Joshua Wang

My first Spartan Race! Today was my first Spartan Race. I did the "Sprint" (5-7 km, ours was 7 km) with a few friends from CrossFit Markham. Next week is the "Beast" (~20 km) in Ottawa. In the meantime, here are some highlights: Spartan Race - Post Race Photo 5-7 km run. 15 obstacles. Pure awesomeness. This was definitely a good prep for next week (knowing what to pack and what to expect). Still ... to think that we'll be doing this course 3-4 times .... blows my mind! I'm really excited for this Saturday!     Post Race Dinner :) After the race, we went to this awesome restaurant in Midland called MAD Mike's. It's a barbeque place where they make everything from scratch. I got a grass-fed bison burger, with an incredible homemade mustard, and sweet potato bun :) Definitely good times with awesome friends!

6 p.m. @ CrossFit Markham Today is a day of celebration! It's the first time I did the full CFM warm-up. One day, I'll say, "Your workout is my warm-up". But for now, I got owned by the warm-up. Anyways, here's what I did today: Warm-up 3 minutes skipping 10 arm circles 20 pass through's with PVC pipe stretches (groin, hamstring, hip flexor, etc) - Then - 3 Rounds of 15 Overhead Squats (PVC pipe) 15 Sit-ups 15 Push-ups 15 Pull-ups (kipping) Strength Warm-up, then 5 x 5 @ 145 lbs Met-con Reps: 10-20-30-40 Box jumps Walking lunges (each leg) 400 m run Time: 17:10, including idle time, thinking I was done after the 40 walking lunges :P Post-WOD fun Did some random rope climbs and HSPU. Got a new PR: 8 strict HSPU! My arms were so tired. Potluck Prep Tomorrow, we'll be racing at Toronto Island Dragon Boat Festival (we = Iron Dragons). As per tradition, we have a potluck. I decided to make "on-sale-meat awesome". Here ar

I woke up tired today, dragging my body to dragonboat practice. Wondering why I was tired and groggy during one of my favorite times of the week, I later realized I had not yet caffeinated. I returned home, and slept. I did have more energy, but still felt very tired and bleh. Temptation to drink coffee struck multiple times throughout the day, but the thought of being imprisoned by caffeine was enough to strike terror in my bones. Is this good riddance forever? I doubt it--especially with the crazy shifts I work. But I will focus on today. And getting through the rest of the day without coffee. Then I'll deal with tomorrow when tomorrow comes. At least for today, I'm finally free--and freedom is good :)

6 p.m. @ CrossFit Markham 3 Rounds for Time 12 Hang Cleans (155 lbs) 12 Burpee Pull-ups Entering the gym,  I was anything but prepared. We had arrived late, having just woke up 10 minutes to the hour. I was tired from work and spent a good part of the time stretching. "Heavy" cleans  or heavy anything do not bode well for me. For me, 155 lbs is heavy. I only recently PR'd earlies this week with 165 lbs for 1 rep. During the WOD, I did a couple unbroken, but ended up doing the rest of the hang cleans as singles. As strength is a weakness of mine, this was a good opportunity for me to get stronger. Burpee Pull-ups were fun!  I started out slow, knowing that in this kind of movement, it is more important to keep moving than to do a few reps really fast. I simply do not have that kind of physical capacity ... yet. In a sense, I felt this was my rest period, even though I went faster and sweated more. The key aspect of this movement is the coordination and set-up.

Today was our rest day, Rich Froning style. We started off chilling and meditating by the rocks .... Then jogged along the sand ... Then we tried some heroics on the wet monkey bars ... Then practiced our strict pull-ups ... Then Jireh showed us the secret to his muscle-up ... Then we did wheel barrows, inspired from yesterday's workout :) And Jon proved that he is a tank ... Then we ran hills ... Twice forwards, once backwards .... Three times ... We ended our playtime barefoot, refreshed with coconut water =)

1 p.m. @ CrossFit Markham Fight Gone Bad Three rounds of: Wall balls, 20 ft target (reps) Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 lbs (reps) Box jumps, 20" (reps) Push press, 75 lbs (reps) Row (calories) Complete as many reps / calories in a minute for each exercise. After each round, take a full rest for 1 minute. Score: 300. Apparently 400+ is a good score--definitely something to work towards. Glad I finally did this workout though, since FGB is one of the benchmarks :) 3:30 p.m. @ Some park ... with Harvest Bible Chapel Tough Mudder Team Around 2 hours of craziness :p We did some running ... Then a "warm-up" ... A fun but tough circuit ... twice ... with four different circuits ... And then a bit more running :) Motivation Then we shared about what motivates us. It was really encouraging to hear others share. For me, my ultimate motivation is Jesus Christ and what He did for me. I find working out to be a time of reflection and meditation. Sometimes, li

5 p.m. @ CrossFit Markham Good mornings: 4x45lbs, 4x95lbs, 4x135lbs, 4x165lbs, 3x4x185lbs, 2x4x165lbs - Then - 12 min AMRAP 10 Strict Pull-ups 20 Side Plyo Jumps 10 KB Swings (eye-level), 72 lbs Score: Josh: 5 Rounds + 9 Pull-ups Jireh: 4 Rounds + 9 Pull-ups 9:15 p.m. @ Home (inside) Workout of the Week (WOW), for Harvest Bible Chapel's Tough Mudder Team 30 min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible in 30 minutes) 50 squats 40 jumping jacks 30 mountain climbers 20 plank push-ups 10 military push-ups Score: Josh: 6 Rounds + 9 Squats Jireh: 6 Rounds + 43 Squats 10:20 p.m. @ Home (outside) 5 Rounds for Time 10 DB Thrusters (25 lbs dumbbells) 20 KB Swings (55 lbs) ( Jireh and I just did it to complete it, alternating between exercises. The time reflects the slowest person ... which was me of course :P ) Time: 10:10