Weekly Training Log: 130429 - 130505
MONDAY - 130429
And on this day, absolutely nothing was done. Rest day.
TUESDAY - 130430
Woke up with a lot of pain, so rather than push it at CrossFit, I opted to sleep in. Since I can hit the pool pain free, that is what I did at lunch. 10x100m (rest to recover) and I went as hard as I could on the 100s. best time was 1:33 and slowest was 1:39. While I took longer breaks in between 100s than I normally do, and while this kicked my butt, it felt really good and I saw my best times on the 100 yet.
WEDNESDAY - 130501
3 position clean
2 sets @ 70% | 165#
2 sets @ 75% | 175#
Snatch Deadlift
7x2 @ 100% 1RM Snatch | 185#
5x3 @ 100% 1RM Snatch | 185#
Front squat
6x1 @ 65% | 205#
5x1 @ 70% | 215#
5x1 @ 75% | 220#
3x2 @ 80% | 225#
Push press
5x5 @ 135#
Conditioning (Pool): 2x500m @ 70-80% of max effort pace w/2 min rest. Averaged about 10 minutes per 500.
THURSDAY - 130502
Rest day.
FRIDAY - 130503
Back Squat
5 @ 225#
5 @ 275#
5 @ 275#
5 @ 305#
Conditioning: 4RFT of 6 deadlifts (225#), 9 burpee pull-ups, 15 walking lunges with 45# overhead. Despite a back up at the pull-up rig, this went really good for me. Felt the knee in the lunges but everything else was good. I was actually at 235# on deads and didn’t realize it under after the WOD but it didn’t slow me down. 9:54 @ RX+.
Cash-Out: 5 minute partner snatch duel. We used 115# which was a little on the heavy side for my partner. So he did 3 to my 5. 7 rounds total.
SATURDAY - 130504
Snatch Push Press
5x5 @ 75% | 135#
Snatch Pull
5x5 @ 100% | 185#
Clean & Jerk
3 @ 70% | 165#
2 @ 75% | 175#
1 @ 80% | 185#
1 @ 85% | 205#
1 @ 80% | 185#
1 @ 75% | 175#
Jerk (From the high blocks)
2x185, 2x205, 1x215, 1x225, multiple fails at 245. I was frustrated because I thought I was at 235 instead of 245. Took a shot at this about 4 times, with the last time about an inch or two from sticking it. 245 was my max a while back so even though I didn’t hit it, it felt really good to be working close to my 1RM.
Bench Press
4x3 @ 185#
2x2 @ 225#
ME @ 135#: 26 reps, 2-3 min. rest then ME @ 135#: 19 reps
Skill: Practiced DUs. Used my buddies rope and will most likely order one because it was that awesome.
SUNDAY - 130505
Warm-up:
Row 5K
Clean Pulls
5x5 @ 205#
Push Press
2x5 push press @ 135#
3x5 push press @ 155#
Back Squat
5 @ 65% | 225#
5 @ 70% | 245#
4 @ 75% | 255#
3x2 @ 80% | 295#
Conditioning: EMOTM for 16 minutes. On odd minutes: 6 KB swings (88#) and on even minutes: 10 burpees. At minute 10 I thought I wanted to stop. Well, not thought. I really wanted to stop. But I also thought that at that point, that was where the real workout was. Only a few more rounds to go and shortening it up to 12 minutes would have bothered me all day. I would have felt like I took the easy way out. Glad I finished it.
Summary
Woke up sore as crap on Monday. Stuff hurt that I didn’t know could hurt. I had a 5” long bruise at the top of my leg from catching the barbell. My hands hurt from focusing on the hook grip. Tuesday was much of the same, but a little better. I slept in to not push things. Wednesday I was still feeling it, but went in and lifted. Everything was extremely heavy when it normally isn’t. The 3 position work is volumes harder than I thought. As the week went on I felt like I could push a little more, though I opted to do a regular WOD with the class rather than the strength cycle work. Probably going to have to do that from time to time. Overall, felt like a good week.
10x100m at lunch. Took longer rest intervals than I normally do but I really wanted to push the 100s. Fastest 100 was 1:33 and slowest was 1:39. Now if I could only hold that pace for my mile…
Weekly Training Log: 130422 - 130428
MONDAY - 130422
And on Mondays, we rest. And it was good.
TUESDAY - 130423
Day one of a 12 week oly/strength cycle. I have wanted to try something like this for quite a while now. More than stoked to give it a shot. The overall program will have to be modified to fit time constraints. As much as I want to, I can’t work out 3 hours at a time. I also want to make sure I have conditioning included. The first day is light so it is a good intro into the cycle.
Also, I am planning on logging the entire cycle here to include the percentages dictated by the plan as well as the actual weights that I used right after. I think it will be interesting to see the results.
Power snatch + OHS (Based on 185# 1RM)
2 sets @ 50% | 95#
2 sets @ 65% | 115#
3 sets @ 70% | 135#
Jerk (Based on 215 1RM)
3 sets of 2 @ 70% | 165#
3 sets of 3 @ 75% | 170#
Back Squat (Based on 395 1RM & scaled)
8 @ 60% | 225#
8 @ 65% | 235#
6 @ 70% | 255#
6 @ 75% | 275#
GHD: 3x15
WEDNESDAY - 130424
Skill: 3x10 Sotts press w/PVC.
Hang power clean
1x5 @ 135 warm-up
1x5 @ 165
3x5 @ 185
Hang snatch high pull
4x3 @ 65% of 1RM | 115#
Conditioning: 400m shuttle run, 2 power cleans (155#), 300m shuttle run, 4 power cleans, 200m shuttle run, 6 power cleans, 100m shuttle run, 8 power cleans. I have not tested any running and since I was feeling decent I gave it a shot. I was not fast and it took the first 300m to really get warmed up, but after that I felt good. I kept a decent pace on the run and made up ground on the cleans going unbroken through every round. 7:55 @ RX.
Pool (Lunch): 1000m @ 75% - 80%. Nothing fast, just a paced swim to log the distance. 20:32.
THURSDAY - 130425
Rest day.
FRIDAY - 130426
Clean & Jerk
5x1 @ 80% | 185#
Front Squat
5x2 @ 50% | 165#
5x2 @ 50% | 185#
Emphasis here was speed.
Snatch
5x1 @ 80% | 95#
I did a lot more than just 5 singles. I worked at this weight for at least 20 minutes hitting single after single. Focusing on the setup, hookgrip, hip contact, and speed. The trainer came over and gave me some advice about how wide my grip was that changed my world. Amazing how simple it was but how profound a difference I saw. I felt so much faster and stronger.
SATURDAY - 130427
Muscle/Power Snatch
5x1 | 95# warm-up
5x1 @ 60% | 110#
4x1 @ 65% | 115#
4x2 @ 70% | 135#
3-Position Clean (Hang, knee, floor)
3 sets @ 65% | 165#
3 sets @ 70% | 185#
Working on the full clean was great and something I really needed. Validated by the trainer coming over and saying they looked good.
Snatch Shrug
8x3 @ 105% | 205#
Push Press
5x5 @ 75% | 165#
Conditioning: This was a partner WOD that I didn’t want to do. I had planned a 5K row for conditioning and just as we started getting ready, a buddy asked me to do the WOD with him because his partner bailed. I flat out said I didn’t want to do it. He said, “just do the weights and I will do the other stuff.” It actually worked out pretty well because he cruised through the body weight stuff and I cruised through the barbell movements.
Basically, you had 20 minutes to work. While one partner works the other rests. They listed several exercises on the board and assigned a point value to each movement. You got to pick the movements you wanted to do in the 20 minutes. Team with the most points wins.
My partner did a lot of body weight stuff. The kid is 12 years younger than me and hella strong. I stuck with barbell movements and didn’t want to do anything that was less than 5 points a rep. He absolutely killed the HSPUs (He did 104 of them), sit-ups, air squats, DUs, and snuck in a 400m run as well as 10 power cleans. I ended up doing a total of 119 power cleans, 30 front squats, and a 100m run. I was able to go unbroken on the cleans until about half way through when I had to start breaking them into 5s and then singles because my grip started to give way from the lifting earlier. We finished second overall.
SUNDAY - 130428
Bottom position barbell stretch
2 minutes @ 95#
1 minute @ 135#
Clean & Jerk
3x1 @ 70% | 165#
2x1 @ 75% | 175#
2x2 @ 80% | 185#
1x1 @ 75% | 175#
1x1 @ 80% | 185#
3-Position Power Snatch
2 sets @ 50% | 95#
2 sets @ 65% | 120#
3 sets @ 70% | 130#
Conditioning: 10 min AMRAP of:
3 deadlifts @ 365#
250m row
5 rounds + 71 meters (1:47/500 average)
Summary
Overall, this week kicked my tail. Getting up Sunday, I felt the full weight of the added strength volume, most notably the shrugs and pull practice. My back and traps were extremely tight and sore. Saturday was easily one the highest volume training days I have had in a while. So it shouldn’t have been a shock that Sunday was as hard as it was.
I also did not do as many “conditioning” days as I normally would. Ideally I would have been in the pool 2 more days, but because of some schedule conflicts during lunch and a field trip with my oldest on Friday (which I wouldn’t trade for anything anyway) I didn’t get in the water. The great thing is that despite lifting more and feeling like my conditioning would suffer, whenever I test it I am still able to move so that is a plus.
Nutrition changes have been awesome. What initially I thought might not really do much good has had a positive impact in the gym.
Weekly Training Log: 130413 - 130421
MONDAY - 130413
Rest day. Stretching of all the things and strategic placement of calories into my body. Starting some nutrition changes this week.
TUESDAY - 130413
Strength: 3x3 power clean @ 75% of 1RM C&J. Warmed up with 135 and then used 185 as working sets.
Skill: Muscle up progressions
Conditioning AM: 3RFT of 10 power snatches (95lbs), 15 T2B, 20 box jumps (24”); 12 min. cap. Time was 10:41 @ RX. I spent so much time on the T2B that I figured they would take out a restraining order on me. I got to the T2B before anyone else in the class and was one of the last to get off of them. Clearly a weakness I need to work.
Pool: 1 mile swim. Ever have one of those workouts that just sucks? This was one of those. Really wanted a much better result than I got. Half way through I felt really sluggish and it started messing with my head. Regardless, I have never done this distance in the water. Considering only a few months ago a single lap was all I could handle this is a marked improvement. 33:12. I will keep working in some distance swims so I can break a sub-30 mile in the water.
WEDNESDAY - 130413
Woke up feeling worn out. Lack of sleep from the past 2 days caught up with me. Getting too old to be staying up late! Rest day.
THURSDAY - 130413
Strength: 5x5 strict C2B pull-ups. Scaled to kipping C2B.
Conditioning: 3RFT of 15 KB swings (53#), 12 goblet lunges, 9 SDHPs, 6 goblet squats. 5:23. In hindsight, I should have used the 70# for this.
Cash-Out: 200m 1 arm farmers carry. Scaled it up to a 2 arm farmers carry with a 70# KB in each hand.
Pool: 20x50m w/15 sec ri. Really tried to keep it to 15 seconds of rest but that slid to 20-25 seconds. Held about a 45 sec average on the 50s, some faster, some slower but I think it was consistent. Forgot to write down my time on this but I think it was about 22 minutes.
FRIDAY - 130413
WOD: 21 minute AMRAP of 21 air squats, 21 ab mat situps, 21 walking lunges, 21 burpees, 21 mountain climbers, 21 DB snatches right arm (35#), 21 DB snatches left arm (35#), 21 deadlifts (115#), 21 hang cleans (115#), 21 squat cleans (115#), 21 DB push press (35#), 21 back squats (115#). Looked a lot worse than it was. I made it through the first round and felt good, weight never felt heavy. I wanted to get back to the barbell movements for at least one rep and ended up with 1 full round + 8 deadlifts.
SATURDAY - 130413
Skill: Snatch from the high blocks, hang snatch w/pause at the knees, and power snatch. Never really worked heavy and kept most reps light (95, 115, & 135lbs). Focused on technique and speed. I have zero clue how many reps I did. Tried to work doubles and triples. Slight tears in my hands from the barbell work, but manageable. Thighs are bruised and sore from catching the barbell there so many times.
Strength: 3x10 - 1 arm KB swings (53lbs); Back squats: 3x5 (Sets were 225, 255, 275) then sets of 20,15, 10, and 5 with 135lbs.
Cash-Out: 20 pull-ups
SUNDAY - 130413
Warm-up: Paced 1000m row
Strength: 6 rounds of 1 power clean + 3 front squats + jerk @ 185lbs
Conditioning: Grace+ (30 clean & jerks) @ 185lbs. 7:40. I have been wanting to do this for a while. Totally kicked my tail.
Cash-Out: 5x5 deadlift @ 315lbs; 3x10 strict press @ 95lbs
Summary
The first really normal week in a long time. I mean, a long time. The end of the week was capped off with 4 really good days in the gym. I felt like I was able to go heavier than I normally would, move better than I normally would, and not tire out as quick. While I have been sore, it is that good sore that makes you feel like you have been productive, not broken. This next week will be another good test to see how my body adapts to the nutrition changes. Excited to see what happens and happy to be back at it.
Weekly Training Log: 130408 - 130414
MONDAY - 130408
Rest day. Stretching/mobilization. Consumption of food.
TUESDAY - 130409
Skill: 20 minutes of Clean & Jerk technique work @ no more than 80% of 1RM. Sets were: 2x135, 2x135, 2x165, 2x185, 2x185, 2x205
Conditioning: Row 2k @ 80-85%. Harder than I thought to pace this down a notch. Tried to keep it around a 2:00/500. 7:46.
Cash-Out: 3x10 pull-ups
Pool: 50m warm-up; 1000m @ 80-85%. ~19:30
WEDNESDAY - 130410
Skill: T2B practice
Strength: 3x8 good mornings (8x95, 8x115, 8x135); 60 sec ring plank hold; 40 GHDs
Metcon: 1 minute at each station for reps. Wall balls, box jumps, burpees, KB swings (53lbs), lunges. Rest 1 minute. 3 total rounds. Scores for the rounds were 93, 89, 86. Subbed step ups instead of the box jumps which my knee will thank me for later. Getting old sucks. Otherwise, this felt really good. It sucked, but I felt good about being able to stay around the same score per round.
THURSDAY - 130411
Conditioning: Pool. 50m warm-up untimed but brisk followed by 1000m. On Tuesday I did it in about 19:30. Granted I was not pushing it but I wanted to see if I could beat that. Would be good to work in a few distance swims as well since I rarely do that. Got the 1000m in 18:37. My coach wants me to work on getting my mile around mid to upper 20s so that will be my goal. My next distance swim I will test the mile and see where I am at.
FRIDAY - 130412
Warm-Up: 30 deadlifts (75lbs), 25 air squats, 20 deadlifts, 15 mountain climbers, 10 deadlifts, 5 bar facing burpees.
Strength: Front squat, EMOTM for 10 minutes. First few rounds done at 185, then jumped to 205. Really wished I had gone with 225 now.
Conditioning: 25 min AMRAP of 10 front squats (75lbs), 10 push presses (75lbs), 10 GHDs. 10 rounds + 8 GHDs. This was a really hard morning at the gym. Good hard, but tough. I left absolutely soaked in sweat.
SATURDAY - 130413
We were at CrossFit Cumming as they held the grand opening for their box. After being gone all day and not getting anything close to a warm-up, I had to wrap up the Whole Life Challenge fitness benchmark that we did which was 7 minutes of burpees. With my wife manning the timer and counting, I managed 92 reps. This was a 6 rep improvement from February and a 20 rep improvement over last year’s Open.
SUNDAY - 130414
Strength:
- 15 minutes to find 1RM power clean. 5x135 (C&J), 2x185 (C&J), 1x225, 1x235 (Matched PR),
1x245,1x240. - Snatch grip halting deadlifts: 5x275, 5x295, 5x315, 5x325, 5x345
- Snatch push press: 5x95, 5x115, 5x135, 5x155
Conditioning: 5 sets of 3x135 power snatch; Rest 5 minutes, then 8 minute AMRAP of 8 OHS @ 95lbs & 8 pull-ups. My knee had started to bother me during the cleans and probably should have backed off. I felt slow during the OHS and for the first WOD in my life I felt like I was catching my breath during pull-ups. Moved slow through this a few reps short of 8 rounds.
Cash-Out: 3x20 GHDs
Overall, I felt like it was another good week. My knee is still giving me issues and I hate having to work around it. I worked heavy on some things and matched a PR in areas where I felt like I would normally not have done that. With the WLC over, I am going to start making some nutrition changes as an experiment and see how that goes.
Weekly Training Log - 04/01/13
MONDAY - 04/01/13
Vacation. What?
TUESDAY - 04/02/13
WOD - For time: 800m run, 10 strict presses, 15 OHS, 20 push presses, 25 front squats, 30 push jerks, 35 back squats, 800m run. All at 115lbs. Basically a modified version of the main site workout the other day, with a run bookending the WOD. Subbed a 1000m row (3:36 & 4:04) for the runs to save my knee a bit. This sucked and I tried to stay moving. The few hours of yard work prior to going most likely didn’t help me. Didn’t drop the bar on the back squats because I did not want to re-rack it. Time was 25:01.
Cash-Out: 10x1 power snatch @ 115
WEDNESDAY - 04/03/13
Pool: 10x100m w/45 sec ri. Best 100 was 1:39 and worst was 1:49. Happy with staying close to the same average over the course of the swim. Total time was about 26 minutes I think. I want to test a 2000m swim and check my 100m splits and see if I can keep a sub-2 average on them.
THURSDAY - 04/04/13
Pool: 8x50m w/varying rest. Not really pushing the pace at all. Just keeping loose and went no more than 80%.
CrossFit: Open WOD 13.5. Wrote up more details about this here, but scored 5 reps more than my goal, finishing with a total of 55. I have been really working on pull-ups and while they weren’t easy by any stretch, they were vastly improved over last year. The coolest part was getting to see my wife knock out her first C2Bs!
FRIDAY - 04/05/13
Active rest, stretching, mobilization.
SATURDAY - 04/06/13
CrossFit: Total bro session happened. Spent about 3 hours at the gym and loved every minute of it.
Rack Pulls: Worked on rack pull deads. 5x315, 5x375, 5x405, 5x425
Skill: Worked on the snatch a good bit, starting at 95lbs and did countless singles working up to 175. Ultimately I would love be able to power snatch 200.
WOD: Me and a buddy did a 5 minute snatch WOD again. One does 5 snatches (95lbs) while the other rests. Continue as fast as possible for 5 minutes. I did this for 5 minutes and felt really good. Weight was super light. Felt so good I kept going while another guy hopped in to replace the first, making it a total of 10 minutes for me. I believe I got about 16 rounds in.
Cash-Out: 10x3 hang clean & jerk @ 165lbs
SUNDAY - 04/07/13
Strength: 1 snatch grip deadlift into 1 hang power snatch from below the knees into 4 overhead squats; rest about 90 seconds. 6 rounds total. 2 rounds @ 115, 2 @ 125, 2 @ 135, 2 @ 145.
WOD: 8 minute AMRAP of 15 hang power snatches (above the knee; 75lbs), 10 situps, 5 push-ups. 4 rounds even.
This week felt the closest thing to normal that I have felt in a while. Yes, my knee is still bothering me and I think it is a chronic thing I am just going to have to deal with. Mentally, I felt better. Felt like I used to feel, especially on Saturday when I was able to do some heavier lifting. Since I am staying off my knee with regards to running, etc. I have to stay focused on swimming and other activities to keep conditioning up as much as possible. I have some nutritional changes in the queue for when the Whole Life Challenge wraps up that I will be making, along with some training changes. Looking forward to what lies ahead.
Weekly Training Log - 3/25/13
MONDAY - 03/25/13
Active rest & recovery; stretching & mobilization.
TUESDAY - 03/26/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
WOD - 5RFT: 500m row, 12 deadlifts (185lbs), 6 HSPUs (Mod w/box). WOD called for a 400m run, but trying my best to go as easy as I can on my knee so I subbed the row. Felt pretty good on the rower and was pleased with the pace when I was tired. Deads were all unbroken and never really an issue. This was a WOD testing lungs, in my opinion. 18:16.
Pool (Lunch): I normally try and mix up the swimming, and typically follow some type of an interval. My goal is to do a day with short laps, middle range, and some a bit longer. Today I mixed them up and did a repeat of the ladder I did a while back. 50m, 100m, 200m, 300m, 200m, 100m, 50m. I was not really sticking to a specific rest period, or pushing the pace. I wanted to just move and that was about it. 24 minutes and change.
WEDNESDAY - 03/27/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
Mobility & skill work. Very different than what my box normally programs and that was why I went. Normally a rest day for me, I was hoping to go in, do some light work, and stay loose. We worked very specific mobility for at least 20 minutes and then skill work with the snatch. Working sets for me were light, starting with 95, then moving to 115, 135, and back to 115. The trainer said my form was spot on and my focus needs to be speed under the bar and confidence of getting into the squat. That will come the more I do it and I felt better about this movement than I have in a while. Finished out with a few cleans at 185lbs.
Pool (Lunch): 4 rounds of: 100m freestyle @ 80% followed by 30-45 seconds of rest, then 25m breaststroke, and an immediate 25m freestyle at max effort; 1 1/2 - 2 minutes rest in between rounds. Basically created this on the fly, and really liked it, probably because it was different than what I normally do. I think this was around the 18 minute mark.
THURSDAY - 03/28/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
Open 13.4. I wrote up something more detailed here. Overall, very happy as I see it as an improvement from my abilities last year. 5 reps short of finishing the round of 12s.
FRIDAY - MONDAY
Vacation. Ain’t even mad.
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.
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.
Weekly Training Log - 03/04/13
MONDAY - 03/04/13
Pool (Lunch): 4x100m; 1x25m freestyle; 1x25m breast stroke; Untimed. Active recovery, stretching, and mobilization.
TUESDAY - 03/05/13
CrossFit (5:00 a.m.)
WOD: “Helen” - Benchmark and one that isn’t really my favorite to do. I can’t recall the last time I ran. Swings were unbroken and never really a great challenge. Pull-ups were better than the last time I have done it. Run was slow. 13:20.
Cash-Out: 5x10 GHD (Yea, I skipped the ring dips)
WEDNESDAY - 03/06/13
Pool (Lunch): 20x50m w/30 sec ri. 26:50.
THURSDAY - 03/07/13
CrossFit (5:00 a.m.)
WOD: CrossFit Open 13.1. Wrote up something more detailed here. Score was 126.
FRIDAY - 03/08/13
Pool (Lunch): 3x300m w/1:30 ri. Actual 300m untimed.
SATURDAY - 03/09/13
CrossFit (7:00 a.m.)
Strength: 5 rounds of 185lb squat clean + 4 front squats; 90 sec rest between each round.
WOD: For Time - 50 abmat sit-ups, 40 KB swings (53lb), 30 burpees, 20 deadlifts (185lbs), 10 clean & jerks (185lbs), 500m row.15:43. I think this would have been faster had I done it with a class and not on my own. Great WOD and the C&J were the sticking point for sure.
Cash-Out: 3 minute partner snatch dual @ 95lbs (One does 5 snatches while the other rests); 5x5 C2B
SUNDAY - 03/10/13
Track (7:00 a.m.)
Running: 1 mile slow warm-up; 10x100m sprints with about a 50m slow recovery in between. We also took a break to time a friend’s all out 400m. Then we did a slow 400m cool down. Felt good to run and my knee actually did very well.
Strength (1:00 p.m.): Warmed up with a 500m row, light push presses, wall balls, and some pull-ups.
Squat Clean & Jerk: I rarely get the chance to work these, so it was great and lots of help with the 2 guys I was lifting with. Excellent coaching tips. 2x135, 1x185,1x195,1x205,1x225, 1x235 (Failed the jerk). After I failed the jerk I dropped back and worked a few at 225. I know that I can get much more weight up than this, just have to work the technique.
Front Squat: 1x225, 1x255, 1x265, 1x275, 1x285, 1x295, 1x305. While I love how I feel from this Whole Life Challenge, I can see my strength numbers struggle a bit. My 1RM is 325 on this lift. Haven’t touched that in a while. But still, I was pleased to get 295 after everything else that I had done that day.
Weekly Training Log:
MONDAY - 2/18/13
8:00pm
For the Whole Life Challenge, we needed a benchmark fitness test to do before and after the challenge to mark progress. My wife, who I now question her sanity, decided to do the 7 minute burpee WOD from last years CrossFit Open. We have a barbell, weights, box, KB, and jump rope, but being sick, I didn’t feel like dragging all of that crap out. Lazy fitness, yo.
Anyway, got 86, which is a 14 rep improvement over last year. I imagine that had I done this in the box it would have been 90 as I would have had several folks in my ear telling me to keep going. Still, happy with the progress. Burpees suck.
TUESDAY - 2/19/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
WOD - 2RFT: 100 DU’s, 50 power snatches (65lbs), 25 T2B. If there were ever a WOD that was created to be something I could not do, it would be this. I still struggle with DUs and T2B. I wanted to skip this day so badly. And plus still recovering from this nasty cold I thought I could use that as an excuse. But also figured that if I really want to get better then I just have to do it. Horribly long WOD for me (27:56) but I got the practice in that I needed.
Cash-Out: My choice was to crawl to the car and leave.
Side note: The two times I moved from a normal diet to strict paleo I experienced a complete drop in energy during a WOD. I think this was my valley. I felt like I was asleep and had nothing in the tank. Nothing.
WEDNESDAY - 2/20/13
Still fighting the sickness and opted to sleep in instead of getting up at 4am to torture my lungs. Instead, I hit the pool at lunch. 20x50m laps w/20 sec ri. (24:15). This felt VOLUMES better than yesterday. Perhaps more rested, perhaps recovering from being sick, perhaps coming out of the valley, or perhaps all of that. Regardless, I never really felt at all gassed like I did yesterday.
THURSDAY - 2/21/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
Warm-Up: 12 rounds of tabata abs (sit-ups, flutter kicks, side-to-side plate bounce, hollow rocks)
WOD: 15 OHS (135lbs), 10 pistols, 200m run (subbed 300m row), 20 OHS (95lbs), 10 pistols, run 400m (subbed 500m row), 30 OHS (65lbs), 10 pistols, run 800m (subbed 900m row). Time was just over 16 minutes and I felt pretty good through this. Perhaps coming out of the valley. Did all of the OHS unbroken and felt like I moved through the row good enough.
Pistols…. So close to getting these. Trainer said I was about 2 or 3 inches off from sinking low enough. The last time I did these in a WOD I used a box and sat down and then stood back up. This time I used a band to support my weight and sank low enough. Was good to practice these in a WOD.
FRIDAY - 2/22/13
CrossFit (7:00am)
WOD: “Jackie Robinson”. This was a WOD our box got from CrossFit Harlem and man was is nasty. You are to do 22 wall balls, 22 burpees, and 22 box jumps before each barbell movement (deadlifts, hang cleans, push jerks, and clean & jerks). I was about 33 minutes on this one. The weight did not feel heavy until the jerks. Nothing horrible, but just another grinder, doing work.
SATURDAY - 2/23/13
CrossFit (7:00am)
Strength: Rack jerks: 1-1-1-1-1-1 (135, 165, 185, 205, 215, 225); Power clean with pause just below the knee. 7x2 @ 165lbs.
Conditioning: 5RFT of 250m row & 10 pull-ups w/1:30 rest in between each round. 13:46. Had to break the pull-ups in the last 2 rounds and really ticked me off. I was happy to get 3 rounds unbroken though. Won’t be happy until I can do 10 unbroken during any WOD.
Cash-Out: 6x10 strict press @ 95lbs; 5x10 GHD
SUNDAY - 2/24/13
Active recovery: Walk around the neighborhood with the girls; stretching.
Weekly Training Log - 02/11/13
This week is going to look a little different than previous ones. This past Saturday evening, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Seriously. I have not been in that much pain after a workout. That same soreness continued through Sunday and Monday morning, despite foam rolling and mobility. I felt sluggish, tired, and just beat down.
My wife told me that I have never really taken a break since I got started with CrossFit. That was 2 years ago. At the urging of her and some close friends, I opted to take it easy this week.
MONDAY - 2/11/13
Rest.
TUESDAY - 2/12/13
Pool (Lunch): Slow paced freestyle 800m (16:31); 4x25 breast stroke.
WEDNESDAY - 2/13/13
Pool (Lunch): 10x100m freestyle
THURSDAY - 2/14/13
CrossFit (5:00am)
WOD - “Grace”: 30 clean & jerks for time. New PR with time of 2:30 (Previous time was 2:43). Guess the rest paid off. Felt so refreshed going in to this that it actually felt strange.
Cash-Out: Rack pull deads - 3x315, 3x315, 3x275, 3x315, 3x315; 5x10 pull-ups.
FRIDAY - 2/15/13
Rest.
SATURDAY - 2/16/13
Rest. (Out of town working the Garage Games One)
SUNDAY - 2/17/13
Rest. (Out of town working the Garage Games One)
Weekly Training Log - 2/4/13
MONDAY - 2/4/13
Pool (Lunch): 10x100m w/1 min. ri. 28:43.
TUESDAY - 2/5/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
Warm-up: Don’t normally log these but thought this was good. 1500m row (4:43) followed by 6-5-4-3-2-1 of stretching mountain climbers, wall balls, and situps.
WOD - EMOTM for 12 minutes: 3 burpees, 3 push jerks (155lbs; bring weight from the floor), 3 burpees. When you fail to make it through the round, rest 1 minute, then cut the reps and finish. After this weekend, I just didn’t want to do another freaking burpee. I believe that I have narrowed down my knee pain to this movement, so I focused on bringing my feet out wide as I come off the floor and it really seemed to help a lot. I got into round 8 and just wiped out. No gas and no desire to take it to that dark place required to keep pushing.
Cash-Out: Wanted to keep working on pull-ups so I skipped the GHDs and did 5x10 pull-ups.
WEDNESDAY - 2/6/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
Strength - Overhead Squats: 3x135, 3x135, 3x155, 3x175, 3x185 (PR), 1x200 (PR)
WOD: 15-12-9-6-3 of overhead squats (scaled to 115lbs) and T2B. Time was 9:08 and not as bad as I thought it would be, but took it’s toll on me. Got some help on the kipping/rhythym of the T2B after the WOD which really helped.
Pool (Lunch): 20x50m w/30 sec ri.
THURSDAY - 2/7/13
Pool: Active recovery? 50m freesyle, 4x25m breast stroke, 50m freestyle, 4x25m breast stoke, 50m freestyle. Untimed; Just to keep moving.
FRIDAY - 2/8/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD - “Wittman”: 7 rounds of 15 KB swings (53lbs), 15 power cleans (95lbs), 15 box jumps (24”). Perhaps my friends are right and I am overtrained right now. All I know is that in round 4 I found myself standing there unable to do a box jump. I just stared at everyone and felt guilty for not moving, for not pushing through. I snapped out of it and finished the WOD, but this was absolutely horrible. I did all of the swings unbroken, which was good for me, but smoked my forearms for the cleans. On the cleans I did 10/5 the first round, 5/5/5 each additional round, and then singles in the last round. For box jumps, I tried to keep going. I was 29 minutes and some change. Absolutely horrible. This thing wiped me out for the rest of the day.
SATURDAY - 2/9/13
CrossFit (7:00a)
Strength: In pursuit of 5 bills on my deadlift, I worked the rack pulls which is the weakest part of my lift. After Friday, I wanted to work on things but also wanted to do something that I wanted to do to help get some confidence back. I thought it was amazing that I couldn’t pull 500 from the ground and lock it out but could bang out reps of 505 off the rack. 5x315, 5x375, 5x415, 3x475, 3x505, 3x505, 3x505, 3x505.
Conditioning: Untimed (but not resting) I did 5 rounds of GHD situps and 10 pull-ups. After the 5th round I did an extra set of pull-ups. All pull-ups unbroken. Started to really feel it on rep 8 and the last 2 were hard, but this was a major thing for me to be able to do.
SUNDAY - 2/10/13
Rest day.
Weekly Training Log - 01/28/13
MONDAY - 1/28/13
Rest.
TUESDAY - 1/29/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of dips, box jumps (24”), and GHD situps. Wanted sub 10 and came close (10:30). Dips slowed me down. If I could do those unbroken all the time this would have been sub-10.
Cash-Out: 6x8 pull-ups
WEDNESDAY - 1/30/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD: Row 350m, 21 thrusters (95lbs), 21 K2E, row 350m, 15 thrusters, 15 K2E, row 350m, 9 thrusters, 9 K2E. Basically some twisted version of Fran. I thought that this would take a lot longer than it did. Sticking point was K2E for me. Somehow in the set of 15 I lost my freaking mind and got out of rhythm. Row felt good and caught my breath there. 12:30 @RX.
Cash-Out: Hang power snatch work (3x5 @ 95lbs)
THURSDAY - 1/31/13
Pool (Lunch): Active rest, what? LOL. 4x50m hard freestyle; 2x25 breast stroke, 2x25 back stroke.
FRIDAY - 2/1/13
Pool (Lunch): 10x50m w/30 sec ri. 5 minute partner sprint (7x25m). 2x25m breast stroke.
SATURDAY - 2/2/13
I am going to write up some details about this later, but this was an informal CrossFit competition I did and it was certainly a new and challenging experience for me.
Workout #1: 21-15-9 of overhead squats (95lbs) and pullups. Workout #2 was 12 minutes to establish a 1RM deadlift. Workout #3 was 2 rounds of 4 laps (just under 600m), 15 ground to overhead (115lbs), 20 burpees, 30 situps, 250m row. Time cap on the first WOD was 10 minutes and the time cap on the second was 20 minutes.
SUNDAY - 2/3/13
Rest.
Weekly Training Log - 1/21/13
MONDAY - 1/21/13
As it was a holiday, and I had the day off, I planned on going in to open gym and working some strength. Was up the previous night coughing and lots of congestion. Since I slept so little and since Monday is typically a rest day for me, I didn’t push it and slept in. Good call.
TUESDAY - 1/22/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD: 800m run, then 10 rounds of 7 bar facing burpees & 3 front squats (95lbs), followed by an 800m run. Since it was in the low 30s I was not feeling an outdoor run and opted for a row, which meant 1000m. Finished that in 3:35, which was probably too fast for me to start this off, and then went to the 10 rounds of burpees and front squats. A few of us scaled up on the weight from 95 to 135. I don’t think it made too much of a difference, maybe a minute or 2. Trying to fight off a cold, I felt like I was moving through quicksand. After all of that, I really did not feel like strapping into the rower so I ran outside. I felt every step in my left knee and will probably have to stay away from high impact movements for a while. Time was 23:20 @ RX+.
WEDNESDAY - 1/23/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD - 5RFT: 12 push presses (115lbs), 100m run, 8 power snatches (115lbs). Still recovering from this nasty cold and it feels like I am in slow motion right now. Time was 13:45 @ RX and was just happy to get through it the way I did. Push presses got heavy in that last round and wanted to split jerk them as singles. Did well on the snatches and made up time there.
Cash-Out: 5x8 pull-ups
THURSDAY - 1/24/13
Pool (Noon): 5x200m freestyle w/1 min ri. 24:35. Rest 2 minutes, then 6x25m breast stroke w/30 sec ri. The breast stroke totally gassed me. Way more than the freestyle did at nowhere near the distance. Had fun though.
FRIDAY - 1/25/13
CrossFit (5:00a)
WOD - For Time: Row 2000m, 5 deadlifts (225), 25 burpees, 5 deads, 25 wall balls (20lbs), 5 deads, 25 burpee pull-ups, 5 deads, 25 KB swings (70lbs), 5 deads, row 1000m. With my knee giving me issues, I opted to row instead of run. That actually bothered me because I felt like the row would have made this harder than it had to be. Did well on pacing and came off the 2000m row at 7:43. Deads were never an issue and did them all unbroken as the weight was easy. Spent the most time on burpee pull-ups because I just can’t move fast on those. Finished the 1000m row at just over 4minutes, with a final time of 26:56 @ RX+ (scaled up the KB to 70lb).
Pool (Lunch): Did a few 25m laps to warm-up. Then 4x50m hard. Pushed the pace on this harder than I have in 2 weeks. Then did a 5 minute partner sprint (one swims 25 while the other rests). Got in 8x25m in a little over 5 minutes.
SATURDAY - 1/26/13
CrossFit (7:00a)
Strength: 2x155 power snatch EMOTM for 12 minutes
WOD: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 of hang power cleans (165lbs) and GHD situps. I wanted a quick metcon and severly under estimated the hang cleans here. Got too close to the 8am class (when I had to leave) so I stopped in the set of 5 and was about 9:45 into the WOD. Would have been good to test this all the way to the set of 1, but maybe some other time.
Cash-Out: 4x8 pull-ups
SUNDAY - 1/27/13
Rest.
