cesimpson

I started out with a little something inspired by an email from JB a week or so ago.

3x

250m erg @ ~1:30-1:40/500m pace

40x (20x ea. hand) 16kg KB snatches

Moving as quickly as possible from rowing machine to kettlebell and back. This was a killer.

I started to fall apart about 150m into my last row. My last set of snatches were absolutely brutal. I was burning oxygen faster than I could bring it into my body. The last few for each arm were just sluggish…muscled up, no snap, no explosion. Bad.

Then, I just laid real still on the floor and sucked air. After about 90 seconds I made a determined effort to get my breathing under control…to no avail. I just let myself gasp and suck for another 2 minutes or so. Then, it took probably another 5 minutes before I felt like I could get up and get some water. I was still breathing hard, but tolerable.

Eventually, (let that word imply it was not a ‘moderate’ amount of time) I left the ‘cardio’ room and headed for the weights. On my way out the door, the old man working the sign-in desk - at least 75 yrs. old - says, “A kettlebell…I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.” His voice sorta trailed away.

For some reason, just the way he said it, his look, everything, made me think of the Obi-Wan line from A New Hope.

“Obi-Wan? Now thats a name I haven’t heard in a long time… a long time.”

For just a half second - even shorter, really - I considered answering, “I think my uncle used one. He says they’re dead.”

But I didn’t. I was still breathing too hard to have a conversation (and didn’t really want to, anyway), so I just looked at him and smiled and kept walking. There are some stories to get out of that man, someday.

All of that was followed up by:

3x

10x CGHPS @ 95#

20x (10x ea. side) 16kg KB TGU

2 min. rest

5 min. rest

3x

10x Clean & Press @ 115#

20x (10x ea. side) 16kg KB TGU

2 min. rest

5 min. rest

3x

20x (10x ea. arm) KB Bottoms-up Presses / Overhead Presses

10x pull ups / chin ups

10x dips

10x Bent Over Barbell Rows @ 115#

I was pouring sweat. I was sucking oxygen. Lactic acid was burning virtually every muscle in my body. And the entire thing - from walking in the front door to getting in the shower, took just at one hour.

I couldn’t do that everyday, but WOW! that’s efficient. I’m going to have to add something like this to my regular rotation of ‘extras’.