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. :)

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.5

AMRAP 20
5 power clean (100#)
10 toes to bar
15 wall ball (14# to 9' target)

Results: 5 rounds + 5 + 7

Had more important stuff to think/care about this morning than CrossFit. That kind of attitude never bodes well for a good performance... Not as much of a bomb as Week 1, but it felt worse...

12 Days of Christmas

Hit this one up with my CF KoP peeps while visiting husband's family. (Check the link for a hilarious picture of me doing DB snatches)

12 Days of Christmas at CrossFit KoP
1 Deadlift (185/275)
2 Wall Ascents (6ft/8ft)
3 Ring Dips
4 Box Jumps (21"/25")
5 Med Ball Clean (14/20)
6 Clean and Jerk (75/115)
7 Toes to Bar
8 Burpees
9 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (55/75)
10 Wall Balls (14/20) to (9ft/10ft)
11 Thrusters (75/115)
12 DB Snatch 12L/12R 25/40

Results: 70:28

Deadlifts, clean and jerk, burpees and thrusters were all scaled due to my continuing (nagging) back injury. Everything else was Rx'd.

Weird about the burpees, right? Something about the part where you jump your feet back aggravates my QL muscle, so for many of them I stepped my feet back. Once I was nice and warm, in the middle and later days, I did jump my feet back on some of them.

I felt like I got hit by a truck after this. My core was wrecked, I think from the wall climbs and toes to bar -- don't do either of those with any regularity.

Best part of the WOD - watching a CF KoP superstar female athlete scaling the 8 foot wall. BAD. ASS. And her nickname is "Grans" -- love it.

Ooops, I did it again

Couldn't resist the Britney lyrics for a blog title, since yet again I have slacked on posting my WODs the day I do them. :-p

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Tuesday's WOD was honestly just sad. I thought my head was in the game starting out, but then my focus just kind of whithered away, and I ended up performing really poorly. Well, you win some, you lose some. At least I had two very fast people to chase on the runs, reminding me I really need to work on my SPEED.

In 7 min: Run 800m then AMRAP deadlifts (315lbs/205)
Rest 1 min.
In 4 min: Run 400m then AMRAP thrusters (45lbs/25)
Rest 1 min.
In 2 min: Run 150m then AMRAP toes to bar

Results: 18 deadlifts (@ 135#), 23 thrusters, 6 toes to bar

See? Sad.

Deadlifts I pushed it -- probably should've made it to 20, but I am a form nazi on those and take my time on getting set up. Thrusters I just went into la-la land. I came in from the 400m run, and just dicked around instead of jumping on the bar. Booo to that. That's just a symptom that my head is not in the game. For toes to bar, I only did 3 before coming off the bar. My grip is stronger than that, I need to do at least 5 (minimum) before coming off.

All in all, I came to the box, did some running, got a good sweat, and left determined to do better the next day.

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The best part of Tuesday is what happened after the WOD. One of our newer members, Kamie, said she'd like to try the Rx weight of 205 at least once, just to see if she could do it. So I was like, hell yes, let's do it!

There ended up being 4 of us who stuck around for about 20 minutes taking turns on the bar. We started at 155 and worked our way up from there. I was able to share some of my knowledge about deadlift form -- including my absolute favorite setup technique from Rippetoe. Helped Jess with her "shoot up butt", Kamie with pulling the bar along her shins, and Melissa with her form on return (I feel her pain on that one, I still struggle on my return).

In the end Kamie was able to pull 195, and after she did, she did an awesome happy dance and took a little victory lap around the box. She is my kind of chick, I love her energy. :-D

Typing up this story, it sounds so mundane. Four chicks in a gym just screwing around with deadlifts. But what made me so excited about it was that there were 4 of us bad ass CrossFit ladies hanging out, getting our strong on.

So many days I've seen the guys hang around to play with the barbells after the WOD. When the ladies stick around, they are usually chatting or maybe working on their kipping swing. Both of which are great -- I love days when people hang out to talk, and I love seeing everybody working towards getting their pullups.

Those 20 minutes yesterday morning were special because the universe was telling me, yes, you DO have a tribe here. Yes, there are other chicks who get excited about testing the limits of their strength and learning how to get even stronger. It's something I've experienced in other places, but it hadn't really happened here. I can't wait to see what happens next. :)

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This morning I dialed in my focus and pushed myself, so I was happy about that.

2 rounds:
Row 500m
21 burpees

Results:  9:20-ish

 My girl Melissa rolled in at just over 7 minutes, she freakin' rocks my socks!

My first row was 2:01, the second row was approaching 2:20 -- I was too gassed to even look at the final time, but my pace on the rower display was up in the 2:20's for more pulls than I was happy with.

The burpees were just S-L-O-W. Holy cow. I was crawling up and down for some of them. But I didn't take any extended breaks, just slowed down the pace here and there to quasi-rest, so I'm happy with my effort overall.

After class I got a few of the ladies (all chicks today, woot!) to try the single-band muscle up progression setup. It really helped them to be able to focus on the skill of the transition -- both up and down -- by eliminating some of the weight in the movement. Even using a band to assist, the muscle up is still a really challenging movement, especially in terms of learning to support yourself up on the rings, and keeping the rings close to the body. Good stuff! Next time we'll set up the squat rack progression and see how people like that.

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Time to get back to an attempt to be productive on my day off. I am super sleepy so I'm not sure how that's going to turn out. :)