Day 196

Workout:
1. Squat Snatch

3hr rest

2.  For time:
Run 1 mile
21 x Clean and Jerk #155
Run 800m
21 x Clean and Jerk #155
Run 1 mile

Results:
1.  95x2, 115x2, 135x2, 155x2, 175x2, 185x2
2. 29:54

Notes:
Still not incredibly comfortable with the squat snatch, but getting better.  The second WOD I had to substitute rowing for the first mile and did the rest on treadmills.

Day 195

Workout:
Crossfit Games WOD #2
15min AMRAP
9 #155 Deadlift
12 Games Style Push Ups
15 Box Jumps (24")

Results:
7rnds + 8 PUs

Notes:
I was draggin.  I didn't film it or anything, just wanted to get a feel for the WOD.  I think 10 rnds is possible when I go at it again on Saturday.

Day 194

Rest Day

Day 193

Workout:
Intense Squash (aka: active rest)

Day 192

Workout:
1. MMA wrestling

3 hr rest

2. For time:
15 x Medball Clean (15lbs)
15 x Wallballs (15lbs, 12ft)

Results:
1. Got my ass kicked.
2. 4:48

Notes:
I felt like I overestimated the second WOD which is a crossfit rarity.  I think because the ball was light and I wasn't doing full squat cleans it was easier than I expected.  Did the whole thing unbroken.

Day 191

Workout:
Games WOD #1
10 min AMRAP
30 Double Unders
15 Power Snatches w/ 75lbs

Results:
6rnds +16DU

Notes:
Did this at Crossfit Metropolis.  Not the huge improvement I was hoping for, but an improvement non the least.  Thanks to Eric for toughing this one out with me.

Day 190

Workout:
1.  For time:
21-15-9
225# Deadlift
135# Overhead Squat

3 hr rest

2. 2 mile run
then
On the minute every minute for 10 minutes:
1 x Tree Flip
6 x Push Ups
9 x Box Jump on Tree
then
2 mile run

Results:
1. 7:57
2. Satisfied

Notes:
The first WOD was great.  Yeah it could have been faster but I was spent afterwards.  It was like a heavy version of Fran.  The second WOD was more of a light fun run.  Found some cut down trees and made a little circuit out of them.  I love flipping over trees.

Other News:
Good News, I'm not bad for patients!

Day 189

Workout:

Push Press

Results:
3x95, 3x115, 3x135, 3x155, 3x175, 3x195

Notes:
Today was more of an active rest day.

Day 188

Workout:

For total distance rowed:
6 rounds of:
1 min to do 15 x 70 KB swings
1 min max row

Results:
1643m

Notes:
I'm glad it was 6 rnds instead of 7...those KB swings were getting close towards the end.

Day 187

Workout:

1.  Squat Cleans

3 hr rest

2.  10 to 1 ladder of #135 Front Squat with a 13ft. rope climb between each rung, for time.

Results:
1.  3x135, 3x155, 3x175, 3x225, 3x255, 1x275
2. 7:04

Notes:
Had to stop doing Cleans because we don't have bumper plates and at 275 I can't gently put the bar back on the ground.  I tried, nearly ripped my arms off and might have cracked the floor.  The second WOD was quality.  Would have been nice to go under 7...next time.

Other News:
Nate, his brother Bo, and I were told we had to get an article written in our local paper as this was the first task of the race.  The penalty for not completing the task was shaving every hair on your body come race day, needless to say, here's our article.

Del Mar men competing in this year’s Death Race

By Marlena Chavira-Medford 
Staff Writer

Hauling logs 26 miles up a snowy mountain, eating a pound of raw onions, and chopping wood until your hands bleed isn’t something most people would voluntarily subject themselves to. Then again, those who sign up for the race that entails such extreme tasks are not like most people. Like the name suggests, the Death Race is only for those who don’t fear, and in fact welcome, radical challenge.

Even the race’s website, YouMayDie.com, is enough to make some weak in the knees. Part of what gives the race its reputation is its unpredictability. There are no start and end times because race organizers make that call when the spirit moves them, which can be anywhere from several hours to more than a day, and they keep everyone on their toes by constantly throwing curve balls, each in the form of some outlandish, agonizing mission. Those who finish the race — survivors, as they’re called — are few and far between. Last year only 19 out 135 people finished the annual race in Vermont. This year’s race will be June 24 and hopefuls include three men who hail from Del Mar: Daniel Schaerer, Bo Brown and Nate Brown.

“Crazy physical activity has pretty much always been part of my life,” said Brown, who spent nearly six years in the U.S. Navy, and in 2003 was part of the Naval Special Warfare Unit in Iraq. These days the veteran and former Del Mar lifeguard is in medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The change of pace has left him itching for some serious physical excursion. “Right now it’s a lot of sitting around studying books. When I learned about the Death Race, it immediately appealed to me.”

The Death Race also appealed to Schaerer, who is also a Del Mar native attending medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Schaerer was a discus thrower at Stanford University, and then competed internationally as part of the Swiss national track and field team.

“He’s defiantly got that drive and competitive edge which I think will help a lot for this race,” Brown said, and that likely explains why his younger brother also signed up for Death Race. The junior at UC Berkeley has been a competitive Alpine skier since high school, when he moved to Idaho and joined the Sun Valley Ski Team.

Brown and Schaerer have also decided to use the Death Race as an opportunity to raise money for charity. Brown is raising money for the Challenged Athlete’s Foundation, and donations can be made via challengedathletes.org. Schaerer is raising money for Health Volunteers Overseas and donations can be made through his blog’s website, http://danielschaerer.blogspot.com/.

Brown said he thinks he and his race buddies will do well, considering they all share a characteristic critical for making it to the end: “You have to have something in you that makes you not want to quit anything, ever,” he said, adding that neither he nor his two fellow Del Mar race participants had to be coaxed into signing up for the Death Race. “If you have to convince someone to do this race, they shouldn’t be doing it. You have to really want it. This race is all about pushing yourself to new limits and seeing just how much you can take, and what you’re really capable of.”

Brown and Schaerer got a taste of exactly how much they can take and what they’re capable of a few month’s ago during the winter Death Race, which Brown describes “like a watered down version” of the main summertime race. Both men were among the 10 out of about 20 who finished the race.

“That experience has given me a good sense for the overall tone of the race,” he said. “I don’t know that you’re ever completely ready for something like this, but I think I’m as ready as I’m going to be.”

Day 186

Workout:
1.  With a partner for max number of power cleans

-Partner 1 row 500m
-Partner 2 3 rounds of Cindy (5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats) then max Power Cleans with #135.

20 min AMRAP

3 hr rest

2. Squash

Results:
1. 4 Power Cleans
2. Fun

Notes:
Fail!  Turns out with the exception of the first round, neither John nor I could complete 3 rounds of Cindy in the time it took to row 500m (~1:50ish) so it was an interesting WOD.  I'm not sure how the Sealfit guys did this, but I think it was suppose to be 750m of rowing.

Day 185

Workout:
1. Games WOD #1
10min AMRAP
30 x Double Unders
15 x 75# Snatch

then

2. MMA wrestling

Results:
1. 5 rnds + 30 DUs + 11 Snatch
2. Fun

Other News:
My first Crossfit Open WOD is posted below.  Thanks to John for helping me with the video (and for his great comment at the end of the workout).  As of this posting I am ranked 241 out of 813 in my region and 2,462 in the world (out of 20,000 or so).  You can follow the games by signing up as a spectator at http://games.crossfit.com/

Crossfit Open WOD 1

Day 184

Rest Day

Day 183

Workout:
1. "Jackie"
1000m row
50 x 45# bar Thrusters
30 x Pull Ups

Results:
8:20

Notes:
Crap.

Day 182

Workout:
1.  Overhead Squat 5x1
Front Squat 5x1
Back Squat 5x1

3 hr Rest

2. Squash

Results:
1. OHS: 215
FS: 315
BS: 365
2. Fun

Day 181

Workout:
1.  2 rnds for time:
10 x L-Pull Ups
20 x #95 Overhead Squats
400m run

3 hr rest

2.  5 rnds for time:
3 x #155 Power Snatch
5 x Handstand Push Ups
7 x 24" Box Jumps

Results:
1. 8m13s
2. 9m23s

Notes:
Neither workout was great, but neither was terrible either.  Did the first WOD completely unbroken.  The HSPU on the second WOD slowed me down a lot.

Day 180

Workout:
3x5 Deadlifts

Results:  225, 315, 365, 405, 415x2

Notes:
Easy day...as Tuesday's tend to be.

Day 179

Workout:
1.  For time:
40 x #135 Squat Cleans
40 Burpee Box Jumps 24"

3 hr rest

2.  Easy 6,000m row / 10min Handstand work

Results:
1. 11m55s
2. N/A

Notes:
Eh...would have like the first WOD to be faster, it's my fault for not getting a better warm up.

Other News:

Day 178

Workout:
1.  7 rnds for time:
10 Wallballs (15lbs, 12 ft.)
10 Pull Ups

3 hr rest

2.  Sledgehammer Strike (8lbs) Tabata
1 min rest
Burpee Tabata
1 min rest
Sledgehammer Strike Tabata

Results:
1.  6m39s
2. 12ish/6ish/13ish

Notes:
The first WOD wasn't bad, but it wasn't as fast as I would have hoped for.  The second WOD was fun (aren't all sledgehammer WODS fun?) but not terribly taxing.  Sledgehammer strikes are limited by time more than anything else.

Day 177

Workout:
"Kelly"
5 rnds for time:
400m run
30 x Box Jumps (24")
30 x Wallballs (20lbs, 10ft)

Results:
29m30s

Notes:
Did this at Crossfit Metropolis, I think it went well.  The stairs at that place are a pain in the ass though.

Other News:
Because back levers just might be in the Death Race:

Day 176

Workout:
1.  4 rnds for time:
7 x Muscle Ups
15 x #225 Deadlift
30 x Lunges

3 hr rest

2.  Easy Run

Results:
1.  DNF!
2. Made up for it.

Notes:  The first WOD capped off a ridiculously bad week of training.  I figured that the week after a Death Race would be a little slow, but this bad.  On the third round I simply could not do any more muscle ups.  I must have failed at least ten.  Eventually, somebody else wanted the bar and I figured that since I had taken 3 times as long as the main site times and I wasn't much past half way done, it just wasn't worth it.  The run was the start of the next week of training, which will be much, much better.  Ran about 2.5 miles at an easy pace and came across some cut down trees.  Of course I had to flip them. Not sure how much they weighed but I have a 450lbs plus DL PR and these things gave me a run for my money.  Then I found a track and ran a 400m in 1:06, which isn't bad for me.  Ran back to the trees and flipped some more.  Than ran the 2.5 miles back.  Felt great.

Day 175

Workout:
Death by Pull Ups
With a continuously running clock, do one pull up the first minute, two the second, three the third and so on until you reach failure.

Results:
14 rnds + 9 Pull Ups

Notes:
Felt like crap, but was a PR by over a round...man I wish I had a pull up bar over 7 ft tall.

Day 174

Workout:
12 min AMRAP
3 x Bench #185
5 x Squat #225

Results:
8 rnds + 1 bench

Notes:
Ugh, clearly still not recovered.  This was pitiful.

Day 173

Rest Day...I know, more than I usually take.

Day 172

Rest Day

Day 171

Woke up in Joe's barn.  Drove home.

Day 169, 17O

Workout:

Winter Death Race!

Race Report:

The official start time was at 6pm on Friday night but apparently Joe and Andy were "running a little bit late" so one of the guys who works at the farm told us to dig out all the firewood from under a heap of snow.  All 19 of us who started the race set ourselves to the task and it was soon finished.  Then we waited.  It was not at all how I expected my first taste of a Death Race to be.  After what seemed like an hour Joe and Andy arrived.  Joe walked over to where the wood had been and told us to dig out the pallets which the wood had been resting on.  These pallets were buried in hard packed snow and digging them out was no small matter but gradually we managed to pull a dozen or so out.  After an hour or so Joe came over and told us to stop and that our next task was awaiting us at the barn.  When we got there Andy handed out a small piece of rope to everybody, perhaps a foot long.  We were told that we had to hold the rope over our heads with both hands on the rope for 5 minutes.  If you dropped your hands then you would face a penalty later in the race.  At the 4 minute mark everybody still had their hands in the air (Joe and Andy included] so it was decided to extend the task to 1O minutes, then 15, then 2O, then 3O, 45 and finally when it was clear nobody was going to quit we ended at the hour mark.  The next task was a much larger beast to tackle.  We would complete a marathon, but not just any marathon.  From the farm to the top of a nearby mountain is a 6 mile loop who's trail is covered in deep snow.  We would have to complete 4 laps with all our gear (mostly an axe, clothes, food and water] and a log.  Each time we completed a lap we would add another log to our load.  The first lap was done without snowshoes because Andy had convinced us that the trail was well packed and that we wouldn't need them...of course that was a lie.  For the second lap we were required to use snowshoes because we had been damaging the course that would be used Saturday morning for other races, with all our post holing.  For lap two I was told to meet Joe at the top of the mountain and "no matter what, return to the farm".  I expected to find Joe at the house on the top of the hill with some diabolical task laid out, but there was nothing there, so I just hiked on.  Lap three and four were just more of the same.  Finally, after finishing our marathon Andy told us that our next task was to build a tower three feet tall out of rocks we retrieved from the stream which was ~3/4 of a mile from the farm.  My racing partner Nate and I made two trips collecting rocks and although he succeeded in constructing a tower, I couldn't manage it with the oddly shaped rocks I had collected.  On my third trip I decided I really did not want to have to make another rock run, so I waded out into the middle of the stream and collected 5 of the biggest flattest rocks I could find.  It made for a hefty pack, but it worked.  Upon completing the tower I was told to construct two birdhouses from a kit.  Simple work that didn't take long though they weren't the prettiest birdhouses.  Then it was on to fetching 3O logs from a nearby shed, quartering them and stacking them.  I like chopping wood, so this really wasn't a problem.  After the wood chopping we were handed shovels and told to dig a corridor between the green houses.  The greenhouses are perhaps 5O yards long and the snow between them 5 ft. deep so getting all the way across them was going to be quite the task, however, many of the other Death Racers had already finished and I had heard that most of them were digging in the snow for less than an hour, so when I was still digging after two hours and nobody was even watching I started to get a bit frustrated.  At this point there was only 4 racers left, everybody else had either finished or had dropped out of the race.  Every hour or so somebody would come look at how much snow we had cleared.  They would hem and haw and compare how far each of us had gotten, then they would tell us to keep digging.  After about 4 hours of digging one of our four decided he'd had enough and quite.  This was quickly followed by another of the four so that the only two that were left were my race partner Nate and myself.  We kept digging for about half an hour until finally I went to the other side of the barn to grab some food and fluids.  Joe just happen to pull up right then and he asked my how the digging was going.  I told him that it was coming along, but that there was just two of us now.  He seemed pleased by that and followed me over to the snow trench I had been digging.  After taking a quick look he told us we were done and to head up to the pond.  As our final task we had to sit in the 33 degree water up to our waist for five minutes and then recite the tongue twister that had been on the wall of the barn the entire race that read:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Results:

Finishing times are irrelevant (seriously though, just shy of 28 hours]

Notes:

Looking forward to June!  Oh, and Jack Cary owes me a donation to charity.

Day 168

Rest Day

Day 167

Workout:
3 rnds for time:
Run 4oom
15 x 75lbs Squat Snatch
9 Handstand Push Ups

Results:
~17min

Day 166

Workout:
1. 3O reps of bench @ 135#
2. Squash
3. 3 rnds for time:
9 x Muscle Ups
15 x Burpee Pull Ups
21 x Pull Ups
8OOm

3hr rest

4. With a ten minute clock:
Run a mile
Bench bodyweight(225] x 21

Results:
1. Done
2. Fun
3. 34m12s
4. 9m3Os

Day 165

Workout:
1. Racquetball

3 hr rest

2. Run 28 flights of stairs for time, up and down, w/ a pack w/ 75# of rocks and two 4Olbs buckets of water.

Results:
1. Fun
2. 13m14s

Day 164

Workout:
1.  For time 21-15-9:
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls w/ 95#
Overhead Squats w/ 95#

3hr rest

2.  1O rnds for time:
6 x complex w/ 1O5# (squat clean/thruster/backsquat/back thruster]
6 x burpee
2OOm row

Results:
1.  5m52s
2.  34m14s