2010-04-27 - FGB

Last Time

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Wall Ball *10#	2	3	3	8
SDHP	9	10	10	29
Box Step-ups	13	14	15	42
Push-Press	5	7	6	18
Row	11	11	13	35
TOTAL	40	45	47	132

Not too bad considering I wasn't planning on doing this, and I was freezing when I started. Not great either, though. Everything was down across the board.

Metcon

WOD:

For Time:

3 Rounds:

Advanced	Intermediate	Beginner
21 C2B Pull-Ups 15 Deadlift 225/155 9 HSPU	21 Pull-Ups 15 Deadlift 185/135 9 Push-ups	21 Jumping Pull-Ups 15 KB SDHP 1.5/1.0P 9 Push-ups

Results on beginner using mens weight: 11:36
I forgot my regular watch, so I did not get split times.  I think I finished the first round in about 3:30 - I didn't quite manage to maintain that pace.  SDHP after jumping pullups is really HARD.

Comments:

Max said that this should really be a blazing metcon, and even one round of 21 legit pullups and  15 deadlifts at 135# would not have been anything close to a metcon for me, which is why I opted for the beginner selection at the men's weight.

Having the SDHP right after the jumping pullups was still a little bit of a roadblock to 'blazing' because i frequently had to wait for my hip flexors to recover enough to get another SDHP rep.  The 9 pushups were an absolute breeze. 

I really like that Max has been has been breaking up the workouts into Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner - it really helps to have the scaling pre-thought out.  It's a little disheartening that I am still stuck at beginner level on so many exercises, but only a little.  I know I am still WAY better than I was when I started.  It just reinforces was an amazingly low place that was.

Chelsea

WOD:
"Chelsea"

Set up before a clock, and every minute, on the minute, perform 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats.

Comments:
I had to work late, and I showed up for class about 30 minutes late. I was kind of just intending to go home because Daniel had to skip class to babysit a website launch, but he convinced me that I should go to the gym even though I was so ridiculously late. I got almost no warmup. I substituted 55# KB SDHP for pullups because I thought it would just take too long to use a box or a strap for the pullups.

Results:
1 round + 11 squats

Turns out I squat too slow for this workout. I finished my pushups with about 25 seconds to spare, and I just couldn't get all my squats done.

Bleah. so glad i made it to class.

I did get some pullup practice done after everyone else was finished and I ALMOST got my first real kipping pullup. I got my nose to the bar. Once. That was satisfying, at least.

Fight Gone Bad!

Still recovering from this cold, with a chest full of phlegm and diminished energy - not to mention feeling somewhat beat up from Grace - I decided to take this one "easy" and just try to set and maintain a 225 pace. It went pretty much according to plan:

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Wall Ball	20	20	20	60
SDHP	15	15	15	45
Box Jump	15	15	15	45
Push Press	10	10	15	35
Row	15	15	20	50
TOTAL	75	75	85	235

I was feeling kind of guilty about sandbagging, so pushed for the last couple movements of the last round. Even 40-something points below my PR, this felt pretty challenging, particularly the final round.

Fight gone bad

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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

For the experienced: the goal is to do 10% better than your previous Rx best. 1 minute after FGB is done, you owe 1 burpee for each rep below your goal.

My Goal: 133

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Wall Ball	2	0	1	3
SDHP	11	11	10	32
Box Jump(Step up)	0	0	0	0
Push Press	7	6	6	19
Row	12	11	12	35
TOTAL	32	28	29	89

Finisher: 44 Burpees (I was actually expecting to have to do more, so I was relieved it was under 50). Somewhere in the realm of 7 or 8 minutes, i think. SUCKED. If Daniel hadn't needed someone to yell at him, I think I might have curled up in a ball and cried.

I don't know where my wall ball went. it went far far away. Ynez was a real stickler for only counting the reps that hit the x. Didn't matter if it was high enough - if it didn't hit the x it didn't count - not that there were that many that would have qualified.

Pretty much everything except my row suffered - actually - it was pretty well on par with my last FGB in June - still, I dunno where my power went. I did much better in April - particularly on the push-presses - though I think that was in the middle of our strength cycle.

Fight Gone Bad!

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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

264 RX

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Wall Ball	30	22	17	69
SDHP	27	13	15	55
Box Jump	20	15	20	47
Push Press	15	15	12	42
Row	20	15	16	51
TOTAL	112	80	72	264

As opposed to two weeks ago, when I just tried to hit as many in the first round as I could, I went into this one with a very specific plan: 125/100/75 = 300. I did about twenty points better than last week, but was still 12 points off my PR, well below 300, and pushed myself harder than I think I've ever pushed in a FGB before.

Mostly it's deconditioning, I think - I got that 276 right after Games training, when I was the fittest I've ever been. It's sad to see the numbers go down. I also just blew myself out in the first round, and was miserable afterward. I don't know how else to do it, but next time I might shoot for an even 100/100/100 and see what happens.

Barbell complex

Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

I got 5 rounds using a 45# bar. we were going out for Daniel's b-day afterward, and i didn't want to be too tired and sweaty, so i took it kind of easy.

Barhell

Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

5 rounds + 5 Thrusters RX

Designed to be a metcon, I think - this was really more of a strength workout for me. Very well constructed, though - each rep scheme was just about exactly as many as I could do in one set before reaching exhaustion.

SDHP/Push-Press

5 sets:

4 Sumo Deadlift High Pull/1 Power Clean/5 Push-Press

The reps are to be done consecutively: the bar momentarily touches the ground on the first five reps, but does not rest there.

95-95-95-115-115-115

"Well, it only gets hard when you get good at it."

Words of wisdom from Coach Maximus, RE: my current dread of Fight Gone Bad.

Max is gambling that some version of FGB will be at the Games next weekend, and I'm guessing he's also ramping up for FGB IV, thus two FGBs on consecutive Thursdays.

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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The
stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of
"rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good
score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each
calorie is one point.

275 RX

Essentially the same score as last week. The transition to the rower at GWPC is poor, which cuts a handful of calories from the overall workout, but it would not have been enough to get me over 300, and it's not like I wasn't sufficiently miserable as it was.

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
SDHP	25	20	20	65
BJ	25	23	20	68
PP	15	15	12	42
Row	20	17	15	52
WB	21	12	15	48
TOTAL	106	87	82	155

Good pace out the gate, but it went south at the second row (and REALLY tanked in Wall-Ball, my God). The more I do this, the more I think I'm never going to get the additional 25 points I need in the second or third rounds. Next time this comes up, if I remember, I'm going to shoot for 125 in the first round, then just hang on for dear life through the next two rounds. I have to rely on that minute of rest to be sufficient to get me through.

FGB - Again

Warmup:run 400m, 10 pushups, pushpress skill work, wallball skill
practice

WOD:
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. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The
stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of
"rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good
score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each
calorie is one point.

Results:

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Row	15	13	14	42
Wall Ball *10#	1	4	4	9
SDHP	12	12	9	33
Box Step-ups	17	17	16	50
Push-Press	8	7	6	21
TOTAL	53	53	49	155

Comments:
I did better today than I did last week. My row, my SDHP and my push press - heck even, marginally, my wall ball, are up. The box step ups slid down a couple reps i'm sure just from not coming at them first thing. I was having a hard time keeping my balance today. (Likely from being thoroughly winded.) ANd though there was improvement from last week - it still falls short of my perfomance in April for pretty much every exercise except rowing.

the 14 and 15 on the ROW are definitely PR's.

The wall ball is still just absolutely ridiculously bad. even with the 10# ball. Where the hell did this skill go?

FGB

Warm up: run 800m, dowel practice of SDHP and PP

WOD:
Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Add your points and post them to comments.

Results:

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
Box Jump(Step up)	20	20	20	60
Push Press	6	6	6	18
Row	10	13	12	35
Wall Ball	0	2	2	4
SDHP	10	10	11	31
TOTAL	46	51	51	148

Comments:
Except for the row (and the box step-ups, which i didn't do last time to keep it rx) this is in every way worse than my last FGB. The wall ball was just embarrassingly bad. The 4 that I got were with the 10# ball. And I lost a couple points on just about everything else. I think it can be partially explained by the order of the exercises - I always try to start with the wallball, but I didn't get to do that today, and last time, I had a minute of rest before the push-presses - but as a whole this performance is dissapointing.

Fight Gone Bad!

Remember that relief I felt that I didn't have to do Fight Gone Bad at the cert this weekend? Yeah, me too.

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

270 RX

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
Wall-Ball 20#	25	20	21
SDHP 75#	20	20	15
Box Jump 20"	25	20	20
Push-Press 75#	15	10	10
Row	20	12	17

This felt so, so horrible. Five points lower than last time, nearly three months ago. However, there was an equipment malfunction on the rower in the second round that lost me a good 20 seconds, so I think it was essentially the same. Disappointing not to have any improvement in the score, but I am 10-15 pounds heavier than I was then, which does make it harder. Also, I didn't allow myself to do the circular KB-swing-style SDHP this time, which makes it much harder to crank out reps.

I need to get better at chaining together box jumps and push-presses.

Thrusters are the devil

Warmup: ME, movement drills with a dowell ... not too much else ... waiting around for heat #1 to finish.

WOD:
Five rounds for time of:
95* pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 15 reps
95* pound Thruster, 15 reps
*Subbed 45#


Results:
28:52

Comments:
I forgot to bring my watch to class so i do not have the splits for this. Which I find totally aggravating.

The SDHP were not a problem. I was generally able to do them in 1 set of 10-12 and then finish out the rest.

The thrusters - well - they're thrusters - they suck. I was able to do them in sets of 3-5 ... which means I probably should have used a slightly heavier weight - except that my time doesn't really indicate that it was too easy. My wrist(s) were really feeling worked by this workout, so I was taking a little extra rest between sets to try to let them ... I dunno - rest. I don't know why my wrists were so unhappy this week, and were just fine last week with a very similar workout. Probably due to using a different bar, and maybe a different grip. last week i used an empty oly bar. this week it was the15# alumalite with 15# bumpers.

Daniel said my form on the thrusters wasn't looking too bad. My depth was excellent, and my knees - while wobbly - were not in danger of actually knocking together. We'll see how squats go tonight.

Pick it up and put it over your head

I can't really say I have an ambivalent attitude towards thrusters. There's not much "ambi" there. I hate the fuckers. Consensus at CFEB is that they are the single nastiest exercise in the CrossFit canon - basically the demon offspring of a burpee and a barbell.

So with that in mind, you can imagine the joy with which we contemplated this puppy:

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 15 reps
95 pound Thruster, 15 reps

27:14RX

I'm not terribly proud of that time, but I'm quite happy about that "RX." Our thrusters are typically high-volume/low-weight, so I haven't attempted doing 95# thrusters for reps in many months, and I was worried about being able to do 75 of them. They were quite doable, which means that an RX Fran is now in my grasp. I'm anticipating having to do Fran at the cert next month, and I was afraid I'd have to scale it, which would have sucked. Now, whether I can do it in under 10 minutes or not is a different question...

As for this workout, I spent quite a lot of time resting. I typically knocked out the SDHPs in two quick sets of 8/7 - they weren't terribly difficult. The thrusters I did in sets of five across the board, and - since I didn't want to keep cleaning the bar - I didn't start a set until I was confident I could get five. I focused as much as I could on form, but my lower back was still hurting afterwards - probably from the high-pulls and from rounding my back at the bottom of the thruster.

I broke my ass.

Climbing this morning was my first clue that my body was not recovered from yesterday. I only did three 10B's, telling myself I was going to take it easy, and after the first climb my biceps/deltoids were screaming at me. I reluctantly agreed to listen to them and stop after only three climbs. I was worried about what would happen with the evening WOD.

Turns out the problem wasn't with my arms. It was with my ass.

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
75 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 21 reps
75 pound Thruster, 21 reps

21:08 DNF (3 rounds)

I had a good pace for the first two rounds - probably would have finished around 30-32 minutes, I think. Unfortunately, I developed a very painful cramp in the back of my left hip/glute, particularly on the SDHPs. I've felt a smaller version of this pain before, usually while running up hills, but this is the first time it has ever gotten so intense that it has prompted me to stop.

More stretching is in order, I think, as well as some hard ball rolling after workouts. Hopefully this won't develop into yet another chronic injury like my ankle and shoulder.

"I can stop any time this gets too hard ... "

Warmup: Jog 400m, lots of OHS and hip openers and running in place trying to stay warmed up while waiting for heat 1 to finish.

WOD:
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
75 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 21 reps
75 pound Thruster, 21 reps

Results:

Round	400m	SDHP	Thrusters	Round	Elapsed
1	2:22	7:03		9:25	9:25
2	2:39	1:46	5:51	10:16	19:41
3	2:40	2:03	6:42	11:25	31:06
4	2:46	2:28	7:36	12:50	43:56
5	2:51	2:36	6:25	11:52	55:48

Comments:
This workout was absolutely brutal. I nearly quit about half way through round 1 when some folks were heading out for the run on round 3 and I was still struggling through round 1 (The top finishers got this one done in 22-25 minutes). I forgot to hit the split timer between the SDHP and the thrusters on the first round, but I can guarantee that it was the thrusters that took the most time. I was only getting sets of 1 to 2 reps - 3 if I was lucky.

I just reminded myself of the mantra I discovered yesterday, with a slight (very effective) modification: "You can stop any time this gets too hard to continue." It's a very subtle shift from permission to a challenge. The stubborn mule in me is EXTREMELY reluctant to admit that ANYTHING is too hard, so if I have anything left, I'll keep going. Also, it helps me keep things in perspective. I know what hard is, I know the difference(generally) between pain indicative of an imminent injury and pain that is merely the discomfort brought on by hard work. The later does not count as "too hard".

Interestingly, my thrusters got better as the rounds went on. I found that I was able to string together as many as 5 in a row. The last round of thrusters went a lot faster than round 3 and 4 because Daniel came out to coach me and cheerlead me through it. Everyone else was long done, the sun was going down, and I was losing my determination. It made a huge difference to have him there urging me to pick up the bar and get it done. Thank you, honey!

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.

50% Blog week, too.

It has been a crazy hectic week with bad food and bad sleep big work deadlines and 50% workouts or no workouts and I just haven't had time or energy to devote to blogging.

Despite the 50% nature of the workouts, I feel pretty beat up. Probably mostly due to getting 2-3 hours less sleep per night than usual, and not eating particularly well.

Thursday, I did not make it to the gym @ all.

Friday's workout of OHS and pullups went OK - I managed to use 25# for the OHS - I thought I was going to sup pushups for pullups but my wrists hurt too much after the OHS. The first round, I tried paralette Pushups for a more neutral wrist position, but i got 5 before collapsing. Round 2 I did jumping pullups instead - and only got 11. My pullups have been weak/missing all week - i think from trying to get them legit on Wednesday, and the OHS on Friday. So - basically I got two sets of OHS done with some useless attepts at exercise in between.

For the first set of OHS I managed to get the firt 8 unbroken, and then in 2's and 3's after that. The 2nd rund i only made it to 6. OHS are hard.

Saturday's workout was a good one. Though i was glad to only be doing half volume.
My total time was 13:40

Round	SDHP	Burpees	Run 200m	Total
1	0:57	1:41	1:18	3:56
2	1:33	1:47	1:09	8:26
3	1:59	2:07	1:08	13:40

The running went well :-) The first roud of SDHP actually went quite well, too. Burpees just always suck.

Ok - I've just got to save this and move on - more to come: sunday's lifiting, and monday's climbing.

Fight Gone Bad!

For all the crazy variations we do in the FGB format, we don't actually do FGB all that often...or maybe I've just missed it, as I haven't actually done a plain-vanilla FGB since FGB III back in September. It was a long time ago, and I scored 239 with an injured ankle. This time, I set my sights considerably higher: 300, the fabled domain of the "advanced" athlete. It, uh...didn't quite work out that way.

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
SDHP 75#	25	25	20
Box Jump 20"	20	20	20
Push-Press 75#	15	15	10
Row	20	20	15
Wall-Ball 20#	20	17	13

275 RX

Still a PR by 36 points, so I'm fairly happy with it. If I can do that again NEXT time, I'll be in 300 land.

My strategy was to start at a 300 pace and hold it as long as I could. Turns out that was just shy of 2 full rounds, and then I had to drop back down to a 225 pace. The 300 pace is brutal! Max was riding me for most of the last round, and I probably owe about 15-20 points to his encouragement - I was really seeing stars by the end of it.

My weakness is still clearly the push-presses - I just don't have a great deal of push strength or endurance. I'm working on it with this strength routine, but it's slow going.