Year: 2016

Don’t Run a 5k Like This

Didn’t want to, but did the ROMWOD late last night. My right hamstring cramped up trying to do twisted lizard on Friday night so I figured I should get some stretching in.

Last day of my sabbatical before going back to work tomorrow. Got started at the track at 10:30. Beautiful morning for a run with the temperature around 60°.

Aerobic Capacity – Lactate Threshold

10 Rounds

  • 300m (target: 24-26s/100m)
  • 200m (target: 36-38s/100m)

No rest between intervals or sets, so essentially a straight 5k with different pacing. I did pretty well on the 300s, only going over 1:18 twice with 1:19.2 over being the worst one. The last few 200s got slower as I needed the rest to recover because I was making sure to hit the 300 paces. My final 300 was the fastest one. 😀 Definitely started to feel my legs getting heavy mid way through this session. Total time was 25:20, which is a respectable 5k. Pretty sure I wouldn’t want to run a 5k like this though.

I walked 600 meters after. Completes 9 weeks of the AC programming. Hmm, no 1 mile test in week 10.

Midline

On to yesterday’s lifting session ab work when I got home.

4 Sets

  • 15 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (25# metal plate)

4 Sets

  • 20 V-ups (hollow)

I will do the 20 minute ROMWOD at some point. Can’t wait to order pizza tonight!

F is For…

Out in the garage by 9:30 for the first day of Catalyst OTM “week” 2. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation. Wore knee sleeves since my knees were bugging me yesterday during and after class.

Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 3×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 1×145
  • 1×155
  • EMOM
    • 5x1x162.5
    • 5x1x172.5
    • 5x1x182.5
  • Heavy Single
    • 190 F
    • 190 F
    • 190 F

Today “F” is for fuck! Felt good during the EMOM with no misses. Was only allowing myself three misses with the heavy single. First try was forward, gave it too much and the bar was going to go behind me on the 2nd rep, and third rep was forward again.

Used straps for the pulls and deads.

Snatch Pull

  • 3×185#
  • 2x3x200

Snatch Deadlift

3 Segment Snatch Deadlift (knee) + 1 Floating Snatch Deadlift

  • 175#
  • 2 Sets @ 185

Back Squat

5 second eccentric on the 1st rep of each set.

  • 3×185#
  • 3×225
  • 5×265
  • 2x5x285

I was worried going in to these after the front squats doubles yesterday and how rough these felt last week with every set at 265. I decided to take fewer warm-up sets, made sure to get the tempo rep even on the warm-ups, and took about 4 minutes of rest between my working sets. Surprisingly these felt much easier than last week. Needed that win after feeling shitty about the heavy snatch single zero. Trust the program! I did wear the belt for my 3 working sets.

I will do the abs tomorrow, but should be able to get in a 22 minute ROMWOD tonight.

Double After Double

I made up the 45 minute ROMWOD this morning after coffee time. Getting a bunch of shit done around the house before my first day back to work on Monday. Headed in for the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 2×15 second Lizard (that’s what ROMWOD calls them) on each leg
  • 2x
    • 20s Air Squats
    • 10s Rest
    • 20s Bottom Squat Hold
    • 10s Rest
  • 20s Back Squats (45#)
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Bottom Squat Hold (45#)
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Back Squats (45#)
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Jumping Back Squats (45#)
  • 10s Rest

Strength – Front Squats

Warm up to about 70% and then hit doubles with small increases for 20 minutes.

  • 4×135#
  • 4×205#
  • 2×235#
  • 2×245#
  • 2×255#
  • 2×265#
  • 2×275#
  • 2×285#
  • 2×295#
  • 2×305#

I put on the belt with 235 or 245. Last set was a grind on the 2nd rep.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Ring Dips
  • 7 Toes to Bars
  • 21 Russian Kettlebell Swings (53#)

Everything unbroken. Finished 5 rounds plus ring dips, T2B, and 10 of the KBS. Grip!

Midline

  • 4:00 Plank

Class did a tabata, so Michelle and I held the entire time, plus the final 10 seconds of rest to get the full 4 minutes. I did mine on my hands. My low back started to heat up around the halfway point so I had to keep making slight adjustments to my hip and low back angles. Not ideal, but wasn’t quitting with Michelle breezing through it next to me.

Another 20 minute ROMWOD late.

Easy Then Sprint

Went to the track at about 11:30.

Aerobic Capacity – Aerobic Threshold

  • 35:00 easy aerobic
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 5 Sets
    • 100m
    • 2:00 Rest

Took off from the school, hit up the rail trail, looped around, and ran around the parking lots to time it out to end at my car and get a bottle of water before walking over to the track for the sprints. My 100 meter times were nothing to brag about (13.7 was the fastest), but can’t expect much from a standing start and keeping my own clock. My pace on the run was a steady 10:00/mile, which made it a total of 3.5 miles. This also counts for the Automattic Worldwide WordPress 5k as I prepare to head back to work on Monday after a 3 month sabbatical. Walked 500 meters when I was done.

I’ll do a long 45 minute ROMWOD tonight. (Wasn’t feeling good, so skipped it.)

Week 1 of Catalyst OTM

Out in the garage after 5. Started with Crossover Symmetry Activation. No knee sleeves again today. This finished up the 5th workout of “week” 1 of the Catalyst program. I quoted “week” there because I’m spacing them out and shooting for 3, sometimes 4 lifting days a week. My body can’t handle 5 days per week and I want to continue with Aerobic Capacity as long as the weather holds up while also getting in 1 or 2 CrossFit classes.

Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 3×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 1×145
  • 1×155
  • 1×165
  • 3x1x175

Focusing on a more controlled pull and not pulling higher than needed felt a lot better today.

Clean & Jerk

  • 5×45#
  • 3×115
  • 2×155
  • 1×170
  • 1×185
  • 1×200
  • 1×215
  • 3x1x230

Cleans felt easy. Tried to work on getting my jerk feel back.

Front Squat

  • 3x3x265#

After first rep of first set I wished I had the belt on. Low left side near the spine felt tight. Strapped on the belt for the other two sets and it was like night and day.

Good Morning

  • 3x5x135#

Kept it light due to my back feeling the way it was. Actually wore the belt too for the first time doing good mornings, which I think takes away some of the training effect, but gotta stay safe on days like this.

Skipped abs because of core work yesterday in class and my sinuses were going crazy from cleaning house so I wanted to be done. Will get in a 20 min ROMWOD tonight.

Three Plus

I did get in the 20 minute ROMWOD pretty late last night and did a 19 minute one this morning. Went to the 5:30 CrossFit Intuition class.

Warm-up

2 Sets

  • PVC Good Mornings
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 10 Air Squats
  • 5/5 Monster walks (small red band around ankles)

Strength

Back Squat

  • 6×45#
  • 3×135
  • 3×205
  • 3×240
  • 3×275
  • 8×305

The gym is using 5/3/1, so the last of the 3 working sets was for 3+ reps. 8 reps was good enough for me with all of the squatting I get in the Catalyst program.

Conditioning

  • 3:00 AMRAP
    • 3 Power Snatches (135#)
    • 7 Burpees
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 4:00 AMRAP
    • 5 Back Squats (135#)
    • 8 Burpees

I did all touch-n-go snatches and got through 4 rounds plus 2 more snatches. I was slow on my squat reps so only got through 4+4 in the second part. Would have liked to push harder on the burpees.

Midline

Class was doing sit-ups and Russian twists, but I did plenty of those last night, so substituted with…

  • 10-20-30-20-10 Side Bends (44#)
  • 10-15-20-15-10 Lying Leg Lifts

The side bends were split between left and right, so 5 per side on the first set, etc. In the middle of the second set of leg lifts I decided to scale back the rep counts on them since I’ll be doing ab work tomorrow again with a lifting day.

It’s Working

Took a complete rest day yesterday. Didn’t even get to the 45 minute ROMWOD I had planned. Got to the track at 10:30 when the temperature was still in the 60s.

Aerobic Capacity – Race

  • 400m Jog
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 400m Run
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 200m Run
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 200m Run
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 400m Run
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 800m Jog
  • 400 walk

The 400m jog to warm-up and the 800 jog and 400 walk to finish were my additions. The first 400m was programmed at a mile PR pace, but I have no idea what they were using because it showed a 1:24 for me, which is well below a 6:00 mile. I settled on 1:36 as my goal pace, which would be 6:24 and well below the 6:51 mile I’ve run this summer. Ended up getting in at 1:27 with no issue.

The 200m runs were there to get a feel for two different pacing options heading into the “race” 400. The programming picked out 32 and 25 seconds. 25?!?!? Not a chance. I ran a 33.1 and 29.8, which was actually a PR by a tenth of a second and I didn’t even try! After the first 200 I was contemplating extending the 3:00 rest between 200s and the 5:00 rest before the race. When the clock rolled around I had recovered pretty well, so stuck to the programming.

2016-09-19-400mAfter running that 200m PR I figured I had to go out at that pace and could probably sprint out of the starting line even a bit faster to take advantage of that energy system. I don’t know what my split was at 200, but I’ll bet it was another PR even going down the straightaway into the wind. After the initial 200 my legs got really heavy. I knew I was losing pace, but I tried to push to make it feel like I was actually going faster. As I stumbled down the home stretch I was not confident it would be a PR day, but to my surprise I crossed the line in 1:02.1 for a 2.2 second PR!

Couldn’t be happier with these 8 weeks of the AC programming. I’m looking forward to seeing what my mile time will be, but I’ll have to wait at least a week because it’s not programmed in week 9.

Headed in to lift just after 6pm with Alex. Nice light day to go along with the max effort running from this morning. Didn’t even put on lifting shoes for this session. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Power Clean

  • 2x3x20kg
  • 2x3x40
  • 3×60
  • 3×75
  • 5x3x85

Power Jerk

  • 3x20kg
  • 3×40
  • 3×60
  • 3×70
  • 3×76
  • 5x3x81

Stiff-legged Deadlift

  • 5x81kg
  • 3x5x93

I can tell a big difference in my hamstring flexibility from ROMWOD. Was getting to the floor in the very first set. May go with a deficit on these from now on. Wonder if I’ll be sore from them.

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • 5 Muscle-ups

Good day to add in some of this work. Haven’t done any bigger sets in a long time. Took maybe 2-3 minutes between sets. Was trying to get my toes up in the kip. Wasn’t doing it very well but could already tell a huge difference in my height up on the rings. Need to start working on the swing again.

Midline

Gotta get in that Catalyst ab work. I can even work in my GHD volume. 😀

5 Sets

  • 20 Russian Twists (55# plate)

4 Sets

  • 30 GHD Sit-ups

Well… 4 big sets of GHDs are shitty! Even with several minutes of rest between sets. Had to start taking some breaks in the final 2 sets and focus on not aggravating my low back.

Will try to get in ROMWOD since I skipped out on yesterday when I was going to do the long routine.

Hollow V-ups

Third day of week 1 of Catalyst OTM. Did some bottom squat hold with the bar on my legs before getting in the cleans. Wore my knee sleeves lifting, but no belt needed.

Clean

  • 5x20kg
  • 5×40
  • 3×60
  • 3×80
  • EMOM
    • 5x1x91kg
    • 5x1x98
  • EMOM
    • 5x1x104

Should have been 15 minutes in a row, but had to help out with class so had a 5-10 minute break.

Clean Pull

  • 3x3x111kg

Wore straps for these and the deadlifts.

Clean Deadlift

3 Segment Clean Deadlift (knee) + 1 Floating Clean Deadlift

  • 3 Sets @ 104kg

Pause Back Squat

  • 3x3x103kg

Paused 3 seconds on each rep.

Midline

Weighted Sit-ups

  • 10×40#
  • 4x10x80#

Haven’t done any of these in years probably. Way too easy on the first set so went as heavy as I could with the dumbbells available.

4 Sets

  • 20 V-ups

I started from a hollow body position and went back to hollow on every rep instead of flopping out to flat on the ground with a loss of tension. Much different!

Will get in a 20 min ROMWOD.

Attending Class

Last night I was feeling sore in my outer pecs. Must have been from the 5×5 push press the day before. Still a little sore to the touch today. Did a 20 minute ROMWOD this morning and walked 18 holes on the golf course in about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Went to the 5:30 class at Intuition, my first class other than a Sunday in a long time.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 10 Air Squats
    • 30s Wrist Stretch
    • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • Front Squats
    • 5×45#
    • 5×95
    • 5×135

Strength / Power

14:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 15 cal Row
  • 5 Front Squats (185#)

Nasty! Took me just over 30 seconds for the first row and it crept up every round, hitting about 40 seconds the 7th time through. So no much rest going into the squats, which made them heavy! Could not recover going into…

Conditioning

10-8-6-4-2

  • Power Cleans (135#)
  • Over the Bar Burpees
  • 200m Run

I was ok with the cleans, because I was not going to drop the bar, but my heart rate and breathing were still up there from the previous piece so I couldn’t push the burpees or run. Finished in 10:40.

Midline

Weighted Plank (30 seconds)

  • 3×55#
  • 2×80#

Set 1 was the worst I think. I was shaking so much. Got my breathing under control and tightened up for the other sets.

Did not feel very good after this workout. Not sure if it’s my lack of metcons lately or if the pile of McDonald’s I ate less than 3 hours before was a factor.

Nasty? Nah

Got to the track at about 11am and went right into it.

Aerobic Capacity – Lactate Threshold

  • 1600-1200-800-400m (alternating paced 200s)
  • 15s Rest
  • 100m Sprint
  • 5:00 Rest

The target pacing for the 200s was “easy” (37-39 seconds per 100m) followed by “fast” (25-27 seconds per 100m). I was faster than the easy pace every time. My first fast 200 was 54 seconds but was never over 51 seconds the rest of the way. Averaged about 16.5 on the 100s.

When I first saw this workout I figured it was going to be really nasty because I’d just done 2 miles straight of alternating 200s with a slower jog pace than this easy pace. No issues though and I was faster than the prescribed paces in almost every 200 (easy & fast).

Have a 25 minute ROMWOD lined up for today, which I’ll probably do tonight.