The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

CrossFit Day 80

Today’s workout was the return of “Filthy Fifty”, which we got two months ago. Last time, I did the whole thing in just over an hour. Today’s goal was an hour flat. Let’s take another look at the assignment.

For time:

1. 50 box jumps (I used bleachers at the park)
2. 50 jumping pullups
3. 50 kettlebell swings (35 pound)
4. Walking lunge, 50 steps
5. 50 knees to elbows
6. 50 push presses (2 20 pound dumbbells)
7. 50 back extensions, standing (20 pound dumbbell)
8. 50 thrusters (2 20 pound dumbbells)
9. 100 rope jumps
10. 50 squat thrusts (because I didn’t have enough juice at the end for full burpees)

I did the first five exercises at the park, stopped the timers, and headed home to my warm house to do the remaining ones. The pullups, knees to elbows, thrusters, and squat thrusts all took over five minutes each. I am certainly going to have a difficult time moving my arms too much in a couple of days. Sore is good, though, right? I went balls out on this one, trying to minimize my resting as much as possible.

Rounds

1. 02:32.99 (02:32.99) – box jumps
2. 06:13.80 (08:46.79) – jump pullups
3. 02:48.31 (11:35.10) – kettlebell swings
4. 02:25.48 (14:00.58) – walking lunges
5. 07:50.75 (21:51.33) – knees to elbows
6. 03:51.91 (25:43.24) – push presses
7. 03:07.81 (28:51.05) – back extensions
8. 05:42.10 (34:33.15) – thrusters
9. 02:59.23 (37:32.38) – rope jumps
10. 09:19.83 (46:52.21) – squat thrusts

Total time: 46:52.21
Fast: 02:25.48 (lunges); Slow: 09:19.83 (squat thrusts); Avg: 04:41.22

I beat my hour goal by 13 minutes and broke my previous time by almost 20. Here comes the sore. Every day sore is a day stronger, though. Can I get it next time in 40 minutes?

My results: 47:12, 9:56 zone (hard), HR: 166 avg, 183 max; 664 cal

Roy Hargrove Quintet

This evening, Soulcamp and I went to Yoshi’s in Oakland to attend the early show of the Roy Hargrove Quintet. Possibly the best known jazz instrumentalist under the age of 40, Roy Hargrove has been recording since he was a teenager. His group has a mature, experienced sound that makes for a good evening of instrumental jazz.

Roy came out and he and his band started out with a Red Garland tune called “Blues By Five”, which was an uptempo bop blues that showed off his chops, as well as those of his sidemen, Justin Robinson (alto sax) and Gerald Clayton (piano). Another midtempo blues tune followed, “Bohemia After Dark”, an Oscar Pettiford composition.

Hargrove brought his flugelhorn out for a beautiful rendition of “Never Let Me Go”, a great standard. A playful mambo showed off his drummer and bass player while the trumpet man danced around at the back of the stage. After a relaxed soul groove let everyone have a chance to take a solo or two, the ensemble closed us out with a blistering rendition of “The Theme”, a classic Miles Davis composition.

What a great show. This is a great group. If you like jazz, you should check them out whenever you can.

Promsumating 2008

Tonight was Consumating‘s formal party, largish, formal consumeeting in san fran (formerly known as promsumating). The first time I went, in July 2006, I manned a kissing booth, breakdanced in my tuxedo, and ended up in the flickr photos of a bunch of people.

This time around, I wasn’t sure that I was going to go. I’ve been focused on getting in shape and I’ve been cranky and anti-social lately. I realized a few days ago that my reluctance to hang out with some of my friends in San Francisco doesn’t have anything at all to do with them. It’s time to stop being a hermit and get back out there and mingling.

I decided to rent a car for the weekend from a nearby rental agency, who hooked me up with a sweet new Nissan Altima. After pulling my pinstriped suit out of the closet, I found that I could wear it, although I bought it when I was about 30 pounds heavier. After refreshing my memory with a helpful video, I was properly dressed and ready to go.

I managed to get to San Francisco and arrive at the party around 11:30, slipped quietly toward the door, and started drawing the comments. The last time any of my friends saw me, I was 46 pounds heavier than I was this evening. The difference between how I looked then and how I look today is dramatic.

I only danced to two songs or so. I spent the rest of the time catching up with everyone. Oz was there, trusty cameras in hand, waiting to catch me stepping it out. I met Xeen, Art, Khaan, Pepper, and B-Manda, among other people. Everyone was all decked out in all their finery, there was dancing, posing, and late night coffee with the out-of-towners.

I had a blast. Now I’m getting the itch to hang out with all of these wonderful people a lot more.

CrossFit Day 79

Today’s workout was “Elizabeth”, which I’ve done once before. Since I don’t have a barbell (yeah, broken record), I use dumbbells instead. Last time, I did the cleans with 30 pound dumbbells. Today, I did them with 35 pounders. To review:

Three rounds for time (21, 15, and 9 reps) of:

1. 70 pound dumbbell clean (2×35# dumbbells)
2. Chair dips

Although this only involves these two relatively easy exercises, the key is to grit your teeth and do the whole thing really fast, at high intensity. I’m not very strong yet, although I am getting stronger with surprising rapidity. I only shaved two seconds off my time last time, but this time I made sure that I touched my butt on the ground with every chair dip.

My results: 8:41, 3:44 zone (hard), HR: 153 avg, 176 max; 104 cal

CrossFit Day 78

Today’s workout was “Diane”, a simple little workout that requires some serious muscle. It also requires a barbell, which I don’t have. So I’m substituting the whole shebang. I’ll call it “Diane’s Evil Sister.” Instead of 225 pound deadlifts and handstand pushups, I’m doing the same number of reps, but adding two exercises to Diane’s Evil Sister.

Three rounds for time (21, 15, and 9 reps) of:

1. 70 pound deadlift (2×35# dumbbells)
2. Weighted pushups (2×15# dumbbells in a backpack)
3. Sumo deadlift high pulls (53# kettlebell)
4. Burpees

Since I haven’t done this variation before, I decided that my goal time should be 30 minutes. Some time after 21:30, I put my rubber fifteen pound dumbbells in a ratty old backpack, lined up my 35 pound dumbbells and the kettlebell, and got down to business.

The deadlifts went pretty quickly and so did the sumo deadlift high pulls. The pushups, however, taught me that putting a pair of dumbbells in a backpack to do weighted pushups is awkward, especially when you remove the backpack between rounds. The burpees took the longest, because I’d subdivide them in threes and pant wildly, while guzzling water, between said threes.

Times (DB DL, BP PU, SD HP, B) -> Round

1. 01:31.84, 02:47.70, 01:15.11, 05:09.76 -> 10:44.41
2. 00:55.96, 02:21.84, 00:53.00, 03:49.89 -> 18:45.10
3. 00:55.42, 01:37.28, 00:20.59, 02:11.79 -> 23:50.18

Well, so much for 30 minutes. I should have set my goal to 24 minutes. I overestimated the time this would take. I’ll know better next time.

My results: 23:51, 4:24 zone (hard), HR: 171 avg, 187 max; 355 cal

CrossFit Day 77

Today’s workout was “Michael”, a hero workout we get about once a month (previously: Dec 03, Nov 17, Oct 28, Sep 19). Last time, I did pretty well, finishing this whole shebang in just under 29 minutes. Today’s goal was 28:00 flat.

Three rounds for time of:

1. 800 m run (I averaged 823 m per run)
2. 50 back extensions (good mornings) standing, 30# dumbbell
3. 50 situps

I started around 22:15 this evening, when it was frigid outside. I decided to take 30 seconds of rest between each round, after the situps and before the next run. I ran pretty strong tonight, polishing off every one of the runs in under 4 minutes each. The standing back extensions went relatively quickly and I found myself still able to keep count, despite having a good thumping house beat in my ears. The situps felt like they took much longer than they did.

Time

1. 03:48.97 02:18.40 01:55.95 -> 08:33.48
2. 03:54.25 02:54.31 02:28.24 -> 18:20.59
3. 03:56.22 03:19.65 02:06.50 -> 27:42.96

With the Fleep beats in my headphones and my heart rate monitor on silent, I pushed a strong pace, especially on the runs. I felt a little chokiness toward the end of the third run, when I looked down at my heart rate monitor and noticed that I was pushing 203 bpm. Wow. Since I missed yesterday’s workout due to the soreness from almost 200 squats on the previous two days (100 weighted and 91 Tabata), I felt okay with pushing a little more intensely today.

I did fumble with the stopwatch for a second after I finished the third round of situps, so I’m counting the time I stopped the heart rate monitor. With a time of 27:41, that means I finished 69 seconds faster than last time. Personal best. Onward!

My results: 27:41, 7:26 zone (hard), HR: 173 avg, 203 max; 419 cal

CrossFit Day 76

Today’s workout was a newish one, ten rounds of front squats for one rep max. Unfortunately, I still don’t have a barbell setup. I subbed the whole workout for ten rounds of ten rep sets of the front squat, using a pair of 35 pound dumbbells.

Shoulder squats with dumbbells are really tricky. First, you clean the weigh up on top of your shoulders, then you roll the dumbbells off your thumbs. Then, you lean your head back against dumbbells, so they don’t fall forward onto your shins or linoleum (or balls). Then, when you finish a set, you clean them back down to the ground, take a drink of water, and go for it again. I completed all hundred reps in just over 15 minutes (15:05 on the stopwatch).

My results: 15:08, 7:42 zone (hard), HR: 159 avg, 180 max; 197 cal

CrossFit Day 75

Today’s workout was the return of “Tabata Something Else“, an evil brutal workout that had the nausea monster chasing me as soon as I hit the stop button on the heart rate monitor. To review, this tabata workout involved four exercises—pullups, pushups, situps, and squats. A tabata is where you do a particular exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for ten. My timekeeper is a Tabata track I downloaded a while back, played lovingly by my iPod Shuffle. Technically, today’s a rest day, but I decided yesterday to bump the Saturday workout to Sunday.

I set up a pullup bar in my laundry room, about three feet off the floor and did assisted pullups from an Indian-style seated position. This was a little more strenuous than I’d anticipated it would be. Next were the pushups, of which I did 10 more than last time, but far fewer than I’d have liked. The situps improved by 18 and I did 11 more squats. After I clicked the timer off and headed over to make my whew protein shake, I noticed the nausea kicking in. I sat on the couch, sipping my chocolatey concoction and felt like I’d just had my ass kicked rather soundly. I broke 300 this time in one continuous effort. If I take the bonus work off last time, I improved my score this time around by 45. Not bad, eh?

The last 3 rounds of any set are gruelling. Luckily, since the time here is short, there’s not much time to move. But, it’s still difficult to get into a position to write numbers on a notebook from the situp position. I’ll have to use my cell phone next time instead.

My results: 17:09, 10:16 zone (hard), HR: 156 avg, 175 max; 211 cal

1. AP: 14 11 11 11 08 07 08 09 = 79
2. PU: 13 08 09 06 05 05 05 04 = 55
3. SU: 09 11 10 11 09 10 09 08 = 77
4. SQ: 13 12 10 10 11 11 12 12 = 91
5. Total: 302 (257 last time)

CrossFit Day 74

Today’s workout was a short set of power cleans. To make this more work to compensate for my lack of a barbell setup, I increased it from five sets of three reps for max load to five sets of ten reps for time. I used the 35# dumbbells (to total 70 pounds for the move).

I really focused on trying to get good dumbbell form on this one, getting the weight off the floor to my shoulders. I made sure to land in a lower position and stand to complete each move. I really focused on not dropping the weight. Sadly, I failed, but my shin will heal.

My results: 12:01, 6:38 zone (basic); HR: 142 avg, 174 max; 130 cal

CrossFit Day 73

Today’s workout called for 30 muscle ups. I can’t do muscle ups, so the substitution is 120 pullups and 120 dips. Since it was raining furiously when I got home from work, I set up the bar in the doorway in my sunroom and did assisted pullups and chair dips.

I was aiming for a faster time than last time, since I was basically doing the same workout. Last time, it was 14 minutes. This time, I got everything finished in just a smudge over 12 minutes. Next time I have to substitute assisted pullups and chair dips, I should probably do 6 per assigned muscle up, or even 8.

My results: 12:05, 6:46 zone (basic); HR: 154 avg, 173 max; 147 cal