13.4
I am speechless!
Let me start by saying, I have been doing CF for less than a year. I LOVE it. It is my new hobby. If I could work there…. I would! In a heartbeat!!!
So yesterday, in anticipation of 13.4, I was ready for anything. I have done my best on all the Open WODs thus far and continue to be overly excited about each one. Until I heard what 13.4 consisted of!!! Or the weight rather. You see, I few months ago I found my 1 rep max to be 85#. To pop out several 95#??? Undoable in my mind. But, not in my husband nor my friends at my box! My husband encouraged me all day. I walked in tonight and everyone said, “You got this!” I told one trainer the above and he said, it was my one rep max until tonight. Little did I know they were all correct! Busted out 9 C&J’s at 95#!! It felt amazing. Not only to be able to bust out the workout, but to have my friends cheering me on! It was awesome! Thank you to everyone!!!
CrossFit is awesome! I love it! I’m addicted and I drank the Kool-aid!Peace out!
Have a great workout and a great weekend!
Stay active! Stay strong! Eat clean!
13.4
Last year, the one WOD that broke me mentally was 12.3 (18 minute AMRAP of 15 Box jumps, 12 push presses (115#), 9 Toes-to-bar). I only made it through 3+ rounds. It really defeated me. I would get my feet up but miss the bar by about an inch and get no-repped. So I was expending all of the energy and not getting anything as a result.
Imagine the sinking feeling when last night I saw the announcement was T2B. Ugh. And this is entirely on me, but I have never worked on this movement. I have focused on many others, but made no effort to attack this. So the result, good or bad, I can’t be upset about. Like everything else, it is all on me.
Like many of these, I am not watching hours of strategy videos and planning out the WOD. Think it through, yes, but get in, do it, one and done. My plan was to do singles on the C&J to save my energy for the T2B since I figured I would reach failure there first. The weight on the C&J never felt heavy. Not once. I was able to string the T2B better than I ever have. Not fast, mind you, but I was doing them. In fact, there was only one rep that I missed because I couldn’t get my feet up there. I just tried to stay moving despite my forearms and grip starting to feel it.
Without a goal in mind, and thinking I would totally eat it on the T2B, I was pleased to get as far as I did. I was 5 reps short of finishing the round of 12s.
On a side note, my body felt better today than it has in weeks. The only exception to that is my knee. Oddly enough it hurt last night, which was strange. The past 2 weeks I have really felt beat up and unmotivated. Today was vastly different. Physically I felt recharged. I had a tremendous boost of energy after the WOD. Hopefully this is back on the track toward something that resembles normal.
It’s really awesome getting photos like this. My wife, with all of 5-6 months of CF under her belt, told me that her 1RM on C&J was about 85lbs and she was bummed about 13.4 in fear that she wouldn’t get a score as 95 would be too much.
I told her that just because she hasn’t done that weight doesn’t mean that she can’t. All it means is that she hasn’t done it yet and to not go in defeated.
Next thing I know I get photos of her hitting C&Js at a weight she thought she couldn’t do and also knocked out some T2B which she doubted as well.
Said it before and Ill say it again, some people have to look all around for motivation. I am lucky enough to have married mine.
Top pull deads from Sunday. You can see just a glimpse of him, but that is my friend Justin in my face screaming “pull”. Few people in the gym push me like this guy. He is both intimidating and motivating, with the appropriate mix of both. In the end, he celebrates the accomplishments of others far more than his own, which is another reason why he is such an amazing coach.
Despite this head funk, I am trying to think of the positive and keep moving in the right direction. A good friend reminded me to never let what you have not accomplished get in the way of what you have. Perspective is a very important thing to hang on to. Those of you who, like me, have struggled with weight know the emotional and physical baggage that is associated with it. Celebrations are most likely not often enough.
But today, I am trying to take some time to appreciate where I am at this moment. I might not be the strongest, fastest, or best athlete in our gym, but I am happy about just making it to where I am. I happy that I can stand in front of a mirror, with some stupid facial expression, and see my belt. I am happy that I have maintained this healthy lifestyle for over 2 years now.
Weekly Training Log - 03/18/13
MONDAY - 03/18/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
TUESDAY - 03/19/13
Pool (Lunch): 20x50m laps w/20 sec ri. 24:06. In the past, I have always done 30 seconds of rest in between laps when doing this specific workout. Today I tried 20 just to see what would happen and found it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Might try 15 seconds next time around just for fun.
WEDNESDAY - 03/20/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
THURSDAY - 03/21/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
Games Open WOD 13.3. 12 minute AMRAP of 150 wall balls, 90 DUs, and 30 MUs. I wrote up more about this here, and really struggled with doing it over again. I resigned myself to being one and done on all of these. Last year I had people say they would never do them again and then turn around and do it the next day just for a few more reps. While I seriously under performed on this to what I feel like I am capable of, I know that I can best this score. Knowing that is enough for me and I don’t have to go through it again just to prove it.
FRIDAY - 03/22/13
After my quads locked up on me on Thursday, I had to rest. Not sure what was happening but my legs have never hurt that bad after wall balls. Not even after last year. I knew in the back of my mind that if I just sat around in my office chair I would be hurting more. So I hit the pool at lunch. 7x100m w/1min. ri. Not sure of my overall time but I was holding a 1:40-1:45 average on the 100s.
SATURDAY - 03/23/13
We were at the opening of a local CrossFit affiliate so no open gym work this morning. Probably good as my legs were still on the pain train. Later that day I figured I needed to do something to get them moving so I did some light elliptical to get loose. Then did 8 swings (88lbs) EMOTM for 8 minutes.
SUNDAY - 03/24/13
Strength, technique, strength, and more technique! Bench press and deads. With my legs STILL tight, I warmed up with some front squats (185) and a few pull-ups.
Bench: 5x135, 2x185, 1x205, 1x215, 1x225, 1x235, 1x245 (Going off memory here but I am reasonably sure of this).
Top Pull Deadlift: 1 deadlift + 3 top pulls. I want to say we started around 315. I know we jumped to 375/385 pretty quick which was basically our first working set. I stopped at 425 as I only got one dead + 1 top pull. I have never done this before and while I was way off of my max, it just felt good to be moving something heavy for a change.
I also got some excellent coaching on my deadlift technique. My buddy gave me very specific instructions on how to setup and told me when to lift, etc. I did not tell him, but just as a matter of perspective, the weight we used to work technique was kinda funny to me. He said “strip the bar down to something like 315 so we can work technique”. A little over a year ago that was getting near a 1RM for me.
I also worked pistols. Oddly enough, with my good right knee I had trouble getting to depth, though I was really freaking close. But on my jacked up left knee, I was able to sink it. Don’t care at all. Felt good to even come close to doing that movement.
First 6 months of crossfit. Looking to get a lot leaner before my 1 year anniversary. Ive done more in 6 months of crossfit than I ever did in over a year of P90X and Insanity. People need to get out of the living room! The only kind of “dieting” I did was to just switch to about 90% paleo. I still have dairy (milk no cheese) but im actually cutting that gradually.
??
This is Seth. Seth is kicking ass.
My quads have been locked up since 13.3 on Thursday. They didn’t hurt anywhere near this bad last year. I’ve been stretching, using the foam roller, lacrosse ball, bands, etc. They still hurt.
So I did some light elliptical and they felt better. Pushed the pace a little and still felt good. Ended with 8 KB swings with the 88# EMOTM for 8 minutes.
Ain’t even mad.
So proud of my wife and even more impressed with her attitude and outlook.
13.3 is in the books!
I gave it my all just hoping to get to the double-unders.The verdict… 156 reps! I accomplished 6 DUs! Something I’ve not done in a WOD before! The priceless moment was the fact that my friends were coaching me throughout and up to the last minute when I didn’t think I had any time left. I started to do a single then a double, and kept going til I didn’t know up from down. This was the hardest I’ve pushed my body since 13.2 (bwahahaha ha)!
It really is an amazing feeling to have such support in our box!
Still doing the whole life challenge… We have just a few more weeks! It has become a lifestyle for me and I am enjoying the fruits of my labor ;-)!Taking one day at a time and enjoying every moment!
Peace out… See you at the Box!
13.3
12 minute AMRAP of:
150 wall balls
90 double unders
30 muscle ups
When I first saw the announcement I had mixed reactions. First thought was a bit of relief in that I had done this WOD before so I knew what to expect. Second thought was that it was a bit unoriginal. I am all for measurable results but in a world where you are to prepare for anything, apparently you are to prepare for the same thing from a year ago.
Regardless…
This is one of those posts that I don’t want to post. One day I want to come back to this and look on it and learn from it. In my eyes, I did extremely poor and only matched my score from last year with 156.
While I was absolutely horrible at DUs last year, I figured I could at least string a few together to increase my score from last year. I have been making myself do them in WODs (albeit slowly). I also assumed my conditioning would be better (despite a knee that I probably should be resting), meaning I would have more time to at least attempt them. I was half right. I finished the wall balls at 9:02. Last year it took me over 10 minutes to get through them. A PR on Karen by over a minute is a plus for me.
I knew moving from the wall balls to the rope sucked. It was horrible last year. I intentionally rested and wanted to do a few singles to get the engine started. My quads locked up like cement and I couldn’t even do singles. Thought I warmed up good and have been staying relatively mobile, so I have no clue where that came from. Didn’t happen that way last year. Oddly enough I had the lungs to keep going. My brain kept yelling at me to move but my legs had other plans. Legs have been jacked up all day as a matter of fact.
Anyway, it is what it is. My goal through all of this was to go through these one time and be done with it. This one makes me want to try it again to see what I could do differently. Another part of me knows in my mind that with a slightly different scenario I could make it happen and don’t really want to suffer through Karen just to try it.
When I gave my wife the run-down about the workout, she had a much better reaction. She looks at this stuff the way that I should be, but can’t for some reason. She knows that my goals are strength, not wall balls and double unders and told me to shake it off. She looks at it like I went in and got a good workout. Shouldn’t stress about anything other than that. I know she is right and wish that I could see it differently than I do.
My head has been in a funk for the past few weeks and today was no exception. Too long of a story to type it all out here, and certainly not trying to make excuses, but it is the truth. While I am still exercising and eating clean (cleaner than I have in a long time) some of the excitement just isn’t there any more. Not sure what to do to get out of this phase either, but something has to happen.
Random Fact
It has been 2 years, 2 months, 27 days since I have had a Diet Coke (or any carbonated drink for that matter). Don’t get me wrong, I am far from the living example of perfect health, but I used to drink 8-10 of those things a day and happy to kick the habit.
The knee
About a month or so ago, I started to notice some issues with my left knee. Never hurt during training, only after. So it was hard to pinpoint if it was a certain movement that was causing it. I really started to focus on form during my squats and tried testing subbing movements to see what worked. Some days it hurt, some days it didn’t. Then it started to hurt after almost every workout. Nothing crazy, but enough to be concerned.
A little over a week ago it got worse. Despite focusing on mobility, stretching, proper warm-up, and everything else people recommend, I would always have this pain in my knee after a workout. Except this time it started to spread around to the inside of my knee and was really tight.
Fast forward to this morning where the doctor did some x-rays and evaluation. Turns out I have patellar tendonitis, arthritis, and also some wearing down of the cartilage around my knee. I got some great advice from the doctor about what I need to do moving forward. Will have to rethink certain movements, especially in the very near future. Overall, I am glad that I went sooner rather than later and still have the confidence of being able to push forward to reach my goals.
Weekly Training Log - 03/10/13
Looking back, this was a really light week for me. I knew with the competition on Saturday that I would rest on Friday, but after the heavy work this past Sunday I never felt like I recovered like normal. Instead of trying to push too hard, I opted to scale it back some. I was still active every day and have been focused on stretching/mobility which is helping, but the intensity level was much lower than normal.
MONDAY - 03/11/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
TUESDAY - 03/12/13
Hips and knee bothering me so I decided to bypass CrossFit and swim instead. 6x100m untimed during lunch.
WEDNESDAY - 03/13/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
THURSDAY - 03/14/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
WOD: 13.2 - 10 minute AMRAP of 5 shoulder to overhead (115), 10 deadlifts (115), 15 box jumps (24”). Detailed writeup here. 6 rounds + 10 box jumps.
Pool (Lunch): 6x100m (untimed)
FRIDAY - 03/15/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
SATURDAY - 03/16/13
I participated in an informal team competition and ended up doing 2 of the 3 WODs before tapping out due to my knee.
WOD #1: Snatch ladder. Starting at 155, each person goes through the ladder and has 1 minute to complete the lift. Each round the weight increases by 10lbs. I made it to 185lbs, matching my PR. While I matched a PR, this was a power snatch. I really need to work on the full snatch and getting under the bar. By all accounts I could easily be over 200lbs on this lift by doing just that. My partner did the jerk ladder and jerked 315 off the rack.
WOD #2: 3-6-9-12 of cleans (185lbs) and pull-ups. One does the set of 3 and once complete, the partner goes. I was doing pretty good but I guess the adrenaline hit me and for some stupid reason, I skipped the round of 9 and went right to the round of 12. It totally threw me off and messed with my head because I was wondering why the guys next to me were getting to the pull-ups faster. So the following round I did 9 instead of 12. Our time was 8:09.
My knee was hurting so badly that I opted to not participate in the next workout (which was a 1000m row, 50 front squats, 50 shoulder to overhead, 50 back squats all at 115lbs, and another 1000m row). I sat down and iced it immediately which helped. I think I could have pushed through it but was afraid of taking something minor and making it major by trying to be a hero.
SUNDAY - 03/17/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization. Iced my knee a good bit and focused on mobility and rest.
