Starpulp

I started the day out early at CrossFit 101. This class was a voluntary class for anyone in our box to attend. This day we focused on the 4 types of squats. The next class in two weeks, CrossFit 102 will focus on everything else. The movement in squats is just such an important skill to perfect, the spend a whole hour covering just them.

Lucky me, I was the only one that showed up. [sarcasm] I’m not really a fan of being the only person there because then I get all the attention. It can be awkward sometimes!

I really liked doing the CrossFit 101 class and will definitely be attending the next 102 class that I can fit into my schedule. If you’re a fellow CrossFitter from my box and you haven’t attended these yet, I highly recommend them.

Afterwards, I joined in on the day’s WOD. Saturday’s are fun because they’re either partner or team WODS.

Today I got to workout with Jason and Dawn who were both great teammates. Dawn could not be more positive and smiley and innocent with her southern drawl. Jason is just this little beast. You might not expect it at first, but then you turn around and he’s squatting a full bar of weight… with a smile. WHO DOES THAT?!

This was a fun team WOD because it was easily scalable. There was a lot of equipment involved, so things were a bit ‘squirly’ during the walkthrough to determine everyone’s weights etc. Once we had a chance to walk through everything, the WOD came together. We grouped the exercises above. One teammate would do one move, while one was doing the other move and the third teammate was resting. Then we’d rotate until everyone had a chance to do 1/3 of the reps that were listed.

Here’s what we did:

90 Wallballs and Pullup Hold

For this, we each did 30 wallballs. While one teammate was doing the wallballs, the other teammate held onto a pullup hold. The third teammate rested. I used bands to assist myself in the pullup hold.

200M buddy carry (or hold weight)

Then the three of us set off together in a 200M fast walk while holding a 35# weight. One person held the weight at the time and we transferred it as needed.

90 kettlebell swings and Hold Ringdip

Then same as the wallballs above, one teammate was completing their 30 kettlebell swings while the other held themselves up with the ringdips. The third teammate rested. The kettlebells weren’t bad (I actually like those), and I used bands to assist myself for this.

200M buddy carry (or hold weight)

Same as above. This was the time I actually got to carry the weight halfway. It was a lot harder than it looked, plus it was incredibly hot, humid, and steamy.

90 Box Overs and Hold Plank

Next we each did 30 box overs while one teammate held a plank and the other rested.

200M buddy carry (or hold weight)

Lastly, we completed a final 200M carry.

For my pullup hold, I used the black band. I used the 26# kettlebell, 12# wallball and we carried the 35#. I’m curious to see how I improve over time with these movements.

Not a bad start for a Saturday!

This workout sucked. I knew when I was getting frustrated just going over the individual exercises, I was in trouble. I like workouts when there is a clear MOD (modification) for an exercise I find impossible.

We started into the warm-up. It was nice to not feel completely dead for once during the 400m run. I even had a conversation while running with another gym buddy. I forced myself to start up a conversation while we were running which was good too. (I should probably take the time now to apologize to anyone that ends up running next to me because they have to deal with my running ramblings.)

When we finished our run, we completed the lunges and then came the knee raises. These involved hanging from a bar while raising our knees. I’ve done ab straps in Timed Exercise before, but randomly hanging by my hands is a whole new level of frustration. So yeah I didn’t do many of those.

After that emotional drama happened, I completed the kettle bell swings and overhead presses without a problem.

We did a quick review of the movements in today’s workout. Then we got started.

The Front Raise was essentially a walking lunge with the bar on our shoulders.

Then for lateral burpees, we did a burpee on one side jumped over the bar(ok, I just stepped) and then did a burpee on the other side of the bar repeat.

Then came T2B which stands for “toes to bar”. Yea, hang from the bar then raise your feet to touch the bar near your hands. The mod for this would be to hang and do knee raises.. yeah.. the same thing from the warm-up that frustrated me to no end. I tried a few, it just hurt. It hurt my hands. It was hard to hang there. I was frustrated. I ended up just doing jumping pull ups for the workout. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to We moved on.

Next was the Sumo Deadlift Highpull (youtube video). These weren’t bad.

Lastly we did Hand Stand Push Ups which I had already been anxious about. They had us practice a few to get a little acclimated. I did like half of one. Then they showed us a mod which is hard to explain but was definitely challenging.

After we walked through each exercise, I was definitely dreading the whole thing. Regardless of  how I felt, things got started.

I hated pretty much every minute of it. So, I think today’s challenge was really not about how fast or how many of each exercise I do, it was just about being there and finishing each one.

I finally wrapped the agony up after almost 21 minutes.

One good thing is I burned almost 500 calories. #rockstar

Today’s CrossFit was my first time attempting to find a rep max of anything with today’s specific finding to be a 5 rep max. A rep max is typically referred to as the most amount of weight you can handle doing the exercise one time while keeping form and avoiding injury.

Now we don’t just show up, do the lift one time and leave.  We warm up (which I forgot to take a picture of), stretch out, roll muscles, and then start doing the movement with very light weight and slowly work our way up heavier and heavier until we feel satisfied it was heavy enough.

Today’s workout was a 5 rep max of Deadlifts.

• YouTube video on general deadlift movement
• YouTube video elaborating on back safety and movement

The goal today was to workup in weight with a significant rest in between each attempt until I found a weight I could do 5 reps of and only 5 reps of.

When it was time to get started, we went over the movement with an light weight pvc pipe with Coach Amanda to ensure we had the proper movements down. We didn’t want to get started lifting such heavy weight without a refresher and double check to ensure we had the form down.

Once I had the movements down, I grabbed a bar and got started.

Round 1: 45# weight plus 10# weights on each side (65 lbs total)

For this round, I started with the bar which weights 45# on it’s own. I also grabbed a 10# weight for either side. I did this easily to get the movement down using weight.

Round 2: 45# weight plus 25# weights on each side (95 lbs total)

Next, I added a 10# and a 5# weight to either side to give me a total of 25# on each side. This was harder to move, but still doable.

Round 3: 45# weight plus 30# weights on each side (105 lbs total)

For this round, I took the 5# weights off and added a 10# weight to either side.

Round 4: 45# weight plus 40# weights on each side (125 lbs total)

For this round, I took two of the 10# weights off and added two 15# weights to the remaining the 10# weight. Ooof. Yea, this was hard.

Round 5: 45# weight plus 45# weights on each side (135 lbs total)

Amanda looked at me (she had been watching, coaching, correcting, directing and cheering us on the whole time) and told me to add a 2.5# weight on either side.

I was hesitant at first, but still put the weights on. I was surprised I was still able to lift the weight. Don’t get me wrong. It was incredibly heavy, but I managed my way through my 5 reps.

I am horrible at keeping track of everything in my head throughout a workout, so I wrote my weights down as we went. The weights above are just the weight on one side of the bar.

If you take that weight, multiply it by two, and then add the bar weight, you’ll end up with the total amount I deadlifted. (Aside from the last one which was actually 45 pounds, not 42.5. Then I couldn’t do math. It’s really 135#, not 125#. I got confused and only listed the one 2.5 lb weight, not both. See? This is why I have to write this stuff down!)

For example, the first weight was 10 lbs. Multiply that for two to count the weight on both sides to get 20 lbs. Add the 45# bar, and you get a total of 65#s.

On the wall, they have a huuuuge chart (this is only half of it) to help you estimate your Rep Max’s. Since I know my 5RM, I would look on the chart between the 6RM and 4RM for the 135. Then, scan to the left to see about what my realistic 1 RM would be (I’m going to guess 150). Then I can also use this to predict the weight I should use if I’m supposed to lift 50% of my 1 RM, or 80% of my 1 RM. Pretty helpful.. you know… since I can’t do math in my head when I’m anywhere near a weight!

This workout was definitely not a high calorie burner. Kinda disappointing since I typically burn 500 calories or more per class. It’s ok though. I walked on the treadmill after I got home while watching Brothers & Sisters and got a few more calories in.

This past week was a bit crazy with starting a new job (yay!) and my birthday, so I didn’t make it to CrossFit two times during the week like I typically do. (I’m on the 2x/week plan). So I decided to check out the Saturday workout. The Saturday workout is a bit of a mystery because it’s never posted on the blog like the other’s are. I had no idea what to expect, just that it’s a ‘team’ or ‘partner’ workout.

When I arrived, I started stretching until we were ready. Amanda, our coach for the day, gathered everyone up and we got started with a 400 meter run followed by the 2 rounds of squats, box jumps and kettlebells. I absolutely hate box jumps. I know I can do box jumps just fine, but I have fears of skinning my shins. I know doing that would put me out of commission for a few days, so to me, it’s just not worth it. Instead of box jumps, I did step ups.

Then we rolled out our muscles with the foam rollers and lacrosse balls. Once everyone was ready, Amanda setup all the medicine balls in a big circle and had us crawl around in a bear crawl essentially playing musical med ball. We would crawl in a circle from one to another. If the music stopped, we had to quickly sit down on one of the med balls. Whoever didn’t have one, had to do 20 squats and sit out the remaining rounds. Since there was one less person participating, we got rid of a med ball and continued on. I am proud to say my big booty and I are the champion of Musical Med Balls (at least for this day).  lol

After that excitement, we were finally ready for the day’s partner WOD. a 400 meter run with your partner, then you broke up evenly between the two of you 20 power cleans (meaning each person did 10), 40 box jumps (20 step ups for me), and 60 sit ups (30 each).

It was a fun workout especially since mother nature wasn’t playing along. We still did our runs outside and even possibly enjoyed the run in the rain a bit. It didn’t stop anyone.

This is the pad for situps we put behind our back to keep the curvature of the spine while completing the quick reps.

The box. ugh.

The workout was an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible in 20 min). We did two rounds and then another run before we were out of time. The workout was a good one. I almost wished it was longer so we could have kept going. (Not sure my partner would feel the same). Parnter WODS do sorta stink though because I’m so darn slow at running and box step ups. I always feel we could have done more, gotten farther if I was just a bit faster. Oh well. It will come with time.

I’d say that’s a decent calorie burn for a days workout!

I was actually looking forward to this workout! Running and squats? Count me in! Overall, today’s workout didn’t look that bad.

We started things off with the warm up which included my first ever wallballs.

Wallballs means taking one of these..

going to the wall in the back, squatting, then throwing the ball up towards the wall until it hits above the black line for women, and blue line for men. OY! Sounds so easy, but I was glad we were only doing 10!

After we finished the warm up, we spent some time doing squat therapy. These few exercises helped prepare us for the squats (and the run) which was ahead.

Before we got started with the WOD, Josh let us in on a tip. The run portion of the WOD was actually our ‘recovery’ period. Oh. That was a bit of a game changer. I was mentally prepared to give it my all on the run, but I guess I needed to rethink things a bit. This was when I realized I would be doing 200 squats in a day.

We started the WOD with the 400 meter run. Not bad. Then onto the first round of squats. I broke these up into sets of 10 to make them a bit more manageable. After I completed the first round of 50, I took the first few steps into my second 400 meter run. Whew. My legs felt like lead weights and my kneecaps snapped but I finished it out.

In fact, I finished the entire workout. I broke it up into manageable pieces, and got it done. Another CrossFit workout, is in the books.

This WOD was definitely a surprise. For some reason when I first read it the night before, I thought this was going to be my first Hand Stand class. I saw HRPU and thought I saw a variation of HSPU. (No idea if they even abbreviate the hand stands that way.) I figured I’d be doing a mod for that, so today might not be that bad. Yea, I was clearly wrong.

We got things started for the day with the usual 400 m run. Then we completed 10 goblet squats (holding a kettle bell at your chest and squatting), 10 kb shrugs on each side, and the some 4-way pushups.

We quickly reviewed the movements of the day’s WOD (there wasn’t really anything complicated this day), and then we dove right on in.

Essentially, what we did was pick a kettle bell up, walk across the gym with it in one hand, switch hands, walk back. Easy enough. This was to be our ‘recovery’ period.

Then we did however many squats indicated (unweighted). Ok, not bad.

The we did however many hand release pushups indicated. Uh hand release pushups? I did not know what this was. I do now. It’s a fancy way of saying triceps pushup where you also gently set yourself on the ground in between pushups. Well, you’re supposed to do it gently. For someone that’s been doing arms out at a 90` angle, these were a bit of a challenge. Solution?

I wrapped a band (ginormous rubber band) around my waist. When demonstrated, it looked like it was going to be uncomfortable and awkward, but once I tried it, it wasn’t all that bad. This enabled me to take some of the weight off so I could really focus on the triceps pushup form without dropping to my knees.

I found this method to be incredibly effective (and judging by the grunts of my class mates, they did too). I definitely felt it specifically in meat of my triceps. In fact, I felt it for about 3 days later. OY!

This made me determined to tackle triceps pushups. I’ve been focusing on this specific form for all pushups since.

Since the WOD itself was brief, we finished up by focusing on a skill of our choice for 10 minutes. I felt kinda wiped, so I decided to just burn some extra calories on the row machine. This was the first time I’d hopped on the row machine at CrossFit. I’ve done it on my own at the YMCA. Josh, our coach, recommended I do 3 rounds of 500 yards.  Whew! After completing this WOD, I burned 550 calories and was wiped!

Made it to CrossFit in time to actually do the warm-up this time!

After the run, we completed 10 push presses and 10 front squats. Then we used the lacrosse balls and foam rollers to loosen up our muscles before the workout. It’s interesting because CrossFit prefers to do this to regular stretching, which I’ve been taught to do prior to a workout for yeaaaaars. I do love the lacrosse balls!

After we were warmed up, we went moved into the Skill/Strength section. We went over in extreme detail of the movements for the day’s WOD, Clean and Jerk. To get a good idea of the movement, you can check out this video.

Josh broke down the movement into 4 different movements. We walked through and practiced each movement with a weightless bar. Once everyone had a chance to work through each movement, we put it all together for a few reps to determine which weight we wanted to start off with. I decided to start with 15#.

Afterwards, we moved into the day’s WOD which was a series of Clean and Jerks 15, 12 and 9. Our goal was to do each set without stopping. We could rest the bar in the air or on our hips, but not on the ground. In between each series, we could break for as long as we needed (within reason, of course).

I did the first round of 15s with 45#, and added a 5# weight on either side. I complete rounds 12 and 9 with 55#. Adding the 10# did make it a bit more difficult! After I finished, I saw 2.5# weight that I could have used. Next time! Next time!

It’s almost time! Yup, time for the two weeks of the year I get excited about GOLF! I’m a “fair weather fan” of almost all sports, but definitely cannot claim to have any knowledge of any specific sport (aside from soccer)! The Players Championship is one of the biggest events of the year in Jacksonville, and I do look forward to it every year.

Every year The Players Championship steps things up a notch from the previous year, and anything is game. One year they even moved the tournament from March to May to improve it. Over the past few years, they’ve worked hard at improving the guest experience with better facilities and food options. This year, they’ve expanded upon this even further. I was recently invited to a private blogger event to showcase some of the new features that will be available to attendees at this year’s The Players Championship.

The first improvement we face-planted jumped right into was the food! The Players has expanded beyond the typical chili cheese dog found at typical sporting events, but have no fear, I’m told they are still available at some concessions if that’s what you’re really craving. (or if you need to quickly sober up a drunken friend). For starters, their Food Court offerings include items from Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q, Brucci’s Pizza, Firehouse Subs (yummo!), MShack, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and more. Not bad, I’d say!

Over the past few years, special areas have been created to give attendees somewhere to gather and chat set back from the actual course. It still gave the attendee the ability to see some of the game play and enjoy the beautiful course all while also having access to upgraded food and drink options as well as restrooms. The Patio debuted in the 2011 Players, offers a shaded area with open-air seating where you can chat with friends while keeping up with the game on a giant video board. There’s also food and drinks available to purchase and permanent restrooms. Hello! Permanent restrooms can be hard to find out there, so they’re DEFINITELY worth mentioning!

After the success of The Patio, The Players expanded in 2012 to add The Oasis and Wine & Dine on 9. All of which are open to general attendees, no VIP pass required at these locations! The Oasis even offers air-conditioned viewing and signature cocktails for those 21 and over. I’m also told this year there will be an outdoor patio overlooking the No. 9 tee.

If you ask my friends, I was all about the Wine & Dine last year (pictured above). I’d heard the buzz about it and just knew I had to check it out. Once I did, it was hard to get me to leave. Wine & Dine offers upgraded dining selections from Matthew Medure, one of North Florida’s most renowned chefs, as well as a BERINGER Wine Bar. (I bet you can tell why I was so adamant about heading there.. it wasn’t for the food).

Honestly, it wasn’t 100% the alcohol, the food or the fact that there were chairs to sit on… it was the view. It was just nice and peaceful. The weather was wonderful too. It was relaxing to sit with great friends, enjoy a few drinks and catch up.

…aaaaand maybe the view of the blimp ahead was pretty cool too. The pergola’s really added some ambiance. New this year to Wine & Dine on 9 are the permanent restrooms right next door. No portolets here, ladies!

In addition to these facilities, they’ve also added the the Taste of JAX which is also open to general admission guests offering options from local restaurants like Indochine, Metro Diner, and Pele’s Wood Fire. Niiiice! There will also be a bar, upgraded restrooms, and videoboards. This is also where you will find Club 1791, an indoor cool zone.

Click the map above for a PDF file with a detailed map and descriptions of each of the food locations.

Now that you’re all caught up on some of this year’s improvements, let’s move onto THE FOOD PARADE!

We we arrived for the event, we were ushered via golf cart to an area they preset for us. This area actually happens to be the same area as The Patio during the players (but it wasn’t all setup like it will be during the players).

When we arrived, we were offered a selection of beverages similar to the ones that will be available during this year’s event at most concession stands. They’re trying hard to cater to requests by fans to offer more healthy and alternative dining options including vegetarian and gluten-free items. This also included the beverage selection which included your typical beer and wines but also Omission. Based out of Portland, OR, Omission is one of the first gluten-free beers I’ve ever tried that actually TASTES like a beer (without the bloat). The reason it tastes so great and not like cider like most gluten-free beers? Omission is actually made with traditional beer ingredients, including malted barley with the gluten magically removed. If you find yourself the opportunity, give Omission a taste. You might be surprised yourself!

The first items up to taste were three sandwiches pictured above. From left to right they are Chick’n Salad, Avocado Power Lunch, and the BSR Sandwich. One thing to note is everything was served in bite size portions (or we would blow up like Violet Beauregarde!) so some of these items may be presented slightly differently than they will be at The Players.

All three of these were good. The Chick’n Salad was a nice surprised because it’s actually vegan being made out of chick peas instead of chicken. I loved that they snuck some celery in there too (just the right amount). I’m a huge fan of Avocado, so the Avocado Power Lunch was tasty. It’s served on a gluten-free bun which was pretty crumbly. It was a bit messy and might be a bit difficult to eat walking around on the course…buuuut that might all depend no how it’s actually served. If it’s wrapped up in paper of some sort, it might stay together more easily. Lastly, the BSR Sandwich was their take on a BLT but with Turkey Bacon. This too was tasty (but I’m not on the Turkey Bacon train. Gimme the real stuff).

Lastly we sampled three more items. Clockwise from the upper left below, we tried  THE PLAYERS Signature Item, Mayport Shrimp and Grits with Fried Green Tomato,  the Steak Sandwich with Grilled Onions, the BLT with Turkey Bacon, and a Black Bean Patty Melt.

Below is a photo showing how the Shrimp and Grits will actually be presented to give you an idea of the portion size. If you’re a fan of shrimp & grits, this is definitely something you might enjoy. It’s served with Black Eyed Peas and Ham Grits. I loved the addition of the Black Eyed Peas and the fact you get a whole fried green tomato as well. I personally didn’t try the Skirt Stake, so I can’t offer any feedback on that. The Bubba Turkey Burger was pretty much just that. a BUBBA Turkey Burger. The last item, the Black Bean Patty Melt, sorta stole the show. It was a grilled black bean burger (which wasn’t mealy like some black bean burgers can be), with caramelized onions and soy cheese on a Whole Wheat Bun. This was tasty, but I personally don’t care for soy. If they server this with regular cheese, I just might snatch one up when I’m there.

I think that looks pretty tasty! I like that it’s a long rectangular plate. It also will come with a clear plastic cover too.

After the food parade, we took a golf cart ride around the grounds and chatted about a few of the tips and improvements they have with traffic and parking this year.

I’ll be honest, this is actually a tip I don’t want you to know. In fact, I highly recommend you continue on as lemmings and try to access Sawgrass by driving south down A1A. Why’s that? Because the way I get there is a breeze and I don’t want that to change!! In fact, last year, we met our friends Jimmy & Blakeley at THE PLAYERS. We both left our houses at the same time. They drove down A1A, and we went came from the south. We literally waited on them for 30 minutes after we parked. PLUS it’s just such an easier drive. No stop and go. Smooth sailing almost all the way there.

What is this magical route, you ask?   Use CR210/Nocatee Parkway.

I know for some of you this might not make sense. You’d be going waaaay out of you way to access this, but it just might be easier than sitting in that bumper to bumper traffic.

Now, knowing that.. THIS tip will save you some money. THE PLAYERS have a new “Four for Free” policy which allows cars with four or more guests per vehicle to park for FREE Thursday through Sunday. You DO need to download a parking voucher online at www.PGATOUR.COM/theplayers (click on the “Tickets” tab),  in advance which allows free parking in the general lot off of CR210.

And one lasssst tip for you JUST from me. There’s an Irish bar called Mulligans Pub, in Sawgrass Village just outside the gates for THE PLAYERS. When you’ve had enough fun in the sun and golf for the day, they have happy hour daily from 3 – 9 p.m including half price domestic draft beer, house wines, and well drinks AND happy hour apps. (see below for those)

Here’s to a great upcoming week at The Players!

Do you plan to attend this year? 

Thursday I set out for my second class at CrossFit 904. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect since my first class on Monday was an Open class with a partner WOD setup.

Driving up the street, I recognized a few people from the class running down the street. I know that wasn’t part of the WOD because I’d looked up what the day’s workout was going to be on their blog before heading to class. (Honestly, I was scared excited to see what torture challenge was ahead of me so I’d actually looked it up the night before) .

When I checked, I was excited to see I would be tackling my first “girl workout” The “girl workouts” are all named a different girl names (Angie, Barbara, Chelsea, Cindy etc). These are mixed into the WODS throughout the year as sort of a ‘skills test’ because it’s the same workout every time. It’s easy to keep track of what you did and compare it to the time a few months prior. Now there are probably a few misconceptions to what this is. A “girl workout” does not have the same connotation as “you throw like a girl”. In fact, girl workouts typically involve a bit more pain, sweat, hard work and post-workout cursing. In fact, these are so ‘monumental’, there’s a huge board hanging on the wall to record the best times of the group. (I need to get a non-blurry picture!)

I was actually running late because my boss decided he wanted to chat with me right before I was about to leave. (How does that ALWAYS happen when I have somewhere to be??) Thankfully traffic was in my favor and I’d made it just a few minutes late. When I showed up, there were significantly less cars parked in the parking lot compared to Monday. (I’m pretty sure I grabbed the last parking spot for Monday’s class). When I got inside, I saw we had a class of about 10 or so people. A good group size, I’d say.

I chatted with Josh, the owner/trainer, who said the run was part of the warm up. Since I was running late, I could either do a short run which he described as “to the stop sign and back”, or he explained that the best warm-up for today’s WOD was actually burpees. He gave me the option of cranking out 10 of those instead. I ended up choosing to do 10 burpees, which I was surprised were fairly easy.  If you’re unfamiliar with what a burpee is, you can view this video on YouTube. Even if you aren’t familiar, click over and read the comments. They’re hilarious.

In case I haven’t explained it clearly, each class is made up of 4 sections: Warm up, Sill/Strength, WOD, Stretch. So far we’d completed the Warm Up, , so the next step was Skill/Strength. Here you practice an exercise. Sometimes it’s whatever’s in that day’s WOD, sometimes you practice a different workout. It’s all to ensure you’re doing the moves correctly, so you avoid injury.

There were three people in the class that were new-ish, so we split the group into two groups for the Skill/Strength session. There were several instructors in that day’s class, so one instructor hung out with us and make sure we knew how to do each of the day’s WOD’s movements.

Today’s WOD was pull-ups, pushups, sit-ups and squats. We took turns doing a few of them in front of the instructor. For the pull ups, I was really hesitant, because I know I can’t do an unassisted pull up. I assumed I would be using the rings instead of a pull up, but nope. I was wrong. They had me using bands. In fact, I used a few bands. If was great to be able to do a pull up similar to how everyone else was doing it.

I knew I could do pushups, but apparently at CrossFit, they do ‘em differently. I usually put my arms out perpendicular, but here I actually needed them close to my sides. I worked on that for a bit. I was good to go for the Sit-ups and squats.

After that, it was time to get started with the WOD. There were several options for today’s wod. If you wanted to RX (which means do the prescribed workout/weight), you were actually to do the above workout one time, 100 of each, so 100 pull ups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats. If you did it good enough, you would get your name up on the board.

If you weren’t up to that challenge, you could do the four rounds of 25 of each workout. I decided to go that route since it was only my second class. Plus, I wanted to give myself the chance to improve on my time next time. (hahahaha totally kidding here!) If you aren’t sure if you can do 25 of each, you could do the L2 or L1 workouts which are 20 or 15 of each. I decided to start with 25 of each, and if I needed to back down at any point, I could drop down to 20 or 15.

They started the clock, and we got started. I did the workout in order starting with the pull ups, then moving onto pushups, situps and squats. The first round went well. The second round I was a bit more tired, but still kickin’. The third round was a bit more challenging. I could definitely feel myself working hard. On this round, I decided to drop down to the 20s on the Pullups and Pushups. Those two workouts were the hardest for me. I didn’t want to strain myself or get injured at all.

After the fourth round, I was glad to see I didn’t finish last. In fact, there were a few people after me. I liked how the workout was scaled because the more experienced people decided to attempt to RX the workout. As a result, they were still crankin’ away at their 100s. I’m used to being the last person working out at times, so seriously, this was nice.

I was beat, but I stuck around the area to cheer on the few people still cranking away at their 100s.

Finally I finished at 23:13. Can’t wait to try this one again in a few months!

Recently, I was invited to attend a special dinner with Firehouse Subs called “Meet the Founders”.

At the event, we had the opportunity to hear both, Chris & Robin Sorensen, aka the founders, tell the Firehouse Subs story. If you’ve heard a Firehouse Subs radio or TV commercial, these are “the guys” with the incredibly recognizable voices. It was a fun night where we had the opportunity to learn about what makes Firehouse Subs superior to other sub locations. Back in 1994 Firehouse Subs was founded by the two firefighting brothers who strive hard to provide quality over quantity. In fact they even serve high quality meat (USDA Choice) that’s never frozen and sliced daily.

Knowing this, let’s get to the Food! I had the opportunity to try three different subs at Firehouse. This was actually a big deal to me because I’ve only ever ordered one sub at Firehouse, The Italian. It was amazing, so I never tried to order anything else.

They started the sub parade with their new Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar. This was seriously good, saucy, and cheesy. The Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar is made with USDA Choice beef brisket smoked over hickory for 16+ hours, then smothered in melted cheddar and Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce.

Next we enjoyed New York Steamer Sub made with corned beef brisket, pastrami, melted provolone, mustard, mayo, and Italian dressing.

Lastly, we each got an Italian, my absolute favorite sub of all time in the whole wide world. Stuffed with genoa salami, pepperoni, ham, melted provolone, Italian dressing and seasonings. What makes this soooooo good? They steam the meat and the cheese while they’re toasting the bread. (Not to mention all the other good stuff in there)

We also had the chance to try the Hook and Ladder. Unfortunately, I professed my love to the Italian too long, so I missed out on trying this one.

One of the best things of the visit (aside from meeting the Founders and trying all the different subs) is they gave us some gift cards to share the love of Firehouse with our friends and readers! I set aside 3 $10 gift cards to giveaway.

To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post, telling me which Firehouse Sub is your favorite and how you like it? Fully involved?

I will randomly select a winner on Monday, April 29.

**I was provided free sampling and gift cards from Firehouse Subs. All thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced by Firehouse Subs**