6 rounds: 5 C&J, 10 burpee

I am really sore. So rather than challenge myself on the power/strength side - I went Infidel 135# weight for the C&J rather than HTFU 155.

I tried really hard to keep the speed up, and the form perfect. No push presses or strict presses - all jerks.

I had 3 rounds done in 4 minutes and finished at 9:10.

I will call it active recovery.

Run, Pullup , Sledge

Dammit

Soni got in my head telling me how he mis-counted the rep scheme this am. And sure I enough I messed up too.

Even worse, I did extra!

Instead of going up and down a symmetrical ladder – I went ahead and ran the 800m twice. But lets be honest -3rd St. and back is no 800m. By the time I realized that I was running all by my lonesome, it was too late. So I did:

10, 10,400m
15, 15, 600m
20, 20, 800m
20, 20m 800m (should have been 600m)
15, 15, 600m (should have been 400m)
10, 10 done

33:28 including the extra 400m that I ran.

Oh yeah, I also threw up a little - on round 1 no less. That is what a hot day and a week of vacation does to me. My mind is always ready to push it, but my body needs some easing back into CF.

Side note 2 - after my first day back from vacation - which was a seemingly harmless OHS day and a 10 minute circuit - I fell asleep at 8:30 pm - or about 4 hours earlier than usual.

Vacation is easy. Crossfit is tough.

O/H Squat x 1

My prior PR was 115 and was mostly restricted by my lack of flexibility. I am getting there.

Today I got 125# pretty well and tried 135# twice. Felt solid but I could'nt come up with it. I was tired. Next time.

Then a 10 minute AMRAP of 15 KB swings and 30 Jump lunges.

Note that I made my second ever appearance at 0730 and I am still on Mountain time. I actually was able to eat lunch with the work crew.

A good first day back.

Vacation

8 days away from CrossFit and not one single WOD. Did some hiking though, and grew this thing.

Coming back felt good. Some nagging aches and pains seemed to get better. My broken pinkie is about 75% now, which is nice. I can actually sort of make a fist again.

I am now a big fan of taking a full week off once in a while.

strict press x 3

166.

An angry after hours special. Ha da bad day and took it out on the bar.

cleans, ring push ups

10 rounds
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 - 155# cleans
2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20 - ring pushups

14:58

including the sunday wod - 6 days in a row. all htfu level where applicable. I am beat.

Vacation next week. Take care care everyone.

pullup, jump, sit up run

Is this the first wod that was easier than it looked on paper. I thought for sure I was looking at another 30+ minutes. But I finished 24:40.

100 of each (in a row) and then the 1 mile loop.

100 pullups were easier and quicker than I expected. Took 5:25. I was think I did 5 sets of 10, then 5s and then 3s at the end. Not much pausing.

Box Jumps were ok but took longer. Nicked my finger on the box with my crazy arm swing. On jump #2! Kept going, but it was nasty and a bleeder. Had to pause to bandage. Cost me a good minute. So I was rested to power through those.

Sit ups were my hardest part. Tightness in my lower back. I need some reverse hyper action.

1 mile loop. I am not a good runner. Jack "Flash" Britton caught me early and I sent him on his way. He beat me by a solid minute. Good news, no one else caught me. I saw Gar when I finished the switchback. With 6 blocks to go, I figured he would catch me. Never came though. But I needed that push to help my pace on the end.

Deadlifts x1

Still sore and tired from yesterday. last time I did a range of 295-315 and and avg of 305.

Today, I started at 315 and stayed there for all lifts. I did not have the speed or energy to go up.

Worked with Jerry - who was feeling it, and added at least 5# every round. What a learning experience to share a bar with him. From his approach, set-up, attitude, etc. Good stuff.

After party - tabata row x 10. Felt OK, although the power was not what I wanted. In other words, I felt OK because I was not pulling hard enough.

Runs, Thrusters, Dips

When is the last time I did thrusters with 135#. That would be never. Why would I. They are horribly painful.

During warmups, I did the bar - fine, did 95# - ok, tried 115# - did not enjoy that, and then finally tried 135#. I did 2 reps. I had proven that I could do them, from there, it was just a question of how many in a row and how long would it take.

Answer = 36:33.

This ranks up there as a top 5 most painful CFOT workouts I have ever done. Jerrys birthday WOD is also in there, but this was worse. I have had very few workouts that I wanted to quit, very few that I wanted to lower the weight, and a few where I stopped and tried to throw up. Today was all three. On my 4th run I stopped at the mailbox and leaned on it. Thank god it was 95 degrees out and the box scalded my hands, cause otherwise I may have stayed there for a while.

Kevin Hare had an inspiring effort. In his last round he cranked 9 thrusters in a row with 135#. I had done 3 and was doing 3 at a time - with a lot of rest. He picked up the bar and just hammered through. Beat me by a minute. Nice job.

Nutrition talk

Here is my section. The audio is not great.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/jerryhill/videos/95/

Recipe -MarkyD's Coco-Cocoa Almond Bars

I am pretty sure that the Paleolithic man did not actually eat these, but if he found one lying around, he would have.

I made these yesterday and brought them to the CFOT nutrition talk. They were all eaten, which I think confirms that these are good.

Total time is about 5 minutes, plus a little time to freeze them. So:

-Get a large mixing bowl.
-Add the following (since I am not down with the Zone, I don't weigh or measure. Open your mind and add quantities that you feel are right. Then taste as you go)


-Add 1 spoonful of coconut oil
-Add a three spoons of almond butter
-Pour in about a cup of shredded coconut
-Add half a cup of slivered almonds (Trader Joe's, unsalted and toasted work well)
-Mix in some dark cocoa powder and or dark choc chips
-Drizzle in a little honey

-Mix and smash with a wooden spoon. Break up those almond slivers.
-Make sure the consistency is not too liquid. If so, add more coconut and almond.
-Taste. Is it sweet enough? If not, add more honey. Repeat.
-Put wax paper in a baking dish. Pour in mix and spread thin.
-Freeze it - 20 minutes

-Take it out, flip it over, peel off the wax paper and cut into squares. Pieces will break off. Eat these (cook's bonus!)

Put squares in a bowl and back into the freezer. Take out 5 min before you serve.

Watch them disappear.

Fight Gone Bad

Last fall we led up to FGB with weeks and weeks of interval days, station workouts and other specific FGB prep. Yesterday Jerry innocently dropped a note that 6.11.10's WOD was FGB. That seemed a little unfair to me, as I was not expecting that at all.

I know last fall I had this insane notion in my head that I could get 300 reps. Game day was a painful 222.

Today, I was not sure what I would get, but assumed a 5 or 10% increase, and in fact I improved 6% to 235 reps.

Also of note, I learned my lesson and did not start out of the gate too crazy. My second and third rounds dropped off only 8 and 7%. So I was consistent. Without a doubt, I excel at more moderate intensity longer efforts. These all-out intervals completely gas me.

Plus, without throwing anyone else under the bus, I am really trying to focus on perfect form and full range of motion. I don't really care what my score is. I know that if I keep working as hard as I can and do the form to full range, then I am getting the max benefit. I saw some half ass push presses. Other than some extra points, I am not sure what good that does you. Sour grapes, cause others did better than me, but a little bit of the hard truth too.

Shout out to Erin Fisk. After FGB she led an 800m run that was just the right pace. Saw her working pullups too. She is determined as hell to get better, and I respect that.

Jumping Cindy

20 minute AMRAP:
5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 double unders

I completed 14 full and 2/3 of another round.

My double unders are a mess and after a while I switched to 50 single unders. Is that equal? I have no idea. But I kept the intensity up the whole time and even made a push at the end. So I was happy with my energy.

Also, on the plus side. My kipping pullups are rocking these days. As in I can do 5 at a time 15 times with no trouble at all. (During Fran last week I could have done 21, but broke it up to 15 + 6 just to save myself.) I know butterflies are faster, and a goal for the future. But I am going to take this moment to pat myself on the back. This was one of my 2010 goals, and I can say mission accomplished.

Double unders could be next. Mine are horrible.

Bench Club - week 4: 06/09/10

Hand stand holds

Funny thing. You would think that being good at handstand pushups would equate to static hand stand holds. But the more you think about it, the less that makes any sense. One movement takes speed and power, the other endurance. And even if I do 20 hand stand pushups in a row, that really only takes 30 or 40 seconds, which is really not that long.

So far today, most people on board with long static hold times were people that were strong, but lighter. Although not everyone fell in to that pattern, I sure did. In 7 rounds I had a combined 4:59, or about an avg or 45 seconds per time. Best was about 1:05.

We fooled around on the pullup bars with chain pullups, butterfly, one arm pullups, 2 finger pullups, 2 bar switch pullups, etc. Just killing time in between more static holds.

Then I worked some intervals to get ready from Fran part 2. I promise you all that my time at the end of July will be better than my recent 6:24 (PR) time. I am not sure if I can eclipse Kevin who is ahead of me. He is a good athlete. All I can do is work as hard as I can to get better, and I have 6.5 weeks left to do that.

Hang Cleans & Runs

After Fran on Friday I had a nice weekend away at the beach. You would think I would be well rested. But somehow all the swimming and sun have tired me out. I walked into CFOT at 1230 and wanted to turn around and go take a nap.

That said, I also want to take this Fran challenge seriously. And if I cannot surpass Kevin (who has a 4:01 PR Fran compared to my 6:24), then I sure as hell don't want anyone behind me to overtake me. So I have work to do. A lot of work to do.

Today though I was happy to power through 7 rounds of 7 hang cleans (155#) and then 200m runs in 15:42. Not the fastest time, not the heaviest weight, but an OK effort. My grip is still hampered by my broken pinky. So I dropped after each rep and started fresh. Trying to control the bar on the way down hurt more than the lift itself for me.

Tried a few reps at 175 afterwords and they felt good.

Fran!

6:24 a 9 second PR


Pure agony. After the halloween workout with the dice last Oct when I kept rolling 2 sets of 15 thrusters - I had not done a thruster since. I dont like them.

I had a strategy to not put the bar down, and that lasted exactly 1 round. I guess I should be happy that I made it through the round of 21 intact. But as Harold warned me, the round of 15 gets you - and it did.

More surprisingly, the round of 9 was my worst. Had to drop the bar twice. I did not want to, but my brain made me.

It took me an hour to feel better.

This challenge is going to be a challenge.

Front Squats with 2x chains

165#
7 rounds of 2 reps
once every 2 minutes.

Bench Club – 6/2

Week 3 of this 7 week mini-camp. After the meager beginnings of me alone joining Stuart, today there were 9 of us. After week 1 of bands, and week 2 of chains, today was floor bench. It requires a full stop on the floor and uses a closer grip.

I worked up to 215 and that was a mighty struggle. Perhaps the 100 dips yesterday had an effect? Anyway, work is insane today and I will not be able to make Good by Gobble at lunch. Maybe tonight?

Episode 24 - "The Harold" Season

The Harold Season

Enjoy

Deadlifts, ring dips, pull ups

Deadlift x 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Ring Dips x 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 16, 12, 8, 4
Pullups x same

9 rounds total of all 3 exercised in the pattern above.
Time 22:20.
Hans hurt but did not rip.
30 minutes removed from this workout and I am shaking and almost overwhelmed with adrenaline.

Loved it.