Messing about with half volume

I am intentionally trying to keep my firebreather aspirations in check this week and approach gymtime with a more casual attitude. Half-volume weeks are tricky. The workouts are much shorter and less satisfying, and you feel like a putz watching everyone else bust their ass while you traipse around doing the CrossFit equivalent of tricep kickbacks (at least I'm not ACTUALLY doing tricep kickbacks). But it's all in the head. I CAN slack off for a week. I can do this.

Walking lunge 100 ft.
21 Pull-ups (men C2B)
21 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
18 Pull-ups
18 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
15 Pull-ups
15 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
12 Pull-ups
12 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
9 Pull-ups
9 Sit-ups
Walking Lunge 100 ft.
6 Pull-ups
6 Sit-ups

~7:30, half-volume, did clap pushups instead of pullups

Class was really crowded last night, and it was nice outside. Rather than compete for space on all these movements, I went outside with Jim and Aaron to do a pushup version of the WOD. Since I was only doing half volume and pushups are so much easier than pullups, I decided it was a good opportunity to practice my clapping pushups. It felt like a hard warmup, which is about what it should feel like.

I made some attempts at flipping the big tire afterwards. I could get it halfway up, and then (for some reason) my right calf cramped up badly every time. So I'm doing something a bit wrong with the technique, but I'm pretty close. Have some nice cherries on my knees and shoulders from the attempts, though. Then I did some skin-the-cats with Jim and James afterwards, and managed to struggle my way back over from full extension, which was a first. That was fun.

Good intensity - bad squat power

Warmup: run 800m (got a side stitch today :-( hasn't happened in a while) test thrusters, front squats, cleans

WOD:
Four Rounds

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The stations are:

1. Thruster 95#/65#(Reps)
2. Power Clean 2p/1.5p KB (Reps)
3. Front Squat 2P/1.5P (Reps)
4. Clap Push-Up (Reps)
5. Pull-Ups (Reps)

Subs:
1. 45#
2. L 1P, R .75P
3. 1P
4. hopping pushups
5. kip attempts

Results:

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
45# Thruster	6	5	6	5	22
1P/.75p Clean	10/4	8/7	6/6	5/10	29/27
1P Front Squat	9	8	5	7	29
Hopping Push-ups	14	13	14	13	54
Pullups	11	11	12	14	48
Total	54	52	49	54	209

Comments:
I worked really hard to get this score. I feel very good about my intensity/effort applied on this workout. Regardless. My thrusters and my front squats suck. I have no power coming up out of the squat. I need to find that. I thought I might be able to do my thrusters at 55# maybe even 60# - 45 was about all I could manage. And the thrusters were really more like front squat/presses. (see note re: NO POWER).

I don't think I've ever done cleans with the 1P before, so it was cool to be able to do those for at least one arm. I couldn't QUITE get them up with my right arm yet, but the .75 one was pretty easy so the 1P should be close.

The hopping pushups went pretty well ... I can't get enough height to warrant a clap yet, but I don't think they're too far off either. Maybe a month or two. Hopping is far easier than clapping, so I really made up in numbers here what I was missing in thrusters.

My kip attempts were ... pretty good. I think I really have the kip mechanics nailed - and I can string 5 or 6 together pretty easily, I just lack the strength to pull myself up the last few inches. The frustrating thing is I feel like I had that about a month ago. I don't know where it went. Not enough GtG? Need to work SDHP or rowing or ... something to get my pull strength up.

Sleep:
12:50 - 8:40 - only woke up 2 or 3 times.

Food:
10am coffee black
12:30 20oz 2% milk
1:20 8 oz chicken fried steak with 3/4 cup gravy and 2 eggs over easy. 1 small bite buttermilk biscuit. 12 oz coffe w/ 3oz half n half
3:30 2 oz spiced cashews
4:00 1 multiv., 3 omega-3, 2 glucosamine, 1 magn./zinc/calc.
8:15 1 svg/bowl veggie sausage w/ beans & kale, 16oz 2%milk

Better Intensity

Warmup: 800m, ME, 10 Rock n' Rolls, 15 pullup-attempts, KB snatch drills ... forget if there was anything else.

WOD:
For time:

50 Double-unders
2 Pood/1.5 Pood Hang Snatch, 50 reps
50 Clap Push-Ups
50 Double-unders

Subs:
50 DU = 50 tuck jumps (TJ) + 50 skips
snatches: alternating reps 12kg L -> 8kg R
Pushups: "hopping" pushups.

Results:

Exercise	Time	Elapsed
50 Tuck	2:34	2:34
50 Skips	0:50	3:24
50 Snatch	7:07	10:31
25 Hop PU	3:37	14:08
25 Hop PU	4:14	18:22
50 Tuck	3:39	22:01
50 Skips	0:38	22:39

Comments:
When I woke up this morning the worst of my DOMS from the past few days was thankfully gone.

We got to class a few minutes early today - a very rare occurence for me. While I had the room mostly to myself, I decided to try to get some pull-up practice in, but stopped when i couldn't even pull my shoulderblades down my back or get a decent kip going. So I got some jump roping in instead which helped me pre-warmup a bit. However, the run still felt really sluggish.

The rock n' rolls felt good. I actually really love this warmup exercise - it definitely loosens up my perpetually tight hips and hamstrings. I also tried a couple of the reverse burpee motions (basically jump/kipping to a standing position from lying on your back) that Ev said helped her figure out the kip And then I really surprised myself with 15 really decent pullup attempts in 3 sets 8-5-2. I managed to get a really good kip going - I just don't have the strength to complete the pull. Max actually said (half-jokingly) that maybe doing some work on the stupid pull down machine might actually help me. For all I know it actually might. I wish resistance bands weren't so difficult to get in and out of ... I can't really imagine using them on either the BIW or the GWPC pullup bars in a WOD. But maybe I could use them at home ...

Anyway. the WOD:

It was hard.

Max decided the sub for DU would be 50 Tuck jumps plus 50 skips instead of the usual 50 tuck jumps - which suck plenty all on their own. I was somewhat taken aback that he felt he needed to make the sub harder. In reality 50 single skips is nothin. I think I did them in two sets the first round and continuously unbroken for the second. The tuck jumps were still ridiculously hard. I am just not a bouncy or springy person. In the second round I saw some people doing TJ-little hop-TJ-little hop (like doing DU-skip-DU-skip) instead of the TJ-land-reset-TJ-land-reset that I was doing, and I decided to try it. Although my second time was slower than my first, I think it made it easier to string TJ together. Although aerobic capacity took a bigger hit that way too - which might be why it took a little longer - i had to keep stopping to catch my breath.

The snatches were a little dissapointing. I had this movement dialed like 1-2 months ago. But I haven't done them since then, and whatever I had figured out has gone away again, although they were definitely feeling a bit smoother somewhere in the middle after I warmed up but before i got really tired out. I opted to use the 12kg on my left and the 8kg on the right because these were supposed to be HEAVY and not particularly fast. Unfortunately I can't really stabilize the 12kg with my right arm, but the 8kg is a little lighter than I'd like. I started with my left and did as many as I could before my form started to get scary - somewhere between 5 & 8. Then I moved to the R and got to 15 total snatches, at which point I decided to do 10 per side, regardless.

The timing for the hopping pushups is in two segmentsonly because i accidentally hit the lap button on my watch when I collapsed after #25 - I was just lucky it was right in the middle.

I was pretty quickly reduced to only being able to do these 2 at a time, but I did hopping pushups for the whole 50 pushups.

Overall I think my intensity was better that it has been recently, and that's something to be happy about.

(I started this post on saturday and got through the paragraph about the snatches. Now it is tuesday and I just want to get this post finished ... so that explains the abrupt switch from verbose to terse.)

Hardly worth mentioning

Today is the last day of my half-volume recovery week. I also (rather conveniently) came down with a cold for the bulk of the week, but that's nearly over. I can tell I'm better because I'm resenting the low volume, and feel like I'm slacking. I've gained two pounds and hardly done anything that feels worth blogging about. I'm ready to go back to doing it for real.

I keep reminding myself of why I decided to do this to begin with. I was feeling consistently beat up, deeply sore, and plagued by many small, recurring injuries. All the little things are gone. My ankle is much better (I can walk on it in the morning), but it's still a bit sore. Rather than dreading workouts, I'm looking forward to them again, and my interest in attaining goals has come back. So mission accomplished - tomorrow I can play with the big kids again.

Today, however, was a bit of a joke.

For time
50 Double-unders
2 Pood/1.5 Pood Hang Snatch, 50 reps
50 Clap Push-Ups
50 Double-unders

7:16, half-volume
(subbed 1.5 pood snatches, and most pushups were just "hopping")

I was too apprehensive at the start of class to do the green 1.75 pood, but I was able to do five or so right-handed snatches with it afterwards, so I should have used that one - especially since I only had to do 25. Only James C. and Polly were able to do the RX weight - that's a lot of weight to stabilize overhead with one arm. Double-unders are getting closer, I think. I wish I had a place and time to practice these at home.

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.