Vacation WODs from 2008

I knew I had posted some WODs from my vacation with Husbeetle last summer, but I just came across them today. Maybe I can use some of them at my parents' house this weekend.

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.

CrossFit KoP visit

I checked out CrossFit KoP tonight, and it rocked. Why the heck couldn't they open before I moved away? It would have been a 5 minute drive from my house. Or it would've been a perfect stop on the way home from work. Gah!

Oh well, at least if I ever move back, I'll know there's a terrific gym to workout at. Plus I can hit them up when visiting Husbeetle's family, though it's kind of a pain in the ass to drive there from his mom's house.

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WOD:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Clean and Jerks (75#/115#)

KB Swings (scale according to level)

Pull-ups

Results: 24:14; 65# C&Js, 16kg (35#) KB, medium band pullups

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Really felt my cardio deficiencies on this workout. I need to just push myself more, but then my form suffers alot when I try to push through and not rest. I am at a loss... My strength is increasing much faster than my cardio-vascular fitness. Bah.

The main coach at KoP, Aimee, rocked this. We did about 10 minutes of coaching on the C&J movement between the warm-up and the WOD. Awesome. Got some truly welcome feedback on my C&J form.

First, I was not fully extending my hips before catching the bar. Need to work on the deadlift-shrug portion, and make sure I have the whole range of motion in my hips before I bring the elbows around to rack the bar. Also, my head is not neutral. I tend to tilt my head really far back. Odd, huh? Guess that explains why I have a sore neck pretty often. Definitely two things I can work on and improve. That's why I did 65# and not 75# as Rx'd. Stayed lighter to really focus on form. And according to Aimee and her assistants, I did improve as the workout progressed, so I'm really happy with that.

Overall it felt great, and I'm so relieved to have gotten a great workout in while on vacation. We'll see if I can squeeze in another 6:30pm class the day after tomorrow. It all depends on when I travel, and what time I get back to the area. I'm making an extra-special side trip tomorrow. :)

Quickie WOD

Friday ended up being a rest day as well, I know, boo to me, but I did do a quick workout on Saturday.

For warm-up I did a 10-12 minute run.

WOD: As many rounds as you can in 20 minutes:

10 Push-ups

15 Squats

20 Sit-ups

Results: Completed 8 rounds, plus some pushups.

This was really an easy day. Not exactly what I need to be doing to get my Jackie time down next month when we repeat. Plus I took off Sunday, and I'm not seeing a good chance of doing anything today. Eeek. I'm at least going to try to do some sit-ups and push-ups, maybe 10-10 for 10 minutes or something like that. Gah. Going on vacation really F's things up...

Fall break WOD list

Gonna use this post to link to workouts I find online that I can do while I'm away on my "fall break".

Crossfit Champions

• Squats, push-ups, pull-ups
• Variety, can accomodate most w/ vaca equipment
• Pull-ups, push ups, swimmers, sit-ups
• Filthy 50, can do most
• AMRAP thrusters, pullups
• Lunges, KB swings, push-ups

"Vacay" Fran -- 21-15-9 of thrusters and jumping pullups

TBD...

Some oly lifts, yay!

"Oly" is slang for "Olympic" -- I picked that up somewhere in my perusal of Crossfit blogs the past week. I like. :)

WOD:

AMRAP 8min of:

• 5 Clean and Jerk (135 lbs/95)
• 7 ring dips

3 min rest

AMRAP 4min of:

• 5 hang power cleans (135lbs/95)
• 7 handstand push ups

Results: 3 rounds (85lbs; bench and box for dips) and 1 3/4 (85lbs, ankles over bar for HSPU)

**AMRAP stands for "as many rounds as possible".

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Wow, this workout was deceptive... I thought I would be throwing the bar up a lot faster than I did, after my first 5 C&Js I was sooooo out of breath, damn! And I was just barely able to get up the HPCs, after the jump my feet were sooo wide. It almost would've been easier to catch in a squat.

But it felt good, I'd like to do this one again sometime. And I'm happy that I learned another way to modify HSPUs. Put a bar on a squat rack, hook your feet over and hang upside down, and try to get as vertical as you can. I was really just bending my elbows a bit and then locking back out, but it's a start. I think at this point I'm going to be as excited about getting a true HSPU as I am about getting a true dead hang pullup.

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This is my last workout in the gym for a while, I'm leaving today on my trip up north. I'm going to do my best to keep working out while I'm on the road, but I do find it challenging to "program" for myself. I think if I was ever a coach or affiliate owner, I would offer "vacation programming" packages to my clients as part of their regular monthly fee. This month I paid for the whole thing, not knowing how long I'd be gone. It would just be nice to still feel like I was getting my $$$$'s worth. And given a set of equipment available, it seems to me they could come up with 5-7 workouts for me to do easily. They are the experts!

I'm taking along my 12lb dumbbells for DB hang squat cleans, thrusters, push presses, front squats, DB swings. I can borrow a broom here or there to keep working on my form for OHS and snatch. And then I've got my in-the-doorway pullup bar that I can use for jumping pullups and maybe some work on negatives. My big focus will be pushups, I'm so damn weak on those. I had worked on them a while back, and got better, but now I'm sucking again. Gotta put some time and effort into that, 2 weeks is enough time to make some decent improvements.

Nancy

Today we did "Nancy".

5 rounds for time of:

• 400 meter run
• Overhead squat (OHS), 15 reps (95/65)

Results: 19:56, 30lbs on OHS

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In hindsight, I maybe could have gone 5lbs heavier on the OHS, up to 35. But I was wary because last time I did OHS in a workout, I tried to use the 45lb bar, and I went over backwards onto my ass at least 3 times, maybe 4. Not pretty. So I worked up from the 15lb bar, and stopped when I felt like it was a good weight for 15 reps.

After the workout was finished I wanted to see how heavy I could go, so I worked up by 5lb increments doing 3-5 squats at each weight. When I hit 50 I felt like that was my upper limit, so next workout I plan to use the 45lb bar and master that weight before moving up any more. Good times.

My runs were kinda sucky. Blah.

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Me and two new chicks at the gym worked on hand stands after the cool down. I made a total ass out of myself slamming into the wall and falling onto my head twice. After that I stuck with working on a head stand, and lifting my legs up from there. I'm going to stick with that til I've mastered it, and then try again on the hand stand position. I'm starting from the very bottom on this skill, so it's good that I'm getting started. :) Hopefully all the strength that I'm gaining in my upper body and abs will help speed up my progress.

Still no "naked" pullups, I'm gonna give it another go tomorrow AM. I know I have at least one band-less kipping pullup in me, if I can do 96 with bands!