Mutt and Jeff

So during the bench relay the other night, Polly and I got into our endless argument over whether CrossFit favors the short or the tall. I, of course, maintain that it's easier for shorter people. Polly's response is, invariably, "wall ball." Max heard the the argument, and came up with this fun team workout to test the theory: take 6 movements, 3 that supposedly favor the tall and 3 the short, divide the class into equal teams sorted by height (all the tall people on one team, all the shorter people on the other), and have them do a massive quantity of reps for time.

Each team, which was (I think) 12 people, had to complete the following:

Run 10k
300 Push-ups
300 GI-Janes
300 Ground-to-Overhead #95/65
300 Hang Squat Cleans #95/65
300 Wallball 20/14

Team short beat team tall, 24-something to 26-something.

I don't recall exactly what I did to contribute. Something like:

Run 1600m
50 GI-Janes
20 Push-ups
30 Wall-ball
20 Ground-to-Overhead
10 Hang Squat Cleans

It was a fun workout. And remarkably close, actually.

Food log:
Spinach salad with tuna, apple, toast and strawberries (5 blocks)
Cottage cheese with applesauce and milky coffee (4 blocks)
16 oz milk PWO (2 blocks)
Chicken with Broccoli and Garbanzo beans (4 blocks)
Slice of turkey, Guinness draught and 3 almonds (1 block)

Heavy, Dirty Thirty-one

Warmup: Row 500m, ME, 7 pushups, ... ?

WOD:
For time:

Thirty-One Push-Ups
Thirty-One Pull-Ups
Thirty-One Burpees
Thirty-One GI Janes
Thirty-One Jump Squats
Thirty-One Box Jumps 30"/26"
Thirty-One Double-Squat Wall-Ball 14"/10"
Thirty-One Deadlift 185#/135#
Thirty-One Goblet Squat 2.0P/1.5P
Thirty-One KB Swings 2.0P/1.5P

Your may perform the movements in any order, however once you have begun a movement, you cannot move on until that movement is finished.

Results:
My right knee is not happy with me, so I skipped the Jump Squats, Box Jumps, Wall Ball and Goblet Squats.

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
GI Jane	5:43	5:43
Push-ups	4:25	10:08
Deadlift: 5@115# , 26@95#	9:04	19:12
C2B Pull-ups (jumping)	14:40	33:52
Burpees	5:44	39:36
KB Swing - 1.25P - eye level	6:32	46:08

Comments:
Even at 60% of the total volume, this workout was pretty brutal - though i know my classmates who did the whole thing suffered quite a lot more than I did. I doubt I will be horribly sore in the next few days because of it.

The C2B pullups (obviously) were the real choke point here for me. I basically had to do them one at a time with 10 to 15 seconds rest in between each rep just waiting for my arms to recuperate, but every rep was fully chest to bar (or at least upper arm to bar - using an alternating grip, my left arm connects before my chest does, but it's the right height.)

I think there was a lot of transition time built into everything after the GI Janes, but particularly the deadlifts and the C2B pullups.

I had thought I would do the deadlifts at 115 - but after 5 reps at 115 it was clear it would take me all frickin day to do 31 reps at that weight (it took a long time to get 5 reps at 120 just a few days ago, so I'm not sure why I thought 115 would be ok) so I dropped it down to 95# where I could get sets of 2-4 at a go.

The KB swings were interesting - I usually managed to get them to at least eye level, and I was definitely getting all the weight up with my hip drive - the bell was totally weightless at the top of it's arc. It won't be long, i think, before I can get that 1.25 bell over my head.

Pain Fest

Warmup: ME, BOZ warmup X 3 (10 dislocates + 10 OHS w/ dowel - increasingly narrow grip and squat stance.)

WOD:
Run One Mile
100 Squats
Run 800 Meters
75 Push-Ups
Run 400 Meters
50 Burpees
Run 200 Meters
25 "GI Janes"
Run One Mile

Results:
1:03:20

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
1 Mile	10:55	10:55
100 Squats	5:50	16:45
800m	5:52	22:37
75 Pushups	8:30	31:07
400m	2:58	34:05
50 Burpees	10:12	44:17
200m	1:05	45:22
25 GI Janes	6:13	51:35
1 Mile	11:45	1:03:20

Comments:
This was a bastard of a workout. There were a couple times - particularly once the burpees started where I nearly broke down crying. Having really suffered through 50 burpees yesterday, when i was relatively fresh, I knew exactly how horrible 50 burpees was going to be totally wiped, and that made it harder to just buckle down and get through them.

My strategy for this workout was "slow and steady" I was not worried about breaking any speed records - I knew it would be hard enough just to finish the damn thing.

"Focus" is my new mantra. "I can. I will. I must." is just too many damn syllables for when I can barely think. I used it to help me get back on track with the burpees - I kept losing count and just wanted to throw in the towel. Take a breath, "Focus".

As soon as I started the last run I found myself plagued with NaST - 'There's no way ..." "My feet hurt, my knees hurt, I think I'm getting a side stitch." ... "Focus" would get me through a couple steps, but I just couldn't keep the bad thoughts at bay and I was sure that I wasn't going to get through it without walking. And then I decided to try a technique Ynez has talked about using with food. I gave myself permission to stop if i really wanted to; if it got unbearable I could absolutely stop at any time, but I was pretty sure I had a little left in me - enough for a few more steps anyway. I dunno - something about having permission to stop shut my contary self right up - there were no more excuses about why it was too hard to continue - and then all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. it was a LONG ass mile - but I ran the whole damn thing - in fact I ran every step of all the runs. Except for the GI Janes - where I used somewhat lower rings so I could do jumping pullups, this workout was pretty much Rx.

I definitely feel like I have reachieved my ability to work through the suck, and I am very happy to have finished this workout. Max has promised to make tomorrow's workout another killer - which means I need to get myself to bed.

Overtraining is the new training

This week begins the enacting of Gita's new motto, "overtraining is the new training," in which we ride the line of volume, strength and endurance for the final six weeks leading to the Games. It got off to a good start:

Run One Mile
100 Squats
Run 800 Meters
75 Push-Ups
Run 400 Meters
50 Burpees
Run 200 Meters
25 "GI Janes"
Run One Mile

45:11 RX

Max came up with this one, and it was a well-designed bit of agony. The movements stacked together nicely in such a way that each one made the next one harder (burpees after pushups are brutal). While I'm not particularly proud of my time, I'm pleased that I was able to pick a pace and maintain it with only a few pauses for breath throughout. Well, except for the GI Janes - those were slow as molasses.

Kitchen Sink

33:57

Splits:

1:40 10 GI Janes
1:04 Run 100 Meters
2:09 10 Box Jump 30" box (stepup 24")
1:02 Run 100 Meters
1:32 10 KB swing 2.0P/1.5P (1P)
1:02 Run 100 Meters
1:30 10 C2B Pull-ups (28kg SDHP)
0:47 Run 100 Meters
2:47 10 Weight Overhead Lunge 45#/25# (8kg)
0:49 Run 100 Meters
2:29 10 Ankles-to-bar (knees to chest)
0:41 Run 100 Meters
2:25 20 Supermans
0:45 Run 100 Meters
3:28 10 clap push-up (hopping? pushups)
0:44 Run 100 Meters
4:09 10 Double-Squat Wall-Ball 14#
0:00 Run 100 Meters
4:06 50 Double-Unders (Subbed 200 skips)

I think I was feeling a bit under the weather, and hoping not to push myself over the edge into full blown sick, I decided to do half volume. Also, we had a full afternoon planned with a trip to the Circus School open house and a friend's Christmas party later that evening, and I didn't want to be totally wiped all day. Blogging this 2+ weeks after the fact is tricky.

Gi Janes on rings are hard because you have to find the rings before you jump - unlike a bar which is stationary.

Even though I was only stepping up to the box, I still managed to fall on my butt when i got both feet up, but couldn't get "out of the hole". Lame.

The swings went relatively well, though I still have a little way to go before 16kg is reliably good form.

I did SDHP with the 28kg KB instead of pullups. 28kg is definitely the heaviest I have managed to perform this movement with, and I was able to get it most, but not really ALL the way up. This is a good practice movement for explosive hip movement.

I did the OH lunges with the 8kg KB ... these were hard. but i did fairly well with them. Definitely a movement I should practice.

I think the first couple reps of knees to chest were actually pretty close to knees to elbow. After the first 5 or so, they were barely knees to chest. another movement that would be good to practice.

The wall ball actually went much better than the last time i tried it. The las ttime I tried it, I could barely get any - I'm not realy sure why, but they just wouldn't go up. This time, it was pretty stright forward. I still can't string them together because I suck at catching it, but I managed to get the height.

Since I was only doing half the reps, I tried to really go for form, and not worry Too much about time, but it's hard when you just want to get it over with.

Oh, and 20 reps of the kitchen sink

This was the workout that wouldn't end:

20 GI Janes
Run 200 Meters
20 Box Jump 30" box
Run 200 Meters
20 KB swing 2.0P/1.5P
Run 200 Meters
20 C2B Pull-ups
Run 200 Meters
20 Weight Overhead Lunge 45#/25#
Run 200 Meters
20 Ankles-to-bar
Run 200 Meters
40 Supermans
Run 200 Meters
20 clap push-up
Run 200 Meters
20 Double-Squat Wall-Ball
Run 200 Meters
100 Double-Unders

41:48
My push-ups were "hopping," and my wall-ball was regular old wall-ball, but otherwise RX

There were five or so newbies in class today. I felt bad for them - this was a really high-skill workout, and there just wasn't enough time to drill them on everything. They seemed to do pretty well, though, whenever I checked to see how they were doing. Mostly I was concerned with my own thing, though.

It is gratifying that Max picked me to be in the first group with the other hardcore athletes, but I'm not quite there yet. I think I need to step up my game and rest less, if I'm ever going to catch up with Alex. (I have a couple personal goals: 1) do a WOD faster than Alex, and 2) be as strong as Jim. The trouble is that they're going to class too, and are also improving, so it's a moving target.) Getting real double-unders will go a long way to faster times on workouts like this, though.