Samongan Training With Tehau

First off, CONGRATS TO MR. AND MRS. ROBERT AND KRISTI KIKUCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, our fearless leaders at RFM are getting hitched finally!!! They had a small, intimate family wedding today and we've got a reception tomorrow.

As someone who used to be married I give Bump credit for jumping on the wagon again. Then again, Kristi is a sweetheart so the decision wasn't that difficult I'm sure.

In any case, I don't have a picture of the married couple yet but when I do I will insert it here:


In the meantime, let us return to our blog, which, if you haven't figured it out by now, ran into a little snag today.

Mainly, RFM was closed because said owners were getting hitched.

So, either I had to (1) workout at home and write about that, (2) break into the RFM gym or (3) workout at another Crossfit gym.

I know, I was kinda scared about option 3 myself. I've never Crossfitted anywhere else except RFM. But then again, Kehau is still an RFMer at heart.

So yeah, I worked out at Crossfit Upcountry today with Kehau coaching me. It was like old times. I would do a movement, she would mock me then laugh. Repeat.

Good times, good times.

So I get to Crossfit Upcountry and we start warming up and I notice that Kehau's warm-ups are exactly like RFM's warm-ups except 8 times faster.

For example, Kristi would say something like this during a warm-up for power cleans: "Plant your feet, explode and get that extension."

Kehau's version was like this: "Plantyourfeetexplodeandgetthatextension."

Needless to say the warm-up went by a bit faster.

Then we did the cash-out after that, which is usually done at the end of the WOD. Because of this she called it the "buy-in" for all you Vegas fans.

The "buy-in" today was to put a rubber band around a partner and hold him/her back while they try to run across the parking lot. Then you put on the rubber band and drag them all over the place. Like so:

Okay, see that kid? Yeah, small kine weight difference between us. He's like in high school and would maybe weigh a buck fifty if his sweatpants were wet. I actually felt bad for him. I know Kehau did this on purpose just for laughs. Well that and there really was nobody else in my weight class at the gym, damn skinny King K kids.

Anyway we had to run back and forth, four times each. I won't lie, I was winded. The kid is a high school wrestler so this was nothing for him. He had this look on this face afterwards that said, "You okay uncle?"

Shaddup and let's get on with the WOD.

So the strength workout were these funky things called snatch deadlifts which were basically wide grip deadlifts. They really made my back tight so after three sets of five of 135 I had to loosen up. What was great was they had this really hard ball, I think it was a lacrosse ball, that did wonders for my back. I don't know where you get one of those in Hawaii but I need one so I can work out the kinks before and after every WOD.

Then it was time for the WOD, 21,15 and 9 reps of hang power cleans and release push-ups.

I was okay with that until Kehau demonstrated and I saw I had to squat all the way down to the bottom.

I don't usually swear on this blog but I'll be honest. Right there and then I said, "Fuck."

Power cleans are okay but hang power cleans are a bitch and if you add that squat it's a freakin beast.

In other words I hate them.

So we start and sure enough, I do the first 10 and I'm winded. Only 11 more to go in the first round damn it.

Plus I don't realize it when I set up but the sun was angled so that every time I squatted I was blind.  I would blame Kehau for that too but I picked my spot so . . . yeah, my fault.

Afterwards I took my usual spot on the floor and in front of the fan and noticed that NOBODY ELSE WAS LYING DOWN.

What the hell? How was nobody else tired after that?

Oh yeah, because THEY ALL JUST GRADUATED FROM KING K OR ARE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

Damn kids. Can't wait to get back to my RFM geezer gym on Monday.

Kidding. It was good to workout with Kehau again. Not sure what kind of pose we're trying to do in this picture below but we looked retarded as usual.

I know you're going to read this tonight Kehau, so let's just say you'll always be Maui's strongest Samoan/Tongan hybrid woman to me. Thanks for the workout.

Talofa folks,

Rod

Foiled Again

Still not sure if I'm just tired from not coming to RFM regularly or if the WOD's this week are just kicking my ass but we've have some humdingers lately.

(Yes thank you that was my first attempt at using the word "humdingers", I think it worked.)

Yesterday was another simple but terrible four rounds of the 400 meter run followed by 15 toes to bar.

Oh yes, we had a one minute rest in between rounds.

See, this is where sometimes in Crossfit you get to involve some strategy.

I figured, just go all out on the first 400 meter run. After that you're golden because no matter what time you come in everyone has to wait one minute. I'll always be a minute ahead of everyone.

Which was absolutely correct. I think the first two rounds I was way ahead of everyone.

Then came Shauna. Damn it.

She was doing her T to B's pretty quick and she's a good steady runner. Not really super fast but just maintaining the same speed for all four runs.

That's hard to do, especially for me although yesterday was better than most. My back didn't start tightening up until the 3rd round and that's where she passed me.

I think our times ended up being three seconds apart, with her ahead of me.

Grrrrr...

Okay, today we're doing push-presses followed by double unders. Hopefully this goes better today for me.

On another note.

So, a while back I posted a link to a 60 Minute story about how sugar and corn syrup are basically killing us.

Yep. Bottom line is, get your sweets from fruits or not at all.

They did a follow up this past Sunday: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57481946/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

From what I could tell, a portion of the new information in the latest report is that glucose attaches itself to cancer cells and FEEDS IT.

That is messed up. Open up your fridge and look inside. See that cake? It's evil. That ice cream? Toxic.

That Komoda Bakery cream puff? That's Satan himself waiting to kill you from the inside with his pitchfork.

This makes me sad because some of my favorite foods involve sugar: guri guri, cookies and cream, blueberry cheesecake, that fancy dessert at Hy's Restaurant in Honolulu where they drizzle fresh fruit with melted chocolate . . .

No more. No more.

But how do I stop my son from eating sugar? That's the tough one.

That and how bad do I feel for HC&S? They're growing acres and acres and acres of sugar and now this report comes out. I wonder if this has affected their operations or profit margin.

I can't help it, I'm a Paia boy. The sugar industry raised my family and put food on the table for my mom and my aunts and uncles.

Sigh. Getting off point here a little, sorry folks.

See ya at the box,

Rod

So Good You Almost Puke

Made it back for the first workout since last week Wednesday, which in Crossfit Years is the equivalent of not working out for two months. I think the ratio is for every day you miss of Crossfit it equals two weeks of not going to the regular gym.

Seriously.

So the workout was 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps of KB swings while going in the other direction for burpee box jumps.

Holy. Crap.

It starts out pretty easy because 10 KB swings ain't nothin. But then those burpee box jumps start adding up real fast.

In total we did 55 BBJ's and at the end of the WOD I felt like throwing up. In fact everyone did.

Pretty sure no one actually yacked but it sure felt like it.

Also it didn't help that it's August and the box is like an oven. Swear to God we're cooking in there.

I was squatting yesterday and I couldn't see anything as I was going down with the weight because sweat was in my eyes the whole time.

In other news, went to Kaiser for my first round of physical therapy and the doc seemed to know what she was doing. Did some shoulder bending movements and it actually felt better. Just gotta remember to do those same movements again during my lunch break.

Today we've got four rounds of running 400 meters and toes to bar. I think I'll do okay if I can keep my grip on the bar.

Best of luck to everyone, cheehoo.

Rod

This Is What 40 Looks Like Now Biyatches

Wondering where I've been all week? Here's what happened.

So earlier this summer I get a call from my good buddy Brian, who I went to college with back in the day at the University of Colorado.  He tells me "I'm getting married, can you be in the wedding?" I'm like, sure dude, when?

Turns out it's August 4th. Which is my birthday. Which this year would be my 40th birthday.

As in fortieth. Four Zero. The big 4 Ohhhh.

Shoot. Why the hell not right? I'll see friends, taste some good Sonoma wine and celebrate my 40th in st style.

Anyway, so this is me, in a tuxedo for a wedding on my 40th birthday. I figured at least I'll have a good pic of me at 40 and it's not bad. I've seen worse.

But the pic is just extra. The best part was when I first got there. A friend of mine picked me up from the airport and we headed straight for the bar in the city where my college buddies were waiting. There were about five of us total, all from the same dorm where we met back in 1990, our freshman year of college.

I walked in and each one of those guys were like:

"Dude, what the hell?"

"How much are you lifting? You're huge!"

"Are you using supplements or steroids?"

And the best one was . . .

"I thought men can't build muscle once you hit 40?"

When my buddy asked me that I was like, WHAT????

You're kidding me right? That's ALL we do at RFM. We build muscle.

Yeah, maybe we don't do all the sculpting that some other programs do but I'd rather look like how I do now and be able to be strong and fast (okay I'm not fast but I'm faster than I would be without RFM) than look like a body builder and not be able to do anything.

Besides, just hearing my friends talk I felt like a body builder. It was awesome.

The whole trip they kept asking me about Crossfit and the workouts and if there was a diet involved as well. I told them about Paleo and I could see it in their eyes that they were totally curious though not convinced enough to check it out.

Ah well, what can you do, right?

As for me I'm so ready to get back into the gym. Hoping to train twice as hard and stick to Paleo more strictly.

Maybe not this weekend though. This is the weekend that Bump and Kristi get married!

Good times people, good times. Stay classy San Diego.

Peace!

Rod

No Juice and Ready to Press

Back in college a friend of mine had a t-shirt that he would always wear when playing football that said "No Juice" in the front.

For the longest time I didn't know what it meant but he was a big local guy and a lot of the small haole/katonk kids from my dorm that went to the Hawaii parties on campus (hey, we had the best looking girls) were intimidated by him.

The conversations would go something like this:

Haole friend: "Rod that No Juice guy is staring at me, I think he wants to beat me up."
Me: "That's because you're the only one who didn't take off his shoes when you came inside his house."
Haole: "Is that bad?"
Me: "Just take off your shoes and have a beer."

Anyway for years he was just known as "No Juice". It wasn't until months later that I noticed the back of his shirt that said ". . . just pure genetics."

Juice had referred to steroids. No juice, meaning I'm all natural babe.

I bring this up because I had someone's teenage son tell their parents that they thought I was on roids.

Seriously? All I gotta say is, thank you kid and thank you RFM. I've gotten my shoulders to college levels again when I lived in the gym.

My shoulders are about the only areas on my body that I can get the most improvement from. I hate legs and my chest is torn and I have a lower back problem.

But even though my shoulder is tweaked it's still pretty strong. That's why I'm looking forward to doing shoulder presses today. If I keep my grip pretty narrow I should be almost at full strength.

At least that's the theory. We'll see how it goes.

Later gang,

Rod

Missing the Filthy 50 and Why My Knees Hurt

So I missed a helluva workout on Saturday, which, had I known what it would be I probably would have gone.

It's the Filthy 50, the father of all long and twisted WOD's out there.

Goes something like this:

50 box jumps
50 jumping pull-ups
50 KB swings
50 walking lunges
50 knees to elbows
50 push presses
50 back extensions
50 wall balls
50 burpees
50 double unders

It's terrible and awe inspiring at the same time. Bob didn't go on Saturday either and we both looked at the board with a sense of regret.

RFM instills a sense of testing yourself at every opportunity, and the Filthy 50 is a better test than some. I noticed Jun took the longest time, around 42 minutes. I have to imagine that I would have been around there. Ikaika was around 28 or 27 minutes I think. He said the back to back wall balls and burpees were the worst.

I can only imagine. Damn it.

So today I tried to push it, we had 4 rounds of:

:30 seconds of dumbell lunges
:30 sec rest
:30 sec push-ups
:30 rest
:30 KB swings
:30 sec rest

The thing is for the dumbell lunges you needed to do 50 percent of your weight, which for me is 100 pounds or 50 lbs dumbells in each hand. WTF.

My lunges felt terrible, and my knees felt like I was smashing them into the floor. I had to get two floor mats to pad the ground. That helped.

By my knees are still sore. But worse than that I want to do the Filthy Fifty.

Damn it.

Later,

Rod

Birthdays for the Big Boys (Kristi too) and the No-Pain WOD

SO . . . it figures after I say I had a dream about not being able to make the WOD that I don't make the WOD on Wednesday.

But, I went on Friday, which was awesome and terrible at the same time. More on that later.

First off, big birthday wishes to Kristi, Ikaika and Marcus. All three of them July babies.

Kristi is about as sweet as Beezlebump is evil, which means she is very sweet. But get her toasted and the HHHAAAAAAAAAAAWAIIAAAAAAN comes out small kine. She's awesome.

Ikaika and Marcus are of course the young guns in the gym, always lifting harder, running faster and pushing my limits. But it's because of them and others in the gym that I push myself too, just in an attempt to keep up with them.

Let us pause for some pictures:

Yes, I looked for the most embarrassing pics I could find. Get over it, it's my blog ya bastards.

No, but these guys make the gym what it is. Whether it's Ikaika getting that Mike Tyson tattoo on his head or Kristi yelling at me in the gym or Marcus . . . well let's just take yesterday for example.

Marcus comes into the gym looking slightly sluggish, which is unusual as he is a ball of energy most times. I asked what was up and he said he had just eaten at Da Kitchen, specifically the kanak attack plate.

Marcus said he didn't even know what a  "kanak attack" was so I explained. It's the "eat till you sleep" Hawaiian paralysis that you get when you eat too much.

"Ah," he said. "That explains everything."

Anyway so we do power cleans for strength and of course, Marcus has to go the extra mile despite a full stomach and did power squat cleans instead. Then he went into the bathroom and locked the door for a bit. I don't blame him, because we had 15, 12, 9 repetitions of over head squats, pull-ups and burpees.

And Lord knows you don't want a full stomach when you do overhead squats. All that pressure and you might have an embarrassing episode in the gym.

So we start the WOD and I throw on 95 lbs. I keep up with Marcus for the first round of 15. The whole round. Then I have to actually catch my breath and realize that nothing hurts.

I mean, sure, the WOD is tough but my shoulder didn't hurt and neither did my back, the two things that usually hold me back.

So now I'm thinking, damn, no excuses. Time to workout.

By the time I did the last workout I was floored. Like on the floor gasping for air and head spinning.

Marcus, Ken and Bruce had finished before me but we were all right behind each other. Even Bruce was on the ground.

(By the way folks, Bruce works out even though he's been getting migraines at the gym. Can we force this animal to take it easy? Probably not, just concerned about the braddah.)

Good workout and great way to start the weekend.

Take care gang and happy birthday to all of you again!

Rod