stations throughout the course, so many people carry camel packs with water, gel packs, etc.

Please post comments or thoughts.

TM!

Running Update

3 miles tonight on the treadmill.  32 minutes.

Last Night's Workout

Quick blog:

Strength WOD:

• Overhead Squats (barbell): Just figuring out what weight I can max out after 15 reps.  For me, this is all about learning technique right now, as I feel the weight is light but the form of the movement is difficult, so I can't really load the bar.  85 lbs.

WOD (AMRoundsAP):

• 7 rounds of the following (20 min max):
• Front squats (barbell): 10 repetitions
• 10 Burpies
• 5 Hand Stand Push-ups

I was able to complete 5 rounds of the AMRAP WOP.

Calves feel good.  Work is bad.  Assuming I get out of here at a reasonable time I plan on completing one of my two weekday runs today.  The other hopefully tomorrow.

-Pompa

CrossFit Brickell

Another workout today at the new gym.  I will admit I like the Gables location better.  The gym is much much smaller here and the 8pm class feels super tight with the same number of people.  I may have to suck it up and get out there in the mornings.  I went to one morning class this week and there were about half as many people (because working out in the morning sucks).  But the girls are also cuter at night...what to do?!

W.O.D.:

• Deadlifts
• O-Ring Dips
• Box Jumps

Three rounds.  Round 1, 21 reps of each.  Round 2, 15 reps of each.  Round 3, 9 reps of each.

The W.O.D. was prefaced with a buy-in.  The most noteworthy part of the buy-in was this one thing called "L-Sits".  Basically, if you think about a traditional dip machine, imagine facing away from the dip machine, propping youself up on locked arms, and then bringing your locked legs up so your body is in the shape of an L and then...drum roll please...TRYING TO HOLD YOUR LEGS UP.  So it's almost 90% abs and I could hold each time for about 10 seconds and not in perfect form either.  Everyone was struggling, which I think is the point.  So you hold it, then when you can't anymore, mentally log how long that hold was for.  Then rest and do it again and again and again, until you have accumulated 1:30 seconds of time.

I found this video after writing all that:

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EDIT: Ok, so I had to come back and post these videos...sick!

And then there's this showoff:

Back in the Saddle

WOW, so happy to see some of the recent posts.  Sounds like we're starting to find our groove here again.  We're all regrouping and restarting on positive tracks.  I myself am now over the hump of craziness here at the office and settled into my new place.  This weekend I transfered my CrossFit membership over to Brickell and this morning was my first workout in about two weeks.  The body does not forgive.

It was pretty exhausting, but luckily it was an AMRAP type workout so I was able to pace myself a bit.  Here goes:

Warm-up (with a partner):

• 500M run with a 20lb medicine ball, taking turns carrying the ball
• Wall Balls tossing it up and over to the partner on every turn
• Butterfly situps passing the ball over to your partner
• Groiners (kind of like Burpies, except no push-up) tossing the ball to your partner when you stand.

W.O.D. (23 minutes, AMRAP):

Buy In: 800M Run then do as many ROUNDS of the following 4 movements as you can in 23 minutes:

• 12 Chest To Bar Pullups
• 9 barbell Snatches
• 6 hand-stand push-ups (which I actually did these today for the first time from a wall walk position, tapping the top of my head to the ground each time.)
• 20 Burpees

Buy Out: 800M Run

Good luck this week boys.  11 weeks and counting...tick-tock, tick-tock...

Moving On

So just because I don't have another blog, I thought I'd share this one here since it is somewhat Tough Mudder related.

I've spent the last few days running around, in a non-cardio manner, trying to get my things packed up in anticipation of my move on Monday.  Had lots on my mind while also experiencing the busiest time of the year at work.  I'm quite looking forward to having my move completed in a couple of days and regaining control of my life once more.  Due to the madness, I didn't do a damn thing this week from a fitness and training perspective.  However, I knew early on the craziness that would ensure, so I committed myself to focused and structured working out the next few weeks.  I'll let you know if I stick to it.

We are closer than we realize to this thing.  What do we need to do to get everyone motivated?

My vote is to schedule a team workout, someway, somehow.  But for Jared, both David and Denny have done a Crossfit workout with me.  It's likely not worth doing that again as a group, so I'm open to suggestions.  Denny, I think we'll definitely want to work around your schedule the most since you are out of town.  If we want to do a team workout let's do so when we can overlap with one of your trips to Miami.

For now...thoughts?

P.S. I thought the blog needed a little revamping.  Let me know what you think.

Crossfit Exercises

So if you have absolutely nothing else to do and want to waste time browsing the internet, this might be a good place to start:

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

Workout Update

Ok, so I figure I'd just post what I did in case you decide to mix it into your workout this week.  These workouts are quick and painful bro, so no excuses.  Power through them.  This one you could do in 25 minutes.

We did a warm-up that I'm not going to post, but it was a series of squats, stretches, etc.  Kind of a combo of what you did when you went to warm up but with some minor strength things like squats, etc.  So, just warm-up is my point.

Anyway, the workout, lasts 25 minutes.  AMRAP, but for this one the "R" means, ROUNDS, not REPS.  One round consists of the following:

MAXOUT ON PUSHUPS - Get into push-up position, go all the way down to the ground for each push-up where your chest touches the floor, but you don't release the hands.  Continue cranking out push-ups until you cannot do anymore.  This means that if you are at the top of the push-up position you try for another one, even if they come out slowly.  You stop when you cannot get up to the top of the position anymore.  That's how you determine your "max", when you CANNOT get back up into the starting position.  This is the first of three movements.  Movement 2 is...

ROPE CLIMB - Obviously you don't have a rope to climb, so supplement something here.  This is a rep/set based movement, so you kill it on push-ups and then force X many reps with whatever BACK movement you want.  Predetermine the # of reps.  So, 15 dumbbell rows, for example.  Movement 3 is...

400M run (aka quarter mile) - You may have to measure it out, but if you remember the crossfit gym, this is around the whole block (we ran around the grass only, which was 250M).  Actually, you could do a quarter mile on the treadmill, so you never have to leave the gym.

Come back into your gym and do it again...MAX PUSH-UPS, BACK MOVEMENT 2, 400M RUN...MAX PUSH-UPS, MOVEMENT 2, 400M RUN...etc. 

Your workout ends once 25 minutes are up, so the stopwatch is key.  Count the number of rounds you completed.  If you are in the middle of a round when the time runs out, finish that round.

I did 4 rounds in just over 25 minutes.  Let me know if you take this one on.

Solid Team Workout

Absolutely a great team workout.  Considering it was our first time, I think we did it right.  The time we invested up front to get our routine in order is very important and we did a kick ass job of putting that together.  Very insightful on both our parts and we even had to adapt and throw in the mountain climbers in place of the jump-ups due to equipment availability.  Props to Denny for quick thinking there.

So, I just want to summarize our workout here for future reference.  Let's think of this as the particular combination of exercises we worked that day and either we can repeat it, change it up completely, whatever.  But I think it's a good place to start, for sure.  Also, I'm indicating what muscles were worked, but I am not mentioning "core" if it was a completely ancillary muscle group.  Core should always be tight during all exercises when possible.  Lastly, going forward, focus on challenging your stability with each routine as it will create tension in little muscles, particularly core muscles.

TEAM WORKOUT #1

• Circuit A
• Single-leg step-ups + forward shoulder dumbbell raises
• (balance on one leg/simultaneous shoulder raises)
• Quadriceps and Shoulders
• Straight leg bent over dumbbell rows
• Hamstring and Back
• Reverse lunges + dumbbell shoulder press
• Quad/Hamstrings + Shoulders
• Lat Pull-Downs
• Back
• Circuit B
• Single dumbbell squat + upright row
• Quads and Shoulders
• Consider replacing the dumbbell with a kettlebell
• Scissor Kicks
• Quads + Core
• Mountain Climbers
• Full body, mostly Legs and Core
• Core Circuit
• 60 second plank
• Side-planks to exhaustion

Internet Links for Thought

1. Here's the kettlebell that I bought.
2. Kettlebell exercises: So as you are aware by now, I'm a big fan of the kettlebell.  However, I will admit that I don't have a great amount of knowledge as to the world of possible exercises we can do with a single heavy kettlebell.  Obviously we discussed the kettle swing, a standard one.  And I have a couple of others including the one seen in the link above.  I pasted this particular link for a couple of reasons:
1. I like the exercise.
2. I like this dude's videos.
3. There are a bunch of other links to this guy only doing kettlebell work right there along the right of the screen with a single kettlebell.

What I would like is if you could go through these videos, and I will as well, and whatever other info you find out there that you think is good, so we can have a solid kettlebell workout next weekend.  It's an area that I need to gain knowledge as I don't know much, so it would be good maybe for both of us to work on this area together.  I think we can really see great benefits from solid kettle workouts.  Next time I come up, we can skip the gym and do a field workout with running plus nonweight stuff (like mountain climbers, push-ups, handwalks, scissor kicks, etc.), and a good intense kettlebell routine.  That's the goal I think.

For future posts, I will post specific kettlebell videos that I think are good, maybe later this week.

Check This Out

Let's consider this for the outdoor workout.

Do this, sprint a certain distance, do it once you get there, sprint back, one more time.