The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Today’s workout was five sets of back squats. Since I’m using 35 pound dumbbells instead of a barbell, I’m not going for max load. I’m doing five 15 rep sets of the squat.

I did this workout earlier this month, but I only did sets of 10 then. I pounded out the first set in just over 90 seconds. The rest required a little more staring at the dumbbells on the floor, cleaning them up to my shoulders, adjusting my stance and getting the work done. I have found the the more I concentrate on keeping my head up, even looking at the ceiling, the easier these are. Let’s see if I can, despite the 50% greater workload, come close to my 10:35 from last time.

My HRM: 10:30, 5:18 zone (hard); HR: 158 avg, 176 max; 136 cal
Stopwatch: 10:26.68

So, it looks like I sliced almost ten seconds off today. Not bad.

Today’s workout was a repeat of one I did before in November. Today, though, I’m adding a round of pushups to make it more of a challenge today. Let’s dance:

Seven rounds for time:

1. 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (53# kettlebell)
2. 10 pushups
3. 10 chair dips

I was a little slower this time than last time, but that is because of the extra work on my plate. I managed to average just over 2 minutes a round this time. I’m not frowning too much about my progress, but I’m confident I’ll make even bigger strides when I stop making excuses and allowing myself to bail on workouts.

My HRM: 15:30, 8:44 zone (hard); HR: 161 avg, 180 max; 206 cal
Stopwatch: 13:37.85

Rounds:

1. 01:52.46
2. 01:24.91
3. 01:57.90
4. 02:08.10
5. 02:45.12
6. 02:44.78
7. 01:44.58

• Fast round: 01:24.91 (2)
• Slow round: 02:45.12 (5)
• Average: 02:05.41
• Total time: 13:37.85

Today’s workout was a big milestone for me. This is my 100th CrossFit workout. I started on September 18, 2007 with a pair of ten pound dumbbells and the determination to give this program an honest attempt. On that day, I weighed 181 pounds and was still marginally overweight. I stopped attempting to lose weight in January, when I bottomed out at 147.5 pounds. Since then, I’ve held around 150 pounds. The idea is to work hard, maintain this weight, ramp up the protein and the workouts, and burn off a little more body fat before slowly massing up. So, between July 27 and January 6, I lost 48.5 pounds. That’s probably enough.

I’ve been making lots of excuses lately, allowing myself and other people to push me off my workout regimen. As I get into better and better shape, I realize that these are all choices that I’m making. So, I’m resolving to reduce the number of missed workouts. Let’s lock it back down and do amazing things.

Here’s today’s work. It’s five rounds for time of:

1. 400 m run (actually, about 430 m)
2. 50 squats
3. 30 standing back extensions (25# dumbbell)

Remembering the other day’s redline lesson, I aimed at 2 minute laps today, hoping to finish today’s work in about half an hour. I gave myself 15 seconds in front of the run to catch my breath before starting the lap. I missed the 30 minute mark by only 6 seconds, but that’s because I forgot what I was doing on the fourth round and did 50 standing back extensions, instead of the required 30. I think if I had counted correctly, I’d have finished about 40 seconds faster.

My HRM: 30:13, 1:44 zone (hard); HR: 171 avg, 186 max; 451 cal
Stopwatch: 30:06.81

Rounds:

1. 05:05.59
2. 05:49.66
3. 06:05.75
4. 07:28.42
5. 05:37.39

• Fast round: 05:05.59 (1)
• Slow round: 07:28.42 (4)
• Average round: 06:01.36

Onward, friends!

Today’s workout, after a three day laziness hiatus (FOCUS, APOLLO), called for upper body work. I really need to man up and do more upper body work, so I dreaded and looked forward to this one.

The workout posted on the site called for 5 rounds of max load attempts, 1 reps for the shoulder press, 3 reps for the push press, and 5 for the push jerk. I decided to double everything and use my heavy 35 pound dumbbells.

To recap, it’s five rounds for time of:

1. 2 shoulder presses.
2. 6 push presses.
3. 10 push jerks.

The shoulder presses were rough at 70 pounds. Once I got my form right, I found the other things much easier. For the push jerks, I found my tendency to roll forward onto my toes. I yelled at myself a lot, but managed to get through the first set with the 35 pounders.

I was out of breath after the first set and I really didn’t have the power to shoulder press the 35 pound dumbbells anymore. I decided then to scale it back to the 30s (to total 60 pounds) and attack the final four rounds. I started to wobble quite a bit toward the end of round 4, feeling my reserves slipping away. I did the last set with the 25 pound dumbbells. At the end, I was exhausted. I should do this workout much more frequently.

My HRM: 30:40, 13:02 zone (hard); HR: 163 avg, 183 max; 420 cal
Stopwatch: 30:37.32

Rounds:

1. 06:01.23 (2×35# DB)
2. 06:58.26 (2×30# DB)
3. 05:16.78 (2×30# DB)
4. 06:35.41 (2×30# DB)
5. 05:45.64 (2×25# DB)

• Fast round: 05:16.78 (3)
• Slow round: 06:58.26 (2)
• Average round: 06:07.46

Today’s workout was very similar to one I did after I’d discovered CrossFit, but before I started actually doing it. Today, it was a little more work, but I doubt that I’ll be sore nearly as long as I was in August.

Four rounds for time:

1. 400 m run (actually, about 430 m)
2. 50 squats

After I redlined the first lap (and sprinted that 430 meters in under 90 seconds), I knew this workout was going to hand my ass to me. I went after the squats in that first round with abandon and had to rest for 20 seconds after I smacked the Lap button before I could start running again. I pulled it back a little bit, aiming for 2 minute laps and squat rounds about 3 minutes long. My original idea about getting through this workout in 17 minutes was probably a little unrealistic. I’m just happy I finished in less than 20 minutes after taking the heart rate above 215 bpm for the first time in a long time. Let’s not blow a head gasket, Apollo.

My HRM: 19:48, 1:52 zone (hard); HR: 174 avg, 217 max; 303 cal
Stopwatch: 19:44.30

Today’s workout called for 7 rounds of 3 reps each of the hang squat clean. I’m working with dumbbells, as usual. I knew that this workout would take me about 5 minutes, so I changed it up a little bit.

Three rounds for time:

1. 7 hang squat cleans (70# - 2×35# DB)
2. 14 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (35# Kettlebell)
3. 21 Kettlebell Swings (35# Kettlebell)

This workout got my heart pumping hard and left me trying to chase my breath a lot. I attacked as hard as I could, but still needed about a minute’s rest between rounds. I tried to time the rest periods to exactly 60 seconds.

I need to do a lot more upper body work. I’m formulating some supplemental plans to get extra sore really soon.

My HRM: 11:48, 1:38 zone (hard); HR: 169 avg, 183 max; 173 cal
Stopwatch: 11:46.64

Today’s workout was a barbell workout — ten rounds for max load of single rep max on the front squat. I don’t have a barbell setup, so I’m doing the CrossFit Warmup and 7 rounds of 10 front squats with a pair of 35 pound dumbbells.

It didn’t take me very long to get through the squats. Each round averaged just faster than 90 seconds. I was done in ten minutes. I misread the workout on the CrossFit website, though. I should have done 100 reps, instead of only 70. Ah, well, I’ll keep my eyes peeled better next time.

My HRM: 10:10, 3:12 zone (hard); HR: 157 avg, 172 max; 130 cal
Stopwatch: 10:05.74

Today’s workout was a new one to me, a “girl” workout named Annie. Annie was nice to me. Annie consisted of the following:

For time:

1. 100 rope jumps + 50 sit ups
2. 80 rope jumps + 40 sit ups
3. 60 rope jumps + 30 sit ups
4. 40 rope jumps + 20 sit ups
5. 20 rope jumps + 10 sit ups

Doesn’t that look like fun? Yeah, let’s do this thing. I had to subdivide the sit ups into 25s and then 15s and then 10s as I got more and more tired. Like the guy in the video said, the rope jumps were the easy part (except he was doing double unders and I only did singles).

Thankfully, it stopped raining this evening so I could get this thing done. I’m really sick of all this rain.

My HRM: 13:17, 4:12 zone (hard); HR: 145 avg, 199 max; 145 cal
Stopwatch: 13:15.06

Today’s workout was another 5 km run. I still procrastinated long enough that I didn’t get on the track until after dark. It was not as warm as it was last weekend, so I bundled up and went for it anyway.

I started out with a solid kick, but it slipped away from me. I really concentrated on finishing faster than last time and that meant pushing my pace a little more aggressively in the final 6 laps. Sadly, I didn’t have enough left on lap 13 to set a personal best on this distance. For the first time since I started these workouts, I missed the mark I set last time. The previous five attempts were all personal bests. This one ended slow by about five seconds. Spring is coming, so there will be more runs without the jacket, sweats, beanie, and gloves.

Total time: 26:49.60 for 13 laps (5327 m)
Fast Lap: 01:52.59 (2)
Slow Lap: 02:14.10 (11)
Average Lap: 02:03.81

My HRM: 27:21, 5:54 zone (hard); HR: 175 avg, 192 max; 423 cal

Previously:

1. Feb 09, 2008: 26:44
2. Jan 16, 2008: 27:00
3. Dec 28, 2007: 28:02
4. Dec 20, 2007: 28:23
5. Nov 29, 2007: 28:45
6. Sep 26, 2007: 32:06

Today’s workout was the second new hero workout in a row. “Randy” is in tribute to Randy Simmons, an LAPD SWAT team member, who died this month in the line of duty. His workout is simple, but pretty tough: 75 reps of power snatches, for time.

After watching the video several times to figure out the movement, I went downstairs to attempt this workout with 50 pounds of weight (a pair of 25 pound dumbbells). Power snatches are highly technical moves and if your form isn’t 100% correct, you fail. The 25 pounders were too heavy for me to pull off this movement consistently. The 20 pounders were still too much. Sadly, I had to scale back to my pair of rubber 15 pound dumbbells. I subdivided this workout into five rounds of 15 power snatches.

Had I known this workout was going to take less than 15 minutes, I’d have opened with a CrossFit warmup. I should get in the habit of doing that every time.

My results (HRM): 12:48, 3:25 zone (hard); HR: 163 avg, 180 max; 174 cal

Stopwatch: 12:43.70

Today’s workout was a new hero workout called “Nate”, named for CPO Nate Hardy, US Navy, who died this month in combat in Iraq. His new workout is: Max rounds in 20 minutes of 2 muscle ups, 4 handstand pushups, 8 72# kettlebell swings. I don’t have muscle ups or a 72# Kettlebell. My version of this workout today is the following:

Eights for Nate:

Max rounds in 20 minutes of:

1. 8 pullups
2. 8 chair dips
3. 8 handstand pushups (knees on table)
4. 8 kettlebell swings (53# kettlebell)

Unfortunately, one of my housemates was cooking something and forgot about it, so I stopped the timer at 17 minutes to go tell her. I came back down, restarted the timer and went after the last three minutes. The last round was the fastest as I raced the clock. I decided to finish round 8, even after the timer went off. By beautiful coincidence, I finished the last swing at 20:08 on the clock.

My results: 8 rounds in 20:08.

My HRM: 21:27, 11:52 zone (hard); HR : 158 avg, 185 max; 227 cal

(Yeah, stop forgetting to hit the stop button on the heart rate monitor, smart guy.)

Today’s workout was another barbell workout: 7 rounds of single deadlift reps, for max loads. Since I don’t have a barbell or the training, I’m substituting ten tapering rounds of deadlifts (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps) using a pair of 35 pound dumbbells. Since I expected this to take about 3 minutes, I added a round of the CrossFit Warmup.

My version of the crossfit warmup today is three rounds for time:

1. 60 second Sampson stretch
2. 15 Overhead Squats with a 7 foot broomstick
3. 15 standing back extensions (25# DB)
4. 15 situps
5. 15 pushups
6. 15 chair dips

On my warmup, I tried to work it as hard as I could and keep the stopping to pant to a minimum. I was able to knock out four minute rounds. Not bad. A good thumping warmup, at any rate.

As predicted, the deadlifts went really fast. 55 total deadlifts at 70 pounds aren’t really that difficult, so I got through them pretty quickly.

Warmup: 12:46, 10:28 zone (basic), HR: 138 avg, 165 max, 130 cal
Deadlifts: 3:25, 1:17 zone (hard), HR: 158 avg, 167 max, 42 cal

Today’s workout was my beloved 5 km run. Fortunately, it was warm this afternoon and I ran it without wearing my sweats, windjacket, and gloves. It was probably about 60° by the time I took the track just before sunset.

Honestly, I expected to finish my run a little faster than I did, but I waited too long after I ate. My time was, however, good enough for another personal best. I tried to hold steady at 2 minute laps, which would have me finishing in 26 minutes, but my pace eroded after the first mile.

• Total time: 26:44.86 for 13 laps (5395 m)
• Fast Lap: 01:55.95 (1)
• Slow Lap: 02:10.14 (10)
• Average Lap: 02:03.45

My HRM: 27:03, 4:52 zone (hard); HR: 183 avg, 197 max; 442 cal

Previously:

1. Jan 16, 2008: 27:00
2. Dec 28, 2007: 28:02
3. Dec 20, 2007: 28:23
4. Nov 29, 2007: 28:45
5. Sep 26, 2007: 32:06

Today’s workout was a brand new one (to me, anyway) that I’m calling the “Dirty Dozen.” I thought I’d be able to do this, scaled back slightly, in half an hour. This was an evil amount of work that had me staggering at the end of it. Let’s get to work.

For time:

1. 25 walking lunges
2. 20 pullups
3. 50 tuck jumps
4. 40 rope jumps (single unders)
5. 25 chair dips, weighted (2×15# DB in backpack)
6. 20 Knees to Elbows (on floor)
7. 20 Kettlebell swings (53# KB)
8. 30 situps
9. 20 hang squat cleans (2×35# DB)
10. 25 good mornings (25# DB)
11. 30 Thrusters (2×20# DB)
12. 30 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (35# KB)

I did all this stuff either in the house or on the concrete pad outside my workout room. The pullups took a while because I pulled my bar onto my head twice. The hang squat cleans were as strict as I could make them and it still took me over seven minutes. It took me two minutes to catch my breath enough to go on after that round. The thrusters took longer than I expected, too, because I was getting tired and sloppy. This was an insane workout that I really need to do more often. But, that protein shake at the end was sweet enough to feel like a prize after all this.

Time (Elapsed) - exercise

• 01:22.27 (01:22.27) - walking lunges
• 04:28.62 (05:50.89) - pullups
• 02:32.79 (08:23.68) - tuck jumps
• 01:08.00 (09:31.68) - single unders
• 02:00.26 (11:31.94) - chair dips
• 02:36.14 (14:08.08) - knees to elbows
• 02:52.28 (17:00.36) - kettlebell swings
• 01:44.60 (18:44.96) - situps
• 07:14.22 (25:59.18) - hang squat cleans
• 02:00.43 (27:59.61) - gasping breath
• 01:24.85 (29:24.46) - good mornings
• 04:41.68 (34:06.14) - thrusters
• 02:24.46 (36:30.60) - sumo deadlift high pulls

Total time: 36:30.60
Fast: 01:08.00 (single unders); Slow: 07:14.22 (hang squat cleans); Avg: 02:45.85

I think next time I’m going to try to do the whole thing, without a rest period and without taking 7 minutes to do 30 hang squat cleans at an unmanly 70 pounds. Let’s try for half an hour even next time.

My results: 36:29, 13:14 zone (hard); HR: 162 avg, 189 max; 489 cal

A little while ago, Ben Brown, the founder of Consumating (my favorite social network ever), mentioned in twitter that CNET is shutting the old girl down.

According to Waxy.org, the last day is March 15.

“Though there hasn’t been an official statement from CNET on the matter, sources close to the company confirmed that the shutdown date will be March 15. Users will be able to download a data dump of their questions, answers, and other social activity as a comma-separated file.”

I’ve been a passionate daily user of Consumating since March 30, 2006. Between then and now, I’ve met lots of amazing people and made friends that I consider to be among my best friends. There were points during which I soured on the Consumating community, but we always come back together with open arms and quick jokes.

I’ll miss Consumating. It’s sad that CNET would shut it down, but I hope the teams that are trying to engineer a replacement do a good job. I’ll be there. Will you?

Today’s workout was a back squat workout. Since I still don’t have a barbell or the training to do the exercise with the right form, I substituted my 35 pound dumbbells for the barbell. Instead of doing five sets of three reps for max load, I’m doing five sets of ten for time. But, first, let’s do the CrossFit warmup:

Three rounds for time:

1. 30s Sampson Stretch, each side
2. 15 Overhead Squats with Broomstick
3. 15 situps
4. 15 good mornings (standing back extensions with 25# dumbbell)
5. 15 pushups
6. 15 chair dips

This was a pretty good warmup. We did squats and kettlebell swings last time, but we’re just about to do 50 squats with 70 pounds of iron on my shoulders.

Warmup: 18:18, 9:48 zone (basic); HR: 154 avg, 178 max; 221 cal

I took the squats in sets of ten, but I always set the dumbbells back on the mat after each set. Sometimes, I’d take a minute to catch my breath, but this set of work was more intense than it was difficult.

My results: 10:35, 2:45 zone (hard); HR: 164 avg, 181 max; 146 cal

After today’s run, I took a shower and got ready to head up to San Francisco for Depth Charge at Levende Lounge. My friend, Sunshine Jones was headlining. I haven’t seen him for a long time, so I grabbed my new housemate and headed out.

Sunshine was just taking over the sound system when we arrived. The crowd was small, but very positive. Sunshine played some great tracks, similar to his weekly work on Sunday Soul. He performed classic Dubtribe Sound System tracks live, sang some of his newer stuff, and showered the crowd with an unmatchable passion for his music.

There were a few familiar faces in the crowd. Angelica who always passes out love like candies at a parade was there. Samantha showed up later on. Eric Sharp, who had played a set before I arrived, was still there enjoying the groove. And I was pleased to meet a few nifty people, including Corbin and Emily, a couple from one of the online communities I belong to, who had come up from Southern California for this party.

Sadly, the party ended at 2:15 or so. It was a beautiful party, full of great music and good friends.

Thanks, Sunshine.

Today’s workout was a 10 km run. I have done this workout twice before, on October 16 and October 19. Today, I’m exactly 20 pounds lighter than the last time I ran this 10 km distance, so I was hopeful for a big improvement in performance.

Due to the incessant barrage of rainstorms lately, the local track was mostly flooded, but was dry enough that I could still do the run. I had to sweep far to the outside on the lower side of the track, so each lap ended up being about 435 meters each. And, since I’m out here, I might as well not just run 25 laps. I decided to do the whole alphabet. 26 laps @ 435 meters each puts my distance today at 7 miles.

It was fairly chilly outside, but once I got moving, I warmed up fast. My GPS unit died (replace those damn batteries) about a third of the way through, but I had my beats and I had my stopwatch. What more do I need?

The numbers:

• Distance: 7.02 mi (5.26 km) [PR]
• Time (total): 1:03:45.36 [PR]
• 10 km mark: 56:42.57 (lap 23) [PR]
• Fast lap: 02:13.06 (26)
• Slow lap: 02:36.88 (17)
• Average: 02:27.12

My HRM: 1:03:59, 2:16 zone (hard); HR: 183 avg, 197 max; 1065 cal