Tag: Airdyne

I Sat Down & I Can’t Get Up

It was rough moving around the rest of the day yesterday, but sleeping wasn’t too bad, which is usually a good sign. Today is pretty terrible too, especially when I get up out of the chair from working. It takes me about a minute to fully stand up straight. Drying off my feet and putting my socks on was quite the chore this morning. Definitely was not making my way to the gym because I didn’t know if I’d be able to get out of the car. After finishing up work, I needed to move, so headed out to the garage to see what I could do.

I knew the Airdyne would be a go, so I tried to use Pi AD2, but it wouldn’t launch properly on my Raspberry Pi and when I tried to run it from my Mac it wouldn’t track the spinning of the flywheel. I need to spend some time on it and get intervals programmed anyway.

7 Rounds

  • 2:00 Airdyne (AD2)
  • 20 Push-ups

I did 10-10 on every set of push-ups. The second 10 got rough after the second round, but I kept each 10 unbroken, with some short pauses at the top of later reps. Finished in 20:35 and tallied up 423 cals, holding RPMs at about 75 and then picked it up for the last couple of rounds.

Quick Redo

My ass has been sore from the 55 deadlifts and my shoulders have been a bit fatigued. Had some plans to get through the wall balls quicker by doing 15-15-15-10 and not be a pussy on the rower for the redo of 17.4

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • Shoulder stretching
  • 2×10 Heel Drives
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Deadlift
    • 10×45#
    • 2x5x135
    • 5×185
    • 2x3x225
    • 3×245

Well, I did my first set of 5 reps and then tweaked my back when I picked up the bar for my next set. Shortest Open workout ever! 😦 Glad my first attempt was a PR.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 8×125
  • 6×155
  • 4×185
  • 4×215
  • 4×235
  • 3×255 (PR)

Figured I could still bench since it doesn’t require moving my back. Had to gingerly lay on the bench each time. Didn’t realize it, but that was a 15# PR for a triple! Maybe I’ll do a bunch cycle or two after the Open and try to get to 300.

Conditioning

“300 FY” – 10:00 AMRAP

  • AirDyne Calories

Been a long time since I’ve tested this. Wanted to breathe hard in something since I didn’t workout yesterday and who knows how much I’ll be able to do over the next few days with this damn back. I started out at a much better pace than my previous PR and did well at holding above 80 RPMs, then picked it up in the last 60-90 seconds. Ended up with 357 calories (AD2 model), which is only 1 calorie under my best. Seemed much easier than my previous attempts.

17.4 is 16.4

This week I remembered to check the leaderboard after score validations closed. Even though I didn’t improve on my redo, 17.3 may have been my best placing ever in an Open workout. After a weak 17.1, I’ve been able to make a nice climb up the overall leaderboards with the last two workouts.

17.3 Results

  • Open Division: 19,602/167,143 (11.7%)
  • Masters 35-39 Division: 2,268/31,768 (7.1%)

Overall Placing After 3 Weeks

  • Open Division: 26,201/201,248 (13%)
  • Masters 35-39 Division: 3,282/36,980 (8.9%)

*I only count athletes who have submitted at least one score.

Many people were predicting 16.4 as the repeat workout for this year. Since it was my best workout from the 2016 Open I was happy to see Castro select it. We’ve been working a lot on HSPU and I recently improved my score on 15.4 by 9 reps, so I wanted to do a retest on this one. Even last year I felt I left some reps on the table by pacing too much.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • 2×10 Heel Drives
  • Deadlift
    • 10×45#
    • 5×135
    • 5×185
    • 3×225
    • 2x3x275
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Shoulder stretching

CrossFit Open Workout 17.4

13:00 AMRAP

  • 55 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 55 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 55 Row (calories)
  • 55 Handstand Push-ups

Last year I scored 192 reps, which is 27 HSPU after finishing the row at 8:34. Little bit of a strategy change this year…

  • Deadlift: 11 sets of 5 with short rests (count to 2 or 3 and go)
  • Wall Balls: 5 sets of 11 with about 10 second rests (I count to 8 and get going)
  • Row: 1,100-1,200 cal/hr
  • Handstand Push-ups: Sets of 3 with 10-15 second rests

Rests may have gotten a bit longer at the end of deadlifts, but wall balls were on pace. I needed to push on the rower as I was just under 1,000 cal/hr most of the way, which is not good. I picked it up for the last 10+ calories. Again like last year, I decided to camp out on the seat for probably a good 20-30 seconds before getting up. So much wasted time when I could have knocked out at least a set on the wall. For some dumb reason I decided to set the damper over 6, which I never row at. I usually am in the low 5 area, so not sure if that was enough to make any kind of difference.

I was done with deadlifts at 2:27, wall balls at 5:18, and rowing at 8:47. There weren’t tiebreakers except for finishing the row last year, so I only know that I was 13 seconds slower this year. Not good. 😦 When I finally got up on the wall I was having no problem with triples. Somewhere under 90 seconds I decided to do a set of 4 and it came back to bite me when I got 2 no-reps in the final minute. I didn’t have to do doubles until at the end. Even though I had less time this year, I still set a PR by 5 reps with 32 of the HSPU for a score of 197.

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Good Bye 17.3

Warm-up

  • 4:00 Air Dyne
  • Banded Shoulder Mobility
  • Snatch
    • 5×45#
    • 3×95
    • 4×95
    • 2×125
    • 2×145
    • 1×165

Was feeling smooth.

2017 CrossFit Games Open 17.3

  • Prior to 8:00, complete:
    • 3 rounds of:
      • 6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
      • 6 squat snatches, 95 lb.
    • Then, 3 rounds of:
      • 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
      • 5 squat snatches, 135 lb.
  • *Prior to 12:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 4 squat snatches, 185 lb.
  • *Prior to 16:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 3 squat snatches, 225 lb.
  • *Prior to 20:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 2 squat snatches, 245 lb.
  • Prior to 24:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 11 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 1 squat snatch 265 lb.

*If all reps are completed, time cap extends by 4 minutes.

I wasn’t sure what to change from my first attempt, even up to when I was warming up. I ended up keeping 3-3 pull-ups for the first 3 rounds, but did 3-3 on the snatches instead of unbroken. Finished 13 seconds faster. Then I kept all 3 sets of pull-ups at 3-2-2 instead of going double with singles on the 5th and 6th round. Kept that 13 second gain so would have a better tiebreaker. Did 8 single pull-ups to try to bring my heard rate down. Rested before grabbing that 185 and made sure I really got into it. Made it, so now I was way ahead of pace. I was fucking gassed though. Was just a bit forward on my next two attempts to miss them. Did not want to pick up that bar because I couldn’t breathe, so I called it quits after I got to 11:00 on the clock since I wasn’t going to even match my 92 at that point.

Since the 3-2-2 on those 2 other rounds didn’t make me faster, I guess I should have ketp to 2 + singles and maybe I wouldn’t have been so gassed. Oh well, had to try something.

17-3-redo.jpg

We decided to do some lifting.

Behind the Neck Jerks

  • 5×45#
  • 3×95
  • 3×135
  • 3×165
  • 3×185
  • 3×205
  • 3×215

Good enough for the day.

17.3 Fresh Off the Plane

I forgot to check overall standings before week 3 scores starting showing up on the leaderboard. My ranking on 17.2 was much better for me though.

  • Open: 25,442th
  • Masters 35-39: 3,129th

Nearly moved halfway up to the top of both overall leaderboards from where I was after week 1, but can’t really get exact numbers due to not looking last night.

Flew home from Austin today, but wanted to get in that first attempt. The plane landed at 7:15 and I was at the gym by 8:30.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Airdyne
  • Banded shoulder mobility
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch
    • 4×45#
    • 3×95#
    • 2×135#
    • 1×155#

2017 CrossFit Games Open 17.3

  • Prior to 8:00, complete:
    • 3 rounds of:
      • 6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
      • 6 squat snatches, 95 lb.
    • Then, 3 rounds of:
      • 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
      • 5 squat snatches, 135 lb.
  • Prior to 12:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 4 squat snatches, 185 lb.
  • Prior to 16:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 3 squat snatches, 225 lb.
  • Prior to 20:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 2 squat snatches, 245 lb.
  • Prior to 24:00, complete 3 rounds of:
    • 11 chest-to-bar pull-ups
    • 1 squat snatch 265 lb.

*If all reps are completed, time cap extends by 4 minutes.

Wasn’t sure how to attack this one. Changed my mind a couple of times throughout the day and changed again at the gym after hearing how Bryan did it.

I went 3-3 for the first 3 sets of C2B and touch-n-go on all 3 sets of snatches because 95# really bounces all over the place. Had a solid split at 2:49. First set of 7 pull-ups was 3-2-2 and then a double followed by singles for the other 2 sets. All single snatches with 135#. I really hate doing single pull-ups because I take more break than you can afford. Made it under the 8 minute cutoff with 13 seconds to spare. Not great. I did 8 single C2B trying to calm myself down for the 185#. Took some breaths before giving it a pull and I was not prepared for it. That bar felt heavy as hell, I “Clarked” it, and nearly blacked out. So then I had to waste a bunch of time recovering and getting my head right before stepping back up. I made my next 4 attempts and went 3-3-2 on C2B. I was getting ready to take a pull on the snatch with less than 10 seconds left but my head wasn’t there so I didn’t even try.

So I ended up with a score of 92, which I was surprised by. I remember thinking last night that 90+ would be pretty good for a first attempt. I’m happy to have gotten the 4 reps with 185# because that’s around the load where my squat snatch starts to get really inconsistent in the catch. Will probably try a redo on Sunday or Monday.

17-3.jpg

Looks like 17.3 will move me up nicely too. This is ranked as a level 87 on BTWB, which doesn’t even account for people doing scaled and I should be able to improve on my redo.

17.2 Redo & More

Rested yesterday so I could redo today. Could have probably even retried yesterday, though my shoulders were a little tight. In at 12:30.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • Banded shoulder stretching
  • PVC passes
  • Reverse Hyper Heel Drives
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Air Squats
  • Dead hang
  • 2:30 Airdyne

CrossFit Games Open Workout 17.2

12:00 AMRAP

  • 2 Rounds
    • 50′ Weighted Walking Lunge (2×50# DBs)
    • 16 Toes-to-bars
    • 8 DB Power Cleans (2×50# DBs)
  • 2 Rounds
    • 50′ Weighted Walking Lunge
    • 16 Bar Muscle-ups
    • 8 DB Power Cleans
  • Every 5-foot interval of the 50″ (25″ out and back), represents 1 rep of the lunge.

With my first attempt not affecting grip at all I knew bigger and fewer sets would buy me some time. I did 6-5-5 on both rounds of T2B, 6-2 on 2 sets of cleans, and all 8 cleans to lock in the tiebreak round. I wanted to go right into the lunges after that 8, but needed a breather so set them down.

Remembered to have my knee sleeves pulled up before the workout today. I also taped my thumbs ahead of time so there was no stop halfway through the last set of lunges. Still kept muscle-ups in sets of 2 because I thought triples would be too risky. I tried to shorten the rest a bit between the sets. I did do a triple right at the end, but more importantly no misses today. Over the weekend I had thought about trying to finish that first round of muscle-ups with 3-3 to save another 20-30 seconds, but I completely forgot.

Bought myself almost an extra minute, which paid off, allowing me to get through 5 more muscle-ups for a score of 121 with a tiebreak of 8:50.

17-2-2.jpg

Michelle kept all my splits again. Nice to see I slowly kept gaining ground throughout. Initial lunges were the same, but then I was ahead of pace by 10-14, 9-19-25, 19-35-46, and 47 seconds. I guess I was more methodical on my lunges (probably gathering my feet more, which is slower) and was definitely focussing more on breathing during them. I also didn’t stretch out to get over the line on any of the rounds. The first round of muscle-ups took me 3:08 today compared to 3:22, which was a little surprising considering I should have been more tired from going faster.

The challenge of the redo is actually pretty fun. One of my friends cracked a beer after his 2nd muscle-up and then got 3 more. LOL I love the Open!

Since my volume was extremely light Thursday-Saturday and I’m heading out of town for most of the week, I wanted to get in some lifting and barbell work. Went back to the gym at 4:30 to judge Bryan and workout.

Back Squat

Missed out on the 5×3 @ 80% yesterday, so definitely wanted to squat today. If I go 2 weeks without squatting it’s no fun the next time.

  • 10×45#
  • 6×135
  • 3×205
  • 3×255
  • 3×285
  • 3×305
  • 3×315

Back was getting a little tender so didn’t push it. Haven’t had that on the bar in awhile anyway.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 10×135
  • 10×165
  • 2x10x185

Bryan started benching while I was still squatted so I worked in and then was done with the squats by the heavy sets.

Conditioning

7 Rounds

  • 5 Power Snatch (135#)
  • 35 DU

Wanted to hit a barbell metcon for sure. Did all singles on the snatches. Missed too many dubs. It felt and looked like my rope’s shape was getting messed up. Maybe it’s time for a new cable. Finished in 9:20.

17.1 Redo

Confident I’d crush my previous score of getting through 215 reps in the 20 minute time cap. Plan was to switch hands in the air on all of the snatches, not stand up on the box, and reduce my steps by turning in the jump and stepping down backwards off the box.

Warm-up

  • Pass throughs, stretching, and twisting
  • 4:00 Airdyne
  • Did some of each movement getting the hand of better efficiency.

CrossFit Games Open Workout 17.1

  • 10 Dumbbell Snatch (50#)
  • 15 Burpee Box Jump-overs (24″)
  • 20 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 30 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 40 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 50 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO

Finished in 19:15! So much better. It hurt so much worse on the lungs though. It was considerably easier on my back without spending so much time bent over switching the dumbbell hands on the ground. Losing almost 4 pounds in the last couple of days probably helped on the burpees some. Look at the difference in my splits…

17-1-attempts-splits.jpg

Improved round 1 from 2:06 to 1:40, round 2 from 3:27 to 2:47, round 3 from 4:32 to 4:13, and round 4 from 5:43 to 5:24. Then to finish it off I did the round of 50s in 5:09, which was faster than I did the 40s! The snatch hand switch was much faster, but it was also harder on the shoulder and the lungs. I had to do the 30 is 3 sets of 10 today and still did the 40 in 4 sets of 10. I was able to do the 50 in one fewer set by going 14-12 and then 10-14 maybe? It took me forever to catch my breath.

Eventually jumped on the Airdyne for a nice 15:00 flush, going 3.53 miles.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s T2B
  • 10s Rest

Strapped on my grips and tried to match the 7s I’d done last time. Nearly made it. Did 6 sets of 7, then 6-1, and only managed 2-2-1 in the final set. I’ll take it though after all those DB snatches.

Bring on 17.2!

First Attempt @ 17.1

After seeing Ro vs. Boz last night I didn’t expect to finish 17.1. They were hurting!

Did a few heel drives and about 5 minutes on the Airdyne to warm-up, but not much else. The first sets of burpees and snatches would warm me up.

CrossFit Games Open Workout 17.1

  • 10 Dumbbell Snatch (50#)
  • 15 Burpee Box Jump-overs (24″)
  • 20 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 30 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 40 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO
  • 50 DB Snatch
  • 15 BBJO

Time cap: 20:00

The burpees crushed my soul. I’ve tried the stay low technique and it never worked for me, feeling like I’d face plant. I was really trying to limit my steps too but didn’t always work. I think I did the 10 and 20 snatches unbroken, then 15-15, and then sets of 10 with pretty short rest. Guess I was taking a bit of time to pick up the DB after the burpees though. I left 10 of the burpees on the table when time ran out for a score of 215, with a tiebreak (last completed round of burpees) at 15:48.

17-1-first-try.jpg

I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, because I didn’t have expectations to finish. I did learn a lot from the attempt though. My splits after each set of burpees were 2:06, 5:33 (3:27), 10:05 (4:32), and 15:48 (5:43). I spent 4:12 in the final round, with 10 burpees to go. Look how much slower each round got with only adding 10 snatches; An extra 1:21 for the set with 20, then an extra 1:05 for the set with 30, and 1:09 more for the set with 40. If I kept pace on my final set of burpees the 50s round would have been faster than the 40s because I was trying to empty the tank.

With 2 exceptions in my first 5 Opens, I’ve always been a one-and-done Open athlete. One of those was when I had to do my first attempt the night of the announcement and then drive back to Michigan from Phoenix and the other was when I paced 15.2 way too much. Last year I was already thinking of giving myself the option to redo each workout for this year…

You just learn a lot the first time you do a workout. I’m already thinking next year I might just commit to doing every workout twice for a change and an interesting challenge. If they do introduce a 35-39 Masters division it would be fun to see how I rank with full effort and redoing workouts too. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I have to worry about making it into the Masters Qualifier. I’m far from that level.
16.4

My back is pretty tight and pumped right now, but hopefully I’ll recover well and can make a second attempt on Sunday or Monday. I’m going to finish! It’ll save me a lot of time if I switch hands on the way down instead of resetting every rep on the ground. Maybe a second per rep (150!) and hopefully it’ll save my back from not spending so much time bent over. I’m going to mess around with some different techniques getting over the box too because I wasted so much time there.

IMG_8796.JPG
Taking advantage of some e-stim on my back to speed up recovery.

 

Damn Back

Complete rest day yesterday, but actually felt pretty good after so much deadlift volume. Couple guys are sick and one out of town, so I was on my own today.

Front Squat

Add another 0-5-10# for 3×6.

  • 6×45#
  • 6×135
  • 6×185
  • 6×225
  • 6×255
  • 3×255

Anndddd I tweaked my back on that 3rd rep of the 2nd set. Maybe I worked up too quick or maybe the deadlifts took a toll on me from Wednesday. Tried to stretch it out, but was what typically happens so felt fine as long as I didn’t get in certain positions. So no more front squats and no working up to a 2RM C&J. Wanted to see if I could do some of the other C&J work so I warmed up the movement.

C&J

  • 4×45#
  • 4×95
  • 4×135

Felt fine, especially if I kept good positions, so I strapped on the belt.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 3 Sets

  • 6 TnG C&J (155#)

Actually felt better than 155 ever has for cycling reps. Compared to 135 it still feels awkward and much harder to re-hook grip the bar between reps, which I did about for about half of them. Took me 20 seconds per set I think.

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10 T2B
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 40s Airdyne (AD2)

Due to my back I took out the programmed 5 power cleans and put in the push-ups and Airdyne instead so I could keep moving for 20 minutes. All wall ball sets were unbroken without a problem. I did the toes-to-bars 5-5 every round and they actually felt really good. Push-ups were unbroken as well and I had an ok pace on the AD, but wasn’t pushing it. Finished with 7+18 and the AD said I did 106 calories. The WOD as written would have easily been 10+ rounds and it would have been nasty!

Excited I was able to do 14 sets of 5 T2B with no fatigue setting in. Didn’t wear any grips either. Granted it was a much longer workout so the time between sets was much more than the Tabata or EMOM volume work. It was a fight to try and stick to more of a straight leg kip; my body kept wanting to my do bicycle version. With the 73 reps and 80 the other day it’s over 150 T2B this week!

Skipped out on muscle-up work because everyone was leaving the gym and I didn’t want to do too much with my back. Will try to get them in tomorrow.

Pick Things Up

Owww! Feels like I’ve been run over by a truck, especially in my shoulders and upper back. Calves, legs, low back, biceps, and hands are all sore too. Another day at the gym though. I did some bottom squat hold, hammy stretch, air squats, and shoulder stretching to get a little loose.

Deadlift

Work up to 4×4 @ 80% and then add 5-10# to last weeks 20RM.

  • 8×45#
  • 8×155
  • 4×245
  • 4×315
  • 4×355
  • 4×385
  • 4x4x405
  • 20×295

Wasn’t sure how the 80% would feel but I made fine. Slightly shy of using the % off my all-time PR, but I haven’t pulled anything near that 515 in years. I decided to take a 20 pound jump on the 20 rep today. When I picked up the first rep I couldn’t believe how light it felt, but when I got to 5 I could tell it was going to be bad. In the last 5 reps I had to take it slower to make sure I got set and didn’t pull anything. What a burn!

Conditioning

15:00 EMOM

  • 14 Calorie Row
  • 35s Airdyne
  • 40 Double Unders

We took it easy here and used it as aerobic work. It did help to loosen things back up after the heavy deads.

7:00 AMRAP

3-6-9-12…

  • Dumbbell Thrusters (50#)
  • Deadlift (155#)

Since dumbbells are coming to the Open, figured we might as well get in some practice. The workout was written with 95# thrusters, so why not make it harder?! 🙂 Took my dumbbells to the gym and will try to use them here and there when they fit our workouts. Dumbbell thrusters are just as terrible as I remember. I did 3-6-9 unbroken, then 7-5 and 6-5-4. I was feeling the burn on the set of 12 deadlifts so did those 7-5 too like a pussy. Had to hold on to the bar in my set of 15 deads and really rush the last 5 reps, but made it just before the clock went off to finish the round of 15s. Probably not a very good score but I tied Bryan for once and it was good to get in some experience with the DBs. This was nasty after already having moved so much weight on the deadlifts.