Workout dates: 7/30/15 and 7/31/15
I tend not to get drunk very often. It's not that I don't drink my fair share, it's more that I often take on the role of being the responsible one when I'm out with people. I also tend to be a laid-back social drinker. I can drink for hours and hours, but I don't drink particularly fast. If it is some special occasion, then I may get drunk, but other than that, it rarely happens. (Ummm...thanks Dave for the random information.)
Why am I telling you this? Because I must have been drunk last week when I wrote to Giulz, Michal, and Rachel telling them that I would be willing to do the 6am class this Friday. What else would have driven me to making such a foolish declaration? In fact, I didn't even remember writing this until Rachel sent me a screenshot of the text I wrote. There's a part of me that believes my phone may have been stolen for a short period of time by some sadistic human being that doesn't want me enjoying my sleep, but I have no evidence to prove my theory.
Before getting to the recap of an amazingly lousy workout this morning, I wanted to write a little bit about the running clinic last night. The beginning of the clinic involved Tim talking about interval training, why it is so effective, and the different ways one can interval train. He also went into detail about fartleks, which is pretty much the most unfortunate Swedish word ever (it translates into "speed play"). The idea behind fartleks is that you vary your run between sprints and recovery, with both the sprints and the recovery being of different lengths depending on how you feel and what you are trying to accomplish. We did one of these on the track and one around the nearby baseball field. On the track, we would jog until we heard Tim blow the whistle, which was our cue to start sprinting. When the whistle blew a second time, we could slow down to a jog again. Over at the baseball field, we did the same thing without a whistle. We were encouraged to feel the run out and incorporate our sprints in as we saw fit. Both of the fartleks were six minutes in length.
Since we didn't do a lot of running at the clinic, I thought of Thursday as a bit of an active recovery day. That was good, because Friday was meant to be a rest day until I received the damning text I wrote a week earlier. I told the girls that I expected muscle-ups to be in the workout because I couldn't remember the last time we did them. Here's Friday's WOD:
Skill: 15 minutes of working on developing a muscle-up
Followed by:
5 muscle-ups
5 bear complex (95/65)
4 muscle-ups
4 bear complex
3 muscle-ups
3 bear complex
2 muscle-ups
2 bear complex
1 muscle-ups
1 bear complex
*Bear complex is a power clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press combo without letting the bar touch the floor
Apparently I'm psychic when I'm sober. Who knew? Anyway, none of this sounded wonderful to me and it was even less appealing when my alarm went off at 5:15 this morning. I managed to keep my shower to less than 90 minutes and made it over to the gym for the 6am class. After a warmup, we practiced muscle-ups and I was not remotely close. My hands are still beaten up from recent pull-up work and trying to yank my entire body up over the rings with my frail hands was not going to happen.
I was planning on doing jumping muscle-ups instead, but Steph mentioned that she didn't think they were a good scale for actual muscle-ups. As a result, I'd be doing ring rows and ring dips at double the reps. Not super excited about doing that, but whatever. The bear complex was something I've done before as a WOD in and of itself. When you are doing it as the WOD, you get 5 attempts to do 7 rounds of the complex at a weight of your choosing. I believe I've gotten to 135 before, so 95 pounds doing less than 7 rounds at a time didn't sound too harrowing.
With everything set up, we finally got going. Ring rows are a movement I don't love because I think it's way too easy to cheat on them and even when you're keeping proper form, they feel goofy. But I got through 10 reps and then went to do dips. I managed 6 in a row, then did 2 sets of 2. I had hoped to get all 10, so having to break up the last 4 into two sets was a red flag. When I got to my barbell, I did the bear complex slowly for unknown reasons. I imagine it was because I still wasn't fully awake yet.
Things went south when round 2 began. The 8 ring rows I split up into 4 and 4. Then on the dips, my arms gave out. I could only manage 3 before needing a band. And then one band wasn't enough. With two bands, I could complete the set, although I suspected my troubles with one band were due to the height of the rings. The gathering of the bands set me way behind everyone else. Plus it wasn't even 7am yet, so you can imagine how pleased I was. I stomped over to my barbell and took out my anger on the bear complex. I did all 4 sets very quickly.
When I came back to the rings, I did my ring rows, then adjusted the rings lower before doing my dips. Once the rings were a bit closer to the bands, things went much better. From there on out, I moved at a good clip, especially through the bear complex rounds. Even though I was the last one done, I did make up some time near the end, stopping the clock at 14 minutes flat.
Given that this was supposed to be a rest day, it was hard for me to be too disappointed by how things turned out. Plus it included a movement that I struggle with. So I'm not going to be too down about how today went as I enjoy my rest day tomorrow. I will probably drop by to do back squats, but that's all. Might even take a second rest day on Sunday depending on how I feel.
Enjoy the weekend!
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
One Ambitious Jerk
Workout date: 7/29/15
I wasn't there to witness it, but I have it from some good sources that Doctor Coach Giulz hit a PR on her jerk tonight. And then she went ahead and jerked even more weight. Don't mess with Doctor Coach Giulz!
It was 1RM Jerk night at the gym this evening, but I was going to start off with some strength work before I hit up the WOD. I had started a new back squat program on Monday that requires squatting 3 nights per week. I know I won't be at the gym on Friday (update: this may no longer be true), so doing it on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday seemed like a good plan. With that in mind, I snuck over to the annex to get in my squats for today. The program called for 6 sets of 2 reps at 235 pounds on Monday, but for today I was doing 6 sets of 3 reps at the same weight. I also lucked out by having Leslie and Jim C in attendance to watch me because I was apparently doing some funky stuff the other night. More specifically, I was rocking back and forth during the lift. As you might imagine, that isn't the best way to move around 235 pounds.
I honestly believe that the rocking was mostly due to the fact that I was tired out when I went to do the squats on Monday, but that wasn't the complete explanation as I still had some minor rocking going on tonight as I warmed up. Once again, I started with 5 reps at 135 and 4 reps at 185. Leslie told me that I was rocking when I did the first two reps at 185 and then all of a sudden I kept my feet planted for the final two reps. The only logical explanation for such behavior is that I'm a head case, but you already knew that.
When it came to the sets at 235, I didn't experience too much trouble. In a couple of weeks I will need to be able to handle six sets of six reps at this weight, so it isn't all that surprising that six sets of three reps wasn't overly cumbersome. However, it was a contrast to the other night where each set of two felt like work. I probably should re-consider doing the six sets of two reps after a WOD. On one hand, I felt like it wasn't much volume, so I could handle it. But if my legs are fried like they were on Monday, it's probably better to save it for another day.
I had a little bit of time between the end of Open Strength and the 7:30 class so I stretched out while waiting to see if I would be the only person attending that class. The 6:30 class was a de facto personal training session, so it was very possible that Keith would be hanging out with only yours truly at 7:30. Instead, I got to work out with two people who recently completed the Summer Shape Up program, Chris and Danielle. And I have to say I was impressed. I remember how bad my form was when I started. I don't even need to remember as I still have pretty bad form with a lot of movements today. But these guys learned the split jerk during warmups and then looked very solid as they practiced it during the workout. Maybe I should have taken the Summer Shape Up classes!
The format for finding the 1RM today was a bit different than it was on Monday when we had 20 minutes to find a 1RM thruster. Today, you had to do at least 7 lifts. Some stubborn SOBs did 10 (not naming names). I thought about what weight I wanted to get to and the best way to get there. My PR for the jerk was 225, which I managed while finding my 1RM overhead squat. I had jerked that from behind my neck. Opinions seemed to vary on whether that was easier or not, but I tended to believe that doing the jerk from the front rack would be easier. As a result, I expected to jerk more than 225 during the workout. (Also, I believe I should PR every time because I always want more, more, more.)
I believe I've stated before that I like to go after PR's on my second to last lift so that I can scale back on the last lift if necessary or go even higher should I feel really good. So my plan for the 7 lifts was as follows:
135-165-185-200-215-230-245
The first few lifts would be ones that I knew I could get, then I would switch to 15 pound jumps as the weight got heavier. Aside from the fact that I would have to add and remove 2.5 pound plates repeatedly (I try to avoid those), I was happy with the plan.
Got started with 135 and just did a push jerk as I'd have ample opportunity to practice the split jerk along the way. In fact, once I got to 165, I started testing it out. 165 and 185 were not too bad using the split jerk, but I wasn't doing it with a lot of depth because I knew I could handle the weight (translation: I could push press it). Once I got to the jerk at 200, I knew proper form and more depth would be necessary. I had the completely incorrect takeaway from my lift at 200. Here's my impression of the lift followed by what Keith saw as he watched my lift:
Me: Good drive, followed by my mid-section bending like an accordion. Core tight, dumbass! Now the bar isn't completely locked out. Straighten out my arms and...done. That was a disaster.
Keith (paraphrasing): You drove up with so much energy that you ended up having to pull the bar back down to you as you split jerk. That's why you scrunched up. Your core didn't go soft on you.
What I thought was a terrible lift turned out to be a good one. That's always nice to hear. Especially since I was still 25 pounds shy of my PR. I believe that clarification had a big impact on my next lift at 215. Quick flashback: during my second attempt of the first workout of this year's Open, I did a squat clean of (coincidentally enough) 215 pounds. Why do I remember that so clearly? Because it was the best squat clean I've ever done. It's nice being able to successfully complete a lift, but when you do it with the proper form and just nail it? That's something that you remember. When I did that squat clean, my timing was right, I pulled all the way through and I met the bar at the right level. Do I get any more credit for doing it properly than if I did it poorly and still made the lift? No. But I still remember that lift 4.5 months later. When I went to jerk 215, I thought about my previous lift and knew that if I repeated it, this weight wouldn't be a problem. And sure enough, everything went about as well as I could have imagined. Pretty sure I had a smile on my face as I looked over at Keith while holding the bar over my head. Another lift like that and I would have a new 1RM.
Brimming with newfound confidence, I got ready to take on 230. I wasn't even thinking PR at that point. I was thinking it was simply my next lift on the way to finishing up at 245. The lift at 230 was nowhere near as good as the one at 215. Once again, I didn't get much depth in my split jerk. I got just enough though as I used my upper body to power the bar above my head. Keith let me know I could definitely get much more if I could simply get lower in my split. But for the time being, I had at least a 5 pound PR.
Was jumping 15 pounds after getting a PR a bit ambitious? Probably. But based on the results at 215 and 230, I thought I had a legitimate shot at it with the proper technique. Over the course of three tries, I couldn't make 245 happen though. Keith told me I should get angry at the bar and use that in my lift, but I couldn't get my mind there. I was in a good mood. I even tried to think about things that normally would make me angry and my disposition didn't change. After the third failed attempt, Keith encouraged me to try 240. When I took the bar off the rack for that attempt, I knew I was in trouble. Despite removing 5 pounds, the bar now felt heavier. My split jerk had nothing on it and I dropped the barbell again. I was done for the day. Do I think 245 is feasible? Absolutely. I'll just need to be a little bit fresher when I take it on again.
Now that I was exhausted, it was the perfect time to take on some 20 ft rope climbs! Or not. I do love me some rope climbs, but I did have some concern about how effective I would be climbing all the way to the ceiling as part of the cash out, especially since we don't practice it all that often. That being said, the cash out was only 5 minutes, and as was the case on Monday with the short thruster cash out, I would have felt dumb not being able to handle 5 more minutes of work.
There was one small difference though. On Monday, when I got tired, I did my gimpy run back and forth and was able to recover a bit. When you're dangling 17 feet above the ground, you don't really have that luxury. Eek. During the first minute of the cash out, I made it up to the 20 ft mark and back down twice with no problem other than breathing a bit heavy. That third trip up to the 20 ft mark was not as fun. I made it, but my arms were feeling tired and I was sucking wind more than I had been. The clock was only at 1:45. I jumped back on the rope and began to climb, but my lack of control became evident. The rope began to twirl. Not only was I struggling to hold on to the rope, I was now twirling around like a figure skater during the big finish of their long program. As I moved just beyond the 15 ft mark, my grip began to loosen. It was time to head back down.
I spent some time trying to recover, but then I got back on the rope. I struggled again and the rope began twirling a second time. I barely made it to the 15 ft mark before losing my foothold on the rope. I clenched my whole body around the rope as my legs flailed and slowly began to descend that way. It was all falling apart now. When I got to the bottom, I took a longer break. With 45 seconds left, Keith told me to get up the rope one more time. I was determined to get to the top on this last ascent. And the last climb was better than the two prior ones. I reached 15 ft and made two more small pulls. But my forearms were shot and I felt like I couldn't hold on any more. I slid back down to the floor with 10 seconds remaining. Three 20 ft climbs and three 15 ft climbs would have to do.
Sitting on the bench, sitting in my car, and sitting on my couch back home, I could barely move. I couldn't remember the last time I was this tired. I nearly fell asleep on the couch, which is something I almost never do. No more lifting on Thursday.
Thursday preview: The lifting substitute? Running! My first unofficial Endurance class of the year as I attend Coach Tim's running clinic at the track.
I wasn't there to witness it, but I have it from some good sources that Doctor Coach Giulz hit a PR on her jerk tonight. And then she went ahead and jerked even more weight. Don't mess with Doctor Coach Giulz!
It was 1RM Jerk night at the gym this evening, but I was going to start off with some strength work before I hit up the WOD. I had started a new back squat program on Monday that requires squatting 3 nights per week. I know I won't be at the gym on Friday (update: this may no longer be true), so doing it on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday seemed like a good plan. With that in mind, I snuck over to the annex to get in my squats for today. The program called for 6 sets of 2 reps at 235 pounds on Monday, but for today I was doing 6 sets of 3 reps at the same weight. I also lucked out by having Leslie and Jim C in attendance to watch me because I was apparently doing some funky stuff the other night. More specifically, I was rocking back and forth during the lift. As you might imagine, that isn't the best way to move around 235 pounds.
I honestly believe that the rocking was mostly due to the fact that I was tired out when I went to do the squats on Monday, but that wasn't the complete explanation as I still had some minor rocking going on tonight as I warmed up. Once again, I started with 5 reps at 135 and 4 reps at 185. Leslie told me that I was rocking when I did the first two reps at 185 and then all of a sudden I kept my feet planted for the final two reps. The only logical explanation for such behavior is that I'm a head case, but you already knew that.
When it came to the sets at 235, I didn't experience too much trouble. In a couple of weeks I will need to be able to handle six sets of six reps at this weight, so it isn't all that surprising that six sets of three reps wasn't overly cumbersome. However, it was a contrast to the other night where each set of two felt like work. I probably should re-consider doing the six sets of two reps after a WOD. On one hand, I felt like it wasn't much volume, so I could handle it. But if my legs are fried like they were on Monday, it's probably better to save it for another day.
I had a little bit of time between the end of Open Strength and the 7:30 class so I stretched out while waiting to see if I would be the only person attending that class. The 6:30 class was a de facto personal training session, so it was very possible that Keith would be hanging out with only yours truly at 7:30. Instead, I got to work out with two people who recently completed the Summer Shape Up program, Chris and Danielle. And I have to say I was impressed. I remember how bad my form was when I started. I don't even need to remember as I still have pretty bad form with a lot of movements today. But these guys learned the split jerk during warmups and then looked very solid as they practiced it during the workout. Maybe I should have taken the Summer Shape Up classes!
The format for finding the 1RM today was a bit different than it was on Monday when we had 20 minutes to find a 1RM thruster. Today, you had to do at least 7 lifts. Some stubborn SOBs did 10 (not naming names). I thought about what weight I wanted to get to and the best way to get there. My PR for the jerk was 225, which I managed while finding my 1RM overhead squat. I had jerked that from behind my neck. Opinions seemed to vary on whether that was easier or not, but I tended to believe that doing the jerk from the front rack would be easier. As a result, I expected to jerk more than 225 during the workout. (Also, I believe I should PR every time because I always want more, more, more.)
I believe I've stated before that I like to go after PR's on my second to last lift so that I can scale back on the last lift if necessary or go even higher should I feel really good. So my plan for the 7 lifts was as follows:
135-165-185-200-215-230-245
The first few lifts would be ones that I knew I could get, then I would switch to 15 pound jumps as the weight got heavier. Aside from the fact that I would have to add and remove 2.5 pound plates repeatedly (I try to avoid those), I was happy with the plan.
Got started with 135 and just did a push jerk as I'd have ample opportunity to practice the split jerk along the way. In fact, once I got to 165, I started testing it out. 165 and 185 were not too bad using the split jerk, but I wasn't doing it with a lot of depth because I knew I could handle the weight (translation: I could push press it). Once I got to the jerk at 200, I knew proper form and more depth would be necessary. I had the completely incorrect takeaway from my lift at 200. Here's my impression of the lift followed by what Keith saw as he watched my lift:
Me: Good drive, followed by my mid-section bending like an accordion. Core tight, dumbass! Now the bar isn't completely locked out. Straighten out my arms and...done. That was a disaster.
Keith (paraphrasing): You drove up with so much energy that you ended up having to pull the bar back down to you as you split jerk. That's why you scrunched up. Your core didn't go soft on you.
What I thought was a terrible lift turned out to be a good one. That's always nice to hear. Especially since I was still 25 pounds shy of my PR. I believe that clarification had a big impact on my next lift at 215. Quick flashback: during my second attempt of the first workout of this year's Open, I did a squat clean of (coincidentally enough) 215 pounds. Why do I remember that so clearly? Because it was the best squat clean I've ever done. It's nice being able to successfully complete a lift, but when you do it with the proper form and just nail it? That's something that you remember. When I did that squat clean, my timing was right, I pulled all the way through and I met the bar at the right level. Do I get any more credit for doing it properly than if I did it poorly and still made the lift? No. But I still remember that lift 4.5 months later. When I went to jerk 215, I thought about my previous lift and knew that if I repeated it, this weight wouldn't be a problem. And sure enough, everything went about as well as I could have imagined. Pretty sure I had a smile on my face as I looked over at Keith while holding the bar over my head. Another lift like that and I would have a new 1RM.
Brimming with newfound confidence, I got ready to take on 230. I wasn't even thinking PR at that point. I was thinking it was simply my next lift on the way to finishing up at 245. The lift at 230 was nowhere near as good as the one at 215. Once again, I didn't get much depth in my split jerk. I got just enough though as I used my upper body to power the bar above my head. Keith let me know I could definitely get much more if I could simply get lower in my split. But for the time being, I had at least a 5 pound PR.
Was jumping 15 pounds after getting a PR a bit ambitious? Probably. But based on the results at 215 and 230, I thought I had a legitimate shot at it with the proper technique. Over the course of three tries, I couldn't make 245 happen though. Keith told me I should get angry at the bar and use that in my lift, but I couldn't get my mind there. I was in a good mood. I even tried to think about things that normally would make me angry and my disposition didn't change. After the third failed attempt, Keith encouraged me to try 240. When I took the bar off the rack for that attempt, I knew I was in trouble. Despite removing 5 pounds, the bar now felt heavier. My split jerk had nothing on it and I dropped the barbell again. I was done for the day. Do I think 245 is feasible? Absolutely. I'll just need to be a little bit fresher when I take it on again.
Now that I was exhausted, it was the perfect time to take on some 20 ft rope climbs! Or not. I do love me some rope climbs, but I did have some concern about how effective I would be climbing all the way to the ceiling as part of the cash out, especially since we don't practice it all that often. That being said, the cash out was only 5 minutes, and as was the case on Monday with the short thruster cash out, I would have felt dumb not being able to handle 5 more minutes of work.
There was one small difference though. On Monday, when I got tired, I did my gimpy run back and forth and was able to recover a bit. When you're dangling 17 feet above the ground, you don't really have that luxury. Eek. During the first minute of the cash out, I made it up to the 20 ft mark and back down twice with no problem other than breathing a bit heavy. That third trip up to the 20 ft mark was not as fun. I made it, but my arms were feeling tired and I was sucking wind more than I had been. The clock was only at 1:45. I jumped back on the rope and began to climb, but my lack of control became evident. The rope began to twirl. Not only was I struggling to hold on to the rope, I was now twirling around like a figure skater during the big finish of their long program. As I moved just beyond the 15 ft mark, my grip began to loosen. It was time to head back down.
I spent some time trying to recover, but then I got back on the rope. I struggled again and the rope began twirling a second time. I barely made it to the 15 ft mark before losing my foothold on the rope. I clenched my whole body around the rope as my legs flailed and slowly began to descend that way. It was all falling apart now. When I got to the bottom, I took a longer break. With 45 seconds left, Keith told me to get up the rope one more time. I was determined to get to the top on this last ascent. And the last climb was better than the two prior ones. I reached 15 ft and made two more small pulls. But my forearms were shot and I felt like I couldn't hold on any more. I slid back down to the floor with 10 seconds remaining. Three 20 ft climbs and three 15 ft climbs would have to do.
Sitting on the bench, sitting in my car, and sitting on my couch back home, I could barely move. I couldn't remember the last time I was this tired. I nearly fell asleep on the couch, which is something I almost never do. No more lifting on Thursday.
Thursday preview: The lifting substitute? Running! My first unofficial Endurance class of the year as I attend Coach Tim's running clinic at the track.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Air Supply
Workout date: 7/28/15
On Monday, it was the peg board. On Tuesday, it was sandbags. We've gone into full "train for the Crossfit Games by doing Crossfit Games events" mode! Since we do not have a large stadium in which we could duplicate the Sandbag 2015 event, the sandbags were incorporated into an event from the Masters/Teen competition:
20 minute time cap
800 meter run
25 sandbag ground to shoulder (athlete chooses weight)
25 box jump overs (17"/13")
25 chest-to-bar pull-ups (SCALE!)
50 wall balls
25 chest-to-bar pull-ups
25 box jump overs
25 sandbag ground to shoulder
Let's run through these before I get to the carnage which was my workout:
The 7:30 class was just me and Michal. When we set off on our run, I told her she could take off, but she ran with me. The girls at KOP are really nice about staying with the slow guy. As we hit 600 meters, she mentioned picking it up. I sped up a little then and a little more once we hit the home stretch (apparently I wasn't supposed to speed up the second time). We got back in the gym around the 4:15 mark.
I chose a 75 pound sandbag because the 45 pound sandbag seemed too easy and there was nothing in between those two weights. Even though these wore me out, I think I chose correctly. They were awkward as expected, but once I got that worked out, I was able to do larger sets. The bigger issue was breathing. I was struggling already and we were only about 6 minutes into the workout. I tried to push, telling myself that I'd recover on the box jump overs. Eventually I got done with these, but Michal had already started her chest-to-bar pull-ups at that point. I was way behind.
Thinking I could make up time on my beloved box jump overs, I started bouncing back and forth. Except I had to stop after every 4 or 6. Even these were painful. And to compound problems, I was stopping when I was off of the box instead of stopping on top of the box. By stopping on the box, I could have kept using the spring from bounding down. By stopping on the side, I had no momentum to use. I would have corrected this problem had I gotten back to the box jump overs but...
...lying in wait were the pull-ups. I wasn't even going to attempt the chest-to-bar variety today. All I really wanted was to get through the set of 25 in a reasonable amount of time. I couldn't even manage that. I didn't struggle with the actual pull-ups all that much, but I couldn't breathe. I would do 2 fast singles, sometimes 3, before needing to crouch down and try to get some air. And the air I was breathing in was so damn hot and thick that it wasn't doing a lot to help me recover. My pace slowed considerably and I began to become concerned that I wouldn't even finish the wall balls.
I did slowly manage all 25 pull-ups and then I got to the wall balls. I felt like I could have done some huge sets here if only I could breathe, but my lungs were not cooperating. Instead, I did sets of 5-9 reps the whole way, finally capping off my set of 50 with less than one minute remaining before the time cap. I walked over to the pull-up bar and tried to get some reps in before time was called. I had 4 done when the countdown began. As Rachel got down to 3 seconds, I made one last swing and finished off my 5th pull-up to record a score of CAP + 70.
I could have done some things better during this workout, but my score likely wouldn't have changed too much. Pull-ups are definitely my sticking point and I can't imagine any scenario in which I would have completed both rounds of 25. I was happy that I made it through the wall balls because there were points during the workout where I had real doubts that I would get that far.
Afterwards, Rachel went over kipping with me. The night before, I had practiced kipping on my own and Jess C. said to me "one of these days, you're just going to get it and knock out a bunch of them". My problem has been that I'm out of control when I kip. In order to make sure I get high enough, I violently close my shoulders and throw down my feet as hard as I can. While this gets my chin up over the bar, it makes it nearly impossible for me to string reps. As I talked through everything with Rachel, I stumbled upon another dilemma. Was it better for me to continue with my inefficient kip so that I would be able to do pull-ups without a band during workouts, or should I de-construct my kip to learn it properly? That would mean going back to a band during workouts, but at least I wouldn't be developing bad muscle memory.
On Monday, it was the peg board. On Tuesday, it was sandbags. We've gone into full "train for the Crossfit Games by doing Crossfit Games events" mode! Since we do not have a large stadium in which we could duplicate the Sandbag 2015 event, the sandbags were incorporated into an event from the Masters/Teen competition:
20 minute time cap
800 meter run
25 sandbag ground to shoulder (athlete chooses weight)
25 box jump overs (17"/13")
25 chest-to-bar pull-ups (SCALE!)
50 wall balls
25 chest-to-bar pull-ups
25 box jump overs
25 sandbag ground to shoulder
Let's run through these before I get to the carnage which was my workout:
- I don't like sandbags. They are super awkward to handle and, more often than not, I drop them on my head or my feet. I definitely need a remedial course in how to handle them. At first, I misread the workout and thought we were going ground to overhead. That led to Steph V. and Faby laughing at me as I struggled to get the sandbag over my head with anything resembling control. Finally someone told me that I only needed to get the sandbag to my shoulder. Not great, but much better.
- Box jump overs! Love these things! Can just pogo back and forth like crazy. Ya know, assuming that I'm not exhausted when I get to them.
- Chest-to-bar pull-ups...well, at least I'd get some more pull-up practice.
- I'm ok with wall balls for the most part, but I struggle severely with them when I'm out of breath.
The 7:30 class was just me and Michal. When we set off on our run, I told her she could take off, but she ran with me. The girls at KOP are really nice about staying with the slow guy. As we hit 600 meters, she mentioned picking it up. I sped up a little then and a little more once we hit the home stretch (apparently I wasn't supposed to speed up the second time). We got back in the gym around the 4:15 mark.
I chose a 75 pound sandbag because the 45 pound sandbag seemed too easy and there was nothing in between those two weights. Even though these wore me out, I think I chose correctly. They were awkward as expected, but once I got that worked out, I was able to do larger sets. The bigger issue was breathing. I was struggling already and we were only about 6 minutes into the workout. I tried to push, telling myself that I'd recover on the box jump overs. Eventually I got done with these, but Michal had already started her chest-to-bar pull-ups at that point. I was way behind.
Thinking I could make up time on my beloved box jump overs, I started bouncing back and forth. Except I had to stop after every 4 or 6. Even these were painful. And to compound problems, I was stopping when I was off of the box instead of stopping on top of the box. By stopping on the box, I could have kept using the spring from bounding down. By stopping on the side, I had no momentum to use. I would have corrected this problem had I gotten back to the box jump overs but...
...lying in wait were the pull-ups. I wasn't even going to attempt the chest-to-bar variety today. All I really wanted was to get through the set of 25 in a reasonable amount of time. I couldn't even manage that. I didn't struggle with the actual pull-ups all that much, but I couldn't breathe. I would do 2 fast singles, sometimes 3, before needing to crouch down and try to get some air. And the air I was breathing in was so damn hot and thick that it wasn't doing a lot to help me recover. My pace slowed considerably and I began to become concerned that I wouldn't even finish the wall balls.
I did slowly manage all 25 pull-ups and then I got to the wall balls. I felt like I could have done some huge sets here if only I could breathe, but my lungs were not cooperating. Instead, I did sets of 5-9 reps the whole way, finally capping off my set of 50 with less than one minute remaining before the time cap. I walked over to the pull-up bar and tried to get some reps in before time was called. I had 4 done when the countdown began. As Rachel got down to 3 seconds, I made one last swing and finished off my 5th pull-up to record a score of CAP + 70.
I could have done some things better during this workout, but my score likely wouldn't have changed too much. Pull-ups are definitely my sticking point and I can't imagine any scenario in which I would have completed both rounds of 25. I was happy that I made it through the wall balls because there were points during the workout where I had real doubts that I would get that far.
Afterwards, Rachel went over kipping with me. The night before, I had practiced kipping on my own and Jess C. said to me "one of these days, you're just going to get it and knock out a bunch of them". My problem has been that I'm out of control when I kip. In order to make sure I get high enough, I violently close my shoulders and throw down my feet as hard as I can. While this gets my chin up over the bar, it makes it nearly impossible for me to string reps. As I talked through everything with Rachel, I stumbled upon another dilemma. Was it better for me to continue with my inefficient kip so that I would be able to do pull-ups without a band during workouts, or should I de-construct my kip to learn it properly? That would mean going back to a band during workouts, but at least I wouldn't be developing bad muscle memory.
There was one other alternative: I could magically start kipping correctly and use that in workouts. But I think this blog has covered how well believing in magic has worked out for my Crossfit endeavours. I decided that I needed to really focus on what I was doing differently than Rachel. I watched only her knees and feet while she kipped. Then I watched her do some more reps to see how much she leaned back as she closed her shoulder angle. I even got on a box to examine how much of her hands were wrapped around the bar as she did her pull-ups.
The result: my hands were probably fine, I was laying too far back after closing my shoulder angle, I only needed a slight knee bend, I didn't need a violent leg drive but only a small flick, and my toes should be pointing down. So I was only doing 4 things wrong in this one movement.
I got on the bar to give it a shot and, what do you know, I was able to efficiently knock out three in a row. Why only three? Because I'm a big wimp, my hands were hurting like a mother, and I dropped. But the feel of those pull-ups was much different. No longer was I doing an ab exercise (drawing my knees up and shooting them down is the equivalent of a flying crunch). Instead, I was using my arms more and keeping the movement under control. Progress! On that note, it was time to head home.
Wednesday preview: 1RM Jerk plus rope climbs to the ceiling. Aw yeah!
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Ice Cream + Alcohol = Gainz
Workout date: 7/27/15
I took almost an entire week off from the gym. And just to make sure that I would be in the worst possible shape on my first day back, I filled my belly with lots of ice cream and alcohol during my time away. If you're mentally trying to detach yourself from your workout routine, why go halfway? Eating healthy would have reminded me that I was actively working towards getting in better shape. This was a full blown mini-vacation. No concern for my body whatsoever.
At least until I got home on Monday. Knowing that I was headed to the gym during one of the hottest weeks of the year made me reconsider how much I had neglected my body over the last week. A little moderation probably would have gone a long way. That being said, it wasn't like I was getting back into things with a Hero WOD or anything crazy like that. Monday's WOD looked like this:
20 minutes to find a 1RM thruster
Cash out: 3 rounds of 10 DB thrusters (55/35) and a 150 meter sprint
Peg board practice
Why peg board practice? Because it was the most talked about aspect of the recently completed Crossfit Games. And because our gym has one and yours doesn't. Nah nah, na nah nah!
Despite getting my butt kicked in thruster workout recently, I was happy to see that thrusters were prominent in my first workout back. Whether or not I am actually good at thrusters, I have convinced myself that I enjoy them, so my mind was in a good place when I walked in the gym. My 1RM was 185, which I managed during a workout that included squat clean thrusters. Today, the squat clean was not a requirement. In fact, you could clean the bar, get your bearings, and then perform the thruster. That gave me hope that I could go beyond 185.
Did I mention it was hot? Because it was super hot in the gym. And even though this wasn't a metcon we were doing, you don't really want sweat dripping in your eyes when you're trying to lift a lot of weight either. After noticing there were no paper towels available, I ran into the lobby to get two fresh rolls to bring into the gym, placed right beside where I was working out. Paper towels are going to be essential equipment for me if I'm going to get through the rest of the summer.
I started off at 95 pounds, then moved to 135. I probably jerked the weight at 135 more than I did a thruster with it, but it still didn't feel like a weight I should be concerned with, so I moved on rather than re-doing the weight. Next stop was 165, where I made sure I did the thruster correctly. It was definitely starting to get heavy and I began to question whether I could top 185 on my first day back. Perhaps trying to PR after a week off was being a little too aggressive. Perhaps that thought didn't actually enter my mind as I threw 20 more pounds on to test out 185.
The lift at 185 went surprisingly well given that the lift at 165 had given me at least a little bit of pause. It was difficult getting the proper momentum from the bottom of the front squat to push the bar up over my head, but the press out went smoothly and I started to think about how much further I might be capable of going. Was adding 20 more pounds to the bar too aggressive? Of course not!
Adding 20 more pounds to the bar was too aggressive. I knew I could clean 205 and I really thought that if I composed myself and did a really strong front squat that I could pop the bar over my head. But I made two attempts at 205 that were mirror images of one another. Each time, I cleaned the bar successfully, did my front squat, but couldn't come out of the hole with nearly enough momentum to pop the bar off of my shoulders. The result was trying to shoulder press 205 pounds, which would have been a 55 pound PR. So that didn't happen. But I didn't want to stop there. I figured giving 195 a try would be worthwhile.
Unfortunately, two attempts at 195 resulted in the same outcome as the two attempts at 205. After the first attempt, Keith told me that I was driving the bar outward when I went to press it instead of driving it straight up. This has become a big problem for me. I'm not keeping my deadlifts close to my body, I'm not keeping my cleans close to my body, and now I'm not keeping my thrusters close to my body. Need to fix that pronto! On my second attempt, I did a better job of going straight up, but the momemtum from the front squat was lacking and I couldn't press the weight out completely. Even though Keith had told me I could make a 3rd attempt before the cash out, I was calling it a day at 185. Until I changed my mind about 60 seconds later.
Why did I change my mind? For starters, on my first attempt at 195, I could tell that the weight was manageable. At 205, it wasn't happening. But 195 felt like something I could do. The other reason I changed my mind was because I could tell Keith wanted me to try it one more time. This was confirmed when I said I'd make one attempt and he responded with "ALRIGHT!" I got into my setup and was getting ready to make my third attempt. Jim and Leslie were watching nearby and Tom was yelling encouragement as I prepared to lift. But something didn't feel right. Rather than try the lift anyway, I stood up, shook out my arms, got my mind right and went through the setup all over again. This time around it felt better and I cleaned the bar. I got the bar into my front rack and prepared for the front squat. Once my breathing was right, I went into the front squat and drove up. It honestly didn't feel like I had driven out of the hole with any more force than I had previously, but the bar popped off my shoulders and I pressed up. It went up quickly and I held the bar over my head. I was confused with how easily the bar got over my head, so I asked Jim and Leslie if I had jerked it accidentally, but they confirmed that I push pressed it. And with that, I had a new thruster PR of 195.
I was feeling tired, but the rush from getting the lift at 195 gave me some energy to do the cash out. Dumbbell thrusters are much more awkward than barbell thrusters, so I had some concerns about how well this was going to go. But I also saw that most people had finished in 3-5 minutes and I'd be really ashamed of myself if I couldn't suck it up to get through 3-5 minutes of pain. I chose 45 pound dumbbells because many of the other guys in the gym had used that weight. After some persuasion, Michal went with 30 pound dumbbells even though she didn't think she could handle that weight. We got going and I managed the first 10 thrusters without putting down the dumbbells. Michal was out ahead of me though for the run. And I had that "boy my legs are sore" gimpy run going for me instead of a sprint. Round two was similar although it took a lot of willpower to hang on for all 10 reps. Michal had opened a larger lead, while newcomer Jamie passed me on my "run". In the last round, I could only manage 6 reps before having to put the dumbbells down for the first time. When I picked them back up, I did the last 4 reps. With the finish line in sight, I was able to run a bit faster and stopped the clock at 4:19, 32 seconds behind Michal.
Last but not least, it was time for fun with the peg board. I've tried the peg board once before and it did not go well. It is no secret that I am bad with body weight movements and that I don't have much grip strength, so you can readily see why this is not something I would excel at. Michal is good at body weight movements and scurried 3/4 of the way up the board before dropping. Without the pegs. SHAME! Keith managed to retrieve the pegs for us. Amanda, Ashlea, and Jamie all attempted the peg board before I finally went. And it did not go well. Couldn't even move up one peg.
Afterwards I stayed for strength. I'm starting up a back squat program. First day required 6 sets of 2 reps at 235 pounds. I worked up to it by doing a set of 5 at 135 and a set of 4 at 185. Still tired from the WOD, I was very wobbly getting the sets at 235, but I slowly got through them. After that, Joe asked me if I wanted to do wind sprints with him wearing a weight vest. We did 5 sprints of about 50 meters. It wasn't bad at all as the distance was short enough that I didn't get tired out from the weight vest. I think a distance of 100-200 meters would be another story. Back inside, I tried the peg board one more time. Keith had told me that I needed to be more stable when moving the peg. On my first attempt, I realized that part of my problem was that I was removing the peg too quickly to move it to the next hole. By doing it fast, I was jerking my body backwards and losing my stability. I tried to move the peg slowly and still couldn't do it, but I'm pretty sure that's the only way I'll ever manage to get up the peg board. Finally, I did some pull-up practice. Managed to kip my way to a few sets of 3, but my kipping remains atrocious and I don't feel in control at all when I'm doing it.
Tuesday preview: a long chipper with a time cap that involves many pull-ups. Let's just put me down for the time cap right now, ok?
I took almost an entire week off from the gym. And just to make sure that I would be in the worst possible shape on my first day back, I filled my belly with lots of ice cream and alcohol during my time away. If you're mentally trying to detach yourself from your workout routine, why go halfway? Eating healthy would have reminded me that I was actively working towards getting in better shape. This was a full blown mini-vacation. No concern for my body whatsoever.
At least until I got home on Monday. Knowing that I was headed to the gym during one of the hottest weeks of the year made me reconsider how much I had neglected my body over the last week. A little moderation probably would have gone a long way. That being said, it wasn't like I was getting back into things with a Hero WOD or anything crazy like that. Monday's WOD looked like this:
20 minutes to find a 1RM thruster
Cash out: 3 rounds of 10 DB thrusters (55/35) and a 150 meter sprint
Peg board practice
Why peg board practice? Because it was the most talked about aspect of the recently completed Crossfit Games. And because our gym has one and yours doesn't. Nah nah, na nah nah!
Despite getting my butt kicked in thruster workout recently, I was happy to see that thrusters were prominent in my first workout back. Whether or not I am actually good at thrusters, I have convinced myself that I enjoy them, so my mind was in a good place when I walked in the gym. My 1RM was 185, which I managed during a workout that included squat clean thrusters. Today, the squat clean was not a requirement. In fact, you could clean the bar, get your bearings, and then perform the thruster. That gave me hope that I could go beyond 185.
Did I mention it was hot? Because it was super hot in the gym. And even though this wasn't a metcon we were doing, you don't really want sweat dripping in your eyes when you're trying to lift a lot of weight either. After noticing there were no paper towels available, I ran into the lobby to get two fresh rolls to bring into the gym, placed right beside where I was working out. Paper towels are going to be essential equipment for me if I'm going to get through the rest of the summer.
I started off at 95 pounds, then moved to 135. I probably jerked the weight at 135 more than I did a thruster with it, but it still didn't feel like a weight I should be concerned with, so I moved on rather than re-doing the weight. Next stop was 165, where I made sure I did the thruster correctly. It was definitely starting to get heavy and I began to question whether I could top 185 on my first day back. Perhaps trying to PR after a week off was being a little too aggressive. Perhaps that thought didn't actually enter my mind as I threw 20 more pounds on to test out 185.
The lift at 185 went surprisingly well given that the lift at 165 had given me at least a little bit of pause. It was difficult getting the proper momentum from the bottom of the front squat to push the bar up over my head, but the press out went smoothly and I started to think about how much further I might be capable of going. Was adding 20 more pounds to the bar too aggressive? Of course not!
Adding 20 more pounds to the bar was too aggressive. I knew I could clean 205 and I really thought that if I composed myself and did a really strong front squat that I could pop the bar over my head. But I made two attempts at 205 that were mirror images of one another. Each time, I cleaned the bar successfully, did my front squat, but couldn't come out of the hole with nearly enough momentum to pop the bar off of my shoulders. The result was trying to shoulder press 205 pounds, which would have been a 55 pound PR. So that didn't happen. But I didn't want to stop there. I figured giving 195 a try would be worthwhile.
Unfortunately, two attempts at 195 resulted in the same outcome as the two attempts at 205. After the first attempt, Keith told me that I was driving the bar outward when I went to press it instead of driving it straight up. This has become a big problem for me. I'm not keeping my deadlifts close to my body, I'm not keeping my cleans close to my body, and now I'm not keeping my thrusters close to my body. Need to fix that pronto! On my second attempt, I did a better job of going straight up, but the momemtum from the front squat was lacking and I couldn't press the weight out completely. Even though Keith had told me I could make a 3rd attempt before the cash out, I was calling it a day at 185. Until I changed my mind about 60 seconds later.
Why did I change my mind? For starters, on my first attempt at 195, I could tell that the weight was manageable. At 205, it wasn't happening. But 195 felt like something I could do. The other reason I changed my mind was because I could tell Keith wanted me to try it one more time. This was confirmed when I said I'd make one attempt and he responded with "ALRIGHT!" I got into my setup and was getting ready to make my third attempt. Jim and Leslie were watching nearby and Tom was yelling encouragement as I prepared to lift. But something didn't feel right. Rather than try the lift anyway, I stood up, shook out my arms, got my mind right and went through the setup all over again. This time around it felt better and I cleaned the bar. I got the bar into my front rack and prepared for the front squat. Once my breathing was right, I went into the front squat and drove up. It honestly didn't feel like I had driven out of the hole with any more force than I had previously, but the bar popped off my shoulders and I pressed up. It went up quickly and I held the bar over my head. I was confused with how easily the bar got over my head, so I asked Jim and Leslie if I had jerked it accidentally, but they confirmed that I push pressed it. And with that, I had a new thruster PR of 195.
I was feeling tired, but the rush from getting the lift at 195 gave me some energy to do the cash out. Dumbbell thrusters are much more awkward than barbell thrusters, so I had some concerns about how well this was going to go. But I also saw that most people had finished in 3-5 minutes and I'd be really ashamed of myself if I couldn't suck it up to get through 3-5 minutes of pain. I chose 45 pound dumbbells because many of the other guys in the gym had used that weight. After some persuasion, Michal went with 30 pound dumbbells even though she didn't think she could handle that weight. We got going and I managed the first 10 thrusters without putting down the dumbbells. Michal was out ahead of me though for the run. And I had that "boy my legs are sore" gimpy run going for me instead of a sprint. Round two was similar although it took a lot of willpower to hang on for all 10 reps. Michal had opened a larger lead, while newcomer Jamie passed me on my "run". In the last round, I could only manage 6 reps before having to put the dumbbells down for the first time. When I picked them back up, I did the last 4 reps. With the finish line in sight, I was able to run a bit faster and stopped the clock at 4:19, 32 seconds behind Michal.
Last but not least, it was time for fun with the peg board. I've tried the peg board once before and it did not go well. It is no secret that I am bad with body weight movements and that I don't have much grip strength, so you can readily see why this is not something I would excel at. Michal is good at body weight movements and scurried 3/4 of the way up the board before dropping. Without the pegs. SHAME! Keith managed to retrieve the pegs for us. Amanda, Ashlea, and Jamie all attempted the peg board before I finally went. And it did not go well. Couldn't even move up one peg.
Afterwards I stayed for strength. I'm starting up a back squat program. First day required 6 sets of 2 reps at 235 pounds. I worked up to it by doing a set of 5 at 135 and a set of 4 at 185. Still tired from the WOD, I was very wobbly getting the sets at 235, but I slowly got through them. After that, Joe asked me if I wanted to do wind sprints with him wearing a weight vest. We did 5 sprints of about 50 meters. It wasn't bad at all as the distance was short enough that I didn't get tired out from the weight vest. I think a distance of 100-200 meters would be another story. Back inside, I tried the peg board one more time. Keith had told me that I needed to be more stable when moving the peg. On my first attempt, I realized that part of my problem was that I was removing the peg too quickly to move it to the next hole. By doing it fast, I was jerking my body backwards and losing my stability. I tried to move the peg slowly and still couldn't do it, but I'm pretty sure that's the only way I'll ever manage to get up the peg board. Finally, I did some pull-up practice. Managed to kip my way to a few sets of 3, but my kipping remains atrocious and I don't feel in control at all when I'm doing it.
Tuesday preview: a long chipper with a time cap that involves many pull-ups. Let's just put me down for the time cap right now, ok?
Thoughts on the 2015 Crossfit Games
I was lucky enough to spend the last 5 days back near my hometown with my friends from high school. It's always good to see them and we end up doing crazy stuff like trying to visit 9 different local ice cream shops in one day (spoiler: didn't quite make it). It was also an opportunity to mentally recharge. I didn't spend much time thinking about working out because I was running around doing all sorts of other fun stuff. Perhaps this is a sign that I need to develop more of a social life when I'm here.
I didn't completely cut myself off from Crossfit though, as I tried to stay on top of what was going on in Carson, CA throughout the week. I didn't get to watch everything, but I'll give you my thoughts on the week as, like the Open, there seemed to be a lot of strong opinions concerning everything that went down.
Masters/Teens: The Masters competition is nothing new, but the Teen competition was a new wrinkle this year. The events for both divisions were the same. While the Individual and Team competitions seemed to hog the spotlight, I thought the Masters and Teens competitions were fun to watch. Some of the performances from the Masters participants were simply amazing. I can't do that stuff now and I'm not banking on time being kind to me in my later years. As for the teens, having only 10 athletes in each division was probably the right amount, at least for the first year. It did give us a glimpse of where the future of Crossfit lies. The only confusing aspect was running the 14-15 year-old division and the 16-17 year-old division at the same time during events. The commentators struggled to keep track of who was in the lead in each division and they could only show the progress of one division in the on-screen graphics. I'm guessing next year they will treat the teen divisions like the Masters divisions and take 20 athletes.
Teams: More than any other year, this was supposed to be the time when the Team competition rivaled the Individual competitions. I didn't get to watch as much of the Team competition as I hoped, but Crossfit HQ got their dream scenario when the three teams that were hyped up before the competition found their way to the top of the leaderboard. These three teams were anchored by male competitors who were prominent in the Individual competition last year, most notably Rich Froning, the reigning 4-time champ. As Jason Khalipa's NorCal team faded late, it was a battle between Froning's Crossfit Mayhem Freedom, Tommy Hackenbruck's Ute Crossfit, and the surprising Crossfit Milford. In the end, Froning would not be denied, pushing his team to victory. It was the perfect ending in terms of highlighting the Team competition. I will say that Team events do not translate as well on TV as Individual events do (although live they are fantastic), but I'm not sure how that problem gets resolved.
Individual Men: This was supposed to be the crowning of Matt Fraser as the next Rich Froning. Fraser had pushed Froning to the limit at last year's Games as a rookie and with many of the top guys from last year not returning for this year's competition, he was an overwhelming favorite. Except one veteran decided that he wasn't ready to start the Matt Fraser era. Ben Smith has qualified for the Crossfit Games seven times despite only being 25 years old. He's battled injuries throughout his career, but declared himself injury-free before this year's Games. Fraser opened up a 100 point lead by the end of Friday's events, but Smith put together a remarkable charge on Saturday, not only erasing the huge lead, but claiming the lead for his own heading into the last day. Fraser beat Smith in the day's first two events, giving him a 2 point lead heading into the final event. But he struggled on handstand push-ups while Smith built a huge lead, one that he'd hold on to en route to being crowned the World's Fittest Man. Again, I think this played out well for Crossfit HQ in that having Fraser dominate would not have made for a captivating final day. Even Froning had to scratch and claw his way to his titles and there may have been whispers that Fraser's dominance was more the result of the absence of the guys who went Team this year. Now the other male athletes know Fraser can be beaten. But Fraser will also be more driven to win it all next year. Seems very win-win to me.
Individual Women: The female competition has tended to be more compelling than the male competition as about a dozen of the athletes could feasibly take home the crown as World's Fittest Woman. We'll have to bump that up to a baker's dozen as this year's winner came out of nowhere to win. In fact, the runner-up was a complete surprise as well. The focus before the competition was on previous champions Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Annie Thorisdottir, and Sam Briggs. They were expected to be challenged by Kara Webb (Pacific Regional winner who had to withdraw on the final day last year after battling head-to-head with Camille most of the way), Emily Bridgers (top 10 last year and beat Briggs at the Atlantic Regional), Sara Sigmundsdottir (a rookie who beat Annie at the Meridian Regional), Michele Letendre (4th last year, East Regional winner this year), and Brooke Ence (winner of a loaded California Regional). Webb and Sigmundsdottir jumped out in front of the pack early, but consistency would be the key to victory. As those two struggled late in the competition, it was Katrin Davidsdottir and Tia-Clair Toomey who kept it together all the way until the finish. Toomey had an amazing 8 top 10 finishes in the competition, while Davidsdottir finished no worse than 21st in any event. Davidsdottir still trailed going into the last event, but she found the perfect time to get her first event victory, locking up the title as World's Fittest Woman as Toomey took the runner-up spot. Crossfit HQ probably wasn't as excited about this result as none of the high-profile women managed to make the podium, but Davidsdottir was a very deserving winner.
Events: Ah yes, controversy. There were several topics that generated lots of discussion after the Games had ended. Let's go through them:
- Difficulty of Programming - early on Friday, athletes had to take on Murph, a famous Crossfit Hero WOD. Being this was the Crossfit Games, athletes had to wear a weighted vest as well. Combine an extremely tough workout with a weight vest and California heat and you have a recipe for disaster. More than a few athletes struggled to get through this one. Even ones who did finish paid a price (Kara Webb had to be stretchered off after finishing). Later on in the competition, several athletes withdrew, most notably Annie Thorisdottir. So was this year's programming too over the top? I don't think so. This year, 4 men and 2 women withdrew during the competition. Last year, 1 man and 4 women withdrew. (Both years, 1 woman withdrew prior to the competition.) That doesn't strike me as a huge surge in withdrawals due to extreme programming. I think the fact that Annie withdrew caused this reaction more than anything.
- Pedal to the Metal - most of the focus here was on Pedal to the Metal 1 (the second to last event), specifically from the women's side of the competition. Only 3 women in the entire field managed to get through the three peg board ascents to begin the event. It's pretty difficult to say that you are showcasing the fittest people on the planet when most of them are just standing around (or flailing around) during an event. Here's a good rule of thumb: if the event is making the athletes look like me during a normal WOD, that's bad. On the men's side, 17 guys made it through that segment, meaning less than half completed 3 reps. Not great. But worse than that for me was the idea that a rowing machine and a <gasp> Airdyne was being used in each of the final two events. Why was that more important?
- Not Ready for Prime Time Players - the Crossfit Games has become a phenomenon and the final events are now televised live on ESPN. Ok, it's ESPN2, but you know what I mean. Want to watch the events during the week as they were happening? Gotta log on to ESPN3. Commercial breaks? All about Crossfit, Reebok, Rogue or some other Crossfit Games-related entity. So we're not only trying to see who the fittest people in the world are, we've got business concerns as well, specifically promoting the product as best as possible. The Pedal to the Metal events did that about as poorly as possible. Having athletes in the final heat of the showcase events decide to quit early is not positive. And you couldn't pick two movements that leave spectators more in the dark than the rowing machine and the Airdyne. Someone picks things up and puts them down? You can count along. Pull-ups, muscle-ups...you know how many reps they did. Watching someone row doesn't give you an idea of how many calories they have completed. Same thing with the Airdyne. Plus it is super boring to watch. Was this event fair? Absolutely. And if they ran it as an event earlier in the week, it probably would have been fine. But prime time on Sunday night on ESPN? Just a really poor decision by Crossfit HQ. Let's jump to a good decision of theirs.
- #communityinvolvement - on Friday afternoon, Dave Castro announced that athletes would be doing DT for their event that evening. But in an interesting wrinkle, he left it up to a vote as to whether the athletes would do Heavy DT or Double DT for the event. Great idea. Gets the Crossfit community involved. Plus it was a workout where they could easily be flexible with the parameters. It was also a workout that the Crossfit community could relate to. This would have been a great way to close out the Crossfit Games. In general, I'm in favor of a traditional workout capping off a weekend of unpredictability. The Masters and Teens did Amanda to close out their competition. Last year's Individual competition ended with Double Grace. DT (in either format) would have been much better than an Airdyne.
Finally, two last things before I end my recap:
American Ninja Warrior: Do I think the peg board came out because of American Ninja Warrior? Absolutely. Do you know how many times I've told people I do Crossfit and they've asked me if I could do the stuff on American Ninja Warrior? Happened twice this weekend before the peg board came out. Both Crossfit and American Ninja Warrior have enjoyed success at the same time and have some overlap. I get that peg boards have been around for a long time (we have one at KOP!), but I have little doubt that including this in the prime time finale was influenced by ANW.
Brains Beat Brawn: This one is near and dear to me. Because it's my only chance of ever beating brawn. Why else would I have a strategy for every workout I do? During Pedal to the Metal 1, two athletes used their brains to secure podium spots. For the guys, Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson wasn't sure he could manage the peg board. So what did he do during the time between the event announcement and his appearance in the final event? He did what Crossfitters do everyday in an attempt to get better: he watched Youtube videos of the movement. His study paid off too, as his 7th place finish helped propel him to 3rd and a place on the podium. Katrin Davidsdottir managed one peg board ascent about 2:30 into Pedal to the Metal 1. Then she killed time and rested for the remainder of the event. Go back and watch it. It's pretty amusing watching her do an assortment of things to pass the time while her two nearest competitors (Sigmundsdottir and Webb) struggle on the wall for another 3 minutes before stopping. Davidsdottir figured out before anyone else that the extra rest for Pedal to the Metal 2 was going to be way more valuable than getting a second peg board ascent. Was it a coincidence that she got her first event victory in that final event? I doubt it.
That's all for the 2015 Crossfit Games! Back to blogging about my travails tomorrow. I even do my best impression of Games athletes trying to get up the peg board! (That's not fair - I'm way worse)
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
I've Never Seen A Guy Bend Like That Before
Workout dates: 7/20/15 and 7/21/15
King and Queen was fun to watch, but it probably would have been best to leave it at that. If you're participating in the gym's big event, you want to perform at your highest level. If you're lucky, maybe you breakthrough and go beyond anything you've achieved before. When the opposite happens, it's a bit of a stomach punch. There was a period on Saturday from the end of the second WOD until about 8pm where I was in a bit of a daze. In an ideal world, I would have put together 5 tremendous performances and nipped at the heels of the guys battling for the final spot on the podium. But to not put it together for any of the WODs was disappointing. Confusing. Frustrating.
As many of you know, my passion outside of the gym is handicapping horse races. Each of the last two years I have been lucky enough to qualify for the National Championship. You prepare for that big weekend, studying races, studying charts with the hopes that you're going to come out on top. During the first two days of the contest, everyone competes. But to make it to the final day, you have to have been in the top 10% the first two days. Stringing together 10 pull-ups seems like an impossible goal to me. Making the top 10% at the National Championship? Not impossible at all in my mind. I've been handicapping for 28 years. Why should I think I'm not as qualified as anyone else? Unfortunately, in each of my two appearances, the end of day two has marked the end of my run. And in both years, I haven't been particularly close to advancing. I had those same mix of emotions: disappointment, confusion, frustration. When I return home from Vegas, I often go several weeks before diving back into handicapping. It simply takes time to recover from it all.
I was beginning to feel the same way on Sunday before making the decision that I would go into Open Strength on Monday and just do some stuff for me. No trying to improve. No coming up with a program to do. Just going in and trying to set some 1RMs to make myself feel better. First on the list: back squat. I'm not entirely sure when I last tested my 1RM for the back squat, but I do know that I did 5 reps at 265 at the end of May, meaning that my 1RM should be higher than 275. I started by doing a warmup set of 5 reps at 135 and 185. I meant to do 3 reps at 225, but for some reason I racked the bar after 1 rep and didn't feel like picking it back up to do 2 more reps. Why not go for 1 rep from here on out? I went up to 255 and handled that rep comfortably. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go after that. 285 seemed like an aggressive jump. 265 seemed like a waste. Plentus had always said never tie your PR, but 275 felt like the next logical step on the way, so I put that on the bar. Maybe doing 275 would give me some perspective on how much higher I could go.
The answer seemed to be much higher. I knocked out 275 in the same manner that I handled 255. I thought 285 would be the number I would be testing out, but now I was recycling the thought that a 10 pound increase was a waste. I would try 295. I added 20 pounds to the bar, took a few minutes to recover, then went for the lift. It was considerably tougher than 275, but at no point did I get concerned about completing the lift. I stood up, racked the bar, and mentally prepared to break 300 for the first time ever. I could have added just 5 pounds to make it an even 300, but the lift at 295 gave me the confidence to try 305. Once again I spent a couple minutes to recover, then I tried the lift. I started to rise from the bottom, but then I got stuck and had to dump the bar. On my second try, the weight felt heavy, so I rushed the lift. After crashing to the bottom, I had no chance and bailed again. Leslie came over to talk to me about how fast I dropped to the bottom of the squat and reminded me that I needed to stay in control of the weight on the way down. I prepared for my third and final try. I got the bar off the rack, slowly made my way down, but could find no legs to propel me back up. Three fails at 305 and it was time to move on to something else.
I wanted to clean 225. That's a bit of a lie. I want to clean and jerk 225, but I suspect that if I clean it, I'll be able to jerk it. So I have to figure out a way to clean it. I used a similar progression for the cleans as I did with the back squats. Practice lifts at 135 and 165. I started to practice squat cleans at 185 as I knew a squat clean would be necessary if I was going to get 225. The squat cleans at 185 and 205 were not pretty and I had real concerns about getting 225. Sure enough, I failed at 225. Over and over and over again. I gave it at least 8 tries, but to no avail. Jim C was watching me and gave me some good feedback. He told me that I was getting the bar high enough, but I was not keeping it close to my body. Once I got that down, I'd get the clean. So where do we go from here? Well, I'm probably going to practice a lot of deadlifts at 225 as my deadlift form has been suspect recently for the same reason: not keeping the bar close to my body. Maybe if I can get the muscle memory going, I can finally clean 225.
On Tuesday, it was time to go back to a WOD. The Tuesday night WOD was:
5 rounds:
5 strict handstand push-ups
10 pistols (alternating)
15 pull-ups
For the HSPUs, I wanted to set up my band again and use that to get full range of motion. Except I've somehow forgotten how to use it. Twice I kicked up on to the band and somehow my body fell entirely over the other side of the band leaving me dangling upside down suspended above the floor. That led to Michal uttering the line that became today's post title. I'm sure it was a sight to behold.
Knowing that I could not use the band, I switched it out for 2 abmats. I took a couple practice runs at doing the HSPUs with the 2 abmats and they were fine, so I was set there. Pistols? One of the quirky things I do well, so I wasn't worried there. And then there were the pull-ups. 75 this time around. In recent workouts, I had managed to do 50 and 42, so why not take a crack at 75? (Because you're not good at pull-ups, dumbass.) I put on my grips and prepared to do more pull-ups than I've ever done before.
I won't go through all aspects of every round with you on here because it would be extremely repetitive. The HSPUs were fine. The pistols were fine. The pull-ups were a grind. They were all singles, but I tried to be quick about getting my hands back on the bar for the next rep. During the first 2 rounds, things went about as planned, although Michal was about to lap me. As I neared the end of round 3, my arms were starting to wear down and I had to throw in at least 1 strict pull-up along the way to keep moving. Things got very slow in round 4 and with 8 reps left, I noticed something very unsettling. The three ladies in class (Marni, Michal, and Sheila) were all done. Internally, I yelled "shit!" And by internally, I mean out loud. I was nowhere close to being finished, I was tired, and now the pity party was going to begin. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the support. I just wish I wasn't "that guy" as often as I am.
I made my way through the last 8 reps of round 4 and zipped through the HSPUs and the pistols. I managed 3 reps on the pull-up bar before slipping and needing a break. My grips were soaked and I tried to dry them off as much as I could. It was very hard to focus on kipping when your hands were sliding on the bar. With fatigue setting in, I started doing that weird thing where my right hand slides over to say hi to my left hand. This was all adding up to not being able to do pull-ups. Frustrated with the soaked grips, I took them off and went back to the bar. I did all of 1 pull-up with no grips on and I managed to rip in the middle of my left hand. Awesome! Gotta put the grips back on.
For a while, I was stuck, but there was no alternative to finishing. I was getting the 75 pull-ups. Slowly I chipped away at the remaining total, before finally stopping the clock at 20:53. I finished more than eight and a half minutes after the second-to-last person in our class finished. It was a total train wreck.
Perhaps my initial instincts were correct. Maybe it's time for a break. King and Queen was not the National Championship and I don't need several weeks off, but some time away could be good for me. I think there is definitely a need for me to get my head straight. Not being able to do the back squat at 305 was mental. Not being able to do the clean at 225 was mental. Struggling to finish the last round of pull-ups was mental. I get to the doorstep of my goals and then my head decides "nope, that's too tough". That's something that needs to be fixed.
I'm headed out of town for a few days for the opening of the track at Saratoga. Originally I thought about hitting up some boxes in the area to work out at, but I've reconsidered. Maybe I need to stop thinking so damn much about all of this stuff and just chill out a bit. Or maybe that won't work either. All I know is that it's time to decompress and step away from things for a bit. Hopefully I'll come back recharged and mentally tough enough to get to the next level.
Enjoy the Crossfit Games this week!!!
King and Queen was fun to watch, but it probably would have been best to leave it at that. If you're participating in the gym's big event, you want to perform at your highest level. If you're lucky, maybe you breakthrough and go beyond anything you've achieved before. When the opposite happens, it's a bit of a stomach punch. There was a period on Saturday from the end of the second WOD until about 8pm where I was in a bit of a daze. In an ideal world, I would have put together 5 tremendous performances and nipped at the heels of the guys battling for the final spot on the podium. But to not put it together for any of the WODs was disappointing. Confusing. Frustrating.
As many of you know, my passion outside of the gym is handicapping horse races. Each of the last two years I have been lucky enough to qualify for the National Championship. You prepare for that big weekend, studying races, studying charts with the hopes that you're going to come out on top. During the first two days of the contest, everyone competes. But to make it to the final day, you have to have been in the top 10% the first two days. Stringing together 10 pull-ups seems like an impossible goal to me. Making the top 10% at the National Championship? Not impossible at all in my mind. I've been handicapping for 28 years. Why should I think I'm not as qualified as anyone else? Unfortunately, in each of my two appearances, the end of day two has marked the end of my run. And in both years, I haven't been particularly close to advancing. I had those same mix of emotions: disappointment, confusion, frustration. When I return home from Vegas, I often go several weeks before diving back into handicapping. It simply takes time to recover from it all.
I was beginning to feel the same way on Sunday before making the decision that I would go into Open Strength on Monday and just do some stuff for me. No trying to improve. No coming up with a program to do. Just going in and trying to set some 1RMs to make myself feel better. First on the list: back squat. I'm not entirely sure when I last tested my 1RM for the back squat, but I do know that I did 5 reps at 265 at the end of May, meaning that my 1RM should be higher than 275. I started by doing a warmup set of 5 reps at 135 and 185. I meant to do 3 reps at 225, but for some reason I racked the bar after 1 rep and didn't feel like picking it back up to do 2 more reps. Why not go for 1 rep from here on out? I went up to 255 and handled that rep comfortably. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go after that. 285 seemed like an aggressive jump. 265 seemed like a waste. Plentus had always said never tie your PR, but 275 felt like the next logical step on the way, so I put that on the bar. Maybe doing 275 would give me some perspective on how much higher I could go.
The answer seemed to be much higher. I knocked out 275 in the same manner that I handled 255. I thought 285 would be the number I would be testing out, but now I was recycling the thought that a 10 pound increase was a waste. I would try 295. I added 20 pounds to the bar, took a few minutes to recover, then went for the lift. It was considerably tougher than 275, but at no point did I get concerned about completing the lift. I stood up, racked the bar, and mentally prepared to break 300 for the first time ever. I could have added just 5 pounds to make it an even 300, but the lift at 295 gave me the confidence to try 305. Once again I spent a couple minutes to recover, then I tried the lift. I started to rise from the bottom, but then I got stuck and had to dump the bar. On my second try, the weight felt heavy, so I rushed the lift. After crashing to the bottom, I had no chance and bailed again. Leslie came over to talk to me about how fast I dropped to the bottom of the squat and reminded me that I needed to stay in control of the weight on the way down. I prepared for my third and final try. I got the bar off the rack, slowly made my way down, but could find no legs to propel me back up. Three fails at 305 and it was time to move on to something else.
I wanted to clean 225. That's a bit of a lie. I want to clean and jerk 225, but I suspect that if I clean it, I'll be able to jerk it. So I have to figure out a way to clean it. I used a similar progression for the cleans as I did with the back squats. Practice lifts at 135 and 165. I started to practice squat cleans at 185 as I knew a squat clean would be necessary if I was going to get 225. The squat cleans at 185 and 205 were not pretty and I had real concerns about getting 225. Sure enough, I failed at 225. Over and over and over again. I gave it at least 8 tries, but to no avail. Jim C was watching me and gave me some good feedback. He told me that I was getting the bar high enough, but I was not keeping it close to my body. Once I got that down, I'd get the clean. So where do we go from here? Well, I'm probably going to practice a lot of deadlifts at 225 as my deadlift form has been suspect recently for the same reason: not keeping the bar close to my body. Maybe if I can get the muscle memory going, I can finally clean 225.
On Tuesday, it was time to go back to a WOD. The Tuesday night WOD was:
5 rounds:
5 strict handstand push-ups
10 pistols (alternating)
15 pull-ups
For the HSPUs, I wanted to set up my band again and use that to get full range of motion. Except I've somehow forgotten how to use it. Twice I kicked up on to the band and somehow my body fell entirely over the other side of the band leaving me dangling upside down suspended above the floor. That led to Michal uttering the line that became today's post title. I'm sure it was a sight to behold.
Knowing that I could not use the band, I switched it out for 2 abmats. I took a couple practice runs at doing the HSPUs with the 2 abmats and they were fine, so I was set there. Pistols? One of the quirky things I do well, so I wasn't worried there. And then there were the pull-ups. 75 this time around. In recent workouts, I had managed to do 50 and 42, so why not take a crack at 75? (Because you're not good at pull-ups, dumbass.) I put on my grips and prepared to do more pull-ups than I've ever done before.
I won't go through all aspects of every round with you on here because it would be extremely repetitive. The HSPUs were fine. The pistols were fine. The pull-ups were a grind. They were all singles, but I tried to be quick about getting my hands back on the bar for the next rep. During the first 2 rounds, things went about as planned, although Michal was about to lap me. As I neared the end of round 3, my arms were starting to wear down and I had to throw in at least 1 strict pull-up along the way to keep moving. Things got very slow in round 4 and with 8 reps left, I noticed something very unsettling. The three ladies in class (Marni, Michal, and Sheila) were all done. Internally, I yelled "shit!" And by internally, I mean out loud. I was nowhere close to being finished, I was tired, and now the pity party was going to begin. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the support. I just wish I wasn't "that guy" as often as I am.
I made my way through the last 8 reps of round 4 and zipped through the HSPUs and the pistols. I managed 3 reps on the pull-up bar before slipping and needing a break. My grips were soaked and I tried to dry them off as much as I could. It was very hard to focus on kipping when your hands were sliding on the bar. With fatigue setting in, I started doing that weird thing where my right hand slides over to say hi to my left hand. This was all adding up to not being able to do pull-ups. Frustrated with the soaked grips, I took them off and went back to the bar. I did all of 1 pull-up with no grips on and I managed to rip in the middle of my left hand. Awesome! Gotta put the grips back on.
For a while, I was stuck, but there was no alternative to finishing. I was getting the 75 pull-ups. Slowly I chipped away at the remaining total, before finally stopping the clock at 20:53. I finished more than eight and a half minutes after the second-to-last person in our class finished. It was a total train wreck.
Perhaps my initial instincts were correct. Maybe it's time for a break. King and Queen was not the National Championship and I don't need several weeks off, but some time away could be good for me. I think there is definitely a need for me to get my head straight. Not being able to do the back squat at 305 was mental. Not being able to do the clean at 225 was mental. Struggling to finish the last round of pull-ups was mental. I get to the doorstep of my goals and then my head decides "nope, that's too tough". That's something that needs to be fixed.
I'm headed out of town for a few days for the opening of the track at Saratoga. Originally I thought about hitting up some boxes in the area to work out at, but I've reconsidered. Maybe I need to stop thinking so damn much about all of this stuff and just chill out a bit. Or maybe that won't work either. All I know is that it's time to decompress and step away from things for a bit. Hopefully I'll come back recharged and mentally tough enough to get to the next level.
Enjoy the Crossfit Games this week!!!
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Cave of Mysteries
Workout date: 7/18/15
Saturday was the big event of the year at KOP, the annual King and Queen competition. This event is designed to find out who the true sickos at the gym are as you take on 5 WODs (6 if you're among the elite) over the course of the day. Given that I struggle with 1 WOD in a day or, God forbid, two hours at Competitors Class, you can imagine how well I did. So here's a quick recap of how I did before we cover the highlights of the day:
WOD #1: About as expected.
WOD #2: Much worse than expected. As I mentioned in the preview, it was probably time to call it a day at that point.
WOD #3: Worse than expected.
WOD #4: About as expected.
WOD #5: Still can't clean 225.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to all of the good stuff from Saturday. Top of the list are the wardrobe choices. The girls always coordinate their outfits for the workouts. I have adopted the idea of changing clothes for every workout because a) it's fun and b) I'm a sweat monster. With Cline's return to the competition, the bar was raised to an even higher level:
As you can see, Jill C is showing off the latest in Christmas in July fashion. Unfortunately I did not snap a picture of her 'Merica outfit, which was top notch. Need more Christmas in July? Here are Kate F, Regi, Jill A, and Laura A:
Okay, okay, I'll get back to the competition because there is a lot to cover and you'll be reading this for two hours if I don't get going. Both the King (Faby) and Queen (Jess) were back to defend their crowns, but they had plenty of new competition taking them on this year. Tobin, Pete, and Trent were all stiff competition on the guys side, while Pam and Laura were serious threats for the top of the podium on the ladies side. None of those five were in last year's competition.
WOD #1 - 7 minutes of burpees
Guys: Ninjas like burpees. The man known as Ninja Pete ran away with this event, completing 117 burpees over the course of 7 minutes. Faby finished a surprising 2nd in the event with 110 burpees while Tobin rounded out the top 3 with a score of 108.
Ladies: The first workout gave us a preview of how tight the battle for Queen would be. Pam claimed the top spot with 99 burpees, beating Jill A (98 burpees), Regi (97 burpees), Sarah S (95 burpees), and Laura (94 burpees). Jill A and Regi would be neck and neck in every single event throughout the day.
WOD #2 - 50-40-30-20-10 KB swings and sit-ups (15 minute time cap)
Guys: There was a 15 minute time cap for this one, but you needed to be under 12 minutes if you wanted one of the top spots on the men's side in this event. Justin R. was the only guy to break 11 minutes in this workout, taking the top spot with a time of 10:44. Trent took 2nd with a time of 11:03, while Tobin notched his second straight 3rd place finish with a time of 11:22.
Ladies: The Pam and Laura show begins. These two rocketed out into the lead and separated themselves from the group. As the workout progressed, Laura began to slowly pull away from Pam, but for a while, they were speeding through this thing side by side:
Saturday was the big event of the year at KOP, the annual King and Queen competition. This event is designed to find out who the true sickos at the gym are as you take on 5 WODs (6 if you're among the elite) over the course of the day. Given that I struggle with 1 WOD in a day or, God forbid, two hours at Competitors Class, you can imagine how well I did. So here's a quick recap of how I did before we cover the highlights of the day:
WOD #1: About as expected.
WOD #2: Much worse than expected. As I mentioned in the preview, it was probably time to call it a day at that point.
WOD #3: Worse than expected.
WOD #4: About as expected.
WOD #5: Still can't clean 225.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to all of the good stuff from Saturday. Top of the list are the wardrobe choices. The girls always coordinate their outfits for the workouts. I have adopted the idea of changing clothes for every workout because a) it's fun and b) I'm a sweat monster. With Cline's return to the competition, the bar was raised to an even higher level:
My favorite Cline outfit of the day
As you can see, Jill C is showing off the latest in Christmas in July fashion. Unfortunately I did not snap a picture of her 'Merica outfit, which was top notch. Need more Christmas in July? Here are Kate F, Regi, Jill A, and Laura A:
Laura did not compete with this on. But it would have been a whole lot cooler if she did.
Okay, okay, I'll get back to the competition because there is a lot to cover and you'll be reading this for two hours if I don't get going. Both the King (Faby) and Queen (Jess) were back to defend their crowns, but they had plenty of new competition taking them on this year. Tobin, Pete, and Trent were all stiff competition on the guys side, while Pam and Laura were serious threats for the top of the podium on the ladies side. None of those five were in last year's competition.
WOD #1 - 7 minutes of burpees
Guys: Ninjas like burpees. The man known as Ninja Pete ran away with this event, completing 117 burpees over the course of 7 minutes. Faby finished a surprising 2nd in the event with 110 burpees while Tobin rounded out the top 3 with a score of 108.
Ladies: The first workout gave us a preview of how tight the battle for Queen would be. Pam claimed the top spot with 99 burpees, beating Jill A (98 burpees), Regi (97 burpees), Sarah S (95 burpees), and Laura (94 burpees). Jill A and Regi would be neck and neck in every single event throughout the day.
WOD #2 - 50-40-30-20-10 KB swings and sit-ups (15 minute time cap)
Guys: There was a 15 minute time cap for this one, but you needed to be under 12 minutes if you wanted one of the top spots on the men's side in this event. Justin R. was the only guy to break 11 minutes in this workout, taking the top spot with a time of 10:44. Trent took 2nd with a time of 11:03, while Tobin notched his second straight 3rd place finish with a time of 11:22.
Ladies: The Pam and Laura show begins. These two rocketed out into the lead and separated themselves from the group. As the workout progressed, Laura began to slowly pull away from Pam, but for a while, they were speeding through this thing side by side:
Pam and Laura tearing through sit-ups mid-way through WOD #2
In the end, Laura would post the only sub-10 minute time for the workout finishing in 9:54. Pam came in second with a time of 10:26, while there was a tie for third between Alona and Kate K. at 10:56. Jill A. and Regi finished the workout 4 seconds apart.
WOD #3 and #4 - 1,000M row - 3 minutes ground to overhead - 1,000M row
Guys: No pacing allowed if you wanted to score well in this event. Shane's rowing background came in very handy here as he took down the time portion of this event, completing the workout in 10:16. Trent was right behind him at 10:23, with King taking third place with a time of 10:37. For the total weight lifted portion, Faby made a wise decision in using 115 pounds as his 27 reps were enough to take first place in this event. Those using 75 pounds needed 42 reps to beat that mark, but Pete and Trent only managed 40 reps to tie for second place.
Ladies: Like Shane, Laura was eager for the rowing portion of this event and she did not disappoint as she took home the top spot with a time of 11:32. It was a close battle though as Kate K finished in 11:37, while Jackie finished in 11:39. Pam would even the score with Laura at two victories apiece as she won the total weight lifted portion of this event with 42 reps at 55 pounds. Regi was second with 40 reps, while Laura took third with 36 reps, narrowly edging out Alona, Jill A, and Jess, all of whom had 35 reps.
WOD #5 - Front Squat Ladder
Guys: With Faby and Trent tied for first going into this event, the expectation was that Faby would grab the lead by winning WOD #5. But Trent hung tough, making it through the second to last station at 245 before calling it a day. Faby also cleared 245, but was unable to clean 265, leaving the top two tied heading into the Championship WOD. Tobin dropped two cleans at 205, but finally got it on his third try, then did two quick front squats before the buzzer to stay alive on the ladder. He had no such trouble at 225. Being the only other person to clear 225, he ended up in 3rd place.
Ladies: With 6 ladies in the mix for 5 spots in the Championship WOD, every lift was important in the front squat ladder. Pam and Laura had created some separation from the pack, so they were safe, but Jill A, Regi, Jess, and Kate K needed to do well here. Jill A would win the event as she and Regi were the only two to complete 140 pounds, but Jill A did a few extra reps to win the tiebreaker. A late rule change stated that a successful clean at a higher weight would also be a tiebreaker and that would make the difference in who would continue on for one more workout. Laura and Kate K managed to clean 140, giving them a tie for third in the event. That also leapfrogged Kate K over Jess for 5th place, meaning we would have a new queen in 2015.
Championship WOD - 700M body weight sled pull
Guys: With the scoring system for the final WOD weighted differently to put a bit more importance on this workout, 4 guys still had a shot at becoming King. And even though Justin R was mathematically eliminated, had he scored 1 more point during the earlier events, he would have still been alive as well. Pete and Tobin were 3rd and 4th, respectively. They would need to win and have both Faby and Trent struggle in the final event to claim the crown. That would not happen as they would finish one-two. A new king would be crowned though as Trent destroyed the sled pull finishing in 9:08. Faby would have to settle for second with a time of 11:27. Justin R was in third coming into the final stretch, but Tobin sprinted by to snag 3rd with a time of 12:38. That also moved Tobin past Pete from 4th to 3rd in the final standings, with Justin R rounding out the top 5.
Ladies: When is a slow moving event incredibly captivating? When the title is on the line, that's when! Laura led Pam by 5 points, but all 5 ladies could still become Queen. Jill A, Regi, and Kate K would need to win and have both Laura and Pam falter. But just like on the men's side, the top two would pull away to decide this on their own. Early in the sled pull, Pam took the lead with Laura following close behind. As they neared the halfway mark, Pam began to slow down as Laura picked up the pace. As they made the turn to come back home, Laura surged in front and it seemed like the crown was now hers.
Laura opens up a lead on Pam with 300 meters to go!
But there was no one more determined on this day than Pam. After passing the 200 meter mark, there was one painful hill to navigate before the final stretch. As Laura struggled to get up it, Pam found one more burst of energy to take back the lead. From there, she would not look back. Pam finished her sled pull in 10:20, with Laura coming home for second in 12:33. Jill A took third in 16:51 with (you guessed it) Regi not quite able to catch her in 4th. Kate K would bring the day's events to end as the podium order would mirror the order in which these ladies finished the Championship WOD.
The entire gang and this year's KOP royalty
That's a wrap for the 2015 King and Queen competition. Congrats to Trent and Pam for battling through a tough series of workouts to claim their crowns!
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Pull-Up Progress and K&Q Preview
Workout date: 7/15/15
Wednesday would be my last WOD before the annual King and Queen competition at KOP on Saturday. Us old guys need our rest! I must admit that if I was drawing up what I hoped the WOD would be, it would not have looked anything like what was programmed. But I was intrigued by it and thought at the very least I could practice some elements of the workouts that will show up during King and Queen.
Wednesday's WOD was:
7 rounds:
3 ring dips
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
9 KB swings (70/53)
*Every minute on the minute, do 3 bar touching burpees (jump from the bottom of the burpee and tap a pull-up bar above your head)
Burpees and KB swings will be prominent at King and Queen (as will be shown later). Ring dips for me fall into a similar category as squats do: something I should probably be doing more of. And the chest-to-bar pull-ups...well, this would be a testing ground. Having recently completed 50 pull-ups in a workout, I now wanted to see how many of the chest-to-bar variety I could complete. My max was 10 from the 15.2 Open workout. Could I do all 42? Nah, I didn't think so. But getting through 3 rounds would be cool. Just sayin...
The average time for this workout was in the neighborhood of 15 minutes with much lower times for those folks with strong pull-up form. Since I was on the other end of that spectrum, I figured I'd need more than 15 minutes. I didn't have a set time in mind, but if I was pushing 25 minutes, I'd likely be unhappy. I'd only do chest-to-bar pull-ups until I felt that I was getting to the point that I was not keeping up the stimulus of the workout. From there, I'd go to regular pull-ups. If those failed, I'd go to ring rows.
This workout was a tough one to keep track of from the perspective that you're always moving. It's a little bit like the dreaded Kalsu. There is no point in taking a break because you're simply creating more work for yourself. Case in point: I got an abacus to keep track of my rounds for this workout, but I found that I didn't really have time to slide the beads over between rounds. Losing time during a workout like this one has a multiplicative effect: you end up doing more work, which makes you more tired, which slows you down, which forces you to do more work, and so on and so on.
The 7:30 class was just me, Rachel, and Linda, so we had plenty of room to operate. We had the option of doing burpees under the pull-up bar or the monkey bars, depending where we were in the workout. The monkey bars were closer to the rings, so if you were about to do dips, you did the burpees there. Otherwise, you did them by the pull-up bars, where we would do the chest-to-bar pull-ups and the KB swings.
Since this workout really was a long, ab-crushing blur, I'll give you a recap of each of the movements instead:
Wednesday would be my last WOD before the annual King and Queen competition at KOP on Saturday. Us old guys need our rest! I must admit that if I was drawing up what I hoped the WOD would be, it would not have looked anything like what was programmed. But I was intrigued by it and thought at the very least I could practice some elements of the workouts that will show up during King and Queen.
Wednesday's WOD was:
7 rounds:
3 ring dips
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
9 KB swings (70/53)
*Every minute on the minute, do 3 bar touching burpees (jump from the bottom of the burpee and tap a pull-up bar above your head)
Burpees and KB swings will be prominent at King and Queen (as will be shown later). Ring dips for me fall into a similar category as squats do: something I should probably be doing more of. And the chest-to-bar pull-ups...well, this would be a testing ground. Having recently completed 50 pull-ups in a workout, I now wanted to see how many of the chest-to-bar variety I could complete. My max was 10 from the 15.2 Open workout. Could I do all 42? Nah, I didn't think so. But getting through 3 rounds would be cool. Just sayin...
The average time for this workout was in the neighborhood of 15 minutes with much lower times for those folks with strong pull-up form. Since I was on the other end of that spectrum, I figured I'd need more than 15 minutes. I didn't have a set time in mind, but if I was pushing 25 minutes, I'd likely be unhappy. I'd only do chest-to-bar pull-ups until I felt that I was getting to the point that I was not keeping up the stimulus of the workout. From there, I'd go to regular pull-ups. If those failed, I'd go to ring rows.
This workout was a tough one to keep track of from the perspective that you're always moving. It's a little bit like the dreaded Kalsu. There is no point in taking a break because you're simply creating more work for yourself. Case in point: I got an abacus to keep track of my rounds for this workout, but I found that I didn't really have time to slide the beads over between rounds. Losing time during a workout like this one has a multiplicative effect: you end up doing more work, which makes you more tired, which slows you down, which forces you to do more work, and so on and so on.
The 7:30 class was just me, Rachel, and Linda, so we had plenty of room to operate. We had the option of doing burpees under the pull-up bar or the monkey bars, depending where we were in the workout. The monkey bars were closer to the rings, so if you were about to do dips, you did the burpees there. Otherwise, you did them by the pull-up bars, where we would do the chest-to-bar pull-ups and the KB swings.
Since this workout really was a long, ab-crushing blur, I'll give you a recap of each of the movements instead:
- Bar-Touching Burpees: These were the silent killers of the workout. Not bad in the early rounds, but when you've just finished pushing through these other exercises to the very last second of the minute and then have to do these, they suck. Crawling began a few minutes in. During the occasional times when I had no time to get to the next movement before the end of a minute, I got a few extra seconds to compose myself and tried to do these quicker. I am not looking forward to doing even more of these on Saturday.
- Ring Dips: Not bad actually. I'm always amazed at how well I do at ring dips given that I didn't have triceps until I was 36 years old. And I already mentioned that I don't practice these a lot. But sets of 3 were manageable. I think it was round 5 where I did one ring dip and the buzzer went off to do burpees, so I had to break that set up. Same thing happened in the last round, although I couldn't string the last 2 dips when I got back to them. Still, getting through 21 ring dips was something I was proud of. It wasn't quite 50 pull-ups, but it was in that realm.
- Chest-To-Bar Pull-Ups: The gauntlet! After knocking out 3 burpees and 3 quick dips, I got to my pull-up bar. I did 1 rep. Then another. Knocked out two more. And then I failed several times before the burpee buzzer. After doing burpees for minute two, I got my 5th chest-to-bar. I made a couple more attempts and couldn't get the clincher for round one. I did not want to spend two minutes on this workout without even touching the KB, so I made the decision at that point to switch to regular pull-ups. And like they did last week, these went pretty smoothly. I am still not stringing them, but I can deal with that another day. For now, I am happy to know that I can do workouts at the gym that require pull-ups without using a band. That is major progress for me. I got through the final 37 pull-ups using my newfound (but still very ugly and uncontrolled) kip. I originally thought this workout would be tremendously taxing on the arms, but it was my abs that were hurting. Reaching up to the pull-up bar turned out to be a bit of a relief. Who knew I could (sorta) like pull-ups?
- KB Swings: This was the aspect of the workout I was most confident about. The 70 lb KB is not pleasant to swing, but it is no longer unbearable. Having practiced sets of 10 with it, doing sets of 9 sounded very reasonable. Unfortunately, because I was slow on the pull-up bar, I'd often get caught in the middle of a set when the burpee buzzer went off. However, for the last round, the KB swings were all I had left. Keith told me to hold on to the KB the whole way and I made sure that I did.
****KING AND QUEEN PREVIEW****
For those unfamiliar with the King and Queen competition, it is the annual in-house competition at KOP. Think of it as a mini-Crossfit Games for those of us who aren't headed to Carson, California in this lifetime. Coaches are not allowed to participate, only the common folk. This will mark my 3rd time competing in King and Queen. Honestly, I wasn't terribly keen on the idea. Being a scorekeeper/cheerleader sounded much better to me. I would still get to hang out with everyone. In years past, this competition had given me an idea of where I measure up in the gym, but I go so much these days that I know that information without doing 5 WODs over the course of a day. But there was a push to get people to sign up, so I signed up. And if I'm competing, you better believe I'm giving everything I've got to do well.
Below are the five WODs, along with how I think I will do in them.
WOD #1: Seven Minutes in Heaven
7 Minutes of Burpees requiring a jump to a target 6 inches beyond your normal reach
I am at a distinct disadvantage in this event. I never played Seven Minutes in Heaven when I was younger. I got to play Ten Seconds to Leave This Table and Eat Somewhere Else quite a bit, but I think the rules of that game may have been slightly different.
Burpees suck. There's no getting around that. Seven consecutive minutes of burpees sounds like punishment to me. Wednesday's WOD gave me a little practice in terms of doing burpees and jumping to a target which was nice. However, I suspect that I will be below average in this event.
WOD #2: Ringing of the Bells
50-40-30-20-10
KB Swings (55/35)
Anchored Ab-mat Sit-ups
Of the 5 WODs scheduled for Saturday, this is the one I am most unsure about.
Pro: I have been training with the 70 lb KB and even occasionally the 80 lb, so the 55 lb KB should feel reasonable to me.
Pro: For a guy with a belly, I tend to do sit-ups better than one might expect.
Con: 150 reps of each? That's a lot of volume. And it's expected to be hot on Saturday.
Con: I had trouble with anchored sit-ups the last time I tried them. Need to practice these a little bit just to get used to the difference between these and butterfly sit-ups.
If this ends up being a bad event for me, I might as well skip the rest. I think I will have a slightly above average result here.
WODs #3 and #4: Pillars of the Kingdom
1,000 meter row
3 minutes of ground to overhead using 185/125, 115/75, or 75/55
1,000 meter row
WOD #3 score: total time
WOD #4 score: total weight lifted
Yes, a WOD with some strategery! I am a decent rower, but nothing special. Shane has been helping me with my technique and I will continue practicing before Saturday, but I imagine that I will be mid-pack as far as my WOD #3 placing goes.
For WOD #4, it is an interesting dilemma. Let's just start by saying there is no way in hell I could do 185, so scratch that. But the decision between using 115 and 75 is tricky, especially with the 3 minute time domain. My guess is that there probably won't be a huge difference in my score using either one so I probably shouldn't overthink it. But I do think this is an event where I should do well. Hopefully I will score big points on WOD #4.
WOD #5: A Crown of Thorns
Front Squat Ladder (must clean weight first)
After cleaning the barbell, athlete has 20 seconds to do 2 front squats
Weight ascends along the ladder
Men: 75-95-115-135-155-185-205-225-245-265
Women: 55-65-75-95-105-125-140-155-165-175
This one is billed as a front squat ladder (which I love!), but for me, it's a clean ladder. I mentioned in an earlier post that my 1RM front squat is 45 pounds heavier than my 1RM clean, so if I manage to clean the weight, I would suspect that I'll be able to do 2 front squats with it (although I could just be flat out tired at this point in the day). I will be highly disappointed if I don't get past 205. Getting 225 would be tremendous for me. Walking to station #9 would be the highlight of my day. Along with WOD #4, this should be one of my better events of the day.
Nothing to do now but some light practice on form and to rest up for the big day. Expect a very long blog post on Sunday night recapping how everything went down.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Finding My 45 Rep Max
Workout date: 7/13/15
Confession time: I don't squat nearly as much as I should at the gym. I have seen the benefits of a regular squat program. The problem is that devoting myself to a regular squat program means sacrificing WODs and doing more strength sessions. It means going from the group dynamic that I enjoy to a much more individualized dynamic that I don't like as much. The group dynamic is one of the main reasons why I joined KOP. Going to a normal gym and pushing myself through my own "program" was not that enticing to me, so even when I pushed myself to go do it, my interest in continuing it would wane very rapidly. I'm not sure if you would classify me as a closet extrovert or a social introvert, but having that shared adversity with other people makes a big difference in how often I show up to work out.
Monday's WOD could be considered a squat program in and of itself:
400M run
45 back squats (135/95)
400M run
30 front squats (135/95)
400M run
15 overhead squats (135/95)
This workout was a bit reminiscent of one we did at the end of May which included shoulder presses, push presses, and push jerks in the place of the 400M runs. In that workout, I used 115 pounds. I also remember thinking I could handle the back squats easily, but then my feet started to hurt and I couldn't handle the 35 reps. I thought that would make for a good challenge though. With running being part of this workout, I would not be wearing the lifting shoes that caused the foot pain from that workout. And the back squats were at the beginning this time. I should be able to gut my way through 45 reps at 115 if that was the weight I chose to use.
But if you're a reader of this blog, you know scaling isn't my style. 135 wasn't a humungous amount of weight. I could probably handle that for the back squats. Front squats would need to be broken up, but they could be done. And the overheads would be heavy, but overheads are my specialty. I could get through 15 reps at 135. So I set my mind to doing the workout RX. And then I saw the morning times. The morning crew usually puts up some of the best times of the day. For this workout, I was expecting times in the low teens. Instead I saw it took Rich 17 minutes to do this RX. And it took Pete 21 minutes to do it RX! Since those guys were much faster runners than me, I was now wondering whether this workout might take me 25-30 minutes if I used 135 pounds.
Over the course of the day, I saw plenty of people either use 95 or 115 pounds, or I saw them start with a certain weight and need to strip weight off as the workout progressed. I talked with Dr. Coach Giulz about this and she encouraged us to keep the same weight on throughout the workout. Add it all together and we were back to using 115 pounds for the workout. That was fine, but I wanted a solid time for the workout then. Something under 17 minutes was what I was shooting for.
The 6:30 class was pretty full. It included Dr. Coach Giulz, Rachel, Laura A., Conn, and Borden. It also included Jon P., who is typically one of the morning guys I mentioned earlier. He was using 135 for the workout and, for a minute, I looked over at his bar and reconsidered going RX. I talked myself out of it and reminded myself of my goals for the day: string 45 back squats and finish under 17 minutes.
We got going and it was no surprise to see Laura ahead of the pack, although Jon was doing a good job staying with her. I was keeping a very measured pace as I believed the meat of the workout was the squatting and not the running. Despite that, I was the third one back in the gym. I cleaned my barbell, got it on my back, and began knocking out back squats. I focused on staying in my heels. I focused on using momentum and stringing more reps when I felt balanced. But I did not focus on speed. I kept in mind that 115 pounds on my back was not going to break me. If I needed to stand with it to gather myself, I could do it. But I was not dropping it. I heard other barbells hit the floor and I ignored them. I got to 25, 30, 35. Holding the bar was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Got to 40, knocked out 3 reps, gathered my breath, then did 44 and 45. Goal #1 complete.
My reps were on the slower side as both Rachel and Dr. Coach Giulz had already started their second run and Laura was way ahead of us. I was also experiencing the rigid, uncomfortable run I was expecting after doing a bunch of squats. I couldn't loosen up along the way and there was no way to pick up the pace. I plodded along as fast as I could, but more than anything I thought of the run as my breather before getting to the front squats.
When I got back, I had thoughts of trying to string all 30 front squats. That seemed a little ambitious. And once I had squat cleaned the barbell and worked through a few reps, I figured out how inadvisable that was. I decided to go with 3 sets of 10 reps. I might have been able to do 2 sets of 15 reps, but I thought if I broke this up a little more, the final run might go a little smoother than the second one. The order out the door did not change for run #3 and despite my best efforts to loosen up by doing smaller sets of front squats, I ran a very slow final 400 meters.
Dr. Coach Giulz and Laura were done when I got back in the door for overheads and Rachel was close to being finished. I felt confident that I could make up some time on the overheads by doing all 15 in a row to finish the workout, but I felt very shaky as I worked through them. After the 7th rep, I felt wobbly and decided to drop. That's not good. I didn't want to break the overheads into two sets and I certainly was not going to be happy breaking it up into 3 sets. When I got the bar back overhead, I experienced the same shakiness, but I was finishing those 8 reps. My solution was to simply go faster and hope for the best. I managed to keep my balance and didn't have to drop the bar prior to completing the 15th rep. Final time: 15:26. Goal #2 complete.
Conn and Borden finished soon after and then it was time to cheer Jon home. I admired the fact that he didn't strip the weight down even though 135 was clearly much harder than the 115 I used. He did a set of 3 overheads, then a set of 4, then a set of 3, before finishing in style by knocking out the last 5 overheads. He finished in 20:21, a very solid RX time.
Could I have done this workout RX? I tend to think so. As far as time goes, I know it wouldn't have taken 25-30 minutes. My runs really could not have been any slower than they were. The back squats and overheads would have been a bit slower. The front squats most likely would have been much slower than they were with 115. Does that add up to 5 minutes slower? I dunno. But if this workout ever pops up again, I'd like to give 135 a shot.
Afterwards, I worked on my cleans for a while using that same weight of 115. It felt like a weight that was reasonable for working on my form. The final event at King and Queen is a front squat ladder where you have to clean the weight to begin. Since my 1RM for front squats is 45 pounds higher than my 1RM clean, this is really more of a clean ladder for me. If I can clean it, I'll feel confident in my ability to front squat it. But getting that bar on my shoulders will be tough, especially at the higher weights. I worked on my breathing, where the barbell hits my thighs, getting a strong pull after the barbell pops off of me (no magic!), and fast elbows under the barbell. I'll need to do it all correctly if I'm going to finally clean 225 on Saturday, but maybe the adrenaline of doing the event will be the extra nudge I need to get over that plateau.
Tuesday is a rest day. Last WOD before King and Queen on Wednesday.
Confession time: I don't squat nearly as much as I should at the gym. I have seen the benefits of a regular squat program. The problem is that devoting myself to a regular squat program means sacrificing WODs and doing more strength sessions. It means going from the group dynamic that I enjoy to a much more individualized dynamic that I don't like as much. The group dynamic is one of the main reasons why I joined KOP. Going to a normal gym and pushing myself through my own "program" was not that enticing to me, so even when I pushed myself to go do it, my interest in continuing it would wane very rapidly. I'm not sure if you would classify me as a closet extrovert or a social introvert, but having that shared adversity with other people makes a big difference in how often I show up to work out.
Monday's WOD could be considered a squat program in and of itself:
400M run
45 back squats (135/95)
400M run
30 front squats (135/95)
400M run
15 overhead squats (135/95)
This workout was a bit reminiscent of one we did at the end of May which included shoulder presses, push presses, and push jerks in the place of the 400M runs. In that workout, I used 115 pounds. I also remember thinking I could handle the back squats easily, but then my feet started to hurt and I couldn't handle the 35 reps. I thought that would make for a good challenge though. With running being part of this workout, I would not be wearing the lifting shoes that caused the foot pain from that workout. And the back squats were at the beginning this time. I should be able to gut my way through 45 reps at 115 if that was the weight I chose to use.
But if you're a reader of this blog, you know scaling isn't my style. 135 wasn't a humungous amount of weight. I could probably handle that for the back squats. Front squats would need to be broken up, but they could be done. And the overheads would be heavy, but overheads are my specialty. I could get through 15 reps at 135. So I set my mind to doing the workout RX. And then I saw the morning times. The morning crew usually puts up some of the best times of the day. For this workout, I was expecting times in the low teens. Instead I saw it took Rich 17 minutes to do this RX. And it took Pete 21 minutes to do it RX! Since those guys were much faster runners than me, I was now wondering whether this workout might take me 25-30 minutes if I used 135 pounds.
Over the course of the day, I saw plenty of people either use 95 or 115 pounds, or I saw them start with a certain weight and need to strip weight off as the workout progressed. I talked with Dr. Coach Giulz about this and she encouraged us to keep the same weight on throughout the workout. Add it all together and we were back to using 115 pounds for the workout. That was fine, but I wanted a solid time for the workout then. Something under 17 minutes was what I was shooting for.
The 6:30 class was pretty full. It included Dr. Coach Giulz, Rachel, Laura A., Conn, and Borden. It also included Jon P., who is typically one of the morning guys I mentioned earlier. He was using 135 for the workout and, for a minute, I looked over at his bar and reconsidered going RX. I talked myself out of it and reminded myself of my goals for the day: string 45 back squats and finish under 17 minutes.
We got going and it was no surprise to see Laura ahead of the pack, although Jon was doing a good job staying with her. I was keeping a very measured pace as I believed the meat of the workout was the squatting and not the running. Despite that, I was the third one back in the gym. I cleaned my barbell, got it on my back, and began knocking out back squats. I focused on staying in my heels. I focused on using momentum and stringing more reps when I felt balanced. But I did not focus on speed. I kept in mind that 115 pounds on my back was not going to break me. If I needed to stand with it to gather myself, I could do it. But I was not dropping it. I heard other barbells hit the floor and I ignored them. I got to 25, 30, 35. Holding the bar was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Got to 40, knocked out 3 reps, gathered my breath, then did 44 and 45. Goal #1 complete.
My reps were on the slower side as both Rachel and Dr. Coach Giulz had already started their second run and Laura was way ahead of us. I was also experiencing the rigid, uncomfortable run I was expecting after doing a bunch of squats. I couldn't loosen up along the way and there was no way to pick up the pace. I plodded along as fast as I could, but more than anything I thought of the run as my breather before getting to the front squats.
When I got back, I had thoughts of trying to string all 30 front squats. That seemed a little ambitious. And once I had squat cleaned the barbell and worked through a few reps, I figured out how inadvisable that was. I decided to go with 3 sets of 10 reps. I might have been able to do 2 sets of 15 reps, but I thought if I broke this up a little more, the final run might go a little smoother than the second one. The order out the door did not change for run #3 and despite my best efforts to loosen up by doing smaller sets of front squats, I ran a very slow final 400 meters.
Dr. Coach Giulz and Laura were done when I got back in the door for overheads and Rachel was close to being finished. I felt confident that I could make up some time on the overheads by doing all 15 in a row to finish the workout, but I felt very shaky as I worked through them. After the 7th rep, I felt wobbly and decided to drop. That's not good. I didn't want to break the overheads into two sets and I certainly was not going to be happy breaking it up into 3 sets. When I got the bar back overhead, I experienced the same shakiness, but I was finishing those 8 reps. My solution was to simply go faster and hope for the best. I managed to keep my balance and didn't have to drop the bar prior to completing the 15th rep. Final time: 15:26. Goal #2 complete.
Conn and Borden finished soon after and then it was time to cheer Jon home. I admired the fact that he didn't strip the weight down even though 135 was clearly much harder than the 115 I used. He did a set of 3 overheads, then a set of 4, then a set of 3, before finishing in style by knocking out the last 5 overheads. He finished in 20:21, a very solid RX time.
Could I have done this workout RX? I tend to think so. As far as time goes, I know it wouldn't have taken 25-30 minutes. My runs really could not have been any slower than they were. The back squats and overheads would have been a bit slower. The front squats most likely would have been much slower than they were with 115. Does that add up to 5 minutes slower? I dunno. But if this workout ever pops up again, I'd like to give 135 a shot.
Afterwards, I worked on my cleans for a while using that same weight of 115. It felt like a weight that was reasonable for working on my form. The final event at King and Queen is a front squat ladder where you have to clean the weight to begin. Since my 1RM for front squats is 45 pounds higher than my 1RM clean, this is really more of a clean ladder for me. If I can clean it, I'll feel confident in my ability to front squat it. But getting that bar on my shoulders will be tough, especially at the higher weights. I worked on my breathing, where the barbell hits my thighs, getting a strong pull after the barbell pops off of me (no magic!), and fast elbows under the barbell. I'll need to do it all correctly if I'm going to finally clean 225 on Saturday, but maybe the adrenaline of doing the event will be the extra nudge I need to get over that plateau.
Tuesday is a rest day. Last WOD before King and Queen on Wednesday.
This Video Is NSFW
Workout date: 7/12/15
With King and Queen week upon us, there will be less blog posts than usual simply because I know I am going to get my ass kicked on Saturday doing the 5 WODs in the competition, so there is no point in working out a ton this week. My plan for the week is to work out on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, with some light form work sprinkled in along the way. I have always been the type to feel a workout two days after I did it rather than the next day, but more recently I've begun feeling it the next day (translation: I'm old). So taking off Thursday and Friday before the competition seems like the way to go.
Marisa had posted a workout for some competition on Facebook and it had to be videotaped and submitted by Sunday. I originally thought Michal and I would be doing this on Sunday, but then Michal came down with a case of tequila, so she couldn't do it. Rachel decided she would do it instead, although I don't think any of us were thrilled about that because she has been having back pain recently and this workout was not going to make her back feel any better. The workout?
5 minutes:
30 clean and jerks (135/95)
Then AMRAP of bar-facing burpees
Part of the reason why I was interested in doing this is because it was another opportunity to trim my Grace time to under 3 minutes. I would likely have to crawl through the bar-facing burpees afterwards, but that was fine.
Due to some video difficulties, we determined that we would have to do this workout one at a time. Ladies first! We set the clock on the IPad to 6 minutes so that there would be a minute countdown before beginning. As it dwindled towards 5 minutes, we told Rachel to get ready. And then she was off. And she would not put the bar down. I think she did something like 13 in a row before letting go of the bar. She had 15-16 reps at the 1:00 mark. I was getting ready to erase her old PR from the top of the gym whiteboard. Then something strange happened when she got to 20 reps. Rachel started telling me she wasn't going to finish. She looked at the clock and grew very frustrated. A few reps later, she repeated the claim that she couldn't finish and added that she had no idea how she did this in two and a half minutes before. I kept yelling at her to stop looking at the clock and to keep going, but she was pretty adamant in her position. Once she got to 27 reps, things clicked again and she did the last 3 reps fairly quickly. Her Grace time? 2:49. I wish I could throw a tantrum and still finish that quickly! (Later, Rachel would admit that she didn't realize the clock was counting down, so when she looked at it, she thought she was over 3 minutes at 20 reps, which led to the tantrum.)
As she made her way through the bar-facing burpees, I kept score, but then at one point, I turned around to answer a question from somebody. When I turned back around, I was a little confused about how many she had done. At least it's on video. I'm pretty sure she got 21 or 23 burpees (it was an odd number, I know that much based on what side of the bar she ended on).
Time for me to go! Yay? None of what I just witnessed looked fun, but my main focus was on the first half of the workout. If my bar-facing burpees sucked and I didn't get a high score, I wasn't going to lose any sleep. There was no way I was winning this online competition. This was simply for fun. (Note to self: get a new hobby)
I got started and I noticed early on I was in trouble. I only strung the first 5 reps and then dropped. Strung 4 more, then dropped. I think I managed at least one set of 2 reps, possibly two, but I was feeling drained. 135 shouldn't have felt super heavy, but it was max effort to get that bar over my head. After 17 reps, I made an attempt at #18, only to barely jerk the bar over my eyebrows, forcing me to drop it. At that point I expressed my displeasure by screaming "TRUCK!" (or something like that) and walking away from the bar. I had completely forgotten this was on tape and it didn't really dawn on me until after I was done. Let's not submit my tape. Thanks.
I slowly made my way through the final 13 reps, finishing in a time of "three forty something". Not good at all. I slogged through the bar-facing burpees as best I could, completing my 10th rep right before time was called. It was a miserable workout and I had done poorly on top of it. Not exactly the mindset I wanted to begin King and Queen week.
Monday workout: running and more squats than you could ever want to do in a WOD. At least they threw in some overheads at the end. Yay!
With King and Queen week upon us, there will be less blog posts than usual simply because I know I am going to get my ass kicked on Saturday doing the 5 WODs in the competition, so there is no point in working out a ton this week. My plan for the week is to work out on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, with some light form work sprinkled in along the way. I have always been the type to feel a workout two days after I did it rather than the next day, but more recently I've begun feeling it the next day (translation: I'm old). So taking off Thursday and Friday before the competition seems like the way to go.
Marisa had posted a workout for some competition on Facebook and it had to be videotaped and submitted by Sunday. I originally thought Michal and I would be doing this on Sunday, but then Michal came down with a case of tequila, so she couldn't do it. Rachel decided she would do it instead, although I don't think any of us were thrilled about that because she has been having back pain recently and this workout was not going to make her back feel any better. The workout?
5 minutes:
30 clean and jerks (135/95)
Then AMRAP of bar-facing burpees
Part of the reason why I was interested in doing this is because it was another opportunity to trim my Grace time to under 3 minutes. I would likely have to crawl through the bar-facing burpees afterwards, but that was fine.
Due to some video difficulties, we determined that we would have to do this workout one at a time. Ladies first! We set the clock on the IPad to 6 minutes so that there would be a minute countdown before beginning. As it dwindled towards 5 minutes, we told Rachel to get ready. And then she was off. And she would not put the bar down. I think she did something like 13 in a row before letting go of the bar. She had 15-16 reps at the 1:00 mark. I was getting ready to erase her old PR from the top of the gym whiteboard. Then something strange happened when she got to 20 reps. Rachel started telling me she wasn't going to finish. She looked at the clock and grew very frustrated. A few reps later, she repeated the claim that she couldn't finish and added that she had no idea how she did this in two and a half minutes before. I kept yelling at her to stop looking at the clock and to keep going, but she was pretty adamant in her position. Once she got to 27 reps, things clicked again and she did the last 3 reps fairly quickly. Her Grace time? 2:49. I wish I could throw a tantrum and still finish that quickly! (Later, Rachel would admit that she didn't realize the clock was counting down, so when she looked at it, she thought she was over 3 minutes at 20 reps, which led to the tantrum.)
As she made her way through the bar-facing burpees, I kept score, but then at one point, I turned around to answer a question from somebody. When I turned back around, I was a little confused about how many she had done. At least it's on video. I'm pretty sure she got 21 or 23 burpees (it was an odd number, I know that much based on what side of the bar she ended on).
Time for me to go! Yay? None of what I just witnessed looked fun, but my main focus was on the first half of the workout. If my bar-facing burpees sucked and I didn't get a high score, I wasn't going to lose any sleep. There was no way I was winning this online competition. This was simply for fun. (Note to self: get a new hobby)
I got started and I noticed early on I was in trouble. I only strung the first 5 reps and then dropped. Strung 4 more, then dropped. I think I managed at least one set of 2 reps, possibly two, but I was feeling drained. 135 shouldn't have felt super heavy, but it was max effort to get that bar over my head. After 17 reps, I made an attempt at #18, only to barely jerk the bar over my eyebrows, forcing me to drop it. At that point I expressed my displeasure by screaming "TRUCK!" (or something like that) and walking away from the bar. I had completely forgotten this was on tape and it didn't really dawn on me until after I was done. Let's not submit my tape. Thanks.
I slowly made my way through the final 13 reps, finishing in a time of "three forty something". Not good at all. I slogged through the bar-facing burpees as best I could, completing my 10th rep right before time was called. It was a miserable workout and I had done poorly on top of it. Not exactly the mindset I wanted to begin King and Queen week.
Monday workout: running and more squats than you could ever want to do in a WOD. At least they threw in some overheads at the end. Yay!
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