Seven.

Decided to take on Seven today, I missed it when it came up originally.

I was thinking positively, at least during the warm up as I knocked out 26 DU's in a row. Not a PR, but close, and darn good considering I hadn't even got close to that recently. And, I have no idea what I did in order to get this many any a row.

Let me say, this WOD is a monster. In fact, we both DNF'd. But, we did finish 5 rounds, which is no small deal. This was a full on $hitfest from the start. Pukey turned down my street and hung out on the front porch from about round 3 on until finish. Every time he knocked on the door I had to pull up and rest for a bit.

"Seven"
7 rounds
Handstand Pushups - 7 reps
Thruster, 135lbs - 7 reps
KTE's - 7 reps (I sub'd GHD since I did some KTE's yesterday)
Deadlift, 245lbs - 7 reps
Burpees - 7 reps
KB swing, 2 pood - 7 reps
Pullups - 7 reps

I pulled into the garage at 28:37, with not much left in the tank. I felt like someone had tied me to their bumper and pulled me around the block. There were sweat bombs all over the back of the GLOBO, I hope no one slipped and fell....hehehehe.

Motionless in Cleveland.

Capacity: About What I Thought

I survived my first duathlon team relay. I had some jitters as I hadn't rode the course before, only watched a video of it. The transition area was similar to a triathlon (so I am told, don't know first hand), so once Rich passed the cone, I took off. I had to run my bike up to a spot, mount up, and cross the time check. I came out and tried to managed my adrenaline and rode a pretty good pace, took the corners safely and headed towards the one uphill section. Damn. This was about a mile long incline with a short steep section for about the last quarter mile. I stood up early and often, and just turned the cranks over. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fast, but I made it over (48/16 is definitely NOT a hill climb gear!).

I settled in a bit for the 2nd lap and took the same approach for the hill. I managed to recover pretty well, and had solid energy at the end. I had some fun with another rider as we approached the last mile. I was sitting on his wheel a bit, and attempted to get around, then he would speed up. We took a right hand turn on the last longer stretch on a busier road (it wasn't a totally closed course). There were cones setup about 3 feet out, plus a little berm giving us some room to ride, however we were dealing with lapped riders at this point as well. I was right on his wheel, going in and out of the cones depending on where other riders were, we approached the final turn and coming out of that turn I took him at that point, crossing the line 5-10 sec faster.

My time was 31.19.40. My goal was 30 min, but considering the hill was a bit bigger than I expected, I'll take it. The fastest time on the course was 27 something. That time, plus some good runs from Rich, got us a 2nd place finish in the male team realy! Ha!

I might even do it again.

Let's Test My Capacity

I do a fair amount of bike riding, and, I do a fair amount of CrossFitting. Now, I rarely time myself when I am riding, who cares how fast I get to and from work? If I feel good for a bit, I will up the tempo, if I don't feel good, I will relax. I like to keep track of my miles, but not how quickly I get those miles.

On the other hand, CrossFit (most times) is all about the clock. It's all about work capacity, performing under load, performing under duress.

Tomorrow I am going to morph the two for about 30 minutes. I'm part of a 2 man team competing in the Nordonia Hills Duathlon and Pump N' Run where I will do the bike ride portion, and my CrossFit WOD partner, Rich, will do the running. (I found out about the event from a good friend of mine who successfully added the Pump N' Run to this event for the first time this year. As of today, he's got 20 people signed up for the Pump N' Run, and 9 people signed up for the Pump N' Run with the full duathlon! Sweet. )

I have no idea how I will do, I've never done any kind of bike racing. It's only 10 miles, so what the heck, right? I don't have a road racer bike, all I have is mountain bikes, commuters, and fixed gears, so, my new Bianchi Pista gets the nod as it will be the lightest of the bunch and for this distance, I think it will allow me the best chance at a good time. The course is relatively flat, with one little bump to get over, so last night I put my 16t cog back on giving me a bigger gear to push at 48/16.

I plan to come out, get my heart up to where I think I can maintain it for about 30 min. I did a test run this past Wednesday with the gearing at 48/17, I did about 12 mile in a little over 41 min, with lots of slow downs for traffic lights and such, riding near work. And the route had a pretty solid incline on the way out, and a decent climb on the way back, neither of which I will have tomorrow.

It's the day before and I am already anxious, nervous....ack.