Have a Beer with Me in Hell

Everyone was keen for another workout on Wednesday so I decided to do a series of Tabata intervals. A tabata interval involves choosing an exercise and completing 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 8 times. The idea being that you go as hard and as fast as you can. With the right exercise these have the ability to lay anybody flat. Heres the workout:

Teams of 2, one person times and counts reps, the other suffers, tabata style
Tire Drag Sprint
Ball slam
Tire Thrusters!
Tire Flips (no jumping though)
Burpee jump to a pullup, with high rings that require a good jump

Total number of reps for the team is the score.
A perfect time is 40 minutes for a team to complete the workout. -1 point for every 10 seconds over 40min it takes the team to complete it.
non winning teams do 30 pushups and a 2 length sprint.
Losing team buys round of beers for everyone else (tonight or at a later date).

Some issues to note:
We used rings for the burpee/pullup, jumping to rings does not work when you are trying to go fast.
We forgot to time the whole workout so that part of the scoring will wait till next time.
There were only 5 of us so I went alone and doubled my score, could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you look at it.
4 minutes rest is too much in between, would be better for each person to do the whole set then switch partners.

Timing the leap on the Burpee Pullups.

Dion going good and deep on the ball slam, possibly the best tabata exercise we did this day.

10 seconds rest doesn't feel like much on the tire drag.

Steve on the tire thrusters.

Dion flipping the big tire.

Winter is coming!

Waking up early in the predawn darkness, groggy eyes, cold fingers, achy calves, frozen breath but lots of strong, hot coffee to wipe that all away; sharpening tools, loading packs with pointy gear and warm thermoses, stiff frozen boots. That first step out into the icy wind, slogging uphill, dodging skiers, soaked in sweat. Fumbling crampons with numb fingers, the first swing, looking up right as a load of powdery snow pours over the lip, filling my collar and trickling down my sleeves. Calves burning and pulling over the lip into soft snow. Climbing until the last streaks of winter sunlight creep behind the ridges and peaks, stomping back to the car long after the last skiers have left and the pavement has re-frozen over. Huddles around the old coal fireplace, an odorous whiff of sweaty wool socks dripping and drying above. A large heavy meal and ready to do it again tomorrow.

Ok, so maybe I'm being prematurely optimistic, but I swear the air was a bit crisper the last couple of mornings.

Training Day

With a bit of help from Francis in priming Nicolas for doing some training I finally managed to convince him to come try a 'crossfit' style workout on Sunday. Nicolas also managed to get Erich to come along which was great; it's always better to suffer with more people!

I decided to use the tires as the primary method of torture (just kidding, its not that bad, right guys?) since it is a bit unique from your standard gym workout. Heres what we did:

4 rounds
Tire flip race - loser +10 burpees, 2nd place +5 burpees, winner gets a rest
1 lap tire drag
1 lap overhead tire carry
10 knees to elbows + 10 pushups
After the tire race rotate through the other 3 so each person does all 3 for one round, then add the punishment burpees before starting the next round

Erich finishing a lap on the tire drag.

Its nearly impossible to actually run pulling the tire on the grass.

Nicolas enjoying his time with the overhead carry!

Erich and Nicolas trudging their way back down the field.

First you lift...

Then you flip...

Then you jump.

Punishment burpees

He'll be back.