4 Plates

My lats were a little sore this morning. Maybe from the presses or burpees? Don’t remember rowing every making me sore. Was up and to the 9am class.

Warmup

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • Pass thrus
  • Air Squats
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Jumping Jacks

Strength – Deadlift

  • 10×45#
  • 6×155#
  • 6×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×305#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×365#
  • 3×385#
  • 3×405#

I haven’t had 4 plates on the bar since sometime before May. Felt ok, but didn’t want to push it.

Conditioning

  • 21-15-9 American KBS (53#)
  • 21-15-9 Goblet Squats (53#)
  • 30 DU

Good little burner. I went with American swings today since it wasn’t high reps. Unbroken on the weighted movements, but my dubs were shitty again today. Missed in the first set at 25 and missed 2-3 times in the second set, but got the last one unbroken. Finished in 4:17.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (70#)
  • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups

Why do the Kroc rows never seem to get easier? I sweat like a pig during them. Kind of a nasty combo with pull-ups. I’m going to try to do all strict pull-ups during accessory work or even weighted ones.

Burpees over the Rower

Took a complete rest day yesterday. Staying up late over the weekend to play Halo and this time change has me all messed up. Plus my nieces were here the last couple of days so I was up way earlier than I like. Headed to the gym around 3pm today for my workout.

Warm-up

  • 10 Revers Hyper 140#
  • 10 Back Squat 45#
  • 10 Shoulder Press 45#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 155#
  • 4 SP 75#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 205#
  • 4 SP 95#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 235#
  • 4 SP 115#

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 4 Back Squat (265#)
  • 4 Shoulder Press (135#)

Squats felt better than the sets of 5 with 245# last week. Shoulder press was rough though.

Rowing WOD Week 14 Session 1

So not only is the focus on rowing for CrossFit, but now we’re adding burpees into the mix!

E2M 20:00

  • 15 Calorie Row
  • 8 Burpees over the rower

Each round is done for time. The numbers were based off the 30 second intervals we did last week. My times were 0:54, 0,:53, 0:53, 0:54, 0:54, 0:57, 0:58, 1:04, 1:09, 0:59. Around the end of round 7 I started to feel sick during the burpees. So I slowed down in rounds 8-9 and somehow powered through round 10 because I didn’t want to go over 1:10 and made it back under a minute.

Then a much needed 5:00 rest.

3 Rounds

  • 15 Calorie Row
  • 8 Burpees over the rower

My legs ran out of juice towards the end of the first round on the rower. Burpees held out pretty well. Took me 3:33 and then I collapsed on the ground for several minutes. Finally got moving and went outside to cool off and walked 400m.

That was one fucking nasty ass workout. One of the hardest things I’ve done recently.

9am and the 3 Bears

Actually woke up this morning. Of course in a few days I’ll have to adjust timing by another hour with DST bull shit.

Warm-up

  • 3 Sets
    • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
    • 10 Toe Touches
  • Zombie Kicks
  • High Knees
  • Butt Kicks
  • Bar Hang
  • Deadlifts
    • 6×45#
    • 6×155#
    • 6×225#
    • 6×265#

Strength

12:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 6 Deadlifts (295#)
  • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups

Turned into cardio read quick! 5 was the perfect number on those pull-ups because I was almost missing my last one each set. I touched the ground between every rep and kept a solid hollow body position.

Conditioning

6 Sets

  • 3 Bear Complex (unbroken)
  • 1:00 Rest

I started with 115# and went up 10# every set. Was pretty smooth and steady through the first 5 sets. When I got to the end I would have had 5# sitting on the sidelines so I slapped them on the bar too for a 20# jump. Shit balls! The thrusters in back and front were a struggle and I had to take a second or two to take a breath in a couple of positions. Got through though. I think it took me just under 7:00 to finish all the sets. Didn’t get much rest time with changing the plates.

6 Rounds

  • 30s Row
  • 4 Burpees
  • ~1:00 Rest (while someone else did their row)

I didn’t strap in my feet for the first 5 rounds and got 156-160-160-160-162 meters. Strapped in and went hard on the last one and got 176 meters, so a big difference transferring power into the machine. My burpees were pretty slow every round.

30s

Planned to get up and hit the garage in the morning, but that didn’t happen. Got to Intuition at 3:20.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Back Squats – 5×45, 5×155, 5×225
  • Shoulder Press – 5×45, 5×95, 5×115

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Shoulder Press (125#)
  • 5 Back Squats (245#)

Can tell I haven’t been squatting much. That felt much tougher than it even should.

Rowing WOD Week 13 Session 1 – Intervals

Next phase is going to focus on rowing for CrossFit.

Part A: 15 rounds

  • 30s Row (calories)
  • 30s Rest

Strokes/minute Prescription

  • Round 1 – Rate 18
  • Round 2 – Rate 19
  • Round 3 – Rate 20
  • Round 11 – Rate 28
  • Round 12 – Rate 29
  • Rounds 13-15 – no rate cap, max effort

Screwed up and started out at 19s/m. Figured that out after a few rounds and scaled it back. It was hard to get into a rhythm with the stroke rates in such a short period of time (as you can see from the log). I forgot to keep track of calories, but using the cal/hr (and rounding down) from the log I came up with 9-9-9-10-11-11-11-12-12-12-13-14-16-16-16 for a total of 181. Those numbers seem about right.

Rest 5:00

Part B: Row 25 calories for time

I was hitting over 2,400 cal/hr and even over 2,500 for a brief moment! I don’t ever remember getting 2 cals in a pull and I did it many times. Took me about 0:39.

Hung around for a bit as the 4:30 class got going. Did 5 or 6 sets of ring swings, working on my hollow/arch positions.

The 2k

Today was the big day. Glad I rested yesterday. Still kind of sore in my legs from the 500 double unders and 100 wall balls. Got to the gym around 4:30.

Warm-up

  • 3×8 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 4x150m Row (bursts, getting faster each time)

Rowing WOD Week 12 Session 2

This is it! Second phase of the program has been leading up to the big test.

  • 2,000m Row for time

During the first week we set a pacing goal based on a 500m interval workout. I went with what felt like an aggressive 1:41 pace at the time for my goal, knowing that would be a pretty big PR. After doing a 1,500m race pace simulation on October 12th, I felt confident it was possible. I stuck to the race plan that had been laid out for us and came home with an average pace of 1:40.8, a time of 6:43.3, and a PR by 18.6 seconds!

I think the fast start actually hurt me and if I had to do it again I’d dial it back more in that first 200m. When I got past the first 500 meters I was having a hard time generating enough power to stay on the 1:41. 1:42-1:43 was more of the pace I was hitting. At 1,000m I was still averaging under the goal, but it kept creeping up more and more, eventually getting up to about 1:41.3. Luckily that’s when it was time to kick it in gear for the final 300. I was able to reign it back under 1:41. Pretty stoked to make my goal. This rowing program has been awesome and I’m seeing a lot of carryover in my conditioning. Here’s a Beyond the Whiteboard chart showing my 2k rows over time.

Here’s my ranking on Concept2 for men’s 30-39 heavyweight.

concept2-2k-rank

Even though that hurt like hell and my legs are still burning 2 hours later, I’m excited to take a shot at my 1k row time now. Hell, my first 1k of that race was 3:21.1, which is only 10 seconds off my best.

Conditioning / Accessory

After recovering, Bryan and I did this little I Go You Go style workout. We didn’t use a clock but kept moving throughout.

7 Rounds (each)

  • 4 Strict HSPU
  • 7 Goblet Squats (53#)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

We said we’d start out shooting for 5 rounds and go from there. Was getting close to failure on the HSPU so went for 2 more rounds. We each went through an entire round and then rested while the other guy did his. Went better than expected, but was a little light-headed after the rowing.

Back in Michigan

Got home yesterday from Park City and planned on going to the 9am class. Didn’t wake up until 8:45 though. Was great to sleep with some humidity after it being so dry in Utah and in my own bed as well. I went in to CrossFit Intuition around noon.

Rowing WOD Week 12 Session 1

  • Part A – 4 rounds
    • 2,000m
    • 5:00 Rest
  • 5:00 Rest
  • Part B – 2 rounds
    • 500m
    • 3:00 Rest

The 2k rows were done at 20-22-20-22 s/m, making the 2nd two faster. Kept up with increasing the rate 1s for every stroke/minute. The 500s were set to be done at the 2k race pace. Since I started them off as the start of the race, the average pace is below my 1:41 goal, but I settled in around 1:40-1:41 after 200 meters or so.

Could definitely tell the difference being back in Michigan with so much more oxygen available. Looking forward to enjoying the effects of the altitude for the next few days or week and excited to test the 2k later this week.

Went back to the gym for the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2×8 Reverse Hypers (210#)

Strength: Shoulder Press

  • 8×45#
  • 6×95#
  • 4×125#
  • 2×145#
  • 1×155#
  • 1×165#
  • F – 175#
  • 1×175# (PR match)

That’s a couple times recently where I’ve matched my previous best from last November. I haven’t been consistent on a lot of my strength work though and have put a lot of focus into rowing over the last 12 weeks, so I guess keeping steady should be okay. I also held that last rep overhead for a count of 20.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 7 Deadlifts
  • 7 Power Cleans
  • 7 Push Jerks

I used 115# and set a goal to do unbroken rounds. I then took probably 30-40 seconds of rest after most rounds. After doing that for 6 rounds, I took a shorter rest and did the cleans in singles. Ended up with 7 rounds plus 5 deadlifts. The cleans and jerks started to get hard in those unbroken rounds. Good challenge after not touching weight other than some thrusters last week.

Midline

Weighted Planks (45#, on hands with straight arms)

  • 5 x 45s
  • 1 x 2:00

Went for broke on my last one. I was shaking like crazy. Probably had about 1:00-1:15 rest between attempts alternating with a partner.

Wrapped Up

Didn’t sleep worth a shit and woke up with my wrists feeling like they had deep bruises from the velcro straps of the leather grips I wore for the T2B. That went away in the afternoon though and I actually felt pretty good. We got going around 5:30 again.

Warm-up

  • 2×8 Reverse Hyper (160#)
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Various Clean + a few front squats (45-95-155-185-205-225-235#)

Team Series Event #7 – 20:00

  • 7-rep-max front squat (from the ground)

Having to take it from the ground added a new element. Did a clean and extra squat with 245# to see how it felt. Then knocked out all my reps with 255# and called it a day. Our entire team was done in less than 10 minutes. My back was starting to feel it during those reps and I didn’t want to get hurt with another event and a partner competition tomorrow morning. Satisfied. Our team total was 795#.

Team Series Event #6

As a relay in the order M1-M2-F1-F2, each athlete completes:

  • 30 deadlifts (185/135 lb.)
  • 30-calorie row
  • 30 overhead squats (95/65 lb.)

Bryan went first with a 4:30, I got a 4:37, Jess 6:25, and Michelle 4:23. I did 18 deadlifts, dropped to rotate my hands, and picked the bar right back up. Was averaging about 1,600 cal/hr on the rower, and did my OHS in 3 sets of 10. Those were rough from rep 1. My upper body was shaking all over the place, probably from all the work we did yesterday. Total team time of 19:55.

Doing the Team Series was a lot of fun and a good challenge. Definitely some workouts that took us out of our comfort zone and things we wouldn’t come up with. Now off early in the morning to Chesaning for the local throwdown we call the GLBRT (Great Lakes Bay Regional Throwdown).

Shoulder Carnage

Feeling good again today, so glad the head cold moved through quickly. In around 5:30 to get half of the Team Series workouts done.

Warm-up

  • 3×8 Reverse Hypers (160#)
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Muscle Snatches

Team Series #5

  • Karen: 150 Wall Balls
  • Grace: 30 C&J
  • Diane: 21-15-9 Deadlifts & HSPU
  • Randy: 75 Snatches (75#)

Each person on the team does one benchmark. I got to do my first Randy. Went 15-10-10-7-8-8-5-6-6. After 25 my shoulders felt like they were going to explode. Took me 5:01 in the splits (and 4:57 by video) but sure didn’t feel like that long. Our total time was 20:49 with splits of 5:47, 8:41, and 15:48.

Team Series #8

  • 200 toes-to-bars, while 2 teammates hold loaded barbells overhead
  • 200 shoulder-to-overheads (135/95 lb.), while 2 teammates hang from the pull-up bar

Horrible! For T2B I think I did 4 sets of 10 and then maybe 7 and 7, maybe? Not sure. We finished those at 7:41 and literally took about a minute to peel off wraps and shit before we started on the S2OH reps. We paired up doing 5 and 5 the whole way and then switched with the hangers. Just kept moving. Hanging wasn’t a big deal, especially using a mixed grip. We finished at 17:23.

Shoulders are absolutely destroyed! Events 6 & 7 tomorrow.

What Head Cold?

Sunday night I would feel my sinuses started to go a little nuts. Didn’t feel great on Monday so decided to take a rest day. By 8pm I was kind of miserable. Had to take Tuesday off work because I couldn’t stare at a computer without my eyes watering like crazy and if I sat up my nose wouldn’t stop dripping. Woke up feeling much better today though. Was unsure if I should do anything but decided to go in around 5:30 and get my rowing finished for the week.

Row: Engine

2 x 6,000m with 5:00 rest

Pacing:

  • Set 1: 2000m at rate 19, 2000m at rate 20, 2000m at rate 21
  • Set 2: Repeat and try to go a little faster (no more than 0:02/500m at each level)

I set a pretty slow goal of going 2:15-2:14-2:13 on the first set and figured I’d see how I felt after that. If I wasn’t feeling good I was prepared to just head home. Ended up feeling great though so bumped it up 2 seconds for each rate on the 2nd time through.

12k in less than an hour of total time (including rest). A few weeks ago I thought rowing that far was nuts and now it’s not that big of a deal.

Cool Down

  • 3×12 Reverse Hyper (160#)
  • Rolled lower back
  • OH mobility work

Next 3 days are going to be rough with the CrossFit Team Series workouts and a local partner competition.

More Carbs, No Bonk

Got to the gym early so I could do some pre-hab. My shoulders have felt a little wonky the last couple of days.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • OH Mobility/Stretching

Strength

OHS (5-10-X-5 Tempo)

  • 45#
  • 75#
  • 95#
  • 115#
  • 135#
  • 155#
  • 175#
  • 190# (dumped after the 10s in the hole)

My shoulders were not feeling stable today, even in early sets. I did 185# last week so I had to go for more this week even though the stability didn’t seem to be there I didn’t even try to stand up with 190 because the bar was moving all over the place. Was a win just to get the 5 second descent and 10 seconds in the hole, which is still 15 seconds under tension.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 5/5 Single Leg RDL (155#)
  • 5 Evil Wheels

Felt a little tightness in my low back on the first 2 sets. Focused more and was good to go.

Conditioning

At an 80% pace. We haven’t paced one of these in quite a long time and figured it would be good going into a tough week for me.

  • 8:00 AMRAP
    • 5 Thrusters (75#)
    • 5 Burpee Step-ups (24″)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 8:00 AMRAP
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Russian KBS (70#)
    • 15 Plate Hops (on 45# plate)

I got exactly 8 rounds in the first and 8+4 in the second. I think. I wasn’t using chips to keep track like usual, since it was more about just going at a steady and even pace.

I kept the programming on the easy side since I was planning to head back in the afternoon to knock out the first rowing session. Busy week with the Team Series workouts and local competition on Saturday so need to get the rowing done early. Got to the gym around 6pm. Didn’t do any warm-up at all; right on the rower.

Row: 2k Pacing

5 Sets

  • 750m
  • 5:00 rest

Pacing

  • Sets 1-2: 2 splits slower than 2k pace (1:43)
  • Set 3: 1 split slower than 2k pace (1:42)
  • Set 4: 2k pace (1:41)
  • Set 5: As if it was the last 750m of a 2k race

Even though I worked out in the morning, I was hoping for a better outcome than session 1 last week, which I think was a nutrition failure. I’ve upped my carbs since then.

No bonking today! Nailed the pace in every set. I started to kick it in with about 250 meters left on that final 750m simulation and could have done so earlier. Very pleased though. I also wore my heart rate monitor for shits and giggles. Got it up to 167 in that final row.