Today I tried what I hope to be the new Tuesday night regime of first going to Crossfit after work. So leaving at 4:30pm I drove into Cardiff to Aspire Fitness and was in and changed by 5pm. 75 mins of Crossfit, which comprised:
Back Squat
5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5
Then;
5 Rounds;
Run 200m
15 Box Jump
15 Wall Ball
The back squats I did across at 85% of my 5 rep max (which is 130kg) so at 110kg and just about managed to do them. I couldn’t do the wall balls as the place was too busy, so I subbed 15 wall balls (typically with a 16lb / 7.5kg ball) for 10 Thrusters with an empty 20kg bar. Seemed a fair swap. For the workout I finished in 14:20 and was pretty knackered afterwards. 5 x runs, gah.
Then it was off to Train Station 2 (also in Cardiff) for my second session of Core Combatives with Mick Coup. To be honest I was pretty tired before we started and Mick soon noticed. Only 10 minutes in and I was getting a bollocking for “taking it easy”. I wasn’t actually taking it easy, I was hitting as hard as I could, well as hard as I felt I could anyway.
Last week was all open palm punches, this week we focused on elbows, then with combinations with punches. The drill at the end was interesting, I was really trying hard not to laugh. You had to stand in the centre of the room with your eye’s closed, waiting for someone to bash you, any way they liked, with a pad, then you had to spin and lay into them (their pads of course). Obviously you had no idea when, where or how hard you were going to get hit, it’s a freaky experience and it made me laugh.
I’m not sure I take it seriously enough for Mick, I got bollocked a lot today. But then so did the others, so I didn’t feel singled out. I think he knew he’d gone a little far, as he stopped to explain that being, (what I shall describe on a generally family friendly blog as) a meanie poo poo head (but have rather stronger language in mind!) was all part of the service. In a street fight situation, your assailant isn’t going to be whispering sweet nothings in your ear, he’s going to be rather abusive, so if Core Combatives is training for the real world, then the chat from Mick has to reflect that, until it’s just words and water off a ducks back. Seems fair enough, but it’s an unusual situation to be in, to be paying for a deliberately abusive coach!
(P.S. Michael wins the award for the longest comment on the blog in 2 years, check it out on the English Indoor Rowing post)
