Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Nov Meet Training - Day 3

I'm moving today, and my training log is already packed up in my car, so hopefully I can my training from yesterday recorded from memory. :)

Technique:
OHS 3x5
Pressing snatch balance 3x5
Drop snatch 3x5
Rack delivery 3x5
Mid-hang tall clean 3x5
Scarecrow clean 3x5

Split Jerk 5x3
45-65-95-115-130
43-63-93-113-128

Back Squat 5x1 - find 1RM
95x3
115-125-135-145-150-155(miss)

Finisher
strict chinups/pullups/mixed grip 10x1
plus some kips :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Nov Meet Training - Day 2

Note -- on Day 1 I didn't account for the bar only weighing 33 pounds. I'll keep track of that from now on. Would be nice to just lift in kilos, but pounds are all I have access to right now. Can only make 5 pound jumps as well -- I'm considering buying my own fractional plates.

--
Today's focus was on the clean.

Technique:
Rack delivery 5x5
Tall muscle clean 3x5
Mid-hang muscle clean 5x3

I chose these skills to work because I know that the bar often crashes down onto my shoulders, and from reading the Greg Everett book, now I know that is a sign of bad technique. While practicing, I think I figured something out. I think I have been releasing my grip on the bar too soon in the process. Everett says to release when the forearms reach vertical. I think in the past I've just been letting go of the bar to fling my arms around as fast as possible and then "catching" the bar on my shoulders as it crashed. Not exactly a "delivery" of the bar to the rack position. I'm going to practice rack delivery type of drills weekly, I think it will really help with keeping everything tight and smooth in my 3rd pull.

Hang clean
53x3, 73x2, 88x2, 83x2

Clean
88-93-97-103-108-113-118-123-128

I was supposed to do 5 singles, but I decided to just keep going until I felt I was at a natural stopping point. I've power cleaned 135, so hopefully next time I max, I can get there.

Back squat (high bar)
5x5 @ 123

Finisher
4 rounds (for reps not time)
chinups/pullups
20 GHD situps

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Nov Meet Training - Day 1

Today I did my first day of training for my next weightlifting meet, which is on November 19th. That's 5 weeks away. My goal is to meet or beat my lifts from last September.

For the first week I'll be incorporating skill sets from this article by Greg Everett(pdf), and testing maxes in several lifts.

For the next four weeks, I'll be following a program from Michael Hartman. It was intended to be used to prepare for a meet with only power cleans, which works fine for me since I feel my clean needs the most work right now. That 15-20 pound disparity between my squat clean and power clean is really bugging me! I'll worry about jerking more once I can clean more.

My motto for my training approach -- "If it's important, do it every day".  I plan on squatting every day that I train, alternating front squats and high bar back squats in different rep schemes. I'll also be working on low back strength and chinups/pullups.

--
Skill Sets:
OHS 5x3 barbell
Pressing snatch balance 5x3 barbell
Drop snatch 5x3 barbell

Work Sets:
Hang snatch
55x3
60x1
65x1
70x1
75x1

Snatch: 1-1-1-1-1
75-80*-80-85-90
*missed on first attempt, immediately got back on the bar and completed; decided to repeat the weight for the next rep as well

Front squat
3x3 @ 115
2x3 @ 120

I wasn't sure how heavy I could load this, but by the end I felt I could've done more. I'll amp it up next session. And I may stick with 5s too.

Finisher:
4 rounds
Max chinups/pullups
20 AbMat back extensions

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Heavy KB

21-18-15
kettlebell swings (2 pood / 1.5 pood)
AbMat butterfly situps
AbMat back extensions / Supermans*

Results: 7:29 Rx

After doing the set of 21 swings unbroken, I was really surprised by how much harder the second set of swings felt after the back extensions.

* The AbMat peeps call it an "erector crunch". We did what is demonstrated in this video, except we raised the feet too, the same as a Superman. These were very effective, plus more comfortable than doing Supermans flat on the floor -- they usually make my hip bones dig into the ground, not pleasant.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

PP, deadlift, burpee

As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes:
6 push press (155/105)
9 deadlift (use same bar/weight as PP)
12 lateral burpess (jump over the bar)

Results: kind of a clusterf@#$ :)


Round 1: @105, got done in 2 minutes and very winded
Round 2: 4 PP @ 105, failed several times, then took the weight down to 95 to finish

Round 3: @95
Round 4: @95 got 6 PP, then time was called

One theory I have is that I wasn't warmed up enough for the weight. But if that's the case, why was I able to complete all 6 PP in Round 1?

Maybe the problem was trying to do more than 1 at a time? Lowering that weight back down is a heavy eccentric movement, and takes a lot out of your arms. It's possible I would've done better just power cleaning from the floor for each rep.

I do feel that my technique was sloppy on rounds 1 and 2, but improved in the the last 2 rounds. I also felt like my technique didn't settle in until several reps into the shoulder to overheads in the 5 Ton 5k. Will have to keep an eye on this...

Finisher: 5x5 front squat
95-95-105-110-115

Thursday, October 6, 2011

5 Ton 5k

My friend Steph did this event in 2010, and I *loved* the idea. I immediately planned to join her for 2011, and I'm happy to say my plan worked out! It involved a plane ride and a few hours in the car but it was totally worth it!

It's exactly what it says in the name -- 5 tons of weight lifted and 5 kilometers of running.


In case you find that whiteboard hard to read (I know I did) here's a write-up of B Division / Women's Rx:
15 power cleans (95)
15 front squat (95)
15 deadlift (95)
1250m run
25 shoulder to overhead (75)
1250m run
10 power cleans (95)
10 front squat (95)
10 deadlift (95)
1250m run
15 shoulder to overhead (75)
1250m run

What I liked was that you had to load/unload the 10's between the weightlifting segments. Added a little touch of uniqueness.

My time was a very slow, but hard-earned, 47:01. Holy crap were the front squats hard! I felt like I was in slow motion on the way up.

Photographic evidence of how much these squats brutalized me. One of my best WOD face pictures! Love it! hehe


Some more pics.



Magic Mile

Holy crap! I ran a timed mile (called a "Magic Mile" in the Galloway program) this morning, and I can't believe how fast it was!

7:50

I'm happy that I'm not quite as slow as I thought I was. :)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Strength and power day, yay!

Press: 3-3-3-3-3
Results: 65-70-75-80-85

Split Jerk: 5-5-5
Results: 85-105-115

3rd set of 5 was kinda ugly. #1 was a press out, the whole thing just went wrong. #2 was a little off in the power of the dip. #3,4,5 were all good to go. #6 I failed -- I was trying to do one more good one to make up for the disaster of #1. The good thing is that now I definitely know 115 is my 5RM on split jerk. :)

30 box jumps, for height
Results: 32''

I distinctly remember jumping the 32'' box for the first time in high school track practice -- good to know I'm back to that level of fitness, at least in the plyometrics category! Hopefully that bodes well for my desire to get some speed back after the marathon. I jumped on a 20' with 4 plates.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

K2Es kill me

This WOD was just in slow-mo for me. And because of the time domain, I totally gave up on getting my knees up to my elbows with a big kip, and I just lift my knees up as high as possible. I need more work on the strict version anyway, that needs a ton more work than my kip.

5 rounds of:
3min AMRAP
3 hang power clean (155/115)
6 hands-off pushups
9 knee to elbows
Rest 1 minute between rounds.

Results:
1 round + 3 + 6 + 6
1 round + 3 + 6 + 2
1 round + 3
1 round + 2
1 round + 2

The hang clean was a bit too heavy for me to catch in the hang, especially after the K2Es helped fatigue my grip. So that slowed me down. I also missed a couple of the cleans -- either I didn't drop low enough to catch, or I caught in a "soft" position and immediately dropped the bar forward. But I feel like I corrected both of those things by the end of the WOD, so that was a productive outcome.