Wednesday September 28th

Rest day..

Coached a few really excellent classes tonight. I love seeing some of the newer members really get after the WODs. Gets me fired up. Just what I needed to get re-pumped up this week about training.

Tried lacrosse balling my shoulder for like 20 minutes afterwards and it hurt A LOT, so I was hoping the tissue would feel better in the morning..

Short answer.. it didn't..
I'm going to do something for my Thursday workout that does not involve heavy overhead work..
i.e. C&J 1-1-1-1-1-1 and Power snatches @115 are out of play for Thursday..

Gotta get creative..

Tuesday September 27th

SWOD- Box Squat 5x3, Weighted Push up 5x3

I used my time really shittily this morning, I could not for the life of me get loose and get any intensity firing on the strength stuff.. I took a while to get my hips stretched out and used to the box I was going to use for my squats. I didn't get in all of my sets for either of these movements.. For squats, I ended up warming up with 95x10, 135x6 and then I got 155x3,165x3,175x3,185x3.. Still really feeling weak on squats, its frustrating working back from scratch. Not really feeling pain that much anymore, I just do not feel comfortable or confident with any legitimate weight.. Sucks.
Weighted push ups I was able to get in 3 sets, 1 with a 45 plate on my back and 2 sets with 90lbs on my back.. Nothing major there. Sort of rushed them in.

WOD- "More Kettlebell"

Double AMRAP 5 

(with a 2 minute rest in between)

#1- 10 L arm swings, 10 R arm swings, 10 Goblet Squats

#2- 30 yd waiters walk, 5 R arm snatch, 30 yd waiters walk, 5 L arm snatch

Scores (Rx'd):

#1- 4 Rounds + 1 R arm swing

#2- 2 Rounds + both waiter walks + 5 R arm snatch

1.5 pood Kettlebells wreck me so quickly. The first couple rounds of the first AMRAP were fine but single arm swings felt lousy on my shoulders and the goblet squats felt about 10 times heavier than they should have by about minute 3. The second one was more of the same, shoulders just did not feel good on the top of the rep for all of the snatches, each one was sort of a battle.

This was the first workout in a great while where I have felt really "discouraged" at CrossFit.. I think the combination of a bender of a weekend, some annoying shoulder pain, and getting up for 5:30 class without my cup of coffee (when I haven't really been a morning WOD person regularly in months) did not weigh in my favor today. 

I have had a really good month or so of training with a lot of PRs (FGB, Muscle Ups, Cleans, etc.) and a lot of forward progress in some areas (pistols, presses, double unders), so I just think I was due for a hiccup. I'm not going to let this get to me, but I just think it was worth documenting that every once in a while no matter what upward slope you are on, you are going to have a shitty day.

What matters is how I approach tomorrow.

Monday September 26th

SWOD - Press 5x3
Shoulder has been feeling shitty recently. I think I hurt it golfing, which sounds pathetic, but I guess it is a somewhat violent motion to swing hard and it seriously hasn't felt good since last Thursday or so.
For my 5 sets post warm up I did 115,120,125,130,135 with success..  No real pain, but some discomfort. I really did not feel strong today so I am surprised I was able to get the last set to go, that is heavy for strict press for me. Sometimes you surprise yourself randomly like that.

WOD - Partner Relay Race (10 alternating laps for time, 5 each)

Time - 20 min and change (I forget the seconds)

Kevin and I both started out with about 1:45 clips for the first sprint and held paces just about 2 minutes for the remainder which is a good speed for a 560m. I was pretty happy with this because running is one of those Jekyll and Hyde things for me with CrossFit.. some days I feel absolutely great once I find a pace and settle in, and some days if you couple running with just one other crushing movement all of the sudden I can't even get to a snail crawl without sucking wind. Today was a good enough "rest::work" ratio that I was able to keep a nice speed the entire way through.

Friday September 23rd

SWOD- Floor press 3x5, 3x3

Shoulder felt iffy at first but I got loose and felt a little stronger as it went along..
I ended up doing: 165x5, 175x5, 185x5.. Then 195x3, 205x3, 215x3.. The last rep on 215 was a little sketchy.. But the rest was all very solid..

WOD- "Dark side of the Moon"
15-12-9
Ring Dips
Plate Burpees 35#
Toes through Rings

Time- 6:58

I programmed this one. It sucked. Quick and painful.. Just what it was supposed to be.. I got the first 15 ring dips unbroken which helped my time a lot.. The rest were slightly broken up in spots but I tried to take very small rests so it went fast.. Good times..

Now an extremely bad cheating weekend begins including golf, beer, and burgers..

Good luck to all the Garage Games competitors! You guys rock! I have the utmost faith you will breathe fire and take some names.

Thursday September 22nd

Took today as a semi-rest day.. Shoulders were sore from muscle-ups and I felt a little overtrained..

However, I was curious about the prowler WOD so I decided to attempt to replicate it in the gym since our space is about 30m long, seemed feasible..

I loaded up the drag tire sled with 2 orange kettlebells and that seemed to be challenging.. I also put 6 plates on the tall box as the "very high box" to climb onto..

I did the while thing in like a minute and a half.. I was not diligent on the time.. The weights rolled around and fell out of the tire toward the end of the second drag so it's totally illegitimate.. But fun little experiment.. The height of the box and the weight on the sled will be the only thing to divide everyone.. This will take like a minute for fast people and 2 minutes for slow people.. Quick hitter kind of WOD.

Wednesday September 21st

SWOD- Rest

No strength work today, but a GG-inspired double WOD was plenty taxing on its own. Managed to get one in before coaching and one after. Very productive day at FCF.

WOD1- The Chipper

20 Toes Through Rings

30 Thrusters 95#

40 Burpees

50 Box Jumps 24"

Time 7:39

This was a fun little lung burner. Toes through rings are sort of fun to be honest, I am a fan.. Any more than 20 and I probably would have had to rest/regrip/etc. but 20 was a good number to cruise through. I was able to get the thrusters done in a 21/9 split.. I should have just done all 30 in a row.. that 5 second break was useless.. but not a huge deal. The burpees were the killer on this one.. I believe in the actual competition folks are going to have to jump up and touch a target on every burpee, so I just tried to jump to full extension and fully open my hips, didn't cheat any of them. Box jumps I did something like a 10/20/20 split.. I came out of the burpees gasping for breath so the first few were slow, but once I got a thythym going I was cruising. I think of the 50, 5 or so might have been no-repped by a judge (did a little of the bunny rabbit hop back and forth without opening at the top).. But all in all that only would have lost a few seconds, so that is a decent reflection of what my score would have been in competition.. I am curious to see how the freaks do on it this weekend.. I bet some nutcase can go under 6 minutes and make me feel that all of my life efforts are a joke.

WOD2 -

3 minutes to achieve a 1RM OHS

followed immediately by

3 minutes to accumulate max muscle ups

Scores: OHS- 150#, MUs- 11
 

This is going to really separate men from boys and the chicks from the brutes this weekend. These are arguably the two most skill-intensive movements we do in CrossFit all piled into one 6 minute race (maybe pistols are harder? Regardless)..

I started my OHS at 125, did 135, 140 and then went for broke and tried my old PR of 150# just as the clock hit 3:00. I am fairly sure I got to full depth, but I was alone, so the jury is out.. Felt good to max out on those though, haven't maxed out an OHS in like 6 months because I hate them.

My shoulders were pretty smoked so when I ran over to the rings I just tried a single muscle up to see how it felt.. Answer = TIRED.. This was going to be a 3 minute struggle.. I was able to string together a set of 3, then 2, then 2, then 2, then 1 at the very end.. My shoulders were beggin for mercy by the end of it. Stability was really really tested from the max overhead right into a bunch of ring dips.. Bravo Ben Bergeron.

Good WOD.. glad I don't have to do this one in public and embarrass myself overhead squatting while some people my size are throwing up 225 as their warm up.. Ugh.

Tuesday September 20th

SWOD- Press Progression 1-3-5 x5, Pistols 3x10

Lengthy extended warm up today seriously took a lot out of me. I went light on 2 rounds of kettlebell-5 drill because my shoulder felt weird on the very first 1 arm swing with the 1.5 pood bell. But even still, using a 1 pood I was pouring sweat.. Yeesh.

Tried to hop into the Press progression work and pistols quickly because time was of the essence. Like I said, my shoulder felt a little funny so I didn't push it toward my max press (150) and kept it about 80% of that and tried to focus on form and speed through the push presses and push jerks. Ended up doing 115, 120, 125, 130, 130 for my 5 working sets which felt pretty good, and had to cut my pistols a little bit short. I did 3 sets of 6 on each leg with a 25 lb plate below my heel.. Not my best, but it was good to practice, haven't worked those in a while.

WOD - "Death by Sprints"

1 10m sprint in the first minute, 2 in the second.. etc.. until you cannot complete a round.

Score - 17 

This was one of those WODs that I felt really gassed (from warmup and SWOD) before I was even started, but once it got going I was like.. ok, now I have to put up a reasonable score that I have made it this far into it. My ankles felt surprisingly good, usually they start to get score from all the starting and stopping, and the only thing that really hurt was the giant blood blister that formed on the ball of my right foot around round 12..

(Side note on my stupidity: I should have had 18 on this.. I messed up the counting on the last round.. I did my 17 sprints during minute 17, then looked at the clock and for some reason thought I had to do 1 more, so I did it, like barely in the nick of time as the clock struck 17, then I stared off into space for a second and was like wait, I didn't have to do that.. and by the time I realized what I had done, it wasn't worth starting the round of 18 with a 7 second penalty and a hurt foot. Next time I'll get 18 on this..)

Monday September 19th

SWOD- Deadlift 8x2 @295lbs (75% max), Max L-sit x 5

Quick warm up and got right into these.. Tried to focus on speed as much as possible on the lifts.. All felt pretty good.. L-sits are still an issue for me, can't really break the 10 second mark... Just gotta continue to drill these as they come up.

WOD- "9 on 7"

5 RFT

9 Rack Thrusters @135

Bear Crawl

7 Plate Slams 45#

Time - 9:26 Rx'd

I Hate This Workout. Bear crawl and plate slams are what they are, nothing major, but I have a vendetta against rack thrusters. I find them be among the stupidest movements ever. They are considerably easier to push a heavy weight than regular thrusters since your back acts more like a trampoline for the barbell, I will say that, but the direction the shoulders need to go and the control within the shoulders needed on the descent to not leave a huge bruise on the nubbin at the top of your back is something I simply do not have, especially once I am fatigued. Pisses me off.

On a brighter note, I am pleased I was able to go unbroken on the first 3 rounds of this and only had to break up the RTs into a 6/3 split for the last two rounds.. I think the last time I did this like 7 months ago my time was in the 12 min range, so this is certainly an improvement.

My bitching aside, I do need to get outside my comfort zone every once in while, and this certainly accomplished that. So.. yippy.

Sunday September 18th

Impromptu Rest Day..

Ended up playing golf on this lovely fall day.. posted an 83, should have been 81 if I didn't 3 putt an easy 7 foot birdie putt.. BITCH.. but still, my best score this summer..
Maybe this whole General Physical Preparedness is working, who knows..

Now to watch the Patriots.. Love sunny September Sunday afternoons..
Additionally, I love alliteration.

I'm going to move the sled drag WOD I had half-baked today to later this week for a nasty double WOD day..

Saturday September 17th FGB6!

What's got two thumbs and raised enough money to get a free T-shirt? This guy.

WOD- FIGHT GONE BAD

Calorie Row

Wall Balls 20#

Box Jumps 20"

SDLHP 75#

Push Press 75#

 

1 minute at each station for max reps, 1 minute rest, 3 rounds total.

Score - 372 Rx'd

 

I love this workout.. hurts so good. I did not take a look at my score sheet afterward to give a round by round total but I believe I started the first round with 22 cals, 28 WBs, 48 box jumps, 22 SDLHP, 20 Push Press.. If I could somehow keep that pace for the entire time I would get a score of 420 which would be reDONKulous. I tapered off as expected for each exercise as the workout went forward. The most disappointing was definitely the push press for me.. Being the last exercise, I was obviously exhausted each time I got around to it, but there isn't really much of a press component to anything else we do in this workout so my shoulders/triceps should have been fresh enough to knock out like 30 reps.. But whatever, something to improve on slowly but surely. My box jumps are 100% my money maker.. at 20" I can basically hop on and off like a kangaroo for the whole minute and still get my hips open above the plane of the box to hit the standard.. 

 

Next year (or next time I do this) I am getting to 400.. I do not care if I collapse in a heap and throw up all over myself, I am hitting that benchmark come hell or high water.

Also, sorry to Chrissy about the post-WOD kick in the face.. I fell down panting on my back and thought my foot had nicked a barbell on the ground, but no, it was Chrissy who had also resorted to the ever popular horizontal post WOD position.

Friday Sepetmber 16th

SWOD- Clean 3x3, Weighted Pull up 3,3,2,2,1

Heavy Cleans twice in one week! It's like Christmas!
After some extended warm up I tried to get right up to the weights I wanted for cleans because I knew fiddling with the weight belt for the pull ups would take a little while and I did not want to hold anyone up.
I warmed up with 135 and 165 for some reps and I decided I would try 185, 195, 205 for my sets of 3. I felt really solid on all of these weights, grip felt good, pop from the bottom felt fast.. Good progress. I believe that is the first successful set of 3 unbroken I have done with over 200 lbs.. so.. PR?

For pull ups I started conservatively to get loose then my wrist was acting a little funny on the chin up grip so I switched over to normal pull up grip for the remainder. I don't feel as strong with strict weight pull ups with that grip, but I tried to do weights similar to what I would have done. I used kettlebells for my weights and went for 3x54, 3x59, 2x72, 2x72, 1x82... The last rep was a little sketchy, not sure I got my chin all the way over the bar. It was close.

WOD- AMRAP 15

4 Ring Dips

6 HSPU

8 KBS 2 pood

I have been crossfitting long enough that now when I look at the board and see a workout like this I am just thinking "I am going to spend all of my time doing HSPUs for this, fuck"..

I ended up getting either 7 or 8 full rounds, plus a partial round of 4 dips, 6 HSPU and 2 KBS.. I lost track at the end when I started getting pissy about having to do every HSPU in a single rep. I am pretty sure it was 8,  but that would not hold up in court. 

I was able to do every single round of swings and dips unbroken for their rep scheme which pleased me, but the HSPU were a complete struggle from about minute #4 onward.. I broke it up into 3&3 as long as I could, until the last few minutes or so when I fell apart and they all became singles.. I went into the WOD thinking I would add an abmat midway once my form got shitty, but I was able to keep it all Rx'd the whole time. I think this is just about the first WOD of any appreciable length where I did not bail on the Rx'd HSPUs.. So again, making progress, even on a movement I totally hate.

Thursday September 15th

Rest day..

Sore from yesterday, need to let everything heal up before this weekend.. I plan on going at it HARD the next 3 days..

You make your gains on the days you rest, not the days you train..

Wednesday September 14th

Double WOD day.. Let the fun begin.

WOD1-

AMRAP 15

5 wall walks

10 ball slams

20 double unders

Total Rds - 7 + 3 wall walks.

Wall walks make me really sweaty.. I don't know if it is the blood rushing to the head or what, but holy cow did I leave a pile next to the wall by the end of this.. The ball slams I was able to do all unbroken, just need to hammer those out and pretend someone's face you are mad at is on the ground (am I the only one who does that?).. Double unders were a roller coaster today, some rounds went really quick like in 2 sets of 10 or something, some sets were an absolute struggle.. They were definitely the limiting factor on my rounds.. I probably should have gotten more like 9 rounds if DUs were coasting along today.. Shoulders were smoked after this.

WOD2-

Row 200 m, then complete a Kettlebell Swing for every second the row took you.

Row 200m, same for box jumps

"... " Pull ups

"... " Double Unders

"... " Burpees

Time- 17ish minutes (clock stopped at 15:00, whoops)

I ended up having to do the 5 200 m sprints, 36 KBS 1.5 pood, 39 Box jumps 24", 40 pull ups, 43 double unders and 39 burpees... Ouch..

This one is compliments of Capt. Jake, thanks bro, that sucked donkey balls.

Hardest part was by far the pull ups.. the others you sort of just had to put your nose to the grindstone and stick em out.. I struggled a little on the DUs because I was exhausted and the box jumps I did not do as many touch-and-go as I should have. Overall, this was a really good mental test because you did not want to "dog it" at all on the rower because it just meant more misery later. I like this format.. I might to try to make up some more on this motif involving either laps around the building, sled drags, or bear crawls..

I don't think people will like me very much if I implement one of those.

Tuesday September 13th

SWOD- Squat 3x5, 3x3

I warmed up with a whole laundry list of stuff for legitimately 30 minutes before having a crack at these squats because I have not done them in so long. I think my flexibility has improved a bit since incorporating more mobility stuff, specifically to the squat motion, but this was going to be a good test.

I warmed up with 95# for 10 slow reps and 125# for 10 reps just to get everything loosened up. I realized two things during these reps..
a) The bar felt heavy as fuck on my back because I haven't done this in so long. Yeesh.
b) My flexibility felt good, but the transition point right at the bottom of the squat (when I go from descending back to ascending) felt a little weak, so I decided it might be a better idea to do box squats with more weight so I didn't risk anything. I am definitely being overly cautious, but sue me.
I did the 6 sets with weights as follows:
155x5, 165x5, 185x5, 185x3, 195x3, 195x3..

I have lost about 70 lbs on this lift for this sorts of rep scheme not doing it for 2 months.. that blows..
BUT, this was progress in the right direction.. No real pain, and I was able to get through every rep with decent speed. I think I will stick with box squats a for a little bit (maybe the next month or so) as I build my tolerance for heavy weight back up..

WOD- "Isabelle"

30 Snatches for time

135#

Time - 5:43

I haven't done this workout in like over 6 months and last time I did it I did it with 115# in 3:23. 

My goal today was simply to finish it Rx'd and just set a baseline for something to improve upon because 135# is more or less a 5 rep max for me, so doing it 30 times quickly is a tall order. I thought something like 1 rep every 10-15 seconds would be a good pace to start at just to make sure I did not burn out in the 20's.. I believe I ended up getting to rep 10 at 1:30ish, rep 20 at 3:30ish, and finished at 5:43.. My last couple reps were ugly as sin but I was glad to finish it within a reasonable time.. I think I could have gone for broke more at the beginning when I was fresh and still finished, but now I have a goal for next time.

Monday September 12th

WOD-

1RM

Clean

Floor Press

Weighted Pull-up

I ran out of time and did not get a chance to do overhead squats.. I had to spend a ton of time getting loose because my shoulders and lower back were extremely tight.. But I was glad to get to try for some new PRs on these movements, a couple of my favorites.. I had been doing a lot of goat work recently, so it was nice to try friendly movements that I am totally comfortable with.

For power cleans I warmed up and felt really strong today, everything was coming up no problem.

My weight progression went as follows to warm up. 135x5, 165x3, 185x2, 205. These all felt great, I was getting good hip pop and my hands felt fast on the recovery.

For my 1 RM attempts I planned to do 215, 225, 235. All 3 went up and felt solid. In the past I have always failed the first time I try to a new 1RM on cleans.. Not sure why, just always happens that way.. But today 235 was a new best and I didn't even feel too strained so I decided I would go for broke and try 245, which has been been a goal of mine for a long while. The video above is my 245 bid, success.. Double PR day.. I was really stoked about this, which is not apparent from my ho-hum reaction..

Hopped right into weighted pull ups after those and I have a pretty good idea of what my wall is on these so I went quickly through the progressions. I did (with kettlebells on the belt) 16 kg, 24 kg, 32 kg, 32kg + 5 plate, 32 kg + 10 plate.. The last rep on the 32kg+10 (about 82 lbs) was grueling.. I just barely got my chin over the bar to count it, so I stopped there.. I believe that is a new PR, but I haven't tried these since we got the new orange kettlebells so I forget what the last ones I did were.. I think I maxed out with the green KB only months ago, so this is a significant improvement if my memory serves.

Floor press I also hopped right into because I was really warm all over.. I had previously maxed out at 225 so I wanted to see if 235 was in range today. I warmed up with 185x5, 195x3, 205x2 and then hopped into max reps. Similar to the cleans I did 215, 225, 235 with success, but the last rep at 235# was definitely a struggle.. My feet were kicking like I was giving birth on the last couple inches of the range of motion, so I decided that was plenty for today..

3 PRs.. 

Me = :)

I guess I owe an overhead squat 1RM at some point this week.. yuck.

Sunday September 11th

Never Forget.


Nothing major today.. watched a lot of football.. ate a lot of food of poor nutritional value..
Went for a jog in the evening because I had like a sugar high from all the shitty food and needed to accomplish something active to get the jitters out..

(also somehow posting from my iPhone last week deleted my post from last Thursday.. weird.. Oh well, tried something new just to see how it worked.)

Saturday September 10th

WOD - Partner tag team "Grindy"

3X

10 C&J 135#

5 rounds of Cindy

This was fun sweaty awesomeness.. I tried to do all the C&Js as single reps to save my grip.. I didn't go after it like a real Grace attempt. In general every round of this took 5ish minutes.. First one I clocked at 4:30.. The others I lost track to be honest.. And every rest was about the same when Will went.. The whole WOD took us like 33 minutes.

Need to remember to work on butterfly pullups.. I did all kipping today.. Whoops..

Need to rest tomorrow. My wrist/thumb is being funky.

Friday September 9th

(trying this from my iPhone, not sure how shitty the published post will look)


SWOD- OHS 5x3

Yuck, constant reminder of how I need to do more shoulder mobility. There is like one more inch of flexibility I need to be in a "comfy" position with my shoulders.. Oh well, practice is good..
I went for 115x3, 135x3, 135x2(fail), 135x3, 140x3..
Movin on up, 140 is the most I have overhead squatted in like 2 months, and actually got to full depth.. So.. Progress..

WOD1-
Every minute on the minute (15 min)
2 thrusters
10 double unders

I started the thrusters at 170# because frankly Ryan said he did 165# so I wanted to one-up him and be a jackass. I was able to get through 6 rounds at the 170# and got all the double unders and after that it fell apart a little.. I dropped the weight to 165 after I missed a couple attempts and then my double unders went sour at some point. Ended up doing 30 burpees afterwards as self imposed penalty because my last 5 min or so sucked 6 ways sideways.

3 hours later..

WOD2- 4 rounds:
Max floor press @185#
Max strict pull ups
15 med ball sit up throws

Fun "boy WOD" right there folks. I ended up getting 10,9,8,5 for the presses and then 16,10,0,8 for the pull ups..

I haven't done much upper body strength stuff this week to this point so this was a nice one to hit.

Also, got 6 unbroken muscle ups in between there somewhere. New PR..
10 in a row, here I come bitches.

Wednesday September 7th

I have a huge mancrush on Rich Froning.

I am glad he can climb a rope now.

So frankly today should have been a rest day, but all of my WODs from Saturday to Monday didn't have a strength component, so I wanted to work in something. Also, I have been feeling good recently, not overtrained. I think the combo of my hip feeling better and my cold going away just has me so jacked up for CrossFit.. I have been ear-to-ear smiling every time I have been in the gym this week.

Brie had written up an extra competition WOD upon my request to start implementing some rope climbs because they keep coming up in the CFGs and I want to get good at them. I decided to treat it more as a "practice WOD" since this is my 5th day in a row working out, so I did not keep time really and focused on form.

WOD

7 Rounds

5 Front Squats 155#

1 Rope Climb Ascent

The prescribed weight should have been 185 but I tailored it back since 185 is basically close to a 5RM for me at my current squat situation, so 155 was more manageable for 7 rounds. Rope climbs felt really good to do again. I need to work on the descent more than the ascent. My form is pretty much ok getting up with the J-foot technique, but I have trouble keeping it locked in on the way down. I haven't even tried climbing since we took down the rope for a random tug of war game like 2 months ago, or more? So I guess this will come with practice.

Need to remember to wear long socks next time I do these though.. Got a little rope burn on my lower ankle. Whoops.

Tuesday September 6th

SWOD - Deadlift 5x3, HSPU 5x5
Yay Deadlifts!
Back felt pretty good today so I decided to work up and see if I could go heavy on these. I believe I did
135x8, 225x6, 315x3, 335x3, 335x3, 355x3, 365x3.
The 365 on the last set was a new 3RM for me, I have been trying for that for a while.. Strengthening up my hook grip has definitely helped on multiple rep deadlifts. HSPUs were fine, unbroken on all sets. Treated those more as a tricep warmup than anything for the hell that I was about to embark on.
(If you are reading this and you are not hook gripping yet, start now. Deal with the first week of discomfort in your thumb and you will thank me. Mike Burgener would make you do burpees for everytime you touch a  barbell and you are not hook gripping.)

WOD - "Stairway to Heaven"

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Ring Dips

HR Push ups

30 yard OH Walking Lunge 45# between each round

Time -16:58

This was a sneaky little bugger. I blew through the first bunch of rounds without a ton of trouble (I think I looked up at the clock when I was on my lunge post-"round of 6 reps" and I was at like 7 minutes. So the next 5 rounds totally buried me even though the reps kept dropping. The OH Lunge turned out to be the total limiting time factor. The rest just burned out your triceps and made holding the weight overhead that much more uncomfortable. But mainly my ass was just tired once we got midway and the last couple rounds were a mental struggle to keep going on every lunge.

Overall I am happy with my time because my dips and pushups went very fast, but the lunge was what it was. Just a mindfuck. 

My bum is going to be sore tomorrow. 

Sitting on the toilet in the AM should provide some excellent moans, groans, and facial expressions.

Monday September 5th

Days off are awesome.

WOD 

2X

Run 1 Lap (around the building, about 560m)

30 Partner Wall Balls each

20 Thai Burpees (AMRAP Double Unders while partner is working)

Time - 19:00

First off, sorry Chrissy. I am glad the 20 lb med ball did not crush you.

Good little workout, nothing crazy, just a bunch of met-con. I can finally breathe through my nose again today so I cruised through this without a ton of trouble. The hardest part was probably doing DU's immediately after a 20 Thai Burpee sprint.. that sucked.. Got a couple of nice strings of DUs going today which was a pleasant occurrence.. More practice to come on those.

I want to try the real partner wall balls over a wall sometime. Those sound fun.

Excited to get back to some strength stuff this week, everything feels good for the first time in a long while so I want to get back into actually moving weight and gaining strength, not just staying the same or working through flexibility problems.

Sunday September 4th

WOD- "Helen"

3 RFT

400m Run

21 KBS @ 1.5 Pood

12 Pull ups

Time- 9:18

This was surprisingly shitty. I had this pegged as an easy sub-9 min workout that wouldn't be too taxing. I was wrong. That last 400m uphill run was terrible. Totally miscalculated how hard the last hill would be once I got going. I was pretty happy with my first couple rounds as I went unbroken on the KBS and only had to break up the pull ups briefly just to reset my grip. But the last round was a good test of will.. I walked the last 15 feet of the hill to catch my breath and couldn't go unbroken on the swings or the pull ups once I got back inside.. Oh well. Something to shoot for next time. 

(I want to try this workout on flat ground also just so I can compare myself to the times that are on YouTube and the CFHQ site and stuff. I am a tool.)

Practiced some double unders afterward for a while. I need to keep reminding myself that while stuff like cardio endurance, stamina, flexibility,  and strength will all improve bit by bit as I keep challenging myself with each WOD, unfortunately coordination stuff like pistols, double unders and muscle ups are only going to improve if I practice them. Even just 5-10 minutes after or before sessions I need to start re-working these in.

Saturday September 3rd

Went down to CrossFit Craic in Dedham for this one with Ryan. Props to John & Sara for having us. Great time.

I finally felt well enough to do a WOD today.. thank frikkin GOD.. I was starting to become a hermit.. Fortunately I slept and stretched a ton and ate pretty well so I think my body will probably thank me in the long run for these last couple days even if my head/nose suffered for 3 days.

WOD - "31 HEROES"

AMRAP 31

8 Thrusters 155#

6 C2B Pull Ups

11 Box Jumps 30"

While one partner works through these movements, the other completes a 

400m 45# sandbag or plate carry.. Partners switch upon return 

and continue from the rep the other was on.

(The pull ups were supposed to be rope climbs, but there was legit no room to do it, and I don't think many people at CFC would have Rx'd it anyway.. I do want to incorporate some rope climbs into my training though just for fun.. They seem to appear at the games a lot.)

Ryan and I ended up getting through a total of 8 rounds + 1 thruster.. I would venture to guess that out of the 65 thrusters, he probably did 37ish to my 28ish.. ballpark.. I definitely struggled with the hefty weight more than he did. The pull ups and box jumps were no biggie we probably split those just about 50/50.. The rep schemes were not high enough for either to be much of a problem, and they were pretty much way overshadowed by the heavy thrusters and the surprisingly fucking shitty ruck run.. After the first run I honestly didn't think much of it, but about midway through the run started to be the worst part of the whole thing.. But I had to attempt  to not totally dog it and leave Ryan high and dry doing thrusters all morning long.

Overall a fun partner WOD, I would definitely like to try it with the rope climbs for kicks, but that would assuredly slow things down a shitload. Fun to workout with some new people too.. I think only one other group of the 10 or so there at 8am did the Rx thruster weight and we managed to stay pretty much matched up with them the entire 31 minutes, ended up losing by 3 thrusters.. Bah Humbug..
(Damn it Brie, now you have me saying that, I hate you.) 

Hopefully this cold is 100% gone tomorrow so I can try to do Helen or the horrendous looking WOD from Thursday.. 

Thursday/Friday September 1 & 2

This fucking sucks.

I hate being sick.. Might attempt some semblance of a WOD later on tonight if I feel so inclined.. but yesterday I literally did not leave bed except to get more water or grapes.. pathetic day..

I am supposed to do the 31 Heroes WOD tomorrow morning so I just want to feel well enough to do that.. Might have to scale the thruster weight on it slightly, but the rest should be a fun little test.. Mainly it is for charity though.