Our first stop was at Crossfit Hellerup with Oliver, Nicholas, and Mathias. Together, they've carved out a space in the midst of one of Copenhagen's poshest health clubs, Well-Come. Their facility is two rooms, each of decent size, complete with ERGs, GHDs, barbells, bumper plates, kettlebells, jump ropes, climbing ropes, rings, dynamax balls, and all the usual trappings. Just outside their doors is an aerobics classroom, a health spa, and a shopping mall. It's really a unique situation, and I love the way they've found a way to do Crossfit in an atmosphere that otherwise does not seem to gel.
But, such an atmosphere has it's advantages. They get complimentary usage of the health spa, which includes a steam bath, a sauna, an ice pool, an enormous jacuzzi, fresh fruit, sparkling water, and massage. WORTH IT. We were treated to this experience after the workout of the day. It was...
Taken from James Fitzgerald's Blog, Part 4 of the OPT challenge:
50 walking lunge
20 clean and jerk (60 kg/40 kg)
30 ring dips
25 wall balls (20 lb/14lb)
30 GHD situps
30 kettlebell swings (1.5 pd/1 pd)
75 double unders
This was a good sprint of a chipper. Originally intended to be done after 3 other short met cons, we had the advantage of relatively fresh bodies (Though I will say, again, that the legs were heavy from the squats). I finished this routine in 9:10, Oliver in 12:16, Nicholas in 15:07, and Sarah in 17:07. For the most part, these exercises were challenging without being overwhelming. However, the wall balls were surprisingly difficult after the jerks, and dips. We got some good video of this, which I will post when I get back to Leiden.
After this we went directly to the spa, spent 10 minutes in the steam room, 30 seconds in the ice pool, 10 minutes in the sauna, 2 minutes in the ice pool, and 10 minutes in the jacuzzi. When I tell you this was amazing, I am not exaggerating. However, being that we had to turn around and do another workout in less than an hour, this was a mixed blessing.
We left the spa, slammed some food, and headed across town to Crossfit Copenhagen. This is the biggest affiliate in Denmark, and one of the biggest in the world. Its membership is over 800 at this point and growing. Although it's not located in the best neighborhood (kind of part of the charm), the space makes up for it and more. Built in a nineteenth century church, Crossfit Copenhagen has two floors of very large workspace. The upper floor is especially cool, because it is where mass used to be held. The balcony is still intact, so as we did the workout people were viewing from above, videotaping and cheering us on.
For the workout, Sarah and I were 2 among 10. The presiding coach for the night was Asger, and he wrote a really cool team WOD for us to do. In teams of 2, split between floors, we did the following for time:
3 rounds each of
300 m row/ max burpee c2b pullups (continue until row is finished then switch)
3 rounds each of
3 BW clean and jerk/ max weighted lunges (32 kg/24 kg) (continue lunging until C&J is finished then switch)
3 rounds each of
30 wall ball (20lb/14lb)/ 30 pushup
For the burpee c2b and the lunges, each repetition was worth one second. At the end of the workout, we subtracted the seconds from our time, to give us the final time. I can't say what every team's time was, but Sarah and I finished in 15:18, after our subtractions, and I was wiped. I wound up doing 166 lunges so my hamstrings were quivering while sitting on the stage afterwards.
The guys from the gym got some great footage, so I will defer to them on the movie making for this one. I had a great time, and there were some great athletes. Doing a tandem WOD was fun and motivating in a different way than I am used to. Maybe I can find someone in Holland to do some more of these in the future...
I'm exhausted now, but we have two more workouts to go tomorrow, along with some serious sightseeing. Although I'm super tired, I draw inspiration from one of the worlds greatest heroes...
FACT: Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits.
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