Wednesday August 31st

  

Woke up with a cold (runny nose & headache).. Probably no training today..

I'll see how I feel tonight.. When I am not 100% I tend to operate under the following protocol:

- If you can't get out of bed, don't.

- If you can get out of bed, go to the gym.

- If you can get to the gym, start your workout.

- If you can start your workout, see how it goes after a couple minutes.

- If you get midway and feel worse, stop..

- If you get midway and feel the same, finish..

I usually can't go at full intensity when I am not feeling great, which is fine, but I think just showing up and going through the motions on some non-technical stuff is good..

Tuesday August 30th

Power still out at the gym.. Time for some adaptation.

So I had been formulating some stuff in my head all day in regards to a fun backyard WOD I could do at my house with basically just a jump rope and some 35 lb dumbbells I have.. nothing else. I was thinking either a chipper or something for max reps. I decided in the spirit of FGB coming up, I would do something on the same exact time domain but flop around the exercises with some new stuff I could easily do outside the gym.

I called up Ryan and Stacey and we ended up going to the outdoor field at the Y in Newton, and after a couple minutes of discussion, "Y Gone Bad" was born.

WOD - "Y Gone Bad"

3 Rounds:

1 Minute at each station for max reps

1 minute rest between the rounds.

Sit Ups

Double Unders

Renegade Rows (35#)

Overhead walking lunge (50#) (thank you to whoever left the random weights on the field)

Burpees

This was fun.. Nice sunny day out, good sweaty WOD, some funny looks from the people walking the track. Mission accomplished. Double Unders didn't go all that well today (shoes kept coming untied, RAWR). But everything else was pretty good.

I think my breakdown for reps in each minute was something like:

Sit ups - 31, 31, 31 (held this pace and wouldn't let myself slow it down, especially since it was the exercise right after resting)

Double Unders - 32, 24 (ugh), 30

Renegade Rows - 24, 20, 20

Overhead Walking Lunge (steps taken) - 30, 28, 28

Burpees - 20, 18, 17

For the most part I was able to hold constant on everything, with some slight downslope, but the double unders were the only part that really annoyed me. Everything else you just had to shut your eyes and keep moving until the bell rang.

Monday August 29th

Power out at the gym..

I honestly felt terrible today.. I don't have any idea why.. Everything in my legs and hips just felt ridiculously tight, as if I had just run a half marathon the day before.. but I legit took yesterday as a solid rest day.. Very frustrating..

I decided to do some at-home mobility, totally made it up on the fly.

I recently downloaded this Tabata app for my iPhone which literally just beeps at 20:10 second intervals for 8 rounds and stops.. simplest thing ever.. I wanted to test it out so I did something I had seen on mobility WOD.. Tabata Leg Swings.. These got my hamstrings going, but it felt like the tip of the iceberg so I kept making shit up to do with the timer.. The next two were tabata goblet complex and hamstring stretch.. (I did 20 seconds of a deep goblet squat hold, then 10 seconds of squats.. repeat 8 times.. and then 20 seconds of holding a standing hamstring stretch "trying to touch my toes".. 10 seconds to breathe.. repeat)

Finished with some foam rolling.. felt much better after.. 

Good to listen to my body on an unexpected off day.

Sunday August 28th

Rest Day.. Power outage at my apartment.. NSTAR told us it might not be restored until Wednesday..

This is Bullshit..

I am going to go back to sleep now for approximately 48 hours.

Saturday August 27th

COUNTRYFEST TODAY!!!

(I know its going to be awful and rainy, but whatever)

WOD- "Freeze Tag"
1 partner works for max reps, other partner holds a static position, switch as often as needed
2 min rounds, 1 min rest
Wall Balls / Leg raise hold
Jumping Pull Ups / Push Up Hold
Ring Rows / Squat Hold
OHS (45/35) / Knee raise hang hold
Burpee Box Jumps / Overhead plate hold (35/25)

I went through one round of this, and then let Jolie take my spot because she confused the class time and showed up for the 9:30.. I did not keep a good record of reps, it was on the board somewhere. The most difficult one was probably the ring rows for reps because after one max effort the reps went downhill really fast.. The most difficult hold was probably the knee raise hold because the grip is the limiting factor. Overall a good WOD.. probably would have been way harder to go through it a second time, but one time got a nice sweat going.

Friday August 26th

SWOD - Squats 3x5, 3x3, Hand release push ups 3x10

Still not totally comfortable getting after heavy weights with the squat.. But I will say the last 3 days have been the most pain-free in over a month.. (fingers crossed, knocking on wood, all that crap)..
I really truly believe my focus for the last week on mobility stuff is the reason I am finally healing up. The blessing in disguise here is that since I am now basically starting from the very beginning with squats I can start light enough that my form can be FUCKIN perfect and work up from there.. My main crutches (wide ass stance and really bowed feet) that masked my lack of hip mobility and hamstring weakness are gonna get swept under the rug, and I'm going to basically try to replicate a perfect squat, because what the hell else am I going to do with my time?
I ended up doing 3 sets of 10 or so with 95#, trying to get my feet to a new improved stance.. Definitely feels weird, but its worth the effort to get used to it.

WOD-

4 RFT

400 m Run (up the hill)

5 DL (chosen weight: 300 lbs)

Time 9:35

Classic CrossFit combo.. run fast then lift heavy shit, rinse and repeat... I enjoyed this one even though I finished dead last in the group.. I think my weight choice was good though.. Went heavy enough that it was really taxing, but it was possible to do some touch-and-go.. 

My 2nd set frikkin sucked, not sure what happened.. I did the other 3 rounds without a break really and the 2nd one I just pussed out and did like 1-2-2.. Psyched myself out or something.. 

...Now to go buy an entire rotisserie chicken for "5 dollar Fridays" and eat the entire thing throughout the course of today..

Thursday August 25th (2)

UPDATE - AFTERNOON WOD

Two-a-day Thursdays wooooooooooo!!

SWOD - Muscle Ups - 4 sets for max reps

I decided to work some muscle ups, haven't worked them exclusively in a while. I am getting more comfortable with always getting the first one (as long as my false grip starts out pretty perfect) and the multiple reps are improving, but are still a work in progress.. I ended up getting 4,4,3,3 for my reps in a row which I was pretty happy with.. I think unfortunately the only way to get better at muscle ups... is to do muscle ups.. All the ring pull ups and ring dips on the planet don't really help all that much for me.. the transition is the whole thing..
Goal by mid-fall or so is to get to 10 in a row.. I think I can manage it if I keep practicing.. But these are incredibly taxing on the shoulders.. especially when you start missing reps..

WOD- "Karen"

150 Wall Ball Shots

(20 lb ball)

Time - 6:08

I have been wanting to try this one for a while, seemed like a purely mental one on paper because each wall ball is not a big effort, but I had no idea how 150 would feel..

I ended up going for about 70 unbroken which surprised me, I thought I was going to have to break it up earlier on. After that every time I started up again I tried to get a minimum of 10, usually more.. Everything after 100 was pretty difficult, but I tried to minimize my rests.. I used my phone to time it so I had no clue where I was at timewise in the middle.. If I knew I was that close to getting sub-6 I probably had more in me to push harder toward the end.. 

Oh well.. Something to shoot for next time..

Karen, is always a bag of douche...

-Dane Cook

Thursday August 25th

SWOD - Press 3x5, 3x3  &  Max Height Box Jump
I was excited to see the box jumps today, I really enjoy these.. they are about 99.9% mental once you get up toward your max so I like to instill the confidence in myself to just try it even when it is really high..

For presses I warmed up and went for 115x5, 115x5, 120x5, 120x3, 120x3... I missed a last set in there because I got carried away doing box jumps and being a social butterfly.. sue me..

Box Jumps I worked slowly up to my previous max which is "the 30 inch box + 4 45# plates + 1 25# plate".. We measured it to be 48.5".. I landed it but my shoes literally skimmed the top plate as I was on the way up... about as close as you can get without eating it violently.. So I opted not to go for a new PR and risk an injury because I did not want to hurt anything right before doing (drumroll, please)...

WOD- FRAN!

21-15-9

Thrusters 95#

Pullups

Time - 4:30

I have the same 50/50 feeling on this one as I did with Grace from Tuesday.. I have made some big strides with my conditioning over the last few months and it has definitely shown in those 2 workouts.. (shaving 53 seconds is no joke)... BUT I finished and was sort of upset at how much I broke up the thrusters.. I did the first 21 thrusters and 21 pull ups without missing a beat.. then had to break up the next thruster set into 8-3-2-2.. No way I should need 4 distinct sets on that.. very frustrating.. 

I think my next goal for this workout isn't so much with a time in mind.. But I really want to to get to a point where I can do Fran unbroken.. I think if I can manage that somehow, regardless of the rest I need to take in between exercises, I will be really happy with my time, because most of it for me is lost just dropping the bar from overhead and having to regroup..

Less focus on time, just gonna do the work required and not break down mentally.

Wednesday August 24th

Much needed rest day.. Legs felt like noodles when I woke up this morning..

I did a little mobility and foam rolling just to loosen some tissue up, but I am mostly dreading tomorrow so I'll try to save my energy and let my body heal up..

Tuesday August 23rd

SWOD- Snatch Grip Deadlift 8x2 @70%1RM   &   5x Max Hold L-Sit

Snatch grip deadlifts are a great reminder to get my butt all the way down and keep my chest up.. if you don't do it properly it feels like you are lifting 500 lbs when you are lifting 200.. gets surprisingly tough.. the grip itself is way more challenging too.. I like these as a drill.. Did the first 2 at 225 then went to 275 for the last 6 rounds.. nothing too crazy..
L-sits are still a pretty good challenge for me.. I just try to tighten everything up as best as I can and hold on as long as I can once I start involuntarily convulsing...

WOD-

"GRACE"

30 C&J @ 135#

Time- 2:51 Rx'd

I am 50/50 on this result as I reflect.. On one side, I am absolutely happy because I knocked 42 seconds off my previous run with ole Gracie.. but on the other I feel like I had a little more in me.. I got through 15 reps in 1:03 and that seemed to be my "wall" because the next 15 reps took me almost twice as long.. Next time I hit this I am going to try to do as many as humanly possible unbroken on the first set and go from there.. I only did like 8 to start, then 4, then 3 (this was around the 1:03 mark).. and I think the rest were almost exclusively singles, which I know I can improve upon..

(For reference, I haven't done this WOD since St. Patrick's Day where I also drank 2 beers during the workout and finished in like 4 minutes, but couldn't keep track of my real time on the lifts..)


Update
Afternoon WOD

SWOD - Front Squat 3x3
Flexibility felt pretty good today after a lengthy warm up, but my strength still is not quite there for front squats after my injury.. starting to ease back into it gradually.. I did some warmup sets then 165,175,185 for 3 reps.. Good depth, pretty solid form... last rep on 185 was a little uggo, but alas, no pain, so I was happy.

WOD - 

10 minute running clock, climb the ladder as high as possible

1 burpee, 1 double under

2 burpees, 2 double unders

.... etc.

Score - 14 burpees, 12 double unders.. (2 double unders short of 14 complete rounds..)

Nice sweaty one.. I just tried to keep the foot on the gas the whole time, no strategy involved at all... First 3 rounds of double unders were comically awful, I was in my own head a little bit and kept giving myself rope stingers on my hand.. But from about round 4 til the end the double unders went pretty fast and the burpees I mostly just tried to keep moving fluidly without stopping to take a breath (I let the 2 seconds when I was setting up the jump rope be my rest each round.)

Monday August 22nd

SWOD- Power Clean 3,3,2,2,1  and   Pull Ups 5x5

Alright, I haven't lifted anything heavy in what feels like days (I am a meathead, forgive me).. so I was wicked fired up to see some heavy cleans on the whiteboard today.. I felt a new PR rumbling, but have not tried these in months. I felt strong today so I wanted to see how warm-ups went and go from there.
I hit 135x5, 155x5, 175x3, 185x3, 195x2, 210x2.. These all felt excellent.. Smooth transitions, good explosive pull from the ground, likin it..

I threw 230 on the bar and walked away for a second just to get the lifting belt, threw some chalk on my hands, and gave it hell.. Of course, with my luck, the fucking bar hit the belt on the way past my stomach (good indication that I am pulling right against my body though, self back pat!!) and I ditched it.. I was pissed, threw the belt down, waited like 30 seconds, and went back at it.. SUCCESS!! New PR on power cleans..

WOD- 

Tabata Awful

HSPU

Squat

Push Up

KB Swing 1.5 pood

Row (calorie)

Oh Tabata, how you humble me..

Typically I do the stupid move on tabata and totally go for broke in the first 3 rounds and then gas out by round 8 and end up with a lousy score.. Today I went at it a little different and actually tried to game it for a couple of them. The hardest by far was HSPU but push ups also always gets me, those last couple rounds sneak up on you..

I ended up with (worst scores): 

3 HSPUs (wanted 4, but what can ya do)

16 squats (thought I could get more on this, but my legs got tired by round 6)

8 Push ups (happy with this, this is the highest I have ever completed for tabata pushups)

8 KBS (gamed this one too much, I was worried about grip but it never ended up being an issue, should have gone for like 10 on this easily)

6 calories rowing (this is weird, seems like whether I pull hard or half ass it I always get the same total, no clue how that calculate that shit in the rower computer)

Total - 41 Rx'd

Sunday August 21st

Rest Day..

Did a little tiny Mobility WOD..

4 x 3 min static squat holds at full depth, pushing my knees out with my elbows..

It is sad how much this little mobility work hurts me, I need to improve this.. Today was the first step..  I fully realize you could do this sort of little mobility fixes all day long til the cows come home.. But I need to pick and choose the ones that will help me starting right now.

Saturday August 20th

Visited Crossfit 215 today for the 2nd time this summer, awesome place, I'm a big fan. Today also happened to be a "Bring Family & Friends" WOD which was cool by me because there were like 30 people working out instead of 3 like last time I was there so I sort of just blended in and didn't bother anyone.

We did a LOT of mobility. Their head trainer Micah is HUGE into the mobility side of things.. We did like 20 minutes of dynamic warm up, then we broke off into newbies/everyone else.. Newbies and their CFers who brought them along went through all of the movements together while some of the CF215 bros and I did some overhead squat work, which I welcomed with open arms since I suck at them.
We ended up mostly drilling form, not weight, because we had no presribed rep scheme.. we were just told "have at it while I teach the new people".. I did some warm ups, then 95x7, 115x5, 115x5, 125x1.. then we ran out of time..

WOD-

AMRAP 20

Row 250

20 Air Squats

15 GHD Sit ups (more on these later)

10 Box Jumps 30"

5 C2B Pull Ups

I ended up getting 2 Rds Rx'd, then 3 more rounds with regular sit ups subbed..

And here is why:
Umm, GHD sit-ups are fucking hard dude.. 

That, or I am putting myself in the contraption incorrectly, because the one major thing we learned in my certification about those machines is "make sure you straighten your knees when you are on your way up".. Um, easier said than done people.. I legit could not do it properly.. After 2 sets of willing myself up for every rep completely wrong and feeling my hamstrings and back straining like whoa,  I decided it was not worth breaking my back over and switched to the floor.. Everything else went really smooth and I mostly did not take any rest, just tried to keep going from one station to the next..

I need to find access to a GHD machine in the future and see if I just need to adjust the feet holder setting thingy or if I REALLY need to improve my core strength to use that thing.. Good lord was that frustrating..

We finished with a whole lot more stretching & mobility stuff, most of which is on the wall somewhere at FCF.. Lots of hip and quad stuff.. I will say, I felt like melted butter after all that, very refreshing..


Side note: Their facility has no air conditioning so I sweat like a whore in church and left a borderline bio-hazard of a puddle where I was stretching at the end of the WOD.. I apologize to the next class who was coming in after me..

Friday August 19th

This has nothing to do with rowing, but I LOVE this video.. I legit listen to it on my iPod when I am working out.. Love Rocky, Love Ali, and I love that Mandela Speech.. So money..

WOD

Row 4x 1000m 

3 min rest in between efforts

Times- 3:21, 3:32, 3:37, 3:35

I went pretty balls to the wall on the first one just to get an idea of how I was feeling today..
Answer = Quite good. (I believe my previous PR on a 1000 sprint was 3:23 so I'll take that, thanksverymuch.)

I wasn't hugely diligent on the 3 minute rests in between.. I just sort of let one extra song go by on my iPod and took a second to reset the rower and such.. The 2nd and 3rd sprints were pretty good, I just tried my best to hold the 1:46ish pace and sprint out the last 150m or so. My arms were really tired by the time the last one came up so I didn't know how it would go, just hoped to break 3:40 honestly. BUT, I threw that video on my iPod and listened to it cuz it gets me fired up and I was able to somehow beat my 3rd time on my last sprint, which is really rare for me... I ALWAYS tire out linearly, so it was cool to see that I could finish stronger than I began. Purely mental.

Note to self: download more motivating speeches.

Thursday August 18

Captain Jake greeted us with a lovely WOD today. I look forward to sending him updates while he is overseas about all the progress at FCF..

Skill work - 5 x Max L-sit & Max Handstand hold/walk

Tried to work the L-sits on parallettes like they did at the games to see how I could do.. topped out around 10 seconds.. no clue how those freaks can do it for 40 seconds.. frikkin ridiculous.. These are like a whole body seize.. very strange feeling.. just hold your breath and don't move a muscle once your feet are up..

Handstands didn't really have much progress today.. I still need to find the balance point with my feet better so I can start learning to walk on my hands.. (even for just a couple feet).. I have the upper body strength and core strength to make it happen , just need to find that balance point better.. more practice to come..

WOD- "One Shot, One Kill"

8 min running clock, 3 cleans @155 top of every minute, then AMRAP of the following exercises.

Min 1 - Box Jumps

Min 2- KB Swings @ 2 pood

Min 3 - Push Ups

Min 4 - Pull Ups

Min 5 - Sit Ups

Min 6 - Double Unders

Min 7 - Air Squats

Min 8 - Burpees

Total score - 185 reps

This went by lightning fast.. I felt like it just started and all of the sudden we were on sit ups.. I definitely struggled the most on the KBS (that shit was heavy) and the double unders (tripped up twice and blew most of my time re-setting.. ARGH)... The rest I basically did what was possible for my capacity in each minute..
I was able to get the first 2 or 3 sets of cleans unbroken but from there on out it was all single efforts.. Oh well.. I wanted to break 200.. If I do this again I think its definitely possible, especially if I hang onto the kettlebell better and get a rhythym flying on the double unders..

Thanks Jake!





UPDATE - Afternoon WOD

SWOD - 5x3 Snatch Balance
3x10 Ring Rows

Snatch Balance went much better today than last time around.. Was able to get 75,95,105,115,115 without too much pain or balance issues.. Good improvement.. I think it mostly came down to just making sure I "aim" the jerk off from the rack position (there is definitely a sexual joke in there somewhere) a little better and stick the bar straight overhead, not leaning in front of me.
Ring Rows, nothing special.. I might work in a higher rep scheme the next time I do these or with a plate on my stomach.. 3x10 is a little bit easy, need something to spice it up.

WOD - AMRAP 7

Overhead Squat

"Tackling your Goats 101" right here.. I tried to keep the weight low enough that I knew I could drill form to competition standard, but heavy enough that I wasn't repping out 100 of them. I started with 125# for the first 5 reps and dropped to 115# for the rest. I ended up with 29 total reps, which was not bad, not good, somewhere in the middle.. I wanted to break 30 and I think I should have taken less rest time between efforts, but this was really good practice. I want to do some more WODs like this for pistols, OHS and squat snatches where I just do as many as I can at manageable weight to get my muscle memory used to them..
I smell a fun AMRAP 20 Triplet!!!

Get to know your Goat...

Wednesday August 17th

Rest Day...

If anyone cares, I ate half of a Jamaican Jerk chicken when I got home from coaching.. dear lord is that stuff good.. Blue Ribbon BBQ in Newton is incredible..

Lots of PRs from folks tonight on the CFT.. awesome to watch...

Tuesday August 16th

SWOD - Press Progression (1 press, 3 push press, 5 jerk)
3x10 Pistols

Pistols went pretty well with heel on a plate today, although oddly my balance is way better on my left foot than my right, and I am right side dominant. Next time I will try to move down from a 25 plate to a 15 for a set and see how it goes.
Press progression I mostly did for form today since I had just done a 1RM last night.. I did 115, 125, 125, trying to keep the speed high and the form crisp.

WOD - Two Face
AMRAP 7 #1
9 HSPUs
6 Box Jump (24")
3 Jerk 135#

AMRAP 7 #2 (after 3 min rest)
7 Burpee ring pull ups
21 Double Unders

The first one was basically just a HSPU test for me. The box jumps and jerks went very quickly but once I came back around to the HSPUs after my first round unbroken, it got dicey quickly.
Ended up getting through 3 rounds Rx'd and then a 4th partial round with 1 abmat on the HSPU and 4 Box Jumps.

Second one was a little better pace because I knew it was only 7 minutes and there is really no need to stop and rest on either of these exercises very much. I put the rings up pretty high to challenge myself with more of a "full jump to a pull up". I find these sort of fun because you have to jump and aim your hands at the rings while they are floppin all around.. good for the hand-eye..
Double unders went pretty well, I seem to do better with them when they are in WODs and I can just shut my brain off and go. When I try to practice them with no clock and no set rep# in mind I end up getting pissy when I miss a couple in a row and need to walk away in a huff like a 6 year old who didn't get his thin mints and milk before bed.
(Got 5 rounds, 1 burpee ring pull up)

UPDATE Afternoon WOD

In the spirit of getting in some more work capacity I fit in a 2nd workout in the evening tonight. I believe this was stolen from CrossFit Football, but its an interesting couplet.

WOD-
8 Rounds
5 Power Snatch @ 95#
200m Row

Time - 10:37

I went unbroken on all of the snatches which was a good accomplishment for me, commonly grip becomes loopy by the end of high-rep WODs. I tried as best I could to lock in that hook grip and not let go for dear life. I am a little upset with myself on the row segments. I tried to hold what I thought was a nice smooth pace of about 1:45 (for 500) pace. This proved to be a little too easy because on the last two sprints I was able to get the needle down to about mid 1:30's at times when I was really giving it hell.

Definitely could be better, but I mostly didn't stop the entire time for a breath, kept my foot on the gas.. Just need to up the intensity on rows next go 'round.

Monday August 15th

(ewww.. grains...)

WOD- CROSSFIT TOTAL
1 RM
Squat/Press/Deadlift

 

Haven't done a CFT in a while so I was pretty excited to see where I am at. I have been through a little bit of a roller coaster weight-wise between losing a bunch on Paleo Challenge, gaining some back on vacation, and sort of leveling back out as the summer progressed. So I really was not sure how I would feel on this today.

My plan heading in was to check in on the squats with some really light weights, test the range of motion, and if I had a hint of pain I was going to lay off it.. I was really hoping it would feel fine and I could just be a pig-headed moron and squat away, but even at 135 lbs at full depth I had some shooting pains at the bottom right on my hip flexor, so I backed off and went on to press. 

My press had hung firm at 140# for like 6 months, then a couple weeks back I chronicled my excitement of getting 145 finally, so I wasn't expecting to improve upon that much in a few short weeks. I warmed up a bunch with 115 and 130 and decided to try 140, 145 and 150 for my 3 rep attempts. The first two went up no problem so I was confident I could give 150# hell and see what happened. Slow but steady I got it overhead (2nd PR in a few weeks.. w00t!!).. I decided to go for broke and try 155 for shits and giggles, but I think my wall had already been hit as I could barely get it from the rack position to my chin.. Oh well.. 

In the past with deadlift 1 RM PRs I had "over warmed up" and by the time I got up to my heavy singles my legs were already half in the bag, so I decided to do a bunch of reps at low weight and tail off quickly, just doing singles to get my central nervous system used to the heavy weight, but without getting myself too tired. 

I did something like 135 x 10, 225 x 8, 275 x5, 315x1, 365x1... I decided to let my last two reps be a 405 (my previous 1 RM), and if that felt good I was going to go for a 415 PR.

Both went up surprisingly easily (no hip air humping needed midway), I think my rep scheme build up to the heavy singles worked out well. 

2 PRs in one day.. I will take that any day and twice on sunday..

Now, hip flexor, I command you to heal.

GO!

Saturday August 13th

Congratulations to Mike Leary for being the first winner in as long as I can remember of the coveted FCF Memorial Puke Receptacle award. He made it through about 10 wall balls on the workout below and left me to complete the remainder on my own. Good work!

Happy Fun Time Saturday Morning Partner WOD-

Embrace the Pain

100 KB Swing 1.5 pood

100 Box Jumps 24"

100 K2E

100 Hand Release Pushups

100 Wall Ball

100 Double Unders

One partner was working at a time so this was just one of those workouts where you tried to split it up evenly-ish and never go to failure on any particular set, just keep the needle moving forward at all times.. Sets varied all over the place, I think I did 20 or 25 KBS but only like 8 K2E at a time, it varied. After his first set of Wall Balls, my partner bailed so I did about 70 Wall Balls on my own, which was just lovely. Double Unders went a little better today considering how tired I was, got some strings of 10, 18, and one 28 in there so I have little complain about, making progress on those again.

Random ass side note:
After the workout was over, I was chatting with Chrissy about how much easier the "2nd Muscle up" is than the first one in a given set because you have so much momentum gathered from the top of the rep that you can just exaggerate the swing so much harder on the way back up for #2. Trying to give a visual of what I meant I did a couple in a row and felt fresh so I just said "Fuck It" and went for as many as I could do.
Low and behold, hit a new PR of 5 consecutive Muscle Ups... felt awesome.. When I get myself comfortable with doing 10 consecutively or so I want to start drilling the real true competition standard with wrist turnouts, I am just not sure about the grip strength I have on it right now.

PR!!

Friday August 12th

Quick Update: White Lion Bakery is absolutely delicious. My god.. I got the cinnamon bun cupcakes and they seriously taste like real baking, not even a hint of difference.. Bravo bakers.. A little bit expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for, they are a small shop place just starting out, so I guess it is what it is.

SWOD- Squat Snatch 3x3, Ring Rows 3x10
Squat Snatches are among the Goats I am trying to tackle currently and my philosophy with these has been "start embarassingly light, get the form back, then start building heavy again".. Squat snatches are so technical and there is so much commitment to the movement required, I really want to re-learn it properly.
I went with a few rounds of 75 lbs to warm up and then did all 3 of my sets at 95 lbs to completely full depth.. Felt pretty solid, good practice..
Ring rows are no problem for me, mostly treated those as just a good arm warmup for muscle ups..

WOD: "NATE"

AMRAP 20

2 Muscle Ups

4 HSPUs

8 KB Swings (2 pood)

8 Rounds  

(Rx'd MU's, 1 abmat HSPUs, KBS Rx'd)

I was pretty pleased with this. Last time I did this down Cape Cod I got 2 rounds of Rx'd muscle ups then had to switch over to pullups/ring dips substitute. Lots of missed muscle-ups in there, but whatever, 16 is by far the most I have ever completed in any one workout. I went with a 1 abmat scale on the HSPUs to try to get them all unbroken, which I did, and all of the KB Swings were a chore, but I was able to go unbroken on those as well.. It basically came down to the muscle ups, and making sure I didn't kick the person on the rings next to me right in the face.

UPDATE 

AFTERNOON WOD - 2 PM

"If it bleeds, we can kill it"

4 Rounds: 

15 Hang Power Snatch 95#

15 Burpees

Here are my thoughts on this workout:

Time - 8:13

Tough little burner.. Lungs were smoked at the end.. I think I got to through the 3rd round at like 5:45 which I was pretty happy with and then crapped the bed on the last round.. Couldn't get my grip to stay solid on the HPSs and the burpees were a borderline pukefest by the last set of 15.. Yuck..

Oh well, glad I got in a second WOD.. that was a fun day.

Thursday August 11

Rest Day..

Had an interesting moment at lunch today. For our section meetings typically my manager orders a spread for the whole group like an Italian buffet, southwestern, etc.
Well, today he ordered a deli lunch and the terrified looks I got from people when I threw out the rolls of my sandwiches and just kept the turkey on my plate with lettuce and tomato were awesome.. They looked like I just killed their puppy.

It's bread people, relax, it makes you fat and shitty, deal with me.

Side Note: I placed an order from the White Lion Paleo baking company to get delivered tonight, will report back on whether it is worthwhile or not. Not that I plan on getting paleo cupcakes all the time as part of my diet, but it would cool to know that there is an outlet for "cheating" that won't hurt me and actually tastes like guilty pleasure. We shall see.

http://www.whitelionbakingco.com/

Wednesday August 10th

Holy sore legs Batman!
I legit walked like a drunk penguin all day at work my quads were so sore. I was borderline chuckling to myself half the time because I knew how ridiculous I must have looked.

 But alas, I wanted to hit the Endurance WOD in an effort to keep my work capacity growing. I am generally pretty good with mid-length cardio like 1 mile runs, 2k rows, 10 mile bike, etc. but I have not combined them in a long while so I thought this would be a good test of where I am at.

WOD - 

For time:

Run 1 Mile

Row 2K

Run 1 Mile

Time: 23:44

Fun workout, although getting off the rower and going back outside in the sun was a little less than pleasant for the first 100 feet or so. I felt really good on the first mile, although as usual coming back down the back alleyway and smelling Papa Gino's is the worst thing in the entire world. The row went well today.. I did not try to PR it and go nuts but I held a pretty steady 1:50 split for all the 500m segments. Second mile was a different story.. definitely walked a couple times at the beginning just because my legs felt like mush and I was catching my breath.

I think it broke down something like this:

Mile 1 - 7:15

2K Row - 7:30

Mile 2 - 8 min & change, plus some time to transition on and off the rower.

Also, my inov-8's came today.. BOO YA!

Tuesday August 9th

Morning WOD @ 5:30am

Nicki had us run through a good little warmup this morning with some Tabata rowing and some medicine ball goblet squats, transitioning to an OHS at the bottom.. I was sadly pouring sweat after this.

SWOD - Snatch Balance 3,3,2,2,1 and Pushups 3x10

(My hip flexor felt like crap this morning.. I am a little upset because it was healing up fairly well last week after a month of battling with it and this morning I woke up and felt like the injury just happened.. stupid thrusters.. The only thing that really bothers it is full depth stuff.. the hip extension/flexion required on stuff like cleans or jerks or even kipping pull ups hasn't been flaring up at all, it is specifically when I squat to way below parallel.)
Snatch Balance may be the single most humbling exercise that we do, I completely suck at it. The main problem I find is that when I do the "rack jerk" part of the movement I push the bar like 2 inches too far forward once it is over my head and as I dip down in to the full depth squat I ditch it like 50% of the time just from pure imbalance. The strength is almost irrelevant on this. I was having a lot of trouble just warming up so I decided to ignore the weight and just focus on form and did all my reps at 75 and 85 lbs. I think the last time I did this about 5 months ago I was doing 125 lbs, so this was a wake up call that I need to start incorporating this again. Yikes.

WOD - AMRAP 7 

C & J @ 155#

Reps - 33

7 minutes went by awfully fast on this one. I went into it thinking I would try to do none of the reps at touch-and-go and drop each from overhead (saves grip and the energy of lowering the weight back down with control) so that I could pace the entire 7 minutes and not burn out after 12 reps unbroken. I switched over to split jerks after my 10th rep because I was getting a little tired but that turned out to be a stupid idea because it was burning too much time. I was at about 21 reps at 5 minutes in and I was determined to at least break 30 no matter what. For the last 2 minutes my pace improved and I went back to push jerks and felt much better. If I were to do this one again I would try to do a couple doubles at the beginning and never switch to split jerks. I think I could get 40 reps if I paced the opening 2 minutes with a little more OOMPH.. 

UPDATE


Afternoon WOD - 5PM

5 Rounds:

3 Ring Dips

6 K2E

9 HSPU

12 Pistols

Time 9:03

Felt good enough this afternoon to go back and hit another WOD, this one was not too high impact or heavy so I thought it was a nice start toward getting used to having some 2-a-days.. In this WOD I scaled the pistols by sitting down on the smallest box and I did 2 of the rounds of HSPUs to the floor before adding 1 ab mat in the middle of the 3rd round.

After the WOD was over some of us were chatting about Pistols scaling options because they vary so much from person to person. Some people use a band or pole to help them through the entirety of the movement, some sit down on a box and stand back up, and some prefer to stand up all the way on top of a box and then lower themselves down while keeping the other leg straight.. To this point, I was never really happy with any of the 3 options because I have the physical strength to do it, but the balance point at full depth always gave me trouble. (Using a band and getting to full depth does not mimic the balance point at all because you lean so far back to create resistance in the band.) 

BUT, low and behold, Nick and Brie happened to mention just putting your heel on a small elevated surface like a 25# plate as a 4th option, and you can move slowly down to a 15, 10, 5# etc. Intrigued, I immediately walked over to the 25# plate on the ground near us and tried it.. BOOM, perfect, right down to full depth, perfect balance, right back up. I will be using this as my scaling for pistols from now on and I REALLY like the idea of just simply being able to graduate slowly but surely to smaller plates once I get comfortable with the previous.. Before, with the small box, I felt like I was in a black hole of skill development, never really helping myself find a balance point or developing the core strength needed because I was just plopping down without control and forcing myself back up. 

It is sad how happy stupid little things like this make me at CrossFit..

Monday August 8

SWOD - SDLHP 5x3

I have quite literally never done these for strength before, only as part of a WOD, typically around 75-95 lbs, so I hadn't a clue where to start with these for heavy weight. I got loose with 75 and 95 just to get a feel and then started my first set at 135. Felt pretty good so I hopped up to 155. I didn't pull with enough speed/explosion my second set so I stayed at that weight to try to drill it into my head that this movement is all about creation of speed/power at the bottom so that your arms are more or less a guide from the belly button on up to the top of the rep.. I then finished with 2 sets at 165, once I had the speed as the focus these felt good, no issues.

WOD - 

"Hells Bells"

1 Thruster @135

1 Rounds Cindy

.... continue pattern until

10 Thrusters @135

1 Round Cindy

I was inspired by something I saw Spealler and Khalipa do as a WOD at one of their Certs for this.. I really liked the idea of doing something heavy then a round of bodyweight stuff, and then right back to heavy. I also know that I struggle with thrusters so I wanted to get something in that hit on a weak spot.
I'll be honest, this totally sucked. I am so surprised how quickly that weight got shockingly heavy. The first 4 rounds or so I pretty much cooked through, but once I hit the round of 5 or 6, the wheels more or less came off. Any pace I had going to that point was completely abandoned and I just basically rested until I was comfortable enough to do a set of at least 3 thrusters at a time. (I didn't want to kill myself doing singles and have to clean it up every single time.) This waiting game I played proved to ruin my time because once I got into the round of 8 I was basically walking around like a scared puppy for 45 seconds at a time in between every set of thrusters afraid to get back under it.. Shitty, really really mental.. The last time I did a WOD like this where I legitimately did not want to finish it was WarPig 6.

Time: 26:30 RX'd

Lovely little Monday.

For anyone who reads this, I am going to start doing a little additional programming ("2-a-days") to address a lot of my weaknesses and try to build up some more capacity for things like competitions and such. 

I am also considering posting some of my nutrition if anyone is curious. I currently tend to eat 85% Paleo with some little throw-ins like sweet potatoes, peanut butter, whey protein, and some feta cheese on my salads.. stuff like that.. If people want more meal ideas, definitely approach me at FCF or send me an email and I will gladly post anything you would like.

Sunday August 7th

Long ass drive home.. got home too late to get to FCF..

I had planned on doing some tabata stuff when I got there because I wanted it to be quick and painful, was thinking of doing 2 rounds each of sledgehammer strikes and ball slams just as gnarly stress relief WOD, 16 min in and out..

But I digress, I had to make something up at home.. I decided to do Tabata with renegade rows, sit ups and 1 arm DB press..

The renegade rows were tiring as all hell (@35lb) which surprised me but that was a really good workout.. got 7 reps (one pushup, one row) in 6 rounds, 6 in 1, and 5 in the last one when I was burnt out. Sit ups I was able to get 10 all rounds except for 1 when I got 9, foot slipped and I lost my grip.. One arm press I lowered to 25 lbs which was sort of too light but I wanted something that I could continuously rep out overhead for 20 seconds without having to keep putting it down and waste time. Got 14 or 15 reps on my right hand side in all 4 rounds and 14 reps in 2 of the left hand rounds, the other 2 I got 10.. My left arm sucks. O well..

Quick sweaty at home WOD.

Saturday August 6th

Family wine tour post wedding at 4 wineries around Seneca Lake.. started our first tasting at 10 in the morning..

I was asleep by 5 pm.

Red Cat is DELICIOUS.

Wine is Paleo, right?

Friday August 5th

Up in Watkins Glen for my cousin's wedding, not really a lot of equipment in the dinky fitness center, so I am making due just to get some sort of a sweat going.. I did some HIIT sprints for a while and felt really good.. lungs were gassed but my legs felt like they had plenty of juice left even when I finished about 25 minutes of on/off sprints.. good stuff..

Did a quickie superset before I left after the sprints.. 5 Rounds of 20 Lat Pulldowns @130 and 20 Pushups.. I just pulled this out of thin air.. something quick and easy to get a little upper body blood flow going. Didn't keep time, I was just trying to get the pushups as unbroken as I could, rested as needed.

Wednesday & Thursday August 3/4

Taking these as a couple rest days.. Hip has been feeling slightly better this week so I am not going to push it, and I know I have a TON of driving to do this weekend all the way to upstate NY and back, so I'll let my legs and back suffer without putting to much extra soreness into the mix.

Practiced some double unders a little more.. getting better but still not where I want to be.. I need to be able to transition from getting that first 3 or 4 in a row while you find the rhythym and then somehow coast that into like 20,30, unbroken ones without even batting an eyelash, that is where I want to be.

Tuesday August 2nd

SWOD- Deadlift 3x5 & HSPU 3x10

Another superset strength WOD.. Lots of volume this month, definitely helping with bodyweight stuff.
Deadlifts I warmed up pretty well and went for 275, 315 and 335. I probably had a little more in me for the last set. I will try 345 for a 5 set next time.
HSPUs I got the first two sets unbroken, and the last one I went 9 (8 plus a questionable rep), then the last one.. Next time we do these I am going to get all 3 sets unbroken come hell or high water.. Then I can move on to raising my hands a little with plates or parallettes and try to get full range of motion on these.. That will help in my goal toward being able to press bodyweight a lot.

WOD- 6,5,4,3,2,1 

Floor Press @ BW, 

High Box jump,

Bent over row @ BW

Time 4:28

I went with 185# on this, which is a little over my bodyweight but I wanted to challenge myself a little. I toyed around a little with the box jump height before the WOD and wanted something difficult but not so high that I would potentially miss and cut myself open again.. I put a 45,35,and 25 plate on top of the high box and that seemed like a good height for max effort box jumps. I only had like 30 seconds to decide so this would have to do. Bent over row was the most difficult part.. I don't have the raw back/arm strength to row that weight without using my body a little bit, but I got through the whole WOD unbroken which was sweet.

Monday August 1

SWOD - Front Squat 5x3, Strict Pull-up 5x5

5 Pull ups effectively does nothing for me, so that was more of a warm-up to get the arms loose. On the front squats, however I decided to continue to be smart with my hip flexor and not go bonkers with it.. I am basically starting from scratch, which sucks, but what can ya do? When you get knocked down, ya gotta build back up... I hit like 5 sets of around 135, 155, 165, 175 just to get the muscle engaged, but none of it was overwhelming, especially for just 3 reps.. I want to get up to like 215 again on this very soon.

WOD - Double AMRAP Day
AMRAP 6
8 K2E
Bear Crawl
10 Pistols

rest 2 min

AMRAP 6
30 Double Unders
Overhead Lunge 45#
12 KB Swing 2 pood

First mini-WOD I got 5 rounds and the K2E.. but my pistols are still pathetic.. one of these days I will find the coordination for those..
Second mini- WOD I got through 2 full rounds, then up to 1 swing.. 11 short of 3 rounds.. not too shabby.. that one was way more difficult.. BUT.. I relearned how to do double unders today.. just had my hands too unfocused before.. I need to just make sure I am starting the swing with tension from the right wrist location.. I'M BACK BABY!!

Now on to pistols and overhead squats... next goats to check off.. fuckers..

Saturday & Sunday July 30-31

Rest.. Got a little active recovery yoga in to stretch everything out, and a couple of 500 m time trials just to get a sweat going.. But mostly I was just watching the CF Games..

Congrats to Froning, Iceland Annie, and CFNE, awesome spectacle of athleticism and work capacity to watch this weekend, truly amazing.

I would have been done for the weekend after the "Beach Murph", let alone everything else.. Although I totally would have wanted to try the softball throw to see how many people I can beat, just for the hell of it.

Friday July 29

Went to CF215 today in Philly, awesome facility. I love the "never back down" and "attack your weakness" scripted on the wall in graffiti..

SWOD: 4 rounds of:

30 seconds max ring dips

30 second ring hold

2 min rest

I really liked this as a tricep builder for ring dips.. it was really really difficult to hold on for the full 30 seconds after doing 10-20 ring dips.. I think I got about 20 in the first set, then it dwindled off from there to like 14,12,10 or so.. triceps burn out too fast..

WOD:

Run 1000m (2 hilly laps around the facility, this was a tough little track, good challenge when tired)

3 Rounds of:

5 HSPU

5 C&J @ 135

Run 1000m again

I finished in about 15:30.. the runs were more difficult than I thought it was going to be.. especially the second.. Had to walk a little of the uphill part just to get my breathing back to normal.. I tried to get the HSPUs ubroken, but that plan failed quickly because my arms were pretty smoked from the SWOD. Glad to get a WOD in where I can.