2010-05-07 - 6.2k run

Warmup: run 800m


WOD:
WOD @ GWPC 100507

Run 6.2K @ minute 0:00 (women get a head start at minute 0:00 minus four minutes)
At minute 40:00 group relay bench presses two reps each, starting at 45 pounds and continuing in 10 pound jumps until failure, in reverse order of first to last on the run (slowest runner goes first). After all who are able have lifted a given weight, those remaining add 10 pounds. Bench Press continues until strongest athlete fails. There is no rest between lifts, except as needed, momentarily, to increase the weight.

Ranking is lowest number of combined run/bench performance. For example Athlete A is 1st in run and 4th in bench for 5 points, and Athlete B is 2nd in run and second in bench press for 4 points. Athlete B wins.

Results:
6.2k: 5:05; 36:27(5k); 5:46 = 47:19 (minute 43:19 - Technical DNF)

Bench Press (2 reps per set): 55-65-75-85x1(f) 85# is a new 1RM PR.

They had already started the relay by the time i got back to the gym, but there were a lot of people, and they'd only gotten up to 55# - so I basically arrived from the run (feeling like there was no skin left on the bottom of my feet) and sat down at the bench for my first attempt.

I managed to give myself a blister the size of my entire big toe on my right foot, somehow. I really feel like if I had not gotten that blister that I probably could have made the 44 minute time limit. I had to stop and walk a couple times but more because my foot hurt too much to keep going than for any muscular or aerobic failure (though i was plenty tired).

Running and Bench

Gotta get more regular with the blogging again...

Run 2 miles.
20 minutes after the beginning of the run, entire group relay bench presses two reps each, starting at 45 pounds and continuing in 10 pound jumps until failure, in reverse order of first to last on the run (slowest runner goes first). After all who are able have lifted a given weight, those remaining add 10 pounds. Bench Press continues until strongest athlete fails. There is no rest between lifts, except as needed, momentarily, to increase the weight.

13:40 run (I think)
Bench 155 x 1

Food log:
2 eggs, 2 bacon, 3 toast and 1 apple = 4 blocks
2 slices turkey and 1 apple = 2 blocks
3 oz. chicken, sweet potato, broccoli and gravy = 3 blocks
1 1/8c applesauce, 3/4c cottage cheese, 1/8c walnuts = 3 blocks
3 oz. chicken, 1 oz. cheese quesadilla = 4 blocks

Going shopping tomorrow. Clearly I need more quantity and variety of fruit.

Running & Bench ladder

WOD:
Run 2 miles.

20 minutes after the beginning of the run, entire group relay bench presses two reps each, starting at 45 pounds and continuing in 10 pound jumps until failure, in reverse order of first to last on the run (slowest runner goes first). After all who are able have lifted a given weight, those remaining add 10 pounds. Bench Press continues until strongest athlete fails. There is no rest between lifts, except as needed, momentarily, to increase the weight.

Results:
1 mile: 11:13

65#

Comments:
I had thought I'd be able to pull off at least 1.5 miles - I felt pretty good going into this workout, but about 2/3 of the way through the first miles, a good Beastie Boys song came on - Sabotage maybe? - and got me going a little faster than my measured pace, and I totally burned out. I had to take my headphones off entirely, and I was just relieved to make it all the way through the mile. No more music when running. It messes with my rhythm (ironically?). Although, looking through my recent mile times - and even my mot so recent mile times - this is actually a pretty decent time for me. That's gratifying.

I really liked the relay with the deadlifts. I liked it a lot less with the bench press. Mostly because it's not a lift I am good at, and my max lift is not that far above 45#, so I was out after 2 cycles - Max jumped from 45# to 65# to try to speed things up a bit, and I did not have a chance to 'warm up' to a max lift. My first few reps of the Bench are ALWAYS awkward and strange - even when I was doing it every week - my arms just have no muscle memory for this lift.

When we did the DL relay, we started with 95# and even in 10# increments, that was enough to let me really warm up to my max rep weights. This time I got a 'warm up set at 45 (with crookedly placed hands), a decent set at 65, and I failed at 75# - I didn't even get one rep, but I was having a really hard time figuring out where to put my hands, and it just felt like they were way too wide on that attempt.

This was not a particularly satisfying workout.

Food Log:
3b breakfast:
2 eggs (2p) & 1 piece turkey bacon (1p) wrapped in a wheat tortilla/wrap (3C) the fat was in the butter the eggs were cooked in (and the eggs)
2b snack:
1/2c cottage cheese (2p) 3/4c apple sauce(2c) slivered almonds(2f)
3b lunch:
3 oz chicken(3p) yams & broccoli(3c) gravy & slivered almonds (3f)
3b dinner:
2oz chicken(2p) 1oz cheese(1p) wheat tortilla/wrap (3C)cooked in coconut oil(3f)

1RM Part 1

Warmup: Run 800m, ME, 30 situps, 30 OHS w/ dowel, iguana stretch

WOD:
Back Squat:
5 x 45#
3 x 55, 65
1 x 75, 80, 85, 90(f), 90 (PR!), 95(f) 95(f)

Bench:
10 x 45#
3 x 65#
1 x 70, 75, 80 (PR!), 82(f), 82(f)

Comments:
Neat-o!

I thought I could get 95, but I just couldn't quite get out of the hole. The pressure in my head from holding my breath and the strain of trying to stand up with the weight made it feel like my head might explode - which was unsettling. But I think if I can just manage to not 'good morning' the lift, I might be able to get 95 on a good day. it felt nearly achievable, which is why I kept trying.

The bench was a different story. 70 was easy, 75 was pretty easy, 80 was a little wobbly, but totally doable. 82 was just stuck. I had no sense of 'maybe I can get this up'. It just was not going to go. It was almost like hitting a literal brick wall.

When I started, my 5 rm of back squats was 60# and 65# for the bench. I never tested my 1 rm. My current 5rm for BS is 80# and ... I actually don't know what my 5 rm for bench is right now - I've been working 3's for the past several weeks because I was completely stalled at the 5's. I seem to have had a breakthrough though in the past 2 weeks as I've been able to get 72 and then 75 x 3 where I have been stuck basically since the start of the cycle. There's a slim possibility that I could get 72 or possibly even 75 by 5 now - though the 75 might be wishful thinking.

My weights have not actually gone up all that much, but i think I've made some great strides in form, and I have a much stronger foundation from which to continue to build strength. In some ways I feel like I am now ready to start this cycle - which is a little ridiculous. I am very much looking forward to our oly lifiting cycle, and getting some concentrated work in on OHS, snatches and cleans. (I'm less excited about jerks). I think focusing on those three movements will do wonders for my power output, coordination and strength.

Week 12 part 1 (last week!!)

Warmup: .25 miles on the eliptical - barefoot. That was an interesting experiment. I had a really hard time keeping my right foot in place - i do when i have shoes on too - it just hurt a lot more to mash my toes into the end of the footbed or step on the edge of it. I was glad when my .25 miles was done.

Some OHS dowel squats, hip openers, hamstring stretch, iguana stretch

Back Squats:
Warmup: 5 x 45

5 x 60, 70, 80 PR!

21 x 60# (forgot the 1# weights)
(16,5)

These actually went pretty well, i thought tonight. I had to try twice to get the set of 80 - the first time I failed on rep 3, but the second time I made it though all 5 - although the 3rd and the 5th reps were pretty sketchy. On the whole, though, my knees are staying out better, and I am doing a better job of keeping my weight on both legs. Huge progress from just a couple weeks ago. I also managed not to fall over or injur myself in any particular way. (Although my back is pretty worked from yesterday's deadlifts)

I think the 2 trys at 80 took a lot out of me, but my biggest problem with the set of 21 is just that I don't go fast enough. My arms give out about the same time my legs do - or maybe even a little bit sooner. The first 7-8 reps were great. Then I got to 10 or 11 and lost count and spent a few precious moments trying to figure out whether it was 10 or 11 - had a brief 'interlude' with daniel when he told me he wasn't counting ... I believe I told him to fuck off (in the most loving way possible, of course), decided it had to be 10 and moved on.


Bench Press:
Warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 50,55,62,67,75 PR!

21 x 57# (15,1,5)

THese went better than expected. I was pretty wrecked after the back squats, and I was definitely not expecting to be able to get my set of 75. The 3rd rep was UGLY - it wavered all over the damn place - but I got it up, so it counts :-p ... I actually, ultimately, probably did a lot more work than I would have if I could have just kept it straight over my torso - so I'm calling it a PR +! ;-)

The wet of 21 ... was ok. The 1 rep in the middle was because I tried a different width grip and did not like it at all.

So farwell for a while to the backsquat and bench press. I'm glad that by the end of it my squat was finally heavier than my bench. :-p

Strength Cycle Week 12, part 1

It's the final week of the strength cycle, and I'm ready for it to be over. Next week I want to figure out my new 1RMs, so I can accurately track progress and analyze the program, but for now I'm just grateful I don't have to do 21 back squats again anytime soon.

Back Squat x 5: 155 - 185 - 205F/4
Back Squat x 21: 155 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 160(pr!)
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)

The squats did not go well from the start. I've been feeling jittery and spooked about my form since the videos from last week showed such a rounded back, and my hip flexors were exhausted from yesterday's deadlifts. My form was very poor today - lots of good-mornings out of the hole. I racked the weight after 4 reps at 205 because reps 3 and 4 were bad enough to feel scary. The big set made me want to cry. I won't miss that anytime soon.

The bench went better. I FINALLY got 160x5, which has been my goal for this cycle ever since it eluded me a few weeks ago and forced me to drop back down to 157. That means I made it to 5RM of my previous 1RM in every movement. The last rep was very wobbly, but it made it up. I knew I wasn't going to make the big set - it cruises along until about rep 12 or 13, and then it goes downhill FAST.

My back is sore, which is unusual. Going to try and get some extra sleep tonight.

Strength Cycle Week 11, part 1 - progress!

Finally! Progress!

Warmup: 5 minutes on the eliptical to warm up achy legs, 30 situps, 30 dowel OHS, shoulder dislocates.

I was working the Boz warmup with the OHS - trying to get hands and feet narrower as I went along, and for some reason, (finally?) I really noticed the width of my stance for the OHS when I was getting good depth, and realized that it was a lot wider than my usual back squat stance. I turned to Daniel and said - "I think my squat stance is too narrow." At which point he laughed, a little hysterically, and said "I've been trying to tell you that for the last YEAR." Why is it that some things - although you hear them over and over and know them backwards and forward - just DON'T PENETRATE until some totally random magic moment when things finally click?

BackSquat:
Warmup: 5 x 45, 5 x 45

5 x 55, 67, 77 Got it!
You can see the knee collapsing in somewhat if you really watch it. I also trimmed 17 seconds off the beginning of the video of me picking up the bar and getting my feet into position ... I definitely need to work on making that speedier. Part of it was me taking a little extra time today to try to find the right width stance, but part of it just needs to get faster.



21 x 62
attempt #1: catastrophic failure
not really sure how I managed this, but I figured I might as well post it since we caught it on camera ... who doesn't love to broadcast their colossal fails? This is a great "how not to squat" vid:


attempt #2: 15,6
went much better - though not quite 21. glad I decided to go ahead and try it again. I was pretty freaked out. I think i could get 21 if i could just get myself to go faster. my arms got too tired to keep holding the bar (well and my legs gave out, too.).

On the whole I am doing better at keeping my knees out, but there is still plenty of work to be done in this arena.

Bench Press:
warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 50, 55, 60, 65, 72 PR!!! GOT IT!!

21 x 55# - got this one too - BARELY. :-D AWESOME

The bench (finally!) felt strong again today.

WIth the 72# WEIGHT - it is SO strange - rep 1 was easy, rep 2 was still pretty easy - rep 3 was damn near impossible, but I finally managed to gut it out, and get that sucker UP.

On the set of 21 I nearly failed at rep 19 - Daniel thought i was done and moved to take the bar from me, but I wouldn't let him take it. I was sure I could get those last two reps, and I did.

Strength Cycle Week 11, part 1

Satisfying night at the gym, as the benchmarks continue to accumulate.

Back Squat x 5: 150 - 175 - 200(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 150 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 157(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 120F (15-6)

The squats weren't too shabby, though the last rep or two felt quite hard. I'm consciously trying to avoid pulling down on the weight, but it's a hard habit to break. I'm very happy to FINALLY make a PR on the bench, and would dearly love to get 160x5 next week, but honestly I'd be surprised if it happened - I really seem to have stalled out on the bench press.

In honor of breaking into the 200 club, here's a video of some of tonight's effort. The air squats at the end are for the benefit of some forum folks whom I am asking for help in improving my lumbar extension.

Strength Cycle Week 10, part 1 & 2

Part 1 (5/21/09)
Warmup: not much. some squats, some hip openers, some dislocates.

Backsquats:
Warmup 5 x 45#, twice.

5 x 55# , 65#, 65#(uneven weight left & right)

This week was a moderately successful return to focus on form after last week's ugly results. I've included some footage from last week in the video below to show the progression.


Bench Press:
Warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 55-55-60-65-72(f rep 1)

Everything just felt heavy and awkward. It was not a particualrly good lifting day.


Part 2 (5/23/09)
Warmup: jog .25 mile on treadmill, mobility exercises, a few reps of 30# snatches. A few attempts at 45# snatches - turned into 45# shrugs.

Deadlifts:
warmup: 10 x 30#, 10 x 45#, 5 x 95#

5x 115, 120, 130 - got it!

21 x 100# - got it - pr - this is where i was stuck before i had to go back down in weight when i discovered how to use my hamstrings.



This is only video of my heaviest attempt. My form has cleaned up a lot - but I have got to figure out how to keep my knees from buckling.

Presses:
warmup: 15 x 15#

3 x 40#, 45#, 50#, 55#, 60#(f rep 2)

21 x 40# (14, 7)

I am still struggling with my form on these. I don't always get my head through fast enough - particularly when i get tired. ... apparently I somehow skipped 21 x 37#. I think I will go down and try that weight next week.

Strength Cycle Week 10, part 1

Disappointing.

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 165 - 195(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 145 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 125 - 140 - 157F/4
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)

Continuing to make progress on the squat (195 wasn't actually as bad as I feared it would be), but my bench remains stalled out. It felt weak right from the get-go tonight. Last night's WOD? Waiting too long between squats and pressing? Goofing around with weighted pullups? Different equipment? I don't know, but in general tonight I wasn't feeling it. Distracted, irritable, awkward with the different equipment and location...hopefully next week will be better. Only have to do this twice more and then we can shelve it for a little bit.

Strength Cycle Week 9, part 1

Max has instituted weekly 1RM deadlifts on Wednesdays to act as a sort of overtraining-o-meter, given the crazy shit he and Gita have planned for us over the next few weeks (ie, tomorrow's WOD). All well and good, except Rebecca and I already have strength days set aside, and they aren't jiving too well with the new CFEB schedule. Solution? Move 'em. So now we're going to do our strength stuff on Wednesdays and Saturdays, instead of the deadlifts and so we don't have THREE workouts on Sundays. Hopefully this will work out - we only have 3.5 weeks left in the cycle, anyway.

Back Squat x 5: 145 - 170 - 190(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 140
Bench Press x 5: 125 - 145 - 160F/2 - 157F/4
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)
Finisher: 50 unbroken burpees for time: 4:11

Well, the squats went well. 190 was my 1RM when we started this cycle. I've discovered a bad habit: when coming out of the hole and trying to get my chest up, sometimes I PULL down on the bar very hard. This makes it more difficult, I've found. I need to be lighter on the bar with my hands - I can manage this on the big set, but at high weights I find I'm falling back into the good-morning habit. 140x21 was miserable.

The bench was terrible. I've definitely backslid and/or stalled out on this one. While it's nice to be making all the progress on squats and deadlifts, my press strength (shoulder and bench) just does not want to budge much. Next week I'll go for 157 x 5, then 5x3's up to 160 the following week. Maybe I'll get 160 x 5 by the time the strength cycle ends.

The 50 burpees were a good challenge: once you stop to take a breath, you're done. The obvious plan, then, is to set a pace slow enough that you can maintain it. Mine felt pretty damn slow, but really I don't think they were THAT much slower than my regular burpee pace - 4:11 translates to a 5-second-burpee pace, which may be a second slower than regular. My quads were burning throughout and trembling afterward.

Strength wk9 pt 1 - and some burpee fun.

Warmup: 400m jog, 15 pushups, 30 situps, 15 squats, 15 dowel ohs, 15 good mornings 15# bar.

Wod 1:
Backsquats:

10 x 45#
5x 55#-65#-75#(pr)
21x 65# (f) 14,7

Benchpress:

10x45#
3x50#-55#-60#-65#-72#(f rep 3 - twice)
21x55 (f) 19,3 (rep 19 didn't *quite* count my right arm just would not fully lock out - so i did 1 extra.)

Comments:
I was feeling pretty good about this. I thought I was doing pretty darn well with the squats this week. And then I watched the video Daniel took. My form is terrible. And it is entirely clear why my left knee always hurts afterwards. As Daniel put it, I am essentially doing assisted pistols. I would say that 70-80% on my weight is on my left leg. doing heavy reps with horrible form is just stupid - it doesn't help me and could very well injur me. The weights are not going up - and may very well go down - until I can keep my weight on both legs and keep my knees out. I also loose my lumbar curve pretty quickly. I have GOT to get serious about loosening up my hamstrings. I'll try to get the video up tomorrow - though honestly, it's just embarassing.

WOD #2:
50 Unbroken Burpees - no stopping to rest or breathe - constant motion.
5:45 - definitely a PR.

Averages out to 6.9 seconds per burpee. might be my fastest per burpee time ever - even though the burpees were pretty damn slow, not stopping to rest made a huge difference in the time. It was definitely a suck fest. But it felt good to get it done. I can. I will. I must.

Strength - apparently I actually still have some!

Warmup: some air squats, 30 situps, hip openers, some OHS squat w/dowel, iguana stretches

WOD (same numbers as last week, because last week was an absolute, abortive disaster - and I didn't even have daniel's excuse of being sick - I just hadn't eaten anything):

Back Squat:
5-5-5
55-65-75 - fail rep 5 - NEARLY had it. Made the mistake of trying to breathe on the way up, and lost all core stability. I was almost half way up when i lost it. Grrrr.

21 x 60# - got it! Next week 62.
I was having a really hard time catching my breath on these. That was, in fact my limiting factor. I knew from my failure on the 75, that I had to hold my breath all the way down and up in order to make it through the reps, and so I had to pant at the top of each rep to make sure I had enough breath to make it all the way through the rep. Knowing that I wasn't allowed to breathe until I got back up made a great motivator to get down and up quickly ;-)

Bench Press:
5-5-5
50-62-72 failed rep 3 - the first 2 reps were hard but felt doable. apparently I let the bar dip (arms not perpendicular to the floor) on rep 3 and totally failed. I tried again and couldn't get any. Next week should probably be 5 x 3

21 x 55# (15-6) The first 12 reps were great - and then my right arm just couldn't keep straightening - I only made it three more reps and stopped - I didn't fail, I stopped. When my right side starts failing so significantly like that it makes me angry and sad, and it screws with my concentration. After about 20 seconds I finished out the last 6 reps. They were so easy, I know I waited more than enough(too much) time to finish the set.

I feel like I've lost a bit of my ability to keep pushing through discomfort. Though I feel like I've been really aware of that for the past couple workouts, so hopefully, it won't take too long to get back into the swing of things.

Still - it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things.

Strength Cycle Week 8, part 1, redux

I'm feeling much better the past couple days, as all the hullabaloo of the past couple weeks fades and I can settle back into my regular routine. After last week's debacle of a workout, I was a little nervous about trying again today, but once I started squatting and feeling strong, the nervousness faded.

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 160 - 185(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 140
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 140 - 160F/3
Bench Press x 21: 120F (17-3-1)

The 185 was surprising OK. I mean, it was heavy, but the weight went down and then it went up, and I never felt like it might fail. 140x21 was agony.

I appear to have backslid on the bench, which isn't really surprising, I guess, since I've done very little to work those muscles in two weeks.

Now that the weights have gotten heavy enough to start failing, I'm considering scaling back on the Intermittent Fasting for the next few weeks. I'm torn about this, as I don't like the extra weight I've already gained, but I do want to get the most out of this strength routine. Maybe I should wait another week and see how I fare at the bench.

Next week: 190/145 (omg), 160/120

Strength Cycle, week 7 part 1

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 155 - 180(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 135(ow)
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 155(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 115

Ugh. The squats went OK, up until the big set. That hurt a lot. The bench felt really heavy, both the fives and the big set. I'm beginning to think that doing this at half weight last week may have been a bad idea - hopefully next week will feel back to normal.

Next week: 185/140, 160/120

Wow. Those numbers look big. Next week the failing might start.

Wrecked. Just a little.

Sleep:
11:10 - 7:10 ... i meant to get up at 6:45 so i could get to work early to leave early - but the alarm didn't penetrate the fog until 7:10. I guess my body was determined to get a full 8 hours. And I was only 15 minutes later to work than I intended.

Warm up:
500m row, ME, hip extensions, shoulder dislocates, good morning squats, various stretches for hammies, quads and adductors.

WOD:
Backsquat
Warmup: 10 x 45#
5-5-5
55-65-75 - f rep 5
21 x 60# (11, 7, 3) fail

Bench:
Warm up: 10 x 45#
5-5-5
50-60-72 (f rep 3) new 2rm PR? Definitely new 1rm :p
21 x 55# (10,6,5) fail

Comments:
Wow. Today just really did not go well. I think last weeks bad diet and bad sleep must have really done a number on me. I really struggled to do even half so well as I did the last time I did this 2 weeks ago.

I don't know why I feel so beat up - i JUST had a 50% week. But I really feel in need of another one. I've been pretty sore off and on since ... I dunno maybe last wednesday - definitely since Friday. Today my Trapeziuses are SORE - dunno whether it was the jerks or the cleans - probaly both, but I actually had a woman come up to me in the locker room today and ask me if I had an injury to my left shoulder because it wasn't moving when I walked.

And then there was today's performance - or lack thereof. I tried really hard to get thoroughly warmed up, by shoulders just wouldn't lossen up, and my hamstrings are just perpetually tight.

Daniel got video of my back squats - I might get around to posting it later - but essentially, I have the same damn problem with them that I have with my deadlifts - my hips rise faster than my torso putting me at a mechanical disadvantage. I'm not sure whether the weak link is my hamstrings or my core - probably a combination - but the first squats in a set are generally ok, and as I get more and more tired, I have a harder and harder time keeping my torso up when I try to get out of the hole.

I got 8 hours of sleep last night, and ate all the food I was supposed to today and yesterday ... but I guess the cumulative effect of several sleepless nights and early mornings was more than a day and a half of sleeping and eating could make up for. Well - i had a HUGE amount of food today, and I am heading to bed now to get as much sleep as I can. Rest little body! Get strong!

Food:
7:40 - 3 egg cheesy scramble, 2 slices turkey bacon. coffee w/ milk.
11:30 - 1.5 oz spicy cashews, 1 piece homemade turkey jerky - NOM.
12:45 - cottage cheese, etc.
1:30 - 1oz spicy cashews
3:30 - 1 serving green curry - tofu, asparagus, peas, spinach, cashews, etc.
6:45 - 1/2 piece homemade jerkey
7:30 - HUGE plate of roasted chicken w/ gravy, sauteed broccoli with slivered almonds, and spinach salad with walnuts, cranberries and feta. It was so huge that Daniel - who can hoover away a LOT - turned to me when he was about half way through and said" This is a lot of food" - in that dismayed "how am I going to eat all of this" sort of way (our plates each had about the same amount of food on them.). I can't believe I managed to eat the whole damn thing but by the end of Dollhouse, it had dissapeared.
9:15 - multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3 (finally remembered!)

Juggling Sea Urchins (or, I suck at recovery week)

I should really post about yesterday's workout, though it's kind of embarrassing. I found I had a couple hours to spare before having to go back to the theatre for opening night, so I took BART over to GWPC and rented some shoes for some (cue dangerous music)...bouldering.

You see, I don't boulder much. Like, at all. It makes me very, very nervous. Not the climbing, really - I do that all the time. It's the falling onto the GROUND that I dislike. You see, when you fall on toprope or on lead, you don't hit the ground (at least you shouldn't, if you're doing it right). The rope catches you. So, if you have chronic patellar dislocation issues, you don't need to worry so much about your knees blowing out if you should happen to land at a bad angle. Even though bouldering doesn't go very high and the ground is very padded, it still freaks the shit out of me. The upshot of this is that I suck at it. Max, who showed up early for his own workout and so had a little time of his own, joined me and basically held my (figurative) hand up some V1's and even a V1+. I discovered that I really like working the hard cave problems because they're low to the ground, so there's nowhere to fall. This is great, except these kind of problems are very strength-intensive and hard on the hands, so I was pretty pumped and handsore after a couple hours of it. But at the end of the day I'd done 3-4 V0's (basically all of them), and had either tried or completed or pieced together all the V1's. If fear were not an issue, I might be a V2 or V3 climber, but it is, so here's yet another thing I need to do more to get over my mental blocks about it.

Then I did my "strength" workout, which was just silly, and it felt even MORE silly because GWPC only has one cage, and it's in the CrossFit area, and class was going on. So there I was, with the whole gang busting their butts on some clean-and-press variations, but I WASN'T doing that. I was diligently putting up a 95 pound squat. Rawr!

Back Squat x 5: 65-85-95
Back Squat x 21: 65
Bench Press x 5: 65-75-80
Bench Press x 21: 65



This morning I met Tor at Ironworks for some climbing, and my hands were already feeling quite beat up. So I thought I'd try and take it easy. Yeah...that rarely works out, for some reason.

10a(o), L10a/b(o), L10b(DNF), 11a/b(F+), 10b(F)

First 10a felt kind of burly. I switched to leading, which may not have been a good idea. I had a bad case of the freakouts on the bottom of the first climb - about 10' off the ground, just before the first clip, the move called for a traverse on an undercling leading to a fairly small throw up over an overhang. I'd done the climb before, on toprope, without any trouble. But for some reason (probably the bouldering), I lost it a little. My grip felt sketchy, and I started thinking about what would happen if I fell (basically, I'd just fall on Tor, spotting me below). This led to jitters, which led to me downclimbing and coming off the wall to gather my shit. After calming my nerves, I did it again without any trouble (I just skipped the fucking undercling). Then came the horrible 10b. Easy up to the first clip, the next section was so negative as to basically be a long roof. The move was a big jug on the right hand, a two-finger undercling on the left, and a HUGE throw with the right up to a solid jug over the roof, during which time you're keeping yourself on the wall with that two-finger undercling. It's a bitch of a move. On toprope, I'd just go for it and either fall or not, but on lead I felt the need to be more conservative, which basically just wound up burning gas as I tried and backed off twice. I finally just went for it on the third try, and did manage to catch the hold...and then failed to CLIP THE FUCKING ROPE because my left hand was trembling and completely messed up from the strain of the undercling. I swear, I hung there and tried to clip that thing five, six, seven times, all the while my right hand is slowly slipping and I'm 3' above and 2' behind the last draw (ie, falling will pendulum me right into the wall). I didn't make it. Tor took up as much slack as he could and I got my hips as low as possible before letting go, and it was awkward and I did slam into the wall a little and got a little nasty rope burn on the back of my calf somehow. Ugly, but not disastrous.

After that I moved to back wall where I toproped an 11a/b slab, one move at a time with a healthy number of falls on practically every move, but at least it wasn't overhang. The last 10b WAS overhung, though, and I was out of gas. I had to take a rest shortly before the end.

Afterwards, my hands felt tingly and painful - opening car doors was wince-inducing. I definitely need to build up some more endurance on my climbing volume.

Tonight's WOD at CrossFit was a good one. New bumpers and bars at GWPC means we can finally do overhead work, so Max whipped this one up:

AMRAP* in 20 minutes:

15 Overhead Squats 95#/65#
Max Rep Pull-Ups

2 rounds, 29 pullups, OHS at 65#

Not much to say about this one. Feeling beat up from all the climbing and, I guess, the ardurous recovery week I'm going through, I approached this with something less than fire in the belly. I did manage 15 consecutive OHS in the second round, though, which I'm proud of. It hurts my wrists like nobody's business - I take a very wide grip due to shoulder flexibility issues. If I can squat with my torso more upright, I wouldn't need such a wide grip, which would be nice. Something (yet another thing) to work towards.

Strength Cycle, week 5 part 1

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 155 - 175(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 130
Weighted incline situps x 10: 25 -25 -25
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 150(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 110
Handstand/Forward roll practice

Squats went much better this week - not having done Karen the night before is very helpful. Even at 175 there was only one rep where I rolled too far forward due to hips coming up too fast. The situps were just an attempt to stay warm while I was waiting for Rebecca. Bench went OK, but the last rep was a struggle. Hopefully I'll be able to keep going up for a little while longer before stalling out.

Next week is supposed to be a half-volume week, so: Squat 95/65, Bench 75/60

Stronger and stronger - strength week 5 pt. 1

Sleep:
12 - 8, lots of dreams I think, but otherwise, sound - didn't even hear the alarm go off.

Warmup:
Hip Openers, air squats, good morning squats - 15# then 45#

WOD:
Back squats
45# x 10

5-5-5
55-65-72(PR)

57# x 21 - 60# next week

Bench Press
45# x 10

5-5-5
55-60-70(PR! - finally!)

55# x 21 (F @ rep 20! >:-( ) - same weight next week. I'll get it.

Cash out:
Forward roll and hand stand practice.

Comments:
Tonight, overall, was quite a good night. I got PR's in both my 3x5's with MUCH better form than last week on the back squat. Daniel watched every rep, and said they were much improved. I made sure to do a little skill work with the light bar before going for my work sets. I focused on trying to keep my elbows tight and my back upright. I also need to concentrate on keeping my knees out, but i found that i could really only focus on two things at once, and those were the two i chose. As a result, I don't think my neck is going to feel as horrible and bruised as it did last week, despite the fact that I lifted a lot more weight. I think it's pretty cool that my second work set was a PR worthy set just two weeks ago.

The bench press went much better today, too. I managed to get 5x70 almost easily. And I only managed 4 last week. I tried to focus on going a little quicker so that my muscles didn't fatigue between reps, and that really seemed to work. IO tried REALLY hard to get that 21st rep on my superset, but it just was not there. My arms were complete jello. At rep 16 with 5 reps left, I thought I was going to make it, and then I just failed. I know for sure that I will get it next week.

We decided to cash out with more forward roll practice on the big cushy mat downstairs, and I nailed my first one, so I decided to work more on the whole kicking up thing. I made some good progress. One time I had Daniel catch me and was able to hold the handstand position for a good 15 seconds or so.

For some reason I kept collapsing to the left, especially when I tried to get brave and think about kicking all the way up and over - my left arm just wouldn't stay locked out - and then I realized that, when I got nervous, I shifted all my weight to my left to protect my right - so of course it was collapsing. Daniel teased me about trying to perfect my one handed handstands. :-p Riiight.

I was updating my list of benchmarks and PRs (over there in the sidebar to the left) and thinking about just how incredibly far I really have come in the last 11 months. I have goals over there that include: hit the wall ball x just once with the 10# wall ball, jump into and out of the plank position for burpees. Things most people can do the first time they come to class without thinking too much about it. Now, I'm still not great at wall ball, and I'm still pretty slow at burpees, but I can definitely hit the x, and with the 14# ball, and there's no question about whether I can jump into or out of the plank position for burpees, and yesterday, for fight gone bad, I was able to use the Rx weight for the push-presses and there were several girls there who did not. I am no longer DFL for every WOD (just most of them ;-) ) but that's OK - because I know I'm making progress, and it feels fantastic.

Food:
8:50 - 3 egg cheesy scramble with veggie sausage, coffee w/milk
12:20 - cottage cheese, etc.
1:00 - 2 oz spiced cashews
1:45 - vitamins (multi, glucosamine, Omega-3)
2:00 - coffee w/ milk
4:15 - chicken parm stuff
8:20 - gordos super carnitas burrito w/ guacamole & tapatillo, 16 oz milk
10:30 - 2 zma

Strength Cycle, week 4 part 1

Back Squat x 5: 115 - 145 - 170
Back Squat x 21: 125
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 145(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 110
Handstand/Forward roll practice

Although I was not sore today from yesterday's Karen, it still had an effect on tonight's workout. My muscles felt fatigued, and my form on the squats felt decidedly unpretty. 170 matches my previous PR, though, and I think I should be able to manage 175 next week. The superset was painful, but I made it through only taking extra deep breaths on reps 7 and 14. The bench also felt tight and suboptimal, but I pushed through. The superset was brutal - I expect to start failing on that any week now.

Rebecca, Ynez and I spent way more time than we really should have on handstand and forward roll practice, but we were having a lot of fun. I was practicing primarily "jumping rolls," kicking up to pass through the handstand position, then breaking the legs and arms and rolling out. I have a really hard time bending my elbows, resulting in a big flop forward onto my back that, were it not on a giant blue mat, would really hurt. I managed a small handful with decent form, I just need to figure out how to do it consistently. I also, basically by accident, got a freestanding handstand for like two whole seconds before I freaked out and rolled out. That was exciting.

Next week: BS 175/130, BP 150/110