Farewell to Half-volume

Today was the last day of my "recovery" week. Ironically, I feel more thrashed than I have at, I think, any time in the last five weeks. Not completely sure why. The climbing played a part, certainly, as did the very difficult OHS workout on Friday. At any rate, I felt fine this morning with this little guy:

Three rounds for time of:
30 Kettlebell SDHP 2P/1.5P
21 Burpees
Run 400 meters

7:17, half-volume (3 x 15/11/200)

The volume was low enough that I never needed to stop moving, which was nice. I like kettlebell SDHP, but that's probably because I do them wrong - by starting with the kettlebell back between my heels, I get a little bit of an arc when pulling them up, and I find this much easier than doing it with the barbell.

I can't imagine that it isn't because of yesterday's OHS, but my right shoulder is fucked. It feels like it did back in the burpee challenge. The weird thing is that it felt just fine until AFTER today's workout. I'd be shocked to get injured from 33 burpees, but something bad happened. Thankfully we're heading into rest days, and hopefully it'll clear itself up.

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.

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.

Fail

I've been in denial, but this afternoon I came to accept that I overdid it on Thursday. The DOMS that it gave me negatively impacted the next three workouts, including today's - which was pretty horrible. It's been useful in a philosophical/programmatic way, however, and sparked an interesting discussion over at PMenu.

My takeaway from this lesson is that there is a time and a place for intensity. Heavy deadlifts for time is not it - I would have done and felt vastly better if I had done the workout at 185 instead of 225, I think. In general, I think that shorter (under 25 mins), low-and-bodyweight metcons are ideal for working on intensity (Helen, Cindy, FGB), whereas heavily weighted workouts should be treated with more respect and attention to form and safety. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and come back and try again next week.

Deadlift 1RM: 225-275-285(f)
Bench Press: 135x5, 140x3, 140x4, 140x3, 135x2

I've been trying very hard to recover in time for today's workout. I've gotten more than 10 hours of sleep each night, been downing Omega 3's and animal protein like crazy, and have taken it easy on the last two workouts...it still wasn't enough. The warmups were OK, but the lift at 275 was scary. After dropping the weight, I fell to my knees and grabbed the bar to steady myself, as my vision tunnelled and a very loud buzzing completely took over my hearing. This freaked me out. I gave a half-hearted attempt at 285 (even just pulling it a little gave me a headrush), and gave up. So my score is 25 pounds lower than the 1RM I scored just two weeks ago.

It had been my intention to do the bottom-to-bottom tabatas that CFEB did this morning, but I was feeling lousy and Gita suggested I avoid high-volume work if I felt in danger of overtraining. So I joined them for 5x5 Bench press instead. I thought I had gone above 140 in my 5x5's, but looking back through my blog posts, it looks like no, that was the highest I ever got. So I don't feel so bad about not being able to finish a full set of 5 at this weight today. My bench is definitely weak - I should get this up to 175 for level II, but it's hard to work on by yourself. Maybe I could rope Jim into doing it with me once a week.

Fight Gone Sandbag

I had a difficult time getting out of bed this morning. My entire posterior chain, from hamstrings to traps, was screaming at me. After staggering and wincing around for a while, I forced myself to do some stretches and deep breathing, and felt more functional. I wasn't sure how to approach today's workout, but in the interest of not damaging myself further or rendering myself incapable of motion, I decided to take it really easy.

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. Hang Clean 2P/1.5P (Reps)
3. Front Squat 2P/1.5P(Reps)
4. Clap Push-Up (Reps)
5. C2B Pull-Ups (Reps)

208 not-at-all-RX
(I did the women's weight for everything, and did regular pushups and pullups)

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
Pull-ups	10	10	10	12	42
65# Thruster	10	10	10	10	40
1.5P Clean	10	10	10	12	42
1.5P Front Squat	10	10	10	12	42
Push-ups	10	10	10	12	42
Total	50	50	50	58	208

So I sandbagged the shit out of this one. The last round WAS hard, and I did have to push myself, but the first three rounds were only moderately uncomfortable, and since I could do all the reps unbroken, I usually wound up with ~30 seconds of rest between exercises.

I don't know how guilty I should feel about this. What is the appropriate level of intensity for a workout when you're already really sore? I still need to figure this out. My hunch is that it's better to absolutely kill yourself once or maybe twice a week and spend the rest of your time recovering than it is to maintain a doable rate across the entire week.

After showering I did some butterfly practice on the rings - I can consistently knock out a set of about five butterfly kips before my form fails and I lose the momentum. They are tiring and harder than regular kips, but they feel really good and FAST.

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.

Half-Cindy meets Crankypants

I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but apparently my body got the memo that I was planning a half-volume recovery week and decided, "what the hell, might as well get that cold out of the way, then." I'd been holding strong against Rebecca's little beasties, and thought I was in the clear, until my throat started hurting on Sunday.

So now I'm sick. Not SUPER-sick - I'd rate it a 3 or a 4 out of 10 - but that doesn't mean I'm not pissed about it. I've dubbed this "the cranky cold," as it seems to come with a generous helping of foul temper. I snapped at my boss yesterday, and thought it better to take the day off today. Then I proceeded to completely fritter the day away, rather than being productive and getting shit done, as I'd hoped. This just made me crankier.

I hope it ends soon. I'm ready to move on.

At least I'm not trying to push through full-volume workouts, since I'd already set aside the week for recovery. At first I was sad to see Cindy on the board for today, as I'd be curious to know what my score is, but two rounds in I was glad I wasn't in it for the full ride.

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups (C2B)
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

6 rounds RX in 10 minutes.

This SUCKED. I figured I would shoot for virtuosity, though, since I wouldn't be shooting for a good score. My chest touched the bar on every pullup, and the floor on every pushup, and I did the squats with great deliberation in form. I ran out of steam very quickly, though, and spent a disappointing amount of time sucking wind (and just generally sucking). This is not a good pace - I don't know if I'll ever get a good score at this with the Ironworks pullup bar, but it's easy enought to test on my own with the rings.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 5x5's, and I'm not sure how helpful that would be at half-weight, or if I should just skip them. At the moment, I'm thinking maybe I'll go down, do the light deadlifts, and then do goblet squats or something to work on my non-GM back squat form.

HIIT and climbing

Surprisingly sore today, considering I was at half-weight for last night's WOD. Mainly in the traps - I suspect it was the cleans. Anyway, due to the recovery week, I resolved to stick to vert and positive climbs, and avoid any big overheads and negatives. Unfortunately, at Ironworks that leaves...about 4 climbs.

* 16 hour fast *

Sprint-8 on rower: 2,990
Climbing: 5.9, 10b(o), 10c(f), 10b(f), 10a/b(rp)

Climbing felt pretty good, actually. Ankle didn't really bother me, which was great, and my shoulder only twinged a few times. It's become an angle thing - effort at the wrong angle hurts, but if I relax and shake it, something kind of clicks into place and the pains stops. I really don't know what that means.

I think I need to work a little harder during my recovery minute. 26SPM is probably too low - I should try to keep it above 30, I think.

I could get used to this

OK, so remember how I was all bitching and moaning about having to do a recovery week and blah blah blah? Well, this evening as I watched all my classmates suffer through a horribly grueling heavy "bear" workout while I got to toss around 65 pounds, I couldn't help but feel...a little relieved. Even at half-weight, this was a lot harder than yesterday's walk in the park, and had I done it at FULL weight (I would have tried 95#), I'd probably be a wreck right now.

Five rounds for time of:
135/95 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
135/95 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
135/95 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
135/95 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

~28:00, 65# barbell

I shared the bar with Elaine, so that time is a bit longer than it would otherwise have been. It'd be silly to keep serious track of these 50% workouts, so I'm pretty lax about the timing.

That said, it was still pretty rough - at least the cleans and front squats. The deadlifts were nothing, and the push-jerks (push-presses, really) were such low volume as to be over before they started. My shoulder gave me a little grief on the negatives bringing the bar back down at first, but I learned how to basically drop and catch the bar so there was minimal exertion in the pain-causing range.

Half Barbara

It's time. I promised myself that I would take half-volume recovery weeks every 4-5 weeks. The trip to Florida was near the end of August, and it's been pretty full-tilt since then. My body has two annoying, persistent injuries it's trying to get over, so I'm gonna play it smart this time and TRY to avoid further injury by giving my body the tools it needs to fix itself. It isn't easy.

There was some debate as to whether to go to class at all today, but ultimately we decided that it would be better to get some work in and hang out with the CF folks than to stay at home feeling sorry for ourselves, so in we went, and I'm glad we did.

* 17 hour fast *

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

20:00 even
sub: Russian KB swings (1.5 pood) for pull-ups. Half-volume, half-rest.

This felt stupidly easy. More like a glorified warm-up than a workout. But I guess that's what is meant by "recovery." It felt like cheating. I felt guilty, watching everyone else kill themselves. Like staying home from school when you're not really sick.

Oh well.