Strict Morning

Low back is still pretty spiced up from the back squats. That weight vest walk wiped me out yesterday. In bed by 10 and got over 9 hours of sleep. Out in the garage at 9am.

Conditioning

Air Dyne (AD2)

  • 17:00 @ 80% of 10:00 pace (68-70rpm)

Kept a consistent pace and went 9.34km.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds

  • 3 Strict HSPU
  • 3 Strict C2B Pull-ups
  • 3 Strict Ring Dips
  • 6 GHD Sit-ups (parallel)
  • 6 Back Extensions

Tried to pick rep counts that wouldn’t kill me and nailed them pretty well. The handstand push-ups were the only thing that were close to failing. Didn’t want to stress the back by touching the ground on the GHD sit-ups. Walked from station to station and kept moving. Finished in 13:09. Good way to get in some strict work with a decent heart rate pumping.

Had a chiropractor appointment at 4, so went to the 4:30 class after. We warmed up with some bottom squat hold, shoulder pass-thrus, PVC snatch progressions, etc.

Weightlifting

  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (95#)
  • 3 Muscle Snatch (115#)
  • 2 Power Snatch (135#)
  • 2×2 Power Snatch (155#)

I was just not feeling it after the 135# kind of lit up my low back. Made me not commit to the lifts because I was a little scared.

6:00 EMOM

  • 3 Power Snatch

Coming to class, I planned to go with 155#, but because I felt off, I figured I’d use 135#. Started feeling good with TnG, so after 2 rounds I bumped up to 145# for the next 3 rounds, and then went 150# for the final round. All touch-n-go reps. Felt good too! Confidence can be such a weird thing with the lifts.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Sit-up
  • 1:00 Burpee
  • 1:00 Row (cal)
  • 1:00 Slam Ball (20#)
  • 1:00 Thruster (75#)
  • 1:00 Rest

I got 107-108-97 for reps. Not entirely sure that last round is correct because I kind of lost my thought process during the burpees. Felt like I might have made up some reps in the later movements, so if anything the count is low. No biggie.

Since missed out on most of the plank work, I got some it at night.

3 Rounds

  • MAX Plank Hold
  • 3:00 Rest

I did them on my hands with arms extended for a change of pace and so it would work the wrists. Went 3:15, 2:15, and 2:15. Damn, it’s a different ball game on your hand; wrists and shoulders really start to burn.

Retest 12.3

Didn’t sleep well last night. I didn’t realize the heat was still up on the main floor, which warmed the upstairs too much and I was hot all night. Whoops.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 250m Row
    • 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • 5×45# Muscle Snatch
  • 5×95# Snatch
  • 3×115# Snatch

Conditioning

  • 5-4-3-2-1 Squat Snatch (135#)
  • 50-40-30-20-10 DU

Pat Sherwood and I must be on the same wavelength, because he posted a very similar workout for CrossFit Linchpin earlier this week.

Maybe he has access to my training plan because I’ve had this programmed for 2 weeks. Came up with it based on my love for “Annie”. 🙂 My thinking with the rep scheme for the snatches is that it would be a good challenge to try to do them all touch-n-go and I don’t snatch below parallel enough, hence the squat variation. I made it through each set without dropping the bar, and it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. Finished in 5:18, with a couple misses on the set of 50 dubs.

Accessory

7 Sets

  • 5 Pendlay Rows
  • 3 Evil Wheels
  • 60-90s Rest

Went 135-155-155-175-175-175-175# on the rows. Slowed myself down on the evil wheels in the last couple of rounds since they are getting easy for me.

More Conditioning

CrossFit Open 12.3 – 18:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 12 Shoulder to Overhead (115#)
  • 9 T2B

Time to start getting the feel for that dark place we go to during the Open workouts. Figured this would be a good measuring stick due to its length. Back in 2012 during the Open I did 5+21. Got 8+1 today. Died hard on the box jumps in the 8th round. Went 7-5 on every set of push jerks and 5-4 on every set of toes to bars except the 8th round where I did 3 quick sets of 3. Definitely a lot of room for improvement with shorter breaks between sets and movements. Wouldn’t mind seeing this come up as a repeat workout this year.

Accessory

2 Sets

  • 30 Shoulder Taps

Shoulders were pretty beat up.

SUPER bowl SUNDAY

First real chunk of snow for the year is coming down today. February 1st and I haven’t even started my snowblower yet. Doesn’t stop us from having Super Sunday though.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row – 3:58.8
  • 100m Row @ 100% – 16.0 seconds
  • Bottom Squat Holds
  • Various Stretching
  • 5×45# Hang Muscle Snatch
  • 5×95# Muscle Snatch

Figured I’d give a 100m row time a go again. Beat my old time by 0.4 seconds.

Benchmark

“Isabel”

  • 30 Snatches (135#)

First time doing this, so wasn’t sure what to expect. My plan was to do doubles as long as I could, but after 2×2 I abandoned that and did singles the rest of the way. Last 5-10 reps sucked and had to be so ugly. Time was 2:37.

Gymnastics

12:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 C2B Pull-ups
  • Evens: 10 Box Jumps (24″)

Worked on an efficient butterfly with the pull-ups and fast cycling with my box jumps. Felt good!

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×205#
  • 3×220#
  • 3×230#
  • 3×240# (PR)

I had my numbers planned out and they ended up being perfect for a 10# PR. Puts my estimated max up in the 260s. Not bad for benching about once a month.

Conditioning

  • 100 DU
  • 50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 100 DU

The goal here was to do the wall balls unbroken and it sucked! Without setting that as a goal for the workout, I’d always split something like this up. It definitely made the last dubs a lot harder, but good to know what’s possible for future workouts. My time was 5:27.

Gettin’ Bar Muscle-ups

Quad is a fired up again after the squats last night. 😦 I was in before the 9am class to get in some rowing and bar muscle-ups.

Row

  • 14:00 @ 5k pace (1:57)

Was on pace until I took off my hoodie, which sent my average up to 1:58.5. Got it back down to 1:57.7 by the end so should have been pretty close during actual rowing time. Crazy what 10-15 seconds can do. Went 3,569 meters.

Gymnastics

E90S for 12:00 (8 sets)

  • 2 Bar MU

I did 2 singles in the second round because my hands were sweaty and I was going to fall off the bar. Chalked up the rest of the way and had no problems. Decided to go for it in the last round and got 5! I’ve never attempted 3 before. Stopped because it felt like my thumbs were going to peel off. These are definitely a different feel from ring muscle-ups. Less energy used, but much harder on the hands.

We did some light stretching and shoulder warm-up to start class.

Muscle Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#

Power Snatch

  • 3×115#
  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 1×165#
  • 1×175#
  • 1×185#

Definitely wasn’t going to get down into the squat with any today. It was hard enough just getting into the setup position without favoring the left side too much. More than happy to hit 185 on basically one leg.

Conditioning

10:00 EMOM

  • 3 Power Snatch (115#)
  • 3 OHS (115#)

All touch-n-go reps. The overhead squats were definitely a challenge with the leg.

Midline

Tabata Mash-up 5x

  • Hollow Hold
  • Plank
  • Russian Twist (45# plate)

Plus a bonus 20s of Russian Twists at the end. The hollow holds got pretty rough since I just did all those hollow rocks last night.

Reverse Hypers

3 Sets

  • 10×210#

Figured it would be good to do some after the squats last night and OHS in the workout. All that in about 90 minutes. That’s enough for today.

Patient Deadlifts

Definitely feeling a little beat from all of those ball slams. In for the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 300m Row
    • 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • 20 Speed Toe Touches
  • 20 Jumping Jacks
  • 20 Air Squats
  • Arm stretching

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×135#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×275#
  • 5×315#
  • 5×345#
  • 5×365#
  • 5×395#
  • 5×425#

Actually remembered to go shoeless. Felt solid. It’s been about a month since I’ve deadlifted heavy. I’ve been patient with my back after several tweaks and it’s paying off. My estimated max is almost back up to my previous 1RM and this was only 10# shy of matching my best 5RM, which was done shortly after I pulled the 515#.

Screen Shot 2015-01-22 at 11.06.32 AM

Conditioning

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Burpees
  • 10s Rest

Cruised through these by only doing 6 per round.

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 Thrusters (95#)
  • Evens: 8-10 C2B Pull-ups

In my first set of chest to bar pull-ups, my hands were sweaty and I couldn’t hang on the bar. So I struggled through 8 reps in like 3 sets! Chalked up for the rest of the rounds and my rhythm felt better than ever. I did the last 4 sets unbroken with 3 of them being 8s and then 10 in the final set. Wish I hadn’t messed up that first set and had done 10 for every round.

Definitely jumped back on the Reverse Hyper for 3 more sets of 10×210# after those heavy deads.

Garage time at night!

Air Dyne (AD2)

  • 15:00 @ 80% of 10:00 max pace (65 rpm)

Should have averaged over that rpm goal. Totaled 7.94 kilometers.

OLY

Muscle Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#

8:00 EMOM

  • 5 Power Snatches (115#)

The original plan was 7 rounds, but after the muscle snatches I was feeling a little fatigued so I only set the clock for 5 rounds. I was feeling good towards the end so I went for 8. All sets were touch-n-go.

Explosive

5 Rounds

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups (20# vest)
  • 5 Box Jumps (24″, 20# vest)

I was not planning to do this for time, but said why not and went for it. The sit-ups got nasty at the end of the 3rd round. Took me 4:32.

Last Laugh

Went out to a comedy show with a bunch of Michigan beers last night called Brew Ha Ha. Was home early though and drank a bunch of water to be ready for today. Can’t miss out on Super Sunday. 😉

I was at the gym early so took the time to get in a little extra warm-up on the rower. Did 1,000m in 4:09 to get moving. Did bottom squat holds and various stretching as well.

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • Max C2B Pull-ups
  • Rest 1:00

My first set was better than 2 weeks ago and 2nd set was equal, but then fell off hard. The accumulation of the muscle-ups yesterday did me in. Went 15-12-8-8.

Strength / Midline

3 Sets

  • 10 Good Mornings (95#)
  • 5 Evil Wheels
  • 1:30 Rest

Nothing crazy. More of a rest time before getting into the conditioning.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 2 Power Snatches (135#)
  • 4 Bar-facing Burpees

When I wrote this, my goal was to have to dig in order to complete every double as touch-n-go. I made it. 🙂 Nice steady pace on the burpees and kept moving from movement to movement. Total time was 6:15.

Update: Makes me feel good when I see a very similar workout by one of the best. I’d sent the workout to a friend early in the week and looked back to make sure I hadn’t copied, but I had shared it before Spealler even did his workout. I hope to never make claims I’m an expert at programming workouts, but seeing stuff like this makes me think I’m on the right track with some good ideas. I program Sunday workouts a week or two in advance (and tweak up to a few days before we hit it) and a similar thing happened with last Sunday’s workout and something Outlaw did a few days later. Not identical, but along the same lines, with our version fitting our athlete base better.

We rested 10-15 minutes before getting into some Tabata work.

  • Tabata – Thrusters (45#)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • Tabata – DU
  • 2:00 Rest
  • Tabata – Thrusters (45#)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • Tabata – Lateral Bar Hops

I did all sets of 8 on both thruster tabatas. The last few rounds of the 2nd time through were a big shoulder burn. I got a total of 240 double unders and 210 lateral bar hops. I think the bar hops were the worst part of the entire workout and I was not expecting that.

Cooled off with a really slow 2,000m row in 9:59 and then did some foam rolling on my back. That was one of my favorite Sunday workouts.

Bench Day

Went to the 9am again. Lats are still sore and I bet the muscle-up pulldowns have something to do with that.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×115#
  • 5×165#
  • 5×195#
  • 5×210#
  • 5×220#
  • 3x8x195#

We worked up to a heavy set of 5 and then did some drop sets. Was supposed to be around 85% as a guide, but I went heavier since I didn’t hit what I wanted to in the final set. Perfect weight because I might have missed if I had gone much heavier.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 5 Pendlay Rows (165#)

Didn’t go crazy with these today. Focused on speed and quality reps.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 5 OHS (95#)
  • 10 Over the Bar Burpees

First round was done in 45-50 seconds and then everything got progressively slower. Finished 6 rounds plus the overhead squats and 8 of the burpees. I was not expecting my legs to feel like jello, but must be from the squats last night. They started burning pretty good about halfway through the workout.

Night garage session again. I’m really enjoying these.

Warm-up

Did 1,500m on the Ski Erg in 6:57.5.

Weightlifting

Muscle Snatch

  • 5×45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#

E90S for 12 Sets

  • 5 Power Snatch (115#)

Originally planned for 6-8 sets, but was feeling it. All touch-n-go reps on every set.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 10 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20#)

Could feel my low back working on these too.

Testing 14.1

Was in bed by 10 again and got over 10 hours of sleep.

Gymnastics

4x

  • Max Unbroken C2B Pull-ups
  • Rest 1:00

I did better than I expected, but it gassed me a lot more than I was prepared for. Did 14-12-11-10, when I don’t think I’ve ever done more than 10 in a row.

Strength

5 Sets

  • 5 Pendlay Rows
  • 3 Evil Wheels
  • Rest 2:00

I did a set of rows with 45# and one with 115# before getting into the work sets. Could really feel the fatigue from the pull-ups here. I used 165-175-185-195-195.

Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open 11.1/14.1
10:00 AMRAP

  • 30 Double Unders
  • 15 Power Snatches (75/55)

My goal was simply to beat the score I put up in the Open last year, which was 5+41. I did it without even pushing too hard by getting 5+44, 1 rep shy of 6 full rounds. I only had 2 (maybe 3?) misses on the dubs and did my snatches 6-5-4 every round again. I’ll definitely take that knowing I’ll push a lot harder when it’s game time and won’t be fatigued from other work.

Rested 10 minutes, then…

6 Rounds

  • 10 Burpees AFAP
  • 1:00 Rest

Sucked more than I expected. My rounds were done in 18-18-18-19-19-20 seconds. Happy to be able to keep the times so close. I was having a hard time pushing myself off the ground for the last few reps in the final two rounds.

Where Did 2014 Go?

Had a great massage yesterday and got adjusted at the chiro. Ran the 9am class (and worked out) since Kevin is traveling.

Warm-up

2 Rounds NFT

  • 300m Row
  • 10 Shoulder Pass-thrus
  • 10/10 Arm Circles

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 10:00 EMOM – 3×145#

Turned very rough is the last few sets, especially the first rep of each set.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 8 Weighted Push-ups (60#)
  • 15 GHD Sit-ups

Talk about a tricep burn after the presses!

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 10 OH Walking Lunges (45#)
  • 10 KB Deadlifts (62#)
  • 20 Mountain Climbers

The deadlifts were deceiving and burned my legs more than the lunges. I did 8 rounds plus the lunges and deadlifts.

Skill

3 Sets

  • 20 MU Pulldowns

Thought they might be extra rough after the arm work, but they weren’t any worse than the other day.

Headed out to the garage around 5:30 or so. Warmed up with 500m on the Ski Erg in 2:10 and then some 45# snatch position work.

Tall Snatch

  • 3×45#
  • 3×75#
  • 3×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 1×125#
  • 1×135#
  • ✘ 140#
  • 1×140#
  • 1×145#
  • 1×150#
  • 1×155#
  • ✘ 160#
  • 1×160#
  • ✘ 165#

I had determined the weights ahead of time up to 135# and then wanted to keep adding 5#. When I failed 3 times I was done. So I was pissed when I missed at 140#, especially since I hit 145# for a triple last week. I was also holding the last rep of each set for 5 second is the bottom before standing up. Had a couple of big saves in there and was happy to hit 160#.

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 4×155#
  • 4×205#
  • 4×225#
  • 4×245#
  • 4×265#
  • 2×275#
  • 2×285#
  • 2×295#
  • 2×305#
  • 2×315#
  • 2×325#
  • 2×335#

Hell yeah! My original plan was to maybe hit 315#. Was feeling good so I kept going and the last set even felt really good. Didn’t want to push it more since I just hit 345# for a single a few days ago. Slow and steady progress works for me. Lots of volume!

I strapped up a green band on the GHD and did 3 sets of 15 reverse hypers. Will do some rolling on the low back and hit it with the e-stim too.

Catching up to the Clean and Jerk

Why am I setting an alarm on vacation? Hauled my ass to the gym at 9am, but wasn’t really feeling up for the workout after the last couple of days beat me up a bit.

Warm-up

  • 2x10x210# Reverse Hypers
  • 500m Row (2:02)
  • 10×210# Reverse Hypers
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Thruster

  • 5×45#
  • 3×95#
  • 2×135#
  • 1×165#
  • 1×185#
  • 1×205#
  • 1×225#
  • 1×240#
  • Fx250# (hit my chin!)
  • 1×250#

All taken from the ground. Fuck it, might as well go far another PR even though I just did it 4 weeks ago. Now it’s only 5# below my max C&J. Embarrassing.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 500m Row (<= 2,000m PR pace)
  • 2:00 Rest

Wanted to get faster each round. Splits were 1:46.8, 1:46.7, 1:46.2, and 1:45.2. Mission accomplished.

Went back at 5:30 for some lifting. I did some foam rolling on my quads and then smashed them with a barbell for about 15 minutes. Owww! I did some snatch progressions with am empty bar to loosen up.

Tall Snatch

  • 2x3x45#
  • 2x3x75#
  • 2x3x95#
  • 2x3x105#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×125#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×145#

Wasn’t expecting to get that high, but ride the wave when it’s working!

Tall Clean

  • 3×135#
  • 2x3x165#
  • 3×185#
  • 2x3x205#

Rough at the end. Wanted to spend more time on the clean than on the snatch, but the work should have some carryover. Left thumb is getting a little tore up, so will be good to have a couple of days off. Jumped on the reverse hyper for 3x10x210# after having some of the 3rd reps crash on me a bit.