WARM UP:
1 mile run (Irish miles, which turn out to be closer to 2 or
3 miles for every 1 American mile)
5 rounds of calisthenics:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 situps
20 squats
10 pushups
15 situps
20 squats
SKILL:
Handstand hold technique
STRENGTH:
Deadlift 5 x 5
Floor Press 5 x 5
ACCESSORY:
Glute Ham Raise 3 x 10
Strict toe to bar 3 x 10
Ring Row 3 x 10
Strict toe to bar 3 x 10
Ring Row 3 x 10
The goal of this session was to practice some things that
people don’t typically get to practice (handstands, floor press) and challenge
the body with some heavy stressors (deadlift, glute ham raise). We opted out of conditioning because I
wanted to save everyone’s lungs for our beach WOD later in the day.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised with everyone’s aptitude
on the handstand holds. The groups
from Cork and Tipperary both showed impressive body awareness and responded
well to the small corrections made to positioning. We practiced drills from the wall first, encouraging
everyone to keep only their toes in contact with the wall while reaching for
the ceiling. Then we moved away
from the wall and used partner’s arms to form a front and back wall for the
athletes to balance between.
People were really starting to feel the way their hands could control
the entire body after this.
The deadlifts and floor press are always crowd
pleasers. Who doesn’t like to lift
the heaviest things possible, right?
Even with everyone’s glutes ripped up from the walking lunges the night
before, we saw multiple guys pulling 190 kg for sets of 4-5. And again, impressive technique and
attention to form was shown by all.
After a quick break for lunch, we hopped in the cars and
took a 45 minute drive out to Ardmore Beach on the western coast. This is a very popular spot when the
weather is nice, which it definitely was during my visit. In fact, just about every local I
talked with made sure to tell me just how lucky I was to be in the presence of
such sunshine. Call it California
karma.
The coolest part about this beach is that you can drive the
cars straight onto the sand. So we
plodded the CFT van down near the water and marked off 400 meters along the
beach. At one end we left the van
and the pullups rig, and at the other we set up barbells with 115# and
75#. Halfway between we set up 24
kg and 16 kg kettlebells. We then
split up into teams and did the following workout for time:
200 pullups
200 meter buddy carry
200 kettlebell swings
200 meter buddy carry
100 squat clean thrusters
200 meter buddy carry
200 kettlebell swings
200 meter buddy carry
200 pullups
200 meter buddy carry
200 kettlebell swings
200 meter buddy carry
100 squat clean thrusters
200 meter buddy carry
200 kettlebell swings
200 meter buddy carry
200 pullups
We also had to overhead carry all of our weights back with
us on the return trip. Because
some teams had 4 and others had more, we made a rule that anyone not carrying a
weight or a person had to be bear crawling. What an awesome workout this turned out to be. Beautiful scenery, beautiful weather,
teamwork… it was everything you want from fitness all rolled into one. The only thing that could’ve gone
better was if my team had won the WOD.
As it turned out, we were about a minute off the pace. But that didn’t stop us from leading
the charge into the Irish Sea when everyone else had completed their turns. Nothing like a nice ice bath to help
the legs recover!! And boy was it
icy.
Drying off and warming up didn’t take us long, so we decided
to stick around Ardmore for a cup of coffee at a local bakery. Colin secured us free reign over the
place’s back garden, so we couldn’t have been more comfortable. Just 20+ crossfitters chillin’ out back
sippin’ tea and coffee. No big
deal. This was a great opportunity
for those of us who hadn’t spoken much yet to get to know each other
better. We talked about
programming quite a bit, but also the growth of fitness in general throughout
the world and in Ireland. It’s no
surprise that the patterns I saw in the States are starting to form over here
as well. It’s only a matter of
time until it’s everywhere.
After heading home and getting cleaned up, we all took to
the town for a wonderful meal.
Again, with Colin’s knowledge as our guide we struck upon an awesome
restaurant with a quintessential Irish Pub attached to it. Naturally, this was the opportunity for
me to taste my first official Irish-born Guiness draught. If I’m honest, it tasted more or less
the same as the ones I’ve had back home.
But I still had to do it.
The food was great as well, with people ordering everything from crab
cakes to fish and chips, sirloin to roasted duck. I had no complaints with anything pertaining to food the
entire weekend, the fare was phenomenal.
With one last day remaining, and it including a mountain
assent, everyone decided to turn in early. I was pretty wrecked myself, so I was happy to save the
carousing for another time. The
plan for Day 3 was to hit the ancient monastery just after breakfast, then
swoop lunch on the way to the mountain for the afternoon. 
