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. :)

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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

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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. :)

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.

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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

Fresh start

Today was my first day at the CrossFit gym in my new city -- see linky love in the sidebar.

I scaled the WOD and I am totally OK with that.

I'm sure it's been apparent due to my lack of posting that my CrossFit workouts have been minimal to nonexistent the last few months. I really lost my fire and my purpose for doing CrossFit -- I didn't really know why I did it anymore. After I reached the point where I was Rx-ing 90% of movements in WODs, I didn't really progress much farther, and I also lost that excitement of doing new things that I didn't think I could do.

I recaptured that feeling with my marathon training, and with a totally new activity I had never done before -- yoga.

Today I decided that the next 3 months I'm living here, I'm just doing CrossFit because it's fun and I like it. I'm rebooting, restarting, resetting myself. There are a lot of stories that I have in my head about myself as a CrossFitter. I'm throwing those away. I will be whatever I want to be, and achieve whatever I want to. And if I don't *want* to do something, I don't have to beat myself up over not trying.

These next 3 months are my time to start fresh, and rebuild from the ground up. Time to get this foundation solid.

--
"Bradley"

10 rounds for time of:
Sprint 100 meters
10 Pull-ups
Sprint 100 meters
10 Burpees
Rest 30 seconds

Results: Scaled to 5 rounds, 20:40-ish (bad memory)

My blood blister / giant callous from Nicole on Monday ripped open in round 2, so the right grip went on. The left hand ripped open in round 5. I think this was caused by a combination of two things: I haven't shaved down my callouses in a week or so, and I should have after pullups on Monday.  And the pullups bars are pretty rough -- good for hanging onto, bad for poor hand care.

Nicole

Early Monday morning I made my second attempt at this benchmark. First attempt was a little over a year ago.

"Nicole"

AMRAP in 20 minutes:
Run 400m
Max pullups

Score is total number of pullups.

Results: 40 pullups (6 runs, 10-7-5-7-5-6)

I was pretty focused on making my runs fast and efficient, but I think with the pullups I wasn't exactly exerting my most "max" effort. Husband and I got up early to fit a workout in, and had a full day afterwards -- finishing cleaning our apartment, move out inspection, pick up car trailer, drive to our new place about 6 hours away, and start unpacking. That made it kinda hard to pour all my energy into my workout, because I knew I would need lots of energy all day.

I am sad to say that today I feel like I got hit by a truck from the waist up. OMG. My abs are sore, my elbows have a bit of tendonitis going on and let's not even talk about my shoulders. It's so funny that no matter what else you do in your time off, when you stop doing CrossFit you get soooo sore from the most benign workouts!

Husband got 87 (7 runs), and his pullups were strict, no kipping. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He is a freakin beast. Makes me so proud to be his wife. :)

Catch-up

Today
Short beach loop
Distance: 4.61 miles
Time: 53:17
Pace: 11:33/mile

I took 3 fairly long walk breaks. The sun was too hot -- I should've done this run about an hour earlier. Also, this was my first long-ish run in quite a while. Due to wildfires conditions have been really smokey here off and on for the last month. I've really lost a lot of what I built up, but hopefully I can get it back quickly with runs a few times a week.

Wednesday 7/6
Did a WOD I got from Angie.

50-40-30-20-10
kb swings (16kg)
AbMat situps (butterfly)

Results: 13:10

Would like to try this one with Russian swings and the 24kg kettlebell sometime.

Tuesday 7/5
"Fran"
21-15-9
thrusters (65#)
pullups

Results: 10:28

Not my fastest (9:10 @ Level I Cert), and not my slowest either, but only barely. The issue this time was just conditioning. My heartrate was off the charts, and that's what slowed me down the most -- catching my breath. I probably could've benefitted from someone getting in my face too. :)

Sunday 7/3
I ran for ~37 minutes and I don't the distance of my route. It felt good to be up early and outside.

Friday 7/1
Yoga, good times as always. I realized that doing the 11am class really makes a difference in how hot it feels in the room. I think it must be the sun coming in or hitting the building. I never start to feel like it's too hot to breathe in the 5pm or 6pm classes that I've taken.


Thursday 6/30
~30 minute run in the morning.

WOD @ 5:30 (only had 1 student in class, so we did the WOD together :))
4 rounds
800m run
50 air squats
then
50 hands-off pushups

Results: 30:09

Monday 6/27
Squat 12-12-12-12 @ 105

That really hurt.

Metcon:
10-1
Pullups
AbMat situps

14:56

Went mental on the pullups, eeek.

Hit yoga that night as well.

Bodyweight WOD

I thought the WOD today would be something I could quickly fit in between coaching and my chiropractor appointment. I took me nearly 5 minutes more than I would've liked. Too slow on pullups, and I just basically suck at pushups. Alot. This does not bode well for doing Murph in two weeks...

WOD:
1000m row
air squat x 80
sit up x 60
push up x 40
pull up x 20

Results: ~17:00

Wednesday is endurance day

That's the new trend in our programming -- Wednesday's WOD is always a long endurance WOD.

Did this one solo after coaching the 9am class.

WOD:

3 rounds:
800m run
200m backwards run
30 1-arm kettlebell swings
10 chest to bar pullups

Results: 31:32, 16kg kb, "regular" pullups

I just didn't have C2B's in me today. In fact, my kipping skills were pretty much zero on the first round. Thankfully my brain kicked back in during round 2 and those 10 went a lot faster. Longest set was only 3 in a row, so not my best pullup day. Thank god there were only 30 total...

I like 1-arm swings -- I wouldn't mind if we did them more.

My hamstrings were singing on the run, from the squat workout yesterday. I'm glad this week's squat workout didn't cripple me like last week's. That sucked.

Lynne

Never did this benchmark before, so it's good I got a baseline on it.

"Lynne"
5 Rounds for max reps of:
Bodyweight bench press
Pull ups

Score is total reps.

Results: 61 reps, 95# and kipping pullups

As you can see, my husband is a freaking beast. Craziness! And those are all deadhang pullups to boot.

Husband wanted me to do 105#, but when I tried it, I crapped out on rep 2. So I counted that attempt as a warm-up, and dropped down to 95#. Not quite ready to go heavy on bench press until I practice it a bit more...

I can't find it recorded anywhere in the blog, but I think I tested my bench press 1RM over the summer, and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130#. Just for future reference...

Murph-esque

I didn't think I would workout today, but with only 2 athletes in the 530 class, I decided to do the WOD with them.

It was basically Murph, or at least the middle section of Murph.

WOD:
Run 800m
21 OHS (135#/95#)
2 rds "Cindy"
15 OHS
4 rds "Cindy"
9 OHS
6 rds "Cindy"
3 OHS
8 rds "Cindy"
Run 800m

Results: 66 minutes; 65# OHS; 1/2 knee pushups

While I didn't have it in me to do 200 Rx pushups tonight, I'm pretty happy with doing 100 unassisted pullups. No rips in my hands, either. Good stuff.

My back felt a little sore as I started, which freaked me out on the two long sets of OHS, but then the pain completely went away.

Allie

Pulled this WOD from CrossFit Camden. It's a great test of stamina and endurance.

"Allie"
400m run
20 pullups
400m run
15 wall ball shots (14#)
400m run
10 burpees
400m run
5 tire flips

Results: 11:50-ish

Felt the lung burn, so I know I pushed myself -- that was my main goal.

My previous time for this was around 14 minutes, but I think the 400m run at C2 is a bit short.

Front squats, pushups, swings and situps

Got together with my girls at the base gym this morning, and we all just wanted something simple. R had this one in her notebook from CrossFit Saratoga.

3 rounds:
15 front squats
25 pushups
35 kettlebell swings
45 situps

Results: untimed; did f.s. at 45, 65, 65 and 35# kb for all swings

I was super-slow on my pushups again today. They were all good form, but just 1s and 2s and 3s which took forever.

Note on my gymnastics skills... there seems to be quite a bit of practice required between just being able to do a skill correctly, and being able to do it correctly for many reps in a row. The same things has been the case with pullups in the past. Maybe it's a matter of developing a rhythm or technique for stringing them together? Who knows...

--
Speaking of pullups, I hit a new PR in those yesterday as well. Prior to coaching at 6pm, I did 10 kipping pullups in a row. Woot! The first 4 were chest-to-bar to boot. I'm back to doing those daily, even if it's just a few, and it's really paying off.

Cindy

Had a rematch with Cindy this morning.She and I have a history.

May 2010 - A pitiful 7 rounds + 5 pullups
June 2010 - During first 20 minutes of a Murph attempt (after completing the starting mile), I did ~12 rounds
February 10, 2010 - 9 rounds + 3 pushups

Here's the secret to a good Cindy, at least for me -- spend time practicing both pushups and pullups prior to attempting. I have focused a lot on pullups lately, but haven't done many pushups in the last few months. Need to work those back into warmups as much as possible.

Move, weightlifting practice and CrossFit barbell triplet

While it wasn't exactly a WOD, we moved over this past weekend, and it wore my ass out! Seriously, by the end of the day on Saturday, I was barely dragging myself along. Other than a short lunch break and afternoon nap, we were constantly on the move from 10am until 10pm.


Monday was my first weekday weightlifting practice in I don't know how long... It was good stuff.

Deadlift: 10-8-6-5-5-5-3-3
55-85-85-85-95-95-105-125

Loads were light, worked a lot on form. My low back issues are kinda complicated to describe -- but it's nice to finally know why I've always sucked at deadlifts, why my squat was broken for so long and why my clean loads plateaued for so long.

Press :5-5-5-3 (power clean bar from ground)
75-75-80-85(2)

Barely got my last two reps up for my set of 5 at 80. Rep 3 of my last set at 85 got stuck in front of my forehead for a few seconds before I gave up. This makes me want to re-test my press 1RM (which had dropped down to 90 in the fall), in light of all my pullup work. I think it's helping, and that's exciting!

Pullups: 3x10
Performed mostly unassisted deadhangs, and a few kipping pullups. I logged this as a day in my Get Strict program.

Abmat situps with medball: 4x15 (14# ball)

--
This morning I attended an 8:30am CrossFit class, which I'll start teaching next Tuesday, along with the 6:30am class. It was the last day for one of our coaches -- he's been splitting his time between the gym he co-owns and our gym, and will be focusing in on his own place from here on. He programmed a fun barbell triplet for us.

5 rounds:
5 squat clean thrusters
10 shoulder to overhead
15 front squat
load: 77#/55#

Results: 15:51

I certainly could've rested a lot less. And I didn't really string together the squat clean thrusters. But I did unbroken sets of ground to overhead and front squats on all 5 rounds. For shoulder to overhead, I did a combo of push presses and power jerks.

I'm happy to report that my back felt a little funky in my warmups, but I didn't feel a single twinge at all during the WOD. Yay!

Friday AM AMRAP

Saw this WOD last week sometime, and knew I wanted to put it into our morning rotation at the base gym.

We had to substitute hang squat cleans for squat cleans, due to lack of bumpers. We scaled down the weight of the cleans and push press. We did AbMat situps instead of toes to bar, because there just aren't enough appropriate pullup bars to do pullups and T2B with 4 people. And we each started at a different point in the rotation to help with crowd control.

"Christina"
AMRAP in 20 minutes:
9 pullups
9 hang squat cleans (65#)
9 kettlebell swings (35# / 16kg)
9 AbMat situps (I added a 12# med ball)
9 push press (65#)
9 burpees

Results: Started at KB swings; finished 3 full rounds plus KB swings and AbMats of round 4

The weight on the hang squat cleans felt heavy to me at first, but I think I was using too much arm. Once I got more tired and started "popping and dropping" things felt a lot better.

Got 5 pullups in a row on each of my 3 sets of kipping pullups. Booyeah! It's all mental for me, not physical -- I'm getting myself back on the "no less than 5 to start" train, and it feels good.

Again today it wasn't strength, but just cardio/endurance that really held me back. 

--
Had originally planned on doing another "A" day for my pullup program today, but I'm hurting. I will get it in after weightlifting practice tomorrow morning.

Base gym FAIL

I went to the base gym to do today's WOD, thinking they would have a 1.5 pood (55#/24kg) kettlebell. But the heaviest they had was 40#.

The kicker? I have a 45# kettlebell at home.

[facepalm]

Oh well, I tried. :)

--
10-8-6-4-2-4-6-8-10
double unders
AbMat situps w/ med ball (12#)
kettlebell swings (1.5 pood - used 40#)

Results: 10:13

Finished up with a 60 second handstand hold, 3 sets of 5 kipping pullups (actually got 5 in a row the last set), and 3 Turkish get-ups on each side with a 20# kettlebell. Then they kicked me out because it's a holiday and they were closing at 6pm.

Weightlifting, Get Strict

Wanted to do some weightlifting practice today, but didn't want to drive the 25-45 minutes to one of the gyms with a platform. So I did what I could in the gym on base.

Front squat:
3-3-3-3-3
85-95-105-115-125

I paused at the bottom on all sets except the last. I really wanted to retest my current 3RM of 135, but didn't want to push things with my back, or with dropping weights in a gym where they're not supposed to be dropped. :)

Split jerk:
3-3-3-3-3
45-65-85-90-95

Not heavy, just getting back in the groove after a few weeks of not practicing. Didn't feel like I really got my speed until the last 2 sets. This weight felt kinda heavy for some reason!

After the weightlifting work, it was time to start a new pullup program that I came across online.
Get Strict, from CrossFit Virtuosity

Today was a volume day.
A. 3 sets of 10 strict pullups
used my skinny band; sets were broken -- 6-2-2, 7-2-1 and 6-2-2

B. 3 sets of 10 --superset of barbell row and pushups
45# barbell
pushup sets: 10, 6-2-2, 6-2-1-1

Back squats and a quick metcon

At the gym on base this morning.

Back squat: 5x5
95
105
115
120
125



Still holding back from anything really heavy, since the back issue hasn't been resolved. Oddly, today it only twinged when I was re-racking the barbell.


2 rounds:
20 OHS (45#)
15 pullups
500m row

Results: ~15mins

Main site chipper

We took on the crazy chipper from the main site at our box, and it was interesting to say the least!

25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 24k/16
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35/20 pound dumbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20/14 pound ball
3 Rope climb ascents

Results: 30:50

I completed the pullups without incident, definitely got 5 to kick things off. THANK GOD.

Banged out the box jumps at a good pace.

Thought my 20 DUs were in the bag, but missed #20 and had to do one single DU. Still pleased with that. :)

Skinny band for the ring dips -- need to rededicated myself to getting rid of that soon.

K2Es were fucking beautiful, not to brag. :-D

Swings, situps, hang cleans -- no problemo.

Back extensions -- this is where I wussed out big time. I've learned recently that my back is a very weak area in my body, comparatively. So I have a stronger back than some people, but overall I'm front-dominant to compensate for a weaker back. I knew these back extensions would lock me up, but did them anyway. And then got locked up. Probably wasted 2 minutes afterwards trying to un-fuck myself enough to do the wall balls. I had a Filthy Fifty flashback for sure.

Wall balls were badass, got 15 the first set, not sure if I broke the 2nd half or not. Soooooo glad these don't trip me up so much anymore.

ROPE CLIMBS. Went up with the rope wrapped around, came down with feet in the J-hook. Probably rested a little too long between attempts, but I'm still too freaked out to do these while I'm super-winded or feeling weak in the arms. Since we don't have a crash mat, I'm OK with this.

--
The only thing I'm pissed about is the WOD was posted with 24kg/16kg for the kettlebell swings, and Rx on the main site was 2 pood (32kg) -- which means ladies Rx was 24kg. Boooooo. I would've used my 45# kettlebell or maybe even the big one if I had known that.

Plus ladies Rx should really have been 25# dumbbells... Bummah.

But based on what was written on the whiteboard the day I did this, I am happy that I only scaled ring dips. Woot! I will take "nearly Rx" whenever I can get it. :-D