Month: March 2016

Sweat It Out

Wasn’t sure I’d make it to the 10am when I woke up, but I did. Couple beers do me in these days. #weaksauce Felt better after an hour and made it in. My back feels fine today but my ass and hamstrings are sore. Shoulders are a little tight too.

Strength

  • 2 Shoulder Press
  • + 2 Push Press
  • + 2 Push Jerk

Felt weak for sure. Went 45-75-95-115-135-145-155#.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Push-ups
  • 5 Power Cleans (115#)
  • 5 Box Jumps (24″)

Cruised through at an easy pace and finished 7 rounds plus the push-ups and cleans.

Gymnastics

E30S 5:00

  • 5 Ring Rows

Pretty excited when I tried a couple and could actually do them! Haven’t been able to any pulling like that in months with this shoulder.

Extra

  • 1,000m Row

Easy pace. Finished just under 4:00.

Glad I made it in. Feels good to have moved and worked up a little sweat.

16.4

Was feeling pretty good about this one when it was announced. I’m fine with deadlifts, have grown to enjoy wall balls a bit, and I’ll take a rower any day.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3:00 Air Dyne
  • 3×10 GHD Heel Drives
  • Deadlifts
    • 10×45#
    • 5×135
    • 5×185
  • Bar Hang

CrossFit Open Workout 16.4

13:00 AMRAP

  • 55 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 55 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 55 Row (calories)
  • 55 Handstand Push-ups

split-to-calsMy plan was:

  • Start with 10s on deadlift with 15 seconds rest. Decrease if it got bad.
  • Do 5 sets of 11 wall balls with 10 seconds of rest so it was similar to a Tabata.
  • Hit about a 1,200 cal/hr pace on the rower.
  • Doubles on HSPU.

I was really expecting the deadlifts to be a lot worse. I stuck to the plan and ended up with 4 sets of 10, then 8-7 to finish. Wall balls were right on plan as well with no problem. I felt more comfortable at 1,100 on the rower and kicked it in for the last 5 calories. Did 6 or so doubles on the wall and was feeling good so did a couple of triples. Then tried to do some quick singles or maybe even some doubles towards the end. Never failed a handstand push-up until the very last one I was trying to get in to beat the clock. I ended up with 27 handstand push-ups for a total rep count of 192 and a tiebreak time of 8:34. So much time to do the HSPU!!

Looking back I really think I over-paced this one. I could have gotten away with 10 second rests on the deadlifts and maybe 3 sets of 15 plus a set of 10 wall balls. I should have pushed the row to be a little uncomfortable too and got up on the wall quicker. I realistically think I could have been off the rower in under 8:00, which would give me another 2-4 HSPU probably. I really expected those deadlifts to get me a lot worse or the wall balls to add up after the deadlifts, but I didn’t have a problem with either one.

I was hoping to average 3:00 for the first 3 movements and had no trouble beating that. My rep goal was 185-195, which was in the 80-90 percentile from the early scoring, so I’m not disappointed at all. You just learn a lot the first time you do a workout. I’m already thinking next year I might just commit to doing every workout twice for a change and an interesting challenge. If they do introduce a 35-39 Masters division it would be fun to see how I rank with full effort and redoing workouts too. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I have to worry about making it into the Masters Qualifier. I’m far from that level.

One more workout this year!

3 Strikes for Annie

I can feel my back is a little aggravated from the shoulder press over-extension yesterday. Would be great if Castro doesn’t give us a max lift or heavy deadlifts this week.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 15 PVC Good Mornings
  • Zombie Kicks
  • Walking Lunges
  • 20 Jumping Jacks
  • 16 Mountain Climbers
  • 5 Burpees

Strength – Deadlift

  • 5×135#
  • 5×205
  • 5×255
  • 5×275
  • 5×305

Easy does it with the back.

Conditioning

“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

  • Double Unders
  • Sit-ups

Set everything up for success with dumbbells for feet and my AbMat pad. Missed 3 times in the set of 40 double unders though. Can’t miss if I’m going to PR. Sit-ups felt really good, but too bad. Managed a 6:07, which is only 8 seconds slower than my best.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 10 Russian Kettlebell Swings (70#)
  • 20 Shoulder Taps
  • 5 Ring Swings

I threw one muscle-up in there to show Weston something and I flew up on to the rings! This swing work is going to pay off. Coming down was pretty terrible on my shoulder so no more of that.

After class got into a little extra with Bryan and Michelle…

5 Rounds

  • 300m Row
  • 5 Overhead Squat (135#)

I really wanted to snatch into that first OHS every round but I only did that on the first 2 (maybe the third?) because I was almost losing them. Probably should have put on the lifters for this, since they work well on the rower too. This got pretty nasty on the quads. Finished in 8:50.

Rest up tomorrow for 16.4.

Snappy Snatchy

Made it in for the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • 20 PVC Presses
  • Zombie Kicks
  • 30 Jumping Jacks

Strength – Shoulder Press

  • 6×45#
  • 4×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 2×155
  • 2×165
  • 1×175 (matches PR, failed 2nd rep)
  • 2×172.5 (PR)

I need to just always put on the belt when getting up there. I overextended too much trying to hit that second rep with 175. Put the belt on, dropped down and was able to grind out the PR double. I really wanted that 175 double after hitting 3×170 not too long ago!

Conditioning

8 Rounds

  • 6 Push Presses (95#)
  • 8 Burpees
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

Longer than expected, but the burpees and GHD sit-ups slow down significantly. Finished in 11:01.

Midline

6 Rounds

  • 20s Bicycle Crunch
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Plank
  • 10s Rest

Can’t remember the last time I did those crunches. I did the planks on my hands and really tried to lean out forward to get some extra wrist work.

Weightlifting

Asked Alex if he wanted to work up to a quick snatch before he had to coach the next class. Got after it! All into the full squat.

  • 2x3x45#
  • 3×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 2×155
  • 1×175
  • 1×185
  • 1×195
  • 1×205
  • Missed 215 twice

Felt great and really snappy. Was really trying to be aggressive with the lockout because that’s where I seem to fail when it gets heavy. On the misses it definitely didn’t have the same feel. My back was feeling it a little bit from that shoulder press too and I can get loose at it gets really heavy. Any day I hit 200 or more is a good day though. Today it just happened to be enough to match my bodyweight. I was going to drop to 185 just to end on a make but I felt a little tweak in my back as I was twisting to put a couple plates away. Called it quits instead of risking it.

Get In, Get Out

My obliques are a bit sore. Wonder if it’s from hitting golf balls for an hour on Saturday. With Monday being my recovery day during the Open I’ve been missing out on squats. Feeling pretty good today so wanted to work some in.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Ski Erg
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength – Back Squats

EMOM

  • 3×95#
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 3×155
  • 3×175
  • 3×195
  • 3×215
  • 3×235
  • 3×255
  • 3×275
  • 3×295

Didn’t want to spend a ton of time so I utilized the clock. Not much time to stand around after adding the 20# each set or exchanging plates for wheels. Wanted to get to 275 and see how it felt since I wasn’t using a belt or lifters. Felt good so did one more set. Done in 11 minutes.

Conditioning – Recovery

  • 20:00 Air Dyne (AD2)

Went 6.24 miles.

Double Down

Stupid time change. I was very confused for a few seconds this morning when I woke up after 9, before I remembered the hour shift. Messed up my entire morning before the gym.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch
    • 5×45#
    • 3×95#
    • 3×115#

Conditioning

“Isabel”

  • 30 Snatch (135#)

Started with 5 doubles before switching to singles. Finished in 2:26 for an 11 second PR! At 1:00 I had exactly 15 reps done, compared to 17 when I did Grace. I really like this new strategy I mentioned in my last Grace post. Here’s more detail I just shared on Facebook…

For the last year, I’ve been thinking about a strategy for Grace/Isabel that I never really see. Just about everyone comes out of the gate hot, trying to get as many unbroken reps as they can. I think this is a mistake for the majority of us and with my recent attempts at both Isabel and Grace, I did a little testing. Let me explain…

My previous Grace was 2:17, done with 10 unbroken and 20 singles. I got the PR of 2:04 by doing 3×5, 1×2, and 13 singles. For Isabel I went from doing 2×2 and 26 singles to 5×2 and 20 singles. Ok, but what’s the difference?

Dropping the bar, getting (or waiting for) the bounce to settle, and grabbing it again takes the most time in workouts like these. In the first Grace, I dropped the bar and had to reset 20 times, but in the retest there were only 16 bar drops, resulting in a gain of 13 seconds. Isabel bar drops went from 27 to 24, for an 11 second improvement.

Heart rate isn’t all that important in a 2-4 minute workout, but I think it can help a little, at least from the point of how you perceive your level of fatigue. Smaller sets should keep HR down some. I think not starting with a huge set (to near failure) can help a lot with muscle endurance over those 30 reps though. The last 5 reps are going to suck no matter what, but they can feel just a bit easier.

Sure I could have gotten the same 16 bar drop Grace by doing 14 unbroken then 16 singles, but I would have been a lot more tired going into the singles, resulting in less motivation to pick up the bar with each rep. Starting off Isabel with 6 unbroken to make it 24 drops doesn’t sound very fun at this point in my fitness for the same reasons.

Would this work for you?

If either workout takes you more than 5:00, you should use a lighter weight. Check your ego.

If your time is 3:30 or longer, I’d recommend sticking to singles but speed up how long it takes you to pick up the bar. Anyone can get a time of 3:00-3:30 by doing all singles if you pick the bar up as soon as it stops bouncing. You can’t step away from the bar though, you have to be ready to go and pick it up every single time.

If your time is close to that 3:00 mark and maybe even all the way down to 1:40 (??), simply try to decrease the number of times you drop the bar, but keep your sets manageable. Switch to singles when you have to.

The tricky part is making sure you don’t pick something you can’t maintain. For example, I bet I would improve my Grace time if I did 15 sets of 2, getting me to 14 drops instead of 16. Probably wouldn’t be a very good strategy though, because I doubt I’d be able to maintain sets of 2 for the entire workout. I’d end up doing singles and then wouldn’t actually decrease bar drops.

Make sense? If you try it out or have any questions let me know.

On Your Hands

3 Sets

  • MAX Handstand Hold (facing wall)
  • ~2:00 Rest

I should have checked my PR before. Made it 2:36, just 4 seconds short of my best. Then 1:40 and 1:00. Not easy after Isabel.

Conditioning II

3 Rounds

  • 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 60 Double Unders
  • 1:1 Rest

Times were 1:36, 1:47, and 1:47. Unbroken wall balls each time with unbroken dubs in round 1, 2 misses in round 2, and 1 miss in round 3. Was fun to do some big sets of wall balls. If not for the shoulders being pretty wrecked from the earlier stuff, using 30# would have been a good challenge.

I tried the false grip bar muscle-up and it wasn’t great. I definitely was sliding off the bar on the swing and had to do kind of a chicken-wing attempt, which I never do. Going to start working on that false grip strength on the bar with some drills because I think it will eliminate the feeling I’m ripping off my entire palm with a full grip on the bar when linking them together.

Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before leaving.

Empty Sally

Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t close my hands! They were fine this morning though. Feel pretty good after 16.3. My low back was lit up last night but seems ok today.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bar Hang
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Air Squats
  • 500m Row
  • 45# Bar warm-up

Weightlifting

Clean & Jerk

  • 3×95#
  • 3×135
  • 2×165
  • 2×195
  • 2×215
  • 2×235

No belt or lifting shoes. Pretty easy double.

Conditioning

“Bring Sally Up”

  • 45# Back Squats

Easy, but how did I almost finish with 135#?

21-15-9

  • Wall Balls (30#, 10′)
  • Russian Kettlebell Swings (70#)
  • Burpees

Kept every movement unbroken, but paced myself through the 21 burpees knowing there was a lot of work left. Finished in 6:47.

More Hanging

More goddamn gymnastics in 16.3! I thought for sure we’d see a break from it. I’m not surprised by the bar muscle-up being added this year though. Having to do single C2B in week one used up a lot of my time in the workout, but bar muscle-ups singles may pace me out better over the course of this one. Trying to make the best of my injury limitation. 🙂 If I average 30 seconds on snatches and 30 seconds on bar muscle-ups (plus transition time), 6 rounds seems like a good goal and 7 being something I’d be thrilled with. I’m just not sure how the muscle-ups are going to feel on my shoulder. I’ve only done 1 in the last 2-3 months.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • GHD Heel Drives
  • Bar Taps
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 3 Power Snatch (75#)

I did a couple of muscle-ups trying to see if I could string them together. I think I could have gotten through it, but why risk it and I’m pretty sure I would have ripped by the end even with the gymnastics grips on. Once this shoulder heals I need to figure out what to do with my grip because I can feel it starting to tear when I swing down, even on a first set.

CrossFit Open 16.3

7:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Power Snatches (75#)
  • 3 Bar Muscle-ups

16-3-splitsIt went really well with the singles. Much better than expected. I was able to drop straight down from the top so didn’t have to move much. I had a nice steady pace on the snatches with no problem going unbroken every round. I took a split second pause at the top and opened up my grip on every rep. That worked so well and my grip was fine throughout, where the other guys’ grips were smoked. I barely had enough energy left to just fly on that final set of snatches. Made it through 6 rounds plus 8 snatches with a tiebreaker of 6:39. Happy. 🙂

With the exception of round 1 my splits were a lot more consistent than I expected. Round 1 is going to be lower, since you don’t have a transition from the the top of the last bar muscle-up, to drop, and get to your barbell. Measured in seconds my rounds were 52-66-68-73-70-70, so only one was over the 70 second average needed to get 6 rounds and, other than the first, they varied by only 7 seconds. That might be the best pacing I’ve ever done.

We had a great atmosphere in the gym with Jason, Bryan, and I battling it out. I thought Bryan had lapped me because he was doing all of his muscle-ups unbroken, but I guess he was just a bit ahead of me. I almost caught him on my final sprint, but was 1 rep shy. Then we got to see Michelle and Jess get their first muscle-ups, with it finally clicking for Michelle and then she got 4 more in the workout. Probably the funnest Open workout I’ve been a part of. This will be a neat one to retest once my shoulder is better.

 

On to next week…

 

Bring It Castro!

Went to the Chiropractor at 5 and then 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 10 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 10/10 Around the head (35# KB)
  • 5 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 5/5 Around the head (35# KB)

Strength – Deadlift

  • 5×45#
  • 5×155
  • 5×225
  • 5x5x275

Definitely wasn’t going to approach anything close to a max lift during the Open. This was really easy.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Deadlifts (115#)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 20 Double Unders

Only tripped once in the 2nd round after 8 reps. I think I went 7 rounds plus 4 deadlifts. I was planning to stay after class to get in some GHDs, but with this being programmed with sit-ups, it was nice to be able to substitute and kill 2 birds with one stone. This felt really good. I would be pretty happy if Castro repeated 13.2 for this next Open workout (with step-ups allowed again).

Midline & Getting Inverted

4 Sets

  • 15 Ball Slams (30#)
  • 3 Wall Walks

Little challenging with how humid it is with the huge temperature shift to the 60s. It was like someone hosed down the walls. My shoes were even slipping all over on the matting in the gym. Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap and got out of there. Rest up and watch the 16.3 announcement tomorrow.

Work Up Quick

Got to the gym around 5. Figured it would be a good idea to get in some heavy snatches in case some sort of max is coming in the Open.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch Warm-up Complex (45#)
  • Pass-thrus

Snatch

  • 3x40kg
  • 3×50
  • 60
  • 63
  • 66
  • 69
  • 72
  • 75
  • 78
  • 81 (missed first attempt)
  • 83
  • 87 (missed first attempt)
  • 90

Starting at 60, Bryan and I went back and forth without much rest other than changing the plates. Worked up in less than 20 minutes because I wanted to do the 5:30 class. Felt like the make at 90 was a good place to stop. Was rusty for sure, so need to get these in more often. I much prefer lifting like this though instead of taking 40-50 minutes.

Strength – Shoulder Press

Class was programmed as 3 rounds of these sets:

  • 3 @ 85%
  • 2 @ 90%
  • 1 @ 95%

I based mine off what my max should be (180#) after a recent triple with 170#.

  • 6×45#
  • 3×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×145
  • 3 Waves
    • 3×155
    • 2×162.5
    • 1×170

I was questioning myself during the first wave, but they actually got easier the next two times through.

Conditioning

“Wall Ball Kalsu”

  • 100 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 5 Burpees EMOM (Starting at 1:00, so first minute is free)

I don’t like it this way because it doesn’t read correctly and it’s not how you do Kalsu. 🙂 You should start with the burpees as soon as you start the clock. But it’s good to vary things, right? I’ve done it the proper way, in 5:54, a year ago. Today the wall balls felt really light and I was getting in a lot more each minute than I did the other time. Started with 30, then 3 sets of 18, and a final set of 16 to finish in 4:50. I was kind of mad I dropped the wall ball early in the first 2 sets of 18 too, with about 6 seconds left. I could have gotten in 2 more each of those sets.

Update: I found where we did it this same way in October and it took exactly 5:00 then. I’ll take a 10 second improvement! 😀

Midline

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Weighted Plank (45#)
  • 10s Rest

This was the worst part of the workout! I wanted to quit after round 4, but made it all the way through them.