do the math

Some days it’s all about how you frame what what happens.

I left the gym this morning mulling over how I scaled the METCON and still failed to complete it. I wasn’t overly concerned about it, but it was rattling around in my head.

The METCON was

21-15-9

Power Cleans
Front Rack Lunges
Push Jerks

The prescribed weight was 135 and we were given 15 minutes to complete it. I scaled the weight to 115#. When the clock expired I had completed 3 front rack lunges in the round of 9. So I came up 15 reps short.

It’s always so easy to get caught up in what we didn’t do. I know I’m not the only one. Then I got to thinking about what I did do today.

During our skill work today I pulled off an 8 or so second free standing handstand. I kicked up to the wall to set myself then leaned out away from the wall and stayed there! It was an awesome feeling. Even better than doing it was having a witness! As soon as my feet hit the floor I was looking around to see if anyone saw me. My buddy Mike called out immediately, “I saw that, Paul! Awesome!”

So that happened today and that’s pretty damn cool.

When I got home I pulled out a calculator. There were 135 possible reps in this METCON. I did 120.

120 reps x 115 pounds is 13,800 freaking pounds! I moved 6.9 tons of weight in 15 minutes this morning! Safely!

I think it’s fair to call that an accomplishment.

So remember folks, don’t get down about what you didn’t do. Catch your breath and take pride in what you did accomplish!

 

thats five onces

When you’re figuring out how to approach a WOD, it’s important to account for everything.

WOD for Monday 111912
Push Press
Establish 1RM

Push presses for one round max? Yes, please! I was ready to attack this lift this morning. No excuses on a Monday means I was determined to set a new 1RM today. Partnered with my good friend Craig again today and we motored through this portion of the WOD.

Warm up sets were:

95 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 3

We moved up to 155# and began doing singles. The single at 155# felt very fast and crisp. Craig’s wife, Michelle made a comment that the bar went up so fast, she was concerned the momentum might throw me off balance, but it didn’t. From 155#, Craig and I both agreed that we didn’t want to spend a lot of time with extra lifts on our way to respective goals for the day. So made a big jump to 185#. That was another good lift.

After 185#, I went up to 205#. I was another big jump, but you never tie a PR, right? Soo 200# was out of the question and lifting 195# didn’t seem strategic either, so onwards and upwards. 205# was tough but it was successful. So that was a PR. Craig observed the lift and told me, “Congratulations. You can do more!” Always cool to have a lifting partner who will appreciate what you’ve accomplished, but not let you rest. I was sure he was right, but I wasn’t sure how more.

I really was tempted to jump to 220# for the next lift. A 220# push press would be body weight. That was very appealing, but very arbitrarty and going from 205 to 220 seemed like too much. I decided 215 seemed a good choice. So that’s what we loaded up.

My first attempt I’m really not sure what happened. I dipped. I drove. My arms locked and my knees buckled but not completely. I ended up frozen for a few seconds with the bar locked out over my head in a sort of shallow crouch. I was stuck there long enough to wonder whether I’d just executed a push press or a push jerk, and if I had jerked it, what to do about it. It was about that time I realized I had no choice about what to do. My arms were starting to tremble and I couldn’t stand it up so I bailed. Fail!

Craig looked at me and asked, “what the hell was that?” I told him, “I don’t know, and that was the problem with it!” We just laughed.

After a short rest, I made a second attempt. It wasn’t pretty, but it went up and stayed up. I kind of wished I’d recorded it. I’d be curious to know if I pushed off with the front of my feet. I suspect I did. After the bar locked out overhead I felt like I was losing it forward and to my left. I had to shuffle my feet a bit to get them secure and stablize myself. But I was able to set my feet, maintain the lockout and then be stationary for a moment, so it was a good lift.

A 15# PR to start the week is never a bad thing.

While I don’t typically mention other people’s performance, I am going to say, “Congratulations, on your PR, Craig!” Like we joked after you finished. That probably wasn’t a lift for a how-to video on technique and form, but it was a hell of an example of heart and determination! Way to go, friend!

METCON
5 Rounds For Time:
5 Shoulder to Overhead (80% 1RM)
10 Pullups

So there was a lot of discussion about the weight for this METCON. Coach Erin explained that the intent was we should use 80% of the 1RM we’d just established, but we’d be starting from the floor not the rack. 80% of 215# is 172#. 172# is 95% of my 1RM for a clean! Not likely I was going to yank that from the floor multiple times, so I based my weight on my clean rather than my push press. 80% of 180# is 144#. I tweaked that and pushed it a bit higher to 155#.

Erin made a comment at some point as we were setting up that “Hey, you only have to clean it once.” I was quick to point out, “No. There are 5 rounds, that’s 5 onces! At least!”

When it came down to it, the shoulder to overheads went pretty well. I did push jerks for all of them and all rounds went unbroken. I was determined not to have any extra onces.

Pull ups were less successful. First round was 10 kipping pull ups in two sets of 5. Second round was 5 kipping, done in 3 rep and 2 rep sets. Almost all pull ups after that were jumping pull ups. In the 4th round, I believe, I got 3 kipping pull ups.

I think I need to get more determined/committed about pullups. I feel as if I’ve been letting myself slide on them to a degree. Need to get more aggressive about them again.

Time to finish the METCON: 9:04. Well within the mix of the 6:15 crew.

It was a big crew today, too! 14 people again. Not certain if everyone’s burning calories now to make room for Thanksgiving feasts or what, but it was fun to see everyone there.

Finisher:
Band Pull Aparts
100 Reps

These were all done with a red band. Done in sets of 30, 25, 20 and 25. Although, if I’m completely honest, the last round was done in 16 and 9. The band got slick with sweat and I lost my grip and had to reset.

It was a great morning, but I’m anticipating shoulder mobility is going to be a real issue for the rest of the week. 😉

 

making lists

I’ve noticed lately I’ve got lots of lists related to the gym. I need to get them organized because they really do help keep me moving forward.

WOD for Tuesday 091112
Press (65%)
9 sets of 3 reps

Did all 9 sets of 3 at 95#. That’s less than 50% of my 1RM, but it’s where I needed to be today to be quick. I tried working at 115# which would have been closer to but still under the prescribed 65% of 1RM. The reps were far too slow and my form was sloppy at that weight.

Scaling back to 95# meant I was in control and moving at the right speeds. On speed days like today, we’re supposed to move through a rep basically on a two second count. Move the barbell up in one second and down on the second. In order to do that, I had to pull the weights back. No big deal.

METCON
“Air Force”
Complete the following for time, but do 4 burpees at the start of each minute:
20 Thrusters (95/65)
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
20 Push Jerks
20 Overhead Squats
20 Front Squats

Very cool to do a tribute WOD today in observation of 9/11. Great choice on Dave’s, the gym owner, part. I wore my 9/11 tribute shirt and my dog tags from my Army days. I suspect that might seem trite to some. I don’t care. It’s meaningful to me.

I scaled the weight to 75#. Finished in 11:38. Break it down and it took roughly two sets to get through each exercise. The subsets weren’t clean 10 and 10 divisions. I wasn’t that strategic. My only conscious strategy was to manage the clock to manufacture some rest so I wouldn’t burn out. I dropped the bar anywhere from 50-55 seconds into each minute to ensure a couple of seconds to rest and breathe before the next round of burpees.

Funny thing about that is I’ve watched other folks use that strategy before. I never liked seeing people do that. I always sort of looked at it as violating the sprit of CrossFit and the “go hard, or go home” mindset. I’d watch folks drop a bar with 10 seconds left in a minute before they had to transition and always thought, “why would you do that? That’s not the way the game should be played.” Over time I started to realize that the folks who did it always survived the WODs in much better shape than I did. They always finished faster than I did too. I started to reconsider and reform my opinion. Guess after a year plus, I’ve finally learned a thing or two. The first being that most of those people are much smarter than I am. 😉

We had time to spare after the WOD. I elected to practice my kipping rather than double unders. I’m targeting Bar Muscle Ups as the next exercise that I want to move from the “can’t do” to the “can do” list. Jack came by as I was practicing. I explained what I was trying to do. He offered two tips. First, “think hips to bar,” then when you accomplish that, “do the fastest sit up you can manage” over and around the bar. I’ve got a long way to go on bar muscle ups, but that’s cool.

I tried to apply what Jack said but I’ll need a lot more practice before I can execute. I found today that in order to pull my hips close to the bar, my body is going parallel to the floor. That seems counter productive because so much of my body is extended under the bar at that point. I’ve got to work on managing my kip so that I stay closer to vertical as I elevate my hips towards the bar. It’ll take time, but it will come.

So about my lists. I’m discovering I have lots of lists for the gym. There’s the “things I can’t do…YET” list. This is a very long list, but getting shorter as every week goes by. There’s the “things I can do” list. This list continues to grow. Maybe not as quickly as I would always like, but it does. Somewhere in the middle lays the “things to experiment with” list. These are the accessories/toys that don’t get utilized often in WODs or I just haven’t had an opportunity to try. The next item to try on the “things to experiment with” list is the sled. Chad used the extra time today to some 200M sled work. He talked Griff into taking a turn with it. I was done with my kipping work and was tempted to try it, but it really was time to head home do my daddy duties helping the family get out the door to school on time. If there’s time Thursday or Friday this week, I may have to monkey around with that one.  Anyone have suggestions on “favorite under-utilized toys in the box” that I should experiment with? Would love suggestions.

 

pleasantly surprised

I had very low expectations going into the gym today. Turned out to be a much better day than anticipated.

WOD for Thursday 083012
Push Jerk
Establish 1RM

So a couple nights of poor sleep and one day with a very upset stomach had me feeling off this morning. I went to they gym with the mindset of “do it. Get through it. Call it a day.” I told more than one person that today’s workout goes in the “I got up. I got here. I did it. Therefore, I win” column. I had no expectations of PR’s etc. That being said I set a goal of 200# for the push jerk. I didn’t check my old 1RM, but was pretty sure that 200# would be a solid day.

After warm ups, Craig and I talked it over and realized we had similar goals so we partnered up and shared a rack. We moved quickly through sets of 3 reps at 95 and 125 pounds and a set of 2 reps at 135. From there we moved to 155# and did single reps the rest of the way, moving up in 10# increments.

Ashley pointed out during one of the singles that I’m over extending my back. I need to continue to concentrate on keeping my spine erect and not arcing it back. Good advice, Coach. I’ll try to remember it.

I missed a lift at 185. Coach Ashley asked me what happened. In trying to answer her, I arrived at the conclusion that, “my head just wasn’t in it.” I think I wasn’t mentally prepared for it and didn’t take it seriously. After a brief rest I took another shot and lifted it successfully.

We were a bit pinched for time and Craig asked, “so, another 10 pounds to 195 and then a second lift to get to 200? Or do we just go for it?” I answered, “straight to 200.” So that’s what we did.

I actually found the lift at 200 to be more stable and therefore a bit easier than the 185# lift. I think I just took it more seriously and my feet landed very squarely. I think I can get more out of that lift.

One thing I noticed going through the lifts. From 165 up, the second dip kept getting more and more shallow as the weights got heavier. I need to concentrate on getting deeper on that second bend to get under the bar. I think I’m still to dependent on my arms and shoulders to push the bar up, instead of dipping under it and locking out.

Later in the morning, as I was adding today’s workout to my spreadsheet, I realized the 200# was not just a good day, but a 5# PR. So 200# is now my new 1RM for my push jerk. Pretty cool.

METCON
AMRAP in 8 minutes:
5 Power Cleans to Push Press (155/105)
5 Dips

Yeah, well 155# is right around my 1RM for a clean, so I wasn’t going there. I scaled back to 125#. I also used a purple band for ring dips.

Seemed to be an appropriate scale. I got through 5 rounds plus one clean/press combination. I was very satisfied with that. Some of us were talking it over after the WOD and Michelle noted that it was really tough to remember to do a push press after working on the push jerk for the 20 minutes prior. I totally agree. It was an interesting change of pace though. Most of the time when we’re directed to do push jerks, I have to really concentrate to work in the second dip and not do push presses. Today the tables were turned. Just kind of funky.

Finisher:
Face Pulls
100 reps total

Used a blue band for these and knocked them out in 4 sets of 25. Really felt them today at the base of both sides of my neck. Whew!

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover at the end of the workout that I had failed to tape my left wrist and I was completely unaware of it during the workout. I felt no discomfort or weakness throughout the WOD, even during one arm kettle bell work warm ups. Very cool.

 

shooting through tuesday

Tuesday was a very good day. Got to work on a maneuver that used to really vex me and raced through the METCON.

WOD for Tuesday 082112
Parallette Shoot Throughs
50 strict reps

Broke these down into 10 sets of 5 reps each. They felt surprisingly smooth. Shoot throughs are becoming a favorite exercise. They’re one of those very clear tangible reminders of how different things are after a year plus of regular exercise and diet.

The first time someone showed me shoot throughs it was infuriating. I was still so big I was in my own way. My stomach was so large I wasn’t able to ball my body up small enough to pass my feet under me without catching on the floor. It was disappointing and discouraging.

Now with the increase in strength and the reduction in counterproductive body mass, when I stay focused I can pull off consistent runs of 5 or more full reps. If I was doing a single set for max reps, I’m sure I could do more. Given the volume on this day, I broke it down into more manageable sets. Next time the challenge will be fewer sets with more reps.

Don’t get me wrong, my shoot throughs are not perfect by any stretch. When I get tired or if I lose focus, my shoulders will collapse and I sink into the parallettes. Or I might not get as tight as I need to be and my feet will catch as they pass under me. But at least I’m of a size now that I can contract myself up small enough to pass through the space.

METCON
15-12-9 Reps For Time:
Push Jerk (135/95)
Rotational Ball Slams – right
Rotational Ball Slams – left

I blasted through this METCON…and I don’t get to say that often. I definitely liked this WOD. “Stand here and work” WODs are definitely are to my strengths. “Pick the bar up off the floor. Put it over your head several times. Put the bar down. Pick up the ball. Slam it to the floor a bunch of times. Go back to the bar.” Simple, stationary and effective. I love it.

I scaled back too much though. I did the jerks at 95# and used a 20# slam ball. Finished the WOD in 5:39, well out ahead of the rest of the group. I’m not exaggerating when I say I believe I was a full minute ahead of the next athlete to finish. I’m not boasting about that. I simply offer it as evidence that I should have gone heavier. With the group of people in the gym Tuesday, if I’d scaled more appropriately, I should not have been done that far in front of the rest of the crew. Jack observed it and commented on it as well.

After the WOD as I was putting my bar away he noted, “Nice work today. Looks like you can use more weight for the jerks next time.”  I agreed.

Plenty of spare time to work double unders and then 2 sets of 10 GHD sit ups. After the core work on the rotational ball slams, the GHD sit ups were not much fun.

Overall, a pretty good day.

 

know what you know

Pretty good day today. Enjoyed the change of pace of a “METCON-free” Day.

WOD for Wednesday 081612
Not For Time:
Press 5-5-5-5
Push Press 3-3-3-3
Push Jerk 1-1-1-1

Interesting to spend the whole session today working on strength. It was a funky change of pace. Constantly varied, right? I guess it’s all good.

Coach Ashley had us warm up with 3 rounds of the “standard” Crossfit warm up. 10 reps each (pull ups, push ups, abmat sit ups, overhead squats w/PVC pipe, abmat back extensions and sampson stretches). Was surprised to discover that the back extensions felt really awkward and I was very stiff doing them. I don’t remember the last time I did them and it was a bit jarring. Seems I need to work them back into my morning routine. Ashley also guided us through some kettlebell movements to complete the morning warmups. She also guided the crew (a dozen plus) through a review of the lifts using PVC pipes. Then onto the barbells.

Strict Press were done two rounds of 5 reps each at 95# and 105# respectively. It felt pretty heavy. The direction for the day was to add weight every set, but I ended up treating this section of the workout more like speed work. Kept the weights fairly light and tried to be fast up and down. It always strikes me when we work strict shoulder presses how badly I want to dip and drive and turn the lift into a push press. It requires a lot of concentration to stay locked out and remain stationary.

Push Press –– Was closer to following direction on this round, progressing upward to I believe 145# for the last set of 3.

Push Jerk — Really tried to go big on this lift. Failed an attempt at 175, but lifted it successfully the second time around. Because I didn’t scout the WOD the night before I couldn’t recall my previous 1 round max (1RM) for this lift. But I know my 1RM for the push press is right around 200#, so I figured 195# for a push jerk would be an aggressive but attainable goal. After all, it was in the neighborhood, so to speak. It wasn’t meant to be today.

After 34 reps of other lifts at various weights there just wasn’t enough in the tank to lift it. I missed it twice, but it was close. In screening my lift chart this morning post-WOD I see that 195# would have matched my previous 1RM. So I’m not upset about not lifting it. I’m reasonably sure if I’d paced things differently, or simply hadn’t done so many reps preceding those attempts, I could get it.

Had the pleasure of sharing a rack with a new member of CFD today. His name is Anthony. He’s a student at Duke and first impression, he’s going to be a firebreather quick! From what he shared today he’s been crossfitting for about 3 months now. While he admitted he hadn’t done any formal weightlifting prior to CrossFit he’s obviously a healthy individual with natural athletic ability.

Obviously, I just met the young man but I can draw a couple of conclusions and he impressed me right off the bat. First, I’m reasonably confident Duke makes some pretty good fitness facilities available to it’s students as part of their admision. Second, I know when I was in college I sure wasn’t motivated enough to invest my disposable income in an outside gym membership. Hell, when I was in college I didn’t take my fitness seriously until I enrolled in ROTC and suddenly someone was paying me to get in shape! So with those thoughts in mind, I think it’s safe to conclude he’s a hard worker.

I enjoyed working with Anthony today. It’s nice to be able to welcome him. I try to watch for those opportunities where I can give back to the gym community. If I can do something simple like make a new person feel welcome, as folks have done for me, then I’m glad to do return the favor.

I very specifically did not coach though. I believe it’s important to know what you know and sometimes it’s even more important to know what you don’t know. I don’t have the technical competency to guide anyone else yet. If someone asks, I can tell them yes a lift looked good or a squat was below parallel or not. I’m capable of judging those sorts of things. But I’m not able to break down some one’s technique and tell them why something was wrong if a lift didn’t go right. I’m not equipped to offer guidance on how to fix it. The only direction I offered today was during a late set of strict presses Anthony was adding a dip/drive turning the lift into a push press. I just reminded him it was meant to be a strict press and not to bounce.

Later when we got to the push jerks and Anthony mentioned he’d never done those, we made sure to call Coach Ashley in to walk him through the motion and guide/critique his lifts.

No time for extra work today. Lifting went right down to the wire at 7:15. Defintely curious to see what the final day of “retro week” holds.

 

Got to Pay Atttention

I got so caught up in the details of some individual lifts during yesterday’s WOD that I lost sight of the big picture. The result, extra lifts. I’m finding this is a theme lately.

WOD for Monday 052112
Ring Pushups
Stability Drills
Then, 5 sets of Max Reps

It’s official. My love of gymnastics work grows everytime I get to do more.

For stability drills, I had the rings set at 17″ and my feet on the floor all the way through. I did holds alternating extending 1 arm to each side and bringing it back in. Then alternating extending each arm forward and retracting it back to my side. Sets were done repeating this cycle for 1 sec, 3 sec, 5 sec and 10 sec.  Most of those holds felt reasonably solid. The 10 sec holds were TOUGH. In fact I had to bail on the the last one with my left arm extended forward for 10 secs. I got to the end of 10 sec and my arm was completely locked out. I couldn’t retract it. Someone nearby told me, “that’s great. That’s way more than 10 seconds. You can pull it in now.” I told them, “no. I really can’t!” I had to take a knee to get out of the rings. Ha!

Ring push ups went 12, 10 and 11 respectively. After the stability drills, I was sastisfied with that.

METCON
Every minute on the minute for 15 minutes:
3 Hang Power Clean (50% 1RM Clean)
3 Front Squat
3 Push Jerk

9 sets per round. 15 sets. 75# load. 15 x 9 x 75=10,125 pounds moved in a 15 minute period. 5+ Tons. If that doesn’t make a person feel good about what they accomplished in a morning, I don’t know what will. Put all the other details aside. That’s a fair bit of work. I take pride in that.

This was a funky WOD. I enjoyed it a lot, except for the fact that I failed to stay focused and threw in a few token extra cleans. For at least the first 4 rounds, I did the requisite 3 cleans, dropped the bar back to my hips and only THEN asked myself, “Ok, what’s next? Front squats, so I’ve got to…aw, shit!” One more clean to reset for the squats and then back to business. Ah well. It’s well documented, I need the practice.

I didn’t track how long it took to complete each round, but I know that no round took more than 35 seconds, so there seemed to be fair time to rest.

Really felt at the end of this WOD that I’d accomplished something solid without punishing myself too badly. Hopefully I can maintain that for a while. The issue with extra reps during the WOD is indicative of a broader issue I’ve got to be mindful of.

Lately I think I’ve been too focused on individual WODs with little regards for a full week’s worth of work. I’ve been hammering through Monday and Tuesday WODs with no regards for the late week WODS. I think my performance those days and overall has suffered a bit for that. I need to remember early in the week that I want to be able to stay strong all week. Trying to keep in mind the guidance of a favorite former CFD coach who frequently says, “It’s not how you start, but how you finish.” Lately my weeks have not ended strong. Hopefully, I can fix that.

Random Thoughts”: Blogging Helps! Some days I wonder why I write this stuff. But not today! When the coaches read what you write, they have a chance to answer questions that come up later. Coach Jack confirmed my suspicions here, that when he was trying to help me correct a challenge with my cleans, he was trying to resolve the same issue that Coach Ashley was but using different cues.

Similarly when I wrote about my balky achy knee here, Coach Ashley was gracious enough to provide a link to a site that could help me increase the mobility and hopefully eliminate the pain.

It’s a fantastic feeling knowing that the coaches at Crossfit Durham care enough to pay attention to folks beyond the confines of the gym. It would be so easy for all of them to confine their time and effort to the time they’re physicaly in the box. Knowing that they read what I and others write and that they follow up to answer questions or offer additional assistance and guidance on their own time is just fantastic.

There are days when I look at the fitness center two miles from my home and think, “I’d get back about 30+ min total travel time each morning, if I went to that gym. They’re open at o’dark early too.” But I’m confident that the experience wouldn’t be nearly the same. So I’ll gladly invest the time to make the trip to CFD and continue to work under the guidance of coaches who invest so much in all of us. Thanks, guys! Big props to all of you for the effort you make and the community you inspire.