03/30 WODs

Back Squat 5x1 @ 95%-100% New PR or Fail, Rest (240sec) between sets.
Rest 5-7min
L-sits on Rings, accumulate 2min total time in L-sit postion. Use Dip bars if Rings are not availble.
Rest 2min
5x1min Hand Stand holds. Rest 90sec between sets.

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD
Bike: 4 x 5k holding best possible pace. Not slowing more then 10sec in even/odd directions if outside. 2min recoveries.

Okay, the back squat is one of my weaker lifts (compared to my deadlift). My PR is 274 and the depth on that was questionable. So I was going to make a concerted effort to get deep on these. Warmed up with lighter weights and did this:

250 - 250 - 260 - 265 - 275(F)

I got really good depth on the 265 so I feel as though that is my legit PR. Need to do more heavy squatting!

L-sits were interesting. First attempt did 45 seconds! After that it was series of 15 second efforts with breaks in between. Crazy.

The handstand holds you would think are a piece of cake. But they're not. I was unable to hold the last round all the way through - made it to about 50 seconds, but then had to come down.

Later did 4 x 9 minutes on the bike trainer at a pretty strong tempo. Will be interesting to see how my bike legs are this weekend...

Dr. Reid was in the house and we did a scaled version of one of the recent main page WODs:

5 Rounds
3 Front Squats (PVC-65#)
7 Pullups (beginner/assisted)

She did 35# on rounds 1-4 and then I bumped it up to 40# on round 5. All were still too easy so we'll definitely go heavier next time. Good depth finally!!! I think after sending her this photo she got it... :)

For the pullups she did beginner pullups on my rings - she cheated a bit on round 4 but overall put in a good effort!

03/29 WOD

"Helen"

3x
400m Run
21 Kettle Bell Swings 1.5pood/1 pood
12 Pull Ups

Rest 10min
5x5 Dragon Flags, Rest as long as needed between sets

Okay, been awhile since I last did Hell-en. So really had forgotten the pain associated with this one. Was doing some calculations and figured I could get sub-10 minutes on this. Last time I did it was on 09/30/09 and it took me 12:39 - so sub-10 might be a pipe dream. I watched OPT's sub-7 minute performance for motivation, but I think that scared me more. I changed my expectations to sub-11 minute. That seemed achievable.

I ran on the treadmill - maxed it out at 10mph on the first go round, 2nd round went about 0.20 at max and then slowed, and round three was at about 9mph. The KB swings were actually the best for me, did them all unbroken on every round! Pullups, well the kip wasn't great but did the first round unbroken, 8-4 second round, and 4-4-4. I looked up at the clock and it read:

9:46

Hell yeah!!! Did the dragon flag thingies more than 10 minutes later but certainly didn't do them well. But it still worked me. Very happy about tonight's effort!!!

03/28 WODs

Well, decided to chase down my bike ride with the 30 muscle-up WOD. I haven't done muscle ups in awhile so figured this would be a good challenge. Plus the legs were pretty tired so a nice upper body skill based WOD was perfect. Probably wasted 10 muscle ups with near misses - takes almost the same amount of energy. I did wear gloves as I'm not a fan of the skin on my wrists being shredded off - call me a wuss, but it might have been tougher from a grip standpoint because the material on the gloves wasn't grippy at all. So thought I could do better but as I mentioned, it has been awhile since I did muscle ups.

15:41

03/25 WOD

Deadlift 10, 8, 5, 3, 3, 3 (pr or fail) 120sec rest between
Rest 60sec
"Cindy" Attempt to Complete 5 Rounds in 3min.
5 Pull ups
10 Push ups
15 Squats

Okay, happy to see some heavy deadlifting again. Been a bit it seems like. Wasn't sure on the "pr or fail" comment - a single lift or 3 reps? I chose three. Deadlifts felt really heavy tonight. I'm sure my form was crap, could feel the back rounding. Didn't fill up with air and have the big chest. Gotta remember to do that.

10-224, 8-244, 5-264, 3-294, 3-314, 3-324 (90% of the 360 I pulled on 3/4 so I'm happy with that - probably could've gone a bit heavier)

Then the lovely Cindy attempt. I was calculating it out in my head, "150 reps in 180 seconds" - no margin for slow down. I attacked it as fast as I could, but my squats definitely slowed down. Pullups and pushups were strong (maybe slowed a teeny bit on the last round of pushups). Almost made it - 3:06!!! Good stuff!

03/24 WODs

Jump Rope Barefoot 8 min., mixing in variables of DU's, Cross Overs, single foot, running.
5 - 7 wall walks (start standing up with your back to the wall about 3 feet away. Lean back until your hands come in contact with the wall. Walk your way down as deep as you can. Reaching the floor is your ultimate goal. Walk back up the wall with out falling. That is 1 wall walk). Rest as needed between. OR 5 Bridges for 30 second holds, rest 30sec to 1 min between.
Overhead Squat: 2 reps on the Minute every min for 10min @ 60%
Rest 5min
For Time:
100 Kettle Bell Snatches 1.5 pood/1 pood
Rest 3min
3 Rounds of:
1min Hollow Rocks
30sec Rest
1min Superman's

Double unders barefoot is quite interesting. And dang hard. Not to mention the pain of getting whipped by the rope (and I have one of those plastic coated wire Speed Ropes). Used 90# for the OHS - should've gone heavier, super easy. I scaled down to the 1 pood KB - I THINK I might have been able to do the 1.5 pood snatches, but it would've take a LONG time. 4:15 for the 1 pooder. Abs finally coming around from the torture this week. Still tender but should be fine by the weekend.

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD
Choose ONE of the Following Sports:
Swim, Bike, Run, C2
3x5 min intervals w/3min recovery between rounds.
Hold maximal distance possible on each of the 5 min rounds.

Did the run on the dreadmill. Figured 15 minutes in the pain cave, no biggie. Was pretty sucky, downward spiral per interval. 0.77 miles, 0.72 miles, 0.67 miles. Had hoped to finish strong but didn't have it in me. Struggled to get what I did - maxed in out for the last minute.

03/23 WODs

Rest... or Strength and Conditioning Recovery...

This can and should be done the day of races, after long runs, or on Sundays after interval work.

Glute Ham Developer Sit-ups (make sure you are extending knees aggressively to come up... your quads should also burn on this) 3 x 15, Glute Ham Developer hip extensions (hamstrings and butt should burn), Kettlebell/Dumbbell swings 3 x 15, Bench Press, Pull-ups All exercises with light - medium weight. 3 sets! Reps are until you feel burn in target area or prescribed amount. This is not a timed WOD.

My abs were still very sore from a few days ago and could barely do a situp. So I did some hip extensions (3x15) and GHR's (1x10). Swung a 36# KB (3x15), did 112# bench press (3x15), pull-ups (1x10). Definitely still feeling the after effects of the previous workouts. Should have been at least active during my R&R week... Oh well.

Anaerobic Endurance Strength and Conditioning Rest Day
Bike: SC: 12mile TT, LC: 25mile TT, U: 30mile TT

Road on the trainer and did 1 hour at a good tempo. Not sure on the distance covered but it was an honest effort. Probably closer to 20 miles vs. the 25-30.

Dr. Reid was in a we did a scaled version of the deadlifts and double-unders.

3 Rounds
10 Deadlifts @ 90#
25 Tuck jumps

Strong on the deadlifts! Knees didn't get that high on the jumps, but she did the very best she could. Funny how tiring simple little jumps can be... Good effort!

03/22 WODs

Back at CFE and the two a days. Joy.

5 Rounds of:
15 Unbroken chest to bar chin ups with speed
10sec Rest
30sec Max Rep push ups.
Rest 90 sec Between Rounds.

Well, um, sorry, no way to do that many unbroken CTB's for me. Just getting my kip back and don't want to tweak the shoulder. So broke them up a bit. And then like a moron I did 20 seconds worth of pushups for the first 3 rounds. Doh!

Rd 1: 10-5 PU's/21 pushups
Rd 2: 10-5 PU's/20 pushups
Rd 3: 5-2-2-3-3 PU's/18 pushups
Rd 4: 6-3-3-3/19 pushups
Rd 5: 6-4-4-1/17 pushups

That was special... And for tonight later:

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD
Run
3 Rounds of:
5 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 15 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 25 seconds on, 10 seconds off

I hope I'm coherent enough to figure out the timing on that... madness I say, madness!

Edit - didn't do the above running workout - fell asleep... :)

03/21 WOD

Okay, that was a nice week off. Did literally nothing from an activity standpoint. Think the body and mind really needed it. But now I feel re-energized. The shoulder too got some time to mend and feels as good as it has in about a month. So a win-win fo' sho'! So here is what I came back to:

Back Squat: 3x3 @ 90% Rest (240sec) between sets
Rest 5min
Front Squat:3x5 @ 50% Rest (120sec) between sets. Move bar as fast as possible
Rest 3min
3 Rounds:
10 GHD sit ups, Rest 30sec
10 Strict Knees to Elbows, "No Kip" Rest 30sec
1min Hollow Rocks, Rest 30sec

Thankfully not a horrific metcon. But was definitely work as all the CF workouts are. For warmup I pulled a 500m row (1:47) and then did CFWUx2. Did some lighter squats as well.

BS - 220, 230, 230 (not quite 90% - 85% actually - but after the time off didn't want to go too crazy - got really good depth on these too)
FS - 112 (seemed light but tried to make the moves explosive - couple times felt like I almost launched the bar)

The ab work was going to be tough. Did first round all the way through, but second and third rounds I could not string together all the KTE's and hollow rocks. Abs fried.

Good to be back!!!

Dr. Reid was in for her first 100% 3-day cycle! Yay, milestone! We did the normal warmup and then worked on squatting. Soon she'll have it. Getting better. The practice was good.

Tonight her WOD was to pull a 2500m row. Her response was great, "All in a row?" And then, "We're just doing cardio tonight?" Oh my, clearly she hasn't rowed more than 500m. Afterwards, her legs were jello and she was worked over pretty good. But she finished strong after a little lull about 3/4 through. Total time 13:09. Nice work!

03/18 WOD

More rest and relaxation for me... Yay! Dr. Reid was in and she got to do a fun one... Sure thing.

10 mins AMRAP

15 burpees
10 air squats

Trying to work on her squat form, used the squat rack to ensure those heels stayed on the ground and the butt went down instead of the torso.

She did the burpees to her knees. Good effort. 3 rounds + 2 burpees

03/16 WOD

Well, it is my R&R week, but Dr. Reid was in the house. Her WOD today:

5 Rounds
Run 200m
12 Kettlebell swings @ 18#
6 Push press @ 30#

I gave her the option of doing another WOD instead but that had a lot of burpees so she chose this one. She worked hard - next time 26# KB. Push press was probably a bit light too. 11:38 Making some good progress!

3/13 WODs

Jump Rope Barefoot 5 min., mixing in variables of DU's, Cross Overs, single foot, running.

5 - 7 wall walks (start standing up with your back to the wall about 3 feet away. Lean back until your hands come in contact with the wall. Walk your way down as deep as you can. Reaching the floor is your ultimate goal. Walk back up the wall with out falling. That is 1 wall walk). Rest as needed between. OR 5 Bridges for 30 second holds, rest 30sec to 1 min between.
*****Rest 5 mins*****
4 rounds of:
6 hang power snatches @ 115# (unbroken)
25 double unders (unbroken)
*****Rest 5 mins*****
2 minutes Hollow Rock, rest 1min, 2 mins Supermans

Okay had to scale the snatches to 95#. I wasn't able to do all 4 rounds unbroken (did two of them, should've done all of them just lost technique), but did pretty good. Considering my 1 RM used to be 95# (now 117#) I'll take it. The double unders went well, I think 3 of the 4 rounds unbroken. Supermans weren't so super after destroying my posterior chain with that damn 150 deadlift/150 pushup WOD.

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD
Choose ONE of the Following Sports:
Swim, Bike, Run, C2
3x7 min intervals w/3min recovery between rounds.
Hold maximal distance possible on each of the 7 min rounds.

Haven't run all week, so decided I better run. Hit the dreadmill which is good mental training for the adventure race. Still sore from the assorted WODs during the week so didn't expect anything too special - plus a little congested - not sure if I'm getting sick or if it the result of some allergies with Spring on its way. I was targeting 7 minute miles. I seem to run slower on the treadmill, not sure why. Anyhow, I got close, and am reasonably happy with the effort:

1.01 miles, 0.96, and 0.92

03/11 WODs

Ten rounds for time of:
135 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
15 push-ups

Saw this on the main page and decided to go for it. I do miss the main page and thought I could do pretty well at this. I seemed to think that 10 minutes was achievable. And for some it was. But not for me. Not even close. This was an a$$ kicker with the volume. 150 of each... Yikes!

16:47

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD or CrossFit Main Site WOD
Bike: 12x 20sec Sprints,All out Efforts... 2 min Recovery between sprints. "Come into this at speed to maximize the 20sec sprint" Flat road, Tail wind or slight downhill are acceptable. Race Speed Sprints.

Did these on the trainer and hit it hard. Last few included some standing work too. Man, I still have a ways to go on the bike. But this seemed better.

Dr. Reid was in and we did the CrossFit Total. Wanted to set a baseline to see where she is at so we'll have some good numbers to compare to in the future.

CFT = Back squat, shoulder press, deadlift (all 1RM)

BS - 55, 65, 85(F)
SP - 55-60(F)-60
DL - 113-135-145

So we really need to work on the back squat form. Will do some training using the ol' stripper pole technique (so she doesn't fall backwards). Shoulder press was pretty good, a little arch in the back. The deadlift though went up very easily - she thought 135 was going to be her max. But she nailed the 145 and probably could've gone 10# more. Excellent work!

03/09 WOD

Good Mornings 3x5 85%
Rest 3 min
Shoulder Press 7x1 90% on the minute
Rest 5min
Tabata Row: 8x20:10 for Calories

Weighted good mornings - not sure exactly how to do these without the bar rolling up on my neck. Maybe they're supposed to - I don't know. So I did what I could.

65-75-85

Shoulder press - trying to be careful with the shoulder still, happy with my 112# which actually is right at about 90% of my current weak shoulder press 1 RM.

Tabata rows - 71 calories (109 strokes, 776m)

03/08 WOD

Pistol squats / Pull Ups/ Chin Ups

For Time:

10 pistols R leg, 10 pistols L leg, 10 chest to bar pull ups, 9 pistols R leg, 9 pistols L leg, 9 chest to bar *chin ups, 8 pistols R leg, 8 pistols L leg, 8 chest to bar pull ups .... 1 pistol R leg, 1 pistol L leg, 1 chest to bar chin up. * take note, even numbers are PULL ups, odd numbers are CHIN ups. Chin ups are when your palm faces you. "Thumb around bar, no open palm grip"!

Holy she-ite! My legs are still fried from GHR's, and the duathlon. Oh well, what does not kill them will make them stronger, right?

Did this as RX'd but dang that was tough. Legs are uber-fried now. No WOD #2 tonight.

14:52

03/07 - Neighborhood Duathlon

Alrighty - a few of us decided to do our own mini-competition - a duathlon was the choice. 2 mile run, 15.5 mile bike, 2 mile run. Would be a good fun competition. Varying levels of fitness, one guy has done a couple of Ironman Tri's but is focusing on ultra marathon stuff this year. The other guy was a more traditional gym rat, using old school body part methods but also runs a decent amount. And then there was me, doing CF for almost a year now, and CFE for just over a month. Would be an interesting measuring stick.

Unfortunately the Ironman bailed out, so it was me and Bicep Curl Boy. Decided, we'll just do this together since the transition area was my closed garage. The opening run was at a pretty leisurely pace 7:52 mile pace. Then we hopped on the bike. BCG was doing pretty good. But at some point I dropped him. At the bottom of the downhill section (Highland/Manning) I waited about 45 seconds and then he showed up. Then we're off again into an ugly headwind on Manning. I put probably 1:30 on him to where I stopped (Highland/Tassajara). He was cramping up and said to finish strong. Probably another 45-60 seconds on him to home. Total ride time was 52 and change, I probably would've hit sub 50 minutes had I not stopped. Then the last 2 mile run - two words: UG LY. I started out with both legs cramping in multiple spots - calves and upper hammies (those dayamn GHR's reared their ugly heads). The cramps never got to leg lock level so I was able to run it out. Once those were gone I was feeling pretty good so ramped it up. Probably could've gone a teeny bit faster, but was happy to see I finished at a 7:31 pace. Not too shabby. BCG finished about 30 seconds behind me.

Total time with breaks and transitions - 1:26:39. I'm thinking I could probably do sub 1:20 if I tried hard enough (sub-7 mile first run and faster transitions). Cycling still behind running, but this was a good effort.

Dr. Reid was in after a weekend of getting smashed. No rest for the weary. Fight Gone Bad baby! Burn off some of those toxins. Scaled to:

12# wall ball, 8' target
20# SDHP
12" Box jump
20# push press

She did well considering her condition. Classic start strong, struggle middle round, and then kick it up a notch with the end in sight:

70-69-74 = 213

Great effort, kept pukie at bay, and some toxins burned away. Nice job!

03/05 WODs

Back Squats, 60% 2 reps on the minute every min for 10min. Drive out of the bottom as quickly as possible.

Rest 5min

4 Rounds for Time
10 Glute Ham Raises, Body weight only!
15 D-Ball slams, 20-25lbs
20 Unbroken Double Unders

Squatted 162 in the first part of the workout. This was a good one. GHR's are evil. I was only able to do rounds 2-4 in the negative only. Weak hammies. Hope to strengthen these more to see squat/deads go up big time. And forget the unbroken double-unders. I did manage 2 of the 4 sets unbroken. 20# slam ball.

2:29 - 2:49 - 3:34 - 2:25 (fiddled too much with the GHD and lost probably 30 seconds). Total time 11:17

Interval running tonight... Oh joy...

5+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD or CrossFit Main Site WOD
Choose ONE of the Following Sports:
Swim, Bike, Run, C2
2x5 min intervals w/2min recovery between intervals
Next interval scheme starts after the 2min recovery
5x1min Intervals w/30sec recovery between intervals
Hold maximal distance possible on each of the set intervals.

03/04 WOD

CrossFit Total

Back Squat
Shoulder Press
Dead Lift

3 attempts at each lift

Ooh, the exciting but scary WOD. It has been awhile since I did this and since I have been CFE now for over a month, didn't think this would go that well. My previous best:

133# SP, 250# BS, 364# DL, 747# total (11/4/09)

Figured if I didn't lose too much off of that it would be a success. To my surprise I was able to better that number:

125# SP, 270# BS, 360# DL, 755# total!

The shoulder press was rough with the balky shoulder. It went up so slowly. But it did. Back squat might not have been low enough. But it was close. Deadlift maybe could've gone heavier (previous max was 374). But in the end I was super happy with this. With CFE not only have I retained most if not all of my strength, I've increased my endurance. This is some good chit!

Dr. Reid has completed her on ramp program so decided to ramp it up for her. Welcome to "Linda" or also known as the "Three Bars of Death". But I was going to incapacitate her like I've done to myself on this workout. Puppies scaling:

10-8-6-4-2
75# Deadlift
44# Bench Press
25# Squat Clean

Overall she did really well! Squat cleans still need some work, but deadlift looked good (careful with the rounding of the back) and the bench actually was too light for her. She got through every round without stopping. Will feel that tomorrow, that's for sure. Awesome job! 11:49

03/03 WODs

Jump Rope Barefoot 10 min., mixing in variables of DU's, Cross Overs, single foot, running.

5 - 7 wall walks (start standing up with your back to the wall about 3 feet away. Lean back until your hands come in contact with the wall. Walk your way down as deep as you can. Reaching the floor is your ultimate goal. Walk back up the wall with out falling. That is 1 wall walk). Rest as needed between. OR 5 Bridges for 30 second holds, rest 30sec to 1 min between.

Rest 2 Min
5 Rounds for Time:
5 Hang Power Cleans (start at 115lbs, add 10lbs per round)
8 Ring Dips (start at Body weight, add 10lbs per round)
10 Ring Rows, Palms of hand must touch Pecs/ Full extension at the bottom, Body must have tight midline, no sagging at anytime!

Jump rope was better this time. Still a great workout of the feet/calves. With the balky shoulder, was playing it safe on this one. So did limited range ring dips and all unweighted - range got a little better in the later rounds. Hang power cleans: 112-122-132-142-142. 9:41

3+ Hours After Anaerobic Endurance Strength & Conditioning WOD
Chose ONE of The Following Sports:
All sports do: 20:10 x 8 rounds, 20 seconds on 10 seconds off, all out efforts!
Run: Use a treadmill, set at 12% grade at 0-30 sec slower pace per mile than best 5k pace. Do not reduce the speed!

Okay, lowered the treadmill all the way down (10%) and cranked up the speed to 9.1mph. That was faster than my best 5k pace - figured with the less steep slope I should go faster. Made it through all but the last one, got to 15 seconds and had to stop. So close... 4 minutes of pure hell that's for sure.

3/2 WOD

5 Sets of:
15 Unbroken Knees to Elbows Rest 20 sec
20 Unbroken Double Unders Rest 20 sec
25 D-Ball Slams, 25lbs Rest 20 sec
"Unbroken means that if you come off the bar or miss a jump, you start that element again until completion".

Well, not exactly all unbroken. But did the best I could.

KTE/DU's/D-ball

15/11-9/25 - 2:19
10-5/16-4/15-10 - 3:29
5-5-5/20/10-10-5 - 4:15
5-5-5/20/10-10-5 - 4:13
10-5/20/15-10 - 3:31

Total time - 17:47

Dr. Reid did a fun one:

200m run
15-12-9
Squat, pushup, body row
200m run

She did this way back in January (3rd) in a time of 9:54. This time 8:32 with much better ROM too (and body rows on the rings - granted she did kinda cheat a bit on that last 9 with her feet closer to make her more vertical but I'll let her slide on that). Way to go!!!