After doing 210 KBS yesterday in the WOD, I can feel it in my posterior chain like I haven’t in quite some time. My back still has issues. I made it out to walk 18 holes of golf this morning.
Warm-up
5 rounds
10 Single-leg RDL (62# KB)
45s Rest
5 rounds
8 DB Shoulder Presses
45s Rest
I started off with 45# DBs, moved to 40# during the 3rd set and even had to go down to 35# to finish out. Not sure why I was so weak with these.
3 rounds
20 GHD Sit-ups
1m Rest
The GHD at the gym is whack! Doesn’t even adjust, but we make due I guess. 20 in a row was tough.
WOD
21-15-9
Thrusters (30# DBs)
Ring Rows
I’ve decided it’s time to start scaling weights more so I can increase power output. Again Faster has a great article you should read. I’m just not strong enough to do many WODs Rx that involve heavy weights, so why try, when it means I have to go slower and can’t keep up the intensity. I almost went with the 35# DBs, but switched to 30s at the last-minute. Ring rows were the real struggle of this though. I finished in 6:02.
Finisher
Work on HSPU.
I did 3 sets with a minute or two of rest in between. My arms and shoulders were already fried at this point. I managed to get 5, 6, and 4 reps. Terrible!
Other than my lower back I’m feeling good. Went to the 5:30pm class today and with all the rain we got last night it was really humid out.
Warm-up
5 rounds
15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats
WOD
20-19-18…3-2-1
Burpees
Russian KBS (53#)
Wow, this one will kill you. I did all of my reps unbroken for both movements and only rested during transitions. I think we had 16 people in class so it was a scramble for KBs. I ended up with a 53#, which was just fine by me. It allowed me to keep a high intensity and maximize my power output. I finished in 25:51 with an ocean of sweat under me.
Finisher
5 rounds
30s Bottom Squat Hold
30s Handstand
30s Plank
This looks rather easy, but it definitely was not, especially being so sweaty. When I went up for my 3rd handstand, the mat started to go flying and I nearly ended up on my head. My arms were even shaving in the 3rd round of plank. Great way to finish of the workout.
Still a little sore today, but I’m finally on the tail end of it. Well, except for my lower back that is. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and then headed in at 7pm tonight so I could stay after for the 8pm open gym time.
Warm-up
750m Run
WOD
Deck of Cards
Reps
2-10 = Face value
Jack = 11
Queen = 12
King = 13
Ace = 14
Movements
Joker = Run 500m
Hearts = Burpees
Diamonds = 4 Mountain Climbers
Spades = Thrusters (60#)
Clubs = Ring Rows
I haven’t done a deck of cards in a really long time. We were allowed to substitute any movements out for something we are weak at or needed to work on. Originally clubs were one-arm snatches, which I like, but figured they are not a good idea with my back. So I put in the ring rows. I thought I was using 75# for the thrusters but after we got going I realized I had the women’s bar. Oh well, 50# was plenty with that many thrusters.
There was a 40:00 time limit. When time ran out I had just started on my first burpee of the King and then had 5 more cards to go.
Strength
Back Squats
5 HSPU
Rest 2-3m
For the back squats I did:
5x 135#
3x 185#
2x 205#
1x 225#
1x 235#
I was hoping to set a PR today, but when I did that rep at 235# I could really feel it in my back as I came out of the bottom. I had to shut it down after that. I was pretty fatigued from all of the Thrusters in the WOD too I guess. HSPU felt really good and I was able to do each set of 5 unbroken without resorting to using any AbMats.
I was still kind of sore this morning, but I was able to go in for the 9am class and I felt great after warming up.
Warm-up
5 rounds
1m Bottom Squat Hold
1m Jumping Jacks
WOD
“Helen”
3 rounds
400m Run
21 KBS (53#)
12 Pull-ups
I felt really good in this one. All of the KBS were done unbroken and I broke each round of pull-ups into 2 sets. Finished in 9:30.
Finisher
EMOM 10:00
100m Sprint (50m down and back)
3 Burpees
This may have been tougher than the WOD. Felt good after, but the sprints started feeling slower and slower until the last one where I dug deep.
It sure feels good to be back in the box, especially after only doing one WOD last week leading up to the competition. Maybe all of the rest was really needed though since I had been pushing my body so hard the couple of weeks before.
I’m already feeling much better tonight, so I decided to do a quick garage WOD. This was the first time really using the rings after putting them up in my garage.
5 rounds
5 Ring Dips
10 Ring Rows
20 AbMat Sit-ups
Dips and rows are both weaknesses on the rings and a good push-pull combo to work on. I threw in the sit-ups because you can never work too much on the abs, right? I finished in 10:07 doing each round in pretty consistent times.
In other news, I got my latest order from Progenex today and I’m excited to get on the Omega+, which is a krill oil product to use in place of fish oil because it’s better. I ran out of fish oil last week and I’m confident I wouldn’t have been so sore from the competition if I had still been taking some. Live and learn.
I don’t know how the athletes do so many events in the CrossFit Games. Yesterday and today have been a struggle. After sitting around most of the day yesterday I went out for a long walk of almost 5 miles. It felt good to get moving. I was thinking I’d be ready to get in a WOD today, but I attempted to do an air squat and it was difficult.
So I was thinking of doing a sprint workout tonight at one of the high school tracks, but our trainer Matt said he was up for doing something. So I picked him up and we went to the box to do a bit of work.
Warm-up
5 rounds
500m Row
500m Run
Took us over 23 minutes to do this. We kept a good pace and each had a bit of time to rest after the row because we waited for the other guy to get in from the run before starting our own run.
WOD
50 yard Prowler Sled Pulls
120#
165#
190#
215#
240#
240#
240#
We weren’t doing this for time or anything. We took turns and some break time in between switches. Felt good and really loosened me up. Tomorrow I’ll be good to go.
Yesterday, Survival Fitness held the first Summer Open. It was a team event with one male and one female per team. It was a great event with 28 teams competing.
It was the first time I’ve competed in any event like this. The workouts were tough, but fun and rewarding. It was a great experience and very inspiring to watch the top teams. I could barely roll out of bed this morning and it’s a struggle to walk around the house. Even my fingers are sore.
All smiles before WOD #1
WOD #1
10:00 AMRAP (Clean/Deadlift – HR Push-up ladder)
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-?
Men
Clean 135#
HR Push-up
Women
Deadlift 135#
HR Push-up
Man will do 1 clean with 135# and then 1 HR push-up, then…
Woman will do 1 deadlift with 135# and then 1 HR push-up, then…
Man will do 2 cleans with 135# and then 2 HR push-ups, then…
Woman will do 2 deadlifts with 135# and then 2 HR push-ups
etc.
This was going to be our weakest workout because of the weight. If we got to the round of 10 I figured it would be good for us. We completed the 10th round and I got in 3 more cleans before time ran out. We placed 24th in the workout. My back has been wrecked for about a week and it’s even worse after this one. I have some pretty good soreness in the lower part of my back. I need to get myself on video to see if there is something I’m doing wrong with my cleans to cause the lower back issues.
The woman had it relatively easy in this one and you could really tell by the fact that the men immediately collapsed to the ground when the 10 minutes was up.
WOD #2
Partner A: 100 burpees, then tag off and…
Partner B: “Karen”
If you don’t know what “Karen” is, she’s one of the benchmark WODs:
150 Wall Ball Shots for time
Women: 16# ball, 8′ target
Men: 20# ball, 10′ target
The teams decided who is partner A and who is partner B. This workout had a 14 minute time cap and if your team didn’t finish, each rep not completed adds 1 second to your time for scoring.
Both parts of this are gassers. My partner did burpees and I did the wall balls. My PR for “Karen” is 8:51, but I knew I could do much better. As a best case scenario I was hoping my partner would complete her part under 7 minutes, giving me about 7 minutes to take a shot. She finished up just under 7 minutes and I managed to get 141 wall balls in the 7 remaining minutes. Only 9 more reps and we would have finished! The WOD was our best placing (18th) of the day. My quads and glutes are on fire today from all of the wall balls.
WOD #3
“Isometric Chipper”
15:00 AMRAP
Part 1:
60 1 arm d-bell snatch (alternate arms each rep) (45#/30#)
Other partner holds a hand stand against the wall
Part 2:
50 Goblet squats (45#/30#)
Other partner does a bottom squat hold
Part 3:
40 AbMat sit-ups
Other partner must hold a plank
Part 4:
30 K2E
Other partner does a bent knee L-hang
Part 5:
20 ring rows
Other partner holds their chin above the bar
One partner will perform the isometric hold, while the other chips away at the reps. As many switches can be made as needed. No reps are be counted if the partner breaks the isometric hold.
This was one of the most brutal workouts I’ve ever done. The isometric holds crush your soul. I was shooting to get through one round if we could. We got through the circuit once and got done with 40 more snatches, notching us a 22nd place finish in the workout. Nearly every team struggled with the ring row and chin-up hold combination at the end of the circuit because there was nothing left in the tank.
Today I’m feeling a lot of this one in my abs and especially in my upper back and shoulder area from the handstand holds. My partner had a hard time getting up on the wall, so I had to do the majority of the hand stand holds. The goblet squats most definitely contributed to the sore quads and ass I have today.
Overall we finished 25th out of 28 teams and I couldn’t be happier. My partner in the competition only started doing CrossFit about 2 months ago. I didn’t compete with any visions of placing high. I know I can’t stay with the top guys, but I enjoy the challenge and pushing myself.
In addition to these 3 workouts, the top 4 teams then did:
WOD #4
In 7:00:
Flip a 325# tire 50 yards down and 50 yards back in the parking lot.
With the remaining time, each partner then does over the box jumps (at the same time) using their own 24″ box
Score is total number of over the box jumps when you add both teammates reps together.
WOD #5
“Double DB Fran”
42-30-18
Thrusters (45#/30# DBs)
Pull-ups
With only one partner working at a time they have to do 42 thrusters, then 42 pull-ups, then 30 of each, and finally 18 of each. The team can split up the block of reps for a movement however they want but they most be completed before switching movements.
For anyone that doesn’t know, “Fran” is the most well-known CrossFit benchmark. When you ask someone their “Fran” time it’s the equivalent of asking a weightlifter how much he bench presses. In a normal “Fran” you do 21-15-9 using a 95# barbell for guys and a 65# barbell for the gals. Top athletes can finish this in under 3 minutes, but it’s an all-out sprint. My PR for DB “Fran” is 9:05, which is not very good.
Moment of the Day
My favorite moment of the day was during the 5th WOD. The male on the second place team (going into the WOD) hurt his ankle in the 4th WOD so he was only able to do a few of the thrusters. That left his partner doing nearly all of the thrusters and him doing nearly all of the pull-ups. If you’ve ever done thrusters you can already begin to imagine the suck.
Many of us have done “Fran” but we’re talking 42-30-18 here! Not 21-15-9. You could see the woman on the edge of tears each time she had to drop the DBs. The guy’s hands were tore up and bleeding all over. They were several minutes past the times of the other 3 teams in the finals and could have called it quits taking 4th in the WOD no matter what. But they dug deep, we all cheered them on, and they finished. You’ll never see anything like that in another sport. We are CrossFitters.
Judging
Four of us guys that competed ended up judging the final two events to give all of the other volunteers a break. It was kind of stressful to be in such an important role. Luckily it’s pretty easy to judge the most elite of the group because their form in usually dialed in.
After Hours
After the awards ceremony and most people went home, about 10 or 15 of us stuck around cleaning up a bit, finishing off a keg and a bunch of beer in the fridge. A couple of people that didn’t compete actually did some drinking WODs! I think I got home around 10:30. It was a long day, but worth every minute.
Photos
Here are a bunch of photos I’ve downloaded from Facebook. As folks upload more photos I’ll update the gallery here.
So Matt, the owner of Survival Fitness, suggested that those of us competing this weekend come in today and do some rowing. Sounds good to me! I hate taking complete rest days anyway.
Warm-up
2k Row
WOD
6 rounds
500m Row
2m Rest
The rower at the box it not the greatest, so I went above 500m each round and didn’t keep track of any times. I’m glad I went in and did this instead of sitting on my ass all day. I think it even helped to loosen up my back.
Yesterday was my last WOD of the week until the competition on Saturday. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and just got done with a run of about 3.6 miles. My lower back is still pretty tight so I hope the rest will have me back to 100% by the weekend. Tomorrow I won’t be doing anything and then I’ll probably golf on Friday morning.
Saturday night we had a great time at the 2nd annual Survival Fitness Picnic. I didn’t get home until 2am and slept in until 9:30. I spent the entire day watching the finals of the CrossFit Games. Amazing and inspiring! One of my favorite parts is seeing elite athletes cheer each other on, which never happens in any other sport.
After the Games ended, I decided to take a shot at rigging up my gymnastic rings in the garage. I made a quick trip to Home Depot for supplies and started working around 8pm. I quickly found out that both of the batteries for my drill were dead, which made things a lot harder because I had to keep switching batteries on the charger. I also had to make a run to buy some nutdriver attachments for the drill. A little before midnight, I finally had everything up. The project turned out to be much tougher than I expected, especially for one set of hands. I wish I had a taller ceiling in the garage, but these will be just fine for the limited use I’ll give them.
Yesterday was my second rest day in a row and a much-needed one. I did get an hour-long deep tissue massage, which really helped loosen up my back. I’m going to have to get massages more often. It’s supposed to hit 100 degrees today so I went in to the 9am class, which was already in the mid 80s. I was the only guy in a class of 9, which was kind of odd.
Warm-up
4 rounds
15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats
Immediately followed by:
4 rounds
15s Plank
15s Superman
15s L Side Plank
15s R Side Plank
I was already sweating bullets at this point it’s so hot and humid.
WOD
“Grace”
30 Clean and Jerks (125#)
This was my first time doing “Grace” and I’m pleased with the results. We had a 6 minute time cap so I was deciding between 115# and 125#, but glad I went heavier. My time was 5:10.
Finisher
10 Prowler Sprints (5 high, 5 low, loaded with 135#)
I’ve done these heavier, so this wasn’t too bad. Being able to go faster does some different work.
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