Month: June 2015

Successful June

I wanted to run at least 1 mile every day this month and total 60 miles. Mission accomplished! When running, I tried to focus on some running skill improvements:

  • Better breathing by taking long deep breaths instead of quick ones.
  • Increase my cadence closer to 180 steps per minute.
  • Turn my toe strike into more of a midfoot strike.

I was planning to go out with a bang today by going at least 5 miles. Ended up going just over a 10k for 6.23 miles in 59:15 for an average pace of 9:31/mile and an average heart rate of 136. For the month I went over 72 miles.

2015-06-30-splits

Kind of an interesting pattern to the pacing from mile to mile. Almost like I was going up and then down a mountain. 🙂

2 Mile Test

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Shoulder stretching
  • OHS – 6×45#, 6×75#, 6×95#

Conditioning

12-9-6

  • C2B Pull-ups
  • OHS (115#)

Over the course of the week I toyed around with different rep schemes before finally settling on this one. Worked out great. Was a solid little burner. I went 12, 5-4, and 3-3 on the C2B. They got really hard after the OHS. Fought to get every set of squats unbroken. Finished in 3:07.

Accessory

6:00 EMOM

  • 8 Weighted Step-ups (2×26# KB, 20″)

* Light enough to put all weight on foot that is on the box. Do not push off the ground with the other leg.

If I would have gone any heavier I think I would have been pushing off with my other leg. This allowed me to focus on working the one leg.

Run Every Day

2 Mile Run

We rarely ever do “longer” runs in CrossFit, so I figured I’d get in my run for the day and have everyone share in the fun. I started out a little too hot, but fell into a decent pace during the first mile. RunKeeper (log) said about 7:26. I started falling off in the 2nd mile, but tried to make up for it in the last 1/4 of a mile. Finished the 2 miles in about 15:18. I would have liked to be close to 14:30, but not too bad. Curious how different my time would have been if we ran first thing.

Midline

8 Rounds

  • 15s Hollow Rocks
  • 15s Rest

Changing up instead of 20/10s was much better. Allowed me to keep going throughout. Got 11 reps ever round for 88 total.

Snail’s Pace

Run Every Day

I did not want to run this morning, but with a chance of rain all day starting around 10, I figured I better get it in. Didn’t wear headphones and went super slow. 1.7 miles in 20:14, almost a 12:00 pace. Even with that run my average pace over the last week was still a big improvement.

Went in before the 10am class with Kevin. Warmed up with 100 walking lunges.

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×205#
  • 5×245#
  • 5x5x270#

I did the 45# and 135# without shoes on, then put on my lifters. Didn’t wear a belt at all since it was light weight and it’ll help to strengthen my back. This was the start of 2nd week of the Rippletoe program.

Did a bit of empty bar work to warm-up when class started.

3-position Snatch Deadlift

  • 3x40kg
  • 3x60kg
  • 3x80kg
  • 3x85kg

Rough on the hook grip with the Eleiko bar. I had to stop and let go between reps on the last 2 sets.

Panda Pull

  • 2x60kg
  • 2x65kg
  • 2x70kg
  • 2x75kg

Not as hard on the grip, but I feel awkward doing these.

Snatch

  • 3x40kg
  • 2x60kg
  • 1x75kg
  • 1x80kg
  • 1x85kg
  • 1x90kg

The first reps felt like a feather after doing those pulls. Everything felt smooth.

Conditioning

With a partner…

  • Buy-in: 8 Rounds (4 each)
    • 40′ OH Plate Carry (35-45-45-45#)
    • 40′ Run
  • Start Clock…
    • 4 Rounds
      • 16 HSPU
      • 16 Ring Dips
      • 16 Pull-ups
    • 2,000m Row

* We had 1:00 to complete our buy-in round, then 10 seconds before partner started their round.

I was partnered with Kevin. We started with 8-8 in the first round for everything, then went 4-4-4-4 for HSPU in rounds 2-3 and 4-3-6-3 in round 4 since he was dying. Last 3 rounds of dips were 4-4-4-4 and pull-ups stayed at 8-8 the whole way. We switched every 500 meters on the rower and finished in 15:30.

I wore the new Nano 5 and they felt really good.

Deliveries

In at 9am.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Good Mornings (15#)
  • Side bends with bar (15#)
  • Twists with bar (15#)
  • Squats (15#)
  • 30s Squat Jumps (15#)

Strength

Deadlifts

  • 5×155#
  • 5×245#
  • 3×315#
  • 6:00 EMOM
    • 3×345#

Felt pretty good. I wore the belt during the EMOM.

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • American KBS (70#)
    • Burpees
  • Cash-out: 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Everything unbroken, even forced myself to keep going with the wall balls at the end. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be with the 70# KB for the swings. Finished in 10:30.

Midline

Tabata Plank Push-ups

Yuck!! Was sweating so much. Did like 12 in the first round, but then only ended up with 58 total. These get hard really fast.

Accessory

We were done with plenty of time so Kevin gave us a bonus of 300m Farmer’s Carry. I had a brilliant idea to try it with bumper plates. Grabbed the 35# ones. Holy shit was that brutal. I had to take so many breaks. Finished it all though. Wonder what my hands will feel like later today and the next couple of days.

Run Every Day

Went out at 7pm. Felt like I was running a 9:00/mile pace, but at 1/2 mile it was just over 8:00. Picked it up a little because it felt good. My pace is coming back much faster than I expected. Ran 1.75 miles in 13:51.

Got the new Nano 5 today and a pair of Relentless jeans too.

  

Weightlifting Without A Plan

Nothing really sore.

Run Every Day

Morning run before getting dressed or eating. Went 1.72 miles in 13:30 for a 7:52 pace. Felt pretty good for being so early.

Got to the gym for bench night before 6:30pm and warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

No B.S. Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×215#
  • 2×230#
  • 2×245#
  • 2×250#
  • 2×252.5# (PR)
  • 2×255# (PR)

9th week of the 2nd cycle. Supposed to hit four doubles at 40-50# over the base number, which would be 245-255#. In my notes for the night I hoped to hit 260#. When 245# and 250# didn’t feel awesome, I went for the small jumps on the next two sets, not even realizing it still put me in the proper range for the four working sets. Now I don’t feel as disappointed as I did during the lifts. Stupid that I would have felt bad about 2 PR sets anyway. Almost wish I had tried my original plan though and stuck with 5# jumps each set.

What I really like about this bench program is the slow progression from week to week even though the rep counts keep rotating.

bench-progress

Quiet night at the gym and I didn’t really have any plan for weightlifting. Had written down C&J ? in my notes since I’d been working on snatches the last few weeks in preparation for the competition. After heavy bench, I decided to go with power cleans. How high could I go with triples? I’d never really tried.

Power Cleans

  • 3x20kg
  • 3x40kg
  • 3x60kg
  • 3x75kg
  • 3x90kg
  • 3x96kg
  • 3x100kg
  • 3x104kg
  • 3x107kg
  • 1x111kg
  • 1x114kg

I was happy with 107 kilos (~236#). Felt like I was getting slopping with the 2nd and 3rd reps so I did a couple of singles and it was 8pm. That hour of weightlifting went by really quick. I was taking my time between sets and enjoyed it.

I love the sound the bar makes when you drop it with reds on.

Heavy Singles

Made it in early before the 9am to squat since they switched to Monday in the Intuition programming for a while.

Back Squat

  • 20×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 2×295#
  • 1×315#
  • 6x1x335#

Set with 135# was done shoeless and it was quite an interesting feel. I did the 7 singles by the clock, every 2 minutes. Was harder than I expected. Haven’t done a bunch of heavy singles in quite some time.

Push Press

  • 10×45#
  • 4×95#
  • 4×115#
  • 4×135#

8:00 EMOM

  • 4 Push Press 155#
  • 10s OH Hold

DAMN! Started getting rough after round 3. Held for about 20 seconds on the last round.

Conditioning

2 Rounds

  • 30 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 30 Burpees
  • 30 Air Squats

Tried to keep a steady pace on the burpees. Finished in 6:56.

Midline

3 Rounds

  • 20 Russian Twists (53#)
  • 20 GHD Sit-ups

Didn’t go for time today, especially with the bigger sets of GHDs than I’m used to. Haven’t been doing enough of them lately so I substituted for AbMat sit-ups.

Run Every Day

Around 7pm I ran 3.1 miles in 27:53 for right at a 9 min/mile pace. Exactly one week left.

Feeling it a Bit

Tired from a late night at Greek Fest. Legs are fatigued and I’m sore in my upper back from the muscle cleans. Adjusted the Super Sunday workout because the Hero WOD that was planned would not have gone well. Didn’t do much to warm-up other than a bottom squat hold.

Front Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×185#
  • 6x3x215#

Light day from the Rippletoe program. Felt really good to squat. Focused on speed and driving up with my back.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 20 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 25 Push-ups
  • 30 Air Squats

Wanted something that wasn’t brutal and we could keep moving. I purposely went kind of slow for the first 3 rounds, not wanting to kill myself today. I did my first 4 rounds of push-ups in 10-9-6 and then 10-6-5-4 in the final round with shorter rest. Busted ass in the last round and a half and flew those air squats. Took me 11:54. Considering it was over 5:00 when I finished round 2, that’s more push than I planned on giving today.

Accessory

8x

  • 20s L-sit
  • 30s Rest

Went pretty well today. Got tough in the last 2 rounds but I was keeping my knees high throughout.

2x

  • MAX HS Hold (facing wall)

I did a 2:40 (40s PR!) and a 1:30 with about 3 minutes of rest between.

Run Every Day

I was doing a bunch of yard work today and honestly almost forgot about getting in a run. If I can get up and run the morning of a competition I can run late on the day after. Too close to the end of the month to miss a day. Ran 2.68 miles in 27:40. Didn’t wear any headphones and was a nice night for a run.