Catch-up: 12.3, C&Js, 12.2

Now that I'm getting back in the habit of doing WODs, I also need to get back in the habit of posting about them. :)

--
3/8
Have to work on Friday and Saturday AM, so today was my chance to get WOD 12.3 counted and validated at CFR. My goal was 4 rounds, and I met that and exceeded it so I'm happy with how I did.

WOD 12.3
AMRAP in 18 minutes
15 box jumps
12 push press (75#)
9 toes to bar

Results: 4 rounds + 15 bj + 12 pp + 2 ttb

Prior to deciding to do the WOD today, I did strength, which was push press. For my final work set I got 120x1. I also got 115x3. So yeah, probably not a good idea to smoke my arms like that just prior to a WOD with high-rep, somewhat heavy PPs. Oh well! hehe

--
3/7

Did a WOD on my own at the HITT Center (functional fitness gym on base).

Every 90 seconds, do 2 C&Js. Increase weight each round.
55-65-75-85-95-105-110

Jerks were decent, a couple sucked, the last one at 110 felt the best -- fast and deep and stable. Once I get back into "practice", I'm going to take some videos and post to YouTube for my weightlifting coach Facebook friends to look at.

WOD: 1/2 Barbara
5 rounds
10 pullups
15 pushups
20 situps
25 squats

Result: 29:33
Sad. The pushups took me FOREVER. I suck so bad at those. Time to start doing them nearly every day again, just like pullups. I think even sets of 5 would help immensely.

--
3/3

WOD 12.2
AMRAP in 10 minutes:
45# snatch, 30 reps
75# snatch, 30 reps
100# snatch, 30 reps

Results: 60

I definitely went into the zone on this WOD, and it felt awesome. All of my weightlifting practice definitely showed here, the only reason I made it to 60 was by sticking with keeping my reps pretty. A lot of people I watched did NOT drop low under 75, but weren't able to power snatch it either. Which resulted in lots of weird press-out reps where I was afraid people were going to hit themselves in the face with the bar.

I love workouts with only 1 or 2 movements (unless one of those movements is pullups or pushups) because then it allows you to tunnel vision and really focus on technique. I think if I had been switching between snatches and another exercise, it would've been harder for me to drop under and squat snatch, and force myself to give up on power snatching.

I did get my bar loaded for 1 successful attempt and 1 unsuccessful attempt at 100# -- but afterwards I realized that I only put 25s and 2.5s on the bar. That's 90#. Oh well! It was still motivating to be able to put up that kind of weight, and do so with what I felt was "white light" technique. After a bit of rest, I did a single rep at 95# and then one at 100#. That felt good. :)

CrossFit Games Open - WOD 12.1

As many reps as possible in 7 minutes of:
BURPEES!!! :)

Score: 64

Just like last year, I'm sick for the first workout of the Open, and I also sucked. Oh well! :-p

I'm definitely not in it to win it, and my goal is just to ramp up the intensity each week, and hopefully be back in fighting shape by the end of it.

Had a great time meeting more people at my new affiliate today. I think there's a lot of interest in starting a USAW club, so that has me stoked! I really think the Open is just the kickoff for what's going to be a great year. :)

100m sprints, Press 3RM

Great first weekday workout at CrossFit Rifles. Yay to having a CrossFit home!

Phase I: 100m sprints x 10

These sucked. My first one was beautiful, great form, heels pulling into my butt, no landing heavy on my heels. Then the oxygen deprivation kicked in. Sprints 7 and 8 were probably the worst. #10 I managed to get myself moving faster, and crossed the line at 23 seconds, I think. Not too bad! Also, it's great I didn't pull anything, that always seems to happen to me when I do sprints. Perhaps a nice side effect of marathon training? :)

Phase II: Choose a lift, 5x3, work up to a 3RM.

I partnered up with Jenny and we did press, since our legs felt like hell after sprinting. So why not choose the one lift where you don't have to do much with your legs? heh

W/U:
5 @ 45
3 @ 55

Work sets:
3 @ 65
3 @ 70
3 @ 75
3 @ 80
32@ 85

Last time I tested 1RM on press, I got 90, so I was happy with getting to 85.

--
7 minutes of burpees with a 6 inch vertical jump coming on Saturday! Lungs/oxygen will definitely be the primary limiting factor, closely followed by arms/chest. I honestly might have to lay flat on the ground, roll over to my back, and get up that way after a few minutes. Whatever it takes to get it done! I am really glad that the Open is at the same time as my CrossFit "restart", it is really helping me get motivated to not only stay consistent with WODs, but also get my food choices cleaned up.

Facebook wisdom:

At home WOD

Tonight I did a quick WOD at home. I thought it would be fair to put myself through the little triplet that I put together for a class at the gym last night. I'm working at the functional fitness gym on base now. :)

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
kettlebell goblet squats
kettlebell 2-handed swings
walk-outs*

Time: somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, didn't time it specifically

*Walk-outs are essentially an "inchworm in place". Start from standing, put your hands on the ground in front of you, and walk out to a plank position. At this point, you can do an optional pushup. Then walk your hands back to your feet, and pull your upper body back up into a standing position. That's one rep.

For this workout, I did pushups on odd reps of the walk-outs.

What Really Matters

Please check out today's post on my "'professional" site -- coachwiss.com.

Yoga

Missed my window to go to the gym for a WOD on my own, so I did an hour of yoga at home instead.

If you're looking for some decent power vinyasa flow classes to do at home, check out this podcast: Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga with Kinndli. I've done the "Hour of Power" class from 1/7/09 several times, and I love it. I really like the 60 minutes when I'm on my own, rather than 90 minutes.

Still very sore quads today from Saturday's WOD, shoulders are feeling less "crunchy".

--
Sunday night my husband and I filmed submissions for a max chin-up challenge issued by one of my fav fitness peeps on Facebook, Jen Sinkler. Sorry for the sideways video. :)

Husband did 33. Yes, he's a total freakin' beast.

I did 5. Sounds so measly next to 33, but I'm still proud of it. Next goal is 7 consecutive. :)

No longer a CrossFit orphan!

You may have guessed from my lack of posts since November that my consistency with my training had pretty much gone down the toilet. If you did, you were correct.

I really underestimated how hard it would be to stay motivated as a "loner" CrossFitter. I tried a few things to get my motivation back, but nothing really stuck.

This morning I did my first WOD at my new CrossFit home, and I am SO glad that I found them. The idea of struggling through this alone for the long term was really getting me down.

But now I have the wonderful people at CrossFit Rifles to sweat, struggle, learn and laugh with. It feels amazing to have a local CrossFit community to be a part of again -- of course I will always have my CF KoP peeps who have me as a satellite member. :)

We did a pretty simple team WOD, and I am physically wrecked. It will be a frustrating process to get back to where I was in terms of conditioning, strength and mental toughness, but it will be worth it.

--
Team WOD
500m row
9 front squat*
9 push press*
9 front squat
9 push press
400m run
9 SDHP**
9 ring dips
9 SDHP
9 ring dips

Results: 13:38 -- and that was all me and my slow ring dips
*65#
**24kg kb
On ring dips, I self-assisted with one foot, but tried to do the negative unassisted

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 :)

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

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

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.

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

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. :)

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.

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.

Front squat

Yay, a strength day! I feel like I haven't had one of these in ages.

Front squat: 5-5-5-5-5

I got to be the demo girl, which started off my warm-up, and then I did one set of 5 @ 65#.

Work sets: 85-95-105-115-125

85 to 115 looked good and felt good.

At 125 I started losing control of my core alignment, my hips were popping in and out of line, and my weight was shifting all over the place in my feet. But, I powered through and completed the 5 reps.

This is a good starting point measurement for the strength cycle I'll be starting in November. I want to do a weightlifting program that focuses primarily on getting stronger, but also incorporates technique work. I'm hoping to find a coach to work with long distance if I can't find one in our new town. Yep, moving again in 30 days. :)

HPC goodness

The WOD today was very CrossFit Football-esque.

5 rounds:
5 hang power clean (185/135)
Sprint 50m
*rest 60 secs between rounds

Results: 8:35 @ 105#

I should've done this workout A LOT heavier. But I was gun shy due to my horrible performance on squat cleans the other day. After the WOD I did a few reps at 110 and 115 easily -- might even have been able to do 120 in the WOD.

Sometimes, like when I did a nice HPC at 115 this morning, I suddenly realize just how much I love weightlifting. Practicing it, observing others and talking about technique. This is something I could do for life -- now I just have to (continue to) figure out how to make that happen. :)

Primal Recipe - Stuffed Peppers

The contest over the weekend at MDA was to post your favorite primal recipe. One of the most tasty primal/paleo dishes I know how to make is stuffed peppers with meat sauce over cauliflower rice. Since it's a combo I made up of mom's recipe for sauce and paleo meatloaf, I decided to write it up so I could post it for the contest. :)

Step 1: Meat Sauce

Ingredients:
1lb grass-fed ground beef
1/2 white onion
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can tomato paste
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp minced garlic (optional)

Directions:
1. Grate onion using a cheese grater -- this makes it "disappear" into the sauce; or you can just dice it.
2. Using the pot you will cook the sauce in, brown ground beef with onion.
3. Add tomato sauce, paste, oregano, basil and garlic.
4. Simmer sauce on low for at least 30 minutes; an hour or two is ideal.

Step 2: Stuffed Peppers
This recipe is based on Mini Meatloaf Muffins from Christie.

Ingredients:
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
6 red, yellow or green peppers -- I prefer to use red, or red and yellow
1/2 cup diced or grated onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg1/2 can tomato paste (can also use 1/2 cup of meat sauce, if you don't have tomato paste)

Directions:
1. Cut tops off peppers and remove seeds.
2. Remove stems / cores from tops, and diced the remaining pepper "flesh".
3. Dice or grate onion
4. Combine ground beef, diced peppers and onions, garlic, egg and tomato paste.
5. Stuff peppers with ground beef mixture.
6. Place stuffed peppers into a baking dish, leaving at least a small gap between them. If you have any leftover ground beef mixture that didn't fit into a pepper, form into meatballs and place in baking dish.
7. Cover bottom of baking dish with sauce, and spoon additional sauce over the tops of the peppers.
8. Bake peppers in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Note: total baking time required will depend on the size of your peppers, and the amount of ground beef mixture in each one.

Step 3: Cauliflower Rice

Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower

Directions:
1. Cut decent sized florets off the head, and grate with a cheese grater until you reach the stem. Don't grate the stems, they do not cook as well as the florets. The grated florets should be about the size and consistency of rice or quinoa.
2. Once you have grated as much cauliflower as you would like, place it into a microwavable bowl. Cover (don't add any extra water!) bowl and microwave for 4-5 minutes.

Step 4: Enjoy!

Place a stuffed pepper and some of the sauce it was baked in over a serving of cauliflower rice. If you like more sauce, use more from the batch.

Squat cleans

Got to practice squat cleans in a WOD this morning.

5 rounds:
5 squat cleans (185/135)
100m sprint
10 AbMat butterfly situps

Results: 11:03 @ 95

I had a hope of using 115 in this WOD, thinking that maybe my squat clean capacity would be higher since my power clean PR went up by 10#. However, I quickly realized that until I do a ton of heavy front squat training, I won't squat cleaning more than 95 or 100 in a WOD. Stripped weight from 115 to 95 after my first 2 reps, boo.

Also had my first experience with blocking my airway with the bar on a squat clean. Woo, that was crazy! I think it's because I was using a men's bar -- that little bit of extra thickness probably threw off that delicate balance of keeping the bar on my shoulders without chocking myself.

Many of the clean felt like the flew up off the ground, and then the trouble was standing up with the bar. Again, the answer to this is heavy front squats. They are in my post-marathon strength training plan for sure.