I lived in Phoenix, website AZ as an elementary school kid.  We were very active in sports, site but I wouldn’t say we led an “active” or fitness lifestyle.  In 3rd or 4th grade, pills my best friend was a really fast kid, and his parents were “reformed” hippies.  Our families became close, and they started a sort of family tradition.  They would do a hike in the Phoenix area the day after Thanksgiving, to work off all the food.  I’m pretty sure we hiked Shadow Mountain one year and Camelback the next.  Generally these hikes took 2-4 hours.  I distinctly remember bitching at my parents for taking us on these hikes, but looking back, I don’t think they were too thrilled either.  They did it because they knew it was good for the kids, and it was good for them.
 
Quick story:  At the base of one of the mountains, as my brother’s and I complained to my parents that it was hot, some guy walking down smiled at us and said, “get to the top, they have a soda machine up there.”  We were totally excited, and tried to hustle to the top.  We definitely wondered how you would plug a soda machine into a mountain, but hey, we believed in the tooth fairy.  We were stupid.  I can promise you, the Huberty boys were apoplectic when we reached the top, and the only thing in site was cacti and the Phoenix skyline.
 
In CrossFit, we have all kinds of little traditions like this, usually Hero WODs associated with National Holidays.  Murph on Memorial Day has become a CrossFit Tradition all over the USA.
 
I like to the idea of a tough Hero WOD after Thanksgiving: it’s like a personal statement of fitness against the gluttony of the holiday seasons.  Or something like that.
 
This Friday, I would like to take on “Clovis.”  Clovis is run 10 miles, 150 Burpee Pullups.  Holy Crap!?!?  I would estimate this WOD, for a good athlete to take 90 minutes.  It could easily take 2 hours or more.  That’s about as long as my childhood hikes.  The Tough Mudder takes anywhere from 2-5 hours, so the effort is probably similar.  As a note, I rarely program or perform WODs that take more than 20 minutes – usually they are in the 8-12 minute range.  I go longer than 20 minutes maybe once a month.
 
I plan on breaking this WOD up into 13 rounds – 1 TL Davis lap then 12 or so Burpee Pullups.  Doing half of Clovis would be perfectly acceptable.  If you came in and said, “I’m going to do rounds of Clovis” with a time cap of 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes, I think this would be a good idea.  Louis is doing Clovis on a bike.  I think this is a great idea.  I will have my bike at the gym, and will bring another one from the house.  You can run one round, bike one, row one.  Don’t let the sheer volume scare you.
 
The warm up for a WOD like this?  A couple of rotations, 2-3 Burpee Pullups and 3-2-1 Go!  One of the cool things about this WOD?  It may be the only CrossFit WOD that I have seen where an energy goo might be needed.

Gloria has stepped up her game in the past year – winning competitions and pushing herself in WODS (letting me push her:))
Workout of the Day
 
2 RFT
20 Chest to Bar Pullups
30 Pistols (Alternating)
50 Doubleunders