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.

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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 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

Weightlifting practice

Attended my weekly weightlifting practice today. And saw the effects of not attending practice regularly for a few months...

1 snatch + 3 OHS
4 sets @ 60% (65#)

All solid here.

Clean & Jerk
4x3 @ 70% (95#, 1 set at 85#)

Form was awful on the cleans. My power position has completely disappeared, and my knees never popped back under the bar. I think I am afraid to get into certain positions, for fear my back will just tweak out again. Dropped weight to see if that helped, and I still did the same thing. Hoping this was just a bad day, and I'm not regressing back to old habits...

Snatch balance
3x3 with empty bar

Cake.

Knees to elbows
4x5

These need a lot of work, especially doing more reps before dropping off the bar.

CrossFit KoP visit - part duex

After pigging out with a friend on Tuesday night, I decided I had to hit up the gym on Wednesday, so I drove back from her place and just barely made it in time for the 6:30pm workout at CF KoP. Definitely worth it. Can I say again that I love love love the coaching at this box? Totally a great example that I would love to follow one day, if I ever coach CF.

Anyway, back to the workout recap...

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WOD

Hang Power Snatch

3-3-2-2-1-1

2000M Row

Results: 45-55-60-65 and 8:52

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I got a kick out of working on the hang power snatch. I realized from last Wednesday that the "hang" variants of the lifts are much more challenging in terms of using the power of your lower body. It's easy to get that hip extension in while coming from the ground. But when it's just a quick opening of the hips, it makes things a lot more difficult.

My form issues with the snatch were all over the place. On some I wasn't really shrugging and getting my elbows up and back, I was just immediately trying to drop under the bar. Probably very hilarious to watch. This also led to a lack of hip extension, and a crappy jump, which is a chronic problem of mine.

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My row was an improvement over my last 2K, which I distinctly remember was 9:17. I am getting better at bringing my split time (right term?) down closer to 2:00. That seemed to be the ultimate goal of the other people at CFKoP, which would mean an 8:00 2k. Definitely my new goal.

I thought I kind of didn't try as hard as I could have on the row because I was thinking too much about form? It was weird. Maybe for one of my Sunday afternoon workouts when I'm back at home I'll attempt to 2k row again and really go all out.