The Seven

Feeling better today. Went in for the 9am class instead of the 8am Competitors WOD because the Hero WOD sounded like fun and I could get another hour of sleep.

Warm-up

  • 600m Run
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5 Push-ups
    • 10 Air Squats
    • 10 Leg Swings (Front to back, Side-to-Side, each leg)
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus

WOD

“The Seven”
7 Rounds

  • 7 K2E
  • 7 Deadlifts (245#)
  • 7 Burpees
  • 7 KBS (70#)
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 7 HSPU
  • 7 Thrusters (115#)

When it’s a Hero WOD you know you’re in for a suck fest. The first round wasn’t bad, but after that it was brutal. This WOD actually starts off with the HSPU and then thrusters but because of a big class size we paired up to share bars, so I started with the K2E. Rx for thrusters was 135#, so I scaled it down to 115#. I did all of my K2E, deadlifts, burpees, and KBS unbroken. Pull-ups were usually 4-3, but I think I got all 7 in round 1. HSPU were unbroken except for my 6th round where I went 5-2. Thrusters unbroken until round 6 where I wont 4-3. We had to stop at 33:53 because the next class was starting. At that point I had completed 6 full rounds and 3 of the pull-ups, so I only had 18 more reps to finish. Great WOD, but brutal. I think I did the first round in 3:11, but slowed down a ton after that.

Hike

Went out to Piestewa Peak and did the Summit Trail wearing the 20# weight vest. Going up while wearing that thing is horrible. The last 10-15 minutes with the vest is absolutely brutal, but I kept chugging along without stopping. Overall went 2.05 miles in 58:59 with 1,024 feet of climb.

Back to Back Squats

Coming down with the sniffles today, probably due to the cold nights because the heating situation where I’m staying sucks. It started warming back up today though, so that should be the end of the freezing temperatures. Shoulders were really looking forward to resting today after a few days of hitting them hard. Went in for the 5:15pm class.

Warm-up

  • Run 800m
  • 10 Air Squats
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 10 Burpees

Strength

5 Sets of 5-7 Back Squats, 2-3 minutes of rest between sets

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 7 @ 135#
  • 7 @ 165#
  • 7 @ 195#
  • 5 @ 225#
  • 5 @ 250#

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a lot of heavy back squats like this. Back at Survival Fitness we pretty much switched away from them to box squats a few months back. Nice to hit them hard again. Based on my previous 1RM, my goal was to hit 250 for 5 reps, which is supposed to put me at around 290 for a 1RM (and those calculators are usually a little low in my experience). I didn’t think I was going to get it after the set at 225#. It was a fight, but I got all 5 reps.

WOD

21-15-9

  • Deadlifts (255#)
  • Box Jumps (30″)

The Rx was 295# on the deadlifts and after getting light-headed on Saturday with 3 sets of 7 at 315# I knew scaling it would be smart for me. I broke the deadlifts down into 7-7-7, 5-5-5, and 5-4. My box jumps were pretty much unbroken, just getting set if I lost balance coming down off the box, but no rebounding since it was a high box. Finished in 6:43 and felt good about it.

Finisher

Core MB Complex, alternating with a partner
2 Rounds each

  • 10 Chest passes
  • 10 Overhead passes
  • 10 Side Tosses R
  • 10 Side Tosses L
  • 10 Straight up

I paired up with Zach and we used a 20# MB. Wow, what a burn that was!

First Competitors WOD at CrossFit Full Strength

Got up bright and early to head in for the 8am competitors WOD. Everyone who goes tries to Rx as much as possible and the quality of the athletes pushes everyone to train harder. Wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since the WOD wasn’t posted ahead of time.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 5 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 4 Deadlifts (315#)

WOD

This is event #6 from the 2012 Regionals

  • 3 Rounds
    • 7 Deadlifts (345#/225#)
    • 7 MU
  • 3 Rounds
    • 21 Wall Balls (10′, 20#/14# MB)
    • 21 T2B
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
  • 28 Burpee Over the Box Jumps (24″/20″)
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
  • 3 MU

2012-regional-events

WOW! As Chayet was writing the WOD on the board we all were getting scared. Yes, that’s all one workout. No rest times in there.

I decided to only use 315# for the deadlifts and did jumping bar muscle-ups, but went Rx on everything else. We used loaded up barbells for the farmer’s carry, which was quite the challenge because you had to find a good balance point in each bar.

I got pretty light-headed in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the deadlifts, so I’m glad I didn’t go the extra 30#. My low back was tight as soon as the WOD was over. Even doing the jumping bar muscle-ups wasn’t easy, but got through them. I broke the wall balls down into 11-10 each round and the T2B went 11-5-5, 11-5-5, 8-5-3-2-2-1 I think. Hips were kind of shot for that last round. The farmer’s carry was a lot easier than I expected as far as picking up the weight and carrying it, but the balance made it a challenge. Suffered through the burpee box jumps slow and steady without stopping. Forgot about the 3 more reps at the end, but rushed over and knocked them out on the bar. Finished in 21:29. Compare that to Rich’s top time of 12:22, which was obviously Rx.

Hiking

In the afternoon I went out for a hike and did 4.71 miles in 1:40:49.

54 Inches

I had a massage from Cora earlier today, which usually translates into good deadlifting and today was no exception. Went to open gym.

Warm-up

Did a bunch of jump roping and double unders.

Strength

5×3 Deadlift

Warmed up with 10 at 135# and then hit 3 reps at 225#, 315#, 345#, 365#, and 385#. My goal for the day was to hit 385# which is supposed to translate into about a 425# 1RM, which is 10# over my current max. The reps at 385# were pretty easy so Matt convinced me to go for 405#. Once I got it moving it wasn’t much of a problem. But I started to lose the grip on the way up in my second rep and just couldn’t hang on through the 3rd one, so I had to bail on it. The strength was there though, so that’s good.

My low back didn’t feel very good on the set at 345#, so I was kind of worried, but the rest of the way it felt fine. 405# for 2 reps is supposed to come out to 430# for a 1RM and 3 reps to 445#, so I should be able to make a nice jump the next time around. Not sure I’ll be able to get it done next week since I leave for Arizona.

Explosion Training

Casey and I rigged up a box with mats and started doing max height jumps over a PVC pipe. I made it over 54″ without much trouble, but then my footwork got all messed up and my head got in the way. Was fun to do and a lot safer than jumping that high on to boxes.

WOD

14:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 4 Power Cleans (165#)
  • Evens: 10 Pull-ups

I wanted to get in some Olympic lifting work since we hadn’t done any all week. Was only planning on going for 10 minutes, but it felt good, so I added 4 more minutes. The cleans started to get tough, but overall this wasn’t that taxing on the cardio, which is fine since those heavy deadlifts and high jumps took a lot out of me. I’m sure tomorrow will be a nice long met-con anyway.

Running On Fumes

I was wide awake at 4:30am. After laying there for another 15 minutes, I crawled out of bed and put on the coffee. Was I really going to go to the 5:45am class? Yep!

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Standing Bicycles
  • 15s Butt Kicks

Strength

5×5 Deadlift

I went with 10 reps at 135#, then 5 each at 225#, 275#, 315#, and 345#. Once I had 345# moving, the reps were smooth and pretty easy. Now that I look back in my book, I made a mistake and should hove gone heavier. I got 345# for 5 reps with a 3″ deficit a few weeks ago. Oh well, it saved me from having to use more weight in the WOD I guess.

WOD

24:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 5 Deadlifts (175#) & 7 Burpees
  • Evens: 15 Russian KBS (53# KB)

Wasn’t bad at all. Easily completed all of the reps within the 30 second goal of each minute. My low back did start to get a little tight, but I was already feeling it some from the C&Js yesterday.

Finisher

100 AbMat Sit-ups

Flew through these in 3:34, beating my time of 4:03 from October 2nd. Good way to finish off the workout.

To be honest, it was kind of fun working out with a different group of people and the early morning didn’t bother me once I was up and moving. Fun to be in a class taught by Cora too. I’ll probably need a nap at some point later today.

How About Some Deadlifts?

Was thinking maybe I’d take the day off, but felt good when I woke up, so went to 9am.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 20 Russian KBS (30# KB)
  • 6 Burpees

The swings were so easy so I concentrated completely on the hip drive.

Strength

5×3 Deficit (3″) Deadlifts

Warmed up with 10 @ 135# and then used 225#, 295#, 325#, 345#, and 365# for my working sets. Solid.

WOD

12:00 EMOM

  • 5 Deadlifts (255# – use 70% of 3RM)
  • 7 V-ups

Holy shit did that 255# get heavy. It was hard to get the first rep going in the last 4 or 5 rounds. Powered through the v-ups without much trouble, but took my time on them in the final minute.

255lb-deadlifts

Finisher

30-20-10

  • Box Jumps (24″)
  • HR Push-ups

Didn’t take more than a minute or two of rest after the WOD and “jumped” right into this. Started out without rebounding, but then saw Cora rebounding so I had to step it up. Couldn’t let her beat me in my strength, especially since she probably has the upper hand in the push-ups.

Explosive Work

Went over to Kevin’s garage tonight to work on some new explosive stuff.

Lightened Deficit Deadlifts

With a black band anchored overhead so we basically had 100% weight at the top of the lift for the lockout

  • 5 @ 295#
  • 5 @ 365#
  • 5 @ 365#
  • 5 @ 415#

The black bands gave up a lot of help at the bottom of the lift, so that we could explode up from the bottom. I used lifting straps on the last round and still almost lost the weight. Had to kind of regrip after the 3rd rep.

Then we did 50 speed 1/4 back squats with #225. You do all 50 in a row, but every other set of 10 you go up on to your tip toes, starting with the first 10. That’s a long time to have that much weight on your back and by the end of the 50 it’s really a lot.

Next we did 100 good mornings. I used 95# and broke it down into 50-20-15-15. Tough. My legs started to get wobbly after these.

To finish things off we did 5 sets of 3 kneeling jumps. The first set was just jumping up to our feet, then using a sand-filled PVC pipe to do cleans. Next I think we did a couple sets for broad jump distance and finally one set with the heavy PVC on our back and to just get back to our feet.

Barbell Complex

Up and at ’em for the 9am today. I’m sore from Saturday’s death by pull-ups and from bench pressing yesterday. We are stepping away from strength for the week to recover and confuse the body. Good timing since it’s Thanksgiving week. My cardio and endurance has been a bit lacking, so this is a good chance to kick it back up a notch.

Warm-up

21-15-9

  • Squat Jumps
  • HR Push-ups
  • Leg Raises

WOD

30:00 Partner AMRAP (alternating rounds)

  • 5 Deadlifts
  • 5 Bent Rows
  • 5 Hang Power Cleans
  • 5 Back Squats
  • 5 Good Mornings

I was paired up with Kevin and we had 115# on the bar. He had to bow out, switching to a lighter bar and slowing down around 10 minutes, so I switched to doing a round every other minute on the minute. I think I had 4 rounds in during the partner portion and then I worked the last two minutes in a row to end up with a total of 14 rounds plus 5 deadlifts, 5 bent rows, and 5 hang power cleans. It may have only been 13 full rounds because I’m not sure where we made the switch.

After the first couple of rounds I fell into a rhythm and was consistently getting 55 second rounds. I had never done a good morning in my life so that took some time getting used to. I smoked through the hang power cleans early on, but in those last few rounds it was a struggle to get that bar up. I’m left feeling sick after this WOD, that’s for sure.

Finisher

3:00 AMRAP of Burpees

I got 48 of them, with 16 in each minute I think, so pretty consistent. Not bad with only a few minutes of rest after the WOD.

400 Club

I had a deep tissue massage today at 1 and then worked out at 5 to get a good chunk of rest before our 1RM deadlifts.

Warm-up

5:00 Jump Rope Singles

After always doing DUs it’s hard to switch over and do singles with a speed rope. Seems so slow. I lost count around 70 and figured it didn’t really matter how many anyways.

Strength

Find 1RM Deadlift

My goal was to hit 400# today. A month ago I pulled 385#, but couldn’t get 395# moving at all. Warmed up with 6 at 225#, 3 at 275# and then started on my singles. Did 315#, 345#, and 365#. Kevin did 405# on his attempt so I said why the hell not and got it easily. Went one more time and got 415# too. That’s a 30# increase in a month and 100# in the last 7 months!

WOD

20:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4…

  • Deadlifts (115#)
  • Front Squats (115#)
  • Over the Bar Burpees

Around the 7th or 8th minute this really hits you and I had to start breaking things up a bit. Completed 11 full rounds plus 12 deadlifts and 5 front squats. I didn’t expect the deadlifts to get so hard at that weight. Fully expected the front squats to be difficult as the rep counts increased and they were.

No way I was staying for the 6pm Olympic lifting class after this one. My lower back is wiped out.

A Date with Diane in my Garage

Today’s WOD at Survival Fitness was 100 Power Cleans with 5 burpees on the minute every minute. I had already done “Grace” twice, 50 Curtiss Ps, and other cleans to get the bar in the rack position this week, so I figured it wasn’t a good idea to go in for the OLY class or the WOD. That’s ok though because it let me do some stuff I’ve been wanting to do.

Strength #1

4 Rounds

  • 5-8 Weighted Push-ups (45# plate on back)
  • 30s Weighted Plank on hands (45# plate on back)
  • 2m Rest

I was by myself, so getting the plate on my back wasn’t the easiest. After the last push-up, it was straight into the plank. I was able to get all 8 reps during each set of push-ups. Probably should have gone to exhaustion on that last set.

Strength #2

5×5 Deadlifts

I warmed up with a set of 10 @ 135# and then used 225#, 275#, 305#, 325#, and 350# for my working sets. These felt really good. It was slow getting the 350# started, but the reps weren’t a problem and my grip never felt like it was giving out. According to a 1 rep max calculator I should be able to do 394#, so maybe I’ll be ready for 400# in 2 weeks when we test it. I made sure to take 2-3 minutes of rest between each set.

WOD

mini “Diane”
12-9-6

  • Deadlifts (225#)
  • HSPUs

I did this same thing back in June in a time of 4:49, but I had to resort to using an AbMat an even kipping with the AbMat for the HSPUs. Today I didn’t use an AbMat at all and finished in 5:18. The set of 6 at the end was brutal. I had to kip one at a time and come down off the wall to rest. I’m sure the weighted pull-ups and planks didn’t exactly help with the arm exhaustion. The deadlifts weren’t a big deal, but they do fry your back a bit, making it hard to keep a good position on the wall. I broke the set of 9 into 5 and 4, but the 12 and 6 were unbroken.

It had been at least a couple of months since I’ve done any HSPUs, so it was give them some attention.

Finisher

Tabata DUs

These are no joke, especially after doing the HSPUs.