The Jeff

Hope your weekend was great.  Mine was great minus Sunday night.  I had planned on going to Establish Barbell Club, but got home late from watching the WC2014 final, and by the time I looked at the clock, the only thing I could say was dat gummit.  Might head out tonight, need to ice my knees from today first. 

So, my knees needing some ice...  yeah, todays WOD was supposed to be doing weighted pullups (can you do weight ring rows?), and then a 7 minute AMRAP of a progressing scale (ladder maybe) of pullups and thrusters.  3, 6, 9, 12, etc.  This will be awfu....I mean awesome!

We get through he warmups, I'm trying to get faster with wall balls and air squats.  I put more effort into banging them out quickly instead of the other way I've been doing them...ya know, slowly.  LOL.  Really on the second and third rounds of the warmup I went for speed and found that I can do things faster.  Another checkbox to keep in mind while working on that mental game. 

Weighted pullups... I was tempted to try a band out today and do banded pullups, and I almost did, but I really don't think I'm there yet.  Thats not my weak mental game talking, I don't think my back/shoulders are quite there, even with some band help, maybe next time.  I did some ring rows.  Instead of being on my normal side of the bar, I started on the farther side, and I kept going that way, 6" at a time, till I cold only do one.  It wasn't very far, maybe 24" past the midline....not very far, but it was my 1RM.

Moving on.  It's Jeffs birthday.  Jeff is an inspiration in himself.  He's lost over 50lbs since starting CrossFit.  Pretty awesome right?  I think so.  Jeff turned 44 today.  So Andy made us a birthday WOD:

44 wallballs
44 situps
44 kb swings
44 walking lunges
44 calorie row

Happy Birthday indeed.  The wallballs, I actually did 20 in a row before dropping the ball.  I think thats a milestone of sorts.  The next 24, no rhyme or reason to how I got done, I just did it as fast as I could.  Cool, done, moving on.  

Situps...yeah, I didn't think these would be a problem at all.  I figured it out after the first 11.  See, I figured I'd do sets of 4 and be done.  Maybe it was the way I was doing them, butterfly legs instead of straight, but somewhere around 20, I lost count.  My breathing is about useless once I get into situps, and at a point I was doing just 2 or 3 at a time.  I don't know what number I got to.  I'm sure I got over 30, but I lost track, and told myself do 4 more and be done...

KB's were much easier to break into 4 sets of 11.  I probably should have used a bigger weight.  Need to get myself grabbing that green one.  I think it's a pood.  Anyway, get these done, time for the walking lunges. 

PR on my mental toughness.  I wanted to sandbag the heck out of this.  I'm behind everyone else, and I was going to quit on myself, but I kept going.  7 sets of 6, and then I did two on the last one.  I just kept going, I wanted to quit after 3.  My legs were burning, it was awful, but something kept me going.  Rounds 4, 5, and 6 were a grinder.  I can't really tell you the conversation I was having mentally, I don't remember it, but it was a lot of back and forth.  Thankfully, while I'm arguing the merits of stopping early with myself, my body kept moving.  Set 7 was here...wow, that wasn't so bad right?  LOL.  The last 8 were rough, and I think the fact I was pausing longer at the bottom probably didn't make it any easier. 

Calorie rowing can suck.  At this point, my quads are on fire.  When I get on the rower and start going, it actually feels really good for the fist 10 pulls.  Then the suck sets in.  My quads are now no longer having fun, it's drudgery.  Theresa, one of the coaches who's on the DL (had rotator cuff surgery) happened to be by today, this is her normal class.  As I'm rowing, she takes the display, and pushes it back.  I can't see it, I have no idea where I'm at.  I don't know if this is a good thing or not, knowing vs not knowing... I row on.  Eventually I got there, Jeff was even nice enough to row with my while I finished.  :) 

Good WOD, and my quads are the closest they've been to that first Elements class at Diamond State.  I'm talking that wobbly, can't walk or do much of anything.  I'm not wobbly, but I suspect it might be an "ow ow ow" night judging by how much I could "feel" them.  We'll see.  Going to try to hit the barbell club tonight, but if they're doing squats, you can forget it.