Today's Workout. For time: 300 cals echo bike. 26:12.

Tuesday. 7:14 am. Sweat is dripping off my nose after the warmup. Coach is writing the WOD on the whiteboard. 6 ROUNDS FOR TIME. 60 double unders. 30 Russian kettlebell swings (53/35). 15 burpees. 25 minute cap. I grab a well worn 35 pound kettlebell. Thick handle, black and rust. Perfect. I lay my skipping rope on the mat in front of me. I haven’t done double-unders in 3 months. Do I remember how? It’s a small class. The lady is fit. She’ll finish under the cap. My buddy Rocco is the third. He’s 2 age groups below me, late forties. Super fit. He swears he’s a software engineer, but he gives off a special forces vibe. He grabbed the green 53 lb kettlebell. What a savage! I do a little mental math. 4 minutes per round, 6 rounds, 24 minutes. A minute for the skipping, a minute for the swings, and 90 seconds for the burpees. And even some rest. Good. 3-2-1…GO! I go unbroken on the dubs, unbroken on the swings, and unbroken on the burpees. I glance at the clock. 2:47. I went out hot on purpose. I know Rocco is watching and pacing off me. Maybe I can drag him into deep water? Round 2. 6:45. A more sensible pace. Moving well. 3 deep breaths on transitions. Round 3 gets real in a hurry. I can hear Rocco cussing as his dubs fall apart. But mine are starting to struggle, and I’m breathing fire on the burpees. Round 4. I need to gear down on the burpees and start sneaking extra breaths in between reps. And Rocco goes unbroken. He gets 3 deep breaths as I finish up, stand up and walk to my rope. Neck and neck going into round 5. Round 6. I’m on burpee 7 as he finishes ahead of me. I crawl to a floor fan after the final burpee. 23:27. Got sweaty, had fun, and high-fived my friends. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Once upon a time after a competition I would completely unplug for 2-3 weeks. You come out of 6-8 weeks of prep sore, tired, and drained. I always used to underestimate how much metabolic waste my systems accumulated leading up to an event. What was the impact? I would sit on the couch watching TV, and tell my brain stories about how much I deserved a break, how tired I was, and how overtraining was the devil. The couch is 5 feet from the fridge. Guess what would happen? I’d go back into the gym 3 weeks later and literally start from zero. Again. That’s the curse of being a Masters athlete. This month I’m trying something new. Maintaining fitness is the goal for December. No crazy Christmas parties doing tequila shots. No eating half a cake because you don’t want it to go to waste. Just showing up to class every day and scaling appropriately to maintain the work stimulus. Let me give you an example. Today’s WOD was 10 rounds for time. 6 double dumbbell thrusters at 50/35. 8 hand release pushups. And 10 double dumbbell deadlifts at 50/35. I haven’t done 50 pound dumbbell thrusters in 6 years. It’s no longer reality for my shoulders. At age 57, my RX weight is 35. So today I did 25s. Pushups aggravate the AC joint in my shoulder. So I modified it to an “up-down” which is like the top half of a burpee to a tape line on the floor. I did 35s on the deadlifts. 3-2-1-go! The first round was 1:04. I came out too hot. What else is new? Breathe. Recover. Picked up the 25s at 1:14. Today’s goal was simply to move well. No wandering off to look for chalk or water, or to tie my shoelaces. Never more than 3 breaths on transitions. The occasional extra breath mid-set if necessary. Suave es rapido! Smooth is fast. 14.47. Mission accomplished. It’s 8:43 am. I’m 50 g of protein into my day. Second cup of black coffee. Daily disciplines done daily create freedom. The 2026 CrossFit Open is 60 days away.

They laughed when you shared your goal. They doubted every step you took. Go make them eat their words. DOMINATE.

Every time I train, I look for the “gold nugget”. Let me explain. Today I walked over to the box for the 7 am CrossFit class. I glanced at the whiteboard and saw both a strength component and a short metcon. Excellent! After our warmups, I partnered with Big Frank. He’s built like the hulk. In his early forties, he recently competed in the Intermedio Division at the Cholula Games. Perfect. Every minute on the minute we did 3 deadlifts. After we warmed up with 10 reps at 135, we did working sets at 185, 205, 225 and 275. Francisco slapped on 25s, and did 325. I politely declined that weight. That was my “gold nugget”. Today was supposed to be 85% of max weight. I hit 315 for 1 in 2019. Last year I remember doing 275 for 1. So I was surprised after the fact to personally hit 275 for 3 reps. Was it tough? Sure. But very, very doable. Today I had more. And I kept it in the tank. It took me a long time to learn that you don’t have to burn the castle to the ground every single time to still call it a victory. And there was still more work to do. The WOD was elegant. On a 14 minute running clock, do As Many Rounds As Possible of a 200 meter run, 10 deadlifts, and 10 hand release pushups. Every round, add 5 more deadlifts and 5 more pushups. If I can do 4 rounds, that’s 10-15-20-25. I put a 45 pound wheel on each side of the bar. Today 135 pounds felt right. I finished the round of 25 with 67 seconds left on the clock. I sprinted the final 200 meters and got 8 final gasping deadlifts before the clock went beep beep and coach yelled “TIEMPO!”. I ended up lying flat on the floor staring at the ceiling . There is a powerful feeling when you make a plan and execute it. Do you look for “gold nuggets” in your day? What have you discovered?

3:47 am. Lola sat on my face, again. 13 minutes before my alarm clock went off. Lola is our cat. She’s hungry. Then I sat upright in bed like an electric shock had hit me. Competition Day! Just 15 days earlier I had signed up for a CrossFit competition across town on the spur of the moment. The organizers had a 40+ Masters division. At 57 I’m usually competing with 35 year olds. Event 1 was starting in just 2 hours. It was a brisk 2 kilometer trail run in a local park in the west end. I fed the cats, had a shower, drank a protein shake and called an Uber at 5:00 am. At 5:52 am I was standing outside Parque Ecologico del Poniente. By 6:15 am the organizers were calling 85 athletes to the mass starting line. I had just a few moments to find my rabbit. What’s a rabbit? I started running crosscountry in grade 8. My eyesight is terrible. So I always look for that lean, mean rocketship that I can run behind at the start of a race. Squinting, I saw a blurry red splotch. It was either a mailbox or a lamppost. Nope, it was my rabbit. There he is. Señor Conejo Rojo. Red Rabbit Tres…dos…uno…VAMOS! He took off like a cannon. There were teams of 3 holding ropes beside us. There were Intermedio women with amazing muscles. Advanced men with six packs on top of their six packs. Mass starts are so crazy! I just hit the accelerator and tried to keep up. We were flying on the trail, absolutely flying! I remember thinking this rabbit will cool his jets pretty soon. But 600 meters down the path my lungs were baking, and my legs were trembling. I geared down before my engine blew up completely. The red blur turned the corner and I saw him do a 180 at the halfway turnaround. On my left a stocky dude cruised past me and had 20 meters on me as we all made a hard right down into the bowels of the park. This part of Mexico is muy plano. Very, very flat. No mountains, no hills. But this park is a special prehistoric throwback. Cliffs everywhere. Huge up and down hills. And I’m running alone, engine baking in the red zone, trying not to wipe out on the gravel paths. Then suddenly…. LOOK OUT! I haven’t run hills in a decade. And suddenly I was hurtling down a steep drop at breakneck speed. Self preservation kicked in as I tried to keep my feet under me. I heard the scrape of gravel as a blur zoomed by me, and then another. What was that? I hit the straightaway at the base of the drop and realized 2 guys had blown by me. I mean they had BLOWN BY ME! That was some fast and furious type running. I could hear the cheering at the finish line in the distance. Time to empty the tank and catch those guys! And of course, I suddenly realized too late that the last 200 meters of the race was uphill! My legs, already filled with acid and regret, refused to give me top gear. The three of us had caught up to the second place guy. The Red Rabbit was nowhere to be seen. And the four of us were locked into a battle with gravity and fatigue on the hill climb. Ever been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and seen someone walking on the sidewalk faster than you? It felt like my shoes were 50 pound concrete blocks. I crossed the finish line in 5th, 4 seconds behind the 3 way logjam for second in 8:49. And Red Rabbit? He ran a mind-numbing 7:40 at age 50. Part of me was mildly satisfied for picking him out of the crowd as the man to beat. I had a feeling he was fast. Oh man did he drag me into deep water. But going into a strange trail run, in a hilly park, basic Spanish and with a mass start? I was satisfied that I had given 100%. I still had 5 more hours of CrossFit competition. 3 more lifting events. Spoiler alert…I didn’t win. But at my age, you disconnect from the scoreboard. The real battle is me vs ME. Can I show up on competition day and beat my scores in practice? Can I execute the workouts to the best of my ability? Can I be an example for the parents of the younger athletes? Can I smile and say “buenas dias” first? One day perhaps I will be too old to do burpees and run hills. But until then? I will keep showing up early, squinting at the clock, and doing my best.

DELOAD WEEK. E3MOM 25 cal row 12 burpees

Saturday Competition 6:30 am 2 km trail run. 8:52 8:30 am 21-15-9. Dumbbell snatch 30# each arm, 14# wallballs. 5:40 11:45 am 7 minute AMRAP. 5 deadlifts, 5 power cleans, 5 front squats, 5 burpees over 65# bar. 7+5 2 minute rest...then 3 minutes to set max weight in complex. 1 deadlift, 1 hang clean, 1 front squat. 125-135-145.

Today's Workout. FOR TIME 50-40-30-20-10 CALS ECHO BIKE Double KB DEADLIFTS (53#) 24:56

Today's Workout COMPLEX 1 snatch, 1 hang snatch, 1 oh squat 65-75-85 1 clean. 1 hang clean, 1 split jerk 95-105-115-125-135

Today's Workout. For Time. 400 m run with 35# sandbag 12 burpees 25 cal row 12 burpees 400 m run with 35# sandbag 12 burpees 10:09

Today's Workout For Time, 8 min cap. 21 db snatches each arm 35# 21 wall balls 14# 15 db snatches each arm 35# 15 wall balls 14# 9 db snatches each arm 35# 9 wall balls 14# 7:19 3:00 max weight complex 1 deadlift, 1 hang clean, 1 fr squat 105-135-155

Today's Workout 3 reps back squat every 90 seconds 65-75-95-115-135-155-160-165-170-135-135-135-135

Today's Workout. snatch complex, every 90 seconds. 1 power snatch. 1 hang squat snatch 65-75-85-90 every 90 seconds, 3 hang squat snatch 75-75-75-80 Bulgarian tempo squats with 35# kettlebell every 2 minutes, 3 sets, 6 reps per leg 5:00 AMRAP 50 m shuttle runs 17 reps

Today's workout. COMPLEX EVERY 90 SECONDS 1 hang squat clean - 1 front squat - 1 split jerk 65-75-95-115-125-130

Today's Workout. FOR TIME. 2 rounds RUN 7.5M shuttle runs x8 16 hang db snatch 35# 32 box jump overs 24" 4:11

Today's Workout. 4 RDS E2MOM 6 box jumps 24" 8 pullups 8 burpees 3 chest to bar pullups For Time 5-4-3-2-1 Wallwalks 10-8-6-4-2 Hand release pushups 5:41