Month: July 2020

Last Day at the Lake

I’m posting a day late (backdated) again!

My shins started getting tight from the broad jumps and my neck was a little sore from playing Beat Saber with the VR headset I think. Laced up the shoes a little before 9am.

Conditioning

4 mile Run

This felt really good again and took me 35:26, with a 8:50/mile pace. Here’s a WHOOP comparison to March 19th, where I ran 3.81 miles in 35:47, which is a 9:23 pace.

Ran longer and faster, with a much lower heart rate. Not really sure what that high heart rate is about at the start of this run, but WHOOP sometimes does that for me. My Garmin watch doesn’t show anything like that. Here’s some data from Garmin and RunKeeper.

Midline

3 Sets

  • 20 Leg Lifts (5# ankle weights)
  • 20 Push-up + DB Pull Through (50#)
  • 20 Plank Jumps (5# ankle weights)
  • 50/50m Single Arm OH Carry (50#)

After dinner, I put my sister through another ab workout to finish out the week. This was kind of nasty.

553 Reps

Feeling pretty good. I started getting set up before 9am.

Warm-up

800m Run

Strength

3 Sets

  • 20 Front Rack Curtsy Lunges (50#)
  • 10/10/10 Front Rack Calf Raises (50#, out-neutral-in)
  • 10/10 Single Leg RDL (50#, foot on wall)

Not bad. Nice to get in a little leg work.

Conditioning

25:00 AMRAP

  • 50 Plyo Lunges
  • 50 Single Arm DB S2OH (50#)
  • 50 Squat Jumps
  • 50 Burpees

I had several different versions of the workout and settled on this one. Went 30-20, 5×10, and 5×10 on the lunges. In the first round of shoulder to overheads I did 20 by doing five each arm twice before putting down the dumbbell, did that again, and then finished with five each arm. In the other rounds I did ten each arm, rested, repeated, rested and then five each. I mixed jerks and push presses. All singles on the jump squats and picked up the pace in the third round, doing them in under 1:30. Watched the clock during my second set of burpees, which took 3:43. Overall I got through 2 rounds plus 153.

All done in less than an hour.

Almost a Complete Set

I scored pairs of 5 and 40 pound dumbbells at the Alpena Meijer this morning and was able to order 45s on Amazon, but they don’t know when those will ship. Now all I really need to find is 8s, which hopefully I can get at a Meijer. Worked out at about 12:15.

Strength

4 Sets

  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (R, 50#)
  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (R, 35#)
  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (R, 20#)
  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (L, 50#)
  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (L, 35#)
  • 12 Single Arm Floor Press (L, 20#)

Not that bad so I did four sets instead of three I had planned.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 12/12 Side Plank Bounces
  • 20 Shotguns
  • 30 Russian Twists
  • 50 Hollow Flutter Kicks

I forgot how potent the shotguns are! Put my sister through a scaled version of this.

Conditioning

“Brenton” – 5 Rounds

  • 100′ Bear crawl
  • 100′ Broad Jumps

*Do 3 burpees after every 5 broad jumps.

This is one of my go to workouts for summer vacation and it’s actually a CrossFit Hero workout. My best was 8:17 in 2015. At the cottage I can do a straight 100 feet, which make a big difference in this workout because I only had to do two sets of burpees each round. I got a nice PR with a time of 7:40. Turns out that AirPods are not very good with burpees and they kept falling out, so I ditched them after two rounds.

An Engine Without Engine Builder

Got a good night of sleep and finally a green WHOOP recovery score. Started getting setup around 9am for my workout

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 12/12 Single Arm Hammer Curls (35#)
  • 12 Standing French Press (50#)

Conditioning

My jumping “box”

5 Rounds

  • 800m Run
  • 15 Box/Wall Jumps (24″)
  • 15 Hand Release Push-ups

Last year my rounds were 6:00, 5:59, 6:02, 5:58, and 5:49 for a total of 29:49. I had been following The Gains Lab Engine Builder program for months. Today I did 6:02, 5:55, 6:01, 5:58, and 5:42 for 29:37. Very similar today with a little more turbo boost in the fifth round. Cool to see I’m about the same on a workout like this with significantly less time spent doing single modality cardio workouts. Ideally I’d like to move more of the Z2 heart rate up in to zone Z4 for a workout like this.

I love how heart rate data has these odd dips at times like you almost died.

Walked 18 holes of golf with my Dad after 3pm and then when I got back to the lake I put my sister through some core work. She’s lost a bunch of weight and was asking me how to get abs so I told her to give me two months for an experiment. Hopefully she’ll stick with it. I have to remember she’s not in CrossFit shape so I need to ease her in. Had her do a scaled version of my work.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 20s Hollow Hold (5# ankle weights)
  • 20 alt V-ups (5# ankle weights)
  • 10 OH Crunches (2s pause, 35+50# DBs)
  • 100m Uneven Farmer Carry (35 & 50# DBs)

I wore ankle weights throughout and swapped hands with the dumbbells after 50 meters. Hollow holds with the ankle weights weren’t as bad as I was expecting.

Cardio Rows

I forgot to post this yesterday, so I’m publishing a day late and back-dating it.

Last night I was exhausted but was up well past 11. My ass is still sore from the weighted plyo lunges! Worked out around 9am today.

Warm-up

  • 800m Run
  • 5 Air Squats
  • 4 DB Snatches (right, 20#)
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 4 DB Snatches (left, 20#)
  • 5 Air Squats
  • 4 DB Snatches (right, 35#)
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 4 DB Snatches (left, 35#)

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP
Support Your Local Box Fundraiser 1

  • 10 Air Squats
  • 9 DB Snatches (right, 50#)
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 9 DB Snatches (left, 50#)

This was one of the first workouts I did with any weight after months of back rehab. I got 7+10 on April 23rd. I knew I could push the snatches and the squats harder, so today I did. At the 5:00 mark I was a few reps shy of four rounds and I finished with 7+31, so I was able to keep the same pace through the second half of the workout. It was a little harder to push myself going solo in a workout like this. Happy with my score and effort though.

Accessory

3 Sets

  • 8 Renegade Rows (R, 50#)
  • 12 Renegade Rows (R, 35#)
  • 16 Renegade Rows (R, 20#)
  • 8 Renegade Rows (L, 50#)
  • 12 Renegade Rows (L, 35#)
  • 16 Renegade Rows (L, 20#)

This was much more effective than expected; I was struggling to get through the 16 light reps in the 2nd and 3rd sets! It was one arm right to the other when it was time to work, but I rested 1-2 minutes between sets. It was damn near another cardio piece with 72 reps per set!

Conditioning 2 / Pacing

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Burpees

Started out thinking I’d take it easy each minute and simply get in the 100 reps. I did, in the first set, with a 30 second pace. After I got slightly faster each of the next two rounds I set a challenge for myself to get faster each round. And I was successful, with the final round taking 19 seconds. I felt really good though.

Easy 10k

Didn’t get much sleep on Thursday night, so I was really glad yesterday was a rest day. Had a nice relaxing day and settled in at the late. I found a pair of 10# (for my set) and 35# (for a friend) rubber dumbbells, which was a bonus for the trip. Slept well last night and didn’t get up until after 7! Had a cup of coffee and then laced up my shoes at 9am with the temperature at 70 degrees.

Conditioning

Run 10.15km / 6.3 miles

My phone and watch were had a difference of a half a mile, so I mapped out the route with gmap-pedometer.com to get the true distance after I was done. Took me 59:08 and felt really good. My goal for the run was under an hour for a 10km. I think it’s time to retire these running shoes after this week and start using the brand new pair I have.

Check out the heart rate data from my Garmin.

Nice to see that it really was an easy effort. Here’s the full heart rate data…

Midline

4 Sets

  • 20/20s Star Plank
  • 12 OH Crunches (50# DB, 2-3s pause)
  • 50/50m Single Arm OH Carry (50# DB)

Busy Day!!

Last night I found a new mat to use for HSPU.

Ran around to multiple Meijer stores this morning because they all got in a shipment of rubber coated hex dumbbells overnight. I was able to get pairs of 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35! Returning the other sets back to my uncle for the price I paid him so he can make $$ with his home gym business. Now I just need to find 10, 40, and 45s.

One of the 50s won’t even fit now on the rack now. I need to make some type of platform to put on that top row to bump it up higher and to have a taller lip because the 50 pounder almost slides right over it.

I walked 18 holes this morning and then out in the garage at 5. Getting in a workout today since vacation at the cottage (my days off already started) starts tomorrow. I’ll be driving north and settling in, so it will be a rest day.

Warm-up

  • 10:00 BikeErg (5,181m)
  • 160′ Lateral Monster Walk
  • 160′ Monster Walk

Weightlifting

Split Jerks

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95
  • 5×145
  • 3×185
  • 3×205
  • 3×225
  • 3×235

Felt good. Didn’t use a belt and it was nice to get out the jerk blocks. Here is a video of the final set. I had no idea my abs looked like this!

Conditioning

20-18-16-14-12-10-12-14-16-18-20 (I Go You Go)

  • Weighted Plyo Lunges (35# DBs, 5# DBs)

It’s been almost two months since we retested this. Brandi had worn an 8# vest and it took us 8:43. She’s been improving a lot with this stuff and bumped it up to five pound dumbbells today. We switched with her going first and holy shit going second is a whole different world of hurt. I think I broke up the 16-18-20 because I was dying. We smoked our time, finishing in 7:21. She’s going to use eight pounders next time.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 12/12 Side Plank Bounces
  • 12 Parallette Shoot Throughs
  • 8/8 Hanging Oblique Raises
  • 50m Farmer Carry (handles, 118#)

More nasty core work. Those carries were really bad after hanging from the bar. I’m really loving the handles though.

Downhill Recovery

Was a little tired this morning and my back was tight, but WHOOP said my recovery was only 23%!

I honestly don’t feel that bad. Some days it seems to take the heart rate at a weird time that just throws off the formulas, because it said my resting heart rate was 48, which is much higher than my typical 38-40. Out in the garage at 3:30 today for a session that took 2 hours.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne (103 cals, 2.55km)
  • 3:00 SkiErg (656m)
  • 2×15 Steamboats
  • 2 HSPU
  • 5 DB Hang Squat Cleans (25#)
  • 2 Burpee Pull-ups
  • 2 DB Hang Squat Cleans (40#)

Conditioning

12:00 AMRAP Partner

  • 6/6 HSPU
  • 5/5 Burpee Pull-ups
  • 6/6 Box Jumps (24/20″)
  • 5/5 DB Hang Squat Cleans (40/25# DBs)

This was a new idea for a partner workout where the sets are small, so by the time you move to your next spot it’s almost your turn again. The way this one works is each partner does 6 handstand push-ups (one person working at a time), then each does 5 burpee pull-ups, etc. Brandi scaled back her HSPU to do Rx and eventually went to some DB push presses. It worked out pretty well, with the burpee pull-ups taking the most time by far. I originally was going to do 15 minutes, but pulled back to 12 today. Would have been fine with three more minutes. This would be a good one to try solo as well. I started, we got through five rounds and I got all of my burpee pull-ups done in the sixth.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 8×125
  • 5×165
  • 5×195
  • 5×215
  • 5×225

Could have went more, but that was good enough for today with a lot of work left.

Accessory

3 Sets

  • 12 DB Chest Fly (35#)
  • 12 Underhand Front Raise (15# DBs)

3 Sets

  • 12/12 Static Bicep Curls (25-30-30# DBs)
  • 12 Standing DB French Press (50# DB)

2 Sets

  • 12 Hammer Curls (30# DBs)
  • 12/12 One Arm OH Tricep Extension (25-20# DB)

1 Set

  • 12 Hammer Curls (30# DBs)
  • 12/12 Tricep Kickbacks (25# DB)

The single arm overhead tricep extensions were really bugging my left shoulder so I did kickbacks for the third set.

Midline

3 Sets

  • 10 Jack Knives (20# DB + 5# ankle weights)
  • 10 Renegade Rows (50# DBs)
  • 20 alt V-ups (5# ankle weights)
  • 10/10 Partner Banded Rotations/Holds (blue)

We should really do more of those renegade rows on back day. I feel like they isolate the back muscles better than a Kroc row, which are easy to rotate and cheat on.

Where Did Time Go?

I finished the flooring on Sunday afternoon, painted the trim throughout the day, and installed the trim yesterday morning. Walked 18 holes on the golf course. I still need to get more sleep, but I’m feeling good today. Worked out at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 BikeErg (2,571m)
  • 160′ Lateral Monster walks
  • 160′ Monster walks
  • 5 Devil Presses (25# DBs)
  • 3 Devil Presses (40#)
  • 10 Kip Swings
  • 2 Devil Presses (40#)

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 5 Devil Press (25/40# DBs)
  • 20 T2B
  • 5 Devil Press
  • 2:00 Rest

I was hoping to do 12-8 toes to bar every round. I did for three and knew I wouldn’t make the last so I went for three sets and that failed. I had to end up going 8-6 and six quick singles to get through. My times were 1:34, 1:32, 1:33, and 1:46. Faster than I was thinking when I wrote this workout, but glad I did the two minutes of rest because it allowed the T2B to come back some. That was a good one. I did wear my grips through the entire workout and taped my thumbs for the dumbbells.

Strength

4 Sets

  • 12/12 Single Leg RDL w/ foot on wall (70# KB)
  • 12/12 Weighted Single Leg Step Downs (15″, 40# DB)

Will have to remember this superset. It blew up my glutes!

3 Sets

  • 20/20 Landmine Curtsy Lunges (pulses, lighter – 45+30#)
  • 10/10/10 Weighted Calf Raises (3 position – out-neutral-in, 45# DBs)

Another good pairing. Those pulses really burn at the light weight and I didn’t expect them to affect the calf raises as much as they did.

We were already at almost 90 minutes and needed to drop off my truck so we skipped the ab work today.