Thank you God

I have, in my basement, a small plaque, gift from Mrs. Bingo. It says simply: "Life is too short to drink bad wine."

Cheers!

I have said it before and will say it again...

OPT is my Hero!

Interesting article.

I am building a wine collection at the moment although I don't pretend to have a brilliant palate. For pleasure rather than for investment purposes.

One of the challenges is managing your perception to the wine's price. it's very difficult not to assume that a higher priced wine is better but that is what you need to do because there are a lot of $20-30 bottles (in Australian terms) that both outdrink and out last wines double and triple their prices.

Often the reasoning is a wine's reputation was built on previous harvests.

either way....not the typical rest day article and probably not one to generate the same level of controversy and debate.

I wonder how long before we can turn this into a liberal vs conservative argument!

well said Mrs Bingo.

My saying is from an old family friend.

"A day without good wine is a day wasted"

This video shows what CrossFit can and should be about: respect built through shared suffering.

I'm fond of quoting an old New Yorker cartoon caption:
"An impetuous little wine, but I am amused by its presumption."

For sheer pomposity, I thought it couldn't be topped. But then a friend said, complete with mock French accent:

"Zis wine is like a saucy ingenue who yearns to become a woman."

Bottom line: BS is BS, whether words or numbers are used.

Asking coach for that DB burpee workout soon !

BTW, the validity of restaurant ratings from both Zagat and Michelin are also highly questionable.

According to recent exposes in the New Yorker and Smart Money, both suffer from the same flaws: lack of disclosure on methodology, lots of self-selection, and infrequent updating.

See
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/23/091123fa_fact_colapinto on Michelin

See
http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/rip-offs/zagat-math-20819/ on Zagat

Still feeling the 400m lunges from 2 days ago, but it made me think of a question someone might be able to answer.

In a workout like the 400m lunges, where you know you will get a good amount of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) should you:

1. go ahead and do the hard workout, push hard, and be very sore for 2 days, and end up having to take a day off to rest

2. scale it back, do 200m for example, get a solid workout, but you won't be sore the next day and then you can keep working out the next day

In general, i'm asking this question from a training perspective.

Does 1 or 2 give the better long term investment? Most people just talk about DOMS and symptoms/relief, but don't get into the training effects.

I understand 'listen to your body' point of view, but it seems to me #2 would be the bigger payoff with #1 being good a few times a year. Maybe pushing past your limits is useful in order to break out of a plateau in that muscle area.

I was curious if anyone knows when or where the sectional event will be held for Kansans. If so, shoot me an email if you dont mind...sometimes it hard to find posts on here lol

The vid gave me shivers.

There's the Dave that no ones knows.

What I like about the CFXplore clip:

1) no music during the WOD, and

2) no music track dubbed onto the clip, so we can hear what's going on.

I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, but if looking at that video, and considering the multiday format of the games vs. the duration of a typical WOD, my guess is that it's an electrolyte thing. If you're drinking plain water all day, you might get hyponatremia. It's hard to balance electrolytes if you have trained one or two WODs a day less than 30 min. Then come in and do this all-day, multiday games.

OPT, you sir are my hero. One day I hope I have the honor of meeting you.

Will the real Dave C. please stand up?

OPT,

Saw ya in action at the 2008 & 2009 games. I appreciated your team spirit, humility, and "Fire in the Gut" approach to fitness. Hope to see ya in 2010!

BZ,
Greg

which event did OPT have to drop out of??

I have been thinking this kind of stuff all day today:

If you lift the turkey out of the fryer while maintaining a solid lumbar arch whilst keeping thoracic spine in extension - and you like it - you might be a CrossFitter on Thanksgiving.

If you think to yourself "that feast just won't be as satisfying if I skip this WOD" you - which you then complete - and you like it - you might be a CrossFitter on Thanksgiving.

If you look at the peanut oil in the turkey fryer and wish you could think of a paleo alternative - that does not involve baking or spits over a fire pit - you might be a CrossFitter on Thanksgiving.

If you were trying to sort out the cost benefit equation of devoting more time to gaining proficiency in the snatch and C&J while you carved the turkey - what would you gain, how much training time would it cost, by what measures would you know the effort was worthwhile - you might be a CrossFitter on Thanksgiving.

Then again, you could just be a mountainous geek.

On to the vids and article ... Paul

Happy turkey day!

Check out this video, it's the most intense HS Push up ever, just forward the vid too 3:15. I'm sure it's fake, but it's still pretty intense.

#9 Brad,

I don't have an actual, you know, informed answer for you, but I can share my personal experience. DOMS to me usually coincides with an increase in strength. The more DOMS, the more the increase, even if it takes a week to wear off.

That being said, I rarely suffer from severe DOMS anymore, even after workouts like the 400m lunge. I credit to this my Zone & Paleo diet and 6 grams of fish oil per day. DOMS is partially inflammation, and my diet and the fish oil are strongly anti-inflammatory.

Finally, you would be surprised how much work capacity you still have even with severe DOMS. Once you are warmed up, the DOMS goes away, at least during the workout.

Comment #19 - Posted by: Apolloswabbie

Paul, those are good ones...the lumbar stabilization one found me LOLing in the airport just now :)

Awesome pic with the Marines, where did you get it? How do you pick what pictures to put up each day?

30/M/5'10"/149 ( MTN WARRIOR )

Nice day to stretch tonight! I wonder when Diane or the murph are going to come again. haven't seen them both for a long time.

Santi

Nice work in the video Jordan, Dave, and Chris!

#19 Cappi

OPT dropped out before the final chipper WOD. It would have been a tough pill to swallow having come that far, and knowing how tough James is mentally. Definitely from that clip it was a wise decision. This was the first time we really heard anything about why.

Interesting article. Experts who think they are experts but subjected to the cold, hard scrutiny of science are shown not to be experts at all. So is the point then that there are no experts? Strange argument to make here.

#9 Brad, sounds to me like you kneed to scale a bit. If a WOD is tearing you up so bad it affects your progress it's too much. This is just like GHD situps, you can do a bunch when you first start but then the rest of your week sucks, so you scale down to abmats or reduce reps. Lunges or any movement for that matter can be scaled. For the lunge work out, I would probably just reduce the distance.

On the subject of wine, I read about that study a while ago and brought it up to a friend who is a big wine guy. His explanation was that there were too many factors going on to have a wine's taste remain consistent for test to test. While I do feel that is probably true to a certain extent, I think most of it is a bunch of baloney. Anyways, if I'm doing curls, I prefer the 12oz. variety but if do drink wine I can enjoy a bottle of two buck chuck and I can also appreciate a better bottle.

OPT-

REST AND KEEP AT IT!! Your huge, Stay UP!! We Love you!!

My crew's WOD is "Murph"

Nice workout with the DB burpee C&J and pull ups. Might have to try that tomorrow. Legs are very thankful for a rest after the burpees, lunges.. If it wasn't for the dog walk immediately after I doubt I would be walking properly today haha

Xplore CrossFit = beasts... and Irvine with one arm. Are you serious?!

Speaking of beasts, OPT will always and forever belong in the CrossFit Hall of Fame

This article just proves what i've always said about wine snobs..mostly full of B.S. Put a cheap wine in an expensive bottle and the exclaim how great it is,bunch of phonies.

The fun challenge is to find and consume good wine at a good price, say under $15. There's no need to drink bad wine, but there's no need to spend a fortune on what may only be marginally better wine then a less known or less considered lower priced alternative.

We do a similar exercise at my affiliate....We first do a Renegade Row,then,DB Burpee, Clean, Thruster, then we add 2 Overhead Lunges at the end of it. We call it a Manmaker.

That video was killer! What a workout!

Any predictions on this week? Haven't seen tabata for a month or so....maybe 3 bars of death? Another 5K? Or maybe a rowing WOD. Been a while since something like that was posted. Or it could just be more pull-ups....woohoo!

Meanwhile the Anthropomorphic Global Warming hype continues to unravel and mounting evidence points to a massive fraud:

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/

http://www.yankeefarm.net/

http://vimeo.com/7811562

Good news is that Al Gore won't need to feel guilty anymore about contributing to 'AGW' from his many private jet trips and 10,000+ sq ft house. Bad news for Al is he might actually have to go out and get a real job.

Thoughts on wine...

As a first year grad student I began dating Mrs. Bingo. We were studying the same stuff; seeing each other each night and discussing our common "jobs" risked a burn-out on what might be a really good relationship thing (looking back, that might be the most colossal under-statement of my life!). The town next door was home to an enormous wine shop, tucked in the back room of an enormous beer shop, overseen by a short chubby guy who wore Dickies work clothes with his name on the shirt. "Bob". Still probably the most knowledgeable wine guy I've ever met, however unlikely his garb.

So began about 15 years of really hard core wine exploration, complete with both the quest for the best every day value and the opportunity to taste the world's most famous wines. Quite a run to be quite honest, until a stomach problem put me on the sidelines for two years. No wine...no nothing. Really a bummer, but an opportunity to really look at wine, my quest, and my status as a barely sufferable wine snob. I have one of those memories where certain things just stick, and wine--its taste, history, provenance--is one of them.

We were very involved in wine. Three major tastings a year chez Bingo. Anniversary trips to Napa. Chasing somebody's top 100 wine or some Parker 95 or other. Funny, when I was sick, how much time there was for all kinds of other stuff. Equally funny on looking back to discover that I didn't necessarily agree with all of the experts and all of their ratings. Oh I could taste what they tasted, and I could understand all of the language (you really CAN taste 'tobacco' in some Bordeaux, and the 'chocolate' in big reds is the only chocolate that I'm not allergic to), but I found that their 96 was sometimes my 80, and vice versa.

I recovered from my GI thing at just about the same time I discovered the WSJ wine writers. No numbers...no letter grades. Delicious, Very Good, Good, and YECH. Drink wine that makes you happy. Choose stuff that makes you say "Yummy!" And if you think about it, why the heck not? Why not drink wine like folks drink beer? My CF buddy DJ in Florida is a Guinness guy; a certain guy we all know in Prescott, AZ who used to live in Santa Cruz orders Coors light, everywhere and every time.

My brother actually had the perfect response to all of this some 15 years ago: "Any a$$hole can order Opus; give me something YOU like." So, my Crossfit Brothers and Sisters, a toast to you from me and everyone in Clan Bingo, a glass of our Thanksgiving wine "The Prisoner", a wine that we discovered before any rater or magazine bothered to find it.

It was yummy. It made me smile, just like thinking about you and our shared Crossfit does.

Thoughts on wine in the filter...

wow that workout was INTENSE! i might try it...scaled for me.

dude, i'm glad i'm not the only feeling the lunges. sheesh! could barely walk. will attempt to run/hobble a little later.

f/40/170/5'11"

I just did the 400m walking lunges. 427 lunges, 18:20. I'm a little wobbly.

Once again I am amazed at how such a simple workout with so little equipment can give you such an amazing workout. I feel like I just came back from a big fancy weightroom where I did numerous sets of back squats, front squats, leg extensions, leg curls, split squats and calf raises... and all it took me was a "walk" around a highschool track.

I am also amazed at results I've gotten after doing about 6 months of crossfit where each workout takes approximately half an hour.

In my (getting pretty distant, now) past, I didn't feel like a workout was worthwhile unless it was at least an hour long. I was involved in a sport at an elite level (rowing, university, national and international levels for Canada)and we did 3 workouts a day and probably spent on average 5 hours a day training. It was a full time job. In the 14 years since my retirement from the sport, it has been a battle to feel fit within the constraints of a real job and a family. Recently we lived in a small town in Eastern BC and I didn't have any weight facilities available to me and I was left with walking the dog, the odd run and a CII in my basement to keep me fit. I did OK but I gotta say that after 12 years of rowing, the CII is not that much fun. We have since moved to a larger centre and I have any fitness facility available to me that I could ever want.... but we have also found crossfit and the best fitness facility is our garage. Thanks to crossfit, and about half an hour a day, I feel great, have gotten my muscles back, can fit into my old clothes that I wore before having kids, don't have to pay for daycare, and am finding the workouts challenging enough to keep me motivated but also scale-able so I can push myself on my strengths and simply try to improve my weaknesses. Thanks coaches and community.

I feel that my 40's are going to be a great time of my life.

Julie

Beltless dead stop deadlifts with 5 minute break between rounds:

260x5
280x5
290x5

Surprised I could deadlift with my mountain biking shin injury, but the session went very well! All reps strong and easy. The 400 meter lunge WOD wearing a 20# weight vest did not impact this workout despite some leg soreness.

Having worked in restaurants as a server, I sometimes got the opportunity to see a true
"wine snob" in action. These are the same people who would use terms like "young" and "daring" about a wine, loud enough so everyone knew they were "experts". Thankfully, someone exposed them for what they are, pompous snobs. Great article!

#41 JuliePlatt

Great testimonial Julie. The effects of following the mainsite wods are amazing and it is so true that CrossFit makes the mainstream mega-fitness facility obsolete.

The 400m of walking lunges is an amazing lower body workout. I have significant doms in my glutes, hamstrings, and especially the quads.

Glad to see a few other posts about the 400m lunges WOD. I am visiting family and taking care of my 3 year old and 10 month old so sitting around recovering is not an option. I am in so much pain having to constantly jump up off the couch and/or floor to chase after them in this non-baby proofed house. So, needless to say that a WOD that requires some recovery is not good right before a sudden change in environment. I did this workout about this time last year and although it hurt even more then, I was at home and was able to take hot baths and stretch out more.

So, Brad #9, I guess it all depends on your individual circumstances and what you are able to do to enhance your recovery.

Wine is at the top of my list of reasons not to go Paleo. There are three kinds in the world: "YUM," and "nothing wrong with this one," and "ooh, this'll give me a headache." What matters is not getting the right category but enjoying any one of these three kinds with good, good friends and/or family.

I don't know if skiing is in the cards this weekend, after all. Weather not cooperating. I am bummed.

hey there
Tomorrow im going for 1k deadhangs, i estimate it will take me about 8-10 hours to complete.

Did any of you ever did something like that?
anything that helped you complete it?

I was thinking about getting couple of powerades, do you recommend them or shall i stick with normal water ?

thanks in advance
irro

Wasnt feelin the rest day due to stuffing of face with thanksgiving food so I did my own workout this morning.
50 double unders
25 pullups
50 kb swings 1.5 pood
25 burpees
50 squats
50 pushups
50 knees to elbows
25 pushups
25 wall ball shots
50 double unders
run 800 meters

finished in 30 minutes

Sounds like a liberal mass media wine conspiracy! Or is it Obama One Buck Chuck for all the needy. Rush will fight them next week. Ha.

400m walking lunges, 15:25.

been on the zone fore a while using the CFJ issue 21. Cant find anything like that for the PALEO diet. Any help anyone?

#48 irro: Why stop at 1000? Why not 2000, or even 3000 dead hang pull ups for time? And any type of hydration is a just a sign of weakness, you don't need to drink anything. Man up dude.

Seriously though, I trust that you posted that in jest. Do NOT do 1k pull ups.

Enjoy this post on Paleokits:
http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/fightingforlife/2009/11/27/paleokits-and-other-healthy-snack-ideas/

#53 Stinger:

Try these for starters:

http://robbwolf.com/?p=566

http://crossfiteclipse.typepad.com/the-frat-paleo-challenge/

Hope that helps, good luck!

stevie b-why is that the dave no one knows?

#53
i was as serious as i could be.

Thought i'd get some useful tips from you ppl. not some bs

if you think thats a big mistake then say why. thats the last place that i'd expected to get answer like this.

OPT - Systemic cramping? Old-school trainers would have given him some mustard and/or pickle juice. Dill pickles are often provided at endurance events here in Sweden for the same reason. Bummer though, my heart ached for him.

As far as the wine tasting goes, most of the experts are only human. I've had the privilege of working with one who makes me wonder though...

http://www.champagneclub.com/Content-Web-Article/568c1d48-3e25-40c1-a3b2-225f0200f5d3/the-famous-blind-tastingbr----did-it-really-happen.aspx

Richard is a former P.E. teacher and semi-pro soccer player who just happened to discover an area of interest where he also happens to be immensely talented. Would that we could all be so lucky!

I have searched the comments for the past 2 days, any ideas about how to stretch out my butt and quads? I am having a really hard time sitting down and and would love to get some relief from those damn walking lunges!

Please...my butt is begging you all!

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless the Troops!

m/40/170/5'10"

AMRAP in 20 minutes

8 rounds

5 HSPU
10 Pullups
6 DU's
30 SU's

really?

had a second thanksgiving today so i made sure i did 30 min on the stairmill and some abs. ate too much. i think i will have to go for a run later.... and yes , my legs are still a bit tender from those lunges

#57 irro: It's a big mistake because 8-10 hours of pull ups is a recipe for rhabdo. Also, your comment about "getting a couple of powerades" made it sound like you were just being silly.

Is there a reason that you want to do this? Sorry for poking fun at your question.

#48 Irro yes you should get a couple of powerades it makes you buff

8 extremely difficult WODs in two days was enough to break OPT and Jeremy Thiel among others--I think the question that should be asked is whether the Games' format really determined the fittest man and woman in the world, or just the athletes who could put up good numbers while not breaking down or getting injured.

Is there any place to find a list of all the sectional qualifier locations and dates? I recently saw that the one in Columbus, OH (where I live) is March 6-7, which is going to be next to impossible for me because of prior plans. I have found some others on different dates, but it seems like there must be some sort of master list somewhere. Any ideas on where I should look for this? I'd really like to get a date and location set so I can set my schedule around it, since my job makes traveling quite difficult.

Thanks.

#50--Tracy

Nice. Gimme a break....

Eric, in my humble opinion, the ability to withstand punishment, ie recover, is an important component of fitness. The Games were extreme enough to challenge elite athlets in this way...survival of the fittest?

Kamper, I agree with both your wine vs paleo decision and I like your three wine category definitions.

Julie, I enjoyed your testimonial. Your background resembles mine. I regret not finding Crossfit ten years ago when I retired from my sport too and use this as my motivation for spreading the gospel to the young guys in globos who are wasting their time on chest & biceps training.

did yesterdays w.o.d. dont have ghd

amrap in 20 min
15 tuck jumps
15 sit ups
15 back extensions.

14 rounds + 1 tuck jump

3 Mile Run 38:17

with 35lb ballistic vest, 35lb pack, and boots on hilly route. That was my first attempt and it was really more for completion than time. Still I was hoping for something closer to 30 minutes.

CFSB week 2
Got all but one wall up on Farm Project.
projected opening in Jan.
No time for front squats

#63
1)yeah i know how it sounds, i just heard they help in longer workouts, so i simply asked.

i thought about rhabdo, read some and thats why i asked about powerade,

"One way to help reduce the chance of rhabdo is to maintain proper hydration before, during, and after working out. Proper hydration helps flush the elevated CK and myoglobin out of the system as well as help with general improved fitness and health. We recommend drinking 60% of your body weight in ounces of water each day to maintain proper hydration, even in cold weather."

according to http://crossfitocmd.typepad.com/crossfit_ocmd/2007/11/rhabdomyolysis.html

2)i heard that powerade is a good hydration- thats why i asked.

idea comes from David Goggins (well not directly obviously) I've read he had done 1k pull ups in one workout.
If he can do it why not me?
My max on dh is 20-22 so i guess im not a novice at them. but i might be wrong.

It's probably not the smartest idea and it certainly won't get me any stronger physically, but I think it would be a good mental barrier to break

#63

You want to do 1k, then do 1k. Keep up your hydration, and report back here how it went and how you feel.

Sometimes we find out what goes well and what doesn't by doing stuff. There are plenty of us on here who will do something despite the eye rolling of others. I'll look forward to hearing about it if you take it on. Keep track of your data and make it something empirical.

Shoot for time and then call guiness, if nothing else.

i meant #72 not #63. my bad

#67 MTR....it's a joke dude..

23 / M / 5'9" / 135lb

Catching up posting for the last few days.

Thursday
Walking lunge 400m
Scaled to 250m (I calculated this to be 280 lunges for me)

14:08

Friday
SP, PP, PJ
Too many numbers to bother recording here. Shoulder press is down a bit, push-press is up a bit, push-jerk is about the same. I'm always too tired by the time I get to the PJ to do much with it.

good looking guys up there in seattle. single?

Im just wondering Lauren, who took this pic???

Apple
that looks like the picture Mark took

M/ 35/ 132 lbs/ 5'-6"
As Rx: I did the WOD of 12 - 9- 6 the dumbell burpee/ squat clean/ thrusters with 30 lb dumbells followed by weighted 45 lb pullups.
As Rx: 5:15
Good WOD... I will try it again. Good overall WOD and short and hard

apple and bobby
that was marks pic, I sent it in. He knows. great day for a jump