October 2023 Friendly WODs

Photo Credit: Alexander Pettersson

Welcome to the October Friendly WODs. This is a running blog style article documenting (most) of the workouts I do. I will be on the road on and off during this 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:

October 31

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: Rogue Post Event Testing

Workouts:

“Hulk Hands”

30 cal echo bike

20 double kettlebell S2OH (2 x 44 lb kbs)

20 double kettlebell Reverse Lunges

100 foot sled pull (100 lbs on sled)

20 double kettlebell Reverse Lunges

20 double kettlebell S2OH

30 cal echo bike

Loved watching this workout in Round Rock, modified to something I thought would be appropriate in terms of stimulus and my fitness level. Should have gone lighter on the kbs. Was on track to what I was looking for through the sled pull, but totally imploded on the back half with the kettlebells. I was so redlined by the time I hit the bike that I actually stopped multiple times, something I can rarely ever remember doing. Still got the work done, but six days off likely caught up to me on this one. 

October 24

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: Class Workout +

Workouts:

10-8-6-4-2-1 Overhead Squats for total load

I was successful on all attempts without any misses today at:

125-135-145-155-165-175

For a total of 900 lbs. 

10:00 emom

Odds: 15 cal row

Evens: 15 burpees

Just wanted to get out of breath a little, not entirely sure what the fitness regiment will be at Rogue, so lift plus metcon today for me. 

October 23

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: Class Workout

Workouts:

Warm Up/Prep: 

10 minute emom

Odds: 2 power cleans, building (ending above working weight for metcon)

Evens: Jump Rope Practice :30

For Time: 

5 Power Cleans (155)

20 db bench press (50s)

50 drag rope double unders

10 Power Cleans

20 db bench press

100 double unders

15 Power Cleans

20 db bench press

50 drag rope double unders

155 was a great choice for me on the barbell. 50s on the db bench ended up proving too heavy for today. I still finished within the expected time, but my round split times were about 3:00 / 4:30 / 9:00, with half the time of the last round coming on the db bench. 

October 20

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: BFriendly Original

Workouts:

5 Rounds of

1000 meter c2 bike

50 drag rope single unders

20-16-12-8-4 dumbbell bench press (45s)

10-8-6-4-2 strict pull-ups

Wanted to move and flush the legs after the previous day. Also wanted a bit of a strict upper body day. Pretty straightforward here, good flush and good pump. 

October 19

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: BFriendly Original

Workouts:

Back Squats: 

5-5-5 (135/185/205)

3-3-3 (225 across)

5-5-5 (205/185/135)

Every 2:00 (alternating) for 5 rounds each

Odds: 20 unbroken wall balls

Evens: 10 unbroken thrusters (95 lbs)

Had not squatted “heavy” in a while. Was happy with the weight, but hamstrings were getting tight quick. 

The E2MOM is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Probably should have done it while in a more consistent training cycle as I know it will make me quite sore. The workout itself was what I wanted though. After the first 2 cycles each set was challenging, but I knew I could do them. 

Training in this style allows me to focus on form under fatigue, as opposed to doing the 5 rounds for time in which I would likely be sacrificing technique for time. 

October 17

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: BFriendly Original

Workouts:

Warm Up

5 Rounds

10 calories echo bike

250 meter run

For Time

5 Rounds

5 Power Cleans (165)

10 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups

15 Push-Ups

20 Cal Row

(19:35; goal was sub 20:00)

Had some time between the work I got done in the morning and some afternoon meetings. Would have been easy to not go to the gym, but I’m not looking for the easy way out. 

Did a little bike/run combo that took 10-12 minutes or so just to get the blood flowing (and some sunshine). I haven’t been doing many for time workouts recently, wanted to try and get after one today. Chest to bar pull-ups are always challenging for me in metcons, so they were the focus here. Then I just sort of build in some elements around it. Was looking for something close to 20 minutes, and I got it. Solid workout, feel great, now back to work. 

October 16

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: BFriendly Original

Workouts:

5 Rounds 

3 snatches (singles with focus on technique at 115)

10 drag rope double unders (never done these before)

500 m c2 (recovery pace- hold 2:05/500m)

1-2 minute transition 

5 Rounds

3 touch and go snatches (135, working weight)

20 unbroken drag rope double unders

500 m c2 (recovery pace- hold 2:05/500m)

The day after working a competition is always a delicate one to program, but after three days of no working out I definitely wanted to do something. I played disc golf in the morning to get the body moving and to get outside. Went to the gym in the evening and wanted to snatch. Rx Smart Gear had sent me some jump ropes, including the drag rope, and I was eager to try it- so I came up with this. 

Primary focus was on snatching technique post Power Monkey Camp and learning a new skill. Heart rate still got up, definitely got a good sweat moving, feel better after doing it, great day! 

October 12

Location: CrossFit CRASH

Training Program: Modified Crash workout + Crash Crucible implement testing

Workouts:

32:00 EMOM

1- 200 meter run on Air Runner 

2- 10 unbroken toes to bar on floating / trapeze bar

3- 400 meter C2 Bike erg

4- 4 Flipsled at Women’s Rx loading (360 lbs)

Two primary goals today. The first was to get a workout in on a travel day. The second was to get some touches on a few of the implements athletes will be using for the competition this weekend. 

As usual on these kinds of workouts I started establishing minimum threshold goals for myself as the rounds wore on. By the third round I knew I wanted to hold about 14.5 kilometers per hour on the runner and sub 1:50 on the bike erg. For the Flipsled my goal was 1 flip every :10.

October 11

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: BFriendly Strength

Workouts: 

10-10-10-8-6-4-2

Front Squat (45-95-135-155-165-175-185)

Bench Press (45-95-115-125-125-135-145)

Both are lifts I like to do once a week when in a normal training rhythm, and it feels like it’s been months since I’ve done them. Since I didn’t squat or do any horizontal pressing, and I’m hitting the road again tomorrow, this seemed appropriate for today. 

October 10

Location: CrossFit Charlotte

Training Program: CrossFit Charlotte class programming

Workouts: 

Warmed up with 150 calories on the rower in the sun after sitting at the computer most of the day. I kept the pace steady at about 950 calories per hour, it took 12 or 13 minutes. The Intention was just to have a steady heart rate and get some blood circulating.

5 x 3 clean and jerk on a 2:00 clock (115/135/145/155/165)

Kept it light as it was my first day back with the barbell since Power Monkey. Tried to implement some of the cues from the coaches there.

12:00 AMRAP

1 rope climb

3 clean and jerks (135)

Basically did this as an EMOM. The entire class was ahead of me through three and maybe even four rounds. But by the end I had the best score (12+1) in the class by over two rounds. Rope climbs can just go by the wayside if you aren’t careful. I decided that since I haven’t been doing metcons per say over the last few weeks, and I wasn’t entirely sure what my rope climb capacity was, that 12 or 13 would be good for today. 

It was a strange feeling doing this one, I don’t think I could have done much better today, but I also was never worried about making it to at least 12 rounds. Some might say I should have pushed harder, but I think it was the right call for today. 

October 5-9

Location: North and South Carolina Disc Golf Courses

Training Program: Walking / Outdoor Hobbies

Workouts: 

Over the course of these five days I had my brother and close friend in town for the US Disc Golf Championship. We played four different disc golf courses, and spectated all four rounds of the tournament. 

I wanted to include this as my “workouts” for those days for at least three reasons:

1. Walking is exercise for many people. And it’s a form of exercise that if done consistently over a lifetime can go a long way towards improving quality of life.
2. It’s ok to take time away from the gym, in fact, many people probably need to do it more often. It can be scary if you aren’t confident that you’ll ever get back in the gym, but if you feel good about the likelihood of that, it can actually be quite refreshing to take a few days away. 
3. We were still active. I don’t wear anything to track steps or calories, but the disc golf app we use does and it informed me that we walked 15 miles over four rounds. Not to mention the amount we walked and stood at the tournament itself.

October 4

Location: McAlpine Creek Greenway Park, Charlotte, NC

Training Program: Self Made Training Program Testing

Workouts: 

7 rounds each for time

Partner 1: Trail Bike Ride (about half a mile with some hills)

Partner 2: Max cal ski while partner is riding

Then Switch

Did this one with Taylor Self. He was riding faster and skiing harder than me, but we both got the “zone 2” esque stimulus we were looking for. It’s nice to change it up and do something outside the gym every once in a while. Glad he invited me and glad I accepted the invite.

October 2

Location: The Mad Apple; Fort Wayne, Indiana

Training Program: BFriendly “Zone 2 Work”

Workouts: 

45 minutes and 20,000 meters on the c2 bike erg. 

Goal was to get as close to both at the same time WITHOUT ever elevating the heart rate, especially not at the end. Traveling later today, so I didn’t feel the need to do anything with crazy intensity, just wanted to sweat, move, and feel good. 

October 1

Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Training Program: That Burpee Dude

Workouts: 

Death by Burpees 

Starting at 0:00 do 1 burpee, rest the remainder of the minute. 

At 1:00 do 2 burpees. 

Keep adding 1 burpee at the start of every minute until you fail to hit the required number. 

You can watch the entire thing here on Allen Kestenbaum’s (“that burpee dude’s”) Youtube.

Main objective for me here was to manage the heart rate as long as possible, never rushing the burpees until I needed to. Once I got to the round of 17 I knew that there would be little to no time between finishing 17 and starting 18, so I paced it for one set of 35 in two minutes AND tried to save a little energy for the last 10 while still making sure to hit 17 in the first of those two minutes. It worked and I got through the 18s and then pushed as far into the set of 19 as possible (got 15 of the 19 for a total of 186 burpees).