Minute by Minute

My shins are pretty sore from those explosive broad jumps on Sunday. Walking 7 miles on the golf course was a little rough yesterday. Woke up and decided not to go at 9am due to work meetings. Worked out great because I really got in a programming zone today. Went to the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • OHS Shoulder Stretching in Rack
  • 3 Sets
    • 20s Dead Hang
    • 8 Zombie Kicks
  • Shoulder Press
    • 5×45#
    • 5×75#
    • 5×95#

Strength

E3M – 5 Sets

  • 5 Shoulder Press (50-60-70-75-80%)

I used 95-110-125-135-145#. After 110 and 125 I thought it was going to be a struggle at the end, but turned out fine once I got going. Not used to having weight on the bar, that’s for sure.

Conditioning

8 Cycles

  • 1:00 AMRAP
    • 5 Burpees
    • 5 Air Squats
  • 1:00 Rest

The work/rest was on the money for being able to keep pace. Each cycle slowed through the 1:00 of work, but was overall work was consistent from cycle to cycle. After the first few, my goal was to stay at 30+ every time. Was able to by getting 33-32-31-32-31-32-31-31 reps.

Gymnastics

5 Rounds

  • 2 Wall Walks
  • 30s Plank

Piece of cake. Did the planks on my hands with a forward lean. Was feeling that combo in my wrists a little by the end.

What a Bear!

My hips and quads are all pretty sore.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • 5 ATYs (5# plates)
    • 15/15 Monster Walks (small red band)
    • 10 Walking Lunges

Weightlifting / Cycling

5 Sets

  • 7 rep Bear Complex

I was out of breath with the empty bar! I did 45-75-105-135-155#. Decided to count that first set because I was taking quite a bit of rest with the bar on my back during the 135 and 155 sets. Going in I thought maybe 165, but 155 was fine with me and 10# heavier than I’d done.

I did all clean thrusters, but in the final two loads I started resting after lowering the bar on to my back before doing a back thruster. Got a little rest in the hang position a few times.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 4 Pendlay Rows (165#, supinated)
  • 6 Evil Wheels

I did a couple of warm-up sets on the row with 105-155#. Could feel a little pull in my left shoulder with the first two working sets, but it went away by the 3rd set. Evil wheels have become very easy for me. Maybe from the GHD work I do?

Explosive “Conditioning”

For Quality

  • 50 Burpee Broad Jumps

Didn’t even start the clock because the focus was on the jumps and not going balls to the wall; be explosive under a little fatigue. Kept a nice steady pace and tried to get some distance with each jump. Was much harder than I expected. Feet were really digging into the end of my shoes even at 10 reps in.

I’ll get in some shoulder mobility work and e-stim.

Do Reps

Woke up surprisingly sore from yesterday’s workout. Most in my quads. Did Crossover Symmetry Activation before hitting the platform. Put on the new knee sleeves for all of the lifting.

Snatch

  • Warmup reps @ 20kg
  • 2x3x40kg
  • 3×50
  • 3×60
  • 3×70
  • 1 miss then 2×75
  • 1×80
  • 1×85
  • 1×90
  • 2 misses, 2 misses, 1 miss @ 95
  • 2 misses @ 80

Glad to make 90kg which is 90%, but it all went to shit after that. The very light reps felt great, but once some weight started getting on the bar I did not have it.

C&J

  • 3x60kg
  • 3×70
  • 2×80
  • 2×90
  • 2×100
  • 105
  • 110
  • 115

Felt heavy, but no misses.

Back Squat

  • 5×135#
  • 5×185
  • 5×225
  • 5×255
  • 2x5x275

Haven’t had 200+ on my back in 2 months. Felt ok.

I think the lack of sleep definitely played a role in the lifts feeling so heavy. Knees sleeves felt very warm on my legs, but having the A/C out in half the gym didn’t help that any. Knees felt weird when I took them off after nearly 2 hours.

Aerobic Capacity

I’ve been archiving workouts from the site for nearly a year. This one comes from last August and is an aerobic threshold workout. Headed over to one of the high school tracks in the evening.

  • 1200m (6:09)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 500m (2:02)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 1200m (6:00)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 400m (1:33)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 1200m (5:45)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 300m (1:01)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 1200m (5:38)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 200m (0:37)

Did it all with laps on my watch and finished at 49:59. Total of 6,200 meters. The pace targets for the 1,200 meter runs was recommended at 75-90 seconds slower than mile PR and the pace for the 500->200 meter intervals was at a mile PR time. I figured I would be conservative and base it off a 7:00 mile. I had recently just run about 7 seconds slower than that, but I know that’s my potential, even right now. So that came out to a 6:20 for each 1,200 meters or 32 seconds per 100m. On the fast intervals I was going to target 25-26 seconds per 100m.

As you can see above, I was under the pace targets for every interval. After I got through the 500 meters I know I could kick things up a notch and after each pairing I knew I could push some more. No need to go the conservative route I guess.

The pace graph (heart rate overlay on top) is kind of cool to look at. You can see where the rest periods are and walks after the 500m and 300m back to the bench at the starting line where my drink was.

2016-06-04-pace-hr

Got in 40 minutes of ROMWOD after dinner.

From Your Knees

Felt a little tight when I woke up this morning. Went to the 9am class and I’m off work for the day to attend a wedding near Detroit.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2 Sets
    • 5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (10#)
    • 15 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • 3 Sets
    • Banded shoulder stretch
    • 15s OHS Hold (45#)
    • 5 Burpees
  • 2 Kneeling Jumps (4″)
  • 6 RDLs (45#)
  • 2 Kneeling Jumps (8″)
  • 6 RDLs (155#)

Went closer with my grip on each OHS hold.

XWOD

E2M

  • 6-6-6-6-6-6 RDL (225#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1 Kneeling Box Jump (2 x 12″ & 1 x 13.75″)

Been far too long since we did some of this stuff. Was nervous with the jumps but made them all. Double overhand grip is a lot tougher with that extra 40# on the bar. Tried one set with a hook grip, which sucked.

Conditioning

E5M – 5 Rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 10 OHS (95#)
  • 20 GHD Sit-ups

Fast runs since there was plenty of time to recover. Was taking about 45 seconds each time to get into the gym and run across to where my bar was. Snatched into the first rep each round. First few rounds were done in about 2:15, but was closer to 2:40 in the final round because the GHDs got slow. I came up with this last night and it worked pretty well. Nice to do some faster runs.

Accessory

3 Sets

  • 12/12 Kroc Rows (53#)

Not enough time in class, but Ashley was staying after to do these, so I did too. Otherwise I probably would have skipped out on them even though I really need them.

Rest Days

Felt exhausted on Tuesday from all the time out in the sun and playing Spikeball/Slammo. Wasn’t sore from Murph at all though. Wednesday walked 18 on the course. So with the 20 minute treadmill run on Friday and Murph on Monday that was only 2 workouts over 6 days. Ready to get back at it today.

At Regionals I had an assessment from Airrosti and the doc there thinks I have bicep tendonitis in that left arm. So now I know what to do to tackle the issue and hopefully get it cleared up soon. The last two days I did 20-30 minutes of mobility work around my left shoulder and arm instead of spending time doing ROMWOD. I’ll probably continue to do that at least during the week when I don’t have as much time. I’ve also started using my TENS unit on the area to try to speed things up.

The bands are rigged up and ready

Went to the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Rounds
    • 10 PVC passes
    • Shoulder internal rotation stretching
    • 10 OHS (PVC)

I’ve noticed with some of the new mobility work that I’m missing some internal rotation so this was good to work on.

Accessory

10:00 EMOM

  • 2 Turkish Get-ups (44#)

One rep per arm each round. Easy.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 10 Toes To Bar
  • 10 Power Snatches (75#)
  • 10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Did 2 rounds of T2B unbroken and 2×5 the other rounds. Snatches all unbroken sets. First round was done around 1:26 and finished in 8:09. This is one of the BTWB Fitness Level workouts in the Light category. Nice combination of movements.

60 Reps

  • Ball Slams (30#)

Unbroken in 2:39. Really wanted to rest around 40 reps, but kept moving. Big arm pump after. Could barely put my shirt on.

Run

Went out in the afternoon for a casual jog. Didn’t care about pace or distance but had a loop in mind I planned to run. Was guessing I was going at a 10-10:30 pace, but never checked my watch until I finished. It was a pleasant surprise to see a 9:48/mile average. Went 2.6 miles in 25:26.

Better By 7

Didn’t get any exercise on Saturday or Sunday since sleep was pretty poor. Central Regionals once again did not disappoint. Great weekend.

“Murph”

  • 1 Mile Run
  • 100 Pull-ups
  • 200 Push-ups
  • 300 Air Squats
  • 1 Mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats any way you like. Twenty rounds of 5-10-15 (like “Cindy”) is the way to go.

2016-memorial-day-murph.jpg

It was just under 8 minutes on the clock when I started on my first pull-ups. Was cruising along pretty good, though slower than I’d like on the air squats; I should have pushed those harder. Push-ups really surprised me though, I did every round unbroken. I guess doing all of my push-ups chest-to-deck in other training pays off when I only have to get my tricep parallel to the ground.

2016-murph-runningWith 5 rounds to go I formed a nice blood blister under my left ring finger. I had tape on the lowest knuckle to protect a rip that I got last week doing snatches and I could feel the tape bunching up at the bottom and even pulling on my skin. Probably was adjusting my grip and pulling due to that and then caused the rep. So for the final 5 rounds I only gripped the bar with my fingers so I wouldn’t bust open the blister. Popped it when I got home.

When I took off out the door my watch said 29:00 so just about 21 minutes for the 600 reps. Damn air squats! Tried to settle down my breathing but kept a pretty decent pace through the first 800 meters. Fell off in that next quarter-mile and saw I really needed to push it on the last 400 meters to beat my 37:18 from last year. Made it by 7 seconds but that kick really hurt. So a new PR with 37:11. I had been working so hard all year to lean out and what do I do but gain about 3 pounds over the weekend. LOL

I actually was feeling fine all day after Murph, but played a ton of Slammo, so I’m sure I’ll feel all kinds of sore from that. I love that game though. So much fun! Got some hella sun today too.

Knocked out a much-needed 45 minute ROMWOD after not doing any for 3 days.

Heading to Regionals

My ass is sore from the split squats and the air squats probably contributed too.

Warm-up

  • 3 Sets
    • 30s Jump Rope
    • 10 Zombie Kicks
    • 5 Scap Pull-ups
  • 10 RDL (45#)
  • 10 RDL (135#)

Strength

E2M – 6 Sets

  • 12 RDL (185#, standing on 55# competition plates)
  • 8 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20#)

My grip was starting to fail but I held on for every rep of every set. Have been doing them all with a double overhand to get in the extra grip work. Makes it extra hard when I add in the bonus sit-ups like this, but I had to get in my reps for the week with no other time left to do them.

And that’s a wrap on big strength sets! I enjoyed the lighter loads, but they got pretty nasty these final two weeks. I think we are going to do a little transition next week with our strength work due to Memorial Day and Murph being tough, but then we’ll start putting some weight back on the bar in our next cycle. Looking forward to some smaller sets and heavier weights!

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Back Squats (115#, no rack)
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)

We hadn’t done much longer stuff in a couple of weeks so we changed the workout from what we had planned. It was a good grind. Kept moving, did all push-ups unbroken, and did all box jumps with step downs. Was able to pick up the pace in the last 3 minutes and finished with 11 rounds plus the 5 squats and 4 push-ups.

I’ll get in a little ROMWOD action before leaving town this afternoon. Heading to Columbus to watch the Central Regional! Then back Sunday evening in time for Memorial Day “Murph” on Monday.

Double Tabata

Don’t feel anything after yesterday’s workout.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • 5 Burpees
    • 20 Mountain Climbers
    • 1:00 Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Shoulder Press (45#)
  • 5/5 Bulgarian Split Squats
  • 10 Shoulder Press (75#)
  • 5/5 Split Squats (75#)

Strength

E3M – 6 Sets

  • 12 Shoulder Press (95#)
  • 6/6 Bulgarian Split Squats (95#)

Yuck! Close to failure on the last 3 sets of shoulder press. Did the split squats with the bar on my back again. Glad we are done with this cycle!

Conditioning

  • 8 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Air Squats
    • 10s Rest
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 8 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Double Unders
    • 10s Rest

My goal was sets of 17 air squats and I managed, though had to speed up the last few on some rounds. 136 total squats. Thought the dubs were going to be horrible after the squats but I think it actually helped to relax my legs, which sounds kind of stupid to say. I only had one miss and it was to start round 2 or 3. Got 284 reps, just 2 shy of my 286 best. If I don’t have any misses and get an extra rep or two per round, that 300 might be possible. It’s hard to speed up dubs though because then you have a higher risk of missing.

8:00 AMRAP

  • 5 One-Arm Deadlifts Right
  • 50′ Suitcase Carry Right
  • 5 One-Arm Deadlifts Left
  • 50′ Suitcase Carry Left

Used a 70 pound kettlebell. We were outside and I have no idea how many rounds I did. Not speedy, but kept moving the entire time.

Went for a run before dinner. Hot out! Ran 2 miles in 16:17, which is 30 seconds faster than Saturday. Slowly speeding up. Started out way too fast or I think I would have been able to hold a better pace.

Will have time for ROMWOD yet later.

Go Unbroken

Yesterday walked the golf course and the app said I was close to 7 miles. I guess I spent more time than usual walking back and forth trying to find my ball. First time of the year where we really got to feel the heat of the back 9 at Sawmill when you get out there in the trees with no breeze. Drank a lot more water than I have been and wore my Oakley’s instead of cheap sunglasses. Seemed to help prevent getting one of those sun headaches I often have trouble with. Also did a 45 minute ROMWOD at night. My legs were feeling a little tired all day after the Sunday workout and run.

img_7433
Pre-workout

I was coaching this morning so got in early for my warm-up and snatches before class started.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2 Sets
    • 5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (10#)
    • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Weightlifting

E2M – Squat Snatches

  • 4×45#
  • 4×75
  • 4×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 2×155
  • 6 sets of 2×175

I wanted to get in 10 total sets, so planned on 4 sets with 175#. Set the clock for 12 rounds just in case it was feeling good. It was, so I kept going. Of course then I rush the 2nd rep in the 5th set and don’t get it pulled into the slot. Stepped right back up and hit it though. That was the only miss. When I exaggerate those knuckles down it really helps me keep it close and feels so much more solid. I did power snatch the final rep, but then stood up and did an OHS with it. Feeling a lot more solid snatching lately.

With Class Warm-up

3 Sets

  • 20 Push-ups
  • 10 Band Pull Aparts (green)

Gymnastics

  • Max Set – Pull-ups
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 3 sets
    • 50% of Max
    • 2:00 Rest

Regular kip again and wore the leather grips. I’m going to look for some new type of grips at Regionals this weekend. I knocked out 30 reps much easier than the 26 a couple weeks ago. That was good, so dropped off the bar; I’ll take the 4 rep PR. Did the 3 drop sets at 15 reps without any trouble. Really happy with how fast pull-ups came back. I think spending some time on ring rows when I was scaling helped out, not to mention more of the Pendlay and landmine rows lately. Wish I could butterfly though. 😦

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 10 Power Snatch (95#)

Holy shit did I underestimate this one. Went out running fast thinking it would be a quick one. Goal was unbroken on the snatches every round and that jacked my heart rate sky high, making it difficult to push the runs. Really wanted to put the bar down in the last 2 sets but held on. Finished in 7:20 and I guess I ripped open a finger in the process. Dammit!

Cooled down and did Crossover Symmetry Plyo.

Out in the garage for a quick afternoon session to catch up on Monday’s strength work.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 1:00 Air Dyne
    • 30s Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Back Squat (45#)
  • 8/8 Landmine Rows (45#)
  • 10 Back Squat (135#)
  • 8/8 Landmine Rows (55#)

Strength

E3M – 6 Sets

  • 12 Back Squats (185#)
  • 8/8 Landmine Rows (65#)

It’s hot in the garage now that summer has finally arrived. This combo wasn’t easy today but not as hard as I was expecting.

Murph Work

7 Sets

  • 20s Push-ups
  • 30s Rest

Went 20-20-17-17-13-12-12 for 111 total with all reps being chest-to-deck. Might as well do the extra work now so it seems easy during Murph on Monday. Already had done 3×20 this morning too.

Need to ROMWOD tonight after all of that work.