Crossfit is better after naps

Husbeetle was off work early today, so we napped. Well-deserved since we woke up at 3:30 to get him out the door by 4 for his hike at 5. I even stayed awake after making him his eggs. Craziness!

WOD:

Push jerk: 3-3-3-3-3 75% of max

Metcon: 5 rounds

• 10 kettle swings (24k/16)
• 7 tire jumps (jump in/jump out)
• 5 pull ups

Results:

Push jerk: 65-85-95-95-105m-95-100m

Metcon: 9:43

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OK, for the record, I know I did way to many sets of push jerks, plus I didn't do what I was supposed to do, with sticking with 75% of max. Oh well. :) Looks like 95 is definitely my 3RM on that movement, though, considering I missed 105 and 100.

I totally jacked up the metcon. I did 10 jumps in the tire instead of 7 - DOH! Up until round 5 when the guys that were finished started counting for me. When they yelled "2 more" after I finished 5, I realized what happened. Hilarious. :)

Pullups on the white band are awesome, I am flying up over the bar. But when I tried a "naked" kipping pullup during my warmup, I couldn't get up. I think it's time to get back into those dead hangs -- I haven't been strict about doing them recently. And also I should work on just my kipping swing without any bands -- I know the band inhibits the forward movement at the bottom of the kip.

Off to walk the dog for my final cooldown.

Hotel room Crossfit, Monday morning Crossfit

Yes, you can even do CrossFit in a decent-sized hotel room!

I felt like a slug on Friday because I slept in and skipped my normal morning walk and 8:30am Crossfit. The workout looked really crazy, and I wanted to be able to walk in my high heels that night for the ball.

So when I found myself in my hotel room getting ready to take a shower and get ready, I decided to do a little quickie just to get the heart pumping and muscles moving.

WOD: 10-9-8-7-6... of:

• squats
• pushups
• situps

Result: 7:21

Cooldown / Skill Work: Walking around in heels at the ball. :-p

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This morning I was soooooo tired -- we didn't get home from our flight until nearly 1am. And then after my morning walk I had some digestive issues from all the crap that I ate this weekend. Which is why I was such a wuss on the strength part of the workout.

WOD:

Strength: back squat 4-4-4-4-4

Metcon: AMRAP in 10 min

• 12 power snatch (75lbs/45)
• 10 push ups

Results:

Back squat: 45-55-65-75-85

Metcon: 5 rounds

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Obviously I didn't do much with the back squats. I got some better coaching on how to hold the bar than last time, though, and also took off my shoes to improve my heel contact with the ground. I'll go heavier next time.

I think I need to take kd's advice and subscribe to the journal. I need help on squats. When I do heavy loads with the upper body, or with Olympic lifts, I can get into it. But when I squat heavy loads, I feel like I don't know where to concentrate the power, if that makes sense.

The metcon was decent... my heartrate didn't get all that high, even though I kept a pretty steady pace the whole 10 minutes. But my quads were freakin' burning. I think I'm gonna have sore legs tomorrow.

We did knees to elbows for our cooldown, and I was amazed to find out that I can nearly do an actual, honest-to-goodness K2E! Yowzers! I am amazed at how strong my abs and back have gotten in the last 2 months of CrossFitting. Time to get my ass on the track on base and time a mile run...

Pullups

It is very important to me to master this movement, and eliminate my need for bands to assist me. So I did some research, and found there are some ways I can improve my approach.

Right now I have been kipping with a band, but my reading stresses the importance of developing the strength to do a dead-hang pullup before putting a lot of stress on the shoulder by kipping (swinging, using momentum to help propel you up and over the bar).

Some highlights.

Got Pull-Up?

Keep working on your pull-ups, but make any kipping related work secondary to your dead hang efforts.

Got Pull-Up? Part Two

Dial it back and work on dead-hang. Engage the back. Drive elbows down. Look up and over the bar, eyes on target. Chest to bar, get full range of motion.

"Grease the groove" Work on it a little bit all the time, but never work to failure. Commitment to doing this over a long period of time will pay off. As far as negative pullups are concerned (lowering yourself slowly from the bar), the author only did a single negative per workout, on the final rep of the set. These are a high cost and can get you into muscle failure (which should be avoided).

Switch up on grips. Become comfortable in all grips. I've been very overhead-centric. Time to work on mixed-grip and underhand as well.

Somewhat interesting, not my fav of the links I found.

Really interesting comparison of resistance bands and how much they assist pull-ups. Need to measure the bands at my gym to see what a good combo would be.

Discussion of using bands to assist in the Affiliate blog.

Easy day at the gym, thank god

This morning I felt like I got hit by a truck when I got out of bed. Very very sore. I have learned my lesson and will never leave the gym without stretching again. Going shopping at Target and the grocery store in flat flip flops with no support was probably a bad idea as well...

Amazingly someone had a longer time than me yesterday, and they didn't even do the ring dips, just did bench dips! I am shocked.

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Overhead squats -- 5-5-5-5-5 (working sets)

Metcon: 20-15-10-5

• Clapping pushups
• Slam balls
• 20'' box jumps

Results:

OHS -- 25-35-45-50-55

Metcon -- 9:11 ("toes" pushups)

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We weren't supposed to go for a PR on the OHSs, just do working sets and focus on form. My heels were lifting up a little as I came up out of the squat, so I need to work on keeping the bar back until I get more upright.

This has increased my desire to get some new flat-soled shoes to use for lifting. I did a bunch of reading on the Crossfit boards the other day, and I think I'm sold on getting some indoor soccer shoes, like Addidas Sambas. With less heel cushioning, I should be able to drive my heels down in the ground more on squats, deadlifts, all the Oly lifts that start from the ground. And a soccer shoes should allow me to wear them for shorter running workouts as well.

For the metcon, I decided to skip the claps, and just attempt to do all the pushups on my toes instead of doing clapping pushups on my knees. I did all but 4 of the pushups on my toes, so that rocked. Gotta keep working on those for sure

Worked on double unders after the workout, and actually managed to get a couple. I'm starting to get the hang of how to flip the rope with my wrists, and also keeping my arms at my sides as I jump up. My biggest challenge for these seems like it will be conditioning -- I just get out of breath really fast.

Tomorrow AM will be my last day this week, and then I'm out of town on Saturday and Sunday, so those will be my rest days. But on Sunday I'll do a brisk walk up the giant hill my parents live on -- that's always good for a deep burn in the good old butt. :)

Loooooong time

Um, I think I kinda forgot the "for time" portion while doing today's workout? Maybe because I was the only one in the gym for the 8:30 class? When I got done my time just freaking cracked me up, because both times from the 6:30am class were in the 20's.

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3 rounds for time of:

• 400m run
• 45 deadlifts (135lbs/85)
• 25 ring dips

Results: 42:10 -- 85lb deadlifts, ring dips with smallest assist band

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I took a lot of rest in my first and third set of deadlifts -- I think that killed my time more than having to do a lot of the ring dips in sets of 1.

As I was finishing up my first set of deadlifts, my back was killing me. The second set felt awesome, I got in the zone. Then the third I just felt like my form was all over the place, though my back wasn't as tight as the first set, so I think my form had improved.

But at least I got my wish from yesterday to work on my legs!

This is my second time doing ring dips with the bands (1st time), and I'm definitely getting better.

Glad I banged this thing out in the morning, lots of errands to do today.

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One more thought. I rowed 750m today in my warmup, and kept my pace right around 2:10, which was awesome. I can't wait to see how I can do on the 1000m row on Jackie. I'm also anxious to do another 2k row and improve my time on that benchmark.

Squat C&J plus some tabata

WOD:

squat clean & jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Tabata:

• pullups
• situps

Results:

55-75-85-90-95-100-105-110m

3 pullups on worst set -- 10 on best

10 situps on worst set -- 14 on best

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Yet again I was left feeling that I need to focus more on leg strength in future workouts. My arms, shoulders, back and core have all been getting better and better. But when I got "stuck" in the squat position on my 110 squat clean & jerk today, I realized my legs are now my sticking point.

A new topic for me to read up about...

Sunday sweat in the garage

Warm-up -- light jog around the neighborhood.

WOD (from main site 091031)

For time:

25 Squats

25 Push-ups

25 Pull-ups

25 Sit-ups

50 Squats

50 Push-ups

50 Pull-ups

50 Sit-ups

75 Squats

75 Push-ups

75 Pull-ups

75 Sit-ups

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Husband picked this one for our at-home Sunday afternoon workout. He wasn't feeling well, threw up after his jog, did his first set of squats and pushups, and then yacked again and was down for the count. I tended to him between sets / during rests, so I didn't record my time for this one. I also had to skip my final set up 75 pullups because he was laying in the hallway where my pullup bar was set up. He's better, just resting now. His stomach has issues with exercise sometimes.

The squats felt better and better as I went on. Makes me think I need to do a lot more air squats in my day-to-day workouts. Now that my arms / upper body has gotten to a decent point in strength, it's time to really challenge myself and get super sore in upper and lower body.

The pushups were a little less horrible than I was expecting. My practice is starting to pay off. Gotta keep at it on my knees and get back to doing them on my toes soon.

I subbed jumping pullups as I don't have any bands at home. But we are talking about building a free-standing pullup bar soon, so hopefully my home gym will be expanding in the near future...