Day: March 10, 2019

Another Tweak!

Here are my updating rankings after 19.2. I’m switching to using a percentile, which is standard compared to saying “top X%” like I have in the past. Last weekend I spent a lot of time creating an epic spreadsheet of my results in every Open and each workout. Cool data to have going forward.

19.2

Open Men: 21,830/164,227 (86.7%)
Masters 35-39 Men: 3,457/33,391 (89.6%)

Overall

Open Men: 16,760/183,948 (90.9%)
Masters 35-39 Men: 2,402/37,204 (93.5%)

My placing in the workout was down a bit from 19.2, but good enough to rise in the overall standings for both divisions. Getting even one clean at 225# would have been a huge jump in the rankings for that workout. It still turns out to be my best two-week start to an Open. Let’s keep it rolling…

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Assault Bike
  • Dead Hang
  • Banded lat opener
  • Lunges
  • Step-ups
  • OH DB Hold

WHOOP said my recovery had only gone up from 37% to 44% with almost 9 hours of sleep last. I felt great this morning and my back had recovered quite well. I was moving well through warm-ups. Then I went to move my dumbbell across the gym and TWEAK as I stood up. Fuck!

Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open Workout 19.3

  • 200′ Dumbbell Overhead Walking Lunge (50#)
  • 50 Dumbbell Box Step-ups (50#, 24″)
  • 50 Strict Handstand Push-ups
  • 200′ Handstand Walk

Details:

  • 10:00 time cap.
  • Lunges and handstand walk are 25′ lengths with a 5′ section for each rep.
  • Step-ups must alternate legs.
  • HSPU use a 24×36″ box for hands, though the fingers may extend past the line.

My plan was to switch hands every 50 feet of lunges. I was fine starting out with my left arm, but with my right shoulder bothering me lately I could only go 25 feet, so I switched the dumbbell every 25 feet the rest of the way. Got through those in 2:41.

I went right to the corner of the box and got in to it. I felt my back on every box step-up, which was fucking horrible. I kept trying to figure out if there was a way I could step-up to limit the shot of pain, but there wasn’t. I supported the dumbbell over a shoulder with one hand under the head of it. I think I moved it side to side after 16, 30, and 40 reps. My tiebreak was 6:42. Ugh, four minutes is a lifetime on that movement.

By the way, I have to mention how stupid the alternating step-up standard is. It slows everyone down and it’s nearly impossible for both the judge and the athlete to keep track of since it’s not an efficient or fast way to do step-ups.

I wanted to do doubles for the HSPU as long as possible with no more than a 5 count rest. Unfortunately my back affected me coming off the wall too, but I adjusted that easily to not affect my timing or anything. I got through 8 or 10 reps doing doubles when I started to feel the second rep getting slow so I changed to singles with shorter rest. That worked surprisingly well and I was able to quickly get back on the wall for another rep. Squeezed out a double before the buzzer for 31 strict handstand push-ups!

I had no expectation of finishing those 50 even though I would have loved to get just 5 feet of handstand walking since I’ve been working on the skill. Maybe next year.

Going in to this workout I was hoping to be done with the box around 5:30 or 6:00 at the latest, but the back tweak and shoulder issue really changed that. On BTWB a score of 124 was the 90th percentile so that was my goal (even though I rarely hit that 90+%). My score of 121 almost got there so I’m really happy with the effort. Currently it ranks in the 88th percentile on BTWB, so after more scores come in it’ll be right there with my 87 and 85 ranks for 19.1 and 19.2.

This is my best three-week start to the Open due to consistent placing. I hope I don’t wake up with a really bad back in the morning and it can recover for 19.4. Especially since I’m flying out to San Diego on Tuesday for a little vacation. I’ll be out there for Friday Night Lights and hopefully battle by buddy Bryan.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 8×95
  • 8×135
  • 8×155
  • 8×175
  • 8×185
  • 8×195

Don’t need my back to bench. Matches the 8×195 I did in January, which felt good after those strict HSPU.

Got home and putzed around for an hour before hitting my cardio so I could relax for the rest of the day. I’m on vacation all week!

Engine Builder – Speed

2 Rounds

  • 8:00 Airdyne (AD2)
  • 4:00 Rest

Based on recent intervals I hoped to hold 80 RPM for these. I was in the ballpark, seeing 79-80 quite a bit when RPMs came around on the monitor. My calories were 258 and 262 with distances of 3.13 and 3.15 miles.