Tag: Double Under

2013 CrossFit Games Open Workout 13.3

Originally a few of us planned to do 13.3 on Friday, but our quads were still blown up from Wednesday’s squats. Better to take the extra day of rest and hit it hard today. Adam and I did it side-by-side, which helped us to push each other throughout the entire workout.

Open Workout 13.3

Muscle-up Bruising
Bruising from the rings. Is much darker than the picture shows.

12:00 AMRAP

  • 150 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 90 DU
  • 30 MU

My strategy going in was to do sets of 25 to start, then drop down to 20s, 15s, and 10s when I needed to, depending on feel. I think I did 2 sets of 25, a set of 20, and then the rest was a blur. When I broke a set, I stood up against the wall with the ball on my chest, in order to rest my arms and not have to do extra work to pick the ball back up. My strategy couldn’t have worked any better and my splits were even better than I was expecting.

I crushed my “Karen” PR by over 2 and a half minutes, finishing in 6:14. Grabbed a quick swig of water because my mouth was so dry, and knocked out 40 DU. I think I did 3 more sets to finish them out with a split of 8:19. More water and deep breathing. I didn’t even get up on the rings until close to 9:00 on the clock because I wanted to rest and make the most of every attempt. A failed MU is really taxing on the system. I managed to get 7 MU with one failure. After I got my first one I was so happy and the rest was gravy! I’ve never even done 7 MU in one day, let alone in a WOD. Hell, this was my first time even doing a MU in a WOD. Last year I had about 10 or 15 seconds to attempt a MU so this is a huge improvement for me.

On to 13.4…

Hike

Went out for a quick 1.83 mile hike in 31:08, hoping it limits the typical “Karen quads” that can be brutal for 2-3 days.

Fuck the False Grip

All of the squatting from the last two days is catching up to my legs. After the announcement of 13.3 and looking at some videos, I knew I needed to give no-false grip MU a try, so I went in around 8am this morning to open gym.

Warm-up

  • 50-40-30-20-10 DU
  • 30-25-20-15-10 Sit-ups

They were doing “Annie” in class today but doing that many sit-ups would wreck my core a bit, so Emily suggested I cut the number of sit-ups. I only missed a DU near the beginning of the 50 and right away in the 20, otherwise all unbroken. Finished in 5:30, so would have been a PR “Annie” for me had I done the extra 50 sit-ups.

Skill

I raised the rings and jumped on! First I did some hip to ring pulls with a kip to get a feel for the motion I’d need. Felt good. Then I went for it and tried the no-false grip MU. Got up there no problem and felt a lot easier than when I’ve done them with the false grip. I have a hard time supporting myself in the false grip, and even more so when I start swinging with the kip. I did a total of 4 or 5 singles and never had a miss. The only thing that sucks a bit is my wrists are in a bad position when I’m over the rings, so then I have to adjust. But I have the strength now where it’s not a huge deal to do. I’ll live with that instead of having to fight with the false grip.

Gymnastics WOD has a great 4 part no-false grip muscle-up progression series that I highly recommend checking out.

WOD

  • 500m Row
  • 2m Rest
  • 500m Row

The class was doing 4 but I decided to call it quits after 2. I don’t want to burn myself out with having to do 13.3 tomorrow.

Hard and Heavy

It’s been a couple of rough days with 13.1 on Sunday, 2 sessions on Monday, and a 2 hour session yesterday. I’m feeling a little beat up, but not enough to keep me away from the box today. This morning I went in for the 9am and it was a hard hour.

Warm-up

  • 2m Jump Rope
  • 2 Rounds:
    • 10/10 Leg Swings (F2B, S2S)
    • 10 Flamingos
    • 10 Scorpions

Strength

5-3-1-1-1 Back Squats

I’ve been waiting for a 1RM back squat day and it finally arrived. Last max lift was 285# and I couldn’t wait to join the 300# club. I warmed up with 5 at 45#, 5 at 135#, and 3 at 185#, trying to do fast reps. Then I went into my working sets:

  • 5x 225#
  • 3x 255#
  • 1x 285#
  • 1x 300#
  • 1x 315#

BOOM! Hit a 30# PR and could not have gone a pound heavier.

WOD

7 Rounds

  • 3 Cleans (205#)
  • 21 DU (unbroken)

About a month ago we did a competitor’s WOD very similar to this, but with 4 deficit HSPU instead. I remembered the 185# cleans being really tough, but I decided to go for the Rx today and see how long I could do 205#. I managed to do all 21 of them as power cleans. I did have one miss in the last round when Gayle said something about it barely getting over my knees, so then I thought too much about it. Had a few misses on DU, but thankfully they were all early in counts. Finished in 9:14.

Glad I went in early and got the workout done. Now I can relax and get work done the rest of the day. Rest day tomorrow for sure. I’m excited to see the 13.2 announcement tonight.

Get It Overhead!

I’m feeling pretty sore in my shoulders from the HSPU yesterday and as the day goes on my ass is feeling those plyo lunges. Went in at 3:15 for some special OLY work and then stayed for the regular class.

OLY Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • 2 x 10 Pause Jerks with 45# bar

Jerks

  • 5x Jerk Short Step with 95#
  • Jerk from the Back – Doubles and Triples
  • Jerk from the Front – Doubles and Singles

I started off with 95# from the back, went 115#, 155#, and 185#. This was my first time doing any jerks from the back and they felt really weird. I only did a couple of singles at 185# because I don’t feel comfortable dropping that much weight back to my back and it felt uncomfortable to begin with. I need to do these once in a while to get the feel for them.

I dropped the weight back down to 155# and switched to jerks from the rack, doing a double there. Did a double at 185# and another at 205#. Then I was going to hit 225# for a single and Gayle asked if it was going to be a PR, so figured might as well throw another 5# on to make it 230# for a PR. Hit it easily without even punching under in fully. Upped it to 245# and pushed the weight forward instead of back, so failed. Fought it a bit and it didn’t feel too good on my low back.

Took a rest, made sure to punch under it, and got it up for a 20# PR. It was a little unstable over my head, but that’s fucking heavy. Gayle said I could have gotten my front foot out further too and got under it more. Did a good job of getting my head through though.

Class Warm-up

  • 3/3 World’s Greatest Stretch
  • 10/10 Scorpions
  • 10/10 Flamingos
  • 10/10 Legs Swings (F2B, S2S)

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 600m Run
  • 25 Pull-ups

I tried to push it harder on the run today and the temperatures are rising fast here in Phoenix, so that makes the running even tougher. Did all butterfly pull-ups again, but I’m having trouble stringing together more than 7 before I lose rhythm. Finished in 12:24.

Finisher

90s-60s-30s

  • DU
  • AbMat Sit-ups

This was actually part of the class warm-up, but I was finishing up my jerk PR when class started so didn’t do it at that time. Took some rest after the WOD and then knocked it out since there was plenty of time before the next class started.

Deads & Cardio

I was originally planning to take a rest day today and do Open WOD 13.1 tomorrow, but things changed. My hamstrings are feeling pretty tight from the squat volume yesterday, but ended up going in for 7:15pm and I’ll make tomorrow a rest day.

Warm-up

  • 3m Jump Rope
  • 50 AbMat Sit-ups
  • 50 Supermans

Strength

4 Sets

  • 7-10 Deadlifts
  • 90s Rest

I did a 5 reps at 135# and 185# to loosen up. Then I hit all 10 reps at 225#, 275#, 305#, and 325#. Moved a lot of weight, but didn’t go overboard and end up with a headache that’ll lasts 3 days

WOD

  • 750m Row
  • 600m Run
  • 75 DU
  • 500m Row
  • 400m Run
  • 50 DU
  • 250m Row
  • 200m Run
  • 25 DU

Nice cardio WOD today. Struggled with me DU on the round of 75 failing about every 10, but was good on the other sets. Finished in 15:26.

Destroyed Upper Body

Went in with a few people at 3:15 to work on our Olympic lifting and then stayed after for the regular class.

Loaded one bar up with 185# for snatch pulls and then used another bar for snatches. Started off doing one snatch pull, one power snatch, and one hang full snatch. I started at 95# and worked my way up to 125# on the snatch work. Then I switched to single full snatches with 135# after the snatch pull for a handful of sets. Probably worked for a solid 40 minutes, taking a few minutes of rest in between each complex. The snatches didn’t feel very good today.

Strength

5×3 Push Presses with 21X2 Tempo

The goal was to hit the 5×5 max from 2 weeks ago in our second set. Since that was going to be 165# for me, I started at 135#. Then went 165#, 170#, 175#, and 185#. Shit that was tough, but I’m glad I jumped 10# on that last set. My old 1RM push press is 190#, but it’s been a long time, so I should obviously be able to beat it pretty good now.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 25 Shoulder to OH (95#)
  • 50 DU
  • 10 Ring Dips

OMG, my upper body was destroyed already in the first round. I did 15 and 10, then 10-9-6, and then probably 6 or 7 sets in the 3rd round, where I was even doing some jerks to get them done. The ring dips were pretty tough too. Finished in 16:09.

Above Rx

My legs are pretty beat up from the tempo work this week. That was some heavy lifting! Took a longer rest and went in at 5:15pm tonight. The WOD didn’t look too bad and no strength work so I was kind of looking forward to an easier day. I should have known better!

Warm-up

  • 5/5 World’s Greatest Stretch
  • 2/2 10s Samson Stretch
  • 1/1 minute Hip Flexor Stetch
  • 2×3/3 Turkish Get-ups

The hip flexor stretch was new and pretty rough. For the Turkish Get-ups I used a 35# KB and then a 40# KB.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 40 DU (unbroken)
  • 30 Chest-to-deck Push-ups
  • 20 OH Walking Lunges (45# Plate)
  • 10 Ring Dips

That’s the Rx+ version of the WOD Gayle challenged us to do. It ups the DU to unbroken, push-ups to chest-to-deck, walking lunges to weighted OH lunges, and dips on a box or rack to ring dips. Shit the bed! So much for an easier day. I knew the push-ups would be absolutely brutal and of course they were after the 2nd round. I messed up a few times on my DU early in a round, but was solid with them until messing up at 33 in the 5th round. I think I let out an F-bomb. I pushed through the walking lunges as much as I could and then the ring dips were pretty brutal for me today. Finished in 22:36.

Being forced to do unbroken DU in WODs has dramatically improved them for me though. You concentrate so much more because you don’t want to do the work all over again.

Killed by Tempo Deadlifts

It was nice to skip a day from WODs yesterday and taking a longer rest today as well. Went in for the 5:15pm.

Warm-up

  • 3 min Jump Rope
  • 2 Rounds
    • 3/3 World’s Greatest Stretch
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Am. KBS (35# KB)

Went 3 minutes straight on the jump rope without a single miss.

Strength

5×5 Deadlifts at 2-1-2-1 Tempo

Pushed it to the limit and it was absolutely brutal. Went 225#, 275#, 305#, 335#, and 365#. It was heavy and I started to round the lower back just a little at the end. Fought to get all 5 reps in and that was definitely the max weight for the tempo. Then not much of a rest before starting the WOD. Forgot to take off the shoes for the deadlifts too.

WOD

  • 50 Am. KBS (53# KB)
  • 25 Pull-ups
  • 150 DU
  • 25 Pull-ups
  • 50 Am. KBS (53# KB)

Went 35 reps and then 15 KBS to finish off at the beginning and worked on butterfly pull-ups. DU were a struggle today, but got through them. The last 50 American KBS were really tough. Finished in 12:05 overall. Was done with the warm-up, strength, and the WOD is less than 45 minutes.

Got home and started to go into a tunnel vision and a headache. I think it was from the tempo deadlifts, which really killed the WOD as well. This is only the 3rd time a CrossFit class has hit me like this. Should have probably gone lighter on the deadlifts, but really pushed them to the limit.

Call Me Julie

I don’t think the leg burning workout from Tuesday night had hit me yet, so I went in for the 9am figuring I could then go in at night on Thursday and enjoy the longer rest.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 2 Rounds
    • 20/20 Band walks
    • 15 Band Presses
    • 10/10 Hitchhikers
    • 10/10 T-stabilizations

Strength

5×5 Push Presses with 2-1-X-2 Tempo

The tempo work on for pressing doesn’t seem quite as taxing as it does for squats. I did a set with the bar to get the feel for it, then went 95#, 115#, 135#, 150#, and 165#. Couldn’t have gone any higher. Got really unstable at the top in the last two reps, but got it done.

WOD

7 Rounds

  • 7 HSPU
  • 7 K2E
  • 21 DU (unbroken)

I knew the limiter would be the HSPU, but didn’t think they would get as hard as they did. I guess I didn’t realize how little rest there really was between sets. I was solid for the first 3 rounds going unbroken and right around 1 minute per round. Even the 4th and 5th rounds weren’t too bad, but 6 and 7 were brutal for HSPU. And then I get all the way to my last rep and I failed half way up. Felt a little like Julie Foucher trying to do her deficit HSPU last year at the Games. All of my K2E were unbroken and I didn’t miss a single DU. Finished in 10:48.

Home WOD

Needed to do something at night sitting at home. I’ve been meaning to do a little burpee testing to see where I’m at, so game on.

  • 50 Burpees (Touch 6″ target above reach)

I can touch the ceiling with my fingertips standing up, so I slapped the ceiling with both hands making it 6-8 inches. Might have started out a little too fast because the last 20 reps were brutal. Took me 2:39 to finish, which nearly beats my normal PR for 50 burpees in 2:33. Jumping up to the target is a lot tougher and I could really feel the burn in my quads right around 25-30 reps. Yesterday’s big leg workout is probably starting to hit me as well.

In last years Open WOD 12.1 I did 92 of these in 7 minutes. I’d say I’ve improved some since then. I’m kind of curious to know if by starting out slower I would have been able to keep a steadier pace and get done quicker. Might have to play around with pacing once or twice in the next couple of weeks before the Open. I’ll bet they are going to have a burpee WOD again since it was a pretty good way to kick of the Games season in 2012.

I Can Do Butterfly Pull-ups!

Last night while watching TV I knocked out 5 sets of 60 air squats. I didn’t time them or the rest periods. Tried to go as fast as I could for each set and still use good form. I could start to feel fatigue setting in at the end of the 3rd set. I had plans to improve my speed and endurance for air squats and wall balls starting at the beginning of the year. I figured it couldn’t hurt my thrusters either. Then I never put time into it other than workouts in Hawaii, where I had limited equipment anyway. No better time than now with the Open just two and a half weeks away. I’m going to do my best to can get in some fast squat work 2-3 times a week for at least the next few weeks. I could do Tabata squats, minute on/off, throw on the 20# weight vest, and come up with other interesting twists to vary the work. I’m looking forward to see what kind of improvement I can make.

My shoulder area is pretty sore from yesterday and I’m feeling all those air squats in my knees since I did them barefoot on hard tile flooring. I got up and went to the 9am. Another day of 3 WODs with a 10 minute cap on each one and a running 30:00 clock. I’ve really liked this style each time we did it.

Right arm after yesterday's 100 ring push-ups
Right arm after yesterday’s 100 ring push-ups

Warm-up

  • 3m Jump Rope
  • 100 Mountain Climbers
  • 80 Bicycles
  • 30 Supine Knees to Elbows
  • 40 Russian Twists (no weight)
  • 1m Plank

Long warm-up. I made it all 3 minutes on the jump rope without a single miss.

30:00 running clock with a 10:00 limit on each WOD. Finish early and rest until the next 10 minutes start.

WODs

20130218-103022.jpg

  • 21-15-9 Deadlifts (185#)
  • 75 DUs

Not much of a problem here, although deadlift reps did slow down in the last two sets. My double unders were pretty good. Finished in 5:26.

21-15-9

  • American KBS (70#)
  • Row (calories)

Worked on better form for my American swings, especially with the heavy weight. Tried to keep a steady pace during the first two rows so I wouldn’t burn out and then went hard in the last one. Time was 5:02.

  • 21 Pull-ups
  • 400m Run
  • 15 Pull-ups
  • 400m Run
  • 9 Pull-ups

Emily told me to go with butterfly pull-ups for this WOD. I wasn’t convinced I should, but you gotta go for it at some point. I made it through the entire WOD with them and got into a rhythm here and there. Definitely could feel less effort getting up over the bar. Need to keep working on them now and they’ll improve. Took me 7:14 to finish this one.