Tag: hike

A Hike and Olympic Lifting

I didn’t end up golfing this morning because I went back to test out some new golf irons. After I was done, I headed straight to Piestewa Peak for a hike. I had to park in the farthest parking lot from the trail head, so the total distance was 2.85 miles, which I completed in 1:11:07.

There wasn’t an Olympic lifting class at CrossFit Full Strength last week because of the Super Bowl, but it was back on the schedule today, so I made sure to get there. After doing a 500m warm-up on the rower, we worked on transfer skills and strength for them.

First we started with hanging muscle snatches. Nothing too complex, but I had to work on keeping the bar close to my body on the way up and not starting the move with a dip of the shoulders and body. The weight quickly got heavy, but I guess that’s why it’s called a muscle snatch. I think I got up to 95#.

The next thing we did was heaving snatch balance into a receiving position, followed up by an overhead squat. The OH squat is an awkward movement to get the hang of. I have trouble keeping it locked out, back behind my head, and still make sure I’m pushing up on the bar. I started rocking a few times, but think I was getting better. Got up to 95# again doing these.

Finally at the end, we worked on a slow jerk movement. Starting in the rack position, we’d go up on to our toes and pause the bar at our forehead for a second or two. Then from there we’d concentrate on dropping below the bar into the split jerk. I have a tendency to split too wide with my feet. We started with just the 45# bar, but as I added weight I felt that it helped me to keep the split smaller. I only worked up to 85# on these because we did a lot with the bar and were concentrating on the split portion more than anything else.

I really like going to these Oly classes because they are really slow paced with a lot of instruction from Johnny. They are really helping me out during the strength work and WODs of regular classes.

After I got home I worked on DUs for awhile. I did better than I’ve been doing in class, but still a struggle.

Yesterday was a much needed rest day Some…

Yesterday was a much needed rest day. Some new skin is growing in nicely on my hands and I no longer have any pain when water or anything touches them. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and I was fine swinging a golf club. I did keep putting chap stick on the areas because they were getting a little dry. I’ve been applying lotion several times a day when at home too.

I just got done hiking Piestewa Peak, which is just over 2 miles, in 53:38. Each time I hike it I set another PR. This time I shaved off another 3:03. I’m really noticing a difference in my breathing during the climb. It’s much easier than when I first did it on January 7th at a time over 10 minutes slower than today. All of the credit goes to CrossFit!

I really needed the rest day yesterday My…

I really needed the rest day yesterday. My thighs were sore from the back squats we did on Thursday and my abs were still a little tight. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and just got back from hiking Piestewa Peak. I did the 2 mile hike in 56:41, which is 3:37 faster than last time. I think taking a rest day had something to do with that, but it also speaks volumes of the CrossFit training. It’s a good day when I’ve taken 20,000 steps (according to my Fitbit) by 6pm.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the box tomorrow for a WOD. Looks like a “simple” metcon is scheduled so I’m probably not going to try out the new shoes because there are 4 rounds and a 400m run is part of each round. I’d rather break-in the shoes a bit first before running that much total distance in them. I’ll try them on Monday instead when we should have some type of lifting work to do.