Joe Turic Photography

Festivus Games

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If you told me a year ago that I’d be competitively weightlifting, wearing wrist straps and a belt, in an effort to clean and jerk 165 lbs while people cheered me on, I wouldn’t have believed you — and that’s just a piece of what I did this past Saturday.  I’ve been doing Crossfit for a little over a year now. The last post I wrote about it was actually close to a year ago, when the box that I go to, CFMH, had their one year anniversary.  Some months after I started, when I began to see some results and got comfortable with double unders, my coach said, “soon you’ll be going to a competition”.

Of course I immediately dismissed this. Me? Compete at Crossfit? I could barely Rx the daily workouts!

Festivus is a crossfit competition geared towards novice and intermediate crossfitters and was taking place at a box near me, Crossfit Orange. I signed up (intermediate!) not knowing what to expect. I’ll save you the suspense, I came in last place. While that stings a little bit, it really doesn’t bother me. I have to remember to keep things in perspective. Literally a year ago I didn’t know what a clean and jerk or a thruster was, and then on Saturday I was able to clean and jerk 155lbs three times in 45 seconds. That’s an amazing accomplishment, and my collarbone has the bruises to say so. It was a long day, but filled with friends, food, exercise and beer (the CFMH tent could have been mistaken for a tailgate at a football game).  Now I have a goal of clean and jerking 200 lbs by the end of 2013, let’s see if I can get there 🙂

Also, for those curious, here are the descriptions of the 3 WODs we did:

1. 12 minutes to establish a 3 rep max ground to overhead. All 3 reps must be performed within a 45 second time period.  Athletes may snatch,clean & jerk, clean and push press or any other method that takes the weight from the floor to a locked out position overhead. — I got 155 lbs up within the first few minutes and tried to get 165 up a few times, but would fail on my third rep.

2. 21-15-9 Row for calories, thrusters and burpees. 10 minute cap (men’s intermediate weight, 75 lbs) — I completed 2 rounds of this by the time the 10 minute cap hit.

3. Death by 10 meters. At the top of the first minute, sprint 10 m, then rest the remainder of the minute.  At the top of the second minute, sprint 10 m twice, then rest the remainder of the minute.  Continue adding another 10 m sprint at the top of each minute until you can no longer make your sprints within the minute — I completed 15 rounds and died in round 16 with 14 laps.

 

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Fresh snowfall at the Ashokan Reservoir

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We woke this morning to a bit of wet snow covering the grass and cars (which was super cool, since I didn’t realize it was going to snow).  I had to pick up my freshly tuned skis at Potter Brothers in Kingston, so I thought it’d be an excellent day to take a walk up at the Ashokan Reservoir.  The drive through the backroads around the reservoir was absolutely beautiful, with snow covering every little branch and making the landscape a winter wonderland.  Here are a few shots from the walk.

The Majestic Hudson River

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Almost every morning and almost every afternoon I drive across the Hudson River.  The tight lanes on the Mid Hudson Bridge make it so that you really have to pay attention to your driving, which is tough considering the beauty that envelops you.  Water, haze, foliage, rock, fog, ice, trains, barges, sunrises and sunsets — not to mention the actual architecture of the bridge — make the short drive always exciting.  The past week the Hudson River has seen its fair share of ice build up, and each time I cross I’ve been kicking myself for not having my camera in the car.  This morning I made a point to get under and up onto the bridge to try to capture some of the winter goodness that I see each day.