Keg, Sandbag, Barbell and MarkFu

Monday, 7/6/09

Axle Press, doubles: 65×10/105×5/125/135/165/.
Axle Push Press, doubles: 175/175/175/180/180/185/185/165.

Farmer’s Hold: 155# each side. 60 sec/:45/

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Monday, 6/29/09

Deadlifts: (from deficit) 135×10/225×5/225×5/.

275×3/315×2/. Singles: 365/405/415/415/425/425/425/405/405/. 415 and 425 were above 90% 1RM.

Good Mornings: 95×5/115×5/135×5/135×5/135×5/.

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Recently, I posted Bont’s longest skate and now, the answer for my long uphill climbs…

Now if the kid had heat-moldable carbon fiber Vaypor boots, longer Sniper frames, 100 mm wheels and mini-bearings, he would really fly! John at One Mans Blog wonders how he would stop. Over here, we don’t worry about such issues. We want to know how fast he can go.

Besides, the brakes on that kid’s skates were already useless before he pimped his ride.

My friend, Glenn Koshi of Bont now sells a 6 wheel inline skate model. I currently skate in 5 wheel Bonts and over the last several years, many have favored the shorter 4 wheel arrangement.

While frame length and number of wheels each frame holds increase or decrease, boots and frames get lighter and wheel sizes keep getting bigger.

When I first started, wheels were 72 mm and quickly went to 76 mm. I was an early adopter to the 80’s and loved them. I currently use a 5 x 88 mm configuration. I have also tried a 4 x 100 kit and they were good, but I still favor my current components.

This new 6 wheel, 110 mm is gigantic! I may have to check them out!

Thanks to another friend, Toby Taylor for letting me know about these.

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For an active rest and a change-up from lifting and swinging, I enjoyed a 9 mile skate in beautiful Back Bay in Newport Beach, CA.

I haven’t skated in a while, so in spite of all the work my legs get in the gym, they had to “transition” to slidin’ and glidin’! Since I hadn’t been out in a while, I put new wheels (88 mm) on and there is nothing like the roll of a new set. I also switched to the 5 wheel Sniper frame for a longer glide.

Even with some hill climbing, I kept the heart rate in a comfortable aerobic only zone and the focus was mostly to have fun and I did.

Technorati Tags: Bont, inline skates, Back Bay

Remember Eric Heiden? You know the guy with the massive legs wh0 won 5 Olympic medals in speedskating in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. Well, it seems in the lead-up to that medal run, Eric had a very creative and old-school approach to conditioning as pointed out by Tom Furman in his blog Physical Strategies.

When I first started inline speedskating in the early 90’s, young kids would even make the “Eric Heiden” comment to me when they saw my legs. No way though, did my legs ever approach the size of strength of Heiden’s. But even today, people remember Eric. He was a freak. A fast one at that! (He was also a Wisconsin Badger)!

Tom, in another posting has a good rant about diet and the current state of fitness in the country. I like his line, “Trouble always finds you. You cannot outrun a donut”. (Ok, I get the first sentence, but I may have to meditate on the second one)!

My workout today fit the bill for simplicity and throughly whupped me. After warming up and jumping rope at 100/100/100/140, I went into

4 rounds, 25 kettlebell swings, American-style with a 24 kg bell25 jumping pull-ups

Just what the doctor ordered!

Ice or inline speedkskating requires much more than time on the ice or road. Skaters of all stripes understand the benefits of crosstraining, especially using road bikes to improve their conditioning and skills. Time is spent in the gym by elite skaters doing various types of lunges, plyometrics, squats and power cleans. However, the best known and most useful crosstraining protocol is land training, or dry lands as they are also referred as. Here is a Japanese team going through their drills with their coach.

Alexander Bont has a great article on Dry land exercises in the Feature Articles section at Bont.com.

It has been a while since I laced up the Bonts for a Back Bay skate and I picked a gorgeous day, if not a bit windy. I covered 15+ miles in 1:13. I know I will pay for this as my quadriceps haven’t been worked like this in a long time. In part, I suppose, is the work my legs have been getting doing the heavy lifting in the gym. Mostly though, the sport-specific work for skating has not been there. Maybe I need to get back with the dry lands.

The good news though is that in spite of the difficulty, I enjoyed the skate on a beautiful day and there was no residual pain or tightness in either side of my groin.

I have been road skating on inline skates since the early ’90s and have loved hitting the downhills hard and fast. I don’t think, though, I am going to try out the Roller Suit any time soon although it looks like a blast!

Rollerman hits speeds up to 60 mph. (I have been clocked at 55 down Newport Coast, heading toward the blue Pacific Ocean and down Hwy 1, south of San Francisco, parallel to the same vast body of water. What a rush)!

Now, for my Overhead Squat Workout…

My warm-up reps were 45×15/45×15/65×10/.

I had so much fun with these, that I did way more than I intended to do. All sets, except the last, were 3 reps each.85/95/100/105/110/115/120/125 pr/130/135/140 pr/135/.This is a great lift!

I have been wanting to get a good skate in and this morning was a perfect day for 10 mile trip around the Upper Newport Back Bay on my Bonts.

With temps in the 60’s and a lot of people, mostly cyclists, were out taking advantage of the beautiful coastal morning. Could it be that many of them, besides me, wanted to get home and watch the first weekend of NFL football?

This is a hilly course and my legs were somewhat gassed from yesterday’s Crossfit Totals, but I still covered the course in 48:30. My average heart rate was 137 with my max reaching 164 bpm, making it a very good aerobic training session. Back in time for kickoff. GO PACK!!

LATE BREAKING NEWS!!

With just 6 seconds remaining in regulation, the Green Bay Packers win their season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, playing at Lambeau, in Green Bay on a 43 yard field goal, 16-13.

www.flickr.com crossfitbarbarian’s Back Bay Loop photoset

It used to be this was my primary summer workout. I would skate, and skate a lot. I would spend very little time in the gym but that has changed.

So what do I do in the gym that would be of benefit to skating?

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