It doesn’t happen that often but I walked away from a WOD out of frustration due to my vision. I can count on my hands how many time that’s occurred but it has happened rarely.

Sometimes when you look at a WOD write up you just look at it and think it’s not going to be that bad. Sometimes that’s a correct assessment of the situation but other times it couldn’t be more wrong. Usually the ones that don’t look too bad are ones with movements that you are comfortable with cycling quickly. The thing is the faster you can go the more intensity you can have which is a real killer.

I am still feeling a little wound up from that thunderstorm the other day and not well rested. That was one hell of a storm. I’ve never seen stuff flying like that. Between that and the tropical humidity from Fred I am just feeling run down. Yesterday we cleaned up the patio and back yard and organized all of the downed limbs so that they are out of the way and should be quick to chip when the tree guy gets here.

I didn’t sleep well last night so I was tired before the busy day even started. We had a busy day today outside of the house. We went to the girlfriend’s daughter’s house so of course I played with my grandson. He’s all boy and has so much energy. I had fun and was glad to see them. With her work schedule and my girlfriend’s it’s rare that it lines up.

I did a WOD today. It wasn’t a difficult one on paper but it was a real struggle for me to just complete it. It was physically painful to just keep moving. So much lactic acid that the thrusters, very light ones at that since they were a sub for wall balls made my legs be on fire like they couldn’t keep moving. I completed the WOD well within the goal time.

Today I did my first WOD that included devil presses in it in some time. With my arm acting up I’ve been sort of avoiding too much of that sort of movement when I could to let it rest some. I had signed up for some street parking challenge hoping t o maybe be able to encourage my girlfriend. I find challenges to be dumb myself but if it helps her it’s worth it.

Another one of the major advantages of workout out at home for me is the fact that I can wear what ever I want. Sure I could in a gym but there are still reasons not to.

It used to happen when we went to the Crossfit gym from time to time and it happens here at home once in a while too. If I wasn’t sure about the count in the gym I would just had them put work or some snarky comment about how I am unable to count at times. It usually happens when the WOD just doesn’t seem to flow to me. This morning’s WOD was one of those cases for me where I either lost track of rounds or remembered it wrong.

Even though I was pretty sure it’s unnecessary for me to have the COVID vaccine I got it since that’s what the CDC’s guidelines recommend. I’ll take science over people just making shit up as they go to fit their personal wants. The shot was quick and easy and the whole setup was well run. Sadly there weren’t many others there receiving it but that should be expected in this anti vaxers area.

Fairly early this morning I diced to get off my ass and work on my strength for today. If I were to be one hundred percent honest I really wasn’t feeling it at all today, not even a little. The reason that I have been having so much success is that I am doing my stuff even when I don’t feel like it unless I have a truly valid reason.

Last night we had Pizza for supper. You gotta live once in a while! Pepperoni pizza from Two cousins and this time it was nearly perfect. Their pizza is almost always really good but not always great. We also enjoyed glass if wine with it while watching the vault announcement. The WOD it self looked like a lot of fun. Basically it was Kalsu but with deadlifts instead of burpees. I went with the dumbbell version today but I am hoping to perform all three.

Today I decided to do last Saturday’s WOD but with the RX 40 pound dumbbell for the snatches. I knew I could use that weight for them and have in the past but just have been slacking a bit with pushing myself in that way. Recently I’ve been trying to push the intensity with speed more so than by using more challenging weights. I’d fallen into the trap of sticking with “comfortable” weights last fall and am deciding now that at least where possible and if I am feeling it to maybe push the weight a bit more even if my speed drops a bit.

There was a hint dropped about next week’s vault WOD that it was a repeat one from last year so I looked through the old WODs. I came across one that even if it’s not the right one I wanted to do it again as a retest. Hell I didn’t care if I could even log it, it was just one that I though would be a good one with which I could measure my any improvements I’ve made.

I woke up and knew today would probably be the best day weather wise of the week to take my barbell outside and complete the running version of this week’s vault WOD. It’s essentially Isabel then run 800 meters then Grace. I did the row version of this last night at too light of a weight but it made sense to try a lighter one and complete the WOD rather than get bogged down by weight.

There’s more than one way to make a WOD more challenging. Lately I’ve been going for intensity but staying pretty much within my comfort zone for the WODs. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that approach either. Today’s WOD was one with movements that are just always going to be at least somewhat slower for me due to my poor vision for one and the tight space we have to work with in our garage gym.

I’ve been wanting to, when it’s appropriate work out of my comfort zone with dumbbell WODS. The Rx weight is typically 40 pounds which I have the strength for but I am just not super comfortable with performing many movements with that weight at this point. The dumbbells are a fairly new tool and stimulus for me. Last Saturday we did a partner version of a WOD which I chose to use the 40 pound Rx weight for.

Sometimes improvements are small little hidden details and other times they’re so blatantly obvious like today’s WOD. The WOD called for 4 3 minute AMRAPS of six pull ups and six hang cleans with the sandbag. Today It felt pretty good other than my hand wanting to rip. I forgot the granddaughter had chalk all over the tape on the bar that Molly like to use. That just made it way too grippy for me and my hands weren’t feeling great from the get go.

This day was one of those days. I decided to get off my lazy ass and do a WOD. Enough of the excuses of being tired or hot or what ever else I could come up with. I’ve been wanting to do this week’s sandbag WOD but didn’t get around to it do to being so run down the past few days. The WOD consisted of 21 lungesters and then 21 sandbag power clean and toss over the box, rest a minute than 2 rounds of 15 of each.

I have to admit that I really wasn’t feeling it today. I felt like I didn’t really have the energy to do my strength let alone a WOD. The most likely culprit for me feeling run down the past day or two is being a bit dehydrated. The heat is catching up with me and geocaching a bit in the sun on Saturday didn’t help matters nor did waiting the the car while the girlfriend ran into the store.

I was thinking about passing on today’s WOD being tired an it being once again hot but I gave the single shoulder squats a shot and they didn’t feel too bad. The squats were one shoulder sandbag squats. They felt a little awkward with the weight being on one side but there was no reason not to do it or go with a heavier sandbag. The WOD was 3 rounds of row 750 meters and 50 single shoulder squats with the sandbag.

Today’s WOD (well technically Thursdays' we did it early) was one that I knew I’d be slower at and knew was the perfect opportunity to try one with 100 pound sandbag. It was only an AMRAP of 5 sandbag over the shoulders and 20 unweighted step-ups. I knew going into it the step-ups were going to slow me down. That’s a visual thing. While I can become somewhat faster at them and have already improved I know I will always be limited by having to “feel” whether I have solid footing on the box.

Last night we once again grabbed Mosby’s for supper along with a couple of adult beverages. Their wings are just so good and they’ve been getting better each weak I’d say. I also had a cheese steak which are pretty decent from there. It’s refreshing that they don’t call it a “Philly cheese steak” and have it in no resemble what you’d actually find n Philly. They’re pretty tasty though.

It isn’t nearly as hot today as it has been but it’s still warm and humid. It could get nasty if the sun peaks out. I did turn the air conditioner on but not until I went out into the garage gym this time instead of a few minute earlier. I just wanted dry the air up a bit so I am not slipping on my sweat doing the squats and more importantly so the bar isn’t slipping around or out of my hands during the deadlifts.

This morning we installed our old air conditioner in one of the garage windows since the temperature was supposed to get into the mid 90s. We had it available and got a smaller one for the bedroom so might else well make good use of it. I started it about 20 minute before lifting and it really was a game changer. The squats at 215 felt easy and explosive. They have really been feeling pretty great the past month or two.

Let me first start out with making it clear I wasn’t feeling it at all before I even attempted to do the WOD today. It happens sometimes and thankfully not often at all. We’ll all have some somewhat off days here and there. I think more than anything it’s just the recent heat catching up with me. The last time I just plain couldn’t finish a WOD was when I had gone without thyroid pills for reasons I won’t get into on here.

I definitely had a good but rough day at the home gym today. My strength today was to be heaviest squats, moderate strict presses and light deadlifts. I just reset the weights on those. I had failed the deadlifts last week. The squats were at 240. This to me is a moderately heavy weight. Today it didn’t feel heavy at all. It felt great for sure. My technique has so greatly improved it’s amazing.

Yesterday I didn’t end up doing a WOD at all. My calves were very crampy so I erred on the side of caution and rested and stretched them. I’m sure I was just dehydrated from the recent heat and humidity and additionally drinking copious amounts of alcohol Thursday night. I’d always rather take a rest day now than exasperate an unknown injury. I did do very heavy deadlifts for me in the heat on Thursday.

It was humid this morning, very humid. You know when everything feels wet and won’t dry, well that’s how it felt. Sort of like when your down the shore but there is no beach here nor is there a nice refreshing ocean to take a dip in. The dew point and temperature were maybe a degree or two a part at the most. I miss having a personal weather station to see neat information like this.

I can’t deny it. Honestly this week at least WOD wise I’ve been sort of lazy. Part of it was the heat and humidity this week. I’m getting more used to it but it will take time. We just haven’t had any this week. Even if it weren’t for the heat I’m okay with having a few days here and there where I’m somewhat lazy. Well I’m okay with it as long it doesn’t become a pattern but I can’t say I can really imagine that happening since I do love to work out and push myself.

I turned my 3 x 5 back squats into paused ones again today since it was only 200 pounds. I am hoping history for me repeats itself an as it did in the past the paused squats help me get stronger in the sticking point. Not using any bounce really seems to help me out of the hole. Another nice thing about the paused squats is the help remind me how to stay more up right and push my knees forward forward and out coming out of the bottom rather than my ass shooting up and trying to get me out of good position.

We were originally going to do this WOD yesterday together but Molly got home from work too late to do one so we waited until today. Going into the WOD I knew I would be at least slightly slower than I would typically be in a sandbag WOD using a different filling material than the sand I am used to and probably a slightly different weight. The sand had leaked so many times I surely lost some over time and didn’t keep reweighing it but I know the currently pea gravel filled one is 53 pounds.

It’s one of those annoying things to me but there seems to always be people driving down the alley. I’m not complain about them driving there in any way because they have as much right to be there as me. It’s just the timing sucks. It goes hours between cars any other part of the day but whenever I am out there they appear like magic. It always slows me down as I am extra cautious when there are cars around since so many people are off in their own little world once they get behind the wheels.

Today’s WOD was a redo of an old one and they gave the day of when it was last programmed so I was able to look it up and see what my past time was for it. Wodify is a steaming pile of shit but at least I was able to get it to work enough to find that. I through on Virvum’s Illuminance for my music choice and embraced the pain.

It got reasonably nice outside today with a temperature near 70 and the sun was shining. The WOD for today was a sort of a deadlift ladder with a 100 meter run between sets so it was the perfect one to do out in the backyard. It was nice to be able to just drop the last rep of the deadlifts. I miss being able to drop it but don’t want to destroy our garage floor or potentially annoy the neighbors too much.

Over the past couple of days I have basically been too lazy to do a WOD. I’ve done my strength stuff on the days I was supposed to but didn’t do the WODS. I am perfectly fine with that too. I don’t do rest days per se but I do rest when I feel like I need it. Maybe I needed it the past few days or maybe it was just the waking up with a nasty headache from a stuffy head thanks to all of the lovely pollen.

Although I do very much enjoy box jumps in spite of my visual handicap I do think they are used wrongly and over used in the program we do. Regardless of that there’s something primal about jumping on an object. It brings me back to being a kid growing up with 3 brothers. Among other things it was one of the things you did, if you saw something you tried to jump on or over it.

I don’t really make it a secret that I’m legally blind and therefore have very poor vision. I also do at least to the best of my ability keep it from being a limiting factor. I do realize and accept that it does cause some reasonable limitations if for any reason due to safety. Box jumps are one of those movements used in Crossfit that always have and always will make me nervous due to the poor depth perception of only having one useful eye and sometimes misjudging the angle or distance I am to the box.

Today’s WOD was one of them that on paper looked like It would be challenging but doable. 50 barbell man makers, which consist of a deadlift, bent over row and cluster complex and then some running. I was tired all day but my choices of days to do this WOD look like it would either be today or Thursday due to rain in the weather forecast. Warming up with the bar I thought today’s might be one of those that I could RX+ So I threw on tens in addition to the 25 pound plates so I could readily and quickly pull off some weight if I need to.

I’ve done it a few times this spring so far with the sandbag and with the bar once when it was sunny but in the 20s in February so we could do a WOD together. Let’s be real. A few minutes that day I was still pouring sweat. This is about today though. It rained this morning and was cloudy and cool most of the day. Around 1:00 PM the sun was starting to peak through the clouds as they were thinning and breaking up and the temperature was beginning to spike upwards from the low 40s.

We were able to do the sandbag version of today’s WOD together out in the back yard. It was just sandbag burpees and 400 meter carry for basically two rounds. The weather was decent for the winter. it was by no means warm or anything but it was mild enough to do a workout, out in the backyard and ally. The WOD itself was harder than I expected, particularly the carries.

If there is one thing I miss about going to an actual gym to work out is there is usually more options for space. We’d often try to set up near each other so we could watch each other and try to keep up with each other. We also did partner WODS together The one downfall about doing workouts in the garage is there is much less space. Stuff with barbells tends to take up to much space at least for my own comfort.