The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

CrossFit Day 40

Today’s workout was a real nightmare. It required a plethora of sumo deadlift high pulls and a double plethora of rope jumps (single unders for me). Unfortunately for my planned distance hike slow burn today, it started raining about the time I was finishing lunch.

A little rain is not going to stop me from going for it, though. So, we might as well suit up, grab the kettlebell and the rope, and go for broke.

Today’s work:

1. 100 sumo deadlift high pulls (35# kettlebell)
2. 50 rope jumps
3. 75 sumo deadlift high pulls (35# kettlebell)
4. 100 rope jumps
5. 50 sumo deadlift high pulls (35# kettlebell)
6. 200 rope jumps

The assigned workout called for rowing and double unders, but I don’t have a rower and can’t do double unders, so I doubled the rope number and did a high pull for every 10 meters assigned on the rower. On this workout, I ended up doing an extra set of 50 rope jumps in round 2, because I noticed that every time I’d jump my heart rate monitor would lose my heartbeat. For a while, I tried to adjust the strap. I wet the sensors, I tightened it up, I loosened it, but it read sporadically for several minutes. I’m sure that chopped a bunch of calories off my final results.

It was raining outside, but I have a kayaking jacket, so I stayed mostly dry for a while. When I relax over the rope, I can do 50 or 60 jumps in a row, but when I get pissed and kick myself in the ass, I can do 2. Easy does it, slick.

What a great workout. Hopefully, next time I do this, all of my calories get counted.

My results: 36:29, 10:15 zone (hard); HR: 157 avg, 188 max; 416 cal

CrossFit Day 39

Today’s workout was “Cindy”, which I did once before, about six weeks ago. This time, I went to a park with a low bar that’s slightly over my head. I gritted my teeth, set my heart rate monitor going and went after it.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as possible of:

1. 5 pullups (assisted)
2. 10 pushups
3. 15 squats

I knocked out my first five rounds in 10 minutes. As the clock was winding down toward the 20 minute mark, I pushed extra hard to get through the eighth set. I was even able to finish an extra five pullups before the timer hit the magic number.

My results: 20:00, 12:46 zone (hard); HR: 159 avg, 178 max; 274 cal

CrossFit Day 38

Today’s workout was yet another in a string of CrossFit WODs that requires a weight set. I have dumbbells. Today’s workout called for five rounds of three rep sets of deadlifts. I opted for five rounds of fifteen rep sets of deadlifts, using a pair of 30 pound dumbbells. I got through those really fast and was showing a caloric burn of 70 calories on my heart rate monitor. After missing a section of my commute this morning and having a work lunch that prevented my 200 calorie hike to the grocery store, I wasn’t ready to put a sub-100 calorie workout in my log.

So, I reached under the table and picked up my 35 pound kettlebell. I decided to knock out an equivalent set of sumo deadlift high pulls. That went by fairly quickly as well, but I can really feel both the deadlifts and the high pulls in my back and belly.

My results: 9:46, 4:20 zone (hard); HR: 154 avg, 179 max; 125 cal

CrossFit Day 37

Today’s workout was impossible without a barbell set, but it wasn’t too difficult to substitute something I can do with the equipment I have. So, this is what I did:

Ten rounds (tapered sets from 10 to 1) for time: dumbbell back squats (2 × 30 pound dumbbells).

I did two reps in my sun room watching my reflection and noticing that I didn’t go down all the way in either one. I was being really lazy, having difficulty positioning the weights on my shoulders without either smacking myself in the jaw or crushing my thumbs, and getting entirely too comfortable inside. So, I took the dumbbells outside on the back porch (or whatever we call that concrete pad) in the 50° (F) evening chill and started knocking out the sets.

Mental Note: Olympic and powerlifting exercises fail (or suck) if we roll our weight forward on our toes.

My results: 11:30, 7:38 zone (hard); HR: 154 avg, 174 max; 149 cal

8 Years at Hidden City

I don’t know how I missed it. I’ve been looking over sites that are in my feeds or bookmarks. Long ago, I had a link on an ancient version (maintained by editing flat files in php, no less) of this site with a big links list that included Hidden City. I’ve always enjoyed reading Marc Kevin Hall’s writing and somehow it’s a comfort to see that he’s still at it, posting his thoughts to the world.

He noted a week ago that he had recently celebrated the eighth anniversary of his website. He muses on how much the web has changed in those eight years.

Today, eight years later, the web has changed. It is far less of a creative frontier, with social codes determined by the pioneers and early settlers, a kind of virtual Deadwood. The citizens of the web are no longer primarily writers and artists, musicians and essayists, hackers and visionaries — the ‘netizens’ are just ordinary people consuming ordinary popular culture; the omnivorous corporations run the show, reducing us to mere demographic metrics, targeted consumers, or occasionally ‘content creators’ churning out snippets to fill the spaces between advertisements. The by-words are no longer community of individuals, but conformity to the masses. A new social networking site even uses the term ‘herd’ to describe its users. I cannot begin to describe how much despair that brings me.

I’m right there with you, sir. The upcoming new year will mark eight years of blogging here for me and Marc’s post brings the nostalgia back. It reminds me of Alison’s poignant letter to the internet of 2001 (previous mention here). With 850 million social networking sites, several billion people on MySpace, lolcats scattered everywhere, and Twitters flying in every direction of the compass, the internet seems more blessedly inclusive today. There is a certain amount of community that seems to have been lost, though.

I’m glad Marc’s still posting. Congratulations on eight years.

CrossFit Day 36

Today’s workout is pretty easy, but calls for a high level of performance and a large amount of rest between intense exercise periods. Are you ready? Let’s dance.

Four rounds for time of:

1. 400 m run
2. 2 min rest

Wow. That’s it? Let’s go!

I was utterly astonished when I came bounding up my driveway that my watch said I’d done the first 400 meters in 97 seconds. Whew. Fast.

400 m run times:

1. 1:37
2. 1:37
3. 1:38
4. 1:40

That’s a 6:32 mile! Well, there were two minute rest periods between each run. But, still. Yay, fast!

I finished my last 400 meter run showing 12:32 on the timer, but since the workout called for four rounds that each included two minutes of rest, I drank water, stopped wheezing, and let my heart rate drop from the “oh shit” beeps to “stop lounging” beeps. Good workout. Nice and short, but with gasping heavy breathing.

No idea, though, why about 50 meters of my running route smells like RV toilet chemicals, though. Nary an RV to be found in West Sunnyvale this evening. Weird.

My results: 14:32, 2:32 zone (hard); HR: 158 avg, 189 max; 199 cal

CrossFit Day 35

Today’s workout was aptly named “Nasty Girls.” After my awesome friend, Oz, chauffeured me around to get computer parts, a PSP, and a too-large Mexican dinner, I headed over to the nearby elementary school to do tonight’s workout.

After my substitutions to compensate for my unmanliness and my ill-equippedness (heh), this is today’s work:

Nasty Girls:
Three rounds for time of:

1. 50 squats
2. 28 assisted pullups
3. 28 bench dips
4. 10 reps hang power cleans (2×30# dumbbells)

I think there’s something awry with my squat stance, because on the bottom and the rising portions of the squat, i hear cracking in my knees—not just in the kneecaps, but on the side as well. I’m sure the cracking is an alignment issue. I alternated between the low bar and the rolly high bar for assisted pullups, so as not to favor either side of my body too much (or wear one side out too quickly). The hang power cleans were difficult at the end of sets of the other stuff. The hardest part was not belting myself in the collarbones with dumbbells that each represent nearly a fifth of my body weight.

My results: 22:27, 12:59 zone (hard); HR: 161 avg, 176 max; 314 cal

Blood Day

After bumping my appointment twice, I headed down to the blood donation center in Cupertino. They have a long questionnaire that prospective donors have to fill out every time. I filled it out, got tested for anemia, had my blood pressure tested (109 / 64).

The procedure took very little time. The big poke in the arm wasn’t too bad and I got to help out people who are in a dire emergency.

Do you donate blood?

CrossFit Day 34

Today’s workout was called “Isabel.” I’ve done this one before, but today I thought I had more game to pull this one off tonight. The workout itself calls for 30 reps of the snatch. I started out with a pair of 30 pound dumbbells, but my ability to snatch the weight above my head. I got one of them, but my tendency to rock forward on my toes, not get completely under the weight, or lose it on the bottom of the squat.

Yeah, it wasn’t going to be 2×30 tonight. I tried a couple of reps with the 25-pounders. Also, not happening. So, I got out the rubber 15 pound dumbbells and went out back. I attempted 41, completed the required 30, and decided to do a 30-rep set of Arnold presses to complete the workout.

I’ve been getting stronger, but some days you end up getting a workout that reminds you that getting stronger from “total wuss” still leaves you solidly in wuss territory. My goal is to find the border. Also, snatches require coordination more than strength.

My results: 17:06, 9:44 zone (hard); HR: 148 avg, 175 max; 205 cal

CrossFit Day 33

Today’s workout was called “Diane.” The version of Diane I did today had me substituting the official version for stuff I could do. Here’s my version:

3 Rounds for Time (21, 15, and 9 reps per round):

1. Dumbbell deadlifts (30 pound dumbbells x 2)
2. Pushups
3. Chair dips

I added the chair dips because 45 pushups and 45 light dips would take me about 6 minutes. With the chair dips, it took me 10, but that’s because I knocked the chair over twice. Clumsy? You bet.

My results: 10:01, 8:53 zone (hard); HR: 156 avg, 171 max; 130 cal