I had an unexpected day off from daddy duties this weekend, so I thought I’d head up to Connecticut to see my long lost friend Zach. Turns out he was running the Hartford Half Marathon with my great pal Dave. I had nothing better to do, so I figured I’d run it with them. The last time I’d run farther than a mile was last December (also with Zach and Dave) so I wasn’t exactly well prepared.
Anyway, things started off fine - we couldn’t have asked for better weather and I even ate a couple of bananas before we got going. I started getting some ankle, knee, and hip pain at around mile 4, which gimpified my stride. My friends ditched me at around mile 6 and my pace really started to drag. When the elderly, obese, and clubfoot contingency started passing me like I wasn’t moving I knew I was in trouble. I kept chugging along and eventually finished in 1:59:46, which is an average pace of 9:09. Since we ran the first half at about 8m/m pace, the second half was probably about 10m/m or more. It was a pretty miserable showing.
Ran around the block twice with the 6am crew (with David pedaling along like Doc) before jumping into warmup 1:
- 15 Hollow Rocks
- 16 Walking Overhead Lunges (45lb)
- 10 Ring Pushups
- 7 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x, then some foam rolling on the tspine and lats. Then we had 15 minutes to work up to a heavy push press in prep for today’s WOD.
3 minute AMRAP:
- 3 Push Presses (155lb)
- 6 Pullups
- 9 Squats
Repeat 3x, resting 1 minute between 3 minute sets.
I finished 3 full rounds, 2 rounds + 3 PP, and 1 round + 3 PP. Struggled mightily with those push presses, so I didn’t get the most out of this. Had a few failed attempts in there. Shouldn’t have gone so heavy. 135 probably would have been perfect to keep moving at a face pace throughout.
Back at the gym for a 6am after my Berlin adventure. Started with warmup 1:
- 15 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Air Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 8 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x, then onto the real WOD:
Diane - 21, 15, 9:
- Deadlifts (225lb)
- Handstand pushups
Time: 17:37. Possibly the worst performance of my crossfit career. All deadlifts were unbroken (easy peasy), but HSPUs were a total shitshow. Knocked out the first 16 full ROM, then went to 1 abmat after a few failed reps, then to 2 abmats after a few more failed reps (before finishing out the round of 21). The sets of 15 and 9 were ugly too with lots of failed reps.
Jogged to the box, then did a light 500m row before the official warmup.
Warm up 2:
- 30 sec Front/Supine Plank (alternate each round)
- 10 Reverse Lunges / Leg
- 10 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
Back Squats:
NFT circuit after that:
- 15 Strict Toes-to-bar
- 15 Single Leg Romanian Deadlift / leg (1.5pood)
Those squats were harder than they should have been. Need to get better acquainted with the bottom position so I can get that bounce out of the hole.
I missed a good chunk of crush week workouts and now we’re into backoff week. Luckily today was an ass-kicker anyway. Some lax ball rolling to start, then:
- 5 min rowing
- 5 min jump rope practice
Repeat 3x
We did some ladders with stroke rate on the rower to make things more challenging. It was great to get some time to really focus on form. I was pretty wrecked from each rowing interval, so the jump rope was mostly recovery / working on different combos. High sweat index today, kids.
It’s hot out, fellas. Even with the air conditioning pumping (which I’m against), the school is still a little hot box on days like today. I literally had to wring my shirt out in the sink between classes today.
First class was tough - after the warmup we drilled a few sections of Gung Ji a bunch of times. Then we worked on a few techniques in those sections. Second class was more of the same, but I worked out a bit less and instructed a bit more - I was all out of sweat.
The school was stuffy as hell today and the sweat started flowing as soon as I did the TWBS warmup before class. Took the first crew through lots of basics and then drilled some basic hand techniques. After they scurried off, I ran through Tiet Sien Kuen with my Sihings a few times.
I took a back seat for the first class of the evening and assisted Al in teaching. Ended up drilling a bit of the technique with the class, but took it easy for the most part. Worked out along side the second class and got an unhealthy sweat going. It was hot as fuck in the school.
- 3 min run, 15mph (1 min rest)
- 3 min bike, 120rpm (1 min rest)
Repeat 4x for a total of 24 minutes of work. I think the treadmill at the gym was a little off…or maybe I’m just fast as hell now. Either way this was a killer. Less than a month until the Muddy Buddy!
Started by doing 3 rounds of Cindy as a warmup, then went into squat work. Started light again and worked up to 245lb for 3 sets of 5 reps. The form felt really good at times but it’s still inconsistent. I gotta keep thinking of my cues when I’m squatting: look down, chest up, elbows back, ass out, etc. Lifting the toes a little also helps me keep the weight on my heels.
Coach Keith also introduced me to the power clean today. I was having a hard time connecting the deadlift to the jump at first so he had me deadlift the bar for a full rep, touch and go on the floor, and then explode up into the clean. This seemed to do the trick of preventing me from stalling. After a shitload of singles like that, I was feeling pretty strong on the form (and feeling better about my deadlift form too). The keys here are keeping the bar really close to my body and using the hamstrings/hips to drive the jump, not the arms. All the arms need to do is circle under the weight when it’s in motion. I was using 135lb for the majority of time here and probably did about 20 singles.
Another important correction I got from Keith during the power clean training is that because I have long legs and a short torso (the anti-Zach), I need to start the deadlift from an almost horizontal back position. If I try to use the textbook approach, the weight will be too far over my toes and throw off the entire movement. Good to know.
- Med Ball Woodchoppers x 30 sec
- Med Ball Slams x 30 sec
- Jumping Jacks x 30 sec
- Burpees x 30 sec (10)
- Chinnies x 30 sec
Repeat 6x, resting 30 sec between rounds.
I searched the GPP archives for the worst individual exercises and tried to include a bunch of em in today’s circuit. I thought it would be interesting to see which was the worst today but it was no contest - the chinnies took it. That got me thinking that maybe the placement in the circuit has some effect on the pain. I’ll try something similar with the chinnies earlier in the circuit and see if they still kill me. I couldn’t get an unbroken set of those bastards after the first round today.
I also decided that I need to set up a sort of baseline for maintaining the intensity. I’m thinking that Crossfit’s tabata scoring system — keep the lowest number of reps you complete — may work for my purposes. For example my lowest burpee count in the 6 circuits was 10. So in the future, the 30 sec burpee baseline will be 10. Woodchoppers and slams came in about 16 but I still need to figure out the rest, record em, then hold myself to that standard for every GPP session.
I was digging through the archives and realized I hadn’t done Ross’s Magic 50 in a while. Grabbed a 65lb dumbbell and went to work:
- 5 DB Snatches/ Arm
- 5 DB Swings/ Arm
- 10 Burpees
Repeat 5x
Total time: 11:20. This was the first time it ever took me over 10 minutes, but it was the heaviest I’ve ever gone as well (used a 50 last time and finished in the 9 minute range). Finished with 3 sets of 10 pullups. I felt absolutely terrible and am still recovering from this one an hour later.
I did some experimenting with weights before I started and settled on the 65lber. I was actually planning on using the 75 before I got to the gym, but that just wasn’t happening with the 1 arm swing. Also did 5 TGUs/side with the 65 before starting. Man, I had somehow convinced myself that this one wasn’t that bad. Just goes to show that I wasn’t going heavy enough before and these workouts are as hard as you make them.
Heavy strength day.
- 1 Arm DB Snatch
- 3 x 80lb
- 3 x 90lb
- 2 x 100lb
- 2 x 100lb
- 1 Arm DB Clean and Press
- Turkish Get Ups
- 3 x 50lb
- 2 x 70lb
- 1 x 85lb (PR)
- Simple pair, repeat 4x:
- Weighted Pullups - 5 x 90lb, 2 x 135lb, 1 x 145lb, 3 x 100lb
- Weighted Dips - 8 x 45lb, 4 x 90lb, 3 x 100lb, 2 x 100lb
- Finisher: DB Swings
I tried doing the snatches before the C&P since they’re such similar movements and I usually do it in the reverse order. Sure enough, I was stronger on the snatch than the C&P this time. Also hit another PR with TGU. Failed at my first attempt on the left, but gave myself a minute and got the full rep. Those weighted pulls tore up my hips. It’s definitely time for a new weight belt.
Jump rope intervals:
- 10 x 60 sec (rest 30 sec)
- 10 x 30 sec (rest 15 sec)
15 minutes of hard work. Tried to stick to high-knee-sprint-in-place and double unders for the duration, but I had to mix in a little basic skipping at the end. I was stringing the double unders together pretty well - got 20+ several times.
I suggested the Deck of Cards workout for today and Frank upped the ante by asking for the straight pushup/burpee variation. The card’s value determines the number of reps (Ace is 11, face cards are 10):
- Reds = Burpees
- Blacks = Pushups
- Jokers = 25 Med Ball Slams
Total time: 31:47. That’s 192 reps of each exercise. Oh, and each burpee also contains a full pushup, which made this especially gruelling. We were really looking forward to the jokers for a change of pace. Frank beat me by about 10 seconds again.
Previously: 4/7/08; 3/19/08
