It was lucky coincidence to have my all-day travel from London to Tokyo fall on a Thursday, i.e. rest day. My hotel had a Zen garden so I headed down there and did the proper meditation at the koi pond. Not sure if it improves cleans or pullups but I feel much more relaxed before the morning workout at CrossFit Chikara.
Of all the major global airports, Heathrow may be the best prepared for layovers. There are showers, napping areas and most importantly several gyms that offer a daily pass within the reach of the airport shuttle service.
Most are inside hotels but I settled for a well equipped gym called SpringHealth (day pass 10 pounds, week 25). They had plenty of weights, rowers, kettlebells, TRX and showers. The airport shuttle stops across the street at the Marriott. After a great workout it’s off to Japan and China for a ton of work and some magic. More on that soon.
Baseline
30/20/10
Mountain climbers, pushups and situps
Strength
Press 5/5/5 deload
Stamina
30 press 95lbs
100 Kb push press 25lbs
800m walking lunges 45lbs
Work Capacity
Every minute on the minute for 7 mins
– 7 front squats 95lbs
– 7 ring dips
Durability
2K Row
Another great sports weekend in Hungary, home of the European CrossFit champion Lacee Kovacs (#25 in the Games) and also my birthplace…
Budapest has clearly taken over this year from Prague as the place to be in the East. More importantly I have never had a more active “average” weekend than I had in Budapest with 20K+ running, tons of biking and walking, a massive music festival and a city that does not stop to amaze and entertain. Budapest has over 200km bicycle paths, 500km in running trails and thousands on bikes or jogging near the river.
Hopefully the European CF championship will have Hungary expand from the 5 CF boxes today to many more for the population the size of New York City.
Today we returned to the open air bootcamp exercise spot at the foot of the royal palace and then for good measure went for our last run around and up the castle.
Baseline
800m run
Strength
OFF
Work Capacity
5 series of Tabatas of 8 rounds each
– monkey bar walks
– bench dips
– pullups
– pushups
– plank hold
Stamina
OFF
Durability
2-mile hill run around and up the castle
Today we finally made it over to CrossFit Duna, the largest CF box in Budapest. It is the second box I visited here after CrossFit Budapest (Hits Gym) almost 2 years ago to the day. CF Duna is run by a Danish coach, Klaus and has one of the best setups I have seen in Europe in a refurbished warehouse right on the river Danube. Klaus’ programming was great, tough and challenging so no energy left today for another hill run.
WOD
Baseline
– mobility, warmup including Burgener junk yard dogs
Strength
– Zercher squats 3-3-3-3
Stamina
Every minute on the minute for 6 minutes
– 3 Zercher squats @ 175lbs
– 3 toes to bars
Work Capacity
10 rounds for time:
– 7 burpees
– 7 knees to elbows
[11:41]
Durability
– an hour bicycle ride along the Danube river
Another great running day in Budapest took us to the top of the river banks at St. Gellert Hill and a nice long loop on 2 other hills before we finished again high up in the royal castle. I can’t get enough of the great landscape and the views.
We finished the day by listening to Dave Guetta at the closing night of the Sziget Festival, one of the largest music festivals in the world. It seems in Eastern Europe the Woodstock spirit never died.
WOD
8K double hill run
