Month: March 2014

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.5

Rested yesterday to be able to hit the final workout of the Open hard! 14.4 was ok for me. I went from 14,785/100,777 (14.7%) to 14,652/93,611 (15.7%). In order to not improve on my top 20% last year I’d have to totally bomb this last workout, which could happen if the shoulder won’t work, but I doubt that.

I warmed up with a 500m row and a ton of stretching and mobility stuff.

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.5

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

  • Thrusters (95#)
  • Bar-facing Burpees

FUCK! That felt terrible! What a nasty combination. They way I broke up the thrusters they actually weren’t too bad. I would have like to go with bigger sets, but I had to play it a little safe with the shoulder. I went 8-7-6, 7-6-5, 6-5-4, 6-6, 5-4, 6, and 3 on the thrusters. Tried to count to between 8 and 10 seconds before getting back on the bar. Didn’t stop during the burpees, but they were awfully slow! Finished in 15:12. Would have liked to be down closer to 14:00, but I had nothing in the tank to push at the end.

I’m hoping my time will keep me around the top 15-16% worldwide mark. Should be safe from dropping down to the 20% where I was last year though.

Tomorrow morning I hop on a plane to Costa Rica for a vacation. I’m not taking a computer with me and have no plans to touch any weight. I will probably do some running and body weight stuff, but my legs need a break and it’ll be good rest for my shoulder too.

Oh Boy!

Wow, 14.5 looks like it’s going to hurt! I’ll be hitting it tomorrow afternoon.

Went out to the garage and did a slow 30:00 on the Air Dyne to get the blood flowing. Stayed between 55 and 60 rpm. I think it was about 480 calories. Checked my pulse with a few minutes left and it was in the 120-130 range.

Predicting 14.5

My legs aren’t even really sore. I can’t believe it. I figured I wouldn’t be able to walk today. 100 box jumps at 30 inches on Monday, back squat triples and 100 ascending weight front squats on Tuesday, and 89 medicine ball cleans yesterday. Let’s hit those legs some more!

Warm-up

  • 10 Burpees
  • 30s Wrist Stretch
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 1:00 Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10/10 Hurdlers (forward, backward)

Strength

Front Squat

  • 5 @ 60% (195#)
  • 3 @ 80% (255#)
  • 1 @ 90% (290#)
  • 5 @ 75-80% (255#)
  • 5 @ 80-85% (265#)

Different from the expected 5×3 @ 80-90%. This one came from a workout Michelle Kinney did the other day. The big jump up to 290# was a new feeling. The 3rd and 4th reps with 265# at the end were a grind and then I couldn’t get up the 5th one. I think I kind of gave up on it before even dropping down into the squat to be honest. Not saying I would have gotten it, but my mind wasn’t right. Just last week I got 260×5 for the first time, so I’ll take this after everything done so far this week.

Looking forward to a week without weights next week. My body needs a break.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 150m Row
  • 20s Rest

The metcon had OHS and T2B, which I couldn’t do anyways. After the last two days of thrashing the legs, I had already planned on rowing when I walked out of the gym yesterday.

I went too slow on the first round and only my 9th ended up being slower. Splits were 30.0, 29.1, 29.3, 29.3, 29.6, 29.8, 29.5, 29.9, 30.2, and 29.4. Everything within a 1.1 second range. Total work time of 4:56.1 with an average pace of 1:38.7/500m.

How about a 14.5 prediction?

We’re all thinking burpees and thrusters. With the shit Castro has been coming up with this year, I’m not sure we can expect anything.

We haven’t seen a triplet or a single movement workout. There has been a barbell in all 4 workouts. The live announcement will showcase 5 awesome athletes who have won the The CrossFit Games. I find it hard to believe Castro is going to take it easy on us in the final week, especially with these beasts doing the workout.

My initial guess was:
12:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Thrusters (100/70#)
  • 15 Bar-facing Burpees
  • 20 DU

Maybe we’ll see something we’ve never seen before. How about this?

7:00 AMRAP of Thrusters

You choose your weight (45/35, 75/55, 100/65, 135/95, 165/110), but you can’t change it once the clock starts. Your score is reps x weight. If you did 50 reps with 100# your score would be 5,000.

Medicine Ball Cleans Are The Devil

Feeling the squats. Small class with only me and one other person this morning, but Matt worked out with me too.

Warm-up

It was all shoulder stuff on the board to prepare for behind the neck snatch presses. Since I wasn’t doing those, I did a bunch of leg stretching and mobility.

Strength

Seated Good Mornings

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×165#
  • 3×175#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×195#

Skill

12:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 30 DU
  • Evens: 20 Hollow Rocks

My DU were terrible today. One round I was missing after 1 or 2 and it took me 45 seconds to get 30 done. First and last set were unbroken. Maybe my legs are just that fatigued. Hollow rocks are getting easier. Was able to hold arms over my head today, so shoulder is improving too.

Conditioning

12:00 AMRAP

  • 75 MB Cleans (20#)
  • 50 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 25 Deadlifts (225#)

I put the MB cleans in for wall balls. Holy shit! It was like 2 squats for every rep. Getting that first box jump was scary. I stepped down on them all, but never stopped. Did 20 singles with the deadlift and then a set of 5 to finish. I scaled the weight back from 275# because the back has been feeling good and I want to ease back into heavy deads. I finished 1 full round and then 14 more MB cleans. My legs are going to be feeling this for a couple of days.

Three Wheel Triple

Slept late-ish again this morning. Still made time to get a protein+coffee and pre-workout shower though.

Warm-up

4 Round Tabata Mash-up

  • Air Squats
  • Zombie Kicks
  • Shoulder stretching
  • Rocket Ships

Strength

Back Squat 5×3 @ 80-90%

  • 10×45#
  • 5×155#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×275#
  • 3×285#
  • 3×295#
  • 3×305#
  • 3×315#

I’ve been bumping up all my numbers over the percentages. Last time I did 2 sets with 275# to start, so I replaced one of those with the 315# set. Not sure, but that might be a 3RM. Though I have done 5×305, so probably not a true 3RM at this point, especially with all of the heavy sets. Felt great too! When squats are going well, it’s a tough feeling to beat.

Conditioning

  • 40 Burpees
  • 40 Front Squats (45#)
  • 30 Burpees
  • 30 Front Squats (95#)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 20 Front Squats (135#)
  • 10 Burpees
  • 10 Front Squats (155#)

100 more burpees. YAY!! Something that really surprised me in this workout was how fatigued my front rack got, even in the first set of front squats. 100 burpees yesterday and 40 to start today, really fried the front delts. After doing 25 I had to go 8-7 to finish the 40. Then I went 12-10-8, 8-7-5, and an unbroken 10. Took me 16:19 to finish.

Hops

Was tough rolling out of bed this morning.

Warm-up

  • 2x Band Pulls and shoulder stretching
  • 2x 10/10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S)
  • 20 Star Jumps

Strength

12:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10/10 Kroc Rows (62# KB)
  • Evens: 10 Weighted Sit-ups (53# KB)

Focused on doing the Kroc Rows as strict as possible. Tried to keep a good back position with the sit-ups.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 10 Box Jumps (30″)
  • 10 Burpees

I’m going to be feeling all of those jumps tomorrow. It’s been awhile since I did any box jumps higher than 24″ in a workout. Really had to focus on each jump after nearly landing on my face in the 2nd round. Finished in 15:50.

Midline

10:00 E2M

  • 10 Hip Extensions (on Roman Chair)
  • 30s Plank

I held the plank for a full minute in the last round.

Sunday Super Squats

Headed over to Bay City for open gym at noon.

Warm-up

4 Tabata Rounds of Double Unders

Totaled 126 reps.

Strength

Back Squat (Super Squats!)

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×205#
  • 3×235#
  • 20×260# (PR)

10# higher than less than 2 weeks ago. Glad I went for it instead of only 255#. Felt pretty rough today. I bet the Air Dyne workout last night fried the legs.

Accessory

20 Pullovers with a 40# DB to open up the chest after the breathing squats.

OLY

Did a bunch of snatch position work from the hang to power position with 35#. No snatches due to my shoulder, but at least I can work on the positioning.

Conditioning

10:00 Row @ 80-85%

Kept it around a 2:05/500m pace and got 2,414m. Thought about doing some interval work, but not a great idea after the Super Squats.

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.4

14.3 was my best Open workout performance in 3 years, with a score in the top 6.8% (6,107th) worldwide. Made for a nice overall jump from 22,238/100,690 (22.1%) to 14,785/100,777 (14.7%). Should be no problem holding on to the top 20% now as long as my shoulder holds up for these last 2 workouts. I’ve been resting it since pushing it too much last Monday.

Yesterday was a rest day and I had a great massage. In to the gym at 1 today. My warm-up consisted of some 30 second calorie rows at a 1,200 cal/hr pace and a bunch of stretching and mobility.

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.4

14:00 AMRAP

  • 60 Calorie Row
  • 50 T2B
  • 40 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 30 Power Cleans (135#)
  • 20 Muscle-ups

Wow, this workout should be called Deception! Paced out my row as planned and finished right at 3:00. Did 5 T2B at a time with 5-8 seconds of walking between sets. Got to 30 like that and then started doing some triples and doubles, with some singles to finish. Split was 6:37 going into the wall balls. I figured this would be a time to rest, but I got to 10 and dropped the ball. 4 sets of 10 to finish at 8:43. All singles on the cleans, trying not to waste time getting back on the bar. Tiebreak time of 11:51. I took my time getting to the rings, took a drink, and didn’t jump up until after over 30 seconds had gone by. Still missed my first muscle-up! Managed to fight for 2 good reps to score 182 reps. Hips had nothing left. I think I had 3 failures.

The only time I felt my shoulder was in the middle of the wall balls. The T2B really had me worried because that’s what aggravated things last Monday after all of the C2B in 14.2 the day before. We’ll see how it feels later tonight and tomorrow once inflammation kicks in.

Headed out to the garage around 7:30 and jumped on the Air Dyne (AD2) for 10:00. Knocked out 351 calories to beat my record by 9. That hurt and was a mental grind. Kept 80-81 rpm until the final 40 seconds.

Growing Tree Trunks

My front delts are still sore from 180 burpees. Doesn’t take much pressure when pushing on them to feel the pain. Hamstrings are sore from the good mornings too.

Warm-up

  • 10/10 Hurdlers (forward, backward)
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 10/10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S)
  • 2x30s Wrist Stretch

Strength

Front Squat 5×5 @ 70-80%

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×205#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×235#
  • 5×245#
  • 5×255#
  • 5×260#

Up in volume from last time when I did 2 sets at 225# and up to 255#. Today the 255# felt rough, so I only took the 5# jump at the end. Last set actually felt better, so should have done 265#.

Conditioning

  • 50 Weighted Lunges (30# DBs)
  • 40 Pendlay Rows (95#)
  • 30 Goblet Squats (53# KB)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 10 Squat Cleans (135#)

Finished in 9:21 with legs on fire.

14.4 is announced tonight and it looks like it’ll be a chipper, as I predicted. Rest day and massage tomorrow for me and will plan to hit the workout on Saturday.

Walk it Out

Didn’t want to get out of bed this morning and feeling beat. Resting and getting a massage on Friday though.

Warm-up

  • Shoulder stretching
  • Band pulls
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Good Mornings

Strength

Good Mornings

  • 10×45#
  • 10×75#
  • 8×125#
  • 8×135#
  • 6×145#
  • 6×150#
  • 6×170#

Matt was doing shoulder presses, so I used the same weights until my final one.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP of a 3-6-9… Ladder

  • Box Jumps (step down, 24″)
  • Sit-ups
  • Air Dyne calories (AD6)

Finished the round of 15 plus box jumps, sit-ups, and 11 calories. Not a super high intensity, which was good. Did a bunch of walking back and forth in the gym after.