Back in Wales

Workout of the Day

WOD 1 - in the afternoon...

Strict Press 3 on the minute for 10 minutes @ 80%
Bench Row 6 x 5
Handstand Eccentrics from parallettes 3 x max
Ice Cream Makers 3 x 10

WOD 2 - in the evening...

Snatch technique session

Back in Wales!!! Doesn't seem like a year has passed since last year's AWF weekend here, but alas it has.  Thankfully this part of the world hasn't gotten any drier or sunnier, at least we can count on mother nature's consistency.  Another thing that can be counted on is a long wait at Heathrow customs upon trying to enter the UK.  Allot at least an hour in your travel plans for this fiasco, otherwise you'll miss your car, bus, train, or connecting flight.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I have to say how exciting it is to be back in a place where there is true history all around you.  From the stone architecture to the tight streets, Wales is so authentically ancient it's staggering.  Ross and I drove out to West Wales to survey the locations for AWF this weekend and everywhere we drove there were castles dotting the hill tops--crumbling stone and weather beaten structures that tell a very long story.  I'll save the detailed descriptions of the places we'll be training for later blogs, but suffice it to say they will be memorable.

After getting back to Cardiff we stopped in at Dragon CrossFit to train.  The place has grown quite a bit in the last year, expanding their already spacious interior to include an additional 1000 square feet.  It has what seems like miles of lifting platforms, an entire room dedicated to power lifting, and the same hard working, blue collar vibe that has drawn over 200 members through its doors.  To say the place has become the premier home of CrossFit in the UK wouldn't be an exaggeration.

In addition to the wonderful facilities, Dragon has also enlisted a professional Olympic lifting coach to teach classes every thursday night for its members.  Luckily for me, I was able to drop in on this session in the hopes of gleaning some information that might be useful.  The focus for the day was the Snatch, concentrating on tempo through the 2nd pull and consistent foot placement during the squat.  Definitely felt good about the coaching and wound up getting quite a lot of reps in.  Add that to the pressing from earlier in the day and I won't be surprised if things get quite sore tomorrow.

As it stands we are off to Bluestone in the morning for day 1 of AWF Wales, a day that will include a pretty sick team WOD and some good eating.  Can't wait!