If you ever wanted to know, lacrosse was invented by Native Americans way back in the day. They used fields with no real boundaries, and the goals were miles apart. Hundreds of warriors would play for each side at once, and the game might last for 3 days. The game was considered great training for battle, and was sometimes played in lieu of a battle between tribes. Since most players never got close to the ball, they would use their sticks to smack their opponents. It's a wonder the sport survived.
Well it did survive, and now my oldest daughter Kelly is a devotee of the game. She likes lacrosse more than most sports she has ever taken part in, and way more than she likes biking. In fact I think she hates biking, which is another story. Anyway, this game was in Overlake near Redmond, WA., and our little homegrown team tied the big city kids 11-11. It was a stellar game, and our girls scratched and clawed the whole game to stay in the fight. They dang near won. It was cool.
Todays Workout of the Day was 50 burpees for time, jumping 1 foot above your reach each time. My time 4:26, Kelly 4:32. Click title for demo video.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Wenatchee Valley Lacrosse
Saturday, May 3, 2008
WOD
Shoulder press, max effort, 1 rep x 5 sets:
95/105/115/115/105
Push Press, max effort, 3 reps x 5 sets
100/100/115/105/100
Push jerk, max effort, 5 reps x 5 sets
100/105/105/95/95
Click on title for a video that shows what these moves look like. Today was a nice rest after yesterdays Hero WOD, although it was my first time doing these particular movements. I have much to learn, but it's great just knowing that I have a start. I hope some of my friends will start doing CrossFit with me after we get our home gym set up in our newly remodeled "shed".
Parade Day
Today is the BIG DAY, the Apple Blossom Grand Parade. Which to locals means lots of traffic, noise, and of course bands and floats. For those of you who like things like noisy bands and traffic, parades are indeed a grand thing. But for those of us who would rather have some solitude and fresh air, parades are not that grand. I did give Torin the chance to go to the parade with mom and little sister, or go hiking with dad and big sister Kelly. He decided that hiking would be much more fun after sitting through the Kiddies Parade last weekend. Good choice I think. Kelly had a great time too and I was very happy to have her along. I feel like we got away with something since almost everyone else I know feels obligated ins some way to go to the parade. I guess that's a good thing for us who don't go.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Murph
So you may have noticed the link on my blog to CrossFit. I have been trying to follow the CrossFit Workout of the Day (WOD) for the last couple of weeks, at least whhenever I can. The workouts consist of variable functional movements performed at very high intensity over a short period of time. Normally this means a 15-20 minute workout that will have you gasping for air and screaming for your mommy.
Todays workout is much, much harder. It's called Murph, in honor of a Navy Seal named Michael Murphy who died at the age of 29 in Afghanistan in 2005. This was one of his favorite workouts, and if you click on the title of this post you can read about him. The workout consists of:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 push ups
300 squats (air squats- no wieght)
1 mile run
Of course this is for time, like most crossFit workouts. Lieutenant Murphy used a weighted vest as he did this workout, so now the prescribed workout calls for a weighted vest if you have one. Doing these Hero workouts is as much about honoring the soldiers and servicemen who have died defending our freedom as it is about getting a workout. This will be my first Hero, and I'm a bit worried. Fortunately, you can do this workout in two ways. One way is just as it is listed above, with all pull ups done before moving on to the push ups, etc. The other way is to do pull ups, push ups and squats in groups, and then repeat. For example, I'll be doing it this way:
1 mile run
5 pullups
10 push ups
15 squats
repeat the above for 20 sets
1 mile run
Ouch, I can feel the pain already. My pull ups need the most work, and I have only done about 80 or so in previous workouts over the course of 20 minutes. The times I have seen others post for this workout range from 45 minutes to an hour plus. I'll be happy to finish in less than an hour.
So what's up with the picture of the little man and the big tire? Well CrossFit is based on functional movements, not a particular piece of gym equipment. In fact, you need very little equipment to do the Crossfit workouts. Tire flipping happens to be a great leg, back and arm workout, and tires are free from the local Les Schwab. I have a big one in the backyard and my 4 year old has a small one, and we race down the yard and back. Then we do pull ups and box jumps and repeat. Great family fun.
Now go do your WOD.
Update: My time was 46:15, but I had to substitute 8 minute hard efforts on the bike trainer for the runs. My calf cramped up after 3/4 mile of running, so I had to start over on the bike. I did 8 minutes because that's about how fast I would have run my miles for this effort. I was happy with my overall time, although there is a lot of room for improvement.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
On the trail again
Three weeks to the day of my untimely get-off in Moab, we are back in the saddle for a sampling of hometown dirt. This is the first ride in Sage Hills for me this year, and it's just about perfect. We rode Up the Gut to the Deer Trail, Ho Chi Minh to the MAD trail, and on up to the snow line. The balsamroot was out in full force, at least down low in the sun belt. Up higher we saw shooting stars which are a super cool little flower.
We eventually had to turn around so we wouldn't damage the trail as it was a bit muddy up top. We took a seldom used descent that we once used to do on our cyclocross bikes, and I'm still not sure how we ever did that.
