Vacation!

Started a vacation today; 10 days off!

My back is a little tight from the deadlifts and all of the pulling in the muscle-ups yesterday. Walked 27 holes of golf today and then headed to CFi around 5:30. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation. I was planning on doing some heavy snatches and front squats, but after grabbing the bar I felt it wasn’t going to be a good day. So I did the WOD with the group.

12:00 AMRAP

  • 10 HSPU
  • 20 Pull-ups
  • 30 DB Snatches (40#)
  • 40 Sit-ups
  • 50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Finished 1 round, plus the handstand push-ups, pull-ups, snatches, and 35 of the sit-ups. Should have tried to do my first 20 pull-ups unbroken.

Push Press

  • 3×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×155#
  • 3×175#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×195#
  • 3×205#

Thought about doing shoulder presses, but after a shoulder intense workout, figured it would be good to switch things up with some push presses since I haven’t done them in a long time.

Pretty happy about hitting that weight. Gets me back to the old 3RM I hit on blocks, dropping each rep at that time. So to hit it today, after the workout, from a rack, was a big step. After vacation I’m going to hit another Smolov cycle for shoulder presses.

Quad Squad

My body is yelling at my for going off schedule and not taking a rest day yesterday. Quads and hamstrings are sore. In for the 9am class at CFi.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Various shoulder stretching
  • Shoulder Presses
    • 10×45#
    • 5×95#
    • 3×115#

XWOD

  • 5-5-5-5-5-5 Shoulder Press (132.5#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1 Explosive Movement
    • 2s: Burpee Broad Jump
    • 1s: Broad Jump to Height

Final rep on the last 2 sets of shoulder presses was a fight, so I’m glad I added the 2.5#. Turned out perfectly.

Conditioning

8 Rounds

  • 1:00 AMRAP
    • 5 Burpees
    • 10 Wall Balls
  • 30s Rest

* Continue each 1:00 AMRAP where you left off.

After 2 AMRAPs I had exactly 3 rounds and nearly kept up that same pace. Finished with 11 rounds plus 5 burpees and 1 wall ball, so was only 9 reps shy of getting 3 rounds every 2 AMRAPs.

5 Rounds

  • 25m High Prowler Sprint (90# + 45#)
  • 25m Low Prowler Sprint (90# + 45#)
  • Rest until 2 other people cycle through

Those low pushes really burn the legs. Good finish to the workout. Been far too long since touching a prowler.

My legs were telling me no, but I wanted to get in some OLY work so headed back to CFi for an afternoon session since tomorrow is going to be a golfing day.

Cleans

  • 2x3x50kg
  • 3x60kg
  • 2x70kg
  • 2x80kg
  • 2x90kg
  • 2x95kg
  • 1x100kg
  • 1x105kg
  • 5x1x108kg

Worked with Alex, so it was kilo plates and ends up being more volume on the way up than I was planning. My goal was 5 singles with 235#, so made it about 238# in the conversion. Made every lift, which is huge for how rough my legs feel. Getting so much more comfortable with the heavy cleans.

Split Jerk

  • 3×95#
  • 2×115#
  • 2x2x135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×175#
  • 3x2x185#

Trying to work on speed under the bar and footwork. Felt ok, but shoulders are pretty wiped out from the last couple of days so didn’t push it far or heavy. I held a bunch of the 2nd reps overhead for an extra 5 seconds to work on stability.

Midline

5 Rounds NFT

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups (10# bumper on chest)
  • 10 Back Extensions (10# bumper behind head)

Grinding Smolov Jr.

Headed in early before the 9am so I could finish up week 2 of Smolov Jr. shoulder presses.

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 10x3x137.5#

Felt rough from the get-go, but I made it through every set. Rushed in and started right away too without any other type of warm-up. Was only taking about 90 seconds of rest between sets so I could finish before class started. The final week should be interesting. I think I’ll bump up the weights a bit over the recommended. My shoulders are feeling strong!

Warm-up

3 Rounds NFT

  • 300m Row
  • 15 Reverse Hypers on GHD

I worked up quite the sweat!

Warmed up deadlifts with 4×155#, 4×245#, and 4×315#.

XWOD

  • 4-4-4-4-4-4 Deadlifts (365#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1 Explosive movement
    • 2s: Split Jumps (2 each leg, sandbag on back)
    • 1s: Kneeling Jump (10.25″ – 45-45-25 HG bumpers stacked)

Haven’t done any heavy deadlifts for volume in quite some time. Felt really good!

Conditioning

5 Rounds (Tabata style)

  • 20s Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Sit-ups
  • 10s Rest

I did 10 wall balls and 11 sit-ups each round.

Midline

3 Round NFT

  • 20 Russian Twists (53# KB)
  • 45s Plank

After class I stayed to do some extra work. Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap with the blue bands for heavy and yellow for light. Burn baby!

4 Rounds NFT

  • 15 GHD Sit-ups
  • 15 Back Extensions

Focused on being as explosive as possible for both movements, which got me breathing pretty damn heavy. Took solid rest between rounds to recover.

In the evening I went for a walk. 3.22 miles in 48:29. During the summers my conditioning is always the best, which I attribute in large part to walking so much on the golf course. Felt like some fresh air tonight and the walk was perfect.

Hot & Sweaty GLBRT

Today was the 6th Great Lakes Bay Regional Throwdown, with it being hosted at Mission 1 – CrossFit Caro this time. I’ve competed in the last 3 and we won the belt for Survival Fitness at each one. The first two we competed in were one team takes the belt back to their gym and with the last one the format was switched up to make it more of a gym working together, where the top 2 scores from each gym count for each WOD.

Event 1

12:00 AMRAP

  • 200m Run
  • 21 American KB Swings 53/35#
  • 12 Pull-ups

2 teammates work at a time (1M/1F) to complete a round. When the first 2 teammates finish a round the second 2 teammates will begin a round. This pattern continues for 12 minutes. Score is total reps completed.

Both Partners run the 200m. The KB Swings may not start until both teammates have returned from the run to their area. Whoever chooses to start a set of KB Swings or Pullups must perform all the reps in that set, for that round. During the KB Swings the other partner must be hanging from a bar for the KB Swings to count. While the Pullups are being performed the other partner must hold the KB off the ground for the pullups to count. The 2 teammates that are not working must be touching the rig before they can be released for the run. They will be released after the working partners 12th pullup is completed.

Bre and I paired up with her doing all of the KBS and me doing all of the pull-ups. Brent and Laura started the workout and finished our 7th team round just before the time ran out. Wasn’t really that tough of a workout for me since it was just 3 runs and 36 pull-ups. I never dropped from the bar and went unbroken with kipping pull-ups on each set.

Event 2

There will be 8 stations for men and 8 stations for women.

  • Men’s weights = 75-95-105-115-135-155-165-185
  • Women’s weights = 55-65-75-85-95-105-115-125

Each athlete will have 20 seconds to work at each station and 10 seconds to transition to the next station to perform as many reps as desired. At least 1 rep must be completed at each station before moving to the next station. Score will be total pounds lifted per team.

Everyone knows the thruster. All bars will start on the floor. The athlete may complete the first rep as a full clean, receiving the bar in the squat position. The hips must clearly pass below the knee in the squat portion of the movement and the bar must end in a fully locked out overhead position with full extension of the knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow. There may not be a pause between the front squat portion of the movement and the overhead portion. It must be a thruster and not a clean and jerk. If an athlete fails to complete a good rep at a station then they will leave the field at the next transition time.

When we did a run through I only did 3 reps at each weight. Today I went 7-7-5-5-5-3-3-3. Should have gone harder in the early and middle sets. Happy I was still able to get 3 at 185. I did 2, had to drop it, took a breath, and then got in another rep. Tweaked my back a little bit though. 😦

Event 3

Chipper!

  • 50 Wall Ball (20#/14#, 10’/9′)
  • 40 KB Snatches 44/26
  • 30 T2B
  • 20 Burpees
  • 30 Clean & Jerk 135/95
  • 40 Box Jump 24/20
  • 50 Deadlift 185/135

2 men start the chipper. After they complete the 50 Wall Ball and move to the 40 KB Snatches, the 2 women may start their Wall Balls. This pattern will continue through the entire chipper. There will be 2 scores. First score is men’s time and second score is total time. Work can be divided between partners however they choose. For example, if one woman cannot perform a 35# KB Snatch but her teammate can, then she may perform all 40 of them.

Each lane will have 1 barbell for cleans with 2 45# plates, 2 25# plates, 1 45# barbell, and 2 spring collars. It is the responsibility of the team to load their barbell with the appropriate weight. When the men complete their clean & jerk they may load the bar for the women, however, if they choose to do this then the box jumps may not start until both men move off from the Clean station and on to the box jump station.

Each lane will also have 1 barbell for deadlifts with 2 45# plates, 2 25# plates, 1 45# barbell, and 2 spring collars. It is the responsibility of the team to load their barbell with the appropriate weight. When the men complete their deadlifts they must leave the field and cannot change the bar for the women. The first score is recorded upon completion of the men’s 50th deadlift. The second score is recorded after the women complete their 50th deadlift.

Brent and I beat our practice time by over 30 seconds and the girls beat their time by about 1:30! I couldn’t believe it when we were doing our C&J and they were waiting on us to finish. In the practice run, we got done way ahead of them and even changed the weight on the bar for them. They crushed it!

Great day and a fun team to compete with. The weather was brutally hot and it was even worse inside the gym. Spent a lot of time outside in the sun.  After today and walking 27 holes of golf yesterday in the hot sun and humidity I’m exhausted!

glbrt6-sf

Don’t Touch This

My legs are so sore they hurt to the touch! At least I can walk on my feet without hobbling all over the place since I can barely feel the blisters now. Over to CrossFit Intuition this morning for Kevin to put us through a class.

Warm-up

  • CS Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Inch Worms
  • 750m Row

Conditioning

He tricked us saying we were going to do a Tabata row in order to get a 20 second meter number out of us. Mine was 98 meters. Then…

20 Rounds

  • 20s Row
  • 20s Rest

If you don’t make your number during a round, that’s a 5 burpee penalty at the end. Luckily I got over 101 each round. Totaled 2,471m with the rollouts. I was soaked with sweat at the end.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 Pendlay Rows (40% of BW – used 85#)
  • Evens: 10 CS Reverse Fly (2 rounds with red, 3 with yellow)

Nasty little combo that made the light weight get hard.

Midline

3×10 GHD MB Toss (14#)

Fun workout!

Headed to Survival Fitness at 8 to try out the chipper for the upcoming GLBRT team competition.

  • 50 Wall Ball 20#/14# 10’ target for men and women
  • 40 KB Snatches 53/35
  • 30 T2B
  • 20 Burpees
  • 30 Clean & Jerk 135/95
  • 40 Box Jump 24/20
  • 50 Deadlift 185/135

Brent and I finished in 10:33, the girls could start after we got done with wall balls and the clock was exactly 14:00 when they finished. Fun little workout.

No Golf Monday

Not enough guys to golf this morning, so was able to get to the 9am class. No issues with the shoulder after the 180 one-arm snatches yesterday, so that’s good.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation (at home)
  • Leg Swings
  • Hurdlers
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Box Squats (14″ box)

  • 10×45#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×245#
  • 3×255#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×275#
  • 3×285#

I don’t think I’ve ever done these right before today, which is why I always felt so much knee pressure with the wide stance. Matt corrected me right away today and it was completely different. I was afraid I was going to miss the box though.

Accessory

KB Drag – 84 feet

  • 2×88#
  • 3×108# (53# + 55#)

I was sweating like I’d done a 10 minute metcon already!

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 20 Pistols
  • 25 Banded Good Mornings (black)
  • 30 Box Jumps (24″)

Pistols felt extremely tough today. No rhythm. I broke up the GMs into 10-10-5, 15-10, 15-10. Didn’t do any rebounding on the box jumps. Finished in 17:13. Didn’t feel like pushing too hard for some reason.

Walked a lap, did a bottom squat hold, and then did Crossover Symmetry Recovery when I got home.

My new wrist wraps from 321 Wraps
My new wrist wraps from 321 Wraps

Saturday Double

In for the 10am. First weekend class in over a month, but it’s still testing week.

Warm-up

All kinds of leg stuff to get ready for sprints. Ran a couple of laps and did some warm-up sprints building up speed.

40 Yard Dash

I got exactly 5.03 seconds all three times. The chances of that happening with a hand stopwatch are crazy. Felt like I was getting faster each run, but I guess not.

30 Yard Shuttle (5-10-10-5)

There are 3 cones set 5 yards apart. Start at the middle cone and go either direction to begin. then to the far cone, back to the other far cone, and finish in the middle. It was tough sliding all over on the payment. I got a 7.22 and a 7.00 for fastest of the day.

Wall Balls

Next up was supposed to be “Karen” and I didn’t even think about the shoulder before we started. Wish it would have though. I did 25, rested for an 8 count, and then half way into the next set of 25 I started to feel it. Called it quits after 50 reps. Took me about 1:45 so I was on a pretty good pace if I could keep it up. I don’t like quitting!

5:00 Air Dyne (AD6)

This was supposed to be the original test today but Matt changed it up since there are only 3 machines. Figured I might as well do it to get some leg burn since I skipped out on 100 wall ball reps. I really had no idea how to pace it. Got 92 calories. Could probably start faster.

MAX Vertical Jump

I got 27″ standing and 29″ with a drop step. Still got the hops! I was able to touch the 10’6″ mark with the drop step.

Worked out in the garage around 4. Kevin bailed on me for lifting so I trained solo. Felt good to open up the garage door for the session.

Back Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 7×135#
  • 7×205#
  • 7×225#
  • 7×245#
  • 7×265#
  • 7×285#

Figured I would try something different. Not too long ago I did sets of 10 starting at 205 and went up by 10# each set. Seven is a fun number. Started to get tough at the end of 265# and definitely had to take more breaths between reps with 285#.

Skill Work

20:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 40 DU
  • Evens: 15 GHD Sit-ups (to parallel)

I did the last 6 rounds of dubs unbroken which felt good since I was getting fatigued and they held up. That’s 40% of my 1,000 double unders for week 2 already done.

I think I might take a rest day tomorrow, since it’s been 8 in a row now.

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.4

14.3 was my best Open workout performance in 3 years, with a score in the top 6.8% (6,107th) worldwide. Made for a nice overall jump from 22,238/100,690 (22.1%) to 14,785/100,777 (14.7%). Should be no problem holding on to the top 20% now as long as my shoulder holds up for these last 2 workouts. I’ve been resting it since pushing it too much last Monday.

Yesterday was a rest day and I had a great massage. In to the gym at 1 today. My warm-up consisted of some 30 second calorie rows at a 1,200 cal/hr pace and a bunch of stretching and mobility.

2014 CrossFit Games Open Workout 14.4

14:00 AMRAP

  • 60 Calorie Row
  • 50 T2B
  • 40 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 30 Power Cleans (135#)
  • 20 Muscle-ups

Wow, this workout should be called Deception! Paced out my row as planned and finished right at 3:00. Did 5 T2B at a time with 5-8 seconds of walking between sets. Got to 30 like that and then started doing some triples and doubles, with some singles to finish. Split was 6:37 going into the wall balls. I figured this would be a time to rest, but I got to 10 and dropped the ball. 4 sets of 10 to finish at 8:43. All singles on the cleans, trying not to waste time getting back on the bar. Tiebreak time of 11:51. I took my time getting to the rings, took a drink, and didn’t jump up until after over 30 seconds had gone by. Still missed my first muscle-up! Managed to fight for 2 good reps to score 182 reps. Hips had nothing left. I think I had 3 failures.

The only time I felt my shoulder was in the middle of the wall balls. The T2B really had me worried because that’s what aggravated things last Monday after all of the C2B in 14.2 the day before. We’ll see how it feels later tonight and tomorrow once inflammation kicks in.

Headed out to the garage around 7:30 and jumped on the Air Dyne (AD2) for 10:00. Knocked out 351 calories to beat my record by 9. That hurt and was a mental grind. Kept 80-81 rpm until the final 40 seconds.

Multiple AMRAP Monday

In for the 9am class. So nice not to have to be doing the Open workout on Monday this week.

Warm-up

4 Round Tabata Mash-up

  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Squat Jumps

I still can’t really do the pass-thrus all the way back so I did some shoulder stretching on the bar after 2 rounds.

Skills

20:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 30s DU
  • Evens: 30s Handstand Hold

I got between 39 and 54 double unders every round, so probably around 450 total dubs. Didn’t feel the shoulder fatigue like I did in 14.1. I didn’t even try a HSPU again, so did holds and tried to keep as little contact with the wall as possible. Feeling a lot more stable in the position and was up there quite a bit with no support on the wall.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 3:00 AMRAP
    • 3 Burpees (6″ target – I jumped to my wrists touching the pull-up bar)
    • 5 T2B
    • 7 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 1:00 Rest

First time through T2B and wall balls I thought I might have to swap out the movements, but my shoulder warmed up after that. I was able to stay pretty consistent by going 3+8, 3+9, 3+10, 3+7, and 3+5. Had to start breaking up the T2B in the last 2 AMRAPs due to the shoulder and a weakening kip.

Excited for Thrusters!

My back and hips were sore when I crawled out of bed this morning. I’m thinking it’s from the spinal decompression table since they’ve been ramping up the percentage or whatever setting they use. In for the 9am class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds of Tabata Mash-up

  • Jingle Jangles
  • Bear Crawls
  • Squat Jumps

Strength

Deadlifts

  • 5×135#
  • 5×225#
  • 3×275#
  • 5×295#
  • 3×325#
  • 3×345#
  • 3×365#

Wasn’t going near the 5×1 @ 90+% and aggravating my back again. These felt better than the lifts a couple of weeks ago, so I’d say treatments are working.

Conditioning

E2M

  • 7 Squat Clean Thrusters (“Cluster”)

* You have 1 minute to complete and 1 minute to rest. Start at 135# and add 5# each new set.

I made it through 150# and got stuck in the hole with the 5th rep of 155#. So that’s 4 full sets plus 4 reps. Pretty brutal. Happy to be able to go through that pressing movement though, because yesterday I couldn’t even shoulder press a PVC pipe!

2014-03-06-sq-cl-thrusters

5 Rounds

  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)

Pull-ups didn’t feel the greatest even doing just the kipping variation instead of butterfly to take some strain off the shoulder by eliminating the bottoming out. I had to break up sets quite a bit after the first 10 unbroken. Finished in 4:55. I could feel some weakness in the shoulder doing wall balls too, but did those unbroken without a problem.

Felt good to be able to participate fully with the class. First time in 2 weeks I haven’t had to substitute any movements.

Over to Kevin’s at 6pm for a squat session.

Reverse Hyper

  • 3x15x50#

Nice and light. Figured it would be good after deadlifts today.

Then I did Crossover Symmetry Activation (8 reps). I used blue (heavy) and yellow (light) for bands, except had to use the lightest green band on my right side for the 90/90 because the yellow was killing my shoulder.

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 8×155#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×255#
  • 3×285#
  • 10:00 EMOM 1×305 (rapid fire!)
  • 10×225#

Worked up a good sweat with the set of 10 at the end.

Finished up with Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap. I used the red bands for Tiger Walk and Bear Hug and green for all of the rest. Super light, but with the injured shoulder it was plenty and I did double the reps for everything.