Still Recovering from “Murph”

My legs barely even work they’re so sore. Went it at 10:30 and then got a massage at 1.

Warm-up

  • Lots of stretching
  • 2m Air Dyne

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM

  • 5 Deficit HSPU (25# bumpers)

I got through them all! Was originally thinking to go every 2 minutes, but said what the hell and ended up surprising myself.

XWOD

7:00 EMOM

  • 3 Broad Jumps (for distance)

Strength

12:00 E2MOM

  • 1 Shoulder Press (145#)

Was supposed to be 95% of 1RM but after the HSPU there was no way that was happening. I barely got through them all with 145#, which is less than 90%.

Kroc Rows

  • 10/10 62# KB
  • 10/10 62# KB
  • 10/10 62# KB
  • 10/10 71# KB
  • 7/7 80# KB

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 30 DU
  • 10 V-ups
  • 10 Ring Dips

Finisher

Easy 10:00 Row, keeping around a 20s/m pace.

Struggle with the Shoulder Press

In at 10am again. Feeling good and getting a lot of great work lately without getting too sore anywhere.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus

Strength

1 RM Shoulder Press

I haven’t tested it since November so I was looking for a PR. It’s hard to increase this damn lift though.

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 3 @ 95#
  • 2 @ 115
  • 1 @ 150
  • FAIL @ 165#
  • 1 @ 165# (PR)
  • 1 @ 155#
  • 4 @ 135#
  • 4 @ 135#

On my first attempt at 165#, my right arm just wouldn’t go and I think I was flaring out the elbow similar to my bench press problems. I struggled for it on my 2nd attempt, but got it. Didn’t even try for more, but dropped down to get in some volume.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

  • Evens: 15 cal Air Dyne
  • Odds: 7 HSPU

Rough! Most HSPU I’ve ever done in a day though and I did them all unbroken except for one round where my foot got caught on the wall after the first rep and I had to get back up on the wall.

Finisher

11 Rounds of 10 GHD Sit-ups (Rotating through 4 of us)

I have a feeling I’m going to be feeling these in my abs and my lower back for a couple of days.

On Short Rest

In at 10am on short rest after doing 8pm last night. Trained with Kevin and Monica.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus

This has become my go-to warm-up when doing our own programming. Need to start switching it up some.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

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

I went 20-25-25-30-35 on dips and 20-20-20-20-25 on pull-ups. The pull-ups were a real struggle today.

10:00 E2M

  • 4 Clean High Pulls
  • 6 Pendlay Rows

I stuck with 135# throughout and tried to work on some technique during the high pulls.

OLY

10:00 EMOM

  • High Hang Squat Clean
  • Hang Squat Clean
  • Squat Clean
  • Split Jerk

This was pretty brutal doing the 4 reps every minute. Not much rest time. I used 135# for the first set, then 145# for 4 sets, 155# for 3 sets, and finished with 2 sets at 165#.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 8 HSPU
  • 12 American KBS (53#)
  • 400m Run

Went unbroken on everything, but my running kind of sucked after the 2nd round. Finished in 12:01.

Planning to take a rest day tomorrow and go golfing as long as the weather is nice.

Some Firsts

In at 10am this morning.

Warm-up

Did a 500m Row.

Strength

Bench Press

Going for a 1RM today since it’s been ages and I wanted to see where I was at. 10 @ 45#, 5 @ 135#, 3 @ 185#, 1 @ 215#, and then failed on two different attempts at 235# to match my PR. My left arm was not having any trouble, but my right was way behind and couldn’t catch up. Then I dropped down for 5 @ 185#. On these, my right arm was still trailing behind. Kevin noticed my elbow was a lot more flared out then the left, putting me in a bad position. Something to work on.

Disappointing bench day. I haven’t PR’d a lift in a couple of weeks and need that rush of beating a record soon!

Snatch Pulls

6 x 2 @ 185#

First time using lifting straps. The first set felt super heavy and awkward getting used to the straps, but it got much easier as the sets went on and the pulls felt pretty good. I still have a hitch where I kind of stop and almost dip back down in my Olympic lifts. Need to fix that.

Pendlay Rows

Something new to try out. Not exactly sure we were doing them right, but they felt like they were working something. Did 5 reps each at 95#, 105#, 115#, 125#, and 135#.

We were close…

WOD

18:00 AMRAP

  • 50 DU
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 Push-ups
  • 20 T2B
  • 10 HSPU

Much harder than I imagined because you hit muscle fatigue in so many of the movements. I was 10 HSPU short of completed 3 full rounds, so 2 + 140. Lot’s of resting in this to give the muscles time to recover and keep from hitting failure until that last round.

Gymnasty Friday

Feeling pretty good today after a tough WOD and some good strength work last night. Trained at 10:30am with Matt, Cora, Kevin, and Steve. Kevin came up with the programming for the day and Matt ended up using it for the Survival Fitness classes too. Was a good one!

Warm-up

Did a 500m row, 3/3 Turkish Get-ups with a 35# KB, some PVC pass-thrus, and then worked up to heavy push presses.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Evens: 3 Push Presses
  • Odds: 10 Pistols

I was planning on trying 185#, but it was really heavy warming up, so I dropped down to 175# and used it for the first four rounds and then bumped to 185# for the last round. Programming called for only 6 pistols, so I was going to try wearing my 20# vest but it was pretty awkward so I did 10 each round instead. I can fly through them pretty fast now and don’t run into many problems.

WOD

12:00 AMRAP with 1 Deadlift EMOM (285#)

  • 5 HSPU
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 9 Air Squats

The deadlift kind of served like a forced break in this. My first round was a little fast, but then I kept the same pace until the last 2 or 3 rounds when my HSPU got a little slower. I came up 2 squats shy of 12 full rounds for a score of 11+19. All of my HSPU were unbroken which was nice. Pull-ups and squats were only broken up due to coming on a minute and having to do the deadlift.

Finisher

10 Rounds

  • 15s Air Dyne sprint at 100%
  • 1:45 Rest

This felt easier than when we did it last Saturday. Didn’t have that sick feeling throughout, but it did hit us all about 5 minutes after. Kevin and I got 287 calories on our AD, which was up from 269.

Rested Wednesday

Needed that day off yesterday. Worked out at 10:30 today. Kevin and I split off and did our own thing.

Warm-up

“Russian Twist Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

  • DU
  • Russian Twists (35# KB)

My DU were not the greatest, but finished in 5:03. Did another set of 40 unbroken DU a couple of minutes after finishing.

Strength

10:00 E2M

  • 5 HSPU
  • 5 Ring Dips
  • 5 Pull-ups

All movements are done strict, moving as fast as possible between them. On the last set, MAX out each movement. Finished each of the first 4 rounds in about 40-45 seconds, so had over a minute to rest. This combination was much tougher than expected. I got 5-6-5 in my last set and it was a struggle!

Warmed up a little more with some lighter clean and jerks.

WOD

5 Rounds (205#)

  • 5 Deadlifts
  • 3 Power Cleans
  • 1 Jerk
  • 10 Pull-ups

Rough. The 3rd power clean every round was pretty ugly and the jerk was by far the hardest part of the whole thing. Starting off with those 5 deadlifts wiped me out more than expected. Was shooting for this to take about 10 minutes and I fell just under, with a time of 9:57.

Finisher

We loaded up the 90# prowler sled with four 45# plates. Did 4 rounds of 25m high down and low back, then finished with a 40m low down and high back. Rested 1-2 minutes between each round.

Hump Day

My body was feeling a little beat up this morning. Would probably be worse, but I sort of got back to getting 8+ hours of sleep. Worked out at 10:30 with Matt, Cora, and Kevin again.

Warm-up

Tested out the new Rx jump rope. Me like! It spins even better than the Again Faster Revolution and Rogue SR-1 ropes. The biggest difference though is that the cable doesn’t get any of the memory kinks from being wound up in my bag like the other cables.

Strength

10:00 EMOTM

  • Odds: 5 HSPU
  • Evens: 5 Weighted Ring Dips

I did my first 4 sets of HSPU at a deficit with my hands on 10# bumper plates and then on the ground for the last set. All done strict, no kip. I did have to break the 4th and 5th sets up into 3-2 though. Used a 20# KB on a weight belt for all of the ring dips.

WOD #1

2:00

  • 25cal Row
  • AMRAP Ball Slams (15#)

1:00 Rest

2:00

  • 25cal Row
  • AMRAP Slam Ball Cleans (15#)

1:00 Rest

  • 25cal Row
  • AMRAP Jump Squats (45# bar)

I got 26 ball slams, 15 cleans, and 18 jump squats. All of them were brutal.

WOD #2

  • 10 -> 1 Burpees
  • 1 -> 10 Over the Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 -> 2 Unbroken DU

I missed my very first DU but everything else was done unbroken and no rest between movements other than a deep breath before starting DU. Finished in 8:41.

WOD #3

  • Tabata Air Dyne calories
  • Tabata Sled Pulls (loaded with 90#, alternate forward and backward)

I got 78 calories on the Air Dyne, which was pretty horrible for Tabata. The sled drags weren’t really that bad because we were going back and forth across the gym so you had to keep stopping to turn around.

Another solid 1.5 hours of training.

MOFO Training

Matt got a couple of Concept2 rowers and a couple of Air Dynes, plus I traded him my Concept2 for future services, so he asked me to come up with a WOD to do during Open Gym tonight. I love programming so was happy to! I went in to the 7pm class and was looking forward to a bunch of cleans, but due to the new machines, he switched up the workout. Stayed after for open gym at 8pm and did a workout with some of the beasts.

Warm-up

Teams of 3, 3 rounds

  • 200m Row
  • Sit-ups
  • Air Squats

After the 200m row, we rotated stations.

Strength

10:00 EMOTM

  • 5 Front Squats (195#)
  • 10-12 calories on Air Dyne

First time using an Air Dyne and the combination with front squats was brutal. My quads were smoked.

WOD

21-15-9 with a partner

  • Air Dyne calories
  • Over the Bar Burpees

Kevin and I finished in 6:42. We tried to switch off with another team to get a rower but nobody was having it. Again the Air Dyne smoked me.

Open Gym WOD

15:00 Partner AMRAP

  • Partner 1: 250m Row
  • Partner 2: AMRAP of
    • 4 HSPU
    • 6 Ring Dips
    • 12 Lunges (stepping or plyo)

Matt requested HSPU and I was happy to oblige. They are no longer a weakness for me, but I can still use the work. I’ve done them paired up with ring dips a dew times while out in Phoenix so figured it would work well here. As I was thinking about this and making last minute changes, I came up with adding in the lunges otherwise everyone would have been too smoked by the upper body movements to do much at the end of the 15 minutes.

I teamed up with Michelle and we finished 13 rounds plus 16 more reps. I did all of my HSPU unbroken and quite a few rounds of the ring dips too. I need to work on my ring dip kip though. Some of the lunges I did stepping back and forth and other times I pushed through and did them plyo-style.

We had 7 people do this and it was a lot of fun.

Finisher

2x MB Pass Partner Circuit

  • 10 Straight
  • 10 OH
  • 10 Right
  • 10 Left
  • 10 Up

Brought this little ab killer back from CrossFit Full Strength and everyone seemed to love/hate it.

Back to Survival Mode

I’m not really feeling any affects from last night’s garage session. Quads getting a little sore from the back squats, but nothing close to major DOMS. It was my first WOD back at Survival Fitness for the 4pm class today.

Warm-up

  • 30 Air Squats
  • 20 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 30 PVC OHS
  • 4 Rounds:
    • 15s Jumping Jacks
    • 15s Air Squats
    • 15s Mountain Climbers
    • 15s Squat Jumps
  • 4 Rounds:
    • 15s Plank
    • 15s Supermans
    • 15s Side Plank (L)
    • 15s Side Plank (R)

Back to the predictable warm-ups. 🙂

OLY

2 Power Snatches every 15s for 4 minutes.

I used 95# and tried to get full hip extension, but didn’t have much success with it. It was tough due to not having much rest time at all, but I got through just fine with that weight.

WOD

7:00 AMRAP
3-6-9-12-15…

  • Thrusters (95#)
  • C2B Pull-ups

He was going for Open Workout 12.5 but messed up on the Rx weights, which should have been 100# for men. I thought about upping the weight, but stuck with the 95# as it was on the board. My best score for 12.5 was 66 reps back in August and I got 82 today. Using the lighter weight helps some but that’s a pretty big improvement. I’m pretty stoked about that since I hate thrusters and my C2B are usually not very good.

Finisher

5 Rounds

  • 30s Handstand (against wall)
  • 30s Rest

I tried to use as little pressure on the wall with my feet as I could, even taking them off the wall in the first couple of rounds. I also tried to really push up off the ground and keep everything really tight to help with actual handstands and handstand walks in the future.

I got home, took a short rest and then did some stuff out in the garage.

Strength

5 Rounds

  • 5 Incline Bench Press
  • 10 Parallette Pass Throughs
  • 90s Rest

I warmed up with a quick set of 5 with the empty 45# bar and then used 115# for all 5 sets on the incline bench. I did do 10 reps on my last set instead of 10. All of the pass throughs were done unbroken.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 30s Row
  • 30s Rest

Was able to keep consistent efforts, except the first one was a little weak, but I made up for it in the last interval.

4-1-2013-row1

4-1-2013-row2

Solid day of training.

A Fresh Look On Monday

Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself.

Bill Gates

As time has gone by, I’m feeling better about my performance in 13.1. I looked back at my placing after 12.1 and 12.2, compared to 13.1. I’m ranked higher in the world and there are twice as many registrations. I’d say that’s a win. I’ll know more about exact placement and percentile Tuesday night after score validation closes.

My disappointment in not getting a score of at least 150 is nearly gone. I know there will be workouts that play more into my strengths and I can make up ground. I gave 13.1 my best shot and honestly don’t know where I could have gone any faster to pick up the 45 seconds I would have needed to get the final 8 burpees.

It’s a new week and back to training until the next workout is announced. My body feels good, just a little sore in the upper back. I went in for 9am and there sit Gayle and Adam, just having got done with Saturday’s WOD. They’re starting some 2-a-days, so I did that same workout on my own.

Warm-up

  • 750m Row at 20s/m

I kept right around a 2:15/500m pace.

WOD #1

2 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 25 HSPU
  • 400m Run
  • 30 Pistols (alternating)

I finished in 17:10. HSPU were broken down into 10-5-4-3-3 and 5-5-5-4-3-3 I think. I’ve improved my strength for them so much in the last 2 months. My second round of pistols was a lot faster than my first round and felt good. Out of there in well under an hour and home to rest for later.

This wasn’t really too bad because I had quite a bit of rest during HSPU while breaking them up. Solid strength work though with cardio in the mix.

I jumped on the scale after the WOD and was 189 with shoes and clothes on. I ate really bad yesterday as my cheat day after the workout. Usually those kind of days put me up 2-3 pounds on the scale, so I’d say I hit my first goal of leaning out and getting down to around 185 for the Open.

Back at 4:15 for round 2!

Warm-up

  • 600m Run
  • 3 Rounds:
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

I did strict pull-ups to work on strength and chest-to-deck push-ups.

WOD #2

5 Rounds (Similar to the “Chief” WOD)

  • 3:00 AMRAP
    • 3 Ring Dips
    • 6 Plyo Lunges
    • 9 American KBS (53#)
  • 1m Rest

* Start each 3:00 round where you left off.

Instead of only doing straight up ring dips, I put the rings up at about eye level, got down with my legs bent under me and on my toes, looking up at the rings. Took a false grip and worked on the MU transition by doing a jumping/strict MU type move from there. Once I got up above the rings I did my 3 dips each time. Now that I’m thinking about it I should have put the rings higher and just done jumping MU or even tried doing a kipping MU each time.

This was a solid WOD and those KBS really started to hurt in the last two 3 minute rounds. I finished with a score of 18+3. To make this a little better, I think I would swap the rep counts for the lunges and the KBS.

Those were two solid WODs today, but not the kind that knock you out for 2 days.