River WOD

Workout of the Day

AM – WOD 1:

Back Squat 3, 3, 3+ @ 70, 80, 90% 1RM

Glute Ham Raise 10, 10, 10, 10

Plyo Pushup 15, 15, 15, 15

PM – WOD 2:

3 rounds for time

150 meter run

100 meter river swim

30 ring dips

50 air squats

I visited my friend Justin today at CrossFit East Sacramento excited to catch up on things since last summer. John and I headed over there in between classes at 11 and, I have to say, the place looked great. Justin has made some improvements, not the least cool of which were the eye bolts drilled into a couple of tractor tires. The guys run rope through them and run sprints dragging the tires plus extra weight behind. AMAZING idea. Can’t wait to try it out.

The strength work went okay, but not great. Was hoping to get 5 repetitions @ 375 for my top set of squats but was only able to get 4. Only one more squat session before I taper for the games so I’m looking forward to bouncing back then.

In the afternoon John and I headed back up to Lake Natoma for a major outdoor challenge. The water up there is flowing out of the bottom of the Folsom Dam, making it extremely cold and fairly fast moving. Estimate water temperature was hovering around the mid 50’s—NOT your childhood bathtub. Anyways, I loved this WOD because it really simulated something that you might have to be able to someday and I learned a lot. The first round I was amped up after the 30 foot cliff jump into the river that I barely felt the icey water. I freestyled through the current and made sizeable headway upstream before hitting the opposite bank and climbing up to the ring station. The second time around was a different story entirely. Now considerably more out of breath, freestyle was out of the question and breaststroke just wasn’t getting it done. My lungs refused to expand in the cold water and my arms were getting heavier and heavier. I decided to ride the current down to a nearby rock and take a break. From there I side-stroked the rest of the way—much better plan. This enabled me to lengthen my body and get air to my lungs without going so slow as to be carried away by the river. I used this method on the final round as well to much success.

The dips, squats, running portion of the WOD were as expected, but the river proved much more difficult than anticipated. Huge learning experience that I’m grateful to have had. And… looking forward to doing it again soon, hopefully in warmer water. I attached a video of John and I doing this WOD below.