Climbing & Michael (too)

Climbing
5.9 (c) 5.9 (f)

Warm-up
10 Rock n' Roll
20 Mountain climber (hands in runner start - alternating legs in runner start position by jumping them back and forth.)
20 Jump squats
20 Pushups
20 Burpees - think i only got through 8 before Max said 'enough' and I agreed :-p
Run 400 m

WOD
Michael
Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
*GHD 50 Back Extensions
*GHD 50 Sit-ups

*Due to lack of GHD hardware - sub 100 supermans & 75 situps

Time: 43:08

We met my best friend Katherine and her friend Claire at our climbing gym a little early to get some climbing in before the CF workout. This was to be Katherine's first CF workout - she's been highly skeptical about this whole 'Crossfit thing', and I was hoping that if she tried a class she might like it as much as we do, or at least stop being so negative about us doing it. Claire is visiting Katherine from Chicago and had never climbed or done CF before, but she was a really good sport and tried both. Big kudos to Claire!

We each got in two climbs before class. The first climb i tried was a relatively friendly 5.9 that was mostly a slabby climb (less than 100% vertical so more about balance than strength). I did that 100% clean.

The second climb i did was a much less friendly 5.9 that had a significant amount of negative incline, and one really hard move that I just failed to figure out; the geometry of it just completely escaped me. I had to cheat and use a hold from another climb to get past it, but after that I managed to complete the climb - with several rests.

Overall, I am very pleased with my Michael time. I did it completely, 100% as RX'd or at least as RX'd given the equipment shortage at our gym, and below the 45 minute time limit Max set for it.

I am a little disappointed with my run times. My first run was exactly 5 min. I really had thought i was making very good time, but clearly not since that's 20 seconds slower than my best time from Wednesday. My second was 5:15 and my third was ... longer - i forgot to check the actual time - but i got a stitch and had to walk most of the last 400. Grrrr. I was too focused on trying to get a good time for my last run, and I didn't think enough about my breath at the beginning, and the stitch was developing by the time I remembered. Sometimes I can pull out of the stitch spiral, but I didn't manage it today.

I do feel like i did a really good job, and picked up some good time with my situps - especially the first round: I think I did them nearly unbroken with a short rest @ the 50 mark. I've always liked situps.

The supermans were not horrible, but not my favorite exercise either, and 100 at a time is no fun at all. After the first 30 or 40 I had to break them into 10 rep sets.

I don't have it written down, but I am pretty sure that the last time I did this it took me about 42 minutes. BUT - I did it in 6 rounds of 400m, 25 situps and 25 back extensions instead, and while my transitions between exercises were longer and i had more of them - i also did 25 more situps per round this time through. So - 1 extra minute for 75 more situps and 50% more supermans than back extensions ... I totally rocked!

Katherine's still not sold on CF. Her time was better than mine (which I fully expected - she's always been more athletic than me); she finished in 3? something minutes. While i was working my @$$ off to finish out my last set of situps & supermen, she says to me: 'It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.' :-| That was so 'helpful' :-p