CrossFit Mean Streets

Continuing my LA box tour, this morning my friends Jhon and Raiza accompanied me to CrossFit Mean Streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Jhon had gone the day before while I was hungover in my hotel bed praying for a swift and sudden death and he had on the t-shirt to prove it. It was nice that he could lead the way to the box since my brain doesn't always function at 5:30 in the morning.

Mean Streets is an 8 minute walk from the Omni Hotel Los Angeles. Coach Max Fernandez welcomed us and had us sign in. The box is in an older building with high ceilings. Their ceiling reminded me of Hell's Kitchen's with its ornate moldings.

There were a lot of people there for a 6 AM class. Everybody was really nice and welcoming (duh, it's a CrossFit box) and there was another drop-in from Atlanta. And Max was born in Atlanta and one of the members, Chapman, is from Atlanta. Small small world.

We warmed up with a run around the block and then completed 3 rounds of 25 doubleunders and 10 Russian swings. I went with 26 lbs because it was the first kettlebell I found. Then we had deadlifts (8@65#, 8@95#, 8@115#) with 5 dive bombs and a 100m run in between sets.

The WOD was fun but pretty difficult for me and slightly disorganized. I like to find the most efficient way to complete a workout and running between my equipment isn't it. I was just happy to be training with Jhon again. Raiza and I were partners and shared equipment. She asked me how many rounds I thought I'd get through in 20 minutes and I said three would be pushing it and I was right.

WOD
AMRAP 20 minutes
200m run
3 wall climbs
10 deadlifts (225/135)
6 turkish get ups (24kg/16kg)
12 push-ups (feet on med ball)

CrossFit Mean Streets doesn't do any lifting on its gymnastics mats and you can bring your barbells outside. I really loved lifting on the sidewalk because it felt great to be out in the cool morning air and I am a complete and utter narcissist and I enjoy people on the street stopping to watch me lift. The downside was coming back in to do wall climbs and then the TGUs and the push-ups. We ended up doing movements out of order and my OCD was having none of it. I found myself still getting nervous with the wall climbs. I'm scared I'm going to fall on my face and break my nose and have to get surgery all over again. It gets worse as I get tired too. The push-ups were a nightmare. Part of me wanted to switch to hand release because I was struggling to get my chest anywhere close to the floor while staying up on the ball, but by then I was committed to trying to do them correctly. I completed two rounds and was pretty heavily scaled - 115# deads and 8kg for the turkish get ups - but I felt good and I am glad that I went.

the shortcut back to the hotel

Jhon mean mugging