Bodyweight chipper from hell

In any order, partitioned any way:

Run 5x800 meters

45 Handstand Push-Ups
45 C2B Pull-Ups
45 Ring Dips
45 Pistols
45 Toes-To-Bar
45 Burpees

Post time and partitioning scheme to comments.

DNF in 36 minutes

I appear to have messed up one of my abdominals in this workout. I thought it was due to the GHDs I did a week earlier, but now that I've been living with it a few days, my abs never hurt like this after that workout. They were REALLY sore all through camping, granted, and maybe I weakened them in that workout and then actually ripped something with the T2B. My first round went fine, and then something...tore, I guess. It got rapidly worse, and ultimately I just started cutting out the things that hurt. So I did all of the running, burpees, and pistols, and about half of everything else. Some of the HSPUs were kipping from the floor, but I don't like how that makes my neck feel, so I would switch to high-piking off a box. The pistols were band-assisted.

Inside-out Murph

I think I've done this one before, but can't find a record of it on the blog, so maybe it was just posted to CFEB but we missed it.

50 C2B Pull-ups
100 Pushups
150 Squats
Run 2 miles
50 C2B Pull-ups
100 Pushups
150 Squats

46:01 RX (no vest)

Faster than my fastest recorded unweighted Murph, whatever that means. In some ways, this is easier than regular Murph since you don't have that cruel, long last mile to run. However, I found my first 3-4 rounds in the second half to be very slow and painful, as my muscles had cooled off and stiffened during the run, and it took some work to unkink them enough to follow my commands.

I believe this is my first full-volume C2B Murph (of any variety)

21-5-9 times 3

21 C2B Pull-Ups
15 Deadlift 225/155
9 HSPU

19:00
HSPU's were not full ROM, but they were strict

I also got my first full-ROM kipping HSPU afterwards, which is very exciting

KB/Pullup ladder

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

Kettlebell Swing (2P/1.5P)
Chest-to-bar Pullup

8:41 RX

Fastest time! Granted, the classes were REALLY small. Max was out competing in Walnut Creek so I led the classes, and the folks that showed up did not have great kips.

The most crippling WOD ever

Walking Lunge 400 Meters

25 Thruster 135/75
50 Double-Squat Wall-Ball 20/14
75 C2B Pull-Ups

Walking Lunge 400 Meters

Partition the Thruster, Double-Squat Wall-Ball, C2B Pull-Ups, as needed. Start and finish with a 400 Meter Lunge. If you've got a ten pound vest, wear it.

DNF after one hour - did not do 20 thrusters and the last 400m

This workout had people laughing, it was so ridiculously difficult. The walking lunges completely killed hip function, such that everyone wanted to do nothing but pullups because they weren't as hard on the hips. Very painful.

Dead Helen

3 rounds:

Run 400 meters
21 Deadlift 225/155
12 C2B Pull-Ups

24ish RX

Been a while since I did deadlifts. This was not a good welcome back. My form was quite bad, and my back very sore afterwards. Yuck.

Just awful

3 Rounds

Run 800 Meters
30 Pull-Ups (C2B)
30 Push-Up

DNF in 30 minutes: 2 rounds + 9 pullups

Wow. I can't recall another workout that made me feel simultaneously so horrible and so disappointed. Not that I was so far off the average - only two people finished it RX.

I'm not sure why it wrecked me so much - I was a zombie for the rest of the night, as though I'd pushed extremely hard. But I don't feel like I DID push that hard - I got plenty of rest on the pullups, because I couldn't do them more than 5 at a time and then would need to recharge. Maybe C2B are just much, much harder than I give them credit for.

AMRAP HSPU & C2B

WOD:
AMRAP* in 20 minutes:
5 C2B Pull-Ups
5 Handstand Push-Ups

Results:
6 rounds (+ 5 pushups?)

1 - 1:55
2 - 2:53
3 - 2:26
4 - 3:07
5 - 4:07
6 - 3:52
7 - 1:31

Comments:
I did piking pushups for HSPU, and I did them first in the cycle instead of second - mostly due to a lack of space at the bar. I did the same Jumping C2B alternate for this workout as I did on Polly's b-day wod, and they were still hard :-p.

Rounds 4 and 5 were long because i was waiting for space on the pullup bar - round 5 was particularly long because i lost strength and gave up my spot to try to recupperate a bit, and then had to wait a LONG time to get back on the bar ... unfortunately, the box I needed was in high demand.

Finally getting caught up

Only a few days behind in my posting...since I programmed and led the team WODs, I took the regular class on Sunday so as to still get a workout in.

Run 800 Meters
25 Pull-Ups
50 Burpees
75 Push-Ups
100 KB swings 1.5/1.0P
Run 800 meters

28:50 RX

I came in first, which never happens - I only got it here because the class was mostly full of new athletes, and Jim and James half-assed it and didn't keep time. It still felt good. I must confess, the thing that kept driving me through this workout was "this is so much easier than what I'm about to put the team through, so I can't slack."

Once again, the major limiting factor was the pushups. I did rounds of 5-10-15-20, but wound up mushing together the pushups and burpees to be 5push-5burp-5push-5burp-5push. I don't know if that sped anything up, but it felt like it granted my chest a brief reprieve. It might have been smarter to put the KB swings between the burpees and pushups, but that didn't occur to me until afterwards.

Cindy Gone Bad

FGB comes in phases and flavors. Here's a new one:

In this workout you move from each of three stations after a minute. This is a three-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions, this will be FIVE rounds. The stations are:

1. Pull-ups (Reps)
2. Push-ups (Reps)
3. Squats (Reps)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep.

313 RX

I set a 10/20/30 pace, and was able to hold or exceed it for everything but the pushups, which went south after the third round:

Set	Pull	Push	Squat	Total
1	11	22	35	68
2	10	20	35	65
3	10	20	33	63
4	10	14	32	56
5	11	13	37	61
TOTAL	52	89	172	313

This is basically a little better than a 10-round Cindy (which would be 300 reps in 20 minutes, as opposed to 313 in 19), however it felt rather more intense.

Friday Fail, part 3

Well, if two points make a line, then three points make...an extra bold line. Or something. Today sucked, just like the last two Fridays.

Climbing was terrible. 10a(o), 10b(f), 10c(f+)

I got the intense pain in my biceps again almost immediately, and the deep cut on my index finger made all the left handholds particularly challenging/painful.

I went home, ate and got a few hours of work in, then went to CrossFit where my goal was simply to NOT DNF this one:

Run 800 Meters
50 Pull-Ups (men C2B)
100 Two-Hand Floor To Overhead 95/65
150 Burpees
Run 800 Meters

DNF. I didn't even complete three rounds (5-10-15 partitioning). Most disastrous DNF yet.

My biceps started screaming at me as soon as I picked up the bar. I don't understand how I can do 150 reps at 95# on Wednesday with no pain, but I can't do 5 reps of the same weight on Friday before the pain sets in. And why always Friday? I can think of three things that set Fridays apart:

1. Climbing in the morning
2. Fasting until 1 or so (but I eat before CF, and I fast other days)
3. It's the day after some heavy bench pressing in the strength routine

Clearly, number one is the most probable cause. Next week I'll beg off climbing, and see how the evening workout fares. It could be I just need a week off for my body to FIX whatever's wrong with my biceps, but there aren't any weeks off on the calendar until after July 12. Maybe a half-volume week would work. I'll know more next week.

Friday DNF day (Eva)

Today was very similar to last Friday, which is not really a good thing.

Started out with some crappy climbing:

10a(o), 10b(o), 10b(o), 10c(f)

Once again, my distal deltoid/proximal bicep were really hurting from the climbing. I don't know what's going on with that. My traps were sore waking up (from the snatch/OHS, I'm sure), but didn't really bother me much today. Just the arms.

I ate as much as I could, and rested through the afternoon, but it wasn't enough to get me through Eva:

Five rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
2 pood Kettlebell swing, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups

DNF (3 rounds in 39:30)

It was the arm pain that caused me to stop, and it was the pullups causing the arm pain. The swings were actually getting easier - I did the first round in sets of 10 and moved to 2x15 in the last round. In fact, this may be the first time I've done 2-pood swings and they felt just fine, and didn't make my throat raw from grunting. The pullups were done on the rings, and were just causing more and more pain. In general, my pullups and climbing have gone downhill, probably a result of gaining weight on the strength cycle. The price you pay, I guess.

Snatch this

Max Rep Pushups: 40
Max Rep Pullups (C2B): 14

Squat Snatch 3-3-3-1-1-1
65-75-85-95-100-105(pr)

Since I am unable to perform a true squat snatch, these were really "the exercise," ie, a power snatch and then an OHS. I don't actually know what my 1RM for OHS was - I don't think I've ever tested it - but the 105 snatch is five pounds heavier than my previous 1RM, and I was really pleased (and surprised) that I managed to OHS it.

Catch-22 Redux

I'm gradually regaining control of my life. The last two weeks have illustrated to me how much a creature of habit I have become, as the disruption of my regular routine has tended to make me very cranky. Particularly with my workouts. From SoCal to the cold to Aromas, I've lost two weeks out of the strength routine and missed a boatload of workouts, and while the rational part of my brain tells me that it's fine - maybe even good to mix it up - the irrational part is yelling at me that I'm falling behind, getting lazy, yada yada. Both jobs are also very crazy and behind schedule on their projects, which stresses me out - but this is not a blog about work.

Max wanted to give CFEB a taste of the Qualifier workout, so he concocted a version of Catch-22 that we'd be able to do at Ironworks:

For time:

22 Deadlifts 250#/185#
Run 400m with 10#/8# dumbbells
Single Kettlebell Carry 200m 2P/1.5P
22 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
Single Kettlebell Carry 200m 2P/1.5P
22 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups
Run 800m with 10#/8# dumbbells
22 Wall-Ball 20#/14#
22 Burpees
Run 400m (unweighted)

30 minute time limit.

32:09 RX (technically a DNF)

Very brutal, and a disappointing time. I gamed this one extremely poorly. It was the KB Carry that did me in. After the deadlifts (which were more or less fine, considering it was the heaviest I'd ever gone with deadlifts for reps), I did most of the carry holding the kettlebell by its handle behind my back, so it hit my butt on every step. This was exceedingly unwise, although I didn't know it at the time. The deadlifts and kettlebell completely shattered my grip, so that by the time I got to the pullups I could barely even hang off the bar - I did the pullups mostly in singles with long rests, which took forEVER. The rest went fairly quickly, but by then it was too late - I wasn't fast enough to finish it in under 30 minutes. If I could do it again, I'd carry the kettlebell on my shoulder, in such a way as to keep it there without working my grip. This one change, I think, would substantially improve my time.

It was a good workout, though. Felt MUCH harder than the scaled version of Catch-22 that I did on Sunday, but that's not too surprising.

It feels really good to be healthy and back on track.

CF NorCal Qualifier: Sunday

From a judge's perspective, Sunday was much more low-key than Saturday. We got to show up a little bit later, there were not as many setup hiccups, and everyone had a better idea of what needed to happen. The workout was going to require a LOT of judges, so they press-ganged all the logistics volunteers to become judges. Rebecca and I got to be thruster judges, which (in my opinion) was the best slot. We didn't have to switch out weights in the mud like the deadlift team, and we weren't out in Siberia like the OHS judges. We got a great view of the field, and an easy movement to judge - just make sure they break parallel and reach full extension.



The organizers had the great idea to allow the general public to signup for practice runs at the workout before the official heats, which quite a few people did. This allowed us some trial runs in a low-stakes setting, which really helped work out any kinks in our setup. There weren't many, though - it's a straightforward job. There were six official heats total, spaced about 40 minutes apart. It was fun to watch from our spot up on the hill, though unfortunately it rained nearly all morning. The dirt there is really great, though - nice and sandy, so the mud wasn't slippery or dangerous.



Polly's heat was very exciting. After she went through our station, Rebecca and I ran up the other side to watch her at the OHS (damn that hill is steep!), and as she staggered away from the OHS I ran back down to watch her hit the finish line. It was a thrilling ending. When they came out of the trees, Candace was about 100 feet in front of Polly, and they were racing pell-mell down that incredibly steep slope. Polly - who is fearless at downhill - turned that 100 foot lead into about 10 feet by the time they hit bottom. Candace wasn't going to let her win, though, and they crossed the finish line a second apart. Polly squeaked into the top five, guaranteeing her a spot at the Games in June! Very exciting.

I got to try my own hand at the workout afterwards - though I scaled it down considerably.

"Catch 22"
22 deadlifts @ 225#
Farmers walk with 25# dumbbells to top of inner loop (hill)
22 thrusters with 25# dumbbells
Farmers walk with 25# dumbbells to bottom of inner loop (hill)
Run to pull-up bar and do 22 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Run to top of outer loop (hill)
22 overhead squats @ 65#
Run to bottom of inner loop (hill)

22:16

It was a fun workout. I had some trouble with the C2B pullups (really need to work on those more), but the killer was the OHS. When I came into the station, I was first in my heat and on the heels of the heat ahead of me. When I left, I was one of the last in my heat. And most of my OHS weren't even to true full depth! It was embarassing. Yet another thing to add to the list of shit I need to be better at.

It was a great weekend - a lot more work than I was anticipating, but definitely worth it. Met a lot of really cool folks and got to hang out with friends in a beautiful (albeit a bit soggy) location. And everyone was passionate about CrossFit, so I felt right at home. Can't wait until June! I will be an observer at the games. CFEB will be sending a team to the affiliate cup, and I'll be happy to cheer them on - I'm not quite strong enough yet to be on the team myself. Maybe next year.

A very full Friday, and not much on Saturday

Got in late last night (dinner with the CFEB crew at the warehome), so didn't get to blog Friday's workouts. It was a full day.

Morning:

• Sprint-8 on rower - 2,450m
  
• 20 minutes POSE practice on treadmill - 6MPH/1% grade
• Climbing: 10c(o), 10d(f), 10d(F+++), 11a(f+)

I held all my sprints below 1:32 pace on the rower, which is a first for me. I found that focusing on speeding up the return stroke as much as possible shaved a few seconds off my pace (but, of course, made it harder). The climbing was going well until I tried that 10d on the first pillar. 10d, my ass. That climb was at least an 11a. Super long, super pumpy, with nothing but tiny pinchers and a small, very awkward traverse over a roof. Hated that sonuvabitch. The 11a was slab and went pretty well until a move about 3/4 of the way up that I just could not figure out. Tor did it afterwards and I think maybe the problem was that my hips were too high (from the rope) to really make the move, so I need to try that again.

Evening:

Warmup: 3.5mile run halfway around Lake Merritt and back at medium/slow pace
"Danny"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
24 inch Box Jump, 30 reps
115/80 pound Push Press, 20 reps
30 Pull-ups (C2B)

2 rounds + 20 box jumps, 95# PP

There were 18 people in class, so Max divided it into 6-person heats and several of the regular members of what he calls "Team CFEB" were put in the last group. So, with 40 minutes to kill until our turn, Alex suggested a run around the lake, which five of us ended up doing. I was wearing my Pumas, which are historically not good for my ankle with running, but I resolved to keep a medium pace and really focus on my footwork to avoid heel-striking. It was moderately successful. We made it halfway around the lake and decided to come back the same way, since the other half of the lake is just kinda shitty. My calves and ankles are definitely feeling all the running today.

The workout itself was a good one. I lucked out and was able to do ring pullups for 52 of my 60 pullups, which meant MUCH happier shoulders and calluses. I touch the rings below my clavicle now, so I'm calling that chest-to-bar, but for whatever physiological reason they are much easier/more consistent for me on rings than they are on the bar.

Worried about my shoulder, I scaled the weight (again), and it was probably the right call - I was doing the push-presses in sets of 5-7, and my shoulder was definitely not happy about it. It's not as painful as it was at its height last week, but it's definitely the press motion that agitates it the most. I hope I'm able to do my presses tomorrow.

Today:
I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and by the tenth step away from the bed I had decided today would be a rest day. Really sore. This morning's class was supposed to be 3RM snatches, but I didn't do that. I just practiced form, mainly with the empty bar, trying to figure out how to receive the bar, and hung out in the sunshine on a beautiful day. Afterwards several of the harder core class members did the Ecuadorean Destroyer WOD, which simply never looked like a good idea to me. I'm not a fan of gratuitous high-volume painstorms. We watched them hack away at it for a while, then cut out for a delicious lunch at Picante with Alex & Rebecca.

HIIT and ME

Morning:
Sprint-8 on rower - 3,375m
30 minutes POSE practice on treadmill, 6MPH
20 minutes excruciating stretches in sauna

Evening:

Five rounds for max reps of:
Ring Dips
C2B Pull-ups

3/10 - 3/10 - 2/10 - 2/7 - 2/6 = 12/43 RX

Yep. Ring dips still suck. However the handstand/HSPU practice afterwards went well. Kicking up to the wall is easy and reliable now, and I've started playing with targets to find the right depth for HSPUs - I can't go all the way down yet.

IMPROVE, dammit!

I get frustrated sometimes. You know that fantastic feeling you get when you compare your current level of progress with a previous version of yourself, and can measure how far you've come? Yeah, that's great.

I don't have that tonight.

100 Squats
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
75 Squats
25 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
50 Squats
50 Push-Ups
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
25 Squats
75 Double-Unders
25 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)

43:56 not-quite-RX (about 25% of the pullups were not C2B)

I went into this working knowing that it was going to be a high-volume slogfest, but I made a promise with myself to PUSH, dammit. To not rest so much, or for so long. Clearly, that didn't happen. Things went pretty well until the push-ups, and then they went to shit. I had to take breaks frequently with the push-ups, pull-ups and double-unders, in order to keep my form above a B. And my form WAS solid - until the last round of pull-ups, when we were running out of time and I just had to get them done. I wanted a time in the mid-30's, so I was about 8-9 minutes off the mark.

Rationally, I realize that I should really only compare myself to myself, and not to others. Other people have more training, better genes, smaller levers, etc. Emotionally, however, I find this difficult to do. Part of what motivates me is the mild competition of identifying someone who is a little better than I am, and striving to beat them. The trouble comes when they improve faster than I do. Grrr.

It's not that big a deal. I'm pretty used to it, by now, and I'm not going to go turn the lights out, put on some Morrissey and obsess over my receding hairline (that one's for you, Ynez). But that is where I'm at tonight: frustrated. I want more. to go Faster. Stronger. Longer. NOW.

More fuel for the fire, I suppose.

Half-Cindy meets Crankypants

I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but apparently my body got the memo that I was planning a half-volume recovery week and decided, "what the hell, might as well get that cold out of the way, then." I'd been holding strong against Rebecca's little beasties, and thought I was in the clear, until my throat started hurting on Sunday.

So now I'm sick. Not SUPER-sick - I'd rate it a 3 or a 4 out of 10 - but that doesn't mean I'm not pissed about it. I've dubbed this "the cranky cold," as it seems to come with a generous helping of foul temper. I snapped at my boss yesterday, and thought it better to take the day off today. Then I proceeded to completely fritter the day away, rather than being productive and getting shit done, as I'd hoped. This just made me crankier.

I hope it ends soon. I'm ready to move on.

At least I'm not trying to push through full-volume workouts, since I'd already set aside the week for recovery. At first I was sad to see Cindy on the board for today, as I'd be curious to know what my score is, but two rounds in I was glad I wasn't in it for the full ride.

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups (C2B)
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

6 rounds RX in 10 minutes.

This SUCKED. I figured I would shoot for virtuosity, though, since I wouldn't be shooting for a good score. My chest touched the bar on every pullup, and the floor on every pushup, and I did the squats with great deliberation in form. I ran out of steam very quickly, though, and spent a disappointing amount of time sucking wind (and just generally sucking). This is not a good pace - I don't know if I'll ever get a good score at this with the Ironworks pullup bar, but it's easy enought to test on my own with the rings.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 5x5's, and I'm not sure how helpful that would be at half-weight, or if I should just skip them. At the moment, I'm thinking maybe I'll go down, do the light deadlifts, and then do goblet squats or something to work on my non-GM back squat form.

Bad Mornings

Woke up with a sore throat this morning: bad sign. Rebecca's just getting over a cold that knocked her out for a week, and I was thinking I was fortunate to dodge that bullet, but perhaps I didn't. So I'm throwing back the Wellness Formula, and, after today, am taking a recovery week. Until next Sunday, I'm doing half-volume workouts. I'm telling this to everyone I know and asking them to help me enforce it, because I'm not very good about being disciplined in this regard.

This morning:

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

• Run 250 meters
• Kettlebell Sumo deadlift high-pull 2P/1.5P, 28 reps
• Pull-ups 15 reps (Men C2B)

4 rounds
Not all my pullups were successfully C2B.

This was a good WOD, but the length of the rounds makes for a fairly small window of options. 4 rounds seems solid. Gita got 5 rounds, but nearly killed himself doing it. Most people got 3 and change. The runs were a nice rest, and I didn't find the SDHP to be terribly difficult. The real killer for me was the pull-ups.

With the help of some classmates, I've discovered why my pullups suck so much at Ironworks: the bar is too low! I can stand solidly on my heels and grab the bar, which means that when I kip I have to bend my knees to avoid hitting the floor, and this kills my momentum. If I take off my shoes and use the (slightly) higher part of the bar (by the whiteboard), I can kip much more easily. I hope this knowledge will come in handy in the future.

Afternoon:

The firebreather workouts this month are all one-rep max lifts. Today was back squats. We were all sharing one cage, which made it SLOW, but I was grateful for the opportunity to get feedback on my form. Max and Eric agree: it's cringeworthy. Apparently I'm pitching forward at the bottom of the squat, and then basically good-morninging the weight up. This puts insane amounts of strain on my lower back, obviously, and if it doesn't injure me, it will ensure that I will never get much heavier than I got today.

Back Squat 1RM - best of 5 attempts (Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1)

175-185-190(PR)-195(f)

So my new PR is 190, or 109% bodyweight. Pretty weak sauce. I brought the camera, so here's some video of 175, 190 and the failed 195 - you can see what I'm talking about with the poor form coming out of the hole.



Polly pointed out that one of the Squat Rx videos deals specifically with this problem - in fact, it's common enough that they address it in video #2. There are a number of good stretches and assistance exercises in this video, which I intend to incorporate into my 5x5 nights (with lighter weights):

• Goblet squats
• Wide-stance Squats
• Good-morning Squats
• Box Squats

Hopefully, once I can correct this fault in the form, I'll be able to knock out some higher numbers.