Coffee and Squats

Legs are still sore as fuck. Won’t stop me from squatting though. So happy to be under a bar again! Quad seems to be fine with it so far. Out in the garage shortly after waking up.

IMG_5815

Jumped on the Air Dyne (AD2) for 5:00 and went 2.25 kilometers.

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 8×135#
  • 8×145#
  • 8×165#
  • 8×185#
  • 8×195#
  • 8×205#

Oh my, those first couple of reps felt terrible with the empty bar. Everything loosened up by the end of the 20 though. Put a focus on driving through with the hips today. I took a 2 minute rest between sets. Did a round of back stretches after finishing up. I’m enjoying these morning squats to get the day going.

Had a chiropractor appointment and then went to the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3×15 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • Bottom Squat Holds
  • Jump Rope & DU practice
  • Banded Walks (red band, monster, side shuffle)

A strand of the cable came loose on my RPM rope again. 😦 Guess I’ll have to switch to their coated cables. So I had to use my backup Rx rope.

Conditioning

25-20-15-10-5

  • DU (unbroken)
  • Sit-ups

Holy shit did I screw up a lot. I missed 3 times trying to get the 5! Took me 3:41. Terrible.

15:00 AMRAP
2-4-6-8…

  • Deadlift (75#)
  • OHS (75#)
  • Burpee

Kept it light and just used the one bar. It was enough. Got through the round of 16 plus 18 deadlifts and 11 overhead squats. I broke up the 14 OHS 8-6 and the 16 as 9-7. Everything else unbroken.

No B.S. Bench

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 2×185#
  • 2×205#
  • 2×225#
  • 2×235#
  • 2×240#
  • 2×245# (PR)
  • 2×250# (PR)

Last week before testing a max. With doubles and heavier weight it was perfect to get an idea going into next week. That 250# is my previous max and I didn’t struggle hitting it for a double. BOOM!

Knocked out Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before heading home and will hit some stretches tonight. I may start doing some other stuff on the days I stretch twice to mix it up.

Feeling Some Shoulders

My shoulders feel beat up and seems like some sort of impingement in the left one that has been creeping up over the last few weeks. Went in for the 10am class.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Ankle stretching
  • PVC pass-thrus
  • Shoulder stretching

Strength

Push Jerk

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×155#
  • 3×185#
  • 2×205#
  • 1×225#
  • 1×245#

Conditioning

20:00 Partner Workout

  • Buy-in: 200 American KBS (53#)
  • AMRAP – each do an entire round and then rest
    • 3 Power Cleans (115#)
    • 7 Push Jerks (115#)
    • 9 Deadlifts (115#)

Teamed up with Bryan. We alternated sets of 15 kettlebell swings and then each had a set of 10 at the end. We kept a steady pace on the bar and got 10 rounds each, plus I got 3 cleans before time ran out. The load was good and allowed us to keep the gas on. When the clean weight is lighter like this I’m starting to work on going right from the front rack to the ground instead of making that slight pause back at the thigh on the way down.

Felt like hitting some more jerks after trying to help some folks with muscle-ups.

More Strength

Push Jerk

  • 2×205#
  • 2×225#
  • 2×245#
  • 1×255# (PR match)

For some reason I thought I’d done 260 or 265 before or I would have added more weight to set a PR. Oh well. Strength is there for the jerks, just need confidence and technique work for my split. Definitely going to become a priority once the Open is over and I take a couple of easy weeks to heal up some of this lingering stuff I’m dealing with.

Hit some intervals around 5.

Ski Erg

This was a Hinshaw rowing working, but easily adapted to ski.

4 Rounds

  • 500m (2:02.4 pace target)
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 300m (1:54 pace target)
  • 3:00 rest

My times on the 500s were 2:02.2, 2:03.7, 2:01.6, and 2:01.4. I messed up in the 2nd round thinking I had to be under a 2:04. The 300s were 1:08.4, 1:08.3, 1:08.2, and 1:08.1. Not very hard to hit those paces and I don’t have a true 2k PR, so I based the paces off something 20 seconds faster than I’ve done.

Did Crossover Symmetry Recovery after and one of the bands snapped on my ghetto system!

  

Bench Day Bro

Rough getting out of bed this morning for some reason. Can feel those 100 wall balls in my quads.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

  • 250m Row
  • 15 Rapid Toe Touches
  • 5 Inch Worms

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×155#
  • 5×265#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×365#
  • 2×385#
  • 2×405#
  • 1×415#

Took it easy so I don’t tweak my back again during Open season.

Mobility

Took about 10 minutes to work on stuff for overhead squats. I did some shoulder stretching with bands.

Conditioning

16:00 EMOM (alternating)

  • 4 Power Snatch (135#)
  • 10 Box Jumps (30″)

It was supposed to be 8 OHS, but I didn’t want to push it with my right quad after all the wall balls yesterday, so I did the snatches instead. Did them all touch-n-go. Since it was only 10 box jumps, I went with the 30″ height. Didn’t rebound them, but did quick transitions.

Bench Bro

Week 3 of the bench program. Stayed after class to get it done and a few people joined me.

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×165#
  • 3×195#
  • 5x3x215#

Felt solid.

Midline

Did some planks at home at night.

3 Rounds

  • 2:00 Plank
  • 1:30 Rest

Shorter rest than I’ve been doing for long holds.

CrossFit Games Open Workouts 15.1 & 15.1a

Had the day off work today since House of Cards season 3 was also released and I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on getting any work done along with that and thinking about the Open. Got to the gym just before 5:30 and started warming up.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Stretching
  • Empty barbell work
  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 2 C&J (115#)
  • 1 C&J (145#)
  • 1 C&J (165#)

Open Workouts 15.1 & 15.1a

9:00 AMRAP

  • 15 T2B
  • 10 Deadlift (115#)
  • 5 Snatch (115#)

Immediately to…
6:00

  • Establish a max C&J

I came up with a strategy and couldn’t have executed it any better. Went 4-4-4-3 on all rounds of T2B except at the end when I went 5-3 to finish. I’d drop from the bar, take a step, turn around, and get right back up. I did all of the deadlifts unbroken, but slow and with controlled breathing as almost a rest period and so that I wouldn’t spike my heart rate. I did all single power snatches, but was right on the bar as soon as it settled on the ground. Grip didn’t become an issue and my hips were just starting to fatigue in the last full round. I think if I had gone 5-5-5 like I was thinking last night, I would have had to break them up more than that in about the 4th round. I ended up getting 5 full rounds plus 8 toes to bar for 158 total reps. My goal was to get 5 rounds, so I’m really happy with that.

I quickly put my shirt back on for the grip on the bar on my chest. Loaded up 207#. After waiting almost 2 minutes, I power cleaned it, and push jerked to get on the scoreboard. Then I changed up my original plan because I knew the jerks were going to be shaky. I had planned on doing 227-237-247, but wanted to make one less attempt than that. So I went right to 237#, which was the minimum I wanted to hit. I quickly changed into weightlifting shoes and put on the belt. Made that attempt with about 2 minutes left on the clock. Power clean again, but split jerk. Put 247# on the bar for the last attempt and waited until 20 seconds left. Power clean again and a pretty shaky split jerk, but I controlled it and made the lift. Success!

Really happy with my scores for week 1. All of the gymnastics work we’ve been doing on the bars has paid off. My grip wasn’t an issue at all and my T2B didn’t die out like they have in past years.

2015 Open Goals

I beat 26.1% of the men in 2012, 80% in 2013, and 82.9% in 2014. It’s been a nice climb. My goal for this year is to beat 86% of the men. I’m not sure how the percentages might end up being different due to the scaled division, but that may not be a high enough goal. If that’s the case, I’ve had the number of beating 88% in my head. We shall see what the leaderboard looks like after week 1, especially with 2 very different workouts in the scoring mix.

Burnin’ Burpees

Didn’t make it up for the 9am since I was up late watching the Duke – North Carolina game. Little conditioning work in my office before lunch.

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Target Burpees

I used the ceiling and did a double palm touch to it. Wasn’t wearing shoes and was about an inch shy of being able to touch with my finger tips, so the palm slap should have been higher than the 6″ standard. All rounds done in 26 seconds or less. My lungs were really burning after that!

Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • Inch Worms
  • Hip Stretch
  • Child’s Pose
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×155#
  • 5×265#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×375#
  • 3×415#
  • 3×445#
  • 3×465#
  • 3×395#

Felt my low back pull during the 3rd rep with 465. Sonofabitch!! Worked up a little faster in weight than I normally do for some reason. Hopefully I feel ok tomorrow.

Skill

Mini-Flight Simulator
10-15-20-25-30-25-20-15-10

  • Unbroken DU

I think I had 2, maybe 3 total misses. Took me 2:55. Tried a few triple unders after catching my breath.

Conditioning

21-15-9

  • Deadlift (205#)
  • Box Jump (24″)
  • T2B

Went 12-9, 9-6, and 9 on the deadlifts. Stepped down on every box jump. I don’t know what it is about jumping after deadlifts, but the legs just don’t want to work and I didn’t feel like biffing it on the box. I went 8-7-6, 9-6, and 7-2 on toes to bars. Good burner workout. Finished in 6:28.

Made sure to get back on the Reverse Hyper for another 3x10x210# after those deadlifts.

Failure to Fail

Up a little earlier than normal so I could get in some work before the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • 2,000m Row – 8:13
  • 2×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Gymnastics

E45S

  • 2 Bar MU

I set the clock for 20 rounds and planned to go until failure, but never failed, so I did a 21st round when the clock ran out. It was about time for class to start anyway.

After that initial set in the video, I concentrated more on keeping my feet together and I’m constantly battling to trying to fight to keep the system tight.

I did some zombie kicks during warm-up of class and then deadlifts with 155-245-315 each for sets of 4. Mixed in a couple of box jumps too.

XWOD

  • 4-4-4-4-4-4 Deadlift (365#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1 Power Step Box Jump (2s-40.5″, 1s-44″)

I hesitated on a few jumps, which is stupid at those heights. Afraid of this damn quad!

Midline

I was behind everyone else coming from the XWOD so only did one weighted plank with 45# for 2:00 instead of the programmed stuff.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 8 Pull-ups
  • 8 American KBS (62#)
  • 16 Step-ups (24″)

All unbroken. Pull-ups were rough on the hands after all of the muscle-ups, but held on and no rips. Step-ups were a little rough on the quad, but I still tried to evenly distribute the reps between the legs. Did 5 full rounds plus 8 pull-ups and 6 swings. Tried to minimize my kip on the pull-ups and keep the system tight. Can always be better.

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.

Able to Pull Big Again

Got in a quick garage workout early this morning. Started around 7:30 I think.

Ski Erg

4 Rounds

  • 1000m @ 3-6 seconds faster than 2k pace (1:58-2:01)
  • 2:00 Rest

Tough when you’re not really awake yet. I started off shooting for the bottom end of the pace goal, but realized that would be harder than I wanted to work so early in the morning, so I backed off and ended up with a pace right around the middle of the goal overall. My times were 4:00.9, 3:59.9, 3:59.3, and 3:58.5. I like to try for improved times over each round in something like this.

IMG_5617

Gymnastics

5:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Strict Ring Dips
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

Wasn’t going at any crazy pace. Just wanted to get in some work and use the clock instead of doing 5 slow sets or something like that. Got through 5 rounds plus 5 dips, with all sets being unbroken.

Went to the 5:30 class and got there early so I could get in a good warm-up before deadlifts.

Warm-up

3 Rounds NFT

  • 350m Row
  • 10×210# Reverse Hypers

Strength

Deadlifts

  • 5×155#
  • 5×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×355#
  • 3×385#
  • 3×405#
  • 3×425#
  • 3×445#
  • 3×465# (PR)

Puts my estimated max back over 500#. Booyah! I haven’t been able to pull weights like this in over a year. Deadlift is fun again.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 3:00 AMRAP (“Cindy” rounds)
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats
  • 1:30 Rest

I was at 4+5 after the first round, then 8+2 after 2 rounds, and 11+28 total.

Accessory

  • 20 Turkish Get-ups (44# KB)

I did 2 per arm and then switched sides, so 5 sets per side.

Damn Quad

My quad is very angry after the squats yesterday. Played in a cornhole tournament last night, but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

cornhole-courts

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row – 3:59
  • Stretching

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • Max T2B
  • 1:00 Rest

I did 25-13-11-10, which is a new max set PR and better than the 22-12-12-10 I did last time.

Conditioning

A fun MAP training session today.

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 150m Row
  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 10 Russian KBS (53#)

Did 6 rounds plus 140 meters. The push-ups started to get slower each round.

3:00 Rest

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 5 Burpees
  • 7 Box Jump, step down (24″)
  • 9 Deadlifts (135#)

I thought I was going to cry after the first box jump it hurt my quad so much. It seemed to loosen up or I was favoring the other leg a ton after a few reps. Completed 6 rounds plus the burpees and box jumps.

3:00 Rest

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 30 DU
  • 5 Strict Ring Dips
  • 10 Plate Russian Twists (35#)

Felt the quad a bit when I started double unders, but turned out fine. Finished 7 rounds plus 12 dubs.

I really wanted to OHS but I couldn’t do an air squat without wincing and transferring most of my weight to my left leg.

Skill

3 Sets

  • 40 Shoulder Taps