Nice group photo has gone up on the Crossfit London site following yesterday’s Oly workshop.
http://crossfitlondonuk.com/2011/02/crossfit-london-olympic-lifting-i-february-2011-review/comment-page-1/#comment-5995
I’m in the black vest and bandana and grey pants.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Nice group photo has gone up on the Crossfit London site following yesterday’s Oly workshop.
http://crossfitlondonuk.com/2011/02/crossfit-london-olympic-lifting-i-february-2011-review/comment-page-1/#comment-5995
I’m in the black vest and bandana and grey pants.[/quote]
HA! you look awesome! Super badass and hot!
Glad to see your still training hard, especially with the work stress. Hang in there! I got my finger crossed that everything smooths over.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Nice group photo has gone up on the Crossfit London site following yesterday’s Oly workshop.
http://crossfitlondonuk.com/2011/02/crossfit-london-olympic-lifting-i-february-2011-review/comment-page-1/#comment-5995
I’m in the black vest and bandana and grey pants.[/quote]
Totally badass for sure, so happy that you had a great time!!!
One day at a time, Cal…
Do you get ‘summer break?’
Not sure if you asked, but could talk to the head mistress herself for ideas on how SHE would do things?
I mean, they have to understand that you just jumped into all of this without prior experience.
I commend anyone who has the patience to work with children. Stress is a killer, literally, so don’t let it get the best of you. I’m sure that the de-stressing via training will help you through all of it.
MiM - yes there’s a summer break, if I last that long. This is the term where the headmistress has to decide whether to offer a contract or not, so I could be gone before Easter if things don’t work out.
Sun came out again today which meant run time. I didn’t want to do the same 7.5 mile run as I did the last two weeks, so I decided I would head for Streatham Common instead of Clapham. Now if you were reading my log back in September, you’ll remember I entered a cross country race on Streatham Common, which I thought would be a nice change (I usually run 10Ks on Clapham Common, and this was around the same distance, but different scenery) but turned out to be something akin to the Bataan Death March. Streatham Common is on the side of a hill, which I’d forgotten about, and is also muddy, and three laps of that just about finished me off. Put it this way - I’d run up to 9 miles in training, but this (approximately 5 mile) run had me stopping to walk on several occassions.
Anyway, since I’d not been back to the scene of the crime, as it were, I decided to go and give it another shot. Just one lap of what was roughly the course, then back to Tooting Common and home. Without walking. Obviously, when I did the race I walked up there first, did my three laps and then walked home again. This time I ran there, and back, with a lap of Tooting Common to boot, which totalled approximately 6.5 miles on mapmyrun.com.
As it turns out, I couldn’t quite make it around Streatham Common without stopping to walk a couple of times, but that was simply because there were a couple of steep, muddy bits my Nike Frees just couldn’t cope with. It was only a few steps here and there to traverse the mud, so I don’t feel any sense of failure about that. I didn’t stop from exhaustion, at least.
One thing I don’t like about that route is that it includes some busy roads, and I had to stop for traffic (jogged on the spot) a couple of times, then negotiate a busy high street where I was forced to breathe in car fumes, pedestrian’s cigarette smoke and cheap perfume. But I reckon I’ll give it another shop and shoot for two laps of that common. Probably once it’s a bit less muddy.
So that was me today. I was almost tempted to go to the gym as well but once I’d run and had my bath, it was lunchtime and it gets pretty busy in there around then. I’ll see if I have time tomorrow, after I’ve visited the other school to shadow their PE teacher for a morning.
And that’s me done.
Sorry to hear about stress at work, I hope everything works out. Don’t talk about unemployment just as yet!
You’re 5 steps ahead of me on kicking feet onto wall to do a handstand. I find that to be difficult, which is why when I do my HSPUs, I have to walk my feet up the wall.
Hmm, maybe you’ll be doing free-standing HSPUs shortly. Move over Bruce Lee.
I hate having to stop for traffic. When you’re really tired that’s a killer. SOunds like a very tough course and a good run. When is your half again?
Not until May 8th. Got plenty of time. (I’m sure it’ll whiz by though!)
Today I went to observe the PE teacher at another school (their head is a governor of the school where I work) who turned out to be a friendly fellow from New Zealand with nice biceps. I watched him teach some early years classes and it was useful, then we had a chat. His school is mixed and when I mentioned the various problems I was having (girls being catty with each other, moody strops and the like) he said he didn’t really experience that. I guess it’s more a product of girls being together. I got some useful hints and tips though, so it was time well spent.
Then I hit the gym for some oly practise with just the bar, and a friendly Aussie guy turned up and started doing snatches and we chatted a bit (he was coming back after a layoff) which was cool. I did some hang snatches, cleans and jerks (not that many, those buggers are tiring) before hitting the bench.
Bar x 20
30kg x 10
40kg x 10
50kg x 5
55kg x 3
60kg x 1
Had Aussie spot me on the last one - I haven’t lifted that much in, hmm, over a year? Due to the shoulder problems. It went up very slowly (he didn’t touch the bar, just gave me a hand off) but at least it went up at all. I’m a long way from being as strong as I was the last time my shoulder got pissy with me - I think I was getting 5 reps with 60kg at one point and a single with 70kg so I need to work back up to that.
Then did some box squats - 6 risers and a plate, which sits just below my knee.
Bar x 10
30kg x 10 (I think it was 10…I was distracted by a funny twinge in the side of my left glute - not sure if it was minimus or piriformis but something wasn’t right there. Though I’m not surprised given the piriformis syndrome and sciatica).
40kg x 5
50kg x 3 (These were hard. But at least it’s over 100lbs).
Took the plates off and did two sets of front squats with the naked bar.
After, popped next door to the mats and practised hand and head stands. Handstands were against the wall. I nailed one of them, but from that point instead of getting better, they got worse, so I think it was probably fatigue setting in.
And that was me done.
Well done on the handstands and the box squats! And for not benching in over a year 60k is definitely good stuff.
Hm…an Aussie and a Kiwi all in one day…Its like Ibiza '99 
Cleans before benching… ballsy.
That’s a very nice bench, especially after not benching low-reps in a while.
Killed it today Cal.
Cal: That’s a very sweet just coming back bench you have! And I’m glad to read that your squats and handstands are coming along too. Very nice.
nice benching 
3 hours is a long time! Glad you had fun with it Yay for Kiwi guys with biceps (I’m a New Zealander myself). I do think girls can be catty when you get a bunch of them together… His girls are probably too focused on his biceps to be catty lol.
Ha! Well they are primary school age (3-11) so I don’t think they’d be interested just yet…well maybe the older ones. But only a little, lol.
oh lol, i didn’t realize they were that young. i was going to be a secondary school teacher for a while there but realized that i wouldn’t have any idea what to do if i got a kid as badly behaved as i was :-/ i don’t envy you with trying to organize / control a bunch of kids. i am sure that it is something that you can get better at with practice, though, and i really do hope that your school gives you assistance and time to settle into the swing of things.
Nope, I remember the catty girls in my elem grade school. 3rd, 4th grade girls… who’da thunk?
They’re also more likely to crush on teachers than the older ones, at least what I’ve seen. Daddy issues?.. I got no idea.
I do remember the mud run from hell, and I think its great that you went back to the course to kick its ass. And, look at that benching! Your bits and pieces might finally be healing up.
Heh. My knees hurt, but they’ve had a pounding this weekend. Did some rolling tonight - hockey balls ftw!
Good stuff Cal!
Glad you got some useful tips out of your observation…
And lookit you kickin some barbell BUTT!!