Row....Row....Row

Aimee gets a kick out of this commercial from Gieco.  When ever I say I'm going to row she does her little impersonation of the guinea pig.

Row

Row

Row

Well all of my row training will come to fruition this Sunday at Coca Crossfit where I will be going for 45,000 meters to raise money for Girls With Sole. 

You can read about how you can help raise some cash for GWS at this post.

If you want to join in on the fun this Sunday I will be starting at 7:30AM. 

You can find Coca Crossfit at:

34601 Mills Road
North Ridgeville, OH 44039 

I have already heard back from several people that they will donate $1 or .50 per 1000 meters.


That will definitely help me stay focused on the 45,000 meters.  I will be breaking up the row into 5k segments to give myself a chance to drink and eat during the time.


If you don't want to row, Kate will be having some workouts available to for $5.  If you have ever been interested about Crossfit stop on by and talk with Kate.....maybe try a workout.


Come Sunday morning it will be Game On.

Cure for the Common Cold

DON'T CATCH A COLD.

Sounds simple but in reality it's near impossible to avoid. 

And that is exactly what I battled this past week.  A common cold that filled up my sinuses and made it hard to breath and sleep. 

With my recent travels and the wild swings in the weather it was bound to happen.

Unfortunately I didn't move into the "sick room" at our house before Aimee caught the cold. 

So my recovery week was moved up one week. 

Next week I travel again for work. 

I'm also one week out from my 45,000 meter row (Sunday 2/26) and a B-Day Crossfit WOD (Monday 2/27) I created. 

And for some reason I decided to signup for the Crossfit's Open Games...to "see what I'm made of".

So there will be a little bit of juggling of the schedule to make everything fit, stay healthy and rest up. 

And I forgot to mention that my right hip flexor is sore.

Time to be smart and not HTFU too much this next week.  It's only February and there is a long season ahead. 

Game On.

It's Time To Spend Some Cash

I'm not spending the cash.  YOU ARE!!!

And not on yourself.  Instead you get to hear about me doing crazy shit and then you send money to Girls With Sole, my charity for 2012.

At the beginning of the year I said I would be asking for dollars.  Now that the Christmas bills are paid and you planned accordingly to get a refund from the IRS you can help me out.

Originally I was going to swim the Cleveland Tri Club's "Big Swim Challenge" where I would do 100 yards 100 times = 10,000 yards.  Well that didn't pan out because of work.

So instead I have two events coming up that offer some ways to make alternative contributions.

Event #1 = 45,000 meter row, 2/26/12

I turn 45 at the end of February.  
On February 26th I will row 45,000 meters.  
All at one time with minimal breaks for my sorry tush.  I estimate it will take me about 4.5 hours to complete.

Event #2 = 2nd Annual GWS Swim-A-Thon, 3/4/12

The swim-a-thon lasts 2 hours.  I want to see how many yards I can swim during that time.  Last year I did 10,000 yards but that takes almost 3 hours.  This time I am going to push myself a little harder to see how far I can go.

For each of these events I don't want any "standard" contribution.  I want you to have fun as well.

Think outside the box for you contribution.

Rowing:
One dollar for each 1,000 meters rowed = $45
$.50 for each 1,000 meters = $22.50
$.25 per 1,000 meters = $11.25
Make a donation for how long it takes me.

Swimming:
Now this is an unknown, except for the time.
How about 1, 2 or 3 dollars per 100 yards...or per 1000 yards.
The fun part is that we don't know what the amounts will be.  I will be pushing myself to get the most yardage possible to get the biggest contributions.

So who is with me on this one?  Last year we raised $1164.99.  How much can we add to this total?

I don't need you to visit my donation site just yet.  

You need to hear how well I do at each event.

Maybe my body will shut down and I can't reach 45,000 meters on the rower.

Maybe my arms will give out during the swim and my yardage will be lower than expected.

It's a gamble.  A gamble I'm willing to take.  Wouldn't you rather gamble on me instead of a sporting event?

Game On.

Community

I'm sure you have heard before, "No man is an island."  And quite frankly I don't know why someone would want to live that way. Isolated and not sharing their experiences with anyone? 

That's not for me. 

And that is where Community comes in.  Community comes in many flavors, styles, interests.  And with the ability to have a presence on the internet with portals like blogging, webcasts, forums, etc. the community is that much bigger.

Admittedly my "communities" are primarily sports related.  Running, cycling, triathlon, Crossfit.  Even trail running is a sub-set of the running community.

I have made a lot of acquaintances and friends this way, and they don't necessarily cross groups either.

And these communities often lead me to other interests as well.  I'm trying to branch off into photography and am enjoying learning about the breadth of this art form.

Community has played a big part of my week.  I was traveling to Dallas, TX for work and realized that I had contacts in the city.  Natalie is a teammate on Snakebite and Dan was originally from Coca Crossfit.

I joined Natalie and her friends at the movies.  We watched Bicycle Dreams on the big screen and I came away in awe of these people.  It was nice to spend time with a friend and not alone in a hotel room.

I also joined Dan for two workouts at Crossfit 214.  It was nice to go into the gym, see the workout, and know what to do.  Crossfit is definitely universal.  The coaches and people are supportive and allow me to drain my body during a workout.  I left some sweat on the floor during this mornings WOD.

I'm fortunate to be a part of these communities and have some great friends to share my experiences with. 

Crossroads of America

Work sometimes takes me out of town for my customers.  My latest project had me driving around the northwestern part of Ohio.

I passed through New Hampshire, Ohio driving from point A to point B.  As I passed through the center of town I had to stop and get a couple of pictures. Something about what used to be in this small town called out to me.

It looked like this "general store" was closed for good.  I'm sure that pump hasn't been used since the 70's.

Crazy Eric

This morning I woke up and was trying to decide what to do.  I hadn't been to Crossfit for a while, but I also hadn't run since the weekend. 

The wind was blowing on an already cold morning.  Maybe a run wouldn't be such a good idea...there I go wussing out again.

So I opted for a Crossfit workout instead.  Kate has open gym 7 - 8 in the morning.  We can come in and do the daily WOD, work on miscellaneous skills, movements, flexibility or just shoot the shit.

I decided I would get my running in AND a good Crossfit workout.  After some warmup exercises and 3000m of rowing I setup my workout station.  The only piece of equipment I needed was an Abmat (something used for sit-ups).

I put my WOD on the white board and set the timer.

10 pull-ups
Shuttle run
10 push-ups
Shuttle run
10 toes to bar
Shuttle run
10 sit-ups
Shuttle run
10 Burpees
Shuttle run

Repeat for a total of 5 rounds

The Shuttle run is just like you did in elementary, middle and high school.  I ran back and forth to five different spots on the gym floor. 

The Toes to Bar....well...

So anyways....the worst part of this workout was the unknown.  I just put it together because it got me running and most of the other exercises were upper body.

The second worst part was running after the burpees.  Jumping up and down then the shuttle run was killer on the quads. 

I just plugged away at the rounds.  I was really doubting my sanity during the fourth round and thought about cutting it short.  But I wrote 5 on the white board so I re-committed myself to completing the WOD as I wrote it.

The fifth round was starting to get into my gut.  My brain was going fuzzy and I was happy that I didn't have any food in my stomach.  I was either going to finish the final shuttle run strong or puking.

I was pretty close to doing both.  I sprinted across the finish line and immediately bent over against the wall trying to get my breath back. 

Finish time was 36:33. I felt like I just set a PR in a 5k.

Kate was cheering and encouraging me on the entire way and it was great hearing her voice in the background.

As I was collecting myself I could hear Kate introducing everyone to a new member.  All I heard was, "That's Crazy Eric down there.  He's an Ironman."

Guess I have a new nickname at the gym.  Just a part of the Crossfit community that I really like at Coca.

Crazy Game On

Making your own workout

I hit the pool this morning for some yardage.  It sure is hard to get out a warm bed knowing you will be standing on the edge of a pool in your speedo/jammers working in up the courage to jump in.

I've been very loose with my swim training.  I have not been dipping into the bag of workouts for a long time now.  Usually I think up a workout as I drive to the Y.

My first 1000 yards are always the same.  500 warm-up doing crawl, breast and back strokes.  Then 500 yards of drills.

The main set today was only 800 yards but the intensity was the focus.

The workout broke down as follows:

200 - 25 hard, 150 steady, 25 hard
200 - 50 hard, 100 steady, 50 hard
200 - 75 hard, 50 steady, 75 hard
200 -  200 hard






200 yards cooldown


I used this as a race simulation.  Short hard efforts act as the start of a race and the ending efforts would be surges to break away from a pack or catch a faster pack.

Because the time swimming hard increases the total time for each 200 should drop.

My 200's were: 2:59, 2:56, 2:51, 2:46. 

Boy did I feel it in my arms.  But the feeling told me that I was maintaining good form and catching a lot of water with each stroke.  The times reflect that also. 

Give this workout a try and let me know how it goes.