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.)

Death due to Tuck Jump (not quite the same as 'by')

Warm up: ME, Run 800m, 5 KB swings, 5 pushups, 5 KB cleans

WOD:
For Time:

7 Rounds

Run 100 Meters
5 Kettlebell Swing 2P/1.5P *1P
10 Push-Up
15 Kettlebell Clean 1.0P/.75P
20 Double-Under *Tuck Jumps

Results:
33:21

4:06 | 4:24 | 4:46 | 5:00 | 5:05 | 5:30 | 4:30

Comments:
I was seriously only going to do 3 - maybe 4 rounds of this. But I kept remembering that i was going to stop after doing the run - and i couldn't stop part way through a round now could I ... Jeez.

Everything here was really manageable - except the Tuck Jumps. OMG do tuck jumps really really suck. A lot. I MUST figure out how to do a double-under because tuck jumps will kill me. My left ankle feels a little bruised from the repeated heavy landings - i am not a graceful jumper, and I know my abs are not going to let me off lightly for punishing them further - they barely agreed to be on speaking terms with me this morning.

The one bright spot where these are concerned is that they look a lot better than they used to - most of the time I can get my feet reasonably far off the ground and my knees reasonably close to my chest - instead of the wimpy little jumps that used to pass for tuck jumps. But holy hell do I dislike this exercise.

I checked my time on my runs and they were all within the 35-45 second range. My last one was about 36. I spent a lot of time between exercises just trying to catch my breath. I know on at least one round I accidentally did more than 5 KB swings - i think there might have been a round of cleans that went over, too. And I lost count on my tuck jumps in round 6 - so i may have done a few extra of those f**ers too.

The KB swings felt pretty solid - though I didn't always get them all the way overhead. I counted them if hey were above eye level, but I definitely got several full ROM reps.

The pushups felt really solid. I definitely feel like these are one exercise I can really do now. I think only maybe the first round or two were unbroken. Typically it was a set of 7 and a set of 3. I was very consciously trying to make sure every rep was strict form, keeping my core solid. (another cause for my abs to exact revenge upon me).

The cleans were ... well they were fantastic on my left side. I was struggling with my right. I always started off with my right hand and got as many as I could with it, and then would finish out on my left. It was so easy with my left though, that I had ample time to try to figure out what it was that I was doing with my left that I was missing on my right, and after the workout was over (doh!) I took the opportunity to figure it out. There's the hip pop, and then this slight jerk back with the elbow - sort of like starting a lawnmower that keeps the KB close to the body. And I was missing the 'elbow jerk' on the right side. This causes the KB to really whack ya when it lands. I'll have to play with it some more. My right side tends to forget stuff if I don't work it repeatedly and often. >:-p (lame.)

I think that if i hadn't done every CF workout this week, this workout would not have been such a killer, but, I did, and it was. Not sure how I am going to accomplish any climbing tomorrow. Maybe just low nuimbers focused on form and technique. And lots of belaying ...

"The 42"

Every year (so the story goes, as handed down by Evelyn), Max chooses a slate of his favorite exercises, and then combines them into a birthday workout to inflict upon the rest of us. This is his right as our trainer, and I do not begrudge him. And so, Sunday found us doing this...

42 Inverted Burpees
42 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
42 C2B Pull-Ups
42 KB Snatch Left 1.5P/1.0P
42 KB Snatch Right 1.5P/1.0P
42 Burpees
42 Double-Unders

41:11, 1.5 and 1P, Tuck Jumps

The inverted burpees were not as scary as I had anticipated, although I do have a goose-egg from continually bonking my head against the wall ~39 times. I did pullups on the rings, and they were pretty horrible - 6 sets of 7. So much harder than they should be. I REALLY need to get back on the GTG wagon with these guys. The snatches were far better on the right (3x14) than the left (6x7). It occurs to me that I really should step up to the 2 pood KB swing when the volume isn't too insane, so that I can develop a stronger hip pop and so the 1.5 pood doesn't seem so scary for snatching. I have the movement down, I'm just nervous about putting that much weight over my head, and the stress it puts on my shoulder and elbow.

Later that night, we went to Little Shin-Shin on Piedmont Ave to celebrate the Birthday Boy. It was PACKED! I think CFEB took up fully half the dining room, at two big (and augmented) tables. A fun time - CFEB folks are good folks, and we like hanging out with them socially as well as...er...exercisorially.

The 42 - Max's birthday WOD

Warm up: ME, 10 squats, 5 burpees, 1 terrifying handstand hold of about 5 seconds, 10 KB swing (16kg) 5 kb snatch each arm (8kg)

WOD: *subs

42 Inverted Burpees *regular burpees)
42 KB Swing 2P/1.5P *1P
42 C2B Pull-Ups *Jumping Pullups
42 KB Snatch Left 1.5P/1.0P *8kg
42 KB Snatch Right 1.5P/1.0P *8kg
42 Burpees
42 Double-Unders *tuck jumps

Results:
38:16

Exercise	Time
Burpees	7:10
KB Swing	4:23
Pullups	3:36
KB Snatch - R	7:02
KB Snatch - L	3:38
Burpees	8:43
Tuck Jumps	3:43

Comments:
Uh - LOL - looking at the times, I think I might have done as much as 10 too many snatches on my right side ... I kept losing count - and at one point i couldn't remember whether i was on 23 or 32 ... so I went with 23 ... I mean - i took a couple breaks - and I forgot to hit my timer for the left until I was 3 or 4 into the left - but I really cannot imagine that 42 right took twice as long as 42 left - at least not today when the form was really clicking and I was pretty easily able to string reps together - even on my RIGHT!

In fact, I'm very excited about finally getting this with weight on my right side - the form was working so well - that I thinkI probably could have managed to work with the 12kg KB, but I'm glad I did do it with the lighter weight, and really nailed the form.

The burpees sucked - but I did a little math, and even though i added 1:30 to the second round of them, that actually is only about 2 extra seconds per burpee. Really not bad, I think.

Daniel has said that he will take some time to work with me on handstand holds. - I really need to just take some time specifically to really work on them. I tried 1 in the warmup, and it did not go well. Daniel basically had to lift me up because I was too scared to kick up, and once i was there I just got really anxious. It wasn't a strength thing - I felt like my arms and shoulders could hold it, but I was just really afraid of falling. I'm determined to keep working on these though.

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 50 -> Funky 40

Warmup: Mobility Exercises, run 160m

WOD:

Filthy Fifty (Funky 40)
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box *step-up to 24"
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Dumbell or Plate Swings, 35 pounds *25# plate
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows *knees to chest
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Supermans
50 Thrusters, 45 pounds *25# plate
50 Burpees
50 Double unders *tuck jumps

Results:
50:30

Splits:
5:49 - Box step-ups & jumping pullups
3:43 - Plate Swings
3:14 - Walking Lunges
4:43 - Knees to chest
10:46 - Push Press
1:59 - Supermen
8:22 - Thrusters
8:12 - Burpees
3:42 - Tuck Jumps

Comments:
As Daniel points out, I did 30% more work in 10% more time, so I guess I did better than last time, but looking at my splits ... most of the "improvement" appears to have come from doing a 1-for-1 replacement of my step ups to a 24" box instead of a 3-for-1 replacement of doing step-ups to a 10" box.

My Back extensions and Knees-to-chest were better - but they might be just because i didn't have to go down a flight of stairs to do them.

The push-presses were much longer - a little more than twice! - but they were 15# heavier this time, so I don't feel bad about that.

The thrusters ... I dunno the weight was about the same - but I am inclined to believe that doing them with a plate is somehwat harder than doing them with a comparably weighted bar. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I'm relatively happy with the burpees - it only took me 14 more seconds to do 10 more burpees. Unfortunately, the pushup movement really started to hurt the tweaked spot in my back, so I had to start using my knees around rep 15 or 20.

Meh. I had hoped for better improvement.

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.

WODs and climbing - not quite BFF

WOD 6-26-08

For time:
50 Sit-ups
50 Double-Unders
50 Sit-ups
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Sit-ups
50 Burpees
50 Sit-ups

*Mod - did twice as many rounds of 25 reps each.

Results
Total 23:04

Breakdown:
1. 25 Sit-ups 0:49.0
2. 25 Tuck-jumps 0:32.4
3. 25 Sit-ups 1:03.6
4. Walking Lunge, 25 steps 1:45.0
5. 25 Sit-ups 1:25.6
6. 25 Burpees 4:14.0
7. 25 Sit-ups 1:24.4
8. 25 Sit-ups 1:10.8
9. 25 Tuck-jumps 0:37.8
10. 25 Sit-ups 1:07.4
11. Walking Lunge, 25 steps 1:18.6
12. 25 Sit-ups 2:17.1*
13. 25 Burpees 4:07.5
14. 25 Sit-ups 1:11.6

*The times for rounds 12 & 13 are a little skewed - much of the time for round 12 actually belongs to round 13 - i forgot to hit the button on my watch.

Climbing
5.9 clean, 5.9 - not clean

Comments
SO ... my coworker friends who we were SUPPOSED to take climbing BOTH flaked on me. I was super disappointed. This is the 3rd time in as many weeks that at least one of the three of us haven't been able to make it, and one of them is leaving on Tuesday for a 3 week vacation, and I doubt that I will get one without the other, so maybe it will work sometime in August ... or September

Daniel was able to get in touch with another climbing friend of ours who agreed to meet us later in the evening for some climbing, so we decided to go to the gym at the time we had originally planned to go and do the CFEB WOD on our own. Daniel brought egg salad wraps with him when he came so we could have a bit of dinner in between CF and climbing. (He's so awesome )

I'm pretty pleased with how this workout went. I split the rounds in half, originally intending to only do half. Despite eating pretty consistently throughout the day, i still felt pretty tired and wanted to scale the workout according to what I thought i could manage. Of course by the time I got to the end of the first half rounds, and Daniel was still working on his burpees, I thought - "that wasn't so bad, I could do that again", so I did! And the second set of rounds actually felt better than the first.

All of the rounds of situps were unbroken. The walking lunges were essentially unbroken - except for having to repeatedly catch my balance. (Fortunately I was walking back and forth along a wall) And except for a couple brief pauses to stretch my shoulders, the burpees were also largely unbroken, particularly in the second round (though not by any means speedy - just ... steady).

By the time we finished it was just about time for us to meet our friend Kat (not the same as my friend Katherine). So we scarfed our dinner. Kat only had an hour to climb so she went first. She's a good climber, and fun to watch. She's very good about keeping her weight on her feet. When it was my turn I was feeling pretty peppy, and I really wanted to try some of the 10a's I've been eying, but better sense prevailed, and I decided to to warm up with a 5.9 . Good thing too. I warmed up with my old friend Thriller - and it was a lot harder than the last time I climbed it. Drat. Since I am fairly certain the climb hadn't changed, and the laws of gravity hadn't changed, it must've be me. Apparently the adrenaline rush from the CF workout makes me FEEL like i can climb anything - but the reality is something else entirely. I still climbed it clean - it just wasn't graceful.

I've never climbed directly after a WOD before, and I think the intensive ab work from the WOD did not do my climbing any favors. You really rely on those core muscles to keep your body as close to the wall as possible, and they were all tuckered out.

The gym was actually kind of crowded, so my choice of climbs was fairly limited when it came back to being my turn, the 5.8 on the negative incline wall was taken, so I decided to revisit the 5.9 on the negative incline wall I did on Sunday. I think I did some parts better just due to being more familiar with the climb, and i think i did it more quickly than I did on Sunday, but I still had to rest several times, and there were too many instances of scrambling to get up instead of intelligently using my legs and balance when possible. It's just really hard to stop and think about that when my forearms are burning from holding me on the (evil negative incline) wall. This is definitely a climb i want to keep doing until I can manage it clean.

After me Daniel climbed once (he was going to be back to climb early the next morning, so he was pretty happy just belaying and keeping us company) and then it was Kat's turn, and then it was time for her to go, and Daniel and i decided we were pretty ready to go, too.

So it was sort of a mixed day. I didn't do as well with the climbing as I had expected I would, but I did a lot better at the WOD. We didn't get home until late, and I wanted to try to get a full night's sleep, so that's why this log is a day late. (I really enjoy writing these log posts, but they take forever to write )

Tonight we opted to go out to dinner with Daniel's Dad and his Aunt who we haven't seen in a while, so I didn't get to workout today, but the extra rest was probably a good thing.

In non-workout news, I got officially got a promotion and a raise today!! I've known about the promotion for a while. My company is moving me from Accounts Receivable, and basically training me to be a cost accountant - except without the 'training' per se since we've never really had a cost accountant, and no one has any time to really 'teach' me, so it's kind of a 'toss her in and see how she does' kind of thing. I've essentially been doing the work for the past month and a half or more - and there had been some vague conversation about additional compensation, but the company isn't actually doing so well right now, so I didn't have any expectation of that happening any time soon. So, today, my boss swings by my desk ans asks if he can 'steal me for a few minutes'. What a nice gift for a Friday!

We're supposed to go for a longish bike ride with some friends tomorrow to do a little training for the Metric century we're all doing in Mid July. I hope the air clears up enough for us to go without burning our lungs. Yuck. I haven't been on my road bike all month, and I'm starting to get really worried about just having the stamina to sit on my saddle for that long. We're going to head out to the coast in the hopes that things are clearer out there.