Tuesday February 28th

So.. I haven't really run all winter.. and today was sort of nice and for the first time in many months I thought "I feel like running today".. My hands are chewed up from the T2B still so I didnt want to do rowing and KB swings, but I liked that time domain so I changed the workout to..

"Eagle Eye-ish"

4 rounds of: 2 minute running clock followed by 2 min rest.

Run 200 m

AMRAP Double Unders

First couple runs felt good to sprint a little, but my double unders blew ass the first couple, I don't think I broke 40 either time because I kept tripping on my sweatpants.

The last 2 were straight up just a test of wind, which was tough, but my DUs got better. I got 82 and then 78 in my last 2 rounds which was a considerable improvement from the first two mess-ups..

Worked on handstands for a while in the midst of this class too.. they are so effing frustrating.. I can hold up on the wall forever, but once you take me off the wall, the freestanding ones are so impossible.. its nuts..

Monday February 27th

Strength
EMOTM 10-  3 Weighted Pull Ups

I did 1 pood KB for all of these, and in the middle for a couple I added an extra 5 lb plate, but after a couple rounds I found I was doing the kicking kipping combo thing so I went back down.. I wanted it to be as strict as possible for each rep.

WOD - 

Partner WOD

100 Squat Cleans 135#

3 Push Ups at the top of each minute.

Time 11:32 Rx'd

Sean Gilroy and I wrecked this one pretty damn well.. We came out of the gate with 12 or so in each of the first few minutes and tapered off slowly, but we averaged about 9 a minute which is pretty damn good at that weight.. The last few reps were a little ugly on the standing of the squat segment, but I got the work done so I am not too bent out of shape about it. I think we split the reps about 50/50 but we mainly just started out with 5 a piece and switched quickly to 3 a piece and just kept alternating the rest and work equally. Fun WOD..

If that had been any heavier it might have gotten really dicey by the end..

Sunday February 26th

Rested.. tore my hands up a bit on the T2B and pull ups yesterday.. damn  it..

Need them to heal quickly this week so it does not effect the Open WOD performance..

Also, tons of props to our athletes for getting after that Open Burpee Workout.. Most people at FCF had no idea what the games were about as of last week and they were able to get in 90th place in the entire Northeast region with our top 3 men and top 3 women combined scores for that WOD (out of about 200 registered teams.. coming in the top half of anything CrossFit is pretty sweet, there are a lot of freaks out there)..

Adam, Paul, Nina, Wendy and Patricia.. you guys killed it. Awesome job.

Saturday February 25th

So we hit an adaptation of the final WOD from the CFG's last year..
It was a 3 min AMRAP, then a 6, then you had to do the whole chipper without a time cap.. I speculated that I could have done the whole thing in about 7 minutes totally fresh.. but it was a guess.

WOD: 3 min, 6 min, then whole chipper.. score is reps/reps/time.. 3 min rest in between each effort.

20 Wall Balls

20 T2B

20 Burpees

20 KB Swings 1.5

20 Pull Ups

20 Power Clean 115

20 Walking Lunges

20 Double Unders

78/95/11:07 Rx'd..

I FLEW through the first 3 minuter with almost unbroken T2B and almost no rests.. but that may have done me in.. My grip and core strength went completely to hell after that first round, and the next 2 rounds of 20 T2B were hideous (pretty much had to do 3 at a time maximum).. The rest of the movements I was able to handle with either a 15/5 or 10/10 split, but the T2B slaughtered me.. I think I did the Power cleans 5/5/5/5 also.

Really tough workout.. I never want to do a a burpee again. My chest is so sore. Dear god.

Awesome to see Jack & Heidi back in the gym today, I have missed them terribly. We also had some visitors from Rochester hit a WOD with us which was sweet. I love the traveling community aspect of CrossFit, especially considering I have visited a bunch of other boxes myself in my travels.

Friday February 24th

Here goes nothing..

WOD
AMRAP 7

Burpees

Score 117 Reps

This was basically a purely mental test.... No form, no technique, nothing heavy, not even moving outside a 4 foot square.. But still 7 shades of shitty..

So my strategy heading in was basically something to the effect of:

Knock out 10 really fast and just get a rhythm started and figure out the stupid 6" target thing and try not to disorient myself.

I abandoned this approximately 1 minute in when I realized I felt really good and could just try to go for broke as long as possible.. I think I legit knocked out 40 reps in 2 minutes and then just said "fuck it all, do not stop moving".. 

I minimized rest as best as possible and just tried to keep dropping down. KT was shouting every 10 reps and once I hit 100 I just kept telling myself "every rep beyond 100 is a chance to actually get noticed on some leaderboard somewhere".. Katri screaming in my ear as loud as possible also did not let me stop and have a pity party for myself.. just kept on rocking.. I think I am legit scared of her when she raises her voice.. I was petrified of what would happen if I stopped..

Nearly puked at the end.. worth it.

Thursday February 24th

Rested again.. I think I am over-analyzing this Open WOD which was exactly what I did not want to do heading into these.. I ended up going out to dinner and relaxing after work instead of hitting the weights..

I sort of wish I hit some mobility or something today, but whatever.. I'll go hard tomorrow and leave no doubt.

Wednesday February 22nd

Rested.. felt sore in my lower back.. really tight and a little spasmy.. didn't want to push it..

on the bright side.. BURPEES on FRIDAY WOOOOOOOOOO

Tuesday February 21st

Strength Work- Box Squat 5x5

I wasn't sure if I was going to have spotters when I came in early so I wanted to do some box squats and work on getting out of the hole at full depth a bit..

All my squats have been feeling better recently even though they have not been life-changingly heavy compared to my previous self.. But I am happy with my progress..

I went for 165, 195, 205, 215, 225 all with success... Probably had a little bit more as I was able to stand up with any spotting help at all even on the 225 set.. But I was trying to keep good form and depth the whole time.. This is the most I have done for a set of 5 since last year.. so again, progress..

I rowed a little to just cool down but nothing of note..

I am torn on what to do tomorrow..  I sort of want to try to row a 2K and see if I can break 7 minutes.. But I don't want to totally cash my legs depending on what the Open WOD released tomorrow night is.. Maybe I will wait until after it is posted to decide..

Odds the Reebok CFG site crashes at 7:58PM are pretty much a certainty.. People are going to freak the eff out.. guaranteed..

Monday February 20th

So for the next couple weeks of training I want to mix in one WOD per week where I answer the following:
1- What do I not want to do today?
2- What do I want to do today?
3- What is something I am neutral about but have neglected recently?

Once I answer those 3 movement questions, I will make up a WOD..

Today turned out to be the following

AMRAP 10

3 Squat Snatch 95#

4 Stone to Shoulder 95# (2 right, 2 left)

5 Ring Dips

Score - 7 Rounds + 3 Squat Snatch

I made this such that I could cycle a lot and get through each without any big hold up.. The Squat Snatch ended up being the most difficult technically, but the stones really got my wind up.. holy crap. The 95# stone is really not that heavy, but setting up and executing it every time is a pain in the ass for reps.. Really good workout though..

I joined the 6PM class for a couple extra little add-ons.

Tabata alternator - Hollow Rocks, Double Unders

AMRAP 1min Press @95#, AMRAP 1min Push Ups, rest 1 min, repeat..

Shoulders were cashed from the snatches and ring dips so the presses were pretty pitiful.. but good to get some extra strength work in here and there when I see it necessary.

Opens in 2 days..wow..

Sat/Sun February 18/19

Rest Days.. I wanted to do something active but I ended up just doing "stuff" in Ithaca all day and spent most of Sunday in the car and felt shitty when I got home so I just laid down and relaxed..

Opens start this week so I am not trying to burn out on my training, just trying to stay active the best I can with my schedule.

Friday February 17th

Hotel WOD

I always feel hand-strapped by what actual equipment shitty hotel fitness centers have..

I got on the treadmill for a bit just to warm up and about a minute into it I decided to make this a little more of a "running day" since I haven't been running much (read: at all).

I also realized that I have the GoRuck and Tough Mudder coming up so I wanted to start torturing myself little by little on the tredmills with some uphill walks to smoke the calves, since I almost never do that. I ended up doing like a mile of uphill walking at "10" incline and "4.5" speed. I closed it out with a mile run at about 8.5 mph.. So about a 7:20 mile.. somewhere in there..

I looked at their little boflex type tower of weight thing and thought about what I could do just to get anything in and I just decided to do a couplet of pull ups on the lat pull machine and bench press..

I ended up doing 15-12-9-6 of lat pulldowns at 120 lbs and bench press at 120 lbs.. Quick shitty burner.. sort of different and definitely outside the comfort zone, so.. mission accomplished?

Thursday February 16th

Rest Day.. Worked on some mobility.. but nothing major.. just foam rolling out my back which was remarkably tight today..

Wednesday February 15th

Today was a strange day of training.

So I showed up to the gym hoping to get something in before coaching but felt stiff as a board and could not get loosened up.. So I started messing around with some PVC stretches and some double unders just to warm up.. After a couple of mess up sets I randomly out of the blue got 100 DUs in a row.. first time ever... super excited..

Classes quickly settled in and I got to coaching, which was enjoyable, really fun workout last night to coach folks through.

After watching it twice, with my back stiffened up again I was like.. meh.. I don't want to do that.. About a minute later, Griff came in as he commonly does around 8 and was like "you doing the workout?"... I couldn't say no.

I let him do the squat cleans for a while and Paul and I messed around with some muscle ups and double unders, just giving him some pointers here and there.. I went back to the DUs and randomly again got 109 this time.. 2 PRs in like 3 hours.. was so effing stoked.. Then Paul got his first muscle up in like 6 months and he was all excited so I got the burst of energy to try the WOD even though I didn't want to.

10-8-6-4-2 

Deadlift 225#

Clapping Push up

50 sit ups

2-4-6-8-10

DL 225

CPU

Time - 7:09 Rx'd

This went faster than I thought it would.. that's what she said. The final round of 10 deadlifts was hideous, but everything else I was able to manage pretty much unbroken.. couple small breaks on the push ups at the end too.. I finished the first couplet in something like 2:15, then went to the grueling sit ups.. was done there around 3:40.. then the last ascending couplet sucked nards..

Legs and arms were smoked after this.. total burner.. glad I did it, but my back will be stiff tomorrow, I can already tell..

Tuesday February 14th

Happy Vday Bitches!

Strength work today.. no WODs..

OHS - 5x5

I warmed up super well and was feeling good for these.. I ended up going with
95x5, 115x5, 125x5, 135x5, 140x5 (PR)

I did not go in with the intention of doing a 5Rep Max.. but that sort of ended up happening.. I have never done 140 for a 5 set to full depth like I did today.. felt awesome.. super tough to keep the weight stable overhead.. (damn you, surgically repaired shoulder)..

Anyhow, good progress on my way to my OHS BW goal..

Weighted Pull Ups - 5x5

This was pure maintenance, did not push the envelope too much.. just did the reps to get them done, nothing more, nothing less..

Did all 5 sets at 1 pood on the belt.. little kipping required for the last couple sets to get chin over bar.. but whatever.. not a huge deal..

Monday February 13th

Power - 1 Rep Max C&J

Finally nailed it.. fucking 225 has been staring me in the eye for a long time..
Ugly as shit split jerk with bad footwork on my right side, but hey, it got overhead.. it counts

PRs are RARELY pretty.. its a max effort.. oh well..

I went 135, 165, 185, 205, 215, 225.. may have even had a little more.. cleans felt great.. but the jerk was rusty..

WOD - 5 Rounds for time

12 Thrusters 95#

12 Box Jumps 24"

Time - 7:49 Rx'd

Thrusters.. barf.. hate those, but I forced myself to stay with the 6 PM class and do them anyway.. need to work on weaknesses more often. My ankle felt flimsy today so I went gingerly on the box jumps without many rebounds.. just kept those smooth.. Thrusters I should have done more of them unbroken, but overall I am ok with my time.. Didn't really "GO for it" today, just waltzed through without going to failure too much so I didn't mess up my thruster form.

Random Recap

I have been terrible with posting recently but here are some highlights of the last bunch of WODs.. Will be better from here on out.

Deadlifted 405 for the first time in a while. Then failed 415 a bunch of times. Poop.

Did the open WOD 11.1 again.. Got 6 full rounds.. Added a whole round from last year.. Getting DUs down pat helped a lot..

Did a WOD with pistols, tire flips and box jumps onto the tire.. Gross.. But good practice on pistols.

Did a 15 min AMRAP with Noel and Eddie with a farmers walk, tire sled drag, and a 200 m row sprint.. Switch every time the row is done.. Sweaty mess.. Sled drags smoke my legs.

Overhead squatted 155 for a PR.. Felt great.

Back squatted 235x3.. Most since injury last year..

Did that hollywood WOD again but 5 minutes instead of 4.. Awesome sprint WOD.. Got like 9 rounds and change.

Push Jerked 205x3 without issue.. I want to see if I can C&J 225 soon.. It's right there.

Did 8-ball in 11:06.. Sweaty grossness..

Did a WOD at Rugged CF in Allston with HSPUs and plank push ups.. Did 45 Rx'd reps of HSPU in total.. So tough.. Hate those things.. But glad to be able to hang in there the whole WOD..

Lastly, hosted the NewFitter Throwdown at CWCF.. So happy I was able to help put it together with the CWCF coaches.. So much more goes into those events than is ever realized with sign ups, heats, sponsors, equipment, judges, and so much else.

I am so effing proud of Adam, Sue, Eddie, Bubba, Geoff, Stacy, KT, Patricia and Andy for competing and being awesome. You guys made my day by just giving it your all and doin it right.

Can't wait until the next event. And next comp.. Next time I want to be in there competing alongside everyone. Such a blast.

Dicky C out.