Tag: CrossFit Games Open

17.2 First Attempt

My upper back and shoulders were tight yesterday and legs were a little tired for part of the day. Feeling refreshed and ready to go today.

My standings after 17.1 were:

  • Open: 53,684 / 194,167 (27.6%)
  • Masters 35-39: 8,307 / 36,746 (22.6%)

I have some climbing to do. Hopefully that’ll be my worst placing. I’ve already dropped 6 pounds since that workout so cleaning up my diet is quickly leaning me back out.

Warm-up

  • Banded shoulder opening and stretching
  • Bottom squat hold
  • Air Squats
  • 3:00 Row
  • Various testing of DB positioning

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.

Glad I figured out how to better link bar muscle-ups together last week! Definitely work my grips for this one. Had on knee sleeves but forgot to pull them up until after the first set of lunges. Jackass!

My steps on the lunges sucked. I stretched it out a couple of times but was just shy most of the rounds. I need to stretch out each step a little bit to speed those up. I did 4×4 on both rounds of T2B. Went 4-3-1 on the first 2 rounds of cleans and then 4-4 to get a faster tiebreaker. All doubles on the first time through muscle-ups. When I got back to them I started with a triple, got another, but missed the 2nd, and I think I missed another single. Hit the wall right there at the end. So finished with 116 reps and a tiebreak of 9:36. Michelle actually kept nice splits for me throughout.

My thumbs were rubbing on the dumbbells a bit during the lunges and I asked Alex to grab me a piece of tape. In that 4th set I did set them down after 25 feet and tried to quickly put the tape on. I’ll have to remember to tape up with my stretchy tape next attempt to save time there too.

17-2-1.jpg

Like I said, my grip and forearms were fine throughout, after, and now back home typing this post. I think I can make up time by pushing the lunge steps longer to make sure I get there without stretching the final one or having to take a last short one. Then obviously doing that 4th set unbroken too. Should be able to do 6-5-5 on the T2B since it’s only 2 rounds with plenty of rest in between. Cleans will be 6-2 or 7-1. I think I’ll stick to doubles on the muscle-ups because I did end up hitting the wall right at the end, though I was rushing a bit. I’m worried if I try to do triples I will blow it out before I’m through the first 16.

Should be an easy redo. This is one of the more fun Open workouts I’ve done.

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.

 

Just The Thrusters

Got a headache Saturday night (maybe from too much computing) and had it into Sunday afternoon. Should have done something last night, but I was a bum. Forced myself out in the garage today, finally, after 7pm.

Thruster Attack – Week 2 Workout 1

  • 16 rounds
    • 20s Thrusters (25#, 8 reps)
    • 10s Rest
  • 4 min rest
  • 16 rounds
    • 20s Thrusters (25#, 8 reps)
    • 10s Rest

I tried not to keep an eye on the clock during the first “set” but you kind of have to or risk getting into your rest time. In the 2nd set I turned away from the clock and it worked again. I finally gave in and when I turned to look, there was only 1 round to go. Forgot how much the shoulders start burning with that 67% increase in weight from week 1.

No warm-up. No strength work. No classic CrossFit met-con. Just grind out a lot of reps.

Excited to see the addition of the 35-39 Master Division for the 2017 Games season and a change of location to Madison, Wisconsin. Will be neat to see how I stack up. Nice that CrossFit finally released the schedule early instead of waiting until January.

The Worst

I hated 14.5 two years and said I’d never do it again. One of my least favorite workouts of all-time. Then Castro surprises us all and makes it the repeat for 16.5, bringing back bar-facing burpees for the second time in this Open season. With that said, I actually went in with a positive attitude about it, hoping to hit somewhere around 14:00.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • GHD Heel Drives
  • 3:00 Air Dyne
  • 5 Thrusters (45#)

2016 CrossFit Games Open 16.5

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

  • Thrusters (95#)
  • Bar-facing Burpees

Did it in 15:12 two years ago, when did the thrusters in 8-7-6, 7-6-5, 6-5-4, 6-6, 5-4, 6, and 3. figured I could push those more this year and I easily did by doing 12-9, 10-9 (yep, did an extra rep, because math is hard during a workout and I couldn’t hear my judge), 9-6, 7-5, 9, 6, and 3. So I eliminated 4 sets+breaks and felt a million times better through the thrusters. I never stopped moving in the burpees but they got so unbearably slow. How slow? I didn’t even PR, but was 5 seconds worse with a 15:17. 😦 I was wrecked after it was over, so know I had nothing left to push any harder than I did. I can’t really think of anything I’d change. I just need more fitness. I am 8-10 pounds heavier than I was 2 years ago, so I’ll make that my excuse. haha

I did another 3:00 on the Air Dyne to cool down after I recovered some.

after-16-5-beers
Recovery Drinks

That’s a wrap on my 5th CrossFit Games Open. Don’t think I’m going to finish at a higher percentile than last year, which will be the first time I haven’t improved my percentile placing. I’ll do an update after scoring is finished this week. I need more fitness for that 35-39 Masters division next year! 😉

Proud to say it was a complete #OneAndDone year for all 5 workouts. I really wanted to do 16.4 again and can’t wait to try 16.3 when my shoulder is healed and I can string bar muscle-up together again.

16.4

Was feeling pretty good about this one when it was announced. I’m fine with deadlifts, have grown to enjoy wall balls a bit, and I’ll take a rower any day.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3:00 Air Dyne
  • 3×10 GHD Heel Drives
  • Deadlifts
    • 10×45#
    • 5×135
    • 5×185
  • Bar Hang

CrossFit Open Workout 16.4

13:00 AMRAP

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

split-to-calsMy plan was:

  • Start with 10s on deadlift with 15 seconds rest. Decrease if it got bad.
  • Do 5 sets of 11 wall balls with 10 seconds of rest so it was similar to a Tabata.
  • Hit about a 1,200 cal/hr pace on the rower.
  • Doubles on HSPU.

I was really expecting the deadlifts to be a lot worse. I stuck to the plan and ended up with 4 sets of 10, then 8-7 to finish. Wall balls were right on plan as well with no problem. I felt more comfortable at 1,100 on the rower and kicked it in for the last 5 calories. Did 6 or so doubles on the wall and was feeling good so did a couple of triples. Then tried to do some quick singles or maybe even some doubles towards the end. Never failed a handstand push-up until the very last one I was trying to get in to beat the clock. I ended up with 27 handstand push-ups for a total rep count of 192 and a tiebreak time of 8:34. So much time to do the HSPU!!

Looking back I really think I over-paced this one. I could have gotten away with 10 second rests on the deadlifts and maybe 3 sets of 15 plus a set of 10 wall balls. I should have pushed the row to be a little uncomfortable too and got up on the wall quicker. I realistically think I could have been off the rower in under 8:00, which would give me another 2-4 HSPU probably. I really expected those deadlifts to get me a lot worse or the wall balls to add up after the deadlifts, but I didn’t have a problem with either one.

I was hoping to average 3:00 for the first 3 movements and had no trouble beating that. My rep goal was 185-195, which was in the 80-90 percentile from the early scoring, so I’m not disappointed at all. 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.

One more workout this year!

More Hanging

More goddamn gymnastics in 16.3! I thought for sure we’d see a break from it. I’m not surprised by the bar muscle-up being added this year though. Having to do single C2B in week one used up a lot of my time in the workout, but bar muscle-ups singles may pace me out better over the course of this one. Trying to make the best of my injury limitation. 🙂 If I average 30 seconds on snatches and 30 seconds on bar muscle-ups (plus transition time), 6 rounds seems like a good goal and 7 being something I’d be thrilled with. I’m just not sure how the muscle-ups are going to feel on my shoulder. I’ve only done 1 in the last 2-3 months.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • GHD Heel Drives
  • Bar Taps
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 3 Power Snatch (75#)

I did a couple of muscle-ups trying to see if I could string them together. I think I could have gotten through it, but why risk it and I’m pretty sure I would have ripped by the end even with the gymnastics grips on. Once this shoulder heals I need to figure out what to do with my grip because I can feel it starting to tear when I swing down, even on a first set.

CrossFit Open 16.3

7:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Power Snatches (75#)
  • 3 Bar Muscle-ups

16-3-splitsIt went really well with the singles. Much better than expected. I was able to drop straight down from the top so didn’t have to move much. I had a nice steady pace on the snatches with no problem going unbroken every round. I took a split second pause at the top and opened up my grip on every rep. That worked so well and my grip was fine throughout, where the other guys’ grips were smoked. I barely had enough energy left to just fly on that final set of snatches. Made it through 6 rounds plus 8 snatches with a tiebreaker of 6:39. Happy. 🙂

With the exception of round 1 my splits were a lot more consistent than I expected. Round 1 is going to be lower, since you don’t have a transition from the the top of the last bar muscle-up, to drop, and get to your barbell. Measured in seconds my rounds were 52-66-68-73-70-70, so only one was over the 70 second average needed to get 6 rounds and, other than the first, they varied by only 7 seconds. That might be the best pacing I’ve ever done.

We had a great atmosphere in the gym with Jason, Bryan, and I battling it out. I thought Bryan had lapped me because he was doing all of his muscle-ups unbroken, but I guess he was just a bit ahead of me. I almost caught him on my final sprint, but was 1 rep shy. Then we got to see Michelle and Jess get their first muscle-ups, with it finally clicking for Michelle and then she got 4 more in the workout. Probably the funnest Open workout I’ve been a part of. This will be a neat one to retest once my shoulder is better.

 

On to next week…

 

CrossFit Open 16.2

Everyone was surprised how sore our upper backs were from the snatch and overhead squat workout Wednesday. I thought my quads might be really sore due to how much they were burning through the second half of that workout.

Got to the gym around 5 to get warmed up. Was excited for this one after watching the announcement last night.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2×10 Heel Drives
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Cleans
    • 3×45#
    • 3×95
    • 3×135
    • 2×185
    • 2×205

CrossFit Games Open Workout 16.2

  • Beginning on a 4 minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 15 Squat Cleans, 135 / 85 lb.
  • If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 13 Squat Cleans, 185 / 115 lb.
  • If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 11 Squat Cleans, 225 / 145 lb.
  • If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 9 Squat Cleans, 275 / 175 lb.
  • If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 7 Squat Cleans, 315 / 205 lb.
  • Stop at 20 minutes.

A couple of keys to remember for scoring:

  • When finishing each set of double unders, mark the time on the clock, which is used as a tiebreaker.
  • If you happen to be one of the small percentage of people in the world that can finish everything, your score is your total time. Otherwise, score is number of reps completed for the rest of us mortals.

 

OMG! Got done with round 1 at about 3:00. Went 11-8-6 T2B, unbroken DU, and fast clean singles. Started 5-5 and then I don’t even know what after that. Some 3s and 4s I think. Tripped once or twice on DU. Pretty quick on the single cleans again. I was somewhere under a minute left I think, so that gave me 5:00 to work on round 3. At this point I couldn’t breathe. I jumped up on the bar and holy fuck! I did a lot of singles with way too long of breaks. I was shot. Managed to get in some triples at the end. Those T2B took me forever. Had about a minute left for the DU and finished with 6 seconds on the clock (11:54 tiebreak). Didn’t even touch 225#. I really wanted to get at least one because it would have been a nice jump on the leaderboard over all the tiebreaks that couldn’t lift that weight. No way in hell I’m doing it again though. I’d rather do 16.1 over.

I was absolutely wrecked! Every time I got up and walked around I got light-headed for the next hour.

More Than One

Watched the 16.1 Open Announcement last night. When Castro started off saying it was a new movement I got so excited, hoping it was pistols. Did not see overhead walking lunges coming. Then when he said chest-to-bar pull-ups my heart sank. I haven’t been able to do pull-ups or muscle-ups in 6 weeks because of my shoulder. I still didn’t try until I got to the gym tonight. I was able to pull-up fine, but coming through on the butterfly hurt like a bitch. Stringing together kipping was uncomfortable, so my new game plan was to do all singles. Better than having to do 1 and stop like I feared!

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • GHD Bridge Stretch
  • Thoracic OH Stretch on Medicine Ball
  • Bar Taps
  • OH Walking Lunges

CrossFit Open 16.1

20:00 AMRAP

  • 25′ Overhead Walking Lunge (95#)
  • 8 Bar-facing Burpees
  • 25′ Overhead Walking Lunge (95#)
  • 8 C2B Pull-ups

Wanted to start out feeling slow after seeing people come out guns blazing. Something over 2:00 was the goal and it was 2:06 without actually feeling that slow. I knew I was in trouble at that point. The singles on chest-to-bar really slowed me down. Each round seemed to gradually get slower, especially on the burpees, but also picking the bar back up. I went out and bought some cheap knee sleeves which really helped save my knees and felt pretty good. Wore wrist wraps too, but holding the bar overhead was actually the easiest part of the workout. My shoulders didn’t even feel fatigued from that. The burpees got so slow and with an extra step in there as time went on. I did go 3-3-2 kipping pull-ups on my last round to hurry through and finished with 7 rounds plus one section of lunges for a score of 183. I’ll take it for a long workout and my shoulder problem. Better than the 19 I was scared I might have to take. Going to be sore for a few days!

I tried one bar muscle-up after recovering to see how it would feel. I can get up there no problem, but coming down sucks. Definitely would need to do singles there if Castro programs them.

Final 2015 CrossFit Games Open Numbers

The score validation deadline passed last night, so final rankings are in. I’m the 13,195th man alive! 😎 There were 141,884 men who submitted at least one score, putting me in the top 9.3%. Easily beats my goal of top 14%. My placing is higher than 2014 and there were more participants this year. I guess you can say I’m fitter.

I’m really happy overall with my performance in the workouts. 15.2 was a disappointment since it was worse than my score in 14.2, but the other scores made up for it. I’m excited to try 15.1 and 15.3 again in the next few months because there are some things I’d do different.

Now I’m enjoying not having the pressure of the Open workout each week and just going with the flow. Putting a lot of effort into rehabbing these injuries.

first-run-2015-shoesAnother decent day temperature wise, so I decided to go out for a run. Did Crossover Symmetry Activation first though.

  • 1.5 Mile Run (15:28)
  • 125 Walking Lunges (4:40)
  • 0.45 Mile Run (5:43)
  • 125 Walking Lunges (4:34)
  • 1.37 Mile Run (16:22)

The entire thing was a total of 3.51 miles and took 45:47. The times and distances above are estimates I pulled out of the RunKeeper log, which I kept running as just one workout. I had planned to put in some walking lunges but didn’t know how many until I got into it. I came back to feet together on every step instead of stepping through into the next lunge. Was a little slower per step, but allowed me to do each set unbroken compared to yesterday where I had to take a lot of short breaks. Felt great to be outside!

When I got home I did a little core work.

4 Rounds

  • 30s Hollow Rocks
  • 30s Rest

Then a round of Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap. I’ll do some back stretching tonight.