200-06-24 Dirty Thirty

WOD:
For time:
50 Box jump, 24"/20"
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1.0P/.75P (25# Dumbell)
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45/30
50 Good Mornings 45/30
50 Wall ball shots, 20/14
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

Scaling:
Did 30 reps of every exercise instead of 50. Box jumps were about 12" (1 45#, 2 25# and 1 15#) K-t-E were more Knees to chest and used the 10# wall ball.

33:22

2:55.87; 2:30.92; 1:51.28; 2:22.23; 5:57.86; 1:59.13; 2:02.94; 5:48.51; 3:35.56; 4:18.59

I apparently scaled this way more than necessary. I expected to be lagging way behind even at 30 reps to everyone else's 50. Instead I was consistently one of the first 2 or 3 people to any given exercise.

This is a 13 minute PR over the last time I did the dirty 30 in July of 2008, and I remember it as being very hard. And this time it never really felt THAT hard - particularly not for the first four exercises or so. I should have done the full volume.

12 days of Christmas

Warmup: Jump rope - got several right footed single skips. even managed to get three consecutive! It may sound like a terribly minor achievement, but it's actually pretty major. I have not ever had any success trying to jump exclusively on my right foot, and having enough balance to stay only on my right foot and make it over the rope three times is an exceptional achievement.

WOD:
On the first day of Christmas CrossFit gave to us.....

1 - Muscle-up - subbed 4 band assisted ring dips
2 - HSPU - subbed piked push-ups
3 - Dead-hang pull-ups - green band assisted (mostly) dead-hangs
4 - Jumping squats
5 - Burpees
6 - Push-ups
7 - Toes to bar - subbed knees to elbows
8 - Forward rolls
9 - Double Unders
10 - KB Snatch 1.5pd / 1pd - used 8kg
11 - Box jumps
12 - Virtual snow shoveling 45# plate/25# plate (24"barrier)

Comments:

This went pretty well for a workout I didn't really think i wanted to do.

Actually the most exciting part was pre-WOD when i decided to see whether I could do box jumps, and I managed to jump - without any assistance - to a stack of bumper plates. First I tried 2 of the fuzzy 45# plates - about 10" maybe? - and it was no problem, I put a smooth 45# plate on top of that - maybe another 4" - and tried it, and it was still totally manageable, so I put a 25# plate on top of that (another 3") and, while it was a bit intimidating, I found I could do that, too. I nearly took a nasty backwards spill when I tried to show Daniel my new achievement; I got distracted by someone else. But I got it on my second attempt. I was actually bummed not to get to the box jumps in the WOD. That's a first, for sure.

Since the 3 pull-ups were supposed to be dead-hang, i tried to keep my band assisted pull-ups as kip free as I could - and for the first several rounds, they were fairly static - as the rounds went on, as I started getting tired i started kipping a bit more.

I have to say that I find it very gratifying that I am still making improvements in some areas despite the fact that my diet has been absolute crap this month, and I've only been making it to a handful of workouts a week.

Diet wise, I've pretty much written off the month of December. There are just too many wonderful things out there this time of year, and I am enjoying my freedom to eat whatever terrible food i want, but I definitely feel and see the effects of not eating clean, so I am also looking forward to getting 'back on the wagon' in January.

Strength and Filthy 50 Gone Bad

My ass was SORE this morning, from yesterday's deadlifts. And my calves from POSE practice. And my abs from Friday's little ab-blaster warmup. I was not in terribly great shape. But we hauled ourselves down anyway, because it's Sunday and that's what we do on Sundays.

Workout 1: Strength Cycle - Week 4, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 225- 245 - 270 (PR)
Deadlift x 21: 200 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 65- 75- 95
Press x 21: 65 (20-1)

Whoa, Nelly, those deadlifts were not fun. I'm glad that the deadlift is no longer a back exercise, but rather a butt one - this is as it should be. But my butt was not in the mood to be lifting any more heavy shit. I took a thirty-minute long, comprehensive warmup (2k on rower, squats, hip openers, pushups, situps, etc), and warmed up in 50# increments all the way up to 225. Tedious. The 270 was not as bad as I feared it would be, but according to Rebecca my lower back popped up on a couple reps, so I've got to work on keeping it tight and firing from the legs.

The presses went better - the 95 weren't actually that bad, but I think I'm going to go up to 97 next week - five pounds is just too big now. I was PISSED to fail on the last rep of the superset, after so many weeks of trying to get 21 at 65. Next week!

Next Week: DL 275/205, SP 97/65

Workout 2: Filthy Fifty Gone Bad

As wrecked as I was feeling, I expected to completely fail this one. Turned out to be not THAT bad, which I guess means I wasn't working hard enough. I basically went for five reps on each exercise, at the end of which I'd have an idea of a goal to reach by the 90 second mark. I'd get to the goal, and then try to crank out a couple more. I didn't get the 300 I hoped for, but 270 isn't too shabby - Matthew got 274, and doing as well as him is nice.

AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Box Jump 24"/20"
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Jumping C2B Pull-Up
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Kettlebell Swing 1.0P
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Walking Lunge Steps
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: KTE (Knees-To-Elbows)
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: 45# Good Mornings
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Push-Press 45#
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Wall-Ball 20#/14# 10" Target
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Burpees
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Double-Unders

In this workout you move immediately from station to station for good score upon a call of "rotate" from the coach. There is no rest between movements. You may start at any station.

270RX

I started at Wall-ball, figuring to get the hardest stuff over with first. This worked pretty well.

WB: 32
Burp: 15
DU: 32
Box: 17
JPU: 26
KB: 38
Lunge: 27
KTE: 15
GM: 24
PP: 44

Double Unders!

Sleep:
11:45-9:00 ... MMMm sleep :-) Had some trouble getting comfy with DOMS settling in, but generally slept very well.

WOD 1: Strength week 4 part 2
Warmup: Hip openers, air squats, adductor stretches, situps

Deadlift:
10 x 45#

5-5-5
100-125-135(PR)

21 x 100# (f@ rep 18)

Shoulder Press
10 x 25#

5-5-5
35-45-55 (f@ rep4)

21 x 32# (f@ rep 7, 12, 15,18 - this was just UGLY)

Comments:
The new DL x 5 PR was nice - but this session was just HARD after yesterdays ass kicking. DL actually went surprisingly well - on the set of 21, I was ddoing great until about rep 14, and then my muscles just stopped firing and quit @ rep 18.

The shoulder presses were bad. I lost my good form on these. I ALMOST got that 5th rep on 55, but the set of 21 was just so so so bad. I don't know why they felt so heavy and awful. I think my core was just too tired to support the weight. Better luck next time.

WOD #2 Filthy Fifty Gone Bad
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: KTE (Knees-To-Elbows)
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Back Extensions
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Push-Press 45#
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Wall-Ball 20#/14# 10" Target
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Burpees
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Double-Unders
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Box Jump 24"/20"
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Jumping C2B Pull-Up
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Kettlebell Swing 1.0P
AMRAP* in 90 seconds: Walking Lunge Steps

Results:
13-13-14-2-11-3(!!!)-0-29-17-28

Comments:
Max let us kip the KtE so I actually managed to get a fair number of them. Wall ball SUCKED - i tried several more reps than this but just could not get that sucker high enough. My poor tired arms were fried from the earlier presses and the push-presses I'd just done. Probably just should have taken it as a rest round. I did pretty well on the burpees - I tried to do as many as I could as quickly as I could because I thought the DU round was going to be a rest round.

And then .. the DU ... I knew the Box Jump was for sure going to be a rest round, so I decided to just go ahead and TRY the DU - the worst that would happen is that I wouldn't get any. First i tried straight from standing and that didn't work, and then I tried it after a couple single skips and damn if that rope didn't go all the way around twice!! Shocked the hell out of me. So I tried it again, and it worked, again! I got one more before the end of the round, and it was AWESOME! They just worked!

The rest of the exercises were pretty standard, they went fine.

After the WOD I continued to work my DU - and they still worked. The first couple times, I kept stopping after I got it - just I don't know - because I couldn't believe it actually worked. But after a few more practice tries I even managed to do DU-skip-skip-DU a couple times. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to start stringing them together pretty quickly (either that or they'll dissapear completely - and that would be sad). But it felt really natural. SO EXCITED! It completely made up for my crappy crappy presses and made my entire day.

Food:
10am 3 egg cheesy scramble with veggie sausage, coffee w/ milk, 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3
3:30 - bacheeso's smorgasbord. - lots of beef kabobs, lots of eggs w/ chese and spincha, some turkey, some tomatoes, 1 glass tasty iced tea
4:30 - iced coffee (11 oz milk w/ 5 oz coffee)
8:00 - Indian food - daal, paneer tikka masala, chicken palak, more chicken, 16 oz milk.

Fat DNF

I was really not feeling it today. Although I wasn't sore from the deadlifts, just the prospect of this workout filled me with dread.

Five rounds for time of:
2 pood Kettlebell swings, 25 reps
25 Sit-ups
25 Supermans
25 Knees to Elbows

DNF in the third round

I stopped because something funky was happening to my right wrist on the swings. It was clicking, and hurting on the downswing - I think the yanking from the KTE's plus the swings was stressing it out. With ~75 more reps of each to go, it did not strike me as a good idea to keep going. I went through the typical spiral of self-doubt and criticism afterward, but I so rarely DNF that I don't feel too bad.

It's all Evelyn's fault

Apparently, Evelyn saw this WOD on the CF national site and went "ooh! , ooh!" and asked Max if we could do it. So, Ev, when and if you read this:


Not knoeing dat many numbrz, this shit was hard:

Three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
21 Kettlebell swing, 1.5 pood
21 Push-ups
18 Towel Pull-Ups
15 Box jumps, 24"
42 Supermans
Walking lunge, 150 ft

44:04, non-RX (I only did 10 towel pullups per round)
Splits were 13:34 | 15:59 | 14:36

Actually, it wasn't all THAT bad. It was just long, and a lot of volume. The only things that really killed my time were the KTE's, which I basically did in sets of 5, and the towel pull-ups, which I did in sets of...2. (This is why I only did 10 per round. 18 and my time would've been an hour.) Everything else was in large chunks, if not unbroken.

Chipper WOD hell

Warm up: ME, run 200m, 5 KTE, 10 KB swings, 10 pushups, 10 box jymps, 10 walking lunges.

WOD:

Three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
21 Kettlebell swing, 1.5 pood
21 Push-ups
18 Towel Pull-Ups
15 Box jumps, 24"
42 Supermans
Walking lunge, 150 ft

Results:
38:12 - 2 Rounds

Exercise	Round 1	Round 2
Knees-to-Chest	2:07	1:44
KB Swing 1P	2:09	2:43
Pushups	3:26	2:22
Kip attempts	2:42	3:20
Box Jump 10"	2:05	1:39
Superman	2:10	2:22
Walking Lunge	4:42 - 50	4:32 - 47
Total	19:21	17:02

Comments:
This workout was hard. And I really didn't have a lot in the tank to start with. I very nearly stopped after the first round, but I'm glad I forged ahead and completed round 2. At one point, Max made some comment about how there was a "sneaky" amount of volume in this workout, and just about everybody who heard him yelled back "There's nothing sneaky about it! it's all right there!" When I saw this workout I thought Max might be trying to kill us. Apparently it was Evelyn all along ... thanks Ev! :-p But it definitely wasn't one of those workouts that seems easy on paper. I knew this was going to be beast.

Since I knew I wasn't going to complete the workout, it allowed me to go a little slower, and try to get better form on each exercise. A couple of my KTC actually approached much closer to KTE range. Most of my KB swings were actually overhead. I tried to make sure each pushup was full ROM. Rope climbing and towel pullups were WAY out of the question, so I decided to do Kip attempts instead. These are WAY harder than jumping pullups (duh). Box jumps were real jumps to the 10" box with some girder support - these still scare the *** out of me. But most importantly, the walking lunges felt better than they ever have before. There were plenty of strides that were wobbly and off balance, but there were many that weren't, and I even managed to cut three strides off the total in the second round by taking longer strides (47 strides instead of 50).

Overhead Squats and Cookies

We went to both classes today, since neither one looked to be a killer and we were (surprisingly) not feeling particularly beat up from our Half-Murph.

The first class was Overhead Squats, a definite goat of mine. The prescribed workout was 15-10-5-5-5, but I just played around with the empty bar, working form. It took a little while, but I started to get the hang of it, even earning some compliments from Max and others. I went up to 55# x 5, but that was about as brave as I got. That shit HURTS, especially the wrists. But if I ever want to do real snatches, I've got to get a proper OHS. One more thing for the list.

Then it was on to the goofball workout Max concocted to reward us for a very difficult work week:

100 Meter walking lunge
42 Sit-Ups
Run 200 Meters backwards
30 V-Ups
Run 400 Meters
18 Knees-To-Elbows

12:01, not quite RX (my KTE's were not all kosher)

Actually this was surprisingly tough. The 100 walking lunges were really painful, the situps were fine, the running backwards was metabolically fine (if psychically a bit nervous), the V-Ups were less fine, the running felt downright luxurious after the previous freaky stuff, and the KTEs were just killer.

I have an easier time with the KTEs when I can hyperextend a little at the start, allowing a more vigorous abdominal contraction to pull my hips up. This isn't really doable on a bar that forces me to bend my knees to hang from, which made these KTEs harder than the ones I've done on the rings or the bar at GWPC. Or it could just be the previous ab work made me tired.

OH Squats and Tea and cookies ;-)

WOD #1 OH Squats
Warm up: Mobility Exercises, Burgener Warm Up ... don't remember what else - I'm sure there was something

WOD: OH Squats
30-15-5-5-5

Results:
dowel-dowel-9#-15#-15# .... give or take - I wasn't paying particularly close attention to the rep scheme - and just did a set whenever I felt well rested.

Wod#2 Tea & Cookies
Warm up: Mobility Exercises, 10 Rock'n Rolls, Jump Rope Drills, run 900m

WOD:
"Tea & Cookies"

100 Meter walking lunge
42 Sit-Ups
Run 200 Meters backwards
30 V-Ups
Run 400 Meters
18 Knees-To-Elbows

Results:
19:18

Exercise	Time	HR
100m walking lunge	5:59	145
42 sit-ups	2:13	134
run 200m backwards	3:02	151
30 V-ups	2:15	141
run 400m	2:21	156
18 knees-to-elbows*	3:26	121

Comments:
With the OH squats today, my main focus was on form - which has gotten quite a bit stronger. Those who were watching me said that my depth was really good and that my form looked pretty solid. I do still tend to corkscrew a little bit to the left - but significantly less than I used to. I did not get brave enough to try these with an empty oly bar. I stuck to the dowel and some relatively light body bars. 9# & 15# I made one feeble attempt with the 30# body bar - but it is think and ungainly, and i did not make it down very far before I decided not to proceed with that bar. My wrists and shoulders got tired pretty quickly even with the light weight.

The second WOD today had several exercises I strongly dislike because they really push my issues to the fore-front. I'm going to steal Melissa Byers name for these exercises and create a "goat list". The first three items on this list:

Jump rope drills. I do ok on the regular two footed jumps and cross overs, but the moment i have to alternate feet, or change rope rhythm (doubleunders) everything goes to hell. My right leg/foot can't navigate on it's own.

Walking lunges - also on the list - they really emphasize how off balance I am.

Running backwards - um yeah - just hard.

I think I got closer than I've ever gotten before to getting the knees to elbows, but they're still not quite there.

Needless to say, if it weren't for the walking lunges this workout would have been much much faster. there was also a lot of transition time in between exercises. But Nick was doing them with a 70# kettlebell, so he was slowed down to my pace and kept me company and motivated. I'm glad he made it to class today :)

Everything else was essentially fine. And my strained muscle didn't give me any trouble.

Filthy Fifty

I was nervous about this one - my shoulder and ankle are both feeling much better, but they're still not 100%, and this is a shitload of volume, many of the movements are somewhat iffy. But it all came out OK.

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions (superman)
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball (45# thruster)
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

40:14 - subbed tuck jumps

This is a whopping 16 minutes faster than last time (!!), and I suspect that's nearly entirely due to better burpees. In fact, some things were a little slower than they could have been, because I was protecting my injuries (specifically box/tuck jumps and KTEs). As for how the injured joints fared - well, there was some protest, particularly from jumping around on my ankle, but it was manageable.

Here are the splits, which I find very interesting:

Box jumps: 2:15
Jumping PU's: 2:06
KB Swing: 2:29
Walking Lunge: 1:43
KTEs: 8:37
Push-press: 3:05
Superman: 2:37
Thruster: 6:22
Burpees: 7:22 (!!!!)
Tuck Jumps: 3:38

Last time, I remember the burpees alone taking me over 20 minutes, done in excruciating sets of 5. Tonight's were sets of 10, and yes, they sucked, but by now burpees are like old, really shitty friends, and not sworn enemies. The KTEs were very hard, as were the thrusters. Max insists they're the same as wall-ball, but I disagree. It's true that because of my height I do not have to throw the ball as far, but I also have a physiological theory that wall-ball includes a brief moment when the muscles are not bearing ANY weight, and in this moment fresh, oxygenated blood can wash through the muscles. This is also why I still find kipping ring pullups to be easier than kipping bar pullups - there is a moment of letting go that refreshes the muscles.

Tonight felt good. I felt like I was pushing at the right rate to be very hard, but not so much to flame out or feel like puking. Consistent. I don't know the times of the second group, but I came in third in the first group behind James and Matthew, and I'm very pleased with that placement.

Filthy Fifty

Ow.

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

56:19, nearly RX (subbed tuck jumps for double unders)

Wow... this was a burner. I can't recall another workout where I've consistently felt so close to puking for so long - I was just redlined for just about everything from the KTE's on.

I'm really bummed because I set my splits on my watch, but must have hit the reset button in my backpack so I lost them. I can kind of recall my sets, though, so I'll try and outline them...

Box Jump: used the green girder. 50 unbroken. fast.
Jumping pullups: two sets of 10, then fives, then fours... fairly fast.
KB swings: two sets of 25. fairly fast.
Lunges: unbroken. fast.
KTE's: something like 10, 10, 8, 7, 5... fives from then on. These were hard. not fast.
Push press: 20, 15, 15. fairly fast.
Back Extensions: 25, 15, 10. fairly fast.
Wall-ball: five of 10 with long rests. not fast.
Burpees: 10 of 5 with LONG, LONG rests - this took over 20 minutes alone
Tuck Jumps: 10, 10, 10, 20. fairly fast.

I'm glad we're doing the Burpee Challenge...it's my hope that next time this rolls around, my work there will pay dividends in a faster time. These burpees were SO much harder than regular ones, though, just from being so gassed.

Dirty 30

WOD

For time:
30 Box jump, 24 inch box *90 step-ups to a 10" Box
30 Jumping pull-ups
30 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood * 12kg
Walking Lunge, 30 steps
30 Knees to elbows *knees to chest
30 Push press, 45 pounds *30#
30 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball *24# thrusters
30 Burpees
50 Double unders *tuck jumps

Results
46:35

Splits:
5:18 - stepups
3:05 - jumping pull-ups
2:07 - KB swings
2:33 - lunges
5:48 - kte
3:44 - back extensions
4:41 - push-press
9:07 - thrusters - started w/ wall ball, switched to thrusters - had to find a bar, had to move outside - most of this is transition time.
7:58 - burpees
2:12 - tuck jumps

Max had the exercises listed on a white board - in the wrong order - which is why the push-press and back extensions are reversed. Push press into thrusters was no fun :(

I actually feel pretty good about this workout over-all. There are clearly a few areas that need some work, though: Box jumps, KTE, push press, thrusters/wallball and burpees all have plenty of room for improvement. I wish i had taken a second to look at how much time had elapsed before i actually started doing the thrusters for real. I'd say that a good 3-4 minutes of that (at least) is transition time.

The burpees were slow, but I was trying to put a lot of focus on form. I'm not sure how, but my first 10 took 3 minutes. I guess my transition time was longer than I thought. I'm still having trouble jumping into the pushup position ... my feet don't really know how to catch me, yet, but I am pretty reliably able to jump my feet from the pushup position to between my hands now, which has been a goal of mine.

I'm a little ambivalent about only having done 30 instead of 50 of each exercise. A lot like the ride from this past weekend. The main reason i chose to do 30 instead of 50 was to try to keep my complete workout time under an hour. I feel like i could have made it through 50 of each exercise, but it would have been much less of a metcon and much more of a slog, and it would have taken a lot longer than 46:35. I certainly still got plenty of work done, and I am sure i will be feeling it all tomorrow.

Weak Sauce

Tor was late to the gym this morning, so I noodled around on the rings a bit.

15 KTE's for my Level 2
Max pullup test: 11 (ugh! I thought I had more than that.)

Climbing:
10a/b, 10d(dnc), 10c(dnc), 10b(f+)

So...yeah. Not a good climbing day. Dunno if it was the ring stuff or coming off a weekend with far too little protein and a huge LSD ride or what, but I just felt really weak on the wall today. That 10d is the newest on back by the lead cave and it has a crazy long roof that I got past, only to wimp out on the next move which required a really high step on a pair of very sketchy holds. Tor did it and found the whole climb to be extremely sketchy. Since the line for the first half is VERY far off plumb, I'm not sure I'll ever get the guts to really tackle this one, as I hate big pendulum swings.

5x5's:
Deadlift: 215
Shoulder Press: 87!

The DL's felt REALLY heavy for the first couple sets, in an "uh-oh" kind of way, but they got more solid as they went on. After Thursday's failures with the shoulder press, I was pleased to complete it at 87. So I'll try 90 again next week and see how that goes.