Yesterday was my last WOD of the week until the competition on Saturday. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and just got done with a run of about 3.6 miles. My lower back is still pretty tight so I hope the rest will have me back to 100% by the weekend. Tomorrow I won’t be doing anything and then I’ll probably golf on Friday morning.
Month: July 2012
First Grace
Saturday night we had a great time at the 2nd annual Survival Fitness Picnic. I didn’t get home until 2am and slept in until 9:30. I spent the entire day watching the finals of the CrossFit Games. Amazing and inspiring! One of my favorite parts is seeing elite athletes cheer each other on, which never happens in any other sport.
After the Games ended, I decided to take a shot at rigging up my gymnastic rings in the garage. I made a quick trip to Home Depot for supplies and started working around 8pm. I quickly found out that both of the batteries for my drill were dead, which made things a lot harder because I had to keep switching batteries on the charger. I also had to make a run to buy some nutdriver attachments for the drill. A little before midnight, I finally had everything up. The project turned out to be much tougher than I expected, especially for one set of hands. I wish I had a taller ceiling in the garage, but these will be just fine for the limited use I’ll give them.
Yesterday was my second rest day in a row and a much-needed one. I did get an hour-long deep tissue massage, which really helped loosen up my back. I’m going to have to get massages more often. It’s supposed to hit 100 degrees today so I went in to the 9am class, which was already in the mid 80s. I was the only guy in a class of 9, which was kind of odd.
Warm-up
4 rounds
- 15s Jumping Jacks
- 15s Air Squats
- 15s Mountain Climbers
- 15s Jump Squats
Immediately followed by:
4 rounds
- 15s Plank
- 15s Superman
- 15s L Side Plank
- 15s R Side Plank
I was already sweating bullets at this point it’s so hot and humid.
WOD
“Grace”
- 30 Clean and Jerks (125#)
This was my first time doing “Grace” and I’m pleased with the results. We had a 6 minute time cap so I was deciding between 115# and 125#, but glad I went heavier. My time was 5:10.
Finisher
10 Prowler Sprints (5 high, 5 low, loaded with 135#)
I’ve done these heavier, so this wasn’t too bad. Being able to go faster does some different work.
9 Days in a Row
I wasn’t as sore as I expected this morning, considering the volume of deadlifts and power cleans I did yesterday. We had a kettlebell seminar at Survival Fitness today so I figured it was a great idea to attend the 11am class so I could just stay for the seminar, which was scheduled to be an hour and a half long.
Warm-up
Tabata Mash-up (6 rounds)
- Jumping Jacks
- Steam Engines
WOD
- 1 mile run
- 10 rounds
- 10 Ring Push-ups
- 10 One-arm DB Snatches (45#)
- 1 mile run
I ran the first mile in my best gym time 6:18. Last week I ran a 6:14, but the RunKeeper GPS was kind of funky there, so I’m not sure I should count that time. Total time for the WOD was 3:20 (no way this was correct). I would have used a 60# DB if I hadn’t done all that clean work last night and didn’t just do 100 one-arm snatches with 50# last week. I was really fatigued during this workout.
We had about 20 or 30 minutes before the kettlebell seminar started. In the seminar we did all kinds of stuff, including Russian swings, American swings, cleans, snatches, clean and press, clean and jerk, goblet squats, front squats, hand to hand swings, Turkish get-ups, 1/4 get-ups, windmills, and probably a ton of other stuff I’m forgetting. At the end, we did a WOD.
- 100 Single KB Thrusters (50 each side)
- 50 Hand-to-hand Russian Swings
- 40 1/4 Get-ups (20 each side)
I used a 35# KB for everything and finished in 10:35. Absolutely gassed!
I’m definitely taking the next two days off, will WOD on Tuesday, and then either do a WOD or a run on Thursday. I’m surprised with how well my body has handled working out 9 days in a row, but I need to recover and make sure I’m ready to go for the competition on Saturday.
Long and Heavy
This morning when I woke up everything was sore. Everything. Maybe it was the way I slept or maybe I’m recovering faster and faster, because a few hours later I was feeling just fine. I skipped doing a workout out at the lake, which let me pack up and drive home so I could hit open gym at Survival Fitness. I was really looking forward to some heavy barbell work after being away on vacation with only dumbbells to work with.
Warm-up
- 400m Run
- 2 rounds
- 10 PVC Pass-thrus
- 10 PVC OHS
Strength
Deadlifts
- 10x 135#
- 5x 225#
- 5x 255#
- 5x 285#
- 5x 305#
- 3x 325#
Deadlifting felt good. My grip gave out on the last set so I was only able to get 3 reps. I think that’s more than I’ve ever done for 3 reps, so no complaints.
Power Cleans
* Every minute on the minute for 5 minutes I did the associated number of reps with a weight. After 5 minutes I took about 2 minutes while I changed weights and recovered a bit before starting on the heavier weight for the next 5 minutes.
- 7x 115#
- 4x 135#
- 2x 155#
- 2x 165#
I’ve never done anything quite like this so it was an experiment. After completing my reps, I had about 30 seconds left in most of the minutes, with slightly more when I got to the last two weight with only 2 reps each. A few months ago 165# was my clean PR and here I am doing it for reps!
WOD
4 rounds
- 25 HR Push-ups
- 25 Wall Balls (10′ with 20# MB)
- 25 Sit-ups
- 25 Box Jumps (24″)
My plan for this morning was to do “Angie” and I was still thinking about doing it at open gym, maybe with a modification like you see here to turn it into 4 rounds of 25 reps each instead of 100 straight of each movement. After doing the deadlifts and the cleans, my hands were is rough shape and I was close to having some blisters and rips, so it was an easy decision to skip pull-ups.
I decided to substitute wall balls for air squats since I hadn’t done any while away on vacation. Instead of pull-ups I threw in box jumps thinking it would be my rest station. After killing my legs with deadlifts and cleans it was rough to jump. I couldn’t rebound at all.
I completed the WOD in 23:01. Nearly 2 solid hours of work and a great way to come back to town.
Small WODs Add Up to a Big WOD
Yesterday I got out for a 2 mile trip on the kayak and then walked 9 holes of golf with Dad. I’m sore, but not feeling fatigued.
Warm-up
- 10 Turkish Get-ups (45# DB)
- 3 rounds
- 1m Plank
- 1m DUs
- 1m Side Planks (30s each side)
- 1m Rest
The 45# seems to be about my limit for Turkish Get-ups. I can get through them, but it takes every bit of concentration to keep the weight steady over me. My DUs sucked again today.
WOD
7:00 AMRAP
- Man Makers (45# DBs)
Rest for 2 minutes.
5:00 AMRAP
- 10 Pistols
- 10 Chair Dips
Rest for 2 minutes.
5:00 AMRAP
- 5 Floor Wipers (45# DBs)
- 5 Burpees
I was able to do 19 man makers, 4 rounds plus 10 pistols and 8 chair dips, and 4 rounds plus 5 floor wipers and 2 burpees in the AMRAPs. Before starting I figured 25 make makers and 5 rounds in each of the 5 minute AMRAPs would be good numbers to shoot for. Great work on a lot of areas.
Finisher
Every other minute for 10 minutes
- 4 HSPUs
I did these all strict without any additional head support (usually AbMats if needed). Doing 5 reps would have been a challenge, so I’ll have to give that a try if I ever do this again.
One-arm Snatches
My back was still a little tight this morning, but feeling better than yesterday.
Warm-up
- 400m Run
- 3 rounds
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 10 Supermans
- 20 Russian Twists (50# KB)
Using the 50# KB for the Russian Twists was HEAVY, but worth it.
Strength
5 sets
- MAX rep Pull-ups (on rings)
- 2m Rest
I was able to do sets of 10, 6, 5, 5, and 4. The set of 10 is a new PR!
WOD
- 100 Alternating one-arm DB Snatches (50# DB)
- * 5 Burpee buy-in at the beginning of every minute, including the start
I did at snatches every single minute, only doing 6 for one or two minutes at the end with 8 or 10 for all of the other minutes. Finishing time was 11:49.
Finisher
50 K2E (on rings)
I didn’t time these, but took very little rest in between sets. I did 20 reps in the first set, beating my old PR of 10, and then did 3 sets of 10 to finish off the 50.
A lot of great work in this workout. Really liked it!
A Quick One
As it got into the afternoon I was feeling better than when I woke up this morning. Once I ate lunch, I felt like I could handle a workout, so I gave the food a couple of hours to settle while floating in the lake. Of course laying on my stomach on a floatie tightened up my lower back.
Warm-up
2 rounds
- 10 PVC OHS
- 10 PVC Pass-thrus
- 20 Plyo Lunges
WOD
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
- Goblet Squats (50# KB)
- Diamond Push-ups
- Box Jumps (24″)
This was a pretty easy one. Did it in 7:50. To make it harder I could have done front squats holding 50# DBs, decline push-ups, and box jumps on the 31″ ledge. The quick workout was enough for today though.
Finisher
50 OH Lunges (50# KB)
I broke these up into sets of 15-10-15-10, with short breaks in between the sets. Didn’t time it though. It was some nice work on shoulder stability while also working the legs a bit.
Listen to your Body
Yesterday I did go out for another 2 mile trip in the kayak and planned to do a WOD after dinner. But after eating, I laid down on the couch and fell asleep for a short nap. It was clear I was pretty exhausted, so I had a couple of drinks instead of working out.
Got up this morning and went out for a slow active recovery run. It was a 5.2 mile run in 47:16, just over the 9 minute per mile pace I was shooting for. RunKeeper keeps messing up with the GPS out here so I had to use GMaps Pedometer to map out the distance of my run.
After the run, I squatted down in front of the fridge to get some berries out of the bottom drawer and felt a lot of fatigue and soreness in my knees. The WOD I had planned for last night included front/goblet squats, so I guess it’s a good thing I took the night off. I’ve never done the volume of work I’ve been doing over the last week, so learning how to listen to my body is something I’m learning as I go. I’m going to try not to WOD today, but we’ll see how I feel later. I’ll probably do another kayak trip at the very least and hopefully get out for some golf with Dad.
Sprints
Thought about making today a rest day, but I’ll make that tomorrow instead. My shoulder area is pretty sore today and I have a decent bruise on my left bicep from the ring strap when I failed on a muscle-up yesterday.
Warm-up
- 5:00 easy run
- Tabata Sprints
- 7:30 easy run
I really like doing the Tabata sprints and they are great work. I should get back to doing them once a week.
WOD #1
10 rounds
- 10 HR Push-ups
- 40 yard Sprint
- Walk back
Due to the walking, I didn’t think it made sense to time this. All of the push-ups were done unbroken and I ran all out on the sprints. The area where I did my sprints was a slight incline in the yard, so uneven terrain, which was a nice change from running on pavement.
WOD #2
“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10
- DUs
- Sit-ups
My time was 9:37, far from my 8:26 best. My DUs were not the greatest and I was really feeling the sit-ups. Didn’t take any breaks, so the time was really disappointing.
Hero WOD “Brenton”
As mentioned in my plan this morning, I ended up going for a 2 mile trip in the kayak. I went each mile without stopping, just kept a steady pace and kept paddling. When I reached the halfway mark at a point on the lake, I took a swim and drank some water.
Since the rings were still up from the morning WOD, I decided to see if I could get a muscle-up. After a couple of scary attempts (I’m not sure how I didn’t dislocate both shoulders), I managed to get one! It wasn’t pretty, but it counts. I posted a video over on my main blog. Now I’ll have to concentrate on doing some drills to improve my technique.
After dinner settled, it was time to tackle “Brenton”. It didn’t look bad, so I decided to skip a warm-up and jump right into it.
WOD
“Brenton”
5 rounds
- 100 ft Bear Crawl
- 100 ft Broad Jumps
* Every 5 broad jumps, do 3 burpees.
They did this WOD yesterday at Survival Fitness by doing 4 lengths of 25 feet for each 100 feet, so I did the same. My time was 10:16, but I grossly underestimated “Brenton”. I should know better than to think a Hero WOD would be easy. I think I did 9 burpees during each round, but it probably would have only been 6 if I was going 100 feet straight. Having to stop and start makes this WOD more difficult.
Finisher
Death by Pull-ups, by 3s, on the rings
I got through the round of 12 plus 10 reps in the round of 15. Pretty disappointing since I’ve gotten through the round of 15 before, but my shoulders are absolutely wrecked. I’m guessing the few muscle-up attempts (particularly the failures) really took a toll. It could be the kayaking or push presses from either the WOD last night or this morning.
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