The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Posts Tagged Fitness

Two Years of CrossFit

This afternoon marks two years since I switched my training program to CrossFit. While I still don’t have a barbell and bumper plates, I’m making progress on plenty of my fitness goals and I’m in better shape now than I’ve been since I was 20 years old.

Hopefully, soon, I’ll add that barbell to my [...]


Watch the Gauge of the Bar

Hey, CrossFitters:

Just a helpful piece of advice I wish I’d known before tonight’s workout. Make sure that, if you’re doing pullups at a local park or school playground, the gauge of the bar isn’t too narrow, whether you’re wearing gloves or not.

Pinching your calluses is easier on a narrower bar. Doing pullups on [...]


Elite Rings

The other day, I ordered a new piece of equipment, a pair of Elite Rings. They arrived today, two days after I ordered them. Each ring comes with a strap, about 20 feet long, with a slip-proof buckle.

After I unboxed the rings, I set them up in my doorway, hanging from a Door [...]


50 in a Row

Nothing feels quite like hitting a milestone. This evening’s 5K run was my 50th CrossFit workout of the day of the year. That’s 50 of 50. So far, in 2009, I’ve done 100% of the assigned workouts of the day with no misses.

Next month, I’m taking a road trip for Spring Break, [...]


CrossFit – February 2009

Of the 21 workouts of the day assigned in February, I have completed 21. On nine of those workouts, I turned in performances that surprised me, including my first sub-10 minute Fran, a ridiculous performance on the pullup bar, a crazy workout in the rain that involved kayaking gear, and a dozen-round Cindy. [...]


CrossFit Day 200

Today, I reached another milestone—my 200th CrossFit workout of the day. Sadly, Day 100 was a little more than 11 months ago. Blowing off your workouts isn’t good. But, that’s in the past.

Let’s see what we’re up to today:

For time:

120 pullups
120 dips

In August, I did this one for the first time. [...]


CrossFit – January 2009

I used to post daily workout reports here when I first started doing CrossFit, but I fell out of the habit when I realized that I doubt very much any of you really were that interested in reading them. I also became less and less interested in writing them.

In the last few months of [...]


Goals for 2009

I set a couple of New Year’s Resolutions last year, which I didn’t get around to posting here. One of them was to write 52 tracks, which I finished. I slipped on a few others.

So, I’m going to post my goals for 2009 in three categories: personal development, music, and fitness. [...]


One Year of CrossFit

One year ago, I did my first CrossFit workout of the day (WOD). Since then, I’ve tracked my progress in a log book and, for a while, was recapping my workouts here. I stopped posting them on this site primarily because it bored me even to write them, so it must have been [...]


So Ridiculously Light

One year ago today, I got on the scale and saw that ugly 196 pound reading. By New Year’s Eve, I had lost 46 of those pounds. The scale read 150. This morning, the scale reads 150.
Through focused, almost obsessive, attention to my diet and working out (doing CrossFit since September), I [...]


CrossFit Introduction Class

The local CrossFit affiliate advertised a two-day introductory class and I decided at the last minute to take it, just so I could dial in my form on several of the exercises. I’m considering buying a barbell and bumper plates in the near future to increase my mad ridiculous amounts of game, so it [...]


How I Blew April

April was an incredibly unproductive month in my projects. I wrote just one track all month–one ambient track that took me almost half an hour. All the reasons I come up with for not writing music on the train are all lame. I’m just lazy.
Of the 30 days in April, I completed [...]


CrossFit Day 112

Today’s workout was seven rounds of the clean & jerk for a one-rep max. I’m swapping that out for seven rounds for time of 10 dumbbell clean & jerks at 70 pounds (a pair of 35-pounders). I really need to do more upper body work anyway and practicing the dumbbell clean & jerks [...]


CrossFit Day 111

Today’s workout was “Fight Gone Bad”, a legendary workout that features an amazing barrage of work against the clock in a very short period of time. I’m definitely substituting some of these, due to lack of equipment or strength. But, let’s go after it.
Fight Gone Somewhat Douchey:
Three rounds for max reps:
60 sec [...]


CrossFit Day 110

Today’s workout was “Nate”, a hero workout that debuted about a month ago. My variation, “Eights for Nate”, features 20 minutes of work for max rounds. My lack of a pullup bar today will have me doing the pullups on a door. Here we go.
Eights for Nate:
Max rounds in 20 minutes of: [...]


CrossFit Day 109

Today’s workout was “Nicole”, a “girl” workout that I’ve done once before, although that time was using assisted jumping pullups. Today, we’re going for the full monty.
Max rounds in 20 minutes of:
415 m runMax rep pullups
I decided to set my pullup rounds to 10 pullups plus the run. After a couple of trial [...]


CrossFit Day 108

Today’s workout was “Michael”, a hero workout we get frequently (previously: Jan 09, Dec 03, Nov 17, Oct 28, Sep 19). Michael was the second CrossFit workout I ever attempted. Today, I’m gonna try to go hard and aggressive. My goal: 27:00 or faster. My January time was 27:42.96.
Three rounds [...]


8mm Rope Is Too Small To Climb

My workout today was supposed to involve rope climbs, but I didn’t have a rope. I also didn’t have a 15 foot high ceiling to attach a climbing rope to. But, I figured I could tie a rope to my kettlebells and toss one end over a pullup bar. That’d do the [...]


CrossFit Day 107

Today’s workout was the 5 km run. I headed out to the track under cover of darkness, as usual, in my kayaking shirt and a desire to beat my previous best. Last time, I finished five seconds slower than my previous run. Today, I’m aiming for a time of 26:30, which will [...]


CrossFit Day 106

Today’s workout was “Lynne.” Since I don’t have a barbell, a bench, or a pullup bar (I messed mine up the other day in a seething rage that saw its untimely demise), I’m swapping it out with a pair of exercises similar to those assigned. The workout I completed was actually the second [...]


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