More KB Bruises. Ow.

WOD:
Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlbell Press left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Press right 1.5p/1.0P
Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlbell Push-Press left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Push-Press right 1.5p/1.0P
Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlebell Push-Jerk left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Push-Jerk right 1.5p/1.0P

Results:
42:35

Round	Run	rest	Lift
1-Press	5:11	3:12	5:20 (R&L) 8kg
2-Push Press	5:39		3:23(R8kg) 4:21(L12kg)
3-Push Jerk	5:31		3:16(R8kg) 6:29(L12kg)

Comments:
Bleah. I came into this workout tired and hungry - having missed lunch - and just in an all-around foul temper. Doing the workout definitely helped to equalize my mood, but there certainly weren't any performance breakthroughs. I'd say I gave it about 80%.

Re Bruises: In the warmup I was using a light weight, and I practiced a Push-Press a little too forcefully, and the kettlebell jumped very high up and clobbered me on the wrist.

I've lost that running feelin'

It's odd how skills come and go. Sometimes I can kip like the dickens, most times I can't. For several months, running was probably my favorite thing in CrossFit - the Thanksgiving day trail run was a joyful revelation.

Then it all fell apart. Or at least I started falling apart.

My ankle is giving me real grief, and I've lost the thread for my running. Part of it is overthinking it - Gita led a mini workshop on POSE running, and I spend so much energy trying to figure out how to land on the correct part of my foot that I can't just RUN. The other part is that I've been running in my new Puma shoes, which are supposedly good POSE shoes due to the flat sole and lack of cushioning. The downside is that the ankle that I sprained is yelling at me a LOT, particularly after periods of inactivity (ie, sleep), and it has that bruised-bone feeling I was getting before I bought my "bad" running shoes.

I've switched back to my old shoes for running, at least until my ankle heals. It's my hope that the pain is my body adapting to a lifetime of week feet and ankles, and that I can switch back and forth between the shoes, with increasing periods of POSE shoes, until the joints are finally strong enough to handle it. Until then, my running is just going to suck, I guess.

I had some brief periods of feel-good running tonight. Every time it happened, I realized I was running heel-strike (ie, wrong). So further adjustment is clearly necessary.

Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlbell Press left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Press right 1.5p/1.0P
Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlbell Push-Press left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Push-Press right 1.5p/1.0P
Run 800 Meters
21 Kettlebell Push-Jerk left 1.5p/1.0P
21 Kettlebell Push-Jerk right 1.5p/1.0P

32:07, 1p press, 1.25p push-press & jerk
Splits: 9:54 | 11:24 | 10:39

This was not a good time, compared to others, but I'm still pleased. I got that gray kettlebell over my head 84 times, and while I wouldn't say it felt EASY, I would say it felt solid. I even got the black up a handful of times afterwards in practicing.

Ever since the disastrous (and infamous) KB ladder that wrecked my shoulder, I've been nervous about putting heavy bells above my head. They just didn't feel stable, like my elbow could bend the wrong direction, or the whole thing could crash on my head. I didn't have that problem tonight. There was some aching going on in the shoulder, but nothing alarming. And I think I might be getting the hang of the KB jerk - they felt distinctly different from the push-press tonight. One mental cue that I found helped was to think of my bicep and forearm as a platform that the bell was simply resting on, and my job was NOT to push it up, but simply to jump it up off the platform. Once the bell was airborne (and therefore weightless), I could activate my arm muscles to guide it up, but not until then. For whatever reason, thinking about it in this way made it considerably easier.

Several of us stayed after for a while to practice heavy KB snatches. We're all clearly worried about Saturday's Firebreather WOD: 100 1.5p KB snatches for time. I did a few with each hand and, while HARD, felt fairly stable, which is reassuring. I still think it may take me 30 minutes to do this WOD, but that's OK: when it's done, I'll have another Level II skill checked off, and that thought makes me happy.

Playing Catch-up - again

My workouts for the past several days have not been very focused or very successful, so I have been less than super excited to blog about them, but I guess I should get them down for posterity's sake.

I've been feeling pretty run down for the last week or so, and I think I might be fighting a bug. I have a very slightly sore throat - though I suppose it could just as easily be allergies - especially from all the dust we stirred up when cleaning out our closets over the weekend. That was a fun project :)

So - Sunday, we ended up doing both the crossfit workout of OHS and then we went climbing. I was tired heading into it, and I planned to focus primarily on form. I didn't really keep track of reps or weights. I think I got to rep 8 of 15 with the empty 15# bar, and failed. I tried 25# and failed on rep 3 or 4, same deal with 20#. I found that the main thing that was failing was actually my wrists, followed quickly by my shoulders. I just couldn't hold the weight up any longer. Daniel got some video of me with the empty bar. At the very least my knees are nice and solid - there's very little wobble. You'll see at the end of the video when my grip fails and I whack myself in the knee with the dropped bar. Glad I wasn't using the heavy bar, and my bruise is only a small one. Any comments on form are appreciated :-)



Climbing almost immediately after was ... not terribly wise or productive. I climbed 2 routes both 5.9's - neither of which should have given me any trouble - both of which were ugly. Particularly the first one. I rested or fell 4 or 5 times on the first - and it was a neat technical stemmy climb up a corner that I would really love to try fresh. I bet it would be fun. I fell fewer times on the second, but it still wasn't pretty. I was happy to just belay after that.

Sunday night we went to a potluck at the Athletic Playground. It's well named. They have lots of toys, a trapeze and aerial silk setups, they offer classes in these things and parkour and handstands - it's an adult, athletic, playground :-) (Though they offer classes for kids, too. Shira - one of the co-owners - introduced us to slam ball. That was fun :)

Monday was climbing at GWPC. I climbed ... 2.5 routes. There's a very easy 9 that I started with, and that went quite well. I tried "neck meat" again(10a), and got 1/2 way up got to a hold i thought was spun (watching Ev climb it later i think it was probably fine) but I just couldn't figure it out. And it was a struggle to get even that far. The whole climb was crap. I couldn't get my feet to stick to the wall, I couldn't find my next handhold. It was panic climbing. Daniel said that it looked like i was over reaching - moving my hands too far up - and that was why my feet wouldn't stick. Sometimes, when I feel uncomfortable on a climb I get sort of frantic, and just reach for anything that looks like it might be close enough to reach. It is not "tree sloth" climbing. It's pretty much the exact opposite. It's not pretty and it doesn't work. My last climb was a new 5.9 just east of the stairwell. The first half of the climb was frantic and graspy, again, and I recognized that, stopped, took a few breaths, tried to recenter myself and continued on to finish the climb. The last half was definitely better than the first.

Tonight was a KB strength WOD.

Double Kettlebell Press 6-6-6-6-6
Double Kettlebell Push-Press 8-8-8-8-8
Double Kettlebell Jerk 10-10-10-10-10

I was glad that it was not a killer metcon, but I knew the volume was still going to be a killer. I did 8kg KB all the way through. THe Jerks were definitely the hardest. I know you're supposed to be able to lift more weight with a Jerk than a PP, but with double KB, the jerk requires a lot more stabilization (unless you really nail the form), and are therefore harder. The most I managed to get in a single set was 9.5 in set 5. Most of my jerk sets failed between 6 and 8. I still completed all reps though. Took for freaking EVER!

Tomorrow we're going to start back in with the 5x5 routine. Max suggested that I move back to back squats, and I'm thinking maybe I'll work on cleans or SDHP instead of bench press ... not really sure yet.

Kettlebear -

WOD 4-30-08

5 Rounds For Time:Run 200 Meters
10 "KettleBear" 55#/35#

The "KettleBear": without putting down the Kettlebell, perform:

Deadlift left
Clean left
Front Squat left
Push-Jerk left
Overhead Squat left
Deadlift right
Clean right
Front Squat right
Push Jerk right
Overhead squat right

That is ONE rep. A momentary touch on the second DL is acceptable. Resting the KB on the floor is a miss, and the rep must be repeated.

Pretty sure I used the yellow kettle bell for this ... pretty much all i can remember about it though (since I'm writing this in June) is how much I suck at KB OHS. Pretty much couldn't do them at all.