Slacker Week

Had planned to get in some exercise last night, but I was tired from getting up at 5:30 to head up for a golf fundraiser that I play in every year. So it was 2 rest days in a row and a pretty light week for me. Back feels good though.

Got to the gym early for the Sunday workout and warmed up with 3x12x210# Reverse Hypers and Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Midline

10 Rounds

  • 20s Hollow Rocks
  • 20s Rest

Got 16 for the first 7 rounds, then 14s for a 154 total. Everyone was complaining about starting with these, but you gotta switch things up and I know a few would have left if they were at the end.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 21 Deadlifts (135#)
  • 12 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 3 Muscle-ups

This one was fun. Michelle and I shared a box so alternated the jumps and it worked out well. Couldn’t rebound, but that’s fine. Meant going into the MU a little less fatigued. Hips were pretty shot after the deadlifts and box jumps, so had to really go for it with the hips. Did everything unbroken in 5:03.

E90S 15:00 (10x)

  • 50y Sprint

Have done this a few times recently now. Now that hard, but good for ya.

Accessory

2 Rounds NFT

  • 150m Farmer’s Carry (25# bumper in each hand)
  • 150m OH Plate Walk (50# – 2×25#)

Brutal on the grip. Didn’t stop except between movements.

I did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap. Shoulders haven’t been bothering me, but these back tweaks have taught me that I need to be better about this stuff so I don’t get hurt instead of only bothering to make time after I get hurt.

Felt pretty good and got a little inspired by Bryan lunging 400 meters while we did the accessory work, so I stopped at the track on the way home.

400m Walking Lunges

Actually counted out my steps today. It took me 334 steps and I was done in 12:01, which is a 42 second PR.

2015-08-09-after-400m-lunge

Now I will attempt to build a revers hyper attachment for my rig so I can get traction for my back more often than at the gym.

Deliveries

In at 9am.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Good Mornings (15#)
  • Side bends with bar (15#)
  • Twists with bar (15#)
  • Squats (15#)
  • 30s Squat Jumps (15#)

Strength

Deadlifts

  • 5×155#
  • 5×245#
  • 3×315#
  • 6:00 EMOM
    • 3×345#

Felt pretty good. I wore the belt during the EMOM.

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • American KBS (70#)
    • Burpees
  • Cash-out: 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Everything unbroken, even forced myself to keep going with the wall balls at the end. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be with the 70# KB for the swings. Finished in 10:30.

Midline

Tabata Plank Push-ups

Yuck!! Was sweating so much. Did like 12 in the first round, but then only ended up with 58 total. These get hard really fast.

Accessory

We were done with plenty of time so Kevin gave us a bonus of 300m Farmer’s Carry. I had a brilliant idea to try it with bumper plates. Grabbed the 35# ones. Holy shit was that brutal. I had to take so many breaks. Finished it all though. Wonder what my hands will feel like later today and the next couple of days.

Run Every Day

Went out at 7pm. Felt like I was running a 9:00/mile pace, but at 1/2 mile it was just over 8:00. Picked it up a little because it felt good. My pace is coming back much faster than I expected. Ran 1.75 miles in 13:51.

Got the new Nano 5 today and a pair of Relentless jeans too.

  

Cindy Aftermath

Damn Cindy, I forgot how you make the body feel. So many reps! Was up late to see the Avengers but still managed 7 hours of sleep. Feeling pretty beat this morning though and the HRV proves my body is telling the truth this morning. 87 is the lowest HRV I’ve had yet.

IMG_5865

Didn’t get out to the garage until 9am today. Warmed up with 5:00 Air Dyne (2.25km).

Coffee Squats

Pause Front Squats (3s in the hole)

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×165#
  • 2×195#
  • 2×215#
  • 2×235#
  • 2×245#
  • 2×255#

I instantly feel 10x better after that. Body is awake now.

Straight up out of the hole with no bouncy-bounce.

I was planning to get out for my first round of golf, but I’ll wait until the weekend when I feel fresher and it’s going to be in the 70s all weekend anyway.

The weather has finally turned, hopefully for good now. Went to the gym at night for some recovery work.

Sled Drag

  • 0.5 miles – 25# sled + 135# – 11:41
  • Few minute rest
  • 0.5 miles – 25# sled + 90# – 10:13

Class was outside finishing up the last part of their workout so I joined in for some.

  • 2x200m Farmer’s Carry (70# & 62# KBs)
  • 200m OH Walk (45# plate with both arms up)

15.4 + Super Sunday

Feeling good after not beating up my body since tweaking my back on Wednesday. We had some people coming in from another local gym to do 15.4, so got in at 11 to get it done before Super Sunday started.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Roll back
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Cleans
    • 5×45#
    • 5×95#
    • 3×135#
    • 3×185#

2015 CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.4

8:00 AMRAP

  • 3 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 6 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 9 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 12 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 15 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 18 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 21 HSPU
  • 9 Cleans (185#)
  • Etc., adding 3 reps to the handstand push-up each round, and 3 reps to the clean every 3 rounds.

My goal was to get through the 15 HSPU and 6 cleans. Didn’t want to do more than 3 handstand push-ups in a row and all singles in the cleans. I was feeling good on the set of 6 so went 4-2 which was dumb because it doesn’t save any time. Reminded myself after that to stick to 3s, but that even got pretty hard in the round of 12. My tiebreak time after the 9-3 round was 2:20, way ahead of schedule. My HSPU started to die in that set of 12. Got a few no reps over that next part of the workout and was down to doubles and singles. Just couldn’t press out anymore. Cleans were no problem. I didn’t have much time at the end, but just enough to bust through the 6 cleans to hit my goal with 1 second to spare. 66 reps and I’ll take it. Not hard at all on the lungs until the end when I had to bust through the cleans. All about managing the muscle fatigue in this workout for me.

Was a little crazy in the gym this morning so got a later than normal start for the regular workout.

20:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 20 Sit-ups
  • 20 Walking Lunges
  • 20 Push-ups

With a lot of people, we set up stations and shared equipment, so some time was spent walking from one area to the next. Tried to keep a pretty casual pace and just keep moving. Did my first round in about 4:40, then it got a little slower the next two rounds. Picked up the pace in the fourth round and managed to get it done with a few seconds left, but was too far away from the boxes. My push-ups even felt good after all the HSPU. I did all sets of 10 until the last round when I did 14-6.

6 Sets

  • 30s Bottom Ring Dip Holds
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (62# + 70# KBs)

Didn’t really know how the holds would go since it was the first time trying them. My lift arm started to go numb actually from the ring hold in the last 2 sets. I was able to strict press out of the dip on the first 5, but just didn’t have enough left on the last one.

5x

  • 250m Row
  • ~2:00 Rest

My times were 45.1, 45.4, 46.2, 45.1, and 44.4.

A lot of work overall, but nothing that really destroys you.

Lucky 7

I need to force myself to go to bed instead of playing stupid games on my phone until late. Been dragging ass too much this week. Went in to CFi at 5:30.

Thruster Attack

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • Every 1:30 for 5 sets – 12×115#

Made it through all 5 sets unbroken, but barely. Had to dig deep to finish those.

Reverse Hyper

  • 3x10x230#

Good for the back issue.

Kevin and I got some stuff and headed outside…

  • 100m Sled Drag, pulling between legs (30# sled + 135#)
  • 100m Farmer’s Carry (2×53# KB)
  • 100m Sled Drag, pulling between legs (30# sled + 135#)
  • 100m Farmer’s Carry (2×53# KB)
  • 100m Sled Drag, pulling between legs (30# sled + 135#)
  • 100m Farmer’s Carry (2×53# KB)
  • 50m Sled Drag, pulling between legs (30# sled + 135#)
  • 50m Farmer’s Carry (2×53# KB)

Oh the burn in the ass from those bent over sled drags. Forgot how rough those can be. Good to get outside while we can.

Friday Grindin’

Forgot I wanted to finish off the 2nd week of Smolov Jr before class, so rushed off to get there. Hit up Crossover Symmetry Activation and got right into it the lifts.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 10x3x142.5#

I nearly missed the last one in the 8th working set, but made sure to keep tight and use the bounce on the final two sets and didn’t have a problem. One more week of the cycle and then I might reset for another one instead of testing my max.

Did some banded tricep stretching after to continue warming up.

Skill

IMG_4866Practiced triple unders for 8-10 minutes. First by just getting one at a time and stopping. I was able to get 2 in a row several times, but I need to work on slowing down the rope after the 3rd spin because it kept coming around and hitting my feet before I had time to jump again. Jump will need work too. I was kicking my feet back a lot. I think I’ll have to work on these using my Rx rope instead of the RPM, because the bare cable can draw blood!

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Power Cleans (155#)
  • 15 T2B
  • 20 Deadlifts (155#)
  • 25 Sit-ups
  • 30 Air Squats

All singles for the cleans, 3 sets of 5 each round for toes to bar, and broke deadlifts up into 2 sets of either 10-10, 11-9, or 12-8. Completed 3 full rounds plus 10 cleans, 15 t2b, 20 deadlifts, and 3 sit-ups. It was a grinder!

Accessory

Farmer’s Carry

  • 135m (62# & 53# KBs)
  • 100m (62# & 53# KBs)
  • 100m (2×44# KBs)
  • 135m (2×44# KBs)

Owwww! Shoulders and forearms on fire after this.

Quick afternoon session in the garage. Warmed up with 5 minutes on the Air Dyne at about 55 PRM for 2.18km and then rested two minutes.

5 Rounds

  • 10 Plyo Lunges (Jumping)
  • 1:00 Air Dyne
  • 2:00 Rest

Really had to push in the last couple to keep going. Distances were 0.76, 0.78, 0.79, 0.78, and 0.8 km. Cooled down with another 5 on the AD for 2.14km. Rest day tomorrow!

Deadlift Rising

Bought some new bands last night and started doing Crossover Symmetry again to rehab the shoulder and start strengthening it. I have my last laser therapy today. I’m going to try to stick to this schedule recommended by CS. Not necessarily the days, but only doing Recovery 2 days in a row.

crossover-symmetry-schedule

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3 Rounds
    • 10 Squats (15#)
    • 10 Good Mornings (15#)
    • Arm Circles

Strength

5×3 Deadlifts at 80-90%

  • 5×135#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×295#
  • 3×365#
  • 3×395#
  • 3×415#
  • 3×425#
  • 3×435#

Still getting back where I used to be so only 3 sets were in the range according to my old 1RM, but less than 3 weeks ago with singles I did 435# and didn’t get 455#. Definitely getting the low back strength to come back fast.

Accessory

14:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 30s Hollow Rocks
  • Evens: 40s Farmer’s Carry (53# KBs)

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 10-10-10-10-6-6-6-6-4-4
    • C2D Push-ups
    • Weighted Lunges (35# DBs)
  • 10 Goblet Squats (44# KB)

Took me 11:37 to finish. Did another 5:00 squat hold after class. I was up to a total of 26 minutes of squat holds yesterday and will accumulate 27 today.

Didn’t have time to get in some double unders and probably won’t do any tonight, so I’ll have the next 2 days to finish out the 1,500 for the week.

Strongman Circuit

In at 10:30 this morning.

Warm-up

5-10 minutes of DU work

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 5 Weighted Pull-ups
  • Evens: 5 Weighted Dips

I used 25-25-25-25-30 for the pull-ups and 30-30-30-35-40 for the dips. Both are big improvements!

WOD

Brad setup a strongman circuit that was a lot of fun. It involved:

  • Tire Flips
  • High Prowler Push
  • Low Prowler Push
  • Sled Drag
  • Double barbell Farmer’s Carry
  • Sandbag Bearhug walk or lunge

strongman-circuit

We did each thing about 25m and then ran a lap around the parking lot. Did the circuit 4 times. What a killer!

44 Minute Competition WOD

Yesterday I rested, but went for a 2 mile recovery walk.

Was up bright and early for event #3 of the Industrial Athlete Championship Series. A bunch of us from CrossFit Full Strength met at the gym at 6:15am and headed out to Mesa.

iacs-event3-full-strength-before

There were 4 events, but it was really just one big workout with short rest/transition periods. It was scored as one total event with total reps for everything combined as your score.

WOD #1

8:00 broken into 4 rounds of 2:00 Fire Hose Drag/Pull and Calorie Row

You will start next to your rower with the fire hose piled next to you. On GO you will grab the hose and run it approx 100 feet. Once you cross the marked line you will turn and pull the remainder of the hose fully across the line. Once the entire hose is across the line you will run back to the start area to your rower machine and row for calories for the remainder of the 2 min. This cycle will repeat 4 times without rest for a total of 8 minutes.

They kind of screwed things up here and allowed you to carry the entire hose if you wanted. That was obviously much easier and after a few Rx heats everyone was doing it. I paced myself and didn’t go all out on the rower with 3 more events to go. Got 105 calories. Looking back and because of how the overall scoring worked, I wish I would have pushed harder.

iacs-event3-rowing

* 4:00 rest

WOD #2

8:00 to complete 100 Wall Balls and max Pull-ups.

There will be medicine balls at the bottom of your squat that you must touch and a target set at 10 feet which you must hit with the ball. All athletes over 6′ tall may use a 25# plate under their touch ball to make a more consistent depth for all athletes.

I was worried about this one the most, but I actually did the best here. I went 40-20-10-10-10-10 on my wall balls and was done in around 4 minutes. Then I got 57 pull-ups, but they were pretty slow going. I never did more than 6 in-a-row and was down to doing 2 or 3 at a time at the end. Adam from our gym knocked out 20+ in his first jump up on the bar. If I could do that I would have smoked this WOD.

* 4:00 rest

WOD #3

8:00 broken into three 2:00 max rep cycles with 1 min rest/recovery.

HR Burpee with lateral jump over parallette bars. You may space your 2 parallette bars according to your desired distance preference. You will begin to the right side of the first bar. On GO you will drop to a HR burpee, recover, and laterally jump with both feet (no stepping) over a single parallette bar. Then you will repeat the process, jump over the second bar, and then hand release burpee again for a total of 3 burpees per pass over the 2 bars. So it’s basically burpee, jump, burpee, jump, burpee – that would be one pass earning 2 points then repeat coming back the other direction as many times as possible. You earn a point each time you jump the parallette bar.

* 1:00 rest

Sit-ups from the ground. There will be no supports, ab mats, or feet holding. The movement standard is touch the ground behind your head while laying on the ground then sit up and touch the ground directly in front of your feet. pressed together if desired.

* 1:00 rest

Parallette bars pass throughs. In this exercise you will earn one point each time your feet extend and heel strike the ground in front of your body. The movement standard is to touch the ground in front with knees in full extension and heels on ground then behind with knees fully extended while striking the toes to the ground. You will be holding your own weight up on the parallette bars and are NOT permitted to touch the ground underneath your body or walk through in any form.

I got 26 burpees, 64 sit-ups, and 25 pass throughs. When the guy announced we were only 30 secounds through burpees I couldn’t believe it because I was already dead. I tried to keep a steady pace and just keep moving on them. They were by far the worst. I smoked through the sit-ups and struggled my way through the pass throughs.

* 4:00 rest

WOD #4

8:00 Keg carry with short Wall Clears

In this event you will carry a keg filled at 100# (Men’s RX), 75# (Women’s RX, Men’s Scaled, and Men’s Masters) and 50# (Women’s Scaled and Women’s Masters) to a wall approx 25m away. You will then leave the keg and run back to the start line, touch line, and run back to the keg. You will then lift the keg over the wall, jump the wall, and continue to carry the keg to the next wall where you will again set down the keg, run back to the first wall, jump wall, run back to start line, touch line, run forward to wall, jump wall, return to keg, clear keg over 2nd wall, jump wall, and carry keg to turn around line approx 25m. Keep repeating the process for total distance covered.

This final WOD was kind of a joke because of the scoring. You got a rep/point for each time you threw the keg over a wall. At the end, the spread in the men’s Rx divisions was 8 to 14 reps. That was a shit ton of work for so few reps, compared to all of the other WODs where I got over 100 reps in each. I ended up with 12 points here.

I’ve been worried about my cardio the last couple of weeks and this was a good test. I’m really happy with the outcome. I got 389 points and finished in 8th place out of 43 men in the Rx division. There were some beasts here and I held my own.

iacs-event3-full-strength-after

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.