Year: 2012

Approaching Four Hundy

My lats and shoulders are pretty wore out from this week. Have been working every day since the competition on Sunday, but knew this weekend was going to be off, so wanted to push it. Went in for the 9am because I have the day off work and I’m heading up to my parents for the weekend.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 30s Russian KBS (35#)
  • 30s Rest
  • 30s Plank
  • 30s Rest

Light on the KBS to just get the body moving and warmed up.

Strength

5×1 Deadlift

I wasn’t expecting us to do this today, but was happy to see it. It had been about 2 months since I did a 1RM. Warmed up with 5 reps at 135# and 3 reps at 225#. Then I went 295#, 345#, and 365# which tied my PR. For the 4th set I was able to grind out 385# for a 20# PR. Made a few attempts at 395# but couldn’t get the bar moving. I’m only 15 pounds away from the 400 club!

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 250m Run
  • 12 Pull-ups
  • 21 KBS (53#)

This was supposed to be “Helen” which calls for a 400m run, but we did a shorter route, so I’m not counting it as the official benchmark. I felt really good today and finished in 7:19. This has been my best week ever on pull-ups. I did the first round unbroken, then 7+5 in round 2 and 8+4 in the last round. All of the KBS were unbroken. My best “Helen” time is
9:30, so I would have beaten that easily, probably in the high 8 minute range if we had done the extra 150m run each round.

We had about 10 minutes to work on a weakness, but it’s been a long week, so I worked on some hip mobility.

Other than Monday I felt really good all week in both my strength numbers and the WODs. In fact, I’m happy to say I crushed the WODs all week. That doesn’t usually happen, especially when pull-ups are involved. Now I’m resting for the weekend. Well, at least until Sunday at 2pm when we’re going back to Gym Jesters for some gymnastics. That’s going to be fun. Hopefully I can land a back flip this time.

Clean PR

I’ve had the itch to test my 1RM for a couple of weeks. Finally had to scratch it today. I did a couple of reps at 135#, and then did singles at 155#, 175#, 185# (old PR), and finally 205#. I went for 215# but failed because I didn’t get my elbows under the bar fast enough. It was plenty high enough. I don’t think I was quite into that attempt mentally either.

What Do You Get When You Cross a Burpee With a Pull-up?

My lats are a bit sore from the C2B pull-ups earlier in the week and all of the upper body work we did yesterday. Went in for the 9am class this morning.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 30s PVC Pass-thrus
  • 30s PVC OHS

Strength

5×3 OHS

I missed out of the 5×5 last week because I was resting for the competition. It’s been awhile since I’ve done any overhead squatting, so I was excited for this. I warmed up with a set of 5 using just the 45# bar and then my working sets were at 85#, 95#, 105#, 125#, and 135#. That last set was pretty shaky, but I managed. I set my 1RM at 145# about a month ago, so it felt good to get in 3 reps at 135#.

WOD

100 Burpee Pull-ups (aka GI Jane)

This is harder than it looks. Not quite as cardio taxing as doing 100 straight burpees, but the jumping adds another dimension. The bar was at a height where I could grab on to it flat-footed. I’ve seen videos where they recommend using a bar that is 1 foot above your reach. We don’t have anything like that and that doesn’t sound like fun either. I finished in 9:50.

Finisher

5 Sets

  • 10 Quarter Get-ups (each side)
  • 90s Rest

I started off with the 44# KB in the first set, but barely got in all 10 reps on my left arm, so I dropped down to a 39# KB for the last 4 sets. I also knocked out 5 close grip dead hang chin-ups to work on some strength.

First Time Floor Press

A little tired today. Went in for the 4:15pm class.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 1m Bicycles
  • 1m Side Plank (30s each side)
  • 1m Flutter Kicks
  • 30s Rest

I don’t think I’ve even been able to hold on for a straight minute of flutter kicks, but I did it 3 times today. Core strength baby!

Strength

5×5 Floor Press

I’ve never done this before, so didn’t know what to expect. I really liked it. Warmed up with 75# and then did my working sets with 125#, 175#, 180#, 185#, 190#, and 195#. Had some left in the tank too. Happy with that though since last week I failed after 3 reps at 205# on the bench press. Today I lifted more weight overall because the jump was right up to 175# for the 2nd set.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 1m SDLHP (53# KB)
  • 1m KBS (53# KB)
  • 1m OH Lunges (20# MB)
  • 1m Ring Dips
  • 1m Thrusters (75#)
  • 1m Rest

I scored 104, 101, and 102 for a 307 total.

Finisher

  • 120 DU

I started off with 39 in a row. Whenever I get close to my unbroken streak of 44, I think I get excited and fail. I finished in 2:08. My arms were so tired it was really hard to keep spinning the rope after that first set.

Clean High Pulls

Hips are tight today from all of the box jump stuff we did yesterday. I can feel my posterior chain as well. Went in for the 5:30pm class again.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 7 Burpees
  • 150m Run

Just nice and easy. Nothing intense. Took less than 6 minutes.

Strength

5×5 Clean High Pulls

Today was the first time I’ve done these and I felt really weak compared to how great I felt last week doing 5×5 power cleans. I guess my legs did get blasted pretty good the last two days.

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 145#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 5 @ 165#
  • 5 @ 185#

WOD

12:00 AMRAP

  • 5 C2B Pull-ups
  • 7 HR Push-ups
  • 9 AbMat Sit-ups

I felt good here, which always seems odd to me to feel so bad in one aspect of a class and so good in another. I broke nearly every set of pull-ups up into 3 and 2. Completed 12 full rounds plus 5 more C2B pull-ups. That’s the best I’ve ever done with C2B as far as number of reps. I had the top score of the day so far.

Finisher

10 Rounds

  • 25y High Prowler Sprint (90#)
  • 25y Low Prowler Sprint (90#)

We formed lines so there was at least a bit of rest time between each turn you took. At the end the other prowler line was done so I started jumping on that one with short rest periods to finish off my rounds.

The Day After

The day after a CrossFit competition is always an unknown. It’s hard to predict how your body is going to respond to the challenges you put it through in the heat of competing. I’m feeling good today considering I did 4 high intensity WODs yesterday. My rib cage must be a little bruised up from the plate run because I can feel it sore there. Other than that I feel a little tight in some places, but nothing is sore like the partner competition I did this summer. Went in for the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

4 Tabata Rounds

  • Mountain Climbers
  • Air Squats

Strength

5×5 Wide Stance Low Box Squats (14″ box)

These were not my friend and I’m already feeling them in my knees. I think the super wide stance may not be the best for taller guys, but I’ll have to do some research on that. My working sets were:

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#

WOD

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • Burpee Box Jumps (24″)
    • Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 2m Rest
  • 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
    • Goblet Squats (48# KB)
    • Over the Box Jumps (24″)

My legs got a lot of work in the competition and then the box squats kind of finished them off before this WOD. I found it hard to jump on the 24″ box today, especially when I got to the over the box jumps. The 24″ box is never an issue for me. I finished in 17:31.

Every Second Counts

Today was the Every Second Counts competition down at Oakland County CrossFit. We had 9 people compete and 6 of us were in the men’s beginner division, which turned out to be one hell of a battle.

WOD #

800m Run with a 25# Bumper Plate

Going in, I thought this would be my best event. Times were lower than I thought they would be, which scared me a little going in to my heat. I ended up winning the workout with a time of 3:07.

WOD #2

21-15-9

  • Thrusters (65#)
  • HR Push-ups

Originally it was supposed to be Jumping C2B Pull-ups in the beginners division but they ended up changing it. No idea why, but in the end it really ended up screwing me. This was my worst event and I took 7th out of the 10 guys with a time of 4:21. I got 3 or 4 no-reps on my thrusters and had no idea why until after the WOD was over when I asked. I guess I wasn’t getting my head through the window at the top of the movement. Shit! Two pushing movements really fried out arms and shoulders here.

WOD #3

5 rounds

  • 5 Deadlifts (185#)
  • 10 HR Plate Jump Burpees

This was the other workout I felt really confident going in. 185# isn’t heavy for deadlifts and I can knock out burpees pretty fast when the rep count is low like 10s. Originally this was supposed to be HR burpees, but at the competition they switched it up to where instead of jumping up and clapping overhead, we had to jump up on to a 15# bumper plate and stand up straight to extend our hips. I think this actually worked to my advantage because the repeated jumping is no big deal for me.

I got into a nice rhythm on the burpees and my deadlifts actually got faster as the rounds went on. I crushed it, winning the WOD with a time of 4:08. This put me back into 1st place overall with a 12 second lead on Casey A. from our gym. I knew I needed a lead on him going into the last WOD to have any shot at winning. I tested this WOD out 2 weeks ago in my garage and did 4:28 without having to do the plate jumps, so today was a sweet improvement over that.

WOD #4

“Grace”

  • 30 Clean and Jerks (95#)

I tested this 2 months ago and got a time of 2:42. Casey A. turned in a monster time of 1:16 before my heat was up, so I knew exactly what I had to do. I had to get 1:27 to win. It was going to take an out of this world performance. My first 20 reps went well and there was a chance, but then I did 21 and 22 and those last 10 reps were brutal. I finished in 1:46, putting me 18 seconds behind the 1st place. I improved by nearly a minute in 2 months though, which is pretty incredible.

I took 2nd place and couldn’t be happier. I gave it everything I had in all of the WODs. Our Survival Fitness crew ended up sweeping the podium and took 4th place as well. It was so much fun battling it out with friends, especially when we were separated by seconds all day long.

The “trophy” they gave out was a custom lacrosse ball with the logo of the competition and your place, as pictured above. Pretty cool. I also got a roll of tape and a speed rope.

Results

More Photos

500m Rows

It felt great to take a rest day yesterday. I did get out and walk 9 holes of golf though. The tweak I did to my mid back on Wednesday has been getting better and better each day. Won’t be an issue for anything.

Today I went in and alternated rowing intervals with Matt.

5 rounds

  • 500m Row
  • Rest while the other guy rows

It was the perfect amount of work to sandwich in between a couple of rest days. My last 500 was my fastest of the day and the first 4 were all very consistent times. Massage tomorrow and then competition on Sunday.

Overtraining

I went to the 9am class this morning, feeling kind of blah.

Warm-up

Tabata Mash-up

  • Mountain Climbers
  • Star Jumps

Strength

1RM Shoulder Press

Last week I set a new PR at 145# and even got it for 3 reps, so I was shooting for 155# on one rep today. I started out with 10 reps at 45# and 5 reps at 95# to get warm. Not sure what I was thinking next, but I went right to 135#. I nailed that, then 140#, and 145#. First attempt at 150# hit a spot about half way and died. I gave myself a few minutes to rest and made one last attempt before our allotted 15 minutes were up. It wasn’t pretty and I could immediately feel my back tighten up after, but I got 150# for a new PR. Expecting 155# was probably a bit much with the upper body work I’ve done this week already.

WOD

  • 100 HR Burpees

The WOD didn’t call for the hand release, but I wanted the practice, so made them harder. Finished in 6:48. That’s only 4 seconds slower than my 100 regular burpee time from a month ago, so I guess it’s not as bad as I thought.

My burpees have been getting slower over the last few weeks, when I seemed to really be getting good at them for a while. One of these days I may have to video myself to see if I notice anything.

Finisher

  • 50 Turkish Get-ups (35# KB)

I remembered we had done this not too long ago (turns out it has been a month and a half) and I could have sworn the Rx was 40# back then and I know that I dropped down from that, which would have been the 35# I used. Well, Rx back then and today was 35#, so I should have used 30# again. No wonder my time sucked so bad! Today it took me 11:49 and when I did it with 30# my time was 8:22. That’s a big difference in time for only 5#, but I could really feel the instability in my shoulders today after a few reps on an arm and I had to break down into some sets of 3 at the end and even rest a bit. Before I stuck to sets of 5 on each side and never stopped to rest.

I can feel the effects of hard training on my body today, so I’m glad I had already decided to rest pretty much the rest of the week. Tomorrow I hope to get out and walk a round a golf, Friday I’ll go in to the gym and do some rowing, and then Saturday is hopefully another golf day with a massage. No more WODs until the competition on Sunday. This old body needs to recover!

Clean Strength

I’ve been feeling a little lethargic today. Maybe double workouts yesterday weren’t a good idea or maybe I should have really taken a true rest day on Sunday. I went in for the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Russian KBS (35#)
  • 150m Run

Strength

5×5 Power Cleans

Sweet! Been awhile since I’ve attempted to go heavy. My form has improved a lot in the last couple of months so I was really excited about this.

  • 5 @ 65#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 145#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 5 @ 175#

I was really feeling good on the cleans. I set my 1RM of 185# exactly 5 months ago. That’s a long time to go without testing some heavy weight. I wouldn’t say the reps at 175# were easy, but I finished feeling really good about them. I was actually able to get the bar back to the ground under control by back tracing my steps on every single clean today. Whenever I’ve gone to 135# or higher I’ve had to drop the bar.

WOD

5 rounds

  • 15 MB Squat Cleans (20# MB)
  • 15 HR Burpees

I finished in 9:23. Did the burpees with a hand release to get in the habit of them before Sunday’s competition. There was only one rep where I almost forgot, but I caught myself as I was rising up from the ground.

Finisher

  • 100 AbMat Sit-ups

I did these in 4:03.

Funny how some days you don’t feel great but then CrossFit lifts you up.