RX THE WOD

Running in Zion Canyon at dawn is a magical experience as the sunrise starts lighting up the left side of the mountain with a surreal glow of pink, purple, orange and red hues. The steep grade helps gathering your thoughts about endurance and determination as well… In a typical west coast fashion there were bikers, runners, joggers everywhere at 6am… Also organic coffee that I plan to sample after this run.

Endurance
6000m run in Zion Canyon
– every 1000m: 50 pushups
also
2-mile steep climb to East Canyon Rim
[up:35 mins, down: 11 mins]
– Also completing a 30-minute rated steep trail with my daughter in only 5.1 minutes – priceless

It is funny how Las Vegas became the practical trailhead of some of the world’s most amazing natural wonders from the Grand Canyon through Bryce, Zion and a dozen other great canyons. We headed out to one such journey at Zion in a moderate 108F (42C) weather. But as the saying goes, it is dry heat…
I had an interesting discussion with the hotel’s chief personal trainer on what how we could really tell if CrossFit was better than say, living it out on a treadmill. Predictably the conversation led to the concept of the hopper. If you can pick any exercise for a throw-down to see who is fitter, then how do you pick the exercises to be fair for both parties? Hmm, some may be stronger in running, others may be lifters and others great in gymnastics. If you tried all possible exercises, the fitter person would prevail. But what if you could only pick 3-4 for the test. (Ignoring for a moment the fact that there is really no need for male machoism, this question stumped us). So the compromise we reached is as follows:
– the throw down must consist of 3 elements
– 1 endurance, 1 gymnastic and 1 strength
– one party picks the elements and the other party picks the weight and the time limit
– each party can veto 2 picks from the other person
E.g. 3 rounds for 5 min AMRAP:
– max cleans 95lb
– max calorie row
– max chest to bar pullups
Maybe another day…
Strength
Wendler deload week – Deadlift [275+]
Conditioning
21-15-9
– hang power clean 95lbs
– chest to bar pullups
– pushups
[TIME: 8:05]
Endurance
1000m row

Walking along the Grand Canal I wondered why other shopping malls do not look like this. So far ‘Vegas is for athletes’ turned out to be true. The Canyon Ranch Spa had a fairly good setup for a WOD. Viking rowers (the ones with water containers) that were an interesting diversion from the C2 Concepts. They also had pull-up bars and several olympic barbell stations including a drop station. Plenty of space for double-unders, handstands and the occasional 40 foot wall climb to substitute a rope climb…

Skill
Plenty of double unders and handstands
Strength
Wendler Squat deload week (175+)
Conditioning: “Baseline on the Barbie”
1 round of Barbara for time:
– 20 pullups
– 30 pushups
– 40 situps
– 50 squats
[TIME:2:50]
Endurance
8 times 1 minute max row (30 sec rest in-between)

Being in Asia is always like seeing the future. The energy is high, people are happy, the economies are exploding and entire cities jump out of the ground everywhere from Indonesia to Inner Mongolia…. Embarking on a 19-hour loooong flight to head back home.
Strength
Wendler Overhead Squat 5/3/1 (105+)
Conditioning
5 rounds with 30 sec in-between rounds:
50-40-30-20-10 double unders
[TIME 6:42]