Holiday pre-workouts

Thursday December 13th
"Panini Shangwich"
Worked up to 140 for multiple double on the strict presses, felt strong, had to taper back to 135 for the last couple when I failed a set.
Worked up to 205 for the HSCs by the end, felt good. Heavy and challenging, but my speed to the hole was pretty solid. I still need to be doing more front squats to get out of the hole with heavier weights, because I am confident I can get down there and get it.


Friday December 14th

Yoke Walk complex with pull ups.


1 Yoke walk, increasing weight each time, then 10 weighted pull ups, 20 lb vest. No time element.
I did a max yoke walk of 500 lbs which is a 50 lb PR. Pretty jacked up about this, 450 used to tattoo me, and I did 500 and was fairly stable, even though I almost burst a blood vessel by the end of the 50 ft.

Prowler fun.. Did about 8 prowler pushes with varying weights, up to 180 lbs in plates added to the sled by the end for 4 sprints or so. This hurt like crazy.

I proceeded to get drunk with my old co-workers on this night and was a trashbag the following day.

Sunday I did 100 Push ups for time in about 4:25 and then Tabata Sit Ups for kicks.


Monday December 17th, unscheduled rest day, never made it to the gym, lousy traffic on my first day of work. Ugh.

Tuesday December 18th.. made up the Power Hour workout.
Worked up to 245 on back squats most of the way, and 200 on split jerks by the end. This crushed me.

I went to do the second half and was ruined. Only got up to 215 on power cleans and 5 strict pull ups with a 20 lb vest per minute. I was torched to hell by the end of this. Wow. Weirdly I was not sweaty or panting, just CNS shut down mode.

Wednesday December 19th
Fran.
3:23 Rx'd PR (previous I have on this blog is 4:30) so this was enormous. I have put it off and put it off because I was:
a) afraid I would not PR
b) know how much it hurts.

The PR felt amazing, but I was in tough shape for approximately 4 hours after this, dead serious. My lungs felt burnt for like 40 minutes afterward and it was less than a 4 minute workout. Go figure.
Fran is such a whore.


Thursday December 20th
Worked out in my new office's little gym. Its actually quite useful. It has a barbell, a plyo box, some KBs and DBs. I should be able to do some damage in there on days when I am in a pinch at lunchtime or something.

They had these shitty plastic rings in the corner, and I attempted to set them up on the pull ups/bar dip station, but it did not work very well at all.

I did the Snatch complex first.
For my 8 rounds I think I did:
95, 105, 115, 115, 120, 120, 120, 120. I whiffed a rep on 125 in there somewhere and dropped back down. Did not feel fast today. I rushed the warm up too much and just wanted to get it overwith.

Bearded Lady - 8 Rounds Rx'd with the sketchy ass rings. I think I could have gotten one more round maybe if I approached it differently, but this was an unknown and unknowable type set up and I just went with it. Did all the KB swings unbroken each round, which was great for me, usually I pussy out on those after a bit. Kept it straight today.


Friday December 21
Pirate's Booty
7:41 Rx'd

I think this is good, no basis for comparison really. I beat some others in class who have less rope climbing experience.
All told this is 1000m row, 60 Wall Balls, and 5 rope climbs in under 8 minutes, so I think that is a good amount of work to knock out in that time span.. Good not great. Only had to wait once or twice for rowers or ropes, which I used as rest time to gear up.

(I sort of considered today a soft rest day, with no strength work, this is a pretty low key day for me. 1000 m row and 60 wall balls is more or less a warm up except for the intensity.. so ignore the fact that I am about to work out like 8 days in a row with no rest.. Today was the "rest day")


Saturday

Hero WOD
Whip
11 Rounds + 5 Push Ups (PR from last time I did this WOD)

2nd WOD
I drove all the way to Philly in boatloads of traffic, and when I got to my GFs parents house I found out they had a rower in the attic. Game on.

I did 8x250m with a 1:1 rest, so about 45 seconds on, 45 off.. ish.

All told I did these and it said that my 2000m would have taken 6:23. This was me going pretty much as hard as possible each time. How people get below 6 minutes straight is beyond my understanding.
This hurt a lot.


Sunday

Made this up on the spot while I was staring at the rower..
5 Rounds:
Row 200m
20 Air Squats
20 Push Ups

Time- 9:20


This sucked. Did the first 3 round entirely unbroken, then cracked on squats and push ups the last couple and just get through it in chunks of 10 or 8 reps or whatever. Fun little burner. Easy recovery.

I may visit CF215 in Philly tomorrow to do some OLY lifting, which would be great fun. I hope they don't talk me into doing their 12 days of Xmas wod, it looks worse than FCFs. Ugh. I'll see.


Side Note: I am considering signing up for a CF Comp in January at Avalon CF in Charlestown. It is a cheap entry fee and I need something to train for. The WODs look tough but doable. Could be what I need. I need to get my nutrition back on track after the holidays and I think this will help me dial it in.

Quick notes

I have not been by a computer to blog in weeks between giving my 2 weeks notice at Raytheon and doing anything related to coaching.

Quick wrap up since Thanksgiving time.. Just putting down notable PRs and such because I forget some things, especially workouts I made up on the spot.

PR'd my snatch. Twice.. 180 last Friday and then 185# on Tuesday December 11th.. I am fired up. I think I am finally getting the hang of them 2 years later.. When I get to 200 someday I am quitting sports cuz I will be so damn happy.

I said to someone last week I think that if I ever join the club of people who can snatch 200, clean 300, back squat 400 and deadlift 500.. I will shit my pants in happiness.


I Deadlifted 425 last monday, that was nice. Have not pulled for a max in ages, so to tie my previous PR was a nice feeling.

Other than that I have mostly been following my own programming for the gym since last blog post except for a couple of Fridays that I have been in Somerville and done a rogue workout. I did a partner WOD similar to the Cindy Sprints we did, but with buddy carries also. I also did that horrific mainsite 20x20 workout that took ages. I only had Allio's time in my head, so I tried to beat that and got it by 9 seconds, which was nice. I was torched from that workout. 20 front squats after 380 other reps was terrible.

PR'd my max box jump at 52" I believe, and PR'd Murph by like 5 minutes with the vest on Thanksgiving, which an awesome day. Super happy to be a part of that.

The workout "Downhill from here" crippled me for like a week. That was awful.

Lots of box squats lately, getting pretty heavy on those. Got up to 365 for a double, and 325 for 5. Which was nice. I wonder if I can do 300 for a regular full depth squat now.

The Ron Swanson partner workout was awesome, loved that one.

Tiger Mom and 5th Gear were surprisingly awful, I thought both would be easy and I was wrong.


As I sit here on Thursday I am not sure what I want to do later. I want to do the Presses and HSC's for EMOTM work, but want to do a met-con as well due to yesterday's beers and laziness.. I'll make it up later. I will either do Mistletoe from yesterday or something with burpees and double unders.



Dicky C out.

Civil War weekend

Friday
Worked out at CWCF later in the afternoon.

Did Hulk Salad from the Southie Garage Games but with a 15 minute time limit because we did not do any warm up sets, just hopped into an empty barbell..
I did 135, 165, 195, 215, 225.. This was shockingly difficult to do in a straight set. Really cool complex. The second jerk after your legs are pretty gassed was a tough one..

Then we made up a WOD based loosely on Awful Waffle from the same GG WOD. We did not feel like rowing so we did instead
100 Double Under Buy In
30 KB Swings 1.5pood
25 HR Push Ups
20 Deadlifts 225
15 HPC 135
10 S2O 135

Something like 6 Minutes, maybe 615.. This was a sneaky little bugger. I thought I would have a chance to go unbroken on it and I got through the deadlift number 10 and was just like "no way".. Did the cleans in sets of 5, and the overheads 2, 4, 4.

I tripped on double under number 1 and 8.. which was a terrific start.


Saturday & Sunday 11/17-18
Took the weekend off to help with Civil War at FCF which was an awesome time, really proud to have 50 members who would give up a saturday morning to thrash themselves in the name of fun. Super inspiring day.

Ended up quite drunk afterward at the gym and Tommy Doyle's, slept like a log, and took Sunday off to enjoy football..

Back to it on Monday..

I am a terrible blogger...

Been crazy busy the last 10 days..

But here we go.

November 6th
Leverage
Row 1000m
30 Power Snatch 95
50 Ball Slams 20

Time Just over 8 minutes

This was harder than I thought it was going to be. I came off the rower at about 3:38 or so, moderate pace. I did the snatches in something like 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 3.. Ball park. The last couple sets it was mostly grip, not really power.
The Ball Slams I did 15, 15, 20. Those got my wind way up there like crazy.


7th
Clean complex.. worked from 165 up to 195 steadily.. Nothing crazy.

Lennox - I think miscounted on this, but I got 6 or 7 Rounds and this was 100 times more terrible than I expected. Really hard workout. Lunges suck.

8th
Dead Ringer
10 Rounds + 3 Deads.
Awesome workout. This played to some of my strengths with deads and push ups, but it was a cool combination, whenever you were just about sick of one movement, it was over and on to the next. Good pace the whole way through, about a round a minute.


Friday 9th
"Glen"
For Time
30 C&J @ 135 (basically Grace)
Run 1 Mile
10 Rope climbs
Run 1 Mile
100 Burpees

35:39.. This was ridiculously hard, but there was no urgency because it was so long. Just a grinder the whole way. Did not stop on either run which was my main goal. Fun hero workout.

Saturday - Rest.. much needed..

Sunday - Impromptu WOD
100 Push Ups for time
4:45

Just dickin around in my living room in between football games... Tried this out for fun, don't really count this as a work day, just curious if I could do this any faster than before. About the same.

Monday
"Josh"
7:35.. overall 90 pull ups and 45 OHS in under 8 minutes, I will take that any day. Really hard one.

Tuesday
Snatch
1RM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbZv9NY0YOs&feature=youtu.be

Today was sort of an epiphany day for me with squat snatches. Something just clicked..

I had never done over 140 with any decent form and today I did:
135, 145, 150, 155, 160, 165(fail)

These felt as good as they ever have and I loved every second of it.


Annie
8minutes Rx'd..
No excuses, BUT my shoe came untied and I got an ab spasm in the middle of this.. and then I got the dreaded ass raspberry.. It sucked.. Like a minute slower than my best time on this.. I hate high rep sit ups so much.. suck ass..


Wednesday
Box Squats
3 rep max

I did 135, 185, 225 for warm ups.. and then moved up to 255, 275, 295, 315, 325..
The last rep on 325 was slow so I stopped. I also ran out of time before the next class, but these felt good to crank through. Love a good box squat.. I hope these translate to better numbers on normal back squats in the coming months.

Thursday
REST DAY WOOOOOOOO

A little adversity...

Sandy posed quite a bit of adversity on how I wanted to work out this past week..

I made due.

Tuesday
WOD in Park
5 Rounds of
10 Burpees
10 Box jumps onto a park bench
10 Dips on jungle gym structure.

No idea on time.. but it was shitty.. Dips were surprisingly terrible.


Wednesday
Tested a WOD for the Partner Throwdown at Commonwealth with Brian, Khaki and Nora.

It was awesome, I am excited to watch FCFers try it in a couple weeks.


Thursday

AMRAP 8
10 Wall Balls
4 Stone to Shoulder (2 right, 2 left) 145#

6 Rounds, so much harder than I expected.


Friday
Rest



Saturday
Stiff Upper Lip

12:42 with Pete, fun WOD.


Sunday
3 rep max box squat
300 lbs.. BIG PR wooo.

Worked up with 205x5, 225x4, 245x3, 265x3, 285x3. then 300.. awesome.

Tabata alternating
Tire Flips Burpees
4 Tire flips every round
8 burpees every round..

sweaty disaster of fun.

Last week mayhem

Tuesday

Squat Cleans
3-3-2-2-1-1
I warmed up a lot and ended up with
165x3, 185x3, 205x2, 205x2 (stayed the same to work on the second rep being more crisp)
225x1, 245x1, 250 (fail)

Fun times, love a good squat clean.

WOD
Tahoe
3 RFT
Run 200m
5 Squat Clean Thrusters 135/95

Time - 4:45

Yuck, running and clusters, worst thing ever. This one burned like a sumbitch.


Wednesday
Fight Gone Bad
Score - 404 Reps

I am super happy with this because I have always wanted to break 400, but at the same time its sort of bittersweet because I was still doing the box jumps with the "old standard" of jumping on and off, not the full controlled stand-up which wastes a lot of time. But the BJs are where I make up most of my score on this one, so who knows. The standard for what is a great score on this one is all skewed for me now.

I think I did:
18,17,16 for the row
31, 26, 24 for wall balls
51, 47, 44, for box jumps
26, 24, 23, for SDLHP
25, 25, 23, for Push Press

Something along those lines, did not even add up the math, but it was in that range throughout.

Thursday
Rest day, felt like trashbags after the FGB the night before.


Friday
TabaDUH
Scores-
OHS 45# - 11 (90 of these in 4 minutes hurt like a biatch)
Pull Ups - 9
KBS - 9

Fun WOD, really challenging when you get after it hard. The pull ups were a PR, previous was 7 I believe on the old rig.


Saturday
Team Linda
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Deads at 225
Bench at 155
Cleans at 115

I did this with a partner and we had to change weights a lot, so I have no idea what my individual score would have been, I did this at a semi-leisurely pace, everything unbroken the whole way through.

If I did this alone I think I would do more like 250, 175, 135 for weights and make it more challenging so that I could not go unbroken the whole way.
Also, I did power cleans, not full squat, which was quicker. I think the RX is squat for the advanced athlete??


Sunday
Strict Cindy
AMRAP 20 (ended up being 3 minutes, then got a phone call, then 17 more minutes, but whatever)
3 strict pull ups
10 push ups
15 air squats

Score - 21 Rounds + 3 pull ups

This was fun, still mostly a push up workout, but I felt better than other times I have done this WOD. I would say 3 strict pull ups is more taxing than 5 kipping, so this is probably a damn good reflection of the fact I have been getting better at push ups by doing them more often.
I was going to do Cindy this week in classes, but this was all I could do at home in the Hurricane so I went with it to try to get a sweat on after a relatively bad cheat day and football watching session.

Weekly update

Getting better at doing a weekly update now.. seems to work better for me than daily.. oh well..

Tuesday
Western Massacre Team WOD
Went to CWCF, did a comp wod with 5 - Three Minute AMRAPs of
Thrusters 115 (did about 33 reps)
Rope Climbs (7 ascents)
Push Ups (did about 60)
Deadlifts 225# (did about 30ish)
Double Unders (did about 150)

Good sweaty mess workout, cool one with a teammate to pace it out and section it off..


Wednesday
Interval work
5 Rounds
Row 200m
10 Bench Press 135#
10 OHS 95#
 Rest 2 min in between

Best 1:38
Worst 1:42

Fun one. I liked it.


Thursday - Rest Day

Friday ( really hungover today, was basically usless)
4 Rounds
15 HR Push Ups
20 Wall Balls
25 DUs

Time 7:02? I think

Deceptively tiring considering how simple it was. WBs were tough on round 4, shoulders were burning like crazy from the other stuff..


Saturday BARBELLS FOR BOOBS
Grace - 2:08 Rx
Keg Grace 75# - 2:03 Rx? Fun times with FCF


Sunday
5RM OHS
I did 115, 135, 155, 170 with success.. Good stuff, this is a PR, previous best was 165.

AMRAP 7
Row 150
5 Burpees
1 Wall Walk

6 Rounds + 2 Burpees.. Barf this was terrible. Went hard on the rows out of the gate and crashed a bit by round 5.


Monday - Rest.. excited for squat cleans tomorrow.

A long awaited goal..

Finally, today. I achieved a goal I have had for a long, long time.

A 250# Clean & Jerk.

It was not pretty, I am not happy with the form or the execution, but damn it the weight ended up over my head with a full lock out.

I battled this thing like a shark on the line with the jerk. But here it is. Here are the 245 & the 250.
I failed 255 twice in between these two reps which tired me out. But the 245 went up nicely so I thought I had it in the bag. Oh well. Next stop, 260.

WOOOO.

Weekend

Thursday - Took a rest day.. I was pretty much a mess when I woke up.. Everything needed a day off.

Friday - Wanted to do the WOD but I came down with this sore throat and nasal thing, so I did not go into the gym and infect the rest of the world.
I did a weird at home WOD that I made up, not sure how effective it was, but it was sort of fun?
30 Rounds for time:
3 Strict Pull Ups *supinated grip, palms facing each other.
6 Push Ups

Time 17:26

I would do this again to see if I could beat it.. 90 pull ups and 180 push ups is hard now matter how you do it.



Saturday
Snatch work- Hi Hang, Hang, Floor
I worked up to 115 for practice and felt it out. I actually felt more crisp from the high hang than almost everywhere else in terms of getting to the full squat. I think I keep it closer to my body when I do this which is my most common fault that I do when I snatch. The endless list.

WOD
Predator
4 Rounds, each:
15 Hang Power Snatch 95#
15 Burpees
Time - 9:36 Rx'd (with Eddie)

This was a nice burner. First two round unbroken and the last two rounds I did the HPS 10+5 and 10+3+2.. Grip and shoulders were BURNING like crazy.

Cool workout, I enjoyed it.


Sunday
Back Squats 3x5
I warmed up with 95, 145, 195 and then did 225, 235, 245 for sets of 5. Felt strong throughout, not great speed,but still working on it.

Tabata Burpees for cash out
10,10,8,8,8,8,8,8 reps for my 8 rounds. Yack.

Taking my medicine..

Thursday 10/4 = Rest day

Friday - by myself
EMOTM 10
2 Power Cleans
Worked with 225, 235 and eventually 245 for the 10th set, felt nice. Little wide landing at times, but good pop on the bar..

Saturday
Open WOD 12.4
12 min clock
150 Wall Balls
90 DUs
30 Muscle Ups

I got through 6 muscle ups this time, which is a 2MU PR from before.. Sort of happy with this, sort of not. I wish I had done better, but my god its just really hard to train for that much exhaustion on muscle ups.. My whole body hurt after the wall balls and the DUs.. just everything burning, so hard to focus on my technique.. Live and learn.

Sunday
Rest like a champ, did not get off the couch. Birthday Ice cream and steak tips like its my job.

Monday
Filthy Fifty
I got coaxed into doing this even though I did not want to at ALL.. Thanks Eddie and Adam.

This was basically self-punishment for this weekends shenanigans.
Time 20:02. I have no idea how I PR'd this by 40 seconds. It should have been sub 20 but I tripped on DU number 50.. so annoying.
I am happy I powered through this though. I did pretty much my exact "game plan" until the burpees, which I got through bit by bit, thank god I had Adam next to me to establish a pace. Doing it alone last time sucked.
Note: need to work on K2E too. Those were a huge time waster, I can get another minute off this time just by stringing those better.

Tuesday
Hang Power Clean 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
I went with 165, 185, 195, 205, 215 with success, felt good about these. Tough last couple sets, but manageable.

WOD
1000m Row
Time 3:18.4 PR.. Last 100m I just shut my eyes and yelled a lot. I can do better but this is still an amazingly hard workout when done right.


Wednesday
Front Squats
with time caps on each rest set
3x10 - 125, 135, 145
3x5 - 175, 185, 200

Solid work there, could go heavier next time for all but the last couple sets which were quite tough.

Celtic Cross - 8:43 Rx'd

No rebounds on 30 inch box jumps killed my time, I need to work on that.
18 Wall walks hurts my soul. Ugh.. sweaty mess workout.

Whoops

Same story.. Got busy this month and have not been blogging..

But wanted to start back up and make sure I log more times.

Monday
Self-induced WOD.

AMRAP 9
3 Tire Flips
3 C&J 155#
8 Burpees

6 Rounds even..
Yuck



Tuesday
Strength - Press 1-3-5 Complex
Worked up to 150#.. Happy with this. This is a PR.


Eagle Eye
4 Rounds
2 min clock
Row 200m
AMRAP KBS 1.5 pood

Rest 2 min in between rounds.


Total 142 swings

Previous score was 129, so I beat my previous self from a year ago. WIN.



Wednesday
"Nasty Girls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0nPnElcqgU
I remember watching this video when I first started hearing about CrossFit.. Thought it was so cool and amazing. Looking back those girls are doing 21 strict muscle ups.. incredible.

3RFT
50 Air Squats
7 Muscle Ups
10 HP Clean 135#

Time - Just over 12 minutes, I forget the seconds. My first round took 2 min flat with unbroken everything, so it can be done sub 7 if I ever become amazing at muscle ups. But the last two rounds were broken up into sets of more like 2 most of the way, it got really difficult to hang on. Squats and cleans were no trouble, just tiring as it went along.

Rest 2 hours

Cash out challenge
1 min max sledgehammer strikes
1 min max burpees
1 min max stone to shoulder 95#

30 sledge, 23 burpees, 10 stones.. total 63.. quick hard burner.


BACK AT IT

Last week..

Took Monday off... very much needed it.. Surprisingly my shins were killing me, everything else was fine.. I guess the running with the plate with entirely horrible form ruined me.. Ugh.

Tuesday
9/11 Never Forget WOD
AMRAP 11 (11 year memorial)
9 Power cleans (115#)
11 KB Swings (2 pood)

I skipped the run because my back got super tight at the end and it was not really worth pushing it..

I got through either 8 or 7 round + 1 clean.. I legit lost count. I think I had done 6 rounds through 8 minutes.. so I think I had 8, but I did not use chips and I was breathing really heavy at the end, so I may have crapped out..

I probably should not have worked out today, full disclosure, but I wanted to do the tribute WOD. My legs were too junky for this.


Wednesday
"Lynne"
5 Rounds for Reps:
BW Bench Press
Pull Ups

Bench - 14-12-8-6-6
PUs - 31-18-17-15-18

Pull ups were almost 100% a grip test by the end. I am pretty sure I can do more on a better bar. Oh well, thank god the new rig is coming. Great WOD.. This is one of the few strength days where I felt legit sick by the end (like pukey from a hard AMRAP) solely due to the intensity.
Perfect WOD for today since my legs were still trash and my arms felt great.

This is a PR by 43 reps.. whoa.


Thursday
High Hang Clean - Hang Clean - Clean
Loved this complex.
The grip was tough to keep.. I am sensing a pattern here.. ugh..
I went with 95-135-165-185-195-205..
Pleased with this.. I had 200 in my head as "very heavy from the high hang" and I hit it.. Boom.

"Old School"
Run 1 Mile
50 DLs 185
50 Clapping Push Ups

Time - 13:42 Rx'd+

I came in on the mile in like 7:15 or 7:20.. Felt sluggish.. I should be able to push more like 6:30 without dying here.. but it is what it is. I have not been running anything over 400s since like.. April .. The marathon made me hate distance training.. Whatever.. Good to revisit it..
Deads were OK, I didn't really go beast mode. Just paced them out with 10s and then 5s..
Push Ups sucked.. Last 6 or so were excruciating singles..


Friday

Active recovery
Went to the gym to get in some mobility work, but the 9am class had an odd number, so I stepped in and "sort of" did the endurance WOD.. It was fun. I didn't go apeshit, just try to focus on smooth efficient pulls and maintaining a nice strong pace for 200m. I finished all of them between 38 and 42 seconds the whole way.

Theeeeeeeenn I did a bunch of mobility..


Saturday
"Noel's WOD"
4 Stations for 4 min, 1 min rest.
Sleds
Farmers walk
Tire Flips
S2O 135#

This was spicy.. Sleds hurt, farmer's walks were not bad, tires burned my legs like crazy and the S2O reps were just all I had left..

Sunday
Recovery and horrific cheat day.. I think I had pizza, french toast and ice cream all in the same day. It was magical. I will likely back squat like shit today because of how badly I poisoned myself. But my god was the french toast worth it.

Garage Games

So once I found out about the Garage Games workouts a couple weeks back I basically dropped everything and decided it would be irresponsible to not keep the movements that were most prominent in that competition in my training for the most part. This why I have not really logged workouts, because the randomness and fun-ness was sort of gone, it was all business.

So for the last week I have done a ton of mobility of the hamstrings and hips, lots of back squats, deadlifts, C&J complexes, sprints, and rowing. Those have been my focus, and realistically the last two weeks were not "crossfit", they were preparation. No unknown, just practicing for what I knew was ahead of me. I will spare the boring details of what I did all week, because it was all just practice sessions, nothing with crazy intensity.

The other thing was that I wanted to make sure I felt GREAT on game day, so if anything was sore or weird that day, I just rested and figured the hay was already in the barn.

Garage Games weekend..

WOD1
For time:
5 Deadlifts 315
25 meter shuttle sprint (down and back) X6

Time 1:05 (3rd place out of 100)

This was my best score of the weekend by far, I killed it. Executed my plan perfectly and did not trip in the sand like almost everyone else did.
Apparently I am fast now, who knew. I beat a couple of people who were CF Games athletes. Consider my ego swollen.

WOD2

For Time:
25 Back Squats 225#
25 HSPU
5 Minute cap

Score - DNF, Through 20 HSPUs

So this was an annoying one. In practice when I did this I finished barely under the cap and figured, ok on game day I will bring it faster. I figured the limiter was the squats and once I got to the HSPUs I would just rock them out quickly. But on this day it was the squats that felt easy (finished in about 3 minutes like in practice) and the push ups just went to hell. They had a new standard I was unaware of where only your heels could be on the wall, not the rest of your body. I had done them with my butt on the wall as well. So I blame myself for not knowing the comp standard and whiffing. But I still came in like 30th place or something on this, not horrific. Very few people finished relative to the whole crowd.


WOD3

Jackie
Row 1000m
50 Thrusters 45#
30 Pull Ups

Time 6:46 PR!

Not a whole lot to say on this one. I did well for myself.
Paced the row at about 3:40 or so, maybe a little under. Did the Thrusters 25-16-9 with tiny rests to shake out my hands, and then did the pull ups something like 15-5-5-3-2.. Just tried to get it done at the end. I was spent when this was over. I think I came in the 20s somewhere place wise on this one.


Day 2
WOD4

"Quest"
Hill Run (Approximately 1000m?)
Hill Run with 45 Plate
Hill Run

Time -18:55

This was one of the worst things I have ever put myself through. I HATED it. The hills, the plate, the course.. everything about this sucked. I am proud of myself for getting through it even though it was by far my worst event. I had to walk a little with the plate which angered me but my legs were just complete toast at this point.. So hard. Thanks Ben Bergeron, you evil sumbitch.


WOD5
AMRAP 4
2 PCs 185
2 Front squats
2 Jerks

Score 6+1

I did better on this than expected it. When I practiced it the thruster part (transitioning from the 2nd front squat to the first overhead) was so challenging and on game day I just sort of rocked through it. I got through round 4 and felt great. 5 and 6 were less great, but still got them done. Ran back to the starting line for one last PC at the end.. I don't think I had a whole lot more left in me at this point. This was all I had left for the weekend of awesomeness..

Final Standing
Tied for 23rd place out of 100 male competitors ( I think only 90 or so showed up, but there were 100 names I saw on the list)

Until next time.. back to regularly scheduled CrossFit.

Hell-en of a weekend

Friday

Helen - 8:42 Rx'd

Did well on this one.. Good run paces, first 2 rounds unbroken. Last round only had to break up the pull ups at the very end. (forearms were smoked).
I am baffled as to how people can do this in under 8 Minutes.. I think if I went any harder on the runs, the swings would suffer, and I don't think I can go more than 5 or 10 seconds faster on the 63 swings and 36 pull ups for the most part.. People are crazy.


Saturday
Pesky Burpees
11 Something with paul Rx'd.

We had a nice team strategy on this one, cruised right through it.
I made up a lot of time on some of the big sets of push presses, the rest we just divided into sets of 7-12 the whole way along. No big pauses, and no big gasser sets, just consistent.
Liked this WOD a lot actually.
At the end of the day this probably broke down to 60ish OHS, 70ish Push Press and 36 burpees. Each time it was one of our turns, we hit it hard though. Good stuff..

Sunday - Rest

Thursday August 23rd

Skill- HSPUs
Max sets

I messed around with these for a bit and sort of practiced kipping and trying to get a better rhythym. Certainly felt better today, but not insanely strong, just went through the motions.
Did 15, then 11, then 8, then dropped off a bit and did like 4 and 4 to close. I was tired.



"Grab Life by the bells"
AMRAP 12
10 Box Jumps
8 Wall Balls
6 KB Lunge 2 pood

10 Rounds + 15 reps Rx


This felt really good for 7 or 8 minutes and then just flat out got tiring to keep my pace of about 1 round per minute. I came out the gate flying in purpose to feel it out and I was confident that I could do each set of 10-8-6 with no breaks and stuck with that, but my time in between each exercise just got longer and longer as I got to round 5 or so. Great workout though, it went super fast. I looked up and all of the sudden there were only 2 min left.

Those heavy KB lunges were weird. Easier when you went fast, but hot damn they burned your quads after a while. Tough on the core too just to keep upright.

Clean, jerk, and bring your knees to your elbows

Tuesday

Deadlift - EMOTM 8
3 reps each at 295, 315, 315, 325, 335, 335, 345, 345

Yummy deadlifts, daddy likey.

The last set of 345 I felt a little rounding of my upper back, would prefer that not happen, but I was a bit fatigued, not a huge deal. I kept everything else tight in the middle.

"Nelly"
Ladder workout - 9 Minutes
C&J @115
K2E

9 Rounds + 8 C&Js

Breaking this down, this is 53 Clean & Jerks and 45 K2E in 9 minutes.. I don't know if that is even good or bad. I just know that the ladder rep scheme starts out really easy.. and gets really hard by round 7.. I tried to do all the K2E unbroken, did not break until the set of 8.. I kept the C&J mostly in sets of 3 or 4 from the round of 5 on to the end.. Felt strong on the overhead, was barely even push pressing it.. Felt like it was flying right off my shoulders with a tiny dip.


Wednesday- Rest day. I am junk today. So tight everywhere. Yay rest!

Monday madness

Double day.. Kaboom.

Pumped to wake up this morning and work out with the 5:30 crew.. This workout had fun written all over it.. Row, pull ups, ring dips. YES PLEASE.

"Metric"
For Time:
Row 1000m
then
10 Rounds
10 Ring Dips
10 Pull Ups

17:35 Rx'd

Love this shit.. I think I went a little too slow out of the gate though.. I probably left a minute or so on the table by pacing rounds 1 thru 6, hoping not to reach a failure point on rounds 8 9 and 10 on the dip especially.. But I powered through, kept a good pace throughout, no huge stoppage points.. Kips felt good, grip felt meh, Dips felt great considering how many there were..

I don't think I have ever done 100 dips in a day?

First time for everything.



Afternoon at CWCF, picking up all our FCF equipment, we decided to squat bro session style.

EMOTM 10
2 Back Squats, work heavy as possible..

I started out small to build up..

I did 205, 215, 215, 225, 225, 235, 235, 245, 245, 255, 255..

We did one extra because we were fired up by the end.

Good workout.. quick and intense. I have not done a double at 255 in a while.. No spotter, no belt, full depth.. felt pretty strong.

Weekend Throwdown

So Proud of all of my athletes who competed this weekend.. Just.. wow.. everyone fucking kicks ass.

Thursday
Snatch Balance

Tried to work on these more for form than for weight..  Worked a bunch at 75 and 95 to try to beat the weight to the bottom and hit full depth without a ghost ride.. but its tough. I did a couple at 125 and 1 at 145.. with success, but still not getting down fast enough..

Mint Chip 4:25 Rx'd

Quick sprint, terrible.. Hurt a lot by the end.. My shoulders were burning like hell on those last 9 ball slams..


Friday & Saturday
"Rest" days..

I think I moved more weights around and was on my feet more of these two days then the previous 2 months combined.. so I barely count these as rest even though I did not WOD..


Sunday night
Basement WOD.. I was feeling froggy Sunday night and basically thought to myself "what is terrible that I have not done in a while?"
Answer - self-inflicted tabata awfulness.. (in my 88 degree basement with no ventilation)

I did Tabata Burpees, 1 min rest, Tabata Air squats, 1 min rest, Tabata Renegade Rows, 1 min rest.

I think for the Burpees I did 9,9,9,9,9,8,8,8.. For Air Squats I did 17,16,15,15,16,15,15,15.. Legs were screaming at the end of that. Renegade Rows with 35# I got 5 each round.. I counted "push up, pull with each single arm" as one rep.. I finished the 5 typically with about 2 seconds left which was not enough time to start a 6th..
Sweaty as fuck..

Same old story.

I need to get better at this.


Tuesday  (at CWCF)
Overhead Squats
5-5-3-3-1-1
This was fun, I am loving OHS recently.

155x5, 165x5, 175x3, 185x3, 200x1 (ugly but got it), 205x1 (pretty)

Sugar Rush
AMRAP 10
2 Muscle Ups
8 HPC 135
30 DUs

6 Rounds minus 1 muscle up.

I did this at a steady pace because I knew the MUs would go to failure eventually. I did most of the HPC either with no break or in spurts of "5 then 3", pretty steady for me. The DUs I got all unbroken.
It was basically a "tired muscle up" workout for me. I got the first 5 rounds with both doubles, then in round 6 I missed a couple so I moved on to the HPC and DUs, came back to the beginning and got 1.. Ugly ending. But fun workout.


Wednesday
Twinkle Toes
17:??

This was a fun one, mostly just a "try to keep going" workout. I pushed the runs as hard as I could, rows I paced at about 40 seconds per 200m.. I did all the burpees with no break and the T2B almost unbroken. I got 3 rounds of 10, and then 2 rounds with breaks. ARGH.. need to get better at those..

Thursday
Rest & Mobility work

Friday
Hero WOD Blake
18:34 Rx'd..

I liked this one, good test. I think I could have gone much faster if my iPod didn't break in the middle of it and cause me to stare at it for a minute and figure out what broke. Still a good one, gut check WOD. My ass and quads hurt for 2 days from those lunges.

Weekend - wedding down the cape, rested.. drank and ate too much.. no more weekends like that until the garage games.


Monday
Happy to be back in the gym
Squat Clean 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
185, 205, 225, 235, 245, 255(fail)

New PR on these, previous was 220.. PUMPED

Press Complex
115, 125, 135, 145, 150.. Tough but doable.. Mostly came down to the strict press.. The rest I can handle.

Tri-Tabata
Wall Balls 30# - 9 (all 8 rounds of 9, happy with this)
Pull Ups - 7 (I believe I did 9, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7,)
DUs - 20.. I usually get about 30 or 33 on this, but tripped up and got pissy.. oh well..



Tuesday
Sled Sprints
10 rounds of:
3 Power Cleans @ 155
Sled Push 20 yards
6 KB Swings 1.5pood
Sled Push 20 Yards

Rest as needed in between.. This was fun.. hard as hell, but fun.. Sleds are a great conditioning tool I need to starting using more of.

Wednesday
100 Push Ups for time - 4:41 Killed my previous time. Better strategy. 5 reps at a time out of the gate was the way to go. Pleased with this. I wanted sub 5 and I got it.

Boat Race
3 RFT
Row 500
Run 400
11:07

Rough.. Goat WOD.. I hate pure cardio.. need to make myself do it though. This was on the main site the other day and reminded me that its necessary to "just do it" sometimes..

God I suck at Blogging...

Another week gone by.. blah

Trying to write this stuff down just so I remember it.. no anecdotes today..

Monday
Front Squats for 10 minutes - worked up to 205 for doubles, tried to squat clean each first rep, then 1 squat.. core was very tired by the end, but legs felt decent.

Weighted Pull Ups strict for 10 minutes - 5 each minute with 20ish lb vest.. Felt strong except for minute 10.. got a little floppy.

Tabata Push Ups - Yuck, hate these.. did 11 for rounds 1-5, then 10, then 9, then 8.. BLERGG..

Tuesday

Jerk 3 -3 - 2- 2- 1- 1

Woohoo new PR.. 250.. felt awesome.

I think I did 185 for 3, 205 for 3, 215 for 2, 225 for 2 (PR also).. then 245 and 250 for 1's.

DB Snatch Regional WOD with 75#.. 3:59.. Happy that I beat some of the regional women on this.. slight self esteem boost.. but man this hurt the wind.. snuck up on me..

Wednesday

Rest Day woooo


Thursday
Back squat triples - 205, 215, 225, 235, 245.. all good.. should go heavier earlier next time.

UP- 7 minutes and change.. Loved this workout.. hit 15 HSPU in a row.. awesome.

Friday
I made up a workout on the spot today

AMRAP 8
Row 150
Farmers carry 230 30 yards
2 Tire Flips
2 Kegs Ground to Overhead
Farmers Carry back

Got 4 Rounds plus the row and a few steps.. Fun WOD.. good pace throughout..

Saturday
Olympic Relay WOD.
Sweaty horribleness.. Loved this.

Sunday
Rest


Monday
Morning Deadlift doubles - 315, 325, 335, 345, 355, 365.. all good.. could have gone a little heavier probably..

Evening- 100 Push Ups for time - 5:44.. I was tired and tried this anyway.. not a PR.. but good one to check in on.. My approach to this WOD sucks.. I think it would be better to do 5 at a time early on.. the 3 sets of 10 at the beginning sort of ruin me..

Another whirlwind weekend

Another few days that got behind me before I knew it.. damn.. this summer is CRUISING.

Thursday
Turkish Get Ups
Got a 75 barbell with my left hand and a 95# with my right, heaviest I have ever done successfully.. woot.

Shaken, Not Stirred.
2:53 Rx'd

I rocked this one out, unbroken DUs and unbroken DLs.. about as good as I could do.
Of course Eddie texted me an hour later and said "2:46, BAM"..  which almost caused me to stick my head in the toilet for an hour. Damn it.


Friday
Came in alone today to do some strength work. I expected this to be "easy-ish".. I ended up sweating buckets.
EMOTM 20
Odd Minutes - 3 Back Squats
Even Minutes - 3 Push Press

I mostly worked with 205 on the squats and 155 on the presses.. But I got up to 225 and 165 by the end.. I had no spotter so I did not go crazy, just wanted to get in some reps, since I did not want to do Fran and I have been neglecting back squats lately by accident.


Saturday - Did the Color Run 5K up in Amesbury with my girlfriend, but we mostly trotted and walked it out, it was way to crowded and crazy. Poorly run event, would not do it again.
I still have blue in my ear and pink on my upper back.


Sunday -
I did the Partner WOD from Saturday with Janine in the morning, we both missed it.

Refugee- 313 reps total

I think I did something like 40 or 50 clapping Push ups, 40 or so Wall balls, 30-40 box jump overs, 25 power cleans, and 25 S2Os.. great workout.

My running paces felt GREAT which was surprising, usually I suck with them. The rest did help though, obviously.

Tues-Wednesday

Nothing to see here, just being awesome at life.

Tuesday, back on the saddle. Thank god, felt like a moping fledgling dipshit after 3 days off and my sleep cycle totally fucked up.

Strength - Farmer' carry

We ran out of time on this unfortunately. I did a 350 and felt quite strong, I bet I had 400-430 in my somewhere today. Next time.

WOD - Chipperdales

For time:

10 Wall Walks

10 Cal Row

10 T2B

10 BJ 30"

10 Stones

back down the ladder, finishing with wall walks.

Time 9:50 Rx'd

This hurt like a sumbitch. The heavy stone and the wall walks, wow.. The middle stuff I was able to plow through without much problem, but the book ends killed me wind-wise.

I probably could have done this 2 minutes faster with a light stone, but I wanted to challenge myself.. some of the reps were ugly though. Meh.

Wednesday

Morning

Muscle Ups - 3 x max rep sets

7, 5, 5

Best I have ever done, very happy. On my way to my goal of 10 in a row. That was one of my year's goals.

"Rewind"- #1 - 6 Rounds + 2 Burpees, then 5 Rounds + 11 reps.. 

This snuck up on me.. It didn't seem bad for 2 rounds, but in the midst of the third round of both AMRAPs I had that mental switch go off where I was like "slow down, you are going to gas out".. I usually don't get that on short sprints, ouch.

Night

2k Row 

Time - 6:59.3 

Puerto Rico MuthaFuckasssssssssssssssssssss.. So jacked up..

I went into this a little different than my last two tangles with the 2K row.. Before I had tried to go our hard and just "hang on" for the last 5 minutes.

This time I went out and just found my pace in minute 1 and stuck with it, right around 1:44 as best I could..

I think the lowest I went was like 1:42 for a little stretch in the middle, and then 1:49 was as high as I ever got.. The last 200m I was screaming out just trying to make it overwith.. If I got something like 7:00.1 I would not have talked to anyone for like a week.

Goal for 2012, checked off.. 

Next up.. 10 muscle ups in a row, and then 450# deadlift.. Boom. 

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

Whirlwind week.

I knew I had this bachelor party coming up and I was really excited to see some old friends, play some golf, and hang out on the beach.

Between this 24 Day Challenge with Advocare and Paleo, and working really hard on everything I am doing, my brain just need a full-on break to do whatever the hell I felt like.

Wednesday
"Grace" - 2:26 Rx'd

This was a sweet PR, by about 25 seconds, I am very happy about this. But as someone who likes the olympic lifts and the form of it, I know how lousy my form was on it, so that was annoying. But whatever, live and learn. I sort of hybridized the the push press and push jerk into this ugly looking super press in the interest of time. I will know to stay away from that next time and try to stay more focused.


Thursday
Travelled all morning, got to the hotel gym around 3PM which was a total joke, just 2 treadmills, no weights at all.. Ho hum.. I ran a mile on that, then walked a mile at a steep incline just to get a sweat going. Then did some burpees, nothing to write home about, just an active recovery day.

Friday
Golf in the morning, played OK considering I have not played almost all summer.

The in the afternoon I visited CrossFit Myrtle Beach, which was a ridiculous experience.

So, some background info... its like 100 degrees all day every day in Myrtle, with like 75% humidity at all times. If you play golf past about noon, you will melt, dead serious.

I went to their 6PM class hoping it would be settled down by then. I was wrong. They were sharing this enormous warehouse space with a bunch of sports camps, with NO air conditioning, just moist stagnant hellish air. The WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP of 10 push ups, 15 1.5 pood KB swings, 20 sit ups, and 25 double unders. I got about 8 rounds and change because it was basically a sit up contest, I hate those in high rep situations, but today felt better than previous attempts. 20 per round is a lot better than 40. (curse you Barbara).

I wanted to stay afterward to hang out with their trainers and shoot the shit and do some power cleans, but I legitimately could not hold a barbell because my hands were so sweaty. I tried for 10 minutes and it was like holding onto a popped water balloon.

Sat-Monday.. Rest Days & travel days.. plane delays suck. I can't wait to work out this week, I feel like a bum right now as I type this.

Excited to make up my 2K row this week too, that was one of my yearly goals, to get a sub 7.. here I come.

Tuesday - Back on the saddle

Boom Baby.

Ready to wreck some shit today.

I came up with a little met-con to do today when I was inspired because the rope climbs at the games reminded me I have not done them in a while.

I did this little guy
Row 400 m
4 rope climbs
4 heavy tire flips
Row 300
3 RC
3 TF
etc.

Took 7:30 on the noggin. Good burner. The rope climbs were by far the hardest and most taxing part. The level of tightness you need to maintain in the grip and in the legs is very straining for me. I need to get more efficient and use my legs better. Something to work on, as always.


Next I did the workout with the class, about an hour later.

Skill work-
Ring Dips - 3x10. No issues here. I like ring dips. I did muscle-ups to the top of the ring to practice as well. Fun little throw-in.


WOD - "Goat"
AMRAP 15
6 Pistols
4 Hang Snatch 75#

I did this at a semi-conversational pace off the bat to feel it out. But man did I sweat after a little while. Pistols own my soul.
I did the snatches super light to work form. I feel like I am pulling too early and I am not getting into the right slot before extension of the hips and its causing the bar to come away from my body, so I tried to alleviate that today, and it looked a little better, but still a work in progress..

Pistols felt ok, I did them with a little plate under the heel and alternated back and forth with doing all 6 reps alternating, or 3 left then 3 right. I sort of messed around with the rep schemes today to see what felt different.

Blue Monday

First off, some positive before I go "bad news bears"

My OHS PR Video. wooo .. http://youtu.be/9bCQ8nk9cG8


So today was one of those days that I was not feeling it. My legs were sore and tight from this weekend and travelling in a little tiny plane. I don't think I warmed up well enough.. Blah blah, same old story.

I got in early to do some heavy yoke carries, I am still trying to get these into the 500 lb range instead of the 400 where I am currently sitting.

I worked with 320, 360 and 400 for a while, felt pretty solid, little tight in the lower back.

Warmed up for the Front Squats and Press combo today, and could not get loose.

I did 135, 165, 185, 200 for my reps for a while, and then did 32 reps at 100 for kicks. I stopped there because something did not quite feel right in my back and hamstrings, too tight to squat deep.

Then I got a call that I locked my girlfriend out of my apartment, so I had to bail before the presses.

Meh day.. oh well.. Tomorrow will be better.

Weekly wrap-up

The start of the BBNC and me vacationing to Rochester messed up my blogging this week.

BUT here we go.

Tuesday -
100 Push Ups - 5:36 Hand Release.. This is so effing challenging, I hate it.
Power Cleans - 3 minutes of 205, 9 minutes of 225.. very hard, but very fun WOD.. I would do this for 60 minutes.

Wednesday -
Forced a rest day because I knew this weekend I was going to thrash myself.. which I did.

Thursday -
Did one of the SunBurn LungBurn WODs for August's competition today as a check-in at CWCF. Loved it. Hated it. Good WOD.. Won't share here to spoil it. But I think it took me somewhere in the 7-8 minute range.

Came back to FCF and did the handstand and ring support holds.. Yuck. Ring Holds I maxed out around 40 seconds each time. Handstands right around a minute or 1:20 was my collapse time.. Need stronger shoulders ASAP.

Friday
WOOOO Rochester.

Went to work out with my cousin who is very into lifting and we were able to visit RITs awesome facility.


I did out workout plus some goodies.
Overhead Squat 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1
I warmed up a good bit, did some mobility work with a rumble roller, and got after these. Got some funny looks from the gym-goers.
I did 135x3, 155x3, 165x2, 175x2, 185x1 (tried to do 2 and messed up, I gor greedy). Then did 190x1 with success. I was super jacked up about this. Never done a OHS over my own bodyweight before. This is a huge milestone and a huge PR for me. Very very happy.

Air Force WOD
6:40 Rx'd
This is the worst thing ever. Yuck.
The OHS killed me on these in terms of wind with the burpees. My front squats were just a test of sheer will by the end. Thrusters were unbroken. SDHPs I did like 16 & 4 (with burpees in between). Push Press I think I did 10-7-3, and the OHS I think I did 10-7-3.. Front Squats I think I did 13 & 7 to finish. The burpees were mostly a mental "fuck you" each time.

We then did a bunch of burnout stuff outside, max effort sprints.
First one was
3x
2 Tire Flips, 20 meter prowler push
rest 1:1 between each
then
4x
2 Tire flips In-&-Out Jumps, 40 meter farmers walk, 120 each hand.
rest 1:1

The one last max distance prowler push with 200 lbs on the sled. I got about 35 meters, maybe 40.. ROUGH.. My legs were totally shot.


Saturday
Partner WOD at CF Rochester. Thank you to my cousin's wife Katrina for bringing me.
This sucked ass. Each partner had to do an entire workout and then tag in the next person.
It was a 30 minute suckfest
21-15-9
OHS 95# (you can imagine how happy I was that OHS came up after yesterday)
Toes Through Rings
then
21-15-9
SDLHP 95
Push Ups
then
21-15-9
Burpees
Box Jumps 24"


Sweaty disgusting mess of horribleness. My hands hurt.

I need a rest day on Sunday like nobody can believe.

"Christine"

First time ever trying this "CrossFit Girl" WOD..

I think the only other ones I have not done are ones I think would take me a decade or I flat out cannot physically do.. Like "Eva" and "Amanda".. I just think those would be a waste of time for my current level..

I went in with the strategy of "pace the row, crush everything else hard".

This seemed to work out well for me.

Christine
3RFT
500m Row
12 BW DL
21 BJ 20"

Time 8:20 Rx'd


I really liked this workout, because it played to 3 of my strengths, no goats here.
I decided to hit about a 1:53-1:55 pace almost the entire time on the row and just work through the deads unbroken and rebound all the box jumps. I did them all in the format of "jump off the top" not the games standard of "show complete upright control at the top" because I wanted to go as fast as possible.

185 DLs for me are not a big deal, I repped those out without a huge challenge.

I think I can make up some time on this workout if I push the rows a little bit more, but I don't know if sub 8 minutes is on table or not. I will find out in 40 days.

Long time, no see

Yikes, have been away from work for 10 days and I hardly ever blog at home.. Usually on lunch hour.

So, I am gonna forget half of what I have done.. But heres a quick rundown so I can try to remember.

Did "Larry Bird" in about 13 minutes and change, KB swings were horrible at the end. The rest I could handle somewhat.

Did Flight simulator in about 11 minutes and change, in sweatpants, horrible decision. I was pouring buckets. But my double unders were pretty money. I only tripped on 40 on the up ladder twice and went the rest of the way with no mess ups. I rule.

10,000 lbs WOD with Jake was a nice little strategy workout.
Did 115 lb power snatches for reps and killed the tire flips. We finished in just over 10 minutes, perfect weight, perfect partner trade-off timing, don't think we could have done much better.

Sunday rest

Monday
I did this little descending workout
Row 500
5 Power Cleans @205
20 Box Jumps 24"
Row 400
4 PCs
20 Box Jumps
Row 300
3 PCs
20 BJs

...etc down to 100m, 1,20..

This took about 11 or 12 minutes. The cleans got heavy but I had no misses, and I paced the row right at about 1:47 the whole way, pretty steady.
My wind felt pretty good the whole way.

That night I did one of the Rx workouts we have planned for the Throwdown in August, can't share it here.
It was pretty good, but we are going to change the timestamp on it because it may have been a little too short. We discussed for a while afterward.

Tuesday
Snatch 1RM
Ugliest 160 lb power snatch PR you have ever seen. I have half a mind to not even count it it was so hideous, wide foot landing, almost stumbled, ran forward to grasp it.. awful..

Randy - 4: 27 Rx'd

Mostly a mental workout, could have done better. I got tired after about rep 45 and sort of pussied out at the end. Should have done it in under 4 minutes.



Wednesday the 4th
"Barbara"
Disgusting, one of the worst things ever. Those sit ups can suck me sidewise.

Pull ups felt quite good, and the push ups were not as bad as they could have been. But the sit ups.. good god.. Horrible..
Took like 36 minutes I think? I didn't write down the seconds. Just wanted to go home and die afterward.


Thursday - BIG REST day.. slept 16 hours  including nap and beach time.. AWESOME.

Friday - Weighted Pull Ups and Building Blocks
Pull Ups -worked up to 40 lbs, haven't done these in way too long.. Felt ok, not great.
BB - 7 + 6 reps.. Thrusters were terrible, as were clapping push ups after about round 4.. so hard.


Saturday - Partner WOD Summerslam

Eddie and I got after this one and really pushed each other to the brink. We got 31 rounds, and I don't think we left much out there. We pushed the pace pretty much from beginning to end.

Had it gone on 5 minutes more I may have lost my breakfast. I went really hard for all 15 of my rounds. Jerks may have been a little too light for only 3 reps upon reflection. Still fun though.

Sunday - rest again.. wooooooooooooo

Busy week

I have not had a moment to wipe my ass this week..

Quick update.

Monday
Box Squats 5x5
I hit 185, 205, 225, 245 and 265 with success..
Box may have been a tad too high, but this felt good to push through regardless..

WOD - Vortex
10 Rounds, 2 burpees shy of 11..

This was mental, I should have gotten 11.. just checked out like an asshat.. Mad at myself on that one.


Tuesday
Max Vert 26".. up an inch from last time I did this.. 25" before.. progress?
Max Broad Jump 100".. This is right around where I typically land.. didn't feel as springy today on these.. I think my all time best is like 104, but that is pretty much where I top out on these..

WOD- Shrinkage
262 reps (144 and then 118)

This was horrible. I had an idea of how this might be and it was 50 times worse. The shoulder burn was crazy and my push ups just went to hell on round 2. I tried to fight through but I just did not have a whole lot left. My stomach was also on fire from holding tight for all the squats.. damn.. awesome workout, still sore 2 days later.

Wednesday - Rest. Need to make up Diane sometime this week, but I felt like trash today, just totally exhausted physically.

Weekend

After a much needed rest on Thursday

I came in Friday with the intention of doing something.. My hips were all tightened up from whatever I was doing this week so I opted out of doing 45 thrusters and replaced them with something else..

I ended up going with the following

5 Rounds for time:

3 Tire Flips

5 Kegs to Overhead (75#)

10 Plate Burpees 35#

10 Box Jumps 24"

Time 12:53? ( I think?)

I am not sure which was worse wind-wise.. 45 thrusters or 15 flips and 25 kegs to overhead.. but damn was that fun..

Plate burpees always suck, glad to get those overwith in 10s..

I LOVED the kegs from ground to overhead, it was almost like an off-balance power snatch-ish movement.. I liked it a lot.. really tough to control and needed a lot of focus every time..

Saturday

Partner WOD

3 Laps

Tire sled drag (with air squat penalty for switch)

OH Barbell carry (with burpee penalty for switch)

Buddy carry (with Mountain climber penalty for switch)

This was a half hour of grit grinding awfulness..

The sled drag had my quads and calves burning before we finished even a half of a lap..

The OH barbell carry was probably 90% mental but once your shoudlers went, your core went, and you needed to drop.. The burpees sucked a lot of time on these, I went at a deliberate pace.

The buddy carry was sort of fun but a little annoying because Jack and I were so tired and sweaty/slippery we could not fucking hang on to one another on our backs so we needed to switch to the less optimal piggy back at about half way because just flat out could not hold on..

I loved this workout in a masochistic way, it was a great "outside my comfort zone" day..

Resting tomorrow. NEED IT after that massacre.

Tuesday - Wednesday

Quick little recap.. Awesome day/night WOD combination..

Tuesday
1000m Row Time trial - 3:19.. PR.. Previous was 3:21.. Pleased with this.. I think I could have pushed the middle 500m a little bit but in general I don't know how much better I can really do on this..
I swear to god rowing without straps before workouts as a warm up every day is helping my rowing.. I feel so much more comfortable now.. I almost don't even need the straps tightened and the machine itself doesn't jostle everywhere.

WOD - Snatches, 1 on the minute for 18 min.. 

(6 Hang Power, 6 Power, 6 Squat)

I did a bunch between 100 and 120 for the hang power, didn't feel too great about it.. Went up from 120 to 150 for the power.. which felt solid.. And is actually a PR.. I don't think I have ever done more than 140 before.. I went on to the squat snatches and didn't do too well.. I did a few reps at 115 and then a few more at 125 and all of them felt like I was mis-hitting it.. Some position at the bottom just did not feel like I was getting it right..

When we were done I tried one more power snatch at 155 and got it overhead but I won't count it because there was a press-out with my elbows, it was more of a hideous clean and wide press.. Not something I want on my resume..





Wednesday..

Hero WOD Nate

AMRAP 20

2 MUs

4 HSPU

8 KB Swing 2 pood

Score - 9 Rounds minus 2 muscle ups Rx

I am sort of mad about this because I had a higher score in mind, but oh well this is sort of a PR..

So I got through 3 rounds without too much issue, but the muscle ups did not feel as solid as usual.. I think I was not throwing my head through at the top enough.. Anyhow I got to round 5 and started failing reps on the MUs.. Took some rest to regroup, failed again.. Got pissed.. kicked some stuff, cursed a bit and moved on to the HSPU and KB swings and then came back around. From then on I had to rest a lot to get more MUs which ate the majority of the time, but I am glad I woke up early to do this. Always love doing Hero WODs cuz they get me jacked up mentally.

I think last time I did this I got 8 rounds, but with Rx Muscle Ups and non-Rx HSPUs.. I had one abmat I believe.. Today I did them with full ROM and they were the "easy part".. So I am happy to see progress somewhere, but during the 20 minute time I just got mad because I don't like failing reps..


Night work..

Push Press 5-5-5-5-5

I started out doing the Deads as well but I did 295x5, and then 315x3 and my grip went to shit and my  back felt tired so I laid back off it..

I did 95 and 115 for reps to warm up.. Then I went with 130, 135, 140, 145, 150...

I have never actually tested this, or at least not in a long time, so this might be a PR.. but I am not really sure about it.. They felt pretty heavy to lock out by the end.. but the main thing was just bracing for it on the way down and not getting crushed by it..

Monday Back AT IT

Yikes, she is stronger than me..

 

Front Squat - 5x3

Warmed up pretty well and got into these with 95, 135 and 155 for reps to get a feel and then my working sets were: 175, 195, 205, 215, 225..

Last rep on 225 was a little wobbly, but overall I felt good about all of these.

The workout was less pleasant..

"Slap Shot"

2 Rounds:

Run 600 m

25 Pull Ups

25 Burpees

Time - 10:28 Rx'd

Gross, sweaty horribleness.. I really need to start running again in more WODs.. it destroys me so hard.
Pull ups felt ok on the first set, got some butterflies and then the second set fell apart on BFs and went to regular kips.. Burpees always suck. Not a whole lot more to say, just a good burner that snuck up on me. I had an idea of how it might be and it was 20X worse.

Weekend-ness

Quick post... not a whole lot of work done this weekend because I was super busy.

Friday - did the workout on my own..

Worked up to 90# DB snatch on my right hand, missed on my left, these get infinitely harder once it gets heavy, wow. The difference from 50 to 70 was no biggie, from 70 to 90 was like it was velcro'd to the floor.

WOD - Swirley
Score 408 DUs.. I loved this workout. Got to work on kipping HSPUs a bit, kipping K2E a bit, and then got to air it out with some max effort double unders.. First round I got 107, then 87.. then the wheels came off a bit and I got like 75-66-75.. meh.. Should have kept pace a little more.. I just flat out needed breathing time. I would do like 30 unbroken and feel fine but just needed to stop and breathe.. Cool WOD.


Sat & Sunday - Rested from any CF WODs..

I guess I did a lot of demo-ing for the SM Seminar (which was a blast for me) and then had some events the rest of the weekend with friends and family.

I went kayaking on the Charles on Sunday morning before a family Grad party which was quite fun. I would do that again.. Fun combo of sightseeing and "working out sorta"..

Thursday June 14th

Rest day..

Much needed, bunch of heavy lifts this past week, I will take today gladly and let it all heal up.

Also, I am going to bed at 8:30..

Wednesday night Fun...

 http://youtu.be/MfFyhPmKxMc


1RM Clean & Jerk

Pretty excited to get to this even thought I am quite sore.. oh well.. did a good warm up and got nice and sweaty and got into these..
Bunch of reps at 135 to get loose and feel out the jerk..My footing is usually the limiter on jerks, not my speed.. which is annoying.. but tough to fix at max weight.. need to keep practicing it.

I did a couple at 185, then got into my attempts.
I hit 205 without issue, 225 with a little wobble at the top, and then 240 as shown in the video. Clean felt easy, jerk was OK, not great on the right foot movement, but the speed was good enough to get it there..
I tried 250 and was too tired, I was not even close to be honest. Just spent..

WOD

"Outlaw"

3 Rounds

Row 500 m

7 C&J @165#

Time - 9:58

This was supposed to be with 400 m runs, but I had my oly shoes on, did not feel like changing, and had pretty much just enough time to get the WOD done before the 6PM so I subbed the row which was definitely slower by a long shot. Oh well.

I paced every row right at about 1:50 for 500 and the C&J I did all in singles, didn't really test my grip, just dropped from overhead and then got right to the next one.. Fun workout, really liked this..

Some of the athletes in the 6 & 7 I taught went apeshit on this thing.. Sarah D and Sherri did this in like under 8:30... frikkin cruising.. Yikes.

Tuesday June 12th

Pure met-con.. yum.

Plank Hold - 3:07.. I need to work on this.. minute 1, no issue, minute 2, not bad.. minute 3, felt like I was giving birth I was squeezing so hard.. New goal will be 5 minutes for this. That would be sweet.

Geoff and Collette did over 6 minutes today.. ridiculous.

"Almond Joy"

AMRAP 10

10 Push Ups

10 Ball Slams

10 Box Jumps

Score - 10 Rounds + 20 reps

Sweat-tastic.

I sort of alternated back and forth between games-standard Box Jumps and just flying through them as fast as possible (hips not fully locked out at the top).. I never can decide when I am in the middle of it. Hitting the standard perfectly for comps is all well and good, but today's workout was more just about "moving quickly" to get some bloodflow after the CFT yesterday, so I more or less stopped caring about that and just went as fast as possible.

In the last 3 minutes, push ups caught up with me and I started to gas on those, could only do maybe 3 at a time. Ball slams tired out my chest and shoulders more than I expected.

Fun workout.

CFT day!!!

I was super excited to try this out today..
I have not done a full CFT in a really long time. One of the last times I did it, my hip was ailing me so I didn't get a true back squat. I also have been squatting with better form recently due to a higher level of practice, and frankly coaching myself with more videotape has helped a lot..  My previous "PR" on squats was 300, but I don't think it was a good rep looking back. I had done 275 once before, so that was my goal today..

CFT Video on Youtube (click)

Video posted above for review.

My plan heading in was to try to hit 275-155-425.. I had a plan and really stuck to it.

My previous PRs like I said were 275-150-415, so I wanted to match my back squat from long ago, and beat my other two, god willing.


Before anything I warmed up for a while, like 40 minutes.. I rowed some 500s, did a bunch of heavy yoke walks, foam rolled, stretched out, etc.. It was a lengthy session, but worth it in the end I think..

For squats I did 135x5, 185x3, 215x1, 235x1, 255x1, 275x1.. The 235 and 255 felt really solid, the 275 felt slow, but it got up there..

For presses I popped right into these since I was already quite warm and did 95x5, 115x3, then 135x1, 145x1, 150x1, 155x1.. then I said fuck it all and tried 160 and failed comically.. just could not get it past eye level.. Oh well, still a nice PR.. With presses, 5 lbs is a big day.. Hard to add much more than that at a time.


Deadlifts I was most excited for because in all honesty, I am best at them compared to the other two. I also like the bar in my hands much more than on my back for whatever reason, just personal preference.. I even like front squats more than back just because I feel more in control. I am weird.

For deads I got up to my numbers quickly.. I did 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x1, 315x1, 365x1, 405x1, 425x1..PR..

The last couple times I have gone for a max weight, the 405 is usually the point where I know what is up that day. If the 405 feels like I am going to have a hernia, that is the end of it.. But today it honestly came right off the ground quickly and I had no issue.. Obviously I strained and was tight, but my form was rock solid..
Then I went for broke on my 3rd heavy rep. I skipped 415 and just went for 425 thinking "I am either getting this fucking thing up today or I am never going to get it, sack up".. The initial pull was a little iffy, got some slight back curvature and needed to shift back to my heels, but once it was above my knees I knew I had it, just needed to lock out the hips..

I almost blacked out when I put it back down, and stumbled off, which was pretty great.. Definitely hit my limits today and I am really happy.. Tomorrow, back to bouncy little met-cons..

Weekend Update

Super fast update cuz I am busy today.

Friday -
Tabata DUs - ugh, tripped twice got 26.. felt solid mostly though.
Death by sprints - horrible.. got 18. I hate that workout though..

Saturday 
CF for HOPE.
Money went to kids with cancer, couldn't complain much even though the workout was horrible. I had no idea where to pace it.. The burpees and the box jumps ended up being my best ones, but the others were just plain miserable for whatever reason.. didn't sleep well the night before either..
251 Rx'd.

Sunday - Rest.. mourned the celtics.. terrible..

Thursday June 7th

Squat cleans on YouTube

I was looking forward to today in a strange way.

I love squat cleans as a technical exercise.. I like them for 1 rep heavy weights, but HATE them for high rep light weight in a met con. Let alone Elizabeth which is high rep, moderate weight. Yuck.

Video above shows my lifts. Previous PR was 205 but I always thought I had a little more in me. Today I got it done, hit 215 and 220 with success.. the squat up was a little slow, but oh well.. still counts.. Good speed on all of these. Pretty happy..

Next up was this bitch..

21-15-9

Squat Cleans 135#

Ring Dips

Time 8:46 Rx'd PR

This workout is sooooo potent.. Wrecks me every time.. Previous PR was 9:46 so I knocked a minute off, which is sweet. I had a little better idea of the pacing this time and tried to make more manageable sets throughout. I think last time I did like 10 reps in a row of the cleans off the bat and then was never the same the rest of the way. This time I did sets of 4s for a while, stayed fresh, knocked out the ring dips as best as I could. I did like 10-6-5 for the first blob and then sets of 5 the rest of the way. I think I could have been even better if I mentally checked in and held onto the barbell better at the top position better.. Multiple times I just dropped it and let go for no reason. Oh well. PRs are always good. Fun class today.

Tues/Wed June 5/6

Tuesday I modified the WOD because my lower back and left hip were super tight.. I didn't stretch my hamstrings well enough post WOD on Monday and am paying for it today.

I replaced the thrusters with HSPUs.. working on my kip..

I did:
EMOTM 20
6 Strict Pull ups, odd
5 HSPUs, even

60 Pull ups and 50 HSPUs in 20 minutes is not exactly a blitz pace, but it was good strength and form work as every rep was really crisp and felt great..

Prior to tonight, I have never done more than like 40 or 45 HSPUs in a given day or workout, so the fact that I did 50 tonight and felt like I could have done 50 more, and could have gone faster, bodes well.

Wednesday night I rested, want everything to feel good for Elizabeth on Thursday.

I also want to retest my Diane time with this new-found handstand kip.. I bet I could knock 3 minutes off my time. Which is still comically slow compared to the regionals people I saw at Reebok.. I will see how I would have finished up in that pack soon.

Monday June 4th

Back Squat
3x5

I had no expectations for this today, I sort of had it in the back of my head that I was going to just do some maintenance squats and see where I am at, since I have not really pushed the envelope on these of late.

There was a big class and the energy was high so I pushed it a little more than I probably should have, but fuck it, it felt good to go heavy (for me)..

I did 135 and 185 for reps to get loose and then did 225, 235, 245 as my working sets.. the 225 and 235 felt really solid.. The 245 I think I cheated the depth a bit and lost some form a little (knees came in, back bent forward).. Nothing majorly horrible, but certainly not perfect. Will keep an eye on that better next time.. I was fatigued and tight in the hips today so I probably wasn't as best as I could be.

"Slim Jim"

For time:

Row 500m

25 Jerks @ 165#

100 Double Unders

Fun little WOD.. those jerks got damn heavy by the end.. I paced the row with a 1:45 finish (rowing has felt better recently every day, faster times are starting to feel more like cruise control).. I got off and did my jerks in sets of 7-7-3-4-4.. Wrists took the biggest pounding, as well as my core.. The weight itself I can handle.. Just gets tiring holding it up there..
The DUs I got done in about 3 or 4 sets, nothing crazy.. Something like 35-35-20-10..

Time was 7:19.. not sure I could have pushed it under 7 today.. I broke up the jerks about as best as I could.. and tried to limit the rest periods..

I am going to be sore tomorrow, I can already sense it.

Quick weekend recap

Quick wrap of the weekend.

Friday
Push Jerked 215x3 for a PR.. that was awesome. (taken from the floor also, extra challenge)

Vegas - 8:54 Rx'd.. I still suck at kipping T2B.. but just gotta keep practicing.
Light Snatches and burpees were fine though, I eat those for breakfast.


Saturday
Pyramid Scheme with Harper - 19:08 Rx'd..
We crushed this unbroken the entire way, and on the runs I did my best but certainly did not sprint.. hamstrings were GASSED for the last 600 meters in the rain..
I don't know how much faster we really could have pushed this.. It was just a lot of reps at the end of the day.

Sunday
Active recovery.. sore as SHIT today from a great week..
Played some pick up basketball to move around today, and it was awesomely fun.
I haven't played in way too long, forgot how much I love it.

Feet will be sore tomorrow though, its funny how I can train CF all the time, and then 1 game into pick up bball I am still just laughing about how different it is, and I am still sweating bullets after playing hard defense for 10 minutes.. Lots of starting and stopping on the balls of your feet = blister city..
Constant variation.

Thursday May 31

Continued my little mini streak of doing stuff I absolutely hate..

Never gonna get better unless I try. I made up the WOD from yesterday because it looked like a good test.

Snatch Balance Practice.

I did a bunch of reps at 45 to get used to dropping, 95x3, 115x2, 135x1, 145x1, 155 (fail)

 

You will notice a continuous pattern in these.
A) I suck at snatch balances.
B) I am sort of ghost-riding them half way down.. Like I dip and drive, try to get under, and I am just flat out not fast enough to beat the bar all the way to the bottom with heavy weights..

After I failed 155, I went back down to 115 and felt MUCH better, I was hitting the bottom of the squat quickly and standing it right up with control.. I need to work on the shoulder stability more than anything, but the timing came around at the end.. oh well..

WOD

"1 Minute On, 1 Minute Off"

4 Rounds

Max KB Swings 2 pood

Rest

Max Sit Ups

Rest

Total = 233 Rx'd

Yikes..  Somehow the sit ups were worse than the heavy ass KB swings.. go figure..

I was able to maintain pretty good consistency until the 4th round where it went to hell.

I averaged about 26 KB Swings for the first three rounds (I think 28, 24, 25) and about 35 sit ups for those rounds as well. Then I fell apart and got 22 and 30 for the final round.. Core was GASSED..

The rest was enough to help, but not enough to make me fully recover for the end. It was mostly mental to just stay on the KB and the sit ups you just had to try to keep moving. I suck at doing sit ups fast.

Wednesday May 30

Unscheduled but completely necessary rest day.

I felt like complete crap today physically. Literally everything hurts. I think it took 2 days for the full DOMS from Murph to set it.. and set in it did.. WOW.

I came into the gym with the intention of powering through and just said fuck it approximately 15 seconds into a warm up.. just not happening.

Tuesday May 29th

Feeling quite sore from Murph, but not as bad as last year where I legitimately could not move for 2 days.

Posted a video here..of WOD1

I did a douple dip today because I know the "death by" rep format usually is more of a practice session for me, not a ridiculously taxing one, since there is a lot of rest built in.

I did "Death by Atlas Stones" in the video above per StrongmanWOD.com from last week. I wanted to try that one out. I am definitely getting stronger. I could not do the 145# stone with a "one-timer" pull before today. Today I ripped it 27 times with no failed reps. Really happy.

For the second WOD, as promised last week, I am getting back to "goats"..
Today I chose two opposite body parts to fuck with. Pistols and kipping HSPU.

I suck at pistols and I literally have never tried kipping HSPU, so today was as good a day as any to try it.
I saw so many people successful with this at Regionals on Friday that it motivated me to just give it a shot and try to perfect it eventually..
My pistols I did with a 10lb plate beneath my heel, which is better than the 15 lb plate I usually use. So, progress?
Next time I will try a small 5lb change plate and see how that goes..

I got to minute 6 + 6 reps on the stones, and I got to minute 8 or so on the Pistols/HSPU, but then I started back over and practiced some more.

Wendy did not know I was taking some video to check my form so she appears toward the end right in front. whoops..

My back is getting too much curvature on the HSPU, need to get more hollow on those.. and get everything more organized.. Oh well, good for a first try at something new, especially since gymnastics are not my thing.


Goat WOD here