Sunday 3.8: One mile sled drag + Karen

Sunday. AM: 1mile sled drag, 60kg. Time 27min. PM: Benchmark workout Karen, 150 wb for time. Time 7.46.

Great weekend! Yesterday we had a family reunion, annual tradition from Pauliina's side of the family. These people are great and it's a blast hanging out with them. The event is always hosted by Pauliina's parents so we stayed at their place for the entire weekend and came back late Sunday evening. The surroundings and nature at their backyard is just a big gym in my eyes so it's difficult for me not to workout there. After breakfast we took the home made sled from the storage and it was some serious sled drag time and some playing with the pull-up bar. Later in the afternoon after fueling some food I went to my car to get wall ball and hit Karen just for fun.

Sled. Time, 27 minutes

• 1 mile sled drag, 60kg sled
• 125m downhill, 125m uphill

Credits to Pat Sherwood, host of the Crossfit Games, for posting this one on Instagram. It could not have come to a better time as we were spending the days in the countryside where we have the home-made sled, built with Kari in the springtime. Today it saw the daylight again as I decided to hit this workout. Totally different in nature to what I thought I would do with the sled. One mile of constant pulling / dragging. Today we weighted the sled for the first time, it was about 22kg, made solely from wood.

I put 38kg worth of stuff inside, a smaller kettlebell and 30kg worth of weight plates. So it ended up being 60kg. The venue was the back yard of the in-laws which is practically a city-owned park with plenty of space. I measured the distance being 125m one way and there's a slight incline on the park which made it a downhill to one way and uphill back to the starting point. One round was thus 250m. One mile equals 1.600m so it was 6 rounds + 100m.

Beforehand I thought it would be my legs that would be burning on a regular basis. And I'm not telling it wasn't so, they were definitely on a burn. What surprised me was the pain in my arms and especially elbows too. The straps came over the shoulders and I kept my hands in a tight package on my chest. Holding the straps there on a steady position for a long time caused a lot of static hold and that resulted in a misery for hands. My elbows were killing me as much as my legs.

On the first set of 100+ meters I thought this might be easier than I figured. As I turned and faced the incline for the first time my mind changed =) It was another game to work through that slight uphill. It obviously wasn't much but you don't need much when you're dragging a load behind you. On the last set I was able to jog a little 'cause the end was looming so nearby. Gave my heart to this one in the end. Awesome workout but mentally tough as you just have to walk with the sled and it feels the goal is not in sight.

Karen. Time 7.46

• 150 wall ball shots, 9kg

After recovering for couple of hours I was ready for another shot. I had no intention to go after Karen in the beginning. Just throw the ball in emom style. We measured the hight of the wall and marked it with a tape so I would know where the ball should hit the wall. Told Kari I would throw 20 wall balls in a minute, then rest for the remaining of the 60 seconds. Then maybe drop it to 15 reps after a while because it would obviously be tougher. At some point I realized I've done these about a 100 and at that point I reckoned Karen is close by and I went after her.

Couple of L-pull-ups for core work

I started by doing 20 reps per minute and it took me 40 seconds each time, so there was 20 seconds recovery after each set. Continued like tho for 4 rounds (=80reps). From then on I did 15's per minute and there was clearly more recovery time. It was welcomed with warmth. Took 4 more sets of 15 reps. At some stage I stopped looking at the clock because I'm about to complete my first Karen rx'd. The final set was 10 reps to reach 150 reps.

Karen was done in sandals this time. It's summer!

My shoulders were wasted after the workout and breathing was as heavy as the hot summer air. This was a good burner. There might be some time to be squeezed by shortening the recovery periods after the set of 15's. It took about 30 seconds (about 2sec per throw) so I could have started a little earlier. But it was emom workout at that point. My shoulders would definitely have been in more pain but what would have happened to the sets, that remains a mystery. Could have I kept working on sets of 15's to the end or would have I cut them in 10's or something like that.

Cashout. Wash the cars. Before that, move them to a proper spot

At this point we won't get an answer. This was my first Karen ever. Good benchmark workout! I enjoyed this weekend a lot. Thanks for Kari and Maija for hosting us and letting us stay over!