AWF Munich-Vienna-Prague Day 3

Workout of the Day

WOD 1 – in the morning…

In teams of two, complete the following:
200 meter partner band shuttle

800 meter run/100 pushups
100 double unders/50 squat jumps
20 partner scarecrow climbs
200 meter partner handstand walk shuttle

WOD 2 – in the afternoon…

200 meter hill sprint for time

Big training day for the group on Day 3, our last in Munich.  We started at Nymphenburg Castle just north of the city, and found ourselves a spot in the back gardens away from most of the tourists.  The place we stopped was so perfect: a long stretch of green grass between walls of trees, the only obstruction being a lonely towering Sycamore anchoring the lawn at dead center.  Although there were posted signs to stay off the grass we tucked ourselves in and went to work.  We began with a short handstand skill session, some people working on pure balancing, some on walking, others on pressing to handstand. 

Afterwards everyone paired up according to weight and set off on the band shuttles.  The idea here is to provide enough resistance that your partner’s forward movement is restricted to little more than a jogging pace, but there effort is a full sprint.  After 10 meters the partners switch and run back to the start line.  Following is sets of 20 meters, then sets of 30, and finally sets of 40.  As you might expect, our legs were pretty smoked after this, making the half mile run a little interesting.  Partner 2 began doing pushups immediately and tried to finish all 100 before Partner 1 could make it back from the run. As soon as both finished, they switched roles and continued on.  Same progression for the double under/squat jump section as well. 

By this point the group had shaken out pretty good, but everyone slowed down on the scarecrows.  If you’re not familiar with this exercise, imagine one person standing with arms outstretched and the other climbing around them 360 degrees without touching the ground.  There’s a steep learning curve here, but no matter how good we got, this was still a huge challenge.  Definitely an exercise that needs to be implanted more often, even if it’s just in warm ups.

At this point things started to go a little haywire.  During one of the runs our group was spotted by a park official who made it VERY clear that he did not approve of our presence on the grass.  By the time everyone was making it to the scarecrows there were 2 more administrators discussing the matter with a few of our German hosts.  Finally it was decided that we could not continue and we were asked to leave.  Not a huge deal since most of us had completed the majority of the WOD, but a little disappointing to get so close and not be able to finish.

From Nymphenburg we went directly to Olympic Park, home of the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich.  Today just happened to be the 40^th anniversary of those games, so the park was absolutely smashing with people.  There were volleyball exhibitions, zip line tours, wakeboarding in the lakes, and all manners of vendors scattered throughout the place.  After getting a quick lunch, we led the group to a huge manmade hill in the center of the park for our 2^nd workout of the day: the hill sprint.  In what reminded me loosely of the 2009 Games, we split into 2 heats and 3, 2, 1… go’d up the grassy incline as fast as possible.  The grade was close to 15% the entire way with only brief flats where regular paths switch-backed across.  The first :30 seconds felt pretty decent, but as the sprint continued I could feel the lactic acid building up quicker and quicker.  By the time we hit the top portion of the hill I could barely lift my legs.  I was more stumbling than running, a technique reminiscent of the hill in Aromas 3 years ago. 

After both groups had finished we chilled on top of the hill for a bit to enjoy the view and catch our breaths, then began bear crawling down to the bottom.  There was a large crowd of visitors watching us below but they couldn’t quite figure out what they were watching.  Pretty funny trying to answer their questions while posing for pictures.

The rest of the day was free to explore the park and meet back at the hotel later.  Some checked out the BMW world and museum while others went back early to relax before dinner.  Early morning wake up for the trip to Salzburg tomorrow.