almost afraid to shower

Ever have a day go so well, you don’t want to wash it off? Today was one of those days!

Strength: Split Jerk: work up to a one rep max.

I hit a PR of 240 on this lift back in June. I was feeling optimistic today and with some great tips from Coach Josh was able to put up 250# today!

This is a great confidence builder going into Saturday’s Halloween Olympic Lifting Competition. My best all time clean is just over 200#. Today’s jerk PR reinforces the idea that if I stand up my clean, I will get it overhead. Very cool.

METCON
15 min AMRAP
10 pull ups
30 Abmat Sit Ups
50 ft Walking Lunges
100 Double Unders

Coming off the split jerk PR, this METCON was really kind of secondary in my mind. I had a plan of attack going in, but didn’t have any set goals. I just figured, keep working for 15 minutes and see where it leads.

Pull ups felt great today! This was another big confidence booster. Earlier this week we were supposed to chest to bar pull ups and I could barely manage chin over bar. Today, with a smooth powerful kip, I was closer to chest to bar than chin over bar through two rounds.

Double Unders even went to plan. The plan was first set max reps, then sets of tens with quick pauses. I ran off 33 to start, then stuck to the plan after that. There were a couple of misfires and restarts, but the majority of the time I was able to execute 10 reps on command and then rest. When time expired I had completed 2 full rounds, plus 40 reps. Not a monster score, but that wasn’t really the point.

The best part about this entire METCON was I felt like I was in control. So often I get into a METCON and there’s a sense of frantic urgency that borders on panic where all I’m thinking is, “Oh shit. Just keep moving forward.” Today I felt like I was managing the workout instead of the other way around.

So now I find myself wondering what to do about tomorrow. I have to go to the gym. I’m coaching the 6:15 bootcamp. I’m registered for the 7:15 WOD. I’m seriously considering cancelling my enrollment in that session.

I’ve got plenty of workouts in this month and this week. I kind of like the idea of ‘ending with a hit’ here before Saturday’s competition. Today went so well that I think I want to ride that feeling of satisfaction. I don’t want to workout tomorrow and have things go poorly. Perhaps, I’ll spend the time working on mobility and or a skill just to be in motion.

And just in case your wondering about the headline and the lead in…I’ve acknowledged before that I’m a bit superstitious. There’s part of me that doesn’t want to risk washing off whatever mojo, vibe or luck that was with me today.

All I’ll say is I work from home. The dog isn’t complaining about the smell and for now, I’m kind of savoring the feeling of the chalk on my hands.

 

just for giggles

The past couple of workouts I have had this mindset where I’ve been doing things just out of personal curiosity and to amuse myself. The results and the potential impact (positive and negative) have been mixed.

July 3

Wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on this particular day. I didn’t want to do anything over the top. Didn’t feel much like running. While it was a beautiful day, It was too soggy after days of rain to do the “Farmer’s Workout” I had in mind at my in-laws. I would have torn up their property unnecessarily. So I was lying in bed wondering what to do when it hit me.

If you follow this blog or know me personally, you know that when I do double unders, I tend to travel backwards. So much so that over the years I’ve joked with my coaches and work out friends that one day I would test my max distance double unders. So just to satify my own curiosity, that’s what I did.

I went to the local high school track and made several attempts seeing how many reps I could string together and how far I would travel along a lane on the track. My best stretch on the day was about 20 reps covering a distance of approximately 10 meters.

Is that a useful skill? No. Will I ever use it in a competition? No. Was it counterproductive to my other training? Debatable. Was it fun to do? Hell, yes!

After a half dozen attempts at that I made a half-hearted attempt at some distance jump roping. I didn’t really have a plan for this and frankly, it was harder than I anticipated, so I bailed.

I thought I’d do 400M jumping rope, single unders, forward for time. I got about 50M and switched to ‘running’ jump rope (skipping the rope one foot at a time per rep). I did that for nearly 150M and it had taken me something like 3 minutes to get that far. At that point, I kind of accepted that my heart wasn’t really in this and I stopped.

Since then, a friend has provided a workout suggestion of running and jumping rope for distance that I might cut in half and attempt some time in the future. I need much more practice at the running jump rope though.

It was a fun way to spend the morning.

Monday, July 6.

Strength: Overhead Squat 1RM

Wasn’t certain how this was going to go with my sore rotator cuff. But it’s been some time since I’ve tested this, so I was eager to give it a go.

I experimented a bit during the warm ups and discovered that the initial press, lock out and squat weren’t a problem for my shoulder. Trying to return the bar to my shoulders in a controlled way after a rep was painful with anything over 95#. So I simply dropped the bar after each rep.

I maxxed out today at 185#. That’s just 10# shy of my all time PR, so it was a good day.

METCON:

20 Minute Cap:
100 Pull ups
2-3 minutes of rest
100 push ups

For a guy who’s trying to baby a sore rotator cuff, this looked like absolute misery.

Coach Doug showed me how to do one arm ring rows as a sub for pull ups. I’ve done plenty of ring rows, but never tested just one arm. So I kind of viewed this as a max reps attempt. The ring was set at chest height and I stood with my feet positioned arms length away from the rings.

I did 7 reps every minute on the minute for 8 minutes, then 5 reps on roughly the half minute for two more minutes for a total of 76 reps. At that point, at Couch Doug’s guidance I took a minute or two of rest and switched to push ups.

I started doing sets of 15 reps on the minute and figured out after three sets that was overly aggressive. I dropped to sets of 5 and did them roughly on the half minute. I was surprised to discover that these started to aggravate my shoulder. I might have overdone these.

I got caught up in the back and forth between Mike and Greg. They were pacing each other and I realized that I was keeping up with them. I never called out my scores to them, but I kept an ear to where they were and worked to match pace.

When time expired I had completed 90 total reps. I’m satisfied with the number and in the moment I was pleased with the effort.

Given how my shoulder feels right now, I’m wishing I hadn’t let the competitive spirit get the better of me. I’m wishing I would have modified somehow (set a personal cap of less reps, perhaps experimented with one arm push ups), or simply bowed out. I don’t think I’ve done any additional damage, but I certainly didn’t do myself any favors towards the overall recovery either. Ah well, live and learn.

 

where oh where have my pullups gone

Tough tough workout today. It was a shorter heavier version of Fran. It was every bit as difficult as I was anticipating.

Strength: Back Squat 1RM

Worked up to wo successful lifts at 295. Those I’m counting. That’s just 20lbs short of my all time best, so I’m satisfied with that. I lifted 305, but was shallow and failed to break parallel on that lift, so we won’t count that.

I was tentative during the back squats. Soon as I went beyond 80% of 1RM I was very cautious. I did two lifts at each weight and each time the second lift was better than the first.

There was lots of mental noise as I was doing the first lifts.

“How does it feel?”

“I think it’s ok.”

“Is that squat deep enough yet?”

“Well, it certainly isn’t deep enough for Saturday’s powerlifting competition, but it’s below parallel. Time to turn around.”

“CAN I turn around? Is it starting up?”

“It’s starting up. Keep going.”

With all of this going on in my head, Lindsay observed that my first lifts had lots of extra motion. I would get to the bottom of my squats forward in my feet, rock back into my heels, then start my ascent by raising my hips. Realize that was wrong, I would straighten myself, get my hips forward correctly positioned under me, then stand.

There was just lots of wiggle and extra motion.

The second time around at each weight, there was just more confidence. There was a sense of, “Ok. We just did this. We can do it again. This time do it right.”

In the end, it wasn’t a bad session. Just need to get more confidence the first time through.

METCON
15-12-9

Thrusters 135#
Weighted Pull Ups (45#)
12 Min Cap

The word of the day for today’s METCON was “scale.” As I said earlier today, this one was just ornery. Didn’t help that my pull ups seem to have evaporated. Seems like I used up my 30 day pull up allotment during last Monday’s Murph. I just didn’t have them at all today.

On my best day, I don’t have 36 strict deadhang bodyweight pull ups. Trying to find a way to add weight and do a kipping pull up just wasn’t going to happen, but man I sure tried.

During the back squats I experimented with different weights and different ways of holding those weights and nothing worked. I tried hooking my toe through the handle of a 25# kettlebell. I tried holding a 10# dumb bell between my thighs, then my knees, then my feet. I tried the kettlebell again strapped into a weight belt. I tried using a heavy chain draped over my shoulder. They just weren’t there. I decided to just do kipping pull ups. Even that proved to be a heck of a challenge. I was doing single reps by the end of the round of twelve.

For thrusters, I started the METCON with a barbell set up at 125#. I think I got 7 reps in when I stripped that down to 115#. By the end of the time cap I was doing thrusters in pairs.

When the 12 minutes was over, I had completed the work through the 9 thrusters. Truth be told, I’m satisfied that I stayed in motion and didn’t just walk away from this one. Some days it’s enough to say, “I stuck with it.”

 

my arms cried uncle

Saturday the family took part in the first Crossfit Durham Pull Up competition. Everyone had a blast.

It was a very informal event. The rules were pretty simple.

Over the course of 2 hours get yourself a judge/counter and complete three attempts for max rep pull ups.

You could do deadhang or kipping, (no butterfly). You could go unassisted, or you could use one of two bands, a 1/2″ or 1″ band for assistance.

You could use any grip for any round, but you couldn’t change grip mid round. Once you set your grip for that round, you had to maintain it all the way through.

You could adjust your hand width on the bar and regrip, but you couldn’t hang one handed and shake out the other arm/hand. Personally, I’m not sure how anyone could pull that off, but it was part of the rules.

In four years, I’ve never attempted a max rep set of kipping pull ups. Any time they come up in a WOD, if it’s high volume, I always break them up to save energy for the rest of the METCON. Any time we do max rep sets of pull ups in training, it’s deadhang. So going into it, I was thinking a set of 15 reps would be a really good target. If I had a perfect day, I thought perhaps I could string 20 together.

I did 13 the first time through. I got 12 the second time around. I didn’t make a third attempt. My hands felt soft as if they were ready to tear after the second round. The high score for the mens unassisted division at that point was 41! I wasn’t going to challenge that, so there was no point in making a third attempt.

I was very satisfied with those scores.

Other Impressions that I took away from the competition:

1) For every man competing there were three women there competing! That was awesome! I love it any time my kids can see the strong women in our box competing. It proved inspirational too.

2) Lil Bit got in on the competition! While Erin was chatting with a friend, and I was judging another competitor, Lil Bit used a j-hook or a box climbed up on the rig and started banging out pull ups as best a 6 year old could! Our friend Stephanie joined Lil Bit at the rig and counted for/coached her! It was just awesome to watch! And the gym cheered her on as loud as they did for any of the adults! That was fantastic.

It was a bit of a funny situation for me. My natural instinct is to start coaching and advising. But Lil Bit and Stephanie were working together and I’m pretty sure I would have been more of a distraction than a help. So while I offered a quiet ‘great job’ or ‘keep going’ I really worked hard to stay quiet. All I did was position myself under Lil Bit as a spotter to catch her if she slipped off the rig from seven feet up. After all, I’m still her Daddy.

I was so proud of her for wanting to compete with all of those adult around. Lil Bit truly is fearless.

Erin and I are so grateful for the way the entire CFD community embraces our kids every time they visit. From keeping them company while Mom and Dad are doing workouts, to incorporating them into the workouts or competitions, everyone is so fantastic with Lil Bit and Whirlwind. We really appreciate it.

3) Whirlwind also displayed a fair bit of courage. While he didn’t take part in the pull up contest, he did master a thirty inch box jump! For an eleven year old who stands 58.5″ tall, that’s a hell of a leap. I worked with him on the jumps prior to the pull up competition. We started with a 24″ box, then added plates after each successful jump. By the time we finished, he successfully jumped onto the 24″ box with a 45# and 2 10# plates stacked on it. Easily 30″.

Later during the competition, while grown ups were focused elsewhere he made two more attempts on the 30″ box. He made one good jump, but the second one the box bit him a bit. No big deal. Scuffed his shin some, but he was pretty pleased to have hit that jump.

I’m proud of him for going back and tackling it again and proving to himself that the first jumps weren’t some kind of fluke.

Monday, May 4

Strength: Work up to 4 sets of 3 reps of overhead squats

I worked my way up to 155#. It was tough work, but man it felt good. I like overheads. Working these heavy today really suited my mood.

METCON
7 push press (135#, Rx)
10 Overhead Squats
15 Abmat Sit Ups

15 min AMRAP.

After the strength segment and paired with the push press, I went into this METCON thinking I’d be lucky to complete 3 rounds.

When Coach Lindsay said, “go” I got through the first round unbroken and in under 2 minutes! I ran the numbers in my head and that was a mistake. I thought, “there’s no way in HELL I’m doing 6 more rounds of that!” From then on out, I improvised round to round experimenting with where to break up reps and sets.

It was tricky. I didn’t really want to clean the bar any more than necessary to get it back into position for the prescribed lifts, but it was unavoidable. No subsequent set looked exactly like the previous so I can’t describe my rep schemes.

Ultimately, I completed 4 rounds and 7 additional reps. I was very pleasantly surprised at this. Technically, I had about 15 seconds remaining when I completed the push presses, but I walked away from the bar rather than attempt any more overheads. The gym was already spinning on it’s own axis and taking 135# overhead seemed ill-advised.

In spite of the spins, today was one of those pleasantly surprising days where I walked out thinking to myself, “Damn, I DID THAT!” I was able to exceed my expectations and put in a really strong effort. Nice feeling. Of course, I may be cursing myself later today. I volunteered to wash teacher’s cars at my kids’ school for Teacher Appreciation week. At the moment, I’m not sure I can manage the manual transmission in the car. Maybe I’ll volunteer to work on all the tires. 😉

 

good to be back

So I took a week off from the gym last week. Judging by the day, it was time well spent.

Push Jerk: 1RM.

My 1RM for push jerk is 225#. It’s been 225# since July of 2013! Now I understand that at this stage in my training PR’s are harder and harder to come by and in general, they’re going to come in smaller increments instead of big gains. Still, when one rep maxes are coming up on their second birthdays, that gets in my head a bit.

I went through warm up reps at 115, 135, and 155. After that I did singles at 185 and 215. Both of the singles felt very good. The drop was quick, the lock out was secure. Definitely confidence building lifts.

I loaded 230# and went through all of my warm up rituals. Everyone around me was hitting their lifts. That’s good for me. I don’t like lifting immediately after anyone’s miss. Don’t like having a miss in my mind’s eye just before stepping up to the bar.

I set it up, racked the bar, stepped back, set myself, remembered to keep my elbows up as Lindsay had advised earlier and POW! It was good.

It’s only five pounds, but I’m not going to lie, it felt really good to put my name back on the PR board. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a reason.

230# felt so good that I took a few minutes to rest and then attempted 240#. Didn’t get it today, but it’s not too far off. I know there are folks reading this shaking their heads saying, “you don’t lift again after a PR. There’s no point.” But I’m good with the attempt. It was fun to try.

METCON
8 Min AMRAP
5 pull ups
10 full squat cleans – 155 Rx

Then 400M timed Sprint.

It’s always the simple ones that burn you! Holy moly! Bottom line up front, I got through 2 full rounds and 3 pull ups Rx. The cleans were SO draining. I might have been able to go a bit faster, but I really wanted to concentrate on making every clean a technically sound squat clean. I didn’t want to do any power cleans and then squat them out.

Have to give Coach Doug props and thanks for helping me out on the fly. I was really struggling with the cleans at the start and couldn’t work out why. I was catching everything with my elbows low near my knees. I knew it was wrong. In my head I kind of chalked it up to tired shoulders and poor mobility.

Doug called out to me telling me to loosen my grip and catch the bar in the front rack in my fingertips. Turns out I had a full-fisted death grip on the bar as I was catching it and that was preventing me from getting my elbows up and through as I needed. Once I adjusted that things got much better. The bar didn’t get any lighter, but I was definitely more confident catching it.

The 400M run after the squat cleans was so DRAINING! Partly, that’ my fault I went out the door telling myself, “I SO don’t want to do this. This is going to be so miserable after those squat cleans.”

I was the last of the three runners to return to the start line this morning. Ah well. In spite of my headspace I crossed the line in 1:37. That’s a middle ground sort of time for me. Not an awful time given my generally awful attitude towards it.

Overall, I’m pleased with the day. Looking forward to seeing what the week ahead holds.

 

training today not competing

Had to work hard to stay inside my own head and space and stick to what I wanted to accomplish today when the METCON got started.

Strength:
Hang Power Snatch
3-3-3-1-1-1
As heavy as possible

Worked 95×3, 115×3, 125×3, then two singles at 135#.

The drop and catch felt good today, but man the bar felt heavy going up today. Still form felt pretty good, but it was definitely not a new 1RM sort of day. That’s cool though. I was comfortable with how things went.

Metcon:
For time:
15 Muscle Ups
Run 800m
12 Muscle Ups
Run 400m
9 Muscle Ups
Run 200m
Time cap in 15 minutes

I don’t have muscle ups, so I took the substitution Coach Lindsay offered 10 pull ups and 10 ring dips the first round, 8 and 8 the second round and 6 and 6 the final round.

Pull ups felt good today. Ring dips did too for as long as they lasted. Knowing that these were substitutions for muscles ups, I was concentrating on making each one very deep and strict. They proved to be time consuming.

So much so that I was the second to the last person out the door for the first run, by a WIDE margin. Not sure what scales/substitutions other folks were using and I’m not judging. But in the heat of the METCON it was disconcerting to get left behind. I know we’re not competing with anyone else, but when 11 of 13 people go out the door a good 30 seconds ahead of you, it gets inside your head. Or at least, it did mine. Enough so that I wondered if I had misunderstood the rep scheme. I checked the white board to be sure I was doing the correct work. Once I verified that, THEN I reminded myself, “you’re training today, not competing. Stay focused. Make each rep count.”

That definitely helped settle my mind and find my groove. I was able to dismiss everyone else and focus on my own effort again. I finished in 13:46. I had to go to banded ring dips for the round of six. My shoulders were smoked. There was no climbing out of the bottom of a deep dip. It’s all good though. I’m pleased with the effort and the form of the ring dips especially. That will pay off later on down the road.

Ramblings
Had another ‘thank you Crossfit’ experience this Sunday. If we’re connected on Facebook, then you know the family spent the afternoon at a local climbing center for indoor rock climbing celebrating our childrens’ birthdays. It was by far my favorite of their birthday parties to date.

We had a blast scaling the 16 and 33 foot walls! I was pleasantly surprised at how many routes of varying technical difficulty I was able to climb. I had no real expectations going in, but it was a real gratifying discovery to find that I was able to climb all the runs I attempted.

Beyond that, it was so rewarding just to be able to take part! A couple of years, and 60 extra pounds, ago, I don’t know that I would have even attempted this. I likely would have sat on the sidelines cheering on the kids munching cupcakes and birthday cake. This weekend, there was no question. It was, “Hell, yes, I’m gonna climb!” We all spent two solid hours climbing, celebrating together and cheering one another on. It was pretty fantastic.

The day just served as a great reminder of why I work to stay fit now. It’s so I can be actively engaged with my kids, my wife and so we’re empowered to explore these new adventures.

 

midweek catch up

Sunday, Sept 18
We had 20 minutes to work on a strength segment from the previous week.

I went after the push press for the third time in seven days.

I know I’m being stubborn here. My old 1RM is 217.5. I should just go to 220, bang it out, call it a PR and a new 1RM. But I WANT 225#!

There’s just something about the idea of having two 45# plates on each side of that bar, shoving it up and locking it out that appeals to me!

Even though 220 would be an improvement, I would still consider it a disappointment. This is becoming a bit of a white whale for me. But it’s all good natured.

Suffice it to say that I did not hit it this weekend. Once again, I missed it by the lock out. It’s so damn close.

METCON
In teams of 2:
Each partner will perform 10 rounds (2 minutes each) of the following:
4 Pullups
8 Front Squats (95/65)
12 Kettlebell Swings
As many Burpees as possible in remaining time
Partners will alternate working and resting.
Score will be total amount of burpees performed by the team

Now, the way that’s written, wouldn’t you think that this was a 40 minute WOD with each partner doing 10 rounds? That’s what I was expecting. But whether it was a typo, or coach’s discretion, Coach Lori informed us that the WOD was 10 rounds total. Each member would do 5 rounds! Thank heavens, because I’m honestly not sure I would have stayed conscious for 10 rounds each!

I was reasonbly consistent with my burpees. 3 rounds of 15 and 2 rounds of 13. I didn’t record the team’s final score. I just know what I completed.

This one was a lot of fun as Lori allowed our kids to take part. Whirlwind substituted hip touches for pull ups, and goblet squats for front squats. Lil Bit did air squats rather than goblet squats. They had a pretty good time of it. It’s always a treat when we can modify a Sunday WOD and involve the kids.

Monday, January 19

I wandered over to Bull City Crossfit since Monday was a holiday. I wanted to work out with my future competition partner, John.

Skills: Ring Dips Establish a 1RM set

I pulled off 7 really quality strict ring dips. That was my strongest set of the day. I’m satisifed with that.

Strength: EMOM 10 min Snatch
Snatch
2nd position snatch
1st position snatch

In 3 plus years of Crossfit, this was the first time I worked snatches UP through the positions. It’s fairly common to run down from 1st, 2nd then ground. I don’t ever recall doing it this way. Second position still remains my least favorite of the three.

I worked 5 rounds at 75#, just under 50%, then 5 at 95#, a bit over. All in all, things felt good.

METCON
20 American KB Swings (53#)
8 burpee box jumps
20 Abmat sit ups
8 burpee box jumps.

I got through 2 full rounds plus 40 additional reps. Burpee box jumps were sluggish, but all exercises were done unbroken.

I was using one of the other fellows working out as my rabbit. He started out very fast and was running away from me in the first round.

However, as I completed the second round, I stepped off the box and glanced in his direction. He was doubled over his kettlebell gasping for air.

I thought, “There’s my window! Unbroken kettlebells and some fast burpee box jumps and I can get him!” I gave it a hell of a run, but he still stayed out in front of me. He finished with a handful of more reps completed when it was all said and done.

That’s ok. It was good to find that motivation to turn up my own energy.

Ramblings

-) Still haven’t decided what to do about WODs at the end of this week. The choices are attend Friday and do Open WOD 14.4 (which I despise), or go Saturday and do Cindy (which I really enjoy).

I can’t decide if I’m going to be stubborn and tackle that goat of 14.4, or go with the WOD I prefer. It’s not an option to do both back to back. I won’t give either a full effort. More likely, I know myself, I’ll justify a disappointing score on either by laying it off on the other WOD. Best to test just one and give it my all.

At this point, I’m feeling kind of stubborn and I kind of like the idea of going after 14.4 to see if I can improve on what I considered to be a real disappointment during last year’s open. Not sure I can do monumentally better, but I think I want to see some progress on that one.

-) I’m registering for the Festivus Games in April in Wake Forest. Looking forward to that competition. I’ve wanted for years to try it, but it always conflicted with a favorite mud run. Fortunately, this year the Mud Run has moved to a different date so there’s no conflict! There are a handful of folks from CFD who plan on joining, so that will be cool. Even more exciting, it sounds like Erin is going to join us for her first competition!

-) I’m participating in a Whole 30 diet challenge with some friends to reboot my eating habits. I’m two days in and fighting the caffeine withdrawl. I never think of myself as a coffee drinker, or particularly addicted, but it seems it hits me harder than I expect. Other than that I’m feeling good. I’ll be tracking my weight during the challenge as we go. Don’t know that I need to share it this time.

 

stop with the numbers

Finished the week with a third date with one of ‘the girls.’ It was everything it was supposed to be.

WOD
Skill:
EMOM 8 minutes
2 Snatch Balance
30% 1RM

Worked 4 rounds with a bare 45# bar. It took a while to warm up and start feeling loose.

Worked the last 4 rounds with 75#. Those felt quite heavy. Still I was pleased with my stability and speed dropping into the squat.
Strength:
Power Snatch
3 singles at 75 %
3 singles at 85 %
3 singles at 95 %

So by the numbers, my working sets should have been at 125, 140 and 155# respectively.

I did a prelimnary set at 115 and it just felt H-E-A-V-Y! Still for reasons I can’t really explain, after 3 singles, I tried to jump straight to 140#. That was going no where fast.

I scaled back to 120 and completed 6 singles there. Good enough. At that weight, I was consistent and form felt good. Form first!

Metcon:
“Helen”
12 minute time cap

3 rounds for time
400M run
21 American (overhead) Kettlebell Swings (52#)
12 Pull ups

3 months ago I did Helen Rx and completed it in 12:34. So I knew I was going to need to have an exceptional morning to come in under the cap and I mentioned that to Coach Stephen during the strength work.

First round went just as I hoped it would.
I was back from the run at 1:45, completed the round was back the 400M start point comfortably under 4 minutes.

Second round slowed considerably. I was starting the third round at 8:15.

Returned from the run at 10:15. This was going to be very close!

Got through the kettlebell swings in two sets and hit the pull up rig as Coach Stephen called out one minute to go. As I moved to the rig, I asked Stephen to start a second clock. I knew the primary clock was going to hard stop at 12 minutes. I wasn”t sure I would make that, but I was still on a PR pace and I wanted a complete time. He was gracious enough to grab a stop watch and manage that for me.

Things got weird here. I’ve heard other athletes say they don’t like people cheering for and coaching them during a WOD. I’ve never been one of those people. I’ll gladly siphon off any extra energy that some one else wants to throw my way. But today the cheering was counterproductive. It was one of those situations that my wife would describe as, “some kinds of help, is the kind of help we all can do without.” See everyone wanted to count for me, but no two people were counting the same way!

Soon as I started some one on my left was counting up from 1-12. Some one else on my right was counting down! Some one else figured out I was doing sets of three, so the second time I went up to the bar, they were counting 3-2-1. A fourth person was counting rest for me, telling me, “Get back on the bar in 3-2-1!”

I normally count my reps down. I like the feeling of coming down to one. It gives me confidence. But at this point, my brain was just screaming, “Gah!!! What the hell is the count?!” I very nearly shouted at all of them, “Will you all just stop with the numbers!”

I had to stop after my second set and it was less about the physical rest, it was more that I had to recount in my head to be sure I knew how many reps I’d completed and how many I had to go!

The lesson here folks, if you finish a METCON before me and want to encourage me, please do! I welcome it. I want that encouragement. Cheer me on. Tell me to work hard. Scream at me to get after it, keep going, whatever. Get in my face and tell me to drive on. But please no numbers! Leave the counting to me. I promise to do the same for you.

I dropped from the bar after the last rep at 12:10. That’s a 24 second improvement. I’m a smidge disappointed that I missed the 12 minute goal, but overall I’m very satisfied and quite proud of another PR on this benchmark WOD.

 

something to prove

But it’s not what you’re thinking

Skill: Muscle Ups
Take 15 minutes to practice Muscle Ups or progressions or dips and pullups.

For those of us that don’t have muscle ups yet, Coach Stephen elected to put us through two back to back 5 min EMOMs of ring dips and pull ups.

For ring dips I got 3 per round. Not great. Given it’s the fifth work out of the week, I’ll take it.

For pull ups, started with 3 per round. Was doing 2 chin over bar and 1 chin at bar for the last two rounds.

Strength: Push Press
5 reps of push press at 45 % 100#
5 reps of push press at 55 % 120#
3 reps of push press at 65 % 145#
4 reps of push press at 75 % 165
4 reps of push press at 75 %
max reps of push press at 75 %

So I shared a rack and barbell with Craig again today. The discussion got around to the last set and how many reps we thought we’d each do.

I told him four today. He responded with, “yeah, but that’s what you said yesterday and then you went and did nine bench presses.”

I answered with, “Yeah, and you did eleven! So no matter what, you’re going first today!”

It ended up being irrelevant. On my third rep I lost focus. Coming out of the dip drive one foot decided it was doing a split jerk not a push press. So it started to drop back behind me. While my braiin was arguing with my feet no one was telling my arms to just keep pushing. The bar only got over my eyebrows, then it started to twist and I just bailed. Oh well.

METCON
4 reps of snatch at 135/95 lb
500 m row
3 reps of snatch
250 m row
2 reps of snatch
time cap for 8 min

The additional scaling direction here was use 70% of 1RM, if 135 is too much.

I experimented at 135 and decided I’d take the scale and set the bar at 120# (72.72% of my 1RM, if anyone is concerned).

Given the number of folks at the box, it was necessary to run two heats. I chose to take part in the second heat. I don’t normally do that. I don’t usually like getting a preview of the suffering ahead.

But in this case it was productive. The instructions were clear that these were to be full squat snatches. Coach Stephen also made a point of instructing everyone that if you caught the squat in a power snatch you were still expected to drop down into a full squat and then stand up the rep.

I noticed several folks who were catching their bars in a power snatch, standing it up all the way then doing an overhead squat. I’m not questioning their decisions, but in my estimation, that’s extra reps and more work. I was determined to catch every rep as low as possible. The lower weight allowed me to accomplish that.

In fact, I received several compliments on my snatch form this morning. Thanks, all. I appreciate that.

This was a very quick WOD. Over in 4:38. It was pretty cool, too. Although I confess my legs are still feeling the effects of yesterday’s WOD.

In fact, Craig and I were joking about that at the start of the session during warm ups.

The conversation went like this
Me: “If Crossfit is supposed to make me harder to kill, then why do I feel so weak today?”

Craig: “Think about it. When the zombie apocalypse comes, you’ll be ready.”

Me: “When it comes, it better come on a rest day.”
Bull City Race Fest – My boy has lofty goals for the 5 mile race this Sunday.

He announced at dinner last night that he expects us to complete the run in around 40 minutes averaging 8 minute miles.

When he made this declaration I reacted with an incredulous, “Really?”

His response was, “Sure. That’s like 7.52 miles per hour. It’s no big deal.”

I told him we’ll see. Personally, if we pull it off, I would be tickled.

In my estimation he’s failing to account for two things. First, he’s not figuring on his old man. He has a pretty good bead on his own ability. But he doesn’t really know what I’m capable of, and I’m not certain I’m capable of sustaining that pace. Hopefully, I don’t drag him down. Second, I don’t think he’s accounting for terrain. There are going to be some significant hill climbs in this run and I don’t think he’s giving them adequate respect. But as in all things, we shall see. All I know is I’m very much looking forward to sharing the morning with him because I do have something to prove.

We’ve talked about it before and he remembers the days when I was too overweight and too tired to play with him. He remembers me saying, “I’m sorry, Kiddo. Daddy’s gotta stop. It hurts too much.”

Or worse, not even getting started. “No, Son. Daddy’s not gonna play right now. I’m just too tired.” It still stings some times to realize that occurred.It’s very humbling and kind of disturbing.

So with respect to Sunday, I don’t feel like I’ve got something to prove to him in terms of how well we perform. This is more fundamental. For me, this is about showing him that his Dad is healthy now and whenever circumstances allow, I want to be able to say to him (or his sister), “Sure, kiddo. Let’s do that.”

 

just keeping notes

Skill: Pull ups
EMOM for 6 minutes:
3-5 strict pullups.

I got 3, ok some times 2, good pull ups each round.

Not too much else to say about that except that in the last two rounds I discovered that if I point my toes upward I find it much easier to maintain a good rigid hollow body position. Have to try and remember that for future sessions.

Strength: Thrusters
5 reps of thruster at 55 % 85#
3 reps of thruster at 65 % 100#
3 reps of thruster at 75 % 115#
3 sets of 2 reps of thruster at 85 % 130#

Couple things to note here.
1) Percentages are all based on a presumed 1RM of 155#. Based on today’s performance, that’s probably underestimating things. Coach Ami kept saying that all reps looked light. And while didn’t particularly feel light they were all going up fast enough that the plates were rattling at the top of each rep. My hips felt very sticky today. I had a tough time initiating each lift, but once I was moving upward I seemed to build momentum on my way to the top.

2) Math sucks! I overloaded the bar for the round at 85%. I was supposed to use 115#. I loaded up 125#.

It took me a full two minutes to figure out that I’d lifted too much. I stood there looking at the 35#, 5# and 2.5# plate on each side believing it was 115#. The thing that kept confusing me was I needed to add 15# to get to 130#. There was no combination of plates that I could figure out that would add up. If I stripped everything and just added 45# plates that would have been 135#. If I left the current configuration on the bar and added 15#, that meant adding another 5 AND 2.5 plate to each end of the bar giving me a pair of both. That NEVER happens.

In my mind, the 45# bar, plus the 2 35# plates added up to 105#! No matter how many times I tried to add it up, I kept getting 105#.

Gah! When I finally figured out the error of my ways, and realized that I only needed 5 more pounds to get to my goal of 130, I laughed out loud.

The final sets at 130 were a treat.

METCON
21-15-9 reps of:
kettlebell swing (russian) at 70/52 lb
*racked kettlebell lunge* at 70/52 lb
push press at 95/65 lb
time cap for 12 min

I had every intention of doing this WOD scaled at 62. I took a 70 and a 62 to my work area so I could downgrade if necessary.

To my surprise, I got through using the 70# kettlebell. I did the first round of KB swings unbroken. Everything else was spontaneously broken into subsets of varying sizes.

Finished in 8:28 – Rx. Given what I expected out of myself at the outset, I’m pretty satisfied with that.

21 Day/1000 Push Up Challenge

40 so far today/200 total – right on pace, but I’d like to be a bit further ahead. Shoulders feel fried from today’s push presses though.