September 2023 Friendly WODs

Welcome to the third month of Friendly WODs. This is a running blog style article documenting (most) of the workouts I do. I will be on the road the entire month, making it challenging to find any normal rhythm to training. Thank you to those of you who follow along, the accountability here goes a long way for me:

September 30

Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Training Program: Masters Fitness Championship Workout: Bjorndalen

Workouts: 

“Bjorndalen”

1000 meter ski erg for time

At 0:00 and every minute afterwards do 20 crossover single unders

Was thrown into a heat with Jason Grubb and the rest of the Elite men 45-49. Yes they are a decade older than me, but on average they probably weight 25 pounds more and they train for this. I held my own, and you can watch the entire thing if you so desire. It was fun, and I am grateful for them allowing me to do it.  

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7 rounds with a partner (in this case Bella Martin)

10 box step ups (20 inch) with 75 lb barbell

12 hang power cleans

Just a quick one at the end of a long day. Bella did box jump overs and crossover single unders, but I didn’t want to do any more jumping after Bjorndalen and Power Monkey Camp (calves were feeling it). 

September 25-28

Location: Power Monkey Camp; Rural Tennessee

Training Program: Power Monkey Camp Training Sessions

Workouts: 

I had been “cautioned” about not overdoing it in terms of workouts on day 1 and 2 of Power Monkey, so before Camp even began I decided I would do my best to participate in every station to the best of my ability, but not do too much (or possibly anything) outside of the 10 stations, the Mayhem workouts, the Scholarship workout, the VO2 Max testing, and maybe even some pickleball on the side. And that’s more or less what I did. 

Over the course of those 4 days I might have gotten ‘out of breath’ less frequently than normally over a four day period, but I was constantly under the guidance of coaches who were asking for a very high integrity in terms of movement quality and positions. As a result, there were several times where the small muscle groups were sore, something that probably doesn’t happen enough. 

I’m pleased with the decision that was made, feel that I managed the week very well, kept myself in condition to absorb the lessons at each station, and by no means was fitness ‘lost’ this week.

September 24

Location: Power Monkey Camp; Rural Tennessee

Training Program: BFriendly Original, with inspiration from Annie Sakamoto and Margaux Alvarez

Workouts: 

3:00 on / 2:00 off x 5 sets

Buy-in every time:

• 12/9 cal assault bike
• AND 15 burpees

With remaining time AMRAP of:

• Round 1: KB Goblet Squat
• Round 2: KB Sumo Deadlift
• Round 3: Alternating KB Reverse Lunges
• Round 4: KB Sumo Deadlift
• Round 5: KB Goblet Squat

Annie wanted burpees, Margaux wanted a bike, so I came up with this. 

It became difficult to sustain the pace on the buy-in by the last two rounds. I had to dramatically increase my cadence on the sumo deadlifts in round four to match the reps from round 2, and I simply didn’t have it in the tank to match the rep in round 5 that I had tallied in round 1. Solid workout to shake out some travel and get ready to welcome all the campers for PMC 20. 

September 22

Location: Poolside; Montgomery, Texas

Training Program: RoadWods

Workouts:

10 Rounds

10 Push Ups

20 Air Squats

After a long travel day from Oslo to Houston, and a good night sleep that I believe got me relatively back on track jet lag free, it was going to be a relaxing day at the pool with friends and family. 

Prior to doing so I felt that a little movement might feel good, so a quick go to 10 rounder of pushups and air squats with one of my friends there it was. Not much, but a little bit consistently over time adds up. 

September 20

Location: CrossFit Oslo; Oslo, Norway

Training Program: Kriger Training 

Workouts:

15 minute movement and warm up flow; kettlebell focus to finish this

Many power clean + hang power clean complexes. 

Started lighter with lots of components (clean lift offs, clean pulls, muscle cleans, etc.)

Slowly built up in weight and removed components of the complexes as we did so. 

Ended with a few sets of 1 power clean + 1 hang power clean at around 80%. 

Pause Front Squats

Started light and did a few building sets. 

Ended with 3 x 3 at around 80%. 

Finisher: 40 sandbag or d-ball squats for time. Goal is to do them in 2-3 sets with a forced 1:00 break any time you drop. 

September 19

Location: CrossFit Oslo; Oslo, Norway

Training Program: Kriger Training 

Workouts:

15 minute warm up flow

Superset of:

Bench press with

Box dips and traverses

Then, intervals of:

Handstand holds + handstand walks

Bar muscle ups (I did strict pull ups)

Crossover single unders

Started what ended up being a BIG training day as CrossFit Oslo. The morning session was focused on upper body work and skills in a variety of different planes of movement. Very good pump. 

Then we made our way to Roger’s gym…

September 19 (continued)

Location: CrossFit Furuset; Oslo, Norway

Training Program: BFriendly original design

Workouts:

5:00 on / 2:00 off x 4 sets with a partner

Accumulate

• 1600 meter c2 bike erg AND
• 40 ab mat sit ups + 30 wall balls 
• *split these any way

Then in remaining time 

• Rounds 1 and 3 (max snatch- light)
• Rounds 2 and 4 (max clean and jerks- light, but a little heavier than snatch)

Accessory work:

3 sets no for time of

• 15 weighted glute bridge
• 15 banded hamstring curls per leg (prone)
• 15 heel elevated kettlebell goblet squats (moderate)

Met up with some other friends there and hit a partner, interval metcon to get the heart rate up. Wrote this one on the fly and it was excellent- highly recommend some version of it if you have a partner, or a couple of teams of two, and want to get after it! 

September 17

Location: Halmstad Arena

Training Program: Halmstad Throwdown Intermediate Men’s Competition Day

Workouts:

Event 1; 10:30 am

6 rounds of:

9 synchro burpees over line

10 alternating db snatch (22.5 kg, alternate who does this by round)

Then, event 1B

1000 meter row for time (minimum of 250 meters per athlete)

4 more round of:

9 synchro burpees over line

10 alternating db snatch

I went first on the snatches because we wanted to split the row roughly 250-500-250 and I was going to start and end. Overall I felt like we paced this well from the start and I was getting more confident in the later rounds. Tried to send the row as much as possible knowing that every second could matter for multiple placements on something like that. The rounds where you had to do burpee, snatch, burpee got difficult later on. 

Event 1: 20th place

Event 1b: 17th place

Event 2; 1:30 pm (outdoor arena)

3 rounds each, alternating

12 box jump overs (50 cm, 20 inches)

5 meter handstand walk

10 dual kb squats (24 kgs, 53 lbs)

10 dual kb lunges

In practicing for this the kbs felt heavy and I was not confident I could do 10 squats directly into 10 lunges without setting them down. Turns out I could. Definitely surprised myself on this one. 

Event 2: 20th place

Event 3; 4:10 pm

Partner A- 4 sled pulls (heavy)

Partner B- 4 sled pulls 

Then:

18 synchro thrusters (one with 50 kg barbell, one with 2 x 22.5 kg dbs(

18 synchro kipping pullups

12 synchro thrusters

12 synchro chest to bar pull ups

6 synchro thrusters

6 synchro bar muscle ups

Then:

Partner A- 4 sled pulls

Partner B- 4 sled pulls

Although this was the event I was dreading most, we actually did by far the best on this one. Alex went first on the sled and he was awesome at it. I held my own and we got ready for the thrusters. I felt that going for a big set to open would be a trap, so we did 7-6-5 on the set of 18 thrusters and pull ups, just to set ourselves up for a good middle and final round. We continued to similar fashion with sets of 6 on the round of 12, and went for it in the final set. 

Event 3: 8th place

Overall: 

Intermediate open division: 17th place

Intermediate Masters 35-39: 4th place

I don’t think either of us had anywhere near optimal preparation for this (as we’ve both been on the road for work for most of the last two months). However, I think we stuck to our plans and maximized our performances given the circumstances. Alex was a phenomenal partner, Roger was a great host, and you will definitely see me at a Throwdowns Event again in the future. 

September 16

Location: Eleiko Sports Complex

Training Program: Halmstad Throwdown Rx Event: Olympic Total (exhibition)

Workouts:

I was not competing in the Rx field, so this was not a formal event for me this weekend. However, Roger Grillos and Phil Hesketh made it possible for me to lift during the competition in an exhibition lane alongside Henrik Willhammer (one of the premier individual coaches in Sweden who works for Phil and Prepared Programming). 

This seemed like an opportunity of a lifetime and I am beyond grateful for it. 

The format was unique. Pairs had 12 minutes to each establish an Olympic total. Three attempts maximum each during the 12 minutes window. Score each partner’s best lift for the snatch and best lift for the clean and jerk. 

During the warm up I had already hit both my planned openers and they felt good. So I decided to open a little above both. 

Went three for three on Snatch ending with 80 kgs. 

Went two for three on Clean and Jerk hitting 90 kgs, and missing the jerk on 95. 

September 15

Location: Halmstad Arena, Halmstad Sweden

Training Program: Competition “Testing”

Workouts:

This was a pretty casual day in terms of “working out”. But as Phil Hesketh was dialing in the final touches for all divisions prior to the Halmstad Throwdown, I tested a few of the different implements (primarily the sled), and did a partial workout with him to assess what appropriate timecaps would be for the outdoor events. Nothing too intense overall, but did get some movement in. 

September 14

Location: CrossFit Halmstad

Training Program: Functional Bodybuilding Class

Workouts:

Part 1:

Superset of

3 x 10 per leg tempo back rack step ups

3 x 8-10 db hollow position bench press

Part 2
Superset of

3 x 5 ring pull up with :03 hold at top

3 x 7 nordic hamstring curl (greatly modified)

3 x 10 per side half kneeling kb chop

Part 3

3 rounds of

200 meter run

15 anchored sit ups

12 alternating db thrusters (22.5 kb db)

Awesome drop in at CrossFit Halmstad. Having met one of their owners the previous day I took a stroll down to the affiliate with no real plan on Thursday evening and was right on time for the Functional Bodybuilding class. A little bit of total body movement was just what I needed that day, so this was great. There were a few things I was proficient at, and then the nordic curls. The coaching was on point (thanks Coach Brian), and I left feeling both very welcomed there and that the body had gotten what it needed. 

September 12

Location: CrossFit Nordic

Training Program: Halmstad Throwdown practice

Workouts:

This upcoming Sunday I’ll be competing in the men’s intermediate division for the Halmstad Throwdown in Halmstad, Sweden. I looked at the workouts for the first time yesterday, but it wasn’t a good day to practice because of travel (hence the C2 bike intervals). 

During the competition we will have six alternating rounds of 2:00 work / 2:00 rest (while partner works. The goal is max overhead walking lunges with 2 x 24 kg kettlebells. But before you can attempt any of those, you have to do 12 box jump overs, a handstand walk of an unknown distance, and 10 kb front rack front squats with the 24 kg kettlebells. So I did two sets of 5 jumps, 20 feet handstand walk, 5 squats and two lunges. Then I set the timer for two minutes and did a full round- I finished the buy in, but didn’t get any lunges. 

Next I blended two other workouts together to get some intensity. First I did 9-6-3 of thrusters at 50 kgs and pull-ups / chest to bar pull-ups / bar muscle ups. Then I rested one minute and did a 500 meter for time (just under 1:45 for that). 

September 11

Location: CrossFit Nordic

Training Program: Jumped in with Edona

Workouts:

5 x 4:00 C2 Bike at Hard Effort

3:00 Rest between sets

Perfect to sweat out a travel day. I wasn’t sure what Wattage I’d be able to hold. Started way too aggressive at 290 for the first interval. Worked hard to hold 255 for the middle three. Had nothing left for the last, managed to eek out 230. Given all the travel and work and inconsistent training, can’t compare this to previous thresholds- for today, it was perfect. Thanks Edona! 

September 6

Location: Be Fearless Madrid, Spain

Training Program: BFriendly Original (Inspired by Madrid Championship Test 2)

Workouts:

Met up with Lazar Dukic for a swim, but it was closed. Called an audible and went to his go to gym in Madrid: Be Fearless. I’m trying to get some touches on things I haven’t been doing too much of before competing in Sweden in 10 days, so thought doing a variation of Madrid Test 2 (chest to bar pull ups and snatches) would be fun. 

To prime the body a little and practice with a barbell I started by building slowly to a “heavy” 5 rep overhead squat from the rack. I got to 70 kg (about 155 lbs) with no misses and called it there. 

Next I built to a heavy single for a squat snatch. Lazar gave me a couple helpful pointers which allowed me to hit 80 kg (about 165) as easily as I have in quite a while. 

Finally I hit an interval style metcon:

Every 2:00 for 6 sets

12 unbroken butterfly pull-ups

8 touch and go power snatches (40 kg- about 95 lbs)

That got very grippy in the last two sets but I was able to hold on. I’ll probably be sore, but I don’t think I overdid the volume. Successful day in the gym: Be Fearless! 

September 1

Location: Pit Teen Ranch, Three Rivers Michigan, USA

Training Program: Pit Teen Throwdown 2023 Event 6 (demo in front of the athletes)

Workouts:

3 Rounds for Time

8 double dumbbell deadlifts (70s)

30 meter farmers carry

8 d-ball squats (100 lbs; 4 on each shoulder)

30 meter d-ball bearhug carry

Then

30 meter reverse sled drag (4 plates)

This was pretty cool. Adrian Bozman announced the workout and I demoed the movements. Then I lined up and did the workout alongside Joel Godett, Bella Martin, and a few Michigan State Troopers. 

Very gritty grunt-work style workout. But with a live audience and some fun competition to go against, you will always push a little harder. Priority here was not to fall apart in the third round, and then capitalize on the sled which I knew would be the best part of the workout for me. More or less I was able to do that. Joel beat me by a second or two, Bella was a step or two behind me. Very fun environment, race, and metcon. Thanks Coach Yost!