Monday- 130513

2013 CFG Open WOD 13.1

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 17 minutes of:

40 Burpees
75/45 pound Snatch, 30 reps
30 Burpees
135/75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
20 Burpees
165/100 pound Snatch, 30 reps
10 burpees
210/120 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

Warm-up of 5 minutes foam rolling (ohhh my back..) a 500m row (2:1x at about 55% damper) and ankle, hip flexor and quad stretches, followed by PVC pipe work for overhead squats and snatch balances.

Some practice on the actual snatch motion with the PVC pipe before we got started, and that’s about it.

For the workout, whoa boy. I’m not registered for the open, but it’s what’s programmed regardless of that fact, for everyone coming in. Had a point measured up to jump to, had my bar set to start at 75 pounds. Seventeen minutes on the clock.

Aaaaaand go. Haha.

Burpees were slow and steady, because despite the volume at first glance, this workout is not about the burpees. It’s all about the snatches. Period. No question. That is the limiting factor, anyone can do a burpee, not everyone can snatch 135, 165, etc.

Counting out forty burpees at a steady pace seems rather grueling, but it’s one of those kind of things that you just chip away at until it’s done, no matter how much it sucks (and it does).

Then to the snatches.. 75 pounds is enough to be challenging for thirty of them, but still manageable. Started doing them, I don’t remember exactly how many, but probably two or three at a time, then settled in to doing just two at a time, short break for breath, then back on. I make no claim to have good form even for the work I’ve done now and before, but some of them I wish I had video on, they felt REALLY good in terms of lift and form. It’s that kind of sensation where you have a hard lift, versus an easy one, with the same weight. You know there’s a difference. Two at a time, two at a time, til all thirty were done.

Then thirty more burpees (ha, just thirty?!) to go.. really just grinding away at those, til the last few minutes were rolling around, trying to push and finish at least thirty burpees.. Managed to do so with about ten, fifteen seconds to spare. The jump to 135 pounds on the snatch would be too much, even if I had time to change the plates and set up for a lift.  It’s in the future. It’s coming soon, but not here yet.

40 Burpees / 30 Snatches @ 75# / 30 Burpees.

I suspect there will be plenty of open competitors doing it just for the experience that will also wall at 100.

Monday- 130304

Strength:

Back Squat

1X3 @ 90%, 1X3 @ 95%, 1X1 @ 100%, 2X1 @ 105% – rest 2:00-3:00 between sets.

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

21,15 and 9 of:

Chest 2 Bar  Banded Pull Ups

Sumo Deadlift High-pull  (2 Pood/1.5 Pood)

Warm-up of 500m row (1:59 @ ~67% resistance) and two rounds through of tabata mountain climbers, on your back bicycles (opposite knees and elbows with a  pedaling motion), burpees, push-ups and air squats. All pretty much terrible! Never was keen on mountain climbers, and tabata this, that, the other thing, it’s all generally gonna suck. :)

Strength portion, I was intimidated by the loads more than the rep scheme, and the prospect of a “105%” load.. Started warming up with a few squats at 135, a few more at 150, then went up to working loads, started with 90% of my best-known max, 215, three low-bar back squats with 190 lb. First attempt, knocked out two and had to bail on the third before I could get back up.. took a rest, went back, only got one before I had to bail, a little frustrated.. though I also found that I had the squat rack set too high.. adjusted that and reset the bar, and with another rest, finally knocked out all three reps in one go. 

Unfortunately I think that took a lot more out of me than I had anticipated, because in moving up to 95%/200# I couldn’t get the first one out; Too many tries wore me down too quickly, that I couldn’t progress. I guess I’ll just have to try to PR another day, and get stronger in the meantime hopefully. 

Then, the workout itself was… ugh :) I went as recommended for the pull-ups (with band) and for the SDHP weight, 2 pood kettlebell. Felt like a friggin’ wrecking ball as I carried it over to the mat area, and that is a very apt choice of words and description for what was to come.

Started the first 21 pull-ups, it wasn’t… too terrible, to start with at least, though my hands were getting kind of sweaty and slick towards the end. Might start considering use of chalk in the future, perhaps.. But not today! Had to reset myself for the last few reps, after getting off-kilter in running into another CFM’er doing her pull-ups.

Two pood kettlebell SDHP are doable, but lord that thing’s heavy when you’re trying to speed through 21 in a go. I think I started as best I could, maybe four, five, six, then started to slow down and spread out the reps per try.. Back to the pull-ups, and fifteen felt slower than twenty-one, though I really can’t say. Certainly weren’t as pretty or clean as the first set, that much I can be assured of. Especially when I took the tumble backwards out of the band off the bar.. probably looked pretty comical, but I lost any sense of ego long before. Got up and tried to dust myself off, and get back working as best I could.

Fifteen more high pulls, broken into slow, three-rep sets grudgingly being fought between gravity and my arms. :p But eventually knocked that out, and last set of pull-ups, with another tumble out of the sling, still fortunate enough to avoid any injury to myself. Though I fully expect that someday I’m going to rack myself into the cage at some point. :) Last nine SDHP in slow, steady three-three-three sets, speed is not my friend in this exercise, despite that being the point.. But I finished, instead of letting myself/them DNF me for the exercise. I’m not going to let that happen if I have any say in the matter.. I don’t want that anymore. No matter how long it takes, I want to finish..

Final time 10:29

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:

Back Squat: 1X8 @ 75%, 1X5 @ 80%, 1X5 @ 85%, 1X3 @ 90%, 1X3 @ 95% – rest 1:00-2:00 between sets.

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

10 Min EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) complete

5 Deadlift (185/135)

8 Burpees

Level 3 Advanced:

10 Min EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) complete

5 Deadlift (225/155)

10 Burpees

Warm-up of 2x10 Knees to elbows and walking lunges, 1x10 20lb wallballs and push-ups. I think I’m finally, maybe, starting to get a little better at these motions, wallballs and k2e.

The Strength portion really intimidated me at first glance, but developing strength is something I’ve been needing for a while, now. So I went at it with my last known 1RM for back squats - 215 lbs. Asked since working with percentages, whether to round up or down, was told for the weight and volume, to round down.

Rep scheme went as follows:

1x8 @ 160#

1x5 @ 170#

1x5 @ 180#

1x3 @ 190#

1x3 @ 200#

Pretty decent stuff on these though, as they progressed and towards later sets with heavier loads, the last two or three of the fives and threes became challenging, though not impossible. Just enough weight and struggle to make you question yourself, and feel a sense of achievement when you get the last rep and get it back to the rack.

Though the last set, 1x3@95% became just too much, I got the first one down, and trying for the second rep, felt my body just go “NOPE!” and had to bail out of the lift. Though I was told shortly after that the 95% lift is where most people seem to be failing. And at least I did it at the end, rather than somewhere in the middle of the rep schemes.

For the WOD, wound up with a mix of level two and three, partway through. Started with 165# on the bar and doing 10 burpees per minute. Quickly found out how tired I can get in a short span of time with the remainder of the minute as your rest period. :D

Got two rounds in before I was slowing down enough I was told to go to eight burpees per round.. Third round down and I had my bar stripped down to 155. Somewhere in all this I wasn’t finishing in a minute’s time, so wound up skipping to the top of the next minute, and losing some rounds in between. Wound  up with five rounds in the ten minutes’ time, really ran out of gas quickly, though I thought I would have done better on the deadlifts. Think the squats probably took some out of me.

I felt tired, but pretty accomplished with the lifts in the strength portion, if not the WOD.

What I’ll call “Frannish”

21-15-9 - 75 lb thrusters and burpee pull-ups.

Strength/Skill: Widowmaker, 20x back squats.

Warm-up consisting of 3x10 walking lunges, 14 lb. wallball shots and push-ups.

Open gym so we were actually just by ourselves working out there, Jarrod and myself. Saw all sorts of puffy clouds outside and hoped on the off chance a T-storm might drop and cool things off, but no such luck. Hot and humid and pretty awful for a workout. :D

Widowmaker was pretty basic, didn’t have reference to draw from, last time was a 110 set, so definitely a step down to today’s 90. Even so, probably not the best idea with thrusters lined up for the workout.

Started the WOD proper with 95 lbs on the bar for the thrusters, got two in and decided it was going to be too much to do for a reasonable time, for the whole workout. Stripped some weight down, dropped to 75 lbs. Even so, it was slow going, just too hot, not hydrated enough, too tired, I don’t know what the reason or excuse was.

In any event, I had trouble doing more than two reps at a time, and felt really disgusted and disappointed with myself, but kept going, even if I had to take long breaks in between paired reps. Eventually worked out the first set of 21, and found the burpee pull-ups were just as bad. Adding the burpee component really wrecks any sense of rhythm I would normally have in just doing standard/kipping/banded pull-ups.

Fifteen was no kinder in being a shorter round, though I found the fatigue of doing single reps towards the end of the round of 21 had left, and I could get back to doing two to three at a time. Fifteen more burpee pull-ups with sweat in my eyes, head swimming from heat and not quite knowing who or where I was…

Last nine and I was done, didn’t make that round go much faster than the previous two though, again really disappointed with myself, even if I could manage to stick with the (lowered) weight through the workout. 

Final time: 19:43

Strength:

1×20 Squat “Widow-maker”

*Use 5-10% More weight if last week’s set was completed unbroken.

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediate:

Four rounds for time of:

10 One-arm dumbbell snatches (2 Pood / 1.5 Pood)
100M Sprint (Out and Back)

Warm-up of burpee broad jumps, PVC overhead squats (no weight) and rope climbs just for practice. Actually managed to get higher up the rope than I have in the past, even while wearing my vibrams, kind of a neat thing. Still need practice on getting back DOWN smoothly, but hey it’s a start!

Widowmakers again, going to be a recurring thing from what I can tell, though I can’t say how long. Last time was 105, this time I went up to 110, maybe a little slow, but I think part of this is still working out where a ‘good place’ is for weight. Feels pretty good, a fairly heavy weight to work with, enough that halfway through or so I’m feeling some strain, and the least few are a good fight to get out, but got it done.

For the workout, I knew it was a sprint, figuratively and literally, just a matter of going as quickly as possible. The idea of 2 pood kettlebell snatches was intimidating though.. Before we got started I tried with one of the ‘lighter’ dumbbells at 55 lbs, and had some trouble with that, my right arm was feeling rather weak, specifically at the elbow. Dropped to 50 lbs for a dumbbell and went with that.

Started off a little shaky, but once I got into things I found a rhythm and the snatches actually became fairly straightforward, they were heavy enough to be challenging, but I felt really comfortable with the motion, without struggling too much. I did no-rep myself on a number of snatches on the second set because I didn’t feel they were clean enough or proper, using just one arm, and so forth.

The sprints were not a break, nor were they meant to be. Didn’t feel enough energy to manage a flat-out sprint for them however, at a guess the snatches sapped enough energy to make it challenging. Managed to pour what little I had left into the final, fourth sprint back in to the box. Finished up and just lay on my back staring at the ceiling for a good few minutes, catching my breath. I really liked this one.

Final time: 8:30

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.

“Fitness Snap Shot”

With the goal of developing a well rounded and broad fitness,  we here at CFM think it can be both encouraging and helpful to regularly measure your progress.  This sort of snap shot of your fitness will be invaluable to our coaches’s efforts at safely scaling workouts, biassing work to improve your weaknesses and helping you reach your goals. So this week we will be dedicating our programming to that end.

 How is it going to work?  Its pretty simple actually.  Each Day of training, simply pick 1 skills test, 1 strength test and 1 work capacity test from the list below to complete.  You can mix or match them any way you like.  In some combinations these elements will not offer as difficult of a training session as you might be used to.  This is very likely a good thing for many of you.  A week of reduced volume can do wonders for your progress.  For those of you who are coming off spring break and are ready to hit some WODs hard there will be an optional daily WOD posted for you to do in addition to the “Fitness Snap Shot”.

THE “FITNESS LEVELS” PAGE LINKED HERE offers a list of benchmarks for each test that you might find helpful in the setting of goals.

“Fitness Snap Shot”

Strength:

Find a 1 Rep Max for Back Squat or…

Find a 1 Rep Max for Snatch or…

Find a Max time L-Sit or…

Find a Max Rep set for Push Ups or Handstand Push Ups

AND…

Skill:

Find a Max Rep set for Muscle Ups or Kipping Pull Ups or…

Find a Max Rep set of Pistols in 25 Seconds or…

Find Max Rep set of Double Unders or…

THEN…

Work Capacity:

Complete “Fran” for time or…

Complete 400 M run for time or…

Complete a 500M row and 100 Burpees for time

Warm-up of 3x 250m row (70% damper, :56, :57, :56) and 3x15 24” box jumps, getting better at stringing them together bounding, though I still get a little winded for it as a warm-up, I guess. Work capacity and what not is still being built up, but it’s still probably better than I’ve been in the past!

Pistols, while I wasn’t testing strict to the 25 second time limit, I did bust out ten unbroken, which I can be pretty impressed with. Per the ‘goals’ one rep in 25 seconds is level 2, 5 in 25 is level 3. So somewhere in between, good enough for me! :D

Handstand Push-ups I wanted to attempt out of curiosity and to gauge my fitness level. Took some guidance on getting into position and how to kip for the motion since I’m still not entirely certain I can press/push press my body weight (what percentage of your body weight do you think you should be able to press to attempt HSPU?) yet. Attempted it and got partway up, before toppling over. Balance. :P Got back down upside down and attempted again and HOLY CRAP I got a handstand push-up. Yeah, it’s kipping, and yeah it’s just one, but holy cow, this has me filled with glee, being so close to one of my goals for a tattoo, and that’s being able to do HSPU. I might tweak that a bit to where I can do a certain number linked, kipping to get it, or perhaps one or a few strict.

Finally for the work capacity test, oogh. 500m row plus 100 burpees for time. Goal is 11:00 or less total. Got the row down in 1:49.9, which is a new best for me I think. Got a little spongy and slow on the last 100 metres or so, despite that. Got off and went to the burpees, uuurgh. Tried to get going with a good pace but was probably too concerned about my time overall to keep it steady, I think. Slowed down by around the 35 mark, and ground out to 50, was feeling my arms giving out at 75, blacking out at 80, and fighting to finish. I think I might have forgotten to breathe for some of it. It really got kinda dark towards the end. But I finished.. and damn, close, but no cigar. 11:26 was the final time, 0:27 too slow. Though they’re guidelines and goals, I feel a little disappointed I couldn’t do that little bit better. Back in early February I managed 100 burpees in 9:57 though, so the comparison is an improvement, I feel!

Level 2 Intermediate:

15 Ring Dips
15 Box Jumps 24″
20 KBS 24kg
25 Pushups (hand release)
15 Ring Dips
15 Box Jumps 24″
20 Power Cleans 115/75#
25 Burpees
9 Ring Dips
15 Box Jumps 24″
2o Situps
25 Push Jerks 115/75#

Warm-up of 500m row (slow pace as directed, 70%, 2:03) and 3x15 situps, 1 pood kettlebell swings, PVC pass-throughs.

This WOD was kind of intimidating to be put up for a Monday, especially having come off our attempts on 12.2 yesterday. 

I have them labeled as “Ring Dips” here for lack of knowing what else to call them, it’s having the rings at about shoulder height, and jumping up to lock out your arms, as though at the top of a muscle-up. Sort of a scaling, progression type of measure. Negative ring dips or something, I don’t know. But we were given a 3:1 ratio over the 5,5,3 muscle-ups as prescribed for the workout. First round through wasn’t much of an issue at all, only for starting fresh.

The box jumps were something of a pleasant surprise, even with a 24” box I found myself readily working into the springing or bounding motion; even by the second pass through, I managed 13/15 unbroken, and then got the last two. Third round through was a little slower, as I’ve noticed some tightness or tenderness in my right ankle if I don’t land just quite right. I keep an eye on it, but as of yet I’m not terribly concerned. I can walk on it just fine, pressure and weight on it without issue.

Kettlebell for the WOD, went heavy (well, my new ‘standard’) at 1.5 pood/24 kg/54 lbs. It’s just a matter of getting the weight moving, momentum does the rest. Opening at the hip gives some oomph to throw it up there, and just keep the rhythm going. Two or three reps into the beginning I went a little too strong, and almost lost the kettlebell overhead. Oops.

Push-ups, nothing too involved beyond the hand release giving me a brief breather, and being a little fatigued getting into the meat of the workout. Probably the easiest part beyond the box jumps.

The second set of “dips” was of course a little rougher, had to fight to lock out more than a few, but it felt good to know I could power through and get the rep in. Probably intentionally put right after the push-ups, with similar movements and all.

Power cleans, I was fairly confident that I could manage at the prescribed (!!) 115 lbs, even if it slowed me down, I want to see that I can do this. Strength, then speed, is what I’m aiming for. I want function before finesse. Evan suggested to build my bar such that if necessary I could strip off the extra 10 lbs to a side and bring the bar back to a total weight of 95 lbs. I was a little sluggish perhaps, but I did it, just grinding out one rep at a time, til all 20 were under my belt. Works for me!

Burpees. Oh, good. Sure I did 81 in 7 minutes before, but that was also starting fresh and not mid-workout. These were a little slower, starting maybe two at a time, three or four at most, before having to stop, and drop down in numbers, three, two, one at a time, spaced with breathers. Somewhere along the line I caught my breath and got a second wind of sorts and got back to doing a powerful two at a time between rest! Clearly I’m games material.

The last 9 on the rings was just pure stubbornness, fighting to lock out and just ignoring complaints from my body. Just get ‘em done and get on with the rest of the suck.

The sit-ups were about as much of a pain as I had expected, literally.. I still lack any sort of callous, padding, or otherwise ‘skid plate’ on my backside, and from the 3x15 in the warmup to this point of the WOD, I could already feel soreness/sensitivity. Far as I can tell so far, ab mats do little to nothing to help. So I just sucked it up and went through the discomfort, even tried to kinda lean myself to one side during, to see if I could avoid it. Done soon enough.

Push jerks. Ah.. Fun times. I know I can jerk/push jerk/split jerk 115 with no problem, probably even 25 times, but at the end of a workout with as many components as this, it would be challenging. I got started, made it about three reps in, before I realised it would be just a little too heavy to continue for the remainder of 25. Dropped the bar and stripped the ten lb weight from each side and re-clamped, got back on it. Definitely felt better with 95 versus 115 and continued, mostly working two to three reps at a time, racking and re-jerking before having to set it down and clean it again. I know it would ultimately be more work, but my body just wasn’t having it any other way. Went from 15-25 in twos, full of accumulated suck by the end.

Finished with a final time of 25:22.

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.

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediates:

3 Min Max Row for Calories

rest 1 Min

3 Min Max rep Box Jumps (*Step down standard) 24″/20″

rest 1 Min

3 Min Max Rep Push Press 1/2 body weight

Rest 1 Min

3 Min Max Rep Double Unders

Warm-up of 20 box jumps with a 24” box, stepping down instead of bounding. Followed by a 10 meter bear crawl across the mat, 5 toe grab/extensions, another bear crawl back, 10 more box jumps, and a third crossing doing “inchworm”, touching hands and feet to the ground together, walking hands out, then walking feet back up, while keeping legs straight and knees unbent. Finally, ten burpees for time, rest two minutes, and ten more burpees for time.

Really getting serious about these warm-ups!

Recently we seem to have had a small rash of injuries among box-jumpers springing up and bounding back down, so the standard has been changed or lowered slightly, to step-down each rep. That said, I stumbled several times jumping up onto the box, but fortunately managed to catch myself with no serious injury. :)

There was no strength, skill or other component to today’s work, it was a warm-up, straight into the WOD.

First, the row. Augh.. 80% damper setting, and just trying to put out as much power as possible, to cram as much work into that three minutes as possible. I really can’t say I was very good at it, rowing seems to be a frequent weakness of mine, though I suppose I’ve gotten a little better at short sprints, 500m and such. But this was my usual 500m split time and then another half again.. ugh. I got so soft and doughy after the two minute mark or so, put too much out in the first 60%. Just kinda weakly limped along for the remainder of the the third minute. Finished with 54 calories rowed.

One minute breaks go by REALLY fast. Just enough time to mark my score on the whiteboard, get a sip of water, and move to the box for jumps.

Box jumps right after a row are evil. My arms are thick and noodly, and not working properly at all for leverage or counterbalance on the jumps, and getting up onto a 24” box with straining legs was none to pleasant to boot. Just tried to stay as steady as possible and alternate legs on step-downs coming back off. Only stumbled on my jump maybe once or twice, and again was fortunate enough to not injure myself, seriously or otherwise. 39 box jumps in 3 minutes.

Another all-too-short rest and I moved on to push presses at 80 lbs. The guidelines, such as they were, boiled down to “If you can’t do a handstand push-up yet but you can push press at least half of your body weight, do so for three minutes.” There is of course, a difference between ‘possible’ and ‘sustainable at pace for 3 minutes’. Got off to a start I was pleased with, and fatigue quickly caught up to me from the breaks, and I had to re-rack the bar several times, and ultimately knock out two reps at a time, before time was up. 21 80 lb. push presses.

Finally, jump ropes. I probably could have done singles til the cows come home, even this far into the workout, but I really, really do want to ultimately master double-unders at some point. So even going one or two at a time, that’s what I was convinced to do for the final three minutes. I was only counting double-unders, even without the singles strung together between attempts. I can feel myself getting closer to the level I want to be, it’s getting easier to get the motion.. But it’s just not quite clicked, yet. 25 Double-unders in 3 minutes.

Strength:

Level 2 Intermediates:

3-3-3-1-1-1 Back Squat

WOD:

Level 2 Intermediates:

100 Burpees for time

Warm- up: 500m row (1:56 @ ~75%), 15 wallballs with a 12lb. medicine ball, hip mobility holding toes in squats alternating with hips up and extended out, some other stretching and mobility drills.

I had some frustration and anger bottled up today, and fortunately kept it just long enough to get to the squats. We were told to go with a low shoulder squat, resting more on the middle/bottom of the shoulder blades, rather than resting up at the top near the neck. Felt a little different, but didn’t have much trouble doing the squats.

Warmed up with 5x95, then jumped up to 3x145, 3x165, 1@185 (+10 lbs  minimum over my first Crossfit total, PR!), knocked out 2x195 and finally 1x215, that I didn’t quite manage. I was pulling out of the squat but couldn’t quite open up that last little bit to get the leverage. Still really, really pleased with myself, that’s a pretty big jump, sets my 1RM at around 210 at a guess. 

For the WOD itself, I was honestly a little intimidated at the concept of 100 burpees for time, especially after one of our coaches posted a time of 4:30. Now obviously I wasn’t expecting to do quite that well. :D

Evan suggested going for a pace of 10 burpees to the minute, which seems at least a little bit more reasonable, relatively speaking. Grabbed a handful of poker chips to count off one chip per ten reps. 

Started into things, and tried to set a decent pace, not too fast, and still aim for ten to a minute.. Finished my first ten about 30 seconds in. Crap. :P Fortunately things slowed down somewhat as I went to twenty, thirty, and so on. Just went steady, and tried to keep breaks or rest between burpees to a minimum.

Really a straightforward workout, just one motion and high volume, repetition. No equipment, no weight loads, not even a lot to scale, just do the work.

Final time: 9:57.

I can live with that, sub-10 for 100 burpees? And a PR on back squats?

Filthy Fifty (Or scaled to:)

Level 2 Intermediate:

“Dirty Thirty”

For time:
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Jumping pull-ups
30 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 30 steps
30 Knees to elbows
30 Push press, 45 pounds
30 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
30 Burpees
30 Double unders (Or 90 singles)

Warm-up: 5 of each movement. No skill work or strength workout on today’s programming, just one demanding WOD.

Box Jumps: I was surprised more than anything that I managed to get the box jumps fairly steadily, and more so that I managed to actually have some ‘spring’ or bounce both at the top and bottom of the jumps, even on a 24” box. I started steadily and wore down a little further into the motions, but finished fairly quickly.

Jumping pull-ups: In doing the warm-ups I landed kind of poorly on one and felt a little tension or soreness in my ankle. Fortunately it didn’t bother me during the actual workout, and not now after the fact either. Somewhere between this and the next round I think I checked the clock, and had got about 2:30 in.

Kettlebell swings: One pood wasn’t a lot of weight.. Well, I say that now, since I’m starting to move into the next ‘weight category’ so to speak. I know this is about speed and good times, and getting the work down, done in the shortest time possible. Went steady, though I had to set the KB down twice for just a moment to reset my grip and rest a breath or two.

Walking lunges: Knocked out the first six or seven in crossing across the 10 meters or so of the mat, came back, and re-crossed, left the mat and finished the last of the 30 over concrete. Nothing too complicated, they’re body weight lunges, not weighted or farmer carries or anything mean.

Knees to elbows: I started on a lower bar than I probably would have liked, it was limiting in not being able to easily get the kipping motion to open/close my body as was demonstrated in the video. Came off to reset my grip, still being an issue for me, and got onto a higher bar, with more motion to it, and fared a little bit better. Reset grip and paused for a breath several times. Still have some difficulty in getting the knees to make full contact with the elbows. They can reach, and come close.. I’ll just have to make a more concerted effort in the future to see if I can actually touch.

Push press: Split these into three rounds of ten in straight succession, resting with the bar on the rack for a moment between rounds. Did each set of ten unbroken. Was as was suggested, a sort of rest or relaxing respite between some of the more challenging motions.

Wallballs: I hate wallballs. :P I knew before I walked in that wallballs were going to slow me down, were going to be the biggest stumbling block in my final time. But I knew I had to do them, one way or another. Somewhere near halfway through I had considered splitting at fifteen and coming back after another motion to complete it, but at this point I had done everything else as a whole, why change it up now? I sucked it up, and even if I was doing four, three, even two reps at a time, I had to get to thirty. Maybe it was just knowing that I had to get it done, but I was feeling a little better with doing the shots, getting them to the line, going down and popping back up. I don’t claim to be anywhere near “getting” wallballs down, but I did ‘em.

Back extensions: Didn’t really have much thought about these beforehand, got on and knocked them out as smoothly as I could. Fifteen, sweat dripping on the floor, twenty-five, thirty, and done. Others had complained afterwards of tension/tightness in their hamstrings, or even all the way down the leg, locking up down to the ankle, I didn’t feel anything like that until…

Burpees: I didn’t have leg tension, but doing the burpees, oh man did I feel tension and tightness in my lower back. Every burpee I felt it pulling. But every burpee was closer to me finishing and getting rest. I sucked it up and pushed through five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five, thirty.

Jump rope: I’m nowhere near to having double-unders under my belt for the sake of a workout, still working on getting where I can do more than one at a time without interruption. I’ll gladly do singles even at a 3:1 ratio. Knew this was the home stretch so tried to bust them out as quickly as possible. First 65 unbroken, then 72, 85, 90.

FINAL TIME: 20:00

I looked up, and I didn’t believe what I saw. I had finished in twenty flat? And I was the first to finish? That’s unheard of for my workouts. Now, to avoid sounding like I’m bragging, we’ve got a lot of new people in lately who aren’t as acclimated to crossfit like those of us that have been coming for months on end, and there were others that were doing the full RX’ed Filthy Fifty at 50 reps of each. 

Surprises / “discoveries”: Getting spring in my step on doing box jumps, getting wallballs down with some power up and down.

Detriments / “I need work”: Wallballs. :P But I’m still getting better, at everything.

But I don’t go to the gym to work out and compete with them, or Jarrod; I go to compete with me, myself, my expectations, and my limitations. And I want to win. Leave them behind me.