29th Birthday WOD

Hi guys! Happy Monday!
Did you have a good weekend? Mine was great! I turned 29! 🙂

I decided to bring in the big day with a CrossFit workout — one I’ve done before, but this time, with a little birthday twist!

Knowing that I could devise my own workout because it was open gym on Sunday, I decided to revisit an old favorite. I did it back in August 2013 and at the time, loved it — I think because it was ALL barbell!

Of course I switched it up a little for my birthday, swapping wall balls for doubleunders (cause, I mean, really, who wants to do wall balls on their birthday? No one!) I also upped the reps from 25 to 29, per challenge posed by a fellow CrossFitter at open gym. “Surrrrrre. Why not?” Well that DEFINITELY upped the ante and let me tell you – this workout was HARDCORE!

Close to 120 reps of hang cleans? push jerks? AND back squats? I’m SO sore today!! My back. My quads. (Seriously, ouch!) I’m feeling old, haha! It was fun doing this workout, though, and as always, I felt so proud finishing and knowing I really pushed myself—during that first round I didn’t think I was going to make it, but, I did! (PHEW!)

The rest of my birthday was fun, too. We went to breakfast with my sister-in-law who actually has the SAME birthday as me! (Crazy, right?) Then headed to dinner with my family later that night! It was a sweet day!

While we’re on the topic of tough workouts, I thought I’d share some others I’ve done recently! There have been a lot of hero WODs lately!

Last Saturday I did the benchmark workout, “Danny.” It was OK. I didn’t feel my best doing it. I used a red band on the pull-ups, which, in hindsight I think hurt me more than helped me and I had trouble push pressing the weight; I kept doing push jerks! Nevertheless I did it and finished with 3+22 rounds.

“Danny”
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
30 Box Jumps (24/20)
20 Push Press (115/85)
30 Pullups

Also, I worked out next to this girl at my box (I say girl and she’s really a beast, haha) and she finished 4+22 Rx! She was seriously so inspiring to watch! #oneday

Later that week I decided to do a CrossFit workout at my work gym, which was awesome! Of course doing the workout alone was hard, but I was so happy when 5 o’clock came and I could head home, having already done my workout for the day!

The workout itself was perfect for a non-CrossFit gym — alternating wall balls and double unders.

Wall Balls and Double Unders:

21 wall balls
50 double unders
15 wall balls
50 double unders
9 wall balls
50 double unders

Rest 3 minutes, then:

50 double unders
9 wall balls
50 double unders
15 wall balls
50 double unders
21 wall balls

I finished this workout in about 21 minutes, which was quite a bit longer than the average time it took others at my box to finish it but the doubleunders took me awhile. I didn’t have a good jump rope and they just felt like they took forever! But, I will say I was proud of myself for doing them all the way through (that’s 300 total!) cause I could have easily switched to singles, but I didn’t! Yay me! Practice makes perfect, right? #noshortcuts

Two days later, I was back at my box for “The Pentagon.”

“The Pentagon” 

Run 800 meters
46 power cleans (135/95)
46 situps
46 box jumps
46 pull-ups
Run 800 meters

I blogged a little about this workout on Friday. I did the same one last year and it was awful! I hated every second of the pull-ups. I remember using TWO bands and taking forever to get 46 reps! I also did the workout with 65 lbs, which, at the time, was pretty heavy for me! Well, this year I upped the weight to 95 lbs and did all kipping pull-ups — YAY! I finished in 26:53, down from 33:15 last year. It’s seriously so awesome to see progress and know I am stronger AND faster! (Aaron did awesome as well — he shaved close to 10 minutes off his time!)

Rewind about 2 weeks and we were doing “31 Heroes” — yet another hero WOD! I wasn’t kidding when I said there had been a lot lately! You can read about 31 Heroes here.

Phew, so that is a lot of tough workouts lately! I’m ready for a rest just recapping it all! I have to say, the hero WODs are always the most memorable!

Have you ever done a hero wod? Was it memorable?