Golf and Xmas in August

Well, decided to take a cycle off with a fundraiser golf tourney on Saturday. Shoulders were toast after that nasty three days of 20 min AMRAPs - pure evil. So gave myself some extra recovery time and actually did pretty well at golf. Considering I hadn't golfed in 13-14 months did really well. Kind of excited to play a little more. Perhaps over Labor Day weekend. CF prepares you for everything! (well, helps that I've played golf since I was 11 and actually was pretty decent)

But today was a big day - my Sorinex GHD arrived. That thing is a BEAST!!! Had no idea how big these things were. But since I've vacated the third garage bay of my old Body Solid selectorized gym, there was a perfect spot for it. This is my last major purchase to complete the gym.






And my first Dynamax med ball - very cool!



Oh and bought 4 more stall mats to complete the flooring in there too.

8/26 WOD

"Nate"

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings

Crap, another 20 minuter AMRAP WOD... ugh. As if I have anything left to give after the last two days. But knowing a rest day is coming up gave it everything I had...

Scaled to my 55" high squat bar for HSPUs and only have a 1.5 pood KB (53#).

10 full rounds + 2 MUs - 19:49

Shoulders suitably fried... :)

8/25 WOD

Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

Scaled to 65# again so I could compare apples to apples. Plus, while I think I can do 95#, the numbers would be pretty low.

Last time on 6/25 - 10 full rounds

This time on 8/25 - 11 full rounds + 5 thrusters + 7 hang powercleans

Some more improvement! Cool beans...

8/24 WOD

"Mary"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups

Yes, I need to keep doing overhead press work! Still had to slightly scale the HSPUs to my barbell set at 55" above the floor. But I made sure to not cheat and use my legs to help pull me. This pistols this time were much better, no 12" box to squat to - full a$$ to grass. Did my pseudo kip pullups and knocked out 8 full rounds in 19:56. Last time on 6/9/09 I did 6 full rounds + 5 HSPUs. Love it when I see some improvement. Helps keep one motivated!!!

8/22 WOD

Hang power clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

Well, skipped Friday's WOD, just needed an extra day of rest. I'm going to start listening to the body a little more and not feel guilty if I need to skip a day. I need to do better with the sleep as always but that will be tough.

Anyhow, did Saturday's WOD - hadn't done it before so not sure where to start. Found out quickly though...

135 - 140 - 145 - 145(F) - 145 - 150(F) - 150

Technique still needs help but nearly got my bodyweight so I'm reasonably happy.

8/20 WOD

"Karen"

For time:
150 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball

Last time I did this back in March I did it in 13:02. So that was my mark. Had a good warmup but still was a little psyched out doing this. I knew as with all the metcon type workouts that this was going to hurt. 3, 2, 1, GO BABY!

Was setting a pretty good pace, did the first 50 in just about three minutes. Was thinking there was a chance I could do sub-10 minutes but it was going to be tough. Second 50 definitely slowed down and I had only about 3 minutes to get under 10. After 100 of these bad boys, there was no way I could do it. I pushed hard but didn't have it in me. Finished at 10:23. Still, a nice PR by 2:39. Finally, some improvement. Maybe the better eating and a little more rest helped. Not to mention 4 more months of CF training. Definitely some good stuff!

8/18 WOD

Push Press 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps.

Pressing above the shoulders is a nemesis of mine. Definitely an area where I have much room for improvement. Started out probably too light and then pushed hard at the end. Was not going to finish on a failed rep so I did 8.

120-130-140-155-165(F)-165(F)-160(F)-160*

* Bonus round

Oh and I missed the front squat WOD on 8/14 since I was still trying to recover from Linda so decided to mix some in here too. Couldn't find a comfortable spot to rest the bar after rep 5 and the wrists were killing me, so called it a night.

160-170-180-190-200

8/17 WOD

Double-under for 2 minutes
Sit-up for 2 minutes
Double-under for 90 seconds
Sit-up for 90 seconds
Double-under for 1-minute
Sit-up for 1-minute
Double-under for 30 seconds
Sit-up for 30 seconds

Post numbers of sit-ups and double-unders

This is new to me. I'm waiting on a newer, faster jump rope which will help with the numbers some as mine is an older heavier rope. I'm not good at situps really. Need to do them more often and/or more of them. These were unanchored Abmat situps.

2.0 mins - 64/43 (DU/SU)
1.5 mins - 44/27
1.0 mins - 35/17
0.5 mins - 15/10

158 Double-unders
97 sit-ups
255 total reps

Oh and for the halibut I decided to try a 90# weighted pull-up. And... SUCCESS!!! That is a PR for me by 20#. Sweet!

8/16 WOD

Well, finally felt good enough to get back at it after Linda. Dayamn, quite possibly that was the toughest workout I've ever done. I may try to sneak in the 1RM front squat WOD somewhere soon as I need some squat work.

Today's WOD:

"Ryan"

Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Burpees

Each burpee terminates with a jump one foot above max standing reach.

So considering the most muscle-ups I have ever done is two, this was going to be near impossible for me. I was looking into scaling and decided after doing a couple of warmup muscle-ups to try the "Pack" scaling on BrandX and do three rounds of each. Still, 21 muscle-ups? When all I did in the past was 2 max? Could be a long night.

Well, I had pretty decent success at them. The false grip IS the key. I managed to wear some skin off of my hand below the palm almost on the wrist area. But I successfully got through the 3 rounds. Just missed sub-14 minutes at 14:01. But I was very thrilled to have done that many. I strung together only 2 at a time, but overall very nice improvement. Yay!

8/13 WOD

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Still feeling the after effects of Linda. Glad a semi-non-arse kicking WOD was up for today. Thanks coach!

I thought I had done this one before, but apparently not. No kipping for me, full dead hangers. No mixed grip and no underhand grip. Just good ol' fashioned pull-ups.

Made it to 8 rounds + 7 additional pull-ups. 43 total pull-ups.

I think next time I'll try my full body dry heave kip pullup and see where that takes me... :)

8/12 WOD

"Linda"

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

Deadlift: 1 1/2 body weight
Bench press: body weight
Clean: 3/4 body weight

Set up three bars and storm through for time.

I actually have been wanting to do this one for some time now. So I was pretty excited to see this WOD posted. But then I calculated the total load I would be lifting and it kinda spooked me. I weigh 160#, so deadlifts at 240#, bench press at 160#, and squat cleans at 120#, for a total of 28,600# when all was said and done. Yikes. Thought I should probably scale, but then went against that and went for it. Figured this one hasn't shown up for a year plus apparently, so this was my chance.

Dang, that was uber hard. I really wanted to stop after the 8's. But knowing that I was half way through with the reps helped me. I finally dropped my bumpers from a higher position! Those squat cleans were rough, since they were a much more dynamic lift. Few times felt light headed and I was wrecked for about an hour afterwards. The heat probably didn't help either. But I finished as RX'd!!! Not fast by any means, but a significant accomplishment. 41:25

Not looking forward to another Linda anytime soon... unless she's dressed like the one above... ;)

8/10 WOD

I was thinking, sure would be nice now to not have any running for my first cycle back. And since we did a tough metcon yesterday, must be some Olympic lift type stuff right? Wrong.

Four rounds, each for time of:
800 meter run

Rest as needed between efforts.

800's suck donkey. No pacing. Well, just go easy enough so you're not puking your brains out after a pretty darn long sprint. I did 5 minute breaks. My times:

2:41 (PR)
2:58
2:56
2:49

All sub-3 minutes!!! Woohoo! Stoked with that. Great way to end my first cycle back and looking forward to rest day. Dayamn. Plus I sold my Body Solid home gym so now I have the space and some extra spending money to get the GHD (and it paid for my climbing wall stuff too!)

8/9 WOD

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Well, after the nice deadlift WOD, figures a lung burner would be next. This was going to be tough (as usual). I tried a different strategery this time to see if I could hit a higher number. Here was my plan:

7 pull-ups per round for 56 total
11 push-ups per round for 88 total
12 sit-ups per round for 96 total
15 squats per round for 320 total
Total reps 360

My previous score was: 318

47 pull-ups
77 push-ups
85 sit-ups
109 squats

I had forgotten my previous score and was shooting for the 360 number. But this would be highly unlikely with my week off after a couple bad weeks of overtraining/not enough rest. But I went with the strategy and here are my scores:

45 pull-ups
84 push-ups
80 sit-ups
109 squats

For a total of... 318. Amazing, eh?

8/8 WOD

Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Alrighty, back at it after a much needed week off. What a difference a week makes. I saw the WOD posted and was excited. I enjoy deadlifting. Started out probably too light but figured I shouldn't go too crazy. Got the last rep of 5th set up and I was a happy dude - should've gone over 7K though had I not started so light.

242.5
262.5
279.5
289.5
300

Total weight lifted = 6,870#

New Addition to the Gym!

Well, taking a much needed week off - tired, not hungry, losing weight, numbers going down, etc. Clearly not good signs. But I couldn't stay idle during that time so meet the newest addition to the gym:



Yup, a climbing/bouldering wall and 16' of monkey bars! I know, I've lost it. But I'm always looking for some variety. Plus the daughter loves it too. Will be able to transition from the wall to the bars and vice versa once I get a few more holds. Cool stuff!

Back to CF on Saturday!