Hard to try an catch your breath holding a sandbag on your chest. haha High speed burpees all the way. The overhead hold was miserable. Missed a dub at 17 in round one and at 53 in round three. Three unbroken sets of 60 is great for me!
Midline
4 Rounds
40 OH Hollow Flutter Kicks (20# KB)
30 Reverse Crunch
20 Russian Twists (45# plate)
10 PVC Sit-ups
This was a grinder! I slowed a bit between some sit-ups, but otherwise went unbroken, which was not easy at all. Finished in 8:27.
Rested yesterday, while watching my nieces for the night. It was nice to have the day off exercise after 21.3 and 21.43. Out in the garage by 2pm I think.
40:00 AMRAP – Partner
30 H2H KBS (53#)
16 cal BikeErg (standing)
30 Big Hollow Flutter Kicks (20# KB OH)
30 alt Side Crunches
80 Jump Rope (singles)
12 cal SkiErg
Worked out with B, each doing the assigned reps per movement (she had some differences in calories). She started and we both got through 5 rounds plus she got two swings. This was a good one to just move. Will be taking it on the easier side to recover from the three weeks of the Open.
Watching the leaderboard to see if I stay in the top 10%. Looking good right now.
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…
I started out much slower than in the Open last year and I was doing 2×4 clean and jerks. I did do the 10th round of C&J unbroken and had to bust through 3 burpees to end up with the exact same 9+11 I got in the Open a year ago. This was a much better effort and more consistent though. My round times were 1:17, 1:33, 1:34, 1:31, 1:35, 1:35, 1:42, 1:49, and 1:43. Compared to a year ago, when my first four rounds took 5:18 and 7:00, today it was 5:55 and 6:31.
12 Handstand Kick Up Against Wall (~10s + pull feet away)
Got 2-3 solid holds with my feet off the wall. Progressing!
Conditioning
35:00 AMRAP (Partner)
8 HSPU
12 Sumo KB Deadlifts (53/35#)
16 Plyo Lunge
12 HR Push-ups
12/8 cal Row
4 Power Cleans (185#)
The work is done by each person before moving to the next movement. I went first and got through 8 full rounds plus row. Handstand push-ups felt really smooth. My balance and cycling were feeling much improved from the handstand work.
Got out of bed at 5:30 this morning, but feeling good. I went out the garage early at 9:30.
Warm-up
25:00 BikeErg (12,750m)
20 PVC Passes
The bike is really quite enjoyable for stuff like this. Nice to get some sun too. Was hoping to have time for a 30 minute ride, but I did not.
Test
MAX Butterfly Pull-ups
Had to beat 30 from May 24, 2016 and smoked it with 42. It wasn’t even really my pull-ups that gave out (all butterfly), it was the breathing! I think I could hold on and even switch to a regular kip if needed and get around 50.
Back Day!
4 Sets
8 Strict Chin-ups
Why are these so hard?
4 Sets
10 Lat Pulldowns (105-105-110-115#)
Switching things up and going heavy for a few weeks.
4 Sets
10/10 Half Kneeling Single Arm Pull Down (cross body, handle, 15-20-20-20#)
4 Sets
10 Seated Cable Rows (double handles, 90#)
5 Set Drop Set
8 DB Incline Back Fly (45# DBs)
4 Max rep Drop Sets (40-35-30-25#)
I increased 5# more than I used couple of weeks ago. Last time, with the lighter weights each set, I hit 12-12-12-20 for my drop sets. Today I did 8-10-10-12, also with the shorter rests since we are helping each other adjust a dumbbell weight.
I finally used the handles I bought three months ago! I was thinking they were 75# carries, but had forgot about the weights of the handles, which are 8# each.
While getting out some jerk blocks as a resting place for the handles, I dropped one down the same leg I got bit by the bike with the other day. Hurt so bad and had a big goose egg right away.
Now heading to Leaman’s Apple Barn to get treats for one of their Cider Sundae Fundays!
