Strict Morning

Low back is still pretty spiced up from the back squats. That weight vest walk wiped me out yesterday. In bed by 10 and got over 9 hours of sleep. Out in the garage at 9am.

Conditioning

Air Dyne (AD2)

  • 17:00 @ 80% of 10:00 pace (68-70rpm)

Kept a consistent pace and went 9.34km.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds

  • 3 Strict HSPU
  • 3 Strict C2B Pull-ups
  • 3 Strict Ring Dips
  • 6 GHD Sit-ups (parallel)
  • 6 Back Extensions

Tried to pick rep counts that wouldn’t kill me and nailed them pretty well. The handstand push-ups were the only thing that were close to failing. Didn’t want to stress the back by touching the ground on the GHD sit-ups. Walked from station to station and kept moving. Finished in 13:09. Good way to get in some strict work with a decent heart rate pumping.

Had a chiropractor appointment at 4, so went to the 4:30 class after. We warmed up with some bottom squat hold, shoulder pass-thrus, PVC snatch progressions, etc.

Weightlifting

  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (95#)
  • 3 Muscle Snatch (115#)
  • 2 Power Snatch (135#)
  • 2×2 Power Snatch (155#)

I was just not feeling it after the 135# kind of lit up my low back. Made me not commit to the lifts because I was a little scared.

6:00 EMOM

  • 3 Power Snatch

Coming to class, I planned to go with 155#, but because I felt off, I figured I’d use 135#. Started feeling good with TnG, so after 2 rounds I bumped up to 145# for the next 3 rounds, and then went 150# for the final round. All touch-n-go reps. Felt good too! Confidence can be such a weird thing with the lifts.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Sit-up
  • 1:00 Burpee
  • 1:00 Row (cal)
  • 1:00 Slam Ball (20#)
  • 1:00 Thruster (75#)
  • 1:00 Rest

I got 107-108-97 for reps. Not entirely sure that last round is correct because I kind of lost my thought process during the burpees. Felt like I might have made up some reps in the later movements, so if anything the count is low. No biggie.

Since missed out on most of the plank work, I got some it at night.

3 Rounds

  • MAX Plank Hold
  • 3:00 Rest

I did them on my hands with arms extended for a change of pace and so it would work the wrists. Went 3:15, 2:15, and 2:15. Damn, it’s a different ball game on your hand; wrists and shoulders really start to burn.

Max Reps Set

Had a dentist appointment this morning, so went to the 5:30 class so I could squat with Alex.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Back Squat

  • 10x20kg
  • 5x60kg
  • 5x90kg
  • 3x105kg
  • 3x117kg
  • 3x133kg
  • 6x149kg (PR)

Alex has been doing some cycles of 5/3/1, so I jumped in with his program since our squat numbers are really close. My goal was 6 reps since I did 5×325# about 2-3 weeks ago and that’s about 328#. Didn’t think I was going to make it about half way through. I lost my tightness on the 3rd rep and it was ugly. Concentrated harder and had to grind out that 6th rep, but made it! Estimates my 1RM at 380#.

Oh, I didn’t mention that I created a Rep Max Calculator site. Give it a try.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 5 Ring Rows
  • 8 Push-ups

Did them pretty much back-to-back since I was catching up to the rest of class. Not hard though.

Conditioning

7 Rounds

  • 3 Curtis P (95#)
  • 6 Push Press (95#)
  • 30s Rest

Hot damn! Shoulders were burning up in the 4th round. Had to drop the bar in the 6th and 7th rounds, but was averaging about 30 seconds per round until then. Finished in 7:14.

Retest 12.3

Didn’t sleep well last night. I didn’t realize the heat was still up on the main floor, which warmed the upstairs too much and I was hot all night. Whoops.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 250m Row
    • 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • 5×45# Muscle Snatch
  • 5×95# Snatch
  • 3×115# Snatch

Conditioning

  • 5-4-3-2-1 Squat Snatch (135#)
  • 50-40-30-20-10 DU

Pat Sherwood and I must be on the same wavelength, because he posted a very similar workout for CrossFit Linchpin earlier this week.

Maybe he has access to my training plan because I’ve had this programmed for 2 weeks. Came up with it based on my love for “Annie”. 🙂 My thinking with the rep scheme for the snatches is that it would be a good challenge to try to do them all touch-n-go and I don’t snatch below parallel enough, hence the squat variation. I made it through each set without dropping the bar, and it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. Finished in 5:18, with a couple misses on the set of 50 dubs.

Accessory

7 Sets

  • 5 Pendlay Rows
  • 3 Evil Wheels
  • 60-90s Rest

Went 135-155-155-175-175-175-175# on the rows. Slowed myself down on the evil wheels in the last couple of rounds since they are getting easy for me.

More Conditioning

CrossFit Open 12.3 – 18:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 12 Shoulder to Overhead (115#)
  • 9 T2B

Time to start getting the feel for that dark place we go to during the Open workouts. Figured this would be a good measuring stick due to its length. Back in 2012 during the Open I did 5+21. Got 8+1 today. Died hard on the box jumps in the 8th round. Went 7-5 on every set of push jerks and 5-4 on every set of toes to bars except the 8th round where I did 3 quick sets of 3. Definitely a lot of room for improvement with shorter breaks between sets and movements. Wouldn’t mind seeing this come up as a repeat workout this year.

Accessory

2 Sets

  • 30 Shoulder Taps

Shoulders were pretty beat up.

More Than I Bargained For

Needed that rest day yesterday, but it’s so hard not to do anything. Got a massage in the afternoon. In early this morning before the 10am class to get in some extra work.

Warm-up

  • 2k Row – 7:55.5

Gymnasty

E30S until fail

  • 2 MU

Made it through 14+1 and failed on muscle-up #30. I wanted that last one so bad. Smoked the total number of reps from doing 1 every 15 seconds. One big chunk of rest makes a big difference.

Accessory

5 Rounds

  • 5 Seated Good Mornings (165#)
  • 10 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20# MB)

Yuck. Took 7:11.

Had a little rest time before class got going.

Row

3 Rounds

  • 3:00 slow (~2:25-2:30/500m)
  • 1:00 @ 90% (~1:45/500m)

Then another 2:00 slow to cool down, so 14:00 total. Went 3,115 meters.

Conditioning

Partner WOD

  • Buy-in: 50 Burpees
  • 4 Rounds
    • 12 C&J
    • 40 Wall Balls
  • Cash-out: 50 Burpees

Paired up with Dan. We alternated 5 burpees each, 3 C&J each, and 10 wall balls each through all of our sets. I used 155# for the C&J for a challenge, doing quick singles in the first 3 rounds, then I did 3 TnG and 2-1 in the 4th round. We finished in 15:44.

Midline

3 Rounds NFT

  • Partner MB Pass Complex
    • 8 Chest MB Passes
    • 8 OH MB Passes
    • 8/8 Side MB Passes
    • 8 Up MB Passes
  • 8 Back Extensions

I used a 20# medicine ball for the complex. We did 2 times through the complex, then switched over to the back extensions, where I used a 45# bar for my second and third set. Then we went back for our final round of the passes.

Dead is Right

Went to the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 2×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Speed Toe Touches
  • Hip Circles
  • 5 Inch Worms

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×155#
  • 5×265#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×355#
  • 1×385#
  • 1×425#
  • 1×455#
  • 5x1x425#

I actually pussed out on my first pull at 455#. Wow, last week I pulled 465# for a triple. Could definitely feel fatigue in the back from all of the heavy deadlifts yesterday. Took a few seconds to gather my head and made 455, then lowered the weight to get in reps. Nowhere near the prescribed 95%, but I’m ok with that. I’m sure I’ll be feeling these lifts tomorrow because even the 425s were no piece of cake.

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 40 Sit-ups
  • 5 Rounds
    • 8 Thrusters (95#)
    • 16 American KBS (53#)
  • Cash-out: 40 Sit-ups

“Go unbroken. Go unbroken.” That’s what I kept telling myself even if I took a few extra breaths between movements. Finished in 9:34 and pushed the pace more in the last round. My sit-ups are so slow though. 😦

I was going to do a garage workout in the evening, but wasn’t feeling well. Body needed a rest I guess.

This was the 1,000th post on this blog!

Double Morning

I’m kind of sore from the good mornings on Monday. Needed the recovery day yesterday, but really wanted to workout in the afternoon. Ready to be back at it today after another solid 9 hours of sleep. In before the 9am class for some extra work.

Warm-up

  • 14:00 Row

Had planned on holding a 5k pace, but decided against it on the drive in. Just had a feeling and it was a good call because I wasn’t feeling it during the row. Kept under a 2:05 pace for 3,369 meters.

Gymnastics

16:00 EMOM alternating

  • 3 Bar MU
  • 12 HR Push-ups

The bar muscle-ups are feeling so easy; I can’t believe it. I guess it worked out well not working on them until I was decent with MU on the rings and my pull-ups improved . I pretty much got to skip that whole phase most people seem to go through, where they get one arm over the bar with a lot of strain on the shoulders and elbows, then fight to pull the rest of their body and other arm over. I’m getting over right into the dip position with no problem. 🙂 Good number of sets too because I took a little piece of skin off my thumb in the last round. Might have to start taping my thumbs or figure out how not to feel that pull on the skin as my body swings back under the bar.

Had a few minutes to rest before class got going.

Weightlifting

C&J

  • 5×45#
  • 3×95#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×155#

I had planned on doing some full cleans and split jerks, but the quad was not feeling up for it after trying them with 95#.

Then we got into the meat of the workout, with a running clock.

10:00 EMOM

  • 3 C&J (175#)

Didn’t try touch-n-go until the last round and got it. Wish I had started out TnG and then switched to singles when I couldn’t hold on to the bar. Will know better for next time.

3:00 Rest

3 Rounds

  • 45s Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 15s Rest

Worst part of the workout, but not terrible by any means. I did 21-20-21 reps. Should have been all 21s but I wasted 2 seconds at the end of the 2nd round because I thought I heard the time differently.

Oh, I wore lifters for the lifts and wall balls.

3:00 Rest

10:00 EMOM

  • 3 Deadlifts (5 sets 275#, 5 sets 295#)
  • 5 Burpees

Wore a belt and went shoeless. Weight felt good so bumped it up for the 2nd half. Kept a pretty good clip on the burpees, doing each round in about 17-18 seconds.

It’s kind of nice having the extra work done already for the day, though I do have to clear the snow out of the driveway at some point since we got another 2-3 inches last night.

Schedule Switching

Due to the quad I’m switching up my schedule so that I can squat heavy on Mondays and then be able to rest it on Tuesdays. We got a nice storm yesterday so I spent the morning getting the snow blower running and then clearing the driveway. Out in the garage in the afternoon.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Ski Erg – 4:36.4

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×285#
  • EMOM 10:00 – 2×305#

Haven’t done these in a long time. Used to call them rapid fire squats if doing a single or double. Was a good weight to use.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 5 Good Mornings (135-155-165-175-185#)
  • 10 Strict Ring Dips
  • ~2:00 Rest

I had thought about doing some hard conditioning work, but since the schedule is something new I figured I’d take it “easy”.

SUPER bowl SUNDAY

First real chunk of snow for the year is coming down today. February 1st and I haven’t even started my snowblower yet. Doesn’t stop us from having Super Sunday though.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row – 3:58.8
  • 100m Row @ 100% – 16.0 seconds
  • Bottom Squat Holds
  • Various Stretching
  • 5×45# Hang Muscle Snatch
  • 5×95# Muscle Snatch

Figured I’d give a 100m row time a go again. Beat my old time by 0.4 seconds.

Benchmark

“Isabel”

  • 30 Snatches (135#)

First time doing this, so wasn’t sure what to expect. My plan was to do doubles as long as I could, but after 2×2 I abandoned that and did singles the rest of the way. Last 5-10 reps sucked and had to be so ugly. Time was 2:37.

Gymnastics

12:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 C2B Pull-ups
  • Evens: 10 Box Jumps (24″)

Worked on an efficient butterfly with the pull-ups and fast cycling with my box jumps. Felt good!

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×205#
  • 3×220#
  • 3×230#
  • 3×240# (PR)

I had my numbers planned out and they ended up being perfect for a 10# PR. Puts my estimated max up in the 260s. Not bad for benching about once a month.

Conditioning

  • 100 DU
  • 50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 100 DU

The goal here was to do the wall balls unbroken and it sucked! Without setting that as a goal for the workout, I’d always split something like this up. It definitely made the last dubs a lot harder, but good to know what’s possible for future workouts. My time was 5:27.