PR: Nate 1.5

On Thursday, the CrossFit gods prescribed a fixed-time workout of the day. Probably the plurality of WODs specify an amount of work to be performed in the shortest possible time, and the next most popular category instructs the trainee to perform some number of sets and reps with the maximum possible loads, and time is not a factor.  By contrast, Thursday's workout, Nate, asks the trainee to complete as many rounds of three exercises as possible in 20 minutes.  I like to believe the high lords of CrossFit knew many CrossFitters would be busy with Thanksgiving, so they assigned a WOD that anyone, regardless of fitness level, could complete, with warmup, in under a half an hour.  For me, something like Fran or 30 Muscle-Ups for Time would have taken a lot less time, but for others, those same workouts might have taken 30 minutes or longer.   So, I guess I'm thankful for the insight with which that WOD was chosen.

Nate calls for, among other exercises, kettlebell swings with 2 poods, which equals 72 pounds.  I usually use the prescribed weight for each WOD, even though the workouts are designed for a 175-pound male and can be scaled down or up as appropriate.  Unfortunately, I have a hard time doing kettlebell swings with that much weight.  I think a certain amount of body mass is helpful for counterbalancing the kettlebell during the movement, regardless of the exerciser's strength.  So, for Nate, I do the KB swings with 1.5 poods or 54 pounds.  Even so, the hardest part of Nate 1.5, as I call it, is still the swings;  the muscle-ups and handstand push-ups are easy by comparison.

The preceding 2 paragraphs were my overly verbose way of introducing and qualifying the personal record I set on Nate 1.5 on Thursday.  I managed to record 13 and 1/3 rounds, by which I mean 13 rounds and 2 muscle-ups.  That's a 2-round imrovement over my previous best.