Today’s crossfit was all pullups; One pullup the first minute, two the second, three the third, etc… I got through five minutes plus two pullups. About a month ago I tried this workout and only got five minutes, so I guess this is a PR. I feel like I should be able to do more pullups though. Maybe I’d be better on a pullup bar that doesn’t wobble.

Yesterday’s workout didn’t require any kettlebells, boxes, olympic lifting, or tractor tires, so I was able to follow it to the letter. We were asked to do 7 1-rep max weighted pull-ups. The AFC doesn’t have dip belts, so I had to hold a barbell between my feet to add weight to my pullups. I warmed up with about five minutes of running, then did the WOD. I guess this was a PR since I’ve never done this workout before. My reps were 10#, 15#, 15#, 20#, 25#, 25#, 25#. Afterward, I did 3000m rowing in 14:07 and some elevated push-ups. I felt like I had a successful day.

I tried to do crossfit again yesterday.

“Elizabeth”

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

Post time to comments.

This seemed a lot harder than my last one. First, I don’t know the Olympic lifts, so doing 21 cleans was pretty daunting. Someone at the gym who did undergraduate weightlifting gave me some good tips after he noticed my horrible form. After doing the first 21 cleans poorly, I stopped. Later I realized that I should have substituted 2X squats instead. The other workout in Elizabeth is ring dips. I don’t have access to rings so I did regular dips instead. Since ring dips are so much harder than regular dips, I should have done twice as many, but I was already doing 10lb. (the last 9 reps @ 8lbs) assisted dips and getting tired. I’ll work my way up to it. I added some rowing to my workout too – 1000m @ 3.5 resistance in 4:54.1

When I worked for the Psychology department, I met a woman from Brazil in one of the labs. I had heard about a Brazilian restaurant in C-ville named Copacabana and asked her what she thought about it. She told me that it was okay, but for great Brazilian meat I had to check out Ipanema Grill or Texas de Brazil, both in Richmond. Hillary and I have a membership at a climbing gym in Richmond so we’re there somewhat regularly, but never in the evening. I figured we’d make a special trip sometime to try one of these restaurants.

Flash forward to yesterday, Hillary and I were in Richmond, used-car shopping, and we’re getting hungry. I pointed out a Fuddruckers earlier in the afternoon as a possible dinner choice, but neither of us were craving burgers. I knew Texas de Brazil was a little pricy, but Hillary reminded me that we hadn’t yet gone out for a nice dinner in celebration of her birthday. It was settled. We got directions and drove to the south side of Richmond and the restaurant.

The service was pretty cool.  Waiters walk around with chunks of grilled meat on swords and carve off pieces for you.  Most nights they have 15 different types of meat to choose from.  Needless to say, it’s all-you-can-eat.  We will probably go back there with family when they come to visit.

I don’t remember where I first read about Crossfit. I think someone mentioned it in a thread on Lifehacker.  After reading their website I was hooked. Their style of intense scheduled workouts caught my attention. Yesterday I did my first crossfit workout, although slightly modified. The workout was named Helen (most of their workouts have women’s names) which consists of a 400m run, 21 1.5 pood kettlebell swings, and 12 pullups all done three times, and timed. I didn’t have access to any kettlebells so I did 45 lb. squats instead. After the workout, which took me 32 minutes, I could barely walk down the stairs because my legs were so weak.

This morning, my legs, biceps, and shoulders are pretty sore. I thought that I might do today’s workout, but it’s 120 pullups and 120 dips. Not gonna’ happen.

On Friday, while Hillary was at a halloween costume party, I started a food project that I have wanted to do for a few months. I wanted to make great homemade corn tortillas. Ever since I ate at a Panchero’s restaurant with their “tortillas while-you-wait” I’ve wanted to know how to make this delicious food item.

My firt try wasn’t too successful. We bought a tortilla press from Sur la Table in Richmond a while back, and made a batch of cornflour and water tortillas soon thereafter. They were dreadful. They were stiff, didn’t bend, but most importantly, they tasted wrong. They tasted like badly cooked unleavened bread. Our diner that night was very bad tacos.

Finally, few weeks ago, I found the answer – Nixtamalization. The procedure is to cook the dried corn kernels in slaked lime and water very slowly and then let it sit overnight. The next morning, you rinse the corn and purée it into a dough. I received this kernel of wisdom from my favourite TV personality, the Bill Nye of food, Alton Brown. We made breakfast tacos (small breakfast burritos) for breakfast both yesterday and today and, needless to say, they were delicious. Hillary said that they were on par with my Neapolitan ragù. The dough was easy to work with this morning after being in the fridge for a day.

We will be making this recipe again for sure.