2010-04-30

Warmup: Run 800m

Warmup WOD:
15-12-9
Burpees
V-ups

5:20 (or so). These were the first "full speed" burpees I've done in a while - although i say "full speed" because they still weren't terribly fast. They went ok.

WOD

5x3 hang squat cleans
35#

DNF

I got 3 or 4 sets done, and then I just started just working on getting my chest upright on the squat, and then my right knee started hurting, so I called it a day.

2010-04-16

Warmup: Row 1000, burpees, Max Rep Pushup: 22

20RM Back Squat 5/12 (DNS - tweaked my knee a little doing burpees or warming up for the squats)

Followed by:

AMRAP* in 20 minutes:

10 Pull-Ups
10 Push-Ups
10 V-Ups

Results: 6 rounds, 10 pull-ups

1:57; 2:49; 2:10*; 4:42*; 3:41; 3:27; 1:08;
* accidentally hit the lap button while doing pushups - round 3 really took about 3:10 and round 4 really took about 3:42.

Clean and Jerks

Warmup:
21-15-9
Pushups and V-ups

Result: 7:00
Max said this should take 3 minutes - and several people came in right around the 3 minute mark. Not me - not even close - I came in more than twice that. Yay.

WOD:
Clean & Jerk 3-3-3-1-1-1

Results:
45-50-55-60-65f-60f

Comments:
I can barely walk today. My quads feel like they're about ready to peel themselves off my femurs in protest at their rough treatment of the last couple days. It's been a long time since I was this sore. I wasn't sure whether I was going to be able to get anything up. And, indeed, I could not get 55# up the first several times i tried it - I intended to do 55-55-55 for my sets of 3, but that just wasn't going to happen today.

Yet another illustration of how my training has gone to hell. *sigh* WTF.

I don't know whether it's a result of the great no dairy experiment, or of the last couple weeks of backing off a bit, but i had no idea I could lose so much ground so quickly. I feel truly pathetic.

Back to the grindstone I guess. This would probably be a good time to start that Oly Lifting cycle we've been talking about. Focus on regaining some bulk, some strength and some power.

Murph n' Stuff

Morning:

Sprint-8 on rower: 3375m
20 minutes light jogging on treadmill
5.9(o), 10b(o), 10b(o)

The rower went well - I was able to maintain a 1:30 pace on all the sprints, which I think is an improvement (I haven't done this in a while). The first two climbs weren't too bad, although my arms were sending warning signals. The third climb, a long climb that had a bit of everything - roof, arete and stemming - started my arms screaming. So I didn't continue.

Evening:
I remember when Murph was a workout to be dreaded, one approached with much grimacing and wincing. My first knee-jerk reaction when I saw it posted was "oh, no." But once I thought about it a little, I realized that in comparison to the shit we've been doing every week, Murph is really not that big a deal. So when we lined up on the starting line, I didn't have any butterflies of dread flitting around in my stomach.

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

44:36 (no vest, subbed v-ups for pullups)

V-ups are considerably easier than pullups, but I wanted to actually finish a Friday workout without the agony in my biceps, so I don't regret my choice - it was really nice to do the workout without pain. I went in ten rounds of 10 v-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, and that went fairly well. Here are the splits:

run 1: 7:30
round 1: 2:31
round 2: 2:17
round 3: 3:16
round 4: 3:16
round 5: 3:17
round 6: 3:13
round 7: 2:58
round 8: 3:04
round 9: 2:47
round 10: 2:27.5
run 2: 6:59

Fairly consistent. The limiter was, once again, the pushups - will I ever be able to consistently knock out sets of 10? I dunno, it seems my chest strength is very reluctant to develop. The squats were actually pretty damn hard for the first three rounds or so, until my body warmed up to them - after last night's max-effort with them, the muscles were surprisingly uncooperative. The V-ups were fine - the last few sets involved some grunting, but I was always able to knock out 10 consecutive.

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.

5x5's, and a couple level 2's

I wanted to knock out the last couple skills on the list that I thought I could achieve, so as part of my warmup today I did:

30 V-ups
Handstand hold: 1 minute

The V-ups weren't pretty, but there were 30 of them, and I BARELY got my minute hold - the last few seconds were agony, and it killed my wrists, but I'm happy to have those done. Everything that's left on the list is something I'm gonna have to fight for.

5x5's
Back Squat: 140
Bench Press: 135

From comments on the forums about the video I posted a week ago, I ditched the pad, held the bar lower on my back, kept a neutral neck position, and tried to keep the weight on my midfoot instead of rocking forward onto the balls of my feet. This was successful, and in some ways made the squats more comfortable, but they also felt harder than last week. But I think the form IS better, and I could more easily drop below parallel.

The bench was hard, but just manageable. I'm 45# from bodyweight (level 2) on this, and it just seems so far away. According to online one-rep max estimators, I'll be able to 1RM 180# when I can 5 x 160#. That's 25# away. Seems more doable. I'll keep plugging away at it.

Man Overboard!

As I was staring at the pool of sweat coalescing on the floor under my head during the Supermen of round 2, a couple of thoughts were swirling in my head - inasmuch as I was capable of thinking of anything. 1) I felt embarassed for myself and somewhat sorry for Raphael, who had to follow my sweaty and towel-forgetting self from one station to the next, and 2) that this workout was just what the doctor ordered.

I felt strangely "bleah" today. Lumpish. Gross. A little queasy. Could be because I didn't get my Friday morning climbing in (Tor is still nursing his thigh). I think perhaps I overdid it on the protein yesterday, and was paying the nutritional piper today. Or it was just being stuck inside working for most of the day, and my body craves more activity. Whatever the cause, a torturous metcon was just the RX (as it were), and I felt much better afterwards. Why, I do believe I have become addicted to exercise.

2 Rounds:

1. Row 250 Meters
2. Push-ups
3. Med Ball Clean 14#
4. V-Ups
5. Med Ball Jerk 14#
6. Supermen
7. Med Ball Front Squat 20#
8. Feet Anchored STRICT Sit-Ups
9. Jump Squats
10. Burpees

This is a Version of "Man Overboard" from CrossFit NYC Black Box.

The rower is the 'pace car'.

The time it takes to row is the time you have to do each movement.

Upon completion of the row, the rower yells out "Man Overboard" and the coach calls "Rotate" or "Switch", everyone then moves to the next station.

There is no rest in this workout: as soon as the Coach calls "Rotate" you may start the next exercise. Total score is total reps completed. The row does not count towards points. If you are trying for the highest score, you want to row as fast as possible to prevent others from being able to complete a lot of reps. However the trade-off in metabolic capacity of going full-bore must be considered as well.

Final score: 367
round 1: 200 | round 2: 167

Pushup: 20 | 15
Med Ball Clean: 18 | 10
V-Up: 19 | 16
Med Ball Jerk: 22 | 20
Supermen: 29 | 29
Med Ball Front Squat: 28 | 25
Situp: 22 | 25
Jump Squat: 30 | 20
Burpee: 12 | 7

Not much to note here, really. I think the 30 V-Ups for Level II are closer than I had previously thought, perhaps already within my grasp. I think the extra weight from the bulking is making metcons and climbing more difficult, but the flipside is that it'll be that much easier when I take the weight off again, so I don't mind too much.

Max showed us the roof of the Power Company where he will be holding classes, when the workout calls for it. It looks very cool. Both literally and figuratively - on foggy or rainy days it'll be COLD up there. He's going to make a huge stack of sandbags to do more heavy weight work. I for one am looking forward to it. Too bad getting the GWPC during rush hour is such a pain in the ass.

Man overboard!

Warmup: mobility exercises, 10 burpees, 5 pushups, 5-10 of each of the exercises in the workout to learn them and practice them.

WOD @ GWPC 8-08-08 "Man Overboard"

2 Rounds:

1. Row 250 Meters
2. Push-ups
3. Med Ball Clean 14#
4. V-Ups
5. Med Ball Jerk 14#
6. Supermen
7. Med Ball Front Squat 20#
8. Feet Anchored STRICT Sit-Ups
9. Jump Squats
10. Burpees

If there are fewer than 10 athletes, the coach will row the extra 250s.

This is a Version of "Man Overboard" from CrossFit NYC Black Box.

The rower is the 'pace car'.

The time it takes to row is the time you have to do each movement.

Upon completion of the row, the rower yells out "Man Overboard" and the coach calls "Rotate" or "Switch", everyone then moves to the next station.

There is no rest in this workout: as soon as the Coach calls "Rotate" you may start the next exercise. Total score is total reps completed. The row does not count towards points. If you are trying for the highest score, you want to row as fast as possible to prevent others from being able to complete a lot of reps. However the trade-off in metabolic capacity of going full-bore must be considered as well.

Results:
Reps Time AvgHR

1. Med Ball Clean 14# (Mathew)
   13 0:55 146|10 0:55 162
   
2. V-Ups (Evelyn)
   30 1:31 146 |21 1:23 159
3. Med Ball Jerk 14# (Daniel)
   14 1:14 155|13 1:15 164
4. Supermen (Max|Raphael)
   32 1:19 146|32 1:07 163
5. Med Ball Front Squat 20# (Nicole|Max)
   13 1:16 158 |13 1:00 165
6. Feet Anchored STRICT Sit-Ups (Elaine)
   23 1:21 130 |25 1:23 157
7. Jump Squats (Alex)
   19 0:58 161|19 1:04 165
8. Burpees (Darius)
   9 1:33 165 |7 1:23 164
9. Row 250 Meters (Rebecca)
   1:26 169 | 1:36 171
10. Push-ups (Bill)
    12 1:14 177 |10 1:19 170 (stopped my watch a little slow)
    
    Round 1 Total: 165
    Round 2 Total: 150
    Total: 315
    

Comments:
This was fun. Pretty happy that for the most part my reps between round 1 & 2 were pretty consistent. My pushups were all full ROM (!) :-D . Ironically, i think the only exercise that wasn't 100% Rx was the burpees. >.< Burpees directly after jump squats ... suck.