Took advantage of jet lag to hit a rare 7AM class. So good to be back! Sadly a month with no squatting was long enough to forget everything I learned about LBBSQ rack position. I did 170x3x5. That last set I re-racked after every rep to debug this. It started to click at the end. Thanks, Nick. WOD: 6:55, legs tucked on the rings.

Oh, apps. Someone needs to make one that provides an intuitive way to log WODs. I just use Evernote for this and any other kind of random note-taking b/c it syncs with all of my computers and even has a web interface. Sort of like Dropbox, but for random text snippets instead of files. I'm on the road a lot, and use City Maps 2 Go, which uses your GPS even when your internet connection is off (so you don't get, um, "milked" for $20/MB when abroad). The Tabata timer is good for the road, too. Hotel gyms are pretty uninspiring, but you can do eight rounds of a random bodyweight exercise anywhere, and somehow it helps to have the 3,2,1 go noise and a whistle to count rounds.

@Fox, you must go directly to Black Gold on Court St. They sell actual "record albums" (and very good coffee), with, oddly enough, a strong 90's metal/hardcore bias. I got a pretty sweet Monk/Coltrane record there a couple of weeks ago, but was sorely tempted to get D.R.I's "Dealing With It" and a ton of Black Flag. Also, to anyone who caught my fierce unintentional dismount during the kipping tutorial last night and was concerned: I am totally fine except for some light bruises on my butt and ego.

Wow, no one has mentioned Prime Meats yet? The only problem is that the non-paleo options are incredibly tempting. For lunch, perhaps the only advantage to working in the far reaches of Yorkville is the Yvonne Yvonne Jamaican food truck on the corner of 70th and York. If you are ever at any of the hospitals up here around lunchtime, do the curried goat with collards and cabbage.

Hello and happy Fox day from the frozen-over midwest. Airports are closed, so I won't make it back for the inaugural 8PM Monday class. I am super bummed about this because I leave for the holidays on Weds. So, Happy Holidays everyone! See you in 2011. The folks I'm staying with did make the treacherous trip out to their globo gym today, where I found an erg gathering dust in a corner and tried my hand at a 2000m row. Two aspects of this made me miss CFSBK: 1) with no cueing, I failed to keep my first 500m under control and was having an out-of-body experience by 800m. So I had to start over after some down time watching mostly Coors beer commercials and listening to an extended Peter Frampton guitar solo. 2) with no friendly competition and encouragement, I barely broke 9:00 on my second attempt. I was happy with my last 500 at 2:00, though.

I like sprints, even on Degraw, even in this one WOD where they were mixed with OHS and I knew walking the next day would be a challenge. I agree with Nick: pop-up sprints were almost as much fun as dodgeball. Yay sprints. I would go to Red Hook for sprints, especially during taco season.

I am all about stealth mobilization and greasing the groove lately. The augmented leg-crossing thing David was describing is, like, how I sit now. When I can get away with it, I run through some of the "how to survive a plane seat" stuff, too. As for my goal of shooting the duck, well, the duck is safe for a while. I did not have a good plan for getting there, and it turns out that working on a deep, narrow two-legged squat doesn't do that much for the stability/hip-opening issues I'm going after with this goal. I did just find this tutorial breaking pistols down into parts and will try that out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzVMNoxoxTU

Looks like this pig is ready for upper body work this cycle: http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/pig-walks-on-two-legs Also, this thread is making me realize I need to mix things up more and hit more pull days. I could be the "DON'T" example for all of these. See folks at Oddly Strong tomorrow?

55/60# in 6 rounds. Fancy running shoes were pushing me onto the balls of my feet during OHS. Took them off for the last round, including the run. Anyone want to buy a pair of fancy running shoes? My strategy for FGB will mostly involve trying not to throw up until the end. How many points for getting it all in the bucket?

First exposure to OHS since foundations, hard time keeping arms, shoulder blades tight, and the bar straight overhead. 75 - 75F -75 shuttles: 7:43 and also F Dogtown. I'm going to go donate to everyone I was in foundations with. I see Josh M and Erica N up there, who else?

1 pood KBs, 24" jumps, normal push ups, white band for pull ups. Two rounds in about 10 minutes then spent the next half hour in suburban Pukieville. This has happened to me before with box jumps -- something about getting my heart rate up and *then* messing with my vestibular system is a recipe for serious orthostatic hypotension. I think. Does that sound plausible to anyone who knows more about this kind of thing than I do?

This is great. Good advice, and good to hear about other fellow back-pain people are doing. The main thing I try to do for my back is focus on being "in my body" when lifting (or doing any CF movements, really). I need to undo years of long, slow cardio workouts while listening to the radio. On that score, the pace and skill focus of on-ramp has been perfect for me. Last night: WU: DU practice and plank, then mid-hang clean drills 5-5-5 65% back squat: 45 75 95 110 110 110 WOD: scaled down Cindy AMRAP 10:00 5 push-ups 7 squats 9 ring rows 8+5PU...I was surprised that the ring rows slowed me down. Last few sets were 3+2+2+2. Blech.

This was my first time doing any kind of benchmark and I was pretty psyched for it. LBBSQ: 155 165 175 Press: 75 85 90 DL (trap): 205 225 245 Total: 510 I had assumed I was going to be way closer to "untrained" than "novice" on the rankings, esp after tweaking my back two weeks ago, so I'm pretty happy with this. Thanks, coaches, for an awesome day, and for what, apparently has been some substantial progress over the past three months!