Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #8 (Last One *sigh*)

This morning was our last vacation WOD. Ugh. I don't mind going home to Austin (duh, who would?), but I'm sad vacation is ending.

Anyhoozle, here's what we did this morning, centered around a 30 yard pool, which had stairs (five steps) running down one side, the entire length of the pool.

Five rounds for time:

10 ring pull-ups (using handrails on steps as rings)

15 yard run in pool (3 1/2 ft. deep water)

Hop up steps (from 3 1/2 ft. deep water up the five steps and onto the pool deck) - repeat 10 times

15 yard run in pool and get out

10 HSPU's on pool deck

Lunges on pool deck the length of the pool (approx. 12 on each leg)

I forgot to stop my watch, so let's just call it 23:00 for me. Jeff finished in 21:13.

And now, breakfast and a movie...

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #'s 6 and 7

Vacation is winding down--very sad. Can't say we've done all that well on the paleo eating thing, but we could've done much worse. On the flipside, we did really well on the workouts. Here are the last two we did...

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #6 (Thursday) - for time:

25 HSPU's

10 box jumps

800 yard run

20 HSPU's

15 box jumps

600 yard run

15 HSPU's

20 box jumps

400 yard run

10 HSPU's

25 box jumps

200 yard run

We both did assisted HSPU's (I needed more assistance than Jeff). Jeff finished in something like 13 or 14 minutes, I think. It took me longer, but I don't remember how long--17 minutes, maybe?

We took Friday and Saturday off--we were just spent, between working out every day and biking/walking everywhere, plus swimming. Plus we're old.

On Sunday we picked it back up...

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #7 - for time:

21 - 15 - 9 (run 300 yards between sets)

Box jumps

Floor sweepers

Lunges (so, e.g., 21 lunges on each leg)

Jeff's time - 12:44. My time - 14:02. Not that it would've made much difference, but on the second set, I forgot myself and did 18 lunges on each leg instead of 15.

We're about to head out for WOD #8. We're going to try something involving the pool down the street. Should be interesting...

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #5...and Stuff about Daiquiris and Algae

A $9 pina colada around here is worth every cent, but getting an even better banana daiquiri for $7 makes you feel like you won something. We had both yesterday...


...which is why we put ourselves through a really hard workout that, 90 minutes later, we were still announcing to each other was really hard. The exchanges went something like this:


Jeff (coming downstairs from putting laundry in washer): That workout was really hard.
Me: I know, it really was.


5 minutes later...


Kris (putting together puzzle on dininig room table): That workout was really hard.
Jeff: Dude, you're not kidding.


2 minutes later...


Jeff (pouring a cup of coffee): That workout was really hard.
Kris: No shit, dude.


And so on.


In the absence of a pull-up bar, and being too cheap to pay for a week long gym membership (so, no weights), we've decided to get creative with our surroundings. So here was today's really hard workout, which I've given the working title of "The Beach Bitch" until I can come up with something slightly less vulgar that still does service to the accuracy of the description:


2.25 mile warm-up jog, then AMRAP in 20 minutes:


20 yards walking on hands in loose sand on beach
40 yard run in waist deep water (there are waves, currents, and the Gulf floor is uneven)
10 burpees
40 yard run (20 yds. through loose sand, 20 yds. uphill in sand)
20 push ups
40 yard run back to start line for walking on hands


I'm pretty sure I did four rounds, plus the run back to the starting line. Jeff did five rounds, plus the walking-on-hands part of a sixth round.


Jeff is normally the walking-on-his-hands master, at least in our CrossFit class. Not today. Loose sand will do that to that to a person. For my part, I hated the run in the water. On the one hand, it was just very challenging. More than that, though, it brought to life that dream I sometimes have, where I'm running, but I feel like I'm running in water and can't catch up/get away/whatever I'm trying to do. Everyone's had that one, right? (That and the one about showing up to a final exam for a class you hadn't attended for the entire semester.)

Anyway, my shoulders are shot, so much so I had a hard time playing our tennis-ping-pong-badmintony-beach-game-purchased-at-a-gas-station game with Jeff on the beach today. I paddled around some out in the Gulf, but this time of year they have this algae they refer to as "sea grass" and it's EVERYWHERE. It's not a big deal, though it's just this side of annoying. Anyway when you get out of the water, you can literally pull it out of your swimsuit in mats. TMI, right, understood. But STILL. So we called it a day a little early. Now I'm getting my game face on, because it's time to kick Jeff's ass in Scrabble.

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #4

Today did not start off as vacation-y as I'd have liked. For one thing, I had a client conference call. That pretty much flies in the face of "vacation" right there. And I wound up working all morning. Again, not vacation-y. Then I just got pissed off at people at work. Definitely not vacation-y. By the time 12:30 rolled around, I was just pissy in general. Which meant it was quitting time.

I thought about things that might turn my mood around. Massive envelope stuffed with cash magically showing up? Not likely. Shoe shopping? No magic envelope filled with cash = no shoe shopping (hmph). Tropical fruity drinks on the beach? A-ha! Now we're talking. Except--shit--I haven't done a workout to "earn" my tropical fruity drink, and if I went straight for the banana daiquiri, I'd just feel bad about myself and be in a worse mood. What about...what about just a plain old run? Back to basics, back to what I know and love most. Ah, yes. Nothing in the world, save for magical envelopes filled with cash and shoe shopping with that cash, could've sounded any better. And so I ran. A quick little 30 minute trot in 95 degree heat, blazing sun and stupidly high humidity, but it totally did the trick.

As for Jeff, he did one of the Spartan workouts, specifically...

4 rounds for time:

50 sit-ups

50 supermans

800 meter run

His time: 25:06.

On a side note, while I was waiting for Jeff to finish his workout--he left after I finished my run--I was putting together this jigsaw puzzle we had started last night (LOVE puzzles--I'm such a dork) and passively watching whatever movie had just come on TV. Turned out to be "Alien Nation". Anyone seen this? Early 90's? James Caan? Anyone? No? Okay, well, anyway, here's my question: are the aliens, like, allergic to water, a la the witch from "The Wizard of Oz"? I don't really care, it's just that I looked up and there was this James Caan v. Scary Alien scene in the dark in the ocean, and I think maybe the alien was, I don't know, melting? bleeding out? Something. Anyhoozle, if anyone knows, please share. I'm too lazy (vacation) to look it up.

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #3

Seriously, this biting fly thing is out of hand. It's okay, though, I'm taking my revenge for the painful chomps out of my skin they take (which leave behind oh-so-attractive little purple dots) by killing the little bastards off, one at a time. Sent one to meet his maker yesterday, and another met a violent end today. Before this is over, I will be a biting fly killing machine.


Anyhoo, let's talk about Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #3. Today we did the workout Mike S. dubbed "Kris" in honor of my 39th birthday last week. Here's the workout Mike came up with:


For time:


39 pushups
39 floor wipers
39 lunges (we assumed it was 39 on each leg)
39 box jumps
39 supermans
39 burpees


Here was the final score:


Jeff - 12:08
Me - 15:05
Biting flies - 1 really good chomp, and 1 really dead fly


That was an awesome workout--like awesomely hard. Lunges into box jumps...holy shit, that's not easy, and I kind of wanted to hurl halfway through the burpees. So, well done, Mike!


In other news, we're out of the B&B, which is good, because it was starting to chafe. Example: they provided one roll of toilet paper...really? Really??? Anyway, now we're at our friends' AMAZING house (yes, it's so AMAZING that it demands to be described using allcaps). Beyond the fact that toilet paper abounds in this house, we can finally go to the grocery store and cook for ourselves. I have never been so happy to go grocery shopping as I was today. Seriously.

As for the oil spill (not that anyone asked, I'll just volunteer it), tar balls are coming ashore about 20 miles west of here, in Destin. The oil sheen, itself, was a mile offshore in Pensacola (40 miles west) as of yesterday. It's just really sad. So, we're enjoying the Gulf while we still can.

But right now, it's nap time. :)

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #2...and Bahama Mamas

There is a drink called the "Bahama Mama". It is delightful. I don't want to know how many calories it has or how much sugar is in it. I just know that I will drink one of these--or its tropical fruity drink equivalent--every day that I'm here. This is blasphemous in the kingdom of paleo, I get that, but I'm on vacation, damn it.

Which brings us to Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #2. Today we went in search of a pull up bar. We had gotten a tip yesterday that there might be one over at the kids' playground in Watercolor, the next community up the road. Yeah, not so much. This is becoming a problem, so if anyone has any suggestions for pull up equivalents, I'd love to hear them. In the meantime, here was our WOD:

25 minute run (Grayton Beach to Watercolor kids' playground)

Swat wildly at biting flies, drop f-bombs

Follow this with three rounds for time of:

Sprint 5 yards to first station

15 push-ups

Sprint 5 yards back

Sprint 15 yards to second station

20 sit-ups

Sprint 15 yards back

Sprint 25 yards to third station

20 box jumps

Sprint 25 yards back

Sprint 35 yards to fourth station

15 burpees

Sprint 35 yards back

Finish with cool down (or death, whichever).

Jeff finished in 11:33, I finished in 14:13. The "sprint" portion of the workout quickly devolved into a jog. A weaving jog, actually. The other thing about the workout was that, at least for me, if I stopped to try and catch a breath, the damn flies would start biting me. I had to keep going, because I didn't have enough energy to flail my arms around and yell "F***!" It was a different kind of motivation than, say, what JDP provides during class, but effective, nonetheless.

We had planned to run/walk back to Grayton Beach, but between the humidity and the workout (which was more challenging than we'd imagined it would be when we came up with it), we wound up walking all the way back along the beach in--oh hey!--a thunderstorm. Oh well.

The sun's back out now, and we're sitting in a shady little courtyard, drinking coffee and water, and eating egg-based stuff (quiche and frittatas) and fresh fruit. Oh, and I literally just found out there are mimosas, so I'm totally getting one. Then we'll head to the beach for day two of body surfing and this beach tennis/ping pong/badminton-y game thingy we bought at the gas station (we're high dollar, me and this guy). Turns out, Jeff is also a master sand castle builder. Who knew?

3...2...1...GO!

Jeff and Kris's Vacation WOD #1

Jeff and I are finally on vacation--woohoo! At the moment we're in Grayton Beach along the Redneck Riviera (git 'er done, y'all...or something like that). We're supposed to be in Watercolor, staying at a friend's AMAZING house--not kidding, the cutlery set in the kitchen alone cost more than my couch--but there was a mix up and we're here at a slightly more humble, but cute little bed and breakfast for a couple of days until we move over to Watercolor.

Why is this important? Because the WOD Jeff and I invented today included a 1.5 mile run from Grayton Beach to Watercolor. At 8:30 a.m. In the sun. With 90+% humidity. The run was along this scenic highway (Walton County 30A). I described it as "stifling", Jeff's description was "still". Either way, it SUCKED.

So, we got to Watercolor and, after hiking around on some paths through the woods to find a shady spot sort of away from all the very public green spaces--and after having gotten attacked by these motherf***ing biting flies--we finally found a spot. In a very public green space. Oh well. Here's the WOD we invented, sort of a take on "Cindy".

AMRAP in 20 minutes:

5 push-ups

10 air squats

15 floor sweepers (didn't have barbells, so laid on the ground and held onto a bench)

20 box jumps (or, well, bench jumps)

Jeff got through seven rounds, plus push-ups, squats and 7 sweepers. I did six rounds, plus push-ups. Also, a few minutes into the workout, this college kid from Huntsville, AL stopped his run and asked if he could join us, and, of course, we agreed. So he did about half the workout with us, and then took off to finish his run. Another family passed by after that and we overheard the dad say, "Now I feel guilty," and "We had bacon."

Our cool down was a run/walk back to Grayton Beach, this time on the beach, consisting of two minutes running, three minutes walking (hey, it was a cool down!). There wasn't a stitch of dry clothing on our bodies by the time we got home.

We followed the whole thing up with a ton of water, some coffee and breakfast (Jeff: Mexican quiche and fruit; me: strawberry-kiwi-banana smoothie--it's just too hot to have anything heavy, ugh!).

On a side note, tar balls washed ashore yesterday about 30 miles east down the beach from here, near Pensacola. And ever since we arrived in Grayton Beach, there's been a steady line of dump trucks hauling in sand. They're building a giant berm to protect an inlet with all kinds of marsh grasses and wildlife. There's a big line of boom, too, not sure where that's going to go. It's very eerie, and extremely sad. But, no oil here just yet--hopefully it will stay away.

Off to the beach!