Thursday, August 30, 2012

Vienna

Vienna was an interesting place, certainly the most westernized of the places we will go. When we arrived we finally got to hit some weightlifting! We did a Max Effort Total of: Floor Press, Front Squat and deadlift. 15 minutes for each. I did some basic conversions to kgs and figured out about where I should be. I pr'd floor press with 150 kilos, 330lbs! Felt really good, and had a 3 second pause in the bottom. Front squat was next and I got up to my current max - 160 kilos, 353lbs. Deadlift was last and I was able to hit 240 kilos which I believe is 528lbs - either a 3lb PR or a 7lb unPR I forget. Either way lifting went very well and I had a great time at CrossFit Vienna. I got to meet Sebastian who is on the LVL1 cert staff and is currently moving location of his gym, and had a great conversation about the state of CF with him. We headed out to a local fair where I had some of the best dessert I'd ever had - a nutella, powder sugar and ice cream crepe...WOW! Second only to the bacon and bread with shredded horseradish from Munich so far. We headed back for the night and were up early for a workout in the museum district. We did an awesome partner WOD around all of these street architecture things. 100m run with a partner in four positions: fireman, piggyback, zercher, wife carry. In between we did 40 partner step-ups, 30 partner sit-ups, 10 partner back squats...my partner was 225lbs so this was no walk in the park. Great camaraderie builder for us and our most fun workout in an area so far. We were then free to hit Vienna as we saw fit, we walked through downtown and hit lunch and some shopping. Back for the night for this really cool dinner place on sand and had a beach bar and basically mimicked the tropics. Went out to a salsa bar and called it a night. Off to king Leopolds castle in the morning and then off to Prague!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mountain Climbing & Salzberg

Our last day in Munich was bitter sweet as we had really started to enjoy Dirk and Silvi, our hosts. We headed to a castle and hit a very fun workout, got in trouble for the first time but finished up and got some scarecrows in -- a fun thing many Friendshippers will be privied to soon enough. We also made it to the Olympic village, and sprinted up an enormous hill that used to be a classic Munich feat of strength. Much of the park was created on top of rubble taken from WWII, which I thought was cool. The sprint up was rough, 150-200m, straight up, and bear crawl down!

My afternoons in Munich were spent with a 30min nap, coffee and a cross-cultural conversation with a German crossfitter...those who know me know how much I enjoyed this. We got in our bus to leave for Vienna, but we found out the night before it would be interrupted by a day in Salzberg. Salzberg is known around here for bein one of the most beautiful places in all of Europe. We began our day with a hike up a mountain...now they say this normally takes between 3 and 6 hours. There are trails and paths, many ways to the top. However that is clearly no way for a CF'er. How does 47 minutes for the fastest of us sound? We literally went straight up the face, off path for a large chunk of the time, and basically the steepest incline you can walk up. It was hard, breathtaking (literally and figuratively), and awesome. I finished in 1.27 and noticed a large gap in my training... Or was made re-aware. I enjoyed the experience and the town of Salzberg was amazing. Small, alp town exactly as you imagine it, romantic, classic, cool. We shopped a bit and saw the city stronghold castle where we hit our morning workout (quite an odd place to do it I assure you). The next morning we were off early for Vienna! More to update soon!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Acrobats, concentration camps, virility

Yesterday was absolutely jam packed with awesome. We started the day by heading out to a local river in their "Central Park" - the biggest intercity park in all of Europe. Water was supposed to be very cold, and the river is said to give men virility and be a sign of manliness. My guess is this is mostly due to the extremely strong current that it has. Luckily the water levels, like everywhere are low, so it was managable, we even had the advantage of being just south of the dam...fun stuff. We then hit breakfast in the park (the second breakfast thanks to our amazing hosts, Dirk and Silvia (ex-volleyballing Crossfitters here, who have been nothing short of amazing, I hope to send them a nice gift when I get home). I had to get semi-adventurous with veal sausage links for breakfast, that were a solid fist size a piece. Just like everything in Germany it was pair with a soft-pretzel and beer. We moved back and caught a train to Duchau, the first concentration camp...which was sobering but also gave you a good sense of American pride reading the liberation stuff. It was enormous...like blew my mind how large it was.

Got back around 5 and sat with Dirk for a nice 2 hour conversation on everything from Germany's disappointing Olympics to why "Off The Charts" is a sweet saying. Then the night began...we hit an authentic dinner and all the Germans wore their traditional Oktoberfest type garb....so cool. They have designators on their clothes to show if you're single, dating, in love, or widowed. Pretty sweet (and crazy expensive!). Took dinner straight to the theatre...which I cannot begin to do justice...many had seen circ-de-solei and said it didn't compare...impressive acrobatics to say the least, balance feats, juggler types, and comedy (which of course we didn't get). We then hit a university bar after being denied getting into P1 (the local "Hollywood" celebrity scene)

Partied into the night pretty well, got back, hit some Z's and here I am on the patio with some coffee ready for a day of workouts! Olympic park and more today...

Oh and forgot I introduced everyone to Quarters...and I one hit Doug, one of the guys who let me demonstrate on him...#StillGotIt

Friday, August 24, 2012

Roof weightlifting

Met the group today and did a walk around downtown Munich! Saw a shrine to Michael Jackson, which as Americans we naturally thought was kind of funny/weird...then the two women taking care of the shrine got very serious with us. Interesting to read the notes about him, and how loved he is here still. We moved on to a sweet little diner, had some kraut for the first time, a schnitzel and meatloaf -- German food is just meat and potatoes, not too bad. We hit our first workout in the middle of an awesome square in the center of town /hundreds of people watching. Simple team workout to warm everyone just getting off planes and trains to loosen up. 50m walking lunge, broad jumps, inch worm push-ups, crab crawl (back/forward). Set as a relay race. Then we moved back to the gym, which overlooks downtown munich on a 10 story roof. Hit this:
10min Amrap: (4 rounds + 2 flights)
10 story stair climb/descent
5min rest
10min Amrap: (8 rounds)
10 DL @225
Bear crawl 50 ft
5min rest
10m Amrap: 7 rounds
3 MU
15 KBS @ 53

Pretty good, certainly what I needed, now back to a local German's house for food and sleep!
People are of course awesome, pumped for the next 9 days!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Long travel days

After 29 hours of planes, trains, walking, and more sitting than I care to do in a year...I have my bed. I had planned to stick through the first night and exhaust myself as much as could, small naps here and there, to get on the time zone schedule. Due to a woman's neglect of Her child (that I'm currently being chastised for calling out on Facebook (though not my best tact in hindsight) so I'll leave the details at that) I am more sleep deprived than I had planned originally. So here I am, enjoying a beautiful restaurant with no one here who speaks English, enjoying an amazing pizza and beer, getting asked funny foreigner questions ("how do you say 'Bon apeitite' in english?"....uh we just say that?) --my saving grace for today was the Dublin Aer Lingus frequent flyer club...I had my own personal bathroom, free espresso and coffee, free food and wifi plus chargers! It was a travelers dream! Some pics below

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Airports n' stuff

Sitting in the airport uncomfortably early, counting my blessings and amazed at how much can happen in a year. Last May Jay, Tom, Grant and I were sitting around trying to figure out how to keep our dream of training without being hassled alive. 15 months later we are leading an amazing group of CrossFitters down an exciting path. It is because of the success of our path that I have allowed myself to take more chances, spend more on experiences rather than save for later. I have gained a trust and faith in the CF community, so much so that I am not nervous in the least to get the chance to meet an awesome group of like-minded-Koolaid-drinkers halfway around the world for half a years salary.

Sometimes we let ourselves stick into a routine and a shell too long. I have never grasped the concept of working hard without playing equally or more hard. Playing for me differs than with others I guess...in that some read the "play hard" as drinking and partying with frequency. I have had more fun, more positive experiences, remembered them better and with far fewer consequences since I have stopped drinking (or over-drinking) and in half the time. I will likely be one of the few Americans in Europe who won't get blitzed a few times. But a belief in self-discipline and devotion to being a better person than I once was is more important to me and my values than anything. My pit stains are already half way to my waist (starbucks x airport "air" =disaster), and I'm looking forward to 24 hours of flying and layovers. I got recognized in the security line by an all-lululemon wearing couple, my first celebrity sighting...we discussed how awesome these new shorts are (guy was wearing the same ones), which is funny cuz the shorts caused me to get groped real solid by the TSA guy (triple pockets). The perfect situation for a soft moan #OpportunityMissed

Monday, August 20, 2012

Leaving for Europe!

Packing up, downloading useful Europe Apps (Fantasy Football, WiFi messengers, this...) and testing them. Realized that I pack freakishly light which always leads you into a "Forgot something" panic. Testing pics on this with one of the Winstigator