Monday- 130304

Skill/Mobility:

3 x 8 GHD Sit-ups

:60 Hold Bottom of Squat with KB in front of chest

WOD:

5min AMRAP:

7 KB Swings (53lbs)

7 BALL SLAMS (14lbs)

Rest 1 minute

5min AMRAP:

7 OH Walking Lunges (25lbs)

7 Push-ups

Rest 1 minute

5min AMRAP:

7 BARBELL ROWS (75lbs)

7 Jumping Squats

Warm-up of a 400m run, followed by 3x 10 14lb wallballs, 10m down and back of zombie-walks (arms out in front, parallel to ground, high kick to touch toes to fingertips) and 1 pood (36 lb.) kettlebell swings.

Strength was .. intresting, man sitting down at the bottom of a goblet squat for a minute at a time, it’s an amazing stretch, but ow ow ow ow OW does it kind of hurt to come out of a prolonged squat in that position. I’ll have to remember it though, as it could help a lot in increasing mobility and being able to squat well, which continues to be something of an issue with me.

GHD sit-ups weren’t really too bad, even with them being for flexibility and full range of motion (hands over the head, bent back, touch to ground, then come back up in an explosive motion, touch fingers to toes,) slow and steady, repeat made it a little better. I still felt a little dizzy in the head, but just slowed down and it didn’t prove to be much of a problem.

For the workout, whoo boy, was not looking forward to this, even with full-strength of 10 per motion being lowered to seven of each for level 2 participants..

Grabbed a 1.5 pood/53lb. kettlebell for the first set of motions, along with a 14lb. medicine ball.. The kettlebell was just right in terms of weight I thought, it was heavy enough to be challenging, but not so much as to slow me down like the last AMRAP we did (see a few posts previous). The medicine ball was perhaps too light however, should have maybe grabbed a 20 lb. instead.. Also had trouble dropping into a squat to catch the rebound of the ball at the bottom, though I got better as time progressed. Four rounds in and time was called.

Second set, walking lunges and push-ups. Took a 25 pound plate to hold overhead, and due to high number of participants I just alternated legs in place for lack of space to actually ‘walk’ the seven paces. Compared to the other half of push-ups, I thought it was actually kind of a break to do those.. The push-ups though, I was already a bit winded, and tried to keep at them at the best pace I could maintain, but even so by the last few rounds it broke down to three, two, even one at a time. At time, four rounds completed, seven lunges and one push-up.

Final couplet, barbell rows and jumping squats.. Whoa. Barbell rows are a new thing to me, it’s like trying to do a deadlift very, very wrong. Bent at the knee, bent at the hip, leaned over, back straight.. picking the bar up, bringing it from knee straight up to the chest, that takes a lot out of your arms and shoulders in a very short amount of time. The jumping squats weren’t exactly kind either, but were at least slightly more manageable to do in steady sets. It wasn’t until the last set or two that I had trouble with the rows, having to pause halfway through seven, and the last round, actually putting it down for just a moment, before continuing. Final count at time, five full rounds complete.

In summary:

4 rounds, x7 53lb. kettlebell swings, x7 14lb ball slams

4 rounds, x7 25lb. overhead lunges, x7 push-ups, x7 lunges, x1 push-up

5 rounds, x7 75lb. barbell rows, x7 jumping squats

WOD:

Level 2 & 3 Intermediate and Advanced:

5 Rounds of 3 min AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) :

3 Thrusters (95, 65)

6 Jumping Lunges (alternating, 6 each leg)

9 KETTLEBELL SWINGS (53, 35)

Rest 1 Minute Between Rounds.

Warm-up: 500m row (1:55 @ ~67% damper) and 400m run, followed by sets of wallballs. Then, moving right into the workout.

I was initially concerned (later to find out, rightfully so) about the weight assigned for the thrusters, even for three reps at a time, but was told I should go ahead and try it. I probably should have built my bar with a 10 & 15 lb. weight instead of a single 25 plate on each side, to strip down, but I’ll just know better for whatever ‘next time’ there is.

First round, I managed a full pass through the round, then another three thrusters, twelve jumping lunges, which really are tough on the knees, and an amazing amount of difficulty for a body-weight exercise.. and one of nine kettlebell swings, though the swings would later feel like a rest of sorts compared to the remainder of the workout.

A rest and the second set, I made a full round through, and only one of the thrusters completed before the three minutes were elapsed.. Starting to slow down from the weight being pretty heavy, even for just three reps at a time. This was meant to be more cardio than strength-oriented.

Third round, I got the first three thrusters and twelve jumping lunges completed, but only five out of nine of the kettlebell swings, not even a full round down. Slowed down too much between the thrusters, and more than anything the jumping lunges were the time-sink for me. 

Fourth, I managed to get the entire round complete, just one pass through before time was called, still slow but just that tiny bit of recovery in the rest in between. The thrusters and jumping lunges were still pretty terrible, though..

Fifth and final round, three thrusters, twelve lunges, and four kettlebell swings, and  somewhere in the mix of it all I managed to nearly roll my ankle, sent me crashing to the ground from the lunge position… After confirming I hadn’t put myself out for recovery, I finished, but good god what an ugly mess. Definitely should have gone lighter on the thruster weight, and maybe even the kettlebell too.

Still think I’ve got ways and ways to go before any respectable Rx’d Fran time, since this wasn’t even half the thrusters, never mind pull-ups.. and some weren’t even thrusters, it was just this ugly clean, slow front squat, and honestly, a few of them were halfway to shoulder press, not even push-press. 

Can’t say I’m really pleased with my results, though it’s hard to figure what I’d have done with less weight and the jumping lunges still slowing me down. Oh well. “Live and learn” kind of situation, I guess. Maybe someday when I’m stronger! After all, that’s what this is all about.

Strength:

4 rounds of:

1a) Max Rep set of Ring Dips

1b) Max time L-Sit Hold (Hanging)

1c) 15′ rope climb

*Rest 60 seconds between rounds but move immediately between elements A,B and C)

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediates:

7 minute AMRAP of:

12 Banded Pullups
24 Squats
12 HR (hand release) Pushups

Warm-up of 400m run, 2x8 Wallballs @ 20#, push-ups and pull-ups. 

Strength portion was interesting; I started with the rope stands at a 3:1 ratio for actual rope climbs as I tried to do a practice rope climb and found it was not so much difficult, as just hard to hold the rope and keep a good cinch with my feet. The scaled portion is better, and pretty smooth, went on to dips.

Started on parallel bars with a band for assist, good and narrow to keep hands under shoulders and external rotation, was a really good set, got seven down. Next round I moved to rings with a band, got eight, really a buoying feeling. Third and fourth rounds, down to five and five.. Oh well, I guess it can’t go on forever ;P

L-sit was bad mostly for the fact I’ve still got pretty crap static hang grip even after all this time.. Just hanging there, holding on, and trying to keep your grip for any length of time, it’s still just highly uncomfortable and difficult for me. Timing was ten, eight, seven and six seconds per attempt.

For the WOD.. augh, short AMRAP, means go hard, go fast, and leave nothing behind.. But that’s easier said/written than done. Tried pistols, but found it was going to be too difficult to do full sets at a high intensity and efficiency to do without using some scaling. Grabbed a resistance band and had it as a sling under-arm and went that route. Even so, I felt myself cheating in form a little, it was difficult to squat and keep my heels down, though I tried to make a conscious effort on it after I was caught doing so on the first round.

Hand release push-ups were.. decent, though after the first round, or even halfway through the second, I had to switch to kneeling push-ups to keep up the speed and intensity required.. I dunno, I feel a little bad that I have to scale the workout on the fly, but I’m still coming out of year 0-1 , maybe when I’m in 1-2, deep into it, things will be better.

And the pull-ups were pretty terrible! Again with the grip issues mentioned above and in past entries, though I grabbed a thick green band for some serious resistance, it certainly helped. A lot more spring to get the pull-ups down, though it went down from several at a time, to four at a time, to three at a time by the last round.. Nothing pretty.

Final: Three full rounds completed by time at 7:00 elapsed.

Skill:

20 Min Volume Training:

Pull Ups, Muscle Ups, Pistols or Double Unders

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediates:

7 Min AMRAP Plate to Overhead Burpees (25/10)

Warm-up of 500m row (1:55 @ ~67% damper setting), 15 kettlebell swings and 15 knees to elbows.

Volume training was (for me) ten minutes of practice at double-unders every minute on the minute, looking for clean reps each time. Second half of the twenty minutes was a transition into handstand practice, to see if I can develop core stability and balance any more. I can’t say either one went terribly well, but I’ve known that DU’s aren’t my strong point just yet, still working my way up to that. The handstands were a little better, I’m definitely starting to get a feel for the balance, and how to tighten and adjust muscles here and there, to make it stable and just so.

The workout itself was about as awkward as I expected it to be! Though thankfully short, the WODs this week have been programmed intentionally short due to the rather excessive heat we’ve been experiencing, breaking records and topping 100-degree temperatures (I think the record now stands at 107-109 or so.. whew).

Burpee down on the plate, come up and almost squat footing around the plate, pick it up by the front leading edge, lift and essentially do a kettlebell swing. Sure, no problem! Augh, just such an awkward motion to keep a steady rhythm on. Still, tried to pace myself to keep steady and just keep counting out reps. 

I don’t think it was pretty, and I think maybe I could have gone a little harder, a little faster, maybe a few more reps.. But I wasn’t watching the clock to know when to go harder and rush for the end of the WOD, so I just went along as close to ‘smoothly’ as I could.. Final total 41 reps, had a 42 but after time was called. :P

Strength:

5 x Clean Complex:

1 Power Clean, 1 Hanging Squat Clean, 1 Front Squat, 1 Split Jerk

*Rest 90 sec between each effort adding weight  after successful attempts.

WOD:

10 Min AMRAP of:

10 Over the box jumps (24″) *You may land on the box top and jump to the other side.

10 Walking Lunges (25#)

Warm-up of 500m row (1:56 @ ~75%) and 3x 15 air squats, 10 scorpion kicks on either side, duck walks down the 10m mat and zombie walks back.

The clean complex was interesting and honestly, kind of fun to do. Went as follows:

95 lbs for power clean, hanging squat clean, front squat, split jerk.

105 lbs for power clean, hanging squat clean, front squat, split jerk.

115 lbs for power clean, hanging squat clean, front squat, split jerk.

125 lbs for power clean, hanging squat clean, front squat, split jerk.

145 lbs for power clean, hanging squat clean, front squat, and had trouble with the split jerk. Couldn’t quite get it up, or get under it to stand it out, had trouble locking out the arms. Need to get under it faster. Tried it a second time after a little rest, same result. Rested again, made a third attempt with another failure. Decided to leave it at that, but I recall before 145-155 is about my 1RM (or above) for a jerk anyway. So I’ll keep that as a goal to beat for my next PR. :)

For the WOD, went with the 24” box and jump on-and-off the other side, and a 25lb. plate for the lunges, as suggested for level 2. Kind of straightforward, just ten minutes to suffer all the suck I can handle, and hope for the best on number of rounds, keep going as long as I can. Probably for the best I did up and over rather than attempting full box jump-overs, as I suspect I would have injured myself in the attempt. 

Flagged in energy somewhere along the way, but just kept going and tried to ignore the clock. On one of the later rounds I stumbled and very nearly took myself out on the box, but was fortunate or loose enough that I kind of rolled off without any injury or incident.

Finished with six rounds down, all ten box jumps and 5/10 lunges, in ten minutes’ time.

Skill:

Heavy Bag Shouldering.

WOD: 

15 Min AMRAP of:

100 M Loaded Shuttle Run caring one of the following:

L2: 70# Heavy Bag

*Score number of laps.

Warm-up of 3x15 wallballs, GHD back extensions and 24” box jumps.

Was a good deal more pleased with my work today versus yesterday, what with the DNF I came up with. 70 lb bag was.. awkward, cumbersome to clean and shoulder, but not terribly heavy, I PROBABLY could have managed the 100lb bag, but those were just compact as a brick and would have been even more awkward, I honestly think.

That said I tried to keep up as best as I could, a slow run or jog, alternating with just a walk, and tried to avoid putting the bag down as much as possible. If memory serves through all the sucking air and sweat in my eyes, I only set the bag down at the end of each lap, so that’s something in my favour. Just made the attempt to keep breathing and rest to a minimum, but in the later rounds, I found it harder and harder to just ‘suck it up’ and keep going.

Final result, ten complete laps and 1/2 of an eleventh when time was called. 1km ‘run’ with an extra 70 lbs body weight in essence, in 15 minutes. I’m a good deal more pleased than I was yesterday morning.

WOD:

12 minute AMRAP:

Level 2 Intermediates:

10 Banded Pull Ups

10 Burpee Kettlebell Swings (1.5 Pood)

10 Double Unders/30 Singles

Strength:

1a) Front Squat 5-5-5-5

1b) 15 Unbroken Wall Ball (20# 10′)

*rest 90 seconds between rounds but move from 1a) to 1b) immediately without rest.

Warm-up of 500m row (1:58, ~70% damper) and a few stretching exercises.

For the strength portion, I’m honestly not sure which way the effect went; whether the front squats made my wallballs get worse over time, or the wallballs had the squats deteriorating. Or whether just being gone for quite nearly two weeks just has all of me in a state of general suck, now. ;) In either case, I went 95-105-105-105, I had considered going higher for the third and fourth round, until I got off round two, and felt gassed, 115 or more would have been pretty rough for getting back into the swing of things. Wallballs started well enough, just remembering to catch high not low, though in second and later rounds, the ‘unbroken’ got a little loose in definition. But I wasn’t the only one.. there were a few people that went from 20 to 14 pound balls, or 14 to 12. I at least tried to keep the suck constant. :)

The AMRAP, well, didn’t really think much of it, I’ve been doing this long enough now to know there’s no such thing as a ‘good’ workout, only to feel good afterwards. Wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, but went into it anyways. Pull-ups with the band were nice, enough to make it a steady set of ten, no need for a break. Burpees followed by 1.5 pood kettlebell swings were really the timesink, in my case - taking too much care and time to set the kettlebell down and not drop it instead. Though it still fell from overhead a number of times, either from my swing getting loose at the top, or my grip slipping out. Jump rope (singles) weren’t really any problem, aside from rushing in the third round to try to finish; I stepped on the rope and yanked it out of my hand before I could get started.

Final result, two rounds, 10/10/ 6 jump rope singles out of 30.

WORKOUT 12.3

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:

15 Box jumps, 24″ box
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
9 Toes-to-bar

The workout will begin with box jumps. The athlete will jump with two feet and come to a standing position with knees and hips locked out on top of the box. After 15 reps they will move to their loaded barbell. The barbell will begin on the ground. For the Push press to count the barbell will move from the shoulders to the overhead position, with the knees, hips and shoulders extended in one line. After 12 reps they will move to a pull-up bar. For the Toes-to-bar to count, the feet must begin behind the bar at the bottom and both feet must touch the bar at the same time at the top. After 9 reps are completed, the athlete will begin their next round.

Warmed up with a 400m run and some jump rope practicing double unders just to get myself loosened up and blood flowing. Really didn’t know what to think of this workout when it was posted, though I was glad they weren’t strictly requiring only  push presses for the reps to count, as I’m not sure I could manage that too much over the course of the workout.

Came in as a heat was finishing up, let one more run through before we got started.. Surprisingly didn’t have much in the way of butterflies or nervousness prior to starting, I just wanted it to get started so it could be over and done with.

Then, the suck began.

Box jumps didn’t really prove to be much in the way of a challenge, though in hindsight, I wish I had made more attempt for them to be bounding and chained together, rather than just one at a time. I didn’t do step-down during them however. I think a lot of people were confused, or slightly annoyed at the standard for the box-jumps, the full upright and open hip extension slowing some people from their normal rhythm and pace.

Then, it got worse.

By this point, we’ve been doing clean and jerks, either separate or together twice already this week, both times being the days we went to workout, and in my case, both times using… 115lb. So I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this component of the workout. Started out as best I knew how in cleaning the weight and jerking from the gate, I really doubt my ability to push press that kind of weight presently.

After that, the toes to bar were surprisingly not much of an issue. I tried out a new method, and I might have to experiment more next time knees to elbows comes up; taking a narrow grip with the hands and going wide on the feet to touch to the bar. Many reps I was actually getting either toes to the bar, or balls of the feet to touch, either way, I was pleased and surprised by what I could do.

Second round, no problem in the box jumps, moved to the weights again, and that was my sticking point for the whole workout, really. Every time I went to the rack, the bar and weight was just choking me out, stole every breath I fought to take to get the jerk and work the weight overhead. More than one rep I actually had to fight to press the weight out, before chiding myself and mentally forcing myself to get under and split jerk, rather than trying to muscle out push presses, or it wasn’t going to end pretty.

Another nine toes to bar without much incident, another round down, fifteen more box jumps, and time ticking down. Back to the weights, gassed and still fighting to breathe every rep, not to mention fighting to actually lock out and lift each rep overhead. Had six of twelve but the body wasn’t going to hear any more of this B.S. Fought and fought and fought to try to get seven, let alone finish the set, but couldn’t manage any more before the timer ran out.

Two rounds + 21, Total score posted on the games scoreboard of 93. 

Not as high as I was wanting, I was guessing/shooting for at least three rounds, but the 115lb presses really bogged me down.

Crossfit Games Open WOD 12.1

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of:

Burpees

Yup. That’s all.

81.

I’ll just be dying over here, now.

Strength:

Level 1 Beginner:

5,5,5,5 Overhead Squat

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

10 Min AMRAP of:

10 Power Cleans (135#/95#)

10 Standing Sit Ups (Use 12# counter weight)

Warmed up also with a 500m row just because Monday’s (see previous post) workout left me absolutely destroyed over the past two days. I was really concerned about my ability to even do a workout today, reduced weight/capacity or not. Posted a 2:00 time, not really trying though. Just to get moving and get things flowing. 

Did some group work with PVC pipe for mobility/flexibility and to get the arms opened up for the strength portion, not so much of an issue for me, aside from lower shoulder strength in general. More work with resistance bands as well, sitting into squats to work on loosening up the achilles tendons. 

Got onto the OHS and went through them fairly steadily, we were told to go five reps at a time, and work to find a weight that we can do five reps of, but not six. Went 55 - 65 - 75 - 85. I probably could have gone harder or heavier, but ran out of time to keep going for another round. Still good to know that my 5RM is somewhere above that, I’d be curious to find it, as well as my 1RM for an overhead squat. Can’t imagine it’s too much higher than that, however, as I was starting to feel some fatigue in my shoulders, keeping them locked out active for that many reps. I suppose that’s to be expected, though.

During the workout, we were split into two heats, due to the turnout. It’s amazing having seen the gym’s attendance grow as it has, I’m sure Evan or David or any of the veterans can agree. I went for the second heat, set up my bar with 95 lbs. for the power cleans and set in for standing sit-ups with a 12 pound medicine ball. Got started with a really pretty sharp pace, I even surprised myself a little bit with it. Tried to make a conscious effort to keep my form up through it, flat back in the first pull, fast elbows up under the bar, and got a little better as I went along. 

Didn’t have as good fortune with the standing sit-ups, I could make an excuse that the dumbbells I was using as anchors for my feet were too light and got moved around far too easily. That said, I still managed to get them going, with occasional bouts of being, feeling just ‘winded’ and I think it slowed me down a lot. One of the later rounds I really burned up the first four or five reps out of ten.. and then had to take the remainder more slowly. 

I felt a little disappointed, like I was going a little slower to not hurt myself or make things worse, with standing sit-ups being “HEY MORE SQUATS!” after Monday. It’s probably just another excuse, but oh well.

Finished with four rounds down, and 9/10 of power cleans.

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

15 Min AMRAP of:

10 Power Cleans (95/65)

10 Wall Ball (20/12)

10 Knees 2 Elbows

Warmup: 3 x 10 Lunges, PVC Pipe Passthroughs, 10 DU/30 Singles, and Max time handstand holds.

I was a little surprised at doing the handstand holds, I honestly wasn’t sure that I could actually support myself.. Of course, I had been doing/thinking about them incorrectly.. it’s not a matter of doing it like a handstand push-up, it’s a matter of having elbows locked and active shoulders, to bear the weight up higher, rather than relying on arm strength.

First attempt I got up to a count of about 41-42 seconds, surprised me entirely.. felt my head get a little spinny following that however, had me slightly concerned. That was doing the “kick-up” method.. the remaining two tries were more of a wall-walk, facing away from the wall rather than towards.. easier on my head, but the process (and repeated attempts) had my time cut short, down to 20 seconds or so per attempt. Always a pleasant surprise to find out you can actually do something, though!

The rest of the warmup was uneventful, still working on DU’s.

The workout was pretty terrible though! I know anything involving wall-balls is going to be trouble for me. 

I suppose I can take some small comfort in finding that 95 lb. power cleans have become somewhat easier for me; At one point I went through all ten without much effort at all, felt like I could do them all day long. Didn’t totally bash my collarbone or chest while doing them either, I think maybe it’s a sign of starting to develop finer muscle control and getting muscle memory set in place? Just a guess.

The wall-balls were terrible, 20 lbs still poses quite a challenge, and trying to throw it up ten feet.. yeah, not so much. I think I was closer to eight feet for much of the workout, and went slow even at that. :( I think I lack power in the squats and fail to properly translate it into upwards momentum to get the ball back up. Twelve seems easier to work with, but I suppose I should concern myself more with strength than speed, in general. I’ll get there eventually.

The knees to elbows weren’t really too much of a problem, except my grip strength is still seemingly low, I have to work on ten at a time in two sets, though I managed to squeeze out seven of ten in one round. 

TL;DR: Hey, I can do handstands! Power cleans, okay! Wallballs :( Knees to.. *comes off, gets back on* Elbows!

Final: Four rounds plus 6 wallballs.

Satruday’s WOD:

Strength: Turkish get-up practice, find max weight for each arm.

10 Minute AMRAP of: 10 Box Jumps, 10m Bear Crawl, 10 Jiu-jitsu sit-ups with 12lb. medicine ball, 10m walk back to box.

Definitely going to have to start coming to Saturday morning WODs more if only for the social element, and the MASS SEA of people that show up.

Really a pretty straightforward workout, did the AMRAP first, strength exercise second. First round through I tried doing the JJSU without a weight, which is how I did it the last time these came up in a workout.. it’s rough and slow.. so the remaining rounds I tried it with a medicine ball for comparison.. scaling is from “RX’d” with no weight, down to 12, then 20 lbs.. the more weight you use as a counterweight, the easier it becomes.

It felt remarkably easier with even the 12 lb medicine ball, how about that.. but it really made things smoother, faster.. got up into a squat more easily, stood up, and it helped me balance to go back down into a sit-up position as well. Definitely something to remember for any future occurrences of the motion.

Probably also could have done the bear crawls both ways for the short distance it took, but not too much of an issue there I suppose. TGUs weren’t too bad, no worse than a few days prior, I still don’t feel comfortable or strong enough for anything more than 1pood by itself just yet. Shoulder feels weak, left moreso than the right. I’ll just keep at it, and the strength and everything will come, just like all the other exercises we do.

Final of five full rounds in the ten minutes.

Monday, January 9

Level 2 Intermediate:

Press 5,5,5

Push Press 3,3,3

Push Jerk or Split Jerk 1,1,1

*Rest 90 sec between each set and try to add weight each set.  The last set of each movement should be a true max effort set or rep.

WOD: 

Level 2 Intermediate:

Row 500 M and complete as many KB Swings (1 pood/1.5 pood) as possible with the remaining of 4 Min.

Warm up with 25 push-ups and a 500m row (surprise! 1:54 at ~80% resistance)

Was really excited for the strength/weight portion of this workout, and unfortunately I came out honestly a little bit disappointed with how I did.

Presses at 5 x 65, 5x 75 and 4 x 80.. Though, as I recall my last crossfit total had my 1RM around 85, so I suppose the bar’s been moved, so to speak. :)

Push presses at 3 x 95, 3x 105, 3 x 115 with no real problem. Though I apparently let my core/middle get a little soft and spongy, felt some tension and a little bit of pull in my mid-back, just below the shoulder blades. Nothing injured, but definitely something I need to keep an eye on, and mind for the future.

Push/Split Jerks: 1 x 120, 1 x 135, 1 x 155, failing out on the third. I almost had it locked out overhead but couldn’t quite complete it, despite a few attempts. Really, really frustrated me, especially with being so close.

See image:

Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

But. BUT. I’m pretty sure even if I didn’t 100% a 155 jerk, 135 is still some kind of PR for me nonetheless. So at least I can take that away from the whole situation. PROGRESS!

Then for the “WOD”.. Seeing something looking like that after a lot of strength work, I had a feeling, “Yeah, this isn’t gonna be pretty or good at all..” 

And I was right! 1:50 on the rower at ~80% and went to a 1.5 pood kettlebell, something honestly rather new to me as I’ve almost exclusively stuck with 1 pood on almost anything involving one. I guess I gotta take the training wheels off eventually.. :D 

But these were ugly, 54lbs to swing around when it’s almost a third of your body weight does REALLY funky things to your sense of balance. I no-repped myself on probably a good 5-7 of them if not more, and finished with a final count of 17. I lost track after I fell over a few times.. :P

From Crossfit Murfreesboro:

Warm Up:

 Row 500 M

 Group Thruster Practice

Skill:

 Double Under Practice / Volume Training (complete 10-20 Double Unders on the min  for 10 Min)

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

“Min by Min” Fran AMRAP

 21,15 and 9 of :

 Pull Ups and Thrusters (Use banded pull-ups and 70 lbs.)

*Resting 1 Min and working 1 Min complete as many “Frans” as possible in 20 Min!

I think it’s been too long since I’ve met Fran :P And while it seems that I’ve gotten better on a number of workouts and motions, she’s still just as mean as ever.

During the skill workout, I can tell I’m >< this close to getting double-unders down, I’m starting to be able to do one every once in a while. It’s just a matter of getting singles going, stay calm and steady, and just do the double. If I can keep myself calm and collected, not only do I get the DU, I also continue bouncing and keep the singles going. This is huge to me, you don’t even know. I f*cking LOVE progressions. 

Yeah, it’s something like that… :)

Hit the WOD with 70 lbs total, I can do 95 lb thrusters so  I could conceivably do RX’ed Fran, but it would take me forever at my current level. Rather work on the strength, then the speed, still. It’s progress though! I remember on-ramp finishing with us doing Fran, it took me a lot longer than this, with far less weight and a thicker band; Clear signs of progress are always welcome, in my book. 

At “time”, I had completed a full run through Fran and was at 9 out of 21 on my second set of thrusters. I can’t really ask for much more, other than more reps in the same time, but that’s for next time..

Cottidies meliores proximis.

Each day better than the last.