Calling all Koda Competitors

I am extremely happy with this weekend’s competition. We took a 4 person team down to Ft Worth to compete in the “Texas Barbell Massacre” hosted by GSX CrossFit. There were 5 group workouts and 3 individual “floater” challenges spread out over the weekend. I want to add that the team we took down had zero experience competing in the team division and was up against several high caliber teams that included 2012 regional’s and game’s competitors. Of the 8 events scored this weekend Team Koda scored in the top 50% in all but 1 event while scoring 1st in one event and 2nd in two events. We got 4th in the max Clean and Jerk workout and ended the weekend in 4th place, narrowly missing the podium.

Through all the yelling, slamming of loaded barbells, and general chaos that surrounded this weekend’s events there was something that kept sticking out to me. In past events I was selfishly only concerned with the other competitors in my division and I rarely took note of performances in any other divisions. I think that this has changed since I have become a gym owner. Countless times this weekend I caught myself watching the top performers in a particular heat and comparing them to clients we have at Koda. The crazy thing is that I believe we have several people that would have placed very highly this weekend in the Masters, Team, and Individual divisions.

This revelation, combined with the newly acquired floor space at Koda, has inspired me to start to develop competitors programming. Since Koda’s middle room will be available for open gym and elements classes I plan to post daily workouts on a separate white board for those who would like to push their skills to the next level. My goal will be to create workouts that can be completed within a 30 min window allowing the “Koda Competitors” to do the extra work before or after the regular class. They will cover the skill and strength movements that are typically seen at CrossFit competitions and local fitness challenges. The programming will taper down to more muscular endurance and lactate buffering style WODs as we get closer to some of the big competitions (ACO, the Fittest Games, and the Open).

I hope that we have a good size group participating in the program throughout the day but I completely understand if you do not want to commit the extra 30 min on top of the hour long class that you are already attending. That being said, I expect the ones who are participating in this program to be taking care of themselves and their issues. That means having your diet and mobility in check. Extra work can easily lead to injury if your issues are not addressed regularly.

Before we start on this adventure I would like to compile a list of movements that seem to give us the most trouble. If you want to participate, please post a couple of your “goat” movements in the comments sections. These can be strength, skill, or stamina deficiencies that you feel need work. This will allow me to get an idea of how many I need to plan for and some areas to focus in on.

I am excited,
-Brice

Halted at 90kgs

This last week of training started off with one of my most dreaded workouts…. Murph. Long running and a ridiculous amount of body weight movements are not exactly my strong suites. I was planning on going through the workout at a mediocre pace until I started to get caught by a 40 year old dentist that looks like a skinny Kimbo Slice. Tuesday was our 5th 20 rep squat attempt at Koda. I made it through a painful 19 reps with 335 only to fail on rep 20. I would like to blame Murph but I am going to attribute 50% of the loss to mental weakness. Even though I missed 335 I am going to keep going up and shoot for 345 on Wednesday. This will be the final week of the 20 squat challenge at Koda. I have not released what the next cycle’s heavy mover will be but I can tell you that Jared and I found our 1RM thruster this week and are testing out EMOM percentages.

So after 3 months of training with Steve Miller he has finally allowed me to start snatching from the floor. I was pretty pumped. Steve’s professional coaching style allows no deviations in efficiency and since my form was extremely inefficient it took FORVER for me to move through his snatch progressions. We started at the very top of the second pull and have slowly been working backwards toward a full snatch. I thought that, now that I was going from the floor, I would be able to go all out on my efforts and see what my true max was. Well I reluctantly report that Steve is not letting me get anywhere near my true max. This week he found issues with my form at 90 kilos. Now I DRILLED this weight at least 10 times with not a single miss but I was not allowed to increase the weight. I was either pulling my head into the clouds at the end of the second pull or I was leading the first pull with my hips instead of my chest. He was not going to let me go up until I was able to get both of those things correct on a single lift. At the time I was a little frustrated. Obviously I could handle more weight than this but I know that drilling technique now will pay dividends in the future. If I can’t get 90kgs perfect I will never get 110 at all. These are the times that help me remember that everyone needs a trainer.

Here is a link to sign up for Steve’s Oly Lifting Seminar at Koda on 6 Oct. Since we are in the creation process of his Olympic Lifting for CrossFit Seminars it is only $150 per person ($700 for CF Oly). I highly recommend signing up!

http://www.kodacrossfit.com/class-rates

-Brice

MANAGING YOUR PAIN-

I would like to take some time to go over a few concepts concerning injury prevention. Actually, a better term for this would actually be injury "mitigation". It is important for you to understand that you are currently in a fitness program that is built to push you toward the limits of your physical capabilities. As with any method that elicits this type of response there is going to be bumps, bruises, scrapes, sprains, pulls and tears along the way. Here are a few things that I use to minimize my potential for injury and to manage injuries when they occur. As you read over these think about your own issues and start devising a maintenance plan to keep you training.

EVERYDAY-
It is extremely important for both injury prevention and power generation/performance that you identifying your own tight joints. These are the areas that you find are limiting factors on some of the basic movements like dead lift, shoulder press, and squats (back, front, and OH). Tight joints will be ones that you find have a limited range of motion and hinder your ability to demonstrate your true strength. One of the best examples of this would we watching a guy try to overhead squat with poor shoulder mobility. As he lowers into the hole his chest inclines forward and the weight he is holding overhead shifts forward as well. Since he does not have the shoulder ROM to pull the weight back over his mid-foot he is pulled forward by the weight and is not able to OHS much more than half of his body weight. The guys that I typically see in this scenario are easily strong enough to overhead squat the weight but are limited by range of motion issues (mainly in the shoulder but sometimes the hips and ankles as well).
I am not going to go into all of the tests and trick that we use to identify issues at Koda. If you do not know yours get with your local trainer to help you identify the ones you need to work on. I should take the time to say that there are a few people who have been gifted with genetic flexibility or where dancers for the past dozen years.
After you have identified your tight joints you need to develop a daily strategy to slowly correct the issue and, in doing so, avoid future impingement. I recommend setting up a quick warm-up and cool-down that includes some fascia manipulation followed by some ROM work under tension/load. "Fascia manipulation" is anything that digs into a relaxed muscle and breaks apart the sticky fascia that is holding individual muscle fiber together. When your muscles are tight the individual fibers are glued together by the fascia and resemble clumps of clay. Ideally, our muscle fibers should be supple and move past each other like silk on silk. Fascia manipulation greatly resembles a deep tissue massage and uses tools like a foam roller and lacrosse ball. "ROM work under tension/load" refers to placing the joint into its end range of motion and allowing some external force to push past it. This could be as simple as getting into a deep squat with the barbell in the racked position and allowing the weight of the BB to force a deeper squat than would be achieved by and ordinary air squat. By doing the fascia manipulation first you will allow your joints to be in a better position for the ROM work. I know that this sounds a little confusing so here is an example of what I am talking about.
Braden is a jacked, 25 year old beefcake that can squat the house and curl a ¾ ton Ford. He has huge traps and reminds all the girls in the gym of a real life Ken doll. On the surface Braden looks like a killer CrossFit competitor. That is, until you get him to squat while holding weight overhead. At that point he looks like he had never lifted before and loses all his previously mentioned sex appeal. In order to get Braden the shoulder ROM to have a respectable OHS we need to follow the 2 steps discussed earlier.
First, I will get Braden to work the muscles around his scapula by lying on the ground and rolling out with a lacrosse ball. This is the "fascia manipulation" step of the process and will create more available length in the muscles that were previously holding his scapula down (without scapula rotation the shoulder joint is not able to direct upwards and a stable overhead position is not achieved). After he worked one scapula for 2-3 minutes I would have him stand and place his arms overhead so that we could see if his treated side was able to get into a better position than his untreated side. Braden could also use the lacrosse ball to work his pecks and the roller to work his lats and t-spine as each of these will create space within the shoulder joint.
Now that Braden has finished his fascia manipulation step I would have him move on to ROM work under tension. My go-to move would be the "Dolf Stretch" (named after the famed, Kristen Dolf) using a stretch band to apply tension. We want to focus on creating good external rotation of the shoulder while adding pressure at the limits of his current ROM. Over time he will be able to see his ROM slowly increase as his overhead position gets better and better. There are other alternatives to the Dolf Stretch and I would have Braden rotate between a few of those for his warm-up and cool down.
By adding these two techniques into his warm up and cool down routine Braden begin to see marked progress in his shoulder ROM and his ability to control weight in the overhead squat. I follow this same process for my shoulders, hips, and ankles almost every day and vary the focus depending on the movements that will be in that specific workout. Devise your own warm-up and cool-down routine that targets your tight joints and you might see your chance of injury decrease while your performance increases.
-Brice

P.S. Get signed up for Steve dMiller's Olympic Lifting Seminar

Holly

Last week marked the half way point in the Koda 20-rep squat challenge. Even though Alex, my typical back-squatting partner, was AWOL I managed to pull through the 20 reps at a current PR of 315. I have to admit that the 20 reps at 315 felt better than 3 weeks ago at 285. Hopefully I will see similar results this evening with 325.
I have been VERY proud of all of the Koda athletes. They have been tackling this 20-rep squats series like Ray Lewis in a junior high football game. Each set for every person has been a struggle worthy of praise but there was one set of 20 last week that I cannot stop thinking about. Even as I am writing this post I am getting pumped up thinking about it.
In order to protect the innocent I will call the client in this story “Holly”. Holly is 27 year old business woman with little athletic background and hates to run. She has been CrossFitting for a couple years now but does not consider herself a competitor by any means. She is very social and uses CrossFit as a way to hang out with her friends while throwing in some physical activity. It is easy to get a smile out of Holly but getting her to push past her comfort zone has been much more challenging.
I was lucky enough to be teaching our 6pm class last week for the 3rd attempt at our 20 rep squat max. Jared has affectionately nick-named this class “ChickFit” because there is a very large majority of girls that attend this class on a regular basis and Holly is a ChickFit regular.
After warming up the class I released them to start prepping the bars and their legs for last week’s attempt. I warned them a few times that this was going to be a battle and that they needed to get themselves mentally prepared. I do not remember what weight Holly was using that day but I it is not important. When she took the bar off of the rack I could tell that she was under a load that she was not accustomed to. Although her form was near perfect, the first 6 of her 20 rep were the slowest of the day. From watching many others attempt this feat; I did not believe that Holly was going to make it past 12 reps. Typically, people are able to make it between 8-10 reps before they need to break up the set and even then not everyone makes it to 20. Holly broke at 4 and was doing single reps afterwards. It felt like it took her 2 minutes to get from 6 to 15 reps and each one was a struggle. By the time she had gotten to 15 the whole gym was cheering her on. Students from the other class were poking their heads through the door to see what all the commotion was about and I was yelling everything I could think of that would give her the encouragement she needed to keep going. She painfully muscled through the last 5 reps with the class on the edge of their metaphorical seats. Each one was a near failure and the last one took a solid 7 seconds for her to stand from the bottom of the squat. She finished the set of 20 and bailed the weight off of her back while the class cheered and congratulated her. It was one of the proudest moments I have had at Koda.
I think that this demonstrates the power of the CrossFit community and gym family. I can say with 99.9% certainty that Holly would not have ever squatted that much weight 20 times if she was not a member of a CrossFit gym. I love seeing the team environment created by social fitness and I feel bad for anyone who has not experienced it.
Along with encouraging our own gym family we need to make sure that we get out and participate in community challenges whether they be associated with CrossFit or not. I think it is our fundamental duty to promote health and fitness within our local community. Not only does it inspire others but it also allows us to break the monotony of our regular training schedules. And there events do not have to be competitions either. There are loads of 5k runs and fundraising events available. SIGN UP!

Plateaus

Last week I wrote about my revelation dealing with my 2nd pull and how I hypothesized that I would be able to improve my snatch by focusing on power snatch. I was hoping that taking out the 3rd pull (fully under the bar) would eliminate some of the complexity and allow me to focus on setting up a good position with the 1st pull and violently exploding in the triple extension on the 2nd pull.

I am proud to announce that the result was monstrous. I was doing one
of “Outlaw’s” strength sessions that included a 7 min EMOM of 2
snatches at 85% followed by 1 rep at 95%. I know that when Rudy calls
for “Snatch” he means full snatch but I modified mine to 1 power snatch to work pulls 1 and 2 then 1 full snatch to put all 3 pulls together. With my current 1RM at an estimated 205, I did the EMOM at 175lbs. I felt fast and explosive all the way through the 7th set. Then I loaded the bar up with 195 and went into my 1 rep at 95%. The
movement was effortless and I caught the bar higher than I ever have with that weight. I want to mention here that this is the weight that cost me $1000 and a 2nd place podium finish in the Asian Regional’s. After crushing 195 I knew that I could not stop there. I quickly added 5lbs plates and hit 205 with as ease, then 210, then 215.
Filled with excitement, I loaded up 220. It went plenty high but I left the weight out in front, causing me to miss the rep. I thought back to what Steve Miller told me about lat activation throughout the first 2 pulls and shot up a successful rep with less than 15 seconds of rest from my missed attempt. At this point I knew there was only I thing to do. I had to hit 225.

For those of you who do not know me well, I snatched 225 over two
years ago at the 2010 regional WOD #1. My form on that day was
abysmal at best but the adrenaline took over and I was able to get the
weight. Unfortunately, I have not been close since even though my
strength numbers have gone up and my fitness has greatly improved.
The only way I can describe my progress in the snatch over these 2
years is “overwhelming disappointment”. I had not only stalled, but against all of my best efforts, gone backwards.

I hit 225 again, for the second time in my life. With only 7 days of power snatch focused work I was able to find my sticking point. I know some people reading this will think that the solution should have been obvious. But the truth is that solutions are never obvious until you know that they are solutions. I was trying all kinds of things that kept getting more and more complicated. But the real answer was for me to keep it simple.

I am writing this hoping that it will inspire others to “keep it simple” when they hit their own plateaus, whether that be performance specific or dealing with body composition. Take a week and try something simple. If you are struggling with pull-ups do 10 negatives every day for a week. If can’t get your diet in line, try cutting
sugar, or bread, or diary for a solid 7 days. If your performance is stalling, try running a couple miles every morning for a week or doing the RX’d programming at your gym. I will not guarantee that you will be successful on your first attempt, but you will be 1 step closer to finding your solution. The important thing is that you go hard! And don’t forget to measure results at the beginning and the end.
-Brice

20 rep squats, Weddings, and Power Snatches

I have to be honest; these last 2 weeks of training have not been a fruitful as previous weeks. I attribute this mainly to taking Thursday through Sunday off of the last two weekends. One weekend off was for my sister’s wedding and the other was for a lake outing with several other fun-loving Oklahomans. Both of these events were a blast and something I would exchange for training 10 times out of 10. I think a lot of people (me being one of them) get too swallowed up by their programming and will not deviate under any circumstances. I am EXTREMELY hyper-active with an addictive personality to boot. It is especially important that I take a step back from the constant grind at the gym and live life.

Tip of the Day: Make sure you are having fun.

The one shining moment of the last couple weeks was Monday’s 20-rep squat sequence. We started a 6 week cycle at Koda where we will be doing one set of 20 reps each week. We are starting at 70% of our 1 rep max back squat and increasing weight each week (assuming that we get all 20 reps). Last week I was able to get 295 with a lot of encouragement from fellow athletes. I know this is not “Drew Hymer status” but I am glad I was able to start the cycle off with a win. I am looking forward to battling 305 tomorrow.

Another big plus is that I am starting to feel the Oklahoma weather cooling down a little. I am extremely nervous writing this because I do not want to jinx every OKC crossfitter (except for CFComplete… they have A/C) but the last couple weeks of training have been unbearable. We should have taken stats at Koda and sent them in for the “Most Sweat Produced in 4000 sq ft” category of the Guinness World Records.

HSPUs are still progressing at a very steady rate. I feel stronger with every EMOM that I do and am trying to keep myself from attempting Diane for another couple weeks.

Again, my excitement centers around the Olympic lifting movements. Last week I was doing one of the Outlaw strength WODs that included power snatch. I noticed that my power snatch was pretty weak compared to my full snatch which led me to believe that I was not properly executing the 2nd pull. I know this does not seem like a huge revelation but I had been focusing almost exclusively on the 3rd pull. I did power snatches for the next several workouts and was able to add 20lbs to my power snatch “max” in no time. I plan to keep heavy-ish power snatches in my oly warm-up from here on.

-Brice

P.S. We are hosting Steve Miller for an Olympic Lifting Seminar at Koda on OCT 6th. Click the link below for details. There are only 30 spots available. https://kodacrossfit.zenplanner.com/zenplanner/portal/event.cfm?CALENDARTYPE=Event&SKIP=false&eventId=AAFD0C74-6F2B-4B60-BEE8-6CBF73342F16&FRAME=false

Snatch gains and GF TGUs

I had a great week of training Koda.
I was able to get in Olympic lifting sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and make is down to see Steve Miller at USA Stars on Friday. Most of my Olympic work these days is “from a box” that will allow the bar to rest below my knee. Thanks to the half dozen sessions I have had with Steve, I have fixed some of my form errors and was able to hit 205 this weekend. This is the most I have been able to snatch since I left for Afghanistan in March of 2011.

Here is a link to the vimeo clips of my recent lifting progression.
http://vimeo.com/user11819998

I love going back and looking at the progress that I have made since working with him. Still, I have a long way to go. This is an email that Steve sent me last night after he watched my 205 snatch from blocks.

“Okay...when you scoop to the explosion point, you must get there as quickly as possible but when you get there you do not bang or bump that area...you freeze the bar when you barely touch. The body and bar (one unit) will be motionless for a second. This is very important. You are focusing on getting from above the knee to the explosion point as quickly/efficiently as possible.

The trunk whip is carrying the bar out and up way too much. Control the bar.

Both movements must be refined. If you are getting a PR at this point...that speaks volumes about what it will be ahead.”

THAT GETS ME PUMPED!

I was also able to get in 3 WODs at Koda this week which included a C&J EMOM, a Helen PR, some lactate buffering thrusters, and a crazy 18 min AMRAP bear complex.

We have “Meathead Mania” every Sunday at Koda from 9-11. It is basically open gym time for anyone to come in and work on their goals or do a WOD that they missed. Even though there is no scheduled workout, lifting heavy and doing hill sprints is highly encouraged. Not only do hill sprints create elite athletes by eliciting insanely high hormonal responses, they also make you look awesomely ripped. You would think that hill sprints would be included in more training programs, especially programs that are based on measuring performance. The reason you do not see them more often is because HILL SPRINTS SUCK!!! They are painful and make you hate life.

Fortunately, misery it less perceived when shared.
-Brice

364 days

I had an absolute blast watching the 2012 CrossFit Games this weekend. It was crazy to see repeat champions in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions and very inspirational to see the efforts put out by all of the competitors.

This was the second year that I have missed going to the games by a couple positions at Regional’s. In 2010, I was in the South Central Regional Competition which had 4 spot available. I was in 2nd place going into the last workout but the Hand Stand Push-Ups were too much for me to handle and I fell to 7th place overall.

I was deployed for the duration of the games’ season in 2011 and for the qualifying events (the “Open”) in the 2012 games. Since I was in the Middle East for the Open I was required to compete in the Asia Regional in Seoul, South Korea. Asia only had 1 spot available for the 2012 Games. After falling down the leader board after the 1st workout (which, of course, included HSPUs) and having an embarrassing performance in the snatch ladder workout, I ended the competition in 3rd place which was enough to reach the podium but not enough to win a trip to Carson.

What I am most annoyed with is the fact that I had identified weaknesses in my CrossFit game 2 years ago but did not take the necessary steps in correcting them. If I had I would not have been watching the 2012 Games from Mandy’s heavenly white couch. I have re-started this blog for one main reason, to hold myself accountable for this next year of training. I fully understand that Jared and my mom will likely be the only ones to read these posts, but in my mind I am laying myself out to the masses of the World Wide Web.

It should be painfully obvious to anyone reading that HSPUs are a limiting factor of mine. I could attribute this to being 10-20 pounds heavier than the average CrossFitter but let’s be honest, it is because no one likes doing things that they suck at and I suck at HSPUs. My plan to correct the flaw is to hit up HSPU specific training 2 times a week. These workouts will include deficit training (elevating the hands so that the head can go deeper to increase ROM), ring training (for proprioceptive and stability), and interval training (to decrease recovery time). I will track my progress on this blog and report the strategies that I find successful and the ones that I scratch from my program.

It is a little less obvious to anyone but those close to me but my Olympic lifting numbers are atrocious. The funny thing is that I work on the movements quite a bit but do not see much success. I snatched 225 in 2010 pumped full of adrenaline with horrible form. Yet, I have not been able to hit 210 since. My clean numbers have also stalled out despite the large amount of cleans done in CrossFit WODs. In order to combat this I have outsourced the help of Steve Miller for technique. I am hoping that his guidance, coupled with some Outlaw Way strength programming and some hearty EMOMs will get my numbers up. Again, you (faithful blog readers…. AKA, Mom) will be the first to know.

-Brice

Final Day

Waking up today was not fun. I was much more sore than I thought I would be.

Day 3 started out with a snatch ladder. I went into the workout with little confidence. I knew my Olympic lifting movements were one of my weakest areas but I was surprised at just how bad it was. I felt weak, slow, and uncoordinated. I failed twice at 195 and was emotionally defeated. That pulled me down from 2nd to 4th overall behind Dan, T-Rank, and Michael Mogard. It is obvious to me that I need professional help on my Olympic movements. I know that they are weak but I am not clear as to what I need to identify and fix my issues.

I knew that workout 6 was going to be good for me and I needed to seriously step my game up in order to restore my pride and give myself a chance to make it to the podium.

I felt great through the dead-lifts and muscle-ups and moved on to the wall ball shots in the lead. I was able to do the wall ball shots unbroken and broke the toes to bar up into 2-3 sets. When I moved on to the Farmer's walk I knew that I was going to finish this workout. The burpee box jumps were steady and painful. After I finished the burpees I hooked gripped the DBs and tried to make it back to the rings as fast as possible while giving my shoulders a break. I got back to the rings just as the announcer was calling out the 1 minute warning.

I was one of 2 guys that finished the last workout (the other was also an American Military Member who was deployed in Afghanistan, Aaron Gardner) and I had the fastest time in the region. This workout brought me back to 3rd place overall with Daniel Hersey in first and Taylor Rank in second. I can not think of 2 better guys to lose to.

This trip has been a blast and I have truly enjoyed meeting and hanging out with all of the competitors. I missed the cut to go to the games but clawed my way onto the podium, learning a good deal about my strengths and weaknesses.

I can't wait to get back to Koda to train and enjoy the Oklahoma summer. I want to thank all of you who have kept up with my adventure and cheered me on along the way. Having you behind me is a true blessing.

Day 2

Blog

The 2nd day of competition started off with a short DB snatch WOD. I knew that this workout would favor my strengths so I came out of the gate with fire in my eyes.

I made it through each round with unbroken snatches with 1 "no rep"
for not controlling the DB at the top of the rep. The workout came down to the wire with me and T-Rank neck and neck until he pulled away by a few reps in the last round. That kid is strong! It turns out that he is currently 1st place IN THE WORLD for that workout so I do not mind coming in second.

The 2nd workout of the day was the brutal squat, pullup, and push press WOD. It was easy to see the nervousness of the competitors even several hours before the workout began. I felt good through the first 2/3 of the workout and was on a great pace until I made it to the third round of pullups. I hit the wall and had to dig deep for that one. I took 2nd in the workout with Daniel Hersey finishing 1st.

The two 2nd place finished pull me up to 2nd overall with 25 points. Daniel Hersey is in a commanding lead with with 13 points. At this point it is his competition to lose. I can only make sure I am in position in case he drops the ball.

I am having a blast meeting and hanging out with all the competitors. The CF Sentinel Crew has adopted me and has been looking out for me during the competition. They took me out for Korean BBQ last night and we are headed to a Brazilian steakhouse as I am typing this up.

Day 1

Today started off with a 5:30am wake up call. I made it down to the designated station where Reebok had a bus waiting to take us on the 1 hour drive to the regionals venue.

The campus is breath taking but it is so far out of Seoul that the only people who showed up were the athletes, volunteers, and a handful of close friends and family members. I would say that there was a max of 250 people there today. This was a little disappointing knowing that north central will have several thousand spectators. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring a bigger crowd.

The first workout started out exactly as I knew it would. I stayed calm and broke my HSPUs into several reps. The deadlift was smooth and easy. I PR'd my Diane time even with a handful of no-reps from an extremely quiet judge. I wish I had grown a mow-hawk (I know it would look horrible) but for some reason the Asian judges were counting the tip of a mow-hawk as the top of the head. I got 18 points for this workout as I finished in 18th place (remember, this is like golf, low score wins)

After eating lunch and goofing around for a few hours it was time for workout 2. I kept my row right at a 1:49 pace and was actually pretty excited about the pistols. Except for 1 no-rep (lead foot hitting the ground) I did the pistols unbroken, grabbing my lead foot with my opposite hand.

I was one of three guys to finish WOD2 earning me 3 points and leaving me at 21 points total. That puts me in 7th place overall with 4 workouts to go. My goal was to be in the top 10 at the end of day 1. Hopefully, I will be able to make up quite a bit of ground tomorrow and get myself in a top 3 position.

I have to say that last year's champ and current first place holder, Daniel Hersey, is looking strong and well rounded. Joseph "Taylor" Rank is also putting on quite a showing. I am excited to see what happens in WODs 3&4.

Not Jet Lag and ROKfit

So I was wide awake at, what I thought was, 2:30am this morning. I was mad at myself for letting my nerves get the best of me and keeping me from sleeping the whole night. I tried to fall back asleep for about an hour and then got online.

I was chatting with Eric and Brittany when I finally realized that the clock in my room was wrong. I had woken up at 7:30, a perfect night's rest but laid around for 3 hours, hungry, and thinking that I should be sleeping.

When it finally clicked, I called myself an idiot and grabbed a taxi to CrossFit Sentinel to teach the noon class (death by wall ball shots and burpees)

The class went great and T-Rank introduced me as the "celebrity coach of the day". I believe that the Koda crew wins the strength division but the clients at Sentinel would wipe the floor with us on the flexibility side.

After I was finished with class, Taylor told me that several of his clients were confused about my ROKfit shirt. When they see ROK they think "Republic of Korea". They did not understand why the country would sponsor me.
-Brice

2nd training session at Sentinel

I came back to the gym this afternoon during open time. I assumed that more competitors would come in today but we had the same ones as yesterday.

I will say that last year's champ, Daniel Hershey, was looking very intimidating with his official 2011 games gear on.

I played around with the hang cleans and did a few hang split cleans to make sure that I have them during WOD 2. They felt good.

The Sentinel boys have either taken a liking to me or have decided that it is time I earn my keep cause they have asked me to teach a class tomorrow. I am not sure I can teach at a gym without pastel coloring, but I will do my best.

After the gym I made it to a local suit tailor here in Seoul and am getting a suit made. I hear it is a must if you are in Korea. I guess B&B Sundays are about to get super classy! Heads up.

I also found my new favorite salad. There is a tiny shop here called Green Basket that makes an amazing smoked duck salad. I ordered one to go so I can eat it later tonight.
-Brice

Morning at the Korean War Memorial

I spent this morning at the Korea War Memorial. It was very interesting to see the South Korean views of the war expressed through their monuments.

It was easy to see a common theme expressed. Each monument eluded to the splitting of a family and a longing for a reunion. I imagine that this is what it would be like if the US did not reunify after the Civil War.

It is crazy to think that, after 50 years, North and South Korea are still technically at war.
-Brice

Day at Reebok CrossFit Sentinel

Had a blast today hanging out with the trainers at CF Sentinel. They have quite a set up here in Seoul.

The owner is a Kiwi named Cody who has quite the eye for the business side of the house. There are a few different rules for international affiliates and Cody has really capitalized on them. He had classes running all day with no less that 15 clients in a class. It was great to see how they are able to combine CrossFit and a bootcamp style program together. The Koreans are eating it up.

There were no classes from 2-5 and I was able to get a little workout in along side several other regional competitors including last year's champ, Daniel Hershey and the 2012 open runner-up, Taylor Rank. We took this OHS stare down picture at the end of the session.

I am not as worried about Diane as I was before. Both Dan and Taylor have Diane times that are very close to mine. That was good to hear.

I will say that I was a little misled by the games site. The regional competition is not actually in Seoul, but an hour north of here in a rural town that does not have hotels or even a local affiliate. It looks like we will be bussing to and from every day. I am not excited about that.

Landed

After a 9.5 hour flight to Japan, a 2 hour layover, a 3 hour flight to Osan, checking through customs, and a 1.5 hour bus ride to Seoul, I have finally arrived.

Two things that this flight reiterated to me:
1) I should have gotten ahold of Carl Klotz before I left and bought some of his Perfect Paleo Packs for this trip.

2) I pray that I never have to take a child under the age of 10 on a 15+ hour succession of flights. It is a no win situation.

I checked into a local hotel that, according to google, is close to Crossfit Sentinel. It was 830pm when I headed out to the crowded streets to find dinner.

I walked the streets for about 20 mins trying to decide where to eat based on the aroma outside as well as the amount of people dining inside. This was my only option since I can not read any if the Korean signs. I settled for a little place that had pictures all over there menu. I pointed to 2 dishes and was very pleased with how it turned out. I will say that metal chopsticks are infinitely more difficult to use than wooden ones. I was tempted to use the soup spoon, but I stuck with the chop sticks, even through some serious hand cramping.
Constantly Varied

Embarkation

All set for the 13+ hour flight to Japan, and then on to Korea.

Got a breakfast in that was as paleo as you can find in the airport and reading material to last me for a couple hours.

Hoping that it is not raining on the Koda Extreme Team and the rest of the OKC Memorial Marathon runners.
-Brice

Post WOD

The DB snatches went great. The first time I attempted this workout I had several missed attempts in the first round alone. Today I focussed on keeping the DB very close to my body and my core tight during the violent hip extension. I did several sets, working on form, and got up to doing 10 straight reps with quite a but of speed. I am hoping that I can do 2 unbroken rounds on WOD4.

After my DB snatch work I did a quick 21-15-9 of HSPUs and pistols. I broke the HSPUs into the sets that I plan on using for WOD1. I know this will be my weakest workout but I am happy with my strategy. The pistols also went very well. I can easily tell the difference in my pistol ability when I don't warm up versus a Matt Chandler style, 30 min Mob session.

After the gym I headed to the sushi joint next door for a couple rolls (3) and a bowl of miso soup. I love sushi on the coast
-Brice

To Seattle

I flew from OKC to Seattle this morning. I am going to get on a military flight from Seattle to Japan, and then to Korea. This will make my trip quite a bit cheaper but I have to have a good amount of flexibility in my schedule as the "space available" flights are not extremely reliable.

Leaving a whole week early should give me enough time to: guarantee that I will not miss the competition and allow me some time to get acclimated. I am hoping to pop into Reebok Crossfit Sentinel for a few workouts this week and hopefully get some tips on paleo-ish restaurants in the area.

I got a bunk at the USO (military service center) at the Seattle airport. I was thinking about a hotel but the USO is free and all I have to do tomorrow morning is walk out into the terminal. None of the Crossfit gyms in the area are open on Saturday so I am headed to a normal gym/spa to work on DB snatches, HSPUs, and pistols. There is a sushi joint next to the gym. I am already craving a few rolls for post WOD recovery.