Singing “Texaco, Texaco, over the hills to Mexico” would’ve made it more fun.. for sure..

I remember fondly dominating the games of 4 Square during recess. I also remember tying 2 jump ropes together end to end to make one long jump rope so 3-5 kids could jump at the same time while singing about "Texaco" and "Cinderella". It wasn't until after this latest Crossfit workout that I realized singing might've made the workout.. well, easier isn't the right word since there is NO SUCH THING as an easy workout. Yes, I was shouting.

Tolerable. Enjoyable.

Lifting an obscene amount of weight or doing an ungodly number of reps is enjoyable in its own little way. You just do it then collapse on the floor. Once you pick yourself up, or sometimes while still in the fetal position/sprawled out – pick your position of choice – you say what a friggin great workout that was even if you can't lift your arms, uncurl your fingers, get your traps out of your ears, stop walking like you just got off a horse – pick your sore spot.

Like my knotted up calves.

Remember those jump ropes? I sure do, but don't remember my calves feeling like they were about to burst out of the back of my legs. Here's the workout from Wednesday:

500m row
1000 single unders
750m row
750 single unders
1000m row
500 single unders

My time was 34:26. I felt fine on the erg. Cheap ropes suck since they get all raveled up with each hop, skip, and jump. I'd have at least a 6" section at the bottom that was all wrapped up that I'd end up getting my foot caught in. And it's not because I couldn't jump high enough (re: 1-3") to clear the rope.. nooope, not at all. Our trainer, Tony, did the workout with us, which was great motivation. I was hoping I could catch him on the erg, but he out did me on the jump rope by about 1 minute.

We finished up with some ab work - sit ups while tossing a 12lb medicine ball back and forth. First set was with the med ball at our chest, and the second round was with the med ball overhead. Ankles weren't locked, so I had a hard time syncing everything up for a fluid roll back, touch the ball down, then roll back up with the ball overhead, and tossing it off. We did 2 sets of 10 reps each, but near the end I could feel my left shoulder "give" a little bit. It didn't hurt at all, so I finished my set. The final set were 'sit-up/get-ups'. I’m totally making up the name. A partner sits on your feet and holds your legs around your calves and you have to stand up after doing a sit up. The partner really has to hold onto your legs to help you get up. We did a set of 10 and it was pretty tiring.

We finished off the night by heading over to a local school and running some sprints. I hope to incorporate sprints – short speed and longer interval work – into my weekly workout, so this workout was something I made up after looking over a bunch of different programs. I used the satellite image on Map My Run to measure out a 100m route. It was getting dark out and neither of us wanted to risk twisting an ankle, so we cut the workout down to the following:

2x100 easy
1x200 strides
2x100 all out
3x50
4x40
5x30 ground start

All were run on a 1:1 ratio – resting for as long as it took to cover the distance. I hope to mix things up in the next few weeks with different distances, length of rest, starting positions, etc. It will be good for my training.

I'll try to conjure up memories as a kid of sprinting from the street corner to our sidewalk. All in the name of fun.