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.

Too Aggressive

After being at 81% recovery yesterday, WHOOP says I’m down to 37% this morning with my HRV being the lowest it has recorded so far. I slept well and the intervals I did yesterday weren’t terrible, so it feels like a fluke reading. Maybe the sessions were harder on the body than I realized. Maybe my body is responding to the back tweak. Will keep an eye on things.

I had my breakfast this morning and then got started around 10am.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Row (750m)

Engine Builder – Max Aerobic Power

15 Rounds

  • 40s Row
  • 20s Rest

Three fewer than the 18 intervals of 30/30 on Wednesday, but moving 10 seconds from rest to work is a big difference. Instead of trying to get to a pace of 1:37-1:39/500m by the 5th pull I thought 1:40-1:42 would be a smart move. Turns out it was too aggressive.

I knew I was in trouble at the beginning of round 7. Started too hot in the first 6 and didn’t have any starting power left the rest of the way. Maybe that WHOOP recovery score is right!

Total of 2,868 meters and 219 calories. Averaged 191.2 meters and 1:44.6 / 500m (1,351 cal/hr) pace with a range of 198-187 meters. Intervals were 16, 16, 15, 16, 15, 15, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, and 14 calories and 197, 197, 195, 198, 194, 192, 187, 188, 188, 187, 188, 188, 189, 189, and 191 meters.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

  • 7-7-7 @ 25#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#

First set felt heavy, but was ok after that. My adjustable dumbbells are definitely more awkward to use than the standard hex heads at the gym.

Engine Builder – Endurance

  • 22:00 Airdyne (AD2)

I tried to stay near 70-75% of max heart rate, which ended up being 68-70 RPM most of the way. There were some weird rises and falls in my HR though. Went 7.57 miles and 536 calories.

Kind of nice to get in two sessions right away.

My back is improving and hopefully it’s good enough for 19.3 tomorrow.

Double Engine

The back tweak from Wednesday turned out to be one. Thankfully it’s not a major one. Yesterday I used my TENS device most of the day. Hopefully it’s a quick recovery so I can do 19.3 on Sunday or Monday. Guess I’ll stick to cardio for a couple of days.

Out in the cold garage by 9am with no food and no warm-up.

Engine Builder – Interval

4 Rounds

  • 3:00 Airdyne (AD2)
  • 30s Rest

Started at 85 RPM but I had to really push to hold 80 by the end of the second interval. Calories were 110-105-103-105. Maybe would do better with at least some warm-up. That 30 seconds was really no time to recover.

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In the evening I warmed up with a 3:00 row (760m), increasing my pace every minute. Rested 3:00 before starting.

Engine Builder – Anaerobic

8 Rounds

  • 30s Row
  • 2:30 Rest

In the middle I remembered the other day where I really pushed with my legs to get the flywheel up to speed. Calories were 17-17-17-17-18-18-18-18 and I was getting over 2,400 cal/hr at some points. Looking at my meters and pace shows how I ramped up and found a rhythm.

2019-03-08-row.jpg

It was cool to watch my heart rate and see it come down so well between intervals. My highest HR was actually at the end of the warm-up! Also notice that second peak on the way down from the 5th interval. I stood up for a minute to see if I’d recover better and obviously I did not. I started a 5:00 cool down almost immediately after and went 1,055 meters.

2019-03-08-row-hr.jpg

Quite a bit different from the biking intervals this morning, which hurt a lot more.

Hump Day

This right shoulder may have something going on. It feels like other times I’ve had an issue. I’m really hoping it’s a couple day thing that passes. Like other times I didn’t really do anything in a workout and I started feeling it on Monday when I only did cardio work. Maybe the cumulation of workouts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday?

I got a great night of sleep. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I got one of the WHOOP bands last week and I’m really liking it. Nice to have sleep tracking again and the recovery scores and data really push me to improve these other areas of my life. Before I got out of bed I was thinking I’d wait and row before lunch, but after I got moving I felt like getting it done.

Engine Builder – Max Aerobic Power

18 Rounds

  • 30s Row
  • 30s Rest

Tried to get down to 1:37-1:39/500m by the 5th pull and towards the end I realized I could be using my legs better in those first pulls to get up to speed sooner. My overall average pace was 1:41.6/500m and 1,446 cal/hr, which would be 216 calories. There isn’t a way to go back and see cals for each interval, but I saw that the last one was 12 so the maths work. Meters for each interval were 148-150-148-147-147-148-147-146-145-147-147-147-147-147-147-149-148-149 to total 2,654, for an average of 147.4 and a range of 150-145.

I thought this heart rate graph was interesting in several ways.

I think I’m actually liking the cardio to start the day! Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Machine
  • 10 Hang Power Cleans (45#)
  • 10 Front Squats (45#)
  • 10 Hang Squat Cleans (45#)

Weightlifting

2 Hang Power Cleans + 1 Hang Squat Clean

  • 45#
  • 95
  • 135
  • 165
  • 185
  • 205
  • 215
  • 225

Wore my lifters again and put the belt on starting with 185. Tried to drop under the heavier power cleans more instead of getting really wide with my feet like I normally do.

As I was wheeling out the Assault Bike, my back started to lock up and it felt like a tweak. I tried to stretch it and roll on the floor. Seemed good enough to do the workout and if it is a tweak I know it doesn’t gets worse after it’s already happened. I guess my body didn’t like the combination of squat snatches followed by 117 deadlifts yesterday and then the cleans today.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 6 Strict Pull-ups
  • 10 cal Assault Bike
  • 25 Double Unders

All single pull-ups. Obviously. I used a shorter bar than usual, got my arms in to extension and picked my feet off the ground. Did my pull-up, dropped from the top to skip the descent, and then right back on the bar for the next rep. There is no reason to do sets unless you can immediately jump on the bar and bust out every set unbroken.

I started out around 70 RPM, fell in a rhythm around 68, and then realized I could pick up the pace for the last 3 rounds. Am I getting better on the bike or was this just not a taxing workout on the lungs? Probably the latter. My dubs felt great and I never missed. Finished in 15:38.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

  • 7-7-7 @ 25#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#

Tried a new route by increasing the dumbbells on the first set this session. Interesting that the end of sets two and three didn’t feel like as much of a struggle as it had been using 20s for every set.

I did some foam rolling on my back and will get on the inversion table tonight. Hopefully I wake up fine in the morning and I’m over the hump. Fingers crossed that this isn’t a back tweak and my shoulder feels better too!

Get Out Front

On the rower by 8am with no warm-up. 🤷‍♂️

Engine Builder – Anaerobic

5 Rounds

  • 400m Row (high intensity)
  • 5:00 Rest

Was thinking maybe 1:40/500m before I started, but I quickly felt that was too slow. Results were:

  • 1:18.8 – 34 cals
  • 1:18.5 – 34 cals
  • 1:18.2 – 34 cals
  • 1:17.9 – 34 cals
  • 1:17.5 – 34 cals

Looking at some other’s results on BTWB I probably should have gone harder. It’ll take me some time to get the feel for my different rowing paces. I haven’t done this stuff in a couple of years.

 

Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

  • 10 Shoulder Rolls (PVC)
  • 10 Overhead Squats (PVC)
  • 10 Snatch Balance (PVC)
  • 5 High Hang Snatch (PVC)
  • 5 Hang Snatch (PVC)
  • 5 Snatch (PVC)

That got me warmed up!

Weightlifting

High Hang Squat Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch + Squat Snatch

  • 45#
  • 75
  • 95
  • 115
  • 5 Sets 135

Wore my lifting shoes for the first time in two years. It was programmed for the working sets to be at 75% and if I go off my lift from a couple of weeks ago that would be 145. My right shoulder is feeling a little weird though so I stayed lighter and tried to work on a few things like a wider beginning stance and my speed. Started feeling snappy a few sets in to the 135.

In one of the sets I somehow hit my nose on the way back down. That was a first! Good thing it was a bar without center knurling.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • 9 Deadlifts (155#)
  • 12 Hand Release Push-ups
  • 15 Sit-ups

I knew this one would be quick with no real reason to rest other than in the push-ups, so I started off hot out of the gate. It’s fun to do that from time to time and see how many people will follow along. 🙂 Deadlifts were all unbroken. I went 7-5 every round of push-ups and they slowed down but I never hit failure. Sit-ups felt fine the whole way. That’s another 180 reps today after doing 200 on Saturday! I got through 12 rounds the deadlifts and 2 push-ups.

Skill

Worked on handstand walking after class for about 15 minutes. Got a few good attempts in, but was really working to keep my legs together plus get the forward lean going.

Side Plank Jumps are Better

My nutrition wasn’t great last night and I was up late, so I’m feeling tired today.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×95
  • 3×135
  • 3×165
  • 3×195
  • 3×215
  • 3×230
  • 3×240
  • 3×245

Only 10 pounds shy of matching my best triple, so at least I’m getting some of my strength back in my upper body. Wish I had tried 250 instead of 245 for that last set.

Helped with plate changing and cheering on some 19.2 attempts, so 25+ minutes before the metcon.

Conditioning

2 Cycles

  • 3:00 AMRAP (continue reps in the 2nd cycle)5 Bar Muscle-ups
    • 20 Reverse Lunges (50# DBs)
  • 2:00 Rest

Wore my grips and was able to do all sets of bar muscle-ups unbroken. The lunges got rough and I was surprised how nasty that first three minutes was. I got 2 + 11 in the first cycle and finished with 4 + 21. In the second cycle I was playing around with looking back towards the ceiling in my kip, which it felt like kept me patient in the pull. Something that needs more testing for sure.

Midline

4 Rounds

  • 20 Hollow Rocks
  • 20 Side Plank Jumps (alt)
  • 50 Hollow Flutter Kicks
  • 10/10 Wood Choppers (30#)

I like these plank jumps to the side a lot better. Finished in 9:01.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

  • 3 Sets 7-7-7 @ 20#

The end of the 2nd and 3rd sets got tough. Will I be able to bump up to 25# for one set next time? Maybe I should try increasing the weight on the first set instead of the last one.

Several hours later I went out to the garage…

Engine Builder – Speed

3 Rounds

  • 5:00 Airdyne (AD2)
  • 2:00 Rest

Based on my best 10 minutes for cals I figured 85 RPM would be a good pace for this. Turns out that was too hot for today. My legs felt heavy from the lunges. I tallied 175, 167, and 174 calories. Happy with the comeback on the final one. You can see from my heart rate that I didn’t push the second interval. Weak sauce!

I really need to fix my custom Airdyne monitor so I can keep an eye an all of the numbers at once.

Slick Saturday

I felt rough after getting home last night but pretty good this morning. Made it for the 9am class on slick roads.

Warm-up

Thunderstruck

Hang from rings and do a burpee every time the song says “Thunder.” My hands didn’t really want to hang but the rings are easier than the bar. Those couple long hangs were rough.

Conditioning

39:00 AMRAP (w/ partner)

  • E3M (starting at 3:00) both run 3x down and back (~360′ total)
  • 200 Sit-ups
  • 50 Burpees
  • 100 cal Row
  • 100 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Partnered up with Weston. There ends up being 12 sets of running. We did 10 sit-ups at a time except for the beginning of round two where we started with a set of 20. Burpees were 5 at a time, row broken into 25 cals, and first round of wall balls was 25 at a time. I was on the wall balls at the end and held on for 33 reps, so we needed about two more minutes (not counting run time) to finish.

That was a good burner and work/rest split.

Conditioning 2

In the afternoon I jumped on the Airdyne (AD2) for 20 minutes, going 6.96 miles, which was exactly 500 calories. I could feel some fatigue in my legs.

19.2 is Essentially 16.2

Got Taco Bell yesterday for lunch on my rest day to remember a friend and I felt terrible the rest of the day. Got a headache stomach was rolling. It was almost 1,800 calories so I ended up skipping dinner.

With the close of scoring for 19.1, I ended up with a better ranking than any of my 2018 efforts. I always base my rankings on the number of men who have completed the workout, not sign-ups.

Men’s Open Division
18,894 / 178,021 – Top 10.6%

Men’s 35-39
2,854 / 36,083 – Top 7.9%

A group of us went over to CrossFit Bay City to throwdown tonight at 6pm, which is later than I’m used to for a workout.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Shoulder Stretching
  • 20 Double Unders
  • 10 Kip Swings
  • 500m Row
  • Squat Cleans
    • 5-10 @ 45#
    • 5 @ 95#

Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open Workout 19.2

Same as 16.2, but everyone gets at least eight minutes this year instead of possibly getting cut off after 4 minutes.

  • Beginning on an 8-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
    • 25 Toes to Bar
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 15 Squat Cleans (135#)
    • 25 Toes to Bar
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 13 Squat Cleans (185#)
  • If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 Toes to Bar
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 11 Squat Cleans (225#)
  • If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 Toes to Bar
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 9 Squat Cleans (275#)
  • If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 Toes to Bar
    • 50 Double Unders
    • 7 Squat Cleans (315#)
  • Stop at 20 minutes.

In 2016 I had about five minutes to work on the 3rd round and I finished the double unders with 6 seconds to spare, so I didn’t even touch 225 pounds. Back then I did 11-8-6 T2B, round two was 5-5-??, and round three was mostly slow singles which killed my chances. I completely blew up. I’ve been doing mostly sets of fives toes to bars in training, which allows me to go deep in workouts, so that was the plan this time. Even if it takes an extra 10-20 seconds in round one I figured I’d get it back in round two and hopefully have some hip flexors left in the tank for round three. My T2B endurance is a lot better now and I’m 10 pounds lighter.

I was a lot more worried about the squat cleans this time because we haven’t been squatting heavy at the gym. Maybe the 135# thruster workouts we’ve done on Sundays will help though. On the bright side hopefully this means we don’t have squat snatches this year. 🙂

In 2016 there wasn’t a 35-39 master’s division yet, but according to the BTWB data for 16.2, finishing the 3rd round of double unders should get a top 10% ranking. I really wanted to hit that 225 pound bar this year.

Felt good starting off with 5×5 T2B and did them in under a minute, which surprised me. I think I missed once on my dubs. The cleans felt ok and I was done with them at 3:25 I think, so about 30 seconds slower than 2016. I was hoping for something near 3:30 so that went according to plan. 5×5 in round two felt good again. My double unders weren’t so great. I think I had just over 2 minutes left for the cleans and finished them 10-15 seconds to spare, which is slower than I wanted. Those cleans wiped me out! My hip flexors were shot and I couldn’t do anything more than single toes to bar in round three. My hips were hurting to just stand! Finished them at 11:01, missed a bunch of double unders, and finished them right as time expired.

So I got 253 again, with a tiebreak six seconds worse. Still didn’t get to touch the 225 pound bar. I did not feel good and quickly got a headache. I had my belt on loose and then tightened it up for the 185. Didn’t wear any grips.

A bit disappointed, but I need to be fitter. Simple as that. My T2B felt great, but those 185 pound squat cleans blew me up. Need to start hitting heavy weights again.

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Dead Shoulders

Feeling a little rough from yesterday, especially my shoulders. My legs are nearly recovered from Sunday. We got snow last night and this morning, so I shoveled the driveway for a half hour today. Made it to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

  • 5 Inch Worms
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press in a Quarter Squat
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Sots Press
  • 5 Squat Jumps
  • 5/5 Cossack Squat
  • 5 Hang Muscle Snatch
  • 5 Hang Power Snatch

All with 45#.

Weightlifting

10:00 EMOM – Hang Power Snatch

  • 3×65#
  • 3×85
  • 3×105
  • 3×125
  • 6x3x135

Didn’t feel like pushing it today with so many snatches coming up and my shoulders beat up from muscle-ups.

Conditioning

  • 6:00 AMRAP
    • 30s Airdyne (AD2)
    • 6 Hang Power Snatch (95#)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 6:00 AMRAP
    • 30s Airdyne (AD2)
    • 6 Hang Power Snatch (75#)

It was programmed as 10 calories on the bike, but the Assault Bike was taken so I figured 30 seconds on the Airdyne would be good. The monitor was unplugged for some reason, but I kept a pace similar to what I’ve been doing at home on my recovery days, about 75 RPM. I scaled the loading down from 115-95 so I could cruise with the barbell. In the second AMRAP I didn’t even dip the bar back down to the hang position and went right from the bounce. I got exactly 6 rounds and then exactly 7.

Really glad I scaled back on the loading today. I was able to keep moving through the workout and no reason to chance an injury during Open season.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

  • 3 Sets of 7-7-7 @ 20#

Felt easier than Sunday with 15-20-20. Maybe my biceps are growing.

Skill

Stayed for more handstand walking but wasn’t feeling as good with it today, probably due to fatigued shoulders. I did make it past 10 feet several times and out to a new PR of 18 feet. Getting started seems to be my biggest struggle.

Looking forward to seeing what is announced for 19.2 tomorrow night.