From my last newsletter
Last week Becca, myself and our girls had the absolute pleasure to hang out with with Mark and Amanda of Area 61 (CrossFit Bateman’s Bay) It was great to take a week off and better to be able to rock up to someone elses gym to train and hang out. I managed to get in 4 days worth of training (Becca: 3) and thought I’d share what we did…
Monday’s workout (@ 9:30am) was a cracker and I can guarrantee that we’ll do something like this pretty soon. It was a
12 min ladder:
- 1 deadlift @ 80%
- 1 bar muscle-up (scaled: burpee-pull-up)
- 1 wall ball
- 2, 2, 2
- 3, 3, 3
- etc.
Coach Mark usually runs his guys on percentages for metcons but because I was on holiday (and it was my first workout at their box) I decided to shave off some weight and so did my deads at 170kg. The first round was easy but as soon as I put my hands on the bar for the second, I knew it was going to be a tough one. I subsequently spent the next 11 and a half minutes hitting one deadlift at a time (and then going for a wander just so I didn’t pass out) and did the bar muscle-ups in sets of 2. I think the wall balls were thrown in just for fun – because they were over in seconds. Final result: 6 full rounds.
Tuesday’s workout (6am for me / 9:30am for Becca) was
7 rounds:
- 3 front squats
- 3 bench press
- 1x skin the cat
- 1x handstand walk
Andrew (they guy I was training with) and I ended up doing 7x a set of front squats and a set of bench press (progressing the loads each time) and then hitting 10 mins of handstand walks and skin the cats at the end. I worked up to 100 on the bench and 110 for the front squats. They have a massive area covered in tatami mats so handstand walks were so much nicer on their cushy flooring then our hard rubber.
On Wednesday, Becca and I decided that we’d go and workout at a different time of the day (that way you get to meet even more people) so we went to the 5:30pm session. It was a killer!
5 rounds:
- 5 clusters (clean to thruster)
- 10 toes 2 bar
- 5 snatches
- 10 push-ups
I wasn’t totally beat down after a couple of days of training but the deadilfts had definitely taken their toll so I went for something that would be challenging and did my clusters @ 70kg and snatch @ 50kg (of course it was a full snatch) so not something that was going to crush me. I did plan to go touch’n’go for both the clusters and the snatches but everything went out the window at 3-2-1-go and it was one single rep at a time from the very first round.
Because there was so many people at this session (about 12-15?) Mark ran a couple of heats. They don’t usually get that many people to a workout so normally there’s no time cap. I went in the first heat and finished the workout in just under 17 mins (average time: 13-16mins) and Becca went in the second heat and ended up finishing the workout well after everyone else (she’d gone a little heavier on the snatches than the rest of the girls) but everyone was happy to cheer her on until she finished. She told me afterwards that she’d wished that there had of been a time cap because her 23 minute effort had absolutely smoked her.
I did have a plan to train for the entire week but after Wednesday I decided to that I should probably take Thursday off. Oh and because I knew what was coming up on Friday: Zeus.
I woke up early on Friday morning (5am), did 15 mins of yoga (I was pretty tight from a decent few days of training) and left Becca and the girls to sleep in while I headed into the Bay. Unfortunately Mark and Amanda haven’t quite yet realised the importance of having a decent espresso machine at the box so I’ll admit that I dropped by Macca’s for a short black (and yes, it was putrid) but it was just the kick I required before doing something crazy like Zeus. What is Zeus you say (and yes, we might even do this one Saturday…?)
Zeus is:
Three rounds for time of:
- 30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
- 75 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 30 reps
- 30 Box jump, 20″ box
- 75 pound Push press, 30 reps
- Row 30 calories
- 30 Push-ups
- Body weight Back squat, 10 reps
I knew this was going to take a while but I didn’t quite realise how long. I got a little worried when I looked up at the clock after finishing my first round: just over 12 minutes – yep fricken awesome. I broke the wall balls, SDHP and push-press down into sets of 10 for the first 2 rounds. and then sets of 5 for the last. I certainly didn’t blow a gasket on the rower and the back squats (@95kg) were tiring but doable. Push-ups were broken down into 3 sets of 10 for the first set and then sets of 5 for the last 2. The hardest thing about this workout was the box jumps. The RX’d box height would have been 20″ but they had been taken by all the girls so all the boys had to settle for 24″ (and yes, that’s how you’ll guys will do it when we do it) Mark decided to set a time cap of 25 mins for this one (so everyone who needed to, could get to work on time) but because I’d made it into the 3rd round before the cap, he let the timer run so I could finish it. I wasn’t going to say that I’d only half done Zeus. I was going to completely smoke myself and let Becca drive back to Canberra 🙂 – I ended up finishing the WOD in just under 37 minutes and yes, I was completely smoked.
I’m glad to say that we both had an absolutely awesome time and want to thank Mark and Amanda and their crew for making us feel so welcome. They’ve got a really great space and an awesome kids program so if you’re ever down that way on holidays (and let’s face it: Bateman’s Bay/Broulee is like a suburb of Canberra) I’d totally recommend you check them out.
Area 61 (CrossFit Bateman’s Bay) is located at 61 Cranburn Rd Bateman’s Bay (turn right off the princes HWY at the lights, up near the Caltex servo) Their phone number is 02 4472 6261
Seriously, if you’re heading down to the Bay you absolutely must give these guys a call and drop in. I might even see if we can organise a little bit of a throw down with them – you know, head down to the bay with a few car loads of Adapt peeps so we can do a workout, for for a surf and have a BBQ – I’m keen, who’s in?
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