Pegged

bryan-peg-boardBryan came over to try out the peg board and hit a garage workout. We got up a few times. It’s definitely a lot harder than it looks and you can feel it using all kinds of different muscles. I did warm-up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Strength

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 8×135#
  • 6×185#
  • 4×205#
  • 10x3x225#

We did the 225# sets rapid fire, going one after the other with little rest.

Conditioning

4 Rounds each, rest while partner goes

  • 12 Ski Erg calories
  • 10 Power Snatch (95#)

Tried to keep a pretty steady pace on the Ski Erg and was close to 1,200 calories/hour which is what I usually go for on the rower when doing something like 30 calories to start a workout. My goal was to do all of the snatches unbroken. It hurt, but I did it. The rest time was just enough to be able to go hard again. We finished in about 11:10.

I did a whole bunch of peg board pull up sets throughout the day. I would either do a set of 8 or 5/5 with one arm at a higher peg and probably did 4 sets of each.

Stopped at the gym in the evening to do a rowing test that didn’t go very well.

Row 20:00 for distance

I figured I’d be able to keep a 1:55 pace which I did in my recent 5k PR. Nope!

image

Midline

8 Rounds

  • 20s Hollow Rocks
  • 15s Rest

Managed to go the whole way and got 120 reps.

Rowing 4th

Yesterday was my first complete rest day after going 81 days in a row! It was 49 days of squats, 30 days of running, and a couple of days on top of that. Some days were just an easy 1 mile run, but still. It felt good to not do anything. I went to the driving range in the afternoon to work on my golf swing. This morning my HRV was up to 114, the highest reading I’ve ever had! A little surprising because I haven’t slept worth a shit most of the week.

Went to the gym at 10am.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 50 Walking Lunges

Strength

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×205#
  • 5×245#
  • 5x5x275#

First day of week 3. Tried to focus on locking in all of my back and driving up out of the hole. Rested about 3 minutes between working sets. Tried to do one rep right after the other with just a slight pause at the top.

Conditioning

12:00 EMOM alternating

  • 2 C&J (185#)
  • 4 Muscle-ups

I did a full squat and split the jerks. Tried not to pull with my arms on the cleans and drive under the bar on the jerks.

Bryan was working out with me and had to take off. I rested 20 minutes and then jumped on the rower.

Row 5k

I’ve been meaning to give this a shot for the last few months, but it didn’t seem like a great idea during all of the squats and then I was getting plenty of aerobic work with all of the running.

I wanted to stay under a 1:55/500m average and possibly go sub-19 for my time. I’ve tried this only once I think, going 19:34 on October 25, 2013. I held the average pace without much trouble, with about a 0.3-0.4s cushion. Stroke rate was too high for the first 2,000 meters, but then I settled in to a rhythm. Started to pick it up in the last 2 minutes. Got a nice 36 second PR at 18:58.5. Whenever I do this again, I think it’ll pay off to lower that stroke rate from the start.

2015-jul-4-5k-row

Snail’s Pace

Run Every Day

I did not want to run this morning, but with a chance of rain all day starting around 10, I figured I better get it in. Didn’t wear headphones and went super slow. 1.7 miles in 20:14, almost a 12:00 pace. Even with that run my average pace over the last week was still a big improvement.

Went in before the 10am class with Kevin. Warmed up with 100 walking lunges.

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×205#
  • 5×245#
  • 5x5x270#

I did the 45# and 135# without shoes on, then put on my lifters. Didn’t wear a belt at all since it was light weight and it’ll help to strengthen my back. This was the start of 2nd week of the Rippletoe program.

Did a bit of empty bar work to warm-up when class started.

3-position Snatch Deadlift

  • 3x40kg
  • 3x60kg
  • 3x80kg
  • 3x85kg

Rough on the hook grip with the Eleiko bar. I had to stop and let go between reps on the last 2 sets.

Panda Pull

  • 2x60kg
  • 2x65kg
  • 2x70kg
  • 2x75kg

Not as hard on the grip, but I feel awkward doing these.

Snatch

  • 3x40kg
  • 2x60kg
  • 1x75kg
  • 1x80kg
  • 1x85kg
  • 1x90kg

The first reps felt like a feather after doing those pulls. Everything felt smooth.

Conditioning

With a partner…

  • Buy-in: 8 Rounds (4 each)
    • 40′ OH Plate Carry (35-45-45-45#)
    • 40′ Run
  • Start Clock…
    • 4 Rounds
      • 16 HSPU
      • 16 Ring Dips
      • 16 Pull-ups
    • 2,000m Row

* We had 1:00 to complete our buy-in round, then 10 seconds before partner started their round.

I was partnered with Kevin. We started with 8-8 in the first round for everything, then went 4-4-4-4 for HSPU in rounds 2-3 and 4-3-6-3 in round 4 since he was dying. Last 3 rounds of dips were 4-4-4-4 and pull-ups stayed at 8-8 the whole way. We switched every 500 meters on the rower and finished in 15:30.

I wore the new Nano 5 and they felt really good.

2015 June GLBRT

I’ve been sleeping so good lately. Headed out at 7am simple for the sake of keeping the #RunEveryDayJune streak going. Went 1.1 miles in 11:37.

First Great Lakes Bay Regional Throwdown of the year started at 9am. Held at Next Level Fitness this time.

Event 1

8:00 (Simultaneously)

  • Row for distance
  • AMRAP DU

* One person at each thing at a time. Switch out any way you want.

I was on row duty first to get us off to a good start. Went for about 2:30 with 800 meters, got some rest and then jumped in on the dubs. We totaled 721 DU for 4th and 2,267 meters for 8th.

Event 2

10:00

  • Max snatch and C&J for men and women

* One person from each gender does one of the two lifts. Each team has 2 bars.

All 4 of us hit PRs! After 205# being a little shaky to stand up with due to whatever is causing my OHS issue, I fucked the shit out of the bar with 215# and actually power snatched it! That’s 20# more than I’ve ever even attempted to power snatch and a 5# snatch PR. We totaled 740# for 6th place.

Event 3

  • 1:00 AMRAP Muscle-ups (x3 points) – Member A
  • 1:00 AMRAP Wall Balls (20/14#, 10/9′) – Member B
  • 8:00 AMRAP
    • 15 Pull-ups
    • 15 Power cleans (115/80#)
    • 15 HSPU
    • 15 Front Squats (115/80#)
  • 1:00 AMRAP Pistols – Member C
  • 1:00 AMRAP Hand Release Burpee Box Overs (24/20″) – Member D

* Each team member does a 1:00 AMRAP of something and everyone shares the work of the 8:00 AMRAP.

Muscle-ups for me. Nice to get my part out of the way first thing. I went 4-3-3-2 for 12. Same as I got in practice. Their rings were like fucking sand paper! We had 381 “points” with the MU being tripled, which was 8th in the event. I didn’t do any pull-ups and HSPU were much harder than in practice.

When I watched this video I cringed at my lockouts as the minute progressed. Then I went frame-by-frame in Quicktime and I actually hit lockout in every rep, even the final one. Just hard to catch at speed and with my weird double-jointed elbows. I need to work on making the lockouts better though and keep my damn feet and legs together for more power.

Not too long after the event I was blacking out and my hands were all tingly for quite some time. Lucky I had some medical professionals on our teams to help me out and carb me up. Recovered for the final though.

Event 4

  • 25-15-10
    • Deadlifts – Men (205#)
    • Thrusters – Women (55#)
  • 10-15-25
    • Thrusters – Men (75#)
    • Deadlifts – Women (145#)

* EMOM 4 synchronized burpees. One person working at a time. The men do 25 deadlifts (split up any way), then the women do 25 thrusters, then 15s and 10s, before changing weights and swapping movements.

I did the 25 and 10 deadlifts, then the 15 thrusters and the final 4 thrusters after Bryan got interrupted by burpees. The burpees were just an annoying forced break. They were easy. We finished in 6:53, which was 6th place.

The points were so close that we actually dropped from 5th to 7th out of 22 teams after that! Only 7 points out of 4th place though. It was by far the most fun GLBRT I’ve participated in.

Here are the final results with a link to the spreadsheet I whipped up since they didn’t do any sorting of the data. If nothing else, we were consistent. Just needed a higher finisher in one of the full point workouts.

results-GLBRT-june-2015

Core Galore

Last night I was exhausted from driving down state to golf in the morning and the long night run. Got nearly 10 hours of sleep. My legs are feeling some fatigue this morning but HRV was good. I’ve dropped 6 pounds since getting my diet back on point a week ago.

Warmed up for Super Sunday with Crossover Symmetry Activation, a 500m row, and some C&J with 45 and 95#.

Open Workout 13.4

7:00 AMRAP
3-6-9-12…

  • C&J (135#)
  • T2B

I haven’t done this since the Open that year when I got 82 reps. Got 75 today. I guess I should have gone back and read what I did back then. Whoops! Did the first 3 clean & jerks unbroken, then all singles. Did sets of 3 toes to bars until the 12 when I did 3 sets of 4. I could have easily beat that old score by stringing together more T2B.

Accessory

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Pendlay Rows (165#)
  • 15 V-ups

I tried to squeeze each row for a second at the top. Focused on quality v-ups.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Deficit HSPU (2″)
  • 5/5 Weighted Step-ups (#106, 20″)

I did the first round of handstand push-ups strict and 3 in round 2 I think. Then a quick small kip. Held two 53# kettlebells for the step-ups. Actually started out at 24″, but 4 reps in I realized that was too high and flipped the box. Haven’t done them in a long time so forgot about the leg being parallel in the step. I think I might start doing these once a week to try to heal my quad.

Midline

Tabata Hollow Rocks

Horrible! Worst performance I’ve had with these that I can remember. I only made it through 3 rounds without an extra break. I think I got 119 total reps. Core was pretty shot after the T2B and V-ups.

Run Every Day

Didn’t rain all day like the forecast called for. Headed out for a run before 6pm. Went 2.71 miles in 26:50. Little on the humid side.

Practice

HRV dropped 9 points for the second day in a row. Now in the red at 89. I feel good though. Hips and knees didn’t bother me getting out of bed this morning.

Run Every Day

Kept it short, but picked up the pace. Went 1.1 miles in 8:21. The pace charts for RunKeeper are pretty different when you compare it in the iOS app to what is shown on their web page. Who knows which one is more accurate. :-/

Had a team practice scheduled today. Next Saturday we are going to a throwdown between all of the local gyms, where you compete for your gym. Fittest gym takes home the belt. Always a fun time. We ran through a couple of the events and talked strategy.

GLBRT Event 1

8:00 (Simultaneously)

  • Row for distance
  • AMRAP Double-unders

One person at each thing at a time. Switch out any way you want. Wasn’t as bad as I expected this to be.

GLBRT Event 3

  • 1:00 AMRAP Muscle-ups (x3 points) – Member A
  • 1:00 AMRAP Wall Balls (20/14#, 10/9′) – Member B
  • 8:00 AMRAP
    • 15 Pull-ups
    • 15 Power cleans (115/80#)
    • 15 HSPU
    • 15 Front Squats (115/80#)
  • 1:00 AMRAP Pistols – Member C
  • 1:00 AMRAP Hand Release Burpee Box Overs (24/20″) – Member D

So basically each team member does a 1:00 AMRAP of something and then everyone shares the work of the 8:00 AMRAP. Fun workout!

Went really well! It’ll be a fun day of competition with this crew.

Hips Don’t Lie

IMG_5968It has to be the running that is making my hips feel like they are. Could probably use some stretching. They don’t hurt or anything bad, but definitely something new. HRV dropped into the orange again this morning from the combination of that tough workout yesterday morning and the evening run. Wednesday isn’t typically very intense though, so I should recover. I’ve dropped 4 pounds in 4 days after getting back to eating the Paleo meals. Feeling better already.

Run Every Day

Got up and went 1.71 miles in 16:23. 10 days in to this June running experiment. I still don’t enjoy it.

Got to Intuition after 6 for the Wednesday night session. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation and a 1,000m Row. Didn’t feel the hips as the day went on. Maybe it’s mostly a morning thing.

No B.S. Bench Press – Cycle 2 Week 7

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 5×215#
  • 3x5x230# (PR)
  • AMRAP 205# – 13 reps

Used a very short pause on the first three sets. I went 5# over the recommendation for the working sets as I did in the first cycle as well. So that’s a PR set three times and then I beat my AMRAP set by a rep as well. Got ugly on the final 2 reps of the working set, but made it.

Power Snatch + Squat Snatch

  • 20kg
  • 40kg
  • 60kg
  • 70kg
  • 75kg
  • 80kg
  • 83kg
  • 85kg

Got a little mental on the squat snatch with 85. I hit my right knee on the way up and then was up on my left toe, but had the bar locked in place solid so was able to hold on. The most I’d done for a squat double was 80 before hitting that. All of the power reps felt really solid. Hopefully can put up a nice PR next Saturday.

OHS

  • 3x70kg
  • 2x80kg

I haven’t hit heavy OHS in well over a year, so figured I’d try. Each time I do this, I can’t keep it stable and start to feel it in my low back. Same fucking thing today. I’ll have to take a video or have somebody watch me next time. So after missing the 3rd rep with 80 I shut that down; no need to hurt my back.

10:00 EMOM

  • 2 Power Clean & Push Jerks (205#)

Class had 8 minutes of 2 programmed today, with increasing weight. Those are always fun and it’s been awhile since I’ve done something like that. After the OHS fail, I saw a loaded bar already out, so decided to hit it. After 8 I said fuck it and made it 10 rounds. I wasn’t standing up any of the cleans, right into the push jerk without a re-dip, so I guess they were what Catalyst might call Power Clean Jerks (no “&” in there). I actually thought I was using 195# for some reason and noticed it was 10# more when putting everything away. Bonus!

Midline

10-20-30-20-10

  • Sit-up
  • Russian Twist (53#)

Jumped in with the class on this. Went unbroken in 4:45. The round of 30 twists sucked balls!

Rings & Rowing & Running

Didn’t get in a morning run. This diet needs to change today! Went to Intuition at 9.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Good Mornings
  • Air Squats

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×45#
  • 5×155#
  • 5×245#
  • 5×295#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×365#
  • 3×385#

Felt pretty good. Not going to push it and get hurt again. Slow and steady progress.

Conditioning

Part 1:

  • 2-3-4-5-6 Muscle-ups
  • 2-4-6-8-10 HR Push-ups

Part 2:

  • 10-8-6-4-2 T2B
  • 10-8-6-4-2 Goblet Squats (53#)

Trying to do 2-4-6-8-10 with MU would take me a really long time. Cutting back to 20 total reps was a wise mood and still a challenge. I took a little walk in between my MU sets in those last two rounds so I wouldn’t stare at the rings and jump up too fast. I did my sets as 2, 3, 4, 2-2-1 (tried for 2-3 but failed the last one), 2-2-2. I was done with the first part before 6 minutes I think. Lost my grip on T2B after 8 of 10 and then my hips kind of died from the muscle-ups at the end of the round of 8 when I went 5-3. Finished in 9:40. Other than the open workout, that’s the most muscle-ups I’ve done in a WOD I think.

6 Rounds

  • 45s Row
  • 1:00 Rest

Hit 235 meters for the first 4 rounds, then 231, and pushed it for 245 on the final one. I was on a rower by myself so didn’t have to get off, but my ass was burning when I finally did.

Run Every Day

Went out in the afternoon for a break from work. 3.83 miles in 37:22. Didn’t wear the HRM since it was hot out and didn’t want to create more tan lines than I already have from golfing. It’s hard for my personality not to be concerned with pace, but it’s also kind of relaxing. Feeling better and better with running skill improvements each time out.

PR Triple

Slept well and feel good. Out to the garage around 8:30. Warmed up with 5:00 Air Dyne (2.32 km).

Coffee Squats

Back Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×295#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×345# (PR)

Was definitely time to start lifting inside the squat cage to be safer since I’m alone at home. I feel like the confined space also forces you to concentrate more so that you don’t bang into the rack. I did 3×340# back in January when I was getting back into squatting frequently, but then shortly after took the 2 month break for my quad. Oh, by the way, I haven’t really noticed the quad much lately, so I think all of the squatting and lunging has helped it heal. Probably had some muscle imbalances.

I haven’t had 345# on my back since setting the 360# PR last June, so really happy with this. Was definitely heavy, but looks pretty good in the video. 45 days in, 4 to go.

Lunge University

Strapped on the vest, fired up the latest Barbell Shrugged episode on adding mass to the ass, and headed down the street. Fuck doing laps inside the closed garage. I went out down the road 130 steps and then had 120 back. It was much more “enjoyable” that way. Took me 13:09. Fifty more steps than I’ve done with the 40# and maybe even 20# too.

At the gym at 6:30 for bench and weightlifting night. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation and a 500m row.

No B.S. Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 4×135#
  • 4×175#
  • 4×205#
  • 4x4x225#

Weight felt light in the warm-up sets. I actually paused for a split second on my chest with 135# and 175#. No danger of missing any of the work sets.

Tall Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 5×65#
  • 3×95#
  • 3×105#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×125#
  • 3×135#

Felt pretty good. Tried to get good lockouts when it was getting heavy on the last two sets. I somehow did 145# for a triple back in December. Maybe could have done the same today, but didn’t want to push it since I was starting to feel these in my low back.

Push Press

  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×165#
  • 3×185#
  • 2×205#
  • 2×215#
  • 2×225# (PR)

Would have liked to go one more 10# jump, but my low back was feeling tight from the snatches after squatting heavy this morning. I knew I’d start to overextend with any more on the bar.

Reverse Hyper

  • 2x20x210#

Huge back pump with that big of sets! I haven’t been doing these at all lately. Haven’t been stretching either. :-/ My back hasn’t had any issues, but I do think it’s looking forward to the end of Squat Every Day.

Did a round of Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before leaving.

Memorial Weekend

Got a bunch of yard work done this morning. Actually feeling a little beat up today in my hips and upper body. Pretty sure the upper body is from using kettlebells for those incline bench presses.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 500m Row
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

2 Front Squats + 5 Back Squats

  • 45#
  • 135#
  • 205#
  • 245#
  • 270#
  • 290#
  • 305# (PR)

Didn’t feel like I had it in me today as I was working up. Had to fight for that final set. First back squat I wasn’t concentrating and it was ugly. Got focused and gutted out the remaining reps. Ends the 6th week of everyday squats.

Warmup up with 45#, 95#, and 135# and did a few swings to make sure the 70 would be good to use.

Conditioning

30:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 1st: 1 Snatch + 1 OHS (155#)
  • 2nd: 10 Sit-ups
  • 3rd: 15 Russian KBS (70#)

Nice and easy just to get in some work. Didn’t want anything crazy with “Murph” tomorrow. Was able to focus on solid snatches and overhead squats with just one rep of each.

After cooling off I did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap.