Dropped in at CrossFit Santa Cruz this morning with a few other guys from Automattic. Really cool since I’ve watched countless CrossFit videos filmed in their box. We went to the 7am class.
Stations
After that, we did about 15 minutes of mobility work.
Fun little one. Finished in 5:35.
Before heading out to CrossFit at the box I lifted a little in the garage. Did a quick 3:00 on the Air Dyne to get the blood pumping.
Back-to-back PRs with squats, back and front. Excited my squats are back!
Headed over to Survival Fitness for the 5pm…
15:00
We started with a PVC and worked our way up to a MAX muscle clean and push jerk for the day. This also served as our warm-up. I got up to 175# and stopped there because the clean was a struggle to get up the last bit without dropping under it. Felt like I was hitting higher on my legs just due to my snatch work.
12:00 time cap, NFT but keep moving
I finished with about 10 seconds left.
10:00 AMRAP
I went extra today and threw up to 11′ since we have to in the competition on Sunday. Good WOD. Did the KBS 30-20 to save my hands from ripping and prevent hitting the red line. Did all of the wall balls unbroken and finished 4+36.
Starting keeping track of food yesterday in an attempt to eat following some of the Eat to Perform guidelines. A lot more carbs than I’m used to eating. Went in at 10am to lift with Kevin.
More snatching! Did my typical 5:00 with 45# on the training for position work and then got into the snatches. Had no plan going in, but wanted to try to set another PR.
When I get up there I have to remember to be explosive and not focus too much on dropping under it. I also need to stay patient with standing up. Was frustrating with so many misses, but mission accomplished. Ten more pounds for a body weight snatch!
Wanted to do back squats, but didn’t really have a plan for them either.
Wasn’t expecting that, especially after already doing so many singles. Felt good to have my squat back. Kevin pointed out that I’d let my elbows drift back sometimes on the way up, which caused my forward lean and ugly squat. I was able to keep it pretty solid after that, but it happened on 335# lift and I was able to power through it.
Back at 7pm to workout with a class.
3 Rounds
10:00 EMOM
Today I learned that the RDL is not another name for a stiff leg deadlift, which I always thought was the case. I’ve always been doing SLDL and calling them RDL. Whoops!
Here are some short demos and explanations from Catalyst Athletics for each type of deadlift:
10:00 EMOM
Trying to use the chin-ups to work my biceps to help out my elbows, which hyper-extend. The right one has been getting achy for a few weeks due to all of the snatch volume.
12:00 AMRAP
Two minutes longer than Open WOD 13.2, but I got about a round less. I did all box jumps until the final round, which I think gassed me a lot more. I never took a break during the Open, but took quite a few today. Managed to get 7+26, but was expecting more. I did all of the push jerks and deadlifts unbroken without a problem.
Was planning to have a rest day, but that’ll be Wednesday instead. Went to open gym at 8pm.
450m Run
This was a fun little one. I estimated it would take about five minutes, which was right on the money. I had a DU miss in the round of 50 and one in the 40, finishing at 5:02.
30-20-10
My estimate was way off on this one. I figured it would be close to 10 minutes and I finished in 7:37. Felt pretty solid with push presses for 95# and then push jerks for 115# and 135#. Just kept moving on the box jumps and then pushed the pace on the last 10.
I did 3 sets (15-10-10) of OH Shrugs with 30# DBs. Trying to strengthen the opposite muscles worked in the bench press.
I walked 18 holes of golf yesterday morning and was pretty exhausted most of the rest of the day. No idea why. I got in an hour nap and was in bed early to get 9 hours of sleep. In at 10am this morning.
To beat my previous best estimated 1RM I needed 7 reps and I ended up getting 8 for a new estimate of 493#!! Probably still quite a bit higher than my real max, but I’ll take it. I might have pushed a little too much though, because I felt something in rep 5 or 6 and then in rep 8. Hopefully it was nothing, but low back was pretty sore almost immediately, although it did hold up in the WOD.
3 Sets of 15/15 with a 53# KB
Actually did these after the WOD, but wanted to group them up here in the strength section.
3 Rounds
First longer barbell complex in a while and it showed. Took me 11:37 to finish. I went 19-1, 10-9-1, and 14-5-1 on the deadlifts, back squats all “unbroken” (never dropped the bar), and 5-5, 6-4, and 6-4 on the push jerks. If we hadn’t just done heavy deadlifts I would have been able to get them all unbroken each round I think. I was starting to feel pretty rough trying to recover after this.
“Air Dyne Hell”
10 Rounds
Kevin and I got 273 calories, down from our last time with 287. No idea how we managed that before!
I got home and thought I was going to pass out for the next 20-30 minutes. Slamming a lemonade helped right away though. I think that might have been too much intensity after the heavy deadlifts.
I went back at 6 since my legs were already feeling the morning session and my back was pretty lit up. Figured it would be good to flush things out a bit.
0.5 Mile Sled Drag (forward) with 115#
“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10
Smashed my old PR of 7:41 with a 7:08. I missed my first DU on the sets of 50 and 40, but otherwise did them with 50, 2-38, 30, 20, 10. Could have been sub 7 without those misses, but I have no idea how people do sit-ups so damn fast. I never stopped moving.
0.5 Mile Sled Drag (backwards) with 115#
Ugh, backwards is so hard on the hip flexors. I wanted to stop after 2 of 6 laps, but kept on truckin’.
Feeling good. Had a rest day yesterday after a big volume weekend. Walked 18 holes of golf for some active recovery though. In at 10am today.
5:00-10:00 DU Practice
The idea was to work up to a heavy triple in 5 sets and then take 90% and do a 3×3. Was seeing stars after the set of 295# and then the next 3 sets were not easy.
Same thing as back squats, work up to a triple and then 3×3 at 90% of that.
Set 3 reps PRs for both movements, after just hitting 285# for 3 last week on the back squat. 🙂
5 Sets
Worked with Brad. Stacked plates on our backs. Used 25-45-70-70-95 for the weight. Pretty brutal there in those last three sets, but concentrated on keeping everything tight and focused breathing. Figured this would be good work leading up to the competition this weekend which has us doing a bunch of planks while other teammates are rowing.
5 Rounds
Felt pretty solid here. Was able to keep a pretty consistent pace on my rows and did unbroken wall balls every round. I got 30-30-29-26-26. Wall balls used to be a weakness, but now they don’t bother me at all. Usually my legs would start to give out, but it was my lungs that wanted to quit today. Whenever I wanted to stop I told myself I couldn’t have more than 15-20 seconds left and just kept pushing.
Had an epic weekend attending the Central East Regionals in Columbus. I’ll have more to say in a few days. Went it at 5pm tonight and stayed after for some extra fun.
Back Squats!
Felt solid today, especially after sitting in stadium seating and standing on concrete all weekend, plus about 10 hours of driving.
10 Rounds
I didn’t rush myself on the cleans and jerks because I didn’t want to fail and I wanted to be able to put a little effort into technique while doing them. Started out hot with only 1:17 for the first round. Too fast. Finished in 21:07.
Picked up a S-35E Rogue “E” Sled this weekend and put it to use today. Did some sled drags forward and backwards, starting with 135# loaded on and up to 180#. Then did some sled arm pulls.
It felt so good to workout after 3 rest days and eating all kinds of awesome food and desert and drinking plenty of beers.
Had a couple of rest days, so feeling good. Went in at 10:30 and trained with Kevin and Monica. Matt did his own thing.
Last week of the 6 week volume squat program and it’s a challenging one. Warmed up with 5 @ 45# and 5 @ 135#.
Just like last week, those first sets were harder than the end. After the 3 with 280# I didn’t think there was a chance I’d hit both with 300#, especially since I’ve only ever done it once and 315# once. I even asked Matt and Kevin to spot me on the ends of the bar, but I got both reps no problem. This program is working!!
Worked up to a heavy triple. I went 135#, 145#, 165#, 175#, and 195#. Knocked out each triple fast except for the last one where I reset on each rep instead of going right into the dip.
8:00 AMRAP
Push-ups held me back, but I did all C2B and WB unbroken. Finished with 5+15.
5 Rounds
Messed up on my first round of DU, but then was solid. Those wall ball sit-ups added up fast after a couple of rounds. Finished in 7:27.
Some solid strength work and a couple of short WODs, which were a nice change of pace after doing a bunch of longer metcons last week.
Went to the 9am class today since I don’t have time for a longer training session.
4 Rounds
7:00 EMOM
I was jumping over 10′ on each jump and was really explosive on the thrusters.
5×3 Deadlifts
I’ve been trying to stay away from heavy deadlifts during my squat cycle just because I don’t need to focus on improving my max. I thought about staying lighter today, but after a couple of sets, I said fuck it. Did 225#, 295#, 345#, 395#, and 425#. Matches a 3RM from a couple of months ago and it felt easier today.
“DT”
5 Rounds
The first (and only) time I went RX (155#) was back on February 15th with a time of 14:40. It hurt! Figured I could beat that today, but we had a 12:00 time cap, so I was really going to have to push it to finish. In the end, the time cap actually helped me out a lot.
In the first round I was able to pick a pace and force myself to rest so that I could last. I got 11 unbroken deadlifts to start each round, just like before. Last time around, the cleans and the push jerks were pretty horrible on me. This time around, the cleans ended up being the worst, but I was actually able to get a couple sets of 8 unbroken. I made the biggest improvement on the push jerks though, getting all 6 unbroken every round. Finished in 11:48, a PR by almost 3 minutes!
Another competition day. Feeling a little off, due to diet. I’ve been eating like shit and need to clean it up. In late for the 8pm class to throw down with Brent.
I’m not sure that’s entirely right, but it was a dynamic warm-up.
18:00 AMRAP
I have to admit, this was never my favorite, even though it has box jumps in it. The shoulder to overheads have always given me trouble at that weight in a long WOD. I got 5+21 last year in the Open and 6+22 back in August. This would be a good test of how far my upper body strength has come.
My box jumps weren’t that great today. My calves were a bit rusty, maybe from the snatch pulls we did yesterday. I was able to do push jerks as 7-5 every single round, which is huge for me. I had to break them up into 3 or 4 sets pretty early on both times I’ve done this before. I had a few rounds of unbroken T2B and then went with a lot of 6-3 or similar. Finished with 8+17!!
I’m supposed to get front squats done today but am beat after that one. I’ll do them tomorrow when I’m fresh.
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 