The Day After

The day after a CrossFit competition is always an unknown. It’s hard to predict how your body is going to respond to the challenges you put it through in the heat of competing. I’m feeling good today considering I did 4 high intensity WODs yesterday. My rib cage must be a little bruised up from the plate run because I can feel it sore there. Other than that I feel a little tight in some places, but nothing is sore like the partner competition I did this summer. Went in for the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

4 Tabata Rounds

  • Mountain Climbers
  • Air Squats

Strength

5×5 Wide Stance Low Box Squats (14″ box)

These were not my friend and I’m already feeling them in my knees. I think the super wide stance may not be the best for taller guys, but I’ll have to do some research on that. My working sets were:

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#
  • 5 @ 175#

WOD

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • Burpee Box Jumps (24″)
    • Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 2m Rest
  • 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
    • Goblet Squats (48# KB)
    • Over the Box Jumps (24″)

My legs got a lot of work in the competition and then the box squats kind of finished them off before this WOD. I found it hard to jump on the 24″ box today, especially when I got to the over the box jumps. The 24″ box is never an issue for me. I finished in 17:31.

Tweaked My Back Again

Went in to open gym today at 5:15, but did the WOD on the board and then a little extra after.

Warm-up

  • 300m Run
  • PVC Shoulder Work

Strength

5×5 of 3″ Deficit Deadlifts

Started off with a warm-up set at 135#, then went 185, 225, 275, 295, and 305. I had a little more left in the tank, but that felt good.

WOD

  • Tabata Over the Box Jumps (24″)
  • 2m Rest
  • Tabata Ring Rows
  • 2m Rest
  • Tabata Plyo Push-ups
  • 2m Rest
  • Tabata V-ups
  • 2m Rest
  • Tabata Pistols

My over the box jumps were solid and I got 82 there. Ring rows always suck and I only could get 59. I started out way too fast, getting 20 plyo push-ups in the first 20 seconds, but it killed me. I only managed to get 48 more for a total of 68! V-ups felt good and I got 87. I was doing real pistols, but then at the end of the 2nd round I felt a tweak in my back. I tried to keep going in round 3, but only managed 2 reps because it hurt! I was thinking about calling it quits, but then did the rest of the rounds on a low box and managed to get 47 reps. Tied for 2nd place all day in the gym with 343 total reps.

Strength #2

I haven’t bench pressed in probably a good 5 years. The most I had ever done was 205 pounds. I’ve been wanting to work it into my schedule somewhere and today was the first day of that.

  • 10 @ 65#
  • 10 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 155#
  • 3 @ 175#
  • 1 @ 195#
  • 1 @ 215#

I tried to go again at 225# and had nothing left in the tank. I’ll take a 10# PR without working on it at all. If I hadn’t done all of those plyo push-ups I think I would have been able to go higher. Doing so many reps before the 1 rep tests probably wasn’t the greatest idea either.

I sure hope the tweak to my back isn’t anything serious and it’s fine tomorrow. I can’t afford to take it easy with this competition coming up in 2 weeks.

Be a Warrior

Got to sleep late last night, but feeling pretty good today, other than my lower back of course.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 30 Air Squats
  • 20 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 30 PVC OHS
  • 4 rounds
    • 15s Jumping Jacks
    • 15s Air Squats
    • 15s Mountain Climbers
    • 15s Jump Squats
  • 4 rounds
    • 15s Plank
    • 15s Supermans
    • 15s Side Plank L
    • 15s Side Plank R

Long warm-up, but just what my body needed.

WOD

Cool partner WODs today. I was paired up with Laura. You keep alternating each part of the workout, so while one person is running, the other is doing the movement for reps inside.

10:00 AMRAP

  • 150m Run
  • Over the Box Jumps (24″)

We got 198 reps total. Great WOD that keeps up the intensity the entire 10 minutes. There is no place to rest here until you’re done.

We rested for 5 minutes before moving on to the second part.

10:00 AMRAP

  • 150m MB Run
  • Alternating one-arm DB Snatches (40#)

We got 175 reps in this one. MB runs are never easy. Another 10 minutes where there is no place to rest because snatches are such a full body move.

Now I’m off to run the Warrior Dash at 4:30 this afternoon. It’s only 3.25 miles and from what I’ve heard there is a lot of waiting at the obstacles, so I don’t expect it to be too hard on the body. I’ll use it as a recovery from this morning’s WOD. Then tomorrow I’m heading out-of-town for the weekend to golf with my Dad and a couple of buddies. Looking forward to the rest days.

My Revenge on “Cindy”

My lower back has been pretty sore all day from yesterday’s multiple short WODs involving hang power cleans and deadlifts. It’s a good sore though.

Warm-up

5 rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Squats
  • 15s Mountain climbers
  • 15s Squat Jumps

I took it easy during the warm-up because I knew what was in store and there were a lot of squats coming in the WOD.

Skills

Tabata: Ring L-sits

Tabata: Over the box jumps (24″)

For the Ring L-sits I wasn’t able to keep my legs out for long and had to resort to holding my knees up as long as possible. My arms actually started to give out sooner once I switched to the knee tuck version. Over the box jumps were new and a welcome challenge. Since my basketball days I’ve always enjoyed jumping. I managed 6 or 7 over the box jumps during each 20s period.

WOD

Today we each got to choose between “Cindy” or “Mary” for the WOD. I have a little history with “Cindy” so this was an easy choice for me. Without that history I would have chosen “Mary” because I could use the work on HSPUs and lots of pull-ups. So, what’s that history with “Cindy” you ask?

I started CrossFit almost 8 months ago. My first on-ramp session was supposed to be a 1/2 “Cindy”, but I only made it into minute 6 or 7 before I nearly passed out and was literally on the ground for the next 30 minutes. I was doing ring rows instead of pull-ups and only managed 3 rounds. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life, but I was instantly hooked on CrossFit.


Fast forward a month and a half after that, when I did jumping pull-ups during “Cindy” and completed 12 rounds plus 5 more jumping pull-ups and 1 push-up. Oh, and I also had to switch from regular push-ups to knee push-ups in round 7 or 8.

As you might expect, I wanted my revenge on that bitch!

“Cindy”
20:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats

Today I completed my first Rx “Cindy” doing kipping pull-ups and chest-to-ground push-ups the entire way. Those first 3 rounds were done right around the 3:00 mark. All pull-ups were unbroken and other than a few sips of water, I never took more than a 1 or 2 second break during some of the push-ups and air squat sets. I definitely had to take the most breaks during the push-ups, but would only rest for a second or two at the top of a push-up before doing more. I ended up with 18 rounds plus 5 pull-ups and 6 push-ups, so scored 18+11 on the WOD!

Take that “Cindy”! I hope we can be friends now. 🙂