On Friday B and I were both off from work and had a tee time to play 18 holes. So we did some golf mobility work in the morning. Saturday was really hot again and we watched the CrossFit Games all day (all weekend really!)
Warm-up
10 Cat Camel
5-3-1 McGill Big 3
Curl-up
Side Planks
Bird Dogs
We actually did these inside the house because it was so humid and we didn’t want to spend more time than needed outside.
Conditioning
2 Rounds
400m Run
80 Russian KBS (53/35#)
80 DB Hang Snatch (25/15#)
80 Step-us (20”)
80 DB Sit-ups (25/15#)
400m Run
Felt good even with the brutal humidity, so we did a final run. We split the swings and snatches in 20s and the step-ups and sit-ups in 10s. I went first with the reps in round one and B went first in round two. Took us 31:14 to finish.
Midline
3 Sets
20/20 Pallof Circles
10/10 Hands & Knees Upper Back Rotation
1:00 Plank
10/10 Banded Anti Rotations (purple tubing)
I completely soaked a towel with sweat.
Later in the evening after watching all of the Games we went for a 2.25 mile walk in 39:24.
Over the last two years, fitness priorities have changed a bit. Almost every year I’ve come out of the Open with some type of back injury, so the focus now is on staying healthy for the rest of life; I don’t need to be hobbling around because I wanted to prove myself in some workout. So I scaled back the weight and limited bending over on the snatches to save my back. Also decided on step overs, which give a great workout as well. It was a great workout and I got through 7+5.
Yesterday I walked 18 holes and in the evening I edged and mowed the lawn. Not much time tonight due to dinner plans and watching the CrossFit Games. Warmed up with some ring swings, PVC passes, and a couple of single muscle-ups (which felt odd)
30:00 Partner AMRAP (IGYG per movement)
14/10 cal BikeErg
5 MU / Pull-up
10 Burpees
16 alt DB Hang Power Snatch (50/35#)
It was like riding a bike though, when I got back up on the rings. I did ever round unbroken, but it’s a different swing compared to the higher swing set we used at the park. I had to save some sets and correct my swing several times. We got through 6 rounds and all of the bike calories. There was about 15 seconds left, but I wasn’t getting back on the rings because my sets were starting to get sketchy.
I used the massage gun on my leg and hip for awhile last night. During lunch I did a bit of work on the area that’ll be my outdoor gym and I don’t think my back was too happy about it. Worked out at 5pm today and could tell right away I was going to have to adjust, so I did.
Conditioning
1,000m BikeErg (1:30.8)
@ 10:00
60 T2B
60 alt Hang DB Power Snatches (50#)
60 Box Step Overs (24″)
I guess I haven’t tested any of the typical distances on the bike, so I had no idea what to shoot for. Took me 1:30.8. I kind of hit a wall with my legs with about 300 meters to go. During the rest I got back on the bike for three minutes and went 1,148 meters to help flush. I did the toes to bar in 20×3, which took me just under five minutes. The small set strategy is really paying off when there are huge numbers like this, so I don’t have to resort to singles. I did 6×10 for the snatches, trying to protect my back. Those took a little more than four minutes. I almost couldn’t get on the box for my first step up! I went side to side for them. Those took me about 3:15 and overall the 60s took me 12:27.
We ended up not doing anything else for the day since my back was feeling wrong. Hopefully I wake up and am ok to golf tomorrow.
Each year I update my own spreadsheet with my Open workout rankings and calculate percentiles. If you use the iOS CrossFit Games app they calculate percentiles based on the number of registered athletes in the division, which I think is quite dumb because some people register and never post a score. I’ve always done my calculations based on the number of submitted scores. Here’s how my placing looks after week one.
Open Division 25,571 / 116,559 (78.1%)
Masters 40-44 2,183 / 16,776 (87%)
One of my goals each year is to hit the 90% or in the top 10% of participating athletes. That’s well within reach for the Masters division and all I have to do is stick around that placement to get there. The top 10% move on to the Age Group Online Qualifier. I wasn’t sure how CrossFit would determine the %, but according to a video they posted yesterday, I’m right under the cut line. So their using all registered athletes.
A repeat of 17.1, which I did twice that year. In my first attempt I got through 215 reps (10 short of finishing) and then I finished in 19:15. When this was announced as a repeat I wasn’t excited at all; it’s horrible on my back and that’s a lot of dumbbell snatches for a bad shoulder. On the bright side I weighed in at 206 pounds this morning compared to the 214 I was for that redo in 2017.
My plan of attack was pretty simple:
With the dumbbell, switch hands from the top, if my shoulder allowed it.
Step back and up on the burpees, turn through the jump and on the box, and step down backwards.
Tape my thumbs.
I knew my first split was behind that 17.1 redo and felt like I was dying every round of burpees. Turned out I was also behind split after the second round, I started closing the gap in round three, and then really made up ground in rounds four and five. I did all sets of 10 snatches until the 50 where I did 14-12-12-12. Finished in 18:30! Brandi really pushed me through the second half of this workout. Here’s my scorecard as well as comparing my splits between all three times I’ve done this workout.
Analyzed the video for more splits…
Looking at how much time a round of each movement took and then in parens how much of a time difference it was compared to the previous round…
My body is tight from an hour of shoveling snow yesterday and probably the workout as well. Rolling solo today since Brandi’s knee is not feeling good. Out in the garage around 3:30.
Warm-up
3 Rounds
1:00 BikeErg (511-520-532m)
30s Dead Hang
10 PVC Passes
10 Toe Touches
10 alt DB Hang Snatch (20#)
10 alt DB Hang Snatch (35#)
10 Toe Touches
10 alt DB Hang Snatch (45#)
Glad I tried the 45 because it convinced me to scale back and use 40 in the workout instead of 50. Before even starting the warm-up I smartly decided I was doing snatches from the hang today with the other back movements in there.
Conditioning
20:00 AMRAP
5 Strict Pull-ups
10 Sumo KB Deadlifts (70#)
10 alt DB Hang Snatch (40#)
10 Step-ups (24″)
Kept a very consistent pace through the rounds and was even able to pick up some time over the last 3-4 rounds. Finished 11+23.
Midline
3 Rounds
12 Half Circle Knee Raises
12 alt Single Leg Lifts (L-sit on parallettes)
24 Plank Hops
12 Seated Leg Lifts
Slight modification to an Ibex workout we’ve done before by doing 24 of the hops instead of 30 seconds. Took me 4:40 to finish.
I could get used to this vacation life. I took a nap two days in a row before gym time. My tailbone hasn’t improved from yesterday.
Warm-up
5:00 BikeErg (2,548m)
80′ Lateral Monster Walks
80′ Monster Walks
8 Landmine Squats (45#)
8 Plyometric Lunges
6 Landmine Squats (80#)
8 Plyometric Lunges (15# DBs)
6 Landmine Squats (125#)
5/5 Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts (53# KB)
10 Squat Jumps
2/2 Landmine Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts (90#)
4 Squat Jumps (8# DBs)
5 Double Dumbbell Clean & Jerks (25# DBs)
5 Double Dumbbell Snatches (25#)
Legs
4 Sets
10 Landmine Squats (155-165-175-175#)
20 DB Plyo Lunges (25# DBs)
Hell of a burn from this superset.
4 Sets
10/10 Landmine Single Leg RDL (110#)
10 Squat Jumps (20-25-30-35# DBs)
This was no joke either.
Conditioning
30 Double Dumbbell Clean & Jerks (35# DBs)
30 Double Dumbbell Snatches (35# DBs)
I saw a video of Kristi and Pat doing something like this for an online qualifier, but there was no way I was going to attempt it with 50s. I did 3×10 on the C&J and snatches were 4×5 with a final set of 10. Finished in 4:10. I’m not a fan of those double dumbbell snatches though. This was a lot of bending over in what probably wasn’t very good positioning.
I forgot to post this yesterday, so I’m publishing a day late and back-dating it.
Last night I was exhausted but was up well past 11. My ass is still sore from the weighted plyo lunges! Worked out around 9am today.
Warm-up
800m Run
5 Air Squats
4 DB Snatches (right, 20#)
5 Push-ups
4 DB Snatches (left, 20#)
5 Air Squats
4 DB Snatches (right, 35#)
5 Push-ups
4 DB Snatches (left, 35#)
Conditioning
10:00 AMRAP Support Your Local Box Fundraiser 1
10 Air Squats
9 DB Snatches (right, 50#)
10 Push-ups
9 DB Snatches (left, 50#)
This was one of the first workouts I did with any weight after months of back rehab. I got 7+10 on April 23rd. I knew I could push the snatches and the squats harder, so today I did. At the 5:00 mark I was a few reps shy of four rounds and I finished with 7+31, so I was able to keep the same pace through the second half of the workout. It was a little harder to push myself going solo in a workout like this. Happy with my score and effort though.
Accessory
3 Sets
8 Renegade Rows (R, 50#)
12 Renegade Rows (R, 35#)
16 Renegade Rows (R, 20#)
8 Renegade Rows (L, 50#)
12 Renegade Rows (L, 35#)
16 Renegade Rows (L, 20#)
This was much more effective than expected; I was struggling to get through the 16 light reps in the 2nd and 3rd sets! It was one arm right to the other when it was time to work, but I rested 1-2 minutes between sets. It was damn near another cardio piece with 72 reps per set!
Conditioning 2 / Pacing
10:00 EMOM
10 Burpees
Started out thinking I’d take it easy each minute and simply get in the 100 reps. I did, in the first set, with a 30 second pace. After I got slightly faster each of the next two rounds I set a challenge for myself to get faster each round. And I was successful, with the final round taking 19 seconds. I felt really good though.