I arrived to Siem Reap, Cambodia late afternoon just before they were closing the temples. I was determined to see at least one of them and headed to Bayon. I was hoping for the legendary sunset there but instead a tropical rainstorm chased us inside the walls. In the pitch dark among the ruins I ended up climbing almost vertical stairs high up with a stray dog along my side.
Not sure what WOD this was, but it turned out to be quite magical.
Crossing the international dateline I lost Friday again as I left Thursday and arrived Saturday. But the 19-hour flight from New York to Singapore turned out to be the most focused work and rest period I had in years.
I had just enough time before my flight to Cambodia to have a great run along the Singapore bay and a short WOD in the hotel gym. Sufficient to chase away some of the jet lag.
Singapore Transfer WOD
– 6x200m sprint
Then
3 rounds of
– 10 power cleans 95lbs
– 10 thrusters 95lbs
– 10 floor wipers 95lbs
I’m about to leave on another Asian business trip. This one will have two weekends and I decided to go deep. I picked two World Heritage sites to visit in my free time, both long-time on my bucket list. Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Huangshan (yellow mountain) in China. The former is the largest temple compex in the world and the latter will provide a great self-paced Spartan race hiking 10+ miles on one of the most scenic mountains in the world.
The WOD travels with me. Beyond scheduled drop-ins at my favorite CF Fire City in Singapore and CF Asphodel in HKG, the rest of the trip will involve a lot of (sleep deprived) hiking, running and the occasional TRX Force workout. I will have my trusty Rogue speedrope as well, just in case..
And that day turned out to be today. I consider it a milestone in any family’s life when everyone is engaged in the same activity, let alone a high intensity sport like CrossFit.
Everyone in my little family ended up doing their WOD at a different time in two separate gyms and at dinner we all got to share / complain / joke about another great workout and minor aches and bruises sustained in the process.
CF Harmony WOD (3 of us)
– Baseline warmup, burpees, wall balls, inchworm pushups, lunges
– Push Presses 6 x 3 with kettlebell swing assistance exercises
then AMRAP 12 minutes
– 7 sumo deadlift high pulls
– 7 box jumps
– 7 pushups
CF MainLine Kids WOD (1 of us)
– Baseline warmups
MetCon: 12-9-6 reps of
– bar facing burpees
– box jumps
Partner sandbag run races
Long races like the 6-10 hours at the Spartan Beast allow us to learn a lot about ourselves and our fellow athletes. There are clearly those who come to win. Others to celebrate, whether an engagement, an anniversary or graduation. Others to support their friends, or to prove some yet-to-be-clarified virtue or just to soak in the energy of those who get to push this hard in life.
The motivations showed up as some athletes were flying by to beat the clock, groups in uniform T-shirts were partying throughout and most uplifting for all of us – people with various handicaps and challenges made it through with flying colors.
Extreme stamina events like this bring a unique challenge to us CrossFitters. Even those of us used to endurance run races are tested by the modality of very long stamina events like the Spartan Beast with endless mountain climbs and descents, ice-cold swims and various strength and load-bearing challenges.
If you ever want to do a long and fun stamina race, put the Beast on your shortlist.
