My first CrossFit workout was FRAN... This is a little over a year since then, and I think this is only the second time that I've done it. A lot has changed, but some things have stayed the same. About 45 lbs lighter than the first time... and I put most of that weight back on the bar I did thrusters with, but more on that in a minute.
Today was the first day it wasn't nasty hot outside. Got to the box early, had a good conversation with Madison. She upped my calories, I'm excited for 400 extra calories. LOL. Been doing well, but there are always ways to improve on what your eating. I didn't talk to her about how I've been feeling so tired and run down all week. I hope it's just bad sleep, the apnea and the like... and not something more sinister.
After talking with Madison, I spent the next 40 minutes stretching and otherwise getting ready for FRAN. Lots of things I don't normally do... got some extra banded stretching in, foam rolled for the first time in forever, some extra rowing... just a lot of little things. Then got into the warmup a bit. 15 barbell thrusters. Did them unbroken... but it was taxing. Then my knee got tight. Something it hadn't done in a while. Talked with Brian (who needs to take a vacation, somebody talk to him), and then used a therapy wrap thing. Did some air squats, did some knee bends, took the wrap off, and it felt better. Good enough to keep going. Added some more wight, did some more thrusters... I'm ready on this front.
First time I did jumping pullups to a lower bar at CFDS. I remember taking the time to pull with my jump. I could have just bounced and pulled, but I wanted to try to pull as much as I was able, so I slowed down to do that. Today would be no different. Feel like it would be a cheat to myself if I just bounced into these. Gotta earn it baby. Anyway, moving on, the bars at On Track aren't low enough to jump, and Brian has another method anyway. For him, jumping pullups are to rings, set about 6" above your head. You extend your arms fully by lowering your body, and then, you jump and pull. Shit is a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I made an effort to not bounce, just like the first time. I did pretty good at it. I can say that because at first, I was jumping high and pulling and able to get my chin over the top of the rings. By the end, I was lucky to get my face between the rings.
So, without further delay, we start. 95lb thrusters. Damn. I thought after 15.5 that 95lbs wouldn't be that bad. Man o man I was wrong today. 10-5-6 was how they broke down. It wasn't super pretty, but it was with decent form and speed. I wasn't the last one to the rig, how bout that. The jump pullups were awkward, and I wasted a ton of time resetting after each one. Finally, got them done, on to the 15.
Let me stop here. For those of you who may read this in the future and randomly stumble onto this particular post... #fran is one of the benchmark "girls" workouts of #CrossFit and consists of 21-15-9 of thrusters and pullups (YouTube either if you need a visual). REALLY good people, get it done in under 3 minutes (arguably under 2:30). Pretty good people are probably in the 3-5 minute range, and anything over that time means you're likely a mortal being, and thats ok.
Back to Fran. I had delusions of grandeur. I though, gee, 5-5-5 sounds great. The first 5, struuuuuuuugled not to drop the bar. Second 5, I had an arched back, elbows pointing down... just crappy form, but I did them. Last 5 didn't happen. Went 2-3. They were even uglier than the first sets. I looked at the clock, ticking over 6 minutes... yup, still mortal. The rings got suckier. Thought the 5-5-5 would work there too. Nope. Don't remember the exact breakdown, but it wasn't very many strung together... and that makes some sense with the fact I wanted to reset so I wasn't just bouncing.
By the time I started the last set, I was nearly the last one doing them. I'd heard Brian yelling "elbows up" during the last set, I assumed he was yelling that at me... but this time, I knew he was. As soon as I got the bar, I heard him say it again, this time with a ", Dan" at the end. LOL. He wasn't the only one yelling encouraging things. Two guys I'd never met, standing just off to my right, saying the same stuff. "Alright now, elbows up baby, you got this". And I did have it. I didn't drop the elbows down much, and nothing like they were in the middle set. Broke this one down into 5-4. The last 4 were tough. Relied on the coaching from days past. "Lift with your elbows" and "Stand up with your elbows first" in my ear. Funny thing is, as tired and deep as I was into the workout, these were probably 4 of the best thrusters I'd done. Good form is funny like that.
Not much to say on the last of the jumping pullups. I noticed that when I pulled the rings went wider each time, and I didn't go near as high as I had in the beginning. *shurg* One final pull, and I was done. 10:21. My Wodify account is currently inactive, so I can't tell you where I was when I first did it. Memory tells me that I used 10lb plates and finished in over 11 minutes. This time, I did it with 25lb plates, and did it in less time. For as rough a week as I've had, I'll take this just about any day.
Knee is tight now as I write this, going to take some NSAIDs, prop it up, see how it does in the morning. I expect tomorrow will be an active rest day, consisting of push moving and other yard work, but we'll see. Looking forward to stopping by CF Soulshine next week, hopefully making a good impression, and then getting to work!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Hearing your body, but failing to listen.
Tonight sucked. I tried, and failed. But I was there, and I tried, which is more than a lot of people do on a daily basis. Let me take a few steps back. It's hot as bawls out right now.... and I feel like I may be at the point I needed a day off... and that was before I went to the workout. Might have confirmed it by having a mediocre showing for myself. Raises the point, listen to your instincts, and listen to your body. I happened to want to have Thursday night off, so I could do some extra curricular things (frame a jersey I've had in my possession for a little too long... need to get it back to the owner), and so I figured tomorrow would be the best time to do it.
So, not the best of mindsets going in, but I saw the WOD, and expected to hit a PR... second time I've gone to something in this rep scheme... second time I got hosed. haha. Happens I guess. Solid warm up today, row 150m, 10 power snatches, 20 walking lunges. 4 rounds. I did three, and then knowing we were going to get into squats, did some oly stretches on the wall... I always seem to do better with squats when I do the oly stretches... Today was no different.
5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 OHS. We actually did some more warming up with some... I wouldn't call them stress positions, but we held a few positions in a few of the places in the OHS movement. Hate this stuff, but I get whey we do it. Went super light on the bar, and Brian was nearby for my first few sets. I'm still sitting a little forward, but I got the thumbs up on a few of them, I'm sitting further back. Now, I was going to try to go heavy for the 1-1-1, so I put on 25's for my 3's, thought it would be a good medium... and man, it was heavy. Like it felt stupid heavy. Got my first three done, and it was all I could do to not drop the bar. I ended up switching to 15's to finish it out. Of all the things that are sore or tired, at this point, my shoulders are toast.
WOD was 3rds for time, with a 10 minute cap. 10 KB thrusters, 30 abmat situps, 200ft shuttle run. I had on my lifters so I was like eh, how bout I do some burpees or something instead. Brian said 10 burpess... now, if you've been following this blog for any length of time, or if you've done any amount of burpees, you know how they are... and at my weight, 10 of them while doing this other stuff... oi. Another guy in the box, one of the dudes on the team I think, was like 10? How about 5. So glad he said that. Brian said, nah, 10 is fine... LOL.
We get started. I'm using 35lbs KBs. Thrusters up, down. 10 wasn't difficult, but my shoulders are dead. The situps... Listen. I hate situps. Not because I'm fat and doing situps sucks... I hate them because I've got two modes. On. Off. There is no "faster" to them. So with timed WODS and situps. After the first round, I really start to slow down, and then scale, as time happens. Got my 30, went to the burpees. I did 5. I wanted to do more, but I didn't, for two reasons. One, I'm sucking wind hardcore now, and 2, it's at 3 minutes. Brian said before we started that 6 minutes was the time people were hitting... I'm already halfway there. !@#$
Second round was much more difficult. I did the thrusters to failure, which was 8. Left arm couldn't keep up. Situps... I took them to 20. At the point everyone else was on their third round, and I'm at 6 minutes. At this point... taking a step out of the story of the WOD, between you and me... I don't know whats the better option. Cutting reps to get done close to time, or doing it all and not finishing. Probably something to ask a coach.... back to the WOD. This set of burpees is without incident. 7 minutes 30 seconds. Gotta move.
Third and final round, had to break the thrusters up to sets of two. The third set, left arm gave out again, and that was that. Two minutes left. Got another 20 situps or so (truly, I lost count), and then there was about 50 seconds left. Did two sets of 3 to get to 6, and then I stopped. 9:41
There was a post WOD thing, but I'd already made up my mind to get out of there, had other things to do. It could have waited, but I was beat, and so, I said my goodbyes and made my escape. It was 3 rounds of wallballs, max effort, 1 minute rest between each. Maybe I'll make it up some day.
I'm sore. Tired. Beat. Ready for some solid sleep. Wont get it tonight, but I will tomorrow.
So, not the best of mindsets going in, but I saw the WOD, and expected to hit a PR... second time I've gone to something in this rep scheme... second time I got hosed. haha. Happens I guess. Solid warm up today, row 150m, 10 power snatches, 20 walking lunges. 4 rounds. I did three, and then knowing we were going to get into squats, did some oly stretches on the wall... I always seem to do better with squats when I do the oly stretches... Today was no different.
5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 OHS. We actually did some more warming up with some... I wouldn't call them stress positions, but we held a few positions in a few of the places in the OHS movement. Hate this stuff, but I get whey we do it. Went super light on the bar, and Brian was nearby for my first few sets. I'm still sitting a little forward, but I got the thumbs up on a few of them, I'm sitting further back. Now, I was going to try to go heavy for the 1-1-1, so I put on 25's for my 3's, thought it would be a good medium... and man, it was heavy. Like it felt stupid heavy. Got my first three done, and it was all I could do to not drop the bar. I ended up switching to 15's to finish it out. Of all the things that are sore or tired, at this point, my shoulders are toast.
WOD was 3rds for time, with a 10 minute cap. 10 KB thrusters, 30 abmat situps, 200ft shuttle run. I had on my lifters so I was like eh, how bout I do some burpees or something instead. Brian said 10 burpess... now, if you've been following this blog for any length of time, or if you've done any amount of burpees, you know how they are... and at my weight, 10 of them while doing this other stuff... oi. Another guy in the box, one of the dudes on the team I think, was like 10? How about 5. So glad he said that. Brian said, nah, 10 is fine... LOL.
We get started. I'm using 35lbs KBs. Thrusters up, down. 10 wasn't difficult, but my shoulders are dead. The situps... Listen. I hate situps. Not because I'm fat and doing situps sucks... I hate them because I've got two modes. On. Off. There is no "faster" to them. So with timed WODS and situps. After the first round, I really start to slow down, and then scale, as time happens. Got my 30, went to the burpees. I did 5. I wanted to do more, but I didn't, for two reasons. One, I'm sucking wind hardcore now, and 2, it's at 3 minutes. Brian said before we started that 6 minutes was the time people were hitting... I'm already halfway there. !@#$
Second round was much more difficult. I did the thrusters to failure, which was 8. Left arm couldn't keep up. Situps... I took them to 20. At the point everyone else was on their third round, and I'm at 6 minutes. At this point... taking a step out of the story of the WOD, between you and me... I don't know whats the better option. Cutting reps to get done close to time, or doing it all and not finishing. Probably something to ask a coach.... back to the WOD. This set of burpees is without incident. 7 minutes 30 seconds. Gotta move.
Third and final round, had to break the thrusters up to sets of two. The third set, left arm gave out again, and that was that. Two minutes left. Got another 20 situps or so (truly, I lost count), and then there was about 50 seconds left. Did two sets of 3 to get to 6, and then I stopped. 9:41
There was a post WOD thing, but I'd already made up my mind to get out of there, had other things to do. It could have waited, but I was beat, and so, I said my goodbyes and made my escape. It was 3 rounds of wallballs, max effort, 1 minute rest between each. Maybe I'll make it up some day.
I'm sore. Tired. Beat. Ready for some solid sleep. Wont get it tonight, but I will tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
EDT anyone?
So, I think I broke the jinx of the New Balance.... I felt extraordinarily tired in todays workout.... could be the shoes, but I doubt it. I actually wore them in the car instead of just putting them on at the box, something I hadn't done before. Maybe thats the secret, don't treat them like they're collectable Jordans and you'll be more relaxed in them? IDK.
Today was a nice little workout. Chose the NB's over the lifters, because the warmup had jumping jacks, and frankly, those in lifters just don't sound all that fun. Did some jacks, pushups, American KB swings, and some toes to bar modification...forget what it's called, hold the support of the rig, lift your toes up and touch it... toes to rig maybe? Idk, did that... a lot easier on my hands than hanging knee lifts.
5 rep push press. Pulling it off the floor made me reconsider how heavy I was going to go tonight. Ended up on 115. Not a terrible weight, but not where I want to be for a WOD either... Did our 5 sets of 5 while working up to 115. I haven't done push presses in a while... so working on that push, or dip... I tried to focus on that tonight... it needs work still. Feel I've made a small, incremental improvement on the dip/drive part, but like so many other things, it's going to take time.
We took that 5 push press (building up to a heavy weight) and parlayed that into 5 (more) rounds of 5 push press, along with 15 deadlifts. I kept getting tired during the deadlifts. All but the first round, I dropped the bar (still at 115) at 10, then picked it up for 5 more. I probably could have hung on, but I was trying to work on form and speed... still trying to fix that "low and slow" speed I started with.
Second "event" of the night... This nasty nasty nasty little 10 minute (5 round) event:
10 min EMOM
min 1: 30 sec AMRAP Hang High Pull
min 2: 30 sec AMRAP Bar-Facing Burpees
Doesn't seem like a lot of work... except you're tying to AMRAP that 30 seconds before 30 seconds of rest. It sucked. LOL. I can't even say it was all that fun. A lot of work, and the rest was just enough to give you that hope... and then it was back to something else. Couldn't get over 4 burpess...still to slow on that. Hang high pull, I don't think I did anything less than 5 at 75 lbs. Those hang movements are always tougher than they look on paper.... force you to use the right mechanics, you can't use that first movement off the ground to hid any of your deficiencies... I'll learn to love them... maybe.
That was enough for me... was ready to walk out. Sucking wind, struggling to catch my breath... oh man oh man... but wait, there's more!
EDT exercising... got my introduction to it today. Stands for Escalating Density Training. Others say it stands for Ego Destroying Training... or something like that. Nasty stuff. The basic premise, at least for our purposes today, was to do the max amount of reps for one movement, and then with little rest, go to another movement, do the max reps you can, then repeat. 12 minutes of ring pushups and hollow rocks. Good thing I don't have an ego yet... so instead I just suffered. At some point I became numb to the pain of the movement, and just stopped when I couldn't effectively do the movement, and I'd swap to the next. Did get some better instruction on the hollow rocks... I swear, a year in, having been to several boxes.... you'd think I'd have heard and seen it all. NOPE. Still learning. And I don't think thats a bad thing. I'm glad I can get new instruction on a movement I've been doing with a "fake it till I make it" attitude.
Alright, rap up things. Good news, wrists feel fine. Thats exciting to me.
Ate like @ss over lunch (read most of a frozen pizza) but finished up strong with veggies and chicken for dinner.
I didn't get hurt wearing the New Balances... you have no idea how much of a relief that was... though I'm sure the DOMS is going to kill me come Wednesday night into Thursday.
Today was a nice little workout. Chose the NB's over the lifters, because the warmup had jumping jacks, and frankly, those in lifters just don't sound all that fun. Did some jacks, pushups, American KB swings, and some toes to bar modification...forget what it's called, hold the support of the rig, lift your toes up and touch it... toes to rig maybe? Idk, did that... a lot easier on my hands than hanging knee lifts.
5 rep push press. Pulling it off the floor made me reconsider how heavy I was going to go tonight. Ended up on 115. Not a terrible weight, but not where I want to be for a WOD either... Did our 5 sets of 5 while working up to 115. I haven't done push presses in a while... so working on that push, or dip... I tried to focus on that tonight... it needs work still. Feel I've made a small, incremental improvement on the dip/drive part, but like so many other things, it's going to take time.
We took that 5 push press (building up to a heavy weight) and parlayed that into 5 (more) rounds of 5 push press, along with 15 deadlifts. I kept getting tired during the deadlifts. All but the first round, I dropped the bar (still at 115) at 10, then picked it up for 5 more. I probably could have hung on, but I was trying to work on form and speed... still trying to fix that "low and slow" speed I started with.
Second "event" of the night... This nasty nasty nasty little 10 minute (5 round) event:
10 min EMOM
min 1: 30 sec AMRAP Hang High Pull
min 2: 30 sec AMRAP Bar-Facing Burpees
Doesn't seem like a lot of work... except you're tying to AMRAP that 30 seconds before 30 seconds of rest. It sucked. LOL. I can't even say it was all that fun. A lot of work, and the rest was just enough to give you that hope... and then it was back to something else. Couldn't get over 4 burpess...still to slow on that. Hang high pull, I don't think I did anything less than 5 at 75 lbs. Those hang movements are always tougher than they look on paper.... force you to use the right mechanics, you can't use that first movement off the ground to hid any of your deficiencies... I'll learn to love them... maybe.
That was enough for me... was ready to walk out. Sucking wind, struggling to catch my breath... oh man oh man... but wait, there's more!
EDT exercising... got my introduction to it today. Stands for Escalating Density Training. Others say it stands for Ego Destroying Training... or something like that. Nasty stuff. The basic premise, at least for our purposes today, was to do the max amount of reps for one movement, and then with little rest, go to another movement, do the max reps you can, then repeat. 12 minutes of ring pushups and hollow rocks. Good thing I don't have an ego yet... so instead I just suffered. At some point I became numb to the pain of the movement, and just stopped when I couldn't effectively do the movement, and I'd swap to the next. Did get some better instruction on the hollow rocks... I swear, a year in, having been to several boxes.... you'd think I'd have heard and seen it all. NOPE. Still learning. And I don't think thats a bad thing. I'm glad I can get new instruction on a movement I've been doing with a "fake it till I make it" attitude.
Alright, rap up things. Good news, wrists feel fine. Thats exciting to me.
Ate like @ss over lunch (read most of a frozen pizza) but finished up strong with veggies and chicken for dinner.
I didn't get hurt wearing the New Balances... you have no idea how much of a relief that was... though I'm sure the DOMS is going to kill me come Wednesday night into Thursday.
Monday, June 22, 2015
What did you lose?
Having a bit of a melancholy moment right now. Halfway through the year, and I feel like I'm in a rut. I'm not losing as much weight as I should be (read no where near the 50lbs I should be at for the year)..... partly because I'm not eating exactly what I should be eating, which is 100% something I can control. I also don't feel like I'm getting better technically. Like I'm not getting any better at my pull, my elbows seem slow on the cleans, and there are a few other things... Lets focus on the good. I'm finally feeling like I'm getting back into CrossFit shape... what I mean is I finally feel like I've gotten my capacity back from the 3 week "break".
Moving on... it's hot outside. Your coaches should be harping up the amount of water you should be drinking daily (if it weren't hot...) which is half your body weight in oz. If they're not, might be time to remind them ;) And another thing on this heat and humidity... I know you DE people think it's bad on the coast... you really need to take a trip to the heartland. Same humidity %, and none of the breeze. Oppression of the highest order. I'm telling ya, you've got no idea. Come visit. :)
Ok, on to today. Didn't want to go to be honest, it's nasty out and I'm tired today, but if I don't go... it's another opportunity wasted. So I show up, lots of changes happening. Wodify is most definitely on the way into On Track, thats cool. OT want's to start offering some coaches up for a form of mentoring, it's still being fleshed out, but I like it. On to the warm up. Can't remember it now that I'm typing... then it was on to the weights.
I wanted to PR this power clean today... but I took the time to work more on my form (noted above about my perceived lack of technicality). I took it up to 155, and then tried to hit/match the PR of 185, but I didn't have the explosiveness I normally might... again, trying to work on the technical piece. Ended up back at 135 and tried to just get a good pull. This is one of the things I'll be working on with a coach.
The other thing I want to work on, is my squat. We were doing tempo squats, and it became very clear that I'm not sitting like I used to. I might be getting low enough, but it's not 100% right. Asked Brian, and he said if he can slide apiece of paper under there, I'm not back far enough. So now this is in my head too all workout. Didn't help my knee was acting balking as heck. Finally I'd had enough. I'm not feeling the squats today. On to the AMRAP.
30 air squats, 20 ring pulls, 200m run. 14 mintues I think it was... and I didn't even care. I took it one squat at a time. Trying to get it right. Trying to find the squat that's been lost for so long... at one point, I'm at the bottom of an airsquat...and it's still not right. So I said outloud "Where is it?". Nick, who's going hard on this workout pauses for a half second and asks "What did you lose?". I couldn't resist. "My squat. Can't seem to find it". I don't know if he chuckled, but I did. Did some ring rows, and went back to the airsquats. And I mean, I wasn't flying through the squats. Each one was done with purpose, trying to find out exactly where to look. I'm soliciting advice as I do them... a few points, when I feel good, like I'm sitting in the squat... I noticed that I'm actually sitting midfoot, and that explains everything...
So, working on the squat is job one. I mean at this point, I'm going to go back to the basics. Probably have the coaches at Soulshine and On Track watching and judging. Might even go back to the box squat, or med ball, and not pushing my toes outward. If thats what it takes, thats what it takes.
Alright, I'm out of my funk... but I've got work to do. I know it, you know it... coaches know it... we'll get there, I'm confident. Until then, I'm going to get some rest, get ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
Moving on... it's hot outside. Your coaches should be harping up the amount of water you should be drinking daily (if it weren't hot...) which is half your body weight in oz. If they're not, might be time to remind them ;) And another thing on this heat and humidity... I know you DE people think it's bad on the coast... you really need to take a trip to the heartland. Same humidity %, and none of the breeze. Oppression of the highest order. I'm telling ya, you've got no idea. Come visit. :)
Ok, on to today. Didn't want to go to be honest, it's nasty out and I'm tired today, but if I don't go... it's another opportunity wasted. So I show up, lots of changes happening. Wodify is most definitely on the way into On Track, thats cool. OT want's to start offering some coaches up for a form of mentoring, it's still being fleshed out, but I like it. On to the warm up. Can't remember it now that I'm typing... then it was on to the weights.
I wanted to PR this power clean today... but I took the time to work more on my form (noted above about my perceived lack of technicality). I took it up to 155, and then tried to hit/match the PR of 185, but I didn't have the explosiveness I normally might... again, trying to work on the technical piece. Ended up back at 135 and tried to just get a good pull. This is one of the things I'll be working on with a coach.
The other thing I want to work on, is my squat. We were doing tempo squats, and it became very clear that I'm not sitting like I used to. I might be getting low enough, but it's not 100% right. Asked Brian, and he said if he can slide apiece of paper under there, I'm not back far enough. So now this is in my head too all workout. Didn't help my knee was acting balking as heck. Finally I'd had enough. I'm not feeling the squats today. On to the AMRAP.
30 air squats, 20 ring pulls, 200m run. 14 mintues I think it was... and I didn't even care. I took it one squat at a time. Trying to get it right. Trying to find the squat that's been lost for so long... at one point, I'm at the bottom of an airsquat...and it's still not right. So I said outloud "Where is it?". Nick, who's going hard on this workout pauses for a half second and asks "What did you lose?". I couldn't resist. "My squat. Can't seem to find it". I don't know if he chuckled, but I did. Did some ring rows, and went back to the airsquats. And I mean, I wasn't flying through the squats. Each one was done with purpose, trying to find out exactly where to look. I'm soliciting advice as I do them... a few points, when I feel good, like I'm sitting in the squat... I noticed that I'm actually sitting midfoot, and that explains everything...
So, working on the squat is job one. I mean at this point, I'm going to go back to the basics. Probably have the coaches at Soulshine and On Track watching and judging. Might even go back to the box squat, or med ball, and not pushing my toes outward. If thats what it takes, thats what it takes.
Alright, I'm out of my funk... but I've got work to do. I know it, you know it... coaches know it... we'll get there, I'm confident. Until then, I'm going to get some rest, get ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
And that, as they say, is that
Welp, thats it for my full time status at CrossFit Unlocked. Going to miss everyone there, a lot. Not as difficult to say goodbye was it was at Diamond State, but I also had quite a bit more warning. No tears this time. Came close, got a Facebook message from THE Big Ticket, telling me he was proud of my effort tonight. Stuff like that still gets me. All the time. LOL. As narcissistic as I'll tell you I am in person, I'm really not, so things like that make my day... sometimes week.
Ali told me yesterday to bring my running or rowing shoes, she wasn't kidding. 400m run, 300m run, 200m run, 100m run. 1 minute between each set. So 1000m total. I ran, or tried to run all of it. It sucked... or rather I sucked. Felt like I was breathing through a sponge the whole time... I guess I haven't quite kicked whatever I've had for a while now... Anyway, I did it all, slower and not as well as everyone else, but hey, I ran instead of row'd, so we're winning.
After that, immediately into 9-6-3 of OHS and HSPUs. I did a lighter OHS weight than normal, I knew I'd be coming in from running and super gassed... and I was. SO I did it at 75#... It's not super heavy, but in my worn our running shoes, it's hard enough to do. I can't say I had the best form, but I felt I did a decent, maybe even good job of getting down. For the HSPU's, I didn't even bother with a box, I just did pushups. No excuse for it, made a calculated decision based on the running, current shoulder fatigue, and desire to get the workout done.
After all this, Mark and Michelle just kinda did some kipping deficit HSPU's for fun... One day man, I'll be doing them for fun too, but today I just watched. I don't recall the height they got to before Michelle's shoulders were touching the plates when her head was. Mark went a little passed that, stopped at 19". Then we took a plate off, and he did strict and what I'm guessing was 15". Impressive stuff.
After all that said some good byes, got some ideas of when I want to try and come back, and had some Kill Cliff. On the way back to thoe hotel, I wanted a Sonic double cheeseburger badly... it still sounds good now. Convenient, tasty, not terribly expensive. Good sense, and not wanting to earn my food with my workout, I relented and went to Wal-Mart for that rotisserie chicken. Starts with making better choices. Probably ends there too. Ha!
This adventure is over, moving to the next one by the end of the month. Gerald (last post) says there are two boxes up near the next site that are good, but the awe he had for my Unlocke family makes me wonder if those boxes are going to be good for me. I've found a spot, CrossFit Soulshine, and they've already been contacted, and they've already responded well. I feel good about them. We'll see what happens.
Ali told me yesterday to bring my running or rowing shoes, she wasn't kidding. 400m run, 300m run, 200m run, 100m run. 1 minute between each set. So 1000m total. I ran, or tried to run all of it. It sucked... or rather I sucked. Felt like I was breathing through a sponge the whole time... I guess I haven't quite kicked whatever I've had for a while now... Anyway, I did it all, slower and not as well as everyone else, but hey, I ran instead of row'd, so we're winning.
After that, immediately into 9-6-3 of OHS and HSPUs. I did a lighter OHS weight than normal, I knew I'd be coming in from running and super gassed... and I was. SO I did it at 75#... It's not super heavy, but in my worn our running shoes, it's hard enough to do. I can't say I had the best form, but I felt I did a decent, maybe even good job of getting down. For the HSPU's, I didn't even bother with a box, I just did pushups. No excuse for it, made a calculated decision based on the running, current shoulder fatigue, and desire to get the workout done.
After all this, Mark and Michelle just kinda did some kipping deficit HSPU's for fun... One day man, I'll be doing them for fun too, but today I just watched. I don't recall the height they got to before Michelle's shoulders were touching the plates when her head was. Mark went a little passed that, stopped at 19". Then we took a plate off, and he did strict and what I'm guessing was 15". Impressive stuff.
After all that said some good byes, got some ideas of when I want to try and come back, and had some Kill Cliff. On the way back to thoe hotel, I wanted a Sonic double cheeseburger badly... it still sounds good now. Convenient, tasty, not terribly expensive. Good sense, and not wanting to earn my food with my workout, I relented and went to Wal-Mart for that rotisserie chicken. Starts with making better choices. Probably ends there too. Ha!
This adventure is over, moving to the next one by the end of the month. Gerald (last post) says there are two boxes up near the next site that are good, but the awe he had for my Unlocke family makes me wonder if those boxes are going to be good for me. I've found a spot, CrossFit Soulshine, and they've already been contacted, and they've already responded well. I feel good about them. We'll see what happens.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Reverse burpees eh?
I need to get out the lax ball out, but I've got to write this... so freaking sore. DOMs is a bisch. My shoulders hurt... All good though, cause in the end, traps are earned, and this is pain is trap-tastic... I digress.
Surreal day. Breakfast at the hotel, met a guy from my company that I didn't know existed, and he wanted to come CrossFit with me. Whats cool about this, this guy is a Director at my company, and chief nursing officer for my region. So yeah, taking a bosses bosses boss to CrossFit at Unlocked. Kinda cool.
Worked on some back squats tonight. I hate the new grip/position I'm trying to develop. Get preoccupied with not dropping the bar. Form and depth are still great, but my mind is all over the place in the lift. Didn't help my shoulders were already sore... so that distraction was there too. I did fine, we went through the WOD, but it still bothers me. Really, I'm 99% sure it's all mental, I need to spend a few weeks doing squat work with a coach, work on some muscle/movement memory, and this will all be behind me... but I travel for work, so it's likely going to take something else. LOL.
METCON was spicy. It's 95 degrees outside the box, no idea what it is inside the box, and we're doing a 12 minute AMRAP tonight. 35 DU's, 7 air squats, 5 reverse burpees, 1 bar muscle up. Scaled to 70 singles, 7 air squats, 5 regular burpees, and 3 ring rows.
Workout sucked. I'm so in love with the Rx jump rope that I used at On Track on Friday, I hate my rope... but, like things get sometimes, I did some of my best jumping with my current rope tonight. No idea what to make of it. The air squats, after squatting with weight, and jumping... suck. Never like them in AMRAPs. Now, these reverse burpees. I tried one, and only one. I didn't have the legs or a real good rotation to get back up to my feet. The modified movement of pushing yourself up, not working with my wrist still in straps. Regular burpees went fine though, think I only stepped up once, maybe twice, made sure to jump and pop tall since I was doing arguably easier work. The ring rows were ring rows. Got 4 rounds in. Not amazing, not awful. Nasty though. I'm tired, bossman is tired, everyone in the box is tired. Good workout.
Cutting it short tonight, took my contacts out, eyes are tearing up... need to rest'em. Be back soon.
Surreal day. Breakfast at the hotel, met a guy from my company that I didn't know existed, and he wanted to come CrossFit with me. Whats cool about this, this guy is a Director at my company, and chief nursing officer for my region. So yeah, taking a bosses bosses boss to CrossFit at Unlocked. Kinda cool.
Worked on some back squats tonight. I hate the new grip/position I'm trying to develop. Get preoccupied with not dropping the bar. Form and depth are still great, but my mind is all over the place in the lift. Didn't help my shoulders were already sore... so that distraction was there too. I did fine, we went through the WOD, but it still bothers me. Really, I'm 99% sure it's all mental, I need to spend a few weeks doing squat work with a coach, work on some muscle/movement memory, and this will all be behind me... but I travel for work, so it's likely going to take something else. LOL.
METCON was spicy. It's 95 degrees outside the box, no idea what it is inside the box, and we're doing a 12 minute AMRAP tonight. 35 DU's, 7 air squats, 5 reverse burpees, 1 bar muscle up. Scaled to 70 singles, 7 air squats, 5 regular burpees, and 3 ring rows.
Workout sucked. I'm so in love with the Rx jump rope that I used at On Track on Friday, I hate my rope... but, like things get sometimes, I did some of my best jumping with my current rope tonight. No idea what to make of it. The air squats, after squatting with weight, and jumping... suck. Never like them in AMRAPs. Now, these reverse burpees. I tried one, and only one. I didn't have the legs or a real good rotation to get back up to my feet. The modified movement of pushing yourself up, not working with my wrist still in straps. Regular burpees went fine though, think I only stepped up once, maybe twice, made sure to jump and pop tall since I was doing arguably easier work. The ring rows were ring rows. Got 4 rounds in. Not amazing, not awful. Nasty though. I'm tired, bossman is tired, everyone in the box is tired. Good workout.
Cutting it short tonight, took my contacts out, eyes are tearing up... need to rest'em. Be back soon.
Seven Shades of Sleepy
My goodness. I was sleepy all day yesterday. I got about two hours of restful sleep in my 4.5 hour "nap" before I had to get on a plane....and then it wasn't my normal seat on the plane either (which I almost missed the flight mind you), and I kept falling forward while trying to fall asleep... so no real rest there either. Here, I'll put it to you this way, half way to my client site, I tend to stop at this Wawa, I picked up TWO Monster Rehabs, and drank them both before the car ride was over... and I was STILL falling asleep driving.
So now that you know how sleepy I was all day... you can imagine that I didn't want to go workout all that much...but this is the last week I'm down here for now, and frankly, I'll put up with a little sleepiness to see my peeps. I was actually starting to nod off on the way to the box now that I'm thinking about it... anyway, moving on.
Got there, and it was hawt. Nice and steamy. Warmup was some partner tire flips and pushups... I'll be honest, ever since the wrist incident, I'm leery of tire flips and atlas stones... so the wrist straps came out early. It wasn't that bad, Moz and I had a light tire.
Strength was the floor press and some windshield wiper ab workout. They love the floor press here. I really wish I made more money... I'd buy them benches so they could do bench presses. Rx was 135, Moz and I agreed on 115. This dude is pretty strong... especially for a skinny kid. He later told me he goes to a regular gym and lifts as well.... so 5 rounds of 10 presses, and 10 wipers. Wipers being that you'd hold the bar over your chest like you were doing the press, but then bring your feet up to each bumper, so once to the left, once to the right, repeat.
The pressing, got that. All day baby, lets go! Actually, got a bit fatigued at the end, missed 3 or 4 of the last set, arms we're shot. LOL These wipers... didn't even bother with them. As soon as I got on the floor to do the press, my abs sensed danger... traumatic response to the last time I was on my back in a box (read "lots" of ab mat situps). I take it back, I tried one, and my abs... obliques really... basically said "no". It still hurts getting on and off the floor... better today, but yeah... when this belly finally disappears, I'm going to have a protruding six pack.
The WOD was a nasty one... and, frankly, I should have done more weight, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Timed workout of 100 hang cleans (135 Rx), and every minute on the minute, 4 box jumps. Being sleepy, and knowing this is going to be a nasty workout, I went lighter than I could/should have I feel. I should have done 95. I did 75, because 100 of anything is a lot... I've got excuses at the ready... probably too ready. My bad. I knew I wanted to get this workout over with as soon as possible though... and that I did. I tapped into the well, and went HAM on this. I wanted to scale the box jump amount a few times during the workout, but I didn't... I catch myself waging mental war about in a lot of workouts like this... my 'weaker' self tries to talk my 'I want to get better' self out of doing as much work as it can. It doesn't win often thankfully.
Somewhere in the first "round" before the box jumps, my wrist felt funny... like I'd hurt it again, and this is while wearing the straps mind you. Minor panic ensued, but I kept moving, I had to. Didn't happen again, so that was good. There was a little bit of talk about strategy on this... do 10 per round maybe? That sounded good to me. First round, I went nuts. 20 reps. Then 10. Then 7... crap, running out of gas... and up to this point, I've been concentrating on my pull, getting those elbows up and then under the bar. After putting up 7, that went out the window. Paying 100% attention to form also went out the window. "Get it done" was the only thing going through my head. Never used my thighs to "bounce" the bar up before. Pretty sure the rest of the cleans were mostly of the muscle clean variety as well... getting the elbows "through" wasn't as important to me as getting the bar up. I spent the next two rounds playing catch up. 12 reps, then 11, then I was good to go with 10 for the remaining 50. More "rest" between sets I guess.
8:53. I wasn't the first one done, but I was close...ish. It's fair to assume that with 95lbs (or more) I would have gone a fair bit slower.
Gassed is the word that best described me afterwards. Sucked wind for a fair while after that. Felt good to "fly" through it though... making a rep plan and being able to stick to it was good... great even. Haven't done that enough on these longer, chipper type workouts, but having stuck to it there, I think that counts as progress.
My "you coulda/shoulda" nature didn't let me really savor it for too long...when I see other people still going, I often find myself thinking I should have done more weight... something mental to work on I guess. savor the here and now, then work on doing more later, but no more lamenting being done quickly.
So now that you know how sleepy I was all day... you can imagine that I didn't want to go workout all that much...but this is the last week I'm down here for now, and frankly, I'll put up with a little sleepiness to see my peeps. I was actually starting to nod off on the way to the box now that I'm thinking about it... anyway, moving on.
Got there, and it was hawt. Nice and steamy. Warmup was some partner tire flips and pushups... I'll be honest, ever since the wrist incident, I'm leery of tire flips and atlas stones... so the wrist straps came out early. It wasn't that bad, Moz and I had a light tire.
Strength was the floor press and some windshield wiper ab workout. They love the floor press here. I really wish I made more money... I'd buy them benches so they could do bench presses. Rx was 135, Moz and I agreed on 115. This dude is pretty strong... especially for a skinny kid. He later told me he goes to a regular gym and lifts as well.... so 5 rounds of 10 presses, and 10 wipers. Wipers being that you'd hold the bar over your chest like you were doing the press, but then bring your feet up to each bumper, so once to the left, once to the right, repeat.
The pressing, got that. All day baby, lets go! Actually, got a bit fatigued at the end, missed 3 or 4 of the last set, arms we're shot. LOL These wipers... didn't even bother with them. As soon as I got on the floor to do the press, my abs sensed danger... traumatic response to the last time I was on my back in a box (read "lots" of ab mat situps). I take it back, I tried one, and my abs... obliques really... basically said "no". It still hurts getting on and off the floor... better today, but yeah... when this belly finally disappears, I'm going to have a protruding six pack.
The WOD was a nasty one... and, frankly, I should have done more weight, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Timed workout of 100 hang cleans (135 Rx), and every minute on the minute, 4 box jumps. Being sleepy, and knowing this is going to be a nasty workout, I went lighter than I could/should have I feel. I should have done 95. I did 75, because 100 of anything is a lot... I've got excuses at the ready... probably too ready. My bad. I knew I wanted to get this workout over with as soon as possible though... and that I did. I tapped into the well, and went HAM on this. I wanted to scale the box jump amount a few times during the workout, but I didn't... I catch myself waging mental war about in a lot of workouts like this... my 'weaker' self tries to talk my 'I want to get better' self out of doing as much work as it can. It doesn't win often thankfully.
Somewhere in the first "round" before the box jumps, my wrist felt funny... like I'd hurt it again, and this is while wearing the straps mind you. Minor panic ensued, but I kept moving, I had to. Didn't happen again, so that was good. There was a little bit of talk about strategy on this... do 10 per round maybe? That sounded good to me. First round, I went nuts. 20 reps. Then 10. Then 7... crap, running out of gas... and up to this point, I've been concentrating on my pull, getting those elbows up and then under the bar. After putting up 7, that went out the window. Paying 100% attention to form also went out the window. "Get it done" was the only thing going through my head. Never used my thighs to "bounce" the bar up before. Pretty sure the rest of the cleans were mostly of the muscle clean variety as well... getting the elbows "through" wasn't as important to me as getting the bar up. I spent the next two rounds playing catch up. 12 reps, then 11, then I was good to go with 10 for the remaining 50. More "rest" between sets I guess.
8:53. I wasn't the first one done, but I was close...ish. It's fair to assume that with 95lbs (or more) I would have gone a fair bit slower.
Gassed is the word that best described me afterwards. Sucked wind for a fair while after that. Felt good to "fly" through it though... making a rep plan and being able to stick to it was good... great even. Haven't done that enough on these longer, chipper type workouts, but having stuck to it there, I think that counts as progress.
My "you coulda/shoulda" nature didn't let me really savor it for too long...when I see other people still going, I often find myself thinking I should have done more weight... something mental to work on I guess. savor the here and now, then work on doing more later, but no more lamenting being done quickly.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Still chasing the squat clean PR
Meant to write this on Friday... oops. I can tell you now, didn't hit Saturday up as well, pushed the wrist a little harder than I thought I would with Fridays WOD.... but thats ok, here, Monday morning, it feels right as rain, which is good, cause todays Unlocked WOD is going to be a little testy.
Friday the goal was to get to a heavy squat clean. I REALLY wanted to PR this thing, and had I used my time a little differently I might have. In the defense of my times management, I did get some coaching from Brian, and we talked a little more about my pull, and possible solutions. I ended up going too heavy too fast. My warm up, then a heavier lift, then I had what would have been a 10lb PR for just my third lift. It was ugly, barely got one elbow underneath, before I dumped it. Didn't even do the math till later. Oops. Stepped back down and did 3 more lifts, and matched my PR for it, which is ok, but I wanted more. Truthfully, with the last two lifts, I think I could have added 5 more pounds, maybe even 10. #ohwell
METCON was something that looked easier than it was for me. Birthday WOD of sorts. 6 squat cleans (again), 12 deadlifts of that weight, and 98 DUs (or 49 ab mat situps, or 98 bicycle crunches). I chose the situps... made sense at the time. It was a 17 minute AMRAP. Not going into the details right now, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. End result, sore wrist from the third (my final) round of cleans. The deadlifts were fine, getting faster all the time (while maintaining form), and then there was the situps. Anything over 75 is still a big issue for me. I slow down considerably after 30, and when the total volume gets over 50, I feel it the next day. Here it is Monday, and I'm still tender in the cough/sneeze/laugh department. Not as bad as yesterday but enough to feel it.
Other news. Madison like that I'm still showing progress, but there isn't enough, she wants more results... and I do to, so it works out. After our last meeting, it sounds like she is going to plan out my nutritional life... so I'll have a full on shopping list when I get on site on Monday. This is secretly what I've been hoping for, so we'll see how it shakes out. Otherwise, like I said, making progress, all the measurables are moving in the right direction, just not as fast as we want.
I know there is something else I wanted to mention....it'll come to me later, hope I write it down. Last week in DE full time, going to miss the state (and more importantly, the people in it), then it's home for a week, then life in upstate NY starts. Cheers.
Friday the goal was to get to a heavy squat clean. I REALLY wanted to PR this thing, and had I used my time a little differently I might have. In the defense of my times management, I did get some coaching from Brian, and we talked a little more about my pull, and possible solutions. I ended up going too heavy too fast. My warm up, then a heavier lift, then I had what would have been a 10lb PR for just my third lift. It was ugly, barely got one elbow underneath, before I dumped it. Didn't even do the math till later. Oops. Stepped back down and did 3 more lifts, and matched my PR for it, which is ok, but I wanted more. Truthfully, with the last two lifts, I think I could have added 5 more pounds, maybe even 10. #ohwell
METCON was something that looked easier than it was for me. Birthday WOD of sorts. 6 squat cleans (again), 12 deadlifts of that weight, and 98 DUs (or 49 ab mat situps, or 98 bicycle crunches). I chose the situps... made sense at the time. It was a 17 minute AMRAP. Not going into the details right now, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. End result, sore wrist from the third (my final) round of cleans. The deadlifts were fine, getting faster all the time (while maintaining form), and then there was the situps. Anything over 75 is still a big issue for me. I slow down considerably after 30, and when the total volume gets over 50, I feel it the next day. Here it is Monday, and I'm still tender in the cough/sneeze/laugh department. Not as bad as yesterday but enough to feel it.
Other news. Madison like that I'm still showing progress, but there isn't enough, she wants more results... and I do to, so it works out. After our last meeting, it sounds like she is going to plan out my nutritional life... so I'll have a full on shopping list when I get on site on Monday. This is secretly what I've been hoping for, so we'll see how it shakes out. Otherwise, like I said, making progress, all the measurables are moving in the right direction, just not as fast as we want.
I know there is something else I wanted to mention....it'll come to me later, hope I write it down. Last week in DE full time, going to miss the state (and more importantly, the people in it), then it's home for a week, then life in upstate NY starts. Cheers.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
The Lost Week in Walla Walla
So... this week has been awful in regards to fitness. Food has been better than I though, but it's still not a good week....
Here we are, Wednesday. I've been out here since Sunday. Emailed CrossFit Walla Walla...still haven't heard back. Email is my MO man. I can write an email and add supporting facts, links, pictures just as fast as I can all someone, and then have to send the follow ups via text and email anyway... so, after waiting 3 days, I give up. Going to do this on my own.
Really, I should have texted Dave, he's have had me in the stairwells doing air squats on every floor.... it would have been epic. Instead, I've been working late and staying busy.
Except today. I went to the hotel gym... and it sucked. I had a grand idea of all this dumbell lifts I was going to do, maybe some db snatches... it was all going to plan when I walked in the door. Two big things. One, I didn't bring all my gear (read, no wrist straps), and two, it was freaking boring. No music, no coaches, no other athletes, just some guy on a treadmill. I hated it. All of it. didn't help that my wrist started getting sore, but the cool thing, I'm a helluva lot stronger than I would have been had I been doing this all on my own. I was able to easily hoist up the heaviest dumbells they had. So, one bright spot this lost week.
Good news. I'm out of here tomorrow. Back home, then back to the east coast. Can't wait. Friday and Saturday are going to have to be done with some extra gusto to make up for this week... yay?
Here we are, Wednesday. I've been out here since Sunday. Emailed CrossFit Walla Walla...still haven't heard back. Email is my MO man. I can write an email and add supporting facts, links, pictures just as fast as I can all someone, and then have to send the follow ups via text and email anyway... so, after waiting 3 days, I give up. Going to do this on my own.
Really, I should have texted Dave, he's have had me in the stairwells doing air squats on every floor.... it would have been epic. Instead, I've been working late and staying busy.
Except today. I went to the hotel gym... and it sucked. I had a grand idea of all this dumbell lifts I was going to do, maybe some db snatches... it was all going to plan when I walked in the door. Two big things. One, I didn't bring all my gear (read, no wrist straps), and two, it was freaking boring. No music, no coaches, no other athletes, just some guy on a treadmill. I hated it. All of it. didn't help that my wrist started getting sore, but the cool thing, I'm a helluva lot stronger than I would have been had I been doing this all on my own. I was able to easily hoist up the heaviest dumbells they had. So, one bright spot this lost week.
Good news. I'm out of here tomorrow. Back home, then back to the east coast. Can't wait. Friday and Saturday are going to have to be done with some extra gusto to make up for this week... yay?
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Staying focused.
I didn't. At least not the whole night. You don't stay focused, mentally in the game, you're going to miss your lifts at the minimum, get hurt, or worse. Not to paint such a doom and gloom picture up front. I'm not hurt, or worse... but I did miss a lift. More on that in a minute.
I cherry picked yesterday. Was even brash about it, showed up to the box in street clothes.... but really, it's a better place to be than in a hotel room. Dave gave me a hard time today. "Rule number 1 is never leave your shorts" or something like that. LOL. Fair points, but it was enough wrist stuff that I didn't want to do, and then try to do today stuff. Eh.
Didn't much like the warm up today, single unders, step ups, air squats. So I let my mind wander. Struggled with dang near every jump. No focus. Problematic.... could be why my jumping has sucked for a while now... could be that I'm not paying enough attention to the here and now. #focusDanielson
It's leg day... and friends don't let friends skip leg day right. 2x2x2x2x2 of back squats, ascending weight, and ring rows between sets. I was going to work with Dave, asked him what he was aiming for. 175. Sounds good to me. We paired up with Norman and Randy as well. Time to rock and roll. Started at 115, then added two 25's, then we added more stuff. I never watched the weight, I was busy focusing on my new bar placement. Ever since Dave pointed out that I was too high wit the bar, I've been trying to get lower... it still feels different. Guess thats how it is when you've been doing it one way for a year. Towards the latter rounds, everyone else was struggling to hit parallel, but we kept adding weight. The last round, I went down, popped up well enough, but I didn't get a good starting position on the bar. I could feel it, I knew it wasn't right, but I went back down for the second rep. And I paused at the bottom... like I typically do... and then I started pitching forward... and not the forward combined with upward. Ditched the bar. Had too, it was going to push me forward and in my mind, bad things were about to happen.
I can't say it was a lack of focus at the bottom... maybe... could have been a lack of conviction or purpose too. Don't know. I haven't dumped many bars, so it's always bit of a surprise when it happens. I was irritated, I walked away, limping a little, but I don't think that had anything with the squat, or the bail... just sore. By the time I come back, they've got a calculator out tabulating the weight. LOL. There are 6 plates on each side of the bar, so I guess it makes sense. 235. Explains why they all struggled, I'm pretty sure it's well over most of their PRs. Dave and I looked at each other... so much for 175. HAHA. Only 30 lbs from my PR, and thats with a new lifting position/hold. Guess I can't be too upset. Need to do more squatting though...
METCON was a doesy, and the reason I wanted to hit todays workout and not yesterdays. Easier to copy and past it this time:
I went with 75 instead. I might have been able to do 95, but the OHS for 20 times, after all the other squats... I wasn't very focused, I chose the 75. Glad I went with 75. Second set, I lost the bar... well, I lost the lock out over head, and brought it down while in the squat. Toes to bar the whole time was getting the knees above parallel. I keep meaning to bring this trial size of wod wax, supposed to make it better... maybe next time. The lunges sucked. Burn... and it's only the first set.
Second set didn't make it any easier. Power snatching... feel it in the quads. Box jumps, or step ups... quads. The burn! Kept up with everyone, or so I thought I was doing. The snatches... need work, even at 75 lbs. Felt like I was doing a snatch press... I'd get it overhead, then press while locking out. Doesn't feel right...maybe it is. The snatch is a weird movement, very unnatural feeling. Moving on, but first, the lunges... started trying to talk myself out of doing more. Almost did it too. Legs hurt... oh yeah, it's leg day.
Third set, the bent over rows. Light, easy. The bastards, after first one, I didn't want to get in anyone's way. Did burpees instead, no bar jumps. Crowded box, going over the bar would have meant slowing down, giving faster people the right of way. I'm a nice guy like that. The last set of lunges... I wanted to quit. 4 times I wanted to quit. No one would have known. But I kept going. Last one. 16:43.
Still glad I picked this one over Wednesday. Spent plenty of time stretching and trying to loosen up. Dave made an excellent point, going to be a long flight tomorrow, he's got one too, he knows. :) Stretching, and more stretching. Time for some sleep though, need to pack up most of the things, then get to bed. Short night coming up. Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes, keyboard has been giving me fits tonight. :P
I cherry picked yesterday. Was even brash about it, showed up to the box in street clothes.... but really, it's a better place to be than in a hotel room. Dave gave me a hard time today. "Rule number 1 is never leave your shorts" or something like that. LOL. Fair points, but it was enough wrist stuff that I didn't want to do, and then try to do today stuff. Eh.
Didn't much like the warm up today, single unders, step ups, air squats. So I let my mind wander. Struggled with dang near every jump. No focus. Problematic.... could be why my jumping has sucked for a while now... could be that I'm not paying enough attention to the here and now. #focusDanielson
It's leg day... and friends don't let friends skip leg day right. 2x2x2x2x2 of back squats, ascending weight, and ring rows between sets. I was going to work with Dave, asked him what he was aiming for. 175. Sounds good to me. We paired up with Norman and Randy as well. Time to rock and roll. Started at 115, then added two 25's, then we added more stuff. I never watched the weight, I was busy focusing on my new bar placement. Ever since Dave pointed out that I was too high wit the bar, I've been trying to get lower... it still feels different. Guess thats how it is when you've been doing it one way for a year. Towards the latter rounds, everyone else was struggling to hit parallel, but we kept adding weight. The last round, I went down, popped up well enough, but I didn't get a good starting position on the bar. I could feel it, I knew it wasn't right, but I went back down for the second rep. And I paused at the bottom... like I typically do... and then I started pitching forward... and not the forward combined with upward. Ditched the bar. Had too, it was going to push me forward and in my mind, bad things were about to happen.
I can't say it was a lack of focus at the bottom... maybe... could have been a lack of conviction or purpose too. Don't know. I haven't dumped many bars, so it's always bit of a surprise when it happens. I was irritated, I walked away, limping a little, but I don't think that had anything with the squat, or the bail... just sore. By the time I come back, they've got a calculator out tabulating the weight. LOL. There are 6 plates on each side of the bar, so I guess it makes sense. 235. Explains why they all struggled, I'm pretty sure it's well over most of their PRs. Dave and I looked at each other... so much for 175. HAHA. Only 30 lbs from my PR, and thats with a new lifting position/hold. Guess I can't be too upset. Need to do more squatting though...
METCON was a doesy, and the reason I wanted to hit todays workout and not yesterdays. Easier to copy and past it this time:
5-4-3-2-1 Overhead Squats 135Lb Toes To Bar Followed By 25 walking Lunges Into... 5-4-3-2-1 Power Snatches 135Lb Box Jumps 30in Followed By 30 Walking Lunges Into... 5-4-3-2-1 Bent Over Rows 135Lb Bastards Followed By 35 Walking lunges
I went with 75 instead. I might have been able to do 95, but the OHS for 20 times, after all the other squats... I wasn't very focused, I chose the 75. Glad I went with 75. Second set, I lost the bar... well, I lost the lock out over head, and brought it down while in the squat. Toes to bar the whole time was getting the knees above parallel. I keep meaning to bring this trial size of wod wax, supposed to make it better... maybe next time. The lunges sucked. Burn... and it's only the first set.
Second set didn't make it any easier. Power snatching... feel it in the quads. Box jumps, or step ups... quads. The burn! Kept up with everyone, or so I thought I was doing. The snatches... need work, even at 75 lbs. Felt like I was doing a snatch press... I'd get it overhead, then press while locking out. Doesn't feel right...maybe it is. The snatch is a weird movement, very unnatural feeling. Moving on, but first, the lunges... started trying to talk myself out of doing more. Almost did it too. Legs hurt... oh yeah, it's leg day.
Third set, the bent over rows. Light, easy. The bastards, after first one, I didn't want to get in anyone's way. Did burpees instead, no bar jumps. Crowded box, going over the bar would have meant slowing down, giving faster people the right of way. I'm a nice guy like that. The last set of lunges... I wanted to quit. 4 times I wanted to quit. No one would have known. But I kept going. Last one. 16:43.
Still glad I picked this one over Wednesday. Spent plenty of time stretching and trying to loosen up. Dave made an excellent point, going to be a long flight tomorrow, he's got one too, he knows. :) Stretching, and more stretching. Time for some sleep though, need to pack up most of the things, then get to bed. Short night coming up. Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes, keyboard has been giving me fits tonight. :P
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Hammys got tight.
Today was a good day. Got out of work early (had a "family dinner" with the work folks), so I got to the box early. Place is REAL busy from the 4pm class. Had to start 5pm a little late, and do some of the warmup outside. Actually, the first thing we did was a quick rowing competition. I got some girl Dave P called K-Rod. Never did get her government name. Teams of two, row 200m then switch, for a total of 1200. So 3 times each. Was right next to big bad Brian DeLeon. Box legend. Typically the first guy down with the WOD, at Rx.... guys a stud. No pressure right? We sprinted. I never row over 30 pulls a minute, don't get enough return on it to make it work the extra air. I'm trying to tell you I'm usually economical. Not today. I kept it around 35. Big pulls. Still couldn't keep up with Brian. I'd give it one last pull at the end, usually near the _80m, and it would carry it over (always has) the 200m, and then I pop tall. K-Rod... monster. She's pulling 40+ pulls a minute. She is probably the reason we stayed in it. In the end, we lost. Brian and his partner got 1200 in 4:03, we hit it in 4:07. Not a terrible time mind you. A lot of people would be happy with a 1k of 4:07. Not sure if anyone else was close, felt like a two team race.
Did some skill work tonight. Snatch balance. Hate the snatch balance, but I do see the value in it. We were doing 6, with a 3 second hold at the bottom, add weight if you can. I only added 20lbs (10lb plates to each side). Dropped the bar once... not happy about that, but I feel like this went better than the last time I did it. I left my feet for the drop, didn't used to do that. Confidence maybe?
Weight piece was a complex, I'd like to do it again, soon maybe. Squat clean, front squat, the a split jerk. I don't get wide enough (my feet) on the jerk... not. even. close. Don't do it enough, prefer the push jerk. Didn't go super heavy, ended up with 145 from the 6 round EMOM (the 2 minute variety). There were a quite a few in the 5pm class too... someone ended up swiping one of my 10lb bumpers... So I had one on the bar, and the other one grew legs. LOL. Oh well, things happen. Would have posted a better weight with that, but it's ok, the complex trained the wrist a bit, so maybe I should just be grateful for that walking plate eh?
METCON was a nasty thing. 800m row, 60 DU's 40 wall balls, 20 chest to bar pullups. The row was easy enough, 3 minutes and change. The double unders turned into singles... and it took me a while to do 60 (the scale option was 180 singles). I really need to take the time to practice those. I struggle stringing together 10+. Maybe it's an issue of focus. I hit 60...ish, and moved over to the wall balls. These sucked. Worse than normal. I'm sticking with my resolution to use the 20lb ball at all times now, but being the first set in a while, almost since 15.2 (or was it 3? ). It was uncomfortable, unforgiving, and unfun. I started in sets of 5, then it got down to 2's and 3's. I wanted to quit on them early, I really did, should say almost did. Ticket showed up for the 6pm, and yelled what I thought at the time was a badly pronounced version of my last name (turns out he was yelling at someone else all together), but it was enough that I forced myself to finish. Chest to bar pullups ended up being those fantastic ring rows. I sandbagged these bad boys. I was tired, thats my excuse. And when I say sandbag, I mean I wasn't even standing under the bar when I leaned back... so I made it a lot easier... and I STILL had to break it up eventually into 2's and 3's... so maybe it was the right call.
My wrist hurts as I write this. Not bad mind you, but enough. Didn't get to ice it after, I took off to go make the dinner in time. All that sitting from the box to the hotel to the dinner site... didn't cool down properly, hamstrings are tighter than they should be. We'll see about tomorrow. Lots of wrist work... might just chill, pick it back up Thursday. #wellsee
Did some skill work tonight. Snatch balance. Hate the snatch balance, but I do see the value in it. We were doing 6, with a 3 second hold at the bottom, add weight if you can. I only added 20lbs (10lb plates to each side). Dropped the bar once... not happy about that, but I feel like this went better than the last time I did it. I left my feet for the drop, didn't used to do that. Confidence maybe?
Weight piece was a complex, I'd like to do it again, soon maybe. Squat clean, front squat, the a split jerk. I don't get wide enough (my feet) on the jerk... not. even. close. Don't do it enough, prefer the push jerk. Didn't go super heavy, ended up with 145 from the 6 round EMOM (the 2 minute variety). There were a quite a few in the 5pm class too... someone ended up swiping one of my 10lb bumpers... So I had one on the bar, and the other one grew legs. LOL. Oh well, things happen. Would have posted a better weight with that, but it's ok, the complex trained the wrist a bit, so maybe I should just be grateful for that walking plate eh?
METCON was a nasty thing. 800m row, 60 DU's 40 wall balls, 20 chest to bar pullups. The row was easy enough, 3 minutes and change. The double unders turned into singles... and it took me a while to do 60 (the scale option was 180 singles). I really need to take the time to practice those. I struggle stringing together 10+. Maybe it's an issue of focus. I hit 60...ish, and moved over to the wall balls. These sucked. Worse than normal. I'm sticking with my resolution to use the 20lb ball at all times now, but being the first set in a while, almost since 15.2 (or was it 3? ). It was uncomfortable, unforgiving, and unfun. I started in sets of 5, then it got down to 2's and 3's. I wanted to quit on them early, I really did, should say almost did. Ticket showed up for the 6pm, and yelled what I thought at the time was a badly pronounced version of my last name (turns out he was yelling at someone else all together), but it was enough that I forced myself to finish. Chest to bar pullups ended up being those fantastic ring rows. I sandbagged these bad boys. I was tired, thats my excuse. And when I say sandbag, I mean I wasn't even standing under the bar when I leaned back... so I made it a lot easier... and I STILL had to break it up eventually into 2's and 3's... so maybe it was the right call.
My wrist hurts as I write this. Not bad mind you, but enough. Didn't get to ice it after, I took off to go make the dinner in time. All that sitting from the box to the hotel to the dinner site... didn't cool down properly, hamstrings are tighter than they should be. We'll see about tomorrow. Lots of wrist work... might just chill, pick it back up Thursday. #wellsee
Monday, June 1, 2015
Mixed bag.
Tonight was a mixed bag, some good, some bad. I had half this post written in my head in the shower, but then I started watching the encore of DC United vs the Philadelphia Union. Hope it all comes back to me.
Back at Unlocked, working on my victory tour. I did find out today that I'll be back in a few weeks, so it's not a full goodbye, but we're getting there. Upcoming, I'll be in WA for a week, and then NY for a stint... or at least that's the schedule today. Could change tomorrow.... but I'm here now.
First bit of workout tonight was an 8 minute EMOM of 50m run, 5 air squats, 50m run. I was tempted to run, and had Ticket been there, I might have... but my 100m run is still slow as bawls. 35-40 seconds... if not worse. So stopping and doing 5 air squats (which are also slow...) in the middle, maybe if I'd gone every other... Instead, I rowed. I didn't do it the full 8 minutes (hey, they all got to rest too), but I put up 1350m... felt like enough.
WOD was something nasty. The sort of thing you don't talk about, like Fight Club. 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of hang cleans and bar facing burpees. Very nervous about this. Body weight STRETCHING has been painful. Not like 9/10 pain, but enough to let me know it's there... wondering what burpees are going to do. On top of that, it's been over 3 weeks since I've done burpees, and only my 3rd WOD back from a wrist injury... we'll see.
I elect to do 75 instead of the 95.... still getting that conditioning back. 3-2-1 go. I got to 15, and stopped. I'm scaling here. After the first 5 burpees, my wrist feels fine, after the 15th, I could feel it. Told myself (and Coach Jeff) that if it got to be too much, I'd do double the number in jumping jacks. Figure, for me, it's equivalent work. I soldier on. I'm doing steps now instead of full burpees. Soooo slow. This 3 weeks off has done me no favors in terms of capacity. Zero. The whole workout sucked, but my wrist held up. When doing the hang cleans, it's a light weight, but I tried to focus on form, I want to get that part of my pull better, so I've got goals inside the workout. Can't always claim that.
Took me 13:27 starting at 15. The last guy got done did it in like 17 minutes and change... And thats where the mixed bag comes in. I was slower than 2/3 of the class, so I feel alright about it, but this dude did it all, and it makes me think I should have done more. Thats the mixed bag. I'm satisfied with my effort, first time back on the floor, etc etc... but at the same time, I could have done more, gotten closer to the full workout, worked a little more, a little longer... shrug. It's over, moving on.
Other things... I'm almost done with my 'extra curricular' blog post. Asks a question of all of us... similar to "how bad do you want it". I think about that some when I see this Justin guy losing more and more weight. He's now 100lbs smaller than I am, and he started after me... so how bad do I really want it? Need to focus more on the food... but it's got to help (a whole lot I'm guessing) to be home all the time, able to weight out and measure all your food. It's difficult to eat well on the road.... even with a nutritionist. I'm down 6 lbs from when I started with her, but this guy.... incredible. Thats the only word for it... that and jealousy. I want his success, but I don't have any way to compare how hard he's working and what he's eating to what I'm doing, and thats ok, but man I'd like to know. Maybe I'll ask him again and get something other than "hardwork and dedication".
On Track. Team gave me a thrill ride through the Central Regionals. We started slow (read DEAD LAST) after the first event. Painted ourselves a no-rep Rembrandt. Did much better second event, finished the day 15th. Through the rest of the competition, we put up REALLY good times/scores. In on event, we won our heat, then the third heat came out an all 10 teams beat our time. I think we'd have gone faster in that one had we been in the 3rd heat... oh well. Either way, the team did a hell of a job. Seven events and we had FIVE top five finished (even won the last event). Team dug in and fought. So incredibly proud of them... so very much want to be like them and compete at that level... ended up just shy of a games qualifying spot (6 measly points). Not quite it, but it was awesome to watch. I don't get to see them till Saturday at the earliest, but likely it wont be till the 12th (11 days away). It's ok though, I'm super proud of them, and the hard work they put in, congratulations, high-fives and the like will have to wait for now.
Back at Unlocked, working on my victory tour. I did find out today that I'll be back in a few weeks, so it's not a full goodbye, but we're getting there. Upcoming, I'll be in WA for a week, and then NY for a stint... or at least that's the schedule today. Could change tomorrow.... but I'm here now.
First bit of workout tonight was an 8 minute EMOM of 50m run, 5 air squats, 50m run. I was tempted to run, and had Ticket been there, I might have... but my 100m run is still slow as bawls. 35-40 seconds... if not worse. So stopping and doing 5 air squats (which are also slow...) in the middle, maybe if I'd gone every other... Instead, I rowed. I didn't do it the full 8 minutes (hey, they all got to rest too), but I put up 1350m... felt like enough.
WOD was something nasty. The sort of thing you don't talk about, like Fight Club. 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of hang cleans and bar facing burpees. Very nervous about this. Body weight STRETCHING has been painful. Not like 9/10 pain, but enough to let me know it's there... wondering what burpees are going to do. On top of that, it's been over 3 weeks since I've done burpees, and only my 3rd WOD back from a wrist injury... we'll see.
I elect to do 75 instead of the 95.... still getting that conditioning back. 3-2-1 go. I got to 15, and stopped. I'm scaling here. After the first 5 burpees, my wrist feels fine, after the 15th, I could feel it. Told myself (and Coach Jeff) that if it got to be too much, I'd do double the number in jumping jacks. Figure, for me, it's equivalent work. I soldier on. I'm doing steps now instead of full burpees. Soooo slow. This 3 weeks off has done me no favors in terms of capacity. Zero. The whole workout sucked, but my wrist held up. When doing the hang cleans, it's a light weight, but I tried to focus on form, I want to get that part of my pull better, so I've got goals inside the workout. Can't always claim that.
Took me 13:27 starting at 15. The last guy got done did it in like 17 minutes and change... And thats where the mixed bag comes in. I was slower than 2/3 of the class, so I feel alright about it, but this dude did it all, and it makes me think I should have done more. Thats the mixed bag. I'm satisfied with my effort, first time back on the floor, etc etc... but at the same time, I could have done more, gotten closer to the full workout, worked a little more, a little longer... shrug. It's over, moving on.
Other things... I'm almost done with my 'extra curricular' blog post. Asks a question of all of us... similar to "how bad do you want it". I think about that some when I see this Justin guy losing more and more weight. He's now 100lbs smaller than I am, and he started after me... so how bad do I really want it? Need to focus more on the food... but it's got to help (a whole lot I'm guessing) to be home all the time, able to weight out and measure all your food. It's difficult to eat well on the road.... even with a nutritionist. I'm down 6 lbs from when I started with her, but this guy.... incredible. Thats the only word for it... that and jealousy. I want his success, but I don't have any way to compare how hard he's working and what he's eating to what I'm doing, and thats ok, but man I'd like to know. Maybe I'll ask him again and get something other than "hardwork and dedication".
On Track. Team gave me a thrill ride through the Central Regionals. We started slow (read DEAD LAST) after the first event. Painted ourselves a no-rep Rembrandt. Did much better second event, finished the day 15th. Through the rest of the competition, we put up REALLY good times/scores. In on event, we won our heat, then the third heat came out an all 10 teams beat our time. I think we'd have gone faster in that one had we been in the 3rd heat... oh well. Either way, the team did a hell of a job. Seven events and we had FIVE top five finished (even won the last event). Team dug in and fought. So incredibly proud of them... so very much want to be like them and compete at that level... ended up just shy of a games qualifying spot (6 measly points). Not quite it, but it was awesome to watch. I don't get to see them till Saturday at the earliest, but likely it wont be till the 12th (11 days away). It's ok though, I'm super proud of them, and the hard work they put in, congratulations, high-fives and the like will have to wait for now.
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