9/30 WOD

"Helen"

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

Had done this one before on 4/15/09 in a time of 14:04. As I thought through it, I figured I might be able to crack 10 minutes in my current form. Probably was aiming a bit high...

Moved the treadmill into the gym as I'm practicing my POSE running plus figured from a transition standpoint it would help. I didn't realize my treadmill maxed out at 10mph, so I was limited in my running time. I have run 400m in 1:15, so I lost some time with a best possible time on my treadmill of 1:30. Still finished with a PR of 12:39, so pretty good improvement. I think the 10 minute goal was definitely too much to ask for - I forgot how painful this one was. Definitely hurtin' afterwards...

9/29 WOD

Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

This is a lift I have never done before. Appeared easy enough when watching the videos, but in reality was very technical and I couldn't do it very well. I practiced a lot with a weighted PVC bar and felt pretty good. But once I threw some weight on there, well, not so good:

1 - 65
2 - 89 bad form
3 - 89 little better
4 - 89 about same as #3 but better depth
5 - 89 two failures before success on #3 which was probably my best on yet
6 - 89 best yet, still wobbly in the hole
7 - 94 two failures, 3rd one pretty good

So certainly am not going to be breaking any records anytime soon. But I'll keep practicing and see how I can do. Thank goodness for bumper plates though - no way you can do these safely without them.

New logo?

Just having some fun with Pshop and put this logo together. I think it looks purdy darn kewl. Note the barbell in place of the sword/spear and the bumper plate in place of the shield...

9/27 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# like last time. Did 11 full rounds + 5 thrusters + 7 hang powercleans last time this workout showed up (8/25). This time felt pretty good and pushed hard. Did 12 full rounds + 5 thrusters + 7 hang powercleans + 3 Sumo deadlift high-pulls. Good improvement in volume.

I think next time will up the weight to 75#.

9/26 WOD

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

Two days of recovery and I get this? Dang. Haven't done high volume pull-ups for awhile, so this was going to hurt. PR is 22:47. Did it this time in 22:51. Shoot, missed it by just 4 seconds. One shorter break... Even just a second off of 5 breaks. Oh well, next time. Splits for comparison:

PR
9:48 pullups
5:47 pushups
4:38 situps
2:34 squats

Tonight
10:30 pullups
4:45 pushups
4:48 situps
2:48 squats

So improved big time in the pushups but everywhere else was slower. Solid effort though.

9/23 WOD

Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups
Body weight back squat

Well, I liked the look of this one - kept reading the comments on the main CF site talking about how hard this was going to be. I kept thinking it wouldn't be that bad. Oops. Should know better than that. Could only do 4 rounds... 5th round definitely would've seen pukie.

160 lbs. used for the BW stuff (even though I'm more like 157)

Bench press 12-11-8-6
Pull-ups 12-11-9-7
Back squats 12-11-10-8

Strict pull-ups. First time doing back squats without the little pad - think I was actually doing them pretty low. Need more practice on that with the bar position. Hammies are going to be sore, I can tell.. Thankfully I start my 3/2, 2/1 schedule... Two days of rest... So decadent... :)

9/22 WOD

Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

I'm always excited yet scared when this one shows up. I know it is something I can do pretty well, but also know that when you're lifting really heavy, it is quite a stress on the body (and mind). And I haven't done any heavy deadlifts for awhile so wasn't sure what to expect. I was targeting the last time I did this where I did:

288-308-333-338-343(F)-343-343(F)

My max DL in the CFT was 360 so I know that I can go pretty heavy. But that is a little different than pulling 7 heavy DL's.

First started and 288 seemed really heavy. Didn't think I was going very heavy tonight so added weight in smaller increments. But kept adding weight and in the end did better than last time:

288-308-318-328-338-345.5-352

I'm thinking I should've just gone for an 8th round and threw on 10lbs. to see if I could get above 360. But overall I'm happy with this effort!

9/21 WOD

Today marks my six month anniversary of following the CrossFit main page WODs!!! Very cool. I have seen tremendous gains over the past six months, some lows, but mostly highs. Arguably I'm in the best overall shape of my life (and I've always been pretty athletic). Not bad with my 42nd birthday less than a month away. I'm not a fast cyclist anymore, but strength wise I'm definitely stronger and I can even run without pain for a 10K in a not too bad PR of 47:58. I've gotten a little boring with my conversations as I have a one track mind... Okay, maybe two but CF sure seems to be a driving force. Thanks CF for a great six months. I've learned a ton and still have a long ways to go but I am thankful that I discovered you.

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Yay, more overhead stuff. But I need it, and need it badly. Moving stuff overhead is another weak area for me.

Here is what I did last time on 7/5/09:

105-110-115-120-125(F)
135-140-145-150(2)-150
115-125-135-140(4)-140

And tonight:

114-119-124(PR)-126.5(F)-124
136-143.5-148.5-153.5(PR)-158.5(PR - nearly crashed and burned)
119-133-143(PR)-148(PR)-150.5(PR - form suffered)

So big PR night tonight. Man, that was freakin' HARD! Shoulder press still isn't great. My shoulders and wrists are trashed. On my last set of Push Jerks, I lost it on the first one and ditched the weights in a semi-controlled descent. Weird, started walking away and felt woozy. Re-gathered myself and got through it. Man I'm toast. Good night though. Happy... :)

09/19 WOD

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 rep rounds of:
Handstand push-ups
L-pull-ups

Ooh, ugly. 84 reps of each. And monkeys are going to fly out of my azz... Well, actually I ended up getting this done but had to do some scaling:

Barbell setup on squat rack - normally at 55" but raised it up another notch to 58". Could hook my heel cup of my shoe on it when I was in the lowered position. Could feel myself pull with that a little bit to help with the volume.

L pull-ups weren't fully extended, but also weren't knees to chest either. Reasonably low, pretty happy with that. Did mostly chin-ups for these.

19:12

9/18 WOD

Five rounds for time of:
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
25 Back extensions

Okay, kinda messed around with my 2/2 schedule, but the body said to take that 2nd rest day on the 3/1 cycle. Whatever. I will still get the same amount of workouts in and the same amount of recovery. 3/2, 2/1 might actually make better sense. Hmm...

Had to scale this workout - first time with my new GHD. This is the Coca Cola pee maker (aka Rhabdo) if you aren't accustomed to doing the glute-ham sit-ups. I heeded the warnings and did 3 sets of 20 GHSU's and 20 back extensions. Felt like plenty of workout. No way in heck I'm able to do it fully RX'd without causing some damage. Good start. 8:24

9/15 WOD

Front squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps

Okay, last time I did this, I was recovering from straining my hip flexors so I took it easy. I think I topped out at 148 then. Prior to that, my best was 182 or something like that. So the goal was to see where I was at, since I hadn't done front squats for quite some time. Could I reach the previous high? Not so sure.

Started off light, but felt good and ramped up to a new PR! Sweet! More progress.

110 - 132 - 163 - 182 - 202

Oddball weights because of the mix of KG's and lbs. This week started my 3/1, 2/2 cycle - I think the 3/1, 3/1 cycle was hurting me with some overtraining (plus not getting enough sleep as usual). So looking at the extra rest day to help with recovery. Hopefully that will help.

9/14 WOD

"Annie"

50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders
Sit-ups

Never have done this one, but looked painful. Got a chance to try out my new speed rope. Made it seem like I was cheating with the double-unders. Much easier. But sit-ups are my GOAT - can't seem to do them in high volume or very fast. And wore the skin off my tailbone doing them. Yay. Abmat situps. 12:16

9/13 WOD

"Diane"

21-15-9 reps of:
225 pound Deadlift
Handstand push-ups

Funny, thought things were going poorly and was starting to get a little bummed about my CF experience. Then Diane came along. I thought the last time I did it I did it in just over 13 mins, so that was my target. I did my scaled HSPU's to my bar in the squat rack and full 225# deadlifts. Time? 12:56. Cool, finally some improvement, even if just a little. Later I went and checked out my previous time on 5/16/09, and it was 16:35 - so a huge improvement in time - SWEET!!! 3:39 faster.

9/11 WOD

"Barbara"

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Well, I knew this was going to hurt since I wasn't feeling great and I had taken a moderate break from working out. Didn't think I wouldn't finish it though. I gotta figure this out - trying to get more sleep but the back is keeping me from sleeping for more than about 7 hours. Did three rounds.

4:32 - 5:09 - 6:58

9/10 WOD

Push Jerk 3-3-3-3-3 reps

Well, I took a little break from the CF scene - was traveling and tired. Figured a little break would help. Got back into it with a non-fire breather METCON but definitely still felt the pain of this. Anything overhead is not easy for me. My push jerks started to turn into push presses but I tried the best I could to not do that. Still need practice on that lift obviously. Felt good to get back at it.

115-120-130-140-150

9/2 WOD

"Elizabeth"

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

Should be called, "Elizabeast". Scaled to 115#. Previously scaled at 93# so a big jump up in weight. Time was slower, but moved a lot more weight. Was 11:29 at 93# on 5/1/09, this time 12:56. Just like the timer says:


Yes, got a timer for the garage gym. I've totally lost it now... :)

9/1 WOD

For time:
Row 1000 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 21 reps
21 Pull-ups
Row 750 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
15 Pull-ups
Row 500 meters
95 pound barbell Thruster, 9 reps
9 Pull-ups

Man, rough way to come back after skipping a cycle. I like the quote from the comments on the main CF page, "Man, who pissed Fran off?" This is Fran with a bunch of rowing thrown in. I perused some times and figured I'd be in the 20 minute range - goal was to stay below 30 mins. As usual, this wasn't easy but did it fully scaled and finished at 25:26. Toast afterwards for about 20 minutes. Finished the last set unbroken.