Ups and Downs of CrossFit

The past couple of training sessions for me have been up and down. Saturday was probably the best I have ever done, and Monday was one of my worst days.

Saturday WOD:
Elizabeth
21-15-9
Squat Clean 135#
Ring Dips

I have been looking forward to doing this workout since I had seen it. I knew that ring dips and cleans are two of my strengths and felt like I would be able to put up a good time. I was working out with the two trainers- Josh and Frankie so I wanted to do well. I started out and was able to do 11 unbroken cleans. I could have done more, but wanted to pace myself for the rest of the workout. I finished the cleans first, only about 10 seconds ahead of Josh. We both hopped up on the rings at the same time. I got 18 unbroken then slipped. I tapped my foot on the ground to reset, and finished my last 3. I had pulled away from Josh, but knew he would be close because of his exceptional endurance. After looking back at it, I went slower than I needed to on the set of 15 cleans. I did a lot of singles and 2 reps at a time. I think I could have strung together 3 sets of 5 if I would have really gotten after it. I still felt really good as I moved to the set of 15 on ring dips. I flew through those unbroken and jumped on the bar for my last set of cleans. I did a set of 5 and a set of 4. I jogged to the rings and did 7, shook my arms out real quick, and finished the last two. My goal was to get a time of under 7:00 minutes, but I knew that would be tough. I ended up with a time of 6:29 which I was ecstatic about. Josh finished second a whole minute and 20 seconds behind me. This was by far my best CrossFit performance, other than lifting heavy.

Over the weekend, I was craving subs and sugar for some reason. I ate terrible Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I just could not get back on track to eating good foods. Monday's workout was a wake up call that what you eat fuels your body.

Monday 1/30/12

Strength
5-5-3-3-1-1 Thrusters

We warmed up and were going to work up to a max set of thrusters. I have been good at this exercise since the first time I tried it, since my legs are pretty strong. My sets were:
5- 135
5- 155
3-185
3-205
1-225
1-245 fail

I felt pretty good working my way up through the thrusters, other than the discomfort in my wrists from holding 200+ pounds. This wasn't a big deal though. I hit 225 relatively easy and expected to hit 245 as well. The weight felt heavy, but I have always been a good 1 rep person. I should have got 245, but my shoulders just couldn't lock it out. I had the weight 90% up, but just couldn't finish the lift. This kind of frustrated me and sort of set the tone for my WOD.

WOD:
Jackie
1000m Row
50 Thrusters 45#bar
30 pullups

After destroying the WOD on Saturday, I set lofty goals for myself of reaching another sub 7 minute performance. The gym was packed so we did a partner Jackie (one partner does the whole Jack, once they finish, the other partner starts). I partnered with Ricky, and let him start us off right. He put down a solid time of 10:43 and I began my row. I started my row in 3rd and quickly chased down the 2 people in front of me. I had a PR 1000m row time of 3:16 and I wasn't really going as fast as I could (I want to test my 1000m row now because the record is only 2:57, I'm not too far off). I expected the thrusters and pullups to be relatively easy, but I just hit a wall. I had to drop the bar and rest 3 times during my 50 thrusters and took forever on the pullups. I was just gassed and had no energy at the end. I blame this due to my bad eating habits, because normally I would be able to push through and finish stronger. I finished with a very disappointing time of 9:23, 4th best for the day. The only good thing is that my team won. I made a vow that starting today, I am going to eat strict Paleo for at least 2 weeks. I want to see if it makes a difference in the energy levels of finishing a workout.

Here is a video of some of my first ring muscle ups I have ever done.

Legs of Fire

I have been busy this week so I have not been able to get on and post as much as I would like. The WOD's this week have been great so far though. I will get right into it:

Wednesday 1/25/12

We did our baseline testing to see how much we will improve over a period of time. We were sore from the previous two days, but we still did some strength.

Strength:
Hang Cleans- 5,4,3,2,1,1,1

Hang Cleans are by far my favorite lift. Through college and high school I hated doing these, but since I have gotten better at them, I have fell in love. I figured I would not be able to put much weight on because I was so sore so I started out slow and light.
5- 185
4- 205
3- 225
2-245
1- 265
1- 275
1-295
1- 315 (FAIL)

I was not expecting to be able to put up such good numbers, but I worked up to my max and tied my PR. I did the 295 very easy and I'm sure if I would have went up in weight at a more gradual rate, I would have set a new PR. There is always next time though.

WOD:
Run 400m
50 Pushups (I did hand-release)
50 squats
50 Abmat situps
500m Row

On paper I was expecting to blow through this, and do everything unbroken and fast. I added the hand release push ups because I knew I could do 50 standard pushups in a row, and I wanted to be able to see improvement the next time we did this test. I finished the run in 1:38, not far off my goal of 1:30. I took off on the push ups and ended up stopping about 5 times. Hand release makes pushups so much harder. I moved to the squat and got all 50 unbroken. I was expecting the abmat to be easy, but this is challenging for me. I am taller, so I have a bigger range of motion than most people. I got passed by quite a bit on the abmat and I only took about a 5 second rest on #31. I jumped on the rower in 3rd out of 4 people (Tiffany was way ahead because the women only had to do 25 reps of the exercises and that is nothing for her). One other guy was about 25 seconds ahead of me, but I am a strong rower and thought I may have a chance to catch him. I did all I could, but had no legs and only rowed a 1:41 500m (about 15 seconds off of me PR). I finished in 8:50 and he was 8:32 (Tiffany smoked us, 7:14 or something like that). It was nice to chase someone even though I was unsuccessful.

Thursday 1/26/12
This was a WOD that favored me a little more than others because of my strength. I had to go in early to the 4:30 class because we had a coach's meeting for football later that night. Josh was our trainer today, which is a change of pace from my normal trainer Frankie (Frankie did the WOD with us). Josh is in his late 30's and has been doing CrossFit for 3 or 4 years. He is in great shape, a smaller guy, but tons of endurance and strong for his size. He is a guy I am always chasing on the longer workouts. We worked on double unders at the beginning. I have gotten better and was able to string together 18 in a row. My goal is to string 30 in a row by the end of February.

WOD
Deadlifts are at 225#
KB's are 52#

Rounds of 20-15-10-5
Deadlift
KB Swing
Rest 2min
800m Run

I love a workout with heavier deadlifts because I can usually fly through it. I did not know what to expect with so many reps and the heavier weight because this is the first time I have done a WOD like this. I started off and flew through the deadlifts, finishing first in our class of 5 (All 5 of us were in pretty good shape, and the 3 guys were all very tough). I moved to the KB swings and did all 20 unbroken as well, but got passed again. Once again I think due to my height and bigger range of motion, the shorter guys are able to move faster than me through some of these. I jumped back on the deadlifts and this is where I feel like I made my only mistake. I broke the deadlifts up in 8 and 7. Looking back on it I should have just went unbroken, but what can I do know. I moved through the rest of the WOD and did everything unbroken. I knew with a 2 min rest coming up I could really give it my all. I finished the lifting part in 5:25 so I began my run at 7:25. I was about 10 seconds ahead of Frankie who was the closest to me. I pushed through my run, which was terrible after all those lower back exercises, to get a total time of 10:49. This is a goo run for me, a 3:24 800m at the end of my workout. I wound up tying Josh and finished only 8 seconds behind another guy who is a CrossFit "veteran". I was very pleased with my performance, and can tell a huge difference in my endurance since the beginning of my training.

After the WOD I had some time on my hands and played around a little:
500m Row- 1:36
2 sets of 10 butterfly pullups
10 Chest to bar pullups- this was easier than I thought
4 consecutive bar muscle ups



A photo taken after our baseline WOD on Wednesday.

Tabata This!

No strength workout today since everyone was so sore from the leg workout yesterday. We started off with a nice 400m jog and about 15 minutes of stretching.

WOD: Tabata This!
Row (for calories)
rest 1 minute
Squats
rest 1 minute
Pullups
rest 1 minute
Abmat Situps
rest 1 minute
Pushups

You have 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest 8 times. To calculate you score, you take the lowest total rep for the 8 set increment.

We began on the row and I did a great job. I have grown to love the rower and it has consistently been one of my better exercises. I was able to maintain a 9 calorie pace through all 8 sets. I then moved to the squats which were hard for me after the rower, and with my legs being sore from yesterday. I was able to get 15 reps for all 8 sets, but it was very difficult and really wore me out. After the next one minute rest (which is not nearly as much as you think) I started the pullups. I recently discovered how to do butterfly pullups, so I tried to incorporate these in my workout. The pullups were my worst score of the Tabata. I started with 2 rounds of 8, but quickly fell off to 4 reps on the final set. The last two were situps and pushups. I expected to do around 12 on each, but was to exhausted and got a score of 8 on each of them. My final total was 44, which was a little lower than my goal of 50, but I do not see where I could have made up any reps today. Next time I feel like I can do better. I am going to start incorporating some tabata into my normal workouts with bench, deadlifts, and box jumps. This is something that I need to work on, and something that will help me improve my endurance.

After the WOD me and Tiffany did another 400m run to loosen up some more. I wanted to work on some technical exercises and Tiffany wanted to learn the squat snatch. She learned the form very quickly and will do well when she does it in a workout. I could not get my form down for a while, but Tiffany helped me to get it right. Once I got the form right I decided to add some weight and worked up to 135# which is a 20# PR. I can snatch 185# but that is without doing a full squat. The squat is tough for me since I am not as flexible as I would like. My goal is to get 185# by the end of February as I continue to work on my form.

Here is a video of my 135# snatch (If you have any suggestions, by all means)

Back from my 5 day Hiatus

It feels good to be back from my recent break. I did not take a break from CrossFit, just from writing on my blog. I know you guys have been just so disappointed that I have not been updating you with my workout progress; especially you Joe Hough. I know you have been disappointed that you have not been able to constantly critique my blog on a daily basis. So, here you go, another blog for you to rip apart and make fun of me tomorrow :)

Saturday me and Tiffany did the workout "filthy 50" which was a dirty as it sounds. It was about 10 different exercises that you perform 50 reps each of. I will not go into how terrible it was, but I finished in 30:59. After our workout, we went up to Greensboro to check out the garage games. This was sort of a CrossFit competition. We went up to watch one of the guys that got me started doing CrossFit, Michael Tancini. The workouts were very tough and we had a lot of fun watching. It was actually a lot of fun and we really had a great time. Michael did very well and wound up finishing 9th overall out of about 40 guys.

Today's WOD

Our workout today was probably my favorite since starting at our gym. It was heavy on the legs, and I am definitely feeling it as I sit here.

Strength:
On the minute squats for x number of reps:
3,3,3,3,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1

I really enjoyed this strength workout today. I am used to doing the normal 5x3 with however much rest I wanted. This workout gave me usually around 30-45 seconds of rest between sets.
My work sets looked like this:
3-275
3-275
3-295
3-295
3-315
3-315
2-335
2-345
2-365
1-385
1-405

We accidentally missed one more set of one, but it was plenty of work for me. I worked up to 405 after a lot of reps with very little rest. About a month ago, my max was 435. I have only squatted heavy one time since then and my max has probably gone up since then. I was very pleased with my results from the strength work. We took about 10 minutes and went on to today's WOD

WOD:
500m row
5- squat 205#
5- box hop 30"
10- squat 205#
10- box hop 30"
15- squat 205#
15- box hop 30"
400m run

This workout killed your already tired legs, but it was one I really enjoyed. On the 500m row I set a PR with a 1:28 row. I was able to go through the first two rounds of squats unbroken, but the third I had to break up in a set of 8 then 7. The box hops weren't too bad, I just tried to stay moving at a constant pace. The run was terrible because I couldn't feel my legs, and we also ran inside. Running inside wouldn't bother me, but we only have 20 yards to run on so I had to do 10 down and backs which was a lot of starting and stopping. This obviously slowed my time, but not so much that it would make a huge difference. I finished the WOD in 11:18 which was respectable, but I would like to have gotten under 10:00. This is a WOD I would like to try again once I get my cardio a little better.

Now time to stretch so I can walk tomorrow!

1/18/12

Coming into the day, my body was extremely sore. My back, chest, triceps, and hamstrings were just worn out from the past couple of days work. Wednesday is my "rest day" where I only stretch and do the WOD.

WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
5 Thrusters
7 hang power cleans
10 SDHP
*All at 95#

Going into the workout, I was not sure what to expect. I always underestimate the difficulty of the CrossFit workouts, as I did today. You would think after 3 weeks I would learn, but still I have not learned my lesson. My plan was to do 1 round every minute and get somewhere around 20 rounds. HAHAHA! I began with this plan, and made it through 2 rounds in two minutes, but was absolutely spent. The weight was easy for the thrusters and cleans, but the sumo deadlift were difficult at that weight. My success came from being able to go right from 5 thrusters into 7 hang cleans without dropping the bar. I was the only one in the class that could do that, which allowed me to do a couple more rounds than most people. I wound up finishing 10 rounds as well as 5 thrusters. This was a tough WOD, but it was a good one for a "rest" day.

After the workout, I decided to play around like normal. I was able to do 3 bar muscle ups in a row. I was not thinking I would be able to do any because my forearms were so sore from the WOD, but the muscle ups went up pretty easy. I also worked on some sled push working up to a 20 yard sled push at somewhere around 500#. I worked up to this weight adding 90 pounds every push. A nice little finished to the workout today.

Tomorrow will be another relatively easy day (or at least I think) so I am going to do some more stretching and mobility tonight. One of the guys at the gym wants to do "Linda" one day this week.

Linda:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of the triplet:

Deadlift: 1 1/2 body weight- 345

Bench press: body weight- 230

Clean: 3/4 body weight- 175

For some reason this looks fun to me...

1/17/12

This is going to be short and sweet today. After such a disappointing performance yesterday, I told Tiffany that I was going to put a time that is near impossible for anyone to beat.

Strength:
5x3 Thrusters
After watching videos of Jason Khalipa absolutely destroy thrusters today, I wanted to see where I stood on these. I worked up to a set of 215 for 3. I should have done 225, but I was too lazy to go grab another 45 to put on the bar. I was watching some of the CrossFit games competitors do these and get up to around 275 for one rep. I feel like I would be somewhere around 255 or 265, but strength has never been my problem anyway.

WOD:
10 rounds
15 deadlift 135#
15 pushups

I knew this was going to be a WOD I could fly through. My deadlift is somewhere around 500# so 135 was very light for me. Pushups are another exercise that does not tire me because of all the benching I am accustomed to. I was able to go nonstop with no resting between sets or reps through 4 rounds. I then made it through the whole workout without having to break up any sets, meaning that once I started the exercise I did all 15 reps. I did rest between moving from one exercise to another, but not for very long. Unfortunately this workout became a cardio issue for me, but that has been my weakness since I started CrossFit. I finished the workout in 9:53 which was by far the bast time of the day.  The next closest was about 3 minutes behind. I was very happy with my performance, but still know I have a lot of things that I need to improve on.

On a side note, Tiffany absolutely crushed it today. She did the whole WOD Rx'ed. She did 95 pounds on the deadlift, which is very close to her body weight. She was able to finish the whole thing without lowering the weight or stopping before finishing the whole WOD. Her time was somewhere in the 20's, but she did far more than my pound for pound. It was great to see her do a workout exactly as ordered, even if she did struggle through it for 20 mins. It was very impressive to say the least.

Until tomorrow...

A little taste of humble pie

Today was Martin Luther King Day so me and Tiffany both had the day off from work. We did not make any plans to go anywhere so we decided to do a two-a-day at CrossFit Harrisburg.

11am Strength-
Jerk- 5,3,1
3 Rounds (not for time)
10 Ring Pullpus
10 Ring Dips

3 Rounds
Handstand Pushup hold- 30 seconds

BW Bench Max Reps

We did not try to go fast through this workout, we just wanted to get through it at a leisure pace. I worked up to a max on Jerk, which is another one of my weaker lifts. I would love to be able to do a lot more, but it takes a lot of time. I was able to get 205x5, 225x3, and worked up to 255x1. The 255 was ugly and my not technically count in a true competition, but I figure I will count it now because I know it will go up quickly. I need to work on my form, and dipping lower in the catch. The ring work was very easy form me, but the handstand hold were extremely hard. I was not expecting these to be so hard, but they were very difficult for me to perform. It is an awkward position with your body being upside down, and being 230lbs, I have a lot of weight to hold. After all of that I was able to knock out 18 reps on the bench. My goal was 20, but I did not realize the toll my shoulders took from the rest of the workout.

After the workout, we picked up the dog and took her over to the school to let her run. She loves this racket ball I found at my parent's house. She ran around for about 30 minutes straight and just kept going. Once we got home, all three of us crashed and had a nice relaxing afternoon.

4pm WOD:
Kelly
5 rounds
400m run
30 box hops (24inch)
30 wall ball 20#

Let me start by saying this WOD is terrible! I was not looking forward to it as it was, but it was even worse as we began. I started with a nice leisure 400m run at a 2 min pace. I was trying to pace myself and shoot for a time around 25min. Me and Frankie were talking earlier and figured this would be around where we felt the WOD should take. Boy were we wrong. The box hops killed me legs and tired me out for the wall balls. These were easy, but being so tired, I struggled with them. The rest of the rounds I kept about the same pace- jog the 200 and walk back. Once I got back inside I did 15 box hops as fast as possible, took a quick rest, then paced myself through the last 15. I broke the wall balls up in 3 sets of 10. Tiffany did a good job, but it is tough for her to keep pace with me. The other person the was working out with us, only did 5 rounds of half of everything, so she finished in about 20 minutes. I ended up with a time of 36:17, not good to say the least. Mentally, I was not trying to go fast, I was just trying to finish. The class right after ours had 5 guys in it and they beat me by 2 minutes. I feel as though if I would have done the workout at the same time as them, I would have finished first and gotten a better time, but without the competition, I did not push myself as hard as I should have.

Tomorrows workout should be a quick one, but play into some of my strengths. I look forward to getting back on top.


Here is a video of my 255 jerk PR

2 for 1

Well, I did not have time to write a post after the workout yesterday, and we went to the 9am class this morning. Anyway, I will jump right to it.

Friday Strength:
5x3 Overhead squat

This is my worst lift by far, so I took the opportunity to try and improve on it. I got a real good warm up and loosened my shoulders up very well. The most I have done on this lift previously was 75 pounds, because I just do not do it. I warmed up and had a lot of help from some people in the gym commenting and tweaking my form. I was able to start my first work set at 95. This felt very light and I did my second set at 115. Once again the weight felt light so I moved to 135. My form was still very good. This is an awkward lift where you have to keep the bar over your body and slightly behind your head. For someone like me that has been benching heavy for many years, this is an awkward position. I was able to work up to my last set at 155 and got it no problem.

Friday WOD:
5 rounds
10 Overhead Squat 75#
15 Kettlebell swings 53#
20 GHD situps

I already dreaded this workout because it included overhead squats, but my confidence was up because of what I had previously just done. I started the WOD and smoked through the first round doing all 3 exercises unbroken. I began the second set of OHS and my right arm began to go numb. It never hurt, it just began to lose its sensation. It was a very weird feeling that ran from my shoulder all the way down into my thumb. I pushed through and finished the KBS unbroken and moved to the GHD machine. If you have never done GHD situps, I highly suggest you try them. The are extremely taxing and take a lot out of you. I finished having to break them up in 2 sets of 10. I was complaining about my arm even though it did not hurt. I tried to hold the bar up to start my third set of OHS and just could not feel it. There was no way I was able to finish doing OHS, so I ran over and grabbed a 45# plate, threw it on my back, and did squats with it. At this point I was so frustrated I could not do the workout as it was written, I lost all focus. I ended up having to break my GHD situps into 4 sets of 5, but still did the KBS unbroken. My time ended up being terrible 15:38 I believe. I went to the school and asked or trainer what her thoughts were about my arm, and she said the same thing as I suspected. Since I am so big and bulky in my upper body, I basically cut the blood flow, circulation, and nerves off to my arm as I was doing OHS. This is something that I need to improve.


SATURDAY 1/14/12

We went into the box for the 9am class. I was looking forward to the workout because it is one that I had done before. My arm was still numb, but not quite as bad as it was the nigh before.

Strength:
Deadlift- 5x3

I decided since I do not know my true 1 rep max on deadlift, that I would attempt to find it. I warmed up and threw 405 on the bar, know I have already done this for 3 reps. I hit 405 very easy and was excited about being able to throw on some big weight today. One problem though....We only have bumper plates, which are very wide. The bar can only truly hold 4 plates and a clamp, which I already had on there. I decided to add 25's on each side and just not use clamps since I was only doing 1 rep. I hit 455 very easy and was now faced with a dilemma. I tried finding a way to put more weight on by using bands, but it did not work out for me. I put 475 on the bar and the weight was not fully on the bar. I knew this was the max I could probably load on the bar today. Frankie was very excited to see me do this and went to grab his camera to put pictures on the website. Everyone wanted to watch me perform this lift. I grabbed the bar and began to stand up. About 4 inches off the floor, the weights began to all fall off the bar in a big anticlimactic way to end my 475 attempt. I know I can get the weight, and presume my max to be in the 500's somewhere. Frankie is going to order some steel plates that are thinner and will allow me to put more weight on the bar.

Saturday WOD:
Cindy
20 min AMRAP(as many rounds as possible)
5 pullups
10 pushups (I did hand release)
15 air squats

I love this workout because it plays to a lot of my strengths, other than endurance. I flew out of the gate knocking out my first round in about 40 seconds. I was averaging 1 round a minute about 6 minutes through, then I began to die. The hand release push ups add a whole new dimension to this workout. If I were just doing regular pushups, I would fly through it getting in the 20's for rounds. I managed to push through 15 rounds plus pullups and pushups. So really I was close to 16 rounds. My goal was to get 18, but my body was just so taxed from not resting all week, I was not able to stay as consistent as I would have liked. Also, I only grabbed a protein shake on the way out the door, so I did not have any food in me. I felt lethargic by the end of the workout which probably hindered my performance. I wouldn't say it was a good or bad day, just solid.

I am really hoping that more people start signing up that are closer to my level of athleticism and competitiveness, because I want to be challenged. There has been very few workouts I have done that others in the class have done RX'd. Everyone has to modify the workload, which I feel is a huge difference from what I am doing. I want someone that will push me and challenge me when I am doing my WOD. right now I am just competing against myself and the clock, and I am not able to see where other people are at. As the word gets out, I suspect more will join that will challenge me and I will have to pick up my pace.

FRAN

I have been dreading Fran since seeing that it was our WOD for today. The problem with Fran is that it is so quick and simple that you know you should improve from your last time. You also know that you will lay on the floor for at least 15 minutes after the short workout.

WOD- Fran
21-15-9
Thrusters 95#
Pullups

I did Fran about 2 weeks ago and my time was 5:15. My goal was to break the 5 minute mark today. I had a good warmup working on my rowing technique. I actually got my strokes per minute down to 24 which is a huge difference from what I had been doing. Frankie set me up, and I was ready to go. I made it through the first 21 thrusters unbroken and hopped up on was able to get 15 pullups. I took a quick rest and finished my last 6. I moved back to the thrusters and did the 15 unbroken, but I felt like I took a lot of time doing these holding the bar on my shoulders. I jumped back up on the pullup bar and did 9 then 6 pullups. Frankie was urging me to go faster and was talking about breaking the 4 minute mark which motivated me. I was able to finish the round of 9 thrusters and pullups unbroken and finish with a time of 4:15. I broke my previous PR by one minute and felt like I left a lot of time on the table. Next time I know I can break the 4 minute mark. After I got done I assumed the official CrossFit recovery position- lying on my back, eyes shut, trying to figure out if I will ever catch my breath.

After about 15 minutes I was fully recovered and felt fine. Frankie asked if I wanted to finished with them sled pushes and I jumped at the chance for extra work. We decided that we were going to do 1 push on the minute, every minute for 5 minutes. I also decided that I would add 20 pounds every sprint. I started with 180 pounds and finished with a 280 pound sled push on the 5th minute. It was a good little finisher that incorporated pushing heavy stuff, and a nice rest; two things I love. After the sled push we did some static stretching and mobility.

I never can find myself leaving the box on time though. After stretching me and Tiffany were playing around on the pullup rig with the rings. I have not used the rings much so I used this opportunity to do some dips and pullups. I have been pushing Tiffany to do a pullup for the past couple nights now, and I think she was intimidated because she had never done one before, but tonight she decided she would like to try. Frankie helped her with her kipping motion from the ground and I showed her some things to remember when she was hanging from the bar. She was able to do 1 pullup successfully and hopped off the bar astonished. She was so excited. She wanted to try it again and was able to do 2 pullups consecutively. I am glad she accomplished this feat, because it is a huge accomplishment to pull your body over the bar. This gave her the motivation I have from my quick improvements through my CrossFit training.

I still love going to the box everyday and usually stay for 2 hours just because it is so much fun. I am like a kid in a candy store playing around with all the equipment and practicing technical lifts to get better and improve my times. Tomorrow is overhead squat which is by far my worst lift from all of the heavy bench press I am accustomed to. I am sure I will be humbled tomorrow and probably frustrated, but the only way to get better is to keep practicing.

Wednesday 1/11/12

Today is my "rest" day. I make sure I get a good warm up in and I do the WOD, but Wednesday is my rest day from doing heavy lifting. After the WOD I make sure I get a lot of stretching and mobility.

WOD:
200m Farmers walk (53# kettlebells in each hand)
40 box jumps
30 Sumo Deadlift High-Pull 75#
20 burpees
200m Farmers walk (same weight)

I set a goal to complete this workout in under 10 minutes. I began the farmers walk and made the first 200m without dropping the weight. I actually jogged the last 50m or so, which was better than I was expecting to do. I attacked the box jumps trying to do 2 sets of 20. I was able to knock out 25 box jumps in a row. There was only 3 people in our class so the owner, Frankie, joined the workout with us. I was ahead of him in the farmers walk, but on the box jumps I felt him catching me. I finished the last of the box jumps and moved to the SDHP. I thought these were going to be a breeze, but I struggled a lot more than I expected. For some reason I kept dropping the weight uneven so it would bounce awkwardly off the ground. This was difficult to balance and why I think the lift went worse than I had anticipated. I moved to the burpees and cranked out the first 10 no problem. I grabbed about a 15 second rest and finished the last 10 reps. I looked up at the clock and was around 6:30. I was going to shatter the pace I had set as a goal if I could just move consistently through the walk. I began moving at the pace I had started the worked, but I was so gassed from the burpees I only mad it about 80m and dropped the weight. I gathered my breath and thought I would just finish the rest of the walk. For some reason I dropped the weight around 150m. I gathered myself and finish the workout jogging the last 50m in a jog at 8:58. I finished first in the class which was rewarding, but when i though about how I did I was frustrated with myself. I should not have dropped the weight the second time, and I felt like I could have pushed a little more.

After the WOD, I decided to play around with the pullup rig. I have been trying to practice my butterfly pullups, but it has been a struggle for me. I can get about 5 or 6 in a row with no problems, but then I get out of rhythm. This is probably due to my lack of all musical talents which require rhythm, but it is frustrating nonetheless. I am fine just doing kipping pullups, but I do know once I get the bullerflies I will be a lot faster. I have sort of perfected a half kip/half butterfly which I am comfortable with.

Tomorrow is Fran....

Tuesday 1/10/12

Tuesday was a good day for me. I went into the workout knowing it was a lot of cardio, but I know that is something that is a weakness of mine. I went onto the website and was excited because I saw we were also doing cleans, which is a favorite lift of mine.

Strength WOD:
5x3x1 Cleans

I just learned how to do the full power clean from the ground and catch it in the full squat. Since college, I have always just done hang cleans and never dipped to catch the weight. Since starting CrossFit, I have focused a lot more on my form, and have seen a hug improvement in my strength. I started light and knocked out a set of 225 very easy. I then moved up to 245 and did my set of 3. The weight was still easy, but I noticed how sore my quads were from the 30 squats at 225 from the day before. I put on 275 and got it relatively easy which was my previous PR. I had it set in my mind that I would set a new PR today and had that mentality when I went to the gym. I then put a 10 on each side of the bar. My thoughts were that I was doing 285 for some reason (this is actually 295). I got a good clean in and set my new PR at 295 (still thinking it was 285). I then grabbed 2 more 10's and put it on the bar thinking I was now attempting 295 (I now had 315 on the bar). I got a good pull but was too tired to try and stand up. I was excited that I had a new clean PR at "285".

WOD:
3 Rounds
Row 500m
Run 400m

This workout was prescribed for 5 rounds, but Tiffany and I had to hurry up and get to the school for the basketball game. We decided to just do 3 rounds. Right after I dropped the bar on cleans I had to hurry over to the rower because I was running behind attempting 295 (315).

I began rowing as fast as I could. This is only the second time I used a rower so I have not quite figured it out yet. My philosophy was just to pull the thing as fast a possible. I maintained a 1:30 pace for the first 500m, which I felt pretty good about. My strokes per minute was 31 which I never really pay attention to. I go into the run and really felt the tightness in my legs. I kept moving through the workout and by the third time on the rower, Frankie helped me to work smarter not harder. He told me to pull hard but let it back slower. I felt like I was doing half the work. On the third row, I kept a 1:45 pack and was down to 27 strokes per minute. I still have some work to do, but he showed my something that could really help me in the future. I finished my last 200m in a sprint and finished the workout in 13:10. A little slower than I planned, but after the cleans I felt good about it.

We had to hurry up and get out of the gym so my stretching was minimal, but I was able to get about 5 minutes of active stretching in. I was pumped about my new PR and told our school resource office about it when we got to the game. It wasn't until I was talking to him that I realized how much of an idiot I was and that I was doing more weight than I thought. So my clean PR is now 295, up 20 pounds from the last time I did it 2 weeks ago.

This is a video of my 295 clean.

First Blog Post Ever!

Well this is my first blog post ever so bare with me until I get a hold of things. I started doing CrossFit about one month ago and quickly fell in love with it. Me and my wife, Tiffany, joined a "box" last week. We are now members at Crossfit Harrisburg. We are the third and fourth members to ever sign up to the gym. Anyway, here was our workout for the day.

1/9/12
Strength work:
Push Press- 10 reps @135 on the minute for 10 minutes

When I looked at this workout, I was even thinking of adding some weight and doing more than what was prescribed. Once I began, I flew through the first 5 rounds no problem. On round 6, the weight began to feel heavier and heavier, but I was able to finish all 10 rounds with all 10 reps unbroken. By the end of the workout, I was glad I did not add any extra weight, especially since I knew what we had coming up for the WOD.

We had about 10 minutes of rest time for people to re-stretch and get their weight set up.
WOD- Squat 30 Reps at Bodyweight then 1 mile run

I was not particularly excited for this workout because I am terrible at Olympic lifts for more than about 5 reps, and I hate running! I loaded the bar up with 225 and waited for the dreadful words, "you guys ready?" I had set a goal for myself to get a sub 10 minute time. I began the workout and flew through the first 15 reps, but the weight was beginning to get pretty heavy. I worked to 20 and was slowing significantly. I had it in my mind that I was going to break it up in 2 sets before we started the WOD. Once I got to 20 I knew I could do 10 more reps but it would be tough. Tiffany was the first one into the run and she began when I was at rep 21. I pushed through the last 3 and was able to do all 30 reps without stopping. Now on to the dreadful run. My legs were very wobbly as I began my run and I was pretty sure I was going to have to walk at some point very soon. My class was all women and they were all on to the run before me. My squats were finished somewhere between 1:45 and 2:00 minutes, but I forgot to look. At our box, we only have 200m marked and it is downhill at the start and uphill back to the gym. A down and back would equal 400m so we would have to go down and back 4 times. My first 400 felt terrible as my back and legs were burning from the squats, but as I was on my second lap I began to feel a little better. The third lap went easy and I knew I was not going to have to stop. I really tried to work into a sprint on the last lap and found myself finishing the WOD in a sprint up the hill. My time was 9:30 which accomplished my goal and was the second best time of the day behind a guy the weighs 155. I finished my last lap in about 1:30 which I felt was pretty good at the end of everything. All in all, I think it was a good workout, working on some things that I know are my weak points. I hope tomorrow plays to my strengths and lets my get heavy on my upper body.

After my workout I stretched a little and was playing around. I was able to 1. squat clean 225 very easy 2. do 23 pullups in a row 3. climb to the top of the rope and back down. I was pretty happy and will be looking forward to whatever tomorrow has in store.