Learn and play new sports: Highland Games edition

Well, my dear blog readers, I am excited to report that I've added another new sport to my "repertoire", in addition to weightlifting.

THROWING HEAVY SHIT!

On February 19th I had my first exposure to the throwing events that make up the Highland Games.

The local community of throwers always organizes an athlete clinic the Saturday prior to the yearly games held in the area -- Northeast Florida Scottish Highland Games and Festival. It was a pretty good time, and I really learned a lot!

Then this past Saturday, the 26th, it was time for the real deal. I was excited, but nervous, because several events had not gone very well in practice. In particular, caber toss and sheaf toss.

In the end I was able to complete a successful attempt in each of the 7 events, which is awesome for my first games. Woohoo!

Here are some pictures. :)

Practice session -- Weight for height event

Stone - setup

Stone - release

Hammer - going...

Hammer - going...

Hammer - GONE!

Sheaf toss

Weight for height

Caber Toss

Caber Toss

--
For my "memory" here's a score sheet I put together for myself.

As for the "approximations" of my scores, that's a lesson learned -- next time I will pay more attention to what the judges call out, now that I know you don't get a personal scoresheet at the end. :)

• 28# heavy weight for distance: ~21'
• 14# light weight for distance: ~23' (need lots of work here)
• Stone throw for distance: ~21'
• 12# hammer throw: ~44'
• 28# weight over bar: made 8', 9' and 10' throws; hit bar twice at 11'
• Sheaf toss: made 8', 10', missed big time on all 3 attempts at 12'
• Caber toss: got one good pick and got a 15 degree toss/turn/not sure what the right word is. So excited about that because I didn't think I'd even be able to pick it up at all!

Filthy Fifty

Hit this WOD on a whim Sunday night. Husband has a weird issue going on with his shin, so I took him over to the "satellite" gym to use the rower for his running substitute. He's addicted to running, so complete rest is not an option for him.

Filthy Fifty was on the board for Friday, and some other peeps had come in and done it on Sunday. So we modified it for him, and I did it "regular".

Filthy Fifty
50 box jumps (20'')
50 jumping pullups
50 kettlebell swings (1/2 pood - 16kg)
50 walking lunge steps
50 knees to elbows
50 push press (35#)
50 back extensions (did supermans, no GHD for me yet)
50 wall ball shots (14#)
50 burpees
50 double unders

Results: 45:29 (includes a potty break during DUs :-p)

This WOD and I just do not get along. Especially the part where I'm supposed to do 50 K2Es. I think I spent about 15 minutes doing K2Es, and 30 minutes doing everything else. Seriously.

Low points:
 - K2Es were not only agonizingly slow with small sets of 2s, 3s and 4s, but there weren't even close to Rx with my knees touching triceps most of the time; I have a lot practice to get "Rx" on this WOD...
 - Back extensions -- still afraid of getting on the GHD for fear of triggering renewed back/hip pain...

High points:
 - 50 unbroken kb swings
 - 25-15-10 wall balls; this is an epic improvement for me on those
 - push press felt light, wish I had gone for unbroken
 - double unders -- every minute of practice I did to get these is worth it when I breeze through them in a wod

First day out at the track

I'm behind on posting, so I'm "back dating" this and a few others this morning. :)

--
Thursday mornings from here on out will be spent at the track on base getting FASTER. I'm so lucky to have two wonderful friends who are willing to meet up with me and keep me accountable.

Often I let myself get into the mindset that I'm strong and slow, and that I'm OK with that. But that's not true.
I know I have the genetic ability to be fast, because I trained my way to a sub-6 minute mile while running high school track. And my 800m was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:40. Does that sound slow to you? Or sound like I'm an athlete that just doesn't have the genetic gift of enough fast twitch fiber? Yeah -- that would be a no.

And I know I'm not OK with being slow. It drives me crazy!

So it's time to buckle down, and get fast again.

--
WOD:
10 rounds
100m sprint
10 burpees

Results: ~17 minutes

I'm not sure that I managed to sprint on each run, but I did maintain good POSE form to try to foster some speed in my feet, and also continue to build up my calves.

100 burpees sucks. 100 burpees amidst sprints *really* sucks.

But we felt awesome once we got it done. :)

2k row, push press 1RM

Very interesting combo for one day, huh? :)

I've been interested in testing my rowing skills ever since I completed the Holiday Rowing Challenge in December -- the challenge was to row 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. During that time I was taking a little hiatus from posting workouts here, but I was logging lots of rowing workouts in my Concept2 online logbook. Very neat concept, if you like rowing you should set one up -- it's fun to see how you rank among other rowers. CrossFitters usually stack up pretty well!

So, back to the WOD. I was coaching my 9am class, and there were 3 ladies there. We only have 2 ergs in our "satellite" location, and everyone knows you can't do a long distance sprint without someone next to you keeping you going. (Or is that just me? :-p) So I warmed up and rowed with D, after T and M did their rows.

Result: 8:36.5 (2:09.1 avg/500m)

I was ver happy with that time! Next goal -- 8:30 or below.

BTW, definitely got a "Fran cough" after that row. Holy crap burning lungs!

--
I didn't do push press until that evening. I arrived early for my 6pm class and banged out my 6 1RM attempts. I'm sure I got more that I would have if I did it right after the row, which is how the WOD was written. But I still felt the effects of doing that row!

Warm-up: 5x45# strict press; 2x65# push press

Working sets: 95-105-115-125-130-135m

After I got 125 up, I had to walk it around a bit before I could get it stabilized.  That matched my old PR!

I wasn't sure 130 would go up, and was really happy when it did! I was more stable with it overhead than 125. Yay 5# PR!

I decided to just go for it, and loaded up 135 on the bar. I got it up high enough to push my head through, but then it just stopped. I had to drop it behind me - craziness!

--
Thoughts -- I need more reps with heavy weights on the bar. For this WOD, and our 1RM OHS WOD, my biggest obstacle to a great performance was a lack of confidence at the higher loads. The only thing that will build that confidence is more reps. Good thing we just got some new jerk blocks! :)

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.

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.

OHS 1RM

Hit 6:30am CrossFit class with enthusiasm this morning -- it was OHS 1RM day, and I hadn't tested that lift in 6-9 months. It was a given I would be able to pass my old 1RM of 85, but I just wasn't sure how high I could go...

Well, it turns out I could go up to 115#. Woot!

WOD: 
Overhead squat: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Warm-up: 35x5, 55x3
Work sets: 85-95-105-115m-110-115-115 (I only did 7)

Decided to re-do 115 to end on a high note -- and it was a strong lift, no wobble, nice and deep. I think there was definitely a learning curve, as far as experiencing what heavy singles of OHS feel like. I never had that heavy of a load in a wide-grip overhead position before. I've only push pressed or jerked that much with a narrower grip.

So, that said, I think this is really going to do a lot for my snatch, now that I have more confidence with big-ass weights over my head.